#MFS:2x02

[4alarmfirecracker]

Talder + side profile conversations flirting ♥

[heddagab]

ONCE UPON A TIME Golden Queen in 2x02 "We Are Both"

[fruitbythefoot7]

bylerween day 6: trick or treat, freak (2x02)

trick or treat, freak is probably one of my favorite episodes, for byler specifically. i debated drawing the crazy together scene, but i wanted something more spooky, so here we are! this is basically set right before will sees the mf in the sky. also, because will isn't really in the ud, i imagine that outside of his pov, everything's the same. so, when he calls mike's name, mike can hear him. also it adds to the byler factor of mike calling back to will :)

@bylerween2023

[erikiara80]

Time travel and time manipulation

I don’t talk about this often because time travels are tricky. Also, if you know my theories, you know I don’t think the UD is really stuck in time. It’s like a painting or a dark mirror, created with Will’s last memory of Hawkins. Before that night, the UD still looked like the alien landscape we saw in Henry’s flashback.

But some of the Mkultra experiments involved time manipulation.

So, at the very least, it means that Will (who's connected to a certain grandfather clock) will “travel” in Henry’s mind and learn the truth about his past that will help them to defeat him. More at the end of the post!

It’s just impossible to ignore ALL this

SEASON 1

-  A clock ticking sound both the times El hears and sees the Demogorgon

- The four chimes of the library clock, when Joyce and Jonathan argue about Will’s funeral. And now the convergence point of the four gates is exactly the library, where they found Will intubated. I’m sure that place is important and there could be some big reveal about what happened there. 

SEASON 2

-  Bob’s camera is a Back to the future easter egg. This is the future! he told Jonathan. But maybe there's more. A movie about time travel, Will’s jacket resembling Marty’s... Plus, in 2x02 Will recorded an anomaly, when the MF influenced the camera and 8:04pm magically became 8:15. The first visual confirmation in the show of the UD being “stuck in time”.

I said I don’t think time in the UD is really frozen, but 8:15 pm could be important. Maybe we’ll see other events at 8:15 pm. For example, this moment?

After all, there’s already the parallel of Henry being taken to the lab on March 22. Will’s birthday. So it is possible that the tragic dinner happened at 8:15pm. I can’t wait to see all the parallels and the real connection between Will and Henry finally revealed in S5

-  A grandfather clock chimes in the tunnels

SEASON 3

-  EDIT:  Dustin gives Will his invention, the Forever Clock, useful in the apocalypse. 

-  The grandfather clock chimes again, when the MF possesses Billy

-  Then, of course, my beloved Back to the future, just to make it clear that time is important in this story

-  And Hopper’s letter at the end of S3: 

I don't want things to change. So I think maybe that's why I came in here, to try and stop that change. To turn back the clock. To make things go back to how they were. But I know that's naive. It's just not how life works. It's moving, always moving, whether you like it or not. And yeah, sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it's sad. And sometimes, it's surprising. Happy.

SEASON 4 

In this season we see and hear clocks literally in every episode. From Henry’s grandfather clock to Ms Kelley’s clock key necklace. The Duffers said that this is the season they started to show their hand, and they weren’t kidding.

But imo, the most important things are: 

1.  El’s letter in 4x01, when she says that emotions can influence how we perceive the flow of time. 

“Joyce says time is funny like that. Emotions can make it speed up or slow down. We are all time travelers if you think about it...”

2.  And a direct connection between Will and Henry

The name Williams on the grandfather clock (and remember the Forever Clock? Yeah)

We still don’t know how Henry’s plan involves time, but we can say for sure that he is obsessed with it and Will is our little Marty McFly. So I think time, and painful truths buried in the past will play a big role in the last season.

We still don’t know what kind of abilities Will has, but the UD being stuck at the scariest moment of his life, as a reminder of all his traumas, means that he will be directly involved in solving the mystery of the past. We’ll see if S5 will have a real time travel, time manipulation through his emotions, or simply Will travelling in the villain’s mind.

[gregoftom]

Rewatching 2x02 - Greg is totally just taking to Willa about looking for apartments and Willa offered the mold ridden friend's place but Tom, Tom just barges in!!

Greg mentions Staten Island and Tom just says "Cousin Greg is moving to Staten Island" like.. Tom try to hide *just a little bit* that you are totally focusing on Greg!!

LAWD i need to rewatch lmaooo at some point i will but h. but!!! i didn't pick up on that, nice catch! tom is sooo funny bc this mf will try so hard to look like he isn't infatuated with greg and then make it all the more obvious in the process, bless him.

[archive2394934]

Hi! Will's role in S5 anon here.

Your thoughts are very interesting, and as a horror fan myself I get the frustration, really. I'm 100% sure there's more to Henry's story, and the Duffers confirmed we will see flaskbacks of young Henry with Brenner. I. Can't. Wait.

