#also it did cheer my mom up so Mission Accomplished

[herrmannhalsteadproduction]

Wingman? Wingwoman? Wingperson. (Chapter Four)

Summary: This is Part Seventeen of my series A Herrmann/Halstead Production. It is an AU where Christopher Herrmann's mom had an affair with Pat Halstead resulting in a baby. The series follows this OC character (Rebecca "Bex" Herrmann) as she grows up and gets to know her brothers and the various Chicago teams. It is very much an AU, just to underscore that. It doesn't follow the same timeline and characters will follow different paths.

Click here for the Series Rundown where you can find the links to read all of the previous installments (which I highly recommend you do so that this one makes sense.)

Rating: Teen and Up

Relationships: Christopher Herrmann & Original Female Character, Jay Halstead & Original Female Character, Will Halstead & Original Female Character, Jay Halstead & Will Halstead, pre-Greg 'Mouse' Gerwitz/Original Female Character, Will Halstead/Connor Rhodes, Assorted OC Couples

Warnings: Referenced Domestic Violence and Threatening Behaviour (these are warning tags for a brief scenes with Ty), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Rejection, Self-Sabotage, Swearing, and I'm adding Emotional Whump because writing this one hurt me, but also on the flip side - Connor and Will still being too freaking cute to handle.

A/N: To underscore my previous note, this is an alternate universe so things have unfolded differently. This will not follow the canon arc exactly by any means. But I hope you'll still enjoy it!

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Bex

Will called them back in the middle of the afternoon and it was pretty much the best phone call Bex had ever received. Top five for sure.

Her brother was giddy and the two of them were just as bad, drawing stares as they did a happy dance in the middle of the sidewalk. He couldn’t talk long since he had to go back to work, but promised to tell them the whole story later that night.

After his date.

“You’re next, Bex! You got this!” Will’s whispered cheers echoed out of the speaker phone. “I’ve got to get back to work, but I believe in you! Love you, bye!”

He disconnected before she could respond, leaving her standing there holding the phone and giggling as soon as she made eye contact with Emery.

“I would love to be a fly on the wall there for the rest of the day,” Bex said, still chuckling. “He is so spun.”

“That’s going to be you soon enough!” Emery knocked shoulders with her. “Got a game plan yet?”

“Still a work in progress,” Bex mumbled and Emery shook her head.

“Take your own advice, Bexie Babe,” she said. “And breathe.” She linked arms with Bex as they headed back toward the car. “What else was it you said to Will? You’ve already got something great and this is just taking a step toward something even better.”

It had certainly worked out for Will.

“Speak from the heart,” Emery continued. “You’re good at that.”

Breathe and speak from the heart. That seemed straightforward enough. “Okay, yeah,” Bex said, taking a shaky breath. “I’ve got this.”

“Say it again with confidence,” Emery demanded.

“I’ve got this,” Bex yelled.

“Yeah, you do!”

They high-fived and climbed into the Tin Can 2.0 to finish off the rest of their errands. High on Will’s success, they managed to zip through the remainder of the list and soon enough, Bex was dropping Emery off at Kira and Malia’s.

She waited until Emery was safely inside before getting ready to pull out of the parking and just as she was about to leave, her phone went off with a series of dings.

Picking it up, she swiped the screen to see a bunch of messages from Emery.

Pep talk texts before you go! Breathe! Be brave! Remember – horrible, horrible honesty.

And the last one was a bunch of emojis: lips, heart hands, and—

“Seriously?” Bex laughed as she dumped her phone back in the cup holder, ignoring the string of eggplant finishing off the message. Mission accomplished in any case.

A game plan was starting to form…

She felt lighter.

She felt ready.

Well, she needed to grab one more thing and then, she’d be ready.

***

Adam

As far as work days in Intelligence went, this one was actually kinda boring? With a break between cases, Voight had declared it paperwork day which sucked, but at least Adam was all caught up now.

Unlike Halstead, Atwater, and Upton who were still upstairs typing away. Dawson and Olinsky had ducked out awhile ago—no idea how they’d managed to be so fast.

Al typed with two fingers.

Kim was finished too so they’d made plans to meet up for pizza and a beer. He jogged down the front steps of the precinct, whistling to himself and feeling pretty pleased with—

“Adam.”

“GAH!” He flailed away, nearly falling off the last step when Bex popped up out of nowhere.

Where the hell had she come from?

“You’re awfully jumpy,” she said mildly, leaning up against the railing with a tray holding two iced drinks in her hands.

“What are you doing here?” He looked around, trying to keep one eye on her and the other scouting for traps. “If you’re looking for Jay, you’ll be waiting awhile.”

“I’m here to attend to…other business.” She maintained eye contact with him while picking up one of the drinks to take a slow sip.

Other business. Like…revenge business.

“Right. Cool,” Adam said, keeping a careful distance away from Bex as he navigated around her on the sidewalk. “I’ve gotta go, but I’ll see you around.” He kept her in his sights, walking backwards toward the parking lot.

“Not if I see you first,” she called out.

Yeah.

He was inspecting every inch of his car before he got in it today.

***

Bex

That was fun.

She watched Adam scuttle off with a smirk.

“Bold move terrorizing folks outside of a police station,” a familiar voice said.

She spun around to see Mouse standing on the steps behind her, mouth quirked in a crooked little grin.

“They all know it’s justified,” she said, waving a hand at the precinct in general.

Mouse chuckled for a moment until his gaze met hers. All the good humour slowly faded away and tendrils of doubt started to creep into Bex’s mind.

He cleared his throat and adjusted his bag on his shoulder. “So, uh, you looking—you looking for Jay?” He jerked a nod back at the door. “I think he’s gonna be an hour or so still.”

“Actually, I came here to see you,” she said and his gaze snapped back to her.

“Me?” He looked like a deer in headlights and Bex wished she could hear what he was thinking because this one-eighty in his behaviour lately was giving her whiplash.

***

Mouse

Mouse couldn’t breathe.

He’d been trying so hard to keep his distance—to take some time so he could be around Bex and not want…fucking everything.

But now here she was. Standing there looking beautiful with a smile of pure sunshine and she was here for him.

And he couldn’t.

Breathe.

How was he supposed to do this?

“I got you one of those iced caramel monstrosities you like,” she said with a teasing grin, holding out a cup with a familiar logo. His favourite coffee shop from three streets over.

He unclenched a hand from the strap of his bag and reached out to accept it with a jerk. “Thank you,” he managed to say.

“Soooo…” Bex tossed the tray in the trash and rocked back on her heels, taking a small sip of her drink. “You busy right now?”

Say yes and walk away.

Say yes.

Walk.

Away.

“Well, I’ve got this monstrosity to work my way through now,” he said instead, clearly not in control of his own mouth anymore.

“What do you think about taking a walk with me while you do that?” Bex asked, fingers clenching on her cup as she bit at her lip.

If he was a better man… a stronger man…he would say no. Mouse could see where this was headed from a mile away. It had been building for weeks. Months really.

There was never any real possibility of hiding from it. Distance was never going to stop it.

Inevitability made him a weak man. He needed to live in this fantasy for a few moments longer and pretend that this was his life. That he and Bex were taking this step toward something more.

Something great.

Instead of a mistake.

He wanted a few more minutes to pretend he could have this because when it ended how he knew it was going to end…the fantasy would be all he had left.

Mouse wanted to hold onto as many scraps as he could.

“Yeah,” he murmured, hating himself for giving in to this desperate need. “I could go for a walk.”

***

Bex

Bex and Mouse walked down the sidewalk together, bumping arms occasionally as they drifted into each other’s space. He filled her in on the boring day of paperwork they’d had and she told him about Emery’s progress.

Easy chit-chat that barely masked the humming tension between them.

She was doing this. Bex could hardly believe it, but she was doing this. The first part of the plan—get Mouse’s attention with a tasty beverage—has been successfully navigated and now she just had to make it through step two.

Set the stage.

There was a little garden park a block south of the precinct. Erin had actually introduced her to it one time when they met up for coffee. It was fairly quiet, nicely shaded, and had the added benefit of being relatively neutral ground that she and Mouse could both escape from if things went seriously south.

Plus a nice little bench they could make out on if things went seriously well.

…way to get ahead of yourself, Bex.

She deftly steered them into the park and made a beeline for the bench, patting the spot beside her for Mouse to take a seat.

He veered left instead, taking a spin around to look at the flowers.

Okay.

That was fine. She could pour her heart out while standing just as easily.

Well, not easily either way, but whatever.

Bex left her drink on the bench and wandered over to Mouse’s side. He was staring hard at a bed of daylilies, jaw clenched.  

He looked stressed.

…maybe this wasn’t the right moment.

But what if there was never a right moment? There was always something going on and finding a perfect time was probably never going to happen.

And if he was freaking out about them getting closer, then there was never going to be a moment unless she took the initiative.

So.

Time to leap.

“Mouse,” she said quietly, but still managing to startle him. “Sorry. Um, I came looking for you today because there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

His forehead furrowed into a deep frown. “Bex—”

“Just let me get this out, okay?” She said in a rush, holding up a hand to ward off whatever he was going to say. She’d come too far to stop now.

“We’ve known each other for…a long time now,” Bex said with a little laugh and he smiled back at her faintly. “You’re one of my best friends, but I feel like lately, we’ve been getting even closer and it feels like we’re moving toward something—something more than friends.”

Oh, god, could she be any more awkward?

Focus, Bex.

“What I’m trying to say is that I would like that. And I’ve been getting the feeling that you would too,” she said, voice going up in a questioning note. “So, would you like to go on a date? With me?”

Bex held her breathe as all her hope and fear and excitement swirled in one terrified vortex.

Mouse’s eyes went wide. “Bex, no—”

Her brain stuttered to a halt and the vortex stopped.

Everything was silent.

Then that crack, the one deep inside that had been patched up so crudely, split and opened its jagged maw.

She—

She’d done it again.

What the hell was wrong with her?

To think that Mouse could lo—that he might—

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I think I misjudged what was happening here and—oh, gosh. I’m so sorry, Mouse, please forget I said anything, okay?”

“No, Bex, no—” He grabbed at her arm to stop her very necessary retreat and she couldn’t look him in the eye because she was two seconds away from losing it.

“Not no no,” he said and what did that mean? Did he not know any other words right now?

“I’m trying.”

Oh. She’d said that out loud.

“Bex, please look at me,” Mouse said and it was the desperate note in his voice that had her looking up. “Not no, I don’t want to, but no, I can’t. We can’t.”

“What do you mean, we can’t?” Bex halted her escape attempts and now Mouse wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I need a little bit more here, Mouse, because I’m so confused.”

“You didn’t misjudge anything,” he said softly. “There was something there.”

…was.

“I thought about being with you. Wanted that so much.”

She reached out to lay a gentle hand on top of his. “Me too,” she said. “Don’t you think it’s worth trying?”

Mouse shook his head in a rough jerk. “It would be a mistake,” he said flatly, stepping back.

“Or it could be amazing,” Bex said. “And honestly, I’d put better odds on that outcome.”

“No, it would never work—”

“I think you could give us both a little more credit.” Frustration was starting to edge out the shock now.

“It wouldn’t be you,” Mouse said, looking out at the garden with a thousand-yard stare. “I would mess it up, Bex. There are things you don’t know about me—”

“But I want to know—”

“I could never be who you need me to be.” He tapped a fist against the centre of his chest. “I can’t give—there’s no way it wouldn’t end in disaster, Bex and then—I’d lose you.”

She didn’t know what to say. How to break through this horrible imaginary scenario he’d spun for himself. “Mouse, no—”

“I’d lose you,” he said, firm now in his conviction. “And I’d lose Jay and I can’t do that, Bex. You and Jay are the most important people—you’re my family.”

Mouse moved back into her space suddenly, gripping her hands in his. “I can’t risk it. Do you—please understand, Bex,” he said, voice breaking. “Losing you and Jay would be it for me. I couldn’t survive that. I can’t—it would—”

“Okay.” Bex fought to keep her voice level as the reality of things finally settled in. “It’s okay, Mouse. I understand.”

There would be no convincing Mouse that his fears were unfounded.

She couldn’t say with one hundred percent certainty that they weren’t because no one could predict the future—although Mouse seemed to think he could—and maybe they would end in disaster.

She’d rather try and see how it went then never try at all, but it took two of them to make that decision. Bex liked to think that their friendship could survive a break-up, but maybe that was her being naïve.

Maybe Mouse was saving them from a broken future, but that thought didn’t do anything to fix the widening crack of pain and grief spreading through her.

They were trading possible, imaginary future heartache for very real heartache right now.

How was this better?

Bex dug deep and forced a small smile on her face. Mouse looked like he was careening toward a panic attack and she knew how hard it must have been for him to get all of that out.

The last thing she ever wanted was for him to lose his family.

For them to lose each other.

For them both to fall apart.

At least she had more people to help her pick herself back up.

Mouse had Jay.

And he had her.

She could suck it up and hold them both together for now.

“You are never going to lose us, Mouse,” she said, squeezing his hands back. “You’re my family too and I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about us Herrmanns, but once we latch on to you, you’re stuck with us for life.”

They both chuckled a little wetly at that.

“We will always be friends,” she said. “We will always be family. Nothing could ever happen to make us lose each other.” She shifted their hands into a pinky swear. “I promise.”

He stared down at their joined fingers as she shook them. “I’m so sorry, Bex,” he began.

“Shut up.” She released his hands and pulled Mouse into a hug. He held stiff for a moment before putting his arms around her and holding tight. “Believe that we’re going to be okay,” she said. “That’s all I want from you.”

“Okay,” he whispered into her hair.

She’d try to believe it too.

They had to be.

***

Mouse

Bex left shortly after that, saying she had to pick up Emery.

Mouse stayed in the little park, sitting on the bench and peeling at the edges of the label on his cup thinking that if he waited long enough…the ache in his chest would go away.

That the knowledge he’d done the right thing would kick in and he wouldn’t feel like he’d gone ahead and destroyed everything that mattered the most to him anyway.

But deep down, he knew.

He knew—

This wasn’t how doing the right thing was supposed to feel.

***

Bex

Bex sat in her car outside of Kira and Malia’s building.

She’d somehow found her way back to the Tin Can and driven all the way there without noticing and that was definitely not good. She was lucky she didn’t get into an accident.

The sun was beating down on the windshield making it rapidly more uncomfortable in her sweat-sticky seat, but she couldn’t move yet.

Not when moving meant facing people and facing people meant telling them—

She couldn’t move yet.

Her phone buzzed and she fished it out of the cupholder to check the message.

Will.

Checking in to see how it went.

Oh, god, she couldn’t tell him. He’d totally cancel his date with Connor and he was so excited for it. She didn’t want to be the one to ruin that.

She’d had her fill of ruining things today.

BEX: I chickened out.

A laugh slipped out at the keyboard smash he texted back. Another rapid fire set of texts followed it.

WILL: We’ll work on your game plan. WILL: It’ll be GREAT!!! You’ll see!

BEX: Sounds like a plan. Have fun on your date. Emery and I will be at Kira and Malia’s so you’ve go the apartment to yourself. 😉

WILL: a;lsdfa;ds

BEX: How red is your face right now?

WILL: STOP WILL: IT’S OUR FIRST DATE

BEX: I’m just saying…

WILL: 😩😩😩 WILL: We’re taking it slow, okay? WILL: I don’t want to mess this up.

A lot of that going around.

BEX: Sorry, I’ll stop teasing. It’s going to be great. You guys are perfect for each other. BEX: Have fun, okay? I can’t wait to hear all about it.

WILL: See you tomorrow

Yeah. She definitely was going to hold off telling him the truth for a few days. He deserved to have this time right now.

They could deal with her disaster later.

Bex took a deep, bracing breath and headed up to Kira and Malia’s apartment.

You’re okay.

You can talk about this.

You’re fine.

She knocked on the door and Kira answered immediately, Malia and Emery peering over her shoulder from behind.

Kira took one look at her face and reached out to pull her inside. “Oh, sweetie.”

Bex bursts into tears

***

Actual and Honorary Bastards Group Chat

MALIA: 911 MALIA: everyone come here now

ISAAC: WHAT’S WRONG?

SAM: do you need actual 911? We’ve talked about this, Malia

FAITH: Use your words

MALIA: Mouse said no.

DEVON: ON OUR WAY

BEN: We’re getting in the car

MALIA: wait

SAM: ????

MALIA: bring snacks MALIA: and alcohol MALIA: a lot.

***

Isaac

Their crew was assembled at Kira and Malia’s within twenty minutes.

He wasn’t quite sure what kind of scene they’d be walking into—everyone remembered AJ—but Bex seemed remarkably composed.

That was actually more disconcerting if he was honest.

She was teary as she gave them the run-down of her conversation with Mouse, but every time her voice started to break or she got choked up, she stopped and tamped it all down before continuing.

A quick glance around at his friends told him they were growing just as concerned.

“I’m so sorry, Bex,” Emery said, reaching over from her spot beside her on the couch to rub her back. “You must be crushed.”

“It’s not like we were even dating,” Bex said, looking down as she knitted her fingers together in her lap.

“That doesn’t make what you feel any less real,” Faith said softly. “It didn’t have to be official for there to be a real relationship there.”

Bex nodded, swallowing hard. “I just—I feel like I should have realized that’s why he wasn’t making a move, you know? And now I’ve pushed it and freaked him out and what if it’s all ruined anyway? I shouldn’t have said anything—”

“Bex, stop.” Isaac made his way over to the couch and wiggled his way in between her and Kira. “Anyone who saw the two of you together could tell there’s something special there and you’re not a mind reader, okay? Don’t beat yourself up for putting yourself out there.”

“I’m worried he’s going to pull away even more now—”

“You don’t let people get lost, Bex,” Emery said with a gentle smile. “Not for long and never forever. Mouse is in the Herrmann orbit for good and he’ll figure that out soon enough.”

“Okay. Yeah, I guess we just…see how it goes.” Bex sniffed and rubbed at her face before glancing around the room. “Please tell me there’s junk food in those bags you hauled in.”

“So much!” Devon hopped up and started rifling through them. He tossed Bex a bag of salt and vinegar chips first. “We’ve got you covered, girl.”

Isaac used the food distraction as a chance to slip away. His phone had been buzzing non-stop with people wanting to hear how it went.

Wanting to hear the good news that didn’t exist.

As far they knew, it was a sure thing so what was the harm in a few—many—playful check-ins.

They had Bex safely squared away, but he had no idea where Mouse was and he didn’t want to risk anyone making a playful comment to his face.

The guy had made a mistake, but he had to be hurting just as much as Bex right now.

Taking a deep breath, Isaac unlocked his phone and opened up the message thread that had been hopping all day.

He said no. Still getting the details. Best if everyone just forgets about this for now.

Two seconds of silence and then…

The Bouse group chat erupted.

***

Bex

Isaac’s phone was going crazy. He’d muted it, but she could see him peeking at it every once in awhile and a flood of notifications flashing across his screen every time.

“Okay, what is going on?” she finally asked, not able to take it anymore.

Whatever it was, maybe it would be a good distraction.

“Hm?” He quickly flipped his phone face down again, not looking at her. “Oh, nothing. Sorry. Work stuff.”

Right.

“Isaac,” she said and he hummed, still not looking her way.

Her friend was wonderful at so many things, but lying to people’s faces was not one of them.

“Isaac, look me in the eye and tell me that’s work stuff.”

He looked her in the side of her nose as he picked up his phone and started to get up off the couch. “It’s work—oof!”

Bex leapt across Emery to snatch the phone out of his hands. “You forget I know your unlock code,” she said.

“No, Bex!” He tried to grab it back, but she already had it open and more notifications were flashing across the screen. “I’m so sorry,” he said, flopping back on the couch. “I—”

“Is this?” She swiped through the messages. “There was a bet going on me and Mouse?” She looked up to see a room full of regretful nods and Emery rolling her eyes.

“For the record, I was not involved,” she said. “I haven’t even been here.”

“Who is?”

“Pretty much all of Fifty-One and a good chunk of the precinct and Med,” Sam admitted. “Not Chris and Cindy or Jay and Will. Or Connor actually.”

“Are you mad?” Isaac asked in a small voice. “We didn’t mean for it to get this big.”

Bex sighed. She wanted to be, but she didn’t have the energy. And honestly, she wasn’t even surprised. Fifty-One had been betting on everything for as long as she’d known them. And she knew how easily their shenanigans spiralled out of control. They couldn't help themselves.

Part of her wished they’d managed to curb those impulses for this particular situation though. She didn’t need it to get any messier than it already was.

“I’m not mad.” She waved the phone at him. “I’m more concerned about these reactions because you know how my family is. I don’t want anyone saying anything to Mouse.”

Well-meaning or not, it would make things ten times worse. None of them could possibly understand all of the layers at work. They’d just see her hurting and want to take action.

“I’m gonna—” She motioned toward the screen of Isaac’s phone.

“Oh, for sure,” he said. “Go ahead. It’ll be better coming from you I think anyway. More effective.”

Oh, she could do effective.

Bex opened the group chat and started a voice message.

“Hello family and friends. This is Bex. Yes, I know about the bet. I hope you all lost money. By now you’ve heard that ‘Bouse’—who thought of that by the way? Never mind. Not important. Bouse isn’t happening and the most important thing to know here is that it’s no one’s fault. It is what it is, okay? Under no circumstances is anyone to say anything to Mouse. Not one word. If you do, I will know and I will make your life a living hell. And on top of that, I will never make any of you cookies every again. Think about that. If one of you steps over the line, no one gets cookies. Forever. So please just…try and be cool, okay? Love you. Bye.”

She closed the chat and tossed the phone over to Isaac before leaning against Emery with her eyes closed. Everyone was quiet for a minute. Emery stroked her hair.

“Chief Boden is backing you up in the chat and telling everyone to behave,” Isaac reported and Bex sat straight up.

“Uncle Bo was in the chat? God, you really did get everyone.” Bex shook her head. “Okay, no, we’re officially done with that little side quest. It’s too much. Food and drink and snuggles, now, please.”

Her friends leapt into action and she let them do all of the fussing. She was going to let herself be a mindless slug for the next few hours.

Except—

She should do one last thing.

Bex picked up her own phone and sent a quick text to Jay.

Would you mind going to check on Mouse? No questions asked, please. Just do me a favour and check?

He immediately asked a bunch of questions, but when she didn’t respond just wrote “Okay.”

There.

Now Mouse had someone too.

*** Shay

She stared down at her phone. “Don’t say it,” she said, holding up a finger to Julie, knowing she was giving her a look without even having to check. “I know, okay? I know.”

“I wasn’t going to say I told you so.” Julie cuddled up beside her on the couch, hooking her chin onto Shay’s shoulder as she checked out the rapid fire messages being exchanged in the group chat. “I was going to ask if anyone has actually talked to Bex. Do we know how she is? How she really is?”

Shay shook her head. Isaac had been light on details, but she could read between the lines. Plus, Bex sounded awful in the voice memo she’d left in the chat.

They needed to start organizing. Figure out ways to support Bex.

If there was one thing she knew about heartbreak—hard won through her years and years of experience with it—

It always got worse before it got better.

***

Jay

He made his way over to Mouse’s place in record time.

Bex had sent him that cryptic freaking message and then refused to respond to him so he had no idea what he was walking into.

A prickle of fear crawled up the back of his throat as he thought about past situations he’d walked into with Mouse. Things he thought his friend would never come back from.

“Mouse!” Jay banged on the door. “You in there? Open up!”

He kept on banging until the door finally opened.

Mouse stood there, looking like shit and blocking his way in. “What’s up, Jay? You’re gonna get me kicked out of the building if you keep yelling like that.”

“What’s up?” Jay tried to move forward, but Mouse wasn’t budging. “You tell me what’s up? Bex sent me a text asking me to check up on you—”

Mouse’s face did something complicated at that before settling back into a blank stare.

What the fuck was going on?

“Why is she worried about you? What happened?”

“She’s probably just worried because I’m doing what you said.” Mouse focused on a spot on Jay’s shoulder as he talked, voice slow and flat. “Pulling back a bit. Keeping my distance.”

That wasn’t—no, Mouse had got it twisted somehow.

“I didn’t mean don’t hang out with her,” Jay said. “I want us all to hang out like we always do. I just meant it was a bad idea to date.” He started to dig his phone out of his pocket. “Look, I’ll text her and we can have a movie night or something and get some pizza—”

“Jay.”

His tone stopped Jay mid-screen swipe. Jay looked up to see Mouse watching him with a pain in his eyes that he hadn’t seen there for awhile now.

“You’re not getting it, man,” he said. “If I can’t—you said it would be a mistake, right? And I get that. I do. So, I’m trying to walk it back, but it’s—it’s hard.” Mouse’s hand gripped at the door as he took a breath. “…I just need a bit of space.”

“Mouse—”

The door was shut and Mouse was gone before he could finish his sentence.

“Shit,” Jay whispered to himself as a voice in the back of his head started rumbling that he may have seriously fucked up.

***

Will

Will had been counting down the minutes until his shift was over, racing home as soon as he was free. He fed Kol, took him out for a walk, and then hopped into the shower.

Then he stared at his closet and really wished Bex was home.

He settled for sending her pictures of his outfit options until she and her friends helped him narrow it down to the perfect one.

Will felt like a teenager getting ready for his first date. It was a little bit ridiculous.

But fun?

He decided not to examine it too hard.

One final check on his hair and he was out the door to pick up his date.

Connor was waiting for him at the door of his building, but Will managed to get out to open the car door before he made it there. “I would have come up to your apartment,” he said. “Knocked on your door for the whole nine yards.”

“Okay, don’t laugh,” Connor said, pointing at warning finger at him. “ButIgottooexcited.”

“What?” Will laughed, hearing enough of that mumbled mess to get an idea of what he said.

“I got too excited to wait upstairs and decide to come down to wait for you here,” Connor said, rolling his eyes. “Happy now?”

“Yes, actually,” Will grinned at him as he got in the car. “Very.”

They had dinner at one of Will’s favourite restaurants—an Italian place that was more hearty, than fancy. They stopped at a bar afterwards—not Molly’s because neither of them was interested in that level of scrutiny on a first date—for some after dinner beers and a few rounds of darts.

Will kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for things to take some kind of turn, but it was…

Amazing.

Conversation flowed easily between them with lots of laughter. They stuck to fun and interesting things. Kept it light. They’d had plenty of heart to hearts already so there was an unspoken agreement to lean into the levity of a first date.

And then there was the flirting.

Apparently Connor had been holding back before because Will was overwhelmed in the best way possible. Although he liked to think he was giving as good as he got if Connor’s heated glances were anything to go by.

They stayed out until midnight. Hours later than they should have considering the day they’d both worked, but neither of them had been ready to say goodnight too soon.

Will took Connor back home and walked him to his front door.

“I like the whole nine yards,” Connor said, quirking a smile at him before leaning in. “So…where does a goodnight kiss fall on the taking it slow spectrum?”

He pretended to think it over. “It’s allowed,” Will finally said, moving to close the distance between them.

It was tentative to start, in the way of first kisses, until Connor tilted his head just so and everything slotted into place. Will felt the sparks down to his toes as he deepened the kiss.

He chased the feeling until Connor made a surprised noise and Will pulled back to see he’d somehow crowded Connor into the wall of the building.

Oops.

“We should probably stop before we break the spectrum,” Connor said, sounding a little breathless.

“Right,” Will released him with an embarrassed chuckle. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be.” Connor darted forward to give him one last peck. “I liked it.” He smiled at Will before saying goodnight and heading inside.

Will’s phone went off as he headed toward his car and he knew before he checked it would be Connor.

CONNOR: What are you doing Friday night?

WILL: Going on a date with you?

CONNOR: My fancy car and I will see you at seven.

WILL: I’ll be waiting on the sidewalk.

He knew he was grinning like an idiot the whole ride home, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

He’d gone on a date with Connor Rhodes.

And it was awesome.

Walking back to a Bex-less apartment was less awesome. He wanted to tell her every single detail, but that was going to have to wait until tomorrow.

At least he wasn’t completely alone.

“Kol,” he said, as he flopped down on the couch. “Come here and let me tell you about the wild day I had.”

***

Bex

She and Emery made it back to the apartment by ten the next morning. Well after the time Will would have left for work so at least she wouldn’t have to face him until that night.

Or so she thought.

His stuff was all hanging by the door when she opened it and she could hear humming coming from the kitchen.

“Will?” She called out, sharing a resigned glance with Emery. “What are you doing home? Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he called back. “Somebody needed a switch so I don’t go in until noon. Glad I still get to see you…” He trailed off as he came out of the kitchen and got a good look at her as she stood in the living room.

She tried to look normal, but—

“Oh, Bex,” he said, face falling as he made his way over in two strides. “What happened?”

“I’m fine,” she said, but her voice breaking on the last word didn’t help her cause at all.

Kol lifted his head up from the couch and whined at her.

“Kol says that’s bullshit,” Will said.

“Language, Kol,” she managed to mutter before Will had her wrapped up in a gigantic hug. He maneuvered her toward the couch, getting Kol to scoot over to make room. Emery murmured something about making tea as she headed for the kitchen.

“I really am okay, Will,” she started to say before he cut her off with a flat look. “I will be okay,” she amended. “Talking with my friends last night helped a lot.”

“You can talk to me too,” he said earnestly and she loved him for it, but—

“What I really want to do right now is talk about your date.”

“Are you sure?” He didn’t look convinced by that plan of action at all.

“Oh, my god, yes,” she exclaimed. “I need the serotonin, okay? Do not leave a single detail out. I want to hear about the date. I need to hear about the asking! I mean, I know it went well, obviously, but I want to hear it all from you.”

“I did the sleeve thing,” Will said, already blushing.

“I knew it would work,” Emery yelled from the kitchen.

“Yeah, definitely not how you thought it would though,” Will said, rolling his eyes. He proceeded to tell them the whole hilarious story and Bex sat back, letting herself bask in her brother’s joy.

***

Bex

Later that night, when it was dark and quiet and Will was still at work, she and Emery sat on the couch with Kol between them.

“How are you really doing?” Emery asked her.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Bex shot back.

Silence filled the space between them as neither one moved to answer the question.

But—

Horrible, horrible honesty, right?

“I’m not okay,” Bex whispered. “I feel like I’m walking around with my chest ripped open and I’m trying to hold it together and it shouldn’t be that hard, but every step keeps dragging me down.”

Emery nodded, reaching over Kol to grab her hand. “I’m not okay either,” she said. “I thought I could keep busy and distract myself, but I’m—I’m scared all the time, Bex, and it’s so exhausting. I hate that everything is such a mess, but I can’t find my way through it.”

Bex shuffled around to fully face her on the couch. “I don’t want to talk to my brothers about this right now,” she said. “It’s just too complicated—it’s too much, but—”

“You need to talk about it,” Emery said.

“We both need to talk,” Bex countered. “About all of this stuff. Without pretending we’re okay.”

“So, we’ll be not okay together for awhile.” Emery squeezed her hand and Kol grumbled, rolling over on the couch so they could give him belly rubs. “I can handle that.”

Not okay. Together.

Sounded like a plan.

If you need something to make you smile after reading this and you haven't spotted it yet, I rewrote the break room scene as a little ficlet from Connor's perspective. It's called I'm Looking Disrespectfully, Sir and you can read it here. (Two other bonus ficlets are also available: IT'S DECEMBER 23RD, WILL!!! which takes place before Sometimes You Need and The Grocery Store Trip which takes place after Game Night 2: Fresh Blood. Hope you check them out!😀)

Click here to read Part 18: Honesty. Horrible, Horrible Honesty.

Click here to read Wingman? Wingwoman? Wingperson. on ao3:

And here is the tag list (let me know if you wish to be added or removed):

@sorry-i-spaced, @iunnowatuwant, @thegirlwhowishedeveryonelived, @ivyalmighty, @thewannabewriter, @lexhalstead3, @multifandomgrl08, @foxes-and-cats, @sensitivemallysix, @thebewingedjewelcat

[ludeshka]

I painted it to cheer up Mom.

[mannien]

Mornings in Sheffield Park | TH - PROLOGUE

The one with graduation, daisies and carnations, and a hopeless emotional addiction.

Word count: 3.1k

Warnings: some stress and anxiety here and there

Some feelings are addictive. It’s easy to get used to the way something tingles with excitement, warms up with passion, or stings with powerful adrenaline rush. People get comfortable with feelings known and desired and more often than not, they turn them into coping mechanisms. Whatever sticks their wobbly pieces together the longest, is the ultimate solution. Feelings don’t need to be entirely positive or with pure intentions behind them. As long as they cover up the shattered pieces, they stay. They may enhance some experiences, especially when someone decides to stick with something as simple as joy. But some make life more difficult than it seems; they mess up the timeline and allow people to feel so many wrong things before reaching the truth.

An array of emotions weaves through fresh university graduates. A sense of freedom and relief is somewhat clouded by fear or excitement. Someone has an internship lined up, their friends take a year to travel across Europe, a roommate has an apprenticeship at their next job. Others might take things slow and see what the future holds, while some students get prepared to have a fresh start. The overall unknown seems to be the underlying tone in the speeches during the graduation ceremony, but each person in polished shoes and with a rapid heartbeat subconsciously sticks to a feeling that makes them feel more at ease.

Students of each program are called on stage. Every little success along the way is cradled into slippery hats and fitted gowns with the university’s subtle emblem on the front. The audience is sitting on the large balcony above the graduates. People clap with appreciation at each young person walking across the wooden floor and shaking the chancellor’s hand. Some receive a more enthusiastic applause, sometimes even a roar of cheers. As the long queue of journalism graduates makes its way through the hall, the names are listed rapidly. Students walk as if they were a part of an assembly line, trying their best not to delay the process of the nerve-wracking hand-shaking and walking without tripping. The last are always graduates with exceptional results, so the crowds are encouraged to clap vigorously. And that’s what’s heard when the eyes of two women in the audience are focused on the proud figure walking on stage: the loudest cheers of the afternoon so far.

“Remind me, why aren’t we screaming for your boyfriend, and the whole department of journalism is?” A questioning voice surprised Millie so much that she jumped in her seat.

“I’m nervous, Thea. That’s why.”

She stated the obvious. Millie Beaver was the one to frantically fix the sleeves of her gown as a nervous tick. She got up early that morning, dreading the day full of polished festivities and exaggerated elegance requested upon a bunch of tired, educated enough people. The pride in successfully finishing her studies was yet to come; her body was rather keen on reacting dramatically to the large crowds of scholars, pupils and their families. The dread of participating in an unrehearsed event like this clouded her brain and made her focus solely on not loosing it. Though she wouldn’t dare admit it to the smiling man, who was just about to shake some hands on stage. The confidence he wore on his face was something she was used to seeing, even in the least favourable scenarios.

“I still don’t get it, how some people are born so talented that they don’t need to work their asses off to get somewhere,” she shrugged, making her tight black curls shake with her head, “I mean, the hours we spent on reading and researching…”

“I guess we’re just different.”

“Different? It’s not fair, that’s what it is. Patriarchy at its finest.”

The comment made Millie laugh and release some of the tension. Her eyes followed Franklin into the side corridor, where a little crowd of his friends formed a circle around him – the star of the department - before continuing into their seats. His cheerful stance made her bit her lip in excitement; for a moment, she tried to forget about whatever was said through the speakers. She genuinely wanted to be feel happy for him and his academic achievements. After all, she spent previous months on watching him get to the top of their classes almost effortlessly, as if he was born to be talked about by the teachers.

Millie felt her heart speed up at the thought that he might start searching for her for a little cheer, or even a tiny wave of support. But Frank sat down and continued to enjoy his fame, and Thea started to pull her up from the wooden chair.

“Come on, it’s our turn.”

She followed her friend and attempted to smooth out the heavy gown. Her light brown hair flowed as she walked, making her nervously fix it every now and then. She turned to the very end of the queue to find Jane, who wore a wide smile. They made eye contact and the blonde sent her a half-smile, knowing that they are almost through the tough part. It calmed Millie to know that she had her support system, not only up in the balcony, but also somewhere among the students of literary and media studies. At one point she feared that her nightmare of falling off the stage will become reality, but as a surprise to her and her close ones, clumsy Millie walked gracefully and with pride painted across her face.

Mission accomplished: she made it through college without falling.

The main floor of the event hall once again filled with students, their peers, and families. Loud chatter was heard across the building as people were celebrating the achievements of the year’s graduates. Some of the groups moved outside and took in the chilly London air. It smelled of rain and freedom, clouded with light grey pillows in the sky.

The three girls tried to make it through the crowds of chatting people in search for the perfect spot to take pictures together. Jane wore the highest heels of them all, so she was designated to lead them to the wall with the logo of the university. In a tight weave of pinkie fingers, they rushed through the hall just as they would through a college party. Millie felt dizzy from the sea of the same black gowns surrounding them from every angle. Some people waved at them, so she kept her smile wide and left Thea – with her one hand free – to the waving back duty. Their secure escape led them safely to the back wall on the side of the entrance, where some of the students usually found peace between classes and sat down on the floor, watching over the busy entrance to the building during the semester. The carpet remembered a lot of spilled coffees and teas in the wobbly little cups purchased from the cafeteria inside. Millie let out a breath of relief, seeing that only a couple of students found this spot perfect for keeping the memories.

“Hey, congrats! We’re graduates!” Jane welcomed the group that was finishing their poses in front of the wall.

Thea laughed with them, but desperately waved her hand in front of her reddening face to cool off.

“I hate your speed in heels. That was too fast!”

“Don’t worry, at least you don’t have to run to the Linguistics ever again.” Millie pulled her little bag from underneath the gown and looked for a sheet of paper with old notes. As long as Jane was busy chatting up other students, the other two tackled the makeshift air conditioning to prevent Thea’s makeup from running.

“Okay, are we ready for some iPhone memories?” The sound of a snapshot stopped Millie from frantically fanning their friend’s face.

“You sound ready. Do you have a tripod or a selfie stick, though? I want to have a picture with all of you.”

“We could still catch that group and ask someone to snap a few?”

“I’m not running anywhere, I’ve just fixed my face!” Thea puffed her cheeks and did a few more waves around them, certainly for an enhanced dramatic effect.

“Then don’t run anywhere, I’ll call my mom to come here, she’s probably out for a smoke anyway.”

“You really want to have your graduation pictures taken by your mom?” Thea and Millie chuckled at Jane’s resigned sigh. “Maybe Frank could come here? I trust his steady hands more.”

“He was supposed to go to the student’s office after the ceremony. Honours and stuff.” Millie pursed her lips.

“Right when we need him! What a boyfriend.”

