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definitely-not-a-wasp · 3 years

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I'm okay with a bunch of disorganized rambling honestly 😂. But if I had to narrow it down then I guess I want to know about main and side characters and how they compare to the original?

I know that tumblr is the Prime Site for disorganized rambling, but I have perfectionism issues. But that is a great question, nonnie, and I will be happy to ramble is a slightly less disorganized fashion.

When reading Maximum Ride as a somewhat-formed adult who discovered they enjoy English classes about 3.5 years ago, I noticed that JP, when writing, doesn't understand consistency. At all. Which means, in many ways, I have a free sandbox to work with.

Spoilers for my rewrite WIP, because I strongly believe that if a story would no longer be good if one had spoilers, then it wasn’t a good story in the first place.

I'm trying to keep the backstories the same, plus or minus the scientific method and a few characters (RIP my OCs. I want to bring you back so bad but it wouldn't fit with the thematic narrative). I've mostly kept their (starting) abilities the same, too. Without further ado, I'm going to introduce some WorldBuilding. (If I'm good at nothing else, I'm good at world building)

First off. Logically.

How are they getting Cable?

How are they getting internet?

How are they getting money to eat and stuff?

JP's answer: handwave it off. Sometimes you need to ignore logistics for the sake of plot. This is an answer I'd accept from an author that I like, such as Julie Kagawa, that makes amazing worlds, characters, and narratives that I will happily handwave a few things that wouldn't work in the real world. James Patterson, on the other hand, did not make any of that; he made a cool concept, some good rough-draft characters, and nothing else, and therefore this is an unforgivable sin.

Wasp's answer: They are not getting any of that.

Introducing Cottagecore.

The house is off the grid. Solar Panels and a wind turbine create electricity. They have their own well. They grow their own food, raise livestock for eggs, milk, and wool, and trap fish for meat. They get money through dumpster diving and pawning. They still have to steal half of the necessities they can’t make themselves. They do have a TV, but it can access about three channels on a clear day. Internet is only a thing when they go to the public library.

Giving the flock a background that’s heavy in farming and livestock rearing shores up the plot holes mentioned above, but in my opinion, ties the flock more tightly to the environment, thus giving them something tangible to lose when they have to leave the E-shaped house. Because they’re not just leaving a house and a safety net— they’re leaving their entire way of life with no promise of getting it back. It also gives them a tangible connection to the earth in case I want to actually pursue the global warming themes.

Main Characters

Maximum “Max” Ride (Birthname: nonexistent)

First off, I'm letting her be Latina, James Patterson.

In the original, Max was very much the headstrong, independent, action girl. Leaning into Strong Female Character (TM), but overall she had a strong, solid foundation and enough character consistency through the first three books for me to not have to just make an entire new character. However, I felt that she was, in some ways, a bit too Action-Girl and Strong and Capable. Yes, Max is incredible and competent, but she’s also fourteen. She’s a child.

In the rewrite, Max’s character is still headstrong, independent, capable, and sometimes not the best at listening to others. All of that’s the same. But she’s that way not because of girlboss energy, but because there’s no one else to do it. She doesn’t want to lead, necessarily. She wants to get some rest and let someone else handle the problems life keeps throwing at her. But she knows if she did that, the responsibility of leader would fall to Fang and Iggy, and she can’t ask that of them. She doesn’t want to place that burden on anyone else (Look, there’s a reason I chose Ayano’s Theory of Happiness as one of her signifier songs, okay?). Her narrative is very much centered around burden, and also around loss. She lost her cultural heritage when she was taken away from her birth family, she lost her childhood to being a leader, she lost a good deal of her friends to the school (RIP my OCs), she lost Jeb, and then she lost her stability. And she’s going to lose a lot more before the end of the story. So a lot of her character arc deals with learning that there are some things she can’t fix, some things that can’t be recovered. She can’t get the E-shaped house back. She can’t get her Little Baby Angel back, even after they rescue her. She can’t get her friends back from the school. And instead of working so hard to recover those or find something to replace them, she has to learn to live with that sense of loss and move on with her life without feeling guilty for leaving things behind. And she has to learn that asking for help and sharing her burden is selfish or weak.

Other changes I made that don’t necessarily fit into her narrative arc, but you asked for rambling so rambling you shall get:

Max hallucinates, because mental illness is also a prominent theme in the rewrite. She doesn’t have a psychotic disorder, but her C-PTSD causes visual/audio hallucinations, especially when she’s stressed or sleep deprived.

Max ends up having a Gender Discovery throughout the story and goes by He/She pronouns eventually. I don’t know when, but it will happen.

As far as genetic modifications/special quirks go, she can fly faster than the rest of the flock, but not 300 miles per hour. She averages about sixty mph with diving speeds of 240. She cannot breathe underwater or shut down her organs on command. She also has the Super Special Power to predict the weather, but that’s not because of genetics, it’s because she has chronic pain in her right arm that gets worse when weather fronts change.

Her favored weapon is her trusty rebar that she picked up from a condemned building. I think she’s going to name it eventually but I don’t know what yet.

Fang (Birth name: Gabriel Xue)

In canon, Fang is characterized in early books by being the “dark, strong, silent type”. He’s probably the most reserved member of the flock, to the point of falling into the Brooding Mystery Man trope in parts of the book. They care a lot, but they’re not the best at conveying that, especially with the younger members of the flock, and at times their high empathy leads them to making mistakes. Despite the high empathy, he’s often compared to a robot due to his lack of expression and external emotions.

Well, first change is that they’re not a man, so jot that down—

If Max’s narrative is centered around burden and loss, I would probably say that Fang’s is centered around humanity and moving on. None of the flock was treated as human while in the school, but Fang was more often than not treated like a wild animal due to “behavioral issues”, and therefore had and continues to have a difficult time considering themselves real and alive, let alone human. This manifests through a several different ways— where in canon Fang definitely had a ‘fight’ reaction, in the re-write they have a ‘freeze’ or ‘shut down’ instinct. They’re selectively mute for multiple reasons (including derealization, jaw pain, the fact that they didn’t learn how to speak until they were 10, and genuinely forgetting it’s something they’re capable of), a period of Cotard’s syndrome, and a tendancy towards self-loathing and self-sacrifice. In short, Fang is still halfway stuck in the mindset that most of the flock grew out of when they escaped in the school, and doesn’t know how to move past it.

Much of their character arc revolves around not necessarily seeing themselves as human, but learning to treat themselves as human even when they don’t feel like one (or even feel real), and knowing that just because they don’t feel human all the time doesn’t mean anyone else can treat them the same. They never start easily expressing their emotions, and they’re always going to be selectively mute, but they learn to accept that those aspects of themself aren’t character flaws or signs that they’re sub-human.

Other additions to Fang’s character include:

They don’t get their hair cut in New York. It stays long through the entire series. They have the longest hair in the flock by the end of the series, and they can wear it in so many styles.

Fang uses they/it pronouns because themes of reclaiming the weapons used against it and, more importantly, Gender.

They’re actually really good at spelling compared to the rest of the flock, because they and Iggy communicate with Print-On-Palm when they’re nonverbal, and they’re nonverbal for some pretty long stretches of time.

They and Max have... zero romantic tension. At all. There is none. The number of times Max calls them her sibling/little sibling in the first arc alone is staggering, and that will not change.

Igneous “Iggy” (Birthname: Jamsetta “Jamie” Griffiths)

I’ve talked about Iggy before. Canon doesn’t give us much to go off of, but from what’s shown, he’s smart, sarcastic, has sharper edges than Fang and Max, and also has a sizable ruthless streak. So that’s what I have to go off of.

The big difference between Iggy and Fang&Max is that Iggy has a much better memory of the School. Most of the flock have areas (months or years) that they don’t remember, or people that they’ve blocked from their mind, but Iggy... doesn’t. So he’s the one that remembers all of the other AVIAN test subjects that were old enough to have names and identities but died due to complications. Max might have the burden of leadership, but he has the burden of memory. And that has lead to both a massive fucking guilt complex, because why did he survive when they didn’t, and, as mentioned above, a ruthless streak that he doesn’t shy away from.

Which is to say, by the end of the story, Iggy has the highest kill count.

I love, love writing Iggy next to Max and Fang. I love writing Iggy next to Gazzy and Nudge. Because, I say this with all of the love of the world, but Iggy is not a good person. He is loyalty and love incarnate, and the world can burn down if he and his siblings are safe. Max and Fang will always try to save as many people as they can. They will wonder what’s wrong with them the first time they kill and don’t have a mental breakdown about it. They are good in a way that Iggy is not. He’s okay with killing Erasers. He’s okay with killing humans. He’s okay with killing people who might not necessarily deserve it, if they show themselves as a threat or are simply in the blast radius. He knows perfectly well that most of those Erasers he’s murdering are four and five and he is okay with that, because a lot of the AVIANs were that age when they died. (Yeah, in the rewrite it’s not Fang who has an issue with Ari; it’s Iggy who wants the 7-year-old wolf-boy dead.)

And this is, of course, juxtaposed with Iggy being really, really good with Nudge and Gazzy (especially in the beginning). Because, again, he actually remembers being a child. He remembers a lot of kids that died and is therefore fiercely protective of the kids that didn’t, as well as fiercely protective of the innocence that he never got. So he’s the one that cooks their favorite foods when they’re having a bad day, always makes time when they want to talk about something, and convinces Max to let them go to that toy store in New York because, yeah, he Max and Fang aren’t kids. They never were. But Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel can be. (And if he has to be a murderer to preserve that, then he’s perfectly okay with that.)

He and Angel don’t get along very well, though. The telepath doesn’t like hanging out with the person with the most clear memories of the school.

Other additions:

Iggy is trans and says trans rights

He also has paranoid episodes, because C-PTSD. Sometimes they’re very helpful. Sometimes they are not.

I actually decided that he’s one of the flock that doesn’t meet their parents. I know in canon he did, but I always found that very clunky because it didn’t add to his character. He was one of the characters who, until it was convenient for the plot, seemed to care the least about his family. I’d much rather give that to a character whose arc would benefit from it.

Iggy! Gets! Older Sibling Rights! Seriously, he’s two months younger than Fang, he is just as capable.

Iggy does not know braille because Jeb decided it wasn’t necessary for him to know. Iggy is also the best speller in the flock, because Print-on-Palm was the only way to talk to Fang for a solid year. Yes he mocks everyone over this.

Iggy is the only member of the flock that enjoys swimming and can take into the air from water. Everyone else in the flock is incredibly jealous.

Nudge (Birthname: Monique Robinson)

If Iggy is defined by his memories, Nudge is his polar opposite. She was seven when she left the School, but she has next to no memories of it. She is missing a lot of time in the first year she escaped. And that causes... a lot of things. It makes her feel disconnected from her older siblings, it gives her the ability to function in society in a way the other’s can’t, it lets her feel less grief over the ones that didn’t make it and she doesn’t remember, it makes her feel guilty that she doesn’t remember what she’s old enough to know.

Basically, in order for me to keep the character of Nudge as I saw her (more extroverted, not afraid of the world, fascinated with humans like her siblings aren’t, desiring to fit in instead of isolate), I had to put a little bit of distance between her and the flock. Of course, she loves them— that will in no way change— but she’s old enough that she should remember the school (and her dead friends) unlike Gazzy and Angel, but she can’t, and she very much fears forgetting the flock if anything happens to them. So she’s trying desperately to keep the flock close and wants desperately to experience the world at the same time, and doesn’t know what to do when she can’t have both. That’s her biggest character conflict throughout the series, along with that in-between area where she’s not quite where her older siblings are but understands so much more than Gazzy and Angel, and where she stands in that.

So yeah. Nudge’s journey is that in looking for belonging in the world, in her family, and in herself.

This is why she’s one of the ones that gets to find her parent, James Patterson.

Other additions include:

She never straightens her hair. Never. Her resources at the E-shaped house aren’t perfect, but she still has learned how to take care of her hair and has a few styles she cycles through.

She becomes the default person Max sics on people when the flock is trying to befriend them. Also their de-facto diplomat around strangers.

As in canon, she does take some time away from the flock to expirience ‘normal life’. This does not last long due to the stress of being separated from her siblings/not being able to help them and [REDACTED]

Nudge is... not the only person in her head. I’m not focusing on it much because she doesn’t actually know and neither does the flock (I don’t know if they ever figure it out during the series, either), but she has dissociative identity disorder. She’s not aware of her alter(s?). Her alter isn’t super aware of her, either.

The alter that I’ve developed is named Oxy and is not super aware of the outside world. In her eyes, she’s still seven and they’re still at the School. She would not recognize the body as her own if she looked in a mirror.

Nudge actually leaves the flock for a while to pursue her dream of living a normal life. She deserves it. She learns how to make muffins and the basics of software development. These things are unrelated.

Gasman (Birthname: No first name, surname “Falk”)

Honestly, writing Gazzy is kind of hard for me. Partially because I’m not great at writing kids, and partially because I feel like he’s a pretty surface-level character in-series that... isn’t super compelling in canon. But even if that’s the case, I try to treat all of my characters with respect, so here we go. In my rewrite, he escaped when he was four, which was half a lifetime ago for him, so his memories are ill-defined. Therefore, he managed to circumvent a lot of the trauma that the rest of the kids have, and not in the way Nudge did, which is by creating an elaborate blockage in her memories.

Which means Gazzy... really doesn’t know how to deal with all of this traumatic stuff happening. So much of his development turns out to be a coming-of-age narrative. Learning how to deal with the horrors of what his siblings grew up with. Learning the fears that they had the entire time. Losing his innocence when everyone around him never had it in the first place, and being so terribly alone because of it. Because, really, how can you explain such a deep loss to people who never had what he had? How can they help in a way that matters?

Also, relationship-wise, I’m slowly deteriorating the relationship between him and Iggy. Slowly. Or, changing it, at least. Gazzy hero-worships Iggy in-series, and for good reason, because Iggy is super cool, especially in the eyes of an eight-year-old, and especially when Iggy has taken care to cultivate parts of his behaviors to be child-friendly. Part of growing up is seeing the flaws in your heroes, and Gazzy has to learn how to deal with it. End of the series Gazzy is much less closer to Iggy than beginning of the series Gazzy, and neither of them are really okay with that, but they learn to live with it, because that’s really all they can do.

Notes:

I’m keeping the mimickry! It plays a bit of a bigger role because that’s how Gazzy learned to talk. I’m debating whether or not he has his own voice or if he just borrows the flock’s as he sees fit. He also uses it to scream really loudly and occaisonally burst the eardrums of Erasers.

At one point he cosplays as Jessica Jones. No you don’t get any more context than this.

He has a horrible sense of fashion.

I’m changing his name eventually because it sucks. He’s either going to change it to Gannet, Garrison, or Ivy Mike temporarily, and permanently to Zephyr. (I never said I was going to make his name GOOD, because he’s eight, but it’s changing. You’re welcome.)

Angel (Birthname: No first name, surname “Falk”)

It’s just... a completely different character, at this point. I’ve changed so many things about her in an attempt to make her consistent and act like a six-year-old and work in the whole “telepath before she has a solid sense of identity”, so it’s a different character. Also, I’m tired of writing coherently or in paragraphs, so have some interesting facts.

She has epilepsy! Super severe epilepsy! I think she might also develop juvenile MS in the future because her brain has so many scars from being a fucking six-year-old telepath. There’s no way she could get out of that unscathed.

She has more memories of the school than Gazzy, but only because she keeps accidentally reading the minds of Max, Fang, and Iggy. On a related note, she interacts with Iggy as little as possible.

The mind reading means that she has a hard time developing as a normal child with a normal sense of identity or reality. She can’t tell how much people are individual people and how much they’re just extensions of her. Conversely, she can’t tell how much of herself is actually her instead of the thoughts/opinions/identities of someone else. It’s... kinda fucked? But also super not-her-fault.

She’s albino because white wings. Also, because I thought it was cool. This also means that her vision sucks, though. Also she has the biggest straw sunhat and the most stylish sunglasses a six-year-old can have.

She’s responsible for Max shaving her hair off.

She has the highest swear count because I think it’s funny. She’s the only person allowed to say the fuck word in writing. Everyone else can only say ‘hell’ and the occasionally ‘damn’ but she can say whatever she wants for dramatic and comedic value.

She is NOT THE FUCKING VOICE, J*MES P*TTERSON.

Honorable Mentions

Jeb

I’m skipping Jeb because of how little I care about him. He’s a little bitch, next character.

Ari

STILL HASN’T BEEN REVEALED AS AN ERASER. I’ve been writing for 50,000 words and he’s over here saying ‘nope nope not yet, not dramatic enough’. He’s had speaking lines but has refused to make himself known to Max. I am so frustrated with this seven-year-old wolf-child that I’ve already considered how I would kill him, if I decide I want to kill yet another child in my writing.

So, my main thoughts for Ari is that he... really just drew the short end of the stick in every possible way. While Jeb didn’t sign him up for Eraser expirimentation, he didn’t do anything to stop it, and pretty much cut his losses when he realized this expiriment made a wreck of his ‘perfect, unflawed’ son, because Jeb doesn’t consider children of any species to actually be humans. So, Ari really hates his dad, which makes things complicated, because he also really loves his dad and really wants his approval.

Which means that he also really hates Max, because she’s the child that always got Jeb’s time and attention, even when Ari was human. I think, on some level, he knows that trying to tear Max down to a less-favored level isn’t actually going to help his situation— infighting for the love of an abusive parent won’t make them any less abusive— but he’s also seven, and his development is already severely stunted due to becoming an Eraser, and he doesn’t see ‘leaving ITEX’ as an option like the Flock does. ITEX is his everything. It’s all he’s ever known, and they tell him he’s doing the right thing, and he wants them to love him. He wants his father to love him. He knows that if he ever questions ITEX, his father will never love him. So it must be his older sister that’s ruining his life and being a horrible child, and once Ari drags her back down to his level, Jeb will realize who the best child is and love him properly again.

Ari, on an even deeper level, does care for Max quite a bit, because she’s his older sister and he wants that to mean something in a way that ‘Jeb being his father’ obviously doesn’t. He wants what she made for herself, and he hates the Flock because she loves them and obviously doesn’t love him.

Ari, if anything, is the product of neglect, and both loves and hates everyone who shows a chance of caring about him. And he’s seven, so he can’t notice these patterns, let alone break them.

So. Notes!

He doesn’t look like an adult. I thought that was gross and unnecessary. He’s seven, but he looks closer to thirteen or fourteen. Still young enough that he looks like every Eraser’s little brother, and the Erasers high-key treat him like it.

On a related note, he’s the only Eraser who can talk. The others don’t have the mental capacity or vocal structure to replicate human speech, but they can understand language (at about the level of a two or three year old) and are very good at nonverbal communication. This is why Ari managed to climb the ranks despite only having three years of “service” and also looking like a tween.

He doesn’t have an expiration date because that is SUCH a stupid plot point.

I’m giving him a chainsaw! I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but he deserves to have a chainsaw and GODDAMN I will give it to him.

Emergency and Gene

The OCs that I love and also killed pre-series. They don’t have any scenes, because they’re dead, but their deaths greatly effected Max, Fang, and Iggy, and they are very commonly referenced. Their voices are probably Max’s most common hallucination, to the point where she sometimes pretends they’re ghosts that she can talk to. They’re not ghosts. They’re dead.

Dr. Valencia Martinez

I’m actually keeping her pretty close to canon— loving, supportive, the type of person to take in a gsw victim with minimal questions. The difference is that rather than kindness fueling her actions, it’s incredible guilt. She has three goals surrounding Max: Give her as much support in any way she can, teach her as much about chicane culture as possible, and never let Max know that she’s her birth parent.

(She’s probably going to fail at AT LEAST two of those, but it’s the thought that counts.)

Notes:

She has a pet fox named Robin Hood that she rescued from an exotic animal salesman that got arrested.

I think I’m going to kill her. I don’t know yet, but it’s on the table.

Anne Walker

Y’know, the fake FBI Agent. Who’s not actually a fake in my story because I hated that plot point. She’s genuinely an FBI agent who put the Flock into pseudo-witness-protection in order to build a case against the Institute of Higher Living, accidentally got attached to her prime witnesses, raised them for a few months, realized a [SPOILER] and promptly had to let them get the hell out dodge.

I really like the Anne Walker that lives in my head. She is a VITAL part of the Flock’s development, their mental/emotional recovery, and adding to their safety net to fall back on. She serves them as their first adult role model, and is the first adult to show them what parent/child are supposed to look like from a healthy perspective. Though she has several fuck ups, she becomes someone that the Flock genuinely trusts and loves, which makes it all the more difficult for them to leave when [REDACTED].

Notes:

She and Max do butt heads initially, because Max is paranoid and also afraid of becoming uneeded. This ends up being incredibly important because Max needs to learn how to live and find meaning in life without being the designated Leader/Parent/Big Sister

Anne, at one point, sits the entire flock down to teach them about consent, which was something no one ever talked about with them before. She goes in talking specifically about consent in a romantic/sexual sense (because they’re fourteen and that’s something they need to know), but quickly turns into a full-fledged no, people are NOT allowed to do that to you, what the FUCK.

She’s responsible for giving the flock a laptop. It’s because Angel is online schooled (bc telepathy makes actually learning difficult) and was therefore provided with a computer.

Anne is also allowed to swear, but only when it’s funny.

Michael “Grey” Rivers

Aka Grey from the Sewers Aka GR3Y H47 Aka Mike from the Bronx Aka Gifted Child Syndrome Incarnate Aka Would-be-in-MIT-if-his-parents-weren’t-horrible. He’s my son, your honour.

Basically, his backstory boils down to him being a genius, getting into MIT at 14, his (horrible) parents wanting a perfect child who could “make it out” of the Bronx and represent his family/neighborhood/borough to the world. When he inevitably failed their expectations due to stress, a schizophrenic-spectrum disorder that completely alienated him from the rest of his support network, and refusing to take his psych meds because the side effects were horrible and they made it harder to think (and therefore pass his classes), they kicked him out. He fully intends to go back to MIT when he turns 18 and has control of his finances/scholarships/medication/therapy.

So that’s how the flock meets him.

