#School Bags Adelaide

[magpiesprings]

BACKPACKS FOR SALE. The backpacks are decorated by South Australian Artist Avril Thomas at Magpie Springs printed by Redbubble when you purchase.

[awkwardauthorwrites]

Violets and Verbena

Word Count: 3k

Themes: fluff

Summary: Two years have passed since the events in Hogwarts Legacy, in which Y/N has drifted away from Sebastian. What happens when she has to spend some time in the hospital wing and he comes to visit?

Warnings: Potential spoilers for HL

Noreen Blainey, hospital matron at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, stood in front of the two witches, holding the curtain partition open slightly and blocking the view of the hospital cot and its owner.

“Someone’s here to see me?” Y/N shared a confused look with Poppy, who sat next to her bedside. “Do you know who it might be?”

“Natty and Garreth both have Charms right now,” she shook her head in confusion. “Maybe it's Amit or Adelaide?”

“I’ll see them,” Y/N agreed, still sounding uncertain. Nurse Blainey nodded once and left, the curtain fluttering closed behind her once more. “I wonder who it could be.”

“Maybe it’s Imelda, come to apologise for knocking you off your broom,” Poppy suggested. Y/N let out a quiet laugh and shook her head. 

“You know it was an accident, and she’s already apologised more than enough.”

“Chocolates make for a good apology.”

“I don’t come bearing sweets, but I could come back with some, if you want?” a deep, masculine voice came from the other end of the partition, before Sebastian stepped into view. He fiddled with his robes nervously and gave them both a small smile. “Hi, Y/N…Poppy.”

“Sebastian?” Y/N’s eyebrows shot up slightly in surprise. After everything that had happened in their fifth year Y/N and Sebastian had drifted and stopped talking to one another, with the exception of the occasional hello as they passed each other in the halls. She still spoke to Ominis at times, but they didn’t spend as much time together as they used to. She knew he missed the man that stood in front of her, but wasn’t sure how to approach him after the death of Solomon Sallow. “You know you needn’t bring anything,” she shook her head with a small smile and gestured to the seat next to Poppy. “Come and sit.”

“So there was no need for me to stop and steal these from the gardens?” He produced a small bouquet of wildflowers from behind his back, and Y/N picked out some violets and different colours of verbena clusters among the bunch that would definitely get him into trouble with Mr Moon. Poppy jumped up to get a vase for them, shooting a look at Y/N behind Sebastian’s back as she went.

“These are beautiful, Sebastian. Thank you,” Y/N reached over to squeeze his hand in gratitude as Poppy returned and set them by her bedside. “Are these forget-me-nots? A happy coincidence, or…?” Y/N trailed off slowly and picked out the different flowers she could see. 

“You told me they were your favourite once, I hoped they would help cheer you up.”

“How thoughtful of you Sebastian,” Poppy commented lightly. She turned the vase slowly as she took note of the flowers scattered within the bouquet. “Did you know one of the meanings for verbena is protection and healing?” Poppy touched the petals, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she looked over at Sebastian. “Amongst other things.” A faint pink dusted his cheeks and he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yes, well. The quicker Y/N gets back on her feet, the quicker she can get to doing better than me in almost every class,” he played it off with a nervous chuckle and avoided Y/N’s gaze. “It's getting a little boring being on top.”

“It’s been three lessons,” Y/N laughed quietly and turned to look back at him. “I didn’t think you would miss me so much, Sallow.” Sebastian didn’t have a response to this, and went silent. Y/N couldn’t read the look on his face; another testament to how long it had been since they really spoke. Ominis once joked she was a Legilimens, because she could practically read Sebastian’s mind and predict what he was going to say before he actually said it.

“Is that the time?” Poppy jumped up from her seat and grabbed her bag. “I’m going to be late for Potions, Professor Sharp is not going to care that I was on the opposite end of the castle.” She dug into her bag and pulled out a herbology book before handing it to Y/N. “Here’s the book I said I would lend you, you’ll find what you need in chapter seven.” With a quick wave at a confused Y/N and a still-quiet Sebastian, Poppy turned and left.

Y/N took a moment to study Sebastian, who didn’t seem to be in a rush to get to class. He had always been attractive, that much Y/N would admit to herself only, but he had really grown up in the past two years. The last of the baby fat had disappeared from his cheeks, and his jawline had become far more pronounced. His muscles had filled out as well. He had once mentioned to her, shortly after the death of his uncle and Anne had left Feldcroft, that he had taken to fixing up the house and garden there, and she couldn’t help but appreciate how he looked.

“You’re staring,” he murmured, breaking Y/N out of her train of thought. She felt her cheeks heat up and looked away from him as if he could read her thoughts plainly on her face. 

“Don’t you have class to get to?”

“Not one I care to attend,” he moved to the chair closer to her, the one Poppy had been occupying and leant back to stretch. “Not without you, anyway.” He shot her a cheeky grin and crossed his arms across his chest. 

“I didn’t realise you would miss me so much,” Y/N let out a quiet chuckle to mask the strange feeling in her chest. This was the Sebastian she remembered, the one who made her constantly question if he was flirting or not. “It’s not even been a day.”

“It’s been longer than that, Y/N,” he said seriously. “Far too long.”

“Sebastian, I’m so - ”

“You better not be about to apologise to me,” he shook his head with a dry laugh. “Not after everything I put you through.”

“You didn’t - ”

“I crucio’d you,” he interrupted once more, near hissing the word out as he leant forward. Y/N sucked in a breath at the sudden reminder of the excruciating pain. “Not to mention the path I started to lead you down. My uncle…” he trailed off, his eyes going glassy. “I didn’t - and still don’t - deserve your kindness. Anyone else would have reported me and let them send me to Azkaban.”

“Sebastian…” Y/N reached forward hesitantly and took his hands in hers. “I forgive you. I forgave you before you even raised your wand. I told you to cast the spell on me.”

“You have to mean it to cast an unforgivable, Y/N. It wouldn’t have worked - I wouldn’t have been able to hurt you if I didn’t mean it.”

“If you hadn’t we would have been dead a long time ago. You, me and Ominis. You did what you had to in order to get us out.”

“How can you still defend me after everything that I’ve done?” his grip tightened before he let go and leant back in his seat once more. “I came here to make sure you were alright and here you are, making sure I’m alright.” He let out another humourless chuckle and looked at the cards and chocolates by the bedside. “Looks like our whole house has stopped by to see you.”

“Sebastian…” Y/N trailed off, unsure what to say to him. His sudden change in topic signalled he didn’t wish to continue the previous conversation, but she couldn’t let him keep blaming himself for everything that happened.  

“Has Imelda stopped by?” He continued as if she hadn’t spoken and plucked one of the cards from the table. 

“Between you and Poppy you would think Imelda tried to actively kill me,” Y/N rolled her eyes and settled back against her pillows. “It was an accident, and she did stop by. The hamper is from her.” She gestured to the largest present on the table, a giant basket from Honeydukes. 

“Maybe I should let Reyes knock me off my broom, if that’s how she says sorry,” Sebastian let out a low whistle and picked up another card. “Is this from Ominis?” his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I didn’t realise you two still spoke.”

“Not as often as I’d like, but we chat occasionally when paired together in class.” She watched as he read the message on the card and cocked her head to the side slightly. “Have…have you spoken to him recently?”

“No. Not in a way that matters, anyway.” He sighed and placed the card back down. “I wouldn’t know what to say to him.”

“I find hello is always a good place to start,” Y/N offered. Sebastian laughed, a real laugh and leant forward once more so his elbows rested on his knees. “He misses you, you know.”

“I know. I miss him too. I miss you both. But like I said, I didn’t know how to approach you both.”

“All it took was me falling fifty feet to get us here,” she remarked dryly. “I missed you too. More than I realised.”

“More than you realised, eh?” he raised a single eyebrow and there was a coy smile playing on his lips. “Old feelings resurfacing?” he teased. Y/N’s jaw fell open and her face flamed.

“What? No,” she spluttered. “I never - I don’t - did Ominis say something?”

“No…but you did. Just now,” he grinned widely and took in her red face. “Did you used to have feelings for me, Y/L/N?”

“Shut up, Sallow,” she muttered, feeling utterly embarrassed. “You can go now.”

“No, don’t,” he laughed quietly and reached out to squeeze her hand gently. “Believe it or not, I used to have feelings for you too.”

“No you didn’t,” Y/N scoffed and pulled her hand out of his. Her heart leapt at the confession, even though she refused to believe he wasn’t just saying that to make her feel better.

“Yes I did. I thought I was so obvious about it. Ominis used to joke about how he was glad he couldn’t see because he didn’t have to watch me pine after you.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Y/N,” he sighed, but there was still a small smile on his face. “You’re hopeless. Give me that book Poppy passed you.”

“What?”

“The herbology book. I recognised it immediately. Turn to chapter seven like she said.” He set the book between them and let her flip through until she reached the right page. The chapter was titled Flowers and their meanings. “Do you recognise any of them?” he nodded towards the bouquet he had given her earlier as she pulled the book closer. 

“Some. The Forget-Me-Nots, verbena, dwarf sunflowers…” Y/N trailed off as she made her way down the page in front of her, reading the meanings behind the flowers he had picked for her.

“Now, I will admit, the forget-me-nots were because they are your favourite, but that doesn’t mean I respect you any less,” he leant forward, face tinged pink as he read respect and true love next to a picture of the small blue flowers. 

“I didn’t think…I thought you had just given me whatever you could grab from the gardens.”

“You didn't think I would put effort into something I gave you?” He gave her a teasing smile and watched as she found verbena on the list. Admiration and respect next to an image of the red clusters that sat in the vase next to them. 

“I’m sensing a recurring theme here.” That strange feeling had returned to Y/N’s chest in full force, the one she thought had disappeared with time and distance. Dwarf sunflowers, adoration & admiration. “Sebastian…” She looked up at him, catching sight of a flicker of emotions across his face. “Are these…do you still…?” Y/N wasn’t sure how to finish the question. 

“Do I still…?” he repeated quietly. His fingers brushed against the back of her hand gently and Y/N felt her heart stutter in her chest. “Have feelings for you? Yes.” He admitted, finally catching her gaze. “Unless you don’t think you could feel the same after everything that happened. Then no.” He added quickly. Y/N let out a breathless laugh, one that seemed to relax him. “I thought they went away some time last year, but when I heard you fell today…” he stopped and grimaced. “I felt like my own heart had stopped inside my chest. I couldn’t breathe until I heard from Poppy that you were okay.”

“Poppy?”

“It seems everyone knows how I felt - feel - about you. Except for you of course,” he paused to laugh and shake his head. “I thought you were meant to be smart.”

“When did you…how long?” To say Y/N was surprised was an understatement. She never would have thought Sebastian saw her as more than just a friend. To find out he returned her feelings from before - that he still felt the same - had left her speechless.

“I’m assuming you’re oh-so-eloquently asking when I first started to have feelings for you?” his eyes sparkled with more life than Y/N had seen in a long time, and she felt her heart swell for him. “I’ll only answer if you do as well and if you go first. I can’t keep putting my heart on the line without knowing anything in return.” His fingers brushed her hand again, a little more firmly as he gained confidence. 

“That night in the library. When you took the fall for me.” Y/N watched as he gave her a surprised look. 

“That soon?”

“You didn’t know me,” she defended her decision. “You had no need to get yourself into trouble and lie for me like that. I didn’t realise it until later, but that was the catalyst.” He mulled over her words for a few moments before standing and sitting on the bed, turning so he could face her.

“If I’m being fully honest, from the moment you walked in late to your own sorting I was intrigued. I needed to get to know you.”

“Is that why you were so snappy the first night in the common room when I introduced myself?”

“Not my finest moment, I’m sure we can agree,” he looked abashed. “I feel it's safe to assume I made up for it, though?” He watched as she nodded in agreement, a breathtaking smile coming over his face. “Looking back I started to fall for you when you beat me in our first duel in class. I didn't realise until later though, like you.”

“What do you think would have happened if we told each other back then?”

“Honestly, I don’t think it would have ended well. I think I needed to do some growing to become worthy of you.”

“You were always worthy,” Y/N took his hand in hers again and laced their fingers together. Her heart jumped as he squeezed her hand affectionately. “We both needed to do some growing, I think.”

“You still haven’t answered the most important question.”

“What’s that?”

“Are old feelings resurfacing? Can you get past everything I’ve done?”

“Sebastian,” Y/N used her free hand to gently cup his face, her thumb running over his cheekbone. “I already told you, I forgave you a long time ago.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Y/L/N. If it's alright with you, I would love nothing more than to kiss you right now, but I won’t unless I know you feel the same.” He turned his head to kiss the palm of her hand and leant towards her slightly. “And if you consent, of course.” His eyes darted to her lips briefly before locking back with hers. Y/N felt her heart stutter in her chest as her hand slipped from his face to rest on the back of his neck. It wasn’t even a question she needed to think about. She thought her feelings for the man in front of her had disappeared, but if her thundering pulse was any indication, they had just lay dormant until now. 

“It's okay with me,” she said quietly. He muttered a quick thank Merlin under his breath and let go of her hand to reach up and cup her face in his hand. He closed the gap between them slowly, giving her more than enough time to pull away if she wanted to, and paused right before his lips met hers. She looked into his eyes and saw he was already staring at her, a small smile playing on his features. “What?” 

“Nothing,” he shook his head gently, his nose bumping hers. “I just…I adore you,” he said quietly, before leaning in and pressing his lips to hers gently. Y/N felt her heart leap out of her chest and wound her hand into the hair at the back of his head as he kissed her sweetly. He was right earlier, she realised, when he said they wouldn’t have lasted had they started seeing each other in their fifth year. They both had to go through some much needed growing. It hadn’t been their time back then, and as he pulled away from their kiss, Y/N could only hope that now was. 

[livsbrutalitys-blog]

Unfinished business

Pt. 1

summary: you and Rhea have known each other since you were teenagers training at the same wrestling school except only one of you made it to the big screen but now it was time for you both to share that same fate.

pt.2|

trope: enemies to lovers

warning(s): SMUT (eventually), ANGST, swearing, yelling, DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA (lmk if i missed any)

pairing(s): rhea x f!reader, judgment day x reader (not romantic), and more but there’s to many :)

a/n: this is going to be a series, i’m not sure how many parts but this is my first time writing a series or anything like this so please be kind and if you have any helpful advice or tips lmk <3

Backstory

You had moved to Adelaide at the age of 16 to train at this very wrestling school. Luckily you had family that lived in Austrailia and your parents always let you follow your dreams and be your own person. Your first day at the school you had been so nervous slightly second guessing your re-location. Your nerves were suddenly calmed by a hand on your arm. Your head whipped around to see who was behind you.

"Hey my name is Demi, this your first day?" She said with a welcoming smile and her accent thick, it took you a moment to gather your thoughts because the girl that you had just met just so happened to also be the most beautiful girl you've ever met.

"uh-yeah, it's nice to meet you my name is y/n" you said sitting your bag down on the floor against the wall. You stood back up and started putting your hair up in a ponytail to keep it out of your face.

She stared at you like you hung the stares and the moon. You noticed her out of the corner of your eye, not thinking much of it at the time but you took note and stored this moment in the back of your brain.

" good to meet you y/n, can't wait to kick your ass out there" she said smirking at you waiting for what you were going to say. " Your on but be prepared to have your day ruined cause you have no idea what I'm capable of" you said walking close to her, tilting your head up slightly to meet her gaze.

She enjoyed the playful banter, she chuckled walking past you to go meet the trainer. You followed behind her just a few moments later after putting the rest of your things in your bag.

Once you made your way to the group that was training with you the trainer started to speak "Alright ladies and gentleman welcome back to another wonderful day of wrestling, How is everyone feeling today?". The group collectively said 'good', "Great now we are gonna start a little different today since you may have noticed with have a new student joining us today" He said pointing at you quickly, you did a small wave to everyone.

"Okay y/n we are gonna go over some of our basic rules real quick" you nodded waiting for him to speak again. "Rule one, when you are in the training area everyone goes by their ring name so if you have chosen yours, great, if not then get to choosing kid you have a free pass tonight but next session I wanna hear you using your ring name" he said waiting for you to nod or something so he could continue. But, you already had one picked out so you spoke up, "I actually already have one, it's the one I've been using since I was at my last wrestling school" you said in an up-beat tone. "Ok, well, let's hear it" he said impressed that you had already had one and felt confident using it at another facility. "It's y/r/n" you said with confidence, "Alright, sounds good, I like it, it's very original, good job kid" he said with a nod of approval.

"Alright and rule number two, do not and I mean absolutely do not bring your personal life into your wrestling life. You wanna date someone in this group, I'm not one to stand in the way of love but that love needs to say at the door." You nodded agreeing, you never planned to combine the two but it was a great rule to have.

"So, now that all of that is out of the way let's get to kicking some ass!" he said in a more energetic tone. "Y/r/n I want you to start us out, wanna see what you can do and what we need to work on, Rhea I want you in there with her" he said motioning towards the ring and moving out of the way to allow you two to slide in the ring and your now standing just a few inches apart.

You start feeling those familiar nerves build up in your gut. You let out a deep breath shoving those feelings down because it's not like you can walk out of the ring and fly back home now. Rhea noticed the anxious look on your face she mouthed to you as to not draw attention to you "You got this". That's all it took for a strong wave of confidence to wash over you.

"Okay, ladies we are gonna start with some basics" he said instructing you with a strong accent. "Let's go ahead and do some grappling" you waited for his cue to move towards the buff girl ahead of you. You lock up, her hands on your shoulders and yours on her shoulders shoving each other back and forth. Suddenly you dropped to the ground and perfectly executing an arm drag with her landing on her back.

She stood up but for that she smacked the mat in frustration. She was not messing around now, she was in full Rhea mode. You grabbed her arm and swung under it as you twisted her muscular limb. Once you fully up again she turned towards you with a look of discomfort on her face from her arm being twisted in an unnatural direction. In a split second her fist was connecting with your cheek, sending you down to the mat in pain. She wasted no time pouncing on you, grabbing a fist full of your hair in her hands, dragging you back up to your feet. Once you were back up you couldn't think of anything else so you just bitch slapped her. She let go of your hair to put a hand on her face and then glaring back at you. You were totally fucked.

"Alright, alright guys that was good and y/r/n I'm impressed to fair I didn't see a lot but you held your own and that's what I'm looking for" you smiled to yourself not wanting to seem conceited in anyway. Rhea stood behind you leaning in to whisper. "That was good and might I say you have one hell of a slap" she said pulling back with a chuckle. "How about this, you two are gonna have a match right here right now" you looked at Rhea to try and read her to see if she was up to it. "I'm down if you are y/r/n?" she said looking at you waiting for your response. "Of course, how could I pass up kicking your ass. Ripley" you said with a mischievous look on your face and saying the last part with a hint of aggression.

The bell rang and you two were sizing each other up. You made the first move, running to her and kneeing her in the stomach. She stumbled back to collect herself but you didn't let up throwing uncoordinated punches and slaps at her back while she was hunched over. She finally caught one of your hits and you realized you did not think this through. She pulled your arm and slung you into the corner, once you hit the turnbuckle you looked up and she was hurdling towards you and she jumped up and dropped kicked you right in the chest. That blow sent you crumbling to the mat laying there clutching your chest and coughing. She pulled you up and threw your limp body over her broad shoulders carrying back to the same turnbuckle and sitting you on the very top. A surge of adrenaline rushed through you as you slowly sat back up as she was climbing to meet you at the top of the ropes. You used all you strength to push her off. She stumbled back in shock as to how you mustered up the strength to fight back. You waited till she was fully alert again and stood up tall on the top rope you jumped putting all your faith in your aim and in Rhea's ability to catch you. You landed on her shoulders and then slung your body down to send her flying, her doing a messy front flip from all the momentum traveling through her body.

The match went on for about another five minutes and you guys were laid out on the mat. You decided to take advantage of getting up before her. You decided to submit her because all of your pin attempts have failed miserably. You locked in a prism lock, she was writhing below you and you were using all your strength to hold her up eventually you couldn't anymore so you placed a knee on her upper back and twisted her like a pretzel. She finally smacked the mat, giving into your torture.

You dropped her body to the mat and looked down at her. You squatted down to her and leaned your head in to whisper "What was all that talk about you kicking my ass huh?" She groaned and glared up at you. "I'll get you next time" and she wasn't kidding, after that day you guess had a heated rivalry going.

Even though you guys had a serious rivalry going you never hated her and you two knew that the tension and fighting was only improving both of your wrestling abilities.

One day a couple years later you were 21 and Rhea had just turned 22. You two were still training at the same school but now you were training the younger students while also competing in the indie circuit. You had become the the IWJP champion in your time in Japan, and now making your way inside the facility to do some training and teaching later that day. You sat your things down and you were tying your hair up, once it was up you stood up from your crouched position and turned around unexpectedly she was also here. You didn't think she would be here since she had been in the U.S trying out for WWE NXT, you had felt a lot of jealousy towards her for that, it had always been your dream to make it to WWE but she managed to do it before you.

You walked past her with no intention on speaking to her since you knew how you felt and she did to. She saw you walk past and felt a little hurt you didn't at least wave or say a quick greeting. She hopped of the ring apron and made her way over to you. " Aw is someone still mad that I managed to get a try out and they wouldn't even think to reach out to you" she said with a mocking tone, now was not the time for her to be messing with you. Your head slowly turned towards her "You know what Rhea soon the WWE is gonna realize who really belongs there and it's not you. In the meantime I'll be in Japan as a matter of fact across the world gaining more titles while your still just training to hopefully even make it on TV. So, you have fun in states just hoping you make at least one TV appearance I'll be here putting in work and carrying a new title every time you come back" you said glaring up at her and speaking with an aggressive tone. She chuckled at what you said but you both knew she was gonna make it and you were just upset she wasn't gonna be here for much longer. It was true you were gonna miss her even when she destroyed you in the ring.

"You know what y/r/n, your delusional, you'll never see the inside of a WWE ring unless it's from the stands and you paid to be there. I'll be on the big screen and you'll still be here training other people, not even trying to make any of your dreams come true" you were stunned at her sudden aggression but to be honest you were used to squabbles like this with Rhea. You nodded and walked away flipping her off as you were making your way over to the lifting area. She chuckled and went back into the ring she was training in.

Suddenly Rhea's phone rang and you heard it from where you were since the building wasn't that big. She walked over to her back that was on the stairs beside the ring. She quickly grabbed her phone and answered it. You only heard a few yes's and some ok's coming from her but you also saw the nodding of her head but what was most noticeable was the growing excitement on her face as her eyes lit up she said a quick "ok thank you so much, I'll be there in the afternoon tomorrow" her accent thicker than ever caused by the amount of excitement. She hung up and quickly gathered her things, she was quickly making her way out of the building but before that she went up to same trainer she had been working with since she was young girl. You couldn't hear what was said but you saw them share a quick hug and the look on his face was one of a proud father.

You hadn't seen or heard from her in months. You called and texted but to no avail. Where did she go? Is she ok? Can she just please respond to me?

You tried texting her again but gave up hope. You were sat on your couch in your small apartment, you decided to turn on the TV and watch WWE NXT UK. The show started and you weren't paying much attention as you had started scrolling on Instagram. That was until you heard something that caught your attention immediately. The ring announcer was saying her name, you almost thought you were hearing things that was until she appeared on your screen. She looked so different, her hair was short and a light shade of brow, her outfit was dark and edgy. Your mouth hung open as you saw her, you watched the match in shock and a little bit of anger. It was nearing the end and Rhea was going for her finisher, little did you know she took some inspiration from you and locked in your signature prism lock. This bitch really stole my move, you thought. After she won and held her first title a fire was lit inside you and you worked harder than ever to catch her and prove that you deserve to be there too.