As for Will, I have to disagree tho. In S4 the writers actually gave visual confirmation that he does have powers, I mean, more than just perceiving the hivemind. There are a LOT of clear callbacks to S1, for example Henry killing with the head tilt, like El did in S1. For Will, the confirmation is the direct parallel between the scene when Holly sees the lights in Will's room and the test at the lab, when Two turns on the lights. It's the same thing. I really doubt the writers included that parallel to remind us that Will has just a connection to the hivemind. Something we've been known since S2. Nothing new. There are also many other elements (I'm rewatching every episode, like three times in a row, there are so many details, it's crazy!) but yeah, I'm sure he has powers, and it's not just because I love his character. It's there in the show. Always been there. But we needed S4 to put the pieces together.

About the UD being stuck at 8:15 PM. That connects whatever happened in the UD specifically to the moment Will vanished, not to the opening of the gate. In S2, when he's at home and sees the Mind Flayer for the second time, it's 8.15 PM. And when he's filming Mike in 2x02, on the camera you can see it's 8:04 PM, moments before Will has the vision. But when Joyce rewatches the tape, the same moment, with Mike's face, it's 8:15PM. And Will didn't have the vision ten minutes later, so... There's another reference to 8:15 pm, but the point is that it's not a mistake. El opened the gate before 8:15 pm, that's a fact. So I'm very curious to see what Will can do. I think there's more to know about him, just like there is about Henry. : )

Anyway, thank you for your time!

Thats true! And I'm excited for that too. I think thats probably the only thing the Duffers "confirmed" that I know of so I'm not sure why people in this fandom keep saying stuff like the Duffer's confirmed Henry's the big bad and the one controlling the MF which is just a random cloud thing and there is absolutely nothing else possibly going on. Pretty sure they did the opposite of that, actually. And I'm also sure when they were asked about Henry, if he was gonna have some kind of "redemption" in s5 or whatever, they refused to confirm yes or no, which is interesting to me because if the answer is no you would just say no, particularly given I'm sure they're aware of the way a lot of the fandom has interpreted the canon events. It wouldn't be a shock to anyone or reveal anything to the fandom to just say "no" but if the answer is more "yes" then you couldn't actually answer because that would confirm the fandom is wrong about almost everything and thus would actually spoil things. Imo, anyway???

As for Will, I have to disagree tho. In S4 the writers actually gave visual confirmation that he does have powers, I mean, more than just perceiving the hivemind. There are a LOT of clear callbacks to S1, for example Henry killing with the head tilt, like El did in S1. For Will, the confirmation is the direct parallel between the scene when Holly sees the lights in Will's room and the test at the lab, when Two turns on the lights. It's the same thing. I really doubt the writers included that parallel to remind us that Will has just a connection to the hivemind. Something we've been known since S2. Nothing new. There are also many other elements (I'm rewatching every episode, like three times in a row, there are so many details, it's crazy!) but yeah, I'm sure he has powers, and it's not just because I love his character. It's there in the show. Always been there. But we needed S4 to put the pieces together.

Interesting, but I'm gonna disagree with that being what the writers were trying to confirm because we saw in S4 that you DONT need powers to do that when you're in the UD. Robin, Eddie, Nancy and Steve did it in S4 to contact Dustin, Erica, Max and Lucas. We were shown that light/energy has some sort of presence across dimensions that can be manipulated from the side of the UD. (Which makes sense imo because the MF itself appears to be an sentient cosmic energy force - the lights in the UD/Hawkins seemed to have a part of the MF drawn to them, and it was "poking" this "remanence" of the MF that manifests around the lights that causes the lights to react. I don't know specifically how to explain that any further but thats basically what we saw, keeping in mind normal humans are also energy sources themselves. Like this is some science shit that I don't know that much about, but yeah there is def some science behind it.)

I think the scene in S1 with Holly was a paralleled by Two's test, yes, but not to say that Will has powers like the lab kids. What it seems to be more suggesting TO ME, (and this would again tie into the Serpent and DnD's lore as well in the sense that according to DnD lore the Serpent is the source of "all magic" in DnD and all "magic users" are essentially just "manipulating" a part of the Serpent), is that somehow the MF is "the source" of the psychic powers Henry AND the lab kids (including Eleven) had. Which I mentioned a little bit about here. Because the thing is we also don't know if it was Will in the scene with Holly that did that or if it was something else. The lights behave like that in the Holly scene SEEMINGLY to lure Holly into the bedroom where the Demogorgon is lurking. I don't think Will would have lured Holly to the Demogorgon. I don't know that we can confirm that this was a Will moment as a result and not something a little more nefarious but none the less, you don't need powers to work those lights like that from within the UD, and that is something S4 directly showed. (This scene was just very distinctly different to me from the other scenes where we actually do know Will was the one using the lights. It has a ominous, sinister vibe to it from the moment it started.) What that scene with Holly also seems to draw parallel to is the scene in Henry's childhood where he is seemingly being lead to something (likely the spiders in the vent) by the lights in the house. (But what could have been manipulating the lights from the UD at this point is the big "mystery" because at this point there was no Will or Henry, or any human influence there, which seems to show the MF itself can do it because there is nothing else there at that point and if its smart enough to do THAT it cant just be a cloud. It has some sort of consciousness and is something we can probably consider malevolent.) The spiders that Henry finds in the vent are repeatedly likened to and are apparently an avatar of something both "evil" (as covered with Victors flashbacks) and "divine" as Henry explains them which is important here. It kinda seems odd that Henry just randomly went looking in the vent in the bathroom and just knew there was black widow spiders in there the way he did. Instead it shows he's drawn to them by something. Henry is drawn by some other force to the 'danger' of these spiders and Holly is drawn by a similar force to the danger of the Demogorgon.

