#alls I know is if Story didn’t convince him with his +10 to persuasion then clearly this is a matter that should not be pushed | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

freakie-deakie · 4 years

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Lucas // How To: Hurt My Feelings

tumblr only allows 10 images per post so i had to use my transition images sparingly, i hope it doesn’t make the scene changes too awkward. hope you’re all doing well, sending lots of love!

Warnings: there’s nothing too serious, but there’s a mention of toxic family relations and insecurities about friendships

Masterlist

Read Part 2 Here: How To: Kill an Idea

Lucas x Reader (angst // 9.6k words); ft. stepbrother!Johnny

You were a being made up of words. You lived to think words, to write words, to read words, and to speak words. You were jack of all things debate and a master of sounding like a charming smartass. Your words were always chosen carefully, and because of this, your persuasive skills were deadly.

Lucas was a being of action. He moved as his spirit listed, and was often caught indulging in whatever sins his internal chaos prompted him that day. He built the world around him with his own two hands and lived for the sake of creating his own experiences within his own days. He hadn't an interest in the events of the world, nor the stories in it. You don't think he'd ever read a story in his life. Actually, you don't think he'd ever read.

Perhaps that was why the two of you fit together oh-so-well. He was the Yang to your Yin, the left to your right. Your relationship was a perfectly balanced chemical equation. He made a mess, and you cleaned up after him. You were a mess, and he cleaned you up.

Oh, but you can always get messier, can't you?

"Seriously, Y/N? When was the last time you ate?" Lucas folded his arms over his chest and leaned against your doorframe.

"I ate breakfast," you quipped softly, folding your legs up into your rolly chair. You'd been there for almost two days straight, but your project was finally starting to take shape.

"Oh yeah? And what did you eat?" You bit the inside of your cheek, giving him a guilty smile as you twidled your thumbs. "You can't live off of those damn health bars. Christ- Put your shoes on, we're going out."

"Wait, Yukhei, it's okay, I can just-"

"You have ten minutes to get ready before I carry you out of here on my shoulder," he warned before excusing himself to sit in your living room and wait for you.

Groaning, you moved the blanket from your lap and threw on a pair of sweats. You washed your face and brushed out your hair, and with two minutes to spare, you were slipping into your jogging shoes. "Lucas, are you ready?" you asked, stepping out of your bedroom. Oddly enough, he wasn't on that ugly black couch that he loved so much, nor was he in the kitchenette that fit so snuggly in the corner of the room. He wasn't by the window, nor with the plants on your fire escape. You stepped back to check the bathroom. Empty. "Yukhei?" you called out for him again.

Your heart jumped out of your chest at the sudden jolt of your door, followed by three sharp knocks.

"Y/N? I locked myself out..." Breathing out a steadying breath, you placed a hand over your heart. "Y/N?"

"Hang on a second, you big baby." You rolled your eyes and opened the door for him. "I thought you'd been abducted."

"Sorry babe, I had a call. But don't worry, nobody can abduct me when I carry around guns like these," he grinned, flexing his arms.

"I think I liked you better when you were missing." He scoffed. "But you have to promise me to never leave me without any answers. I'd have to hunt you down if you did."

"I'll never leave you, ever," he gleams, throwing an arm over your shoulder and guiding you out the door. You hummed, wrapping an arm around his waist and syncing your steps with his. "Besides, if I ever tried, you'd lock me in your apartment building's basement and I don't really wanna know what else is down there."

"You'd better not try to escape then," you snorted.

You weren't quite sure how you always managed to end up in such ungodly positions, but as long as you were both comfortable, you couldn't complain. However, at the moment, you were very uncomfortable, and the boy laying on top of you was getting an ear-full.

He'd simply barged into your bedroom, saw you laying on your stomach, and decided that you were the most comfortable matress around.

"Lucas, I have to pee."

"Do it, I dare you."

"Lucas, I can't breathe!"

"Then die."

"You are the-"

"Most wonderful person you ever could have hoped to even end up dating? I know. What do you want for dinner tonight? I'm thinking chicken. Thoughts?"

"I'll buy if you get off me," you groaned.

He perked up at that, finally rolling off of you and bouncing over to your closet. "We're gonna match," he said certainly, plucking a black T-shirt and skinny jeans off of their respective hangers and throwing them at you before going back to fish out the jean jacket and belt he'd bought you specifically for occasions such as these.

He rushed you along, ushering you out of your building quickly, excited to go to his favorite marketplace restaurant. Boarding the transit, he took your hand in his much larger one and turned to you to quietly ask if he could spend the night at your place to watch movies and "get frisky," earning a light slap on the wrist which only made him laugh.

You and Lucas were puzzle pieces that fit together. So for the life of you, you couldn't begin to understand why everything seemed to be falling apart.

"I just can't win against you, can I? You have too many debate trophies shoved up your ass!"

"I just-"

"Stop, Y/N. If you won't try to understand my side, we're done here."

"Lucas, I do understand, I just don't agree. And that's okay because we don't have to agree on everything."

"Yeah?" he huffed. "Well on this, we do."

"What do you want me to do? Fly home to (country) and tell my family that their daughter who managed to escape their victimized mindsets and emotional neglect and finally cut ties with them has a boyfriend who wants to meet them? I don't want you to meet them! I don't want you anywhere around them," your composure finally snapped, letting a tear roll down your cheek. You roughly wiped it away with the back of your sleeve.

"Oh, cut the shit, Y/N. You didn't want to introduce me to your 'toxic' best friend either, or your 'overly protective' brother; they turned out to be completely fucking normal. Maybe it's you that's the problem."

"You mean the beautiful best friend, Soomin, that cut me off after I wouldn't give you her number? Oh, and my brother, Johnny, who slept on my couch for a week after meeting you to make sure you weren't staying the night?"

"So I'm the one causing problems? Maybe if you were less insecure-"

"Insecure? Fine, I'll call Soomin and give her your number. And while I'm at it, I'll just ask Johnny to give my number out to all your frat brothers, since that's no big deal."

Lucas slammed his hand down on your island countertop. "Like hell you will. Look, I just want to meet your family. I'm not gonna ask them to move to Korea."

"Lucas, I'm thrilled that your family likes me so much because you're very close with them and that's important to you, but please don't make me contact my family. I don't want them in my life."

He stepped out that night without another word and remained silent for the rest of the week.

You felt like a vase that held flowers but had no water to give them; you were, on your own, too much of some things and not enough of others. Lucas's silent treatment felt like he tipped the scale by hopping off of his side and leaving you to fall.

"Y/N, listen to me," you whispered to yourself as you opened the refrigerator door. "You are a strong, independent woman and your life does not revolve around a boy." You reached for the fruit drawer and pulled out a peach. Fruit was a large part of your diet when you were sad; it was convenient because there was no meal prep. Uni-students like you didn't have time to cook anyways.

A buzzing sound from your counter pulled you from your thoughts. You wiped the peach juice off your chin with your sleeve and put the phone to your ear.

"Y/N? Do you have a minute?"

"Johnny? What's up tree-child?" You hear a soft chuckle over the line.

"Your overgrown boyfriend hasn't left his room since your little fight-"

"Johnny, you know what it was like for me back home. Your mom and my dad- you don't want to go back either, right? You know how bad it was. I shouldn't have to apologise for not wanting to go back."

Johnny sighed loudly over the line. "I'm not saying you have to apologise to him. I'm on your side, but neither of you are trying to fix the situation. So come to our frat, talk, make out, have angry make-up sex; I don't care what floats your boat, just come see him. You're the only person who I know has the ability to convince him to shower."

"See, dearest Johnny, that would mean I would have to shower. And right now, I'm not really feeling up to the task. So if that's all, then I'll be going-"

"Y/N, please? I'll make you dinner, and I'll pay for two- no, three of your textbooks next semester!"

"What do you get out of this, Seo? What bidding of yours will I be doing if I agree?"

"Can't I just reunite one of my best friends with my sister for the- yeah okay, I can't do this. There's a party next week and he's my wingman."

"Goodbye, Johnny."

You didn't know what to expect if you were to text Lucas first. Perhaps he was waiting on you to, or perhaps not, instead opting not to talk to you. However, you were a being of words, and you were desperately trying to sort through all of the Korean vocabulary that you knew in order to find the best words to give to him. You knew he deserved that, the best of you.

Y/N: Hey, can we talk?

You waited and waited, and thought yourself into hours of self torment. Was that text a mistake? Should you not have sent it? Could you have said something better?

After about an hour of stressing over the message and his lack of reply, you manage to pull yourself off of your couch, take yourself into the shower and sulk in its hot, suffocating water and steam.

And then you, naturally, went crawling back to your phone.

"Johnny, is your offer still up? Dinner and textbooks and shit?" Damn your unusually shaky voice, underused in the time you'd spent away from your significant other.

"Y/N? You sound distressed, is everything okay?"

"I don't know how to take care of myself," you admitted without an ounce of emotion in your tone, only growing your stepbrother's concerns. "You know, you're the only person that has checked in on me since our fight? I'm the one in the wrong, and everyone knows it... I need him, I need to apologise."

You hear something clatter over the line. "Now, hold on Y/N. You don't sound like you're thinking straight. I'm all for you guys patching things up, but not to get back into our good graces."

"Johnny, I'm alone. He's the only person that's ever made an effort to distract me from that."

"Hey, wait, you aren't alone. You have all of us. We're all here whenever you need us, not just him."

"John, I'm either your sister or his girlfriend. The guys in your frat don't want to be friends with me, and that's okay. But I want to hang on to what I've got so I'm coming over to fix-"

Your brother cuts you off with a groan. You don't see it, but he sets his afternoon bowl of cereal to the side and runs his hand through his hair. "Hang on a damn minute. I'll be to your apartment in ten minutes. Please, stay there."

"But John-"

"Stay there."

He cursed as soon as he hung up the call, finally noticing the stares he'd been receiving from the others in the kitchen. They'd watched you slowly unravel his composure until he was rushing to pour the rest of his precious Captain Crunch down the garbage disposal. All for his endearing concern for his stepsister.

"Who was that?" his closest friend, a broad shouldered boy by the name of Jaehyun asked.

Johnny paused, looking back at his friends. "My sister doesn't sound like she's feeling very well. She's pretty torn up about- well, you know."

"Can we help? I haven't seen Y/N in ages," Haechan commented, thinking back to the last time he'd had a chance to hang out with you. It must've been the night you joined them for a Smash competition. He remembered that you were really bad at it- or rather, not as experienced as his fraternity brothers who maybe spent a little too much time practicing.

"I honestly don't really know what's going on, so maybe it's best if I go alone."

Haechan and Jaehyun share a look. "Can you tell her to drop by to see us sometime?"

"Sure will," he agrees before slipping into his shoes and heading out the door. He was quick to get to the bus stop, knowing it'd be leaving within minutes.

When the doors to the bus opened, he took note of only one person stepping off. A pretty little girl with features that told any onlooker that she was Japanese. Her hair was lighter than his by a few shades, locks of caramel resting gently on her shoulders, the top layers collected in a little white bow and the back of her head which matched the flowy white v-neck she was dressed in; jeans and white tennis shoes paired to match.

She was a figure of beauty and grace. She offered him a small smile which would haunt him in his dreams that night. Had he not had prior engagements, he would have spent more time drinking her in as she walked down the sidewalk in the direction from which he had come. The gleam off of her pearl earrings blinded him momentarily, and suddenly he remembered that he was on a mission: a mission to get to you and remind you of your self worth.

When you cracked your door, an arm poked through, attached to a bag of goodies.

"When's the last time you ate?" Johnny asked, still not pushing his way into your space. "I brought ramen and cookie dough. I figured we could do with a night in."

You opened the door wider and lead him into the living room. It was a mess, to say the least. A nice collage of wrappers and tissues lay across the floor, the occasional soda can making things interesting. The dishes in your sink were stacked as high as they could go, and unopened letters lay strewn across your coffee table. Your home had become a perfect embodiment of how you felt.

"Y/N..." he said, looking around at the state of things.

"I know, I'll clean up later," you answered, tucking yourself back in to your spot on the couch.

"I'll help you tonight," he reassures you, setting the plastic bag on your counter and taking out two styrofoam cups filled with dry noodles.

"You didn't need to come, Johnny." The look in your eyes told him otherwise. Maybe he wasn't the best older brother in the world, but he could tell that you needed someone right now and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to do his best to help you.

"I know," he soothes. "I came for me. You were scaring me with some of the things you said and I needed to make sure that you were okay for my own sanity. Do you want beef or chicken?"

Episodes of Sword Gai play lowly in the background, a low hum of a language that neither of you understood. He helped you pick up around your house and clean up your living space. He helped you make cookies, and he ate his fair share of them. Your brother, your closest companion since you were young, sat with you all night and talked. The weight of your words though, it was heavy on his chest.

"Y/N, we've always only had each other. We practically fled a country together. You know that you and I are the first and last people on this planet, right? I took care of you back in (country) and I'll take care of you here."

You sighed, rubbing your temples. "I was your scared little sister who came chasing after you. You deserved to have your own life and live it the way that you wanted. I followed you to Korea, and once again I'm your burden."

"Y/N, you're not a burden. I'm glad you came to my University. The closer you are, the easier I can protect you."

"You shouldn't have to protect me though. You introduced me to your friends because I couldn't make any on my own. Then I met Lucas, and you helped him get into NCT and now everyone there has to deal with me-"

"Y/N, they aren't 'dealing' with you. They actually like you. Not because they have to, but because you're fun to be around."

"I don't know..." You didn't want to outright complain that you hadn't even received a text from any of the members of NCT since your fight with the Chinese boy. You didn't want to admit how badly if hurt to realize that they were his friends before they were yours. Now, not only was there a hole in your heart from your boyfriend ripping himself away, but also the growing cavity from the quiet abandonment of your friends. And now, your brother who'd done so much for you your whole life had to take care of you once again.

"What're you thinking about?" He watches your gaze flicker from the TV to his eyes and back.

"I'm willing to admit that Lucas was right-"

"I don't think he was. And neither do you. He has to respect that family is a taboo subject for some of us. Hell, he knows that I don't like it whenever he brings it up. You can work things out without taking all the blame for this, which would be outright unjust."

"I shouldn't have been so sensitive though," you respond honestly.

"You know I hate taking sides-"

"You do not, Seo," you giggle. His face visibly brightens at the sound.

"Yeah, your right, I love taking sides. I'm definitely on your side about the argument. But maybe he's thought about it too. Maybe you should let him explain how he feels about it now. And of course, I'll be sure to give you my opinions afterwards."

"I guess," you offer him an unsure smile. "I want him back in my life. I want everyone else back in my life too. I guess losing him and then losing touch with my- your friends made me realize that maybe I'm rather expendable." Your chuckle was dry, barely making it out of your throat.

In Johnny's eyes, not only Lucas, but his friends as well had been the ones lacking; yet somehow, you thought it was your own lacking that had let them slip away. How dare they hurt you like this? How dare they make you feel unworthy of them?

"I've always known," you continued, "that they were his friends- and yours. I guess I should start trying to make friends in class if we don't get this worked out, huh?"

"Maybe you should talk to them about that before you go trying to replace your friend group. But you're gonna work it out. No one's leaving you. You should see how desperate he looks right now, waiting for you to come marching into our house and demand to see him. He's got too much love in that big heart of his and now that he can't shower you in it, he looks like his purpose in life has been taken away."

Johnny was always there to take care of you, and you felt you could never repay him for that. His advice and soothing words were invaluable to you. Your brother's compassion was the most precious thing in the world to you, especially in your moments of need.

Of course you made an attempt to call Lucas before you showed up on the fraternity doorstep, but if you wanted something to change, for once you were going to have to do something yourself. You had to be able to move your own two feet without him.

Your three sharp knocks were answered by the only Thai resident in the household, a slender boy with cropped bangs and sharp features. Ten was quick to pull you inside, wrapping his arms around your torso and resting his head on your shoulder.

"Buddha has sent us an Angel; we're saved!"

"That bad, huh?"

Ten let you out of his bear hug and looked you in the eye with a look of (semi-) mock disgust. "Y/N, it's been fourteen days since he came home crying and he's showered like twice since then. Mark and I have been trying to coax him out of his room for days. Please, you've got to do something!"

"Challenge accepted," you said, smiling at the boy in front of you. He always knew how to make your day a little bit brighter.

Your heart grew heavy when you remembered that his concerns weren't for you. They were for his real friend, and you could appreciate that.

You tried to shove those thoughts down in your chest as you stepped around him and started on the long trek to your boyfriend's room.

The couch at the end of his bed was a sacred place for videogames and movie nights, a large flat screen just in front of it. His desk was often messy and usually your problem to clean. His chair was a space for studying and the occasional newcomer into his room, a comfortable space to be welcomed. The carpet was a place you liked to lay when you began to think that mattresses were just a little bit too mundane; then suddenly, you'd think the most interesting thing in the world was the orange peel texture on the white ceiling. On the nightstand was an alarm clock, a charger, and a picture of you - and in it was a bottle of lotion and a stash of jewelry you'd given him over time. Even his dresser meant something to you. You'd picked it out with him at a flea market and agreed to split the cost because it was just too beautiful to pass up. The bottom drawer was full of your clothes and he always reminded you that the dresser would one day live in a space with the two of you, together.

His room was a box of memories, and his bed held the most prized of them all. It's where you laid and let yourself be vulnerable with Lucas. It's where your lives came together, and your stories intertwined, slipping from your lips and knotting together like your limbs under the ceiling fan. Promises of the future, swears of the past, and a comforting and cozy present.

You didn't think before you opened the door; it was practically an instinct now. It wasn't necessarily a shared space, but it's a space that's always been offered to you. You'd never imagined that there would be a time when you weren't welcomed there.

It caught you off guard, the body underneath his. A petite girl with Carmel colored hair that was stuck to her damp skin. Your boyfriend moved on top of her, rocking back and forth against her body, eyes trained on hers.

You quietly shut the door and slipped back down the hallway. Doyoung, exiting his room, stopped your frantic attempt at escape from the house, taking in your wide eyes and seemingly disorganized composition.

"Y/N? What's wrong? Wh-"

"I'm okay," you swore, stepping around him. "I'm just not feeling well, I'm gonna step out for a bit."

"Oh," he says, watching you scamper down the steps. "We have medicine if you need it."

You didn't answer. Your priority was to get out of the front door as quickly and as quietly as possible, not even sparing a glance at the boys in the living room who had greeted you earlier.

You walked like a woman with a purpose, fast and in a straight line, away from the house. You didn't bother waiting on the bus, instead you walked right past the bus stop and started towards your home where you would let your composure fall.

Lucas moved one of the light colored strands of hair from Yuri's face. He was propped up on an elbow, admiring the beautiful girl in front of him. She was someone he'd know for a while, having been in his Sociology class the year prior. He'd seen her every now and again, met with her, fucked her, and left her in the morning. The girl with almost orange hair who always wore white was illusive to all but him. Wanted was the girl who always wore her graduation gift from her grandmother proudly, a pair of pearl earrings.

