#and Dib figures out he is a spy immediately

[fruityalien]

So I had this idea of a resisty Zim x irken scientist Dib for a while now..and seeing how there's not nearly enough irken!Dib zadr on ao3 I drew this thing yesterday while beeing bored...

It didn't come out great but eh...

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7-9

November, 1984

BERSERKER!

The death of an Avenger! The X-Men’s greatest battle! And, introducing the all-new SPIDER-WOMAN!

The cover sure isn’t burying the lede. This comic sure does introduce an All-New (presumably All-Different) Spider-Woman! Jessica Drew, move over! For now. You’ll be the Spider-Woman that endures in the long run.

Last times on Secret Wars: Some amazingly powerful being from Beyond the universe called the Beyonder kidnaps a bunch of heroes, villains, shades thereof, and chunks of random planets to put on a big toy commercial where action figures can bonk off each other.

The X-Men ditched the other heroes to do their own thing, as they’re wont to do. The villains storm the hero base and drop a mountain on them. The heroes take refuge at a small village where Johnny Storm finds a new girlfriend but there’s also a Galactus.

Galactus starts preparing a device to eat Battleworld, which would let him win the toy commercial in one fell swoop.

Oh, and Wasp was kidnapped by Magneto, escaped, crashed her escape ship, found the Lizard, and then got lasered to death by the Wrecking Crew. It was a Bad Time and I am sad, even though we know Wasp will be okay by the time they get back from Battleworld.

This time: Further not burying the lede.

The cover promised a new Spider-Woman and dammit, here’s one right away, first page. Truth in advertising!

Spider-Woman herself wastes no time introducing herself to everyone, that she comes from a chunk of Denver that got raptured by the Beyonder (still want that miniseries), that she came to help when she saw evidence of super fighting, and that she can pick up and throw large rocks so clearly she’d be able to help.

Captain America is hesitant about all this and Spider-Woman assumes that he thinks she’s a spy but as Captain America points out, why would Doom need to mess around with spies when he’s got so much power at his disposal.

Spider-Man is also hesitant at this new character. For different reasons.

Spider-Man: “She tossed that boulder as easily as I could have... at least! I wonder if she sticks to walls, too! And I wonder if I can sue her for infringing on my shticks! I should have gotten a patent or trademark or something...”

Cap tries to settle on the argument that a Secret War is too dangerous but Spider-Woman has the exceptional point “I suspect that it’s no less dangerous for the spectators, Captain America -- I might as well pitch in!”

And then the obvious toy pitch vehicle that the Wrecking Crew was driving in the swamp yesterday drives through the village blowing shit up, restarting the fires that the heroes just put out, and most insultingly of all, throwing Wasp van Dyne’s dead deceased corpse out the hatch before driving off.

Those dicks.

The heroes rush to Wasp and take her to Zsaji. That cool lady tries to heal Wasp but Jan has no pulse and isn’t breathing and might be beyond Cura. This may take Phoenix Down.

But since she went and got herself disintegrated on the Moon, Wasp is clearly dead forever.

-Looks over at Avengers #243- Hush, you!

The assembled heroes want to rush Doombase and kick the shit out of the villains and specifically the Wrecking Crew but Captain America tells them no.

Captain America: “Now, listen to me -- ! While we’re off getting even, what if Galactus starts to use that world-eating machine he’s building up on that mountain? Then every living thing on this world -- including these innocent villagers and all those people from that suburb of Denver will die! We’ve got to stay right here, ready to attack him! We may have only seconds to react when it begins!”

She-Hulk storms off while the other heroes debate the Galactus situation.

I’m sure this is fine.

Meanwhile, on the more volcano-y side of the planet, Xavier orders Cyclops, Rogue, and Wolverine to pursue Doom’s Four villains Molecule Man, Titania, Absorbing Man, and Doctor Octopus to try to capture them before they can return to Doom.

Back over at Doombase, Titania sees that her “little Owie” has been badly hurt and begs Enchantress to help.

Volcana: “Enchantress! You’re a sorceress! You could use your magic to transport me to my Owen!”

Enchantress -busy getting drunk-: “Yes... but why would I, mortal?”

Volcana: “Well... because... because I need you to! I can’t fly a ship! I -- I don’t even have a driver’s license for a car! Ultron won’t help me -- ! He only takes orders from Doom!”

Enchantress: “It takes much energy to transport a body as bloated as yours! I cannot be bothered!”

Wow! You’re a dick!

Volcana catches a lot of fat jokes and she’s not depicted as looking any different from Standard Comic Book Body Type. But also, don’t fatshame at all, Enchantress.

Anyway, Volcana promises anything to Enchantress if she helps.

Enchantress: “Rash words, mortal wench... and later, you shall deeply regret them!”

Its very handy for the villains that Volcana just showed up because their airship almost immediately gets show down by the X-Men. So even with Molecule Man out of commission, their numbers are back to Doom’s Four. And Volcana calls dibs on beating up Wolverine.

The X-Men have numbers but they’re not doing super well. Professor X is on the scene trying to be the field leader but the chaos of the battle and the villains’ minds being blocked by Enchantress’ magic makes it hard for him to coordinate.

Magneto even gets smack-talked by Absorbing Man.

Absorbing Man: “Tell me, Magneto. What’s scum like you doin’ hangin’ around with the X-Men? Sure, they’re outlaws -- but I thought you was big time! You got mass murder raps, manslaughter, terrorism, what else? Probably everything! You’re one of us! On second thought, a creampuff like you belongs with them losers!”

I can’t believe Magneto has to take that from a man who constantly carries a large metal orb with him everywhere.

Wolverine manages to slice off Absorbing Man’s arm, although the guy was made of rock at the time so it wasn’t as gory as it could have been.

Absorbing Man just. Picks up his arm and runs off to hit someone with it.

Amazing.

The villains manage to pin down the heroes with some Volcana blast and then steal one of the X-Men’s ships and get away.

Professor X declares that this is Totally a victory.

Xavier: “We lost nothing, save one of our ships -- which matters little -- and we gained much! We coalesced as a fighting unit passing our greatest test to date and I think we proved ourselves -- beyond a doubt!”

Like, you had a scuffle with some villains that ended inconclusively even though you had the advantage of a sneak attack, the villains stole one of your ships, and there was no major damage to either side.

It was largely pointless. But I guess Xavier has a vested interest in declaring it a huge success since it was his inaugural go at being field commander.

Meanwhile, skulking around Galactus’ ship, DOOM complains about doing that.

Doom: “Doctor Doom - a burglar! Rummaging about in another being’s home, seeking to steal some priceless thing! Bah! What choice do I have? I need a key, a way -- ! My armor’s sensors have led me to prize after prize -- hundreds, thousands of devices which, in the hands of a man as brilliant as myself could provide power to conquer entire galaxies -- ! Yet, all of them combined are not enough to defeat Galactus -- let alone the Beyonder! There must be a way! Doom must be supreme!”

Unfortunately for Doom, despite the volcano distraction making Galactus sigh and have to spend time fixing the planet so he can eat it, he senses something amiss in his house and mentally yeets Doom back to Battleworld.

The villains return back to Doombase but Doctor Octopus can’t help Molecule Man because dammit he’s a nuclear physicist, not a medical doctor! Ultron tells Volcana that there are medical devices that could fix Molecule Man up nicely but since he doesn’t have any relevant orders from Doom, he’s just going to stand here and look pretty. And Enchantress says she could heal him with a wave of her hand but refuses to because Volcana already gave her a blank check.

Absorbing Man returns and reattaches his arm by basically hoping like hell it’ll just be better if he holds it in place when he reverts to skin flesh.

And the Wrecking Crew have to throw the Lizard into a cell because he hasn’t stopped trying to eat their faces for killing Wasp, his new best friend.

The Wrecking Crew doesn’t get a chance to enjoy being back at base because She-Hulk has broken in and beats the crap out of them off-screen.

Titania comes in and starts fighting She-Hulk STARTING AN ENDURING RIVALRY.

Its fun how much got its start in Secret Wars.

The two fight more or less evenly from what I can tell but uh Doctor Octopus joins in as does the Absorbing Man and the Wrecking Crew once they catch their breath.

And She-Hulk is strong but this is a stomp.

In another part of Doombase where the Enchantress is sitting in “sullen reverie” refusing to get involved in the fight she can here, instead thinking about how much she’s going to seduce the crap out of Thor.

Doom arrives at Himbase after being expelled from Galactus’ ship and refuses to explain anything to Enchantress. He just stumbles over to his sweet bed and collapses in it.

Doom: “It is over... Finished...”

Back over at Zsaji’s Village, the heroes realize that She-Hulk took off. Hawkeye figures that she went after the villains and asks to go after her.

Hawkeye: “She can’t take ‘em alone, Cap! She needs us!”

Huh! When the chips are down even though they fought, Clint and Jen sure are coworkers.

Hulk also asks to go after her since she’s his cousin. The acknowledgement of which is what I’ve been wanting all along.

But Cap tells them no.

Hulk: “I don’t suppose you’d consider putting it to a vote?”

Trying to appeal to his love of democracy. How wily.

Captain America: “My heart would vote ‘yes’ in a minute... Too many innocent lives are at stake here, though! Many more than the few people on this planet -- we’ve got a universe depending on what we do here! We can’t allow ourselves the luxury of making decisions with our hearts!”

But Cap receives a psychic skype from Professor X who tells him that the X-Men can take Galactus watching duty for a bit so run along and save your teammate, you scamp.

Cap accepts.

Its fun how the tide of battle has shifted back and forth.

Now the heroes are largely fresh, having been sitting on their ass staring at Galactus, and the villains are bloodied from several fights with the X-Men and She-Hulk. Plus, their big gun Molecule Man got Wolverine’d.

But next issue is something so big that it overshadows basically everything else in Secret Wars.

December, 1984

INVASION!

YEAH ITS VENOM

OR WILL BE

Also, a bunch of other stuff happens. The cover is kind of funny for maybe unintentionally presaging what would happen where the black costume being more remembered than everything else in Secret Wars in general but definitely this issue specifically.

There’s actually a lot of really cool stuff happening in this issue.

Cap(tain America)’s group of heroes storms Doom’s Doombase, lucking out that Doom is too stunned by being expelled from Galactus’ ship to attempt any kind of defense and nobody else on his team has the braincells to be watching out for an attack.

Enchantress hears the heroes breaking in but she’s well and truly drunk by this point.

And bemoans her secret god meeting with Thor. That she was going to try to cast a spell on him to bend him to her will but is aware that she might have flipped good for him instead. And even now wonders what she’ll do if Thor shows up in front of her.

The villains still beating She-Hulk to her death hear the heroes breaking into the base and run off to ambush them, Doc Ock slamming She-Hulk against some wreckage as a coup de grace.

Wrecker gets the jump on Iron Man and Doc Ock dumps a convenient tank of water on Human Torch but Spider-Man jumps in and drops Bulldozer with one punch before he can pulp an extinguished Johnny.

The Thing tries fighting Absorbing Man but wouldn’t you know it, the Thing’s thingness fades at the worst time again, leaving him powerless.

Spider-Woman jumps in to save him.

She didn’t get to really do much in her actual introductory issue, despite being on the cover and splash. She just kinda shows up and goes ‘i can definitely help!’

She makes a much better second impression this time. Almost like she’s aware that she needs to sell herself.

Spider-Woman: “A clean knockout -- ! Of the awesome Absorbing Man -- ! And it’s only the fifth time I’ve ever been in a fight! The new Spider-Woman wins again!”

Marvel really wants you to like this non-Jessica Drew.

Piledriver charges Hawkeye, mocking him for missing with his arrows and gloating that arrows are useless to a guy who’s immune to bullets.

Piledriver: “Hawkeye the Archer! Hah! Boy you gonna need Hawkeye the M.A.S.H. doctor in a minute -- ‘cause I reckon this good ol’ boy is gonna ‘mash’ you!”

Good one, Piledriver. Good banter.

Hawkeye: “Those shots were just warnings, dummy! I don’t want to have to hit you! From my bow, at this range, an arrow hits a lot harder than any bullet! Back off... please...”

We did learn in the Hawkeye mini that Hawkeye’s bow has a ridiculous draw strength.

This is a pretty good Hawkeye moment people don’t really point to a lot.

Also, I do love when an invincible or durable person who isn’t used to getting hurt gets hurt once and goes ‘NOPE! I DO NOT CARE FOR THIS!’

Hulk busts into Enchantress’ drinking room and unfortunately falls for her “I am but a helpless female!” routine. She gets all up in his business, magically puts him to sleep, and then pours herself another drink.

It could have been a good day for Enchantress if Captain America hadn’t come in right after.

Captain America: “What have you done to the Hulk?”

Enchantress: “For the moment, he is merely asleep. Doubtless dreaming dreams of me! But, alas, he can never truly have me, for I am yours, my handsome captain! Am I not beautiful? Come to me...”

Points for audacity but Captain America is a champion of not thinking with his dick. Blah blah willpower is legendary, socked Prometheus in the noggin. You get it.

Anyway, he socks Enchantress in the noggin with his shield and knocks her out.

Hawkeye and unthinged Ben try to find the rest of the heroes but run into Klaw and Lizard, who Klaw let out of his cell because he didn’t like to see anyone imprisoned but also because he liked the way Lizard talks. What an audiophile.

Ben Grimm: “Uh... any ideas, Hawk?”

Hawkeye: “Well... I guess we’ll have to outwit ‘em!”

Ben Grimm: “Us?!”

Hah.

Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, and Mr Fantastic find Volcana and Molecule Man.

Iron Man makes the dubious tactical decision to charge right into Volcana’s plasma burst and burns out his armor.

Mr Fantastic pulls him out of the way and the other heroes try to get through Molecule Man’s fused air molecules invisible shield. They fail until Captain Marvel just lightbeams right through it. Because its transparent.

Love it. Love that her power works like that. Because it should.

Captain Marvel grabbing Molecule Man pulls open his Wolverine wounds and he passes out. Volcana surrenders to spare her boyfriend more pain.

Not that Monica intended that or knew he was wounded. This is still early Monica before Nextwave hardened her outlook. This is the Monica who was horrified when Blackout and Moonstone got pulled through a singularity.

Titania tried to drop a forty-ton beam on the heroes’ heads but is interrupted by Spider-Man thanks to his spectacular spider-sense.

She out-muscles him by a lot but she can’t actually lay a hit on him because he’s got superior spider agility. Maybe if she had more experience it’d be different but she’s basically in the angry flailing stage of her skill tree so far.

Spidey brags “With a little room to operate, no one can lay a glove on me -- not the X-Men, not the Absorbing Man, and not you!”

Titania: “When I get you I’ll -- AGGH!”

Spider-Man: “All you’re going to get is frustrated... and, eventually, trashed!”

Titania: “No! It’s not fair! *UHH!*”

Spider-Man: “But, if we were fighting in a broom closet, that’d be fair, right?”

Titania: “Stop it! Stop it! Stop -- !”

Spider-Man: “You ought to be happy, cuddles! You aspired to be a bully, and, man, you’re a classic! You talk tough and nasty when you’ve got the upper hand -- but when you’re losing -- well, that’s when the whining little wimp-ette inside comes spilling out!”

And then he defenestrates her without a window.

Fun fact: she apparently developed a Spider-Man phobia from this.

Understandably.

Y’know, in terms of embarrassing and traumatizing people, Spider-Man is having a good run in this story.

Captain American and Human Torch find a passed out Piledriver who fainted from blood loss after staggering away. And they find Ultron, standing between them and Doom.

Ultron is an Avengers-tier stomper who takes down entire teams and there’s just two heroes who coincidentally were both portrayed by Chris Evans. And the Human Torch’s fire is ineffective as Ultron gloats.

Ultron: “The core of the hottest star could not melt my adamantium body, human! Nothing can harm me! I am invincible! I am mechanically precise and computer-swift! I am perfect!”

When Ultron grapples Human Torch and starts throttling him, Cap tells him to use his nova-flame. Then hides behind his shield.

The flame melts a good portion of the room and the air being superheated somehow doesn’t make Cap crispy. And when the nova flare of the nova flame fades, Ultron’s chassis is still intact.

But the heat damaged something inside and Ultron is down. Johnny is also down, spent from the nova.

I like that the Fantastic Four would have their own way to deal with Ultron should that ever come up. Has it? You’d think it would.

Captain America proceeds to Doom alone but Doom is non-responsive from being Galactus’d.

And Reed, Spider-Man, and Hulk finds Hawkeye and Ben Grimm, where they have outwitted Klaw and Lizard.

Lizard: “Disssturb our gamess-s and the Lizard will dessstroy you! Once we finissh, we will do as you s-ssay!”

Well, whatever works!

With the fighting done, Captain Marvel finds She-Hulk, barely alive. The heroes jam her into a healing tube saving her in the nick of time.

The heroes also jam the villains into healing tubes because they’re heroes and are nice like that.

Considering the heroes were fighting to take prisoners and the villains very much weren’t, it’s lucky that the heroes won the majority of conflicts and got away from the one they didn’t.

The villains that didn’t need bacta treatments - or whatever is in those tubes - got shoved into cells. Also, Doom, because he might need the healing juice but it would require peeling him out of his armor and its probably booby-trapped.

Hawkeye and Captain Marvel return to the village to bring Wasp’s body to DoomHerobase for a funeral but they’re in for a surprise.

It turns out that Zsaji WAS able to heal Wasp who wasn’t dead just in a laser-induced death-like stasis. AS YA DO. It nearly killed Zsaji to bring Wasp back from such grievous injuries.

Colossus learns this by getting into her exposition drugs while she’s passed out and mind-melding with her.

Of course, it just makes the big lug fall deeper in love with her.

The important takeaway is that Wasp is alive. Just like we knew that she would be. The universe has been set right.

