#and he would probably never tell Estelle about that stuff he’s seen- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ladyanput · 3 years

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Ok so this is the third time that I'm sending you an ask tonight. (or is it night time in your country?) I'm being annoying right now but whatever. So I've been cackling about those salt fics you wrote because they are just amazing. I have a request, though it is up to you to write it or not. So, can you write a salt fic where someone got an interview with Ladybug (probably Aurore) and then they ask her why they replaced the old heroes like Rena Rouge, Carapace and etc. and LB is just like I don't work with dumb shits or somethin'. Then there is also a new Black Cat (Probably Luka, Felix, or Damian) because Adrien here is an asshole and this fic is saltier than salt water. Then LB also insults Alya's blog and their school. Those foolish mortals get some lawsuits and the rest is up to you. (This request is probably messed up since it's already midnight here and I can't sleep.)

You're never annoying, I just apologize that it took me so long to get to you. I do hope you don't hold it against me, darling.

A one on one interview with Ladybug was basically unheard of if you weren't the Ladyblog or Nadja Chadwick. Ladybug had made it firm that she wasn't a celebrity, she was a hero. She wasn't there for clout, for attention, for fame or fortune. She just wanted to keep Paris safe.

That's was Aurore admired about her. And why she felt queasy as she sat across from the heroine, who had given her of all people an interview. But she got ahold of herself, taking deep breaths as the cameraman began counting down. And when he hit 'one', she put on her best smile and straightened in her seat.

"Hello Paris! Welcome back to 'Latest Buzz'! I am your lovable host, Aurore Beauréal. Today I am here with a very, very special guest, our very own heroine of Paris; Ladybug!"

Ladybug beamed right at the camera, but gave a shy little wave, giving away the nerves she obviously had.

"Now, Ladybug, I'm so glad you requested to be on the show. You know, I initially thought I had misheard when Estelle told me. Usually you're not big on personal interviews." Aurore gave her full attention to Ladybug, but keeping the bright, friendly smile and perfect posture.

"Well, I tried a few times actually. But when I did, none of them were really great experiences." Ladybug admitted and both girls immediately thought of that disastrous Face-to-Face interview. It left a bitter taste in their mouths. "My issue is that misinformation has been spread around a lot recently. It's made me realize that I need to find more trustworthy sources."

"Ladybug. I vow on my integrity as a host and Estelle's reputation as a journalist that we are people who research facts. We don't ambush our guests, we respect them." She said, placing a hand on her heart. Ladybug saw an honesty in her eyes that she hadn't seen in such a long time. It honestly made her feel.. Respected. "Now, Ladybug.. We both know you have a lot of fans. A lot of admirers. False information can be spread so easily these days, which sources specifically are you telling people to avoid?"

"Well.. With Face-to-Face, I found that I was entirely ambushed in that interview. I wanted to speak about my hero work, but instead Nadja kept trying to needle her way into my personal life. That picture she had shown in largely out of context; when Dark Cupid attacked and Chat Noir was under his spell, it was the only way to get him free."

"Yes, I remember watching that. I'll be honest Ladybug, I felt bad for you." Aurore bit her lip, but smiled a bit when Ladybug nodded. "I mean, Chat Noir wasn't helping either. He seemed to be trying to push this narrative forward that you two are a couple."

"And we're not!" Ladybug burst out before she could stop herself. Everyone in that studio could hear the utter stress and frustration in her voice. "I've begged and begged Chat Noir to stop with the flirting, the 'telling people we're dating', everything! I just wanted him to focus and he couldn't seem to do that!"

"Is that why you replaced him? Because of his slacking off and refusing to take anything seriously?" Aurora sat up an bit straighter, her eyes going wide.

".. Not exactly, no. It was a bunch of issues that eventually piled up and boiled over." Ladybug made some gestures with her hands, trying her hardest to find the words but just letting out a long and pained sigh in the end. "I do enjoy my new partner now. He is more serious, more stable. I know he won't go off and pout if I deny something he wanted. I needed an entirely new team, as a matter of fact."

"Well I am going to say, on behalf of everyone here, that we're glad. We swear on our integrity as journalists that if such rumours were to ever surface again, we will do our proper research." Aurore beamed and many of the staff and crew behind the cameras nodded and gave Ladybug their thumbs up. Honestly, it warmed Ladybug's heart to see such support.

When had been the last time someone had supported her like this? Sure, her parents supported her, but her friends..? Her peers? No, none of them had supported her in a long time.

"Speaking of research, I'd say to stay away from the Ladyblog." It burned to say it but it had to be said. Alya had crossed so many lines it wasn't even forgivable at this point. She had gone too far, had betrayed too many.

"Wait, what?" Aurore nearly jumped out of her seat but quickly composed herself, taking a deep breath. "Pardon me Ladybug, but the Ladyblog has been a vital source of information since the very beginning."

"And I'm not denying that!" Ladybug quickly held up her hands, her eyes desperate now. "But please let me explain. The Ladyblog was amazing in the beginning, but like all things, it started to go astray. It was things like trying so hard to find out my identity. Trying to push that narrative of that whole superhero couple thing.. Ladyblogger Alya Césaire has proven time and time again that she is not trustworthy. I mean, I thought she was my biggest fan. Why does she keep pushing my words aside?"

Many people who watched the interview would agree. If you idolized someone, respected someone, truly looked up to them.. Why would you push aside their words, their wishes to try and push the narrative you're so convinced is true, but isn't there?

"And don't get me started on the whole Lila Rossi craze she seemed to be on now." At Ladybug's mention of Lila Rossi, both Estelle and Aurore had to keep from rolling their eyes. They knew all about the girl.

"You speak as if you are quite frustrated, Ladybug. What an odd reaction to your best friend." Aurore leaned forward a bit in her seat. Everyone else got to the edge of theirs. Ladybug only shook her head, looking utterly defeated.

"That's the thing, she isn't my best friend." It took everything to keep from satin that she hated her, that she had taken away her friends and her life. "The only times she's met Ladybug is when she's been akumatized, which has been around six or seven times at this point. And the other things she's claiming are so outlandish! Saving Jagged Stone's kitten from a airport runway? Clara Nightengale stealing her dance moves? And the Ladyblog just posts it out there, claiming every single story is true. I'm just scared that people are taking this one hundred percent seriously. That's why I had to drop Rena Rouge and Carapace from the team as they believed Lila Rossi over me. They didn't even try to confirm these rumours! And it hurts to think that one day, someone will take Lila's words seriously and get hurt. What if she says it's safe to dip strawberries in bleach? Or tells someone that she found a way to tame some kind of wild animal? Someone would get hurt because they believe her story and try it out for themselves!"

"My goodness, I can definitely see how that is a problem. Misinformation is very easy to spread thanks to the internet, so you being worried is a very relatable thing." Aurore nodded, then tilted her head ever so slightly. "Ladybug, do you know anyone who has taken her word seriously? This is besides the Ladyblog of course."

Ladybug closed her eyes briefly, mentally debating with herself before finally giving in. These things needed to be said.

"Collège François DuPont. Now I wasn't there personally, but I heard about this situation and looked into it. The entire situation was appalling. Apparently a student was found to have cheated, assaulted another student, and commited thievery. But the thing that stuck out is only one person saw her do all of these things; Lila Rossi. No investigation was done, no questioning other students. This student was then expelled immediately. Her teacher and her principal didn't even give her a chance. And from what people have been saying, Miss Rossi's behaviour is actively encouraged in that school. She misses countless days, no, months of school, claiming she's traveling. But when she was supposedly in Achu, doing whatever it was she was claiming with Prince Ali, I was fighting her akuma here in Paris on Heroes Day!"

"I was at school the day that happened. I knew the student that happened to. They're the nicest person in that school! Never a bad thing to say about anyone, always willing to help! I agree with you on how things were handled, it's a level of incompetence that is baffling." Aurore's hands slowly curled into fists as she remembered it all. She slowly shook her head. "The principal, their teacher, their class who backed up Rossi. It must have hurt them so much, made them feel so alone."

"That's why I want people to be more careful with what information they take as fact. It's so important, because stuff like that can lead people to a desperate place. They feel alone, like the entire world is against them. I wouldn't have let the principal and the teacher get away with that gross negligence in their jobs." Ladybug leveled her gaze directly to the camera. "People of Paris, please listen to what I am saying. I am here to be a hero, to protect you from the terror of Hawkmoth and to defeat him. But please, do not be like Principal Damocles, do not be like that teacher and her class at DuPont. Do your research, look up your facts. Do not let a liar lead you to do something dangerous and hurt yourself as well as others. Respect each other, talk and be honest. I swear on my life that I shall do the same. You are the people I swore to protect and I love. I am saying this all to protect you. And I'll hope you'll all forgive me for not protecting you sooner."

...

The interview rocked Paris. Ladybug speaking so openly about her frustrations, about the discrepancies in the Ladyblog and Lila Rossi had many people double checking the sources of everything they learned from that blog.

Alya could barely show her face as she made her way though the school hallways. Her reputation as a journalist had gone down the drain. People had basically started boycotting her blog, harrassing her, or trash talking her on other forums and sites. Even a lot of news outlets picked this up.

What hurt the most from that interview last night was Ladybug's words towards her, both as Rena Rouge and as Alya. Surely the heroine had to be mistaken, she had never beytrayed Ladybug! And that Oblivio incident, it was just to show Chat Noir and Ladybug that they were meant to be together!

Her family was upset with her. No, upset was too tame of a word. They were pissed.

"I can't believe she lied to us.."

"Well what do you expect from someone who keeps harrassing Ladybug?"

Alya flinched when she heard the whispers and rushed into Miss Buster's class. The entire class was there, all seated, all looking utterly miserable. Many of them looked as if they had been crying all night. A lot like she had.

"W-where's Miss Bustier?" Alya asked when she eyed the empty desk. Many of her classmates shot her glares, but didn't say anything about the interview last night. After all, they had no room to talk.

"She and Principal Damocles are with the school board now. We're getting a new teacher." Adrien was the one that spoke up. He looked utterly miserable. So unlike his usual self.

"Lila isn't coming back. She was pulled from school when her mother found out what happened." Alix muttered from her seat, arms crossed and shoulders hunched.

The class went quiet as they all internally contemplated how things had gotten like this. Their eyes focused on the door when it abruptly opened and Marinette came strolling in, carrying a box.

"Good morning everyone!" She said brightly, pretending not to notice the downcast expressions on their faces. She set the box on the teacher's desk before she turned towards them. "Oh? What's wrong everyone?"

".. Did you not watch the interview with Ladybug on 'Latest Buzz'?" Alya stared at Marinette, a bit dumbfounded by her friend's lack of awareness of the situation. She had been expecting Marinette to rush in with support and a fiery vengeance against those who had humiliated her best friend, maybe even a fresh pastry. But instead she was greeted with empty hands and a cheerful hello?

"Oh, well I haven't really had the time to watch much television. I mean, with my transfer papers, needing to plan out my new schedule with all of those new classes. Busy as a bee, that's me!" Marinette just beamed, giving Adrien a playful wink that had his stomach churning.

"Wait, transfering?" It was Rose that spoke up, her large eyes seeming impossibly large now. "Transfer what?"

"To my new school, of course." Marinette giggled and clasped her hands together. "I start on Monday."

"New school?!" Alya was on her feet and rushing towards Marinette. The others quickly followed, crowding around her. "What do you mean new school?! When did you ever say you were going to a new school?"

Marinette blinked, as if stunned, then tilted her head ever so slightly.

"I told you all last week, don't you remember?" Marinette tapped her lower lip, seeming to be wracking her brain before she abruptly snapped her fingers. "Oh! I forgot, you all were deep in conversation with Lila about her upcoming event with Jagged Stone and Clara Nightengale. You know, the one she said she'd be attending with Ladybug, since they're such good friends. Did she ever say how it went?"

All of the students shifted uneasily, suddenly seeming to refuse to meet her face.

Alix murmured something so barely audible, Marinette held a hand to her ear and leaned closer.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Lila was lying to us!" Alix snapped as her cheeks went a flaming red.

"About everything! She never knew Jagged Stone!" Juleka spat out in fury.

"Or Prince Ali!" Rose sniffled.

"And she wasn't friends with Ladybug? They were barely acquaintances!" Alya wailed out as tears welled up in her eyes.

But Marinette hardly reacted the way they were expecting. She just gave them a small smile and nodded.

"Oh, yeah. I know."

Alya sucked in a breath sharply.

"You knew..? But why did you never..?"

"Oh Alya, you silly forgetful thing. I told you the day she returned from her long 'trip', remember? I told you she was lying." Marinette gave Alya a smile that said 'oh you silly thing'. "But you told me that I should really check my sources. And I got tired of trying to bring up any lies, since that was always your response. So I decided to just stop. I mean, since you're such an inspiring, honest journalist you must double and triple check every source you come across and found every story to be true!"

Alya flinched and looked away, feeling the churning feeling in her gut again. No, the Ladyblog had been the only source for the stories. The. Only. One.

"And I'm sure all of you knew what you were doing! I mean, it makes sense; trusting the words of a complete stranger over someone you've known for a while now. Some of you since we were in diapers!" She focused her gaze on Nino and Kim, who had the grace to at least look ashamed.

"Marinette, you really should-" Adrien began, reaching out for the girl, but was cut off by her clapping her hands together.

"But it's alright! I decided that fighting with you all wasn't worth it, so I took Adrien's advice and took the high road! Don't bother exposing Lila, she isn't hurting anyone!" Marinette announced brightly, giving her hands a little wave.

The temperature in the classroom dropped by several degrees.

".. Adrien, she's kidding, right?" Nino glanced over at his friend, his eyes pleading for him to deny it all. But the sight of the blood draining from the model's face and the sweat starting to bead at his forehead told him everything he needed to know. "Dude.."

"How could you?! You knew this entire time and didn't even try to tell me?!" Alya rounded on Adrien, fury in her eyes.

"Now, now, don't get mad at Adrien. I'm sure he knew you all were going to do you research. Besides, it's not like this did anything bad for anyone." Marinette pressed a hand to her cheek, still grinning. "I mean, it's not like you all took her advice without doing any research. You didn't try the things she suggested without actually checking them out to be true, right? No one lost any scholarships or job opportunities. No one's relationships were ruined. No one was hurt."

The nauseous feeling spread to all of the class as the reality of everything caught up with them.

"I'm sure everything will go back to normal, right? I mean, I'm sure that that woman from the education bureau isn't here to fire Damocles and Bustier for their severe neglect in their duties. Expelling me with the most mediocre and shaky proof. Surely that's a school I should feel safe in! That I should be proud to be a part of. But alas, my preparations for my new school are already done, so oh well."

Marinette shrugged and adjusted her purse strap.

"Anyhow, I wish you all luck with the amazing things Lila has helped you to do! I know it must have been worth ignoring me and convincing me I was crazy. With all of the free time I've had, with you guys practically replacing me with Lila in the group, I've had tons of time to spend with my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?!" Alya's eyes went owlishly wide as she gaped at Marinette. "But what about Adrien?!"

"Oh Alya, I fell out of love with Adrien forever ago." Marinette shook her head in an almost patronizing way that had Alya's cheeks burning with embarrassment. They didn't even pay attention to Adrien's noises of surprise. "I mean, you claimed I was jealous of Lila getting close to Adrien, that I should let the jealousy go. And you know what? You were right! So I decided Adrien wasn't worth the stress, the embarrassment.. I mean, I couldn't even talk to him straight. I thought he was the most perfect guy in the world! Goodness, did I learn my lesson!"

She giggled as if she found the entire thing amusing. She then beamed at the class.

"Well, ta-ta! I need to get back home and make sure everything is ready to go. I wish you all the best, I really do!"

They all watched, shellshocked as Marinette breezed out of the classroom like it was nothing. Like she wasn't leaving her friends, her school, her life behind. And they all would wonder exactly how badly they screwed up, if she could walk away do easily, without a care.

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Salt Taglist: @virgil-is-a-cutie @sidessunnybumblebee @persephonebutkore @18-fandoms-unite-08 @suzen23smith @luciferge @theelventhgod @noirdots @space--butterflies @ghostglaceon @magicalfirebird @goggles-mcgee @chocolate1721 @minightrose @bookcrazybby @cupcakeandkisses @mewwitch @adrestar

#ml salt #miraculous salt #alya salt #lila salt #marinette deserves better

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forevfangirlwrites · 4 years

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Okay so Percabeth and winter activities sledding, building a snowman, baking cookies, hot chocolate etc. because Percy was kidnapped so they could do them the first year they were dating and they had college and stuff so domestic Percy realizing this and wanting those experiences with Annabeth so he plans them out? Idk

It doesn’t hit him until his mom tells him that they’re taking Estelle sledding.

When was the last time he went sledding?

Between two wars, getting kidnapped, and college, there hadn’t been that much time to go sledding. A simple sentiment sure, a lot of adults don’t go sledding, but he had lost his childhood to a prophecy.

His mother catches the shift in his mood and raises an eyebrow as she hands him some hot chocolate. She wants to know what’s up, but he truly believes that bringing up his “had-to-grow-up-to-fast” story would completely sour the mood.

“Can we come?” he asks instead.

“Of course!” Sally responds quickly. “You and Annabeth are always welcome to come.”

He hadn’t realized he had lumped Annabeth with him, it’s second nature at this point, but it brings up an even bigger question. When was the last time she’d gone sledding?

Had she ever gone sledding?

He doesn’t know the answer but considering she’s been right by his side through the wars and college and all, it’s probably a negative.

He makes plans for the following day, hugs his mom and sister and walks out the door with more thoughts than he had expected.

Their apartment isn’t too far so he opts to walk, braving through the cold, in an attempt to gather the series of revelations that had occurred to him.

What other winter activities had they missed out on? Luckily, Christmas and New Years had been covered, but sledding is just the tip of the iceberg.

Building snowmen, for example, had they ever done that? Given Camp’s magical weather border, he doesn’t think so. And what about ice skating? Couples are always doing that kind of stuff.

Was he a bad boyfriend for not taking her on the quintessential ice-skating date??

Realistically, he knows he isn’t a bad boyfriend. But with ideas in his head, he knows how he can be a better one.

He’s still smiling when he comes through the door. Annabeth runs up to greet him.

“What’s up?” she asks, eyes subtly roaming his body and he knows she’s checking for signs of a battle.

He does the same, but in that moment, it hurts that she even has to think that way. She’s been on the lookout since she was seven, all he wants is that for one day she doesn’t have to be.

“We’ve got plans tomorrow.”

“What plans?” Her eyebrows crease in question in the most adorable way and he forgoes answering for kissing her because, well, he can.

-.-

“All these layers, I know it’s cold, but what gives?”

Percy thinks Annabeth is smart enough to figure out where they’re going, can see the vague idea forming in her head, but she wants him to confirm it.

He doesn’t, just taking her hand instead.

“Annabeth, I know you’re the planner and strategist and all that, but let me plan one date.” He smiles to let her know he doesn’t mean it and she playfully pouts back, shoulders easing into a more relaxed position.

She’s giving up her need for control on this one. It’s a testament to how well she knows him because clearly something about him is screaming that he wants this day to go well.

Estelle spots them before he does.

“Nannabeth!” she screams, running up to them as Percy pretends to be hurt by the preferential treatment from his younger sister. Annabeth sticks her tongue out at the display, bending down to give her a hug.

But a second later, Estelle yells, “Percy!” in the same delighted screech and he gets a hug of his own.

“There you are! We have another sled but Estelle is afraid to go down,” his mother explains, walking up to them with Paul in tow.

“We’ll go first so she can see that it’s fun,” Percy replies, grabbing a sled while beckoning Annabeth and Estelle over.

“Watch this, Este, Annabeth and I are about to sled down the hill!”

His sister watches as he sits down, holding the sled in place for Annabeth to climb in front.

“No! Percy!” Estelle is clearly still scared but Annabeth turns to shoot her a thumbs up a second before he lets go and gravity does the work.

“WOOOOOO!” The scream isn’t even for Estelle anymore, he’s just truly having a blast. It also helps that Annabeth is right in front of him and despite the wind he can feel her warmth.

They slow to a stop at the end, falling sideways into the snow. Annabeth turns to look at him and he sees her face for the first time since they started.

Eyes wide, cheeks flushed, she’s wearing the biggest grin he’s seen in a while. It makes his heart flutter and he’d kiss her if he wasn’t also grinning as much.

They stand up and Percy waves to Estelle at the top as they make their way back up the side.

“I haven’t gone sledding since I was like four years old,” Annabeth says breathlessly. “Thanks, Percy.”

He doesn’t think he can respond with how his throat is choking up at the genuineness of her voice. Luckily, he doesn’t have to because Estelle is rushing over.

“That was SO much fun!” Annabeth says with the same wide smile to her worried little face.

Needless to say, one go down the hill with Percy, and Estelle is screaming with joy demanding to go again with Annabeth this time.

About twenty minutes in, they manage to get Sally and Paul to go down the hill.

“Last ride,” his mother tells them about an hour later. “Estelle’s nap time is coming up.”

Naturally, Estelle doesn’t want to go but they split up the two sleds, so Percy takes one and Annabeth and Estelle get the other.

“Race you down,” he challenges.

“We’re so gonna win,” Annabeth replies, looking down at Estelle who’s beyond hyped about the race.

“Yeah!”

Paul counts them down. “3, 2, 1, GO!”

The girls win.

Estelle shrieks in joy and Annabeth has the flushed beam on her face. It brings back the memory of the first time she ever kissed him, standing in a chariot, surrounded by victory. He has to physically resist the urge to kiss her right then as he pretends to slump in defeat.

“That was a lot of fun,” Annabeth says once they wave the other three goodbye.

“It’s not over yet.”

“It’s not?” She tilts her head to the side, but he just smiles, turning to scan the park for a good spot.

“Nope! Come on!” Her hand in his, he pulls her to a small section of the field covered in snow. Reaching down, he pats some into a sizable ball and starts to roll.

“Help me,” he says looking up at her. Her eyes are full of amusement, but she drops down beside him to start packing in snow.

“A snowman?”

“He’s not just a snowman! Don’t listen to her Greg.”

Annabeth pulls more snow together, building up the base. “Who’s Greg?”

“Our snowman, duh!”

She stops mid roll to look over at him with a raised eyebrow. “Why is his name Greg?”

Percy doesn’t stop mid roll to answer. “Because that’s just his name. Why is your name Annabeth?”

She shakes her head, a smile still gracing her face, and returns to her work.

Just as Percy thought, building a snowman is right up Annabeth’s alley. If she can design Olympus, she can create the best snowman ever and there’s a glimmer in her eyes as she studies the creation.

He can’t help but stare, only stopping when she sends him out to find some sticks for hands.

By the time he’s back with the sticks, she’s miraculously dug out a few rocks for the face.

They stand back to look at Greg.

“He’s so handsome!” Annabeth exclaims happily.

“But not more than me, right?”

She turns to meet his eyes, the smile turning into a smirk. “Um….”

Percy makes a face, stepping back to throw a snowball right at her chest. Well, he’d been aiming for the face but aiming had never been his strong suit and he’d always opted out of archery.

Something he regrets now, because Annabeth’s aim is much better, and her snowball does hit him in the face.

Cold washes over his nose and cheeks and he turns, scandalized at Annabeth’s giggling form. It’s almost cute enough to prevent his retaliation…almost.

The snowball fight doesn’t last long, mostly because Annabeth breaks out into laughter and can’t seem to stop. It’s too contagious for even Percy to hold back.

“Who even won?” Annabeth asks, still giggling as he wraps his arms around her.

“Greg.”

They both turn to look at the snowman.

“Yeah, sounds about right,” Annabeth agrees, as they bid farewell to Greg and start walking out of the park.

The best part of winter in NYC is that the street vendors just turn to selling hot chocolate, especially near ice skating rinks, so he buys two cups for them to warm up as they watch the ice skaters.

Annabeth holds the cup to her lips, covering her face in steam, but he still sees her eyes watch the ice skaters.

“You want to go?” He asks.

She turns to look at him. “Something tells me you’ve planned for us to go.”

“Only if you want to, we’ve done a lot today.”

“Tomorrow?” She asks hopefully.

“Of course.” As if he could say no to her.

-.-

“Thank you for today,” Annabeth says later that night as she slips into bed beside him.

“You don’t need to thank me.”

She cuddles close. “Yeah I do, I’ve got the best boyfriend ever.”

He wraps and arm around her and pulls her even closer. “I’m just glad you had fun.”

Annabeth’s arm drapes across his chest, hand stopping right over his heart. “I did, and I figured out why my name is Annabeth.”

“Oh?” He raises an eyebrow.

“Cause it fits with Percy so nicely. Percy and Annabeth, they just go together.”

This time he doesn’t—can’t—stop himself from kissing her.

A/N: Thank you for the prompt! It was such a cute fic to write! I haven’t written canon Percabeth in a while either, so it was even better. Sorry it took a while to write, but I hope you liked this fluffy oneshot! Thanks again!

#percy and annabeth #percabeth #percabeth fic #canon percabeth #percabeth fanfiction #fluff #cute

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deluxinn-works · 3 years

Text

[Ever Since Then] Chapter 1-9

【Chapter One: The one who I wanted】

Adelyn successfully escaped from the ski trip.

She softly sat down in the subway and breathed a sigh of relief.

It was sad that she had to miss such a big event, but witnessing the one she wanted laughing with her rival would’ve been even more tragic.

Or so she felt.

Her only lament was knowing the disappointment everyone would have of her since she backed out at the last second.

But there was nothing left she could’ve done at that moment, so she gave up.

The sorrow was her lullaby, and it would’ve led her all the way home.

Martin, however, didn’t let that happen.

Adelyn momentarily opened her eyes and saw him standing there with eyes of melancholy, whilst her eyes filled with agitation.

“Of course the one who I wanted to see the least is the one who shows up. What are you doing here?” she questioned.

“I could ask you the same thing. You looked forward to this trip more than anyone else, so I don’t get it. Why are you on the train back home?” replied Martin.

She looked away with dull eyes.

He stared for a minute then realized an eternity could pass and she still wouldn’t have responded.

So, instead, he took a seat next to her.

“I can’t go back without you. It just won’t feel right.” he said.

“…Are you trying to guilt trip me or something?”

“No, not at all. I just can’t believe the class would have fun without you around. I also don’t believe it’d be right to leave you alone now that I know you clearly wish you didn’t leave.”

“And what makes you so sure?”

“Well… If you took pleasure in ditching us, you would’ve been doing something along the lines of happily snickering or dining at a restaurant, not… Scowling.”

“You haven’t stopped to think that maybe you’re the reason of that scowl?”

“I have, actually. Not for now, though. But for before.”

Adelyn’s eyebrow twitched, and Martin knew he was spot on.

“Aren’t you just the knight in shining armor? Just assuming that people who are alone hate the isolation.” she said in attempt to change the subject.

“There’s nothing wrong with some alone time, but there’s a difference between preferring to have no company and having something preventing you from company. Something like jealousy.”

“It looks like you don’t have to wonder why I hate you anymore because now you’ll know. It’s because you think you know me.”

“Really? I think you hate me because I know you too well.”

“Enlighten me, then. What could I possibly be jealous of?”

