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multifandomfanficss · 4 years

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My Babysitter’s a Vampire

Benny x Reader Oneshot

Love Positions Don’t Work On Me

Prompt: The Reader has a crush on Benny. When Benny cooks up a love potion for him and Ethan to get girlfriends he doesn’t understand why it doesn’t work on the reader.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock the loud clock droned on as you waited for your class to end. It was almost your favorite time of day. Lunch. Lunch was the time when you got to hang out with your friends and talk to the boy you liked. He was in your friend group, but you could never tell him you liked him. You were afraid to ruin what you had and plus that crap destroys friend groups. You just had to keep it a secret. It wasn’t a very well kept secret. It seemed like everyone knew you had a crush on Benny except for Benny. I guess it was kinda like Ethan’s whole thing with Sarah. He was always so incredibly obvious, but she didn’t notice or maybe she just didn’t care. No matter how hard you try you feel like you’re being too obvious. At least that’s what Erica and Sarah tell you. RING the ring of the bell ripped you from your thoughts as you grabbed your books and headed to your locker to see Benny. Your lockers were right next to each other. You stopped dead in your tracks when you got close enough to see Benny and Ethan at Benny’s locker with Sarah and Erica. Sarah was strangely hanging off of Ethan and to make things even stranger Erica was kissing Benny. You were furious. How could she do this to you?! She was supposed to be one of your best friends. You ran to the bathroom and proceeded to lock yourself in a stall and try to hold in the sobs. You knew you weren’t Benny’s type and that he could never possibly like you back, but you were furious at Erica for hurting you like that. She knew how much you liked him. Plus she could have any guy in school. She always goes for the jocks and the populars. What was she doing kissing this idiot? My idiot. Then the confusion set in. Why was she kissing Benny? Why was she even talking to him in public. Then the realization set in. That idiot! He used magic to get Sarah and Erica to date him and Ethan. You were pissed. You had to find them. You rushed out of the bathroom and ran into Rory. “Hey (Y/N)! How’s it hanging?” He asked. “I’m sorry Rory I don’t have time to talk right now” You apologize. “Do you know what Benny and Ethan did to get all of those bodacious babes to follow them around school? I tried to ask them, but Benny just said they had mad skills and-“ “Wait what do you ALL THOSE bodacious babes?! Are you saying it’s more girls than just Erica and Sarah?!” You ask. “Yeah! I didn’t believe it either. I saw them in the cafeteria. They had girls swarming them” He said in surprise. The anger bubbled inside of you. “I’m going to kill him” You say rather calmly as you walked away from Rory and head into the direction of Benny’s next class. Lunch was over now so you had to find him in the middle of English class. “So I’ll catch you later?!” Rory yelled down the hall at you with a voice crack. You didn’t respond. You were too angry. Dating somebody else? That would be one thing. But using magic to take away the free will of every girl in school to get them all to fall in love with you? He was so dead. They were both dead. I have no doubt that Ethan was part of this idiot scheme too.

When you got to his class you saw Erica making kissy face through the window on the door. She was obviously trying to get Benny out of class so they could fool around in the bathroom. When he didn’t come out she gave a pouty face and walked away. That was surprising. You walked up to the window next. You sent him a text saying CODE BLUE: Meet me outside now! “I really need to go to the bathroom. It’s kind of an emergency.” Benny said to his teacher who obviously didn’t want him leaving class. She sighed. “Fine. Hurry” His teacher said in an aggravated tone. Benny left the classroom to meet you in the hallway and you pulled him to the side. “What’s wrong is everything oka-“ You cut him off by punching him in the arm. “Ow! Hey! What did I do to deserve that?!” He yelled in a sort of hushed tone. “You’re such an idiot.” You say in a stern voice. “I thought you were in trouble. You said ‘code blue” He questioned you. “Yeah. Code red is trouble. Code blue is for BENNY IS A DUMBASS.” You yell at him. “I can’t believe you used your magic to get every single girl in school to fall in love with you! How could you do that?! How could you be that ridiculously irresponsible and rude?! Think about what you did to all of those girls!” You lecture him. “HeyHey Hey- I was just trying to help Ethan okay. You know he’s liked Sarah for-like-ever” He tries to reason. “First of all I love Ethan, but Sarah should have her own free will to decide on her own who she wants to date and secondly that doesn’t mean you should have forced every girl in school to fall in love with both of you!” You continue to lecture. “I dropped the bottle I didn’t mean to-“ He stopped talking and you could see the wheels turning. “Wait a second. If every girl in school is in love with me, why aren’t you? It even worked on Erica, but you’re just mad at me” He asked. The wheels were turning and sooner or later he was going to figure it out. “(Y/N)....are you...” he trailed off for a second. Oh no. He knows I like him. “A lesbian?” He asked. That is not what I was expecting. “I mean it would explain a lot considering you’ve never had a boyfriend and-“ You cut him off again. “Will you shut up! I’m not a lesbian and even if I was that shouldn’t even matter” You say not knowing what else to say. You weren’t a lesbian, although you were an ally. “You can tell me. It’s okay. I’m your best friend” Benny said sincerely as he put his hand on your shoulder. You could feel your heartbeat in your throat as you looked up at him with his perfect smile and his stupid brown hair. “You have to get back to class. I have to go...” You trailed off as you turned away from Benny and walked down the hall. “(Y/N)! Wait!” He started after you. “I just can’t do this right now” you said quietly as you walked away. A single tear slipped down your face, but he couldn’t see it because your back was to him.

RING the last bell of the day rang and you were out for the day. You just wanted to go home and forget anything ever happened. You stood at your locker packing up your things when you heard your name being called “Hey, (Y/N)! Wait up!” You heard Ethan’s voice through the crowd of students. “What do you want Ethan?” You were still mad, but you were angrier with Benny considering he was the one who actually created the spell. It was probably his idea too. “I just wanted to say that I totally respect you and whatever you’re going through. Ya know I have a cousin who’s gay” He said trying to be supportive. “For the last time I’m not a lesbian!” You exclaim, shutting your locker and walking out of the school. This had all gone way too far. You knew what you had to do. It was time to pull out the big guns.

You stood in front of Benny’s front door. You pressed the button and heard the doorbell. The door opened to see the sweet face of Benny’s grandmother, a sweet old woman with magic powers, totally capable of kicking anyone and everyone’s ass. “(Y/N)? What are you doing here? Benny is supposed to be at Ethan’s. I thought you three would be hanging out there” She questioned me. “Benny is at Ethan’s, but Benny is also being an idiot so that’s why I’m here” You explain. “When isn’t he my dear?” She joked. You laugh a little. “Come on in. I’ll make you a snack” She offered. You gladly accept and sit down in the living room. She brings you a sandwich and a glass of lemonade. “Thanks Grandma” You smile. You loved Benny’s grandmother. Your own grandparents lived out of state so you were never close with them. “So what have the boys gotten themselves into this time?” She asked, obviously a little tired of their bullshit. “Benny made a love potion and now every girl in school is in love with them” You sigh. She gave me a sad look. She knew. Grandmas always do. “Don’t worry my dear. They’ll get their’s” She smiled. “What do you mean?” You ask. “The Earth must stay in balance. When you knock it out of balance, it will knock back. As much as those girls loved them, they’ll hate them just as much” She laughs. “Oh my god” You grow to have a horrified look on your face. “What’s wrong my dear? Don’t you want them to pay for what they did?” She asks. “Erica kissed Benny! Like she KISSED HIM! She barely even likes him on a normal day! She’s gonna kill him” You explain with worry. “I gotta go!” You say rushing out of the house and over to Ethan’s.

When you arrived at Ethan’s house you saw angry girls all over his lawn. The martial arts club had baseball bats and hockey sticks. You start to fight some of them off. “I am so sorry that I told Ethan you were a lesbian! Please don’t kill me!” You hear Benny scream. “I’m not a lesbian!” You exclaim putting your fist out, punching and successfully knocking out the president of the martial arts club. That’s when Erica and Sarah drop down. “You’ve gotta be kidding me! You two just had to magically seduce the two strongest beings at our high school, didn’t you?!” You yell at them. “Nobody is killing Benny, but me!” Erica argues. “And nobody is killing Ethan, but me!” Sarah adds. “Well too bad because neither of you will be killing anyone” You inform them. You then pull out the UV lightsaber the boys made to fend off the girls. They won’t go anywhere near the light and as long as they stay away nobody gets hurt. It’s like a bug zapper for vampires. Sarah and Erica started hissing and you knew you needed a plan quickly. “I have an idea!” Ethan says almost on que. “Well I’d love to hear it!” You and Benny both yell at the same time. You get a little blushy, but the boys can’t see because they’re standing behind you. Next thing you know you’re being pulled into some cage that Ethan bought online from some movie or something. “Are you sure this will work?” You ask. “The eternity cage is impenetrable!” Ethan exclaims. “And so is the prop...I hope...” Benny adds. The three of you migrate to the center of the cage where Sarah and Erica won’t be able to touch you and you decide to wait it out in close quarters. Benny and Ethan were pretty close, but Benny was on top of you. He had one arm wrapped around you. You don’t even think he noticed. It seemed like second nature to him, but you didn’t mind. “How long do you think this is gonna last?” You ask. “Well they loved us for 6 hours so I’m guessing they’ll hate us for about 5 more” Ethan guesses. “Awesome” You state as more girls flock to the cage. You press close into Benny as you leave one arm extended with the UV lightsaber. He wraps his arm tighter around you. “I’m sorry” He says quietly. “For what? Telling Ethan I’m a lesbian? Even when I’m not even a lesbian?” You ask him. “Well no, but I’m sorry for that too” He apologies. “What I meant was I’m sorry for getting you into this” He adds. “It’s okay. You didn’t mean to drop the bottle” You acknowledge. “Why are you in this?” Ethan asks. “What do you mean? I care about you guys” You tell him. “No, I mean why are you in THIS? Why weren’t you loving us in school and now hating us on the other side of these bars?” Ethan asks. You know the answer, but you just don’t feel like explaining. You’ve gone through all of this with Benny. You can’t lose him now. “I don’t know. Maybe I just spend so much time with you guys that Benny’s magic just doesn’t effect me like that” You spill out some stupid answer that you know isn’t true. Thankfully the boys believe it. Eventually you dose off in the cage in Benny’s arms while Ethan mans the UV lightsaber.

You wake up the next morning to see Sarah and Erica in front of the cage with Benny’s Grandmother a key...the key to the cage. You forgot you were locked in. You watched the boys beg to get out and eventually the girls let them out on one condition.

You were sitting on Benny’s front porch with Sarah and Erica while Benny’s Grandma was in the front yard with a lawn chair. You were drinking lemonade as the boys washed Benny’s Grandma’s car. The four of you were taking full advantage of the boys as payback and it was kinda funny although you did feel a little bad for them. They spent the night in a cage with girls wanting to tear them limb from limb surrounding them. You thought they’d had enough. “Hey, Benny I think we’re out of lemonade. Why don’t you come inside and help me make some more” I offer. “Yeah, sure” He puts down the sponge and heads inside with you. The kitchen is a little quiet until Benny breaks the silence. “So why didn’t my spell work on you?” He asks. “And don’t say you’re immune to my magic because that’s not how it works” He adds. You knew you had to tell him. No lie in the world could get you out of this. “Benny...” He looked at you with interest. “Love potions don’t work on me...because you can’t make somebody fall for you...who already likes you...” You tell him. You start to sweat and your blush becomes uncontrollable. “Wait you-“ “Yeah” You cut him off. “How long?” He asks. “Since like forever...” You tell him. “Since we met in middle school...” You add. He begins to smile. “Why didn’t you say anything?” He asks. “Well you were always all over other prettier girls and-“ He cuts me off. “(Y/N), no one is prettier than you” He tells me. “What?” You ask. “(Y/N) you are the funniest, smartest, bravest, most beautiful girl I have ever met” He confesses. “Really?” You ask. “Yes” He smiles and leans down to kiss you. You smile into the kiss. You pull away. “Benny! Where’s my lemonade with extra plasma?!” We hear Erica yell. We separate and laugh. We then get back to making the lemonade.

#benny weir #benny weir x reader #mbav #mbav benny #my babysitters a vampire #benny weir oneshot #benny weir imagine #benny weir fanfic #benny weir fanfiction

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sincerlypadfoot · 4 years

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Maledicite Terrae (Curses 3)

Word Count - 2600

“Have you decided on the tattoo you want putting on you tonight?” Remus asked as we both walked down to the library to study for our potions test.

“I’m not sure, I was thinking of a duck, I’ll show you the sketch I made in potions today,” I said to Remus opening the library door for us. “Speaking of potions do you got the notes?” I asked making Remus chuckle a bit.

“Yeah, you are James is so bad for not taking notes,” Remus said shaking his head, pulling out my chair and walking to the other side of the table and sitting down.

“Look this is what I was thinking,” I said to Remus, pulling out my sheet of paper that was supposed to have my notes written on it. “It’s this one, ignore everything else,” I said to him, pointing to the little duck, representing Ducky on the paper.

“I could do it, James and Peter have more complicated ones, well Sirius is just some footsteps under his right peck and a paw print leading up to them,” Remus explained looking back at the sheet of paper in front of us. “What's this one?” He asked pointing to the looking glass I drew.

“It's a looking glass, seeing into the future is what it represents,” I said without thinking anything of it. “I might get this one,” I pointed to the one in the top right corner, a dragon.

“I can do it tonight, I was thinking of the phases of the moon right here,” Remus said lifting his arm up, looking down at his scar filled arm, pointing to an almost empty spot.

“I like it, Remus, what does it mean?” I asked him taking my paper away, taking one more glance at the paper then tossing it in my bag.

“Just an inside joke of mine, and the other three, what does Ducky and the looking glass mean?” He replied asking the same thing.

“James calls me Ducky cause appeared to him I’m a duck,” I explained, smirking at myself. “The looking glass is just a look in the future, know what to expect,” I said rubbing my hands together under the table.

“That would be a nice quote for under the looking glass, so it doesn't look so bland,” Remus said taking out his notes. “Now come on, I said I’d help you study,” He smirked tossing papers in front of me, making me wanna barf.

“Are you almost done?” James asked Remus who both sat on the floor, James laying on his back, looking up at Remuwhose’s wand was pressed against his stomach. “How does it look?” He asked trying to look at his stomach.

“The antlers turned out great, I’m done,” Remus said taking his wand off James' stomach, causing him to sit up and look, right under his left peck, a pair of antlers laid.

“Peter are you ready, your next,” Sirius said tapping Peter on the back. Peter took off his shirt and laid on his stomach, putting his hands on his forehead so he wasn't completely laying on the ground. Remus gently put his wand in the middle of Peters back, slowly forming a pair of bats running away from the moon. “Awesome,” Sirius whispered then looked at me with a smile.

“Sirius come on, your next,” Remus said, looking at his own tattoo on his arm, slowly turning a less colour of red and now a normal colour of black and white. “Ready?” he asked as Sirius took off his shirt and laid down on his back.

“Ready as ever, right here the footprints and the two paws right here, please,” Sirius asked pointing to his right peck. “You’ll have to teach me this spell, so I don’t have to come back to you bugging you,” He said to Remus making him chuckle. Remus took his wand off Sirius, causing him to stand up, a pair of footprints trailed to his nipple, stopping there then two large pawprints laid above.

“My turn,” I said prying my eyes away from Sirius’ stomach and taking his spot beside Remus. “I think the duck should be right here?” I asked now nervous, lifting up my shirt, and revealing my ribs, pointing my finger to the middle of my left rib cage and then closing my eyes.

“Okay then,” Remus said with a smile, putting his wand on my ribcage, only came with a bit of stinging. “That one did,” Remus said causing me to open my eyes and look down at the duck now sitting on my ribcage. “Where's the next one?” He asked.

I turned around, lifting my whole shirt up revealing my back to him. “Just across my back, and the words you said earlier please,” I asked, I looked up to James who was looking at me with a smile. Remus’ wand touching my back, making my flinch a bit with the stinging following, After a couple minutes of staring at my feet his wand came off my back.

“This is awesome,” Peter said sitting on his bed shirtless, every boy in this room but Remus was shirtless, but they all were looking at their tattoos.

“That's my cue to go,” I said to the four who were looking at eachother then placing their eyes on me. “I’ll see you tomorrow okay,” I said looking around with a smile then turning around to walk out of the room. I stopped right outside their door, leaning on the wall with a smile.

“Hey,” James said to me, walking out of the room. “I like the duck,” He said with a smile. “Can I see your back one, I didn't really get to see it,” He asked so I turned around, moving my shirt up.

“Represents the future you know,” I said to him staring in front of my nervous. “And it's special, they're both special,” I put my shirt down and turned around to James. “They both something that only we understand,” I said with a smile wrapping my hands around him.

“Dean better not hurt you, or he’s a dead man,” James whispered in my ear. “You looked happy on your date last Saturday, the happiest I’d ever seen you in years,” He continued saying laying his head on my shoulder.

“Thank you for not hexing him into next week,” I smirked making myself laugh. “I want you to not worry about me with those things,” I said looking at him. “Nothing will ever break the bond we have together, no one,” I promised him.

“Goodnight Josie,” James said running his hand through my blonde hair. “Don’t change for anyone, this world is too good for you,” He said turning on his feet and walking back into his room. I did the same, walking down the hallway and entering my room to all the girls sleeping.

“Goodnight guys,” I whispered to the three of them fast asleep, crawling into my own bed and falling fast asleep. Not long I woke up in a large circles room. Looking down at my hands, I pinched myself hoping that it would wake me up but nothing happened not this time.

“In here!” I heard then a door swung open with six kids falling to the ground, stopping mid-air so they would hit the ground soft. I walked up to the four who stood in the middle of the room.

“James?” I said to myself putting my hand out to the kid in front of me. He was the perfect representation of James, looking just like him. But one difference, a scar on his forehead.

“Get behind me!” He yelled to his friends holding a profit in his hands, his friends behind him as black smoke entered the room around the six, ruffling and screaming filled the air.

“Betrix,” I muttered looking around the room, the black smoke was people, the dark lords following. Stopping at Betrix I walked over to her. “I could kill you,” I muttered then looked at the boy who stood in front of her with a wand at his neck. “Alice and Frank,” I said with a smile looking at their son who stood in front of me. “I’m too far,” I said to myself turning back to the boy who looked at James in the center of the room with a white-haired man standing in front of him.

“Don’t give it to him!” Alice and Franks's kid screamed causing me to look back at him then back at the scared boy handing the profit to the man, white gusts of light appear in the room, Sirius Black stood in front of me. Remus right behind him. I walked to Remus putting my hand to his face knowing he wouldn't know, Remus turned into a ball of light disappearing in front of me.

“Sirius?” I said walking up to him, he was much older, his hair was curled and he had a mustache, one I wanted to touch, he stood with the boy in his arms hugging him.

“Harry you need to go, take your friends back and go,” He said to the boy. Harry was his name. I looked behind as one of the death eaters tossed a spell hitting the rock that they hid behind.