Over at Herobase, Reed Richards fixes the Iron Man armor after Rhodey got it a little melted.

Iron Man, James Rhodes: “I’m curious... were you surprised there was a black man under the metal?”

Reed Richards: “Hmm... No, I never gave it a thought! I knew there was a man under there...”

Its a nice exchange.

Its kinda ruined retroactively by Illuminati revealing that Reed knew Tony was Iron Man and would have known about Tony having to step down due to his alcoholism and likely knew about Rhodey taking over.

Dammit, Illuminati!

Elsewhere in the base, Spider-Man spots Hulk and Thor coming out of a room with Thor sporting a brand new cape and helmet. They tell Spidey that there’s a device in there that will make any clothes you want.

Except Spider-Man doesn’t bother asking which device and they don’t bother specifying so Spidey just picks the likeliest one and gets a black glob.

An important black glob.

To eventually be revealed to be an alien goo symbiote and later eventually tied to a dark god that predates the universe.

But for right now, its a way to incorporate a new costume design that a fan submitted. And Spider-Man handwaves it not looking like his old costume by assuming he was thinking of the new Spider-Woman.

So that’s how it is, Pete? She ‘ripped’ you off so you’re gonna rip her off?

You know whats really funny?

A month before this came out, in Spider-Man’s own book, he had learned that the costume was a living symbiote and had gotten rid of it.

It be like that with Secret Wars but its still funny that we’re finally seeing him get the costume just as he’s getting rid of it.

Anyway, Spider-Man’s new costume buzz is interrupted by the planet shaking and someone yelling in his brain.

Professor X: “CAPTAIN AMERICA! COME AT ONCE! IT HAS BEGUN! GALACTUS IS DEVOURING THE PLANET!”

It’s nice that the crises are waiting their turn.

January, 1985

ASSAULT ON GALACTUS!

The issue titles for this story are all so excited.

The X-Men were left on Galactus watching duty so when the big lug starts trying to eat the planet, the X-Men charge in to attack him.

Hm.

Y’know, I sometimes wonder what iconic storylines would have been like if a different set of characters handled it. This used to be great What If fodder. I know there was one where the Avengers tackled Galactus’ first appearance. And because it was the tone of What If at the time to viciously shoot down any divergence of the 616 timeline, THINGS WENT HORRIBLY WRONG.

Think of it like the Turn Left episode of Doctor Who.

POINT BEING, I wonder how the X-Men would have handled Galactus’ first appearance. Of course, this would be the O5 roster so they’d have their work cut out for them.

Heck, even with Storm on the team, the X-Men are over their heads with Galactus.

She hits him with two massive lightning bolts and Galactus keeps working like he didn’t even notice.

The X-Men seem to realize how out of their depth they are (especially sans Phoenixes, their usual Galactus-fighting go-to) but at Professor Xavier’s command they charge in anyway.

Galactus sends out a defensive drone so he can continue not paying the X-Men any mind and the mutants find themselves completely bogged down in fighting the drone while Galactus does his thing.

And from Zsaji’s sweet village, Captain Marvel, Wasp, and Hawkeye see a massive explosion where the X-Men were.

I guess they’re totally dead forever.

Wasp: “Should we head up there now?”

Hawkeye: “No! We’d better wait for Cap... and strike as a unit!”

Hah.

Its the expression, really. Like Hawkeye thinking to himself ‘oh I want no part of that.’

The non-X-Men assemble at Herobase to rush to the fight.

Mr. Fantastic: “Hurry! No telling how long the X-Men can hold out!”

Spider-Man: “Yeah! Where’s the rest of the alphabet when you need it?”

HAH!

Oh, Spider-Man, you are a delight.

In the airship over, Thor notices that Hulk looks glum and tries to cheer him up.

Thor: “If ‘tis that you do not fit in these chairs that depresses you, count yourself fortunate! They were made, I think, for insect men... or by trolls, for torture! If ‘tis the impending battle troubling thee -- just think! What greater chance for glory has man or god e’er known? More even than Ragnarok, this is the battle I was born millennia ago to fight! You, too, are a warrior born, Hulk! A taste of battle and the berserker battle-lust shall rise in thy soul!”

Hulk: “I doubt it! I lost that when I gained the intelligence of my human side -- Bruce Banner! And now I’m slowly losing that, too! I’m not savage enough... or smart enough to be a relevant factor!”

Well, You Tried, Thor.

Johnny Torch is trying to cheer up Ben Grimm who is as grim as his name over his powers popping in and out as they please.

And then the rocks pop back on just as Ben is dramatically bemoaning that he can’t control them.

The Thing: “Whoopie! I’m the Thing again! I’m so happy, I even like you!”

Human Torch: “Yeow! You lummox! Put me down! Jeez, I can see the headlines -- ‘affectionate hug slays Human Torch en route to battle -- universe destroyed as a result’!’“

This book has some decent lines.

Iron Man ogles Spider-Woman under the pretense of not trusting her but then goes a little ‘I’ll show them all!’

Iron Man: “A lot of guys have worked with Iron Man before -- but that was when Tony Stark was in this suit! I think they’ve started to realize there’s a different guy in here, now... an’ they got their doubts! They’re keepin’ their distance -- don’t quite trust me yet! Don’t matter! As long as I got this armor, I’m one ba-ad dude -- especially since Richards souped it up! As soon as that fight starts, I’ll show ‘em -- show ‘em I’m Iron Man! The real Iron Man! James Rhodes is Iron Man -- now and forever!”

Rhodey pls.

Also meanwhile, because this is a long flight, Spider-Man starts hopping all around the interior of the airship overexcited because he’s just discovered that the totally benign goo suit he got has webshooters!

And he squirts Johnny in the face to prove it because that’s just how Spider-Man is sometimes.

Johnny complains that this webbing is even harder to burn than his old stuff which will turn itself into a bit of a plot hole down the line when its revealed that symbiotes are weak to fire.

Whoops.

Its fine though. Pre-modern Venom has always had sloppy writing around it.

He also demonstrates the goo suit’s ability to change shape.

I can’t believe that Marvel were cowards and never had Peter go around in the Summer Variant suit.

Reed lets himself go down a melancholic musing rabbit hole and starts poking holes in the story logic.

Mr. Fantastic: “At face value, the whole thing is absurd! Why would a being so far removed from us and so powerful as the Beyonder bring us across the universe for a stupid, simplistic ‘good-versus-evil’ gladiatorial contest? Is he a mad god? A cosmic idiot? And why us? Why this odd collection of beings, mostly from Earth? And why Galactus? He doesn’t fit! Human beings and even gods may be tempted, but Galactus is a force of nature -- no more capable of having enemies than a hurricane or an earthquake! Why is he here? There must be more to this... but what possible purpose could there be?”

Credit where its due, these are things I’ve been wondering!

But Reed is so busy pondering this that he runs the airship into the energy discharge from Galactus’ machine and crashes the ship on top of Colossus.

Smooth move, absent minded professor.

With only seconds before the world starts to burn, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and assorted leap into battle against Galactus.

Iron Man manages to get past Galactus’ defense drones and punch his world eating engine, thanks to the upgrades done to the armor.

But now that they’re being successful, Reed interjects and tells them to stop winning so hard. Yes, really.

Mr. Fantastic: “Ben, we can’t go through with this! At last I see a purpose here -- a meaning to the universe for this insane conflict! WE MUST NOT STOP GALACTUS!’

Then Galactus effortlessly blasts the heroes away.

Which, if nothing else, gives Reed a chance to catch his breath to EXPOSIT MORE.

Mr. Fantastic: “For the first time this whole thing makes seom sense to me! I see a possible purpose in it! This is a chance to rid our universe of the threat of Galactus! All we have to do is let him win this contest! If the Beyonder indeed, grants hsi wish, he’ll be freed of his planet-consuming hunger at long last!”

The Thing: “And if the Beyonder reneges?”

Mr. Fantastic: “Re-energized by consuming this world, Galactuc will attack -- I know it! And force the Beyonder to pay up -- or be destroyed in the attempt. Any way you look at it... the universe wins! Countless billions who would have eventually fallen prey to Galactus -- will live in peace!”

Spider-Man: “Yeah, but why us? Why were we picked to decide the fate of the universe?”

Mr. Fantastic: “Why not us? We picked ourselves, remember? Besides... we beings of Earth seem to have a knack for being pivotal in the cosmic scheme of things.”

Reed, some offense but you’re the last person who should be speaking on this.

Galactus is only alive now because you had a hunch that he had some Big Important Role in the cosmic order and saved his life.

You may remember that because THE ENTIRETY OF SPACE PUT YOU ON TRIAL FOR IT.

Turning around on that because now you have a different hunch that everything will be a-okay if the Beyonder kills Galactus, is just such a classic Reed move.

Anyway, the discussion ends because Galactus raptures Reed and the entire mountaintop his machine was sitting on.

Since the suspects of Reed rapturing were Galactus or the Beyonder, its not very surprising that its Galactus forcibly inviting Reed up to his solar-system sized apartment.

What, you thought that the Beyonder would be more present in this story that it initiated? Fool.

Anyway, Galactus wants to have a friendly talk at Reed. Because Galactus is one of the few people that can talk down at Reed and he just has to sit tight and listen.

Meanwhile, over at the former Doombase, locked in a Doomcell, its Doom. Still in his catatonia OR IS IT?

Doom: “THE WORLD SHIP IS THE WAY! Galactus’s home itself is the way I seek! At last, I see!”

He activates the get-out-of-jail-free button hidden in his ankle which activates a point-singularity power supply that busts the door off his cell.

He ignores all of the other imprisoned villains to free Klaw.

Doom: “You, yourself, Klaw, are a ‘recording’ of sorts, due to the time you spent as a wave of vibratory energy coursing through the walls of Galactus’s homeworld! Come with me!”

Klaw: “Where to? Toodle-oo, toodle-oo!”

Doom: “To the lab! I’m going to dissect you!”

Klaw: “Oh, good!”

If it were anyone else that would read as sarcastic.

Its also revealed that Doom talks to himself because he is constantly recording.

Doom: “Every utterance of Doom must be recorded for posterity!”

How on-brand.

Meanwhile, back over at where the fight was, Cyclops OPTIC BLASTS out of the hole Magneto buried the X-Men in to save them from Galactus’ exploding drone.

Good job, Magneto.

Buuut. The fight is over so the X-Men just vaguely wander over to Zsaji’s village to catch up with Captain America’s group.

Zsaji wakes up from her Wasp-healing coma and runs over... right past Colossus to embrace Johnny. To make Colossus sad in the background.

But Johnny is too worried about Reed being raptured to make out with his new space girlfriend right now.

The heroes debate what to do.

Cap(tain America) wants to just stand ready until Galactus comes back and Cap(tain Marvel) suggests finding some spaceships at former Doombase and mounting an assault on Galactus’ imagination-ruiningly huge homeship.

The Thing offers the daring option of ‘hey Reed said not to fight Galactus and dangit what Reed says goes!’

He’s as bad as the Inhumans, I swear.

Reed reappears right about when Iron Man and the Thing are about to come to blows over the ‘do whatever Reed says’ plan.

The Thing: “Stretch! What happened?”

Mr. Fantastic: “Not much! We had tea...”

NOW I KNOW that Galactus likely has some robot servant or device that makes tea for him. But I can’t get the image out of my head of Galactus holding a tiny teapot and serving Reed tea.

How dare this comic cut away and let that happen off-panel!

Anyway, their big OFF-PANEL talk?

Mr. Fantastic: “He told me that I was a ‘force of the universe’ just as he is -- ! That I’m a ‘universal champion of life’ just as he is an instrument of death!”

Now. Nooooow. Champion slash Avatar of Life is a legitimate thing in Marvel, once filled by, uh, Captain Marvel. The Kree guy version. So the position is open.

I just find it easier to believe that Galactus was saying random nonsense to try to befuddle Reed into doing what Galactus wants rather than it being official.

The Avatar of Life page on marvel wiki doesn’t seem to credit it. It only has two versions of Adam Warlock, Drax, and Cancerverse Mar-Vell.

Anyway.

Mr. Fantastic: “I don’t what to say! I’m more convinced than ever that it’s right to let Galactus do what he must! And if I’m a ‘Champion of Life’ does it not make sense to allow Galactus to slay us so that countless billions will live? Or was he telling me that I must fight to serve even these relatively few lives here? I just don’t know...”

Yeeeeah. More convinced than ever that Galactus was filling Reed’s brain with cognitive chaff so to speak.

But Ben “Thing” Grimm is like ‘hey if Reed tells me I gotta die for the good of the universe then I’m ready to die so we’re not fighting unless Reed says so.’

Hawkeye: “This is a real crock! We’ve got to fight! Quitters! Cowards!”

I rarely say this but I think Hawkeye has a point.

Anyway, Galactus reappears the mountaintop, his machine, and himself to get back to snacking on the planet.

Far be it from me to tell Galactus how to ‘mortals are beneath my notice’ but maybe he’d get better results relocating his machine to the other side of the planet. Get some element of surprise, a head start.

No? Fine.

Captain America: “All right, listen up! I’m going to fight! The rest of you come or not as your conscience dictates!”

Wasp: “We’re with you, Cap!”

Captain America: “Good! But first... I just want to tell you, Professor Xavier, that despite our differences, you and your people did us -- and the universe, as far as I’m concerned -- a great service, earlier!”

Professor Xavier: “It was an honor!”

Captain America: “I hope you, the X-Men... and Magneto will come and fight side by side with us now! No one here will deny you’ve earned that much!”

Think about all the grief that could have been saved if people were willing to give Magneto the benefit of the doubt at the beginning of the story! Womp womp!

Meanwhile at Doombase (because the heroes are all off doing stuff and when the heroes are away Doom gets his base back), Doom observes the battle against Galactus starting AND that the Beyonder has cracked open his portal to watch the fight.

But more importantly, Doom cut Klaw into slices.

Back over at the heroes fighting Galactus, the heroes are fighting Galactus.

As in, directly. No drones.

Its a sign that they’re making some sort of progress.

He’s still batting them around like leaves in the wind.

But the Terrific Three show up to actually help.

Mr. Fantastic: “Galactus used enormous amounts of energy transporting his homeworld here -- and I’m sure he hasn’t fed for months! His power is almost depleted! We can take him!”

Captain America: “Richards, I -- I’m glad you’re here -- but what made you change your mind?”

Mr. Fantastic: “I... thought about what Galactus said -- and I’m still not certain that, in the cosmic scheme of things, what we’re doing is right -- but I realized just how badly I want to see my baby born, Cap! I want that more than anything -- ! And I’m going to fight for it!”

Aww.

He’s going to be waiting a long time for that baby though.

Not because of comic book time but because of intense drama reasons.

The heroes manage to reach the top of the mountain and start trashing Galactus’ machine despite Reed insisting that they ignore it and prevent Galactus from escaping.

And Galactus just animation-cell-slides-up ‘I must return to my homeworld’ style.

And as Reed explains how badly they done fucked up, Galactus takes a last look around his homeworld/spaceship. Because he doesn’t need his machine to eat planets. It just makes the process more efficient. So if the heroes are going to be annoying about him eating Battleworld, he’s just going to eat his own dang home!

Mr. Fantastic: “He’s devouring his own living world -- perhaps the greatest energy source in the universe! Moments after he’s finished, this godforsaken planet will be next! We won’t be able to stop him this time! Then he’ll probably consume the sun too! He’ll want every iota of energy available in case he must do battle with the Beyonder! We’re dead men!”

Wow. Is that the most kirby krackle we’ve ever seen?

But as Galactus converts his home into POWER COSMIC, Doom is ready with his own plan to steal that power, aided by a series of lenses he’s turned Klaw into.

As ya do?

You’ll have to tune in to the last quarter of Secret Wars to see if Doom succeeds in doing that thing that he always tries to do.

My thought is: maybe.

Follow @essential-avengers​ for the good job I’m doing with these Secret Warses. Like and reblog maybe.

[zims-left-shoe]

Hello!! Feel free to ignore this but I Was always interested in how a triangle between Dib, female!reader and Gaz would play out. Like if the Reader was a family friend of Dib and Gaz and they both developed a crush on her? I love your stuff btw, keep it up!!

This ask was a pleasure to write for, Anon!! I would never ignore it, I had such a good time with it. I hope I did okay :)

"Thank you ever so much again, Membrane. It truly means a lot. I'll bring her by Tuesday at one." Your father's voice rang out through the hall to reach your ears where you stood peeking around the corner, more or less spying on the man in an oversized lab coat. Your fingers tightened their grip on the doorframe, digging into the wood.

On one hand, you were able to spend time with your friends that you hadn't seen in a while. On the other, you were hoping to spend some time with your father over the summer. In fact, just this next week you were supposed to go out camping for a couple days. It seemed that would be rescheduled for next year...again. You loved your father deeply, and you were so very proud of him and his science that aided the world, but sometimes you just wished he would be a father. At the very least, it seemed like you would be able to spend some quality time with the two other kids who felt your pain. 

"Y/n, honey? Would you come in here for a moment?" Your father called out much louder than needed, but he assumed you were holed up in your room instead of eavesdropping. Putting a smile on your face, you wandered into his office. You had perfected that smile. The one you used to mask whatever disappointment would be brought on by the countless cancelled plans. You had become so skilled in the craft that you were able to hide your tears with a genuine-looking grin when your father declared he was unable to attend your 17th birthday. That had not even been two months ago. 

"What's up?" Your voice was as light as a feather, almost as if you had no care in the world. You didn't wish to pick a fight. It wasn't worth it. You barely got to see him as it was, so you wanted every interaction to be as smooth and pleasant as possible. 

"I'm really sorry about this, but I'll have to postpone our camping trip to next year." He strode over to you, placing a large hand on your shoulder. You couldn't see his eyes through the strands of unkempt h/c hair that fell in his face, but he sounded as if he was truly upset.

