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uwupaige · 10 months ago

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the nanny [paige bueckers] part five

[chapter 8]

‘the nanny’ master list!

chapter eight: cat as a cat!

*barely proofread*

the small clicks of her feet against the grey and dirty pavement filled catherine's sense for a moment as her and paige's conversation came to a brief halt. they had mindlessly been holding several casual conversations over the course of the evening. the sounds of excited children paired well with the festive environment—houses decorated in family friendly horror, animated, blow-up ghosts and fog machines probably being sold out in every department store near them. the women both loved how most of the homes in this random neighborhood were super involved in the holiday and their community.

madion's small skipping had been only a few feet in front of the women as she wandered down the sidewalk looking for the next house adorned in gore to visit. the girl had been trick-or-treating for the last couple of hours, seemingly not tired yet. she was in her own little world, even after the constant reminder from the tall women behind her to not go too far or to watch where she was walking.

the women kept up with madison as best as they could, but they were honestly growing bored of the consistent pace of the evening, in turn making them tired. paige tried her best to keep her head up, though, looking forward to the halloween party she had planned on attending later that evening.

their arms brushed and bumped against one another constantly, the closeness not seeming to bother either of the women as they picked back up on their conversation flow.

"oh, i signed maddie up for one of those little league sports programs you were telling me about." paige spoke up, inevitably breaking the silence.

catherine looked up slightly from where her eyes lingered on madison to meet the eyes of the blonde beside her. lightly gasping excitedly, her hands together to make a single clap sound, holding them close to her chest. "really?" she asked, excitedly. she was so happy paige had listened to her advice. paige responded with a nod and a grin, looking down at catherine momentarily. "she's gonna love it." catherine added.

paige sighed with a nod as she swayed slightly down the concrete, eyes finding the back of her daughters head once more, "hope so. she needs friends." she spoke sincerely.

catherine shrugs, ultimately agreeing with the woman but lacking her worry. "don't stress it." she shoves her hands in the back pocket of her dark washed jeans that clung to her body. "i wasn't very social until high school. and i'm pretty cool now."

paige let's out a belly laugh at that one, relishing in the unamused look catherine shot her way, "please. i'm one of your three friends. the other two are your mom and molly."

catherine's arms folded across her chest, the chunky green sweater on her torso falling slightly off her shoulder to reveal her smooth, tan skin. "technically, you're my boss."

"mhm. and your mom is your mom—doesn't count. you have one friend."

scoffing, catherine shakes her head at the blonde, holding a hand up in defense. "shut up. i used to be cool in high school."

"used to be. i been cool since birth."

the brunette playfully shoves the teasing woman beside her, but she mostly ends up pushing herself away from her, paige hardly stumbling due to her strong balance.

shaking her head once again, catherine spoke, "molly would beat your ass if she heard how mean you were being to me."

"gosh, i wanna meet her. she sounds so bad." paige commented unashamed, having heard so many cool stories about the woman and her best friend already. molly sounded like a hell of a time.

the woman nods politely, shoving her hands into the sleeves of her sweater to protect her from the cool, october air. "she is.. but she's so professional now, it's hard to get it out of her." catherine spoke, almost reminiscing on who her best friend once was when they were younger. she had a hard time clinging on to the past.

"still." paige doesn't change her mind. taking a pause, she then asks a question that lingered in her mind. "does she live 'round here?"

the brunette sighs, almost just realizing right now that she really did have no friends. "no, she uh, moved to new york—brooklyn."

paige wanted to wince at the new information. she'd die if she lived that far away from the team of women she called her best friends and sisters. "that's tough.. what about your mom?"

"she's in boston." catherine informed uninterested, almost like she wasn't the biggest fan of this topic.

paige's brows furrowed, now wondering if catherine had anyone near by. any friends, family. "why's she there?"

catherine shrugged, arms still firm across her chest. "she moved there after i graduated high school. for as long as i can remember, she's wanted to move there. never knew why, never asked." she spoke, plain and simple.

paige nodded, now sticking her cold palms in the pockets of her black sweat pants as she decided to share some information of her own. "i've lived away from my mom for most of my life. i only ever visited her during the summer."

"yeah?"

"mhm. but, i'm a dad's girl, so." paige joked, insinuating she was never all that close with her mother.

catherine chuckled with a single head shake, "yeah, that's checks out."

paige's nose scrunched at what she assumed was the woman teasing her, looking over at her with an frown. "whatchu mean?"

"you're so spoiled." the brunette snorted.

paige's jaw dropped momentarily. she would've stopped dead in her tracks if she didn't have a small child to keep up with. "stop playin', i'm not spoiled."

catherine laughed at the teasing she was giving the blonde beside her. they both watched as madison ran up to the next house they passed by, stopping momentarily by their dark blue mailbox as she watched the little girl excitedly yell out, "trick or treat!"

the older couple who opened the door complimented the girls cat costume, madison not hesitating to remind them that she was actually a cheetah. catherine giggled at the interaction, paige continuing her conversation next to her.

"i think i became way more selfless after drew was born." the blonde explained, cheeks a shade of pink from the cold air. catherine has heard of drew many times before, she loved the way paige would talk about him. "and then after mads.."

catherine took her eyes off of madison, looking up at the side of paige's face with a warm smile. "whole view on life changed?"

paige nodded, looking down to catch catherine's expecting brown eyes, noticing how she shifted slightly under her gaze. "completely."

catherine's smile sent vibrations down the blondes spine, causing a warm sensation to errupt in her stomach and her hands to become sweaty. paige hadn't noticed, but she gulped rather obviously, the brunette raising an eyebrow at that with a smile paige couldn't quite place on her plump lips.

the two were soon interrupted from their moment by a tired madison walking down the drive way, whining. "i'm tired, mom."

paige noticed how she was dragging. catherine reached for the bucket filled to the brim with candy, grasping it firmly to carry for the girl. paige picked up her tired daughter, the three of them heading back down the opposite side of the road where their condo apartment would be waiting for them.

˚✧.*

the women managed to get madison down to sleep, trading off on who would bathe her and who would go through her candy for anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

after reasonable suggestions from a stern catherine, paige allowed madison two pieces of candy to have before bed. originally, she was just going to let the girl have at it. the brunette simply shook her head at the thought.

they both managed to get her to bed at a decent time, only a mere thirty minutes later than normal. though, catherine did most of the heavy lifting because paige wasn't reading madison her book the way catherine did. rolling her eyes and shaking her head, she passed the book to catherine. "that's all you."

the women both exited madison's now dark room, closing the door as quietly as possible. paige followed catherine to the kitchen, where her dark brown purse had been lingering since they all left for trick-or-treating that evening.

reading the digital numbers on the stove top that indicated what time it was, the brunette decided that 8:34 would be a good time to head home for the night. before all of the suspicious people and drunk drivers came out. remembering paige had mentioned catherine not needing to stay late since she had hired a babysitter for the night, she gathered her things, throwing her purse over her shoulder. though, she wouldn't even be able to say farewell to the blonde, the jingle of her keys enough to make paige speak up.

"woah, wait, where are you going?" paige asked, confused, as she walked up behind the brunette before her, stopping herself when she's only a couple of feet away from her.

catherine looked back at the woman, confusion too on her face before turning her body completely. "i'm.. going home?"

she was confused as to why paige was confused. they did every night. when paige returned home, catherine would then return to her home. her excuse was always her needing to check up on her cat.

though, this night was different. she technically hadn't been working for most of it, she just wanted to join the bueckers for some family friendly, halloween fun. and, of course, she wanted to do madison's cheetah makeup.

paige simply just shook her head, hands leaving her pockets as she gestured with her words, "no, we're going to that halloween party i told you about yesterday."

the woman blinked at paige, almost as if she had been speaking a foreign language. her brows furrowed, shaking her head profusely as she stumbled on her words. "wait- no- i didn't say i'd go."

"yes, you did." paige spoke matter of factly, catherine instantly recognizing the playful tone in the woman's voice, one she had been aware of since they met.

catherine scoffs, an amused smile playing on her plump lips, "i did not, fuck you." her voice was light and playful, a heavy contrast to her words.

"did too. you said you'd love to join me."

"liar, i said i'd think about it."

the blonde took a pause, eyeing catherine expectantly. "well.. have you thought about it?"

shaking her head, the brunette gathered her belongings once more. "goodnight, paige."

pushing past the determined woman, catherine attempted to make it to the door—her exit, her home free—but was unfortunately stopped by paige, grabbing her hand swiftly. "please, it'll be so much fun. you said it yourself, you have no friends."

catherine didn't have much time to dwell on the fact that her hand was now in paige's, too focused on the slight insult thrown her way. "i never said i didn't have any friends." she spoke with a scoff and an amused chuckle.

paige grimaced, realizing she had thought that all on her own. "my bad." the woman just rolled her eyes in response, paige's once playful act now more serious. "just come. i promise, it'll be fun."

shaking her head, catherine could feel herself being persuaded. "i.. i don't even have a costume." she found an excuse to throw.

however, the sound of madison's small voice interrupted the women once again that night. the small girl stood tired in the frame of the hallway, rubbing her eyes as she spoke innocently. "you can wear mine, cat."

paige let out a small laugh at this, both of them regretting being as loud as they were, disappointed they woke up the small girl.

the blonde turned to face the woman beside her, hands no longer intertwined. "no excuses. you're coming."

˚✧.

pulling into the unfamiliar lot, paige found the nearest spot to park her black car in, urging catherine to hurry up. the women had arrived at catherine's apartment complex. old looking, and a bit run down, paige took in the scenery. after paige had gotten ready at her place, she had managed to, by the grace of God, get catherine on board with her plan.

they made a quick stop at catherine's apartment so the girl could find a last minute costume to throw on.

unbuckling her seatbelt and hopping out of the vehicle, the brunette turned to paige, a wondering look present on her face. "you coming?"

walking up the outdoor concrete steps to the second floor on the complex, they reached the woman's humble abode. paige couldn't help but look past her shoulder every few seconds, the building emitting an eerie aura, one that would scare her endlessly

if she had to walk to her apartment alone at night.

finally, the front door, with the number 42 resting on it, had popped open a bit. the click of the lock turning brought paige a sense of comfort, excited to finally make it inside.

flipping the light on, paige noticed how catherine's apartment resembled nothing of the outside. yeah, the appliances were older, but she could tell the woman took pride in making her place a home.

the most comfortable looking sofa took up a good chunk of the room, large, light grey cushions looked like they had been worn in. the several blankets of the same green color palette decorated the couch nicely. a small, round table was found with four chairs surrounding it, though she could tell only one of them had been used extensively.

catherine walked about the place casually, opposite from paige's hesitant wandering.

"cute place."

catherine recognized her tone as a genuine one, looking past her shoulder momentarily to shoot the woman a just as genuine grin. "thanks." she spoke, her words like honey. she tossed her purse onto her small kitchen counter, "you can get comfy. might be here for a while."

paige hoped they wouldn't be as long as the woman promised. it was one thing to be fashionably late, but they were already pushing it by an hour.

thirty minutes passed, and paige was becoming a bit anxious by how late they would now be. "yo, cat," the woman called, getting a simple 'hmm' in response. standing up from the comfortable cushion, she wanders deeper into the small apartment to find where catherine had been. "we gotta get going."

she turned into a small bathroom, and she had realized how different her and catherine lived. her bathroom was way more decorated than paige's could've ever been. she liked the smell of perfume and vanilla soap that lingered in the air. looking at catherine through the mirror, she noticed the simple cat makeup she had done. she also noticed the stack of folded clothes sitting on her toilet lit, cat ears laying comfortably on top.

"you can't beg me to come to this party with you last minute, and then rush me." the woman spoke simply without missing a beat, somehow staying focused on her costume makeup.

paige went to grab the pile of clothes resting on the toilet lit, holding them firm in her hands. "just finish getting ready in the car, it's like fifteen minutes away."

catherine scoffed, "i can't do my makeup in the car."

"try your best." paige sassed before exiting the bathroom. a few moment passed before catherine heard the sound of her front door closing, indicating paige had indeed left to her car. with catherine's costume in hand.

sighing with an eye roll, catherine muttered some spanish insults to herself before gathering her makeup necessities into the small, black, makeup stained pouch.

though she was irritated with all of the bumps and sharp turns, catherine managed to finish her makeup pretty well. now, she had to figure out how she was supposed to change her clothes in this moving vehicle comfortably and without showing too much to the woman beside her.

"paige, i don't know any of them, though... i haven't been to a party like that in years." the woman pleaded, continuing on with their previous conversation as she slipped her jeans down her legs.

to say paige was using all of her strength to not look over at catherine an unhealthy amount was an understatement. if there wasn't a road that she had to pay attention to, she would've been staring.

shaking her head, disagreeing with the brunettes worries, "you were literally a bartender. for, like, three years." paige responded.

catherine sighed, bending over slightly to find her bottoms in the pile of clothes that sat on the floor of paige's car. "it's different when i'm working. i go on autopilot."

"just relax."

"wish it was that simple." the woman responded without missing a beat, anxiety filling her chest.

her hands soon find the hems of her chunky, dark green sweater, swiftly pulling it over her head.

this time, paige really couldn't help the way her eyes shifted from the dark road to the woman beside her several times. though she couldn't stare for long, she took note of the very plain and simple black bra catherine had been sporting. though there wasn't anything special about the garment itself, the woman just could help but want to look. she took note of her smooth and tan stomach. she has seen it many times when catherine would wear small shirts, but she'd never seen it in such an intimate manner.

clearing her throat, the blonde hoped the saliva would return to her now dry mouth soon. "you're gonna get along with everyone. promise."

deep down, catherine was mainly scared of partying with paige like that. though she had already accepted the fact that paige was more her friend than she would ever be her boss, it was still nerve wrecking to hang with her in such a manner. this was a territory they had yet to enter. and she wasn't sure why it made her so insanely nervous.

˚✧.*

catherine walked mere inches behind paige as they walked up the steps to the location of the halloween party. a small home, but a house nonetheless. she didn't try to walk past or next to paige, her anxiety more prominent than ever. her heels of choice allowed her to be almost the same height as the woman before her, something she wasn't sure she liked or not.

opening the door casually, paige stepped in. catherine was only a few seconds before her, stepping in the place as paige closed the door behind the pair. looking around, she noticed the orange and purple lights emitting from several corners of the room, a few gory decorations here and there. she noticed the small home wasn't terribly crowded, groups of adults scattered around the main areas. however, the sounds of cheering and miscellaneous greetings would've convinced her the house was filled to the brim had she been blindfolded.

the woman recognized that they were all excited because of the blonde woman before her, a few starting to chant, "party p! party p!" a phrase catherine was almost sure she's heard before.

catherine wanted to curse herself from how shy she was being in this moment. this was so out of character from who she once was, who she wanted to be.

not daring to leave paige's side, she awkwardly smiled at the room, her eyes finding paige, awaiting their next step. she prayed to every higher being that she wouldn't lose paige in the crowd tonight. soon, she was filled with regret at the realization of loud, rap music blasting throughout the home. i should've just went home.

"aye, party p!"

a familiar voice interrupted catherine's overthinking, looking over to meet the friendly face of kk arnold. she watched as the women greeted each other excitedly, hands coming together and pulling each other in for a small hug. however, kk's attention was soon taken up by the women they had all been asking to meet properly for almost two months now.

"oh, my gosh!" the woman cheered, excitedly, pulling away from paige. "catherine! hey girl!"

catherine smiled, nodding a bit shyly at kk's overwhelming kind expression, acting way different than the first time she had met the woman. "hi, kk." she spoke softly, but loud enough for the woman to hear her over the loud music, giving her a sweet smile.

kk stepped back from catherine, looking her over momentarily as she took in her costume of choice. "oh, my gosh." she spoke, seriously before returning to her cheery self. "cat as a cat!"

this allowed catherine to let out a genuine laugh at the slightly younger woman's excitement.

kk takes the initiative to wrap an arm around catherine's shoulder, turning the both of them to face the connected living room and kitchen full of young adults. "yo, everybody." she called out, somehow speaking over the loud music successfully to grab the party's attention. "this our girl cat, and she's super chill, so be friendly."

most of the room say a collective hi or hey to catherine, causing the woman to grow a bit embarrassed, small shades of red rising to her cheeks.

paige just leaned down ever so slightly to speak to the girl over the music, her mouth landing only inches from her sensitive ears, a smug tone coating her words. "told you you'd get along with everyone."

catherine just rolled her eyes to the blonde as kk dragged her to the kitchen. she noticed how the island in the kitchen was surrounded by familiar, tall women. she assumed they were paige's teammates, all cheering when they saw the three women walk over.

they were much friendlier than catherine had imagined, all of them instantly to the woman like white on rice. they were desperate to get to know her, and were so excited she had finally made it to a party.

kk interrupted the small talk momentarily, begging catherine for drink of choice to grab her. "umm..." the woman spoke, her voice loud as she attempted to talk over the music. "i'm-i'm not sure, i'm more of a wine drinker."

some of the women couldn't help but snort at that response, teasing the woman playfully as they normally did with their friends. "girl, please. we've got two types of tequila and some juice, that's it." azzi joked through exaggerated laughs, her palms resting on the counter top.

"ain't no way you're a bartender and your drink of choice is nasty ass, plain ass wine." ice furrowed her brows, an amused smile on the face.

"that just aged you by like ten years, babe." azzi agreed.

catherine shrugged with a shy smile, "i like how it tastes!"

paige's nose scrunched at the thought of wine on her tongue, gagging at the thought. "eugh, gross."

"you're all such babies." catherine spoke up for herself, becoming more comfortable around the group of women by the second. "here, i'll make something crazy."

catherine began looking around the random kitchen, peering her head into a few of the white cabinets, grabbing ingredients the women would have never thought to add to their drinks. pouring and mixing the drink the women would have called random, catherine presents her craft in a blue solo cup, handing it to paige.

"try it." the brunette instructs, urging the woman to take a sip. "tell me how it tastes."

paige was a sucker for a challenge, but she did hesitate at this. bringing the blue cup to her lips, she braced herself for the bitter taste of alcohol, not missing how much she saw catherine pour into the mix. however, she was stunned when she tasted the opposite. her face didn't even contort at the singular sip, eyes widening in shock. "it literally tastes like juice."

most of the women gasped, just as shocked as the blonde. "gimme that," kk demanded, taking the plastic cup out of paige's hands, sniffing it for a few seconds before bringing it up to her lips. taking a swig, her expression mimicked the one of her friend beside her. "damn, kitty cat, okay!"

taking the drink out of kk's hands, catherine went to sip on the alcoholic beverage, enjoying the sweet tastes of strawberry and raspberry. all of the women bang to beg the brunette to make them drinks, her just simply shooing everyone off. "nah, nah," she waved them off as she took a sip, "you can't make fun of me and then ask for a favor." she jokes with the group.

as the party continued, catherine fell deeper and deeper into the night. she was feeling more and more loose by the minute. the woman was just barely finishing the drink she had made earlier in the night, and she already felt amazing. she hadn't even realized she was beginning to socialize with random people, having lost paige to the crowd a long time ago.

the woman began mindlessly dancing to the mix of rap and r&b music that floated throughout the home, making friends with some girls she had met only minute prior and some of the women belonging to the uconn women's basketball team.

catherine was enjoying herself way than she had anticipated, and she was becoming quick friends with the girls paige would call her family.

˚✧.*

the tipsy blonde rummaged through the second drawer in her tall, black dresser, looking for something comfortable to wear. she watched as her hand flipped through her choice of sweatpants through her drunk eyes, not sure which pair of grey ones to wear.

"paige, just pick one." a sassy voice interrupted the woman's decision making, paige turning to meet eyes with a just as drunk catherine. the brunette sat still in the doorframe of paige's bedroom, leaning against the white wall trimmings, a tired expression on her face.

paige held a hand up at the woman, almost shooing her off as she decided in deep thought which ones she's wanted. finally, she grabbed two pairs off the top, not hesitating to toss one to the impatient woman eyeing her down just mere feet away.

surprisingly, catherine caught the sweatpants with ease, turning away and making her way down the quiet, dim hallway.

the two woman had just returned home from the halloween party, the time reading 1:47 a.m. on their almost dead phones. though they weren't exactly drunk out of their minds anymore, both chugging great sums of water before their decided to call it a night, they were both definitely still feeling pretty nice.

when they arrived home, paige insisted that catherine stayed the night due to their lack of soberness. she even decided to give up her bed tonight, assuring the woman that it was totally okay.

catherine began the attempt to take her small, black top off, legs still wobbling to the living room down the hallway. yanking it off of her head, she finally found the couch, looking for the shirt paige had also lended her for the night. much different style than she would've worn, but it would suffice for the night.

after pulling the dark pink shirt over her head, she pulled her tight, black bottoms down her smooth, tan legs, desperate to get out of the uncomfortable fabric.

looking up at the low sound of footsteps approaching, catherine caught the dazed eyes of paige. giving her a single nod and a quick grin, she returned to shimmying out of the pants. she would've never thought that changing in front of paige would be weird. she always changed in front of her friends, or just other girls in general. and knowing paige probably normally did the same, being at basketball practice everyday, she didn't even think twice about it. however, finally recognizing the distant look in paige's eyes, one she was unsure if the blonde was purposefully trying to communicate, it made her nervous. the light red heat rose to her cheeks in an instant, taking her lingering gaze away from the intimidating and intimate one paige had been staring her down with.

maybe paige noticed the uncomfortable silence that hung in the room, or the way catherine looked away from their intimate stare, but she cleared her throat, muttering a quick, "sorry."

shuffling her way to the kitchen in an outfit extremely similar to catherine's, she reached into her stainless steel fridge, grabbing two cold water bottles. she knew these would either be the most refreshing thing in the world, or give them immense headaches.

at the sound of a body stumbling onto the grey couch in her living room, paige turned to find catherine sitting on the sofa, legs still bare from where she could see and an exhausted pout on her face.

the brunette let her hands come up to her face, the alcohol remnants in her system doing the opposite effect of what it normally did: make her sensitive. sighing, she began calling out for paige through her hands, her words slightly muffled. "can you help me?"

paige couldn't help but snort to herself as she rounded the small kitchen island to reveal catherine sitting still on the couch, her tight black pants resting just below her knees, bunched up. catherine's hands fell from her face at the sound of paige's laughs, shooting her the most offended glare. "i don't wanna hear it."

paige continued laughing, the more she stared, the funnier it got. dropping the water bottles onto the spot on the couch next to the frustrated woman, the blonde began the fight that was getting these pants off.

it didn't help that paige was as gone as catherine was, and the added weakness from her immense laughter made it that much harder. catherine couldn't help but start laughing as well, having to remind herself mentally to keep it down since madison was just a wall away.

finally pulling the black bottoms off completely, both of the women huff, paige tossing the bunched clothing onto the floor next to the brunette, slumping into the empty spot next to her.

the two women sat on the grey couch, in comforting silence as their laughs died off. the blondes clothed legs were spread as her feet rested comfortably on the floor, shoulder length apart, her arms resting across her stomach.

catherine's exposed legs were pulled onto the soft couch, almost having

forgotten about the grey sweats waiting for her. knees tucked under her as her body faced paige's, eyeing the woman.

paige let a couple more seconds of silence pass over, contemplating if she wanted to pry with the amount of questions lingering in her head. "so.. why didn't you move to boston with your mom?"

the brunette inhaled sharply, paige noticing. "my funky ex—that's why."

paige laughed a bit, looking to the side to meet catherine's eyes momentarily. "you and this ex of yours." she shook her head playfully. "i need to know what happened."

catherine shook her head back, looking down at her smooth legs. "it's really dumb."