Present day

You had been apart of a new wrestling promotion in the US called AEW. It was WWE's biggest rivalry, you were so close but after a few years of working your way up to the top you were finally happy. You were sat on the plane checking your email while waiting to land in the next city, that's when you saw an email that stuck out. It was from your agent, the agent you were kind of forced to get since you were one of if not the biggest female wrestler in the world right now, you held so many titles across the world but mostly in Japan and AEW. You opened the email and it read:

Good morning y/n I hope this finds you well. I have just received a call from WWE management and they really want to talk to you about signing with them. I know how we have talked about making it to the big time and now it's here. The decision is all yours, please call me once you land and we can talk more.

Your hand covered your face in disbelief. Your friends noticed and they nudged you snapping you out of your thoughts. "Hey you ok?" Your close friend Ruby said. "Yeah, I just got an email from my agent s'all " you said glancing at her then back down to your email. "Oh, really, what'd it say?" she said inquisitively "Uh, nothing everything's good, I'm just dramatic" you tried to distract her from earlier by being sarcastic. You felt bad that you couldn't tell her but if you were gonna make the move it had to be done in secret to really keep it a surprise.

You got off the plane and immediately called your agent. You spoke with her for a few minutes and luckily you there wasn't a show tonight because now you were jumping in your rental car and drove for about 2 hours to a city close by to meet with WWE management. You haven't decided if you were gonna leave AEW yet but you wanted to hear what they had to offer. You made it to the arena WWE was performing in that night and went in the back to avoid being spotted by fans or talent.

"Hi, y/n it's great to finally meet you" Stephanie said sticking her hand out for a handshake. "It's great to meet you too, Stephanie, I'm excited to hear what you guys are planning" you shook her hand firmly. You walked behind the powerful woman. You finally made it to her office for the night, "please have a seat, make yourself comfortable, who knows maybe this'll become your new home" she said motioning to the couch as she sat across from you in a comfortable looking arm chair. You chuckled at the last part of what she said, "ok y/n we have a few idea's" she said making her self comfortable and crossing her legs making eye contact with you.

"Alright let's hear 'em" you said looking at her. "So as you might know we have Wrestlemania coming up in a month and I'd love for you to be apart of it. We already have a match going on for the Women's World Title" you nodded and she continued "We want you to start your WWE journey by interfering in the finish of the match. Our title holder is Rhea Ripley." the name sent shivers down your spine. You didn't know she was the title holder since you had stopped watching WWE when you joined the rival company. It had been years since you saw her or heard anything more than a brief mention of her reign of dominance on the women's division.

"I understand you two have a long history" you nodded hiding the look of nervousness on your face. She continued to explain her plan and you liked it a lot. The feelings you had for Rhea had reappeared as she continued to talk. "You know what Stephanie" you pause briefly, "I'm in, let's do this" you said with a wave of confidence washing over you. She looked at you with pure excitement in her eyes. "Alright well I'm glad to hear that, I'm even more excited to have you joining our family your gonna fit in just perfect here" she said as she initiated a quick hug. You hugged her back, you were walking out of the arena and back to your car as you saw something. It was quick but it caught all your attention, you saw a broad figure, backside facing you. She was walking in, she didn't see you thank god. But you surely saw her. She was more muscular than you remember, her hair was black like a raven and her skin was covered in beautiful works of art. The tattoo's she had always talked about wanting to get.

You made the journey back to your designated city for the night and you laid in your bed. You emailed your agent and let her know what happened with Stephanie. Your agent called you and then discussed the next steps. She contacted AEW management and set up a meeting with them. The meeting was happening the next night before the show.

You did your nightly routine and climbed into bed. Your thoughts were all over the place but finally you drifted off to sleep. Once you woke up you hopped in the shower. You got out and got dressed and ready to head to the arena. On your way there you were nervous to tell your management about your decision to leave. You made it to the arena and walked inside, waving at the fans that were camped out at the fence and walked up to few kids that wanted pictures. You always loved talking to the fans because you were human too. You got to the locker room and put your stuff up. You found your agent waiting outside and you two walked to Tony's office and knocked on the door, he answered "come on in" he said moving to the side as he held the door open for you and your agent. After about an hour of discussion, you and the team had devised a plan for your last night. You were gonna drop your title, the AEW TBS Championship, to your long time friend, Julia Hart. You had no problem doing this since you viewed her as a little sister, she deserved the title and you were over the moon that you'd be able to give it to her.

You asked if you could be the one to tell her since you also had to tell her that you would be leaving. You waited for her to get to the arena, "Hi gorgeous" she said in a giddy tone as she hugged you. "Oh, hi, how was your drive" you said happily returning her embrace. "Ugh, I hate being stuck in the car with those guys, y'know, it's like a testosterone overload 24/7" you laughed at her "I'm sorry you had to be stuck in there, buuuuuutttt I have some good and bad news for you" you said to her as she finished putting her things up. She gasped "Someone finally told MJF to shut the hell up!!" you laughed once more as did she "no, no, no, but someone should really do that" you said with a brief pause. "you, my friend" you said pointing at her and taking a step forward "you are going over tonight" you said waiting for her to say something. "OH MY GOD WHAT!" she said jumping up and down with excitement and jumping into your arms. "wait" she letting go of you, "who's putting over" she said confused and you pointed to your self. "WHAT! oh my god, we get to finally have a match together!" she said with more excitement.

You guys had been clamoring for a match together but it always got shut down. Tears threatened to spill as you saw how excited she was. "I can't wait for them to announce you as champion tonight Jules" you said going for another hug. "What? Your dropping your title? To me? NO! You are the greatest champion this promotion has ever seen you cant just drop it to me!" she said with a little anger and a hint of sadness as she got a feeling of what the bad news might be. "Julia you deserve it, you've worked your ass of to get here and it's time for the world to show you some respect" you said convincingly, she nodded as you continued. "Ok now the bad news" you paused glancing to her, "Tonight is my last match" you both became teary eyed, she knew that was coming as soon as you said she was gonna be champion.

"I-i-i can't believe it. Your really leaving?" She questioned you hoping that she heard you wrong. "Yes, and I'm leaving knowing that my best friend is gonna be champion and is gonna continue kicking ass" you said trying to cheer her up. It was part of the business, friends leave and move on to other things, you both knew this very well and understood. "Thank you y/n, Thank you for trusting me enough for you to drop your title to me" she said. You nodded not being able to speak since you were torn up about leaving her.

You made your final entrance with your title, putting on your mean face as you made your way down the ramp. Julia's music hit and she made her was down the ramp and to the ring. The match lasted for 10 minutes, that was 10 minutes of you trying to soak up every last bit of the crowds energy. She finally got the 3 count and rose up off the mat, grabbing the title and holding it high. The show went to a commercial break as the lights dimmed slightly you two embraced each other tightly, not knowing when you'll see each other again. The crowd noticed at the last second and let out a simultaneous "Awe" you held her and pulled away and grabbed her face and whispered to her. "I believe in you, you can do this, keep being you, do what you do best a whoop ass, ok?" you said to her as she nodded soaking up your words of encouragement. "I love you, Jules, if you ever need me, you know where to reach me" you said "Ok, I will and if you need me just call me, good luck, I love you y/n" you kissed the top of her head and pulled away and walked away, out of the ring, leaving her in there alone with her music playing loudly as she held up her title with confidence. She glanced at you making your way back stage, you felt her glance and turned around and waved her goodbye and blew her kiss with a smile at your face feeling proud of her.

You got to your locker room and got ready to leave. You said goodbye to all your friends and acquaintances, you walked out teary eyed. You got back to your hotel and laid on the bed lost in your thoughts as your phone started going off. You grabbed it and unlocked it, your comment section was going crazy with a mix of the fans emotions some sad, some happy, some started speculating what might be going on. None of them guess right though. You plugged your phone up for the night and drifted of to sleep.

You woke up to Stephanie calling you and asking you to meet her in Florida at the PC. You jumped on the first flight out and while you were on your flight you scrolled through Instagram. Swiping through stories and the biggest news on your feed was you and Julia's match last night. You went to her account and saw she posted a heart-felt message that made you tear up a bit. The message ended the way you thought it would, at the bottom it read:

"...But in the end, The house always wins."

[wandabear]

WISH YOU WERE HERE - WANDA MAXIMOFF X FEMALE READER

ㅤㅤ Summary: 17 years ago, a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team travels to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness, and the surviving team members are left stranded for nineteen months.

This is a fic based on the tv show ’Yellowjackets’. You don't need to watch the show to read it. I make it clear that it WILL NOT BE the same, to make it more interesting. Jules is portrayed by Adelaide Kane. Here.

ㅤㅤ

CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN FINALE Ao3

ㅤㅤ

WARNINGS: some fluff, angst, mentions about alcoholism/drugs. Death. Blood. These girls are 18 years old.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤCHAPTER FOUR

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N.”  Wanda gasped.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Completely paralyzed, that's how she felt. She wondered if she was still alive, but of course she was, cause that her heart was beating so hard it would break her chest soon.

ㅤㅤㅤ She was there. Y/N was there, in front of her.

Wanda didn't say anything, just turned on her heels and walked into the kitchen angrily, glaring at Natasha like a ferocious animal. Nat just followed after her, with an apologetic look at Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What is she doing here?” Wanda hissed, leaning on the kitchen counter. Was she seeing right? That was Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She’s with us.” Nat sighed, knowing so well that Wanda would react that way, and couldn't blame her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh, wow. Nice. Suddenly she’s with you both, out of nowhere. After everything she did?” Wanda crossed her arms, pissed off.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wanda, she changed.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda let out a sardonic laugh. “People don't change, Natasha.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Those words weighed heavily on them, all of them. Nat came over to grab two beers from the fridge and hand one over to her friend.  “Well, we did, didn't we?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The brunette was quiet, knowing that Natasha was right. She just took the beer and rolled her eyes.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She recently got out of rehab, but has been trying. I was suspicious too but... Jules is happy, and Y/N has been good this time.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Just give her this chance.” The redhead whispered, asking from the bottom of her heart. Wanda had always been the voice of reason for her, and she was for Wanda.  “She’s doing good lately.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Sighing in defeat, Wanda just decided to nod and swallow all her pride for a while.         They both returned to the living room, where they found Y/N and Jules possibly talking about the same thing. ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N got up from the couch quickly, a somewhat wistful and guilty look.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I’m sorry.” It was the first thing she said, what else? More than apologizing for everything she did. “I know what I-”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Save your apologies for the next time you stick your nose in a bag of cocaine. I’ll accept you to be here just because of them, just that. Not you.” Wanda said annoyed and then turned to see Natasha, not noticing the deep pain that those words caused in Y/N. But, she deserved it.  “Wanna tell me why I'm here?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

But Nat narrowed her eyes, Wanda didn't know that?

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wait, you don’t know?” Jules asked a bit curious. They all looked at each other, they all believed that each had been threatened.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“About what?” Wanda seemed like a locked up animal, not understanding what was happening right now.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wanda… Did anyone call you lately?” Natasha crossed her arms and perched against the wall.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The sokovian began to get desperate.  “No, what are you talking about?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wanda, have you received any postcards lately?” Y/N moved forward to take her bag and took something out of it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Do they let you send postcards at rehab?” she scoffed. Of course the ironic way she said it was quite painful. Y/N just narrowed her eyes, she wasn't going to let Wanda walk all over her either, right?

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wanda, answer the damn question.” Nat said nuzzling the bridge of her nose. So tired.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The brunette just sighed.  “No, why?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Someone is blackmailing us all.” Y/N handed the postcard she was carrying this whole time. “Sent us these postcards, now he calls us blackmailing us.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“How do we know it's a ‘he’ and not a ‘she’? Or… or a they.” Wanda raised an eyebrow.

ㅤㅤㅤ The brunette looked at the postcard carefully. A photograph of the Canadian Rockies, when she turned it over it didn't say anything, just that strange drawing.

The macabre symbol. This horrible feeling ran through her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Trying to shut out the memories, Wanda swallowed hard and put the postcard down on the coffee table, avoiding looking at it again.  “What do they want?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Fifty grand in cash to keep their mouth shut.” Nat watched her wife who got up to make some coffee and clear her mind, Jules was quieter than usual.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“We're not sure exactly what they know, but...” Y/N scoffs. “I sure as hell don't want to find out.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda frowned and pointed at them. “You both got one?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Jennifer did to, but not Yelena.” Y/N put her hands on her waist. “Do you have suspicions of who it could be? Anything strange that happened to you this time?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“That reporter.” Wanda sat on one of the sofas, quite worried right now. “I thought I told you to take care of her.” She looked seriously at Natasha.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The Russian rolled her eyes, fed up.  “I told her to back off. What else do you want me to do? Threaten her? I don't want to lose my job.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N took her phone and searched for a name among her contacts. She wrote a quick message but hasn't sent it yet.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What are you doing?” Wanda asked between curious and annoyed.

ㅤㅤ

“I'm gonna bring Christine Everhart... And I'll just say, ‘Oh, I'm ready to tell my story’. Piece of cake.”

ㅤㅤ

“Don’t do that, Y/N! What the hell?” Wanda yelled. ㅤㅤ Nat shook her head quickly.  “No, because if it’s not her, then we are just handing her the exact kind of story she's looking for.”

ㅤㅤ

“You know, I don't like when you yell at me.” Y/N grimaced and put her phone back in her pocket.

ㅤㅤ

Nat sighed, completely exhausted.  “Can you get the money?”

ㅤㅤ

“I'm working on it.” Y/N nodded.

ㅤㅤ

“It's a good thing you had some money from the lawsuit and you didn't inhale it all.” Wanda smiled wryly.

ㅤㅤ

Tired of Wanda’s attitude, Y/N gave her the middle finger. “Your husband spent it in a damn electronics store, babe. Microwaves and toasters.  You're not the smartest ovenbird of all, are you? Soccer mom.”

ㅤㅤ

“Fuck you, Y/N!”

ㅤㅤ

“Fuck you too!”

ㅤㅤ

“STOP! Can you both just-” Nat tried but then inhaled deeply, trying to stay calm. “A blackmailer is enough, isn't it? Enough of you two.”

ㅤㅤ

Y/N and Wanda glared at each other once more and then fell silent, nodding.

ㅤㅤ

“Let's do this together, okay? So shut up, because our lives are in danger.” Nat pointed at them both. “Y/N, once you do have the money, we put a GPS tracker in with the cash, and that way we can follow it and see who, what we're dealing with... together.”

ㅤㅤ

The redhead looked at them for a moment, hoping that they would both agree for the first time in a long time.

Y/N and Wanda looked at each other and then nodded, knowing that they should sign the peace whether they wanted to or not.

ㅤㅤ

“By the way… is Jules okay?” Wanda asked curiously, looking at the door to the kitchen.  “She's more… quiet than usual.”

ㅤㅤ

“Yeah, I don't know. I'll go talk to her… I think all this is getting to her a bit.” Natasha sighed and walked towards the kitchen, but not before turning to see them.  “You two stay here and don't kill each other.”

ㅤㅤ

They both stayed silent for a while.

Y/N turned to look at her, trying to have a chat but Wanda just rolled her eyes away from her and got up to walk towards the backyard and get some air.

Taking a deep breath and gathering the necessary courage, Y/N went through the door to go out into the backyard.

She found Wanda sitting on one of the benches, maybe thinking about everything that happened.

ㅤㅤ

Y/N licked her lips and walked towards her, sitting next to her. “Hey.”

ㅤㅤ

“I think I made it clear that I wanted to be alone, or rather, not talk to you.”  The sokovian sighed exhausted.

ㅤㅤ

“There’s no choice but to listen to me.” Y/N smirked with a certain tenderness, one that Wanda hadn't seen for many years.  “Wanda… I’m still-”

ㅤㅤ

“Don’t.” She cut her off with a hiss through her teeth.  Wanda shook her head.

ㅤㅤ

Y/N tried to go further and stood next to her.  “I’m still in love with you, Wands.”

ㅤㅤ

“Don’t call me that.”

ㅤㅤ

Y/N sighed. She perfectly understood that Wanda would act like this, after everything they had been through. But it also hurt a lot.

ㅤㅤ

“But I know the damage I did to you, and I'm very sorry. If I could go back in time, I would.” The dark-haired woman tilted her head to see her, noticing how the sokovian refused to look at her.  “I know that my suffering wasn’t an excuse for what I did, but still, I’m sorry. I did a lot, so many wrong stuff... a lot, but breaking your heart was one of the worst.”

ㅤㅤ

She never noticed that the tears had already started to fall down her cheeks, Y/N just wiped them away with her hands.  “I loved you, Wanda, I always loved you.” She finally opened up.

ㅤㅤ

But Wanda just kept silent, looking at the bright full moon in the sky.

ㅤㅤ

“I have a family now.” The brunette said and then pursed her lips, taking the courage to say what she had to say. “I love my kids, that's the only love that matters to me now.”

ㅤㅤ

“I know.” Y/N kept her hands in the pockets of her jacket, watching the quiet night.  “I'm glad to know you’re happy.”

ㅤㅤ

The sound of the crickets brought back so many memories, some good, some really bad.

ㅤㅤ

“I didn't say that.” Wanda's voice was so low that Y/N thought she misheard something.

ㅤㅤ

Y/N whispered, looking at her again. “What?”

ㅤㅤ

“I didn't say that.” Wanda turned to see Y/N, finally.  The tension was increasing, as well as love and disappointment. “I didn't say I was happy.”

ㅤㅤ

Y/N didn't know what to say to that. All she ever wanted was for Wanda to be happy, even if she wasn't.

ㅤㅤ

“I mean, I am. With my little ones, my children.” She lowered her gaze for a moment, playing with her rings. But one was missing, one of the most important ones and Wanda was okay with it.

ㅤㅤ

Y/N looked at her, thinking that maybe if everything had been different, now they could be something nice together. Maybe a family too. “Then I hope you can find your happiness soon, because you have always deserved it. You have always been so special, Wanda.”

ㅤㅤ

Y/N swallowed, feeling the angsty lump in her throat. “I'm sorry that those of us who are close didn’t see that sooner.”

ㅤㅤ

“Can we…” Y/N tried. “Can we try to be friends?”

ㅤㅤ

Somewhat thoughtful and confused, Wanda just shrugged. I think it was too much for one night.  “I don't know.”

ㅤㅤ

“That's not a 'no'. That's enough for me already.” She smiled slightly, giving the Sokovian a little nudge.

ㅤㅤ

Wanda turned to see her, this time without all that anger and resentment in her green eyes. “I'm glad you're sober. They missed you too much.”

ㅤㅤ

“Me too.” Y/N sighed deeply and they both stayed together, sharing the silence for a long time.

The breeze moved her hair slowly. Y/N kept her hands in the pockets of her jacket, staring at that grave in front of her.

A bucket of violets were resting on one side of the tombstone, trying to give some color to that pretty name that didn't deserve to be there.

ㅤㅤ

CLAIRE ANN Y/L/N. 1966 – 2004 Kind hearted mom, aunt and teacher. ㅤㅤ

Those eyes filled with tears but then she brushed them away with the sleeve of her shirt.

ㅤㅤ

“I owed her this a long time ago.” Y/N looked at her aunt's tombstone with melancholy. “I didn't know how to do it, now being here is so…”

ㅤㅤ

“Empty?” Jules's voice made her smile a bit. They both stand in front of the grave in that cemetery, they were surrounded by trees and a beautiful and vast green.

ㅤㅤ

“Yeah.” Y/N sniffled. “I was afraid that I would be here, try to find her presence but end up realizing that she's not here, she's not anywhere. She just left.”

ㅤㅤ

“I know.” Jules took her arm and rested her head on Y/N's shoulder, looking at that name over and over again.  “But you're wrong. She is in us, and in everything we do, what we can do better... she would never have done the things we did, but still, we just have to try.”

ㅤㅤ

Y/N was silent, thinking about everything that happened. Not only in the woods but also when they came back. All the things did in the name of grief.

ㅤㅤ

“We did fucked up stuff in that place, Y/N. We let whatever was there consume us completely.” Jules whispered, turning to see her.

ㅤㅤ

Y/N tilted her head, noting the melancholy in her sister's eyes. “Was there something really there haunting us or was it just us? Did she exist or was it just our mind?”

ㅤㅤ

Jules just swallowed and smiled sadly. The answer could be much sadder or darker than what she was going to say.  “Is there a difference in that?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N didn't say anything, just nodded. Jules was absolutely right. They left the forest long ago, but the forest never let them go.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I apologized to Wanda.” Y/N met Jules's gaze, looking for any sign of approval. Jules just nodded slowly, it was something you should have done a long time ago.  “I still love her, you know?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Tell me something I don't know.” Jules teased and nudged her gently.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ They both giggled and stayed like that for a moment, simply feeling the sun's rays against their faces.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I do… I do have to tell you something you don't know.” Jules swallowed, trying to gather her courage. “In fact, something no one knows and no one can know.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N looked at her curiously, it seemed to be a big deal.

ㅤㅤ

“I’m pregnant.”ㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤ

Jules let go quickly and closed her eyes, exhaling deeply. Oh, she felt like she was dropping the biggest weight in the world. Ever since she saw the test in the bathroom, she tried to shut all those thoughts and feelings out of her and now she was finally letting go.

Felt so good.

ㅤㅤ

"Really?" Y/N's cheerful voice made Jules widen her eyes and see how she smiled widely. "You're going to have a baby? Oh my gosh, Jules! You're pregnant!” ㅤㅤ

“I’m having a baby!”

ㅤㅤ

She hugged Jules and began to spin, making her laugh. Perhaps a bit awkward to watch in a graveyard, but they didn't care. They both hugged each other for a while until the taller one moved away from her.

ㅤㅤ

“Wait, what did Nat say?”

ㅤㅤ

Jules smile faded when she heard that question. She didn’t know what to say, she only felt how the joy was gone and the fear came back to haunt her.

ㅤㅤ

“She doesn't know yet.” Jules looked down nervously. “And I ask you not to tell her anything.”

ㅤㅤ

“Oh, yup. You want to surprise her, don't you?” Y/N smiled broadly but seeing how her sister didn't say anything and looked like a deer about to be run over, she began to worry. “Jules?”

ㅤㅤ

“I-I don't know how to do it.” Jules began to tear up, those eyes filled with tears as she began to walk away. “The other day she told me that with all this, the best thing that could happen to us was that the IUI failed.”

ㅤㅤ

“Then what are you going to do?” Y/N followed her with concern. “Hide it and run away? You can't hide a pregnant belly for long.”

ㅤㅤ

Jules said nothing, just swallowed her anguish and kept walking to the car.

ㅤㅤ

“Jules, you can’t do that.”

ㅤㅤ

“Don't know.” She turned to face Y/N, her hands trembled from the nerves and anxiety she felt. “Just don’t say anything for now, okay?”

ㅤㅤ

“I can't lie to her.” Y/N stammered, feeling a deep sadness. She was doing everything so well, Y/N was recovering the relationship she had with Nat slowly. Was working hard to mess it up now.  “I'm trying to do things right, beginning again.”

