#They don't even gotta pay me

[thatiranianphantom]

thank god this moment's not the last

Bess makes sure they’re sitting down when they get their memories back, and she doesn’t know why. It isn’t as if she’s anticipating anything earth-shattering. 

All she remembers of Ace is him walking away. A relationship that she happened into, one with a cute guy who seemed nice. For some reason, the early details are a bit foggy, in a way they aren’t with George or Nick or Bess. 

She remembers it ending, though. She remembers never wanting to speak to him again, the endless frustration of being in the same friend group as your ex, knowing your other friends shouldn’t have to take sides. 

And then there was Tristan, who was handsome, who liked her. And she couldn’t think of why she wouldn’t date him (until the sin eater thing, of course). But there was always this tiny piece of her, screaming inside her, words she could never hear and wouldn’t understand. 

There’s something utterly ridiculous, even in the veritable pantheon of weird things that constantly made their way through Nancy’s life, about being told the things you remember so clearly never happened. About realizing the life you lived wasn’t your real life. 

And now here they are, sitting in one of the Claw’s hard red booths, Ace glowering at her from across the way. 

It didn’t seem to matter that his Jane Doe was never real. He hated her anyway. 

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem exclusive to her. He glares at Bess too, sometimes mumbling snide comments that she can see hurt Bess, but her friend presses on. 

“This isn’t you, sweetheart,” she murmurs. “We’ll get you back soon.” 

He scoffs and turns his head away, clearly unconvinced. Nancy, though…Nancy may not remember much of Ace, but she remembers her friends, and she knows they wouldn’t lie to her. They wouldn’t manipulate her. 

So she does what they ask. She lays her hands on the table and only shivers a bit when Bess stresses they have to clasp hands. 

She hasn’t touched him since they broke up. Or at least, that’s what she remembers. Who knows what’s real and what isn’t anymore. 

Ace is clearly unwilling, but he lays his hands open on the table, looking anywhere but at Nancy. 

She casts a look at her friends, searches their faces. There are no lies in their expressions. Even so, for a moment she wonders why she’s doing this. If their memories were changed, wouldn’t there be a reason for that?

Always seek the truth. 

Of course. 

Her mother wouldn’t question it. She’d want Nancy to find the truth, to cling to it. 

Even when it hurts. 

She puts her hands in Ace’s. 

It hurts. That’s the first thing she registers. Everything hurts, all over. And it’s pain that’s hard to source, be it physical or emotional. Nancy doesn’t know. It feels like there’s a knife twisting into her gut. 

She lets out a sharp moan, the world going fuzzy as her eyes slip closed, but she feels it, she distinctively feels it when his fingers tighten around hers. 

And that’s when it starts. 

Suddenly, instead of her stomach being twisted into knots, she hears voices around her. Voices all at the same time, words being said and then twisting, morphing, mixing into something else. Angry, tense, shouting voices that soften into whispers, exhalations, soft words as the words twist into each other, manipulate, soften. 

Nancy marshals all of her strength, tries to focus on only the words. She feels Ace’s thumbs rub against her hand, a warm, grounding presence that feels almost painfully familiar. 

Why do you have to solve this softens into I’m doing this for us. 

And that’s the first one she’s able to hear. They float past her after that, so close she can almost reach out and touch them. Two halves of the same whole, dark and light. 

You want us to act like colleagues from now on and I’m not scared anymore.

You’re not just leaving and I couldn’t lose you.

You did it anyway and I’m not scared anymore. 

I want you to let me move on and let that pain become love. 

You broke my heart and I know you felt it too. 

He does not want to hear from me and that’s real love. 

You’re not just leaving and I have feelings for you.  

The pain is different now. It’s more, it’s less. It’s a pain that consumes Nancy’s entire soul, and suddenly a thousand things rush back to her, and all of them are Ace. Ace, standing with her against the Aglaeca. Ace, the only one who noticed the Wraith chipping off part of her. Ace, bringing her water after her testimony. 

All of them, and more, and in all of them, she’s so scared but she doesn’t have to be, there’s him there, waiting for her, supporting her, loving her, and it’s terrifying but there’s nothing to be afraid of, and she knows that now. 

With a gasp, the memories end, and the pain, the physical part at least, disappears. The emotional pain lingers, just waiting to be fought through, ever since “on my lips is a curse.” 

Nancy’s head is pounding, but there is something else, something pressing on the tip of her tongue, waiting to be given life to. She forces her eyes open, and he’s waiting for her, as he always is. 

And that look that he gives her, that warm look that says the three words without ever saying them, it’s still there. Or it’s there again. And so, the words tumble out. 

“I face the mystery of this journey with courage, because it is with you.” 

And then he smiles. He tugs on her hand, and they leave the booth like a magnet is pulling them, their grasp never dropping. 

“In this world that tries to silence me, the most dangerous words that I can speak are that I love you.” 

The tears come now, and she barely feels them. “Ace,” she gasps.

And then he’s tugging her hand and pulling her in, and everything they face can be faced together, as it was always meant to be.

[egophiliac]

LEON

LEON YOUR EYEBALLS

[kaiserouo]

Into the Landing

[flickeringflame216]

blessings roll call!!!

[silusvesuius]

fictional female characters and characters with insanely obvious cluster B personality disorders will never know peace as long as te/s fans keep making posts about them i mean it

[martyryo]

I can't cook I lack ingredients and they cut off the gas

[rapidhighway]

Hnngg

[carcarrot]

do i really want to make individual drinks again

[medicinemane]

Should make a pain killer that actually kills (or even touches) pain

[thaylepo]

Gaze, ye, upon the best boi the world will ever see and know that he is gone, and we are the poorer for it. But especially me, who will never kiss his lil face again and tell him he is my bestest baby dog in the whole world. He had 13 years, 11 with me, and should have had more, and the only thing consoling me rn is the insane amount of whiskey i've consumed to deal with a reality without him in it.

Roddy, my baby dog, my bestest boi. I know the world goes on but fuck. FUCK. I needed you in it, bud. I'm so, so sorry.

[devilsskettle]

i hate that this website has location based ads now like it's one thing to promote the local grocery store chain to me but i am seeing ads for my workplace now :/

[skrunksthatwunk]

household enemy to the yyh watchthrough number one is the olympics. it's taken us a week to get two episodes into the gamemaster fight

[teufelme]

You ever just want to talk about Bertl,

[laugtherhyena]

Sincerely hope I'm seen as the Ayame person of the another fandom

[vile-wizard]

I need to clean my room now. It is dire.

[whoslaurapalmer]

oh! i also got to go to the library today!! my local branch is closing soon for a couple months to update the hvac and stuff and my card would renew when they're closed so i went in to ask if they could renew it early. and they did!!!!!! miracles do happen!!!