“I’m staying here, I’m fighting with you!’ Harry yelled following Sirius into the battlefield. They fought with the white-haired man and another. Harry knocked the wand out of the other man's hand.

“Nice ones James!” Sirius shouted making both Harry and I look at him, I walked up to Sirius and looked at him, stood in front of him just watching him with a smile. A red light went through my stomach, stunning both Sirius and me, never has a spell in my dreams affected me.

I watched Sirius fall into a void that stood in front of us, Disappearing and dying at that moment, the scream of Harry rung my ears. “NOO!” I screamed running into the void but waking up in my bed, sweat-filled everything, my hands shaking my face wet from crying, black strands of hair landed on my face, not very noticeable to a half-asleep Lily.

“What's wrong?” Lily said worriedly. “Another nightmare again?” She asked knowing that it was, it wasn't the first time this happened but nothing like that has ever happened.

“I have to go,” I screamed throwing my blanket off me, waking everyone else up in the room but I didn't care, nothing matters in my head right now. “I’m sorry,” I cried at the girls swinging the door open and closed and running down to the common room and up the stairs to the boy's room, quieting myself.

“Sirius,” I whispered in his ear poking his head, he didn't wake up at first until I poked him harder. “Sirius,” I whispered again.

“Josie, what the hell are you doing?” He muttered rubbing his eyes, the moonlight shunned right on him. I didn't give him a chance to ask anything else before I wrapped my arms around him.

“I just had a nightmare I’m sorry,” I whispered crying into his arms. “Please don’t tell James about this,” I asked him leaning into him.

“Do you wanna tell me about it?” He asked running his hands on the back of my head. “I won't tell anyone,” He whispered.

“I can’t tell you,” I whispered looking at his face. “Can we go to the common room?” I asked him wiping my tears away. “Please,” I added.

“Of course, I’ll meet you down there,” He said kissing the top of my head and letting me go. “be quiet,” he whispered as I walked passed James, looking at him then prying my eyes away and walking down to the common room, sitting on the couch and just staring at the fire.

“You telling me your dirty secrets now?” He asked jumping over the couch, shirtless and sitting beside me. “Didn't take long for me to gain your trust,” He joked smiling but stopped when I didn't look at him and didn't smile back.

“You can’t tell James that I told you please, he would be so angry, angry that I told you,” I mumbled looking away from the fire and turning my whole body so I was facing. Sirius nodded his head at me. I looked at him for a minute, thinking back to my dream, they always come true, never has one been fake. “I’m sorry,” I cried out wrapping my arms around him and hugging him.

“You can tell me, Josie, you can trust me, I promise,” Sirius said grabbing my hand, holding my cold hands to his warm ones. I stayed silent not know what to say. “Josie,” Sirius said snapping me out of my thoughts.

“I can’t, not right now Sirius,” I mumbled leaning my head on the couch, his hands didn’t move from mine but kept still.

“I understand Josie,” Sirius said letting out a long breath. “Can I tell you something about myself,” He asked causing me to open my eyes. I nodded my head at him. “My whole family thinks I'm nothing anymore, since I’m not like them, and I can’t leave, I could never go back if I do,” He said, I sat up and looked at him.

“Sirius,” I whispered putting my hand on his face. “I’m always gonna be here for you, always,” I smiled bringing him into a hug. “My hairs blonde again,” I chuckled after waking up with black hair.

“Guess I helped, you know I think it’s pretty cool, how you could change your whole appearance in a though, I wish I was like that,” Sirius said smirking, letting go of my hands and leaning on the back of the couch. “But it’s not like you need to,” He chuckled making me smile.

“You don’t need to either, well I mean it would help with the bags under your eyes,” I joked punching Sirius playfully on his shoulder.

“Are you going back to bed?” Sirius asked looking at the window behind me. “The sun is coming up, I guess we’ve been talking for longer then I thought,” He chuckled.

“I can’t, not after what I saw,” I mumbled covering my mouth. “I mean in my nightmare, I could never go to sleep after I have them,” I said nervously smiling.

“I’ll stay up with you, it’s the least I can do, what are friends for, after all, Sirius chuckled putting his feet up on the ottoman that sat in front of the couch. “So tell me, Josie, when do I get to know the rest about all your dirty little?” Sirius said making me laugh and put my feet on top of his, leaning back on the couch, half on Sirius.

#JosiePoter #JamesPotter #SiriusBlack #RemusLupin #peterpettigrew #TheMarauders #Harry Potter #HarryPotter #marauders fanfiction #the marauders #hp marauders #Maraudersera #young marauders #metemorphagus

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ardentmuse · 5 years

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Hello love!!!! I'm so excited for this celebration and all the fics top come out of it. Could I get 16 and 48 with my love, Eggsy? I feel like his hugs would feel really safe and comforting,,,not like I've thought about it when ive had a bad day or anything. Definitely not... okay I definitely have. A lot. I just love him a lot. ANYWAYS Congratulations and I hope you and the family are all doing well ❤❤❤

Gawain and the Galahads

Kingsman - Eggsy x Hart!Reader

16. Ugh, of course your hugs are amazing.48. I’m going to hug you because I love you. And because you feel just as alone as I do.

Wordcount: 1.6k

Warnings: talk of death, talk of depression and grief

Masterlist

A/N: He’s got the perfect build to give good hugs too. Something about the arms to shoulders proportions. You’d just be engulfed and have just the right amount of space to make his shoulder a pillow. I like this image. ☺ Also hi! We’re doing great and I hope you are, too! I am making my own gifs for these so they all fit with the stories. I hope you enjoy them!

Fourteen months had passed since you watched the image from your father’s glasses turn black. Fourteen months since the silence filled the room, the air between you and Merlin so thick with unspoken anguish that it practically pushed you out the door. You didn’t have a conscious thought the entire time you wandered the streets of London, when you snapped your glasses into as many pieces as you fingers could manage and tossed them in the Thames, the length of your journey across the ocean to the United States, the two months you spent painstakingly tracking down every lead on the ground in Kentucky, or the year you spent wandering the vastness of the American west trying to piece together the parts of yourself that died along with Harry Hart.

No, you hadn’t really had a conscious thought in all that time until this moment; here, in a bar in Santa Fe in the early afternoon, with Eggsy – the only man you ventured you ever loved more than your father – standing before you in the suit and tie of a true Kingsman, the cloud of your brain lifted for the first time and somehow the only thing you realized you’d been missing out on was pain.

“Nice suit,” you said over your drink, not bearing to look into those soft eyes, ones that might call you out on how you simply ran away – a coward in a world full of heroes.

“And nice glasses,” you added with a swirl of your straw. “Hey, Merlin.”

The bar was mostly empty, but Eggsy’s eyes still shifted around carefully in concern at your casual tone. You remembered when your gaze was trained for such things. But that you seemed so far away.

“Do you know how long I’ve been searchin’ for ya?”

“Given Kingsman resources, I’d say… um, three hours?” you asked as you lifted an eyebrow in teasing question. His nose flaired at you, like he didn’t expect your snark to still be so directed at him after all your time apart. But he liked it. The smile he was clearly trying to hide was his dead giveaway.

“What? Three and a half?”

Eggsy spit out a laugh. He paused. But now with the floodgates open, he laughed full and earnest, moving himself to lean on the bar beside you.

“About three days,” Eggsy confirmed. “Though I searched for weeks on my own before Merlin made me stop. He said you’d had left a trace if you had wanted me to find you. That I should respect your wishes.”

You didn’t know what to say to that. You didn’t know if it was true, but it felt nice to think someone, especially Eggsy, cared enough to look.

You took a big swig of your drink to try to shove down the butterflies threatening to rise at the thought of Eggsy’s care and now his close proximity.

“So what happened three days ago?” you asked, realizing there had to be a reason Eggsy was here, disrupting your grieving. “Did Arthur lose his favorite umbrella? Or perhaps Roxy couldn’t –“

“We found your dad.”

Eggsy’s hand upon your arm had paused your rambling. His eyes locked on yours in a way that was so serious, so sincere, that you realized he had been hurting just the same as you. He knew your defenses. The weeks he had spent training beside you, and the whirlwind romance that had come along with it, were enough for him to realize you were two peas in a pod. He hid his emotions behind charm, flirtation, and occasionally anger and you behind snark, levity, and just a hint of pragmatism. But this Eggsy, this Eggsy was seeing you, seeing the raw, unrepaired part of your soul and matching it with his own – no sweet pet names, no winks, no grazes of his hand down your side. This was Eggsy, a person – vulnerable, real and scared – begging you to show yourself.

You felt the tears prickling at your eyes but swallowed them away.

“If this is a weird way of requesting my attendance at a funeral, I don’t think—“

“He’s alive,” Eggsy said as he moved his hand up to your wrist, holding you in place. “Harry’s alive, Gawain, and—“

“Don’t call me that!” you practically screamed, ripping your arm from his grip and almost falling off the barstool. You were standing now, backing away from the man in front of you with careful pacing. All the sadness that had been building in you caught fire, rage consuming you internally, burning at your throat. “How dare you come here and tell me lies, Eggsy! What sort of sick trick is this?”

Eggsy was charging you before you could put up your defenses. A year out of the field meant Eggsy could overpower you instantly. You expected to be tackled, maybe a tranquilizer dart pushed into your neck – after all, Eggsy was clearly the enemy now – but that wasn’t what happened.

He flicked his glasses off his face, moved swiftly around your shoulder and, from behind, slid them down your forehead and upon your nose. The familiar weight upon your ears felt nice somehow and the graining pixels across your vision comforting.

You had expected stats on the side, some notes from Merlin or a couple of Eggsy’s vitals but the thing that took up your entire vision was a live feed of some sort, a simple room with a cot for a bed and a sink along the edge, like a cage more than a suite. But upon the bed, with a sketchpad on his lap like you remembered for when you were a kid, sat your dad, his brown hair a muss and his left eye donning an eye patch.

But it was dad. It was most certainly dad.

No words left your mouth. Tears just began rolling down your face at the sight of him moving, safe, existing somewhere in the world. You weren’t a lone Hart in the world any longer.

You felt Eggsy’s hands come around your shoulders and you ripped yourself away. These emotions, they were all too much at once, and Eggsy was simply overwhelming. You only then, as Eggsy slowly blocked the view, realized that the few other patrons were staring.

“I’m going to hug you, Y/N,” Eggsy said slowly, his hands up like approaching an animal. “I’m going to hug you because I love you. And because you feel just as alone as I do.”

And when you didn’t protest, Eggsy’s arms scooped you up against his chest, curling his strong forearms around your shoulders and pulling your head flush against the crock of his neck. The hug was tight and warm, soft and strong all at once, and in that moment you realized it had been fourteen months since another human had truly touched you.

“But we aren’t alone, love. We have each other. We always have. And now we have Harry. And, sweetheart, he needs you. More than you know.”

Eggsy’s hands ran the length of your back, soft circles into your spine and soon you were melting against you, your tears coming out in earnest now that you finally felt safe. You almost didn’t want to close your eyes and lose the sight of your father but you had to. You had to let yourself into this moment, to reconnect with Eggsy, a man who loved you still despite your fleeing, a man whose touch was home when you had only known wandering.

As you sniffled a little against the soft cotton of his jacket, you felt your spirit returning to your limbs. You were shedding the zombie that was your flesh all this long year, all thanks to Eggsy’s perfect embrace.

“Ugh, of course your hugs are amazing,” you whispered into his neck, not willing yourself to let go.

Eggsy just laughed against your scalp.

“And there’s my Gawain back,” he said with a quick kiss to the skin already pressed against his lips.

His words hit your brain weird. You were once Gawain but were you still? Could you simply put back on the clothes and simply be that person once again? You were rusty but you were you, and you had Eggsy to guide you every step of the way.

With renewed resolve, you pulled yourself away from his shoulder. You straightened your spine and you shoulders, trying the ‘gentleman’ in you out once more. You were stiff but in some ways it felt like riding a bicycle, all coming back just by committing to get on.

“Whatever Galahad needs, I’ll do it.”

Something like tears shined in Eggsy’s eyes and you couldn’t tell if it was pride or joy. He grabbed your hand, interlocking your fingers in a gesture that felt right, even after so long apart.

“That Galahad,” Eggsy said with a nod to his glasses still on your face, “and this Galahad,” he added as he stepped closer to you, toe to toe, and began to run the backs of his fingers, down the side of your cheek, “both need you.”

All tags: @fangirlandnerd, @aerdnandreaa, @thisisbullshytt, @cancerousjojian, @whovianayesha, @themarauderstheoutsidersandpeggy, @luna-xxxxx, @sleepylunarwolf, @starryrevelations, @potter-thinking, @all-by-myself98, @bananafosters-and-books, @cutie-bug

Kingsman tags: @allonsymexgirl, @eiensteiner, @thecaptainsgingersnap, @madamcadaver. @doct0rstrange, @ratwrites

#ardentmuse almost 2k celebration #kingsman imagine #eggsy x reader #eggsy unwin x reader #eggsy imagine #eggsy unwin imagine #kingsman #kingsman x reader #eggsy #eggsy unwin #reader insert #x reader #cucumberinmyass #lia talks

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mika3451 · 5 years

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Macaroons and Babybones

Summary:

When monsters were freed from the underground there was a large backlash of magic that had been stored up for thousands of years, turning mages to monsters. These Changelings now live side by side with monster yet they are different.

Notes:

This idea has been bugging me ever since I saw Papyrus Enthusiast's comic on tumblr. Let me know what you think, I'm not really sure on the plot so any idea's would be great! Thanks for reading!!

Chapter one: Meeting

Annoyance that is the only thing that fills my soul at this point in time. That feeling that makes you regret climbing out of your cozy bed all because you woke up on a saturday with a craving for some Macarons. Oh but these aren't just any Macarons, these are made by that little spider monster that was freed with all the other undergrounders from Mount Ebott. And Damn if Echo flower Macarons and a cup of black tea wasn’t my souls weakness. Plus Muffet was one of the cutest damn things to walk this side of the city. It also helped that she had a one of us changelings working for her. ‘Changeling, I think snorting at the ridiculous name, what a way for humans to call us mages that suffered from the release of all that pent up magic when the undergrounders were set free. All mages were turned into monsters or gained some kind of monster aspect. Hell even that kid Frisk was changed. The kid now sports horns and looks more like their adopted mother and father. Yet out of all the Mages I knew none of their changes were as extreme as mine.’

Shaking those thoughts free I force my way through crowds of people, ignoring their loud voices, both human, and monster alike, as they swarm around me going on their merry way. The dark gray hood of my Sherpa Cloak covers my head keeping my face concealed. Scanning the room I find the giant plastic map, hurrying over to it I find the golden star that says ‘you are here’. A happy smile pulls at the corners of my mouth, looking over the list of shops I find Muffet’s.

“Aha!” I smile as my eyes find that the shop is not to far from where I stand, making a plan of action I turn only for a small body to run into my legs. A crimson red stocking hat tilts back away from my legs to reveal a small skeleton face. Their little Skull is round and chubby with holes where a humans cheeks would be, straight white teeth and large ovale sockets look up at me. A lime green and emerald striped shirt covers the baby bones small, so very small shoulders. I feel my eyes glow and widen, illuminating my face to the small child before the glow vanishes. The babybones looks away from my face over their shoulder, their fear covers their body in a way I am all too familiar with. The sound of hustling footsteps and cursing reach me through the sounds of the crowd.

The little one lets go of my pants, their body shifts in a way, signaling that they are going to run off. In an instant my black leather gloved covered hands land on their shoulders causing them to look up in confusion as two large humans come to a stop in front of me. The shadow formed by the hood of my cloak keeps my face hidden as my eyes run over the humans, disgusting creatures. They look like the stereotypical thugs in their torn jeans and dark shirts that cling to their bodies, old and beaten boats cover their feet. Both of them stand at around 5’10” to 6’ around my height of 5’8”. The one with the ugliest mug that Only a mother could love with a bald head and beady eyes glares at me then looks down to the babybones with a look that has my Soul rolling in an uncomfortable way.

‘Fucker one.’ I think glancing away from him to look at his friend. He looks close to the same only difference is if he didn't have a face so full of hate you could call him “attractive” by human standards with blonde hair and green eyes.

‘Dipshit’

“Hand over the brat!” Fucker one says in a voice that irritates my senses. Moving slightly forward I put the little one behind me as I keep one hand on their shoulder while the other rests at my hip ready to defend myself and the kid if need be.

“Yeah, Not Going to Happen.” I say as the little one grabs my pant leg, their sockets black as night look up at my shadowed face before looking back at the two thugs. A protectiveness that I haven't felt in so very, very long fills my entire being awakening parts of myself that I didn’t know fell asleep.

“You got some Major balls picking on a kid, let alone a monster one!” I chuckle out only for the ugly ones face to turn an interesting shade of red as he takes a step forward trying to be threatening.

“Listen girly, I can tell your not from around here-” Fucker one starts making my body tense up, ready for a fight.

“No shit, Sherlock.” I growl back unable to keep my teeth shut, only for Fucker one to grow redder. Dipshit reaches out and stops Fucker from taking another step forward, a smart move on his part.

“And in this city little freaks” Dipshit cuts in nodding his head in the kids direction, anger fills my chest as I feel their little body flench under my hand. Moving my hip and body just right I shield them from these disgusting creatures eyes. The humans look up from my waist to my shadowed face ignoring the signs of danger.

“Need to learn to stay out of our neighborhood and go back to that hole they crawled out of!” Fucker finishes for dipshit. Their rank breath fans across my face filling my sensitive nasal cavity as they take another step closer to me.

“Now I’ll just take-” Fucker starts to say reaching out to the babybones only for my free hand to lock around their wrist in a crushing grip that has him gasping in pain.

“Now see here is what I don’t understand.” I growl causing both humans to look up at my shadowed face.

“You obviously don’t know who you are fucking with.” I start holding fast as the man tries to pull his arm free of my hold.

“Because if you did you would have Fucked off the moment you had my attention. But I guess stupidity is to be expected from a couple of shitheads like yourselves.” Tugging on the man's arm fast and hard he crashes into my rib cage knocking my hood off of my skull exposing my scared face to the world. The two men flench back once they get a look at my face. My teeth are mostly flat except for my canines which are sharp enough to rind flesh from bone. My sockets are perfectly round almost cartoonish with wide white lights that float like lanterns in their black depths. My skull is a nice round shape with a large scar that runs from the left corner of my mouth to my jaw. I have four scars that run from the back of my skull down to the top of my right eye socket, with another one that runs across my nasal bone. All in all I looked like I’d seen some major shit, and survived.

“After all attacking a monster in such a crowded place, with all these people. You are REALLY special aren't cha.”

“Your a monster!!” The other human yells as I let go of his friend and push him away with one hand. Stumbling over his own feet, his ass falls with a heavy thud against the cold, hard, tile floor of the mall drawing the eyes and cell phone cameras of all the people around us.

“Oh sweetheart,” I say in a sickening sweet voice that has me cringing.