ㅤㅤ

“You have to.” Jules took her hand and squeezed it. The look and despair in her made Y/N feel enormous guilt. Sometimes just looking into Jules's eyes, she could see her Aunt Claire's. “Please, until I can tell her myself. Okay? Please.”

ㅤㅤ

Y/N was quiet for a moment and then just nodded. The dark-haired woman smiled gratefully and hugged her tightly.

ㅤㅤ

“Is here? My little bumblebee?” Y/N asked placing her hand on Jules's belly carefully.  She had never thought about having children but, sometimes she wondered what it would feel like to be part of a family.

ㅤㅤ

“Yeah, I think so.” Jules smiled tenderly and nodded, wiping away a small tear that escaped. It was the first time that someone referred to her baby in that way.  “I have to go to my doc tomorrow to be sure.”

ㅤㅤ

Y/N frowned. “Are you going alone?”

ㅤㅤ

Jules nodded sadly.

ㅤㅤ

“I don't want you to do it alone. If Natasha is not coming, then I'll go with you.”

ㅤㅤ

“Thank you, Y/N/N.” Jules bit her lower lip, feeling enormous gratitude for her but also a terrible guilt and sadness at having to hide something so important from her wife. “I don’t know how to do it.”

ㅤㅤ

“She's going to hate me, you know? She told me that she wasn't ready, and-and-with the whole blackmailer thing… oh god, what am I going to do?” Jules whimpered. "she never listens to me."

ㅤㅤ

“Hey, everything will be fine, come here.” Y/N wrapped her arms around Jules and kissed her forehead, trying to comfort the girl. “It's all good, sis, you got me. We'll see what to do. You'll never be alone.”

ㅤㅤBEFORE

ㅤㅤ

“We have to do something and now.” Y/N said while all the girls were sitting around her. It was time to have to do something to save themselves, rather than wait in that wrecked plane surrounded by graves and trees.  “We can't stay here to die.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Do you have a better idea?” Hope arched an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

"Yeah, I think we should walk around and try to find the river that Kate said she saw when she went up the hill.” Y/N sighed, now all eyes were on Kate Bishop.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“How far is it?” Natasha frowned.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Maybe 6 or 8 miles away?” Kate shrugged, feeling a little exposed. Clearly there were some girls who didn't want to leave the plane for fear of not being found, and others who wanted to survive.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“That river could be even further away!” Sharon got up and stood next to Hope. “I say we should stay on the plane, where we'll be sure they'll come looking for us.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“We've got two days of water, tops.” Natasha said closing her eyes hoping that the headache she felt would pass soon, but not with so many screams. The girls kept arguing, getting louder.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What if the rescue team comes?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Do you think they're taking their time on purpose? If they knew where we were, they would be here already.” Y/N was sick of her being so stubborn. For two days, Sharon continued to contradict her in everything she could.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I’m with Y/N. Being here we have achieved nothing but wasting time.” Wanda sighed.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You don't know that.” The blonde one hissed. “And what if you take the wrong path and walk away? We don't even have a fucking compass!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“We have the one from the plane.” Carol stood up and pointed to the compass in the roof of the plane, with a good kick that would come out easy. “It's something I'm willing to run for.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Why are you defending her? You guys argued at the party the other day! Now you’re on her side?” Sharon screamed.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Shut up, Sharon, for God's sake. It's not about sides, it's about survive.” Natasha intervened fed up with everyone. “If we go, we'll all go.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The decision was submitted to a vote among all and clearly, Y/N won by the majority of votes.

They made a new stretcher to transport Ward, who just kept silent. Ever since he had woken up, the man had been quiet and more annoyed than ever.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Losing a leg hadn't been easy, but it seemed like he'd even lost the will to live. Although perhaps it was that her job was no longer to put up with those complaining stupid girls, so he didn't care in the slightest what happened to them.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The path was rocky, but worst of all was finding the dead body of a bear that had apparently been attacked by something, wolves they guessed.

Slowly, they all headed towards the lake doing a bit of hiking through the rocky area.

ㅤㅤㅤ

It took some hours, and despite Sharon's annoying snarky comments, the first to spot the lake was Jules who whooped happily. Without taking another minute, she ran towards the lake while taking off her clothes and jumped into the river.

The others did the same, finally finding the first sign that they could survive.

ㅤㅤㅤ

They all jumped into the water, except for Hope who stayed behind to make sure Ward was okay and Sharon who didn't seem too happy that she was 'wrong'.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N let out a happy laugh when she got to taking off her shirt keeping the panties. She finally felt the cold water but didn’t hesitate to keep going, until she reached her friends who floated and swam happily.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You were right.” Wanda smiled as she swam around her.  Moving away from the other girls who kept saying how handsome Pietro looked without a shirt. ㅤㅤㅤ

“You know I am.” Y/N she smiled completely proud.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“The one who isn't happy is Sharon.” Nat said as she floated and kept her eyes closed, feeling the warmth of the sun against her face.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Come on, let's do some shoulder wars!” Jules threw water at them, inviting them to play.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha offered Jules to climb on her shoulders, while Wanda climbed onto Y/N's shoulders. The Sokovian looked quite embarrassed and flushed, but Y/N helped her up.

They began to fight among themselves, laughing and pushing. Wanda and Y/N were winning until the warmth of Wanda’s skin sent a shiver down Y/N's back. That made the taller one lose her balance and both fell into the water.

Nat and Jules cheered and continued to play against Yelena and Kate. ㅤㅤㅤ

Both came to the surface, not realizing that the proximity between them was shorter than they thought. The tension between the two increased when their eyes met.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Sorry, it was my fault.” Y/N said with a dumbfounded, watching how one of the drops fell down Wanda's face. Oh, the sokovian looked so beautiful that she could barely put two words together. Those huge green eyes were so beautiful, her glasses sometimes didn't allow her to appreciate them as she should.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It was my fault, I made you lose your balance.” Wanda whispered, gawking too. And both of them would have been lost at that moment if it weren't for the fact that Wanda opened her eyes wide, realizing. “My glasses! I can't see well without them!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh, wait. Let me help you.” Y/N rushed to jump into the water quickly. She tried to look around and smiled when finally she found them not far from them.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Once she surfaced, Y/N approached Wanda with a huge smile. “I got them!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh, thank you!” Wanda was completely grateful, waiting for Y/N to give them to her, but Y/N decided to approach and carefully put them on.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Here you go.” Y/N whispered.

ㅤㅤㅤ The closeness once again made both of them a few centimeters from each other, feeling the tension between them.

They were grateful to be away from each other or anyone would have noticed how crazy they were for each other. Even if Wanda didn't even notice.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Perfect, now you look even more beautiful.” Y/N said without caring about anything other than her heart beating wildly.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda’s wet hair, those green eyes, those soft pink lips, the pale skin. Now she realized that she was only wearing a bra. I don't think she's ever seen anything more attractive in her life.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hey, guys… Look!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Jennifer's voice made everyone turn to see what she was talking about, breaking the moment. Y/N she looked up the hill, between the trees, there was some kind of reflection.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What is that?” Wanda murmured confused, maybe a little hopeful. It looked like a reflection, like when the sun was hitting a mirror or something. That meant there was something that could be of help.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It looks like a reflection.” Y/N replied as she slowly got out of the water, without taking her eyes off the spot. “Guys, there's something on the hill!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Let's check it out.” Nat nodded as they walked out of the lake so they could get dressed.

ㅤㅤㅤ

They walked for a while in a certain hurry until they finally found that place.

Y/N hurried when she saw a cabin in the woods, and suddenly hope hit her like a punch.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Guys, it's here. It's here!” She yelled as she ran for the door, knocking many times. “Hello! Anybody home?!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha joined in quickly, banging on one of the windows and also on the door. All the girls began to shout desperate for help, until they managed to open the door.

Y/N and Nat went in first, making sure everything was okay but all they found was a completely abandoned cabin. Well, at least it seemed that way since dust and cobwebs dominated the place.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Maybe they just went on a hike?” Kate said with a certain innocence as she looked at some cobwebs on the old sofa.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Yeah, like a decade ago.” Yelena growled arching an eyebrow, venturing to explore the place.

ㅤㅤㅤ

There was only a dusty fireplace, a sofa, some tables and a cupboard. The stairs showed that there was an attic, which surely was much dustier than that place.

Jules was going to enter but stopped at the entrance for a moment, feeling a strange sensation run through her body.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It reeks in here.” Sharon complained, wrinkling her nose.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You guys, check the pantry, see if there's any food.” Natasha nodded. “Everyone else, look around for stuff we can use. First aid, flashlights, tools.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

They all took it upon themselves to look for everything that would be useful. Of course, a telephone would have been very helpful, but there was no communication with the outside world.

Whoever lived there had nothing but hunting supplies and canned food for maybe weeks.

The huge deer skull on the fireplace made Jules shift uncomfortably.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Don't worry, guys. We might be stuck in the middle of nowhere, but, hey, at least there's porn.” Y/N teased taking some pornographic magazines from a drawer. Some of the girls came up to gossip about what it was about, even Pietro who raised an eyebrow seeing the pictures.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Holy shit.” Jennifer giggled, turning a few pages. “I'm not kidding. Look.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

She showed Natasha who just smiled and shook her head.  “Sassy.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hey, this guy kind of looks like you, Piet.” Sharon arched a flirtatious brow as Pietro leaned in to see.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“If only any of you actually looked like her.” The boy said somewhat annoyed.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay. Yeah. Very funny.” Jules rolled her eyes.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Night came and the girls were grateful for having found a refuge in that forest. Pieces of a plane weren't going to save them if a pack of wolves decided to come over when they saw the bonfire.

ㅤㅤㅤ Y/N was in charge of distributing some snacks thanks to the cans they found. It wasn't much, but enough to keep them going that night without an empty stomach.

Crickets chirped in the dark night, the lights from the cabin the only thing to be seen in the place. Besides the moonlight. There was no electricity so they had to make do with some old gas lamps and the fireplace.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The dark-haired girl sighed, feeling cold but she felt much better outside than inside that weird cabin. Jules swallowed hard and tried to stay strong, standing on the porch of the cabin.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The door opened and Natasha stepped out, closing the door behind her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Fuck's your deal?” Nat frowned, hugging herself against the cold. “Come inside, we are about to go to sleep.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Jules sighed and shook her head, looking atthe dark night around her.  “I just have a bad feeling about this place.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Well, yeah, because it stinks and there are spiders that could eat your face.” The redhead sighed and moved closer to her, placing a hand on her back. “But, hey, after that dead bear we saw today, I'm not gonna let you sleep out here, okay? Come on. Let's go.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Jules shrugged, somewhat annoyed.  “Why do you care, anyway?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Because I’m your friend.” Nat arched an eyebrow, not understanding what was Jules problem now.  "What's going on with you?"

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm not going to sleep there.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Nat was ready to walk in and let her do whatever the hell she wanted, but when she took two steps, turned to face Jules one more time. “Are you kidding me right now? ‘a bad feeling’, Julia? I don't believe in that shit, and you're not going to either. Okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Jules clenched her jaw, not moving from her spot. Both looks expressed an inner fire that went beyond passion, but Natasha was never going to accept it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So get your ass inside.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You never listen to me!” Saying nothing more, Jules just shook her head and stormed into the cabin, completely furious.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N noticed how her friend entered and lay down next to her without saying anything. Jules just snuggled against her, trying not to cry. Y/N knew exactly why, but she promised not to pry.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda, who was making herself comfortable and covering herself with some old blankets, noticed that and looked at Y/N, whispering to her:  “Is she okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N sighed and nodded, responding in the same way.  “Natasha.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh.” Wanda nodded slowly. “Are they a thing?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Kinda.” Y/N wrinkled her nose.

ㅤㅤㅤ

They both chatted for a moment until they fell asleep, the crackling of the fireplace and the exhaustion of swimming invited them to lose themselves in dreams.

But maybe half an hour later, a loud bang was heard in the attic, making everyone to wake up in fright.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What the fuck was that?!” Y/N exclaimed, getting up and looking at the stairs to the attic. She got up and covered herself with a blanket.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N walked taking the lead, though Natasha came closer with concern as well.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Stay behind.” They ordered the others.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What are you doing?” Wanda said worried, trying to go after them but Pietro stopped her.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

They both went up the stairs slowly, Y/N turned to see Nat, trying to gather courage. "You open and I go, okay?"

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Nat nodded, placing a hand on the attic door. At the count of three, she opened and Y/N jumped to face whatever was there.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh, fuck.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

But the only thing that was found was dust, some objects and an old corpse in a chair. Seemed to be several years old already dead; it was a man and next to him lay a rifle with which he apparently taken his own life.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N coughed and covered her mouth, finding out why the cabin stank. Nat was as surprised as she was, but the one who didn't seem surprised at all was Jules who looked at the corpse with a certain melancholy.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

On one side of the body, that weird symbol had been carved into the wood. She just looked at Natasha and said: “You never listen to me.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤㅤNOW

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What part of "hurry up" did you not understand?” Y/N complained when Wanda got into her car. They were parked outside the motel out of town. Everything was ready to carry out the plan.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda took off her cap and laughed wryly.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“It takes you getting blackmailed for you to finally care about being late?” Wanda snorted.  “I'm sorry, but we all have families and lives, okay? Oh yeah, you don’t.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N narrowed her eyes, clearly noticing a rather aggressive attitude towards her. Maybe Wanda was having a bad night, but she wasn't her personal punching bag.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Fuck that.” Y/N growled. “I'd rather come home and have a pet than have a slimy husband at home. Bet sex is boring as hell.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

She smiled victoriously, opening the car's glove compartment to pull out a  paper bag.  

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Where's the money?” Wanda snooped.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Right here.” She handed the paper bag to the brunette as she started the car's engine. “Natasha and Jules will meet us at the location, when the blackmailer tells us where to see him.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“That's 50 grand?” Wanda wrinkled her nose, that seemed pretty small for so much money.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Yeah. In hundred-dollar bills.” Y/N opened the bag so that she could see the bills.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“A little bit disappointing by heist movie standards.” The sokovian sighed, looking around.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You got the tracker?” Y/N drives down the road slowly, glancing at her phone every now and then to check for new messages.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Yup. It's one of Amazon's top sellers.” Wanda searched for that small box in her purse and handed it to the gloomy eyes woman. “Apparently, secretly tracking people is really huge right now.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You bought it to follow Vision?” Y/N teased, letting out a wry chuckle.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Shut up.” Wanda took the device from her hand and dropped it into the bag with the money.  “All right, we should put the tracker in the middle of the bills.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“No.” Y/N pointed to the bag.  “Then when they count the money, they'll just see it.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“We can put bags in it.” The sokovian took one out of her purse, it was a totebag with some interesting drawings. “I found this in the car.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Where did you get that Etsy reject of a bag, anyway, Wanda?” Y/N laughed, speeding up when the traffic light turned green.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“My boys made it for Father's Day. I took it from Vision’s, like, ‘special keeps.’ Or something” She shrugged and dropped the money into the totebag, trying to fit the tracket between the bills.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Ow… You're not as sentimental as your hubby?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Fuck you, Y/N. I'm trying to help you all.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Thank you Wanda. You are doing a lot already.”  Natasha's voice was heard from the phone, scaring them both.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Hey, were you listening to everything?” Y/N took the phone, somewhat surprised and embarrassed.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You never ended the call.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Fuck! It’s stuck or something… Anyway, did the guy send you the address yet?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Not yet.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N sighed and held out her hand to Wanda.  “Give me the totebag.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What? Why?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I got the money. I’m gonna make the drop.” Y/N frowned.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

They were arguing again when a message came through, alarming them both.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“All right, meet me one block, east of Carlyle and DeWalt, and don’t fuck around. Leave it in the Clothing Donation box.” -  UNKNOWN.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay, we already have the address. Carlyle and Dewalt, I'm headed that way.” She said through the phone and then put it aside. Y/N looked at Wanda, as if she wanted to know and make sure if she was ready for this.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda nodded, completely sure.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“This is unacceptable.” Wanda complained, settling back in her seat.  Natasha and Jules arrived and were at the backseats of the car. “Blackmail us? Fine, but it's 3:34 AM. Like, why have us show up at 2:00 then just keep us waiting?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Maybe they're scouring the area, making sure we're not waiting.” Natasha whispered looking around her, feeling like prey going into a trap. But she at least she carried her gun.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay. Then find us already, sir.” Wanda complained again, leaning on the seat.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay, I'll go for a walk, pretend to smoke or something. Stay here.” Y/N sighed and opened the door. Natasha said she was going with her but Y/N stopped her. “No, if he sees you he'll know you have a gun and he'll flee.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N took the totebag and closed the door, walking through those dark streets, completely lonely. She took a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and lit one, feeling the warmth of the smoke work its way down her throat.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

At another time she would have found it comforting, but now it just felt disgusting. Even so, she continued with that lie.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm not impressed.” Wanda shook her head, watching as Y/N smoked and dropped the totebag in the donation box. "Keep doing the same. Maybe she’ll stop to score drugs.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Don’t say that.” Jules hissed, arching an eyebrow. “She's just pretending, Wanda.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Annoyed by her friend's words, Jules decided to get out of the car and walk with Y/N. Natasha sighed as she watched as Jules took Y/N's arm and they both walked slowly away.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Do you think that  too, Nat?” Wanda cocked her head to look at the russian, who just shrugged.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Part of me wants to think so, I want to believe in her… but also part of me knows we couldn't afford another stint in rehab.” The redhead swallowed, remaining somewhat thoughtful.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Did you pay for that?” Wanda turned around in disbelief. “You're just enabling her to repeat the same pattern. She has to learn to handle her own shit.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What if she's doing it? Or... what if she never does?” Natasha frowned, feeling slightly annoyed by her lack of patience. “Wanda…don't you think about it?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The Sokovian's confused look was answer enough.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Wanda… I got Jules and Yelena. You've got the wins, even Vision if you want it." Natasha sighed, looking at her friend in the distance.

“Did we do something to deserve that?” Nat looked down guiltily. She remembered everything that had happened years ago, everything they had done.  “It's just fate that gave us that, right?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda just kept silent, knowing that Natasha was right. She always does.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Who does Y/N have?” Nat remembered all the pain Y/N had been through when they came back from the woods. A year and a half later, she discovers that the person she loved the most died of sadness, a heart attack. It had been such a hard and deep punch. They weren't even present at her wake.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

And her 'real' mother, a fucking abusive alcoholic, passed away after having an overdose.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Other than Jules... who does she really have?” The redhead swallowed, fixing her gaze on Y/N who smiled when Jules tried to push her but couldn't because she was shorter.  “No one.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda just nodded her head slowly, feeling guilty. Feeling how her eyes filled with tears but the brunette didn't allow herself to shed any more for her. She promised herself a long time ago.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her, and Jules saved your life.” Nat added before opening the door to get out of the car, glancing at Wanda one last time.  “So I do what I can. Not just for her, for me and for Jules.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

They got out of the car and walked over to the other two women, who were looking around curiously. In front of them was a huge building and trees, while on the other side was this huge warehouse.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Did you see anyone at the drop?” Nat asked as she zipped up her jacket.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N shook her head, noting that there was movement in that warehouse. At that moment, a truck tried to park and leave the place, preventing them from seeing who was taking the money from the donation box. It was too fishy.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What the fuck?” Y/N murmured, deciding to enter the warehouse once and for all.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay, I guess we're going.” Wanda sighed, following the steps just like the others.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Worried, Y/N walked as if possessed by the devil himself. She quickly approached the trucker who had just gotten off.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Who the fuck are you?” Y/N took the gun from her waist and pointed it at that subject, who raised his hands in terror.  “You've been blackmailing us, or you know who has been.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Fuck, she took my gun.” Natasha ran after her.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Please, don't shoot me.” The bearded guy whimpered, handing the truck keys but Y/N just rolled her eyes. She clearly had nothing to do with this.  “Take the truck. Just take it.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N, please put the gun down. It's not him.” Nat told her but at that moment, a loud noise made them all turn around. A man in a ski mask was running away through the store, carrying the totebag with the money.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“There he is, there he is!” Nat exclaimed and they all ran to the store, except Wanda who Nat told her to turn around and take the car to chase him.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N and Nat nimbly ran around the place, as if their bodies remembered the old days, they jumped many objects to catch the man.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Take the wing.” Natasha pointed out to her friend, who nodded and headed out of the warehouse to mark it last. “I'll mark him.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The guy knocked over some shelves with objects to prevent them from keep going, but Y/N managed to jump over them and finally tackle him. She struggled with the man for a moment, holding him under her body but with a well-aimed jab, the guy hit her nose, making her bleed.

Y/N raised her head and saw how the blackmailer collided with a huge bucket of glitter, bathing in it. That guy wasn't the smartest man on the planet.

She got up again and ran after him again.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

But when the man finally left the warehouse, Jules tried to stop him but he punched her stomach with such force that made her fall to the ground. Lack of air leaves her gasping like a fish out of water.

Y/N pulled the gun ready to shoot him as he got into a car, but Natasha stopped her, pushing her away.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The blackmailer sped up and left the place, but not before taking the money and dropping the totebag with the tracker.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What the hell are you doing? You were going to shoot him!” Natasha yelled taking the gun from her and putting the safety on it, completely furious.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I wasn't gonna kill him.” Y/N grunted and hurried over to Jules, who was having trouble breathing. Y/N felt a fear that she had never felt, remembering that Jules was pregnant.  “Are you okay, J? Look at me, you okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Nat frowned, not understanding why Y/N looked so worried, even so, she approached to help her wife. They all took their stuff and hurried to leave that place, getting into Y/N's car.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Well, he dumped out all our shit.” Nat shook her head, keeping her gaze straight ahead as she drove.  “Now we look for an asshole covered in glitter.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“So what was your plan?” Wanda turned to see Y/N, Jules was helping her to stop the bleeding in her nose. “Just shoot him in the leg through the back windshield? 'Cause it sure felt for a moment there like we were all going away for murder!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N closed her eyes and pressed the small ice pack against her nose.  “Like we haven't done a lot worse before.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You know what? Speak for yourself, Y/N. I...” Wanda exclaimed, shaking her head.  “Don't drag us into your endless fucking pit of guilt.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Enough. Do you want to shut up a bit?” Jules snapped finally, completely exhausted from hearing them bickering and fighting all damn day. “She's trying, and that's all that matters. So shut the fuck up, and let's find this asshole at once.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

They all remained silent, Wanda just sighed and fixed her gaze straight ahead. She knew that she was taking out all her helplessness and anger against Y/N, it was the easiest, but it wasn't the fairest.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Jules placed a hand on her forehead, feeling a throbbing headache. Lately she was feeling worse and worse.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Hey… Do you want to go to the hospital?” Y/N whispered, reaching out to take her sister's hand. Feeling so worried, the punch was hard and her doctor recommended that she should take care of herself a lot. “You were punched very hard.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“No, I’m okay.” Jules smiled with a certain tenderness, trying to leave the talk there or Natasha would notice. “Thank you.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

But none of them realized that Natasha's gaze was watching them from the rearview mirror, not really understanding what was happening, but she knew very well that they were hiding something from her and she was going to discover it.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Hello there, my buzzing friends. 🐝 Hope you liked this one. I know its hard, they're like cat-mouse frenemies rn but soon, it will be good. Thank you for reading me!

the cutest and lovely people tags ✨ @kaiidth-wandika @yourfavunsub @pawiie @fanboy7794 @sunsol-22 @scarlettbitchx @arcturusseer @imnotasuperhero @chtte @lesbians-in-outer-space @starry-night17 @cristin-rjd @kenlymar @chtte @marvelogic @druggedduck @aliherreraaa @widowwaddles

[raspberrycatapult]

I'm super excited to say that I've taken part in the @mlbigbang for the first time this (well, technically last) year!