“Jane!”

“Do you need a hand, girls?”

A sudden male voice stopped the rising argument and made the three of them look into the corridor. He welcomed them with a warm smile and soft wrinkles by his eyes. With a small bunch of colourful flowers, he stood out in casual, non-graduate clothes, yet with similar youthfulness to him.

“I’m not my brother but I can take a straight picture in focus.”

“What the fuck?” Millie covered her mouth in shock. Hesitantly, she took one step away from Jane and Thea, afraid of her next reaction. “What the actual fuck are you doing here?”

“I came to my friend’s graduation, fancy seeing you here.”

“I’m serious!” She raised her voice and made her way over to him, meeting his steps somewhere in the middle of the distance. He was smiling at her stupidly and she couldn’t stop herself from mirroring his reaction.

“I’m serious too, you made it! That’s so cool!” He opened his arms and invited her in, with a small encouragement of his waving hand.

One of the most addictive feelings are those of an utter comfort and safety. This teasing sparkle making your insides warm up and encouraging you to be a little more positive. That’s precisely what Millie felt when she was engulfed in a tight hug by her childhood best friend. Tom held her tightly across her back and swayed them side to side, earning a hearty laugh from the girl who was now, shining. She felt a sense of genuine relief once he squeezed her in reassurance; her brotherly figure showed up, so she was finally able to relax. Suddenly everything felt easy and perfect. All of the stress, fear of the unknown, anxiety about the grand event of the day, and the rest of damaging emotions slowed down their tempo in her veins, simply because she was home. Her smile swiftly changed into more prominent and definitely brighter by a shade or two. As he held her close, he could feel Millie’s warmth suddenly radiate through his body, making his eyes twinkle with joy because of this very girl.

“Congratulations, Minnie Mouse, I’m so proud of you,” he whispered next to her ear, cautious of what others may hear from their little exchange. She did not need any more nerves weighting her down, so he decided not to make a big scene – even though he definitely wanted to tease her worrying head and make sure she’s having a good time. “you’re all grown up now, so I got you flowers.”

“Oh, so otherwise you wouldn’t?” Millie shook his head, but accepted a small bouquet of carnations and daisies.

“Nah, I know you hate flowers.” He winked at her and put his arm around Millie’s arms, tucking her into his side a little too tightly.

“Absolutely. Thanks Tom, I’ll throw them out after the pictures.”

“Go ahead,” He tucked her in even more, making her squirm in discomfort. It was one of their things, to squeeze one another too tight. It made them feel connected as if they were siblings. They knew how sibling love worked, Tom having three younger brothers and Millie being the youngest of three sisters, but it was refreshing to have it a little spiced up. She let out a shy laugh and pushed him away before taking the delicate bunch from him. She lost the smell of his familiar perfume and took a breath. Once he extended his hand to Millie’s friends, he was back to his public confidence and charm. “Hey! Thea and Jane, right?”

They took an intimidating number of pictures; some of them good enough to share with people, other more fitting into a private photo album filled with silly, heart-warming memories. The group shared a lot of easy laughs together; Millie’s girlfriends eased into the lightly flowing chatter with Tom in no time. It made her sink into the bubble of comfort and light; she was smiling brightly when they reached the entrance to the building. Tom opened the glass door for all of them. A slightly chilly air hit Millie in her blushing cheeks and slowed down the pinky glow spreading across her cheekbones. Somewhere in the distance she noticed her parents lurking excitedly at the group and waving them over expectantly.

There was this heaviness slowing her down and taking up an excess of space in the back of her mind. As they were making their way across the university’s main square, Millie slowly turned her head to the side. She perked up at the sound of loud cheers and noticed a familiar group of students. Among them, there was Frank—laughing and hugging people from his department—and he definitely enjoyed being in the centre of attention. She was sure he didn’t even notice her walking by, but she didn’t want it to affect her as much as it was going to.

In turn, what she didn’t think of was the attention someone would give to her best friend: the smiling, cheerful young man, who was shamelessly chatting up Millie, Thea and Jane.

“Oh my God, is that Tom Holland?”

This simple question, raised somewhere from the group of journalism graduates, didn’t surprise Tom. However, it definitely rose the hairs on the back of Millie’s neck. Though he brushed it off and sent her a reassuring smile, Millie felt panic flowing through her veins. They both knew it could happen, but Tom seemed to be focused more on making her a priority, rather than fearing being recognized as the famous actor. He watched her reaction, now fully aware of her boyfriend emerging from the crowd and skipping towards them.

“Hey, I was trying to find you earlier,” he brushed his hand through his dark blonde hair and gave her a brief smile, before turning excitedly to Tom. “Hey man, I didn’t know you were coming!”

“We just went to…” she paused, seeing as he was already extending his hand towards her friend. “…take pictures.”

“The girls had a nice little photoshoot back inside.” Tom cut short his smile, raising the side of his mouth only to her. He accepted Frank’s handshake but didn’t allow it to turn into a bro-hug. It was fairly easy to read their body language; Franklin tried his best to seem friendly with his girlfriend’s celebrity friend, but the said celebrity was too kind to allow his cheekiness outshine Millie’s comfort zone. Jane and Thea turned their heads away at the sight of palms squeezing a little too tight for a friendly greeting. Frank’s friends and a couple other bystanders watched the exchange with prying eyes, and Millie let out a frustrated groan at the unnecessary tension.

“Cool, cool. Can I steal my girl for a moment?”

Frank didn’t wait for an answer, but rather just took her hand and pulled her to the side, hiding slightly behind the group of people. He fixed the tinsel attached to her hat and winked at her, giving her his full attention. He looked at her with his gleaming blue eyes and made her smile at the intimate moment.

“You good, sweetie?”

“Yeah, just fine.”

“Good. I’ll see you tonight, yeah?”

“Are your parents here? I haven’t seen them.” She looked around, trying to find his mom’s flowing blonde hair.

“They went to get the table at the restaurant nearby. Wanna join us?” He searched her face and leaned in closer, brushing his nose against hers. Millie laid her hand on his shoulder and allowed him into her little space.

“Why are you asking me to choose between our parents?” She chuckled, but patiently waited for his reaction. “Could we all spend time together, at least once?”

“I told you, it’s not a good idea,” Frank brushed his lips against Millie’s, slowly easing her into him and making her return the kiss. “you can ask Tom to come to the party tonight, it’ll be fun.”

“No promises.”

They shared a few more kisses that left Millie breathless - Franklin wasn’t usually the one to publicly show his affection, so she craved anything he willing to give her. She smiled up at him and let him go, happy that he took the minute to catch up with her.

With one last wave of his hand, Frank joined his party. Although he was instantly pulled into celebratory pictures, he couldn’t help but watch Millie walk away; she joined Jane and Thea in a heart-warming group hug. She was just sweet like this: sticking to her people, making sure everyone’s happy, and embracing all the kindness in the simplest actions. Franklin smiled to himself at the sound of her cheerful laugh and turned back to his friends, but then he noticed the source of her laugh. Her and Tom did a barely-there joyful dance, raising their hands and curtseying to her parents. Alfred, her dad, patted him on the back and shook his hand vigorously, while Millie was being squeezed by her mom.

People from Frank’s department praised him for having any kind of relationship with Tom Holland. Frank watched Tom’s joyous exchange with his girlfriend. Tom was proudly paying attention to his best friend, and Millie’s cheeks were hurting from the smiles. She was content and felt at ease. She was sure that her heart was filled to the brim with love and comfort.

Yes, being addicted to feelings is difficult. It holds people hostage in the arms of the sole premise of positive emotional experiences. It’s also blinding for the addicts, making the loss of certain feelings hurt more than it should. Addiction feeds off the weak, the confused, and the uncertain. It eats them up alive and strives to receive more and more satisfaction. It allows for the illusion of reality, so that the addicts can project certain feelings onto their consciousness. They live in their bubbles of unruly contentment and often forget to look into their souls and perform a regular check-up.

Millie was an addict.

***

Please let me know what you think!

tagged: @peeterparkr @katieraven @kozybear @sunsetholland @hey-marlie @lauras-collection @cunaeparker @constellationsv @heyhihellowhatsup0

[jaycewrites-192000]

Growl: Ch. 11

Warnings: None

Tag List: @theravencawsatmidnight @etroman @kaariqueen

(What I write about Kyotani's dad is completely made up)

It was Saturday afternoon, meaning it was time for Kyotani's punishment. But to him, it wouldn't be as nearly as bad of a punishment since Y/n was with him. She really didn't have to be here, but she was anyway. The two got to work at cleaning, Kyotani would mop the floors while Y/n would clean the windows. "You know Ken, this is a really weird first date." Y/n chuckled as she sprayed more window cleaner on the dirty window of the gym door. Kyotani's heart fluttered at the new nick name. "Yeah? Well, guess I'll have to really make up for it huh?" He said.

"Yes you will. I'm a lady, a lady shouldn't have to clean smudged windows." Y/n said, placing her hand over her chest in a classy way. "Shame on you." Kyotani rolled his eyes. "Pardon me madam. But you could have stayed home." He countered. "And miss out on time with my boyfriend? As if. And I never said this was a bad date." She moves onto another set of windows after finishing the first. "How sweet." Kyotani smirks.

"Oh hey, I bet your mom will be thrilled to know that we're together now. She was really laying it on thick how much she wanted us to date." Kyotani paused. That was right, his mom was desperately trying to get him and Y/n together. Well, mission accomplished then. "Yeah, it's going to be so annoying to hear from here how she was right. And my sister is just gonna be a bi-a jerk about it." Kyotani caught himsef.

Y/n giggled and made her way over to him. "How about after we finish this, you take me over to your place? We can all celebrate together." Before Kyotani could give her an ok, he stopped and thought about something. "Ken?" Y/n tilts her head. "Oh, uh, not today." He muttered. Y/n raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Kyotani hesitated before answering. "My dad is visiting tonight..." Y/n blinked a few times. 'Does...he not have a good relationship with his father?' She thinks. The last time his father was brought up in conversation, he acted this was too. "Ken, do you and him...is there something going on?" She didn't exactly know how to word it other than that. "We don't hate each other, if that's what you think." He tells her.

"Then what? If you don't mind saying." She asked. Kyotani sighs and sets aside the mop he held. Y/n walked behind him and sat on the stage part of the gym. She pats the spot next to her, Kyotani walked over and sat next to her. "He left when I turned 15. My mom and him just kinda...fell apart. And they got a divorce."

"Oh. Kentaro, I'm so sorry." Y/n placed her hand on top of his. "It's fine...I mean, I don't hate either of them for it. And they don't hate each other either it's just...weird you know? He only ever comes by ever few weeks during the weekends. Other than that, I get phone calls and letters from him. He moved to another city so, we don't see each other often. So you can imagine how awkward it gets." Y/n nods as she listens. She looks down at her lap and lets out a soft sigh.

"I wish my situation was even slightly like yours." Kyotani looks at her confused. "Divorced parents too?" Y/n nods. "Yeah but...me and my father...we don't talk at all. It's rare I even get a phone call from the deadbeat." Her eyebrows furrow, and a light scowl formed on her lips. "I'm sorry." She shakes her head. "This isn't about me."

"No it's fine. I've already explained my story. Go ahead." Kyotani insists. "Ok well...He left me and my mother when I was only 10. Mom caught him cheating with some woman he worked with. And apparently, he had been a bit of a drinker before I was born. After that, he would only drink now and then but whenever he did, me and mom didn't see much of him. After my mom found about the affair, she divorced him. And I hadn't seen him since."

Y/n continued. "My father was the one with the well paying job so, after the scandal he was fired. That's when my mom started working a lot more, so we don't talk as much as we use to." By the end of the story, Y/n was crying. "I'm sorry...I haven't really talked about this so..." Kyotani wiped her tears and held her close. "It's fine, you don't have to be sorry." He said in a hushed tone. Y/n laughs weakly, trying to lighten the mood. "Wow, when did cleaning the gym turn into a therapy session?"

Kyotani chuckles lightly and stroked the back of her head. "Since now I guess." Suddenly Kyotani's phone started to buzz. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. "Speak of the fucking devil." It was his father. "He can wait." He was about to send him to voicemail before Y/n stopped him. "No it's ok. Go ahead. I'll get back to cleaning while I wait." Y/n hopped up and grabbed her cleaning supplies again. "You sure?" Kyotani asked.

"Yep!" Y/n beamed before getting back to cleaning. Kyotani looked at the screen again, sighed and then answered. "Hey dad..."

Y/n could catch small bits of the conversation. "Yeah....yep....Wait, really? Oh uh, I can't just yet....I'm at the school I uh, got into a fight so they're making me clean....I know...I know. Yeah ok, I'll be there ok? Alright bye." Kyotani sighed heavily before putting his phone away. "Looks like my dad decided to come early. Damn it said he wouldn't be here until later tonight." Y/n turns to him. "Was he upset? That you had gotten in trouble?" She asks.

"Yeah, but it's whatever. I'll just have to hear more about it later. Fuck." Kyotani leans against a wall. Y/n set aside the cleaning stuff and strides over to him. "Sorry." Kyotani looks at her. "You need to stop apologizing for things that aren't you're fault." He pets her head. "Besides, I did it for you. It's well worth the lecture." He then leans down and kisses her head softly. "Mhm." Y/n blushes brightly. Then a thought suddenly made it's self present in her head. She fiddles with her hands for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to ask this.

"Ken?" Kyotani hums. "Um...would you be opposed to me...meeting your father?" She mumbles the last part of her sentence. Kyotani eyes winded, he wasn't sure how to take that. You already met his mother and sister, so meeting his father shouldn't be such a bad idea. But, he wanted to spare her the awkwardness the night was sure to bring. "Y/n..." He says with a sigh.

Y/n shook her head. "N-nevermind. It's ok. That sounded a bit pushy, sorry." Kyotani scowled slightly. "What did I say about apologizing for things you shouldn't be sorry for?" He rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes looking everywhere but her as he thinks. "Ok. You can come meet him."

"Really?" Y/n asks. "Yeah, just, don't say I didn't warn you." Y/n smiles and hugs him tightly. "Thank you Ken!" Kyotani couldn't help but smile and hug her back. "Don't mention it."

That night, Y/n were heading home with Kyotani. Unlike before, an overwhelming wave of nervousness came over her. She was actually going to be meeting his entire family this time. Before Kyotani could bring her to his home, she made a quick stop at her place to change into something more suitable. Kyotani told her it wouldn't be necessary, but she was not about to show up at his place and look a hot mess in front of his family. On the way there, she kept fiddling with heer outfit, making sure it wasn't wrinkled.

"You're nervous." Kyotani spoke up. Y/n paused her actions momentarily. "Yeah, no duh. I want to make a good impression. I know I've met your mother and sister already, but now I'm meeting your father too. And, we're dating so that makes this twice as important." She bring her hands down at her sides. "I want them to like me." Kyotani reached down and held Y/n's hand. "Come on, you're worrying over nothing. You know how much my mom likes you. And my sister does too, she just doesn't want to say."

"And as for my father, who cares if he likes you or not? I like you, that's all that matters. I wouldn't have fell in love with you, if I thought you were a shitty person. There is so much about you that I love. The way you smile, the way you laugh, you always know how to cheer me up, you make me feel loved Y/n. Not to mention you're really cute." Y/n's face turned bright red at his words, he was also a little red. "That should be enough for them. And if it's not, then screw 'em."

Y/n laugh. "That's a little mean, don't you think?" Kyotani smirked and let go of her hand, so he could snaked his arm around her waist. "Not when it comes to you." Before the two teens knew it, they had arrived at Kyotani's home. Kyotani glanced at Y/n, who was holding his hand tightly. "You ready?" He asks. Y/n nods, a determined smile on her face. "I'm ready." Kyotani knocked on the door, and waited. Shortly after, the door opened, revealing a tall man with the same buzz cut as Kyotani, only his was black and not blonde. His golden eyes, that matched Kyotani's too, fell from him to Y/n.

Assuming that was Kyotani's father, Y/n bowed her head in respect. "Nice to meet you sir." She greets him politely. "I apologize for suddenly showing up, but I thought it was time I formally met Kentaro's father." She looks back up, half expecting the same glare Kyotani had when she first met him. But instead, there was a warm and kind smile. "Ah, so this is the famous Y/n Kaori was talking about! Nice to meet you too young lady, the name's Botan." He held out his hand, Y/n smiled softly before taking it. "And just as pretty as I thought she was. Nice work son." Kyotani's dad gave his son a thumbs up.

Kyotani rolled his eyes, cheeks red. "Yeah yeah." He muttered. "Let's just go inside." Kyotani's dad lead the two in where they were greeted by Kaori and Natsuki. "Y/n! What a surprise! Come on in!" Kaori waved her hand, motioning her to come closer. "Hey." Natsuki nods at her before turning her attention back to her phone. Y/n couldn't help but wonder just what kept her glued to that thing. A boyfriend? Girlfriend? A stupidly overrated meme?

"See, didn't I tell you she was beautiful?" Kaori says to Botan. "Yep! Our son sure knows how to bag a good one!" He laughs. "You two...cut it out!" Kyotani hides his red face. 'Wow...they're so alike...' Y/n thought with an awkward smile. "Thank you for having me."

"Like I said, you're welcomed here anytime Y/n." Kaori smiles. "Now, have a seat. Dinner is almost ready. I hope you like (favorite food)!" Y/n's smile brightens. "I do, thank you so much!" It was a nice gesture, but she couldn't help but wonder just how Kaori knew that was her favorite meal. Maybe it was just insane luck? Whichever, she was excited!

"So you're really serious about my bro, huh?" Natsuki glances up at her. Y/n nods, placing her hand on Kyotani's. "I am. I intend on staying with him as long as possible." Natsuki sighs and turns her attention back to her phone. "Eh, hope you like dumbasses then, cause you're stuck with one."

"Natsuki..." Kyotani grits his teeth together. "What, it's true." Natsuki smirks. "Alright you two, no more fighting. We have a guest, we should make her feel welcomed." Botan says trying to calm the tension between the two siblings. "Oh I do feel welcomed, you guys are really the nicest family I've ever met. I'm a little jealous..." Y/n admits shyly.

"Well Y/n, you should start considering yourself part of the family now. Anyone who is willing to date our hot headed son, is family. Especially when they're so polite!" Kaori adds. "Now, who's ready for dinner?"

Y/n felt her chest fill with warmth, she hadn't felt this way in a long time. She had found herself a loving boyfriend, who loves her just as much as she loves him, and to top it all off, his family was so welcoming. It really felt like she was accepted into their lives as one of them. Who knows, maybe one day she really will become part of the family, if Kyotani decides to pop that oh so pretty question, and gives her his last name.

Until then, she was happy with what was right in front of her. And she didn't plan on letting go anytime soon.

Previous | Next

[hailhydra920]

A Chance Protector Pt. 4

Pairing: Lumberjack!Steve x Reader

Summary: Can broken things be fixed?

Warnings: None

           You let the cookies cool, as you walked to the door. Ronin and Dawn ran off the bus with huge smiles on their faces. They both tackled you with excitement and you laughed and ruffled their hair. Hanging up their backpacks, they rushed to the plate of cookies.

           “COOKIES! Mommy can we have some?” Ronin begged.

           “I made those for Mr. Rogers, but if you’re good, I might have some ice-cream I can give you after dinner.”

           “YAY!!!”

           “You guys want to come with me to deliver the cookies to him?”

           Ronin and Dawn frantically shook their heads and raced to tug their shoes back on. Before you could even say anything, they were bolting to the car. Bouncing up and down in anticipation, they waited for you to unlock the doors. Smiling, you grabbed your keys and clinked the button. The car blinked and beeped, and Ronin and Dawn scrambled inside.

           “Some people are a little excited today.” You said checking to make sure they were both buckled before you drove off.

           “I like Mr. Rogers.” Dawn spoke with a smile. “He reminds me of a broken teddy bear.”

           You laughed. “You like broken teddy bears?”

           Dawn giggled. “Well, you always do such a good job at fixing my teddy, and I think Mr. Rogers just needs a little bit of loving. Just because it’s broken doesn’t mean you can’t love it.”

           You thought about your daughter’s words for a little bit. Were you still worthy of love, even though you were broken? Sometimes, things are too broken to fix, and maybe you were one of them. Even though you were too broken, that didn’t mean you couldn’t try to make someone else’s day a little brighter.

~~~~~~~

           Steve gripped his axe tightly before swinging down onto the unfortunate wood. The axe split right through it and one half went flying. Pushing the other half away, Steve put another victim onto the platform.

           “That’s real work right there, Bentley.” Steve said cracking his axe against the wood.

           Bentley barked in agreement and watched as Steve worked. He still had a lot of wood to cut and sort, they didn’t have a sawmill, so Steve had a ton of things to do. He was glad it wasn’t as cold as it was yesterday. The cold usually made his sluggish and tired. For some reason his mind switched to you. You had such a bright smile and happy vibe. He wondered what happened to your husband. Maybe he died? If divorce was the case, then whoever the man was, he was a fool.

           He laughed to himself. A broken man wondering about an amazing woman. He wasn’t exactly sure if he could handle a relationship. The death of Peggy still hurt really deep and he wasn’t ready to just move on. He heard the rumbling of a car driving down the dirt road, and he turned to see who it was.  He saw your car slow down and pull into his driveway, and he couldn’t stop the smile that was creeping on his lips.

           Setting his axe beside a stump, he started walking toward you. He watched as Ronin and Dawn hopped out of the car with giant grins. Once they noticed him, they waved enthusiastically. Steve chuckled and waved back.

           “Mr. Rogers! We brought you cookies!!” Ronin exclaimed as he pointed to Dawn who was holding the plate of cookies carefully.

           “Did you now? You sure you didn’t eat them all on the drive here?” Steve teased.

           “I tried to get one.” Ronin admitted. “But my tactics could not go past Mom defense.”

           Steve chuckled and looked at you. His eyes shinned with laughter, and it made you smile.

           “Just a little thank you, for all you’ve done so far.” You said as Dawn handed him the plate of cookies.

           The sweet aroma of cookies filled his nostrils, and he closed his eyes in delight. “These smell delicious. Thank you, but you didn’t have to bring me anything.”

           “Just thought it might cheer you up.” You said with a shrug.

           “Well, mission accomplished.” Steve laughed as Bentley started playing with Dawn and Ronin. “I’m sorry, I know this might be personal, but why here? This town isn’t even on the map. I’m not judging you or anything, just wondering.”

           You took a deep breath. You were not expecting that question. Turning to make sure the kids were occupied, you looked back at Steve. “I wanted to get away…m-my ex husband wasn’t the kindest man and I didn’t want my kids near such craziness.”

           Steve nodded his head in understanding. So that’s what happened. Even though he didn’t know exactly what this man was like, he could tell you didn’t like talking about it.

           “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you, I—”

           “It’s okay.” You said with a shrug, rubbing your hand up and down your arm. “You didn’t know.”

           “Thanks again for the cookies. I can’t want to tear into them.”

           “Your welcome, and thank you for everything. I’ll see you around Mr. Rogers.”

~~~~~~~

           Turning for what seemed the hundredth time that night, Steve couldn’t get a wink of sleep. His mind was too focused on you. Did your ex hurt you? If he did, to what extent? He obviously hurt you in some way, or you would probably still be together. He noticed that flash of fear in your eyes when he asked why you moved here. He didn’t know why, but he felt a strange need to protect you.

           “I’m way to sleep deprived to be thinking about all this.” Steve mumbled as he let out a sigh and turned again.

           He hadn’t really even thought about another woman until now. What was happening? His blue eyes darted to the picture of Peggy on his nightstand, he beautiful form illuminated by the moon.

           “What do you think I should do Peg? Just be there for her if she needs it? I know I barely know her, but I can tell she’s afraid of something, or someone. A woman like her doesn’t deserve to be hurt like that.”

           He heard Bentley’s soft snores and tried to focus on them. Work was going to be horrible if he didn’t sleep, and he also had that career thing at the school tomorrow. Oh, boy. He had almost forgotten about that. He doubted kids would be that interested in becoming a lumberjack or lumberjill, if any of the little girls were into that sort of thing. Sighing, he pulled his covers up and tried to get comfortable. Tomorrow was going to be exhausting, he could already tell.

Perm Tags: @sleep-i-ness​ @thefridgeismybestie​

A Chance Protector Tags: @fukyouthink

[howlingday]

THE DRAGON-SLAYER

"Aaaaaaah~! Another boring mission complete!" Yang Xiao Long yawned as she walked down the road through the forest. It was still about a day's trip until she returned to the guild hall. She was hoping for some more action, but eh, what could you do? "Least I got to try out that new move I was working on."

Yang couldn't wait to get back and rub it in her sister's face that she completed an B Ranked mission by herself without any help, something Ruby had yet to accomplish. B Ranked or not, though, it was still boring.

She slung her bag forward and fished around until she pulled out the poster to look over it again. It featured a terrifying looking bear on the illustration, with the words "TERROR BEAR" emboldened on the bottom. Yang scoffed as she crumpled the poster and shoved it back into her bag.

"Terror wuss is more like it." She looked to the sky and noticed the sun was blazing overhead through the trees, and she was grateful for the protection it offered. Tanning was fine, but a sunburn was the last thing she wanted. Well, a sunburn and another awful mission.

A rustle in the bushes caught her attention, causing her to stop and step into a combative stance. After that last dud of a fight, she was itching for a real fight.

If she wanted to fight a bunny, that is. A small, brown bunny hopped out, sniffing the dirt in the road, hoping to find roots or whatever rabbits ate out here.

"Aw!" Yang cooed as she squatted. "Well, aren't you just the cutest? I wish I had a carrot for ya, but I'm all out. I hope you're not- HOPPING mad about that!" Yang fell on her back and rolled around laughing, kicking her feet at her own joke. The rabbit gave a deadpan expression and jumped back into the bush. "What? Was it not a good pun? C'mon, be honest! No need to- beat around the BUSH!" Yang fell into another fit of laughter.

She sighed, then poked her head into the bush to look for the rabbit. It must have ran through it because the bush was empty. Yang stood up to see where her furriest critic ran off to.

The forest was dense with trees, tall grass, and bushes. It was alive with deer, butterflies, and songbirds. Yang smiled at the view. She wished she could see something as beautiful as this every day.

Looking closer, she spotted a waterfall crashing in the distance. She reached for her flask and gave it a shake. Not empty, but also not full. No harm in a refill.

Another thought came as she lifted her arm higher and took a quick whiff of herself. "Urp! Yeah, a shower wouldn't hurt, either!"

Yang stepped over the bush and deeper into the treeline. She stepped carefully around the barbed vines growing in the tall grass, and waved away at the biting insects that also called this forest home. In a few moments, she reached her destination at the beautiful, glistening blue pond, complete with a crashing waterfall.

"Any perverts out there?" Yang dropped her bag and looked behind her; then to her left; then to the right. "Alright then. Either you're quiet, or you're not there. Either way," Yang took off her yellow jacket, "don't bother me."

"Aaaaaah! I'm so lost!" Jaune Arc was lost. Scratch that; lost implied he had no idea where he was, and he did know. He was in a forest. What he didn't know was where the nearest town was.

He had been wandering through this forest for days, but he always makes a wrong turn every time he reaches a split path. Right now, though, he was out of the treeline and following creekbed. He really wished his mom was here; she knew all about directions.

'No! Stop it! You're a big boy now, Jaune. Big boys don't need their moms!' Jaune's stomach growled. 'But what I wouldn't give for a hot meal right about now.'

Jaune looked to the sky. No clouds, which meant no rain, which meant only Sun for another few days, which meant more wandering around in the blistering heat. Jaune wasn't normally one for cursing things, but for the Sun, he was willing to make an exception.

The creekbed flowed with water, about ankle-deep, and Jaune was banking on this crystal-clear cascade flowed to a town water-wheel. Hopefully the water-wheel was attached to a house with food, like grilled fish, or a tasty pie. He could almost smell it now! He sniffed the air and it smelled like...

Coconut?

What were coconuts doing in the forest? Did coconuts grow in forests? No, that's not what his mom taught him. Coconuts grow on islands in the middle of the ocean. But weren't continents technically giant islands? He'd have to ask his mom later, but for now, he followed the scent.

Jaune almost walked off a cliff, and found the creek led to a glistening waterfall. At the bottom, where the waterfall pooled, Jaune saw a girl scrubbing her hair. Maybe she knew the way to town!

"Excuse me!" Jaune caught her attention. "Do you know the way to town?" Oh, neat! She was a wizard, too; and a pretty strong one at that, if the incantation circle told him anything.

"FIRE MAGIC: FIRECRACKER!" Yang blasted a set of five fireballs at her peeping tom. What was this guy's deal?! Didn't he know better than to sneak up on a girl in the shower?! Once her spell was cast, she bolted from the water, it's cool temptations dragging her in more than the actual water resistance. She toweled off and quickly put her clothes on. Once her jacket was on, however, the pervert was already halfway towards her! How does a creep like that move so fast?! And without so much as a scorch mark on him?!

He was clearly a powerful wizard, probably as strong as Uncle Qrow! She got into a combative stance as he stopped. He reached his hand out, probably in an attempt to grab her.

"Hi, I'm-"

"FIRE MAGIC: BOTTLE-ROCKET!" Yang launched herself away while simultaneously hurling three fireballs at her pursuer; much larger ones than her previous attack. Yet again, however, he shrugged it off like it was nothing! She might have to resort to punching the creep, but she wasn't going to rush in without thinking before doing that. "Okay; who are you, creep? You from a dark guild, or something?"

"A dark guild?" He gave her a confused look. Clearly, he was playing the ignorant and innocent card. It wasn't going to work on her. "No, I'm not from any guild. I'm Jaune Arc, from Argus."

"Argus? Across the water of the other side of the continent?"

"Yeah, have you heard of it?"

"Uh, only from what one of the other guild members told me. She said she grew up there."

"Oh, really? What's her name?" His smile did little to ease her fears. This guy was dangerous, and that was the only thing she knew about him besides his name and hometown.

"I'll answer you if you answer me, deal?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure."

"Okay, then, first question: why were you spying on me?"

"Uh, I wasn't spying on you."

"Then why were you on top of the waterfall?" Yang cracked her fingers, ready to launch another fire attack.

"I got lost, so I was just following the stream." He looked behind him towards the waterfall. "I was kind of hoping to find a water-wheel."

"A water-wheel? In the middle of the forest?"

"Yeah, I mean, it isn't the craziest thing I've heard of."

Yang looked him up and down. He definitely looked like an adventurer. He was wearing a plate mail cover on his chest and shoulder; a belt with a canteen and a pouch attached; and he was wearing a leather backpack over both shoulders. "Uh, can I ask you something?"

Yang blinked. "Uh, I guess."

"Am I in trouble?" Yang deadpanned. What was his first clue, the first attack, the follow-up, or that she was glaring daggers at him while in a combat stance? "Because if I am, I'd like to apologize for anything wrong I did."

"Yeah, no, pal. I don't let peeping toms get away scot-free, y'know?" Her muscles tensed like a coiled spring, ready to burst forward. Nothing was going to stop her from stomping this creep."

"Peeping tom? Were you naked?"

Yang suddenly felt the ground give beneath her, landing on her face. She stood up and nearly breathed fire on him. "Yes, you moron! How else would a girl be under a waterfall?!"

"I don't know. I thought you were doing some kind of monk training."

"Do I look like a monk to you?!" Yang growled, but then sighed. She gave up on this. There was no point. He's not a threat, not while being this stupid. "Look, I need to get back my guild. If I bring you to town, will that be enough for you to leave me alone?"

"Oh, uh, sure, but I didn't know I was bothering you. I'm sorry!"

Yang sighed. "This is going to be a long trip."

"So, you're from Argus?" Yang asked, trying to make small talk.

"Not originally, but I lived there for a while with my sister and her wife and son." Jaune was going to miss Adrien, but he could leech off his family for too long. He had to go out and make something of himself, like that girl who left before he showed up. What was her name Pina Nolada, or something? "I'm trying to find a guild to join."

"Where'd you live before that?"

"I was kind of wandering around for a little while."

"You didn't live anywhere?"

"Not since my mom left." Yang made a pained face. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just..." Yang sighed. "My mom left when I was young, too. My dad raised me and my sister all on his own."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Jaune felt a sympathetic sadness from hearing this; or maybe it was empathetic? In either case, Jaune made her feel sad, so he should cheer her up. "Hey, uh, check this out!"

Yang looked over to see Jaune pull the large sheath from his side. With the click of a button, the sheath expanded into a shield. Yang's eyes were wide with surprise.

"Wow," she said, "that's gotta be heavy!"

"Uh, yeah, it kind of is," Jaune groaned, "but it's a handy tool! I can block just about anything with it!"

"What about my fireballs?"

"Your what?"

"My fireballs. The magic I was shooting at you?"

Jaune's eyes went wide this time. "You were shooting magic at me?!"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"Oh, um, don't take this the wrong way, but-" Luckily, Jaune's comment was cut off by a cry of terror. Yang must have heard it, too, since she sprinted towards the scream. Jaune returned to the shield to it's sheath form. "Yup, still just as heavy."

"Come on, sweetie; just one little kiss?" The petite girl was overshadowed by the taller, scruffy-faced man towering over her. The tanned skin of his arms were covered in scars, his long, greasy, black hair poured like thick oil from his white bandana on his head. The cackling demon image on the cloth seemed to sneer from it's perch above his brow.

"No! I already told I'm not interested!" The girl's rejection was met with a snapping finger, which signalled the three individuals behind him to continue their work.

The shortest of the trio had pale skin, and long white moustache. He stood no higher than the girl's knees, and seemed to delight in the fact as he passed by her to enter the back room. He began throwing supplies into the lobby, smashing containers and ripping bags while doing so.

The windows were worked over by a flat-nosed woman with round body. She took a deep breath and blew onto the window, melting the glass and the wood in the frame around it. She laughed, causing her belly to jiggle.

The third member, a tall man with dark skin and wearing black shades, placed his hands on the ceiling. He then grunted, flexing as he pushed on the ceiling, tearing it from the walls.

"So..." The scarred man said, grabbing the girl's chin and forcing her to look at him again. "About that kiss?"

The girl trembled. She wanted to look away, but her captor kept an iron grip on her head. She shut her eyes and clenched her jaw, wishing this nightmare would be over. That someone would save her!

"Hello?" Everyone in the room turned to see the blonde woman in the doorway. "Hi! Can I get some snacks for the road? Got a long trip ahead." The woman was followed a more blonde man, who seemed to actually take note of the carnage inside, if his shocked face was any indication. "Is the manager here?"

"Beeeeeeeeeat iiiiiiiiiit, blooooooondiiiiiiiie." the tall man said slowly, drawing the syllables out of every word as he spoke. As he turned to face her, the ceiling and roof over the store spun with him. "Stooooooorrrrrre's clooooooossssssssed."

"Really? Looks open to me." She cocked a smirked. "In fact, I'd say sales are "through the roof!" Eh? Eh?" She finger-gunned at her audience. No one was laughing. "Nothing? Eh, you must be more of a slapstick crowd, huh?"

The large, round woman waddled her way over to would-be comedienne, sneering at her. "Hmph! Such an ugly sense of humor befits a woman such as yourself."

"Huh?" The blonde woman looked up at her critic. "If you don't like it, that's fine, but there's no need to insult my looks."

"Hmph! With ratty locks, and a twig of a shape your form retains, you are hardly fit to be considered a full-figured maiden like moi!"

"Hang on," the blonde man stepped forward now, "Yang's right. You shouldn't be making fun of somebody's looks. Don't you know how rude that is, sir?"

The larger woman flinched, clenching her jaw in anger and grinding her teeth so intensely, you'd think sparks would start flying.

"Jaune," the blonde woman tapped his shoulder, "she's not a man." She whispered.

"Who isn't a man?"

"Hmph! Me!" The rotund madame barked. "I shall gift upon you such a mercy as to repent on your transgressions!"

"Huh?"

"She's telling you to say you're sorry."

"Oh! Uh, I'm sorry I mistook you for a man." Jaune apologized.

"Hmph! As you should be!"

"It's just, you don't look like any woman I've ever seen. To be honest, I thought you were some kind of weird, two-legged boar."

Everyone's jaw dropped. There was dense, and then there was stupid, but this was just downright brainless! Whoever told this guy that "honesty is the best policy" didn't bother to explain little white lies. And from the looks of it, he was going to live to regret it.

The portly woman ground her teeth violently and inhaled so deeply with her nose, she reeled her head back. She then swung forward as an incantation circle appeared behind. "MAIDEN'S KISS!"

A jet of white smoke escaped her mouth as she opened it. The blonde woman jumped out of the way, but the blonde man didn't, choosing instead to lift a white bar up and extend it into a shield. The attack was blocked by the shield, but the white smoke enveloped the man. As it dissipated, the round woman laughed.

"Hmph! Such is the tax of fools who dare question the virtues of a full-figured maiden such as myself!"

The gang of cronies laughed as well, with their leader grinning. These villains weren't going to stop at destroying property, and that suited them just fine. The girl trembled once again as she watched the cloud dissipate into nothing, leaving only a pool of brown sludge where the man stood.

"Phew! That was a close!" A voice said from above. Everyone looked up and saw the man hovering above them and slowly descending. "Good thing you lifted the ceiling, huh, big guy? A foot lower, and I could have been in some real trouble!"

"Hoooooooooooow aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrre yooooooooooou stiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllll aaaaaaaaaaaliiiiiiivvvvvvvvvve?"

"Well," the man said, finally touching ground in the goop, "I saw the melted window, but I didn't smell anything like wood burning, so your ability melts, but it doesn't burn. That requires a lot of heat, and heat rises. Decided to hitch a ride with my glide shield."

"Nice one, Jaune!"

"Thanks, Yang!"

"Yang?" The man in the bandana stepped away from the girl. "As in Yang Xiao Long, the Blonde Bombshell Brawler of Dryad's Tears?!"

Yang chuckled as she scratched an itch on her upper lip with her finger. "Oh, so you've heard of me? Well, glad to know I'm famous around here! Now, since you know who I am, why don't you tell me who you are?"

"Gladly." The man tightened the bandana on his head, making the demon image look more impressive. "The name is Zed, "Sin-Eater" Zed of Imp's Delight. And these are my Sons of Sin; "Luster-Loss" Asma; "Star-Grabber" Cin; and "Hoard-Stealer" Nom. We were just passing by when I decided to do some shopping here. Found me a pretty, little doll I like, so I tried to buy her. Unfortunately, the doll's owner didn't like the look of me, so I decided to take it for myself."