“You have no idea.” I laugh out only for fucker one to stand up and take a swing at me. Reacting faster than I have in years I give the kid a gentle push back before spinning around and smaking his right hand away with my open palm on my left. Spinning in a small half circle I get my right foot in behind his, with a sharp tug I knock his feet out from under him sending him onto the floor. Looking up my eye lights meet Dipshits own angry ones. With a yell he rushes me with his fist pulled back. Reaching out I grab his arm and pull, twisting my hips and sticking my thigh into his center of gravity, lifting my leg and pulling the man forward his chest twists over my back before his back lands on the floor next to his friend. Both with the air knocked out of their lungs.

“Next time you pick on a child, you better plan on someone betting your ass.” I growl as my eyes glow a deep violet. Standing up I walk over to the small child as security and other shoppers all surround the two thugs and yell at them for attacking a child. The child’s sockets are full of wide white lights that glow in their excitement.

“That was so cool!” They whisper in awe, a soft chuckle pushes out of my chest while my cheek bones light up in a soft glow of violet. Crouching down to their height in front of them a genuine smile pulls at my teeth.

“You think so huh?” I chuckle, reaching out I ruffle their crimson stocking cap. My eye lights brighten as they reach up and knock my hand away straightening their hat, a cute pouting face makes my non existent heart melt.

“Well, what do you say about finding your family?” I ask tilting my skull to the left keeping my smile in place only for their pout to fall as a sad look over takes their face.

“I’m with my nanny right now.” They whisper out looking away.

“And she didn’t notice you take off or the thugs chasing you?” I ask feeling something dark start to crawl through my chest. Shaking their head no they wipe at their eye sockets.

“Those guys had someone distract my nanny.” They whisper looking away from me, feeling my sockets narrow I reach out and pick them up by their waist. Placing them on my shoulder, I keep on hand around their Tibia and fibula to make sure they don’t fall. Looking up at their face I watch as a cute green blush covers their little cheek bones.

“Well sugar what do you say about finding your Nanny then we get some sweets huh?” I ask watching them decide before nodding in agreement. Pushing through the crowd that gathered I start to head in the direction the kid came running from. Feeling them shift their weight on my shoulder I look up at them to see that their smile pulled down in confusion.

“I noticed you ran from this direction so i figured that your Nanny was “lost” in this direction.” I answer their unspoken question.

“I’m gonna guess that they are human.” I state only for them to nod again.

“Can you tell me what they are wearing? It will make it easier for me to find them.” I state scanning the crowd looking anyone who looks like they misplaced a child.

“She is wearing a white button up shirt and a knee length yellow skirt.” The kid mumbles out.

“You don’t like them much do you?” I ask looking for this human while keeping a close eye on the little one.

“It’s not that I don’t like her, I just hate how she looks at my PaPa.” They mutter crossing their arms.

“That's normal sugar. No kid wants to share their parent.” I say looking up at them with a warm smile and a chuckle.

“Go ahead and ask sugar. I know you have a lot of questions.”

“What's your name?” They ask first, their Papa must have taught them some manners.

“Calibri, what’s yours?”

“Charakterny.” They say with pride.

“That's a cute name. Espilly for such a cute babybones.” I chuckle

“I’m not a babybone!” They growl out crossing their arms in a pout, a full belly laugh bubbles out for my mouth as I reach up with a free hand to wipe away a tear.

“Sure you are sugar. At least to me, I’m around 35 years old by now.” I feel them shift on my shoulder as they look down at me.

“You don’t look that old. I bet my PaPa, uncle Sans, or the others are older than you.” They say causing me to smile.

“Doubt that. Is that your nanny over there?” I ask pointing to a young female human who is talking to a security guard frantically.

“Yeah that's her.” Charakterny says holding tightly to my cloaks shoulder.

“Well let's go calm her down before she has a heart attack or scares your PaPa.” I say in an easy voice walking closer catching the tail end of the conversation.

“Ma’am, I will try to help you find this monster kid but you have to understand-” The man says trying to calm the woman down, his hands rest on her arms only for her to smack them away.

“I’ll lose my job if we don’t find her!” The lady shreeks causing Charakterny to flench on my shoulder. Looking up at the kid I look back over to the two.

“Well let's get this over with.” walking over to the two I clear my non existent throat causing the two humans to look over my way.

“CHARA!” The woman shouts running over to us she reaches up to take the child off my shoulder only for my hand to wrap around her wrist. Her honey brown eyes look over to my dark sockets. I watch as her face darkens from joyful to something that reminds me of times I’d like to forget.

“And who is this? Why are you keeping me from taking my charge.” She huffs in anger.

“Didn’t look like you where watching your charge very well to me, Friend .” I growl out feeling Charakterny shift on my shoulder.

“Sounds like you were more worried about your job then the kid to me. Plus I promised to buy them some sweets at Muffets.” I shrug bouncing the kid around on my shoulder causing them to giggle.

“Well you can’t! We don’t even know you. Besides Chara is my-” They start only for me to cut her off by looking up at the kid.

“We know each other don’t we Charakterny?” They node their little skull up and down with a wide smile, looking back at the woman I see her eye twitch in irritation only for her to try to jerk her arm out of my hold.

“Let go of me and Put her down now!” She all but screams, releasing her wrist like it burn me I look up at Chara.

“Do you want down, Charakterny? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I don’t mind.” I watch closely to every little twitch of their body, the fading of their eyelights gives me my answer. Sighing heavily I reach up and grab them around the waist before sitting them on their feet on the tile floor. Huffing the Nanny steps forward and grabs the kids hand roughly.

“Lets go Chara.” They say pulling them away from me.

“But I wanted to get some sweets with Calibri.” Charakterny says pulling on the Nannies hand with a cute pout on their face. Seeing the exasperated look on the Nannies face I decide to be the bigger person and take pity on her. Walking forward I squatted down in front of Charakterny, tapping them on the shoulder I wait as they turn their skull to face me.

“Listen Charakterny, you need to Listen to your Nanny. She’s had a very rough day with you disappearing and a strange monster that looks like they just came from a bar fight showing back up with you in tow.” I say watching as their smile falls.

“Tell you what how about I give you my number and next time you, your Nanny and I can get some sweets and drinks. Does that sound good to you?” I ask watching as they nod their skull.

“Can we get sweets with my PaPa?” They ask with such a cute face I can’t help the light blush of color to my cheek bones or the loud laugh that bursts past my teeth. Reaching out I rest my hand on top of their hat.

“Of course sweetheart.” My eyelights soften pulling my hand back I Pull out a piece of paper and a pin out of thin air and write my name and number on it. Handing it over I don’t miss how they cradle it in their little hand before tucking it away in their own pocket. Standing up my eyelights meet the grateful eyes of the Nanny.

“Thank you Miss Calibri.” She says with a tilt of her head. Reaching up and rubbing the back of my skull I smile fighting the blush on my cheek bones.

“N-no problem Miss-”

“Ava” The nanny cutes in with a soft smile and a light pink blush on her cheeks.

“Miss Ava, Have a nice day.” I say with a nod to her and a wave goodbye to the babybones. I watch their backs as they disappear into the crowd, lingering their after they are well and gone. I snap out of my daze my phone chirps at me, grabbing it and looking down I see a question mark from Sparrow.

“Right, gotta go to Muffets. Get my tea and sweets, and maybe I can get a flight.” I chuckled to myself as I turn and head back the way I came.

#sans/reader #papyrus/reader #SkeleChara #oc

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

Text

Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool #1, Venom vol. 4 #17, Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #1, Absolute Carnage: Miles Morales #1 Thoughts

I’m trying very hard to both cover Absolute Carnage in reading order and also not bog down said coverage of the tie ins, i’m hoping to give the main book and ASM tie-ins my full attention but for all the other ones handle them less comprehensively. Obviously that depends upon their respective content.

The Deadpool issue had great art, funny dialogue, a brisk pace, some clever moments and a refreshing acknowledgment that the Peter/Wade dynamic is stupid.

Having Carnage acknowledge Deadpool as the motherload of codexes because of his bonding with the 4 Life Foundation symbiotes (a.k.a. also collectively referred to as the Hybrid symbiote) from Wade and Kasady’s last encounter was a great use of continuity. My hope is the lack of acknowledgement of his time with the Venom symbiote (see Deadpool’s Secret Secret War and Deadpool: Back in Black) confirms that those stories are not to be taken seriously as canon, at least as far as Spidey or Venom continuity is concerned.

The only real problem is that, whilst the start of the story technically precedes Absolute Carnage, when we get to the symbiote stuff it happens during Absolute Carnage #2 and thus really is best read after that comic as it does give a few minor spoilers for it.

Venom #17 was fantastic!

Now, as I said in my Absolute Carnage #2 post, the plotting is out of whack. Venom #17 should be read BEFORE Absolute Carnage #2!

The story itself, whilst basic, is effective. The Maker is as morally grey (or flexible if you like, get it!) as ever. Dylan is characterized well, believable as the son of Eddie Brock. Normie is underserved but this isn’t his story. Something that did bug me though is that the art depicts them as probably about the same age with Dylan dominating their dynamic. But really Dylan should be younger. Dylan was born between Venom Along Came a Spider (1996) and Anne Weying’s death in like 2000 or 2001. Normie meanwhile was born in the mid-1980s!

That’s a small complaint though and easily No. Prized.

Now as for the rest of the comic Cates pulls off a masterstroke in how he’s structured this event, at least in relation to the Venom book.

Absolute Carnage seems set to be the book where all the thrust of the story happens, that’s where you go to see Carnage and I suspect going forward where you will go to follow Brock/Venom. Meanwhile the actual Venom book is going to be following Dylan, who’s been adequately built up by this point. It helps make the Venom book relevant but not demand that you go other the same events twice or ping pong between it and Absolute Carnage to see the next part of the story, it’s happening adjacent to the main events but it’s also not a meaningless side quest!

There is also a lot of great use of established continuity in this book. Venom himself might not be in it much, but his LEGACY is. Dylan is his son (and remember he’s as much the son of the symbiote as he is Anne and Eddie) and so are the Life Foundation symbiotes. The Sleeper symbiote also shows up.

I confess I’m only vaguely familiar with Sleeper because I didn’t read Venom: First Host but I believe he’s strongly connected to Venom’s past, I think he is maybe literally the first host of the Venom symbiote.

There is also an interesting angle in this story because the lead is Dylan, the sidekick if you will is Normie and the antagonists are the family from Separation Anxiety, 2 of which are also little kids. I hope this factors in somehow as it seems there is a theme of family underlying this corner of the event! You could even extend that to Normie as the theme of family, especially dysfunctional family, is very relevant to the Osborns and is obviously now relevant to Venom/Brock’s immediate ‘family’ as well as the Separation Anxiety nuclear family.

The ar is also stellar. It’s not Stegman good but it’s still beautiful eye candy and looks enough like Stegman that the change isn’t jarring. I’m very happy Coello did the War of the Realms tie-ins as a taster and ‘warm up’ for this in fact.

Just great, I’m loving this one!

Lethal Protectors #1 was one of the tests for me about the strength of this event.

See of all the tie-ins this was the one I was least interested in. I don’t hate Cloak, Dagger, Iron Fist or Morbius, but I’m also fairly indifferent to them. I only liked Morbius in the 1994 cartoon (though I hear his 90s stories were quite good) and to me Iron Fist is dull outside of when he’s hanging out with Luke Cage.

So I checked this out but only out of a desire to be a completist.

I was fully braced for this issue to be what derailed the event’s thus far strong batting average.

Nope.

Even this issue delivered.

Granted it also kind of DIDN’T deliver since the cover characters aren’t even mentioned at all. Instead the closest thing to a protagonist is Misty Knight. Now I have no hate for Misty Knight but to my recollection her connection to the symbiotes began only in the Web of Venom: Cult of Carnage issue that this continues off from. I suppose having a vibranium arm makes her an obvious combatant against symbiotes, but she’s got less connection to the lore. She seems more like the vehicle to introduce the above mentioned ‘lethal protectors’ into the story. And I guess that’s fine but either include her on the cover or feature the title characters in the issue.

That’s mostly a nitpick though, the rest of the issue is great. More fun violent horror stuff with a creepy romance added on for good measure in the form of Carnage and Shriek’s toxic relationship.

The reintroduction of Demo/Demagoblin was interesting. I knew it was coming and I knew it would be a new female version but the fact that it was Shriek took me by surprise, I was sure it was going to be Lily Hollister a.k.a. Menace. Truth be told I’m disappointed it wasn’t as that would’ve been an organic use of a pre-established character and wouldn’t have swapped out Shriek (who is also very interesting) for Demagoblin.

It’s not a BAD direction but I’d have preferred the Carnage family from Maximum Carnage be reassembled differently. But seeing Demagoblin and Carnage make out is delightful in how over the top nuts it is!

They mention reintroducing Carrion and I really, really hope that happens!

The art, whilst not being as good as in other tie-ins is still doing a solid job!

Much like the other tie-ins this series is opening up a new front in this event and exploring it quite well thus far, so I’d recommend this too!

And as a plus they remember to tell you when this happens in relation to the main event book.

Miles Morales sadly...was the first slip up in this event.

Now I’ve made my criticisms of Miles (in the comics) vocal before and I don’t want to sit here and tell you this issue sucked shit or it was bad because Miles was bland in it. To be honest MOST of the protagonists of Absolute Carnage are fairly bland. Miles for instance was a knotch more interesting than Misty Knight.

In fact I wouldn’t call this issue BAD at all.

There were just some things wrong with it.

The most noticeable of these was how the events depicted towards the end don’t quite jive with the end of Absolute Carnage #2. If you just wrote them down on paper they would seem to. Miles and Scorpion are fighting Carnage cultists, Carnage/Osborn is there in charge, Scorpion breaks away from the fray, Venom shows up, Miles stands alone but is overwhelmed, he is taken over by the symbiotes.

However when you compare the art and dialogue of the two comics there are a number of discrepancies which is annoying because up until now you could make everything fit together one way or another.

Among the discrepancies, and this is a nitpick, is that the Carnage cultists are wearing their Ravencroft uniforms, which IIRC they don’t do in any other appearance. A more contrived aspect to them though is Gargan recognizing the tattoo of one of them. How? They are all covered head to toe in symbiote their tattoo’s would be obscured!

I also didn’t like how the Carnage Cultists were treated as so disposable. My impression was they each have a bona fide symbiote bonded to them so would be on a similar power level to Venom at least, so Scorpion impaling them wouldn’t be a big deal, they could heal from that. But they come off more as just super strong zombies, and not even as strong as Venom at that.

Grant that’s an issue perhaps with the event as a whole but it was most noticeable here.

The other problem with this book is that half of it is little more than a standard superhero fights super villain yarn until halfway through when it abruptly becomes an Absolute Carnage tie-in. It even kind of does that at the very start of the issue where the recap page randomly interrupts the story in progress for no reason, putting it ahead of the first page wouldn’t have spoiled anything.

It seems like a waste especially since the cliffhanger is identical to the cliffhanger of Absolute Carnage #2, it doesn’t progress the story at all it simply provides some preamble and not particular plot relevant preamble at that. It’s not that difficult to deduce Miles was probably fighting Scorpion before they were attacked.

What’s even more annoying, but not a problem with this book per se, is that the comic discloses that this should be read after Absolute Carnage #2 but similar disclaimers weren’t made for other tie-in issues. I don’t even think reading this between AC #1 and #2 would make much difference. There aren’t any spoilers for AC #2 because it simply depicts the same events regarding Miles in greater detail.

My final problem with the issue is one that’s more a problem with Miles in general regarding his status in the 616 universe. Let’s put aside how it inherently undermines the character for a moment, the recap page alone shows you how problematic it is to have him migrate to Earth 616. The blurb summarizing Miles’ backstory has to be so ridiculously generalized and use dialogue implying he might be from another universe but could equally be taken as poetic hyperbole. I don’t blame Ahmed, I even sympathize that he kind of HAS to write it that way. It’s just stupid is all and undermines the emotional resonance of Ultimate Venom being associated with the death of Miles’ mother. But then again DID she even die now? See what a mess this is?

I don’t want this to sound like this issue was terrible, it wasn’t it was just okay at best though sans the art. Absolute Carnage has thus far had good to great art and this issue is no exception.

As a standard Spidey v. Scorpion rumble goes this was fine, it was fun and got the job done, standard superheroics so I can’t complain too much. The only contentious part was Miles’ ineffective Venom Blast.

It didn’t work because Scorpion’s suit was insulated.

This is a double edged sword when it comes to analysis.

On the one hand that is inconsistent with the Venom Blast’s established power. It can work against electrical powered foes like Electro AND extremely powerful demonic beings like Blackheart. But you telling me some rubber lining enables Scorpion to just shrug it off? Bullshit.

On the other hand though...Miles having a cheat code power like that has always been reductive to his character.

The final thing I have to say on the comic is that the editors weirdly hype up the issue. In other tie-ins they praise Ahmed for reinvigorating the Scorpion, for even making him scary and a straight up killer. Putting aside how he was a fucking cannibal in Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers, Ahmed honestly didn’t do anything like that.

Scorpion is a standard supervilalin who DGAF about innocent life or killing, he just wants to preserve his own life and make a payday. He lands some effective hits on Miles and is a threat but...there is nothing revolutionary or reinvigorating about it. It’s not tired and bad it’s just standard and effective that’s all.

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infinitum-imaginaerum · 6 years

Note

hi could I ask for prompt 21 for SF9 Rowoon? can it be fluffy but a little spicy too? >.

21: “Looks like we’re going to be stuck here for a while” | Rowoon

This total honey needs more gifs! Anyway it’s got a menagerie of genres in here it’s definitely not just fluff with a tiny bit of spice I’m so sorry this is such a roller coaster lmao. But at any rate, I love me some Rowoon loving, so there’s that. Definitely some spicy mentions soooooo. Enjoy!

It’s Christmas time!

It was a stormy night that you were finishing up studying in the basement of the main campus library. It was getting later and later into the evening; you had prolonged going home for a while since you weren’t too keen on trying to make it home in the middle of the storm, so you thought about waiting it out, which turned out to be a complete disaster because if anything, the storm was raging harder than it was before.

Tentative eyes peered around for other patrons. There was only one other you recognized, but you hadn’t noticed he was there before. Rowoon was in two of your classes and you never saw him at the library, so it was strange running into him now, especially so late—you figured he’d be home or at the very least out with friends as there weren’t any serious exams coming up soon.

There were a few other students besides the two of you. A couple of kids were roaming the stacks, others buried in their books or computers. The attendant was about asleep at their desk, waiting for closing which was much later than they liked.

The time was nearing eleven and you figured it was best if you packed up and headed out, unknowing of just how long the storm was going to last—might as well take your chances. After all of your things were tucked nicely in the bag now slung over your shoulder, you headed for the elevator, too lazy to climb two flights of stairs. Mindlessly you entered the carriage, pressing the button for the ground floor.

Your daze in your own thoughts was interrupted when a strong hand peeked through the crack of the closing chrome doors to catch it, the racket of the doors rattling was quiet in reality, but so loud in your head as your eyes snapped up to see who the hand belonged to. A rather tall man strolled into the elevator after prying the doors open. You met his eyes first—deep brown and intense on yours before you recognized his other features.