The first chapter of Outback Camp will be posted on the 13th of Jan and updated every week!

Massive thanks to my amazing beta @uptoolateart, and to the awesome @cardiac-agreste and @wehadabondingmoment for their support! And to my artists, @bootsssss and @supergirl9130, for their lovely art!!

Synopsis

It was official. Marinette was going to die. There was no way she was going to survive this camp – let alone manage to confess. Forget crazy Australian wildlife – how could she make it through alive with Adrien?

Marinette, Adrien and their classmates go on a 10-day school camp to the Central Australian desert. Uluru (Ayers Rock), Alice Springs, Kings Canyon, Coober Pedy and more!

For Marinette, it’s the perfect chance to confess to Adrien…if only she can muster up the courage. Adrien, meanwhile, is beginning to realise just how special Marinette is to him.

Featuring lots of Adrinette, fun experiences, class shenanigans, and an identity reveal!

Snippet

The sound of the tent flap zipping open sent Marinette's heart into overdrive. Please be Alya, please be Alya, please be –

‘Hey, Marinette,’ a soft voice whispered.

Adrien poked his head through the flap, and then the rest of his body, awkwardly stepping into the tent, phone torch pointed to the ground. The tents were large, tall enough for her to be able to comfortably stand up straight. But it wasn’t quite the same story for Adrien. In his attempt to avoid the ceiling, he ended up banging his head against the metal pole in the centre.

‘Argh!’ he yelped, dropping his phone.

‘Are you okay!?’ Marinette blurted out, eyes wide as she watched Adrien’s dark figure crouch down and begin fumbling around for his phone. His hand landed on her leg, and she let out a squeak.

‘S-sorry!’ Adrien stammered, his hand jerking back. ‘I thought it was my – sorry!’

He seemed to find his phone, then, because a beam of light shone on his side of the tent. Marinette lay there, her heart hammering, the place where Adrien had touched her burning as though his hand was still there, even though she had pyjamas and a layer of sleeping bag protecting her.

Adrien had gone silent. She didn’t know what to do. Did she say something? Did she say goodnight? Where they just going to lie there, in silence, until they fell asleep?

‘Oh no,’ Adrien whispered.

Marinette’s heart leaped into her throat at those words. ‘What – what is it?’ she croaked out.

‘I…I sort of…um….’ He swallowed. ‘…forgot my sleeping bag?’

She stared. ‘You…forgot your sleeping bag…?’

Okay. That was fine. It was fine. He could just go get it from the boys’ tent.

‘Yep.’ He shifted. ‘Um…in Adelaide?’

WHAT.

She sat up. ‘What do you mean in Adelaide.’

‘I – I’m not used to having one! I’ve never used one before! I didn’t need one in Coober Pedy and I guess I just – I must have left it there in the morning – but it’s fine! I’ll just have to buy one…tomorrow.’

Marinette sat there, unable to make out more than Adrien’s vague outline in the dark, partially illuminated by the glow of his phone in his hand. ‘What about now?’ she said. ‘It’s – it’s cold!’

‘That’s – it’s fine,’ Adrien said. ‘Really, Marinette, I just –’

‘You can sleep with me!’ she blurted out before she could think about what she was suggesting.

Adrien stared at her.

Heat exploded across her face as she realised what she’d just said. ‘I mean – not WITH ME! I mean YES with me! WITH MY SLEEPING BAG! I MEAN – IN MY SLEEPING BAG! You can share! My sleeping bag! With me! Do you want to share my sleeping bag with me!’

‘Um….’

Oh god, kill her now. Where was Chat when she needed him? She had half a mind to call him up and get him to Cataclysm her in the chest, even if it meant making him fly halfway across the world. She buried her face in her hands.

[planetkiimchi]

the strings of fate | l.mk

no. 5 of my song collection (requested!)

featuring: mark lee x gn!reader, chenle

word count: 7351

warnings: arson, fire, burning, people die in the fire, death (funeral), rooftops (?) if you're scared of heights, there's mentions of nudity but not described, swearing, you'll probably hate me for this fic but idc

playlist: anaheim - niki; 10:35 - tate mcrae; psycho - jun; adelaide - johnny orlando; let me go - hailee steinfeld + alesso + florida georgia line + watt; after you - gryffin + jason ross + calle lehmann; haunt you - x lovers + chloe moriondo

summary — when mark lee, student council president of riize highschool goes missing, you’re the first suspect. as his best friend and well-known crush, you stood to gain the most from it. you’re also vice-president, and with mark gone, you’ve stepped up to be the president and predicted valedictorian. all eyes are on you, and one wrong move can send you to your downfall. but who’s that lurking in the shadows, tugging on the puppet-strings of fort irwin? the city is small, but you feel smaller as things go spiralling crazily out of control. OR mark loves you more than anything else in the world, but you're too broken to receive his love.

if you liked it, REBLOG it.

5 months ago — if i could, i’d freeze this moment, make it my home

“Mark?” You peeked into the room, footsteps resounding in the hollow space. Mark had promised to meet you at the auditorium, but he wasn’t there, leaving you stranded in the middle of the school in a dark room with only the dark red seats to keep you company.

As you turned to leave, you heard a muffled sound that sounded suspiciously like someone landing on the carpet floor. You looked behind you just in time to see Mark removing his mask, breathlessly calling after you, still clad in his Spiderman outfit.

“Just as I thought I’d been stood up,” you told him.

“Nope. In fact, I would have been early if someone hadn’t tried to mug me on my way here. It took some time to get changed and wrap him up in spiderwebs before I dropped an anonymous tip to the police station.” As he spoke, Mark reached into his back pockets, which were luxuriously deep and could seemingly fit as many things as Doraemon’s bag.

“I brought you the book you said you wanted,” Mark said as he pressed it into your hands. His smile was contagious, and you couldn’t fault him for having a heart of gold. It wasn’t his fault that he wanted to make things right, so you forgave him for it.

“Aren’t you gonna get changed?”

He blushed and made some vague motions with his hands before settling on, “Yeah. If you could just- turn around?”

You turned around swiftly, lips pressed together as you tried to ignore the hot blush spreading across your cheeks. You fiddled with the book in your hands, the thumping of your heart making it difficult for you to hear when Mark told you he was done.

He gave you a thumbs-up, and you saw his mask hanging out from the open pocket of his bag. You walked over to him, tucking the mask inside and zipping the pocket up before reaching up, tiptoeing slightly to reach his head, and smoothed out his hair.

He shook his head slightly and wiped the sweat off his brow with a grin. “Better?”

“Better.”

“Since we’re already here, why don't we take advantage of the projector and watch a movie?”

You hesitated, shifting your weight from one foot to another. “I’m a little busy,” you said, rubbing the back of your neck as you thought about the countless assignments you had piling up.

Mark smiled disarmingly and extended his hand, shooting webs from his wrist. They reached the control room, hitting the “on” button. The screen blinked on, showing the default screensaver. “I didn’t mean it as a question, more like an invitation. I know you’re still not over Chenle, so I thought this might cheer you up.”

You were given little choice when Mark slipped into one of the back seats, procuring popcorn from his bag like a magician, patting the seat beside him as he projected his Netflix account onto the screen, and “Little Women” started playing. You couldn’t lie, you had a soft spot for that movie, and seeing it playing was all it took for you to cave in and slump into the seat next to him, dispelling all thoughts of work from your mind.

“Are you supposed to be using your student council pass to get access to the auditorium for a movie?” You asked curiously, reaching for the popcorn.

Mark passed you the box with a dismissive shrug. “If they didn’t want me to take advantage of it, they wouldn’t have given it to me. Perks of being liked by the teachers, I guess.”

That was Mark Lee for you. Handsome, smart, popular—well-liked by both the student body and the faculty. He was perfection in a nutshell, and his heart was yours. You only regretted never being able to give him the same.

3 months ago — you’re all i want to, want to know

Dangling your feet off the rooftops, breeze soft against your skin as you watched the sunset. Yellow waves of light washed over the red sky, turning it gorgeous shades of orange and pink and purple, if you squinted hard enough.

The sky was a vast expanse of intangible matter, the whispers of the wind calling out to you. Instinctively, you reached out for it, hands grasping at thin air. It felt like it was just out of your reach, and you leaned further, hands outstretched…

You forgot that you were on the rooftop, stomach rising to your throat as you fell from the building, scream caught in your throat which was squeezed so tightly you could barely breathe.

Every second of the fall was torture. You could feel the air rushing past your face, hard enough to chafe but not dense enough to cushion your fall. Your hands flailed about, scrabbling for something to hold onto, desperately searching for holds to grab onto, until you felt a tug on your back.

Mark lowered himself to your height, and you found yourself swinging like a pendulum from the top of the building while Mark leaned into his pants like he was going rock climbing with his friends for leisure, fully trusting his webs to hold him up.

“You good?”

You nodded, gulping nervously. Don’t look down, don’t look down, don’t look down…

Mark seemed to sense your fear, one hand wrapping around your waist reassuringly. The concrete touch of his arm against your back calmed you, and you inhaled deeply while staring straight into his eyes, refusing to look down for fear of how high up you were.

“You know, if you wanted to swing around town, you could’ve just asked.”

Your face dropped as you glared at him, your grip around his torso never loosening even for a second. “Ha ha, very funny. Please bring me back up before I throw up.”

“My pleasure.” Both of you shot up suddenly, and you almost collapsed in relief when your feet found hard ground again, but you made sure to move far, far away from the edge that time.

“I think I’m happy just staying here,” you said cautiously from the middle of the roof, as far away from all the sides of the building as possible. You knelt down to feel the ground, afraid that it wasn’t sturdy enough, before falling into a cross-legged position with a grunt.

Mark bent down to sit beside you, guiding your head onto his shoulder as he rubbed your back comfortingly. “I know it’s scary, but hey, the sunset’s worth it.”

Its beauty was almost comparable to Mark’s.

2 weeks ago — i can tell you mean it when you kiss me slow

Your hand tightened in Mark’s as he ran gleefully towards the ferris wheel, dragging you along behind him as he stood in line for the ride.

Autumn was all around you, in the air as auburn leaves drifted past on a breeze, gently gusting over your hair and leaving you feeling chilly but not cold. The crunch of your footsteps against the ground, the smell of apples all around, the earth heralded the third season of the year.

Mark’s figure was stark against the rest, dressed in all black against the neutral tones of fall, taller than everyone else. Mark was your rock, and sometimes he seemed a little larger than life.

The queue moved slowly, but Mark kept you entertained with silly jokes while it inched forward, and you found yourself lost in the sound of his laughter. It sounded muffled to your ears, like you were hearing it while you were submerged underwater. How could you bring yourself to hurt someone like him?

Your knuckles whitened as they gripped the side of the carriage tightly when you boarded the ferris wheel, eyes staring straight ahead—anywhere but down—while you fought to calm your racing heart.

“It’s not too scary if you look at me, right?”

You had to admit that he was right. If you focussed only on Mark, the world disappeared into a blur of white lights and cloudy skies, and the ground felt solid under your feet.

It was a reassuring thought to know that Mark had your back. So when you reached the top of the wheel, sky-high above the rest of the world with no weight on your shoulders, and Mark kissed you, you kissed him back.

You kissed him like your heart didn’t belong to someone else, like you didn’t care if it hurt him. Because you selfishly wanted his heart, even if you could never reciprocate his love for you.

1 day ago — but please don’t ask me, the answer’s no

You woke up in Chenle’s bed, his hands tangled in your hair while you wrapped your arms around him. The blanket was at your feet, having been kicked off in the night. Chenle’s breathing was peaceful, and the steady rise and fall of his chest pulled you out of your trance.

Chenle had done nothing to Mark, yet he had unknowingly hurt him again and again. You kept coming back to him even after you had broken up, slipping into his arms after shitty decisions late at night, clothes strewn over the floor as you willingly hurt yourself again and again.

To Chenle’s knowledge, you were single, and it was true—to a certain extent. You didn’t love Chenle, and he didn’t need to love you either. You had come to a mutual agreement that he would keep you warm on lonely nights, and there would be no questions asked.

In the mornings, you would leave, and there would be no expectations of breakfast or loving words when you woke. 

And so, you became a ghost of yourself, hovering in spaces just long enough for you to be seen before vanishing again, never happy or satisfied.

You pried yourself from Chenle’s hands, slipping into your clothes, running your hand through your hair in the mirror before rinsing your mouth and washing your face quickly. You left no traces of yourself behind, save for the guilt-ridden kiss you left on Chenle’s cheek with a sad smile.

Mark didn’t know what had happened when you met him that morning, reaching out to envelope you in a hug when you stiffened, pushing him away with a grimace. “Don’t- I don’t want to do this to you, Mark.”

He raised his hands in surrender, but you could have sworn heard his heart shatter, the pain in his eyes too much for you to bear. You turned towards the school, firmly avoiding his gaze as your lead-filled limbs brought you further and further away from him.

now — in a perfect world, i’d kill to love you the loudest

mark: can we talk? mark: i feel like there's something you're not telling me mark: i'm always here for you, you know mark: even if just as a friend

(i don’t know if that’s enough for you)

The messages he left on your phone burned a hole through your pocket. You didn’t want to answer them, but you didn’t want to ignore him either, so you opted to climb into a cab and asked it to take you to an isolated area just out of town. It was close enough for Mark to go to, but only as Spiderman. If he took any other form of transport, he would arrive too late.

you: 📍live location you: come over you: please

“Y/n?” Mark was in his Spiderman suit, eyes shielded by the mask. You couldn’t decipher any of his mixed emotions, but you saw his fingers twitch slightly before he reached out to touch the fence that separated you, hesitance laced in his voice. He sounded unsure, afraid even.

“Are you okay? What are you doing out here?” You had never heard Mark scared before. To you, he had always been the brave one, the one who walked first in haunted houses and killed insects while you screamed and leaped away. He wasn’t afraid of heights or those he fought against, and he seemed to shrink in front of your eyes when he was afraid.

“Can you come over to this side?”

Mark scaled the fence and dropped silently in front of you, cautiously moving towards you as his hand reached to pull his mask off.

“What’s going on?”

Mark felt somebody grab his hand, pulling him towards them with his face away while they held him in a chokehold. He felt a needle poking into his neck, injecting anesthetic into his bloodstream. He went limp in his captor’s arms, and was gently laid on the ground while his captor reached for their phone and stopped the recording.

“I’m sorry,” they whispered as they anonymously sent the video of an unmasked Spiderman to the news station they could count on to deliver their news the fastest.

but all i do is live to hurt you soundless

Mark came to in a dark room, hands tied behind his back. He tried to move his feet, and found that they were also tied to the legs of the chair. Defeated, he slumped in the chair, breathing heavily as he surveyed the room. It was small and empty, and he was the sole occupant inside it.

Welcome, Mark Lee. I hope you make yourself at home. With that, the speakers crackled and went quiet.

Chills ran down Mark’s spine as he heard the voice playing. Where were you, and why couldn’t he remember anything? His mind was foggy and he couldn’t remember a thing, except for your text. He remembered receiving it, and going to a shady, isolated place….

Could someone have kidnapped you and taken your phone to trick him? The idea of it caused his throat to seize, heart thumping painfully inside his chest.

The clanging sound of a door opening startled Mark, and he strained to see where the door was. He heard metal grating against the floor and the thump of footsteps, coming face to face with a masked silhouette. The white of the mask was a stark contrast to the dark cell, and it was the only thing Mark could make out.

A spoon clattered to the floor as the silhouette knelt down and set a tray of food on the floor, the water in the cup sloshing out at the impact. The silhouette’s voice sounded robotic when it spoke.

“I will untie your hands, and you can reach down to take your food. This will last you until tomorrow, so ensure that you don’t finish it all in one sitting. If you struggle or try to escape, just know that you won’t like the consequences.”

Mark’s hands felt numb, and he winced at the feeling of pins and needles as the blood gratefully rushed to his wrists, and he rubbed at his sore shoulders. He bent down gratefully to take a bowl of rice and meat from the ground, and when he sat up again, the masked person had vanished like a wisp of smoke.

say you see i’m lying, babe, and let this go

Mark was going insane. An entire day of silence was enough to drive a man to the brink of insanity, but Mark was just barely holding on. He had estimated the length and width of his cell, tried to write it down and realised that the best way was to write it in his food; hopped around, trying to stand up, and fell multiple times; and was growing bored.

He counted the seconds it took for him to breathe one full breath, then held his breath for as long as he could, then glanced back down impatiently at the analog clock he had found on his food tray.

If it was telling the right time, then 12 hours had passed since he had first woken up in his cell. He had fallen asleep in his chair during what he hoped was nighttime, but woken up with a crick in his neck that had been irritating him the entire day.

It didn’t feel like daytime, although it was supposed to be past noon, simply because there was no natural light filtering into the cell, and the only way he could see was by the light of the clock’s hands and numbers, and the dim light coming from what he assumed was a corridor outside his cell.

Mark drummed his fingers against his lap and rubbed the back of his neck tiredly. He had eaten breakfast when he woke up, then lunch just after noon, but his water was running low and his parched throat itched.

It was odd, he thought, that the food that he had been given actually wasn’t that bad. It was simple, but the meat wasn’t as hard as he had expected, and he had been so hungry that he had scarfed it down in one go.

He was just about to risk hopping over to the door of the cell and yelling for help when the speaker that had scared him the night before suddenly crackled to life.

Fort Irwin is a little small for mysteries, but the latest case of Spiderman had everyone puzzled. Mark Lee, 17, was reported to be missing yesterday evening. According to reports from 35.7Hz Radio, the unmasked Spiderman circulating on the internet is exactly the same boy that has gone missing.

However, the hero was spotted swinging by a Target today, persuading a teenager to return the goods they had shoplifted from the store. Has Mark simply run away from home but felt obligated to continue enforcing the law, or has he been kidnapped?

And, more importantly, if Mark Lee has gone missing, then who is his replacement Spiderman?

Mark’s heart dropped as the speaker went silent. There had been a video of him being unmasked in his Spiderman suit? But he hadn’t even worn it in the past 24 hours—oh. Mark looked down at himself to check that he wasn’t wearing it anymore, finding his own clothes on his body.

Odd. He had only brought his phone with him when he went to find you, and he never wore his regular clothes under his suit. However, the clothes that he was wearing were definitely his—they even smelt like the laundry detergent his mum used when she washed his clothes.

If he was wearing his own clothes, then where had his Spiderman suit gone? He craned his neck to the side to look for it, immediately wincing in pain when he felt the burning pain sear through his neck. He had completely forgotten about his stiff neck.

He rubbed his neck, and the door creaked open, the masked silhouette standing there. “Good afternoon,” they said casually, picking up the empty bowls and cutlery from the floor. Mark had been bored enough to stack them up, so it was an easy task for his captor to collect the items and place them on the tray.

“If it were a good afternoon, I would be at home doing homework,” Mark snapped.

i can never promise you tomorrow

“Watch your tone,” his captor said. “I could kill you if I wanted to.”

“They’d find you,” Mark said, but he wasn’t very sure that they would.

“I don’t need to set my hands on you to drive you crazy. In fact, you’re already halfway there,” the silhouette sneered, and Mark could hear the contempt in their voice. He shuddered at the thought of going crazy, knowing that the boredom would surely drive him to do things he never would if he were in the right frame of mind.

“You should show me your face.” It was a weak attempt, but Mark didn’t want to hear anymore about his future loss of sanity, and he wanted to at least be able to identify the culprit if he ever got out alive.

“You’re changing the topic. And I don’t think I will,” the captor said. They grabbed the back of Mark’s chair and forcefully turned him around, facing him away from the door as their footsteps retreated out of the confines of the cell.

Later, the clang of a metal tray on the ground informed Mark that his food and water had been replaced, and he found that it had come with a chamber pot.

‘cause i have yet to learn how not to be his

Chenle’s hand traced lazy circles over your back until you turned to face him, legs intertwined in his.

“How are you- what do you think of the… y’know, the Mark situation?” He asked hesitantly. It was crossing some boundaries, that was for sure. Your and his relationship was meant to be free from emotional baggage, romantic gestures, and only meant as a way of comfort for both of you.

But at the end of the day, Chenle and you had dated once. Even if you had hated him for a while after the breakup, and he had ignored you for a good couple of months, he did still care about you, although he didn’t know how to—or whether he should—show it.

“I’m dealing with it,” you responded curtly. The truth was, it hurt more than it should. You were being investigated by the police, and when they found the last texts you had sent to him, it didn’t help your case much. The best you could do was to defend yourself, telling them that you had really only been in a bad place and wanted a friend to comfort you.

What they forgot was that he was still your best friend, and even if you didn’t love him back the way he loved you, he was still important to you. You didn’t want him to come to any harm, though it might seem differently to some.

You were, after all, vice-president on the student council. Now that Mark was incapacitated, you were the acting president. Besides, Mark’s crush on you had never been a secret, and half the student body thought that you had taken advantage of his crush on you to get rid of him.

His parents were the most worried, and you could barely look them in the eyes, knowing that you might have been the reason that Mark was missing. They didn’t suspect you, fully trusting you as Mark’s friend, but you didn’t want to let them down if the police found that you had led the kidnapper to Mark.

Mark’s exposed identity was also an issue. You and his parents had known since he decided to create an image for himself, but he had always wanted to keep it private for two reasons: he believed that good deeds did not need to be rewarded, and he was shy.

He didn’t want people to think of him differently because he was a “hero”. You admired him for that, but you also hated him for it. That he could be so noble and righteous, and you hated the jealousy you felt when you saw him walking around school and waving at everyone.

Superhero student council president Mark, who was only missing a lover in his otherwise perfect life.

this city will surely burn if we keep this as it is

Riize Highschool has been set on fire. 5 bodies have been recovered, and the number of injured individuals is 36 and counting. Authorities are working with the school to investigate the source of the fire. It is suspected to have been an arson attempt.

Mark’s mind ran wild with questions. Who could have tried to set the school on fire? Why? What was going on in the world, and why had his “replacement” not done anything about it?

His hands itched for something to do. The cell seemed to grow smaller by the day, the space constraining him and shutting him in. If he couldn’t escape soon, he would explode, and all the parts of him he’d tried hard to keep hidden would be on display for all to see.

He tried to pull his legs from the metal chains strapping him down for the hundredth time, pushing away from the back of the chair until he lost his balance and fell face-flat on the floor.

Blood dripped from his lips from where his teeth had torn skin, and he tried to push himself up from the floor. But the exhaustion and the weight of the chair on his back combined made it difficult, and his arms quivered from the effort.

He lay on the ground, breathing unsteady as he wondered if it was really better to be left in there alive or to leave the world peacefully.

i'd give anything to stop time

Mark missed being able to walk. He missed the sensation of sun on his face, of light reaching his eyes, he missed the freedom of not being trapped in isolated boredom the whole day. He missed his family and his friends, and most importantly, you.

He missed the curve of your neck and the warmth of you when you leaned into him on a cold day. He missed the way your waist felt in his on the rare occasions you let him hold you, missed your smile when you laughed at a silly joke on your phone.