"can't be as dumb as mine." paige responded, assurance and comfort in her voice.

catherine's brows furrowed in momentary confusion before realizing what paige had been alluding to. "madison's dad?"

the blonde simply nodded, cringing at just the thought. she hardly talked about the subject. she never really told anyone about him. "alex. he was just so... weird."

"weird?"

"yeah, bro, like.." the woman trailed off, trying to gather her thoughts. "we met my junior year, and he was a senior. met him after our rivalry game against his school—he was on the boys basketball team."

catherine listened intently to the woman, nodding at her words, sort of smiling at the thought of younger paige.

"and, we were just friends for a while. and then one day, like, a few months later, he asked me out. and i wasn't even sure if i, y'know.." paige trailed off, unsure of how to speak her next words. though it wasn't exactly a secret, she rarely ever said it out loud. she was still working on that part. however, catherine's comforting presence and sweet voice would always break through to her.

"what?" the brunettes sweet voice lingered throughout paige's head, causing her to look over and catch her eyes.

"liked guys." the woman confessed, noticing how catherine's expression didn't even change. all the information did was elicit a simple nod from her. "but, uh, i still went out with him. just to see—guys never really asked me out in school, either. i was taller than a lot of them for a while, i think that's why."

catherine laughed genuinely at the small joke paige had slipped into what the woman would assume to be a sad story.

laughing a bit too, paige relished in the way she made catherine's giggle. "and, uh, i went out with him once.. and, y'know, i did like him. i wasn't, like, in love, though." the blonde shook her head, her words a bit more sadder than the tone she was just speaking with. "i'm not sure why i slept with him."

talking about her story would usually bring out old feelings, the stinging feeling in her nose a sign that she was about to cry. however, the woman opted to simply just sniffle with a head shake, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand to dismiss the feeling, not exactly wanting to break down in front of her friend. "it was short lived, though. he got really weird and quiet with me until we just stopped talking altogether."

the woman beside her just simple shook her head, a sour expression on her face, understanding exactly what happened now. "asshole." catherine muttered.

paige just shrugged, "i thought so, too. but, in a way, i'm grateful.. i would've never had maddie."

catherine half nodded, unsure if she would've been as grateful for the situation as paige was. then again, she wasn't a mom. sighing, the woman shrugged, simply responding with, "god's timing."

"that's what i say." the sniffling blonde agreed, "i think if i were to get pregnant later on, it wouldn't be mads."

the brunette nodded understandingly, hesitant to ask her next question. though she did it anyway. "does he know about her?"

paige was quick with her response, "yeah, he does. he's never met her, though." she watched as her friends eyes bulged, almost forgetting this was catherine's first time hearing this story. to be fair, it was paige's first time telling anyone in a while. "last i heard, he was in.. utah? but, he pays what he owes, and we don't talk."

catherine sat there, eyes full of sadness for the woman she has grown extremely fond of. she let a hand come up to her friends arm, a gesture paige had found to be one catherine did to comfort her, unsure if hugging was something they did or not. they never have, and she was sure today wouldn't be the start.

paige noticed, not sure if she liked all of the attention on her in this fashion. clearing her throat to break the tension, she looks at catherine expectantly. "what about you?"

"what about me?"

"shitty exes? deadbeats? thought you were in love?" the blonde explained.

catherine chuckled, her turn to look away from the woman nervously. "all of the above."

paige's thoughts bypassed the rest of her response, only highlighting the most important information to her in that moment. "you thought you were in love?"

"mhm." catherine hummed in response, nodding simply.

paige shrugs, looking away, straight ahead at the dark tv that rested on the light wall. "everyone says that they are."

"i was, though." the brunette retaliated, "i was 'bouta marry him."

the blonde did a double take. that was definitely not what she was expecting catherine to say. "funky ex? you were gonna marry him?"

"swear." catherine answered to paige's disbelief, a small grin playing on her lips at the woman's shock. "i met chris—"

"chris?" paige interrupted, a scoff playing on her words. "he already sounds like a dick."

catherine shook her head, expecting this kind of attitude and reaction from paige as she told her story. "shut up, paige." the woman spoke through laughs, a hand coming up to rub her temple. simple actions and reactions like this truly showed catherine that both paige and madison were related.

"my bad, my bad. continue."

"chris and i, we met right before the end of senior year," the brunette started, shifting in her seat uncomfortably, attempting to stall the story as much as possible. like paige, she hardly ever told anyone about this time of her life. "and things moved so fast. we started dating and moved in together the summer after graduation."

"oh, shit." was all the blonde could respond with.

"mhm. and then, a year in, he proposed.. and everything was great, it really was." catherine spoke, reminiscing. "we were, y'know, broke as shit, but.. i loved being broke with him." the woman looked down at her fiddling hands, taking a decently long pause. this part for the story always sends her emotional out of whack. "then, like a week before the wedding, i found out he was cheating on me." her voice was small but her words held so much.

paige's eyes softened, heart tugging at the thought of catherine hurting so deeply. "cat.." her voice mimicked catherine's, small and sad.

the brunette sniffled, her story bringing her to tears as well. "the shittiest part was," the woman took a pause, eyes looking up to find the ceiling, a trick that would allow her to keep from letting her tears fall. "i was offered a scholarship to stanford—for soccer.. and i stayed here. to be with him." catherine's techniques to avoid crying began to fail, a few tears falling, her voice pitchy and cracking. "for nothing."

"hey," immediately, paige was sitting up in her spot on the couch. she felt horrible for asking catherine to tell her. to relive those old feelings. "fuck, i'm sorry—"

catherine was quick to shake her head, the back of her hand going to wipe the few stray tears as she sniffled. "oh, my gosh, don't be." she assured, looking to find her cheery demeanor one more, "it's so dumb." the woman started chuckling through her tears, "i'm only crying because i'm drunk."

paige couldn't help but let out small laughs at this as well, "so, that's why you didn't go to boston? and stopped playing soccer?"

the teary eyed woman simply just nodded in response, still pawing at her cheeks. the blonde sighed for the woman beside her, her large hand falling to catherine's exposed thigh naturally, her attempt to comfort the woman.

"i know your story ended kinda fucked up, but.." paige trailed off momentarily, waiting to find the woman's eyes. catherine did eventually look up to meet paiges crystal eyes, the feeling of paige's warm hand on her thigh sending shivers all down her body. "i'm happy you stayed."

catherine gave paige a sweet smile, her lips plump and her eyes soft. she shifted in her position slightly, hoping she wouldn't lose paige's touch in the process. scooting a bit closer, she leaned in to rest her head on the blonde's shoulder. catherine allowed her head to rub against the woman's shoulder to find the spot that was most comfortable for her. "yeah, i'm kinda happy too."

all she could feel in response was the feeling of paige's head resting against her own.

authors note!

i have so much to say right now??

this was such a long chapter. i was unsure of when to split up the story, so this will have to do lol. also, party p and now party cat?? love to see it, love to see it. and HELLO LORE DROP?? ate down!!

i genuinely love them so bad, and i love how their relationship is blooming.

as per usual, let me know what you think in the replies or through anons!! i'm so excited to hear all of your thoughts!!

thanks so much for the support!🩷

- mari 🫧

6.7k words.

#paige bueckers #paige buckets #wlw #paige bueckers edit #paige bueckers x reader #paige bueckers x y/n #paige bueckers smut #paige bueckers x you #uconn wbb #paige x reader #uconn #uconn wcbb #uconn huskies #uconn women’s basketball

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eyeodyssey · 2 years ago

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Photos from the Tokyo Grand Guignol stage play Galatia Teito Monogatari, based loosely on the Teito Monogatari serial of epic dark sci fi occult horror books. Despite sharing its basis with a greatly influential series which spawned several films (the first Teito Monogatari adaption even featuring special effects designed by H.R. Giger) and a set of animated horror films, Galatia remains the most obscure of the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s productions. Very sparse information of its contents exist online. On one specific page I found a month back, a (very poorly translated) English synopsis describes the play as being a story about a machine that destroys a major city in Japan. It’s unclear if the machine they’re referring to is in reference to a humanoid robot or a more generalized weapon. It’s said that in the play, Kyusaku Shimada appears as a mad scientist who creates the oxygen destroyer from Godzilla (1954). In a description of the ending, the finale depicts a scenario where the character Yasunori Katō (a demon that manifests itself as an imperial army First Lieutenant) welcomes one of the characters to what he refers to as the “new imperial city”. He reveals to the character a supernatural landscape where various children’s toys and dolls across the stage come to life and move around on their own, all to the sounds of marching drums and claps of thunder. All images were digitized by yours truly, with the sources being volume 28 of Yaso magazine and the Suehiro Maruo-focused magazine Only You, which features a digest version of Galatia’s screenplay. Of course, with the screenplay (or at least a condensed version of it) in my possession, I plan to translate it to English some way or another down the line. This adaption would help start off Shimada’s professional acting career, with Shimada having his first major cinematic role as Yasunori Katō in the film Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. As mentioned though, Shimada doesn’t act as Katō in the Tokyo Grand Guignol version. That role was instead designated to Yaguruma Kennosuke, who would later appear as Raizou in the original performances of Lychee Hikari Club.

Yaguruma Kennosuke as Raizou in Lychee's December 1985 performance, apprehending the Marquis de Maruo (performed by Suehiro Maruo) when he enters the Hikari Club's hideout. Kennosuke is on the right side of Maruo, with Hiroyuki Tsunekawa (Zera) standing aside Kennosuke with his bag of lychee fruits. As a side note, you've gotta appreciate how despite then being well into a Maruo-flavored era of underground culture, there are still the occasional callbacks to Terayama's legacy, hence the clock that Katō is seen holding in the first photo.

#norimizu ameya #tokyo grand guignol #teito monogatari #lychee light club #litchi hikari club #suehiro maruo

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apocalypse-boogie · 4 months ago

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CASTLEVANIA: NOCTURNE SHIT THAT I LIKED WHILE WATCHING THROUGH S2 (SPOILERS)

- this is technically my live commentary as I was watching each episode, though there are some edits that I made after my first watch and some general commentary sprinkled throughout.

- there’s also some things I didn’t like in here, but there’s less of those opinions overall

- also featuring my heavy Drolta bias.

No vampire on this show seems to be able to handle the loss of a loved one normally (except for maybe Olrox, but that’s debatable considering his relationship with Mizrak; and I mean this from a Mizrak lashes out at Olrox a lot and an Olrox fell for him very hard in a short amount of time perspective, not from the viewpoint of me personally disliking Mizrak). They’re either carrying around their spouse’s rotted dismembered head or carrying their entire corpse around; none of these people can let go. Erzsebet had every right not to though, don’t get me wrong; I too would’ve been too devastated to go on without Drolta.

Love the horror strings taking over the background music when Drolta is finished being brought back to “life” but hasn’t yet come out of the forgemaster machine.

Yes I absolutely did rewatch her walking out of the machine and her scene right after multiple times.

Drolta’s got inches, just the curls on her corpse were long as hell. I need my hair like that in the next five years🤞🏾.

I love Drolta’s new design about as much as her old one, except for the wings. They're fine enough, their roundness just mildly vexes me. And I do mean mildly.

Drolta backstory!

Human Drolta! Her being dedicated enough to go to war for Sekhmet. I liked being able to see the circumstances that broke Drolta, that led her away from the path of a healer and corrupted her compassion and ceaseless dedication into bloodthirsty hate and misled obsession.

The first six minutes alone of “Angel of Death” S2E2, period.

The sequence where Drolta takes flight over the water and tests out her new body in front of Erzsebet. Erzsebet clapping for her, feeding off her elation because that’s her WIFE (EDIT: little does Erzsebet know she as a person is barely a passing fad to Drolta though).

Drolta saying “it is delightful” in response to feeling the sun for the first time without pain in centuries. The little smile on her face. That was cute, I love her.

I actually like Richter more this season. Not that I disliked him in season one though.

Him and Annette buzzing uncertainly around each other is cute too.

Whatever weird ass beef Drolta and Olrox have going on now (it was there in season one too, but now the tension feels heightened).

EDIT: And the fact that it’s Drolta who continues to question Olrox and poke holes in his stories instead of Erzsebet (who calls him “my dragon” and who acts like he’s more loyal than he is) really makes me think that Erzsebet would’ve ended up back confined if Drolta wasn’t such a good backbone for her. How much she predominantly only cares about killing and bringing about suffering for little reason other than she can and thinks she has a right to blinds her — and made her pretty un-intimidating to me as a result. She’s a big physical threat but it’s like she’s got nothing beyond that desire to hurt ruling her and it makes her sloppy and unimpressive whenever she tries to be intimidating (especially whenever Drolta’s not there).

The shot of Drolta rising up before Olrox to proclaim that hunting the French military during the day would be more fun than waiting to do it at night.

The entirety of Drolta tearing apart the soldiers and clearly basking in it. She is serving absolute looks while going on a bloodthirsty demenated binge and I love her all the more for it. Why shouldn’t she be allowed to tear off the top of a man’s skull if she wants to, yk?

Olrox stopping Mizrak from trying to fight Drolta essentially one on one was sweet (even if I don’t necessarily like Mizrak).

The continued stressing of the fact that Drolta is more of an abomination, even more unnatural than before, since being resurrected and going through the machine.

THEORY (I’m currently on “Angel of Death” S2Ep2 as I write this bit): I think Drolta knows more than she’s letting on about resurrecting Sekhmet and that she’s planning to bring her back to life in the only way she can, with Erzsebet’s body. I think possession and full bodily transformation is the endgame, and I don’t think Erzsebet’s figured that out yet. It’s highly possible that she loves Drolta more than Drolta even cares for her as a person; Drolta only cares for her body insofar as it’s capabilities to successfully contain a goddess’s soul. Though this may be my general distaste for Erzsebet (and need for Drolta to be better than giving the soul of an Egyptian goddess to the palest white woman she could find) poking its head out so idk.

OH MY GOD DROLTA'S SWORD PROOF?!?!?!??!!!!!

I mean she was proven to be bullet proof, yeah, but that has less oomph than her brushing off a sword attack.

Ahhhhh, and she’s fucking huge compared to humans!!! How delightful!! *giggles uncontrollably for a few seconds*

Olrox liking Mizrak enough to hold him while he cries for the people Drolta is slaughtering en mass is good shit. Him holding on to Olrox for dear life as he breaks down whilst he’s soothed as much as he can be is also good shit.

Drolta literally squeezing the life out of the revolutionary army’s captain and popping her like a stress toy. Go off Queen.

“For every suffering, a wisdom is gained.” *end of episode; cut to black* OMG?!!!

Drolta’s voice lines being performed so well every time? Glorious, end of discussion.

Why is Olrox so invested in Mizrak? Every interaction he’s had with that man has ended with Olrox upset. Like, he’s literally not fucking worth it.

Drolta just letting Alucard lead her to Sekhmet’s mummy. Why work hard, you know? Especially when she’s clearly been carrying Erzsebet’s entire plan.

Drolta saying “I was born three times. The second time a vampire, and the third…a new and glorious thing,” and then pressing a kiss to the forehead of the newest female night creature. Like, bitch, I want that to be me.

Oh yeah, Edouard is going to start an uprising. Erzsebet and Drolta Them are fucked. When that army turns on them that’s gonna be the end.

I know Olrox is mad about that brand, and shit, I’m mad for him. That would’ve drove me insane. I wouldn’t want to cede that much of myself to Erzsebet either (especially since she’s not even actually Sekhmet yet). But just in general it sucks that he was branded both against his will by Drolta and for a cause that he doesn’t believe in or want to follow.

Alright Maria, embrace your darkness! And then mellow out a bit, that step is crucial here. She’s got the spirit though, and that wolf is beautiful.

Maria going “who are you” completely baffled when Juste shows up and attacks Tera is killing me. I’m laughing too hard, I had to pause it for a minute.

Tera’s control is immaculate for such a new vampire.

This is probably bad, but good for Maria. A coming of rage might be good for her. Sometimes you just want to kill your shitty harmfully delusional father; no, that wasn’t kind of cathartic for me at all /s.

Drolta being the one to turn Erzsebet. Truly all the power that woman ever gained after being confined was because of Drolta. That’s…something.

You know what? As Drolta started to fight Alucard I immediately realized that I really do not want to see Drolta die again. I know she probably will, all things considered, but still.

I understand that Tera left because she personally sees that she’s a bad influence on Maria, and she wants to protect her daughter from that side of herself until she has her own darker impulses under control. But how tf was she so sure that abandoning her child wouldn’t’ve pushed Maria right over the edge? Honestly I’ve never liked when parents do shit like run away from their kids “for their own good” unless they’re literally turning into uncontrollable monsters; like, you know what’ll really go great with this trauma sandwich? A nice tall glass of trauma lemonade with a special shot of abandonment issues mixed in! 🙄

Not Olrox offering to take that man with him. Omg. I bet you Olrox will come back and risk his life for Mizrak, and maybe even be killed doing it. At least let him be the one to kill Drolta (I have to accept her inevitable death atp, and at least let it be at the hands of the man she branded so that he can go out with a win and so that they can have a good ass fight beforehand).

EDIT: Okay, so I lost that bet but I’m super okay with that. And like, I get the Mizrox relationship I guess, but it’s just not for me.

I think the nicest thing Mizrak ever said to Olrox without immediately following his words up by calling Olrox a disgusting soulless monster was after Olrox said he was leaving for good. Don’t switch up now bitch, I just hope by the time someone else comes around you're done with this ‘lashing out, existential crisis’ shit.

The spirits overwhelming Annette was a nice touch, but I can tell the spirit world stuff will make me uncomfortable so I’m going to stop watching as it is now night.

Richter being so attuned to Annette whenever she’s in distress (even when it’s silent) and rushing to make sure she’s okay every time. He’s not always correct when he makes an assumption about why she might be disturbed when he’s reassuring her, but that’s mostly just because he doesn’t have all the information.

Annette being attuned to Richter enough to pinpoint when he’s feeling insecure and then assuage his feelings. Annette constantly using reason to defuse any possible tension between Alucard and Richter, and being just as fully prepared to call Richter out when he screws up as she is to come to his defense.

Them coming to mutually understand and respect both of their circumstances and the trauma they experienced growing up.

“Mephisto” is unsettling imo, but Olrox’s interaction with him was interesting. Olrox just has such a calm demeanor even when he’s technically outmatched or upset, and it’s very engaging.

Drolta kicking Alucard into the river. Just her kicking with her hoofs in general, she does it a lot throughout the season and I love it every time. The move is just such a finisher that I can’t help but find it appealing. It’s a competence thing, I really can’t help myself.

ABOVE THIS TEXT IS MY COMMENTARY FOR EPISODES 1-5 & BELOW IT IS EPISODES 6-8

Annette, girl, every bit of your story is riveting! Like, there’s legitimately so much here and that feels crazy. I love it! I shall cherish this fictional black woman being allowed to have negative traits (s1) without being demonized for it and then being given actual time and dedication in her personal story and the show’s overall story.

Just— ALL OF EPISODE SIX. The whole thing’s going on the list.

Alucard teasing Richter about his affections for Annette.

Richter moving the cushioning into place for Annette to sit on when she stopped hovering.

Fuck, is Sekhmet going to be the one to kill Drolta? I hope it brings her peace before she dies at least (even if she is a villian, yes).

Fuck, Olrox hasn’t left yet. Sorry, that’s more commentary than anything but I am legitimately scared for what he’s going to do.

Alright, magical girl transformation! Not, Sekhmet being ready to come for Erzsebet. I’m not going to argue.

Hold on is episode seven the first time Edouard's face hands lift? It’s not right? Am I tripping?

Edouard's singing in episode seven. It’s probably the most effective his spontaneous singing has been, and adds to the scene and themes with a lot of purpose.

Drolta looking like a spider at 05:30 in episode seven when she decides to fight Alucard.

Maria falling right into Richter as she lands and her and him hugging.

Omg, Maria tamed the dragon thing. Beautiful. I knew all she needed after the fall was to mellow back out and the power up speaks for itself.

Drolta’s nails turning into a fucking SWORD! EDIT: SWORDS!!???!!!

The insanity of Drolta’s laughing after Alucard cuts her “living” hair. I’m in pain for her, and she’s laughing that shit off?

Richter making an ice claw to keep from blowing away during his fight with Erzsebet (who’s got the two souls of Sekhmet by now).

Drolta headbutting Alucard.

OLROX!!!! Holy shit! He came back, and he’s helping Alucard!

Awwww, Richter using his ice magic to cool Annette (and thus Sekhmet’s third soul) down after realizing that she was literally burning up after collapsing. King.

I’ll never undermine the merits of getting to see Erzsebet essentially curb stomped by the majority of the gang.

Shit, Mizrak just got hit badly and I think he’s dying. Now are they gonna let him die or is Olrox going to turn him? I don’t like his ass, but if him dying will upset Olrox too much then I suppose I’ll deal without being too pissy.

Annette’s fight directly correlating to Sekhmet’s third soul’s ability to retrieve the rest of her souls.

Maria, Juste, and Richter team up. That’s all.

Richter rushing to take the brunt of Erzsebet’s attack on Annette.

Oh shit, Mizrak isn’t dead! Good for him.

Erzsebet getting tore the fuck up!

Sekhmet full scale telling Erzsebet she wasn’t ever shit. And then Drolta telling her the same thing before killing Erzsebet is crazy. No hate fr, but no love lost either (not even a little).

Drolta’s little monologue before she kills Erzsebet. A beautiful performance with beautiful animation.

Oh boy, not Drolta losing her shit too. Goddamnit. This isn’t going to end well at all. Fuck!

Third Drolta form though! That’s exciting, now she’s larger and a cross between her vampire form and her night creature form (with obvious feline features). And this time she’s been called an obscenity! And by Sekhmet’s third soul no less. She’s like a Pokémon kind of.

How is she still so pretty!!!!???!!!!!!😍😍😍 *squeals*

Drolta kicking Erzsebet. Hehehe.

Anyway, she only just got any amount of Sekhmet in her and can already pause Richter and Alucard mid strike and grow back the hand Richter so smartly cut off (it was a smart move, I’m not being sarcastic). All I’m saying is that she might be unhinged, and she might need to get her ass beat, but she’s still more powerful than Erzsebet despite having had far less time with any power that wasn’t mortal in some manner. Once again: Queen.

“Unclean thing”. Yet another insult lobbed onto Drolta. I’m just collecting them atp.

I like Sekhmet and Drolta having a conversation. Drolta crying does pain me though.

Richter letting Annette go 😭🙃. Him respecting what Annette agreed to (or did she agree?).

Drolta’s scream of anguish and rage and who knows what else. Fucking amazing. Elarica Johnson did not miss once this whole season (EDIT: and she didn’t last season either, don’t fret). Also it’s crazy that I actually recognize Drolta’s VA from the one episode of P-Valley I ever watched.

Drolta being able to stab Alucard with his sword was nice. I don’t know why she didn’t just cut and run though, I guess she’d been unmoored enough to not care anymore and just be lashing out but idk. Don’t know if I like that character beat for her, but yeah.

Jesus, they split my woman in half. Fucking hell.

Olrox came back for that last hit on Drolta. I don’t know why, but he did. He deserved that one though, I can’t be mad.

Alucard and Juste’s conversation. Uncle Alucard!

Annette’s fight in the “spirit world” was good, but I didn’t really comment about it because it didn’t really have any different beats to highlight.

I’m going to be honest, as much as I like these characters I know for a fact my interest in the show going forward will wane without Drolta, but the journeys of the other characters are still nice to see.

OKAY so I didn’t call exactly how Drolta would turn against Erzsebet, but that’s alright.

Well Mizrak is a vampire now. So long as Olrox is happy I guess. *big sigh* More angst to come though, so that’s (maybe) fun.

EDIT: And no hate to the Mizrox shippers, all of this shit is my opinion, I haven’t seriously cared about policing what other people ship in a decade.

