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cyn-00 · 4 years

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Moreid one shot, 9 - "stay"

Season 9, episodes 23/24 "Angels" and "Demons" (the ones where Reid gets shot in the neck *cries*, while the team are chasing a guy - a preacher, to be precise - who was framed by the unsub. In the episode they will eventually find the real unsub)

Long ass one. Idk what nerve drives me to call these fics "shots" when most of em are +4000 words. Note: Reid always has long hair in my fics, regardless of the season I took inspiration from

As per usual: edited this months after I first wrote it. My fics are perennial works in progress

Read it on AO3

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"Blake!! " Morgan screamed with all his voice, running toward her and Reid as fast as he could - considering he got shot - pressing a hand on his wounded bicep.

One of his ears was beeping because of the gun shots - 3 out of 4 bullets hit his vest - and he was feeling light-headed from the fall. Not to mention the pain his arm was causing him. But in that moment, it was like his body had forgotten about the soreness and discomfort because his mind was only focused on Reid- no, Spencer. His Spencer.

"Blake-" he called her again, now that he'd got just a few feet from them.

He quickly fell down to his knees and put his hand on Spencer's neck, replacing Alex's. She moved aside without protesting, still sitting on the ground.

"I- I'm- I'm so sorry." she hiccuped on the verge of crying, shaking her head to dizziness while she looked down at her bloody hand; not sure if she was apologizing to Spencer or to Derek.

Morgan didn't answer, but not because he thought it was her fault: how could he? They all would take a bullet - and had taken bullets - to save each other. There was simply no time for apologies in that moment.

"We need an ambulance!" she repeated to her radio transceiver, even though at least 10 minutes had passed since she had first called for help.

"Alright- kid, you gotta stay with me now" Derek ordered, breathing heavily.

Despite the other's pleads, Spencer had almost completely lost consciousness; his mouth hung open, his eyes suddenly rolled back.

"No, nonono no" Derek panted loudly. "Baby please don't-"

His pupils desperately roamed his peripherals, searching for something with which he could pat Spencer's wound to minimize the blood loss, since clearly his hand wasn't enough.

"W-what do you need?" Alex asked, seeing Derek looking around aimlessly; but he seemed too spaced out to answer. "Talk to me Morgan, how can I help?!"

"I-I need something to pat the wound, I don't know some kind of cloth-" he said, panic possessing him.

The only thing Alex could think of, without having to go too far and waste anymore time, was Spencer's tie. She messily reached over, managing to snatch it from underneath his vest - though not without struggling - and untying it. She then slid it out of the collar of Spencer's button-up and folded it, having the hardest time accomplishing even such simple tasks with how bad her hands were shaking. She handed it to Morgan who, without complaining or questioning, placed it on the wound and started pressing again.

Spencer was slowly slipping on the ground from his half-sitting position, with his back leaning on one of the SUVs. Derek wrapped his free, not injured arm around him from under his armpit as securely as he could, and tried to lift him up a little, to help him breathe. He did his best, straining against his own pain and the pressure he had to keep applying on the other man's wound.

Luckily, that was enough to bring him back. Spencer swallowed intensely and gasped, before starting to mumble incomprehensibly. Derek kept both his hands firmly wrapped around his neck, to try and keep his head from hanging on either side.

"Ok this is good, keep your eyes on m- hey, eyes on me" he kept saying, trying to keep him awake; once, twice, dozens of times again and again and again like a mantra; only rearranging the words slightly each time; calling his name - Spencer, kid, baby, stay with me, don't, please, I need you here, come on-

Wait. Stop. Spencer looked like he was trying to say something.

"What? What is it, kid? Talk to me, say whatever- just whatever stay awake for me please" Derek begged him, his voice starting to get too shaky to handle. The ambulance hadn't arrived yet but, even though he had lost a lot of blood, Reid managed to stay somewhat conscious, which must have been a good sign: Morgan thought, trying not to let his mind go to dark places.

"I-" Spencer started to say something, then coughed.

He coughed blood. Everything Derek had been thinking to try and keep his hopes high went to nothing.

Derek started to feel sick. Sick like all the organs in his body were stuck in a million tight knots; and his lungs seemed slowly filling up with cement; and his eyes felt as if an uncountable number of needles were piercing through them; and his limbs were being crushed into ash by a hammer.

"Oh God..." Alex whispered; her brain was like electrocuted and rendered unable to come up with anything more to keep Reid awake than she'd already come up with earlier, while Morgan was still chasing the preacher before coming to help.

Spencer reached for Derek's arm with his weak hand.

"I- I love you-" he finally managed to murmur with a hint of a lopsided smile, as if relief had washed over him the second he'd let out those words. His eyes were open in mere slits, looking at somewhere around Derek's face with an odd glimmer that the other man couldn't quite place because he'd never seen before.

"No, don't- don't say that, c'mon yo-" Derek barely said, choking halfway. "-you can say that to me later, Spencer..." his words faded away, as he shook his head in denial and the first of many tears to come fell down his cheek. He shut his eyes close in the attempt to avoid that, pressing his forehead against Spencer's while trying not to lose the grip on his neck.

"Please stay awake, please, please, please..." he begged through gritted teeth, once his sobs had somehow managed to slightly quiet down.

Suddenly, from far away, the sirens of an ambulance could be perceived amongst a million other noises, seeped out by the two agent's ears because they weren't the ones that mattered in that moment.

Alex quickly hopped on her feet and jogged toward the side of the street, waving and screaming like a maniac at the ambulance to make it quicker for the medics to find them.

"You hear that?? The ambulance is here kid, you gotta resist just a little more alright? Can you- can you do that for me??" Derek straightened up a little and said, well aware that he wasn't quite talking to Spencer anymore.

The other man mumbled something, not as a sign that he understood what was going on, rather that he was hearing Derek telling him things, saying words, making sounds.

He saw the figures of two medics along with Alex walking fast toward them, carrying a gurney. One of them got down and took Derek's place in soccurring Spencer; the former couldn't find a valid reason to protest when he was frantically shoved away off of him.

"Agent, are you injured?" the other one asked, gathering that the blood splattered on his bicep was most likely his own and not the other man's.

"I-I'm fine, the bullet didn't even hit me it just scratched me- I'm not the one who needs help, please! And- wait he- he doesn't take narcotics, please that's REALLY important-" Morgan yelped in response, still in shock, finding difficult to even put his words together clearly.

She only seemingly ignored his continuous whining - albeit rightful - but in actuality took in all that information, quickly examining his injury.

"I see what you mean, you got lucky. Still, it could get infected, so you're coming with us right now." she concluded in a rush, immediately turning around to help her colleague lay Spencer on the gurney.

While hurrying toward the ambulance, Derek saw Alex getting back to Hotch and Rossi. Aaron turned around, his eyes met Derek's.

He nodded at him from afar, a look on his face that said: "do what you have to do."

- later at the hospital

Derek had been sitting on that uncomfortable chair for at least 2 hours, in the waiting room of the hospital.

As soon as they'd got off the ambulance, they had rushed Spencer to surgery: during the drive he'd lost consciousness completely and started mumbling things that made no sense, nearing aphasia. From the second they'd taken him to the OR, Morgan hadn't been able to say anything, shell-shocked and numbed down by his brain as a defense mechanism.

Earlier, while the nurse was bandaging his arm in the Emergency Room and kept asking if he felt any pain, if he had fallen and hit his head when he'd got shot, if he was feeling dizzy; he just nodded or responded "I don't know". She'd even asked him what had happened to "his friend" at a certain point, to try and catch his attention: was she even aware that she was talking to a profiler? He couldn't even remember if he'd effectively shown her his badge.

It was probably more than 2 hours, he thought when he saw Hotch coming in.

Morgan looked up at him, finally shifting his eyes away from the floor. He didn't say anything, barely able to stare at him with a confused expression.

"I can't stay long." Hotch stated.

Silence.

"...what do you mean?" that was probably the first actual, sensible phrase Derek had pronounced since he'd got into that damned hospital.

Aaron sighed. "The others wanted to come, but I can't let them get distracted from the case, so I came here to check on you in person. It's the only way I got them to agree to stay at the station and keep working."

Derek finally understood what he meant; the cogs in his brain processing the situation with a concerning delay. He arched his eyebrows and rubbed his face with his palm, as if something Hotch said had awakened him all of a sudden.

"I thought you were here because the case was over" Derek snorted, shaking his head in a silent self-scolding.

"I- I don't know how I could think that..." he added, hunching on himself with his elbows dug in his sore knees.

"How long have you been waiting here?" Aaron asked after a few seconds, shooting him a concerned and squinting glance.

Derek briefly checked his wristwatch. "Since midnight, I think."

It was almost 3 am.

Hotch knew he couldn't ask him to swap and go get some air while he stayed there; he would've never accepted and it was only understandable. Plus, it wouldn't do any of them any good: he would be stuck in the hospital while the team needed him on the case. But he couldn't just leave him like that, what kind of teammate would he be?

"Alright." he sighed deeply. "I'm gonna wait here with you." he asserted, sitting down next to him and picking out the phone from his pocket, to inform the others by text.

Morgan scowled, as his head shot up. "No Hotch c'mon, it's already bad that I'm not working, you- you gotta get back, I'm gonna call you whenever I know something anyway-"

"I'm gonna stay until he's out of surgery and I know you both are ok." Hotch cut him off, without an inch of reconsideration in his voice. "Cause you're clearly not thinking straight right now." he concluded, searching deep in the other man's eyes for some sort of outraged reaction to his accusation, even being well aware that Derek had to be told by someone. And Hotch always seemed to be the one designated for that role.

Morgan faced down to stare at the blue linoleum floor again. After some seconds, he nodded silently, gulping to try and make that lump in his throat go away.

He realized that type of reaction wasn't normal for him. It almost never, ever happened to him to corner himself within his own head and turn to silent mode, in these kind of situations. He was usually the type to remain lucid - of course heating up and pacing around restlessly and punching things and cursing through clenched jaws; nonetheless lucid : interacting with the things and places and people surrounding him, letting himself feel whatever he had to feel and letting other people see it. Acting like he was acting in that moment, that just wasn't him. That could be JJ at times or...or Spencer. His Spencer.

After another 20 minutes of waiting in complete silence - which were nothing, compared to the 3 hours Derek had already waited - the doctor entered the crowded room. And Derek didn't even notice.

He was still sitting, eyeing blankly at the portion of floor in between his combat boots. He couldn't hear anything but his paranoid thoughts, not even the general noise and buzz of people's voices - let alone the doctor's footsteps.

Hotch instinctively stood up from the chair.

"Morgan-" he said, tapping on his shoulder.

Derek looked up at him distractedly, raising his brows. Aaron pointed at the doctor approaching them, right behind him.

He immediately got up as well and turned around; once again taking a second too many to process what was happening. He started to feel all the pressure again, heart pounding in his chest to deafness, palms oozing sweat, the knot in his larynx forming once again - for the fourth time at least that night, if one had to keep count.

"How is he?" he asked impatiently, taking for granted that he was even...alive.

"He got very lucky. The bullet didn't hit one of the major arteries just by half an inch or so." the doctor answered, calmly and reassuringly. "The excellent job you did at minimizing the blood loss on the scene was surely a determining factor." he spoke directly to Derek now, smiling widely.

Relief washed over the two agents, whose shoulders slumped and lungs released audible sighs.

"Can we see him right away?" Derek questioned further, hopeful.

"Yes, absolutely, but you have to consider that he's lost a lot of blood and stayed unconscious for quite a while. So it might take him some time to wake up from the anesthesia. Plus, he has to rest well, of course."

"Thank you." was all Derek managed to say, with watery eyes and trembling voice barely coming out of his mouth - but he really did mean it.

Aaron shook the doctor's hand, equally thankful, and quickly picked his phone out of his pocket.

"I'm calling the others right now. You go." Hotch ordered with his usual firmness and loyalty, which he maintained even in such tense situations; giving him a complicit look.

Derek simply nodded in response, infinitely grateful.

He opened the door of Spencer's room quietly, having acknowledged that he was still sleeping.

It was early morning; a faint, cold-hued light filtered through the blinds of the window. Derek couldn't see much, if not the outlines of some pieces of furniture and - most importantly - Spencer's shape lying on the bed. And that was more than enough for the moment being.

A gasp hitched halfway to his lungs, and his heart started beating with such intensity it could crack his sternum open, and his eyes prickled with tears of joy.

Morgan quietly grabbed the chair in the corner of the room and placed it beside the bed. He wanted to hug him so bad, but couldn't bring himself to wake him up; so he just sat there for a while, looking at him, at how the dim light enveloped his peacefully sleeping features and created weird shadows on his wrinkled hospital gown - for a second, he couldn't refrain from realizing that he looked beautiful even in that sloppy piece of clothing, with his tangled mop of hair sprawled all over the pillow.

Morgan reached out for the man's hand to lightly stroke his knuckles with the pads of his fingers. As soon as he did that, a single tear managed to part from the puddle heaped up before his pupils and trail down his cheek, falling down to sink into the cotton fabric of the blanket; not sure if that was due to the relief of being able to sense the warmth of Spencer's hand, or just because he was exhausted; or both.

Derek figured he wasn't gonna wake up any sooner if he stared at him for hours: he gave in to the impulse of resting his temple on his folded arms, over the bed, careful not to touch Spencer.

And he fell asleep.

- 4 hours later (7 am ca.)

Spencer opened his eyes. He felt wobbly, like he was caged in a glass bubble, and his neck hurt like hell, for lack of a term powerful enough.

He looked around and saw Derek, sitting beside the mattress with his head resting on the bed, sleeping. A disarmed smile played at the corners of his lips: of course he knew he would find him there, but quite frankly he didn't expect him to fall asleep like that.

He reached out to him with a hand, a little shaky from the weakness, and gently caressed his cheek, not sure if he wanted him to wake up or not. After all, he had no idea how much - or how little - sleep he managed to get; still: he needed to hear his voice and see that smile of his as much as he needed oxygen in his lungs.

Derek startled awake with a gasp, straightening up in his seat and checking his watch. It took him a while to notice that Spencer's hand was what had woken him up.

Then he saw him.

"Spencer-" he whispered and instantly stood up from the chair to sit on the bed beside him, stroking his forehead with a thumb.

Spencer suddenly realized Derek's arm was bandaged.

"W-what happened to you?" were his first words, hoarse and cracky; as he tried to prop himself up a little to half-sit on the bed.

"Nothing baby, bullet scratched me. How are YOU feeling? D'you want water or something? Jell-o?" the other asked, knowing exactly Spencer had a thing for Jell-o, not hesitating to brush off his unmotivated concern.

"No I'm fine, just...you should get back to the case, actually." Spencer said half-heartedly as reality hit him all of a sudden, making his smile fade away. He wanted him to stay, but on the other hand he knew keeping him there was only gonna slow down the team. They needed him more than he did - or at least, that's what he was trying to convince both himself AND Derek of.

"Nope. Not happening." the other dismissed, with a tone that left little to no space for protesting. He took Spencer's hand, lacing their fingers together.

His boyfriend gazed at him with puppy eyes. He should have expected that.

Derek sighed, cocking his head. "A'ight, look. They've probably already solved it by now. Best believe Hotch would've called me if it was necessary that I'd be there." he explained, reasonably. The point he was making was enough to ease down some of the guilt weighing on Spencer's chest for wishing he would stay.

"Plus," Derek continued, reaching his hand out to comb his fingers through Spencer's entangled curls. "I wouldn't be able to concentrate much right now anyway, pretty boy." he smiled at him.

Spencer giggled; the weight of his guilt now completely lifted off of his heart by Derek's smile - the brightest he'd ever seen, even being well aware of how much that whole chaos from last night must have drained him out. Only his Derek could.

"Come here" he then whispered, opening his arms, ready to melt into his hug.

Derek didn't wait another second to lean closer and wrap his strong arms around his boyfriend's skinny, temporarily fragile body; tight but not too tight, afraid to hurt him. He'd wanted to take him in his arms since the moment he opened the door and saw him, alive, 4 hours before. He released a content sigh, burying his face into Spencer's warm neck, where his nose was being slightly tickled by that soft hair - as per usual.

Spencer gently kissed Derek's temple, ignoring the fact that in doing so he would've inevitably had to tilt his neck in a hurtful way. Indeed:

"Shit-" he whispered as he pressed a hand on his bandaged neck, scrunching his muzzle in a grimace of pain but somewhat amused at the same time: he wondered if it was gonna feel like someone was twisting his throat everytime he tilted his head as little as an inch.

Derek carefully let go of the hug and placed his palm over Spencer's; his eyes revealing guilt and regret for having complied his request to hug him.

"Fuck- sorry about that, kid..."

While the other man's gaze was concentrated on his bandaged wound, Spencer's pupils fluttered around his features, displayed a few inches from his face.

"It's nothing, just kiss me." he murmured like he was in a rush, like he hadn't even thought for a second before spitting it out like that. Which was something he usually did only when he said awkward stuff - only to receive the "Reid, wtf" signature look in response.

He placed a hand behind Derek's head and pulled him closer impulsively, risking their teeth to collide.

Derek was definitely not expecting the man's warm tongue to push into his mouth like that, forcing him to part his lips way more widely than if it were just going to be the quick peck he was initially expecting it to be.

He wanted to draw Spencer even closer, but figured placing his hand on his jaw or - even worse - on his nape, would make him flinch in pain again, so he opted to wrap him back in his arms; one draped over his shoulders and the other tight around his waist.

Spencer gradually slowed down and eventually stopped, struggling to breathe evenly. He opened his eyes to stare dreamily into Derek's; still tied in each other's arms to keep their noses 3 inches apart at most.

He smiled in a sweet, silly way and laid a couple of quick kisses on both corners of Derek's mouth, making him helplessly smile too.

"I love you." Spencer murmured against the other's grinning lips. He had enough time to place on them only a couple more quick pecks, before his boyfriend managed to untangle from his limbs and pull back a little, laughing at how fucking adorable he was.

As he chuckled and put a few more inches between their faces, the memory of Spencer saying "I love you" the night before flashed back into his mind for a second. The jarring difference in how that same phrase was pronounced in those two diametrally opposed contexts made Derek feel things, not quite sure what things. Spencer most definitely couldn't remember saying it - his near unconscious state from last night overpowering his eidetic memory - though Derek recalled mumbling something among the lines of "you can say that to me later"... Anyway, he pushed those inconclusive thoughts away before they could ruin such a precious moment.

"Alright, alright, I would've gone to get you that Jell-o even without all this, you know?" he said, betraying his feigned indignation when he couldn't resist placing one last kiss on Spencer's Cupid's bow. "Or is this your apology for scaring the shit out of me and making me cry like a baby? Cause either way, it's working. You really ARE a magician, huh" he winked jokingly.

Spencer giggled and rolled his eyes. "Come on, it's not about the Jell-o!"

Derek let go of him altogether and stood up from the bed, before mocking him yet once more.

"Yeah, whatever. Imma go get that Jell-o, you stay here." as if he could actually get up and walk around the hospital, duh...

Spencer dropped his arms on the bed, as a sign of complaint. "Seriously though, I don't want Jell-o right now I- I want you ! Even if you bring it to me it's gonna stay exactly wherever you put it!" he tried to convince him not to leave the room, blushing as a result of having let "I want you" slip out like that.

Even if what Spencer said and the tone with which he said it and the face with which he said it were persuasive to say the least; Derek already had his hand on the door handle by then. He opened it and turned around toward Spencer one last time before getting out.

"I need an excuse to get out of here or Imma eat you alive, so you better thank me." he concluded with a glare and a smirk, playfully pointing a threatening finger at his boyfriend before finally closing the door behind him.

Spencer sighed in resignation, slowly returning to lie down on the mattress with his head on the pillow.

He stared at the ceiling and covered his eyes with his hand, smiling from ear to ear.

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idga-buck · 4 years

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use somebody || five

pairing: harry x plus-size!reader

word count: 1,800

warnings: mentions of sex, douchebaggery, and shitty attitudes toward women

summary: a night out has harry asking question he usually stays away from

challenge: @baezen‘s the Other Guys Writing Challenge

previous // masterlist // next

He didn’t know you. Not really. A one night stand, a handful of parties, one long yet entertaining car ride and most recently a clandestine tour of another man’s wine cellar that he’d definitely be thinking about later, but in reality you were still strangers to each other. He still didn’t want you to get the wrong idea. Now that he’s hustling down the winding walkway from Darius’ back patio to the street, he doesn’t waste time trying to figure out why he cares so much.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he tried, kicking up his feet in a jog to catch up. The jingle of the chain clipped to his belt loop was louder out in the open and he self consciously tucked it into his pocket. He thought he heard you say you didn’t care, but you didn’t stop walking away from him either. “Would you look at me?” You spun quickly to face him and Harry nearly found himself putting the ass in asphalt as he tried not to plow through you. You’d caught him off guard and suddenly he wasn’t sure what to say. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Smooth.