“That I was with Winter. The fact that she and I happened to be in the same group bothered you. Before the grouping period, you were just fine.”

Adelyn felt her stomache drop.

She figured that her secret was out.

She felt betrayed.

“Then, why did you ask me why I left if you knew?” she asked.

Martin shyly looked away.

“I just can’t give myself too much credit.” he said.

“To be fair, I thought I hid it well. Giving yourself a little credit wouldn’t hurt.”

“No, I mean… I just can’t believe anyone would actually like me.”

“Like you? What are you talking about, Martin? You know I like-”

Adelyn paused.

Then her face got red with embarassment.

He didn’t know her secret.

But she gave it away.

The two made wide eye contact for a few seconds then slowly turned away.

“Arriving at Dasdun. Dasdun Station.” the transit system said.

As the train doors opened, Martin grabbed Adelyn’s hand and began to run.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” yelled Adelyn.

“I was just thinking, you can’t think Winter’s going to wait for you forever. Besides, it’s already November!” said Martin.

“I can’t tell if you’re talking about the person or the season!”

“Sure you can! Just read the sentence that’s right above your reply! It’s not that hard!”

“You’re an idiot!”

The two headed to the Northbound platform and barely made it onto the train back to the lodge.

“You should be there. I promise Winter will be happier with you around. She was the one that did her best to convince you to come, after all.”

She finally managed to crack a smile to him.

“I guess, in the end, I should be glad you’re a moron.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Even though we only spoke a few times before today, you seriously thought I liked you. And… Without that, I would’ve kept believing you were some stuck up jerk. You could’ve left me, but you gave me a chance to spend time with her again. But…. You should’ve seen the look your face after you found out!”

“What?! You mean your face that was as red as Hide in the last episode of New York Ghoul!”

“I-I’ll show you red!” she yelled as she pulled on his cheeks.

Ever since then, she knew he was her best friend.

【Chapter Two: Falling for you】

“Huh, Adelyn? Where’s Martin?” asked Estelle, not aware of Adelyn’s hour long absence.

“He was insistent in joining the group I was in. Must’ve really wanted to ski with Jaime or something.” she replied.

Of course, this was planned by Martin and herself a few minutes before their arrival. It took him a while, but Martin had finally convinced Adelyn a second time to be brave when it came to Winter.

“Oh I see… So he wants to ditch us for the beginner’s group, huh?” smiled Winter.

“Beginner..?” asked Adelyn.

“Yeah. Don’t you remember? We were split into three groups: Intermediate, Casual, and Beginner. This group being intermediate.” said Estelle.

“Dammit! That lil sackbag used me!” Adelyn thought.

Martin sneezed. After he regained his composure, he graced his eyes upon the bunny hill.

“It still looks pretty damn scary for a beginner’s course.” shivered Jaime.

“Don’t worry man. The trick to not falling is to never stand up in the first place.” said Martin.

“You mean like squatting your ass down on the skis?”

“Yeah.”

“Uhh, that’s missing out on the experience. What’s the point of that?”

“To not wipe out like the dinosaurs.”

Winter and Adelyn stood atop of the intermediate mountain.

“I’m probably not ready for this, Winter. I mean, this is the first time I’ve ever worn skis.”

“I know, Adelyn. Don’t worry. It may look kind of intimidating, but it’s actually the same as the bunny hill. The only difference is that there’s trees and multiple paths downward”

“You mean multiple ways our bones can break while falling down.”

Winter gave a warm laugh.

“That can happen, yes. Even for me. But if it’s falling for you I doubt I’d mind since with every moment of pain there’s a moment of experience to learn from.”

Adelyn’s face beamed and, without her noticing, subconsciously took a step forward and began the downhill journey.

“Oh, shit! Winter! What’s the ‘I wanna freaking stop going downhill’ maneuver?!” yelled Adelyn.

“No! You don’t want to stop too abruptly! Try slowing down first!” Winter shouted back.

“Okay, what’s the slow down maneuver?!”

Winter took a deep breath.

“Hold on!”

She sped down the hill to catch up with Adelyn, and she did it with much grace and such speed.

When the two finally met, they grabbed each other’s hands and they started to slow down.

“Not bad for your first time, Adelyn.” said Winter.

“You too, er, I mean…”

The two shared a gaze for a moment.

After a few seconds, a squat skiing Martin crashed into Winter, causing her to flip twice in the air then roll down the hill.

“What’re you doing?!” screamed Adelyn.

“Losing control! I never thought skiing like this would be so difficult! I also never thought the bunny hill was connected to the intermediate one! Like that just makes no-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Martin crashed into a tree.

In the distance, Adelyn saw Jaime also making his way from the bunny hill to the mountain.

“Ahhhh, Adelyn!” he cried.

He tried to grab onto Adelyn to stop himself from falling, but she dodged, causing him to trip. As a result, though, she slipped on his back and began sliding down the hill while dragging him on her ski.

“Oh God! This hurts a lot more than you think it does, yo!” yelled Jaime.

“You shouldn’t have tried to grab me! What would’ve that done, huh? This would’ve happened anyway, with my head on the snow and all!” replied Adelyn.

The two of them kept tumbling until eventually they flew up a few feet into the air.

It was then that Estelle showed up and opened up her arms.

“It’s alright! I’ll catch the both of you and then we’ll-”

And before she finished her sentence, they crashed into her and the three shot down straight to the bottom.

【Chapter Three: After you win】

“I’m really sorry. I thought I’d be able to catch the both of you… I have been working on my upper body strength after all.” said Estelle.

“I think you’d require a lot more than that to catch a falling boulder, but…” replied Adelyn.

“Look at all of you so beat up and stuff. As for me? I haven’t got a scratch on me. Oh, a splinter.” Martin said as he pulled out one of the fifty pieces of wood in his forehead.

“I think most of this happened because of you, but…” Adelyn once again replied.

“Yeah, I wish I were more like you, Martin. I’m still working on my balancing. I mean I can’t even do it when it comes to chemical equations either.” sighed Jaime.

“I think those two things are completely different, BUT…!”

“Hey, we can’t be too hard on ourselves. On the bright side, Martin taught me that back flips are a lot less painful that I thought they’d be. Rolling down a hill on the other hand… Well, anyway! With every moment of pain there’s a moment of experience to learn from!” Winter said.

“Then he’s gonna get a full lecture today!” angrily said Adelyn as she pulled Martin from the splinter in his head.

His eyes teared up from the pain of getting dragged from the piece of wood. After the two of them were alone, Adelyn harshly pushed him to the side then began to scold him.

“I thought you were good at skiing! What’s the big idea?!”

“I am good at skiing! But squat skiing’s a new thing for me, so can’t expect a guy to master something that difficult so quickly. Like shuffling, you’re either really bad at it or really good at it, there’s like no in between.”

“Remember when I said I was glad you’re a moron? I think I take that back.”

“Good, because now you’ll be glad to see my genius side.”

“….I’m not sure I follow.”

“That’s also good, because you’re not gonna follow, you’re gonna lead. You see Winter all cold and stuff over there? Now’s a great time to grab her some hot chocolate. I think she’d really appreciate it. Oh and everyone else unless you wanna be all suspicious, which you already are, by the way, since we’re talking right in front of the bathrooms.”

“You trying to get a free hot chocolate off of me?”

“Ye- no.”

“You’re like Aizen or something. I bet me transferring to this school was your idea too. Ugh, I could’ve still been having skiing lessons with her if it weren’t for you.”

“A lesson on death mountain? Iiiii think you already learned that one. Look, I’m sorry about losing control on my squat ski crusade. I didn’t mean to interrupt the both of you, but with one closed door, another one opens.”

“In haunted houses, maybe.”

“And ski lodges. Look around you. It’s warm and cozy, and hey there’s even a fireplace. Wait no, that’s just a flat screen with a heater beside it. Anyways, I think it’s better to have more of a intimate environment when it comes to doing confessions.”

“Confession?! I don’t want to do that yet! I… I just want to get closer to her, that’s all.”

“You could get closer to her after the fact.”

“Why? I mean, it’s not like I have to rush into things.”

“Adelyn, how long has passed since you met her and she still doesn’t know? You could tell yourself you’ll do it someday, but that’s a fancy way of saying you’ll do it never. If you take the time we have while we’re young for granted, you might regret it. I won’t have any time rewinding powers either, so you gotta decide for sure whether or not you want to go another day keeping her oblivious.”

“I guess. But what will I do when I get rejected?”

“You don’t have to be scared of not having hundreds of chapters to delay an inevitable confession. This isn’t Hina Love or koiNise! Readers love when all the filler’s cut out, trust me. You won’t get rejected.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’d date you. She can’t say she wouldn’t date you.”

“Yeah, you’d date me if I were into dicks.”

Martin couldn’t tell if she was talking about genitalia or the type of person. Or both.

After pondering for a moment, he continued the conversation.

“Anyway, you can practice on me. Come on, pretend I’m Winter.”

“Psh. You’re barely Autumn.”

“I-is that a compliment?”

“No it’s not a goddamn compliment!”

“I was mimicking Winter just then because I thought the ‘what if’ scenario already started. Was that seriously what you would’ve said to her?”

“I am so done.”

“Wait! You didn’t tell pretend Winter you like her yet!”

“I’m not gonna tell Winter I like her!”

As Adelyn’s sentence left her mouth, Winter walked into the hallway that led to the bathrooms.

Martin and Adelyn shared shocked expressions and huddled together.

“Quick, help me think of something to play it off!”

“Don’t play it off! Now’s your chance to be honest and just let it out in the open! You can talk to me again after you win! Not many stories continue after the main couple get together, so maybe you can make this one an exception!”

“W-wait, I can’t!”

Winter noticed the both of them and decided to let them know she was there.

“So this is where the both of you were hanging out. Come on, we ordered hot chocolate already. It’ll get cold if you don’t hurry back.” she said lovingly.

“Oh shit. The hot chocolate plan failed like me in math class.” thought Martin.

“Yeah, no kidding! What are we going to do now, order bagels?!” thought Adelyn.

“Wait, I’m thinking this in my head right now! How’d you reply to me, Adelyn?”

“I took your advice and read the text above my sentences!”

“If it’s bagels you want, we ordered those too.” said Winter out loud.

“So she could read our minds toooooooo?!!!” they thought in unison.

Adelyn took a deep breath and began to speak.

“A-about that sentence I said earlier that you heard…”

“Sentence I heard?”

“…I! I meant it! I’ve been in lo- li- lo- like with you since a few days after we met!”

Adelyn was completely flustered. She wanted to turn to Martin so that he’d give a thumbs up of encouragement, but he was gone.

【Chapter Four: The coolest person 】

“That asshole ditched me!” thought Adelyn.

Winter had a calm expression but her face was as red as Rudolph. Rudolph himself, not just his nose.

“Wow…. I don’t know what to say! I mean, I always thought you were the coolest person who ever spoke to me. So, hearing you say this makes me really happy!” said Winter.

“Coolest person? Me? Noo no! W-wouldn’t that be you?”

“Ohh, I got you! Is that a joke about my name?”

“No, but it is a joke about how you tumbled down the mountain.”

Adelyn stuck her tongue out then turned away. It was the first time she felt truly comfortable with casually speaking with Winter.

“Let’s go out!” Winter said with a smile.

“Wait, what’d you say?”

“I said we should go out with each other!”

“You’re not going to reject me and say you want to know me better first? B-but the first time we like spoke spoke was when you convinced me to go on this trip.”

“No… To be honest, the only reason I haven’t developed feelings for you yet is because I didn’t expect someone as cool as you to like me. But now that I do, I don’t want to let go of that, you know? And I’d be happy to get to know you more, so let’s go out with each other!”

Adelyn tried to keep eye contact with Winter but was too flustered.

“I’d be happy to.” she managed to reply.

The two began to walk back to the lodge cafe to rejoin the others.

“So, about us… Do you think we should tell everyone or should we just-”

Before Adelyn could finish, Winter saw their friends and said:

“Hey guys! Adelyn and I are dating!”

Adelyn made an almost inaudible squeal.

Winter looked over and saw that Adelyn was caught off guard with the announcement.

“Sorry! I was excited and I wanted to let them know. I could say I was just kidding if you-”

Before Winter could finish her sentence, Adelyn held Winter’s wrist and shook her head.

“It’s okay, Winter. I want to tell them too. I just didn’t expect you to do it like that.” she said while smiling.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it look like I’m showing us off. Alright, let’s go tell them together!” Winter replied happily.

The two sat down with their friends and let them know of their new status together.

Everyone was excited for them and they held a toast to celebrate. After a good thirty minutes, they returned to the ski lifts and spent time together till it was time to head home.

Jaime and Winter lived near each other, so they took the same bus home. Estelle got picked up earlier at the lodge by her mom. So, that left Martin and Adelyn.

“Why did you ditch me at the most crucial moment, you jerk?” asked Adelyn.

“I didn’t need to be there. It was your special moment, right? You’re dating her, not ‘us’ dating her.” Martin replied.

Adelyn raised her eyebrow then changed the subject.

“Speaking of… How did you know she’d say yes? Are you from the future? You did mention something about rewinding time.”

“If I were from the future, don’t you think I’d change the part where I crashed into a tree?”

“I thought you didn’t have a scratch on you.”

“Yeah, I didn’t have A scratch on me, I had like a million.”

“Hm… Okay, then you’re not my imagination either, right? You seem to be too supportive to me and I didn’t even notice when you left.”

“Imagination? This isn’t Might Club. And I’d be worried if your attention was on me during your own confession.”

“Curious. But I still don’t believe you. Tell me something I don’t know.”

“What? Okay… Uh, a cat’s penis is like a hook.”

“That’s disgusting. Why would you say that? But yeah, I already knew that. Tell me something else.”

“Um… There’s a place called Eromanga located in Australia.”

“Woah, really? That’s actually kinda funny! I didn’t know that one, I guess that means you’re real.”

“Of course I’m real! How else was Winter gonna back flip like that?”

“Practice makes perfect.”

“Mm, yeah that was a pretty perfect moment, I can’t argue with that.”

The two paused then shared a laugh as their train drew closer and closer.

【Chapter Five: Self defense】

“Hey, we should take some self defense classes.” Adelyn suggested to Martin.

“Sounds like fun. Which styles were you thinking?” he replied.

“Hm. Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Jujutsu…”

“Everyone learns those. We should try something unexpected… like Drunken Fist.”

“You mean try sitting your ass in jail.”

“No, I’m serious. I mean there’s gotta be countless assholes who recognize the usual styles so they’d know how to counter us. We gotta be the hipsters of combat in order to survive.”

“Okay… Why don’t you suggest something other than the Drunken Fist?”

“If you say so. Hmm, I know, what about Muay Thai?”

“We’re learning self defense, not how to kill someone.”

“Muay Thai wasn’t designed to kill! Nothing is.”

“Then explain guns, dude.”

“Guns could just be a device that emits a loud noise to warn people that they’re about to get shot by a gun.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure that’s the best example to help your case.”

“Trust me, the best defense is a good offense. Not a great offense though, that’d be too offensive.”

“Okay, fine. We’ll look for a place that teaches Muay Thai.”

“And if we don’t find one, we could always use ThouTube.”

Adelyn narrowed her eyes and glared at Martin.

“You better show up to every class.” she said.

“I will. Unless I have homework- Oh, who am I kidding? I never do school work anyways.” he replied.

Adelyn sighed in response.

“Hey, don’t worry. This whole thing was my idea, I wouldn’t ditch it after all this.”

“You mean our idea. The killing stance was your idea, and self defense was mine, so our idea.”

“Alright. Our idea.” Martin happily agreed.

Thus marked the first activity they have committed to together.

【Chapter Six: Our bar date that’s probably not a disaster】

“So… We’ve been on a couple dates now, right?”

Adelyn took a couple sips of her mojito before she nodded and replied with a “Mhmm.”

“Well, not that I’m counting but it’s been about 2 years, 7 months, and 10 days since our last appearance together so I was wondering… Is why you brought us to a Barcade? To change it up for the reader’s lost time?” asked Winter.

The glass in Adelyn’s hands that was once a steady fellow became more akin to a person at a club, judging from the way it was shaking.

“No! W-Who would care about those two people anyways? Because I do, a lot and I appreciate them but I’ve just been busy with learning Muay Thai that I’ve wanted to become a bit more spicy. You know, pick you up in this bar because I can’t do it physically.”

Winter stopped her laughter so fast that it sounded like a sneeze.

Though that and Adelyn’s words to made it impossible to suppress the rest of it and let out bursts one after the other.

“You’re too adorable. You picked me up once already Adelyn. I think you can do it again.” she said while moving closer to Adelyn’s side.

Oh God. I might’ve confessed to her first but I swear I’m not a top. I’m not a top. I’m not a top! thought Adelyn.

“Oh yeah! Totally! All me…!”

Adelyn said that in a convincing voice by the way.

Winter put her hand on Adelyn’s shoulder then slowly slid it down to her hand, interlocking their fingers in the process.

“Let’s see what kind of spicy things we can do here then, shall we?”

I don’t need to be a top.

The two noticed some sort of special event happening at one of the motion sensing game cabinets.

“Come beat me and my partner at TekkSoulStreetVirtuaMortalFighter to get five rounds of shots on the house!”

It was one of the managers with his buddies. Apparently they’ve been beating customers left and right with their incredible skills of getting motion detected.

However, Winter knew she and her girlfriend also have skills of motion. Spicy skills of motion, one might say.

“Alright! We’re gonna kick the ass of the manager and get shot up because of it!” said Adelyn.

Wow that sounds really bad without context she thought.

“Oh yeah?! Just try it! My brother’s aunt’s sister’s nephew’s roommate’s online friend’s cat’s dad’s owner’s made this game and I’m not about to let some awesome paying customer take that away from me!”

“Defeating you won’t take away that fact dude but we will beat you anyway!” challenged Winter.

The four players took their stand at the cabinets and were ready to pick some brass.

A referee began to speak.

“Now the rules are simple. Each character looks different but is exactly the same. They have the same movesets, same specials, hitboxes, et cetera. It’s poetic, really. Just like in this game, we all look different on the outside but are the same in the inside. Amen.”

“Yo why’s a priest the ref?” asked a viewer.

“I don’t know.” said Chris Evans.

The players had a few seconds to check the controls, so Adelyn did what any first timer would do. She flipped the bird. It buffed her character with something called BDE.

“Oh hey, check that out! It’s really radiating with the veiny aura and stuff!” she said.

“Very sexy hot and/or mild! Now let’s flank em!” yelled Winter.

But unbeknownst to them, the manager and his buddy already got the drop on them!

The two made punching motions at their screen which one could probably imagine what happened in the game… It made them kick Adelyn and Winter’s avatars over and over!

“Shit! They did the move where our HP bars go down a little bit!”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan!”

Winter copied the middle finger gesture with both her hands, giving the two of them massive buffs of BDE.

“Wow! She’s going even further beyond?!” asked a hyped customer.

The buff was making their HP heal faster than they were getting damage… No… It made their HP bar grow even bigger than the screen!

“Christ! I didn’t even know that was a feature! But it won’t be enough!” said the manager.

The combo stun locked Winter, making the extra health pointless.

Dammit. Is there nothing I could do…? Wait…

Adelyn noticed something about the base combo.

“Winter! Try moving after the third hit!”

“Okay!”

Winter took the first two kicks of the combo then was able to dodge the third, just like Adelyn advised!

“What the funk?!” yelled the manager’s friend.

“I know the secret of the combo. You’re done!”

Adelyn did a quick kick then stopped. After a half second, she did another one. And another one. The ultimate technique has been discovered: The first hit is a stun! Using only the first attack without triggering a combo allowed the 『True Stun Lock』 to be used!

Winter joined in, making it impossible for their opponents to move, even in real life!

“And the winner is Adelyn and Winter!” announced the priest.

The crowd chanted their names and ordered more shots of their own to celebrate the hype.

“Wow, that was quite the game. I learn new things everyday. Hey, I’d love for you guys to be regulars here. It’s been a while since we’ve got crowds this excited.” said the manager.

Winter looked at Adelyn and smiled. She nodded back.

“Sure. I think we had a lot of fun too.” said Winter.

The rounds of shots just arrived at the bar.

“And I think it’s about to get a lot more interesting.” Adelyn smirked.

【Chapter Seven: Leg muscles】

Adelyn noticed Estelle heavily panting as she struggled to make her way down the hall.

“Woah. You’re looking… Energetic.” Adelyn said.

“Adelyn! Help me!” said Estelle as she fell face down.

“The nurse’s office is right there. You can make it. I believe in you.”

Estelle instantly got up and put her hands on Adelyn’s shoulders.

“Do you remember what you said at the ski trip? I took it to heart!”

“Umm.. What’d I say again?”

“That it’d take a lot more than upper body strength to catch a boulder.”

“Oh-”

“…But now I know! It was leg muscles that I lacked! So I leg pressed 500 pounds for like 40 minutes just now!”

“Now that’s hefty.”

“It sucks now since I could barely crawl. It’s like the opening to Metal Gear Solid V!”

“Yeah, maybe. Though unlike that game, you’re looking like a finished project so let’s get you to that office, ‘kay?”

Adelyn looked around for a second then squatted down reluctantly.

“Come on. We’re doing the anime thing where I carry you to to the infirmary then we have some deep talk.” said Adelyn.

Estelle’s eyes lit up as she hopped on her back.

The two made their way into the office and Estelle was dropped gently on one of the beds. Not even a second after, Adelyn made her way towards the door.

“Marianas Trench.” said Estelle.

“Huh?”

“You said we were gonna have deep talk so I said Marianas Trench.”

Adelyn turned around to hide her smile.

“Not that kind of deep. Though yeah some of their songs get sorta deep.”

Estelle was different though. She couldn’t hide her joy from Adelyn.

She was glad that they got a chance to talk a little more.

“I’ll catch you next time for sure, Adelyn.”

Adelyn nodded and waved as she exited the room.

“I’m counting on it.”

【Chapter Eight: Two years】

“Yo dude. Am I really the right one for Winter?” asked Adelyn.

“We had a two year gap in chapters and you’re only wondering this now?” Martin asked in reply.

“I mean… Yeah. She’s everything I’m not. She’s beautiful, athletic, outgoing…”

“Sounds just like you to me.”

“What? Knowing like some Muay Thai doesn’t count as athletic. Also I don’t really like talking to people if I could help it… And… Did you just call me beautiful?”

“Course I did friend. A Martial Art’s an art and you practice it ergo you are beautiful.”

“Oh. I thought you meant like physically or something.”

“Yeah I meant that too. That’s why I’m not really seeing your point here.”

“The point is I’m just not as composed as she is. I don’t think that I have anything figured out.”

“And you think that she does?”

“Of course I do. Haven’t you seen her?”

“A couple of times I think. Yeah.”

“I don’t know… It just seems that nothing phases her. Everything we do, she’s just so knowledgeable and good at it. I just seem to screw up at everything I do. Even the simple things. Like… Did you know I didn’t even know how to tie a knot till like a couple years ago?”

“I did not know that. But everyone experiences shit at different times anyway. Look at me, I haven’t still haven’t done the fuck word with anyone but that’s just cuz It’s Not The Right Time by Daichi Miura.”

“Well that’s almost the song title.”

“It’s been like a two year hiatus. You don’t think Winter would’ve moved on by now if that’s how she felt? She chose to commit to you. Even if other people are into her, even if she found herself attracted to someone else, she’ll say fuck all that and choose you. You might have to stop and think that maybe she’s just as flustered when it comes to you sometimes.”

It took a second, but Martin’s words really stuck with Adelyn.

He does have a point. Then instead of wondering why she chose me in spite of my flaws, I will focus on what she does like until it drowns out all my doubts. I’ll give to her as much as she gives me and more. Much much more. This I do swear to both myself and Winter.

“Yeah. You’re right. Even if our story isn’t written for two or three or ten more years, I’ll always be Winter’s. I’ll always… Always commit to her!”

Adelyn made her way to the gym where Winter’s volleyball club activities were held. When she got to the doors, she kicked it open and slid in.

“Winter! You go! Be better than Shoyo Hinata!”

Winter noticed her girlfriend cheering from the side and smiled.

“Sorry! What was that last part? I don’t understand French!”

Ah well we can’t all be anime. Yes.

Adelyn waltzed up to Winter after her match, with a nice red Gatorade to quench her thirst.

“Hello Mon Winter, how was your game?” asked Adelyn.

“It was great! Really inspiring to see the talent we got out here… Even better to see you around. I thought you didn’t like going here.”

“Well… Maybe going anywhere you are is a place I’d like to be. From now on. I mean only if it’s chill.”

Winter was a bit surprised and flattered. You see, deep down, Winter did have the similar doubts about herself. She would often go to Martin for advice just like Adelyn did. Everyday she would ask him if perhaps they were too different for each other. Maybe Adelyn wasn’t attracted to someone whose interests were of going out often or speaking to people on the regular. Perhaps she’d find it exhausting. And yet there Adelyn was, willing to and even voluntarily spending time with Winter in an environment she would probably avoid regularly.

“The things I find myself avoiding aren’t because I don’t like them. It’s because I was scared. Scared of… Being too pathetic or being too boring. Being nothing really. But you helped reach out. I probably won’t be able to be good at everything right away so… If you’re okay with walking me through a couple things, I’m here.” continued Adelyn.

“Yeah. Always.” said Winter.

Winter took a sip from her bottle then set it down. She glanced at Adelyn as she pat the empty space beside her on the bench.

The two found that they were both scanning each other. From their legs, chest, shoulders… Then to their eyes.

Winter looked to the side then back to Adelyn’s eyes nervously.

“It’s just that I’m a bit sweaty, so…” she said softly.

What? Wait… Is this…? Could it be that this is our chance?

After our dates and confession.

After all the doubts and promises.

After our broken bones from a ski trip. And after winning free shots…

Will we finally…?

Adelyn’s shaking hands found their way to Winter’s wrist.

She carefully slid it up to her shoulder to her neck, and finally to her cheek.

“I like you, Winter. I really like you. I’ll always…”

Before she finished her sentence, Adelyn leaned in.

The tips of their noses touched and the both of them let out a small laugh.

Adelyn then chomped Winter’s lower lips then they began making out for an undisclosed amount of time.

It was rad.

【Chapter Nine: The narrative perspective】

The reason I’m having this monologue today is to show that I, Jaime, can also have a chapter dedicated to myself. I’m here to show Winter, Adelyn, and Martin that they can’t have all the screen time to themselves! Uh, sorry… Is screen time the right thing to say? I’m not really sure. I suppose technically yes because this sure wouldn’t be shown on actual paper unless someone printed this or if we got some sort of publishing deal.

But I digress. While everyone else has been ranking up their Social Links and Confidant levels, I have been doing the important duty of studying academics. Yes. Unlike the rest of them, I actually pay attention in class!

I mean my grades aren’t very good at the moment but it’s still my passion. When you learn about the world and its functions, you’ve already attained the most basic foundations to becoming a great help to the rest of the planet!

And learning about curing all kinds of diseases is especially important to me, because you never know who’d need that kind of help.

“Why are you trying to change the writing style to first person, Jaime?” interrupted someone at the lecture hall entrance.