"What doll?" The blonde man asked.

"Excuse me?"

"What doll? This looks more like a farm supply store. I don't think they sell dolls here."

"Not normally, hehehehe, but this little peach right here is just ripe for the taking, hehehehe!" The short man said through giggling, grabbing for the girl with his prehensile moustache. She jumped away, only to end up in a corner. "Now, now, dear! No need to be fussy!"

"No! Stay away! No! No!" The girl cried as the hairs of his moustache wrapped around her legs. Nom cackled as he stepped closer.

"There's no point trying to break free, my dear! My hairs are so full, not even a charging rhino could break through! So just let me have some-"

SWISH!

Nom looked down from the girl's terrified face to her legs where his hairs fell limp. He continued down until he found a break in the line between his facial hairs and their end point.

"I don't know what you people think you're doing," Jaune spoke through gritted teeth, "but a person is a person, not some toy or a piece of fruit." He turned his head and faced Nom, his eyes burning with a blue flame. "Now get the hell out of this store!" Jaune kicked Nom in the face, knocking him out and sending him flying into the wall.

Jaune turned towards the girl and knelt down. "Are you okay, miss? Can you walk?" The girl shook her head to recover, then nodded. "Good. I need you to leave. Go find a friend and stay with them for a while. We'll take care of the guys here. Okay?" The girl nodded again, then ran for the exit. The ceiling shifted overhead.

"Whoooooooooo saaaaaaaaaid yoooooooou coooooould leeeeeeeeavvvvve?" Cin drawled as he shifted his weight to throw the ceiling down.

"I did, bub" Yang shouted as she leapt into his face, "because this party hasn't even started yet, so I need you to keep raising the roof for now!" Yang punched Cin so hard, he staggered, but never fell. "Heh, tough guy, huh?"

"Hmph!" Asma grabbed Yang in a bear hug. "Such a fragile harlot need not concern herself with the whims and wishes of much more fragile harlots! MAIDEN'S KI-!"

"Oh, no you don't! FIRE MAGIC: STRAWBERRY SUNRISE" Yang's entire body glowed in a brilliant golden light as her hair shone like the Sun and her eyes became a flawless ruby red. Not only bright, but hot, too! So hot that Asma stopped her initial attack to let go of Yang, who took advantage of this recoil and launched another attack. "FIRE MAGIC: EMBER BURST!" Yang used both hands to launch a massive fireball twice her size to engulf Asma, sending her flying across the road as the rescued girl escaped.

"Cin! Drop the damn roof on her already!" The giant responded by doing so, a rain of splinters and wood shavings fluttering down as it comes crashing down.

"Hey, Jaune!" Jaune looked to Yang. "Keep your eyes on me!" Yang took a deep breath. "FIRE MAGIC: I BURN!" Yang's entire body, once a shining light, erupted into a now veritable burning star. She stood her ground as she caught it, the wood between her fingers scorching into cinders as she lifted it high above her head, then slammed it back down onto the now crumbling tower. Yang smirked as her flames died, having only one thought as the dust slowly settled. 'I never could stop myself from showing off in front of the boys, huh, Rubes?'

Jaune coughed and blinked as the scent of burning wood and sawdust invaded his senses. It gave him mixed feelings; a combination of warmth and happiness from bonfires with his mother, and dread as it was a bonfire that led to her disappearance.

Jaune waved away the smoke and coughed when a cloud chose his mouth as a suitable home. The coughing led to hacking, and the sawdust decided to invite friends over for a housewarming party. "Water," he cried with a dry voice, "I need water!"

Suddenly a vortex formed a few yards away from him, drawing all the dust and small debris away. Jaune felt the vacuum draw on his clothes, but luckily he was too heavy to be swept away. As he looked closer, he saw a green magic incantation circle rotate at the point where the vortex drew everything in. The wind died, and sunlight returned to blind Jaune.

In front of him, stood Zed, a cocky grin on his face. "I don't know who you are, kid, but I suggest you run. Nobody's ever survived against "Sin-Eater" Zed and lived to tell the tale!"

"Probably because they died when you fought them, right?"

The thug tapped the side of his nose. "You know, I've heard of Dryad's Tears and Yang Xiao Long, but I've never heard of you before. What guild are you from?"

Jaune laxed at the conversation. "Oh, I'm not from a guild."

"That so? A shame you gotta waste it helping out the sleeping dragon there." He nodded his head towards Yang. "Why don't you join up with Imp's Delight? We could use a man like you in our guild. Raiding villages'll be a breeze!"

"And if I say no?" Jaune tightened his grip on his sword and widened his stance.

"Then you won't say anything ever again." Jaune held up his shield. Zed sighed. "Shame. You could have been a real pal." A green incantation circle manifested behind Zed. "WINDS OF OMEN!"

The vortex reappeared, but spun in reverse this time, launching small debris everywhere. Jaune kept his shield close to his face as the wall of wind, debris, and sawdust blinded him. He raised a foot to step forward.

"STARVING GIANT!" Zed cried over the howling wind, and the vortex spun once again in reverse, sucking the sawdust and debris in, as well as the now off-balance Jaune, forcing him to fall forward. Zed cancelled his vortex and rushed towards him. Jaune struggled to regain his balance, only to lose it once again as Zed unleashed an onslaught of punches into Jaune, his unbalanced flailing of his sword and shield to his sides left him wide open. Jaune fell to the ground in pain.

"That's all you going for you, huh? Brains and a blonde girlfriend? It takes more than that to beat me, kid." He crouched down next to his floored opponent. "Tell you what I'll do: you and your friend come back to the guild, you swear your allegiance, and I'll forgive you both for this little interruption we had. What do you say?"

"I say you can take that offer and shove it up your ass." Jaune and Zed looked in surprise as the panting Yang stood up from the rubble. She removed a bandana from her leg, revealing a tattoo of yellow tree with yellow teardrops falling from the canopy. "I don't care how tough you Imp cowards think you are. My guild is the strongest Wizard Guild this side of Fiore. Your little street gang clubhouse has got nothing on us!"

Zed stood up and walked over to Yang, who struggled to get into a fighter's stance. "STARVING GIANT." Yang was pulled into the vortex, her face caught by Zed's hand. He lifted her up, then slammed her into the ground. "WINDS OF OMEN."

Yang screamed as winds with the force of a hurricane blasted her into the ground, but Zed kept his grip on her face as his volley of winds continued, each gale more intense than the last. "This is what happens to those who fight against Imp's Delight! No one is greater than our guild; not while Guildmaster Amon Ripper, the Red Dragonslayer, still breathes! And now, I'm going to drag your sorry hide to his feet, and you'll be his toy for as long as he likes! Because we are-

"GAH!" Jaune crashed into Zed, forcing him to let go of Yang and sending him flying a few yards away. Yang looked up and saw Jaune standing over, his shield in front of him. Zed stood up, growling. "Cheap shot, kid, and the last one, too!" Zed placed both hands in front of him, incantation circles manifesting behind him. Jaune sheathed his sword and took a deep breath. "WINDS OF OMEN!"

A cylinder of wind charged towards Jaune, the young man stepping forward, over Yang. He widened his stance and squatted in place, bringing his fists up to his mouth, one in front of the other.

Yang and Zed both widened their eyes. "You're a-?!" was all Yang could get out before a yellow incantation circle with the head of a dragon in the center appeared.

"YELLOW DRAGON ROAR!" Jaune bellowed as a shining yellow vortex of his own crashed into Zed's, then enveloped and swallowed his gusts of wind, overpowering and launching Zed.

Zed crashed far away. Far from the village and his team of thugs. Said team gathered at the ruined shop, each gawking at the powerful wizard who literally blew their leader away. Jaune turned towards Yang and saw them. They flinched at his gaze. "Your boss flew that way." Jaune pointed in the direction of his blast. The team nodded, then ran off to collect their benefactor. Jaune looked down at Yang. "Do you need help?"

"Just a little." Jaune grabbed her arm by the bicep and helped her stand. "Thanks, but I should be fi- Shit!" Yang stumbled into Jaune's chest. She must have been tired. Jaune could tell by how red her face was getting. "So, uh, a dragonslayer, huh?"

"Yeah." Jaune answered simply.

"So your "mom" is-" Jaune answered the same as before. "Huh. Never would have guest, since you have that sword and shield. Figured you'd be a Requip wizard."

Jaune shook his head. "Nope."

Yang grabbed Jaune by the shoulders and steadied herself. Jaune gave her a worried look. "I'll be fine. I just need a nap."

"Maybe there's an inn nearby."

"Nah! What I really need is grub! Is there a tavern around here?"

Jaune and Yang sat down in the tavern that was only a few buildings away. Yang was scarfing down beef burgers and fries by the handful, while Jaune ate his chicken sandwich in silence. "Sho yur muh effed I yu ur yah?"

"Could you maybe say that again without an entire cow in your face?" Yang chewed and swallowed her sixth helping of burger, then washed it with her stein of cider, finishing with the most ladylike belch in the history of ever.

"BRAAAAAAAAP!!! Ah! So, like I was saying, your mom just up and left while you were young?" Jaune nodded, which Yang replied to with a scoff. "Your mom sounds just like mine, except somehow worse. I had my dad. You didn't have anybody."

"I'm sure she had a reason. That's why I'm looking for her."

"To learn why?" Jaune nodded again. "Be careful, Jaune. You might not like the answer. I sure as hell didn't like mine." Yang reached for her fries. "There's a lot people in this world, Jaune, and the worst ones are always the ones closest to you." Jaune frowned at that. She expected him to. "But enough about that. Let's get back to you joining me."

"What?"

"You and me hooking up! I need you by my side in case what happened back there happens again." Yang extended her hand. "What do you say?"

Jaune blushed and looked away. "My mother warned me about this!"

"Huh?"

"She said she wanted grandkids, but only when I met the right woman. But how will I know if you are the right woman for me? I mean, we've only just met, but maybe this is love at first sight?" Yang was blushing now. "You are strong, but strength isn't what's important in a relationship. What matters is that we love each other, and-"

Yang slammed her hands on the table. "HOLD ON A MINUTE!"

"Um, excuse me?" Yang and Jaune looked to their side, seeing the young girl they saved earlier. "Um, thank you again for saving me. I owe you both so much."

"We were just happy to help." Jaune said with a smile.

"Yeah, so how much are you willing to pay back?" Jaune snapped his head towards Yang, glaring at her. "Relax, shield boy! I'm just messing with her." Yang turned her attention back to the girl. "But really, if you need any help, don't be afraid to ask Dryad's Tears for help. We'll be here as fast as we can, and kick butt as hard as we can."

The poor girl seemed on the verge of tears. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Yang smiled at the girl's tears. Her smile of gratitude warmed her heart. It almost reminded her of Ruby. "Well, time we get going."

"Already?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah." Yang pulled out a piece of paper, and wrote something down. "My offer still stands, if you're interested. Just swing by the guild if you wanna join."

"Can't I go with you?" Yang gave him a curious look. "I mean, it's like you said earlier, you need me by your side. Besides, if it means I'm closer to finding my mom, then I should join, right?

Yang set her paper face-down on the table, and closed her eyes in thought. She couldn't guarantee that she'd be able to help him find his mom, or any dragons for that matter. Still, he saved her life, so she owed him at least that much. "Okay, you got yourself a deal!"

"Oh, my! It's so big" Yang opened her eyes to see the girl marvel at Jaune's sword, which he was showing off for her.

"Thanks! It was a gift from my mom."

"She must have been quite the craftsman!"

"No, she was a dragon."

"Oh, my! Really? Does that mean you're a dragonslayer?"

"Yup! I'm the son of Bellisa, the Yellow Dragon."

Yang quickly stood up. "All right, Jaune, time to go!" The last thing they needed right now was unwanted attention. "Time to head back to the guild!"

"Okay!" Jaune stood up, and stepped out. "It was nice meeting you-" Jaune tripped over himself and landed on his face. Not hard, though, which was odd when you considered the floor was made of wood. Jaune pushed himself off the floor, into the ruby red eyes of the blushing girl.

"Wow!" someone said.

Jaune immediately leapt up. "Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-!" He felt a tug on his arm. He looked in that direction and saw Yang red in the face and looking away.

"Come on, Lady Killer, we have to go!"

"What about the bill?"

"I left a check, don't worry about it!" As soon as they made it out, Jaune heard shouting behind him. He looked back and saw an elderly man chasing them with a broom, mumbling something loudly that he couldn't understand. He saw the girl following suit, stopping the man and talking to him. Whatever she said seemed to calm him down. As the man turned away, she looked in his direction. She was far away, but he could have sworn she was winking. "C'mon! Pick up the pace, Romeo! We gotta get there before nightfall!"

"To where?"

Yang smiled. "Where else? Beacon, the home of Dryad's Tears!"

The girl went back to her house, and collapsed into a chair. What a day! First some rookie thugs from some no name dark guild try to hustle her, then her cover gets blown, LITERALLY, by a dragonslayer.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a buzz in her dresser drawer. She opened it to find her communications Lacrima vibrating. With a touch, she was answered with the image of a woman with black hair and amber eyes watching her, taking into account her every move. She lifted the Lacrima to the dresser.

The woman spoke first. "Do you have anything to report?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Proceed." The girl took a deep breath and began explaining her encounter today. The slow, early morning, the annoying later morning, the interesting midday, and the unfortunate afternoon. "So your cover is compromised."

"Not completely. However, it doesn't seem there's anything left for me here. If you'd like, ma'am, I can continue my role-"

"That won't be necessary." The woman was silent for a moment. "Return to the guild. Our guildmaster will have another assignment for you ready by that time."

"Yes, Cinder."

"Good." Cinder Fall leaned forward, her bangs parting to show off her web tattoo over her eyes. "Besides, I also would like to hear more about this "dragonslayer" you told me about, Emerald."

[ikeromantic]

Ikemen Sengoku Modern AU

I was just daydreaming some AU ideas and this one came to me with more detail than I expected. A modern day corporate ikemen sengoku that reads like a reverse harem. Sigh. I don’t know if I’ll do anything with it but I wanted to share ^_^

MC

MC is the daughter of a powerful CEO that runs a biomedical company called AllCare BioMed

While she isn’t a genius philanthropist like her father, or a connected socialite like her mother, she does everything in her power to move her father’s vision of a world without disease forward. She hosts student events at universities to scope out new talent, meets with hospitalized patients, and oversees the disbursement of charity and grant funds.

Nobunaga

Nobunaga is head of security. He has personally foiled several assassination attempts against you and your family. He is passionate about your father’s goals, and would sacrifice himself to make it happen.

A moment between MC and Nobunaga: “Get behind me princess. I’ll take care of this.” He pushes her behind him as the attacker lunges. Another knife attempt on university grounds during a recruitment event. The man is no match for Nobunaga though. He counters the attacker barehanded, slamming the knife out of his hand. “Don’t hurt him,” she shouts. “If I don’t hurt him, he won’t learn his lesson,” Nobunaga replies. He is calm no matter the threat. Sometimes he’s scary.

Mitsuhide

Mitsuhide is head of cybersecurity, though everyone believes he is secretly corporate espionage. Regardless of the rumors, Nobunaga and the CEO trust him completely. So does MC, even when she isn’t sure she should.

A moment between MC and Mitsuhide: He comes up behind her with silent steps while she’s focused on reviewing the recent charity requests. A series of complex spreadsheets are open on her desktop, and she’s muttering over them. Mitsuhide sets his hand over hers on top the mouse, and his lips brush her ear. “I think the function you’re looking for is here, little one.” He guides the pointer to the right menu and selects it. “You can let go of me now,” she says. “I could,” he laughs, enjoying the way she blushes when he teases her like this.

Hideyoshi

Hideyoshi is the CEO’s head secretary. It may not sound like an important job, but he oversees your father’s schedule, hires and fires all personal assistants, handles employee concerns, reviews contracts . . . there are very few things Hideyoshi doesn’t handle. And he does it without complaint. Like a mother hen, he protects your father’s family, especially you. Sometimes he and Nobunaga do not see eye to eye.

A moment between MC and Hideyoshi: He sits down across from her and takes her hands in his. “You look pale. Are you eating well? Sleeping ok?” She reassures him that she is. “I am just a little tired today. Too much on my schedule.” She smiles wanly at him. Hideyoshi isn’t satisfied with her answer. He leans across the narrow desk and presses his lips to her forehead to check her temperature. It’s an intimate touch, but one MC is used to from Hideyoshi. But sometimes, she feels like he’s less a big brother than a shy lover. This is one of those times. He tilts her chin up to look him in the eye, still so close she can feel his lips move when he speaks. “You’re too warm. Let me take you up to bed. To rest.”

Ieyasu

Ieyasu is the lead doctor on MC’s father’s research team. He was recruited right out of university at one of MC’s recruitment events. MC didn’t think he would join up, since he was so rude and dismissive at the event, but she’s glad he did. His brilliant insights are part of what pushes the company forward in its mission to cure all diseases.

A moment between MC and Ieyasu: “Don’t touch that, idiot.” He snaps at her when her hand lands on a pile of papers atop his desk. “You’ll get it out of order.” MC moves her hand too quickly, knocking the stack of papers on the floor. “Oh, I’m sorry!” He always makes her feel so clumsy and foolish. She kneels down to pick them up. Ieyasu is beside her in a heartbeat. “Just leave them be. I’ll get it.” MC starts to argue but he holds a finger to her lips. “It’s fine. They aren’t that important anyway.” He shoves the pile back onto his desk and looks at her again. “Why don’t we go get a coffee? You look like you need a break.”

Mitsunari

Mitsunari is the brilliant legal counsel for the company. He was hired by MC’s mother. Mitsunari is a stunner in the office and out of it, something he seems oblivious to. 

A moment between MC and Mitsunari: “I brought you the contracts for this quarter’s grant recipients,” MC calls out as she enters his office. It’s always important to announce a visit, as Mitsunari gets so involved in his work he might not notice someone arriving. Mitsunari looks up from his office couch. It’s covered in huge legislative opinion and ruling guides. He knocks them on to the floor, flustered. “Oh! You came by!” He stands to greet MC. “I didn’t expect you.” MC smiles at him. “I sent you an email this morning. You replied ‘OK’ but if this is a bad time . . .” Mitsunari grabs her hand. “It’s never a bad time. I like it when you stop by. Here. Sit with me.” He tugs her toward the couch, but with all the books on the floor, she trips and ends up on his lap. “Oh, or this. This is better.” He smiles at her happily as she blushes ear to ear. 

Masamune

Masamune is the finance manager. He’s ruthless with friends or enemies when it comes to inking a deal, closing a sale, signing off on a loan. The CEO would be lost without Masamune’s business acumen and his relentless energy. He’s also known for being the office snack guy - always bringing treats to people.

A moment between MC and Masamune: “Get over here, lass. I haven’t seen you in weeks!” Masamune spots MC across the lobby. Before she can start to move, he’s across the room. “Have you been avoiding me,” he demands. His one blue eye is intense and impossible to look away from. “N-no,” MC stammers. Masamune always leaves her feeling off balance and unsure. “Good! I was worried. Are you on your way to a meeting?” “N-no,” MC stammers again. Before she can add anything else, Masamune jumps in. “Great! I’m going to make you lunch. I’ve got a batch of fresh fish delivered this morning and I wanted to try some things out.” And before MC can agree or decline, he’s got her out the door and into a waiting car - as if his staff knew exactly what would happen the second he spotted her.

Ranmaru

Ranmaru is front desk staff. His cheerful, beautiful face greets every person coming in or out of the building. He knows every researcher, office assistant, secretary, lawyer, and security person on staff, and every guest they’ve ever cleared. Despite his cheery attitude, there is always a certain sadness when he’s not busy.

A moment between MC and Ranmaru: “Did you get your hair done,” Ranmaru asks, after greeting MC on an early morning. “I did! Mom sent me to the stylist she hired for Mitsunari, since Mitsu missed his appointment. Again.” Ranmaru laughs. “That sounds like him.” He stands up and comes around the desk. “Well, turn around so I can appreciate all of it!” He claps his hands as she spins around to model. “Gorgeous,” Ranmaru sighs. MC laughs. “I have to work at it. Not like you. I think you get out of bed looking like that -” She gestures to his perfect hair and clothes. Ranmaru blushes and leans against MC. “You always say the sweetest things.” He kisses her cheek lightly before slipping around the desk to his spot, as if the touch never happened.

Kenshin

Kenshin is a partner of the CareAll BioMed corporation, a competitor. He’s known for being ruthless in business and ice-cold in personal interactions. While his goals are similar to MC’s father, he believes AllCare is responsible for the closure of the lab researching a cure for his late wife’s disease. She died without any treatment, and he will never forgive MC’s father or his company for that. 

A moment between MC and Kenshin: MC attends one of her mother’s fundraising events, hoping to put in a brief appearance before she can get back to the work she prefers. Kenshin catches her eye from across the crowded ballroom. How could he not? He is imposing and frigidly beautiful, and younger than she expected for a man of so many accomplishments. For reasons MC can’t understand, he approaches her. “You are his daughter,” Kenshin says by way of greeting. “I am. You must be Doctor Uesugi?” He regards her coldly. “Are you trying to be pleasant?” Flustered, MC nods. “It is a social gathering. Should I be rude instead?” Kenshin considers this idea and then shakes his head. “Your father is my enemy, not you.” For a moment, a breath, there is a flash of emotion in his mismatched eyes, the briefest twitch of his lips in a smile, and then he is ice cold again.

Shingen

Shingen is the other half of CareAll - the competitor looking to put your father’s company out of business. Where Kenshin is the strong arm of his company, Shingen is the face. He meets and greets investors and recruits, and handles the day to day affairs of the company. Rumors say he was one of the first patients in the company’s breakthrough heart treatment.

A moment between MC and Shingen: “You are easily the most beautiful woman here. Did you know that?” The words accompany a light touch on MC’s hand. Shingen. The devil, as MC knows him. “Flatterer,” she replies dryly, wishing her heart wouldn’t betray her by galloping off like this when he greets her. “I only speak the truth to angels.” Shingen smiles and the warmth is enough to set MC to blushing. She pulls her hand away from him. “Whatever. Are you here to steal my recruits again?” “All is fair in love and war, fair lady.” MC gives him side eye. “And which is this?” Shingen laughs and does not reply.

Yukimura

Yukimura is the lead researcher for CareAll and works directly with Shingen to direct the company’s research efforts. His gruff manner and blunt commentary are legendary, but the people that work with him claim he’s actually a great boss. 

A moment between MC and Yukimura: “You can’t corrupt me,” Yuki says when he spots MC coming toward him at a conference. MC blinks, surprised by his outburst. “I was just going to say hello. Even if you work for the competition, there’s no reason to be rude. We’re all working toward the same goal, right?” For a moment Yukimura says nothing, but his wide eyes and the faint color in his cheeks speak volumes. In a more subdued tone he agrees. “You’re right. Sorry about that. Anyway, you want to get a coffee together? To make up for - for what I said.”

Sasuke

Sasuke Sarutobi is the genius doctor behind most of CareAll’s advancements. It was his pioneering work that cured Shingen’s heart trouble, and his efforts that continue to open up new discoveries to the world of medicine. There are some nasty rumors that he’s secretly a corporate spy, stealing top secret data from military and government installations - but there’s no proof. Besides, how can one man have enough time to study medicine so intensely and still ninja his way into secret labs and data stores?

A moment between MC and Sasuke: Doctor Sarutobi blinks as he sees MC walking through the hospital ward. She’s carrying several bags with care packages for patients, a smile on her face. He takes off his glasses and wipes at his eyes, trying to clear them. “Hello Doctor,” MC says. He turns to greet her. “It’s so good to see you here again. You can call me Sasuke, please.” MC laughs. “Alright, Sasuke. But you’re talking to an IV trolley.” Sasuke blushes and shoves his glasses back onto his nose. There’s still a strange brightness in the hall, but it doesn’t seem to be connected to his lenses. “Sorry about that. I can’t see anything without my glasses on.” MC smiles. “It’s alright.” She turns to continue on her rounds. “Wait,” Sasuke calls out. “Oh, did you need something?” Sasuke realizes he does. “I’d like to come with you, if that’s alright. The patients open up more to you than to just another doctor.” MC nods. “I’d like that. And - Sasuke - you’re not just another doctor. I think you’re amazing. And I am sure the patients do too.”

Kennyo

Kennyo is a bitter former hospital director. His hospital was closed down due to budget cuts and a lack of private investment. He blames MC’s father and the Uesugi-Takeda alliance equally. He wants to take them both down so that something better can rise in their place, and works to sabotage them any way he can. Rumors suggest he is behind the assassination attempts on MC’s family.

A moment between MC and Kennyo: “Aren’t you afraid, little girl? Out here alone, in the dark?” Kennyo asks. MC is standing near the parking garage elevators at a downtown hospital. The walls are covered in graffiti, and the floor is littered with garbage, broken needles, and other signs of poverty and drug use. MC meets his intense gaze. “I’m not afraid of anything. The people here need our help as much as the people in the nicer districts. More even.” She takes a step toward him. “Should I be afraid?” Kennyo is surprised into silence. He expected MC to be a sheltered little rich girl, but perhaps there’s more to her. He curls his lips in a cruel smile. “Few would look at your presence here as a kindness. In a place like this, you’re just another victim.” MC studies his expression. “Maybe I am. We are all victims of one thing or another. It’s what we choose to do with that pain that matters.” Before Kennyo can reply, MC’s car arrives. Nobunaga gives the old hospital director a hard look before driving MC away.

Yoshimoto

Yoshimoto is a socialite, the orphaned son of one of the most wealthy families in the country. His businesses are overseen by a board of ambitious and greedy directors looking to enrich themselves, but he is more interested in philanthropy. MC’s mother is always trying to throw them together in the hopes her daughter will net such a wealthy and respected husband.

A moment between MC and Yoshimoto: “So . . . this is nice. We can see the whole city from this balcony,” MC says awkwardly. Yoshimoto reclines against the balcony rail, his fine features perfectly profiled by the glow of city lights. He is silent. “I - I didn’t mean to interrupt you. My mother . . . she wanted me to say hello. Since it’s been awhile.” MC edges back toward the door. Yoshimoto turns his head to look at her, a sad smile playing at the edges of his lips. “You are never an interruption.” “Oh! I’m glad.” Yoshimoto turns back to the view. “Come and stand beside me. You can see better from here.” MC does as he asks, gasping as she sees the whole of it. “It’s like the stars in the sky meet the city lights at the horizon and go on forever!” Yoshimoto sets his hand over hers on the balcony rail. “Just so. I knew you could appreciate it.”

Motonari Mouri

Motonari is the head of a private security team known for black ops and corporate sabotage. His work is barely legal, and it’s surprising he has actual headquarters in the city like a real business. Some say that Motonari is insane, a brute without any morals.

A moment between MC and Motonari: Rough hands snatch MC from the university walkway. She starts to call out for security, knowing Nobunaga won’t be far away, but her cries are silenced by the slam of a car door as she’s placed in the back seat of a large, black sedan. “Glad you could join me, girl. Drink?” Motonari holds out an unopened beer. MC glares at him, fear and anger warring in her features. “Is this a kidnapping? What do you want from me?” Motonari laughs. “It could be. I could just keep you and see what happens. I bet that father of yours would do anything for his baby girl.” MC crosses her arms. “I’d rather die than be leverage.” “That can be arranged, girl.” He closes the distance with her, pressing against her side. “Maybe I want something off the books instead.” MC shoves him back. “Don’t touch me!” Motonari’s grin looks wild in the dim light of the sedan’s interior. “One day, girl, you’ll beg me to touch you.” He calls up to the driver. “We can let the girl out here. I’m done with her. For today.”

[doyouevenshipbr0]

HAPPY GRUVIA WEEEEEEEK!!!:))

so i cant promise that ill post something for EVERYDAY but i will do what i can:)

i hope u all have an amazing, gruvia filled week:) enjoy babies!!!

also ok u know what so maybe i did write a story literally exactly like this for gruvia week last yr...... mind ur business lmao

gruvia week day 1: home

*

Juvia was practically running from the train station.

This was the longest mission she had gone on in years, and while she did love to get out and go on jobs, especially with Gajeel, she was itching to get home at this point.

Two weeks without her family was driving her borderline insane, and she was ready to hug and kiss everyone to her heart’s content. She looked up at the sky and noticed it was just about dusk. At the sight of the day almost ending, she picked up her pace a little bit. If she could just speed up a bit, she could probably make it home in time to still make dinner.

In a few more short moments, she stood at the door of her house. She stepped in the doorway and breathed in ready to shout a booming “I’m home!”, but she was interrupted by a commotion that seemed to be coming from the kitchen.

From where she stood, all she could hear was the muffled radio playing music, kids screaming with giggles, and some food sizzling. She was met with the smell of delicious, but maybe slightly burnt, food.

She placed her bag down beside her, and slowly but curiously made her way to the noise. Before she inserted herself just yet, she was wondering just what was going on.

“Storm! Why did you take your brother out of his bouncer!?”!She heard Gray shout, and it was quickly followed by two very familiar giggles.

“Kai’s one year old now, dad! He wants to run around not bounce!” Storm’s voice was mildly breaking with laughter.

Juvia finally got to the point where she could peak around the corner into the kitchen, and luckily she still had yet to be noticed.

Storm was holding the wiggly baby, but was clearly struggling, seeing as Kai certainly did not want to be held. Neva was right by her big brother’s side, giggling along with him. Gray, however, did not look as amused. He was looking back and forth from over his shoulder at the kids, to the many pans full of food he had cooking in front of him on the stove.

“Ok, well, I don’t really want him running around right now. I’m trying to focus on dinner.” Gray tried to calmly explained, but Juvia could tell he was breaking a sweat.

“But if we put him back in, he’ll cry!” Neva explained back. Her curly black pigtails bounced as she excitedly explained herself.

And as if it was on cue, Kai began screaming as tears ran down his red face. Gray instantly threw down the spatula in his hand and bent down to scoop up Kai out of Storm’s arms. He turned right back around, and continued stirring with the food while he bounced a screaming baby on his side.

“Daddy, you’re making my mac and cheese right?” Neva tugged at the apron her father wore.

“Yes, Nev, I’m making your mac n cheese.” He sighed, not appreciating the nagging child.

“Yay!” She cheered.

“But you do have to eat some veggies.” He reluctantly followed up with.

The gasp of betrayal that escaped Neva’s mouth almost made Juvia blow her cover with laughter.

“Veggies?! I hate veggies!” Neva stomped.

“Storm, can you please explain to your sister why we need to eat our veggies.” Gray replied. He didn’t feel like taking the time to explain the pros of vegetables.

“Uhhh, ok.” Storm replied, unsure. He paused and scratched his dark blue waves in the back of his head “Well I don’t like vegetables all that much either. I kinda’ think Mom and Dad just do it to be bossy.” Storm shurugged.

Neva’s deep blue eyes widened with horror.

“Storm!” Gray exclaimed. He should have known a nine year old reasoning with a four year old just simply wouldn’t work. The boom of his voice upset little Kai all over again, and he continued his screaming.

“Oh shit-! I mean- shoot!” Gray spat, and put down the spatula again, this time paying more attention to Kai, and shushing him as he swayed back and forth.

“Ok, Mommy thinks it’s time to step in.” Juvia calmly walked in the kitchen and was met with four surprised faces.

“Mommy!” Storm and Neva ran at her with full speed. She just had enough time to squat down and welcome their impact.

“Oof!” Juvia grunted as her kids slammed themsleves into her, wrapping their little arms around her. “Hello my babies!” Juvia regained her footing and wrapped her arms around them, kissing their heads.

“How was it?! Did you and uncle Gajeel kick butt?! Did you use your water stuff!?” Storm spat questions at her, just as he did every time she or Gray got back from a mission.

“Yes, baby.” Juvia used her hand to push the bangs from Storm’s eyes. “Mommy and Uncle Gajeel did great.”

“Mommy, Mommy, Daddy’s gonna’ make me eat veggies!” Neva cried out for help, planning on Juvia to rescue her from the vegetables.

“He is?!” Juvia pretended to gasp, and she looked up at Gray, who gave a defeated smirk.

She stood back up. “Speaking of food, it smells delicious.” She walked towards Gray, and gave him a big hug as he still held the baby in his hands. Juvia took her hands and squished Gray’s face, planting a big kiss on his cheek, earning a grunt from Gray.

“Oi! Do you really gotta’ squeeze my face like that?” Gray twisted his face free from her hands.

“But Juvia hasn’t been able to squish Gray-sama’s sweet face for so long!” She whined.

She averted her attention down Kai. “And speaking of squishing sweet faces,” She took him from Gray’s arms.

“Hello, my love!” Juvia doted, and Kai smiled at the sight of Juvia’s happy face. She brought his chubby cheeks to her lips and kissed him a bunch, making the baby giggle.

Gray went back to fiddle with the food one more time before he turned off the stover. “Ya know, it’s a lot easier to cook around here when I have you to distract these demons.” Gray sighed, and leaned up against the counter.

“Demons?!” Juvia laughed. “Juvia’s babies are angels.” She continued to sway Kai in her arms.

“Are we talking about the same babies?” Gray playfully raised a brow.

Neva and Storm both laughed, feeling accomplished at annoying their father.

“Yeah, laugh it up.” Gray chuckled back at them.

Juvia sniffed. “Is Gray-sama cooking salmon?”

“At this point, I think I’m burning salmon.” At Juvia’s reminder, he took an oven mit and opened up the oven, taking out steaming salmon.

“It looks great!” Juvia smiled. She missed Gray’s cooking. “Salmon’s Juvia’s favorite.”

“I know. I made asparagus and rice, too.” Juvia looked at the stovetop and sure enough, they were all there.

“And mac n cheese for me!” Neva cheered, raising up her hand.

“You’re gonna try the asparagus, too.” Gray daunted.

“A-spar-gus?” Neva sounded out the word, not being quite sure exactly what it was.

“It’s the nasty vegetable Dad’s gonna’ make us eat.” Storm explained.

“Alright. That’s it you two. Now that my hands are free I can finally kick your butts!” A playful smirk appeared on Gray’s face before he ran at the kids, scooping them up in his arms and slinging them over his shoulders. The two shrieked with giggles as they kicked, trying to free themselves from Gray’s grasp. “One more word and I drop you two square on your heads!” He teased.

Storm and Neva continued to laugh as Gray shook them around a bit. Juvia admired the smiling faces from afar. When they all smiled so hard like that, they all looked the same. It seemed to be contagious, because Juvia felt herself grinning right back at them. Even little Kai was bubbling with laughter, and Juvia couldn’t help the tears that welled up in her eyes at this beautiful feeling.

“Alright, everyone!” Juvia caught everyone’s attention. “Why don’t we eat the yummy dinner Daddy made before it gets cold?” Gray, Storm, and Neva nodded in agreement.

Juvia wasn’t sure if she could put a finger on exactly what this feeling was, but if she had to, she would use one word.

This was home.

[megbox]

2020 Year in Review

Previous Posts: (2019) (2018) (2017) (2016) (2015) (2014) (2013) (2012) (2011) 

2020 is a weird year because as the world goes through something collectively extremely traumatic and that is radically changing the structure of our lives, our workplaces, the way we connect socially, our mental health… our response to disease…. SO MUCH ABOUT THE WORLD…. And yet the day-to-day of living in a pandemic is so… mundane. I am privileged enough to have that opinion. I have stayed securely employed and it is privilege for my main reaction to something as intense as this pandemic to be boredom. But really, 2020 was a year of absences. It was a year spent largely alone, in my own company. It was a year that forced me to rest. It was a year that made me feel so terribly lonely but also forced me to get acquainted with myself and enjoy my own company in a new way. And it was a year of running. 

I would also like to thank Connor for making this post happen by reminding me to do it and not to break tradition. 

January & February 

I am combining these months because they were not altogether all that memorable. My resolutions, as I noted on Twitter on January 2, were to 1) Keep running and 2) Learn how to make fresh pasta dough. I can safely say – mission accomplished on both fronts. 

On January 14, I had the privilege of presenting a suicide intervention lecture to students at the medical school where my brother goes. By that time, I’d done a million of these presentations so nerves aren’t really a factor (imagine that! Me, no longer remotely afraid of public speaking…), but this one meant a little extra to me. My brother is so highly accomplished, and I am so proud of him, and I enjoyed having an opportunity to show him what I do and make him proud of me. I wore my favourite dress and did my hair all nice and he described it later as “exceptional.” It was a really, really good feeling. The first weekend of February, Ali and I had planned to go to Jasper. We wanted to go for a hike or two, and get super stoned and go to the planetarium. A huge blizzard hit Alberta just before we were supposed to leave, so we ended up having a staycation here in Calgary. We rented a hotel room, went swimming, drank wine, went to Japanese Village, had drinks in the lounge and then later to a punk rock band roulette night at the Palomino and finally crawled into our giant hotel bed and fell asleep to Remember the Titans… of all movies. It was the kind of night where you simultaneously feel 18 and 35 years old. 

March 

March was when the pandemic really started to become real. I don’t know exactly why, but I did not take the threat of coronavirus very seriously until the last minute. My coworkers would whisper about it in the hallways and I just rolled my eyes. But then, people started deciding they would work from home, the number of us in the office dwindled. The vibe was bad. Nobody could really focus. They held meetings at 8am and 4pm every day just for COVID-19 updates and we all waited with bated breath for them to finally tell us to go home and not come back. I really feel like I didn’t acknowledge the true implications of this virus until we got the official work from home order, and I had to tell my boss, my laptop at home is too old to run this software, I need a work tablet. My first official work from home day was March 23, 2020. I don’t remember much about that time except that the general sense of panic and anxiety made my job a lot busier, and it is hard to do a job like mine from home because it is hard to counsel or reassure clients through anxieties that are hitting you just as hard. I coped with wine, a lot of running, and listening to Ben Gibbard’s afternoon live streams where he would play acoustic versions of Death Cab songs and other covers. He played New Slang by the Shins one night and I burst into tears. I also coped with teaching myself how to make fresh pasta dough, and enjoying what was, at that point in the pandemic, the novelty and fun of Zoom. 

April 

In the absence of being able to have a party for my birthday, I decided to be obnoxious and do a “challenge” on my Instagram story. I asked my friends to record a distance run and/or walked and send it to me as a birthday present. My actual birthday ended up being a cold and windy and pretty miserable day. I ran 12km myself, came back home and watched both Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL, and then went to my parents’ to celebrate both Scott and I’s birthdays with our family. My friends dropped off presents to my door and drove past my house and honked and I felt very loved and appreciated. I drank a lot of Prosecco with my brother and we listened to Kacey Musgraves. 