He missed the way your face lit up when you saw him, missed sending you texts between classes, he missed everything about you. And he realised that lately, you hadn’t even felt like friends anymore.

Mark. You have fifteen minutes to leave this cell. You have been given all you need to leave, and I suggest you do it quickly.

Oh, by the way, your beloved Y/n is also trapped here. If you don't rescue them and leave in time, you can imagine what will happen.

Mark couldn’t tell what was going on in the cell, but it seemed to him that he could smell gasoline and smoke. His head whipped towards the door, seeing a flash of silver in his peripheral vision. A pair of wire cutters lay on the floor near the door of the cell, and he lunged for it, hands shaking as he tried to cut through his chains.

It was hard work, and his arms were tired and sore, and he struggled as he tried to free himself. When the second chain finally snapped, he dropped the wire cutters on the floor as he leaned back, spent.

But the reminder of you in danger spurred him on. He stood up shakily, fumbling for the key on the floor, and his trembling fingers only made it more difficult to unlock the door. As soon as he did, he stepped out into the hallway.

Smoke drifted in slowly, illuminated by the lights along the corridor. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but it was getting thicker by the minute.

“Y/n!” He yelled, voice hoarse from dehydration and misuse, desperately hoping that you would answer.

He almost collapsed from relief when he heard your voice. “Mark?”

“I'm coming! Please just keep talking, okay?”

“Okay.”

He ran down the hallways, your voice keeping him company as he searched for you.

“I miss you. I’m tired. I want to go home. Mark, we’ve all been worried sick while you were gone. I hate the responsibility you shoulder even more now that I know what it feels like, and I can’t believe you had to go through all of that. You’re insane for holding out for this long and I’m so glad you’re alive. Most of all, I miss every part of you. I’d give anything to have you back.”

“You sure about that?” The proximity of Mark’s voice filled you with relief. You turned towards the sound of his voice, and the blindfold over your eyes was the last barrier before you got to see him again. You heard the creaking of the door hinge and felt Mark’s hands land on your shoulders before he wrapped you into a hug.

As soon as he removed your blindfold, you were taken aback by how exhausted he looked. Dark circles were prominent under his eyes, his face gaunt and the cheekbones that used to be covered in a soft layer of fat seemed like a thin layer of skin over bone. His body, which used to seem taller and bigger to you just a week ago, had grown skinnier. He wasn’t taller, but somehow his body proportions looked off. He was smaller, taking up less space.

The outgoing, cheerful, popular Mark was gone — he had been replaced by someone a little awkward and unsure of himself, having grown used to living in fear.

You were in no place to comment on his appearance, however. Neither of you were in great shape; you were trussed up and your wrists were red from struggling against your bonds. Your ankles were bound tightly with rope, and it was clear to Mark that you had not been meant to stay there for long.

“We have to get out of here.”

“Yeah, no shit. Do you have a map or something? What’re you gonna do, navigate us out of here?” You were taken aback by Mark’s tone, and hurriedly amended your statement.

“I know there’s something in this room that you’re supposed to take. I was told that I would be able to get us out. Can you search the room?”

Mark scanned the room quickly before his eyes landed on you. Without a word, he knelt down in front of you, searching your pockets thoroughly. Your jeans pockets were empty, but there were a few surprises hidden in the thick folds of your hoodie.

“Got it,” he said triumphantly. He opened up his hand, and in his palm lay a few crucial items. His phone, car keys, and a sticky note.

“These are my car keys… how?” While Mark looked between his car keys and his phone, the gears in his mind whirring as he wondered how it could be, you snatched the sticky note from his hand and read the message aloud.

“Drive home, and never come back. Your car is outside. Leave.” The note ended on that threatening note, messy handwriting trailing off into a scrawl scratched across the page. Smoke drifted into the cell and you grabbed Mark’s hand.

“Run!”

As if on command, you saw the pathway lighting up. At the end of the corridor, a door opened up into light and with it, freedom. You ran toward it, the fire lapping at your heels. Although it hadn’t touched you, you could feel the blistering heat of it on your back, and the first thing you could think to do was flee.

The signs of freedom continued to greet you in the form of Mark’s car, and you ran over to the driver’s side while he unlocked the doors.

and drive around anaheim at sun down

Mark was blinking furiously, shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand while you sped off, unused to the influx of light. Luckily, you hadn’t been in darkness for long, so you adjusted quickly enough to be able to drive safely.

You sat in silence like that for a while, and Mark leaned across to stare at the building, watching it go up into flames.

You said nothing as you turned on the highway, heading towards Anaheim. It was your hometown, and though it was a little out of the way, at least no one you knew would be there. For the time being, both of you needed some peace and quiet.

When the main road branched off, you took the first exit, finding yourselves next to a grass field. You shifted the car into reverse, parking along the side of the road and turning towards Mark.

“C’mon,” you gestured to him over your shoulder and went outside the car, feet sinking into the ground as you laid back onto the grass.

The sun had set on the drive there, and you could see the moon peeking out from behind the clouds, the small visible crescent shyly waving at you. You grinned back in response and felt Mark plop down next to you, one of his arms snaking under your neck and settling on your shoulder.

to teach my mind to put you first

Even if it was Mark’s hands around you, all you could think of was Chenle’s lips on yours and his hands in your hair, and not a single thought your restless mind conjured up was of Mark.

You wanted to rip the grass from the soil and scream into the void. Why couldn’t you just love him back? After all that Mark had done for you, all he had sacrificed for you, all he had given up just for a sliver of your heart? Why did your traitorous heart despise him so?

Perhaps it was because you didn’t deserve him, and despite all the selfish greed you harboured, you knew deep down that Mark deserved so much better.

here you are, a hero

Mark had grown comfortable next to you, breathing quietly as he let loose of every muscle in his body. He could feel every knot filled with tension dissipate, could feel the pain of every cut and bruise on his body finally sinking in, almost as if he’d been too scared to register it.

"Mark-"

"Y/n-"

"You go first."

"No, you."

“I want to kiss you” was his confession, blurted out like a bad choice from the depths of his subconscious, said aloud before he even had time to think it through.

“I’ll try hard not to make this feeling a crime,” he said as he cupped your face in his hands and kissed you tenderly, tears falling silently down his cheeks.

You knew you were only putting salt on the wound when you kissed him back, claiming the parts of his heart you had known were yours all along. You knew he liked you, and you hated hurting him but you never wanted to lie to him. You didn’t want Mark to think you loved him when you didn’t. Though you’d done so much to him, you didn’t ever want Mark to have his heart broken by someone who told him they loved him when they didn’t.

Not with all of their heart, at least. You did love Mark, platonically, but the important parts he wanted were the ones he couldn’t have, the ones that belonged to someone else.

You could feel Mark’s sadness piercing through your heart, his tears saltier than the dead sea. He was so genuine, so raw with his hurt as he kissed you, you almost caved and told him you could give up on Chenle. Almost.

But you couldn’t- you couldn’t do that to him.

you wanna be my new home

He pulled away, and as you stared at him, the pale yellow glow that emanated from him seemed to grow brighter before it faded. Mark, your guardian angel, who had fallen from glory and had been reduced to naught but a shadow of his former self. Everything that had made Mark stand out was gone.

And it was all because of you.

You had first started to want to know how to make Mark's webs synthetically when he first used his powers on you for target practice. His webs were long and unwieldy, and uncomfortable to use. You had been curious to see if you could possess those powers too, perhaps better than Mark.

The point where your intentions went from harmless to harmful was when you were about three-quarters of the way through the process. Mark had told you that he had won a scholarship that you had been eyeing.

It had been a tiresome period of jealousy for you, constantly feeling outdone by Mark. Him getting the scholarship you wanted had been the tipping point for you, and you were jealous that it seemed like Mark had the perfect life, while you were always competing with him. Sick and tired of it all, you had decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.

“Your turn,” Mark said, interrupting your thoughts. “What did you want to say?”

“It was me, a week ago, that knocked you out and kidnapped you. I had been planning it since you had gotten that scholarship I had wanted, and by the time I realised that I wasn’t upset with you any more, it was too late. You had been gone for 3 days and I didn’t know how to let you leave without anyone figuring out that it had been me.

“I wanted to come clean, yet I was scared of the repercussions. It took me a few days to come up with a plan to get you to ‘save’ me so you wouldn’t suspect me, and I would burn the place down so no one would ever know.

“I wanted to live your life, Mark. I wanted to know what it was like to have everyone adore you, to be at the top of the world, carefree and loved. I was sick of hiding in your shadow, I wanted to know what it was like to be a hero, to no longer settle for second best.

“But after experiencing it? I don’t think I want that life. It’s not for me. The amount of pressure you must have been under every day of your life is not something I envy. I understand now why everyone admires you. You’re worthy of that, and I’m not.”

Your palms were clammy with sweat, unsure how he would react. “I’m sorry for all I did. I hope now you understand why I would never be worthy of your love. And I hope- I hope that you won’t love me anymore in ways I can’t return.”

You didn’t know what you had expected from Mark, but it definitely wasn’t acceptance, much less his forgiveness.

When he said, "It's okay," you looked at him in confusion. What was he talking about?

"What you've done is in the past. We're both here now, aren't we?" At that, you understood. It was because he was Mark Lee, angelic and purer than you could ever hope to be, with a heart bigger than the universe. Only he would be able to forgive you after everything you had done. You nodded, and when you stood it felt like your feet were weightless against the cotton candy clouds soft under your feet.

but baby, let up

By then it was getting late, and the sun was starting to set. Mark had been silent for a while, and though it worried you, you had other concerns. The most important one at the moment was how you were going to get back home, because you were still stuck on a little road in Anaheim when you lived all the way in Fort Irwin.

It was late at night and Mark’s phone was dead, so you handed him your phone to ask him to navigate. It was an unfamiliar place and you couldn’t wait to be back in the comfort of your home, and you wanted to get Mark back to his parents as soon as possible.

Deep down, maybe you wanted to prove that their trust in you wasn’t misplaced, wasn’t unwarranted. But when you slipped your phone into Mark’s hand, it was freezing cold, and when you turned to look at him, it sent shivers down your spine.

“Mark?” He disappeared before your eyes with a sad smile, fading into nothingness while you grasped at him in a panic, refusing to believe that he wasn’t real. Your attempts were all futile as your fingers met with cold air until all that was left of Mark was your memories and regret.

i won't ever recognize these roads

You sped back after that, unsettled and afraid. If you hadn’t saved Mark, then your guilty conscience wasn’t cleared after all. How long had you been hallucinating him? Had Mark ever been real, or was he simply a figment of your imagination? How much of your reality could you trust?

Your foot on the accelerator never let up, speeding across the highway with a sinking feeling in your stomach. If Mark was real all along, and you had kidnapped him, but he wasn’t there with you, then there could only be one possibility…

'cause i am lost, but not in you

“Chenle,” you managed breathlessly while Chenle looked at you in horror. He was dressed in pajamas, as if he had been about to sleep, and you knew you were a mess.

Your wrists were red from struggling against the bonds that you had tied for yourself, an effort to make your kidnapping look real to Mark. Parts of your hair had been singed in the fire, and you smelt strongly of smoke and sweat. Your clothes were stained brown from the wet soil of the grass fields, and your shoes were falling apart.

“I think I killed him.” You wished the revelation would hurt, but Chenle slamming his door in your face hurt you more. You sank to your feet, defeated, back against his door as you sighed.

Perhaps it would be better if you ceased to exist, too. At least in hell you would get the punishment you deserved.

epilogue.

The sky burns bright like ochre, burnt umber streaks like autumn. As if on cue, as the coffins are lowered side-by-side into the earth, thunder rumbles across the sky. The sky weeps as if haunted by memories, harbouring the guilt of the murderer and the pain of their victim.

The land sings its heart out, crickets chirping and nightingales drifting by as the sky darkens. Chenle tightens his grip around the chrysanthemums in his hand as he watches the disfigured silhouettes descend.

He doesn’t know what to do. Mark Lee had been a friend of his. Granted, not a close one, but a friend nonetheless. And to think that his fuck-buddy had killed him in cold blood was a burden he wasn’t sure he wanted to bear.

He breathes in and sighs. Even if he loved you, it was too late to change the course of things. All that had happened would have happened some way or other, and all he could do was try to right things in his own way.

Chenle watches on in silence as the families of the bereaved pay their respects. He’s hidden under the shelter of the umbrella, drawn to his eye-line so no one can make eye contact with him. He observes silently as the families mourn their loved ones, not knowing that the two best friends hadn’t been kidnapped, but that one had killed the other.

When you had showed up at his door, Chenle had the fright of his life. Your pants were dotted with blood, tears streaming down your cheeks. When he heard what you had done to Mark, his first instinct was to deny it. He slammed the door in your face, head spinning, stunned by your confession.

There was nothing else he could have done.

He could not have stopped you, headstrong as you were, heading back the entire way to Mark’s deathbed, where you hugged him tightly as flames enveloped you, burning away all traces of your guilt.

When the authorities found you a day later, the forensics seemed to match up to logic—the unknown killer had killed both of you, burned you to erase their footsteps, and you two had huddled together in fear during your last moments.

He kneels to the ground and weeps with the sky, umbrella dropping to the side as the downpour drenched him and the earth as if they were one. His sorrow would melt into the soil if it could, but as it could not, it remained heavy in his heart.

Onlookers would see a grieving boyfriend, crying for his lover and friend. It was not far from the truth, but nothing they thought would come close to what had really happened to the unhappy dead.

If only they knew the truth.

fin.

if you liked it, REBLOG it.

[jackalopedrafts]

As Luck Would Have It

Chapter 1

Who thought taking your little brother to school for Bring a Friend Day would end up with you gaining a new father figure in your life?

Otherwise known as I rewrite the entirety of Garten of Banban because my hubris rivals that of Euphoric Brothers.

Words: 5k+

Trigger Warning: Gore, Violence, Blood, Grotesque Descriptions. This is my first attempt at something much more horror like than the original (though I can’t say I fully succeed)

“Adelaiiiiiide.”

You sit up straight, eyes still closed as Charlie calls your name. Threateningly, sleep calls to you again, and the comfort of the blankets and the bed underneath you call like a heavenly chorus. You’re about to do just that, and flop back into the comfort, before slightly sticky hands grab you around your torso in a hug.

“ADELAIDE!!!” You open your eyes as Charlie pouts up at you, currently half in your lap and trying to keep you from falling back into bed. “You can’t go back to bed! We gotta go to school! It’s friend day!”

You blink a few times, trying to gain your bearings.

You’re in your room, a small thing really, vanilla walls, piles of unclean clothes, mattress on the floor and two blankets tucked up and around you, tangling your feet. You kick them off as Charlie begins to pat at you insistently.

You snicker at his excitement, swinging your legs over the side of the bed. You yawn, closing your eyes briefly while signing with your fingers. ‘I don’t know, may have to call in today.’

“NO!” You giggle silently, no sound actually escaping your throat as Charlie begins to get worried, pushing you out of bed fully and rushing around the room.

You watch him make his rounds before taking pity on him, stopping him with your foot so he stumbles and, once you have his attention, signing, “I’m joking, I know you’re excited to meet Josh.’

It was all he’d been talking about for weeks now, his kindergarten doing this ‘Bring a Friend Day.’ They were introducing some guest speaker, Jumbo Josh, one of their mascots if you remembered right. Probably someone dressed up like the guy. It was nice to see him so happy. You wished you saw it more often.

“HE’S BIG AND GREEN ADDY! LIKE THE HULK!” You laugh as you turn away from him, searching through your closet for your school uniform. Skirt, jacket— had you washed the button up yet? You search around your room and Charlie scoops it up for you, tossing the shirt to you before sitting on the bed kicking his legs back and forth and letting them thump against the floor.

You thank him quickly before putting it with the rest of your clothes, searching for your bag next.

The entire time, Charlie kept talking, happily chattering on about how Josh looked and how he was like a big gorilla and how he couldn’t wait to play with him in the playground.

As soon as the, manageable, pile of your things was together you kicked your little brother out and told him to go get dressed himself, much to his complaining. Still with a stern look and a point he was off, giggling.

Once you had gotten everything on you stepped out into the hallway, glancing at your brothers still closed door for a second. Looks like he was still getting ready, no doubt he was trying to figure out which shirt to wear.

Briefly, your gaze darts to the other closed door in the hallway. Your Mother’s.

You slowly stepped towards the closed wood, hand resting on the flaking white paint delicately. Your nose scrunches, you could smell it from here. Your mom was in there…You could open the door, if you wanted to.

But then where would you and Charlie be?

You shook your head, forcing a smile, before turning on your heel and heading to the kitchen without another glance back.

Of course you could open the door if you wanted to. You just didn’t want to.

The morning passes quickly, you make food for your brother, nothing fancy, and something small for yourself. He ended up dressed in superhero shirt and cargo shorts. It took everything you had to not laugh at him. He was bouncing everywhere, barely able to sit down and eat.

You take a moment to look him over as he’s putting on his shoes. His hair was curly just like yours, but he never decorated it like you did. Even now, his was a complete mess, while yours was tucked into pigtails with your lucky scrunchies loyally keeping them up.

Tan skin, green eyes, he looked almost exactly like your mom. The only trait you both shared was that dark curly hair. You were much darker, and your eyes were a weird color of brown, not as cool as his. You shake your head loose of the thoughts instead inspecting his clothes. Just to make sure he wasn’t accidentally wearing pajamas to school.

He had on his blue jacket, his favorite, and the hulk shirt you knew he would wear. The cargo shorts you noted earlier, though they looked suspiciously full of breakfast food. Whatever. You’d let his teachers confiscate it from him. He was too busy tying his light up sneakers right now anyways.

Once he’s finished tying his shoelaces, still loose, he was practically dragging you out the door, hopping from foot to foot while you lock the door behind you.

‘Don’t trip.’ The two of you walk to his kindergarten, a large white building with barely any windows. It always gave you shivers despite the cartoony and bright interior. The exterior was always just nerve wracking.

The inside, was much better and you let out the breath you were childishly holding the moment you cross the barrier. It was just an entry room, truthfully you hadn’t seen past the glass doors that kids and teachers went through, but if the rest of the school was as bright it was bound to be fun. There was the administrators desk, the tables where parents sit with kids, and the janitors closet.

Probably most notably is the mural splashed up across the wall.

Drawn across the pale white was a rainbow of characters from the orange one eyed jellyfish to the barbie pink Opila bird. Even the main character, Banban, was some deep red party character.

Charlie waves at the administrator, pulling your attention back to him, and then to the lady behind the desk, some woman with sleek brown hair all pulled up in a bun.

Where was Miss Julia?

You frown, but wave at the stranger anyways, signing him in on the paper at her desk before kneeling down to Charlie’s height.

‘Alright Charlie you have a good day okay?’ He nods emphatically trying to look past you into the classrooms, standing on his tippy toes.

“Okay, okay, Addy, can I go now?”

‘You can-‘ your hands stop as Charlie rushes off past you. He turns, halfway down the hall, walking backwards while signing the shortcut for ‘I love you.’ You sign it back.

After dropping off Charlie was school. Which was exactly what you expected.

Ninth grade was hard.

English, math, science. It all passed by without notice, you kept to the back, small and quiet. No one bothered calling on you anyways, they didn’t want to wait for you to write down your answers.

People left you alone. You weren’t bullied, weren’t talked to. It was quiet. Forgettable. You were forgettable.

Thoughts like those are probably why the school counselor kept trying to talk to you.

“Adelaide, I need you to listen.” You look up at the man, frowning. You nod anyways, to show you were paying attention, making him sigh. “Look, dear, I know your circumstances are different but that’s no reason to give up on college! I know it’s a little early to be talking about this, you’ve got all of high school, but it’s now that your transcript really starts. You’ve got to be planning ahead.”

He gestures with a packet, urging you to take it. You watch him for a moment before carefully reaching forward to grab it.

College.

You hadn’t really put any thought into it. It was everything to just keep the routine, make breakfast, get Charlie to kindergarten, go to school, pick up Charlie, make dinner, and go to bed.

Start the day in that house, walk out of the house. Go to a school where you’re forgotten, where there was nothing interesting. Go home to that damn house. Go to bed. Repeat.

It was all you had, routine kept you safe kept Charlie’s life normal.

But what if you did go to college?

Getting out of that fucking house, going to dance school, having friends who could sign back. It felt so tempting. You flick open the paper, pausing on the one picture with everyone laughing.

No one needed you to speak when you were dancing. And you could live. You could have friends, you could go out to restaurants, fall asleep in a room you actually decorated, have fun, go to the park, actually participate in class, take life by the hand. You wouldn’t need to worry about letters from the bank or walk Charlie to school.

Your hands tighten on the paper packet and you shove it into your lap, staring at the crumpled pictures before tearing your gaze up and away, looking blankly through the counselor.

Charlie.

You would have to leave him behind. He was so young still. He couldn’t be by himself. Not like you could. Not like you did.

You set the college packet back down, even if it felt wrong. Even if you loved the idea of it. You would choose your brother. Even if you didn’t want to.

You flinch. You shouldn’t think like that.

The counselor groans, long and loud, expecting this probably, and while the noise would normally be grating, you welcome it as it draws you from your thoughts. It was so easy to get lost in those.

“I don’t know why you show absolutely no interest. You’re incredibly smart Adelaide. You could be in AP classes, I don’t know why your mother opted for standard. You know, if you brought it up with her we could still get you switched over, it’s not too far into the school year yet.” He looks hopeful but you shake your head.

You were content. You were happy. Or you would be, given enough time. Enough routine.

The counselor stares at you for what feels like much too long before setting his head in his hands and waving you off. That was that.

You hopped off your chair and slunk out of the room.

Leaving the school is easy, and the trek to Charlie’s kindergarten easier. This you know.

There was nothing difficult about this. About repetition. About the present moment. Why must you think of the future? Why start making decisions now?

You didn’t need to. You didn’t need college, either. You had Charlie and that should be enough, it would be enough.

It would, god damn it.

You’re crying, you think, but you try not to notice as you stare at hot pavement and grieve an option you didn’t even have a choice in choosing. Some part of you wriggles, upset at Charlie for having done this to you, for having trapped you here, but you shush it as much as you can.

It’s fine. You’re fine.

You hate that that part even exists. Guilt makes your shoulders sag and your steps much slower.

Ever still, you make it to the kindergarten, stopping in front of the white building your brother is in. You wipe at your face furiously. Charlie didn’t need to see you like this, he’d just worry. He was too sweet a kid for that. For you.

Okay. Eyes dry, face fine. You nod to yourself. You got this. Turning on your heel you march towards the Kindergarten.

Only to stop immediately.

What the fuck?

Your eyes widen as the sliding doors close behind you.

The kindergarten was overturned. Doors hanging ajar, lights flickering and swinging from side to side, hell, even the plastic kiddie tables were flipped over like they might hide something underneath.

What happened!? Where was Charlie?

You rush forward towards the glass door that leads further into the school, but it’s locked. You tug helplessly at the handle, but it clicks against you, defiant. Well this was fucking spectacular.

You let go of the door, glancing around the entrance.

The administration usually let you in, so you’d have to go behind the desk and… you don’t know, press a button or something?

You move quickly towards the desk, slowing down as you catch sight of the other side.

It was a mess.

And not just a mess in terms of the pencil cup being tossed over, ink spilling everywhere, or in terms of the keyboard being pushed so far up the desk that it was almost falling off the side, teetering precariously.

It was the blood.