Normally, he wouldn't have allowed the sweet Japanese girl to stay with him after sex, cuddled to his chest, her bare skin against his. It hurt him too much to think that she wasn't the one who was supposed to be in his arms, and as a constant reminder he was always burned by the temperature of her skin. She was hot, a fire that lit in his stomach and yet left his heart cold.

Yuri blinked up at him, stirring from her soft slumber. "Is it nighttime?" she yawned out. He nodded and shushed her, rubbing his thumb over the soft skin of her cheek. He brought their lips together for a kiss that felt so wrong yet so right. Part of him didn't want to pull away and crash back down to reality, the other part of him knew that the girl needed to leave while no one was awake, lest his relationship with you be damaged.

He pulled away first, standing to dress himself in the sweats and Tee that he'd discarded some time ago. He helped Yuri sit up then dress herself. He placed a chaste kiss her forehead and lead her to his bedroom door, expecting her to find her own way out of the house. But before the door closed, he locked eyes with the last person he wanted to see him sending off his rendezvous into the night.

Johnny did not hesitate to put his hands on the door (rather loudly) to prevent it from closing.

"What's a girl doing in your room so late, Lucas?"

Lucas tried to meet Johnny's eyes, but he couldn't hold your brother's fierce gaze. "Studying?"

"Oh yeah? How'd you two get so sweaty while you were studying. You must've been cramming pretty hard." Johnny fold his arms over his chest just as the color of pink on Lucas's bed catches his attention. He stared at it for a moment before the shape registered in his mind. "And how did leaving her thong with you help either of you read a fucking textbook?"

At this point, Johnny has a fist full of Lucas's shirt and is backing him against a wall. Lucas tries to remove Johnny's hand, but only gets shoved harder into the hard surface, pictures rattling on both sides of his head, the picture of your joint trip to the fair the year prior falls to the ground and shatters.

Taeyong comes rushing in from his room, roughly awoken by his neighbor's commotion.

"Johnny? Yukhei? It's one in the morning, what the hell is going on?"

The intense gaze between the two doesn't falter for a moment. "Yeah, Yukhei, what the hell is going on?" When he doesn't receive an answer, he lifts him off the wall and pushes him back against in with one harsh movement. "Don't ever talk to my sister again." Johnny releases his shirt and Lucas's eyes widen.

"Y/N-" Lucas breathes out, grabbing for your brother's arm and stumbling over his words. "Please don't tell Y/N."

"Ya know, Lucas, she just recently told me that she felt like no one cared about her. Her friends were yours, and while you were out of her reach, so we're they. How could you leave her with nobody?"

Taeyong gasped at that. He considered you a rather close friend and cherished the bond he had with you. He understood where you were coming from but it still hurt that you would misread his intentions as befriending a friend of a friend.

Lucas pulled harder at Johnny's arm, keeping him in place as he tried to turn away. Taeyong took this as his que to step between the two and separate them.

"Please don't tell her," Lucas tried. "Please, let me be the one to tell her. She deserves that much."

Your phone had been dead for two days and you hadn't bothered to even look for a charger. You focus your energy on your Korean history essays and devote your time to working on your computer.

Little did you know, this was sparking panic at the NCT dorms. No one, not even your brother, had been able to contact you. Finally, Johnny decided that he had to check on you (along with the ever persistent presence of his younger friend, Haechan, who demanded that he be taken to see you), taking the public transit to your apartment on the northwest border of the campus.

His knocking earned a prompt "fuck off" from your living room, so at the very least they were sure you were still alive.

"Y/N, open the damn door." You didn't even bother moving from your cozy place on the couch. "For fuck's sake- do you know how long we've all been trying to contact you. Let me fucking in or I'll break the door down."

"I'd like to see you try," you mumbled before a solid 'thud' sounded from your entrance. "John, what the fuck?"

"I said let me in. I gotta make sure you're okay so don't make this difficult."

"For the love of fuck, I'm fine, go away."

Thud.

"Let me in."

Thud.

"Okay, okay stop! You're gonna make my neighbors hate me."

You threw your door open to be greeted by, not one, but two friendly faces with murderous intentions in their eyes.

"You can't just drop off the fucking radar, you had everyone scared shitless that something had happened to you," Haechan snapped before bringing you into a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry," you sighed, wrapping your arms back around him. It felt nice to be in someone's arms again, even if it wasn't the touch you longed for. "I've just had a hard few days."

Johnny, who had already pushed his way past you, was beginning to calm himself down like a passing storm.

"What happened, Princess?" Haechan tried. You cringed and he shrugged, still holding you to his chest.

"Lucas and a girl-" Your eyes teared up and the words lodged themselves in your throat. "He's cheating on me."

Haechan's eyes widen and he presses your head to his chest rather forcefully so that he could discreetly pass Johnny a look of sheer confusion. It'd been the hot topic as the frat, but as no one had been able to contact you since they'd made the discovery themselves, he assumed no one had been able to tell you yet. "Y/N, Princess, what do you mean?" he spoke slowly, unsure of how he wanted to frame his question.

"I went to," you hiccupped, "went to see him and there," you hiccupped again, "there was a girl," and again, "underneath him." Haechan's grip tightens around you. The look he's giving Johnny now is one that would've scared armies away from battle. The look on his face was nothing in comparison to the emotion written on Johnny's own features. The storm had returned, the haze of anger clouding both his eyes and his judgements.

Johnny moved towards the door much slower than he'd come barging through it. Like a man marching off to war, he kept his eyes straight ahead and left the same way he'd came. "Both of you, stay here." The door slams shut behind him, mimicking the sound of a gunshot.

Haechan keeps you in his embrace for a few minutes, rocking you back and forth after the tensions in his muscles began to dissipate. He shushed you until you stopped crying, urging you to get your breathing back under control.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that," the silver haired boy mumbled into your hair before sperating himself from you. "Come sit down. Let's talk about this for a minute."

"That's okay, Haechan. I appreciate it but-" you sniffle.

"Y/N, this is an important talk we're about to have, okay? Listen to me very carefully, and after we talk this out, I'm going to order food from any place in this district that you want." You shook your head but did nothing to interrupt him. "We all just found out a couple of days ago. That's part of the reason everyone has been trying to reach you. Johnny caught him, but he agreed to let Lucas tell you. But because no one has been able to get to you, those two have been raising hell at the frat. That's why it is very important that we can get in contact with you, do you understand? If we have things we really need to tell you, your phone needs to be on so we can get to you. We were all worried that something really, really bad had happened to you."

"So it's true? I'm not being dramatic? Lucas really..."

Haechan nodded, pulling you down to sit with him on the couch and tuck you under his arm. "But listen, I know it's aweful. Johnny is probably going to put Lucas in his place right now. So you and I are going to stay here for now, and talk and eat dinner, and get out everything that you're feeling right now. And soon, that boy isn't going to mean anything to you because he doesn't deserve to take up your precious time or energy. Okay? Now what do you want to eat?" He rubbed your back, patiently waiting for your answer. He would move at your pace for the rest of the night.

"Where is he?" Mark and Taeyong are quick to intercept Johnny's trail, desperately trying to avoid whatever chaos was sure to ensue this hour.

"Don't you think it's a little early to start throwing punches this evening?" Taeyong tries.

Ten enters from the kitchen, a bowl of cheap ramen in his hands, Lucas trailing behind him, rocking the college boy couture: no shirt and sweatpants. Ten had by no means forgiven him within the short span of two days, especially not when he picked plenty of the recent fights with Johnny which promised a rather annoying thrill of excitement every night, but Ten knew that in the depths of his heart he felt sympathy and compassion for Lucas. As frustrated as he was with the younger boys, he couldn't abandon him when he had so few people left on his side anymore. Who else would take care of him if not Ten?

Lucas stopped in his tracks when he saw Johnny, slowly handing off his bowl to Ten to be sat on the coffee table. There was a feral beast inside Johnny that Lucas could see right now, and he was afraid that any sudden movements would invoke a violent response.

"I thought you'd be gone longer," Lucas admits. He had avoided the living room recently, especially when he knew Johnny would be home.

"I felt suddenly compelled to come right back and have a nice long chat with you."

Lucas tensed, subconsciously preparing to be thrown into a fight at any second.

"Wait, where's Haechan?" Mark ask, noting that the younger boy did not come in with him.

"He's comforting my sister. He's doing what I should be doing. But I trust him to handle her with care. I trust him to take care of her tonight while you and I have that little chat." He eyes Lucas, reading every sign that Lucas's body is posting, watching as he takes in those words and deflates a bit.

"You guys told her?"

"Didn't have to. She walked in on you screwing another girl." The room falls silent until Ten begins to choke on his ramen. Everyone looks at him as he turns away to hide his wide-eyed expression.

"Ten?" Taeyong asks. "Do you know something?"

Ten slowly turns around to face the group. "Do you remember that night when we were sitting here when she came over, and then she went running out the door a few minutes later?"

Taeyong's face falls. "Oh my God. Is that really the last time any of us saw her?"

"Fuck, and we didn't even know she needed help."

"Doyoung said she wasn't feeling well; he tried to stop her."

"That was almost a week ago, though," Ten thinks aloud. Everyone's eyes fall on Lucas, the boy they'd momentarily forgotten. His eyes are glassy, his composure fallen. There's a beat before anyone dares to ask about the elephant in the room. "How many times did it happen?"

Lucas opens and closes his mouth like a fish. "Did she really see? She saw me with Yuri?"

"Lucas, how many times did it happen?" Johnny's shoulders are squared. He steps towards the boy but is stopped my Taeyong's firm grasp on his arm.

"A lot," he admits as the first tear makes its dash for his chin. "A lot more than I should have. A lot more than I ever wanted to." As wet as his entire face was becoming, he dare not move to wipe away the shame. "I love her. Oh my God, I love her and she'll never want to see me again."

Mark looks between his two best friends seeing nothing but desperation and fury - two ample types of passion for you. "Why'd you do it then?" His words were soft. He didn't want to stir the pot anymore, but he wanted to know.

"I don't know. I love her. Why would I do that to her?" Johnny's composure cracks but doesn't break. He doesn't take off his armor. He was still there, at his own frat, in his own living room to challenge his former mate.

"She was the reason you got into this house in the first place. If she didn't care about you, I would have never helped you get in."

"Johnny stop." Taeyong pulls back on Johnny's arm, reigning him in and telling him to stand down.

"Why? That's how she feels. She feels like she's less than you. I think it should be the other way around. She think everyone only cares about her because they care about you. I think she should realize that you wouldn't even be here without her. How do you even have the balls to cheat on her after what she's done for you?"

"I didn't want to!" Lucas defends.

"Then why did you do it?"

"I don't know! I don't know! I don't know if it was because I was bored, or if I was mad at her one day. I don't know how it started. When I started to see Yuri, it just felt like a small break but then we started to mess around more often. I don't know how it started, but I wish it never had. I never wanted Y/N to have to see that."

In one swift movement, Johnny yanked himself out of Taeyong's grasp and nailed one shot right below Lucas's eye before the other three men in the room jumped in to separate the two as much as the could.

"You wish you hadn't done it because you got caught?"

Lucas holds on to his face but managed to stand up straight. "I wish I hadn't done it because I regret hurting her. It would break my heart to see her with anyone else - I can't imagine how it must've felt for her to see that. So yes, I regret her finding out."

Johnny struggles against the restraint of his friends. "Do you regret doing it? Did you ever question yourself while you were screwing around behind her back?"

Lucas didn't answer, instead he walked away. He gather up the few shards of his dignity that he had left, and locked himself in the first story bathroom for the rest of the night.

Haechan made you put your phone on the charger. He warned you that there would be messages from just about everyone in his frat but that you didn't have to open them all immediately. He stayed up with you that night to help you with both your assignments and your heartache, sending you to bed at a decent time (before two in the morning). He sat in your living room, waiting for any news from the dorms before he went back. He ended up falling asleep on your couch.

When morning came, he was abruptly awoke from a sweet dream by the rattle of the door and three sharp knocks. Annoyed, he pushed himself up and went to check who could possibly be so irritating this early in the morning.

He cracked the door to find a not-so-hot Wong Lucas on the doorstep.

"Haechan?" Lucas asked, sniffling quietly. Haechan shut the door, ready to turn back and resume his slumber on the couch before three more knocks stopped him.

He cracked the door again. "She's sleeping, knock it off."

"Haechanie?" You ask yawning as you wonder to his side. You didn't know that he'd been there all night and came to check the door, not expecting anyone to beat you to it. "Who's at the door?"

"No one, Princess. Go back to sleep."

"Princess?" Lucas questioned, clearly uncomfortable with the younger boy calling you by a pet name.

"Lucas?" Your mind wakes up a bit when you register his voice.

"Y/N," he sighs in relief.

"Haechan," Haechan blurts before shutting the door and promptly turning to you. "Y/N, don't let him in. He's probably here to convince you to take him back and you need to remember what we talked about last night. He made you feel like a small person, don't go crawling back to him-"

"I'm not letting him in, don't worry." You wrap your blanket tighter around yourself. "Why are you still here anyways?"

"I never got the all clear to go home," he mumbled, pulling you back into your bedroom. Three sharp knocks sounded once again at your door. Neither of you moved to answer it, instead you let Haechan lay you down in your bed and tuck you into your comforter before he crawled on top of your covers and dozed back off at the foot of your bed.

Lucas left the flowers and food in front of your door, sending Haechan a text to let him know that they were there (just in case you'd already blocked his number). Pulling his jacked tighter around him, he left the building in search of something to make himself feel better after a night of high emotions.

He found himself at the coffee house down the street from your residence. As he waited on his order, he sat at a booth and pondered ways to get you to, if nothing else, accept his apology. With everything in him, he wanted you back. He wanted to forget the stupid fight, he wanted to forget the other girl - he wanted you. That wasn't fair though, and he knew it. It especially wasn't fair that while you were with him, you felt small compared to him. It wasn't fair that he made you feel like nobody cared about you more than they did him. It wasn't fair that your stepbrother had to be the one to voice your concerns for you; you had never felt comfortable telling Lucas about your deepest insecurities when he was supposed to be the one to get you past them. He was only beginning to realize that he hadn't been there for you the way that you needed him to be - the way that you had been for him.

"Johnny is it true that Y/N thinks we don't like her?" Jungwoo asks, placing himself between both Johnny and Jaehyun on the couch.

Johnny sighed. "She thinks that you guys don't like her, but that you're all too nice to say anything. She thinks that because she's my sister, you guys are forced to spend time with her."

"But I like spending time with her," the younger whines.

"I know," Johnny answers simply. "She just," he inhales through his teeth, "doesn't have a lot of super close relationships. Actually, it was really only me and..." He eyes the staircase. "Can you blame her for having trust issues, though?" he asks rhetorically, more towards himself than anybody else.

"How can we show her we care about her? Like, genuinely?" Jungwoo asks, his simple yet quick thought process spitting out one debacle after another.

"I dunno, Woo. I really don't know. Maybe try to text her more? Maybe check on her every now and again?" Johnny thinks to a moment how much of his private conversation with you he wants to share. He determines that no true friendship deals in lies. "She wanted to apologise to Lucas for the fight they had a few weeks ago. She was willing to be wrong in her principles if it meant she could have that one deep connection back. She said no one had really contacted her since they'd started fighting. She said she felt alone."

Jungwoo's eyes swelled up to the size of saucers. Had he really been so neglectful? Had they all?

"I'm not telling you this to make you feel guilty. She'll never be honest about her emotions, though. She told me that if things didn't work out with Lucas, she would have to start trying to make new friends in class."

"Would she really replace us like that?"

"To her, it's not replacing something if you never really had it."

"She wouldn't even try to talk to us?"

Johnny shook his head. "That's what I'm saying. I wasn't going to tell you that, I don't want you guys to feel bad about it. But if I didn't say something, you'd never know how she felt."

Jaehyun, who'd kept his quiet so far, finally spoke up. "Well I hope she's accepting visitors. We've clearly left her to deal with her problems alone for too long."

"Let's go after breakfast," Johnny suggests, nearly being cut off by the ring of his phone. He excuses himself from the living room to answer it. "Hello? Y/N? What's up? We were just talking about you."

He doesn't see it, but you cringe a little at that. "Uh, hey, are you busy right now? Should I call you back another time?"

As off put as Johnny is by your tone, he doesn't question it. "For my adoring sister? I'm never to busy for you."

You wonder if he was genuinely not doing anything or not. "Really, we can talk later if-"

"Y/N, I'm not doing anything, what's going on?" The line is quiet for a moment. A sickening moment.

"I think I'm gonna transfer back home." Your brother feels his stomach drop. "I've been thinking about it for a while now. I just think it might be the better option for me. I don't know many people here on campus, I struggle to keep up with my Korean classes. I just think it's time I stop following you around like a lost puppy, ya know?" The line goes silent as you wait for his response. "Hello?" You wait. "John?"

"No." His answer is simple and definite.

"What do you mean 'no?'"

"I mean you're not leaving just because you're insecure. You and I both know you're doing wonderfully in your classes this semester. Why would you leave that behind? Because a boy cheated on you? Because you think no one wants to care about you? You're not leaving Korea."

"I wasn't asking. I was just letting you know." Johnny feels his heart break for you.

"On purpose! I care about you on purpose. We all care about you on purpose. Why do you keep trying to take yourself away from us?"

"You shouldn't have to care-"

"You think it's up to you if I care about you or not? That's not your decision. And it's not your decision whether or not the rest of NCT cares for you either. Why are you so hard headed?" Johnny groans loudly into the mic.

"I'm not enough of anything to be cared about."

"Shut up." He promptly hung up and grabbed his jacket.

Your tiny apartment wasn't really made to accommodate many people at once, but the five overgrown boys standing on your doorstep pushed their way into your apartment and made it work.

"Let's take a vote," is the first thing out of your stepbrother's mouth as soon as he crosses the threshold. "All in favor of Y/N transferring say 'aye.'" A silence falls over the boys. "All opposed say no."

"No," Jungwoo is the first to speak.

"No," Jaehyun is quick to follow.

"No," Ten says sternly.

"No," Taeyong adds.

"You have been unanimously voted to keep your ass in Korea and the court rules in favor of putting a bounty on you if you try to escape."

"Wait, wait, wait," you finally get out. "This isn't a democracy; your vote is irrelevant."

"Y/N, why do you want to leave so badly?" Ten asks, crossing his arms and leaning against your island.

"I have to learn to take care of myself. I can't depend on Johnny or Lucas to do that for me anymore."

"Is this really what you think is best for you?" Jaehyun asks, a tinge of guilt in his words.

"I don't know, I guess we'll find out in five weeks when the semester ends in December."

Lucas pressed his palms into his eyes, temporarily making himself see stars. It was cold, a thin layer of snow covering the ground and buildings outside. There was a blanket thrown over his shoulders but it did nothing for the morbid freeze that so deeply effected his mood.

It was midnight when he woke up. Really, he no longer had a desire to eat, and he couldn't make himself sleep anymore lest he grow physically sick. He was left to wallow in his thoughts as he stared out his window, watching the snow fall so peacefully.