After a few tense seconds, your hands dropped from your hips and dangled freely in a resigned posture. “I’m not hurt, Harry, you don’t owe me anything.” His immediate response was to argue, but he hardly knew what he disagreed with. “You’re a grown ass man, kiss whoever you want,” you shrugged. “Just because I’m not looking for a relationship doesn’t mean I wanna screw up someone else’s.”

“It isn’t a relationship,” he defended even though he believed you. You didn’t look upset. You didn’t look happy to see him either and he selfishly wanted that part back. Textbook people pleaser and he was kicking himself for it. “She calls me when she’s bored.”

“So you were bored?” You clarified and he didn’t like it. He didn’t kiss you because he was bored. He was bored, but he wanted to kiss you. That fact hadn’t changed since he met you. He might have forgotten for a moment, but the second he spotted you, it all came back to him. Not because he was bored. No.

“I didn’t say that,” he frowned awkwardly.

“You came out tonight… with a girl that only wants you when she’s bored.” Yeah, so? “Either you’re a gigolo or you were bored too.”

Harry was almost certain there was a wrong answer, but he wasn’t sure if there was a right one. You must have sensed his nervousness because the grace you offered in the form of a teasing smile felt like cool water splashed over his face, the fever instantly gone. Once he could breathe again, Harry grinned back and shoved his hands in his pockets, stepping up next to you as you resumed walking down the hill. “I’m not a gigolo.”

“Too bad,” you laughed and he knocked his hip into yours. You returned the gesture and he stumbled a bit off balance…. and now all he could think about were those hips, wider and clearly more powerful than his. He knew what it felt like to grip them tight. The term “for dear life” came to mind. But what else would they do to him if he was given the opportunity? He was more than a little eager to find out.

“So…” he slurred, looking around the car lined street, significantly quieter than the house. “We’re not going back, right?”

“Right,” you laughed. Before he got the chance to suggest something stupid like going back to his place, you saved him from the embarrassment. “I’m starving,” you looked over your shoulder at him and Harry grinned back.

“I can always eat.”

He’d said it so confidently fine with spending more time with you, but he hadn’t expected to be standing in front of a fancy restaurant at 9:30 on a Thursday night. He certainly hadn’t padded his wallet for something like Taix when he left his apartment thinking he’d be dipping into a party and then out of that girl’s bed well before midnight. The only thing padding his wallet was a condom and unlike all of the cash folded behind it, it apparently would remain unused.

“No one just craves French cuisine,” he teased, hoping you’d agree and pull him away for a burger and fries.

“I do,” you quipped back, not even bothering to look at the menu. You were on a mission and as a waiter in a crisp white shirt and black bow tie approached, Harry guessed he was about to find out what it was. Short ribs and a beet salad. A weird craving. “I’ll never finish it all, so get something different and have some of mine.” It was a genuine offer, he could tell and he smiled back. A small, shy little quirk of the lips that made you frown and the smile fell away completely. He’d planned on offering to pay for your meal, but with the wine that was promised to be paired with the meal, it was going to be well over $50 for you alone. Beyond what he was able to swing that night.

“Uh, French onion soup looks good.”

“And for your entree?” The waiter probed. Shit. Harry looked back at the slick leather folder in his hands and realized he’d ordered from the Hors d’oeuvre menu. After hemming and hawing for too long, you politely asked the gentleman on your left to give you a few more minutes to decide and Harry was equally relieved and embarrassed.

“Ok... What’s the deal?”

“What do you mean?” Harry didn’t have to look across the table to know what you were getting at.

“Get the Steak Frites, it’s good and you said you wanted fries,” you said simply, as if it was obvious. It was anything but. He tried to argue and you pushed back, but not rudely. It was a good place, you pulled him from his plans, he deserved something tasty to close out the night. All good and valid points. Harry didn’t have much by way of macho pride, but the miniscule amount he kept tucked away was a little sore anyways.

“I can’t afford this place,” he admitted sharply before tucking his forehead into his hands, realizing that the surrounding tables had heard him. It wasn’t like it was shocking. He was wearing a leather vest and his shoes had distressed blue and white stars stitched above worn rubber soles that were more gray than white now. It wasn’t a fashion statement, it was just him. Clearly he didn’t belong there. He wished he could ignore that for you, for no other reason than wanting to see you again. The way the night was going, he wasn’t sure he’d get another chance.

“You couldn’t afford to eat at the Roosevelt either, but you did,” you pointed out and he rolled his eyes.

“This is different,” he said through his teeth. He wasn’t mad, just uncertain. He couldn’t get his footing with you and it was frustrating. Yes he’d taken you up on your offer to linger at the expensive hotel after sex, but having dinner after a steamy make out felt different. He just hoped you wouldn’t ask him how since he had no clue. It just was.

You waited a moment, but when he didn’t have anything else to add, you nodded and waved the waiter back over to your table with a smile. You reached across the table and squeezed his forearm gently. Harry looked up from his shame and smiled back, still awkward but appreciative. Finally, you were leaving and he could stop making an ass of himself.

“Steak Frites,” you said and his eyes widened to the size of the dinner plates he couldn’t afford. You asked about cocktails and Harry knew his mouth hung open, having a conversation in code right in front of him about whiskeys he’d never even heard of. But you can’t make a real Old Fashioned out of Old Crow. Not in a place like this. Once the garçon was satisfied with the order, you turned to look across the table and held out your hand. “It’s on me, Harry. I was the one that wanted to come here, it’s only fair.” He took your hand and didn’t let go until he had to, dishes and drinks suddenly occupying the middle of the table and your attention.

Half way through the meal, which even Harry had to admit was the best he’d had in years, pride be damned, a stout gentleman in a heavy white coat emerged from the kitchen expressly to interrupt your meal. He planted a big kiss on each of your cheeks and Harry stumbled slightly while trying to stand with his hand outstretched. It was batted away and he received the same treatment, stiffening at the feel of a thick mustache against his cheeks. The conversation was short lived and that’s when Harry learned your secret to scoring tables at fancy French restaurants without reservations. You have to know the chef. Duh.

Once the conversation was just the two of you again, Harry felt more at ease, forgetting the venue and the price of the drink warming his rapidly filling belly. He didn’t feel out of place when it was just the two of you joking and sharing anecdotes like you had in the front seat of his car. It was surprising how easy it was. He was so pleased even the beets tasted better. Usually they were like chewy dirt discs to him, but off your fork, they were divine. Maybe it was the hand that fed him that was divine. Either way, the night ended too soon. The bill paid without him even pretending to reach for his wallet. The rip of Velcro against a faux Parisian backdrop would have been too much embarrassment and he was glad he hadn’t gotten the soup so his wallet could stay firmly tucked in his back pocket. You called a car like it was nothing and asked if he needed a ride after having walked from Darius’. He started to decline, but your face told him not to. He’d be a damn fool to deny himself a dark backseat with you pressed up against him, so he held the door for you and slid in until there was no room between you. Your head was a comforting weight on his shoulder and Harry had to remind himself that it wasn’t a movie. Or a real date. Or a date at all. What was this?

He didn’t get the answer before his apartment was pulling up on the right and he scowled at the balcony through the car window. Before he could reach his door, you leaned out the window, chin propped up on your folded hands to harass him once more, thank him for his company, and remind him to call you if he decided to run away from any other obnoxious parties. He told you to call him if you had any more cravings for expensive cuisine and were feeling generous. You laughed and waved before slipping back into your seat without another glance. The car drove off, taking you with it, and Harry stood on the sidewalk with his heart beating fast, wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into.

#use somebody #harry x reader #sorry to all the HP blogs that get diverted to this shit show #spread (2009)#plus size!reader #nerdy frog dad #you are a sensitive guy #sebastian stan character fic #sebastian stan characters #sebastian stan imagine #sebastian stan fanfiction #togwc #the other guys writing challenge

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jess-the-vampire · 4 years

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Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 34

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The door to the wing opened carefully, trying it's best to not make a sound. Angel was probably asleep at this point, he was going to need all the rest he could before the trial after all. She really didn't like visiting him in her pjs of all things but it wasn't like she had much of a choice in the matter either, only being able to sneak out as the guards fell asleep. She hadn't seen Jackie since Luna left but had the feeling she'd be pretty dissapointed she had been left with some of the worst of the worst to guard the princess of mewni of all things. But tonight, it was an advantage, though she only planned to be gone a few minutes anyway.

Sneaking out had been something she'd do for Judas, and Nora kinda counted as well, she'd never tried doing it for the prince she had conflict with for so long. Didn't really think she ever would either, but at least it wasn't to rescue him or anything. She was careful, using her wand to light her way and just hoping it didn't go out as she approached angel's bed, the boy passed out in his sheets, and it looked like he was wearing some of judas's old pjs.