Blood was everywhere, pooling around your shoes, which you were already dreading cleaning up tonight when you got home. The blood had mostly dried on all of the thinner areas, across the desk and particularly into the chair, but where it pooled around the keyboard and on the floor it still seemed sticky.

You carefully moved to the computer, pouting at your shoes before looking back at the cracked screen, the tab on top filled out with a keyboard smash of letters. You rolled up your sleeve, as carefully as you could, to your elbow, before reaching forward and grabbing the sticky mouse. Maneuvering it around you landed on the button right beside where it had been originally resting, the large screens reading ‘Open’, blinking at you innocently, as if they too were surprised by what you were witnessing.

A quick click and the soft chink of metal shifting drew your attention over to the main doors, where they carefully slid open, revealing only more blood and the classrooms of the kindergarten.

You whistled lowly, the only sound you could make echoing around the room as if to taunt you. Where were the kids? The parents? The teachers? Where was anyone!?

Some friend day this had been.

More importantly, where was your brother!?

Take it slow, Adelaide.

You began your walk through the glass hallways of the school, peeking your head in whenever you could. It was difficult to see much of anything, and the constantly flickering lights didn’t seem to really help manners either.

Each of the rooms was thrown around, like a tornado had slammed into it at high speeds. Chairs were tossed over and some of the later classrooms even had makeshift walls, with desks piled up on their sides.

Whatever it was was ineffective, however, as scratch marks thick and deep littered every available surface, blood splattered lengthwise across each colored wall. Even the ceiling lights seemed to have suffered, the rectangular lights hanging down just by wires, tilted and flickering a pinkish glow over everything as the blood filtered the normally white light.

Panic was building like a fluttering bird in your chest with every room you stepped into, feathers filling your throat stopping any theoretical noise from escaping, it’s beak and talons tearing across your inner lungs and cutting through your logical thoughts like a knife through butter.

You couldn’t even call out for Charlie.

At the moment your only calming thought was that you hadn’t found a single body. There was blood sure, and a lot of it, someone HAD to have died here, but the familiar stench of rot had yet to reach your nose and there wasn’t any physical evidence of people anywhere.

You were so focused on these comforting thoughts of absence that you didn’t even notice the golden eyes watching you from the dark of one of the classrooms.

Careful talons followed after your perusal, taking a step after every one of yours, focused intently on you not discovering it, pausing each time you coughed into your hand or froze upon seeing another bout of blood.

Your vision swung wide as you made it to the center of the school, the play place.

The room was large, circular too, and held maybe three different structures that were all connected to the walls and to each other via tubes and slides. The smell of plastic would’ve been overwhelming if it hadn’t been for the sickly metallic smell of blood already sticking to your nose. The carpet was mildly bouncy, no doubt made to keep kids from getting hurt, and there were painted pictures of the school's mascots, faded slightly with time.

The blood splatters were a lot more minimal here, whatever went down clearly didn’t happen during playtime.

There were, however, drag marks. Blood seeped into the carpet of the ground as the trail led up and through the play place, directly into the tubes.

You took in a deep shuddering breath, mentally searching for the courage to get in there.

Turns out you didn’t really need to do much searching.

You froze up as you heard a small scratching noise behind you. Painstakingly slowly you turn on your heel, blood making the tile under you squeak, before you came face to face with the biggest bird you’d ever seen.

It was large, like, bigger than your counselor or your mom. It almost seemed bloated, with the way its skin rippled and its feathers curled, a large chest that had stilled once you had turned towards it, and unblinking eyes that watched your every shuddering breath. It’s beak was wicked and curved. Blood drip, drip, dripped from it onto the ground, creating a miniature trail behind you, like the crumbs from Hansel and Gretel. And just like those little bread crumbs, it appeared as though the creature had devoured them, each droplet behind it smeared with it’s own feet, hooked and sharp, glistening with fresh blood and stained further up with dried. It’s feathers were a faded pink and you weren’t sure if that was because of the lighting in the hallway it was standing in or because of how drenched in blood it was.

You took a stuttering step back and it followed, head bowed low and swaying slightly as it silently stepped forward. Its wings shuffled as though it thought to fly and you’re fairly sure that the moment it chose to do so you would die underneath its talon. Or perhaps be taken to wherever it was it wanted you.

The both of you stood there in that eerie silence, unwilling to make a move.

The moment you ran it would be upon you and the moment it moved you’d run.

Who would blink first?

You could feel the burning need to move, your muscles bunching under your skin. You need to move, you need to run, but it was staring at you. It burned like a fire in your chest, and the only thing that indicated to you that time was moving was each individual little drip of the blood off of it’s beak.

In the end, neither of you moved first. Or maybe you both did. All you know was that one of the hanging lights finally had enough of it’s own weight, and with a soft creak and a loud slam it fired like the gun at the beginning of a race. The resounding echo of metal on metal spurred you to movement and encouraged the monster to chase you.

Like lightning, you jolted and we’re out of there in a heartbeat, arms pumping by your side.

Your shoes stop squeaking as you begin to run across the bouncy carpet, and in truth your pace slowed incredibly due to the change in sturdiness. Thankfully the bird seemed to as well, its talons digging and tearing into the carpet, pulling up strands as it tried to grab at you with an outstretched neck, a large screech echoing from its throat.

Instead it’s beak slammed harshly against the carpeted floor and you garnered a few precious extra seconds.

The place became a blur as you tried to run from it, and somewhere you idly thought it was probably bad to run from a predator. At least that’s how it worked with fucking dogs, but the other part of you absolutely did not care.

You glanced behind you.

It had risen up, its neck twisting like a snake and curling in on itself almost as if it had no bones inside, allowing the head to tilt all the way to the side, dead eyes narrowing in on your body as you ran.

You screamed, or, well, tried to as it snapped forward again, beak clamping at the edge of your skirt, before the old material tore underneath it’s head weight, causing the creature to slam headfirst into the ground. It’s beak scraped along the ground and it’s neck curled around, it’s body flomping down beside it and sending up a flurry of feathers and wings as it tried to gain it’s balance without any arms to push it up.

Taking as much advantage of it as you could you dashed towards the closest slide, hands gripping at the staticky plastic, the ridges callously shoving your fingers into the tight spots in between segments of the tunnel.

You could hear the screeching, like a war cry, loud and echoing in your ears as a heavy thud resounded against the tunnel, making the entire structure shake under the weight of the creature outside. The blood trail that had led in here made your sneakers slip and scramble as you tried to climb further up, plastic and blood slipping against your hands.

You fall onto your chest in the tunnel but, refusing to take even a second, you still pull yourself up and forward, trying to ignore the blood staining your blue school sweater.

You chanced a look back down the tunnel and immediately regretted it. The bird had gotten up, apparently, and was now trying to grotesquely force itself into the slide you had managed into, skin pulling against the plastic, tearing on the metal bolts.

Blood pooled a little from the bird as it almost forced itself at your body, of you assume blood? It was green and glowing, almost radioactive.

It didn’t flinch as it created wounds for itself, instead it’s pupils wide and dilated, and trained on you seemed to unblinkingly scream for you to return to it. It’s neck had coiled up so it’s head could rest on the weight of it’s own body, only one talon having made it through underneath it’s own plumage. The foot tears and carves through the plastic, attempting to forcefully create footholds for itself.

It had puffed up, feathers rising into almost spikes and making it appear even larger, though each dusty pink feather was now quickly becoming stained with the glowing green oil that seeped through it’s scratches, tearing away feathers and skin as it tried to crawl up the slide.

Your mouth opens in the sick mocking of a scream again, your breathing making your chest expand erratically. Working upwards, you continue to climb up the yellow slide backwards, hands shocking you as you make contact with the bolts inside of the plastic play place, scooting yourself up to the top.

It still forced itself after you but it had become stuck about a third of the way up, head wobbling as it’s neck began to swing wildly from side to side, making the slide groan and creak under the weight of it’s tantrum. The sickening sound of it crushing what you can only assume to be its own beak or skull against the plastic in anger echoes throughout the enclosed space.

You backed up as much as you could, before turning your body around and being faced with a series of tunnels, blues and reds and greens.

Immediately you drop to your hands and knees, violently flinching as you hear a loud tearing of skin and the delighted cry of a bird who just managed to force itself past the bolt keeping it in place. It’s replaced, a moment later, by a sickening tantrum again, the bangs and cracks mirroring your heart in your chest.

Your hands start to bleed as you begin to rapidly crawl down the left tunnel, moving yourself forward as fast as possible.

Colored plastic after colored plastic, you quickly lose track of which direction you were facing or even where you were going. Every time you see a turn you take it, just hoping you can throw off the monster.

Your skirt and jacket kept catching on the tunnel's sides and on the entrances and exits, and you barely had time to fix them before panic engulfs your chest again and you urged yourself forward more.

Your hands began to hurt, aching and heated from the rush. Your knees scrape against the covered tunnels, and it isn’t long before you find yourself slowing down more and more as the heat and pain from forcing yourself to keep going. You begin to drag behind, and, for a second, you stop.

You need a break.

It’s sudden, you hadn’t even thought to yourself that you needed a break for more than a second, until you, yet again, accidentally put your full weight on a bolt.

You hiss, a sharp intake of breath, before leaning back on your heels, kneeling in the tunnel.

You blow softly on your hands, the air cooling them down for a moment, but even that couldn’t stop the pain from throbbing a little and the imprints of the slide ridges from turning a darker red.

As soon as you realize what you're doing, your breath catches in your throat. Stopping? Why the hell did you do that? That fucking THING will catch up to you. Tear you apart as easily as it tore into its own skin. Talons crushing your bones under your skin, beaks feasting on your guts, feeding you to its children maybe.

Your heart beats heavily in your chest and your ears as you sit still and silent.

In moments like these, in horror movies and games, is when the music plays across the scene and hikes up the tension. But right now, all you heard was silence and your own, ragged tired breathing.

That was almost scarier.

Still, despite the chill in your marrow and the way your skin felt like crawling across your body, shivers shuddering down your spine, you forced yourself to calm down. Breathe in, breathe out, blow on your hands. Breathe in, breathe out, blow air on your hands. Breathe in, breathe out, blow air on your hands.

It was forever before your heartbeat finally slowed down, endless tunnels and space reclaiming your fear and instead filling you with a thick writhing dread.

This was terrifying, what was happening? You had dropped your little brother off this morning, and everything was okay. You went to school, and the counselor was rude, sure, but it was okay. It was normal.

Everything was normal.

Then you took two steps into this hell hole and suddenly…

Everything was different.

Bad.

It didn’t matter though. Not really. You just had to find Charlie and get out. Maybe inform the police. You hated to do that, who knows if they’d look into your family after the call, but this was a lot.

You look back at your hands, wincing at the blood sticking to them.

Definitely tell the police.

You couldn’t hear the monster, even with as much as you strained to listen, and eventually, you felt comfortable enough to keep going. With every tunnel you crawled through the exit was becoming more and more of a mystery. It was dark, down here, and the lights flickering didn’t help you with your ability to make shapes out of shadows and monsters from thin air.

Finally, finally, your hand landed in another, sticky, but dried trail of blood.

Your gaze pans across the trail as it led from one side to the other, unable to tell from which direction it was going and which it was coming.

Great.

Well… It was your only lead.

You follow the trail of blood, to the left you had decided, head low so as to not hit it on the plastic ceiling. It left you staring at the viscera the entire time.

Blood, skin, or maybe that was fabric. Things left behind. Was that the bird? No just your jacket behind you.

A torn backpack, a scarf, there was a bloody kids jacket, a-

You reel backwards as your hand touches something slick and warm. Your gaze shoots up and you promptly scream, backing up rapidly.

A leg. Or, well, what seemed like one. The skin had been clawed open, blood and muscle torn out and hanging from its flesh cage. Intestines spilled around a mid section as your gaze continued to travel up, and it looked like there would be more damage further up. Well, you assume. You couldn’t really tell because the body seemed…stuck. You could only visibly see it’s bottom half, all of its guts acting almost like a cork, keeping you from seeing into the other room and presumably keeping the body from being dragged with the others.

So this is where everyone was taken.

You cover your mouth, sick building up in your stomach.

Oh god.

If you wanted to keep going you’d have to get her out. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Slowly you inched forward, shifting so you were on your back and your foot was forward instead. And then, carefully, you begin to push with the heel of your shoe. It was stained anyways. This was fine. Totally fine.

A small nudge doesn’t do it, so you begin to push harder. Harder. Frowning you pull your leg back and kick, roughly. All at once, popping almost like a balloon, the body slides out of the tunnel, collapsing on the floor in a pile of guts and gore.

You step out after her, quickly, gaze kept up so you don’t have to look at her. Don’t pay attention, don’t look, let’s focus on something else.

You were in what felt like a classroom? Or maybe another play room? There was maybe a dozen giant wooden tables, some tossed around, one brutally broken in half by the door. There’s fifty or so plastic kiddie chairs tossed around, and bloody talon tracks marked across crayon drawings.

Probably most notably was the giant rectangular hole in the center of the room. Or the entire place being bathed in blood. Was this where that monster started?

The hole was huge, and as you got near it you couldn’t see a bottom. The dark yawned up at you, and you shuddered, tucking your gaze away only to catch on some object small, slim and white in your view.

Was that….?

You shakily got down on your hands and knees, crawling along the lip of the hole to grab the item, tugging harshly to get it out from where it’s stuck against gears and mechanisms, was this thing supposed to open?

A harsh churning noise catches you off guard and you fall backwards, away from the hole, with your prize in hand.

Charlie’s shoe.

You stare at it. It could be minutes, it could be hours that pass with you staring at the stupid little shoe you watched Charlie put on this morning.

Slowly your fingers tighten around it, making the lights flash. You set it against your chest and you begin to sob. Blood, guts, dead people, your brothers shoe, the goddamn bird.

It all feels like too much, and you indulge in a moment to just sob, holding your brothers shoe.

Is he safe? Is he alive?! What happened, what the fuck was that!? If it your fault for wishing he wasn’t trapping you!? This isn’t what you meant! You promise! You’re sorry, you’re so so sorry, please. You want your brother back! You want your mom!

Your tears fall down your cheeks in fat globs and you spend so long just holding that shoe, scared and afraid.

He wasn’t safe, he probably wasn’t alive. It was your fault, that a creature from nightmares, some impossible awful thing, appeared from nowhere and killed him and the people here. Your mom would never hold you, your brother would never wake you up, you are alone.

The shoe falls from your hold as your hands come up to rub at your eyes, trying to stop the tears fruitlessly.

This thinking doesn’t do you any good, you had to stop but you just couldn’t. It had to be waited out, and time eventually came to swallow up the panic.

You hiccup, trying to catch air in your lungs again and, after a moment, life cuts you a break and you can breathe properly. You take in large gasps of air, shuddering and breathing, before grabbing the shoe and setting it firmly beside you.

You were going to find your brother. He is safe. He is okay. You stand up on shaky feet looking down into the abyss.

He is alive. You will find him.

Or you’ll die doing it.

You jump.

…

In a separate room, a tall lithe figure shifts, hands clenching at a table while deep red eyes watch over cameras as a young girl falls from the elevator shaft above. He clicks away from it, quickly, not wanting to see the moment she slams into Floor 2, but when he clicks back, she’s alive, having landed on top of a pile of old beds that had been left there.

He tries to think back, did Opila drag them there when the hour of Flynn’s joy was upon them? To catch the kids? That seemed logical, Flynn wanted them alive, but somehow he couldn’t remember the exact moment.

Huh.

“Interesting.”

If he wasn’t a man of science he’d almost call her Lucky.

[moralesmilesanhourlibrary]

pass a good time (pt. 1, 2, + 3)

summary: a new girl moves in from louisiana and has her eyes on a special someone. originally posted: oct. 19, 26, 2019 and june 16, 2023 (yikes) a/n: I may re-write this one day but that day is not today <3 as much fun as this was to write at the time i'm not super proud of it but whatever

pt. 1:

Adélaïde moved to Brooklyn from New Orleans about a week ago, and started school at Visions Academy. To be quite honest, she was only impressed with the building for about a day. The polished walls, colorful quotes, and escalators were cute, but it was all for show, anyways. Most of her friends weren’t there to “give the place some seasoning”, as they used to say. Maya was the only friend Addie had at Visions.

The eight classes she had every day were a blur, except one: physics. Addie’s mom was a physicist, and taught her everything she knew. Addie wanted to decipher how the world moved; how time flowed, and how people got pulled around. That’s the best she could describe it. There was one other thing that made physics special, though: the boy that sat in the third row, three seats from the left.

For the life of her, Addie couldn’t catch his name. Teacher spoke it too fast. The boy’s hand confidently shot up every class, loaded up with a smile and a right answer. She wanted to talk with him for hours about the multiverse and relativity so he could flash that little smile at her, just once. But alas, Addie only had that one class with him, and his locker was nowhere near here, that was for sure.

“Girl, go talk to him!”

“How? I don’t even know where he be at!”

Addie was doing her usual monologue on how fine “the boy in my physics class” was, and Maya had had enough. “I have like, most of my classes with him. Name’s Morales, or something like that.” The brown-skinned girl shook her head. “He always be sleepin’ in class, but somehow he got all As. I feel like he cheats.” Addie gasped.

“But that boy seems so nice! Can you talk to him for me, please?” The girl pouted at her friend. “Nope,” Maya stood firm. “You can talk to him yourself”. She glanced behind her, and sure enough, there was Morales. Addie tensed as Maya’s eyes sparkled mischievously.

“Aye Morales!”

Addie’s eyes widened as the Morales in question approached the table. He practically slid into a seat at the table. Right next to Addie.

Her heart was suddenly in her throat as Maya introduced him.

“My friend thinks you cute”-

“She’s lying,” Addie interrupted. “I’m Adelaide.” Taking a deep breath, she mustered a grin, trying her best to look the boy in his face. “Um, I-I saw how much you knew about, you know, physics and stuff. I’m just tryna talk.” Real smooth. Addie winced internally at her awkwardness.

To her surprise and delight, the boy’s face lit up. “It’s all good, I’m Miles. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Finally. So he’d been waiting…? A little more comfortable now, Addie continued, “I’m kinda new here. From New Orleans, actually.” Miles noted the way she pronounced ‘New Orleans’ like 'Nawlins’ and grinned.

Chuckling, he asked, “So, how you like Brooklyn?” Addie’s cheeks heated up, and she thanked the Lord her gingerbread skin kept Miles from noticing. “It’s real fast out here. Beautiful buildings, but it’s a lil’ noisy, y'know?” Miles nodded thoughtfully. “Alotta people from the South say the city’s too fast. It’s interesting. Maybe time moves different down there. Time is relative.” He winked after making the physics joke, making Addie feel like she wouldn’t be able to get up from her seat after the lunch period ended.

Like clockwork, the bell rang, and students began packing their things to go. Maya grinned at her friend knowingly, having watched the conversation unfold. As Addie zipped up her bag, Miles stopped behind her.

“Hey,” he began, “It was nice talking to you. I never hear you speak in physics.” At a loss for words, Addie could only nod her head. Miles inched a little closer. “I like your accent,” he almost-whispered. Cheekily mimicking the girl’s cadence, Miles called out, “see ya 'round, N'awlins!” as he left.

pt. 2:

Addie had been staring at her phone for five minutes now at the notification.

'Adelaide has an updated grade of a B (89%) in Spanish I'.

Addie sucked in a breath. A 'B'? That was the best she could do? The girl had an A or higher in every other class and that 'B' was really fucking up her vibe. Addie had to do something. There was a quiz in exactly 3 days; that was her chance. She found Maya the next day at breakfast.

"Maya, how you feel about Spanish?"

Flippantly, Addie's friend replied, "I got a C in that class. Not too fond of Spanish." Addie groaned and slumped in her seat. Failed quizzes were no joke. She could barely stomach a B, let alone a C. "I can't fail this class, Maya. Help ya girl out?"

Sighing, Maya thought for a second. A smirk appeared on the girl's face.

"Miles speaks Spani--"

"Now you stop right there!" Addie sharply interrupted. Exasperated, Maya retorted, "What is it with you and avoiding this boy? You want good grades, don't you? That 4.0 GPA?" Addie knew she was right. Why'd she have to be right...?

Still, Addie refused. Instead, the girl opted for flashcards on Quizlet, and they helped. A little. The night before the quiz, it'd slipped Addie's mind to look at Quizlet a second time, though. Big mistake.

Addie sat stiffly at her desk, brows furrowed at the piece of paper in front of her. '¿Que día es ante miércoles?' Addie had all but forgotten the days of the week.

At some point, the teacher announced, "Treinta segundos!" Thirty seconds. Shit. Addie started randomly filling in the answer sheet and hoped for the best. Sooner or later, time was up. She sighed in resignation.

The next day, Addie almost fainted at her updated Spanish grade. Yup, she had a C. For fear of getting an 'I told you so' speech from Maya, Addie said nothing.

"I dunno, I think Mr. Edwards would be more of a scammer," Addie was explaining. "What about Coach Morris?"

"Yeah, he definitely killed somebody." The two girls burst into a fit of laughter at the lunch table. A voice called out from behind, "What's all this about killing people?" Maya and Adelaide looked up to see Miles, having just walked in and approaching a seat next to Maya.

"We was talking about which teachers got a criminal record," Maya answered. "Whatchu think?" Miles thought about it. "I think Ms. Morreira kinda"-- Miles makes a hand motion as if smoking a cigarette--"if you know what I mean?" Maya snickered, but Addie straight up cackled, earning her a few weird glances from passersby, at which she clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound. Real awkward. Thankfully, no one really noticed, and kept the jokes going.

Maya chimed in again, "I really do think she be coming to class high sometimes, though!" Imitating the woman's drawl, Maya and Miles said in unison, "Vien-te se-gun-dos!"

While the other two had their fun, Addie stayed relatively quiet, gaze drifting toward Miles and his boisterous laugh. What if she told a bad joke? Actually speaking was too much of a risk, in her mind.

"Oh yeah, speaking of Spanish," Maya starts, "Did you do good on that quiz?" Miles boasts, "I got a 100. Nothin' new." Addie saw her chance. "Could you help me study? My grades look ugly right now and I was told you speak a lil Spanish." The boy grinned and nodded, to Addie's relief.

Miles reached into his pocket for a pen and scratched out something on a napkin, handing it to Addie. She had to keep her eyes from becoming saucers as she realized the digits hastily written on the napkin were a phone number. His phone number! "Thanks," Addie squeaked, as the bell rang. She'd never entered a new contact into her phone so fast.

pt. 3:

Addy’s thumb hovered over Miles’ contact as she sat in front of her chromebook, bleary-eyed. She’d gotten Miles’ number (or rather, Maya had gotten it for her) after Addy had gotten a ‘C’ on her last Spanish quiz and nearly fainted.

 The empty PowerPoint presentation woefully would not complete itself. The assignment should’ve been simple: discuss three dishes from your Spanish-speaking country of choice. She had chosen Puerto Rico, easy, right?

‘Easy’, until it was 11:55 pm, 24 hours before the shit was due. Desperate times, desperate measures.

Adelaide, 11:56pm: hey, sorry to bother you so late! I’m struggling bad w this Spanish assignment and I was wondering if you could help?

Miles, 12am: hey addy 

I gotchu right now gimme a second

Addy nearly jumped as a FaceTime call from Miles lit up her screen not moments later, ripping off her bonnet with a speed that could cause whiplash. She sat up in her bed as straight as she could, fumbling for her glasses as she accepted the call.

