#Rather than ignoring this troubled kid Bump takes him under his wing

[101flavoursofweird]

“This is a statue of Principle Bump, who risked his life for ours!”

[blueberry-sunshines]

Late Night Rendezvous - Keith x Reader One Shot

Summary:

You are a fellow pilot at the Garrison and Keith's only friend, he sneaks you out to show you something during the night...

Word Count: 3.2K

Slight Angst | Sweet, Vulnerable Keith

{This can also be found on my wattpad: @/blueberry_sunshines}

{POV: Yours}

You were sitting criss-cross on top of your small bed in your dorm at the Garrison. The dim yellow glow of the school commissioned lamp lightly lit up the pages of your biology textbook. You were staying up late trying to study. Your roommate offered to stay up with you to help but you told her just to go to sleep. You didn't want her to be all sleep deprived.

Keith Kogane wasn't in all of your classes, but he was in a few. You were both fighter class pilots so your curriculum was quite similar. Everyone always says they're so surprised he's nice to you, and your roommate loves to tease you about it. She says that Keith has a 'soft spot' for you, but Keith just says that you're the only person he can stand.

Besides, you've known each other since you were kids. You both transferred to the Garrison at the same time and were partnered together. At first Keith was really cold towards you, but you always just thought he was shy and it didn't bother you that much. He seemed bored with the simulator and you always found his showing off to be rather funny. After what happened with James, Keith finally opened up to you and after that, you two were rather close. By the end of the year you two definitely started to become real friends...

You guys are 16 years old now and Keith is probably your best friend. There's always been a thin barrier between you two, but you've been ignoring it because you don't want him to push himself further away. You kind of always wished he would open up more. You thought about asking him to help you study tonight, but boys and girls aren't allowed in each other's dorms and you've been trying to make sure he stays out of trouble because you've been worried about him recently. He's been kind of distant lately and much more aggravated. A lot of people had been antsy lately because the Kerberos mission was a few months away. You knew that Keith sees the pilot, Shiro, as an older brother figure. He took Keith under his wing, so maybe that's what he was thinking about all the time when he was out of it. You had talked Shiro many times about Kerberos and he seemed very confident about it, so you never thought to worry about it. You shook your head, trying to refocus on your biology book. You turned around to look at your alarm clock and saw it flash "1:13 AM" in its big, red numbers. Damn, you really needed to wrap this up and get to bed soon...

-Knock Knock-

You had just about jumped from the surprise of someone knocking on your door. You looked over to your roommate's bed to see her definitely asleep. You sprung off your bed knowing exactly who it would be. Shaking your head in half disappointment, you put your hand on the button on the wall and let your door slide open to see none other than Keith Kogane. You felt the accidental smile form on your face the moment your eyes met his. He looked uncharacteristically nervous as he stood there in the hallway all dressed up in his red jacket and boots. You loved seeing him in his outfit because the Garrison uniforms were rather bland. Although, you thought, Keith could probably pull of anything.

"Are you gonna let me in?" Keith whispered to you with a furrow on his face. Your face began to heat up in embarrassment from spacing out.

"Sorry, just tired..." you whispered back, peeking outside the door to see if there was anyone there before grabbing Keith's sleeve and pulling him into your dorm room.

"I didn't think you'd be awake..." he admitted quietly as he walked towards your bed.

     "What's up?" You asked curiously. Normally he tells you he's coming before he does, so you weren't sure what he was doing here.

"Get changed, we're going out." He was sitting on your bed now and had his arm crossed. You looked down at yourself and realized you were still in your old T-shirt, sleep shorts combo. Eh, well this isn't the first time Keith's seen me in my pajamas.

"Keith," you sat back down on your bed, pulling him down with you. "I don't know if we should." You cautioned, "You're always getting in trouble and you can't afford losing your scholarship. You are the best pilot here, you were born for this."

     He frowned at you before speaking, "(Y/N), we're not gonna get caught. Besides, if I get kicked out, they have you left." He bumped into you jokingly.  "Where are we going?" You asked quietly to make sure your roommate doesn't wake up. Keith started standing up then and shook his head, "You'll find out soon." He said shortly, not leaving any room for you to guess what he's planning.

     "Come on," he stood up quickly and held his gloved hands out to you. You placed your hands into his and felt the warmth of his palms. It made your heart jump for a second. He pulled you up off your bed and slightly spun you over towards your big, gray wardrobe.

    "Now get dressed and come with me~" he whispered into your ear and pulled back with a smirk. He let go of your hands then and slipped out towards the door, "And hurry before we get caught!" He whisper-yelled to you as the door slid shut.

     Your heart was beating so fast. Something about Keith always made your adrenaline start pumping. Maybe it's because we're always doing things that could get us in trouble. You thought to yourself.

     Okay maybe more like convinced yourself. You then started changing out of your pajamas and into your regular outside of school outfit to distract yourself from your thoughts. You didn't want to like Keith. You guys are best friends and there's no reason to ruin that just for a silly crush. Once you were changed you made a dash to the door and snuck out next to Keith as quietly as you could. You smiled up at him and he looked down at you kindly before heading down the corridor with you stealthy following after him. You were glad to see him like this, this is the first time he's really seemed happy in the past couple weeks.

     You slipped around past some adults and teachers before making it out of one of the dock's open doors. You and Keith had snuck out of the Garrison many times before but you normally don't go with him every time he goes out. He likes being alone and so do you, so you understand.

Keith was leading you around the side of the building to stay out of cameras' and lookouts' lines of vision you eventually managed to creep around to a corner and ran until you were in the spot where you are completely hidden, there you two found Keith's land speeder. Keith plunked a helmet onto your head and started to get on before you protested.

     "Hey I wanna drive!" You whisper shouted to him hoping he'd let you be in charge of the speeder. Shiro had taught Keith to ride them ever since you've known Keith, you tried to convince him to let you join them when you were younger but he always refused. It wasn't until you were older you realized your boundaries much better. Over the past year, though, you had asked Keith to teach you and he's been trying. You weren't the greatest yet but you were definitely learning.

Keith let out a soft chuckle, "No way, sweetheart." He snipped at you in a playful tone while using a sarcastic nickname that always caused your chest to ache. "Besides, you don't even know where we're going." He fully sat down on the seat now and patted the seat behind him, other hand on the handlebar. You reluctantly obliged and slid on behind him. He turned his head around to look at you and gave you a smirk, "Hold on tight, we're going fast."

     You grinned and nodded then wrapped your arms around his torso and hung on as he revved the speeder and you two went rushing across the desert. Your heart began to race as you pulled yourself closer to Keith, feeling the wind on you as you flew through the air. You began thinking to yourself where Keith may be taking you as you looked around at your surroundings blurring past you. You eventually leaned your cheek against his back as the ride wasn't super short.

"We're almost there!" He yelled back to you, not turning his head back this time. You could hear the smile on his face and it made you smile too. You picked your head back up to start looking around again to see if you knew where you were. As you slowed to a stop, you peeked your head around his shoulder to look in front of you.

"Hey!" You began laughing, "You liar! I so know my way here!" Keith had driven you guys to his old house he used to live in with his dad. You guys have come here many times in the past. Keith comes here all the time and even skips classes to be here. It's a cute little home but it's not very cleaned up inside. Perhaps Keith likes it the way it was left and you can see why. Keith joined in on your laughter.

      "This isn't the place, we're just stopping to pick something up." Your laughter subsided as Keith got off the speeder. "Stay here," he smiled down at you, "I'll be right back." He then pushed down the visor on your helmet just to tease you before he walked off towards the house. You flicked back up the visor and rested your hand on your palm tiredly. You were starting to feel tired again after that adrenaline rush. You yawned as you thought about what on earth Keith could be grabbing. By the time he came back you started to feel more awake when you began having conversation again. Keith had a long case in his arms and he strapped it safely to the back of the speeder. Keith got back on and began driving you two up a long hill a small while away from the old Kogane house.

Once you made it to the peak, you two both got off the speeder and you got to see the beautiful sky line over the dessert mountains. You let out an amazed sigh at the sight. You were pulled out of your awed state when you heard the sounds of Keith doing something behind you. Turning around, you saw Keith setting up a telescope. You looked at him in confusion because you didn't think Keith liked telescopes, especially not after that full semester on telescopes and astral charts two years ago. He looked up at you through his long hair that was sagging in this face from his bent over stance. He didn't really look so amused either which just pushed your confusion even further.

"Come here." He beckoned after he was done setting it up. "Come here and see what you can see, right in the middle of the scope."

You looked at him skeptically before getting down to look into it. In the middle of your view was a small faint blip in the sky. "Dude," you snorted, "what star is this?" You still had no idea what he was having you look at.

"It's a moon. Jupiter's Europa." He said shortly. You stood up from the telescope and saw Keith sitting nonchalantly on the ground now. You walked back and sat down next to him, letting your hands fall behind you to hold yourself up.

"Europa is about 365 million miles away. That's nothing compared to Kerberos." He said, his voice starting to sound a lot more unhappy. "It's over 3.2 billion miles from here. And Shiros actually going!" He shouted with a growl in his voice. There it is, you thought, this is about Kerberos.

You kept quiet. You knew during times like this, it was better to just let Keith talk and you were perfectly fine with that. Looking over at him, you could see him still looking up at the night sky. His eyes were sad, his gaze was lost, yet angry. "I heard him fighting with Adam when I was outside his door a couple hours ago. Adam told Shiro that if he goes to Kerberos, that he won't be here for him when he gets back." His eyes wavered down at the ground between you two now. "And it got me thinking, everyone's been saying this is just a routine mission but, why would Adam be so worried about it?" He looked over to you now, helplessly, you didn't have an answer, and he didn't expect you to have one.

       "I think you should confront Shiro tomorrow and ask him to tell you the truth about it." You offered finally after a small moment of silence. Keith nodded slowly, thinking about your response.

      "Thanks, Y/N." He gave you a small grateful smile before laying down on the ground now, face up to the sky. You followed suit and laid down, suddenly even closer to him than you were before.

      "Anytime, Mullet." You grinned turning your head to face him. You saw him looking at you with a disappointed scowl on his face, causing you to let out a small laugh. Keith let out a sigh as you stopped giggling. You never knew what he was thinking, and the look on his face, you could tell he was thinking deeply about something. "What are you thinking about?" You decided to ask him, thinking there'd be no better time to have real conversations with him than tonight.

Keith looked back at the sky now opening his mouth to speak and then closing it again. Most likely thinking over his words.

"I've been thinking about something else too. I don't know what I would do in Shiro's shoes. I'm impulsive and stupid as hell, and when I want to do something I don't let anything stand in my way, but if someone I really loved tried to stop me from doing it, I don't know if I could, even with the thought of them leaving me for me. And it scares me, Y/N, so many people have left me and I don't know what I'd do if it were my fault you left."

You felt a lump form in your throat from hearing Keith talk about this. This is one of the times in a very long time he has let you in on how he feels about anything. Hearing him openly express your emotions was touching and you felt so honored to be the one he tells them to.

"Y/N?" Your name escaped his lips again, this time asking as if he was longing for you. You turned your head again to look at him. You held your breath when you noticed that your faces were close enough that your noses could be touching if either of you moved any further.

"Yeah?" You asked him suddenly much more quiet now, you cursed yourself for sounding so nervous but you couldn't control your pounding heart at the proximity. You were searching his eyes to see if you could guess what he was thinking, he's never been very touchy and you were oh so close to touching, you started to sit up a bit to give him space, but you were stopped in your tracks when you felt Keith's hand grip onto yours as he sat up too, pulling your hand towards him.

The warm touch so foreign and yet so familiar. An hour ago in your dorm, a month ago while guiding you in the simulator, a year ago when he tried to help you fix your bad hair day, all the way back to age 13 when he handed you back your glitter gel pen in class and you felt the flaming rush in your chest.

"I want you to know," he whispered, holding onto your hand a little tighter now, "no matter what happens, I will never do anything on purpose to make you leave me."

You didn't know what to say, so instead you flung your arms around him and pulled him into a loving hug. You let out a shaky sigh as you felt Keith's body relax into yours. "I know you wouldn't." You were in this weird state of shock having never seen Keith this vulnerable before.

"God I'm so fucking stupid..." you hear his muffled voice growl from your shoulder. He pulled away from the hug then, angry at himself for just simply showing you his emotions. You shook your head quickly and put his hand back into your own.

"No you're not, Keith." You reassured him, "Thank you for telling me this." You said then, hoping to make him feel more secure again.

"Yeah..." he sighed then, "Let's get you back in your dorm, they should be switching look outs soon." He quickly changed the subject. You frowned at him, both for putting back up his wall and for making this night coming to an end. You agreed nonetheless, you were glad Keith was beginning to let you in and you were willing to accept that the boundary was back up. Keith means the world to you, and you'd never let that go.

Keith drove you guys back to his speeders hiding place before helping you sneak back in and back through the halls to your dorm. There wasn't any talking on the way back but it was a comfortable silence. Once you were back at your door, you thanked Keith for the wonderful night and told him to get some sleep before the sun starts to come up. You turned them to your door and were about to open it when,

"Hey, uh, (Y/N)?" He whispered for your attention once again. "You're really important to me." He said shortly but still full of so much love. You pulled him into another hug. "You too, Mullet." You whispered into his ear, "Never forget it... please?"

You felt Keith nod and he gave you a quick squeeze before letting go of the embrace, slowly, his hand sliding down your arm as he began to walk away, once it reached your hand and gave it another quick squeeze before he finally let go and slipped around the corner into the darkness. You let out a large breath you didn't know you were holding once you saw him disappear. God were you in love with him. Even if he's never usually like that during the day, you love every Keith and maybe one day you'll tell him....

__________

Hey!!! Let me know what you thought of this one shot :))) I know Keith was pretty ooc, but I like thinking of him being very sensitive around the ones he loves!

Also this didn't proof read yet because I rlly wanted to get this chapter out to you guys !!!!!

This is my first like official Voltron work so bare with me!

PLEASE PLEASE REQUEST SOMETHING LOL

[friendlyneighborhoodsecretary]

3. Prompt: Gardening

By his third day of hiding out at the lakehouse post-Beck, Peter had run out of distractions. Going anywhere near his phone or the TV was out of the question. He couldn't concentrate well enough to do any of the suit tinkering or web fluid adjustments he would usually have fallen back on. He'd already made the rounds of the house, fixing the little leaks and squeaks and anything else he could mindlessly turn a wrench to (not that there were many in a Stark-built home). And there were only so many times a person could take a stroll around the same lake and skip the same stones and swing their legs off the same dock before they went thoroughly and irreversibly insane. He was all but vibrating with restless nerves. And being cooped up out here, where the silence of the woods pressed in on him like dungeon walls and the empty hours yawned ahead of him like a life sentence, wasn’t making it any easier.

By the time Pepper found him after lunch on the third day, he was dangling upside down from the eaves, absently shifting from foot to foot and counting the seconds to see how long it took before he fell. It was possible, Peter realized as he dropped sheepishly back down to the floorboards—just possible—that he might have already slipped over the edge.

“Trust me—I’ve seen worse.” Pepper hadn’t even batted an eye as she brushed off his sputtered explanations. She’d just gathered up the sunhats and the neat bundle of work gloves from the shelf by the door and towed him through the back door with the practiced efficiency of someone who was used to managing chaos before it tipped over into calamity. "Come with me.”

He trailed her reluctantly around the side of the house to the neat rows of raised beds that housed Pepper's garden. Carefully-staked tomato plants here, the scraggly foliage of carrot tops there, lines of squat goji bushes in one bed and the small round buds of new lettuces in another—there were a few things he could identify, but many more that were just...green. Green and vibrant and robust, leaves gently rustling in the hot July breeze and produce of varying sizes and shapes ripening in the sun. He was pulled from his inspection by Pepper pushing a pair of the gardening gloves into his hands and dropping a broad-brimmed sunhat over his eyes (“Yes, I know you’re superhuman, but I don’t think skin cancer discriminates like that”). There was a brief summary of which greens were intentional and which were intrusive, a deft demonstration of proper weed-yanking technique, and then Peter was shepherded to a row of carrots for practice. Pepper settled in amongst an adjacent patch of lettuce and left him to the job. For a moment, he just sat there, the grass prickling against his knees and the sweat beginning to bead up under the heavy gloves as he brooded. Gardening. What was he doing puttering around in the Starks’ backyard, gardening, while his actual life imploded out there in the real world? At least Pepper had earned the break—he caught snatches of her phone calls to the legal team, to the publicists, to all the people who were actually doing something about the mess he was in, and the reality that he wasn’t one of them stung every time.

Peter stared out over the sea of bobbing leaves and sighed. Still, if it wasn’t gardening, what else would it be? More waiting and wondering and wearing new tennis shoe trails in the track around the lake? One was about as productive as the other. Peter squared his shoulders and bent to the task in front of him. If he was going to lose his mind out in the wilderness, he might as well be helpful while he was doing it.

As it turned out after half of an hour’s worth of work, there was something weirdly soothing about kneeling in the dirt and burying yourself in the process of pinpointing what stayed and what went. In the careful concentration it took to yank up a stubborn weed without uprooting anything good that happened to be growing near it. In the calming repetition of pinching off a dead leaf here or a damaged stalk there. There were ladybugs crawling lazily along the stems, occasionally bumping against Peter’s fingertips a few times before they grudgingly redirected around him, and a few birds hopping cautiously along the rim of the beds, mining for unlucky creepy crawlies. It was a steady rhythm of activity—just enough of it to keep Peter’s mind from straying too far beyond the next bunch of nettles to dig out—with a refreshingly comfortable lack of pressure or tension.

Pepper didn't say much, but the silent companionship was…nice. In a way, it was soothing, too. Or, at the very least, a relief from May's fretting and Happy's hovering—not that there was anything wrong with either of those, per se, but when it was all you had day in and day out, it began to smother you alive. The summer sun beat down on his back, the breeze swept lazily across his brow, and for a while, time ceased to exist. There was nothing but the black earth under his hands and the scent of topsoil in his lungs and the steady cycle of the job.

"I started planting things a few months after we moved out here," Pepper said quietly, a solid hour into their work. "Not much at first—just enough to give us a reason to be out in the light rather than holing up inside."

"Us? Mr. Stark helped?" It was an odd image—Peter had always had trouble imagining Tony out in the country at all, let alone elbow-deep in a tangle of zucchini plants or hauling buckets of fertilizer. But then, most of life these days was odd—Tony was recovering from saving the literal universe with a snap of his fingers, Pepper was flicking aphids off of her tomato plants, and Peter felt increasingly more like he was just along for the ride.

Pepper’s mouth twisted in a wry grimace.

"I'm not sure 'help' is the right word given how some of those first few plants fared, but yes, he did pitch in. Under duress, sometimes, but it grew on him.” Peter let out an obligatory snort at the pun, and Pepper forged on, the faint smirk on her lips the only indication that she’d meant it as one. “I saw a quote once—a very, very cheesy Pinterest sort of thing—about planting a garden being an act of belief in having a tomorrow. And back then, right after the Blip, we needed any hope for tomorrow we could find. Or cultivate, as the case may be.”

“It was a good way to refocus. To step back and take a break from trying to put the world back together.” Pepper shot him a pointed look over the carrot tops, and Peter pointedly ignored it. “It was a good distraction, too. I think Tony spent at least five or six hours a day out here during the weeks before Morgan was born, when all we could do was wait for something to happen.”

Peter paused in chucking a handful of weedy foliage at the compost-bound pile that had sprung up between them. The relentless urge to find something, anything helpful to do had eased a little, but it was far from gone. He pursed his lips as he finally turned back to uproot another fistful.

"I just—I wish there was something I could do besides waiting out here. I mean, everything that’s happening is all my fault, but you're the one who's having to fix it and I know it has to be costing you an awful lot and—"

Pepper tipped her sunhat back to level him with a long, hard look that reminded him forcefully of May when she was gently, but firmly pointing out the obvious facts of life, such as "the homework won't do itself" or "the laundry will not make its way from the dryer to your room by magic" or “that Red Bull won’t give you actual wings, so you’d better not expect gravity to give you preferential treatment.”

"Peter. There isn't a single person in this house who wouldn't spend their last dime on making sure you get through this okay. And believe me when I say that we've got a long, long way to go before we even need to start worrying about burning through Stark Industries' supply of dimes."

Peter opened his mouth, a dozen arguments about his opinion of throwing other people’s money at his problems, about sitting on the sidelines while everyone else did the work, about running from the consequences of his own blunders all welling up on the tip of his tongue.  Pepper cut them off.

“You’ll have your work cut out for you in a few weeks, when things have settled a little more and there are fewer people agitating to have you arrested. When that happens, we’ll all work on fixing this together. Until then…try to take advantage of the rest.” Her voice softened. “I know it isn’t easy, Peter. But you’re wrong about it being your fault—and it certainly isn’t your sole responsibility to fix. You’ve got a lot of people on your team.” She coaxed the last tendrils of unwanted clover from her last row and rocked back on her heels. “And a whole lot of tomorrow to believe in. Even if it isn’t exactly what you were envisioning it would be a few weeks ago.”

"Thanks,” Peter murmured. It would’ve sounded trite from anyone else, but from Pepper—Pepper, whose practicality rivaled May’s and whose honesty could rival Happy’s (just in a more polished, less aggressively blunt way)—he could almost believe it. “Not just for this, but you know—for everything."

"Any time, kid.” Pepper shucked her gloves and brushed the dirt from her knees as she stood. She left him to it with a squeeze of his shoulder and an unshakably reassuring smile that Peter would hold onto for a long time to come. He stayed out in the green until the breeze blowing in off the lake had turned cool, and the twilight had started creeping in among the shadows of the pines. There was still a knot of unease in his chest when he finally meandered inside, but it was…smaller. More manageable. The driving restlessness of that morning had been driven out by the bone-deep exhaustion of a long afternoon in the heat and the distinctive tingle of a rising sunburn. It took a solid ten minutes to scrub the grit from his palms and the dirt from under his fingernails, but for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he didn't feel like he'd completely wasted his day. He stumbled through a hazy shower and an even hazier dinner before he fell into bed. And for the first time since he'd arrived, sleep came without a fight. For the first time since he’d arrived, he was too tired to dread it. And while he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe in tomorrow…he didn’t dread the idea of meeting it, either.