Apparently “Mephisto” and Tera are in cahoots. I don’t know what’s going on there. Also, “Mephisto’s” shadow form occasionally having teeth is wild imagery.

Overall as a Drolta fan I’m pretty satisfied.

#SPOILERS #drolta tzuentes #castlevania: nocturne #castlevania spoilers #castlevania nocturne #castlevania netflix #castlevania: nocturne review #sort of #castlevania annette #maria renard #tera renard #richter belmont #castlevania erzsebet #erzsebet bathory #castlevania sekhmet #castlevania olrox #human!drolta #night creature!drolta #personal•

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jinnie-ret · 8 months ago

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STRAY KIDS MYSTERY INCORPORATED: WHO ATE THE LUCK?!

episode one

ot8 stray kids

❀ genre: comedy, horror, fluff

❀ content warnings: mention of hypnosis

❀ word count: 2.9k-ish

❀ summary: all eight of them were settled down and cosy, ready to spend halloween together as a group, but it's felix's mistaken purchase that lands them where they are

a/n: hi everyone! Really excited to post this first part to my Halloween series of 2024! If you would like to be tagged then you can always reply to this post, pm me or even send in an ask! Hope you enjoy <3

SKMI: WHO ATE THE LUCK? MAIN MASTERLIST

“-like, nothing is screaming out at me right now,” Felix shook his head, lips pursed in concentration and eyes flitting back and forth as he scanned the shelves in the downtown video shop. The unfortunate phrasing caused Jisung to decide to scream into his ear and then frighten him in the process, Felix turning around and softly punching him on the shoulder. Jisung just chuckled in response.

“I screamed at you,” Jisung laughed again.

“What? I can’t hear anymore,” Felix rubbed the left side of his head, one of his hands covering his ear in protection. The two youngest, however, didn’t even bother to look over at the bickering of the sunshine twins. They had bigger priorities on their maknae line shopping trip.

“No, nope, nah,” Seungmin boredly ran his finger across some DVDs, bored of the same old Halloween films.

“Oh we should watch Nightmare on Elm Street!” Jeongin suggested, picking the case up off of the dusty shelves.

“Really?” Seungmin turned to Jeongin, curious of his choice, “Freddy Krueger just isn’t that scary though.”

“Yeah, he is,” Jisung shuddered, taking the DVD away from Jeongin and placing it back on the shelf.

“Hyung!”

“What do you find scary then, Seungmin-ah?” Felix moved away from where he had previously been browsing, and stood next to his fellow member.

Seungmin’s gaze drifted up at the ceiling as he tried to think of something that actually did cause him fear.

“And don’t say Minho hyung,” Felix cut in just as Seungmin had experienced a lightbulb moment.

“Dammit… Well, I don’t know, then. Even Groundskeeper Willy is creepier as Freddy than Freddy is himself. The Simpsons really went all out, but it wasn’t scary,” Seungmin considered for a moment, sighing at the lack of selection in the shop.

“Oh yeah! The Simpsons was so good. We used to have those Halloween episodes on DVD,” Felix clapped his hands excitedly at the memory.

“I think we used to have some on tape when I was younger,” Jisung added. The boys continued to chat amongst themselves, sharing childhood favourites as they reminisced over the titles they saw. However, it was that keyword, ‘tape’, that caught the attention of the kooky old shopkeeper, thick framed glasses with an orange beaded chain that contrasted greatly with her curly, grey hair.

She ducked into the back of the shop, which was sectioned off from the public area. Most would assume it was just where spare stock was kept to replace items that would eventually be sold, but it was also for her special collection of items - ones that only a few select people she deemed as worthy for the challenge would receive. After climbing up her mobile step ladder and grabbing her chosen artefact, she brought it towards the members, ready to persuade them to purchase.

“-there’s nothing saying we can’t pick something lighthearted to watch,” Jeongin suggested. Even with a plethora of options before them, they were stuck in a cycle of one idea being suggested and then shut down within the next minute.

“Perhaps I could be of assistance,” the old lady made her presence known, standing behind them with a big smile on her face and a tape machine in her hands.

“Oh! All of a sudden?” Jisung’s head whipped around so quickly he could probably qualify as something from The Exorcist.

“Annyeonghaseyo,” the other three proceeded to bow politely.

“I couldn’t help but overhear you discussing tapes, so I thought I’d show you something from out back,” she presented them with the tape machine in her hands, an old silver coating with a circular logo, ‘INTA’, plastered in the middle. The boys were none the wiser and thought she was such a sweet old lady, just doing her best to give good customer service.

“Oh wowww!” Felix nodded and grinned, taking the machine from her hands and looking at the object with fascination. Sure, it was computers and keyboards he liked to take apart, build and rework, but there was something entrancing about what he now held.

“Thank you, but we don’t have any tapes,” Seungmin tried to shut down the unneccessary payment.

“I have one that was specially released alongside this machine. Although, boys, I must let you in on a secret,” she whispered, making the boys share concerned yet intrigued looks.

“What is it?” Jeongin asked.

“There is only one version released in the whole world. I’ve got it here for you if you like? Have you ever watched The Scooby Doo Show?”

“What a sweet lady! I can’t believe she gave us a discount too,” Felix cheered happily, clutching a bag of goodies to his chest.

“She must have really wanted to get rid of this old VHS player,” Seungmin mentioned as they headed back to Hyunjin and Changbin’s place, the former being excited to decorate for Halloween.

“I don’t know, I think it was just good customer service. She heard us talking about tapes,” Jisung said in defence of the whimsical old woman.

“Hyung… you probably think good customer service is when the owner actually gives you your change,” Jeongin poked Jisung on the shoulder from behind, as he walked side by side with Felix.

“Yah! At least I didn’t nearly end up in a cult!”

Meanwhile, back at the Hyunbin apartment, the hyung line of the group were setting up the place to get ready for their spooky evening. Chan and Minho were tasked with getting food ready, the latter preparing the hot food and Chan doing his best to arrange the sweet snacks in an aesthetically pleasing way; he was instructed by Hyunjin to do so. Said guy was on decorating duty and he had roped in his cute housewife Changbin to do the heavy lifting.

“Why is this skeleton so heavy? It’s a skeleton!” Changbin whined as he carried the large structure into the lounge area.

“You said you wouldn’t complain,” Hyunjin tutted.

“Just tell me where you want it!” Changbin huffed, a tinge of desperation in his voice. He would have placed it down to give his muscular arms a break but he would have only been further scolded by Hyunjin for not treating the figure with more caution.

“Hmm, let's put it next to the TV,” Hyunjin nodded with approval, arms crossed and one hand cupping his chin as he appraised the haunting scene that had been created.

Intricately carved, orange pumpkins were illuminated by lit candles, projecting silhouettes of either sharp, scary faces or the Stray Kids logo (that last one was Chan’s hard work). They rested on a side table, which had fake cobwebs strewn up and across to the ceilings, even trailing over the blinds. The sheerness of these delicate furnishings were highlighted by the glowing green fairy lights hung alongside them, each LED encapsulated by a Frankenstein head. Minho had insisted on purchasing those, as it reminded him of the lyrics to Maniac. Everything else in the room was placed to only heighten the mood, little trinkets and knick knacks like black plastic bowls shaped like bats, light up skull heads and an oddly cute haunted house ornament, the words Oddinary House branded on the bottom of it.

“Perfect!” Hyunjin clapped his hands surveying his surroundings.

“Wow… this looks great!” Chan brought in some bowls of sweets, Minho on his toes with steaming hot plates of savoury foods to balance everything out.

“This smells so good,” Changbin groaned from the sofa now, ready to recharge after following Hyunjin’s commands for the past hour or so.

“Hands off, Dwaekki,” Minho playfully scolded, tapping Changbin’s hands so he kept them to himself, “the others aren’t even back yet.”

Just as if it was on cue, the other four boys returned, Seungmin being the one to unlock the door after earning the responsibility to borrow a spare key.

“Wow!”

“This looks sick”

“Woah the food smells good too!”

“It’s still hot too!”

They instantly made themselves comfy amongst the sofas and blanketed carpet, excited for their evening. The eldest in the group couldn’t help but be curious by the bag Felix was rummaging through.

“How many films did you buy?” Chan looked over Felix’s shoulders.

“Just the one, but you’ll never guess what else we got…” Jeongin trailed off.

Felix sneezed as he brought out the machine, and the somehow pristine encased tape of ‘Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated: Who Ate The Luck?’.

“A tape machine? VHS?” Minho raised a brow, but couldn’t stop his curiosity.

“Isn’t it so cool?” Felix grinned widely, now kneeling in front of the TV to set everything up.

“I definitely didn’t expect this,” Changbin thought out loud.

“Neither did we, but Lixie seemed pretty excited about it,” Jisung shrugged, and Hyunjin shot him a knowing look. It was hard to say no to the sunshine boy, all of the members knew this and felt the same way.

“What are we watching?” Chan excitedly asked, rubbing his hands together giddily. He loved having these moments where although the members were separated through living situations, they would ultimately always come back together.

“Scooby Doo!” Felix brandished the tape and held it in the air proudly, like it was a prized possession. It certainly was… something.

“Wait… they have Scooby Doo in Korea?!” Chan gasped in shock. Even though he had been living in South Korea from the age of 13, he had no idea.

“Yeah, I loved that show!” Changbin nodded along, now thrilled at the idea of watching a childhood classic, rather than a horror movie.

“This really wasn’t what I was expecting,” Minho chuckled fondly, a part of him finding it cute and endearing that his younger members had returned with this as the pick of the evening.

“I wasn’t either but the lady at the shop said it’s the only copy of this version,” Seungmin commented, sneakily picking at the popcorn on the table.

“Wahhh! It must be special then,” Hyunjin snuggled into his blanket on the sofa, watching as the machine started whirring, a small glow around it after Felix pressed play.

“Sit here, Lixie,” Jeongin patted the spot on the floor next to him, holding a cushion to give to the other boy.

The tape started to load onto the screen, the Warner Brothers’ logo eerily emerging into view, a swirling spiral behind the text. The boys didn’t even realise the trance they were falling into, the feeling of being utterly relaxed and enraptured at the same time was something that they would have explained as their enthusiasm to the evening. Each and every set of eyes in the room had their pupils dilating, the black and white swirls from the screen imprinted on them. It was weird. There were no verbal instructions given to make them feel so hypnotised, yet with the disappearance of the production’s logo fading away and the increasing vividness of the spirals snaking around the screen, it took one click before the screen went black, and the lounge was empty. The VHS player continued to glow, whirring away, and all the snacks were abandoned, no one to enjoy them. The decorations - no one to enjoy them. Just like that, each and every member of Stray Kids had disappeared, only to be trapped in a world they had no idea how to navigate.

Five teenagers found themselves stuck in a police cell, in the local station of Coolsville, a district in the city of Miroh. They all shared looks, having the same feeling of disorientation. Why were they here?

Fred Jones didn’t know that he was once Bang Chan. He felt the same as normal in that sense. He had a light blue denim jacket, white t-shirt underneath and a cheap, orangey gold chain visible underneath the collar. Fluffy blonde hair sat atop his head, shifting ever so slightly each time he looked over the gang, trying to figure out a way to escape.

Daphne Blake didn’t know that she was once Yang Jeongin. She felt the same as normal in that sense. She paced back and forth in her tall, violet heels, albeit she was stumbling occasionally, which ultimately led her to resting against the wall, arms folded. She had to tug down her dress, and found herself fussing at her own hair, adjusting the lime green necktie to rest more comfortably.

Velma Dinkley didn’t know that she was once Seo Changbin. She felt the same as normal in that sense. Oddly, she was pushing up her thick black glasses more often than she would normally like to, and pulling at the sleeves of her orange turtleneck to accommodate for her toned arms. She stood firmly looking through the bars of the cell, a book clutched in her arms.

Norville Rogers, better known as Shaggy, didn’t know that he was once Hwang Hyunjin. However, he was none the wiser most of the time, and simply found comfort in clutching onto the arm of his dog hybrid friend Scooby Doo. He didn’t know that he was once Kim Seungmin. Here he was, wearing a matching pair of a brown jumper and slacks, that Shaggy’s dad had leant him after taking in the poor boy to the Rogers’ home. Shaggy also had hand-me-downs from his father, choosing to go for a pair of maroon trousers and a fitted bright green top that he stole from the top shelf of his mother’s wardrobe.

It wasn’t their identities they were worried about, it was more so the fact that they had been arrested when all they were trying to do was seek out the villains causing havoc in their district.

“Are you finished with the celebrations now?” the sheriff finally made his appearance, coming right up to them and making his appearance known.

“Oh come on, sheriff! You gotta let us out,” Fred huffed.

“Let me just stop you there. You see this badge?” the sheriff proudly tipped up the shiny star pinned to his white shirt, PJY engraved onto it, “you know why it’s here?”

“It came with the shirt,” Velma pointed out boredly, completely done with any interaction they’d have with the man.

“If there’s a crime, then I’m the one to solve it, not some teenagers who should be paying attention in school,” he was quick to inform them, “and, oh, by the way, I’ve told all your parents you’re here. Got them on speed dial. I’m sure they’ll be pleased.” With that he turned around, his black hair styled with a middle parting from the 90s flapping about as he smugly left the room. His see through plastic trousers crinkled audibly with each step, mixing in with the sounds of disgust from Daphne.

“How is he our sheriff wearing that?” she turned up her nose in disgust.

“Like, I don’t know ‘bout you, but I think we got other things to worry about,” Shaggy shuddered in fear, tousling his dark blonde hair back.

“Mom and Dad are gonna be so mad,” Scooby looked around worriedly. Shaggy patted the head of his friend, closer to being his brother, in comfort.

“We need to find a way out. I’m not too good with these things though… I much prefer trapping than escaping,” Fred sheepishly admitted.

“I can do this,” Velma stepped up, about to unclip one of her red bobby pins before another voice interrupted them.

“I’m not trusting another thing you’re doing! We’re gonna do this Scrappy style!” a shorter dog hybrid, who had been previously crouched down in the corner of the cell, stood up. He didn’t know that he was once Han Jisung but that didn’t matter as much as bothering Scooby, who he insisted was his cousin. The Rogers family weren’t so sure on that one. Scrappy… he was a bit more of a wildcard. The gang knew this well. Half the time they’d never see him, the other, he was tagging along with them in aid to solve mysteries.

“Haven’t you done enough, Scrappy?” Daphne looked down at the boy, scanning the letterman jacket he paired with some brown jeans.

“It’s not my fault we’re in this mess! If it wasn’t for Shaggy dragging my cousin and you all into this, then we wouldn’t be here!” Scrappy frowned, stomping his foot indignantly.

“I don’t think I’m your cousin, Scrappy,” Scooby looked at the fellow hybrid. There were an amalgamation of different species in Coolsville, most commonly humans, yet you did find that there were a lot of different mixed hybrids around too.

“Guys, come on, let’s not lose focus of our task at hand,” Fred had to remind them all, “we’re gonna get out of this, Scrappy too.”

“Great,” Daphne sighed.

In a dark, dusty room, a large screen was displaying what nobody else in the world knew was a brand new recording. An old lady sat down with a cup of tea, blissfully enjoying the events unfolding right in front of her, after pressing the ‘record’ button on her machine. She had done it again, fooled a sweet, trusting soul into playing into her deceiving schemes. There were still two of them yet to find their feet in their new roles, but she’d certainly have fun watching it all play out before her very eyes.

tagged: @night-storm7 @maisyyyyyy @imfoive @qwonyoung23 @linoalwaysknows @royal-shinigami @jolly04 @turtledove824 @yangbbokari @thisrandomgoofy15 @lieslab @hannamoon143 @arumlilyeclipse

#skmi:watl?!#stray kids mystery incorporated #skz #stray kids #skz series #stray kids series #halloween series #series #ot8 skz #ot8 stray kids #skz fluff #skz angst #straykids imagines #stray kids fluff #stray kids imagines

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whxtedreams · 1 year ago

Text

Chapter One: The Arrival

The Depths we Devour, a gothic horror detective!joel fic

Summary

Detective Miller arrives at the manor and learns that this case is a lot more complicated that he first thought. A father gone mad, the daughter stuck on the detectives mind.

Word Count: 8.1k

Tags: Joel POV, smoking, alcohol, joel miller is scared of rats, reader is referred to as the girl and she/her, reader has hair that can be braided and reaches her back, reader wears dresses, author! reader, joel miller has inappropriate thoughts about reader, jealous!joel (weak), protective!joel, joel calls reader sweetheart, soft touches. - as always, if i miss any let me know

Series Masterlist - Main Masterlist

The Detective

Day One

3:26pm

The afternoon sky glistens on the wet road, rain pelting on every surface the storm sees beneath it. Poor unfortunate animals scurry through the rattling grass desperate to find shelter from the harsh wind that gusts through the forest floors and the rain that forms small flowing rivers in the mud.

The swift and nimble fox dashes across the road, its feet almost silent upon the hard pavement. The beam of light from oncoming traffic catches its eyes, causing the animal to pause in its erratic travels. It watches in terror as the death-machine races towards it, growing closer with each passing second. The car swerves, tires screeching as they slide on the wet, slick surface.

The fox's movement is sudden and brief, finally spurred into action only as the blaring horn of the car breaks its daze. Within mere seconds, it's back once again hidden from danger, as it sprints into the bushes.

The storm rages on, unrelenting in its intensity. Lightning flashes in the sky, brightening the world for a fraction of a second before fading once again. Thunder rolls across the sky, rumbling through the ground with each booming clap.

And yet, the car keeps moving.

The driver has somewhere to be. Someone to meet. Someone to find.

A crossroad lies ahead, the water having already claimed and devoured a large portion of the path to the left. The detective glances down at his car's navigation system, exhaling in relief as it directs him to take a right-hand turn instead.

He sits hunched over the wheel, a deep frown on his face as he focuses on the road ahead. The rain lashes at the windshield of his car, the windshield wipers working in overdrive to try and clear his line of vision.

The radio sputters, the crackle of static filling his ears. He flinches as his ears are subjected to the harsh sounds, grunting in annoyance at the abuse he's being forced to listen to. He takes a few attempts before managing to find the volume knob, fumbling for it as he continues to focus on the road. Once located, he turns it to zero, taking an audible sigh of relief as the silence returns.

He turns into a driveway, his car following the paved road as it slowly rolls to a stop outside an old manor. The imposing structure stands before him, the ancient architecture a stark contrast to the modern vehicle now resting beside it.

The detective half expects a vampire to turn into a bat and fly into the sky before his eyes. Or an old pipe organ, the deep sound to announce his arrival, like out of one of those old horror movies his daughter liked to watch.

"Fuckin' hell," he mutters under his breath as the building comes into focus. The structure shines even in the dim light, the rain coating the exterior in a thin film of water. The dark grey concrete bricks stand out against the vibrant green surrounding foliage as the water runs down the exterior, dripping from the gutters onto the ground below.

He rummages through the paperwork on the passenger seat, his flask slipping from its spot and hitting the floor with a quiet thunk. He stops in his actions, his hands freezing on the paper as he stares down at the flask. Before he has a chance to reach for it, a loud rumble of thunder shakes the ground beneath the car, a flash of lightning illuminating the interior for just a split second.

He shakes his head, dismissing any thoughts of taking a sip of alcohol from his mind. Taking the printed-out email for the job, he reads over the details once again before exiting the car.

Dear Detective Miller.

I found myself reading an article about you in the paper the other week, the case you solved involving a missing child. The author wrote praises for your efforts, and I unfortunately need your expertise in the dire matter.

My father is a Mycologist, researching and experimenting with all sorts of fungi that peeks his interests. He’s been obsessing over a new discovery in the woods surrounding our manor, gone for days at a time but I’m afraid this is different. No one has heard from him in over a week as I write to you, and I am afraid something has happened to him.

I have contacted the local authorities, but they turned their back on my father, stating he’s just busy at work and he will turn up soon. But I know that not to be true. If he’s lost in his work, he always checks in with either myself or our staff as the woods around can be dangerous.

It’s been almost two weeks and it’s been radio silence.

Please, if you could find my father, I would be forever in your debt.

Joel lifts his eyes from the crumpled paper in his hands, staring up at the manor once more. "All this from just looking at mold and mushrooms?" he mutters to himself, the absurdity of the situation sinking in. With a sigh, he tosses the paper back onto the pile beside him and hunts for his lighter in his jacket pocket. Balancing a cigarette between his lips, he sparks the flame and takes a long drag of the nicotine before exhaling a puff of smoke into the car. “I’m in the wrong damn profession.”

He tucks the lighter back in his pocket as he kills the ignition, stuffing the keys into their rightful spot alongside the lighter. The nicotine surges through his body, the soothing sensation seemingly relaxing his bones as he leans back in his seat with a heavy sigh. He closes his eyes, allowing himself a moment of peace before he has to get to work.

He rolls his head to the side, taking in the sight of the fat raindrops smashing against the car's passenger window. The trees sway violently in the wind nearby, the weather conditions worsening with every passing second. He leans over the console, tugging on the glove box until it opens, ignoring the second fallen flask as he continues to dig through the paperwork. His fingers slip past the scattered pages and documents, ultimately gripping onto the handle of his gun.

The gun fits snugly into his shoulder holster, the weight of the weapon a constant and familiar sensation. He adjusts his jacket to cover the weapon once more, the holster hidden from view as he smooths his fingers through his hair. An attempt to fix his appearance that's ultimately hopeless in the face of the terrible weather outside.

Before exiting, he picks up his flash from the floor. Just in case, he tells himself.

He opens the car door with a soft, annoyed hiss, taking in the frosty wind that whooshes into the car. He tosses the cigarette from his mouth and into the mud, stomping on it for extra measure despite the fact the rain had already killed the heat the moment he opened the door.

Uncaring of the rain, the detective quickly jogs up the stairs and reaches the door. He knocks once, then waits patiently before knocking again. This time, he knocks with a bit more volume, hoping that their attention would be drawn to the fact that he had arrived.

The rain covers any sound coming from beyond the door, making listening in difficult. The detective grunts in annoyance, trying to wiggle the handle only to find out that the door is locked.

“Fucking great.” He mutters as he looks up at the sky, as if the storm will help him.

Joel jogs back down the stairs, his eyes catching sight of another set of dark green doors to his left. With a quick motion, he pushes the large, wooden doors open with his hands. A sound of wood against the concrete floor screeches as he manages to force the heavy doors open.

Joel's voice echoes through the darkened room as he steps inside, the sound of his footsteps crunching bits of the hay that coats the floor. "Hello?" he yells out into the empty space, hoping that someone else would respond. His hand continues to explore the area nearest to him, his search for a light switch failing. In a last attempt before completely giving up, he removes the flashlight attached to his holster and repeatedly hits it against the palm of his hand until it finally turns on. The beam of light illuminates the barn in front of him.

Joel startles at the loud, sudden noise of the door slamming behind him. "Fuuuuck me," he lets out a small huff of air, placing a hand over his heart as his breathing becomes quick and agitated.

He’s getting too old for this shit.

The light shines across empty stalls, the once-organized buckets having been knocked over and the scattered hay now covering the floor. Joel frowns at the sight of this mess, using his booted foot to push a large barrel to the side. The sudden movement of the barrel causes a mouse to squeal, dashing across the room after its hiding spot had been compromised.

Joel stumbles back, his yelp filling the room much louder than the small creature's. With a quick glance around, he sighs in relief as he thanks whatever gods there may be that his embarrassing moment was left unnoticed.

“Damn rats” he mutters.

The detective regains his composure, quickly exiting the room before he makes another embarrassing, albeit vocal, expression of his fright.

The flashlight flickers before eventually dying out as he steps into the hallway. Joel scolds himself for his oversight in forgetting to change the batteries, making a disgusted noise as he tosses the useless, flickering flashlight back onto the strap of his holster.