Boy she hoped he wasn't wearing judas's old underwear either, but somehow she knew he probably was. At least she wasn't the one having to supply the guy with her old clothing. He seemed rather quiet and peaceful, and though she reached out to tap his shoulder, she quickly stopped herself .Was this a good idea? Knowing him she'd startle him and he'd wake up everyone, or think he was being attacked in the middle of the night and bite her, or a number of equally uncomfortable things. Maybe she'd be better off turning back? No one had to know she was here and she could speak to the prince before the trial started tomorrow. She tapped her foot, thinking it over again, debating which was worse as angel stirred. "So....what do you want...princess butterfly?". She froze, oh right, angel had an AMAZING sense of smell, he could tell when someone was around without even looking at them. He sat up, four eyes blinking at her as she became embarrassed to be caught, yeah, this WAS a bad idea. She made a mental note in her head to fuss at sunny later for making her decided to actually do this, Angel himself looked rather embarrassed as well, though maybe it had to do with how awkward the situation was for now. He looked like he wanted to say something, apologize to her and get it out out but was trying his best to resist, as if expecting sky to reject his apologies. "You're....awake?". "I'm having a hard time sleeping....tomorrow....it came so sudden...and...I'm not sure what to expect...". "Right...". This was by far the most painful conversation sky had in a long time, even she was having a hard time knowing what to say and if to actually spill it out to him. The guy wasn't even really trying to look her in the face directly, sweating nervously, and coughing. "I'm not sure if judas told you...I...I can't really tell who it was...under the mask, they...even disguised their scent. He...he knows this might be a lost cause to protect me...you....you don't have to do this..". "I know you don't believe that'll stop any of us, especially not him, you're going to get punished either way, nothing you can do about that...but jude and me know what it's like to not be liked by a lot of others and....he wants to keep you from getting the worst of it....I guess...he's....never liked seeing people he cares about get in trouble. If he doesn't try and save you, he's going to blame himself for not doing something for years, it's just how he is.", she still wasn't looking at him directly but she could tell angel agreed with her on that front. "He's....too nice...", he gripped the shirt he was wearing as the words left his lips, "Does he do this stuff for you...regularly?". "Have me wear his old clothes? No. Do nice things for me to make me feel better and reassure me? Yeah....like....a lot, he does that a lot when stuff goes wrong. Get used to it, this is the treatment you can expect when you're jude's friend.....but, it's far from a bad thing.". Talking about judas seemed to make the situation a lot more comfortable then it had been a second ago, if only because it was a topic that was a little less painful to talk about then the incident that started this current mess. "You think he'll want to still be friends...if things don't work out tomorrow?". He sounded so small in a way, not prince-like, and not bratty either, drained of all his pride and stuffiness he seemed to hold before. "Yeah, it's judas, he doesn't give up on people....". "Have you given up on me?". And there it was, she was surprised he even managed to chock it out of his system considering how hard he was trying not to address it. It left a strange silence in the room, sky wanting to both answer and not angel and angel wanting her to answer and wanting her to not answer his question. Though she needed to cough something out, the longer she waited on this the worse i'd be, "I...uh...I don't want to....". It wasn't exactly a yes or no, but angel didn't press further on it either, "I....I'm...truly sorry for what happened Sky, I-I don't expect you to forgive me I just want you to know i'm deeply sorry". Her eyes met his again and he seemed almost on the verge of tears, it almost felt like a crime to not accept the apology like this. And yet, she was having a hard time trying to respond to it. She'd feel guilty to not accept it, knowing how much he regretted all this and that he was practically crying, but was something like this going to just be fine with a simply apology either? Her lack of an answer seemed to make Angel more uncomfortable and worried, he turned away and moved some of his hair aside. "We can talk more tomorrow, before the trial, I....expect you'll be there...with your moms being a couple of the judges, or..maybe just your one mom since the other is still out....". She mumbled so quietly she felt like Nora, "Yeah.....sure...". He nodded again. "Well, i'll see you tomorrow then....sky...", he turned around and laid back on the bed, pulling the covers over himself. Sky didn't move though, as if frozen to the spot, even though her mind was telling her to just go and leave the guy be. Angel didn't even look at her but his ears twitched, he was probably wondering why she was even still here at this point if she didn't have anything else to say to him or even want to fully make things up between them. She felt paralyzed before she forced herself to make a step backward, then another, then another, turning herself around to him. Then she stopped again. "I uh...thanks....for....what you did, or what you tried to do....", then she kept heading on her way out, as angel sat back up in his bed and looked at the back of her head, "I-I should be more grateful, you saved my life, you and prince lucitor.....i'm the lucky on. But...you're welcome....I...I just wish I had succeeded....". Sky paused, back still turned, "Maybe you'll get another chance....next time...we'll....keep you informed.". She quickly left after, eager to get out of the already awkward and increasingly uncomfortable situation. Angel watched her leave, also feeling a lot less uncomfortable but still a little sad as his ears seemed to move downwards as if he were some kinda dog. Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow. - Judas quickly fixed Angel's tie, trying his best to brush any and all dust from his vest to make him look more presentable. The prince was in one of his older prince outfits for the time being, angel already constantly trying to fix his hair and avoid sweating bullets. The food judas brought him earlier was almost threatening to come back up his throat at this point, and the demon quickly tried to reassure him with a pat on the shoulder and a smile, turning his head to see Sky arrive carrying a bunch of stuff in her arms, mostly papers and books. "Sky? Whoa....", she stopped in front of him, catching her breath, "I got all the girls together, they handed me what I needed...I tried to get some more testimony from some of the witnesses on trial. I don't kow how you handle this much stuff jude but i have a lot more respect for you then ever before for managing.", judas reached out to help her carry some of the stuff but she pulled back, "No no, gonna bring it in in a second, the girls will be seated soon too, congrats angel, you're about to witness mewni's terrible court system play out....". Angel seemed to tense up. "Don't worry, we can still try to manage to beat something that already sucks with our own suckish argument, just try not to do anything stupid while on trial. All our parents are going to be up there.....including my moms...". Judas blinked at her, "Wait, Queen Star has returned? She's been out on her search for days I thought she wouldn't make it back in time for the trial.". His companion bit her lip in frustration, shaking her head, "This morning, she made it back, in a mess actually.....Jackie and Kelly....they're now out on the search instead in the meanwhile.". "Well i'm glad she's ok, if anything, I can imagine it wasn't a fun search for her....", sky still seemed rather nervous and distant though, tugging the stuff in her hands even closer to her chest. "Sky, you're gonna have to speak to her about what's been going on, it's going to be ok, I know you got this.". The girl nodded and looked to the doors to what was normally the magic high commission's meeting room, now fitted as a courtroom, and it seemed as if it were magically expanded to fit everyone inside, "I better get ready, people are starting to arrive....". She looked to angel, her blue eyes to his red, before heading in. "Try to breathe angel....". "I wish I could....but...everyone is going to be staring at me....they hate me. They'll probably hate all of you for even trying to defend me...". "They already hate us angel...", judas snickered, fixing his own hair, "People well....I've had more time to think about it...of what you've said to me, and luna....and other friends and....some people are just always going to hate you...they're always gonna hate me and sky....but...well...I care about what you think of me more then them, you want to be in our good graces...and I want to do so with you too.". The prince seemed even more touched by that, his face almost a darker shade of pink. "I-I....thank you, Prince Luci- Judas...". "No matter what, after this, i'll try and grab us all something to eat...it's going to be a long day...no matter what.". Angel had to agree to that. "Judas!". He turned his head to see Sunny running up, dragging Galexia behind her who looked equally as excited. Sunny seemed super happy to see Angel, tugging his hand and shaking it, "You're going to do great in there and hey, if you gotta do community service, then i'm sure it might be fun.". Angel didn't seem to be so cheerful, the 16 year old probably wondering if doing labor would result in any physical damage to himself. Even Judas seemed to catch on to angel being uncomfortable, trying to change the subject. "So sunny....what do you think of our chances?", actually, now that he thought about it, that would probably make angel MORE nervous. "Well, it's not the HIGHEST chance, mostly because you're going against several kingdoms who already don't like angel much to begin with....and now found out about what he did, but we might be able to turn this around if we know right where to hit em!", She patted angel on the shoulder herself, "Just stay confident, you got friends looking out for you, we're gonna keep them from dethroning you, just you watch!". The girls made their way inside and Angel leaned against the wall, "I.....I don't want to face them...". "I know you don't....but you're going to have to own up to your mistakes...it's an important step in improving and it might help a lot.", angel took another deep breath, and Judas felt tempted to cheer him up, "Hey, if you do get dethroned, you're allowed a room at my castle...maybe even sky's too. You're not going to have to be alone or anything, or even have to live at your kingdom, those queens and kings in the past that got dethroned had to move forward somehow....you'll be ok.". "I just know some of them won't forgive me...". "Yeah, but it's worth a shot, if you wanna be king and do better for your people you deserve a second chance.". "You ever been to a trial before?". Judas thought back and nodded, "One, but i was pretty young, and it was one of those high council trials and they used the box, and it was towards a guy i really didn't know, I think he got in trouble for trying to fiddle with dark magic and he ended up doing labor to make up for it, and had the spell erased from his mind but i wasn't around to see that happen. Dark magic is...well...dangerous stuff, it can corrupt those who use it and spreads like a virus if you're not careful with it, it's why sky would be in trouble for it....eclipsa's spells are mostly harmless but some spells out there....not for the public.". "I assume you haven't spoken to eclipsa much since....it happened, have you?". The demon was silent for a moment, before leaning against the wall next to angel, "No, we really haven't, she hasn't been around much and we had other matters on our plate....i'm not sure about you, you seem to get along with her quite well.". The monster gave a brief nod, before crossing his arms, "She reminds me of my mom in some ways, I haven't spoken to her much either, I worry she's worried i'll blame her or something for what happened...side with sky...I think she'll be at the trial though...". "Well, we'll try to talk to her lat-". "Will nora be there?", he asked so fast judas was surprised, though a small sorry came from the boy's lips quickly after. "I...don't know, her parents won't tell me where she is, I know they're visiting your wing and seeing your mother..but...nora....I don't know where she is i just know she's in the castle somewhere.", the spider's nose twitched, "Perhaps, i might know....". Though his conversation was quickly interrupted as Judas was greeted by his parents, King and Queen Lucitor arriving in a burst of flames and in matching royal outfits as they usually were during important events. The Queen wearing a dress of course. "Judas, Prince Angelus....", Angel stiffened at the sight of them, though Judas was being warm to them, his current situation with them definitely making him a little uncomfortable despite his mother's welcoming expression. King Tom Lucitor walked forward and fixed his son's shirt, "Been a long time since we even had to go to a trial, and having to judge one is even more of a surprise......be careful out there judas if you're going to be speaking for this boy, you'll be speaking in front of all the other attending kingdoms after all.". "It'll be alright, I promise....it's not like you wouldn't do highly insane things for dad or Queen Butterfly, Angel is...well he's a friend, we're going to try and get him through this trial...", neither could argue against that, tom's eyes gazing towards the door to the newly fitted courtroom, "We'll have to judge fairly judas, even if he's your friend. We're in a position to agree with you as you've been deeply involved with the people closest to the source of the problem but you need to still make a case for his punishment...". Marco took a look at Angel's sad eyes and seemed to have a hard time looking at him in the face, crossing their arms and trying to keep most of their focus on Judas. "We're not taking any joy out of this, believe me, but treason is a serious matter and this is just not something he can get off scot free, even as much as he regrets it.....he's going to have to find a way to make amends and you're going to have to argue why he still should be allowed to be in a position of power.". "I Understand, I promise...". A smile was placed on the King's lips, "We'll see you in there, we love you....", and the couple walked through the doors together, the door shutting behind them. Judas still looked troubled when it came to them but he had to relax for angel's sake out there, taking his hand and guiding him elsewhere, "They'll all be arriving soon too, let's head to the bathroom, finishing prepping you, and head down to where we need to before they call you out, don't wanna run into too many others before this...". Honestly, he just didn't think seeing more and more of the people who despised angel would do much for the boy's health anyway. "You seem more worried then I am...", judas turned to look at the prince whose eyes were following him curiously, "Look, if things....do go wrong today....I....I don't want you to blame yourself. It's...bad enough feeling what I do, it's not going to be a lot better if I have to feel worse because you're blaming yourself because of me...I...screwed up, it's my fault....I know it's my fault....you just have to do what you can manage for me.". Judas was pacing, before stopping at a sink and splashing his face with some water. "Judas...". He turned to look at angel, his hair still a little damp and still a bit tired, "Huh?". "If you're truly my friend and want to help me because you think of the best of me despite what I did, and you're not doing this as some attempt at redeeming yourself for the guilt you felt being powerless as a child, then please, tell me you'll promise to accept whatever verdict i get today...", his voice grew somber, "I'm not giving up, and i trust you to do everything you can, but whatever happens, happens, whether it's the best or worst outcome.". "I promise..."., he leaned against the sink, "But I won't give up till it's all over either....". He could feel angel nervously putting a hand on his back as well, even though he new angel was shaking himself, "Sky....came to visit me last night, we talked for a little bit, I....apologized but....she never responded to it, she....did tell me she was grateful however...for everything....and i'm grateful too, you both saved me...i'm in your debt more then ever no matter if i'm a prince or not after this.". Judas turned around and quickly pulled angel into a hug, the spider surprised and caught off guard as judas held him and smiled into his shoulder. "We'll you'll owe us bigtime when we save you in this trial, and I mean when, i'll accept it if we fail....but....we're going to do it, I believe in those girls in there and I know we'll figure this out.", he let Angel go, Judas seeming more relaxed as he took another deep breath, fixing his hair. "You'll be heading in there real soon, it'll probably be a long trial, just try to stay calm in there and be honest about everything as much as possible, well...except for the whole...you know what?". "The fact those girls in there are um...from alternate timelines I assume?", Angel said, one eyebrow raised, "Yes, well, i'm sure that's not relevant enough to the case to mention anyway, since this is mostly my crimes....but I assume if i said anything the queens would have my head so....i'll be quiet on that. However, I hope that means the girls were prepped for this too, because they witnessed what happened and they can't exactly let that insane fact slip to everyone in the room.". "They've been prepped, I promise...". He seemed thankful on that. "I get the feeling I won't be allowed to talk about that much in general till this trial is over....will I?". The demon smiled, conjuring a flame and drying his hair in an instant. "Sounds about right....I'm sure you still have a ton of questions about it, once this is over, no matter what happens, we'll answer them all for you." - Judas watched as the nervous prince stood on the pedestal in front of the awaiting royals seating above him in an almost jury type box, all of them dressed well and all of them looking down at the poor boy with disappointment. Judas could feel angel sweat on stand, looking around at the seated crowd, he could spot the girls, katrina, and sure enough, eclipsa and globgor were in the audience as well. The people attending weren't a large amount, but were just enough to add to the anxiety. Judas was not well educated on earth trials, but knew enough from his mother to know mewni didn't work like earth, mewni was sloppier, it had different rules and different ways to declare it's verdicts. Witnesses had truth potions, witnesses faced a truth machine called the box to force them to speak the truth or die, with magic witnesses could have their minds read entirely, it made it easy to bring most crimes to an end compared to human ones. Though at this trial, there was no need to force truth out of a boy that had admitted to everything, there was nothing more to squeeze out of him, he had been drained of all information he could disclose, what this was about is what his fate should be. It may of ended in a few minutes if it weren't for the fact they wished to participate, going over what angel did and properly deciding what to do with him. It wouldn't be easy among so many different kingdoms however. Some would want to punish him with labor, some would wish to take it easy on someone still so young, some would decide to dethrone him with no question regardless. Getting a verdict everyone could agree on was most likely not possible, but it was possible to at least have more sway to the options that wouldn't further ruin the prince's life. He would be scoffed at no matter what, but losing his crown meant he would never have a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his people and quiet possibly never be able to return home. It was not exile, but it might as well have been. Judas could spot Sky already digging through her stuff, as if deciding what she should talk about first, sunny helping her by her side. Sky was really serious about this, more serious then Judas had been expecting. And despite how nervous he was, he felt a little proud of her. The high commission he could spot seated in the very back, all of them sitting and watching and it made his blood boil. He turned to spot a goblin quickly entering, out of breath as he weakly blew into a royal horn he was carrying, still out of breath. "S-sorry...I-I'm here to annonce the queen in charge of this trial, the trial of Angelus Arachford, The gracious and lovely...Queen Butterfly!". The eyes quickly were drawn to the door as the Queen stepped inside, golden gown and all, with her hair in twin buns and tired as ever. But she was actually smiling as she usually tended to, but she must've lacked much rest from her hunt. "Hello everyone! Sorry I'm a little late...long story, Pardon me...", she quickly headed over to the grand seating area to join Janna who quickly patted her shoulder, clearly impressed. Sky groaned and grumbled from her seat. The Queen cleared her throat as the goblin who had entered coughed into his fist and blew into the trumpet once again before putting out a scroll he'd been carrying on his person and reading it aloud, "Today begins the trial of Prince Angelus Sebastian Arachford, as headed by Queen Star Butterfly of the Butterfly Kingdom, the accused is charged with treason and conspiring with a criminal for months, only caught recently. Said criminal is currently only charged with breaking in and robbery, but had also enchanted the Royal Spiderbite family inside their own home for days on end before they were rescued.". Angel was twitching, have a hard time looking at anyone, his eyes facing more downwards then anything as judas forced himself to stay where he stood. "- as such, the prince has confessed to sharing information with the criminal in trade for the return of magic to his people and a cure for the sick Queen Arana Arachford, his mother. He has also confessed to being used to get close to the princess , Princess Skyler Butterfly, in order to grab new information for the masked criminal....as well as being used as a distraction for the criminal to further carry out crimes. As such, Prince Angelus Arachford has been considered responsible partially for the terror that had been roving around mewni for some time now, though he declines telling the criminal anything about the systems that were put in place by Miss Butterfly or in terms of actions laid out against the criminal. Today's trial will be to determine the Prince's fate and whether or not he should be trusted after this incident.". Judas and Sky both let out a ting of frustration for the same reason, no mention of angel trying to take the criminal down. Figured as much. The goblin bowed and backed away as Star conjured up a small toy hammer, slamming in down on the table in front of her, honestly the likelyhood she knew how courts worked on earth was a bare minimum, but as long as she took the rest of the trial seriously they're have a chance. Angel forced himself to stay still, his legs folded and saying as close to his body as possible, trying to stay small and try and keep the confidence he knew the others wanted him to have. "Well, honestly if the situation had been simple, we wouldn't need a trial to decide what we should do with you. But with you having affected all of mewni, and you being royalty, there was no other way to go about this, everyone seems to have different thoughts on it and everyone feels like they personally should be given a chance to speak on the matter. It's not every day a child kinda affects all of mewni so drastically, and puts them into a panic...", she was almost amused in a way, if not still frustrated. Judas could feel Sky rolling her eyes, knowing full well her mom did her own set of changes to mewni around that boy's age. "But, it's also been made clear the prince himself was critically injured by the criminal, and from our witnesses he had been intending to betray and capture the criminal himself. The Arachmen as a species have the ability to paralyze others with a venom they store in their fangs, though this is activate by them, the vemon will keep the victim paralyzed for hours and the prince has admitted his goal had been to capture them and bring them into custody, believing he had been threatened to work with them or suffer as a result". There were murmurs among the crowd. "The boy's told others that he had intended to help as a favor in order to help his people, but found himself unable to leave without being threatened. And as it's clear from his injuries, this criminal was indeed no mere criminal, displaying magical powers that harmed him greatly and had the ability to force others to work under them, which is why the prince of the ponyheads had often went missing for so long and had no memory of where he went.". Angel's ears twitched, the sounds of people murmuring only making him more nervous. The Queen's blue eyes look directly at the monster prince, gathering herself as she crossed her arms and stared him down. "Prince Angelus, is everything i've said so far true, or is there anything you wish to correct me on?". His eyes darted to the royals watching down on him, though his eyes specifically skipped his own father's, who sat alone in the back. No doubt him even showing up was a risk on his part, but a necessary one considering who was on trial here. "No, that....sounds about right...", he could feel jude's eyes on him, and was quick to speak as normal as possible so he could be heard among the crowd. "So he really did do this huh?", star turned around to spot the Ponyhead queen, who looked incredibly unhappy to be here as she usually was, "It's his fault I got dragged in here instead of getting my main looking fancy today, and making everyone paranoid as heck. Jeez gurl, and I thought WE did some crazy stuff, like if St O's were still running, you know he would've been sent to that evil little prison instead of being forced on trial for this kinda stuff.". "Well....actually-", Larry Kelpbottom spoke up next to her, a little nervous as his wife stared him down, "I mean, that place was for misbehavior like property damage, and avoiding royal duties, and being a messy and irresponsible princess and prince...it's um....quite different from doing a large crime like this? When princesses and princes go against their own kingdom like this, it's just not simple enough that a boarding school can help with it....", the pony's stare only grew larger and he got more quiet as the other royals spoke among themselves. The Pigeon king let out a cough, his booming voice getting the other's attention, "The boy taking a stand against the criminal is rather commendable, especially if faced with death if he had lost, his alliance with them must've caught them off guard when he attacked. It's quite like us pigeons, it's always the ones you underestimate that become your downfall". Eclipsa let out a snicker from where she sat, if only because some of the other royals were giving the king strange looks. "I say we just dethrone him and get it over with, prince never did much good and he couldn't even capture them. If he can't do that then why should he have the throne over someone more capable instead of taking their boss down well after they went behind the other kingdom's backs...", it figured the one speaking would be a Johansen, the current queen in fact, the dark haired woman grunting and slamming her hand on the table in front of her, "This boy did nothing but terrorize mewni and it's people for years, get into fights, start protests, keep people from working so he could complain-". "Well for the record, we were complaining about the whole "My race was almost wiped out by a mewni queen" thing, which is probably a decent reason to kinda be upset, I mean....not everyday your species almost gets wiped out, loses it's powers and history for the most part and goes forgotten and poor is it", Leave it to Queen Janna to be snarky at a time like this, the other Queen being noticeably mad but also not daring to challenge her too much either. "Maybe we should start asking the witness questions?", Queen Spiderbite sighed, standing up, "Prince Angelus, were you in anyway responsible for what had happened in the spiderbite kingdom? It is believed the one who attacked us was your boss, did you know she would attack and were you apart of it?". Angel shook his head, "No....I didn't know about it, I wasn't involved, I found out about it after the fact, because she offered Princess Spiderbite's book as my reward to help cure my mom....I was left out of what happened there...". "and the Lucitor heist?", Tom stood up now. It may of been useless garbage, but it was still a robbery to a place that was supposed to be secure to many precious items. "Well, I originally was but....my attempts to try failed...I wasn't even able to figure out a plan before they did it themselves, the only thing I may of helped on was...I was the one who told them about it, because I heard it from my father and at the time we were just talking and I was rambling on but.....they were interested...I didn't think much of it, I just was talking about stuff and that the lucitors had this item and soon enough they wanted me to take it....only to do the task themselves...". Honestly, now that Judas thought about it, Angel wasn't a very competent minion. "So...you didn't directly have a play in most of the heists? That's-". Then Queen Johansen spoke up again, "but he was there when they attacked butterfly castle, correct queen butterfly? I remember after that happened we specifically asked for more safety shields and protection, and the boy had been caught at the scene.". There were more whispers among the royals and the crowd and angel had to nod along with her words, he couldn't say no, he was indeed there. Though he did attempt to speak up, "I was transported there while i was asleep....I didn't go on any orders....". "You must have known why they moved you there though? There was no other reason for you to end up inside on your own, and yet you went right along with their scheme and ended up running right into Prince Lucitor, Princess Skyler, and Princess Nora, putting a few heirs at risk directly.". Angel gulped, and judas tried to force himself not to say something, only to give in and walk over to where Angel was standing, catching the royals off guard. "Prince Lucitor? So you have something to add?", Queen Spiderbite asked, Judas looking to angel before nodding. "I was leading the charge with him that night, fully attempting to let someone know he was here and take him back home, I ran into sky down the line and nora was with me because we were looking for a friend. We ran into him by pure chance and ran into sky by pure chance, on our hunt at the time we ran into her as well. Angel had no direct affect as to how we ran into them or to putting us in danger, he'd been forced to the scene to make a distraction and wasn't at fault for why we ran into the criminal, he was an unwilling participant.". "Prince Lucitor, you witnessed what happened the day this young man was arrested right?". "Yeah, I'm the one that saved him from getting hurt from the thief's escape, and before then i had been looking for where he went off to, we listened in on his meeting with his boss. Angel was being honest when he told the knights and guards before that he'd been trying to back from their deal before attempting to bite them and paralyze them, when he got attacked and was injured it was a direct result of him attacking the criminal and then turning the tides on them.", judas sounded confident but he knew he was sweating bullets, trying to avoid focusing on the whispers around him. "What is your relationship to this boy?". "Well, we're uh.....recently friends, we were more of familiar acquaintances before, but we've gotten closer more recently.". "Then how do we know we can trust your words on this matter?". "Because Sky was also there, and so were our other children, not to mention your own daughter", Marco nodded to Judas before looking the woman in the eyes, "They all gave similar stories, it's why we have the story we do, i doubt they would all be trying to cover for this boy with a fake story, he had been so injured it took awhile for him to properly heal. This boy was attacked Penelope, he might not have been here at all if it weren't for the kids, they all stated angel had risked his life to turn on her.". "Yeah but, he still chose to work with her, I ain't hearing him tell us he was forced to work under her or something. ",Queen Ponyhead looked more bored then ever at this trial, judas looked to Angel to speak, "You're right....It uh...didn't start out that way....I....I thought she was an ally...but it took some time into our alliance before I realized that I didn't like it and felt like if I turned my back she'd destroy me....her uh....attitude and words got scarier....I was afraid what she could do to my family or me...or....my friends...". "So you believe it was almost like a con.". "Yes, something like that...I...feel like I was tricked and then I couldn't get out of it...". "A prince whose easily tricked into giving up valuable information to a stranger isn't exactly a good sign of a leader...is it?", Queen Jaggs coughed out, "Imagine if he had given out kingdom secrets and how our military all worked, this person doesn't exactly seem to look like the most trustworthy individual, and yet you fell for everything they were offering to you? Promises to fix everything you've wanted.....it sounds too good to be true for most kingdoms". "Yeah but I....I just...they showed me what they could do and...I felt like they really wanted to help me....", he sounded so vulnerable but there still seemed to be some skepticism among the group, doubts being spread on whether he had been tricked or had accepted knowing full well what he was getting into. Star glanced over to sky and back to the prince, nervous about her next line of questioning, "The lessons, the ones you took with my daughter...?". "Yes?". "Did you use them to manipulate my daughter, did you tell the criminal anything about her?". There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, the whispers dying down quickly as to hear the answer. Angel could barely get it out. "Y-yes...B-but i didn't do it to manipulate her! I wasn't trying to trick sky into telling me anything, I-I just told them we were learning together! And that sky and I were learning stuff like magic and royals stuff and history...sky never...she never said anything to me i could even consider telling anyone else!". Though the questioning continued, and Judas stepped in front of angel as more questions arose from the group. "So does that mean if she did say something you would've spilled?", asked Queen Pidgeon. "What? No no no....I mean, well, I guess it depended when it happened, if it had been early on It may of happened, b-but i got in serious trouble with them more recently for keeping my mouth shut about anything going on!" "Just because you stopped helping doesn't remove the fact you were willing to do it before, you're rivalry with the princess is fairly clear to mewni, your grudge against her and her family alone makes it hard to believe where you align, and now you've said you would've been willing to say just anything about her to some stranger." Judas seemed to be looking for something to interject in but it was pretty hard to really defend angel on doing actions he hadn't done but could've done. However, Sky stood up now, getting the room's attention, papers still in her hand. "Princess Butterfly?". "Look, angel can kinda be the utter worst sometimes....and kinda an idiot, but he doesn't really want me hurt either...when we fight, it's with no intention to really hurt each other. My kingdom ruined his kingdom, i'm sorta in the way of him trying to get my mom to help fix things, i have to kick him out. It's annoying but not malicious. I mean seriously, angel could only do one simple spell for ages it seems, you really think angel wanted to harm me? He never even tried to bite me or use a weapon or anything!", defending him by insulting him, works well enough. She made a fair point, one that could not be proven against either. "I-I think it's cruddy...that he went behind my back like this....but we weren't friends when he did this either and when we were it was when he gave up wasn't it? He didn't exactly betray my trust because at the time he didn't trust me yet...it was the fact he....that it felt like he was only friends with me or opened up to me to use me after everything that I....that I ended up feeling the way I did. Angel's not a bad person....he just makes bad choices and does dumb things because he cares..."., angel's ear flickered, his eyes closing. "As touching as that is princess butterfly, are you saying this somehow means he should not face conflict?", Mr Kelpbottom asked curiously, "surely you can't be asking for us to redeem him solely because he he didn't ever really betray you?". Sky stepped forward, "No no, that's not what i'm saying, I mean, angel screwed up and he knows it....but like, he's willing to do anything for his own people and make sacrifices in order to help people he cares about, isn't that what you'd want in a future king?". "Yes, but even his own people don't like his actions, what do you think King Arachford?". Angel's father had been remarkably quiet this entire time, listening and not speaking to those around him. He was having a hard time making eye contact with his son and he coughed and proceeded to speak, "Well, Angelus isn't popular with our people, I can attest to that....though the kingdom did seem almost thankful to have been granted the ability to use magic again they thought lost. Seeing it come from the prince they all seemed to dismiss was...well...a surprise. They had chalked it up to being almost a miracle, but it seemed a lot more then that...". Angel was more then just his name that day. "They were not...happy for a few reasons...they wanted to remain in good graces with the butterflys and...angel trying to protest them them stood in the way of that, they were fearful of what the butterflys would do if angel went too far. I'm deeply sorry Queen Butterfly, I wished to never bring this up, but I have no choice in this matter. The people are glad to finally be getting aid from you and....they hated angel because they were scared of you.", he looked ashamed to look upon the queen's face as she turned to him. "You were scared I would stop helping you because angel was annoying the kingdom?". "Yes, I'm deeply sorry.". "King Amir....no, that's...I'm sorry you ever felt like i'd abandon you at the drop of a hat....simply because of your son. You should trust me more then that....I should never have made you feel like you were on a thread. I'm the one who should be sorry here.". Her blue eyes look genuinely sad, "I'm supposed to be helping monsters in mewni and yet they're still scared of what i'll do to them? That's against everything I stood for....Maybe your son had a point...in me not helping enough.". "Your majesty?" This had quickly turned around to be something else entirely, Star nodding before turning back to the group. "When the trial ends, we'll speak on this further.". Sky stepped forward, clutching the papers in her hand, "Angel's still a kid, he's sixteen, he still has time to fix things, he still has time to do better before he's crowned. Dethroning usually only happens with adults, with adult leaders and royals, how can you put angel in the same category as them? If someone younger then him did something similar, would they be just as guilty? Would they deserve to be dethroned despite them being six or something? He made a mistake when trusting someone but he didn't know he was causing any harm, so why remove him from the throne from it?". "Princess Butterfly, you are only a year younger then him, are you not?", her blue eyes met the one's of King Rock Johansen. "Yes sir." "So you're mature enough to speak about this, but he's too immature to be punished?". "Well I-". "Excuse me...", sky watched judas cross his arms, setting himself in front of his friend, "Her point still stands here, no matter how young she is, you are holding a sixteen year old monster prince to the same standards as an adult, the adults were dethroned in the past are not the same as angel here. They were fully aware of the crimes they were committing and if they had turned on their people or put them in danger, angel believed he had been doing something good and we know who we're dealing with has magic...". "As much as you're trying to argue here, Judas and Sky make decent points.", Marco spoke, holding tom's hand and keeping themselves levelheaded despite the chaos. "Should we really be judging the prince under the same rules as a normal king? If the situation was a trap and he was forced to help or suffer, then he's a lot less blameless then...committing murder. I'm not sure what most people would have done under his situation, especially if you worried for the life of others.". "Reporting it was an option, was it not, the sooner he said it to someone the sooner we could've saved everyone and protected those in danger!". Angel suddenly got smaller on his podium and there were more whispers, judas quickly filling everyone in. "Angel....felt if he told someone, they wouldn't believe him, or....there was no way he could save his mom, this person held a cure over his head to keep him helping.", and the King's eyes got more somber, " He felt he had a live to save and....I feel like if my parents were on the line, or my brothers...or sky....i feel like i'd be doing everything in my power to want them safe. People just...make bad choices if it means they can safe the life of someone they care about. It's his family we're talking about here, his mother.". It felt like they were winning, like they were winning the audience over with not removing the prince from power. But it was clear some would not give up so easily. "Would his mother approve of his actions? Would she have approved of him messing with the princess's feelings or doing these things to save her life?". The room was tense. "B-but that doesn't matter!", The demon snapped back, "Maybe she wouldn't have agreed to what he chose, that doesn't change the fact angel wanted to save her life and didn't know what he was getting himself into! I can't speak for her but I doubt she would want her son dethroned either for this!". King Lucitor was quick to whisper to their partner, Marco nodding and coughing into their hand, "As Prince Lucitor and Princess Butterfly have mad clear, the prince is a teenager, who had been tricked into helping for the sake of his own mother's life, now whether we feel he should be judged as an adult would is still up for debate it seems, but I suggest for now we hear from someone else on this matter...". Janna smirked, fixing her crown as she laid back in her seat, "Oh, who you got under your sleeve diaz? another one of your exs?". "What? No! I meant Eclipsa, she was the one who informed you of the incident and had been teaching him and sky for awhile now...and Angel reports they had been hanging out outside of these times to help him with his magic, I think we should hear more from her.". Their gaze went to the woman with the dark clothing and spade markings as she stood up, reassuring globgor before walking forward. Judas and Sky being shooed off to the side as Eclipsa stood next to Angel, nervous, but still ready for anything. "Geez, your own mom kicked us out...", the princess wasn't happy, grumbling under her breath as they leaned against the wall. "We were hitting the same points over and over, it makes sense to have more of another opinion on this...eclipsa might know more about angel's intentions then we think....". "Eclipsa Butterfly, how close are you to this young man?", Eclipsa was a wild card sometimes, and Judas could tell his mom was a little worried about speaking to her. Logically Eclipsa was the next step into getting further on this issue but what eclipsa thought was ok and what others thought was ok could be widely different. Not to mention Star's mother instincts kicked in heavily with sky ever since eclipsa also got her hurt and sky could tell she was almost afraid of hearing eclipsa had gone too far again. "Well, he and sky were learning under me for a while, lessons kinda got cancelled when what happened....happened. Angel however, has been a rather charming young man, very silly though sometimes, he'd come alone to talk and he was worried sky and judas didn't lik-". Marco interrupted though, "Eclipsa, that's not necessary, did he ever tell you anything about the current situation? As in, did he talk about being forced to do these tasks or about his intentions to betray the criminal controlling him?". "Oh well no, not directly, he told no one.....however....". "Eclipsa....". "It's possible at one point i may of used mind-spying on him....". Angel's eyes lit up, his head turning to look at her in disbelief. "Wait...wait...you...WHAT?", his face was suddenly very red and embarrassed, and Eclipsa both seemed embarrassed for having done so, but judas could tell she was also a little amused. "Don't worry, i'll keep the personal stuff to myself, in terms of this situation at hand so we're on topic, it's entirely possible i was so worried about him because he was getting so sickly and anxious I wanted to see maybe where the problem was stemming from since he didn't want to speak about it...". "And you saw....Her?". "She was in his thoughts yes.". More murmurs, some good, some bad. It left Judas and Sky both feeling uneasy as the dark queen kept talking. "It wasn't incredibly weird though, globgor himself went investigating and found her hanging around a lot near his kingdom, So we already had seen something like this coming. We only didn't want to scare the boy, we simply kept our distance until we got more on the matter of what was happening. The boy is still quite young, i wasn't going to go around doing any foul deeds to him to get him to cough it up or anything, well, at least not him, he's a good exception.", Eclipsa seemed rather fine with her statement but it was clear the royals seemed to be ranging from confusion to anger to her. "You knew about this and decided to say nothing?!", Star gripped the banister in front of her as she leaned forward, freaking out. "My daughter almost died out there! All because she went after that boy, If you had told us sooner we could've prevented anyone from getting hurt and stopped them much before-". Then Eclipsa held up a hand, "Star, dear, there wasn't enough there to prove whether he was at fault or not, her being around his home, and her being in his thoughts alone isn't enough to convict anyone, you should know that...i was arrested under much less convincing reasons..". "Ughhhh, still, you should've said something...c'mon eclipsa, sky was in danger...". "Right, right....". "She just cares about me!", Star's attention was turned back to angel, "M-maybe she should've said something, but if she had blabbed...well...there's fair reason to believe that....thing would've thought I was the one who squeaked and.....I might not be here today! Eclipsa just....I needed someone to talk to sometimes who...I new for sure would want to help me and would trust me at the time...talking to her...helped me decided that I had to stop her....she didn't know but...I asked her what she would do if people she cared about were in danger and...if she did something against the bad guy they would be in more danger...". "And i said, I'd kick their butts and get my family out of there, because I know they'd prefer it if i helped save us all then let us live miserably and let worse happen.", she finished, nodding to him. "So...in the end it was best I had to do something myself and just....keep everyone else from getting hurt. I didn't want judas or sky involved cause they could get hurt and I couldn't let anyone know because then i'd be dead...I just...I needed to take her out by myself and....then...no one gets hurt.". "You were blasted in the back...right?", Larry Kelpbotton asked, the spider nodding. Star also let out a long sigh, brushing some blonde hair from her face. "He was in our wing to recover, it wasn't pretty but he managed to heal pretty fast, unfortunately another hit and he might've died. Apparently Sky had moved in by that point and had been the one to save his life, according to the prince the criminal had full intentions to silence him so he wouldn't be able to spill.". "I-I asked for my mind to be wiped when i said I wanted out...", the spider added, "I told her to have me forget everything if it meant I could get out, but they....they thought it was better i became like Prince Ponyhead, my mind in her hands. Because even if I had my mind wiped, then people would just wonder what was wrong with me and figure out my mind was erased and I may of had a part to play. I guess maybe they thought the idea i was kidnapped or i ran away was much better then any chance of me going back with no memory and having my memory jogged...". "Why would you want your memories to go?", the King looked puzzled at the monster prince and Eclipsa motioned for him to explain himself better. "Well no no, the meeting, me wanting out, the memories...It was a front so i could capture her. I did really want out but I rarely can ever find her in person or get close enough to bite her or anything, So i figured...if i invited her to something super important, she showed up, got close enough to do a spell on me, I could get her...just like that...I thought I could do it...". "He'd asked about training....with me.", Eclipsa coughed, "Angel had...well...I believe the term to most others are "Gone feral"? He'd done it at least once in our training sessions to practice fighting, though his people call it an "Ultimate". It's almost their form of the butterfly form, except of transforming, he becomes suddenly more powerful and more monsterous. He didn't tell me why he wanted training for it, but he wanted private training to see if he could master it, and he was working on it during nights". "During...nights?". "He's been here mostly since the spiderbite situation, before then I picked him up a few times from home with my butterfly form, after that it was only a walk to my tower.". "I thought I could do it....who better then me? I was already working for her...she'd have a harder time seeing me coming...or they...I still don't know who they are. I was getting so much better with it, I thought I could bite into their wrist, their arm, they would be paralyzed by my vemon. Then I could take her directly to the castle or unmask them and you could have them in custody, and they wouldn't be able to stop you, you could even prevent them from using magic in that time before the vemon wore off....but It all went wrong...I..I missed.". is head hung low, "I failed....again....even when I'm trying to do better...I still failed...". He was on the verge of tears and eclipsa reached out to comfort him, people still talking to each other about his confession. And Sky and Judas may as well have stepped in as well if the guards in the room hand't put their hands in front of them, making them stay put on the matter. "Sorry your highness, no more barging in the middle of the conversation, you'll only be called when asked from now on, same goes for Prince Lucitor on the matter.". Of course. "Eclipsa I-". "Hey, you told me I was his new teacher, and he wanted to learn something alone, I'd say he has every right to learn on my account. You never said not to teach him about this stuff at night."., She patted his back, careful of any lingering injuries he might of still hand, "I for one, thought he was quite a fun student, I think when he sets his mind to something it's hard to get him out of it. Sky's similar in that regard, though too busy to need extra lessons.". "You were the one who informed the queens of what was happening...correct?", Angel didn't look at his father as he awaited Eclipsa's answer. "Oh yes, that was me, I.....I know not everyone thinks I should've done that....but...I already lost a girl i care dearly about for before...I....I couldn't have it happen again...", judas felt sky shift, her anger still present. With meteora still being alive it was no wonder. He wrapped an arm around her and she leaned against him, Eclipsa still speaking to the court. "Thankfully everyone made it out alright, who knows what may of happened otherwise.", there were more murmurs, and eclipsa felt she was probably about done. Then Janna spoke up. "Eclipsa?". "Yes?". "What exactly do you think angel should be granted throughout this? I mean, you kinda got imprisoned cause of some losers in power.", she eyed the commission, all of which didn't seem amused, "How would you judge this guy if you were up here?". Eclipsa looked to angel and sighed, "If I were in your position, I'll be honest, I would free him of all charges....even though he did screw up and go against all of mewni. I feel like I know him better then to think he has bad blood and would ever do this again. The boy has promise and I don't think dethroning everyone who you don't like without giving them a chance to prove themselves to do better is the route mewni should be going in". Angel seemed touched. "You are dismissed eclipsa...". The woman returned to her seat, Star sighing and rubbing at her face, "I suggest, we take a small recess....and when we return our final witnesses can come up and give their presentations. Then we'll decide on the final verdict for the prince here.". There seemed to be a collective agreement as angel got off the stand, judas and sky walking towards him as they all headed out the doors to regroup and talk. Sky giving the high commission a glare on the way out. - "I think we're doing pretty well out there...I think". Sky quickly ruffled through her papers, "We've established your motives, we've gone into how unfair it is, and we've had people go up about your character in general. I think maybe the people in there might think of you in a bit of a lighter view then they used to....at least i hope so after this.". Judas was still pacing, mostly in a circle, trying to deduce exactly where everyone on stand was at this time. He knew his own parents were probably more understanding and less likely to incriminate the boy, especially now knowing he wasn't directly involved in the incident that got them hiding in a safe room. But Sky's mom seemed mixed in some cases, the Johansens seemed deadset on punishing him greatly, Queen Ponyhead barely seemed to care and when she did she was annoyed with him, the Spiderbites were a complete mystery and the list went on. Their odds seemed more in their favor then against but that didn't mean something couldn't completely flip that around suddenly. Angel was only so sympathetic because he meant no real harm and hadn't directly caused any major harm, not to mention being a kid who got tricked. But that might not be enough for most people and there was still time to turn the tides. "When we get back in there it's sunny's turn to speak, and i think celeste and galexia are joining her....if only we had nora....she was a witness too.". Sky grumbled to herself, going through her documents,"I had to pack so much of mewni's history of dethroning and court cases, I had to study more for this then eclipsa's own classes....ugh. But I think we can kinda win this....not sure if we could get the verdict eclipsa would prefer considering the crowd but...". "I think it's fair to say when everyone found out angel had done this they expected him to admit he'd been dropping tons of info on the castles and had been planning everything and left and planned to stop her cause he wasn't getting what he wanted out of the alliance or something. I get the feeling that him having done little on purpose and getting force to work and leaving because he regretted it was not fitting with how people saw him before this point...no offense angel, i think to the public you were seen a lot more bratty....", he stopped in his tracks and looked to the boy sitting on one of the sofas nearby. "It's fine...I....I wasn't my best....I was just....too stubborn to accept I was doing nothing but making everything worse...". "Well whatever, I think we might have it, just need to seal the deal with the next line....unless they all decide to screw us over despite all this.....ugh they better not. I don't want us to have worked so hard on this only to have them all decide it meant nothing because they hate angel too much to give him another chance." Judas walked up to the dark-haired princess, patting her on the back, "You did well out there sky, i'm really impressed how well you're holding yourself.". "Thanks jude....you too.". "Alright you guys, you ready?", Sunny came bouncing by, nervous as ever but determined. "You guys did pretty darn well in there but the fight isn't over, it's not over till the verdict is determined. And you never know if something else comes into play last minute, we better keep on our toes.". Galexia and Celeste walked up behind her, Celeste still reluctant to be here but also required to be here, "Since mason is too young to be here and nora is...wherever, they dragged landon as someone to question with us, he's uh....not excited....". "They really should let all of us tesitfy shouldn't they?", sunny looked up to Judas and he only shrugged. "I mean, i guess three of you is perhaps enough, but i won't deny I think nora and mason should have some imput...but i can't argue against my parents on that, he saw a lot he probably was too young to see....we'll just have to work with who we got. If angel does get dethroned, he's not only vulnerable and he'll most likely never be able to go home, but if we really think about it...it's a good time for anyone to step in and take that kingdom for themselves in this state....someone like...". "Don't finish that, I don't wanna think about it...", sky said, waving her arm at him, "Let's just go in there and finish this, for angel....and for our own safety.". - The court got back in order, everyone returning to their seats, or in the case of sky and judas, along the wall. Queen Star took her seat and Angel got back on his podium. The final fight was ready to begin. The goblin running in to blow on his horn once more, coughing, "We now resume the second half of court today for the trial of Prince Angelus Arachford, accused of committing treason. By the end of this trial his fate shall be determined by the rulers of mewni, let us continue....". He headed out as Star tapped her fingers on the table nervously, "Well, we're moving on forward by calling some new witnesses to talk about what happened during the situation, since judas and sky are close with the boy, there is potential their attachment to him may of made their truth a little different...so to be safe, we're calling on witnesses with less of such an attachment....sunny, galexia, and prince landon lucitor diaz!". The three teenagers quickly headed foward, landon and celeste of course incredibly unhappy to be in this situation as the girls next to them smiled ear to ear. "Girls, and....Landon, can you confirm what the prince has said as the truth? Did he or did he not attempt to take the criminal down with his vemon?". The girls all looked to landon, who coughed, "Only I saw that part m'am....they entered the scene after sky and judas went in to save angel....yeah, it's basically what happened. He's not lying and neither are sky and my brother on that....dude kinda tried to take her out, almost died, they came in to save him...sky blasted the guy....". Landon clearly didn't want to be there, but he went on, "There's not a lot else to add, we were just out there to find him when we saw what happened.". "Girls?". "We saw everything after, with judas saving the prince, the queen saving sky, and the being getting away in a flash of light, the queen herself i believe i can attest to that.". "I can.". "Well....if there is little to add, then sounds to me we can decide on the verdict as is", Marco crossed their arms, looking to their company, "We've gone over some of the history relating to this, put the rules into question,, and have gone over the details surrounding this situation. The boy had good intentions and it sounds to me he had been manipulated and threatened to work for them, i'd say in a way it's brave for them to have even considered betraying them at all. I think on the basis it sounded like a clear case of him betraying mewni, but it seems he never had a huge part to play in most of the incidents and most of what he did was minor or accidental. This situation is not as clear cut and dry as it had seemed". There seemed to be mainly nods from most of the other royals, sky raising an eyebrow. Did they win? Already? They actually did it? Judas let out a sigh of relief, angel's surprised face almost turned into a smile. "WAIT!" The audience collectively turned to someone standing up in the crowd. The High Commission. Sky felt her teeth grit. "What is it?", Star looked annoyed, crossing her arms and sighing, "We're almost done here". Hekapoo turned to the others and sighed, "We have a question for the witnesses.....". "What? The witnesses? Is there something wrong with their story here?". She closed her eyes, "Witnesses, did you mention what color was the magic princess butterfly shot out of her wand when she saved the prince?". Landon rolled his eyes, "No, why would that matter?". Hekapoo turned her head to look at Sky, the commission following suit. "Because the magic that came from her wand, wasn't normal, it was green!". There were gasps everywhere, whispers. Sky felt her stomach drop as they pointed a finger at her, everyone looking at her. "Once more, Princess Butterfly intended to kill!".

