#Thena does not like being interrupted

[softquietsteadylove]

A spicy request for Receptionist AU, where Thena gets back at Gil after what he put her through in the last fic 🙈🙈

"Naekkeo," Gil murmurs as he peeks down his nose to button his dress shirt. "I'm gonna be ready in maybe ten minutes--do you want a ride to work?"

"That's okay, love, I'm not quite ready yet, you go ahead without me."

"Well, I-" Gil doesn't get to finish that thought, his jaw hanging open as Thena comes back into the bedroom from the bathroom. His eyes follow her as she walks over to the closet, taking her time looking at her half of it with her hands on her hips. Gil clears his throat, "uh, sweetie?"

"Hm?" she peeks at him over her shoulder.

Gil loses track of which button he's buttoning. He's actually got a very important meeting this morning with some representatives from a bank back home. He's been working to get an office set up here in London so Thena can be home more.

"Gil?" Thena smiles at him, and the devil woman knows exactly what she's doing when she turns to face him. Her smirk says it all as she saunters over to him and reaches to resume his buttoning. "Remember you have a meeting with the branch manager for Jasmine National."

Gilgamesh is too busy soaking in his partner's soaking body. Okay, it's not soaking wet, but she's still got some dewdrops from the shower still on her completely bare skin, as well as her damp hair sitting on her shoulders. Not long enough to cover her breasts, though.

"Are you listening?"

"You know I'm not," he growls at her, reaching up to grasp her wrists while she tries to straighten his collar. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

"Sending you off," she responds oh-so innocently. She even flutters her lashes as she shifts her weight, cocking out one hip.

"And this?" he makes a point of asking, drawing his eyes up her legs, freshly shaven and moisturized, to the slope of her waist and the bend of her ribs and her breasts which haunt his dreams.

"Gilgamesh please," she purrs (minx). "It's hardly something to bat an eye at, you have seen me like this plenty by now."

She says it like she's come home after getting her hair trimmed, not standing in front of him, her body beckoning, all but literally oiled up for him!

She tries to step away but he holds onto her--not too tight but he doesn't let her escape his grasp. He eyes all his favourite parts of her. "What's this for?"

Thena merely raises her brows at him, obviously in the mood for some retribution. "Perhaps you should think about this next time you want to take a business call in the middle of an affair."

He scoffs, stepping closer, happily letting her dampness ruin the fresh press of his shirt. "That, again?"

She matches his glaring, pressing herself against him, "you pulled out."

Thena hates being interrupted.

"Sorry, Gongjunim," he leans in but she makes him kiss her cheek before her lips. He obeys, trailing his lips over her cheek reverently. "I won't make you wait again."

"Your meeting," she reminds him, as if either of them really believe he's going to still go to that.

"No fuckin' way," he growls against her throat, sliding his arm around her waist and grasping a handful of ass.

"Gil," she attempts to sound scolding but he hoists her up in his arms and twists them backwards onto the bed. "This is a very important - ah! - meeting."

It's damn important, and he's already late to be early and have the upper hand in negotiating his terms, now. So, instead, he's going to keep kissing his girlfriend. He tangles their tongues and lays himself over her.

"You should go," she urges him again, although her nails are dug into his shoulders from behind as she wraps her legs around him.

"Like hell," he snarls, lining himself up with her in record time. He pushes in with practised and mastered patience though. "This was your plan to seduce me?"

"It seems to have worked," she grins at him as well, although her breathing becomes thinner as he pushes into her completely. Her hips raise off the bed to meet his.

"I keep telling you," he rumbles against the hollow of her throat, fucking her like a beast following a base desire. His hips do all the thinking for him. "You've been doing that for years."

"Hm," Thena purrs, and he can practically feel it ripple through him. "So I could have just gone into your office and asked you to take me on your desk?"

Gil grunts, picking up speed at the tantalising mental image. Thena really has a thing for enticing him into illicit activities in the office. "A man can dream, Thena."

"I would have," she huffs at him, although both of them are panting for breath, "if I thought it would work."

He growls, letting it reverberate into her as their lips smash together. "You had me the first time you ever wore that skirt with the cardigan I like."

He does love that particular outfit, and there's something particularly endearing - almost wholesome - about him being so seduced by a cardigan sweater and a skirt that extended past her knees.

"I would have walked in," she continues to tease him as he works them towards conclusion. She digs her nails into him more, "bent over and let you guess if I'm wearing panties or not."

"Fuck!" Gil pulls one of her legs up so he can hold it against his chest as he pounds into her, "don't say shit you don't mean, baby!"

"Gil!" she whines in response, their hips slapping together loudly and sloppily. "Fuck, right there, yes!"

"Shit honey," Gil grits his teeth. "You're gonna do that."

"Oh, rea--Gil!" Thena throws her head back as she comes first, her hips rising and swivelling in the air as they ground together.

Gil holds her thigh tight, grinding his hips against hers at a twisted angle. Their hair meets, he can feel the softness of her skin. He can see a very gratuitous angle of her breasts as well as where they're joined. It makes him want to beat on his chest like a caveman.

Thena groans as he lets her leg down, lying limply in the mess of their bed. "Well, now you're unforgivably late."

Gil lets out a loud belly laugh, and it drags her into laughing with him too. He flops into bed next to her, his shirt completely damp and still hanging out of his suit pants fly. "Honey, you knew I wasn't going to make that meeting as soon as you came in here."

Thena also laughs in their ecstasy, lying on her back with him, their heads close enough to hear each other's breathing. "Well, perhaps you shouldn't relegate fucking me in importance."

"Hey," he rolls over to give her a quick kiss, "nothing is more important than making love to you."

Thena sighs into the kiss, even following his lips as he pulls himself up, "oh, really?"

"Yep," he grins. She glares as him as he reaches for his trousers zip but all he does is shimmy out of them completely. "I'll tell 'em an emergency came up. Apparently I have to pamper my partner a little more."

"Hm," she raises a brow as he tosses aside his clothes in a rush like a horny frat boy. But she receives him with just as much glee as he throws himself into her breasts.

"I told you," he presses right into the valley of her cleavage. "Nothing more important."

[shadowsndaisies]

dogfighting 101: 05 - sugar and spice

wc: 1.6k

synopsis: hangman leaves everyone hanging... right?

main masterlist

athena-verse master post

a/n: absolutely loving all of your comments!! heres some hangman and then centric stuff which I KNOW people are waiting to see more of. the next update will be the final for dogfighting 101 but will feature an interaction between rooster and athena that probably (very honestly) wont answer your questions (yet)

“Howdy Miss ‘Thena,” is Hangman’s opening as you both enter the range.

“Hangman,” your greeting’s lacking a little luster.

Despite your early success, you’d only managed tone once and this was rotation four for you, and that’s not even taking into account the variations in which you weren’t flying and that no one else had managed to take your dad down yet.

Your arms hurt, your shoulders hurt, your back hurt, and you wanted to shower so incredibly bad. More than all of that though, you were emotionally exhausted. Flying with Bradley had been the gift that kept giving because even though you’d already gone through another rotation, you kept thinking about the blow out, about the before, about Bradley. As you stood on the tarmac again, you took in the little indents in your palms from the gravel being pushed into them during your push-ups, rubbing over one red mark and shaking your head. Safe to say, you could not wait to finish out the final few rotations, and then go home.

“What’s the matter, Honey?” the tease comes over the comms and even though you know he wants an answer all you can do is scoff.

“Getting tired of push-ups is all,” you say simply.

“I was hoping so,” Jake decides and your brow furrows. You don’t need to see him to know he was planning something.

“What are you planning?” you ask seriously, fully aware that your dad and the rest of the detachment was listening in.

“I was wondering, are you still made of sugar and spice and everything nice?” it sounds condescending, and you’re sure Phoenix and Halo are scoffing at the question, but you know better.

Sugar and Spice was a code, a reference to something you’d only ever talked through with Jake during some downtime on the carrier. Unlike Rock and Roll which you’d actually trained for with Harvard and Yale during Top Gun, Sugar and Spice was completely theoretical.

“You’re joking,” you deadpan, turning to glare at him through the canopy.

“You said you were tired of push-ups. I think it could work, especially since two highly decorated and competent aviators came up with it. Unless, of course, you’d rather continue the heavy set arm day you’ve got going on?” he says nonchalantly.

“Why does it feel like you called me a coward while also complementing me?” you scoff.

“Because you know me,” is all he offers.

“That’s a lot of chatter for two aviators who don’t have the bandit in their sights,” Maverick’s voice finally cuts through, interrupting your back and forth with Jake.

“Hangman, you got eyes?” you ask staring around and out the canopy after confirming your dad wasn’t on the radar.

“No, my guess is he’s coming from below the hard deck again,” the other aviator offers and you do a quick roll, inverting like you had on the first run.

“No contact,” you huff, rolling back.

And then all of a sudden you hear a boom and Mav comes zipping down in front of you. Breaking the sound barrier as he drops from where he’d been miles above you and Jake moving faster than you’d anticipated.

“Holy shit!” you shout.

“Oh fuck!” Jake’s curse echoes with yours.

“Fight’s on, Aviators, let’s see how your arms feel after, kid,” your dad teases as he circles around.

“Break left!” Hangman’s shout echoes.

And you do.

You break left and loop around, looking for Jake who’d gone int he opposite direction. He hadn’t ditched you, yet. Not like he had with Phoenix and Bob earlier. You know it’s not entirely fair a line of thought though, he was different with you, he’d yet to break a promise or leave you out to dry, not like he so flippantly seemed to be with everyone else. You hesitate a second longer before deciding, no, I do not want to do more push ups, and yes, I do trust Jake.

“Sugar and Spice,” you finally shout.

“Wait, really?” the surprise is evident, as if despite his cocky attitude he couldn’t believe you were agreeing.

“Yes!” you confirm, rolling your eyes. “Now move your ass, Hangman!”

“My fine ass, you mean,” he shouts back and you can hear the smirk as he loops back to meet you so you could assume the correct positions.

It’s tricky, you decide.

You always knew it would be, but you never thought you’d actually try it out. In theory, Sugar and Spice was supposed to create a gap that was a trap for the bandit. Where Rock and Roll was a distraction and attack, with each aviator having a specific goal, Sugar and Spice held more risk. Here both pilots act as the distraction, while attempting to get tone at the same time. When you’d initially talked it out with Jake there were three possible formations. Option A was the Side by Side, where you fly parallel. Option B was the Stack, where one pilot flies directly above the other. And Option C, which you had succinctly named, the collision course; in which one approaches from the tail of the bandit, and the other nose.

It seemed Jake had decided to run the collision course. It took a few maneuvers, some creative flying in order to lure Maverick into the right space at the right time, but then you were approaching form his nose, while Jake came in from the tail.

“What the fuck?” was your dads response when he realized that he had to make a choice, continue to attempt tone on you, move before Jake got tone on him, or move before you got close enough to get tone on him.

He feigned a left, which you followed, but then he made a sharp turn right.

What Mav didn’t anticipate was the height change. Jake had moved up, just enough to angle himself perfectly, and to ensure that if your dad didn’t move from the game of chicken you were playing with him, you wouldn’t just crash into your own teammate.

When Maverick flipped a hard right, probably hoping to get tone on you, Jake got tone first, having seen the move coming, and prepared accordingly.

It was silent for a moment, as the tone rang out.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Maverick’s voice crackles over the comms as if he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

When you land Hangman’s already on the ground by your ladder, having rushed out of his jet after landing first.

You’re not even all the way down when his arms wrap around you and he pulls you down, “Holy shit, ‘Thena, that was fucking incredible!” he shouts, squeezing you for just a moment.

This is Jake, you think fondly. You liked Jake, a lot. You liked him a hell of a lot more than Hangman. Unfortunately, you knew that not everyone got to meet Jake, and that, you decided was a god damned shame.

“I mean, I always knew you were smart, ‘Thee but this idea really was something else entirely! And getting to test it out, I’m fucking ecstatic the height change worked….” he was rambling, and there was this twinkle in his eyes that made the green seem alive.

You hadn’t seen him ramble since before the announcement of the detachment, honestly not for a while if you’re honest. Maybe the last time you’d both had feet on solid ground instead of an Air Craft Carrier in the middle of the Pacific. He seemed younger, the southern drawl more evident as he talked too fast to fully enunciate each word.

“Seresin! Mitchell!” the shout from your dad forces Jake to stop, and you notice as his brain finally catches up, how he steps back from you and straightens out, how the excited gleam in his eye dies out a bit, and you frown at Jake, because you watch as he tucks the more authentic parts of himself away.

“Yes, Sir?” you ask, turning to your father who was approaching.

“Hell of a move, where’d you learn that?” he asks, looking between the two of you.

“Lieutenant Mitchell designed it, Sir. After a cat and mouse training exercise on the carrier between our squads,” and if your dad was shocked before, hearing Hangman of all people pay another pilot credit was the blackout on top of the bingo.

“It was a team effort, Sir,” you argue. “Then and now, I honestly wouldn’t have been able to do it with anyone else,” you admit, and something in both your father’s gaze, and Jake’s softens.

“Keep thinking outside the box. It’s a good skill, and you’ll need it,” your father praises you, before turning to head to Hondo for his push ups, giving the next group a bit of a break.

“Hey Maverick!” you shout after him, “Always think the 360!”

A random sentence that no one else would understand, but he would, and based off of the near prideful smile he shoots you before turning back around, you know he understood.

While your dad did his push ups and the next pairing came down, you stopped in an empty hallway. “Hey, Jake?”

“Yeah?” he asks, pausing and then turning back once he realized you were no longer right beside him.

“I’m happy it worked too. Thanks for not leaving me hanging,” you say softly.

He looks down and then back at you, brows furrowed as if something wasn’t adding up for him, “Mitchell, you should know by now, I’d never leave you,” he says in response, green eyes swirling with emotion, too many to place, but his words feel like so much more than just talking as your wingman.

...

everything: @butterfly-skinnylegend

athena’s tags: @omgbrianab @smoothdogsgirl @bazellawriz @sbrewer21 @inky-sun @djs8891 @rory-cakes @geeksareunique @je6291 @kee-0-kee @fanreader75 @whoismurphyslaw @samanddeaninatrenchcoat @thespillingvoid

if your tag is striked it means i was unable to tag you.

[puckjay-blue]

But This Is Ruin: It looked like it hurt (chapter 2)

When Hephaestus opens the door he expects to be sad. That is how he always felt when Aphrodite cried. That is how everyone felt. Instead he is angry.

There is something about the perfect pink of the tip of her nose and her perfectly puffy eyes and the five strands of hair that escaped her messy bun. Something about those watery hazel eyes. He knows that when she looks like that the entire universe fawns and gives her a hug. And that means that he immediatly becomes the bad guy. No hugs, no compassion for him. She is not doing it on purpose, he knows that. She is just that pure, and if he is being honest, that pretty. And that makes it even worse.

She is holding a cardboard box a bit larger than what he expected. "Come in," he offers. She nodds and sniffles, and follows him as he wheels back into his appartement. Aphrodite puts the box down on the coffee table. In it there are a change of clothes, toiletries, several hoodies, and a collection of small trinkets. Glass baubles and welded figurines, woodcarved toys and clay cups, leather bracelets and finer jewelry. Hephaestus picks up a glass dog and turns it in his hands. "I didn't know if you wanted those back, so..." He doesn't really want the gifts that bad. Instead he wishes she had put their whole relationship in the box, all of his secrets and how he looked naked, so he could take it all back from her. "Thank you," he says, refusing to argue.

"How are you doing," she asks as she sits in the guest chair. "I'm good. Do you want something to drink?" "Tea would be nice." Hephaestus does not drink tea, but there is still some of her favorite in his cupboard. He leaves her in the living room to go to the kitchen and put the kettle on. She looks like an odd thing in his space, where everything is big and empty and in dark colors, like a small pearl in a too large oyster.

He comes back, a tray balanced on his lap with a single cup on it, and she is crying. People always assumed she was one of those pretty criers, who seemed to only cry with the water coming out of their eyes. Aphrodite cries with her all body. He soulders shake under her coat and her face contorts in a frown, yet she is still pretty. "Are you sure we're over?" she chokes a little on her words. "Come here," Hephaestus says, putting the cup on the table and bringing his wheelchair next to Aphrodite. He wraps his arms around her and shelters her face in his shoulder. He is not angry anymore.

She does not cry long. When she lets go, he finally answers. "Yes, I am. I'm sorry." Her nickname almost slips from his tongue. It's too easy, like a poem he learned by heart, and calling her "Aphrodite" just feels wrong.

Like a needle popping a baloon, a knock at the door breaks the tension in the room. "I got it," Hephaestus announces. When he opens the door he has to crane his neck up to meet the gaze of the tall woman standing there. She looks overdressed, in a silk grey suit and silver jewelry that shines like stars against her dark skin. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting," asks Athena. "No, it's ok," Aphrodite answers when Hephaestus hesitates. "I like the bantu knots on you, Thena, looks great." Athena gives a nod of appreciation as she steps through the door. "I have some papers from the student comitee." "Ouh, not my scene," Aphrodite says in an exaggerated sing-song tone. "I'll leave you two to it." And she waltzes out the door, light on her feet despite the cardboard box she grabs from Hephaestus's table.

Athena stares at him with her usual neutral look. "You're getting too popular to own only one chair." "I guess so, huh." There is a comfortable silence as Hephaestus grabs the papers and quickly reads the titles and carefully highlighted words, and Athena settles on the one chair. "So. Are you going to tell me?" she asks when she sees him put the papers down. "You're such a gossip," Hephaestus teases. Athena's neutral look does not leave her face. "Everyone is wondering." "So? Let them wonder. It's none of their buisness." "I don't do wondering. Why did you break up with her, Hephaestus?" He groans and hides his face in his hands. "Do we have to do this, Athena?" "We do. Spill the tea."

Hephaestus chuckles, a little bit hysterically. "You know what's fucking unfair? Evryone acts like she was such an angel for dating me, and im making a huge mistake by breaking up with her. No one has ever asked what she did." "What did she do?" "Nothing!" Anthena nods thoughtfully and gets up. Hephaestus follows her into the kitchen to continue the conversation as she pours herself a sparkly lemonade and leans her back against the counter. "If you want ice cubes I made some earlier. She didn't do anything big that people can point out and say "that's why". It's the little things." To other people, Athena's unmoving stare is unsettling, but Hephaestus has known her long enough to know this is how she pays undivided attention, and her stoic silence is soothing when he bares his soul. "She was even better than most my previous partners, didn't let go of my hand in public and stuff. And people treated her like a saint for that and that made me feel like shit." "I know you," Athena interrupts. "You did not break up with her because of other people treated her." Hephaestus sighs, and grumbles "Cut through the bullshit, I get it." He spins his wheelchair in place a few times as he thinks. "She didn't find me attractive. And I get it. No one does." "Not true." Athena interrupts him again. He looks at her with a raised eyebrow, surprised and disbelieving, so she points at her own face. "See this? This is my I-know-something-you-dont face." Hephaestus rolled his eyes and continued. "She never called me pretty. Or handsome. Whatever. She only called me stuff like, rugged or, strong. And when I asked, she would reassure me that she was attracted to me, but she's not a very good liar." "Is that really the problem?" Athena asks. "Stop psychonanalysing me," says Hephaestus without meaning it. "She did this thing where she'd compliment my scars and touch them all delicate and soft. And that's better than if she was disgusted by them, but it's still making a point of how not-disgusted she was, and that felt weird. Like there was no way to just be *normal* about them." Athena just keeps staring. She is not one to repeat herself, and she already told Hephaestus to cut to the real issue. "It's going to sound like it's about Ares," Hephaestus says and adds, after Athena does not say anything. "It's not about Ares!" "I did not say anything." "*Stop psychonalaysing me!*" he half-yells, but he is grinning. "I don't mind that she likes him," he conceeds. "And I know she would have never cheated on me. But seeing how she looked at him, it made me realize, he is her "one who got away". And that made me wonder what I am, what story she put me in. I don't think I'm the charity case, despite what everyone thinks, but I don't know. I think I was her beauty and the beast story, the rough exterior with a perfect boyfriend underneath." Athena stays silent. He knows that's how she keeps people talking, but for now he does not mind. "And honestly I think I'm more mad at the "perfect boyfriend" part." Hephaestus starts spinning his wheelchair in place again. "Because it's a lot of pressure, you know? It's like I have to make up for my looks, like I can't slip up and be angry, or forget an important date, or literally anything. I have to be perfect all the time." Athena nods. Hephaestus reaches into a drawer and puts a metal straw in her glass as she goes to refill it.

"You're doing good," Athena says without any inflection. "Yeah, I broke up with her because-" "Not about the break up. Identifying and communicating your feelings." "You taught me well." "You don't miss any practice." "Don't call this practice, I know you're just looking for hot goss'." Athena does not deny anything.

[sunset-peril]

Ashes Remain - Chapter Eight - Together and Stronger

~~~~

It was Professor Means. It had always been Professor Means.

He took the bribes.

He encouraged the forged evidence.

He murdered Professor Courte.

It was all him. 

He’d gone after her too. Had Apollo not been on the ball, had the Themis seniors not been willing, he would have won. 

It wasn’t his final casualty though. She was hit once more while leaving the courtroom. A loyalist student of his went after her. At first it was just verbal, hurling insults about her hypocritical actions, how dare she as a psychopath deem anyone else unfit for the legal world.

Simon had tried to defend her, but Fulbright electrocuted her beloved uncle to keep him in line. 

When the loyalist began showing signs that physical harm might come to Athena, Apollo socked her in the jaw. The bailiff allowed it. 

Before the threat could stand back up, Apollo escorted Athena out of the courtroom with the help of two bailiffs from adjoining courtrooms. She was frightened, but not a hair on her had been harmed.

Trucy thought Apollo decking someone was the coolest thing ever. Apollo was remiss about it, correcting in that ‘let’s not discuss this further’ tone of his that it was only done in defense and he’d weighed all other options before raising his fist. Much later on, Prosecutor Blackquill would commend him for not being afraid to defend her from violence, but the prosecutor was already back in his cell for the day. 

Apollo hadn’t let go of her until she was back on her air mattress in the extra room of the Wright Anything Agency. Normally, the office door was unlocked during business hours. After Athena was nearly assaulted in the courthouse; however, the door was instantly locked after the party returned. 

It was honestly a miracle they still attended the last night of the festival.  

~~~~

“T-Thena! You came!”

“Of course, Junie! I wouldn’t miss your performance for the world!”

“But the attack earlier-!”

“ ¡No hay problema! One freak accident is nothing.” She flashed a peace sign. “Tonight is being held in Professor Courte’s memory, so I suspect no rabid crazies!” 

Apollo shot her an exasperated look. “Today was more than ‘one freak accident,’ Athena. You could have died. How can you seriously go on like nothing happened?”

Of course, he knew the likely answer for his question. 

“Hey, it’s the heroic psycho. You really are crazy, to return here knowing there could be people out for your head.”

Robin ran up and smacked her blue-clad companion. “Hugh! Rude! We’re glad you’re here, Athena. And that you’re okay! Same to you, Apollo!”

“As we saw today, there are some who took Professor Means’ teachings to heart. Just because he is no longer in the classroom does not mean his ideology dies overnight. I hope you’ll join us in continuing to fight that darkness, Thena.”

“You really mean it, Junie?”

“Of course.” The metal on Athena’s shoulder seemed dimmer under Junie’s smile. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I should go get ready.” 

“Knock ‘em dead, Junie!”

“We’ll be cheering, Juniper.” Apollo flashed a huge grin.

“Yeaaahh!! C’mon, Hugh, let’s go!” 

“Looks like it’s just us. At least until Trucy decides she wants to boardwalk.”

“Heh, looks like it.”

“Are you okay? After… you know everything that happened today. So much of it was an attack on you specifically.” 

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m just fine!”

“You’re hiding something, Thena.”

“Oh, okay fi-” She blinked twice before staring at him and smirking. “Did you just call me Thena?”

“Oh! Did it? My bad.”

Oh, gosh, he was blushing. As endearing as a blush typically is, it was remarkably funny. He was so adorable! He- ….uh oh. 

“Athena? Are you sure you’re okay? You just stopped.” 

“I, uh,”

“Polly! Yay, we found Polly! And Athena!”

“Good work, Fraulein Wright!” 

Ah yes, just the two people Apollo was expecting to show up at some point in the night.

“Ah, pardon us, Herr Forehead, for interrupting your alone time with Fraulein Cykes.”

“A-Alone time?! What do you mean by that?”