Mike ends up in a very prominent support role for the flock both in technological persuits (helping them track their parents, helping them get information from ITEX, trying to disable Max’s chip and failing multiple times until it becomes a matter of personal honour—), in helping the older members of the flock figure out how to deal with hallucinations/delusions (because he’s actually been to therapy, unlike them), and in being one of the only people who talks to them and helps them without any ulterior motive. He’s not trying to build a case against ITEX/The Institute of Higher Learning, he’s not double crossing them, he’s not plagued with guilt. He just genuinely wants to help them, and they genuinely want to help him, and that’s their first introduction to a healthy, non-codependent relationship.

My many disorganized notes on Michael Rivers:

He’s from specifically Morris Heights, Bronx, NYC.

He would say that his last name is actually Rivera, but his grandparents changed it to Rivers so it would sound more English, and his family has been in America for so long that he doesn’t know much about any Latino heritage he may or may not have. He identifies as African American, not Afro-Latino. He’s just bitter that his family felt the need to change their surname to have better opportunities in New York.

Nudge aggressively befriends him pretty much the moment she meets him, bullies him into teaching her how to code, and he very quickly adopts her as his pseudo-little-sister.

His delusions in the book seemed to involve government conspiracies, but as that’s the one delusion that is proved correct in the book, I’ve decided it would be best if his delusions and reality intersected a bit less if I don’t want to write him having a manic/paranoid episode in the second scene he has screen time. So his delusions are more based on “none of this is real”, “someone is recording everything I do and setting me up to fail” and “my ill-wishes on people can and will come true if I dwell on them too long.”. Government conspiracies are one of things he is skeptical about because he thinks most conspiracies are either “CIA admitted to this twenty years ago” or “antisemitism”.

He’s taking online free college classes that don’t actually give him any college credit, but they have good information and help him feel like he’s working towards something. He plans to double major in computer sciences and electrical engineering, minor in marine biology. He’s wanted to join NOAA since he was twelve and he is nothing if not stubborn.

There you go. These are my characters, now. I have custody.

#maximum ride on main #Maximum Ride rewrite

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clairecrive · 3 years

Text

"Rock my world" - Sirius Black x reader

A/n: I was thinking of making this a series but idk, let me know what you think. The band in the picture, Maneskin, are my inspiration for the marauders' band music and aesthetic. Check them out cause they're really good. They're going to represent Italy at the next Eurovision contest.

Here's their Instagram and Spotify.

Tags: Muggle AU, so ofc no magic, no Hogwarts, Marauders in a rock band, no Peter but Regulus instead, jily

Warnings: none

Word count: 2.2K ish

Summary: When y/n finally agrees to check out this band that her best friend was always talking about, she's in for a pleasant surprise and one hell of a night.

It had all started in the cheesiest and most cliscé of ways, really. Y/n had made a bet which had made you go out of your comfort zone that one night and for your bravery, you were rewarded with the most amazing boyfriend ever. It sounds like a story out of a rom-com or a romance novel, doesn't it? Well, yeah, it felt like a main character moment but, unlike what we see in those stories, it wasn't always fun and games.

But let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Y/n's best friend Jules had been nagging her about this rock band who was apparently the new sensation of the year according to her, for the longest time. So, one Friday night, when Jules had informed her that that very band was playing in a bar not very far from her workplace, she agreed to go for drinks there.

Worst case scenario, she thought, the music will be terrible but at least I get to tease Jules about it.

Still clothed in the floral dress she had chosen this morning, but adding a few glittery touches and graphic eyeliner to make her look more nighty, y/n headed towards said bar where Jules was already waiting for her.

"Finally," she huffed when y/n rounded the corner and entered her field of vision.

"Sorry, it was my turn to close tonight," y/n shot her an apologetic smile before hooking their arms.

They made their way inside looking for a place to sit. The bar was already crowded but not in an unusual way. Maybe it was the hour or the fact that it was a weeknight, y/n didn't know but felt grateful that it wasn't packed. She really wasn't a fan of crowded places.

They got their drinks and caught up as they usually would about their week. They were almost finished when the band walked up the stage and music started playing. Even before the first note, one look at their outfits made clear what kind of music they were going to play.

They had an interesting aesthetic, y/n had to admit. They wore the same colour but each member had their own style. The band was made up of four guys, the bassist had long straight hair and he looked a lot like the singer who instead had curly hair, the drummer had short curly light brown hair and y/n couldn't see what he was wearing past a black vest while the guitarist had black hair that was all over the place and wore glasses.

They had an androgynous aesthetic, each of them with beautiful makeup in tones of black and grey and the ones y/n could see clearly were wearing a sort of body. They looked stunning. Y/n had decided she liked them based on this alone. She had to admire anyone who had the guts to express themselves freely especially when it was in such an open and unapologetic way of going against gender norms.

After half an hour, the music stopped and after the singer wished everyone goodnight and they all climbed down. As she expected, they played rock music ranging from soft rock edging pop to hard rock that made her think a lot of ACDC. Y/n wasn't an expert in music but she had liked what she heard and wouldn't mind listening more from them. She was sure that she was going to catch some of their songs on the radio in the future.

However, Jules picked up the conversation where they had left it before the concert and decided that it was the time where she'd complain about her recent love interest. Each of their weekly meetings had one of this moment. Unfortunately, it looked like Jules didn't have a lot of luck when it came to guys. And as it always would, she wondered if she was the problem asking y/n if the reason every one of her relationships failed because she was unlovable. As if.

"That's not true, I truly believe that you can learn to love anyone. Lest you get to know them, of course."

"Of course you'd say something like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you truly believe that, then you're not going to say no to this." Jules wriggles her eyebrows suggestively and y/n knew that the night is either about to become very interesting or about to go very wrong.

"The expression on your face is telling me that I should definitely say no to what you're about to say."

"Oh c'mon, it's just an innocent dare. Nothing too crazy, I promise."

"Which is?"

"You see that guy leaning on the bar? Long black hair with the black leather jacket?" Y/n turned around indulging her friend and eventually spotted the guy she was talking about. She took her time to look at him until she realized something that made her whip around to face Jules again.

"You mean the singer of the band?" y/n asked incredulously.

"Isn't he handsome?" Jules smiled wide completely ignoring the look y/n was giving her already knowing what was going through her friends' mind. "I want you to go to him and ask him out."

"What?"

"C'mon", Jules complained reaching out to y/n over the table, "didn't you say that it was possible to love anyone? Can't you see yourself loving him?"

"That's not the point," y/n exclaimed still not believing that her friend was suggesting something so outrageous. "Can you see him loving me?" Because that man over there had "heart breaker" spelt all over him. And okay, y/n had to admit that this was a rush judgment she was making and it wasn't exactly fair but there was no way that a guy like him could be interested in a girl like her.

And yes, we could stay here and discuss all the reasons why that statement is wrong but still, if she were to put herself out there -something that was not like her at all- she wasn't going to go over someone so out of reach for her. And that was that.

"Listen, do you remember that video you sent me the other day?" Jules squared her shoulders, now looking fully serious at y/n. Unfortunately, y/n did remember the video Jules was talking about. She would have never guessed it would come back and bit her in the ass otherwise she'd never sent it.

Sighing, y/n looked down at the drink in her hands and thought about it. The video basically encouraged the viewer to go up to what they believed was the most beautiful person in the room and tell them exactly that. It may sound a little silly but at the time y/n had appreciated the sentiment. Going out of one's comfort zone. Challenging yourself. Because, what was the worst that could happen? That person shotting you down? That didn't sound life-threatening. Now though, y/n wasn't so sure.

"Worst case scenario, just tell him I'm calling you and head back here." Jules offered, almost as if she could tell exactly what her best friend was thinking.

Looking at her best friend, something snapped in her. Jules was right. What's the worst that could happen? She already knew that the guy was going to shoot her down. She was prepared. It was a dare, a silly thing that could give her a story to tell to her nephews one day.

What the hell, y/n thought squaring her shoulders.

"You know what?" she downed the rest of her drink and got up from her seat, "I'm doing it." Looking in the reflection of the tissue box on the table to check how she looked, she fixed her smudged lipstick and ruffed her hair before nodding solemnly at Jules and turned around.

As she made her way to the bar, she could hear Jules cheering on her fueling her sudden confidence.

The man of the hour was there where she saw him last. Her steps faltered as she realized that she had no idea how to approach him. What was she going to say? Oh my god, she was totally going to make a fool of herself. If she was not going to die for his rejection, she sure is going to die of embarrassment.

She was almost about to turn around and abort the mission when his eyes met hers.

Well, fuck. There was no way she was going to back down now.

She regained her confidence and smiled at him while closing the distance between them. She smiled at him. Who was she? Did someone drug her drink?

He smiled back at her, turning so that he'd be facing her once she reached him and she almost stopped to pinch herself to see if she was hallucinating or something.

"Hey," she said once she stood in front of him. Good, she thought, let's start with something simple.

"Hi," he smiled back at her.

Okay, okay, it's going good, isn't it? He hasn't ignored me, that must mean something, right? Yes, that he wasn't a rude asshole was her sobering thought.

"So," y/n started trying to take to time while she figured what to say, "I saw a video the other day," was what she ended up with.

The handsome stranger lifted his eyebrows in amusement and took a sip of his beer. Y/n took that as a "go on then".

"There was this woman that basically dared anyone watching to go up to the person who they thought was the most beautiful person in the room and tell them exactly that." Well, let's just get it out of the way, I guess, she thought. "So, here I am," she added as if it wasn't clear enough.

However, as she saw the man's smile widen, y/n suddenly realized how really screwed she was. This man was way out of her league.

"Well, now that I'm here, I should also mention that you've really good at what you do too."

"Not to sound rude or anything," he spoke for the first time that evening and y/n had already decided that he had been the gods' favourite in another life before he opened his mouth but now? as he heard his low and raspy voice? she was sure he had been at least a demi-god, "did you lost a bet or something?" he asked, his grey eyes boring into hers like he was looking into her soul.

Who was this guy? and why was she feeling like this? Get a grip, y/n, she scolded herself.

"Is it that obvious?" y/n's shoulders slouched as some of the tension left them, a nervous laugh leaving her mouth.

"I saw you downing your drink like it was some kind of bravery potion before you came here," he explained with a light scroll of his shoulders. "Not that I mind though," he added with what should be an illegal smirk. Smug.

"Yeah, I'm sure you've heard it countless time only tonight." Let's joke on it, she thought, there's still a chance I can come clean out of this mess.

He chuckled and, not leaving her eyes, he slipped a hand through his loose hair pushing it back. "I meant that if you hadn't come I would probably found an excuse to come up to you too." He leaned back onto the bar looking completely unbothered, not as if he had said something that made her feel on fire.

"Looks like I've to thank your friend for my luck." Looking over your shoulder, he held one of his hands up and lightly waving at Jules, y/n figured.

"Yeah, let's not tell her that or I will never hear the end of it." Rolling her eyes, y/n also leaned on her arm resting on the bar next to him. Whether it was the fact that all the cards were on the table or that what he said meant that he had to somewhat like her, she felt more relaxed than a couple of minutes ago.

"Before I make this solemn oath, I think it would be appropriate to know your name, don't you think?"

"It's y/n," she held her hand up for him to shake. However, he had something else in mind since when he took hold of her hand he turned it and held it up to his lips to leave a soft kiss on it. Y/n almost rolled her eyes at the gesture if it wasn't for his eyes. They didn't move from hers and she found that she didn't want to stop looking at him. Like she was in a trance. Yes, he was handsome, even more so up close, so of course he was nice to look at but that wasn't why. It's the way his eyes glimmered as they watched her, the gentleness with which he was holding her hand, the softness of his lips on her skin. What would they feel like on her lips, she wondered.

"I'm Sirius."

And that's how it all started. A silly video sent almost automatically to her best friend and an outrageous bet made y/n's night definitely interesting. To her luck though, Sirius became a permanent presence and not a one-night sensation.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Tagging: @seldomabsent

#sirius black #sirius black x reader #sirius black AU #muggle AU #no hogwarts #no Peter either #the marauders are in a rock band #young!sirius black #marauders #sirius black one shot #sirius black imagine #sirius black imagines #sirius black fanfiction #sirius black fluff #marauders x reader #marauders imagine #harry potter x reader #harry potter imagines

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miraculouspenta · 3 years

Note

I have a request.if marinette is Jon's twin sister and has no power. Marinette contact justice league for help but she end up being reveal her identity to justice league because jon and Clark knows her and can you make it daminette story

Tale of the Girl Kent

One evening years ago, twin cries could be heard in Metropolis. These cries belong to Jonathan Samuel Kent and Marinette Martha Ella Kent, newborn children of Lois Lane and Clark Kent. They grew up together for quite some time, and people around them could swear they never saw one without the other.

Ever since a young age, Jonathan, or Jon as people call him, discovered that he had inherited his father's superpowers. Flight, super hearing, super speed, heat vision, x-ray vision, and etc. Marinette on the other hand doesn't have these superhuman abilities. She does, however, have an incredibly sharp eye for detail, astonishing creativity, unimaginable problem-solving skills, and an IQ that is already considered a genius, 184. Even though she was born without mystical abilities, Marinette never felt jealous of her twin. Howbeit because of this, her father decided not to tell the rest of the league, short of Batman and Wonder Woman.

When the twins turned nine, Lois and Clark felt like they were neglecting their little girl, focusing more on teaching Jon how to handle his powers. Marinette didn't mind and she had told them this repeatedly. But then again, they're parents, they're supposed to worry. As a result, they decided to reach out to Lois' old college friend and roommate, Nadja Chamack. They told her of their dilemma and asked if she knew anyone who could and would take care of their daughter. Nadja mentioned a married couple whom she has known since high school. She said that they had wanted a child but the doctor said they couldn't have one. Of course, Nadja also mentioned that the couple were really kind people, they would never take their place as parents. They would, however, be pleased to be their daughter's guardian.

And that's what happened. Marinette flew to Paris the next week to live with her new guardians, leaving a teary eyed father and brother behind, not like they would admit it. She soon found her guardians' names are Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng. She could've sworn she stared at the sun when they picked her up.

As time went by, Marinette got very comfortable with the Dupain-Chengs to the point she slipped and called them maman and papa. She told her biological parents about this and they were glad she felt safe enough to call them that. Both didn't have anything against Tom and Sabine because of that and Marinette was really glad.

Let's jump to when she turns 13. She finds a mysterious box on her desk and opens it. When a flying creature flew out of it, Marinette wasn't really surprised. She had seen weirder things. Then the creature, who she found out was named Tikki, started explaining that she was chosen to be a hero to save Paris. "Figures that I'm made to join the family business," she said. Tikki just blinked, "What do you me-" she was cut off by a shout. "Kim!" a voice roared. "You can explain this to me later, right now just say spots on," Tikki said.

Once the 'akuma' was handled, Marinette told Tikki of her biological family. "Hey Tikki?" "Yeah?" "Do you think I should call the Justice League? Not to ask them for help, more like... Tell them of they are going to Paris to keep their emotions in control? I don't think I can defeat my dad or my brother." "That's a great idea Marinette! Although I suggest that you ask Chat Noir for his opinion first." And here she is now on the Eiffel Tower with Chat, trying to call the League.

Ironically, Superman answered. "Hello, this is the Justice League. How may we help you." "Hello, my name is Ladybug and this is Chat Noir," it felt so weird using formal talk with her dad, "We wanted to inform you of Paris' new situation as of yesterday." At the word Paris, Superman's froze, Mari lives there. "A supervillain has appeared and it turns people into villains to do the dirty work. It appears that the supervillain transforms them if someone has a negative emotion. Hawkmoth, the supervillain, and us get our powers from the miraculi," Ladybug continued knowing that her dad knows about the miraculi. "We came to ask if any of you were to come to Paris make sure that your emotions are under control," Chat said, "We don't need to fight any of you."

"I can accept that, I have heard of the miraculi and it seems reasonable," Superman said, "If I'm correct, any damage should be reversed. No civilians should be hurt, am I right?" "Figures he'd be worried about me," Ladybug mumbled forgetting that her dad had super hearing and pieced everything together. "My cupcake?" he asked. Ladybug's eyes widened before she started laughing, "Damn it, forgot you had super hearing." Superman grinned, "Looks like you're in the family business anyway huh?" "Seems like it."

Chat stood on the side wondering why are the two so comfortable with each other. "Guess I owe you an explanation huh Chat?" Ladybug said, "Superman here, is my biological father and the current Superboy is my twin brother. Unlike him, I didn't inherit dad's powers." Meanwhile, on the other side of the line, Clark called for his son and told him the news. "Hiya sis!" "Hiya little brother!" "You're only older by 5 minutes!" "I'm still older!" Chat laughed at their banter, "I can see that now."

"Just hold on a minute, I can register your partner and change your name and you can zeta on over to discuss this more," Superman said, "Also, I missed you." "I miss you too." Once Superman gave them the okay, Ladybug disconnected the phone and dragged Chat over to the zeta platform (I have little knowledge of this so feel free to correct me) They ended up at the Watchtower and Ladybug hurriedly ran to her father and brother giving them a big hug. "Superman have you seen-" Wonder Woman stopped when she saw Ladybug hugging her colleague. She ran out of the room to grab someone to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, that person happened to be Batman, and wherever Batman goes, 16 year old Robin follows.

"You are seeing this too right? That's his daughter right?" Wonder Woman asked. "Yes I am, and most likely." Meanwhile, Robin was just confused, who was this girl and... Is that a knockoff Catwoman? But since Batman appeared not to think of her as a threat he let it slide, that is until their eyes met. His heart skipped a beat. Her eyes are so beautiful. Superboy heard Robin's heartbeat picking up and smirked because it wasn't only Robin's heart, but also his sisters. Both speeding up but still somehow in sync. They are going to date each other if it's the last thing I do.

1143 words

Longest one shot apart from my secret Santa. Tell me if you want part two.

XOXO ~𝓔𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓮𝓷

#maribat #damian x marinette #damimari #maridami #twin au #platonic marijon

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ah-ga-seven · 4 years

Text

Till’ The End of Summer - Chapter 8

>> series masterlist <<

Pairing: Choi Yeonjun x Reader

In a Nutshell: College!AU, Rich Kids, Friends to Lovers, Fuckboy athlete Yeonjun, Overprotective Best friend Soobin, contains all of TXT and other Idol cameos, Omnipresent perspective.

Synopsis: You and Yeonjun are caught up in a cat and mouse game because of unspoken feelings and endless pining for each others’ attention. With the summer break approaching and lots of college parties, will you finally get a chance to explore your feelings for each other; even though the world and Yeonjun’s reputation makes things complicated?

Word count: 4.8K

Genre: Angst.

Idol Cameos: BTS Namjoon, MAMAMOO Hwasa (Hye-Jin)

Warnings: Mentions of a broken family, abusive parents, conflict and death.

He studied her with a neutral facial expression. He tried his best not to give away any emotion with his eyes as he averted his attention to his uncle.

“You told her I was here?” Yeonjun asks calmly.

Namjoon looked at his nephew apologetically and sighed. “Jun, I’m sorry but I had no choice. I promised her I’d reach out if you ever contacted me.”

Yeonjun rolled his eyes, scoffing as he grabbed his keys out of his pocket as a sign that he was about to leave.

“It was a pleasure, but I have to go, thank you for your hospitality Hye-Jin noona,” he added as he kissed her cheek as a goodbye, but before he could make it out of the kitchen, his name was called once again.

“Yeonjun wait.” His mom cooed

Yeonjun turned around on his heels in annoyance, his calm and collected composure faltering a little as fire spewed from his pupils.

“What.”

“You don’t return my calls. Or respond to my text messages.” His mothers’ tone changed to a pleading one. She desperately needed him to listen to her, and Yeonjun was pretty sure he had never seen this type of emotion from her before, not towards him at least.

“Then you should’ve taken the hint,” he bites back arrogantly. “Now that I moved out of the house you suddenly want to pretend like you’re a mother? I’ll pass. What fancy dinner do you need me to attend now? Do I need to act like the perfect son again? Complete the image of a picture-perfect family for your stockholders?”

His mother was taken aback by his outburst. Yeonjun was never one to pick a fight, especially with her. She had to admit that she enjoyed the fact that he was sticking up for himself, but if the circumstances were different, she would have probably scolded him for acting up.

Yeonjun was getting more and more agitated as all of his bottled up emotions started to unravel. He knew he was being incredibly disrespectful and out of line, but he didn’t care.

He’d soon go back to never seeing her again, so what was the point in holding back.

“Yeonjun…” Namjoon’s tone altered to a much sterner one. “Hear her out.”

Yeonjun dramatically pulled out a chair and plopped himself down on it. He crossed his legs, resting his arm on the dinner table. “Let’s hear it then. What so god damn important for you to drive 6 hours in the dead of night to look me in the eye for?”

His mother sighed, fluttering her eyes shut in defeat as she shifted in her seat. “Your father is sick Yeonjun.”

It didn’t quite click to him what she meant by that, so he just deadpanned her in the eye, waiting for her to explain.

“Things aren’t looking good for him,” she explains. There wasn’t even a hint of sadness in her words.

Yeonjun knew that the only thing him and his mother had in common was the hate they shared for that man. Even though they both couldn’t stand him, she always took his side. She had to. The consequences were too high for her not to comply with her husbands’ wishes, but it’s not like she would tell Yeonjun that.

Deep down Yeonjun knew what this meant already. His dad had a history with heart disease, but somehow, he felt like his dad was something more of an invincible parasite. Somehow the worst types of people tend to live the longest. But if this means what he thinks this means, then that philosophy would quickly be invalidated.

“His condition is deteriorating fast Jun-ah.” Namjoon chimed in carefully, studying his nephew's body language.

Yeonjun was looking at his balled fists. He didn’t know how to feel towards this new information. His dad was dead to him a long time ago, but this hit differently.

He felt weird about it. No sadness, no guilt, he oddly felt like laughing at the irony of it all, but he was too dazed to react. He guessed that somewhere deep, deep, VERY deep down inside of him he wished for a better relationship with his father, so getting this type of confirmation that it would probably never happen was depressing to say the least.

He licked his pouty lips before deciding to make eye contact with his mom again.

She wasn’t sad either. She just looked back at him stoically, waiting for him to speak up.

“How long does he have left?”

“He’s been holding on longer than expected, so any day now I guess.”

Yeonjun didn’t expect such a straight forward response, and he certainly didn’t expect this short of a time frame.