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acrobaticcatfeline · 6 years

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Summerville Nights chapter 1!

ok so this is the fanfic based on the prompt by @romantichopelessly.

summary: It was a sunny day in august when the school opened its doors for its first day that school year. 4 kids so terribly different walked into the doors, gazing in awe before getting shoved aside by kids eager to get to class and meet up with friends. Everyone who goes to this school has one heck of a story about it and it’s always legendary. So let’s get into it.

warnings: cursing, piningness? i don’t really think there’s anything else, let me know if there if though.

ships: pre logince, pre moxiety

taglist: @anyay666 @emocinamonroll @noahlovescoffee @voices-and-stardust @treechildoffical if anyone wants to be added to the taglist let me know!

more below the cut

Summerville high school is known as one of the best schools in the US in athletics, curriculum, and even the arts. Its giant too, the size of an average community college campus and many amenities provided are free to any student or alumni. The school has a lot of luxuries by being in a wealthier neighborhood and still being a free access public school. Everyone who goes to this school has one heck of a story about it and it’s always legendary. So, let’s get into it.

It was a sunny day in august when the school opened its doors for its first day that school year. 4 kids so terribly different walked into the doors, gazing in awe before getting shoved aside by kids eager to get to class and meet up with friends. The 4 of them hadn’t been able to tour the campus and the giant pristine halls set them all in shock at the beauty of it all; who knew a high school campus could be actively gorgeous. Virgil Lee was the first to come back to the present, mostly because his older brother Remy was quick to drag him over to freshman orientation. The smaller kid quickly turned and ran forward to the open doors of the huge auditorium. He gave his brother a punch to the arm as a farewell before meeting up with some of his friends in the audience. They spent quite a while just talking about the different sports the school offered; of course, Virgil was the epitome of the high school jock. (not really but don’t tell him that). He wore his jeans hung slightly low, and a purple muscle tee with his middle schools’ mascot across the front, and his jet-black hair fell across his violet eyes gorgeously; his family always did say they were the best thing about him. He had to pause his conversation when he saw a really fucking cute goth boy walk in, he made a mental note to introduce himself later before jumping right back into the midst of his previous conversation.

The next to come to his senses was a tiny frail kid named Logan Sanders. That was because he had been shoved into a wall already, probably for his choice of outfit; a deep blue knee length skirt, a black button up and a matching blue tie, as well as a little teal butterfly hairclip. He scurried away and into the auditorium searching for anyone he knew and running straight for Virgil, his longtime best friend. He was always grateful for Virgil’s awareness, because he could run straight into the other and be lifted up instead of falling over; something extremely important he thinks as he’s barreling toward the jock full speed. Virgil’s grin was wide when he caught the feeling that his nerd was running toward him and spun around to lift the tiny thing up before he bulldozed them both over.

“sup Lo? Haven’t heard from you in like a month, everything been alright?” Virgil questioned softly with a small smirk.

“oh yeah, uh, anxiety hit like a metaphorical truck again, sorry about that. Hey, I already got shoved into a wall today! It is a new record!” Logan’s small smile was quick to fall when Virgil’s face fell, and his hands turned to fists. Maybe he said a bit too much?

“who? Where? I’m gonna kill them how dare they? They need to grow the f-” Logan covered his mouth before he spouted more incriminating words. He gave another weak smile as he pulled his hands away again.

“it is fine! Calm down, I don’t even know if it was on purpose or not, it is okay. Lets just sit down and wait this thing out” Virgil slouched before nodding.

“only for you nerdling”

The next to come to was the same goth boy Virgil saw, the bad boy Patton Fernandez. He had to snap out of it, if anyone saw him smile for long, they’d start asking questions that he was unprepared for and people were already staring. He sauntered into the auditorium with his hood pulled down showing off his dirty blonde hair that faded into pastel blue and his eyebags that were only partially eyeshadow He was surprised he even made it on time today, usually when he’s actually able to sleep, his alarms can’t do shit to wake him from a week of sleep, but here he is, at 7 am on a Monday regretting his decision to not bring his headphones. Granted his mom dropped them off at the office for him, but he couldn’t get them until after orientation and its really loud in there. He’s supposed to meet his best friend though, and he’d suffer far worse for him and to be honest, he already had. All he had to do was wait for his service human and he would be fine. Speaking of which.

Roman Washington was the last to refocus, mostly because he was so tiny no one noticed he was there. He ran into the assembly and made a beeline to his goth friend. He ran into him for a big hug and Patton didn’t even stumble. The boy started jumping in excitement and his giant circle glasses were bouncing just as much. The two of them couldn’t be more dissimilar, Roman was tiny, colorful, and loud but introverted where Patton was tall, dark and gloomy, and quiet but extroverted. When Roman spoke everyone heard, but he didn’t talk much. Patton was rarely heard, but never stopped talking, mostly for his own sanity. Even so, these two have been inseparable since they met.

Roman was about to start ranting to Patton about his weekend but the lights in the room dimmed and the orientation started. Oh well, Roman would be able to tell Patton all about everything when they go home to Patton’s. I mean its his super epic birthday extravaganza and Patton was… pretty much the only one who was invited. It’s not his fault people are scary! Although he once shouted at someone for calling Patton a broody emo because excuse??? Patton isn’t BROODY he’s d e p r e s s e d, and he’s not EMO he’s g o t h and if anybody has an issue, they’re gonna have to get through him first. And his tiny frail body that knows nothing about how to protect himself. Yeah lucky for him most people are scared of the look Patton gives to anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to mess with his friend. In other words, there’s two guys walking over to them and-oh. Roman sees a boy walking towards him and he’s wearing a really cute skirt and a tie? Oh, geez Roman was always a hopeless romantic but geez. He not-so-subtly starts fussing with his bright red sweater vest and fixes the button up underneath it. He pats at his green slacks and is suddenly very aware of how nerdy and awful he looks and wants to disappear. He steps behind Patton and hyperventilates while fussing with his glasses that are far too big for his head suddenly and oh geez oh geez. Patton was having a similar freak out because there’s a really cute guy but he’s obviously a jock and jocks like to torture him and he’s not keen on this happening right now, so he just sits down. He was not ready to punch his poor heart yet.