Klavier practically erupted into laughter. “Why, Herr Forehead, you and the fraulein are simply overtaken by the most passionate blush! You should see your faces right now.”

“I-It’s an adrenaline response, Prosecutor Gavin…” 

Wow. Her face was red. Almost redder than her hair. But that didn’t mean Gavin was correct. Some people just blush easily. Athena with her more expressive personality seemed to be one of them. 

And what he was suggesting! A scandal with his co-worker?! Who wouldn’t blush at that?

Well, Prosecutor Blackquill probably, but he's beside the point. 

“And what about you, Herr Forehead? Surely you’re not going to suggest a mere adrenaline response are you, ja ?”

No. Not in the way Athena was experiencing anyway. 

“Don’t you have a concert, Gavin?”

 “Ah, haven’t you learned anything from court? Forcing a premature end to discussion only makes another more suspicious!” 

“Come on, Polly. There’s nothing to be scared of. Prosecutor Gavin’s just having some fun with you and Athena.” 

“He really does seem uncomfortable though.” Athena took a few steps towards Gavin and stared up into his eyes. 

“Ah, Fraulein , how in tune you are with him.” 

“I-It’s not that. I can hear his inner voice. Much like I hear yours. For bearing no ill will against him, why do you badger Apollo with almost malicious intent?”

“Polly almost blew him up during a trial last year. Gavin makes fun of him as payback.” 

“You are just as perceptive as Blackquill said. He spoke with an utter fondness of you, one I’ve never seen in such black of a heart.”

She finally had to look away, if only to hide her own heart crying out loud enough for anyone to hear. “We… share a history.” 

“Ah. You both seem… touchy about questioning.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll leave it be.”

“Thank you, Gavin.” 

“Athena! Did you see the game where you whack giant frogs?! It’s so cool!” 

“I haven’t. But I’d guess you want to show me, huh?”

“Yes!”

“How about you, Apollo? Are you coming to see the whack-a-frog?”

He chuckled and flashed that big grin. “Sure. I could use a few good wacks to clear the day out.”

Trucy pounded her fists and leaned closer to him, grinning expectedly. “Better than socking meanies, Polly?!” 

“I thought we agreed not to talk about that.”

“What? The ever-small Herr Forehead threw punches? I think I need to hear this story.”

“No. No you don’t.”

“Oh, yes. Yes, he does! It was just after the trial! This lady who was super loyal to Professor Means-”

~~~~

The crowd was now gathering around the stage in anticipation for the concert. Mr. Wright had joined them at the whack-a-frog while Hugh and Robin had only recently returned to the party. 

Gavin and Juniper were on stage, her dressed as Lamiroir for the second-ever performance of The Guitar’s Serenade . 

He remembered the only other performance of the song well. Gavin’s guitar combusted, an Interpol agent was shot by a band member… It was a very very big mess that took a very very long time to clean up. That trial was when his career finally took a turn for the better, and he kept the song as his work ringtone to remind him of that fact. 

He hoped today would be Athena’s Turnabout Serenade, but just based on the day alone it seemed she was just as lost and frightened as he was when Kristoph was arrested. It would be a long time before she would ever feel free… if freedom was even available for her.

She wasn’t in a cell, no, waiting for her hanging day alongside Prosecutor Blackquill. However, this seemed almost worse. She was humiliated every single second she walked anywhere with those cuffs on her arm. She was on her own kind of death row, one that no one seemed to understand. He didn’t know how much longer she had, that was her secret to keep if she wanted, but if she already knew her injury was fatal… she likely had been given an estimate.

Yet here she stood: that happy, bouncy Athena who tilted shimmering eyes to the stage as Juniper sent a warm glance over them. Tensing in childlike excitement at the first notes of guitar, then closing her eyes to breathe in the melody. She's not wasting away in prison or losing her breaths at the hospital. She's here and, for this moment, she's okay. Better than okay. She's Athena Cykes, and she's fine! 

Sugar, Sugar…

O that night, in your embrace

He saw it in her. She was no longer afraid of her ears. She was no longer afraid of those cuffs made from re-fired bullets.

When you stole away the keys

my heart held on to so tight.

She was beautiful, and life was just as it should be for her. It couldn’t last, but at least she has a moment. 

Pleasure, Pleasure…

But a fleeting melody  

He’d looked for too long, her eyes fluttered back open in confusion, then looked up at him. Their eyes locked, which he didn’t expect, and he realized just how deep hers were now that he perceived them and them alone.  

It wraps itself around me,

And now through the air I fly.

She raised a hand to her hair and began to fiddle with it, breaking their eye contact before smiling and looking back into his.

Woh… Woh… 

His Chords of Steel dried up the longer he looked at her, until he was certain they’d snap from becoming too dry.

Burning on in my heart. Fire.  

Her eyes showed the same. Good, this was shared. 

Burn my love away. All away.

She took a few steps closer, then leaned into his chest. Her eyes were twitching, growing ever tense as she registered whatever this was. 

Like a bullet of love. Fire. 

Without thinking, he brushed his hand through her hair for her. Just above her ear she side-hopped onto his foot and squeaked. It must be her injury.

Take my life away. All away. 

He slipped his hand down to the hair past her head and twirled his fingers there, he felt her hand gently against his chest. 

 Guitar, Guitar…

He felt her lips for just a wisp of time.

Up together to the sky.

Now, it was just her smiling softly. Her cheeks were a precious rose. And that’s when he realized. “Athena…” He pressed his nose against hers.

“Call me ‘Thena,’ please.”

~~~~

“Did what I think happened really happen?” They were at Eldoon’s now, just the two of them. He was pressing his finger so hard into his head, it might have left a bruise.

“We kissed… at a high school festival…”

“Yep, that’s what I thought.” 

“I-uh…”

“Yeah… well… It’s-uh-nice to know you feel the same way about me.” He was scrubbing the back of his neck again. For a person who’s power lied in sight, why was he so bad with his own tells.

Widget flashed yellow under the stars. “I-Well-R-Really?” Her index finger was in his face. “A-Apollo Justice! How long have you felt this way about me?”

“I…I really couldn’t tell you that.” 

“Ah… well I guess it doesn’t matter too much… Here we are.” 

“Yeah, here we are…”

“So… what are we going to do… with-” She spun her hand between the both of them.

“Well, we are coworkers… so I think we need to discuss this with Mr. Wright tomorrow…”

“Yes… that will give me some time to ask Simon…”

“Simon?” She still hadn’t given his Chords of Steel back. “As in, Blackquill?”

“Yes. I… know I don’t look it but… I’m a Blackquill. His niece.”

“Ah. That actually makes a lot of sense.” 

“It does?”

“His bird doesn’t hurt you. Even when he’s pretending to attack us, the bird never gets as close to you as it does to Mr. Wright or I. That alone would suggest you’re important to Prosecutor Blackquill.” 

“Mama disowned me after I came back. He’s… all I have.”

“Wow… I’m so sorry…”

“No one’s been the same since Simon went to jail…” 

“You… want a hug?” Almost instantly, he had her curled up against his shoulder.

“Plus… Taka isn’t stupid. He’s not going to bite a food source.”

“Ah, you have bird bribes.”

“By express permission. Not everyone gets to feed him, you know.” 

“Of course…” Scrubbing the neck again… “So, uh, little obvious at this point but…” 

“Of course, I want you, Apollo. If Mr. Wright and Simon approve.” She started doing that ‘gimme gimme’ wave of hers. “Now, c’mere you!” 

And so went his real first kiss with Athena. He was expecting some elder citizen to jeer for them to find privacy as soon as she clambered onto him. Thankfully for the mood, People Park was silent. 

This one’s mine! Widget declared with a big fat grin on his little robot face instantly after Athena pulled away and flopped triumphantly on his lap. 

He gently curled her head closer against his chest. “I’m yours, tiger.”  

[whimsical-musingss]

For Eternity ❦

Can be considered a part two to Beautiful, Beautiful. She is my whole heart, my fic child, thank you for giving her all the love.

Summary: when the Eternals separate, Druig sees his fantasy come true.

Pairing: Druig X Eternal F!Reader

Warning: implied sexy times but nothing explicit.

Druig has dreams, and they are painful glimpses into…something.

He can’t put his finger on it. The past? Future? The dreams seem like memories but he can’t recall them ever occurring. Perhaps they are visions of what’s to come. Either way, he wakes up with a start, his dreams always concluding with eruptions, screams, and explosions that make him shake with adrenaline and fear.

He sees the same explosions and fire below him where the humans wage war. Where they invade. Where they kill. His heart is shattering, and you can feel it just by looking at him. Everyone is tense, secluded at the top of a pyramid, watching, and waiting. Waiting for the night to turn into day, waiting for Thena to wake up…waiting for the humans to stop killing each other.

You remember how quickly the days pass, how decades are like minutes. But tonight feels like a century. The sky remains dark, with flame and smoke staining the sky like a poison.

Druig watches you hold Thena’s hand as you wait for her to wake. He can feel your sadness and confusion, and especially your pain. You both loved humans and watching them tear each other apart in war makes you both physically sick.

When Thena wakes, the Eternals are done. The last Deviant was killed, and with no purpose left, you were all able to leave and lead your own lives. And this day was supposed to be a celebratory day…and yet, you all stand silent. The centuries with each other have moved too fast to catch and to remember clearly.

But how Druig longed for that; to disappear from the others with you and to be hidden from the world. For once, he wants to be selfish and have you for only himself, and you not being used for the mission. He always wanted this, craved for it, to have a life of his own.

But seeing the humans slaughter each other below and him not doing a damn thing is tearing him apart with guilt. He has glorious powers and he could use them for good, for a bigger purpose than killing Deviants.

He raises his hand without thinking, and the commotion below everyone falters as humans drop their weapons and stand still, their eyes white and cloudy. You stride towards him, your hands grabbing his outstretched hand, and bringing it to your lips.

“Druig, you can’t,” you whisper against his fingers. “We can’t interfere.”

He stares at the humans below, knowing with a wave of his hand, he could end this. He could-

Ikaris barges through, interrupting his thoughts, and slams Druig against the stone of the pyramid. His hand is torn from yours as he struggles against Ikaris, his breath leaving his lungs.

“Don’t touch him!” You cry out, regaining your balance. “Don’t you dare touch him.”

“Y/N, stay out of this,” Ikaris doesn’t even look at you, he only glares at Druig.

“Let them go.” His voice is deep and frightening, but of course, Druig doesn’t stand down.

“You’re gonna have to make me.” He stares right back at Ikaris, unblinking.

“Druig, please,” you appear from over Ikaris’ shoulder. “We can’t interfere. And Ikaris, let him go before I make you.”

Ikaris does eventually let Druig go from his iron grip, and you shove him out of the way to get to Druig. You embrace him, your face in his chest, surrounded by his warmth. He hugs you back, his hand behind your head.

“Please let them go,” you’re shaking from adrenaline and being overwhelmed. “Please. Let’s just go, you and me…remember what we talked about?”

How could he forget? How could he forget how you wished you could live next to the beach, the salty air embracing you, the waves enveloping you both. How you wished for him to stay by your side forever, in a small cottage by the sea, where you could spend the rest of your days before you all left for Olympia.

He lets the humans go without another thought. And you knew, in that moment, he’d do anything for you.

“Let’s just go,” he repeats after you, his calloused hands holding your cheeks. His eyes are soft, as always when looking at you, and he gives you a small smile.

“Yes, let’s go, just you and me.”

He places his forehead against yours, his smile growing bigger.

“I’m yours forever, my love. Let’s go.”

So you do. You depart from South America and just go. The rest of the Eternals were happy and overjoyed that you both could find a life of your own together. And so we’re you. You were excited, because for once, Druig is only yours.

Centuries pass, and you and Druig spend lifetimes together in a small cottage by the sea. It’s made out of wood, built by you with a wave of your hand. No humans ventured this far to find you or Druig here, and you preferred it that way. You both spend your days by the ocean, letting the water go up to your knees. You both fish, you both find shells, you use your powers to move the water to collect them.

Life becomes a treasure together, a gift, because for once, the mission doesn’t exist. You could do whatever you wanted with the love of your life, so you do.

You both explore each other. There were centuries where you couldn’t even touch each other because of the mission. Now it’s different. He can touch you now, wherever, whenever, and however. You the same to him. For once, you both are unashamed to physically show each other how much you love one another. You spend hours just exploring his face, his eyes…just looking closely and commenting how beautiful he is. Eventually, this leads to exploring his mouth with your own. Then his neck, his collarbone, his bare shoulder, all of it. His bare skin is yours, he says so himself. All of him belongs to you, and only you. You regain the centuries back that were stolen from you both.

You both fall asleep in each other’s arms to the sound of waves, and wake up to the sun.

The sun hits Druig’s eyes first, and he blinks them open to see you still sleeping soundly on his chest, skin to skin. Your breaths are heavy, yet not as loud as the waves outside. He knows you probably want to be woken up, but he can’t. You’re so peaceful there, so delicate, his beautiful, beautiful Y/N.

“Why haven’t you woke me up yet, my Druig?

Your eyes are still closed, but you could sense him watching you. His beautiful eyes that watch you all the time, unable to look at anything else. Nothing else is as beautiful as you, his beautiful Y/N.

“I just couldn’t. You looked so at peace.”

He trades your cheekbone with his fingers, and you smile at his touch.

“Do I, now?”

“Yes. Do I?”

You’re eyes are fully open now, staring into his own.

“Yes, and it’s what you deserve.” His smile becomes bigger at your words, and he bends down to kiss your forehead. You sigh in content, snuggling into the crook of his neck, kissing his pulse there.

“It’s what we deserve, my beautiful, beautiful girl.”

[manddor]

i think your requests are opened so, can i get a druig x female!reader where it’s an enemies to lovers kinda thing… i do want some angst…

thanks!! have a lovely day/night <3

thank you SO MUCH!! this is my first request and i hope you like. can ask more if you want!!

invisible string.

summary: one single thread of gold tying you two

warnings: enemies to lovers. angst. fluff

word count: 1.1k

druig x female!reader

you were sitting on the grass with a book and an apple in your hands. it was a warm and chilly day, no fighting with the deviants or training with all of your group.

not that you didn’t like spending your time with them - you actually loved those moments - but you were always so talkative and full of energy that sometimes you needed to recharge your social battery.

“hi” sersi’s voice was soft but it scared anyways. “sorry, didn’t want to interrupt.”

“no problems, sit here” you pointed to your side and gave her an apple. the tree at your back was filled with them. you heard she puffing. “are you okay?”

“yeah. it’s just ikaris. he left all those years and now he’s confusing me.” she said with a sad expression.

you always told her not to trust in ikaris. actually you loved him at the beginning, but he appeared in london out of nowhere, saying ‘i came to check on you because of the earthquake. the deviant is news for me.’ your powers could sense lies and he was definitely telling one.

“i’m team dane. and because of that i guess that you know what i’m going to say.” you said, closing your book. “sorry, sersi, i think you should forget about him. but you know that our mind does not rule our heart.” your friend laughed.

“if someone was listening to this and didn’t know you, they would think that you have a love life.” you laughed as well.

“thanks arishem that no one was listening” you winked. “it’s getting late.” you said looking to a beautiful sunset in front of you, it took your breath away.

“you can stay there. i know how much you like connecting with the nature” sersi said already leaving.

you wish you could just stop this moment. but even an iphone couldn’t capture what you were feeling. the wind in your hair. the smell of grass, sunflowers and apples. the stars shining upon you… but of course he had to interrupt.

“beautiful view.” you rolled your eyes, trying not give to him the power of ruining this pretty moment. “did you miss me?”

ugh. of course not! he was always picking on you. trying to control your mind. being cocky. and trying to be better than you.

“oh, druig. i was appreciating this view but then you happened.” you stood up to stare his annoyingly beautiful face.

“sorry, love. but i thought you would like some good company.” he smirked staring at your mouth. you could hear your own heartbeat.

it was your first time seeing druig after centuries. you denied going to his new ‘home’, it wasn’t comfortable seeing him again. “i see that all these years were good for you”

“i wish i could say the same, druig”

but you both heard a loud noise and people screaming. you looked at each other, knowing what have arrived in amazon - the deviants.

you started running and druig controlled human’s mind just to start shooting at the huge monster in front of them.

you were a magician, meaning that your powers could confuse his mind, changing his feeling and the sight he was seeing. with that he wouldn’t be so agitated. an easy way to stop the animal.

it was all so quick. sersi turned him into a huge tree. thena appeared with gilgamesh dead and you couldn’t help but cry. the deviants are getting stronger and killing your family. that made you feel more angry and thirsty for revenge

“we can’t stay here anymore”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

after that fight the eternals went for phastos and, finally, makkari.

“i’ve missed you so much” you signed to her receiving a tight hug and a bright smile.

“not as much as i did” she signed back.

“ok, guys. now we have to plan what we’re going to do” ikaris said, and you rolled your eyes.

“i need to control a celestial mind” sersi said and phastos showed golden bracelets explaining that you were going to use for absorb each other’s energy.

while this explanation, druig was by your side. he was extremely close and you could feel his breathing. “you look so pretty when you’re concentrated.” he whispered in your ear.

“and you look so pretty with your mouth closed” you said but you couldn’t avoid a tiny smile on your face. he was messing with your heart and he knew that.

after the reunion you and druig went to eat something. “you know, i’ve missed you in my life” the boy said, and you thought it was another joke, but he looked so… lovely. “and i know you did as well”

“ugh, in your dreams, druig” you rolled you eyes, trying to be tough in that situation. but you know you’ve missed him. you actually love when he’s around you, touching your skin, picking on you. he didn’t do that with anyone else.

“no, y/n, really. let’s stop being so cocky with each other. i passed all those years in amazon trying to forget about you, but i couldn’t” he said, getting closer. “when i saw this smile again i knew that i couldn’t avoid this awkward feeling… i guess that is love, the humans call it like that.” you laughed softly. “since arishem brought us to life, i knew that we had an invisible string tying you to me.”

your eyes were wide open, your cheeks were red and you were wordless. “dru…”

ikaris interrupted you by entering in the room, burning all phastos’s work with his eyes.

“what the fuck are you doing?” you asked terrified.

“he lied to us” sersi entered in the room, crying. “he already knew about the emergence. he killed ajak”

“what?” you exclaimed, walking to him. “no, you didn’t!”

“y/n” druig tried to hold you, but nothing could stop your urgency to punch his face. but, ikaris was faster than you and punched your stomach.

“touch her again and you’ll die.” druig said controlling his mind.

ikaris’s mind was stronger so he pointed the laser in your direction but druig placed his body in front of you, felling on the ground by your side.

“you’re not going to hurt your family.” kingo said forcing ikaris to fly away.

you looked to druig and saw a deep cut in his shoulders. “no no no” you said in disbelief, your eyes watering. “i’m so sorry.”

“i’m fine, honey, i’m fine” he said smiling while you put his head on your lap. “i saved you” he smirked.

“yeah, you did.” you laughed with tears falling down your cheeks. “nothing and no one will cut our invisible string. i love you, dru” you said, kissing his cheeks.

“i love you too, darling”

[leviathanspain]

i love you much too much

druig x fem!eternal! reader

synopsis: you and druig have always had a complicated relationship. more so when you disappear from his reach for over a thousand years…

part two

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

it was like a rush of adrenaline over his body. the hairs on his arms standing up with each passing wind. he looked past from ikaris, past the conversation he was having and to the rumbling of water on the riverbend.

druig pushed past the clueless eternals and stepped out into the canvas of the compound. he could feel the frantically moving humans, their whimpers of fear of the intruder that was standing before them. druig calmed them down, luring them into their homes before finally facing the person responsible for the disruption.

his gaze fell down to the floor before lifting and following the curves of your armor that barely concealed your body.

“you always were one for dramatic entrances!” he called out to you, watching as you slowly turned to face druig, a wicked smile on your face as your hair, sopping wet from your travels through the water, stuck to your forehead in the amazonian heat.

druig couldn’t begin to comprehend his feelings. he was angry with you, even after all those years, but he would do anything just to even embrace you one more time.

“i see you’re still the only one who can anticipate them!” you returned and walked up to him slowly. you were beautiful, beauty never changing, your hair still the same shade, your eyes still glowing with that mischievous twinkle. even the little scar above your lip that druig had given you after he tried to teach you how to carve into a coconut..

“i heard we were getting the band back together.” you quipped, seeing as the rest of your painfully annoying family fell out in stumbles from the building. kingo ran up to you and embraced you.

watching that scene made druig’s stomach turn. he bit back another remark on the reasoning of not wanting to run you off again. to be truthful, he thought everything was his fault.

but only you knew the truth.

“haven’t changed at all, still got the kingonian movie dynasty going on, i see?” you raised your eyebrows and kingo laughed, “how do you know? i thought you had died or something?”

you shrugged, “living in the ocean and coming up for air every once in a while has led me to collect a thought on a few things or so..” you looked at druig, “like this cult you’ve got going on here, it’s so 1970s man, get a grip.” you joked, druig smiling warmly.

“i’ve been observing you,” you revealed, druig being taken aback at that, “just for a few days or so. you’ve got a lovely singing voice too, dru.”

before druig could remark, you shifted your attention to ikaris and scowled, ignoring him completely before turning to sersi.

“did you get my letters?” you asked her and she nodded, “of course!! i wanted to reply but i wasn’t sure if the ocean had a mailing address?” you laughed, hugging her.

“it doesn’t but the house i have in japan does.” sersi let out a chuckle.

druig looked at you, interrupting the reunion. “listen, i hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the deviants are back.” he looked at you with a raised eyebrow and you rolled your eyes.

“duh! why do you think i left my sea palace for this?” you pointed to the flies and bugs that hung off every plant.

sprite smiled, “you have a sea palace??”

you shrugged, “if you call the chunk of coral i sleep on sometimes a palace, then yes.”

druig left you be for the time being. sersi noticed his glaring at your back the whole night, and she did point it out to you but because you knew druig and you had a lot of catching up to do, you decided it was best to wait until you were alone.

druig on the other hand, was fuming. you had kept in contact with sersi? you had mentioned visiting thena, who was basically your surrogate mother, and gilgamesh, your father figure. even ajax knew where you had been! he was angry, to be the one left out of your loop, one that you swore he’d never be out of.

he could almost nearly forgive everything when you called him his pet name, but he was still angry.

you watched as the rest of the eternals went off to their rooms for the night, looking at druig with a sheepish smile, you strode over to him and winked, “what’s happening, pretty lady?” you joked, nudging him lightly with your hip.

“what the fuck, y/n?” druig wasn’t having any of it, none of the jokes, none of the excusing of the question,

“why did you leave?” druig muttered out, and you stilled. you sat on the small chair in front of him and bent your head down in shame.

“i- i don’t know.” you revealed.

druig cursed, laughing bitterly, “but you do know! you just don’t want to tell me!”

you sighed, nervously. you didn’t want druig to be angry with you, you knew his hurt was too powerful for world to know. you didn’t want to be the cause of it.

“i…i loved you, much too much.” you decided, watching as druig’s expression shifted to disbelief, you continued, “it got to the point where i didn’t love you at all. i didn’t know what i felt and i hated myself because i couldn’t stand to even let myself be with you if i knew you could be with someone better- someone who would love you the way you deserved!” how it felt to get all that off your chest was incredible, but watching druig’s face contort into sadness and anger, you couldn’t help but regret your honesty.

“get out.” druig muttered, bringing his hand to his mouth to suppress his tears before you could notice.

you hesitated towards the door, turning back just slightly before druig yelled, “get out!!” he stifled a sob at the end and you blinked back tears, hand turning the knob before disappearing into the night air.

[healingagoddess]

Suspicious mind

Request: Jealous smut with ajak? Ajak gets jealous of reader talking to another eternal or avenger? Thank you! :)

Warnings: English is not my first language. Smut. NSFW.

Pairing: Ajak/F!Reader

Note: It took me forever to write this. Forgive any mistakes, I got really frustrated near the end and kept deleting everything. And I also got carried away. I hope you like it. 

_ ✽ _

The rest of the eternals have been staying with Ajak for the past two days as Phastos fixes the domo. You have met them, but you have kept to yourself since you can’t really match Kingo and Sprite’s enthusiasm ­— so you’ve been observing. Sitting at the end of the sofa with a drink in your hand you admire them individually. Thena is quiet, reserved and distant for obvious reasons — and Gilgamesh is always by her side. Everyone seems to get along and joke around, even the sulking boy with strong opinions that sits with Makkari, Druig. You intend to form an alliance with Ben and Dane, but for now you just watch in silence.