"Oh..." You threw in some slight disappointment, as it was what he expected. Despite killing all of your emotions, you were a master at manipulating them to keep your father satisfied. In response to your attitude shift, he patted your shoulder steadily and pulled his lips back in a goofy grin.

"But don't worry! Despite having to go away for a few weeks on some important science business, I've made some arrangements I think you'll be satisfied with." That smile not once ghosting from his lips, he continued on. "Now I know you'd like to come with me, but this is a project where I can't have any distractions. So, I called up Professor Membrane and asked if you could stay with them for the time being. He agreed!" He looked to you expectantly, waiting for your excitement.

"That's great, dad!" This statement was more genuine, as you were truly looking forward to seeing your friends. 

"I know you haven't seen Dib and Gazlene in almost three years, so I'm sure this will give you kids ample time to catch up." Fishing a hand into his pocket, he pulled out a small wallet-sized photo for you to see. It was a picture from years ago, probably one of the first times you met the Membrane kids at some science convention. The three of you stood together, all smiles, even Gaz. Everyone had to be no older than eight then. "Gosh, you were all so young. How old is everyone now? Fourteen? Fifteen?" 

"Dib just turned eighteen, Gaz is sixteen. You signed his birthday card, remember?" You couldn't stop your tone from falling at your father's lapse of memory. 

"You're right. I apologize." Rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, he pushed you towards the door that led into the hallway. "Now, you better get packing. We leave early tomorrow morning." You nodded, shuffling out and into the carpeted hallway. You couldn't help having mixed emotions about the whole ordeal. It was very bittersweet. A little nerve-racking as well. You hadn't seen these two in quite a long time, so you were worried whether or not you could pick up where you left off. Sure, you messaged them often and sent each other gifts on holidays and birthdays, but you vaguely wondered if you could last three or so weeks in the Membrane household without things getting awkward. 

-

Clutching your bag tightly in your hands, you couldn't help being livid. You were hoping that, maybe, just maybe, you would be able to spend some quality time with your father on your drive to the Membrane house. But, no. Alas, your father needed to leave almost immediately. To his credit, he did drive you to the airport closest to the town your friends lived in, but instead of taking you all the way there, he pressed enough cash for a cab in your hands and sent you on your merry way. And so there you sat, in the back of a cab on your own, winding through streets that were mostly unfamiliar. 

"This neighborhood look right?" The cabby asked as he pulled into the beginning of a vaguely familiar looking neighborhood. 

"Um, I think so." You hoped it was right. Worst case scenario you figured you could call Dib and see if he could come pick you up. Staring out the window and watching houses pass by, you drifted into your thoughts. Both your father and Professor Membrane were prestigious scientists who were constantly busy, and when you had moved closer to the Membrane family, you often found yourself playing with the kids while your fathers worked on their science things. As you grew up, you continued to have things in common. Gaz became obsessed with video games, which you enjoyed, although you were never very good at them. Dib became invested in the paranormal, which you had an interest in. You remembered that when he was twelve, a supposed alien moved into his neighborhood and was scheming to conquer the earth or something. Dib talked about him less, but would still bring him up from time to time. You had never seen this alien, but coincidentally, every time you came to visit (which had diminished to about once a year, to eventually once every blue moon with both your father's and your own hellish schedule), this alien kid had always been absent. You were never sure if Dib was just trying to impress you with this tale of an actual alien, or to give you something to talk about, but you supposed it didn't matter. 

"We're here, miss." The cab skidded to a halt at the curb in front of a very familiar unique-looking house. You knew you were in the right place. Placing your cash in the payment slot, you stepped out onto the sidewalk with your bag as the cab pulled away and vanished from sight. You thought it was a bit odd that no one was outside. Normally when you would come, the kids would wait on the porch, eager for your arrival. The house looked quiet, and you felt your stomach sink. If this set the tone for the rest of the visit, you were in for a long few weeks. Sucking in a deep breath through gritted teeth you pressed the doorbell. After a moment of nothing, you felt your stomach churning as every muscle tensed. You were beyond uneasy. Just as you were about to turn around and walk to the nearest motel, the front door swung open to reveal a young man who you thought was most likely Dib.

"Y/n?" You felt a grin split your face as you dropped your bag, practically jumping into his arms. He wrapped you in a hug, arms tight around you. After a moment he released you, setting you back on the ground. A silence was still hovering over you, however it was not uncomfortable. You took the opportunity to rake your eyes down his form, absolutely stunned by the difference three years makes.

"Wow, Dib...you're tall." You almost had to crane your neck up to meet his eyes. He probably stood a good few inches above six feet, which was a large jump from the last time you saw him. He had probably only been 5'10'', if that. His dark hair was virtually the same, if anything it had only gotten longer. You couldn't help but let out a chuckle at his classic trench coat and large glasses that took up a majority of his face. "The piercings are new." You pointed a finger to his ears, where black gauges rested in his earlobes.

"I mean, kind of? I've had them for probably a year now." 

"Oh." Your eyes fell to the concrete of the porch. Scuffling your feet, you just wanted to skip past the awkward reunion phase and get back into having a good time.

"You can come in, you know." He laughed, the sound relaxing you instantly. You scooped up your bag on the ground, following him inside. The house hadn't changed much, if at all. Dib gestured towards the couch, and the next thing you knew both of you were sitting down. You dropped your bag at your feet, and Dib couldn't help but eye it. "So, what's with the bag?" He jabbed it lightly with his foot, and you couldn't stop your jaw from clenching as you cringed. You were always unable to mask your emotions around these kids. You were never sure what it was about them, but they were the only ones you couldn't put on a face for. Maybe it was because they truly understood the things you were going through, so there was no need. You would never know.

"You don't know...? My dad has some important foreign business so I'm staying with you guys for a few weeks. Did your dad not tell you?" You wrung your hands together, gripping the inside of your cheek with your teeth. "If that's not okay, I can always use my card at a motel or something..."

"Of course it's okay. I was just caught of guard is all." Dib pulled you into another hug, trying his best to reassure you that he wanted you there more than anything. "Besides, it's not like we're strangers. We still talk. I, um, appreciate that more than you know." A chuckle spilled from his lips as his voice grew quieter with every word. "I didn't think we'd see you again." You thought you caught a faint blush settling on his cheeks, although it could have been a trick of the light.

"Yeah, me either. Shit got busy."

"I hear that." Dib let out a sigh, sinking back into the couch. Just as a silence began to take hold, the front door was thrown open. 

"Dib, god damnit I called your phone like five times but you didn't pick up-" Gaz entered the room, but cut her own words off as she caught sight of your figure sitting next to her brother on the couch. "Y/n?" The usually gloomy girl perked up, setting the grocery bags she was holding down onto the floor. A smile crept onto your face as you rose from your seat on the couch, bringing her into a hug. You expected her to resist like she usually did, but she defied your expectation. "Ugh, no need to get all mushy." Gaz grumbled, but you had known her long enough to know that based on her tone, she was genuinely happy to see you.

"Nice to see you too, Gazzie."

"Well, you're still annoying as ever." Huffing, she picked up the bags and walked towards the kitchen. "You going to help me, or do I have to drag you over here by your toes, Dib?" She called sharply, Dib silently groaning as he slid further into the couch, almost falling off.

"I got it." Following your friend into the kitchen, you began to help her put away groceries. Most of it was soda, chips, and other junk food, however there were some healthy items in there. 

"We haven't seen you in years." Her tone was much softer with you, unlike the razor sharp tongue she saved for her brother. You took a look at her, she had changed a bit too. Her fashion was still the same goth aesthetic, completed by chokers and heavy combat boots, but like Dib, she had gotten taller. She hadn't grown nearly as much, but enough to be a noticeable difference. The one striking thing about her was that her once long hair had been chopped quite short, and you noticed that it was in that awkward stage where it was long enough to where it repeatedly fell in her eyes, but too short to be tucked behind her ear. She was constantly brushing purple locks out of her face as she worked. 

"I know. Like I told Dib, things just got busy." Placing the last can of soda in the fridge, you wandered back over to her, smiling despite her straight face. "I like your hair by the way. It suits you." Taking a chunk between your fingers, you twirled the strands, shocked when she didn't swat your hand away. 

"Thanks..." Her face became painted in red, and after a moment you took your hand away. 

"I'm surprised you haven't tried to hit me yet...absence really does make the heart grow fonder." Before any other words could be exchanged, the front door slammed open yet again. This time, Professor Membrane himself stepped in with several meals from the local Krazy Taco and a big container of ice cream.

"Hello, kids! I have brought dinner!" His voice was filled with excitement as he brought the food into the kitchen where you stood at the counter with Gaz. 

"It's like, two in the afternoon?" Dib called from the living room, pushing himself off the couch to wander into the kitchen as well. 

"Hush now, boy-child. I wanted to eat with you since it's a special occasion, and this is the only time in my schedule available. So dinner is now!" He hummed in delight as he placed the food in their spots at the table. "It's great to see you, Y/n." 

"You too." You took your seat, digging into the food without complaint. The Membrane kids followed suit, each taking a chair on your side. You all ate together, giving life updates, listening to the Professor talk about his current projects, cracking jokes. All the while, you felt yourself slip back into the dynamic you had missed so much. You couldn't ignore the glances both Dib and Gaz would send your way, and any time you would catch their eyes, they would both very quickly drop their gaze to their food. However, you chopped it up to something that would stop after a day or so. After all, you were doing the same thing, unable to believe how much they had changed in the past three years. 

After a half hour or so, Professor Membrane stood up, throwing his trash away and cleaning up his area. "I have to go back to work. Y/n, you can share Gaz's room if you'd like." You nodded, clearing your own spot as his kids said their goodbyes.

-

"Could we please watch something else?" Gaz groaned as she continued to stare at her Game Slave on her side of the couch, fingers flying across the controls faster than you could track. 

"Hey, it's a new episode! Besides, Y/n likes Mysterious Mysteries." Dib countered, keeping the controller close to him. He sat on your other side, and you were caught smack dab in the middle of their bickering. It wouldn't have been the first time that night. They seemed to be worse together than you remembered.

"Do you really?" Gaz looked up from her game for the first time in the past hour. 

"Well, yeah, sure." You shrank back into the couch, not liking how you had been put on the spot. You just wanted to spend time with both of them without them picking fights with one another. Was that too much to ask?

"Fine. But after this, I'm changing the channel. There's supposed to be some good horror movies on tonight." Gaz turned her attention back to her Game Slave, only backing down for your sake. Otherwise, she would have taken that controller by force.

The Mysterious Mysteries episode began, although halfway through, you began to get bored. You didn't remember the show segments being so terrible, but you didn't think you could listen to any more of the legend of Goat Man, a man who supposedly had supernatural abilities to control the minds of goats (in reality it was just some hippie who fed his goats so many treats that they followed him everywhere).

"Was Mysterious Mysteries always so...bad?" Your eyes drifted to Dib, who without protest, surrendered the remote to you.

"No. But this is why paranormal investigators get a bad rep." Crossing his arms, Dib puffed out his cheeks, pouting. You couldn't help but crack a grin. He had been making that pouty face for years. Some things never change. You passed the remote to Gaz, who finally put down her Game Slave to put on a horror movie.

"Finally, some good tv." Gaz set the remote next to her, relaxing into the cushions of the couch. 

As the movie went on, you realized that you didn't like horror movies as much as you thought you did. One particularly loud jumpscare caused every muscle in your body to tense, and subconsciously, you sidled up next to Dib, grabbing at the fabric of his coat with your hands as you leaned into him. He felt grateful that the room was dark, or else you would have seen the mad blush on his face. You weren't really looking at anything anymore, rather you had your face buried in Dib's side. He put an arm around you, trying to rub comforting circles into your arm, despite his stomach feeling as if it was tied in ten thousand knots.

"Gaz, maybe we should watch something else." Dib suggested, using maximum effort to keep his voice steady. All he had wanted for the past year or so was to hold you like this, but now he couldn't even feel good about it since you were uncomfortable and scared. Truth was, he had fallen hard for you after you had began texting all the time the past couple years. Well, he guessed that he had probably been harboring these feelings for much longer than that, but he only realized it when he hadn't been able to see you. 

"But it's almost over." Gaz whined, glaring daggers at Dib all the while. Without another word, she laid her head in your lap, not liking Dib getting all of your attention. Your hand reached out to find hers, taking it in your own and gripping it as if it were a lifeline.

"Gaz-"

"It's fine. I'll be fine." You interrupted Dib, face still buried in his side. Gaz would still try and glare in Dib's direction. She normally would bicker with him on the regular, but this animosity she felt towards him in that moment was of a new sort. She felt your legs tense underneath her every time there was a loud noise, and whenever that happened, she would feel a pang of guilt for putting you through this. She decided to focus on the way your hand felt in her own. It felt almost natural, and she admittedly never wanted to let go. While your face was still avoiding seeing anything until the film was over, Dib glanced down at his sister, and saw that look in her eyes. He knew his sister like he knew every corner of Zim's base (which by this point, was very well). Enough to know that she was in love. For probably the first, and possibly only time in her life. Under different circumstances, he would encourage her in her romantic endeavors, but of course, the one she had to like was coincidentally also the girl he had feelings for. 

Dib had no more time to think on the matter, as the movie finally drew to a close, and Gaz turned off the tv. You untucked yourself from Dib, Gaz sitting up to allow you to stretch.

"Sorry. You both probably think I'm a little bitch." You laughed half-heartedly, just wanting to go to sleep and forget that ever happened. 

"Don't worry about it." Dib's lips quirked up in a slight smile, hoping to come off as comforting. 

"Yeah, Dib's done plenty of embarrassing things anyway." Gaz smirked, elbowing you gently in the side.

"Hey!"

"Besides, I still think you're cool." Gaz's words were quiet, and her face was dusted in pink, though you were unable to tell due to the darkness of the room. 

"Thanks, Gazzie."

As if by freak accident, something in the kitchen fell from the counter, making a loud noise that echoed through the house as it collided with the floor. You just about jumped out of your skin, yelping as you did so. 

Your face in your hands to hide your cringing, your words came out muffled. "Do you mind if we sleep out here for tonight? All of us?"

"Sure." The Membrane kids spoke together, shuffling off to grab blankets and pillows while you sat on the couch, cursing yourself for your irrational fears. You knew it was just a movie, but you were still terrified regardless. They came back quickly, throwing their stuff down on the floor.

"I brought you a pillow and a blanket." Gaz pushed a fluffy blanket and a pillow over to you. Opening your mouth to give your thanks, you were stopped by Dib.

"But I brought you that too." The two glared at each other, fists and teeth clenched, seemingly caught in some deadlock that you had been left out of. 

"She doesn't want your gross blanket, Dib! If it came from your room, it's definitely disgusting!" Gaz shoved her brother, Dib stumbling backwards a few steps. His eyes narrowed, he shoved her back, harder. She fell into the couch, all but growling at him. 

"Guys! I'll just use both!" You waved your hands frantically, barring them from each other with your arms. "Thank you, both of you." Your words seemed to deescalate the situation for the meantime, though even you could still feel the electric tension that was in the room. You knew this was much more than typical sibling rivalry, and were worried that you would get caught in the middle. What you didn't know is that you were already caught in the web, that you had been from the moment you stepped foot inside the Membrane household. "Is something going on that I should be aware of?" You asked as you laid out your blankets and pillows, sitting down on your spot on the floor.

"It's nothing!" The siblings blurted at the same time, prepping their sleep space as well. Shaking your head in bewilderment, you laid down, the pair following suit, one on either side of you. You let your eyes flutter closed, feeling much safer with Dib and Gaz by your side. 

With one final staredown with Gaz, Dib scooted as close to you as he dared. What he wanted most was to reach out and hold your hand, but was too afraid to do so. Gaz was much more bold, cuddling right up to you and intertwining her fingers with yours. You peeled an eye open and looked to her, but didn't pull away. Dib muttered a curse under his breath, screwing his eyes shut and keeping his frustrations with his sister to himself. 

-

You had all drifted into a heavy sleep rather quickly, Gaz and Dib's expressions softening from irritated to peaceful. At about two thirty in the morning, Professor Membrane had come back from the lab, much, much later than he had intended, dead tired. He almost stumbled over the three teenagers deep in slumber on the living room floor. That snapped him to his senses, and his normally serious expression ebbed away to one that was more loving at the sight.

You were wedged in the middle, Gaz tucked cutely into your side, hand still in yours. Dib had drifted closer to you in his sleep, his head on your chest, legs tangled in your own, hand laid across you protectively. 

Professor Membrane chuckled to himself quietly, snapping a quick picture with his phone before he retreated to his own room to get as many hours of sleep as his schedule would allow.

[reylofanfictionanthology]

For one is love and both are one in love is now live!  

Authors will be revealed next week!  For now all fics are anonymous.  Treats can be posted through author reveals on 2/21.  We will post an updated masterpost at that time.

For one is love and both are one in love collection on AO3 |  Gift Fic Master Post Part One | Gift Fic Master Post Part Two

Treats Masterpost:

just want the devil to hate me for america_oreosandkitkats

Three years after he killed the past, Kylo Ren returns to the town where he was only ever Ben Solo. Nothing is even remotely healed, but maybe he can start.

Each Day is Valentine's Day for andabatae

Accidental Praise for andabatae

Ben likes his new roommate, Rey. She's smart and funny, and she's a good cook; she's fun to hang out with, although she seems to blush a lot. Maybe she's coming down with something? Anyway, when she has an interview and she needs some help selecting her outfit, Ben is there to help her out, any way he can.

Regeneration for bitterbones

She should have known it wouldn’t work. Not wanting to tell her friends because she knew she’d have gotten a you can’t be friends with benefits with your ex talk should have told her all she needed to know.

Gentle Sin for CeciliaSheplin

Rey is writing a new song, maybe Ben can help.