[gaamagirl565]

Matters of the heart S2 Ep13

Matters of the heart Season 2 Episode 13 Lost Dreams

{OPENING CREDITS}

{Open to Isaiah opening his small pouch and counting out the coins; Benny walks by with a cloth bag} Isaiah: Find anything good? Benny: not really... a couple of moldy pieces of bread,  an old turkey wing that looks like it was already eaten,  and some old fruit. ‘Saiah, if we eat in any of this we’re gonna get real sick. {Isaiah doesn’t listen and keeps counting with a conflicted face} Benny: ‘Saiah?...Isaiah? {He still doesn’t listen and she leaps on him} Benny: ‘SAIAH! Isaiah: AH! WHAT!? Benny:  what’cha doing? Isaiah:  I'm counting out how much funds I have... it's not enough… Benny:  Not enough for what? Isaiah:  enough for a map and food... I can't get both. Benny: then it looks like you're in a pickle. Food is necessary and it's a long trip back to Corona on foot. Isaiah:  and I can't leave without a map.  I've no idea how to get back to Corona from the dark kingdom.

Benny: Well don't look at me I've never left the dark Kingdom. I was practically born here. Isaiah: Benny you were born here.  I can't really afford to make this choice. a map or food. both are necessary. Benny:  there's always another option. Isaiah: and what would that be? if I get a map I'll barely have enough money for food, and if I get food I won't have enough money for a map.  but please tell me your grand scheme. Benny: don't buy food. Isaiah:... and here I was thinking you were some sort of survival genius Benny:  watch it stinky! you didn't let me finish! don't buy the food... hunt for it! Isaiah: Hunt for food? I've never really killed anything before. Benny: well boo hoo!  where do you think the leg of mutton that you eat for supper comes from?  it's either that or starve on your trip your choice! {Isaiah looks back at his coins and sighs; Cut to Varian looking over the map of Corona with Eugene and Lance} Eugene: From what we've been able to gather from him The cult has multiple hideouts. they never stay in one place very long. Varian has told us this before but now we have it confirmed by an actual member. or rather a former member. Varian:  I was able to find out some of the previous hideouts from him and under your order I've already sent some Scouts to the areas.  perhaps we'll be able to find some members still lurking there. Lance:  if that's true that means that this group is bigger than we ever thought. Varian:  it's because they target those low in spirit.  basically people who have been screwed over in life, people easy to manipulate. Eugene: like trying to train an animal to be violent. you can do the beating yourself or let Society do it for you. {a knock sounds through the room; Rapunzel walks in} Eugene: Sunshine! Rapunzel: I think I have an idea. Eugene: well do tell cause this is just getting depressing honestly. Rapunzel:   from what Noremoth has told us the cult targets the weak, gives them false promises of Glory, and a better Society.  we also know that Noremoth was one of the first to join. Varian: and? Rapunzel:  he told you about his past.  he was a child on the street.  an orphan misanthrope.   he may have been given a high rank within the cult but I think he's just another Pawn. and given the fact that he was one of my subjects I feel just as responsible for what happened. Lance: how do we know he's not lying? Rapunzel:  the kingdom keeps a book of all subjects, homeless, and those passing through.  I decided to take a look back at the pages during my father's reign.  he's telling the truth. his name is written in the book. it looks like he came to Corona a little bit before I was found. Varian: I knew King Fredric was a control freak but… Rapunzel: the point is he was a member of Coronin Society. he was ignored and had to fight every day of his life.  he never really got to see the true beauty of Corona or life as a whole. Eugene:  so what are you suggesting? Rapunzel:  we show him some Corona spirit.  we show him what it means to be a true Society! to work together! Eugene:  we integrate him into our kingdom? Rapunzel:  exactly! we show him life doesn't have to be dark and depressing and a constant fight for survival. we teach him to trust again. Varian: I don't know if that'll work. Rapunzel:  we have to try. The most beaten of dogs can become the most loyal of hounds if given the chance and a little bit of kindness. {Varian sighs} Varian:  sorry but I have request. Rapunzel: Oh um...okay? Varian:  it takes place in Old Corona. that way I can keep an eye on him. I’ll alert you if I see any funny business. Lance: sounds fair to me.  this whole thing has been really hard on Akina. My girl lost a good friend and Varian lost a son.  as long as we can get answers from this guy I don't care what has to be done. Eugene:  then I guess it's agreed. I'll have Noremoth released within the hour. {Both rapunzel and Eugene walk out of the room; Lance looks at Varian who groans}

Varian: My wife is going to kill me. {cut to Isaiah being rung up by a cashier} Cashier: one map to Corona. that'll be twenty gold pieces. {isaiah hands it over} Cashier:  thank you...you seem a little young to be venturing out. Isaiah: you seem a little old to still be working cashier. Cashier:... touche...now get! {Isaiah walks out of the store and Benny runs over} Benny: Did ya get it? Isaiah: Yeah and it cost me twenty gold pieces. Benny: ouch...how much ya got left? Isaiah: Well that was all my gold pieces.  I have 10 silver and 4 copper. Benny:  that'll maybe get one loaf of bread and some jerky… Isaiah:  I had a sailor tell me the four days walk to Corona but I reason to believe that it's more than that.  mostly because he was sleeping on some crates and was probably not in his right mind. Benny:  oh yeah it's totally more than 4 days.  also he was using a boat so his sense of time is probably a little..meh… Isaiah: Great!...just great...so I got the map but now I do need to hunt for food. how am I supposed to do that without any wea- OOF! {Isaiah falls back after bumping into someone} Isaiah: HEY! WATCH WHERE YOUR-..... {He looks up at Hector} Isaiah: ...Okay...N-Nevermind. Hector:  don't I know you from somewhere? Isaiah:... I hope not… Hector:.... you're that kid that was passed out in the cave a few days ago.  I told Juniper you were a kid from town. {Hector pulls him up making Isaiah yelp} Isaiah:...gah...A-actually... I'm not from this town I'm not even from this Kingdom I'm trying to get back to Corona. Hector:  Corona? you're a long way from home. Isaiah:  yeah I just practically spend all my money on a map to go back there.  now I need to find a way to get provisions. Hector:  you don't need to pay for Provisions around here.  the forest has all you could possibly need. Isaiah: do you know how to hunt? Hector:  did you really just ask a man with the fur cloak on his back if he knows how to hunt? Isaiah:... that is a very fair point and that one is on me.  maybe I should be a little more clear do you know how to hunt when you don't have a weapon. Hector: Good lord kid, how are you not dead?   I'll say it again the forest has all you need. break off a stick from a tree and then sharpen it with a rock that should make a pretty good spear. And as for traps.. your little friend hiding By The Fruit stand over there should know all about those. Isaiah: hiding by the-!? {Isaiah turns around to see Benny hiding behind a cart of apples} Isaiah: BENNY! {Benny ducks} Isaiah: I can still see you! Hector:  she's always sabotaging traps in the forest trying to steal food.  she should be more than aware of how to build and work one. Isaiah: this is some really useful information I don't know how to thank you. Hector:  when you get back to Corona... if you could say hello to some people on my behalf it would be most appreciated. {Isaiah turns to leave} Isaiah:  yeah I'd be more than happy to just tell me who they are. Hector: my sister Adira and my nephew Varian. Isaiah: Adira and dad!? {Isaiah turns around but hector is already gone; Benny runs up to him} Benny:  well did you get an answer to your problem? Isaiah: yeah... but I also think I gained more questions… {Cut to Noremoth sitting next to Varian on the wagon; Cat and Keira sit in the back} Keira: Thanks for giving us a ride, V. Varian: really it's no issue. {Noremoth looks back at Catalina} Noremoth:...Cat? Catalina:  I have nothing to say to you. Noremoth:  please cat I just want- Keira:  she said she has nothing to say to you. back off! {Varian motions Noremoth to turn back around} Noremoth:   women will always continue to be a mystery to me. Varian: Noremoth... she's right there. {Catalina stares Angrily at him} Noremoth: nevermind. {She rolls her eyes; as they pull up to Old Corona a Villager runs up} Villager: Varian! Sir! Thank goodness! {Varian is immediately at attention and hopes down} Varian: What's going on? is everyone okay? Villager:  it's Nathaniel!  we're all worried about him.  he went into the South Orchard some time ago and hasn't come out.  we sent someone to go check on him and they came right back saying he was just striking a tree with a dagger. Varian:  ugh...alright I'll go talk to him.  Keira can you put the horse back? Keira:  yeah no problem. {Varian walks off; Noremoth grins at Catalina and hmphs and turns away; cut to  Nathaniel driving a dagger into an apple tree that is already covered with many holes} Varian: I think you about got that tree, Nathaniel… Nathaniel: AH!  Mr.V-Varian!...I was just..I...um..it’s not what it looks like. Varian: well it looks like you're stabbing a tree I don't know how else I'm supposed to take that. {Varian holds out his hand and motions for him to hand over the dagger;  Nathaniel hands it over} Varian:  now tell me what this is about.  recently you haven't been the one to be causing trouble. Nathaniel: I just...umm… {Varian sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose} Varian:  Nathaniel you have to tell me what's going o.n this isn't like you. hasn't been like you for a long time. {Nathaniel’s shoulders heave and Varian jumps slightly but his face softens} Nathaniel: I-I’m sorry… Varian: you don't have to apologize Nathaniel I just want to know what's going on.  you stabbed a tree it's not like you stabbed person. Nathaniel:  me and Isaiah came up with this... it's a way to relieve anger...started off with a flour sack in a pumpkin head.  B-but Isaiah started to do it to trees. {Varian bites his lip at the mention of Isaiah} Varian:...Okay... so you developed a healthy way to get rid of your anger.  so tell me... what are you angry about? Nathaniel: I..I’m.. Varian:...C’mon buddy... I'm not mad at you I want to make that clear. Just tell me what you're mad about. Nathaniel: I’M MAD AT EVERYTHING! {Varian jumps at his shout} Nathaniel:  I'm mad at everything!  I was an idiot!  I made fun of Isaiah and then he went blind and I got these burns on my arms!  my dad betrayed The Village and killed Quirin as a result!  A-and with Dad gone I have to put bread on the table by going out to the field every morning! Varian:....Buddy...thats- Nathaniel: and now my best friend is dead!  he was murdered! And there's nothing I can do about it!  I feel so useless and stupid, and...and tired. I just want everything to go back to the way it was. I want my dad back... I want Isaiah back. I want everything to go back! {Varian walks over, bends down and pulls Nathaniel into a hug; Nathaniel looks shocked at first but eventually hugs back and sobs out loud into his shoulder} Varian:....it...it’s okay...it’s gonna be okay… {Nathaniel continues to cry and unbeknownst to Varian he is crying to; Fade out to Isaiah walking into the forest with Benny} Isaiah: Okay... look for a stick and sharpen it with a rock... seems simple enough.  and you little missy since you like to steal from people's traps you get to make some. {He hands over the bag of supplies} Benny:  Or ya know we could just steal what’s out here. {Isaiah glares at her} Benny: Fiiinnnee!  No Stealing I get it…. {She walks off to set up the traps and Isaiah jumps up and pulls a branch off a tree; He grabs a rock and strikes it a few times} Isaiah: Okay this is going to be a lot harder than I thought… {He hears barking and growling; Benny screams} Isaiah: BENNY! {He grabs his stick and runs in her direction} Isaiah: BENNY! WHERE ARE YOU!? Benny: Over here! {He runs towards her hiding behind a tree} Isaiah: Benny! Are you hurt? Benny: No...but look! { Isaiah turns and sees a thin canine of some sort  with its leg caught in a trap} Isaiah: that was fast... did you-? Benny:  no! That trap was already set up by a hunter! a professional Hunter! {The wolf lunges but yelps with its leg still caught} Isaiah: H-hang on...hold this… {Isaiah slowly walks over  towards it} Benny: What are you doing!? {Isaiah shrugs and slowly inches closer; the wolf growls} Isaiah: Steady... Steady girl... it's okay.. {The wolf bites at him and he dodges} Isaiah:...Verbena... give me your apron. Benny: What!? Isaiah:  just give me your apron!  I have to trigger the release mechanism on the trap! Benny:... we're all going to die… {She unties it and hands it over; Isaiah takes it and moves to the side} Isaiah: Easy…. {he cautiously places the apron on the wolfs head and pets her side} Isaiah:  good girl… {Isaiah reaches down and springs the trap; once the wolf feels that the Trap has been released it immediately moves its foot.  the wolf shakes the apron off of its face and stares at Isaiah} Benny: ‘Saiah! Isaiah: Steady...easy girl… { the wolf inches closer and sniffs Isaiah’s face;  Isaiah clenches his fists and try to remain absolutely still; after a few moments the wolf begins licking his face} Isaiah: Ah! Haha! Good girl! What a good girl! Benny: Huh!? Isaiah:  see you're not a big bad wolf you're just a little puppy dog. Benny:  we have very different ideas on what is a little puppy dog. {The wolf flops over for belly rubs} Isaiah:  I've read about this breed of wolf it's native to the dark kingdom.  a very lean and thin body perfect for running through the trees.  a Sleek coat... perfect for blending in. looks like a dog but is actually a wolf. Benny: You're crazy… Isaiah:  we could use a nice Guard Dog in Old Corona. Benny:  you know what we can also use? some food! stop playing with your puppy and lets actually get some hunting done. Isaiah:  all right all right!  Benny's quite the Grumpy One!  but you'll learn to like her. you need a name. hmm... I know! Gaia! Like the forest! {The wolf groans as he scratches her chin} Isaiah: Oh good girl… {Cut to old Corona; Zapada stares at Noremoth} Noremoth:...Can... can I help you? Varian your wife is staring at me. Varian:  she tends to do that at people she doesn't like careful she also bites. Zapada:...grr… Noremoth: what the... anyway... thank you for taking me in. I know you didn't have to. Varian: you're right I didn't have to especially after everything you've done.  let's make one thing clear I still don't like you and I don't have to like you. the only reason that you're here in my house is so I can keep an eye on you. the queen believes that you have the chance of being rehabilitated.  and considering what happened with me...I want to believe her. Noremoth: what? Varian:.... I want to believe there's good in everyone.  you've had it rough I'm not going to lie.  you've been used and abused in many different ways.  I just need one thing to be made clear.  you may not like what I have to say. Noremoth: honestly what could possibly be worse and what I've already went through? Varian:  I want to know...are you clear on the fact that the cult has betrayed you? I need to know this because we're giving you a straight shot here.  I need to know if you'll take it. Noremoth:.. yes... I do know that.   Varian: Good the-!? {Screaming is heard outside} Varian:  never a dull moment! {Noremoth watches Varian grab his alchemy belt and sword and run out the door; He looks at Zapadawith concern and follows him; once he’s outside he sees Varian toss a goo bomb at a bandit} Varian: oh petty thieves back for round 2. Bandit 1:  do you ever take a vacation? Varian:  no not really... {Varian dodges an attack and clashes swords with one of the bandits; Noremoth watches from the road; Varian swipes the feet out from one bandit but is cut on the cheek but another} Varian: Augh! Zapada: Varian! {Varian is hit with the hilt of a sword and hits the ground harshly; Noremoth looks around for a weapon; one of the bandits prepares to bring his sword down on Varian; Varian looks up in shocked horror} Bandit 2: RAGH! {Just as he brings it down Noremoth jumps in with a wooden leg from a table and blocks it; Varian’s eyes widen; Noremoth pushes against the man, his body trembling; eventually he overpowers him and shoves him before smacking the man in the head with the wooden table leg} Bandit 2: AUGH! MY EYE! {one of the other bandits runs over and grabs him} Bandit 1: Fall back! Run! {They jump on their horses and ride away; the crowd of villagers cheer; Noremoth drops the wooden table leg and helps Varian up by the arm} Noremoth: You alright?  they did quite a number on you there, you might need some stitches in that cheek..seriously those guys weren't even Petty thieves they were just bullies. Bleh… {Varian rubs his cheek and Zapada runs over and hugs him} Zapada: Iubirea mea! Thank the heavens...O, Doamne! Your face! Varian: I’m okay Zapada...just tired. Zapada: I go fetch the first aid kit! {She runs off} Varian: ...You... you saved my life. Noremoth:  I couldn't just stand there and let them decapitate you.  despite popular belief Varian I'm not heartless. Varian:...I...I um...thanks...thank you Noremoth. Noremoth: yeah. Don’t mention it. {Cut to Isaiah walking into town with Benny holding a rabbit by the feet and himself holding a bag of three fish; Gaia walks behind them} Benny: I can't believe you're actually keeping that thing. Isaiah:  if the dog follows how can you turn it away? Benny:  by saying no, go away, or shoo! Also, that’s not a dog. Isaiah: ... well we have a rabbit three fish and two loaves of bread.  plus at least we know how to hunt now. we should be able to get back to Corona. Benny:  I'm sorry… “we”? Isaiah:  yeah! umm... I was going to ask you... I don't really feel comfortable leaving you behind it in the town where you’re scraping by for food every day. {something catches benny’s eye and she walks away from him} Isaiah:  you know Coronas a nice place. big Kingdom, lots of people…  I'm sure somebody there would be willing to-...Benny? {he looks over and sees her staring in a shop window; curiously he walks over and looks; in the window on a display is a silver pendant necklace with a blue gem in the middle} Isaiah: …. you like that? Benny:.. yeah.. I kept my eye on it every day. it was my mama's. Isaiah: what? Benny:  after the fire people started looting around my house.  pulling whatever they could from the wreckage. that was my mama's necklace. My papa gave it to her when I was little. Isaiah: and you just come here every day to stare at it? Benny:  until the store owner chases me off with his broom… Isaiah:... you got to be kidding me. Benny: huh? {Isaiah walks into the store} Benny: ‘Saiah! Isaiah:  excuse me? Shop keeper:  how many help you? Isaiah: I was wondering about that pendant in the display window. Shop keeper:  that piece of junk?  I only put it out there because it looks nice and catches the eye, in reality, it's pretty worthless. Isaiah: Is that so? Shop keeper:  quite.  the pendant itself may be made out of silver but the gemstone is so comedy.  a typical blue sapphire. Not as rare as beautiful as the other gemstones in my shop.  if you want to go give you a nice deal on a pretty emerald necklace for a lady friend. Isaiah:  what do you want for the pendant?  I have 10 silver pieces and 4 copper pieces.  I'll give you all I have for it. Shop keeper:  hmm...10 silver and 4 copper. Isaiah:  you could always smelt down the 10 silver pieces and make a new necklace. I'm sure you have plenty of gems in here to make a far more illustrious necklace.  you said yourself it's pretty worthless. Shop keeper: I did. That I did...fine. Deal. {Isaiah throws his money pouch on the counter; The shop keeper goes over and takes the pendent and hands it to him} Isaiah: Pleasure doing business with you. {He walks out of the shop and over to benny} Isaiah:  here turn around. {She does so and he places the necklace on her} Benny: ... Mama's.. necklace…Thank you! {She tackles him in a hug: he hugs back} Benny: Thank you so much ‘Saiah! Isaiah:  trust me.. I get it. and I was wanting to ask you something. Benny: huh? Isaiah:  I don't feel right about leaving you behind.  I know the dark kingdom is your home and it's where you were born but you have to think about this.  you're only seven and you're living on the streets eating scraps from garbage cans.  you talk like you're a grown adult because you’ve been surviving like one.  I want the chance to show you how to be a kid. Verbena... will you come back to Corona with me? Benny: what? Isaiah:  there's plenty of warm homes and a lot of kind villagers!  especially my Village! we're always welcoming of newcomers! I'm sure you'd be able to find a great home there and you wouldn't have to eat loves of moldy bread ever again! I swear it!  will you come home with me? {She nods} Benny: mmhmm! Yeah!  of course, I'll go! {Gaia runsover and licks them both; Isaiah laughs} Benny: EWWW! Dog germs! {END CREDITS}

[weekly-todoroki-meetups]

Weekly Todoroki Meetup Continuation: #6

*All the Todoroki’s and Hawks are standing on the sidewalk near Endeavours office. Dabi is still hiding in his coat and Hawks is trying to look discreet by standing behind him, even though his large red wings are still clearly visible*

Natsu: Alright guys, ready for the plan? First- What’s your job Fuyumi?

Fuyumi: To distract dad and give everyone their ugly boots! Or crugges if I use their proper name. Then I hide with Hawks and Dabi.

Natsu: Shoto?

Shoto: Swiggity swoo time for my dope skills to shine bro, watch it happen.

Dabi: Jesus Christ, can you stop being such a moron while you don’t have to?

Shoto: Yeet. *Dabs* Don’t be so salty big bro Toy, I’m being fly.

Dabi: *Genuine confusion* What the hell?

Hawks: Thats literally the mood right now *Shoto and Hawks finger gun each other in rapid succession*

Fuyumi: I see a long lasting relationship forming between two friends!

Natsu: Sweet.

Dabi: I’m going to barf if this keeps up.

Hawks: I feel like barfing whenever I see your face but I don’t announce it to everyone! *Smug face of a burn master*

Shoto: Ooh burn. Need some aloe Vera for that?

Dabi: *Probably red faced under the hood and growling* Shut up.

Fuyumi: *Laughing her head off*

Natsu: Alright, back on track. You got this right Shoto?

Shoto: You’re totally on fleek right now big bro, I’ll slay big D.

Dabi: God.

Hawks: Now I’m started to cringe and that’s telling you something

Natsu: It’ll destroy Endeavour then- Anyways, Hawks? After Shoto walks in and distracts him what will you do?

Hawks: I would have already covered his office in novelty socks and be hiding with Dabi, after preparing the sock and glitter cannons.

Dabi: Once Shoto gives me a signal I notify you and Fuyumi by activating the cannons, who run in and glitterbomb him. Which leads to Hawks snapping a photo and diving out the nearest window.

Natsu: And?

Dabi: *Grumbles* I don’t murder Endeavour.

Fuyumi: Alright! We have a plan.

Natsu: Yup, let’s go.