In the absence of any proper lighting, his hands guide him instead as he moves down the dark, eerie hallway. Flashes of lightning illuminate the area through dusty windows, giving brief glimpses of his surroundings as he passes. He reaches the end of the hallway, pushing open a door into a brightly lit room - a conservatory.

The plants here seem to have a mind of their own, growing wherever they may wish and creeping over the garden beds. The various plants spread out in untamed, wild ways, almost as if they were crawling along the ground. They have completely overtaken the statues within the area, their vines and leaves wrapping around the cracked statues, like a python sucking the life out of its prey.

He hears the faint, humming sound coming from deep in the room. His feet carry him across the vine-covered bricks with each step, the stems of the plants snapping under the pressure of his boots as he moves through the room. The rain continues to pelt down on the glass roof above, the constant sound of raindrops hitting the surface of the glass echoing through the room.

He should probably call out, announce his presence to whoever or whatever it is that is humming. But, despite the fact he knows it is most likely the safest course of action, he finds himself entranced by the sound.

The massive tree dominates the corner of the conservatory, its thick trunk taking up the majority of the space as if it were demanding it. Its roots are thick, having already done their fair share of damage to the concrete path that surrounds it, tearing into the surface with reckless abandon. Joel carefully steps over a particularly large root as soon as he spots the end of a dress peeking out from around the side of the tree.

The humming is louder as he walks closer to the gigantic tree, the sound becoming even more beautiful as it mixes with the rain. He stops on the path, pausing to listen for several moments as he enjoys the melody and the ambiance that surrounds him.

He takes another step, a branch crunching under his boot.

The humming suddenly stops, interrupted by a startled gasp as the girl scrambles to her feet. She looks at the detective with wide, terrified eyes, her breath catching in her throat. The book she had been holding falls unceremoniously to the ground beside her, forgotten in her haste and fear. She stares at the detective, wide eyed like the fox he almost killed earlier.

They stare at each other, both wide eyed and frozen.

"Sorry, miss," he begins, his voice gentle as he attempts to puts her at ease. "Didn't mean to scare you," he assures her, shaking his head in genuine regret. He offers his hand for a handshake. "I'm Detective Miller," he introduces himself with a simple, respectful smile.

She relaxes at his reassurance, a warm smile settling on her face as she takes his hand into hers. Their hands fit together well, her hands being soft and delicate in his as he gives them a gentle shake.

“I’m awfully sorry sir, I guess the staff didn’t hear you. The storm is dreadfully loud.” As if to prove her point, thunder erupts through the room, shaking the ground beneath them slightly.

They both look up at the sky through the glass roof, a soft smile on her face.

He quickly lets go of her hand, allowing her to retrieve the book that she had dropped in fright. As she rises to her feet once more, her eyes move across his body, taking note of every little detail. He raises an eyebrow in response to her action, a curious and amused expression lighting his face as he watches her take him in.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re absolutely drenched. We’ll have to get you dry before I let you in the main house. Eliza will have your neck if you dirty her precious floors.”

He takes a moment to look down at his clothes as well, taking note of the way that the damp fabric drips onto the bricks beneath him, a small puddle slowly forming and slowly oozing its way through the cracks.

“Oh, right. Of course. Sorry.”

"Follow me," she says with a wave of her hand, causing him to trail behind her as he follows her closely. Her braided hair flows softly down her back, the delicate bow sitting unevenly at the end. It calls out to him, his hand twitching with an urge to reach out and straighten the ribbon. But, he refrains from doing so, realising the action would indeed be weird. He knows that.

She leads the detective through a door, stepping into a room that is completely void of any source of light until she pulls on a string that's dangling from the ceiling, a single bulb that dangles above. She chuckles at his expression of annoyance as he eyes the old light, frowning at the way it flickers as it sways.

Was there a string light in the stables?

"It's a rather old house," she says with just the smallest hint of amusement, gesturing around the room to make her point. "You're going to find it operates like one," she continues, her words proving to be true. She turns around gracefully, her dress swirls and his eyes follow the movement of her figure as she walks away.

He liked the way she called him detective.

He's been referred to as a detective countless time over decades on the job, however, something about the way she said it, the tone she used, and the slight glimpse of amusement that danced upon her features when she said it made him feel almost...flustered.

He follows her through the room and into the kitchen, his nostrils immediately assaulted by the aroma of home-cooked food as he walks through the doorway. The smell causes his stomach to rumble slightly, a reminder that he hasn't had a home-cooked meal in a while. Having lived off greasy fast food and diner meals for far too long, he finds it hard to recall the last time he has had a meal that wasn’t drenched in oil or salt.

Freshly baked bread and pastries lay unattended on the island in the middle of the room, their scent wafting through the air as the large room fills with the aroma of baked goods. A pot full of what he assumes to be pumpkin soup sits on the stove top, the heat from the pot making the liquid simmer softly as an appetizing smell wafts forth.

He was just about to reach for a croissant, his fingers just about to pluck it from its plate when her words stop him in his tracks. "Alexander is a wonderful cook, but I wouldn't touch his pastry if I were you," she says with a light chuckle, making him freeze. He then clenches his hand into a fist and lowers it back down to his side, his fingers curling against his palm.

She pushes the door open, guiding him inside a dark, dirty hallway. A thick veil of cobwebs has taken over the space between the ceiling and the wall, blanketing the area in a spidery web of filth. The girl pauses at the entrance to the laundry room, quickly ushering him in with a brief gesture.

The room features a mixture of modern and old forms of laundry, the contrast between the two creating a unique atmosphere. She pulls out a stool for him to sit upon in front of the lit fire, which provides a welcome warmth to the chilly air. He doesn't hesitate to do as he's directed, shrugging off the water-soaked jacket before she quickly drapes it over a rack beside the fire.

He takes his sodden shoes off as the water sloshes around inside. She grabs the boots from his hands, quickly emptying the accumulated water out into the sink before placing them in front of the fire to dry them out.

He settles in front of the warm flames, adjusting the way his damp socks are positioned to soak in the heat. However, he doesn't linger on that activity for too long. "So, your father is missing?" he asks, falling into his typical line of questioning.

She sighs and nods her head, the sudden movement causing her shoulders to slump. Sitting on the back of her heels, her pale-yellow dress falls to the dirty floor, collecting on the grungy tiles as she settles down in front of the fire herself.

The detective watches the dirt from the grimy floors of the laundry room begin to pollute the pristine pale yellow of her dress, his frowning expression growing deeper at the sight. He stands from the stool and offers his hand to her. She tilts her head at him, a soft frown filling her features as she seemingly questions his actions. She does, however, take his hand without verbal questioning, allowing him to effortlessly lift her from the ground and gently guide her onto the stool. He then presses gently against her shoulders to encourage her to sit.

Joel doesn’t mind the dirty floor; he’s accustomed to it. But the girl? No, she deserves better.

He lowers himself to the ground, grunting as his knees crack from the act. He would have missed her giggle or smile; had he not been paying attention. It's this small noise that catches his attention, forcing him to look up at her with a faint, amused smile filling his expression.

Too sweet, too innocent.

He rolls his sleeves up before leaning back on his hands, his knees bent as he looks up at her. "You mentioned in your email that your father isn't known for disappearing without any contact," he repeats, referring to the words she had used when requesting his assistance. "How sure are you that he's not just out of range or just busy?"

Her smile disappears and the detective finds himself mourning the loss, an upset frown replacing it. “He wouldn’t just leave me for this long, detective. Somethings not right. He’s been so obsessed with this place since we moved here not that long ago.”

She continues to fiddle with the hem of her dress as she keeps her gaze firmly down at the ground, her fingers playing with and gently twirling the fabric around her fingers. He catches himself, noticing his eyes trailing down her bare legs to her white frilly socks, and promptly scolds himself for such an action.

Too soft, too innocent.

Her voice becomes softer as she continues to speak, a hint of sorrow permeating throughout her tone. "I've been dishonest with you detective," she says, expressing her shame and her apology. "And I’m sorry, I truly am,” she adds on with an emphasis on her sincerity, making it clear that the words she speaks are a genuine admission of fault. He finds himself wanting to reach out to her, to run his hands down her arms and let her know that whatever it is she may be ashamed of, he can assure her he's done worse. Much worse.

"That's alright, sweetheart," he reassures her in a calm and honest tone, his voice oozing with a mixture of comfort and confidence as he speaks to her. "As long as you're honest with me now, I need to know everything if I'm going to bring your daddy home safe," he continues, making it clear that he needs all the information he can get if he's going to succeed in locating her missing father.

She looks down at him, wide eyed and he feels as if he’s said something wrong.

“My father,” She corrects him before looking back down at her hands. “He hasn’t been the same since coming here. I’m afraid he’s gone mad, detective.”

“Mad?”

“He’s delusional, erratic almost. He talks about some big science company wanting to take his research away. How he won’t let them. He talks about how people have tried to kill him and how he’s created monsters in the woods that shouldn’t be alive. It’s insane sir, there hasn’t been anyone on our land since we got here. Besides you, of course.”

The detective listens to her statement intently, rubbing his hand over his stubble and scratching it against his chin as he does so. A brief thought crosses his mind that perhaps he should have trimmed the stubble before traveling the four hours to reach this isolated location, but he quickly shoves that line of thought to the side as he focuses on the task at hand - locating the girl's, insane sounding father.

“So, you think he’s running around in the forest naked, yelling at things that aren’t there?”

“No, of course not. He’s certainty clothed.” She stops, a wave of disgust covering her face. “Well, I hope so at least.”

A surprised chuckle escapes from him, the noise sounding more foreign to him than he realises as he's momentarily stunned by his own behaviour. The laugh seems to come from someplace deep within him, a forgotten aspect of his personality that seems to have disappeared along with most of his joy in life.

It's an unexpected, bittersweet surprise.

5:15pm

The manor is indeed far bigger than he would have suspected, as its winding, brightly lit corridors stretch on for what seems like miles, leading into rooms of various lengths and sizes. The lower, underground levels bear a stark contrast to the rest of the mansion, the lack of use evident in the dirty walls and the dust that has accumulated over time. The change in the appearance and level of cleanliness from one floor to the next hints at the lesser use the lower levels receive when compared to the upstairs.

His boots echo loudly on the clean tiles, each step he takes filling the space with the sound of his footsteps. His jacket is draped over his arm as he holds it tightly to his chest, keeping it closely to his body as he walks through the manor.

The girl leads him up the stairs and to her father's study, where she stops dead in her tracks upon entering. A surprised gasp escapes from her mouth as she covers it with her hand, shock, and surprise evident in her expression as she takes in the sight before her.

Without pause to consider his actions, his hand instinctively grasps her arm and tugs her behind him, his body reacting to the possibility of danger as his hand quickly reaches for his weapon. A deep scowl forms on his face as he swiftly surveys the room with his eyes in search of any potential threat. However, he finds the room to be completely devoid of danger, yet with a clear sight of destruction as it seems as if a tornado had swept through the room. The books and papers are scattered throughout, the furniture overturned as if someone were carelessly searching for something.

He steps over an overturned chair, his gun forgotten once more in his holster as he takes in the state of the room. The girl cautiously follows him through the room.

He watches with interest as she picks up a small statue and places it carefully back on the shelf. “I was in here yesterday; nothing was out of place.” She utters as she adjusts the statue on the shelf, stepping away once she’s satisfied.

Joel quickly turns his head to face the direction of a booming voice, the papers gripped tightly in his hands. He finds himself locked in a gaze with an older woman in her late sixties, her head topped with greying blond hair tied into a tight bun. She is clad in an apron tied around her waist, the fingers of one hand pointed directly at him as she points with disdain in her expression. "What do you think you're doing?" she questions loudly, her tone demanding as she expresses her dissatisfaction with the presence of a man she's unfamiliar with within the confines of the study.

The girl steps into view of the doorway, and for a moment, the woman's expression settles upon seeing her, seemingly softening her demeanour temporarily. However, her gaze settles back onto Joel in a moment, her glare quickly returning as her eyes study him.

"Did you do this?" she questions, her tone sharp as she places the blame on Joel without a hint of doubt in her voice. He lets out a quick scoff in response, shaking his head before returning his gaze to the desk and the small remnants that remain of the once elegant and put-together study.

"No, of course not, Eliza," the girl says, her voice softer and more subdued compared to the older woman. She attempts to take on a calming and reassuring demeanour in hopes of alleviating the older woman's clear anger at the situation.

Joel watches the scene play out in the corner of his eye as he flicks through papers on the desk, almost enjoying it.

"Why is this man here, what have you done?" Eliza's hushed, stern voice is aimed directly at the girl, who gazes upward at the older woman with a look of frustration and bewilderment in her eyes.

“I hired him.”

"Hired him?" the older woman scoffs, her tone dripping with a mixture of amusement and condescension as she regards the girl as if she were a child. "Why on earth would you hire him?" she questions, her voice carrying on that same attitude of dismissing the girl as if she were making a foolish decision.

“He’s been gone too long, something is wrong.”

“Oh, you foolish girl. Your father is just working, this isn’t one of your stupid little stories in your books. You can’t go hiring some lowlife detective because your father hasn’t talked to you in a few days.”

Her face drops as the words fall from the older woman's lips, her head lowering to the ground as the woman scolds her with a dismissive tone. Joel feels a brief flash of anger flare up within him as he watches the interaction and realises how the older woman is treating the girl. Without hesitation, he casts aside the papers he's holding and quickly traverses the distance between them, placing himself at the younger girl's side.

“Now, I might be some lowlife detective,” Joel grits as he approaches Eliza, unpleased by her tone. “But she has every right to be worried about her father. And from the state of this room alone, I think I’m right to believe her concern. And if you don’t believe her, I ought to believe you had something to do with his disappearance.”

His arm brushes against the girl's shoulder as he stands beside her and makes no move to step away from her. A soft smile forms on her face as she glances downward, her eyes locked on the clean tiles beneath their feet. With a loud scoff, Eliza shows her displeasure at the detective's words, the older woman evidently offended by his words.

"How dare you accuse me of such things!" she counters angrily, her hand rising to her heart with a sudden huff of air.

"Well then, I guess you'll leave us alone then as I look for her father, your boss' whereabouts then?" Joel interjects as he raises his eyebrows, almost daring the older woman to object or to protest his presence within the manor.

Eliza shoots a final hateful gaze at the girl before shaking her head with a hmph! as she leaves, refusing to engage further with the situation. Joel's irritation grows within him, but he manages to tamp down the urge to roll his eyes or to confront the older woman further, restraining himself.

He glances down at the girl as she stands beside him, her head still lowered to the ground. His heart clenches and he stops himself from chasing the women and yelling at her, releasing his temper on her for treating her like that.

Instead, he reaches up with his hand, gently placing it beneath the girl's chin and lifting her head. Her watery eyes lock on his, their gazes becoming locked together as she meets his gaze, and he grits his teeth at the sight.

protectprotectprotectprotectprotect.

"Don't let her talk to you like that," he whispers softly, his voice barely audible as an urge to comfort the girl grows within him. His hand moves slowly as he cups the side of her face, his touch gentle and comforting as he caresses the girl's cheek with his thumb. The girl's breathing grows more laboured as a tear rolls down her face, her eyes closing as the emotional floodgate begins to give way.

His hand twitches slightly where it rests upon her cheek, and he frowns at the lone tear rolling down her cheek. Without warning, he pulls her into a small, comforting embrace, her cheek pressing against his chest as he gently massages the back of her head with one hand and rests the other upon her shoulder blades.

protectprotectprotectprotectprotect.

"I don't like people being upset with me," the young girl mumbles, her voice small and strained as her fingers grip firmly onto his shirt beside her face.

"Nahhhhh," he responds with a teasing tone, dragging it out as he smiles slightly. "Don't listen to her, she seems like a stuck-up bitch," His teasing words elicit a soft, quiet laugh from her. He watches her reaction with a smile, satisfied with her response. However, her mood dampens quickly, and a frown settles back onto her face as she pushes herself away from him.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have," she quickly apologizes, gesturing towards Joel with a somewhat embarrassed and apologetic look. She quickly pulls her arms around her own body, closing herself off once more and practically clutching onto herself.

He scolds himself, mentally kicking himself. He shouldn't have touched her, shouldn’t have hugged her. She’s a client, a much younger client at that. But he can't help himself. There is something about her, something that draws him in and calls to him, a need to hold her close and protect her, a desire to never let go.

“No, No. You have nothing to be sorry for.” He raises his hands in defence before he sighs and lowers his hands to his hips. “I shouldn’t have done that. You were upset, I shouldn’t have touched you. I’m sorry.”

If he knew what was good for him, he would get right back in his car and drive as far away as he possibly could, get away from this house and this girl and all the strange and unusual events which seemed bound to revolve around the house. And yet...the detective never did what was good for him.

So when she offers to show him the room he would be staying in with a kind gesture, he should have declined and given her a card for a detective much more qualified than him. He would have been better off finding another job, leaving her in better hands.

He follows her to his room.

6pm

Creamy pumpkin soup is placed in front of him, the thick and hearty, delicious-smelling bowl of soup setting his stomach rumbling. Thick, freshly sliced baked bread are stacked on a plate in the middle of the large dining room table. The smell alone causes him to practically drool as he takes in the sight before him.

Candles are lit along the sconces on the walls, providing a soft, dim light throughout the room, the atmosphere made more comforting as the storm rages outside.

He utters a quick thank you, giving a grateful nod towards the man who is pouring a glass of ice-cold water for him. He’s younger, maybe in his early thirties. His thick black curls dance on his head, his beard neatly trimmed as his dark green eyes shine in the candlelight. He’s wearing a dark blue apron, flour dusted on the material. The ice clanks lightly in the glass as he fills it, his movements efficient and precise as he places it in front of the detective before stepping away.

“I hope this is okay. If I had known we were having company, I would have asked for your preferences or any allergies.” The man moves swiftly to a cart at the end of the table, picking up a small plate littered with small slices of - what Joel assumes - different types of freshly made butter.

“This is more than okay, and no, no allergies.”

“Well, in that case detective, I’ll leave tomorrows menu in the kitchen in the adjacent room. If you have any requests, there’s a requests pad on the bench in there and I check that every morning. Little miss over here has requested French Toast for breakfast tomorrow, otherwise I normally tend to have free reign with the menu.” The man warmly smiles at the girl, his hand placing warmly upon her shoulder as she happily smiles back up at him. Joel feels a faint twinge of jealousy course through his veins as he watches the two of them, the girl's smile as genuine as the man’s.

Little miss.

When Joel notices the exchange between the man and the girl, he grinds his teeth slightly, trying to stave off the urge to say anything that he would regret in the heat of the moment. He does, however, glare into the man's head as he leans down to whisper in the girl's ear, his mouth moving too close to her ear for Joel's liking. The girl rolls her eyes with a small giggle, pushing him away with a smile, much to Joel's frustration.

Joel huffs, speaking up as he watches the two of them exchange another look. “I didn’t catch your name,” he says in a harsh, terse tone, and while his voice might have reflected a hint of annoyance, no one in their right mind could mistake that the detective was anything but annoyed in the situation.

“Alexander.” He nods back, his back straightening as he does so and his stance becoming more formal and proper. The detective notes the change in tone.

“And where can I find you, Alexander, If I have any questions?” The detective questions him, the man’s name like poison on his tongue.

“Either in the downstairs kitchen or the gardens, sir.”

Joel nods, his hand smoothing over the napkin on the table before him, a slight fidget of annoyance from the exchange. He is attempting to regain his composure, if only to maintain the image of a proper detective and not the jealous and irritated man he had been moments before.

Alexander excuses himself and leaves the room, leaving Joel alone with the girl, who sits across from him. The two of them sit in the silence that follows for a few moments, the air and tension heavy.

“Alex is a wonderful chef,” she says with a cheerful smile, and Joel makes quick note of just how oblivious she is to his soured mood. He forces his expression to soften somewhat as he nods and offers a faint, polite smile in response.

She leans across the table, picking up a slice of bread from the pile that rests on the center of the table, and he follows her example, taking a slice of bread himself. As he feels the soft, fluffy texture of the bread, he pauses for a moment, he hasn’t had bread this fresh in years.

“Where is everyone? The staff? They don’t eat with you?” He asks as she spreads the flavoured butter on her bread.

She shrugs, dunking the slice of bread into her bowl of soup and taking a bite, the soft crunch of the bite sounding delicious and mouth-watering. She smiles as she chews, her lips curling into a faint, happy smile, her eyes closing as she seems to take enjoyment in the flavours of the meal before her. He watches her, his hand lingering just above the plate of delicious and perfectly made butter as he freezes in place, transfixed by the sight of her across the table, his gaze lingering upon her as he tries not to lose himself completely.

He blinks, shakes his head as he slides his knife through a thick, soft portion of the butter and spreads it on his bread, ignoring her completely. He does not wish to get distracted by her, does not wish to allow himself to get caught up in the moment and get lost in watching her.

As he takes his first bite, his eyes widen in surprise and he lets out a curse, sitting back in his chair as he lets out a soft, expletive-laced murmur in amazement. "Fucking hell," he mutters, his gaze glued to the bowl of soup in front of him as his mouth waters from the delicious creamy texture, trying to understand how something could taste so damn good, how he had been missing out on something as amazing as this.

She laughs, across the table and he looks back up at her. “I told you he’s an amazing chef.”

“You eat like this every day?”

She nods, taking a sip of her water.

“Damn, sweetheart.”

He watches as her eyes widen before she relaxes, her reaction all but confirming his suspicion that the simple term of endearment flusters her. He watches her sink into her chair as she puts her cup down, and then picks up her spoon and resumes eating.

Sweetheart.

8:48pm

He spends the night in the study of Dr. Lewis, taking in his surroundings as he moves through the space, taking note of the countless papers and artifacts filling the room. However, upon searching the area, he comes up empty-handed, realising that whatever might have held the clue to her father’s mysterious disappearance was long gone, most likely alongside the individual who broke into the study.

What he does find, he should have put back and not read. The locks on the filing cabinets are broken, so he feels better about not breaking into the files. Although if he thinks about it, he still is.

Her name is at the top of the document he's holding, and he pauses, his curiosity overcoming any reservation he might have held. He glances behind him and sees that the room is empty, that he is alone with no risk of getting caught. With that reassurance, he begins to read, feeling as if he is delving into forbidden knowledge.

He learns her age, a young twenty-two that makes his old forty-four bones ache. He skims past her brief description and head-shot photo, realising quickly what he’s reading is a copy of her own authors blurb he would find at a back of a novel.

She’s an author?

“Your silly little stories” echoes in his head and he grits his teeth in anger, realising the woman was scrutinizing her own books she’s written, and he shakes his head as he puts the paper back and slams the drawer.

10:04pm

The detective grumbles as he rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck, settling into the armchair in his room. A glass of dark whiskey sits on the small side table before him, and a lit cigarette sits pinched between his fingers. He takes a slow, deep drag of the cigarette, pulling the smoke into his lungs, exhaling slowly through his nostrils as he lets his mind wander, trying to sort out all the conflicting and confusing thoughts that were running through his mind right now.

The window is cracked open, letting fresh air into the room as he exhales smoke into the room, the rain still falling from the night sky in a steady downpour. He takes another drag from his cigarette and settles back in his chair, his mind wandering as he watches the curtains flow in the breeze, raindrops sliding down the windowpane to hit the concrete outside.

His shoulder holster is hung on the back of the desk chair, the gun secured in the bedside table next to the bed. His white sleeves rolled up to his elbows, leaving the forearms exposed as he takes a drag from his cigarette and his gaze drifts back out to the window. His shoes are placed neatly by the door, his knees spread as he sinks into the chair.