It was Estelle. She took a running start then jumped from her end to Jaime’s desk, skidding on the edges while avoiding everyone’s school supplies except for Jaime’s. His notebook was the only thing that flew off and burst into flames upon her stopping momentum.

“What the feudal are you doing?!” he asked.

“Oooh, yikes. You might need to grab a new one.” she answered, well sort of.

After the room calmed down a little bit, she took a seat on the desk.

The professor was mad yet impressed with her athleticism so they simply ignored her and continued with their lecture of the selfish gene.

“Nice. They’re still going. Come on, you can borrow my tablet.” Estelle continued.

After she handed it to a slightly fuming Jaime, she took out a small sketchbook of her own.

The hell does she have that for? This isn’t an art class…

Estelle crossed her legs and began to sketch. Every so often, she would pause to stare at the professor. After they were done with a point, she continued to work on her picture.

“And that’s all for today! Be sure to blah blah deadline blah blah homework and blah blah exam!”

Most of the students were surprised that the prof actually said blah blah but continued on with their life.

After the class was mostly empty, Jaime went to pick up his banged up notebook. It was mostly okay in that it resembled old and burnt notebooks from a world war, so he was only mildly upset.

“I’ll email you the notes you took- Oh it’s just an angry emote.” said Estelle as she took back her tablet.

“I didn’t take any. It seemed kind of like a philosophy class this session anyway. So… Why’d you come here again? Did changing up the narrative perspective make you hate me that much?” asked Jaime.

“No.”

She held up her sketchbook to show him what she was drawing.

In the picture was an elephant. It lifted a capybara with its trunk to put it on its back. On the elephant’s back was a bunch of fruit and there were plenty of other animals surrounding them in what seemed to be an oasis. There were so many trees. The lake was enormous.

“I just wanted you to know you’re not the only one. It might be a little different from what you’re used to but yeah, it is what it is. It doesn’t matter who’s there to see us, as long as we see ourselves.” Estelle continued.

Jaime realized her picture really matched up with the lesson. Estelle wasn’t trying to interrupt the lecture. She was there to be by his side… To show him that even if he thought he wasn’t in anyone’s spotlight, he’ll always shine somewhere else.

This narration doesn’t need to be in first person. Because it would be too selfish. The only writing style out there needed is the one that has Estelle, Winter, Adelyn, and Martin too.

#writeblr #writing #original writing #creative writing #romantic comedy #eishawrites

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totallyinsecurerobot · 4 years

Text

the only lovers left alive

Summary: Asterix’s history from the moment they meet David. They keep finding each other, they keep ending up together, and maybe it’s fate, or maybe no-one else understands them quite like they understand each other.

A/N: 7718 words. SFW but there’s implied nsfw stuff. It does get a little bit violent at times, and there’s light period-typical (1950s Hollywood) misogyny, implied sexual violence, and victim blaming. It’s all very light, just mentioned in passing, but I thought I should give you a heads up. COMPLETELY UNEDITED AND JUST KIND OF A MESS. PROBABLY OOC. WHATEVER. nb oc & nb marko. poly lost boys at the end there. shut up they’re all in love street smarts.

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Perhaps it’s that he’s looking to feel powerful, that he sees Asterix, corsetted and well-to-do, taller than most, and he picks them as a victim because they look like a challenge, bragging right to - to who? Their sire perhaps, any others in the area; but Asterix would know if there were others in the area, they’ve been here long enough after all. He’s new to this, Asterix can tell; it seems strange for him to be walking at a normal pace, the movements a little too thought out, where the speed would be second nature to a human. Asterix knows from experience that it takes some getting used to, they’ve been working on it for several centuries already, at the very least.

“You alright, ma’am, you know strange things are afoot in these parts, you should be careful walking around alone at night,” he’s trying to appear charming and nonthreatening, but his clothes don’t fit right; they’re dark enough to hide the blood he hadn’t been able to get out, but nothing could hide the smell from a vampire’s enhanced sense of smell. Asterix plays along.

“Oh my,” Asterix says, eyes wide, hands clutching tight at the silk of their elaborate skirt, “I’d heard rumours, terrible rumours, but I thought this was a nice part of town.” Of course they’d heard the rumours, they’d been the actual source of them, this newbie was just trying to capitalise on how Asterix had normalised disappearances. They weren’t sure whether to laugh or be mad.

“I’m sure you won’t be bothered,” he’s alternating between walking too fast and too slow, trying to keep in time with Asterix’s consistent pace, but not quite being able to hold himself back, “would you allow me to escort you back home, to your- your husband?” He hazards a guess, a product of the time; Asterix, biologically nineteen and dressed to appear feminine, should very well have a husband by now, or at the very least be betrothed; all he’s really doing is determining whether he has to attack before or after they get back to Asterix’s house.

“Oh, I- I’m not... I’m new to town, you see, my Aunt lived here after being widowed at a young age. She passed recently and left me her house, a beautiful property on the edge of town,” Asterix’s story isn’t actually much of a lie, apart from the fact that they’d killed the poor widower who lived on the edge of town and fabricated a new life from her demise, “I certainly shouldn’t be accepting offers from strange men,” Asterix casts what they hope is a nervous glance his way, and the blonde vampire takes an obliging step back, “but I suppose if you really were some dastardly villain, you’d have already seized your opportunity.”

He really should work on controlling his expression, Asterix thinks with heavily veiled amusement; he’s practically telegraphing the ‘this is going to be easier than I thought’ that’s running through his head as he offers an arm for them to take, to be escorted. He’s too quiet, movements too fluid; if Asterix were any other person, they’d find it unnerving, off-putting, in ways they wouldn’t be able to put their finger on. Here and now, as a vampire of several centuries, all Asterix can see his youth in his movements.

Under the guise of small talk, Asterix asks about what rumours he’d heard, and he’s more than eager to warn them of the Devil that’s found a home in town, snatching up young sinners and leaving them dead and drained in the woods.

The Devil... That’s what they’re calling Asterix, they’d heard demon, vengeful spirit, monster, but devil, which had been what they’d been going for initially, was finally starting to pay off.

“Well you’re no devil,” Asterix laughs lightly, giving his arm a squeeze, as if to convey their relief. He doesn’t realise how deliberately they’re playing him, how they’re just waiting for him to reveal himself, and ruin that surprise with one of their own.

“And what about you, ma’am, would you consider yourself a sinner?” His voice is low, intrigued and tiptoeing the line between menacing and thrilling, and Asterix’s throat suddenly goes dry. He wants nothing more than to kill them, they know this, logically they know this, but if he knew the truth, what would their answer really mean.

“It’s just a load of nonsense anyways,” Asterix says, taking a deep breath, leading down a far less lit street. They’re suddenly tried of playing along. But he chuckles, low and rough, and when Asterix turns to look at them, he’s looking back, face twisted into it’s vampiric form, eyes shining bright and golden in the darkness.

“Are you sure?” His voice is a menacing snarl, but Asterix doesn’t flinch in the face of this change, dropping their nervous act in an instant, smirking. Finally.

“Yes,” and he seems confused at their cool, smug expression, their lack of overt reaction, right until they let their own face shift, ridges forming, eyes turning that very same gold, dropping their voice to a growl of their own, “because the Devil’s not a he in this town.”

Honestly, Asterix had kind of been hoping to run this newcomer out of town for trying to capitalize on their good bad name; it’s not easy to make a whole town accept occasional random disappearances, it’s certainly not easy to make them all believe it was divine justice, and to not look for the actual source. What they hadn’t expected was to end up with him apparently living with them.

Like a lost duckling, he still follows them home, and when Asterix asks after his Sire, he gets all broody and angry and admits that he had no idea. They’re in the basement, which Asterix has outfitted for their undead purposes; it’s always cool down here, which also happens to be why they store the excess blood from their victims. No use letting it go to waste, their stomach is only so big after all, and it’s always good to go as long as possible between kills, as to not arouse suspicion. They offer him a jar and he drinks hungrily; he’d been hunting tonight after all, he was probably thirsty, it’s just basic curtesy.

“I’m not going to teach you how to be a vampire... ?” They hesitate, squinting at him, and he fills in the blank with his name.

“Davidson - well, for now it’s Davidson, and I know how to be a vampire,” he frowns, unscrewing the lid of the jar, sniffing the contents doubtfully.

“It’s not virgin’s blood, but that’s an old myth, believe me,” their voice is flatly unamused; the night is young, they had planned to fly a few states over and swim naked in a lake to confuse anyone who happened to see it, not mentor a young vampire, “and boy, I knew what you were the moment I saw you, just because others don’t know what they’re looking for doesn’t mean they won’t be able to tell something’s of. If something’s off about you, soon enough the town starts speculating,” and as they explain, they sit themselves on the velvet sofa, watching him wrinkle his hose as he sips the blood, “and soon enough, the rumours I’ve worked so hard to start, but not be associated with will be linked to you, and once you’re killed or run out of town, I’ll have to start somewhere new from scratch. You’re inconveniencing me by being bad at this,” they tell him, lip curling as they look him over, as if trying to radiate ‘it was fun to meet you and mess with you, but you’re more trouble than you’re worth’.

“I’ll hunt elsewhere, but you don’t get to dictate where I am,” he responded, before raising the jar of blood, licking the excess off his lips, “this is stale.”

“Then give it back and stop being ungrateful,” Asterix held out their hand for the jar, but Davidson quickly scowled, taking another, angry sip, “and if I say I don’t want you to harm a single living person within a fifty mile radius, you’ll damn well do as I say.”

“And what makes you think that?” He sneers, looking over them, in all their silk and finery, on a dainty sofa, his tone derisive and gaze dismissive. Asterix’s lips quirk into a smile that didn’t reach their eyes.

“Because you would not be the first of our kind that I have disposed of,” they’re blunt, unsmiling and unwavering, and Davidson seems to finally start taking them seriously.

But he also stays.

He never hunts within the fifty mile radius that Asterix had set, unless of course Asterix themselves had invited him along on one of the night they hunt in one of the neighbouring towns.

The story has changed too; no longer was Asterix simply playing Lady Estelle, the unfortunate and unwed niece of the widow Sinclair, but now she was actively betrothed to Davidson, the man she’d had to leave behind when she’d accepted ownership of the property. It was the only story that explained their vastly differing looks despite living, and occasionally being seen together.

For the entire first month of the arrangement, Asterix regretted ever agreeing to it. Realistically they knew that if they stuck with the story and the hunting pattern they’d developed, they’d be able to live comfortably here for a very long time, but it didn’t stop them from being irritated by Davidson’s smugness, how bloody and messy he’d be when he came back after feeding, and how he’d roll his eyes whenever Asterix would choose a jar over hunting. They’d icily tell him that it was about now drawing unnecessary attention to themselves; Davidson would simply stick to the rules that had been set, but always chose a hunt over saved blood.

To be fair, he doesn’t see them hunt for that first full month.

When Asterix invites him, Davidson barks a harsh laugh.

“Didn’t think you knew how,” he admits, and says he’s only tagging along to see how a professional does it - his words, sarcasm dripping from them.

And so Asterix takes him to the edge of the outer limit, a sleepy town some fifty miles away, where a man was waiting in a graveyard by the church. Davidson waits out of sight as Asterix directs him to, and he watches in fascination as they approach the man, dressed in silk and lace, and he calls them a name Davidson doesn’t recognize, but Asterix greets him in kind, all quiet and sordid. They kiss like long-separated lovers, and the man, breathless and quiet, talks about running away, about horses waiting nearby, about eloping just like they’d always talked about, and Asterix plays at being thrilled, at tearing up and agreeing, and letting the man slide a ring onto their finger.

It’s it’s own kind of horrifying, Davidson realises quickly, to see how smitten this man is, and to know his fate when the man does not. He follows along, watches them climb aboard a horse that almost bucks the moment Asterix comes close; the man they’re with calms the horse however, and then they’re off. It’s a drawn out process, a slow execution for the man who does not even realise he’s on death row, and it is all but driving Davidson mad as he follows them through the night, through the darkness, for several hours. He’s about to give up, to head home, half convinced Asterix is actually just marrying this man, when the horse stops.

The moon is high in the sky when they stop at Asterix’s insistence, and the man asks what’s wrong when they dismount. Asterix claims to need to stretch, but soon they’re wrapping their arms around him, voice low and intimate;

“It’s just you and me out here, like it should be; you and me for the rest of your life.”

The man doesn’t catch Asterix’s wording as they pull him into their embrace, fingers threaded through his hair, pressing a gentle kiss to his vulnerable throat, but Davidson does. It’s time; he descends from where he’d been circling them like a vulture. The horse spooks and bolts at the sudden newcomer, but this is about the time that Asterix’s teeth sink into the man’s neck, and he tries to struggle, but their grip is unyielding.

He’s begging, pleading, screaming, but as Asterix steps back, they raise their free hand to the wound, as if to stem the bleeding, face transformed and grinning eerily.

“He’s not long for this world, if you’d like to drink it fresh,” Asterix raises their voice, not looking away from the man, though Davidson knows they’re talking to him. The man in their hands screams louder at Davidson’s sudden appearance by his side, but there’s no-one else around to save him. Asterix steps behind the man, fingers still threaded through his hair to hold him in place as Davidson feeds, sloppy, not even half as elegant as Asterix had made it look, but it didn’t matter. Something about the feral, primal way in which he drank had a dark appreciation stirring in Asterix’s chest, and couldn’t help but lean in to the man’s other side and bite him again, to share in this moment.

He’ll lick the blood from their fingers, eyes aglow, and Asterix will remember what it felt like to be newly turned and fearless and reckless, and the power that came with it, the heady sense of invincibility that would surge through them in the afterglow of a kill. They couldn’t begrudge him his cockiness anymore.

There’s a moment, a sense of connection, of understanding, of finally seeing eye to eye, creatures acting on instinct alone in the dead of night. Later, Asterix will explain the countless men they have been wooing in secret, men betrothed or married to other women, men whose families are suspicious of affairs, but with no proof, men who could be called sinners, men who would be perfect targets for The Devil these little towns all feared. Later, they’ll take the body of the man back to their house to exsanguinate him, to not let his blood go to waste, to dispose of him the following night far away from the scene of the crime. Later, Asterix will take the ring off that the man gave them, and Davidson will see the countless other ones just like it in a jewelry box they keep in a dark corner of the basement, and he decides not to ask.

“Even when you kill you’re...” he searches for the words, but they’re not harsh or demeaning like they may have been before this night had occurred, “calculated; men in towns for miles, months of work put in, all so people don’t realise it’s you; it must feel so unnatural to suppress your instincts like that, aren’t you tired of it?”

“I am alive,” Asterix points out, though they grimace at the choice of words, but Davidson understands anyways.

“Next time, hunt with me, let yourself let go,” he urges, teeth sharp and eyes bright. Asterix remembers that tone, his words - and you, ma’am, would you consider yourself a sinner? - as they look at him and agree, exhausted by always playing by the humans’ rules.

It’s freeing to be feral; for the first time in decades, Asterix feels alive.

But still they hold back, terrified of being overcome completely by their bloodlust, too aware of the power they wield to use it to full capacity. Humans only ever require a miniscule amount of power to tear apart, there was no need, they told themselves, for overkill.

The good thing they’ve got going lasts all of five years before people start to get suspicious about how they never age. After a year has passed, they tell other that they’d eloped, if only to keep up the ruse; it would be suspicious if they kept their engagement going on too long in this part of world. They’re both equal parts horrified and amused by it all, not that it changes anything about their dynamic; they’re still free to do whatever they wish with whoever they wish, so long as the people in town never find out.

But still, Asterix gives him the ring that had been given to them by the first victim they’d shared, the night they’d finally started to respect each other. It’s meant partially as a joke, but Davidson wears it nonetheless.

When the time comes, and the townsfolk start asking questions that they can’t answer, they take what little belongings they’ve accumulated - Asterix takes their box of engagement rings - and burn the house they were staying in, no proof of their existence left behind, just the memory of a young couple tragically lost, and they go their separate ways.

Asterix, desperate for a change of scenery, secures passage on a ship headed to Europe, and spends a considerable few decades residing in various bogs across Europe’s various forests, preying on unfortunate explorers, and occasionally towns, if they were close enough. It’s like hibernating, as if turning their brain off to become the instinct-driven creature they truely were. Being away from society, away from humans, away from even others of their own kind, it was the exact reset they needed.

When emerging from their self imposed isolation, there comes news of a war in American having been and gone, and for the barest moment they consider going back, but ultimately decides against it. Instead they take up residency in the heart of London, sleeping in the cellar of a pub they managed to claim ownership of through dubious means. City folk are so desensitized to strange behaviors that they don’t think twice about the pub only ever being open at night, when most others offered a lunch service; they don’t question Asterix managing to be the only employee, it’s a small pub after all. No-one wonders why Asterix is never seen during the day, most assume they’re asleep anyways, since the pub is open practically ‘til dawn.

Sid Priestly, Asterix’s current identity, could be any other human on Earth as far as most of London was concerned. They don’t live in a secluded castle, or hiss, or float menacingly through the air, so none of the humans think to suspect them as anything other than one of their own, albeit one who keeps strange hours.

There’s a few vampires in London, mostly the standoffish types, however there’s a respect and understanding between them all, and they all know Asterix pub to be a place where they will be invited in without question. Asterix, for their part, had reinstated their habit of preserving their leftovers, and finds themselves incorporating blood into one of their dark beers, so their special guests could enjoy themselves as much as the humans.

The pub’s been open for almost nine months when he walks through the doors, looking pleasantly surprised in the golden glow of the overhead lights. One of the other vampires in attendance lights up at the sight of him, waving him over.

“Arthur! Glad you finally made it,” he grins, and turns to Asterix, “two of your finest dark beers, thanks Sid,” and Asterix obligingly turns to fetch two of the blood-infused beers.

“Arthur,” they acknowledge him with a nod and a smirk, placing the beer down in front of him as he sits, giving the other vampire his own, which he sips gratefully while ‘Arthur’ gives the beer a dubious look. His gaze flicks to Asterix, who’s watching with hesitant amusement, not quite sure how to proceed, and then he takes a sip.

“It’s stale,” he says with a knowing smirk, which breaks the tension, and Asterix smirks a laugh, despite the other vampire’s confusion.

“You ungrateful bastard,” Asterix shakes their head, pulling themself a beer and cheersing him.

“Do you two know each other?” The other vampire asks, and Asterix and ‘Arthur’ share a look.

“Sid’s my -” he pauses, giving a look to Asterix, to their masculine presentation and current identity, and he shifts a little, voice growing a little quieter for fear of the human patrons overhearing, “husband.” Asterix huffs a dismissive breath through their nose, rolling their eyes at the memory of their ruse, of their briefly shared life.

“Husband?” The other vampire asks, looking curiously between the two of them, intrigued.

“Wife at the time,” Asterix offers, “I’ve been a lot of things,” is the closest they get to any sort of explanation. It takes a beat for the other vampire to consider, but then he’s shrugging, mentioning that he doesn’t think the beer, or it’s special ingredient, tastes stale; Asterix gives him a toothy, pleased smile, while ‘Arthur’ rolls his eyes despite hiding his grin against the lip of his cup by taking another drink.

There’s an understanding within the community, of outliving the restrictive, human concept of identity, in almost all respects. It’s easier to explore who you are when you literally have all the time in the world; many find labels that fit them, pronouns and names that are comfortable, finding variations of themselves each time they move. Without the pressures or expectations of human society, it’s also easier to be comfortable being with whoever they choose to, especially when they’re more than comfortable ripping apart anyone to cast negative aspersions on them for their choice of partner - or partners.

“You don’t get to claim part ownership of the pub just because we told people we were married fifty years ago,” Asterix closes the pub early that night, finding themself sitting atop the roof with ‘Arthur’. Neither of them is quite sure how to interact with the other, sitting a foot apart, drinking a pint in the moonlight.

“I don’t plan on staying long,” he says, looking out to the city while Asterix is watching him, “thought I’d go be a nuisance around Romania; America’s gotten boring.”

There’s something about him that’s different from when they’d last seen him, something easy and uncomplicated about his movements. His grin stretches wide, leaning back on his elbows, confident, sure of himself. It’s only in seeing him again that Asterix can feel how much his absence ached. It had only been five years, of the few hundred that Asterix had endured at this point, what had been so special about him that they’d been so effected?

He looks at them, smiling sharp and fond in equal measure.

“You’ve gone all soft in your age,” he teases, and immediately Asterix feels themselves growing flustered in their outrage, “serving humans, and not even attempting to court on a single one? How do you ever feed yourself if you’re not stealing the hearts of unfaithful bachelors?”

“I get by,” Asterix tells him, “I’ve got an understanding with some of the others; I don’t have to do the dirty work anymore, my loyal customers provide me with everything I could ever need.”

“Surviving on scraps, always surviving on scraps,” he tuts, “I think you’re scared of yourself, I think you always have been.”

“Arthur,” Asterix warns, eyes flashing a dangerous gold.

“What are they going to do if they figure out what you really are? Kill you, Sid?” He half laughs, and Asterix sits up straighter, tensing at his words, feeling the powers that runs through their blood, their muscles, the centuries of experience built up beneath their skin, “or do you just miss being human that much that you’d do anything to pretend you’re still like them?”

“I am alive,” Asterix snarls, lip curled into something dangerous and menacing, face half-shifted to it’s monstrous form, something they haven’t had to use in what feels like years. He watches them carefully, can see the nerves he’s touched, their button’s he’s pushed, and seems to delight in their indignation.

And maybe it’s that he’s seeing the person he met all those years ago, seeing an opportunity to prove his power; he’d been young then, inexperienced, unsure of his power in relation to them, but his confidence had grown in their absence. He is aware of what he is capable of, and thinks, finally, that he could rival the vampire who’d taken him in all those years ago.

When he pins Asterix faster than a human eye could comprehend, he’s surprised by how easy it is. They’re flat on their back, his knees planted either side of their hips and his hands pinning their wrists either side of their head; for the barest moment, they lock eyes and share in a strange sense of deja vu. Asterix flushes.

“What are you looking to prove?” Asterix asks, turning their head to look at his hand holding their wrist; they flex and unflex their fingers, otherwise unbothered.

“Are you scared of being a vampire? Is that why you try so hard to drink so little? To kill so little? To push down your instincts, deny your nature?”

When Asterix looks back at him, his eyes are aglow, face twisted to reveal his true nature, just like they’d seen countless times before; he thinks he has the upper hand, that like this, he can provoke a reaction from them, get them to fight back.

They’re far too aware of their own capabilities to act so rashly, instead, with surprising ease, they sit up, into his space, surprising him, forcing him back to sit on their thighs, hands raising too, like his grip meant nothing.

“Sweetheart, if I wanted to raze towns, I am more than capable, but if I let myself burn down the world, what would be left? You?” They smiled, but it didn’t reach their eyes. Upon hearing their words, however, their companion actually grins, leaning in as his face changes back to it’s more pleasant disguise, pressing a familiar kiss to their lips.

“I never said to burn the world, but a hundred years ago, people thought you were the Devil; you’re beautiful and terrible, but even then you’d held yourself back,” he’s still holding their wrists, grip loose with their hands in their lap, the two of them nose to nose on this rooftop.

“I’ll always be beautiful and terrible, but I’m not about to sacrifice my comfort for a cheap thrill,” they murmur, lips inches from his, despite their discomfort with the subject.

“You never miss stalking a beautiful lady or handsome gentleman through the night in a quiet town in another country? You never miss...?” And he trails off, fingertips sliding up Asterix’s left arm, their shoulder, to their neck, thumb gentle against their jaw as he tips their head just a little, a gesture they both know all too well, but that Asterix is unfamiliar with being used against them. A shiver runs down their spine.

“Why do you care so much?” Asterix frowned, tipping their head back against his hand, surprised when he holds their jaw instead of moving away. Something unfamiliar began to ache in a spot behind their sternum, close to where their heart should be.

“Because it’s been a hundred years,” and then he’s holding their face gently in both hands, smirking a little, “and you’re still just surviving, I haven’t spent this past century just being afraid, and I’m still here,” he points out, and Asterix bites their tongue on the urge to ask how many of those years he spent on the run, “you’ve thoroughly proven you can lay low, you can live in a bog for decades, so what does it matter if you terrorize a few cities? Burn a few towns to the ground then be a bog mummy, at least some of the time you’d be having fun.”

“I’m having fun now,” Asterix says quietly, blushing a little at the intimacy of it all, but then, as if resentful of his words, “I am fun.” They kiss him like they’re proving a point, something familiar and warm joining that strange sensation in their chest when ‘Arthur’ kisses them back, smiling against their lips.

“How strong are you actually?” He finally asks, pulling back with their hands gripping his hips firmly, still technically in their lap. Asterix’s eyebrows raise in surprise.

“We get stronger with age,” they’d said, though their lack of an actual answer does not go unnoticed.

“You’ll always be stronger than me, won’t you?” He smirks when he looks at them, and their lips twist into a wry, fond smile, leaning into his touch against their cheek.

“‘till we die,” they agree, eyes now sparkling with mischief. This news seems to both delight and disappoint him for very different reasons.

They keep finding each other in the years that follow, always with new names, new lives, new identities. Sometimes they’re together for weeks, for months, sometimes only for hours, but every time it’s like they’d never left one another’s side.

Asterix has conned their way, through both magical and non-magical means, into a life as a Russian noble at the turn of the 20th century, and he finds them at a masquerade. They’d know each other anywhere. They’re meant to be dancing with potential suitors, but the whole night they’re by his side. That night, they kill another member of nobility who had been suspicious of Asterix, who’d been planning a coup against the head of the family who’d welcomed them with only little persuading.

After the carnage of the kill, of the high they rode together, they sleep through the day, silk bedsheets and boarded up windows, a lie on Asterix’s behalf about a rare sleep disorder meaning no-one came in or asked questions, and the following night, he takes off, and Asterix acts surprised when the news of the previous night’s kill finally comes to light.

Wars come and go, and Asterix finds themselves in the middle of them, and sees men a fraction of their age take more pleasure in killing than they’d ever allowed themselves. They fight, and take bullets, and take orders from men who have never known real fear. The humans they fight alongside live like every day is their last in the time between the fighting, lives on the line because someone said it should be, from relative safety.

And they lose humans they considered friends, and they start tearing out throats, they stop caring about what if because everyone here would die quickly, they all knew it. Asterix felt like the only one with half a chance to outlive the war.

‘and you’re still just surviving’

So they start living, start letting themselves be sloppy and angry and give in when they want to fight and break bones and spill blood, because the government comes, and the government doesn’t care, and the government admits ‘we had some like you fighting with Lincoln’ and ‘we had some like you fighting with Washington’ and ‘we always had some like you’ and all they care about it what side Asterix is on.

The War ends, but the next starts in what feels like a blink after the centuries Asterix has been through, and they come out the other side understanding that the things they’d feared for so long don’t matter, that the consequences they feared would not affect them; if they were smart, the government wouldn’t care, and other people were too weak to be a real threat, so they have fun with their identity. They get malevolent after watching their fragile, human friends die, and they learn how to target terrible people, how to find humans more monstrous than themselves, and how to deliver the justice that the justice systems will not give.

In the 1950s, they’re working in the violent crimes unit in LA, focusing on targeting serial sexual abusers in Hollywood, after listening to countless victims teary statements, and hearing the men on their team laugh behind the victim’s back, saying that’s just how Hollywood was. Asterix made sure to remember each man who’d ever said that about a distraught woman, mentally promising to take them each out before they leave for their next identity.