It was also in April that I become “acquainted” with my neighborhood running nemesis. I put acquainted in apostrophes because I have never actually spoken to him. On one fateful run in April, I happened to catch up to him on my regular route. This was at the height of the COVID fear and so, while I would usually just pass someone on the sidewalk, I went out into the street. He saw me out of the corner of his eye and SPED UP. WHICH IS SUCH BAD RUNNER ETIQUETTE LIKE DUDE I’M IN THE ROAD LET ME PASS YOU. And then we ended up in this like, all-out 100m-finals-at-the-motherfucking-Olympics sprint challenge when all I was trying to do was go for a leisurely training run. And then I finally passed him, turned a corner and had to like collapse on to my hands and knees to catch my breath. Since then, I see this man running all the time. Sometimes while I am also running, sometimes from my car when I am driving through my neighborhood. He’s like… 16. And we are very competitive with one another. I hope to one day actually say hello to him. I both hate that guy and have to thank him for the motivation. 

I ran my first half marathon on April 13, 2020. I was very hungover because I had stayed up quite late with someone on Zoom the night before on a virtual “first date” that had gone much better than anticipated. I don’t know why but I woke up the next morning in such a good mood that I decided I would go for a long, slow run. I got to 18km and figured, what’s 3.1 more? And so, I did it. The first thing I did upon finishing was call my mom. The second thing I did was contemplate calling an Uber to drive me the 2km left to my house. The other notable thing in April is that Maddy moved back from Australia, begrudgingly and a LOT earlier than planned, because of COVID. 

May

May was kind of a blur. It was the first month of the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee, which I signed up for while coming off of the high of actually running a half marathon all by myself. The GVRAT was fucking awesome. It was created by Lazarus Lake, of Barkley Marathons fame. The ask is to run 1022.68km between May 1 and August 31, an average of about 8.3km per day. Well, you could run, walk, or hike. This is the actual distance it would take you to cover the state of Tennessee. Myself and about 20,000 other weirdos from around the world signed up for this challenge. I figured I would never get a chance to run in a Lazarus Lake race for real, and being home all the time opened up a lot more opportunity for training. It was one of the very best things I did for myself in 2020. So May involved a lot of running, because I was fresh and naïve and fully intended to be ahead of the curve. I was running about 10-12 per day, sometimes more, and not taking any rest days. 

In between these runs, I spent a lot of time going on long, ambling quarantine walks with Maddy. We would either go for a long walk or she would come over and we would get absolutely hammered in my backyard playing beer pong just to pass the time. We would send snapchats to our exes and make TikToks like 18 year olds. I know we never really said it out loud but having eachother during this time made these months bearable. We were lamenting the loss of a summer, and Maddy’s time in Australia, and all of the expectations we had for ourselves. We were watching our friends in relationships move in together or get closer due to the quarantine. We needed companionship, and stupid things to laugh about, and love, and distraction. And I can genuinely say I would not have gotten through this quarantine period if it weren’t for the nights I spent shooting Pink Whitney and dancing to Party in the USA in my living room with her. 

May 13th was my one year anniversary of working at the university. It felt good to have accomplished so many things in that time, and have moved up already in my job, and to have a full-time, permanent contract.

And May 16th was when I ran my second half-marathon as part of a virtual challenge put on by a friend of a friend. My parents came and sat in lawn chairs in the park while I did loops. They cheered me on and filled my water bottle for me when I ran out. They’re my number one supporters and I love having a family that does that kind of shit for me in the face of something arbitrary like a virtual half marathon challenge. I knocked 7 minutes (!) off my original time. Amazing what not being hungover can do for your fitness levels. 

June 

I don’t remember many important things about June, other than Maddy moving to Banff. It was depressing but I was also happy for her and happy to have an excuse to go out there and visit. I went the very first weekend after she moved. Halfway through June I seriously contemplated quitting the GVRAT. My shins were bruised, I was dreading every single run, and I could not fathom doing it for 2.5 more months. I was dragging behind in the standings and losing my motivation. 

I spent a lot of time with friends reading in parks. Sometimes, often, with wine. I met a stranger in Canmore Park and ended up kissing him. He was lovely. 

Ali and I had one really good day in June where we went to the Farmer’s Market and then came back to her place and watched Ru Paul’s drag race for like eight straight hours. It was one of those days where we hadn’t seen each other in so long and you just feel totally high off of friendship and absolutely everything is funny and you just can’t stop laughing. I vividly remember it as one of the best days of the year. 

July

Again, July kind of passed in a blur. I did a lot of hiking, and a lot of running… keeping up with the GVRAT. I hiked Picklejar Lakes, Castle Mountain, Little Beehive Lookout. 

I went to Banff for a weekend to hang out with Maddy. We had a predictably wild weekend with her roommates and friends. We had dinner at Chili’s (hell yeah) and then went to High Rollers for beers and bowling. The “thing to do” at that point for all of these Banff people was to meet at the “rec grounds” aka public firepits and drink. The police would generally leave you alone so long as you weren’t being rowdy. I sat next to an Australian named Josh at a picnic table and later took him back to my hotel room and he gave me the world’s most unbelievable obvious hickey. Maddy and I sweat out the tequila shots the next day with a long ass hike, and then had a nap before her brother came and took us climbing at the Sunshine slabs – an activity I was not very good at but I wanted to be good at. It was the kind of weekend where you feel like, okay, I definitely indulged my wild side. And you drive home just like totally exhausted but smiling. I sent Maddy’s brother a voice note on my way into town thanking him for taking us climbing and saying it was nice to see him.

August

Okay – August was actually really eventful. Like most of the year’s events happened in August, honestly. A lot of running and hiking. I did Ha Ling Peak for the first time, and we did a 30km hike to Aylmer Pass one day that was a fricken GRIND. I spent the long weekend in Saskatchewan. We went to a cidery, and I ran laps around my Dodo’s acreage, and then we got to visit Wakaw Lake and reunite with our old next-door neighbours. We took the boat out and went tubing and lit fireworks and had an amazing dinner and honestly it was like reliving my childhood in the best, best, best way. I fell asleep on the car ride home. 

I went camping with Ali in Sylvan Lake. We got ice cream and cooked fish tacos over the campfire. She told me that Cody had a date planned for the day they took possession of their house, that she wondered if he might ask her to marry him but didn’t want to get her hopes up in case it didn’t happen and ruin what otherwise was supposed to be a celebratory day. Spoiler – he did ask her to marry him  I was running when she called me. I was listening to Epsilon by Kygo, and now when I hear that song I always think of them. I stopped my watch and just openly bawled on the street out of happiness for them. 

Steven successfully defended his master’s thesis. We went camping in Waterton to celebrate with Matt, Kennedy, Regan, Scott, and Rie. They brought cake. We did a sunrise hike. I slept in the back of my Ford Escape. 

On August 27, Ollie passed away. It was both expected and unexpected. He had been having some issues with seizures. The vet didn’t think it was anything to be too concerned about, he was old and it wasn’t uncommon for them to happen. It happened suddenly. I had a terrible sleep that night, and woke up in a cold sweat somewhere between 3 and 4 am. In the morning, my mom called me and told me the news. He had a giant seizure in the night and was crying and yelping. They woke up and took him to the emergency vet, they made the executive call to put him down to prevent any further suffering. He died right around the time I woke up in the middle of the night. I like to think that was his way of saying goodbye, maybe. I cried all day. Well, let’s be honest, I cried all week. I burst into tears at the mere thought of him. He was such a good and lovely dog. He was so loved by us. He had a good life. It is always sad when we lose pets so early. They bring so much joy to our lives, and still when I go to my parents’ place the first thing I want to do is call for him or pet him. I hope he is running around in whatever the pet afterlife is. I miss him. 

And on August 31, I ran my last kilometre of the GVRAT. I finished with 733.78 run, 83.18 hiked, and 205.09 walked. 

September

September was a nice break from running. I got to start coming to campus one day a week, on Thursdays, which was good for my mental health and work productivity. I got to spend September long in Vernon with Maeghan and Madison at Michael’s family’s cabin. They took us boating and made us meals and didn’t judge us for drinking margaritas with Michael’s sister literally all day. It was the best. It was the epitome of every summer weekend you dream about. I was so happy I got to go. 

I met a boy in September. It’s always September, isn’t it? It feels weird to write about him. Like, that makes him significant. But. He is significant. And I met him in September. And it was unexpected. Last minute. And essentially not a day has gone by since that day in September that I have not thought about him.

I also joined a Calgary Sport and Social Club team with my friends for softball and it started in September. We played two games and then I tore my hamstring running from second to third base. I tore… my hamstring…. Running like 30 metres…. After a summer of literally running 10+ km every day. I… it was the worst day ever. Softball itself was amazing and so fun even though I really do suck at the sport but highly recommend Rec League C-level beer league softball with all of your best friends. There’s just no way that isn’t fun. 

October 

A lot of pouting about my hamstring, I went to two physio sessions and then decided to just start running again. I’m bad. I’m a bad example. Don’t do what I do… but also…. It worked. 

I went to Victoria to visit Sydney over the Thanksgiving weekend. We went to a Thanskgiving potluck party at my old coworker’s place. It was a nice experience to be the new people at a party, to have a room full of new people to meet and who ask you questions about your life. We got really drunk and they tried setting Sydney up with one of their roommate’s brothers, and gave us lipstick to try, and poured us tequila shots. We had such an amazing meal. It was honestly so fun. We laughed in the cab the whole way back about how we were going to need to debrief that evening HARD the next morning. We watched a lot of All Gas No Brakes, and went for dinner and brunch and I limped up Mount Doug with my hamstring. It was a very very chill weekend, like we spent a lot of time just lounging at Sydney’s apartment and doing nothing. Because that is the kind of friends we are. It was so relaxing and lovely. I was sad to leave. 

Karla, my roommate, left for New York at the end of October. Her aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and she and her mom made the executive move to go there to basically be with her for the end of her life. She wasn’t going to be back until December. I was happy, because it’s nice to have a place to myself, but also sad because Karla is lovely and I knew it was going to be a stressful situation for her. 

November / December

I am combining these two months because they have also been largely uneventful. In fact… I don’t know if I could really tell you anything significant that happened. We’ve been in a lockdown. I’ve spent my time playing piano, watching Netflix, listening to podcasts, basically doing all of the things I usually do when I’m bored. Lots of Among Us. Lots of outdoor things… skating… more running. We’ve been in a lockdown since early December. Time has dragged on since then. I spent Christmas with my parents. Scott and Rie stayed isolated, because Scott is in and out of the hospital for school. My mom and I watched shitty Christmas Hallmark movies and made fun of the guys who star in them. We drank a LOT on Christmas Eve and both spent Christmas with a wicked hangover. My dad and I ate edibles and I was launched into the stratosphere. I spent New Year’s Eve with Boy from September. We played beer pong, and card games, and he tried to use a coat hangover to pick the lock on the mysterious room that my landlord keeps locked. We spent most of the night kissing, honestly. I was happy to spend the last moments of the year with him.

2021: 

Honestly... at this point... who really knows? 

[blueeyedbesson]

The Christmas Carol ~Pope Heyward~

summary: Pope hates Christmas. He hates everything about it. The carols. The singing. The colors. But when he falls for the new addition to the group, what lengths will he go to just to make sure she has a good Christmas?

word count: 1.6k

pairing: pope heyward x lea

warning: there might be 1 swear in there somewhere. not proofread. christmas

note: this is my Secret Santa gift for  @possiamo-andare​​. I hope you don’t mind but I used your name, instead of a reader insert. I really hope you enjoyed this. If not, I apologize for the quality. Times have been tough. But, I love you & wanted to make something good for you. Happy Holidays! 

Also, thank you @ijustreallylovethem​ for arranging this event for all of us. It must not have been easy pairing everyone.

masterlist

Pope was a very valuable asset to the Pogues. He was also a hard person to figure out. Everyone knew that.

One thing they did know about him, however, was the fact that he hated the Christmas season. Everything about it always managed to irritate him, even one little ornament.

His friends tried hard not to be cheerful around him during the season & up until last year, they had been successful.

That’s when Lea moved to the island & quickly bonded with all the Pogues. It all happened shortly before Christmas and since she didn’t know that Pope hated it, she was super happy to give him a great gift. He didn’t want to upset her so he smiled kindly at her and accepted the gift.

This year, everything started to change. Over the summer, Pope and Lea spent a lot of time together. That was mostly due to Kie spending more time at The Wreck, John B spending more time with Sarah & JJ never being around.

It was only natural that spending all this time together would create some kind of special bond that neither of them wanted to break. However, Pope couldn’t help the way he began to feel about her.

“JJ, what do you do when you have feelings for someone?”

“I’m not sure, Pope. I’ve never really had that connection with a girl before. I usually just hook up with one and then dump her the next morning.”

“I should’ve known that coming to you would be useless.”

“Hey, that’s offensive.” JJ acted like he was hurt but he knew it was the truth. “Look, if you really like this girl, why don’t you just tell her how you feel?”

“What if she doesn’t like me like that?”

“Then she’s stupid. Pope, you are my best friend, I know you haven’t been very lucky in the love department, but everyone gets their shot eventually. You’re a great guy & I don’t see why she wouldn’t love you.”

“Maybe.”

“Who is this girl anyway?”

“It’s um...it’s Lea.” Popes words stopped JJ in his tracks.

“Oh, the cute redhead?”

“Yeah. That’s the one.” Pope shoved his hands in his pockets & kicked the little bit of snow that had fallen this morning. They continued walking to the chateau.

“Good job, buddy.” JJ slapped his friend on his back and Pope flinched.

“I don’t need congratulations, JJ. I need help on how to impress her.”

“Okay. Well, what’s the one thing she loves more than anything?” JJ raised an eyebrow, knowing that Pope wasn’t going to like his idea.

“No. I’m not getting into Christmas just for her. I like her but nobody is worth that much change.”

“Then you’re on your own.”  JJ shrugged and plopped down on the couch on the porch. “Or maybe you should ask Kie. She’s bet friends with Lea. She might know what to do.”

“Yeah. Plus, she’s a lot smarter than you.” Pope sat on the small chair opposite his friend.

“Hey, fuck you.” JJ smiled. Within seconds, Kie was sitting next to JJ. 

“What a coincidence.” JJ smirked. “We were just talking about you.”

“What are you talking about, JJ?”

“Well, it seems that our darling little Pope here, has a crush on someone else we know.”

“Lea? I know.” she laughed along with JJ and Pope just rolled his eyes.

“I’ve been trying to tell him that if he wants to impress her, maybe he should get interested in Christmas.”

“That’s a great idea.” Kie looked over at Pope. “Nothing would make her happier than seeing you be cheerful on Christmas.”

“Why did I come to you guys for help? I’m not getting into Christmas. That’s the last I want to hear about it, okay?”

“Okay.” they chimed in together.

But it wasn’t the last he would hear about it. He went home that night & did some research on Christmas. He tried to figure out the best present to get her. He tried learning some Christmas traditions. But nothing good was coming across as a great idea. That’s when he remembered that Lea has mentioned her favorite Christmas carol on multiple occasion. He’s even caught her singing it more than  once.

So, he searched for the lyrics to the song and stayed up all night trying to learn them. 

For the week leading up to Christmas, Pope stayed home & tried putting together a little performance for her. He hardly saw anyone outside of his family.

“Does Pope hate me suddenly or something?” Lea questioned Kie & JJ as the trio decorated a tree at the chateau. She slowly placed an ornament on the branch in front of her.

“What? No. Of course not. He’s just been super busy helping his dad.” JJ quickly covered for his friend. He was the only one who knew what Pope had planned.

“Oh, okay.” Lea wasn’t convinced and her face fell. She knew he had been avoiding her and she thought it was because of something she said or did, and  JJ’s excuse only made her feel worse.

“He doesn’t hate you, Lea.” Kie tried comforting her friend but even she knew it wasn’t working. “He’ll be here tomorrow. Maybe you can talk to him about it then.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Still, she wasn’t sure of herself. If she was being honest, she had recently taken a liking to Pope. She wanted to tell him before Christmas but he had clearly made that difficult for her. 

She stayed silent for the rest of the night as they decorated the tree together.

The next morning, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling of chateau. It was finally Christmas day but she didn’t feel any cheer in her heart. All she felt was sadness, caused by the absence of Pope.

“Merry Christmas, bestie.��� Kie plopped beside her with a cup of candy cane of hot cocoa. 

“Merry Christmas.” she sighed.

“What’s wrong? You’re usually cheery on Christmas.” she set her mug down on the table and looked at her friend. “Does it have something to do with Pope?”

“Yeah.” she sighed. “Why hasn’t he texted me or hung out with me for the past week? Is it something I did or said?”

“Actually, and I’m not supposed to tell you this, but he’s been home preparing something awesome for you.”

“He has? Why? I thought he hated Christmas.”

“I believe he still does.” Kie smiled. “But he wanted this year to be different for some reason. He helped his mom bake Christmas cookies & he helped his parents decorate the house & tree.”

“What’s gotten into our Pope?”

“I’m not sure.” she looked at her phone. “But he’s on his way here right now.”

“I should probably get dressed.” she threw the blanket off her legs and searched for the outfit she had set out. Instead of the clothes she put out last night, there was a onesie that matched the one Kie was wearing. “What’s going on?”

“Just put it on. It was JJ’s idea and we wouldn’t want to upset him in any way, right?”

“Okay, fine.” she slid the onesie over her pajamas and went to the living room. JJ was sitting on the couch and his face lit up when he saw the girls.

“Look how cute you two look in those onesies.” he smiled smugly, causing Kie to grab a pillow and hit him with it. “Ouch.”

“Merry Christmas, everyone.” Pope walked into the house and set his bag down beside the couch. “Hey, Lea.”

“Hey.” despite him ignoring her all week, she smiled widely at the sight of him.

“Okay, so what’s up buddy? Why are you suddenly so giddy about Christmas?” JJ asked, already knowing the answer. He was setting Pope up for Lea.

“Someone very special to me really loves this time of year & I thought it’d be nice to celebrate like she does.” he reached into his bag and handed presents to Kie & JJ. They opened they gifts and looked over at their friends. “Sorry, LEa. I didn’t have enough wrapping paper for your gift.”

“That’s okay.” she looked at him. “What is my present?”

“You’ll see.” he smiled and took off his jacket. The onesie he had on beneath made him look like Santa Claus, just like JJ. He put on the hat & looked at Lea. “I hope you like your present as much as I like you.” not realizing what he said, Pope began his rendition of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree. He danced around and sang every lyric to that song, which was difficult for him. Pope didn’t like singing, carols or Christmas, but he would do anything for Lea.

When he was finished, he looked over at Lea, hoping to see her smile, only to see tears.

“No, please don’t cry, Lea. I thought you’d appreciate-”

“I do appreciate it. I loved that so much, Pope. It’s just that nobody has ever done something like that for me before.” 

“I wanted you to have a good Christmas. I know last year, I wasn’t the nicest guy during the holidays & I wanted to make it up to you.”

“Well, mission accomplished.” she smiled and looked at him. “Thank you, Pope. This was the best present I’ve ever received.”

“Anything for you.” he smiled and kept looking at her.

JJ looked over at Kie as she watched their friends. He nudged her arm when he noticed where they were standing. Her gaze followed his and she noticed the mistletoe as well.

“Hey guys, look up.” she giggled and looked at JJ. Pope and Lea looked up at the same time and JJ noticed their cheeks darken instantaneously. 

“Wow. The mistletoe.” Lea rocked on her feet awkwardly and Pope rubbed his neck.

“Are you okay with that?” Pope asked.

“Yeah. I think it’ll be fine.” she smiled and when Pope pulled her in for a kiss, JJ & Kie jumped off the couch and cheered while high fiving each other.

“Yes! Finally!”

[rekkingcrew]

Campaign Debrief

So for nearly 2 years I ran an Edge of the Empire campaign with 3-4 players, mostly weekly. These last couple of months we’ve been using discord, which has gone great. I want to get down some of my thoughts about what worked and what didn’t. 

This is gonna be a big wall of text and all but two bits are gonna be under the cut: system and play style. 

Fantasy Flight Star Wars game system is legit my favorite system EVER. (Not to dick wave or anything, but that’s including D&Ds 2-5, Gurps, White Wolf, Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, Deadlands, and a few miscellaneous other short form ones). The system of advantages and disadvantages, and especially triumphs and despairs rather than just straight successes and failures really opens up complex narrative opportunities and gives a chance for wild story beats that just would not have happened otherwise. The fights go fast but feel meaty and there’s a lot of room to pitch advantages to your friends so you’re not just waiting your turn. Character creation is granular enough that your choices always feel meaningful, and points can be spent anywhere, so you can really specialize and shape your character. 

We played very collaboratively and it made things AMAZING. Part of this is that we were all good friends and have played together for a while now. Our taste in what kind of story we want is similar- nuggets of drama scattered throughout, but mostly cutting up. A lot of the best NPCs and story suggestions came from my players rather than from me- our season one boss villain, Imperial spymaster “Uncle” Karston Severax, a pantoran ex-special forces black operative whose current public face was a Mr. Rogers-esque children’s TV presenter, for example, was someone my players started out and all of us collective “yes and” added to around the table, and he was JUST THE BEST. These kind of exchanges also gave us moments like the time our tech tried to blackmail the head of a security corporation with the fact that he was having an affair and he’d written just LOADS of incredibly cringey fanfiction; but the roll was such that the attempt ended with him finally getting the push he needed to quit a job he hated, get out of a marriage that just wasn’t working, and follow his dream of self-publishing. He even dedicated his first book to our slicer. Because it wasn’t a DM vs Players atmosphere, because we were all on the same page, I could ask my players “hey, what do you want for your triumph?” and “all right, so who is the NPC you know?” as well as just “that’s enough to finish this guy, what does this look like?” This campaign was 1000% better for sharing that world building load, and the players were all, I think, more invested. 

more below the cut. 

What Worked

One of the most useful things I ever did was start giving players morality pet NPCs that were their special hench people, and I’m embarrassed that I waited so long to assign one to our droid. 

The zero session was absolutely invaluable in setting the tone of the game and the relationship between characters, and I will bang this drum until I’m fucking blue in the face. Don’t meet in the first session. Sit the players down and say “how do you know each other, why do you stay together, what are some of your past adventures?” It’s just so much better. 

Cameos and ties to our other games, in what we’ve been calling “The Drax Kreiger Expanded Universe” have continued to be welcome pretty much every time. People were delighted to have a moment or two to slip back into old characters. 

I was able to identify what each player wanted and give them that. Brick’s player wanted quiet scenes with big character emotion, like his one on one pit fight the character didn’t want to have, or the letter from his mother telling him how proud she was of him, or the time in training where he tapped into how angry he really was and it spooked the character and everyone on the ship. Nyla’s player wanted a big epic, but also difficult space journey of good vs. evil, and so Nyla got a padawan whose parents she had possibly killed when she fought for the empire, she dug up the grave of her clone teacher’s order 66′d jedi for the crystal for her lightsaber, she got to cleanse a temple that was trapped in a fruitless struggle between light and dark, and a climactic lightsaber battle that was about possibly sacrificing herself for the good of others. TK’s player was deep into star wars trivia and space stuff, so he practically squealed when Verpine shatter weapons showed up, and he seemed to get a kick out of the Evocii, and also that time they put on wing suits and dove the atmosphere of a gas giant. It’s worth noting nobody was actually all that interested in the thing that turns my gears: complex mysteries with a lot of clues and investigation, and once I let that shit drop, things ran a lot smoother. 

Some of our best stuff was non-combat challenges, like climbing the cliffs of Naboo or navigating the deep undercity of Nar Shadaa. The guys reliably failed anything social, but environmental challenges were always appreciated. 

I always tried to make sure there was more than one way to do things. For any given mission, especially early on, I’d try to brainstorm at least three ways something could be accomplished. 

My party split up a LOT, but we found a sort of cinematic cutting back and forth to be really useful. When there was a big crit, or a goal accomplished, or something like that, we’d jump to the other party even if the fight wasn’t over. Sometimes that was only just, like, Brick and the guys doing drunk karaoke and saying to no one in particular “MAN, I hope Nyla’s having as fun a time as we are!” but it kept everyone involved and it wasn’t just people waiting their turn for 20 minutes at a time. Also people chimed in with fun advantages and disadvantages. 

I had everybody write backstories and whenever I could, I incorporated in things from what they’d written. Our second season was basically TK tracking down the guy who’d made him, a Thackwash alien with the same sort of shifting personalities he had. TK’s player hadn’t written much about the guy except that he’d been a salvage mechanic who constructed TK for protection when he got in trouble with the local mafia. Giving that guy complementary personalities for each of TK’s really helped stick the landing on that one, and the player really enjoyed having actually completed his character’s goal. 

It’s worth saying, we took some time at several points during the campaign, either individually or as a group, to talk about what we liked and didn’t, what we wanted more of, where we wanted things to go, possible directions for characters, mechanical issues, how to have a better game, group dynamics, all sorts of stuff. In a way it’s like sex: people have this fucked up expectation that you’ll just be good at it without communicating, and man, fuck that. Talking to my players was ALWAYS worthwhile.

I was always adamant, because it was a thing that bugged me when I was a player, that if a character had spent the points to be good at something, they got to be good at it. That made some things difficult, but I think it was the right decision. It took me a while to tailor fights right, and honestly a lot of times, splitting up the party was the best way to balance fights, but I never said to anyone hey that thing you spent all those points on, could you please not do that?

My players were excellent about encouraging each other to have serious dramatic moments. TK was completely ready to die in a fight, and when he lost a significant chunk of his programming, the way he chose to play it was really heartbreaking. Everyone came inside and had tea with Brick’s mom. No one stepped on anyone else’s fun when it was time to be serious, and everybody was great about cheering each other on, whether they were being funny or being dead serious. 

I FUCKING FINISHED A CAMPAIGN. IT HAD AN END. So much stuff petered out over the years, I was adamant I wasn’t going to do that. 

What Didn’t Work

Boy, my players had pretty much all the trouble trying to remember to use “they/them” pronouns for NPCs with neutral or alien genders. 

No one is interested in falling damage. Sigh. 

I did not keep good track of money or ship fuel or anything. The campaign didn’t end up relying on it too heavily (I was honestly expecting a much more Cowboy Bebop setup than where we drifted), but that was an area I kind of fell down. 

We never really got obligation working correctly and in the end we just ended up abandoning it. We kept doing the force morality because the lone force player was very into it and it was a huge part of that character’s journey, but for the rest having people show up to collect on obligation was sometimes not possible in the story- or if it was possible it was pretty cumbersome. Campaign did obligation by arc, and I think that’s a pretty useful way to do it- roll at the end of the arc for what’s coming next. 

Early on, I made way too many assumptions about what was an adventure hook for my players and what was an annoyance. Honestly, bits of this lasted pretty late. At one point I gave my players a spy for the larger rebellion they could totally talk to- he was even working with their resident bothan spy- but they looked at the senatorial assassination he was doing and literally said at the table “I think it’s best if we just walk away from all this.” And so they did. Which was frustrating, but, you know, it is what it is. They also never much cared about the hutt gang war. 

I let a lot of things drop that I would have liked to bring back before the end, but in all honesty, I think we were all running a bit out of steam. I would have liked to put in Brick’s old mentor, or follow up with the imperial governor that was a falleen in a human skin suit, or see more of the bounty hunter’s guild, or have a nice end thing with our bothan spy, or any of that. But I do think it was time to end it. And we followed the threads people liked. 

I had way too many NPCS.

What sort of worked

I had like 200 npcs and they were not all bangers. In particular, I let the party design their own ship, which I wish had played a bigger role (though it did really set the tone), and I let them design 2 npc crew who would fill in any party roles they didn’t want to play and guard the ship so they could go on adventures without worrying about it. The devaronian scoundrel was with the party to the end though I never really got him to be more than a joke, but the bothan spy kind of fell off, and while she made some appearances, she didn’t really have as big an impact as I would have hoped. She kind of got replaced by Nyla’s padawan, a hench mon calamari called Nezrene, who was a better fit with the party. But, you know, players will do what they like.

Factions. In the first bit of the campaign, my factions were a fucking life saver, because I could design scenarios with a sort of “what is each faction doing/ which faction hurts from this, which benefits?” By the second season we’d kind of abandoned them to go to the core, and by the third my group was solidly rebel, so the hutts and bounty hunters fell a lot by the wayside. I still think having a couple of broad poles of power, and having the players know them and their leaders, is a good call. But they do seem to kind of organically pare down on their own, and it’s easy to get caught up too much in them. Useful sorta?

There was definitely a point where my players just were not challenged by conventional challenges. We ended up doing most of the later fights that involved a lot of minions in montage. I’d have them roll their fight skills unopposed, just to see if they got any interesting advantage/triumph set ups. I still had boss fights that were mostly challenging, but there just was no point in throwing storm troopers or low level gangsters at them. Not when they have soak 8 and autofire, and that one talent that lets you kill every minion in a combat. Designings fight got a bit tricky, and in those big high level combats, despairs and triumphs come up a lot more and really sway the fight, which I like, but also it’s very hard to plan for. 

Mass combat was tricky. I did a lot of it toward the end because my players were generals in a rebellion. I always had them do the rolls and some of the narration, but that wasn’t always enough to make them feel like things weren’t very arbitrary. 

I personally love the rule that if you roll a despair shooting into an engaged combat you shoot your friend. Nyla, who got shot twice this way, does not. 

We started the game with a tech character who dropped out. Toward the end, we picked up another tech character whose player couldn’t do their regular stuff because of covid lock down. Neither of these characters could fight at all, and both were very differently oriented than the rest of the party, and that was tricky to manage. Additionally, the dude coming in at the end had like a year and a half of in jokes he did not get and there were 200 goddamn npcs. I tried to give him the lowdown on what he might have heard about the party, but it was a combination of too much information and not that much player interest. He did get to break a star destroyer though, and I think he liked that. 

I offered players XP to write backstory stuff, and later goodbye notes others could find if they kicked it. Not all of them did. In the end it made a negligible difference, and I still think offering the bounties on this is basically a good idea. 

What I would do different next time.

Three ring binder that opens and closes so I could move fucking NPC stats around. I filled two goddamn school notebooks with notes for this campaign and there were so many goddamn times I was like “I KNOW I wrote this down, but where?!”

Players felt a bit aimless when they didn’t have a specific villain. I’d planted a few in, but they took finding, or they were too easy to avoid. Next time I would have a few more people who were actively on my player’s tails. 

I would keep better campaign notes and/or ask one of the players to do so. I used to do recaps for the games when I played Rek. There’s stuff I KNOW I’ve forgotten, and more I’ll forget as time goes on, which is a shame. It’s a weird, ephemeral medium, but possibly I’m just spoiled by living in an age of easy reproduction and enormous storage where data is concerned. 

Better book keeping in general, really. 

When I did a mystery short, I wrote up a list of all the clues people could find but not where specifically they were, so that I could just jam them anywhere they seemed like they’d make sense whenever a roll called for a player to find something. I think I’d try to do that with player’s personal stories so they could be woven in a little better. I did a lot of flying by the seat of my pants. 

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it went, and I’m ready to get back to playing for a bit. I loved DMing, and I more or less DMed the game I would have liked to play, but man, doing this all the time, or being the only person who does it? After a while, that’d be a lot, and I’m looking forward to the break. 

[chronicallyapain]

Day 13: 6/29

Breakdown

Breakfast: 410

1 Naked Tropical Guava - 260

1 Thomas English Muffin - 150

Lunch: 510

2 GF Mission Tortillas - 300

3 pieces Homemade GF Fried Chicken -  210

Dinner: 296

2 Blinski’s Spinach Spring Green Chicken Sausage - 140

3/4 Cup Blueberry Smoothie - 156

Snack: 110

Annies GF Chocolate Chip Granola Bar - 110

Beverages: 

168 oz Water

2 Cups Black Coffee

1 Cup Extra Bold Earl Grey Tea

Exercise: 9210 steps // 1 stairs climbed // 3.85 miles walked // 63 active minutes

Today was a great day! I went out at just the right time for an evening walk. No rain, no flies, no dog walkers with there 4 Labrador retrievers ready to jump on me (also no coins for me to gremlin up today)

 My travels today lead me to meet a lovely old lady whose house I walk past every evening. She seemed so excited to talk to someone even if it was yelling at me from her front porch. We only talked for a minute or so but she seriously tugged on my heart strings and I want to do something nice for her. 

Anyone have any ideas for something I can do to make this old lady happy during quarantine? A stranger that doesn't know me? I think I’m going to type up a little note and drop it in her mailbox or something, not sure. Her lawn looks like it needs some work, maybe I can offer to help mow it?? Is that weird? That’s weird isn’t it? 

Also, my online writing class started today and I really like the looks of it. My first quiz is due Sunday but its just an introductory quiz. Writing is my thing so honestly I’m not as worried as I was going in. And, happy note, none of the assignment due dates fall on my birthday ( I’m a Leo) so that means I can spend my birthday doing things and not school! yay! (the things I think of, man,wouldn’t it be nice to have a normal brain) 

 How did you better yourself by accomplishing something today? Or how will you better yourself by accomplishing something tomorrow?

Today I organized all my schoolwork due dates and continued some coding work on my website building certification program. Tomorrow I’m getting up early to go to the market with my mom, and then I’ll spend the day with her because she’s off work. 

 Let me know what you’re up to,  I’m here to cheer for you!

F~G~S 

[whatusernamex3000]

Kacxa Week 2019 Day 4: BoM Life

A BoM wedding. But when the bride realizes what's she marrying into, she starts to get a little nervous. Taking the last name Kogane comes with a lot of baggage. Everyone knows the surname for the leader of Voltron and the Blade of Marmora. 

-

The bride stared into her mirror, going over all the loose strands of hair. She was alone at the moment, allowing her bridesmaids to go mingle with everyone before the wedding started. It was very extravagant and extremely professional. Nearly every Blade of Marmora member would be in attendance, as well as their friends from Earth. 

She was grateful to the blades for taking her in with such open arms. They were her family, a family that she never had. Yes they were a little harder on her, giving her more difficult missions, but it was all to prove herself to them. Which she accomplished and became one of the youngest lieutenants in the Blades history. 

She thought back to how she got to this point, an event that never seemed possible. She had made so many mistakes in her past, which had caused her so much loss and pain. But in the end, it led her to this moment, and she would do it all over again, knowing how much she would be hurt and lose if it meant marrying the love of her life. 

Speaking of the love of her life, she smiled remembering how they finally came to be an actual couple. When they met, well they were far from friendly. But somewhere down the road, they both realized that their feelings were misaligned. They often say the line between hate and love in the brain is often so thin that you mistake it for the opposite. Sure enough they were in love, but neither willing to make the first move. So for too long, they danced around each other waiting for the other to ask them out. It was finally during Keith's promotion party when he took over the blade of Marmora officially did she make the move. 

It was all thanks to Romelle who gave her the (liquid) courage to make a move. Of course the threat of "Enough of this. I'm tired of everyone saying that you guys will figure it out eventually. So if you don't do it, I'll do it for you" certainly added some extra motivation. So she downed the third shot and made her move. They danced the rest of the night and it was the happiest night of her life, she couldn't believe she could've been this happy all along. The next day, she took Romelle out to the most expensive shopping trip of her life as a thanks. Without Romelle's little push, who knows how long it would have taken for them to be where they are at now. 

As she tucked the last loose strand of hair in, a bridesmaid interrupted her thoughts letting her know it was less than an hour until the ceremony started. Her nerves skyrocketed. There were only two people she could talk to that could calm her down right now. 

She snuck around the new castle of lions, Keith had insisted that they host the ceremony on New Altea, it would make Allura happy. Everyone agreed, including her. For if it weren't for the great princess of altea, none of them would be here now. She finally spotted Keith who was with his friends, the former paladins of Voltron. He looked handsome in his navy blue suit. She also noticed how happy he was with his friends, it was so different from his Blade of Marmora personality. Yes he smiled and laughed, but there was always a hint of seriousness while he was with the blades. 

He took a glance over to where she was hiding behind the statue of King Alfor and his eyes widened. Keith looked like he was going to head her way when a hand lightly grabbed her shoulder, a voice asking, "What are you doing out here?" Scared, she turned to see her accuser. Luck was on her side as it was the other person she wanted to talk to that could calm her down. 

"Sorry ma'am. I-"

The Galra woman laughed, "how many times do I have to tell you to calm me Krolia?" 

By her count this was roughly the three hundred and eleventh time she requested to simply be called Krolia. "A lot. I'm sorry ma-Krolia… just nervous."

The hand on her shoulder made its way to her hands. "It's understandable. Today is the biggest day of your life," Krolia said causing her to take an over exaggerated gulp. "But it's also going to be the best day of your life. Unless of course you both decide to have children, then their birth will be the best day of your life. And I will always support you. Although I think you would make a great mother." 

Krolia's comment caused her to blush. She had never known her parents, they had given up on her before she had a chance to prove she was worth loving. And all her life she never knew love… until the Koganes became part of her life. All of a sudden she was overwhelmed by the love they gave her, and she never wanted to go back to her life without love. "Can I… can I ask you something?" 

"Of course my dear."

"Well I… I won't have anyone to walk my down the aisle and well… would you… walk me down the aisle?" She nervously asked. 

Krolia gave her a smile that made her heart melt. "I'd be honored to."

With ceremony quickly approaching, Krolia escorted the bride back into her room before seeking out her son. "How is she?" He asked. "I saw her out her sneaking around."

Krolia eased her son's nerves. "She's fine. Just pre-wedding nerves. I'm going to be walking her down the aisle." That made Keith happy; he knew all of her history. She has such a hard life and even told him that she didn't know what it was like to be loved until she met them and the blades. He promised that she would always be loved, no matter what happened, they would be there for her. 

An MC announced they would be starting soon, and both Keith and Krolia hugged before heading to their respective positions. 

The walk down the aisle was long, but all that mattered was Krolia holding her hand assuring her that it's all going to work out. She always had this thing where she would pick one small hypothetical and run with it until it was so far fetched and out of control that it was impossible that it would actually happen. Yet no matter how impossible, she always managed to believe it could happen. This time it was that it was all an elaborate prank, that the Koganes and blades didn't care about her at all and just wanted to destroy her. 

When they finally reached the end, Krolia pulled her in for one last hug and reminded her that everything is going to be perfect. Just focus on her love and just stare at their eyes. Everything else will fade away. 