As Boundless as the Sea for crossingwinter

Padmé survives and raises her kids, but decades later her grandson meets the granddaughter of the man who took everything from her at a masquerade, and sparks fly. Upon realizing who the other is, the two must make an impossible choice: risk losing the love of their families, or risk losing the possibility of loving each other.

Within and Without for CwenPhy

When Rey brings Ben back to Ajan Kloss after he saves her, Finn objects to his presence and burgeoning relationship with Rey. However, he can't ignore their friends who observe something real between Rey and Ben.

Strays for dankobah

Rey rescues a mangy mutt from the site of a junkyard and brings the dog to the Solo Veterinarian Clinic. There she falls in love with the handsome son who's just really trying to save all animals.

The Gentleness That Comes for ilum

For the prompts: "1990s New York AU. Ben rejects his wealthy, reputable family (bonus points for !lawyer Leia) and decides to fend for himself. He ends up getting involved with an underground boxing community. One day, bloodied and bruised after a fight, he goes for a drink to the local bar he frequents. To his surprise, he finds a young, fresh-faced girl behind the bar instead of the usual bartender." And: "We have not touched the stars, nor are we forgiven, which brings us back to the hero’s shoulders and the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it." Richard Siken - "Snow and Dirty Rain."

Stay Safe for itsinthestars

Just one curse.  Just one simple curse and she’ll be gone.  Blasted off the face of the earth.  When had that idea become repellant to him?

and I'll come home to you for kuresoto

Ben and Rey both escape Exegol, and the past follows them. To protect the strange child they've found, they set up a school for Force-sensitives, but Ben can't shake the weight of his guilt.

False Positive for MissCoppelia

The health check Ben was given after he joined the Resistance didn't come back quite as clean as he expected, which causes Rey to feel rather guilty.

Tangentially for ninecrimes

After Exegol Rey goes through a period of deep mourning, escaping to the crowded towns of Corellia where no one knows who she is whenever she needs some time by herself. But one day, a stranger walks into the dingy bar where Rey is drinking some of her sadness away, a stranger that seems all too familiar and is wearing Ben Solo's face.

Killing Me Softly for PalenDrome

A short Mr and Mrs Smith Reylo AU treat. :-)

Conjugal Visit for persimonne

Being the last Jedi comes with a lot of perks. For example, nobody questions Rey when she brings a bag full of equipment to come visit her accidental husband in prison.

Unshakeable for politicalmamaduck

Rey is performing in another fucking musical and Ben goes to see it.

Ash and Blood for queenofcarrotflowers

Bloodthirsty warrior Kylo Ren is betrayed by his men and must flee. He is helped by a mysterious woman and her friends. He joins forces with them to get his revenge.

Spending Valentine's Day Solo for ReyloBrit and politicalmamaduck

She places his scent—woodsy and warm, like sandalwood and ginger—before she recognizes the large, gloved hand outreached to steady her or the sleeves of his black wool coat.“Rey,” he blurts out—is the pink on his cheeks from the chill outside, or is he blushing?“Ben! Hi!”She’s trying desperately to sound nonchalant, but at the rate her eyebrows continue to rise, they may end up past her hairline.“Wha… What are you doing here?” he asks, running a hand through his hair. 

White Silk for SaintHeretical

There is one person, however, in the office, who does not fill her with genuine joy. “Brides don’t want unembellished gowns, they want sparkles!” she’s yelling to the owner-designer-asshole who ruins her life and harshes her chill on a daily, and sometimes hourly basis. “Just last week, I had five brides who asked for more bling at a price point they—” “I don’t deal in ‘bling,’” Ben Solo is yelling back, behind his closed office door, but clearly loud enough that everyone can hear it. Everyone in the back office, thank God. Not the customers. She hopes. “I deal in couture,” he says. “I deal in design. I deal in elegance. Women want to feel elegant on their wedding day, not like a goddamn Vegas showgirl—” “Oh, oh, that’s rich, you, telling me what it is that women want?” Rey scoffs, almost laughs—she’s the only one brave or stupid enough to try this with him. “Wonderful. I am prepared to receive your insight, oh wise one.” — AKA the Say Yes to the Dress Omegaverse AU, for some reason?

I'm the Spy for thewayofthetrashcompactor (BriarLily)

Spy Rey is sent on a mission to figure out if Kylo Ren, tech mogul, is involved in leaking election secrets to a foreign government. She plans to seduce the information out of him. Too bad he seems completely oblivious to her advances.

Dibs for tmwillson3

Ben dibses the parking spot after it snows. If he’s going to spend almost an hour shoveling his car out of the snow, he gets to park his car there later. Too bad one of his neighbors thinks dibsing is unethical and keeps thwarting his parking plans. Dibs: A Chicago Winter Parking Enemies To Lovers AU.

Syrup for trasharama

The first time she shows up, it’s eight o’clock in the morning and she looks asleep on her feet. Her brown hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail, her sweatshirt is sitting askew on her shoulders, and she blinks heavily up at the menu behind Ben’s head. He watches her purse her lips and immediately feels a soft fondness. “Small latte. Six pumps of vanilla.”

Lucky for walkingsaladshooter

Nothing makes Ben more happy than waking up with Rey in his arms. Also lazy morning sex happens. _______________ A small gift for walkingsaladshooter for the Valentine's RFFA: Reylo Fanfiction Exchange of 2020

Endings and Beginnings for  Xochiquetzl

Rey’s hand cradles Ben’s head before it can hit the stone floor. He’s ridiculously heavy, all dead weight, and Rey’s entire body cramps in horror before she sees the faint rise and fall of his chest. He’s not dead. He hasn’t left her. Yet. She cradles his face with both hands and sobs in relief.

[snappedsky]

Fanatics 73.3

The mysterious agents strike against the Battalion. Previous! Next!

--

Government of Doom Part 3

           Devi sits in front of her computer, grumbling agonizingly as she struggles with a design interface. She very carefully tries to paste a scan of one of her paintings onto the document, but when she does, the picture takes up the whole page.

           “Fuck,” she grunts, “who would’ve thought being a freelance painter meant having to use computers so much.”            Her work is interrupted when the door flies open and Dib, Pepito, and Squee burst in.

           “Devi!” Squee exclaims.

           “Squee?” she questions as she gets up from her desk. “What’s going on?”

           “You okay?” he asks, “you haven’t seen anything weird? Nobody strange has approached you or anything?”

           “No,” she replies with confusion. “I haven’t even left my computer all day. Making my own business card is really hard.”

           “Oh, I could help you with that,” Dib says, “I’ve dabbled in web design.”

           “Now’s not the time, Dib,” Pepito points out.

           “Right, sorry.”

           “What’s going on?” Devi asks again.

           “We’re not really sure yet,” Squee replies, “we had to be sure nobody was in any immediate danger. Nny should be dealing with that right now.”

           “We should regroup back at Zim’s and figure out who these guys are and what they want,” Dib says.

           “Yeah,” he agrees, “I’ll get Tenna and we’ll meet you guys at the Epic.”

           Squee splits off and heads down the hall while Dib and Pepito go the opposite way, Devi following somewhat confused.  

           Squee hurries through the halls to Tenna’s apartment. But just before he can burst through the door, a chill runs up his spine and he freezes, his hand hovering over the knob.

           “Something’s happened,” Shmee warns.

           Squee remains frozen for a second longer before steeling his nerves and throwing open the door.

           The first thing he sees are two men dressed like the agents they captured. And one of them is holding unconscious Tenna under his arm.

           They both look at Squee, surprised, as he glares angrily at them. Before either of them can react, he reaches into his bag, pulls out a Flashy Bomb, and tosses it into the room. He ducks around the corner as it goes off, and the agents cry out in pain from the bright light.

           As they struggle to gather themselves, Squee races in. He spots Tenna on the floor where the agent dropped her and drapes her arm around his neck, lifting her up.

           “I got you, Ten,” he whispers as he activates his rocket wheelies. He zips backwards out of the room and runs normally down the hall as he struggles to carry Tenna and type on his phone. He sends a single message in the group chat: Danger!

           “Squee!” Shmee shouts.

           Squee turns around at the last second, just as something pierces his shoulder. His phone and Tenna slip from his arms as his body gets suddenly limp. As he falls up against the wall, he pulls a dart out of his shoulder and glares at a third agent approaching from the down the hall, a gun in his hand.

           Squee’s vision quickly grows cloudy and he collapses to the floor next to Tenna.

           Meanwhile, Dib, Pepito, and Devi are waiting in the parking lot by the Epic. Pepito and Devi lean against the vehicle while Dib paces around.

           “What’s taking Johnny so long?” he questions.

           “Johnny’s here too?” Devi asks.

           “He was gonna deal with the two agents that were watching you and Tenna,” Dib explains, ��I figured he’d be done by now.”

           “Squee’s taking a while too,” Pepito adds as he watches the door to the building.

           Just then they receive a message in the group chat. After checking their phones, Dib and Pepito blanch.

           “Get in the car now!” Dib orders.

           “But what about Squee?” Pepito points out.

           “What’s going on?” Devi asks.

           “If he wanted help he would’ve said so,” Dib argues, ignoring her. “He sent that message so that we would get away.”            “What message?” Devi asks impatiently. “What’s going on?”            “Just get in the ca-!” Dib’s cut off when a dart is suddenly fired into his back. His body jolts as he chokes on his words before going completely limp and collapsing in a heap.

           “Dib!” Pepito and Devi cry.

           His eyes looking around frantically, Pepito shoves Devi to her knees behind the cover of the surrounding vehicles.

           “Get in the car, Devi,” he orders. She quickly obeys and crawls into the backseat.

           A dart flies for Pepito. With inhuman speed, he catches it and it burns up in black flames.

           “Gotcha,” he snarls and throws off his leather coat. His wings burst out of his back, through the open space of his newly designed tank top, and he takes off. He flies in the direction from where the dart came and spots one of those agents ducked behind a vehicle on the other side of parking lot, holding a sniper rifle.

           The agent aims at Pepito and fires. He swats the dart, utterly destroying it, and dive bombs towards him. The agent stands strong, gun raised, as Pepito rapidly approaches.

           Before he can attack, something splashes into Pepito from the right and his whole body burns up. He hits the ground immediately, writhing in pain, as steam rises from the clear liquid covering his body.

           “Holy water,” he snarls through gritted teeth and glares up at a second agent holding a large super soaker. The first agent approaches, drawing a pistol, and aims at Pepito. He can only lie there, in pain, as a knock-out dart is fired into his chest.

           “Nice shot,” the first agent comments to the second as he lowers his super soaker. They both look up at the door as the three inside the building exit, carrying Tenna and Squee who are both unconscious.

          “What happened to you?” the second agent asks two of them, who have very red, wet eyes.

           “Don’t ask,” one of them grumbles.

           “We’ve got one left in this area,” the first agent says, “she’s in that pink car.”

           “I’ll get her,” the third agent grunts and approaches the car. But when he peeks in the windows, he finds it empty.

           “We’ve got a runner,” he announces into his radio.

           Devi is indeed running. She slipped out the other side of the Epic and through the parking lot while the agents were busy with Pepito. Now she’s booking it down the street, wondering just what the fuck she does now.

           When she can’t run anymore, she ducks into an alley, panting as she leans against the wall. Johnny was supposed to be nearby. Where is he?  

           She hears a vehicle coming down the road and presses up flatter against the wall. A black, windowless van passes by but quickly stops just a few feet away.

           “Fuck,” Devi hisses and races down the alley. She tries to jump the fence at the end, clambering over the top, when something pierces her lower back.

           Her whole body going limp, Devi slips off the fence and back onto the dirt. Her vision quickly fades as she sees two of the agents standing over her before she passes out.

           Meanwhile, across the city, Zim and Tak with Gaz have quickly arrived to the Membrane house, only to find it devoid of spies. They look around the entire the block and scan it with Tak’s cybernetic eye but find nothing suspicious.

           “Why would they leave?” Tak asks.

           “Maybe cause Dib and I were gone,” Gaz suggests.

           “That is sloppy spying,” Zim scoffs and grabs his phone. He starts to send a message in the group chat when a message from Squee beats him to it. Gaz and Tak grab their phones to read it too.

           Danger!

           “Back to the base now!” Zim orders as his spider legs come out. Tak does the same and Gaz holds onto her before they take off. They hurry through the streets back to Zim’s house and just make it to the yard when something pierces Gaz’s side.

           “Ow!” she cries out and looks down at a dart before her body starts getting weak.

           “Gaz!” Tak exclaims as she slips from her spider legs. Tak drops to the ground and barely manages to catch the now unconscious Gaz.

           Zim skids to a stop and turns back to the girls as Tak scans the surrounding area with her cybernetic eye. She spots multiple people hiding on the roofs of the buildings all around them.

           “Zim, we’re surrounded!” she exclaims and lifts her robot hand to begin blasting the roofs to the right. Zim draws his laser guns and does the same to the roofs on the left. They immediately hear people crying out as they scramble to not get hit.

           Something flies at Tak from the shadows. Whatever it is, her spider legs smack it away and she blasts the area where it came from. But another flies at her from the opposite direction, attaching itself to one of her spider legs. She sees it’s some kind of metal device before it sends a horrible electric shock through her body.

           “Tak!” Zim exclaims as she cries out and collapses. A similar device flies at him. Zim blasts it to pieces with his gun. Another one from the back. His spider leg stabs it.

           Zim barely fends off the flying devices as he backs up to the base, feeling cornered. He has no idea what’s happened to the rest of his team and without Tak’s eye, he can’t tell where his enemies are. Just that he’s outnumbered.

           He pants as he steps into his yard and glares at his hidden opponents. Then he takes a deep breath and shouts, “Computer! Activate lockdown!”

           Immediately, the house gets covered in impenetrable metal plating with no point of entry and Zim smirks. “You won’t be getting Zim’s secrets.”

           A device flies at him along the ground and hits his boot. Immediately, he convulses as the shock travels through his body. He collapses, his guns slipping from his hands and his spider legs going limp. He sees more of those agents come out of the shadows as his visions fades. He can only hope one of his team managed to make it out.

           Across the city, on the roof of Devi and Tenna’s apartment building, two agents are backpedaling fearfully, their dart guns raised.

           “H-hit him again!” one of them orders.

           “We’ve already hit him with enough to knock out a bull elephant!” he points out, “anymore and we might stop his heart!”

           Johnny stumbles after them, about ten darts sticking out of his chest. He pants heavily as his vision swims and he struggles to stay upright. But he still advances on them like an angered beast, a knife in each hand.

           “Who cares! I don’t think he has a heart!” the first one exclaims. “Shoot him!”

           They both fire and the two darts pierce Johnny’s chest. He freezes and his shoulders slump, his knives slipping from his hand.

           “Did…did that do it?” the second agent asks.

           Without warning, Johnny lunges. Both agents scream, completely unprepared, as he tackles them. His sharp fingers dig into their throats and they gurgle on blood before he crushes them entirely.

           Johnny kneels over them, panting heavily as he lifts his bloodied hands out of their bodies. His vision is so cloudy, his head is swimming, and he barely has the strength to stand. But he knows he can’t stay here. It’s not safe.

           He shakes off the blood and starts pulling the darts out of his chest one by one as he leaves Devi’s roof by the fire escape. A tenant is sitting out on his window leading to it, enjoying a cigarette. He jumps as Johnny passes, noticing his haggard breath and bloodied hands, but Nny barely sees him.

           Johnny lumbers through back streets and dark alleys before finally reaching Grave Road after what feels like an eternity. He drags his feet up to his house and opens the door.

           “Jesus Christ, Johnny!” Cammie exclaims, sitting up on the couch. “What happened?”

           He’s not able to reply as his body finally gives out and he collapses to the floor.

[jinxfirebolt18902]

We are just best friends (Ben Hardy!Warren Worthington III Imagine)

A/N: may write a second part with some jealousy idk. Let me know if you wanna be tagged.

Words: 3006

Summary: Y/N and Warren are best friends although their friends don’t agree with that from what they see. Just random events developing their close friendship.

Warnings: Warren being annyoing(ly cute), and the f word as usual.

Scott’s arm is over Jean’s shoulders on the big couch with Kurt next to them. Peter is on the floor laying his upper back against the same couch while Jubilee and Ororo are on one of the white bergère and Warren is on the other. Peter had just pressed play on the DVD player when Y/N arrived with the three bowls of popcorn in her arms. Once she’d distributed two of them keeping one for herself, her bare legs showing off from her pajamas’ short directed her toward Warren’s direction. He’d been following her with his eyes. As he was sitting with one leg on the furniture she proceeded to playfully hit his knee so he would drop his foot to the ground like a normal person should sit, which allowed her to sit on his lap. Peter’s, Jubilee’s and Ororo’s eyes were on them skeptically. Warren’s left arm raised to take the bowl away from her as she got distracted at the same time his right arm sneaked around her waist.

—Warren! Give it to me, I made them! —he ignored her as he stretched the bowl as far away from her as possible. A mischievous smile plastered on his angelic face. He had a passion for annoying her. The movie hadn’t really started yet though the winged mutant acted as if the TV screen was showing the most interesting thing in the whole world instead of a standard add. In her barely illuminated face by the blue images he could catch a glimpse of her cute frown, her long hair free tickling his uncovered arms everytime she moved in failed attempts to get the popcorn back on her power. He would let out a few giggles here and there as he heard her grunting.

—Oh shush you lovebirds it’s starting! —Jubilee’s voice followed by an agreement sound from Kurt forced her to get in a comfortable position with her back half against the bergère (and one of his white wings) and half against his warm chest and stay still with her arms crossed at her chest to make clear she was mad at him, empty hands and a frown pout. Warren stole a quick glance at her and he just couldn’t resist her pout, so after a few minutes he silently offered the bowl, earning a long annoyed stare from her, which of course only made his smile grow wider. Neither of them bothering to make an effort and deny what they’d just been called for the millionth time.