It’s been half an hour of intense daring and challenges from Kingo, Druig and Sprite. They literally don’t do anything else other than bicker and it’s quite amusing to watch. Although they do seem like a very close family. It makes you wonder how you fit in since Ajak is very much like their mother figure. You are very conscious about that thought — and you know they’ll start asking questions soon — so you get up to find Ajak. You walk towars the porch knowing she went into that direction, and you find her deep in conversation with Ikaris. You don’t want to interrupt, but you feel very conscious of your presence no matter where you go.

You do go stand by her side with a soft smile and a polite ‘hello’ and a nod of your head. Casually Ajak wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you closer to rest her chin on your shoulder as Ikaris continues with whatever he is talking about. You don’t fit in this conversation. The energy going on here is completely different. Ajak treats him like he is her most precious son; the golden boy, and it is very awkward to witness. You don’t know what to do, but you take your empty glass as an excuse to leave.

You can’t get the look on their faces off your mind as you leave. It was traumatizing to see — her eyes were sparkling with pride, love and something else you can’t describe. And his eyes were of total devotion. As you enter the kitchen for another margarita you find Sersi with her boyfriend. They share a smile, and you feel so much better. Their smile is so soothing and welcome — it feels natural to be around them — but now you are being the third wheel. As you reach for the blender you do notice that you are out of tequila, and there’s only one glass left forgotten. You reach out for it and notice Sersi get closer.

“Please don’t tell me we are out of Tequila.”

You turn to look at her with raised brows to pay more attention to her and process what she said.

“Ah, yes. Last glass.” You wiggle it a little in your hand. “If you’d like it’s all yours.”

“No need to worry about that with me.” And you swear, she has a comfort aura. Something about her smile and eyes is really soothing. She is so warm to be around.

“Yeah, she can turn water into anything like Jesus.” Dane jokes and Sersi smacks him playfully.

You rise your brows once again, but this time intrigued. You are about to say something when someone calls out Dane’s name; you think it was Sprite. Dane excuses himself and leaves. As he does so Sersi gets closer to the blending machine contemplating whether to make more margaritas or not.

“Seriously, if you’d like you can take the last one.” You offer once again.

And Sersi turns to look at you, but her gaze falls elsewhere outside and it stays there. Curious you look her way and notice she is staring at Ajak and Ikaris. More like Ikaris, you know what happened to them because Ajak told you before when he visted once. Immediately you hand Sersi the drink as you tear your gaze away from them to check on the eternal beside you. She looks down at the drink you shoved into her space and contemplates for a few seconds.

“Would you mind if we share this drink?” She asks with a soft but fun smile. Like, she is that friend that would totally be very close to you just for the sake that you are friends. You’ve had friends like that before and they are the best. “It would be like a secret thing of ours that we became the best of friends. It would freak them out. They are totally terrified of you.” She explains playfully as she reaches out for two straws. And you know she likes to party.

You give out a smile that is more like you. And you know this is the first glimpse any eternal will have of who you are — and you nod. You both make your way back to the living room since you know Sersi wants to be close to Dane. She takes a seat and you take the place beside her. Sprite is teasing the poor guy so bad; he doesn’t stand a chance. Sersi takes a sip of the margarita and then puts it on your field of vision. You both share a secret smile before you take a sip too. And you notice Kingo noticed since he looked around like ‘did everyone see that?’, but he was the only one to notice.

The glass is not that big — so you’ll run out of it pretty soon — but you do keep yourself busy with whatever they have to say. You come to find that Gilgamesh is hilarious and such a gentle person at the same time. You’d love to get to know him more. And then, Sersi taps you on the shoulder, and you turn to look at her.

“It’s the last of it; let’s drink it together.” She says never losing that smile of hers.

You playfully roll your eyes and lean in to your straw as she follows to reach for hers. You both drink the last of it with blushing cheeks from trying to keep from laughing.

“Oh, Sersi gets to keep the step-mother first!” Kingo finally declares. You pull away before you spit out the margarita on Sersi’s face, shocked with that comment. And then, you feel a soft hand on your shoulder as laughter echoes through the room. Ajak is standing right behind you with Ikaris on her side, he is standing right behind Sersi. You offer her a smile, but she doesn’t smile. She just keeps staring at you and tilts her head to the side with a raise of her brows. You put your hand on top of hers on your shoulder and she finally smiles before looking away to the other eternals in her living room.

“Since when are you two the best of friends?” Kingo asks offended.

“Well, since before you, so I get best friend rights from now on.” Sersi replies, she is clearly teasing him.

“Kingo is afraid of you.” Sprite spills Kingo’s deepest secret. You raise your brows and look at Ajak —  she looks right back at you and she shakes her head with a soft smile.

“He should be.” You finally speak staring directly at him without blinking. Everyone burst out laughing at Kingo as he stays seated in shock and terror.

The rest of the evening passes by with everyone minding their own business and not attacking you with questions even if Kingo really wants to ask something — only Sersi gets best friend benefits. By night they have a fire outside and everyone sits there laughing and chatting. They truly missed each other. Then, Sersi comes over to hand you a marshmallow, she kneels in front of you and crosses your arms like a couple — and makes you eat it making sure Kingo gets full display. He just sits there shocked and annoyed. After that, Sersi grabs you by the arm and pulls you up to your feet along with Makkari and takes you to the side of the house to take selfies.

We are having so much fun teasing Kingo. Makkari signs, a toothy grin on her face.

“It’s been so much fun to play the evil step mother today.” You laugh with them.

“Let’s do something else. Maybe Makkari should also join in the best friends.” Sersi suggests.

I think we should hold hands to send a message to Kingo.

And so you do, you both return holding hands with Sersi trailing behind looking at the selfies on her phone.

“They are forming an alliance!” Kingo shouts making everyone look at the three of you.

Jealous? Makkari signs

“So sad you can’t join, Kingo.” Sprite is so cool for spicing things up.

“Prove you are the bestest of friends.” He replies with a serious tone.

“Well, we will have a secret handshake of course, since we are so close.” Sersi replies, as you just stare at Kingo to scare him a little.

“How close?” He asks in the same serious tone.

This close. Makkari pulls both of you close and blows kisses into the air. And you both do the same blowing kisses in an exaggerated way to make him uncomfortable —  like teenagers being extra at school with fake affection display.

A few seconds later Ajak exits the house, she was at the kitchen helping Gil with dinner. She has a frown on her face and grabs your arm before pulling firmly.

“Help me in the kitchen.” She demands, nobody seems to notice her tone nor demeanor.

You nod and excuse yourself. “I’ll see you later, besties.” You say goodbye to them in a fake tone to tease Kingo some more.

“Oh, baby girl! We’ll see you later for the sleepover.” Sersi whines in the same tone.

Makkari pouts. We’ll miss you, bestie. And she fakes giving you a friendly peck to shock the audience.

Kingo might pass out, instead you just leave him with his mouth agape staring at you. And once you get inside you realize that Ajak was the one to drag you from the others, and she is aiming for the stairs instead of the kitchen with a strong grip on your arm.

“Where are we going?” You ask with excitement still in your voice.

She doesn’t reply, and suddenly, you feel a heavy ambiance falling upon you like cold water. Your heart starts racing and Ajak has not even looked at you yet. You don’t understand, but then you remember Ajak was watching you from inside the kitchen, and to her it looked like you were making out with Sersi and Makkari when you were first annoying Kingo.

She takes you to the bedroom you both share; the lights are off with only the light from outside peeking through the window. She doesn’t give you a moment to say something because as soon as you both enter the room she turns around so fast and strong that confirms she is pissed.

“Ajak.” You say softly waiting for an explanation.

“Cierra la puerta. (close the door)” Her voice is firm and strong with such a passion. There is fire running through her entire being right now.

And you obey closing the door.

“Did I do something wrong?” You ask; knowing damn well you did without meaning to.

“No lo sé. Tu dimelo. (I don’t know. You tell me)” The look in her face is something you’ve never seen before. She has a deep frown, but her entire face has turned somber and her golden eyes look like a void. She has one hand on her hip and the other rests on the foot of the frame of the bed.

“Ajak, we were just joking.” You reply being serious to let her know your honesty. “We wanted to scare Kingo.” You feel terrible saying the last part.

These eternals are like her children, and you just participated in a childish game that hurts one of them. It still feels weird to think of it like that. But you totally feel like a child right now thinking that you should have known better.

“Since when making out with someone is used to scare other people?” She asks with more anger evident. “Unless you are trying to hurt me… then you got it.” Her breathing quickens a little bit.

“Ajak…” You say almost close to tears. You never wanted to hurt Ajak that was the last thought on your mind through all of this. “We never did anything like that, it was all pretend to shock Kingo.” You try to explain. “I am so sorry.”

Ajak closes her eyes, and slowly, she throws her had back trying to even her breath. “I just can’t deal with the thought of seeing you with someone else. I know they are my family and I love them… but I had never seen you behave like this. I guess I was more confused and scared than Kingo.”

You reach out for her.

“Whenever you think again about letting someone else touch you the way I do… think again.” She points a hand at you and presses it against your chest making you take a step back. “Nadie puede tenerte como yo te tengo. (Nobody can have you the way I do.)” She spits every word out rolling her ‘r´s’ so deliciously. She pushes you again, and you hit the back of the bed. You hadn’t even noticed the moment she circled you and cornered you to the bed. “You are the most precious thing I have.”

“Ajak… are you… jealous?” You ask not believing it yet.

She doesn’t say another word and presses against your chest to make you lay down and then she hovers on top of you. “You make me feel things that no one else has ever been able to make me feel; things only you can bring out in me.” Her husky voice is something you love the most about her. That voice that makes you feel the heat travel your body. “I am jealous of my own family because of you. Because you keep me on alert of your every move. Always wanting more of you.”

“Ajak.”

She hushes you and tilts your head to the side before kissing your neck. She fully straddles you and pins your hands to the sides of your head. She bites you slightly before ushering you out of your top. She breathes in your scent as she makes her way down and only pauses to look at you before hooking her fingers on your bottoms. She looks for signs to stop, and when she finds none she pulls them down. Your cheeks are burning with heat.

She is quick to disregard you of your clothes, and you feel aware of her every touch. There is urgency in the way she movies, the way she massages your skin and her void like eyes. And then you realize: it is lust. You think she’ll take you quick and fast, and you get ready to welcome her touch. But then… then she turns you around and holds your hands down against your back with one hand, with the other she rubs your backside.

Confused you turn to look at her, and then she asks.

“Who do you belong to?”

And you frown, she has never done anything like this. Your silence is loud, but louder is the sound of her hand slamming against your bum. The sound that leaves your mouth is inhuman, and the pleasure that rips through your body is enough to set you on fire.

“Answer.” She replies.

You are still trying to recover from what just happened and utter a moan.

“What was that?” Smack, the sound is loud and the stinging is so deliciously building something within your core.

“Ajak…” You shout out.

“Yes?” And you squirm around trying to free your hands, but she just leans her weight down to hold you in place before letting her hand fall on your behind once again. And you want to scream.

“Hush. They can hear you.” She whispers in your ear, her breath hot.

You blush violently, she continues to spank you as you squirm around with soft whimpers.

“Who do you belong to?” She sounds so calm in contrast with the storm she’s created inside of you.

“You! I belong to you!” You finally cry out, and she presses you further into the mattress.

“Good girl.”

“Ajak, that was-“

“Foreplay.” Her hands massage your pain in soothing circular motions.

And without warning she inserts two digits inside you. Her pace is quick; she has places to go. You know she wants to finish you hard and fast. And you are a whimpering mess, squirming around as she lets go of your hands to wrap her arm around your waist to hold you in place. The speed on her fingers make you feel on edge, hotter and desperate for release. You are soaking and the room is filled with wet sounds as she fingers you. You grasp onto the pillows trying to suffocate your moans.

Then you feel that tight knot on your inside explode into different directions with hot waves of electricity. You see stars behind your eyes. And a loud moan is silenced by the pillow you’ve been holding onto for dear life. She leads a hot trail of kisses from the side of you back and up to your shoulder. You take a moment to turn around and once you do you find her staring right back at you. You smile at her, and she brings her fingers to her lips and inside her mouth to clean them off. You whimper softly before she pulls you close.

She kisses you softly as you recover from and even your breath. After a few minutes of just lying there as she holds you — and kisses your lips, your nose and your forehead —  you cup her face to get her attention.

“You don’t have to be jealous.”

“I know.” She smirks. “But it was fun.” And with that being said she gets up leaving you there naked. She turns to give you one last smile and disappears through the door. You take a quick shower knowing everyone will know what happened. And when you are ready to leave you open the door to find Kingo, Sersi, Makkari and Druig waiting for you.

“Oh, fuck.” You throw your head back embarrassed and annoyed.

“Oh, fuck, that’s right.” Kingo says, and Sersi smacks him. “We are traumatized just so you know.”

“We wanted to make sure you are okay.” Sersi says.

“Yeah, we heard some stuff.” Druig chuckles, and Makkari hits him.

We were wondering if you’d like to join us for dinner. We wanted to introduce you to Thena. Makkari signs trying to distract you from your embarrassment.

You nod just to get them to leave, but you do follow them downstairs. And you know, that everybody knows. And you want to die when you take a sit at the table with a very noticeable wince. Kingo snorts, and you look at Ajak mortified. She is so fresh like nothing happened, minding her own business and serving the food. She gives you a soft peck before sitting next to you. That is enough to make everyone stop staring at you. And you are both mortified and strangely pleased, and luckily for you nobody mentions anything. But lesson learned: make Ajak jealous more often.

[marveloustimestwo]

Hello, can I request a fic with a yandere love triangle in which the reader is friends with platonic yandere Sprite, and loves romantic yandere Druig, but the reader thinks he likes Makkari and doesn't know he likes them back, until Makkari sets the reader up with Druig, so Sprite feels betrayed, since she befriended the reader over the fact that they both had unrequited love, so she lashes out, and Druig takes the blow for the reader (figuratively) and confesses? ik it's specific, but thanks!

Thank you for the request! It was fun to write!

Warnings: Yandere themes, manipulation from Sprite, depictions of fighting, mentions of Sprite using her illusions on Reader and threatening them with a knife. (Please tell me if I need to add more)

To be completely upfront, Sprite was probably the reason it took so long for you or Druig to realize your feelings for one another.

Sprite's a hardcore manipulator and viciously possessive of her darling while also being very smart.

She saw long before you did that Druig liked you back. But before that, you two had already bonded over the fact that both of you had unrequited love.

You thought that Druig loved Makkari while Sprite knew that Ikaris would never love her in the way that she wanted him to, and especially not over Sersi.

You're her sibling, the person who understands her more than anyone in this world. You understand her pain.

But once she realized that your love isn't so unrequited, she feels the threat of a metaphorical dagger.

Et tu, Brute?

She can't lose you now and not to Druig of all people. So Sprite does everything she can to keep Druig away from you.

This means hammering in the idea that Druig and Makkari might have feelings for each other in your mind.

That walk they went on seemed very romantic (in reality, Makkari wanted to coach Druig on how to woo you away from the others.)

That fancy and pretty ring Makkari's wearing is awfully nice. Sprite had seen Druig giving it to her earlier. (Instead Makkari had just been showing him this cool new artifact that she wanted to take back to the ship.)

Just harmless, platonic stuff that Sprite twists into romantic gestures between the speedster and the mind-reader.

Anytime you get close to clearing these things up or confessing, Sprite butts in, acts all innocent, all while knowing she just ruined the moment.

All to make sure you stay her best friend forever, thinking that you two were the unrequited love buddies.

After years and years, you live in ignorant bliss. Or ignorant pain, I guess. You think the person you're in love with is in love with another, but hey! At least you have your best friend, who also suffers from unrequited love, so it can't be all bad.

Sike!

The guy you love loves you back, obsessively and achingly so, and your best friend also obsessively loves you (but in a completely platonic way) and has been sabotaging your relationship with the said guy so that you'll never have anyone besides her.

Very complicated, and it only came to light because sweet, sweet Makkari has been having to listen to Druig complain for the past couple thousand years about how you don't love him back.

She's very tired. She even locked herself back onto the ship with her artifacts just to stop hearing about it.

But it all comes to a head when the Emergence comes to light.

After all of the Eternals reunite, Makkari finally manages to get some time alone with you and figures out that both you and Druig like each other.

Makkari figures that maybe before the Emergence happens, she can use the coaching she already put Druig through and finally get him to confess.

But before that can happen, it's quickly pushed aside by what Ikaris has done.

The group descends into chaos. Sprite, who is already terrified by the idea of you and Druig becoming a couple, sides with Ikaris and begs you to come with them.

That is cut short when Thena interrupts, and they are forced to leave.

Don't think Sprite's letting you go, though. Again, she's a hardcore manipulator. She's going to try to bend your long-term friendship with her into making you stay with her and Ikaris.

Considering how possessive she is, Sprite probably either followed you around after the Eternals split or made you follow her. It's a thousand-year bond, one she won't hesitate to manipulate if it means you'll stay with her.

If you reject her still, for Druig, for the other Eternals, or for humanity, she will lash out. Even going as far as brandishing a knife at you and using her illusions to try and get you to side with her.

It's only until Druig steps in and knocks her out with a rock that it comes to an end.

Sersi puts the Celestial to sleep and it's finally time to deal with Sprite.

Druig really gets the good end to this story. You two are now in a happy relationship after Makkari set you up, and you aren't really bothered by his obsessive tendencies after what Sprite did (she was more harmful compared to him, or you might not see his tendencies at all)

And Sprite gets the choice of becoming completely human and leaving with you and the other Eternals on the starship, or she becomes human and stays with Kingo on Earth.

She may get to reside on the starship and see you, but that will never repair the relationship you once had. Especially since Druig is hellishly protective over you, and will stand guard over you during every interaction you have with her.

He may honestly push Sersi to make Sprite stay on Earth, just to lessen the chances of her hurting you and your relationship with him (which won't be hard when her past actions are brought up.)

[mushroomlupin]

Given Purposes: Chapter Two

A Druig x fem!Reader series

given purposes masterlist

summary: There's a new threat on the planet and the remaining Avengers need help taking it down. Y/n, who's a new addition to the team, is able to wield the planet's elements. She was kidnapped as a baby and experimented on by HYDRA until she was rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. at nineteen years old. Defeating this new threat will not only reveal information about the planet, but information about Y/n that she'd never gotten the answers to before.

warnings: brief swearing

a/n: I'm sorry it took a while to release the second chapter! I had finals and some personal shit went down, but I should be releasing chapters more frequently now :)

word count: 2,472

Masterlist & Ao3

“So, you’re an eternal being?”

All of you sat around her, confusion and suspicion written on your faces in a series of furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.

“Yes,” she answered simply.

“Then, why didn’t you help us defeat Thanos?” Bucky asked, interrogating the mysterious woman.

“It wasn’t part of our mission; we were only allowed to intervene with humans so long as Deviants were involved.”

“And what’s your mission now?” Sam spoke.

“I think that the creatures that were in Manhattan were Deviants, but I’m not exactly sure why or how they’re back,” she explained. “As an Eternal, I can help stop them, but I may need the help of the others by my side.”

“The others?” Sam asked.

She looked at him. “The other Eternals.”

“Prove it,” Wanda commanded. “You mentioned that Eternals each have a special power, right? I want you to prove it.”

There was a ballpoint pen sitting on the table. Sersi eyed the writing utensil before reaching over and grabbing it. You watched closely as she held the pen which suddenly turned into a pile of salt before your eyes.

“Holy shit,” Yelena muttered.

“So, how do we defeat the deviants?” Bucky voiced.

“They went back into hiding,” Sersi began, “So we’ll need to come up with a plan before they attack again. In the meantime, I’ll find some of the others. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

You all exchanged looks before your eyes landed on Sam. He was the new leader of the Avengers, after all. He called the shots.

“Where are the other Eternals?” Sam asked.

“Thena and Makkari left on our Domo to find others like us and Phastos will most likely want to stay with his family in Chicago. I can find Druig and Kingo; Kingo’s residing in Los Angeles and Druig said he was going to France the last time that I saw him.”

“Didn’t it take all of you to stop that emergence, though?” Yelena interrupted.

Sersi shook her head. “There were a few of us that didn’t take part in stopping Tiamut’s emergence. And besides, these are just Deviants.”

Sam stood up. “Bucky, Y/n, and Wanda will go with you to find the other two available Eternals. Yelena and I will stay here in case anything else happens while Bruce does some research. He might be able to figure out where they came from.” He looked at the rest of you, the Avengers, in the room. “I’ll contact Clint and Rhodey, and Bruce will try to get ahold of Strange to see if he has any idea what this all means.”

Everyone stood from their chairs and began filing out of the conference room. Sersi walked beside you.

“And you’re…”

“Y/n,” you answered.

She gave you a warm smile.

“It’s lovely to meet you,” she admitted. “Are you a new addition to the Avengers? I’ve never heard of you before,”

You nodded. “I joined a year or so ago. It’s a long story.”

“I understand,” she said. “Anyway, we should leave here as soon as possible. You and the others should pack your things immediately, and I’ll consult Sam about our options for travel.”

You went to your bedroom, grabbing a duffle bag and filling it with clothes and necessities like your toothbrush, deodorant, tampons, your journal, and a few books. You kept your cellphone in your pocket, laced up a pair of shoes onto your feet, and returned back to the others. You spotted Bucky and Wanda, also carrying their belongings in bags.

Sam had told Sersi that the four of you were going to take one of Stark’s jets that the Avengers took whenever they needed to. A trusted pilot was contacted and wouldn’t take long to arrive at the compound. The four of you headed outside, waiting where the jets were. You sat down on the pavement, bringing your knees to your chest. You felt a presence next to you.

“You nervous to fly?”

You looked to your left to see Bucky mimicking your seating position. You shrugged at him. He knew you’d never flown in a plane before, let alone a private jet.

“It’ll be fine,” he assured. “They’ve got these comfortable chairs on ‘em, you can sleep the whole time if you’d like.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Did you bring our journal?”

You nodded.

“Good.”

You were excited, yet nervous at the same time to travel. You’d never been anywhere besides HYDRA, the S.H.I.E.L.D. location in New York, and the Avengers Compound. Seeing more of the world was something you didn’t think you’d get to experience this soon. You weren’t even sure where France was located. The pilot arrived shortly after and the four of you piled into the jet after him. Bucky was right: there were comfortable-looking cushioned chairs that reclined. You chose one, Bucky picking the seat across from you, and pushed the drawstrings of your sweatshirt to provide a darkness for your eyes. Slumber was something that didn’t come very easy for you, but knowing that your best friend sat across from you, that he would be there to protect you and keep you safe no matter what, made your mind slip into a dreamless sleep.

You awoke after a few hours, drank a water bottle from the fridge inside the jet, and ate a bag of chips which had also come from the jet–there was food and water stocked in case of an emergency, which made you thankful after forgetting to pack some. Bucky had your journal in his hands, seemingly writing in it. You wondered what appeared in his dreams this time. You shrugged to yourself before, looking out the window. You watched the clouds float by as thoughts about the world began to swim around your head. There was so much curiosity inside of you that you felt fit to burst with it. So many questions you’d most likely have learned in school like normal people; What were clouds made of? Why was the sky blue? What was civilization like before things such as private jets existed? Was planet Earth created? You wouldn’t ever tell anyone, but Google became an addiction for you since leaving HYDRA. When you weren’t training or attending meetings, you were searching the answers for questions that popped into your head at random.

Two more naps and another bag of chips later, the jet had arrived in France. The jet landed on a plane runway of some sort.

“Grab your belongings,” Sersi announced. “Unfortunately, I’m not sure how long we’ll be here. Druig is…unpredictable.”

As you grabbed your duffle bag and followed the others out, you were told there was an Uber waiting closeby. It was a ten minute walk to the black SUV, but it felt good to stretch and move your legs after sitting on the jet for so long. The vehicle brought the four of you to a hotel and when you got inside, Sersi ordered two hotel rooms with two beds in each. Bucky and you had agreed to sharing a room whilst Wanda and Sersi would share the other. You headed to your rooms, which were conveniently right next to each other. You picked your bed, tossing your duffle bag onto it. Sersi walked into the room.

“It’s time to find Druig.”

Another Uber arrived at the hotel to pick the four of you up and bring you to an apartment building.

“You’re sure this is where he is?” Bucky asked, knitting his eyebrows together as he examined the building.

“I’m positive,” she confirmed.

The apartment building wasn’t ideal and it certainly wasn’t what you would expect a being like himself to reside in. Walking up two different flights of stairs, you’d reached an apartment with the number 174 on the door. Sersi knocked on the door, her knuckles tapping three times against the wood. It took about three minutes until the door swung open.