She took Krolia's advice and just focused on those violet eyes. All the doubt vanished and she said her vows and cried hearing the vows. She cursed her weak constitution, now she owed Zethrid and Ezor ten dollars each. Apparently they knew her heart better than she did. 

She laughed when Kosmo showed up, presenting them with the rings. He gave them both a loving kiss as they scratched his chin and behind his ears. She loved that wolf, and the feeling was mutual. If you asked anyone with the blades, they would say that she was Kosmo's favorite. 

"...I do." 

This was it, the two biggest words she was ever going to say. 

"And do you, Lyanna Beauregard, take Norah Kogane to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Their wedding officiant, Takashi Shirogane, asked. 

"I do." 

"You may now kiss the bride,"  Shiro said with a smile. 

Lyanna stepped to her new wife and pulled her in for a kiss. 

-

After Keith and Acxa walked their second daughter down the aisle, they took their seats at the front. "She looks beautiful," Acxa pointed out as they both watched Lyanna walking down the aisle, accompanied by his mom. 

Keith smiled, nudging his wife of twenty five years, nodding towards Norah who was trying to hold back tears as she watched the love of her life walk down the aisle. "Someone's already crying. I think you owe me five bucks." 

Acxa groaned quietly, "she gets that from you. You were such a baby when you saw me walking down the aisle with your mom."

"Are we talking about paying up?" Their eldest daughter, and current Commander of the Blade of Marmora, Kiera asked. "Cus dad owes me like fifty bucks for betting that grandma was going to walk Lyanna down the aisle. And you'll owe me another twenty for when she cries during the vows." 

Keith rolled his eyes and pulled his two girls closer to him. Acxa cuddled up closer to him, intertwining their hands. Keira scoffed as she rested her head on her father's shoulder. 

"Uhhh don't forget about me Dad," their youngest and only son Yorak said from the row behind. 

"Oh I haven't. You were the one foolish enough to take the bet that uncle Shiro wouldn't cry. You should know that he's the biggest softy in the universe. So how bout you just give that money to your sister." 

Yorak groaned, "ugh. Fine." 

"Also you're sitting at the kids table," Acxa added with a devilish smile. 

"But mom… I'm like one of the youngest Captains in the blades. I can't sit at the kids' table. The McClain's sit there… they're animals."

"Oh I know." Maybe when you find a love like Norah, you can sit with the grownups. Until then… kids table."

Keira snickered. "Oh you too young lady. You may be the oldest, but you didn't bring that boy you've been seeing much to my disappointment so kids table for you too." 

"But mom, Yorak is right. The McClain kids are ridiculous. Uncle Lance always puts them there. Plus I'm twenty four. And I charge of the blades!"

"Kids listen to your mother. And pay attention, this is the best part," Keith finalized the ordeal. 

"...I do." 

As Keith and Acxa watched their daughter kiss her now wife, they stood and cheered along with the dozens of blades that came to support their family. 

The Blade of Marmora was once a hardcore espionage syndicate. But do to his and Acxa's hard work, they became an outreach and humanity service. It was Keith's idea to start allowing more than just Galra to serve. Lyanna was one of the first Earth born to join, which showed that the blades were no longer spies, but wanted to help those who couldn't help themselves. The Blade of Marmora was more than a group, but a family. And even though he hadn't been a blade for a few years now, once a Blade, always a blade. It was for life. 

-

So did I get ya in thinking it was a kaxca wedding? Or did you know all along. Lemme know ")

Also i think this story works really well as a final chapter to my "Blade Dates" story on ao3. It's not necessary but it def works.

[cartoonfangirl1218]

Winner’s Curse Ch. 12

It’s been a full week since they teamed up and nothing had been remotely accomplished. On the bright side, nothing remotely evil or world destroying had happened yet too. So they still had some time. Who knew how much though.

Their mission into the castle last night yielded no new results. It seemed whenever they went to investigate the castle, it was empty. They had spent days scouring the dark, gloomy halls, occasionally bumping into one of Maleficent’s mindless goons but it seeme uninhabited. Uma’s best guess was that the Coven had a secret lair within the castle or they were investigating the wrong wing of the castle. Either way, nothing informative or helpful had come to light to the Coven’s weakness.

Aziz and Lala had found Abis Mal three nights ago and interrogated him for any clues about the Coven but he was of no use. Similarly when they tried to recruit him to join their cause to take down the Coven, the small man said `No” and he’d rather dance on thir graves than help anyone from Auradon. Then after that grand speech, he threw up his spoiled dinner.

That brought them here and now. Strategizing in the office of Captain Hook’s ship since her own boat had been unfortunately dismantled and had parts stolen off it since she left.

“Well we could ask some of the kids around here. After all, no one cares about the kids here or thinks they’re capable of anything. I mean Mal, Evie, Carlos and I were still teenagers when we defeated Maleficent.” Jay puffed up his chest with pride.

Uma thought about Celia. Though she would be more than willing to fight against the Coven, Uma knew she didn’t have the strength to go against them. It wasn’t right to have the younger children help to fight their battles when they were already enduring abuse and neglect from their parents much less their new overlords.

“No” Uma said definately, “The kids may be sneaky but they will just slow us down or become targets. As I’ve been saying, we need the mercenaries on our side.” “And that will take a lot of money. Remember, Uma, Sinclair said we have to pay her just to get her to go into Maleficent’s castle.” Gil said.

“I remember.” Uma snarled at the unneeded interruption. “Great, we can probably bribe them all to help us. I mean we do have phenomenal cosmic power at our fingertips and that means so much gold.” Jay slapped Jordan on the back. Jordan and Aziz both glared at him like they wished to rip his fingers off.

“That boy” Uma internally mused, “He really knows how to irritate anyone. VK or Ak.”

“That’s not a good idea,” Aziz inserted, “We can’t offer gold to everyone here or any more promises that we are not going to keep. It is probably best to stick with Uma’s idea to start a revolution with the people by using their hatred against the hatred.”

“I could convince my dad, I’m sure he would love to overthrow my mom.” Lala added, “And then he can threaten other people to back us up.”

“I’m sure we can convince people to help us without resorting to threats.” Calix interjected.

With that statement, Jay, Uma, Harry and Gil scoffed at his pathetic naivete.

“No can do. Ben may want us to do things peacefully, but our mission is to save the world and if we have to force the villains here to fight the Coven, we force them. Heh, guess they’ll see what it’s like to be forced against their will to do something.” Jordan said with a surprisingly intimidating growl.

The face of the Smee twins popped into her head once more. Along with those of Dizzy, and Celia, and Hadie and so many others. Walking in chains to sure bloodshed. And all because this girl was too blind by prejudice to see that she was punishing children who did nothing wrong. 

“That’s not your call! You’re going to force the people to fight your battle. As if Auradon hasn’t done enough, forcing us to live here and eat your scraps.” Uma banged her fist, sending the few papers and trinkets Hook had on the desk to fail to the floor. Jordan seemed to grow taller for she had to bend her head downward to glare at her, nose to nose. Uma squelched the urge to step backward, away from the invasion of personal space, but she would not admit such weakness.  

“You’re fighting our battle? Don’t sound like such a matyr. We’re all on the same side. We’re all doing the same damn battle. And you just said it’s ridiculous to get people to help us voluntarily. We have to threaten them or bribe them.” “But you can’t..” 

“Only you can threaten them? That’s what you’re saying is it? That’s not your call. I’m not here to act like a friend you never had. I’m here as the leader.” Jordan took another step forward but Uma didn’t back away, she stood her ground. She could sense more than see the others in the room, staring and holding their breath for the next move or in Harry’s case, attack when she needed it. But no one made a move. It felt like it was just the two of them trapped in this power struggle that spiraled too quickly. 

She had underestimated this girl. It was clear that she was improvising her plan as she went along and unsure of making decisions. But instead of latching on to her superior expertise as she expected, Jordan was lashing out at her and trying to keep all the control to herself even if it meant threatening them all. “I’m the captain.” Uma retorted, straightening her posture and walking forward into Jordan’s personal space. And victory for her, the genie took a step back. “One with experience. Connections. I actually know the Isle and people here. They will trust me more than you. You’re just some Auradon snob who never had to make a decision in her life and thinks we’re less than you because we come from the Isle. You only see us as copies of our parents.”

“You only see us as copies of our parents. You think we’re fools with idealism and stupidity that are only good to use for our riches and our wishes.” Jordan stopped backing away, standing like a statue with an unnervingly calm voice full of malice as she stated her opinion.

They stood glaring at which point Uma noticed sweat trickling down the back of her neck and that it was starting to feel unnaturally hot in the room that usually was damp and smelling of kelp. Now it smelled like fried kelp.

Jordan clearly saw that Uma had caught on with the change in temperature. She cocked her head with an unruffled poker face, “What? Are you feeling like a boiled shrimp?”

“Bitch!” Harry lunged forward, hook outstretched to spear her throat but Aziz got there first, marking his back with a ferocious gnash on his back. Uma had to give him a tiny amount of respect for not flinching but instead giving Jordan a quick much-needed slap.

“Aziz! Your back! Stop slapping my cheek. You-”

“Aram shu. Haltan khob ast?” Aziz commanded and the two devolved into a rapid conversation in Arabic that she couldn’t understand. Not that it mattered when all the sweltering heat and the tension in the room whooshed out and Uma allowed herself to exhale.

Harry was at her side but before he could ask. Uma nodded. She was fine. They both could see that though she was a little rattled by the turn of events. The Aks weren’t going to be as easily manipulated as she thought but she could work with that. She’ll just have to change her tactics.

Jordan’s voice cut through their silent conversation as she slumped into Captain Hook’s chair, “Fine. We’ll do whatever Uma says for now.”

Uma could do without the amount of petty sarcasm Jordan used when saying her name, but was glad for whatever it was Aziz said that made her see reason.

“Then I suppose I’ll start strategizing. Go eat.” Uma gestured for all of them to go which they followed except the genie girl who was staring numbly at the wall.

Calix ducked back in and urged Jordan off the chair and out the door, “Come on, time to eat.”

“I’m a genie, I don’t need to eat.”

“Well if you want to talk about genies, Desiree...”

“I’m not in the mood for banter.”

Uma looked out of the office door one more time to see Calix drag Jordan to the far side of the ship for privacy. Where she expected Jay to be skulking around like the snake he was, he was actually in the middle of the action wrestling with Gil while the rest of the crew cheered Gil on.

She scoured to make sure that Aziz and Lala weren’t hanging around close enough to eavesdrop, but fortunately Aziz was also distractedly watching the impromptu wrestlin match, looking back at Jordan and nodding as Lala talked in his ear, “When you were interrogating Abis Mal, how were you able to tell that-“

Uma closed the door and turned to her first mate.

Uma wasted no time for pleasentries, “You’ve been a bit more unhinged than usual lately since I’ve returned. What is it?”

She had first noticed the change when they went to Sinclair. Harry’s type of intimdation was unnerving the opposition with his invasions of personal space and gliding his hook on their skin but he didn’t usually lunge or attack unless it was with her. Not for her. He trusted her instincts too much to go on the defensive for her without permission. This was the second time he striked so aggresively without a warning.

“Nothing is-” Harry paused, and looked at the wall, “CJ’s back.”

Uma’s eyes widened. CJ and Harry always had a complicated relationship. Well all the Hook siblings had a contentious relationship with each other. But Harry and CJ moreso because of how close they were in age and how their personalities clashed.

It all traced back to Captain Hook himself as most of the kids’ issues could be traced to their parents’ treatment. Harry always looked up to his father, wanting to be just like him leading to his obsessive devotion to his fake hook. But Hook never gave him time of day, in fact, he treated him less than compared to his sisters. Especially since Harry had joined her crew. By then, Hook had completely disregarded Harry as one of his own because he was content to be her first mate and not seize the captainship for his own.

CJ, on the other hand, was undoubtedly Hook’s favorite. She was the youngest child, ambitious and also wanted to be just like her father. But while Hook cared for her more than Harry, he had no belief in her to become a captain of great esteem like himself so Uma personally thought CJ overcompensates with her flashy bucuneer act.

The two used to be close when they were younger, Harriet acting as their mother and above their sibling rivalry. The two would fight and get under each other’s skin but she knew Harry had a special protective spot whereas CJ was concerned though the blonde often chafted under his watchful eye and often almost got herself killed trying to do things on her own.

But then they grew up and CJ became more capable, running around the Isle with Freddie and following Captain Hook’s lead in dismissing Harry as lesser. It got worse after CJ made it to Auradon and unlike Harry, she had no loyalty to those she left behind. All she did was send condescending messages about the high time she was having sailing the Seven Seas, making it to Neverland to get Captain Hook’s compass, and raiding villages in Auradon.

That was the last straw for Harry. He could stand the taunts and condescension and the little girl pretending she was greater than she was. But the disloyalty earned his ire and CJ became subject non grata.

“Her mom contacted her. It’s Lady Caine.” Harry turned his gaze away from the wall to her again. Then punched the wall.

Lady Caine was CJ’s mom? Well that explained the disloyalty gene. Her mother was Captain Hook’s, and to the extent the rest of the Hook family’s, greatest nemesis on the Isle.

Well exempting a one night fling apparently.

“And she’s what? She’s following her now?” Uma eyed Harry’s bloody knuckles as he picked splinters away from his skin.

“I don’t know. Just.. she wants to get the Jolly Roger for herself. “Her birthright.” Harry shook his head and looked like he was about to punch something again but Uma grabbed his hook before he could do anything else. “She’s not going to get it. If anything, the Jolly Roger belongs to us. We run this town. She can go back to Auradon. We’ll drag her there by her hair when we win over the Coven.”

“I don’t care about that. She won’t get near the Jolly Roger with Da in charge of it.” Harry said. Uma was about to mention that Captain Hook was usually out of comission but knew that Harry was about to get to what was really bothering him.

“I can’t believe her mother is Caine. I can’t believe she has a mother.” Harry sat down in Hook’s chair. “Are you wondering about your mother?” Uma asked

“No I mean yes. I mean. It’s not like I care about my mother. Even if she showed up now, she’s not going to do anything for me I guess. Harriet took care of all that stuff. I just don’t get why Caine is coming back. Or why CJ is teaming up with her. After all she has done to Dad. Trying to take his ships, and steal his crew and say she’s the pirate queen of the Isle.”

“CJ has no loyalty. Even to your dad. It figures she would do whatever suits herself.” Uma said.

“But even after all the stories we know about Caine.” Harry protested.

“She’s her mother.” Uma surprised herself when the statement slipped out but it did. She thought she understood it to an extent. Ursula was no treat to be with.

But Uma still… she hated to admit it. She cared for her. She hated how Ursula lost of her power and glory since being stabbed with a sea mast and how she had no faith in her. The Isle had sucked all the life and ambition out of her. It made her even more cruel and harsh which Uma was thankful for because that’s how she knew life worked. She wasn’t encouraging, she wasn’t loving but Ursula made sure she survived.

She suppose maybe CJ felt a similar tug. Not that Lady Caine did much to make sure CJ lived but she did give her, her survival instincts. They were similar and unlike Captain Hook, Caine was giving her attention.

“I don’t trust Caine. It makes no sense that she’d have an interest in CJ even if they are related.” Harry said and Uma had to smile to herself because Harry’s protective big brother mode was creeping up.

“Well we can definately go check them out from time to time while we fight the Coven. Kill two birds with one mission.” Uma assured him and Harry nodded his assent, his hand sneaking to grip hers.

Uma breathed in and simply enjoyed the serene moment and the warmth of his hand and a bit of the blood still trickling from his knuckles. It was the calm before the impending storm.

She looked down and saw the night shadows lengthening across the floor from under the door and realized it was probably time to start heading out. There were less people out at night for them to be suspicious of their activities. She looked to Harry, unlocked their hands and walked out onto the deck that was silent with the forms of her crewmmates laying themselves out for the night.

A plan was swiftly snapping into place in her mind and she barreled out orders, “Gil, you stay here with the crew and start scouting for lackeys to recruit to our army tomorrow morning. Jay, Jordan, Aziz, you will go find mercenaries to hire. Calix and I will investigate the castle again and uh, Harry and Lala will stand guard outside.”

Uma didn’t even wait to see the others carry out her orders. She knew her crew would do it, and well… it may be petty but she didn’t care one bit if Jay, and his genie and Aziz got their throats slit in the dark. She could handle things without them.

The four took their familiar route from the ship to the castle, moving as a silent mass and reached the backdoor in no time.

Harry took up position by the door while Lala leaped up to the closest tree and rested herself on the top tree branch, her brown eyes intently watching the horizon.

Uma picked the lock and swung open the door, turning left to where they knew the parlors full of magic spell books were. Before she could get far, Calix grabbed her arm.

Uma pushed him away, and saw he was heading the wrong way. “What are you doing?” “We’ve been there. We should go right and see if we can make our way to the tower. That’s where villains go to look over their kingdom and gloat don’t they?”

“But we don’t know the way there. What if we get lost and then caught?” Uma hissed.

“Oh you underestimate me.” Calix smirked, a small glowing blue ball appeared in his hand, expanded and spread itself into a map of the floor they were on. “Son of Circe, remember?”

“Why didn’t you use that before?” Uma cried as she took the lead heading right. “I didn’t want to undermine your leadership cap’n.” Calix quipped and Uma growled. She didn’t care for his laseiz faire attitude. That sort of personality led you to a quick death around here.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. Your idea to scout the floors here was a good one but it’s not working anymore so… that’s when magic is needed.” Calix smiled at his glowing map and almost tripped over himself as they approched the spiral staircase leading up.

The walls were far too close together and the stairs were steep lending to a clustraphobic feeling Uma wasn’t quite comfortable with her. She was in her element in the water and the higher up they climbed, the farther they were from the shore, the water and all that she was used to.

She was going to be high and dry in the tower and the thought made her nervously clench and unclench her fists as she thought over the sparring techniques Harry and she used to fight when they were younger.

The stairs continued upward but Uma made a stop at a door which she nimbly picked and opened to a much more lavish hallway. There were tapestries and velvet curtains lining the walls and at random intervals, there was a desk with a vase of flowers or a knight in shining armor. There was even a plush purple carpet.

“Hmm looks like King Arthur’s.. Ah I bet Morgan was in charge of decorating.” Calix murmered to himself and Uma shushed him.

The plush rug made a great cover for their footsteps as they cautiously walked down. Most doors were unlocked which allowed them to peek into see what was in them. Many were sitting rooms or parlors or man caves. This part of the castle was clearly inhibited because they could hear the echoes of voices causing them to jump into the nearest rooms every seven minutes, but no one came near.

Around the third time of this incident happening, Uma was over it. She hated acting this cautious and scared. It was weak. She was a pirate captain and sea witch, she was used to walking straight into danger, but… the danger here was different than facing Mal’s gang. It was more potent and powerful and caution had to be exercised no matter how annoying it was to do so.  

Uma went out into the hallway and brushed against a suit of armor, the small action causing the chainmail to clatter to the floor and the echoing voices stopped echoing.

Uma and Calix ran back into the man cave and hid behind the green velvet curtains. A lame hiding spot but the only one as there was only ottamons and couches and neither would big enoough to hide under.

“Huh? It’s just a knight. Damned things can’t stay up.” A smoky voice commented outside the door and they heard the motions of her putting it back up straight.

“Well as I was saying…” a familar voice drawled Uma gripped the curtain tighter in her fists to keep back the range of emotions rising in her chest like a high tide. Anger, irritation, aggrevation, all the usual things she felt when CJ was near, amplified with the knowledge of how she betrayed her family.

“We should hit them tonight!” Them? Them as in the Jolly Roger and Harry? Tonight?!!

“I don’t think so.” The older, smoky voice rejected and Uma had to take the chance and see who was talking.

Allowing her left eye peer past the edge of the curtain she saw Lady Caine lounging on the ottoman with CJ pacing irritatedly beside her.

“I thought you put me in charge. And I say we should strike tonight.” CJ retorted huffily.

Lady Caine stretched and cracked her neck, seeming to regard CJ as the impatient child she was, “But have you thought of the Coven factor. We just heard their plans, wouldn’t it be better to wait for them and then steal off with Roger in the middle of chaos.”

CJ paused to consider it, “Hmm it would make it worse for dad if I did steal the Jolly Roger while the rest of the Isle is falling apart… I guess we could wait.”

“You're a smart girl. Knew you’d see it my way.” Lady Caine sauntered off and CJ followed after her puffing her red coat tails.

She knew she told Harry they would deal with Caine and CJ along with the Coven but the fact that the two were working with the Coven’s plans just made it so much easier. She really was going to kill two birds with one stone.

Uma shot away from her hiding place to follow after them and Calix wisely followed her lead. Uma poked her head out the door first and saw the two shadows walking away to the left and moved to follow when she felt her hat get pushed off her head. “Hello Uma!” a gleeful voice chirped followed by a hard shove with what felt like a club. Uma turned around to see a staff heading straight for her head which was quickly blasted away by one of Calix.

Uma put her hands up for a fight and then lowered them when she saw who it was.

Ginny Gothel and Zevon.

They were no threat to her really. Ginny was a pathetic fighter, preferring to stay on the sidelines and protect her vanity like her mother and Zevon… Zevon was Zevon. Big talk, big gestures and gestulications, but one good deck  usually took him out of the running.

“Fine, you wanna fight. Let’s fight. Meet your doooooooooooooooooooom!”

That’s when Uma noticed Zevon’s staff was glowing threateningly with purple mist rising around them.

Great, someone gifted the delusional meglomaniac with magic. Just great.

[thdorkmagnet]

Light of the Sun and Stars Chapter 34: Return to Hydra’s Point

Summary: His whole life Marco Diaz has been raised by monsters, living under the cruel rule of their leader, Toffee. But one day Marco escapes into Mewni where he meets a magical princess and Mewman like himself, who begins teaching him all about her world. Together they will learn about life, love, and the lights within each of them, as they change their world forever.

Chapter Synopsis: The gang’s first peaceful mission is thrown in jeopardy when they reach Hydra’s Point and found some of the Monsters have gone missing looking for a creature that stalks the abandoned mines outside of town, including the mayor himself. 

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Index

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney. All rights go to them. 

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“There you go little one,” Marco said softly as he offered the small Monster child the apple outstretched in his hand, giving her a warm and inviting smile. The lizard Monster gave him a curious, cautious look for a second before grabbing the food and running back to her mom's side, hiding in the folds of her dress as best she could. But the hooded teen didn't mind, his heart was filled close to bursting as he looked around at his fellow commission members, all of them talking and communicating with the Monsters they had come there to help.

It was the MMPC's first diplomatic mission, Lily suggesting they start with something small and as an act of good faith on their first outing, go to some small rural villages and help provide the Monster there with the basic necessities they had been denied almost all their lives by the Mewmans. They had already done this with at least three other villages and the sense of pride and accomplishment Marco was feeling could not be topped, mostly because it was due to his previous research on the area that had allowed them to better understand the Monsters' needs. And after reaching the first village and seeing the hopeful, relieved faces that greeted him, he realized just how bad off so many must have had it over the years.

Having lived in the care of the leader of the Monsters he had been well taken care of, he had always been well fed, had a bed to sleep in, a roof over his head, the works. It wasn't exactly the lap of luxury but it was better than most seemed to have it, if the poor, starving Monsters before him were any indication. He couldn't believe he hadn't know just how badly so many had it, how much they had to endure while Toffee hid away in his palace. It felt wrong and he almost felt guilty for all the food and warmth he had received over the years when so many didn't have the same. But he quickly shook these thoughts aside, today wasn't a day for guilt, today was a day for celebration.

No more dwelling on the past, he reminded himself. It's time to look to the future. And right now the future was looking much brighter for so many on that day. He couldn't help but gaze with gratitude and respect at each and every member doing their part and helping change the world to a better place. It was a really uplifting sight to see, so many different kingdoms coming together to help the less fortunate race that had been abused for so many years.

Star was using her magic to restore some of the broken down buildings that the poor Monsters had lived in almost all their lives, but the blond continually sent small smiles and waves Marco's way which he returned with his typical affectionate energy. Tom, with the help of Jags and Janna (who had volunteered for the charity work the moment Marco had mentioned the demon boy by name) were stacking piles of something called phoenix embers in a warm and dry space. According to Tom, they came from the hottest depths of the Underworld and not only had a brighter flame than typical coal or wood, but they could stay hot three times longer than any other material on the rest of Mewni or Earth.

Larry, Rich Pigeon and Jackie were handing out blankets and other small supplies to any Monster who stepped forward to receive it. Rock was with them but hung back a bit, since Johansans still weren't well-received by Monster kind, though he did a good enough job in Marco's eyes just passing objects from the large carts and wagons the materials were hauled in to his three companions. Pony was busy bragging and showing off to any Monster nearby, but still lended some help as she opened the small cans of food the hungry Monsters were eating out of as she talked.

Ferguson and Alfonso, along with a large group of pixies were helping set up mirrors to every home in the area, free of charge, personally paid for by Rich Pigeon who had been more than honored to do so when asked. There was also an added feature in the mirror that allowed for any of them to call for help in an emergency by either a group of highly trained knights that had volunteered for the job or by Buff Frog's team of elite Monsters, since Lily, Star, and Marco had insisted on giving them the choice in case any of them were too anxious to ask a Mewman for assistance. It also sent a text alert to Marco since he was the Monster representative, though Star had been a bit anxious about this fact, worried Marco might rush head first into danger the moment he got one but Marco had assured her (after several comforting kisses) that he wouldn't unless someone went with him.

Which left Marco, Lily, and Penelope to help hand out food to any Monster who approached them. The only member not present that day was Glossaryk, who had stated cryptically that he had other business to attend to, which angered Star quite a bit. His girlfriend hadn't seemed happy with the weak excuse and had muttered under her breath the moment he had left, “Yeah, right, he's probably just off eating pudding or something.” But he was retired and was only really there as a show of power from the MHC, so Marco didn't mind his absence. He had even reminded Star how chaotic and unpredictable things were when Glossaryk was around and she had quickly come to the conclusion that his absence was a blessing not a curse. They needed things to stay as peaceful as possible in order for this to be a success.

Still, seeing all the hard work his fellow members were putting in left Marco with a bright, infectious grin permanently engraved on his face. He felt so uplifted by their good deeds, his heart was swelling with pride and he felt energized and motivated to the point he felt like he could take on all of Mewni! He didn't even bother to take his eyes off the wondrous sight as his hand reached behind him into the cart, as he went to grab a corn cob but found his hand only grasping air instead. He turned to see a completely empty wagon. Wow, that one went even faster than the last one. He quickly cupped his hands over his mouth as he shouted to whoever would listen, “Hey, we're all out over here!”

“Um, that's okay,” Penelope spoke up softly and Marco turned to her with a quizzical gaze. The self-conscious girl handed over a loaf of bread to a very satisfied Monster, before explaining, “That was the last one.”

Marco became suddenly aware of the empty space that was once a crowded line of hungry Monsters. “Oh yeah, guess it is,” he responded.

The others seemed to be finishing up with their work as well, Star done with the last of her houses, while she spoke with the very grateful mayor of the town about setting up a steady trading industry with the other kingdoms so that they wouldn't have to worry about going hungry or running out of supplies in the future. Marco couldn't help but hold his gaze on her for a second, looking so beautiful and dignified as she spoke proudly and regally to the Monster village's leader. But once he finally tore his gaze off of Star (with a great deal of force) he noticed that it seemed like they were about ready to move on to the next town. The boy took a moment to just admire their work, helping yet another struggling village rise from poverty. “My, you look happy,” Lily said, coming up beside him while giving him one of her kind smiles.

“Well yeah, this is a historic day, I mean Mewmans coming together to help the Monsters!” Marco exclaimed with giddy joy.

“Indeed, most never even thought something like this was possible,” Lily breathed wistfully, her eyes twinkling with an emotion Marco didn't recognize. “After all those years of war, all the death and senseless violence, in the end all that was accomplished was helping one greedy Monster gain power.” Marco swallowed hard, feeling the familiar tingling in his neck, but luckily there was no memory flash this time. “But look what only a few months of peace has managed to accomplish,” Lily continued, and the two paused to admire the sight of the cheerful Monster faces before them. Finally the peach-haired royal let out a deep sigh before adding with a small chuckle, “It almost seems silly, doesn't it?”

Marco nodded. “Yeah,” he gasped out, his voice chocked up with emotion. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to the see Lily giving him a rewarding smile.

“You should be proud of yourself, Marco. You've accomplished more than any Mewman before you ever could,” she said, her tone so light and affectionate that it made his throat even tighter. He wondered if that was what moms said to their kids when they did good. He figured it was and due to the warm, fuzzy feeling growing in his chest he wouldn't mind more praise from the woman in the future. His thoughts drifted to his parents and he felt a new pride stirring in his chest. This was a double victory for him, he was not only achieving his own goals but he was also one step closer to fulfilling his parent's dream, too. The boy felt himself stand just a little bit taller than before.

“So where's your father?” Lily's inquisitive voice cut through Marco's inner thoughts and brought him startlingly back into the moment. He blinked once at the woman, not quite grasping her question, his head cocking to the side as he tended to do. “I figured Buff Frog would want to be here on such a big day for both his people and his son,” Lily elaborated helpfully, seeing the lost look on the teen's face.

“Oh yeah,” Marco blurted, her question finally clicking in his brain. “Umm, well he wanted to be here, but he said he had important matters today,” the hooded boy explained, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice though he wasn't quite able to mask the frown. He knew his dad was busy and everything but the last couple of days he hadn't seen his dad at all, only speaking to him very briefly on the phone. Marco tried not to let it get to him, since he knew how swamped his dad's work could be but he still missed him. Not to mention that Marco had a sneaking suspicion that something wasn't quite adding up. He just couldn't figure out why his dad was so busy right now, if anything he should have less work, not more, since the MMPC should be helping lighten the load some from Buff Frog's shoulders.

Lily gave him a sympathetic look, before saying in a sugary sweet tone, “Well I'm sure wherever your dad is, he is immensely proud of you.”

Marco gave her a small smile, his eyes shimmering some in gratitude. But before Marco could respond, the moment was rudely interrupted by Pony as she suddenly appeared between the two Mewmans, her head nearly resting on Marco's shoulder as she hovered next to him. “Hey turd, did you see me out there doing all that charity wok and everything?”

Marco nodded. “Uh yeah, Pony you were really... great,” the hooded teen responded politely, despite the fact that she had done probably the least amount of work overall.

“Duh, of course I was great,” the horse said in her typical braggy way. “I guess I'm just too nice for my own good.” Suddenly her sweet voice turned into an angry yell as she shouted at the top of her lungs, causing Marco to stumble away. “Sea horse, get a good angle of me! That one doesn't accent my figure!”

Marco watched with a great deal of confusion as Pony struck a pose, while rubbing his sore ear to try and soothe the annoying ringing. There was a flash behind him and he turned with surprise to see a purple seahorse wearing a yellow sweater vest and a pair of glasses. His face was twisted into a far-too-wide to be real smile and his eyes just seemed to stare blankly ahead into nothing, which was a little unnerving to Marco. He had a mini seeing-eye camera, held up to his eye which he was using to snap photos of Pony with. “Um, who is that?” Marco asked, pointing a finger at the strange creature, who snapped another photo leaving the boy blind for a second.

“Huh, oh that's just my boyfriend, Seahorse,” Pony said with disinterest.

“A pleasure to meet you,” Seahorse responded in a monotone voice.

“He's just taking some photos of me doing all this charity stuff for my blog,” the unicorn head explained to her clueless friend.

“Wait, you have a boyfriend?” Marco asked in total shock, ignoring the other burning question he now had, which was: What's a blog?

Pony shot him a glare before saying through gritted teeth, “Uh, and why is that so surprising?!”

“Well you've never mentioned him,” Marco explained innocently and the horses anger vanished in an instant.

“Oh that's because we were broken up until just yesterday,” Pony said as if that were the most normal occurrence in the world.

“Broken... up,” Marco repeated slowly, his eyes squinting. He looked the horse and seahorse up and down for a moment, looking for any cracks on them to indicate what Pony was saying was true. “You seemed fine before, Pony,” the hooded teen observed. “At least, I never noticed you being broken.” Pony raised a critical eyebrow at the boy but Lily cut in before the horse could correct the naïve teen.

“And with that, we should probably make our leave!” Lily quickly exclaimed, grasping the boy by the shoulders and pushing him out in front of her, trying to get him as far away from Pony and her odd boyfriend as she could. “We must go and find Star to see which village we are headed toward next,” Lily explained vibrantly and Marco didn't argue as he allowed himself to be led, his eyes now twinkling at the idea of seeing Star.

Phew, that was a close one, Lily thought to herself. Her niece's boyfriend was still very naïve to the world, especially when it came to relationships, and she didn't think now would be a good time for him to learn that there was a chance he could ever break up with Star. She figured it would throw him into turmoil at the very idea that he and Star could ever end the great thing they clearly had going. She could tell that her niece had become Marco's whole world and he would be crushed if that were to ever end. Not that it would, Lily had been around enough to know true love when she saw it.

The moment the two reached the others, who had all gathered around Star and Jackie as they looked over the map they were using to travel around the Monsters' territory, Marco called out, “Star!”

The blond turned to him with a smile, not surprised as he threw his arms around her in a hug. “Hey Marco, did you finish up?” she greeted him cheerfully, giving his frame a small squeeze.

“Yep, just got done,” Marco replied, pulling away and giving her a cute little thumbs up.

“Great!” Star exclaimed, her cheek marks lighting up some in her excitement. “Then that means we're down to our last village for the day.”

“Wow, really,” Marco said in surprise. It didn't seem like they had been doing this for very long at all, time must have really flown by, he couldn't believe they were close to done already.

“Yep, this went way smoother than we thought it would,” Star said, looking relieved. She had really needed things to go smoothly today, it was too important, any mess ups could spell disaster for the world. “All the Monsters are being cooperative, there's no signs of any magic things going wrong, I think we can call today a success.”

“Well let's not get ahead of ourselves,” Jackie pointed out, looking up from the map. “We do still have one town to go.”

“Yep, which means plenty of time for things to go wrong,” Tom negatively added.

“But it won't,” Star stated with a firmness in her eyes that only a practiced ruler could pull off. It faltered some though as she added, “It can't.” Marco put a comforting hand on his girlfriend's shoulder and she gave him a grateful grin.

“So then, what's our last town?” Lily asked and all eyes fell on the skater.

“Looks like last up is... Hydra's Point,” Jackie said, squinting as she examined the map closely.

Marco's eyes lit up at that and he and Janna shared a look from across the clearing. “That's perfect, me and Jan have been there before,” Marco said, his grin incapable of growing any wider.

“Oh wonderful, does that mean we have a welcoming committee to look forward too?” Rich Pideon asked, excitedly.

“Well after what we did, I bet the whole town will be there to greet us and thank us for our help,” Janna replied with her one of her typical smirks.

…

The group of young royals stood on the outskirts of town,the invisible goats lugging in the remaining wagons of supplies through the still opened portals, as they all just stared in shock at the completely empty area. “Or maybe not?” Janna said skeptically.

“Uh, okay, I did not come all the way here just to be stood up,” Pony shouted angrily.

Marco and Star shared a look of concern. “You did let them know we were coming, right?” Marco asked and Star nodded.

“Of course I had the delivery elf give letters to every single village,” Star explained to her boyfriend, before the two went back to staring ahead with worried expressions.

“Maybe they just forgot,” Alfonso suggested and Rock scoffed.

“Don't be ridiculous, they probably just decided they didn't want our help after all,” the young Johannsen barbarian said, his face twisted into a frown as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I knew this was a waste of time.”

“Wait, no way, Mayor Butch helped me and Janna the last time we were here,” Marco argued, trying to sound as confident as he could. “There's no way he would cancel without saying something.”

“Marco Diaz!” a voice suddenly called from the distance and the others all looked over to see a Monster running over, a green slime looking thing wearing nothing except a purple hat, blue jeans, and brown boots, a strand of slime which acted as hair of sorts also covered his left eye.

The moment he reached them, he bent over panting, trying to regain enough breath to speak. “M-M-Mayor Butch sent me to inform you th-that he deeply regrets not being here but...” the slime creature gasped out before taking another moment to get oxygen back into his lungs or whatever this slime had for lungs. Finally, he was able to continue without struggling for air on every word and he raised his dripping arm in a salute, “...But there is an urgent matter that just came up that he was sadly needed to fix... so uh, he sent me.”

“And you are?” Star asked politely.

“Oh, um, S-Slime, Your Majesty,” he nervously replied, his cheeks turning a darker shade of green to signify he was blushing. “I'm his... well, errand boy, actually,” he said hesitantly. But he seemed to fear they would be upset by this as he quickly added, “Oh but, uh, he still sends his apologies for not being here himself-”

“That's okay, Slime,” Star reassured him, giving him a bright grin that froze the Monster on the spot.

“So does this mean he's canceling?” Jackie asked.

“N-No, he just sent me to bring you back, since he didn't really have anyone else to spare,” Slime informed them, still looking anxious and hesitant.

“Well that's good to hear,” Star said, keeping the same level of cheer in her voice to try and help the Monster relax. She figured this must be pretty intimidating facing a large gathering of future royals and leaders all by himself.

“We're really sorry to make you come all this way,” Marco added, giving him a sheepish grin.

“Oh no, it's no trouble at all,” Slime quickly stated, doing another salute. “I'm really glad to meet all of you, I've heard great things about almost all of you.”

“Well duh, there ain't nobody in this world who hasn't heard of Princess Pony Head,” Pony vainly said, flipping her mane as Seahorse snapped another picture of her.

“Um, sorry, I don't think I've heard of you before,” Slime nervously mumbled.

“What?!” Pony screeched in anger, while below her Ferguson, Alfonso, Rock, and Tom were all snicking. She gave them each a death glare, snapping out, “And what is so funny? I'm sure he hasn't heard of any of you rejects either!”

“But I have heard of you, Marco Diaz,” Slime said, stepping forward and eagerly shaking the hooded boy's hand, while Marco just stared at him completely dumbfounded. “Imagine, the son of two of the greatest Mewmans who ever lived and the one who helped put an end to Toffee, now here to help us all with his kindness and bravery. It's an honor to meet you. I was there the day you made that speech to Mayor Butch! It was so inspiring and incredible!”

“Oh wow, um, thank you,” Marco muttered shyly, his humble side showing through as he fought to hold Slime's sparkling gaze. “I just did my best, I'm not sure how incredible it was.”

“Nonsense, Marco,” Lily suddenly spoke up. “Don't be so modest. We wouldn't even be here if it weren't for you.”