An hour and a half had gone by with the group of young mutants enjoying the movie night at the library when Warren’s eyes catched movements from the couple next to Kurt. Given Y/N partly covered him from their view, he got to spy the pair safely without getting caught. Scott had been whispering silly nothings into Jean’s ear provoking giggles and idiotic smiles from the red-headed for a while but now they’d subtly started kissing. Kurt being Kurt had dozed off. Jubilee clearly was flirting through chat cause she wouldn’t stop smiling at her phone while Ororo, Peter and Y/N were attentively watching the film. Warren finished the last handful of snacks and dropped softly the empty bowl to the floor. Y/N took her chance and changed her position, her legs feeling numb. She put herself with her right side fully against his chest, her head resting on the couch and her right arm over his broad shoulders so her hand could mindlessly play with his curls while her left hand simply rested on his over her waist. As his left hand was now free he decided to lay it over her thigh, his thumbs unconsciously rubbing her skin. None of these actions had gone by unnoticed by two of the others.

When the movie had started to display the credits Peter was the first to speak out. —I call dibs on that one. —his finger pointed at Warren and Y/N, catching everyone’s attention, especially theirs.

—What? —Warren asked with his thick accented voice.

—I call dibs on your couch.—Oh I call dibs on this one, sorry Billie. —Ororo told her colour-haired friend next to her.

—The fuck you talking about guys? —Y/N dared to ask with confusion written all over her face.

—Oh you know... Just calling dibs on the couches for whenever you guys decide to become official and abandon the group’s night to have your dirty owns, sweet cheeks. —Peter finished his statement with a smile, checked her legs quickly and directed a wink to Y/N. Warren restrained himself to just roll his eyes for what his friend said and held back his strong dislike for his pet name for Y/N. She did as well roll her eyes but added a defeated sigh at the statement. —We’ve had this conversation a thousand times before, we’re just best friends Peter.

Ororo laughed and Y/N’s gaze turned to her friend in surrender. —Whatever. —Y/N sank back into her angel and ignored the rest.

—Speaking of which, Scott, Jean, you could free up space for the single ones in the big couch you know, not fair. —Maximoff spoke again, this time turning on himself slightly so he could look at the actual couple nesting on the green fabric.

—Who’s gonna carry Kurt to bed this time? —Billie’s voice got everyone into the matter. Immediately all of them said “not me”, Scott being the last one to which Jean laughed at.

It was half past two in the morning when they dismissed the gathering. Jean walking by a complaining Scott struggling to carry the Nightcrawler up the stairs. Ororo and Peter chatting about some videogame as they departed towards their rooms and Jubilee escaping to the kitchen for an extra snack before sleep.

Y/N was about to begin her way to her bedroom when she felt a hand grabbing her arm and dragging her backwards carefully. When she looked at the blonde for an explanation he only moved his head to the main gates. He pushed open only one of them and went out without letting go of her hand till they were down the few steps of the entrance. She barely took a moment to appreciate the dark sky to then direct her eyes to his figure and find him with cigarette between his lips. She laughed internally for the clichè. He had his back against the concrete, one leg bended with its foot on the wall as well, the plain black shirt contrasting with the clean white feathers and the lighted cig in his mouth, the so called bad boy in all its glory. Although she hadn’t made a sound a mocking smile adorned her lips, one he didn’t miss at all. As he exhaled the smoke seemingly uninterested in her, out of nowhere he quickly grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him, his scent reaching her senses.

—Why are you laughing at me, your poor innocent best friend?

—Oh boy, the whole universe knows you’re not either innocent nor my best friend.

—Excuse me?—You’re excused—What did you just say? —her teasing didn’t last long once he had her in the air with him, going up.

—Holy shit Warren you know I hate it when you lift me up in the air without previous warning. —her arms held on him tightly.

—Maybe you want to repeat what you said down there, don’t you agree? —he uttered with the cigarette hanging at the corner of his lips, their faces pretty close.

—Okay fine fine you are my best friend now pull me down and let me smoke.

—Doesn’t sound convincing enough. —he played.

—Warren! We’re gonna wake everyone and we’re gonna get in trouble.

—I was never one to follow the rules, I think Charles has come to peace with that by now. —she sent him a hard glare. —Ugh! Fine... you’re so boring. —He flew over the roof and let her go. They both took a sit over the edge letting their feet hang on the air, passing the Marlboro from hand to hand in silence.

Another Friday night had come and all the students had free pass to stay up till late, do picnics, play games and watch movies and play videogames in the play room of the school. Ororo, Peter, Jubilee, Kurt, Scott and Jean had finished eating some hamburgers in the dining room when they were deciding what to do for fun.

—Hey where are Warren and Y/N? —Jubilee asked the group raising an eyebrow.

—I saw Warren finish up a burger and get up a few minutes ago. —Kurt mentioned, all heads turning to him.

—Oh wait I think Y/N had stayed in her room, she had her period and wasn’t feeling great. —Jean added and hugged Scott’s arm.

—He probably went to check after her... —Ororo said.

—He’s so into her. —Jubilee smiled as she spoke.

Peter rolled his eyes and smiled too. —He’s like a lost puppy going after her. But let’s not forget her lovey-dovey eyes whenever he comes into scene.

The group laughs and nods in agreement.

Warren flys up the flight of stairs towards his room with a burger and some fried fries hidden in a paper bag. He opens the door to find a sleeping Y/N on his unmade bed. He felt sorry for her, she’d been complaining about headaches and cramps all evening, not to mention her moody humor. It had taken her two painkillers, a bottle of water and God knows why, his bed, to make the migraine go away and let her relax a bit. Still a frown signaling discomfort was expressed on her unconscious face. He silently took his combat boots off and walked to the night stand to drop the food. She stirred a little but after nuzzling on his pillow her facial features relaxed and she kept sleeping.

He smiled and nodded, his curls following the movements. He went to the bathroom to take a shower while his phone started buzzing with the chat messages from their friends asking where they were and if they wanted to hang out. The vibration sounds took Y/N away from her light sleep. She frowned and annoyedly open her eyes to stare at the source of the sound. She heard the shower running and then she felt the greasy smell of the fast food Warren had left next to the phone. She re-positioned herself and took a handful of fries and two bites of the sandwich, disgusted by it after she swallowed it. She kept eating the fries as she checked for her own messages, not bothering to answer the group chat.

When her best friend stood at the bathroom’s entrance with a towel surrounding his waist and downwards with droplets falling from the blonde curly locks her breath hitched. The shining green eyes along with his perfect teeth-showing smile, the well-defined abs and the big wings made him look evilly angelical. She had held her stare longer than she meant but her hormones were getting the best of her.

—You’re awake. —definitely the strong accent didn’t help her dirty forbidden thoughts. Being on pain, feeling tired and having obscene thoughts about her best friend getting her horny with no possible pleasure release immediately put her in a terrible mood. Once again the frown taking over her face.

She groaned loudly as she turned around and buried her face onto the pillow and covered herself completely with the covers. He nodded again and got changed into clean boxers and a powder blue t-shirt. He got in bed and took his phone, resting his head against the wall. After a few minutes she turned her head and peered at him, the movements gaining his attention.

—I brought you dinner. —he went back to his phone, the screen lightning his face.

—I already ate. —She kept looking straight at him and started pouting till he turned to her one more time.

With confusion on his eyes and voice he inquired. —What?

—I’m on my period, I’m in a temper and I’m in pain. Give me attention! —he rolled his eyes and left his phone where it was minutes before. —I was just answering to our friends.

—Dicks. —he couldn’t help the surprise on his face, to which she elaborated. —They woke me up making your fucking phone vibrate non-stop. And they take away your attention from me. Dicks.

He laughed and hugged her with one arm only, the other grasping the laptop under the bed and looking up for something entertaining to watch. She got comfortable and laid her cheek on his chest, the fragrance of the shampoo, the soap and the deodorant filling the air.

She had fallen asleep a few minutes after but he’d kept enjoying the movie. It was reaching the end when a few knocks on the door interrupted him. He thought it probably was Peter wanting to enter their shared room but Ororo’s head poked instead. Warren paused the video and looked towards her.

—Hey there. —Ororo greeted, then looked at the female on him. —We went to her room and didn’t find her there so we worried. —she explained.

—I think the headache and the cramps went away finally... —he answered as he took a look at his best friend.

—Yeah I can see. Anyway, we’ll be playing billiards in the basement in case you wanna join.

—Thanks Ro.

The professor was next to the entrance of the school giving the tour to a new kid, encouraging him to stay assuring him he’d be safe and provided of all the help he may need.

—You should know you won’t feel alone ever again. No matter the day, the hour there’ll always be someo—Warren!—from one second to another, a laughing Warren run past between the professor and the soon-to-be student startling them, followed by a screaming Y/N who grabbed the door frame for a quick turn in the chase for the winged mutant. The professor’s eyes couldn’t avoid the two young adults running around the garden, observing Y/N’s scowl and Warren’s naughty smile.

—Warren I fucking swear, if you don’t give it back right now you’ll regret it for years. —her serious statement lost all the authority at his loud laugh.

—Sure thing! If you want it, come and get it —he quickly moved his eyebrows up and down in a suggestive manner, only getting her more exasperated. —Ugh! You’re disgusting!

—Who are those? —the boy asked the professor disorientated by the developing scene he was watching. Getting the professor out of his trance, he answered as he invited the kid inside the building. —Uh, nevermind. Come with me now I want to show you the library…

After some more chasing, running and hiding, Warren had lost her and couldn’t see where she was. She’d changed her strategy to get him. Hiding herself wisely she just had to wait until he fell for her trap. Less than 10 minutes passed when she got a glimpse of him walking down the corridor where she was. He was alert, knowing she was probably trying to catch him off guard. Indeed he was so focused on trying to spot her he missed her, and taking her opportunity she jumped right on his back between his strong wings. —Gotcha! —surprised by the attack he started to wriggle in failed attempts to get her off him. —Fuck! Y/N! —You were warned! —You’ll regret this! —No, you will! Give it back! They’re mine! —she whined stretching her right arm as far as she could to grab the blue package while with the other she held her body on his shoulder.

They were like that for about 5 minutes when they heard someone clearing their throat. They stopped their movements, Warren turning a little so he could face them, and consequently so could she considering she was still on him, red cheeks and disheveled hair from all the action. Both their breaths agitated and a thin layer of sweat covering their foreheads. Charles arched an eyebrow playfully at his sight.

—Are you planning to stop sometime today? —although he wasn’t legit smiling, they knew they weren’t in trouble, after all they hadn't broken anything… yet.

Y/N got off Warren and used her best weapon she knew worked perfectly with Charles. Slightly pouting and signaling her best friend with her index finger she complained —He took away my Oreos…

—You can’t be serious right now… —Warren said looking at her incredulous, he couldn’t believe she was getting her way like this.

The professor couldn’t restrain his amusement anymore, letting a soft laugh slip past his lips. He nodded his head as he heard them go on.

—You know my Oreos are sacred! —Yeah that’s exactly why it's so fun to stole them away from you genius!

—Okay enough now, Warren would you please give the cookies back to its owner? —Charles said smiling as he kept watching them. Warren rolled his eyes and sighed as he gave the chocolate cookies to her, who received them happily.

Later that day, she knocked at his room door and typed on her phone as she waited. Two seconds later it was opened by her best friend dressed in his sleeping clothes. She just went in and sat on her usual spot on his bed. —Where is Peter? —Warren shrugged his shoulders to go along with his answer.

—I don’t know. What are you doing? —he gestured with his head towards her phone.

—Just found a funny memes account, here check. —she handed him the phone as she eat an Oreo and offered him the open package as well. He took one immediately taking it to his mouth as his green eyes scanned the screen. They shared funny pics and chatted all the way til there were no more cookies left and bedtime came.

[captainsolare]

Unspoken Words Chapter 8: Festival

fic masterlist 

Summary:  Bakugo discovers a passion for music and becomes a cover artist in secret to deal with his feelings, but what happens when his secret could be exposed, and his feelings along with them?

A/N: Please don’t send me hate for this chapter, I know to some people certain ships are unpopular but in this fic there’s no established relationships. 

Bakugo once again couldn’t sleep, so he decided to do some research in an attempt to ease his nerves. ‘What to do on a festival date that’s not really a date and you’re really just using each other as an excuse to avoid certain people.’ Predictably the internet returned no helpful results. His phone chimed, a notification from Kirishima. Bakugo hissed, he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with him after his embarrassing moment of weakness earlier. “Hey bro, I know you’re probably asleep but if you want to go to the festival tomorrow the group’s down to go.” 

Much to Kirishima’s surprise, Bakugo responded. “Sorry. Pink Cheeks asked me to go with her. Something about being upset with Deku or something.” “Woah you responded, isn’t it way past your bed time?” Kirishima teased, though he was also a bit shocked that his friend had agreed to go with Uraraka. He chewed his lip thoughtfully, he had never sensed a romantic connection between the two but he supposed that it could be possible; Bakugo was never that open with his feelings. 

With that thought in mind, he felt a pang in his chest; he was still reeling from his discovery that all of the songs on Bakugo’s channel were about Midoriya. What if he liked him instead?  He tried to push the feeling that he had intruded on something extremely personal in his friend’s life so he could respond to Bakugo’s next text. “Yeah it is.” “Soooo… Uraraka 😉?” “Can it Hair for Brains, this literally means nothing to me.” “Uh huh, sure. Isn't this going to be your first date like, ever?” “Not a date. But even if it was I’m not nervous.” “ 😏😏😏 Okay whatever you say, we’ll see how you’re feeling tomorrow big man.” “🙄 whatever. Goodnight.” 

“Dammit.” Katsuki cursed under his breath, Kirishima really did have him all figured out didn’t he? 

-

Early the next afternoon, Bakugo headed to the flower shop and bought a single pink rose to give to Uraraka when he saw her tonight. It was technically a date after all, and he’d be damned if anyone said he didn’t know how to show someone a good time and be a gentleman. He figured a single rose would do, since they were going to a festival after all, no need to make her hold a huge bouquet. Plus, he scoffed at the thought, he didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea, it’s not like he liked her, he was just being nice for once. He tried to sneak back into the dorm without anyone seeing him but to his chagrin, Sero and Kaminari were on the couch and Momo and Jiro were downstairs as well. “Ooh! Bakugo, who’s the flower for?” Sero asked teasingly. Momo and Jiro perked up at that, “Yeah Bakugo, who’s it for?” Jiro asked. “None of your business.” he retorted, grumbling as he walked over to the elevators. He could hear the others all whispering and giggling about it and it made his ears burn. 

Up in her room, Uraraka was getting ready with Tsuyu. “Are you sure going with Bakugo is a good idea?” she asked, glancing at her friend. “Yeah. I think it’ll be fine, he may seem a little grumpy on the outside, but I think there’s a soft, kind person in there somewhere.” Uraraka replied. “Hmm.” Tsuyu said doubtfully. 

Bakugo opened his closet, perusing his options for the night. He opted for jeans and one of his dressier t-shirts, he wasn’t a complete slob, despite what some people may think. As he was leaving the room, his eyes landed on the bottle of cologne on his dresser. He spritzed some on, careful not to put too much on, remembering the time he did and his mother had lectured him about smelling cheap. He put a watch on for good measure, and then headed downstairs, flower in tow. 

The common room was quiet, most of their classmates had left earlier wanting to get first dibs on the good food and the prizes that were sure to be there. Bakugo paced around downstairs, not wanting to admit how nervous he was but he needed to get the nervous energy out. He ran through the checklist of what he had planned tonight, for the most part he was going to let Uraraka pick what they did but as soon as 10:00 hit they were going somewhere else because he had already staked out a perfect spot to watch the fireworks. 

“H-hey Bakugo.” Uraraka called from near the elevators. He turned and nearly dropped everything he was carrying. There Uraraka stood, in a simple pink yukata with a plum blossom pattern and her hair in an updo. He recovered pretty quickly and tried to hide the blush on his face. “Here.” he said, “I got this for you.” He held out the flower, and Uraraka noticed the blush on his cheeks. “Oh, thank you Bakugo! It’s lovely.” she said, smiling at him. “Well, shall we?” she asked, opening the door. “Sure.” 

And so they went. They sampled almost all of the food, Uraraka caught a few goldfish, and Bakugo won her a stuffed animal dragon that she wanted. Watching Uraraka enjoy herself, Bakugo felt the rest of the world just melt away; nothing else really mattered right now. Despite himself, Bakugo found himself having fun, and even dropped his grumpy facade and gave her a smile. When he did, Uraraka felt her heart melt; she’d never heard a laugh that bright before. 

From afar, Midoriya scowled. “They seem like they’re having fun!” Iida said cheerily. “Yeah, I didn’t know Bakugo could smile.” Todoroki remarked. Midoriya faked a smile, “Yeah, good for them.” 

Kirishima and the rest of that friend group followed behind Bakugo at a distance. “I need evidence for later.” Mina said, pulling out her phone to take pictures when they saw Bakugo smiling and laughing with Uraraka. Sero and Kaminari ran by the pair, giving them a whistle. Mina chuckled as Bakugo activated his quirk and started yelling at them until they disappeared from view. “They’re a cute couple aren’t they?” she remarked to Kirishima. “Yeah…” he replied, but his heart ached with the weight of what he thought he knew. 

Bakugo looked around and saw all of their classmates gawking at them. He leaned down and whispered in Uraraka’s ear, “Let’s run.” “What?” she asked, taken a bit off guard; she quickly took a look around and saw that everyone was watching. “Ohhhh, yeah, I’m down if you are.” she whispered back. She hiked up her yukata, grateful that she had chosen to wear shorts underneath and she took off her sandals. Once she was ready, they took off at lightning speed through the crowd hand in hand, leaving all their classmates behind. Once the festival and their classmates were out of sight they finally stopped, panting and laughing. They quickly realized they were still holding hands and let go, involuntarily stepping back from each other and blushing from the contact. 