“Rowoon,” you greeted, but there didn’t appear to be a sense of familiarity in your voice—it seemed as you were merely acknowledging his presence.

He gave you a charming smile, returning the greeting with your own name as the elevator doors slid closed. The two of you stood in silence, just waiting for the carriage to take you to the ground floor, but about half way through, the lights when out and the carriage jerked to a halt. The safety light flickered on, not having been used in quite some time, to barely illuminate the sizeable carriage. Your first instinct was to look to Rowoon for his reaction, but he seemed to be doing the same, gauging you just the same.

The both of you seemed to come to the same conclusion. The power had gone out and of course the generator wasn’t about to take you to a floor, but it would just as well give you some light. You couldn’t find anything to say as you wracked your brain for what you were going to do now. It was already late and who knew how long the two of you were going to be trapped in there—in the back of your mind, you were thankful that you were trapped with Rowoon because it could have easily been much more awkward if it had been someone you didn’t know.

“Looks like we’re going to be stuck here for a while,” he noted with a nervous laugh, an arm crossed over his body to collect the elbow of his other arm as he leaned against the wall of the carriage. All you could do was hum in agreement as your backpack slid off your shoulder and to the floor.

This time stuck in the elevator gave you the opportunity to get a good look at Rowoon while he was busying himself on his phone, probably looking at the weather or social media—something to pass the time. He was much taller than you remembered, but you always saw him sitting down, of course staring into the back of his head because he never failed to opt to sit right in front of you. His backpack had slumped to the floor, too, allowing his stance to be a little more casual as his hand unoccupied by his phone was now stuffed under the bicep of that arm. His tattered black jeans complimented his long legs nicely as you looked him bottom to top. Despite the cold weather, he wore a simple knitted sweater, surprisingly too long for his gangly arms, but it looked nice on him regardless. For just a little too long, you stared at his face, taking in the shape of his chin and nose, the curve of his lips and how they almost shimmered in the light from his phone, and you only had a moment to catch his gorgeous eyes before he was looking at you, catching you staring.

Your gaze shot away, but you swore that a tuft of his messy dark hair was hanging over one of his eyes and boy, was it just you or did he look stunning in that half a second you were allowed to look at him before you felt like you’d been caught doing something you weren’t supposed to.

“It doesn’t seem like the weather is going to be letting up any time soon; it’s probably better that we’re in here, anyway, instead of braving the elements,” he commented, making you feel a little less awkward about you being caught—maybe, though very unlikely, he thought you knew he was looking at the weather and you were looking at him in wait for a response.

Either way, you slumped to the floor with your bag in one corner of the carriage, adjacent to the corner Rowoon was leaning in. The elevator was flipping cold, and your flimsy jacket wasn’t enough to keep you warm as you tugged your knees to your chest. Silence filled the air for quite some time, so you occupied yourself with your phone, noticing it was about to die before tucking it away again. You sighed heavily before feeling Rowoon’s presence much closer than it was originally.

He slumped against the wall of the elevator essentially right next to you. It wasn’t as if you hadn’t been this close to him before, but you tended to keep your distance with him. Things were too interesting—his close friend was your close friend’s ex which was half the reason the two of you were already so acquainted, aside from the being in the same major thing. Since their breakup, you and Rowoon got pretty distant, not trying to step on anyone’s toes, but the breakup was long over being fresh and you knew this was going to happen eventually.

“You’re cold,” he muttered to you.

You and Rowoon had been in rather precarious situations before, so this wasn’t particularly new. If anything it just was less frowned upon now.

“Just a little bit,” you replied; although you couldn’t lie because it was pretty clear that you were cold, you didn’t particularly want to give him any ideas. You weren’t opposed to Rowoon, but you weren’t sure how he felt anymore after all this time. Was it even right? Maybe not right, but okay?

“I don’t want to overstep any boundaries…” he trailed off.

It wasn’t hard to guess what he was alluding to. It was kind of impossible to ignore him when the two of you shared so many classes every single semester, even though you did your best to ignore him. He was constantly asking you about the readings or what you got on the quizzes. You easily interacted with him daily which made it harder to push down the feelings you’d been trying to push down for well over two years now.

“You know I don’t have those types of boundaries with you, Rowoon,” you muttered back, but it was meant to stay in your head instead of actually come out verbally.

Rowoon didn’t have a verbal response; instead he reached out for you to tug you close to him, sharing his body heat with you as he wrapped a long arm around your shoulders. In the five years you’d known him, four of those involved him always offering up his jacket, or bringing you close to warm you up, doing anything he could to accommodate you if it was too cold for your liking, among other things. He was always going out of his way to take care of you, even if it meant inconveniencing himself. It was one of the biggest reasons you fell for him in the first place—and then things got complicated.

The shivers were eradicated from your body as you melted into Rowoon’s side and your head couldn’t help but loll onto his shoulder, tightening his grip around you. His warm exhale fanned your face as he leaned his head against yours, content with you in his arms the way you should have been the whole time.

“I miss you,” he said.

“Miss me? You see me every day,” you reminded him.

“You know that’s not what I mean.” His voice was rougher than you were ready for. “I mean, I miss the way we were, the way we could have been before things got stupid. I knew you way before they knew each other, and we really let it dictate us, and I’m bugged that I gave up the one—”

With one hand wrapped tightly in the front of his sweater and the other lifting you from the ground of the carriage, you had effectively pushed his head away from yours just enough to press your lips into his. The protest you half-expected never came as Rowoon melted into your kiss, his large hand gripping the round of your shoulder to tug you closer until you needed a breath, and he continued.

“—the one person that could make my heart beat hard against its cage; the one person who, no matter what, could put a huge smile on my face and melt away my worries; the one person whose affection I ever craved and begged for. I gave it all up for some nonsense,” he told you, tucking your hair behind your ear as he observed your face, every bit of it, the way he wished he could have every day.

“Things even got dumb between us, Rowoon; don’t forget—”

“I’d kill for the chance to do it all right,” he replied. Things got dumb between the two of you when you went home with him, drunk and angry, angry at him, angry at your friends, angry at the situation because you craved Rowoon the same way he did you, and he took you to bed.

“I wish I could take it back, that night—”

“I don’t regret it,” you tried to reassure him, tugging on his sweater.

“You may not regret what happened but I know you regret how it happened. I never wanted it to be like that. I wanted it to be consensual—”

“It was consensual!” you interjected, pushing your fist closed around his sweater into his chest.

“You know what I mean!” he fired back, removing your hand from his sweater to lace your fingers with his and topple the both of you over. He hovered over you as you lay on the cold carriage floor, staring up at him, almost bewildered as his labored breath pounded against your cheeks, his hand pinning yours just above your head. His gaze shifted between both your eyes, looking for something to say, the right thing to say.

“How do you want it to happen?” you asked quietly.

“I want the moment to be right,” he whispered back.

“Take me through the perfect scenario,” you almost begged, but really, you just wanted him to kiss you. It had been so long that the tension had just built and built and built. Now he had you pinned under him in the elevator of the school library without power in the middle of a thunderstorm after having just kissed him spontaneously.

“I’d take you on a date; your choice. I’d want to take you to dinner, have a nice meal, feed you desert, bring you home and if the moment was right, then it’s right. Maybe we get home and it’s early so we cuddle on the couch and watch a movie; things get going, I’d take you to my room and worship you like the queen you are. In a perfect world, I’d wake up and you’d still be there, sleeping soundly next to me—”

Your soft hand wrapped around the back of his neck to pull him down. His hand tangled with yours gripped tightly when your warm lips captured his again. He sighed into your kiss, his brow tugging together as he thought about the scenario the two of you were in now. You’d slyly maneuvered underneath him to wrap one of your legs on his hip, throwing him off balance to roll him onto his back.

The snarl hiding behind his lips as he looked at you, shocked, was satisfaction enough as you straddled his hips, pinning him down by the chest. His hands, unsure where to go, hovered, looking frantically for something to hold, before comfortably settling on your hips while your right hand reached out to push his dark locks away from his face, enough so you could lean over to kiss his forehead before moving your lips to his ear.

“Then let’s do it right,” you purred into his ear, chastely kissing his neck just below.

You squealed as he rolled the two of you back over to pin you underneath him like prey and predator as he kissed against your neck, causing your hands to weave into his hair and cradle his head into your sensitive skin.

“It’s safe to assume you’re mine then,” he growled into your skin; a statement, not a question.

“I’d be a fool to try and deny myself that absolute privilege.”

The lights of the carriage had flickered on, the sound of electricity buzzing through the walls again had you mentally sighing in relief if you weren’t so preoccupied with Rowoon who was looking at you like his next meal. The carriage was moving again.

“Let’s do it right,” he reminded you, allowing you some room to rise and dust yourself off as he grabbed your bag for you, letting you out of the elevator first, but not without fixing your hair to lay it nicely the way it was before. He’d barely caught up with you, both backpacks slung over his shoulder while the arm of his free hand took your waist to tug you into his side; the whole campus was going to know you were his before the week was over after two long years of absolute torture.

#rowoon #seokwoo #sf9 #rowoon scenarios #seokwoo scenarios #sf9 scenarios #fanfare was a superior look #though he's just handsome af always but I might be a tiny bit bias #that is my husband after all #*shrugs* what can I say #ailea stfu that's what I can say lol #Anonymous

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themurphyzone · 5 years

Text

Absolutely Disastrous Ch 12

Ch 12: The Man Who Will Save Humanity! Confrontation in Rusturf Tunnel!

Lydia and Amanda had agreed to stay in Rustboro to keep an eye on the unconscious businessman and glean some information that would help the others track the right man. Since Marshtomp and Diogee were exhausted from their gym battle, Milo entrusted them to Amanda so she could take them to the Pokémon Center while they waited. Amanda was more than happy to return the favor.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve met that businessman,” Melissa explained to Bradley, who grudgingly kept pace with the others as they rushed off to Rusturf Tunnel. “He was attacked in Petalburg Woods by this guy in a red hood. I think his name was Iggy or something. Anyway, we kicked Iggy’s sorry butt and saved the papers he was trying to steal.”

“What an excellent job you did in protecting those papers,” Bradley scoffed.

“Thanks! We tried but looks like Iggy succeeded after all,” Milo shrugged.

Bradley rolled his eyes. He was carefully maintaining his distance from Milo.

“The guy said whoever took his documents had a mustache,” Melissa said. “Iggy didn’t have one. I wouldn’t rule out a connection though.”

The other trainers on the route were mostly amateur bug catchers comparing the size of their Nincada, so everybody ignored the invitations to battle. Bradley’s fingers kept twitching towards his Poké Balls, but he resisted the urge admirably.

As they approached the tunnel, a sharp cry rang out, followed by several harsh shushing noises. A group of construction workers surrounded the porch of a house, awkwardly comforting a crying man in a pink polo shirt.

“Didn’t mean to be so harsh,” one of the construction workers said awkwardly. “You gotta be more careful though. Whismur don’t react well to loud noises. And there’s a ton of ‘em around these parts.”

“GARRRYYY!” the crying man wailed.

“Hold on a sec, guys!” Milo shouted to his friends. Melissa and Zack used the opportunity to catch their breath and get a drink, but Bradley looked unhappy at the interruption (then again, he always looked unhappy).

“We’re kind of in a hurry here!” Bradley protested. “You want this guy to get away or what?”

While Milo wondered if there was anything he could do to help, part of the house collapsed, startling the men and scattering a flock of Taillow that had taken up residence on the power lines. The Taillow divebombed every construction worker who had their lunchbox open and stole their lunches.

Apparently, Bradley thought Zack would be a sufficient meat shield from the power of Murphy’s Law.

“What’s going on here?” Milo asked, hoping that question would be good enough to break the ice.

“Well, we’re just lounging around like always,” one of the construction workers explained. “Not much to do since our company decided to abandon the project for Rusturf Tunnel. Noise kept scaring all the Whismur, you see. And there’s only so many Uproar-proof hard hats to go around. Been pretty quiet around here, ‘til about fifteen minutes ago when some guy in a red turtleneck rushed into the cave. Who even wears a turtleneck in this kind of weather? He’ll die of heatstroke! Anyway, there was some other guy in a red hood who stole this guy’s Chatot.”

“So there’s two of them?” Zack asked.

“That would’ve been useful information earlier,” Bradley sniffed.

Melissa fired off a quick text to Lydia. “Okay, gave Lydia a status update and asked her to find out if the businessman had more than one attacker.”

A minute later, her phone buzzed. “Lydia says there was only one attacker, and that we probably shouldn’t ask for more details unless we want him to keel over from shock,” Melissa reported.

“Gary’s my only companion among the rolling waves,” the crying man said breathlessly. “People keep telling me to catch a Wingull, but what do they know? Wingull can’t talk the way Gary does!”

Everyone tuned him out once he started reciting some old melodramatic tale about a lonely sailor’s life.

The construction workers rolled their eyes. “If you see Gary, think you could get him back?” one of them called.

“No problem,” Milo promised. “We’ll bring Gary back, just you wait!”

“GARRRYYY! I miss his chatter so much!”

“Yeah...let’s just go,” Melissa said awkwardly.

It was surreal to be in a cave without Zubat. Milo had several Repels in his backpack just in case, but there was no need for them here. The wild Whismur scattered as they traversed the tunnel, their mouths quivering in fear. Lights lined the cave walls, dim enough to not disturb light-sensitive Pokémon yet bright enough to guide their way without the use of a flashlight.

Bradley kept toward the back, casting wary glances at Milo as if his very presence would cause a cave-in.

Voices echoed farther down the tunnel.

“I asked you to steal these papers, yet you couldn’t manage that!”

“A minor setback. I’m making up for it by stealing this Chatot for the glory of Team Magma!”

“For the last time, if you want to steal you’d best join some other organization, because Team Magma is not a band of vagabond thieves like those Aqua scoundrels!”

“Like your ex?”

“He’s not my ex! But especially him!”

Ahead of them, two men were glaring at each other. Milo recognized Ignacio from the incident in Petalburg Woods. He held a caged Chatot in one arm, using his free hand to jab at the man he was arguing with. The other man was tall and slim, dressed in an odd red turtleneck that was out of place in both the Hoenn climate and fashion trends of the present.

Though it could be considered cool in a retro sort of way, Milo guessed.

However, the green hat and goggles definitely looked like they belonged in Sheriff Murphy’s time. Not to mention the terrible way they clashed with the rest of the lava-red outfit.

His gray mustache was pretty impressive though.

And a briefcase with a stylized M laid on the ground next to him.

“Found our thieves,” Melissa said, sending another text to Lydia.

“Give back those papers and Gary!” Milo demanded.

Bradley rolled his eyes. “Since when does the phrase ‘give it back’ ever work?”

Realizing that he may have been a little hasty, Milo smiled sheepishly. “I mean, would you mind giving back those papers and Gary please?”

Bradley just sighed.

“Yes, I do mind!” Ignacio laughed harshly. “What, you gonna ask us to go to jail willingly too?”

“I apologize for my subordinate’s behavior,” the other man said, shooting a glare at Ignacio that told him to shut his mouth or else. “You may have the Chatot, as I do not condone stealing Pokémon, but I will be keeping these papers.”

“We don’t negotiate with criminals!” Zack yelled, which would’ve sounded more impressive if his voice hadn’t cracked in the middle of his boast.

“This isn’t a negotiation,” the man replied stiffly. “Take my offer or leave it. Do you children understand why these documents are important?”

Melissa shook her head. “Not really.”

Ignacio sputtered in protest, his eyes threatening to bug out of his head. “Cavendish, are you crazy? These kids are way too simple-minded to understand even a fraction of our goal!”

Cavendish crossed his arms, leaning in Ignacio’s face just enough to make him uncomfortable. “I am your boss, and I have the power to change the teleporter layout in the base so that you’ll have trouble getting out of your assigned quarters. Do you want that to happen?”

Ignacio’s eyes widened, shaking his head frantically.

“Then be quiet,” Cavendish ordered. He turned back to Milo’s group. “Anyway, these documents contain data on the age of Hoenn’s geographical formations. Mahlson Corp had the technology to prove that the most ancient of these formations were a result of Groudon’s awesome power. I deeply apologize for Ignacio giving you the impression that Team Magma is a bunch of lawless hoodlums, because the truth is that we simply want to reawaken Groudon to create more land for the good of humanity. Then I -I mean, we- will be hailed as heroes who’ve saved everyone from a watery grave and broaden our civilization to new horizons.”

“Dude, you stole those papers in broad daylight,” Melissa snorted. “You really think that qualifies for hero material?”

“Not exactly, but I’m sure it’ll be overlooked,” Cavendish said.

“Enough chitchat! Let’s battle already!” Ignacio yelled, completely forgetting Cavendish’s earlier threat.

Melissa and Bradley readied their Poké Balls, but Zack jumped in the way before they could toss them. “Are you two serious?” Zack demanded. “Melissa, you know Iggy-” Ignacio indignantly screeched at his nickname “-has a Koffing with Self-Destruct. If you battle here, the tunnel might collapse and trap everyone, including the wild Whismur! Oh, and Milo’s here too, in case you forgot. No offense, Milo.”

Milo smiled at him. “None taken!”

Melissa glanced down at her Poké Ball, then at Zack. Ignacio jeered a challenge, but she ignored him. After a long moment, she put her Poké Ball away. “Never thought I’d say this, but your fear has a valid argument this time. Just don’t think this’ll get you out of conquering your ichthyophobia though.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Zack said.

Bradley considered Zack for a moment, but sent out his Shroomish anyway. “Quick, Leech Seed!” Bradley ordered, pointing Shroomish in Cavendish and Ignacio’s direction.

Shroomish fired two seeds, which sprouted several green vines upon impact with their Magma clothing. Cavendish and Ignacio tried to pry them off, but the vines continued to entangle their limbs until they were tied back-to-back with each other. Ignacio’s Poké Ball clattered out of his hand and rolled out of his reach.

“Leech Seed! Gary feed!” Gary squawked as Milo used a pair of hedge trimmers to cut the vines from his cage. Thankfully, the key was around Ignacio’s neck so there was no issue opening the cage door either. Gary hopped onto Milo’s arm, scratching at his backpack curiously. Milo gave him an orange Poké Puff that Amanda made, and Chatot accepted it graciously.

Cavendish put up more of a fight than Ignacio, since it took both Melissa and Zack to wrestle the briefcase from underneath his legs. But they managed to get it away from him after a few minutes.

Cavendish scowled. He didn’t seem like the type to easily admit defeat. “You won’t be so lucky next time. We have many resources at our disposal, and we will not tolerate any more setbacks to our goal.”

“You’re lucky we aren’t sending Elliot out here,” Bradley retorted. “He’d have a million charges against you for your clashing hat and turtleneck alone.”

“He’s got you there, Boss,” Ignacio admitted. He withered under Cavendish’s glare.