About the UD being stuck at 8:15 PM. That connects whatever happened in the UD specifically to the moment Will vanished, not to the opening of the gate. In S2, when he's at home and sees the Mind Flayer for the second time, it's 8.15 PM. And when he's filming Mike in 2x02, on the camera you can see it's 8:04 PM, moments before Will has the vision. But when Joyce rewatches the tape, the same moment, with Mike's face, it's 8:15PM. And Will didn't have the vision ten minutes later, so... There's another reference to 8:15 pm, but the point is that it's not a mistake. El opened the gate before 8:15 pm, that's a fact. So I'm very curious to see what Will can do. I think there's more to know about him, just like there is about Henry

I think I missed something here because I also don't see how that specifically means Will created the UD or has powers or maybe I'm just too stupid/tired to understand words rn. I mean its an interesting detail, I'm not doubting its significant somehow but it could mean a whole lot of things outside of Will having powers, imo? But if you have like a more in depth post of some sort explaining Will having powers floating around and all the "elements" you're mentioning, HMU cos I'd love to read it and see them all too.

[aqueerintothevoid]

Motherland Fort Salem Spoilers ahead.

SO I was thinking about 2x2 and all these Jew powers and everything… and I see so many people that are upset about Abigail not being included and I kind of get that reaction but at the same time???

The thought of Raelle “I want to die as soon as possible” Collar being, alone, the armies greatest weapon??? After she hated the thought of ever even telling the army about it? *chefs kiss*

And Abigail??? Who wants to do so so much!!!! And believes so greatly in the army even now!!! Who desperately wants to avenge her cousins death, who is always hungry to show she’s more worthy than others, that’s she’s a great and powerful leader??? Actually being less magically strong than the others in her unit??? Amazing! Shes going to have to desperately learn that she can’t be everything all at once and that there are some things that she is simply not ready for. But at the same time she is absolutely going to gain better powers of her own this season or next, she just has some character building to do first.

Honestly I love the way they’ve set this up so everyone has to deal with all their trauma in ways they Absolutely Do Not Want to have to deal with it. I love that everything is so flip flopped and I can’t wait to see where they take this…

Also Anacostia and Scylla being drinking buddies? Amazing I can’t wait to see more of them this season.

[heymacy]

🗞

[louloutche]

"Thank you for approving the test."

Seriously? Fuck you.

I hate these abusive pieces of shit so much, they put Raelle through the fear and trauma of losing Abigail and I hate them so much

[riosnecktattoo]

What are some of your fav Good Girl music moments?!? For me its the vet smash scene in s2. Dean being upset means everything to me also!!!! Also Rio in this scene ... So chaotic and having the time of his life. love that for him honestly . plus that song is a MF Bop and just matched the scene perfectly.

Oooo amazingggg question!

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree about the 2x04 closing scene! It all just works for the scene. The menacing pulsing beat of Switch Screens playing. The tone. Rio being chaotic. The charge between Beth and Rio. The messy crash-zoom in to Rio smiling and saying now let's go make some money as the crescendo of the song goes apeshit?!?! Fucking iconiccccc and my favourite ending to an episode. It literally makes me want to like jump about it makes me so crazy!

Other stand-outs would be Wild Heart for the S1 Finale. That haunting, almost witchy piano playing as the build to the Rio reveal? UGH! Also it's so fuckin sexy playing over that whole scene. It completely elevates the tone and drama and yes perfection. Every time I listen to it I feel literally possessed.