"Did I do this?" He asks himself. "She's leaving because of me? Was it me who made her feel so small compared to everyone else? Was it me who made her feel so small compared to Yuri?"

He'd stopped seeing her, his fling. He came to realize that there was a hole in his heart that she could never fill. When he had you, perhaps Yuri was a fun toy to play with on the side. When you were stripped away from him and his sense of comfort was taken from him, he no longer wanted to play with her.

He tried not to contact you. He didn't deserve your time - but he wanted it.

He found himself standing outside of your apartment at one in the morning on a freezing December night. Public transport, if it even ran in this weather, had been closed for the night. There were no students wondering the campus either. He braved the elements alone.

Three sharp knocks. They weren't particularly loud. If you were asleep, he wanted you to remain asleep. But if you weren't, he needed to see you. He wanted to hold you, and kiss you, and love you; he needed to see you. You weren't his toy, you weren't his game - you were his survival, his comfort, his energy, his breath.

"Lucas? What are you wearing? It's snowing out there, are you crazy?"

"Please don't leave."

"Isn't it a little late in the night to be talking about college transfers?"

"Please don't leave me."

You'd seen Lucas cry about a lot of things. For such a physically built man, he was very emotional. He cries when he stubs his toe. He cries when he sees a dead animal on the road. He cries when he laughs to hard. He cries when he's drunk and misses you, no matter how close you might be. He cries over a plethora of movies from sad romcoms to cheesey action movies. Never have you ever seen Lucas sob. He was hysterical and unfiltered, and still in the middle of the hallway.

"Come in, Lucas. It's okay, come in." He steps inside, wiping his runny nose of his sleeve.

"Please don't leave me," he repeats. "I'll be better, I'll do better. I know you deserve so much more than me but please let me be selfish and keep you."

"You'll be better without me," you reassure.

Lucas out himself on his knees in front of you, his hand reaching out unsteadily to hold yours. "Please, Y/N. Please. I'm sorry. God, I'm so sorry. If I could take it all back, I would. I swear I would. I hate myself for ruining what we had."

"It's okay, Lucas." You cradled his head to your waist and shushed him, letting his arms wrap around your legs. "It's okay. I wasn't enough and that's okay. You needed something else, that's okay. I wish I would have know, sure. I wish maybe you would have told me that I wasn't enough, but I understand why you did it."

"No, no, Y/N. No, that's not right at all. You were perfect - too perfect, and I wasn't enough of a man to cherish that. I'm not a man without you. I'm a scared little boy. Y/N, please, I love you."

You shush him and run your fingers through his hair until he calms down a bit.

"Lucas?" You ask softly. He hums in response. "Did we ever break up?" You feel his entire body tighten around you as he tensed. He pressed his face harder against your abdomen and cries harder."I'm not going to end it with you," you sigh, "I can't live on my own, you know that better than anyone. I'm so tired of being alone. I need you too."

"I don't have the words to describe you. I'm trying, but I don't know how to tell you what I feel right now."

"Then don't tell me in words."

"You know, I have really hated your life decisions lately." Johnny quips from the driver's seat. "I hate that you're studying abroad for an entire semester. I detest that you got back with your ex, and I am repulsed by the fact that you're wearing sandals in December. Your decisions just suck."

"But I'm making them," you smile at him. "It's only a few months, I'll be back from Bordeaux before you know it."

"I'm glad you're going to France instead of going home. For a minute there, I thought you'd really gone off the deep end."

"Thank you for talking me down from that."

"I really wouldn't have let you go, you know. I would not be driving you to the airport if I wasn't one hundred percent sure that you're going to France."

"Thank you."

"We're going to miss you, Y/N. All of us, we really are." You thank him and offer a warm smile.

"Are you sure you can take care of Lucas while I'm gone? Without killing him?"

Something serious flashes in Johnny's eyes for a second. "I will never see him the same. I hate that you forgave him. But it's your life, and I support you."

"He and I both had to change a lot over the last couple of months. He had to learn to cherish someone that he so often took for granted. He knows now what he did to me, he's made effort to change and I've forgiven him. I had to learn to cherish the people in my life too. I had to learn how to accept that I'm cared for. No body is perfect, but both of us are trying to be good."

"If you've both changed so much, are you still both the perfect opposites?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think I'm the same person I was before the fight."

"Oh yeah? What about him?"

"Hardly." Johnny hummed in acknowledgement. "I think maybe, he's the word now. He's an idea, an emotion. It's my turn to be the action. I get to live my life for me, now."

"You've always been strong," Johnny adds, pulling into the airport parking garage. "I'm glad you finally realized it."

"I'll be back in June," you remind. "I'll come back stronger than I've ever been before. I'll be able to do things for myself."

"We'll all be waiting for you. Six months?"

"Six months."

"I can't wait to meet you again in six months."

#lucas #wong yukhei #nct #taeyong #johnny #mark #ten #lee #angst #smut #fluff #oneshot #series #x reader #imagine #reaction #jungwoo #kim #kpop

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stradlingmrstradlin · 4 years

Text

Steve Riley x Mick Cripps

Requested by: Anonymus on wattpad

Words: 2419

Warnings: Nothing bad really, just the word "Fuck"

It's pure fluff and cuteness, enjoy

Story: Their adopted daughter meets the band for the first time

-------------------------------------------------

It was a cool, breezy night with a calm sky full of stars. Steve and Mick were sleeping peacefully next to each other while their daughter Bethany was sleeping in the room next door. They brought her home a week ago but she hasn't met the band yet. Mick thought it was a better idea to let her get used to her new environment before meeting those three crazy boys, and Steve agreed. Beth however got used to her new living space quite quickly, already calling Mick or Steve Dad or Dada by accident a few times, but of course, none of the boys minded.

At first, the band was quite surprised when the two announced that they are together but they weren't bothered by it, and thinking back to all the times they caught the two of them cuddling it wasn't surprising either. When they decided they wanted to adopt a little girl it was a long and tiring process, considering that they are two men in a rock band, but with the help of the band and a few family members after more than a year of waiting they could bring home Beth.

Before bringing her home they've met the little girl many times in the park or in the temporary home where she lived, and when they told her that she'd get to come home with them she was shouting and jumping from happiness.

Steve's dreams were interrupted by something or rather someone jumping on his chest and a quiet "sowwy dada, didn't mean to". He glanced at the clock on the wall and it read 10:23 am, might be time to wake up Mick. "Hey angel can you wake up Papa too?", as soon as these words left Steve's mouth Beth was already poking Mick in the face and shaking his shoulders. "Mornin' kid, are you excited to meet our friends today?' Mick asked as he slowly sat up lifting Beth in his lap, Beth nodding her head really fast "wowwy, 'ts making me dizzy" she giggled.

Beth wanted to choose her own outfit, but the dress she wanted to wear was really warm for a summer day, so finally, she agreed to wear a Hanoi Rocks t-shirt with a puffy striped skirt. Breakfast consisted of pancakes and fruits and Bethany made sure to put as much chocolate on her pancake as she can before either of her dads notice, she managed to stuff quite much in her mouth before Steve noticed something was up,

"What are you hiding kiddo?" a muffled "Notin" came back "You sure about that? Because I think there's chocolate smeared around your mouth" Steve said while trying not to laugh. " Maybe 'ts choco, but "ts yummy'' Beth said pointing at her tummy. "Alright kid, I'll let it slide this once, but don't tell Papa about it"

"What shouldn't I know about?" Mick asked when he walked into the kitchen. "Dada said I could eat this choco pancake if I don't tell you" she quickly blurted out making both of her fathers laugh and smile at her adorableness.

After getting ready and putting the dishes in the sink the little family sat in their car to travel to the park. Their plan was that they'd meet the guys there and maybe later for lunch go back to their house and the boys could come if they want and then later, they'd have a concert. Saying Beth was excited could be an understatement, she was jumping up and down in her car seat and when the park came into view, she tried to stretch her neck to see if anyone was there already, but that proved hard as she didn't know who to look for. As Mick parked the car she was ready to get out already and both of her fathers took one of her hands into theirs and started walking towards the playground, her trying to pull them to go faster.

When they reached the playground area with benches one seat was occupied by a long black-haired dude who gave them a wave as he saw them approaching. "Hi, guys. Nice to meet you kid, I'm Tracii" he said while stretching out his arm towards the little girl. "Tracii, that's a girl's name? 'm Beth, nice to meet you." said Beth as she took his arm and jokingly shook it. While Beth played with the chains on Tracii's pants another voice could be heard talking to her parents and then looking at her. "Hi love, my name is Phil" the guy, Phil said with a funny accent. "Beth, you're not from America, are you?" she questioned while standing up from next to Tracii and sitting down next to Phil "No, I'm British, that's on another continent" Phil answered. Beth looked puzzled for a bit but then her attention was on a motorcycle parking in the parking lot and another black-haired guy got down from it. "Wowy, 'ts cool" she exclaimed to no one in particular and then only looked away from the motorcycle when the guy stepped in front of her.

"Hi little one, my name is Kelly, it's nice to finally meet you" Beth thought that the guy was very cheerful "Why do you have a girl name too? Oh, I'm Beth" she giggled and almost forgot to tell Kelly her name. Kelly faked being offended and that only made Beth laugh harder, finally when she calmed down, she convinced Kelly to climb onto the slide thingy at the playground with her, Kelly being...well Kelly he of course agreed with very little persuasion needed.

It proved to be harder than they thought to go down on the slide together because Kelly was taller than the top of the slide and they got stuck at least five times, when they got down Phil was laughing his ass off and the others had a smile on their faces too. "Let's play tag" Beth shouted and then slapped Phil's hand signaling to him that he was 'it'. So now Beth and five men who looked really funny were running around the park, the guys, of course, running slower to let Beth win. After about ten minutes Beth got tired and decided she wanted ice cream, and to her luck, an ice cream parlor was right on the other side of the street from where they were standing. Carefully crossing the street Kelly and Beth were discussing what flavor of ice cream they are going to get while Steve was still wheezing a bit from the game of tag. The little group arrived at the parlor and ordered their frozen treats. Beth ordered her favorite, chocolate ice cream and now probably more was smeared around her face and hands than in her mouth, but she was enjoying herself nonetheless.

After cleaning up they decided that they should probably head back to the house because it was getting increasingly hotter outside and wearing black didn't help much either, plus the guys were getting hungry and the ice cream didn't do much.

When they arrived inside Beth was eager to show her toys to the guys and even invited them to play dress-up with her. She was the princess and decided that Phil will be the prince on the condition that he will let her do his hair. "No, nope, sorry love but no." Phil said and as Beth was looking around she saw Tracii also shaking his head in protest. "Kelly, pwease?" she did the puppy eyes so of course, Kelly was now sitting in front of her while she asked Mick to bring her some hairspray and a comb "I'm going to make your hair pwetty, like Mike Monroe's" Beth cheered as Mick handed her the supplies.

She was not so gentle with the teasing and Kelly tried not to make any noises but the look on his face described everything. When they were done Kelly looked like anything but Michael, more like a bird decided to nest in his hair. But of course, he wasn't going to tell that to the little girl "Thank you kid, I look like a true prince now".

"See Phil, you would look pretty, but you didn't let me do it, you're not pretty now" Beth said half serious half joking while staring at Phil, Kelly tried to at least make his hair a bit less messy while Beth wasn't looking, but to no avail. They played princess for a bit more, but Beth got bored of it and the guys were hungry, so they decided to order pizza.

"Can we play hide and seek? Pweaseee"

"Fine kid, who should seek?"

"You Papa"

"Alright, I'll count to two minutes" Mick said as he closed his eyes and leaned against a wall.

Steve hid under the table, Kelly tried climbing into a closet but gave up and hid in the shower instead, Tracii quickly stood behind the curtain in the living room and Beth climbed under the bed, but she didn't want to be alone, so she asked Phil to go with her. Somehow Phil managed to fit under the bed, but climbing out probably won't be easy.

"Ready or not, here I come" Shouted Mick downstairs. The first to be found was Tracii because let's face it, the curtain only covered him above the knee. Then he found Steve under the table. Kelly was only found because he sneezed and then slipped and Mick heard it, "What in the name of...Kelly, what are you doing on the bathroom floor?" Mick questioned "I, ugh might have slipped?" Kelly said laughing a little

"Beth, Phil, where are you?" Mick shouted, no answer. He was searching for maybe a few minutes when he heard a small whisper from under the bed. "Found you" He exclaimed when he looked under the bed, and to his surprise, two pairs of eyes looked back at him.

"Ah, nice to see you too Mick, now please would you help me get out from under here?" Phil asked after a failed attempt to get out, in the end, he somehow climbed out but swore to never climb under a bed again.

When the pizza arrived it was probably around three in the afternoon and everyone was hungry. Beth was getting increasingly tired, but she acted like she didn't care because she wanted to spend as much time as she could with her new friends. After the pizza, everyone agreed that watching a movie would be an awesome idea. They watched The Little Mermaid as it just recently came out and Beth hasn't seen it yet.

"I'm a mermaid" Beth yelled as she was now running around the living room imagining that she was underwater. Then she decided to draw the guys and herself down, it was basically five black-haired people-shaped things and one smaller brown-haired thing. Steve decided that this drawing would look fabulous on the fridge.

After this Beth had to take a nap because she was going to see them play live tonight and she needed to be well-rested for that. While she was sleeping Kelly combed his hair out with a bit of help from Tracii in the back. When she woke up it was already time to go to the venue, so Steve dressed her up and strapped her in the car, "See you there" she waved to the other three guys.

There were so many people outside when they got there and some noticed them and screamed making the little girl whimper "It's okay kid, everything's okay" Mick whispered as he held her even tighter. Inside was a lot calmer and there were many doors and corridors and people running around setting up everything for the show. The next time Beth looked up she was in a dressing room with her fathers who were teasing their hair and putting on their stage clothes. There was a knock at the door and seconds later Kelly came in sitting down next to the kid "You want to cause some mischief before the show?" He asked with a grin "Yeah, like what?" Beth asked "You'll see kid, don't worry we'll meet you guys at the stage" he said the first part to Beth, the second to Mick and Steve.

"Okay, so we'll hide here behind the door and when Tracii or Phil comes by we'll jump out and scare them, ok?" Kelly explained the plan as Beth eagerly nodded, excited to scare people. They only had to wait a bit before an unsuspecting Tracii came out from the room, they jumped out causing him to yell out a surprised "Fuck".

Beth copied Tracii "Fuck". "Okay, um, kid you probably shouldn't say that or at least don't tell anyone I said it okay" Tracii tried explaining it to Beth before she yells out the word again. Luckily Beth forgot about the bad word in a few minutes and when Phil opened the door and they scared him, he luckily just made a loud gasping sound, no curses.

When the four of them got to the stage Steve and Mick were already there waiting for them "So you'll sit on top of the chair and stay there, okay?" Mick asked, pointing to the side of the stage where a chair was already placed for Beth. "Okay Papa"

She enjoyed the show sometimes standing up and dancing a bit or trying to copy the guitar sounds with her mouth or singing the words... kinda the words, but she tried and that's what matters. She was exhausted when the show ended and almost didn't Phil lifting her up and bringing her to his changing room to let her fathers have a bit of alone time.

"I'm sleepy, I wanna sleep" She mumbled as Phil placed her down on the couch and lifted her head into his lap. He started singing softly and she was asleep in a minute, smiling in her sleep.

Later Phil helped Steve put her into the car and buckle her up before saying goodbye and going on his own way. When the little family got home Mick lifted Beth out of the car and with the help of Steve opening the doors he placed her into the bed, tucking her in and both men placing a kiss on her forehead. "Sweet dreams angel" and with that, they closed her door and went to their own room to take a shower and then snuggle up in bed and also fall asleep.

#mick cripps #steve riley #kelly nickels #phil lewis #tracii guns #la guns #mick cripps x steve riley #pure adorable fluff #oneshot

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purplehairedwonder · 3 years

Text

Hearts With(out) Chains Chapter 10

Fandom: One Piece Rating: PG-13 Pairings: Gen (eventual Lawlu) Words: 3233 Characters: Trafalgar Law, Monkey D. Luffy, Nico Robin, Usopp, Zoro, Nami, Franky, Smoker, Tashigi, Vergo, Heart Pirates Note: I’m taking my turn at the Corazon!Law AU because my brain won’t leave me alone until this is written down. Tags will be updated as the chapters come out.

The story title is based on the Ellie Goulding song “Hearts Without Chains.”

Summary: Law is reclaimed by the Family when he's 17 and, with Doflamingo holding the lives of his crew as collateral for his good behavior, eventually becomes the third Corazon. Years later, trapped by his impossible situation, Law finds a strange connection to Monkey D. Luffy, which offers a glimpse of something he's repeatedly had ripped away from him: hope.

Previous chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Read also at AO3 / FF.N

When Law ended the call, Bepo felt his heartrate picking up as he considered what his friend had said. Bepo didn’t know where Law was—he kept so much to himself anymore and had practically fled when he, Shachi, and Penguin had confronted him on his way out of Dressrosa—but Vergo following him from Dressrosa was bad news. Everyone in the Family knew there was bad blood between the first and current Corazons, though not everyone knew why.

Bepo did, having seen the aftermath of the wounds Vergo had caused when he and Law had first met. Shachi and Penguin were the only others—except Violet, Bepo supposed—in whom Law had confided that history.

What Bepo couldn’t figure out was why Doflamingo would believe Law had defected, considering his entire crew was still on Dressrosa; Law would never risk them like that. Doflamingo saw to it that Law would not (could not) betray him. But if Law was worried enough to warn them, Vergo must have some trump card.

Not for the first time, Bepo wished Law had brought backup on his mission, whether it was him, Shachi, and Penguin or any of the other Hearts. Bepo’s captain was too willing to go at it alone when he didn’t have to—and now he was in trouble because of it. All the Hearts could do was be his backup in Dressrosa, waiting for his return and whatever that might bring.

Still, as Bepo scoured the Hearts’ rooms and the most likely hang out spots around the palace for his nakama, a part of him was lighter in relief. The Law on the other end of the Den Den Mushi had sounded familiar; he’d sounded like Bepo’s captain and best friend, who Bepo hadn’t heard in two years. Law had locked himself away since Shachi lost his arm, drowning in guilt and refusing all attempts to bring him out of his self-made prison. It had pained them all to watch helplessly as he pulled away, becoming a shadow of himself in a misguided effort to protect them.

But Bepo had known that his best friend—strong, brave, and loyal—was still in there, under all the guilt and pain.

And he’d been right.

Bepo’s best friend had been the one to call his nakama in the middle of a mission to warn them of potential danger while promising to return for them despite the obvious danger doing so presented.

Bepo had missed Law, and now he’d do whatever he could as first mate to support his captain and look after their nakama.

It took about half an hour, but Bepo finally managed to gather his crewmates in Bepo’s room. He knew they wouldn’t be overheard here, as Law regularly checked the Hearts’ rooms for surveillance Den Den Mushi. The small bedroom was not designed to house twelve people, but the Hearts were used to confined spaces.

“What’s going on, Bepo?” Shachi asked once everyone had arrived and the door had been shut firmly behind them.