“This is Cavendish to base, reporting in from Rusturf Tunnel,” Cavendish said, turning his back to everyone. There was a black earpiece on the side of his head. “Grunt Iggy and I-” he ignored Ignacio’s scream of rage “-are trapped by Leech Seed and request backup stat. Okay, well, we might’ve had a run-in with four rookie trainers and I might’ve explained our goal to them...what? No, I haven’t fainted from heatstroke! I get cold quite easily, you know! Bring a pair of really sharp scissors or something that can gnaw through vines!”

His earpiece emitted a sharp screeching noise.

“Don’t lecture me about how distinctive my clothes are when you’re the one who suggested tuxedos for the standard uniform!”

“We’re gonna return Gary now. Bye!” Milo waved to the Magma members, and Cavendish glowered at him briefly before returning to his argument over the earpiece.

“We should leave before their backup gets here,” Zack suggested.

“Judging from their argument? We have some time,” Melissa said, cupping her hands around her mouth with a devious smirk. “ISN’T THAT RIGHT, IGGY?”

Everyone, even Bradley, snickered at Ignacio’s outraged scream.

Then Milo noticed a large amount of pink, spherical Pokémon surrounding them. Curious, he checked his Pokédex.

“Whismur, the Whisper Pokémon. Rest in peace, auditory sensors. You wouldn’t happen to know an audiologist who deals with tech like me, right?”

The Whismur did not look happy.

Zack whimpered and covered his ears. “Goodbye, eardrums.”

“I’VE HAD IT! I’M MOVING TO THE TOP OF MT. SILVER SO I NEVER HAVE TO SEE YOU PEOPLE AGAIN!”

“HUH?”

“HE EITHER SAID PASS THE SILVERWARE OR HE HATES SEEING PURPLE!”

“GARY! I MISSED YOU! COME HERE, YOU FINE FEATHERED FRIEND!”

“Feathered friend! Heart mend!” Gary squawked, flying over to the man who’d been completely inconsolable earlier. Gary dipped his beak into one of the man’s pockets, scarfing down several pellets of Pokémon food.

The construction workers seemed relieved, though several of them raised their eyebrows at Milo’s friends yelling at each other.

“We got caught in a group of Whismur’s Uproar on our way back,” Milo said. “They should hear just fine in half an hour.”

“How come you weren’t affected?” one of the construction workers asked.

Milo shrugged. “My older sister is part of the Dr. Magnezone crowd. I guess when you’ve heard them scream because of Time Infernape’s sacrifice in the Season 4 finale, a group of Whismur just doesn’t sound that loud.”

The construction workers murmured their agreement.

Gary fluttered over to Milo’s shoulder, nibbling his hair affectionately. “Back with Jack! Back with Jack!” Gary chirped.

Gary’s trainer shook hands with Milo, beaming brightly as Gary fluttered around their heads. “I’m Captain Jack. Thank you for saving Gary. He’s a great conversational partner out in the open waters. Can’t do it without him!”

“You really oughta consider getting a Wingull,” one of the construction workers said. “There’s plenty of ‘em here. Every sailor has one.”

Captain Jack grimaced, whistling to Gary so he didn’t slash the man with an Aerial Ace. Gary puffed his feathers one last time and settled onto Captain Jack’s shoulder, pointedly turning his back on the construction worker.

“Remember, Gary,” Captain Jack lectured. “Violence is below a Chatot of your standing. We use words and body language to convey how angry we are at this poor, ignorant man.”

Gary crossed his wings over his chest too.

Captain Jack turned back to Milo, his irritation vanishing. “I have a seaside cottage just outside Petalburg City. As thanks for saving Gary, I’ll be more than happy to ferry you and your friends around the ocean if you’d like.”

“Gosh, thanks so much!” Milo grinned. “You think you can take us to Dewford Town? My friend has a contest coming up, so it’ll probably be another day or two before I take your offer.”

“Dewford is no issue at all,” Captain Jack replied. “And come visit Gary too. Between you and me, he gets lonely real fast. We’d best get going. Gary, use Fly!”

Gary lifted his trainer into the air with his feet and took off into the horizon, squawking a goodbye to Milo.

At least a Chatot using Fly made more sense than a Dodrio.

“AMANDA TEXTED ME!” Melissa shouted. “SHE SAYS TO MEET THEM AT THE POKÉMON CENTER BECAUSE SOMEONE REALLY IMPORTANT WANTS TO TALK TO US!”

“WHAT?” Bradley yelled back.

“Amanda wants us to meet at the Pokémon Center because someone wants to...um, tangle with us?” Zack asked, glancing at Milo for help.

“Close. She said talk,” Milo said. “Your hearing’s almost back though!”

Zack nodded in relief. “Almost. I still hear this weird ringing. Reminds me of my Aunt Debbie’s porch. She has a lot of wind chimes.”

“AND SHE SAYS DIOGEE AND MARSHTOMP ARE FINE NOW!”

“CHOMP ON WHAT NOW?”

Zack sighed. “Let’s get back and hope it’s someone with a normal fashion sense who wants to talk.”

Melissa and Bradley’s hearing had mostly returned by the time they reached the Rustboro Pokémon Center, though they still complained about the leftover ringing. Diogee and Marshtomp almost knocked over Milo in their excitement. Milo couldn’t even move because Marshtomp refused to let go of his legs.

“I missed you guys too,” Milo said. “So who’s the guy who wanted to meet us? Amanda wasn’t giving us any answers when we tried to figure it out.”

Amanda had sent a lot of emojis with angel faces when they tried asking politely over text.

Marshtomp allowed Milo to take a seat with his friends, though he quickly latched onto his legs again.

A gray-haired man with a rather prominent chin shook hands with Melissa as she handed over the briefcase. Melissa had to nudge Bradley, who was still in a stupor from being praised over using Leech Seed to tie up the thieves rather than get into a battle that could endanger the tunnel’s ecosystem.

Milo watched them chat for a while, trying to place why the man looked vaguely familiar to him.

“Are you related to Orton Mahlson?” Milo blurted out, interrupting Bradley’s spiel about how his Shroomish was the best of all Grass types. Bradley made an affronted noise. “Er, sorry Bradley. You wanna finish that boast?”

“Moment’s gone,” Bradley muttered before stomping away.

“Your friend’s a bit grouchy, isn’t he?” the man mused as he opened the briefcase. “Still, he adores his Shroomish, and I can’t fault that. And yes, Orton’s my son. My name’s Orville Mahlson, but I prefer to be called Orville. Mr. Mahlson is a tad too formal, even if everyone insists the CEO of Mahlson Corp is to be treated with respect at all times.”

“Your son is like, the coolest human being on the planet!” Milo squealed before he could stop himself.

Orville smirked, leafing through the documents to make sure everything was in order. “Would you mind repeating that? I don’t think the people in Snowpoint City heard you.”

“I said, your son is the coolest human being on the planet!” Milo exclaimed. “It’s really amazing how he balances acting and his Champion duties and yet he’s really nice too!”

“That’s true,” Orville agreed, packing the documents back into the briefcase. “Well, everything seems to be in order here. Now, why don’t we head to my office in Mahlson Corp to discuss this matter further?”

“Sir, Mahlson Corp is restricted from the public!” the businessman protested. “What if one of these children is a corporate spy?”

Melissa held up her hands in defeat. “I’m a corporate spy, sir. How about I battle your employee here for the rights to your secret projects?”

The businessman fainted again.

Lydia scowled. “Well, thanks for undoing all my hard work of reviving him!”

Melissa just smirked.

“Don’t worry about Manny, kids. A few weeks ago, he fainted because someone brought an Azurill egg in,” Orville sighed.

Orville led the group down the research department, happily pausing to answer any questions about the kind of work his scientists did.

“Mahlson Corp is constantly researching ways to provide clean energy to people while preserving natural ecosystems,” Orville explained, grinning as Milo and Bradley watched scientists bark orders to each other through a glass window. “The generator they’re working on utilizes dream mist from a Musharna to power a row of light bulbs. We took some inspiration from a Unovan scientist who published a very intriguing thesis about this concept.”

“Oh, that was Professor Fennel!” Amanda exclaimed. “She showed us around the Dreamyard and let us pet a Munna on a field trip once!”

“Her hair is really pretty,” Lydia added.

Orville paused in front of a window farther down the hall. The room appeared to be a miniature greenhouse. Sunlight streamed in through the ceiling panels as a research team watered the flowers and trimmed the hedges. “They’re studying the effects of sunlight on plants in order to determine the most efficient way to harness solar energy,” Orville said.

“What’s that machine in the back?” Melissa asked, pointing to a large, cylindrical device that two scientists were tinkering with. One of the scientists shouted in frustration and slammed his fist on the control panel.

“Ah, that would be the Machine Used for Literally Converting Humans to Grass-Types, or MULCHGT for short. They claim the ‘GT’ is silent,” Orville said, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “I misplaced the paperwork that would’ve slashed their funding. Yeah...I didn’t hire these people for their ability to come up with good acronyms.”

“Work, my precious MULCH machine! I command you to work!” the scientist shouted, cackling as the machine fired up. “You shall help me in my conquest of the entire world! Together, we will make the lowly humans pay for what they’ve done!”

He laughed evilly, drawing irate stares from the rest of the scientists. Then he realized he was being watched. “Uh, I mean further my understanding of chlorophyll and cellulose?” he asked sheepishly.

“Orville, what’s he aiming for with that thing?” Zack asked nervously.

Orville paled. “Maybe we shouldn’t have dared Ronaldo to imitate his evil speeches on lunch break...”

“Hit the floor!” Milo yelled, and everyone fell onto their stomachs and covered their heads while trying to remain close to the ground. The machine whirred to life, then fired a green beam that passed through the glass window.

Belatedly, Milo realized that Bradley was observing the research group on the opposite side and hadn’t noticed the commotion.

“Bradley, look out!” Milo yelped, crashing into Bradley’s legs to force him to the ground so the beam would miss him.

Bradley shrieked, his arms flailing as he crashed on top of Milo. Milo gasped from the impact, making sure to take several deep breaths to get the air back into his lungs.

Much to the distress of the megalomaniacal scientist and the relief of everyone else, the MULCH machine exploded because someone accidentally ran into the self-destruct button.

“Everyone who isn’t a Grass-type say aye. Or in Diogee’s case, just use your vocal cords,” Melissa said. “I am currently not a Pokémon.”

“Neither am I,” Amanda reported.

“Do I have any leaves on me?” Lydia asked, using a compact mirror to check her face. “I don’t think a green complexion would suit me that well. I’m strictly an autumn.”

“Lydia and I are fine,” Zack said.

Diogee was currently serving as leverage for Orville to help him stand but they were both leaf-free.

“It didn’t get me,” Milo said. He craned his neck to check Bradley, who was still dazed and didn’t realize he’d landed on Milo yet.

Then Amanda shrieked. “His arm! Where’s his arm?”

Bradley’s right arm was missing, his sleeve dangling in empty air.

“Why does my arm feel funny?” Bradley groaned. Then he noticed everyone staring. “Why’s everyone looking at me like that?”

From his vantage point, Milo could see something red poking out of what first appeared to be an empty sleeve. Out of curiosity, Milo pulled on the red object.

“Don’t touch me you...WAIT, WHAT IS THAT THING?” Bradley screeched, backing himself against the wall in sheer horror. Unfortunately, the red object followed him.

It wasn’t an object after all. It was a pair of red claws attached to a stretchy green limb. Bradley’s normal arm was twice as long.

Orville chuckled nervously. “It appears you have a Breloom arm. Say, how about a free PokéNav in exchange for you not revealing our questionable hiring practices to the Internet?”

AN: Cavendish’s debut! Poor man. He tries to be threatening but his fashion sense hinders him.

Captain Jack is the guy who takes Dakota to the Island in Island of the Lost Dakotas. As he doesn’t have a canon name, I decided to name him Jack for his voice actor Jack McBrayer.

Bradley’s plant arm in this story is different from his canon one, but I think it would be a great benefit once he utilizes it.

I’m sorry, the MULCHTP name amuses me to no end. Derek is terrible with acronyms.

#absolutely disastrous #oras au #melissa chase #zack underwood #balthazar cavendish #bradley nicholson #amanda and lydia #diogee

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rococodeco · 5 years

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May 25 - Blog a day

Pet photos and stories. Childhood pets. Favorite pet. Current pet. All the animals.

Pets in chronological order. (No pictures, I’m sorry, I don’t have any)

Robin - cat who was a kitten when I was born. She never like me very much. We lived next door to a cat named Mouse. They were buds.

Daphne - my sister’s guinea pig. I had a Beatrix Potter book about guinea pigs (Apple Dumplings I think) that I gave her to read. She ate it.

Chiquita and Woodstock - a pair of parakeets, Chiquita was green, Woodstock was blue. My mom put their cages out on the patio one summer day and Robin and Mouse tried to get them. Chiquita escaped. Woodstock lived for a few more years but died one summer from the heat.

Lassie - a guinea pig who the first pet that was mine, I named him after Lassie the dog. Yes, him. My parents were okay with me naming a boy guinea pig Lassie. He lived for a very long time for a guinea pig. He was quiet, hardly ever whistled. He loved fresh veggies and grass. We would take him outside to graze in the summer. One time he escaped into the overgrown garden. We found him a week later inside a tunnel he wove out of grass.

Oreo - my buddy. I found him hiding in our garden one day. I bribed him with Kraft singles and bologna to be my friend. He’s a little stray cat who chose us as his family. It was years before he was comfortable coming into the house. But he came with us every time we moved. We lived for a while at my Grandma’s house. She was generally anti-pet but Oreo won her over. When we moved, he would always come out to say hi to Grandma when she visited (fuck those people who say cats don’t recognize people, Oreo even knew which car Grandma drove). He loved pets and attention. He would climb on top of my book so I would pay attention to him instead of reading. When I was 14 our neighbors woke us early one morning to tell us he had been attacked by dog that got out of his yard and animal control came to get him. Oreo was the sweetest cat, but he was also a tough tomcat who did not take shit from dogs. I’d seen him scare dogs away over the years. This dog wasn’t intimidated. For some reason I do not understand, my mom told me it was my responsibility to find out what animal control did with him. I didn’t know where to start and was too scared to make cold calls. My sister made the calls when she got home from her honeymoon and we learned that he was put down because the dog had punctured his lungs. He was the best boy and deserved so much better than he got.

Ody - One day my dad showed up in the middle of the day with a tiny terrified kitten. He handed the kitten to me and went back to work. Our parents hadn’t told us that the shop cat (named Wingnut) at his work had kittens and one was coming home. The terrified kitten proved to be pretty curious and adventurous so I named him Odysseus but we always called him Ody. He and I were inseparable when he was a kitten. He’d sleep in my bed, come into the bathroom with me while I brushed my teeth. I’d give him breakfast and make my own. He always finished eating first and come sit on my lap and beg for some of my cereal. Then he’d follow me around all day, even following me down the street when I’d walk to the library (though he usually gave up by the time we got to the corner). When he was a kitten, he thought he was a little human. He wanted to eat whatever I was eating. He would put his head on pillows when he napped. My parents weren’t responsible pet owners and did not get him neutered. He started wandering and fighting and fucking. He wasn’t as sweet as he was when he was a kitten. My dad and I both got bit when we bothered him too much (our fault, he gave us plenty of warning by growling) and he bit hard. He started disappearing for days at a time. There were times we thought we’d never see him again. He was eventually neutered around the age of 8 when he went to the vet for an abscessed tooth. He turned into a chill and lazy cat who just wanted to hang out at home. A couple years later he moved to the mountains with my parents and became a total indoor cat. And gained a ton of weight. He lived out his last years so spoiled by my mom. I miss that cat. He’s been showing up in my dreams lately.

Katie - My little sister dreamed for a long time of owning a cat named Katie the Calico Kitten. Someone in the neighborhood was giving away kittens so I took my sister to see them. Sure enough, there was a fluffy little calico kitten. Our older sister took two of the other kittens named Sophie and Cricket. Ody was definitely the father of Cricket, her pattern matched his exactly. 50/50 whether he was Katie’s father, but he really took to her when we brought her home. He would give her baths and nap with her. It was so sweet and unexpected. She climbed the tree in our backyard and realized she didn’t know how to get down. She panicked and kept climbing higher and higher until she fell out of the tree. She fell probably 40 feet. She seemed shaken up but otherwise okay after the fall so my parents didn’t take her to the vet. But after the fall she really didn’t like people to pick her up or touch her outside of head scratches. She really liked to be with people, she would follow whoever was home around the house, but she didn’t want pets or attention. She was also such a cranky cat. She hated strangers. She was also hilarious. She would knock her food across the kitchen floor and hunt it. She would mix up her water with her paw before drinking. She was floofy and cute. When she got really excited chasing after string or other cat toys she would run face first into furniture. She was fascinated with the raccoons that started passing through our yard. She always wanted to go outside when they were around. We kept her in because raccoons can be real dicks. She disappeared one day when my mom let her out of the house extra early. I searched all over for her (this was after college, before I had a job so I was home all day). When my siblings came home from high school we made posters and put them all over the neighborhood. There was no sign of Katie, who liked to go outside, but never left the yard. Either she ran off with a raccoon in some sort of Romeo and Juliet love story or a fox got her. We’ll never know.

I haven’t had pets as an adult. But I will get cats again some day.

EDIT: 3 days later and I remembered I forgot Bugs, a huge lop with floppy ears. He was a dick. He was my uncle’s step-kids’ pet but my uncle is also a dick and gave all their pets away when he married their mom. We got Bugs. (See grandma being anti-pet above, more than any of her kids, this uncle absorbed all her neuroses and turned them into cruelty.) Bugs was a total horndog. We had 4 or 5 locks around the door on his coop because he was constantly trying to escape to mate with the cottontails in our neighborhood. He raped poor Oreo once. We would let him out to graze in the backyard along with Lassie. He would thank you by kicking manically until your legs were full of scratches as you tried to put him back in his coop. In the winter we put his cage under carport in the front yard to protect him from snow/make it easier to feed him. The door was up against the wall so he couldn’t escape, because he kept trying to push through the quadruple locked door. One snowy morning we woke up to find the cage pulled away from the wall and dog and bunny prints in the yard. Some dogs pulled his cage away from the wall and he got out. We never saw him again.

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scrapbookedexpressions · 6 years

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Butterflies

After making you all uncomfortable in “my truth”, I want to brighten things up a bit, to remind you that the entirety of this blog is NOT about depression and how I got there. So yes, I want to talk about butterflies. 🦋 something beautiful instead.

I’ve always had a little bit of an infatuation with butterflies. I was always running around catching them as a kid(along with other grosser bugs) I would put them in my little bug cage and study them with a magnifying glass. I liked to study all the patterns, and the powder on their wings. I liked to watch their little straw “tongue” roll in and out as they pick up the nectar of a flower. Kind of like one of those little party horns kids give out at their birthday parties. No two butterflies are the same, and something about that satisfies my soul.

A butterfly spends majority of its life as a caterpillar. They just inch away, dragging themselves along working day in and out trying to grow as big as they can before they age too far. Much like how I feel life has become for me, Working everyday towards a bigger and better life.