He’s calling himself David when Asterix finds him in a bar on the waterfront, and he’s like a breath of fresh air. He admits to liking how Asterix was operating, how free they seem, and accompanies them when they offer to take him on a hunt.

By now, Asterix’s victims have all been killed in the same way, nothing to denote a vampire, but clearly a serial killer’s work, someone with experience, and within no time it’s thought to be a hitman. David’s more than happy to stick to their MO, especially since they still both get to drink their fill, and he’s delighted with how unhinged Asterix gets in the act.

People started to see the pattern, the connection between the victims, and more people come forward about others in the industry who’ve committed similar atrocities. They don’t quite know who to tell; some go to the police, some go to confessional, some tell their friends, but Asterix seeks out their voices, their testimonies, and their list grows until the word of the victims’ atrocities gets around.

They’re calling Asterix the Actresses Avenging Angel, since most atrocities had been committed against aspiring or active actresses. It’s a new version of the town that believed the Devil killed the immoral few, but it’s a title they wear with pride.

But one of Asterix’s coworkers sees them leave a bar with David, and calls them names that sting, that have Asterix’s blood boiling, all in front of the rest of their team. A team that never took them seriously when they took the assault victim’s side against a powerful man in Hollywood.

They were tired of this town anyways; their list had stopped growing so fast since the Actresses Avenging Angel had become popular folklore.

They’re on the run for almost twenty years after that day, after leaving no-one alive in that evening briefing, after stealing away into the night. The government does tend to care when Asterix, or people like them, kill a whole department of a police force.

So they lay low near Washington state, changing their look, writing ‘*’ whenever their name was required; someone asked out loud if their name was Asterix, and yes, they supposed it fit. They’d always had to be something to fit into society, but they’re tired of being anything when they never felt like anything, so ‘boy or girl?’ is met with a solid ‘no’, and they stop caring about the confusion it elicits. They will outlive confusion. They will outlive everything and everyone. Almost everyone.

In the eighties, they hear a rumour about a beachside town in California having an unusually high death-rate, how strange and unexplained it all was, and perhaps it was loneliness, perhaps it was that they were missing a very specific person, but Asterix travels in hopes of finding David. They are not disappointed.

They meet Max first, their lip curling in disgust at how he holds himself, how he parades himself like everyone else when he’d been just as smarmy and unbearable in the Late Middle Ages.

“You,” he says flatly, nostrils flaring as the only sign of his discomfort at the sight of them. He and Asterix had been sired by the same vampire some centuries ago, within a few decades of each other. He’d always resented Asterix for being simultaneously older and younger than him. Also he’d been the one to kill their sire fifty years after being turned.

“It’s Asterix now,” Asterix tells him, and Max’s lips thin into an unamused line, but before he can say anything, his gaze flicks over their shoulder to the door where there was a sudden commotion, sudden laughter. When Asterix turns, it’s to the sight of a display rack on the ground, and of two blonde boys trying not to laugh, leaning into each other as they insist they found it like that.

The eighties look is certainly kind to David. He’s always been pretty, but now he’s allowed to dress in a way that’s enhanced by his dangerous aura, and Asterix has never been so glad to see him.

And his expression lights up when he catches sight of them too.

“Asterix, do you know these people?” Max asks flatly, and if Asterix didn’t know any better, they would have thought he didn’t have any clue who they were, but judging by the sobering expression on David’s face, they knew each other far too well.

“Of course,” Asterix answers, smile turning cat-like and smug, if only to see Max grow more irritated, working harder to hide it.

“Asterix, this is Marko,” David says, unprompted, introducing the other blonde boy with curly hair and a slight frame; Marko is quiet by David’s side, looking over Asterix with something evaluative in his eyes, something evaluative and intrigued.

“All of you, get out; I told you boys aren’t allowed in here,” Max orders, and Asterix flips him off before making a beeline for the boys, and the exit. Marko stays quiet, but he, like Asterix, is comfortable falling into step by David’s side as the three of them head to somewhere more secluded on the boardwalk.

There’s a streetlight out over a picnic table not too far away, and Asterix is quick to sit, to make themselves a reasonable height out of habit, before David takes their face in his hands. It’s like he’s checking that they’re okay, looking in their eyes, hands on their arms, their hips, coming to rest on their knees, wordlessly checking in.

“Marko, this is Asterix,” David steps out of the way, gesturing to Asterix with one hand while his other still resting on their thigh. Marko steps up, offers his hand for them to shake with a grin. “They’re...” but David trails off, unsure of how to introduce them now, after all the time they’ve known each other, after all they’ve been to one another. But Marko seems to understand; he’s emotionally entwined with David the way Asterix more or less is, and surprisingly, Asterix realises very quickly that they don’t mind.

“Are you planning on staying long?” David asks later in the night, watching Marko as he talks with another pretty, blonde boy who they’ve apparently been talking to for a while, Paul. They’re intending on turning him, with Max’s blessing; Asterix is less than happy to find out that Max is technically the leader of the coven, and is right furious to find out that he’s David’s actual Sire, the one who’d abandoned him all those years ago. But he keeps himself separate from the younger vampires, so Asterix is more than happy to hang with the boys.

“I’ll stay as long as you’ll have me,” Asterix says gently, and David’s arm snakes around their hips, hand coming to rest on their hip, fingers spread wide and warm and possessive against the edge of Asterix’s exposed stomach beneath their crop top. It’s enough of an answer for Asterix to lean against him, to sling their arm across his shoulders.

Paul, where he’s talking to Marko, casts a dubious look to the pair leaning against the streetlight, arms around each other. Asterix winks at him, and though Paul quickly averts his gaze, his smile widens. It’s easy for them to adapt to this dynamic that Marko and David had developed, so long as there was a place for them. They’re more than happy to make a place for others too.

So Asterix makes a life for themselves with the boys in the abandoned hotel at the edge of the cliff, quickly getting close to both Marko and Paul once he’s been turned. They don’t think about how good it feels to not be afraid of their friends dying, or being killed suddenly. David doesn’t comment on how grateful they seem to have friends at all. Or perhaps it’s more than that, perhaps they’re all more than that; physical intimacy is clearly not a foreign concept.

Marko and Asterix will share an armchair while reading a magazine, cheek to cheek, him in their lap with their arms around his middle, and Paul has a penchant for taking one of the others down a dark alley or to a shadowy corner, only to emerge with kiss bruised lips and a flushed complexion, and in a year they have Dwayne too, who comes across as brooding to anyone who doesn’t know him well enough, never more happy than when he has his arm around a member of their little, insular gang, possessive and proud in equal measure.

Marko’s like them too, more than they realized, they learn, not nothing, like they are, but sometimes he’s both or neither or somewhere in between. Mostly they’re he but he also feels like they, and he doesn’t mind which they’re called, as long as it’s someone they love doing the calling.

Love. He’s free with that word. Freer than Asterix or David ever was, no matter how much either of them thought it in all the years they’ve known each other. But Marko says it and it sounds right. It sounds like the word Asterix was too scared to think back on the roof of their pub in London, a hundred years ago, when David had them pinned and all they could see was him backlit by stars.

“We’re a far cry from your silk bedsheets and Russian nobles,” David’s smirking up at the ceiling in the hours before dawn, stretched out on the moth bitten sheets of one of the hotel’s beds. Asterix is curled up by his side, eyes closed and content. It’s just the two of them in the hotel for now, the other three having gone out to stalk a group of assholes that had been harassing their latest person of interest, a beautiful young woman named Star.

The others don’t quite know how far back Asterix and David’s history goes, but everyone knows they’re close, know they can speak their own language without saying a word.

“You were Svetlana then, weren’t you?” He adds, and Asterix hums in confirmation, and David quietly muses that he’s not even sure if he’d given himself a proper name in Russia, since he’d just been passing through. “Do you still have that box of rings from the eighteen-hundreds?” He asks, half smiling, tightening his grip on them, pulling them a little closer at the memory.

“They were lost when my pub was burnt down,” Asterix told him, though this was new information to David, and came as a shock, “after Bram Stoker published Dracula, someone accused my pub of hosting several vampires; I was never accused directly, but someone noted how my patrons only ever seemed to come out at night, and they thought it would be best if the whole pub was taken out as a precaution. They were right, of course, but it was still fucked; I’m fine, obviously.”

“Do you want mine back?” David asks candidly, “you worked hard for them, you should have at least one as a keepsake,” his words catch Asterix by surprise, and they’re quiet for a very long time, trying to process what this all means, how this makes them feel. He kept their ring. All this time.

“It’s yours, I gave it to you,” they say, soft and gentle, finally looking at his face. He’s still looking at the ceiling, but he’s grinning, “do you not want it?”

“Depends; are we still fake-married?” When he looks at them, he’s grinning from ear to ear, all kinds of mischief and adoration at play in his expression, and Asterix’s expression melts to a sly grin as their tone turns teasing.

“As if I’d remarry after you,” they snort, and David quickly turns back to the roof, though it doesn’t quite hide his flustered grin, as he quietly mutters for them to shut up, voice full of affection -

“Get dressed, Star’s “friends” are having a bonfire and we’re gonna have a feast,” Paul bursts into the room with absolutely no warning, all but crashing through the door mid-landing, too excited to walk anywhere at a half-normal speed. He’s grinning from ear to ear, throwing articles of clothes at the pair like a hurricane localised entirely at the end of the bed.

Once the pair are getting dressed and know where to go, Paul is already gone, leaving them in relative silence, and Asterix glances over to see David patting down his pockets, before fishing a thin, gold necklace from his back pocket, holding it, and the familiar ring that hung from it, out to Asterix like proof, like an offering.

“You’ve gone soft in your old age,” Asterix grins instead, echoing his words back at him from a hundred years ago. David rolls his eyes, but puts the chain around his neck and tucks it into his shirt before they leave.

When they arrive, they let the others take the first bites, pun intended. Lord knows they’ve committed enough destruction to keep them sated for several lifetimes.

“Strange bedfellows we keep,” Asterix voice is low, teeth sharp and eyes ablaze as they drunk in the sound of the carnage. They hook two fingers into one of David’s beltloops while he watches his fellow vampires tearing their victims apart like lions tearing into gazelles. Asterix steps up to him, lets him curl an arm around them as they both watch with hungry expressions as the carnage unfolds.

“Feels good,” Asterix murmurs, locking eyes with a poor human trying to escape; neither Asterix nor David has allowed their face to shift to it’s true form just yet, so the human runs to them, begging for help. Asterix steps forward, is by the man’s side in a blur, too fast for him to get away as they wrap one arm around him, the other in his hand, pulling his head to the side to expose his neck, “though I do miss people thinking I was the Devil,” they call over their shoulder with a sharp smirk, eyes a bright gold.

David’s laugh fills the night air, amid the screams, amid the crackle of the fire, as Asterix sinks their teeth into the man’s neck.

#the lost boys #The Lost Boys 1987 #the lost boys imagine #tlb #the lost boys fanfiction #david the lost boys #dwayne the lost boys #marko the lost boys #paul the lost boys #violence tw

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razeluxe · 4 years

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Razeluxe’s Top Ten Female Characters

Yep. It’s here. A list of my all time favorite ladies in anime/video games. This list was way harder for me than the male version, after compiling my favorites I had like 20 characters so I had to cut it down... I will shout them out somewhere further down towards the end...warning you right now that this is long...I have a lot of thoughts about these characters and I did my utmost to avoid outright posting spoilers - enjoy!

10) Bianchi (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)

Once again someone from Reborn makes the list. What can I say, they have great characters and omg Bianchi is incredible. She’s Gokudera’s sister that I was harping about on the male list...she develops from this hyper focused girl to a true mother figure who helps care for her group as well as being a mother figure to some of the younger girls. Later on in the series she’s very attentive and always knows the right things to say...she gave some advice to some of the girls about men, especially in one particular episode that I will not mention but if you know it you know it - I was floored with on the nose she is about things...she can read people and situations extremely well and she serves as like this backbone to her group...there’s stuff between her and her brother that are extremely interesting too - this girl despite being there for others has this considerable weight on her that she tells her brother about at the end of the series - Bianchi is a complicated character who really deserves more love - she doesn’t fight often in this anime but she has proven time and time again that you don’t always have to be out on the front lines in an shounen anime to be a great character and also...she’s hot.

9) Emma Millstein (Trails of Cold Steel)

Emma in ways is similar to Bianchi here, being a mother figure as well as President of Class VII but what I find interesting about her character is what she’s hiding, as well as her insecurities. She spends a really long time hiding things because reasons I will not mention because you need to play the series - when she comes out with what she needs to say she really grapples with her feelings as well as her inferiority complex when she compares herself to her sister. She grows though..man does she grow...she starts to believe in who she is and stops doubting herself as hard and she really shines later on in the series. When you see what she can do... Like I said in the other list I have yet to play the fourth game in the series which is coming soon and I know she plays a major part. I also think she’s a great fit for Rean.

8) Velvet Crowe (Tales of Berseria)

Velvet is a character that has an extremely strong drive, comparable to someone that is yet to come on this list. Velvet is betrayed by someone who has raised her and her heart turns cold and she is motivated by hatred and vengeance for the sake of those who were massacred by this person. Velvet is a raw character whose type is rarely explored in this way, the way her personality shifted from being more upbeat and chipper initially to, post hell breakout, using people to get forward in her goals without giving an fudge. There comes a time when her resolution to revenge falters once something happens, anger and sorrow come together and she makes some interesting decisions...Velvet is a morally gray person whom showcases real struggles and real feelings that I’m able to relate to on a personal level...Velvet knows grief and in a world of black and white, she makes mistakes as a result of her PTSD, some more fatal than others and eventually, she learns. It’s ugly to see, but she learns. Her development is unpleasant to watch compared to a lot of characters, however as a result in my opinion she’s one of the most raw/realistic characters in the Tales of Series currently. I said it. Also she’s hot.

7) Rise Kujikawa (Persona 4)

Here’s a girl I wasn’t expecting to put here. Rise is a girl who is also known as Risette and decides to take a break from showbiz by moving to a small town, going to school, working at her family’s business, you know, doing what she considered to be normal girl things. She is very upfront when it comes to her flirting which I like to think is because of her position as a famous idol. She’s really bubbly and animated, but what made me interested in Rise was her voice and her eyes when you first meet her. She looked and sounded empty...and you learn it’s because she sick and tired of portraying this ‘Risette’ character and not being herself. What I like about Rise is after running away from this persona for so long she eventually acknowledges Risette is also her and she makes the choice to only bring her true self to the public. She’s sassy and just has this ability to brighten an entire room. Originally I favored Yukiko in P4 and while I still do like her a lot, after going through Rise’s social link, well...the rest is history.

6) Milla Maxwell & ‘Fractured’ Milla (Tales of Xillia)

Yep. Both of them. I know they’re different characters however I acknowledge both of them equally and they’re both deserving of this spot on this list.

Starting with Milla Maxwell, what I love about her is her drive. She knows who she is and is willing push herself to fufill her duty. She’s not unlike Velvet who turns away from her emotions to do what she sets out to do, considering emotions to be a distraction from her mission. Made her instantly relatable to me. It makes her come off as uncaring towards other people but her mission is strictly to protect the people in the world. I’ve always imagined Milla as this literal pillar of strength, like when she loses mobility in her legs, she pushes herself even further, nearly killing herself in the process. Heck if you thought Velvet was crazy determined, I mean she is but Milla in my opinion is on a whole other level. What I love about Milla is that she isn’t portrayed as a character who has to second guess or experience things before resolving herself to a choice, she is born with this innately and she does not waver no matter what. She’s not a conventional Tales character who bonds super well with everyone. She has her mission and she’s out to do it. Milla isn’t perfect and her opinion on people is for lack of better word, immature, but she grows to understand people throughout her journey.

Fractured Milla...this character is rife with pain and guilt. This Milla is basically an Alternate Universe version of the actual Milla...on the surface level she’s very aggressive but she carries a different weight compared to the original Milla...she bares a guilt about what happened to another character and her world...she also bears a guilt when it comes to her comparing herself to the original Milla and.. inhibiting the original Milla Maxwell from existing... What I love about Fractured Milla is that she’s a completely different take on a character that I already greatly enjoy, she has her development and her vulnerabilities which the OG Milla didn’t need as much because spoilers, Maxwell stuff. I love her relationship with Elle and Ludger and definitely approve of the LudgerxFractured Milla ship.

Holy Crap this list is getting long, if you need to take a break please do! I’ll wait...you good? Okie doke! Continuing on...

5) Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky)

I love Estelle so dang much. She’s such a glowing character and a breath of fresh air. She’s tomboyish, she collects sneakers, she’s incredibly headstrong and boy does this girl have a mouth on her lol. Like look at all my Estelle stuff on my tags lol. Oh, I should mention she’s Joshua’s ‘brother’ so you can imagine all sorts of interactions with her hotheadedness and his calm and collectedness. Estelle is such a caring character though, like out of everyone I know in the Trails series, I think Estelle ranks the highest in terms of kindess alone. She doesn’t hide crap for the most part, until...well...oh I’m just gonna say it: she develops and hides her feelings for Joshua. She knows it isn’t right but she can’t help herself...anyway Estelle has this naive outlook when it comes to the world, but when certain heavy things happen Estelle kind of...wakes to the realities of the world and she changes her line of thinking. She becomes more considering of her options during situations for starters and she really starts to become the Bracer she wants to be. I was kind of floored how she allowed her pain and her source of affection (Joshua) to empower her to become a stronger person without being simply lovestruck like how people tend to write ladies. She umm...has this scene with Joshua in SC...and I’m not saying anything more but it to me it’s probably one of her highest signs of development. I’m truly happy with what Falcom has done with this character and I think she’s probably the most developed character in the entire Trails series.

4) Rem (Re: Zero)

I never in my thought I would put a character I only just met this high on my list but wow this character blows me away. Rem is a character who has a major inferiority complex to her sister alongside guilt, yet as a maid she performs her duties and speaks very...proper even though that’s typically not how she truly feels. She’s also a very wary person...one reason she’s so high on this list is because of episode 18 how Subaru gives her a reason to live and fought to save her from herself literally. She becomes this incredibly devoted character towards this goofball Subaru with such tenacity that I have seldom seen. She also falls in love with him and not just because he saved her. Eventually she confesses her feelings at one of Subaru’s lowest points but not due to selfishness. She encourages him through her confession because he failed to stop to realize how much he’s worth to her. She displays a lot of strength in her confession and I think this is one of the most well done confession scenes I’ve ever seen period, even with her insert song playing in the background. That said I’ve only seen up to episode 18 because I honestly don’t know how much better Re: Zero can get from this point. I mean I’ll watch it eventually but I’m in love with these first dozen episodes so much I need an emotional break with all the heartache and the darkness .-. (Also please listen to her insert song omg its so precious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV3Fu5csdcA )

Before I list the top three, like my male list I want to at least some other ladies that also did not get into Smash but are still worth mentioning as characters I really like and enjoy, no order here except for the first character because she is hot. Literally. No pictures or additional text here sadly, I mean look how long this post is I don’t even know if all of this will fit ;__;

Lal Mirch (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)

Athena Cykes (Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies)

Primrose (Octopath Traveler)

Midna (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Winry Rockbell (Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood)

Makoto (Persona 5)

Sinon (Sword Art Online)

Akane Tsunemori (Psycho Pass)

Rikku (Final Fantasy X)

Ruiko Saten (A Certain Scientific Railgun)

Alisa Reinford (Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel)

Senna (Bleach Memories of Nobody)

Alright, moving on...

3) Sara Valestein (Trails of Cold Steel)

Sara leads off the top three. She’s initially Rean’s instructor. She has a sense of humor, loves all things drinking, and is lax on her instructor duties...for the most part. There’s a lot of backstory involving this character that I won’t pile on here but I will say that despite her goofy nature Sara is ridiculously strong and it always amazes me how someone like Sara be so silly and not only be so stupid strong but also have her own moniker known around the world as ‘The Purple Lightning’. She was initially a top ranked Bracer before becoming a teacher. You eventually learn about her past through Rean and how it isn’t always all as happy go lucky as her personality...what I really like about Sara is how her strength is the culmination of all the things she went through. There’s one scene in CS1 where she tells some of her students that if they don’t like her assignments for a school trip, they’re free to team up and beat her to get her to change her mind. Needless to say they got their butts handed to them.

2) Garnet Til Alexandros (Final Fantasy IX)

Zidane’s other half. Considering I write Zidane I’d like to call her Dagger from this point on if you don’t mind .-. (Dagger is her own decided alias based on Zidane’s weapon) I really love how she can break the norms of your stereotypical princess. When Zidane firsts meets her she’s chasing her down in her castle and she’s trying to leave her castle, something she mentioned had actively trained to do. And she’s leaving because she’s trying to resolve an issue with her mother... Dagger is a very strong character who has no issue taking matters into her own hands when it comes to issues. Holy crap what she does to Zidane at one point...she’s a bold one. She feels really strongly and she goes through a lot of crap, but she comes out stronger for it. She wasn’t one with much experience for the outside world but she takes to it at levels that the well traveled Zidane did not expect...I don’t want say much because of spoilers but she really finds herself as she journeys and goes from strength to strength, really owning her responsibilities. She’s also the main person who helps Zidane in one of his lowest moments... In my opinion these are just some of the many reasons Zidane falls for her more than any other girl...she’s also a Summoner and I love me some Summoners. She and Zidane also go great together and their relationship builds properly in a way that makes sense. Definitely one of my favorite ladies period.

1) Aurica Nestmile (Ar Tonelico: Melodies of Elemia)

Number one is this lovely lady. Aurica is a Reyvateil, Reyvateils are people who have the ability to convert sounds into energy...all Reyvateils are assigned a rank according to how powerful their ability is. Aurica had it rough, being out of her hometown when it was attacked and destroyed, and she took the blame herself, believing she could have made a difference, being a Reyvateil and all...because of all of this she became very withdrawn and her abilties suffered...she was ranked ‘D’ which is one of the lowest classes of Reyvateils. She was picked on and treated like garbage because of her rank...she did make a friend though, a friend that was also a Revytail, one that everyone liked and one Aurica looked up to, which only made her look like more of a shadow than anything else...which did not help her already lacking confidence and low esteem. She has a literal hole in her heart and is emotionally dependent.

I mention all of that because this character for me is extremely relatable to me, she’s had it pretty rough however in terms of development you see her grow like crazy...before she was so deathly scared of people she would instantly shut herself down and repress herself but with some help from her partner Lyner she gets better and starts to believe in herself more...it’s not easy for her though, as she gets stronger and Lyner trusts her with more responsibility she gets attacked through the hole in her heart and her newly built confidence gets shattered and she starts believing she’s defective, that only defective Revytail have these holes in their heart...what I love about Aurica’s story is how real her issues with building up confidence are, she starts from practically ground zero and over time, through a repeat of this vicious cycle I described, goes from being considered one of the weakest Revytail to the strongest 3rd generation Revytail all because someone believed in her.

I think out of both my male and female lists, Aurica was the only one to make me burst into tears at random points. (not gonna lie Rem came close but she’s not number one here :P) This girl here is one of the firsts ladies I ever connected to in my earlier naive years and back then I didn’t even think it was possible for me to relate to a female this much...

If you got to the end, you deserve a cookie. -offers chocolate chip cookie- This took a lot of thought to write out, there’s so many great characters and I look forward to encountering even more down the road. I may eventually do a list for couples...here’s hoping I won’t have to edit this...

RIP 10/25/2020 I HAD TO EDIT TO ADD SATEN TO HONORABLE MENTIONS ;_;

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queen-of-my-goofball-army · 4 years

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Hazbin Hotel OC

Hey guys!! I’m back and fully recovered for the most part but I made some new friends so I wanted to talk about my new character that I made. I love this show probably way more than I should and since Addict came out yesterday I decided to redesign my OC.

Appearance: Estelle is a white fox demon, she has bright blue eyes like she had in life. In life she was petite and usually had to stand on a ladder in order to get something from the top shelf. It was either that or Angel had to be the one that helped her get it down for her. He was a regular in her shop since they grew up together when he accidentally hit her upside the head with a soda can after she had been thrown into the trash. She has marks on her throat from when she was gripped there harshly by her deceased mafia husband. She wears a chefs hat over her ears and is usually found working hard in the kitchen if she’s not playing cards or comforting Angel.

Death Backstory: After Angel Dust overdosed and left her behind she quickly found herself slowly sinking. Her bakery was losing clientele because her sweets had gone downhill after a rival shop opened across the road. She had lost her purpose in life. Maybe that’s why she had agreed to marry the local mafia boss in Little Italy. She had agreed to the proposal to save her shop. Even though it was the 20’s she had always been as Angel had lovingly called her “different” she didn’t get engaged by the normal sexual things. In fact, she was openly repulsed by them. Every time Angel did a sex lecture she would only listen to him partially. At first, she thought that the marriage would be fine since he still had his mistresses and she didn’t think that he would ever want sex from her. She was naive and of course he eventually got interested in it with her. She remembered a lecture that Angel had given her about consent if she had ever been forced into sex. She grabbed the closest thing that she could to his head, a lamp and just went crazy on him. Accidentally, he was murdered by her and since it was the 20’s nobody believed her when she had said the truth that he would’ve raped her if she hadn’t done anything. She was hung and sent to hell for her crimes against humanity.

A: What are/were this character’s best subjects in school? Her best subjects were math, astronomy and home economics. She was always a master at figuring out puzzles so math came more easily to her than it did to most of her classmates. The stars had always fascinated her and Angel would take her to the tops of the rooftops of New York where you could see the stars for miles around. Home economics was her favorite because she could bake for a class. She had always been a lover of baking and even though not everything turned out perfectly she still found a lot of success with the artform.

B: Do they have any allergies? She isn’t allergic to anything that she knows of. She did make a lot of sweets that were allergy friendly was one of the first to be able to do so.

C: Can they swim well? She is an incredible swimmer; it used to be one of her favorite things when her and Angel were kids. (Of course he was a piece of shit whenever she was nervous and would give her a push forward that was his job).

D: How do they react to being flirted with? She’s actually used to it since Angel has been jokingly flirting with her despite women not being his cup of alcohol.

E: How are they with children? In life, Estelle had a lot of siblings she was the go to babysitter when Angel didn’t need her for anything which was rare. She loved her family even if often she wasn’t understood by them. It was a little bit trickery for a lot of people that weren’t her best friend to understand her.

F: What’s one thing they’re really bad at? If I were to label one thing that she’s really bad at it’s probably going to be directions. She gets lost really easily if she doesn’t have somebody walking around with her. Angel always had to be the more alert one of the two of them especially if it was late at night. He wouldn’t let anybody hurt his best girl not while he was around.

G: How do they flirt? If she were to flirt it would probably be very sheepish compliments. The only person that she could ever flirt genuinely with was Angel though that might be all the couple pet names talking.

H: What is their deadly sin? Her deadly sin would be gluttony. She has always had a really slim figure, something that her best friend has always been jealous of since her diet has a lot of sugary stuff involved.