His mother tried to study his emotions but then it clicked once more. She doesn’t know the boy that was sitting in front of her. She could pretend to know what he was feeling but she couldn’t. His frozen yet distressed state was heartbreaking to see as his pupils were darting back and forth. His mother knew that she was part of the problem on why he can’t deal with his emotions, and the realisation made her stomach turn in regret as she kept looking at him.

It’s not like she didn’t love Yeonjun, it’s more so that she didn’t know how to.

“He wants to see you,” she says breaking the silence.

“Why?”

“He wouldn’t tell me.”

Yeonjun stayed frozen in his seat. The awkward silence made the atmosphere even tenser than it already was. His mother, however, seemed to be just as unfazed. She gave him time to process and didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave either.

“Yeonjun…you literally just found out your dad is dying, you must be feeling something right now,” Namjoon says sitting down next to him. He patted his back in comfort, expecting him to either burst into tears, throw a tantrum, scream at them or all of the above. But he stayed calm, collected, icy, just like his mother.

“It’s not like he was up for father of the year,” Yeonjun mumbles, shaking Namjoon’s affectionate arm off of him. He didn’t want to be comforted; he didn’t want to hear any of this. Yeonjun didn’t need yet another thing to go wrong in his life right now.

What he did need was you. If anyone could make him feel something it was you, and only you.

He couldn’t even process last nights’ events and now he had to deal with a literal death in the family? Did the universe hate him or something?

He sighed throwing his head back as he rubbed his temples in agony.

“I know that this must come as a shock, and the issues with your girlfriend only fuel that fire, but I want you to know that our door is always open for you, you know that, right?” Hye-Jin says softly, sitting down next to Yeonjun on the opposite side of her husband.

Girlfriend huh? Damn, that stings.

“You have a girlfriend?” The tone of his mothers’ voice rose in surprise.

“Had,” Yeonjun says crossing his arms as he furrowed his eyebrows.

She really didn’t know him at all. She wanted to though, but she wasn’t sure how far she could go without scaring him off completely.

“How about we take a walk together?”

It was 9 AM and you were wide awake. You think you got a full 2 hours of sleep, but you weren’t sure since you were too busy tossing and turning.

Mia insisted on sleeping over, and you knew she would never take no for an answer, so you decided to just let her have her way.

Even though you wanted to be alone, you were also glad that you weren’t.

The talk you had last night with Mia made you feel much lighter.

Mia knew everything by now. She knew about how serious you and Yeonjun were about making things work, and how much you’ve come to care about him in such a short time.

Mia was uncharacteristically quiet throughout your whole conversation last night, but you didn’t think much of it, since this must all come as a shock and she probably needed some time to process.

You grabbed your phone to see a million messages from Soobin asking if you were okay and if Mia was with you.

You felt bad for ignoring him, knowing that he’d probably be worried sick about you two, so you texted him to come over.

It didn’t take long for him to get to your apartment, less than twenty minutes to be exact.

Mia was still sound asleep as your doorbell rang. You got out of the bed to open the door for Soobin, and were surprised to see Taehyun with him.

“Hey…” you say softly.

Soobin didn’t say anything. He just wrapped you into a tight hug and buried his face in your hair. Somehow you thought he was angry with you, but this wasn’t something an angry Soobin would do.

You melted into his embrace and suddenly you feel just how tired you really were, both mentally and physically. There were a lot of things left unspoken, and none of you knew where to start picking up the pieces.

He let go of you slowly and patted your hair. “It’ll be ok,” he assured.

You simply nod at his comment as Taehyun greets you with a hug as well. Soobin made his way into your room to wake Mia up from her immensely deep sleep while Taehyun and yourself sit down on the couch in your living room.

“Yeonjun hyung didn’t come home last night.” Taehyun says worriedly. “We’ve been trying to call and text him but his phone is off.”

Your head snaps up into Taehyuns direction and you see deep bags under his eyes that matched yours. “We’ve been up looking for him.”

You sigh, rubbing your forehead. “Where could he have gone?”

“We don’t know. We contacted all of his friends but no one has seen him.”

“I…I hope he’s ok,” you say thinking out loud.

“Mia, baby…wake up.” Soobin nudged her softly, he laced his fingers with his as he sat on the side of the bed.

Her lashes fluttered open slowly, she thought she was hallucinating for a second but when she felt his hand caress her cheek she sighed, slowly coming to her senses.

“Hi..”

“Never ignore me like that again.” Soobin says sternly.

He didn’t come to pick a fight, but she needed to know that the way she walked out in the middle of the night to look for you with no form of transport all while refusing to answer his calls was not done.

Not only did he have to worry about Mia, but about you and Yeonjun as well. “I understand that you felt like y/n needed you, but I needed you too. We could have at least gone together but you didn’t even give me a chance, you just stormed out.”

Mia bit her lip. She knew she was wrong, but it was more a spur of the moment type of decision.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just felt like the guys were ganging up in y/n,” she explained softly, holding on to his arm as he kept caressing her face sweetly.

She felt bad for ignoring him, seeing how worn out he looks right now she figured that they didn’t have any luck in finding Yeonjun.

She sat up, giving him a kiss on his cheek as she leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’m sorry,” she said nuzzling her face in his neck.

He sighed. “It’s ok, let’s just….find a way to fix this mess.”

Uncomfortable was an understatement for the silence between Yeonjun and his mother.

He decided to accept the offer of taking a walk around the block together. The clicking of his mother’s heels and the chirping of the birds in the trees was the only form of auditory stimuli to them being together, so she decided to change the previous topic.

“Do you want coffee? There’s a small coffee shop across the street.”

Yeonjun just nodded, awkwardly putting his hands in his pocket. They had to cross the street together but there was no zebra crossing or working traffic lights to regulate the oncoming cars.

Before his mother could step off the sidewalk to cross the road, Yeonjun protectively pulled her back as a reflex, making sure it was safe to cross.

Their relationship was complicated, but it’s not like he wanted her to be run over by a car.

She looked at him in surprise, taken aback by his touch and his manners.

Yeonjun sighed, sticking out his arm as a sign that she should link arms with him. She hesitated but complied anyway, knowing that he was probably trying to meet her halfway.

She expected Yeonjun to be a lot more hostile, quiet and reserved like he always was. She expected him to be more on edge and afraid to interact with her as he did before, but she figured he had matured a lot in the year that he spent away from her and his father.

He blossomed; it was evident. He was confident and manly. He was a lot more vocal about his feelings and found solace and happiness in being away from home.

It made her happy that he seemed to have found himself at this school, with his friends and even a potential girlfriend? She really thought Yeonjun would be a loner for the rest of his life given his quiet and obsessively hard working nature.

As they made their way to the small coffee shop. Yeonjun opened the door for his mom to walk in first.

She reluctantly let go of his arm, giving him small smile. “What do you want to have?”

“Something incredibly strong.” Yeonjun huffed.

“We should’ve gone to a bar then.” His mom joked light-heartedly, which earned a small smile from Yeonjun’s end.

“How about an iced Americano?”

“That’s fine.”

Yeonjun took a seat at the back of the café, it was busy despite the early hour. And somehow he was thankful that they weren’t alone. As he looked at his mother interacting with the barista, he suddenly felt super weird about the whole thing.

He’s having coffee with his mother.

With….his mother.

It was almost as if he was stuck in a dream of some sort. As if he was catapulted to a different reality where they got along and went on coffee dates every Sunday morning to catch up.

His mind trailed off into a day-dream. He started thinking of you again, of everything that had happened last night. Somehow it felt like it happened days ago, but before he could snap out of it himself, his mother returned with the drinks.

“Here you go, I told them to put in an extra shot of espresso.” She handed him the cold plastic cup as she sat down.

He looked up, returning to reality as he took the first sip of his much-needed caffeine boost.

“Thank you,” he says softly stirring around the straw.

“What were you thinking about?” she asked crossing her legs. She hated how she couldn’t read him, and how much he reminded her of herself.

Yeonjun made eye contact with her again and studied her face. Anyone could tell that they were mother and son. They looked like spitting images of each other and it was almost scary to see how she scrunched her nose as she took a sip of her still too hot coffee the same way he does.

“How weird this is,” he answered honestly.

“I wish it wasn’t,” she admits, putting down her cup, as she looks at him insinuatingly.

Yeonjun nearly choked on his coffee. He looked at her wide-eyed as he cleared his throat, trying to regain composure.

“What changed?” He questions genuinely confused at his mothers sudden confession.

“Your dad won’t be able to control me anymore,” she said with a bitter smile.

“I never got why you stayed with him.”

“I had no choice. I know you think that I didn’t care about you, but I stayed with him so I could keep an eye on you and for the sake of my family's company...”

“How does that make sense.”

“If we divorced, do you honestly think he would let me have custody of you? There is so much more on the line than you can imagine Yeonjun. It’s a matter of billions.”

Yeonjun sighed, getting more and more impatient with the constant vagueness to her words.

“The life of your son should be worth more than all the money in the world.” He bites back, his tone more venomous than he intended.

His mother was taken aback by his comment, but she understood his anger. How could she not?

“I admit that I should have tried harder to protect you from your father, but I was just as scared as you are. For what it’s worth…I’m sorry,” she says choking up a little..

Did he just hear that right? Was that an apology?

His eyes grew in size as he saw the brims of her eyes fill with tears.

“Don’t cry, stop,” Yeonjun says frantically reaching for a napkin, handing it to her.

She sighed, taking the napkin from him to dab away the liquid before it could ruin her make-up.

“It’s going to take time,” she says. “But I’ll try to change. I want to be in your life more, but only if you want me to.”

He bit his lip, absentmindedly playing with the straw of his drink. “I’ve been doing well without you and dad. I have made friends that are like family, I’m doing well with my studies and I’m even on the basketball team. I’ve never felt more at home in my life. I don’t want that to change and I can’t just forget about something I suffered through for 21 years of my life, I can’t just forgive you because you said you’re sorry. Even if dad is dying.”

His mothers’ shoulders fell in defeat, she was sure that he was going to cut ties with her after this, he had every right to, and she wouldn’t have done anything differently.

“But,” he starts. “I’m willing to come home with you for a while. I want to speak to him while I still can, and it doesn’t feel right for you to be alone when he…you know…”

She couldn’t believe her ears. She was happy that he was willing to do this and she realised it took great maturity from him that she didn’t even know he had.

She took his hand, surprising Yeonjun in the process at the sudden affection.

He sighed, squeezing her hand in comfort. He wasn’t sure if he was doing this for the right reasons or not. Of course, going home in a situation like this would be the natural thing to do, but he had to admit that this was the perfect reason to run away from all the drama here as well. Maybe if he went back home for the rest of summer, he could forget about you for a while, and focus on rebuilding the relationship with his mother and get some sort of closure with is dad before it was too late.

The four of you talked about last nights’ events for a while now, about why Yeonjun and you decided to hide your relationship, why you panicked and mentioned Wooyoung, and about what was said in the aftermath of the unfortunate kiss. It was almost like a full therapy session.

“I got sick to my stomach when he told me to go sleep with Wooyoung instead. I just…snapped. I don’t understand why he would go that far over something so stupid and out of my control. He was way out of line, and I realise that I never should have slapped him but I…he promised he wouldn’t hurt me and that’s exactly what he did.”

“He was scary. I haven’t seen him like that, ever.” Taehyun affirms.

Mia gave Soobin a look you couldn’t quite read, but you noticed it.

“What was that?” You say shifting your attention to them, narrowing your eyes in suspicion.

“Mia…” Soobin’s tone was warning her.

“She needs to know.”

“Know what?” you and Taehyun say at the same time.

Soobin sighed. “The night before the party, Yeonjun came home crying.”

“What?” you were shocked to say the least. It was the same night he left your house in a hurry with that dumb excuse, and the same night you snuck into their apartment when nothing seemed to be wrong with him.

He’s too good at hiding what he feels. And suddenly you start to doubt everything you know about him.

“Something happened, but he wouldn’t tell me what. He told me about his parents in more detail and…Ugh I shouldn’t say anything.” Soobin says suddenly stopping mid-sentence. "I promised him.”

“The circumstances are a little dire, don’t you think?” Taehyun says. “If it will help solve the situation then we need to know.”

You nodded in agreement and give Soobin a hopeful look.

He sighed in defeat. “His dad, he was abusive.”

“What?” Taehyun says in disbelief.

You couldn’t respond or compute. You just sat there zoning out to when Yeonjun told you that he didn’t have a good relationship with his parents, but this…you could have never imagined this.

“Take it from the one with a psychology major, Yeonjun probably reacted the way he did on purpose. I think he wants to protect you from himself. He pushed you away because he’s afraid he can’t give you stability since he’s never had it himself. Most abuse victims go through self-loathing and self-doubt to deal with their feelings. ” Mia says in all seriousness.

You look at her, angered at the fact that she didn’t tell you when you poured your soul out to her last night. You thought it was your fault that he snapped at you the way he did, and now she suddenly wants to play the psychiatrist?

“You knew, and didn’t tell me?” you looked at both Soobin and Mia, your voice was shaky but it was evident that you were upset.

Mia sighed, running her hand through her hair. “It didn’t seem like the right moment.”

“When is it ever the right moment? If I knew, I would’ve seen right through him. I could have talked some sense into him instead of literally hitting him in the face! Do you know how awful that makes me feel? I put my hands on him and you’re telling me his dad has been doing that to him his whole life!?”

You were raising your voice at them at this point, and you didn’t care.

Taehyun grabbed your hand to calm you down in response.

Mia closed her eyes at your loud voice and flinched. She felt sorry, but she felt like she did the right thing by waiting for Soobin to tell you.

“It wasn’t our secret to tell y/n.” Soobin says calmly.

He’s right. This wasn’t their fault, but you needed to blame someone. You sigh burying your face in your hands, trying to calm down as Taehyun softly patted your back. “It’s okay to be frustrated, but don’t take it out on us…we’re just trying to help. We want the best for both of you.”

“I’m just so tired of all of this,” you say choking back tears of frustration.

The silence was disturbed by the loud ringing of Soobin’s phone. It startled you and everyone looked his way.

“It’s Beomgyu,” he says staring at the screen.

“Well, pick it up, it could be about Yeonjun.” Mia says nudging him.

Soobin accepted the call immediately and put the phone on speaker.

“Hyung, Yeonjun is leaving,” Beomgyu says in a panic.

All eyes in the room turned to shock and confusion as all of you looked at each other

“What do you mean leaving?” Soobin says as he sits up, alerted, and stressed.

“He got home, he’s packing his bags, and he’s leaving. He said something is going on with his family but he wouldn’t say what and he also didn’t mention how long he’d be gone for.”

Mia and you look at each other in distress. What the fuck was going on? Why does everything seem to go wrong all at once?

Taehyun grabbed his phone and started typing frantically, you averted your attention from Soobin to him and saw that he was Googling Yeonjun’s family name and the company names to see if there was any news.

How did you never think of that? These people are loaded corporate people, the internet must be full of information about them.

“I’m coming home. Make sure he doesn’t leave before I get here,” Soobin says as he hangs up.

“Hyung, wait,” Taehyun says as his eyes widened. “Look.”

He turned the phone so everyone could see.

“Daniel Choi to step down from CEO position due to health concerns,” you read out loud.

“Health concerns?” Soobin says confused as ever.

“What does that even mean?” Mia huffs.

“The article didn’t go into detail, but if he has to step down from his CEO position then…I guess it’s serious,” Taehyun says making sense of it all. “The timing is just…terrific,” he adds.

“I’m worried about him,” you say under your breath as you nervously bite your lip.

Even though you’re still mad at him for the way he acted, the empathy you felt for him overshadowed your anger.

“Let’s go find him then,” Soobin says as he got up, grabbing his car keys and jacket. “Right now.”

Soobin slammed the car door and rushed upstairs with Taehyun, Mia, and yourself trailing behind him.

He opened their front door and was greeted by a defeated looking Hueningkai and Beomgyu, seated on the couch in silence.

“Where is he?” you say barging through the door.

“He left ten minutes ago; we couldn’t stop him.” Hueningkai sulks as he throws his head back on the couch.

“What did he say?” Soobin asks, sitting down next to Beomgyu, putting his hand on his shoulder to console him.

“He said he had a family emergency and that he didn’t know how long he’d be gone for.” Beomgyu pouts.

“If only we know where he lived.” Hueningkai says as he looks at Soobin.

As the rest of your friends start to come up with theories and discuss everything that has happened, you start to remember something you saw in Yeonjun’s room the night that you were trapped under his bed. It was unpacked box, and you were sure you saw his last name on the label.

Before you knew it, you were already on your way to Yeonjun’s room, which earned you both startled and confused stares from the rest of them.

The boys and Mia follow you to his room, and as you get down on your knees to reach for the box under his bed, the confusion on everyone's faces only multiplied.

“What…are you doing.” Beomgyu asks as he gets closer to you.

You ignore him, taking out the box and looking for the label you spotted. “Here, I think this is his home address,” you say pointing to the label.

Soobins eyes widened, he handed the box to Taehyun, the smart one, to inspect it further.

“The package is from Choi So Ra, I think that’s his mom. It also says Happy Birthday, so it must be from last year.” Taehyun says listing all his findings.

“Why didn’t he open it?” Hueningkai questions in confusion

“That’s not the point, If his mom sent this then we know where he's going!” Mia says excitedly.

“How did you even know it was there?” Beomgyu asks you, scratching the back of his head.

“I saw it when I was hiding from Hueningkai the night before the party,” you explain in slight embarrassment.

Hueningkai’s soul nearly left his body as the realization hit him on why Yeonjun was acting so strange that night. “You were here!?”

You shrug apologetically. Sitting down on Yeonjun’s bed.

You spot the ugly leopard coat on his clothing rack and your mind starts to fill with bittersweet memories.

How did everything go to shit so quickly when things were looking up for you guys?

“If that’s his address then…what are we going to do with it?” Beomgyu asks, sitting down next to you; looking at Soobin with his big doe eyes.

Soobin cleared his throat, taking the box from Taehyun.

“Everyone go pack your shit, we’re going on a road trip.”

Chapter 9

288 notes · View notes

klvbxlove · 3 years

Text

omg (kanji & yu x gn! reader)

a/n: Y’ALL OH MY GOD. i’ve been wanting to write this for the longest time but never got the chance to ‘cause i was busy with other stuff. but now, i finally got to it! although i had to stop on a few occasions ‘cause writing some of the scenes had me blushing LMAO (PLEASE I JUST WANT YU AND KANJI TO BE REAL WTF). oh yeah, and just to clarify, i don’t own the song featured in this drabble! it’s actually pretty catchy (and spicy *WINK WONK*), y’all should listen to it. it’s a shame it’s not available on spotify or any other music streaming services, tho 😭

(GOD DAMN IT I WISH THERE WAS MORE YU X KANJI GIFS ON TUMBLR *CRIES*)

reader type: gender-neutral

reader specification(s): none

genre(s): lime, romance

trigger warning(s): slightly suggestive content

summary: on a hot summer day, while cleaning your living room, you decided to dance to one of your favorite songs-- and having sinful images of yu and kanji in your mind.

song(s) featured: “omg” by itano tomomi

audio link

lyrics (romaji & english translation)

lyrics (kanji & kana)

word count: 1.6k words

♡ ♡ ♡ (ꈍᴗꈍ)ε｀*) ♡ ♡ ♡

key:

(e/c) = eye color (n/n) = nickname (y/n) = your name

♡ ♡ ♡ (ꈍᴗꈍ)ε｀*) ♡ ♡ ♡

君もカレも魅力的、OMG! 誰か一人なんて選べない試してみる? tasty 急に奪って今すぐに kiss me

The song hadn’t gone into a minute, yet you could already feel your hips swaying to the beat. You weren’t even sure if you were cleaning your living room right now. It was more of you being distracted by the catchiness of the song and just wanting to dance. Every once in a while, you would lip-sync to the lyrics. Pretending you were performing it on stage.

But this was the type of song you would only perform for your boyfriends, Yu and Kanji. A private show, if you could put it that way.

ふと目が行くその手つきにもう夢中肩のラインも SO GOOD 頭の中は君と make love make love

Due to the summer heat coming from outside, you turned on a fan to cool down. You could feel the air flowing your body and brushing up against your clothes (you were wearing a light, oversized shirt and one of Yu’s boxers. What? They were comfy!). But despite that, you could still feel some sweat rolling down.

You weren’t so sure if you were hallucinating, but you swore you saw Yu and Kanji in the same room as you. Shirtless. It was almost as if they were there (or it might be just the heat).

With their backs towards you, you watched as they were also cleaning the living room and getting more work done than you were. They were also affected by the heat, as there was sweat dripping off of them. At one point, Yu sighed and ran one of his hands through his gray hair as if he was getting tired already. You couldn’t blame him.

You also couldn’t blame yourself for subconsciously licking your lips. You really couldn’t get enough of your boyfriends. But the fact you got two of them instead of just one? You almost wanted to consider yourself lucky to be with such amazing men.

止まらない想像が伝わったらいいのに

Oh, yes. Your imagination has gone crazy over Yu and Kanji at random points.

This song spoke to you a lot!

こっちもそっちも捨てがたいの OMG! 早く早く私捕まえて胸の内は nasty シャイだから言えないの feel me

You didn’t find any point in continuing to clean the living room. There would always be another time for you to finish up. So instead, you let your body move to the beat of the song. You had memorized the choreography of the song out of pure boredom, and needless to say, it was your go-to dance. Especially when you couldn’t get Yu and Kanji out of your mind.

You almost didn’t want anyone to know about how nasty your mind was when it came to your boyfriends. Your imaginations belonged to them.

uh yea yea ah uh yea yea ah uh yea yea ah... oh, OMG! ×2

You waited for the perfect moment for the beat drop.

And then...

OMG! ×2

It came.

You loved this part of the song. You felt a sense of boldness flow through your body as you dropped to the floor and continued the dance. Your imagination must’ve gotten to you, but you were seeing steam emitting from the room.

And it just so happened that Yu and Kanji were sitting on the couch, watching you (They must’ve decided that cleaning would save for another day, as well). From a glance, you saw Yu smirking at you. Meanwhile, Kanji’s face was turning a light pink while he bit his bottom lip.

Feeling their eyes on you sent a tingling sensation in you. And it flew throughout your body when you laid on your back and lifted your legs in the air as you continued the dance (**).