“What a surprise,” he began, smirking. “Is the world ending again?”

“How have the Deviants come back? I don’t understand,” he pondered.

“Me neither,” Sersi agreed. “But, I need your help defeating them.”

He smirked.

“Do you, now?”

Sersi crossed her arms.

“Druig, this is serious,” she warned. “Makkari and Thena are still on the Domo looking for other Eternals and I don’t want to pry Phastos away from his family again. You, Kingo, and I are all that’s left of us.”

He nodded his head to where you, Wanda, and Bucky were seated.

“And what about them?”

“They’re the Avengers. I asked for their help, because I know that they can help us–especially if this is something bigger than just a few Deviants.”

He paced around the small living room, his hand holding his chin as he thought to himself. You looked at Bucky, who seemed just as confused as you were.

“While you’re here, you should visit my favorite coffee shop downtown. It’s marvelous,” he teased, changing the topic.

“These Deviants destroyed Manhattan,” Wanda hissed. “Haven’t you seen the news?”

“I did, actually,” he retorted. “I saw your two little Avenger friends attempt to fight them off. It was quite hilarious.”

“That’s why we need your help,” Sersi urged, standing up from the sofa and walking toward him. “Please, Druig.”

He shrugged.

“Fine. I suppose I’ll help, but only because you asked so nicely.”

A visible weight was lifted off of Sersi’s shoulders. But before anyone could say anything else, her cell phone went off, notifying her of a text message she’d received.

“The pilot just messaged me, saying that the jet needs fuel before we fly to Los Angeles,” she said.

“Great, you can experience the lovely culture while you’re here,” Druig gibed.

Bucky leant over, bringing his mouth to your ear.

“I hate this guy.”

“Don’t we all?” you whispered back.

The five of you began discussing the possibilities behind the Deviants’ return. Sersi suggested it had something to do with someone named “Arishem”, to which she had to explain who he was to you, Wanda, and Bucky and what his role was during the emergence.

“Maybe HYDRA has something to do with it?” Bucky suggested.

“What’s HYDRA?” Sersi asked.

Whilst Bucky began to explain HYDRA’s influence on your lives, a sudden presence next to you made you nearly jump.

“I can’t read your mind.”

It was Druig, whom you had yet to speak to.

“Pardon?” you asked.

“I can read his mind,” he pointed to Bucky, “and I can read her mind,” he pointed to Wanda, “but I cannot read yours. Why is that?”

You shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

He examined you, his eyes squinting, until you could almost feel him trying to pry into your mind. As if some sort of invisible power of his attempted to grasp at your mind, but it was entirely blocked, warding off his power. The suspicion written on his face told you that this had never happened to him before.

“What are you?” he marveled.

You weren’t sure what to say nor how to respond. Being raised and experimented on by HYDRA for nineteen years made you unsure if you were even human at that point. Was Wanda classified as a human? The both of you had your own conjurable powers–did this make the both of you something inhuman?

“I-” you were able to stutter out before Bucky cut you off.

“She’s a kid, that’s what she is,” he growled. “And she doesn’t owe you an explanation for what she’s been through.”

“I was curious is all,” Druig confessed.

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Well, keep it to yourself, alright?”

“I do wonder,” Druig began. “Why are you so protective of her, hm?”

Bucky’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“Is it a romantic attraction?” he questioned.

“Of course not,” Bucky defended. “She’s practically a child, man. She’s like a sister to me.”

A pit grew in your stomach. A child? Was that what the rest of the group thought of you as? Yelena wasn’t much older than you, but you didn’t hear anyone calling her a child.

Sersi cleared her throat, distracting you from the spiraling thoughts in your head.

“I think it’s time we go back to the hotel and rest before we leave in the morning.”

There was an uncomfortableness that lingered in the air as the four of you made your way out of the apartment, into another Uber, and back to the hotel. Once you and Bucky had returned to your shared room, not speaking a single word to one another, you grabbed your toothbrush and used the complimentary travel-sized toothpaste the hotel left for you to use. Bucky came up behind you and began brushing his teeth as well.

“We need to talk about what happened earlier,” you blurted, spitting the toothpaste out and rinsing your mouth with the water from the faucet.

“What about?” he asked, clearly oblivious.

He mimicked you, spitting the toothpaste out and rinsing his mouth before he left the bathroom. You followed after him, watching as he settled into his bed. You took a seat on the edge of the mattress.

“Why’d you call me a child?” you questioned. “Yelena’s not that older than me and, to be fair, neither is Wanda, but neither of them have been called a child or a kid like me.”

Bucky frowned.

“Because you’re twenty years old, you are a kid in my eyes, and that prick was accusing me of being romantically attracted to you.”

Heat began to rise to your cheeks.

“Is it that much of an embarrassment for someone to like me?” you fretted.

He shook his head violently.

“No, of course not, Y/n. But, you’re young and I’m one hundred and six years old, so I don’t think that would fly very well in the media,” he joked.

You weren’t in the mood to laugh at one of his stupid jokes. He understood this as he sighed and put a hand on your shoulder.

“You’re a beautiful girl, Y/n. I know that everything you’ve gone through can make you feel real shitty about yourself, because, believe me, I feel the same way too. But, you’re an amazing person and you’ve got this light that shines within you even through all of the trauma that you’ve endured,” he professed. “You’re such an incredible soul and anyone would be so lucky to have you as a partner, I mean it. I thank God everyday for bringing you into my life, because you’re just that fuckin’ special.”

There was only one other time when you’d hugged Bucky, but you knew that his speech had called for a bone-crushing hug. You squeezed him against you, holding onto him as though he was your lifesource.

“I thank God for bringing you into my life too,” you admitted.

* * *

tag list: @lexiwoods @three-eyed-snail @saturn-barnes @wolfieellsworld @loki-is-loved @neobanguniverse

[collabwithmyself]

I am absolutely in love with catperson Phoenix and Thena. ESPECIALLY Phoenix cause I wanna see how you do that story wise, is it slow transformation from gradual recognition of shared NT/catperson traits? Or is it just “oh wow my friend who is a catperson does things that I do a lot maybe we are Same?” and then overnight POOF catperson? Idk and I wanna find out.

Okay so Cathena is new and I am still formulating thoughts about it and I absolutely want to do her justice. BUT I ACTUALLY HAVE. BIG THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FELINIX BRANCH OF THE AU. This is mostly copy-pasted from Discord please bear with me

good evening lads i have an extremely self indulgent au of the au

it's that phoenix is also a catboy but like. not fully fledged yet? as an allegory for not realizing you're neurodivergent until you're well into adulthood because you masked too well and/or nobody recognized the signs

phoenix started the realization process as a kid when he realized he was really similar to miles and the two of them understood each other better than anyone else did, but it kinda ground to a halt once miles moved away and he started masking

the few inhuman traits he did develop can be easily ignored, or downplayed as something humorous. (as someone with adhd, playing your symptoms for humor so they're more palatable to the people around you, whether consciously or not, is VERY common!) he doesn't actually realize there's something up with him.

Phoenix carefully cutting his food so nobody realizes just how damn sharp his teeth are and starts asking questions (they're just like that naturally? Leave him alone?), and playing off the fact he can wiggle his ears as a weird party trick

He'll accidentally do work in a nearly completely dark office because. He can see in the dark. And he'll scare the crap out of Mia or Maya because his eyes shine and they otherwise didn't notice him in the dark room

He just doesn't realize how weird he is, and he gets panicky whenever people point out that he's weird. But he's weird in a funny way, so it's fine, right? It's intentional, right? There's nothing really wrong with him, right?

Every so often there's cracks in the mask, especially when Phoenix is left alone, because his abandonment issues are made so much worse with his RSD, but that means no one else is around to see these cracks

But the mask starts plain falling apart after he's disbarred and crashing hard, suffering even worse than any neurotypical person would due to his RSD and trauma, and it slips enough that Miles in particular can start to see the cracks and questions if he's really neurotypical

Phoenix starts stimming more obviously when he's alone, is low on motivation, unknowingly self-medicating by drinking sugary grape juice to help him stay collected

But he's happier when Miles and Trucy are with him and he can engage with them, even if he's struggling to keep himself collected, and still trying to support Miles through the whole "accepting his cat side" thing even though he's in pretty serious distress himself

As Phoenix spends more time with Miles during his disbarment and starts being comfortable with sharing behaviors, his mask loosens further and further... and the more physically odd he becomes to match his mental walls coming down

He starts making unnatural noises and doesn't even really notice between Miles's own vocalizations and Trucy being able to mimic sounds. He gets distracted while playing with Miles to help him blow off steam, because for some reason he really wants a turn with the toy himself. He keeps zoning out while focusing on one specific thing, and when a noise interrupts him he jumps high enough to clear the coffee table.

He chews his nails a lot, but he could swear they're growing in sharper. He doesn't know if it's just him being cranky from lack of sleep, or stressed about Kristoph, but it feels like his hearing is getting more sensitive, or at least provoking more of a reaction. His ears are starting to itch uncomfortably, and his back is more sore than ever.

Eventually he puts two and two together. But. It scares him. His life is already so goddamn weird and this is only gonna make it so much harder!

Like. Accepting you're neurodivergent and recognizing your behaviors is a scary thing. Because it means accepting you're not "normal" and will never be able to fit in with society, and most people aren't going to understand you or even make the effort to try. And being visibly neurodivergent in public can be humiliating and even dangerous. People treat you differently when they find out you're not neurotypical, they look down on you and can sometimes get verbally or even physically violent.

So he's fighting against this realization and hastily trying to remask himself right when he's on the verge of this breakthrough, and it's putting him in so much discomfort and pain because he's right on the verge of a transformation. He can't revert, he can't undo what he's already learned about himself, so he's stuck like that because he refuses to accept it.

Miles can see Phoenix is in pain and withdrawing and it scares him, he doesn't know what to do or what's happening and Phoenix won't tell him

He has to approach Phoenix and coax out his thoughts - his fears of being different and being recognized as such, his worries that nothing will ever be the same once he finally puts a name to what's different about him, that he can't go back to the way things were when he was in blissful ignorance of himself

And Phoenix wouldn't wish this hiding on anyone and he hates that it's a necessity for Miles in order to be taken seriously

And Miles, completely clueless regarding the physical aspect of all this, assures Phoenix that he is always going to have loved ones that will fight to be there for him and understand him, that he's fought so hard to understand Miles and create a space for him where he can be open with himself and it's only fair if Miles does the same, because Miles cares so so much about Phoenix.

It's so hard to be understood, but there are people willing to meet Phoenix halfway, to understand him and help him function and give him the space he needs to be his most authentic self. Phoenix is neurodivergent and that is not a bad thing. He is loved regardless, and though the world will be harsh to him, he is deserving of love and understanding.

And poor Phoenix, huddled up in his blanket, being nuzzled awkwardly but comfortingly by Miles, a purr rumbling through them both... he just. Breaks down.

...and then there's an unsteady whisper of a sound, vaguely like a car engine trying to turn over, starting and stopping and starting again.

Miles listens closely. The awkward noise is coming from Phoenix, he's almost sure of it. He asks if Phoenix needs any water, and he coughs awkwardly, responding that he's fine. The noise stops, but... Phoenix is tense.

Miles asks him if he's alright, if he's doing something wrong. Phoenix is quick to shoot that down - Miles is fine, doing his absolute best, and Phoenix appreciates it - but... Changes in behavior aren't the only thing that have been plaguing Phoenix. Maybe it's all a coincidence. His ears don't itch anymore, and his back feels better... maybe it's just all in his head?

Miles is like. Phoenix. What are you talking about. And Phoenix is like uhhhh

Miles reaches up and slowly removes the blanket from over Phoenix's head.

And two soft, triangular ears spring up from his spiky hair.

Miles stares. Then, hand trembling, he gently brushes his fingers against one. It flicks and swivels, and Phoenix lets out a questioning trill, one Miles himself has made dozens of times.

They both freeze.

...Phoenix starts to tear up again.

Miles pulls him into an awkward hug and he sobs into his chest, terrified and relieved and so so confused. When Miles begins to purr again, his own shaky purr tries desperately to match it, new and rusty and awkward. A bottlebrush tail snakes hesitantly from beneath the blanket, and Miles's own sleek one intertwines with it.

They're the only two in the world quite like themselves, but Phoenix has spent years aiding Miles to be himself, and Miles will be damned if he doesn't return the favor to the one he adores most.

[softquietsteadylove]

Spicy Thenamesh Doctor AU!

In the ambulance!

Thena inhales between kisses, "I should go."

"Why?" Gil whispers, and she's not sure if he's being a tease or if he's really asking. His hands are still on her waist, under her scrub top just to feel her bare skin.

"Because I'm on call," she laments as Gil continues to kiss her neck with that very talented mouth he has. "And if we get interrupted neither of us are going to be very happy about it."

"Hm," Gil muses, seeming to almost consider her argument until he pulls her shirt up a little bit more. "It's been a quiet night. I don't think they'll need you in the next...fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen, hm?" she laughs faintly as she does a very poor job of pushing him away. In fact, instead of pushing against his chest all she manages to do is bunch up the material in her hands as she paws at him.

"What can I say," Gil chuckles as he pulls her scrub top and shirt off in one clean swipe. "I'm feeling adventurous."

Thena gasps as he does away with her bra just as easily. He's a bit of a sucker for her boobs, but she doesn't mind. Her spine tingles as he toys with her nipples. "Fifteen minutes worth of adventure--and not a second more."

"Yes, Doctor Thena."

"Wh-!" Thena squeaks as Gil flips them around, letting her brace herself on the inside of the wall while he slips his hand into her scrub pants.

His fingers are immediately in her panties, swirling around the wetness that was already collecting from their make out session and soon pushing in two at a time.

Thena lets out a long, loud groan, "Gil!"

"Sh, baby," he croons in her ear, leaning over her shoulder as he fingers her as if they're horny med students getting caught in a stairwell. "I'm just warming you up."

She's already more than overheated, thank you.

Thena bites into her bottom lip as his fingers move in a beckoning motion inside of her. He always knows just what to do with her. Every once in a while she'll wonder if Gil has always been this proficient a lover or if there's something unrealistically special about her (and her with him). But she doesn't really want to know the answer, so she always forgets it part way through.

"Come on, sweetheart," Gil whispers, moving his fingers faster, holding her hips with his other hand.

Thena whimpers, her knees buckling as she comes around his fingers. Gil likes things hard and fast or he likes sweet, slow love-making. There's never an in between with him. But she is likely to get both in one evening, if they have the time.

Gil pulls his fingers from her slowly and gently, careful of her tender sensitivity. He pops his fingers in his mouth as he moves her to sit on her knees on the ambulance bench.

Not before her pants find a way under and around her knees, leaving her ass out entirely. She whines at him, "have to clean this."

Gil kisses the back of her neck, under her ponytail, "I had to clean it before the next shift anyway."

Thena moans again as Gil braces her hips back against his. He seems so sweet and docile in nature, but she's quickly learning that he's ready to fuck at a moment's notice. She pushes her hips against his.

Gil pushes into her and immediately starts rocking his hips. The ambulance is shaking faintly from them both pushing against it with their palms meshing clumsily. Gil's hand covers hers, "fuck, baby."

"Fuck," she whimpers in reply, echoing his statement. Gil from behind just as a certain...feel to it. He's thick in all the right places--for her, at least. It's like they're made for each other! Not that she needs to be that sappy when he's fucking her in an ambulance up against the wall.

"Kinda hot though, right?" he asked, and she just knows he has that devilish grin on his face. Like when he's asking her if she's left any of her panties in his car by accident (just so Kingo doesn't find them, he says, but she thinks he just likes embarrassing her a little).

"Gil," she drawls, trying to sound like she's scolding him for it, even while he's inside her. She listens to the creak of the bus metal and groans, "not now."

"You're right," he purrs, and she knows she's about to get truly and deeply railed. He picks up one of her thighs and angles her hips differently, "I have more important matters at hand."

Thena's jaw drops open as his hips crash into hers. He holds her thigh up, careful of the tightness in her hip flexors (because of course he is). "Gil!"

"Shit," he pants, basically hugging her thigh to his chest, "you close?"

"Yes, I'm close, fuck--I'm close!" She lets her knees - or one knee, rather - go in preparation. Gil catches her at the waist which grinds them together even more closely and firmly. She comes.

"Fuck!" Gil bellows in response to her coming around him, pulling him to follow. His hips buck against hers.

She moans, all of her muscles becoming useless. She might as well be a pile of gauze on the floor, she has so little bone structure left. She whines.

Gil lets her leg down gently and pulls her into his arms. He kisses her forehead, as if he wasn't just rocking the ambulance so hard she feared it might topple over. "You okay?"

"Hm," she purses her lips, eyes still closed but wiggling in his grasp. "I told you to carry some with you."

"Well, I can't exactly keep 'em in my pockets, hon."

No, maybe that isn't the kind of thing an EMT needs to have that on hand at all times. Thena pushes against his chest, "towel."

He tosses one to her, "we don't really keep them in here, either."

Thena rolls her eyes, using the towel to clean herself up as best she can. No, there isn't much of a need for condoms in the ambulances. But still! "Gilgamesh."

He chuckles, kissing her cheek as she offers it to him for his part of the cleanup. He sighs as she pulls her bra back on, "fine, I'll keep some somewhere on me from now on, okay?"

She huffs as she tugs on her regular t-shirt first and then her scrub top, "y'know, I changed my mind. Maybe the rule is simply no more sex while we're at work."

Gil has the audacity to give her a smirk, "you really think we can stick to that?"

She turns and crosses her arms, warmth in her cheeks, "I'm not talking about the call rooms!"

Gil comes over to her again, leaning over her hunched shoulders and kissing her hair, "okay, honey, whatever you say."

She rolls her eyes; he'll be extra affectionate (unprofessional) tonight. "I've got two more hours on call. Just behave for that much?--if you can, that is."

He gives her a mocking salute as he opens up the doors for her to make her escape, "yes, Doctor."

She purses her lips at him.

He blows her a kiss, "see you soon, dear."

She sighs, turning around to make her way back into the Emergency Room. With any luck, she can avoid Ajak and the accusation that she was using her break time to rendevouz with Gil...again.

[kawaiionnna-moved]

Wish I were Junie

Okay so it’s basically a song prompt fic based on the song Heather by Conan Grey https://youtu.be/GPUg7n8-M6o

December third. The Wright Anything Agency office was cold. The heating wasn’t working, and one window was stuck in an open position. Athena was at her desk, reading through a case file when something hit her in the face. It was a red polyester jumper. She moved it from her face, looking up at the person who’d thrown it at her.

“I can see you shivering from here. Put that on.” It was Apollo. He gave her a smile before turning back to focus on his own case file. Athena slipped on the jumper, feeling how warm it was. A blissful smile appeared on her face, taking a moment to curl up into the warmth of the jumper. Apollo glanced up at her. “It suits you. I think it might actually look better on you than me.” He laughed, causing Athena to laugh softly too. After a moment, they both turned back to their separate case files. The pleasant silence that had fallen over the pair was soon interrupted by a gentle knocking at the door. “Come in.” Apollo called to the person on the other side, who opened the door and revealed herself to be Juniper Woods.

“Hi Thena. Hi Apollo.” She came in, smiling at both before walking over to Apollo’s desk. The two of them had been spending more time together recently at Athena’s suggestion, and were now evidently close. “You ready to go?” Juniper asked Apollo, her back turning to Athena. Apollo quickly shuffled the files on his desk into a pile and got up from his desk.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” He grabbed his coat from the coat rack and put it on before turning to Athena. “Mr. Wright knows I’m leaving early. I promised Juniper I’d help her with some shopping. He informed her. Junpier gently held his hand, and he held hers back in response. Athena could sense the strong happiness from Juniper when he did. “Keep ahold of my jumper, just return it tomorrow or something.” He said, noticing she was still wearing it. He already had his coat on, and he didn’t want her to be cold still.

“Alright. See you tomorrow Apollo. Bye Junie.” Athena smiled at the pair and waved to them as they left the office. The second the door closed, Athena’s smile dropped entirely. She caught the scent of Apollo’s aftershave on his jumper. Somehow it made her warm inside, but also sad.

The next morning, Apollo and Athena arrived at the office at the same time. They’d run into each other on the way, so had just come the rest of the way together.

“Stop!” Trucy practically shouted as they came in through the door. Phoenix didn’t appear to be in the office, so it was just them three. Athena stopped, stepping slightly to the side so Apollo could enter too. “Look up.” Trucy instructed, making no effort to mask the smile that so desperately wanted to escape. Both Apollo and Athena looked up, and noticed it at the same time. A piece of mistletoe.

“Y-you don’t have to if you-“ Athena started to explain that he didn’t have to kiss her if it made him uncomfortable, but Apollo did it anyway. He cut her off with a kiss. Athena’s face turned as red as Apollo’s suit, but she quickly decided to kiss him back. It just felt right to her.

“Let’s agree not to tell Juniper about this.” Apollo said quietly as he broke the kiss. Athena nodded, her hand going to her cheek. It was warm and tinted red. Apollo decided to make some coffee. It was pretty cold outside. At least the cold gave Athena an excuse for the somewhat obvious blush. “Would you like some coffee, Athena?” Apollo asked as she took off her coat and sat at her desk.

“Yeah, thanks Apollo.” She didn’t look up from her desk as she replied to him. She was just idly on her phone when a text appeared. It was from Trucy, which she found rather strange considering she was basically next to her. She opened the message, and was instantly met with a picture of her and Apollo kissing. Trucy must’ve just taken it. She didn’t want to smile at it like she was. She almost wanted it, but she knew she couldn’t. Juniper loved Apollo after all, Athena could never do that to her best friend. Widget displayed a sad dark blue as Athena turned her phone off and started to read the case file that had been left on her desk.

Light rain began to fall as Athena, Apollo and Juniper walked through the busy high street. The trio had gone Christmas shopping together, and Athena couldn’t help but feel like a third wheel. Apollo and Juniper had been flirting pretty hard most of the time. She was happy for them, but she was admittedly a little jealous. She just couldn’t help it.

“Apollo, I’m starting to get cold…” Juniper told him, wrapping her arms around herself. The wind was starting to pick up, hitting them with an icy wind and cold rain water droplets. Apollo took off his jumper and held it out to Juniper.

“Here. Put this on.” He insisted. He had a second one on underneath, so he would be fine. Juniper thanked him and took the jumper, slipping it on. Athena felt a pang in her heart as she remembered Apollo loaning her the same polyester jumper back in the office just a few days ago.

“It’s really warm.” Juniper commented softly, snuggling up in the jumper. Apollo laughed softly, putting his arm around Juniper’s shoulder as the wind picked up. Athena shivered, her own jacket not being enough to keep her warm. She was starting to get overwhelmed with everything that was happening. She had to get out.

“I think I’m gonna head home…” Athena told the pair, interrupting their moment. She tightened her grip on her bags, digging her nails into her palms. “It’s so busy here, I’m starting to get a little dizzy.“ She forced a smile, burying her sadness.

“Oh, you sure?” Apollo asked, a little disappointedly. Athena nodded her head, but the feeling of his bracelet tightening on his wrist told Apollo a different story. “I’ll see you at the office Monday then.” He didn’t press it now.

“See you later, Thena.” Juniper smiled and gave Athena a small wave. Athena turned and walked away quickly before they could see the tears pricking her eyes. Emotions had always overwhelmed her, but rarely were they her own.

The party was in full swing, ready to celebrate the new year. Apollo had been with Juniper most of the night, and was ready to ask her out. They were close, and he liked her. It just made sense. He pulled her into the kitchen, where Athena and Trucy were getting a drink.

“I wanted to ask you something.” Apollo told Juniper, his voice loud so it would be heard over the music. Juniper looked at him with an innocent smile, oblivious to what his question could be about. “Will you be my girlfriend?” He asked, fiddling with the end of the knitted scarf Juniper had made and gifted to him.

“Yes! Absolutely!” Juniper was beaming, her smile as bright and happy as the sun. She jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly and kissing him. Athena slipped out, her own heart breaking inside. She was supposed to be happy for Junpier, yet all she could feel was a deep sadness consuming her heart. A moment after she left, Phoenix and Maya entered their kitchen.

“You guys alright?” Phoenix asked, interrupting their moment. Juniper broke the hug quick, her face flushing with shy embarrassment and her hand grabbing on to Apollo’s. He laughed awkwardly and held on to her hand in return.

“Yeah. I just asked Juniper to be my girlfriend and she kinda said yeah…” Apollo decided to confess. He was over the moon about it, but it felt a little embarrassing to be caught by his boss.