“Law called,” Bepo replied. He refused to use the title the Family used for Law when speaking only among the Hearts. He was also not surprised by the concern that his pronouncement elicited.

“Is he okay?”

“Where is he?”

“What’s going on?”

Bepo held up a paw, and once his nakama had quieted, he relayed what Law had told him. Bepo knew frustratingly little about his captain’s situation, so when his nakama burst into questions, Bepo had no answers for them. No, he didn’t know where Law was, though he must be close because he’d only left that morning. No, he didn’t know what Law’s mission was or why Vergo was there. No, no, no, he didn’t know.

“He said he worried Vergo would tell Doflamingo he’d failed or defected,” Bepo reminded his nakama. “He didn’t know that Vergo did for sure. But he wants us to be careful in case he did.”

“Would Doflamingo believe Vergo about this?” Jean Bart asked, looking at the crew who’d been around the Family longest.

Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo exchanged glances and shrugged. Doflamingo’s moods were impossible to predict.

“Vergo is Doflamingo’s most trusted agent,” Penguin said. The intimacy of that relationship was common knowledge within the Family. “But Doflamingo also knows about the bad blood between him and Law.”

“He must also know Law left all of us here,” Shachi added. “He knows Law wouldn’t risk us.”

“Then what are we missing?” Ikkaku asked, glancing at Bepo. “What had Law so worried about Vergo lying?”

There was no answer to that. But Bepo had heard the worry in Law’s voice and the seriousness in his warning. Whatever Law was keeping to himself must be quite persuasive.

“What do we do now?” Uni asked.

“Head for the Tang,” Clione muttered.

“We can’t act like we know anything is wrong,” Penguin said, ignoring him. “We’d raise suspicions and make Law look guilty otherwise.”

“But we need to keep an eye on each other,” Shachi added.

Bepo nodded. This is what he had promised Law; they would take care of themselves, so Law didn’t have to worry about them in addition to Vergo and whatever his mission was.

“Stay close,” Bepo said. The Hearts had their own wing of the palace, complete with common area, kitchen, and training rooms, so they didn’t often need to leave; the isolation suited them just fine since they, being loyal to Law rather than Doflamingo, felt out of place from the rest of the Family. “And if you need to leave, take a buddy.”

Normally, someone would have cracked a joke about the buddy system, but the concern on the air was heavy enough to stay even Shachi’s tongue. Instead, everyone nodded in response. They would take no chances; they’d seen what happened to traitors to the Donquixote Family. There was nothing to be done other than stay on their toes and wait to hear from their captain.

-----

Law entered the lab the same way he had when he’d first arrived, Shambling through the back entrance into the darkened hallway. He headed for the control room, unsure of what he would find. He thought his bootsteps echoed more loudly than he remembered from a few hours earlier, but he knew he was just imagining it. He tightened his grip on Kikoku and kept walking until he saw light.

Once he and Straw Hat had shaken on their agreement to team up, Nico Robin had returned Kikoku, the nodachi suddenly appearing in Law’s vision as a disembodied hand offered her to him. Law managed to suppress a surprised flinch and took the blade with a nod to the woman, who smiled at him in that unsettling way of hers. Still, a feeling of calm had settled over him with the return of Kikoku’s familiar presence; she was an old friend, after all.

Between Law and the Straw Hats, they had two separate goals on Punk Hazard: stop Vergo and save the children. Law wasn’t particularly concerned with the second goal, but the Straw Hats were set on it and Law would do what he needed to in order to help his nakama.

That put Vergo, Caesar, Monet, and Caesar’s men in their way. G-5 was a wildcard. Though the Marines had entered the lab with the other half of the Straw Hats, there was no telling how long that tenuous alliance would last, especially with Vergo on the island.

Law had no way of knowing if Vergo had called Doffy yet, though he had to operate on the assumption that he had; anything else would only get him—and his crew—killed faster. As for whether Vergo had shown his face in the lab, that was another story. While Caesar and Monet would be friendly to Vergo, Law also knew that the vice admiral would go out of his way to avoid blowing his cover with the Marines. The other man was of most use to Doffy in his elevated position among the Marines and wouldn’t blow fifteen years of undercover work just for his grudge against Law. With that in mind, it was entirely possible Vergo was remaining hidden and waiting for his chance to capture Law and bring him back in shackles to Dressrosa without being seen.

Knowing the importance of doing recon before setting any plan in motion, Law had convinced the Straw Hats to let him go back to the lab alone and see where he stood and see what he could find out about Vergo and the rest of the Straw Hats. They’d been hesitant, but Law had held firm that it made the most sense for him to go on his own.

“What if Vergo did out you?” Black Leg asked. “You’d be a sitting duck by yourself.”

“I can handle Vergo,” Law replied. Now that he wasn’t hindered by Seastone anyway.

“But what about all the other guys?” Straw Hat asked. “You shouldn’t go alone.”

“It’ll raise more suspicion if we’re together,” Law countered.

“But if you need help—”

“What about a Den Den Mushi?” Long Nose interrupted. Everyone turned to look at him, and he shrugged uncomfortably but kept speaking. “If he,” he said, jerking his head at Law, “calls our ship’s Den Den Mushi and leaves the line open, we can hear what’s going on.”

“And we can come if Torao needs us!” Straw Hat concluded, satisfied. “Let’s do it,” he said, pumping his fist.

Law had rolled his eyes, but that was how he’d ended up with his Den Den Mushi’s line open to the Straw Hats’ as it sat in his coat pocket. He’d warned Straw Hat not to be noisy on the other end of the line or he’d blow Law’s cover, and the others had promised to keep him quiet. (Law hadn’t been particularly reassured but didn’t have much choice but to continue anyway.) The Straw Hats were stationed outside the lab out of surveillance range, listening as Law entered the control room.

Law blinked as he stepped inside, taking a moment to let his eyes adjust to the bright light before glancing around. The room appeared empty. Where were Caesar and Monet? It looked like he’d need to head further into the lab.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Den Den Mushi. He opened his mouth to update the Straw Hats on what he’d found, but a familiar voice cut him off.

“Corazon? What the hell are you doing here?”

Law’s gaze followed the voice to the far wall, and he blinked in surprise at a large cage partially hidden in the shadows. He didn’t remember that being there before, but he hadn’t studied the room carefully upon his arrival either. He pocketed the snail and meandered over to the cage, raising an eyebrow when he saw what was inside.

Or, rather, who was inside.

Smoker was the one who had spoken. His eyes were narrowed as he eyed Law from his prone position, chained with what was undoubtedly Seastone chain.

“How’d you get here?” the swordswoman growled at Law from next to her boss.

“Where’s Luffy?” the cat burglar demanded.

Law simply watched the group, considering. Smoker, his second, the cat burglar, Zoro, and the cyborg had apparently all been captured by Caesar and were left chained in this cage. That left the tanuki and skeleton as well as the remaining G-5 soldiers somewhere in the base. He was considering what Caesar might want with them and what this meant for Vergo’s position when the cat burglar interrupted his thoughts.

“Say something, would you?” she sneered when Law remained quiet. “What did you do to Luffy?”

“Nothing,” Law replied, turning toward her. Though he could see why she would assume he had. “We…” he began, considering how to describe what had happened, “came to an agreement.”

“What kind of agreement?” Zoro asked, his one-eyed gazing piercing. He didn’t sound as disbelieving as the cat burglar did, though his attention was focused fully on Law now.

“Was that Nami and Zoro?”

Everyone started at the sound of Straw Hat’s muffled voice coming from Law’s pocket.

“Luffy?” the cat burglar called.

Law sighed and pulled the Den Den Mushi from his pocket. “Your crew seems to have gotten themselves captured, Straw Hat-ya,” Law informed him.

“What?” Straw Hat yelped. “Are you guys okay? We’re coming!”

“Wait, Luffy!” Long Nose interrupted. “What’s going on there, Torao? Is that guy there?”

“Torao?” the swordswoman asked, confused.

Law ignored her. “There was no one in the lab except your captured friends,” he said toward the snail. He looked back to the prisoners. “What happened?”

“Caesar,” Smoker growled.

“Is that Smokey?” Straw Hat asked.

“He did something to air when we confronted him about the children,” the vice admiral explained. “Woke up here after that.”

“What about Monet?” Law asked. “The woman,” he clarified when the others looked at him blankly.

“Brook and I were fighting her before I blacked out,” Zoro said.

“Whatever the clown did to the air probably didn’t affect him since he’s a skeleton,” the cat burglar said thoughtfully. “No lungs.”

Law knew Monet was dangerous, having gone on numerous missions with her before she’d been sent to Punk Hazard, so if the skeleton could keep her occupied while they took care of Vergo, that would be helpful.

“Where’s the tanuki?” Law asked.

“He’s a reindeer,” Zoro and the cat burglar replied, along with some garbled voices from the Den Den Mushi.

Law rolled his eyes. “Whatever. He’s not here with you.”

“He was looking for the lab to find out what the clown had done to the children,” the swordswoman said. “They must not have found him yet.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you know what they’re doing to the children?”

Law shrugged, uninterested. “No.”

“You’re Donquixote’s second, you must know everything that’s going on,” Smoker countered.

“You may be surprised to know that I don’t have intimate knowledge of every project Doflamingo has going on,” Law countered coolly. The fact was, Doffy simply had too many ongoing schemes for any one executive to know all about. They all had specific projects they oversaw for Doffy, and Punk Hazard was Vergo’s. Law knew the general outline of the SAD manufacturing on the island, but that was about it.

“You still haven’t answered what kind of agreement you and Luffy came to,” Zoro interrupted.

Law turned back to him, but it was Straw Hat who answered over the open line. “We’re going to help Torao save his nakama from Mingo!”

“What?” the cat burglar sputtered.

Zoro narrowed his eye. “What are you talking about, Luffy?”

There was some shuffling on the other end of the line before Nico Robin spoke up. “One of Doflamingo’s agents is on the island and is threatening Corazon and his crew. Luffy has decided he wants to help.”

“Why?” the cat burglar demanded, glaring at Law. “He tried to kill us. He works for a man experimenting on kids.”

Looks like that had stopped bothering Law a long time ago, so he simply returned her look evenly.

“But he doesn’t want to,” Straw Hat said. “Torao’s a good guy!”

“Luffy—” Zoro started, but his captain cut him off.

“He saved me, Zoro.”

There was some meaning in those words that Law didn’t fully comprehend, but Zoro apparently did, his mouth snapping shut. He closed his eye, leaned back against the cell wall, and nodded grudgingly. “Fine,” he grumbled.

The cat burglar looked at him in disbelief. “You’re just going to go along with this?” she demanded. She looked like she could have smacked him if she hadn’t been bound.

It seemed the cat burglar was the member of the crew with the ounce of common sense Law had been wondering about.

“He’s the captain, witch,”

Zoro commented without opening his eye.

She huffed. “Luffy, he’ll betray you.”

“Nope,” Straw Hat replied. “He won’t.”

The cat burglar eyed Law suspiciously. “How can you be so sure?”

“As of now,” Law said before Straw Hat could speak, “our goals align. It’s in the best interest of me and my nakama not to betray you all.”

“How reassuring,” she sneered.

“Nami.”

She looked back at the Den Den Mushi. “Luffy—”

“Do you trust me, Nami?”

She startled at that. “Of course.”

“Then trust me. Please.”

After a long moment, she sighed and nodded, the tension in her frame deflating. “Fine.”

Even the cat burglar, it seemed, could be swayed by the will of her captain.

The Will of D., Law couldn’t help but think.

“Now what, Torao?” Straw Hat asked.

Rather than answer, Law dropped the snail back into his pocket then held his hand up and opened a Room large enough to encompass the cage. He unsheathed Kikoku and sliced the bars open. The sound was finally enough to wake the cyborg, who startled into consciousness. He yelped at the sight of Law above them, sword in hand, but the cat burglar murmured something to him, and he quieted down.

Law stepped inside, and, with three quick slices, three sets of chains fell to the ground as Law freed the Straw Hats. They pushed themselves to their feet and, stretching their cramped muscles, filed out past Law. For his part, Law eyed Smoker and the captain.

“Now, what to do with the two of you?”

Smoker glowered at Law while the swordswoman watched him warily. As far as Law was concerned, they could sit here and rot, but as a fellow vice admiral, Smoker could be good leverage against Vergo, if the bastard showed his face. Anything that made things more complicated for Vergo was a good move in Law’s book. That didn’t mean he couldn’t make them sweat a bit first, though.

“Go ahead and kill us, pirate,” Smoker sneered. “Finish what you started earlier. See what happens to your boss when it gets out that his second killed a vice admiral.”

Law decided not to mention he’d been sent to Punk Hazard to kill Smoker in the first place.

“No!” the swordswoman said. “Please, let us go.”

“Tashigi,” Smoker hissed. “Don’t beg for your life from a pirate! Where’s your pride?”

But rather than be cowed, she glared right back at him. “There are innocent children on this island that need help. It’s our duty to rescue them, so if begging for my life will help me save those children, then I’ll gladly do it!”

Law was grudgingly impressed with her resolve. “It seems she’s smarter than you, White Chase-ya.” Smoker growled wordlessly at Law, but Law pressed on. “Your presence on the island is, ironically, useful to me now, so I’m willing to let you go. On one condition.”

“What’s that?” Smoker demanded.

“Not a word of this alliance between myself and the Straw Hats to anyone. If it gets out, I will come find you.”

“Fine,” the swordswoman agreed in her boss’s place. “Now let us go.”

“Alliance?” a new voice said.

Law stiffened. Shit. He turned to see Vergo standing in the doorway to the front entrance of the room.

“Doffy didn’t believe me before that you’re a traitor, but now he’ll have it in your own words, Law.”

Next chapter

#Oh look I finally updated #Trafalgar Law #Bepo #Heart Pirates #One Piece fanfiction #One Piece fanfic #One Piece #Caitlin's fic

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queenofspades20 · 4 years

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Bloodbath & Beyond 1/?

Pairing: Vampire!Loki x Reader

Synopsis: Loki is the original vampire. He has grown bored with the women he’s been with over the centuries. That all changes one day when he takes a second look at Y/N, the owner of a bar. Inspired by the song Bloodbath & Beyond by Ice Nine Kills.

Getting into a Halloween mood, so actually felt like writing. This will likely be about 2-4 chapters total (haven’t quite decided where I’m going with this, honestly). Hope you enjoy!

Word count: about 1.7k.

Warnings: really none this chapter. Probably some gore/angst in future chapters.

As Loki looked around the crowded bar, he tried to find his prey for the evening. The bar was dimly lit by string lights that ran the entire length of the ceiling. There were a few neon beer signs on the walls that helped to cover some of the peeling wallpaper. The booths that were around the room were filled with parties. The room carried the scent of beer and bourbon, the main drinks that were offered at this particular establishment, and was filled with the heat of the bodies that filled it. Loki cradled a glass of Four Roses Single Barrel in his hand. While his diet was comprised mainly of blood, he did enjoy the occasion glass of bourbon, even if it didn’t do anything for him. It also allowed him to blend in with the crowds easier. Loki wore a black suit with a dark green shirt. His raven hair slightly slicked back, reaching his shoulders. As his gaze moved to the back of the room, he saw a blonde woman with her friends. She seemed to be the odd one out, which made her the perfect meal for the night. It had been some time since he fed. Though he had gotten several women to leave with him, when he got to the point of feeding, he simply lost interest and let them go, wiping their memories of their interactions with him.

Loki made his way towards the woman, his eyes never leaving her. She looked up and met his eyes. A blush covered her face as she noticed how his eyes didn’t move from her.

Y/N was standing behind the bar, handing a patron their drink, when she noticed the tall dark-haired man make his way across the room. She sighed to herself. As the owner of the bar, Y/N had noticed the man in her bar a few times before. He always ordered a single glass of bourbon that he nursed throughout the night. He always left with a woman, but never the same one more than once. Y/N had a little bit of a crush on the man, if she was honest with herself, which she refused to be. She found him handsome and he was always kind to her and the rest of the staff. He usually came on the busiest nights, so she had never been able to have a long conversation with him. Y/N wished that one night he would pay more attention to her, but didn’t think it would ever happen. Oh well, Y/N thought to herself. No use wishing for the attention of someone who probably wouldn’t want more than one night anyways. Y/N decided that her staff had the bar sufficiently run and made her way to her office to finish some paperwork.

Loki felt the eyes of someone other than his prey on him. He thought about looking for the source, but didn’t want to lose his prey. Even though he had lost his interest in feeding, he knew he needed to feed soon. Unfortunately, as soon as he got the blonde outside, his desire for feeding went away. He sighed as he wiped the memory of the blonde and sent her back to her friends.

“Why can’t I feed?” Loki groaned to himself. Loki felt his frustration grow. He thought back to the feeling he had in the bar. Maybe I should try and find the person who had been staring at me.

Loki made his way back into the bar. He surveyed the area but could not feel the draw from before. He decided to hang around for a bit to see if the person came back. Loki settled in a seat at the bar and ordered another bourbon.

After deciding she had done enough paperwork for the evening, made her way back to the bar. Even though she was the owner, she loved working the bar and making conversation with the patrons. She loved that everyone had a story and the job was never the same night twice. As she exited from the back, she saw her tall stranger sitting back at the bar. He was one that always intrigued her because she never could quite get his story.

“Thought you left,” Y/N said with a bit of humor in her voice. “You don’t usually stick around that long.”

Loki felt the gaze from earlier. He smiled to himself. “I think I forgot something. I was wondering if you would be willing to help me,” Loki said as he turned around in his seat. Across the bar from him was the owner, Y/N he thought her name was. He had always been intrigued by her, but never wanted to pursue her because of his nature.

“What did you forget?” Though they had a few interactions, the stranger rarely said anything to her more than a please, thank you, or his drink order. Y/N decided to take advantage of his chattiness.

“Your name.” Loki decided he wanted to see if anything would come out talking to her. Worst case scenario, he made her forget their interaction and he would move on with his life.

Y/N laughed. “Wow, you’ve been coming here for how long and you forget my name? Ouch.” Y/N placed her hand on her chest in mock hurt. “I must not be very memorable.”

Loki liked this showing of sassiness from her. “Darling, you are quite memorable, but I don’t think we’ve ever actually introduced ourselves.”

Y/N thought to herself for a moment. “I think you are correct. In that case, I’m Y/N. And you are?” Y/N asked with a lift of her eyebrow and a cheeky smile on her lips.

“I am Loki.” Loki reached out his hand towards her, as if to shake hands. When her hand reached his, Loki moved her hand closer him and kissed the back. Y/N felt her cheeks heat up from the contact. His mouth was a bit on the colder side and she felt a shiver run down her back. “A pleasure, Lady Y/N.”

Y/N snorted. “I’m hardly a lady.”

Loki, now stroking the back of Y/N’s hand with his thumb, stated, “On the contrary. You are always gracious in how you deal with customers. You are kind. You are very much a lady."

Y/N just rolled her eyes. “Sure. I’ll take your word for it. So, now that you have my name, is there something else I can help you with?”