Then Angel by Massive Attack as a blend with that scene in the 2x01 opener with its pops and clicks and dangerous beat and the beat dropping when Rio shoots Dean as love you love you love you echoes in the lyrics? Yassssss

Other music highlights:

- Danger by Anjulie over the 1x01 montage

- Gravedigger by MXMS over the Eddie scene in 1x04

- I Feel Like I'm Drowning by Two Feet over Rio being slutty in his car/walking to Turner in 1x10 (such a fuckin sexy song)

- Written in the Water by Gin Wigmore over Beth leaving the pearls in 1x03

- Work by Charlotte Day Wilson over Ruby in 2x02

- Shake Baby Shake by Lisa Caruso over I’m gonna teach you scene in 2x02

- Love and War by Fleurie over the 2x13 finale. (I can't really listen to it cause it gives me anxiety lol but it was an amazing choice for Brio)

- All out of Catastrophes by Marissa Nadler in the 2x10 raid

- Daydreaming by Dark Dark Dark. I'm blanking on the episode right now but it's incredible. The refrain of oh if you knew what it meant to me and oh the unspeakable things is just dark and sexy and longing and still soft in a way GG, specifically S1 & 2, did so fuckin well.

- Whole Life by Perfume Genius over 4x06 Brio. I can't even talk about it it kills me so much.

-Floor Seats by A$AP Ferg being played by Rio and over the scene in 4x13. It's just. So Rio. So sexy. I'm insane over it.

Anyway! That was a ramble there are so many more!. I will link my Good Girls Playlist which is just the good songs/bangers aka no filler or score just the songs you would notice and it's flamessss if i do say so myself

[4alarmfirecracker]

I've missed you so, so much.

[livlepretre]

One of the eps I remember best from tvd (4x06) was the ep where Jeremy killed one of the hybrids and Tyler went apeshit but no one else in the mf gang cared, because the hybrid wasn't a part of their in-group. And it was in character for them not to care (except maybe Caroline/Bonnie) because that’s exactly the kind of person most of them would consider expendable, but we finally got to see civilian casualties having an impact on one of the mcs. (1/2)

(2/2) It's something I always hoped tvd would explore more, esp because it was usually werewolves/hybrids/witches who were considered expendable in the mf gang’s messed up vision of life, but I think they were too afraid of their mcs being considered full-fledged villains. Vamps didn’t have a lot of weaknesses in the show and it would have been interesting to explore the slow moral degradation that comes with having instinctual urges to hurt people to survive but alas.

Oh this is EXACTLY what I am talking about when I say that the show was, at least at some point, telling a story about the characters growing increasingly disaffected from the rest of humanity/completely sliding off the moral rails and losing it. It’s a really dark story. I was convinced they were telling it in the early seasons of the show, but by season 4 I start to wonder if it was an accident. And this is also why I have always LOVED Tyler Lockwood, because he is, for the most part, the only one who holds onto his human decency. (I would also argue that Bonnie does too, at least, up to the parts that I’ve actually seen. I don’t know anything about seasons 7-8; Matt pays a lot of lip service to this, but he also had an extended affair with Rebekah which basically discounts him in my opinion. It’s funny, because I disliked Bonnie in seasons 1 and 2 because she was so against Damon and that was frustrating and felt like a killjoy to me; but growing up a bit and rewatching her storyline, I realize that she was the one with her head on straight and she was right to be disturbed by Elena growing closer to Damon and Stefan, and that her planning to kill Damon at the end of season 1 probably would have been for the best...) 

It’s interesting that you bring up whether or not this makes the main cast members villains or not. I actually disagree that it’s mostly werewolves/hybirds/witches who die-- we see a high mortality rate in the first few seasons of regular people-- Vicky, the woman who owns the house in 1x17, the man Caroline kills in 2x02, the sheriff’s deputies in 2x05, the classmates who die during 2x07, MORE classmates who die in 3x05... and it’s always amazing to me how Elena and Caroline and pretty much the rest of them are either complicit or don’t really care. You’re totally right. They don’t care unless it’s one of them... and even if it is, so long as it’s not permanent, they’re still all awfully forgiving... especially Elena, who manages to forgive Damon for murdering her brother. It really goes to show you how framing main characters like they’re good and rational and empathetic can make us overlook all the times they prove that actually they’re not. And it’s great storytelling because they didn’t start out so messed up-- it’s just that the show ever failed to explicitly address it. Like, when they killed that hybrid, Tyler COULD have really laid out all the ways they’ve all gone off the rails. 

Your point about exploring how it’s not really becoming a vampire that makes someone a monster, but it’s the things they are driven to do in order to survive, the unbearable instincts... that’s my favorite element of tvd vampires. I really like that it’s not a question of having a soul or not. It’s that they’ve transformed into something with hungers that are basically impossible to control, and they experience the horror of craving bloodshed as much as their victims do. The body horror is A+. The way that they inevitably slide into despair over it, which is what makes them eventually just give in, and then revel in it... tvd has a lot of brilliant ingredients, and I really do think the first two seasons are some of the very best on tv, and certainly amongst the top in the genre... it just really, really fails to ever take those ideas anywhere, and I think it’s because it abandons it’s role as a psychological horror piece and instead becomes... like a romantic drama? When it should have remained Romantic, as it was in its prime? Idk, I feel like there is nothing frightening in tvd by the time we get to season 4. And the fear was a very real part of its appeal. Horror at the vampires, at the process of unraveling psychologically until they are forced to look into the abyss and the abyss looks back at them, horror at the human characters succumbing to their influence, and abandoning all of the basic principles of empathy and compassion and morality that ultimately guide us. But to explore those things, the show would have to give up on Damon being likable and heroic; they’d have to be willing to take their sweet main ladies and acknowledge that they had transformed 2 out of 3 of them into monsters; and they would have to stop pretending that vampires are ever good. That’s the curse of vampirism-- it brings with it an inevitable fall from grace. 