I: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do they love themselves? On a scale of one to ten Estelle probably loves herself at a three. She has a lot of self doubt that manifested itself into her being a shell of who she used to be. Being forced to have sex wasn’t something that she had ever been planning to do. It wasn’t until she saw Angel again and learned that he had to go through the same thing that it suddenly dawned on her. She’s not alone, she never really has been. She’s been immensely blessed to have the most amazing best friend in the entire world. He helps get her back on her feet and gain that confidence that he’s always seen in her.

J: What’s their sense of humour like? Her sense of humor is rather wordy. She loves puns and making jokes about the wacky antics around her. She is also super sarcastic which is a side of her that really only Angel knows well.

K: How do you know when you’ve upset them? She shuts down, it’s hard to get a reaction of anything out of her. She’s broken up inside about a lot of things that have happened to her in her life that once Angel hugs her tightly to him and tells her that everything will be okay she believes him. He’ll always have her back. It's something that she has grown to love him like a brother for.

L: What is their favourite board game? Her favorite board game is actually anything that she can play with cards. As kids one of the first things that her and Angel started to really get into was war and the stakes were salt water taffies in their favorite flavors (He would almost always win and split them with her anyways giving her tips on how to do better next time).

M: What is their favourite dessert? This is the hardest question in the world but if she were to have a desert island dessert it would probably be struffoli. It’s donut holes dunked in honey and powdered sugar. Her family growing up was of Italian descent and when she met Angel she fully accepted that part of her life.

N: What do they usually eat for breakfast? Usually it’s a freshly made something that she made that morning whether it be a bagel or a croissant and a cup of hot chocolate.

O: What would it take to break them, inside and out? For Angel to fully abandon her for the sake of Cherri. She has gotten used to having her around, in fact they are so different from each other that they are surprisingly close.

P: How do they handle money? She handles money extremely well because she had to kickstart her own business because her parents wouldn’t help her out.

Q: Are they patient? She has had to be the patient one between her and Angel for the entirety of their friendship. He is always the first to get irritated by what’s going on around him and she’s always had to be the one that pulled him back from doing something stupid. The one time she wasn’t there he overdosed and she hadn’t been able to see him in the hospital.

R: What are their hands like? Her hands are small and usually covered with flour because it’s really hard to get her to take a break.

S: How stealthy are they? She is not stealthy at all mostly because she’s almost always humming something under her breath. Cherri got her into 80’s music once she arrived in hell and everything changed for her after that.

T: Where are they ticklish? She is immensely ticklish which is her curse once she arrives in hell and finds that Angel has become a spider with arms to torment her with.

U: What’s their voice like? Her voice is usually quiet unless she gets really frustrated with something that isn’t turning out right in the oven.

V: What’s the easiest way to annoy them? The easiest way to annoy her is to pinch her cheeks. They’ve always been huge and her best friends have never let her forget it.

W: Can they dance? She can dance, she was amazing at the charleston but her dance skills are a little bit last century as Cherri loves to tease.

X: What’s their most petty little secret? Her most petty little secret was her initial jealousy of Cherri once she arrived in hell. Mostly because she was so much like Angel and thought that she wasn’t needed anymore.

Y: What is one question they’ve always wanted an answer to? Why her husband wanted to be married to her when he could’ve had anybody that he wanted quite literally.

Z: How do they sleep? She sleeps very rarely because she doesn’t technically need it but Angel always makes her sleep when he’s with her. She feels protected around him and trust me when I say that he isn’t letting anything get to her ever again.

Do they sleep with a stuffed animal? She does sleep with stuffed animals once she arrives in hell and Angel saw that she didn’t have any here he got her some so that she could feel more comfortable.

Can they take care of a plant? What about a pet? What about a child? Once she arrives in hell she gets a cat companion the same day that Angel finds Fat Nuggets.

Ask them to describe their love interest. Estelle doesn’t have a love interest. I decided to give her a found family love instead of having to force her into a romantic relationship because platonic love is just as important as romantic.

Do they look good in red? She looks good in just about everything but she does have a flowy red top that Angel bought her that she loves

Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! She would give a speech to Angel about how being broken in the same way doesn’t have to be a bad thing. They understand each other better than they ever could have when she was alive.

Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is? She will always confide in her best friends first they get first priority. She will never take advice from her ex-husband or Valentino (he gets his ass kicked once she meets him)

Describe them in three words. Now let them describe themselves in three words. I would describe her as immensely kind, snarky and a lover of everything that is her best friend’s. She would describe herself as a good listener, a bit broken but still beautiful and an amazing baker but that’s things that she starts to believe after reuniting with Angel.

Do they empathize with non-sentient things (dolls, plants, books…)? She empathizes with a lot of her books that she keeps in her at home library.

What age do they most want to be right now? She mostly is happy with where she is, but she has her two best friends and who can complain about that legitimately?

They’ve won the lottery. Spend, or save? Spend it on something for her friends there’s not even a second thought going through her head. Her second idea is to make improvements to her shop with what’s left over.

Do they like romance in the books they read (or in the book they’re in)? She does love romance just not the one that she got. She can be found crying every time she watches Painted Veil and Angel just hands her a box of tissues.

Name one thing their parents taught them. Her parents weren’t around for a good percentage of her life but they did teach her that hard work is extremely important a little bit too well considering that she rarely ever takes breaks.

Would they agree with the term ‘guilty pleasure’? They would agree with that term because she does love things that wouldn’t be loved by other people, mostly crappy B movies that she watches with Angel just to laugh at something.

What would they consider a waste of time– other than school or work? To her lazy days are a waste of time but she grows to love them once she becomes friends with Angel. He shows her that taking time off from constantly trying to work herself to death. Taking days where you can do nothing but laugh and joke around it’s perfectly healthy.

If money wasn’t a limit, what would they wear? They would probably own more cute dresses that expressed her femininity more. At the moment it’s a skirt over leggings with a cute hoodie.

Do they like children? She does love children!! It’s just she doesn’t want to be in a relationship at the moment.

Kissing: tongue or no tongue? At the moment she’s pretty kiss adverse except for the platonic cheek kisses that her and Angel have.

Do they study before tests? Practice before job interviews? She was a practicer before job interviews when she was alive and she did always study before tests too because she could never be too careful.

What do they like that nobody else does? Hmm there isn’t really anything that I could think of to answer this question. I think that between her, Angel and Cherri they have most everything in common.

What would it take for them to break up with someone? What would be the last straw? It would take a lot to eventually break up with somebody but as soon as they tried to force her into sex that was a big no-no for her.

Do they like being called pet names? Do they call other people pet names? What’s their go-to? She does actually love pet names but mostly the platonic ones that her and Angie have. Sweetheart, hun, doll face, and eventually spider-babe and foxy.

Stability or novelty? Stability would be the way that would comfort her the most.

Safety or possibility? She loves feeling safe and Angel makes her feel safer than most anybody out there.

Talent or effort? Talent is the best way to go and she’s talented at a lot of things.

Forgiveness or vengeance (or…)? Forgiveness she would forgive just about anybody except for her bastard of an ex-husband

Would they date a fixer-upper? She would date a fixer-upper but she isn’t currently interested in seeing anybody.

#oc #Hazbin Hotel #Angel Dust

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dyde21 · 5 years

Note

I have been playing a game recently (not telling which because of spoilers) and there are these magician enemies. They have that classic magician look, white gloves, tailcoat and top hat. And to top it all off they look like Annabeth. I couldn't get that image of magician Annabeth and assistant/spectator Percy out of my head. Do whatever you want with that information.

This is entrapment. LIke I could get an amazing prompt like this and not write a story about it? How dare you! (Thank you!) For real though, this actually turned out super cute and I really enjoyed writing it! I hope you do to!

XxXxXxXxX

“Are you ready?” Percy asked, hoisting his little sister a little higher in his arms to fix his grip.

She giggled and threw her little hands up! “Yeah! Let’s do this!” She declared, giggling.

Percy laughed and pushed the door open to the small little magic shop, tucked away in the corner of downtown.

Honestly, she still couldn’t believe he managed to get tickets. The magician had been scheduled for one of the large performance halls, but she had apparently decided to do a “pop-up show” At some local magic shop for a small group of people, first come first serve. Luckily Percy had been checking her Twitter to see if there were any tickets for her other show yet when he saw the tweet. He had been quick enough to grab two of the smaller tickets thankfully.

Now that his sister was starting to get a little older and develop an interest in various things, she had seen a magic show on TV and was obsessed with it.

So Percy, determined to be the best older brother he could, felt it was his responsibility to take her to a magic show. After a night of googling various magicians, had found one that was pretty popular that went by “Athena.”

So here he was now, shuffling his way into one of the foldable chairs that had been set up in the small magic shop, in front of a stage. There was a small motley crew of other people there, some parents taking excited kids, some people who looked like might have been magicians themselves based off how comfortable they seemed, and a few couples that were probably out on a date.

They had a few minutes before the show started, so Percy put down their jackets to reserve their seats and let Estelle run around the shop, looking at the various things. She was well behaved, due to his mom being the best in the world, so he just stayed close to her but let her have fun. He had promised to let her pick out one thing, so she was staring at everything with the most serious expression he had seen on his little sister as if her life depended on it.

Eventually announced that the show was starting and he had to corale his sister back to the seats, promising her that she could look after the show.

He leaned over as the lights started to dim. “You need to be behaved during the show, okay? Don’t distract the magician or the magic won’t work!”

Estelle nodded. “Duh!” Percy bit back a smile, she definitely had his attitude too. “Mom told me to be quiet when she’s doing her magic. I’m not a kid.” She said, pouting and crossing her arms.

Percy just messed up her hair, nodding. “Of course.”

The lights dimmed, and a spotlight was placed on the stage. Honestly, Percy wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the show. All the clips he had seen of her on youtube had her on these large stages, with smoke machines, dramatic light cues and amazing tricks that required more space than the shop had. She was a show woman for sure.

Instead though, she stepped out from behind a heavy red curtain. She seemed like she had stepped out of time. She was wearing an old fashioned suit, with two long coattails. He saw a neat long braid resting over one shoulder. She walked out, and the group offered her a polite applause. She glanced across the crowd, gave them off a smirk dripping with confidence and fell forward into a well practiced bow.

She stood up, tapping her foot and held out her hand as a staff appeared out of nowhere into it.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my show!”

She smirked and instantly Percy knew he was in for a show. And she certainly didn’t disappoint.

The show had been a lot smaller than what he had seen on youtube. Simpler tricks that were done so flawlessly he honestly had no idea how most of them were done. Meanwhile her wit kept the group laughing the entire time as she would ramble on, weaving stories and telling jokes that had him laughing the entire time. Once she had even called for volunteers, and Estelle had stood up on her seat raising her hand before he could sit her down. Athena had laughed and called on her, motioning for Percy to bring her up.

So Percy had scooped her and helped her to the front of the stage. It was a card trick that had completely blown his mind. He thought he had figured it out, but the twist at the end left him as speechless as Estelle was. She gave him one last smirk before she dismissed him back to his seat.

She was clearly having a blast with the show.

The rest of the show wasn’t a disappointment either. She had a seemingly endless amount of tricks, flowing from one to another smoothly. Eventually the show ended to a massive standing ovation.

While Percy hadn’t been sure what he expected, other than hoping for something that wasn’t awkward and clumsy, he had never expected to have so much fun. Estelle also seemed to have had the time of her life based off how often she was cheering and clapping with all the tricks.

Athena was left standing there in a bow as she seemed to bask in the applause for a moment, before standing up, tipping her hat, then vanishing back behind the curtain as the lights in the store were turned back up.

The crowd slowly dispersed as some people settled into purchasing some stuff from the shop, while others loitered around, hoping to get a chance to talk to the magician.

Glancing over Estelle was still grinning at him. “She was so cool!” Percy nodded, messing up her hair gently. “Right? Now how about we pick out that toy so you can be just like her?”

Estelle nodded and ran off, going to where apparently she had decided to get her toy from.

Percy followed after her, grinning as he relished in seeing how happy she looked. Estelle honestly did have the best smile in the world.

It had taken another few minutes for Percy to finally get Estelle to decide on what to buy, before she took her up to the counter to buy it. As it was being rung up, Estelle was practically bouncing at his side.

After the receipt was handed to him, he turned and offered the bag to the little girl. “Would you like to hold it?”

He asked, but was surprised to see her staring off to the side at something else.

Following her gaze, he saw Athena talking to someone.

Estelle just tugged at them hem of his hoodie, still looking at Athena like she was seeing God.

Grinning, he knew it was time for big brother to save the day. He thanked the cashier, before bending down and scooping up Estelle into an arm. He made his way over, putting on the confidence that was easy to have when he was doing something for his sister’s sake.

He waited patiently, close enough to show he was interested in talking with her next, but not close enough to intrude onto the other conversation.

Eventually the other person seemed to wave goodbye, and Athena met eyes with him for a moment, before she glanced over at Estelle and her eyes widened and he could practically see her heart melt. Estelle had that effect on people.

Athena moved over to them, a confident smirk appearing on her face. “Well hello there, I hope you enjoyed the show!”

“You were amazing!” Estelle said, throwing her arms up and nearly hitting Percy accidentally, but she seemed too excited to notice. “You’re so magical! It’s amazing! You’re my hero!”

Adorably, Athena actually seemed to blush a little at the girl’s words.

It was then Percy noticed that the magician was actually really beautiful. Her eyes were gray and stormy, only seeming to add to her air of confidence and power. But her smile was bright and friendly. She also looked really good in a suit.

“Well thank you, I’m glad I could have such a cute fan.” She said. “ I think though, I might still have one more trick in me.”

Estelle’s eyes widened. “Really?”

Annabeth nodded. “I mean, a magician never let’s the show end, right?”

Estelle nodded. “Of course!” She said with such confidence, Percy almost believed her for a moment.

Athena laughed, before she seemed to move her hand for a moment, before meeting his eyes. A heartbeat later a flower appeared in her hands out of seemingly nowhere.

Estelle let out a cheer as Athena laughed and handed her the flower. “A little gift for you. I put some of my magic in it, so I’ll let you have some.” She said with a wink as Estelle held it gingerly like it was the most precious thing in her life. Honestly, Percy thought it might have been at that moment.

“Thank you!” She cooed, making both Percy’s and Athena’s heart melt.

Pausing, he knew his mom might be a little mad at him spoiling her so much but he set her down gently.

“Well, with all that magic in you, how about you go grab that other box? You need plenty of tricks if you’re going to be a magician after all!”

Estelle’s eyes widened, before she reached up, making Percy lean down so she could wrap her tiny arms around his neck. “You’re the best big brother!” She declared, before running off to the nearby aisle. She was close enough that Percy could still see her so he turned his attention back to Athena for a moment.

“I think you made my sister’s night. Thank you.”

Athena brushed her braid back over her shoulder. “It was my pleasure, she’s adorable. She’s lucky to have such a good big brother it seems.”

Percy felt a blush creep on his cheeks as he scratched the back of his neck. “I just try to do the best I can. She’s too cute to say no too anyway.” He paused. “Did you need that flower back?”

Athena shook her head and smiled. “Nah, it’s nothing special. Just don’t tell her that.” She said with a wink. “The real magic was seeing her smile.”

Percy nodded knowingly. “She has the cutest smile. I’m glad we got to catch this show.”

The blonde magician nodded and shifted her weight. “That’s why I still do these small shows. I got started in tiny shops like this, and while it’s incredible to perform in front of an entire stage, there’s something unique about a small intimate crowd that just is irreplaceable. Making magic come to life in front of you? That’s the real fun.” She paused, glancing over at Estelle. “I was like her when I was a kid. I guess I’m finally paying it forward.”

Percy gave her a soft smile. “Wow. You really are amazing. I was worried you’d be… I don’t know…” He trailed off. He wasn’t sure exactly what he expected, but certainly not someone as sincere as her.

Athena laughed knowingly. “I know what you mean. Don’t worry. A big stage can go to your head easily, especially when your trade is making crowds of people dance in the palm of your hand. But I have some good friends that don’t let me forget where I got started. Piper won’t let my head get too big.” She said fondly.

Percy nodded. “She sounds like a good friend. But you really were incredible. You blew my mind the entire show, and I know Estelle won’t stop talking about this for weeks.”

“Then my job is done.” Athena said with a slight bow, before nudging his side. “I think she needs her super brother.”

Glancing over, he saw Estelle standing on the tips of her toes as she reached for a box that was just out of reach.

“Careful!” Percy said a little too quickly, moving over to get it before she could accidentally pull something heavy down onto her.

Glancing back, he saw Athena watching them with a soft smile. She gave him a tiny thumbs up, and Percy blushed. She was too cute. A brilliant showman, and a genuine person?

Moving back with Estelle he paused. “What do you say to Athena?”

Estelle held the big box in her hands but grinned. “Thank you for the magic flower! I promise I’ll do all sorts of magic!”

Athena smiled. “I hope one day I can watch you on stage! I look forward to it.”

Estelle saluted, making them laugh as Annabeth reached out with one hand, shaking Estelles as Percy watched his sister giggled happily.

Almost reluctantly, he knew he had to get Estelle back soon. “It’s getting pretty late for her, but it was really… really nice talking to you. Thank you again, for everything.”

He said as Athena just bowed in response, tipping her hat. “The show must go on.”

Percy paid for the second set for Estelle as he watched Athen turn back to finish packing up some things.

As they were about to leave, he paused. He knew once he walked out that door, he’d never get the chance to talk to her again, and she was a magical experience he really wanted to see more of. He at least had to try. He set down Estelle for a second. “Wait right here, I need to tell Athena one last thing, okay?” Estelle hummed in response, she was too busy staring at the big box she was holding.

Percy quickly made his way over to Athena. “Hey, sorry to bother you…”

The woman turned around, surprised before she grinned. “Did you need a magic flower too?”

He laughed, scratching the back of his neck. “No, but I was hoping I could give you my number.” His cheeks were burning as he felt his confidence starting to falter. Asking a woman out who was way out of his league was much harder than introducing his sister to her hero. “You were just… really cool to talk to. I’d like to do it again sometime…” He said, proud he didn’t flub any of the words.

The blonde looked surprised for a moment as a blush crept on her cheeks. A sly smile crept on her face. “Well you already have mine, so I suppose that’s fair.”

Percy’s face went blank. “What? I don’t…”

She just gave him a smug grin, before pointing at her side.

He was confused for a moment, as his hand instinctively went to his pocket. He paused as he reached in it, feeling a card he definitely didn't have in there when he entered the shop.

Pulling it out, he found a small notecard with a phone number and a little magicians hat drawn on it.

His eyes widened as he looked up at her. “What? When did you… how…”

The blonde just laughed at his expression, winking. “A magician never reveals her secrets.” She said, making him smile despite himself. “Besides, I wasn’t sure if you were going to ask me out or not, and I always plan ahead.”

“You’re incredible.” He offered.

“So you’ve said.” She teased, but the faint blush on her cheeks let Percy know she wasn’t quite as unflappable as she liked to appear.

“I guess it’s my turn to impress you next time we see each other.”

Her grin only widened. “I look forward to it.”

Percy just gave her one more hopefully-not-too-goofy smile before he went back to take Estelle home. He definitely had his work cut out for him if he was going to impress her, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

#Percy Jackson #Percabeth #Annabeth Chase #Magician!AU #This was cute #I liked this one a lot #Even had a few ideas for later dates with them #Didn't work out much about Percy's backstory though #Still #I liked this #and it was nice to write after being unable too for a while due to my eyes #Hopefully a new chapter for the Band!AU soon!

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darkhymns-fic · 5 years

Text

New Year, New Rules

Rita is too engrossed in her work to even think about the celebrations happening just outside her walls. But Estelle comes in to remind her with the help of a new friend.

It -is- the Year of the Rat, after all.

Fandom: Tales of Vesperia Characters/Pairing: Rita Mordio/Estellise Sidos Heurassein Rating: PG Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: A New Year’s fic written for @taco-night-frenzy. I had to get this down before it got away from me. Love you!!!

Another noise outside, something like crackling or thunder. It rumbled through the castle floors, made the chemistry vials on their racks shake. Rita sighed in exasperation. How annoying. Her weather instruments hadn’t told her there would be a storm in the Imperial Capital tonight. Maybe a war had suddenly started. That wasn’t her concern though. She kept the curtains shut and continued in her work.

Rita usually didn't tolerate interruptions. The few who visited her had to learn quickly on what things were even allowed in her research lab. First off, Karol was completely off-limits in any capacity. He could stand at the door if he really wanted to, but one step too close to her vials and she would leap from her chair and smack him right out into the hallway. Karol eventually learned of this very important rule. Just because she was staying at Zaphias Castle for the time being didn’t mean that everyone could just waltz in whenever they pleased.

Yuri at least understood. He took one look at her door, shrugged and waved, and was already on his way. Flynn would pass by with his curious glances, until Rita got a little sick of it and slammed the door in his face. Not like he could arrest her for being rude, despite how much he probably wanted to.

The only exception was Estelle, who would always politely knock and ask to be invited in before doing anything else.

As Rita was smoothing over some papers to read over her latest research, she heard that same knock. She didn’t bristle or flinch at the sound – she could tell when it was Estelle or one of the annoying castle guards by their knocks. One was heavy-handed, clearly didn’t care what dangerous chemicals she was handling, while the other was as quiet as a mouse. Maybe there was some slight annoyance that she had to strain her ears to even hear it sometimes.

“Come in,” she said automatically, not even turning around or waiting for Estelle to call out to her. Maybe she had missed tea time? She only dimly realized that the hour was getting late.

“Rita, I’m glad you’re awake.” There were soft footsteps, followed by the click of the door. “Oh, are you still working?”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” Rita cared for the girl, but sometimes she did wonder at Estelle’s questions that called for such obvious answers. “It’s the new formula I was telling you about… Besides, I can’t even sleep if I wanted to. There’s such a loud racket outside! I thought this place had like a royal curfew or something.”

A brief glance back and she caught the gleam of Estelle’s clothes – white interlaced with the pink hem of her dress. The princess had come by to see her a lot ever since Rita finally took up Estelle’s offer to stay in the castle. A large room to conduct her experiments in, free meals when she would remember to leave said room to go and eat, and those visits from Estelle, accompanied by sweet-tasting tea and cookies that always seemed to be freshly baked.

But Estelle hadn’t brought in any tea or cookies, though it appeared that she was holding something in her cupped hands. “Rita, do you not know what day it is today?”

“Um…” Rita scrunched her eyebrows, her brain too muddled with equations and chemical names to remember something as mundane as the date. “Isn’t it the last week of Bluerre? No, wait, that’s the old calendar system…”

“Rita! It’s New Year’s Eve! Don’t tell me you forgot!” Estelle rushed up in front of her, bouncing on her toes so much that her hair bounced along with her. “The noises outside are the fireworks! I was coming by to ask if you wanted to celebrate it with me.”

Rita blinked. “Oh, is that all it was?” Outside where there were crowds, and people shouting, and so much noise that she could barely think? She waved it off. “Not really in the mood for it. I’m in the middle of stuff anyway so you can just… Estelle, what’s that in your hands?”

It seemed as if Estelle had just been waiting for the chance to tell Rita all about it. Biting her lip in excitement, she held out her hands towards the other girl. "It's the year of the mouse, Rita! See? Look how adorable he is."

For indeed, she was holding a small animal in her hands. It was busy eating one of those shortbread cookies that Estelle would always bring to tea time, its pink tail swishing behind them as they nibbled quite furiously on the snack. It looked kind of weird though…

“Mice are such clever little animals, you know. They remind me of you a lot!” Estelle smiled brightly, looking as if she was in heaven by holding the animal. “I found this one in my room. A cat was trying to eat the poor thing but I was able to save him in time. I think it’s a sign of good fortune! This year will definitely be a good one now!”

Rita, only half-listening to Estelle’s musings, had been staring at the animal the entire time. She raised her eyes, her face expressionless. "...That's a rat, Estelle."

The fireworks continued to shake the sky outside. Only now did their light seep through the curtains, lighting up the stone floors. A mix of red and green, of sapphire and gold, and so many more to usher in the new year.

Neither of the women paid attention. Estelle stared wordlessly before turning back to the animal, still eating the cookie without a care in the world. "Hm? Oh no, he’s a mouse! Look, he’s got these round ears and-"

"It's a rat, Estelle! And not even a regular rat! That’s a monster rat! A Ratwigle!” Okay, that had come out a bit louder than she meant it to, but a weird panic was gripping her by seeing this…creature so close to her instruments, to her notes, to her chemicals and everything. “It's also the year of the rat! There’s no ‘mouse’ anything!" A pause. "You brought a Ratwigle into my research lab! Estelle, I have rules for that!"

Of course, she had just kept yelling like an idiot. Estelle made no visible reaction, already used to Rita’s random outbursts. But the mouse (Ratwigle?!) wasn’t.

It had jumped at the shouting, instinct soon taking over. It bounced out of Estelle’s hands to jump right onto the floor and then continued to bounce and roll underneath the tables with all its precious vials and papers. Because it was a Ratwigle. Maybe a baby Ratwigle even?

Rita screeched. "Get it away get it away!" She knew she should have gotten one of the city cats in here!

“Rita! Calm down! I can call him back, don’t worry!” But the princess’ calm tone could barely be heard over the fireworks that only seemed to get even louder. Were they setting them off in the next room? Rita could barely hear herself think, but she could see all too well the little rat rolling across the floor like a ball.

Some of her notes and books had been left on the floor as well – the way she researched had never been the most organized but it had never really mattered that much before. Seeing the rat make its way to one book, Rita visibly recoiled at the sight. “Don’t touch that!”

“Rita! Hold on! Here, it’s okay, little mousey. Come here, it’s okay!”

“Don’t let it poop on my research!” Rita held out her hand, fingers thrumming. “Fire ball!!”

“Rita, no!”

In the end, there were only a few scorch marks on the stone floors, and only one research paper singed. All in all, things had lucked out well enough. Except that rat was still very much alive.

Rita was seated within a far corner of her lab as Estellle finally coaxed the animal back to her with another cookie. A big waste of food, if Rita was concerned.

“I have him now, Rita,” she said, holding the creature within her palms. “Are…are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?!” Rita snapped, before biting her lip. She thought she had gotten better control of her temper by now. “Sorry…just, keep that thing away from me.”

“I’m sorry. I had no idea you were afraid of mice.” Estelle patted its white fur, so gently that her fingers only ghosted across its back. “I just wanted it to be a fun surprise.”

“I don’t like pests, that’s all. I’m not afraid of them!” At least, she mostly wasn’t. If she had seen that thing out in the streets, then whatever. But not in her lab, with all of her precious materials (which she had nearly burned up, but that wasn’t the point). “Just, it could be crawling with diseases, you know! Did it bite you? You need to tell me these things!”

“Oh, he hasn’t bit me at all! He’s so friendly. I was thinking of keeping him, in case he has no other family.”

Only then did Rita notice something in the way Estelle talked about the rat. “You keep calling that thing a ‘he?’ How do you even know that it’s a boy?”

“Hm? Oh, well I checked earlier and-”

“Okay, never mind! That’s weird. You’re weird.” Rita pouted, folding her arms as she stayed seated in her corner. Like she could ever understand rats anyway, but here was Estelle, the rat expert. Ratwigle, even.