At this moment, you felt free. So free. It almost felt like you were wearing nothing but your undergarments. The air conditioner was able to hit all the spots on your body, cooling you down. But still, it wasn’t enough to stop the heat that you were feeling. And it wasn’t because of the summer weather.

顔がタイプ uh uh なんだか気も合う uh uh 知性的なのも他の誰よりも like that, like that

Eventually, you got back up on your feet, but your body was still moving. All you could think about was how badly you wanted Yu and Kanji. Nothing else was your concern at this moment. You had no idea how long you could handle the wait for them, considering how they were still hanging out with Yosuke and Teddie.

2人きりだと時が速いの秘密のお泊まりあるかも

And considering how it was still afternoon, you could have your boyfriends all to yourself for the next few hours. The excitement was getting to you--

“Well, well. What a nice surprise we came home to see. Right, Kanji?”

‘OH SHIT.’

You swore your head could’ve been snapped off your neck by how fast you whipped it. Turning your head around, you saw your boyfriends standing in front of you. Yu had an amused look on his face, and Kanji was flustered. Almost similar to how they looked when you imagined them watching you dance.

“U-Uh, yeah. I guess,” Kanji mumbled as he swallowed a lump in his throat. He was already feeling something in the down area of his body, and there was no way he could ever try to hide it. At least only you would be able to see it. And Yu, too. Thank the heavens that Yosuke and Teddie (or God forbid, the girls!) weren’t there to see it, though!

Meanwhile, you stood there in your spot, not moving a single inch of your body. You certainly weren’t expecting your boyfriends to be home that quick. Let alone catching you dancing to quite a spicy song. Were you embarrassed about it, though? No, it was mostly you being in shock.

And it wasn’t as if you wanted them to catch you.

Yu chuckled. “Those were some interesting moves you got there, (Y/N),” he said. You felt like your eyes were about to widen from how his voice sounded (there was some lust behind it). “Never knew you were quite a good dancer until just now. Another nice surprise to discover, too.”

“It’s nothing, really,” you smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of your neck. “I just got obsessed with this song and wanted to learn the dance.”

“We’re still not gonna deny that you’re good at it, though,” Kanji pointed out. At this point, he was surprised he didn’t get a nosebleed after watching all of that. His eyes were practically glued onto you as he watched your body move to every beat of the song.

How you didn’t notice him and Yu walking into the house in the middle of your dancing session, Kanji didn’t know. Either way, he couldn’t let out the noise when he watched you get on the floor.

Unbeknownst to you, Kanji’s imagination also went crazy.

“Aww, thanks!” you smiled, then bit the inside of your cheek. A habit you did whenever you felt flustered.

“But don’t you think you’d be good at dancing upstairs in our bed?” Yu’s voice suddenly deepened. It almost sounded like he growled.

‘Wait, what--’

“E-Eh?” you tilted your head.

“Because I certainly think so,” the gray-haired male said before he slowly walked up to you and grabbed you by the waist, pulling you close. When you looked at him, he had a sensual look on his face. A look that always sends butterflies in your stomach.

You almost didn’t have the time to make a noise of surprise when Yu suddenly locked his lips onto yours. Your (E/C) eyes widened. But it wasn’t long before you gave back into the kiss. No matter how many times you’ve done this, you could never get enough of how Yu was a great kisser. It always had you melting.

In just a matter of seconds, Kanji walked up behind you and began to place kisses on the back of your neck. At the sudden touch, you let out another small gasp. Yu found the opportunity to slip his tongue in your mouth. He also slipped one of his hands under your shirt and caressed it using his thumb. You let out a small moan at his touch, and Yu smirked into the kiss.

But it certainly didn’t help (or you know what? Maybe it did!) when Kanji subtly sneaked his hand under your boxers and began to play with the hem of your underwear.

Oh God, you felt like the steam was starting to come back inside the room. For all you knew, you were probably in heaven. But this was sinful.

Yu eventually pulled away, and a string of saliva followed. With the smirk still plastered on his lips, he whispered, “I think it’s time we take (Y/N) upstairs to our bedroom and have them perform just for us. Isn’t that right, Kanji?”

Said boy looked at Yu and had the same smirk. “Hell yeah.”

And before you could say anything, Kanji lifted you into his arms and carried you bridal-style. It prompted you to let out a squeal.

Yu chuckled. “That’s a cute noise you made there, (N/N). Although, you’re cute all the time. And don’t go denying it.”

‘Oh, God damn it!’

“Damn right, they’re always cute!” Kanji agreed.

Yu nodded. “But enough talk about that. How about we head up to our room now? And don’t worry, (Y/N). We’ll take real good care of you, we promise.”

A clenching feeling was building up in your stomach, but there was also some excitement. So with a nod and a flustered face, you allowed Kanji to carry you upstairs with Yu following behind the both of you. You had the feeling you were going to be sweating a lot in the next few hours. Again, not just because of the hot temperature.

Not that you minded.

(**) if you watch the music video for the song and go to the 1:37 timestamp, you’ll see the move i’m referencing (i’m not a dancer so i’m not good at explaining dance moves LOL). here’s the link if you wanna watch it. but as an fyi, it’s quite short.

#persona 4 #persona #persona 4 x reader #persona 4 imagines #persona imagines #kanji tatsumi #yu narukami #fanfiction #persona 4 golden #p4g #yu narukami x reader #kanji tatsumi x reader #various x reader #oneshot #kristin's writings

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wsstandsfor · 2 years

Text

Notes: Handlers Alek & Bogdan

To understand Jakob’s early years, we have to talk about Alek. I have a bunch of outline/notes and...It’s not coming together in a ficlet form. So here we go!

[Department X is not a nice place to grow up. References to indoctrination, torture, etc. involving a child. Nothing graphic.]

First impressions of a tall 4 year old (the boy) and a very put-together man (Alek). Also an older man who looks like he'll kick your ass and who has done Hard Time (Bogdan).

Lots of questions. Why is Bogdan’s skin is like that and he doesn’t mean the scars. "Those are tattoos. He got them for many reasons." Why can't I meet people? "Because you are young." What's the real world like? "Very chaotic." Are you my dad? "No." Is Bogdan my dad? "No. We can be your uncles though." Oh. Okay.

The kid soaks in knowledge like a plant does the sun. Alek becomes soft on him. Much like Bogdan was to Alek. Very calmly answers any questions, checks his homework, encourages him. Hair ruffles and hugs when he passes a test.

Bogdan is the one who shows The Boy the lab where all the cloning/IVF stuff is. "If you don't shape up kid, they'll replace you. So you got to listen good! They'll replace us first. We're all expendable to Mother Russia." Which makes Boy cry and Alek yell. It's a hard lesson but a necessary one.

Alek names the Boy Wolf Spider when he's 7. The boy is getting antsy. Kid stuff, really. Wanting more and more challenges. The reckless streak is jumping out. His designation has always been Boy or ЗС 2.0. They're on English that week and Alek makes the joke that changes the Boy's life. "WS 2. The WS must stand for Wolf Spider." WS-2 has seen footage of Constantin, along with the other Department X successes (or near successes, in Constantin's case). A warning to not be reckless. To remain human.

He takes it to heart. A focus for his life. For more than just existing. Not only to be the best asset the State needs, now that Winter Soldier has been taken from them. But to be better than Constantin. To prove the Wolf Spider Program has value. They call him Spiderling when he needs support. When the tests go for too long or he struggles or he's frustrated.

Alek smells of citrus and tea; Bogdan smells of leather and smoke. The only time Spiderling has seen Alek rumpled is when he broke into his room at 03:00 because he just got back from a survival mission. He learns hand-to-hand, weapons, studies everything he can about the world he can't be a part of. Learns how to hack computers.

They indoctrinate him the old fashioned way. Positive words about the country. The Soldier, the Widows, and the Guardians. How he's continuing a time-honored tradition. The brothers know it's all bullshit. The State wants an assassin and are trying not to make a psychopath in the process. Bogdan doesn't really care that they'll break the kid down. Alek though. Alek's attached. He's worried about the long-term effects of sensory deprivation, social and physical isolation, and whispers of electrical shock 'therapy' will have on the Asset. The Asset. Such a cold name for a 9 year old. Already, the quiet, white rooms give the boy nightmares. Hallucinations.

The Boy screams when he can't find Alek. Found Bogdan dead. Heart attack. Had a terrible ticker, all his life. [It was fixed, when Bogdan became an employee. It was a job.] Storms into the Project Lead's office.

Lead says Alek is gone. Boy holds up a gun he stole from the armory and tells him to give him back. Can't pull the trigger. Safety's off, finger's on the trigger. So he tosses it aside and tries to punch. Same thing. Lead smells rich. Cloying aftershave. Explains the chemical lock and key. He can't ever raise a hand against the Lead.

Oh and that scent Alek wore was to make him like him. The Wolf Spider name was a joke against him. [These are both lies.]

He stews over this in sensory isolation for a week. The longest he's been in there before. Vows to never trust anyone again. To toe the line. But it's a game. He's good at games. How far can he rebel. Push back. If they can replace him, he may as well be as expensive of a mistake to replace.

#clone brat #test tube brat #headcanons #alek golubev

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milfsthings · 2 years

Text

I posted 1,476 times in 2021

185 posts created (13%)

1291 posts reblogged (87%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 7.0 posts.

I added 395 tags in 2021

#bellatrix black - 66 posts

#narcissa black - 60 posts

#bellatrix lestrange - 55 posts

#bellatrix x hermione - 40 posts

#alcina dimitrescu - 36 posts

#narcissa malfoy - 35 posts

#bellamione - 35 posts

#lady alcina - 26 posts

#lady dimitrescu - 22 posts

#tall vampire lady - 20 posts

Longest Tag: 65 characters

#the fact that hermione looks like she's holding a tiddy is better

My Top Posts in 2021

You know what, Donna doesn't get enough love, so here is a headcannon about if Reader were to date Donna, because I'm gay and her h a n d s a r e h o t, asks are open if anyone has headcannon ideas

You would have to get used to all the dolls, and as much as you hate them, you never say anything to avoid hurting her feelings. Donna also tries to ensure there are rooms for you (including your shared bedroom) that is doll free.

Although you never express your dislike to them, she still knows.

Whenever she's in her little study or just sitting reading or doing work, you always like to crawl into her lap, and she always loves when you do it, she loves keeping you close

Although she's more quiet and laid back, you both still find things to do together, even if it's just reading in quiet.

You convince her to deal with that nasty peeling wallpaper

You tend to wake up to find she is gone, off doing some reading or for her dolls, but when she does stay in bed till you wake up, you're always happy to wake up in her arms, always happy to feel her amazing fingers playing with your hair

She always stays closed off to you, but when she does start telling you about her past, telling you about stories of her life, you sit quietly and listen. You learn something new each time!

You're always shocked by how soft and gentle she can be with you

The first time you saw her without her mourning garb, you were amazed by how beautiful she was. She was a bit shocked you weren't disgusted by her scar and her eye.

But after that, you saw her with it off more and more. You NEVER failed to remind her how beautiful she looks, which always seemed to make her flustered.

As she got more comfortable with you, she relied on Angie less and less to speak with you

You also started to try and help her through everything she was going through, and she always feared that you were going to leave her.

You do try to do fun things with her to keep her cheered up, you'll dance around the house with her, trying to be silly. She does laugh, she doesn't join in as much as you do, but you know she's still having fun.

When she isn't feeling well, feeling down, she likes to rest her head on your chest, keeping you in a hug as she talks to you about everything on her mind.

You're the person she trusts the most, and she becomes very protective of you.

You both start warming up to each others interests, and every time you ask her about her dolls or her about her pollen that causes hallucinations, her eyes always light up, it's always adorable!

410 notes • Posted 2021-05-10 16:52:38 GMT

It's not the best but bone apple tea

462 notes • Posted 2021-05-20 21:54:25 GMT

Donna's probably the freakiest, like imagine if the Lords were playing never have I ever, and Karl, to try and embarrass Alcina says something really damn kinky/freaky, and Donna just casually takes a drink to say she has

All the Lords just look at this woman like

👁👄👁

475 notes • Posted 2021-05-10 02:33:09 GMT

Alcina is the wine mum

Karls the Vodka uncle

And Donna's the weed aunt.

695 notes • Posted 2021-05-24 17:02:26 GMT

929 notes • Posted 2021-05-24 22:47:13 GMT

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aestheticfangirl · 3 years

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FAIRY-TALE LOVE ♡

*One Shot*

PAIRING : DINO X READER

WORDS : 2k

TROPE : BEST FRIENDS, SOFT, CRUSH , SCHOOL

I looked at him again and he is still the same. I know he is way out of my league that’s why I don’t even try talking to him. I am already so bad at conversations. Thank goodness I can catch a glimpse of his everyday as his practice studio is exactly opposite to the cafeteria. Looking at him dancing is the best part of my day.

He finished his practice and then I got up to leave when suddenly out of nowhere a basketball hit me and I fell on the ground. I was unconscious. When I got up I am inside a room full of mirror and then my eyes met his. Damn where have I landed. I tried to get up and he supported my back

“Are you okay ?” he asked. His voice is also mesmerizing as his dancing is.

I couldn’t say anything so I just nodded.

“That’s good then are you hurt anywhere?” his voice was full of concern. I started feeling heat in my cheeks. I looked down I can’t let him see how flushed I was.

“Yeah I am okay, I should better leave it’s already pretty late.” I said in one breathe I can’t get more embarrassed and I have to go as soon as possible.

“Oh okay then as you wish.” He said and helped me stand up and when he loosened his grip I felt the pain in my ankle. I guess I sprained it.

“It seems like you sprained your ankle. Let me help you to your place.” What! He will take me with him to my house.

I spoke as fast as possible,” no it’s okay I can manage I can go home by myself.”

He was stubborn. He replied,” no I can’t I know how much ankle sprain pains moreover my work is all done so I am on my way home I can drop you easily.”

I don’t know how to counter this. So I didn’t say anything. He started packing up his things and then came to help me.

He put his arms around me supporting me to walk but my ankle was hurting so bad I couldn’t even stand properly let alone walk.

He sighed,” this won’t work. Give me your bag and let me give you a piggyback ride.”

I was shook. What he is gonna carry me on his back. Is this some kind of a dream? I was lost in thoughts when he spoke again waving his hands in front of my face.

“Are you there? Give me your bag; it’s already getting dark so we should better leave before we get locked in.”

I handed him my bag. My heart was pounding so much as if it will burst out of me. When he suddenly lowered and told me to climb on his back. I was so nervous but I didn’t have any option.

It really was feeling like a dream your one and only crush is giving you a piggyback ride is no less than a fairy tale.

We were going when he started the conversations,” I am Lee Chan but people calls me Dino so you can call me that too. What’s your name?”

“Y/N” I said only that much I was scared I might embarrass myself again.

He replied,” that’s a lovely name. By the way don’t you talk much? Why are you so silent I am blabbering since we met. “

I smiled he is way too sweet.

He made some small talks till we reach my room he left me there gave me his number and told me to contact him everyday till I get better. I am blushing so hard since he left. I mean how couldn’t I. he is my longest crush and we became friends it’s like my dream came true.

I was thinking about him looking at his picture when I fell asleep with my phone on my hand.

[ NEXT DAY]

I reached late in school and our professor clearly told us if we are late to class he won’t allow us. So I decided to spend my time in the cafeteria reading and also I have skipped breakfast so I thought of eating something.

I ordered a burger and a coke and took it to sit in my corner seat as usual when I heard someone calling my name.

“Y/N, hey!!” it was Dino. His cheerful voice already made my face brightened up. He reached me with his breakfast.

“Hi Dino.” I said smiling.

He came and sat in front of me with is breakfast and spoke,” did you also skipped your breakfast. But I am glad you did, it made us meet again. And how is you ankle now?”

“Yeah I kind of woke up late so I had to skip breakfast and yeah I am quite good now.” I managed to say this much thankfully.

“Thank God you are okay now and why didn’t you call me I told you to call me “he pouted.

“I am fine now. And I was feeling better so I didn’t called you.” I started eating my food.

He then spoke,” Actually I might be a little clingy with you cause I really want to be friends I don’t have any friends and all my friends were my seniors who already graduated and since then I started feeling lonely so can we be friends ?” his eyes were beaming with happiness.

I was looking at him surprised and my mouth full of food. He asked me to be his friend. I need someone to pinch me is this happening for real. I am going to be friends with THE LEE CHAN, whom I secretly crushed upon since my first day here. Without receiving any answer he shook my arm. I got out of my thoughts and nodded while smiling. I shouldn’t let him see me blushing.

He squeaked in happiness,” Yeah I finally got a friend.”

I looked at him he was then munching his food happily. Looking at him made my heart flutter and also nervous. He just wanted us to be friends then will I be able to hide my feelings.

[TIME SKIP TO 4 MONTHS]

It’s been a few months since Dino and I became friends and it is really getting difficult for me to control my feelings. The way he put his arms around me makes my heart flutter but I can’t even do anything. I don’t want to spoil our friendship cause of my stupid feelings. Moreover it’s almost time for the end of the school I am sure I won’t cross paths with him so it’s better to hide my feelings now. But to be honest it is really painful.

We were sitting at the bench where we spend most of our evenings after his practice and were discussing what we want to do after school. He was looking a bit upset since a week but whenever I ask him what happened he usually shrugs it off saying nothing. Even he is acting a bit weird. He straightway ignored me for three days then came back normal. I am getting anxious thinking did he figured out how I feel and is it because of that he is kind of ignoring me. But again if he is ignoring me why is he worried what I ate or not I guess I am thinking too much.

He broke the awkward silence between us,” Hey Y/N I never asked you this but I am curious , umm… do you like anyone ?”

I choked on the air I was breathing I mean did he really figured out how I feel what is this sudden interrogation. I nodded a yes. I don’t want to lie to him though.

He looked disappointed but why is he. I asked him the same question. He nodded too. I guess now I got a reason to move on.

He replied,” I liked her since a few months you know she was there when no one was with me. When my day ended and I was super exhausted she was there to cheer me up and give me strength. I never knew my liking will soon change into love but I guess I am not that lucky in this case.”

I wanted him to stop I can’t take it anymore I can’t listen him talking about someone with such affection and care I know I shouldn’t feel this way but I am feeling utterly jealous now. I wanted to leave I can’t fight my tears back. I want to vanish right now.

“ I wish I would have told her a little sooner maybe then I could have called her mine now.” He stopped then again spoke,” I am feeling really jealous for the guy she likes I wish I can steal her away what do you think?” he looked at me with his puppy eyes.

I tried not to cry and spoke,” If you really love her that much then steal her away. At least tell her so that you won’t regret later on. If she rejects you then you can move on and if she accepts then it’s great.”

I was giving him these advices which I should have also tried but no I am not that brave. I can’t take it anymore so I got up and about to leave,” OK Dino I am leaving I remember I have some work so bye will see you later.”

I didn’t even gave him a chance to speak I can’t hold my tears anymore they started falling on my cheeks I can’t turn back if I will then I will destroy everything and suddenly I was stopped he was holding me back by my wrist.

“Why are you leaving let me complete Y/N.” he said and came forward and damn he saw me crying.

“Why are you crying did I hurt you in any way I am sorry what happened please don’t cry.” He was extremely worried I looked at him and then again started leaving when I was stopped by him again.

“Okay please listen to me once and then leave I can’t bottle it up inside me anymore, you know the girl I was talking about earlier don’t you want to know who is she?”

I was looking at him with teary eyes okay I will listen to him and then I will vanish it might help me move on.

“It’s you.” He paused.

Did I hear it correctly or am I hallucinating. He again spoke,” I liked you since the day I met you but I couldn’t be brave and tell you so I was pretending and then I fell in love with you it became difficult for me to be with you while hiding my feelings. So I ignored you but then I couldn’t live without you so I decided to tell you but I didn’t know you like someone. I know I stand no chance and I don’t expect you to reciprocate my feelings it’s just to let you know how I feel.”

Before he could say anything I started crying badly kneeling down he too came on his knees and hugged me and was comforting me,” I am sorry Y/N I didn’t mean to hurt you this much I am really sorry don’t cry please it’s breaking me to see you cry please I will go away if you want.”

I was holding him tightly and spoke feebly,” you didn’t hurt me Chan it’s because I am happy beyond any measure cause I love you too. I liked you since the first day I laid my eyes on you but I thought you were out of my league and then we became friends. I thought of many times to tell you but then I thought you don’t like me and I thought it might destroy our friendship. And when earlier you said you like someone this much it hurt me so bad that I couldn’t resist so I was leaving. But it feels like a dream Chan I really love you and-“I was then suddenly stopped as his lips crashed on mine.

He was still holding me tightly and the way he kissed I felt fireworks everywhere. I never knew I would see this day when my one true love asked me out. I found my forever prince charming and I guess fairy tales do exist.

#Seventeen #seventeen ff #dino svt #lee chan #one shot #kpop #fanfiction #fanfic #kpop fanfic

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justauthoring · 4 years

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No Reason To (35/50)

Prompt: “And I guess… when it comes down to it, I trust you.”

It has come to my attention that by adding links to my posts, it stops that post from being seen in the tags tagged. So, sadly, I will no longer be able to tag previous parts of NRT on new chapters. BUT all part can be found easily on my “No Reason To Series MasterList!”

A/N: So, here it is ladies and gents. Finally the thirty-fifth chapter to NRT. And what better way to kick it off with a chapter OVER TEN THOUSAND WORDS LONG???

I’m literally gonna be so bummed out if this barely gets any attention, but i’m trying to prepare myself for it. Anyways, I have to admit, it was hard given that it’s been so long since I wrote for this series and i’d forgotten A LOT of things but I found my mojo and my inspo and because of came the longest chapter to date. So, please, enjoy!

However, the more comments and response I receiver from chapters will inspire me to write more frequently. It was one of the reasons why I took such a long break – because it felt like no one cared about this series anymore. So, i’m hoping that people still do.

Send me a little comment in the ask section or leave it below on what you thought of this chapter. As usual, I hope you all enjoyed!

AGAIN, remember if you’d like me to continue this series, just leave a little comment or an ask letting me know. I will NOT continue the series if no one wants me to.