[clericbyers]

If S3x3 paralleled S1x1 and going by your counting up theory, then S4x4 will parallel S2x2 meaning it will parallel Crazy Together, which is a line that means a lot to the relationship, as have all the lines in the episodes, so S4x4 is going to be deep and meaningful to them and may be an escalation from 3 so *insert relevant meme here*

MMMMMMMM yes yes this is why I’m stoked to see what happens in 4x04 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️ 1x01 was a cute conversation but was also the begining of their first split and the beginning of the story/UD mess, 3x03 was the escalated ver of the conversation leading to another split and another signal to the MF/UD’s presence. 2x02 was like you said, the crazy together scene, and so 4x04 would theoretically be an escalated ver of the crazy together commitment / confession and bring their relationship to the next level as the crazy together scene led to Mike’s commitment throughout st2 and the shed scene. at least that is the theory given the parallels heh

[erikiara80]

Things are a bit confusing.

In S2 the Upside Down doesn’t seem stuck on Nov 6th 1983 at all.

In S4 Nancy says that the UD is stuck on Nov 6th and it seems true, at least from what we see in her bedroom. The Duffers also confirmed that time is stuck on that day, but of course writers can’t tell you well, it’s not completely true. It would be a spoiler.

So, let’s see what we see in the show. 

We know that in S1 the Duffers and the other writers had like 30 pages where they explained everything about the UD. They already knew how it works and what it is. But they weren’t sure if they could continue the story, so maybe there are things that have changed. But in S2 they knew they could complete the story. And that’s when things get weird, if the reveal in S4 is true.

Season 1

Will and Joyce communicate through the Christmas lights on Nov 8th, and when Joyce is in the UD there are no lights in her house. So rewatching S1 now it really seems that the UD is stuck on the day Will went missing.

Visions don’t count. Henry can make you see whatever he wants. For example. In Will’s first vision there’s water in the sink. But there’s no water in the UD

Season 2 

In 2x02 we see the flashback of El waking up in the UD. Not a dream or a vision. And we know it happened while Joyce and Hopper were saving Will. But the classroom looks exactly like the real one. And when El leaves, she walks on the door the monster broke down. So it’s not Nov 6th here, it’s a week later.

Then we have Will’s visions. I said they don’t count, but they’re all in the present. The whole season is consistent with that.

See? Same car. Same day, October 1984. And in the third vision: this car

And this car

Will hears the demodogs in two different directions, so he looks to his left, then to his right. They wanted us to notice these cars? Who knows.

But there’s another real moment in the UD in this season. The ending scene, with the MF looming over the school. That’s not a vision. Many people have noticed the lights and said it was an error. But what about El waking up in the classroom, when we know it happened a week after Nov 6th? The ending scene could be a mistake. But both the ending scene AND the opening scene of the season? I doubt it. Unless they decided that the UD is stuck on Nov 6th later... But it’s not easy to ignore this after S4. 

In S3 there are only visions, of Billy talking with MF!Billy.

Season 4

The visions in this season are different from Will’s, they’re more nightmarish. Henry wanted to scare his victims as much as possible. But they’re still in the present (like Max’s at school or at the graveyard) And the snow ball scene is not really the UD, it’s her happy memory, where she tries to hide from Vecna. 

So, at this point, the only times in the show we can be sure the UD looks like Hawkins on Nov 6th are when Joyce is in her house in 1x08 and Nancy is in her room in 4x07.

The Duffers said that the UD being stuck on the day Will went missing will be the key plot point of the last season. They could’ve been much more vague, but...

Anyway, I trust them, and with all the callbacks to S1 we saw in S4, and knowing they included in S5 many S2 ideas, I’m sure they have a good explanation. But I admit this is weird.  

Maybe the UD is stuck on Nov 6th now but it wasn’t before? It happened after Will’s possession in S2? But why? Wouldn’t it be a bit complicated? Or maybe the only people who can see the UD in the present are the ones with powers, so Henry, El and in S5 we’ll find out, Will too?

I can’t wait to see what this all means!