“Aww! Congratulations!” Maya smiled brightly, congratulating the pair. Trucy meanwhile pulled Phoenix aside to talk to him about something. It was important and couldn’t wait.

“Daddy something’s wrong with Athena. She looked really sad a minute ago.” Trucy’s voice was only loud enough for Phoenix to hear her over the music, even with her speaking a few inches from his ear. She’d noticed it as soon as Apollo had asked Juniper to be his girlfriend, and thought the two were linked.

“Alright. I’ll go check on her.” He told Trucy, patting her head before leaving the kitchen to go find Athena.

Athena held her arms tightly around herself as she looked up at the night sky from the small balcony she had gone to for a moment of privacy. She wanted to compose herself, or at least push her sadness down, before heading back into the party to celebrate Juniper and Apollo getting together at last. She was lost in thought when the door opened and Phoenix came on to the balcony.

“You doing okay Athena?” He asked her, standing beside her. She nodded, leaning on the wall and continuing to look up at the sky. He could tell she wasn’t alright though. Her demeanour, Widget displaying a dark blue colour, and the two psyche locks that had appeared all told him she wasn’t alright. “Trucy said you suddenly looked really sad earlier. It was… it was when Apollo asked Juniper to be his girlfriend, wasn’t it?” He decided to press it gently and break the psyche locks. Athena tensed up, closing her eyes and looking down. “Something about that is upsetting you.”

“But it’s not supposed to!” She snapped, Widget turning red around her neck. She looked up and turned to Phoenix, folding her arms. “They’re my friends, and I’ve known Juniper liked him since she met him. I’m supposed to be happy for them… but…” the anger disappeared, leaving only sadness behind again. She sighed and shook her head, not saying anything else.

“You’re not feeling how you think you’re supposed to feel.” Phoenix summarised. Athena’s arms dropped to her side as the first psyche lock broke. Phoenix had an idea where this was heading, but he didn’t want to make an assumption. He also couldn’t shy away from the truth, even though it could hurt. “Be honest, how does it make you feel?”

“I’m happy for them! I really am. I mean, it’s what Juniper wanted, and they both always look happy together.” She turned away, instead leaning on the railing. It didn’t take a genius to see Athena was diverting the topic away from herself. Phoenix leant on the railing beside her, shaking his head.

“No, how do you really feel?” He repeated himself a little clearer. Athena wasn’t as happy as she claimed to be, and the psyche lock was still present. She went silent for a moment, looking down at the patch of grass below the balcony before speaking.

“I feel… sad… and a little jealous…” she confessed. She hadn’t realised it herself just yet, but it was starting to come to light. The reason she felt that way about Apollo and Juniper’s relationship.

“Why do you think you feel that way?” Phoenix’s voice was calm when he spoke. That admission hadn’t broken the psyche lock, but maybe the reason she felt sadness and jealousy would. Athena was silent for a minute, which to her felt like an eternity, as she thought about it.

“I… I l… lo… I love him.” The psyche lock shattered. Tears were threatening to spill from Athena’s eyes. It only came to her as she said it. She loved Apollo. She was jealous because she loved Apollo. She was sad because she’d lost him. No, she’d practically driven him into Juniper’s arms. “I’ve really messed up, haven’t I?” Her voice was barely audible over the music from inside.

“I…” Phoenix wasn’t sure where to go from here. Trucy had never had problems like this, so he was completely inexperienced. Still, he knew he had to comfort Athena. “Do you need a hug?” He offered, opening an arm to her. She looked at him, some confusion mixed into her sadness, but was quick to move closer and hug him. He put his arm around her and rubbed her back comfortingly. “I can’t pretend to know what you’re feeling, but I know how it feels to have my heart broken. Trust me, you’re gonna be okay. Sure, it sucks now, but you’re a strong young woman. I have no doubts you’ll be just fine.” He told her. She was silent, just hugging him and trying not to cry.

The time was three am. The party had long ended, and Athena was laying on top of her bed. She couldn’t sleep. Now she was alone, he was letting her tears out. In her arms was a picture frame with the photo Trucy had taken of her and Apollo kissing under the mistletoe inside. She set it down and forced herself to sit up, starting to idly braid her long hair which was now loose. Widget was dark blue around her neck still. She got up and walked over to the full length mirror on the wall, staring at her reflection. She was wearing just a pink nightie, her ginger hair in braids and makeup smeared all over her face, which to her only made her look like an uglier version of Juniper. More tears spilled from her eyes. It all felt so unfair.

“Wish I were…”

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Witches, Chapter 26: back in the courtroom, and everything’s coming up as a shitshow, which is honestly how it always goes. Welcome to hell, Athena.

The second trial day of Themis is one of my favorites because there’s both Blackquill being entirely done with everything, and him showing for the first time that he’s got a bit of a heart left. Good shit.

[Seelie of Kurain Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

[Witches Chapter Masterlist] [ao3]

---

Juniper sits on the lobby couch, her hands cradling a lone large sunflower that Athena brought her, watching Athena interrupt her pacing with jumping jacks. “Shouldn’t you take it easy, Thena?” she asks. She was rather green about ten minutes ago, but assured them that it was just the iron and stress of jail that left her that way, and that she would look properly human by the time she would stand before the judge and gallery. And in the elapsed time her skin has settled in its hue, if paler than she was yesterday, her fear still apparent. 

Athena whirls around with a wild glint in her eyes. The tired bags beneath them accentuate her crazed appearance. “I’m taking it easy! I’m fine! I’ve gotta get - be - ready to go!” She jogs in place; she hasn’t had both feet on the floor since she arrived. 

“Did you get enough sleep last night?” Apollo asks, knowing the answer is no. 

“Sleep? Huh?” Athena finally stops moving. “Yeah, sleep! Yeah I totally sleep! I’m fine!”

She sounds like him on his worst days. “That’s not exactly what I asked,” he says. Juniper stares back down into the center of the sunflower. “Maybe let’s just drop it. We’re not inspiring much faith in our client.”

“No,” Juniper says. She looks up. “I have complete faith in you, Thena.”

“O-oh.” From Athena’s face, she’s wondering if that faith is warranted. Apollo will make sure that it is. For both the girls’ sakes. 

“Guten Morgen.” All three of them jump. Klavier chuckles. “Ready to put on a show?”

“Do you have anything about the tape?” Apollo asks. Despite his best efforts, he had found himself wondering when this was all going to come crashing down - if somehow Prosecutor Blackquill would find out and put a stop to it, or if somehow it couldn’t even be proven that the tape was fabricated—

“And not even a ‘hello’ to start with!” Klavier says, still cheerily; he can’t really have expected anything else from Apollo, could he? There’s a trial starting in fifteen minutes and Apollo doesn’t know anymore who he thinks is the killer. “A bit rude, don’t you think? And nonetheless, I have a good-luck present to you both.”

“Guten Morgen, Prosecutor Gavin!” How did Apollo end up stuck with two people like this? Apollo’s probably more fluent in Khura’inese than they are in German (and for Athena, Spanish or Italian or French…), but he doesn’t go around flaunting it like he’s so worldly and cultured. (And he wouldn’t do that even if Khura’in wasn’t something he wishes he would forget.) “Do you have something for us?”

“Of course I do, Fräulein. I could hardly just leave one as lovely as yourself hanging, now could I?” Apollo rolls his eyes, hoping Klavier sees it. Klavier offers to Athena a small stack of papers. “There you are. A summary of the voiceprint analysis, proving that the voice in the tape is most assuredly, exactly the same clip as spoken in the mock trial.” Athena rifles through the pages. “You’ll also notice that there’s still analysis ongoing - hoping to discover what was originally on the tape before it was turned into fabricated evidence. It might give us some other clues, ja? But unfortunately we don’t know much more at this point than the length of the prior recording.”

“Well, maybe that could still help out, somehow,” Athena says. “Thank you! And—” She frowns. “Is this a second copy of the same thing? Wait, this one’s got more information about—”

“About the logistics of the analysis and who precisely down at the precinct was working it,” Klavier interrupts. “That packet is for Herr Samurai. I did not think you would appreciate me tipping your hand to him beforehand, but I imagined there might be more that Herr Prosecutor would like to know to be sure that you are not the ones inventing this wholecloth.”

Klavier made the same warning yesterday when they first discussed this. “Do you think he would?” Apollo asks. “Accuse us of that?”

“Hm.” Klavier considers the question for longer than Apollo would like, idly snapping his fingers. Athena retreats to the couch to discuss their new evidence with Juniper. “Truly, I do not imagine so. He plays a very threatening game, but when it comes to it he seems quite reasonable.”

Apollo thinks about Mayor Tenma’s trial, Blackquill’s dirty tricks that nearly forced the mayor into a false confession. “You and I have different standards of reasonable,” he says. Maybe he means relatively reasonable, that there’s so many other prosecutors who are even worse. 

“Perhaps,” Klavier agrees, “but Herr Samurai could be the most reasonable man and I would nonetheless leave you with this document trail.” His eyes, stormy blue and unwavering in their hue this entire conversation, but Apollo doesn’t remember whether or not this color is the Sight, harden. “I would hate to see your integrity as a lawyer called into question, especially over evidence that I offered you as assistance.” His jaw tightens, thinking, no doubt, of what Apollo has continued to think about since he arrived at Themis. With Phoenix.

This also seems like the most emotionally honest Klavier has been all week. “Thanks,” Apollo says. “I—”

—appreciate it, the sentence means to end, but movement behind Klavier catches Apollo’s eye, and the doors that lead out into the hall thump suddenly shut. “Hey!” Apollo calls. “Who’s—”

“What’s going on?” Athena asks. “Who’s there, did you see?”

“I don’t know,” Apollo says. “It might have been Hugh.” He thinks he saw a bit of the dark blue of the Themis uniform there. “Eavesdropping to figure out our strategy, no doubt.”

“I would expect him not to be the only one,” Klavier says, glancing back over his shoulder. “The cardboard paparazzi and the prosecutor Fräulein are rather nosy themselves, wouldn’t you agree? I’ll go chase them down and make sure they cause no further trouble for you.” He flashes a casual grin, as light and easygoing as he ever tries to be, but it is undercut for Apollo, and Apollo alone; Vongole materializes from the air next to him, red ears pricked and nose pointed at the door, her head held level with her shoulders. A creature ready to stalk, ready to hunt, to pounce, and Klavier barely turns for the doors and she springs, plunging through the door like it’s just a projection. But Klavier, when he gets to the door, without much haste, has to open it, reminding Apollo that it’s Vongole who doesn’t adhere to the physical world, not the door.

What’s she going to do, herd the wayward Themis students back around toward Klavier? Can she even do that if they can’t see her? Can she make them see her? God, Apollo hopes that corralling them is all she’ll do; Klavier’s got control over that hellhound, right? He does, Apollo’s seen that. No need to worry about that. Focus on the case.

(Apollo’s still going to worry about that.)

“Apollo, you ready?” Athena asks. 

“Yes!” Focus on the moment, the evidence, the trial. Forget Klavier and his haunted dog. “I’m Apollo Justice and I’m fine!” He feels better already, and a shaky grin draws across Athena’s face. “Okay, your turn. Ready?”

“I’m Athena Cykes! And I’m fine!”

-

“Ms Newman and Mr O’Conner have recanted their confessions made before yesterday’s adjournment, but you may expect, Your Baldness, to see them again in this courtroom, as I intend later to determine if they should be charged with perjury.”

Apollo has come to think that most of Blackquill’s lauded so-called psychological manipulations are really just brute intimidation that he pretends has more finesse than he actually does. Despite that, the question he finds himself with now is whether or not Blackquill is in as cheery of a mood as he is acting, grinning as he catches the court up on all that has progressed on the prosecution’s side of things. “Ms Woods likewise attempted to recant her confession, claiming it was made in the heat of the moment to” - he rolls his eyes, as if the disdain dripping through his voice wasn’t already making his opinion on the matter clear, and Athena’s expression hardens - “protect her friends, but given that she is already and continues to be the one on trial, that changes little of our situation.”

She did confess, didn’t she? In the midst of Robin yelling and Hugh interrupting, Juniper confessed too, trying to stop her friends from ruining their lives for her. And if he presumes Juniper is innocent, which he has to, because she’s their client, then that means when she confessed to murder, she lied; plainly and wholeheartedly, she lied. Which means that even someone half-fae can lie. 

“Very well,” the judge says. “And the photograph submitted yesterday of the victim and the defendant together minutes before the—”

“Unfortunately, we will find that evidence no longer relevant,” Blackquill interrupts. He is still smirking, even while forced to refute the hand he played yesterday. If this is an act, to unnerve Apollo, it’s working. Or if he’s genuinely amused, then it’s probably because he’s got something new up his sleeve that makes him not concerned with all the ways his case collapsed yesterday. “The art room clock runs fast and will not give us an accurate measure of the time. ‘Tis a pity for our time to have been wasted as such, but the bungling oaf of a detective responsible for overlooking this fact will assuredly be paying for his failure.”

Athena winces. “Poor Fulbright,” she whispers. 

Is Blackquill angry that he thinks Fulbright should have seen it - or is it misplaced anger, Blackquill sure that he would have noticed had he been on the scene investigating and angry that he has to rely on Fulbright, instead. (Is that why they keep spotting traces of Taka around? Blackquill thinking he can’t trust the observation skills of the detective? Taka didn’t notice the clock, either, for whatever that’s worth. Probably not easy for the bird to get into a building. How does it get out of jail?)

“Now,” Blackquill says sharply, and the flashes of mirth he showed a minute ago have vanished. “Today, I intend to prove to you that the accused is the only person who could have moved the body. And to that end, the prosecution calls its first witness.”

-

Hugh O’Conner did assure Athena that he would be testifying today, and true to that word, he takes the witness stand first. His claim is that he saw Juniper moving the high-jump mat that would’ve been needed to move the body without bruising it; he claims to have seen this from a vantage point that would have been impossible, until Blackquill obliquely reminds them of the crane that was present the night of the murder, as involved in the stage setup. This makes sense - the weird thing about it isn’t the statement itself, but Hugh’s reaction to it. He looks pained, clutching the side of his neck in a way Apollo has come to notice him doing each time he is stressed and struggling to regain his footing in an argument. 

“That’s - you’ve said enough, Prosecutor Blackquill!” Is Hugh trying to plead with him or threaten him? Neither, Apollo thinks, is liable to work. “You promised!”

Blackquill laughs, a harsh sound from the back of his throat. “Did I?” he asks. “I recall nothing of the sort. What I do recall is that you came to me blubbering about making a deal that I would keep quiet in exchange for information, but you should have taken care to extract that promise for me before you went ahead and offered me your every secret like a blithering fool.”

Blackquill has a way with words that leaves Apollo incredibly worried about the fates of everyone who is in any way involved with him. Like he’s just waiting for the opportunity to snatch away the souls of anyone who isn’t careful who dares speak with him. Is that part of who he is - what he is - or is it one of his actual psychological manipulations? And is it the witness he means to scare with his phrasing, or the defense? 

“Ah, well, if Golden Boy will not take the chance to lift the weight of truth from his shoulders, then I will tell you,” Blackquill says. Hugh, with his hand still clapped tight to his neck like he’s trying to staunch the flow from a wound, makes a kind of undignified whimpering sound. “He was up in that crane, and not simply mucking about there for fun. He does, rather, work part-time as a crane operator.”

“A high school student!” the judge exclaims. “Operating a crane!”

“No!” Hugh snaps. “The prosecution - there’s no proof that I was operating the crane! The prosecution might be lying!”

Blackquill laughs, and makes no move to argue. “I don’t know where this is going,” Athena says in a low voice, “because this is the point that Prosecutor Blackquill wants to make, but…” Louder, she adds, her voice ringing across the courtroom, “I bet we can prove it was you.”

Which they do, for whatever good it may or may not be about to do them, and the judge is still hung up on a high schooler operating a crane, rather than what Hugh would or wouldn’t be able to see from the vantage point of the crane, but Hugh splutters and protests about how brilliant and talented he is and that’s why. Blackquill watches him, smirking, waiting for his failure of an argument to trail away into nothingness. Hugh goes silent halfway through saying something about practicing archery one-handed, and Blackquill’s smirk splits open into a grin. “Dispense with this inane charade, Golden Boy.” He doesn’t wait for Hugh’s response and continues speaking over the witness’ begging. “Now, we will establish, for the sake of argument, that the age range of high school seniors ends at the upper limit of nineteen - still, legally, too young to operate heavy machinery. That, however, does not apply to Mr O’Conner, does it, now?”

“But he is a high school senior,” Athena says. “Are you saying he’s not around that age?”

Blackquill slams his palm on the bench. “Indeed, he is not. Golden Boy here is twenty-five.” The serious expression that he held on his face for a fraction of a second breaks down into raucous laughter, punctured by his further slapping the bench in uncontained amusement. Apollo really doesn’t like seeing him in a good mood. He’s only ever entertained by someone else’s bad fortune. “He took a seven year break from his schooling!”

They all had secrets - Juniper, Robin, Hugh. The courtroom is quiet; is it ever this quiet after a revelation, without a breath of murmured shock. “Eh?” Athena utters faintly. “Come again?”

“Twenty-five,” Blackquill repeats gleefully. He nods to Taka and the hawk snatches up a paper in its talons, launching itself into the air and making straight for the judge. “All in the school’s official paperwork, as you will find.”

“Twenty-five?” Apollo echoes, sure they’re all going to ask this in turn, a round-table of disbelief. “He’s - he’s older than me?” He’s not good at eyeballing ages, he knows that, and he knows that everyone always thinks him baby-faced and younger than he is, and Hugh could be like that. People in their twenties all look all over the place. How’s anyone to know? But on the other hand, what twenty-year-old, after taking a gap year for seven successive years out of high school, would want to go back to high school all over again? Apollo sure wouldn’t. But maybe instead of going to college to be a lawyer, Hugh went back to a lawyer high school because those teenagers are at his same maturity level.

(Solid burn. If he didn’t get heckled every time he was the slightest bit snide to a witness, he would say it out loud.)

“Seven years?” Athena asks. Blackquill might as well just go over the entire situation again, if they’re all going to ask for clarification on each and every tiny point. “But since you’re such a genius” - she does a remarkable job of not sounding wholly derisive when she says it - “wouldn’t taking a seven year vacation make you boring real quick?” She pauses, frowns, playing her words back in her head. “Make you bored.”

Her first one was probably correct, too. Does Hugh know how to have a conversation that isn’t about his own greatness?

“Heh.” Hugh’s recovery from his shock tips him back into the smugness he always seems to carry. “There’s the dull mindless vacations you ordinary plebians take, and then…” He falters, for a moment. “Even geniuses make mistakes,” he says, resuming with an entirely different thread of argument. “The ones I make just, you know, lost me seven years.”

Rising in Apollo’s stomach is the same kind of fear that Blackquill’s particulars of phrasing invoke. “Er, Mr O’Conner,” he begins, ignoring the shock that Athena sends his way, and bracing himself for the way everyone in the courtroom is going to respond to the utterly insane question he is about to ask, “are you actually, like, actually twenty-five, or just - you know, legally, that it’s been twenty-five years since you were first - you were born.”

He knows that at least half of the gallery is going to think he’s an idiot, have some perception of theirs confirmed about how lawyers are all schooling and no sense in their heads; even Athena stares like he’s just lost his mind. Hugh, though, blanches, his whole body tensing and his shoulders drawing inward. Blackquill’s cuffs clank as he hits the bench and Hugh flinches and nearly falls over with fright. Apollo jumps, too. He’d forgotten that Blackquill as much as anyone would hear this question and would get to respond to it in his typical magic-denying ways.

“What a question, Justice-dono,” he drawls. Apollo raises his chin defiantly. It’s a good question, because all the world around them is crazy. “No doubt a matter first brought to your attention by the rather unique situation of some other golden boy of our acquaintance.” His eyebrows raise and his mouth twists in amusement. Apollo’s heart skips and then stops. How does Blackquill know? It seems unlikely - though technically possible - that Klavier would have told him; the alternative is that Blackquill knows enough to know, to realize, when it took even Phoenix several strokes of luck and coincidence to piece it together. Blackquill shouldn’t be saying this. He shouldn’t know. And why of all times choose this as the moment to drop his pretense of disbelief? To psych Apollo out some more? To give Klavier, up in the gallery, a slap in the face for helping Apollo and Athena?

“But suffice to say, we will find that an irrelevant question,” Blackquill continues. “What matters is the legal age of the witness, that has so allowed him to work the discussed job as a crane operator. He was, therefore, up in the crane with the vantage point to see the accused dragging the mat in preparation to move the body. You must agree how clear this is, and that there is no need to deliberate this much any further.”

Oh. Right. Juniper. This is, after all, her trial, and the reason they have gone down this strange road still has to do with her case, and what she did or didn’t do, and Hugh did or didn’t see, on the morning that the body was discovered.

Back to the fight.

-

Hugh lied about ever seeing the body on stage.

It’s an utterly incomprehensible lie, in Apollo’s most just and honest opinion; it’s also one of a host of shady moves Hugh has made. Though the blood Juniper saw on his hands was his own, from trying to sneak a look at the mock trial script and instead finding Myriam’s spring-loaded razor blade-protected script envelope, and her suspicion against him in that regard can be discounted - well, there’s still his grades, and this, about the body.

If the body was moved during the mock trial - moved in fact at the moment Phoenix and Athena heard the shattering of the statues on stage that drew them outside to discover the body - then Hugh and Robin have airtight alibis, on the floor in front of a crowd for the whole mock trial. Apollo had his eyes on them the whole time. But Juniper, ever-multitasking Juniper, the conductor of her show, the only person alive at that time with all the secrets of her script, was not always down on the floor playing the defendant. She was up at the back of the hall in the sound booth, moving back and forth even during Professor Means’ speech. At any of those times, she could have slipped out to the art room, to send Courte’s body to the stage down the banner wire.

All they’ve done is help Blackquill build a more convincing case against Juniper, so convincing that Apollo can’t find within him a single point to dispute. They missed something; he knows it, he has to know it, he has to believe it to the end. But where? Can he object on the grounds that they need to know why Hugh lied about seeing the body? Would Blackquill let that stand?

Hugh starts to laugh. Hugh starts to laugh in the broken, hysterical way of a killer cornered, except he’s about to get away free with Juniper’s verdict. “Behold my brilliance!” he cries, his words breathless and interrupted by his own frantic, frenzied laughter. “Listen well as the rare genius of Hugh O’Conner reveals to the world the secrets of his perfect crime!”

Apollo looks at Athena. Athena glances back at Apollo. “Er,” she says. “What? Why’s this - why again?”

Because this, the wild confessions, happened yesterday too. To hell with this trial. Hugh appears feverish, his hair matting to his forehead and neck with sweat, his eyes darting all around the courtroom, jumping from Apollo and Athena to Blackquill to Juniper and never settling on any of them. “The murder, moving the body, the cover-up, all my works of genius! My great and perfect crime, bow in awe and stand to arrest me! I am confessing, am I not? You have your killer here!”

“Is he serious?” Apollo asks. He’s afraid he is. He’s seen too many other people unravel in this same manner, but the game was up for all of them. Hugh’s game - what the hell is his game?

“I think he’s serious,” Athena says. “Serious, and seriously suddenly cracked.”

“Enough!” Blackquill snarls. Taka shrieks in an angry echo. “You have a perfect alibi, not a perfect crime! And you dare to stand here and further act the mad fool to delay this trial from its inevitable outcome!” He fixes Hugh with his dark eyes, but this time, Hugh doesn’t shrink away. That is definitely stupidity, not bravery, on his part. “I will have no mercy for you should you not this instant stand down.”

“I will never!” Hugh shouts back. “I have testimony that will prove to you, the utter perfection with which I always act! You’ll doubt me, but in truth I used a body double at the mock trial! It wasn’t me at all, not about to lose and not with the alibi! I, the real me, slipped out and had the run of the campus! I moved the body, I’m the killer, and Juniper’s innocent!”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Athena says. 

“I must ask of both the defense and prosecution,” the judge says. “Does this testimony make any sense at all, in the slightest?”

“No,” Apollo answers. 

“Oh, good,” the judge says. “I thought I had just become suddenly, extremely confused.”

“The witness is the one suddenly, extremely confused,” Blackquill says. “And it would be charitable, to call him confused, instead of saying, for instance, that he is a bloody lunatic.”