The others all gave their quick agreements and Marco smiled brightly at the praise.

“Aww thanks you guys,” Marco said, one of his cute signature looks appearing on his face. But suddenly he looked back over to Slime who was still had a hold of his hand. “Um, would you mind... giving me my hand back now?”

“Oh sorry,” Slime sheepishly responded, immediately releasing his grip, leaving Marco with green goo dripping off of his hand. The boy tried to indiscreetly shake his hand free of the slime, but the teen Monster noticed, blushing profusely. He chuckled awkwardly, poking what seemed to be fingers together as he explained, “Oh yeah, my hands are extra slimy when I'm nervous.”

Marco gasped. “Mine too!”

“Ewwww, too much info!” Pony complained in disgust, her eyes rolling to show just how annoyed all of this was to her. “Can we please just get to town already?”

“Oh right, my bad,” Slime immediately exclaimed, before bowing low. He extended a gooey arm out in the direction of town as he said formally, “This way, Your Highnesses.”

“Thank you, Slime,” Star said formally, taking her boyfriend's hand once he had wiped it clean on his pant leg.

The whole group began walking toward town, Slime keeping his head bowed until the last of them had passed and followed along behind them at a respectful distance. He noticed one of the royals standing alone from the group, her stance guarded and insecure and the Monster found himself unable to take his eyes off of her. Even though he couldn't get a good look at her from behind, she was kinda cute too, even the massive bump on the side of her face ,which she was sure to turn away from everyone, didn't take away from her looks at all. Plus, he found her shy nature enduring. He didn't even know a princess could act like that, he figured they were all strong and confident leaders and he found a bizarre connection and relatablity to her position, as he was in the exact same boat most of the time.

He wasn't necessarily shy per say, but he was easily intimidated, which was a big problem since he worked for Mayor Butch, who had a very strong personality. Slime knew the only reason he had even gotten this job at all was because his mother and father were good friends with the mayor. In fact, he hadn't even wanted the job at all but his parents had pushed their recommendation to the mayor until he was accepted into his team. He knew his parents had high hopes that he would be the new leader of Hydra's Point someday so he buried his true feelings and did his best to please his mom and dad.

Slime was pulled from his own inner thoughts as he saw the princess trip over a root she hadn't seen and began to fall. The Monster rushed over to her as fast as his goop for legs would carry him. He grabbed the girls arm, just before she hit the ground and immediately pulled her back upright. She somehow didn't slip through his fingers like most things tended to do and instead collided with his chest, her pretty green leafy dress quickly coated with a layer of slime. She looked up at him with a stunned expression, her eyes the prettiest shade of green Slime thought he had ever seen, he even thought he could see speckles of hazel in her eyes, and her cheek marks, which were black spider webs, began to glow pink. Slime's eyes widened, as did hers, while his own cheeks heated up with a blush.

The two just stood like that for a moment, lost in one another's eyes before the princess seemed to come to her senses, pulling away from him at once and trying to shyly hide her face (or more importantly her spider bite) from his view. She began trying to futility wipe off as much goop from her dress as possible, still not daring to meet his eye. “Oh I'm so sorry!” the Monster exclaimed rushing over to help her, before remembering that he would only make it worse and he instead just froze up and didn't dare to take another step.

“N-No, no it's fine,” the girl stammered, her voice barely above a whisper. Before Slime could say anything more, the girl walked away, keeping her head down and her movements now klunky, showing clearly just how awkward she clearly felt. Slime watched her go for a moment before face-palming, groaning in frustration and regret. What was he thinking? Why did he do that? He had just humiliated himself in front of the princess. Scratch that, he had just humiliated the princess! Luckily no one else was around to see. Maybe he could just play this whole thing off and no one would have to know. He would just have to be sure to keep his distance from the princess from now on.

With a new plan formed, he began following after the royals, trying to keep his roaming eyes off of the pretty princess who had unknowingly captured his attention and interest.

…

The group made it into town a few minutes later, Marco and Star in the lead, their hands still intertwined. The hooded boy, since he had been there once before, began explaining to his girlfriend and the others some of the highlights he had seen in the town on his last visit as well as waving to every Monster he came across even calling them by name if he remembered it. Almost every Monster smiled at the boy in greeting, most of them returning the enthusiastic wave with one of their own. Star took note of this, saying to her boyfriend, “Wow, Marco you sure seem popular here.”

“Well like I said, me and Jan helped out with a little something the last time we were here,” Marco explained with an embarrassed blush on his cheeks, rubbing tenderly at the back of his neck.

But Janna was quick to not let his humbleness keep him from getting the recognition it deserved as she added, “Yeah these Monsters probably think we're some kind of heroes. Especially you Marco, I mean didn't the mayor personally think you for your help.”

Marco nodded, his cheeks flushed some but his smile showing just how happy he was about receiving the praise. “Yes, he even helped with the questionnaire afterwords. He seemed really nice.”

“Mayor Butch is typically a pretty guarded and serious leader. I mean don't get me wrong he's a good one but he's hard to crack. But you really managed to impressed him, Marco Diaz,” Slime spoke up, from the rear of the party. “You gained his respect and trust me that is no small feat.”

“Well I-” Marco began shyly, before a sudden thought occurred to him and he gasped. He looked over his shoulder at the teenage Monster, asking in concern, “Oh wait, I never asked, did you guys ever fix the Hydra's Tooth?”

“See for yourself,” Slime said, before gesturing in front of the group, Marco followed Slime's directions and gasped in joy as he saw the tooth now standing solidly and proud at the center of town, completely paint free.

“Oh wow, it looks amazing you guys did a great job fixing it!” Marco exclaimed.

“Well it wasn't an easy process but we were happy with how it turned out,” Slime said, sounding confident for the first time as he puffed out his chest proudly.

“Why was it such a difficult process?” Janna asked in a deadpan. “All you had to do was wash the paint off before it dried.”

“Oh well, um, we might have waited a bit too long for that so they had to uh, scrub it off by claw,” Slime explained, his nervousness returning some.

Meanwhile, while the three were busy talking, the others all shared confused looks with one another, seemingly trying to see if anyone had any clue what they were talking about, but it seemed whatever had happened was only known by Marco, Janna, and Slime and none of them were clearing anything up, just creating more questions for the befuddled royals. “Any idea what they're talking about?” Tom asked Jackie, who shook her head.

“No clue.”

Finally, the questions grew too much for Star as she asked, “Ok, I'm not following, what happened?” Though her question was directed to all three of them she looked directly at her boyfriend for an explanation.

“Oh sorry, guess we didn't really say, huh,” Marco replied with a sheepish grin. “Well basically Ludo and some Monsters threw paint on the tooth and tried to blame it on the Mewmans.”

“Wait, Ludo was here!” Star exclaimed, her eyes widening.

“Yeah but he kinda got away,” Marco answered, his eyes lowering some and losing a bit of their gleam, clearly disappointed that he hadn't been able to catch the small Monster at the time.

Star let out a deep breath to calm her nerves before saying reassuringly, “Well so long as nobody got hurt by him, that's all that matters.”

“Who's Ludo?” Rich Pigeon asked Ferguson via whisper.

“No idea,” the chubby king replied, looking just as lost as the intelligent bird prince.

“Um, hey guys, hate to interrupt,” Jackie spoke up. “But we should probably get to work.”

“Yes, indeed,” Lily agreed, a positive smile lighting up her face and cheek marks. “And since Marco seems so fond of this town, we should all work even harder to help these poor souls get back on their feet!”

The others all let out cheers of agreement, before they all split off to begin with their tasks. Star about to leave for her own when she noticed Marco looking around with a frown on his face. “Marco, is something wrong?” Star asked her boyfriend in concern, putting a hand to his cheek.

“Nothing, it's just, I was hoping to talk to Mayor Butch and thank him for his help, but he's not here,” Marco said sadly.

Slime overheard the couple's conversation and without thinking about the consequences said, “Oh that's because he's busy fighting off the giant spider in the mines.” His eyes widened a second later, and slapped a dripping hand over his mouth, unable to believe he had just diverged top secret information to the two out of nowhere. He was so fired.

“Giant spider!” Marco exclaimed, his panicked voice drawing lots of wandering eyes onto the group.

Fearful of the other Monsters questioning and learning the truth, Slime quickly shushed the hooded teen, saying in a whisper, “It's not that bad. Mayor Butch thinks it just wandered in there from the Forest of Unlikely Spiderbites. He and our strongest Monsters are dealing with it as we speak.”

“When do you think they'll be back?” Star asked and Slime got noticeably uncomfortable, shifting awkwardly on his feet and rubbing a gooey hand up and down his arm.

“Um, I'm not entirely sure,” the Monster, his voice shaking some.

“Well, when were they supposed to be back?” Star tried instead.

The answer was not what either was expecting as Slime gulped and whispered, “This morning.” Star and Marco shared a look, clearly picking up on the worried edge to the Monster's tone now.

Marco, beginning to suspect the worst, asked, “Slime, how long ago did they leave?”

Slime hesitated to answer, his eyes wide and his form shaking a bit more with anxiety, which set off all kinds of red flags for the two teens. “About three days ago,” he finally said and the two immediately gasped.

“Wait, seriously! How has it been that long?!” Star exclaimed in disbelief.

“Did you send any search parties out or anything?” Marco asked at the same time.

“Ummm,” Slime nervously muttered, unsure who to answer first.

Star sucked in a deep breath, regaining her composure before she said, “Okay, don't worry, I'll take of it.”

“Yeah, we'll bring them back safe Slime,” Marco reassured the Monster and Star turned to him with a concerned look, biting her lip.

Marco noticed it and asked, “Star, what's wrong?”

Star opened her mouth to say something than seemed to think better of it, shaking her head before telling her boyfriend, “Nothing. Come on, let's gather up the royals, they'll need to hear about this.”

Marco said nothing as Star began dragging him around as she rounded up all the young monarchs, but he smiled ear to ear as he realized that Star had been about to tell him to stay behind, only to decide to keep him by her side, which made Marco's heart leap for joy knowing she trusted him to come with.

Once all their friends and allies where together in one place again, Star pulling them off to the side so that the residents in the town wouldn't overhear and freak out, and told them all, “Okay everyone, slight change of plans. Mayor Butch and some of the Monsters have gone missing tracking down a giant spider in the mines just outside of town.”

Penelope's face seemed to pale at the mention of the spiders that terrorized her home. Her and her family had done everything in their power to exterminate them but just about nothing seemed to work. She had been hoping to get a break from the creatures outside her kingdom but it was just her luck they would show up here, too. She had tried warning Star in their first meeting that the spiders were extra aggressive and since some did have a tendency to wander, this whole situation had seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.

“Oh my, I hope they're alright,” Lily said worriedly, putting a hand over her mouth.

“They probably just got lost,” Slime hesitantly spoke up from the corner. “Those tunnels are like mazes.”

“Well regardless we've gotta do something,” Star determinedly declared, slamming a fist into her palm.

“Perhaps we can lure the spider out of hiding,” Rich Pigeon suggested.

“Uh, with what exactly?” Tom asked skeptically.

“I don't know. What do spiders like to eat?” the talking bird asked. He took a couple seconds to think this problem over, before saying, “Oh I know we can use Pony Head as bait, I'll bet it'll mistake her for a giant fly or something.”

“Say what?!” Pony shouted in outrage. “I am no fly, flies are ugly and gross and I am beautiful!” She looked over to the hooded teen before adding, “No offense Marco.”

Marco shrugged, letting the comment slide, knowing she was just upset and didn't mean to insult one of his family members, still he was glad Boo Fly wasn't there to hear the insult.

“And also we aren't using anyone as bait,” Star scolded firmly.

“Huh, oh yeah that too,” Pony emotionlessly replied and Star face-palmed. It seemed her friend's priorities were still as backwards as ever.

“How do you typically deal with giant spiders, Penelope?” Marco asked and the shy princess blushed as all attention fell on her, her cheek marks turning pink as well.

“Oh, um, well, usually we just run and hide when they're lurking about and steer clear of their webs,” she softly answered the curious teen.

“So you just... avoid them,” Janna commented and Penelope nodded, lacking the courage to speak.

Star sighed. “Well that's not an option here, we gotta help these Monsters out,” the blond told everyone.

“So just send out a search party, problem solved,” Tom quickly suggested, looking bored with the conversation.

Marco gasped. “Tom, that's genius!” the boy praised, his eyes shining with admiration toward his friend.

“Well of course it is,” Tom smugly replied, shoving his hands into his pockets with an arrogent smirk.

“Okay then, I think it would be best if we split in half, some of us staying behind to help hand out food and supplies to the Monsters and the other half coming with me and Marco to search for the missing Monsters,” Star delegated.

Tom's eyes widened as he quickly shouted, “Wait, we're going to look for them!”

“Yeeeaaahhh,” Star said, raising an eyebrow at the boy. “Is that a problem?”

“Well, no I just thought that we'd send someone else to-”

“What's the matter Tom, afraid of a little danger?” Janna asked in her typical teasing tone and the boy's flames instantly ignited into infernos at the challenge.

“You know what, count me in Star,” the boy said confidently, trying to sound as smooth as he could, despite the small growl at the back of his throat.

“Me too,” Janna spoke up and the demon boy's cheeks instantly flushed as he realized his mistake too late. He had just fallen right into her trap and he mentally berated himself for losing his cool and blinding himself to her obvious plan.

Star nodded, “Okay, anyone else.”

“W-Well,” Slime spoke up, his cheeks flushing as he gained the attention of the royals. “I think it would only be right if I came too. After all, those tunnels are hard to navigate so you might need someone who knows their way around.”

“And I'll come too!” Ferguson suddenly declared, dramatically stepping forward. Star raised an eyebrow at the chubby boy, who now had a large bandage now over his head from the mild concussion he had received during the ping pong game. “After all, some spider will be no match for the great Fergore!”

“Ferguson, what are you doing?” Alfonso asked, skeptically.

“Shut it, Al, Your ruining my dramtic speech!” Ferguson hissed at his adviser.

“Rigghhhtt,” Star said, rolling her eyes at the boy. “So if that's everyone-”

“Actually Star,” Larry suddenly spoke up. “I think you should take Princess Spiderbite as well.”

“What?” Penelope squeaked in shock, looking around at the others nervously as they all nodded their agreement. “Why me?”

“Well you do know more about the spiders than any of the rest of us,” Lily calmly pointed out.

“Yeah, come on, Penelope it'll be fine,” Marco encouraged her. “You've dealt with spiders before right?”

“I-I don't know,” the girl hesitantly said, trying to think of some way to get out of it, rubbing a hand up and down her arm.

“Don't worry about it, P, our girl B-fly will have your back,” Pony exclaimed. “You literally couldn't be safer.”

Star felt her cheeks flush slightly at the compliment, which only grew worse as Marco added, “Yeah, if there is any trouble, we'll there to protect you. Right, Star?” The hooded teen turned to his girlfriend, waiting for her to agree and she just nodded, her blue orbs dancing as they met the lovely deep brown of her boyfriend's eyes.

“Right,” she said softly and Marco felt a shiver go up his spine at her flirty tone.

“Okay, I guess,” Penelope hesitantly agreed, only to squeak in surprise as Janna threw an arm around her shoulder. “That's the spirit, now come on, let's go get possibly eaten by spiders!” the beanie-wearing girl excitedly shouted. “Lead the way, Slime!” she directed the Monster.

“Right this way,” Slime said, walking off in the direction of the mines, while Janna followed, pushing the shy teen along with her while she made small squeaks of protest. Tom was behind them, trying to keep a confident smile on his face just in case his crush looked his way.

“Oh yeah, time for King Fergore to show his skills!” Ferguson shouted about to run after them.

“Ferguson, please don't do anything stupid,” Alfonso begged, looking beyond exasperated with his friend. “You're only gonna end up getting yourself killed!”

“Or die trying!” Ferguson dramatically proclaimed, before chasing after the others.

“What does that even mean?!” Alfonso shrieked.

“Don't worry, Al, I'll keep an eye on him,” Marco reassured his friend and the boy sighed.

“Thank you, Marco,” the young adviser said gratefully.

“And I will make sure everything runs smoothly while you're gone,” Lily reassured her niece.

“Thanks, Aunt Lily,” Star said sweetly.

Her aunt smiled before turning to the other royals and declaring, “Now come along, everyone, we're gonna have to work twice as hard if we're gonna finish up within a relative time frame.”

Everyone instantly shouted back their agreements, before heading off to do their jobs with new vigor.

After a moment, Star turned to her boyfriend and asked, “So you ready for this, Marco?”

The boy nodded in determination. “Yep, we got this!” he confidently replied, pumping a fist into the air. “So long as we stick together, everything will turn out fine!”

Star smiled at her boyfriend, before leaning over and giving him a quick little peck on the cheek. “You got that right,” she proudly said and the two blushed as they just stared at each other for a moment too long, remembering their conversation from the other night.

“Would you two lovebirds stop flirting and hurry up already?!” Janna's voice called from the outskirts of town and the two were quickly snapped back to reality as they both shouted at the same time, “Oh right, sorry!” Before hurrying after their companions, who already had a pretty big head start on them.

Lily watched them go, smiling at her niece's adorable little romance. They were quite cute together, she just hoped nothing would ever cause the two to break up, they looked much too happy together. And her keen eye had also been quick to spot the blossoming romance between Tom and Janna, as well as the puppy dog eyes that the young slime Monster had been giving Princess Penelope. Yes, it seemed love was definitely in the air that day.

“Uhh, hey, this is too much work for us for us to do on our own,” Pony's sharp voice cut through Lily's thoughts, making her sigh.

The peach-haired monarch turned to face the floating horse. “If you are complaining than you are welcome to go home,” she said in a scolding tone.

Pony rolled her eyes, letting out a long dramatic breath. “First off, I'm not complaining! I'm trying to be a better person and all that so I can't complain. Secondly, what I was trying to say was that we need to call in some extra assistance so we can have this done by the time B-Fly and Turd get back!”

Lily was surprised by this, but kept up her calm mask as she said, “I see. And who exactly do you suggest we call?”

“Ooohhh, I've got connections,” Pony declared, before turning to Seahorse who was still taking pictures of his girlfriend the whole time. “Seahorse. You know what to do.”

“Of course,” the monotone fish replied. “I'll take care of it right away my love.”

Pony directed her attention back on Lily as she said, “And that's why I'm dating him again.”

“Hmm,” Lily hummed thoughtfully. “I don't know, dating someone for their efficiency is a little petty don't you think?”

“Uh, no, it's because he's the glue that holds me together and sticks with me despite my selfish actions,” Pony defensively argued. “Besides, don't you flirt with every guy you see?”

“I don't know what your talking about,” Lily coyly said, turning her head away to hide her smirk from view. As she did though she spotted three Monsters staring at her and she winked at them making all of them blush vibrantly. “Yep, no clue,” she added with a knowing grin.

…

“The entrance should be right though... here,” Slime said over his shoulder as he stepped out of the lush woods and into a large clearing, a large cave-like structure towering over the area, while the others stumbled in behind him. The Monster and Penelope just looked at the dark tunnel that lay before them with a mixture of intrigue, curiosity and fear, while Tom, Janna, and Ferguson all just raised skeptical eyebrows at the dirty, worn-down, and seemingly abandoned underground world. “This the place?” Tom asked, sounding unimpressed.

“Yep, we're here,” Slime confirmed, with a slight nod.

“Then it appears my moment has come,” Ferguson dramatically stated.

“Oh no, here he goes again,” Janna said with a roll of her eyes.

“What do you mean?” Slime asked, looking over to the beanie-wearing girl with confusion.

Ferguson stabbed a finger in the direction of the cave, a hand on his hip as he loudly declared, “And so it is time for King Fergore to take on his greatest challenge yet! For within these catacombs lurks a dangerous beast just waiting to tear him and his companions apart! What will he face within the depths of the cave? Danger? Death? Or perhaps a fate worse than death itself?!”

Penelope whimpered and Slime immediately tried to reassure her, telling her in the most soothing voice he could, “N-n-no, it's fine! He's just exaggerating. I'm sure it's not all that bad.” The Monster teen found himself rambling as he lost his nerve the longer the girl's gaze lingered on him and his mouth began speaking on its own, while his brain turned to mush. “There might not even be a spider, the others maybe just got lost. And even if there is a spider, I mean, what's the worst it could do, am I right?” He chuckled awkwardly, not knowing what else to do to diffuse the uncomfortable tension he was feeling form between them.

The girl's cheeks flushed in embarrassment, her hand immediately raised up to the bump on her head and she turned away from him, clearly trying to hide her face from his view. Slime realizing his mistake, quickly tried to correct himself saying, “Oh no, I didn't mean-”

But the girl wrapped her arms defensively around herself and said sharply, “It's fine.”

Slime not knowing what else to say, just turned his attention back on the old mine, coughing awkwardly into his gooey hand. That was when he noticed the three teens were all staring at him and he found himself wishing the ground would just open up and swallow him whole. At least that would get him out of this embarrassing situation. It was bad enough he was humiliating himself in front of the girl he felt an odd and growing interest in, but he was also doing so in front of an audience, all of whom seemed to be judging him harshly if their burning stares were any indication. They were trying to hide it and only cast an occasional glance his way out of the corner of their eyes, but each one was enough to make Slime fear his liquified form would start boiling soon. He wished they could just get going already, every second he stood there awkwardly next to the shy royal feeling like agony.

But before Slime could be scarred anymore for life, Star and Marco emerged from the foliage behind them, the former sighing with relief as she said, “Oh there you guys are.”

“We thought we lost you for a minute there,” Marco added with a bright smile.

“What took you so long?” Tom asked with slight annoyance.

The two teens instantly blushed, Star saying quickly, “We got... distracted.” But noticing the unsteady looks her friends were giving her and each other, she hesitantly asked, “Uhh, is everything okay? You guys look freaked out.”

“Did something happen?” Marco asked worriedly.

“No,” Slime squeaked out far too quickly, avoiding any sort of eye contact with Penelope. “We were just waiting for you two.”

“Oh, okay then,” Star said, deciding it best to drop the subject. “Then I guess we're all ready to go in?” She looked between each of them for conformation.

Penelope and Slime nodded, still not making eye contact, while Janna was rubbing her hands together in excitement. “Yep, can't wait to see a giant spider up close,” she said eagerly.

“Uh, Janna, isn't that what we're hoping to avoid?” Tom pointed out.

Janna shrugged, stating simply, “A girl can dream, can't she.”

“What about you Ferg?” Marco asked and the boy smiled boastfully.

“Oh Marco, I was born ready,” Ferguson stated proudly, while Tom and Janna just rolled their eyes.

“Give me a break,” Tom muttered under his breath.

“Why are you acting all weird?” Marco asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Let's just say after my near-death experience, it really helped put my life into perspective,” Ferguson explained. “I now see that my true purpose in life is to live on the edge, to experience all the dangers the dimensions have to offer.”

“Oh my gosh, you were in some kind of accident!” Slime exclaimed, looking at the chubby king with sympathy and remorse. “Is that why you have the bandage on your head?!”

“Oh so you noticed,” Ferguson said smugly. “Yep this wound is a seeping reminder of just how short life can be and how I need to live life to its fullest if I ever truly want to live.”

“Oh please,” Tom scoffed in annoyance. “You got hit in the head with a ping-pong ball!”

“It still changed my life okay!” Ferguson shouted at the hot-headed teen, who's features twisted into a frown, his cheek flames starting to burn a bit more intensely, showing his clear aggravation at the raised tone.

“Guys,” Star called, gaining everyone's attention onto her. “Can we please focus on the mission?”

“Right, sorry Starship,” Tom apologized, snapping out of his almost temper-tantrum at the girl's light scolding and giving her a sheepish smile.

“Yeah, my bad, guess I got too lost in my own greatness,” Ferguson attempted to apologize, instead only making it worse as Janna finally smacked him in the back of the head.

“Ow! What was that for?” Ferguson whined, rubbing at the spot tenderly.

“Just seeing if that big head of yours is able to block out pain any easier,” Janna said. But she turned to Star and Marco, pretending not to notice the chubby boy's pouting look, as she said, “We're ready whenever you are, Star.”

Star nodded before starting for the cave, the others following close behind as they all entered the mine together. Star held up her wand, making it glow a pale pink so they could see in the darkness of the mine. The blond royal took quick note of her surrounds particularly the tunnel that seemed to stretch on for infinity before them, with no end in sight no matter how much light she cast in that direction. Her eyes darted around for a minute, looking for any clues or signs of the Monsters (or to a lesser extent: the deadly creature) they were looking for but for the most part the place just looked abandoned and unused. Dirt and cobwebs covering the rock walls and the wooden beams that acted as supports to keep the tunnels from collapsing on their heads, looked worn from the effects of time, some even bent downwards, making Star unsure just how safe they were.

And it seemed Marco felt the same way as the blond royal suddenly felt his presence move closer to her (more so than he already was) until he was practically attached to her hip, while his grip on her hand tightened some as he looked around at the dark tunnel with uncertainty. She couldn't help but inwardly gush over how adorable and sweet it was that he would cling to her in his moment of fear, as if he felt safer the closer he was to her. “You sure this is safe?” Marco asked the Monster, looking unsteady and ready to bolt from the cave if Slime's answer wasn't to his liking.

“Yes, don't worry, its perfectly safe,” Slime reassured the boy, who sighed with relief.

But at the exact same time, Ferguson ran a finger down the wood, before examining the level of dust that had settled on his fingertips. “Hmmmm,” he hummed, looking thoughtfully at the wood, before it made a loud crack and he screamed and stumbled back away from it. The loud noise echoed around the tunnel, setting Marco's already tense body over the edge as he found himself leaping into Star's arms for safety. The blond just looked down in shock to see herself holding her shaking boyfriend tightly in her arms.

Both Star and Marco, as well as the others, all turned to the slime Monster at the exact same time, making him blush beet red (or in his case lime green) at the skeptical looks he was receiving, except from Marco, who's skin had turned pale and eyes had widened to an unbelievable and unhealthy looking level. Slime just chuckled awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck as he said hesitantly, “Uhhh, I mean, it's pretty safe.”

“Welp, looks like we might die here. Neat,” Tom sarcastically replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Yep it is pretty cool,” Janna agreed, making Tom turn to her with a raised eyebrow.

“That was sarcasm,” he told her simply.

“Oh I know,” she replied with a smug look on her face and Tom just sighed, knowing there was no winning with her.

“Okay guys, we should probably get moving,” Star said, trying to keep everyone focused on the task at hand, as she helped set Marco back onto his feet.

“Y-Yeah, let's hurry, the sooner we find the mayor and the others, the sooner we can leave,” Marco added, his voice quivering some now.

The group started on their journey down the tunnel, Star and Marco taking the lead, with Tom and Janna following along behind them, Janna trying to comfort her hooded friend by saying, “Aw, it's fine Marco, it's held up this long, I'm sure it can hold up a few hours more.” This actually did seem to sooth Marco some until she added, “Besides if it doesn't than we all get to be buried together, so win-win.”

“How is that a win-win?” Star asked in annoyance, shooting Janna a glare for freaking Marco out more, the boy's face so pale at this point the blond royal kept a steady hand on his back just in case he passed out on her.

“Yeah, Janna that's messed up,” Tom added, looking equally as unhappy with the creepy girl as Star, for the same reason as she was, too. Poor Marco was starting to hyperventilate now.

“What are you saying you don't want to be buried with me?” Janna asked, giving him a hurt look that instantly frazzled Tom's brain.

“No, I-I didn't say that,” Tom instinctively said trying to keep from upsetting the girl. But as a smirk quickly grew on Janna's face, he finally realized what he had just said and coughed in his hand to cover his blush from her view. “What I meant was,” he continued, trying to put on the most cool, calm and collected face imaginable. “I don't think it's right for you to upset Marco like that.”

“It's fine guys,” Marco called over his shoulder, giving them a tight smile. “I just... need a minute to relax is all.”

As soon as he was facing forward once more, Marco's smile dropped and a look of fear and anxiety filled his eyes. Star knew the instant she saw that look that this was about a lot more than being afraid of a cave in. Of course none of the others knew this, but this was sadly not the first time Star had seen her boyfriend like this. Still she didn't feel anything coming from the boy due to their bond, so to be sure, she leaned over and whispered softly into his ear, “Hey, are you having... flashbacks?”

Marco nodded slightly, swallowing hard before saying in a fairly strong tone, “Yeah, but it's really more like... just an uncomfortable feeling, like I can't breath. But I'll be fine. I've gotta face this fear sometime and well, now is as good a time as ever.”

Star smiled at him, placing a hand on his cheek, making his suns spin, as she said softly, “I'm so proud of you, Marco. You're being so brave.”

“Well I've got you here, so of course I'm feeling brave. All I gotta do is look at you and I know I'm safe, right?” he said with one of those bright grins that made Star's heart do all kinds of crazy things in her chest, especially as he realized he was calling back her words from the Blood Moon Ball and that, coupled with the love and affection she could see shining in his eyes, made Star swoon.

“Aw, Marco, you are just the sweetest.” she said, giving him a tiny peck on his cheek, that sent their heart beats pounding in rhythm once more. Even Star's wand glowed a little bit brighter than before as they all just continued down the path.

While that was all going on, Slime just hung back from the group, casting a longing look back at Penelope every so often, who made up the rear of their little party, walking at a slow and cautious pace. He wanted to try and say something to her, especially now that the others seemed distracted with their own thing to focus on him, but he couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't sound either stupid or possibly insulting. He groaned softly under his breath as he finally gave up on the idea, keeping his gaze straight ahead, watching the two couples talking with each other and getting along and he felt a small bubble of envy form at the sight, frowning to himself.

But suddenly he felt like he was being watched and turned his attention beside him, only to reel back at the sight of Ferguson watching him with a creepy looking grin on his face that instantly made Slime twice as uncomfortable as he had just been. “Wh-What is it, Your Majesty?” he greeted as politely as he could despite being startled by the chubby king.

“You like her, don't you?” Ferguson asked inclining his head slightly behind him, making Slime stumble, taken aback by the direct and out of nowhere question, while his cheeks blushed vibrantly.

“I-I, uhhh,” he stuttered, his brain incapable of forming a coherent thought for the moment. Finally he managed to get his wits about him enough to say, “I-I'm not sure, what you're talking about.”

“Come on, man,” the grinning Mewman said, giving him a knowing smile. “I can see it in your eyes how you feel about her. I mean you can't take your eyes off her, can you?”

Slime opened his mouth to argue, but thought better of it and instead hung his head in defeat, honestly replying, “Yes. I really want to get to know her, but I keep saying and doing everything wrong when I'm around her.”

“Well don't worry, just leave everything to me and you'll have her by the end of the day,” Ferguson told him, with another one of his boastful smiles and Slime only gave him a tiny grin in reply.

“Um no, that's okay.”

“Nonsense, I got your back, man,” Ferguson insisted, patting the Monster on the shoulder, ignoring the slime that covered his hand every time he did so.

“Well thanks but I think I'd rather ask Marco or Star.”

“Alright, well you could. I mean yeah Star and Marco are like the cutest couple of all time, but are they married yet?” Ferguson argued and Slime raised an eyebrow at him.

“Ummm-”

“No they aren't,” the chubby king answered for him. “But I am. And I'm gonna work my magic on you and help you get yourself a date.”

Slime just sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue, Ferguson was clearly stubborn and he was going to do what he wanted to do no matter what Slime said. He had no idea how this was going to work out, but he doubted it was gonna end well for him. But I do need help, he remind himself. And he is married...

“Okay fine, what do I say to her?” Slime asked.

Ferguson laughed hard at that, much to Slime's and the others confusion as they all looked over to the two to see what was up, all to the Monster's horror. Finally, the boy's laughter died down as he said in a matter-of-fact tone, “Oh you have so much to learn. You don't just go up and talk to her.”

“But then how do I get to know her if I don't talk to her?”

“You don't,” Ferguson replied. “You gotta play it aloof.”

“Aloof?” Slime repeated in confusion.

“Yeah, act like you don't care what she thinks. Like it doesn't matter if she notices you or not.”

“But won't that drive her away?”

“No, it'll make her jealous that your attention isn't on her. Before you know it, she'll come to you and ask you why you're snubbing her and then you go into phase 2.”

“Phase 2?” Slime asked, looking more and more skeptical with every word. And though he dreaded to ask he added, “What's phase 2?”

“You tell her you can't live without her and ask her to marry you,” Ferguson explained proudly.

“What?!” Slime exclaimed, unable to believe what a huge leap in logic the Mewman had taken in his planning. How could he possible expect things to go from ignoring Penelope's existence to marrying her just like that. “I can't do that, I just met her!” the Monster explained with exasperation.

“Oh right, well then ask her out, instead,” Ferguson corrected himself, still missing on the true meaning of Slime's argument. Did he not realize that this plan would never work in any capacity?

“No offense, King Ferguson-” Slime started, only to be interrupted.

“Fergore,” the boy clarified and it took every ounce of will-power to keep Slime from sighing.

“-Fergore, but I don't really think that plan will work,” he said, cringing as he feared upsetting the powerful monarch.

“What, sure it will,” Ferguson argued the smile never leaving his face. “It worked for me.”

“Really?” Slime asked, trying his best to hide his shock.

“Yep, I used that on the Pixie Empress and now we're happily married.” The boy sighed dreamily as he thought of his wife.

“Wow, you two must be really in love,” the Monster observed honestly. Although he still didn't quite understand how this half-baked technique had worked, he did think it was sweet that they had fallen for each other, no matter how weird the circumstances.

“Oh yeah, she was totally into me,” Ferguson said, looking overjoyed as he spoke about his one true love and Slime smiled. “After she stopped trying to eat me of course,” the chubby king added and Slime's goofy grin vanished in a flash.

“I'm sorry, what?” Slime asked, not quite sure if he had heard the boy right. “Did- Did you just say she tried to eat you?!”

Ferguson just laughed. “Yeah, it was adorable,” the boy chuckled, his eyes shimmering as he seemed to be remembering that exact moment. Slime was just left disturbed by this news and quickly realized trusting this boy with love was a huge mistake.

“Ummm, I... gotta go... talk to Star and Marco,” Slime hesitantly said, trying to think of some kind of excuse to get out of this, before quickening his pace and trying to put as much distance between him and the crazy king he left behind, who called after him, “Okay, but just remember what I told you! It works every time.”

Slime sighed as he finally freed himself from the uncomfortable conversation, now thinking over his remaining options. He was now sure that the advice he was just given would almost never work in any scenario, especially with the very shy and reserved Mewmans princess he was falling for. But he did still need some help asking her out. Luckily, I still have some options left, he thought as his gaze slowly caught on the princess and her beloved boyfriend, their hands intertwined as they smiled and talked easily with each other like it was nothing. Slime grinned, hoping that that could be him someday.

He began jogging forward, his gaze and focus on the young couple, but he was stopped as a voice suddenly asked, “Hey Slime, how long has it been since these tunnels were used?”

“Huh?” the Monster said, looking around for a bit in confusion, before his gaze finally landed on Tom and Janna, the latter the one who asked him the question. “Umm, I don't really know,” he said, not quite hiding his impatience as he kept looking longingly over at Star and Marco. “Probably a few years maybe.”

“So then what were the Monsters doing in the mines in the first place?” Janna asked skeptically, an eyebrow slowly raising.

Slime froze, his mind turning to goo, to match the rest of him. The question had come out of nowhere and caught him completely off guard and with his mind already distracted on other things, he couldn't figure out what he was supposed to say. He swallowed hard, trying to remember what Mayor Butch had told him to say if anyone asked, but he was so nervous and flustered he could not recall what it was. But he knew he had to say something, the longer he paused the more suspicious he seemed. Finally, the mayors word's returned to his frazzled mind and he quickly cleared his throat and said in the most authoritative voice he had at the moment, “Umm, well, Mayor Butch was going to try and reopen the mines so that we had something to trade with the Mewmans, but then this whole spider thing came up.”

Janna scoffed, saying, “Well then why didn't they just hire an exterminator or something, instead of blinding charging in after it?”

“Kind of like what we're doing,” Tom pointed out, his voice soft and a little unstable as if trying to hold some sort of emotion back.

“Yeah, exactly. Only we actually know what we're doing,” Janna argued. “Star's probably gonna just magic it away before anything bad can even happen.” She turned to the flaming teen with what seemed to be a genuine smile as she told him, “And if needed, I know you'll have no problem blasting that thing out of existence.”

“Uh, right,” Tom said, halfheartedly, his cheek flames flickering slightly at the look he was receiving from his crush. But he quickly cleared his throat and said in a proud and sure tone, “No problem, Janna. If the spider does show up, I'll take care of it.” He jabbed a finger toward himself, flashing the most confident smile he had at his arsenal, hoping to impress the girl of his dreams.

“Great, knew I could count on you,” she said simply, even giving him a quick, flirty wink and Tom felt like he might melt or die right there from joy. He wanted to scream in excitement to the whole world and pat himself on the back at his accomplishment, but since he couldn't do either of those things without humiliating himself in front of Janna or causing a cave in that killed them all, he simply settled for saying, “Yeah, cool.” So far, so good. Aside from his voice cracking just now, everything was going surprisingly smoothly for once. This might have even been the best conversation he had with Janna so far. If he kept this up, he would impress her for sure.

Slime just watched the two's conversation closely, paying close attention to their every movement and words, hoping to learn something for himself. Finally, he decided to try and gain some wisdom from them as he asked, “So how long have you two been dating?”

Tom's three eyes instantly widened to the size of saucers, looking like they might pop out of his head if he wasn't careful and his cheeks flickered out of existence for a moment, a warm, vibrant blush quickly replacing them, spreading across not only his cheeks but his entire face. “No, no, no” he exclaimed without thinking, his brain instantly focusing on just trying to save face, rather than whatever words were tumbling out of his mouth. “You got us all wrong! We aren't a couple, we-we're just friends!”

Janna (whose cheeks had turned the slightest tinge of pink but nothing more) just smirked at the Monster and said, “Yeah, what he said. He isn't ready... yet.”

“Yeah exactly!” Tom exclaimed, before her words actually hit him and he blushed even more. “Wait what?!”

“Nothing Tom,” Janna said cryptically, clearly enjoying herself. “Don't worry about it.”

“No, I definitely heard you say something!”

“You must be hearing things.”

“Noooo, your just trying to get under my skin, aren't you?”

“Maybe.”

Tom growled in frustration, steam beginning to rise off his body as he struggled to keep his temper in check. Well so much for that plan.