[simonlewlove]

when raphael appeared I SCREECHED my son’s back, he’s BACK, jam,d,,,

[clnriswood]

KAI PARKER X READER 

Unsteady

request: I was wondering if you could write a fic where the mf gang™ hates kai but after he helps the reader with her anxiety, they start to warm up to him? And no one could ever help her like he did lol. I hope that makes sense

a/n: insp. from the beautiful stelena 2x02 scene

gif cred - @mystic-falls

x

Mystic Falls was filled with the scent of buttery and caramelized popcorn, and speckled with colors of fleecy pink cotton candy and twinkling neon booths. It was the annual fair, which meant waves of students and adults alike came flooding onto the patchy green grass and into the bustling world of rides and purple paper tickets. Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena, all stood distributing fluffy overstuffed toys at a water gun booth, their faces lighting up when they saw (Y/N). She emerged from the banner covered entrance wearing a lavender dress that ruffled around her waist, her hair falling in loose curls around her face. 

“Hey!” Caroline beamed when she made it to them.

“Hey,” she gave a half a smile.

“What’s up? How come you were late to your shift?” Bonnie inquired with a tilt of her head.

“Oh, nothing,” she waved dismissively. “Just got a little caught up.”

“Well, it’s good you’re here,” Elena flung her arms around her neck in a hug, smiling into her hair. “We’ve missed you.”

“I’m sorry,” she frowned, squeezing her friend, “I just haven’t been feeling well.”

“But you’re back from the dead!” Caroline glowed, adding with a whisper, “just like me.”

The girl’s laughter got caught in a swirl of chortles with her friends, the aqua sign sending a blue sheen over their faces. She gave a weak laugh as her expression lowered a bit, the events of a few years ago dawning over her features, remembering Caroline’s bloodied and tear stained face as she’d struggled with her transition. 

“Hey, (Y/N)?” Caroline nudged. “Don’t think about that, we’re here now, all happy and safe, why not celebrate that?”

“You’re right,” she nodded.

“Just-” Bonnie cut her off, “right after you finish that shift?”

The girl nodded and spun behind the wooden frame where children lined up and plucked colorful guns from a bin of cool water. She snapped a ticket off the next contestant, “already on it.”

“We’ll wait!” Elena insisted, “we can’t just leave you here!”

“No, go!” she smiled. “I was late, after all. Go have fun, I’ll meet you in a few.”

Bonnie jutted out her lower lip, her dark eyes narrowing, “by yourself?”

“Don’t worry ladies, she’ll have me,” a familiar voice snapped into thin air as the chocolate haired heretic dissolved beside the purple dressed girl.

“Ugh, ew,” Caroline groaned, “even worse.”

“I’ll be fine,” the girl persisted, bringing her eyes up to look at Kai Parker’s mischievous blue orbs. “You’ll be on your best behavior, won’t you, Malachai?”

Kai cocked his head to the side with a flicker of his tongue over his teeth, grinning when one of the water guns began uncontrollably sending water in all directions and over the bickering children. Then he shrugged, stopping it all together when met with the glares from the girls, “of course. Now why wouldn’t I?”

“I’ll stay,” Elena decided with a push of her hair behind her ears.

“I’ll be fine,” she snapped again, a little more aggressively this time.

Bonnie sighed, giving the boy a shake of her head, “I can’t believe you can stand to hang around alone with this sociopath.”

“He’s not-” the girl began, stopping abruptly when she felt, from under the booth table, a firm hand decorated with silver rings, pressing firmly against her own. “I’ll see you soon,” she decided, her words coming slow and thought out.

Each girl gave Kai a fleeting look of disgust before spinning on their heels and disappearing into the crowd. Suddenly, the sound of tinkling rides and laughter seemed to come in a dull throb to her ears, the rainbow halo of the nearby carousel blurring in her vision.

“(Y/N)?” Kai’s voice echoed as if from underwater, “Hey, (Y/N)?”

She snapped out of her trance, turning to the heretic, “mhm?”

“Everything okay, sweetheart? For a second there it looked like-”

“No no, don’t worry,” she tilted her head, giving Kai a playful shove when he scrutinized her, “I promise.”

Kai dropped his hand from hers and ran it through his brown locks before dipping them snugly in his pockets. He wore a big black coat and dark ripped skinnies, his tattered white converse encrusted with dirt. His rings sparkled under the booth lights, blue eyes big and happy.

“Thanks for stopping me just now,” the girl said as she handed a yellow giraffe to a babbling little girl, absentmindedly plucking a ticket from the next student.

“I’m happy you’re here,” she confessed.

“Missed me?” he smirked, knowing very well how much she did. “I saw you just a few days ago.”

“Oh shut it, Parker.”

He caught his lower lip between his teeth, aching to wrap her in his arms, kiss her, do something, anything at all, but he didn’t.

“Do they know?” he asked in a hush.

“No, and I’d very much like to keep it that way,” she swallowed nervously, focusing her eyes on the next member in line.