Hawks: How will we get in? There’s security regulations.

Shoto: No need to go extra, we all just hide in that bush near the door low key style till someone walks in and we yeet through as well. Simple AF bros and Mid sis F~

Dabi: Why.

Natsu: Hear that? To the bush!

[They all hide in the bush-A few minutes pass and a random lady in the reseptionist outfit walks to the front door of agency, frowning as she looks at the bush then the door]

Lady: If you want to get through I can let you kids in- You don’t need to hide in a bush suspiciously...

*All the siblings freeze and look at Natsu on what to do*

Natsu: *Whispers* Alright guy’s, just pretend we didn’t hear her-

Hawks: *Jumps out of bush* Aww Yas! Thanks mam-

Lady: Oh my gosh the winged hero Hawks!!! Can I get a photo?! My daughter loves you!

Hawks: Sure! Want a selfie?

Lady: *Fangirling as she takes a selfie with him*

Dabi: Tch, playboy.

[Once they’re inside they are held up by the office lady. She threatens to call security so Natsu deploys Hawks to convince *flirt* her to calm down and let them get to Endeavours office. Dabi is seething with boyfriend rage but still gets the plan prepared. Hawks and Dabi vandalise Endeavours office, Fuyumi gives them all crugges and they put them on, then everyone splits up and hides]

[Endeavour walks into his office- Shoto time XD]

Endeavour: MY GOD WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY OFFICE?! *Ugly, bright novelty socks are covering every surface including the walls. It looks like sock hell*

Endeavour: This must’ve had something to do with my-

Shoto: *Enters* Yo-yo, whats up big D?

Endeavour: What. *Turns around to see Shoto in a colourful bomber jacket, backwards cap and sunglasses with crugges on. His expression of horror is indescribable*

Shoto: *Fingers guns*

Endeavour: Why? Why must you do this to me- *Notices a red feather on the floor behind Shoto. Narrows eyes*

Endeavour:

Shoto: So Anyways my fly-rad-master Dad How’s it going in your world? The days totally on beat today and I’m feeling’ the rhythm-

Endeavour: HAWKS.

[Hawks and Dabi time- They’re somehow hidden in the fireplace chimney with Dabi underneath Hawks. They’re crammed in]

Dabi: *Whispers angrily* Why didn’t you check for feathers?!

Hawks: I can’t see but from the sound of your voice I’m in trouble.

Dabi: Damn right chicken. We’ve been discovered! And we’re stuck in here thanks to your brilliant idea!

Hawks: Just Ignore Endeavours comment and this isn’t so bad!

Dabi: If I die I’m blaming you- What was the signal we’re suppose to listen for?

Hawks: Rhythm.

Dabi: *Bleep*

Hawks: Did you miss it?!

Dabi: Yes.

Hawks: You wrecked the plan!

Dabi: Why am I even doing this right now anyways? I’ll just do the signal now and get this over with-

Hawks: Wait-

Dabi: *Tries to move. Realises he’s stuck* *bleep*.

Hawks: What?

Dabi: I’m stuck.

Hawks: Haha- It must be your jacket. Take it off so we can go get Endeavour!

Dabi: NO. I refuse.

Hawks: Then I guess you’re stuck in here with me till we fall out~

Dabi: *Bleep* no! I’d rather die by Endeavour than be trapped here with you for who knows how long- *Wriggles out of jacket and then proceeds to fall, Hawks following*

[Endeavour and Shoto- Endeavour is looking at the fireplace in his office which has a voice barely audible]

Endeavour: He’s in the chimney isn’t he?

Dabi: NO HIS ISN’T

Endeavour: Touya are you with him?

Dabi:

Shoto: Your totally on fleek right now- *Dabi proceeds to fall through followed by Hawks, landing in a pile near the fireplace*

Dabi: *BLEEP* Jesus Christ my back-

Hawks: OUCH.

Endeavour: YOU TWO.

Hawks: *Notices Endeavour* Ahhh *bleep*, Endeavour- What’s up?!

Endeavour: *Inferno* YOU KNOW WHATS UP YOU LITTLE-

Dabi: I refuse to die here like this, goodbye- *Stands up, Endeavour looks at him and then stops, falling on his face unconscious. (Dabi’s makeover is so different and edgy to his normal look that even I haven’t thought of it as the author- Imagine it yourself)*

Hawks and Shoto: *Le gasp*

Hawks: YOU KILLED ENDEAVOUR!

Dabi: No I didn’t- I did nothing!

Shoto: You did. With your new look. It’s totally lit by the way-

Hawks: I CREATED A BEAUTIFUL MONSTER! IM SORRY ENDEAVOR

Shoto: *ANXIOUS YEETING*

Dabi: I DIDNT WANT THIS ITS YOUR FAULT-

Hawks: WHAT DO WE DO?!

Dabi: Don’t freak out I can burn the body-

*Fuyumi and Natsu run in, see unconscious Endeavour, Dabi with him, with Hawks and Shoto looking like someone died*

Fuyumi: WOAH- What happened to you D-

Fuyumi: OH MY GOSH YOU KILLED DAD!

Natsu: We had one rule- One rule! Don’t kill Endeavour!

Dabi: I DIDNT.

Fuyumi: YES YOU DID!!!

Shoto: THIS AINT GOOD BRO THIS IS UNRAD TO THE MAX

Hawks: IS HE DEFINITELY DEAD?!

Dabi: I DONT KNOW!

Natsu: *Is checking his pulse- He looks relieved*

Natsu: HE LIVES.

Dabi: *Has put his jacket back on* Wait let me actually try this time-

Hawks: DABI.

Natsu: What do we do?! Soon somebody’s gonna come in!

Fuyumi: We use Shoto’s sunglasses, prop Endeavour up on his chair and make it look like he isn’t unconscious.

Shoto: Seems legit.

Dabi: Alright. I’ll turn off the novelty sock and glitter cannons so we don’t die by 50 gallons of glitter and socks, or however much you put in-

Hawks: A lot so it would completely cover every surface in a 2 inch layer of fabulousness!

Dabi: -before we finish this up *Pulls remote out*

Shoto: I’ll get big D.

Fuyumi: Oh no you don’t- We can’t have anything else bad happen- *Tries to grab the remote- Dabi swings it away*

Dabi: No stop you’ll bump it and set off the cannons-

Hawks: I got it! *Grabs it, forgets to avoid the button and clicks it- Suddenly a beep sounds throughout the room and all the Todoroki’s and Hawks have expressions of horror and realisation at what’s about to happen- Endeavour remains on the floor*

Everyone: WAIT NO STOP-

Dabi: DAMN CHICKEN!

Hawks: Oops-

[zefyre]

Hey do you think you could write a Marauders Kagome using dance and Snogging prompts

for some reason i thought you meant sirius/kagome, and it wasn’t until i finished and was about to post that i realized you wrote marauders… i hope you meant, like, one of the marauders? and that this suffices lol

takes place in… let’s say sixth year, established sirikag. wrote this with de-verse in mind!

.

Every year the Ministry hosted a party to ringin the new year, where the elite of the elite rubbed their elbows and everyonepretended that the Lord of the Ancient House of so-and-so wasn’t over there inthe corner having what was obviously an illicit conversation with the Head ofthe Department of whatever, or to push their own personal agenda under theguise of friendly suggestions instead of the thinly-veiled threats theyreally were to their fellow Wizardmengot members about the upcoming laws meantto be voted on.

Where they wined and dined and danced to prettymusic, as if people weren’t dying every day, as they had been for years now; as if they weren’t at war and just weren’t willing to admit it.

It wasn’t that James and Kagome wanted togo with their parents to the party – in fact, they protested it, vocally andempathetically, assuring their parent’s they’d be fine at home by themselves.

But their parents weren’t ignorant to the risingtensions, to the dangers that threatened them behind closed doors, and knew alltoo well from past experiences what the precarious position their children wereput in with their father as the Head Auror.

Just as they knew how golden opportunity itwould be to undesirable parties had they agreed to leave, on a night where itwas common knowledge that they’d be otherwise occupied. It was why they almostdidn’t allow them to visit home for the holidays. Despite the extensiveprotective measures the manor, putting their children at risk wasn’t a chancethey were willing to take.

They weren’t the only one with similar thoughts– Kagome recognized other kids, both older and younger at the party as well.Most hung close to their parents, looking bored or uncomfortable or juststraight up spacing out. Some left the protective wings of their guardians tostand with those their own age, keeping to the side, out of sight and out ofthe way – something Kagome was doing, but on her lonesome after James duckedout to find the toilet.  

“Oh, thank Merlin,” said a familiar voice thathad Kagome startling. “Someone sane.” She whipped around, her lips alreadycurving before she even faced the newcomer.

Sirius, attired in a slim fitting set of spiffycharcoal robes that made him look rather fit and did wonders toaccentuate his broad shoulders and muscled arms, stood before her with arelieved grin on his face.

“Sirius!” Kagome pushed off from the wall, thedelicate material of her own dress robes swishing at her heeled feet with softwhispers as she click, click, clicked her way to embrace her boyfriend.She relished in the snug warmth of her arms as he squeezed her in return,pressing a quick kiss atop the crown of her intricately styled hair. She leanedback, flashing him a bright smile. “What are you doing here?”

“Mother dearest,” and here Sirius made aface, nose scrunched and miming a gag, “Decided it was past time began to do my part as the heir of the ever so noble Ancient House ofBlack, and made me tag along with my father.” Sirius’s face twisted with anuncomfortable grimace, his lip curling. “Some of the shite I overheard themtalking about…” he muttered darkly, shuddering. 

Kagome winced, rubbing a soothing circlesagainst his back. 

“Guess whatever he wanted to talk about withthis one bloke was even worse, considering he dismissed me.” Sirius’s snorted,this time the corner of his mouth giving a twitch. “Well, ordered me to mingle,really. And here I am,” he said, taking a step back and out of their embrace sothat his eyes could give her a proper and thoroughly appreciativeonce-over, only to wink when she caught him and gave him a look. “Mingling.”

Kagome rolled her eyes, laughing despite herselfat his suggestive tone. “I sincerely doubt your father had me in mindwhen he told you to mingle.”

Sirius’s eyes sparkled even as he feigned acontemplative look, head tilting to the side, hand rising to rub his chin.“Well it isn’t my fault he wasn’t specific,” he said, and then grinned at her,silly and wide, “But I can assure you, his and my definition of minglingdiffer quite immensely.” As if to emphasize it, he held out a hand for her totake. 

Kagome took it, following him out onto the floorto join the other pairs dancing even as she shot back, “I really would hope so;that would imply your father intended to pimp you out.”

Sirius chortled, “No,” he said with a shake ofhis head. They came to a stop, Sirius effortlessly guiding Kagome’s right handto his shoulder. Immediately Kagome slid it up further to rest at the curve ofhis neck, so that her fingers could brush against his bare skin and play withhis hair at the nape of his neck. 

His eyes flickered up to hers, twinkling, andhis mouth quirked something sly to match Kagome’s own coy grin, but he didn’tsay anything. Keeping her left hand to himself, Sirius placed his other at herwaist and pulled her closer than necessary, and certainly than proprietydemanded, and proceeded to lead her into a waltz.

“No,” he went on, carrying on their previousconversation, that quirk to his mouth twisting into something more bitter, moregrim. “Father’s leaving that particular aspect of my life for Mother tosort out.”

Kagome looked up at him, eyes gone round, lipsparting. Her feet carried out the following steps more to the dance so out ofinstinct and Sirius’s direction than intention, too busy studying herboyfriend’s troubled expression. “Sirius…” she said, only to trail off,struggling to find the words. 

Sirius sighed, the sound heavy, but shook hishead at her when she began to worry her lip, “Don’t worry,” he assured,offering her a small smile, but Kagome couldn’t not when said smile heldsomething distinctively akin to acceptance. 

His smile grew when she only continued to stare,lips pursed, teeth digging deeper into her lip, eyes catching a spark, “I’m serious,“ he stressed, grinning genuinely now when her worried poutdevolved into a scowl at his pun, “In more ways than one,” he added just toneedle at her, but was quick to soothe her fledgling outrage with a squeeze ofher hand. “It’s going to be fine, Kagome,” he told her, softly, his levityfading, “Just trust me. As if there’s any way I’ll be going along withan arranged marriage my mother fixes up.”

Kagome had to give him that – to think he’djust comply… the idea was honestly laughable. As she relaxed, Sirius pulled herin closer, their dancing slipping into a more slow, intimate sway.                                  

“You know,” Sirius murmured against her ear, andKagome felt a bit of a shiver racing up her spine at the warm air of his breathwashing against her skin, “ I just realized, I committed the most grievousoffense and I must correct it,” he said in a grandiose manner. Curious,Kagome watched as Sirius leaned back to lock her into a rather severe exchangeof stares. Then, in a tone to match, he confessed,

“I never said how absolutely ravishing youlook in those robes.”

Kagome scoffed, shoving lightly at his shoulder,even as heat rose to her cheeks. “Shut up,” she told him, unable to helpthe giggles that bubbled up in her chest. “You’re such an idiot,” she said,also unable to help the fondness creeping into her voice – something Siriuscaught ear of and grinned like a fool in response. 

But, well, he was her idiot, so it wasokay. 

“You really do look gorgeous, love,” Siriusmurmured, gazing at her with eyes a soft, warm grey – eyes that grew darker,sharper with mischief, as the hand he rested along her waist slipped towardsher back and began to dip lower, teasing.

Kagome smiled up at him, sweet and innocent asshe let her hand slide down his shoulder, along the length of his arm,following his lead as she let it trail low, brushing his waist. 

Sirius only had a split-second warning whenKagome’s gaze turned devious before the tickling commenced.

He yelped, bursting out a laugh, uncaring of thestares and whispers they drew as he tried to twist away only to find Kagome hadan iron grip wrapped around his back to hold him in place.

Well, if he couldn’t back away, the onlyway out wasforward. 

He was still laughing uncontrollably, Kagome’snimble fingers still wiggling up his ribcage, both of them grinning wide whenSirius slipped an arm around his girlfriend’s waist and yanked her flushagainst and kissed her. 

It was an absolute mess at first, honestlyone of the worst execution for a kiss that either of them had pulled, allclashing teeth and bumping noses and intermingling laughs that only worsenedwith each hit, but somehow, someway, his lips eventually found Kagome’s bottomlip and her tongue found his, her fingers faltering in favor of catching thefabric of his robes and twisting it, tugging him even closer.   

They continued to sway in time with the softmusic, everything else, the people, the whispers and stares, all of it fading outof focus until it was only the two of them in each other’s arms, snogging thelife out of oneanother in the middle of the dance floor.

[1dffexchange]

White Flag

To: Natasha @wokeuptired​

From: Jess @thefangirlingbarista​

Summary: Harper and Niall have never known life without the other present in some capacity. They met for the first time when Niall was seven months and two days old and Harper was a day from two weeks. Their moms, best friends since seventh grade, always dreamed that their future children would be the inseparable, each other’s constants in an ever changing world. Nothing, not even their husbands silently judging them with amused smiles, or the fact that when Niall and Harper were in the same room for more than two minutes, one or both of them would start squealing, would change their minds. They had a dream, and they were determined to see it through.

Author’s Note: Nat! I had so much fun writing this little fic for you, and I hope you enjoy reading it just as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thanks for sending such fun prompts! 

Harper and Niall have never known life without the other present in some capacity. They met for the first time when Niall was seven months and two days old and Harper was a day from two weeks. Their moms, best friends since seventh grade, always dreamed that their future children would be inseparable, each other’s constants in an ever changing world. Nothing, not even their husbands silently judging them with amused smiles, or the fact that when Niall and Harper were in the same room for more than two minutes, one or both of them would start squealing, would change their minds.

They had a dream, and they were determined to see it through.

The first tangible memory Harper has of Niall is her third birthday. She vaguely remembers Niall’s birthday months earlier. Mostly that she was scared of Barney and she enjoyed carrying his balloons around the room. But she isn’t sure if she actually remembers it, or if it’s a memory of a memory. Her birthday, though; she definitely remembers.

It was in March, and her dad was outside grilling hamburgers for the adults while her mom cooked hot dogs and mac and cheese on the stove for her and Niall. Harper thinks there were probably other kids there, but that part of the day is blurry.

She was sitting in her favorite spot in the entire house—a giant green winged chair that sat by the back window that overlooked her back porch and the yard beyond it. At three years old, it looked much bigger than it actually was, and so full of adventures. She loved daydreaming about exploring and going on quests (her dad might have let her watch Indiana Jones a bit too early and too often).

She was sitting there, probably daydreaming about one adventure or another, when Niall pulled himself up in the chair next to her.

Harper glanced over at him, a little annoyed that he climbed onto her chair, but couldn’t get her complaint out before he dropped a piece of paper in her lap.

He smiled at her, “Happy birthday, Awppah!”

She picked up the neon pink construction paper and unfolded it. There she saw a drawing of two dolphins jumping in the water and two stick figures off to the side waving. There was glitter and stickers, and to a just three year old Harper, it was perfect.

The second memory Harper has of Niall, happens when they start kindergarten. Niall couldn’t pronounce Harper’s name properly until he was six. A fact that, when school came around for the two of them, prompted other kids to make fun of Niall.

Of course, Harper had to put an end to that almost immediately.

She had to sit with the teacher at recess for an entire week after shoving a boy off the jungle gym, but she did it without complaining. And when her mom found out what happened, she simply gave Harper a fist bump and continued with her day.

The first memory Niall has of Harper, is when they are four. They both received bubble gum from his grandpa when they were exceptional at daycare. While they were both excited, Harper might have gotten a bit too excited because one moment the gum is in her mouth, the next it’s in Niall’s hair.

There were tears. From both of them.

Niall cried again when his dad had to cut his hair.

The next day at daycare, Niall doesn’t talk to Harper until after snack time.

His second memory of her happens to be his mom’s favorite story to tell during the holidays. They were all—all as in both their mothers and the two of them—going Christmas shopping when they were five. They were walking past a store that had a dollar section right at the front. Harper zeroed in on the colorful rubber poppers and nearly cried when her mom told her she couldn’t have one.

Niall, being the best friend he was, decided to take matters into his own hands.

He stole not one, but two rubber poppers for Harper and himself.

They almost made it all the way home without getting caught. But then Niall got his rubber popper stuck on his chin, and when the moms found out, they very quickly did what was probably a very illegal u-turn and made Niall go and fess up.

(The owner let him keep them. He also gave Niall another to give to his brother.)

The next day, Harper gave him a kiss on the cheek while at recess.

In first grade, the other boys at school make fun of Niall for spending so much time with Harper. At first, he tries his best to ignore it, but after a few months of it he caves. He starts spending more time with them at recess, and less time with her. He stops sitting with her under the old oak tree during snack time, and, at lunch, he chooses to sit between two boys who live on his street rather than beside her. He misses sharing his lunch with her, trading his apple for her grapes, but he did his best not to dwell on it. He still hung out with her after school, so he figures everything will be fine.

And it is, until Harper went through the phase of always making Niall the butler or the servant or the sidekick when playing together. That’s when Niall decided he’d have enough.

“Ma, do I have to go to Harper’s?”

(At this point, he could finally pronounce her name correctly.)

“Of course, sweetie. Why wouldn’t you want to? You and Harper are best friends.”

Niall sighs. He thinks about rolling his eyes, but he got in trouble for that the week before, and he doesn’t want to lose the toys he had gotten back.

“We’re not best friends anymore.” He says with a puff, and crosses his arms over his chest all but daring his mom to contradict him.

She doesn’t, of course. Instead, she just looks curious and a little amused. “And why not?”

“She makes me be Robin every time we play Batman. Or she makes me treat her like a princess and I’m her butler! It’s no fun!”

His mom just smiles, which doesn’t make him feel any better about any of it, and pats his head. “Just tell her you don’t want to do that anymore. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

(He did tell Harper. She was not as understanding as his mom thought she would be.)

In third grade, Harper flat out refuses to get in the car when her mom tells her they’re going over to visit Maura and Niall.

Her mother, for obvious reasons, is quite confused about it until Harper finally relents and says, “Niall chased me around the playground yesterday. With a snake.”

Her dad does his best not to laugh, but she caught him covering it up, which just makes her glare harder.

“It’s not funny, Daddy! I nearly cried!”

Her mother, still amused but able to control herself better than Harper’s dad, goes to the other room to quickly call Maura and get the full story.

Quickly turns into an hour phone call.

By the time her mom comes back out, Harper has almost forgotten what had transpired earlier that morning.

She’s busy working a puzzle on the hardwood floor when her mom comes and sits down. They work a few pieces together before her mom finally speaks up.

“Harper, tell me what happened yesterday.”

Harper scowls. “Niall chased me with a snake.”

“Before that.”

“Niall told our entire class that he would kiss me.”

“Mhm. And what did you do?”

“I spat my gum in his hair.”

“Was that a nice thing to do?”

“No, but he wasn’t nice first!”

“Harper.”

She stares down at her hands in her lap and shakes her head, “No, it wasn’t nice.”

“I’m going to need you to apologize when we see him this afternoon.”

Harper looks up, eyes wide, “But mom! He started it!”

“Harper, I don’t care who started it. I want you to end it.” Her mother’s tone leaves no room for discussion.

The young girl mumbles under her breath, but nods and agrees to apologize to Niall.

(She doesn’t talk to Niall for the rest of the third grade, unless their moms are around.)

The summer before they both begin middle school, their families decide to go on a holiday together. When Harper finds out that she’s being forced to be in the same vicinity as Niall for two weeks, she almost refuses to pack her bag.

“I don’t want to spend my summer with Niall Horan! Why couldn’t we go on holiday with the Richards instead?”

Her mom, now extremely tired of this argument with her daughter, simply gives her a stern look.

After a moment she adds, “You and Niall can either both be miserable because you refuse to be friends, or you can try to get along and be friends like you used to be and have a fun summer. The choice is yours. But either way, we are going on holiday with the Horans.”

That night, when Harper’s mom calls Maura, both of them are at a loss.

“I just don’t remember when they stopped being best friends.”

“Kids go through phases, Denise. I’m sure our kids will be back at it soon enough.”