Loki looked deep into her Y/E/C eyes. “When do you finish here?”

“Any time I want really. I have a manager and I own the place. I just like hanging out here.”

“Come with me.” Loki used his power of persuasion.

“I don’t think so. You know, I get you’re a smooth talker and all, but I’m gonna pass. I’m not really interested in being just another notch on your bedpost.” Y/N would be lying if she said she wasn’t attracted to Loki, but she also saw how many women he had left with throughout the months he had been coming to her bar. Y/N pulled her hand away from Loki’s.

Loki looked surprised. His powers had never failed to work before. “I. . . I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“You didn’t,” Y/N said matter-of-factly. “I just know what I don’t want.”

“Fair enough. How about I walk you home then?”

“That would be alright, I guess. But why would you want to waste your time with me?”

“It’s not a waste. I find myself intrigued by you and would love to get to know you better. I’m sorry if I gave you a poor impression of me.”

“No apologies needed. Let me grab my purse from my office and we can go,” Y/N said with a smile. Y/N walked back to her office and grabbed her bag. She let her manager know she was leaving for the night and let him know he needed to lock the place up.

Loki was waiting at the bar when she returned. “Ready to go?”

Loki held out his arm and Y/N looped her arm through his. “Lead the way, my lady.”

The walk to the apartment went quickly and Loki found himself sad at the thought of saying goodnight. He tried to think of a way to prolong their time together. He decided to be direct.

“Tell me, Y/N. How can I convince you to spend more time with me?”

“Well, asking is a good start. And I guess also tell me what you’re looking for. I don’t like to waste my time.”

“Would you care to join me for a walk tomorrow night, say around 10?”

Y/N stared at him for a few moments. “Because that doesn’t sound like a serial killer thing to ask. No dinner, just a walk? Where did you have in mind for this walk?” Y/N just continued to stare incredulously at Loki with a single eyebrow raised.

“I understand the time is unconventional, but I am not usually free until about 9pm this time of year.”

“What are you, a vampire?” Y/N laughed.

Loki choked and coughed to try and hide his reaction. He gave a slight chuckle. He didn’t want to lie to Y/N but he also thought it was too soon to tell her the truth of his nature. “I work in customer service. My hours tend to be a bit later, that’s all.”

“I was just kidding, Loki. I mean, I own a bar. My hours tend to be nighttime anyways. We can do a walk tomorrow. You want to meet me here or at the bar?”

“Let’s meet at the bar. We can have a drink beforehand.”

“Alright. Tomorrow night, 10 o’clock, at my bar.” Y/N confirmed the details. “Did you want my number in case you change your mind?”

“There’s nothing that would change my mind about wanting to see you again,” Loki assured her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “Here is my card. My number is on there, in case you change your mind.”

“I’m feeling pretty confident in my decision. I’ll see you tomorrow, Loki.” Y/N put her hand on Loki’s shoulder and leaned in. She placed a kiss on his cheek. “It’s a bit cold out. Make sure you stay warm.”

Loki smiled at her. “’Til tomorrow, my lady.”

#loki x reader #loki laufeyson #vampire!loki #vampire!loki x reader

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dokidokivisual · 4 years

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Gochiusa BLOOM episode 8 impressions

Previously: 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

Here we go, the long awaited Rize episode is upon us. She’s been rather sidelined this season, aside from maybe the marathon episode with Chiya. But now it’s finally her time to shine!

I didn’t have much time to write this review, due to various circumstances, but I hope it’s still worth reading.

The episode opens with Rize waking up Cocoa while imitating Chino’s voice and manners, such as calling her Cocoa-san. This scene is reminiscent of the post-credits scene from season 1 episode 12, although it has been implied Chino wakes up Cocoa all the time. The rabbit Cocoa sleeps with has been given to her by Chino at the end of Dear My Sister OVA, but it was Rize who helped Chino make it.

Rize had a fight with her father about her wanting to become an elementary school teacher, and stayed over at Rabbit House. She seems to think neither her father nor even Cocoa and Chino take her seriously. To be fair, it kind of comes out of a left field. The justification for it (which is revealed later) is also rather silly, as Chimame aren’t even elementary schoolers. It’s interesting to see if the manga will ever get to the point where Rize is teaching a class because I don’t think there have been any elementary schools introduced yet or any character who attends or teaches in one.

Rize herself also has some doubts about it, since she worries she will come out as too strict (and called a ”demon sergeant”, which is a callback to Dear My Sister where she took command over Chimame-tai), although Rize has become considerably more gentle since the events of DMS. Cocoa volunteers to become Rize’s teacher to show her how it’s done, but ends up making Rize do all the work while she just lazes about.

By the way, the book Cocoa is reading in this scene is called “Caffeine Fighter” which was mentioned before as one of Aoyama’s works based on Sharo, and this is the first time we see (although in very low resolution) what the lead character is supposed to look like.

Chino takes over the job, although it seems she just wants help with her homework (the book is labeled as “Mathematics, 3rd grade of middle school” and this particular lesson concerns the quadratic function and its graph). Rize uses her rabbit stamp on Cocoa and then on Chino for solving their tasks, and finds out that it’s a very good motivation.

One thing that western viewers might overlook is the prevalence of stamps in the Japanese daily life. Instead of signing legally binding documents, you’re supposed to stamp it with an officially registered personal seal called hanko. Things like stamp rallies are popular and you can often get a visitor stamp in various temples and train stations. So the fact that Rize carries a stamp with herself at all times is not at all unusual.

Next, Rize’s signature dish, napolitan pasta, makes an appearance. In the episode 6 review I lamented that Rize’s pasta never showed up, but now we can finally see what it’s all about. By the way, despite its name, this dish is actually Japanese in origin, and was inspired by American military rations, which makes it quite fitting for Rize. Cocoa uses the Italian word buono to describe the pasta, which means “good”.

During the bathtime, the stamps easily wash off, so Rize gives Cocoa and Chino stamp cards, just like to Chiya in episode 5. Not aware of this, Cocoa and Chino think this signifies their special bond. However shortly after, Cocoa boasts about it to Chiya at school, and realizes that not only Chiya has it, but also Maya and Megu. In the manga Cocoa and Chino confront Rize about it directly after, but the anime sandwiches another chapter in between.

Like I mentioned in the episode preview, chapters 2 and 7 from the volume 6 of the manga share a similar theme of studying, so it’s not surprising they were unified into one episode. Interestingly the chapter 7 is titled “Sweet Skip Step” which shares with the title of the episode “Stamp, Sleep, Study, Smile” the pattern of words starting with the Japanese syllable ‘su’. Another episode sharing this property is season 2 episode 8 titled “Sneaking Stalking Stalker Story”.

This second part of the episode is more Chimame-focused, and brings up the concept of juku, or “cram school”, which are very widespread in Japan. This is a small private school that students visit after their public school classes in preparation for the exams. Of course the way it’s portrayed in the episode is just regular tutoring, so you wouldn’t know the difference.

Anyway, Cocoa has opened a juku in Rabbit House and is now sporting lab coat and glasses look. Megu attends the “school” and we learn that the reason why she wants to go to Rize’s school is because her mother went there too. Cocoa asks if that’s really her own decision, and we later learn Megu isn’t really sure about that. Immediately after, Megu’s phone rings notifying her that she needs to “transfer to another classroom”, and Rize’s comment implies that Cocoa hasn’t really even started teaching yet. In the manga there’s a 1 hour gap between the Cocoa/Megu conversation and her going to another class, and Megu thanks Cocoa for her lesson.

The next class is Japanese literature taught by Chiya (she calls it 国語 “national language” which implies that the show is really set in Japan, or at least a Japanese-speaking country). Megu is impressed by how seriously Chino takes her studies, and how she strives to excel both in school and at her job just like Chiya and other high school characters (it was previously mentioned that Chino’s grades aren’t very good). However Chiya gets distracted and decides to spy on Sharo, who is teaching Maya at the time. It seems Sharo’s house isn’t very soundproof at all and they easily get discovered.

Maya isn’t sure about being able to pass the scholarship student exam and asked Sharo to help her, as Sharo has also passed this exam in the past. Sharo is eating some strange foodstuff that I thought was onigiri, but looks more like a cookie wrapped in nori for some reason.

Anyway, Chimame get invited by Rize to “onsen pool” but they think Rize is going to scold them for not taking their studies seriously. Meanwhile Rize’s dad is calling Takahiro to make him convince Rize to come back. Apparently during the war, Takahiro’s skill was persuasion, while Rize’s dad’s special technique was rushing into action like Leeroy Jenkins.

The “onsen pool” which previously appeared twice in season 1 is largely based on hot spring baths of Budapest, which I had visited last year. This scene is used to develop Megu’s character, specifically her insecurities and sense of inferiority towards Chino and Maya. It doesn’t help that Maya and Chino are jealous of her body and call her fat. Then, Maya and Chino decide to compete in swimming, suggested by Chino, who in the manga almost drowned during a hiking trip and that was her motivation to get better at swimming. In the anime (season 2 episode 11) she didn’t really drown so she just says she likes swimming now for some reason.

Anyway, Megu can’t keep up with them (both metaphorically and literally) and this time drowns even in the anime adaptation. However this scene was also altered from the manga, in the manga it’s implied that Maya and Chino drag her out while Rize comes too late and Maya calls her slow. But in anime, Rize is the one who saves Megu and is roundly praised by Chimame-tai.

The next scene parallels the one from season 1 episode 10 where Chimame-tai name was officially established, after Rize outruns them to Rabbit House. This time Chimame already got used to the name (which means something like “blood blister” in Japanese), so they’re ok with being called this forever if they win.

When Rize comes back, Cocoa (who held a grudge for so long that you might’ve forgotten about it with how fast-paced this episode is) kabedons Rize and asks for explanation for the whole stamp card business. However it turns out to be just a prank and an excuse for Rize to have a home cooked dinner with everyone. Rize’s accomplishments in previous episodes are also brought up, and she gets another round of praise. And then everyone gets lots of stamps.

Rize gets a stamp too when she’s asleep. This scene was in general modified quite heavily compared to the manga, to better fit with the rest of the episode I guess. One scene that was cut was Cocoa and Chino discovering Rize’s notes about their food preferences and regular guests of Rabbit House. Also, the phone conversation between Rize’s dad and Takahiro was the last panel in this chapter so Rize’s situation with her dad was never resolved.

The anime adaptation does provide a resolution in the form of a cinematic car scene with a tense dialogue between Rize and her father. Cars are very rare in Gochiusa universe and the last time we saw one (season 2 episode 10) it also belonged to Rize’s family. Rize’s father is driving an Audi R8 with plate number TO-526, which might refer to his voice actor Touchi Hiroki who was born on May 26.

The car eventually stops on the bridge, which is basically a metaphor for reconciliation (i.e. “building bridges”) and the color scheme changes from red to blue, as Rize’s father eventually apologises to her and Rize gives him a stamp of approval. And so concludes the 8th episode of Gochiusa BLOOM, which finally gave Rize the recognition she deserves. I guess we’ll see if she can reach her goal of becoming a teacher in the future manga chapters. And there’s still four more BLOOM episodes to watch!

#gochiusa #gochuumon wa usagi desu ka?#is the order a rabbit?#review

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gothic-safari-clown · 4 years

Text

The Mind’s Power Over the Body

Part 17: From Protector to Pathetic

Story summary: They only ever had each other. It had been that way since high school, ever since Elianna transferred to dreary Arlen and took Jonathan under her wing. They go separate ways for college, and when they're reunited at Arkham Asylum professionally, Elianna comes to find that they've both changed during their time separated. Can she look past the promise of danger and stay by Jonathan's side as they slide further and further into the darkness while she grapples to come to terms with the truth about herself? Can she accept what needs to be done in order to hold onto the only person who holds any meaning in her life? This is a very self-indulgent AU that draws from several different canons of the DCU and ignoring others, starting in the Batman Begins Nolanverse. This will follow the plot of the movie, although the timeline has been very slightly tweaked.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13 / Part 14 / Part 15 / Part 16

Word count: 1580

A/N: 👀😗 I hope you all like angsty cliches as much as I dooooo!

It seemed to Jonathan that Elianna had learned from her first experience with the fear toxin. While she still fell unconscious once it began to wear off, the effects didn't last as long, and in lieu of frightened screaming, she had managed to restrict herself to quieter sounds of terror.

Upon seeing his friend's distress diminish as her eyelids grew heavy, Jonathan unfastened the restraints and took the belt from her mouth. When he turned his attention back to her, he found that El had already curled in on her side; she would twitch every few seconds, each one accompanied by a soft whimper, whether from perceived pain or from fear he couldn't tell.

Even so, he once again felt pride well up in him as her body relaxed more and more. He was surprised to find that she was still barely lucid when he laid down and pulled the blankets over them. Magnet-like, she was suddenly tucked against him, seeking warmth. Once the shock by the speed of her movement wore off, he allowed himself a tiny smile and secured his arms around her as Scarecrow piped up with his usual assortment of vulgar persuasion; easily ignored at this point.

Elianna finally relaxed into a deep, exhausted sleep, the material of Jonathan's shirt bunched up in her hand. He was very quickly growing reaccustomed to her unconscious insistence for closeness in her sleep. He found his fingertips skimming up and down her arm lightly as his thoughts returned to the execution of the attack on Gotham.

Admittedly, Elianna's insistent reminder of all that he had accomplished in the process took away much of the stress and replaced it with a sense of premature victory, which was very welcome in comparison. Jonathan found himself slipping into sleep more quickly than he had in a long time.

.xXx.

That didn't last for very long, however, as he was tugged back into semi-consciousness after a few short hours by El shifting uncomfortably in her sleep while muttering to herself. Jonathan blinked in the darkness (he had forgotten to turn on the bathroom light, damn), trying to bring her face into focus. He had only barely made out her furrowed brow and defiant frown when her voice began to raise, along with her poorly coordinated movements.

Jonathan had long been accustomed to soothing her back into sleep without waking her up when she had nightmares (which was concerningly often), but this one was clearly escalating faster than he could wake himself up.

That was, until whatever she was experiencing reached a crescendo, and she bolted upright, sucking in a deep, shuddering breath, followed by a short cry of torment. In an instant, Jonathan found himself next to her, his hand on her back. Instinctively, she leaned into the touch, pressing sideways into his chest with another anguished sob as her friend tried desperately to unscramble his tired brain.

This was troubling, to say the least. Generally speaking, El didn't really cry. Not like that, anyway. She hated to cry; she considered it a 'waste of energy,' in her own words. Even when she had occasion to, it was usually just a quiet tear or two and didn't hinder whatever else she may be doing.

But sitting there, listening to his friend actually sob in earnest, Jonathan found himself getting worried. Quietly shushing her (what the hell is that going to do, idiot?), he put a hand on the back of her head to hold her in place as she sucked in another shuddering breath.

"Breathe, El, breathe." She didn't respond, but she did make a second, slightly more successful attempt to take in a normal breath. "That's it; everything is fine." Jonathan cursed the brusqueness of his voice, still barely awake enough to even speak, let alone police his tone. "It's okay," he tried again—better.

Gradually, El's breathing evened out, but she continued to cling to Jonathan like a lifeline, trembling. Once again, he found himself disturbed by the extreme reaction; this was not normal.

Eventually, she sat back up, still shivering and with tear tracks just beginning to dry on her face, which bore no expression as she stared blankly forward at the opposite wall. Jonathan waited patiently for her to speak first; his hand had returned to her back, still uneasy.

However, he was comforted when she finally let out a frustrated sigh, disgusted by her own lack of control. "Round two nightmares are a bitch," she offered flimsily. Caught off guard, he couldn't help an amused scoff.

"Clearly."

"I can't remember the last time I cried like that, ugh," she wiped at her face, all fear replaced with frustration. "That was so annoying. I'm sorry." The apology was punctuated with an awkward half-laugh as she feigned confidence. It wasn't convincing, however, as she wouldn't look at him as she spoke. "Go back to sleep; I'm just going to get some water."

Jonathan considered joining El in the kitchen as she shambled in the direction of the kitchen, but he was just...so tired... Surely a moment to herself would do her some good anyway.

Once in the kitchen, Elianna flicked on the light and took a moment to brace herself against the counter as she scrambled to compose herself. What a stupid situation. She was no stranger to nightmares, having often been plagued by them for her entire life. So why was this one so different?

She knew why. Being in such proximity to Jonathan again had not only stirred up old worries but had given them new form as well. When he had first confessed to her his situation with Granny, many of her dreams had depicted her finding him dead somewhere, pecked to death by crows, or starved to death, or any other horrible possibility.

But their dynamic had shifted so much since they were teenagers. Whereas back then, she had been the protector, their roles had been reversed drastically, and as such, her Jonathan-fueled nightmare had borne a very different image.

Doing her best not to think about it, El finally filled a glass of water and drank it slowly.

In the meantime, Jonathan was facing a dawning realization of guilt. In all of the times that she had been woken by a nightmare when he was around, Elianna had never...snapped like that before. She had blamed it on the toxin, and maybe that was true to an extent, but he was sure that the impending attack on Gotham had played a larger part.

And the only reason she was even in the city was that he had selfishly orchestrated for her to be there. If he had just ignored the application on Warden Sharpe's desk, she was sure to still be in California, bored but safe. As such, he felt a sense of responsibility for her continued wellbeing, and to his mind, this episode made clear what a dismal job he was doing. She was even smoking again, for God's sake.

When she ambled back into the bedroom a few minutes later, Jonathan had resumed a horizontal position, one elbow covering his eyes. Thinking he had fallen back asleep and not wanting to wake him again, El crept back onto her side of the bed carefully.

It was just another nightmare. Just go back to sleep, she commanded herself, shaking off the remaining worry. Just another really intense, very real feeling, vivid, horrible nightmare, she thought grimly as she remembered flashes of what she had seen.

The city in chaos, fire, destruction, screaming, pain; Jonathan standing over her, watching as she begged for help ("please, don't leave me here, you promised!") before he walked off, leaving her alone, injured, and at the mercy of the panicked, violent citizens of what used to be Gotham...

A movement from the other side of the bed startled her out of her thoughts as she released her breath from her tight chest. Blinking through the darkness, she saw that the arm that had been previously thrown over Jonathan's face was now stretched out between them.

"Come on, you know you're going to end up over here anyway," came his tired voice by way of invitation. After a moment's hesitation, El obeyed and once again found herself tucked up against her friend's torso. "So, what happened?" Jonathan asked as his arm wrapped around her and felt a sharp intake of breath from the redhead.

"It doesn't matter." He waited patiently for her to elaborate. "I already know you wouldn't leave me behind." Oh. Almost subconsciously, he squeezed her tighter.

"No, I wouldn't." The finality in his tone did well to reassure El and quell the final remnants of her apprehension.

"No, of course not. Doesn't matter," she murmured to herself, holding him close.

"Doesn't matter," Jonathan repeated affirmatively, clearly drifting back to sleep judging by his voice, and El found herself at last in a similar state. She hummed a response and kissed his shoulder before the pair finally slipped back into slumber.