Virgil had grabbed Logan as soon as the lights dimmed and dragged him over to the cute goth boy because cute boy? Possible friend? Possible more than friend? Yes please. Also, the little nerdy boy with him looked like he was totally Logan’s type and we all know its bros first, so yeah, that’s how he made his way over to the two. Logan was maybe possibly slightly enamored with the boy Virgil pointed out to him. He shouldn’t be, he doesn’t get it, although he’s always been one to fall for darker skinned guys, and holy crap he was so pretty-aesthetically of course-it’s not like Logan finds him attractive or anything, just aesthetically pleasing. His darker skin matched with a white button up and a blood red sweater vest beautifully is all. And him fiddling with his hair and tie was just a fidget he did, not him trying to look nice for the cu-the boy over there. Of course not.

When they got over, they simply sat in the row behind them and chatted quietly together until it was over. Patton was gearing up, getting ready to tell them off as they were leaving, but the jock was offering him a hand up? He took it suspiciously and went reeling at the smirk the guy wore, thinking he was about to be pranked. He drew back quickly before looking around him. All he saw was Roman and this little nerdy kid exchanging shy nerd glances of pining. He immediately fixed the jock with a glare.

“do you have an issue with me kid? What could I have possibly done to heed you waltzing your happy ass all the way over here out of your way?” oh he felt bad for that. He didn’t like being mean, but he has to protect himself. Maybe if he’s intimidating enough, he’ll just leave? Oh, nope he’s smiling now, did he set himself up? Oh, is there a supervisor that just heard him curse out this dude? He didn’t even swear that badly! Shit.

“wow wasn’t expecting that. I do have an issue with you in fact, you are illegally cute, and I was hoping I could possibly befriend you?” oh. Oh no this is worse, gosh his cheeks are bright red now he’s sure of it. He scowls at him before shoving his hands in the pocket of his hoodie.

“yeah sure thanks for the joke dude real funny I gotta get to class I don’t have time for people poking fun at me right now.” He pulls one arm back out and grabs Roman’s hand and heads off.

“hey, wait!” he pauses for a moment, the voice being new. “um, mr person, my friend isn’t joking with you, I promise. He’s not like that. He’s really nice actually um, and I would also be pleased in befriending you and your friend. If that’s ok with you. Uh, I’m Logan and his name is Virgil.” Patton smirks slightly and turns around. He analyzes the look on the smaller boys’ face before nodding.

“hm. Ok. I’ll believe you for now. Names Patton. This one is Roman. See ya round later, I guess. Virgil, Logan.” And he turned back and continued to class with Roman.

Logan and Virgil were left in awe for a moment before rushing to their class too. Logan kept spouting about how dare he introduce him to a pleasing person and make him feel… things!!! He didn’t even talk at all, but he was figuratively falling for this, this… dark skinned beauty!!! Its not allowed and Virgil was definitely buying him dinner tonight to make up for this entire ordeal thank you very much! Meanwhile Virgil was in stunned silence because geez that Patton guy, oh he’s so cute and feisty and he wants to see that cursed smirk every day now. He hadn’t ever had such fierce desire to know someone, he hadn’t had such a fierce desire to do anything other than sleep. And maybe run on a good day. But he has a goal now at least. He was gonna woo the goth.

The 4 didn’t reunite until after school that day. Logan was seated in the field across from the football practice and was studying already, hoping to get to a comfortable week ahead. He nearly threw his book out of his arms when someone tapped him on the shoulder, but he settled for snapping it shut…on his tie. Great job. He opens it and sets it down before turning to see the two he met earlier. He adjusted his glasses and gives a small smile. Patton was squatting next to him, and Roman was standing a foot or so behind him. Logan went back to his textbook when it seemed like the two weren’t about to start talking. He was paying enough attention to hear the sounds of two backpacks thudding to the ground as well as some footsteps and two people sitting down. As long as they didn’t try to hurt him everything would be fine. They didn’t seem like they had any malice directed at him, so maybe he could focus a bit more on his studies, maybe he could trust them? No definitely not, no way, even Virgil would say it’s a bad idea he bets. Plus, it seems like they’re talking now Logan you might want to listen.

“so, what’re you doing hanging out here dude? You don’t have any extra crap like Vee does?” Logan tilts his head over at Patton who is the one talking, very quietly in fact.

“oh uh, not that start yet. I plan on joining gsa and maybe the debate team? I do not know quite yet, Virgil usually helps me make decisions as I am quite indecisive. Also, he owes me dinner tonight, and as much as I would usually let him off, he said he would take me to Olive Garden and while I logically know its objectively bad Italian food, it is a guilty pleasure of mine that I have been craving. Thus, why I am sitting here studying and waiting for him to be done with practice.” He says rather easily. There’s a beat of silence before Patton speaks again.

“so how long have you two been a thing?” Logan squints in confusion.

“um, I am not quite sure as to what you are talking about? If you are inquiring about our relationship, I cannot quite remember. I think I was about 3?” there is sputtering, and Logan is only even more confused.

“you’ve been dating since you were 3!?!?! Please tell me you’re joking?!” ohhh. Oh, that makes more sense now.

“oh no, I seem to have misunderstood you. Virgil and I are in a completely platonic relationship. We have been friends for that long.” There was a sigh of relief as well as a small giggle that sounded, and the giggle set Logan’s chest into overdrive, gosh that must have been Roman and that was the literal sound that happens when you ascend past this mortal world; pure and hopeful and did Logan just actually die? That’s the only reasonable explanation. Welp he said he platonically loved Virgil before he went to practice so no reason to regret. Wait what’s that voice.

“Pat you should have known, he literally walked over and said you were cute while dragging him along. You’d have to be really silly to drag your boyfriend along to call someone cute! I mean unless you’re poly but most teenagers don’t mess around with polygamy in high school and I dunno, but I told you!” the giggle sounded again, and Logan managed to turn to him in time to see the large toothy smile that broke out on the near charcoal skinned beauty. And yup, Logan was so gone. Virgil owes him dinner for a week now yup that’s what’s happening.

“um, are you ok Logan? Logan? Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?” that pulled him right back.

“what?! No! um, I mean, I’m fine it’s just uh, it’s a bit warm don’t you think, I mean it’s august and I’ve worn dark colors all day its fine I just need to cool down for a sec sorry.” Oh no there went his metaphorical chill. He used contractions! Gosh how could he have done this it’s embarrassing he wanted to be cool and calm and now he looks like a complete imbecile. Of course it was just then that the whistle ending practice sounded. There was shouting and running and suddenly Logan grabbed his bag and started packing hurriedly before standing.

“I uh, I am sorry, but I must be leaving, I hope to see you both tomorrow?” he rushed while trying to remain calm. Of course, the two others stood, and Patton gave a smirk.

“well we might bump into each other tonight. I was actually taking Roman to OG for his birthday dinner tonight as well. Maybe we can hang there, god knows with sports for him and theatre for Ro, it’ll be hard to chill anywhere else. I’ll be sure to book a table for 4.” Oh shit. That cheeky goth just winked. Oh god what does that mean what is he planning what did he just sign up for??? He nods, and waves then bolts to the locker room.

Logan was a regular there, as he had accompanied Virgil to every tryout for the team, so when the guys saw him, they paid no mind. He walked to the hallway directly next to where he knew Virgil was and slid to the floor, covering his face and pushing his glasses up to rest on his head. Virgil peeked his head around and snickered softly as he rushed to finish getting ready. When he was finished, he tapped Logan on the shoulder and they started on their way.

“I might have accidentally signed us up for something and I need you to promise not to yell because its freaking me out too and you yelling would make it worse ok? And I know you don’t yell at me but yelling in general might cause a panic attack right now” Logan blurted out while they were walking. He is acutely ware of the fact that he’s fidgeting with his tie but he’s nervous ok? Cut him some slack! Virgil glances over to him with a curious look as well as a promise in his eyes. They’ve learned to communicate without words after as long as they’ve been friends.

“well uh, you know how we are going to Olive Garden? Well apparently Patton and Roman were going too and Patton said he was going to get us a table for 4 and I sort of want to just go home and curl up in a ball but also like Roman’s voice is so nice and his giggle is like literal angel bells Virgil, his giggle is the sound that you hear after you die and I cannot handle it Virgil what have you done I knew I was gay but this is a lot and I don’t know what to do Virgil what do I do?” Virgil had to set his hand on Logan’s shoulder to help ground the now panicking boy. After taking a deep breath and calming down a bit he looks over to see Virgil with a small smile on his face. He takes his hand off his shoulder as he speaks.

“first off dude, I wouldn’t yell at you or near you if I have the choice, you know me I hate losing my temper. Secondly, that’s pretty cool! I did wanna hang out with them more they seem really interesting. Thirdly, it seems like you’ve found your dream guy lo. I’m glad I could drag you headfirst into your destiny. Just be yourself and everything will be fine. Plus, the kid looks like head over heels for you too. So just relax and go with the flow. You’ve got this.”

They both gave each other a look of confidence and a nod as they headed to the dreaded Olive Garden meet up. Will they survive? Maybe. Will they realize just how totally gay they are for the goth and the nerd? Most definitely. But the only way to know is to stay tuned!

thank you for reading!!!

#tw cursing #tw swearing #my writing #thomas sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfic #logince #moxiety #remy sanders

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mic-mic-hobi · 7 years

Text

Mouse | Chapter One

Genre: Gang!Au (main), High School!Au (side)

Pairings: BTS x Reader (final pairing undetermined)

Word Count: 9.6k

Warnings: Eventual Smut, Implied Violence, Strong Language, Violence

Summary: When your mother gets a promotion, you pack your bags and move to a city far away from all of your friends. Your first day of school you feel as though you’ve already made enemies, even if they don’t know it yet. Things can only get worse when you witness a murder one night and find yourself on the wrong side of a powerful street gang. You’ll have to do your best not to end up like that boy in the street. Good luck!

Everything that surrounded you was foreign; the flooring, the walls, the ceiling, even the furniture that you were lying on was unfamiliar to you. One arm dangling off the side of the couch, the other shielding your eyes from nothing-in-particular, you could honestly say that today drained you. The clinking of the dishes on the table was different, but the sound of your mother calling you for dinner was comforting. Finally, something familiar in all this unknown. It didn’t take you long to walk from the kitchen to the living room; in fact, it took you longer to push yourself off the couch. This house was smaller compared to your childhood home. Much smaller. Of course, you weren’t complaining. Small was just another word for cozy, right? That, and it was cheap. Not that you were the one who had to pay rent, unemployed and still in high school, but you were sure that was one of the reasons your mother decided to live here— for now anyway.

Your mother assured you that this was only temporary until she made enough money to move somewhere better. Somewhere closer to her new workplace once she got that next promotion. Six months at most, she had said; you would almost be in college by that time. It had taken weeks for your mother to even consider moving, but you managed to talk her into it. She was elated when her boss offered her a promotion, but when he told her it would require her to move, she almost didn’t take it. You weren’t going to let her skip out on such a massive opportunity just because she was worried about you. You were a big girl, and you were able to adapt.

“Are you excited for your first day at your new school?” your mother asked casually as you took a seat in front of your waiting plate. This was probably the seventh time she had asked you this since you finished unpacking for today. You knew that she was concerned. It was your senior year, and a quarter of the school year had already passed, but you were fine. Okay, you would be lying if you said you weren’t a little nervous, but you weren’t about to let your mom know that.

“Yeah,” you answer almost too quickly, taking a bite of the noodles your mother had prepared last minute. Being so absorbed in unpacking, you both completely forgot about dinner.

“Are you sure?” she probed, giving you a look she often gave when she suspected you of not being fully honest with her. Okay, maybe a “little nervous” was an understatement, and you were full on freaking out at the idea of transferring to a new school the year before college. What if they were further behind in the lessons than your class was? What if you were the one ahead and you had to suffer through relearning everything? What if the teachers were unfair? The principal and school board had been nice enough through the transferring process, but what if everyone ended up hating you for some reason? It made no sense, but your mind raced with different concerns and scenarios, and you couldn’t shut them out, no matter how wild they got.

Despite this, you replied, “I’m super excited. I might have trouble getting to sleep tonight.” It wasn’t a lie. You doubt you would sleep well, though it would far more likely be due to your anxiety than your so-called excitement. “Are you ready for your first day of work?” You decided to change the subject, directing the question to her instead.

Your mother nodded, poking at her noodles, no doubt wishing she was eating something else. “I doubt my first day will be all that engaging, but yes, I’m ready. A little nervous, I guess, but excited never-the-less.”

When you were both finished with dinner, you helped with dishes before taking a shower and going lie down in your room. You still felt like an alien exploring an newly discovered planet in this house. But you found solace in your old sheets, still carrying the scent of your former home. You wondered how long it would take for this house to envelope them with its fragrance or rather how long it would take for your nose to adjust to it and blend them together.

Sleep came to you surprisingly easy. You hadn’t even noticed you had fallen into your slumber until you were stirred out of it by the sound of what seemed to be… yelling? Was it coming from outside of your house? You tried to blink the sleep out of your eyes, but your vision was blurred in the darkness of your room, the only light seeping in through your window from the streetlamp outside. Your eyelids were heavy. Were you still dreaming? The shouting only seemed to get louder, and then you heard a deafening noise. You could compare it to one of those big fireworks that go off right at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The yelling only got worse, more distressed after that. It couldn’t be real; you were sure you were still dreaming. It was a vivid dream, playing at your ears like an obnoxious drum. There was the sound of screeching tires, and you fell back into your blank state.

“Did you… hear anything last night?” you asked your mother, slicing into the pancakes she had prepared for you. You loosely recalled the racket from last night, not sure if they were a product of your dreams or not. Everything sounded real to you: the yelling, the bang, the shrieking tires, but you had been drowsy, so you couldn’t be positive.

“No.” Your mother, who had been brushing her hair, stopped her actions raising a curious brow, “Should I have?”

You shook your head, biting into the delicious pancake, the sweetness of the syrup coating your tongue. “I just thought I heard something,” you explained waving your hand dismissively, “I probably just dreamed it.”

“It’s probably your nerves,” your mother stated matter-of-factly, placing one hand on her hip and pointing her brush at you. It was possible. Though it seemed more palpable when you woke up in the morning, if your mother didn’t hear anything, it was probably safe to pass it off as something your brain concocted because you were nervous.

You finished off your breakfast quickly, soaking the sticky plate in the sink before making your way to your bedroom to retrieve your new uniform. You had just gotten it yesterday, picking it up from the tailor during a small break you’d taken from unpacking. It was similar to your old school’s uniform, a plaid skirt— which the tailor had hemmed much shorter than you would have liked— a white button up with a cute tie, all put together with a professional-looking jacket. Your old school gave you the option of a vest as well, but you didn’t see anything about that in the student handbook you had received.

You moved to the bathroom to change once you gathered everything. Once you’re dressed, you look at yourself in the mirror, making tiny adjustments to your hair, collar, anything that appeared out of place. First impressions were everything after all. You brush your teeth before glancing once more in the mirror. You look good, you told yourself, trying to ease your own nerves, though it didn’t really do much. You take a deep breath before heading back to the living room.

“You look so cute!” Your mother beamed as you turn the corner, moving to give you a hug. “You’ll be beating away all the boys with your textbooks.” She pulled away, mimicking a smacking motion.

“Mom, stop,” you groaned, hiding your face in your hands, chuckling a little despite yourself. She was so embarrassing sometimes, even if it was just the two of you in the house. But you knew that she was trying to encourage you, even if she humiliated you in the process.

“Fine then.” She smiled at you, gesturing to herself before doing a full turn around, “How do I look?”

You nod approvingly, giving her two thumbs up. “You look good. Very professional-like. Polished.” You were saying words you knew your mother would like, but they weren’t far out. Your mother was a beautiful woman, and the pan suit she was wearing did make her look businesslike.

“That’s what I was going for,” Your mother winks, pointing a finger gun at you. “Now, I want to be early, so I’m about to leave. Do you remember what we talked about yesterday?” she asked, shifting from playful to serious in a way you knew only she could.

“Walk straight to school and nowhere else, keep my phone at me at all times, and if I feel like anything is wrong, call the police, then you.” you recite, ignoring the urge to roll your eyes at your mother’s overprotectiveness. “Oh, and look both ways before crossing the street.” you add, simpering when your mother purses her lips at you.

“Ok,” she stated, grabbing her bag from the chair and moving to place a quick kiss on your forehead. “I love you. Have a good day. Do your best!”

“Love you, too. Good luck at work.” You call after her. She sends you one last smile before rushing out the door. When you hear her car leaving the driveway, you pull out your phone to look at the time. It was a ten-minute walk to school, so you had some time to kill.

You knew that your mother didn’t like the idea of you walking to school; it was something that she made clear to you. She didn’t even care for it back at home when you walked to school with your friends, so this was something she was whole-heartedly against. However, your schedules clashed. It took thirty minutes for her to drive to work, and with the time she had before she left, the only way she would be able to drive you to school would result in you arriving forty minutes early. Again, it was something you had to convince her of. You’re a senior in high school— you were capable of walking short distances alone without getting kidnapped by a stranger with candy.

You glimpse at your phone again, and with a small sigh, you decide that it never killed anyone to show up a little early. It would give you the perfect opportunity to locate all of your classes. After grabbing your backpack from your room, you walk out the door, being sure to lock up first. You didn’t trust the look of this neighborhood with an unlocked door.

As you made your way to school, making the turns you remembered your mother taking when you went to meet the principal, you found yourself stopping as something caught your eye. A large piece of graffiti covering the brick wall before your turn. It hadn’t been there before. This city, from what you had seen, was covered in graffiti, but what you were looking at was… different. It was bewitching. You stared at it, eyebrows raised in wonder, lips parted slightly as you gripped the strap of your backpack absentmindedly. It wasn’t simply graffiti— it was art.

The mural was that of a door opening, allowing light to seep into the darkness, or perhaps it was closing, shutting out the light and allowing the room to be swallowed by gloom. It was something that could be interpreted differently depending on who you asked. You wouldn’t call yourself an artist, but even you could tell that each stroke was made with a careful precision that most graffiti artists could only dream of having.

A black truck zooms past you, snapping you out of your trance when a gust of wind hits you, thankfully not strong enough to blow your skirt up. You catch a glimpse of two boys sitting in the back, one of them whistling loudly. Was that directed at you? You finally round the corner, but the truck is already too far away for you to get a good look at them. Shrugging it off, you continue on your journey to school, but not without stealing a final glance at the graffiti.

An estimated four minutes later, and you’re standing in front of your new school, pulling out the map of the campus you had received along with your student handbook. You hated having to resort to the sorry sheet of paper, making you look like the lost new girl you really were. However, the only place you knew how to get to in this place was the principal’s office, and with good behavior, you hoped you never saw that room again. Swallowing your pride, you unfolded the guide, entering through the double doors.

You could practically feel the minutes ticking past as you desperately tried to make sense of the only resource you had. Letting out a quiet, exasperated sigh, you ran your fingers through your hair. Maybe you should ask for directions? You bite your lip at the thought, scanning the crowd of students, most of which were talking amongst themselves, looking for someone to help you. One of the last things you wanted to do was bother someone, but being late was even lower on that list, if not the last. You take a few steps forward, map still firmly in hand, taking a deep breath.

“Um… excuse me?” You tap on the closest boy’s shoulder, breath getting caught in your throat when he turned around. He was nothing short of beautiful. His feathery hair dyed a bright blond color— still in grounds of the school policy— his bangs fell over his forehead gracefully, his face void of any emotion. You blink, forgetting what you were about to ask him, your brain seeming to short-circuit under his blank gaze. Mouth opening and shutting again, you avert your gaze from him, now falling to his two friends that he had been talking to before you interrupted. Your grip on the paper tightens, fidgeting in your spot as you turn your attention back to the light-haired boy. “I… I’m-so-sorry, I just… I’m new… I… sorry, really sorry.” You stammer, bowing your head, unable to meet his intense eyes.

One of his friends, whose fluffy hair was dyed a faded silver, which you were sure was against the school’s uniform policy, was at your side before you could run off, wrapping his arm around your shoulders. Your entire body tensed up, your head shooting to the side to look at him with wide eyes as he calmly inspected the slightly crumbled paper in your hands. His face was far too close to yours. You could smell the cologne he wore, the scent was soft on your nose, inviting, unlike most high school students whose cologne was too strong and sneeze-inducing.

The boy chuckled, and for a moment, you feared that he could feel you feel beating furiously in your chest. “I can’t believe they gave you this old thing,” he turns to you, a warm smile painting his face, “A lot of the teachers switched classrooms over the summer. They must have been too lazy to print out new copies, even for our new student. Very typical. Who are you looking for, cutie?” His voice was much, much deeper than you had expected.

Cutie?! If your face wasn’t already heating up from the close contact, that was still going on by the way, it certainly was aflame now.

“Oh… um, M-Mrs. Choi.” You squeak out, cursing yourself for your sheepishness. So much for a confident new start. The boy titters, using the hand that wasn’t still wrapped around you to point at the map.