The holiday, much to Harper’s surprise, is actually fun. It’s awkward at first, especially with the two families sharing a cabin and her and Niall’s rooms being connected. But after two days of boredom the kids give in and start playing board games together while the adults do their own adult thing. After that, it just made sense to start exploring the trails together, chasing each other through the museums and gift shops, playing pranks on their parents, and laughing so hard that their stomachs ache.

By the time the holiday ends, Harper can’t recall one good reason not to be best friends with Niall Horan. For the rest of the summer, they spend every second together. On sunny days, they ride their bikes to the park that was halfway between their houses. When the summer showers begin, they watch Disney movies and make blanket forts or read to each other in their bedrooms.

At the start of school, they share a summer tan with more memories than they had in a long while, and they’re back to sharing their lunches together.

This time, no one teases them.

They stay best friends all throughout sixth grade and seventh grade. It’s not until the end of middle school in eighth grade that things begin to go south. Again.

“Do you want to go to homecoming together?”

It’s the beginning of October and the two of them are sitting in Niall’s living room. His mom is working a late shift, so no one else is home since his dad is traveling for work. If Niall’s older brother is home, Harper hasn’t seen him come out of his room.

They’ve successfully eaten the pizza that they ordered almost as soon as they got home from school, and moved on to the popcorn and M&M’s that they found in the pantry. They’re watching Hocus Pocus, Harper on the couch and Niall sitting on the floor in front of her.

Harper thinks this might be one of her favorite days ever. She hopes she never forgets it, and when she hears Niall ask that, she’s sure that she won’t.

Niall doesn’t sound nervous, but Harper can sense him tense up when he asks the question.

“Just the two of us?”

“Sure. I think going with the group would just be stressful. And expensive.” He adds the last part almost as an afterthought. “Did you know they’re going to rent a limo? Who does that for homecoming?”

“Our friends, apparently.” Harper says with a laugh.

“Well, I think it’s lame. It would be so much better if we just went together. Afterwards we can go to your place and your mom can make us some gumbo and we can stay up watching all the old batman movies.”

Harper ignores the flutter in her chest, “Sounds good to me, Ni.”

The next Friday, when Niall and Harper are walking home together from school, Niall is unusually quiet. Harper almost asks what’s wrong, but chickens out.

They’re almost to Harper’s house when Niall finally speaks up.

“Would you be upset if we didn’t go to homecoming?”

Harper takes her time answering. She wants to be honest with him, the best she can. She thinks about it, and she has never really been keen on school dances anyway. She just always enjoyed being with her friends and Niall.

She shrugs, “Maybe a little, but not too much. I can survive. Why?”

He heaves in a breath and then, “Lillie Anne asked me to go with her.”

“Oh.”Harper breathes out. “Really?”

Niall jumps in front of Harper and starts walking backwards, so he can see her. A goofy smile is plastered on his face, “I know! I couldn’t believe it either. She has to be one of the prettiest girls in the school, wouldn’t you agree?”

Harper just hums in response, trying to squish down the hurt and jealousy swelling up inside of her.

“I told Lillie Anne that I would have to ask you first, though. Told her we had already made plans to go as friends. She thought that was weird. Actually she thought you and I were already a thing, isn’t that weird? I made sure she knew we were just friends. Maybe that’s why Eddie never asked you out at the beginning of the year, yeah? But if you still want to go, just you and me, say the word and I’m yours.”

He’s smiling at her, all crooked and gapped teeth and dimples.

Part of Harper, a very large part if she is completely honest, wants to say no. Wants to tell Niall that he has to go with her because that was the original plan. But another part of her, the smaller but even stronger part, just wants to make Niall happy. And she knows that saying no would shatter his crooked, but brilliant smile.

“‘Course you can go with Lillie Anne, Ni.”

Niall whoops and jumps in the air, and then pulls Harper in for one of the tightest hugs ever.

“You’re the absolute best, Harp!”

He ruffles her hair, just to annoy her as always, and then runs off with a promise to call her later that night.

Harper doesn’t spend the rest of her walk home imagining different ways to ruin Lillie Anne’s homecoming dress.

She doesn’t.

Niall ends up going to homecoming in the limo that he made fun of earlier, and Harper goes with a small group of girls who go to the pizza parlor beforehand and they have her dad take them to the school in his jeep.

They have a great time, even if Harper spends the majority of it between either glaring at Lillie Anne or avoiding Niall completely.

The following week, Niall trades sharing lunches with Harper with eating lunch in the quad with Lillie Anne and her friends.

When time comes for Harper’s annual Halloween movie night, Niall is suddenly in her life again. She’s only slightly bitter.

Eddie and her are getting the house ready for the rest of her friends to show up when Niall texts her, asking if people were dressing up this year.

Eddie leans over her shoulder and laughs, “You should tell him yes.”

She looks back at him confused, “Why?”

“Think of how funny it’ll be when he shows up in costume when no one else is.”

Harper actually thinks it would be a little mean and embarrassing for Niall, but she doesn’t say that. Instead she says, “Yeah, you’re right.”

Later, when everyone else is sitting on the couches watching The Grudge, Niall comes in late dressed as the Mad Hatter. Harper’s smile completely disappears when she sees the embarrassment on his face and hears the rest of their friends laugh at him.

When he turns around and leaves the room, Harper immediately follows him.

“You didn’t have to do that, Harp.”

He’s at the back door, his back to her and hand on the knob.

“I’m sorry, Ni. Someone said it would be funny and…”

He still doesn’t turn around to face her, “It’s fine. I’ll just go home and change and come back later.”

“Just change here, I’m sure you have clothes here.”

“Nah, it’s fine.”

And then he’s out the door, and regret fills Harper so much so she feels like she might drown in it.

An hour later, when they’re about to start the next movie, she texts him.

About 2 start Beetlejuice u almost here?

It takes him ten minutes to respond.

Decided to just stay home with Ma tonight. Hope u have fun.

Harper wants to say sorry one more time, but she isn’t sure how.

They’re different after that. They still walk home together, but most of the time it’s in silence. They see each other in school, but don’t go out of their way to talk to each other. The only time they hang out outside of school is when their families get together, and even then they aren’t the same as they were.

They start high school the following year, and because of a hurricane and an influx of new students, new school lines are drawn. Niall and Harper go to different schools for the first time in their lives.

Schedules become busier, and they only see each other when their parents tailgate together and during the neighborhood’s annual New Year’s Party.

At first, Harper misses Niall, but then she makes different friends, and the hole that Niall used to fill didn’t seem as empty or as important as before. Soon, they’re just acquaintances that see each other twice a year.

College applications happen in a blur, and before Niall realizes it, he’s packing up and moving three states away.

His parents throw him a graduation party, and they invite Harper and her family. He doesn’t expect them to come, but is pleasantly surprised when he spots Harper by the drink table.

He goes over to say hi, and when Harper spots him she smiles.

“Congrats on surviving high school.”

He smirks, and nods towards her. “Right back atchya.”

She reaches up and tugs on a strand of blond hair, “Are you growing the blond out?”

He nods, “Yeah, figured college is the time for a fresh start.”

“Seems about right.” She takes a sip of her sprite, and then, “Are you nervous?”

“About moving away? No. About college? Yes.”

She laughs, and it’s the laugh that used to pull him in and cause him to laugh, too. This time is no different and soon they’re both laughing and catching up.

But soon he has to leave, make his rounds to thank all the distant relatives for their checks and make sure his granny has had enough to eat.

They hug, wish each other luck, and then just like that, she’s gone.

Harper doesn’t see Niall again until she’s twenty-three, jobless, and once again living at home with her parents.

It’s an innocent day late in September, and she’s a little upset that her mom tainted it.

And, actually, seeing him again is all her mom’s fault.

“Do you remember Niall?”

It’s six thirty in the morning when Denise asks this, and in Harper’s humble opinion, it’s way too early for any sort of conversation.

“I haven’t even finished my coffee yet. Why are we speaking?”

But then the words her mom asked her sink in and, “Wait, did you seriously just ask if I remember Niall as if he isn’t in every one of our family pictures?” She tiredly waves her arm towards the fridge where a picture of her and Niall from one of their beach trips is somewhere among the many pictures and family notes.

Denise doesn’t let Harper deter her, “I was talking with Maura, and she told me Niall moved back to town. I thought it would be good for the two of you to catch up. What do you say?”

At this point, Harper would say anything to get her mom to just shut up.

“Sure, don’t see why not.”

“Wonderful! Glad to hear it. I already confirmed that you would be able to get coffee with him tomorrow at ten.”

“Mom!”

“What? I was optimistic you would say yes. Besides, it’s not like you have much of a social life right now anyway.”

She glares into her cup of coffee, “I socialize just fine, thank you.”

“You socialize with a six and eight year old before and after they go to school. That doesn’t count. You don’t have any friends in the area and you haven’t been on a date in so long. I can’t even remember the last time.”

Harper is about to argue back when something her mother said catches her attention.

“Wait, is this coffee with Niall Horan a date?”

Her mom shrugs, a little too innocently.

“It’s whatever the two of you make it.”

“Denise!”

“I gotta got to work, sweetie. I hope you have a good day babysitting, and I’ll see you at dinner tonight!”

Before Harper can properly reprimand her mother, she’s out the door.

Riley and Corey are six and eight, respectively. They both have the curly ringlets for hair and are obsessed with Harper, though she isn’t sure why. All she does is drop them off to school and pick them up on the days their dad works.

Harper gets to their house at 7:15, ten minutes before the dad hurries out the door and twenty minutes before she has to pack up the kids in her car.

Riley, predictably, is running around the house with only her khaki skirt on. Corey is sitting at the bar, enjoying a bowl of honey nut cheerios and silently watching his dad run around the kitchen.

It takes everyone about thirty seconds to realize she’s there, and when they do, they all rush to her.

Instinctively, she reaches down to pick up Riley, Corey his leaning against her side telling her about the ship he built with his legos last night, and Mr. Gunnar is handing her his credit card.

“I think I might need to stay at the office late tonight. Do you mind taking the kids out for a quick bite after school? Once I get an idea on how behind we are, I’ll text you when I should be getting home.”

She’s trying to nod to Gunnar, listen to Corey, and not drop Riley all at the same time. But then Gunnar gathers the last of his things, and he’s out the door.

The house is only slightly quieter.

Harper finally figures out what ship Corey built. Apparently his new obsession is the Titanic. He’s still telling her everything he knows about it, and she’s only slightly alarmed when he knows the number of deaths, when she set Riley down.

“Alright, kiddo. We gotta get you dressed and then school time.”

She manages to get them completely dressed and in the car in record time. Somehow they even make it to school early. Harper only has a few seconds to worry about possibly leaving something behind before both kids are out of the car and running to Coach Tomlinson, their favorite person right after Harper.

She heads back to Gunnar’s house to clean and do laundry. But she did most of that yesterday, so she only spends an hour cleaning and then she collapses on the couch.

Harper is debating whether or not to take a nap before she picks up the kids, but with a jolt she remembers her conversation with her mother that morning. All tiredness immediately disappears.

Instead, she spends the next hour stalking Niall on every social media platform she has. Facebook is what she expected, a few cute animal videos, some family photos, and, surprisingly, a lot of golf posts.

He doesn’t have very many profile pictures, but he has enough for her to realize that he’s had braces in the last ten years. His once crooked teeth are straight and as white as ever, and the bleach blond dyed hair has been replaced with his natural auburn color.

He’s also filled out. A lot.

Not that Harper cares.

His twitter is more or less of the same. Many of his tweets are about golf, a few political tweets, and a lot of banter between him and someone called Harry Styles.

Instagram is a lot of selfies, and what she assumes is his old place before he moved back to town. There’s quite a few pictures of a cockapoo, so either he has one or is fairly close to someone who does.

And it also has more proof of just how much he has grown up. Once again, not that Harper cares.

Overall, he seems like the same boy she knew back in middle school, just more mature.

Thanks to Maura, she already knew that he majored in literature and music. Harper was only slightly surprised by that news when she heard it two years ago.

By the time she puts her phone down, it’s lunch time.

She gets back in her car and heads towards the sandwich shop near the elementary school. When the man behind the counter sees her parking her car, he starts making her sandwich. Harper can’t decide if she’s grateful or if it makes her life even more sad than it already was.

She quickly tells herself not to dwell on it, hands over the cash, and makes herself at home at the table in the corner.

She’s eaten half the sandwich when her phone dings! alerting her of a text.

She nearly chokes when she sees who it’s from.

Niall Horan: I hear we have a date tomorrow

Harper: It is definitely not a date.

Niall Horan: Not what Maura said

Harper: Both of our mothers are delusional. I’d rather eat dirt than go on a date with you, Horan.

Niall Horan: Me thinks the lady doth protests too much I would be offended but I know how much you love eating dirt Werent you 8 when I caught you eating a mud pie

Harper: I was FIVE and YOU dared me.

Niall Horan: Whatever Harp See you tomorrow at 10 at the depot Dont be late

Harper: I hate you.

When Niall only sends a thumbs up, she huffs out a groan and takes a sip of her Sprite.

By the time she picks up the kids, she’s successfully over thought every aspect of tomorrow and every text exchanged with Niall. But it’s fine. She’s fine.

Needless to say, she’s thankful for the endless chatter of the six and eight year old to distract her from overthinking it any more than she already has.

They eat pizza for dinner, go the to the glow-in-the-dark mini golf course in the mall where Riley somehow wins, and then each get two scoops of ice cream.

When they get to the house, Gunnar is already home, a plate resting on his chest while he watches the news.

After she gets the kids settled in, she goes to gym and then the grocery store. By the time she gets home, she’s exhausted and falls asleep almost immediately.

Harper walks into the Coffee Depot fives minutes late and almost does a victory dance when she doesn’t see Niall sitting yet.

She’s next in line to order coffee, when a body appears next to her and says, “I was going to apologize for being late, but I saw you walking in late yourself.”

Without looking over at him, she elbows him in the side, “I was more on time than you were, and that’s all that matters.”

He chuckles, low and deep, and pulls Harper into his side, “Good to see you, too.”

She leans into his side for a second, before pulling away and finally looking up at him, “I like this wet hair look you’ve got going on right now.”

“Thanks, I did it just for you.” He says, dry.

They step up to the counter to order their coffees then, and when Harper reaches in her purse to pay for hers, Niall’s hand stops her.

He smirks when she looks up at him, ready to fight, “I’ll pay since our delusional mothers all but forced you to catch up with a friend.”

She huffs out a breath, but puts her wallet back in her purse.

Harper goes to find an empty table. She ends up outside, and she very quickly regrets wearing black jeans, but at least she ordered an iced coffee. A dog tied to a table waiting on its human to come back outside, distracts her from the heat. By the time Niall finds her, she’s on the ground with the dog in her lap.

She senses him watching her before she sees him. There was a fear that being around Niall again would be awkward, years of growing and maturing but not with each other separated them, but being near him was like gaining her shadow back.

After a moment, Harper goes back to her seat at the table, and raises an eyebrow when Niall still only watches.

“You haven’t changed a bit, Harp.”

“Well, that’s a lie. Surely I’ve grown a few inches at least.”

Niall chuckles, shakes his head, and flicks a rolled up piece of paper at her. It barely misses her head.

“So, what brings you back to our small town, Horan?”

From there, it’s as easy as cake. Conversation flows between them in a way that is both familiar and new to both of them.

The barista brings them their coffee, but it takes them a moment to remember it, too deep in conversation.

Harper learns about his years in college. His friends and past girlfriends and favorite memories.

Niall learns about her advisor that caused her more pain than the kidney stone she had during her last round of finals, her old job as a bartender and that home games were her favorites nights to work, and how she’s the nanny of two precious kids.

Three hours pass without hesitation, and soon they’re packing up their things to walk to the flea market down the street.

Niall’s stomach growls on their way, so they make a detour to the food trucks at the park. Niall gets jambalaya and Harper gets shrimp and grits.

They take their time walking through the flea market. Neither of them buy a thing, but they try on hats and laugh at each other. They look through all the dishes, books, and albums. By the time they’re walking back to their cars, it’s nearing four in the afternoon.

“You know, my mom really does think this is a date.” Harper says as they get closer to the cars.

Niall snorts, “I wouldn’t expect anything less. It’s not like our moms haven’t been planning our wedding since they found out Denise was pregnant with you.”

Harper laughs, “That’s a fair point, yeah.”

She’s digging her keys out of her purse when she hears him say, “Date or no, I had a really great time today.”

She smiles at that, something pure and free and genuine, “Yeah, me too.”

Harper leans in to hug him, “I’ll see you around, Horan.”

“Yeah, you better.”

And then they get in their cars and go their separate ways.

Three days later Harper texts Niall.

Harper: I have been tricked into going to the zoo. Pls send help.

Niall: How do you get tricked into going to the zoo??? More importantly, why arent you excited to go to the zoo??

Harper: Bc its the middle of October and it’s humid and hot af The kids have a water pad to cool off in I, the adult, do not

Niall: Sucks to suck, pal.

Harper: Did you know our zoo had kangaroos now?

Niall: Wow look at us steppin it up

Harper: There’s also a ropes course.

Niall: That sounds dangerous

Harper: Corey is begging to go But my hands are already sweating

Niall: Omg i forgot your hands get clammy when you get nervous

Harper: At least i dont turn into a tomato

Niall: For all u know, i out grew that

Harper: We just witness two chimps going at it like theres no tomorrow We’re never coming back to the zoo Im scarred

Niall: Hahahahahhahah

Harper pockets her phone, trying to be as present as possible for Corey and Riley, but there’s a smile on her face for the remainder of their time at the zoo that has nothing to do with baby tiger tripping over its own feet.

The next time they see each other, it’s a reminisce of their childhood days.

They’re both with their moms running errands around town when they happen to cross paths at one of the shops in the mall. Harper highly suspects it wasn’t as accidental as the moms want Niall and her to believe.

There are hugs all around, and when Harper gets to Niall she whispers, “From one to ten how much was this not a pure chance?”

“Oh, an eleven for sure. Maura is not subtle.”

They’re both smirking as they step away from each other, both adamantly ignoring their mothers watching them.

Harper has a feeling that if they had popcorn, they’d be content watching the two of them interact for the rest of the day. They’d also be the people cheering when they kissed. If. If they kissed.

For the next hour and a half, they walked the mall with their mothers, held bags, and whispered and giggled behind their mom’s backs. Overall, Harper would consider it a great day.

Right before they go their separate ways, the moms get it in their heads to have a game night just how they used to do when they were kids.

Harper’s mom tugged on her arm, “Remember, sweetie? We did it all the time when you two were younger! We had the greatest time playing games together.”

Harper glanced at Niall, laughter trying to work its way out of her. She could see that Niall was struggling just as hard.

“Mrs. Denise, we only did that for a few months when we were in middle school. It wasn’t for very long.”

Both of the moms looked confused, “No, that can’t be right. We did it more often than that, didn’t we?”

“We had to’ve!”

“Whatever you say, Mom.” Harper sighed, still struggling to keep the laughter in.

Maura clapped, “So, do we want to try to do a game night this weekend?”

And just like that, a game night was planned.

The Horans come over on Saturday night just in time for dinner. It’s taco night, and Niall and Harper make their taco salad the exact same, just as they did when they were kids. And then it’s game time.

Harper doesn’t go into game night planning on being competitive. She doesn’t go into game night planning on wreaking havoc, but that’s exactly what happens. Somehow.

“What do you mean a ten story rhino would win this fight?” Harper yells out, “I have Mr. Rogers! Ten of him! He can solve world hunger, world peace, and make that ten story tall rhino see reason!”

Harper’s dad laughs, “Is repeating your cards your only argument? My rhino could literally run over your Mr. Rogers.”

“But I have ten of them!” Harper bangs the table, startling her mom.

Niall watches her, a smirk playing on his lips, “What I think Harper is trying, and failing, to argue, is that no one, not even a crazed ten story high rhino, would be willing to kill someone as pure as Mr. Rogers. And, since there are ten of him, if the rhino does by chance run over one, there’s no way he’ll run over the other nine. Rogers will win.”

Harper frantically waves her hands towards Niall, “Exactly!”

Bobby groans, “You’ve got the two kids against you now, Ted. I doubt you’ll be able to win this one.”

“I think this is why we stopped doing game night. These two team up and win everything. The parents never win a thing.” Maura added in.

“They just make such a good team. You can’t argue with Niall’s logic, though.”

Ted laughs and throws his hands in the air, “Fine! Harper wins this round.”

Niall wins the next two rounds, and then Maura wins and they call it a night. Maura and Bobby head out, and Harper walks Niall to his jeep.

“You know, Harp,” Niall starts, leaning against the car, “I forgot how dramatic you get over games.”

She rolls her eyes and rests against the car beside him, “I was not being dramatic.”

“That’s a lie and a half, sweetie.”

“I might be competitive and loud, but I am not dramatic. There is a difference.”

“It must not be a big difference.”

Harper doesn’t say anything in response, just silently gives him the finger.

Niall laughs, loud and inviting, and pulls her in for a hug.

He squeezes her tight once and then, “What are you doing tomorrow?”

She rests her head against his chest, “Taking the kids to play putt-putt and then probably ordering pizza.”

“Can I invite myself along?”

“‘Course you can.”

Niall doesn’t end up playing putt-putt with Harper and the kids. Instead he graded papers at his house. Once Harper dropped the kids back off at the house with their dad, she picks up a pizza and drives to Niall’s.

When Niall answers the door, he’s wearing joggers, an old uni shirt that has several holes in the collar, and glasses. He looks cozy and inviting, and all Harper wants to do is curl up on the couch with him and watch a movie.

“I come with pizza.”

Niall sighs in relief, “My actual hero.”

He leads her inside, and she sets up the pizza on the coffee table. She smiles when Niall comes out from the kitchen with her favorite beer.

“Now you’re my actual hero.”

They get settled on the couch, forgoing plates and choosing instead to set the pizza in between them and eat it out of the pan.

Harper is on her second piece when she notices Niall staring at her.

“What,” She asks with a mouth full of pizza crust.

“I forgot how weird you are.”

“What?”