Estelle, seated with her new Ratwigle friend on the floor, kept looking up at Rita, then back to the animal/monster. The little creature was huddled up and shaking slightly, clearly agitated by previous events. Sort of like a certain person sitting in the corner…

“Would it be okay if I sat next to you?” she asked politely.

Usually, this wasn’t an issue, but Rita eyed the Ratwigle that was between her and the princess. She sighed. “Yeah, just…no sudden movements or anything.”

“Okay!” And like that, Estelle basically skipped to Rita before sitting on her knees before Rita. All while she was holding the Ratwigle precariously in her hands.

Rita stared, a frown on her lips. “You hold that thing like it was your baby or something.” She had said that bluntly, then inwardly winced once hearing it. Great, now she had just compared Estelle to a rat…Ratwigle…

“Ah, you think so? I was thinking how this reminded me of the time we took care of that baby! Remember? We had to feed it and make it go to sleep…” Estelle recalled the memory so brightly that Rita also couldn’t help but think back to it too. “I think this little guy must be very young too. He’s so small!”

Rita kept eyeing the ‘little guy,’ its weird fur and the way it just didn’t have any legs. Wasn’t this from the sewer below? “…Yeah, and we had to change its diaper and everything. And then there was that one time it threw up on me! Ugh, had to wash my shirt like six times.” She looked at the Ratwigle again, on how it was now washing its dark fur with its tongue, no longer as flighty or nervous as before. It seemed to have some trouble bending, since it was shaped like a perfect sphere and all. “At least this thing’s poop would be easier to handle.”

Estelle laughed, shuffling just a bit closer to Rita. “You think so? Maybe you can do the clean-up duty for me.”

“Hey, I never agreed to that!” She glared at the Ratwigle that now acted like everything was all okay, no problem. “It’d just run… roll away from me anyway.”

“Aw, that’s not true, Rita.”

“Estelle, it literally just did exactly that five minutes ago.”

“Well, that’s because you were shouting… When you don’t shout, most animals would be able to warm up to you.”

Rita shrugged, wondering why she was seeking the approval of a baby monster of all things. “Cats are good enough for me.”

But that was a talent of Estelle’s – making friends with anyone so easily, finding the little positives in even the most tactless of things. Rita moved a little closer as well, though she still kept up her pout.

“So, are you actually keeping it?”

“I would like to,” Estelle confessed, looking down at Ratwigle. It snuffled around her palm, apparently content to stay there instead of getting away. “But I’m sure it already has a home. I just wanted to help keep it alive into the new year at least.”

Rita thought on it. “Maybe it is a sign…or something.” Even if she thought omens and fortunes were bogus. “Wait, so you weren’t outside celebrating with everybody?”

Estelle raised her head to Rita. “No. I didn’t see a need to. When I found this little mouse, I thought that maybe… well, never mind. It wasn’t too important anyway. I didn’t mean to get in the way of your work.”

Sometimes, Rita really was an idiot. She groaned. “Dammit… I’m sorry.”

“Huh? But I just came in here and messed up all your research-”

“Gah, let me apologize already! Of course I’d like to spend New Year’s with you! I always like spending time with you!” She huffed, then turned her gaze to the floor. “I just get caught up in stuff and then act stupid about it.”

But she couldn’t even hear the fireworks anymore. Perhaps the celebration was already over and she had made Estelle miss out on something that could have been so fun for her.

The princess had moved so much closer that their knees now touched, and she couldn’t avoid the rat-mouse-whatever it was in-between them anymore. Yeah, it was kinda close… but from this angle, she supposed it looked mildly cute.

“I don’t think I would have had the courage to ask you if it weren’t for my new friend,” Estelle said, her voice soft and shy. “Do you think you can make it up to me then?”

Just relieved that Estelle hadn’t rebuffed her apologies, Rita nodded. “I mean, sure, of course. What is it?”

“Well, on New Year’s Eve, it’s supposed to be customary to kiss someone!” Estelle laughed nervously, her eyes darting around in shyness, but her smile forming. “Usually on the very minute it turns into the new year. It’s supposed to bring good luck, so I thought-”

Rita leaned in to kiss Estelle. She was surrounded by the scent of cherry blossoms, all within the brash aura of chemicals still piping away in their vials, within the ember still scorched onto the stone floors.

She kissed her and felt the softness that melded its way down her chest into her legs, shutting her eyes. It wasn’t long before Estelle pressed back, sounds leaving her throat, whether of surprise or something else, Rita couldn’t really know.

Then, just as quickly, Rita leaned back, turning to the side. She didn’t need to even feel her face to know how red it was. “Sorry that was kinda late, but…tried to make up for it.”

She only flicked her eyes back quickly to catch Estelle’s expression – her cheeks also red, her mouth half-parted, nearly inviting another kiss. Was that what she wanted? Maybe she should try that again, but if Estelle was silent, maybe she hadn’t done a good job…

“Did you use your tongue?” Estelle asked rather bluntly, more curious than accusing.

Rita froze, then stuttered out, “I-I said I was m-making up for it! And…that’s a thing people do!” Right? Wasn’t that a thing people did? Or had Yuri just been messing with her when he suggested her to try that? Dammit, if he did, she was going mess him up later. Actually, what kind of conversation had they been having that he would tell her that anyway?

“Ah, sorry! It was just… a surprise! But, a very nice surprise…” Estelle giggled, pressing both hands to her cheeks. “It really felt so nice. Thank you, Rita. Um, do you think we could…”

At that, Rita was already guessing to her suggestions. She was seated up straight, eyes riveted to Estelle’s lips and remembering how sweet it had been and- Wait a minute.

“Estelle,” she said carefully, looking at the girl’s hands, still pressed to her face. “Where did the rat go?”

“…Eh?”

“The rat, Estelle. The Ratwigle!” She pointed frantically at Estelle’s lap. “Didn’t you just have it a minute ago?”

She felt something shifting in her lap just then. With wide eyes, she looked down.

“Remember to not shout, Rita!” Estelle warned quickly.

And maybe Rita listened to Estelle, staying as calm as she could be and making friends with a rat friend. Or maybe she let all sense leave her and tried to get the rat as far away from her as possible, her artes going a little haywire, her lab getting a little more chaotic with each panicked yell.

It didn’t matter either way. It was a new year, with new rules she would just have to get used to. She could adjust, eventually – as long as Estelle was by her side.

#ristelle #tales of vesperia #rita mordio #estellise sidos heurassein #tales of #happy new year #fanfiction #one shot

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hopeisour4letteredword · 5 years

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Coffee Break

Summary: Flynn gets his chat over coffee, but he and Yuri still can’t help catching on each others’ rough edges.

Part of the Feeling Pretty Good About the Trouble That I’m In series. Link to AO3 in the notes.

The coffee shop is one of Flynn’s favorites. Not his absolute favorite, because Yuri got weird about it and shot him down when he suggested that one. But this place is still up near the top of the list. Not too expensive, either. Hopefully some good food will ease a little bit of the tension from this meet up.

Flynn tries not to fidget as he waits out front. Is his outfit alright? He didn’t know what to wear for this. When he meets his coworkers and classmates, he usually shoots for business casual. But this isn’t a coworker or a classmate, it’s Yuri, and that makes everything paradoxically more and less important. Flynn erred on the casual side, one of his favorite worn t-shirts and a light, comfortable over-shirt, and he’s still irrationally afraid Yuri’s going to show up and call it pretentious.

He’s a little early. He has no right to be anxious that Yuri is a no-show just because he isn’t here yet. Besides, Yuri’s run late for everything before and after they were on the fencing team together in high school, so—

“Hey,” Yuri says, at precisely eleven o’ clock, giving Flynn a goddamn heart attack. Flynn whips around to stare at him. He’s got his hands shoved into his pockets, an untucked button-down shirt and jeans on, and a leash on one wrist that trails down to a panting but cheerful Repede. He looks just as uncomfortable as he did at the veterinary clinic. “Hope you don’t mind a third wheel. I don’t like to leave him home alone if I’ve got a choice, but I can take him b—“

“No!” Flynn says, hastily. As though he would ever be unhappy with Repede. He mentally ushers himself away from thoughts of intimate situations where he actually might prefer Repede’s absence. Those were only ever pipe dreams even at their relationship’s closest, and Yuri barely wants to talk to him right now. “No, you don’t have to do that. I’ll order for you while you grab one of the patio tables for us. Do you know what you want?”

“Just, like.” Yuri scrubs at his face. He seems exhausted. “A black coffee. And a plain croissant, or whatever they have that’s closest. I don’t have much of an appetite.”

Flynn frowns, considering his appearance. He has dark bags under his eyes, and he looks a little pale. “Do...you want to take a rain check? Because if—“

“No,” Yuri snaps, then visibly takes a deep breath. “Sorry. I worked late. There’s not really going to be a good time to meet up when that won’t be true.”

“Okay,” Flynn says, carefully. “Coffee and a black croissant—oh, hell, I mean—“

He’s already made a fool of himself. It’s worth it, though, because a solid 75 percent of the tension leaks out of Yuri’s shoulders as he muffles laughter into his hand, a twinkle in his eye for the first time Flynn’s seen in years.

“A croissant and black coffee,” Flynn corrects himself. It’s hard not to smile in return when Yuri grins like that. God, Flynn had almost forgotten how beautiful he is. Pictures have never done Yuri justice. They can’t capture his vibrancy. “Do you want the receipt?”

“Yeah, I’ll pay you back.”

Flynn thinks about announcing it’s his treat, then remembers Yuri’s fight with Schwann at the clinic. “Sure thing.”

He leaves Yuri to pick a table and goes inside to order. Croissant, black coffee—Flynn almost orders him a large, because he looks like he needs it, but then feels guilty about making that call when Yuri’s going to be the one shelling out the extra money—and for Flynn, soup in a bread bowl and an iced tea. He loiters until the order is ready, watching Yuri through the glass shopfront. He’s slumped bonelessly into his chair, head lifted off the table just enough to look at something on his phone. Repede lounges in the shade under the table at his feet. Now that Flynn’s looking at both of them together, it’s a little disconcerting how healthy Repede is in direct contrast with how wrecked Yuri seems. Flynn shakes himself out of his thoughts long enough to collect the tray with their food and take it outside.

“So,” he says. Yuri grabs his coffee off the tray without looking before Flynn can even put it down all the way. His phone stays out until Flynn is all the way into his seat. “What’s new with you?”

Yuri shrugs. His gaze flickers up to meet Flynn’s, then back down to his croissant. “I told you, not a lot. Same routine as usual.”

“What about your new roommates?” Flynn presses.

“I don’t know what to tell you about them.”

That’s fine. Flynn works out enough to carry this conversation for a long while. Yuri will probably loosen up once Flynn can get him going. “Well, what are their names? What do they do?”

“Judy and Estelle, they’re the ones with jobs. Judy bartends and waitresses. She’s a real livewire. She does kickboxing and capoeira on the side. Estelle’s got a part time at the local library, and Hanks is a little soft on her, so he’s been giving her a little money for helping with tutoring at the community center. She’s pretty good at it, he’s been trying to get her to start her own gig. Made her draft some flyers and everything.”

“They sound fun,” Flynn says, a little wistfully. He wonders if Judy gets to spar with Yuri. He misses being able to do that. He wouldn’t mind meeting this Estelle, either—ever since Miss Estellise went missing, he hasn’t had anyone to discuss fine literature with. For a fleeting second he wonders if maybe, possibly Estelle is Estellise. Surely, though, someone would have said something to the police by now if that were true? Flynn had a meeting with Alexei just last week, and he said she was still missing. “How’d you meet them?”

“Judy and I used to work together. We both got fired for not putting up with a customer’s bullshit.” Of course they did. That’s Yuri all over. “We stayed friends after that, and she moved in a while ago after... stuff. Her business, not mine to tell. Estelle and I met at the community center. She needed a place to stay so I’m putting her up until she sorts herself out.”

“That’s very kind of you.” And just as typically Yuri as the way he got fired. He never could look away while somebody needed help and he might be able to provide it. Yuri shrugs off the praise. “You said there are others?”

“Karol and Rita,” Yuri says. He knocks back a long swig of coffee. “School kids. Twelve and fifteen. Babies, really. Technically, legally speaking, Judy and I are fostering them.”

“Didn’t Schwann—I mean, Dr. Oltorain, he said you’re in a two-bedroom apartment. They let you foster with five people in a two-bedroom apartment? How old is Judy, to be their second guardian?”

Yuri opens his mouth, starts to say something, and then closes it. This process repeats another couple times. Flynn remembers, with the beginnings of dread, that this is Yuri’s usual response to inquiries where the answer is possibly illegal, definitely not great, and sure to disappoint Flynn.

“Yuri...”

“I don’t want to lie to you, but...”

“Yuri, honestly.”

“You asked for it. Rav—Doctor... man, what the fuck is his name? All-terrain?”

“Repede has had the same vet for his entire life. How do you not know his name?”

“I know his name, just not that one.” Yuri gives him a deeply aggrieved look, like Flynn is the unreasonable one here. “He let us pretend we were living with him for the inspection.”

“He what?!”

“I didn’t want to tell you because you obviously respect him, but you asked.”

“That’s—God, that’s not even fair to the kids!”

“You’re right,” Yuri says, visibly losing patience by the second. “It’s so fucked up of me to let the kids—who chose this, I’ll point out—decide that they’d rather live with young adults they trust in temporarily less-than-ideal circumstances instead of, you know, going back to abusive households or a fucking orphanage or something.”

“Children don’t always know what’s best for them—“

“And adults don’t always listen enough to know what’s best for them, either.”

“Other people in their lives can help make that call!”

“Yeah, they did. Do you think Raven helped us get custody because we’re inept guardians?” Yuri slams a hand against the table top. His coffee sloshes dangerously in its cup. “Do you think Hanks would let me do this if he thought it was an unlivable situation? Do you think I haven’t looked at the apartment and wondered if this is really fucking okay? I don’t want them to have to live like this, Flynn! But if Karol isn’t with us, he’ll be with someone who hits him! I’m not alright with that! If Rita isn’t with us, she’ll be self-isolating and self-destructing with some stranger she hates who doesn’t care as long as she’s not actively causing them trouble and they still get a paycheck! I’m not just going to sit on my ass and watch that happen because my apartment is small right now!”

His volume gets higher and higher as he talks, until he’s almost shouting at the end. He’s on the edge of his chair, hackles raised, hands clenching the edge of the table. Flynn watches him, frozen in place. Yuri’s chest heaves for breath for a moment, until he collapses backwards into his chair, throat working with a hard swallow. When he talks again, it’s quieter.

“We’re... we’re working on it, alright? We’re trying to find a new place. Between me and Judy and Estelle, we should be able to upgrade to a three-bedroom, if we find a cheap one that isn’t also, like, filled with asbestos or some shit.”

“I had no idea,” Flynn says, softly. “I shouldn’t have—I had no idea.”

“Of course not,” Yuri says, wearily. “Yell at Yuri first, ask questions later. Standard procedure.”

“You know it’s not like that.”

“Do I?”

“I’m not—you know I’ve always respected your ability to follow through in hard situations, but sometimes it’s just... I worry about you.”

“You have a weird way of showing it,” Yuri mutters.

“You never listen to me when I try to be more subtle about it!”

“When the hell have you tried to be subtle about it?!” Yuri props an elbow on the edge of the table so he can sink his face into his palm. “You never ask questions before you flip out on me, you never go ‘hey, maybe that’s not a great idea, could you explain why you’re doing it that way?’ You just jump straight down my damn throat to chew me out! Sometimes shit isn’t so clear cut, alright? I know it’s my own fault for putting myself in these situations in the first place, but sometimes you have to make a hard call.”

“I—“ Flynn rubs his hands over his own face, breathing through gritted teeth. Only Yuri has ever been this infuriating. “Why does it always have to be you? You’re always the one making the hard calls. Why can’t you let somebody else take the heat for once? Why can’t you ever give yourself a break?”

“How am I supposed to know anybody else will follow through? I can’t leave that to chance.”

“Of course you can’t.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not trying to! How are you so determined to defend the value of human compassion and so cynical about other people at the same time? It makes no sense.”

“Are you seriously asking me why I’m cynical about the foster system?”

Flynn winces.

“Look, a lot of people are good. Karol and Rita and Judy and Estelle, they’re good. The people who would have power over them if I backed down and let things happen, they’re shit-tier, awful people. This isn’t, like, commentary on humanity. These specific people suck.”

“So get some good people with power involved.”

“Like who?”

“Like—I don’t know, like Schwann. Why couldn’t you live with him for real?”

Yuri laughs, but it sounds a little hysterical. “Flynn, Schwann Oltorain is an alcoholic.”

“What? No.”

“I told you, Judy and I see him a lot at our bartending jobs. Too much.”

“That’s not funny.”

“No, it’s not. If it was, I’d let him take Karol. Karol likes Raven. But I think nihilistic drunk and childcare don’t really mix. So Karol stays with me until Judy can bully Raven into attending some AA meetings.”

“He never acts drunk or hungover at the clinic.”

“So what? A high-functioning alcoholic is still an alcoholic.”

“Maybe it’s not as bad as—“

“Raven agrees with me.”

...There wasn’t really a way to argue with that.

“Can I... I just want to try to explain myself.”

“By all means.” Yuri crosses his arms.

“You’re... I know it’s been a long time since we talked, but you’re still my best friend, you know that? I get it if you don’t feel that way about me anymore, but... It just feels like you’re always taking the risky moves to protect everyone else and it keeps blowing up in your face, over and over again. And I do worry about you, I really, really do. And I respect that you want to help people, and I respect that you’re willing to sacrifice yourself in the process, but it feels like you take bigger risks than you need to, sometimes, and that freaks me out.”

Yuri sighs. “What’s the smaller risk I could be taking, here?”

“I’m not even talking about this specific problem, it’s just. In general. I’m more worried about the pattern. I don’t know, get the bigger apartment first before you adopt the kids?”

“If I left the kids where they were, they’d still be getting abused while I got my shit together,” Yuri says. The fight has gone out of him again, and he just looks tired. “Besides, they’re the ones who kept showing up. The whole reason we bothered to put the paperwork through was so we wouldn’t get charged with kidnapping.”

“Jesus, Yuri.”

“I’m flattered, but no, I’m still regular old Yuri Lowell.”

Flynn snorts despite himself. “There’s nothing regular about you.”

“I’m gonna pretend that’s a compliment.”

“Good, that’s how I meant it.”

��Uh-huh. Can we change the subject now?”

“Yeah, okay.” Flynn stirs his soup a little, eating a spoonful while he thinks. It’s gone lukewarm in the time he and Yuri were arguing. “New roommates, apartment shopping... Is anything else new with you?”

“Well,” Yuri says. He’s staring down into his coffee. “Estelle had me do some tests, and it turns out I’m dyslexic. Probably. So that’s something.”

Flynn feels his face fall as he processes the news. How many years did they go to school together? Twelve? Thirteen? And he never once guessed, none of the times Yuri complained that reading was just a confusing jumble of words, none of the times Flynn watched him sit down and force himself to read something two, three times before he could glean enough information from it to answer whatever questions he needed to.

“I’m...I’m sorry,” he says. He starts to reach across the table, then hesitates, then makes himself finish the action. His fingertips glance over Yuri’s wrist, just above his bracelet. Yuri’s eyes flick to his hand and stay there. “For—for not noticing, and for how hard that must—“

Yuri snorts. “Hard? It’s not like it’s doing me any harm now. I’m a dropout. You don’t exactly read all that much in the service industry.”

“Are you joking?” Flynn asks, incredulously. “Do you really think this had nothing to do with you dropping out?”

Yuri finally looks up at that, his mouth set in a grim mockery of a smile. “I mean, speaking as the one who dropped out, I’m pretty sure it was just because I blew my chance, man.”

“You’re impossible.”

Yuri shrugs. He’s done it so many times during this conversation that Flynn is starting to hate it a little bit. “Sure.”

“Can you take this seriously? Please, Yuri.”

“You used up all of my emotional honesty tokens on the last topic.”

“I really hate it when you do this.”

“Do what?”

“You get so flippant whenever you get fucked over. This is exactly why I worry about you. Would it kill you to let yourself be mad about it for once? To let me be mad for you for once?”

“If we get mad about the injustice of fate or the universe or whatever, we’ll never stop being mad. We’ll just burn out.”

“You’re already always mad.”

“Yeah, but sustainably.”

“...Elaborate.”

“I’m mad at societal systems, not the universe. We can do something to change societal systems. It’s productive anger.”

Flynn sighs, taking his hand away from Yuri’s arm to run it through his hair. As though societal systems have nothing to do with Yuri’s learning disorder and academic issues? Of course, Yuri never applies these things to himself. Somehow it only counts for other people. Flynn doesn’t know why it surprises him anymore. “Okay. Sure. Productive anger, I guess that makes sense.”

“I’m done with talking about myself,” Yuri says, abruptly. “What about you? What’s new with you? How’s vet school?”

“It’s good,” Flynn says, reflexively. It’s just Yuri. Flynn doesn’t need to persuade him that he deserves his place there. “Hard,” he admits after another beat. “It’s a lot to keep up with.”

“Yeah, it’s like... med school lite, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think that’s a very good way to describe it, but I haven’t been to med school, so I guess I don’t know. You would hate it, though.”

“Oh yeah?”

“There’s not really breaks, on a day-to-day level. And you start by covering anatomy with a lot of dissections.”

“...Ouch.” Yuri’s face twists into an uncomfortable moue. He always did hate dissections in high school. It’s cute, in a way, knowing that his big heart is behind it. Flynn doesn’t miss the discrete way he shifts in his seat, either, presumably bumping his legs against Repede to reassure himself. Repede makes a sleepy whuffling sound. “How about friends? Roommates? Hot dates?”

“No roommates,” Flynn says, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ve got some study buddies from my classes, but we don’t do much together aside from classwork. It’s hard to have any kind of social life outside academia in vet school. Classes and labs and studying take up so much of my time... and now the clinic, too.”

Yuri flicks a piece of croissant at him. It lands in Flynn’s soup. This is the asshole Flynn is too hung up on to date other people. “If you’re that busy, you shouldn’t—“

“Don’t you dare tell me I shouldn’t be spending time with you,” Flynn warns him. It comes out a lot sharper than he means it to; Yuri’s eyes go wide. He won’t take it back, though, not when he can see in Yuri’s face that he guessed correctly. “Working with Schwann, and getting to see you again—it reminds me why I’m doing all this work, you know? And I have to know what you’re up to if I’m supposed to keep up.”

“You, keeping up with me?” Yuri snorts. “I think you’ve got that backwards.”

“You’re already helping people in the real world,” Flynn says. “I’m still in training.”

“You don’t exactly ignore people in need either, dude.”

“Take the damn compliment.”

“Oh my God, fine. Stop trying to kick me, you’re going to hit Repede.”

“You’re such a pain.”

“I’m a fucking delight,” Yuri says, solemnly, then breaks into a proud grin when Flynn throws his head back and laughs. “Come on. You really haven’t made any friends at vet school? None?”

“The first year of vet school is hard!”

“Wow. That’s just sad.”

“I’m hoping to join some student organizations or sports clubs next semester, when I’ve got my feet under me.”

“...You think you’d go back to fencing?”

Flynn chews on his lip. “...I don’t know. It might feel wrong, without you and Coach Niren and the rest of the team.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you...”

“Still miss him?”

“Yeah.”

Yuri wordlessly holds up his wrist. Flynn doesn’t need further elaboration on the worn-down bracelet. He remembers just as well as Yuri when Niren passed the leather cords out to the team on the bus to a tournament. Hisca and Chastel taught them all how to do the braiding so that the bracelet size was adjustable. Yuri’s didn’t turn out half bad, but Flynn’s is lumpy and misshapen. It doesn’t adjust as much as it’s supposed to.

“I’ve still got mine, too,” Flynn says. He fishes it out of his pocket. His keys are connected to it. “We can’t have accessories during labs and I wouldn’t want to get all that junk on it anyway, so...”

Yuri smiles crookedly. “Yours will last longer than mine, then.”

“Maybe.” It’s already in better shape than Yuri’s. “You’ve got Repede, though.”

“Repede isn’t just a reminder of Coach and Lambert,” Yuri says, defensively. Repede stirs at their feet at the mention of his name. Flynn reaches over to pat Yuri’s arm in placation.

“I know, I know. Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”

“...You ended up with any pets of your own yet?”

“My current apartment doesn’t allow it... my lease is up soon, though. I’m hoping to move somewhere that lets me have a dog.” It would be hard, taking care of a dog and keeping up with vet school, but maybe it would help him with his work-life balance.

“Ha. We could do play-dates with your dog and Repede.”

Flynn feels his eyes crinkle up with his grin. “Yeah. That would be nice.”

They just smile at each other for a second. It’s still a little awkward, not quite as smooth as their conversations used to be, but Flynn already feels lighter than he has in months. Yuri looks a hundred times better than he did when he showed up. He nibbles at his croissant instead of just poking at it, and he’s relinquished his death grip on the coffee cup. Flynn opens his mouth to say something disgustingly sentimental—

And a loud beep makes them both jump about a foot in the air. Flynn forces himself to relax while Yuri curses and scrambles for his phone. Repede lurches into motion below the table, hackles raised. “Shit, sorry, I set a timer—goddamn, have we really been talking that long? I’m supposed to pick Rita up—“

“Oh, no, are you late?”

“Not yet, that’s what the timer’s for. Hey, do you need a ride anywhere? I can drop you off—”

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to delay you—“

“You’ll delay me more by being wishy-washy. Yes or no, Flynn?”

“Yes,” Flynn says, firmly. “If you could drop me off at the clinic, that would be great. Where are you parked? I’ll bus our table while you get the car warmed up.”

Yuri waves a hand vaguely to the east and sprints off with Repede before Flynn can ask him to elaborate. Flynn rolls his eyes, but he still can’t wipe the silly grin off his face. Classic Yuri. They haven’t solved any of their problems yet, not for real, but maybe... maybe this time around, they’ve got a shot at it.

#fluri #flynn scifo #yuri lowell #tales of vesperia #Feeling Pretty Good About the Trouble That I’m In #long post #not art

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flightfoot · 5 years

Text

Convalescence chapter 7 - END

This chapter was very difficult to write (hence why it took so long) but I finally finished it! Not much in the way of plot, but I think I’ve wrung everything out of Camp Half-blood that I wanted to do for now.

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Week 4 Day 2

Apollo’s POV

“Hey Apollo! There’s someone here to see you!”

I tilted my head. I couldn’t think of who it could be - not off the top of my head at any rate. Not that that meant much. My memory was still messed up. I’d been getting more flashbacks lately though, most of which WEREN’T extremely sad and terrifying. It was a nice change of pace!

It did make me wonder where the rest of my divine family were. I loved Sis and Mom, but I kinda missed the others. Well, some of them. There was that really stern but really smart lady, who I THINK is one of my sisters, but I don’t remember for sure. Honestly from what I remember, it’s probably safe to assume that at least half of the gods I remember are my siblings. Father had a LOT of children.

A large man sat on his throne, glaring at me. I shivered and shrunk under his gaze. What had I done now? Why was he so angry? He raised his lightning bolt, the glare gone and a sort of detachedness filling his expression instead.