Please don’t plagiarize my work - I spend a lot of my time writing, copying and pasting destroys that. If you want to repost my work. please ask first - but even then I might say no.

Pairing: Stiles x McCall!Reader

Based off of: Teen Wolf 05x08, 05x09 & 05x10

“Stiles?”

“Y/N, thank God--!”

An immediate bout of relief floods you at the sound of Stiles’ voice, pulling your hand away from your mouth to stop the way you’d nervously been chewing at your nails and glancing around aimlessly. Your heart is still pounding erratically against your chest, frightened from all that had happened in less then twenty-four hours.

You can’t get the image of Scott shoving a sword through your stomach out of your mind. Even if it had been... well, you still weren’t sure what it was; a hallucination of some sort. Something. But even if it hadn’t been real, you couldn’t seem to calm down.

And right now, all you wanted to do was see Stiles.

“I just got a dispatch, they’ve taken--”

“Kira into custody,” you cut in, nodding to yourself. “Kira called Scott, he’s on his way to check up on her now.”

You hear, though through static, Stiles’ let out a breath of relief at your words. And silence seems to hang in the air afterwards, because while Stiles’ breath of relief is justified, you can’t seem to feel the same. Everything had gone to absolute shit so quickly.

“Y/N?”

Letting your eyes fall shut, you’re thankful that even through a cellphone, Stiles just seems to know. Just know something’s wrong. Because truth be told you weren’t exactly sure how you were supposed to tell him that Scott’s plan had gone anything but well and now, Liam and Hayden were God knows where and there was absolutely no way to track them because there was no scent to track.

“Liam and Hayden, they, um... the Dread Doctor’s got them,” you breathe, voice shaky. “The plan failed. They tricked us, all of us, and now... now they’re gone and Scott and Malia can’t find them because there’s no scent to track.”

The silence echoes for a while longer. You can hear Stiles’ breath spike as you explain, as the weight of everything, the entire situation, seems to dawn on the both of you. And neither of you are sure what to say.

All Stiles’ manages is an echoed; “Jesus...”

Swallowing thickly, you bite your lip, forcing back your tears. It was time to gather yourself. Now wasn’t the time to be acting like this; afraid. Liam and Hayden needed you, and the first ridiculous plan is what got them in trouble in the first place. You refused to fail them again.

“Scott told me to call you,” you speak up, trying your best to steel your voice. “He wants everyone to meet at our place. Come up with a plan.”

“Okay,” Stiles echoes and you can imagine him nodding. “Okay, um, okay. I’ll be there. And I’ll... I’ll bring Theo.”

You hum your agreement; “we need all the help we can get.” Then, pausing just a moment more, you add; “i’ll meet you there?”

“Yeah, yeah, i’ll meet you there.”

You move to hang up, but then Stiles’ calls out for you once more, eliciting a light hum from your lips as you press your phone up against your ear. “Yeah?” You respond lightly, playing with the hem of your shirt. “What’s up?”

“I love you.”

Blinking at his words, you for some reason realize that out of everything that wasn’t what you’d expected Stiles’ to say. You can’t make sense of why the thought wouldn’t cross your mind. But, his words help ease you, even just a little, and you feel your lips curl into a soft smile, glancing down at your feet.

“I love you too, Stiles.”

You turn at the sound of your front door opening, eyes falling on your brother.

He walks in with determination, never faltering in his step, even as Stiles calls out; “hey, is Kira okay?” Your brother just simply ignores him, walking past you, Malia, Stiles and Theo without even as much as blinking a glance towards you all.

Your brows furrow at him, watching as he makes his way to the stairs.

“Scott?” Theo calls, puzzled.

Meeting Stiles’ eyes, you shrug at the look he sends you, the first one to follow after your brother and rush up the stairs. It’s clear he’s headed to where Lydia and Mason are helping Corey get started with reading the book. And your chest tightens with worry on what you fear he’s planning on doing.

Your thoughts are only confirmed when you find Scott digging his nails into the back of Corey’s neck, eyes glowing a bright red.

“Don’t get too close,” Lydia warns.

You shuffle forward when you feel Theo rush up behind you, stepping closer to Stiles to give the former room to catch in on what’s happening. As you glance back at him, you notice the way his brows furrow in confusion, turning to you. “What’s he doing?”

“Tapping into Corey’s memories,” you explain, turning to your brother with a frown. “It’s usually something only Alpha’s do.”

Theo walks past you, until he’s directly behind Scott. Your eyes narrow slightly, just a little, at the look in his face as he regards what your brothers doing. There’s interest in his gaze and he almost seems fascinated by what Scott’s doing, but it’s the question that leaves his lips that concerns you, just a little. “Is it as dangerous as it looks?”

“Probably more,” Stiles sighs.

“Does anyone know if it’s working?”

Mason’s question is left unanswered.

But the silence only lasts so long before Scott lets out a gasp, and a bout of panic floods you. With wide eyes, you watch as Scott yanks his hand back, stumbling back on his own feet. Stiles’ rushes forward, so do you, helping catch Scott before he falls back as Corey rushes up to his feet, Lydia helping him similarly as you and Stiles help Scott.

“Is he okay?” Scott rasps, leaning against the dresser in his room, short breathed.

“What the hell did you do to me?” Corey asks, voice pitched in panic. Glancing back at him, you frown as he touches the back of his neck, clearly distraught with everything that had happened.

Scott braces himself, gripping the edge of the dresser and breathing out; “you’ll be all right.”

Lips parting, you turn to Scott in surprise.

“There’s blood,” Corey whimpers.

“You’ll heal.”

“Hey, Scott--” You move forward, to reach for Scott, but he slaps your hand away, turning to you with narrowed eyes.

“He’ll be fine!” He bellows, dismissing you and anything else you’d been about to say. You take a step back at his outburst, trying to hide the hurt on your face as you meet Lydia’s gaze before glancing down at your feet. “Listen...” Scott pants, “I think it worked. I saw something.” Grabbing a sketch pad from his dressed, Scott continues to explain himself whilst mapping it out. “There were tunnels. Pipes along the walls. There were these huge blue pipes at the entrance. Two on both sides.”

Shuffling forward, Stiles’ glances over Scott’s shoulders; “I know this,” he mumbles, shaking his head. “I’ve seen this before.”

“Where?” You question, pulling Stiles’ eyes on you.

“It’s one of the tunnels I used to skateboard in,” Stiles explains, nodding. Then, he turns to Scott. “Remember, my dad caught me one time and told me to never go back?”

“It’s the water treatment plant,” Lydia identifies.

“That’s where they are,” Scott breathes, “that’s where we’ll find Liam and Hayden.”

“Scott. Scott! Just slow down and think for a minute, Mason shouldn’t be going.”

“Liam’s my best friend,” Mason instantly argues, stepping past Stiles and crossing the distance over to Scott without a moments of hesitation. “I’m going.”

“Oh,” Stiles scoffs, “did you suddenly get super wolf powers? I wasn’t aware of that development.”

Swallowing thickly, you glance at Scott before turning to Stiles, biting your lip.

“Well,” Scott shrugs, gesturing to Mason, “if you’re not going, I could use the help.”

“No, I’m coming,” Stiles huffs, “just as soon as I talk to my dad. They’re moving the body and he wants to make sure that this time no one steals it.”

“How’s he gonna do that?”

“I don’t know. But whoever took the last one was strong enough to flip my Jeep.”

Glancing amongst everyone, you shrug; “we can bring Theo,” you suggest, gesturing before yourself. Theo meets your eyes in surprise at your suggestion, before turning to Scott who waits patiently for him to agree.

“Maybe I better stay here,” Theo shrugs, shaking his head. “You know, in case the Doctors decide to make a house call for Corey.”

“Scott,” Lydia calls, “Stiles is right. We need to slow down and think.”

“I am thinking... about how Liam and Hayden could already be dead.”

Lydia’s eyes widen and she says, quickly, with no hesitation; “you could’ve hurt him, Scott.” And her words hang in the air because no one can deny that what she says is true. And that what Scott had done was way out of line. “Really hurt him.”

Shaking his head, Scott shuffles back; “I have to find Liam.” And then he turns, moving towards the door. Malia and Mason are quick to follow after him but before you can do the same, Stiles steps towards you, reaching out for you.

“Hey, text me. For anything.”

You nod without hesitation; “got it.”

“Anything at all, okay?”

Just about to turn out the door, few steps behind the rest, you nod once, this time rushed. “Of course!”

You keep close behind Scott, your gaze concentrated on anything and everything that could be a hint to where Liam and Hayden are.

You don’t have the advantage of scent-tracking like Scott or Malia, but it’s clear it might not be doing as much help anyway if the looks on Scott and Malia’s faces are anything to go by. You feel like you’re in a maze, taking turns left and right but having no idea where you’re actually headed.

It’s the blind leading the blind.

Pausing next to Malia, you catch her gaze before she looks out before herself; “Liam!” She calls, and her voice echoes amongst the tunnels, but there’s no response.

“I have a feeling this is gonna take a while.”

“Liam! Hayden!”

Brows furrowed, you shake your head at the once again lack of response. All you can hear is the echoing calls from the rest, but not from Liam or Hayden as you take random lefts and rights that never seem to lead to anything.

Taking another left, your heart leaps for the millionth time in hope that you’ll manage to find something, anything, that can be a clue. But of course, your hope is misplaced and lost the second you realize there’s nothing more special about this hallway then the rest. However, you do catch sight of Scott, Malia and Mason that have already regrouped, probably from stumbling into each other, as their gazes fall on you.

Sighing, your shoulders drop as you make your way over to them; “it feels like we’re running around in circles.”

Scott nods, “we need to make sure we’re not covering the same area.” He pants, breath laboured. Your brows furrowed when you notice the rasp to his breath, and it’s a sound you’ve heard many times however not in a long time.

“Scott,” you call, concerned. Taking a step towards him, you set your hand on his shoulder, glancing around at the rest.

Mason meets your eyes with a nod; “he needs his inhaler,” then, turning to your brother, he gestures; “right--?”

“Shh!” Scott cuts in, not letting any of you speak again as he tilts his head, shrugging your hand off of him. You let your hand fall by your side with parted lips, eyes narrowed as you hold your breath in anticipation. “I hear something,” he continues, breath still heavy.

“It’s just the lights, isn’t it?”

Scott shakes his head, eyes narrowing in concentration. However, he doesn’t explain anything to the three of you, shrugging off any questioning looks and choosing to ignore them as he steps forward. “Come on, this way.”

Pressing a hand against your chest, you lean forward, trying to ignore the burn that settles right in the middle.

“I’m telling you guys,” Mason breathes, shaking his head as he turns to face you. “We’ve been down this one before.”

“We’ve been down every one!” You argue, unable to stop the pitch in your voice as you meet your brother’s gaze. With distraught and panic, you feel your determination fading as you huff; “we’re getting no where.”

Scott pauses at your words, silent for a moment before he huffs; “what the hell are we doing? We’re running up and down this place. Up and down tunnels.” The burn in your chest seems to fade to the back of your mind when you register the wild panic in Scott’s eyes, slowly straightening out as he gestures around himself in frustration and loss. “And there’s no way... there’s no way that we’re gonna find...” His breath starts to labour again, wheezing.

“Scott,” Malia calls, “you need your inhaler.”

He just shakes his head.

“Scott, this isn’t a joke,” you snap, your voice thick with worry. “Use it. Use your inhaler.”

He falls to his knees, his legs giving out from beneath him as a spike of panic floods you. Crouching down before him, you ignore his arguing and the way he tries to fight off your hands, reaching into the pocket of his jacket and pulling out his inhale. Pressing it against his lips, you nod with encouragement as you press down on the top, him taking in a deep inhale. With that, you pull back, hovering next to him and watching carefully.

Your chest eases when he lets out a eased, full breath.

He meets your eyes, just briefly, before glancing down at his feet. “This is all my fault.” You glance up at the rest at his words, for once, not sure what to say to reassure your own twin. “We’re never going to find them. It’s my fault.”

“Scott,” Mason calls, and your eyes fall on his hand, the way he holds it out towards your brother, palm up and inviting. You lean back as Scott slowly turns to him, turning to Malia who helps pull you up to your feet once more. But never once do you look away from Scott.

He glances up at Mason in confusion, to which he just nods.

And slowly, Scott sets his hand in Mason’s own, letting him pull him up to his feet.

“We should keep looking,” Mason reassures, “we should keep trying.”

When Scott turns to you, you don’t hesitate to nod, smiling softly.

A genuine smile falls on your lips at the sight of Liam and Hayden, safe, sat together on the couch. All that mattered to you was that they were safe.

It didn’t matter to you that in the end, you, Mason, Malia and Scott hadn’t been the ones to save them. And you were more than thankful that Theo had, that he was able to figure out something you all couldn’t and get to them before something worse than what had happened did. And in the end, you know that you had tried your best.

Your smile brightens as Lydia steps forward, draping a blanket over the pair that sleep a, you think, well deserved sleep on the couch.

Then, out of the corner of your eye, you notice a figure approach you, pulling your eyes on Theo who makes his way over to you. You step towards him with ease, accepting his embrace as he wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you close.

However, as your head falls into the crook of his shoulder, you finally catch a good look at Scott. And the look on his face.

The way he watches on, the way he glances at the back of Theo with some sort of distant, jealous look. Or rather not jealous, not completely at least. He almost looks afraid. But you couldn’t understand why; not when Liam and Hayden were sleeping peacefully and safely directly next to him.

Biting your lip, you frown.

“I said I don’t wanna talk about it, Stiles.”

“Yeah, I know.” Stiles huffs, rushing to catch up with you after you’d let the doors to the school practically slam shut in his face. Glancing around him at the few pairs of eyes you’d manage to catch the attention of do to your outburst, Stiles’ inhales sharply, shaking his head. “Just slow down. Let me talk to you, please.”

Catching you by the arm, Stiles’ halts your steps, pulling you back and spinning you around so you’re facing him. You let him do so, surprising Stiles when you don’t fight against his grip. Instead, you simply cross your arms over your chest, letting him guide you away from the middle of the hallway and towards the side, tucked into a corner where less eyes and ears can pray on your conversation.

Easing his grip a little bit, so it’s a little less forceful, Stiles’ shakes his head down at you, his eyes pleading with you. “You woke up screaming, Y/N.”

“Yeah,” you huff, avoiding Stiles’ gaze as you turn your head to the side, jaw clenched. “And it wasn’t the first time I ever had, nor do I think it’ll be the last time.” Pausing, you shake your head, meeting Stiles’ gaze with certainty and without fault; “i’m fine, Stiles.”

“No,” he argues, adamantly shaking his head. He steps towards you when you move to walk off, hastily moving to block and holding his hand towards you. When you glare up at him, he simply just shakes his head, desperation in his gaze. “No, it was different. There was something different about it this time.”

Your lips part to respond, but find yourself unable to.

Stiles takes your moment of silence as agreement to continue; “in fact, something’s been off about you for a while.” Then, Stiles’ falters, just a little, and his shoulders fall as his gaze softens. You bite your lip as he reaches forward, the tips of his fingers softly brushing underneath your eyes. “You don’t sleep. And when you do, you wake up screaming. And don’t lie to me, because I see the bags under your eyes.”

Licking your lips, your eyes flicker downwards, swallowing thickly. “Stiles...--”

“I’m worried,” he breathes, voice a mere whisper. “Really worried.”

You want to tell him. You really do. Because the truth is you’ve never hidden anything from Stiles -- or Scott for that matter -- before. It felt natural to just tell him everything, and yet, when your lips part to do so, you halt. You don’t really know what this is. You’re just as, probably even more, confused about what’s happening to you and your powers as he is. As everyone is.

You don’t know why your nightmares have gotten worse, spiking like they used to when you were younger or when you were first discovering your powers. And you certainly don’t know why they’re ten times worse then they’d ever been before. You don’t why you seem to have no control over your powers, them spiking out of control at random moments that it makes you afraid to do anything in fear you’ll hurt someone.

Hurt someone again.

Waking up screaming, out of your mind, and then proceeding to finally wake up, completely, only to notice that you’d somehow managed to set Stiles’ comforters on fire... well, it left you terrified. More than that. You were absolutely petrified; embarrassed because you’d had absolutely no control of what you were doing and you could’ve really hurt Stiles if he hadn’t caught on to what was happening in time.

Really hurt him.

And hearing Stiles go on about how worried he is, how he just wants to help, for some awful reason just makes you more angry. Makes you want to keep your mouth shut and not tell him anything because why the hell was he so concerned about you when you could’ve hurt him -- maybe even killed him?

Everything was just seeming to pile on top of the other. While Liam and Hayden were safe, nothing had been resolved about the Dread Doctors. You were still just as lost and confused about it all and at this point, everyone was just waiting for the next attack; in whatever way it came. Everyone was different, distant. You hadn’t had a proper conversation with really any of them in a long time.

Not even your own brother.

And when around Stiles, you just found yourself constantly aggravated and you don’t know why. Because he hasn’t done anything. Absolutely nothing. He was just concerned for you, like you would be for him if the roles were reversed.

It didn’t help that you didn’t know anything either.

“I don’t know.” You say bluntly, voice soft but distant.

Stiles blinks, “what?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Yeah, I don’t know, Stiles,” you huff, glaring up at him as you shake your head. “I don’t know anything. I don’t know why this is happening or-or why it’s happening now. I don’t know if it’ll get worse or when it’ll get better. I don’t know anything.”

Your breath hitches as you finish your rant, swallowing thickly as Stiles just stares down at you, clearly at a lost on what to say.

“You don’t know,” he repeats slowly, nodding to himself. “That’s it? You don’t know.”

Narrowing your eyes, you shrug; “yeah, that’s it.”

“You’re hiding something,” Stiles deduces, shaking his head at you as if that was the only logical answer. “I can tell. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Brows furrowing, you scoff. What the hell did he know? How did he know you were hiding something? And what right did he have to accuse of that when he’s been hiding something for days himself.

“Well then,” you snap, leaning back as you cross your arms over your chest. Stiles watches with a frown, but you simply quirk a brow at him; “that’s quite funny given that you’ve been doing the exact same thing for days.”

Stiles’ face falls, and his eyes widen, even for just a second as he shuffles on his feet. A cough slips past his lips and the heavy, narrowed gaze you hold on him only adds to his sudden growing nerves. “I’m not hiding anything.”

“You’ve never been good at lying, Stiles.”

“I’m not,” he argues, just a tad bit too quickly. “I’m not lying, nor am I hiding anything.”

“You say something’s been off with me, that i’m not telling you everything and you’re concerned,” you ramble, taking a step towards Stiles’ with an accusatory point at his chest. “But you’ve been distant and off yourself. It’s like you’re constantly afraid of something, and I don’t know what it is but don’t you dare accuse me of hiding something when you’re doing the exact same thing.”

Stiles’ face tightens and his expression shifts from the soft, concerned way it’d been before, to a distant, masked one. “This wasn’t about me,” he dismisses with a shake of his head. “I’m not the one who woke up and nearly set the both of us on fire.”

“And I said I was sorry!”

“And you don’t know how you did it?”

“No!” You snap, forgetting yourself and the fact that you’re in the middle of the hallway. Cringing at the attention you receive from a few students walking by, you force yourself to lower your voice, trying to calm yourself. “I don’t, okay? I don’t know anything, like I never do. You don’t think i’m scared? Out of my mind? And yet you continue to interrogate me and I can’t handle--”

“Woah, Y/N,” Stiles cuts in, voice pitch in panic. “Your eyes--!”

Blinking, you pause; “what are you...”

“Your eyes, they’re glowing. You’re... You’re glowing...”

Glancing down at your hands, you swallow thickly, finally noticing the way your powers have surged amongst your panic. You hadn’t even noticed, blinded by your own anger as you forgot yourself. Meeting Stiles’ eyes with your own panic ones, you try to calm yourself down but find that you can’t. You just won’t calm.

Then, you seem to take notice of your shortened breath and the way your skin has grown clammy. It’s happening again. You’re--

“Y/N?”

Blinking, your head snaps behind you at the sound of a different voice. And despite everything, relief floods you when you meet Theo’s eyes who had slowly been approaching, more in hesitation then anything. However, when he seems to catch sight of what’s happening, he doesn’t waste any time in rushing over to you, taking you by your arms and pulling you into the nearest empty classroom and away from prying eyes.

Stiles’ follows aimlessly behind.

“Remember what we talked about, Y/N? You’ve got to breathe,” Theo directs, voice soft and gentle. He continues to gently nudge you back, until he pulls out a chair for you and lets you fall back. Not having to stand on your own wobbly legs helps you and you’re able to focus in on Theo as he moves to breathe with you. “Breathe with me, Y/N. Just breathe with me.”

You do. You breathe in as he does and holds it until he exhales. And slowly, by the second, you feel your heart calm and the pounding in your head ease as you gather yourself, Gather your bearings.

When it’s settled enough for you to think and speak coherently, your head falls into your hands, letting out a shaky breath. “It’s getting worse,” you whimper, oblivious to the way Theo still keeps you close and a steady hand on your arm to calm you. Pulling your head away from your hands, you turn to Theo with a watery gaze before meeting Stiles’ eyes whose stands a little bit in front of you, lost.

“It’s okay, Y/N. We just have to--”

“I nearly set Stiles on fire this morning, Theo,” you mumble, turning to the boy with a frown. “I mean, I could’ve really hurt him.”

Theo glances back at Stiles, as if for confirmation on what you’ve said.

“It’s true,” Stiles nods, voice quieter then usual. “How’d you, um, how’d you know how to do that? Calm Y/N down like that?”

“Theo’s been helping me,” you mumble, rubbing at your face. “With my powers.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Theo nods, standing up but still sticking close to you. “She just needs a little bit of guidance.”

Stiles nods, slowly, his lips pursing. “It’s amazing how you seem to just know how to help her,” he comments, his suspicion of it all very clear in his tone. “How’d you even know, huh? You just happened to come at the right moment.”

Theo’s lips part, shaking his head; “Stiles--”

“Oh, come off it, Stiles.” You snap, tired of his accusatory attitude. He hadn’t stopped being like that since you walked through the front doors of the school this morning and right now, you couldn’t deal with it.

However, it’s clear both Theo and especially Stiles, are surprised by your tone.