Niall vaguely waves his hands towards her. “You eat your crust first when you eat pizza.”

Harper glances down at her pizza, and yeah, she does eat the crust first. She shrugs, “I don’t like it, but I don’t want to waste it. So I eat it first so I can enjoy the rest of the pizza.”

He chuckles, “Like I said, you’re weird.”

She sticks her tongue out, “Whatever.”

They eat the majority of their pizza, and then set it on the floor. They end up watching another movie after the first one ends, and Harper falls asleep halfway through. When Niall wakes her up, she realizes she’s leaning on him, but she doesn’t necessarily care. Apparently Niall doesn’t either, since they both don’t move for a while longer.

But then Harper stretches and forces herself off of his couch. “I should get home.”

He stands then, too, stretches his arms above his head and groans. Harper doesn’t think she should find him as attractive as she does right now, but she’s too tired to work it out in her head.

“Text me when you get home.”

She nods, and heads out the door.

Niall: Maura is going to hard. She just told me to see if you wanted to go running with me.

Harper: Does she not know me? I’d die.

Niall: That’s what I said. But I am going by that bakery if you want to meet me there for breakfast.

Harper: Sure. Twenty minutes?

Niall: See ya there..

It’s November when Harper’s mom mentions the silent auction that raises money for relay for life.

“The thing is, I don’t think Maura and I will be able to help set it up this year.”

Harper cuts her eyes at Denise. She’s mid-pancake bite, and her mom is at the sink washing dishes. Her back is to Harper, but she can feel the set up taking place.

“That’s too bad.” Harper mumbles before she stuffs the pancake in her mouth. She’s eating quickly, trying not to be late to pick up Riley and Corey. Since school is out, she is taking them to the park, maybe the pool, and Niall had said something about meeting up with them. She wants to get the day started, not sit here and get coerced into charity work by her mother.

“It’s the weekend after next,” Denise goes on to say.

It takes Harper a second too long to put everything together.

“I know Gunnar said they were going to be out of town, so you won’t be watching the kids on Friday, which is when the setting up needs to happen.”

Harper sighs, and pushes her plate of pancakes away. She knows she won’t be able to enjoy them at this point.

“And you want me to take your place and help out?”

Finally, Denise turns around to face Harper.

“Oh!” She huffs and slings the dish towel over her shoulder, “Don’t look so put off. You won’t be doing it by yourself! Maura assured me that Niall would be there to help you every step of the way.”

Right. That right there told Harper everything she needed to know.

She did her best to give her mom a stern look, “Mom.”

Her mom, on the other hand, did her best to look clueless, “What?”

“Niall and I are just friends.”

Denise smiled, and if Harper didn’t know any better, she would say it was a little patronizing, “Okay, honey.”

Harper didn’t like the tone or the look she was getting, but she didn’t have much time to dwell on it, either.

“As much as I would love to continue this conversation, I’m about to be late. I’ll see you tonight.”

She dumps her plate and fork in the sink, ignoring the look her mother gives her, and heads out the door.

She only spends a quarter of her day thinking about the look her mother gave her.

The next day she finds herself lounging on Niall’s couch watching trash TV while he works from home.

He’s sitting on the floor in front of her, and she keeps getting distracted by how soft and welcoming his hair looks. Harper has to remind herself not to reach out and touch it.

“Hey!” He turns around abruptly, hair all askew and glasses crooked.

She jumps, startled, and tries to act like she hadn’t been staring at his hair for the last two minutes.

“Has Denise talked to you about the charity drive?”

She snorts, “If by talked to me, you mean that she told me over breakfast yesterday that she and Maura volunteered us both to work it, then yes. She has.”

Niall closes his laptop and scoots closer to the couch, closer to her. He gives her a soft smile, “C’mon, Harp. That’s not the spirit. We’ll be working together if that helps. Ma talked to me about it too.”

This time, she doesn’t even try to resist when the urge to touch his hair comes over her, but she does play it off as if she’s just fixing his hair.

“You do realize that this is just another attempt of our moms to get us together, yeah?”

His smile turns amusing, “Yeah, I got that sense when Maura was telling me how great at these things you were, and how lucky I was if I had you in my life.”

Harper laughs at that, drops her hand from his hair, and sits up, “Well, you are lucky to have me in your life, let’s be honest.”

“I never disagreed with that. Well, except for maybe when you spit your gum in my hair. Both times.”

“The first was an accident.”

“And the second?”

“You deserved it.”

Later, she’s at home watching a history documentary with her dad. She’s only half paying attention, though. Her eyes glued to her phone and thumbs tapping away as her and Niall text rapidly back and forth.

She doesn’t realize she’s smiling until her dad points it out.

“Who has you smiling like a cheshire cat over there?”

She stops mid-text, and looks at her dad a little confused, “Huh?”

He nods towards her phone, but then looks back at the TV smiling, “You haven’t stopped smiling since you’ve come in here. And I highly doubt this documentary on the second world war has you this happy.”

“Oh, uh, Niall and I have just been texting. He was telling me about getting his classroom all set up.”

“Niall, huh?”

Blood rushes to her cheeks, but she pretends she isn’t affected, “Yeah, we’re just friends.”

“Your mother would say otherwise.”

A groan escapes her mouth, and she slouches further into the couch.

He looks at her then, eyebrow arched, “Would it be so bad if your mother was right?”

She lifts her shoulders up in a helpless shrug, “Maybe.”

“Listen, I won’t push you one way or another, but I do know the two of you pretty well. Niall is a good guy. You could do a lot worse, sweetie.”

Harper rolls her eyes, “What sounding praise.”

“What? He’s already like a son to me. Having him a son-in-law wouldn’t be much of a change.”

“Dad!”

Both families are at the Horan’s to watch a football game the next time Harper sees Niall. It’s a busy and loud event. Harper reckons half the neighborhood and both extended families are here. She’s able to visit with cousins that she hasn’t seen in years, and great aunt and uncles that possibly have more embarrassing stories of her than Niall does. It’s an entire event, and she loves every second of it. But the people and the noise drain her quickly, and at half-time she wanders off by herself outside.

She hadn’t seen much of Niall. Just flashes of him talking to his family and neighbors, cheering on the game, and grabbing a beer or two or five. She figured he was still inside with the rest of the people, but as she walks around the outside deck, she hears the gentle strumming of guitar. It could have been anyone, really. But there was something about it that sounded so Niall that she almost immediately knew it was him even without rounding the corner to see him sitting on the porch swing with his guitar in his lap.

He isn’t paying her much, or any, attention. Instead, he’s staring out at the backyard and the trees and fields that follow it. It’s November, but the night air is still muggy, and she can see his hair has already flattened against his forehead. She leans against the post and listens as he mindlessly strums a song.

It’s only when she sneezes, thanks to her autumn allergies, that he notices that she’s there.

“I can’t play with you staring at me.”

She huffs out a breath, “I’m not staring at you.”

He continues to play then, a mouth in a half smile, “Oh, what would you call this intense look directed straight at me then?”

She shrugs, “You know I’ve always enjoyed watching you play. Besides, I’m also kinda envious that you can do it so effortlessly. You’re talented, Ni.”

A flush seeps up his cheeks, “Yeah, uh, thanks.”

There’s a pause, and she enjoys the break in conversation to listen to him play some more.

“Ya know,” Niall starts, “I could’ve taught you at any point, you goob. Come here.”

She goes and sits next to him, their thighs touching as he transfers the guitar to her lap.

Minutes later, their laughing as Harper all but completely fails to play a simple chord, and neither of them notice his mom watching from the window, smiling and snapping a quick photo.

(They don’t see that photo until years later, when the afternoon is nearly a lost memory.)

Friday, the day of the charity event, comes quickly enough. Niall picks up Harper on the way, and they get there in plenty of time to help set up. Harper had assumed there would be a lot of other people helping set up the venue, but her and Niall had the place to themselves for the most part.

After setting up the tables, they spent a good portion of the morning getting the center pieces just right. And Harper was reminded of how much of a perfectionist Niall can be at times.

They’re arguing over the best place to put the jump house when their moms finally turn up, smiling and laughing and not a care in the world.

Niall and Harper don’t stay long after that. They sneak away before their moms can volunteer them for more work, smiles on their faces and laughter on the lips. When he looks at her and asks where to, she’s still smiling. She can’t remember a time where she had felt as carefree and happy than right now with Niall.

They end up going to a pizza shop that’s not far from Niall’s house. Harper is mid-bite when Niall lifts up his phone.

“Smile!”

She does her best to smile, but she can feel how ridiculous she looks with the pizza in her mouth.

Niall just smiles at the picture, “Beautiful.”

She tries to pretend the comment doesn’t make her heart beat faster, but she thinks Niall already knows.

After both of them have eaten more than their share of pizza, they head back to Niall’s. She immediately collapses on his couch, dragging the blanket from the back of it and snuggling into it.

“You’re taking up the entire couch, Harp.”

She peaks around the blanket and looks around the room, “So? There’s other places to sit.”

She hears him huff and her body stiffens—t knowing before her what’s coming next. Before she can stop it, he’s falling on top of her, pushing and nudging and stealing the blanket from her.

“Niall!”

“I told you to move.”

“You did not.”

“It was heavily implied.” “It was not.”

“Stop arguing and just enjoy the cuddles.”

And… He had a point. She stopped fighting and snuggled deeper into the couch (And, incidentally, Niall).

It’s not that this was the moment she first realized she might have a small crush on Niall, the boy next door and her childhood best friend. Just like she had periods of her life where she wasn’t too fond of him, she’s had periods of her life where she maybe liked him too much. It’s not a new idea to Harper, but realizing she may have a crush on him now is new to her.

She does her best not to let it change her behavior around him. Especially now, when they’re on the couch tangled together. She’s pretty sure that he’s about to fall asleep, his breathing getting deeper and slower. She thinks back, tries to remember if she’s given away anything over the past month her and Niall have been hanging out, wonders if she’s been obvious and made a fool of herself.

Whatever the case, she blames her mother. The whole crush on Niall thing is her fault since she’s been pushing them together since the get go. Not that she can tell Denise about this. She would have a field day. She would tell Maura. Maura might die of a heart attack. Niall would find out. The world would end.

“What are you overthinking?” Sleep filled Niall’s voice.

Despite the softness of his voice, her body jerks and stiffens.

“Nothing that you should worry your pretty little head about.”

Niall twists about, trying to get at an angle to properly look at her.

“I don’t think I believe you.”

“You probably shouldn’t.”

“Anything I can be of help with?”

“I’ll get back to you on that one.”

They both end up taking a nap, and when she wakes up Niall has already ordered from her favorite Thai place, hands her a glass of a wine they both enjoy, and has New Girl queued up on his Netflix. It’s one of the better nights she’s had in a while, and the later it becomes, the less she wants to leave and go to her parent’s house.

It’s almost as if Niall can sense that.

“You should just stay here tonight.” He shrugs when she looks at him, surprised. “It’s getting late and we’ve been drinking. Besides, it’s not like either of us have anywhere to be in the morning.”

His reasoning seems legit to her, and when he offers her his bed, she takes it without hesitation. She only feels a little guilty about making him sleep on the couch. But it is a comfortable couch. Niall will be fine.

Harper wakes up and immediately smells coffee. Which, she finds slightly alarming. Niall’s house isn’t huge, but it definitely isn’t small enough where she should be able to smell coffee from his bedroom. It only takes a moment to realize there’s rattling pans and muttered curses coming from the kitchen. She rolls over, slaps and rubs the mattress in search of her phone until she finds it under one of Niall’s many pillows.

8:30.

Later than she usually sleeps during the week but earlier than she usually wakes up on the weekend.

And she knows for a fact it’s definitely earlier than Niall usually wakes up on a Saturday. And curiosity about that, rather than the banging pans and curses, is what gives her motivation to drag herself out of the bed.

She’s halfway down the hallway when she comes across a curious puddle. It takes her a few seconds to realize that the dark liquid is spilt coffee. She steps over it in her socked feet and makes her way to the kitchen, this time making sure there are no more surprise coffee puddles.

And that’s when she finds Niall, his head completely unseeable as he rifles through the spice cabinet and almost knocks a frying pan off the counter in the process.

“Uh, Niall?”

He jumps back, hitting his head against the shelf in the process, and quickly turns around.

“Oh. Hi. What are you doing?”

He’s rubbing the back of his head where it smacked the shelf, and she’s doing her best not to smile. But she knows she’s not doing that great of a job at it.

“Well, I was sleeping. But then some racket in the kitchen woke me up. And I almost slipped to my death in a puddle of coffee coming to see what all the commotion was about.”

He looks sheepish, maybe even unsure of himself, which is very unlike this new Niall she’s been getting to know over the past months. “I was trying to bring you breakfast in bed. Obviously, that was a fail.”

Harper laughs, slightly startled by his admission but mostly touched.

“Why would you do such a thing?”

He shrugs, “A gesture, I guess.”

She’s still chuckling when she goes over and leans into him for a hug. Her arms wrap around his waist in second nature, and her cheek rests against his chest. The softness of his worn t-shirt just as much of a comfort as the firmness of him—of Niall.

“Let’s get this breakfast cooked. I’m about to starve.”

She’s not looking at him when he replies, but she can hear the eye roll in his tone when he responds, “Always with the dramatics with you.”

They spend the morning cooking a breakfast fit for royalty. Niall remakes her coffee. He put too much cream and sugar in it, so it tastes a lot sweeter than how she usually likes it. But, it’s the thought that counts, and she doesn’t voice her complaints to him.

After they eat (and Harper has had at least two and a half cups of coffee), they clean up the mess they made in the kitchen. It takes them entirely too long to load the dishwasher, laughter and karaoke sessions interrupting the process, but by the time they’re finished, Harper’s cheeks are aching from laughing and smiling so much.

When it’s finished, Harper gets ready to head to her own house despite everything in her wanting to stay and spend the day with Niall.

As always, Niall guesses what’s going on in her head.

“You could just stay for lunch. I’m sure your mom wouldn’t mind.”

He’s standing in the bathroom doorway, watching as Harper uses his spare toothbrush to brush her own teeth.

She finishes brushing before she responds, “And give her more ammo on the two of us? No thank you. I’m sure her and your mom and gossiping about how we disappeared for the night to all their little friends. I have to go put out that fire before it gets too out of control.”

His smile is soft and warm, and it does things to Harper. She has to look away before she does something stupid like kiss him, or worse.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if people thought we were dating, right?”

“No, there are definitely worse things.”

“Wow, that’s high praise coming from the girl who told me she’d rather eat dirt than go on one date with me.”

She sticks her tongue out at him, “Don’t let it go to your head.”

They both load up into his car, and they spend the ride to her house singing along to songs from their middle and high school lives. The short drive goes by way too quickly for Harper’s liking.

Harper is about to get out of the car, her purse slung haphazardly over her shoulder and her hand on his door handle of his car, when he stops her.

“Do you want to go out and get dinner tonight? Just the two of us?”

“Just the two of us as opposed to our dozens of other friends in town?” She doesn’t allow herself to look too long at the smile he sends her way again, “But yeah, I’d love to.”

She slides out of the car and jogs up her driveway and ducks under the half opened garage door. She slips into the kitchen without seeing either parent, and then dashes up the stairs to her room.

When she closes her door without incident, she collapses on her bed with a sigh.

She thinks she’ll be able to go the entire day unscathed, when her mom comes up to check on her. That’s when she makes, possibly one of the most drastic mistakes of her life. At least up to this point.

“What’re you up to tonight?”

“Niall and I are going to dinner.”

Her mom lights up, almost instantly, “A date?!”

Harper groans, buries her face in her pillow, and briefly thinks about just ignoring her mom until she goes away.

In the end, she lifts her head up just enough to glare at her, “No, not a date.”

Her mom deflates like a sad birthday balloon, “Oh, well. Okay.”

Later, when Harper is getting ready, her mom’s question echoes in her mind. She didn’t think Niall meant it as a date, but what if Niall intended it to be a date and was just a shit communicator?

She decides then that she’s going to have to sit Denise down and have a stern talking to. She can’t keep putting these ideas in her head and causing her anxiety.

Despite Niall texting her and offering to pick her up for their dinner, she drives to his place. When she finds her heart beating too quickly and her body having a quick case of the shakes, she blames her mom.

She bucks up, gives herself a pep talk in the rear view mirrors, reminds herself she has nothing to lose (except for a lifelong friendship with Niall but surely he’d forgive her of this), and somewhat confidently marches towards his front door. Before she can knock or open it, he swings it open.

He’s smiling, all teeth and squinty eyes, and it makes Harper’s heart flutter all over again.

Really, she’s going to have to have a long talk with Denise about putting ideas in her head and letting her run wild with them.

“He-“

“Is tonight a date?”

And just like that, the smile disappears from Niall’s face.

“Uh, I mean… why? What do you want it to be?”

“Erm, I don’t-“

“Because it doesn’t have to be a date.”

“So it is a date?”

“Only if you…”

“Yes. Yeah. Sure. Of course.”

And, just as quick as before, the smile is back.

Niall leans closer to her, his breath hot and sticky in the humid summer air, but Harper can’t find it in her to care.

“If I kiss you, are you going to spit gum in my hair?”

An unexpected laugh bursts out of Harper, surprise and happiness all bundled together.

“Why don’t you kiss me to find out?”

And he does just that. And this time, no gum finds its way to his hair.

He rests his forehead against hers, “Well now that we’re all on the same page, wanna go eat now?”

She’s smiles,“Sure. I was thinking we could go to the bowling alley.”

Niall pulls back and looks a little incredulous. “For dinner?”

“Yeah. They have the best cheesy fries, and I’ve been wanting to bowl this week.”

“Bowling alley it is.”

After, they’re sitting on his couch watching Buzzfeed Unsolved. Harper is leaning into him, his hand in her lap as she traces the lines and calluses.

“So we’re not telling our moms right away, yeah?”

His voice pulls her back from the depths of her mind, and she smiles. “Oh definitely not. Can you imagine their absolute glee? They’d never let us live it down.”

“Yeah, good. I just want it to be us for right now.”

She leans up and kisses him, this one longer and sweeter than the first one. “I like the sound of that.”

The two of them manage to hide it from their families for over a month. But Christmas is what throws them under the bus.

Harper goes with Niall to his family first, and they manage to avoid all the mistletoe and dating questions.

Well there was one question from Maura, but Niall skirted it with ease.

They spend the afternoon with Harper’s family, and that’s when things get dicey.

Harper blames the turkey that made her tired. Niall says Harper just wanted to brag about finally having a boyfriend.

They’re both in the kitchen eating lemon cake, and Harper somehow manages to get icing on her nose.

Niall laughs at her, but then leans in and licks it off. Harper is trying to figure out whether it’s cute or disgusting when her thoughts are interrupted by her mother.

“Maura was right! You are dating!”

Harper opens her mouth to argue or find an excuse, but she sighs and falls against Niall, “Merry Christmas?”

“Oh, I’m so glad I’m not going to have to take care of you until I die.”

“Mother!”

Niall laughs and wraps his arms around her waist, “So glad to solve your problems, Denise.”

[thegreatpikminzx789]

Beyond the Stars - Etrian Odyssey V - Chapter 8

Wattpad | Ao3 | Fanfiction.Net

Summary: Ion, now knowing the plan his mercenary group has planned, rushes through the city of Iorys in an attempt to find the kind gentleman that saved his life once before. Though when he encounters a Harbinger that’s on the prowl to destroy anyone that gets on his nerve, how will Ion survive the encounter?

AN: Not as long as I had hoped, but we finally get around to some more party members for the Lux Guild, along with some comforting for Hilda. Can’t even get a break, yet I already just want to get the good part so she can be a happy girl... She deserves to be happy. ...Oh, and of course, couldn’t help but betray my draft for this chapter with something at the end. Cause why not?

Drayce, Zohar, Blayke, and Kamali belong to @theshatteredrose .

The day was still in motion, as Ion continues running. He's checked high and low, unable to find any sign of Korey or his guild. Were they on their way to Iorys, or was he too late?

"No... Ion must find nice man. Must warn nice man of danger." Ion uttered to himself, as he continues his search. He eventually bumps into someone, who grunts in pain, as he continues to run past him. This irked the man, turning to face Ion.

"Hey, you!" The man yelled, as Ion turned to face the man, seeing he was a Harbinger with black hair and red eyes. He had some iron piercings on his face, and silver earrings, yet his black and red clothes could easily mistake him for an edgy Harbinger, noticing his dark red wing behind him. "Don’t you know it’s RUDE to bump into people?!" He growled, gritting his teeth at him.

Ion quickly bowed in apology. "I-I’m s-sorry, sir, I’m just looking for someone..." Ion stuttered, as the Harbinger stopped in front of him.

"Oh I’ll give ya someone to look for, alright..." The Harbinger began, taking his purple scythe out, bringing it behind his head as it to prepare an attack, causing Ion to flinch. "Someone to take that miserable life of yours!" He yelled, before getting a cloak shoved in his face as he takes a few steps back trying to get it off. Ion takes the opportunity to run away from him.

"Grah!" The harbinger snarled, finally getting the cloak off, sharply turning his head to Ion, who was a lot further ahead of him. "Get back here, you fucking coward!" The harbinger threatened, as he began to follow Ion in pursuit.

"Alright girls, time to do a little bit of shopping before we explore the labyrinth to look for the two Celestrians." Kyo hummed, looking forward to head back into the labyrinth. "We must make sure we consider our choices, cause we might not have that much after we sell the materials dropped from the monsters to Syrik." Hilda reminded the Celestrian girl.

"I’m sure we’ll have enough money, Hilda!" Keiko chirped, before waving at some other explorers as Demetria urges her to continue onward. Korey continued walking close behind them.

"Graaah!" Korey stopped as soon as a yell reached his ears, turning to the left, quickly seeing Ion run from behind a building to another, as a rather frustrated Harbinger followed him. Korey blinked and placed a finger on his chin.

"Was that... Charon?" Korey wondered. No, that couldn’t have been him... Korey thought to himself, shaking his head. Charon had a different hair and clothes than what that harbinger just wore. "I have to save Ion!"