“Right, so we’re here,” his tongue darts out of his mouth to wet his lips, “what you want to do is take a left here, walk down the math hall, take a right, and go down the "history” hall. That’s where Mrs. Choi’s room is now.“

"Taehyung, do-” The blond boy spoke, only to be cut off by his friend, whose name you now knew was Taehyung.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just helping out our new friend.” His arm leaves your shoulders, giving one of them two weak pats. “Good luck finding your class. Come find me if you need anything else.” He winks at you, and you look away momentarily; if your heart had been dancing, surely it just stumbled.

“Thank you.” You bow your head, “Thank you so much.” And you were worried that everyone here would turn out to be mean.

“No problem, sweetheart,” Taehyung responded, shrugging one of his shoulders, his lips pulled into a devilishly handsome smirk. His blond friend let out a sigh, his lips pressed tightly together as he turned away from you, facing their third friend, who remained silent throughout all this.

Were you bothering him? You didn’t mean to interrupt his conversation with his friends… Not wanting to take up any more of their time, you send a small smile to Taehyung before going in the direction he pointed you in, the bell ringing shortly after you.

Battling your way through waves of students, all scurrying to get to their classes, you turn where Taehyung directed you to, only to find yourself in what was indeed, still the history hall. You look at the cards above the classrooms, finding no “Mrs. Choi” anywhere. You look at your map in confusion, beginning to retrace your steps in your mind. You took your left, walked through the math hall, and took the final right, just as Taehyung said. He said that this was the English hall now, but you clearly saw Mr. Chung’s name, your fourth-hour history teacher.

The sound of the final bell ringing sent a shockwave through your entire body. You were late to your first class… on your first day of school. And your class was nowhere to be seen. Taehyung lied to you. Why would he do that? He had no reason to; you had just met him. Your brain tried to make an excuse for him, but there were none; everything he said was an elaborate lie.

You take a deep breath, but it felt as though you could not fill your lungs with enough air. It didn’t matter right now. You were hurt, but you still had to find your class. It was your first day; Mrs. Choi would certainly understand why you were late, right? You’d just explain that you had gotten lost.

Map in hand, you begin backtracking, taking the opposite turns you had taken in hopes of finding your class. You were only a few minutes late. Now in the math hall, you walk straight until you’re at the intersection you had met Taehyung. Lying jerk, you thought, eyes skimming over teacher’s names, ‘come find me if you need anything else’ like I’m gonna do that now. You turn left, walking through the science hall, staying straight until you look up and see the name you so desperately wanted to see. And it was right there…

You stand in front of the door for a brief second, hand hesitating as you reached for the doorknob, taking it back to bite your knuckle. Not wanting to just walk in and interrupt her class, you elect to knock softly on the door. When you hear her call for you to come in, you take another deep breath, your stomach feeling as though there were fish swimming in it, before opening it. You step in, finding the teacher in front of the class. She, along with everyone else, was looking at you.

“Are you our new student?” she asked, her eyes narrowed to slits and lips her lips becoming a thin, white line. The woman was young but had an air about her that only your strictest teachers have ever had. She hums when you don’t answer right away, spurring you into action.

“Ah, y-yes ma'am, I’m so sorry that I’m late, I ju-”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses.” She cuts you off, leaving you wide-eyed and open-mouthed. You hear a few giggles making you wish you could disappear, but as you had learned over the years, that was impossible. Mrs. Choi shushes the class, turning her attention back to you. “I won’t give you a tardy since today is your first day, but be sure that you are not late to my class again, or we will have a problem. The last thing I need in this class is another troublemaker.”

Troublemaker? You were no such thing! The fact that she would even think that made a lump form in your throat. So much for getting a pass on your first day. Well, she didn’t give you a tardy, but she did yell at you in front of the entire class. Not able to look your teacher in the eyes at the moment, you allow your eyes to survey the group of gawking students. When your eyes catch a flash of silver in the back, you fix them to the source, eyes widening.

It was Taehyung. When you meet his eyes, he sends you a little wave, snickering to himself. You couldn’t believe it. You open your mouth to say something but close it immediately. Calling him out in front of your already mad teacher and the entire class would not end well. You didn’t even have anything clearly thought out to say to him; you just wanted to scream.

“Yes, ma'am.” You grit out, a fake smile on your face; you weren’t one to argue, especially with a teacher like Mrs. Choi. “It won’t happen again.”

“Good.” she snaps, and you flinch at her tone, “You can take a seat next to Mr. Park. Take out your notebook.” She points vaguely toward the back of the classroom to the right. You only see one empty desk, and it was right across from the blond boy from earlier. Your stomach churns at the idea of sitting close to that jerk and his probably-just-as-jerkish friends, but you couldn’t argue with your teacher, shuffling to your desk.

Park gives a brief glance in your direction as you let your bookbag fall to the ground next to your desk, but you ignore him. That’s the best thing you could do. You were proud of yourself for not crying in front of your entire class, but that didn’t make the lump in your throat go away.

“Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted,” Mrs. Choi stares daggers in your direction, a few students turn to look at you as well, causing you to shrink in your seat. “I will split you into pairings. You both will choose a topic to debate, and Friday you and your partner will discourse in front of the class.”

A few students groaned, Mrs. Choi, silencing them quickly before beginning to list off the pairings, telling the class not to start moving until she is finished. You listened attentively, trying to place names to faces in your class based on their reactions when their names are called, but give up as you couldn’t really see their faces from your spot in the back. There would be plenty of time to learn names later anyway.

“(Y/n).” You perk up at the sound of your name, “You will be paired up with Jungkook. Mr. Jeon, if you could please raise your hand for Ms. (L/n)?” She requests, and you turn your attention to the mass of students, watching as the boy in front of Taehyung raises his hand. The same boy that was with them this morning. You’re not sure if you want to laugh at your luck or repeatedly bash your head into your desk.

As Mrs. Choi continues listing off pairings for her project, you catch the full name of your friend. Kim Taehyung. A name you would be avoiding for the rest of your school year. When she is finished, the classroom erupts into movement, everyone switching and sliding desks together. You grab your notebook and bookbag from the ground, proceeding to a desk near your partner’s. You make no attempt at conversation with him as you glide your desk in front his. If it weren’t for this assignment, you wouldn’t even look in his general direction. You flip to a fresh page in your notebook, filling out your heading, ignoring the feeling of your partner’s eyes on you.

“Look, right off the bat, on behalf of Taehyung, I apologize.” Jungkook’s sudden words after a short period of silence make you look up from your notebook, which made him break into a mischievous smile. “He’s an idiot who likes to tease people, but he didn’t think it would make you late to class. Either way, I’m really, really sorry.”

“It’s fine. No big deal.” You manage a smile, looking back to your notebook. It was; in fact, not fine and a very big deal. You’ve had teachers like Mrs. Choi before, and you know that you’ll have to work your butt off for the next couple of months before she even starts to maybe like you. Getting a good grade on this project would be a fantastic start; however, to do that, you needed to get along with your partner.

“Great,” Jungkook leaned back in his desk, smirking slightly, “I mean, I don’t really care if you’re mad at Taehyung, I just want to make sure you’re not mad at me.”

You shake your head, humming as you label the project in your notebook. While he wasn’t the one to give you the wrong directions, he sure didn’t stop his friend from doing it, so, yes, you were a little mad at Jungkook, but you could set that aside to get a good grade. Besides, most of your ire was focused on his friend, like he said.

“What do you think we should do our project on?” You asked, wanting to change the subject and get started on the assignment.

Jungkook shrugged, “Whatever you want. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

You furrowed your brows, “You should really have input on this. It should be a topic we both have a strong opinion on.” You couldn’t really get a good grade if your partner didn’t participate, especially since you had to read your debate in front of the class.

“I don’t really care that much,” Jungkook yawned, twirling his pencil in his hand, “You can choose.”

“Oh…” was all you could bring yourself to say, lowering your gaze to your desk. It seemed right that you would get stuck with someone like Jungkook on a day like today, and it was only first-hour. He turned around, beginning to talk to his friends, ignoring and leaving you to work on the project alone.

It wasn’t the first time you did a project on your own, and you doubted it would be the last. You just wished it wasn’t right now. Looking up at the board, your eyes skimmed the examples Mrs. Choi had written down before you showed up. You didn’t want to use any of those topics, preferring to come up with something yourself that would impress her. Tapping your pencil against your notebook, you began to rack your brain for something that would prove satisfactory.

You write down a few ideas, but nothing struck you as something you could genuinely debate. Resting your chin on your desk, you tried to think of something that inspired you. Normally, that would be easy, but it always seemed that your thoughts were only with you when you don’t need them. So you began to replay this morning in your head, recalling each detail, searching for something, anything. You walked to school, stopped to admire some artistic graffiti… the graffiti… the graffiti!

“Can graffiti ever be considered art?” you blurted out, immediately writing down your idea and underlining it twice, a goofy smile appearing on your face.

“Huh?” Jungkook asked, turning away from his friends to look at you, chuckling when he saw you smiling at your notebook as if there was something other than schoolwork in there.

“Can graffiti ever be considered art?” you repeated yourself, turning your notebook to face him, tapping the writing with the end of your pencil. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“Like I said, I don’t really care,” You frowned as he shrugged once again, shifting in his seat to turn back to his friends, but he hesitated, turning back to you, “What do you think?” He was actually participating? You smiled, but it didn’t stay on your face long, realizing that you didn’t know what your thoughts on the matter were.

“Well…” you started, not wanting to lose his attention now that you finally had it. You think back to this morning, to the piece of graffiti you saw, the way it made you feel. There was no way it couldn’t be considered art. You notice Jungkook watching you with curious eyes. “Yes, I think it can, in some cases… but I also don’t really like it. I think the majority of the time it’s just vandalism. Public property should be protected.” Jungkook snorts, and you cross your arms, “Let’s hear your opinion then.” You didn’t like getting laughed at, feeling blood rush to your cheeks.

“Me?” he asks, pointing to himself with his long index finger, “I think it’s a good way to get your name out there.”

You nod, thinking you understand what he means. If you put your art in such a public space, more people were bound to see it; however, you didn’t see how it got your name out there. Graffiti is illegal, and if your name got out there, you’d be arrested. You don’t say this out loud, not wanting to have a debate at this very moment. You were just glad he was contributing. “So I guess you’re for and I’m against?” you question, ready to write down your positions, but a ball of crumbled paper hits Jungkook in the back of his head, stealing him away from you.

Sighing, you shoot a pleading glance to Taehyung, the one who threw the paper, but his only response is a wink. You look away quickly, face heating up and irritation building up. Looks like you’re back to being alone on this. You manage to plot a few points against the idea of graffiti being art— as well as some points for it since you doubt Jungkook would add much to the conversation— and when the bell rang, you almost wanted to jump for joy.

The rest of your school day went by fairly smoothly, besides third-hour when the teacher requested that you introduce yourself to your class. Other than the fact that you moved here because of your mother’s promotion, you didn’t have much to say. You sat alone at lunch, glancing towards the three boys’ table every now and again; you told yourself it was because you were still mad at them. Your seventh-hour teacher had been much more forgiving when you showed up a minute late; unfortunately, the rest of the hour had been ruined when you noticed Taehyung was in the same class as you. That thankfully didn’t stop time from flying though, and before you knew it, the final bell was ringing.

As you walked down the steps of the school, more than ready to go home, you heard loud, obnoxious music coming from the parking lot. The source of the music was the large, black truck from this morning, and Taehyung and Jimin were hopping in the back of it. You should have known they had something to do with it. They were “bad” boys; you knew their type; every school had them. Trying not to make it obvious, you shift to look through the driverside window, curious about the person driving them around. He was an older boy— not by much, maybe a college student— his hair dyed a vibrant blue. What was it with these boys and their hair? You had observed them for too long; however, Taehyung yelling something to his friend in the driver seat, something you didn’t catch, but it made him grimace, visibly annoyed. He turned to look out the window, only to catch you swiftly looking away, nearly tripping over your own feet in an attempt to look like you were innocently walking.

You didn’t make it very far, a familiar voice calling out for you and a hand landing on your shoulder. Spinning around, you find yourself faced with your new friend, Jeon Jungkook, an impish smile finding it’s way onto his lips as he felt you tense under his touch.

“Did I scare you?” he asked, dropping his hand to his side, “Sorry. I was wondering if I could walk you home.”

You squeeze the strap of your backpack, biting the inside of your cheek. “Oh… no, it’s fine, don’t worry about it.” His dark hair was parted in a way that revealed only a small fraction of his forehead, drawing more attention to his deep eyes. Unable to look into them, you settle for the bridge of his nose. He was handsome, you could admit that, but it made you nervous.

“It looks like we’re going the same way,” he persisted, “I’ll walk with you until one of us has to go the other way.”

You nodded, not able to think of a valid reason to turn him down, especially if you both did end up walking the same way. That would be awkward. He grinned, striding over to your side, and you both began walking, neither of you speaking.

“I like your shoes,” he spoke suddenly, breaking the silence and glancing over at you. You look up to meet his gaze, only for both of you to burst out into loud giggles.

“Thanks, I like your booksack,” you return an equally as lame compliment. His eyes crinkle as he smiles, patting the strap of his bookbag proudly.

“So, you moved here because of your mother’s job, right?” Jungkook inquired, the tension between you seemingly melting. When he sees you looking at him with a raised brow, he quickly adds, “You’re kind of the talk of the school. We usually have news of dropouts, it’s rare that we get new students in the middle of the year.”

“Oh… well, yeah, my mother got a promotion, but it required her to move, so we’re renting a house close enough to the school for me to walk. We moved in officially yesterday,” you explained, twirling the string of your backpack straps between your fingers. You’re not sure why you were disclosing this to Jungkook, but he did ask, and you didn’t see any harm in telling him.

“Really? I’m surprised you’re not taking the rest of the week off to unpack,” he stated, swinging his arms back-and-forth, stopping when he turned to ask, “Your house in the south side then. What do you think about the neighborhood so far?”

You hadn’t seen that much of your new neighboorhood, so you couldn’t really say much, but what you had seen worried you. “It’s… well…”

“Full of graffiti? Trashy?” Jungkook offered, catching the brief look of distaste that appeared on your face

“No,” you said quickly, “No, I was not going to say that.” Jungkook chuckled as you held your hands up in defense. “It’s just… really different from my old community. I’m still getting used to it.”

He nods, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Was it quiet where you lived?” he asked, “It gets pretty loud around here at night.”

“It was a pretty small town… closest one to the city though. Sometimes you could hear all the commotion coming from the city late at night, but other than that, yeah, it was quiet.” Talking about it made you feel homesick, but it also felt nice, like a weight was being lifted off your chest. You hadn’t really talked about your feelings when it came to moving, not wanting to worry your mother. Jungkook wasn’t all that bad now that you were having an actual conversation with him.

“I wonder what that’s like,” he mumbled, more to himself than you. Jungkook bounces back to his normal self as you make your last turn before your house, asking, “Your house is down here right? I think only one was up for rent last time I checked.”

He checked? He was in high school, why would he be checking into renting a house? How would he even afford it? Perhaps his parents were thinking about moving or one of his college friends. Instead of questioning him on this, you nod, humming, “Where do you live?”

“Not that far,” Jungkook shrugs, gesturing indirectly towards the grouping of houses, “a couple blocks away.” You don’t query him, simply falling back into a more comfortable silence as you continued beside each other.

And then you’re standing in front of your house. You realize that you had just let him walk you home, and instead of saying goodbye when your paths were no longer similar, he had followed you to the door. Should you invite him in? You didn’t exactly want to turn him away, especially when you were enjoying his company, but you didn’t know him well enough to invite him into your house. What would you mother think if you came home with a boy?

As if a higher power existed only to answer to your suffering, the door to your house opened, your mother greeting you both. “(Y/n), you’re home! Oh, and you brought a friend! Come in, come in.” She opens the door wider, stepping out of the way for you and your friend. You send Jungkook an apologetic look, entering your house, and he follows closely behind. There were still boxes everywhere, some opened, but most of them taped shut. “I’m (Y/n)’s mother, and you are?”

“Jungkook. Jeon Jungkook.” Jungkook sticks his hand out for your mother to shake, and she eagerly does so, smiling widely.

“Mom, what are you doing home so early?” you asked. You didn’t see her car in the driveway… which meant that she parked in the back. Nice observational thinking, (Y/n).

“Today was just training; they sent me home around 1:30,” she replied, her eyes and nose crinkling as she grinned. “I’ve been unpacking. (Y/n), why don’t you go get your friend something to drink?”

“Oh, it’s fi—”

“I insist,” your mother cut him off before he can protest, “(Y/n)?”

You pursed your lips, dragging your feet to the fridge and opening it. There wasn’t much in there, your mother only picking up enough to keep you both fed until the weekend, when she would go shopping for more. “Is Sprite okay?” you asked, shooting a look over your shoulder to Jungkook. He nods, and you grab the can, bringing it to him.

“Something smells good.” Jungkook comments, exaggerating his sniffs and humming, opening his can of soda and taking a sip.

Your mother raises her eyebrows at you before turning to Jungkook. “I started cooking when I got home. Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“I’d love to,” Jungkook starts, biting his bottom lip as he scratched the back of his neck, “but I have things to do this afternoon. I just wanted to make sure (Y/n) got home safely.” He brings his hand up to pat your shoulder gently.

“Oh, of course. Some other time!” Your mother chirped, “Thank you for walking her home. I was worried this morning. Let me tell you, the girl has no sense of dir—”

“Mom, please,” you interject, your voice slightly whining, “Jungkook doesn’t want to hear my compass misfortunes.” Especially when he’s witnessed it first hand, you thought.

“Speak for your directionally challenged self. How many times have you lost her in the store?” Jungkook asked your mother, a smirk on his face as he leaned one shoulder against the wall. Your mother laughed, and you could practically see her recalling every single time you had ever strayed off track in your entire life.

“Weren’t you leaving?” you questioned, crossing your arms, the corners of your lip turned upwards in spite of your evergrowing embarrassment. Your mother gasped, whirling around no doubt to reprimand you for your rudeness, but before she can, Jungkook snickers, covering his mouth to muffle the sound.

“Touchy subject?” he joked, reaching out to poke your shoulder; you pull it back out of his reach, trying to keep a straight face. He raises his eyebrows, drawing his arm back, “You’re kind of mean actually. I’m glad I have to leave.”

“That makes two of us. The door’s over here, same one you came through.” You moved to the door, opening it, and pointing out. Jungkook’s white teeth shone brightly as he smiled, following your playful instructions to leave. Being that handsome should be illegal.

“I see how it is. It was nice meeting you, Ms. (L/n),” he says, waving to your mother before walking through the doorway, “I’ll see you tomorrow, (Y/n).” He winked, leaving you feeling almost lightheaded.

“Y-yeah.” Losing your newfound courage faster than you could say that single word, you are left to nod. You catch Jungkook’s smirk as you close the door, not ready to face your mother. But you know you have to or else you’ll only be confirming her untrue suspicions.

“So, who was that?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at you as she makes her way back to the box she had been unpacking before you came home.

“He’s in my first hour. We’re doing a project together,” you responded casually, adding a shrug in for good measure. Actually, I’m doing the project by myself while he talks to his dumb friends, you thought to yourself. Somehow you had managed to forget all about that while you were talking to him. He was just as bad as his friends, you reminded yourself. Well… Park hadn’t done anything to you himself, and you couldn’t really compare Jungkook’s slacking off to Taehyung’s deceptive “prank”, but he was the second worst. “I’ll have to work on it some more tonight after dinner.”

“He’s cute.” Your mother stated, completely ignoring your comment about your project.

“What?!”

Your mother nudges you with her elbow, a playful smile on her face. “Why don’t you get a snack and then help your poor mother unpack, huh?” She changes the subject when she feels that you’ve been teased enough.

Not about to argue when your mother gives you a break from her torment, you find a caramel apple snack in the refrigerator. It doesn’t take you long to eat it, feeling as if lunch had taken place days ago rather than hours. As you help your mother unpack, she asks you about your day. You leave out the incident with Taehyung; knowing your mother, she would either call the school as if you were a second grader being bullied, or she would insist you confront him and demand an apology— two things that you could fully live without. Did you want an apology? Maybe, but you could go about the rest of your life happily if you never interacted with the silver-haired boy again. Maybe you were overreacting to what he saw as a harmless prank, but you didn’t see it that way.

You tell your mother that you were tardy for two of your classes, but your teachers let you off easy because it was your first day. Overall it was a good day; you go on to talk about the minute details, such as your P.E. teacher getting hit by a rogue basketball, your mother humming along as she listens. When you run out of things, you ask her about her training.

She groans, causing you to giggle, saying that it was the most boring thing she has ever had to sit through. On the bright side, her new boss was a nice man— a little older than her— who made it slightly more bearable by cracking jokes. Tomorrow she would officially be starting her job since she did so well in training. “Duh,” she said, “that’s the reason I got the promotion.” She couldn’t wait, another day of that tedious training would have killed her.

Three hours passed, you and your mother chatting about this-and-that, working through the boxes in your living room. You could practically feel your stamina dropping with each box you tore into. There was the task of moving them around, sorting through them, and finding a place for the objects inside your new house. It was much more tiring than it looked.