“You’re a witch, aren’t you?” Hugh demands. As though to make the point for him, Blackquill’s eyes flash silver. “Don’t you know anything about doppelgangers? You know, changelings getting switched for people? You think creatures like that are not okay with being an accessory to crime?” A sour taste gathers in Apollo’s mouth. He thinks of Vera, of Kristoph, of Klavier in the gallery, that life-shaping trauma turned into Hugh’s latest desperate lie in the service of - what? To what end? “I had a—”

“Enough!” Blackquill roars, and it is, indeed, so much more of a bellow than his usual low snarling interruptions. Athena lets out a small scream and stumbles back into the wall behind them. Even Hugh shrinks toward the witness stand, seeming to recognize that he’s taken this impossible declaration a step too far. “That you know such words to use them does not mean you have the damndest understanding of what they truly entail!” He slams both fists in tandem on the bench, and Athena clasps both of her hands over Widget to muffle its surprised swearing.

“You claim familiarity with the concepts as part of your mad gambit, make a mockery of the gravity of such matters, and call me to my face a witch as though that would convince me of the veracity of your statements - yet you never pause to think that perhaps whatever I am, I also bear the ability to see through your pernicious bullshit.” Hugh’s mouth flaps open, and he shuts it without a word. “Spare this court your lies,” Blackquill continues. He has stopped yelling now, his voice merely as low and deadly as it ever is. “There is only one of you, as there ever has been - as is most fortuitous for us, as you the sole dunce as you are have made more than your share of trouble, and another of you would be far more than unbearable.”

Hugh’s mouth opens again like a fish deprived of water, but it seems to Apollo that Blackquill’s outburst has drawn to its close. “Shit,” Athena whispers, her and not Widget this time. “I’ve never heard him that angry.”

Have they? He has been furious at Fulbright, over stupid witnesses, over cases. Professional anger. This is different; this seems a personal chord, and a very disharmonious one, struck, and painfully enough to drop the game he’d made of it prior, denying right to Apollo’s face that monsters, yokai, and magic could ever exist. And is it painful to him the way it infuriates Apollo, on behalf of someone else, or is this another clue in the puzzle, the question, of what is Prosecutor Simon Blackquill?

“Now,” Blackquill says, his calm and his smirk returned, “Your Baldness, where we left off. The verdict.”

“But it’s - hey! Defense!” Hugh, gripping the witness stand, turns on them next. “You have that weird device, don’t you? For crazy testimonies like mine?”

“Widget isn’t weird!” Athena protests. Apollo could object to that. “And I’m not going to waste him on something this plainly ridiculous—”

“We don’t have any objections otherwise,” Apollo reminds her. “The only thing left otherwise is the verdict. There’s nothing worse that can happen from giving this a shot.”

“Oh,” Athena says, blanching as she realizes that she was about to let the trial reach its verdict and damn Juniper to prison. She clears her throat. “Well,” she says loudly, “against some of my better judgment, I would like to conduct a short psychoanalytic session with the witness.”

“As a judge, I feel this to be beyond my better sense as well, yet I also do not feel as though I should deny you.” The judge glances around the courtroom, pondering what must be yet another in the Wright Anything Agency’s long, long line of unprecedented incidents. “Well, then. Prosecutor Blackquill, I will ask your opinion. I trust you have no object… ah.” 

The courtroom doors slam, seeming to rattle the whole room, and rattling Apollo even more is the empty prosecution’s bench. “Ah, Your Honor,” says one of the bailiffs by the doors, eyes still blankly fixated on where they closed. “The prosecution said, and I quote, ‘Rubbish! We will be out on a stroll’ and left, Detective Fulbright with him.”

At least he isn’t loose unsupervised, but holy hell, is there nothing that Blackquill can’t get away with? (Nothing short of murder, anyway.)

“I must suppose he would have lodged an objection in his parting words if he took issue with Ms Cykes’ plan.” The judge nods once, and decisively. “Very well. Ms Cykes, you may proceed with your therapy session-slash-cross-examination.”

“You’re up, Widget.” Athena draws up the emotional analysis screen and over her shoulder, Apollo watches it load. He can’t help but find the whole process fascinating, no matter that he’s seen it before, and he wonders how many times he’ll have to see it until he gets used to it. Knowing that Athena has the little gadget taking pictures almost constantly doesn’t change his amazement with the way she can compile it all into new mock-ups of scenes discussed in the testimony, or how seamlessly she does it. A large part of him still isn’t sure that there’s not magic involved, somehow woven into the technology. “Now, Mr O’Conner, please repeat your testimony!”

Hugh inhales deeply, his eyes still darting about, like he’s suddenly trying to remember the spur-of-the-moment co-called “testimony” he blurted. “All right,” he says. “I’ll say this simple enough that even mouth-breathers like you can understand. I used a body double! That wasn’t really me at the mock trial! And it wasn’t really me who was about to lose, of course. I slipped out while my doppelganger handled the mock trial, and I had full run of the campus. So it’s me who’s the killer, not Juniper. She’s innocent!”

“Well, he sure wasn’t kidding when he said it was crazy testimony,” Athena mutters, swiping through the pages on which she lists each sentence of Hugh’s testimony and the associated emotions. All of Widget’s projected screens flash bright green, as it blares out the alarm that warns it is overloaded by the emotional input. How Athena, with her sensitive hearing, tolerates that sound, Apollo will never know. “Right now, we’re getting an overflow reading on happiness, which is weird, considering he’s confessing to murder.”

“Maybe he’s just delighted by how the rest of us can’t understand his brilliance,” Apollo says. “But I’m guessing you think there’s something more going on.”

“Mhm.” He can’t tell if Athena was listening or is just mumbling to herself. She flips back and forth between two parts of the testimony, too fast to actually be reading over the sentences again; her eyes follow the images that she has placed with the words. Then she finally looks up. “So, Mr O’Conner, yesterday you told us that you didn’t care at all about Ms Woods anymore.”

Apollo glances to the defendant’s chair, where poor Juniper looks distraught, red-faced from crying and now wide-eyed with shock, staring at Hugh. “That’s right,” Hugh says, about as smoothly as he’s managing to say anything now. A silent sob shudders across Juniper’s thin shoulders. “She told Professor Courte my secret, and I know she wants nothing to do with me now.” 

Juniper shakes her head, her mouth moving, whispering something Apollo can’t make out across the courtroom, but Athena probably could, were her attentions not rightly fixed on the witness. If he had to guess, had to bet on it, from the rest of her body language, she’s probably saying, that’s not true. 

“So now I don’t care about her either.” Hugh laughs dismissively, but his eyes still move uneasily, and his hand clutches his neck. He’s still lying. “What, you think my confession has something to do with her? It doesn’t! It’s about one thing, and that’s the truth, the truth that everyone in this courtroom was too inferior to figure out!”

“No, objection!” Athena slaps her hand to the bench, through Widget’s hologram screen. “This whole testimony, you’ve felt great joy - so much that I can barely hear anything else! You’re happy that you could play a part in setting Juniper free.” She draws her hand back and props her hands on her hips. “People usually don’t feel like you do when they’re broken down enough to confess to murder.”

“So then, this is another confession trying to protect Juniper?” Apollo asks. Meaning it’s a false confession, meaning Hugh isn’t the killer after all. Like Phoenix thought, against all the evidence, on a hunch.

“It is,” Athena says. “He does care about her, without question.”

But if not Hugh, they still don’t have any evidence of anyone else, and they’ve looped back around to—

The courtroom doors slam again. “Figured it out, have you?” Blackquill asks. He whistles sharply and Taka returns to his shoulder from wherever it was hiding. Taka was still in the courtroom, then? Apollo glances around, wondering where it went, wondering if Blackquill’s dramatic timing is perfect because he was following the whole conversation via the hawk left behind. He makes his way back to the bench, without any great haste, and scratches Taka beneath the chin as he continues, “That testimony was naught but a great tangle of lies. May we agree now that the killer is the one person permitted to move freely out of sight in the lecture hall - that is, the accused herself. We need not waste more time deliberating this nonsense.”

“But you haven’t figured it out!” Hugh protests. Blackquill’s face darkens. “The trick behind my body-double stunt!”

“Would one even presume it to be true,” Blackquill says dryly, but lacking even an ounce of amusement in the hard line of his mouth and his shadowed eyes, “you did tell us in the beginning how it was that you claimed to have a doppelganger.”

“I think I’m gonna agree with Prosecutor Blackquill on this one,” Apollo says. A small kernel of doubt has dug its way through his prior certainty, and he wishes that Phoenix had been the one to watch the mock trial, instead. He could have noticed - if he’d thought to look, and he would have, right? He’s that cautious or paranoid, right? - whether or not Hugh was the same person, and human, the whole way through. Apollo just knows that the Hugh in the mock trial didn’t stray from the bench, didn’t seem to disappear or slough eyes off of him for even a brief moment - and still, still he doesn’t trust himself to be sure. Not when the fae could be involved. “But if we quit here, then Juniper is found guilty.”

“So the best of the bad options is to play along,” Athena says. She quickly taps out a few commands with her gloved hand on the screen. “Okay, let’s see here. What else can we find out?”

Hugh’s continues testimony is just as rambling and confused as before, tripping over itself and tangling itself up in knots that will only snare Juniper deeper. It’s pathetic to watch him falling apart as he is: certain that Juniper is innocent but too afraid of the corruption in the legal system to believe that the plain truth can ever win out, and desperate for some affirmation that despite his grades being bought (without his knowledge, which Apollo notes is definitely interesting) his friends could still possibly love him. This is not Apollo’s field of expertise, but he has Athena, Athena with her ears and Widget, and she manages beautifully. He’d tell her that he’s impressed, but Blackquill has been waiting to pounce, and with Hugh recanting his confession, pounce he does. 

“This roundabout trial has returned us once again to the point I have been making: that the only person who lacks an alibi is the accused.” Blackquill folds his arms and taps a finger against his head. The chains rattle. “Consider that, Cykes-dono, and finally realize that your friend’s guilt is the truth you have so valiantly sought.”

“Did we really spend all that time getting nowhere?” Apollo asks. He casts his mind back over Hugh’s testimony. Doppelganger nonsense and more doppelganger nonsense; such useful information, all around. “This is exhausting.”

Athena isn’t listening. She frowns down at Widget’s Mood Matrix screen, which has updated to show that all of the emotions in Hugh’s voice have been cataloged and cleared, and it winks out of existence, only for Athena to immediately bring back up some of her case notes. “Hold on a minute, Your Honor, Prosecutor Blackquill.” She swipes the screen to display a floor plan of the lecture call, with the balcony seats for Courte and Means clearly marked. (Does the head of the prosecutions’ course not have enough seniority to join either of them in the balcony seating? Didn’t Phoenix say they all got fired a few years back?) “If we have someone else who doesn’t have an alibi, then we need to continue the trial, correct?”

“Of course,” the judge says. “But after so much thorough investigation and debate, can such a person even exist?”

“Where are we going with this?” Apollo asks Athena. He feels like someone scrambled his brains. 

She rests her finger above the marked defense’s bench in the lecture hall diagram. “Remember how Hugh has been insistent on seeing this balcony seat empty?” She moves her finger diagonally to point to the seat noted to be Means’. “He thought that was because it was Courte’s, and she was dead at the time. But it isn’t.”

“So if Professor Means wasn’t where he was supposed to be—”

“Your Honor!” Athena calls. “However roundabout this testimony has been, we have arrived at one statement of truth. That balcony seat was empty, meaning that Professor Means wasn’t where he was supposed to be during the mock trial!”

“Oh please,” Blackquill sneers. “The whole of the lecture hall heard him give his speech!”

“It bored me half to death,” Apollo adds. He doesn’t remember what was actually said, just that it became a buzzing in his ears within about forty seconds, as some leftover instincts from college assured him that there would be nothing worth remembering.

“It could have been pre-recorded, right?” Athena says. “Then the professor could have given his speech, while he was wherever else on campus!”

“Wait!” Hugh interrupts. “You don’t - are you seriously accusing Professor Means? He’s been trying to help this whole time!” Apollo doesn’t believe that, but he can’t tell if Hugh believes it, or if his nervous habits are now simple shock at where Athena has taken this case. “It’s crazy to say that he - I mean, he was the one who gave me the tape recorder to take to the police!”

“The tape?” 

Apollo asks at the same time Athena does, and they stare at each other; understanding and alarm start to dawn behind Athena’s eyes. “Athena,” Apollo says. “We have to get Professor Means on the witness stand.”

She purses her lips and nods decisively. “Mr O’Conner, did you just say that Professor Means gave you that phony tape?”

“Phony?” Hugh echoes. “No, I - he gave it to me and told me to go to the police and say I found it in the art room, but it’s not - what do you mean, phony—”

“And it didn’t seem suspicious for him to tell you to lie?” Apollo demands. This goddamn school, he swears - Hugh probably wouldn’t even have an issue with the lying, would have been sure that it meant instead that Professor Means had some kind of shady-but-ultimately-justified plan for Juniper’s defense, and who was he to question?

“Apollo, this isn’t the time,” Athena warns, her eyebrows drawing together. He follows her narrow-eyed gaze to watch Blackquill, his hand on his chin, smirking to himself, pondering something. Maybe whether he can add that to Hugh’s perjury charges. 

“Defense, please refrain from hurling unsubstantiated accusations as you are by calling the evidence ‘phony’,” the judge says. “Unless you can—”

“We can prove it!” Athena interrupts, smacking her palms on the bench like she’s about to try and vault it. “This tape we discussed yesterday, the voice of our client shouting ‘You’re a goner!’, was faked by reusing audio from the mock trial video! We have evidence about the, um, about the evidence!”

Taka lands on the bench, its head twitching back and forth, expectantly waiting. “Hang on, which one of these is which - here!” Athena offers one of Klavier’s evidence packets to the hawk, which blinks at her in almost acknowledgement before it returns across the courtroom to Blackquill. He intently studies each page in turn, the seconds passing in excruciating slowness as they wait for his response. On reaching the end, he tosses back his head, hair falling in front of his eyes, and lets out a loud, sharp laugh.

“Is there an issue, Prosecutor Blackquill?” the judge asks.

“There is not,” Blackquill says. Could’ve fooled me, Apollo thinks. The prosecutor makes a dismissive flick of his fingers and Taka, still with the papers clutched in its beak, heads off to the judge. “I concede that, as asserted and evidenced by the” - he forces out a cough and then loudly clears his throat - “defense, that the evidence on the tape was falsified.” Apollo has to stop himself from turning his head to glance up toward the gallery, wondering where Klavier sits. “However, are not the odds greatest that our lying dullard of a witness merely overlooked the professor in the balcony?”

“We can’t know for sure until we ask him!” Athena fires back. “We can’t overlook any possibilities!”

The judge strikes his gavel twice. “My opinion on the matter,” he says, when they have both fallen to silence, Athena glaring furiously at Blackquill, and Blackquill unbothered, watching Taka preen its wing feathers, “is that it would be premature to pass a verdict without having properly examined a possible witness oversight. And to answer that question, I believe it would be best to ask Professor Means himself, and therefore to call him as a witness.”

Apollo lets out his breath, but the tightness in his chest remains. This is the one guiding piece of advice that Phoenix gave: if you see the opportunity to get him on the stand, take it. 

Now they’re on their own. 

-

“Good afternoon. I would like to thank you all for being here today. This mock trial, the crown event of…”

Means’ speech was ten minutes long. 

Apollo forgot about that, honestly. 

They’re searching for some sort of hint that the speech was pre-recorded, some kind of discrepancy between his words and what they know to be true of the day. Athena assured Means that they weren’t accusing him of anything now, just wanted to be sure of the truth of the matter of the speech and the balcony seating - and she said it with her face drawn solemnly across, her shoulders held stiff and her hands squeezing into fists at her sides. She lied. She suspects him. They’ll be accusing him later. And Means at the witness stand loses his trademark smile to glower at Athena whenever she looks away. 

Blackquill pays no attention to anyone, his back to the court, his elbows propped up on the bench behind him, his head slumped forward. He had said - not really directed at anyone in particular - to wake him up when this was concluded. Apollo no longer thinks he’s joking, watching his shoulders rise and fall with the slow, steady breathing pattern of someone asleep. Taka, in imitation of its master, ducks its head beneath its wing.

Are neither of them actually going to listen? Blackquill not even try to assess the details for himself?

Apollo tears his eyes away from the opposite bench. The speech, focus on the speech. Athena’s hand flits over a blank Widget screen that she intended to use for notes, doodling flowers and swirls all across the edges. There’s a shape that Apollo presumes to be a bowling pin until she adds the beak to the penguin. She isn’t keyed in to the speech, either. It’s testimony, the worst kind of testimony, where they have to make it through an untold number of minutes of Means reminiscing about his own long-ago days as a Themis student, and how what he learned there became critical in his days as a real lawyer, before he returned again to Themis to instruct a new generation.

Was it in school that he learned that forging evidence worked, or was he like Phoenix, in a real trial back to the wall, nothing but that or losing? Are monsters born or made, and how are they made? What does it take to break an honest lawyer, if ever he began that way?

The video was to record the mock trial, not the speech before it; the camera in the lecture hall is fixed on the floor, the benches where Robin and Hugh stand, and the witness stand that Juniper travels back and forth from. They obviously can’t see the balconies - otherwise there would be an easy answer to this matter - but the audience is visible, students restless whispering to each other or leaning their heads in their hands or on their desks. Apollo wonders where he was sitting, if he can see himself. 

The judge’s head droops and snaps back up, guiltily glancing around to assess whether anyone else noticed.

Professor Means, on the recording of the speech that may have been pre-recorded, interrupts himself to snap at the audience to wake up. The judge’s eyes pop open, and something clatters like he knocked his gavel to the floor; Athena’s arm jerks across her notes page, scribbling across her penguin drawing. “I’m awake, I’m awake!” she yelps, turning panicked to Apollo. 

Blackquill doesn’t twitch.

This still isn’t even evidence that the speech wasn’t pre-recorded. If this is how Means always sounds, he would have known at this point, about eight minutes in, students would be nodding off. He easily could have scripted that for authenticity.

Athena adds angry eyebrows to her drawn penguin and adds what looks like a ball of lint next to it. Is that supposed to be a fluffy baby penguin? 

The audio ends with a click. Apollo registers that the words that ended the speech were words that heralded the end of a speech, and already he doesn’t remember what. He shakes his head to clear out the static. He was supposed to find something useful in there. Something that meant it was pre-recorded. He glances at Athena. Her eyes are huge. So she didn’t hear anything, either.

“Listen well, Cykes-dono - if you subject us to this torturous tedium without due reason, I shall have your head.” Blackquill still hasn’t moved. He slowly tips his head back and turns to cast a cold stare onto Athena.

“Didn’t he nap the whole time?” Apollo mutters, but Athena doesn’t seem to be in the mood for humor. And Apollo shouldn’t be, either. They’re this close to a turnabout, and this close to a loss. Trucy calls it his “tightrope defense act”, and he hates the descriptor even if it isn’t wrong.

“Hey! Apollo!” someone hisses. He expects it to be Trucy, just thinking of her, but when he turns, and Athena with him, there’s Phoenix, hanging over the edge of the gallery. “Catch!”

“Wh—” Apollo fumbles with the object Phoenix just tossed at him, finding the magatama in his hands. “Why—”

“Mr Wright!” the judge scolds, whackling his gavel several times in swift succession. “I’m sure you must want to be behind the bench, but please, this court does not want any liability should you fall and crack your head!”

Yeah, liability for the ankle injury he’d probably incur from that. “Sorry, Your Honor!” Phoenix calls back with a sharp grin, but he only leans further down. “Listen to the end again, Apollo. The last minute or so.”

“But why—” The magatama is for glamours, and glamours are on people, and they’re listening to a recording of Means’ speech, not him speaking directly to them.

“Exactly why you think - I’ll explain the details later, when—” Phoenix jerks backwards as Taka dives, talons outstretched, for his face. Several gasps and shrieks arise from the gallery around him. “When this bird isn’t around! Good luck!” He scrambles away, Taka in pursuit.

“So,” Athena says. “What—”

“Listen to the ending again,” Apollo says. He squeezes his fingers tightly around the magatama. Please, please, he thinks, without any idea who he is appealing to, give me something—

The words hit his ears with a sharper clarity than before. He can think now, his brain no longer buzzing. Even in this little bit, Apollo understands that most of Means’ speech was all fluff and no substance, all inane and nothing meaningful. And then the sign-off: “Once again, our pure white Lady Justice will watch over all of you today. Pay attention now and one day, with the wisdom of our grand academy and your own experience, you may make a difference. Now, let the mock trial begin!"

What’s this Lady Justice that he’s referring to? That was the statue Athena put back together on-stage, with Klavier, but there’s a very similar statue standing very apparent in the center of the lecture hall floor, right in front of the mock-up judge’s bench. A statue that is, however, very much not white.

“Athena,” he says, and her head snaps around in a startled way that says he just knocked her out of another boring speech-induced reverie. “I’ve got something.”

-

Not enough on its own, but together with Klavier’s evidence, and that only breaks Means down into a new set of lies, and worse ones than ever.

“Fine, yes. I had pre-recorded my speech, but I assure you, the reason was not that which you think.” Athena’s eyebrows disappear beneath her hairline and she casts a doubtful side-eye Apollo’s way. Means peers over his glasses at them and continues, “Ms Woods came to me asking that I should do so - record my speech - and come speak with her in the audio room during the opening of the mock trial. There, she told me that she had committed murder and wished that I would defend her. She told me as well that this would happen - the suspicion you cast upon me - as I lose my alibi with the pre-recorded speech, and thus become an accomplice or suspect.” His stony features relax. “But when I said that I would defend Juniper as her attorney, I meant it, because it was the humane thing to do.”

“He can’t be serious,” Apollo says. “There’s no way. This is all too contrived. But he’s good at coming up with bullshit on the fly.” Unless he thought ahead far enough, to this eventuality, and pre-planned the best lies to cover his ass.

“Juniper would never!” Athena shouts. “There’s no way! This is all a bunch of shit.”

“Allow me to be perfectly frank.” Means lightly taps the end of his staff on the floor. “Juniper has taken my teachings to heart. That I would prove her and her two friends innocent was the result she sought, and two that end, she threatened and coerced me, her professor, to do her bidding.”

“And I may only imagine that you found such ruthless tactics to be impressive and admirable,” Blackquill says dryly. Shouldn’t those underhanded strategies be right up his alley; shouldn’t he himself be impressed? As far as Apollo knows, he’s drawn the line at falsifying evidence, but there’s a litany of shady shit that he’s toed the line of. And the murder, of course. The murder that he did and was convicted of.

“Oh, yes,” Means agrees. “What she did was most clever of her, which is why I agreed to defend her. Her capacity for deviousness surprised me, at first, though the more I think on it the more I understand that I should have seen this coming.”

Athena folds her arms, glaring daggers at Means, but she’s gone strangely quiet taking in the lies rather than yelling back. What’s she thinking? What’s she waiting for? Apollo isn’t sure what he’s waiting for - Means to keep digging his own grave talking about his corrupt methodologies, maybe. Get him brought up on additional corruption charges after they prove him a murderer.

“It’s really the hallmark of her kind, is it not?” Means continues, and Athena’s mouth presses even tighter together. Blackquill tilts his head just ever-so-slightly to the side, barely more than a twitch, studying Means, and waiting. “This sort of cunning self-serving cruelty, so typical of the actions of - well. We shall say that anyone may be cruel, but there is a particular and exemplary manner of it displayed here that you will also find to be quite… fae. And rather more than in half as one could first assume of this defendant.”

“Pardon?” The judge blinks in shock. “I am not sure I understand the relevance that this remark holds.”

Does he not realize? Does he know, or somehow have these things passed him by every trial? Juniper shrinks into herself, her hands covering her face. “It has none, Your Baldness,” Blackquill says, his disparaging gaze turning from Means to Juniper. “And before your protest I had been about to lodge my own objection, that the witness had best stick to discussing what it is that the defendant has done, and leave aside that which she is.”

Juniper lowers her hands, her eyes wide, but Blackquill isn’t looking at her anymore. Was it her honor that he was defending, or that of the fae in general? His responses to fae-related remarks have seemed - like he’s taking them personally.

“Objection sustained, then,” the judge says. “Defense, I believe it is time for your cross-examination.”

“You’ve been rather quiet now, haven’t you, Cykes-dono.” Blackquill can’t resist one last taunt. “Something the matter?”

Athena inhales deeply. She places her hands back down on the bench, her shoulders squared and her eyes flinty. “I’m not going to argue on principles,” she says. “Some long-winded idealistic speech. I’m going to let my evidence, and my victory, do the talking.” She lifts her hands and this time slams them down. “You claim that you were lying to cover for Junie, but that’s a load of hot shit!”