[funky--lesbian]

Super Nova

Larissa Weems X OC

A.N. hello all. if this seems familiar to you it's because... I've already posted it. With that said I realized I am Horrendous at formatting and decided to repost with some alterations. a HUGE shoutout to the council for helping me get my shit together, especially @bri-sonat for helping fic my truly wretched formatting. the next few chapters will be posted soon as I write some new ones as well.

The wind howled as you looked out the window of the train. Trees passing by in flashes as you made your way through towns, each one smaller and more spread apart, until there was nothing but the forest and the rain dripping down the windows to keep your eyes fixed on.

You can feel the chill of the weather as you rest your gloved hand on the window, not quite knowing what to expect. Finally, you see lights as the train pulls up to a town. As you look away from the pouring rain, you realize that everyone else had departed the train many stops ago.

After all, who would want to travel to a town like Jericho.

Though you suppose it wasn't Jericho itself that they avoided but rather what was just beyond it, Nevermore, your destination. The school had quite a reputation amongst the residents, almost serving as a horror story, an urban myth.

You quickly made your way up from your seat and gathered your belongings, not that you had many to grab, as the stewardess waited by the door of the train. With a small nod in her direction, you square your shoulders and step out into the world once again.

You quickly feel the rain soaking through your many layers as you dart under the cover of an awning, dragging your trunk behind you as you huddle over your tote bag, attempting to protect the few notebooks you carry. 

You look around as the train pulls away, desperately hoping that you will be able to spot your ride to your new home. As the lights from the train disappear into the distance, you’re left shivering on the cobbled road, lit only by a few meager street lamps. As the minutes pass and the cold sinks further into your bones, you finally decide you can't wait anymore out in this weather.

You shift your bag further up on your arm as your breath fogs up before your face. The second you step out into the storm again you regret it, but within minutes your steps have led you to the one building that seemed to still be open. As the wind blows the door shut behind you, you look around and realize you're in a small coffee shop, the Weathervane, according to the sign above the counter.

You quickly leave your trunk by an empty table before heading up to the counter where a young boy is watching with wary but amused eyes. “Hi…” You murmur, your voice horse from disuse, ”could I just get a hot chocolate with oat milk?” you ask, with a slightly clearer voice.

“Of course, what's the name?” He queries with a small smile.

“Adelaide.” You respond before turning around, the bell of the door behind you ringing, the noise drawing your attention. Standing there silhouetted by the glowing lights of the street was the most striking woman you had ever seen.

“Miss Florence, there you are my dear!” She exclaimed as she walked towards the counter. Somehow despite the stormy weather, she looked absolutely perfect, not a single hair out of place regardless of the howling wind and rain that had quickly turned your long curls into a stringy mess. 

As she approached the counter, you found yourself tilting your head farther and farther back, and when she finally stopped next to you, you realized how ridiculous you must look peering up at her like a drowned rat. You quickly looked down with a blush.

“Hello Tyler, a hot chocolate please, and would you be so kind as to put Miss Florence's drink on my tab as well?” She states with a glimmering smile at the barista.

“Oh no, you really don't have to do that!” You state, looking up quickly at the woman whose name you still don't know.

“Nonsense! Consider it a welcoming gift and an apology for my tardiness. Unfortunately, our normal driver fell sick due to the weather, so I had to finish up an appointment before coming down.” She stated warmly as she handed over some cash for the drinks before heading over to the table with your trunk. “I’m Larissa Weems, Headmistress of Nevermore Academy, my dear.” She smiled at you as you glanced up at her.

In the light of the coffee shop you can't help but stare at her beauty, clear blue eyes surrounded by delicate long lashes, a bright red lip captured in a gleaming smile, she was like an angel come to life.

You let out a shiver as her eyes pierced yours. Seeing this her smile faded into a frown, creasing her forehead as she looked down at you. “My dear, you must be freezing, you're absolutely soaked!” She says as she reaches toward you.

“No!’ You shouted, quickly scooting out of the bench away from her as you trip over your trunk in panic. She lets out a gasp at your desperation as you shake on the ground, refusing to look into her eyes in shame.

“I was just going to remove your coat, dear, it’s soaked through…” She murmurs comfortingly with her hands clasped in front of her for you to see clearly. You feel your cheeks turn pink with shame as you slowly climb up from the ground, ignoring the looks from the few other patrons.

“I can't do… touch.” You state as you wring your gloved hands together, “I apologize, it would not be pleasant for either of us.” You continue, wrapping yourself further in your layers as you look down at your feet.

“That is quite alright, my dear, I apologize for disturbing you.” Her voice was gentle, a touch of worry in her tone.

“Adelaide, Headmistress, here you go.” You hear as two to-go cups are placed next to you on the table. You quickly step back from the barista, once again kicking your trunk but managing to stay upright this time as you let out a tight smile.

Clearing her throat, the headmistress quickly stands with a slightly strained smile on her face. “Let's get you to your new home!” She says with joy, grabbing her hot chocolate with one hand and your trunk in the other.

“Yes, let's…” You murmur, grabbing your own drink and following behind the statuesque woman.

[slcwshow]

the gentle warmth of the rising sun. love in the form of a home-cooked meal. meeting people where they are. motes of dust in a beam of light. the comforting presence of an animal companion. deep-set laughter lines. taking your time. the smell of fresh hay. the velvet hide of a newborn calf. offering someone a taste of whatever you’re cooking. keeping the door open and leaving the light on. coming when you’re called. the unshakeable belief that people will always deserve another chance.

statistics.

full name:  joshua alain bennett nickname(s)/alias(es):  josh, jay name meaning:  god is deliverance age:  thirty-six date of birth:  october 16th star sign:  libra place of birth:  pelican town, stardew valley current location:  pelican town, stardew valley gender:  cis-male pronouns:  he/him sexual orientation:  bisexual occupation:  rancher family:  thomas bennett (father), dominique bennett (mother, née alain), lisette alain (maternal grandmother), katherine ‘katie’ bennett (wife, deceased) education level:  high school graduate living arrangements:  lives by himself at sweet pea ranch loved gifts:  hashbrowns, apples, honey hated gifts:  rabbit foot, parsnips, ginger

biography. (death of a spouse tw)

Joshua was born in Stardew Valley, and had no intention of ever leaving it.

He’s a farm boy through and through - Sweet Pea Ranch is his family home, and he’s worked there since he was old enough to toddle around on his own. One of his earliest memories is of a calf being born.

Even as his childhood friends grew up and moved away, Joshua was content to keep treading water, going through the motions of small town life as naturally as breathing.

Things changed when he met Katie. She blew into town for the Stardew Valley Fair, and he was smitten with her right away.

Katie was only supposed to stay in town for a week, but a week quickly became a month, and months became a year, until it was as if she’d always been there.

After three years of dating, Joshua finally asked Katie to marry him. The ceremony was held in the Pelican Town Square, and you couldn’t’ve asked for a happier couple.

A year after Joshua and Katie got married, the couple relocated to the suburbs of Zuzu City, to be closer to Katie’s parents.

For five years, everything seemed certain. Life wasn’t easy, but it didn’t matter because they were happy - they were together. And then, with one telephone call, everything fell apart. Katie had been hit by a car as she cycled into the office she worked at, and died of her injuries en route to the hospital. Joshua didn’t get to say goodbye to her.

After Katie died, Joshua went home to his family in the Valley. He didn’t recognise himself, couldn’t make sense of his life in the city without his wife, and he couldn’t think of anything to do except go back to what he knew.

It took a long time to get back to himself, but Joshua threw himself into his work at the ranch, and as the hurt grew less, made increasing efforts to engage with the community that had always taken such good care of him.

Four years ago, Joshua’s parents left the Valley and moved south to care for his grandmother, Lisette, in her old age. He runs Sweet Pea Ranch by himself now, and he is happy… but sometimes the old farm house feels a little big for just him and his dog.

other things.

Joshua only stopped wearing his wedding ring in the last year.

He’s a big gridball guy, and proudly supports the Zuzu City Tunnellers. He was there with his dad when they won the league a few years back.

Never let this man think you’re going hungry - he will turn up on your doorstep with a bag of groceries and half a dozen foil-covered dishes, no questions asked.

All of Joshua’s cows have southern belle names (Adelaide, Beatrice, Clementine, Delia…), and his bull is called Bruce.

Work permitting, Joshua tries to speak on the phone with his family at least once a week. He also writes them frequently, and mails photos of how things are going at the ranch.

He rescued his dog, Cricket, three years ago. She’s the ranch’s only other full time employee.

[tacosaysroar]

15 minutes before school starts, Adelaide gets into the car wearing knee socks from three years ago (that I’ve asked her to put into the GoodWill bag multiple times) that only come halfway up her shins.

Too small. Obviously. She’ll get dinged for being out of uniform. Which she 100% knows.

So I tell her to go back inside and bring down a pair that fits to change into on the drive. By the time that happens, we have 9 minutes to get to school and she’s inexplicably furious with me. A tween special.

Halfway to school, we see someone bundled up in a jacket (hood up), two scarves, and gloves. Because it’s 32F outside. And that’s when I find out Adelaide didn’t bring her jacket.

We didn’t go back for it — no time and it’ll eventually get to 50F today, so she’ll just be chilly for 15 minutes if they do “recess” outside — but UGH.

UGH!!!

I need to give this kid a lot more responsibility in the morning. She’s in middle school and I’m still packing her lunch and making her breakfast and waking her up and laying out her uniform. But she still can’t handle the tiny list of responsibilities she’s got now.

[idv-thespians]

INTERMISSION #2

“Ratio? It can’t be…”

Luke remembered the famous genius. His professors were always saying how Veritas Ratio was a student you’d see every 50, or even 100 years. Luke had to visit this legend. To see with his own two eyes that someone so enlightened was… a mere high school teacher? Yet Adelaide confirmed it for him by showing her a page of his yearbook.

“Yeah, that’s definitely him. I’d recognise that blank gaze anytime. His name’s Ratio.”

“Ratio the Buddha!” Luke’s eyes went wide with surprise.

“…The Buddha? What kind of nickname is that?”

“Well, he didn’t care for computers, so he’d lock himself in the school labs, working out problems with paper and pencil through the night. If you saw him, he was usually hunched over, and his back would face you- that’s how he got the nickname. One of reverence, of course.” Luke put a hand on his chin, humming in thought, “It’s hard to imagine someone of his ability working in a high school. I thought he’d been holed up in a private university as a professor, or something.”

After some time, The Professor paid a visit to The Teacher. They sat down and chatted about old times. Luke had brought some drinks and food, and they sat down and enjoyed each other’s company.

“Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing-“ Luke started fishing through his bag, before pulling out an envelope. In it, there was a sheet of paper covered in mathematical formulas.

“A counter-example to this hypothesis ?”

“Mhm. Someone at our maths department let me copy this down. It hasn’t been published yet, and isn’t complete, but I think it’s heading in the right direction.”

Ratio realised what Luke was doing. This was a challenge. How dull was the Buddha now, so many years after? Ratio took the paper, looking at it, before grabbing his own blank paper and pen. He was completely immersed in solving the problem, eyes never leaving the paper, so much so that he didn’t notice his friend had fallen asleep halfway…

“A-hah!” Ratio blinked, standing up suddenly. He turned around, finally noticing the sound-asleep professor. He walked over to him, shaking his shoulder gently. “I figured it out.”

“What’s that..?” Luke yawned, groggily rubbing his eyes as he awoke.

“Sorry, but this counter-example is wrong. The approach was quite intriguing. However, the distribution of prime numbers was fundamentally flawed—“

“Wait- hold on, hold on.” Luke sat up rubbing his eyes again. “My brain is nowhere near awake enough to comprehend this. I don’t think coffee would help either. Honestly, I don’t know anything about this particular theorem…”

“…What? You just said you thought it was going in the right direction.”

“Well, that’s what he said. I brought it ‘cause I thought you’d be interested. He knew about the flaw already, hence why he didn’t publish it.”

“Oh, no wonder…”

“Nonono, it’s a wonder. He said that even the cream of the crop mathematicians wouldn’t find this error in one sitting. You only took…” Luke looked at his watch, before smiling wide in amazement. “Six hours! Amazing!”

“Six hours???”

[adelaiderhosynweasley]

That ‘Veela’ Shit

The summer had been probably one of the absolute best ones Adelaide had experienced in her life. After that first sleepover with Gulliver, it was like some kind of barrier had been broken down when it came to her parents and they had allowed the pair to hang out more. Most of the time, it was Gully who was coming over, where Louis and Caerwyn could keep a close eye on the pair to make sure there were no shenanigans going on that they wanted to avoid. Gulliver though, proved to be just as behind in his development as Addie and the more the Weasleys got to know him, the more comfortable they became with his presence. Well, Caerwyn and the kids had at least, but Louis was still wary, still overprotective. Sleeping bags were always stuck down to the floor in the living room, musicals were watched, instruments were shared, and sand was tracked into the house stuck in bathing suits. Beside the salted caramel jar in the cupboard, a similarily shaped one of hot fudge had become a kind of staple, Gully’s favorite snack the same way cheetos were Addie’s. It had gotten to the point where Adelaide was asking nearly every day if he could come over or if she could possibly go to his. That had only been allowed the once, Addie spending the night at the Stonefyres home among a multitude of other children who had all piled onto the living room floor in piles of blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags. Gully’s older sister had baked them all snacks, they had gone swimming down in the lake, had a large bonfire where the boy’s many assorted uncles had gladly helped the Ravenclaw learn some new tricks on her violin that had really improved her ability to play it. Adelaide had been sad to leave the next day, even if she was happy to see her own family again. All in all, the pair of young Ravenclaws had ended up having maybe two or three sleepovers a week by the time the summer was over. By the fifth one, Louis had given in and opted for allowing their fireplace to connect directly to the Stonefyres’ over the Floo Network, something he didn’t do lightly, but it was better than constantly taking the Knight Bus to retrieve the annoying little redhead. Obviously, the kids still had to ask permission, but it made it easier for them to see eachother. Addie had written to Sunny to see if she wanted to come over for a night, but the blonde had already been at Willow’s grandmother’s by that point, but they would see eachother when school started back up again. Their reunion had been a bit... awkward. The pair hadn’t spent the entire summer apart after first or second year, but the gap that had been there at the end of the school year had remained. Addie still loved Sunny dearly, still considered her one of her best friends, but there was no pretending that their interests had changed as the blonde embraced puberty and Addie remained behind.

Getting on the train on the first had been a tearful event, but not for the usual reason of Addie being anxious. Rather, she was excited for school to start back up, for the club to get going on their next play and maybe, if she had the balls enough, to perhaps try out for the Quidditch team . She had debated it the year before but decided against it, figuring she wouldn’t be good enough. After playing a pick up game with Gully’s sisters and cousins though, she was feeling more confidant about her abilities and thought, maybe, just maybe... Her Dad had been on the team in school and Quidditch was something Adelaide enjoyed even if she didn’t talk about it nearly as much as she did chickens or music. The tears that had really been shed that day had come from her two younger cousins, Briar and Thistle, who were off for their very first year. They would be twelve soon enough, late fall babies, but being slightly older didn’t exactly fully prepare them for being away from their parents and sisters for the first time ever. Addie had understood, fully, what they were going through and had kept them close throughout the journey, introducing them to other friends, watching them calm even further as Zander joined them in their compartment. Another familiar face. It had been a tight squeeze with all of them actually. Addie, the twins, Sunny, Willow, Zander, Gully, and then M’n’M who had tripped over her robes and ended up in Addie’s lap when she’d finally located them. There had been a lot of joking, pranks, snacks, and games to cheer the two younger girls up and by the time they were arriving, Briar and Thistle were looking a good deal more relaxed. Enough to be smiling, if nervous, during their sorting where they, thankfully, had been placed in the same house. Addie knew it would be a similar situation next year, when her own siblings would both be eleven. Owena would be absolutely fine, but Rhydian was... well, he was already begging to continue to be homeschooled.

The first few weeks of school passed in a blur. Adelaide had not been anticipating their work getting even harder than it had been the previous year when they’d added more classes to their schedules, but now that they had hit fourth year... Well, the professors were already talking about their O.W.Ls that they wouldn’t even be taking until the end of their fifth year! Even so, getting back into the groove of things, of seeing all of her friends, and being in the club room again after being gone for the summer was just as fun as Addie had been anticipating. Professor Mendes had greeted them all with a gentle smile when they had traipsed into the room for their first meeting of the year, though the poor man had been giggled at and informed, point blank by Gully that ‘Auntie Freya got lipstick on you again, Uncle Max.” The professor had turned pink and found a mirror to try and get the bright cherry red lip print off of his cheek while the club had settled into trying to decide what they were going to be doing for a play this winter. They would have three and a halfish months to prepare the cast, the scenery, the music, the props and costumes. There was a great smattering of agreement about doing the pirate show they all liked a good deal, but there was also a suggestion of putting on one of the classic Beedle stories. Before the brunette knew it, they were nearly a month into the school year and the postings for Quidditch try-outs had gone up. She had brought her broomstick along, a hand-me-down from her dad that was still in good condition, and signed up before she could psych herself out of it. Thus, it was on the pitch that Adelaide found herself on a slightly foggy Saturday morning, nerves and coffee coursing through her system due to a lack of sleep caused by anxiety. Her eyes shifted to the stands were she could see the familiar shock of Gulliver’s red hair. Sunny waved to her, a bright grin on her face while Zander locked Gully under one arm, trying to fight him for the piece of toast he’d brought along. Willow appeared, running up the steps, her arms containing snacks to keep them all refreshed while they watched the try-outs. Gully had been the only one not surprised when she’d mentioned she’d signed up, having already mentioned it to him over the summer, but all of her mates had pressed her with encouragement and now, they were here, ready to cheer her on.

Addie gulped, clutching her broom tightly as the Ravenclaw captain marched across the pitch in front of them, indicating where each of them should group up depending on which position they were aiming for. Adelaide joined the other potential Chasers, having the most practice with that particular position, and looked up at the stands again, brow furrowed with a nervousness she couldn’t hide completely behind a cool exterior like her parents might have been able to. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she glanced down at it.

‘You got this, Feathers.’

Addie smiled and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Yes, she had this. The worst thing that could happen would be she wouldn’t make the team and as disappointing as that would be, it wouldn’t kill her.

[wandabear]

ANOTHER WORD - WANDA MAXIMOFF X F!READER  

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Summary: A request based on the song ‘Amigos no’ by Yuridia. Teacher Wanda, Ms. Maximoff here, yes. ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 

As you know me, Jules is portrayed by Adelaide Kane.

PART I

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Without looking back, Y/N walked towards the car and invited Betta to get in. She drove away from that bar, wondering if that was a good decision. It was, wasn't it? Had she turned down Wanda?

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“Did my plan work?” The blonde next to her looked at her with some mischief.

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Y/N laughed and kept her gaze straight ahead.  “To perfection.”

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“I knew it.” Betta smiled.  “I told you this game would work. If we walked out of that bar, she was going to come running to you in the blink of an eye.”

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Y/N nodded. “Where am I taking you?”

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“Oh, I live in Brooklyn. If you don’t mind, of course.”

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The way home was nice, both chatted a little more knowing more about the other. Y/N told her that she worked as a teacher at Westview High School, while Betta told her about her job as well. They laughed, seemed to like each other very well but they knew perfectly well that something was missing and it wasn't their fault.

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“Hey, look... Umh... You're cute and beautiful. Hot as fuck, but...” Y/N started when she parked in front of the blonde’s building. But before she continued, Betta just placed a  hand on Y/N’s shoulder.

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“I'm in love with someone else.” Betta said first, with an adorable look. “And unfortunately, even though I think you're very cute and caring and adorable… and sex would be amazing, you're just not for me. Nor am I for you. And I don't think mindless sex is going to fix that.”

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“Oh no. You just broke my heart just like that?!” Y/N teased, bringing her hand to her chest and they both giggled.  “But it was very nice to meet you, Betta. Thank you.”

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“Same. It was very nice meeting you.” The blonde one kissed Y/N’s lips softly like a goodbye, and was about to get out of the car when she turned to see Y/N one more time, and added: “You can tell she likes you, the brunette one. If you have a chance, go for it.”

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Taking a deep breath, Y/N turned her gaze to look ahead. That was too complicated, Wanda was too complicated.

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“Yeah…” Y/N sighed and nodded slowly. “I'll see what to do with that.”

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The days passed and September was gone quickly, bringing with it one of the most important events of the school year: Homecoming.

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Unlike other days, today she decided to wear some nice sunglasses and a leather jacket instead of her typical messy bun and plaid shirt. Totally sick of this whole 'sad widow' stage, licking your wounds from being rejected.

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Y/N walked down the corridor of that school while watching the kids come and go, chat and put stuff in their lockers. She entered the teachers' room, where there were only three of them waiting for the new meeting before starting classes.

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“Look who decided to join us.” Jules joked as she finished making some delicious coffee.

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“I'm five minutes early.” Y/N took off her glasses and smiled proudly, leaving a quick kiss on her friends cheek. She put down her bag and greeted Monica Rambeau.

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“Yes, you are! Damn girl, this year is going to be wild. Mhm.” Monica laughed and kept writing some things on her notebook. Monica was the P.E teacher.

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Her friend came over with a steaming cup of coffee and set it down in front of her. “For you to start the day right, sweets.”

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Jules always made some coffee and brought some donuts or sandwiches so that the teachers who had not been able to eat breakfast, could have it there. At least two or three days a week.

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At that moment the door opened, allowing a hasty Wanda Maximoff to walk in, struggling to hold her jacket with one arm and her purse with the other.

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“I'm sorry, I think someone parked in my spot and-” Wanda babbled as soon as Y/N looked up, they both met.  “I-I think I'm almost late.”

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Y/N was there. How long has it been since she saw her? Since that night in the bar, where she saw her leaving with a blonde but, never stopped thinking about her.

The brunette swallowed, finally sitting nex to them without taking her eyes off Y/N.  “Hi.”

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“Hi.” Y/N greeted somewhat shyly and lowered her gaze to look some cat reels, trying to escape.

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“You still have time, Wands. Sit down, it's my turn for coffee today.” Jules smiled, soon some more teachers arrived. “Strange is not coming, he’s on a meeting with the Superintendent Fury but Maria is coming.”

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Wanda sighed with relief and dropped into the chair. “Thank you.”

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About two or three minutes passed until Maria Hill came into the staff room. They spent perhaps twenty minutes trying to agree on some issues, until one of the most important came up.

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“So, about Homecoming, we should talk about the-” Monica started, but Maria shook her head.

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“About that…” Vice Principal Hill cleared her throat. “I think we will have to postpone that, we have not received the money for that and maybe if we manage to do some raffle, we can do it before November. We can do the pep-rally and-”

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“Wait, but...” Wanda frowned in concern. “We can't do that, the Homecoming dance is something that the kids love. It is important for them.”

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“It is, Wanda.” Maria pursed her lips and closed her notebook. “But there's not much we can do. We had to pay for the second floor bathroom plumbing, because they said they couldn't give those funds to us.”

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“I know but... Homecoming was important to us in the past, right? We cannot deny that to these children.” The sokovian tried again. Homecoming was important to her, what if the other kids didn't live that and lost something important in their lives?