“Seriously,” you huff, pushing yourself up to your feet and ignoring Theo who tries to get you to sit back down. “If he hadn’t come, you could’ve gotten hurt, again. So maybe we should be thanking him. In fact,” turning to Theo, you soften your gaze, nodding at him; “thank you, Theo.”

“Yeah,” Theo mumbles, clearly uncomfortable, “it’s... it’s no problem.”

“Y/N,” Stiles calls, disbelief in his eyes. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously,” you roll your eyes, pushing yourself away from the desk and moving to take a step forward.

Theo is quick to rush forward. “Woah, here, Y/N, let me help you.”

“No, I’ve got it,” Stiles’ cuts in, beating Theo to the punch and slipping his hand in your own. You don’t bother fighting his grip, instead using his support as a means to gather the rest of your strength and will. “I can walk my girlfriend to class, thank you.”

Stepping back, Theo holds up his hand in surrender.

“My God, Stiles,” you sigh, “just... let’s go.”

You glance back at Theo once more, offering a small wave before you’re completely out of the class and he’s no longer in your peripheral. There’s an echo of silence that hangs over both you and Stiles, his grip easing on you now that Theo is no longer there.

“Y/N--”

“It’s fine, Stiles,” you cut in, interrupting him before he can say anything. “I just want to go to class. We’re already late enough as it is.”

You ended up going home.

You felt pathetic doing so but you just couldn’t stand another minute of sitting in class and pretending everything was fine. And you found yourself snapping at people quite easily, getting yourself into more trouble then usual.

Being afraid of losing control and hurting people didn’t help either.

Besides, Stiles and you didn’t really talk after your conversation in the morning. And you couldn’t find Lydia anywhere, nor your brother or Theo. Malia had simply brushed past you when you’d walked past her so it didn’t really feel like anyone would miss you if skipped out on one day anyway.

And for the most part you’d enjoyed it. Getting to just be by yourself was nice enough, even if you’d let your thoughts get to you a little bit too much. You’d distracted yourself by calling Isaac, and it was nice given that you hadn’t been able to talk to him in a while. You heard all about how his fancy new life was going and he sounded genuinely happy, like he always did when you called him. It was a nice contrast to the gloom that seemed to be hanging over you and everyone else’s heads recently.

You lied when he asked how you were doing. You pretended like everything was fine and he seemed to believe you for the most part.

And he’d kept you distracted. Reminded you of simpler times. It was nice.

But then you’d gotten a text from Theo, saying that you needed to get to the vet instantly. You hadn’t bothered on asking why and you appreciated, that despite everything, despite him seeing how stable your powers were probably more than anyone else, he still trusted you enough to make sure to keep you in the loop. You couldn’t handle being kept out of things like Scott and Stiles had that one time.

So you raced over immediately, taking no more then twenty minutes to get there. And the second you did, your heart fell with panic when you saw just exactly what was wrong.

“What happened?” You ask with worry, racing over to where Liam is sat with Hayden in his arms. Her face is scrunched up in distress and it’s clear she’s in pain if the whimpers that leave her lips every few seconds are anything to go by. Her skin is pale, worryingly so, and as you flicker your eyes upwards towards Liam, he stares back at you with absolute terror.

“The Dread Doctors came for her,” Theo explains, pulling your eyes on him as he settles a few inches behind you. Slowly pushing yourself up to your feet, you send one last worried glance at the pair before making your way over to Theo, crossing your arms over your chest. “Scott and I got there as soon as possible. I tried to find you but...”

“Yeah, I, uh... sorry, I just had to get away.” You frown, biting your lip as guilt floods you. If you had known so much would happen on your one day away, you wouldn’t have left. But then again, you maybe should’ve expected it. It was, after all, the life you now lived. “I’m not sure what help I would’ve been though.”

“Don’t say that,” Theo argues without hesitation, “and you shouldn’t be afraid to use your powers.”

Cheeks warming, even if only faintly at Theo’s words, you advert your gaze from his own, opting to glance around in search of your brother only then realizing you haven’t seen him since you’d walked in. In fact, as you look around Deaton’s animal clinic, you realize, he isn’t there at all.

“Where’s Scott?” You question, curious and a little worried. Pushing yourself up and off the lab bench you’d been leaning on, you turn to Theo with furrowed brows.

“Outside,” he explains with ease, “talking to Stiles.”‘

Stiles... You should probably talk to Stiles too.

“Oh,” you mumble, making your way towards the back door. “I should probably--”

Theo’s hand wraps around your wrist, halting your movement completely before giving a small tug, trying to pull you back in his direction. You glance over at him in bewilderment, eyes narrowing in confusion as your eyes flicker from the tight grip he holds on your wrist to his eyes which stare carefully and deeply into your own.

“I wouldn’t recommend that.”

“What?” You question, baffled. “Theo--”

“Just... there’s something I have to tell you.” Theo cuts in gently, sending a small nod towards Liam and Hayden, clearly signaling that he doesn’t want to say it front of the two. You wait a moment before nodding, letting him pull you off from the two and tucking the two of you into a corner. You don’t miss the way Theo inches closer, probably more closer than appropriate, towards you, lowering his voice to a hushed whisper as he hesitates.

“I’m not really sure how to say this.”

“Well you’re the one who told me you have to tell me something,” you huff, shaking your head at him. “Just tell me, Theo.”

Swallowing thickly, Theo inhales sharply. “It has to do with Stiles.”

“Stiles?” You ask, voice pitching in concern and worry. “Is something wrong? Did something--”

You inch towards the door once more, worry clouding your judgement before Theo pulls you back again, this time, his hand falls on your arm and he leaves it there. You turn to him with narrowed eyes, shaking your head as you try to make sense of what he’s trying to say.

“Stiles’ is fine,” Theo dismisses, shaking his head. “At least, physically.”

“I... What the hell are you going on about, Theo?”

“Y/N, Stiles...” And he pauses, eyes fluttering shut for a moment as if he’s trying to prepare himself for something. Well, nothing could’ve prepared you for the words he says next. “Stiles killed Donovan.”

And you pause, not really sure how to respond to that. Your first instinct is to just laugh, outright deny whatever lie Theo is trying to spit out right now. But you don’t. You can’t seem to force any other words but a strangled and choked; “what?” out of your lips as you shake your head adamantly at the accusation, at a lost.

“Donovan went after Stiles in the library.” Theo explains, voice eerily quiet. “You know his shoulder? You know it’s hurt?” You nod, numb, your mind trying to remember what excuse Stiles had come up with to explain why his shoulder had hurt but drawing a blank. Had he even given one?

But the truth was, he had. However not without simply brushing off your concern and then you’d reached out for him, touched his shoulder and--

Darkness. Fear. Terror. Regret. Guilt.

Guilt.

“I just saw the end of it. That’s it, but... but...” Stammering over his own words, Theo shakes his head, his grip tightening on you ever so slightly. “Stiles had hit him with this-this wrench and he just... he wouldn’t stop. He just kept hitting him. And he wouldn’t stop.”

Lips parting, you let out a shaky breath; “that... doesn’t sound like Stiles.”

“I know,” Theo breathes, voice pitching, his words hanging in the air for a moment. “I couldn’t stop him. I tried to. I shouldn’t be telling you this, I-I know that but I didn’t want you to go out there and--”

“Scott knows?”

Theo nods; “yeah. I... I told him.”

He told the both of us?

Glancing over your shoulder at the back doors, you swallow thickly. Something... Something doesn’t feel right. Something feels wrong.

Your lips part and you move to say something, but nothing make sense. Theo’s story doesn’t make sense and... and you know that. You know that. So why are you so confused? Why does your heart feel as if it’s going to break?

Stiles had been hiding something. You’d said it yourself earlier this morning.

There had been something off about him for a long time.

But to bash a man’s head in?

“Y/N, i’m... i’m sorry.” Theo’s voice quivers, shaky and breathless as he takes a step towards you. “I’ve just never seen someone so... so angry.”

And for a long while you’re silent. You don’t even have the courage to properly look at Theo in the eyes. You just stand there, feeling numb, feeling heart broken and confused and everything in between. And you don’t say anything because you can’t. Nothing... Nothing feels right.

But you know Stiles. You’ve known Stiles for years and you know he’s not a violent person. He never has been, whether someone he cared about was in danger or not. Stiles was not a violent person, you know that, and for him to have bashed a boys head in... well, that just seemed impossible.

“No,” you whisper, eyes narrowing as you slowly begin to shake your head. “No, that’s... you’re wrong. That’s not--”

“Y/N,” Theo calls, moving to pull you back towards him, “I know what I saw.”

You yank yourself from his grasp, meeting his eyes with absolute disbelief. He looks at you stunned, as if that was the absolute last thing he’d expected you to do. But it felt right for you to react this way and it rubbed you the wrong way that Theo seemed so quick to judge Stiles and think he’d actually be able to make you believe a story like that.

It was impossible.

Stiles and you might not be getting along the best recently, you may feel more distant from him then ever, but you knew you loved him. And you knew who he was. You know that the boy you’d fallen in love when you were just a little girl who’d protected you from your father, who’d never failed to make you laugh at his silly ways. Who’d hold you when things got to be too much, who never stopped believing in you and who always gave you hope, even in the toughest of times, was not capable of a story like that.

“You’re lying,” you sob, taking a step back from Theo. “There’s... There’s no--”

You turn, moving to race out and find Stiles and talk to him and ask him, plead with him to tell you what you know you already know. But the second you turn, Scott walks through the door and you end up crashing into him instead. However, your eyes catch sight of Stiles’ just before the door falls shut, standing there, looking heart broken, and without even regarding Scott, you move to catch him before he leaves.

“No, Y/N, wait, Stiles--”

“You believe him?” You screech, glaring up at Scott as you point back at Theo whose lips have parted in absolute shock. “You believe him over Stiles?”

“Y/N, he practically told me that he killed Donovan.”

Your shoulders fall, left speechless for a minute, before you whimper out; “like that?”

Because bashing a mans head in seemed worse then just simply killing a man out of self defense.

Scott doesn’t reply.

Scoffing, you move to step forward, but Scott holds you back, muttering about it not being safe. You just ignore him -- because how could Stiles not be safe --fighting his grip wildly and thanking, silently, when Hayden lets out a cry of pain. It’s selfish, you know, but it catches Scott’s attention and Theo’s too, which allows you to rush out the door like you’d intended.

You catch Stiles just as he’s stepping into his jeep.

“Stiles!”

You fall to a stop just before him, two or so feet away from him. Stiles’ seems stunned at the sight of you, and there’s an echo of silence that hangs in the air as he slowly steps back from his jeep, gently shutting the door. Even though rain pours over both of you, you can tell he’s crying, and you know he can tell the same on you.

Neither of you know what to say. Stiles looks like he wants to say something but looks afraid, petrified even. So you speak up first.

“Did... Did you?”

Stiles shuffles on his feet, glancing downwards before swallowing thickly; “do you think I did?”

No. No, I don’t. You want to scream, but something holds you back. Not in that way.

Stiles steps forward at your silence; “do... do you believe me?”

Yes, without a doubt.

Instead, all you can manage is a shaky; “I don’t know.”

Stiles doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t plead with you to, he doesn’t try to defend himself, he doesn’t scoff or anything. He just stands there, for a minute, before taking a step back, moving towards his jeep and pulling open the door. Your body itches, flinching to run after him as he slips into the drivers seat and turns on the engine, the lights blinding you.

And you want to, needing to do something as he begins to pull away.

But you don’t.

You don’t know why.

“Stiles!”

He halts, hesitating by the front of the police station. He obviously hadn’t expected for you to be there.

Falling to a stop behind him, you hesitate, breath heavy and laboured. Your heart is pounding erratically against your chest and it feels as if you might collapse right then and there. But... But you needed to say this. You needed Stiles to know.

“I believe you.”

Turning, Stiles glances back at you, lips left parted. He doesn’t step towards you, doesn’t say anything; he stays rooted exactly where he is, refusing to do anything else.

“I believe you, Stiles.”

“Then, last night...--”

“I was confused, I... I’ve been confused, Stiles.” Your breath quivers, shaking with desperation as you take a small step forward. You want to reach out for Stiles, but you don’t know where you stand. You don’t understand anything. It seems to be the only thing you can properly actually understand right now. “And last night I was, I... It doesn’t matter. What matters is I believe you, of course I believe you.”

You take another step forward, this time actually reaching out for him but he pulls away before you can touch him, moving away from your touch.

Your hand hangs in the air, helpless.

“You don’t even know what happened,” Stiles reminds.

“Doesn’t matter,” you whimper, feeling your eyes water. “Whatever it is, I trust you. I believe you.”

Stiles doesn’t say anything.

Silence echoing, you glance to your left, swallowing thickly. “You’re going to tell your dad?”

Nodding, Stiles murmurs his response.

“I saw Malia pulling out, she... she, um, drive you here?”

“...Yeah. Yeah, she did.”

Lowering your gaze to your feet, you fiddle with your fingers, swallowing thickly. “You could’ve asked me. I... I could’ve helped you.”

“Drive me to the police station or cover up a murder?”

Inhaling deeply, you shake your head. “Why didn’t you tell me, Stiles?”

“Same reason you won’t tell me the truth either.”

Scoffing, you wipe at your eyes, trying to fight away and hide the tears that stream down your cheeks without fault. It’s obvious Stiles’ sees them, how can he not? And it hurts he does nothing to stop them. That the two of you are in a situation where we can’t.

“You want me to tell you? Tell you the truth?” Throwing your hands up beside you, you cross the distance until you’re directly in front of Stiles’, never wavering your gaze away from your own. “The truth is, I really don’t know what’s going on with me. I have no clue. And i’m scared. More than that; i’m petrified because I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know anything... everything’s so messed up right now and I can’t help. I can’t do anything. And I want to help you, but I don’t know how.”

Stiles stares back at you, taking in your words as they echo amongst the silence. You wait for him to say something back, begging him, albeit silently, to say something. To say he understands, to accept your apology for doubting him, even if it had only been for a second, last night. To pull you into his arms and hold you tight and just never let go because right now, all you wanted above everything else, was him.

But he doesn’t. Doesn’t do any of those things.

Instead, he takes a small step back, small, just a shuffle and you feel your heart plummet as he simply just shakes his head at you.

“I’m gonna go talk to my dad.” He mumbles, voice oddly quiet. “I just gotta go talk to my dad.”

And then, like he had last night, he turns, pulling open the door and walking into the police station without another word. You let him, not able to find any fight within you to stop him, as you feel your heart shatter. And you watch him, until you can no longer see him, and you’re just left there.

Lost.

“You know, this really isn’t how I anticipated it all going down.”

Meeting Theo’s eyes, you scoff; “what the hell are you talking about?”

Theo just smirks, stood across from you. There’s a glint in his gaze, and suddenly, something wells in you. Something you’ve felt before. Something that maybe you’d felt this entire time, but just ignored. Couldn’t really sense but... it’s the same thing you’d felt when Stiles had been possessed by the nogitsune.

A witches instinct...

Suddenly, your chest tightens with worry.

“You know, out of everyone, I thought you’d be the first one to figure me out.” Theo continues, not at all threatened or concerned by this new knowledge that’s come to you. It only sickens you with worry more. Because if he was so unconcerned with you finding out the truth, that meant he’d already done something. Or was in the process of doing something.

“What did you do?” You hiss, clenching your jaw and narrowing your eyes at the boy. “Where’s Liam? Hayden? Scott?”

“Liam and Hayden are fine, for now,” Theo dismisses with a roll of his eyes. “It’s Scott you should be concerned about.”

Anger flooding you, you rush forward, but the second you move to do so, your vision turns blurry and your head feels heavy. The familiar pang in your forehead returns and while the anger still hangs around, nestles in the bit of your stomach, you find you no longer have the strength to do anything about it.

Actually, it hits harder then you’re sure it ever has and you find your knees collapse beneath you, falling to the ground with a thud as you let out a cry of pain.

“It’s a shame really,” Theo continues, crouching before you and brushing back a strand of loose hair. You let out a growl as he does so which only elicits a laugh from Theo as he shakes his head at you. “I had hoped to have you fully with me when this all came to be.”

“With you,” you repeat, slowly, unsure, your eyes scrunching shut as another painful pang echoes through your head. “What the hell are you talking about? Where’s Scott? What... What did you do to him?”

“I came for a pack, Y/N. And I intend to have one. Scott’s just not apart of it.”

You move to lash out at him, push him back, do something but you can feel your heart pounding against your chest and the second you move to do anything, you find you have no strength in you to actually do it. The pounding in your head gets worst and your vision turns blurry, your hands shake as you clutch at yourself desperately, trying to keep yourself upright. And every bit of struggle that leaves your body only causes Theo to laugh at your pitiful attempt.

“You’re your own worst enemy, Y/N.”

Hissing, you bite back the cry that threatens to leave your lips. “Fuck off.”

“There’s so much power inside of you, just waiting to be released, but you won’t let it. You’re too afraid to.”

Eyes falling shut, you can’t stop, not this time, the cry that leaves your lips, letting out a whimper. “Stiles was right,” you breathe, chest caving in as a convulsion racks your body, unable to stop Theo as he grabs a hold of you, hauling you up to your feet. And even if you hate it, even if disgust burns deep inside of you, you have no strength to fight Theo as he picks you up, carrying you somewhere.

Your head simply lulls, staring at the concrete ground in disbelief. “Stiles was right.”

“Don’t worry, Y/N,” Theo mumbles, his words an echoing mumble in your own head. “Once Scott is dead and i’m the alpha, i’ll help you get control over your full powers. Just like a promise. You’ll be unstoppable, just the way I want you.”

You feel your back hit something and as you blink upwards, a cry leaving your lips, you realize you’re staring at the ceiling of a car. A ceiling you recognize. Theo’s truck. You’re in Theo’s truck.

You feel him grab your feet, pushing them upwards until they’re positioned on the end of the car seat. When you feel the uncomfortable sensation of rope around your ankles, you move, whimpering as you try to sit up and stop him, but your head pounds and every movement makes you lose proper sight of everything more.

So, you end up just falling back, completely and utterly vulnerable.

“Where... Where are you taking me?”

“No where,” Theo shrugs, “I just have to keep you away until it’s all finished.”

You blink, swallowing thickly, as a single tear slips past you and rolls down your cheek. You felt like a fool, an absolute idiot. You’d fallen for Theo’s good guy act so quickly, so... easily. You’d been charmed by him and his smile and it’d even made you lose sight of what was important -- your friends and family. It had made you doubt Stiles...

You were such an idiot. “

“I just need you know Y/N, that I truly did come back for you. You maybe more than anyone else.”

Face scrunching in distress, hating how helpless you are, you let out a cry.

The pounding gets worst and your breath becomes laboured, getting trapped at the back of your throat as your eyes suddenly become heavy. The idea of just falling asleep and waking up and this all being just some sort of nightmare is all too tempting to ignore that when Theo pulls you forward, with the intent to tie your wrists, you barely even realize, your vision fading to black.

“--I never lied about why I came to Beacon Hills.”

Blinking slowly, you let out a groan, moving to sit up before you realize something feels wrong. Your vision clears as you register the car ceiling before you, the distant ache in your head, as memories resurface. As you sit up, trying to gather where you are and your bearings, your suspicions of what happened are only confirmed when you see the roped wrapped tightly around your wrists.

And you realize you’re also no longer sat on the backseat of the truck and rather on the floor, tucked tightly in between the back of the front seats and the backseat themselves.

“I’m here for a pack.”

Breath halting, you swallow thickly at the familiar sound of Theo’s voice. He’s clearly talking to someone, but... who?

“I came for the werecoyote,” Theo continues, “the one whose first instinct is to kill. I came for the Banshee, the girl surrounded by death. I came for the dark Kitsune, the Beta with anger issues... I came for Void Stiles. That’s the pack I want.” Then, pausing, Theo continues, “and I came for the witch, whose power is the greatest amongst all of you but just doesn’t know it yet.”

Swallowing thickly, your heart plummets at the mention of yourself.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t include Scott.”

Scott... Scott was in danger.

“Your heartbeat’s rising, Stiles.”

Stiles? Stiles was here?

Pushing yourself up, best to your ability, you try to maneuver, despite the lack of use of your limbs, to glance out the window trying to catch sight of either of them.

You can’t.

“It’s not because you’re afraid. Nogitsune is gone, but you’ve still got more blood on your hands than any of us.”

There’s an echo of silence, then; “i’m about to get more.”

You halt when you hear footsteps, nearing footsteps that sound like they’re getting closer to the truck. Glancing around you, best you can, your eyes widen when you see the familiar head of Theo, back turned to you, and the faintest glimpse of Stiles directly in front of him.

When Theo turns towards the truck, you duck quickly, hoping not to have been caught.

Your worry fades when you hear him say; “i’ll tell you where your dad is, if you promise not to help Scott.”

Without hesitation, there’s a thud, and one glance back out the window, you just manage to catch sight of Stiles’ swinging his arm towards Theo, the latter stumbling back in response. But he doesn’t seem all that effected if the laugh that leaves is lips is anything to go by.

“There he is!” Theo cheers, “that’s Void Stiles. It felt good, didn’t it?”

You watch Stiles’ land one more punch on Theo, this time, sending him to the ground.

Using this to your advantage, you lean forward, enough to bring your wrists to your lips, biting at the rope in an attempt to free yourself. You still listen closely, your heart still pounding against your chest erratically. But the fact that you no longer feel as if you’re going to pass out, like you’d felt before, you use to your advantage. You didn’t know when it will happen again.

“We won’t tell Scott though,” Theo pants, voice wavering, “cause you can’t lose your best friend, right? Even though we both knew you never needed him. Or--! What about Y/N? Should we tell Y/N?” Halting, just for a moment, your breath stops short, fearing Theo’s next words. “What if she saw this all? How do you think she would react--?”

Stiles’ lunges forward, you can tell because you can no longer see him. But Theo’s words worry you -- did he know you were awake?

Inhaling sharply, you push the thought aside, moving to untie yourself once more.

“You hate me now, but you’ll get it eventually,” Theo pants, “this is the hard part. Cause you can’t help Scott and save your dad’s life. You’ve still got time, Stiles. You’ve still got time.”

You know, even though it’ll kill him, who Stiles’ will go for.