Slime just watched this whole exchange with discomfort, rubbing a hand up and down his arm as he struggled to understand where he had gone wrong. Clearly he had messed up again, only this time he had upset one of the royals. “Um, sorry, my bad,” he tried to apologize but Tom was too busy fuming over what Janna had said to listen and Slime instead decided it best to back out of the conversation while he could.

This isn't working, he thought, his head hanging low as he walked. Maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead. He turned to go back the way he had come, figuring it best to hang out at the back of the group to avoid anymore confrontation but then his gaze landed on Princess Spiderbite and he lost all train of thought once more. She happened to be looking up the moment he turned and so for a brief instant their eyes met and again it was like magic. Slime could see so much hidden emotion buried in those stunning pupils. Beneath the shade of green he could see so much, they were so vast and Slime found himself incapable of looking away. But it seemed Penelope didn't feel the same as she quickly turned her head to the side, trying to hide her eyes and gaze from his view.

But those few seconds were enough to change his mind about backing out and leaving her be. He had seen something shining in those green orbs, something she tried to hide and block off from everyone else. She wanted to be noticed, she craved some kind of attention, he could see it, but she was too afraid to open up to him, to anyone. She had forced herself to be alone. And he couldn't stand it.

He wanted to help her and he wanted to know more about her. He would know more about her, he concluded. He had to see what further mysteries were hidden behind those eyes.

And so instead of giving up, he turned back around and marched over to Star and Marco, hoping they would have some answers for what he should do. As soon as he reached them he blurted out, “Um, Your Majesty, would it be alright if I asked you two a question?”

Star and Marco turned to him with bright smiles, though Slime noticed the hooded boy's seemed a little more forced than before and his body seemed more tensed than normal, as if was on edge about something. Slime felt a moment of hesitation, wondering if he had just intruded on something important. But the princess was quick to dissolve these worries as she said in a joyful and lighthearted voice, “Sure thing, Slime, what's up?”

The Monster teen felt himself relaxing at the welcoming and calm nature the two seemed to have about them, making him feel at ease and accepted. Which was how he was able to suck in a breath and tell them, “Well, see, there's this girl I like and I want to ask her out but I'm not really sure how. Every time I try and talk to her I just keep messing up and making everything all awkward and weird.”

“Aww, that's too bad,” Marco said, his eyes full of sympathy for the Monster. He knew all too well how difficult it could be talking to people, it had gotten (some) easier now, but back when he had first been around people, every interaction had ended pretty badly for him. He had even humiliated himself in front of Star when they first met, though he didn't really consider that too bad since now he looked back on that memory fondly. “Sorry to hear that.”

“So how can we help?” Star asked in confusion, not losing her sincerity but looking unsure what he needed from them.

“Well I was wondering, since you seem so perfect for each other,” Slime explained, now tapping his slimy hands together sheepishly. “How did you two get together in the first place?”

“Well I fell out of a tree-” Marco started but Star quickly stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Um, Marco, I think he means how did we start dating,” Star clarified with a little giggle at the boy's naivety.”

“Ohhhhh,” Marco said nodding in understanding, before taking on a thoughtful expression. “Well I think it was sometime between me kissing you and you rescuing me from Toffee, wasn't it? Hmm, or maybe it was after I gave myself up to save you. Or wait, were we dating the whole time and I just never knew it!” The boy's eyes widened as he looked over at Star for clarification, the girl unable to hold back her laughter at her Marco's cuteness.

“No Marco we weren't dating the whole time,” she told him and he sighed in relief, putting a hand to his heart, as his world made sense again.

“Oh good, I was afraid I was being a terrible boyfriend this whole time,” Marco admitted and Star gave him an affectionate look in return, one that made Marco's heart hammer and the warm emotion that came from being near Star strengthen to a wonderful degree.

“Aww, you could never be a bad boyfriend in my eyes, Marco,” Star said, painting both of their cheeks pink and making both of them grin goofily at each other. But the two broke off their gaze (far quicker than they wanted to) as they looked back over at Slime, Star saying with the same upbeat tone from before, “So I'm not really sure the exact moment me and Marco got together, to be honest. It just sorta happened.” Slime's face seemed to fall a little until the blond royal added, “But I guess that's because we were already so close, dating just felt natural.”

“Yeah, I mean I didn't get it at first but it felt right to be with you,” Marco pitched in.

“Exactly,” Star exclaimed, him taking the words right out of her mouth, and the boy practically shined at the praise. To Slime she said, “Look if you really want my opinion, I think you should start by getting to know her first.”

“Yeah, be her friend,” Marco pitched in helpfully.

“Be her friend?” Slime repeated, his voice hopeful but determined. “You really think that would work?”

Star and Marco shrugged. “Worked for us.”

“It's at least worth a try, right?” Marco added.

Slime thought it over before nodding, saying confidently, “Okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go over there and- and- um, wait, what do I say to her when I get over there?”

“Just say whatever come natural to you,” Star encouraged.

Slime wanted to ask more but before he could they head a shout from Ferguson behind them, “Guys what's that up ahead?!”

Star, Marco, and Slime all looked in the direction the chubby king was warning them about as they noticed the tunnel ended ahead, widening into a totally different part of the mine. This particular area seemed to be some sort of central hub for the rest of the mine. Rusted pick-axes, and other tools lay strewn about, decaying and discolored from age. Star also took quick note of the many dark, unused tunnels that seemed to stretch on for infinity before them, a series of paths seeming to branch out in a million different directions. Star finally understood what Slime had meant earlier about this place being a maze.

“Ummm, so which way do we go?” Janna asked, looking at each of the tunnels skeptically, Tom looking more and more uncomfortable next to her. “Do we just pick a random direction oorrr...”

Star turned to their Monster companion, asking, “Slime, any idea which way we should go?”

“Oh right yes,” Slime said as with as much confidence as he could mutter, looking at each and every tunnel, trying to remember the right way to go. After a moment he pointed to one of the tunnels on their right and said, “This way, Mayor Butch said the spider was last spotted in the northern catacombs.” The Monster paused though, his sure smile vanishing in an instant as he suddenly second guessed himself. “Or did he say it came from the north catacomb but went down the northeast tunnel?” His hand slowly maneuvered to a new tunnel, until he rethought this decision too, saying, “Then again, the northwest passage was rumored to have vampire gnats in it, so maybe the spider went down there.” His hand now hovered in the direction of a new tunnel, before he began moving back and forth between the three, no longer sure which way was best.

“Let me guess, you don't actually know,” Tom mumbled in annoyance.

Slime blushed before saying sheepishly, “Well can you blame me, they all look the same.”

“And the names are all really similar, too,” Marco added. “You should probably change them.”

“Yeah, like call this one 'Death Tunnel, and this one 'Blood cave'. Oh and this one, 'The Passage of No Return'.” Janna suggested, pointing at each tunnel as she spoke.

“Why are all the names scary, Janna?” Star asked with a deadpanned look.

“Cause it's easier to remember them that way,” Janna said matter-of-factly.

“How?” Tom doubtfully questioned.

“Well would you ever forget a name like 'Blood Cave' or 'Death Tunnel'?”

Tom opened his mouth to argue, until he paused, saying in shock, “No, I guess I wouldn't.”

“See, case and point,” Janna said proudly.

“Okay well, it looks like out best option right now is splitting up,” Star said thoughtfully.

“What?!” Penelope shrieked in fear, the webs on her cheeks turning a dark purple color, as she looked around at the tunnels nervously. “We can't do that! The only reason I agreed to come out here was because you said you would protect us! How can you protect us if you aren't there?!”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down,” Marco quickly said, stepping over to the girl's side, putting a steadying hand on her shoulder as she continued to panic, breathing heavily and looking on the verge of passing out. “I'm sure Star has a plan that's gonna keep all of us safe.” He looked over to his girlfriend with an encouraging smile. “Right Star?”

The blond rubbed a finger against her chin, trying to do just that. After a couple seconds of thinking though, an idea seemed to come to her as her cheek marks turned into blinking light bulbs and a bright smile widened on her face. “I think I got just the thing!” she said, snapping her fingers, before reaching into her small purse and pulling out the wand. A small burst of magic later and suddenly Tom, Slime, and Star were all holding glowing purple devices with a crystal shaped button on the side of it and a yellow Star design on the front. “Tada!” Star exclaimed, holding up the device proudly. “What do you think?”

“Wow, what are they?!” Marco asked, stepping over to Slime to examine the device closely, while the Monster was just trying not to damage it with his goo.

“They're walkie-talkies,” Star explained, the confident grin on her face never leaving. “With these babies we'll still be able to talk to each other even while we're apart. See, all you have to do is hit this button...” Star pressed the diamond shaped button down, before holding it up to her mouth and saying, “...And I can hear you from anywhere.” Her voice came out of each of the devices as she spoke and Marco gasped, his eyes incapable of growing any wider as they shined with wonder and intrigue.

“That's so amazing!” Marco squealed with delight.

“Big deal, our phones do the exact same thing,” Tom pointed out but Star just wagged a finger in the air.

“But do our phones come with a tracking device that lets me know where you all are at all times, so if you do spot the spider I can come right to your rescue?” she asked them all with a knowing smirk.

“I don't know, probably,” Janna said simply and Star frowned.

“Well this is easier and I already made them so we're using them, okay,” the girl quickly snapped out, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Fine with me,” Ferguson said with a shrug, before turning in the direction of the nearest tunnel and loudly proclaiming, “And now my time has come to face the dark depths and secrets of this cave... alone!”

“That's the wrong tunnel,” Slime pointed out and Ferguson awkwardly turned on his heels now facing the correct passage this time. “Okay, then this one instead.”

“Um, Ferg maybe, it would be best if you didn't go in there by yourself,” Marco suggested, trying to keep his promise to Alfonso and the chubby king nodded.

“Good idea, Marco, we should split into equal groups,” the boy agreed, much to the others surprise, before he lunged over to Slime, who jumped back startled. “I'm with Slime!” The boy shot the very confused Monster a wink before saying, “And we all know Star and Marco are gonna go together.” The two teens blushed at the implication but neither denied it. “And Tom, you can be with Janna since no one else is gonna want either of you in their group.”

“What, that's not fair,” Tom growled, his eyes beginning to glow red, until Janna, out of nowhere, grabbed a hold of his arm, making his whole body freeze up. Her arms wrapped around his own tightly, in an almost affectionate grip as she said, “Aw, relax Tom. You did promise to blast any spiders that come near me, remember?”

Tom just rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly, trying to keep his cool while also completely ignoring the appendage that was currently being held captive by the creepy girl's surprisingly gentle grip. “Yeah I guess,” he said as smoothly as he could, making Janna grin in victory.

“Guess that just leaves you, Penelope,” Star pointed out nicely, the shy princess not daring to look in anyone's directions. She simply nodded and Marco quickly offered, “Well your welcome to come with us. You'll be extra safe-”

“Actually, I was thinking Penelope should be in our group,” Ferguson interrupted and Star and Marco gave him doubting looks.

“Why?” Star asked, not understanding the royal's logic at all.

“Because, we might need her to identify the creature,” Ferguson explained.

But the blond wasn't sold on this, as she deadpanned, “It's a huge spider. I think you can manage.”

“Okay but think about it, you have your wand, Tom has his fire, and Janna has... her thing,” Ferguson argued. “We need something that's gonna give us an edge over this spider if we do run into it and someone who's dealt with them before is our best bet.”

“I don't know,” Star said, still not convinced, before turning to the princess in question. “Are you okay going with them, Penelope?”

“If you need us, we'll just be one quick scissor snip away,” Marco reassured her.

The girl shrugged and said, “It's fine I guess.”

“See, told you,” Ferguson annoyingly said to Star, causing her to frown. But the Mewman ignored this quickly grabbing Slime by the shoulder and then Penelope, drawing them in close to him while proclaiming, “Now come on, we got some Monsters to save!”

Both Monster and Mewman protests fell on deaf ears, as the eager teen began dragging them away, much to the others surprise and disbelief. “What was that about?” Star asked, putting her hand to her hips.

“My guess, he noticed Slime's crush on Penelope and just tried to play matchmaker,” Tom said simply.

“Wait, Penelope is his crush?!” Marco exclaimed, while Star's mouth just dropped open.

“Well yeah it was super obvious,” Tom replied, his eyes darting back and forth between his friend's flabbergasted faces. “You two really didn't notice?”

Both of them shook their heads slowly and Janna just scoffed. “Makes sense. You two never could tell when someone had a crush, even if they were right in front of you.”

Star and Marco shared a look, their faces simultaneously turning beet red, while Tom and Janna just gave them both knowing smiles.

…

The tunnel was dark and silent as the three made their way down it, Slime and Penelope keeping at an intentional distance apart, casting nervous looks at each other every so often, while Ferguson stood between the two, holding up a flaming torch as he whistled a merry tune, creating lyrics in his head about his own heroic exploits as he did. His own eyes jumped between the two for a moment, smiling to himself as he prepared to set his plan into motion. Things had gone excellently at this point, the two were now separated from the others, alone with just him, now all he had to do was spring the rest of his trap and the two would be dating in no time flat. Huh, that rhymed, he should put that in his song somewhere. Okay focus, Ferguson, he reminded himself, before looking over at the Monster with a mischievous grin.

Slime finally met his eye, giving him a startled look at the smile he saw, before the chubby king leaned over and whispered in the lowest voice he could, “Okay, just follow my lead.” Before the Monster could ask what he meant by that Ferguson was now speaking in a loud, obnoxious tone, “Oh wow, Slime. Isn't it so cool to be just us bros out here, doing our thing?!” The boy made sure to keep his attention off of the princess who was giving him a bizarre look, which was reflected on Slime's own gooey face. “Yep, it is so nice, being just us guys out here, on this super important mission.”

“Um, excuse me,” Penelope softly interrupted and Ferguson turned to her with a gasp.

“Oh my gosh, Penelope I totally forgot you were there,” he said with mock surprise.

“But you were the one who insisted I come,” she pointed out, her webs turning slightly red as her eyes sparked with anger.

“Oh yeah that's right,” Ferguson said, smacking his forehead lightly with the palm of his hand, while the princess crossed her arms huffily in front of her chest.

Slime just sighed, able to see where the boy was going with this. The young king was trying to get him to follow along with the plan he had mentioned before, ignoring Penelope before confessing his love out of nowhere and as much as Slime appreciated the help he had a new better plan that he wanted to try out. But first he needed Ferguson to leave them alone so he wouldn't be too nervous to talk to Penelope. So all he said was, “Um, hey King Fergore could you maybe give us a minute?”

The boy stared at him in shock for a moment before grinning ear to ear, thinking the Monster was about to move on to phase 2. “Sure thing, buddy,” he said cheerfully, while out of sight of Penelope, he winked and mouthed out to the Monster, 'Good luck'. Then he quickened his pace, leaving the two relatively alone.

Slime looked over at Penelope once Ferguson was gone, his thoughts on what Star and Marco had told him and decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Even though he had no idea what he was going to say, he didn't want to put it off any longer, before he lost his nerve and gave up. He was motivated and she was right there next to him, all he had to do was take the step. So he sucked in a breath, before blurting out, “Hey uh...” His voice cracked and he paused to clear his tight throat, before continuing, refusing to give up just yet. “...Um, I just wanted to say that it's really nice to finally meet you, Princess Spiderbite.” His cheeks flushed as she looked over his way in surprise. “Well I'm glad to meet all of you actually,” he admitted. “The Monsters have been hearing a lot about Princess Star's commission, my family especially hasn't stopped talking about it. You are all so incredible and brave, standing up for us Monsters like that. Everyone thinks that you royals are real heroes for what your doing.”

“Oh no I'm not a hero,” Penelope quickly argued, giving a sad look at the ground. “I've never done anything extraordinary or brave. I'm just... pretty average.”

Slime paused taking in her depressed features as she just continued staring self-consciously at the ground. “Yeah me too,” he admitted and the princess finally locked eyes with him, her eyes shining with intrigue. “My family wants me to do great things but I'm not really sure if I'm up for the task. They think I'm gonna be something great someday but all I can think is how I'm gonna end up letting them down. I feel like all I do is mess up.”

Penelope was silent for a moment, just staring at him for a moment before saying, “Well then, I guess someone finally understands how I feel.” There was another short pause before she asked hesitantly, “Is it weird that... I'm kinda glad?”

Slime gave her a warm smile as he said, “Not at all. I'm glad too.”

The girl finally returned his grin with one of her own and Slime felt his heart pounding away in his chest. But it dropped as she suddenly asked, “Sooo does this mean your okay with being around me?”

“Huh?” Slime asked, not quite sure what she meant.

“Even though I look like this...” she pointed to the giant bite on the side of her head, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment as she looked away from him.

“Of course, I think you look beautiful,” Slime said shooting her an encouraging grin.

Penelope gave him a hopeful look, her eyes shining with joy as she gasped out, “Y-You really think so?”

“Well yeah, how could anyone not,” he said, his confidence returning full force as he complimented the blushing girl.

“Nobodies ever called me that before,” the girl admitted shyly.

“Well then I guess I'm the first,” Slime said, shooting her the nicest grin he could.

She smiled back, before saying, “Y'know Slime, I really like talking to you.”

“Me too,” he said, before adding, “But I guess that's what friends are for, right?”

Penelope's face grew slightly teary eyed as she sniffed and looked away from him. Finally she just muttered in a strained tone, “Yeah, friends.”

But before the two could enjoy the moment any longer, Ferguson suddenly appeared between them, saying in a overly chipper voice, “Soooo, Slime do you maybe have something to say to Penelope?”

The Monster just blushed a dark green at the question, shooting Ferguson a pleading look not to do this to him but from the bright, encouraging grin the young royal was giving him he didn't seem to notice. Meanwhile, Penelope was giving him a confused look and Slime felt his nerve leave him all at once, now lacking the brain capacity to form a single word as her pretty eyes fried every braincell he had at once, leaving him dumb and awkward.

“Um, well, I-I-I-” he stuttered, trying to get the words out of his suddenly dry mouth (something he hadn't thought was even possible for him to have before now) with no success.

But before he could finish stumbling out any sort of confession, they heard a low growl up ahead, sounding dark and sinister. The three slowly turned to face forward at the exact same time, their eyes wide and their breathing nonexistent as they all feared the worst. But they could see nothing lurking in the darkness ahead and so allowed themselves to breath once again. “Wh-What was that?” Penelope asked her voice a quiver, moving till she was hiding slightly behind Slime.

“Must be the spider,” Ferguson observed in the most confident voice he could, despite the intense fear he felt coursing through his body, his legs shaking as they begged him to turn around and run away. He gasped as he saw at least a dozen pairs of red eyes appear farther down the tunnel, staring at them with a sinister glow.

Penelope took another step back, shaking her head rapidly before saying softly, “That's not a spider. At least not one I've ever seen.”

“Seriously?” Slime said in disbelief, but was unable to take his eyes off the thing, whatever it was, as a long spindly leg came into the torchlight and stepped forward closer to the three. He was finally able to peel his gaze away as he looked instead to Ferguson saying, “King Fergore, what should we do?”

“Heck if I know!” the boy replied, his voice a tight squeak.

“But I thought you said you lived for danger!” Slime shouted.

Ferguson shrugged, saying sheepishly, “Eh, I change my mind.”

“What?!”

“Quick Slime, call Star!” Penelope shouted at him.

“R-Right,” Slime said, reaching into his pocket and producing the walkie-talkie. But his movements were too quick and his nervousness made his hands extra slick, so all he ended up doing was dropping it onto the ground and fumbling to pick it up. Luckily it didn't break but his gooey hands for whatever reason could not lift it and he groaned in frustration. “Come on hands! Now is not the time!”

Penelope rushed over to help him but as soon as she dropped down to her knees, they heard a whirring sound from up ahead and both looked up just in time to see a giant web hurling toward them. The two only had time to scream and cling to each other in fear as the sticky web fell over their bodies, trapping them within.

…

Tom was taking deep calm breaths as he and Janna walked deeper and deeper into the creepy tunnel, Janna holding the torch the boy had lit for her as she marched ahead with no fear. She was smiling ear to ear, her eyes shining with intrigue and though Tom was extremely nervous and this was definitely not the look he had in mind while in this place, he couldn't help but admire the break from her normally cryptic and guarded face, usually the most he ever got from her was a smirk but this was a full on smile. Which didn't help with his general unease but it certainly made it at lot easier for him to keep walking.

He continued to take his calming breaths the way his anger management coach Brian had told him, keeping it at a steady rhythm with his footfalls. He would take a step and take a breath in and then step again and let the breath out. Step, breath in. Step, breath out. In and out. In and out. Over and over and over again.

“Tom,” Janna suddenly spoke up and he nearly jumped and twisted his ankle as he was mid-step when the mental solitude of his mind was invaded by her mischievous voice. He looked up at her, trying to hide his look of shock, as she just raised an eyebrow at him, a slight bit of concern hidden behind her eyes. “You okay?”

“Me,” he scoffed with a slight chuckle, putting on a relaxed persona. “What no, I'm fine. Better than fine really.”

Janna didn't seem convinced as she asked, “You sure your not freaked out over anything?”

“Nope,” Tom said with a shake of his head, plastering on the most calm and collected smile he could in the hopes of impressing her with his bravery. “The only thing I'm hoping for is that we get to face that spider so I can show him my moves.”

“Which is?” Janna asked, the smirk returning on her face and Tom felt a shudder run up his spine. Ugh, he really needed to stop doing that around her.

“You know, blasting it with fire...” he said as if he were about to start listing off all his special abilities, before realizing he had nothing more to add, leaving him to awkwardly trail off, “... and that's about it I guess.”

“Ahh that's all you really need,” Janna said. “Besides seeing you set things on fire is really cool.”

Tom smiled softly at her, his cheeks turning the slightest color pink and his cheek flames flickering. “Thanks, your pretty cool too,” he said, not sure what else to say to the compliment, he still got so few. But he closed his eyes and sucked in a breath, trying to work up the nerve to tell her what had been on his mind since the Blood Moon Ball, and he knew he would have to do it blind, because the second he would see her smirking face he would immediately lose his train of thought. Now all that was needed was finding the right way to bring it up and ask. “So, um, hey, about what you said before to that Slime guy... I-I've been meaning to ask you-”

Janna looked back over her shoulder as the boy spoke, seeing his eyes were closed and allowed her barriers to drop for a moment, revealing a blushing face and a warm, affectionate smile. Was he really gonna do it? She had been waiting for him to ask her, she wanted it to be him who took that step (plus she had been having a blast just flirting with him and part of her didn't want it to end too soon), and now that time may have finally come. She quickly turned back to staring ahead, not wanting him to accidentally seeing her blushing, but as she did she spotted something on the wall beside her and her eyes widened with recognition.

All other thoughts exited her mind as she just gaped open-mouthed at the sight, stepping quickly over and placing a hand on the intricate design carved tirelessly into the cave wall. It was like looking at the past, like a memory she had long forgotten, familiar and yet distant, just far enough away she couldn't quite recall the when and how. But at the same time, it was there in front of her, old and faded but still real and she traced her hand along the pattern just to be sure she wasn't imagining it. She had no idea how many years ago it had been since she had seen this, but it must have been tugging at the back of her mind for who knows how long, always trying to be remembered but never quite able to escape the fog. And now here it was, so seemingly insignificant and misleading that she had almost missed altogether.

Tom, meanwhile, was still trying to spit the words out of his mouth, keeping his eyes pressed closed as he spoke. “What I wanted to say to you was-” He swallowed hard, before trying a different approach. “Do you remember what happened at the Blood Moon Ball?” He groaned, face-palming himself while he openly berated himself. “Ugh, stupid. Of course you remember, you were there.” He cleared his throat before trying again. “What I'm trying to say is, Janna you are a one of a kind girl and you are also one of my only friends, so I guess what I'm trying to ask you, what I wanted to ask you was... d-do you like me as maybe more than a friend?” He paused waiting for her answer but was shocked and surprised when he received none. “Janna, do you know what I'm trying to say?” he asked, his brain spinning as he tried to make sense of the girls' quiet behavior. Maybe he had shocked her into silence? No, no, that couldn't be it. Nothing could do that to Janna, especially something he said. “Janna?” he asked again, but when he received no answer again, he finally decided to try peeking open his eyes.

But nothing could have prepared him for what he saw, freezing on the spot as he saw Janna staring at the wall with a weird look on her face and... wait, were those tears in her eyes? Was Janna crying? No she couldn't be, Tom's eyes had to playing tricks on him. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes to see if that would help, but when he looked again, he was greeted by the exact same sight, Janna staring at the wall with a distant and indescribable look on her face, while her eyes glazed over with unshed tears. “Uh, Jan, you okay?” he asked stepping closer to her, hesitantly reaching out a hand to put on her shoulder. The only answer he received though was a small sniff.

As he drew nearer though, he could see what it was she was looking at. It was some weird symbol he had never seen before, looking like it had been scratched into the wall by claws and yet the pattern was surprisingly intricate. It was a picture of a snake eating its own tail and to say Tom was shocked to see this was an understatement. At first glance, he thought Janna had made this herself but the longer he looked at it the more he realized it was too old, looking as if the marking had been on the cave wall for who knows how long. “What is that?” he asked, raising a confused eyebrow at it and at last Janna seemed to notice his presence once more as she turned to him.

“We have to go,” she said, sounding surprisingly axious as she quickly grabbed his arm and began dragging him away from the symbol and back the way they had come, not once looking back.

“What why?” Tom asked in surprise. “I thought we were supposed to finish searching the tunnel.”

“Trust me the spider is not down that way,” she said, with her typical crypticness, but now her voice seemed off, lacking that regular Janna nature that Tom had grown to know and... enjoy. Great now he was blushing again, just perfect. “In fact, I think I know what's really going on.”

“Wait you do?” Tom said, though he didn't know why he was shocked. This was all classic Janna protocol. The only thing off about any of this was her weird reaction to the snake carving and he was sure even that probably had some weird explanation behind it.

“Yep and now we need to warn Star,” Janna said calmly.

“About what? You maybe want to fill me in on what's going on?” Tom asked, his impatience and curiosity getting the better of him.

“Not really,” the creepy teen said, her typical teasing, cryptic behavior returning full force and Tom just smiled at her. Now that was his Janna. He didn't even care that she had just refused to answer his question or that he had failed to successfully ask her out. He was just enjoying being with her and at the moment that was all the really mattered to him.

…

Star and Marco cast weary glances around as they made their way down the newly named “Tunnel of No Return”, their hands incapable to squeezing any tighter as they sought comfort from their chosen companion. The only sound for a moment was from their heavy footfalls which only seemed to build on the eery effect the two were starting to feel and the low glow from Star's wand wasn't helping either as it simply refused to shine any brighter right now, making it very difficult for them to see anything in front of their faces. Which was why Marco was squinting down at the walkie-talkie, the back opened up to reveal a radar of sorts, but he was having trouble telling what he was even looking at at the moment. His eyes were beginning to hurt as he intensely watched the three pairs of dots on the screen for any movement, which Star had explained represented their companions' groups and them. “So see anything unusual?” Star asked her boyfriend, needing a break from the deafening silence.

“Not really,” Marco replied, not even looking up from the screen, too busy focusing on the tiny dots.

“Okay, that's good,” Star said, focusing her attention to the darkness ahead. But it never lasted long, since the fear of being eaten alive by a spider at any moment was not the main thing that was weighing heavily on Star's mind at the moment. She kept casting worried glances over at Marco, until finally she decided to ask, “Are you doing okay?”

Marco nodded, finally pulling his gaze away from the screen to give her a comforting smile as he replied, “I'm fine.”

“Cause y'know if you need to take a break-”

“No, I'm really good, no bad memories, I promise.”

Star nodded, looking relieved to hear that, but she quickly added, “Well if anything does surface, just let me know, okay?”

“Got it,” Marco agreed, giving her a thumbs up and a cute little smile.

The blond grinned over at her boyfriend, not missing the opportunity to gush over her boyfriend as she complimented him, “You're doing an amazing job, Marco. How are you holding up so well?”

“I think having a job to do is helping distract me from everything else,” Marco said thoughtfully, clearly trying to understand it himself. “I have something to focus on so I'm not just standing here remembering all the bad stuff, y'know.”

Star nodded. “Makes sense.” She giggled before adding, “It's still incredible though, seeing you face these fears. A few weeks ago you would have been a shivering mess if I had dragged you in here. You've come a long way, Marco.”

“Yeah I guess I have,” Marco agreed, looking proud and sure for a moment. But his gaze quickly jumped back to Star as he added, “And so have you. Your just as brave as I am, maybe even more.”

Star's cheeks flushed, her twin hearts beating in time to her own heartbeat, as she smiled shyly and began gently rubbing circles into the hand intertwined with hers, as she replied, “Well I don't know about that, but I guess we've both been doing a lot of growing up lately.”

The two locked eyes for a second, brown and blue shining with love and appreciation that was until they heard a heavy rumbling sound up ahead. Star and Marco both broke their gaze to stare at the tunnel, going on the defensive as Star held her wand out in case whatever was approaching was hostile. For a few tense seconds, they just listened with frazzled nerves as the sound grew more and more intense until it sounded like thundering footsteps, which only served to freak the two out all the more, as they clung tightly to each other. Both teens sucked in a breath as they waited for whatever dangerous foe was coming to emerge from the shadows. Until finally a tall and sturdy figure emerged from the dark, charging right at them.

Star and Marco screamed, the blond letting lose a spell to stop him in his tracks, “Honey Halting Explosion!” A burst of pink light later and the entire tunnel before them was now coated in sticky syrup, including a very perplexed looking rhino Monster, who was trapped in the substance from his shoulders down to his toes, only his face free and sticky-less. Marco gasped recognizing the Monster instantly as he shouted in relief, “Triceros!”

“Marco?” the Monster said in surprise.

The hooded teen, without thinking, threw his arms around the Monster in a hug, saying, “I didn't know you were part of the search party too? Oh man I'm so glad you're safe!”

“Marco you know this guy?” Star asked, stepping closer and lowering her wand some now that she knew it was safe.

The boy, still hugging his friend, nodded and replied, “Yeah, we met during my last visit.”

“Sure did and it's great to see ya again,” Triceros said cheerfully. He looked over at the blond and added, “And may I venture a guess and say that this pretty young thing is your girl.” Star flushed slightly at that.

“Oh yeah, Triceros this is-” Marco started his introductions but as he tried to pull away he found he was now stuck, his limbs glued to the Monster due to the sticky syrup. “Um, Star a little help?” he begged helplessly.

“Oh yes, if it isn't too much trouble, might I pester you to please remove all this sticky stuff off me,” Triceros added politely.

“Oh right, sorry,” Star quickly said, raising her wand and zapping away the honey holding Mewman and Monster together, allowing Marco to pull away and Triceros to stretch his limbs.

“Thank ya kindly, little miss,” the rhino said gratefully, leaning back until his back made a loud cracking sound, which caused the two teens to cringe. “Now then where were we?”

“Triceros this is my bestie and girlfriend, Princess Star Butterfly,” Marco said, gesturing over to Star, who did a cute little curtsey. “And Star this is Triceros.” Marco now swept an arm in the direction of the Monster who stood their stunned and open-mouthed.

“Well as I live and breath, the Princess of Mewni, didn't ever think I'd be meeting royalty in my lifetime,” the rhino Monster muttered, mostly to himself. But he raised his voice some as he spoke to the blond royal, “So, what brings you to a rundown place like this, Your Majesty.”

“Just Star is fine,” Star told him. “And at the moment we were looking for you and the other Monsters. Any idea where they are?”

“Nope, got separated from them after that beast attacked,” Triceros explained with a shake of his head. “Been wandering these tunnels lost ever since.” He gave them a suspicious look before adding, “But I'm surprised the mayor sent you kids in here instead of dealing with it himself.” There was a hint of anger in his voice at his leader's poor decision to risk the lives of mere children.

“Um, he did, acutally,” Marco hesitantly pointed out, Star next to him raising a suspicious eyebrow. “That's why we're here, he and the other guards went missing three days ago searching the mines.”

“The mayor is in here too!” Triceros shouted in surprise.

Star and Marco shared a look, before the blond asked, “You weren't with the mayor?”

“No sirree,” the rhino replied with a shake of his head. “Lost track of time so I don't know how long I've been in here but I can say I was with the original search party that was huntin' down Ludo.”

“Ludo?!” Star and Marco gasped at the same time, their jaws almost hitting the floor.

“Yeah, you didn't know that?” Triceros asked, looking between the two in astonishment.

“No, we just thought that you guys were in here because of the spider,” Marco squeaked out.

The rhino Monster shook his head, informing them, “These tunnels been abandoned for years, a spider inhabiting them don't make no difference to anyone. But the mayor had reason to believe this was where the little guy went to hide after his escape, so he asked for some volunteers to hunt him down. Naturally I agreed.”

“So this whole thing was really about Ludo?!” Marco asked, putting a hand to his aching head, trying to make sense of it all.

“Would seem that way,” Triceros agreed. Seeing the stunned expressions on the teen's faces, quickly added, “But if it makes you feel any better, the boys and I were about to give up on Ludo before that spider showed. Tracking him down was pretty much impossible.”

“Okkkaayyy, so what's the plan now?” Star asked thoughtfully, tapping a finger to her chin. Marco opened his mouth to reply until he heard a tiny beeping coming from inside his pocket and quickly whipped out the walkie-talkie, trying to see what was up. He felt his stomach twist with guilt for getting distracted from his task and allowing his friends to go unchecked as he now saw one of the dots moving back they way it had come, luckily the other was still in the same place he had left it, so he didn't have to worry about them, but his mind was having trouble remembering which dot was which. “Uh oh,” Marco muttered under his breath and he felt Star and Triceros move closer so the two could stare at the screen.

“What's this thing?” Triceros asked, looking down at the odd device with puzzlement.

“It's a device we made to help us keep track of our friends,” Marco explained, the look of worry never leaving his face.

“And why exactly is it beepin' like that?” Triceros questioned, unable to tell what any of it meant.

“Because one of them just completely changed course,” Star said all seriousness which alerted Triceros of just how important this situation was and decided to keep quiet and let the more experienced teens handle it. Star quickly turned to Marco and asked, “Which one is that?”

“I don't remember,” Marco replied, giving her a fearful and guilty look.

“Well we better go check on them,” Star said, pulling out her scissors, preparing to open up a portal, until Marco suddenly shouted, “Wait Star! They just vanished!”

“Wait what?!” Star screamed, grabbing the device out of his hands, before seeing with shock that there were indeed now only two dots on the screen. “No, no, no, no, where are they?!” Star screeched in worry. She pressed the button on the side and said loudly into it, “Hey, guys can you hear us? It's Star, is everything okay?”

Marco raised an eyebrow as he heard a distinct echo coming from his girlfriend's voice as she began to desperately beg for an answer. But his shock multiplied as he saw the dot resurface, right behind them and he blinked not sure if he was seeing correctly. And did he smell... smoke?

“Tom? Janna? Penelope? ANYBODY?!”

“We're right here Star, no need to yell,” a familiar voice called behind them, making Star and Triceros scream, while Marco just swerved around wide-eyed and smiling as he saw Tom and Janna standing there, a pillar of smoke rising up behind them, indicating how the two had gotten there so fast. “Tom? Janna? You're okay!” Marco shouted in joy, rushing over to hug his two friends, while Star and Triceros were just breathing heavily trying to recover from their shock. The blond especially was shooting her two friends death glares, even as they hugged her eager boyfriend back, Tom giving her a sheepish expression.

“What the heck guys, are you trying to scare me half to death!” she demanded, her hands on her hips.

“Are these some of your friends?” Triceros asked but his question fell on deaf ears.

“No, we were just in a hurry to get to you is all,” Janna replied with a small shrug.

“Then why didn't you answer me?” Star asked in disbelief and annoyance.

“Uh, we did just a couple seconds ago,” the creepy teen reminded her as Marco finally pulled out of the hug.

“Yeah, sorry, Star,” Tom apologized for the both of them. “Janna insisted we use my flame portal to get to you and they have really bad reception.”

“Okay but forget all that,” Janna said, urgently changing the subject. “We gotta go get Ferguson and the others, there is more going on here than we thought.”

“Ferguson?” Triceros muttered to himself, having no idea what was going on.

“Yeah, we know, Triceros just told us,” Marco spoke up helpfully, pointing behind him to the Monster, who was just staring between the Mewmans with a lost look. “But I really don't think Ludo would hurt the others.”

“Wait, Ludo's here?” Janna interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay seriously who is Ludo?” Tom asked in slight annoyance, but the others were ignoring him, too caught up in their conversation.

“You didn't know that?” Star questioned.

“Not until just now,” Janna admitted with a shrug.

“But wait, then if this isn't about Ludo than what are you talking about?�� Marco asked, giving her a puzzled expression.

Janna sighed and said in exasperation, “Well if you two would just let me finish instead of interrupting me every two seconds I could tell you.” She took in a quick breath before saying dramatically, “I don't think there is a spider. I think something else is behind all this.”

“Who?” the other teens asked at the same time.

…

Slime groaned, slowly peeking open his eyes, ignoring the pounding in his head or the heavy weight he felt on his chest, just trying his best to recall what exactly had happened to him. It was all drawing a blank at the moment, the last thing he could remember was a pair of bright green eyes staring at him and his racing heart as a result of the sight. But as the Monster slowly became aware of his surroundings once again, he noticed he was still encased in a net and the memories came flooding back to him. His heart stopped as he feared for the safety of not him, but of the princess he had been with before he was knocked out. “Penelope?” he groggily called, trying to sit up and look around but his head swam at the action. Still he managed to prop himself up on his drippy elbows and his eyes widened even more as he realized that the girl was currently still trapped in the net with him, laying unconscious against his chest and the Monster boy felt his cheeks heat up and his skin tingle at the touch.

“Welcome back, sleepyhead,” a voice called and Slime turned to see Ferguson laying upside down in his own net next to theirs.

“King Ferguson, wh-where are we?” the Monster asked, looking around him fearfully, they seemed to have been casually thrown into a corner, thankfully not suspended in the air in some web waiting to be drained of their blood, but still they were trapped and that alone was concerning.

“Don't know,” Ferguson replied with a shrug. “You should probably ask them.”

Slime raised an eyebrow at the cryptic answer, asking with slight exasperation, “Who?”

Suddenly a shadow fell over to the two as Ferguson gestured with his eyes up at their captures, saying simply, “Them.”