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“What if…” Y/N offered breaking the silence, now all eyes were on her. “What if we help each other a little? I mean, maybe we can do something. We can do a raffle, yeah. Besides some school fair or something like that…”

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“I know someone who can help us with the fair, plus I can bring food.” Wanda smiled and nodded. “I volunteer to be a chaperone even.”

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Jules raised her hand excitedly.  “Me too, I don't want the kids to be disappointed. I’ll help too.”

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Maria smiled kindly and watched them for a moment, everything depended on this. “Are you sure you wanna do this? I'm all in, but we will not receive the aid until the end of October. It's our own money and I know the paycheck is not big.”

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“Wanda thinks it's important to them.” Y/N said looking at the brunette, who smiled gratefully. Oh, she would do anything to see her smile. “I vote yes.”

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“Voting yes too.” Monica said as did the others teachers.

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Wanda kept her gaze on Y/N who only responded with a friendly smile. She would never forget this.

The raven-haired woman walked slowly down the corridor of the school, smiling and holding hands with some of the little ones as they walked towards the auditorium. They were little first graders.

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Elementary didn’t have an auditorium so this time, they must use the one in the High School.

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“Come on, guys. We will go to the auditorium so remember, hold hands. Always.”

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At that time, Natasha Romanoff entered the school to look for her best friend and to be honest, she had no idea where to find Wanda but seeing Jules in the hallway was maybe a pleasant surprise.

The redhead even smiled when she saw the small group of kids dressed as tiny bees.

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“Hey.” Nat said walking over to Jules, who's eyes widened at the sight of her. That was not even expected.

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“Hey, what are you doing here?” The woman couldn't help but stammer when she saw Natasha there, that gorgeous red hair in a beautiful braid. Oh, she looked so good.

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“I came to give something to Wanda but I wanted to talk to you too, can we…? Maybe later?” Nat watched the little ones out of the corner of her eye, this was not a good time, of course.

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“Later... yes, right now is... It's just that-” Jules glanced at the little ones who were looking at them curiously, smiling even. “Okay, come with me, just help me and don't say anything.”

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“But I was going to-” Natasha tried to say but Jules turned to look at the children.

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“Kids… this is Ms. Romanoff, she's my friend and she's going to join us right now, going to help us. Say hello to her!” Jules smiled widely.

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All the kids said 'Hello, Ms. Romanoff' at the same time in a very cute way.

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Natasha giggled and couldn't help but feel some tenderness. “Hey, guys.”

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“Come on, we’re going late!”

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“Where?”

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“A little play for parents, I don't have time to explain, help me.”

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They helped the little ones to get to the auditorium and enter to the backstage. First came Peggy Carter's little ones, so they were ready to go.

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“Jules, I should go and-” Now the presenter was the one who interrupted her. The redhead looked around her not knowing what the hell she was doing there.

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“Okay, now remember, the most important thing here is: promise that you all going to have fun. Yeah?” Jules encouraged the kids who just yelled 'yeah' and laughed.

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And despite the fact that for a moment Natasha felt an enormous desire to run away, that feeling didn't reach the enormous tenderness that she felt when she saw her ex-girlfriend like that. In a very motherly and adorable way.

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“Okay, Nat, help the bees get on stage while I put them on stage.” Jules took the hand of one of the little girls and walked up to the stage.

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“But-”

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“You wanna talk?” Jules looked at her and whispered under her breath:  “Help. The. Bees.”

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Natasha narrowed her eyes and sighed as she helped each of the little ones up the steps and onto the stage. The music began to play and those little ones sang a beautiful song, dancing a very cute dance.

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“I thought you taught them History.” Natasha frowned, watching as one of the little ones stumbled but the others helped him up.

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“Yeah, there, to those wild animals on High School.” Jules pointed to some of the kids sitting in the stands, looking at the kids play.  “I accepted this one as a substitute to have a little more money, few months ago. Had to pay rent.”

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“Oh.” Nat nodded slowly.  “You like it? I mean… seems you like it.”

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“Maybe... maybe I'll stay. I don’t know yet, it’s… different.”

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“I see… Look, I was wondering if… if you wanted to have a drink after this.” Natasha whispered trying to look casual, asking her out knowing that it could go really bad after hurting her.

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“No. Thank you. You can go away now.” Jules responded quickly and didn't even look at her, just smiled at her little ones who were waving at her from the stage.

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“I can't go...there are a lot of people around and they will look at me.” Nat looked around, the place was full of parents. Getting to that place was easy but leaving? She would have to fight endless numbers of parents who wanted to record the performances of their little ones.

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“Then stay and shut up, I want to see my kids.” The brunette watched her out of the corner of her eye, and then she looked at her little ones, who were smiling as they went up on stage in their little bee costumes.  “You’re doing it amazing, Jessica! Just don’t…” Jules just whispered, moving her lips enough for the little girl to understand: “Not the baby shark song! Just the one I showed you!”

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“Catchy song, huh?” Natasha just smiled and pursed her lips, trying not to laugh. Maybe the idea of spending her life with just one person wasn't so bad. If that person was her.

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Once the little ones finished singing, they made a little bow, winning over the audience. Of course after that Jules had to do it too.

Natasha's green eyes shone tenderly, seeing the scene, feeling a warmth that she had not felt before.

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“So, I was asking about… dinning tomorrow. You and me." Natasha asked once the brunette came back and they both helped the little ones get off the stage. Jules looked at her in surprise, perhaps a little blushed.

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“Actually I can't, we have 'Homecoming' and we have to take care of them.” The ravenhaired woman wrinkled her nose. “You know. Chapperoning.”

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“Oh.” Natasha nodded. “If you want I- I can stay to help you, to help you ALL. Chapperoning and that.” The redhead smiled as they both walked towards the halls of the school. “You know… Controlling hormone-ridden teens.”

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“Maybe.” Jules nodded slowly, maybe it wasn't bad. Natasha dumped her, but she also seemed to regret having done it. Maybe giving her a chance wouldn't hurt.  

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“Okay, I'll go find Wanda and well… Umh, I'll see you tomorrow.”

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We are young, heartache to heartache, we stand. No promises, no demands. Love is a battlefield.

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The school gym was packed with teenagers chatting and eating some snacks. Some were encouraged to dance, others stayed in their seats at the tables.

It was a good moment, Y/N smiled and looked around. He waved to Jules who was on the other side of the gym, watching some two who were dancing too close.

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Kate was the DJ’ that night, she seemed quite entertained playing the console when Y/N approached.

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“These kids don't know Pat Benatar, Kate.” Y/N teased leaning in to see her. “Put them something that makes them dance.”

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The archer gave her the okay with her hand and put her headphones back on, while Y/N walked around the place, checking that everything was fine.

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Y/N wore a striped shirt and black pants, accompanied by a black blazer that made her look perfectly semi-formal. The hair was loose, she was looking good.

Sure, she got some jokes from her friends like 'the CEO party is somewhere else' and stuff like that. But she was comfy, it felt good.

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“Hey, America. All good?” Y/N greeted America Chavez, who was chatting pleasantly with Peter Parker and Kamala Khan.

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“Hey, Ms. Y/L/N.” America smiled widely. ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Lookin’ good!” Kamala added.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ "Sharp, Ms. Y/LN!" Peter raised his thumb.

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“Thanks! You guys lookin’ amazing too.” Y/N kept walking and left the gym for a moment to get some air. She walked the halls of the school to make sure everything was okay and no student was sneaking out.

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Y/N walked down the corridor of the East wing when a knock in one of the classrooms made Y/N turn on her heels. So ready to scold those wild beasts.

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“Okay, I told you guys that this place was out of limits. Now go to-” Y/N was about to enter the classroom when she collided with the person who was there. She stepped back in surprise, not expecting to see her there.

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“Sorry, it's just me, I came to see if everything was okay and a broom fell off.” Wanda apologized between giggles as she picked up the broom.

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Taking Y/N's breath away, Wanda was wearing a scarlet, sleeveless shirt. She also wore black pants and her loose brown hair.

She looked so beautiful that Y/N could barely stammer out a few words.

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“I thought it was some- of the students doing stuff… you know.” Y/N stammered nervously and then laughed, so embarrassed.

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“You look…” Wanda looked her up and down, completely stunned.  “Wow.”

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“I guess that means I look good. Kate said that I looked like some CEO from a lesbian TV show.” Y/N giggled. “I can say the same about you... I mean, the 'wow' part, you look beautiful, stunning.”

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We are strong, no one can tell us we're wrong. Searching our hearts for so long… both of us knowing love is a battlefield.

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“Thank you.” Wanda sighed.

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“You okay? What are you doing here?” Y/N asked as they both left that classroom and walked down the hall. 

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“I just came to check the halls. One of the girls had to come to the bathroom urgently because she tore her dress, and I decided to help.”

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“Good, that’s good.” She was so nervous, she prayed to heaven that Wanda didn't notice.

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“And you?”

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“Oh… I decided to escape for a bit and check out the classrooms. Jules, Nat and Kate are watching the kids so it's all good.”

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They both went down some stairs and checked that the lab and the art room were empty as well. Schools used to be kind of creepy at night but this time it didn't look so bad.

The tension was increasing more and more until 'Wild Horses' by The Sundays could be heard in the distance.

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“No way…” Y/N smiled widely. “Do you remember that song?”

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“That played at our Homecoming, didn't it?” Wanda said, stopping for a moment. It had been so long since she heard that song, that made her smile.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Yeah.” Y/N nodded. “Wow, haven't listened to it in a while.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I was thinking the same…” The brunette bit her lower lip, trying to gain courage. “Wanna dance?”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Me?”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“No, to the ghost behind you, silly. Of course you!” Wanda giggled.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Surprised by her request, Y/N thought for a moment and then nodded. She came closer to clumsily hug her waist, feeling so excited and nervous that she didn't know how to do it. Anyone would be surprised to learn that those two had sex multiple times.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I really like this song.” Wanda whispered, closing her eyes when she rested her head on Y/N's chest, letting herself be carried away by that slow dance and the song. Y/N smiled tenderly, the scent of her perfume was lovely.   ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Y/N… Do you remember our homecoming?”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Yep.” Y/N nodded slowly, remembering that moment. “Bobbi Morse asked me.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Oh, the tall blonde one? Why did you say no?” Wanda asked curiously, frowning, but then she understood. It wasn't so hard to understand.  “Oh.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 'She was into you, Wanda.' She thought.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Y/N rolled her eyes. “Yep. I almost asked you but... you were in love with Vision.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Wanda smiled sadly while they danced slowly. “And you were in love with me.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Yeah, kinda.” The tallest woman shrugged, trying to hide her jealousy at that memory. “Bobbi was hot tho.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Wanda giggled and looked down, embarrassed. “It’s funny.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“What's funny?” Y/N looked down to see her.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“This time I'm in love with you and you like someone else. That blonde from the bar.” Wanda felt a bit embarrassed. She had no right to play the hurt and jealous one but that's how she felt.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

For a long time she noticed how Y/N didn't stop ignoring and avoiding her, and every day that passed she realized how stupid she was for rejecting her. To ignore how amazing Y/N had been since the first day they'd met. She felt so dumb.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Oh.” Y/N nodded surprised, that was a hell of a revelation.  “You mean Betta.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Ha.” Wanda snorted, so jealous. “She has a fish name.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“She’s cute, and kinda gorgeous, yep.” Y/N tried to not smile and not showing how much she liked to see how jealous Wanda was, she just decided to play along. “But I just took her home that night. That's it, nothing happened.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Just like that, hope was reborn inside. Wanda's huge green eyes sparkled. “Really?”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Wanda looked up, curious. Now they were both staring at each other, those green eyes colliding at hers. “We talked for a while, she was in love with someone else and so was I.” Y/N wrinkled her nose, trying to pretend it wasn't a big deal.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Is that so?” A smile formed on Wanda's lips and thanks to that, Y/N realized that her heart continued to belong to Wanda. The sokovian brought her hands to cradle Y/N's face gently, those lips invited her to unite once more.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“We can't keep doing this, Wanda.” Y/N whispered.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Why not?” She looked at those  lips and then back at Y/N’s eyes.  “I am admitting, finally, in front of you, that I am in love with you.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Y/N took a deep breath. “I can't take more lies and false hopes. Is killing me. I can't take it anymore.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Wanda shook her head desperately. “I'll do it in front of everyone if it will make you trust me. I don't care, I love you.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Y/N just stood in front of her, trying to give her a chance to listen to her.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I was afraid, didn't know what to do.” The brunette sighed. “I haven't been in another relationship since I broke up with Vision, and he was my first boyfriend.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I know that.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I didn't want to lose you either, you are... you are one of the people who has supported me the most all these years.” Wanda spoke from the bottom of her heart, being honest with Y/N and with herself.  “You’re my friend, yes, and I need my friend back... but also the person I want by my side.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I don’t understand.” Y/N frowned, not understanding too much where she was going.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I don't think calling you 'friend' to be a bad thing, but I want my friend to be something else too.” Wanda smiled, knowing that she had finally understood what she wanted in her life. "I'm in love with you... So be my best friend, be my girlfriend. Be my everything."

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

"Wands..."

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I love you so much, detka.” She caressed Y/N’s cheek devotedly, as if it were the most precious thing in her life. “All this time without you was so hard.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I am ready. I am not scared anymore.” Wanda took a breath before saying the most sincere and real words of her life again: “I love you.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Y/N smiled widely. Was she really she willing to bet her heart again? Well, there was no doubt.  “I love you, Wands.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Without further ado, the brunette shortened the distance between their lips and both joined in a delicious and long-awaited kiss.

Despite being surprised by that, Y/N ended up hugging her and drawing her into a deeper kiss.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

In the background, that song once again made the moment more special between the two but in a very different way. They both smiled when they separated for a second, but Wanda didn't let Y/N get away. They both kept kissing, hiding for a moment the lonely Lab, devouring each other completely.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“We can't do this here, we must go back.” Y/N laughed between kisses. “We're supposed to take care that they don't do this."

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Biting her lower lip, Wanda agreed to separate and they both arranged their clothes. Both didn’t stop smiling completely gawking. “It's not my fault you're irresistible, detka.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Y/N laughed and they both left the lab, walking towards the gym again.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Do you have something to do later?” Y/N opened the door for her to go into the gym first. “Would you go on a date with me?”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I’m all yours.” Wanda smiled before walking past and winking at her.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Y/N smiled widely, feeling her heart beating so fast. This time was definitely going to be different.

At that moment some students came out of the gym trying to sneak away, but both quickly exclaimed:

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Where do you think you’re going?”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ “To smooch at the Library? Oh, no. We already know all your tricks. Go back inside now.”

And a few years later, Y/N was still smiling like never before as she walked through the front door of Westview High School. Feeling she could go against everything in the world, nothing was going to stop her. She was happy.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

It had been a very beautiful four years with the love of her life. The relationship with Wanda had grown exponentially, of course they had some problems, but nothing they couldn't solve.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Hey, Mrs. Y/L/N.” Some students greeted as they walked in the hall.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Hey, America. Ready for your last year here?” The teacher smiled. “You're going to miss me a lot when you don't hear me talk about reptiles anymore, I know it!”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I know I will, Ms. Y/L/N! Columbia will feel empty without you!” America smiled and kept walking along with her friends.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Y/N walked into the staff room and smiled when she saw her friends, chatting about some news of the day. They talked for a few minutes enjoying their lunches until a beautiful brunette entered the room, stealing everyone's attention.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Hey, Wands.” Y/N smiled in surprise to see her wife there. A very pregnant Wanda walked into the staff room with a bag and her purse. “You okay?”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Wanda smiled and leaned in to peck her lips. “Yeah, you forgot your lunch and I decided to leave it before going to Nat's house.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Happily, Y/N took the lunch box and opened it so she could smell the delicious chicken paprikash.  “Oh, you’re the best.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“I know.” Wanda smiled proudly.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

“Hey, if you’re going home tell Nat that i’m coming a bit late. I have too many exams to correct today.” Jules kissed Wanda’s cheek. “I can't believe there are my little nephews or nieces... or whatever you both want to be, I’m in.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ  Jules moved closer so she could put her hand on her friend's big belly.  “Hello, my beautiful bees. This is Auntie Jules.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Wanda giggled, without seeing how Y/N watched that situation, her chest swelled with happiness. “We don't know yet, so ‘bees’ are really good.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“How much time left?” Kate Bishop asked before rubbing her belly once more and sitting next to Jules.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“Six months.” Wanda sighed exhausted, sitting next to Y/N. For a moment she almost sat on Y/N’s lap, but soon remembered that they were at school. “I can't believe I still have three more left.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“You’re doing it amazing. You even look gorgeous. Right?” Kate winked at Y/N.

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“So right. You look amazingly beautiful.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“It's just that these two don't stop moving all day, I swear. They're wild!” Wanda sighed deeply. ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“Honey, your maternity leave is called 'leave' for a reason.” Y/N caressed her back tenderly.  “You should rest a bit more though.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“I know… I'm leaving, I'm leaving!” Wanda took a deep breath before getting up again and taking her bag.  “I just wanted to leave you your lunch.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“I love you.” Y/N smiled when her wife kissed her before walking towards the door, but not before turning to see her: ㅤㅤ ㅤ 

“I love you so much, detka.” The brunette winked at her. “I'll see you at home.”

ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ the end

ㅤㅤ ㅤ  I hope you liked it. ✨ I have to say that it might have some little spinoffs, like one-shots, but later. Now I'm focusing on finishing the stories.

the cutest and most amazing people tags ✨: fishlikestuff - @pawiie - @casquinhaa - @hayeeonn - @les-wave - @sunsol-22 - @germz19 - @wandsmxmff - @lisasmcl - @suckerforwanat - @get-the-fuck-outta-here - @ecruzsalaz - @cowboyboots236 - @imnotasuperhero

[copper-wasps]

pop off, dude had no right to try and grab yall, enjoy your memory cards

The camera cuts on, the video feed showing the same bland motel room from before. The faded blue paint and drab gray carpet, emboldened by the dying light of sunset filtering through the old curtains. The constant shifting and angle suggests someone is holding the camera- Adelaide, it seems, given she isn’t on screen.

“Yeah, she went off, alright.” Her voice sounds close to the speakers, the video zooming in to focus more clearly on the other girl in the room.

Lorelei sits on the edge of one of the beds, a ziplock bag full of ice held over her right hand. She rolls her eyes at Adelaide’s comment, giving her a look that can only be described as, ‘So what?’.

“Don’t give me that look. I thanked you once we got back, didn’t I?” Adelaide’s voice huffs, zooming back out as she walks across the room- the angle lowers, the squeak of springs making it obvious she’d taken a seat on the other bed, “I’m just worried about the trouble that might cause us, is all. What if he goes to the police? He might’ve caught the license plate on camera as we drove off.”

Lorelei huffs out an exasperated sigh, setting her bag of ice aside- the knuckles of her right hand black and purple with bruises, raw patches showing where she’d split a couple of the knuckles open. She reaches over for her whiteboard and marker on the nightstand, scribbling down a response before turning it around to face Adelaide and the camera.

-First off, he should’ve kept his hands to himself, it was deserved. Second, good thing its not our car.-

Adelaide sounds rather miffed when she speaks again after reading the message, “No, but it is Rose’s car! The last thing we need is the police coming after us for assault and auto theft.”

Lorelei only rolls her eyes in response, waving her uninjured hand in a gesture akin to, ‘Yeah yeah, whatever.’.

Adelaide sighs, falling quiet for a moment before she speaks again to ask another question, “Where did you even learn to punch like that anyway? Cause I’m pretty sure you broke his jaw.”

Lorelei lays her whiteboard down in her lap, erasing it with the edge of her shirt before writing down her response, taking longer this time before she finally holds up the board again.

-My dad. I got bullied a lot in middle school, and he wanted me to know how to defend myself before I started high school. That dickhead wasn’t the first person I’ve had to slug like that, so I guess the lessons came in handy.-

Adelaide seems to pause for a moment after reading that response, before asking a bit slower this time, “So…your dad taught you how to throw a punch like the one he threw at my dad in that one entry?”

A smirk crosses Lorelei’s face as Adelaide says it, quickly erasing what she’d written down to scribble out something new,

-He sure did. Wanna recreate it? I can’t yell at you, but I can still punch you.-

Adelaide reads that and snorts out a short laugh, the video jostling ever so slightly as she does so, “No thanks, I just healed up from falling down that cliff. I don’t need anymore bruises.”

Lorelei cracks a small grin at that, giving an easy shrug as she cleans off her whiteboard and sets it aside on the bed, resting the marker on top.

“Anyway, I’m gonna go take a shower- try not to punch anyone else in the meantime, Rocky.” Adelaide tells her as she stands up, the camera following the movement with a slight blur to the image.

It barely catches the way Lorelei shoots the other girl a bird before the video cuts off.

[malltms]

maia mitchell, bisexual biromantic, nonbinary + they/she ― hey look, it’s drusilla 'drew' grimes! they’re twenty-five years old, they’ve lived in shrike heights for three months, and they’re currently working at the black cat in shrike mall. i heard they’re pretty lackadaisical, but i think they’re so clever at the same time. can they make it out alive?

stats. pinterest.

TW: ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP / PHYSICAL ABUSE

drusilla grimes had always been less than exceptional. at least, that’s what their family would say. no one ever expected anything grand from them — so in return they didn’t do anything that warranted attention. they flew under the radar, more concerned with what was on tv and what was for breakfast rather than their schoolwork or making any friends. that was until they watched a soccer match once when flipping through channels and was suddenly enchanted. at age seven, they were put into soccer for the autumn season of ‘71.

finally, drew had a passion for something. it had taken long enough, murmured her parents, who internally didn’t have much hope that this would stick for her. as a result they didn’t attend many of her games, leaving her under the supervision of her older sister that always cheered her on no matter what. but it didn’t really matter if anyone had shown up or not, as drew’s passion for the sport is what ultimately drove her to succeed.

they would bring home trophies and awards season after season, carrying their team to victory almost every match. soon their parents had begun noticing their potential and put more pressure on them to perform better at school, however they discovered that the reason for drew’s disinterest in all things academic had been because of undiagnosed dyslexia.

after they were given a tutor and an ultimatum that they kept good grades in order to stay in soccer, they truly started to shine. they reached their peak at seventeen, when they were offered a scholarship to the university of adelaide, two thousand miles away from their hometown of brisbane. they graduated with a hard earned a 75 atar and made the move away from everything they’d ever known.

she wound up studying human sciences, where she would meet her first serious boyfriend in a shared class. they were hardly seen without one another, finding they had more in common than what they were taught at school — everyone underestimated him, too, and he did always have a soft spot for soccer, but especially now that he knew she was an athlete — he was perfect.

until he wasn’t. a few months into the relationship, drew had been given a set of rules that they had to follow in order not to upset their boyfriend: no parties, no revealing clothing ( unless he liked it, of course ), no talking to people that they didn’t know, and especially no talking to other men. whenever they fought back against these restrictions, they were initially verbally berated before it escalated into a physical issue and drew knew they needed to get out.

he wouldn’t leave her without a mark, though. the night she planned on leaving he discovered her packing her bags and attacked her, throwing her out of their shared apartment where she sustained internal injuries. she kept quiet at first, until her unchecked injuries ultimately led to a severe acl tear during a game that she couldn’t bounce back from, permanently suspending her from playing sports again.

drew was left without a purpose in the world, and did what she once knew best — run away from everyone and pretend like she didn’t care. she backpacked around australia for a while, until moving onto europe and eventually made her way to shrike heights, where she’s been for the past few months.