 Bakugo collapsed to the ground in laughter, “Did you-- did you see the looks on their faces when we took off? Really showed them to spy on us huh?” he said, gasping for air as he laughed. Uraraka nearly doubled over in laughter, “Yeah I did, it was hilarious.” Suddenly, Bakugo’s watch started beeping. “Oh damn, it’s almost time.” he remarked, hopping up from the ground. “Time for what?” Uraraka asked. “No time, just come on.” Bakugo replied, grabbing her hand once more. 

He led her to the top of a large hill just outside of town and they sat down. “Why are we here Bakugo?” “Just wait.” He said, excitement creeping into his voice. Uraraka gave him a skeptical look, but it soon melted into a gaze of wonderment as the color bloomed in the sky and they had a perfect view. “Oh wow, it’s beautiful. How did you find such a good spot?” Bakugo gave her a cocky smile, “Oh you know, I know a guy.” 

“Hey Pink cheeks, can I ask you something?” Bakugo asked, during a quiet moment. “Hmm? Yeah what is it?” “Why’d you ask me to take you? I know you said it was to get back at Deku or whatever, but surely Kirishima could have also done the job?” “Ahh. Honestly, I was mad at Deku, but I’ve wanted to spend time with you for a while now.” Bakugo’s face immediately turned red. “Not like that!” Uraraka exclaimed, “I’ve just wanted to get to know the real you.” “I see.” he replied. “Well, either way. Thank you for asking me, I had a good time with you.” “Same here, I had a good time with you too.” The fireworks soon started up again, and their hands rested atop the other’s, as they sat there in comfortable silence, they wondered what the future of their friendship held.

[laplaces-angels]

((Here’s a bunch of headcanons for Dib’s Epithet Erased!AU because it’s like 2:30 AM & I just got a huge burst of inspiration for no goddamn reason))

As Dib’s Epithet gets stronger, the bottom half of his irises become a light blue in color

If Dib ever reaches Nova Class/Class 3, half of his hair scythe will turn pale blue/almost white & he’ll always have at least one little ghost following him

Once Dib finds out he’s Inscribed & figures out what his Epithet does, he will immediately try to show off his abilities by summoning small spirits & going, “Look, everyone! Proof that ghosts are real!” but everyone ignores him/calls him crazy

Every time he shows his dad that he can use his Epithet to summon ghosts, his dad says something along the lines of, “Those are some nice fake ghosts, son” much to Dib’s disappointment

Dib also goes to “Mysterious Mysteries” to try to show off his Epithet on live TV to prove ghosts are real

Dib wants to study the Arsene Amulet to see if it can affect paranormal beings (mainly Zim)

When Dib finds out he’s Inscribed, the first thing he does is test out his new abilities on Zim by trying to scare him with ghosts or by throwing a ball of ectoplasm at his face.

It would be EXTREMELY ironic if Dib ends up hearing his Core Word spoken by Zim

When Dib’s not at Skool or spying on/fighting Zim, he’s usually out in the woods/in his backyard practicing/learning more about his Epithet

If Dib’s in the middle of something important & he needs to get something from the other side of the house, he’ll summon a ghost to go get that item for him

[rancoeur-the-unfortunate]

Pills (Chapter 1)

(1443 words 😉)

Irkens are well known for their destruction. They are also well known for their conquerization of most other alien species they come into contact with.

These specific goals, however, were not achievable via just trust and training in their soldiers.

No, instead the control brains along with the Tallest had found a much better and more effective solution to keeping the Irkens in line. The answer was drugs.

Each Irken had their own special concoction of addictive painkillers, narcotics, and other varying medicines. These drugs were supplied in small pills verified in color. 12 in a box.

These boxes were shipped to each Irken throughout secret tunnels, tubes, and teleportation devices through their bases and buildings. The boxes were to be shipped to each Irken once every six months.

Now in order to remain in control of these many Irkens, all the Tallest would have to do is cut off supply for the drugs whenever someone seemed out of order.

This worked perfectly. Not only did the Irkens right themselves immediately but most of the time the withdrawal was so bad they never attempted to disobey again.

That didn't stop the Tallest from just cutting off the supply for no reason and laughing as their subjects cried in pain and terror.

One Irken in particular though, his supply was NEVER to be touched. Not even by the Tallest. This supply was to arrive perfectly on the dot and always contain all 12 pills. This Irken was named Zim.

One of the smallest Irkens ever hatched in history. An Irken currently attempting to take over a lowly planet called Earth.

Zim's pills were very special in that they contained much stronger drugs. Zim had always been a destructive Irken since he was a smeet. He could easily topple the Irken empire if he saw fit. He could cut the massive in bite-sized bits for his tiny, robot dog to consume. Heck had it not been for his undying worship, the Tallest would have run in fear at the mere sight of the frightful Irken.

Antipsychotics

Zim also found himself in the meanest of moods whether it be from his trash tech, his trash servant, or the trash world he lived on currently. He'd get angry and an angry Zim was almost as bad as a determined Zim. Not to mention his countless mood swings.

Antidepressants

Zim also forgets to eat and sleep on multiple occasions, sometimes for months. These were only included because it is required by Irken law.

Stimulants

And to top it all off, pain and stress relievers. These kept Zim from sustaining to much damage in his 'war' against humanity. Their main purpose, though, was to keep Zim from thinking clearly.

These and a bit more created the magenta pill Zim always found himself swallowing. Of course, Zim was completely unaware of the ingredients used, but that didn't matter.

Those pills had to be the only things the Tallest had given him that wasn't garbage. In fact, they were the best drugs the Irken Empire had to offer.

The Tallest were too scared to look for an alternative, not to mention Zim on withdrawal was something they did NOT want to see.

Now, these packages don't arrive like most others, just plopped on the porch, waiting to be opened. Instead, these packages were always teleported directly to his lab. They were slim and compact, making them easier to hide.

Such an event just happened actually. Zim grabbed the box from the tube and opened it. He smiled, seeing all 12 pills in their respective places. The box was white, but the inside was black with small slots for each pill.

Zim took one and quickly popped it. immediately feeling better than before.

He hid the box and went about his business destroying the Earth, enslaving humans, and whatnot. Unbeknownst to him, an eye was watching.

Dib stared wide-eyed at the screen before him.

What were those pills?

Why did Zim need them?

Was this part of his next evil plan?

Why were they magenta?

So many questions ran through his giant head, and he was going to answer them whether Zim liked it or not. Preferably the latter.

Dib was currently sitting in a dark room in Zim's lab. He had placed spy bugs everywhere so he could watch Zim's every move.

Now, in hindsight, it would have been a lot smarter and safer to just watch the cams from his room, but that didn't matter now.

The human searched through the screens, trying to find Zim. He found him in one of the testing laboratories, yelling at GIR, who was jumping around the room.

Dib smirked. This was his chance. He ran into the room where Zim had hidden his pills. He opened the box and took one of the pills out, he stashed it in his pocket. He replaced it with a sugar pill and put the box back. He didn't know why he had that pill, but it was oddly convenient that he did.

He climbed out of the base via a tunnel he dug in Zim's backyard. Which, funnily enough, had no defense whatsoever.

Dib ran home with excitement rushing through his veins.

Dashing up the stairs, Dib made his way to his computer and sat down in his chair. He laid the pill on his scanner.

"Computer, run a scan on this pill. What's in it?"

'Traced Medications

-Pain relievers

-Stress Relievers

-Stimulants

-Antidepressants

-Antipsychotics

-other unknown substances'

Dib stared dumbfounded. "Why would Zim be taking this?" He shook his head. "I need to figure out what these are for. Maybe I'll see once Zim gets to the sugar pill."

Back at Zim's base. Zim smiled as he reported to the Tallest.

"Greetings my Tallest! I am glad to announce that the shipment of my medication has been a successful one."

"That's good to hear, Zim. And you have taken them, right?" Tallest Red asked unsurely. It was obvious he did, but he wanted to be sure.

"Yes, my Tallest."

"Good, we're proud, of you Zim. Remember to take one every 2 earth weeks. Ok?" Tallest Purple reminded.

"Of course, my Tallest." Zim bowed slightly.

"That'll be all then."

Red then waved for one of the other Irkens to cut the transmission.

Zim couldn't help but laugh in delight.

He always loved talking to someone as high and mighty as the Tallest.

Zim made his way to a deep part of his base to get started on his next evil plan. He had school in the morning, after all.

Skool was uneventful aside from Dib's harsh glances his way, which wasn't too surprising. Zim felt like it was just another waste of time.

Lunch went by quickly well aside from Dib pestering him of course.

It was only after skool did something interesting happen.

Dib ran by Zim until he was in front of him and turned to face him.

"Taking drugs now, Zim?!"

"W-What?!"

Students started turning their heads towards the two.

"Don't play dumb, Zim! I found them in your house in a little white box." Dib pointed accusingly at the chartreuse alien in front of him.

Zim looked around nervously. Normally their banter never attracted the eyes of anyone but this was getting out of hand.

"I-it's my medication?" Zim tried.

"Medication for what Zim?! Your 'skin condition?!' or are you just a druggy?!"

Zim took a few steps back and Dib followed suit.

"Zim is no Druggy!" Zim shouted back, despite the beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

He could hear it. People were whispering.

"Zim's a drug addict?"

"That explains a lot."

"Why would he need drugs?"

"Why is he so ugly?"

"What's going on?"

He was surrounded.

"Y-you have n no proof!" Zim screamed.

"Oh really?"

Dib then reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out the small pill from before.

"Gimme tha-" Zim paused. This would only confirm their suspicions. Zim didn't need that kind of attention.

"I mean... I've never seen that before in my life, Dib-worm!"

Dib laughed.

"But I thought it was your medication?!"

Zim could feel the world collapsing in on him. The circle of kids became tighter. Zim looked around himself, all eyes were on him. Their whispers became louder.

Zim screamed and bolted through the crowd, pushing any kids in his way aside. He continued screaming until he finally made it home.

Zim panted as he shut the door.

"Computer! Commence lockdown mode!"

'Ok'

The computer groaned before covering the entire outside in metal.

Zim made his way into the base where he hid his pills.

[loveturtlesx]

Bar Musings

Part 5. I struggled with this one a little bit. Shawn is not in this part that much (sorry), but he will be everywhere in the next one. I would love to know your thoughts! Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list! -xx.

She luckily had a few seconds to calm her heart rate before Kate had met her at the elevator bank with Joe. They showed her the pristine apartment and then talked briefly about the price and utilities. Kate could leave her current apartment at the end of November because her lease was monthly. This meant they could be moving in within two weeks.

After viewing his apartment, she and Kate walked over to Bee’s for a bite and to discuss everything. 

“I don’t know, Kate. It’s beautiful, but I’m not gonna lie. Living with Joe might be weird.” She picked up a french fry— her current stress level was high.

“Okay, that’s fair. Why don’t we invite Joe out to dinner sometime this week? And you can get a chance to know him more. That way you can see if living with him is a possibility.” 

Kate took a bite of her burger. It had been too big of a bite because some ketchup ran down her cheek. She grabbed for the stack of napkins on the table and they were knocked onto the floor. She watched the mess happen and gave a half smile at Kate’s mess. 

Kate was rather clumsy. Although she couldn’t talk because she was just as bad, which is part of the reason they got along so well in college. Moving into her dorm a few years ago had been hectic and sweaty. The lines for the elevator to get up to the dorm were ridiculous. Not wanting to wait and ignoring the heat, her dad convinced her that they could make it up the stairs without a problem. So, with her father in the lead, they dragged her two suitcases up four flights of stairs. She was trailing behind, and it was a good thing she was not in front of her father. By the time she made it to the fourth floor landing, her sweaty grip hadn’t held and her suitcase tumbled down the stairs. Flinging her super plus tampons (not the cute little ones), thongs, period granny panties, bras, and her stuffed animal, Elliot, all over the stairwell. She had lost her footing when the suitcase went down, but luckily her father was agile and grabbed her arm before she took a tumble too. Kate happened to be on the third-floor landing when her things rained down like confetti. She caught her suitcase from passing the third floor, but in doing so, sent her box of DVDs down the stairs. The only casualty of the whole ordeal was Love Actually, which she replaced for Kate the same day. Their first encounter had been quite memorable-– “here are your tampons.” “Thanks, and here’s My Bloody Valentine.” The irony hadn’t been lost on her.

“Hmm,” she played with the half grilled cheese left on her plate.

“Hey, what’s up?” Kate inquired noting her mood. 

“It sounds great, Kate.” She said halfheartedly and dropped the fry to her plate.

“No, what’s really bothering you? You were pretty quiet back at the apartment.”

“I-I-I’m feeling so many different emotions right now, and I don’t know how to process it all. I’m sorry. I do want to meet up with Joe. I think it’ll be good,” she took a breath, “I just… Tom, and Shawn, and grad school…”

“I know. It’s a lot.”

“It is a lot. Is it weird that I don’t feel as sad about Tom as I thought I was going to?”

Kate wiped her fingers on a napkin rescued from the floor and picked up a fry, “No, you were mentally mourning that relationship long before it was officially over.  

“You missed some,” she pointed to Kate’s ketchup cheek, “and yeah, but we were engaged. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sad and I do miss him, but not in the way I thought I would.”

“What? More like he was a friend than a boyfriend?”

“Kind of, I guess so.”

“It wasn’t a healthy relationship in the end.”

“No, it really wasn’t,” she continued to play with her grilled cheese.

“And Keira did nothing to help that,” Kate added, “you dodged a bullet.”

She forcefully snorted, “psycho.” 

Keira and Tom had “dated” in fourth grade. It lasted for two weeks, and yet that was a fact that Keira felt the need to bring up every single time they were all together. She felt compelled to tell her that she knew Tom better, and would make jokes about how she had him first. No one thought any of this was funny except for Tom. Keira, in his eyes, could do no wrong, and it was a fight they had a few too many times.

She added, “maybe Keira will finally make moves.”

Kate paused, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she already has, or maybe not. Maybe it was only fun because she got to torment you. I don’t remember her being as clingy with Tom when you weren’t around.”

She rolled her eyes, “it’s in the past.”

Kate nodded in agreement with her mouth full.

“Oh, call Joe, and invite him out to dinner on Friday. I think it’s a good idea.” 

The side door to Bee’s opened, the bells attached to the frame twinkled. Into the warmth came G and a beautiful blonde woman. It was undeniably G, if nothing else, the height and the beard gave him away. The couple sat in a booth across the diner. She eagerly looked at the door again, hoping that just maybe he’d appear too. 

“What,” Kate probed. Her cheeks heated at the realization that she was half standing from her seat to get a better view. Kate leaned over and stuck her head in the aisle of the diner to look at what had her so preoccupied. 

“Who is that?”

“That’s G, and I think, his girlfriend.”

Kate went back to her burger, “the one who was drugged?”

“Shh,” her eyes widened looked around to see if anyone overheard their discussion.

“Oh, come off it. They’re all the way over there.”

“Kate,” she warned. 

Kate smirked at her paranoia, “okay. I’m sorry. So now what happened again?”

“I’m not entirely sure what happened, other than that she’s okay,” she practically whispered.

“How’d you hear that?”

“Shawn told me,” she lowered her voice again and this time Kate laughed, “stop mocking me.” She whined and Kate laughed harder.

“Wait a second. Shawn told you?”

Her cheeks colored almost immediately, and her face felt hot. Internally, she cursed her genetics for making her so easy to read. Kate smirked, “ah, so you bumped into him? Where?”

“He actually lives in the same building as Joe.”

“No way. We need to move in then!” 

“What? That cannot be the reason we decide to make a thousand-dollar decision.”

“It’s not the only reason! But oh, come on, think about how fun and easy that relationship would be.” 

She giggled softly, allowing herself to think about Kate’s suggestion, at the thought of creeping up in the middle of the night to see him. Him bringing food by when she was too lazy to move. Stealing his jacket. Maybe have some of her reoccurring dreams like the one from this morning actually transpire. It would be just an elevator ride…Her smile stilled and she looked at her left ring finger which was resting on her mug of hot chocolate. She barely knew Shawn, and she had literally just gotten out of a relationship in which she had been engaged. Was it too soon to even be joking about moving on? She didn’t even know if Shawn really liked her or if he was just being friendly. She ran her fingers along the rim of her mug.

Kate reached out and put her hand on her arm, stopping her trailing fingers. “Hey,” Kate said softly, “what’s going on in your head?”

“It’s just –—“ The front door of Bee’s chimed announcing another patron’s entrance. They didn’t have a clear of a view of the front door from their booth. The figure was wearing a snapback and running shorts. Whoever it was, was extremely tall. Kate looked round at the sound too, “I call dibs on this one. You can have Shawn.” 

She laughed, “what about Joe?”

“What about him? We’re not dating.”

The man walked over to G’s booth and sat. She felt a giggle bubble up at the absurdity of her life, and pulled her leaning body back into the booth, away from any prying eyes that might see her in the aisle. She couldn’t stop laughing. Kate looked confused. 

“That is Shawn,” she breathed out and let out another chuckle, “sorry. I- it just took us weeks to bump into each other and now I’m seeing him everywhere.”

Kate smiled at her, and pointed her hamburger at her, “it’s a sign. Go over there.”

She shook her head and bit into her now cool grilled cheese causing her to grimace, “no let’s just finish our dinner and maybe I’ll say goodbye.”

“Why are you being weird?” Kate tossed a fry at her. It hit her shoulder bounced onto her plate. 

She picked it up and took a bite, “I’m not being weird. I just don’t want him to think I’m stalking him.”

“Girl, that doesn’t even make sense. Why would he think that?”