“Okay, I think that’s enough for today,” your mother announced finally, letting out a fatigued sigh, “We got a lot done. Good job.”

You nodded, placing your hands on your hips, feeling your back crack as you stretched. The living room looked much better. There were a few boxes left, but they were arranged in a way that they didn’t block any paths, and you were sure they would be out of the way by the end of the week. “When is dinner gonna be ready?” You weren’t terribly hungry at the moment thanks to your afterschool snack, but enough time had passed to make you curious, and it couldn’t hurt to ask.

“Another hour or so,” she replied, making her way to the kitchen to see if she needed to add any water to the pot. Part of you hated that slow-cooker, but the meals your mother prepared were always worth the wait.

“Okay, I think I’m gonna go take an early shower.” You figured it was the most productive way of killing time while you waited for the food to be done. That and you just really liked showering. Alone with your thoughts, warm water pouring onto you. It couldn’t really get better than that.

Your mother doesn’t turn her attention away from the food she was currently seasoning. “Alright, sweetie, just try not to take too long.” She warned weakly, but her words held no weight, both of you knowing that you never take short showers.

It doesn’t take long for you to gather your clothes and start the shower. When the water was at the perfect temperature, you strip out of your clothing, stepping into the tub and letting the warmth envelope you. It was rejuvenating. As if the water was not only washing away the germs you acquired throughout the day but your problems and worries. It was there that you could think clearly and uninterrupted.

As you rubbed the shampoo into your hair, you found your thoughts wandering to this morning, and your meeting those three boys. Why had you tapped on the blond boy’s shoulder and not someone else’s? It certainly would have saved you some embarrassment. Perhaps his bright hair caught your attention. It stood out amongst the crowd. His hair and Taehyung’s.

Taehyung. His name caused a ripple of anger to shoot through your body. Why did he do that to you? You hadn’t done anything to him— you had just met him! It was plain to see that you were already lost and confused. That was why you were asking his friend for directions! You just… couldn’t get the words out at the time. How was simply being in someone’s presence able to reduce you to a babbling idiot? Perhaps that was why he allowed Taehyung to trick you. You interrupted his conversation with your nonsensical prattle.

Jungkook had said that Taehyung was just teasing you, that he didn’t intend for you to end up tardy. You might have been able to put that aside, but something within you kept you incensed. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the fact that you would have to work extra hard now because of him. It wasn’t even the fact that you were well-aware he knew sending you halfway across the school at that time would result in you being tardy. You didn’t know what it was, but something didn’t sit right with you about Taehyung.

Maybe it was because he had been so kind about it, offering you help, telling you to come find him if you needed anything else. Or it was because he made you heart beat a little faster. No, whatever tiny crush your heart had built up in those few minutes you talked to him had been squashed the second that final bell rang. You were sure of that.

Once you rinsed the soap from your body, you took a moment to enjoy the water for just a few more minutes. Turning the handles to the tub, you stepped out of the shower, seeing that the mirror had fogged over as you reached for your towel to dry yourself off. You change into your night clothes and brush your hair; when you’re done, you make your way back to the kitchen, finding your mother slaving over the stove.

“Food’s almost done,” she told you, stirring the chopped vegetables in the pan, “I just gotta work on the side dish.” You observed as she turned a knob on the stove, lowing the head, and then walked over to the slow-cooking, turning it off and unplugging it. “I’ll cook the rice while that cools— shit!” she cursed suddenly, staring into the opened cabinet next to the stove.

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot the rice,” she sighs, smacking her forehead with the palm of her hand. She was silent for a moment, looking from her slow-cooker to her vegetables. “I guess… we can just eat it over some bread.”

“I can walk to the store and get some rice if that’s okay.” you offered. The last thing you wanted with your chicken, red beans, and vegetables was bread, and you knew your mother probably felt the same way. You couldn’t substitute rice with bread; that would be the biggest scam you would have to face today.

Your mother stared at you as if you’d just proposed to jump into a pool full of sharks. “No. Absolutely not. It’s dark out, and you’re in your PJs.” She shook her head, “Not happening.”

“I can change,” you countered, leaning on the counter with your elbow. “We need rice, and we both know you can’t leave me here to cook. I’ll keep my phone on me, so if anything happenes, I’ll call the police. It’s only a five-minute walk. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Your mother nibbles at her bottom lip, looking off to the side. She was definitely thinking about all the bad things that could happen. After what felt like an eternity, she lets out a sigh. “Okay… dry your hair too, it’s not good to go outside with wet hair.” That was surprising. You were sure she would shoot you down again, but she was allowing you to leave the house past six?

You decided to deal with your hair first, returning to the bathroom to blow dry it. Once you determine that it’s dry enough, you brush it back down, not wanting to go out in public with a bird’s nest on your head. In your room, you slide out of your pajama pants and replace them with a random pair of jeans. You keep your nightshirt on (a simple, old t-shirt) because it would be easier for you to change back once you got home. You were going to a convenience store to pick up some rice; you weren’t trying to impress anyone.

You returned to the kitchen, awaiting your mother’s approval to leave the house. She inspects you closely before nodding. “Phone?” You held your phone up, and she smiled, handing you a twenty dollar bill. “I want you back home in twenty minutes, okay? If anything holds you up, call me.”

You nod, telling her that you would as you walked out the house; once the door was safely shut behind you, you let out a deep sigh. She could be so overprotective, so… overbearing. You were grateful to have a mother that cared about you so much, but sometimes it was just too much. Most kids your age were allowed out past midnight, probably partying; you knew that’s what your friend Lisa did most Friday nights, but your mother was freaking out about you walking five minutes away around eight o'clock on a weeknight.

It was quiet… almost eerily so. You recall Jungkook’s words from earlier— the city supposedly gets pretty loud at night. It was dark, save for the dim streetlights, but it was still early. What about last night? You thought had heard something; yelling… but that was a dream. It sounded real, but even so, you would have been half-asleep, and your mother hadn’t heard a thing.

Suddenly you feel exposed, picking up your pace as you took calm, steady breaths, trying to remind yourself that you were all right. You could see the store’s sign blinking in the distance, reading in bold letters OPEN. It was right there; you were fine. Panicking over nothing would only cause more problems.

“Good evening,” the cashier greeted you as you walked through the door, a little ding sounding off.

“Good evening,” you returned with a smile. “Do you guys have rice here?” You would feel stupid if they didn’t, especially after you walked all the way here.

“Yeah, last aisle by the drinks,” he instructed, motioning over to the coolers. You thank the boy, who was no doubt only a few years older than you, before heading down to the aisle he pointed you in. It takes you only a few seconds of surveying the shelves to find what you were looking for. At least you could trust his directions. You pick up two medium packs of rice, bringing them to the counter for the boy to scan.

“Last minute dinner shopping?” he questioned scanning and bagging your two groceries.

“Something like that.” You glance down at his name tag, reading that his name was Minhyun.

“That’ll be $14.86.” You hand him the twenty dollar bill in exchange for the bag of rice, waiting for him to give you your change so you could go home. He places a five dollar bill and your fourteen cents in your outstretched hand. “Thank you for shopping,” Minhyun smiled at you warmly. “Have a good night, and be careful on your way home.”

“Thanks, you too!” you responded benignly, walking back into the empty streets, the bell almost making you jump. Part of you wished you could just stay in the store.

Don’t be silly, you told yourself, you got here without anything happening, just walk back, you’re freaking out over nothing. You take a deep breath, but it does nothing to ease your anxiety. It was as if chest transformed into a dozen bricks. You couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Maybe your mother was right, and you shouldn’t be wandering around alone this time at night. You wished it wasn’t so quiet.

Staring blankly at your phone as you continued on your way, you simply scrolled through your apps, attempting to distract yourself from the ominous environment. You weren’t ignoring your surroundings, quite the opposite. You were hyper-aware of every shadow you saw in the corner of your eye and every little sound you heard, so when you began to hear voices, you froze in your spot.

You could make out at least four different voices, all of them speaking over each other. You couldn’t see any of them; however, and based on the direction their voices were coming from, you concluded that they were around the corner. The same corner you needed to round to get home. Clutching your phone tightly in your hands, you crept closer to the end of the wall. You couldn’t decipher anything the men were saying. One of them suddenly raised their voice, causing you to jump and press yourself into the cold bricks.

Were they fighting? What should you do? You peek your head out, wanting to get a better picture of what was going on. There were eight people in total. You couldn’t get a good look at any of them, shadows casted over their faces under the muted lamp. They seemed to all be male…

“Back up,” one of the figures warned, lightly pushing someone away by their shoulder.

“Man, don’t fucking touch me!” the boy belted, smacking the other guy’s hand away and shoving him hard, causing him to stumble backward. Chaos ensued, all eight of the figures shouting a moving towards each other. It appeared to be five-on-three.

You retreat behind the corner, your heart hammering against your ribcage. What do you do? What do you do? Your fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and you began searching for another path to your house. Getting out of here was your top priority. All you could see is a dark alleyway, which could lead you to the next road, but it could also result in you becoming terribly lost… or worse. You didn’t even want to think about what could be in there.

Your palms were sweating profusely. The yelling was only getting louder, more violent. THWACK! The noise echoed out above the screaming, and you couldn’t seem to remember how to breathe. You look down at your phone, panic swimming through your veins, booming voices and strikes overtaking the sound of your heart. Should you call the cops?

“Get the fuck off him!”

Your head whipped out from behind the wall at the desperate cry.

Just in time for the gun to go off.

#bts #bts fanfic #gang!au #gang!bts #jungkook #jungkook fanfic #taehyung #taehyung fanfic #jimin #jimin fanfic #bts smut #bts smut fanfic

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wispyrainbow · 6 years

Text

Can You Help Me with These Chocolates?

"Ugh, another day, another few hours being counted down until I can go home," Dylan said, sighing as he got off the bus and headed towards his workplace: Pageview. It was one of those rare days where Dylan was called into work, regardless of him being able to just work at home. Stifling a yawn, Dylan soon made his way, spotting one of his coworker, Alicja, dressed as a mascot(A strange creature with mannerisms and looks identical to a fox decorated in hearts with a large clown-like noise, x eyes and an axe;located in its head) promoting one of their new comics "Everlasting Love... Not really". As soon as Dylan passed by her, Alicja waved. "Hey, Dylan! Another day, another few hours of fun, wouldn't you say?!" "Yea, sure. Personally, I can't wait to leave...," Dylan mumbled to her. "Oh yeah, I know. I can't wait to go home so that I can go to sleep and wake up tomorrow for the Valentines Day Party!!" "Oh yeah, that event... Sounds kinda like fun. I probably won't be there long, but sounds fun." "Uh huh! Oh, and before I forget, I have a birthday gift for you on my desk! Don't open it until tomorrow though! But if you simply can't wait, you can open it today!!" "Oh ok, you didn't have to though." "Nonsense! Anything for a coworker!! Have a wonderful Dylan, and see you at the party tomorrow!!" "Yea, you too," Dylan said, before walking inside, leaving Alicja outside to keep on promoting. Once inside the small building, Dylan passed by several decorations of hearts and kisses on the windows and some more decorated on the small, sitting area, computers, and desks. Dylan couldn't help but admire the few decorations strewn about before locating Alicja's desk and picking up the medium-sized red-wrapped package with a small piece of a folded tag on top. "Hey, Iggy Akiyama!" Dylan groaned a bit as he noticed George, his other coworker(who he couldn't really tolerate with blonde, short hair), walking towards him. He was wearing a red vest with a pale pink tie, a white button-up long-sleeve shirt, a pair of black work pants and dark grey shoes. "Oh... hey George. Nice...outfit?" Dylan said, trying not to sound bored/disgusted by him. "Ah thank you. But, you have no need to tell me though. I KNOW I look good," George said, posing a bit, which caused Dylan to roll his eyes "Yea...sure." "And you have a... nice outfit as well. And by nice, I mean the same outfit you've been wearing since you started working here. Couldn't find anything with red and pink huh?" Dylan looked down at his outfit: a blue and black striped sweater over a black tie and white buttoned shirt, with black loose, ripped jeans and blue and white sneakers. He looked back up at George and gave a slight glare. "No... I didn't. But that shouldn't be a problem though...." Dylan said, obviously trying hard not to get annoyed at his co-workers' dumb comments. "Eh sure, I guess its not a problem for you. But, that's not what I came over to talk to you about." "Than what are you here to talk to me about?" "Mr. Agnew wanted me to tell you that he wants to speak to you about something important." "What's so important that he just couldn't come out to tell me?" "I don't know. But he says to just come anyway." "Ugh, fine." Dylan soon passed George and made his way towards where his boss was, a small door with a cheaply made sign that said: "Boss Agnew: Come in of your Admission... Or If You Still Want To Come In, That's Fine Too ". Dylan soon grabbed the doorknob and opened it up... Only to be met with some resistance from the other side. "What the... Agnew? Hey Agnew!" "Huh? Dylan is that you?! Uh, hold on a minute!! I just got to move some boxes!!" Dylan paused, hearing the noises of boxes being placed in different parts before the door finally opened all the way, causing Dylan to fall forward and down on the floor. "Oh shit Dylan! You ok?" "Y-yea just tripped a bi..." Dylan started saying before trailing off as he took in the sight of his boss's office. Now, even though Agnew's office had always been a less than pleasant clean, it seemed to be way more cluttered than before. There were about 40 heart-shaped boxes strewn about on the desk, floor and some of the shelves. Each of them was decorated with several different colored bows, and several tags attached to them. His boss was on one knee looking at Dylan with one hand extended, looking quite disheveled. Agnew's hair was a greying mess, hair not in its usual ponytail and hanging off his sides and back. His outfit was even more messy than usual, his red Hawaiian shirt half-tucked in and unbuttoned at the top while his pants were more dirty and raggedy, and the only thing that didn't seem off on him was his sandals. "Uh, Agnew... What's with all the boxes?" Dylan asked, taking Agnew's hand in order to be lifted back onto his feet as he kept looking around, all the while Agnew rubbed the back of his head with one hand as he looked sheepishly at Dylan. "Heh, o-oh yeah... Wellllllll, they're all from... my wife. You remember, Florence? She came here a couple of times?" "Oh, yea. I remember her. Wasn't she the one who brought in that giant, 3-foot cake celebrating the anniversary of you starting Pageview?" "Yea, such a beautiful cake," Agnew said, a loving smile on his face as he remembered his wife's proud look as she bought it in, before snapping back to reality to share the same sheepish discomfort from before. "Y-yep, the same. She's a baker, part of one of the small chain of bakeries scattered around NewDugWood and for Valentines Day, she decided that she wanted to give me more than just a card. So she decided to spice up by making me different-shaped/colored chocolates with different fillings." "Wait, that's what's in all these boxes?!" "Yea... Florence can get a little crazy when she starts baking, but she definitely means well. However, that's where the problem lies." "Problem? What problem?" "Well, you see... I have the suspicion that Florence may have filled up some of the chocolates with nougat. And if you don't know, my digestion system and nougat... Are not friends. Even the taste of it is enough to cause my taste buds to recoil. And since I don't know which box contains the confectionaries in question, and taste testing them is not an option, I'm afraid my wife's treats might have to be forced to melt in order to understand which is which." "Ah, I see... Well, if that's the case, why do you need me exactly?" Dylan asked, to which Agnew looked at Dylan with a bit of a sparkle in his eyes as he clasped his hand on Dylan's shoulders and looked at him with a smile. "Well, that is where you come in! You see Dylan, I need you to taste the chocolates in each of the boxes and tell me if any of them contains nougat!" "Oh... wait, what?! You want me to taste all the chocolates in all of these boxes?!" "Not all the boxes, just until you get to one that doesn't contain nougat! This will make it easier for me cause than that will mean I won't have to watch Florence's beautiful creations melt and I won't have to tell her I wasn't able to eat any of them, risking to see her disappointed reaction!" "Ok, that's good for you... But not for me! What's the point of eating all these anyway? Wouldn't it be easier to just save these until later on in life?" "Noooo, that is not an option here! That's essentially deeming these sweets as just leftovers, and no one wants to eat the leftovers that someone else had!" "...That makes no sense Agnew..." Dylan said, to which Agnew soon took Dylan's hands into his own and started pleading with him down on the ground on his knees. "Please, Dylan! If you help me with this, I promise I'll give you the rest of the day off!" "I-I don't know..." Dylan said, despite the promise of being able to go home seemly a wish come true. Agnew didn't say anything but simply looked with eyes glistening(looking like he'll cry) and small whimpers seemly emanating from his mouth. Dylan tried looking away but ultimately failed as his shoulders slacked and he sighed. "... 2 days..." "Huh?" "Two days off from work. You agree to that, and I'll help you with your chocolate situation." "Uh, s-sure! Ok!" Agnew said, a bright smile on his face as he got up, grabbed a box of chocolates and gave it to Dylan as if to say "Start!" Dylan gulped and opened the box up. Each of the chocolates was shaped differently, with the top row square shaped, the middle row heart-shaped, and the bottom row in oval shaped with lines of white and dark chocolate decorated on top. Dylan couldn't help but admire the carefulness and decoration that was put on, that he almost felt bad about eating it. Almost, as he picked up a piece and placed it in his mouth. His teeth soon bit on to the shell as he chewed before swallowing, noting the taste of something that was a mix of honey and sugar which Dylan recognized as... "Taste like nougat." "Ah ok... So then that means that box might have fillings of nougat in each piece, so... Can you please eat the rest of them?" Dylan rolled his eyes but complied, eating and swallowed the rest of the pieces before placing the box down. Just as quickly as he was done finishing the box, another was plopped in his hands. Dylan opened it up and admire the now just milk chocolate triangle-shaped chocolates with different messages of "I Love You", "Be My Valentine", and other cheesy, loving messages, before picking up a piece and chewed. The first piece was a little hard to tell, so Dylan popped in a couple more, which raised Agnew's hopes up that maybe this box contained non-nougat, until... "Hmmm... this one also has nougat in it," Dylan said, mouth still chewing the pieces. "Damn! Alright, you can finish the pieces..." Agnew said, disappointed. Dylan complied and went ahead, finishing the box just a bit faster before the next one was popped into his hands. The process continued with at least 4 more boxes, with the 5th one... "Oh hey, I think this one has cherry filling in it..." "Really?! Ah yes!!" Agnew said as Dylan handed him the box as he chewed on the first piece before swallowing, a small burp erupting from his mouth as a feeling of fullness started in his stomach. Unfortunately, he was far from done as Agnew soon gave him another box. "Ah, Agnew... I don't think I can eat another box, I'm already kinda full..." "Noooo! Please don't stop now Dylan! Just try a few more boxes for me please!!!" "Ummm..." "Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee?" "...'Sigh' Ok." Agnew let out a bit of a squeal before giving him another box, the process picking up again. At least 10 of the boxes contained nougat, while about 5 more contained other fillings like hot fudge, blueberry(which Dylan took two pieces from them to chew, much to Agnew's dismay), marshmallow(another two pieces eaten by Dylan), etc. During that time, about 20 boxes were inspected, and during that time Dylan was starting to go from being full to slight discomfort. His stomach was now started to try and make some form of room for the pieces, and in the end, was starting to push out more from underneath his shirt. Soon Box number 21 was finished(another nougat) and Dylan was trying hard not to let loose any more prolonged burps and ignoring his pants now starting to cut into his expanding flesh. Box 22 was placed in his hands and Dylan had to stifle a groan. "Huh? Is something wrong Dylan?" Agnew asked, a bit of concern on his face. "Ugghh... Its n-nothing Agnew... 'Burp!'" "You sure?" Dylan just nodded as he opened the box and picked up a piece, sighing as that one was proven to be nougat too. His stomach gurgled and groaned as more pieces were digested and it started pushing out again, raising the hem of his sweater up to where slivers of his white buttoned up shirt could be seen. "Ah, that was all nougat huh?" "Yep...'BRAP!' Excuse me..." Dylan felt sick. His stomach felt heavy, the button cutting into it as Dylan's hand tried unconsciously to rub it in order to make it better. It was at this point that another box was given to him and Dylan took slowly. While that box proved different flavors(one was raspberry cream), the next few were, as expected nougat. Dylan could feel his stomach painfully stretch out, the buttons now starting to strain against. By the time, the number had dwindled down to a reasonable amount, Dylan was now starting to consider unbuttoning his pants button in front of his boss, but decided not to. Soon there were only 5 boxes left. Dylan groaned, one box already in his hands as he opened it up slowly and chewed. Nougat, Nougat, Nougat, Buttercream. And all the while Dylan's stomach was at this point begging him to stop as his sweater now sat on top of his shirt. "Ok, Dylan... Just one more box, than you can go home for at least two days," Agnew said, worried about what might happen to Dylan, considering he was starting to look sick. Dylan didn't say anything but took the box, and opened it, not caring about what they look like, just that he wanted to finish. He picked up a piece and plopped it in his mouth, chewing slowly before swallowing. It took a while before he finally said... "This one is... Pistachio..." "Pis-PISTACHIO?! Oh, I LOVE pistachio!!! Alright, great job Dylan," Agnew said as he gave Dylan a nice pat on the back, all the while Dylan was busy burping and holding his stomach tightly, feeling sluggish and like a rock. Though Agnew, if he could, hardly noticed. "Alright, Dylan! Thanks for your help!" "N-No problem..." Dylan burped out before finally walking away, closing the door behind him as he leaned back against and rubbed his stomach, moaning as more burps erupted from his mouth. Examining his gut, it was struggling against the buttons on both his white shirt and the button/belt of his pants. He held his stomach close and prayed that he would get home before his stomach would immediately pop off the buttons in question. "Iggy Akiyama! What did the boss want you to do," George called out, oblivious to Dylan's discomfort. "Uggh..'BURP!' Nothing... L-listen, I'm going home right now... And don't even bother asking why cause I'm just going..." Dylan said quickly before rushing towards the door before George could say anything else, hoping to take the bus as a quicker way home in order to relax and hopefully sleep off the pieces before vomiting. At the least, he wouldn't have to worry for two more days of work to come, though it was going to be anything but relaxing. "Uggh... Note of advice, never do anything for your bo- 'BURRRP' boss... Ever again..." Dylan said to himself, hoping that in the future this would stick... But probably not...