“That language, in our fair court of law!” Means interrupts indignantly. “Your Honor, it is an outrage!” Apollo personally finds Means’ guiding philosophies about the uselessness of the truth, and his forged evidence, a lot more of an outrage, but what does he know.

“Ms Cykes. Having adjudicated your mentor’s first case back, I understand where this unfortunate habit of yours was picked up, but please, do try to not make this such a frequent occurrence that I must penalize you for it.”

“Of course, Your Honor.” She takes that better than Apollo expected, though Widget still glows red. “Now, if the court would please recall the audio recording, presented as evidence yesterday, that today we have established to have been faked. It was Professor Means who gave that to Hugh and whispered to go take it to the police. If you had Junie’s best interests at heart, Professor, why would you fabricate evidence that uses her voice? That is, it’s an incredibly damaging piece of evidence that shouldn’t exist if you had wanted to defend Juniper - as it is, it seems like you’re trying to pin the crime on her instead!”

Means lowers his eyes. Apollo isn’t naive enough to think that means he’s chastened, or is going to do anything but dig in further. “You’ve done nothing but lie, and you’ve taught nothing but lies!” Athena shouts. “Your road to hell has no good intentions!”

“How dare you!” There it goes. Means’ head snaps back up. He grits his teeth in a snarl. “Themis Academy is an honorable institution with a proud name and how dare you slander it!” He grinds his staff against the ground. The sound sets Apollo’s teeth on edge, and Athena claps her hands over her ears.

“I’m not slandering the whole academy!” she protests. “Just your terrible teachings! You—” Means reaches into his pocket, producing a piece of chalk, which he flings at Athena. “Ow! What the helllleck, heck, was that!”

“Pay attention, Athena!” Means speaks like this is a lecture hall, like he’s the professor in charge of a classroom and not a witness on the stand, and she some wayward student of his and not a defense attorney on a cross-examination. “You’re disappointing me! The murder occurred on the twenty-third sometime between six and eight pm. I was already home at that time! How could I have killed her?”

“Can you prove you had gone home by then?” Athena asks.

Apollo knows what the answer will be before Means says it - the shifting burden of proof, always to the defense. “Can you prove that I was still at the school then?” he asks, a furious pointer finger waved in her direction.

Apollo casts about for any option, and he watches Athena slowly lose hope, her confident posture falling away, her hands sliding off of her hips and her shoulders slumping forward until she lets her elbows hit the bench and prop her head back up. “No,” she admits.

“Very good! I appreciate your honesty, even as it fails your case.” Means is still in teacher-mode, and now Apollo wonders if it’s some sort of mocking of them that he’s attempting to do. “But given that—”

“Hey! Hold on a second, man!” 

Robin’s shriek could be an impressive rival to the Chords of Steel. She stands up in the front row of the gallery, leaning forward and peering down the drop to the floor, weighing whether she should just vault down, and deciding against it. She raises one hand and then rushes aside, leaving silence for several moments until she properly reaches the floor of the courtroom, where she places herself beside the defendant’s chair. Throwing her arm out in an imperious, pointed objection, directed at Means, she shouts, “I can’t believe I’ve let you lie to me all this time!” The Professor sputters indignantly, and Robin drowns him out with a roar. “I’ve got a confession to make! I can prove it!”

-

Of the statues on the stage, Klavier and Phoenix, Robin only had time to actually make the Klavier statue, the one that they put back together yesterday. Then the late bell rang, and Robin, without permission to stay on campus, asked Means if he could make the other statue for her. This puts him still at the school at the time of the murder, though he claims with the intensive work it would have taken to finish the artwork in an hour and a half, there’s no way he could have taken an instant to go to the art room and commit the crime. (Couldn’t there have been time after? Couldn’t the autopsy report’s window be off, have that wiggle room?)

Or there’s Athena’s objection, offered up without a thought, and then a few seconds after, she has invented a possibility. “What if we were all wrong about where the crime was committed?”

That’s one of Phoenix’s classic turnabout tactics. Apollo sees where she’s going; Means scoffs that she’s lost her mind, but Blackquill, glowering around the court at everyone in equal measure, very slowly says, “Continue.” When Means sounds about to protest, Taka alights from Blackquill’s shoulder and brings its fly-by so close that its talons rake through Means’ hair. 

The murder took place on the stage, the blood spilling onto the banners lying there. The Gavineers banner soaked up most of the blood, was wiped on the art room floor to create the other crime scene, and then burned to hide the evidence. The white Lady Justice statue they repaired during yesterday’s investigation came from the art room, sent down the banner wire to make some noise and lead someone to the body. The body, therefore, was hidden on the stage somewhere. 

How? At least a hundred people passed the stage on their way to the mock trial. What did it look like? Was there a crawl space under it that could be counted on no one to notice? What about behind it? Did they see it from other angles? Athena only has partial photographs, from up on the stage, nothing with the right angle, the wide shot. All of the pieces, these strange inconsistencies and bits of evidence collected, fit perfectly together with this theory.

There’s just no place for the body. 

And that’s going to sink them.

They’re sinking, and Means just laughs. “Don’t you understand yet? There’s no killer other than Juniper Woods! There never was any other possibility, and there never will be!”

“But…” Athena falters. Apollo needs to help her, if he can just come up with somewhere, anywhere, that the body could have been. There were bruises on the victim’s wrists from being tied. Was she tied in some contorted position to allow her body to fit somewhere strange? Every second that he doesn’t say something, he’s failing their client, and he’s failing his friend.

“Poor Juniper must seriously regret asking for your help now - choosing you over me! And not just for herself, but for the way you nearly had Hugh wrongly convicted for murder! Surely you haven’t forgotten that big mistake of yours, too?”

“Don’t listen to him,” Apollo says. Though really, he’s not sure if Athena is listening to anyone, her face gone slack and her eyes glazed over, lost somewhere that isn’t here. “Athena?”

“You’ve not only failed to defend your client, but you brought false charges against her friend!” Means is positively gleeful tearing into her, a shark that’s scented blood and gone into a frenzy, and Apollo remembers what Phoenix said last night, about Athena, about accusing Hugh, wonders what he’s thinking now watching his best-laid plans to shelter her fall apart. “You don’t deserve to call yourself a lawyer!”

“No.” Athena hugs herself tightly, clutching her arms across her stomach like she’s sick, or trying to staunch the flow of blood from a wound, and doubling over herself. Her hair falls across her face, but not enough that Apollo can’t see her eyes, wide and hollow, and Widget’s screen, gone straight black. “No, I - wouldn’t let an innocent person be - I wouldn’t let him be convicted for - something he didn’t—”

“Athena! Hey, Athena, look at me.” Her shoulders start to shake. She doesn’t lift her head. Apollo reaches for her shoulder and stops; she flipped a mann larger than Apollo over her head the last time someone unexpectedly touched her, and if she’s already breaking, the last thing she’ll need is to hate herself more if she lashes out and injures Apollo. Means grins in satisfaction; Apollo glares at him and wishes, horribly, cruelly, for an instant, that he was fae, that he could kill with a look, literally, and then the wish turns his stomach over. Even if this man is a monster, even if he’s getting a laugh out of hurting Athena—

It’s not - it’s probably not a curse, is it? Some kind of spell Means put on her? It’s probably just - a regular mundane breakdown, right? Phoenix is up in the gallery watching, and if something had happened, he’d already be on his way down to let Apollo know. For Athena’s sake, surely, he’d break his habit of staying frustratingly silent on these matters.

“Breathe, breathe,” Athena hisses to herself. “Breathe in, breathe out—”

Blackquill crosses his arms over his chest. After watching him for three trials, Apollo still wouldn’t say he’s got a read on him at all, wouldn’t say he understands if the man has any tics - but maybe Apollo just hasn’t seen them yet. Because Blackquill’s mouth twists, his nose twitches; it might be disgust, and it might be barely disguised fury, and maybe it doesn’t have to be exclusive, one or the other, because those are related emotions. He doesn’t turn his glare from Means but closes his eyes instead, face slackening, like he’s trying to calm himself.

“Hey, shut the hell up, man!” Robin yells. She starts forward for the witness stand, her hands in fists, and Hugh grabs her by the upper arm. “Athena’s a great lawyer! She saved the friendship between Hugh and Juniper and me! And she figured out the secret I couldn’t tell, so I can live my life as a girl again! She is G-R-E-A-T and I don’t wanna hear another word against her, you lying meanie!”

“But I did,” Athena says. Her voice rings out clear and steady despite the way that her body trembles. “I did raise false charges against Hugh. And that - I could have - I could’ve done something unforgivable - I would have—”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Hugh says with a shrug. He still hasn’t let go of Robin, and that’s probably the better choice. “It happens. There wouldn’t be defense attorneys if it didn’t. It’s not like I’m mad - it’s really more like you’ve given me a chance to reevaluate. You’re an honest lawyer and I didn’t think it was possible, for an honest lawyer to do all you’ve done.”

Athena blinks. Apollo hopes that’s a good sign, considering she hasn’t for the minute prior. “But I still haven’t done - what does it matter if I can’t save Juniper?”

“I believe in you, Thena!” Juniper stands from her chair, her hands clenched at her sides. “I haven’t given up! You can’t either! And I know you won’t! I know you can do this, Thena.”

A strangled sound emerges from Athena’s mouth, like a wheeze interrupting a hiccup or sob. “Athena, breathe,” Apollo says. 

She tips forward and braces herself against the bench with one hand, the other arm still pressed tight against her stomach. “I c-can’t.” Her valiant attempt at inhaling breaks down into uneven, shuddering gasps. “I c-can’t. I—”

“Perhaps it would help you breathe if you were to cease this pathetic bleating of yours.”

Apollo is ready to yell at him, because someone has to and Robin has already laid into Means, but Athena finally slowly raises her head. “Prosecutor Blackquill?” she asks in a faint, broken whisper.

Blackquill shakes his head. “No more of such foolish words as you have just now spouted.” Is this - is this Blackquill’s attempt at reassurance? Has the world and the court finally gone mad? “You became a lawyer for a reason, did you not? What would come of it should you give up on all of the work that you have done thus far?” He slams his forearm on the bench and leans forward, his eyes sharp and his mouth pressed in a tight frown. “It would hardly do for you to quit now and disappoint a certain someone who has been waiting for you all this time!”

“I—” Athena stares at him, her mouth hanging open, but her breathing has begun to steady from moments ago, and she slowly straightens up, drawing her shoulders back from the way she curved in on herself. 

“Ha!” Means’ laugh isn’t a very convincing one. “Isn’t this a precious little waste-of-time effort you’ve undertaken! But it is, I assure you, meaningless. You have nothing on me, and no plan to create anyone else’s guilt! Your case ends here.”

“Oh shut up,” Apollo says irritably, deciding that if Phoenix and Athena are going to be swearing in court on the regular now, he can definitely get away with that. Ignoring Means’ indignant sputtering, he turns back to Athena. “You okay?” She nods. “You’re doing fine, I promise. We’re still going to prove that the truth can win against people like him, all right?”

“But how?” Athena asks. “What am I supposed to do now, Apollo? He’s right, we don’t have any evidence against him!”

No evidence. That’s the problem that Phoenix kept running up against. What does it take to break an honest lawyer? For Phoenix, it was no evidence. But god damn it, Athena has only been a lawyer for six months and when Apollo had been a lawyer for six months, Phoenix gave him the Jurist System to solve that one particular issue. They don’t have the Jurist System now. They might never have it again. Evidence is everything now, and all Athena has is Apollo, and Apollo doesn’t even have a theory. If they can pull together a plausible theory, they can look for evidence in the places their theory maps out. But they need the theory. 

“Take a deep breath,” he says - she’s started to look frantic again. Not on the cusp of breakdown, thankfully, but frantic, and that won’t help her think clearly. “And we’ll look back over the whole case. There’s still truth to be found, and I believe in you that you can find it.” The sickly expression remains on her face. Is there something he can do about that, too? “Hey, Athena. Remember what Mr Wright says?” That saying that she in particular so enthusiastically took to. “ ‘The worst of times—’”

“—‘force their biggest smiles’,” Athena finishes. Okay, so maybe they skipped a bit in the middle there. “Right. I’ve got it.” She shakes her head back, her ponytail swinging behind her shoulder, and props her hands on her hips. She doesn’t actually smile, which Apollo can’t blame her for, but even with Widget glowing bright fierce angry red, she appears more at ease than she has for a while. “Think it over.” She squeezes her eyes shut and her whole face scrunches in concentration.

The body was moved in the midst of the mock trial, but didn’t have to be moved far, because the murder took place on the stage and the body had to have been hidden on the stage. What was moved via the banner wire was the other statue, so that Means could draw attention to the body and have it discovered when he wanted it to be discovered. It had to have been on the stage, and it can’t have been suspicious. It’s possible that there could have been some other objects involved in stage-setup that would have been capable of storing a body, but if they weren’t on the stage when Phoenix and Athena got there, then Means had to move it away, and that would have increased the time he spent there and increased his chances of being caught. Seems unlikely that there was anything more. So then, what was on the stage when they got there? Apollo didn’t get much of a glimpse of the initial scene. The mockup benches on stage - what were those made of? Could they have hollowed-out insides, possible to be lifted and have a body dragged beneath? What did the rope bruises on Courte’s wrists mean?

Athena’s eyes snap open. “I’ve got it!” she says. “Apollo, you remember how when we were repairing the statues” - more like when she and Klavier were and Apollo was just kind of there, but sure - “and we couldn’t find any chunks of the boss’ statue large enough to put it back together?” He nods, with no idea where she’s going with this. “And the court will recall how remarkable a feat it seemed that Professor Means could finish the statue of Mr Wright so quickly, when it took Robin so much longer on the other statue. And I can tell you why that is!” 

Yep, Apollo has no idea where this is going. “He never built the statue!” Athena continues triumphantly. “It was all an illusion - he hid the body by making it look like the statue of Mr Wright! And with the statues covered by cloth, no one would know what was actually beneath!”

“Wait, what?” Apollo asks. 

“Now this will be interesting,” Blackquill says.

-

What Apollo has come to realize is that he could not be a prosecutor. Not for any reason of principles - arrests have to be made, people are guilty of crimes, and an honest prosecutor is as important to the pursuit of justice as an honest defense attorney, even if both seem in unfortunately short supply these days - but because the prosecution don’t seem to be able to operate with a co-counsel. The closest they get is working as a team with the same detective, and that wouldn’t suit Apollo. What he needs is someone at the bench with him who can come up with utterly batshit theories that escaped his brain because they were, as stated, utterly batshit. 

This is going in his journal as the weirdest thing he’s done in a trial. Because certainly weirder things have happened in trials - Kristoph’s shimmering, flickering glamour as it broke, or Blackquill starting to transform to a nine-tailed fox - but Apollo did not hold an active part in those incidents. Apollo is taking a very active role in helping to turn Athena into a sheet-covered statue mockup of the corpse at the crime scene. 

Apollo is actively facilitating Athena’s outlandish theory - and less outlandish every second judging from Means’ face, furious instead of laughing it off. The trial takes a ten minute recess to hunt down the props that Athena will need to display her theory: a large sheet, a chair, some rope, and just in case, some duct tape. It feels like preparation for one of Trucy's tricks but if she were here it would be easy, and the Magic Panties would provide, but instead Apollo breathlessly rushes back into the courtroom at the end of ten minutes with a large pink sheet that’s going to have to work one way or another. 

What is a co-counsel for but to help you fill in the gaps of your mad ventures? Athena figures out why the professor’s hands were tied and how they were positioned behind her head; Apollo reminds her that Courte had an arrow sticking out of her body and duct-tapes it to her side; they test those two facts together and find that the arrow isn’t long enough to make a convincing statue arm, but Athena notices that Means’ staff certainly could have. Reluctantly, Means hands it over; Athena holds it in place and Apollo shakes out the sheet to toss over her head again. Somehow even that is an ordeal. She got stuck in it last time she removed it, to swap the arrow for the staff, and now Apollo can barely get it tossed up over her head. Fabric doesn’t throw very well. He shakes it out and tries again and this time a cold gust of wind catches beneath it, billowing it upward spread like a parachute to drape neatly over Athena’s head.

Apollo glances at Blackquill. He has stood silent watching - it seems promising that he hadn’t been heckling them - and his arms are crossed, but he slowly lowers the hand he had just slightly raised up off from where it rested on his upper arm, like he made a little wave to direct the wind. Seeing Apollo watching him, he raises an eyebrow.

The courthouse has time and again seen manic laughter within its walls. Athena’s at least is different, triumphant, from underneath the pink sheet where her hands behind her head make the form of a large spiky head of hair, and the staff an extended pointing objection arm. All they’ll need to do now is test the staff for traces of blood, and Means’ guilt will be ascertained.

The proud, proud professor falls apart the way criminals all do, begging and pleading and wheedling for a way out, any loophole or last desperate reason that it isn’t them; cursing the names of everyone involved in their downfalls, everyone but themselves. And Means falls apart, literally, his words becoming more incoherent in his desperation, until they don’t sound like any words of any language Apollo has ever heard. They’re just noises from a man who has finally lost at every game he has played for years, and his voice grows softer and the clack of his teeth together, a horrid sound that makes Apollo acutely aware of all of the nerves in his own teeth that would be giving him pain if he were the one doing that.

He should just steel himself for what Clay calls “Fair Folk fuckery” at the end of every trial. He should expect it by now. And maybe he does, but with the myriad possibilities of their curses and consequences playing out, how does he brace himself when he doesn’t know what’s coming?

He assumes this is fae. What else could it be? Maybe an accident, the first time that Means’ mouth snaps shut and then he opens it and there is blood on his teeth and a chipped white piece of one falling into his hand. Maybe he just spent most of his life putting too much stress on those bones and one of them was already breaking apart before today. But without catalyst a second tooth cracks apart and drops from his open mouth, and another, and Apollo glances away from the spectacle, can’t close out of his mind the blood streaming down Means’ teeth. 

“Ugh,” Widget groans, and Athena presses a hand over her mouth. Juniper, sickly green, covers her eyes with her hands. Only Blackquill has the stomach to not turn away, his narrowed eyes fixed on the witness stand and gleaming silver, equally cold and piercing as the yellow glare of the hawk on his shoulder.

[the--blackdahlia]

Too Young to Fall in Love Chapter 11 (Dirt!Nikki x Reader)

Title: Too Young to Fall in Love 11

Summary: Nikki Sixx was a hard partying musician on the strip. He never expected to fall in love with anyone, until a girl knocked on his dressing room door looking for a ride home and took his breath away. Just like everything else Nikki did; the drugs, the money, the music; Nikki went hard with love. (Y/n) Bass never expected the bassist of Motley Crue to be the one to shake her calm and calculated life up. She had a plan. Graduate school, become an epic producer, and watch from behind the scenes as her brother’s band rose to fame. Nikki and (Y/n) were perfect for each other, too bad her brother, Tommy, didn’t think so.

Series warnings:  Smut (18+ Please), drug use, language, referenced miscarriage, drug overdose, mentioned attempted suicide, out of character moments for everyone in the band, the timeline might be a little screwy but it’s fanfiction! I know nothing of music production and my medical knowledge is really screwy, so it won’t be accurate.

(Y/n) left her class the next morning, thinking about heading back home to take a nap when a pair of arms wrapped around her and picked her up.

“Look! You’re still a baby! I can pick you up!” Tommy teased.

“Put me down Thomas!” (Y/n) squirmed.

“Come on I want to talk to you and take you to….” he looked at his watch, “Brunch!”

“Well, I can walk to your car! People are going to think you’re kidnapping me!” (Y/n) struggled.

“Awwww, where the fun in that!” Tommy said as he put her down and pouted. Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes and got serious. “I need to talk to you, ok?”

“Are you pregnant?” (Y/n) said, smiling at him. “Okay, okay. Let’s go get something to eat. My treat?” She was used to Tommy never having any money, and when they did things, she was usually the one paying, since she had made herself get a job in high school.

Tommy helped her into his car and drove them to a local place that served brunch on the weekdays. Parking the car he helped her out and they were quickly seated when they get inside.

“So…. I haven't been the best big brother have I pipsqueak?” Tommy said as his fingers drummed on the table.

“Not really.” She admitted, twirling her spoon in her fingers like Tommy would do his sticks. “I kinda got used to it though. Like that time you told the kids from school I was a ghost that haunted the halls of our house…

Tommy began to snort, “That was….” she stopped and got serious. “That was very wrong of me and I’m sorry.”

“Forgive and forget.” She said, smiling at him. “Look Tommy, it’s okay. Siblings pick on each other, right? And like you said, I wasn’t a thought all the way through child…”

“But you are smart, and you are pretty and I was looking out for you.” Tommy grabbed the spoon and was playing with it just like she was. “I just don't want you to get treated the way I treat girls ok? I just… I know i’m not perfect but… I am not the poster boy for treating a girl right you know and… I don't want you to get hurt.”

“So, hypothetically, if I started going out with one of your bandmates, like Nikki, do you think he’d hurt me?” (Y/n) asked, leaning forward in her seat.

“Ok… one, NIkki is gaga over some chick and he seems to be into her and being a gentleman and shit… but…. he has his demons,” Tommy sighed.

“Oh, I see.” (Y/n) said. “Well, don’t worry. Vince and Mick aren’t my type and if Nikki’s taken...maybe I could set my eyes on that cutie in that brand new band that’s been playing the strip. Toxin? Venom? Oh! Poison!” She smirked when she saw Tommy’s eyes darken.

“(Y/n) please don’t… I won't be able to take my sweet.. Innocent.. SMART.. baby sister with rag tag groups that are worse than ours.”

They got their food and made small talk. Afterwards, Tommy took her for a walk, doing some window shopping. Not realizing that across the street, Mick and Vince were standing.

“She’s cheating on Nikki with Tommy?” Vince asked.

“Dumb ass, she’s his sister.” Mick groaned.

“Wait, what?” Vince looked at Mick. “I… huh?” Vince took a closer look. “Holy fucking shit!” Vince smacked Mick excitedly. “Tommy is going to flip when he finds out… does Nikki know?”

“I don’t think so.” Mick said. “Why don’t we take bets to see when he does? Whoever gets the closest wins.”

“You’re on!” Vince said shaking Micks hand.

“How long you give him?” Mick asked.

“I give them a month,” Vince shrugged. “How long do you give em?”

“I think Nikki’ll find out in a couple weeks. Tommy, it’ll take a month.” Mick told him.

“You are sooooo on,” Vince smiled. “Oh man this is going to be great to see…. Should we get popcorn?”  

“And beer.” Mick laughed. “Come on. We got a gig tonight.”

“Hey, how many chicks do you think I can score with before we start the show?” he wiggled his eyebrow at Mick.  

“I’m sure you’ll get all of them Vince.” Mick said, shaking his head.

“So, do you have a gig tonight?” (Y/n) asked, knowing the answer.

“OH YEAH! Oh (Y/n) you’ve got to come, and this time I won't ditch you I promise, I’ll introduce you to the guys!” Tommy smiled.

“Oh, I dunno…” (Y/n) said, a little nervous. “Won’t I cramp your style?”

“OK, look,” Tommy sighed. “You are cool, you know why? Because one, you have me for a brother. Two, you listen to awesome music. Three you’re going to school to be a music manager. Four, you play instruments that are really hard and that is cool.” Tommy took a breath. “Any guy who dates you is lucky and I hope they make you happy… or I start cutting off dicks.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll come by.” (Y/n) said. “Nessa might come too. Her, me, and Athena talked about seeing a show tonight. Might as well be yours.” She smirked at him.

“YES!” Tommy smiled. “I’m glad to see you happy though. Man I am way too sober for this. OK, so I’ll take you back to campus.” He looked around. “Anything you want? I have money!” Tommy smiled brightly.

“There’s a first time for everything.” (Y/n) smiled, heading back to campus with Tommy.

*********

The guys were backstage, getting ready for their gig. Nikki finished putting on his war paint while Vince stretched in his leather pants, Mick tuned his guitar, and Tommy drummed in the air.

“Your girlfriend here?” Mick asked Nikki without looking up.

“She said she was going to be here with her friend and sister,” Nikki shrugged. “I hope so… I really want to spend time with her man.” Nikki walked over to the counter and did his line closing his eyes. “Man, we have a meeting with the label and I just hate how they’re yanking our chain man.”

“Wanna know what would make you feel better?” Tommy asked. “If you and your girlfriend spent a little time together jumping on the bed.” Vince looked over at Mick and cringed.