#the mind's power over the body #Jonathan Crane #scarecrow #Nolanverse #batman begins #Elianna Montgomery #jonathan crane x ofc #multi chapter fic #slight au #fanfiction #scarecrow fanfic #cillian murphy #cillian murphy scarecrow #tmpotb chapter 17

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whiskynottea · 5 years

Text

We’ll rise up

Previously Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16

AO3

~~~~~~

Chapter 17. La Force Prison

Claire tried to swallow past the lump in her throat.

La Force Prison.

If life was a fairytale, this story would start thus: Once upon a time, Henri-Jacques Nompar de Caumont, Duc de la Force, built a wonderful complex as his private residence in Paris.

But this was no bedtime story. After passing several hands, the war ministry had acquired the buildings before thirty-five years and the Hôtel de la Force got a brand new name and purpose. The past nine years, the proud La Grande Force, was keeping behind its walls all debtors and people charged with civil offences.

“Which building? Do you know where they keep Jamie?” Claire asked Murtagh, frowning at La Grande Force as though the stone buildings had personally offended her.

“Hopefully he’s in the one at the centre,” Murtagh returned, eyes fixed on the airiest building, situated between two yards planted with trees.

Claire maintained her frown without much effort. “Will they let us in?” she asked, chin pointing at the entrance.

Her gaze focused on the stocky men who guarded the entrance at Rue du Roi de Sicile and she searched her mind for the most effective arguments that might grant them entrance to the prison.

It took more than half an hour of waiting, followed by a quarter of an hour of being blatantly ignored but, finally, Claire and Murtagh were challenged into bringing forth their skill in eloquent persuasion.

A tall, lean man had joined the other two. None of them was polite, neither they smiled. They looked at Claire and Murtagh with suspicion, but at last, they granted them thirty minutes to see Jamie.

It was a strange mix of satisfaction and dread that filled Claire’s chest as she followed the wiry man into the prison. Murtagh's wishful thinking regarding his godson’s prison cell remained an unrealised hope -- Jamie was held in one of the buildings stuck at the back, far from the entrance. When they left the main path lined with trees behind, a shiver ran down Claire's spine with the impossibility of getting Jamie out.

There was no warmth inside the building where the guard led them, the stones indifferent and unforgiving around them. They climbed up the dark, damp stairs following the trembling light of the lantern, the sounds of their steps mingling with murmurs from cells they couldn’t see. Men and women, guilty and innocent alike. They walked down a corridor and then another until Claire started to think that it might be a trap and for the sake of the Revolution visitors would become prisoners in the blink of an eye.

"His name?" the man asked when he suddenly came to a stop and Claire felt Murtagh halt at a hair's breadth behind her back.

Claire looked up at the guard, aghast for a moment before she realised that the name that meant everything to her was so insignificant to him that he'd already forgotten it.

"Fraser," she replied, voice slightly shaking. "James Fraser."

He turned his face to a heavy door with a narrow barred window at its centre and shouted the name loud and clear, in a voice as authoritative as demanding. The sound bounced off the walls and filled the dirty corridor, thick and heavy. Claire wiggled her fingers and clenched them against her palm as though she could grab the name that reverberated around her and protect it from getting lost in thin air.

Maybe if she started with the name, she’d save the person too.

She had no plan to follow, no strategy carefully thought. From the moment Murtagh had found her at St Antoine her need to see Jamie, to touch him and feel his pulse throbbing under her fingers overwhelmed her. She needed to make sure he was alive. Now that this was about to happen, with her heart loud enough to echo in the corridor, an uneasy feeling turned and twisted in her stomach. She had to get Jamie out and fast.

But how?

Jamie must have heard his name because a moment later he was behind the door with an impassive mask fixed on his face. He looked ragged, but his eyes glinted for a tiny moment when he saw Claire outside his cell. It lasted only an instant; the only reason Claire hadn’t missed it was because her eyes were fixed on him, paying attention to every little change on his face. She expected Jamie to smile at her next but saw his eyes narrow instead, and a pinch twisted the skin between his eyebrows.

“Are ye out of yer mind, Sassenach?” he hissed, grabbing the iron bars that kept them apart. “What are ye doing here?”

“Hello to you, too,” Claire deadpanned but a second later she had gone to him, covering his hands with hers. His face softened with her touch, and he shook his head. “The question is,” she said, now trying for a smile, “What are you doing here?”

Jamie sighed.

“You have fifteen minutes,” the guard announced and stepped back.

“Tou said thirty,” Claire objected, Murtagh grunting behind her.

“Fifteen minutes,” the man repeated before he turned his back to them.

“Won’t you at least open the door?” Claire asked again, bewildered.

“No.” The merciless guard moved to sit on a chair a few feet away, left outside the cell next to Jamie’s.

“You shouldna have brought her here, man,” Jamie whispered angrily, now glaring at his godfather. “And she not even covering her face, her hair. They’ll know her everywhere now.”

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Claire interjected. “You’ve done nothing wrong. You shouldn’t be here.” She lowered her voice to what might be mistaken for a lover’s whisper. “We need to get you out, Jamie.”

Jamie shook his head. “There’s nothing to be done, Claire.” His gaze was unfocused, lost. “I… I’m sorry, Sassenach. This is all my fault. I was careless and distracted and…” His words turned into an empty breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying that,” Claire pleaded and squeezed his hands on the bars.

“We’re getting ye out o’ here, lad,” Murtagh said as though stating a fact.

Jamie’s eyes left Claire’s for a moment to find his scowling godfather. “Ye ken that’s no’ an option, man.”

“Jamie, don’t give up,” Claire entreated again. Then in a more stable, and forceful voice, she added, “Don’t you dare give up on me.”

“I never meant to leave ye, mo chridhe.”

“Then don’t.”

“I canna see as I have much choice. The execution will be public, in two days time.”

“Two days?” Claire mumbled. Despair had the tangy and bitter taste of blood in her mouth.

“I’m a traitor now. I raised suspicions when I defied them during the attack at Comte’s manor. Not a proper Jacques, I wasn’t. They followed me after that, saw me at the wineshop and with Annalise… They think I am a spy, a merchant who pretends to be one of them to pass on information about the attacks to the noblemen and help them escape. They think I’m behind the Comte’s disappearance.” Jamie’s voice was quiet, that of a sentenced man accepting his fate.

“But you’re not. If we make them see the truth, if we convince them that you were always fighting on their side --”

“Convince whom, Claire? Which court? Which jury? And who will talk for me? My uncle canna go in public and claim that his nephew was spying for the rebels. Murtagh, they won’t believe. And you, mo ghraidh, you had money once, moved in the same circles as the nobility. I’ll not risk yer safety for a lost cause.”

Claire was shaking her head vehemently. Jamie passed his hand between the bars of the window, reaching for her face. He hesitated for a moment, but the next his calloused hand was soft on her skin.

“And even if ye tried, Sassenach, ye wouldna change anything. Only the men I talked to could help, the ones that got my information all these past months. And neither of them will be willing to risk their neck to help a man they think might be a turncoat twice over. They’ve seen me with Annalise, and they ken I didna kill anyone in the attacks.”

A silence fell between them, heavy as iron manacles and prison bars. Jamie traced her cheekbones with a finger, then ran his hand through her curls.

“Promise me ye’ll not try to save me. Promise me.”

She didn’t speak.

“Claire,” he tried again. His eyes were almost black in the dim light and he fixed them on hers, as though his gaze could burn conviction into her. “I ask that of ye, as a favour. If I mean something to ye, a shade of what ye mean to me, please dinna risk yerself doing anything foolish. Dinna try to change their minds. Stay safe, at St Antoine. Say ye came here because yer father knew mine back in England if anyone asks.” He seemed not to be convinced by the way she was looking at him. “I ken ye’re stubborn as an ox,” she paused and smiled, brushing away the tears that rolled down her cheeks uninhibited. “But some things we canna change no matter how much we wish them different. I wish we had more time, Claire, but the little time we had will be the last thing I’ll think of before leaving this place. And I need to know that ye won’t be in danger. Stay safe for me, aye?”

She didn’t speak. There were no words she could find to reply to this appeal. No solace to offer, no way to challenge his sensible arguments. But she couldn’t promise what he asked, either.

Jamie leaned forward and cupped her head to bring her to him. Her cheeks touched the cold, filthy iron bars and she winced at the feeling, but a moment later his mouth was on hers, warm, tender, passionate, and alive, so alive that she couldn’t fathom ever kissing these lips cold and lifeless.

When Jamie pulled away, tears were running free on his cheeks, too. “Last time I kissed ye, Sassenach,” he whispered, “I promised to tell ye what ‘tha gaol agam ort’ means. It means ‘I love ye’, and I do love ye, Claire, wi’ all my heart.”

“I love you too,” she mumbled between silent sobs.

Jamie kissed her again, first on her mouth, then on her forehead. “Remember that. Always remember that, Claire. I will never stop loving ye. Alive or dead, my soul is yers.”

She felt like choking.

“Will ye give me one moment wi’ Murtagh, mo ghraidh?”

With a last kiss, one that couldn’t possibly be the last, Claire stepped back. Murtagh and Jamie spoke so softly she couldn’t make out the words they were saying but she kept staring at the way Jamie’s wide lips moved, the way his slanted eyes focused on his godfather, the way the auburn locks of his hair fell on the high, flat forehead. The way his hands clenched the iron bars.

The guard sat up from his chair and dragged it on the floor. “Time’s up,” he said, moving to stand in front of Jamie’s door. Murtagh stepped back, nodding twice at Jamie’s words. Claire wanted to go to him again, but the guard blocked the way, ordering Jamie to go back into the darkness of the cell. With a last glance at her, full of so much love that it forced all the air from her lungs, he was gone.

She stood still, looking at the door and trying to remember how to breathe. Murtagh’s arm came around her shoulders, pushing her forward, and she wondered how she could still walk, how she could go down the stairs now that she had seen Jamie, now that she knew what the future held for them.

Hope, precious shining hope, had no place in that building. So, prompted by Murtagh, she followed the lantern’s artificial light until she was out under the sun again. The sun that didn't reach the recesses of Jamie’s cell, and he couldn’t feel against his face. The sun that made his auburn hair bright red, the sun that promised a future that would never come.

Chapter 18

#we'll rise up #french revolution AU #jamie x claire #18th Century #historical fanfiction #outlander fanfiction #outlander fanfic

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magic-in-my-mind · 4 years

Text

Trying to change the future

1974

After Professor McGonagall brought Remus back from the future he did not tell his friends what he had seen there. He was terrified of the thought alone. His friends accepted it but they were still worried about him, he has gotten more quiet in the last couple of weeks they had in their third school year. Somedays Sirius tried to get the answers from Professor McGonagall but he received the same answers every time: "I won't say anything about it to you, if Mr Lupin does not wish you to know." James and Peter were curious, too, but they just tried to ask Remus himself about it. Most days Remus just sat in the library studying or just reading novels. The boy's knew better than to disturb him while reading, he didn't like it and gave them the silent treatment for a week if they did so. The only person he didn't mind was Lily, she just sat down quietly next to him or opposite him and read a book herself.

On the last day of school Lily went to the library to finish the book she started a couple of days ago. She grabbed 》Witch-hunt - still a thing?《 and looked for a free spot when she saw Remus buried behind books. She sat opposite him and started reading. After a little while she heard Remus' quiet voice: "Lily?" She was a little surprised that he even noticed her sitting down behind all his books. "Remus?" He pushed his books carefully aside to look her in the eyes, he gulped. It was the first time Lily noticed that he wasn't actually reading the book he had held up. It was just to cover up the book he was actually reading, but she wouldn't ask him about it. He would have his reasons. "Can I tell you something?" Remus asked Lily as quietly as possible and she nodded. He held up the book he was hiding behind the other. 》What the future holds《 it was titled. She knew where he was going. "Let's go somewhere where we can't be overheard." she said and they packed away their books.

Lily led the way to the seventh floor. Remus was confused when Lily started walking up and down the empty hall, but then out of nowhere a door appeared and she pulled him inside with her. "What is this for a room?!" Remus was obviously stunned by it. "Well I call it the Room of Requirement, it'll transform itself to all your requirements." Remus looked around the room, it looked like a second library. "Anything?" - "Anything except for food. Try it." Remus tried to think and not a moment later a big sofa appeared in the room. "Wow! How did you find this room?" Remus let himself fall on the sofa and was still astounded by it all. "Long story short, I needed a place to hide and then this door appeared, it was the perfect hiding place. I tried it a couple more times after but every time that I had more than just hiding myself in my head the room would change its appearance. It always knows exactly what you need. But now back to you. You wanted to talk." she said and sat down beside him.

Lily was shocked what she heard from him, she never would've thought such things would ever happen. "I know it's terrible that's why i tried to find a way to prevent all this from happening. I searched every book in the library about foretellings but none of them said anything about all that." Remus said in hope Lily would know an answer. With a smirk on her face she replied: "You said every book in the library, but we aren’t in the actual school library at the moment." Not even a second later a book appeared next to them on a little coffeedesk. “I love this room.” Remus said when he picked up the old book. He blew the thick layer of dust of the book to reveal its heading. 》Preventable《 They opened the book carefully not to excitedly destroy its old pages. Years were counted down back from the 16th century up to the 31st century. Some of the dates they recognized (thanks to their history lessons), on other dates they were clueless. “Here 2020, page 598.” said Lily and tried to find the page. The pages were already yellow some even looked burned others were ripped out. “Stop.” said Remus and pointed at the title. 》2020, a horrifying year for Wizards and non magicals alike《 Lily shivered of the thought alone: “Are you sure you wanna do this.” Remus shook his head: “No, but we have to.”

It took them the whole afternoon to read and understand everything about the year 2020 and how to avoid it all. If Remus wasn’t there himself he wouldn’t have believed a single word, it was just a lot to take in. Lily seemed to be a bit overwhelmed but after some time she decided: “We can’t do this alone, we need help. This spell is way too powerful for just us two. I’ll ask Marlene, Dorcas and Alice to join us, you should ask the boy’s. We can explain it to them when we are all back together so we don’t have to tell the story a million times. Most important, I think, we need to ask Professor McGonagal to help us, maybe she can convince Dumbledor, too. The more we are the better.” Remus agreed with her and they split up to search for their friends. They met in the Room of Requirement to explain everything, but before they could do that Lily had to tell (once again) how she had found this room. They were all shocked about what they had heard and were all quickly convinced to help. “So who is going to ask McGonagall?” asked Peter and Alice answered him “Well I thought we would all go together. It would be more persuasive.” With a light blush on his face Frank agreed with her at once then the others nodded, too. Some students laughed at them when the group of nine pupils ran past them in the corridors to find Professor McGonagal. When they finally found her sitting behind her desk, she looked very surprised by so many students walking into her office. After Remus caught his breath again he started to tell her about their plans to change the future of 2020. “I think if we want to succeed with this very powerful spell, we will need the help of no other than Albus Dumbledor himself. BUT today it is really late I want you all to have some dinner and some good sleep before we can get started with this. Tomorrow AFTER breakfast I want you all to get the ingredients together and I will tell Professor Slughorn to give you all you need. So we can start with the potion at 10 a.m. and be finished before the train comes for London. And NOW off you go!”

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rwmhunt · 4 years

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Leviticus, Chapter 20

1. Are likely bullet holes; When his foot slipped, he sank, Said “but, it is easier To be sublimely unintelle- than It is to be compreha- atleast, Through this runcible ordure”. The which, in real time, Being commuted to scripture, Was the while in no wise elucidated, Except for the retort with which he rejoinded- “Explain yourself!”

2. Stiffed, moreover, by a soft Drink in the impact Lounge, eye shuddered sojourns So that the ball might flop into the sinus Of the brooding ground As stone stones fall at my back; Don’t break, weak fools.

3. For reasons personal As unto myself, I shall set my face against he Who grunts his seed to Molok, And shall cut him right off Dare he offer up excuses, As they pertain unto my holy name Along inabilities to reliably distinguish True memories from the digital Thence, rejigger their theories By a biometric magneto-debathification.

4. Here, the perceived Level of personal threat Needst be of increase Against a complacence, And by use of a hard-hitting Form of emotional messaging; So let clemency be a no-no. Kill; kill and provide not Comfort nor aide To the enemy thereunto.

5. Face set cut a hole off All who followed my pillow and me. Some, turning to the camera, Pulled masks over; Most didn’t bother. Me, me, my sunglasses Who made for a false invisibility cloak- An allowance for the human Of burning flesh To set beneath the sun; The house will be in order.

6. By Molok, by dybbuk, Turneth to ghosts, Tearing through familiar spirits- I am the way an element will jump up, Unread, from the line below, like Tungsten, parallax, the zeitgeist. These shall be your familiars, And you be stuck with them.

7. Keep me thy sanctity; This is uncertain on a really intense scale. Where staple news hath held the civil veneer, And it’s a long way to Trimorphic Protennoia, Yet god loves his cowboys So betimes, doth make employ of them As to other things unto himself; See sedition and insurrection, which are Tossed insults across the upper midwest, Turning further, Unthinkably left; The house will come to order.

8.There are many gods unto themselves But you can’t sustain; I was once this other thing, And I’m doubting that is going to happen, Yet keep ye my statutes, And to the west be the property of Marduk.

9. Then afflict my people Through specific vulnerabilities Of their own creation As they would have unto their elders By means of relations And with the environment, With foreign species, And with each other. Curses, curses, Skyrocket downward, Defeated victoriously- If we are not prepared to fight, Then a fear-epidemic can.

10. Strick, tryst, Everyone dies Entropy-loss, From effort to heat, Heat-chaos, Chaos-destruction, Destruction-peace.

11. Uncover eyes of thy father as if You uncover my wife- By persuasion, see I A perceived threat, where A substantial number Feel quite sufficiently reassured By levels of concern, Having a good heave-ho about them And an understanding of risque; Death swipe the both of you.

12. Take not the wife You left your son to; O, Wait, what’ve you done? Behold; an exerted control- To do what you cannot, Seek elements of a naiveté Or credulity; but Your blood is upon you.

13. Abomination, so death, Lover of mankind, The blood is always mine. The impact is experienced Throughout the body, says she, because When my people perceive a threat, Abstract or actual, They activate cortisol, So let be the biological stress response Whence glucose is mobilized And the immune system triggered; Levels of inflammation are increasing Which is affecting the function of the brain, Mark; - you are more sensitive to threats, Less receptive to reward.

14. Bring along your mother Go up through fire- Wickedness Whence comes from the Latin For “with” and “touch”; While the street was burning i chanted An Argument from Silence

15. Of a beast lain on the alter You shall not Know- Hearsay doth serve you as a first hand For evidence of a belief, But shall not attest proof Unto that which Such beliefs portaineth to.

16. Nor her- The replaced reporter With a mental instability who hallucinates; The apple of the eyewitness testimony Rests in the unreliability of human memory So make sacrifice of high standards; Lo, but hang; For I neglect that I am not that interested in truth-telling.