Slime followed the look only for his mouth to drop open at sight before him. A large metal spider stood before them, its mechanical head lowered at an awkward angle and Slime could see the red light bulbs that he had mistaken for eyes earlier. There was some kind of crystal thing in the center of its chest which seemed to be powering the machine. It was also old and worn, covered in rust and looking as if it had seen very little action over the many years. But that wasn't the craziest thing Slime was witnessing right now, that honor fell to the machines operators, a group of at least thirty rats. Some stood around the spider-mech or hung from it, squeaking to one another, while others sat in the control hatch that had opened up on its head, and still others were watching their prisoners wearily, keeping a sharp gaze on them with their beady little eyes.

“Rats,” Slime managed to spit out, everything about this situation throwing him into complete disarray. How was this happening? Why had a bunch of rats captured them? And most importantly, what the heck was going on?!

“Yeah, I know that's what I said,” Ferguson agreed.

“King Ferguson, what is going on?” Slime asked in shock.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” the chubby teen replied. “As far as I can tell, these guys are the source of all our troubles and now they're probably taking us back to eat us or something.”

“Then we need to warn Star, where's the walkie-talkie?” Slime asked looking around for the device.

“Oh yeah you guys dropped that after we got caught, its way back there,” Ferguson explained.

“What?!”

Slime's outburst seemed to have finally awakened the sleeping princess as the sound of Penelope's moans brought the two's attention onto her. She slowly peeked open her eyes, blinking a few times in confusion as she seemed to be struggling to remember what had happened to her. Finally she raised her head off of Slime's chest, her entire face now smeared with slime (not the side with the spider bite sadly), as she looked around numbly. She took everything in slowly, her still groggy mind struggling to process everything, first Slime and then Ferguson trapped in the net, then the giant spider and then the dozens of rats looming around them. Her eyes widened as she looked to Slime for some sort of explanation, one he had no way to provide. “Slime, what's going on?”

“We were actually just discussing that Penelope,” Ferguson helpfully supplied. “And I was just explaining to Slime that-”

There was a noisy squeaking next to them, drawing their attention onto the rat hovering over them, holding a toothpick as a weapon and waving it at them menacingly. At least it would be menacing if he wasn't adorable, Penelope and Slime both having to hold in the urge to coo at the cute creature as he continued what appeared to be a dramatic speech toward them. “What's he saying?” the girl asked her new friend.

“Don't know,” Slime responded and the rat just glared at them, realizing its message had gone unheard. It turned back to the others and squeaked something, before a whirring sound began coming from the spider-mech. “Oh no that can't be good,” the Monster commented worriedly.

The metal monstrosity sat up straight before stepping awkwardly over to them, the whole thing looking like it was close to malfunctioning. It leaned down in front of them, before going still once more. Before the teens could question the meaning behind this, suddenly they were swarmed by the rats all of them gathering underneath Penelope and Slime as they lifted them up and quickly hauled them over onto their machine. “Wait no, no don't!” Slime screamed, panic setting in as he realized that they were being kidnapped by a bunch of rats.

“Someone help!” Penelope cried as well but the rats paid no mind to the two as they were simply dropped onto the metal machine and the vermin tied the loose netting down, before the rats scampered over to Ferguson doing the same thing to him as he shouted out his complaints.

“Hey stop that! If you do this my wife will have all of your heads! She's very overprotective!” he was dropped unceremoniously next to Slime and Penelope who were both struggling to get free of the ropes.

The rats got back into their positions as the spider-mech came to life again and began a steady march down the dark tunnel. “Someone please help us!” Slime screamed, fear overpowering him at this point. He didn't want this to be his end, dying at the hands of some vermin, not after he had just met Penelope.

“Hey, let them go!” came a demanding voice behind them. The spider stopped and turned to look behind it to see Star and the others all glaring over at the machine, all in a battle ready stance.

“Star!” Slime cried in relief.

“We're saved!” Penelope added.

“Wow, Janna you were right, the rats really were behind this,” Marco commented to the beanie-wearing girl and she gave him a smooth smirk.

“Course I was right, I know my stuff,” Janna bragged proudly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Next to her though, Tom was stiff as a board, his body shuddering against his will as he stared into the beady red eyes of the fake spider.

The rats broke into a maddened series of squeaks, desperately pulling levers and pushing buttons in their tiny control room, the spider-mech responding to their imputed commands as it began crawling forward down the tunnel at a rapid pace, carrying the three hostages with it.

“Hey wait, come back!” Star shouted, her and Triceros running after the metal monster, the blond shooting spell after spell after it, trying her best to bring it safely to a halt. Marco and Janna started to follow after but came to a stop as they noticed that Tom hadn't moved an inch, his eyes still wide and unblinking.

“Tom, come on, the others need our help,” Marco called, hoping to will his friend into action.

“No, no, I'm good. You guys go on ahead of me, I'll... catch up,” the boy managed out, his voice a nervous whimper which set off all sorts of alarms for Marco. He had never seen his friend so freaked out and panicked before.

“What are you talking about?” Janna asked, giving him a skeptical look. “I thought you said you were gonna blast that thing to bits the moment you saw it.”

“Well, I, uh, don't want to hurt the others,” the boy weakly argued, his darting eyes conveying his dishonesty.

Marco and Janna shared a look, before the hooded teen asked his friend sympathetically, “Tom, are you afraid of spiders?”

Tom's eyes widened for a second, before he quickly scoffed and tried to awkwardly play this off. “What no of course not? I mean I'm from the Underworld nothing should scare me, right? Just because it's huge and creepy and it's eyes look like its trying to devour my soul.” The boy's voice became more and more panicked with every word, as he shuddered violently. Finally, seeing the knowing looks on his friend's faces confessed, “Okay, fine! Yes I'm afraid of spiders!”

“Well then why didn't you say something sooner?” Janna asked him and he gave her a sheepish look.

“Because... I wanted to impress you,” he softly admitted, his voice so low that the two barely heard him.

“Look Tom it's okay that you're afraid,” Marco reassured his friend, giving him a sympathetic smile. “Heck, I've been afraid since we got here. But right now Star needs us and we have to be there for her.” He offered the boy his hand, saying, “So what do you say? Let's face our fears together.”

Tom smiled, reaching out a hand and grabbing Marco's and then Janna's, who had offered her own hand to take. He looked back and forth between the two, gratefully, before his face hardened into a confident grin his cheek marks now burning bonfires. “Okay, then hang on!”

“Hang on to wha-Ahhhhh!” Marco's question turned to a scream as Tom launched himself forward, using the flames under his feet to help him achieve flight, dragging the two teens behind him, his hands still locked with theirs. Marco yelled in pure terror as they zipped recklessly down the tunnel, while Janna was shouting in delight, enjoying every second of the experience. “All right, you go Tom! I know you had it in you!”

Tom was grinning ear to ear at the praise from the beanie-wearing girl, making his resolve all the stronger and his flames burn all the hotter as they gained more speed, as they quickly covered the distance lost between them and the fleeing spider.

Star was groaning in exasperation as she flung spell after spell at the thing, but the rats were quick to counter, the spider maneuvering its way around everything she threw at it, all the while the three teens screamed their heads off as were jerked here and there with every rough turn the robot they were tied down to made. “Dang it!” she screamed in frustration as her narwhal blast missed, crashing into the side of the wall instead of the spider-mech's mechanical limbs.

“If I might make a suggestion, young one?” Triceros spoke up.

“Yes anything!” Star screamed over to him.

“How 'bout you use that spell you did on me earlier?” the Monster proposed and Star's face brightened into a grin.

“Great idea!” she cried, waving her wand around like she had earlier and shouting, “Honey Halting Explosion!” A bright pink gleam from her wand lit up the tunnel for a second before a blast of syrup was flung into the air, heading right for the spider. One of the rats squeaked a warning and a few hasty button presses later, the spider-mech quickly crawled up the side of the wall, the spell splashing harmlessly against the wall. “Oh come on!” Star yelled in frustration.

But suddenly she heard a new high-pitched scream echoing through the tunnels, one she instantly recognized as her boyfriend and her and Triceros turned just in time to see Tom, Marco, and Janna, streak past them with a burst a flame. “Don't worry Star we got this!” Tom confidently shouted down to his friend, who just gaped open-mouthed at them.

“Whaaaa?” Star muttered in response to the strange sight.

“Huh? Well there's somethin' you don't see everyday,” Triceros commented.

“Tom, wait, we're heading right for it!” Marco screamed to his friend in warning.

“That's the plan!” Tom replied, his arrogant air incapable of being shattered. Then to make matters worse he immediately blurted out directions to the two, “Okay I'll stall, you get the others,” before tossing them at the spider, Marco letting out a loud scream before crashing hard on the spider-mech's back, Janna landing smoothly next to him. He let out a pained groan before he felt his body slipping down the side and his fingers scrambled to find a hold on the rusted metal. But his wrists were grabbed by Janna, who pulled him away from the side, so that the boy could at the very least sit without having to fear falling off. The two quickly made their way over to Ferguson, Slime and Penelope who all greeted them with relieved and grateful faces.

While Marco and Janna worked to untie their friends, Tom was flying in front of the spider, yelling threats and insults at it to try and keep the attention on him. “Hey ugly! That's right, you big bucket of bolts, you may be giant and creepy and.. really, really terrifying...” The boy's voice hitched on the last word, but he took in a sharp breath to calm his racing nerves. “...But guess what. None of that matters. Cause I made a promise and I'm gonna keep it.”

Janna looked up from her work for a second, locking eyes with Tom, before his eyes turned red and he gathered up a fireball in his hands, shooting it directly at the spider robot's face and into the control room. The blast hit its target as the control room caught aflame, the rats scrambling to escape, jumping out of the doomed machine and onto the safe ground. But a few of them landed in the outstretched nets Janna and the newly freed Ferguson were holding over the edge of the spider, trapping them inside. “Got ya!” Janna yelled, before sharing a high-five with the chubby king.

Marco had just unraveled the last knot that still held Slime and Penelope trapped when he caught a whiff of smoke and the metal he was sitting on began to heat up. He looked around and noticed that flames were now consuming the entire inside of old machine and he quickly shouted to the others, “Uh guys, I think we need to get off!”

Janna and Ferguson noticed this and did just that, jumping off of the spider without a second thought, tumbling to the ground. Marco helped remove the last of the net from Slime and Penelope before they too dove off the side. The thing continued on for a few more feet before falling over and exploding into a thousand pieces. The group all shielded their eyes from the bright flash, before looking over to see a pile of smoking rubble where the spider-mech once stood.

“Wooo, we did it!” Tom shouted in victory, still suspended in the air as he pumped his arms up and down. “Take that fears! Aw, man that was so exhilarating! I don't even know what I was afraid of, I should just blow up all my problems from now on!”

“That's what I've been telling you,” Janna called to him, as she picked herself back up, wiping the dirt off her clothes.

“Marco, Marco!” came Star's scream from farther down the tunnel as her and Triceros caught up to group. She ran straight into Marco's arms, her momentum nearly making him fall over as she just clung to him tightly. “Oh my gosh, I was so worried!” she admitted, her voice getting chocked up for a second. But as quickly as she had started the hug, she pulled out of it, looking around at the rest of the group as she asked, “Is everyone okay?”

“Uh, we're better than okay, Star,” Ferguson told her confidently.

“I just blew up a robot spider!” Tom exclaimed loudly.

“And we just caught our culprits,” Janna added, as the boy next to her produced the rats wrapped up tightly and unhappily in the net.

“We almost died,” Penelope deadpanned, not looking amused by any of this, Slime looking traumatized beside her.

“Awww, yeah, now your one of us,” Marco said sweetly, giving the shy princess and the startled Monster a quick hug.

“Um, hey guys?” Star said nervously, gaining the group's attention as she pointed back the way they had come. They all looked to see the group of rats glaring daggers at them, several of them with singed fur and soot covered bodies. The look in their beady eyes could kill on contact, as Star hesitantly added, “I think we made them mad.”

Tom scoffed, landing next to the girl. “Big deal, we can take these little guys,” he said confidently, his fists now surrounded in flames.

The group got into a battle stance (all except Slime and Penelope who hung back not wanting to get involved), as they prepared to face off against the vile rodents, who all pulled out their pointy toothpicks, ready for battle. For a few tense seconds, Star's group and the rats just squared off, sending intimidating looks their way as they all got ready for the intense fight that was sure to break out. But just as the rats released a battle cry, beginning their charge and Star and Tom prepared to blast the vermin with magic and fire, an authoritative voice called out, “What is going on here?!”

Both groups froze, simultaneously turning to see Mayor Butch staring at them with a skeptical look, his eyebrow raised to show his dissatisfaction, though to who it was aimed at was anyone's guess. “Mayor Butch!” Slime, Marco, and Triceros all shouted as one. “You're okay?” Slime added.

“Of course I'm okay. Now could any of you please explain to me what you are doing here?” the bulldog pressed.

“We came here looking for you since you never showed up for our arrival,” Star explained, stepping forward.

“Ah yes, was that today?” Butch muttered thoughtfully. “My apologies. It is easy to lose track of time in here. And am I to assume you are Princess Star?”

“That's me,” the girl said brightly.

The Monster mayor bowed, before saying, “A pleasure to meet you at last.” He spotted Triceros and said, “Ah, Triceros they you are, we were worried about you. Glad to see you still alive and kicking.”

“Yes sir, boss, I'm as right as rain,” the rhino Monster said, saluting his boss. “Though a bit confused of what exactly is going on.”

“Well that's understandable,” Butch replied with curt nod, before looking over to the rats, who were giving him looks ranging from sheepish to confused. “Now then, it would seem my new companions have gotten off on the wrong foot with you all.”

“Wait, these rats are working for you?” Star asked in surprise.

“But they tried to kidnap us!” Ferguson exclaimed, holding up the net still containing several of the rats.

“Yes, that was my mistake,” Butch admitted, as the lead rat scampered over to him, climbing onto his shoulder and whispering something into his ear. “I told them to keep everyone away unless they found them to be suspicious, which it would seem they found a few of you to be.” He looked around for a moment, before saying, “Speaking of which, where exactly is the spider-mech?”

Tom blushed as all the rats pointed to the hot-headed teen. “Um, yeah, it kinda... exploded.”

Butch's eyes narrowed as he let out an annoyed hum. “Hmm, well that is unfortunate.” But he quickly shrugged, waving the whole thing off as he said instead, “Oh well no sense dwelling on the past.” He turned on his heels and started down one of the tunnels. “Now all of you please come with me, I'll explain everything back at the base.”

The group all shared a look, asking, “Base?” before shrugging and following along behind him. Ferguson heard a noisy squeaking from the net and looked down to see the rats glaring up at him, getting restless being kept in the tight space. “All right fine, I'll let you go. But you better not pull a stunt like that again,” he said in a warning tone before releasing the rats from the confining space, all of them scampering ahead, one even stopping to stick its tongue out at the Mewman boy, which only made him growl in anger. “Geez ungrateful much,” he muttered harshly under his breath.

…

It turned out the base Butch was talking about was actually the rat's village, where the missing Monsters were already gathered, along with the now friendly vermin. The group was all seated around the tiny houses as thousands of pairs of eyes watched them curiously, the commission members trying not to look too uncomfortable or awkward in this situation. Although they tried to look busy it was obvious where their real focus was and that was just making the whole group feel all the more tense. The rats tried to lighten the mood some by offering them a drink but all of them quickly declined not trusting a drink coming from creatures who seemed to eat garbage. Marco kept noticing a certain rat with an eye patch giving him bizarre looks which was really starting to creep him out, but he did his best to ignore it and focus on Mayor Butch as he explained the situation to them. “So wait the spider was just a diversion?” Star asked incredulously, gaping openly at the Monster's story.

“Yes, we figured it would be the best way to keep prying eyes from discovering our true intentions.

“Which is finding Ludo right?” Marco asked and the mayor turned to him with surprise.

“That's right, though I'm surprised you know about that.” He sent Slime a narrowed glare, who's face paled into a sickly lime green color. “I-It wasn't me I swear!” the Monster teen shouted, waving his arms fearfully in front of himself.

“Actually, I told the younguns sir,” Triceros admitted. “Didn't think it'd hurt them to know.”

Butch sighed, crossing his arms behind his back, before saying, “Yes, I suppose it doesn't. Very well, I'll let it slide this time.”

“Thank goodness,” Slime muttered to himself, his face flooding with relief. For a minute there he thought he was going to be fired.

“So if you don't mind me asking sir, but why include the rats in on this if this mission was so secretive?” Star asked him hesitantly.

“Well, at first it was just gonna be me and my Monsters but these tunnels are so hard to navigate that we realized searching that way was just a waste of time. That's when the rats appeared. At first we got off on the wrong foot and they just scared us off using that spider robot of theirs, though I have no idea how or where they got it from.” He looked over at the rats, who all refused to budge, giving him looks that told him their lips were sealed. “Anyways, when we told Buff Frog what was going on he suggested we use the rats to help us hunt down Ludo.”

“Wait my dad?” Marco gasped in surprise.

“Yep, apparently he and the rats have a mutual agreement and he pulled some strings to get them to help us out on our search.”

“Guess dad is always full of surprises,” Marco muttered to himself.

“And how exactly could they help?” Tom asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“Well for starters,” Janna said, elbowing the boy in the arm. “They know these tunnels better than anyone and they are perfect for tracking down anything you want to find on Mewni.”

“Exactly,” Butch agree, giving the girl a complimenting smile.

“So any luck?” Star pressed, trying not to let her eagerness shine through.

Butch regretfully shook his head. “Sadly no. Even the rats couldn't find him. Ludo seems to have just vanished off the face of Mewni.”

Star and Marco shared a worried look, both concerned about Ludo being on the loose. He continued to pop up and cause trouble for them, they needed to catch him before one of schemes ended up damaging their standing with the MHC. “So what now?” Marco asked the Monster mayor.

Butch sighed and crossed his arms, looking like he was dreading the question. “Now, we have no choice but to wait. As much as I hate to admit defeat, Ludo has given us all the slip and we've already wasted enough of our time and resources trying to hunt him down. The only way we'll see that traitor again is if he makes the first move himself.”

“Well then,” Star spoke up, trying to put as much confidence and enthusiasm into her voice as she could. “We'll just have to be ready for when he does.”

“Well spoken, Your Highness,” Butch complimented and the other Monsters nodded in agreement.

“So then, think its time we finally head back to Hydra's Point, I'm sure theirs still a lot of work that needs to be done,” Marco suggested cheerfully, trying not to sound too desperate to leave the dark mines. He had already faced his fears and then some, he figured that was enough bravery for one day. It was time to leave. He nearly sighed in relief as Butch nodded his head, a bright smile on his normally serious face.

“That sounds like an excellent idea, Marco Diaz!” Butch said and the Monsters all cheered in relief, ready to be freed from the dark, confining space as well. The mayor turned to the rats with a serious expression as he commanded, “Please inform us if any of you find any signs of Ludo.”

The rats all nodded and watched as the group headed for the exit, before going back about their work as usual, revealing in the delicious corn meal they had to look forward to as their payment.

…

As the gang finally made it back into town they were greeted by Lily who waved to them as they approached, saying, “Welcome back everyone! I see you found our missing Monsters.” She gave each of the Monsters a bright grin, causing several of them to blush.

“Yep, everyone is safe and accounted for,” Star said.

Lily clapped her hands together once, saying cheerfully, “That's wonderful to hear!”

“And who are you, my dear?” Butch politely questioned.

“Oh where are my manners?” Lily quickly said, curtsying slightly. “I'm Lily Butterfly, Star's aunt and general consultant for the MMPC. A pleasure to meet you Mayor Butch.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Milady,” the bulldog replied with a respectful bow.

“Sorry we took so long,” Star quickly apologized, giving her aunt a sheepish grin. “We ran into a couple of... hiccups.”

“Not to worry, we handled things quite well while you were gone,” Lily reassured her niece.

“How much more work do we have left?” Marco asked, cocking his head to the side curiously.

“Actually we were just finishing up,” Lily said, raising a finger into the air.

Several of the teens gave her disbelieving looks, Star blurting out, “What?”

“How did you get so much work done without us?!” Tom added skeptically.

“Well we had a little extra help,” Lily explained cryptically.

“Who?” Marco asked.

Lily gestured over toward the center of town, saying, “See for yourselves.”

The group of teens took a few steps forward, creeping closer until they had a good look at the town square, all of them gasping in surprise at what they saw. There, in the center of the Monster village stood a large food truck, the words Fang Tangs written on its side. Kelly, Tad still ever on her head, was making dishes of food, which was then being distributed to the Monsters via the commission members and a few of the restaurant’s waitresses. Roy was supervising the whole thing, carrying around the same promotional sign from last time. The little goblin must have noticed them as he waved and called out to them, “Well hey there, Star, Marco, and... others who I don't know.”

“Hey Roy!” Marco shouted cheerfully.

“What's Roy doing here?” Tom asked Lily.

“Well actually you can thank-” the older woman began only to be cut off as Pony flew into view with a cocky grin.

“You can thank me for it, T!” Pony shouted.

“Pony this was your doing?” Star asked in surprise.

“Yep it was all my idea, girlfriend,” Pony bragged.

“That's pretty surprising,” Tom muttered and Penelope, Ferguson and Janna all nodded in agreement.

Pony ignored the comment, instead saying proudly, “I called them in when I realized you all were off goofing around...”

“We weren't goofing around. We were looking for the missing Monsters, remember?” Marco corrected her.

“Yeah I was mostly goofing off,” Janna admitted with a shrug.

“Uh huh, that's what I said,” the unicorn head said with disinterest. “So anyways, after you left I remembered that I still had Roy's number since I'm going to star in his upcoming commercial and he agreed to come and help out. I figured this way he gets to promote his restaurant, since charity work is reaaaallly good for your image, and we get some help to get this food out fast so the Monsters don't have to wait a million years.”

“Wow, Pony, that's actually really mature of you,” Star said, trying and failing to hide her disbelief toward her normally egotistical friend.

“That's what I said,��� Lily whispered to her niece, leaning in closer so Pony wouldn't hear.

“Yeah I guess, y'know, I'm just growing up and maturing into a better person and all that junk,” Pony stated, looking bored as she stared off into space. But finally she focused in on her friends again as she asked, “So what happened with you guys?”

“Well we found the Monsters,” Marco said, pointing behind him to where Butch and the others were, all of them going over to try some of Fang Tang's food, except for Slime who stuck close to the group of Mewmans.

“I almost died!” Penelope whispered in fear, her eyes wide and her cheek marks dark purple again with the terror she was still reliving.

“I blew up a spider!” Tom proudly proclaimed.

“Ahhh nice, T!” Pony shouted in appreciation of her friend, bumping his shoulder with her body. “You guys need to tell me everything! So long as it's not boring, leave the boring parts out.”

As the group began explaining to their horse friend what all had happened in the mines (making sure to leave out anything they thought she would deem boring as well as changing a few details to hide the true identity behind the spider) Penelope silently excused herself, going over to sit on a nearby bench to get a breather, needing a break from all the socializing to get a proper hold of her wild and out-of-control thoughts. She wasn't exactly the most social butterfly as it was, and after everything that had went down in the mines she just wanted a few moments of peace alone to let herself process.

Slime noticed her leave out of the corner of his eye and for a moment just watched her as she leaned her head back on the bench looking up at the darkening sky. Her felt something tap his arm and looked over to see Marco was elbowing him, giving him an encouraging grin, “You should go over there and talk to her.”

“I don't know,” Slime said, a blush lighting up his cheeks. “What if she doesn't want to talk right now? Or what if I mess it up again?”

“You'll be fine,” a new voice said from his other side, now noticing it was Star. The group had apparently broke off their conversation when they overheard the two boys. “Just do what comes natural.”

“No, no, what he needs to do is try and act sly, like you don't really care one way or the other,” Ferguson suggested.

“Tell her something about yourself that will impress her, that always works,” Pony advised the Monster boy.

“Just tell her how you feel,” Lily encouraged.

“What you need to do is be cool, don't do or say anything embarrassing,” Tom pitched in.

“Ask her how many spiders she's seen up close,” Janna added.

Tom gave her a skeptical look. “How will that help him ask her out?”

“It won't, I'm just curious,” Janna admitted with a shrug.

Slime meanwhile, was looking more and more lost and nervous with every new suggestion, his eyes wide and his body beginning to tremble as he became overwhelmed on what to say to the girl. His breathing was fast becoming heavy as he tried to keep his racing heart calm but with no success, as his nagging fears got the best of him, making him question his every movement.

“Guys,” Star finally interrupted the others, bringing Slime back to reality and saving him from their mixed up advice. “He doesn't need to do any of that,” she told them, giving them a scolding glare before turning to Slime with a bright grin, taking his gooey hands into her own. “Look you got this. All you have to do is be yourself.”

“Yeah, just be her friend. Let her get to know the real you,” Marco added, with a supportive smile.

“The real me,” Slime repeated softly, an idea springing into his head. He smiled brightly as he said, “I know what I need to do.”

“Then go do it,” Star encouraged, giving him a gentle push in Penelope's direction. Slime swallowed hard as he looked over to the pretty Mewman, but he kept a confident grin on his face as he walked over to her. The moment he reached the bench, the girl not noticing since her eyes were now close, he felt his nerves start to give, as his knees began shaking slightly, but as he looked back he saw the others giving him a thumbs up and he felt his courage return as he turned back to the girl and cleared his throat.

Penelope opened her eyes and looked over at him with a startled look. Slime swallowed hard as her cheeks marks glowed a soft orange. “Um, hey i-is it okay if I sit here?” he asked sheepishly.

He expected her to turn him away and tell him she wanted to be alone so he was caught off guard when she instead responded with a small smile and a quick, “Sure, go ahead.” Slime was grinning ear to ear at the response, waiting for her to scoot over some to make room for him before taking the seat next to the shy princess.

Once he was situated, the Monster teen cleared his tight throat and said, “So uh I was thinking about what you said earlier in the mine, y'know before the whole...” he cut himself off as Penelope cringed and he decided it would be best to just get to the point. He coughed once in his squishy hand to try and hide his nervousness, before saying, “Anyways, I noticed how insecure you seem about that spider bite on your head...” Penelope absentmindedly reached up a hand to cover it, her cheeks flushing pink but didn't say anything. “...and well I think I might be able to help.”

The girl's eyes widened, hope filling them as she leaned forward some rapidly exclaiming, “You can! H-How?!”

“My slime,” the monster explained, holding up a drippy arm. “It kinda works as a healing salve, it can treat some minor stuff like a scratch or a sunburn. I'm not a hundred percent sure it will work, but I figured it was worth a try... if you wanted to that is.”

“Yes, yes, yes, please try it!” Penelope shouted eagerly, grabbing his hands into hers, making the Monster boy's whole body tense.

“Okay then,” Slime said, pulling his arm free, raising a gooey hand up to the girl's spider bite and coating the entire thing in his self-produced slime.

The others who were watching this whole display, gasped in shock at what the Monster was doing, Tom asking in confusion, “What's he doing?”

“Oh no, the boy has completely lost his mind, he's smearing his hand all over her face!” Pony cried panickingly, looking ready to rush over there and stop him from ruining his chances anymore than he already had. “Abort, abort!”

Star and Marco, however, were completely calm as they watched Slime's action, hovering close together as they waited with eager anticipation for how this would all play out. Even though they were fairly sure they already knew. “Guys, he's got this,” Star reminded them, trying to calm her freaked friends out of their frenzy.

“Uh, are you not seeing what we're seeing B-fly?” Pony asked, clearly bewildered by Star's reaction.

Star nodded, saying brightly, “Yes I am, but I think you guys are the ones missing the big picture.”

The others (excluding Lily who had also picked up on what was going on) shared a look, before Ferguson said, “Uhhh, and what exactly is that.”

“Just keep watching and you'll see,” Star replied instantly.

Marco just sighed, his eyes shimmering as he said, “Yeah, otherwise your gonna miss the best part.”

Slime held his breath, staring at the bump as he tried to will it away, praying his slime would be enough to make it go away. And after a few seconds that felt like an eternity, he breathed a sigh of relief as it slowly began shrinking in size. In less than a minute it was completely gone, leaving no trace it had ever been there to begin with. Penelope reached up a hand and gently felt the area where the bite once was and her eyes grew in size. “I-It's gone,” she whispered in disbelief. “It's actually gone!”

“Yeah I guess it worked,” Slime agreed bashfully.

“Oh my gosh, Slime thank you so, so much! I-I don't know what to say!” Penelope cried, her voice chocked up with emotions and her eyes showing the tiniest glimmer of tears. “I can't believe you really did this for me! You have no idea how incredible this was!”

“Well, y'know what are friends for?” the Monster replied, humbly.

Tears actually were falling now as Penelope hugged the boy tightly, bringing him in close to her as she joyfully shouted, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're my hero, Slime!”

The boy blushed vividly at that, his cheeks turning the darkest shade of green possible as he just froze up, not sure what to do. Should he hug her back or stay still, the more he moved the more of his slime she was going to get on her and he already felt bad since she was now covered in it already. “Um, Penelope, your dress,” he tried to remind her against his better judgment since he was absolutely loving the hug, his body flooding with warmth and happiness every second that passed.

“I don't care,” she said, only seeming to hold him tight. “I love your slime! It's like the greatest thing in the world to me right now!”

Slime was caught genuinely off guard by this, the word 'love' sending shock waves to his brain as it turned to mush. A big goofy grin settled on his face as he slowly raised up his arms and hugged her back now losing himself completely to the affectionate act, every second becoming a lasting memory in his brain.

“Awwww!” Star and Marco gushed as they watched the two teens hugging, their bodies now squished together as they held hands, their cheeks touching making their marks light up. “That is so sweet!” Star cooed.

“I'm so proud right now,” Marco chocked out, his eyes beginning to well with tears. “They look so happy together.”

The others were left dumbfounded though, their mouths hanging open in shock as Ferguson sputtered in disbelief, “That actually worked!”

Pony shot the young couple a disbelieving stare, asking, “How the heck did you two know that was going to work?”

“Well I thought it was obvious,” Marco said simply with a small shrug.

“Yeah I mean, he just did what any good friend would do, he made her feel better in his own way,” Star added, amazed that the others hadn't been able to guess that.

“Did you guys really not see that?” the boy asked.

“Oh I did,” Lily spoke up, waving a finger in the air. “But then again I've had more experience at romance than any of you.”

The others all blushed or muttered awkwardly to themselves, coughing into their hands to try and cover up their embarrassment. Star and Marco smiled proudly, before the blond taunted, “Well looks like we aren't the clueless couple after all, cause we just figured it all out before any of you guys.”

Her and Marco shared a high five, the hooded boy shouting, “Yeah! Not hopeless after all!”

“Okay fine, you win this round,” Janna said with a shrug. “But remind me again, how long did it take you two to realize you had feelings for each other?” Star and Marco blushed at this, going silent and looking away, and Janna just crossed her arms with a victorious smile. “Yeah that's what I thought.”

“Well I don't know about you guys but after all that, I think it's time we celebrate!” Pony shouted, her horn sparking as some fireworks went off over her head.

“I suppose a little party is well deserved at this point, you've all earned it after all,” Lily said thoughtfully and Pony's eyes shimmered in gratitude.

“Yeah so long as it isn't anything too intense,” Star agreed.

That was all Pony needed to hear as she shouted over at her boyfriend, “Awww, yeah, hit it Seahorse, its time to kick this party into overdrive!”

“Right away, Pony,” Seahorse said, before hitting a button on his mirror phone and suddenly giant speakers appeared around them, blaring loud techno music and bright beams of colored lights began streaming and flashing around the town, leaving the Monsters baffled to what exactly was going on.

Star just shot Pony a glare, Marco from next to her was covering his ears, as she shouted, “Pony I said nothing too intense!”

“What was that girl, I can't hear you!” Pony yelled back, already dancing to the music.

“How did you even get all this set up?” Star asked in exasperation.

“Oh I had Seahorse working on it while everyone was busy,” the horse head replied innocently.

“How did I not notice that?” Lily whispered to herself.

“Anyways, relax B-Fly you heard your aunt we earned it! So come on, let loose and live a little!” Pony encouraged and Star finally sighed and gave in.

“Fine, but turn the music down some, before you end up busting someone's eardrums!”

“Ohhh thanks girl you won't regret it!” the sarcastic unicorn shouted before flying away to go enjoy the party, encouraging the Monsters and Mewmans to start dancing with her, which after some prodding she got. Ferguson and Lily shrugged before going over to join them, the former immediately busting out an embarrassing move which made Alfonso hide his face and wish to just disappear right there, while the latter started flirting with a very flustered looking Triceros. Slime and Penelope had finally broken off their hug and were talking and laughing from their bench, unaware of the world turning. Star and Marco shared a look, before the boy dropped down into a goofy bow saying, “May I have this dance, M'lady?”

“Why of course you can, kind sir?” Star responded back in a fake British accent, doing an over-the-top cutesy, before the two busted out laughing. But they quickly started dancing for real, gliding smoothly and perfectly in sync with one another.

Which left Tom and Janna alone, the boy sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to figure out what to say. But he decided to just go for it as he cleared his throat and said, “Uh, hey, I just wanted to say that it was really incredible the way you figured out that the rats were the ones behind all that.”

Janna shrugged. “Well it is kinda my job to know all the weirdness that Mewni has to offer.”

“Right, right,” Tom agreed, before asking hesitantly, “But how did you know?”

For a split second he thought he saw Janna's armor crack again, as for just an instance her eyes widened and all the emotion she was keeping bottled up surfaced on her face. But in the blink of an eye it was gone again, replaced instead with the same cocky smile Tom had come to associated with the beanie-wearing girl, though it seemed forced this time. She punched him in the arm, letting out a slight chuckled as she said playfully, “I don't give away my secrets for free y'know.”

Tom decided to play along and said, “Okay fine then, what do you want me to do?”

“Well you can start by getting us something to eat and then maybe we can finish that dance you owe me,” the girl replied with a wink.

The boy blushed but actually kept his calm as he just laughed and said cheerfully, “Okay fine, I guess I can accept those terms. I'll be back.” He started walking over toward the food truck, before Janna quickly called his attention back and he gave her an confused look.

“You were incredible too, by the way. You really are as brave as they come, Tom,” Janna complimented, sounding surprisingly open in that moment, while also giving him an odd, hard to decipher look.

Tom just smiled and said, “You have no idea how great that is to hear coming from you.” And with that the boy left, silently squealing to himself for impressing the girl of his dreams and actually succeeding at a conversation with her for once. Not to mention that they were on a technical date now... okay not officially but he was allowed to dream, alright!

Janna watched him go, before her mask completely fell away, showing all the emotion and insecurity she was trying to hide as she remembered the symbol she had seen back in the mine. It had stuck in her mind, she didn't think it would ever leave now that it was there, leaving her in a tough spot and with a big choice to make.

The young Impure looked around, checking to make sure nobody was looking her way, before gently peeling back her sleeve. And there perfectly engraved on her tanned skin was a tattoo of a snake, its body circled back around to its tail, as if it was trying to ingest itself.

[nahgemxo]

Kim Possible live action movie review

Booyah! The live action Kim Possible movie premieres today on Disney Channel, and last night I found it available on demand. I grew up watching Kim Possible, and I absolutely loved it! In fact, the show inspired me to join a local Pop Warner cheerleading team when I was 8; I cheered for 10 years and was co-captain of my high school's varsity cheerleading squad during my senior year. Naturally, I was curious to see what the live action has to offer, so I watched it & jotted down my thoughts. Here there are in a very long review:

The movie starts on Kim and Ron's first day of high school. This makes me more appreciative of the fact that the head of casting choice chose Sadie and Sean to play Kim and Ron. Sadie and Sean are respectfully 16 and 18, and the look like actual high school students.

The special effects are okay. Definitely not top notch, but it's ok considering it is a made-for-television kids' movie.

This version of Kim Possible has definitely been updated for modern day audiences. For example, Ron has a smart phone & live streams their entrance into Middleton High School. Another example is how the replaced the kimmunicator was replaced with a glowing necklace that projects a hologram of Wade. Considering that today's smartphones resemble kimmunicators, this is not a big surprise. The point of the kimmunicator was for Kim to have high tech exclusive technology to reach Wade, so keeping the original kimmunicator would not fulfill its original purpose.

The writers try to appease fans of the original show by including elements of nostalgia. Some of the lines from the original series are recited, the Middleton High sign has puns relating to the plot, and some of the original cast members are included in the movie.

Producers paid close attention to the feedback they received on the internet and took these comments into consideration. For example, there is a scene in the original cartoon where Shego is filing her nails. This does not make sense because her nails are under her gloves. However, the costume designers include nails on Shego's gloves in the live action movie to eliminate this problem. Another example is when Kim (Sadie) address the outfit change in a comical yet casual manner. The internet was in (a bit of) an uproar when the new mission outfit was revealed; thankfully writers took the time to address the change.

Shego and Drakken look like grown adults in the live action movie. In the cartoon, Shego could have passed as a young adult (or even a teenager). At least in the live action, the writers made the age gap between Team Possible, Dr. Drakken, and Shego very apparent.

Fans of the original cartoon may remember the clues that writers would disperse in each episode or movie that ultimately lead up to the plot's finale. Writers accomplished this through the usage of symbolism and clever dialogue. (So the Drama, for example, had bits and pieces of Drakken's master plan spread out throughout the plotline.) My advice to people who watch the live action: pay attention because the writers uphold this reputation.

The plot had been modified for a 1 hour and 30 minute movie that essentially introduces the next generation to Kim Possible. With that said, some changes were made to fit those parameters. Some of the changes worked nicely (i.e. Rufus' origin story, Barkin's new obsession, and Nana Possible's home location.)

The original cartoon incorporated real teenage emotions & dilemmas into its storylines. The live action movie also includes these elements. (i.e. jealousy, feeling lost, not being sure of who you are as a person, pride, popularity, etc.) This allows Kim's experiences to feel a bit more relatable to viewers which could help with ratings and profits. It also leaves room for social and emotional learning for the viewers. (Social and emotional learning teaches how to process emotions, handle social situations, reflect on your state of mind, and maintain happy and healthy relationships.)

One of the movie's biggest flaws is the repetition of tropes and plotlines from the original series. The villainous scheme bears strong resemblances to one of the Kim Possible movies making the dramatic climax predictable and redundant. (However, it is worth considering that this movie is made for the next generation of children and not grown adults, like myself, who grew up watching the show.)

If you decide to watch the movie, my recommendation is to watch it with an open mind. The movie has its pros and cons, but it still maintains some of the heart and spirit of the original cartoon.

Thanks for reading this long review.

***I just edited my review slightly because someone read it and made a very good point regarding Kim and her cheerleading experience. Thank you for the commentary! I really appreciate it. 😊***