They finally grow tired of the work and “shut down” they build themselves a secure home and they don’t come out for weeks. To the outside world it would seem as if they’ve given up on the life they’ve spent their whole life working for. But within the solitude, much to dismay, they’re still working. Constantly. Day in and day out, still growing. The outside world never sees them. They cut themselves from everything around them, and focus on building themselves before they reappear, completely transformed. Because sometimes that’s what it takes to grow. Solitude. Quiet and calm, solitude.

When a they finally reappear to the world, they come back more beautiful than ever. They’ve grown wings to fly. No more dragging fat caterpillar bellies across the ground. Now they get to soar. They finally get to live their best life. The life they’ve worked so hard, their entire lives for.

I love butterflies because I hope to live my own life this way. For now I may be ‘just’ a caterpillar.... but soon enough, I’ll grow my wings, and live the life I am pushing towards.

I took this picture a couple weeks ago because this butterfly was different from the rest. This butterfly wear his life across his wings. You can see every piece missing and every scratch in the fine powder on its wings. He stood out from the rest to me because he just sort of floated through the air(rather than fluttering). There was just a grace about him that I was drawn to. He seems as if he’s lived a hard, yet beautiful life. And I can only hope to be the same way one day.

*****

I always liked butterflies but my obsession with them began about 3 years ago, when I became pregnant with my son.

Short story time.

About 6 months into living on my own in my first apartment, I started a new relationship. This was something brand new, so I wanted to take some precautions. Even though I had been told multiple times by multiple doctors that I had very slim chance of ever becoming a mother, I still went to get birth control. Just to be on the safe side.

After about two weeks of being on the birth control, I started noticing some of the side affects that they warn you about. Swollen breasts, bigger appetite, no more period. Man, this birth control stuff is great! I never thought twice about it. One Sunday changed my mind pretty quick that this wasn’t the birth control doing this to me.

I woke up one July Sunday, and noticed a bunch of butterflies perched on my bedroom window. I sat there awhile and admired them. So pretty, and SO blue. Eventually they all left and I continued on with my morning getting ready for work.

When I left my apartment I was pretty much attacked by butterflies right outside my front door. They were fluttering around my head so fast I’d never seen anything like it. They followed me all the way to my car before they gave up on chasing me. They must have liked the perfume I was wearing.

When I got to work and parked my car, two butterflies immediately landed right on the hood of my car. What’s with all the butterflies today? I didn’t have time to stop to admire so I left them alone and went into work.

When I got to the front counter I saw the biggest most beautiful blue butterfly I’d ever seen, right smack dab in the middle of the window. He stuck around for awhile before he finally floated away.

It was a really nice summer day that day, I thought some fresh air sounded nice so I opened up the garage door in the back of the store. As soon as I pulled the handle to lift the door there was butterflies waiting there that rushed right into the store. They weren’t hurting anything so I figured I’d take care of it and get them all out later.

Those five butterflies that made their way into the store fluttered around me like flies swarm dung. This was starting to get annoying. Just as I went to grab the fly swatter to take care of the problem, they all landed on me before making their own way back out of the garage door. Well that was just weird. I’m never wearing this perfume again.

As my night came to an end I clocked out set the alarm and locked the door behind me. When I turned around to my car the same two butterflies were still sitting on the hood of my car. This is getting strange.

Before I went home I stopped by the store to grab something to make for dinner. Two butterflies almost followed me right into the store,and then waited for me and followed me right back to my car. What is going on here? This is crazy!

I got home and butterflies followed me to my front door of my second story apartment. I just can’t shake them. Where are they coming from? And why are they following me?

I ended my night by eating dinner folding some laundry while drinking a couple glasses of wine. I don’t know about you guys but I’ve never seen a butterfly out past dark until this night.

When I went to bed there was one big blue butterfly floating outside my bedroom window. I layer there admiring all the way until I fell asleep. While I was asleep, I had a dream. One I’ll never forget. I had a dream that I had a baby. A beautiful, curly haired baby boy. We were sitting in the grass playing when a big blue butterfly landed right on his little nose. I instantly woke up. Like one of those sit straight up, out of breath, scared, sweating, like I was waking up from a bad dream kind of thing.i knew right then and there I was pregnant. I threw my birth control in the garbage and left my apartment at 3:48 in the morning. I went to the 24 hour drug store and got a three pack of first response pregnancy tests. ALL of them came back positive. I WAS PREGNANT!

How did this happen while I was on birth control?! I was already pregnant before I even started the pill. I was already almost 9 weeks along! And I wouldn’t have know for weeks if it weren’t for all those butterflies.

I don’t know if it was the butterflies that could sense this, or if it was God sending me a sign, but either way I am grateful.

Never ignore the world when it sends you signals. It’s rarely ever wrong. It was right all the way down to the birthstone for my son, and the butterflies came in pairs when I was finding out I was pregnant with my daughter.

Mother Nature sure does have her way of creating something beautiful out of something so small. 🦋

#butterfly #blog #scrapbookedexpressions #pregnancy #butterfly babies

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stopforamoment · 6 years

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Road Trip Games (6 of 12)

Book: The Royal Romance (After Book Three)

Pairing: Bastien Lykel x OFC Rinda Parks

Word Count: 1,726

Rating: E for Everyone

Author’s Note: Obligatory disclaimer that Pixelberry Studios owns the TRR characters and my pocketbook with those darn diamond scenes. OFC with all of her quirks is all mine. My apologies if Tumblr or I do something stupid when I try to post this.

Summary: Bastien, Rinda, and Henry enjoy some cheesy road trip family games as they drive to the palace.

. . . . Pretend Tumblr put a “Keep Reading” link here! . . . . .

Bastien noticed how much Henry resembled his mom. He had Rinda’s blonde hair and impulsive smile, but he also had a cute dimple when he grinned. He got that from his father.

He also inherited Jameson’s blue eyes, and like Rinda, his eyes were a strong tell. They were a brilliant cobalt blue when he was laughing. But when he was angry or frustrated they turned a slate blue, almost grey, like a storm rolling over the ocean. And like Rinda, he was good natured until someone pushed him too far.

Although Henry was a good kid and usually polite in public, it was also clear he was a prankster who kept Rinda on her toes. After the game Bastien was just looking at Rinda and laughing. “He’s a lot like you, Rinda.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know. My life is a living hell. The worst is when Henry knows I’m trying not to laugh, because some of his shit really is funny, but he’s only ten so I have to put the smack down.

. . . . .

Bastien helped load the luggage and he was waiting by the car as Rinda locked up the house. Suddenly Rinda and Henry made eye contact and they both started running to the car. “No! I am the adult. You are NOT riding shotgun. Bastien, LOCK THE CAR DOOR!” Henry was laughing, trying to open the passenger side door. “This is crap, Henry!” They were wrestling around and Bastien just stood and watched. Suddenly Rinda pinched Henry’s neck and he went to his knees. “Bastien, now!” He quickly clicked the fob to unlock the door and Rinda jumped over Henry to get in.

Once they were finally settled in, Bastien in the driver’s seat, Rinda in the passenger seat, and Henry in the back seat, Bastien turned to Rinda. “Did you just use a pressure point on your son to get the front seat?” Rinda ignored Bastien, but Henry was laughing. “Yeah, mom! What kind of mother are you?”

Rinda slowly turned to Bastien, trying to keep a straight face. “You’ve only known him a couple days, Bastien. Don’t judge me.”

. . . . .

After they were driving for awhile Henry and Rinda began to play I Spy, which quickly turned into a game of insults between the two of them:

“I spy with my little eye someone who snores when she sleeps.”

“I spy with my little eye someone who always farts when he’s awake.”

“I spy with my little eye someone who can’t function without her coffee in the morning.”

“I spy with my little eye someone who needs to be reminded to brush his teeth every morning.”

“I spy with my little eye someone who set off the smoke alarm when she tried to make dinner.”

“I spy with my little eye someone who picked his nose and wiped it on his mother. And laughed.”

“I spy with my little eye someone who twisted her ankle trying to kick a soccer ball.”

“I spy with my little eye someone who bounced a soccer ball in the house and hit himself in the face when it bounced back.”

Bastien kept his eyes focused on the road, but he started to chuckle. Big mistake to draw attention back to himself. Rinda quickly turned on him when it was her turn. “I Spy someone who wishes he would have just allowed us to play the radio.” Everyone started to laugh. Bastien chimed in. “I Spy someone who is going to be banished to the back seat if she doesn’t behave.” Henry was cracking up at that point, and Bastien looked in the rearview mirror to give Henry a big grin.

Rinda quickly cut in. “Okay, let’s switch it up so Mr. Lykel can play. What road trip games did you play as a kid?”

Bastien smiled. “Well, we did the alphabet game, but I have a feeling you would cheat too much.” Henry was about to object, but Bastien actually gave Rinda a pointed stare. Rinda rolled her eyes. Bastien thought for a moment. “Hmm. Why don’t we do ‘I’d Rather’?”

Henry leaned forward. “What’s that?”

“Well, I give you two options, and you tell me which one you’d rather choose. But you have to choose one. Otherwise it’s cheating. And you have to explain why. So Henry, would you rather live in a treehouse with no electricity, running water, or WiFi, OR a cave where you had electricity, running water, and WiFi?”

Henry thought for a moment. “Would the treehouse have a bathroom?”

“No. No running water.”

“Hmm. Well I could just pee in the yard . . .” Rinda just shook her head. “Okay, I would have to do cave. I’d miss my iPad and Youtube videos too much. Mom, what about you?”

“What’s the temperature Mr. Lykel? Would it be really hot or really cold?”

“Well, it would get kind of hot in summer. And cold in winter, but you’d have warm clothes and blankets.”

“Would there be a rope swing where I could swing from my treehouse and dive into a cool lake in summer?”

Bastien smiled. “As you wish.”

“Wait, mom. I didn’t know there would be a rope swing. Hold on . . .” Rinda grinned. “Sorry can’t change your answer. You’re living in a cave and I’m living in the tree house with a rope swing. Mr. Lykel, what about you?”

“Well, if I can pee in the yard . . .”

“Or the lake,” Rinda added. They grinned at each other while Henry snorted from laughing.

Henry went next. “Mr. Lykel, would you rather see fireworks or go to the circus?”

“Hmm, I’d rather see a circus. The fireworks are kind of loud.” Henry nodded. “Mom’s cousin was a soldier and he hates fireworks because the noise sounds like gunfire and it reminds him of when he was deployed.” Rinda was turned around and giving Henry the mom look. He blushed and quickly stammered, “Mom, what about you? Fireworks or circus and why?”

Rinda laughed. “Fireworks. I love the Fourth of July.”

Henry grinned. “Aaaaand . . .”

Rinda looked confused. “And the parade, and having everyone over for lunch, and doing a fire with s’mores. I love everything about the Fourth of July.”

“But mom, why don’t you like the circus?”

Rinda blushed. “Um, it makes me sad to see the animals in cages. And I’m scared the trapeze people might fall.”

“Aaand, what else are you afraid of, mom?”

Rinda sighed. “I knew there was a reason you asked that question. Clowns. I am absolutely terrified of clowns.” Bastien looked at her in shock. “It’s true, Mr. Lykel. They just weird me out.”

Bastien grinned. “Okay Henry, what about you?”

“I’ll go with circus. But only because it’s really funny when mom’s trying not to freak out when she sees clowns.”

Rinda went next. “Would you rather have the ability to read other people’s mind or the ability to see into the future? AND,” she quickly added, “you wouldn’t be able to do anything to change that future.” Bastien glanced over at Rina. She just shrugged.

“See the future! I’ll know the newest Lego sets before anyone else,” Henry quickly yelled. “Mr. Lykel?”

“Hmm. If I could read people’s minds that would help me a lot with my job. What about you, Rin . . . Mrs. Parks?”

“See the future. I don’t have the self esteem to handle knowing what people really think of me.” Bastien raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

. . . . .

When they got to the palace it was late, but Bastien wanted to take Rinda and Henry on a quick tour before they were in for the night. He showed them to their room and patiently waited while Henry checked out every nook and cranny. There were two rooms and a bathroom, and it was much better than any hotel he’d ever stayed at. Bastien gave Henry a solemn look. “At the palace we take pride in making our guests feel welcome. I am honored that the accommodations meet your exacting standards.” Rinda just rolled her eyes at the two of them.

Bastien showed Rinda and Henry the main hallway, how to get to the dining area, and where they would meet in the morning. “Mom, is there a vending machine or ice machine?” Rinda shook her head. “Nope, sorry bug.”

“Actually, Henry. There are people who would bring that to your room if you ask. It’s better than room service.”

Rinda quickly turned to Henry, anticipating his question. “No, Henry. Just no.”

“Mom . . . please?”

Rinda turned to Henry and spoke in a low voice. “Bärchen. Genug.” Grandma Lorinda spoke fluent German, and Rinda frequently used German when she wanted to reprimand Henry without embarrassing him in front of other people. Or when she was absolutely sick of his shit. Either way, Henry knew it was time to knock it off.

Bastien quietly watched their exchange before clearing his throat. “Henry, there’s one more thing, but this one is a special surprise for your mom.” Rinda gave Bastien a puzzled look as he paused dramatically in front of a large closed door. “Mrs. Parks, I know you have access to every library and archive in Cordonia . . . but I don’t think you’ve seen this one yet.” Bastien opened the door and Rinda stood in shock. She didn’t even have to step in to see how large this library was. Floor to ceiling bookshelves and two stories. Bastien laughed. “You can walk in, you know.”

Rinda shook her head. “Sorry, I’m just taking it in.” She gave Bastien a brilliant smile. “This is . . . absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for bringing me here.” Rinda thought about the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast, when the Beast showed Belle the library. Most girls were probably in awe of the scene where Belle danced with the Beast in the beautiful yellow dress. Or when the Beast turned into the prince. But not Rinda. When she saw how cute the shy beast was when he wanted to please Belle, and when he made Belle close her eyes before leading her into the library, then telling her to open her eyes . . . aaaah. Most romantic surprise ever.

Link to Beauty and the Beast Library Scene

#bastien lykel #ofc rinda parks #choices trr #a mother's love series

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shieldagentscully-blog · 6 years

Text

Scalpel & SHIELD: Chapter 5 - Big, Goddamn Hero

Howard University - 2002

Scully hadn’t ever seen herself teaching at a university. It was the farthest thing from her mind years ago when she studied under Daniel Waterston at Stanford, the brilliant cardiologist, thinking she was going to fix hearts and change lives. She had been young, brilliant, eager to please, and absolutely full of herself back then. But life had a funny way of turning things upside down. More than a decade ago, she stood at a crossroads. Broken hearted and betrayed, she had the choice to stay in the field she no longer loved with a man who had lied to her or to forge a new path in a more interesting field and perhaps make a greater difference than she’d thought possible. She took a gamble and left to join the FBI. It hadn’t worked out exactly as she had hoped, but it was the path that led her to the X-files and to Mulder. For all that she lost, she could never regret having him come into her life.

Now she stood at another crossroads, another choice between a road that was secure but not fulfilling and one that held the promise of the things she sought but could destroy her and her son. To most, the choice should have been simple, but Scully had wrestled with it all night, laying in bed, the young face of Samantha, heartbroken and tired, floated to her mind. She had been alive in 1974. She had lived until 1979. Just what had the likes of Spender and Rinehardt done to her? What had she endured? Were those men still out there, kidnapping other Samanthas? Did they have Mulder?

It was that last thought that sent her out of bed, finally, giving up on sleep as she flipped quietly through channels until William finally stirred, bright and early, as always. He hardly noticed her dark mood as he fussed and whined, his sore teeth and gums making him fractious as he piddled with breakfast as she tried to force coffee into herself. He had been even less thrilled to be dressed and loaded up in the car to go to his daycare, howling most of the way there until she got him inside, upon which time his entire personality changed to that of an angelic saint. Frustration didn’t even begin to describe her mood as she returned to her car and made her way to campus, fighting Midterm students and parking. By the time she even got to her office, she was in the mood to lock herself up, hide away, and pray that no student came looking for her.

Unfortunately, even as she rounded the corner, she saw someone sitting just outside of her office door. She had already sighed and begun to mentally prepare herself before it occurred to her that the man waiting patiently couldn’t possibly be a student. He was at least 80, far too old to be the average college student, and certainly no one she remembered having in her class. He sat straight in the heavy chair that sat out there, one hand laying on the cane at his side, his silver head resting against the wall by her door. She cleared her throat as she approached, causing him to look up with a broad smile.

“You must be the talented and amazing Doctor Scully I’ve been hearing about!”

That caught her short, but she smiled, recognizing the compliment. “Someone clearly has been telling you some sort of line if they said those things about me.”

“I doubt my daughter would lie to me like that. She hasn’t lied to me since she was seventeen, and I caught her in the backyard, in the dark, with a boy. She learned better! But, she says good things about you.”

It took her only seconds after that to realize who she was indeed speaking to. “Doctor Jones, I presume?”

“I could be Livingston, but that would flip the tables a bit, no?”

Scully laughed, unlocking her office to let the older gentleman in. He rose slowly from his seat, leaning on his cane, but still tall and proud despite the age that now withered him.

“Come in, sir! Have a seat.” She waved to one of the two leather seats by her chair, the one not currently occupied by a stack of ungraded papers. “Can I get you coffee? Water?”

“I’m fine!” He waived her offer off as he settled into the creaking leather. “If I knew that you were so pretty and accommodating, I’d have been here to see you sooner.”

“Well, you are here, and that’s what matters.” She perched on the other side of the desk, trying to bite back the grin of delight and amazement. Gabriel Jones was a figure of legend in her household growing up, as were all the Howling Commandos. The old films had been a staple of television viewing, and while Scully was well aware that the real life heroes were very different than the sanitized, Hollywood depictions, she couldn’t help but feel like a figure of history and legend had just alighted into her office.

“It’s an honor to meet you, sir! I can’t even tell you how special it is that you stopped by!”

“Well, Wanda kept telling me to get over here and I kept putting it off, but I happened to be by today. Had coffee with some of the donors and advancement, you know the types, all wanting to pump hands and look impressive. Had enough of that and decided to come find someone with a brain to talk to.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m honored! Ever since your daughter told me that her father was the famous Gabriel Jones, I’ve been bugging her to meet you. You were a hero of mine growing up!”

“You watched those stupid movies?”

“Well, I was also seven and convinced you all could walk on water, Captain America especially!”

“Well, Cap probably could walk on water, but the rest of us were just average, Army Joes, doing a job.”

“I don’t know, taking down HYDRA and defeating Johann Schmidt seemed more than just the average Army work.”

“Still fighting and dying, just like everyone else.” He nodded, solemnly, a sad sort of wistfulness about him as he regarded her. “Wanda tells me you were in the FBI before she dragged you over here.”

“I was for about ten years. I worked in a small division for most of it, investigating unsolved and strange cases.”

“The X-files, I heard about them.”

That surprised her. Few people outside of the FBI knew about them and those that did often mocked them. He didn’t seem to be doing that. “I’m sorry, how did you know about them, sir?”