That was worse. When he grew detached…

I shook myself. This was the present. He WASN’T HERE.

“Apollo?” Kayla asked me, sounding concerned.

I swiftly put a smile on my face. There was no reason to worry her..

“Who is it?” I asked, trying to deflect her attention.

She still looked a little worried, but she dropped it. “Percy’s here.”

Percy?

I frowned. The name seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Kayla seemed happy at least, so Percy was probably pretty nice and friendly.

“O….kay?” I told her.

Her face fell. “Don’t remember him either, huh?”

I shook my head.

She sighed. “I guess that makes sense. I don’t think you knew him THAT well. Pretty much everyone’s met him, but that doesn’t mean he’s close to everyone.”

“If you want, I can come back later,” a muffled voice sounded from the other side of the cabin door.

Kayla looked at me questioningly. I nodded.

She opened the door. “No, this is fine. It’s just…”

I entered the doorway. I was a lot bigger now. I wanted to handle this myself.

“I don’t remember you. I’m sorry.” I told the teenager.

Studying him, I could see why Kayla thought I might remember him. You could feel a sort of… power coming off of him. It wasn’t exactly intimidating, more just… present. And not just from being a demigod. His demeanor, the way he looked at people, all of it screamed Pay attention. This person is a leader. You want him on YOUR side.

He stared at me. “I knew you’d been deaged, but it’s still really weird seeing you like this.”

I shrugged. It seemed normal for me, but this was most of what I could remember, so of course it would. Plus from what I COULD remember from before, ‘weird’ was the course of the day for a god.

He rubbed the back of his head. “Well I don’t know whether you’d be interested since you don’t remember me, but my Mom invited you and Meg to come over to our apartment for a bit. She’s been worried about you two since you first dropped by, and when she heard about you dying and Zeus incinerating Meg… well she’s HEARD that you two are okay now, but that’s different from SEEING it. Meg already said she’s coming, and Leto asked to come as well. I’d have asked Artemis too, but I couldn’t find her. Leto said she’d be gone for awhile.”

I nodded. Artemis had been spending more and more time with her Hunters. I was sad she wasn’t around as much, but I understood. They needed her. She still came by regularly at least, she just couldn’t be at Camp all the time anymore.

If both Leto AND Meg wanted to go, then…

“I’ll come,” I told him. “I might not remember you, but if Mother and Meg are going, then I’m going too.”

Besides, I could always use new friends. Or old ones, I supposed. And his mother had been WORRIED about me.

I hadn’t seen much of my family except for Mom and Sis, so hearing that someone else’s family was concerned and wanted to check up on me? It made me feel a warm glow in my chest.

——————————————————-

The four of us arrived at the Jackson apartment a few hours later. Percy had driven us, though he seemed weirdly nervous about it. Something about the car nearly crashing last time? I had a feeling he was talking about before I lost my memories, when I was big.

It was always weird to think back to those times. It was me, but… kinda not. I felt… different. I thought differently. And I knew there was a LOT I’d forgotten. From some of the stuff I HAD remembered… well I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to get all my memories back.

But I needed to. Even if some of those memories were painful. And even - no - ESPECIALLY if some of those memories had me doing awful things. I needed to know.

Didn’t stop me from being scared though.

I stayed quiet throughout the car ride. I think Mom could tell there was something wrong with me, but she didn’t pry. Meg just munched on some fries she’d gotten from… somewhere. I wasn’t sure whether she’d snuck them in her gardening belt, or whether Meg had used her new divine powers to help satisfy a case of the munchies. They seemed equally plausible.

As we walked up to the door, I felt a weird sense of deja vu. Well, maybe not THAT weird. I had been here before apparently. But for me to have this feeling after only being here… huh. I didn’t actually KNOW how many times. Probably not a lot. I hadn’t known Percy that well from what people were telling me after all.

“Percy? Are you there?” I heard a woman’s voice call.

“Yeah, Mom! We’re here! Oh, and Leto came as well, so I hope you made a lot.”

I heard a chuckle as I watched Percy’s mom walk into the room.

But not just her. No, she was carrying something.

Or rather, someONE.

I rushed over before I knew what I was doing, peering up at the baby she was holding.

The baby yawned and blinked sleepily at me.

I squealed.

Percy’s mom noticed my interest. She bent down to my level, still holding the child. “This is Estelle, my little star. Do you want to hold her?”

I nodded eagerly. Slowly, gently, she transferred the little girl into my arms.

Estelle made a little noise as she gazed up at me.

I melted.

She was so cute! So adorable! This small child, this little life… I wanted to protect her.

“I think she likes you.”

I looked up at Percy’s mom, who gave me a soft smile. I realized that I was grinning back.

Meg walked up to Percy’s mom, looking weirdly nervous. She held onto her dress, twisting the fabric as she looked down.

I blinked. Was Meg… shy? I’d never seen her act shy before! …Had I?

We stood in the doorway of the Jackson apartment. A young man opened the door, looking thoroughly DONE with the world. “Why?”

Meg inched back, hiding behind me, as if afraid Percy might hurt her.

Then I was back in the present.

Hm. So Meg HAD acted shy before. Or maybe more scared than shy. In that memory, I’d instinctively KNOWN that Percy wasn’t the sort of person who would hurt her. But I guess Meg didn’t know that.

Percy’s mother approached Meg slowly, gently. “I heard about everything that happened,” she told her. “You’ve had a rough time of it, but you succeeded despite EVERYTHING. You even saved Apollo! And I am so, so proud of you.”

Meg stared at her for a moment… and then ran towards her for a hug. I heard some faint sobbing emanating from where she buried her face in Percy’s mother’s shoulder, but when she looked up again, her face was dry… mostly. Eagle-eyed as I was, I spotted some slight puffiness to her eyes.

The hug broke a minute later, Percy’s mother giving Meg a soft smile. “Would you like to help me make dessert, dear? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but…”

“Okay,” Meg said casually. But I saw how her eyes sparkled.

Percy’s mother glanced over at my own mother. “You can watch us bake if you’d like, Leto. Or watch over Estelle, of course.”

“I think my son has that well in hand,” Leto replied, giving me a bemused look. I grinned, gently rocking Estelle from side to side. She was adorable.

“Percy, could you look after Apollo and Estelle please? This shouldn’t take long.”

Percy shrugged. “Sure.”

He looked over at me, gesturing for me to follow him. “C’mon, I’ll show you the nursery. I got to pick out the decorations!”

————————————————————————————–

(Meg’s POV)

I followed Leto and Sally to the kitchen. I wasn’t sure how baking worked - I hadn’t been allowed to use a stove or oven when I was under Nero’s control, and no one was around to teach me how to cook anyway. And while I was journeying with Apollo, I had better things to do than learn how to cook.

But now? The idea of learning how to cook seemed… interesting. Normal. I couldn’t do it before, but now, in this new life I’d made for myself, I could. And I even had someone to teach me! Speaking of which…

“What’re we making?”

Whatever it was, I was SURE it’d be delicious.

Sally rummaged around the cupboards as Leto took a seat at the kitchen table. “We’re gonna make blue chocolate chip cookies. We can set them baking while we eat.”

“Blue?” I’d never HEARD of blue cookies. I’d seen red and green sugar cookies near Christmas, but blue?

Sally gave a small, sad smile. “Yes. I started making all my food blue as a rebellion, but even after I didn’t need to rebel anymore - well the blue food stuck.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Rebellion? Who were you rebelling against?”

She was quiet for a moment. Her expression turned stormy. “Gabe Ugliano. The most unpleasant man I ever had the displeasure of knowing.”

I frowned. “Who was he?”

She grimaced. “My husband. I needed to keep Percy hidden from monsters. As a child of Poseidon, he has a stronger scent than most other demigods. Combined with needing to keep him hidden from the gods in order to keep him safe from their wrath… well I had to take extreme measures. That meant finding the stinkiest, most aggressively mortal smelling man I could find, and marrying him in the hopes that his stench would cover up Percy’s scent.”

I studied her face. Between the disgust in her voice and the pinched expression on her face, I could guess what kind of man Gabe was.

“He hurt you,” I said to her quietly. “You and Percy.”

She shook her head. “Only me, at least as far as I know. I tried to protect Percy as best I could, including from… HIM.”

This man - no - this BEAST had hurt Sally. Had probably hurt Percy, in one way or another. He’d hurt these kind people.

The only reason I wasn’t swearing vengeance against him already, was because I was CERTAIN he was already ‘taken care of’. No way Percy would allow someone to hurt his mother like that and get away with it.

But it didn’t hurt to check.

“He’s gone, right? He can’t hurt anyone anymore?”

Sally gave me a cutthroat smile. I was abruptly reminded that she was PERCY’S mother. I could see where he got his intimidation from.

“Oh, don’t worry about him. I put him to - ah - GOOD use. He won’t hurt or threaten anyone ever again. In fact, he’s rather… inspirational now.”

I abruptly decided to drop that line of questioning. Gabe was taken care of. That was all I needed to know.

Sally’s smile dropped, her expression softening. “I heard about Nero. I’m sorry you had to go through staying with that horrible man. I don’t know whether you’re interested, but if you ever want to come over and visit, or stay over, my door is always open for you.”

I choked up a little.

I heard a noise from behind me. I startled and manifested my sickles, before realizing it was just Leto. She put up her hands in a calming gesture. I turned my weapons back into rings, embarrassed.

Leto looked over at Sally, giving her a proud look. “You are an extraordinary woman, Sally.”

Sally looked slightly puzzled. Leto elaborated. “I came here partly to accompany Apollo… but mostly so I could meet YOU. I’d already heard enough about Percy’s childhood, seen enough of what you did for him, to know that you were a wonderful mother, a wonderful person. But you did something more. Your kindness saved my son.”

Now Sally REALLY looked confused. “All I did was let him in, ask Percy to help bandage him up and find him some clothing, and made him some food…?”

Leto chuckled. “And those small kindnesses alone can mean a lot, when you have little else to cling to. But it’s not the kindness you showed towards Apollo DIRECTLY that made the difference. It’s the kindness you showed towards someone else, someone who hadn’t experienced any genuine kindness for a long, long time. Someone who I’ve recently adopted as my daughter.”

Oh. OH. She was talking about…

I blinked rapidly. There must’ve been flour in my eyes. Yeah. That was it.

Sally’s eyes drifted over to me. I ducked my head a little.

Leto’s eyes twinkled as she saw Sally make the connection. “If you hadn’t been as kind a person as you are - if you hadn’t helped the way you did - my son would not exist anymore.”

“Wait… what?” Sally asked. “How…? I only helped clean Meg up, gave her some clothes, and brought out some food?”

“But that was enough,” I told her, taking over the conversation from Leto. This was my story to tell. “You showed me that I didn’t need to be nervous around all adults. That maybe - just maybe - I could trust people.”

I took a deep breath. “You gave me this dress. It was the first gift I’d received without strings attached for - for a VERY long time. Even when I went back to Nero for a bit, I didn’t stop wearing it. It reminded me that Nero was WRONG. That I COULD trust some people. That Nero wasn’t my only option.”

“I kept wearing the dress, even after I rejoined Apollo. No matter how beat up it got, I had it repaired. Because it meant a lot to me. And that- that allowed me to use it to save Apollo.”

“You saved Apollo using my old dress?” Sally inquired. It DID sound ridiculous when put like that. But we dealt in the ridiculous. It came with being a demigod - or a god. Or anyone vaguely affiliated with a god or demigod.

“Feelings and beliefs have power. The Emperors became gods because people worshipped them as gods. The kindness you demonstrated when you gave me that dress, your wish that I be safe and happy, my using the dress as a reminder of everything good about the people I’ve met - it gave the dress power. Gave me power. When Zeus incinerated me, he incinerated the dress as well. But not the IDEA of the dress. Not what it meant to me.”

“To me, this dress is protection. Kindness. A promise that someone cares, even when people are whispering in your ear telling you you’re wrong.”

“The dryads’ worship of me put me on the brink of godhood. Their belief gave me the option to return. But Apollo was so, so weak - the barrier didn’t want to let him through. And every moment we lingered on the edge of nonexistence, it got harder and harder to return. I needed a way to keep his essence intact. That’s where your dress came in. I was able to ‘wrap’ Apollo’s essence in the ‘idea’ of the dress. I ‘tore’ off a strip and swaddled him in its protection. All the emotions, desires, beliefs I’d built up around the dress, I used to keep him safe. But I wouldn’t have been able to do that if you hadn’t given me the dress in the first place.”

I saw tears glisten in Sally’s eyes. “Oh-oh..” she choked out.

And then… Leto gave a bow. A slight one, but the meaning was clear. “You are one of the best mothers I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, Sally Blofis. If you ever need a favor, just ask. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to fulfill it - I know better than to promise such things without VERY good reason - but I DO promise to listen to your request.”

Sally’s lips quirked up. “Actually… I DO have one small request. Could you look after Estelle? Percy can take care of himself pretty well, but I’m worried about her. And I’d rather ask you than a certain goddess. I REFUSE to allow one of my children to be taken from me again.”

Leto gave a slight smirk. “Oh, I know exactly who you’re referring to. I don’t believe she has any designs for Estelle, but rest assured, I’ll help Estelle as much as I am allowed to. It’s the least I can do. Besides, she’s adorable.”

“Yes, she is,” Sally agreed. She blinked. “And if we want to have dinner before she goes to sleep, we’d better get moving with these cookies.”

Sally and I got back to work, Sally explaining every step of the cooking process. It was so normal, so ordinary, but it meant the world to me.

——————————————————————————————

(Apollo’s POV)

I rocked Estelle from side-to-side in my lap. It was kinda tricky since I was so small, but I managed. I loved the way she looked around curiously at everything - ESPECIALLY at me. Not that I could blame her. I was FASCINATING after all.

Percy watched me cooed over his little sister, an odd expression on his face. “You really love babies, huh?” he asked. His tone seemed… thoughtful, I guess? Like he was trying to puzzle something out.

I shrugged. “I guess? I like her at least. I don’t REMEMBER having met any other babies before, but I don’t remember a lot of stuff.

Percy opened his mouth, still giving me that strange, contemplative look, and then closed it again, looking away. It seemed like maybe he wanted to ask me something, but didn’t know whether he should? Or how to?

That was kinda a scary thought.

But I’d had to deal with a lot of scary thoughts.

I’d rather get this - whatever it was - out of the way now.

At least Percy didn’t look afraid of me, unlike Birk.

I steeled myself and looked Percy in the eye. “What’s wrong? You’re acting weird.”

He blinked. “Nothing’s wrong.”

Well maybe not WRONG but… “You keep giving me strange looks, like I’M the one that’s acting weird.”

He sighed. “I don’t know how much I should say. I heard you don’t remember much.”

“Just say it,” I told him calmly, though my stomach clenched. “I already know I did some awful things in the past that scared people. I didn’t like finding out about it, but I needed to know.”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing that bad, I promise. Honestly I’m mostly not sure about telling you because I’m not sure you’d understand it right now, because of the whole age thing.”

Oh. Well that’s actually a pretty good reason. But…

“Why don’t you try explaining it, and I’ll tell you what I can understand?” I suggested. “If I can’t get it, then nothing’s lost. You can just try again later when I’m older and CAN understand it.”

He hummed a little. “Okay I’ll give it a try. But if Meg or your mom get upset…”

“I’ll tell them I asked,” I cut in.

He nodded, eyes closed. Probably thinking of how to phrase… whatever it was.

“It just seems weird to see how much you love babies, because back at Camp, before all this happened, I didn’t really see you taking care of little kids, or hear about you dropping by and spending a ton of time with them,” he said carefully.

O…kay? “I don’t really know much about that stuff,” I told him. “I know I thought of things a little differently - I MUST’VE, with some of the stories I’ve heard of stuff I did back before, but I only remember a little of how I DID think. Is me liking little kids really so different though?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, his eyebrows creased. “I’m beginning to realize how little I actually knew about you, or about the whole situation with you and the other gods.”

“What situation?”

“You gods’ relationship with your kids. Why you weren’t around more. Why you didn’t help more.”

I stared at him. Kids? What?

Percy continued. “Most of us demigods were lucky to see our divine parents once every few years. Heck, we were lucky if our divine parent decided to acknowledge us at all. I thought that most of the gods just didn’t care that much about kids and that’s why you guys were rarely involved, but getting to know you after you were turned human and seeing you now with my little sister, I’m not so sure.”

I was definitely missing something. Something big.

I had a feeling that Percy was right, and this was one of those things I had trouble remembering. Had trouble thinking about.

“I… don’t entirely get it,” I confessed.

“Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t,” Percy replied. “Will DID say that you didn’t seem to realize that you’re his and his siblings’ divine parent, that you couldn’t seem to grasp it.”

Aaaaand there was the static again. I really hated that.

“I can’t, I guess,” I sighed. “But it sounds like you’re rethinking what you thought about me and some other gods because I’m acting differently than how you thought I would?”

He hesitated. “I guess so?”

I didn’t totally know what to do with that. But.

“I guess we can figure it out together?” I offered. “I’m still not sure who I was or who I am. Not really. I’m… not sure ANYONE really knows that. I guess we just keep trying to figure it out, look at things differently. Try to understand each other and ourselves a little better everyday, even as we’re changing. That’s the best we can do.”

Percy stared at me. Then he chuckled, breaking the tension. “You know, you’re surprisingly smart for a - what, four-year-old?”

I puffed myself up. “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!” I cried indignantly.

But I couldn’t maintain it and started giggling myself moments later, Estelle joining in.

It was just nice. Really, really nice. I didn’t know these two very well, but I WANTED to learn more. To be a part of their lives.

I wanted to watch Estelle grow up. To celebrate when she took her first steps.

I wanted… I wanted to just - BE a part of this world. Of this little bit of happiness.

I started singing “Part of your world”. Afterwards I said that it was just because Percy was Poseidon’s son so it was an obvious choice, and that was true, but there was MORE to it than that.

I was Ariel, and I wanted to be a part of this world.

———————————————–

Dinner went well. Meg seemed very relaxed and comfortable with Sally - which I’d expect, but the WAY she was relaxed… well, it seemed that Meg might have a third mother now of sorts.

I was mostly interested in the food though. Sally was the kind of cook that in ancient times, one of us gods would have spirited away to Olympus and made into a god so that we could enjoy their cooking for all eternity! As it was, I asked her whether she could make food for all of Camp Half-Blood at least once, so all the campers could taste it… and all the gods. It seemed like a daunting task, but she said she’d think about it. I hope she does. I can DEFINITELY see why Uncle Poseidon fell for her. Her cooking alone would be enough to win anyone over!

I was sad to finally leave. I hadn’t remembered Percy before, but it was really nice hanging out with him. It made me wonder…

“Hey, Meg?” I asked, tugging at her dress. She looked down.

“What is it?”

“I really enjoyed going to see Sally, Percy, and Estelle, even though I couldn’t remember them. So I was just wondering… is there anyone else I forgot that we should visit? I love being with my family, but I kinda wanna see my friends too, even if I don’t remember how we became friends. And…”

I looked down.

“I’m glad I’ve got Harley to be friends with, but… I’d like to see more people my age or younger. There’s no one at camp as little as me who isn’t afraid of me!”

Meg seemed to think for a minute. “Well… she’s still a little older than you, but she’s the person I can think of who’s closest to your age, and she’s probably your family too…”

I perked up. “Who?!”

“Georgina. We helped rescue her during your trials a few months ago. She’s seven years old, though she’s pretty big for her age. She lives at the Waystation.”

Waystation…?

That sounded familiar…

Two older women comforting each other, tears in their eyes.

A short, almost elfin-looking Latino boy, grinning as he cared some cheese into the room, cracking jokes.

Singing a sad duet with a pretty teenage girl, feeling trapped.

A scarred young man sitting in the corner, dejected and miserable.

And a young girl handing me a doll made of pipe cleaners.

There were more people I wished to see. More that I’d forgotten. I’d miss the rest of my family, but… I wanted to see these people. To learn more about them. And hopefully, remember them. And maybe help them. It didn’t escape my notice that most of them seemed sad or miserable in my memory. I wanted to cheer them up! To help them! I didn’t know whether I could, but I could at least try. That’s all I COULD do.

“I’d… I’d like to visit her, and everyone else at the Waystation. Please.”

Meg hummed, then nodded. “I’ll talk to Artemis and Leto about it. And Leo, of course.”

“Leo?”

A memory of that same elfin Latino boy flashed through my head, though this time he was playing some musical instrument. A beautiful instrument. One I wanted really, really badly.

Maybe we could play some music together!

“Sounds great!” I told her, buoyed by the thought of playing a duet with this boy I could barely remember, but felt a strange affection for.

“Are we gonna take Artemis’s chariot again?” I said casually, trying not to betray how much I liked the thought. I’d love to pet the deer again!

“..Maybe?” Meg said, deep in thought. “Leo has his own ride though. He’s slower, but it might be better to take him instead.”

His own ride? I didn’t see how you could get much better than those deer of Artemis’s, but hey, who knows. Leo could surprise me.

Meg dropped me off at my cabin, returning me to the rest of my family. I hugged each of them in turn. I probably wouldn’t be here much longer, so I’d enjoy what time I had left with them. Then, it would be time to see more of my forgotten friends and… maybe family?

#convalescence #trials of apollo #apollo #meg mccaffrey #fanfiction

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ruination-fangs · 5 years

Text

Jude Stage 8: With His Feelings in His Heart

* from Asteria’s fourth chapter, “Recollections of Eden”

[<- stage 7]

Scene 1

Leia is impressed by Jude's fighting, and how even though he doesn't remember anything, his body does. Jude wants to stop, but the moment he lets his guard down, Leia attacks.

Leia: I guess that's it, huh... Seems all you remember is what your body knows. You may have forgotten the rest, but my mom's hardcore training can't be erased! Jude: Your mom's training... Leia: It's kind of nostalgic somehow, doing this again... Haah!

She continues to strike at Jude, musing about how they used to spar all the time as kids. Jude moves the same way now as he did then; Leia predicts that after his next move, he'll leave an opening, but Jude dodges her attack. He's even more confused than she is about why he understands what she’s going to do.

Jude: It's as if I've seen it before... in my head... No, but that's... Leia as a kid...? It's the same patterns... Urgh...!?

His vision blurs. Seeing that Jude seems to be remembering something, Leia attacks again, but this time Jude doesn't manage to dodge.

Leia: Huh... In the old days, you would easily have seen through that. Was it all a coincidence after all...? Jude: Have I... faced these attacks before...? Urk...!

Everything spins again. Leia tells him if he still doesn't remember, he should accept his defeat and go back to the village, but he blocks her next attack - and then several more in a row.

Jude: How did I...? I've never seen that attack before, but my body just... Leia: Jude...! Then how about this!?

As Jude's vision swims, he continues to counter, confused about why he knows all Leia's moves. It's like her attack patterns have been etched into his mind, and he reads them perfectly.

Jude: That's right... We've fought like this countless times, ever since we were kids... I understand. I know what you're going to do next... No, I remember... There was that time we were cleaning, and you used that move with the broom... Leia: Jude!? Y-Yeah, that's right! And then we got yelled at for playing with the brooms! Jude: You were always the one to start goofing off. You were always getting scolded... but I was always right there with you, so... Leia: Yeah. You've always looked after me... Jude, you really do remember... Jude: Still, we never learned... Skipping out on our punishments... Sparring sessions... Until we were experts at dodging... Urgh! What is going on...?! We were kids... and Master Sonia... Aaaaah!

Leia: ...Jude? Jude: Right... That's right... But then, what have I been doing...? Leia: Jude, do you... Jude: Hey, Leia. I... Leia: Dropped your guard!

Leia attacks unexpectedly, but Jude dodges again. He remembers everything now, and he shows Leia one of the forms they learned from her mom to prove it.

Jude: We were neighbors when we were kids. Your mom introduced martial arts to us. We sparred like this over and over again... day in and day out, hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Leia: Then you should recognize this! Haah! *Smack smack... bam bam!* Jude: It's nostalgic, doing these moves again... Even though the training was brutal. Leia: Yeah, Mom worked us to the bone every day. We'd end up covered in scrapes and bruises. Jude: But it made us so much stronger...! Leia: I always beat you, though. Jude: Not this time, you won't!

Leia informs him that she hasn't changed her mind just because he's gotten his memories back. She's not really sure what's going on with the world right now, but she knows criminals only cause trouble to others, so she refuses to go back to the village. Jude insists that he's not giving up either; if she has any doubts at all about what she's doing, he'll make sure he doesn't lose.

He continues to block all her attacks. Leia starts to think that maybe he's right and she does have doubts - but that's all the more reason for her to win and convince herself of her decision. Jude recognizes the stance she takes right before using Soulstoke Celebration. He can hardly move afterwards, but he refuses to lose, and Leia is stunned that he gets back up. He hits her with one final attack.

Jude: ...I'm sorry, Leia. I can't afford to pull any punches against you... Leia: Jude... I'm so glad you've remembered...

Leia falls to the ground, unconscious. As Jude is preparing to take her back to the village, one of the guards wakes up and tries to threaten him, but he can't move. Jude tells him to rest for a while. The other guard informs Jude that he's a fugitive now, and promises that the White Lions will find them if they try to escape.

Jude: ...Right, that is a problem. Leia had them thoroughly fooled, after all. Guard 2: What...? Jude: Pretending to be a criminal herself, in order to lure out the real criminal... Everyone thought we were accomplices, when she was just using herself as bait and getting captured by the White Lions to lure me in. I'm gonna need a new strategy to get myself out of this! Guard 2: So that's what happened... I thought something was off. This was all the Rolando Family's plan, then... Jude: Yep. But it's not going to work. I'll have to retreat. And I'm taking Leia as a hostage, so I can get my revenge later. Guard 1: Stop...! I can't let you do that, even to a criminal... Wait, no, she's not a criminal, is she...? Guard 2: She's assisted us greatly... We have to help her! Dammit... I can't... get up...!

Jude makes his exit before the guards can get back on their feet.

Scene 2

Back in Rikka Village, things are a little tense. Jude doesn't expect Leia to forgive him, as he knows what he did was contrary to what Leia had decided for herself, but he still feels it was the right thing to do. Even so, Ludger thinks they're probably going to put a warrant out for him now.

Magilou seems to find it funny, though Leia doesn't think it's any laughing matter. She asks what Jude plans to do next. Jude also expects he'll be on the wanted list by the next morning, so he intends to leave before then. He wants to look for everyone - Milla, Elize, even Sorey and Stahn might be in the same predicament that they were. He doesn't know what he'll do if they've lost their memories too, but he has to go see.

Leia points out that if they're living peaceful lives, they might be happier to be left alone. Jude agrees that since they don't know what's going on right now, they'll have to be careful about how they approach the matter.

He's thinking of heading to Reisvale first. That's where Mikleo is supposed to be from, and Rowen was with him. The first thing he wants to ascertain is whether they've lost their memories, or are just playing along.

Now that she thinks about it, Leia finds their "roles" a little strange, with Mikleo a nobleman and Estelle her subordinate.

Jude: Yeah, really. But everyone here accepts that as perfectly normal... Leia: No one would believe us if we suddenly started saying Estelle is a princess... even though we remember it clear as day. Jude: Right. We probably shouldn't mention it. I want everyone to get their memories back, but it could be dangerous to go about it the wrong way.