#a short story #slight weight gain #pretty shitty story #male oc #wish I wrote this a lot better #eh #maybe next year #also I got Dylan's last name wrong all this time #changed it

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splattershotsundae · 8 years

Text

Better Eight Than Never --- Chapter 20: Pipe Dream

Jill tapped her foot impatiently as she leaned against the rim of a small fountain outside Arowana mall. They’d been waiting for almost 20 minutes, and she was beginning to worry that they’d missed her when Stacey walked out through the double doors and into the sunlight, her team right behind her.

”There she is!” Jill said, then frantically waved. “Stacey! Stacey!”

Stacey seemed taken aback, quickly turning to her squad. “Hey, I gotta deal with this, we can chill tomorrow, alright?”

“Yeah, of course!” The Aerospray RG known as Agatha said, punching Stacey in her arm. “See you tomorrow when we win the tournament!”

“Byyyyeee!” Bobby chimed, skipping as he headed off to the train station.

Finally Tyson whispered in Stacey’s ear before following the others, casting an uneasy glance back.

“Okay, what’s up?” Stacey asked, stepping forward to meet the Sundaes, setting her splatling down at her feet. “Something tells me this isn’t just a chance encounter. Where is she?”

“She’s in here.” Bato said, pulling the backpack off of his shoulder. “She’s developed a fever, she couldn’t run this morning.”

Stacey peered into the bag. “Run?”

“Yeeeeah.” Jill nodded, flashing a sheepish smile. “Have you gotten any messages from 1&2 today? Stuff’s gone… wrong.”

Stacey glanced around. “We can’t talk about this here!” She hissed. “I live nearby, come on.” She scooped up her splatling, then started down the street, nodding her head a little as she walked.

Jill gave Simon a bit of an awkward smile, then followed after her, trying to seem cheerful, all the while feeling dread gnawing at the pit of her stomach. She popped an extra root beer barrel she’d looted from Bato into her mouth, letting the flavor reassure her.

“Well, here we are.”

Stacey’s apartment complex stood before them… and it wasn’t what you’d consider ‘good’ either. A few buildings that looked almost like four-story motels stood before them, ramshackle and worn. One of the doors on the third floor was covered with a tarp and caution tape.

“… It looks lovely!” Jill said, biting her lip at her obvious lie.

“Thanks-” Stacey said. “-but you can be honest you know.”

“You really live here?” Simon muttered. “You’re so renowned.”

“We manage.” Stacey said, leading up the stairs to the second floor, and hefting her splatling with one arm to open the door to her apartment. “Make yourselves at home while I get my gear on.” She said, beckoning the others to come in. “My dad’s not going to be home for a few more hours.”

Jill strode in and took off her boots, taking note of a kitchen immediately on the right, and a living room straight ahead. There was an old sofa that had seen better days, as well as an armchair off to the side, a coffee table in front of them that was covered in newpapers and dirty dishes. A potted plant stood in a corner by the window, near doodles and art from years past that were taped to the wall. A few framed pictures rested on the entertainment center, around a rather nice LED TV. There were two doors to the left, and one door to the right, which Stacey entered. She guessed that was probably her room.

A moment later Stacey came back in, zipping up her agent vest. “Can you close the curtains?” She asked.

Simon nodded and complied, plunging the room into mostly darkness.

“Now… I don’t want… ‘Hachi’ listening to us, so she can use my C-pod.” She said, holding it up along with her headphones.

Bato nodded and set the backpack down, letting Hachi out. She took the headphones gingerly and slipped them on, but once she started listening her tentacles began to coil around the earpieces and she began to relax.

“Alright.” Stacey nodded. “Now we can talk.”

Jill nodded and took a deep breath. "Ok, well, I sort of visited the plaza this morning, because we were supposed to go greet with the sisters, but there was a delay. So instead, I talked to Toda, and we agreed we'd meet up at Humu mall and have some fun. But when I got on the train this suspicious guy fallowed me, and I quickly realized he was an octo guy.--”

“What sort of octo guy?” Stacey interrupted.

“Well he… had lots of scars, was tall, buff, tentacles tied back with plants and had a mask that had lots of little lines like this?” Jill said, holding her finger horizontally and tapping four times down her face.

“Shit.” Stacey cursed. “Orion… Okay, what else?”

“Well… I texted Toda, asking for him to come and help, and he called me and I tried to give as casual of info as possible, but he caught on and when I was going to try to leave the train he grabbed my arm and made me hang up. We rode for one more stop and got off, and I got a small chance to text Toda and tell him I was ok, and he said he'd come look for me, and the Octo took me to this creepy old abandoned store and shot me in the arm with the same sort of thing Marie was shot with and used my phone to text the others and-" She had to gasp for air at the rate she was talking, feeling a little light-headed. "-He started to hold me hostage in exchange for Hachi when Toda burst in and tried to save me but ended up getting captured instead, and the octo, Orion, had Hachi's mask and he said to give it to her so she could send this official not-dead thing and-"

"Wait, you didn't let her do that, did you?" Stacey asked. "Please tell me you didn't even let her know you had it..."

Jill’s ears pulled back. “Whoops...”

Stacey began to rub the bridge of her nose.

Bato cast a brief irritated glance at Hachi, who was now sitting on the couch. “We were told that she couldn't tell them anything by just sending that one form... and I needed to use the mask to try and get the bullet out of Jill's arm without it blowing up, and I couldn't do that without her giving me access to it."

“But she lied.” Simon added.

Stacey groaned. “They have a tracking feature in those masks, they know where she sent that message from, they could have followed you here!”

Bato ran a hand over his tentacles, grimacing himself. "... That's not the only issue." He said. "When she sent the form, she also told them the sisters' identities... and that the four of us have met Yuri, which is apparently pretty important to them."

“You guys really have my work cut out for me, don’t you?” Stacey asked, slumping into the armchair, looking exhausted already… Jill realized that this made a lot of sense, she’d been fighting all day already, and now she was beginning to feel a bit guilty for bugging her… but they hadn’t exactly had a choice. "They had to have raided the warehouse. 1&2 could have gone to check if an alarm had been set off, who knows where they are now...” Stacey continued, trying not to look distraught as she pulled out her squid-shaped communicator and sent out a message.

Jill swallowed. “Do you think they’re okay?”

“No idea...” Stacey said. “But continue.”

“… So they took Toda away… and they want us to go to the old factory tomorrow to trade Hachi for him...” Jill said.

“But that's not soon enough." Simon said. "Toda got some messages out, they're hurting him.’It’s bad’, is how he put it."

Bato nodded solemnly. "He managed to tell us where they're keeping him, or at least a vague description; Hachi says that she knows where it is, and how to get in... and so we're planning on going to get him. That's the other reason why we came to find you, we need your help."

“And you really actually trust her with that?” Stacey asked.

“No” “Not at all” “Not in the slightest” The sundaes all said at about the same time.

"They have safe houses all over the city." Stacey said. "She could be luring us into a trap. No, she's definitely luring us into a trap."

“Oh!” Jill said. “Simon was thinking about ways to bind her, maybe--”

“It’s not going to be enough.” Stacey interjected. “Octolings are escape artists by nature, their tentacles can fit into much smaller spaces than you’d think they could. Remember when she unlocked the handcuffs?”

Simon huffed. “Yes.”

Bato sighed and folded his arms. "You're right, there is most likely a trap, but we don't really have a choice; there's very little chance that they would really let Toda go tomorrow, especially now that they know about our involvement with Yuri. If we don't try to find him..."

"It's very unsettling, knowing what they're probably looking into..." Stacey said slowly.

"You're telling me." Simon muttered.

"But you're right, they're not going to let him go.” Stacey admitted. “And we risk them finding out something new every minute he's there. I'm not saying he'd spill, but there are other things they'd want... It may not be a question of getting him back tomorrow, as much as him living through today." She looked down at her phone was she got a message on her communicator. “… They got Callie.”

Jill gasped, hand flying up to her mouth. “Oh no…”

“Captured right? Not dead?” Simon asked hurriedly.

“Captured.” Stacey nodded. “Marie’s going after her…” She took a deep breath, then stood up. “Okay, we should get going, the sooner I help you, the sooner I can help find her. This is Marie’s number...” She said, writing it down on a post-it note and then handing it to Jill. “Text her if something happens.” “Wait, give me your number too!” Jill said. “In case something happens later!”

Stacey nodded and wrote down on a separate post-it. “Simon, can you get the duct tape? It’s in the kitchen.”

Simon nodded. “To tie up her tentacles with?” They asked.

“Yep.” Stacey said, while writing something which appeared to be a note to her father.

Bato held up the decepticon backpack. “Hachi, time to go… Hachi?” He lightly tapped her shoulder when he got no response, causing her to go into a defensive position. “Whoa! It’s okay!” He quickly reassured.

Hachi slowly lowered her hands. “… IS THERE A WAY TO TURN THIS DOWN!?” She shouted.

Jill squeaked, then giggled. That was actually rather cute.

Bato reached over to help her turn the volume down. “Can you get back in the bag?”

“… Fine...” Hachi huffed, transforming and slipping back into the bag.

“Alright, I think we’re ready to go.” Bato said, shouldering the backpack.

Stacey nodded and stepped outside, headed toward the stairs. “Alright, so how many octolings are at this place, do you know?”

"Toda said there were two around there that he knew about, soon to be three; one of them is the one that was at the underpass." Bato said.

“Another elite...” Stacey murmured. “We’re going to have to be very careful.”

"What does that mean?" Jill asked.

“Elites are well… elite. Their tentacles are black and they wear kelp.” Stacey explained. “They’re some of the best in the military. The one from the underpass is Oz. He’s cunning, and loves trying to blow people up.”

“What about the other one? Orion?” Jill asked.

Stacey paused. “He’s merciless on the battlefield, you can’t overpower him. He’s stopped dozens of my operations, and put me near the brink of death on several occasions… I ended up having to take his eye, even then I only barely made it out alive. If he’s there… then our best plan is to get in, grab Toda, and get out… But this last person… they have to be equal or better in skill… this is more than just a squabble over a zapfish.”

“A zapfish?” Simon asked, eyebrow raised.

“It’s a long story.” Stacey said. “A long long story...”

"Two elites, and most likely a third..." Bato frowned. "What is so important about ‘him’, and us having known him, that's so important to them?"

Stacey stopped and turned to look at three of them. “I want you to think about this for a second. What would happen if you replicated this process?”

Jill gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth. “OH.” She said. “No… No nono…”

Simon rested one end of their roller on the ground, hands trembling. “I… I-I can’t stop to think about this, we need Toda, now.”

“Agreed.” Stacey said. “Every second they have Toda the closer they get to being able to do this again. Let’s move.”

The train ride was…. Uneventful. This almost made Jill happy, aside from the fact that it gave her more of a chance to think about what had gone wrong, and how much her arm still hurt. At least she was pretty sure it would heal in a few days… Bato seemed just fine. But she’d kept her hand on her weapon the entire walk over to the hardware store. “Okay… this is the last place I saw him...” She said, ears drooped. “There was a smoke bomb, so I didn’t see exactly where they went...”

“Alright.” Stacey said. “Let out Hachi.”

Bato nodded and set the backpack on the ground before opening up the sides, and a moment afterward Hachi slipped out, changing form and rubbing her eyes tiredly.

“Put my headphones around your neck.” Stacey said, then took out the duct tape. She proceeded to take the front tentacles and bring them around to the back, using the tape to tie them together, from the tips upward, and then finally taped them down to the back of her shirt. She then wrapped the back tentacles under the front ones and repeated the process on the front. “There. That’s the best way I’ve come up with to secure tentacles. Let’s get your wrists for good measure...” She added, finishing up with the taping.

Hachi scowled and attempted to move her tentacles, but really just succeeded in moving her shirt.

“… It works a little better when they’re wearing armor, but what can you do?” Stacey shrugged.

“It’s still not bad.” Bato said, nodding a little.

“I guess you can lead the way now, Hachi.” Jill said, trying her hardest not to feel bad for Her. Of course, she was mad at her too… But this had to be stressful for her.

Hachi gave a little huff, then crossed the street and ducked into an alleyway.

“I almost wish we could tie up her feet too...” Bato said quietly as he began to follow. “She has a pretty mean kick.”

“How mean?” Jill asked, tilting her head slightly at the question.

"Mean enough that she gave me a pretty good bruise when she got me in the chest yesterday." He replied.

"Is that how she distracted you so she could try to get away?" Jill asked.

"No..." Bato replied, looking a little sheepish. "That was after she got out of the building."

"Then how did she do it?" Jill asked, frowning in confusion.

Bato sort of glanced away, his ears starting to change color. "She, um, pretty much just said to look behind me. And I did." He muttered. "I really don't know what I was thinking."

Hachi burst with laughter, leaning against the wall of the alley from the severity of it, and Jill found herself unable to hold back a snort. “Really?” She asked.

The rest of Bato's face was starting to follow his ears' example. "I wish I was." He muttered, looking pretty embarrassed.

"I'm sorry." Jill said, trying to hold back more laughter. "I shouldn't think that's funny."

He shrugged, smiling a little himself, though his face was still flushed. "I suppose that isn't the worst way I could've goofed up."

“Ahem.” Stacey interjected. “We need to keep going.”

“Sorry…!” Jill giggled, then glanced at Hachi, who was struggling to shake off a wave of coughing. “… But shouldn’t we wait for her to catch her breath?”

“The less breath she has, the fewer ideas she’ll be able to come up with.” Simon pointed out, pulling their scarf so far up their face that it covered the bottom of their goggles a little.

“That’s one point.” Stacey said, then walked over to her to help her stand up straight. “Let’s keep moving.”

“Hey Stacey?” Simon asked.

“Call me Agent 3 out here.” She replied.

“Agent 3, what exactly is your plan of attack?” They continued.

"If there's any chance at stealth, take it, if not, we make due." She replied.

“That’s it?” Jill asked, frowning.

“It’s not like I know the layout.” She said. “We’re lucky we have a way to get here at all.”

“Wait, what’s that?” Simon asked, pointing up ahead.

Jill leaned to see, then gave a short gasp as she saw a teal-colored hat laying on the ground. “That’s Toda’s!”

Bato swallowed, then stepped forward, scooping the squidvader cap off the ground. “… He’d never just leave this here...”

“There’s a trail of ink.” Stacey said, following the smears up to a wall. “… He must have tried to escape. On the bright side… we’re here.”

“Are you sure?” Jill asked, frowning. “Toda said something about a winking brick. I don’t see that.”

Stacey turned and looked at the opposite wall. “… This?” She asked, pointing at a brick. “That’s not a winking face. That’s a worn interpretation of the octoling flag. This is the place.”

“Give me my mask.” Hachi said. “Then I’ll open the door.”

“One thing first.” Stacey said, pulling out the duct tape and placing a piece over Hachi’s mouth. “Just so you don’t blow our cover.”

“Mmph!” Hachi protested.

“I’ll help you get it on.” Bato said, slipping Toda’s hat into his pocket in exchange for the mask, and began to help Hachi get it on. It looked awfully tight, now that it had to go over her tentacles, but it still fit regardless.

Jill drew her Splattershot Pro, taking a deep breath as she felt its comforting weight in her hands. But what was she going to do with it? If she attacked the octolings with it… they’d splat and die… she couldn’t do that… What could she do? She’d just get in the way.

She didn’t have much time to make a plan though, as Hachi leaned forward and opened the door. Stacey darted inside, splatling whirring, and she followed her inside.

The room was quiet… it felt a little too quiet, and as the doors slid shut behind them, it got rather dark. This place was too small to be undetected… maybe this was the wrong place?

As a bomb rolled into their midst, she realized that it was instead an ambush. “GET DOWN!” She shrieked, diving to the side to avoid the explosion of purple, her gun skittering out of her grasp. The room became a flurry of movement, Stacey was firing her splatling at a corner, and then a table, Hachi was ripping her duct tape gag off her mouth and screaming, and Simon was grabbed from behind, a glint of a metal blade showing against their neck.

“Simon!” Jill yelped, scrambling to grab her Splattershot Pro.

“Nobody move!” Orion said firmly. “Or else this wimp dies.”

Jill froze, hand on her gun’s grip. It wasn’t fair… It wasn’t fair… She just had to watch as Hachi bit the tape off her wrists and then grabbed Bato’s brush from him, and as Oswald came out from under the table and put a gun to Stacey’s head.

“All of you drop your weapons and show your hands.” Orion said.

Jill hesitated, then let go of her gun and stood up, fingers trembling as she put up her hands. Simon’s roller fell to the ground, and Stacey set down her heavy splatling gingerly.

“This is your fault isn’t it?” Bato hissed angrily to Hachi. “You told them we were outside.”

“What did you expect?” Hachi asked. She had a point.

“’Ey, siren.” Oz said, raising a containment tank. “Best be gettin’ in ‘ere, eh?”

Stacey gave a sigh before squidding and letting herself be contained in the tiny tank.

Everything had went so wrong so quickly… Jill glanced at the table next to her as if it would hold an answer to this predicament. There was a metal pipe… She’d just need an opening… Which Simon would then provide. They headbutted Orion in the chin, then grabbed the knife from him and started keeping him at arms length.

“Go Simon!” Jill shouted, then grabbed the pipe and some random object off of the table, shoving the latter at Bato. “Take this!” She said, charging at Oswald. “These are wire cutters!” Bato yelped.

Jill felt a twinge of guilt, but had no choice but to keep going, yelping as Oz pulled out a strange splattershot and began to fire at her. She squidded and jumped under the table, only just avoiding sticking in Stacey’s ink. She waited a split second before bouncing out and swinging the pipe at Oswald. “FOR TODA!”

“Woah!” Oz said, stepping to the side and grabbing Jill’s tentacle. “Heh, gotcha girlie!”

Jill squeaked, then swung the pipe at Oz’s knee, then turned and bashed him in the head, knocking him to the ground. She snatched the gun from him and tossed the pipe to the side, letting the gun’s tank fill with her ink before pointing it at Oz. “Gotcha, boyo.” She huffed, trying to keep her voice from shaking. That had been intense… She looked up and cringed when she saw that Orion had pinned Simon to the ground and had them in a similar position to Oswald, a gun pointed at their head and a foot on their chest. She and Orion made eye contact, then quickly glanced at Bato, who had somehow managed to get Hachi at brushpoint.

“Ha!” Jill exclaimed triumphantly. “It’s 2-1, let go of my sibling!”

“Not quite, Missy…” Oz grunted, putting his finger on a button on the top of the containment tank that held Stacey. “Tha tank’ll flood wit ink if I press this button. Ya don’t want tha, do ya?”

“… O-Okay, 2-2...” Jill squeaked.

“We’ll just have to compromise.” Orion huffed. “You let go of Ozzy, then I’ll let go of this brat-” He dug his heel into Simon’s chest. “-as well. We’ll each keep one prisoner.”

Hachi squeaked, her jaw quivering.

Jill glanced at Simon, then at Bato, finally she looked down at Stacey. Was she… going to have to leave her to be taken underground? If it meant saving Simon...

Stacey’s gaze was firm, and determined, she gave as big of a nod as she could manage.

Jill felt a surge of guilt. “I-I’m sorry.” She whispered, then lowered the gun and stepped away from Oswald.

Orion kept true to his word, and let Simon up, but kept his gun trained on them as he began to limp back toward the door.

Oswald hopped to his feet, flashing a bit of a grin, and began to back toward the door, but his expression seemed… forced. In fact as he stepped through the door his expression changed to a frown. “… Wai, wha ‘bout--”

The doors slammed shut.

Toda and Bato are Knitter’s characters

Simon, Jill, Hachi, Orion, Oz and Stacey are Shuckle’s characters

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo

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[<PREV] [INDEX] [NEXT>]

#Better Eight Than Never #Splatoon #SS Simon #SS Jill #SS Toda #SS Bato #BS Stacey #Octo Hachi #Octo Oswald #Octo Orion

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