“I’m not ‘sir’, I’m Gabe, and as for how I heard about them, I knew Arthur Dales from my days in SHIELD. He had been Army buddies with someone, maybe Sawyer, but anyway, he would come and chat with us on some of the more interesting cases he had going on.”

“You were in SHIELD?”

“For a bit, yes. We were all under the auspices of the SSR, which eventually was closed down after the war and rolled into SHIELD when it was formed. I was there for a while, till the kids started come along and getting older and I realized I wanted to be around to see them grow up. Left SHIELD, finished up my degrees and went into teaching history and public policy.”

“I know, I’ve read some of your articles.” The fact that Dr. Jones was an intellectual on top of being a hero had caused her no small delight, especially given his long career in academia. “So do you really speak five languages?”

“Seven? Been bored in my retirement.” He laughed brightly, as he leaned back comfortably. “Don’t get me wrong, I loved teaching and researching. By the time I got into it, I could actually have the sort of voice I couldn’t have when I was a kid in the 40’s, getting a degree that may or may not allow me to work in the nicer establishments of Washington DC. But, as much as I loved doing it, there was a part of me that missed the old life.”

“The Commandos?”

“Yeah.” He grinned with broad reminiscence. “I didn’t even start out the war with those guys. I was in the 92nd Infantry, the Buffalo Soldiers, because that’s where they stuck the black kids that signed up. We got sent to Italy to serve as support there. That’s how I met Barnes and Dugan. They were in the 107th and all of us were sent to face Schmidt. We all just happened to be captured together. War has that habit, I guess, putting folks together that would never have talked to one another until they were forced to live in the same, ten foot cage.”

That was the least of the horrors that Scully knew most soldiers faced in World War II. “Despite all that, you still wanted to fight?”

“Hell, yes! I saw what they could do, HYDRA.” Something dark and grave passed over his expression, a ghost of old terror, never forgotten, rising to the fore. “We were just sitting ducks there when they came up over the hill with their lasers, blowing tanks to kingdom come. Whole platoons cut down in an instant. We had no choice but to surrender. And then to be drug to Schmidt’s hell, forced to work till we dropped, or like Barnes, till we nearly died. I saw most of my unit go that way, drug off to wherever Zola had them. None of them ever made it out.”

Scully didn’t know what to say to that. She knew death intimately, saw it on it’s most basic, fundamental, scientific level everyday. And she knew something of the horrors faced by soldiers in World War II, but admittedly had only paid half attention to them. Like many historical events, they seemed so distant and outside of her, not something real and tangible. Seeing the grief of someone who lived it, even after sixty years, made it all too palpable.

“Anyway, when Cap came and got us out, the Army offered to send most of us home, discharge us on medical leave. I thought about it, frankly, more than just a little bit. After all, most everyone I knew was dead, and here I was, a colored boy with a college education doing grunt work and nearly getting killed for it. I had half a mind to come back home to Howard and walk away from it all. But, then Cap comes along, all truth and justice and wanting to punch Hitler in the jaw, and I’m signing up to join his suicide squad along with Dernier. Never regretted it for a second.”

This conversation was hitting uncomfortably close to home for her. “Even when it would have been safer for you to go back home and lead a quiet life?”

“One could have argued there wasn’t much of a quiet life back home, either, not for someone who looked like me. Maybe I knew that and didn’t want to have to face that. Maybe I wanted a bit of revenge for those that didn’t make it out, like I did. But, I figure, a lot of it was Steve.”

Captain America. Even the name caused a thrill, knowing that this man knew someone she so revered. “What was he like?”

“Steve Rogers?” That caused Gabe to laugh outright, a wheezing sound as he shook his silver head. “I’d love to tell you half the crap those movies put out there was bullshit, but a lot of it was true. First time he came waltzing into our prison, all by himself, not an ounce of self-preservation to him, saying he was ‘Captain America’ and that he’d punched Hitler 200 times. We all thought he was nuts. We didn’t realize it wasn’t that he was crazy, it was just that he was stubborn and convinced his will was bigger than yours. But, he grew up this scrawny Irish kid from the wrong side of Brooklyn, so I suppose he always had that chip on his shoulder.”

“As a scrawny, Irish kid myself, I understand that feeling intimately.”

Gabe only chuckled. “Yeah, but you are a hell of a lot prettier than Rogers was.”

“Oh, I’ve seen pictures. I don’t know about that.”

“Lord, you too! Barnes was always floored by it, these women throwing themselves at Cap and he wouldn’t know what to do. Of course, he only ever had eyes for Peggy, so I don’t think he even noticed.”

Shaking his head, he sighed fondly. “Steve could be obtuse like that, but in a good way, you know. He never saw differences the same way others did. Didn’t matter to him if you were white, brown or yellow, didn’t matter if you were even American, only that you wanted to do the right thing and were willing to take a stand when no one else would. Guess when you grow up like he and Barnes did, those things don’t matter as much, maybe.”

There was no hiding the deep sadness welling up in his fond words. “You must really miss them.”

“The Commandos? Yeah, everyday. There’s really only Peggy, Morita and me now. Jim’s harassing his grandkids and traveling the world. Peggy’s only now retiring from SHIELD. Thought they would have to carry her out on one, frankly, didn’t think she’d ever leave. And here I am, mostly retired, teaching a class now and again, stumping for my alma mater, going to museum openings.”

“Don’t suppose it’s as exciting as taking out HYDRA.” Despite herself, Scully couldn’t help but think of Coulson’s visit and his simple request, or the fact that deep down, underneath the pain of loss and fears for her son, she had really wanted to say yes.

“No, but it’s a good life for a man just turned 80. Besides, there’s others to fight those fights now. My grandson, Antoine, he’s joining up with SHIELD when he’s done with his degree. Says someone has to carry on the family legacy.”

Someone has to carry on.

The last conversation Scully had with Mulder before he disappeared had been outside of Skinner’s office, the fateful evening when Alex Krycek had shown back up in their lives. He’d begged her to stay, to leave the X-files, to go be a doctor and live her life and leave the mystery behind...to leave him behind. She tried, she really had. But Coulson’s visit loomed, along with the implied threat of what still lay out there. Spender, as far as anyone knew, was still alive and was still dangerous. It didn’t matter that she left the X-files and the FBI behind, that she had stopped asking questions, that she was attempting to lead a normal life, if he was still out there, he was still scheming. And knowing he had likely been with HYDRA the entire time made the danger even more overt. If he had used his own children in his heinous experiments, what was to say he wouldn’t come for his grandson?

“Do you know Phil Coulson? He’s an agent with SHIELD.”

Something sharp flickered in Gabe’s eyes, but he played off at being nonchalant. “I’ve heard the name, yeah. One of Fury’s agents, said to be really good. How do you know him?”

“He came to visit me last night.” She eyed Gabe pointedly, sensing he knew far more about that than he was willing to let on. “I found it interesting he rushed to see me on a Sunday evening, on my way back from Baltimore, right after your daughter made me a nice job offer to stay and teach here.”

“I’d only say it was interesting if I knew what a SHIELD agent was doing at your house.”

“Making me a counter-offer.”

“Well, then, that is interesting. SHIELD wants to recruit you.”

“Apparently, he heard from sources about me.”

“SHIELD could use a woman of your talents.”

“So could your alma mater.”

“Oh, I’m sure. Wanda would be upset if you left her. She’s been thrilled to have you. But like Antoine keeps telling me, someone has to carry on.”

As simple as that, she realized her decision was made.

“I have a feeling your daughter is going to be mad at me.”

Gabe only smiled knowingly. “Just like when I caught her in the backyard with a boy, I’m sure she’ll get over it. She’s used to me coming in and messing up her good time.”

#crossover: x-files #crossover: mcu #x-files #mcu #scalpel and shield #Agent Scully #gabe jones

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xxprincessjewelsxx · 7 years

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The War (Suho Mafia!au Fic Sequel) Chapter 15 - The Final Chapter

Warnings: None

Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5, Ch. 6, Ch. 7, Ch. 8(M), Ch. 9, Ch. 10, Ch. 11, Ch. 12, Ch. 13, Ch. 14, Ch. 15(Finale)

As the hand came down to the bed skirt my heart began to pound against my rib cage as I could only pray that it was someone...anyone that I knew. Bed skirt lifting up my heart just about jumped out of my chest seeing who it was.

“Daddy you found us!” Jinwoo said with a smile when he saw Junmyeon.

“Yeah buddy...yeah I did...” Junmyeon replied. Jinwoo immediately crawled out from underneath the bed and my head fell back, the tears that had been threatening to fall finally doing so. “You gonna come out...or do I have to come get you?”

“Just...give me a moment would you...” I said. After trying to compose myself I crawled out from under the bed, Junmyeon helping me up with a wince. He was in some bad shape, bruises on his face and holding onto his side like he was injured. But other than that he was in one piece.

“It’s over,” he said kissing my forehead, “The war is over...Kitae is dead.”

“Are you sure?” I questioned.

“Very...I saw Minseok shoot him,” he replied, resting his head on my shoulder.

“Daddy, guess what?!” Jinwoo said causing him to look up, “I’m getting a baby sister!”

I covered my mouth with my hand trying to hide my laughter. It had been a serious moment until just a second ago, but he wouldn’t have really understood that. What Jinwoo understood was the fact that he was getting a baby sister and Junmyeon needed to know about it.

Junmyeon pulled back and looked at me. “A girl?”

“A little princess that I know you’re probably going to spoil to death...aren’t you?” I questioned.

A smile spread across his face and he kneeled down and kissed my stomach. “You have know idea how spoiled this little one is going to be.”

“What’s...spoiled?” Jinwoo questioned.

I looked over at him and pulled him over. “Exactly what you are little bug.”

“I’m not spoiled...am I?” he questioned.

I kissed his cheek. “You are and I wouldn’t have it any other way...and as for you,” I stopped and looked down at Junmyeon running a hand through his hair, “The answer to a certain question...is yes.”

He smiled before standing at kissing me. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me.”

“Shut up and kiss me again...”

MARCH

“I’m scared,” Jinwoo said, holding on tightly to mine and Junmyeon’s hand.

“You’re allowed to be,” I said.

Frankly, I was nervous and didn’t want to let go of Jinwoo’s hand as much as he didn’t want to let go of mine. It was his first day of Kindergarten and I...well I didn’t want to let go.

Junmyeon kneeled down and looked at him. “You’ll have lots of fun getting to play with kids your age and you get to learn new things everyday.”

“But can’t you or mommy teach me?” he questioned.

“Well I’m sure mommy could teach you at home, but you’ll have a lot more fun here...” Junmyeon said.

It wasn’t long before a teacher walked over with a smile on her face. “Looks like someone’s feeling a bit shy today...” she said watching Jinwoo scoot behind my leg. She crouched down and looked at Jinwoo with a smile. “I’m Mrs. Lu, what’s your name?” After a nudge from Junmyeon, Jinwoo replied and the teacher smiled. “Well Jinwoo...there’s a few more minutes before your class starts, so you can stay out here for a little longer with your mommy and daddy. If it makes you feel any better to know today we are all getting to know each other and we might work on numbers...doesn’t that sound fun?”

“It sounds okay...I guess,” he replied.

“Okay...we’ll when you’re ready come on in, we’re having first day milk and cookies,” she said.

“Milk and cookies?” he questioned, taking a step out from behind my leg.

“Mmhmm...chocolate chip to be exact,” she replied.

He thought for a moment and then looked from me to Junmyeon. “Mmmmm...well I guess I could go.”

The teacher stood up and held out her hand. “Your mommy and daddy will be picking up back up before you know it.”

As she began to lead him off he suddenly pulled away and ran back and hugged Junmyeon before hugging me and kissing my seven month along belly. “Don’t come out until I get back...” he whispered to my stomach before running back to his teacher.

Once he was in the school and out of sight I just stood there not really knowing how to feel about the situation.

“You okay?” Junmyeon questioned standing up.

“Yeah...I’m just...yeah...” I replied trying to find the right words.

“Just remember...this gives him a chance to be a normal kid...at least for a little while. You wanted that, right?” he questioned, wiping away the tear that made it’s way down my cheek.

“Yeah...yeah I did.”

Two Months Later

“I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!” I yelled grabbing the front of Junmyeon’s shirt with one hand as I was pushing.

“I’ve heard this threat before...just keep pushing,” he said.

“DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO OR I SWEAR TO GOD I-,” I stopped trying to control my breathing.

“I’ve delivered one child in the past and I have to say, it wasn’t as amusing as this is,” Yixing said.

“Oh shut up, Yixing!” I said wanting to kick him.

“Two more pushes and she should be here,” he said.

I gave my all with those last two pushes and soon the sound of screaming rang throughout the room. Yixing handed the baby to his assistant and she put her on my chest and started to try and clean he up a but before letting Junmyeon cut the umbilical cord.

I was surprised at how well Junmyeon had managed to keep it together right after she was born. It wasn’t until later when she was all cleaned up and I had been resting that I finally heard him break down.

I opened my eyes slightly at the sound of quiet sniffs. It was a different side of Junmyeon to say the least, sitting in the rocker that had been placed in the corner of the exam room, holding the small pink bundle on his lap but securely in his arms as he looked down at her.

In my mind nothing could ruin this special moment of seeing the man that I’d had so many ups and downs with but fallen so hard for hold his little girl for the first time and make one simple promise to her...

“I will always protect you...”

THE END

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homospinster · 7 years

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Bruiser.

The first time I saw you was the first time I visited the second apartment I’d live in during my time in New York. I wasn’t thrilled about moving, to be honest, and was totally unsure that I was making the right decision. My friends invited me over to check out the place and I remember not expecting to be signing the lease that night and wondering if I was making a mistake. I’d talked so much about going back home to Miami. There was one unknown factor in the move, someone I’d never met, Angel, who lived in the apartment with you, his cat, Bruce. (You were named after Bruce Campbell, I think.)

The day I moved in, I was unpacking in my room, listening to the Talking Heads. My mattress was leaned up against the wall, waiting to set up the bed my friends had in the basement for me. At some point I turned around and you’d climbed up to the top of it, where you sat looking at me. During the day you hung out on the windowsill and before my boxes were even unpacked that week, you were curling up on my bed.

During the first week I lived there, I went to IKEA one day with some friends from Miami. When I got home, I had trouble with the lock and noticed you sticking your paws out the mail slot. As soon as the door opened, you shot out like a flash. My first week there and I’d already let the cat out. I chased you around & eventually got you back inside. It would not be the first time I had to hunt for you in the yard.

Soon after I moved in, you’d found different places to hang out in my room. The guy who lived there before didn’t let you in, I think. I’d be sitting around, watching a movie & hear you scratching at the door to be let in. Being a cat, there were tons of times when you’d come into the room and two minutes (seconds) later scratch to go out again. I was thrilled that you liked me. I always wanted a cat. When I was a kid, we had a cat named Frisky, but he didn’t stay with us for very long. He liked to scratch up my brother’s chest while he slept. One day I got home and Frisky was gone.

After a while, you’d sit on my lap for long times while I’d pet you & watched DVDs. Sometimes you’d curl up in my bed for hours. I would get up and go to the kitchen and come back to find that you’d stolen my chair. Sometimes I’d move you… sometimes I’d just sit on the floor and let you have it. Sometimes you’d be really playful, pouncing after my foot or my hand. That’s probably when I started calling you Bruiser, because you were such a feisty little… jerk, really.

At some point my friends wanted to get a dog. They talked to Angel, who agreed that maybe they’d give you away, as he was having to go on really tight finances. I literally said, with tears in my eyes, “But he’s my best friend in New York.” From that point on, I pretty much took responsibility for you. (They still got a dog. You kind of hated him.)

A couple of months later, you had your first asthma attack. I thought you were dying and was so freaked out. You spent a couple of days at the clinic, in an oxygen tank. They all talked about how sweet you were and they gave you steroids & told you me you might need an inhaler if you didn’t improve. I’d have to get special cat litter as well. It came in two sizes: 15 or 30 pounds. I’d have to lug those giant bags of litter from the pet store to the subway all the way home. And so I gave you one of your nicknames, Asthma Cat.

You were with me during some of the worst times of my life. You were always there to cuddle with or comfort me, especially after my grandpa died. I got used to cleaning your litter box, my mom started sending you treats, my dad asked for pictures… I cleaned up your puke and told you that it must prove that I loved you because I wouldn’t do that for just anyone. When my mom came to visit, you slept at her feet and got up with her in the morning. I started referring to you more often as “my cat” instead of “my roommate’s cat.”

We had another scare when you had gotten outside and gotten into a fight with some other animal that bit you on the butt. Once again, I was scared of losing you. I never walked into a clinic with you thinking I’d be able to take you home because I’m a terrible pessimist, but also I thought that if I imagined the worst, it could never happen.

Roommates came & went, but you and Angel and I remained. Then there was a month when it was just the two of us. We had to move your litter & food into my room while the rest of the apartment was being remodeled for the last few weeks. It drove us both a little crazy, I think. I promised you it would get better again. When it was time to leave our beautiful place on Argyle Road and move to Jersey City, you went with me. I was nervous about moving you to a new place, somewhere you didn’t know. Without Angel to keep you company, I was worried you’d be lonely. The entire time my friend drove us to the new apartment in his van, you sat in the cat carrier and meowed nonstop.

You got used to the new apartment easier than I’d anticipated. You liked Natalie and she liked you. I had put your litter in my bathroom and laughed at the fact that at times we’d both be in there pooping in our respective toilets. You’d even go in while I showered, sitting on top of your box cover, waiting for me. I don’t know if you weren’t as happy there or if I was so miserable that I thought you must be, too. There weren’t trees to look at out the windows. There were no squirrels. You were alone more often.

My favorite thing about that place (one of very few things I didn’t hate about it, actually) was that my room wasn’t right off the living room, so for the first time, I could keep the bedroom door open so you could come and go whenever you wanted. I’d wake up to find you sleeping at my feet, or next to my head. When it got cold, you’d even get under the covers and curl up into that perfect cat circle.

You were there for me when my store closed and I was upset and unhappy about everything, mad at myself for not leaving New York when I had what had felt like my last chance. You were there for me when my dad passed away. You were always so patient when I’d pick you up and hug you for as long as you could stand me. I still feel bad about the near month that I took leave from work and went home and left you behind. Natalie took great care of you, but I missed you every day. You were the only reason I had to look forward to getting back. When I knew that I needed to move back to be with my family, I was apprehensive because I knew it would stress you out. Just driving for 30 minutes from Brooklyn to Jersey City had you screaming at me. How would I get you all the way to Miami?

I have never felt as lucky as I did when my cousin told me he’d help us move. He had just moved to Texas with 6 kittens. He knew how to do this. He had a cage. He had a system. I got worried when you stopped talking, though. As the boxes piled up in the apartment, I noticed that you had stopped meowing. I know there were a million times in the past when I’d asked you to keep it down, but I would have given anything to hear your voice again. The day we drove out of Jersey City, you scowled at me for a while. Then you curled up and slept. You ended up being a perfect traveler. I’d put you on your leash and let you walk around wherever we stopped. Everyone we visited on our way down to Florida loved you so much. Then we got here and you met my brother and it was instant adoration on both sides.