Korey rushes to the area where the Harbinger and Ion ran through, trying not to cause another explorer to fall in his wake. Although he was sure that the girls probably would've needed his input on a few purchases, the fencer knew they can handle shopping way more than he can. He had a guy to save, after all. What good is a hero if they ignore someone in danger?

He makes it through the traffic, seeing the harbinger and starts the pursuit. Although he was running as fast as he can, due to this area of Iorys being residential, and not having many people going through the streets at this time of day, the harbinger still inched closer to the Celestrian. Just running faster and potentially tripping may cost him a few extra seconds.

"Damn it..." Korey cursed, noticing a different path ahead, and without hesitation, decides to take the alternate path. "I hate to resort to using shortcuts, but I have no choice!" Korey uttered in his breath, having never ran this fast in his life much before in his life.

"Stop running already!" He heard the harbinger scream, urging Korey to run faster than before. "Stay... away!" Ion yelled, turning to the right, before the harbinger did the same thing.

The chase occurred for several minutes. Ion went through twists and turns, but ended up being followed by the Harbinger. Looking ahead of him, Ion soon realized his luck had ran out... "Oh no... dead end!" Ion gasped, nearly exhausted and unable to run any further.

"Heh, looks like you’re at the end of the road, bitch." Ion flinched, turning to see the Harbinger approach him, seeming to have a strange aura about him as he prepared to swing. "Paralyzing Reap!"

The Harbinger slashes at Ion, causing a huge tear, not only on his clothes, but the slash scratched across his skin, as Ion screams in pain from the attack. He attempts to cover the tear with his arms, feeling blood dripping onto his clothes and ground below him, grunting as he felt his body slowly succumb to being numb. The paralysis must have taken effect on him, and now he can't move an inch...

The harbinger yells in laughter, gritting his teeth as his eye stares at the now paralyzed Celestrian male. "Not so tough now, are ya?!" He began, getting up in Ion's personal space. "This is what you get for bumping into me!" The harbinger took a few deep breaths, before backing up and prepares another swing of his scythe.

"Now, hold still while I deliver the final blow to you!" He concluded. Ion gulped, feeling fear and despair crawl down his back. It appeared to be the end of his life. He closed his eyes in acceptance, feeling a tear start descending on his face...

"Get your grubby hands off of Ion, you bastard!" Ion heard a familiar voice call out, gasping as he quickly brings his head up to see Korey kicking the harbinger in the stomach, and then picking him up and throwing him into a pile of barrels, knocking them over as he screams in pain. Ion simply blinked, staring in amusement, but then grunts in pain as the wound on his chest reminded him of the pain he's in.

"Ion, are you alright?!" Korey yelled, as he quickly approached him, noticing the wound on his chest. He tries getting him to move his arms, but little luck came out from doing so.

"Shit," Korey cursed under his breath. "this can’t be good. The girls have my bag and I can’t reach them in time..." He pondered on what he can do now, as he tried getting some air back in his body.

"Ion sorry... Ion... idiot... Ion failed..." Ion sniffed, as he felt more tears stream down his face.

"Don’t spout such nonsense!" Korey yelled, picking him up and held him bridal style, surprising the Celestrian male before Ion's cheeks turned red from the surprise sweep. "We need to find a Botanist, and fast!" Korey declared, making it through the way he came from, doing his best to find a pace that's between running and running while making sure the person in his arms doesn't get hurt.

The harbinger soon breaks free of the barrels, struggling to get away from them by crawling out of the pile, and used his scythe to stand up. Man, he did not expect someone to catch him off guard. He looked around, catching his breath before noticing where Korey was going, seeing him turn to the right, causing the man to snarl and place his weapon away, feeling like it's hindering his progress.

"That bastard is getting away... I won’t let him!" He barked, beginning to make his way to him.

Korey did not want to look back, in fear he might bump into something. Besides, running with someone in his arms was still something he had to keep his focus on. Still having some strength in his voice, Korey decided he needed to yell and get someone's attention.

"Anyone! Please help! This Celestrian is injured and he needs healing!" Korey screamed, continuing to do so for a while. He realizes he might be attracting the harbinger's attention while doing so, but he wasn't thinking straight anymore- he was in full flight mode.

"Hey you!" a gentle voice called out to him, causing Korey to slowly come to a halt. "Huh?" Korey looked around for the source of the voice that called out to him, panting like he ran a freaking marathon three times over.

"Behind you!" the gentle voice called again, as Korey turned behind him to see a Brouni with black hair, red eyes with red glasses, and with white and red clothes motioning to him to come inside. Korey gasped, both in surprise, and in relief.

"This way!" the Brouni called again. Korey, with the remaining energy he had left, approaches the Brouni and enter the house, as the Brouni closed the door behind him. The harbinger, slowly crawling to a halt, knelt down and looks around, wondering where the two boys went.

"Where the hell did they go? Ya can’t be serious right now..." The harbinger panted, growling in frustration as he continued to look around for signs of the fencer or the Celestrian.

"Grrrr… Do you hear me, you damned boy?!" The harbinger snapped, yelling at the top of his lungs. "I’ll find you, and that Celestrian, and I’ll kill you both the next time we meet! Don’t forget that!" He concluded, slowly walking forward, taking his sweet time walking back to the central square of Iorys.

Korey sighs in relief, placing Ion onto the couch as he sits down on the floor, brutally exhausted from running. "Sheesh, what kind of trouble did you get yourself into this time, kid?" The Brouni inquired, getting Korey's attention.

"First of all..." Korey began, still trying to recover from the marathon he did. "I’m not a kid. Second of all, I was just trying to save Ion from being killed by that Harbinger. He’s still losing a bit of blood, and he’s been paralyzed by that same harbinger..." He explained, showing the wound to the Brouni.

The Brouni blinked and adjusted his glasses. "So, what? Are you expecting me to heal him?" He huffed, crossing his arms.

"Yes!" Korey yelled. "You’re a Brouni, aren’t you? You got to have some sort of healing skills to use on him!" He queried, wanting him to hurry up and save him already.

"Pfft, why can’t you do it?" The Brouni scoffed, slowly starting to get on Korey's nerves. "Because I left my bag with my guild members, who are currently shopping right now! If we don’t do something for Ion, I can’t forgive myself for not helping him!" Korey barked, getting an angry glare from the Brouni.

"He’s your problem, not mine!" The Brouni snapped, facing away from the fencer as Korey got on his knees, already tired from standing up. "Please, I’m begging you...!" The brown haired fencer pleaded.

"I know that this Celestrian is a total stranger to you and me, but I genuinely care for his well being... If I fail here, then how would I ever look at myself ever again?" His voice quavered, as tears soon started forming from his eyes.

"N-Nice man..." Ion groaned, blinking as his heart felt sorrow for the man who had saved his life not once, but twice. To think he might not succeed here was heavily weighing him down.

The fencer felt his tears drip onto the wooden floor below, bawling his eyes out as the Brouni turned to witness the sorrow from the man he had brought into his home, slowly regretting snapping back at him all of a sudden. What kind of facade was he attempting to accomplish if it ended up making him look bad? Guiltiness was starting to tug at his heart, as he looked at his hand and sighed... The Brouni himself was never great at comforting others, yet he knew that snapping and complaining at him would not make the situation any better.

Taking off his glasses for a few seconds to wipe away the slightest tear forming in his eyes, he soon starts climbing onto the couch, as Korey slowly looks up, wiping away the tears from his eyes as the black haired Brouni looked over the wound on Ion. He felt he was being stared at from the Celestrian male as he looked over to see Ion's worried face. "Mr. Brouni..." The fiery haired Celestrian groaned.

"You’ll be alright, kid." The Brouni reassured, as he opened his bag, and grabs some refreshing herbs in one hand, and healing herbs in another hand, placing them on the injury on Ion’s chest. As he let them settled, he cleared his throat, before doing some wave of the hand over the wound, as the herbs started glowing.

"Now, magical herbs, do your thing! Heal this wounded Celestrian from the wound inflicted upon him!" The Brouni chanted, using some sort of skills on the herbs lying on the Celestrian. Ion quickly breathed in air, as he turned his hands and head around a few times. Seems like the paralyze effect was quickly removed from his body, enabling him to move again.

He soon felt the wound on his chest slowly heal up, forming a rather easy-to-notice scar on his chest, as the blood that once flowed from it started to dry from being out so long. Korey places his hands around his mouth, in pure awe of what had happened. "I-Ion...!" Korey gasped, quickly wrapping his arms around Ion, as the Celestrian once again blushed, seemingly relieved to live once more, narrowly avoiding a quick glance of death itself.

"N-Nice man... M-Mr. Brouni..." Ion sniffed, overjoyed with emotions that he wish he could hug the tiny person on the couch.

"Please, call me Bortos. That’s my name after all." The Brouni known as Bortos introduced, taking off the herbs that were on Ion and stuffed them into the bag on his person.

"Bortos... how can I ever thank you for your help?" Korey inquired, wondering if there was someway to repay his kindness. "Think nothing of it, kid." Bortos replied, as Korey sighed at his use of 'kid' again.

"My name is Korey. And I gotta be honest, with you as a guild member, exploring through the Yggdrasil would be a lot more easier. Will you-" Korey began.

"Pfft, no thanks." Bortos interrupted, seeming to go back to that jerkish side of him once again. "What, why not?" Korey questioned, confused by what Bortos meant.

"Kicked myself out of a guild I was in, once I realized they were using me as a means of progressing. Told them to go find a different Brouni or die in hell without a healer." The Brouni huffed, crossing his arms once more.

Korey scratched his cheek. "That's a bit too harsh, don’t you think?" He queried, as Bortos turned around to dust off a photo frame.

"It’s their fault they didn’t see me as a valuable member to the team. What makes you think I’m gonna change my mind over one man and a Celestrian who required healing?" Bortos questioned, scoffing at the idea that someone like Korey would ever convince him to change his mind.

"Bortos... I know a guild member who had been replaced the moment something bad happened to her." Korey began, as Ion slowly sat up to listen to Korey's explanation.

"She also was in a relationship with someone in her previous guild, and when she was dumped by him, she felt like she was losing everything that she cared for. Two other guild members of mine met her and kept her company for as long as they can, before they eventually found themselves under my care in my guild; the Lux Guild." Korey continued, standing up before he let out a sigh.

"Seeing people in pain, or alone without a guild for them to turn to is like ignoring a person crying for help. I want to be able to put smiles on their faces... make them live their lives like one big happy family. That’s the kind of guild I want to see myself leading." Korey concluded, finished with his recalling of how he got Hilda to join his guild.

"K-Korey..." Ion swooned, turning his head and smiling as he rocked a bit back and forth. As for Bortos... well, how would he put it?

Confusion, hope, and maybe a sense of curiosity was what Bortos was feeling at the moment. It was something that he never thought he'd experience... but yet, here he is, hearing to someone ramble about how he got someone to join a guild despite feeling down in the dumps. He simply turned to him, almost in awe.

"I suppose... it wouldn’t hurt to see where this is going." Bortos began, looking up towards the male Fencer. "You got yourself a deal." Korey soon beamed when Bortos accepted his offer to join his guild. He then turns to face Ion, who glances at him in return.

"What say you, Ion? Want to join the Lux Guild?" Korey inquired, giving the male Celestrian Shaman some time as  Ion places a finger on his chin.

"Ion... want to join guild." Ion nodded, as Korey jumped in joy, as Bortos chuckles at his excitement. Korey stops himself moments afterward, seeming to remember why he left the girls in the first place.

"...Ah, fuck, the girls are probably waiting for me! We gotta get going!" Korey yelped, turning to the Brouni before him. "Is there a fast route to the central plaza of Iorys?!" He inquired, wanting directions and fast.

Bortos places a finger on his chin. "I believe the path straight forward will be the path that will guide you to the plaza of Iorys." Korey nods, quickly making his way to the door.

"Got it. Come on you two, we got to get to the plaza!" He urged, making his way through the open door, as Ion gets up and follows after him.

Bortos sighs and shrugs his shoulders. "I swear, that kid's gonna get himself hurt one of these days." He mumbles to himself, taking one last look around his home, and deciding to grab everything that belonged to him; sheets, photos, fragile objects, things like that. He wasn't gonna be having a home for a long time, so he figured he might as well bring all his possessions with him on his newfound journey.

"Well... this is goodbye, my sweet abode." He sighed, closing the door after turning off the lights. After making sure he had a tight hold on his possessions, he soon ran after Korey and Ion, who were likely much more further ahead than him.

"Where the hell did Korey go? I could’ve sworn he was right behind us the whole time..." Demetria wondered, looking all around her, with no luck in finding their guild leader.

"I’m sure he must not have gotten that far..." Keiko added, also looking around for him with Kyo and Hilda. Still was kind of weird he just up and vanished on them without telling them.

Hilda soon notices Korey coming from a flight of stairs down. "Girls, I see him!" She alerted them, as the three girls look in her direction, seeing Korey rush down the stairs in a hurry.

"Hilda’s right! And... is that the mercenary from earlier?" Kyo exclaimed, seeing a green clothed Celestrian following Korey.

"Korey, wait for Ion... Korey run too fast for Ion...!" Ion exclaimed, feeling like he was running out of breath. "Sorry Ion, I'm too much in a hurry to get down these flights of stairs that my feet can't stop me now!" Korey yelled back, as Ion sighed and continued to follow him down the stairs.

"Doesn't seem like he's attacking him, just merely following him..." Demetria noted, after hearing the chatter above them. "I dunno about you guys, but I’m certainly loving the little Brouni that’s chasing after them!" Keiko chirped, as the girls' attention turned to the black haired Brouni carrying his possessions.

"Can't those two... learn how to- hoooo, slow down?!" Bortos grumbled, trying to make sure he keeps his bags from opening up. Hilda had to wonder what happened with Korey while they were shopping, this clearly does not explain much to them at all. After leaping down from the last batch of stairs, and waiting for a bit to catch his breath, letting Ion and Bortos catch up, the girls approached Korey, seeing him flinch upon seeing them.

"S-Sorry I’m late, girls!" Korey apologized, as Hilda crossed her arms. "You should be! Explain why that mercenary is with you-"

"Hilda, wait," Demetria interrupted the white haired harbinger. "that wound on his chest wasn’t there the last time we saw him." She pointed at Ion's chest, and though Ion quickly looks downward, he grabs his robe in an attempt to hide it.

"Oh my... what happened to you?" Kyo inquired, as the male Celestrian tried to find the words. "W-Well," he began. "I was looking for Korey, when I bumped into a Harbinger with black hair and red eyes, yelling that he wanted to kill me for bumping into him."

Hilda gasps, as Korey easily hears her and turns in her direction. "Hilda, is something the matter?" Korey inquired, seeing Hilda quickly look away from him.

"I-It’s nothing..." She uttered, hearing Kyo sigh and place her hand on her hip. "It’s not 'nothing' if you clearly know something about it." The violet haired Celestrian argued, easily seeing through the little lie she was trying to hide, causing Hilda to flinch.

"Do you know that person that Celestrian is talking about?" Demetria inquired, seeing all sorts of eyes lock onto her from her guild members and from Ion. She takes a few steps to sit on the staircase, sighing to herself before looking up at her listeners.

"...That’s the man who I had dated long before he dumped me due to the incident I told you before. His name is Byron." Hilda explained.

"Byron?" Korey began, a bit surprised upon making the connection himself. "So that’s the name of the guy who chased Ion and broke up with you?" He continued, as Hilda nodded in response.

"I was afraid of having to mention his name, because he shows up like a bad dream you just can't forget..." Hilda ranted, soon having her eyes form tears. Korey's face soon turned into one of worry, sitting on the same stair case and placed an arm around Hilda, who soon turned to him and started crying onto his shoulder.

"It’ll be alright Hilda. I know lingering on the past still hurts, but I know you can move on from it. Me and the others will be there to cheer you up when you're down..." Korey comforted, soon hugging the crying girl in his arms. Keiko and Demetria walk up to Hilda to try and give comfort to their friend.

"Yeah, it’ll be okay, Hilda!" Keiko reassured, placing her hand on Hilda's back. "Just let those tears out, girl..." Demetria sighed, joining Korey in hugging Hilda in an attempt to comfort her. As this goes on, Bortos approaches the female Celestrian.

"Does this... usually happen when this Byron person gets mentioned?" He inquired, as Kyo shook her head and placed her head on her hand, with a worried expression on her face. "No, this is the first time we’ve seen her break down like this." She explained, looking to the Brouni as she spoke.

"We should give her a few minutes to calm down. Relationship issues can't be solved very easily..." Kyo added, deciding to sit down urging Ion to sit down as well. The others were silent as they listened to the sound of Hilda's crying and the reassuring words from Korey.

Bortos couldn't help but reflect on the words Korey spoke to him earlier...  "Seeing people in pain, or alone without a guild for them to turn to is like ignoring a person crying for help." Korey's words began to replay in his mind.

"I want to be able to put smiles on their faces - make them live their lives like one big happy family. That’s the kind of guild I want to see myself leading." These words... were those Korey's true thoughts on what his guild would be like to him? Bortos just sat there and let himself contemplate on the very words he just replayed in his mind. In a way, Korey was surprising more people with his actions, even if his words might not be sway them originally.

Such a strange, yet comfortable person to be around.

Eventually, Hilda soon wipes away a tear from her eye, and Korey separates himself from the hug, looking into her eyes as she did the same for him. Her eyes... they held fear and sadness within them. The eyes of somebody who needs to have someone better mend their broken life...

"Feeling better, Hilda?" Korey finally inquired. "Y-Yes..." She nodded, as Demetria pulls away from her hug as well. "Thanks, Korey, Keiko, and Demetria..."

"You’re welcome!" Keiko beamed, giving Hilda her casual happy-go-lucky smile. "Us girls have your back, Hilda. And we have such a caring guild leader, as well, who you can turn to for help." Hilda smiled at Demetria's words, as her eyes catch the black haired Brouni.

"Sorry you had to see that, sir... May I ask who you and the other Celestrian are?" She asked, as Bortos perked up upon being talked to. He cleared his throat before speaking up.

"The name’s Bortos. I’m the guy who healed Ion over here from Byron's attack." Bortos motioned to Ion, who quickly get's flustered.

"H-Hello. Ion is... Ion..." Ion introduced himself, stuttering a bit as he tries to speak.

"Pleased to meet you. I’m Kyo." The violet haired Celestrian began.

"Hilda." The white haired harbinger briefly introduced herself. "I’m Keiko!" The brown haired Therian chirped.

"And I’m Demetria." Demetria introduced herself, before placing her hand on Beta, panting as she ruffled his fur. "This is my hound, Beta." She continued, urging him to sniff the Brouni and male Celestrian.

The gray hound soon approaches the Brouni, sniffing his hand, and a little bit of his face, before doing the same with Ion, wagging his tail as soon as Ion slowly, but reassuringly, petted Beta, as the hound panted like a dog. Korey chuckled at the sight.

"Seems like Beta likes our new recruits." He beamed, Keiko immediately rushing into his bubble space upon hearing recruits, making him jump a little bit. "Oooh, they’re recruits?!" She questioned, as Korey pushed her out of his bubble space before talking to her.

"You heard me, Keiko. These two will be joining us a guild members of the Lux Guild." Korey explained so that the others can hear him.

"Sweet. We’ve been lacking in males." Kyo chuckled, as a blush quickly comes onto Korey's face, turning his head in Kyo's direction.

"What the hell does that suppose to mean, Kyo?!" Korey exclaimed, as Kyo bursts into laughter, hearing Hilda giggle a bit. Keiko and Demetria chuckled at Korey, as Korey tries to hide his face.

"Oh, y-yeah... Ion remembered something..." Ion gasped, almost forgetting the sole reason why he went looking for Korey in the first place.

"Remembered something? Like what?" Keiko asked, as Ion placed his hands on his legs, not caring whether his scar was revealed or not.

"Ion's old mercenary team planning ambush Korey and friends in labyrinth." Ion explained, getting Korey to perk up in surprise. "I-Is that true?" Hilda questioned.

"Yes. Ion don’t know numbers of mercenaries, since Ion fled to try and warn friends of Korey, but they plan ambush regardless whether or not Ion is there to assist them." Ion explained, as Korey and the others acknowledge the ambush factor.

"Seems like something we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for." Korey grunts, not liking the mere idea of ambushes in general. "Come on, Hilda. Give me your hand." He extends a hand, and Hilda obliges by placing her hand on his, as Korey helped her stand up.

He could have sworn he noticed a blush forming on Hilda's cheeks, but pointing out probably would not be the wisest case in this scenario, so he shuts himself up before he even makes that mistake. "We need to meet up with the Angelward Guild at the labyrinth’s entrance. Let’s go!" Korey commanded, as the rest of his guild members stand up and soon follow behind him as they make their way to the labyrinth's entrance.

"Damn it all, where the hell can Ion possibly have run off to?!" Charon grunts, kicking aside a twig in a rage. "You should’ve kept an eye on him, moron!" Verica shouted, as the dark brown haired harbinger turned to face her.

"Hey, don’t blame the Harbinger of Death that he can’t multi-task whenever he pleases!" He argued, bringing up his personification again. Sheesh, talk about an unlucky day. First another guild comes and kicks their ass while they question why the Lux Guild was powerful for being mere novices, and now they lost one of their members. What else could today possibly bring?!

"Me hear someone approach door!" Mislav exclaims, as his Therian ears twitch, picking up the sound of movement near the door, making everyone turn to face the door, seeing a black haired Harbinger enter through the door. He looks at the mercenaries with curiosity, before dismissing them and made his way to the flight of stairs, feeling his feet come across some wet grass.

"Hey, you there!" Charon yelled at him, causing the other Harbinger to stop in place. "What's your name, and have you seen a red and orange haired Celestrian male?" He inquired, wishing to know if he had seen their missing member.

"The name's Byron. So what if I know where your missing member is? All I know is that I ran into that fucking bitch nearly an hour ago." Byron growled, turning his head to look at the dark brown haired Harbinger's direction.

"That's because we need to know where he is! Have you seen him?!" Radha questions, making Byron growl even more.