So you quicken your pace, best you can, trying to rip the rope around your wrists as fast as you can. Digging your teeth into the rope and ignoring the disgusting taste. Your heart leaps with hope when you manages to get a good grip, enough to loosen the tightness and wiggle your wrists. As silence echoes outside the truck, and then a set of footsteps grow quieter, you manage to free one wrist, and then the other.

A bout of panic floods your chest and pain and you know instantly, even if you somehow hadn’t felt it before, that it’s Scott. And you need to hurry.

But then, another set of footsteps follow, and your chest tightens with worry, scared that Theo will catch you. Because for some reason, even if deep down you know you can protect yourself, Theo scares you. However, he doesn’t check on you, he simply opens the door to the drivers seat and you’re quick to position yourself in a way he can’t see your now free wrists.

You stay quiet, eerily so, listening to him turn on the engine and speed off, God knows where.

“Let go--!”

“Come on!”

Huffing, a hiss of pain leaves your lips as Theo pulls painfully on your hair, tugging you through the hallways through the school with a quick and determined step. Your feet shuffle beneath you uselessly, trying to catch your bearing but ultimately failing each time you do.

The grip on your hair hurts but you find yourself, stupidly, too stupid to do anything about it. And the pain that floods your entire body, due to Scott and whatever’s happen to him, isn’t helping either because every movement, every pull and twist Theo moves on you sends your whole being into a blinding pain.

It takes you a second, as Theo takes a sharp turn, that he’s pulling you into the library. Nor do you hear the two other voices until Theo cuts in, voice sharp; “bad timing.” And he lets go of you, letting you fall to the floor with a thud as he races forward, stopping directly in front of Scott and Mason.

“I mean, seriously. You couldn’t have waited five minutes?”

He grabs a hold of Mason, tossing him and knocking him out with one simple movement before zoning in on your brother.

“I should’ve stayed,” Theo hisses, angry as he glances down at his claws, “I should’ve made sure.”

Barely able to stand on his own feet, Scott mumbles; “because now you have to kill me yourself.”

“They’re still mine. She’s,” he turns, pointing a sharp finger at you. Your breath halts as you meet your brothers tired and defeated gaze. “Still mine. Maybe not yet, but they’ll come around.”

Shaking his head, Scott simply says; “not for you.”

And you see it, before it happens. Feel the anger that floods Theo, but it feels like all you can do is watch as he suddenly lunges forward, digging his claws directly into Scott’s stomach. A cry leaves your lips in response, tearing past your lips and bouncing off the walls of the library as Scott’s eyes glows red in response to the pain and you feel it well deep within your own stomach. You feel every bit of pain he does, only, you won’t die because of it.

“They’re not like you,” Scott pants, and you call out for him weakly, pushing yourself up. “They never will be.”

“Because i’m a Chimera? Because i’m not a real werewolf?”

“Because you’re barely even human.”

But you get to your feet a second too late. Because the second you’re steady, Theo is already digging his claws further into Scott, knocking him back until he falls against the steps, a groan leaving his lips in response. And you don’t hear the cry that leaves your lips as you watch your brothers eyes lull shut and his head tip to the side, his skin growing pale and the red of his eyes fading.

And that feeling, the one you’d felt back at the hospital when Scott had died a first time, floods you again. The feeling of emptiness and pain because Scott was dying, or... was already dead and you’d just stood there and done nothing cause you were too afraid. Because you were afraid to use your powers. Because you were too much of a coward to do anything.

It’s that, mixed with everything else, that causes you to just... let go.

A scream tears past your lips, and you don’t see it, but your eyes glow purple, as a wave of it pulsates around you. Your powers bursts through you, completely and powerfully, directed at Theo only as he’s sent flying back and into one of the shelves of books, landing with a crash. Everything seems to slow as it happens, as everything you’ve been holding back just breaks free.

But the feeling of ease that washes you doesn’t last long, not even a second, as you rush towards Scott, your brother, your twin brother, dead...

“No!” You sob, voice cracking, eyes watering as you fall next to him. “No, no, no... Please, God, no... Scott... No, you can’t. I can’t do this...” Pulling at his hands, at his jacket, your hands shake before you as you observe the blood now coating your hands completely.

Scott’s blood.

You shove at him desperate for him to come back.

“Y/N...” Mason calls, hesitant, voice light, unsure. “Y/N...”

“This is all my fault, this is... I could’ve... I could’ve done something....” Eyes flickering from Scott, to Mason’s own, your breath comes out in short rasps, trying to find the words but all that leaves your lips is incoherent mumbles of distress as that feeling of emptiness won’t leave you.

It just won’t leave.

You don’t register falling into Mason’s arms, or the fact that fifteen minutes pass before your mother even arrives. You don’t even notice her come in, not properly, not completely, distressed and upset as the tears just keep falling from your eyes and the emptiness hovers.

Is this how it will always feel now?

But then, you hear Mason trying to tell your mother that trying to bring Scott back was hopeless... that it’s been fifteen minutes since his heart last beat and that it was impossible... And the words seem to hit, seem to register within you as your eyes finally seem to properly zone in on your mother. You’re pulling back from Mason’s grasp and reaching out for your mother with slow, lethargic movements.

“Mom... he... you can’t...”

But the words don’t come out because you don’t want them to be true.

And she doesn’t stop, even when you try to reach out for her. She just continues to give him compression's, going on that Scott can’t die like this and that he’s an Alpha and...--

But then she pulls back, hitting Scott hard directly in the middle of his chest and suddenly, the emptiness just... goes away.

Then your ears hurt and you realize Scott is roaring, loudly, and it’s pounding your ears so badly that you have to press your palms against them to stop the pain. Stop the pounding.

“You still have me, you know?”

Blinking, Scott slowly glances up, catching your eyes from where you’re stood at his doorway. He doesn’t say anything, simply staring at you with a defeated look. And the truth is, you stare back at him with a similar one.

But, you need him to know.

“You’ll always have me.”

And while Scott doesn’t smile, because, how could he? And he doesn’t say anything either. You know, you just do, that he appreciates your words. Appreciates the reassurance. And there’s an understanding between the two of you as he nods, and you hold his gaze just a little while longer to make sure before walking off, heart heavy.

Part 36?

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iamtrebleclefstories · 4 years

Text

I Was Made For Loving You - Part 3

Soulmate AU series of unrelated one-shots where Jo and Alex discover that they are made for each other.

where you have a clock counting down the minutes

Please enjoy this insanely long monstrosity of a fic :)

Part 3 - I Was Made for Loving You

The day his clock showed up, he was excited. At the age of thirteen, he’d been a little older than most. For a while, he didn’t think he had a soulmate. Most other kids got their clocks at twelve years old. Yet on his twelfth birthday, when he woke up and saw his empty wrist he was disappointed to see that his hadn’t. No, instead his clock showed up on a random Tuesday morning, about four months after his thirteenth birthday. His excitement was short-lived though. Because according to his clock, he wouldn’t meet his soulmate for at least two decades.

�� 20:05:17:6:49

Twenty years, five months, seventeen days, six hours, and forty-nine minutes away to be exact. He’d be thirty-three by the time he met the woman he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. This didn’t sit right with Alex. He’d thought for sure the universe would favor him considering he’d had the crappiest childhood. The least the universe could do was grant him a soulmate sooner than twenty years from now.

It was frustrating when he got to college and it felt like everyone he knew was meeting their soulmate. It was even more frustrating when he got to medical school and the majority of his friends were in nice, loving, soul-bonded relationships while he was out partying and sleeping around. He’d never admit it, but as fun as sleeping around was, all Alex had ever wanted was the sureness and clarity of a soulmate bond. His whole life, he wondered what it was like to be loved for exactly who he was. He wondered what it was like to have someone stay. He wondered what it was like to have someone sane. The partying and the girls just so happened to serve as a useful distraction for the fact that he was years away from meeting the one person who just might stick around.

When he started working at Seattle Grace, he didn’t do much to change who he was. If anything, he was worse than before. With only seven years, three months, five days, ten hours, and thirty-six minutes left to meet his soulmate, Alex was growing even more restless. He couldn’t handle the idea of walking around the hospital as all of his friends met their soulmates before he did. Meredith had already met her’s, Izzie’s clock said that she was three months away, Cristina’s clock said one year left, and George’s said two years.

There wasn’t much time left for them to wait. The sad and funny thing was that some of his friends found themselves in relationships with someone other than their soulmate. Meredith was trying to get over McDreamy, Cristina was doing it with Burke, George was in love with Meredith, and Izzie had tried going out with him despite the fact that she was supposed to meet her guy very soon. It kind of sucked too, because he could see himself liking her enough to actually try something more than a one night stand.

Knowing that Izzie would be meeting her soulmate very soon didn’t make it much easier when she finally did. The guy came in the form of a bedridden cardiac patient who was on the brink of death. If Alex thought the universe was screwed up for making him wait so long to meet his soulmate, it was even more screwed up for giving Izzie a soulmate that might not live past his next surgery. That was all kinds of messed up and shitty that he didn’t even want to go into. As horrible as it sounded though, he hoped that maybe Izzie’s soulmate would kick the bucket and die. Then maybe he’d have a chance at something more than just meaningless.

And they did get the chance at it. Denny died and Izzie was a wreck. She ended up making some questionable decisions, got George to cheat on his wife—but not his soulmate—with her, and nearly got herself fired multiple times over. Alex on the other hand, had lived through a hookup with Addison Montgomery, a strange—regrettable—relationship with a patient by the name of Rebecca Pope, and had even hooked up with Meredith’s sister Lexie a couple times. So when they finally got together, Alex thought that this could be it. Maybe it could be enough. Maybe Izzie could be enough for him, and he could be enough for her.

Things didn’t go as planned, though. Izzie got cancer and started hallucinating Denny. So they got married and tried to make the best out of a bad situation, then George died on the very day he was supposed to meet his soulmate—saving her life apparently. He doesn’t know if it was the cancer or the soul bond that attached her to Denny that caused it or even her friendship with O’Malley, but one morning he woke up and she didn’t. Alex woke up and turned around to shake Izzie awake, but she wouldn’t wake up. Her body was cold. She’d died sometime in the middle of the night and he never noticed.

That stuck with him for a long time. He felt like he should’ve been able to save her. He was a doctor for crying out loud. A doctor whose wife died in her sleep as he laid right beside her. He was a widower now and it was hell. His heart ached and he became a bigger asshole than before. And hence started the string of endless women all over again. He tried to date Lexie Grey, and it worked for a little while. But then the shooting happened and Lexie went crazy and Alex was trying to understand how he survived and so many others didn’t. He added that to his laundry list of failed attempts at love.

Then there was Lucy—the one who stole his job. After that he gave up on trying to have a real relationship. He realized it was pointless to try making a connection with someone that wasn’t soulmate. All it brought was hurt and pain that he didn’t have the patience for. He slept around again, waiting for the moment when he’d finally meet his soulmate and maybe, just maybe, he search would be over.

The week before he was supposed to meet his soulmate, he decided to take advantage of the little bit of time he had left and slept with a lot of the new interns. Sure, he felt a little bad every time he looked down at his wrist, but he was trying to brace himself for the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario being that his soulmate hated him or that she was a horrible person and they didn’t work out. If his worst fears came true he wanted to at least have something to soften the blow. It may sound depressing, but that’s how it worked. And Alex had been through enough in his life to know that life was rarely ever fair or full of hope.

*****

She was sixteen when her clock finally showed up on her wrist. For the longest time, she thought that maybe there just wasn’t someone out there for her. Most kids got their clocks at twelve years old. They’d wake up the morning of their twelfth birthday to find a clock there counting down the years, months, days, hours, and minutes until one met their soulmate. She tried to tell herself not to be discouraged. After all, she’d been left at a fire station as an infant. Who knows when her real birthday was? So, for about two weeks she held onto the tiniest bit of hope that one day she’d wake up and it would be there.

When the clock didn’t come in, it only reinforced everything she’d ever believe about herself. That she was unlovable. She was broken. She was unwanted. She was a waste of space. Those feelings intensified when her peers realized that her clock was missing. They made up mean jokes and rumors about soulmate-less Brooke. It was so bad that the family she’d been staying with at the time sent her away. They didn’t want a “defective” child in their home.

For about four years, she wore long sleeves. She didn’t want anyone to see her wrist. She didn’t want to see her own wrist and be reminded of the fact that she had no one in this world. That’s why it was such a surprise when her clock showed up on her wrist.

She remembered the day vividly. It was four in the morning and she’d been attempting to get some sleep while she heard the junkies talking outside her car. She’d just burrowed a little further into her blankets in an effort to cover herself so that no one would realize she was living there when she felt it. There was a dull ache in her wrist and then the sound of a clock chiming. After the sounding stopped, she was scared to look down. She was scared to look and realize that it had all been a figment of her imagination.

It wasn’t though. It was definitely there. The clock displayed the numbers brightly on her wrist for all to see. The countdown to meeting her soulmate was there. It was real. She had someone. For the first time in her life she thought that maybe she’d have someone. But when she realized the number of years before she’d meet him, she grew discouraged. Ten years was a long time. A very long time.

10:02:30:8:57

Of course she’d have to wait a decade to meet her soulmate. As if her life wasn’t already difficult, as if she didn’t need for someone to love her right now. Maybe that’s why she got caught up with Paul in the first place. She just wanted so badly for someone to love her that she ended up in an abusive marriage for about two years before she did something about it.

Of all the decisions she’d made in her life, getting with Paul was the worst one. He was harsh and hateful and deceptively charming. He’d told her exactly what she wanted to hear and she believed him. She ate up every false promise and calculated compliment. Her friends had not been happy with her, but she didn’t care. They told her to wait, to hold out for her soulmate, but Brooke wasn’t sure she believed in them anymore.

Paul didn’t have a soulmate. He was one of the very few people in the world that didn’t have a clock at all. He’d convinced her that it was all a fantasy. A childish daydream that would soon fade away like everything else in the world. For the most part, she believed him.

A part of her tried to hold on to the hope that maybe there was someone better for her out there than Paul. It all changed when she became a mother, though. The only thing that was supposed to be stronger than a soul bond was the bond between parents and their children. She could not possibly understand how or why her mother had abandoned her like she did. She couldn’t comprehend how you’d let go because the moment she held her child in her arms, she knew that she’d never be able to give this up.

The road to motherhood wasn’t easy, though. It was full of pain and suffering and complications she’d never anticipated. Originally, she wasn’t going to keep the baby. She had decided that after being beaten so bad that she had landed in the hospital. There was no way she could raise a child in the environment she was living in. For weeks, she walked around fearful of the decision that was looming over her. One day, while she was in the car with Paul they got into a horrible accident. She’d made it out mostly okay. Paul on the other hand sustained a severe injuries and was declared dead on arrival.

The death of her husband was not sad for her. If anything, it was liberating. She was a pregnant senior in college and suddenly inherited all of his money and his property. Of course, she was alone again, but for the first time in her life loneliness didn’t seem as daunting. As soon as she graduated with her degree in biology, she sold the house, their rings, and all of Paul’s belongings and hauled ass out of New Jersey.

She was about seven months pregnant when she finally moved into her brand new apartment in Boston. For a while after moving, she grappled with her identity. She didn’t want anything tying her to the life she’d left behind. She didn’t want her child to bear the legacy of hurt and pain that she’d left. Brooke Stadler didn’t feel like her anymore. That name was attached to the despair that she vowed to leave behind for the sake of the life she was about to bring into the world.

It was during one quest for baby names when she stumbled upon one that resonated with her. Josephine, God will increase. Jo, for short. Yes, that was it. No more standing back and letting people take advantage of her. She would increase. She would grow so tall that she would make a fool out of anyone who ever said she would never be enough.

So, she became Josephine. A last name would be a little more difficult. Jo knew that she didn’t want to keep the last name Stadler. She briefly considered Schmidt—after her high school teacher whom she had kept in contact with, but decided against that. She settled on Wilson. It was the name of the chief of the fire station where she’d been left as a child. That was it. That was her name. Josephine Brooke Wilson.

Her name change was approved about a week before she gave birth to her son on July 16, 2007. Yes, she had a boy. A little boy with the sweetest dimples and the craziest head full of hair. He had her eyes and her nose and her ears. Jo fell in love with him instantly. At twenty-two years old she became a mother to the most beautiful baby boy she’d ever laid eyes on.

She named him Liam Michael Wilson. Liam was a good baby, and she was grateful for that. It was difficult raising a child on her own while simultaneously trying to do well in med school. Harvard Medical School, to be specific. In the mornings she’d drop Liam off at daycare and pick him up after her classes were over. Her life consisted of going to school, being a mom, and working part time at the daycare Liam attended. She didn’t go out or party. She didn’t sleep around or start anything serious. There was no time and she definitely did not have the motivation to try harder.

On the day of her medical school graduation, she walked across the stage hand in hand with her almost four year old son. She smiled wide and almost cried after her son told her how proud he was of her. She’d done it. She was finally a doctor.

And so began the next chapter of their lives. Jo had matched with Seattle Grace Mercy West’s surgical residency program. She was excited and nervous at the thought of moving across the country with her son. Her whole life, she’d lived on the east coast. It was time to leave this place and move on to the next thing.

*****

“Today’s the day,” Jackson walked into the attendings lounge and clapped Alex on the back.

“What’s today?” Webber asked as he poured himself some coffee.

“Today’s the day Evil Spawn gets to meet his soulmate,” Cristina supplied.

April gasped, “Oh my goodness! Finally.”

“Yeah it only took him thirty-three years,” Meredith snickered as she put her stuff into her locker.

"Awe, Karev is becoming a man today," Mark teased and slapped Alex on the shoulder.

“Maybe this means he’ll stop being an ass that sleeps with all the interns,” Callie called out from her spot on the couch.

“Oh shush. Might I remind you that you slept with me once. So, you're no better,” Alex sent Callie a pointed look.

“And now I no longer sleep with men,” Callie lifted her hands in mock surprise.

The room full of doctors laughed at Callie's comment. Alex on the other hand rolled his eyes, "Whatever. You guys are way too invested in this soulmate thing."

"Because we all already found ours. We want you to be happy. You of all people deserves something happy," Meredith smiled warmly at Alex. "So, stop complaining and let us be happy and excited for you."

Alex knew that his friends just wanted what was best for him. They'd been by his side through a lot of really crappy things. When his wife died, Meredith opened up her home again for him to stay. Cristina hugged him—which was a miracle in and of itself. Kepner and Avery, who he wasn't even close to made it very clear that they would be there for him if he needed it. So many more of his friends and colleagues did the same.

“How much time do you have left on your clock?” Bailey asked, trying to get as many details from Alex as possible.

Alex looked down at his clock and read the numbers. It was strange to see mostly zeros. For years, he’d seen the clock full of numbers counting down very slowly. Today though, it seems as if the time had flown by.

00:00:00:04:37

“Four hours and thirty-seven minutes,” Alex replied. “Which means that you all will be too busy doing your jobs to pay attention to me when I meet her. If this is even real and I meet her.”

Meanwhile, Jo was in the locker room with her fellow interns getting ready for the day. She had just taken off her shirt and was about to put her scrub top on when she heard Stephanie gasp and grab her arm, “Oh my God.

Today is the day. Guys, Jo meets her soulmate today!”

“Really?” Leah jumped up and squealed. “No why didn’t you say anything? We would’ve made a big deal about it.”

“That’s exactly why I didn’t,” Jo removed her hand from Stephanie’s grasp and continued to get dressed for the day. “It’s not that big of a deal. Calm down.”

“Not that big of a deal?” Stephanie looked at her as if she had three heads. “Jo. This is a huge deal. This is it. This is the most important day of your life. Why aren’t you more excited about this?”

“Look, I’ve been burned one to many times in my life. It’s all a scam. It doesn’t mean anything,” Jo shook her head. “And it’s not the most important day of my life. The most important day of my life was the day I gave birth to my son. That’s the most important bond. It’s more important and stronger than a soul bond. So, unless my soulmate magically bonds with my son, then it’s meaningless.”

Shane looked at Jo sadly, “There’s nothing wrong with trying find your own version of happiness. You’re allowed to let yourself be loved.”

“Yeah,” Heather agreed. “You of all people deserves to meet their person.”

“How much time is left on your clock?” Leah asked.

Sighing Jo looked down and read it out loud, “Four hours and thirty-seven minutes.”

00:00:00:04:37

“I wonder who it is,” Heather tilted her head to the side. “You’d have to meet him here in the hospital. Maybe it’s another doctor or a nurse. Ooh! Maybe even a patient! I’ve heard a couple stories of a few doctors that used to work here before us that met their soulmates while they were patients in the hospital.”

“Gosh, I hope not,” Jo’s eyes widened. “I have a kid. I don’t have time to take care of a sick soulmate.”

“I highly doubt it’s going to be a patient,” Stephanie assured. “It’s probably one another doctor. Which doctors are still single?”

“Well, there’s Franklin from derm, Harrison from anesthesiology, that one guy Myers from OB, Johnson and Archer from Radiology, some others I don’t remember, and Karev," Leah replied.

"How do you even know that?" Jo made a face. "Actually, I don't want to know."

"She probably slept with all of them," Stephanie smirked.

Leah shrugged, "Hey, I don't meet my soulmate for two more years. I'm taking advantage of all the freedom I have left."

"No offense, but I don't want your sloppy seconds," Jo closed her locker and put on her lab coat. "I haven't had sex in... I can't even remember. But, I would still prefer it if my soulmate didn't sleep with all of my friends first."

"I don't know, I kind of hope my soulmate is a manwhore," Heather thought out loud. The others turned to look at her strangely. "What? I do. That means he'll be good in bed. That's important. I'm going to be stuck with him for the rest of my life. He's got to know what he's doing."

The interns busted out in laughter and chatted for a few more minutes before their resident, Lexie Grey walked in, “Hey guys. Today you all start new rotations so listen out for your assignments. Edwards you’re with Grey, Ross with Avery, Brooks with Bailey, Murphy with Robbins, and Wilson you’re with Yang.”

The interns nodded and all made their ways to find their attendings. Jo walked over to where Yang was standing in the Cardiac ICU and smiled warmly, “Dr. Yang, I’m on your service today.”

“Oh yes, Wilson right? I’ve heard some good things about you from Hunt and Torres. Make sure you keep up and don’t screw anything up,” Cristina instructed. “I’ve got things to do and lots of patients to see so there’s no time for messing around. Come on, before we’re late for rounds.”