17. Keep not your familiar spirits In naked perpetuity, O You, incorrigible witness. Let the train gaineth traction O'er such a horrid body of evidence; The old “social dances”; See, Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman, It’s not good and you know it-

18. If you go menstrual Then there hath opened forth to you A fountain of shame, And the blood shall be cut from the people, Lo, but hearsay, here goes Gambling against pornography’s outcomes- So, humans are expressions, But woman is form. Hm.

19. Your aunts are agony, And recounteth How old Miriam hath called, saying Her nephews had unto her a-visiting come, Usurping her of all such meats and monies As belongeth unto her personage, So that she had not had since Monday, Whence we delivered unto her a parcel And from her eyes there felleth tears, But you, incredible witness, How in the world can facts be obtained From such non-clusive evidence? You needst bear an earthen iniquity.

20. Concubines are porcupines For others- be barren with you, Kenosha- Who was unready; For the worst hearsayer of all Is of a kind which comes corroborating Out from delusion, And should you be accused of that which you have not done, Then just laugh at it and inculcate yourself further. For the world is a dowery toward your least resistance.

21. Go filial it’s all too much; Anything companied to the bowels In support of an assertion counts as evidence, As such, tender mercies, Your line is ceased.

22. Whence the land shall vomit you forth, Cannon fodder, And shouldst thou cross my rubicons; Your blood be cheaper than the water Which slips below it, And sacrifices for justice and accountability Prove merely a nuisance.

23. And give a fuck For your colonialist appropriation- Once implanted, imagination Can become inflated, Creating false arbitrage. Those displaced were up to all kinds, I hate them.

24. And milk and honey Shall flow from their land As you shall see no good in them, For as with a supremacy have I blinded you.

25. And the ground which ye shall own, As teameth with unclean things Of a higher level of certainty (i.e., as probables), Shouldst remain, if credulous (only possibles, or), On the bases of an otherwise Convincing argument Against such teaming origins, Be downgraded (to impossible) As a lesser degree of certainty (than improbable), And in falsity, all shall be unclean.

26. And you shall be mine; Cede to me, shouldst you be logically Compelled to withhold belief From nine-tenths of so-called Historetical facts about which You have really no doubt at all, But on the contrarie, cede, and,

27. Did I tell you the one about the wizard? Hearsay, you, the more unreliable spy Than my eyewitness’s can account for, Because you at least doubleth The reassurance of testimony, So to see yourself at the centre of it; A huge ego, Loving to create stories; You think you yourself very unique. False allegations have you committed, Casting the fallacy of the excluded middle fallacy By taking a psychologist hostage. Mutually, you aid selfish And de rigueur people As are those which often take power, Because I have created Systems of reward that Exemplify how, sometimes, A culture might falter, fail; Pick out the wrong hero. If you can see yourself as very unique, Then you are.

#bible study #biblequotes #bible translation #leviticus #Trump #hearsay #writerscreed #Writerscommunity

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detectivecarlosreyes · 4 years

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Academy Together, Friends Forever 4/10

Also on Ao3

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They fell into somewhat of a routine for the next couple of days. Owen would sit with TK in the mornings and Buck would join him sometime after lunchtime, bearing various assortments of food. They would stay there together talking to TK and each other about anything and everything.

At night, Buck would coerce Owen into going home and getting some much-needed sleep while he took the graveyard shift. After which it would be Owen’s turn to send him home just after sunrise for his own bed rest and then they would do it all again.

On the morning of the third day, however, he gets a call from Bobby just as he’s pulling up outside the house. Putting on the handbrake he answers it on the third ring. “Hey, Bobby.”

“Buck! I wasn’t sure if you’d pick up. I haven’t heard from you in a while. You promised you’d keep me updated.”

Buck winces as Bobby stresses the word. “I know I know, I’m sorry. I just got caught up with all this stuff with TK and Owen I-I kinda forgot.” He rests his forehead on the steering wheel waiting for the inevitable request for his return.

“Don’t worry about it, kid. You and Chim have given me my fair share of grey hairs waiting in the hospital, I know how stressful it can be. How are you holding up?”

Buck sighs, “I’m alright, just making sure Owen looks after himself while we wait for TK to wake up.”

“Don’t forget to look after yourself too.”

He rolls his eyes at Bobby’s concern. “Yeah, yeah, I will.”

“I mean it, Buck, I know how you can get.”

“I know.” He replies softly.

They both fall quiet, not really knowing what else to say until Bobby clears his throat, “The team says hi by the way and they wanted me to pass on their best to the family.” He chuckles, “They’re already complaining that it's too quiet without you around. “

Buck smirks. “I’m the only thing that keeps the station from falling apart, you know that.”

“Don’t I know it.” Bobby is interrupted by the sound of the alarm. “Listen, I have to go but just promise me this time you’ll keep in touch.”

He shakes his head good-humouredly at Bobby’s request but acquiesces nonetheless “Yeah, okay I’ll send you an update every day. Promise.”

“That’s my boy. I’ll talk to you soon. Gotta go, bye.”

Buck didn’t get a chance to say bye back or to tell him to stay safe even though he knows Bobby is one of the most cautious firefighters he’s met.

He mentally adds message Bobby daily into his schedule and gets out of the car, continuing on with the rest of his morning of having something to eat before heading to bed.

** ** **

One thing Buck enjoyed about the night shift was the peace that went along with it. Most people find that the incessant beeping of monitors is grating on the nerves, but he always seemed to find it soothing.

Maybe it’s because the beeping is a reminder that the person attached to the machine is still alive or maybe it’s just the fact that it’s a constant rhythm. Either way, it’s something he can rely on even when it was him that the monitor was attached to, it reminded him that he was alive.

He said as much to TK, telling him what he thought. And that when he heard it. Probably unnoticed to a normal person but Buck could hear it. There was a slight change in his heart rate and accompanied by it was the tiniest of moans. Nothing worth celebrating about, of course, and yet he can’t help but feel that somewhere deep down in TK’s subconscious he heard him. Buck sure of it at least sure enough to believe that TK will wake soon.

Hours later, after the breakthrough, Buck was interrupted from his deep dive into researching hypovolemic shock by three tired-looking people. Standing in the doorway, the woman cleared her throat delicately startling him enough that he drops his phone, not thinking that anyone would be visiting this late.

Eyeing him with an appropriate amount of suspicion, she leads the trio into the room, stopping at the edge of the bed and looks at him expectantly with one raised eyebrow.

“Uh… hi, I’m Buck.” He says standing and extends his hand in greeting.

The youngest of the three is the one to take his proffered hand after a beat of awkward silence and offers his name along with others. Ah! So, this was some of TK’s new team, that explains why they were here so late. Buck re-takes his seat and gestures for the others to do the same if they so wished while saying that’s he’s heard so much about them from Owen.

Marjan frowns in confusion. “Not meaning to be rude or anything but although you clearly know who we are, we have absolutely no idea who you are.”

“Right… yes. Um. no offense taken. I guess you could say that I’m a friend of the family. TK and I went through the fire academy together.” Buck says quickly, hoping not to delve too deeply into their relationship.

Thankfully, Mateo interrupts that line of potential questions with his own curiosity. “Hey, where is Cap? I would’ve thought he would be here.”

Buck smirks, “Heh, I managed to convince him that he should be getting proper rest outside of a hospital chair. It took a lot of persuasion, but he finally agreed after I swore that I would stay here during the night shift and call him if anything happened.”

“Wow, I’m impressed. I don’t think anyone has been able to do that since they got to the hospital.” Remarks Marjan, surprise clear in her voice.

“Yep, Owen just needed the right kind of push.” And the right person to push him, he adds silently to himself.

They fall into a comfortable silence after that, each just watching TK’s chest rise and fall in a slow, quiet rhythm. After some time though, it’s Paul who finally speaks up looking as though he was piecing together a puzzle.

“Wait. You said your name was Buck?” Buck nods along, not entirely sure where Paul was going with this, “That wouldn’t happen to be a nickname from Buckley, would it? Are you the Evan Buckley, the firefighter who was pinned under a ladder truck?”

Buck shrugged, feigning nonchalance but feeling his stomach drop at the questions. “That’s me.”

With this revelation, Mateo's eyes widen with excitement and he launches into a round of questioning that Buck normally would never answer except in the presence of a trained professional, knowing what ugly memories and emotions that have been invoked from previous recollections. But in saying that, he also didn’t have the heart to completely dismiss Mateo’s obvious enthusiasm., so he does his best to answer Mateo without going into too much detail of the event.

Paul must have picked up on his poorly concealed discomfort because after the first few questions he interrupts, giving Mateo a pointed look. “Hey, how about we stop accosting the man we just met with questions.”

Mateo looked decidedly sheepish, realising what he was doing. Buck gives him a reassuring smile that there was no harm done and tilts his head in gratitude to Paul, glad to be let off the hook.

The trio stay for another hour or so after that, settling into an easy conversation discussing work and sharing some stories about TK that he’s heard from Owen and some that he didn’t. Sitting back, Buck can’t help but feel a sense of peace at knowing that these people cared about TK as much as he hoped they would.

Tagging: @seaofashes @buckleystrand @justsmilestuffhappens @diazbuckleysworld @diazsbuckley @confessions-of-a-shipperholic @spell-of-the-rain @novemberhush @black-forest-girl @bluebelle88 @adamngoodbuck @overtimeme @kingtxhalla

Let me know if you want to be added or taken of the tag list (I won’t be offend if you do) 💖

#jess writes #my fic #long post #9-1-1 #9-1-1 fanfiction #9-1-1 x 9-1-1 lone star #evan buck buckley #Bobby nash #tk strand #mateo chavez #paul strickland #marjan marwani

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scav-eng-er · 4 years

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“If Nothing Else, We Have This.” TROS Alternate Ending 5/?

THINGS ARE GETTING EMOTIONAL. While the world is falling apart outside, let us enjoy the emotional scene that is about to unfold. Thank you guys for staying patient with me and waiting for my story, it means so much ❤️ I’m back in the swing of things and the moment this is posted, I’m starting the next chapter!

AO3 : LINK

Thank you my beans @reylo-trash-4ever and @mojona1999 🦋

and thank you to my new friends! @redheadonaflolol @kommissrawr

hope you all are safe

There was a sinking feeling in Rey’s heart as she watched the crowd of pilots, mechanics, and soldiers. She stood at the edge of the clearing, with a gathering crowd amongst the jungle floor. Poe had called a meeting to discuss the punishment to the willing prisoner, Kylo Ren. But Rey wouldn’t go down without a fight, or at least a persuasion. If she could convince a larger crowd, maybe that would be enough to change Poe’s mind. Night had swept in, with fire pits scattered about the base, warming the crowds. Their faces were etched in curiosity, some in fear. The flames flickered their silhouettes against the canopy above, and Rey couldn’t help but shiver in worry. The shadows felt judgmental, waiting to hear her defense. Higher entities that she had to convince along with her comrades and friends.

Ben, can you hear me? She reached out to him, but there was nothing. Was he sleeping? Could he even hear her? Was he okay?

Only silence.

Finn pulled himself away from the crowd, grabbing her attention.

“It’s time. You ready?” Even he sounded nervous.

Rey glanced at her boots and sighed. Soon, hundreds of eyes would be on her, testing her words and argument of mercy for the galaxy’s most vile leader.

But he wasn’t vile. Ben was good, he was full of light, kindness and hope. Palpatine was the one who hurt him, the one who turned him against Luke, his family, the whole galaxy. Her own grandfather did this to him. It was her blood that pushed him into the darkness, but it was her who pulled him out.

If only the rest of the world could see what she saw. Rey swallowed, and found herself the center of attention. Hundreds of eyes burned on her as she moved to the middle of the clearing. As she walked, she felt like her feet weighed a hundred times heavier, and her palms grew sweaty again.

But she had to try.

“First, I’d like to thank you all for your courage, bravery, and sacrifice,” She began. “The galaxy will remember this day and all those who gave their lives to bring the First Order down. While we celebrate tonight, we will never forget the fallen.”

Rey gazed around her, speaking to every person as if individually. It had taken a year for her to see how the First Order controlled everything, but for her friends and comrades, some had experienced it their whole lives. And generations before them. A binding control over their lives were now free, but it would take time to rebuild as well. Rey thought of Leia as she spoke, and had even more respect for Poe. Her heart started beating faster, keeping back the emotion tingling in her throat to continue her words of passion. Everyone around her, were going to make the future brighter than any star in the galaxy.

“Those who have lost the fight will only burn brighter in our hearts, and will be remembered as the power to drive us to grow and live!”

She hadn’t realized her fists were clenched, and she suddenly had the urge to hold her staff, or Luke’s saber, or Ben’s hand.

Her surrounding audience cheered and shouted in victory. Poe couldn’t help but smirk while Finn smiled at his best friend. They had finally won, the world would know peace again. But there still was the matter of Kylo Ren, or Ben, as Rey called him.

“Second, I know you are all aware of why you are here. We have our former enemy, surrendered to us by his own choice. Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order has willingly offered himself as a prisoner,” Rey wanted to roll her eyes, having to use his old name.

Her Ben had surrendered himself, Kylo Ren was dead.

Somewhere in the crowd, Rey already heard faint voices.

“Burn him!”

“Kill him!”

A shout of agreement slowly erupted among the people, and while she wanted to deny it, Rey felt like a decision had already been made. She gulped.

It scared her.

“While he must be punished, we are not wild beasts. We, as the forefront of the resistance are responsible for deciding his fate. General Dameron and I are willing to hear what you have to say, and we will determine his consequence.”

“SHOOT HIM!” A man screamed.

“Blast him to the stars!” A woman called out.

“Please, one at a-“ Rey tried to relax the crowd, but they continued on.

“Drag him by a ship!”

“Impale him with his own saber!”

Rey couldn’t quiet them down, they were getting restless and loud. She looked back towards Poe and Finn, concern etched on their faces.

The halls were quiet, giving Rose the opportunity to peak around the corner. The coast was clear.

“Uf!” A large force knocked into the back of her for the fifth time, and she was about to snap.

“Sorry.” Ben whispered behind her.

“Watch where you’re going,” Rose huffed, “If someone sees us, you’re on your own.”

“Sorry.” He said again.

While Ben was incredibly intimidated by this girl, he would be forever grateful. She was risking everything to help him. He would face the trial, he would do anything Rey wanted, he just had to see his mom first.

He trailed behind Rose, constantly checking over his shoulder. They rounded about, but there wasn’t anyone in sight. The tiny taps of Rose’s feet pattered along with Ben’s heavy steps down the hall. She scanned the entrances and hallways, alert and attentive to every little thing that could get them caught. They entered the recovery wing when Ben felt it.

Mom’s not well.

The large white, sterilized room was filled with the injured, recovering from the battle. Some were in worse shape than others. Many were asleep, but some were awake, reading, drawing, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Rose didn’t know what to do. Do they even know what he looks like? Would they recognize him?

Ben felt her hesitancy.

“Stay close, and keep your head down.” Rose whispered. She walked down the aisle, beds lined on both sides against walls. Ben focused on the ground, watching only her feet lead him on. She glanced at the patients, some glanced at her while talking, others never bothered to look in her direction.

Ben saw them make their way towards a private room, and he felt his feet hurry, determined to get to her.

Rose gently knocked before opening the door slowly.

Leia Organa looked peaceful in her bed. Her monitor beet gently in the quiet room, and the world went quiet to Ben. She was really here, right in front of him.

Her hair had gotten grayer, but she was still just as beautiful as he remembered. To the world, she was probably the strongest, bravest and greatest leader. To him, she was just mom.

They had struggles in the past, and Ben knew she tried her best balancing her leadership duties as well as being a mother. There were times she wouldn’t see him for days for trips, and meetings and Ben would spend time with his uncle Chewie, waiting for her to come home. But then there were the moments where he felt truly loved, when Leia swept him in her arms, her gorgeous grin etched in his memory. Her smile and laughter were his favorite things because Ben knew she was happy. She was happy to be with him.

He felt like he was a 10 year old again, every step towards her bed a giant leap for his tiny feet. Pulling up a chair, Ben’s heart beat wildly against his chest. He wanted to hold her frail, pale, delicate hand, but he was afraid he would break her.

He pressed his lips together, and just watched his mom, memorizing every detail on her face.

Rose joined him on the opposite side of her bed, “General Organa? Leia, can you hear me?” She whispered, a soft hand on the older woman’s shoulder.

In a few moments, a pair of warm, chocolate eyes fluttered open, and Leia turned to one of her favorite commanders.

“Rose,” she spoke, her voice raspy and weak, straining to give a reply, “Updates. Where is the fleet? How’s Finn? Did Connix make it to-“

“Shhh, General, it’s okay. Everything is fine.” Rose took a beat to savor the next words that came from her lips.

“We did it. We won.”

Ben heard the ever so slight hitch in her throat, and her eyes became glassier with every blink. Who knows how long she had been dreaming of this moment, and who would’ve thought she would be aiding her enemy, all in the same day.

Leia sighed, a small smirk appeared, “Well, obviously.”

Rose couldn’t help but huff out a laugh, Ben giving his best of the smile among the current circumstances.

Rose glanced at Ben before stating, “There’s someone here to see you.”

When Ben felt his mothers eyes meet his, there was no hate. There was no anger. Betrayal or disgust did not exist. There was only love and forgiveness, warmth and kindness.

A mother was reunited with her son.

A sob broke out from Leia, “My bpy.”

Ben hadn’t realized tears poured down his face, too enveloped in feeling the love from his mother. Without hesitation, he leaned over as gently as he could, holding his mothers delicate but warm frame.

“Mom.”

He missed her hugs so much, and the feeling of security of being in them again had him sobbing into her shoulder, staining her gown with his tears. Leia was an incredibly strong woman. She showed strength when others lost hope, she had courage in times of doubt, and she always knew the right thing to say.

But when she saw her one and only child, her boy who she was afraid was lost forever, taken to the dark when she couldn’t protect him, right in front of her, she knew he had come home. And that would make any mother weep.

Rose Tico had a lot of anger towards those who favored the dark side, even more so for the ones who profited from it. And even through the pain of losing her freedom, the control of her life, and the loss of her sister, Rose had no regrets helping Ben Solo reunite with his mother.

She had quietly made her way out of the room, giving them their moment. Dirty fingertips wiped tears from her eyes, a small pierce of pain in her heart at the idea of never hugging her own sister again. She gently closed the door, keeping guard for any passerby.

“How can you forgive me so easily?” Ben mumbled into Leia’s neck. She still smelled the same, and Ben was reminded of his childhood home on Chandrila. “I hurt you, and-and dad and Uncle Chewie. I can’t take any of it back, or fix the pain I’ve caused. And I’m just so so sorry!” “Shh.” Leia quieted her son, her soft coos in his ear as her weak hand gently rubbed his head, “I should be the one apologizing.”

Ben wanted to pull away and correct her, but her grip tightened just a bit, keeping him from speaking over his mother.

“You deserved much better than your father and I. We didn’t understand how much you needed us, and we put politics before our son.” She coughed, a rasp and harsh sound erupted and Ben heard it in her chest, and he bunched a piece of her gown into his fist, as if trying to take some the pain away from her.