"Well, you can fucking forget looking for him. I’m pissed off as all hell right now." He grunts, kicking the ground as he spoke. "And do you know what I do when I’m angry...?" Byron asks the four of them.

"Byron make friends?" Mislav questioned, getting several glares from his mercenary buddies. Byron smirks, before taking out his scythe and turns around simultaneously, pointing his scythe at them.

"I destroy anyone who gets in my way!" Byron snarled, as everybody gasps in surprise upon seeing Byron point his weapon at them.

Verica gulps, getting incredibly worried. "T-This guy is seriously angry... our employers might be in deep trouble if he finds them." She spilled, as Byron blinks for a moment, before smirking, showing off his sharp teeth.

"Employers... so you lot are a bunch of mercenaries, eh?" Byron concludes, overhearing Verica's little comment. Charon grunts and prepares himself for battle. "Why does that matter to you?!" He questioned, as the black haired harbinger began to chuckle like a madman.

"Oh, nothing, really. I'm just glad I found some targets I can cause some destruction to... Cause I’ll be glad to give ‘em hell to their front doorstep!" Byron explained, preparing himself for something.

"Miasma, come to me and mold yourself into armor!" The black haired Harbinger yelled, as little circles formed from the air starts surrounding him, acting like some kind of armor. Charon takes out his scythe, preparing himself to counter whatever Byron has in store.

"I won’t let you approach them!" Charon declared, as he urges everyone else to get their weapons out. "Too bad, fuckers! Maybe ya shouldn’t have crossed paths with me to begin with!" Byron taunts, charging straight at them.

"Now, suffer!"

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

Outside the labyrinth, the Angelward Guild sat there in wait, as Drayce paced back and forth. "What's keeping them so long, we've waited for nearly two hours..." Drayce pondered, checking the sky for any sign of the sun's position.

Kamali looks up at Drayce. "Maybe something happened along the way over here?" He questioned.

"Perhaps. Though we must wait for them still, in case they do come..." Zohar commented, once again, barely showing any signs of movement, apart from a few times he blinks his eyes.

"Sorry we’re late!" A familiar voice called out to them, getting the entire attention of the Angelward Guild, seeing Korey and his guild approaching them. Kamali and Blayke stood up from where they sat, as Zohar turns his attention to the approaching guild.

"Things happened and I ended up getting two recruits for my guild... but we're here now!" Korey explained, taking a deep breath after stopping right before Drayce. "Recruits, eh?" Drayce questioned, surprised that all the wait was for two new recruits.

"That’s correct! The name’s Bortos!" Bortos introduced himself, catching Drayce's attention. "A-And Ion... is Ion." Ion followed up with his own introduction.

"Ion...?" Kamali questioned. "Wasn’t he with the band of mercenaries before?"

Ion nodded his head, confirming his question. "Ion used to be mercenary. Ion mercenary no more. Ion turned over new leaf, and is now with gentleman Korey and friends." Ion explained to the guild before him.

"Well, pleased to meet you two. I’m Blayke, this is Drayce, Kamali, and Zohar." Blayke introduced the Angelward Guild swiftly to the new recruits of the Lux Guild. "Pleased to meet you." Zohar spoke, nodding his head to signify that he at least had some movement within him.

"Same here." Drayce beamed, as he walks over to Korey. "And Korey, we got the jewelry box for you. Here you go."

Drayce hands the box to Korey, as the fencer places it in the bag on his person.

"Thanks Drayce." Korey thanked, before placing an arm on his hip as he had something to say to his friends. "We have to be careful once we’re in the labyrinth, cause the mercenaries we ran into are planning an ambush." He warned, as Kamali and Drayce raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure Ion isn’t lying to you?" Blayke inquired, making sure that this wasn't some sort of undercover trick the mercenaries planned out. "Ion never lies. Ion always honest, like true gentleman." Ion insisted, seeming to be proof enough for Drayce.

"Heh, I’m starting to like this guy. If he’s sure it’s true, best to believe him and proceed with caution." Drayce beamed, as Blayke let out a sigh.

"...Right." Blayke nodded, making sure his weapon was on his person. "Let’s go. We need to head to the second floor." Hilda insisted, as they enter the labyrinth's first floor.

As they travel through the first floor, Hilda tells Korey to make a right turn, and notes that the room should lead them to the second floor. Korey nods, and presses his hand against the door, before flinching and taking a step back.

"What's wrong?" Zohar questioned, as Korey couldn't hold back a gulp. "I-I sense something... different, on the other side of this door." He commented, slowly opening the door, and gasping at what he saw inside.

"What, what is it?" Kyo inquired, but Korey couldn't muster a response. Ion soon tried to peak through the door, only for him to gasp back in surprise. "I-Impossible...!" Ion uttered, as Hilda opened the door fully, soon joining in the surprised look everybody soon made.

There was blood...

And among the red stains the grass now wore...

Were four bodies, lying on the ground. Motionless, and most likely dead.

[rxbxlcaptain]

Begin Again

I originally came up with this prompt for Jyn Erso Appreciation Week prompt “Need” but, well, it takes me forever to write so here we are, a million years later. But in the wise words of @thenewleeland​, Jyn Erso Appreciation Week never really ends ;) A million thanks to @wearesuchstuff1 for her amazing beta work.

Warning: There’s nothing graphic, but there is mention of blood and injuries.

Summary: The one where Jyn clearly knows Han Solo, and Cassian wants to learn how. 

Words: 5311

AO3 /  Below the Cut!

“Well, well, well, Kestrel Dawn. Didn’t expect to find you hanging around the Rebellion.”

The hairs on the back of Jyn’s neck stood on end at the sound of the voice. She should have suspected, really, when she saw the Millennium Falcon in the hanger and heard the roars of a Wookiee. There’s only one smuggler in the entire universe bold enough to travel with two such conspicuous companions.

Jyn glanced over her shoulder, nonchalant, to see the cocky grin come into view.

“Han Solo,” she nodded. “I could say the same to you.”

Cassian, who had been standing next to her, examining the evacuation plan the Rebellion had issued, looked up at the exchange. His face was too blank for the average rebel walking past to read him – but after the Battle of Scarif, Jyn was much more than an average rebel. His eyes tightened and his lips were pressed thin; Han Solo’s presence – or that the smuggler who returned the Alderaanian princess to the Alliance was addressing Jyn by an old alias, like they were friends from days gone by – confused him.

Jyn refused to look towards Cassian, choosing instead to focus on the smuggler. An arrogant smile stretched across his face and even standing still Jyn sensed his signature swagger hadn’t changed. If she had to wager a guess, the amount of money and supplies currently being transferred into the Falcon was the cause of the smug satisfaction flowing off him right now.

“Don’t be so cold, kid,” he said. Jyn’s hands clenched into fists at the nickname. “After all we’ve been through together?”

He walked off with a clap on her shoulder, laughing as he went. Jyn willed her heartbeat to slow and her muscles to unclench. She didn’t owe Han Solo anything, she reminded herself, not even admitting that they had a past together.

Don’t go down that path, she told herself. Don’t go down that path.

Cassian’s gaze shifted to her as Solo sauntered away. “You know him?”

Jyn shrugged, turning her attention back to the escape plan. “Knew him, I suppose.”

Cassian didn’t turn back to the plans as she hoped he would. Instead, his eyes stayed on her, drilling small holes into her focus with his intense gaze.

“He called you Kestrel.”

Jyn didn’t answer.

“You didn’t correct him.”

“He doesn’t need to know my real name.”

Cassian turned his head, watching the smuggler once again, and Jyn risked a glance at his face to gauge his expression. His eyes flickered to hers again, before she looked away.

“That could be helpful, you know,” he said and Jyn raised an eyebrow at him.

“My knowing Han Solo could be useful? How?”

Cassian shrugged. “High Command tends to be cautious about who comes and goes from base. Vouching for his character could get him off base quicker.”

Jyn’s ears perked at that. The less time she needed to spend around Han Solo and the less time she needed to confront her past the better. “What would I need to do?”

“Explain to High Command how you know him. Tell them that he’s trustworthy,” Cassian explained. “Just so they have something to go on.”

Explain how you know him.

Jyn shook her head before Cassian finished his sentence. The High Command of the Rebel Alliance knew enough about her background as it was; the last thing they needed was another access point to her turbulent past.

“Never mind then,” Jyn said, her voice clipped. “He can find his own way to make the Alliance trust him.”

Cassian shot her a confused glance, but didn’t ask about their history, for which Jyn was grateful.

The thought nagged at the back of her mind as Han Solo returned to Base One for a glorious reception, as the princess he saved awarded him a medal for his assistance in blowing up the Death Star, and as Jyn assisted the Rogue One crew in evacuating off Yavin. She avoided him – avoided his boisterous laugh and his ship and his seven-foot shadow – wherever possible. If their paths did cross, phantom pains shot through her ribs and hunger clawed at her insides: the memories of her history with Han Solo, creeping through the cracks in her mind’s cave.

“Jyn Erso, huh?”

Jyn, half hidden by the belly of a damaged X-Wing, flinched at the words, slamming her forehead into one of the ship’s exhaust ports. She released a string of curses under her breath - both at the ship and at the man speaking.

Sliding out from underneath the ship still clutching her forehead (that was going to bruise), Jyn asked, “What do you want, Solo?”

“Nothing,” the man shrugged, making himself comfortable leaning against a nearby crate, his arms crossed over his chest. “Did you get in much trouble?”

“Trouble for what?” Jyn asked absentmindedly while touching her hand to the new bump on her forehead. No blood came away so she dropped her worries.

“For me blowing whatever identity you’ve got going here.”

“You didn’t blow any identity,” Jyn replied, nonchalant, turning away from Han to grab a rag, wiping grease off her hands.

“So the great military institution that is the Rebel Alliance,” Han’s voice colored the phrase with sarcasm, “doesn’t care that you haven’t given them your real name?”

Jyn sighed. “Did it ever occur to you that I gave you a false name?”

Han snorted in response. “You can call me a lot of things, sister, but stupid ain’t one of them. Kestrel Dawn isn’t your real name. No one going by their real name winds up in the hell I found you.”

Jyn’s teeth ground together in frustration, turning back to the ship. Maybe if she ignored him, he’d get bored and go bother the Princess instead...

“Really, what is it with women in this rebellion hating you for saving their lives?”

But of course he wouldn’t leave - why waste the effort to finding someone new to bother when she was perfectly available?

“Maybe,” Jyn muttered, rummaging through her tool bag and refusing to look at Han, “the women of this rebellion don’t owe you anything and don’t appreciate you sticking around.”

Han snorted, shifting to lean against the X-Wing, right in Jyn’s line of vision. “That’s cold, kid.”

“Don’t call me ‘kid,’” Jyn warned. She stood, wishing her full height was more intimidating, praying she didn’t remind him of the scarred and broken child she’d been the last time they met. “Stay out of my way, Solo.”

“Whatever you say.” Han raised his hands in surrender and stepped back slightly. Just as Jyn thought he was leaving, however, he spoke once more: “Just answer me this. Jyn Erso… Is that your real name?”

Jyn glanced back over her shoulder at him. The name Erso didn’t seem to mean anything to him - most smugglers don’t keep up with high ranking Imperial science officers, it seems - but the name still felt like a precious secret, something she needed to keep close to her chest, hidden deep inside the clandestine cave inside her mind. The idea that the Alliance knew the name still rubbed her the wrong direction.

But…

With her father gone, her mother long reduced to a memory, no one else remained to bear the Erso name. If she wouldn’t claim it, no one else ever would.

“Yeah,” she told Han and gave a small, sarcastic salute. “Sergeant Jyn Erso of Rebel Alliance, at your service.”

“Jyn Erso,” Han repeated back with a nod and a half-formed smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“I wish that smuggler wasn’t so damn useful,” Draven muttered so that only Cassian heard him. “And that I wouldn’t get a fight from the princess if I kicked him off base.”

Cassian eyed the smuggler in question from across the half-constructed War Room of Echo Base. Settling into the base proved to be more difficult than originally expected – and the original expectations were far from pleasant – but the extra assistance from Han Solo, his Wookiee, and the Millennium Falcon eased more burdens than many wanted to admit. Like General Draven, many members of the high command didn’t trust Solo, Cassian among that number. Cassian had relied on too many men like Solo as double-crossing informants over the years to ever be at ease around him.

But, like it or not, the captain seemed to have made the Rebel Alliance – or was it Princess Leia? – his new home.

“Sergeant Erso knew him,” Cassian commented. He hesitated at the general’s urgent glance. “Years ago. I’m not sure the full story.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them interact,” Draven said, a clear question in his voice.

Cassian had. Not often, and never intentionally, but he’d seen Solo and Jyn interact. Despite all the other details Cassian had learned of Jyn’s past, she never explained how she knew Solo. Since the smuggler knew her as “Kestrel,” Cassian knew their history fell somewhere in the blurry zone right after Saw abandoned her, a section of her life Jyn never wished to speak about.

They weren’t old lovers; of that much Cassian was certain. The envious thought had crossed his mind in those first hesitant days where he and Jyn tip-toed around their feelings for each other before falling headfirst into each other’s hearts and beds, but Jyn never minded discussing flings from days gone by, tended to think the brief connections she made were amusing rather than embarrassing.

Cassian worried that Solo had hurt her somehow, that a desperate sixteen-year old Jyn had depended on the smuggler for something essential – food, shelter, passage off whatever rock she was stuck on – and he’d failed her. The way her shoulders tensed and her hands curled into fists around him, defensive rather than combative, suggested as much.

“If you don’t trust him,then you should tell command.” Cassian had told her when the sight of Solo and the Wookiee entering the hanger made Jyn’s shoulders slouch forward, making her already small frame tinier than normal. If the smuggler scared Jyn then Cassian had a duty to keep him far away from the Rebellion – and from Princess Leia who’s shouting matches with the Corellian were already legendary, only a few standard weeks after the Battle of Yavin.

“That’s not it,” Jyn had sighed, refusing to meet his eyes. “I think he’s trustworthy. I just don’t like him.”

Cassian had grunted in response. Jyn didn’t like many people, and those people traditionally ended up with her fist in their face. Whatever it was with Solo, it was personal.

“If the Sergeant has information on Han Solo’s past, it would be imperative that she shares it with the Rebellion,” Draven reminded Cassian before snorting lightly. “Though if you didn’t get the full story out of her, I imagine it’s unlikely we would.”

Cassian kept his face neutral, as was often necessary when General Draven made less than subtle comments on his relationship with Jyn. “She’d inform High Command if she thought she had pertinent information, sir. I think their interactions were much more trivial. Some form of smuggling activities years ago.”

“Sounds likely.” Draven nodded. He turned to Cassian after a moment, a serious expression on his face. “Do keep me informed if the matters turn out to be less trivial, Captain.”

“Sir.”

At dinner that evening, Cassian found Jyn and Bodhi sitting at a table with Kes Dameron, Wedge Antilles, and Luke Skywalker, all of whom were ignoring their quickly cooling dinners while talking animatedly. Jyn smiled at him as he slid into the seat next to her.

“What did I miss?” Cassian asked, glancing down the table at their smiling faces. “Last I heard, you were assigned to spend the day clearing ice away from the hallways.”

“Oh, we were,” Jyn said.

Cassian raised an eyebrow. “Nothing about that activity is enjoyable.”

“Nothing about any activity on this planet is enjoyable, in case you haven’t noticed,” Kes pointed out. He grinned at Cassian. “But we rebels are resourceful.”

“Imaginative!” Bodhi threw in.

“Truly ingenious,” Luke added.

Before the group spent the next hour naming other adjectives, Cassian broke in. “And you’re certain none of you have been drinking?”

The group laughed.

“Nope,” Jyn assured him, holding out her warm mug of caf – or whatever passed for caf in the rebellion – as proof. “We had a little too much fun clearing that ice away. Made it into a bit of a competition. See who could clear the ice away the fastest.”

“You’ll be shocked to learn that was Jyn’s idea,” Kes laughed. He pointed his fork in her direction.

“I still can’t get over how much power you pack behind your tiny punch.”

Cassian laughed into his own mug of caf. “Just you wait until you see her with truncheons, Dameron. Then you’ll really be amazed.”

Jyn’s grin vanished from her face as another person sat down at the table.

“She’s got a strong set of fists on her, that one,” Han Solo smirked. “You don’t want to get on the wrong end of those, Dameron.”

Kes snorted in response. “I take it you have, then?”

“Nah, not me,” Solo said. “But I’ve seen the unlucky once.”

Jyn scowled. Cassian glanced between the pair, noting Solo’s smirk locked on Jyn. He wasn’t sure what to make of her reaction. In most situations, Jyn’s scowls would be right in line with her confrontational nature, but her reactions around Han had been far from normal. Whatever Solo was hinting at must be deeply personal.

Jyn had reassured him her history with Solo was nothing to worry about, but Cassian was becoming less and less sure with each interaction. Solo had such an effect on Jyn’s personality, a kind of change Cassian hadn’t seen since Jyn had confronted Saw Gerrera on their first mission to Jedha, that he couldn’t help but tense alongside Jyn every time the smuggler came near.

For now, he ran his hand over Jyn’s back and switched the topic of conversation, asking Bodhi about their progress during the day, in hopes of defusing the sudden tension that had come over the table. Later, he’d press Jyn for more answers.

“Are you ever going to tell me the story of you and Solo?” Cassian asked once they were back in their quarters for the evening. His voice was casual, but the memories his question evoked caused Jyn’s spine to straighten.

The torrential rainfall soaking her to the bone. The dust of the street slowly turning to mud beneath her. She needed to move, but forcing her aching joints forward required effort she didn’t have. She couldn’t think past her roaring stomach and broken arm.

She wanted the protection of the Partisans, wanted the warm fire in Saw’s tent and the comforting boom of his voice filling the room. She wanted her mother’s cooking and her father’s reassuring arms.

“Hey, kid,” someone called from above her. Jyn urged her heavy eyelids to open, to assess whether the unfamiliar male voice would be a threat. A human in his young twenties knelt next to her, most of his face blocked by a hood. Rain water ran off it in rivets, splashing onto Jyn. “Need a place to stay tonight?”

Jyn forced herself away from the memories to deflect Cassian’s question.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jyn said, shrugging on her sleep shirt and resisting the urge to wipe water from her arms when she did so. The memories are all in the past, she reminded herself. Nothing about them can hurt her now. “There’s not much to tell.”

“I stopped believing that a while ago, Jyn,” Cassian told her, arms crossed and leaning against the wardrobe Jyn shoved her parka into. “Every time Solo’s in the room…” His hands waved in the air, searching for the right word. “You’re just so different.”

Jyn glanced sideways at him. “I didn’t sleep with him, if that’s what you wanted to know.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Cassian shifted closer to her, reach out to touch her arm. Jyn forced herself not to flinch away from it and to meet his eyes. “Jyn, I wouldn’t care about that, but I care about you.” His eyes were intent on her face. “I know you say you trust him, but you don’t act like you do.”

“Solo’s fine,” Jyn insisted, her voice short.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“There’s no problem.”

“With the way you act around him?” Cassian raised his eyebrows. “It doesn’t seem like that at all.”

“It is,” Jyn hissed through her teeth. Her eyes flashed and she ripped her arm away from his hand. “Cassian, can’t you drop it?”

“No,” he shook his head, stepping closer to her as she backed away. “Because I need a reason to trust him and you cowering every time he walks into a room is not going to do it.”

“I do not cower,” Jyn scowled. The walls around her mind – the ones that kept her safe in the past, the ones Cassian had so painstakingly torn down since Scarif – growing, forcing distance between her and Cassian, though neither moved. She wanted to lash out at him, she wanted to yell and scream, she wanted to run.

“Exactly,” Cassian said, reaching out to place his hands on her shoulders, keeping her from moving away. “Jyn, you don’t cower. But you do around him, and I don’t want to picture what makes that your reaction.”

She understood, logically, why Cassian wanted the story. Han Solo was becoming an integral part of the Rebellion. If he had a history of assault or rape – thievery was practically guaranteed for anyone carrying the title of “smuggler,” but that was a lesser crime – then Han needed to be removed before he wormed his way to the center of the operation. But nothing of the story painted Han as a character the Rebellion wouldn’t want around. If anything, the story may make the smuggler even more attractive to the rebellion he’d adopted, would likely even make Princess Leia’s heart flutter, to hear of the selfless good deeds Han had undertaken for Jyn.

And since the story didn’t affect anyone else, didn’t hold the key to unlocking the mysterious Corellian, Jyn kept the story to herself.

Jyn had even wanted to tell Cassian the story behind her meeting the smuggler, on nights they were curled up together, but the words would die on her tongue every time she opened her mouth. Cassian had learned so much of her past and had told her so much of his. He never judged, never condemned, just listened and, in ways that most people never would be able to, understood.

But this story sounded too much like failure for Jyn. Murder, sabotage, robberies – those Jyn could forgive, because they were, at the time, necessary for survival. The story of how she met Han Solo was the exact opposite.

Jyn shook her head in response to Cassian. He sighed and dropped his hands from her shoulders, holding them up as he backed away. “Alright. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.”

“Cassian, I…” But Jyn didn’t know how to finish that statement. Watching him walk away – it was only to their bed, but it was still away – brought back the chill of Ord Mantell, made the sound of rain grow louder in her memory, obstructing reality and beginning to drown her.

“Jyn, it’s fine,” Cassian said, his voice calm as he pulled back the blankets on their bed, no doubt trying to give her space. “I trust your judgement. If you say Solo’s fine, then he’s fine.”

She nodded. She was relieved in the same way she always felt when Cassian said I trust you, but the story lodged in her throat. Protective instincts warred with the desire to share this with Cassian. Her brain screamed while her throat shut down the words trying to escape.

Cassian had climbed into bed by the time the words broke through her mouth. “We met on Ord Mantell.”

Cassian’s eyes shot to her face and, though he was clearly interested, his face neutral when he nodded for her to continue.

“I was sixteen. I’d only been on my own for a few weeks.” She shook her head slightly and laughed without humor. “Saw hadn’t thought to leave me with food or credits to buy any, and any I’d gotten from pawning my weapons was gone. I needed work, but most people didn’t seem to ready to take a scrawny sixteen-year-old without scan docs for any respectable job or on any smuggling missions. But I stumbled across an underground fighting ring. And, well, that I knew how to do.”