The girl. The damn girl, she's all he can think about. She keeps entering his mind every time he tries to focus on the case, the thought of her distracting him from his duties. He knows he's here for a reason, he's aware that he has something he has to do- someone to find. But he can't stop thinking about her, keep getting lost in the thought of her. He's supposed to keep his mind on the job here, but she keeps slipping in, forcing her way into his train of thought, and distracting him from his purpose.

He closes his eyes, doing his best to think about her father instead, the case.

Last seen? Tuesday morning two weeks ago at the breakfast table. Happy, normal self.

Last contacted? Wednesday night, supposedly five miles west of the manor in a small underground cave he’s been working out of. Short tempered, not his normal self.

His study? Ransacked. Did someone break in? Was it one of the staff? Was it Dr. Lewis himself? The girl mentioned she had been in there the day prior, nothing amiss. They would have been loud from the state of the furniture tossed around. How did no one hear it happen?

The housekeeper seemed very opposed to him being here, he’ll have to keep an eye on her. For the case of course, not to make sure she’s treating the girl right. For the case.

The chef, as much as he wants to throw the man out, cooking seems to take up most of his time. Still, he’ll be keeping a very close eye on him. For the case.

She had also mentioned a grounds keeper that also lives in the manor, yet the detective had seen so signs of the woman she had mentioned. He’ll have to track her down tomorrow.

He hears a soft knock on his door and, with a quick glance towards the door, he calls out, "Come in." The door opens slowly as he watches it, his head tilting slightly to the side with curiosity when the door begins to creep open, the dim light from the hallway spilling into the room.

He takes the cigarette still between his lips, extinguishing it in the ashtray on the table beside him, his body tensing as he does so, the small moment of relief he got from inhaling the smoke gone now, replaced with a sense of restlessness.

His hands grip onto the arms of the chair as he watches her enter the room. She’s dressed in a pale blue set of pyjamas with small rabbits, the long pants and button-up shirt making her look quite adorable. Her once braided hair was now loose and untidy, the strands falling against her face and her neck. It takes everything in him to not stand from the chair and throw her on his bed-

"Thought you might like some cookies, they're fresh out of the oven." Her voice is faint, almost shy, and her smile follows suit, causing his eyes to drift downward to the plate of thick chocolate chip cookies she is clutching close to her chest. His gaze moves beyond the cookies to the glass of milk she is holding in one of her hands, his throat growing tight.

“Alexander make them?” He asks and she shakes her head.

“You then?”

She shrugs, a bashful look on her face, as she avoids his gaze and looks around the room as if she's never seen it before.

"Sure, I'll have one sweetheart," he sighs with a slight smile, lifting a hand from the chair and reaching out, motioning her to move closer. He wants her closer, wants her to sit next to him or perhaps even on his lap-

Her closeness is almost intoxicating as he takes a cookie from the plate, taking note of how warm and soft they are, of how the chocolate melts on his fingers. His eyes lock on hers as he takes a bite, his eyebrows furrowing as the sweet mix of chocolate melts on his tongue. A soft, content moan rumbles in his chest as he savours the taste, taking a larger bite from the cookie, he watches as her breath hitches.

“You really make these?” He asks.

She nods softly, her eyes glued to his.

Fuck it.

His hand is slow as it reaches out, as if he is unsure of what he is doing or if he should even do it at all. The fabric of her shirt is smooth on his fingers, soft under the feel of his hand as he places his hand on her hip and gently tugs, feeling her step closer to him and position herself between his spread legs, her shins against the chair. His eyes lock on hers as their bodies are suddenly so close.

“I…” she begins, her voice stuttering as she finds her words hard to come by. She glances down at his hand, which traces her hip slowly and delicately, his fingers lightly pressing into the soft fabric of her shirt.

"Hmm?" he hums in response, his eyes following as his thumb moves the shirt, exposing her delicate, soft skin as the tip of his fingers trail across her hip.

Softsoftsoftsoftsoft.

Her eyes widen as his fingers graze her skin, her body reacting in surprise as his fingers move over her skin. She gasps, quickly taking a step back from him, the unexpected movement sloshing the milk in her glass as she places the plate on the table beside him with the milk, their moment of intimacy cut short before he lowers his hand back to the armrest, watching as she settles herself at a distance.

"I hope you like them," she rushes her words with a faint smile, before she leaves the room, closing the door behind her. The suddenness of her leaving makes his jaw clench, his body tense as he stares at the closed door, the sound of her footsteps as she walks away from him the only sound in the otherwise silent room.

He looks over at the cookies, picking one up and taking another bite.

Sweet, soft, delicate, warm - just like her.

His eyes shift from the glass of milk to the untouched whiskey as he takes in the sudden shift in the air, trying to regain his composure. His hand reaches out for the glass of whiskey, drinking it in one go, the warmth of the alcohol burning down his throat as he lets out a sigh, trying to take his mind off her.

Click here for Chapter Two

Notes

so i got this idea after playing Alone in the Dark and getting into a resi evil playthrough. So if you see any similarities or themes, that's why. Also stemed from that joel mod in resi 4 in the chain scene. if you know- you know. (im feral over it) tbh i just needed to write detective joel. also this is just chapter one, it will be a POV switch and there will also be a reader POV

If you want to be tagged, please comment on the masterlist for this series and I will add you. If you want to be taken off, please DM so i don't miss your request.

Every comment, like and reblog means the world to me. please let me know your thoughts about this, i want to ramble about this story so much.

#joel miller #the last of us #joel tlou #joel fanfic #joel x reader #tlou #tlou joel #tlou fanfiction #joel miller x reader #pedro pascal #detective!joel #joel x female reader #joel x f!reader

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berrywinner · 2 months ago

Note

on the topic of family figures would you also write a brotherly chase for me pleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaasseeeeeeeeeeee just like casual scenarios at work or or something :]

Big Brother

Him being into Overprotective Mode

You were finally going on a date after weeks of Chase making fun of you for being "married to the job." But the moment your date arrived at the hospital to pick you up, Chase took it upon himself to have a "chat" with them. You watched in horror as he pulled them aside, arms crossed over his chest, speaking in his calm, clinical tone.

"You know, the human body is incredibly fragile. A single misplaced injury could cause permanent nerve damage. Not to mention the numerous diseases one could catch just from kissing the wrong person," he said, giving your date a pointed look.

"Chase!" you hissed, dragging him away.

"What? I’m just making sure they understand that if they hurt you, they might mysteriously develop a chronic condition," he replied innocently.

Your date looked between the two of you, clearly second-guessing their life choices.

Late-Night Emergency Calls

It was 2 a.m., and you felt like death. Feverish, nauseous, and absolutely miserable. You debated whether to call Chase but ultimately gave in, dialing his number.

"Mmhhph—hello?" his groggy voice answered.

"I think I'm dying," you whined dramatically.

There was a long pause before he sighed. "You have a cold, don’t you?"

"Maybe," you admitted.

"Alright, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes."

Sure enough, he showed up in his pajama pants, hair sticking up in all directions, with a bag of medicine and tea. He shoved a thermometer in your mouth and sat on your couch, arms crossed. "You’re an actual doctor, you know. Next time, try self-diagnosing before waking me up."

You just grinned, sipping the tea he brought. "You said you're like a big brother to me. What are big brothers for?"

"Remind me to revoke that title," he muttered, but he didn’t leave until you fell asleep.

Teasing You Relentlessly

It wasn’t a secret that you had a thing for one of the new doctors, but unfortunately, Chase noticed. And when Chase noticed something, he never let it go.

You were standing at the coffee machine when he appeared beside you, smirking. "So, how's your favorite person in the hospital doing today?"

You nearly choked on your coffee. "Who?"

"Oh, you know. Dr. 'Oh my God, I totally don’t like them, I just get weirdly nervous when they walk into a room'?"

"Robert," you warned.

"Relax," he said, clapping a hand on your shoulder. "I think it's cute. And I bet they totally like you back."

You turned to glare at him. "I hate you."

"That’s not what you said when I covered your shift last week," he teased, walking off.

Stealing Your Food

You had finally managed to sit down and eat after a grueling shift when Chase sat across from you and immediately reached for your fries.

"Robert—" you tried to stop him, but he had already taken a handful.

"You should really get more food," he said through a mouthful.

"I got enough food for me. Not for you," you snapped, pulling your plate closer.

Chase just shrugged and stole another fry. "You wouldn’t let your brother go hungry, would you?"

"You're learning too much from House. You can buy your own food."

"Yeah, but yours tastes better," he said, reaching for more.

You sighed in defeat. At this point, you should’ve just ordered extra.

Forcing You to Take Breaks

You had been working nonstop for hours when Chase walked in, took one look at you, and shook his head.

"Alright, that’s enough," he said, shutting your laptop.

"Hey—"

"Nope," he said firmly, pulling you up. "Come on, coffee break."

"But—"

"Do you want me to carry you?" he threatened.

You groaned but let him drag you outside. He handed you a cup of coffee and leaned against the wall. "You can thank me when you don’t pass out from exhaustion."

You sighed. "Fine. Thanks."

He grinned. "See? Was that so hard?"

Giving You the ‘Brotherly Talk’

Chase sat across from you, arms crossed. You had just had a date with THAT doctor. "Alright, tell me about them."

You groaned. "Oh my God, Robert—"

"Nope, I need details. Are they smart? Funny? Are they going to break your heart? Because if they do, I’ll have to make their life very difficult."

You sighed. "They’re… nice. And smart. And maybe I kind of like them."

Chase smirked. "Called it."

Being Your Partner in Crime

House had sent you both on a ridiculous errand, and you and Chase exchanged a look before deciding to make the best of it.

"You drive," you said.

Chase raised an eyebrow. "And why do I have to drive?"

"Because I don’t trust you as a passenger," you shot back.

He scoffed. "Fine. But you’re buying snacks."

Showing Up When You Need Him Most

After a particularly rough day, you were curled up on your couch when there was a knock at your door.

You opened it to find Chase holding a bag of takeout and beer.

"I figured you’d need this," he said, stepping inside without waiting for an invitation.

You sighed, but a small smile crept onto your face. "Thanks, Rob."

"Anytime," he said, tossing you a beer. "Now, tell me everything."

#house md #robert chase #dr chase #brother chase #chase as a big brother #I LOVE BROTHERLY CHASE

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hummingbird24220 · 2 months ago

Text

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One: Franky’s Love Machine and a Whole Lotta Secondhand Embarrassment

You were having a peaceful morning.

Keyword: were.

You had just finished stretching out on the deck, sun warming your face, the ocean calm and friendly, when Franky’s booming voice echoed from below like a declaration of war.

“ALRIGHT, CREW—PRESENTING… THE SYMBOL OF BONDING, ROMANCE, AND SHIPWIDE TENSION!!”

“Oh no,” you said immediately.

Oh yes, said Franky’s entrance.

He shot up from the hatch like a spring-loaded kangaroo, landing in a dramatic superhero pose beside the mast. Behind him, being wheeled on a literal platform, was… something.

It looked like a sculpture. Of you.

Made out of scrap metal, gears, and driftwood.

Your face was charmingly (?) lopsided. Your hair had actual spaghetti noodles stuck in it for “texture.” Your expression was somewhere between surprised and slightly constipated.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

Behind your twisted little metal effigy stood two towering, Frankenstein-like figures of Zoro and Sanji—also out of scrap—locked in a pose that could only be described as:

“Aggressively Gay Heart Protector Stance.”

There was a glowing heart. It blinked.

In time with their sculpted chest plates.

Zoro’s sword moved. Sanji’s leg actually kicked. The heart pulsed every time the motion activated.

You screamed internally.

“FRANKY,” you managed, “WHAT IN THE METALLIC NIGHTMARE IS THIS?!”

He grinned ear to ear. “A GESTURE OF LOVE!! To commemorate your—how did Luffy put it—‘hot crew sandwich?!’”

Sanji looked like he might die of pride and horror at the same time. “I mean… it’s not my best side,” he muttered, “but the leg extension is impressive.”

Zoro, staring stone-faced at his metal doppelganger, muttered, “I’m going to destroy that thing.”

Franky gasped. “What?! It has moving parts, Zoro! Engineering!”

Robin wandered over, hand on her chin. “Does the heart mechanism glow brighter based on emotional proximity?”

“YES,” Franky declared.

You turned to Sanji. “You’re flattered?”

He gave you a sheepish smile. “It’s got flair.”

You turned to Zoro. “You’re going to break it?”

“I’ve already picked the weak point.”

You groaned. “I cannot believe I am the center of a glow-in-the-dark throuple totem.”

Luffy clapped his hands. “Put it in the dining room!!”

“Absolutely not!” you, Zoro, and Sanji all yelled at once.

Robin leaned over. “I think you should name it.”

Nami walked past, squinting. “Name it ‘Please Never Let This Happen Again.’”

Later that night, the “Love Sculpture” was still sitting ominously in the corner of the deck, occasionally letting out soft clicks and mechanical heart thumps.

You curled up in a blanket between your two idiots, watching it warily.

“If it starts talking,” you said, “I’m jumping overboard.”

Sanji kissed your temple. Zoro muttered, “I’ll push it first.”

The sculpture blinked. You blinked back.

It blinked again.

You pulled the blanket over your head and accepted your fate.

—-----

It started at dinner.

You had just taken your seat between Zoro and Sanji, both perfectly casual, perfectly close, perfectly boyfriend-shaped, when Usopp grinned across the table and said the fateful words:

“Hey (Y/N), you should try flirting with the next person we meet, but act like Zoro and Sanji are your scary boyfriends.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Flirting like...?”

“Like... flirty,” Luffy added helpfully. “But with backup.”

Sanji looked up from his wine glass. “We’re doing what now?”

Nami, already sipping her drink like she was watching a drama unfold, smiled. “Think of it as an experiment.”

Zoro grunted. “Sounds stupid.”

You leaned back with a smirk, fingers laced behind your head. “Fine. I’ll do it. Just remember, this is on you if it gets weird.”

“It’s already weird,” Robin said, smiling calmly.

The next day, the Sunny docked at a peaceful port town filled with cheerful locals and market stalls. The crew scattered. You didn’t mean to start the bit so soon—but when a charming merchant approached you with an overly friendly smile and a glittering necklace in hand, you saw your moment.

You leaned against the stall, eyes half-lidded, and said with a grin, “Well aren’t you bold.”

The merchant blinked, caught off guard. “I—uh, I just thought the necklace would suit you—”

“Oh, that’s cute.” You pointed a thumb behind you. “Just make sure you clear it with my boys first.”

Zoro and Sanji stood at your six and nine o’clock like hired muscle.

Zoro: arms folded, sword at his hip, eyes narrowed like the merchant had just insulted his entire bloodline. Sanji: leaned in just slightly, smiling, but with the energy of someone who would cheerfully cook the man alive if you said the word.

The merchant paled. “I—of course! I—I mean no offense, madam—uh—ma’am—uh—uhm—”

You took the necklace gently, holding it up to the light. “We share everything, you know. So if you’re flirting with me, you’re flirting with both of them.”

Zoro’s brow twitched. Sanji let out a slow exhale.

The man practically fled the stall.

You turned back to your crew with the smuggest smile.

“Well?”

Zoro stared. “You’re evil.”

Sanji blinked. “...I think I liked that more than I should’ve.”

You winked. “Glad you boys approve.”

—--

Back on the Sunny, the crew was waiting.

“So?” Nami asked.

You struck a pose. “He ran like I told him I collect teeth.”

Luffy fell over laughing. Robin nodded, satisfied. Usopp dropped a coin in Chopper’s palm. (“Told you she’d actually do it,” he muttered.)

Zoro muttered something about needing a drink. Sanji said nothing, but his ears were red.

You flopped onto the deck and declared, “Ten outta ten. Would threaten civilians with my boyfriends again.”

“Please don’t,” Chopper whimpered.

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theleslistuff · 6 months ago

Text

Felt like writing for no particular reason, enjoy ❤

Caretaker syndrome

Summary; Danny's friends and family have been worried sick about Danny's bad habits; lack of sleep, he barely eats or drinks anything to keep fulfilling his obsession for protecting Amity park, so they began to take roles: Tucker keeps track of time for classes, Sam fights off easier ghost, Jazz makes sure he's not sneaking out to help Sam with the easiest ghost, but his twin brother Andy has the hardest duty... To make his personal chores..., but who is going to help them with their problems if they're exhausted trying to keep Danny (half) alive?.

Warning: alternative universe from the fan fiction My Brother is a ghost by Darkfoxkit where the corrupted era never happened and Andy joined phantom team as technically Danny's babysitter.

-Danny has a twin brother au

-OCs

-Mention of torture

-Danny is less human and more zombie like in his human half

-Loss of self, psychological and physical body horror for several characters (not in this chapter)

Chapter 1: The babysitter

It was a regular day in Amity Park, birds chirping, people running from a ghost attack, nothing different from usual as the infamous ghost boy in his trademark spandex black and white suit answers the distress calls quickly and more efficiently than any other ghost hunter in the town except for the red huntress.

-Ha!, is that everything you got dude?!-

Danny taunted the new ghost guard from Walker who was terrifying the town as he was testing out his weapons on people... A direct order from Walker to provoke the ghost boy, the heavily armoured guard finally with his real target on sight began to shoot at him with one of his many weapons, Phantom eluded the shots with elegance and grace until he flew straight into a publicitary cardboard.

-Ouch..., okay I deserved it for playing too long...-.

He murmured feeling ashamed since the nearby crowd was looking and some people even took photos of him, he decided it was time to finish this, he pulled out from his backpack the Fenton thermos and since he had some distance from the ghost, he could easily open the thermos, activate it and suck the ghost and all his weapons before he could react.

-And... That's how you finish a war machine folks!-.

He joked with a cheerful smile, the crowd claps fill his core with warm despite it's cold nature. The ghost boy considering his work done here waved a good bye at them as he begins to fly away as the red huntress is already trying to shoot him.

But between the cheering crowd there's someone not as joyful as the rest who didn't even looked away from his cellphone as the ghost boy was saving them, this boy held an uncanny resemblance with the son of the two most incompetent ghost hunters in town; the Fentons, black messy hair, pale skin with some freckles and soft factions with a fragile looking frame, the only physical difference between those two being the boy's tired green eyes but not as dreadful as the Fenton boy's blue dead looking eyes, their clothes different too since Danny Fenton usually wears a white shirt with a red circle in the middle his best friend assures there used to be a NASA logo there, blue baggie pants and red tennis shoes and this boy prefers a darker color scheme with a black shirt having a blue triangle in the middle, red pants and blue tennis shoes, it's said they are like a polaroid of each other.

The boy pulled out a bottle of water from his orange backpack and without giving a glance at the approaching frame of a tired looking Danny Fenton, he extended his arm holding the bottle of water at him, the opposite immediately snatched the bottle from this boy, practically ripped off the cap and began to drink from it, some of the liquid splashing on his clothes and face due the rushed and messy drinking, once the water was gone, he handed the empty bottle back to the other boy.

-Thanks for the saving bro...-. Danny replied with a huge smile on his face, the boy he called just smiled and nodded. -Try not to get smashed by the cardboard next time-, the boy answers his tone holding a small hint of mischief that Danny did not appreciate as he gave him a small playful hit with the elbow.

-Just let's go home Andy, mom and dad are going to be really worried when they see you in the middle of the ghost attack-, Danny said to his twin brother as he began to walk away, Andy walked behind him at certain distance thinking about his distant admiration for what his brother does as a everyday routine... Save the town, sometimes wishing he could do more than just keep Danny's homework done, make sure he drinks water and has something to eat, a desire to be a sidekick in the real battle field but a mare human like him could never do as much as he does, except for those wealthy and skilled enough through tough training like the Guys in white or the red huntress receiving her supplies from Vlad Masters.

His steps slowed down reflecting on this fact; does he really want to stay forever as just a babysitter for his brother's personal needs?... Doing double homework for him to not fail his classes, making him go to sleep, take him food and water straight to the battlefield, it's a noble duty, there's no denial in that and he gets to have time with his brother, right?!.

He stopped to walk and looked at Danny running away towards home leaving him behind, he can't help but to have mixed feelings about this, feeling proud and happy to see his brother improving since Andy decided to be like his babysitter, there's no longer black bags under his eyes, there's less bruises, burns or other injuries since he's more focused and eating better.

He looked at his own reflection on a nearby glass from a cafeteria, his brother is even starting to develop his muscles, meanwhile he looks like a bag of bones, a frame noticeable smaller than his twin, dry lips and hollow eyes with black bags under his eyes, it's the first time he really has noticed how much he has not taken care of himself..., he touched his cheek in a absent and unconscious gesture trying to confirm it's indeed his real reflection, he clenched his hand into a fist, he's determined tonight he will talk this out with Danny, it's not like he doesn't want to help anymore, it will be more about trying to have either a more important role or make Danny self conscious about his lack of self care to make him less reliant of him to take care of himself too.

With a tired look and determination on changing things he began to walk towards his home, nothing will stop him from finally talking this out with him...

Or so he thought until he felt a sharp pain on his neck, his vision immediately turned blurry, every object began to spin around him, his hand moving in slow motion towards his neck to inspection what is the cause of this, his fingers register a needle before he began to fall and finally passed out.

From behind the boy the tall figure of a muscular man with dark skin, a bald scalp and dressed in a white suit characteristic from the anti ghost organization "The Guys In White" took away the needle from the boy's neck and carried the boy in his arms as if he weighed nothing, he walked away with normalcy, unnoticed by the people passing by because of his authority figure the organization gave this uniformed man as a government agency, not a single soul questioned when he carried the boy inside the Axion lab's building.

Andy's eyes began to flutter open, the sedative making him have a hard time to even feel alive, his body felt sore and heavy, his breath was jagged and his mouth tasted like iron with a heavy tongue he could barely move, the first thing he noticed besides feeling like garbage was that he was in some kind of prison of high technology, the environment was painted in a pure pearl white, not a single spot of dirt to the sight, the toilet, the bed, the sheets the purest white he could ever see making him have a strong guess about who is behind this, the only striking contrast being himself and the bars of electric blue energy to prevent him from escaping, he could not help but to think... It would be extremely easy for Danny to pass through those bars, but for him it would be certain death just to touch them.

He began to rise from the floor, falling in several attempts with every muscle feeling like they are made of jelly, as the time passes the effects of the sedative finally seem to fade away and allow him to stand up properly having a little support from one of the sickly white walls, he panted and closed his eyes, his bad shape along with the strong sedative used on him making a single simple task as standing up a total nightmare, he groaned in frustration until he heard a voice from outside his cell.

-I offer you an apology young man, as you must know our organization develops technology against ghost and our agent had no other sedative at hand than one designated to put Phantom to sleep..., It's a good new to see you recovered almost completely-.

Andy opened his eyes and turned around to see the man, as he suspected it was one of the agents from the guys, but this one looks important..., He's noticeable older than most of the field agents, a man around his sixties, grey short hair on his head a good cared beard, his skin pale and although with some marks from the age and scars from battle, his skin is totally pale, almost like an albino, his eyes covered in black glasses like those of the other agents, hands perfectly still behind his back like a gentleman or perhaps holding something. The boy was kinda shocked, he didn't knew anything about this man but the mare appearance tells him he's a big threat around here, so he proceeded carefully.

-I'm sorry but I think you're mistaken sir, I'm not a ghost, why did you brought me here?-, Andy asked as he made eye contact with the man or at least looking at his glasses, the teenager immediately tried to look at something, anything on his expression that would tell him something about his motives with him, it was no use, the man held a perfect poker face, not a single muscle on his face moved until he spoke.

-We're never mistaken young man, but don't think too highly of yourself, you're not going to just be a prisoner for us, you're more of a tool to get a bigger threat...-, Andy's eyes widened and he gave a step back, it was not necessarily a explanation to connect the dots and realize he is going to be used as a bait to get Danny, the old man gave a small smile as he noticed this child was catching up fast with what is happening.