“Maybe soon man,” NIkki smiled. “Just need to find the right place. Far away from you clowns.”

“I’m saying hotel.” Mick shrugged.

“Dude, what’s wrong with the house? You never had a problem with it before.” Tommy said, making Vince cringe again. “Or the backseat of your car.”

“I don't want you clowns interrupting me,” Nikki smacked Tommy. “Besides, my girl is special and deserves something better than our dingy apartment.”

“What is she a virgin or something?” Tommy asked.

“Oh, look what time it is! Time to rock!” Vince yelled out.

“Yeah man, let's start the show,” Mick said as he followed Vince out.

“I’m with the other two clowns,” Nikki grabbed his bass. “And it’s none of your business.”  Tommy just shrugged and followed them out. Nikki saw (Y/n) once the set started. She was smiling up at him as he performed.

“He looks good.” Vanessa told her. (Y/n) nodded, beaming with joy. “Holy shit, Vince is hot! I’m going to have to claw my way through.” she said looking at the girls.

“Oh dear god Nessa.” (Y/n) laughed. “Just come backstage with me after the show.”

“Promise,” she hugged (Y/n) and laughed. “Thena! Come hang with us!” she yelled. Athena waved to them from the guy she was talking to. The concert went on and soon, the guys were done.

Forever Tags:  @anathewierdo @dekahg @marvel-af-imagines @feelmyroarrrr @nanie5 @imboredsueme @gemini0410 @aiaranradnay @babypink224221 @mogarukes @xxwarhawk @sandlee44 @shatteredabby @caswinchester2000 @supernaturalwincestsblog @lauravic @mrsambroserollinsacklesmgk @teller258316 @horrorpxnk

Motley Crue Tags:  @primal-screamer @waywardprincess666 @twistnet @saint-of-los-angeles @vader-kai @motleyfuckingcruee @sharon6713 @kawennote09 @2dead2function @nikkisixxwiththebass @flamencodiva @iamtiber-andtiberismusic @jayprettymuchomw @charlyallise @you-know-im-a-dreamer @livingdeadharley @estxxmotley @arianareirg @the-normal-potato @nikki-sixxtynine @jjjjjjjoshdun @just-a-normal-fangirl18 @stella20131991 @tarahell @wowilovenikkisixx @i-want-to-shoot-myself @motleycrueee @sams-serialkiller-fetish @getbackhonkycatt @are-you-reddie54321

Nikki Sixx Tags:  @daisystuffsstuff

Too Young to Fall in Love Tags:  @kingbouji3 @leximus98 @thekidbakerinthetardis @crystalbaby12

[rdmfavcpls]

Laws of Love Chapter 2

Laws of Love

Chapter 2 - Unbelieveable

Note: This story was requested by a-lover-of-jugo and I just fell in love with the idea. This is a reverse AU story where Athena is the older one and Simon is still a greenhorn prosecutor.

Summary: In an AU world, Athena is the one of the well-known defense lawyer followed after her mentor, her boss, and one of her friends, Phoenix Wright. She had to go to Europe and during that month of her being gone, Simon Blackquill makes a name for himself in the courtroom. When Athena returns, let’s just say things start to get heated.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Phoenix Wright Characters or the franchise.

~~Story Begins~~ “You made the biggest mistake of your life. A family will be destroyed due to your mistake.” ~~At Tres Cafe~~ “Junie! Ahhh I’m so excited!” Athena yelled speaking to a girl who had tree bark brown hair tied into pigtails with green ribbons. Her brown eyes closed as she chuckled at Athena’s reaction. She was wearing a green dress with a blue poncho over her shoulders. “Thena, we came here to ask you a question,” Junie spoke. “Give her time, I think she is still excited for us telling her that we are going to be parents,” her husband spoke patting his wife’s hand. He had black shaggy hair, round frameless glasses highlighted his blue eyes, he was wearing a regular blue shirt with black pants. “I can’t believe that my best friend is pregnant,” Athena said smiling. However, her two companions could see the sadness within that smile. “So what did you want to ask me?”

“We was wondering if you would like to be the godmother of our child? On my side, of course,” Juniper asked. “I would be excited and honored to have this pleasure,” Athena spoke, “Athena, have they found anything or any leads?” the man asked. Athena shook her head, “No, I’m guessing it’s on the back burner now. I think it’s because I called them so many times.”

“That is-”

“Hugh!” Juniper said.

“Unacceptable. He’s one of their own,” Hugh continued. “The two of your, Apollo, Phoenix, Aura, and mom are the only six about the last message he sent me. I have been telling everyone else that we broke up,” Athena said. “The police just think I’m a crazy ex-girlfriend. I-I just hate the fact that our last conversation was an argument over the last case we met in the courtroom.” Juniper grabbed Athena’s hand, “Thena, it will be okay. I’m sure he still loves you and forgave you for the argument.” “Thank you Junie,” Athena spoke gently. They parted ways and Athena started to make her way back to the office when she received a phone call. “Hello, Hugh? Did you forget something?” “Juniper’s been arrested. She’s being accused with murder of Professor Courte,” Hugh said. “No, she would never harm a fly!” Athenna said. “They won’t let me be her lawyer because I’m her husband, can you represent her? Please?” Hugh pleaded. “Don’t you worry!” Athena spoke proudly. “I will set Junie free so you can all be a loving family.” “Thank you, the crime happened on Themis Legal Academy,” Hugh mentioned. “Themis Legal Academy? Apollo and Phoenix are there right now. I’ll see if they can investigate for me.” Athena mentioned. “I’ll call them and ask them if they know anything.”

The phone call ended and Athena dialed Apollo’s number, “Hey, Athena,” “Apollo, did anything happen at Themis?” “Yeah, a body was found. Phoenix and I already investigated it on the off-chance that one of us will be defend the accused but since it was Junie, we will give the evidence to Hugh.” “No,” Athena spoke. “I’m defending her. They won’t let Hugh defend her.” “I want to help you then,” Apollo said. “I’m already following a lead because something in the opening speech before the mock trial didn’t seem right.”

“Thank you, I’ll be waiting at the office for you. I need to go see Junie.” ~~At the detention center~~ “Athena,” Hugh said with a sigh. “They aren’t letting anymore see her. She’s still in questioning. The prosecutor wants no one to interfere, not even her lawyer, but she’s staying quiet.” “That’s good. Who is the prosecutor?” Athena asked.

“Prosecutor Blackquill,” Hugh mentioned. “I haven’t faced him in court yet but it is rumored that you defeated him in court.” “I have, I have Widget to help out this time and I’m in the loop. I won’t say this will be easy,” Athena spoke. “I know Thena won’t talk. Her husband is a defense lawyer and she’s a judge. She knows her rights.” Hugh smiled and chuckled, “Yes, you’re right. I don’t think Blackquill knows that about our client. I let Robin know as well, pretty much sure she’s going to give Blackquill a piece of her mind.” “I’m going to give him a piece of my mind now. Excuse me,” Athena spoke. “Excuse me, miss. You cannot go past this point.” one of the guards said. “Actually, I can, since my client is beyond these doors,” Athena spoke walking past the guard. “I will not let the prosecutor badger my client.” “Ma’am, we are under strict orders to,” “Don’t care what your orders are,” Athena replied. “I have rights to see my client after they have been undergoing questioning for an hour and it’s been over two hours.” She then smiled at the guard, “I know because I walked from Tres Cafe to here and it takes two hours and fifteen minutes.” “But ma’am-” Athena opened the door to the questioning room and saw Junie sitting there staring at Simon who had slammed his hands on the table and yelled, “I’m going to take your silence as a guilty confession.” “Do that and I will have zero qualms about getting Mr. Edgeworth on the phone and explaining what you have done,” Athena interrupted causing the young prosecutor to turn his head towards her and Junie eyes lit up. “He’s on speed dial by the way.” “You are not allowed to be here, now leave.” Simon growled. “Nope, I have the right to see my client,” Athena said. “You have had over two hours to question her without her lawyer and the law states you are allowed one hour.” Simon’s eyes narrowed at her, “Someone who is younger then me, thinks they can overrule me? Don’t make me laugh.” Athena pulled his jacket so he was closer to her eye level, “Listen here, Blackquill, I have friends in high places, like Ms. von Karma and Mr. Edgeworth. I will not hesitate in letting of them know you need to be trained more within the field of court and law. You will regret treating my client like this tomorrow in court when you go against me.” She let go of his jacket and walked around him going directly to Juniper’s side. “Thena! You’re my lawyer?” Juniper asked hugging her friend. “They won’t let your husband be your lawyer,” Athena spoke gently soothing her friend. She looked at Simon, “Now, since you have done over enough of the time allowed, my client will be leaving.” “I think not,” Simon said blocking the path. Athena crossed her arms, “Look at you! Acting all tough and scary,” she teased him. “Why if I wasn’t so angry at you right now, I would start filling your chest up, I am curious if you have a six-pack underneath there. Oh, better idea, I would be clinging onto your arms to see if you can lift me up.”

Simon smirked at her he bent down to her level, “You are trying to get me flustered like you did last time we met. It won’t happen again.” Athena started pinching his cheeks, “Aww, look at you being so cute and adorable. You are just too precious for this world.” “Would you stop that?” Simon said pulling his face away and looked around noticing that Juniper was out of the room and Athena was on her way to the door. “I’ll see you in court, hopefully I won’t be too tough on you,” she winked at him and left the room. “How in the world does she do that?” Simon asked out loud glaring at where Athena stood. ~~Next Day at Court~~

“Thank you for taking my case,” Juniper said hugging her friend as she held onto Hugh’s hand. “You have an alibi and a total of six witnesses,” Athena spoke. “I’m sorry for the lose. Why didn’t you tell me, that your grandma died yesterday?” “You are still going through the hard loss,” Juniper spoke. “I didn’t want you to always hear bad news. I mean, your boyfriend first, then what happened at your father’s wedding.” “Aw, you worry so much about me. Please don’t worry,” Athena spoke. “Yes, we will make sure the true culpit is put behind bars,” Apollo said. “Ouch,” Athena mumbled. “Hmm? What’s wrong?” Hugh asked. “I got Widget back, put they didn’t treat it with care so it sometimes shocks my neck,” Athena spoke rubbing her neck. “Court is about to begin,” the bailiff said. Athena and Apollo walked into the courtroom, Simon was standing on the other side with a brown and white hawk wearing a black bandana around his neck sitting on Simon’s shoulder. The judge walked into the courtroom and took his seat, “So today’s trial is Mrs. C’Connor vs. the State over the murder of Constance Courte.” “The defense is ready, Your Honor,” Athena spoke. “The prosecution is ready,” Simon spoke with a quick tilt of his head. “So, how about your opening statement, Your Honor?” “Ah, yes. Two days ago, Mrs. O’Connor was visiting Professor Constance Courte - her former teacher - to ask her a question with her husband at Themis Legal Academy. According to Professor Aristotle Means, Mrs. O’Connor was the last one alone with Professor Courte yesterday. How did I do, Prosecutor Blackquill?” “Very good, you are getting better every single time,” Blackquill responded with a smirk. “I’ve been practicing in front of the mirror,” the judge said. “It’s paying off,” Simon said. “Anyway, I would like to explain the crime scene and the body so I would like to have my own inspector give his testimony first.” A man around late twenties appeared on the witness stand, he had shiny blonde hair, brown eyes appeared hidden on his yellow tinted aviator glasses, he was wearing a white jacket with gold buttons, with a red shirt underneath the jacket and a blue tie. There was a backpack on his back, the brown straps resting over his shoulders. “It-it can’t be,” Athena whispered. “But how,” Apollo whispered back, “You never received a notification that he was found.” Athena shook her head as the man spoke, “I’m Inspector Bobby Fulbright, in justice we trust!” “....well this is awkward,” the judge said.

“Athena,” Apollo whispered as his companion clenched her fists. “Inspector Fulbright, before you give us your testimony, may I ask you one question?” Athena asked. “No need to be so formal, we are all allies in the search of justice,” Fulbright spoke with a laugh. “What is my last name?” Athena asked. “What a stupid question!” Simon laughed slapping his hand on the desk. “Hardly anyone knows your last name. So why ask him that?” “Athena-” Apollo said. “As Prosecutor Blackquill mentioned, hardly anyone knows you’re last name,” Fulbright spoke crossing his arms. “I see, thank you,” Athena spoke. “What was that for?” Apollo whispered. “Think about it, I dated the real Bobby Fulbright, he met my mom who is known in her two fields,” Athena spoke. “The real Fulbright would know my last name.” “So you’re saying -”Apollo spoke. Athena nodded, “The reason as to why I haven’t been notified, is because this isn’t the real Fulbright, he has no memory of us dating.” “Amnesia?” Apollo asked. “Well, the defense quit talking!” Simon hollered. The judge shook his head, “Let them talk, Mr. Blackquill.” “No, it’s okay.” Athena said shaking her head. “We wasn’t expecting for Blackquill to have a detective so soon. He’s growing up so fast!”

“Just start giving your description,” Simon said glaring. “Fool Bright!” “Well, Constance Courte body was found on the outside stage, Prosecutor Gavin was going to perform on the stage with one of the students. That was cancelled as one of the statues broke causing the ruckus where the body of Constance Courte was found. She was stabbed in the heart but we have been unable to find the murder weapon.” ~~Autopsy Report added to Court Record~~ ~~Court Record~~ Attorney Badge Juniper’s Medical Restrictions Doctor’s Affidavit Nurse’s Affidavit Robin’s Affidavit Broken Statue Pieces Bloodied Cloth Mock Trial Video Autopsy Report ~~Court Record~~ “It will be hard without a weapon murder,” Judge said, “but it has happened before. Your testimony please, Detective Fulbright.” ~~Bobby Fulbright’s Testimony~~

~~Murder Scene~~

“The body was found at the outside stage underneath a bloodied cloth. She was apparently wrapped up in it like a burrito.” “She was leaned against a stature causing it to break. That was why the body was recovered.”

“There is a stab wound right at her heart From the size of the stab wound it seems to come from a spike and the amount of force was very strong.” “She doesn’t look like it, but Mrs. O’Connor can easily lift fifty-pounds.” ~~End of Testimony~~

“Just an added note, the only blood was found on the cloth,” Simon said. ~~Court Record~~ ~Updated Bloodied Cloth~~ “Hmm, fifty pounds, that’s a weird measurement,” Athena pressed, “Why that?” “That’s how much we believe that spike to have weighed,” Detective Fulbright asked. “Can you pretty please add that to your testimony,” Athena asked. “Of course,” Fulbright said. ~~Testimony updated~~ “She doesn’t look like it, but Mrs. O’Connor can easily lift fifty pounds judging that the spike that was used is estimated to weigh that much.” ~~End of Testimony~~ “Objection!” Athena shouted holding onto a piece of paper. “There is no way that Mrs. O’Connor can be the culprit.” “Objection! Pure speculation! You have no evidence to prove your client is innocent,” Simon yelled back. “Oh, but I do, darling,” Athena drawled out. “You should really try to stop imitating me, you only look cuter.” “I am not cute!!” Simon yelled. “Aww, look at you getting all flustered. It brings some color to your pale face, making you look absolutely adorable!” Athena cooed. “Now I shall present to the adorable boy, my evidence, but first a question. How much of Mrs. O’Connor do you know, Detective Fulbright?” “She’s a fair and kind judge, used to go by Juniper Woods until she married her husband Hugh O’Connor. She has a sickly complexion that her medicine, her husband, and sunflowers help her calm down.” Athena smiled, “Her sickly complexion provides some health issues, correct?” “Yes.” “Did you know she was pregnant?” Athena asked. “Even though it’s still early trimester one, she already has weight restrictions. She can’t lift anything over five pounds! So why would she - after her husband and her have been trying for two years to have a kid - do something that could jeopardize the unborn child inside of her!” Fulbright moved back with his hands up in surrender, “Wh-what?” Simon’s eyes went white before going back to black as he slammed his hands down on the counter, “The murder took place yesterday, the 16th, she could have had her husband do it for her!” “Objection! I can prove that their was no way possible for Mrs. O’Connor or her husband to have committed this crime! In fact, maybe if you wasn’t so busy badgering my witness for over two hours without me there in the room, you would be able to identify who the true culpit is!” Athena yelled back. Simon smirked and whistled causing the hawk to leave his shoulders, only to land on the judge’s head, “Make me mad again, I’ll send Taka after you.” “Athena, I would -” the judge said.

“Aw, you’re such a child. Didn’t you remember the last time you threatened me with Taka?” Athena asked placing her hands on her hips. “It’s okay if you forgot, you do still have a young mind.” “Athena, I really don’t think that’s the best move!” Apollo said as Simon whistled again, completely oblivious to the little taps of Athena’s fingers on her hips. Taka flew over and landed on Athena’s shoulder, the one without her pony resting over top. He leaned his head towards Athena’s touch as she rubbed under his chin. “Taka, isn’t attacking you?” Apollo asked. “Awww who's a handsome bird?” Athena asked Taka as she rubbed his chin. “Is Mister Grumpy pants over there treating good?” “How! Taka, get back over here?” Simon yelled. “Ohh? What’s this?” Athena asked seeing something wrong with Taka’s wing. “Are you injured?” “How are you able?” Simon asked. “Phew, it’s just a bunch of feathers,” Athena said with a sigh of relief. “Might want to go back to grumpy pants over there, he looks lonely.” Two taps against the desk and Taka went over to Simon. “Maybe you should try to find some other way to get me to make a mistake.” “I forgot that you was an animal trainer,” Apollo mentioned sweating bullets. The judge slammed his gavel down repeatedly, “Order! Order! Athena, you mentioned a couple of things that I would like to point out. One, you said that Prosecutor Blackquill had the suspect in questioning for two hours without their lawyer.” “Yes sir, two hours and seventeen minutes to be exact,” Athena spoke nodding. “I understand that he is still a rookie but you learn that rule in the first year of law school. I had planned on letting Mr. Edgeworth know as soon as I teach this child his place.” “Child?” Simon yelled. “I am no child!” “You are younger then me, making you a child,” Athena responded. A shock came hard from Widget, sparks flying out of Widget as it short circulated. “Ouch! Ouch! Take Widget off! Take him off!” Apollo quickly unlatched Widget from her neck and they could see a harsh electrical burn on her neck where Widget sat.”There you go” “Thank you so much Apollo,” Athena sighed. “That looks like a nasty burn!” Judge said. “I’ll be fine. They didn’t take good care of Widget like I asked them too. Anyway, Your Honor, what else did you want to ask me about?” Athena asked. “Ah yes. You said you can prove that your client and her husband are innocent. How?” the judge asked. “You can ask Mrs. O’Connor and Mr. O’Connor where they were at and the prosecutor could easily claim that they had the story planned out,” Athena said seeing the shock look of Simon as she figured out what his next move would be automatically. “So, to save the court the time and to save my client from any unnecessarily stress with her pregnancy, I went and got three affidavits.” “What are they for?” Simon asked growling. “The autopsy report states that Constance Courte was killed on the 17th, estimated time of death is around 4:17 PM. I am reading that correctly?” “Yes, you are! Do you know the path to justice?” Fulbright asked his eyes becoming puppy dog eyes. “This is no clear path for justice, we need to forge our own path in the search of justice,” Athena spoke. “A wise young man told me that once.” “I would very much like to meet this man,” Fulbright spoke. “Anyway, at the 17th, 3:58 PM all the way til 8:21 PM, Mrs. O’Connor and Mr. O’Connor were at the hospital. Mrs. O’Connor’s grandma had passed away. I have affidavits from Ms. Newman, the doctor and the nurse from the hospital,” Athena said. “So my client and her husband witnesses and an alibi making them no where near the scene of the crime!” “Grrr,” Simon growled as the audience went into an uproar. Taka flew up from his shoulder as Simon started pounding his fist on the table before his eyes went white from the shock from losing another case to this girl. “Order! Order!” the judge ordered silencing the crowd. “Prosecutor Blackquill, I know you have already made a name for yourself in the courtroom but you are still a rookie. Do not let the fame go to your head. You and your detective have made several major mistakes within this case.” “I understand, Your Honor,” Simon said as Fulbright poked his index fingers again revealing white gloves. “I hereby find the defendant, Mrs. Juniper O’Connor,” the judge said, “Not Guilty.” ~~Defense Lobby~~ “Thank you so much Thena!” Junie said excitedly as she held her husband's arm. “Yes, thank you for not letting our family be torn apart,” Hugh said. “However, I am shocked that Bobby didn’t know your last name.” “That’s not Bobby, at least, not the Bobby Fulbright, I know,” Athena spoke sadly, her eyes downcast as her hand went to her heart. “There was discord within his voice when he introduced himself.” “Thena,” Junie said seeing her friend in about tears. “I’ll find him,” Athena said. “I have a small shimmer of hope but I believe he is still alive I won’t ever give up on him, because I know he would do the same.” Junie got her friend, “It’s okay to cry.” “No, not yet,” Athena said putting on a brave smile. “I need to talk to Prosecutor Blackquill before he leaves. I’ll be back.” She left the defendant lobby, “She’s such a fighter, putting on a brave face.” “I’m so glad she didn’t tease him as much as she did last time,” Apollo said. “She could very well be in shock,” Hugh spoke quietly. “Someone who is dressed, as the same name, and says almost the same things that her boyfriend who has gone missing and left her with a dying message?”

“Maybe he has amnesia?” Apollo asked.

Hugh shook his head, “Impossible. The real Bobby has a golden pocket watch with a picture of them inside with their names on the back.” ~~Main Lobby~~ Simon was walking briskly away. He suffered another defeat from that petite defense lawyer who gets him so flustered so easily. She turned Taka against him, she beat the case within one day when he was planning on it being three days. “Prosecutor Blackquill, please wait!” he heard Athena yell as she ran towards him. He turned around to glare at her and she slowed down to a jog, than a walk, then stopped right next to him. “Arigato!” “You speak japanese?” Simon asked understanding that ‘arigato’ means ‘thank you’ in english.

“Hai! Well, a little bit actually. I am nowhere near fluent in it. I am fluent in french, spanish, german, and obviously english,” Athena said. ‘Hai’ meant ‘yes’ but Athena had no idea on how to say sort of in japanese. “May I walk with you for a little?” “You aren’t going to tease me, are you?” Simon snarled. “I hardly teased you today in court,” Athena argued back, “but no, I won’t. I need to talk to you seriously.” Simon stared at her, she was looking down and that burn on her neck seemed like it was hurting her alot. Fulbright was already heading back to Themis Academy. “Very well, I hope you can walk and talk at the same time.” “Of course I can!” Athena said as she walked right next to him. Her little burst of confidence and energy disappeared as fast as it came. “Are you going to continue searching for the murderer of Professor Courte?” “Yes, if I can. However, I might be taken off of the case because word of what I did to Mrs. O’Connor will reach Edgeworth-dono.” “Oh! I can fix that. I just need my boss to distract your boss and I could also talk Edgeworth down too. I would actually like you to take this case, it would mean a lot to Hugh because Prof. Courte was a mother figure to him. She was going to be the godmother for his side for their child,” Athena spoke. “I would focus on Professor Means as the culprit. He was the one who claimed Junie was the last one to see it. Here these might help,” Athena handed him the records for the bloodied cloth, broken statue pieces, and mock trial video. “The mock trial video would be a key. Pay attention to the statue in the middle of the video and the words in the opening speech.” “You think he did it?” Simon asked taking the material. “Yes, but just be careful with it, he was a skilled lawyer when he was younger and before he was a teacher. He thinks he knows all the tricks in the books. He knows about the shadowed past of Manfred von Karma which could easily backfire on Edgeworth and Franziska. Klavier also has a shadowed past with his older brother, Kristoph, and that one of the Gavinners was convicted of smuggling and murder. I have zero faith in the Payne brothers, Godot would be a good but he’s in prison. You are still new, made a name for yourself yes, but still a rookie.” “So why do I have the best chance?” “He has nothing to hold against you and the field of analytical psychology is still new to the court world. He won’t know how to react,” Athena smiled. “Just because I beat you twice doesn’t mean you are a terrible prosecutor.” “Thanks for the confidence, Athena,” Simon mocked as Athena stopped walking. “Hey Simon,” Athena spoke. “Can I ask a favor?” “Depends. I see no reason as to why I should do anything for you.” “Just keep an eye on your detective, please,” Athena said softly. “D-don’t trust him too much.” Simon raised an eyebrow as she walked across the street to start getting to the office that she works at. “Hmph, strange girl. Detective Fool Bright has been a well-known Detective who went undercover, he is worthy of trust.” ~~End of Chapter~~