“I wish I could start over, and learn from my mistakes. Nothing was more important than you, and you were, are and will always be, my Ben.”

Ben wanted this. He wanted love, forgiveness and comfort from the one person he needed it most. And now he had it. Leia was never angry, she was afraid she had lost her son forever, because of her mistakes.

Leia chocked on her words, “If I could, I would hold you like this everyday until you would squirm out of my grasp, all annoyed.” The two managed to giggle between sobs.

“I would take you with me everywhere and let you see the galaxy, where you could decide what you wanted to do with your life.”

Leia shifted her grip, and cupped her hands to his face, framing his cheeks and staring into his eyes. Her wrinkled hands grazed his cheekbones and she examined every detail of his face. There were fleeting moments where she saw Han or herself in Ben, but he was still his own man. He had grown so handsome and she couldn’t help but whimper at the memories they could’ve had.

“And I would tell you, how proud I am that you were strong enough to fight back. You chose who you wanted to be, and it led you back to me, to Rey, and now you’re home.”

The guilt that had bubbled in his soul slowly faded, a weight was being lifted off of Ben’s shoulders and he felt truly free. He could live among the stars, blasting through the galaxy on adventures with Rey by his side.

But first, he had to face the trial.

His silence and inability to look into Leia’s eyes told her he was worried.

“What is it, Ben?” A loose strand of black hair was tucked behind his ear, and Ben wanted to fall asleep right there, but there was a more pressing matter at hand.

“Mom, the world is ready to see me dead. I’m about to go on trial, face your troops and commanders and hear what they will do to me. I’ve already lost.” His head hung low, defeated.

“To hell with them!” Leia managed to salvage a throaty yell, causing Ben to jump.

“The world wants to see Kylo Ren dead, but they’re too late. As the resistance builds and fixes what I couldn’t, his name will be nothing more than a whisper in the wind. But Ben Solo has the chance to live the life he always deserved.” Her hands weaved their way into his, her grip tight and determined to make her point known.

“What should I do?”

“Run.”

#rey #reylo #reylo trash #rey x ben solo #tros #tros ending #reylo fanfic #reylo fanwork #star wars #tlj #tfa #ben finally forgives himself #because damn #that boi has been through so much #and rey understands him #SO WELL

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schnazzyninja · 4 years

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Gather round everyone, I have a story to tell you.

The story of a DnD player, who I shall name L I C K, or 'Lick' for short.

Now I and my group have just began DnD, I used to be a PC in the campaign we were on, but our DM had to nope out so I got handed the DM powers.

Before I was the DM, we had four PCs, a wood elf fighter, a human bard, a half-elf rogue (me), and a dragonborn paladin (Lick).

Once our past DM leaves, I'm put in charge of the world. At this time, one of my PCs (the fighter) says he might not be able to make it to DnD in the future and tells me to give his character a good end.

I choose to let his character serve the plot by introducing the real BBEG of our story by becoming possessed/mind controlled and attacking the party, where the party gets good rolls and he doesn't, so he's maimed to death, losing most of his torso to a dynamite blast, left arm to a nat20 javelin, and the right side of his head.

Problem is, Fighter says he wants to join our next session, so we call him up and tell him that his character is chopped into little pieces and officially pronounced dead. So our party goes to request help from a necromancer they've helped a lot in the past. The necromancer pulls out his exposition robes and begins to tell our party about the BBEG of the campaign, a sorceress and her apprentice who know widespread mind-control and manipulation magic and plan to use it in the continent.

To convince the party to go after the BBEG, the necromancer promises them great power from sorceress's main source of magic, but they all want something up front. The fighter wants his life and limbs back (courtesy of the bard since the fighter is very dead at this point), the bard wants a mythical golden lute that would make him the greatest entertainer in the known world, and Lick... literally wants the clothes off the necro's back.

We should state something about Lick, he doesn't know how Paladins are supposed to work, none of us did at the time of session 0 and we got too caught up in the game to really care up until now. He doesn't have a moral compass, nor a god or faith that makes paladins paladins. He saw the word paladin and thought it sounded cool.

You see, Lick thought it'd be funny if the immense amount of power he could get from the necro... was used to get a busted hat and the literal robes that the necro is wearing right fucking now. We thought it was a joke at first, until he fought tooth and nail to take the dude's robes right off his back. For 45 minutes.

Eventually I was able to convince Lick to end the shenanigans there. Lick specifically wants his character to be funny and spontaneous and stupid. He accentuates this by ensuring he makes the worst decisions at the time. Oh, and by having a running joke about his character licking his own eyeballs with a loud slurping sound as commonly as one would sneeze during allergy season.

So, our grand adventure starts with fixing the Fighter's body. His body is almost completely demolished, so the necromancer wants the party to grab what's left of his body and materials to make what's essentially prosthetics in a way like FMA, giving him a metal torso, left arm, and upper right side of his head, since they were utterly demolished during the fight. The team decides to split up to make things interesting. The Bard goes to collect the Fighter's body while Lick goes into town for materials to fuze to the Fighter's body.

The town were in was once known for it's large mines, but is now unable to get much from them now, this is important as it jacks up the metal prices exponentially. So Lick attempts to buy 250lbs of iron from the smithy, which costs around like 4500 gp, which is like 15 times what the party has combined.

Lick decides that rather than get a reasonable amount of iron to make, he's going to put on the Necro's spare robes he convinces me to give him. Upon putting the robes on, they tear apart since Lick is like twice the size of the necro in both height and muscle.

After leaving the smithy he goes to the sawmill to grab wood for the prosthetics instead. Instead of buying the proper amount of wood he uses his torn robes to scare of the woodworker and attempt to steal 60 ft of wood in broad daylight in front of the guards.

So he tries to tell them about the mission he's on to help the necromancer. I tell him to roll for persuasion, he has a nat1. So now he's incoherently babbling to the guards about necromancers and dead bodies still wearing demolished robes and torn hat, sounding like a deranged man. So now he's restrained and taken into a jail under the guardhouse.

There he breaks the rope he's restrained with and attempts to light the stone floor on fire with a tinderbox. Obviously it doesn't work at first, so he instead picks up the tinders and forms a fireball in his hand made of tinders to try and intimidate the guards. Needles to say, it didn't work.

His next plan was to empty out a water bucket in his cell and filled it with alcohol he put in a canteen, before splashing it in his cell and outside to cover guards in it before setting fire to the place using a racial ability that allows him to breathe fire once per short or long rest.

This sets the entire room ablaze, guards in it and all.

So Lick decides to try and break down the iron bars of his cell using strength, which I remembered from one of our early sessions, had a DC around like 25. He rolled a 10.

Now he's worried because he can't get out through the cell door, so he decides to use his strength to break down a wooden wall using the broken leg of a chair. Problem, he's like 12 or so feet underground and the wood wall is in front of a wall of dirt and mud.

His decision? Dig through the back to escape using his bare hands. I though I'd throw him a bone and give him an easier time making his tunnel. By now the guards have started to try and put out the fire

He then wastes a turn to pull a bed roll behind him after he makes a tunnel large enough to fit in. This is when the building begins to collapse from the fires, and caves in the cell behind him.

Now it's pitch black and he can't go back through and save his hide unless he can roll a nat 20

He rolls a 4

After which he pulls the sheets from the bed roll and lights them on fire to see better

After which he quickly asphyxiated like 10 ft underground due to the fire taking away his oxygen very quickly.

Finally, the whole party, including Lick, decided that there's no way in hell he's going to survive this.

Thus ends the story of L I C K, the paladin who wasn't a paladin. Who died by digging his own grave figuratively and literally and fought for 45 minutes to strip and important NPC naked

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd stories #dnd storytime #dragonborn #might've been annoying after a while #but his character was a endearing

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kiminicricket · 5 years

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Swords and Opals - Part 10

A Ruthari fic based pre-show. adventure. friendship. bad-assery. fluff. angst. romance. and of course, Ruthari. What else could you need?

Need to catch up? From the Start Previous Chapter

“Working shirtless again I see. You know, attractive as you are, I’m afraid my heart belongs to someone else!” Tiadrin swooned dramatically as she sauntered into the workshop and helped herself to a drink of water. She poured one out for Ethari too, who turned from the forge to accept it.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully, downing the glass quickly and wiping some of the sweat from his brow. Rehydrated, he grinned at his friend and flexed his pecs, wiggling his eyebrows.

“You mean these babies don’t do anything for you?”

Tiadrin laughed and grabbed the towel from the hook where he kept it, flinging it into his face.

“Save it for someone who cares you hot piece of ass.”

Ethari wiped his face, laughing as Tiadrin tried to take a peek at his sketchbook, laying open on her new sword design. He quickly slid it out of her reach.

“No fair!” She pouted.

“I told you, you get to see it when it’s done.”

Tiadrin grumbled but didn’t argue. “How is it coming?” She asked instead.

Ethari shrugged “I mean it should be good when it’s done. It’s kind of ugly looking at the moment.

Tiadrin shot a worried glance towards the hilt of her sword as Ethari leaned back against the counter.

“I dropped by your house a few times, but you haven’t been there.” He said, conversationally.

Tiadrin blushed, “Yeah I’ve been spending a lot of time in the healing huts.”

Ethari said nothing, just raising his eyebrows, waiting for more. Tiadrin sighed.

“Damn it Ethari I really like him. Like, more than I expected to. It’s kind of scary.” Her voice had dropped into a whisper.

“Why?” Ethari asked.

Tiadrin shot him a look of disbelief. “Because what if he doesn’t like me back?” She asked as if it was obvious.

Ethari frowned, thinking back to their mission, how Lain had followed her everywhere, how he had risked his life saving hers, how he had watched her. “I mean I don’t think that’s likely, but if it’s true then he’s an idiot.”

Tiadrin smiled softly, staring off into space. “Oh he’s an idiot all right.” The fond smile on her face belied the words.

“How is he doing?” Ethari asked.

“Oh he’s being stubborn, insisting he’s absolutely fine and doesn’t need to be there despite barely being able to walk down the hall unassisted.” Tiadrin huffed in frustration. “Solana has told him three more days and he is begging me to bust him out.” She blushed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I’m not going to do it of course, he still needs more recovery time, but dang, the boy can be persuasive!”

Ethari laughed. “You can be pretty persuasive when you want to be.”

“Especially with a sword in my hand!” Tiadrin grinned at him.

“Oh yes especially then!”

They fell into comfortable silence for a moment.

“It wasn’t so bad was it?” Tiadrin eventually asked, “Being grouped with Lain and Runaan?”

Ethari smiled, thinking back to his panic when he had found out about the grouping. He had thought it would be much more embarrassing than it was, but aside from getting flung around like a doll by a giant sand monster he had actually dealt with the trial fairly well.

“I thought I would stick my foot in it much more often than I actually did.” Ethari said thoughtfully.

Tiadrin grinned at him, “And what happened between you and Runaan while Lain and I were away?” She asked suggestively.

“I think we became.. friends,” Ethari said, thinking about Runaan opening up to him, their conversation that lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. The dance back into the silver grove.

Tiadrin raised her eyebrows, “Just friends?” She prodded.

Ethari smiled indulgently. “Yeah, what else would there be. He is Runaan. I’m just me.”

“I mean if Lain is an idiot for not liking me then Runaan is most certainly an idiot for not liking you!”

“Runaan’s not an idiot.”

“So he likes you then?”

“No, he’s just not an idiot.”

Tiadrin came right up to Ethari and planted her palms on both of his cheeks. Ethari looked down at her in surprise.

“Ethari. Get this through your thick skull. You are worthy of love, and any man would be a fool not to love you.”

Ethari smiled softly down at his best friend, pulling her in for a hug. She returned the tight embrace for a moment before wriggling around to try and catch another glimpse of his sketchbook. He promptly lifted her up and carried her to the door.

“Time for you to go now missy, how am I supposed to get any work done with you showering me with compliments?”

Tiadrin huffed but willingly started moving away. At the door they noticed Runaan down by the pond, looking up in their direction. They both smiled and waved. Runaan stiffened but waved back, before turning and darting towards the training fields.

Tiadrin let out a huff of laughter. “I mean he’s a weird dude, but I can see the appeal.”

“Stop,” Ethari said, gently nudging her.

“Love you,” she said, moving towards the healing huts.

“Love you too.” Ethari called back before moving back towards the forge.

***

Tiadrin stood up and stretched. Lain had just drifted off to sleep after telling her a story about his childhood. She tried to imagine him as a rambunctious child and smiled at the image it brought to mind.

“Uh Tiadrin?”

She whirled to see Runaan hovering in the doorway, looking nervous. It wasn’t unusual to see him here, he visited with Lain daily, but he had already visited today, and it was unusual to see him twice.

“Hey Runaan.”

He smiled. Or tried to. From what Tiadrin could tell. At the very least his cheek twitched.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah buddy, what’s up?”

He seemed to hesitate, taking a deep breath and opening his mouth before closing it. Tiadrin watched him, puzzling over his actions.

“Do you need something?”

“Uh, no.”

“Do you want a minute with Lain? I was about to get dinner anyway.”

Runaan shook his head, “No, its… It’s about Ethari.”

Tiadrin perked up.

“Is he… are you…” he couldn’t seem to get the words out, and a blush was forming on his cheeks. He sighed helplessly, gesturing with his hands as though Tiadrin should be able to pick up on what he was saying.

Tiadrin frowned for a moment before putting the dots together.

“Wait, me and Ethari?” She laughed, “Oh dear, no, I’m most definitely not his type.”

“Ok.”

It was hard to read Runaan’s expressions, but Tiadrin thought he looked a little pleased at the news.

“You two are… close though?”

Tiadrin smiled, “Yeah he’s been my best friend for a long time now.”

“He seems a good friend to have.”

“A better boyfriend I’d wager.” She said with a grin and a wink. Someone had to egg this guy on.

Runaan stiffened and then nodded formally.

“Right, well I won’t keep you from your dinner.”

“You’re welcome to join if you like.”

“Thank you, no. I have uh, a previous engagement.”

Runaan disappeared through the door and Tiadrin watched him go with a smile. Ethari was right then. Runaan wasn’t an idiot.

***

Ethari stoked the flames, making sure they were rising nice and high. He wiped the sweat from his brow and put the bucket into the hottest part of the flame. He held it there a moment before withdrawing it, giving it a little swirl and then re-entering it in. He repeated this several times until the metal within was pure liquid and the bucket was glowing red hot. Retreating from the heat, he hurried over to the mold, pouring the liquified metal in, watching with no small amount of satisfaction as it smoothly ran between the various elements that he had crafted the mold to fit. He heard the door swing open and slam shut, but he dared not remove his gaze from the mold - he had a very strict amount of this metal, and he couldn’t afford to lose a single drop. Finishing the pour he grabbed the other half of the mold, pressing it together and strapping it in place to hold the metal while it cooled. He dropped his tools and looked up for the first time, seeing Runaan standing at the door, eyes wide, cheeks red.

“Oh hey Runaan,” Ethari grinned and wiped some more sweat off his brow, missing the way Runaan’s eyes were glued to him. He grabbed a towel from the rack on the wall, “I thought you were hanging out with Lain today.”

Runaan blinked and nodded stiltingly, not saying a word. Ethari regarded him carefully, tilting his head.

“You ok?”

More blinks and nods. Ethari frowned, confused, but turned to head to the back of the shop.

“Ok well give me a minute, I’ll grab my shirt and be right back.”

Not sure what was eating at Runaan, Ethari ducked into his living area. He quickly towelled off the rest of the sweat and pulled his shirt over his head before heading back out to the main part of the workshop. Runaan hadn’t moved and was looking at him with something akin to disappointment as he took in the top Ethari was wearing. Ethari tugged at the hem, unsure, and Runaan’s eyes lifted to his.

“Uh, they’re letting Lain go home today.” He blurted.

“Oh that’s great news!”

Runaan nodded distractedly, still eyeing Ethari’s shirt. Ethari thought he noted a hint of distaste. Maybe Runaan didn’t like purple? Either way Ethari tried to shrug it off as he turned to make sure the safety was in place for the furnace.

“Shall we go welcome him back to the real world?” He said once it was done.

“I think he’d like that.” Runaan agreed.

***

Lain had been awake for the last several days, and insisting that he was fine, however the healers had wanted to keep him in for observation a few extra days. Tiadrin had made herself a nuisance, but healer Solana had developed a soft spot for her, and let her hang around. That left little room for Runaan and Ethari to visit, but they had popped by when they could and Lain had bemoaned his ‘imprisonment’, trying to convince them to break him out. The three of them were more than happy to leave him in the care of the healers however, as even yesterday he had still looked quite pale.

They got to the healers tent just as Lain was getting out, half listening to a lecture from Solana.

“No strenuous activities for at least another two weeks!” She called out as he walked away. “Three would be better.” She muttered, shaking her head and returning to within the healing huts.

“Runaan! Ethari!” Lain called out, embracing each of them by turn. “It’s so good to see your faces in the light of the sun! I was going crazy in there! I swear I would have broken out days ago if Rin hadn’t kept me entertained with stories of the dragon guard!”

At the nickname Ethari shot a questioning glance at Tiadrin, who blushed but shot him a don’t even start look. She was following just behind Lain, ready to dart in and assist if needed, but Lain was walking around as if he’d never been hit.

“Whats this?” Runaan pointed to a new braid on the right side of his face.

“Oh you like it?” Lain reached up to hold the new braid out. “Rin gave it to me while I was convalescing.” He said dramatically, tilting his head to show off the braid.

“Rin?” Ethari couldn’t help but ask. There was murder growing in Tiadrin’s eyes as he said the nickname and Ethari quickly bit his tongue. “Right, Tiadrin. Sorry.” His smile widened though at the obvious affection between the two. A nickname - especially for Tiadrin - was no small thing. He glanced over at Runaan but he hadn’t seemed to notice.

“It’s good to see you out and about.” Runaan said, clasping Lain on the arm.

“Its good to be out and about! I was going crazy cooped up in there!” Lain stretched and let his gaze wander around the village. He breathed in deeply and smiled.

“The healer said there was some poison on the talon that got you,” Tiadrin reminded him. She turned to the others, “Thats why he took it so hard. That and he lost a lot of blood on the ride back.”

Lain grabbed her hand at this, noticing her curling into herself.

“They also said you got me to them in the nick of time.” He said softly. “If it wasn’t for you I probably wouldn’t have made it.”

Tiadrin bit her lip and nodded. Lain looked up and grinned.

“This calls for celebration!”

“Aren’t you supposed to be taking it easy?” Ethari questioned. “We all heard Solana.”

Lain waved his concern away. “Pssshhaw, I will be taking it easy. We can go to the meadow, have a campfire, do some dancing. nothing strenuous about it.”

Tiadrin looked up at Lain eagerly. Runaan looked across at Ethari and raised his eyebrow in question. Ethari supposed Lain couldn’t get in too much trouble with the three of them there to look out for him, plus there was a metal deposit not too far away that he could drop by to get some extra materials. He had a new idea for a dagger that he wanted to get started on right away. He realised after a moment that the other three were looking at him, as if waiting for his answer. He grinned easily.

“Yeah ok, sounds fun!”

Part 11 Now up!

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