-As you may have guessed, we keep our vigilance on this ghost called Phantom trying to get a soft spot, a way to get rid of that menace pretending to be one of us..., but we noticed a constant in the last months, his assistants may snap out of his control or not be with him in a daily basis but you seem to be quite close to this ectoplasmic menace...-.

The man shut down the energy from the bars through a remote control and threw on the floor photos from the vigilance survey showing Andy with Danny either human form or ghost form, The boy's blood ran cold though his body as he realized they have always known about Danny's identity and immediately discarded the possibility of halfas, just thinking of Danny's human half as camouflage, in certain part it makes sense for him, Andy himself still not fully believes in the concept of halfas.

-So, what are you going to do?, just keep me trapped until he comes to the facilities?, you know he could easily pass through a cell like this one by just turning intangible and get me out, not even being noticed at all-

Andy felt confident enough to tease a little due the simplicity of their plan, but a bad feeling shrunk into him as the man began to laugh, the sound of his rough laugh equally as strange as dreadful breaking his confidence into small pieces.

-Dear boy, don't insult my intelligence, I haven't insulted yours for believing such a brutish idea..., we are not in need of a bait, we're in need...-, he stopped at mid sentence to suddenly stab Andy's shoulder with a syringe he has hidden on his hands all this time to inject all it's contents, Andy was about to scream when the man suddenly pulled out the needle and covered the boy's mouth with a hand, he approached slowly to his ear and confessed his real plan.

-You'll be my weapon to eliminate that menace once and for all and you'll not be able to do anything to stop it...-

He tossed the boy inside the cell and turned on the cell bars once more before he could even get up from the floor, the boy not understanding at all what he meant by that, rushed towards the cell bars and yelled.

-What do you mean by that?!, what have you done to me?!-

He tried to get an answer but the man was already walking away, ignoring the teenager's words.

#danny phantom #danny phantom au #danny fenton #andy #oc #sam manson #tucker foley #andy fenton #fanfic #caretaker syndrome au

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hbyrde36 · 1 year ago

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for @penny00dreadful

Ch 1 <-

Chapter 2: Yellow Brick Road

WC: 4946 | Ch 2/4 | AO3 <-

They’d been walking for quite a while, nothing to see save for the fields of corn spread out on one side of them, wheat on the other, when they came upon a fork in the road.

Steve stood in the middle of the intersection, peering as far as he could down one path, and then the other, but there was just no way of knowing where each of the winding roads led. He threw his hands up in frustration before settling them on his hips. “Great, just great. Now what do we do?”

“Convenient how no one thought to mention the road split off.” Eddie grumbled.

“Right or left?”

“Flip a coin?”

Steve shrugged, it was as good a way to decide as anything else. “Sure, why not.”

Eddie stared at him expectantly.

“What?” Steve asked.

“Well, I don’t have any money on me.”

“Then why did you suggest flipping a coin?!”

Eddie bristled, as if Steve were the one being ridiculous. “Because you’ve always got spare change on you!”

“It’s those damn kids, always begging me for quarters for the arcade.”

“Did you ever think if you stopped carrying coins, the little shits would stop hitting you up for them?”

Steve frowned. “That’s… hmpf.” Because no, he hadn’t, actually. He started to rummage through his front pockets—a feat, frankly, given how tight his pants were, and wondered how big a fit Dustin would pitch if he were to actually stop handing out free money like he was a goddamn ATM machine.

“Hey!” A voice called out. “Dingus one and Dingus two!”

Steve startled—they hadn’t seen another soul for miles.

He looked all around for the source of the sound and finally spotted something—a lone figure mounted to a pole just inside the split-rail fence, nestled between a few stalks of corn. One of its arms was propped up, pointing, the other resting at its side. He grabbed Eddie’s hand and rushed towards it, swinging his legs easily up and over the wood planks, glimmering heels and all, before helping the other boy do the same.

As they got closer he could see that it was a girl made of straw and burlap—a scarecrow, his brain supplied offhandedly, though her face looked remarkably human and alive.

She winked, and smiled down at them.

Steve gasped, his eyes raking over the dusting of freckles painted over the girl’s cheeks and nose. “No—No way.” He shook his head, taking another step closer. Was every person in this place a version of someone from home?

“Robin?”

The Scarecrow frowned. “Never heard of her.”

Steve deflated. “Right.”

“Is that the way we’re supposed to go? The way you’re pointing?” Eddie asked, getting right to business as if he were unfazed at this newest encounter. Which was fair. It was pretty tame compared to the horrors of the last alternate dimension they’d been trapped in.

“That way’s okay.” She said with a small shrug, before dropping her left arm and raising her right—rotating it like a windmill in the process. “But that way’s pretty good too.”

“Very helpful.” Steve deadpanned.

“Of course,” she went on, ignoring him as she crossed one arm over the other—pointing in opposite directions at once. “People do go both ways.”

Eddie snickered, immediately clapping a hand over his own mouth to stifle his laughter.

Steve felt a rush of heat as he broke out in a full body flush, cheeks flaming. Surely The Scarecrow hadn’t meant—

The thing was, Robin—the real one—had been talking to him a little bit recently about the possibility of going both ways, as it were. He’d been starting to suspect, for no reason in particular, that he might not be as entirely straight as he’d previously thought.

Okay, fine.

There was a reason, and the culprit, cause, and source of his suspicion was standing right next to him, looking at him with those big brown eyes, sparkling with the last remnants of laughter, and smiling in that very particular way that showed his dimples to full effect.

It made Steve feel wild, like a swarm of butterflies had taken flight in his stomach.

He wondered if Eddie knew, if he should tell him, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for that.

It wasn’t the possibility of being bisexual that frightened him. More than a possibility, he supposed—clearly that ship had sailed—what with the way he practically salivated anytime Eddie raised his arms to stretch or reach for something up high, exposing that delicious little strip of tummy and—

Yeah… definitely not straight.

And he knew the other boy was gay, Eddie and Robin had both come out to the rest of the group a few months ago, so, the possibility was there, but just because Eddie liked guys didn’t mean he liked Steve.

All of that to say, his fear lay more in the worry of ruining their friendship if Eddie didn’t feel the same way about him.

“We’re looking for the Emerald City, do you know it?” Eddie was asking The Scarecrow when Steve tuned back into the conversation.

“I can’t say that I do, no, but that’s not much of a surprise. I haven't got a brain, you see.”

“How can you talk without a brain?” Steve asked.

“Seriously?” She quirked a brow. “Have you heard what comes out of most people's mouths? It’s not that hard.”

Well, she had him there.

“The thing is, my words come out faster than my thoughts sometimes, and I just wind up rambling on-and-on until I stop making any sense at all! No one understands me, and I just know if I had a brain it would solve all my problems. “She sighed wistfully, staring off into the middle distance for a moment before seeming to remember that they were there, and snapped back to attention. “What’s in the Emerald City anyhow?”

“A wizard, hopefully.” Eddie said.

“We’re going to see if he can help us get back home to Hawkins.” Steve added.

“Hawkins, huh? That’s a funny name.” The Scarecrow mused. “Well, if he’s capable of interdimensional travel, surely he could handle one measly brain. I’ll even take a second hand one, I'm not picky! Can I come with you?”

Steve resisted the urge to point out that her figuring out all on her own that multiple dimensions even existed was proof enough that she did, in fact, have a brain. He didn’t mind the idea of her tagging along, even if she wasn’t Robin.

“It’s fine with me,” he said, looking to Eddie, who nodded his agreement. “We should warn you though, there's a witch after us.”

“I ain’t afraid of nothing except rabies and talking to girls, which is completely normal.” The Scarecrow paused, thinking it over. “And maybe a lighted match.”

With a little finagling they managed to get her down with minimal damage. Steve held her around the waist while Eddie loosened the nail in the back of the pole, and it would have been fine, but in the heels his center of gravity was a little off, not to mention the uneven ground, so when she was set loose and suddenly he was holding all her weight, it put him off balance, sending them both sprawling to the ground.

She lost a little hay in the fall but quickly shoved it back in, rearranging it this way and that in the front of her top. Steve looked quickly away—it was like watching his sister adjust herself in her bra or something.

“What? You don’t like boobies?” The Scarecrow asked, finally done fluffing herself up.

“Not yours!”

“Well that’s just rude,” she huffed, pushing herself to her feet. She vaulted the fence, and started slowly making her way down one side of the yellow brick road.

Steve glanced up to find Eddie already above him with a hand out ready to help, and he let the other boy tug him to his feet, his skin burning where their palms touched. But Eddie accidentally pulled just a bit too hard and they wound up chest-to-chest, while Steve struggled to find his footing.

“Thanks,” Steve said softly, tongue darting out to wet his lips as his gaze flicked down to Eddie’s mouth, heart beating like a jackhammer.

“Anytime, Stevie,” Eddie whispered back, sounding just as breathless as Steve felt.

They were so close, it would take nothing at all to just lean in and—

“You dweebs comin’ or what?” The Scarecrow shouted from a few yards away.

They broke apart in surprise, sharing an awkward laugh, and hurried to catch up with their strange new friend.

“It’s Steve and Eddie, actually.”

“I’m starving.” Eddie griped for the dozenth time in the last half hour alone.

It wasn’t like Steve couldn’t sympathize, he was hungry too, but Oz didn’t exactly have a convenience store on every corner, and whining about it incessantly wasn’t helping anyone.

Even if he did find Eddie’s whining to be sort-of… cute.

God, he was in so deep.

Thankfully, as they walked, the scenery began to change and the fields that had been flanking them on either side for so long gave way to a grove of trees, and not just any trees–

“Oh!” Steve tugged on the other boy’s shirt and pointed excitedly ahead. “Eddie, look, there's a bunch of apple trees.”

Eddie curled his upper lip in disgust.

“Were you, or were you not, just complaining about our lack of food?”

“Yeah, but I was hoping for a cheeseburger or something, not… fruit.”

“Don’t be a baby,” Steve rolled his eyes as he stepped off the path, heading towards the nearest tree, and reached up to pick one of the many shiny, red, and delicious looking apples.

Before he could even register what was happening, the tree moved, a cluster of its branches wrapping around his wrist like a hand, squeezing tight.

“What do you think you’re doing?” A deep voice croaked.

A voice that seemed to be coming from The Tree.

Had Steve not faced down a demogorgon, demodogs—plural—the Mind Flayer, an entire swarm of demobats, and fucking Vecna, before, he probably would have been terrified at the prospect of a talking goddamn tree, but when he got over the initial shock he was mostly just annoyed that he couldn’t get himself free.

He wrenched and pulled but it was no use, until Eddie appeared at his side, taking hold of The Tree’s other arm—if you could call it an arm.

“Hey man, let go!” Eddie yelled at it. “You didn’t have to hurt him, we were just hungry!”

“How would you like to have someone come along and pick something off of you?!” The Tree barked.

Eddie snarled, bending back several of its smallest branches until the thing squealed in pain. It released Steve abruptly and he stumbled sideways, right into Eddie’s arms, and together they backed up to where The Scarecrow stood.

“It’s alright, Steve. You don’t want any of those apples anyway.” She said, looking down her nose at the offending plant. Er, creature?

Whatever.

“Are you hinting my apples aren't what they ought to be?!” The Tree grunted.

“That depends, are they supposed to have little green worms?”

“Get out of here or I’ll–”

“You’ll what? Grow at me?” She taunted.

The Tree growled, struggling in place and waving its branches at her.

The Scarecrow stuck her tongue out, blowing a raspberry at it, and pulled the boys away by their collars.

They were only a short distance away when she stopped on a dime, whirling back around to face the small orchard. “Get bent by a stiff breeze you weeping willow!”

“What are you doing?!” Steve hissed.

“Getting you some apples, duh,” She shot back. “Come on, catch!”

Steve turned, and sure enough The Tree, along with several of its brethren, were now hurling perfectly ripe apples straight at them. He caught as many as he could, cradling them in the front of his shirt until he couldn’t hold anymore, while The Scarecrow hid behind him.

Eddie, for his part, tried his best, but sports had never been his thing, and it showed. He wound up on hands and knees chasing after a few of the fruits that had rolled away in the soft grass.

The other boy was only out of sight for a moment, but Steve’s heart still dropped when he called out from behind a tall shrub.

Steve rounded the overgrowth in an instant, bracing for whatever new threat had come to find them. He was prepared for a lot of things, a pack of rabid bunnies perhaps, or a sentient rose bush, what he wasn’t prepared to see was a girl made out of tin, and not just any girl—Nancy.

“Nance?”

“I… don’t think that's her name.” The Scarecrow said, circling the other girl’s still form. “I’ve heard of these things. She’s a Tin Woodswoman!”

Steve stared. The girl was frozen like a statue with one arm held aloft wielding an ax, and though she couldn't blink or move her head, her pleading eyes were looking right at him, following him wherever he went.

Suddenly, a sound much like a squeaky wheel came from between her unmoving lips.

“Was that… did you try to say something?” Steve asked.

“Ooooooool ca,” The Tin Woman tried again. “oooooooooil–ca”

Steve snapped his fingers. “Oil can! She said oil can!” It didn’t take long to find the small container with its built-in dispenser stashed behind a nearby tree trunk. “Where should we oil her first?”

“You should probably get her consent before you start in on all that.” Eddie muttered.

“Eddie,” Steve glowered. “Be serious.”

“Not that I know much about these things, but maybe start with her mouth so she can talk?” The Scarecrow suggested.

“Right.” Steve aimed the end of the spout, dispensing a small amount of the liquid to the corners of her mouth.

Within seconds the oil went to work and her lips loosened. “Oh thank goodness I can talk again. Can you oil my arms next, my elbows?” The Tin Woman said.

Steve worked quickly, lubricating all of her joints, but still her one arm was stuck up in the air. Seeing her struggle, Eddie grabbed it and yanked. The limb finally fell, axe and all, the sound of it like an old car door being forced open.

Eddie grimaced. “Oh shit! Sorry, did that hurt?”

“No, it feels so much better, I’ve been holding that ax up for ages.” The Tin Woman assured him, taking a few tentative steps. She only creaked a little.

“What happened to you?” Eddie asked.

“Misread the forecast. About a year ago I came out to cut a tree down when it started to rain. I rusted solid—mid-chop!”

Curious, Steve continued to examine her, wondering what enabled her to walk and talk. Not that it was any weirder than The Scarecrow, really. He knocked on her middle, the sound reverberating like a drum.

“Wow! What an echo! How’d you pull that off?” The Scarecrow asked.

“It always sounds like that.” The Tin Woman shrugged. “I guess the tinsmith forgot to give me a heart.”

The Scarecrow gasped, “no heart?!”

“No heart,” The Tin Woman sighed, hanging her head. “It’s not that I mind not having one exactly, they are easily breakable from what I understand. It's just that, well, it makes me come off kinda cold, y'know?”

Now, this wasn’t Nancy, Steve knew that, but damned if he hadn’t had the same thought about her once or twice after she’d so thoroughly crushed him, calling him and his love bullshit that night in the bathroom at Tina’s Halloween party—and the betrayal that had come after.

Heartless.

He knew it wasn’t strictly true. Those were the thoughts of a boy who’d had his heart stomped on by the first girl he’d ever given it to. Nancy had the capacity to love, and fiercely. He’d seen it in the way she protected the people she cared about, willing to do anything to keep them safe—including him. She just didn’t love him in the romantic way. It had taken him a long time to accept that, to be okay with it and get over her, but as he looked into Eddie’s eyes over the top of The Tin Woman’s pointed funnel hat, he knew it’d all been for the best.

Nancy had a heart, she just didn’t always know how to show it, and he was willing to bet this Tin Woman had one too.

“You should come with us!” The Scarecrow said.

The Tin Woman tilted her head. “Where are you going?”

“We’re going to see a wizard! Eddie—that’s the long haired one.” The scarecrow leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. “And Steve here are trying to get home. I'm in the market for some brains, and I’m sure the wizard could manage a heart for you too!”

“Do you really believe he’ll get you home?” The Tin Woman asked, turning to Steve.

“I hope so, we’ve come such a long way already.” He said.

A shrill cackling laughter filled the air, and in a plume of red smoke The Wicked Witch appeared out of nowhere, atop the roof of a nearby log cabin.

“Long? You call that long? Why, you’ve only just begun!” She sneered down at them, turning her attention on the two newest members of their little party. “And you two lovely ladies, helping them along are you?”

“Yeah, what of it?!” The Scarecrow taunted.

“Stay away from them, or I'll stuff a mattress with you!”

“And you—” The Witch paused, pointing the tip of her broom down at the Tin Woman. “I'll use you for a beehive.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” The Tin Woman growled.

“Oh, the crumpled up wad of aluminum foil wants to play with fire, huh? Let’s see how your highly flammable friend fares against this—” The Wicked Witch raised her hand palm up, conjuring up a fist full of flame that she hurled at their feet.

The Scarecrow shrieked and threw herself to the side, even Steve and Eddie shrank back from the heat of it, but The Tin Woman, who had nothing to fear from a little unfriendly fire, quickly put it out, using her hat to smother the blaze. By the time it was done, The Wicked Witch was gone.

“You weren’t kidding about a witch being after you!” The Scarecrow said.

“About that,” Steve began, rubbing the back of his neck. “I think it would be best if Eddie and I traveled the rest of the way alone. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to either of you because of us.”

The Scarecrow narrowed her eyes. “Not a chance. I'll see you safely to the Wizard, whether I get a brain or not.”

“Me too!” The Tin Woman agreed.

Not long after their confrontation with The Wicked Witch, they continued on their journey down the yellow brick road, where their surroundings changed yet again. The scattered trees thickened into dense woods, dark where the canopy blocked out most of the sun, and the air was filled with the sinister sounds of unfamiliar wildlife.

“I know I said I wasn’t afraid, but I don't like this forest. It’s dark and creepy.” The Scarecrow said.

Steve shrugged, bumping his shoulder against Eddie’s. “We've seen worse. Anything is better than a sky full of demobats, right?”

“What’s a demobat?” The Scarecrow asked.

“It’s like a regular bat,” Steve began. “Except… not at all? They’re bigger than you might think, with gray leathery flesh, and wings, and these long tails they like to choke you with. Their mouths are small but don’t let that fool you, they’re full of razor sharp teeth.”

Eddie glanced at him sideways, a crooked grin playing on his mouth and a light blush spreading across his face. “I dunno, Harrington. I’d pay good money to see you take a bite out of one of those little fuckers again.”

Steve grinned back, cheeks burning under Eddie’s attention. “That so, Munson?”

The Tin Woman gaped at them. “What is wrong with you two?”

If possible, Steve’s face grew even hotter, but as luck would have it a series of bellowing roars sounded off in the distance, and their flirtation, if it was indeed that, was quickly forgotten.

“What was that?” The Scarecrow whisper-shouted.

“Lions?” Eddie guessed.

Deep growls filled the forest next.

The Tin Woman hung onto the Scarecrow’s arm. “And tigers.”

Steve strained to listen for what else might be out there, and heard a long huff and a distinct gnashing of teeth. “And bears.”

“That doesn’t seem right, all in the same woods?” Eddie murmured skeptically. “Lions, and tigers, and bears?”

“Oh shit.” Steve shouted as something came barreling out of the trees and onto the path, coming straight for them.

They all reared back, cowering away from the oncoming threat and The Tin Woman stumbled in the process, dropping her axe to the brick road with a clang.

Steve scrambled to pick up the fallen weapon, twirling it out of habit as he took up a spot in front of his people, stepping between them and the overgrown stuffed toy who for whatever reason seemed to mean them harm. In hindsight he should have known better than to expect Eddie to stay back with the others and let him handle it, for as much as the guy liked to call himself a runner and a coward, not once had he backed down from a fight when the safety of his friends was in question.

Now being a prime example.

Armed with nothing more than Steve’s tied-together discarded sneakers, which he was swinging around wildly like every teen boy who saw The Karate Kid in theaters and decided to try their hand at nunchucks, Eddie joined Steve at his side, facing their foe head on.

“Put ‘em up, put ‘em up!” The Lion sneered.

Steve was pretty sure he’d had footie pajamas that looked like this guy once.

Mid swing, the laces on Steve’s sneakers came loose from their knot, and one of the shoes went flying out of Eddie’s hands, beaming the lion right in the forehead with a loud smack.

The beast’s paws flew to his head, cradling it as he began to cry hysterically. “What’d you do that for, I didn’t bite him!”

Eddie furrowed his brow, looking from the pathetic sobbing creature to Steve and back again. “Were you… going to bite him?”

“...No?”

Steve scoffed.

The lion moved his giant mitts from his face, tilting it up into the light. “I-Is my nose bleeding?”

“It would serve you right if it was!” The Scarecrow scolded.

Now that Steve had a better look at the guy, he realized he’d seen The Lion’s eyes somewhere before. He peered closer, squinting into the oddly humanoid looking face when it clicked.

He looked back at Eddie and mouthed, ‘Jonathan.’

Eddie snorted.

“Hey, can’t you see he’s just scared?” The Tin Woman said, pushing them both gently aside. She gazed down at The Lion with a telling softness in her eyes, and took up the end of his tail, drying his tears with it. “There now, that’s better.”

He blinked up at her in awe. “I-I’m sorry.”

She patted his hand and smiled. “Now, do you want to tell us what that was all about?”

“Oh, I'm just a stupid coward is all.”

“I don’t know about that,” Steve cut in. “I mean, you did come after the four of us all by yourself.”

“Naw, that’s not being brave. I saw you coming and I got scared, like I always do, and decided to lash out first before you could do the same to me. If I was really brave I'd have just come out and said hello.”

“Well, no harm done I guess, but we should really get going.” Steve said.

“But we can’t just leave him here all alone.” The Tin Woman insisted. “What if we brought him along? Maybe The Wizard can help him too. Even if not, the world is much less terrifying when you’re not alone.”

Steve couldn’t help but look Eddie’s way at that, feeling the truth of her words in his soul. They’d been through so much together since their fraught beginnings at the boathouse—made countless trips into the Upside Down before it’d been destroyed, faced Vecna and his hoard of monsters, twice, and it’d all been that much easier to bear because they’d been together.

Eddie nodded as if he’d heard all of Steve’s innermost thoughts though he hadn’t said a thing out loud, and he knew they were on the same page.

“The more the merrier, I guess.”

Before long they reached the edge of the forest, which opened up into a sprawling meadow full of bright flowers in shades of red, pink, purple, and orange, growing right over the yellow brick road. That sight alone was enough to take Steve’s breath away, but it wasn't the only thing that caught his attention. Just on the other side of the vast ocean of blossoms was a cluster of tall brilliantly green buildings, a city, shining just like the emerald gemstones it was named for.

“There’s The Emerald City!” Steve shouted, pointing towards the horizon excitedly. “Oh, look! Eddie, we’re almost there!”

But Eddie didn’t respond, he was squatting down at the edge of the growth, eyeing the colorful blooms with suspicion.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

Eddie turned concerned eyes up at him. “Something doesn’t feel right about this, like maybe it’s some sort of trap?”

“How can flowers be a trap?”

“Well, for one thing they’re not just any flowers, they’re poppies.”

Steve crinkled his brow. “Okay…”

“Poppies? Y’know, the thing they use to make opium?”

“Oh!”

“What’s opium?” The Scarecrow asked.

“I don't think they have drugs here.” Steve said.

Eddie tilted his head thoughtfully, and shrugged. “That’s fair, no need to trip balls when you already have talking trees.”

“So what do you want to do?” Steve asked.

“I don’t like it, but it doesn’t look like we have much choice. The only way to the Emerald City is through it, so.” Eddie shook his head, pushing himself back to his feet, and reached for Steve's hand. “I guess we’ll go as quickly as we can, and hope for the best.”