“Come on,” Kai urged, trying to tear her eyes back to his, “you can’t keep this stuff bottled up.”

“I’m not,” she shrugged. “I have you.”

His heart did a flip as he gave a bashful smile, “and?”

“And,” she breathed, leaning her hip against the oak as she fidgeted with her violet dress, “that’s all I need.”

Those blue eyes crinkled, dimples on his cheek, “you’re something else.”

She smiled, “plus, I’ve been feeling a lot better anyways. I think I’m through this,” she turned.

He rubbed with agitation at his stubble, disbelieving of her words, “yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said with a lack of confidence.

She sweetly addressed the little boy who’d won a dog plush, ignoring Kai’s disbelieving glare. 

“Then...” he began quietly.

“What?” she said, scribbling with black marker over her shift as a boy slid behind the booth to cover her position. She ducked out of the stall and into the busy grounds, Kai following close behind her silver heels.

“Then show me,” he urged into her ear as they walked.

She could make out her girlfriends near a crimson circus tent, her pace picking up as she hurried towards them in silence.

“Hey, answer me,” he hissed.

She cleared her throat and walked faster.

“(Y/N)!” he commanded in a low rumble.

She said nothing.

“You asked for this,” he grumbled, grabbing her lightly by the wrists and poofing them out of the open fair grounds right as Elena raised her eyes to the girl, shaking her head in bewilderment and swearing she’d caught sight of a lavender dress only a moment ago.

She found herself at the outskirts of the fairground under the lanterns that circled the exit, the music and chatter coming distant now.

“What was that for?! Put me back!” she hollered.

“Not until you tell me what’s really going on,” Kai pleaded, his voice desperate. He grazed his fingertips over her wrists, tugging her gently when she tried to pull away. “You said you wouldn’t push me away, remember? So please,” his voice broke, “don’t.”

Her shoes crunched under the dirt and gravel as she tilted her head down, “why bother, you already know, don’t you?”

Kai nodded, bringing a hand to her cheek, “but why would you lie?”

“Because, Kai, I just don’t want to drag you into this anymore. So you know what, go ahead, see for yourself,” she bit at her tongue.

The heretic closed his eyes as he glimpsed through snapshots of her memories, landing on a particularly dark one. He saw the girl curled against a wall, later with her hands on the shower, another time against her bedroom door. The room spun, tears clung at her chapped lips, she fought for oxygen that didn’t seem to come. Nobody helped, she just curled alone, the panic and fear eating her up from the inside out. She screamed, a low cry emanating from her throat, her eyes red, but nothing and nobody came. 

He pulled his hand away with a gasp, his eyes fluttering open, a tear trailing down his cheekbone. She blinked up at him, her lip trembling, “is that what you wanted to see?”

But he just shook his head and yanked her into his front as she went flying into him, her nose burrowed into the crook of his neck and breathing in his dark cologne and piney scent. He wrapped his arms snugly around her, his lips atop her forehead as he cradled her in his embrace and squeezed her like she was his lifeline. He didn’t care when she sobbed into him, when her tears stained the hem of his shirt, he just cooed to her and swayed her in his hug, never once daring to let go.

“I’m sorry,” she said through a sob as she pulled away, her eyes red.

“No,” Kai commanded, brushing his thumb to sweep off her tears, “don’t say that.”

“It’s just gotten so bad,” she wiped harshly at her nose.

“I’m here, it’s okay,” he tried, cupping her cheeks in his palms.

“These panic attacks, t-the anxiety, I don’t know, Kai...it just feels like I’m drowning all the time. But I can’t let anyone know or I’ll drag them under the surface with me. And I didn’t want you to have to do that, you don’t deserve that. Especially because you’ve been so happy recently and I didn’t want to ruin it just like I ruin everything-” she rambled helplessly. 

“No-you don’t- I don’t-” Kai stuttered over his words, pausing to think. “I’ll never be happy if you shield yourself off like this,” he sighed. “But you’re right, I’ve been so happy, but not because I’m selfish, because I saw you smiling and laughing, and god does the sound of your laugh make me happy,” he said.

The wind snapped at her skin and brought goosebumps to her arms, so Kai peeled away his coat and tucked it around her arms.

“Look at me,” he insisted, his blue eyes sad.

She did.

“I won’t let you get through this alone, I swear to it. And I’m not telling you to fix yourself because I know healing takes time, and this stuff doesn’t come easy. But I’ve hurt like you before, so believe me I know that the crushing lonesomeness and isolation I endured will only make it worse. You’re just a little unsteady, is all. But so was I. So am I. And I’ll be with you for every step of the way until you don’t feel scared like that,” he whispered. “Got it?”

She nodded, her eyes red, but gave a true smile to the heretic, “got it.”

Suddenly, a set of voices cut through the starry night. The carnival was blinking out into the splotches of darkness, the upbeat music whirring away with the over saturated colors of the rides.