The next few hours were okay. Jo mostly kept an eye on Yang’s pre and post ops while Yang worked on studying for a new procedure she was going to preform later that afternoon. The day was going by so smoothly that she forgot to take a look at her clock to see how much time was left. She was about to look down when she heard her pager go off, Pit 911. Jo jumped up from her seat at the nurse’s station and hurried down to the ER, Dr. Yang following close behind her.

They pulled on their trauma gowns and hurried into the trauma room they’d been paged to. The room was a buzz with multiple doctors from various specialties looking at a kid who seemed to be somewhere around eleven or twelve. Derek Shepherd was there, Kepner was there, Torres was there, and Karev.

“What do we got?” Yang asked as she walked into the room.

“Brandon Miller, eleven years old. He jumped off a balcony while on a school field trip because his friends dared him to,” Karev sounded off, not looking up from the kid he was examining. “He’s got splenic rupture that I’m going to have go in and repair, wrist fracture, an injury to his spine that’s putting pressure on the cord, a few broken ribs and a pneumothorax. I need you to run an echo on his heart to see if he can even withstand the stress of surgery.”

For some reason, Jo’s heart rate picked up a little when she heard his voice. She’s seen Karev from afar, but in the past few months that she’d been working at Seattle Grace Mercy West, she’d never been on his service before. He seemed like a great doctor. She’d heard wonderful things about the projects he’d established and his dedication and commitment to his patients. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Karev yell out instructions.

“Can someone insert a damn chest tube?”

Yang looked at Jo and motioned to get to work, “Wilson, you know how to insert a chest tube?”

“Yes ma’am,” Jo nodded.

“Okay, then do it. We don’t have time to waste,” Yang commanded.

Jo looked around the room for the supplies and was handed a tray by one of the nurses. She made her way up towards the kid and proceeded to insert the tube. She was about to move out of the way when bumped into Karev.

“Do you mind?” Karev sneered gave her a sideways glance. He didn’t have time for this. He wanted to get out of this trauma room as quickly as possible. He was supposed to meet his soulmate any minute now, and he couldn’t do that if he was stuck in here fixing a kid in a room full of all his friends. He couldn’t miss their encounter. He’d been waiting for this exact moment for decades and he’d be damned if he missed it because some intern was in his way.

“Sorry,” Jo apologized.

Alex felt a jolt of electricity run through him as he heard her voice. Looking up, he finally decided to spare more than a quick glance at the intern. Feeling that someone’s eyes were on her, Jo looked up and locked eyes with Karev. She felt her heart and breathing pick up, then skip a few beats, before returning to normal. Alex felt a stirring within his chest and stopped what he was doing to stare at her for just a moment.

That’s when the dinging started. It was a low chime sort of sound. It grew progressively louder and was getting on Alex’s nerves. He broke eye contact with the intern and looked around for the source of the noise. With all the commotion, he was unsure if anyone else heard it. He looked around at the monitors the kid had strapped to him, trying to determine what was going off.

“What the hell is that noise? Can someone please figure out what freaking monitor is making that weird noise and turn it off?” Alex growled in annoyance.

His request made the room go quiet, allowing everyone to hear for themselves exactly what was going on. Alex watched as one by one, all of his friends’ eyes widened in surprise. They looked at each other strangely, not saying anything.

“Will someone please turn that freaking monitor off?” Alex continued to work on stabilizing the kid’s injuries.

“Dr. Karev, that’s not one of the monitors,” nurse Tyler spoke, motioning to Alex’s clock that was covered by his trauma gown.

He stepped away from his patient and pulled up the sleeve of his trauma gown. His numbers were at zero. How the hell were his numbers at zero? When did he meet her? He’d been stuck in this room for the past half hour. He was in a room full of friends and veteran nurses he’d known for years.

Jo took a deep breath when she realized what happened. She removed her own sleeve and looked at the clock on her wrist. Sure enough, all zeros. Jo froze in fear and confusion as a steady ding came from her clock. After a couple seconds, she looked up at Karev who was still lost in thought.

There was a gasp somewhere in the background. It sounded like Kepner, “Oh. My. God.”

“Holy shit,” Yang’s voice rang out.

“Woah!” Torres exclaimed.

“I’ll be damned,” Shepherd chuckled.

A couple of the nurses mumbled their own surprise as Jo continued to stare at her supposed soulmate with wide eyes. Finally, after a few seconds, he looked up at her.

Jo felt it immediately. She felt the bond attach itself instantly. The thing that she’d convinced herself wasn’t real, the thing that seemed too much like a fairy tale to actually exist in real life, was happening to her. It all made sense. The shivers and butterflies she felt when she heard his voice. The heart palpitations she experienced and the sensation of breathlessness, were all her body’s way of syncing up their heart beats.

Alex couldn’t believe it. He did meet her. She was here. She was the intern he’d bumped into. He’d been so caught up and desperate to meet her that when he did, he missed it. But then it made sense. The jolt of electricity he felt when he heard her speak. The captivating call of her eyes. Her gorgeous, hazel eyes. He didn’t think he’d ever seen more beautiful eyes. The longer he looked into them, the more he felt the soul bond increase. It was strong, and unlike anything he’d ever really experienced before. It was instant and all consuming. It was real.

Soon, the dinging ceased. It was no longer needed. They had acknowledged each other. They had met.

*****

They never had a chance to talk after that moment. Brandon—the kid—began de-sating and needed to be rushed to the OR immediately. The echo he’d called Cristina in to run would have to wait. There was no time to waste, or he wouldn’t make it. It killed Alex to leave without being able to say anything to her. He wanted to get to know her and hear her story. He barely knew her name—and it was only because he asked while on his way to the OR with Torres, Kepner, and Shepherd. They hadn’t stopped talking about his soulmate throughout the entire time he was in the operating room. Thankfully, he and April were able to resolve the kid’s internal bleeding, leaving Shepherd and Torres to do the real work and try to keep Brandon from being paralyzed.

Alex wanted to find her. Jo Wilson. That was her name. He asked around before he was directed to the OR board. Sure enough, her name was listed as the resident in OR 4 with Cristina. In the hours he’d been in surgery, she’d been pulled into one of her own. Sighing, Alex decided that he could use this time to talk to someone. He needed to vent. He needed to find Meredith.

He ran around the hospital for about half hour before realizing where she was. Alex made his way to the hospital daycare and smiled as he showed his ID and walked to where Meredith was playing with Zola. Meredith was sitting on a bean bag chair while Zola was on the floor working on a puzzle. He hurried over to the corner they were in and sat in the bean bag chair across from Meredith.

“Dude, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“What is it Alex? I’m trying to spend what little free time I have with my daughter. Can it wait?”

“No, it can’t,” Alex rolled up the sleeve of his lab coat and showed her his arm. “I met her.”

“Oh my God!” Meredith gasped and dropped the barbie doll that was in her hand. “You met her? Who is she?”

“She’s an intern. Jo Wilson,” Alex shared. “I don’t really know a lot about her. I didn’t even get a chance to talk to her because my patient needed to get up to the OR because he was de-sating on us.”

“Wilson is your soulmate?” Meredith’s eyes widened. “She was the intern I picked for the intern appy. She did really well until she freaked out and froze, but I think she’ll make it. You can normally tell who’s going to make it and who isn’t. She hasn’t given me any reason to believe otherwise. What are you doing here talking to me? Go find her.”

“I did try to find her. But then I found out she was in OR 4 with Cristina, who just so happened to be there when we met,” Alex grimaced.

Meredith let out a peel of laughter, “Oh, Cristina is never going to let you live it down. She’s probably airing out all your dirty laundry as we speak. Who knows what she’s told Wilson about you?”

Alex narrowed his eyes, “Oh shush. I sure hope not. I don’t need my soulmate thinking that I’m an ass before she even meets me.”

“Hey! There are children present. Language!” Meredith warned motioning to the children playing around them.

“You act as if I don’t work with children all day.”

Meredith rolled her eyes. Being friends with Alex really was a pain sometimes, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She was happy for him. He’d finally met his soulmate. He was finally going to get the happiness he deserved. She just hoped that the universe knew what it was doing when it chose Jo Wilson as his soulmate, “Hold on… you said your soulmate is one of the interns?”

“Yeah? So what? You were an intern when you met Derek,” Alex shrugged. “It happens.”

“No, I know that. That’s not what I’m talking about,” Meredith shook her head. “Didn’t you sleep with half the intern class?”

“Oh crap… You don’t think she knows, right?”

“Are you kidding? Don’t you remember what it was like to be an intern? Gossip around here spreads like wildfire,” Meredith leaned back in her bean bag chair. “I’m positive she knows exactly how many of her friends you’ve slept with.”

“Which means she already knows how big of a douche I am,” Alex groaned. “You know, on some level, I always knew that being a man-whore was going to come back and bite me in the ass.”

Meredith was going to open her mouth to respond when they heard a crash followed by a child crying in the background. Being the peds surgeon that he was, Alex jumped up from his bean bag chair and scanned the room for the source of the crying. There was a young woman holding a boy who looked to be about four. He had a nasty head lac that would probably need stitches.

“Can someone get ahold of an intern to come take a look at this kid? And page his parents?” One of the daycare workers yelled out.

Not wanting an intern working on this kid’s face, Alex decided to step in, “Hey. No need to call an intern. I’m a peds surgeon. I’ll take a look at him and get him stitched up. You don’t need an intern leaving a nasty scar on his face. Just page his parents while I check him out.”

The daycare instructor, Bethany, nodded in appreciation and Alex walked them over to a nearby exam room. He asked a nurse to bring him a suture kit and had Bethany place the crying boy on the bed. The kid was cute. He had wild brown hair and big hazel eyes that looked up at him in awe and wonder, “Hey kiddo, my name is Dr. Alex. What’s yours?”

“Liam,” the little boy responded, the tears that had once been running down his face now dried.

For some reason, Alex felt a connection to this kid. He couldn’t explain it. Of course, he’d bonded with patients in the past, but this was different. He’d known this boy for all of two minutes and already felt his protective instincts kick in. Alex decided to try to make some conversation, “Well, hi Liam. I see that you hurt your head a bit there. Do you think you can follow some instructions that I give you?”

Liam attempted a nod but winced in pain a bit, “Yes Dr. Awex.”

Alex seriously did not know what was wrong with him. Every time this little boy opened his mouth, he felt the love and affection he had for him increase. What the hell is wrong you? He’s not even your kid. You find your soulmate and all of a sudden you are overwhelmed by the desire to procreate? Shaking the thoughts out of his head, Alex looked over to Bethany, “Can you go make sure one of his parents are on their way? I’m going to do a quick neuro exam and some stitches. They might want to be here for that.”

The two boys watched as Bethany nodded and walked out the room. Liam looked back up at Alex, “Is she getting my mommy?”

“Yeah buddy, she is. Now how about you say we make sure you didn’t hit your head too hard when you fell,” Alex proceeded to go about his exam while trying to divert Liam’s attention from the needles he was about to use to close up the head lac.

Meanwhile in OR 4, Jo had been trying her best to ignore the looks and questions Dr. Yang was sending her way. The first two hours had been mostly quiet, with Yang only speaking in order to teach or give instructions. Now that they were entering their third hour in surgery, Yang seemed to have loosened up a little bit, “Oh come on, give me something. You are Alex Karev’s soulmate, who just so happens to be one of my best friends. I care about him and I love him—if you ever say that I will deny it. What’s your story?”

This was getting tiring. All Jo wanted was to distract Yang long enough to stop asking questions. Jo was this close to giving in and answering Yang’s questions when a nurse rushed into the room, “Dr. Wilson, Ms. Bethany from daycare called to let you know that your son fell and sustained a head injury. He’s being checked out by a doctor in an exam room nearby the daycare. The doctor said that he’s okay, but he’s going to require some stitches.”

Jo looked up at the nurse with a panicked expression, “Oh my God. What the hell happened?”

“I’m not sure of all the details, but your son was requesting your presence.”

“Well that explains part of the story,” Cristina mumbled to herself. She looked over at the intern standing in front of her. “Go, take care of your kid. We’ll be okay here. Take the rest of the day off while you’re at it.”

“Thank you so much Dr. Yang,” Jo rushed out of the OR and scrubbed out quickly. She hurried out of the scrub room into the hallway and made her way to the elevators. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the elevator to arrive.

As soon as she made it to the daycare, Jo asked for her son’s whereabouts. She had finally reached the door of the exam room when she heard a familiar peel of laughter on the other side. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that her son was laughing and steadied herself as she opened the door.

Alex had been having the time of his life stitching Liam’s head lac up. Sure, he was great with kids, his job required it. But spending time with this kid is different. Alex was sure that he’d never clicked with a kid as much as this one. And he was kind of hilarious. The four-year-old was very bright for his age and had a sense of humor better than most adults. In the fifteen minutes that had passed, Alex learned that he and Liam had the same favorite color (green), favorite ice cream flavor (s’mores), they even shared a middle name. On top of that they were both obsessed with babies—Alex was a peds surgeon and Liam said that he was constantly asking his mom when they would have a baby.

Alex had just promised to sneak Liam up to the hospital nursery when the door opened. With his back was to the door, Alex spoke to the parent he’d assumed had walked in, “Oh, hey. I’m Dr. Karev. I just was in the daycare visiting my niece when your son fell. He got a few stitches, but other than that he’s just fine.”

Finally turning around, Alex came face to face with his wide-eyed soulmate. Confused, he stared at her dumbly as she stood unmoving like a deer in headlights. The moment was broken when Liam look up and grinned, “Mommy!”

Breaking out of her trance, Jo looked up at the little boy sitting on the exam table, “Hey baby! I heard you took a fall in daycare. Are you okay?”

“Yup,” Liam nodded happily. “Dr. Awex fixed me up! He’s so funny, mommy. We wike wots of the same tings and he pwomised to take me to see the babies!”

“Really? You love babies don’t you,” Jo smiled at her son and glanced quickly at Alex.

“Uh huh! Dr. Awex fixes babies,” Liam grinned brightly. “I want to fix babies too!”

“You do, huh? Well, I’m sure he’d love to teach you one day,” Jo wrapped her son in her arms and hugged him closed. She looked up at Alex, “Was he good?”

“Oh yeah, he was great,” Alex gave her one of his crooked grins. “So, he’s yours?”

“Yeah, I had him a couple months before I started med school. It’s just us,” Jo felt her heart pick up in speed the more she looked at him. If this whole soulmate thing was true, the Jo was sure that his heart was beating equally as quickly. “Thank you for taking care of him.”

“Of course,” Alex took a deep breath. This was all too surreal. He was standing in an exam room with his soulmate and her son and he’d never felt more at home. He didn’t want this to end. “You know, I was telling Liam here that maybe I’d try to get him some ice cream. What if we all go together? I know this really great place a couple blocks away. I’ve taken my niece, Zola there a couple times and she loves it.”

Jo felt like she was dreaming. There was no way this was real. There was no way that her soulmate wanted to take her and her son out for ice cream. This didn’t happen in real life. It only happened in all the rom coms she’d grown to despise over the years. Men were never this good, but somehow, she could tell that Alex was. Jo turned to her son who looked at her with pleading eyes. Deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to say no, she smiled, “I think the two of us would like that very much.”

And they did enjoy it. The trio looked like the sweetest little family as they went out for ice cream that night. Both Jo and Alex had been commented to on separate occasions by multiple people regarding their adorable dynamics. It was almost strange how normal it felt to be out and about with each other. Maybe it was because Liam was there acting as a buffer, but neither Jo nor Alex could remember why they’d been skeptical in the first place.

Alex offered to give Jo and Liam a ride home after leaving the ice cream parlor. They’d taken the bus to the hospital that morning and Jo had been planning on taking it back when Alex insisted on getting them home safely. When they finally arrived at Jo’s apartment, Liam refused to go inside and go to sleep unless Alex tucked him into bed. Jo had tried reasoning with Liam, but Alex assured her that it was fine, and he wouldn’t mind reading Liam a bedtime story or two.

So, that’s how she found herself standing in the doorway of her son’s room, watching as her new soulmate laughed with her son as he read a book to Liam. Jo’s heart fluttered at the scene. Her soulmate and her son had bonded in a matter of hours. Her soulmate actually existed and he was here in her home, tucking her son into bed as if he’d done it a hundred times before.

When Alex was done, he pulled the covers up over Liam’s small frame and ruffled his hair. He turned off the light and walked out the door, finding Jo standing in the living room. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jo breathed out a shaky breath. “Thanks for… everything today. You really didn’t have to do all that.”

“It was nothing,” Alex shrugged bashfully. “I—uh, I had fun.”

The stood in awkward silence for a few minutes, each person staring at the ground. It’s wasn’t that they didn’t have anything to say, it was that there were too many things to say and neither one of them know where to start.

"You don't have to do this," Jo shook her head. "I come with a lot of baggage, more than you probably bargained for. I have a very complicated past and I don't trust people easily. On top of that, have a kid. He's the most important person in my life. So if you don't think you can handle all that, it's okay. I won't hold it against you. I'm giving you an out."

Alex looked at her curiously, "Are you free tomorrow night?"

"What?" Jo scrunched her eyebrows.

"Are you free tomorrow night?” Alex repeated.

“Uh—yeah,” Jo looked at him strangely. “Why?”

“Go out with me tomorrow, just us. I can ask Meredith if she can babysit. Liam can play with Zola,” Alex offered.

Jo could feel her heart beating wildly. The nerves in her stomach increasing, “Okay.”

*****

The date was a disaster. Everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong. To be fair, Alex wasn’t really one to go on dates. Which is why he’d enlisted the help of Kepner and Robbins to set up the perfect first date. They had given him a list of suggestions of all the places he could take Jo and all the things they could do.

Of course, nothing went as planned. The restaurant they were going to eat at, didn’t have a table available. The movie they were going to watch was sold out. They missed their ferry, lost their tickets to the Seattle Great Wheel, and got stuck in traffic for about an hour.

Finally deciding to screw it, Alex ordered a pizza and fried chicken, bought a six pack of beer, and drove up to one of the cliffs just outside the city. He grabbed the blanket that was in the trunk of his car and set it outside in the grass. Jo hopped out and put the food and beers on the ground.

They spent some time talking about their pasts. They talked about their upbringing, discovering that they had a lot more in common than they would’ve thought. Alex shared about his first marriage and Jo shared hers. She told him about her name and why she chose it. They’d been making self-deprecating jokes and laughing while stargazing when it started to pour out of nowhere. They laugh and squeal as they hurry back into the car. Alex turned the heater on to help them warm up. He looked back at Jo and grimaced, "I am so sorry. This night has been a disaster. I should’ve known I would’ve screwed it up.”

“Are you kidding?” Jo looked at Alex in disbelief. “I don’t think I’ve laughed this much ever. I’ve had more fun tonight than I have in a long time.”

“Really?” Alex raised his eyebrows. “You don’t care that we’re sitting in my car, soaked, eating pizza and fried chicken while drinking a couple of beers.”

“I don’t mind at all, honestly. I prefer this to fancy restaurants and cheesy movies,” Jo smiled brightly. Looking at Alex, she felt butterflies. She felt seen, she felt heard, she felt happy. “You know, I didn’t believe in all this. I didn’t believe that there was someone out there specifically made for me. I thought it was all a made-up fairytale that people just tried so hard to hold on to because life sucks sometimes. But meeting you, talking to you… I know that I want to do this for the rest of my life.”

“I do too,” Alex gave her a crooked grin. In the past few hours, he knew he’d fallen in love with this woman. “Can I kiss you?”

Jo felt her cheeks heat up. She nodded shyly, “Yes.”

Alex leaned in and pulled Jo into a passionate kiss, leaving her breathless. Nothing had ever felt more right in her life. She wanted to stay here in his arms and never leave and so did he. Alex would give anything to stay in that moment forever.

When they finally broke apart, both were grinning like idiots. Alex tucked a piece of hair behind Jo’s ear, “That was definitely worth the twenty years I spent looking at my clock wishing I could just hurry up and meet you.” He looked at the time on the dashboard of his car. “It’s getting late. We should go pick up Liam at Mer’s and I’ll drop you guys off at your place.”

“Or… we could see if she wouldn’t mind keeping him overnight. He’s probably asleep now anyway. It would be a shame to wake him up,” Jo looked up at him mischievously.

“It would be a shame,” Alex nodded in understanding. His face broke out into a smirk. “Guess I’ll just be taking you home instead.”

******

One year later….

“Okay, you remember the plan?”

“Yes, Daddy!” Liam nodded his little head at Alex. He was jumping with excitement. Today, his Daddy was going to propose to his Mommy. His Daddy wasn’t always his Daddy, though. For a long time, it was just Liam and Mommy. Now, the nice doctor that stitched up his head was his new Daddy and Liam couldn’t be happier. “Will Mommy like the ring?”

“I sure hope so, because I spent a lot of money on that thing,” Alex muttered under his breath. “You’re going to make sure that Mommy walks over here to the fountain when it’s time. Got it?”

“Got it!”

Minutes later, Alex was standing by the fountain in downtown waiting for his son to lead his soulmate to where he was waiting for them. He paced nervously as he watched them round the corner, Liam pulling on his mom’s coat sleeve to get her to hurry. As they approached, Alex took a deep breath and adjusted his tie. He smiled as the two people he loved most in the world came to a halt in front of him.

“Hi,” Alex smiled cheekily.

“Hi,” Jo beamed in return. “What are you doing here? And why are you wearing a suit?”

“I’m here because, I have something to say. And I decided to do it in public with Liam present so that I couldn’t’ chicken out,” Alex chuckled and looked down at the ground before lifting his gaze to meet Jo’s once more. “Jo, from the moment I met you, everything in my life suddenly made sense. Right then, I met the person I knew I was going to love for the rest of my life. You have changed me. I am a better man because of you and Liam. I want to grow old with you. I want to be by your side until we’re old and gray and yelling at each other about who was a better surgeon.”

Jo let out a laugh as tears filled her eyes. Alex leaned in for a brief kiss before finally getting down on one knee, “I love you. So, Jo Wilson, will you marry me?”

Jo’s breath hitched, “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes! Alex, I can’t wait to marry you.”

“Mommy and Daddy are getting married!” Liam squealed from where he was standing.

Alex and Jo laughed at Liam’s excitement, “Yeah, we are.”

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