The unlikely quintet formed a chain of linked hands and ran together as a unit through the vibrant meadow. At first Steve thought Eddie had been wrong, that it was just an innocent field of wildflowers, but by the time they’d reached the top of the first small hill he was gasping for air, and his legs felt like they were pushing through molasses, unusual for someone who exercised regularly, jogging at least four times a week.

“Wait, wait.” Steve panted, leaning heavily into Eddie as he tried to regain his breath.

“Steve?” Eddie looked him up and down, worrying his bottom lip.

“I can’t run anymore, I–I’m,” Steve cut himself off with a yawn. “I’m so sleepy.” He wobbled in place, knees going weak. The other boy caught him around the middle, lowering him gently to the ground.

“What’s wrong with him?” The Scarecrow asked.

“I don’t know.” Eddie said, studying his face as he hovered over him, eyes wild with panic.

“I have to rest for just a minute.” Steve babbled, knowing it sounded ridiculous. They were so close to their destination, he could practically see the individual windows on the buildings of the Emerald City, and suddenly he wanted to take a nap? Something wasn’t right, but he couldn't seem to fight it.

The Lion yawned loudly. “Now that you mention it, catching a few winks doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” He swayed on his feet, kept upright only by The Tin Woman’s grip on him.

The next thing Steve knew, Eddie was gently prying his eyelids open, though he didn’t remember closing them. “Fuck, I knew something was off about these flowers. It’s that damn Wicked Witch, it has to be!”

Not that Steve was paying much attention to what he said, because god was Eddie pretty like this—his big brown eyes even larger and more beautiful up close, so dreamy, with his dark curls hanging down around him like a curtain.

Eddie's lips parted in surprise as his hands still cradled Steve’s face. “What did you just say?”

Oh shit, in his tired stupor had he actually said some of that out loud?

“Eddie, I–” Steve managed to force out, but Eddie swayed above him, eyes rolling back in his head for a moment before he tipped sideways, falling gracelessly to the ground beside him.

It was becoming harder and harder to keep his eyes open, and Steve knew it was only a matter of time before he succumbed to the magical sleep that was pulling him under. He turned his head and found Eddie looking at him too, doing the same long blinks, both of them fighting a losing battle.

With his last bit of strength Steve reached out, and Eddie reached too, clasping their hands between their bodies, fingers entwining with practiced ease like they were made to fit together.

As Steve’s eyes slipped shut there was another thunk nearby, the distinct sound of a body hitting the ground, something he had unfortunately heard enough times to know, and could only assume The Lion must have been felled by the same thing that’d gotten them.

The last thing he heard as his consciousness faded away, were the terrified shouts of The Scarecrow and The Tin Woman calling out for help.

Chapter 3

Thanks again to @pearynice and @hitlikehammers for all your help with this!

#steddie fanfic #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #steddie wizard of oz #adventures in following the yellow brick road with your crush #steddie #steve x eddie #steve harrington/eddie munson #steddie fic #stobin #stobin in every universe

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braveclementine · 1 year ago

Text

Marvel 2

Tags: Angst, fluff

Person(s): Steve-ish, Bucky

You and Steve Rogers were a sort've item. You two would usually fuck and he would take you on dates, but it wasn't entirely serious. You knew there was a lack of love on his part, but you didn't mind. You weren't overly attached to him. Sure the dates were fun and the sex was great, but there wasn't this overwhelming need to be with him.

Until Thanos snapped half of the population out of existence. You'd been terrified about losing him, but you didn't. You got lucky.

And that was when you really fell in love with him. He was still optimistic about everything, putting a positive spin where he could, even though he really missed his best friend Bucky. The two of you grew even closer during that time and you really thought something was going to happen because of it.

Maybe it would have. Except then they discovered how to go back in time. They brought everyone back. They fought Thanos and won this time. Well, it didn't feel much like a win, what with losing Natasha and then Tony. Idiotic Tony just had to snap and save the world, didn't he. God you had loved that man so much. He should've let someone else take care of it.

And then they decided to send the stones back.

And you had wonderful news for Steve at the same time, that you had just found out today.

Steve texted you to meet him near the Avengers compound, where they had set everything up to send him back with the stones.

You made your way there, walking up with Bucky, who was pleased to see you. You greeted him with a hug, ecstatic to see him after being gone for five years.

"You're glowing." He laughed.

"Well I have wonderful news for Steve." You said, face shining and your hand moved down to your stomach. There was no bump yet, but you were pregnant. Bucky's eyes followed the gesture, but he didn't comment on it.

Steve had other plans though.

He pulled you aside. "Y/N, I need. . . I have to tell you something."

"Me too." You breathed.

He smiled sadly. "I'm going to stay in the past."

His words punched you in the gut, stealing your breath.

"You know how much I loved Peggy and how much she meant to me. I'm glad that I got to spend this time with you." Steve said softly, looking upset. "And I really do hope that you find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with."

You still couldn't breathe. He was supposed to be that person. He was. . .

"What did you want to tell me?" He asked softly.

You pressed your lips together, trying to get your emotions under control. It had been the deal from the start. No strings, no emotions attached. Just two friends that benefited each other. He didn't need to know that you'd long broken your side of that promise. You loved him.

"It doesn't matter now." You said carefully, trying to smile. "You're not staying."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Steve said and you saw he really did look guilty. But you also knew that Peggy had always been the one that he loved. You were the one that caught feelings.

"It's. . . good luck Steve." You said, unable to tell him that it was fine.

Bucky had watched and overheard the entire encounter and was filled with horror for what Steve was about to do to you. What you were allowing him to do to you. Part of him felt fantastic that the two of you were over. He'd always loved you and never thought Steve was a good partner for you. But the other part of him felt terrible that Steve was leaving you here with his child by yourself- even if you hadn't told him you were pregnant.

"Steve." Bucky said, quickly stepping forward but you grabbed his arm.

"Good luck." You said, almost choking on the words.

Steve smiled, clapping Bucky on the shoulder with one hand, before heading over to where Sam and Bruce were waiting.

"Doll." Bucky looked stricken.

You turned your back as Steve went into the machine, tears welling up in your eyes.

"Doll." Bucky said again, softer this time.

"I'm okay Buck." You said, giving him a tense smile, wiping the tears from your eyes. "I always knew I was just the side girl. That was all we ever said we would be. I'm the one that got attached."

"Don't blame yourself for this!" Bucky said angrily. "It's Steve's fault!"

"It's no ones fault." You sighed, "This is just how the world works."

Sam nudged Bucky to show an older man sitting on the bench now, a brown circular case by his feet.

Oh my God. It was Steve. But he was so much older.

Bucky just nodded to Sam and said "go ahead."

Sam was the one who approached Steve.

You sighed, "I guess I should. . ."

Go where? Your home had been with Steve. You didn't have your own apartment or house or anything.

"You'll come home with me. I'll take care of you and the baby, I promise." Bucky said earnestly, but firmly.

"Do you even have a place to stay?" You asked skeptically, knowing that up till his disappearance, he'd been staying in Wakanda.

"Yep." Bucky said confidently. "Come on."

He offered you his arm and you took it.

"Y/N." Steve's voice sounded so strange, yet familiar.

You stopped, turning to face him. Then you walked forward.

He looked sad. "I'm sorry. If I had known. . . I would have stayed."

You shook your head, "Steve, were you happy?"

You watched with a broken heart as his eyes filled with love for a moment. "I was. Extremely."

"That is all I ever wanted for you." You said, throat constricting a little. "So it's okay. If you'd stayed, it would've made you unhappy and you only would've done it on principle. I'm glad you had the life you wanted." You bent down gently, kissing his cheek. "Good-bye Steve."

Steve smiled a little before looking at Bucky. Part of you wondered how he could just up and leave so easily with his best friend who really needed him here.

"I guess this is the End of the line pal." Bucky said, patting Steve's shoulder. He turned then, putting an arm around your shoulder to lead you away.

You knew tears were streaming down both of your faces, so neither of you looked back.

So neither of you saw that Steve was crying too.

#Braveclementineworks #BuckyBarnes #SteveRogers #fluff #angst #pregnant!reader #Fandom oneshot #fanfic #endgame spoilers

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gooblecontrol · 4 months ago

Text

Echoes of the Ark Part 5:

Everything was quiet. Peaceful.

At least, until an explosion rocked the town square.

Sonic was far away, in the midst of a different battle when he got the call. The village was in danger… rubbing his temples. “You’ve gotta be kidding me, now?” he muttered. He called a different number in his phone.

“Yes?” Shadow answered.

Sonic turned on the charm, trying not to sound too desperate off the bat. “Hey, shad's-babe! How is everything?"

Shadow sat in silence for a few moments, "Fine." he replied flatly.

"Okay, listen, I am super busy right now—Tails and I are in the middle of shutting down some giant Death Egg turret thing before it explodes. But Green Glade’s got some kinda old Eggman contraption on the loose, and I need you to handle it.”

Shadow raised a brow. “Me?”

“Yes, you!” Sonic clapped his hands together. “Look, I know this whole ‘hero’ thing isn’t your strong suit, but its already been beaten once, so how hard can it be to do again? Just get in there, do your thing, and try—try—not to terrify the locals.”

Shadow hesitated. “I don't know-”

“Great! Love the confidence. Later, babe!” Sonic hung up before Shadow could change his mind.

Shadow arrived at the village center, where a rusted Eggman bot—a towering machine with flickering red eyes—was smashing carts and sending people screaming.

Shadow cracked his knuckles. “Should be simple enough.”

He skated forward, leaping onto the bot’s head. With a burst of energy, he slammed his fist down, denting the metal. The bot wobbled but didn’t fall. Instead, it screeched a horrible sound—causing villagers to panic even more.

“Oh no! He made it angrier!” someone yelled.

“Why is he so aggressive? Sonic always has a plan!”

Shadow gritted his teeth. He shook off the words just before he leapt down just as the bot flailed. Before it could recover, Shadow charged a chaos attack and hurled it into the bot’s core. Sparks exploded from its chest, and the machine staggered backward, crashing into the town’s bakery.

The villagers gasped.

“My bread!” cried the baker.

“Unbelievable! Sonic would have stopped it before it wrecked the bakery!”

Shadow’s eye twitched. “It was going to destroy more then the bakery if I don't stop it.”

“Yeah, but Sonic would have stopped it without property damage!”

The eggman bot began to twitch, its eyes flickering with more life.

"Its still alive!" someone yelled.

Shadow growled and launched himself at the bot again, slamming a spin attack into its face. The impact sent the machines head toppling onto the town fountain, water spewing everywhere.

A moment of silence.

Then—

“Our fountain!”

Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose. He had faced cosmic horrors, government conspiracies. But somehow, this was the most frustrating battle of his life.

With a final Chaos Blast, the bot was reduced to smoking scrap metal. The village fell silent, only the sound of water dripping from the ruined fountain filled the air.

Shadow crossed his arms. “There. Problem solved.”

The villagers huddled together, murmuring.

“… Sonic usually makes a speech after he saves us,” one said. “Wait, are we being saved… or is this the opposite of that?”

Shadow blinked. “No. And Pass."

“And he smiles more.” someone else shouted.

Shadow growled, his quills bristling, "You want a speech? Here’s your speech: Next time, handle it yourselves.”

With that, he skated off, leaving the villagers to clean up the mess.

Shadow sat on the edge of a ruined highway, staring at the distant city lights. Shadow tried to sumon more chaos energy, but it only gave a flicker in his fingers. All gone in an instant just to take out some rust bucket robot. Without a chaos emerald it would take forever before it replenished again. Leaving him drained.

Shadow groaned. He would never understand how Sonic made this hero thing look so easy.

"You know," came a familiar voice. "You're really not cut out for this whole 'good guy' thing."

Shadow turned sharply, his eyes narrowing as Dr. Eggman stepped out of the shadows.

"I gotta say, Shadow, watching you flail around trying to be Sonic is just painful." Eggman chuckled, "Let’s be honest—you’re miserable. You've been trying to have it both ways, but its never going to work."

“What do you want, Eggman?”

Dr. Eggman put a smug grin on his face. “Oh, nothing much. Just checking in on an old friend.”

“Friend?” Shadow repeated flatly.

“well, we’re not enemies either, are we? After all, I’m the one who knows what you’re capable of. And I know you’re not exactly… happy playing the hero.”

Shadow’s grip tightened, “What’s your point?”

Eggman spread his arms dramatically. “My point, Shadow, is that you’re wasting your potential. You don’t belong with them. Sonic and his little friends—they’ll never understand you. But I do. You’re not a hero. You’re a weapon. And weapons aren’t meant to be sheathed.”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not your weapon.”

“No,” Eggman agreed, his tone sly. “But thats up to you. And if you’d stop pretending to be something you’re not, you could have everything you want. Everything my dear, dear grandfather, Gerald Robotnik would have wanted for you.”

Shadow was silent for a long moment. Eggman’s words struck a chord, one he didn’t want to admit was there. Finally, he spoke, “What are you suggesting?”

Eggman’s grin widened. “You want a Chaos Emerald, right? I have a little plan. You and I? We take one."

Shadow hesitated. Then he scoffed. "I don’t need you for that."

"Then prove it," Eggman challenged.

Shadow turned to face him. “And what do you get out of this?”

“The satisfaction of seeing you embrace your true nature,” Eggman said, his tone almost gleeful. “And, of course, a share of the spoils. But that’s just a bonus.”

Shadow thought of Sonic, of everyone else he'd met on earth, of the life he’d tried to build. But he also thought of the emptiness he felt, the restlessness that never seemed to go away.

“One time,” Shadow said finally. “That’s it.”

Eggman clapped his hands together, “I knew you’d see things my way.”

<< Part 4 | Master Post | Part 6 >>

#sonadow #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #fanfiction #ark au

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theresa-of-liechtenstein · 1 month ago

Text

who up orbiting they spheres. and also a soprano sectional

meant to practice violin in the hour between my seminar and soprano sectionals but instead found principal oboe on a bench and yapped for almost forty-five minutes, which was a slightly more diverting use of my time

popped downstairs, retrieved my choir folder, and returned to find the sopranos hovering around the same bench i had just been chatting with principal oboe on

we spent a few seconds complimenting each other's outfits before tita conductor left her office, found us, and led us to the same office her colleague had lent her last week in the manner of a pied piper

we passed through the copy room (vague memories rising to the surface within the pool of my mind... god how many pivotal moments have happened at that copy machine...) and i saw second trumpet at the table working on something. as i walked past i greeted him and he showed me his cheat sheet for a midterm copiously covered in tiny print. i stopped, leaned closer, and asked him what class it was for, to which he told me 'cell biology and neuroscience' to which i pretended to make an expression of horror and said 'oh, no. don't even ask me about it. ask me about diodes instead' before walking away

much to tita conductor's amusement at both of us

finally we crammed back into the tiny office, where we discovered that out of the six sopranos assembled, only two of us were soprano 1s on the new monteverdi piece

i strugglebused so hard trying to find something a fourth below a note to the point of embarrassment very early on but quickly figured it out and found my footing

when the only other soprano 1 had to leave to get to class i was left on my own against 4 soprano 2s but i managed to hold my own even without the piano. on my first reading of the notes. raaahhhh i'm not a fraud 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

once again i was tita conductor's timekeeper and when we wrapped up she turned to me and said "time for—?" and pretended to play an air violin, to which i said "i just need to switch out my folder, shall i get my violin?" and she was like "oh, no, actually, we could just talk it through" 😭😭😭 beloved then why the charades. in front of everyone at that

popped back downstairs, grabbed my folder, and resurfaced to meet tita conductor outside. we decided to continue stealing her colleague's office as he was still in the classroom we had initially planned on using, and so for the second time that afternoon, she sat before me on the piano bench as i took out my part of the modern piece

i pointed out the areas i had been struggling the most with at rehearsal the day prior, explaining that though i had written in cues and taken a stab at subdividing measures, i still wasn't 100% certain about what was going on

we floundered about a bit trying to find the best way to work on the more hairy rhythms together: clapping, counting out loud, me clapping while tita conductor was at the piano... but i think the breakthrough came when we remembered that, first and foremost, i am a pianist. so i settled down at the keyboard to play the rhythms while tita conductor counted and clapped just behind me

eventually this turned into tita conductor sitting next to me on the bench and us playing out the rhythms to each other and it was (and i don't say it lightly) one of the happiest moments of my working relationship with tita conductor so far.

i genuinely could not stop smiling the whole time. she was probably thinking "damn why is this kid so happy. they just fucked up two half-note triplets in succession" 😭 i just couldn't help myself. it was just the piano, the piece in front of us, and i got to play next to her.

i think the last time i was that happy about being on the piano bench with a teacher was probably ten years ago. which was when my parents pulled me out of lessons with my first piano teacher...

i also had a question about a brief section that went: 7/8 → 3/4 → 3/8 → 7/8 → 5/8 → 3/8 → 3/4 → 5/8 → 6/8 in rapid succession so she explained it, then wrote in the same slashes and triangles she had placed in her own score to show me where the groups of three eighth notes were

then i asked her "how are you going to conduct that?" and she stepped away from the piano and showed me, then paused and said "do you know the basic stroke for three?" and i showed her and she said "you could try conducting this part."

god in heaven i have never come so close to admitting my secret: that a large part of my ambitions from the age of seven to thirteen was that i wanted to be a conductor, and that i only tossed out that particular aspiration because i didn't think i was good enough at piano to do it.

i've never told her this because somewhere along the way my silly brain decided that doing so would make me look like i was trying to ingratiate her. which (1) she is virtually impossible to ingratiate. the things that bring a person into favor with her are competence, communication, and consistency. and (2) it's well-established she likes me already. a little too much, even

i know it's going to come out eventually, because i'm here as long as she'll have me, and she is someone i can be quite vulnerable around. but for some reason. i held my tongue today. i don't know why.

an aside about the lighting. this guy's office had the generic fluorescent lights, but he had forgone them in favor of a set of lamps that suffused the room with warm, albeit lower, light. this will be of importance in about two bullet points.

after about a half hour, tita conductor determined that the assistance i needed on the first half of the piece was pretty minimal, looked over at me as we sat inches apart on the piano bench, and said "you get this. your section doesn't. i will have to teach them, or perhaps deputize you"

i HAD to draw the line at that. i lack the technical language or pedagogical skills that a fucking DMA in orchestral conducting might have to teach compound rhythms.

i looked at her directly; up close, the lamp on the little table to my left illuminated the lines on her face and her big brown eyes staring at me as i begged "oh dr. [titaconductor], please don't deputize me," to which she burst into full laughter 😭😭

i was like "i can run a sectional. i cannot teach these rhythms. please i need you with me" 😭😭😭😭

which is so. god i couldn't make that moment up if i tried

we packed up and left the office (to which its occupant was about to return) and she hoisted up her huge fucking crate of music and made to open the door but i went ahead of her and (not checking my tone) was like "no no don't get the door. Don't get the door. i will get the door" and she sort of giggled and said "okay, okay," in a relenting tone and let me open the door for her

she still got the door out of the copy room. i was not quick enough for that

we headed back in the direction of her office in companionable silence, punctuated only by tita conductor's chuckling as i scampered around her to switch our positions so she was to my left

ever since ate dean told me... well, what she did... a few weeks ago, i've been trying to be more vocal about my gratitude for tita conductor

i've hoped it would have shown through me being The Way I Am with her. like purposefully hanging around after rehearsals to ask if she needs help carrying things or organizing things. being her timekeeper. letting her use my parts and scores for copying or what have you. or just letting her talk at me about what's frustrating her. but i also am very cognizant that actual words are very useful in conveying that as well

so as we were walking back (and still riding on the high of the most pleasant experience at a piano i had had in at least six years) i burst out, "i'm so glad i stayed."

she looked a little taken aback at this pronouncement but said "ah, well, it's good for you that this is a place where you can continue your career and keep pursuing music."

she hadn't got the point. i panicked and before i could think too hard about it i said "i'm glad i can keep learning from you."

to this she stopped in her tracks and said, "oh!..." before recovering herself and saying "though i'm sure wherever you'd gone you could have found someone to learn from."

reader. i never wanted to bang my head against the wall more than i did then 😭😭

like you silly woman. silliest faculty member in the department of music. can't you see that you matter. To Me. you are important. To Me. don't you get that I Care For You.

(do i consistently believe myself replaceable and expendable? well. yeah. but that's another can of worms entirely.)

i sensed that pressing the point wouldn't do much (and she was also finding her office key on her keyring) so i thanked her again, bid her farewell, and headed downstairs to replace my folder in my locker and head home

the sitcom of my life never ends. although we all knew that by now.

#em jumped up busker

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theguardiansseries · 1 year ago

Text

From the Beginning - Chapter 1: Click

Whew. Okay. I believe this is the part where I once said Bonjour, mes chers! A lot of growth and change has happened since I greeted you all like that (like the fact my name is now Andrew! and I was very much not a girl!). Well, if you've read the title of this post then you know what's happening, but... Today is the 20th anniversary of Danny Phantom and I figured there was no better time for a story revival (ha! get it?) to celebrate the show that ended up changing my life and leading me to make the friendships that changed my life. I hope you'll forgive some of my sappiness, but I hope you guys enjoy this story for, what I hope, will be the last and final time!

—

Rating: Teen Audiences

Summary:

Dani Fenton (who is sometimes starting to go by Danny Fenton) is a fifteen-year-old almost sophmore who was just going about her normal life when she figured out she sort of liked being seen as a boy. Oh, then he (he had definitely been a he at the time) got shocked by a machine his parents built to view into another world that they believed contained a world of 'ecotplasmic entities.'

Danny really isn't sure how to tell them that they were right and that he was in the machine when it turned on and that maybe he isn't so human anymore. (He might also not be a girl anymore, but that one was a little more difficult to explain than the fact that he ((she?)) might be half-ghost.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54944266

—

Chapter 1: Click

Thumbs dragging across the fabric of a worn dress that probably should have been replaced a couple of years ago, Dani sighed and wondered, for the fifth time in the last half hour, what she was doing. Her sigh then turned into a short scream as the partition she was behind rattled enough to give her a heart attack. “Sam!”

“C’mon, it doesn’t take that long to switch from a dress to some shirts and jeans!” Sam called over the partition that she at least caught and fixed before it fell over. “And hey, I could have been Tucker for all you know.”

Dani snorted, dropping the dress onto a chair already filled with clothes and fixing up the jeans that had been shoved into her arms, along with the two shirts that had also been forcibly shoved into her arms. “You actually think I’d believe that you would let Tucker get within five feet of either one of us changing?”

“Hey!” Laughing again at Tucker’s offended scoff, Dani felt a lot more normal and calm as she put on the shirts next, first a button up and then a regular t-shirt, struggling to not get her hair caught under them like she somehow always managed to do. She should probably think about cutting it, but her mom loved seeing her baby girls with long hair and all of that. “I think you need to be focusing on the important thing here, you two, and that’s the fact that we’ve been cursed.”

Rolling her eyes, Dani listened as Sam groaned while probably doing the same. “Yeah? And how are we cursed this week, Tuck?”

“Are you kidding? How are we not cursed?! Not only is July almost over — our very summer — but now we’re about to enter into the horror that is our sophomore year! We won’t have the grace period that we had as freshmen!”

Dani poked her head out from behind the partition, still not totally sure she wanted to come out from behind the hideous pink and floral thing Sam’s mom had probably bought for her, but needing to make her point. “We had a grace period?” Because as far as she remembered their freshman year had been absolutely miserable.

Tucker, as usual, ignored her and kept talking. “And now, here on what could have been one of the best summer days of the year, is a thunderstorm.” The universe, because she had perfect timing and loved to mock Tucker, had the storm rattling with a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning that sent all three of them jumping — except Tucker. He screamed. “Ugh! This is why no one likes thunderstorms!”