Cassian sat up at that but stayed quiet.

Bright lights and the boisterous cheers of the crowd flashed through Jyn’s memories. Fights were pure adrenalin – swift and brutal and bloody. All sorts of species, both sentient and non-sentient found their way into the arena. Learning to fight with the Partisans, whose numbers included more species from more planets than most met in a lifetime, gave Jyn a distinct advantage over others in the ring. But that didn’t give her a perfect record.

“I was good,” Jyn said, picking at her fingernails to ignore Cassian’s presence in the room, “and I quickly became a crowd favorite. Tiny girl against terrifying beasts meant horrible odds, so a lot of smugglers made some good money off my fights. Apparently Han Solo was one of them.”

She took a deep breath. “Management wanted to shake things up and put one of their prize fighters up against one of the natives.”

“You fought a Savrip?” Cassian interjected, his eyebrows shooting up at her words. Jyn wasn’t sure where he’d run into one of the brutes, but anyone who met one of the four-meter-tall reptiles rarely forgot its long arms and lethal claws.

“They’re not nearly as friendly as they are on a dejarik board, either.” Once again, Jyn laughed without humor. “They do a lot more damage when they’re not a hologram.”

Cassian stayed silent, eyes serious, waiting for her to continue. Surely he guessed where the story was going, but he needed Jyn to finish it. She walked over to the bed to sit next to him, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes. She heard Cassian shift, presumably to face her, but he didn’t reach out to touch her, as he had earlier. Jyn wasn’t sure if she was thankful or not.

“I was bleeding pretty badly after the fight. I don’t think my face was recognizable at all,” Jyn explained, skipping over the details of the fight itself, both because Cassian wouldn’t want to hear them and because the memories were fuzzy at best for her. “Had a broken arm, too.”

Jyn reached down to trace one of the scars cluttering her forearm, this one four thin red strips left from the Savrips’ claws. Only the winners were privy to medical treatment and a place to stay after the night of fights ended – with so many organics looking for a way to make some credits, no one questioned or cared if one staggered off into the night, bleeding and infected, to never return – so Jyn was thrown out of the building, onto a dark alleyway during one of the few rainstorms Ord Mantell saw during a year. She’d staggered away from the arena, gripping her wounds trying to stem the flow of blood, but she only made it a few blocks before she collapsed. Her food rations had been minimal in the days before the fight – Jyn had been ignoring how she could count her ribs – and now with her wounds begging to become infected, Jyn felt the world overwhelm her.

No one had been coming for her. No Partisan would apply primitive medical supplies and a shot of something strong to numb the pain around a meager fire. Her mother was not waiting with a comforting hand and a prayer to the Force to keep her safe. Not even a temporary partner waited for her in an agreed upon meeting point.

Jyn Erso was on her own.

“I didn’t make it too far from the arena,” Jyn told Cassian. “And I just … couldn’t make myself keep going.”

I curled into a ball and waited to die, she wanted to say. I’d shrunken from a warrior personally trained by Saw Gerrera to a useless coward who couldn’t fight for myself.

“That’s where Han found me.”

“Hey, kid. Need some place to stay tonight?”

Jyn didn’t trust him, didn’t want to follow him, but her stomach roared with hunger, her muscles were limp with fatigue and her vision swam from a concussion; when Han eased his hand under her shoulder to help her up and covered her with his jacket, she couldn’t do more than feebly push him away and the smuggler easily ignored that. She didn’t remember most of the journey, only small patches of images, but when she’d awoken, she’d been safely tucked under a blanket on a stationary ship, a ration bar and a canteen of water sitting next to the bench she was laying on while the Corellian and his Wookiee partner bantered in the cockpit.

“He took me back to the Falcon, pulled out some bacta patches and other supplies. He and Chewie let me stay for a few days. Put me in contact with a good splicer they knew and charted me off planet.” Jyn opened her eyes to glance at Cassian, who still watched her with a neutral expression. “Gave me what I needed to keep going. I never thought I’d see them again.”

Something about her journey with the odd pair of smugglers relit her fire. Not the fire that Saw had instilled in her – a hatred of the Empire so strong it fought Stormtroopers and attacked military bases – but a different, more necessary fire she had lost while she still fought alongside the Partisans: the ability to fight for herself, her need to live. Seeing the smuggler and his Wookiee, reckless vagabonds who fought for no cause other than themselves and their next paycheck but had still stopped to heal a bleeding nobody on a backwater planet, reminded her prioritizing her survival – a lesson Saw never taught her – wasn’t an unforgivable offense. It might even be something to be embraced.

She paused for a moment, pulling herself out of the story and back into the dark room on Echo Base. “Command doesn’t need to know this story,” Jyn reminded Cassian, her voice full of steel.

Cassian nodded and his face turned apologetic. “Just—the way you reacted to him, Jyn. I expected that story to be very different.”

“Yeah,” Jyn said, easing her eyes closed and leaning back against the wall again. “It’s just not a time I’m proud of. I was caught off guard when he showed up here.”

“I understand. I won’t bring it up again,” Cassian promised her.

“Thank you.”

They were silent for a moment. Jyn shifted over, closer to Cassian, resting her head against his chest. His arm snaked around her waist, pulling tight.

“One last question,” Cassian said, his chest vibrating under her ear.

“Yeah?” Jyn asked, hesitant.

“Why did Solo decide to help you? Why not leave you there and forget about you?”

When Jyn laughed this time, it was with honest humor over the memory of Han’s explanation when she had asked the same question. “He said he owed me. The winnings he got from betting on one of my fights paid off the money he owed for the Falcon."

“I don’t like being in debt, kid, so consider yourself thankful you beat that Mandalorian that day.”

The ceiling of the hastily constructed hallways of Echo Base trembled under the weight of the Imperial Walkers crossing the plain overhead and rebels pushed past Cassian – going the correct way, Kay would tell him, towards the hanger, towards the transports that would carry them to safety or else to fight on the front lines as their orders commanded them, but Cassian needed to find Jyn. If this battled turned deadly, if he didn’t get another chance to see her –

He let that thought end there. They’d faced impossible odds before and come out breathing. He won’t consider the other other option, not while he needed to focus.

“Jyn!” Cassian cried as he entered the command center and spotted Jyn standing at Princess Leia’s shoulder, watching one of the transports blast into hyperspace on a monitor. She turned, the hood of her parka swishing behind her with the hurried movement, when he called his name.

But where Cassian’s heart filled with relief at the sight of her – she’s in the control room, not on the front lines. She’s with the Princess, she’ll be safe – Jyn’s eyes tightened at the sight of him and her lips pursed into a thin line, a sure sign of her lethal anger.

“Your transport is scheduled to depart in a few minutes, Captain, and the Alliance needs you on it,” Jyn informed him, the message short and clipped.

He shook his head as she spoke, moving closer to her. “I needed to see you,” he said and reached out to grab the sleeve of her jacket, keeping her close to him. “I needed to say good-bye.”

Princess Leia glanced at their pair, a slight smirk on her lips, her eyes turning back to the screen as quickly as they had turned to Cassian and Jyn. Cassian knew he had moments – several generals remained in the room, generals who knew Draven’s orders for him and would command him off base as soon as they realized he was here – but seeing Jyn’s face made it worth it.

“Kay won’t leave without me,” he assured her, lowering his voice so only they could hear (not that too many of the panicked rebels in the room were overly concerned with them). “Where’s your transport?”

Jyn inclined her head in Leia’s direction. “I’m at the Princess’s discretion. Where she goes, I follow.”

Cassian didn’t find that overly reassuring (the woman who went rogue to steal the plans to the Death Star and the woman who dared to sass Darth Vader to his face, working together?) until Han Solo stepped into the room and up to the Princess. Inevitably, despite the imminent death and destruction of everything the rebels had worked so hard to build, the pair began bickering – this time about how long they could stay on base. For a moment, Jyn’s attention pulled away from Cassian as she rolled her eyes at the couple.

“I’ll get away,” she assured him, meeting his eyes again. “Even if the princess misses her transport, Han will get us off planet.” She turned towards the smuggler, a challenge in her voice. “If that old ship of yours is up to the task, Solo?”

Han crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. “Are you honestly questioning the Falcon, Erso? Maybe I won’t let you aboard after all.”

Jyn rolled her eyes and turned back to Cassian. Her expression melted in a moment of rare openness. “I trust him.”

Cassian thought back to all the interactions he’d seen between Jyn and Han over the years – how her demeanor had changed from terrified into trusting – and of the story she’d told him – how Han had saved her life before.

Han looked up at him, a serious expression on his face. “She’ll be safe on board the Falcon.”

Cassian gave him a nod. “Thank you.”

“Now go,” Jyn said, giving him a small shove towards the door. “Get away from the Imperials. We’ll meet you at the rendezvous spot.”

“You better.”

Without glancing around the room to take note of any superior officers who might disapprove and ignoring Han’s suggestive whistle, Cassian leaned into kiss Jyn, hard. Just in case.

[redheadedcashew]

When You Break Up In A Small Town. (1/4)

Charming was like no other town around. It had a rather small population and while the Police believed they ran the town, the truth was, they had no hold over the town. That was left to a group of motorbike riding mechanics known as SAMCO. Now if you asked them, they wouldn’t admit to being the ones with all the control, but if you’d been apart of the town for awhile, you knew that they were the people to see. Nothing went on in the town without them knowing.

A lot of these blokes had kids and they ether all lived near each other or they played together on the lot before they all attended the local schools. Boone was Vice President and he had two boys, Ryan was his oldest and Michael was four years younger. Dane was President and he only had one son Tom who was a year older than Ryan. Those boys couldn’t be separated. They lived a street away from each other as they grew up, could be found causing trouble wherever they went, with Ryan’s little brother trying to keep up with them the moment he was able to.

There was also another family that lived on the same street as Ryan’s, and that was Frank and Mary. Frank was a retired Army VET and now worked as a mechanic with the SAMCRO guys who some he served with overseas. Frank and Mary had an only child named Sarah. They tried for many years to fall pregnant again, but it wasn’t in the works for them. Sarah was their entire world and despite that Frank worked on the lot with Dane and Boone, he was still worried when his daughter and Ryan started to become in separable. But as Mary always told him when he would question it, Sarah was always going to be protected and taken care of, no matter what happened in the future. They were apart of that biker world in one way or another.

For those four kids, life carried on without too many incidents that affected them directly. New people moved into houses around them, new club members joined, other charters would visit. Occasionally Dane and Boone would have Irish visitors, it was during those times that no kids were to be at the lot or anywhere near where those business meetings were being held. That all changed once Tom turned 18 and Ryan was 17. Because of who their fathers were, the boys went through their Prospect stage together, because when the time came the two of them would take over SAMCRO and the garage.

Now, four blocks away in a more quieter street that held no club members or mechanics, lived a single mother of one. Katherine, was of Irish decent and had been forced to flee for her’s and her daughter’s safety after her husband had been killed in a gun trade gone wrong. Katherine wasn’t a stupid woman, she knew what her husband did for a living and she had always feared he would be taken away from her too soon. She knew the day would come when she’d have to explain to her daughter that the truck her father had been driving had been blown up which cost them everything. Once arriving and settling into Charming, which held ties to Belfast where they were from, Katherine set them up in a small but nice house and decided that she’d home school her daughter until the trouble died down back home. It wasn’t until Amanda’s first year of high school, that she finally got to experience exploring her new home and of course, she stumbled into some interesting friendships along the way.

“Now, try not to hide las, I know it’s hard. Probably my fault for sheltering ya for so long.” Amanda tried to smile but her stomach was a mess, “I’m not good with people ma, no one likes the kid who has been home schooled.” Katherine, for the hundredth time recently, wondered if she’d done the right thing, “just give it a go, one day at a time las.”

Navigating the school hadn’t been too hard, and luckily there had only been one to choose from but she already felt like the outcast. It was like she radiated that she’d never been around this many teenagers in her entire life and she tried to walk carefully so she didn’t bump any body. All was well until she turned a corner to locate her locker, when suddenly shoved their shoulder into her and she stumbled, everything in her hands falling to the floor. Trying not to panic, she pushed her glasses up and knelt down, becoming frozen as someone knelt down in front of her. “Let me help you,” she looked up and saw the friendly face of a girl who seemed to be offering her a soft, understanding smile.

After that moment, Amanda was pulled under Sarah’s protective wing. No longer was Sarah just hanging out with Ryan and Tom, she was at Amanda’s or dragging Amanda to hers, until finally, they became a group of four.

—

Falling in love with Tom had been easy. Loving him was as automatic and as natural as breathing. She had easily fallen into synch with him the moment the two had started spending time together. They didn’t have the history that Sarah and Ryan had, but somehow they fit together.

Once she had graduated and Tom was nearing the end of his Prospect year, the two moved in together and she studying Nursing at uni via distance so she didn’t have to leave her family. It was a small two bedroom house and in order to knock a little bit off the rent, Tom would fix things himself when they broke. Moving in together had been the best decision they had made so far, it was their own little world. Tom’s future didn’t matter in this house, and nether did hers. They were simply able to enjoy each other, argue over who was the better cook and who got the tv at 8pm. Sarah and Ryan would come over on a Saturday arvo and the four would grill up some food and have a few drinks with each other, it wasn’t as full on as a Friday night party, but it was still a favourite night of the week.

The years went on and after three years studying and then her 12 month grad year, Amanda was finally qualified to be a Nurse and had a permanent job at the local hospital. Through all the stress, their relationship never took a dive, they were as strong as ever, well, that’s how she saw it. Little did she know, Tom was seeking attention elsewhere as his position in the club began to rise. He was now his father’s VP and he had plans to become President when the time was right and he’d given his best friend the VP patch and the two would control this town… and the gun trade.

Looking back on on it now, she should have been able to see the signs right in front of her. How he’d stopped revving her up just to see her get mad and then laugh. He’d stopped coming home from the clubhouse. She’d made an excuse up for every little thing he had stopped doing. She worked too much, the hours were long, she was always tired, blah blah blah. We always blame ourselves when the ones we love hurt us, and for a long time, she couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge the fact that he was in fact, the bad guy.

—

Work had been fucking terrible, everything could go wrong had fucking gone wrong and there was nothing she could have done about it. None of her perfectly trained skills had helped and now she was sitting on the floor in the operating theatre with her back to the wall and her head in her hands while cleaners cleaned up the chaotic mess around her. Suddenly everything seemed so irrelevant, especially the fight her and Tom had the night before where she’d called him a fucking lazy piece of shit because he hadn’t done one thing she’s asked him. All she had wanted was some help around the house while she worked nights this week, that’s all! But all his time was at the club, his excuse was he was learning to take over. She hadn’t wanted to hear those words come out of his mouth ever again.

She was overcome with a need to get home to him, to make everything better between the two of them. Gathering herself off the floor, she moved quickly through the ward to the staff area and grabbed her belongings, not bothering to change, she didn’t care about the state she was in, all she could think about was how she was ready to move forward with Tom, take that final step. A step he had been asking her to take for a little over a year now and she hadn’t been ready. Until Now.

Her whole body started to relax as she saw his bike in the driveway, he was actually home before her. She was out of the car and up the porch steps in seconds, pushing the door open, “Tom, babe!” she called out, her heart racing as she searched for him. Moving through the house, she saw the back light on, she opened the sliding door and stepped out on the to back patio. Tom didn’t look up, a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She knelt down in front of him, her hands on his knees.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry for the bullshit fighting and for being so up and down lately. But please, I’m ready, I’m ready to jump down the fucking rabbit hole with you. I’ll be whatever you need me to be. I can do this, I WANT to do this. I’ll get your ink…” Her words hung in the air, and it was like her was looking right through her but she couldn’t make out what he was thinking. Slowly, she moved her hands off him and stood up, suddenly feeling the need to protect herself. “Tom, what’s going on? You’ve been asking me for ages to take this step…”

She stepped back as he stood up, his hand going through his hair in a somewhat stressful manner before he told her to sit down. She ignored the request, “what’s going on?” had he hurt someone? Was someone they knew hurt? A million questions raced through her mind but everything came to screeching halt at his next words.

“I… I cheated.”

She blinked, cheated? Like on a test or something? “What?” was all she could reply with, the words not making sense. And then he spoke again,

“Amanda, she didn’t mean anything…”

Everything hit her with such a force that she felt a physical pain in her chest, he had been with someone else? She wasn’t enough? It’s not as if their sex life had been lacking, oh god… he had cheated. “How long?” she choked out, trying to remember to breathe and not show him she was close to tears, “a month.” And just like that, her entire world collapsed to her feet. She nodded and turned away, moving back to the house and heading for their bedroom. She kept telling herself not to cry, turn it off, go numb, ignore it. No, you can’t hear his voice calling you, nope, ignore him. She was moving on autopilot packing her bag. She didn’t answer him as he asked her what she was doing, where was she going, blah blah. She shoved past him in the doorway and headed for the front door as he caught her arm, turning her back around but the anger reared it’s ugly head and she pulled her fist back before slamming it with all the force she could into his face.

“I’ll never forgive you for this.”

—

The days that followed were the worst she had ever experienced. She’d gone straight to Sarah’s that night and broke down in her best friends arms. She didn’t want to drag them into it but she needed her friend. She needed someone to make her feel strong, because every time his name appeared on her phone she felt a small part of her wanting to run back to him, but thats not the kind of girl she was. He’d broken the only promise she’d ever asked him to make, there was no going back, she couldn’t forgive him.

After a night at Sarah’s and Ryan’s, Amanda moved back into her ma’s house, picking up extra shifts and saving every bit of her money. She had a plan to get as far away from Charming as she possibly could. Every time she heard a harley, she felt like she was was going to crumble into a pile on the floor. Two months went by and she finally had some decent cash, now all she needed was a destination. She was driving home from work when she found herself driving past the lot, and her stomach fell as she saw Sarah and Ryan laughing together as she slowed down, she wished she was there with them, wishing these last two months had never happened, but her fate was sealed as she watched a blonde make her way over to Tom and she couldn’t sit and watch any longer. She drove back into town and parked out side the local pub.

Pushing open the door, she made her way to the bar giving the bar tender a half assed shrug as he asked if she was ok, “just give me a Jameson with ice.” He did as she asked and she headed to the back of the room, sinking into the booth and take a sip of her drink, sighing as the liquor warmed her. Of course she’d see him and of course he’d have moved on or stuck with the same bitch. She wished she hadn’t felt like such an outsider now. She just needed to get the fuck out of her.

She was on to her third glass when an accent caught her ears and perked up her interest, the alcohol had completely relaxed her at this point. The voices moved to the booth in front of her as she took another sip. The men were dressed smartly, with rather interesting haircuts under their hats and they all immediately lit up cigarettes. The smell was almost a comfort in her state. One of the men proceeded to say his goodbyes, leaving a rather attractive man behind. Forgetting that others could hear her, she laughed into her drink as she caught the comment the man made in Gaelic. Almost as quickly as she had laughed, she froze and looked up, catching his eyes right on her.

He rose from his spot and moved to her table, before gesturing to the empty seat. She found herself nodding, for the first time her mind wasn’t thinking about Tom in the background. All focus had settled on the man before her. “I wasn’t aware there were any other Irish in town,” he said with a smirk, cigarette coming up to his lips and she swallowed heavily. “I haven’t been home in a very long time, but my ma was always strict with learning the language.” She sipped her drink, needing a little more courage, “what brings you to a place like this?” He leaned back in the booth, his body on a slight angle as he blew out the smoke, “just some business with some locals.” Amanda rose an eyebrow and gave a short laugh, “I’m fairly certain I’ve got a good idea of why you’re here and I’d rather not waste my night talking about bikers.” It was then his eyes met her’s with a challenge, “well what would you rather be doing, love?”

—

Amanda had ended up back at his hotel that night, slipping beneath the terrible quality sheets with him and boy, had it been amazing. It was something completely different from Tom and she found herself feeling in ways she’d never even thought of. He’d been slow, deliberate and in control the whole time. When they were done, she found herself laying on her side facing him as he mirrored her actions. She suddenly felt guilty and confused as she pulled the sheet up to cover herself. “Do you want to talk about him?” he asked softly in Gaelic, his hand settling on her hip, squeezing slightly. She sighed and before she knew it, she was pouring her heart out to this stranger in a language she didn’t speak often.

Something happened that night, something that made her stay in Charming longer than she had planned. Cillian had wrapped himself in her life almost like she was supposed to meet him at some point. That every path was directed to him and for the fist time, she didn’t feel like the weight of the world was crushing her, she couldn’t breathe with him around. When she finished her shifts each night, she would meet him at his hotel, knowing he’d been having meetings with Tom and the rest of the club, but she didn’t care, because Tom was no longer her problem and it felt good to not be obsessed with him anymore. Besides, there was no harm in having some fun with Cillian was there?

—

Ryan saw her car once again parked at the hotel and he wanted to be angry that she seemed to be out with some stranger, but at the same time, a small part of him couldn’t blame her for trying to move on with her life. He just wished it hadn’t been with the fucking Irish! He knew she wouldn’t say anything to them but fuck, Tom was going to hit the fucking fan when he found out. Revving his bike, he took off down the street and back to the lot where he had been heading before he had seen Amanda’s car. Pulling in, he jumped off and lit up a smoke, quickly heading to Sarah, the love his life. “I need to talk to you a minute,” he stated, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the people hanging around, waiting for the party to begin.

‘Ryan, I’m supposed to be helping your mum set up, tonight is a big night for you and Tom!” Sarah looked him for a minute, “wait… spit it out.” Ryan sighed, “you know how there’s some Irish blokes in town, working with Tom on strengthening our gun business?” she nodded, “well uh… Amanda i’m pretty sure is fucking the main guy, the one who controls the guns.” He quickly put his hand over Sarah’s mouth as Tom joined them, “gez girl, stop talking like that, can’t be doing that here! Women aye?” Ryan tried to cover to Tom as he walked what was going on. Groaning as Sarah bit his hand, he lent down and kissed her, “love you too, now come on, let’s go make our boy President.”