From the very first day in Miami, when you settled yourself into the windowsill looking out onto the grass, so much better than the non-view we had in Jersey City and exactly what I envisioned for you when I thought about moving, I was so happy. I was excited to take you on supervised visits to the patio, so you could bask in the sunlight and be outside for a bit. Yes, I was jealous that at night you curled up on the LA Dodgers throw on my brother’s bed and rarely stepped foot into my room, but I was also so happy that you two had found each other. You may have quit meowing, but you purred constantly, so loud that we’d all stop and listen.

I don’t want to talk about how quickly your health deteriorated and the visits to the clinic. What is important is that you knew, because we all told you every day, that we loved you. It’s the one thing that has made this a little easier on me, knowing that without a doubt you understood that you were absolutely adored. In the last few days I’ve ached just wanting to pick you up and hug you again, but my arms are empty and there’s a hole in my heart that is exactly the shape of a feisty little jerk curled up in a perfect cat circle. You are my bug. Love you, love you, love you.

#bruiser #personal

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iswearonmarcuskane · 7 years

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Kickin’ & Screamin’ // Chapter 6

Title: Kickin’ & Screamin’ Fandom: The 100 Pairing: Kabby Tag/Warnings: Modern AU Setting, Kicking and Screaming AU, Kid!Delinquents Chapter(s): 6/22 Read earlier chapters on: AO3

Chapter Summary: Time to meet the bad guys and for shit show 2.0

Chapter 6: You are not defeated when you lose, you are defeated when you quit

Well, today is the day.

Either the Delinquents were going to pull off a miracle or they were going to live up to everyone’s expectations; especially, those of the Wallace boys.

Abby had just pulled into the complex’s parking lot when she first saw him. The infamous Cage Wallace.

He was standing by his car, hands in his dress pants’ pockets. He wore a matching suit jacket, the middle button being the only one done. His hair was swooshed back into his signature quiff. His eyes were trained on her car.

That’s one thing that bugged her about him. He dressed up to every game. He was always in a suit, a different color for each. He never repeated a color in a single season. It gave off the message she’s sure he wanted to send- that he was better than everyone else.

She’s also remembers how upset he was when Abby “accidentally” splashed mud all over his white suit when her car got “stuck” in mud after their game. She had asked him for help and when he gladly accepted to push her car, she floored the gas pedal. The end result was him looking like a marshmallow dipped in chocolate. He was wearing that same suit now.

She climbed out of her car as Clarke also got out. Abby looked up to see Cage walking to her car as she opened the back end. She told Clarke, “I’ll meet you over there.”

Clarke nodded and ran off to be with Raven who was waiting on the sidewalk. Abby smiled as she watched her daughter reach her and begin to walk to their bench. Her smiled immediately dropped when she turned around and Cage was standing there, leaning against her car.

It was her lucky day, wasn’t it?

He was wearing his big smile, the smile she hated. She hated it more than Marcus’, which she thought was impossible. If you could clone Marcus twenty times into one person, the product would be Cage Wallace.

The smile meant he knew he was winning something. It didn’t matter what it was, hell, he might not even know sometimes, but he was winning and he knew it. So, he wanted to make sure you and everyone else knew.

The problem was Abby knew why he was smiling.

“Good morning, Coach,” he told her, fingers drumming on her car.

Her eyes were watching his fingers and she slowly dragged them to his face. “Cage.”

“Ouch,” he feigned hurt, placing his free hand over his heart, “No greeting? Why so cold? It’s a great day for soccer, don’t you think?”

She wanted to say, “It’s a nice day to run you over with my car,” but she doubted that would be appropriate to say around little kids. So instead she settled for, “Every day is a great day for soccer.”

She pulled her equipment bag from her back end. No way in hell was she letting those poor kids wear those “pennies” again. If Marcus gave her any grief about using hers instead, she may have to hit him with her car too.

“I’m not going to argue that,” he responded. She thought maybe that would be the end of the discussion and he would waltz off to his bench, but she forgot, today was her lucky day. Cage stayed put as she checked the bag quickly.

“Can I help you?” She asked, annoyed as she looked up abruptly. She knew he was watching her and he knew it would rile her up.

He smiled again, that fucking smile. He shook his head slightly. “Nope,” he said, “You’re doing fine.”

She really wish she could hit him with her car right now. Just buckle up and slam her foot on the gas pedal and send him flying all the way to Jupiter. That would wipe the smile off his face.

So, instead, she settled for leaning closer to him, whispering, “If you don’t leave me alone, I am going to fucking ki-”

“Abby.”

Him calling her name caught them both off guard. The two looked behind her to where Marcus stood, arms crossed. He raised an eyebrow at her, saying, “When you two are done, I’d really like to start warm up for the game.”

Abby was very grateful for Marcus in that moment. Sure, she’d never tell him that, but she was. She would rather spend ten hours locked in a room with Marcus then one minute in public with Cage. Both sounded terrible, but she’d settle for the lesser evil.

“We were done a long time ago,” Abby gladly announced and zipped the bag up. She gave Cage a tight lipped smile and also snuck him a middle finger before she shut the back end of her car.

Abby walked over to Marcus and past him, signaling him to follow. Marcus watched Cage for a few seconds longer before finally turning and following her. From behind them, Cage called out, “Hope you’re ready for a long season. I know losing every game can be tiring.”

Abby immediately stopped in her tracks. Marcus stumbled a bit so he wouldn’t run into her. “Abby?” He asked, confused, and if she was mistaken, a little worry in his voice.

Cage laughed a little, adding on later, “Actually, I wouldn’t know.” Her hand on the equipment bag tightened slightly. Her teeth clenched ever so slightly. The rage began to boil in her.

She knew her team was bad. She accepted it a long time ago. She knew they lost every game, no one had to remind her. But they were still her team and she would be damned if anyone talked less about them.

She quickly spun on her heel to glare at him. And would you believe it? He was wearing that same damn smile. The fire in her raged more as she took a small step towards him.

A hand landed on her elbow, slowly and tightly gripping her arm. She looked to hand and followed the arm up to make eye contact with Marcus. He shook his head, telling her, “He wants a reaction out of you.”

“He just insulted my team,” she snapped back, “Our team. Doesn’t that make you mad?”

“Of course it does,” he whispered back, eyes flickering to where Cage stood. He looked back to her, lowering his voice more, “But he’s just saying it to spite you. Don’t fall for his tricks.”

Abby opened her mouth to argue but then closed it again. She repeated the same gesture as she watched Marcus. She finally looked to Cage, his smile never fading.

She smiled sweetly at him, telling him, “After the game, make sure to check both ways before crossing the parking lot.”

His smile never faltered. If anyone could rival the wall Marcus built up to her insults, it would be Cage. He tilted his head to the side, asking, “Are you threatening me?”

“I would never,” she replied. “I’m just giving you friendly advice.”

He laughed as he finally stood up off her car. He began walking towards the fields and towards his bench. He shouted over to Abby, “Better be careful with your words, Coach. Wouldn’t want you to get a red card the first game of the season, would we?”

She didn’t dignify that with a response. Cage looked over his shoulder to her, winking. “Wouldn’t be the first time though, would it?” Abby thought if he kept talking, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s gotten a bloody nose due to her either. “Red looks good on you, though.”

And how Abby thought how good his body would look laying on the pavement in the parking lot. Abby heard Marcus snort from next to her and she looked up him. He muttered, “He obviously doesn’t remember that dress you wore up to the wrap up party last year.”

Abby’s mouth fell open. She ripped her arm from his grasp. They looked to each other, Abby glaring and Marcus giving her another raised eyebrow. “Are you serious?” She asked him.

“What?” He asked.

She hit his chest. “That comment you just made!”

He moved back from her hit and repeated himself, “What? The dress was horrible, Abby. Even you know that.”

“Cece’s grandmother picked it out for me!”

“And bless you for not breaking the old lady’s heart,” he told her, shaking his head.

He looked at the bag in her hand, asking, “Are these the pennies?” Abby just nodded in response, still a little taken back from the last conversation. “Perfect,” he replied, taking it from her, “I’ll get the kids into possession.”

And with that, he walked off.

Abby didn’t know what left her more dumbfounded: that Abby was starting to realize how ugly the dress really was or the fact that Marcus remembered the dress she wore almost a year ago.

“Ready for the season, Coach Griffin?”

The voice broke her out of her dumbfounded state and she turned to see Dante Wallace walking up. She gave him the same tight lipped smile she had given his son. “What better way to start it off versing you guys?” She asked.

He laughed as he walked by. He looked over his shoulder to her. “I couldn’t agree more,” he replied and kept walking.

The line sent her into another rage. She resisted the urge to flip him off behind his back. There were kids around. Abby didn’t need that red card yet.

She wanted nothing more than for Marcus to experience her last place shame but right now, she was praying for some miracle to happen that would let the Delinquents crush Mount Weather.

It was her lucky day, wasn’t it?

It wasn’t her lucky day.

At least not for good karma, that is.

It’s barely ten minutes into the game and it’s already a shit show. It was like their first practice chaos but on steroids. And if there was anyone to blame, it was Marcus.

Because who chooses a 3-2-2 (three defenders, two midfielders, and two forwards)? It gave them no depth in the width of the field. That in turn made it crowded up front because the two forwards had no outlets on the sides.

He told her it would be fine, to trust him. She didn’t believe either but she kept her mouth shut because he wasn’t going to give up. And would you look at that, she was right. It was terrible.

The back three consisted of Miller and Raven on the outside with Murphy in the middle of the two. It was a solid backline if they could stop repeating fatal mistakes. Raven kept diving in, getting burned by each forward that challenged her. In turn, Miller would get angry and stop tracking his mark back, leaving them wide open on the far side. Murphy would get upset at both of them and take it out on the poor forward, either resulting in a foul or being easily beaten with a simple touch around him.

Wells was doing well up until his sixth shot of the game (yes sixth already). It looked like he had lost confidence in himself. You could see it draining away after every shot. While Marcus and Abby tried to cheer him up, Murphy was beating him down. The father of the two boys, Jaha, did nothing to try and stop it. He wasn’t even paying attention when the events occurred. He only saw Wells give up three goals and Murphy get burned.

The two who started in the middle were Harper and Monty. Abby understood why they started, they were the two best midfielders on the team. The problem was they had never played with each other before. With how nice Harper was to Monty and how shy he was, they weren’t getting progress anywhere. She wouldn’t criticize his mistakes, she would let them fly over her head. In result, Monty kept making the same mistakes over and over.

“God, the kid made the same mistake for the fifth time. You think he’d learn that what he’s doing isn’t working,” Abby had heard Roan say from the sideline. Wait for it…

“And what has your little princess done? Nothing important as far as I remember,” Cece shot back, seated a few chairs down from him. There it was.

“I know one thing she isn’t doing,” he immediately snapped back, “turning the ball over every time she touches it.” And so it begins.

Abby zoned them out, seeing Sinclair trying to calm Cece down and David Miller do the same for Roan. She expected that to happen at least five more times before the half was over. She was just hoping the chair throwing would be saved for after the game. And, yes, Cece has thrown a chair at Roan before.

Next was Clarke and Bellamy up top. They weren’t working together at all. It was like they were working on two different levels: head and heart.

Clarke kept trying to direct him to make a run for a pass but he would make another which he thought was the right choice. Clarke would think out a move, pass, or run before executing it. She wanted to survey the field and pick the best possible solution to benefit them all.

Bellamy went with his heart’s decision, what his first gut extinct was. If he believed he could take on the three defenders to get one goal, he would do it. He believed they needed to react to the game quickly, that in their position, there was no time for stopping and thinking. One extra touch on the ball and the whole game already changed.

This miscommunication caused them to miss a lot of opportunities to get the ball up field and maybe score.

Jasper was subbed in for Monty and the two coaches heard Roan say, “Bout damn time they took him out.”

“What did you say?” Cece shouted at him.

He looked to her, unfazed and replied, “You heard me,” and went back to watching the game.

Jasper was a disaster on two legs. The kid didn’t know how to hold his position. He ended up all the way by Wells at one point, then somehow ended up by Clarke. Him being out of position resulted in open space for Mount Weather to attack 2v1 on Harper.

Octavia was then subbed in for Harper. She seemed nervous and like she really didn’t want to be out there. When Miller passed her the ball, she froze. A kid from Mount Weather easily stole it from her. That earned a yell from Miller who didn’t try to stop the kid who flew by him that had stolen it from him. Poor Wells didn’t stand a chance at that point.

And that’s how the game turned into a shit show with only ten minutes into the game. It was 0-4 to Mount Weather already. Abby saw Cage smiling over to her from across the field as the fourth goal went in. It took every ounce of her to behave and not flip him off. Or hit him with her car.

“I think this a record on how fast a game can go to shit for us,” Jaha commented. Abby and Marcus looked back to him for the comment as he looked from his phone to them. “Congratulations,” he added.

Just one punch, just one. That’s all she needed to get her frustration out. All the frustration from the stupid idea of merging their teams, Marcus himself, the Wallace boys, the parents, and the kids. Just one punch would absolve it all…

“You okay?” Jackson suddenly appeared by Abby’s side, worry written across his face.

Abby looked out to the field where Raven had once again dived for the ball. Marcus screamed, pulling at his hair, “How many times do I have tell you, Raven! Don’t dive! Be patient!”

The only comforting thing in this whole situation was seeing how riled up Marcus got. He was feeling the frustration she sure he felt normally but ramped up. Welcome to her world, she thought.

She looked back to Jackson, telling him, “We’ll see.”

It didn’t ease the man’s worries.

By the time Jackson had walked away back to his chair, Mount Weather had scored again. Marcus hid his hands in his face, shaking his head as he walked away to the bench. Abby looked over to where Cage stood, him smiling big.

Abby flipped him off as she turned to face Marcus. She heard Cage laughing behind her and she curled her hands into fists. She stormed over to Marcus, snatching his marker board from him. He looked up in surprise.

She looked at the lineup he had written on the board. She looked to where Monty and Harper were sitting on the bench. She looked to the field where Bellamy once again tried to take on too many players and lost the ball.

The Mount Weather player stormed up the field and into the space Jasper was supposed to be in. Instead he was all the way besides Clarke again. Octavia was stuck all alone in the middle and she looked like she had no idea what to do. The two Mount Weather players easily did a give-and-go around her.

Murphy stepped up to apply pressure to the kid but he quickly passed it Emerson. He stepped over the ball, making it seem like he was going to drag the ball to his left, but he quickly averted his foot and tapped it to the outside, his right side. Raven fell for it easily, lunging in. Emerson sprinted around her.

Miller was on the back post, not doing much to help Wells in the box. Murphy was trying his best to muscle the other Mount Weather player away from the goal. Emerson sent in a cross across the box.

Murphy lost the battle and the Mount Weather player was able to jump up and head the ball. Miller’s mark was standing in front of Wells, obstructing his view. He dove for the ball but it was too late, the ball went in the net. Mount Weather scored again.

“Damn it!” Abby screamed as she threw Marcus’ marker board at the ground.

“Hey!” Marcus shouted as it collided with the ground. It snapped in half, the marker flying towards the field.

Abby wished she had cared she broke it. It resembled how she felt inside after every game. Just because she accepted that fact they lose every game didn’t mean she was okay with it.

Sure, she may want to see Marcus suffer like she has that’s because she wants him to know this feeling. Every time he bragged about that one win, the one win she never got, it hurt. All she wanted was to win one, just one game. Mainly and most importantly, for the kids.

She only ever wants them to have fun and be happy. She knows winning isn’t everything and that they have fun and are happy regardless, but she knows they would love to win a game. Just to see their dream come true would bring them more happiness. If they ever only won one game and lost the rest for their rest of the soccer careers, Abby would be fine with that. She knows they would be too.

So no, to answer Jackson’s question, she was not okay. There was a sliver of hope (that she would never admit to anyone) that maybe, maybe, she could now win that game for the kids with Marcus’ help. He knew the feeling of winning and experienced it, she didn’t. She didn’t know how to give that to a team. She just would hope they’d get a lucky break.

At the thought, she looked over to Marcus who was picking up the two halves of his board. She had her arms crossed now and he looked up to meet her eyes. If she believed he might actually be a human being with compassion, she would’ve registered the emotion in his eyes as concern.

It freaked her out, so she joked to him, “Maybe if you didn’t spend all your money on hair care products, maybe you could buy a quality marker board.”

It was silent, he didn’t respond. It made her uncomfortable. He was supposed to respond and make a snarky comment on how she’s more concerned with his hair than the game. So, why didn’t he?

Don’t kid yourself, it didn’t escape her attention that his hair was slicked back again and somehow he shaved. She had thrown his razor out in his trash at the team party. She’d deal with that later.

He resembled Marcus, but he wasn’t acting like Marcus.

He still hadn’t responded. She was starting to panic. Why wasn’t he being Marcus?

How ironic right? Every day she prayed to God that He would shut Marcus up and make him stop being Marcus. Now, He’s granted that prayer and she doesn’t want it all. Why?

Finally, saving her from entering cardiac arrest, he responded, “I’ll think about next time I’m in the hair care aisle.”

It wasn’t as Marcus as she thought it would be, but it was something. She hesitated a bit, nodding and responded, “Good.” It was awkward, goddamn it, why did she have to be awkward? She’s had outbursts before, why did this one matter all the sudden?

They held each other’s gaze for a few more seconds before they saw the familiar figure in a yellow uniform walk up to them. They looked to see the referee, Alie, shaking her head. She had her booklet out. Abby knew what that meant.

Alie pulled a yellow card out, showing her it. Abby nodded and stepped off the line a bit. Alie told her, “It’s the first game and I heard about this situation,” she pointed between the two, “so I’ll leave you with a warning. Don’t let it happen again, Abby.”

“It won’t,” She told her, smiling as best as she could.

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep,” Marcus suddenly said beside her.

The two looked to him and he was wearing his smirk, his eyes trained on Abby. She felt the fire suddenly begin to ignite back, pushing back the scared and upset emotions she had suddenly felt. She crossed her arms, tilting her head, and said, “You’d be surprised.”

Alie added in as she wrote in her booklet, “That would make two of us.” She then walked off and blew the whistle for the half to continue.

Abby and Marcus kept looking at each other, forgetting the game, the score, the kids, the parents, and the unexplainable hate between them. The noise silenced out and everything blurred together except each other.

His hair was slicked back like she noticed earlier. Not a single strand was out of place. His jaw freshly shaven, not a cut or stubble in sight. His eyes were taunting, the warm brown color swimming with their usual mischief. And there it was: the infamous smirk. The smirk that drove Abby up a wall, made her want to rip her hair out, hit him with a car, or anything. Whatever it was, it got a reaction out of her. Every. Time.

But it felt right. It felt normal. And she was okay with that.

#kabby #kabby fanfic #abby griffin #marcus kane #the 100 #the 100 fanfic #lindsayisthecraic

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