Her phone vibrated on the table. She flipped it over.

iMessage from (xxx)xxx-xxxx: Picture attachment.

Kate leaned over the table to see the message and laughed, “looks like he’s the one giving off stalker vibes.” 

The photo was of Kate tossing a fry at her in their booth. It was clearly taken from across the diner.

iMessage from (xxx)xxx-xxxx: I spy a jacket thief

She poked her head out from the booth again and laughed when she made eye contact with him. He looked… hot. His curls were spilling from under the snapback, and his cheeks were rosy. He looked like he just came from a run. He was grinning widely at her, and when she poked her head out, he stood and made his way over with a water bottle in hand. 

Her eyes widened slightly and she pulled back into the booth a bit – feeling terrified and elated. Kate was still staring at Shawn, and under her breath appraisingly whispered, “fuck.”

He stopped at their table and smiled warmly at her, “long time.”

“Too long,” she found herself smiling back. It had only been a few hours.

Kate grabbed her purse, and scooted to the end of the booth to stand, “well, I hate to leave, but I have to finish all that paperwork for my current lease. Maybe you can find someone here to keep you company.” She teased and pulled her coat on. Shawn introduced himself to Kate with a smile.

“I’m Kate. Think you can take on this awful task of keeping her company while I’m gone?”

“Eh, I don’t know,” Shawn looked over at her still sitting in the booth. Her heart jumped. 

“I mean, she is quite low maintenance. Occasionally requires wine and chocolate, but mostly she’s self-sufficient,” Kate joked.

“Toilet trained,” He looked back at Kate for an answer.

“Hey!” she called from her spot in the booth. They all laughed. 

Kate put her scarf on, “nice meeting you,” she directed at Shawn, “see you at home.” Kate gave her a pointed look that said she wanted details later.

Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list! -xx.

@accioalena

[kenzisnyder]

Mean Things

Chapter One:

It’s the start of the 2004-2005 school year at Hawkins Shore High School in Hawkins Illinois, and Eleven is about to start her first day at a “normal” high school as a junior. For the last 14 years she has lived in the Hawkins research lab with her totally normal father figure, Papa. The only weird thing about her life is that she’s been experimented on since she was kidnapped as a premature infant.

She heads into her new school and searches for a seat when her teacher, Ms. Beyers walks in with Principal Hopper. Principal Hopper is frightened by Eleven and her shaved head and says that she must be the new student from the lab,

“One- One.” She politely corrects him and says, “It’s Eleven.”

After she finally finds a seat, she strikes up a conversation with a couple of fellow outcasts named Barb and Jonathan. Jonathan proceeds to stroke Eleven’s buzz cut and tell her how fabulous and edgy it looks, while Barb laughs and introduces her to Jonathan as “too gay to function.” After class, Barb and Jonathan take Eleven out to the back of the school where she is told that she gives off an edgy vibe that’s sure to help her move up the ranks at Hawkins Shore. They also give Eleven her first introduction to Hawkins Shore’s most popular group in school, the scienceltes. They start out by describing Dustin, the “space case” of the group. Although he is viewed as the nicest member of the scienceletes because he’s funny and always willing to share his snacks, he’s definitely hiding something mysterious. The next member of the group is Lucas, who’s the most blunt and straightforward in the whole group. Lucas is mean and he doesn’t care, because his dad is the inventor of eggos. After they tell Eleven this she stops them, and asks what the hell an eggo is. Barb tells her that she’ll find out soon enough, but there is just something about that word, “eggo,” that strikes a connection for Eleven. Despite this, Eleven listens as they continue by describing the last, and most prominent member of the group, Mike Wheeler. Mike is the star of the school and everyone treats him like true royalty. Mike is the one person who can make being a total science nerd cool. It’s mostly because his older sister Nancy literally ran the school before she graduated. She won Spring Fling queen her junior year, and prom queen her senior year. People still talk about Nancy at Hawkins Shore High school. No one knows what exactly Nancy is doing now that she’s graduated, but everyone knows it's nothing shy of amazing. The most common rumors involve Australian modeling, being on a Japanese game show, and even living undercover as a spy on the Saudi Arabian government. Nancy had it all at Hawkins Shore: the hottest boyfriends, the coolest friends, and she always threw the best ragers. Now Mike is following in her footsteps. He’s already got the popularity, the posse, and the parties. All he needs now is the sweet arm candy to follow in his royal sister’s footsteps. For some reason though, Jonathan totally has a vendetta out for Mike, and Barb seems to cringe every time she hears Nancy’s name. The pair quickly changes the subject to lunchtime seating when Eleven begins to question their reactions to Mike Wheeler’s name. Barb hands Eleven a map of the cafeteria and describes every social group at Hawkins Shore and their typical lunchtime seating arrangements.

Later that day when Eleven is walking towards her new friends at lunch, eggos in hand when a douchey looking guy stops her. He tells her his name is Tommy H and that he has series of new student questions to ask her. He asks if she needs syrup for her eggos, and if she needs someone special to put that syrup on her eggos. Eleven is super confused and is trying to formulate a response when The Mike Wheeler stands up and tells Tommy H to “fuck off” and “leave the new girl alone because he called dibs.” Mike then proceeded to invite Eleven to sit with them. Mike apologized and said that Tommy H wouldn’t of known when to stop if he wouldn’t have been so harsh. Mike also asked why he’d never seen Eleven before and she told him that it was because she’d been the subject of a groundbreaking experiment for the first 15 years of her life. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he was like “omg, shut up!” He also said Eleven was super pretty for being locked up all of those years, and then complemented her demogorgon tattoo. Lucas said “yeah girl, that shit is boujee,” and Mike snapped back at him that boujee was a stupid word and he needed to stop being so lame if he wanted to remain at the table. He then whispered something to both Lucas and Dustin, then he turned to Eleven and smiled. Lucas said, “just so you know this is not something we do..” “like ever” said Dustin, “but we want to invite you to our table, like for the rest of the week.” Eleven didn’t even get a chance to respond before Mike said, “Awesome, so wear green on Wednesday.”

After lunch, Eleven went and told Barb and Jonathan all about her lunch with the infamous scienceletes of Hawkins Shore. Jonathan tells Eleven that she HAS to become part of the scienceletes and tell him and Barb everything Mike and his posse say. Eleven asked Jonathan why he hated Mike so much and Barb started to say something about Jonathan’s brother, but Jonathan stopped her and told Eleven it would just be really fun to talk to them and see what it’s like to be a part of their group. He said it didn’t matter what happened with his brother, that she just needed to do it so she could learn to act normal and learn all the secrets about Nancy. Eleven reluctantly agreed and asked Jonathan and Barb for green clothes to wear on Wednesday.

After her discussion with Jonathan and Barb, Eleven got to go to math class, and that’s where it happened. Eleven saw the most attractive guy she’d ever seen...although she’d been pretty much locked away from seeing any guys from the time she was an infant. She saw the one and only Steve Herrington occupied the seat directly behind Eleven in math class. She was immediately smitten, and thought about him all night and until the next day when the scienceletes began to explain the rules of being a part of their posse. Eleven was expected to play Dungeons and Dragons at least 3 times a week. She couldn’t wear pink or any dresses that made her look too girly, because after all she was joining the boys posse of scienceletes and not the plastics from Nancy’s high school years, and she was expected to always ask for approval before buying a new videogame or vintage board game. After Mike explained the rules to Eleven, he got up and went to throw his trash away, so Lucas asked if Eleven had seen any guys she was into at Hawkins Shore, so she told Lucas and Dustin about seeing Steve in math class. Lucas immediately said, “Aww hell no girl, you can’t like Steve, we have to hate him because of something that happened with his older brother and Mike’s older sister Nancy.” This hit Eleven hard, but she continued to fantasize about Steve all of the time. She Thought about him day and night and constantly wondered what happened between Steve’s older brother and the infamous Nancy. Also, where was Nancy now, and who was Steve’s older brother, and why did the scienceletes hate him so much?

Eleven’s daydreams were suddenly interrupted by a guy named Troy, who happened to be head of the mathletes. He asked her to join because he thought she had super powers because she was in the lab her whole life, and he thought she could use them during math competitions. Ms. Beyers jumped in and said she thinks it would be an excellent decision for Eleven to join, and that she could get involved. Later she was talking to Lucas about joining and he told her that everyone would think she would be weird and that if she wanted to join a cool club she should talk to Mr. Clarke about joining AV club. As she was walking home, Mike pulled up beside her with the other boys in the car and said, “Get in loser, we’re going to play D&D.” When the posse got to Mike’s house they were greeted by his mom and plates of eggos. Eleven asked if there was syrup on the eggos, and Mike’s mom told her no, but if she wanted some she wanted her to have it in the house. Mike’s little sister, Holly,  was also in his house dancing and singing to the Star Wars intro. The posse got to Mike’s basement and hangout room and they all got really silent. Then Mike looked Eleven in the eyes and said, “You’re ready to know.” He then pulled out a book from the shelf, and opened it. As he started flipping through the pages the boys began to tell Eleven the truth about Nancy. She wasn’t off doing something great, and she wasn’t in a different country. Nancy was in a different world. The boys showed Eleven a book about the Vale of Shadows and showed her some links on Mike’s MacIntosh desktop. The posse thought Nancy was in the Vale of Shadows. It’s the same as the world, but darker and scarier, and there’s a monster there, called a Mean Thing. Eleven rubbed her demogorgon tattoo while the boys went on and on about the Vale of Shadows. She knew that she had  connection to this mysterious place, but she didn’t know what it was so she kept her mouth shut and continued to be mesmerized by the boys and the stories they were telling about this not-so-unimaginable place that they thought Nancy was stuck in. It was strange and confusing, and the complexity of Eleven’s new “normal” like began to become more and more confusing by the the second.

[misssophiachase]

Tomorrow, When the War Began

So, this is my Klaroline fusion with an Australian series of seven books by John Marsden. It was also made into a film at one point and now a TV series apparently. This is my first foray into sci-fi. All chapter titles from the awesome soundtrack.

Caroline Forbes takes a post-graduation camping trip in the mountains with her friends only to return to nothing and no one. Can she find out what's happened, especially with arrogant Klaus Mikaelson along for the journey

Chapter 1: Steer

Feel it falling off like clothing, taste it rolling on your tongue. See the lights above you glowing and breathe them deep into your lungs (Missy Higgins)

Storm Lake - IA

"May he rest in peace," Bonnie murmured, looking at the fresh grave sombrely. The others in the circle had their heads bowed and eyes downcast, even Klaus.

Caroline watched stoically as Elijah shovelled the last of the dirt atop the makeshift grave. She had been playing with her beloved dog Jesse only four days earlier and now he was dead. How she had no idea. Caroline had found his lifeless body on the driveway and had run inside to rouse her parents but Liz and Bill had vanished. To where she had no idea either.

Looking back she realised just how young and naïve she'd been up until this point. Caroline's biggest worry was passing her final exams and graduating with the rest of her class. Once she achieved both of those things, Caroline was looking forward to a lazy summer with friends before her interstate college experience began. Little did she know what and who was about to come for them.

When she'd tried to call for help, Caroline discovered the electricity was cut, the house phone line dead and their cell reception was non-existent. It was frightening, paralysing and eerie all at the same time. If only she could go back.

Six days earlier….

"It's our last summer in town dad, the least you can do is let me take the jeep for a camping trip," Caroline pleaded. "Anyway, it's only four days, what's the worst that could happen?" Famous last words in hindsight.

She was almost 18 years-old and it felt so juvenile to beg. She was headed to North Western University in a few months and the least she deserved was some form of reprieve from her parents over-protectiveness. In all of Storm Lake, Caroline had lucked out, being the only daughter of the town's most prominent lawyer and the local sheriff.

Her best friends would tease her mercilessly, especially rebellious Katherine who would constantly flaunt the rules and sneak out with local boys past curfew. Caroline was jealous of her supposed freedom until her parents had decided to send her to boarding school in Des Moines. Caroline wasn't quite sure how sending her to a big city with more than her fair share of guys was considered a punishment.

She'd been sad to lose her friend so suddenly at the start of senior year but at least she still had Bonnie. Well, that's what she thought until the Mikaelson family arrived and threw their small town into a spin. The younger brother Kol had taken an immediate liking to Bonnie and they'd spent their time getting to know each other very well as it turned out. She'd been gushing to Caroline about her first time only days earlier.

There was no doubting their looks were impressive but Caroline decided early on that his brother Klaus Mikaleson was missing the personality gene unlike his sweet talking brother. He kept to himself, barely managing a mumble of response to anyone, too caught up in his art apparently. Bonnie had shared that Klaus resented his geologist father for bringing them to town for field research after growing up in busy London.

His oldest brother Elijah was already attending college at Princeton and their youngest sister Rebekah was at an exclusive music academy in Switzerland, leaving the two brothers in Iowa. Unlike Kol who'd made it his social responsibility to fit in, Klaus had chosen to keep his distance during his final year and Caroline wasn't complaining. It was guys like that who weren't worth her attention. Well, that's what she told herself anyway. The only annoying and equally irresistible part was those dark, blonde curls and crimson lips that had a tendency to curl upwards into an annoying smirk when she passed him in the halls.

"You're talking about going high into the mountains, what do you expect?"

"I'm a big girl," Caroline drawled. "I can handle a few bears."

"And what about those pesky males?" Liz chimed into the conversation.

"I'll make sure I have enough tranquilliser darts to subdue them too," she drawled sarcastically. "Seriously, besides Kat, Bonnie and me, it's only Kol and his older brother Elijah. From what I've heard he could rival you both in the uptight stakes."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Liz joked. "Just let them take the jeep Bill, what's the worst that could happen over four days?"

They'd set out two days later. Caroline drove towards Kat's farm which was a couple of miles down the road. She was looking forward to relaxing by an open fire and swim in the crystal clear stream with the bestie she'd missed all year.

"Hey, sexy," she cooed, throwing her bags in the backseat before jumping in beside her.

"What's with all the luggage?"

"You never know who you're going to meet."

"In the country? How long have you been away again?"

"Shut up and tell me everything," she murmured dismissively, checking herself out in the side mirror as they drove towards Bonnie's house to pick up the remaining passengers. "I've been gone for almost a year, it's the least I deserve."

"Well, besides Bonnie's recent emergence into womanhood there's not much else to share."

"You know I always thought you'd be the next."

"Why? I told you I was waiting for the right person and apparently I haven't met him yet," she mumbled. People might think she was silly but Caroline had always imagined her first time would be with the perfect guy. Unfortunately there was no one in Storm Lake meeting that description.

"How about these mystery Mikaelsons I've heard so much about?" Caroline felt her face redden at the mere mention of their family name. She didn't like the guy but couldn't deny he was gorgeous.

"You'll have to ask Bonnie about that, I'm sure she can share ample information with you on that front. Just don't ask in my presence, there's only so much I can take again."

"I heard there were two brothers that shared those fine genes as well."

"For someone who's been away for a year, you certainly know a lot about what's been going on in little old Storm Lake."

"What can I say? I missed you and this was my way to stay close." Caroline could sense the emotion in her voice and she leaned across to place a comforting hand on her bare arm. She knew the sudden move hadn't been easy on Katherine but she was just realising how much. Caroline always assumed she loved city life but it was certainly a huge adjustment to make. "Plus you know how much I adore gossip."

"Glad to see nothing changes with you, Kitty Kat," she grinned knowingly, turning up Bonnie's familiar driveway. Instead of just the two brothers she'd been expecting by Bonnie's side, Caroline was faced with a very unimpressed blonde, bags in hand. What the hell was he doing crashing her camping trip?

"Woah! I call dibs on the brunette to the left, you know unless that's Kol," she backtracked slightly.

"That would be Elijah," she offered trying to block out Klaus' familiar and disinterested stare as she said it, Caroline had never seen the eldest brother in the flesh but he was just as handsome in his pictures. "I should warn you that he's apparently extremely serious."

"Is that a challenge?" Caroline closed her eyes momentarily as they came to a stop outside Bonnie's family home. She really should have known not to provoke the feisty brunette. She didn't know Elijah but Caroline felt immediately sorry for him. "What's with the cute, albeit angry, blonde shooting you dirty looks? What did you do to him?"

"I might of, uh, kind of assaulted him on prom night," she uttered feebly.

"Ohhh kinky, tell me more." Trust Katherine to jump to that kind of conclusion. 

As they descended on the car, Caroline knew this wasn't the time or the place to go into that particular story. Plus she was far too intrigued as to why Klaus had come along at that moment.

As it turned out, Caroline hadn't found out why he was there immediately. He'd seemed entirely too annoyed to even bother asking. The trip up to the mountains had been surprisingly quiet given Kol and Bonnie were too immersed in each other and Katherine seemed to be sizing up her prey in the rearview mirror. Elijah was either blissfully unaware or ignoring her on purpose.

Caroline wasn't quite sure whether this campout was going to be fun and relaxing as she'd hoped or decidedly more eventful and not in the good way. They left the jeep on lower ground and descended the mountain, packs in hand. Katherine was struggling slightly but Caroline figured her oversized luggage was her own fault.

The scenery was gorgeous as they made their way over the green grass as the sun began to set lazily on the horizon in streaks of brilliant oranges and pinks. Tents were assembled by the stream, Caroline busying herself with the task at hand so she didn't have to be close to Klaus. At least his deep set frown had been replaced by something resembling exhaustion now. 

They ate some noodles for dinner (much to Katherine's dismay about the lack of culinary options) and rolled into their sleeping bags by the crackling fire.

"How about some truth or dare?"

"I'm entirely too sober for that, Katherine," Kol chuckled, stroking Bonnie's arm affectionately. "Unless you want to break out the tequila."

"Maybe tomorrow," Bonnie chided, slapping him playfully. "Eye spy?"

"It's dark Bonnie," Caroline chuckled. "Besides the flames and a few stars there's not much I can see this time of night."