Before Dani could really get into the defense of thunderstorms, Sam was rattling the partition again and looking her dead in the eye before Dani escaped back behind it. “Hey, I saw that! C’mon, you can’t hide behind this thing all day.”

“Watch me,” Dani grumbled, staring down at herself and her layered shirts and faded jeans that probably cost way more than anything Dani owned because Sam had been the one to buy it, and some mismatched socks. “Alright. Fine. I’m coming.”

“Ah! One more thing!” Seeing something tossed over, Dani scrambled to catch it, pausing at seeing it was her NASA logo hat that matched the shirt she had been forced into (and was definitely keeping no matter how this went). “Since you didn’t want to cut your hair.”

“Mom would’ve freaked if I came home with hair as short as you wanted to cut it,” Dani pointed out around the brim she had shoved in her mouth, already working to tie up all of her hair before moving to tuck it under the hat.

Sucking in a deep breath, and reminding herself that it was only Sam and Tucker in the room, Dani stepped out from behind the changing area. If it all went wrong she was at least certain in the knowledge that she could disown Sam and bury Tucker alive at the cemetery. The two wouldn’t even be angry at her for it, either, they would have known that they deserved it.

“Alright,” Dani sighed, shuffling forward and absently scuffing her foot against the floor to kick up the cuff of the jeans on her right leg. They were a lot baggier than the kind she was used to. “Okay. So… how do I look, then?” It honestly wasn’t that bad of an outfit seeing as Sam had picked it out.

It wasn’t what she usually wore, but from the relaxed jeans and scuffed up NASA hat to the black NASA shirt and blue button up, she… She thought she looked pretty okay. A glance up had her shoulders dropping, Tucker grinning and Sam near beaming.

A moment passed and then Sam cleared her throat, putting on her best announcer voice, “Ladies, gentleman, all those in between or outside of, and Tucker, I present to you… Danny with a y Fenton!” Tucker gave a polite audience clap, Dani’s — Danny’s — nervousness starting to be replaced by exasperated fondness for her (his? should she be using he/him/his and all of that instead now?) friends. They were idiots, but they were her idiots. His idiots. (Hm. Weird, but not bad.)

“You guys don’t think it’s too much?” Danny finally asked, picking at the sleeves and re-adjusting the hat even though it rested on his head and covered up his long hair perfectly. “I mean… I’m fine with being a girl, still.”

Danny was only there because Sam had gotten on a new research kick that involved learning about the LGBTQ+ community when questioning some of her own labels. It had ended with her dragging both her and Tucker down into a rabbit hole of queer history and self-help advice and ended with her thinking that maybe being a him for a bit wouldn’t be so bad. (Apparently it wasn’t normal to look at your body some days and hate it. But it was only some days!)

“I mean. You guys know how I always dressed. Skirts and dresses and things. Isn’t this kind of a big change? Like… extreme?” The name was at least the same, which wasn’t that big of a change and made it kind of easier. The outfit, though, made him look- Well. It made him look like a guy. A good sports bra paired with two shirts did a really good job of making him look pretty flat, too. (It probably helped that he hadn’t exactly hit a growth spurt, yet.)

“It is not extreme.” Sam frowned, pointing at the bed with a firm, “Sit.” She then crossed her arms, drew herself up, and made both Danny and Tucker groan in misery.

Danny threw himself onto the bed with a pout, glancing at Tucker with a quiet, “I thought summer meant we were supposed to be done with lectures.” Tucker snorted, only stopping when Sam gave him a sharp glare.

The two settled down, Sam eyeing them closely before nodding and starting to speak, “I know I’ve told you about the term genderfluid before, but I’ll go over it again since you probably didn’t pay attention the first time.” Well. That was mean but true.

Sam launched into her explanation, Danny completely tuned out by the second sentence. It was only Tucker giving him a nudge that kept his brain from turning off completely. A careful glance over at him showed he was smiling — one of his fond smiles that he pretended he didn’t have.

“You know,” Tucker whispered, “You do look pretty good as a guy. And Sam knew what she was doing, making you a walking billboard for NASA.”

Choking down a snort of laughter, Danny nudged Tucker back with a quick, “Thanks, Tuck.” While Sam was one thing considering how she lived and breathed activism, Tucker was always a harder sell on ‘new’ things. To find him so supportive of something even Danny found weird, still? It was nice. It was good. It was- Shit. Sam was glaring at them silently. “Uh… Yes?”

“How did you two even manage to move on to sophomore year,” Sam groaned, rolling her eyes and leaning against a bedroom wall. “Alright, listen up you nerds.” Rude. “Until Dani, or Danny, figures out what they like best, whether that be female, male, or something else, we can just say it’s a new tomboy look he’s trying out.”

Sam paused from her lecture, know-it-all attitude fading for their usual Sam. “By the way, how are the pronouns? I know you said you were worried about getting used to them.”

“Oh, uh…” Trailing off, Danny rubbed at the back of his neck, giving a nervous smile as he looked down at the floor. “It’s weird, really weird, but… good.” It was such a stark contrast, but it felt right - at least for that moment. He wasn’t sure how he’d feel once he left Sam’s bedroom, the most accepting place on earth, but for now… “I like it.”

“Hey!” Tucker slapped Danny’s arm, the sting making him yelp and jerk before he was swatting Tucker back. Tucker, the idiot, didn’t even seem to notice as he beamed. “This means I have a brother now!” Yeah, great, but why did he need to be hit for that? “And you know what brothers do…?”

“Wha-” Oh. Oh no. “No- No, no, no, Tuck, there is no way-” Danny didn’t even get to finish before Tucker was pouncing on him and wrapped around his shoulders.

“Brothers sneak other brothers into their parent’s awesome super secret lab.” Why? Why oh why had Danny’s best friend turned out to be a geek obsessed about science labs and ‘mad science.’

“You know it’s not a super secret lab,” Danny groaned, not even trying to wiggle free. He knew when he was beat. “We have open hours to come to the lab some days.”

Tucker nodded, as if he truly understood, and then immediately asked, “Does today have open hours?”

Throwing himself back on the bed, and dragging Tucker with him, Danny whined and called out for Sam. “Sammy, you gotta do something. He’s being obsessive again!”

“Hey, I’ve done my best friend duty for today by giving you a new look.” Evil. His friends were evil. “Plus you know he’s just going to keep asking.”

“I will,” Tucker agreed, wiggling closer to hug him tighter. “I will absolutely keep asking at least fifteen times a day — thirty if it’s a weekend.”

Shoving Tucker off, Danny wiggled and struggled to get to his feet before he was standing up with a loud, dramatic, defeated sigh. “Fine- Fine. We can go check out my parents’ lab-”

The enthusiastic cheer from Tucker and the smug, taunting look from Sam were completely unwarranted. It took a long moment of Danny reminding himself that he loved his idiots and would gladly kill for them if necessary. It took a long, long moment.

As always, though, he caved and hid a smile and walked towards the door, trying to complain through his smile as he called back to them. “C’mon, then. If you wanna go see the lab then you get to go through this storm, first.” Ah. Tucker’s misery. It was a good addition to the day.

⁂

Taking a moment to enjoy the rain and the pounding thunder around him, Danny gave a soft sigh as he finally unlocked his front door, pushed it open, and quickly stepped aside. It was an effort not to laugh as Sam and Tucker nearly shoved each other to the floor in their rush to get inside and out of the rain. Babies.

Glancing back up at the sky, Danny grinned at the bolts of lightning that seared their way across the sky, lighting up the entire world for just a few seconds. He hadn’t had the chance to lecture Tucker back in Sam’s room, but storms were the best. He probably could have stayed out there for another hour, at least, before he felt himself dragged inside where it was dry, Tucker throwing an arm around his shoulder.

“I’m gonna level with you here, dude.” Tucker stared at him seriously, ramping up the dramatics as always. “Our friend group needs balance. I’m the tech obsessed one, right? Sam - she’s the nature obsessed one. You are the normal one that keeps this friend group from falling into chaos and killing each other.”

Danny rolled his eyes, patting at Tucker’s chest. “Trust me, buddy, it wouldn’t be killing each other. It would be Sam killing you.” Slipping away at the offended scoff, Danny adjusted his hat before retrieving the towels that Jazz obsessively kept in the front hall for storms and rainy days. He could never tell her that he found them helpful.

“Here,” Danny said, throwing a towel at each of them before taking one for himself. “Try to dry off before we go down into the lab. Water and exposed wires and papers do not mix — something I’ve found out the hard way.” Age eight was a terrible year to have been born a Fenton, Danny had discovered. “You know, you’re lucky they’re still out at that stupid science convention thing of theirs.”

Tucker grinned, pausing from where he was trying to brush the water off the waterproof yellow hoodie that Danny was pretty sure he never took off. The ridiculous pockets alone made sure that all of his ‘tech babies’ would be safe from the world. Shame it wouldn’t save them from Sam pouring a glass of water into the pockets if Tucker ever got too out of line. (She had done it, once, after making sure he had recently backed everything up and then bought him brand new versions of everything that was lost.) “Dude. Why do you think I asked you to take us to the lab today- Wait. Is your sister home?”

Oh. This was too good an opportunity. “Dunno,” Danny said after a moment of ‘thought.’ “You know what, let me check.” Clearing his throat, Danny raised his voice, “Hey, Jazz! I’m back! I’m also taking Tucker and Sam into the basement which is usually off limits to look at dangerous equipment that still has exposed wires! If you want to stop me then you should say something now!”

Tucker gave a horrified, panicked squeak while Sam smothered laughter into her fist, shoulders shaking. Danny gave Tucker a few seconds to panic before laughing and shaking his head, “Relax. Jazz is at the library doing some work for her college classes or something. She won’t be back until dinner at least.”

“Jesus, give me a heart attack,” Tucker groaned, near collapsing in on himself in his dramatics. Sam, at least, still seemed amused.

“They really left you guys on your own for a week? Didn’t you almost burn your house down one time when they did that?”

“Hey, we were young and impressionable children when that happened,” Danny pouted at her, holding it for a few seconds before laughing. “Besides, we didn’t burn the house, we almost exploded the house. Totally different thing.”

“Totally,” Tucker snorted, shoving at Danny’s shoulder. “C’mon, let’s go already! When else am I ever gonna get a chance to study their tech and poke at it to see how it works? This is the lab of ghost researchers after all!”

“Probably why you shouldn’t get your hopes up,” Danny snorted, even as Tucker raced to the kitchen and the bulky steel door that led down to the lab they kept in their basement. Honestly, Danny was almost completely certain that a basement lab wasn’t technically legal. “You know the code?”

“Same code for your guys’ lock with the extra key outside,” Tucker laughed, the sound of beeping soon followed by the deep, menacing sound of heavy-duty locks being released. Danny took a moment to appreciate the horror/sci-fi movie that was his life before letting Tucker rush down the stairs first, Sam following at a much more calm pace.

Half-following after them, Danny took a moment to look around the near spotless kitchen. The only spot that wasn’t clean and empty of items was a little pile of chips and snack cakes, a note from Jazz resting on top of the pile and dictating that ‘she’ needed to remember to eat. (She should probably tell Jazz about the whole genderfluid ‘trying out being a guy’ thing soon. Maybe once she figured out if it was going to stick around or not.)

Swiping the note and a bag of chips, she (he! it was he right now) shoved the note in his pocket and headed down the stairs after his friends as he got ready to munch on his new snack. As always, the clean kitchen tile and wooden walls faded abruptly in favor of strong metal stairs and former wood walls made of the same metal as the stairs.

It had once been cool to learn that they had their own lab in the basement and the entire lab had been built to contain radiation and prevent any possible spreading. Jazz had then taught him that having a place to contain radiation meant that there was radiation to contain. He hadn’t grown extra fingers or heads yet, though, so it was probably okay for the most part - especially since his parents hadn’t been down in the lab for almost two weeks.

Getting to the bottom of the stairs, Danny didn’t even get to open his bag of chips before almost running into Sam. He pouted, giving her a nudge, “Hey, there’s more than just the entryway here, you know.”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any part in that,” Sam said, gesturing straight ahead. Danny peeked out around her and wasn’t sure whether to laugh or groan as he saw Tucker being, well… Tucker.

His idiot best friend since preschool was just about buried in half-finished inventions and exposed wires that were already twisted around him. They were probably ready to strangle him out of pure spite, especially since everytime Danny came near the lab he was shocked by them.

The wires did nothing to slow Tucker down, though, his friend a swirl of yellow and green as he moved around the lab and tried to put his hands on every shiny thing that he could. Sam probably had the right idea in staying back.

“You know, there’s some cool research stuff about ancient ghosts or something on that table way over there out of the line of fire, usually. You wanna-” Danny paused, blinking as Sam was already halfway across the room. Normally she would look menacing crossing a room with such a determined expression, especially with her outfits usually equating to little more than a black hole, but, well. A dripping teenage girl with a white fluffy towel draped around her shoulders did little to scare people.

Shaking his head and dropping his chips and own towel on the stairs, Danny headed over to make sure Tucker wasn’t about to die. He was almost positive that, as he got closer, he could hear Tucker muttering engineering and coding type things under his breath. It was as funny as it was worrying.

“Remember you promised to not try and hack into government files until you’re eighteen.” Danny threw an arm around Tucker’s shoulders, dragging him back from a table of slightly sparking parts. “Also, while you’re at it, maybe try not to electrocute yourself while you’re down here.”

“I’m not gonna electrocute myself,” Tucker snorted, batting him away before turning to beam at him. “But c’mon. I mean — look at all this stuff! They’re making technology that shouldn’t exist!”

“Uh huh.” Danny didn’t have the heart to tell him that none of it worked. “Just, uh… be cautious of anything that looks like it could kill you, okay? Half of this stuff isn’t even complete, yet. Just focus on stuff like- Here! Focus on stuff like- Fuck!”

Tucker barked out a wheezy laugh as Danny jumped back from the stupid fucking device that had zapped him enough to hurt. Tucker’s laugh was doing little to raise Danny’s spirits, too. “Sorry, Danny, but if anyone’s getting electrocuted today it’s probably gonna be you.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Danny grumbled, shaking his hand out and moving away from anything that even so much as looked like it could hurt him. “I’m telling you guys, this lab is out to get me.”

“You think the world is out to get you,” Sam laughed, walking back over to them and looking at all the other papers scattered around. “Okay, so… how does all of this work? Like, okay, secret lab, crazy inventions, and all of it… leads to ghosts? How?”

“Jeez, Sammy, ask the hard questions,” Danny whined, moving to pull himself up on a table and sit. Sam did the same thing on the table across from him and Tucker went back to rifling through tech like the trash goblin he was. “Okay, so… it’s kind of complicated? If you want to be really proper about it and junk, they take part in biological studies to research the development and recreation of ectoplasm and the theorized existence of ectoplasmic entities.”

“Hang on.” Tucker paused, arms full as he looked back at them. “Ectoplasm is that slimy junk that ghosts throw up on people, isn’t it?”

“No- And stop shoving stuff into your pockets! You’re enough of a walking fire hazard as it is!” Honestly, Danny wouldn’t be surprised if Tucker one day pulled out an actual laptop from those pockets. “Ectoplasm as in, like, an actual element that they’re working on proving to the scientific community at large.”

“They get funding for something like that?” Sam looked down at the papers she had been looking at, expression flat. “This all looks like absolute gibberish — and that’s without counting all the scientific terms.”

“I mean, it is basically gibberish until they get the proof they need,” Danny shrugged, looking over his shoulder. “That’s why I told you that me and Jazz were outright banned from being in the lab the last couple months. It’s because they were building that.”

Danny pointed over towards the way he had been looking, turning back to see his friends’ shocked expressions. In their defense, it really was something unnoticed until attention was called to it. It was, as his parents like to call it, their ‘life’s work.’

While his parents really were trying to prove that ectoplasm was an actual element, their true focus was to study the entities that were supposedly made of it. There were sometimes months at a time where his parents disappeared into the lab and Danny had been chased out with stern lectures and disappointed looks. After their last spree of inventing, Danny made sure to only come down to the lab and look at what they were doing when he was sure they were asleep.

Their latest project wasn’t technically their ‘latest,’ either. It was something that they had been working on since Danny was in second or third grade, but it was only in the last few months they had started making progress on ‘their greatest invention.’

“Dude… what is that?” Tucker looked like he wanted to run over and pick it apart with nothing but his teeth and nails. Danny made sure to slide off the table he was sitting on and shuffle to stand in front of him so he could at least try to block him when he snapped and went feral.

“I mean, me and Jazz started calling it a portal, but I think the real term they gave it was the EMD or, uh…” Shit, he had just been thinking about it last night, too. What- Oh, right. “The Ectoplasmic Monitoring Device. It’s basically supposed to use radiation and electricity to form a sort of mirror that they can use to study ectoplasm which, so far as they’ve been able to tell, doesn’t naturally occur in our world.”

“The living world?” Sam crossed her arms and had on her skeptical look that she usually had when dealing with cheerleaders and kids who got caught cheating. “Meaning there’s another world?”

Sighing dramatically, Danny wandered over to the device and gave it a fond pat to the side, expertly avoiding the exposed wires. “If what my parents say is true, then there’s supposed to be another world parallel to our own that is made of ectoplasm. This device was supposed to make it so they’d be able to study that world.”

“Supposed to? What happened?” Tucker frowned as he started looking at all the data banks the portal was hooked up to, Danny leaving him to it. While Danny wasn’t a slouch himself when it came to math and science, he’d leave the actual inventing part up to Tucker, who was much better at it.

“We don’t really know. They’ve been working on this since I was in second or third grade, I think.” The Portal, which came about after having a bit of a gaming marathon, was aptly named in Danny’s opinion. The thing was huge, created in the style of a hexagon just for structural stability, and had an eight foot long tunnel. It was definitely a portal. It was also off and silent as it always seemed to be. “They said they made a breakthrough a while ago, but I guess it wasn’t enough of one.”

Danny had to admit that they had done a lot of good work on it, though. Whereas before there had been nothing except a multitude of wires and a wireframe structure, now it looked like something more befitting a proper sci-fi movie. There were only a few panels that seemed to be missing and showed the wires and cables that held the portal together, but otherwise it looked like it should have been at least somewhat functional.

“Danny, you know that this looks like the start of a horror movie,” Sam said, sounding like she was both scoffing and laughing. It probably would have been even funnier if she didn’t sound so right about it. Still, though…

Unable to resist climbing over the foot-wide gap and into the portal itself, Danny let himself pretend for just a moment that he really was about to enter some grand new world where anything could happen. What would another world even be like? What would a ghostly world be like?

His parents could claim ectoplasmic entities all they wanted when it came to their studies and research, but what they were basically studying was ghosts. Maybe not the horror-comedy cult classic stuff that was around, but real, actual ghosts. What would a world like that really look like?

Would it be full of dead people and just that? Maybe there was old technology that no one used anymore and books no one ever read? Or maybe it was just an echo of Earth, but all twisted and flipped around. Whatever was out there, Danny had little doubt that it would be amazing.

“You know, it’s kind of weird.” Tucker’s voice brought his attention back to the present, Danny glancing back to see the other was still at the data banks and looking through everything. “Everything’s plugged in, all the readings look good from what I’m seeing, and just… it should be working, but it’s like it just decided not to bother.”

Danny couldn’t stop his laugh at that, waving around at the room at large. “Dude, they can say ectoplasmic entities all they want, but they’re basically chasing after ghosts.”

“Tilting at windmills,” Sam put in, grinning at the looks Danny and Tucker both shot her. “It means chasing what isn’t there. It was on our English final-”

“Is that what it means?” Tucker’s eyes widened and then he dropped his shoulders and groaned. “Got that one wrong, then.”

Danny snorted and rolled his eyes before stepping further into the Portal, catching a glimpse of Tucker messing with the screens and control area while Sam slipped over to fiddle with dials and levers that, pressed against the wall, fed into the machine itself. Not too worried about it, Danny looked around, absently hearing Tucker mutter about the unworking Portal being a bummer.

“Gotta agree with you there,” Sam called back to him, voice hard to hear from where Danny was standing. It almost reminded him of being inside a wind tunnel when he had been on a field trip with his class. “Could you imagine how cool it would be to explore an entire new world?”

Danny kept silent, but honestly he couldn’t agree more. It would have been amazing if his parents had been right for once and the Portal could one day work. They’d basically be able to explore a new planet.

Now far enough inside to be in the middle of it all, Danny almost continued forward before stopping dead in his tracks as something happened. It felt like being shocked without the pain of it all, breath knocked out of him and some sort of sharp sensation crawling down his spine and prickling at his skin. It was, to borrow his mom’s paranoid words, as if someone had stepped over his grave.

His friends were still talking outside — he knew they were talking just outside the edge of the Portal — but from where he was standing it felt like he couldn’t hear anything except maybe his imagined heartbeat and quiet breaths. It was quiet enough that he was pretty sure his brain was trying to trick him into thinking someone was talking just so he had something to focus on.

It felt like an eternity of feeling like something was going to happen before the feeling faded away, Danny left confused and standing there before he heard his name called by what sounded like Tucker. Slowly taking a step back, Danny shook his head as he turned around. He was just walking around some scrap metal, as far as he was concerned. He was fine. In fact- Okay. Now Sam was loudly calling for him.

“Hang on, hang on, I’m coming!” Quickly turning around, and immediately tripping over some exposed metal, Danny stumbled and swore before catching himself on the wall. It may have been scrap metal, but it was still a death trap, Danny supposed.

Pushing himself off the wall, Danny stumbled again and paused as he felt something under his hand give, like whatever it was was being pressed inwards, a quiet click noise echoing softly throughout the Portal. Frowning in confusion, Danny turned to look at his hand before carefully twitching his fingers apart to form a gap he could look through.

There, just barely visible through the light spilling in from the lab, was the plastic sheen of a green button. An imprinted word above it read ON.

“Danny? You okay?” Sam’s voice, sounding worried, had Danny freezing in place even more as he turned to properly look at her. She had a small frown on her face, the beginnings of concern in her eyes and the lines around her mouth. “Hey, what’s wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost-”

The word cut off in the wake of a high pitched whine not unlike what he heard once before when a power generator had started turning on. It was a sound that made Sam’s eyes widen the same way Danny (no, this was definitely Dani, now, who was scared out of her mind) was sure her own had, trying not to laugh hysterically as the whine grew louder around them. She had no doubt that she really did look like she had seen a ghost.

“Hey, guys?” Dani finally managed through the fear that felt like it was choking her, “I think I figured out why the portal wasn’t working.”

The whine was loud enough that it seemed to deafen the entire world, Dani unable to hear Sam screaming what was probably her name. She couldn’t hear Tucker, either, the other coming into view and looking to be shouting something before he was wrapping around Sam and keeping her from running into the portal after her.

It looked like the two were telling her to run, to get out, but Dani just… stood. It felt like she was frozen in place and unable to move no matter how much she tried or wanted it. She was stuck.

And then it felt like everything happened in one second.

The screams of her friends faded, instead replaced with the sound an MRI machine would make; loud and heartstopping and terrifying.

Rings of bright white light shone from the small gaps between the metal floor, walls, and ceiling, spreading across the Portal similar to a row of lights in a movie theater.

The thought of running couldn’t seem to connect with her body, which was rigid straight and locked into place with all her weight still on the button.

An imagined voice that, for just a moment, sounded like someone was telling Dani to take a deep breath. She didn’t bother fighting off the illusion, merely doing as told because was she about to die-?

A second passed and the thunderstorm was no longer outside but instead it was with her and directly above her and Dani only sucked in another deep breath as she felt the feeling that came right before a static shock only multiplied by a million-

A deep breath, two screaming voices, and Dani braced herself as the storm broke and lightning hit.

—

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