“(Y/N)?!” Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline called as they bolted towards their friend. “Are you okay?!”

They saw her tear stained face and pale skin, Elena grimacing, “did he hurt you?!”

“I swear to god-” Bonnie growled and raised her hand to the heretic.

“STOP!” she said, curls spilling over her face, “all of you!”

“(Y/N),” Kai breathed.

“No,” she shook her head, “I’m sick of watching you get harassed by them and watching you just stand there and take it after everything that you’ve done for me,” she faltered.

Kai just nodded and slid his fingers between her own for comfort.

“Stand by you? This psycho-” Caroline began.

“Don’t,” she snapped. “You have no idea,” she said through clenched teeth, “what I’ve been going through. And I didn’t want to make a big deal about it because we already have too much going on without me in the way, but I....”

The wind rustled the girls hair as they stood, lips bent to a frown.

“I’ve been going trough an awful time, mentally,” she gulped. “And I thought I was past it, but I was wrong. I’ve had trouble eating and sleeping, and doing things that come easy to most people, and sometimes it just becomes too much.”

Their eyes softened, “we had no idea...”

“I know, and I liked it that way. But you deserve to know. And you also should know that Kai is the one who kept me going, who kept me fighting, who kept me alive.”

She felt a squeeze of his cold rings against her flesh.

“When I couldn’t sleep at night, he was there. When I felt an attack coming on, he was there. When I almost pushed it to the edge, he was there,” she whispered. 

“And I couldn’t do it without you,” she said, turning to face the heretic. She touched her forehead to his, her nose brushing against Kai’s, “I...”

“I know,” he soothed, closing his eyes.

“Thank you.”

She’d said it so softly they’d almost missed it.

“Thank you, Kai,” Elena said again, louder this time.

Bonnie nodded, wiping at her bleary eyes, “I’m sorry we weren’t there for you.”

“But you were, and...” Caroline trailed off, giving a nod. “You did what we couldn’t. I’m so sorry, (Y/N).”

The three girls stared at them, pleading forgiveness.

“It’s okay,” she sighed, pulling from Kai. “I should’ve been more honest, and I will be from here on out, I promise.” Then she extended her arms, “And I love you guys.”

She was wrapped in a nest of arms and hugs and I love you’s, her friends like a blanket of warmth tingling over her nerves. They smiled and sniffled and pulled away, all giving a nod to Kai that said to him what words didn't need to describe.

“Girls night sleepover later?” Elena piped up.

The girl turned and locked her eyes to Kai’s misty blue ones, he gave the okay, but she frowned.

“Actually, how about we do that tomorrow? I think I want a little more time with Kai, if that’s ok?” she interjected.

“Of course,” Caroline smiled.

She felt Kai’s familiar grip around her wrist, “Where are we goi-”

She hadn’t even finished her sentence before she’d landed atop the ferris wheel, squished into a cart with the heretic, who gave her the fondest of smiles. He snapped his fingers and the golden lights buzzed and crackled, illuminating the inky black of the empty fair grounds.

“You really stood up for me back there,” he murmured, tracing an absentminded pattern over the edge of her lavender dress.

“Of course,” she smiled, looking over his face, which shone dimly against the warm lighting.

“You even turned down girls night,” he joked, “must mean I’m a pretty special guy.”

“Yeah, you are,” she answered without thinking, her lips twitching.

“Do you feel better?” he asked after a moment, scooting closer to her.

“I do, a lot,” she said, resting her head against Kai’s shoulder. She closed her eyes and breathed him in.

“Are you scared?” his voice came low.

She opened her eyes again to see him dangerously close, his blue orbs searching her face. Her heart did a flip, her insides churned, and she momentarily lost her breath.

“A little,” she said, unsure of what exactly she was referring to.

“Me too,” he swallowed, his jaw pulsating lightly.

He caught his lower lip between his teeth, aching to wrap her in his arms, kiss her, do something, anything at all, and this time he did.

He gently crawled his fingers beneath her jaw, tilting her mouth up and locking his lips perfectly into place against hers. She sighed against him, pressing into his lap as she closed the gap between their bodies and they both became one buzzing mold of fire and electricity. She ran her fingers through his hair and deepened the intensity at which she consumed his taste, his silver rings grazing her cheekbone. Then she smiled, smiled so much she had to pull away because she couldn’t contain herself.

“What?” Kai snorted when he saw her expression and flushed cheeks.

“I can’t help it,” she giggled.

“Help what?” he tilted his head like a puppy.

“Smiling, containing the butterflies in my stomach, feeling happy-” she chuckled and sunk into his lap, eyes drawn to the stars in the sky..

“And where’s this coming from?” he brushed his fingers through her locks with ease.

“You.”

He sighed happily and kissed her forehead.

“I guess I never had a reason to feel so happy before,” she blinked up at him, “until you.”