"That's the Milky Way," Elijah offered, pointing above. Caroline was beginning to realise he was a wealth of knowledge and hadn't engaged much so far unless he was sharing some fact. Katherine however seemed undeterred from her mission surprisingly.

"The stars are definitely brighter from here," Caroline breathed. Instead of feeling intimidated by their brilliance, she felt alive and strangely excited for what the future held. A quick glance to Klaus wrapped in his blanket was enough to tell her he felt something similar. He didn't respond just let his gaze linger on her slightly longer than usual. It was times like these she wasn't sure whether he hated her or understood her.

They'd fallen asleep eventually, Caroline woke up a few hours later slightly groggy and attempting to gain her bearings in the limited light. The fire seemed to have burnt down considerably and she noticed the lack of wood, rising slowly to gather some more. 

Besides the flashlight in her right hand, visibility was low. She remembered a nearby clearing that had an abundance of firewood and made her way in that direction. She felt something snap under her foot and jumped in fright at the contact, running into something incredibly hard but also irresistibly warm.

"Are you going to hit me again?" He whispered into the darkness as she clung to his broad chest. After the initial fright and whatever else his touch had caused to course through Caroline's body she backed away and shone the torch in his face accusingly. "Obviously you're going to blind me instead."

"You scared the hell out of me," she growled.

"Well, that makes two of us," he shot back. "What the hell are you doing?"

"What are you doing?"

"I asked you first."

"Mature," she sniped. "If you must know I was getting firewood."

"Well, that makes two of us," he said reaching down to grab some kindling to add to his pile.

"So, where's your flashlight?"

"They're for girls."

"Your maturity is really impressing me, Mikaelson."

"And your inability to take a joke is certainly not impressing me," he growled. "My battery died if you must know, I was making my way back to camp before you decided to grab onto me for dear life."

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused," he replied smartly, picking up a few extra pieces of wood before making his way towards the partially dying fire."Just don't hit me in the meantime."

"I said I was sorry," she spluttered, following him blindly in the darkness. "You need to get over it."

"You accused me of sneaking up on you, I don't recall anything close to an apology in that," he scoffed. Caroline was getting the impression he didn't buy her excuse for the unprovoked attack. It had been rather weak but it was the best she could come up with on the spot rather than betray her feelings. "Much like tonight. I'm getting the impression you like to skulk around in darkened places."

"I don't skulk," she shot back. He may of had a point about dark places though given their two run-ins. "Anyway, what the hell are you even doing here if I'm such a creepy person?" Caroline hissed.

"Not everything is about you, sweetheart," Klaus muttered. "Maybe I just wanted to relax and check out the stars." She remembered his expression as they talked about the Milky Way around the fire.

"They are pretty spectacular," she agreed, looking upwards. The sky wasn't as clear now with only a few stars twinkling but it was still impressive. 

He seemed to follow her gaze and at that moment it felt like they were the only two people in the world. It was becoming more difficult to ignore his spicy scent and the way his white tank top was hugging his torso from this close proximity.

It seemed like everything stopped momentarily before Klaus finally cleared his throat. "Well, as charming as this has been this fire isn't going to keep burning by itself," he replied gruffly. 

Before he could move further a low humming sounded out above."What's that?" Klaus didn't respond immediately his eyes searching above. Caroline noticed one plane flying above soon to be followed by an entire fleet, the sound only increasing as they inched across the sky in large numbers.

"It must be the AirForce doing some sort of training exercise."

"With their lights off?"

"I'm not going to tell the military how to undertake their covert operations and I'm thinking this fire needs our immediate attention before it extinguishes itself completely." 

Caroline didn't argue just followed him and fell back asleep dreaming of stars and airplanes.

You can read on FF HERE

[ladyofdecember]

ZADR Week - May 15th - BEEEES

A/N: Just to bring everyone up to speed with this universe. Dib and Zim have begun living together in Zim's base now that Dib has turned nineteen though he sometimes still spent a night or two at the Membrane home. It had been over a year now that both had graduated from the high skool and neither seemed particularly interested in attending college. With Dib's father gone often and Gaz more interested in being alone most of the time anyway, it had seemed like the perfect idea. The human and the alien had grown insanely close and yet were still pretty strictly far apart.

din-din ˈdindin/

noun

a child's word for dinner.

Also from urban dictionary:

TOP DEFINITION

din din:

another word for dinner, used by the very cool kids

Example: Sup, whens Din Din, Yo?

...

It started with what the human stinks call “April Showers” dissipating, leaving behind nothing but sunny skies and an overabundance of plant life in it's wake. That was what brought Zim out of the safe and secure haven of his base on the quiet May morning.

GIR had been playing some game around the yard and had inadvertently knocked over some of the gnomes outside. Venturing out to set things right, Zim had become overwhelmed by the stink of a large, purplish plant at the edge of the yard. Investigating it closer, he discovered that it was in fact, a flower of some kind, one of the various earth blooms that were common during this time of lunar drift.

He hadn't given much thought to these flowers or plants during his stay on the planet. After all, why should he? He was an invader, not some... plant lover... being. But upon receiving the recent news from his Tallest, it seemed there wasn't much point in conducting his normal studies or daily activities anymore. None the less, Zim was convinced that he did still have an importance here on this dirt ball, a mission, if not official then unofficial and still important in his eyes. So he wouldn't stop, not even if they wanted him to.

Sniffing the bell shaped flower bloom gently, he was surprised that he wasn't immediately repelled by the stench. It was light, a little dizzying but not repugnant.

“Am I interrupting?”

Zim startled, spinning round to see Dib standing just slightly outside the fence at the beginning of the yard. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the tiny white, paper bag in his hand. “What is that?”

Dib cocked an eyebrow, the small smile on his face never leaving. “Donuts.”

After a moment of just staring at one another, the man sighed impatiently and motioned towards the house. “Are the gnomes off? Am I safe to come in?”

The irken waved at him dismissively and faced the plant once more. “Yes, yes. They are in need of repair so they've been disconnected. You are safe to enter, Dib-worm.”

The human walked up to Zim, trying to figure out just what was so interesting about the flower. “Did you plant this?”

“No. I believe it was GIR. What IS it?”

“I dunno. I'm not much into flowers to be honest.” Dib said shrugging, then letting his eyes roam over Zim's studious face. “Are you... okay this morning?” To say he was worried about the irken was an understatement. He was downright concerned with making sure the alien was happy, content or at least not borderline homicidal. That wasn't good for anyone.

A pause and then, Zim spun to glare at the human, irritated. “I am fine, Dib-human!”

He wasn't so convinced but decided to let the issue drop for now. He'd bring Zim back to normal eventually. He had a plan after all. Holding up the bag in his hand with a hopeful smile on his face, he beckoned towards the base. “Hungry? You'll like these, Zim. They're covered in sugar!”

Relaxing a little, Zim turned back towards the human and eyed the bag in his hand once more. Well... he supposed he could take a break. But then, it was right back to his constant vigilance and walking the perimeter of their secret lair.

Grinning at the promise of sugar, Zim reached out happily with both claws to snatch the bag when suddenly a loud buzzing began from somewhere behind him. Zim turned with a curious expression, noticing a large bumblebee circling him. He began shrieking like mad and ran to cower behind Dib.

The man laughed. “It's just a bee, Zim!”

“Nonsense! It is... a disgusting thing!”

“In what way are bees disgusting?” Dib asked amusedly.

“Shut UP, Din-Din!” He responded, switching to his affectionate nickname for his friend.

Dib sighed as Zim continued clawing at his back and waist, peering around the side of him towards the flowery bush in an effort to “spy” on the bee. “I told you not to call me that.”

“And Zim told you to shut up!”

The two watched the bee visit each flower on the tiny bush before buzzing upward and over towards them. Dib stood perfectly still, used to bees and the like buzzing around him. They always seemed to follow him. It must be his shampoo. Zim however began to freak out all the more.

“Oh god! We're going to die!” He shrieked as he squeezed Dib's sides, nearly suffocating him.

“Zim! My... organs!”

Finally, the bee grew bored of the the display and flew off, high up into the blue sky and clouds.

Dib squirmed out of the alien's grip and retrieved the bag of donuts in the grass. “See what you did? Now, can we please go inside? I'm starving!”

Calming himself and adjusting his uniform slightly, Zim nodded quietly. “Let us enjoy these... er... do-nots!”

The two headed towards the house, Dib chuckling and shaking his head. “Donuts, Zim.” He corrected.

“Whatever.”

[reylofanfictionanthology]

Authors have now been revealed for For one is love and both are one in love!

Over 170 fics were posted to our Exchange this month and we are so excited to finally share the authors with you!  Thank you so much to all of the writers who wrote for this event!  

For one is love and both are one in love collection on AO3 |  Gift Fic Master Post Part One | Gift Fic Master Post Part Two

Treats Masterpost:

Only Now Can We Remember by misszeldasayre for america_oreosandkitkats

Ben Solo arrives home, disgraced. All of Hanna City judges him—all but Rey.

just want the devil to hate me by walkingsaladshooter for america_oreosandkitkats

Three years after he killed the past, Kylo Ren returns to the town where he was only ever Ben Solo. Nothing is even remotely healed, but maybe he can start.

Each Day is Valentine's Day by HellyJellyBean for andabatae

Accidental Praise by QueenOfCarrotFlowers for andabatae

Ben likes his new roommate, Rey. She's smart and funny, and she's a good cook; she's fun to hang out with, although she seems to blush a lot. Maybe she's coming down with something? Anyway, when she has an interview and she needs some help selecting her outfit, Ben is there to help her out, any way he can.

She learned that word from Whom? by itsinthestars for aNerdObsessed

Rey and Ben Solo's young daughter, Reia Solo, says a bad word in front of them and now the couple wonder where she learned it... 👀

Her Inspiration by itsinthestars for Ann3onymous

Art student, Rey Johnson is preparing her Final Portfolio and her inspiration for it all is her boyfriend, Ben Solo.

Regeneration by crossingwinter for bitterbones

She should have known it wouldn’t work. Not wanting to tell her friends because she knew she’d have gotten a you can’t be friends with benefits with your ex talk should have told her all she needed to know.

Gentle Sin by QueenOfCarrotFlowers for CeciliaSheplin

Rey is writing a new song, maybe Ben can help.

As Boundless as the Sea by SpaceWaffleHouseTM for crossingwinter

Padmé survives and raises her kids, but decades later her grandson meets the granddaughter of the man who took everything from her at a masquerade, and sparks fly. Upon realizing who the other is, the two must make an impossible choice: risk losing the love of their families, or risk losing the possibility of loving each other.

Within and Without by misszeldasayre for CwenPhy

When Rey brings Ben back to Ajan Kloss after he saves her, Finn objects to his presence and burgeoning relationship with Rey. However, he can't ignore their friends who observe something real between Rey and Ben.

Strays by crossingwinter for dankobah

Rey rescues a mangy mutt from the site of a junkyard and brings the dog to the Solo Veterinarian Clinic. There she falls in love with the handsome son who's just really trying to save all animals.

The Gentleness That Comes by shewhospeakswiththunder for ilum

For the prompts: "1990s New York AU. Ben rejects his wealthy, reputable family (bonus points for !lawyer Leia) and decides to fend for himself. He ends up getting involved with an underground boxing community. One day, bloodied and bruised after a fight, he goes for a drink to the local bar he frequents. To his surprise, he finds a young, fresh-faced girl behind the bar instead of the usual bartender." And: "We have not touched the stars, nor are we forgiven, which brings us back to the hero’s shoulders and the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it." Richard Siken - "Snow and Dirty Rain."

Stay Safe by crossingwinter for itsinthestars

Just one curse.  Just one simple curse and she’ll be gone.  Blasted off the face of the earth.  When had that idea become repellant to him?

prince and the sea by thewayofthetrashcompactor for kuresoto

Prince Ben Chewbacca Solo Organa, descendant of the house of Naberrie and the line of Skywalker, heir to the Starbird pirate fleet, has followed in the family tradition of slaying monsters and ruling the high seas. Which in no way is an attempt at ignoring his soulmate bond.

to be held, and held together by walkingsaladshooter for Lightningpelt

“I want to stay here with you,” he murmurs. “In this bed. And I want to make you feel nothing but good things.” — "After the war, Ben and Rey travel to Naboo for a vacation. The first thing Ben wants to do is spoil Rey as best he can.

Beneath The Stars by itsinthestars for MBlair

Rey and Ben celebrate their first Valentine's Day with snuggles, comfort, and kisses beneath the stars.

In the Name of Whitney, Mariah, and Aretha – Amen by reylogarbagechute for MBlair

A snapshot of happily-coupled NYC Ben and Rey via: one overblown Valentine’s Day fight, one dramatic rendition of karaoke, and one round of bang-and-make-up in a dive bar bathroom. Literary merit questionable, ridiculous crack-fluff guaranteed. A #RFFA fic.

False Positive by apisa_b for MissCoppelia

The health check Ben was given after he joined the Resistance didn't come back quite as clean as he expected, which causes Rey to feel rather guilty.

Tangentially MintyCel for ninecrimes

After Exegol Rey goes through a period of deep mourning, escaping to the crowded towns of Corellia where no one knows who she is whenever she needs some time by herself. But one day, a stranger walks into the dingy bar where Rey is drinking some of her sadness away, a stranger that seems all too familiar and is wearing Ben Solo's face.

Killing Me Softly by HellyJellyBean for PalenDrome

A short Mr and Mrs Smith Reylo AU treat. :-)

bittersweet and strange by thewayofthetrashcompactor for PalenDrome

Rey has decided that she's done with waiting. If she can't have a soulmate, she's going to be the best Jedi the galaxy has ever seen, and not even Luke Skywalker is going to stop her. She'll take on a mission to defeat a monster and prove that she's as good as any of his students, despite his warnings. Of course, monsters aren't always what we expect.

Conjugal Visit by radioactivesaltghoul for persimonne

Being the last Jedi comes with a lot of perks. For example, nobody questions Rey when she brings a bag full of equipment to come visit her accidental husband in prison.

This Connection by itsinthestars for persopilliankore

After one passionate night at an office party, Rey Johnson and Ben Solo, finally confront each other...

Unshakeable by crossingwinter for politicalmamaduck

Rey is performing in another fucking musical and Ben goes to see it.

Ash and Blood by CeciliaSheplin for queenofcarrotflowers

Bloodthirsty warrior Kylo Ren is betrayed by his men and must flee. He is helped by a mysterious woman and her friends. He joins forces with them to get his revenge.

In Secret, Between the Shadow and the Soul midwinterspring for RedPaladin465

Five years after defeating Palpatine, Emperor Kylo Ren and Empress Rey rule the galaxy.

If I Was A Raindrop (Would You Be My Thunderstorm) by itsnotillegal for ReyloBrit

Rey has finally worked up the courage to tell her best friend she likes him, but an awkward encounter complicates matters...

White Silk by TourmalineGreen for SaintHeretical

There is one person, however, in the office, who does not fill her with genuine joy. “Brides don’t want unembellished gowns, they want sparkles!” she’s yelling to the owner-designer-asshole who ruins her life and harshes her chill on a daily, and sometimes hourly basis. “Just last week, I had five brides who asked for more bling at a price point they—” “I don’t deal in ‘bling,’” Ben Solo is yelling back, behind his closed office door, but clearly loud enough that everyone can hear it. Everyone in the back office, thank God. Not the customers. She hopes. “I deal in couture,” he says. “I deal in design. I deal in elegance. Women want to feel elegant on their wedding day, not like a goddamn Vegas showgirl—” “Oh, oh, that’s rich, you, telling me what it is that women want?” Rey scoffs, almost laughs—she’s the only one brave or stupid enough to try this with him. “Wonderful. I am prepared to receive your insight, oh wise one.” — AKA the Say Yes to the Dress Omegaverse AU, for some reason?

Futile Devices by misszeldasayre for TheStolenQuill

When piano teacher Kylo Ren runs into Rey at his local music shop, he knows her talent must be cultivated. Who better to teach her than himself?

A Magical Surprise by itsinthestars for TheStolenQuill

Both in Ravenclaw House, best friends Rey and Ben Solo, share a moment of longing that turns into a magical surprise...

I'm the Spy by andabatae for thewayofthetrashcompactor (BriarLily)

Spy Rey is sent on a mission to figure out if Kylo Ren, tech mogul, is involved in leaking election secrets to a foreign government. She plans to seduce the information out of him. Too bad he seems completely oblivious to her advances.

Dibs by crossingwinter for tmwillson3

Ben dibses the parking spot after it snows. If he’s going to spend almost an hour shoveling his car out of the snow, he gets to park his car there later. Too bad one of his neighbors thinks dibsing is unethical and keeps thwarting his parking plans. Dibs: A Chicago Winter Parking Enemies To Lovers AU.

Syrup by walkingsaladshooter for trasharama

The first time she shows up, it’s eight o’clock in the morning and she looks asleep on her feet. Her brown hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail, her sweatshirt is sitting askew on her shoulders, and she blinks heavily up at the menu behind Ben’s head. He watches her purse her lips and immediately feels a soft fondness. “Small latte. Six pumps of vanilla.”

Lucky by BastetWrites for walkingsaladshooter

Nothing makes Ben more happy than waking up with Rey in his arms. Also lazy morning sex happens. _______________ A small gift for walkingsaladshooter for the Valentine's RFFA: Reylo Fanfiction Exchange of 2020

Endings and Beginnings by Vivien for  Xochiquetzl

Rey’s hand cradles Ben’s head before it can hit the stone floor. He’s ridiculously heavy, all dead weight, and Rey’s entire body cramps in horror before she sees the faint rise and fall of his chest. He’s not dead. He hasn’t left her. Yet. She cradles his face with both hands and sobs in relief.

You can view the other two masterposts for this exchange in this tag.