Ludger hesitantly interrupts to ask if Jude has become a criminal like Leia. He doesn't understand what happened, or why Jude brought Leia back. If this was a case of one criminal setting another free, he has a duty to report them. Alarmed, Jude reminds him that the "criminals" are just people who've regained their memories, but Ludger can't be sure that's true; all he knows is they've been talking about crazy things no one else understands. He apologizes, because he knows they're both good people and he wants to believe them, but if it comes to choosing between Lazarus and the claims of wanted fugitives, the choice is clear.

Jude suggests that there might be a way for Ludger to confirm that the memory bit is real. He remembers Ludger from before he lost his memories - that Ludger used to live with Elle, and his older brother Julius, and a cat named Rollo. Ludger thinks, but none of it sounds familiar to him, and he's concerned Jude is lying. Leia reminds Jude that he was the same way; it seems words alone won't make people remember.

Jude wonders if there's some action, then, that would jog a person's memory, like what happened to him. Then he remembers Ludger saying he feels like he's made some promise to cook for someone, and tells him it probably was something he said to Elle. Maybe Elle feels the same way. Ludger also once said he gets a funny feeling when he looks at families together - that would be because deep down, he remembers living with Elle and Julius.

Ludger still isn't sure, but Jude pleads with him to just trust him for now. Elle should be in Reisvale, which is where he's going anyway, so Ludger should come and see for himself. If at that point he still wants to turn Jude in, it won't be too late; Jude promises he won't run or hide. Ludger knows turning the criminals in to the White Lions is the right thing to do, but he gets the sense he might regret it if he does that, so he agrees to come. However, he's not saying he believes Jude and Leia yet, and if he meets with Elle and can't confirm anything, he will report them both. Jude accepts that deal.

Then Ludger asks Magilou if she'll agree not to report them for now. Magilou agrees surprisingly easily, since it seems they can prove or disprove Jude's claims readily enough. Leia asks what she knows about it, and Magilou admits that she's been investigating the criminals herself.

Magilou: There must be some hidden meaning to the "nonsense" the criminals talk about, right? Something we civilians don't know. So I thought, if I checked out these restricted zones... Leia: You were in the restricted zone?! So that stuff about a trespasser... Magilou: And what's a wanted criminal going to do, report me? Leia: Ugh... Don't remind me. Magilou: But that's exactly the problem! That the Rolando Family's leader should turn out to be a criminal herself... I joined thinking that if this is an organization worthy of Roar's attention, maybe I could get some information on the restricted zones or the criminals... But if the leader is a lawbreaker, the whole ship is sunk. All that effort, totally wasted! ...But thanks to Jude's quick thinking, the fact that Leia is now a criminal is our little secret, yeah?

In conclusion, Magilou has no problem protecting Leia if there's some benefit to it. They can always report Jude later. For now, she'd rather they all cooperate in her little investigation.

Leia is fine with that, but Ludger wants to know why she's looking into the criminals in the first place. Magilou's reasoning is simple: Lazarus doesn't want civilians interacting with these people. If she can figure out where they're coming from and why they're appearing, and come up with some preventative measures, there might be a sizable reward.

Ludger: If you're trying to please Lady Lazarus, doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose to break her laws and sneak into the restricted zone? Magilou: You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette, right? We can only do this if we play by our own rules.

Jude wonders what would drive Magilou to do that, and Magilou admits that the Menagerie's last performance was a total flop. She has a debt that's going to be very difficult to repay, hence her interest in receiving a reward. Ludger sympathizes.

Magilou: Don't get me wrong now, I'm not saying I'm on your side. But if that's what it takes to keep observing you, I'll keep your little secret. Jude: Well, that's good enough. We'll need your cooperation for Leia to go back to the Family. Leia: ...H-Hey, Jude. What if instead of going back, I go with-

At that moment the door bursts open and Estelle and Suzu rush in, having heard that Leia is back.

Suzu: Jude, why didn't you tell us right away!? Jude: S-Sorry... Magilou: Because they're too busy sharing secrets they don't want you to hear... Jude: Magilou, don't tell them that! Estelle: We figured something was going on. If you say it's a secret, we won't force you to tell us. But Leia, please, don't shut us out and leave again! Leia: I-I'm sorry, you guys. But I think I'm going to be leaving again anyway... Jude: Leia... Sorry, but you can't come with us. Leia: What!? Why!? Jude: Because I saw what happened to Estelle and Suzu when they read your letter. You're an indispensable part of the Rolando Family, and this village. Estelle: He's right. If it's ever too much of a burden on you, I can always help out more. But we need you as our leader, Leia. Suzu: I agree. Leia: You guys, too? You really think...? Both: Of course!

Leia promises not to run off again, but Suzu picks up on the fact that she’s speaking only for herself. Leia explains that Jude has something to take care of, so he and Ludger are going on a little trip. She asks Jude about Meredy and the others, and he assures her he'll let her know as soon as possible if anything happens.

Suzu: In that case, how about we lend you a sylphjay? Jude: Sylphjay...? Like, the bird? Suzu: We use them as messenger birds. They make it easy to get in touch with distant people quickly. Ludger: Distant people... That's right, I need to let the dining hall know I'll be gone a while longer... Jude: Can I send a message, too? I should let them know I won't be there to deliver the milk... Suzu: Then let's do it now.

Jude and Ludger write their letters, and Suzu sends the bird off, telling them it should be in Carmina by morning. They're trained, so they can fly all night.

With that arranged, Jude and Ludger prepare to set out, though Estelle is surprised they're leaving so soon. Before they leave, Jude asks Leia about the father they had in custody, but Leia tells him not to worry about it.

Suzu: ...What are you talking about? Jude: Oh, uh, it's nothing. I'll leave it to you, Leia. Ludger: Let's go, Jude. Jude: Right. First stop, Reisvale.

#tales of asteria #jude mathis #leia rolando #ludger will kresnik #magilou (tob)#estelle sidos heurassein #suzu fujibayashi #asteria spoilers #translations #idk if i'm going to do any of raven's scenario #i haven't been reading it #we'll see......

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buoyantsaturn · 6 years

Text

I’m in Hell (2/?)

summary: Nico and Will get closer as Christmas nears. Then there’s angst. And then it’s Nico’s birthday!

word count: 16,413 (31,375 current total)

read on ao3 | read part one

Will hardly ever texted Nico more than once without a response, so when Nico received three texts from him in a row, he was already concerned.

FROM: Will; Hey

FROM: Will; I have a weird question for you FROM: Will; Have you had the chickenpox vaccine?

TO: Will; why

FROM: Will; I need you to pick up some calamine lotion and bring it over

TO: Will; i’ll be there in half an hour

Nico rolled out of bed, having yet to leave his room that morning, and threw on whatever clothes he could find before heading out with a shout of, “I’m going to Will’s,” to Hazel before he left. He drove to the nearest drugstore to pick up the calamine lotion before heading to Will’s, using his key on the locked door once he arrived.

“Hello?” he called into the house as he kicked off his shoes by the door.

“In here,” Will’s voice came from somewhere else, but before Nico could go in to find him, Will continued, “Wait! You never told me if you had the vaccine!”

“I didn’t,” Nico replied, stepping around the corner toward the living room, where he guessed Will to be. “I had chickenpox when I was four.” He held up the grocery bag when he saw Will and Bianca sitting on the couch. “You asked for calamine?”

“Nico,” Bianca started, voice whiny as she reached out toward him with a mitten-covered hand, “can you get rid of my chickenpox?”

Nico took the bottle of lotion out of the bag and walked over to the couch to hand it over to Will as he said, “Sorry, Princess, you gotta let it run its course.” He looked up when Will took the lotion from his hand and Nico spotted red marks along his arm, mixed in amongst his freckles. “You...have the chickenpox.”

Will frowned up at him. “Yes?”

“You--” Nico snorted, and covered his mouth with his hand as he started to laugh. “A grown man. I’ve never seen an adult who has chickenpox.”

Will’s frown turned to a pout. “It’s not like I planned it. Bi got it from someone at school, and apparently the vaccine only works ninety-five percent of the time.”

“Aren’t you special, then,” Nico said, and sat down on the couch in between the two Solaces. He turned to Bianca and suggested, “Bi, why don’t you go put on some shorts and short sleeves, and then you can put on the calamine lotion to help with the itching.”

“But then I’ll be cold,” Bianca complained.

“It’ll help.”

“How?”

Nico paused. “Well, when my nephew had the chickenpox, he said that he felt better when his clothes weren’t rubbing on him and making him itchier. And the lotion might make your clothes stick to you and make it worse, if you’re wearing long pants and long sleeves.”

Bianca sighed. “Okay.” She hopped off the couch and went into her bedroom to change, shutting the door behind herself.

“You can take the mittens off to change, but don’t scratch or you’ll scar!” Will called after her.

Nico had to stop himself from jumping, having somehow forgotten that Will was there beside him. He wasn’t used to being around Will for longer than it took him to run out the door to go to work. He definitely wasn’t used to sitting and talking with him when Bianca wasn’t in the room, and now that she wasn’t hogging half of the couch, Nico suddenly felt much too close to Will.

“I, uh, I didn’t know you had a nephew,” Will said.

“There’s a lot of things we don’t know about each other,” Nico replied, and he felt the corner of his mouth quirk up. Wait a second, was he flirting? He shouldn’t be flirting, what if Will caught on? What if he somehow found out about that dream that Nico had of the two of them in bed together? Woah, Nico thought. Slow down.

“Was that true?” Will asked, and Nico’s mind went blank as he tried to remember the last thing he’d said. Had he been thinking out loud? Oh no, did he mention the dream? “About how the clothes rubbing on your nephew’s chickenpox made the itching worse?”

Nico’s racing heart suddenly stopped, and he felt his tension flood away from him. “Well, I wasn’t about to tell Bianca that he was only a year and a half old and preferred to run around in just his diaper most of the time, but yeah, it helped as far as I could tell.”

“I’m surprised you don’t have your own inside tips,” Nico said. “You know, being a doctor and all. I’d think you would know all the secrets.”

Will grinned. “Maybe for other things, but it’s not like I’m a pediatrician. I’ve clearly never interacted with somebody who has the chickenpox if I haven’t contracted them until now.”

Nico’s smile grew until it was almost as bright as Will’s. “I still think that’s hilarious. You: an adult with a child, just now catching the chickenpox, a baby’s disease.”

Will rolled his eyes and looked away, but Nico could still see that he was smiling. “Ha ha, sure, laugh at the man suffering from that baby’s disease.”

“I would hardly call it suffering, you seem fine!” Nico argued with a laugh. “I haven’t even seen you pretend to scratch this whole time. If I had to guess, I’d say you’re faking it.”

Of course, as soon as Nico said that, a spark of realization shone in Will’s eyes, and he reached up to scratch as his cheek before pulling his hand away just as quick. “I guess you distracted me just enough to keep my mind off of it.”

Before Nico could think of a response - but after he’d started to realize that he was staring straight into Will’s sky-like eyes - Bianca returned from her room and plopped herself right down in Nico’s lap, ignoring the open couch cushion next to him.

“I’m ready!” she announced, and with that, whatever was happening between Nico and Will seemed to break, and all attention was on Bianca once more.

Once both Solaces were coated in calamine lotion, Bianca insisted that Nico stay to watch a movie with them, which led to them watching the movie’s sequel. By the time the second movie was over, it was close enough to dinner time that they were all getting hungry, and Nico offered to make dinner. It wasn’t until Will was putting Bianca to bed that Nico started to head out, but Will called after him quietly and stopped him in the kitchen.

“Thanks again for stopping by,” Will told him. “I couldn’t exactly go out in public since I’m still contagious, and I can’t go back to work until next week because of this--”

“Oh. Okay, so you don’t need me,” Nico said, hoping that he didn’t let his disappointment show. “I guess just let me know--”

“You could still come over,” Will cut in hurriedly, and started to backtrack just as fast. “I mean, if you wanted to. You don’t have to, but, uh, I’m sure Bianca would appreciate it. But I know you probably have your own stuff to do, so, uh--”

“Sure, just...text me. If you want. Or call, or...whatever.” He stepped toward the door, throwing a thumb over his shoulder as he said, “I’m gonna go home now. I’ll see you--”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

“Cool,” Nico said, and walked out the door.

He banged his head against his steering wheel a few times before driving home.

As soon as the Solaces were officially no longer contagious, Bianca returned to school and Will went back to work, which meant that Nico was at the Solace household almost every hour of the day once again - though he still tried to sleep in his own bed most of the time, because he was certain that couch was trying to kill him.

There was one morning - afternoon to Will, but still morning to Nico - that Will woke Nico up with a call, as usual.

“Hey, Nico,” Will greeted, and Nico made some kind of noise in response. “I have an overnight shift this week, from Tuesday into Wednesday, so I’ll need you to stay over Tuesday night to take Bi to school in the morning, but I’ll be home to pick her up. And then I’ll need you all day on Thursday, and--”

“Wait, Thursday?” Nico cut in. “Solace, that’s Thanksgiving. I’ll be in the Upper East Side all day.”

“It’s...oh. Right, of course it’s Thanksgiving. Okay, never mind about Thursday. I’ll, um. See you Tuesday.”

“Sure,” Nico said, seconds before Will ended the call.

Thursday morning, at what seemed like the crack of dawn to Nico but was really about nine-thirty, he and Hazel drove to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. They climbed the stairs to the third floor walk-up that Nico had lived in just a year earlier, and the door opened to reveal the smiling faces of Paul and Estelle Blofis.

Nico was immediately torn between taking the baby from her father’s arms and heading to the kitchen to help Sally with the cooking, so he walked into the living room to find Percy and Annabeth and their son Luke instead. It wasn’t until he’d made his rounds and said hello and gave too many hugs that he made his way into the kitchen.

Sally was the only one in the room, and Nico said a quick hello before he started peeling potatoes. Annabeth must have followed him into the kitchen, because she was suddenly at his side with her arms crossed over her chest.

“You haven’t called,” she told him.

“He hasn’t called me in a while either,” Sally chimed in.

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’ve been busy.”

“Oh, of course,” Annabeth teased. “With Will. How’s that going?”

Nico shrugged. “Fine, I guess, I dunno.”

“Will is the doctor, right?” Sally asked.

“Yes--”

“With the daughter that you’ve been taking care of,” Annabeth continued.

“Uh huh.”

“If you start talking, then we’ll stop asking questions.”

Nico sighed. “Alright, fine. Uh, the kid’s cute, it’s nice to have a reason to get out of my apartment every day. It actually is helping with my classes too, like, I’ve been getting new ideas all the time, and I finally have the motivation to do my homework. And Will’s great, too, he’s--” Nico stopped himself before he said something that could be used against him, and cleared his throat awkwardly. “Um. He’s...around, sometimes.”

“And this Will,” Annabeth said in a voice that put Nico on edge. “He wouldn’t happen to be the same guy you have a middle school crush on, would he?”

Sally turned toward them with an eyebrow raised and an amused smile. “What was that?”

“Oh, you haven’t seen the video?” Annabeth pulled out her phone with a devious grin.

Nico dropped the potato he was peeling on the counter alongside the peeler and lunged for Annabeth’s phone. “Annabeth, no!”

She played the video and forced the phone into Sally’s hands, holding Nico back as he fought to take the phone.

“No fighting in the kitchen, you two,” Sally told them, laughing as she handed the phone back to Annabeth. “And I think that’s cute, Nico.”

“I’m not cute,” Nico grumbled, and stomped out of the kitchen.

Frank had been given a two-day leave from West Point which allowed him to make it to Sally’s just in time for dinner. However, Frank’s arrival also meant that he and Hazel would be sharing the pull-out couch that night, which put Nico on the living room floor while the Jackson-Chases were crammed into the guest room-slash-Estelle’s room.

Nico was used to not being able to sleep, especially when everyone else was heading to bad much earlier than he usually did himself, so he wasn’t surprised when he tossed and turned half of the night until he finally fell asleep at what he guessed was around three. He also wasn’t surprised - irritated, but not surprised - when his phone started ringing, waking him up so that he could hear everyone else already awake and in the kitchen.

“Hello?” Nico grumbled as he sat up off the floor.

“Good morning!” Will said cheerily on the other end of the call. “Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?”

Nico made a noncommittal noise in response as he stood up and started toward the kitchen. He was pretty sure he smelled coffee, and he desperately needed some of that.

Will laughed. “Alright, I get that. Did you make it home yet? I have to go into work this afternoon, so I need you to come over.”

Nico pulled a mug down from one of the cabinets before pouring himself a cup of coffee. He tried to ignore the eyes he could feel on his back and how quiet the room around him had become. “I stayed the night up here, but I can be home in a couple of hours. What time do you need me?”

“Can you be here by one?”

Nico pulled the phone away from his face to read the time: 9:20am. He held back a groan; he should not be awake this early. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Great! Thanks, Nico. I’ll see you later!”

“Bye,” Nico said, and ended the call.

“Aw, Neeks, you’re so whipped!” Percy called out to him with a giant smile, and Nico made sure that Luke and Estelle weren’t looking his way when he flipped Percy off while taking a sip of his coffee.

Annabeth shoved at Percy’s shoulder before telling Nico, “You two should come over for dinner sometime after you get together. No! All three of you. I bet Will’s daughter and Luke will get along great!”

“You can’t just assume that all kids are gonna get along, Annabeth.” Nico rolled his eyes and sat down at the table next to his sister. “Hazel, I need to leave soon. Are you coming with me, or are you going with Frank?”

Instead of answering, Hazel turned to Frank and gave him a look. Frank said to Nico, “I’ll drive her home.”

“I hope you’re not thinking of leaving before breakfast,” Sally said as she set down a plate of blue pancakes in front of him. “Paul made plenty so you had better eat your fair share.”

Nico didn’t argue. He didn’t know what Paul put in his pancakes, but Nico could never make his own taste quite as good.

After he finished eating, he said his goodbyes and started toward the door, but Annabeth stopped him before he could step out.

“You should call more often, you know,” Annabeth told him, forcing a hug on him, though he only pretended to hate it. “Maybe I can give you some tips on raising your kid.”

“She’s not my kid,” Nico reminded her, pulling out of the hug. “I’m not raising her, either, just...looking after her sometimes.”

Annabeth winked. “Maybe one day.”

Nico rolled his eyes so hard that his head tipped back with the force of it, and he walked out the door.

Will would never tell anyone - especially not Lou Ellen - how much he loved calling Nico every morning. No matter how terrible his morning could be, hearing Nico’s sleepy voice always put a smile on his face.

One particular morning had been pretty terrible, full of a cranky Bianca who didn’t want to go to school and angry patients who refused to cooperate, and Will knew there was only one thing that could make his day better.

He called Nico.

And somebody else picked up the phone.

“Hello?” came a perky female voice through the speaker.

Will was so taken aback that he forgot to answer until the voice said another, slightly more confused hello? “Oh, uh, hi! I’m sorry, I must have the wrong number...somehow.”

“Wait, no! You’re Will, right?” she asked. “Nico’s told me a lot about you.”

Will wanted to feel flattered but he was too confused to know what he should be feeling. “Um. Yes, I’m Will. Is he, um. Is Nico there? Can I talk to him?”

There was a short hesitation before, “Nico’s a little...under the weather. I don’t think he’s really up for talking to anyone right now.”

“Is he okay?” Will felt his confusion vanish as worry filled him like ice through his veins. “I’m a doctor, I could come check him out--over, I could come check him over--” He took a breath and said, quieter this time, “Is he okay?”

“No, no, don’t trouble yourself with him,” she said with a gentle laugh. “This is just his annual thing. You know how it is, right? He’ll be back to his normal self soon enough.”

Will wasn’t really sure he understood, but he still said, “Yeah, I...get it. Um. Do you think he’ll be okay by tomorrow? I was kind of hoping he could pick my daughter up from school today, but I can figure something out.”

“Give me just a second and I’ll go see how he’s feeling, okay?”

Hazel set Nico’s phone down on the coffee table where he’d left it a few days earlier and went to his room, knocking before she entered. Nico was laying on his side, facing the wall, but somehow Hazel knew that he wasn’t asleep. She sat on the edge of his mattress and placed a hand on his arm comfortingly.

She had tried speaking to him many times in the past few days, asking if he was hungry, or if he was feeling any better, but she never got any response from him. She’d barely even gotten him to drink any water.

“Nico,” she said softly, “Will called.” He shifted under her hand - the most reaction he’s shown in days. “He wants to know if you’ll be okay tomorrow for Bianca.” He flinched at the mention of her name, though Hazel knew it was a different Bianca he was thinking of. “He’ll understand if you can’t be there, but he does need an answer soon, okay?”

She waited a moment, giving him an opportunity to respond like she always did, but stood up when he said nothing. She made it to the door before she was stopped by the sound of her brother’s voice.

“I’ll be there,” Nico croaked.

Hazel walked back over to him and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “I’ll let him know.”

She left the room, shutting the door behind herself, and returned to the living room where Will was still waiting for his answer. “Nico said he’ll be there,” she told him.

“Are you sure he’s okay?” Will asked one final time, and Hazel could hear the sincere worry in Will’s tone.

She thought back to the video she had saved on her phone of Nico practically confessing his love for the other man, and smiled to herself. Maybe Hazel couldn’t do much to help her brother, but if anyone could, she was sure it was Will. “He’ll be just fine.”

Will couldn’t get that woman’s voice out of his head for the rest of the day. He tried to continue about his day after venting to a very interested Lou Ellen during lunch, and he had to sneak out for a little over half an hour to pick Bianca up from school and bring her back to the hospital. He really hoped the hospital’s daycare was open to kids over the age of five, otherwise he might have to hide Bianca away in Lou’s room until his shift was over.

When he walked into the school’s front office and found Bianca waiting amongst a small crowd of other children, Will saw this his daughter looked confused.

“Where’s Nico?” she asked without greeting.

“He’s...sick,” Will answered, and led her out to the car where he buckled her into her carseat and returned to the driver’s seat.

“He didn’t catch my chickenpox, did he?”

“No, he doesn’t have chickenpox. You can only get those once, and he had them when he was your age.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, Bi.”

“Do you think he’s sad?”

Will met his daughter’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Why do you think he would be sad?”

“Nico told me that his sister started living on the moon in December,” Bianca said. “It’s December right now. Do you think he misses his sister?”

Will thought back to the story Bianca had told him of Nico’s sister, remembering how he’d doubted any truth in the story, but realizing now that there might have been one very real part of it. He felt himself filling with dread at the thought of Nico being so sad that he couldn’t even leave his own house. Will was a doctor - he knew exactly what to prescribe to fix just about any physical ailment that he came across, but sadness? How could Will fix that?

“You might be right, Bianca,” he said after a short pause. “But the only thing that can make sadness better is time.”

“And cookies!” Bianca exclaimed. “We should make cookies for him. Cookies make everybody happy.”

Will smiled. “Okay, sure. We’ll make cookies for him tomorrow morning before I have to go to work.”

Thankfully, when they got to the hospital, Bianca was accepted happily into the daycare so that Will could return to work. Even more thankfully, there were no severe emergencies that couldn’t be handled by the surgical interns and emergency room nurses, which meant that Will and Bianca were able to leave, swing through a fast food drive-through, stop by the store for cookie ingredients, and arrive home just in time for Bianca to get ready for bed.

Will felt ready to collapse in his own bed, but knew that he needed clean clothes for the next day and a shower wouldn’t kill him, plus there was a sink full of dishes that he knew Nico would normally wash but Will felt bad intentionally leaving them for him when Nico wasn’t in the healthiest state.

Of course, unfortunately for Will, all the mindless activities gave him time to think, to remember the perky voice he’d heard through the phone and overthink everything about her. Who was she? Why was she in Nico’s apartment? Why would she answer Nico’s phone? Was she Nico’s girlfriend? Why would she say that she’d heard so much about him in such a knowing tone?

Will tried to force those thoughts out of his head as he finally laid down in bed that night, but the thought of that woman being in Nico’s apartment when Will was in his own home so far away drove Will to pulling out his phone and sending a quick text to Nico before he shut his eyes and tried to fall asleep.

TO: Nico; Call me if you need anything. And I really do mean anything.

When he woke up the next morning, there was no response and no missed calls.

Nico was assaulted by the smell of chocolate when he walked into the Solace house. He didn’t call out a hello as he usually did, just kicked his shoes off by the door and walked into the kitchen where he found a heaping plate of chocolate chip cookies sitting on the island.

“Oh,” came a voice to his left, and Nico turned to see Will standing in the hallway. He smiled brightly at Nico as he unfroze himself and continued into the kitchen. “I wasn’t sure if you were still coming.”

“Do you...not need me?” Nico asked quietly, voice hoarse from disuse, and he cleared his throat after speaking to ward off the cough he felt coming.

“No, I do! I just--” Will scratched the back of his head awkwardly, “--wasn’t sure if you were...up for it.”

“Did Hazel say something to you?” Nico asked.

Before Will could answer, Bianca came running down the hall shouting Nico’s name, and attached herself to his side. “Nico, I missed you!”

Nico pulled her away from him so that he could crouch down and hug her properly. “I missed you too, Princess,” he whispered, hoping his voice didn’t shake as much as it felt like it had. When he pulled away, he could barely look at her - she looked so much like his Bianca, it was almost too much to bear. He stood back up and averted his eyes, blinking furiously to keep any tears from spilling.

“We made you cookies!” Bianca exclaimed and pointed to the plate on the island. “Cookies make everybody happy, so if you eat a lot of cookies then you won’t be sad anymore!”

“What makes you think I’m sad?” Nico asked.

“Well, aren’t you?”

That’s fair, Nico thought to himself. Instead, he said, “Thank you, Princess.”

“Hugs help too!” Bianca said, and wrapped her arms around Nico again. “Daddy gives really good hugs, they make me feel not sad anymore all the time, so you should hug him, too!”

Bianca released him once again, only to run over to Will and drag him closer until the two men were within hugging distance of each other. Will’s smile had turned a little uncomfortable, but Nico had his eyes locked on his shoulder so that he wouldn’t have to meet Will’s eyes. The blue of his scrubs were dull compared to his eyes; it was easier to look at and not feel quite so ashamed of his overwhelming sadness.

Will’s arms closed around him, and Nico was surrounded by warmth - a pleasant, living warmth, so unlike the uncomfortable heat of his blanket cocoon of depression that he’d been living in all weekend. He pressed his face into Will’s shoulder - was he really an entire head shorter than Will? He’d never noticed - and carefully wrapped his own arms around Will’s back, like he was afraid that too quick of a movement would scare him away.

“I’m sorry about your sister,” Will whispered, and Nico felt himself stiffen, one of his hands balling into a fist around the fabric of Will’s shirt. “You don’t have to stay. You can take another day if you need it. Take as much time as you need.”

Nico shook his head and pulled himself away. He hated the feeling of leaving Will’s warmth, of feeling the cool air surround him, only wishing he could press himself up against Will until he forgot all about ever being sad.

“I’m fine,” he lied.

“Are you sure?” Will asked. “I can try to bribe the daycare at the hospital to watch Bianca for another day, but I do need to leave, like, now.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Nico said, cracking the tiniest of smiles. It probably wasn’t even noticeable, but he could feel it.

Will stepped away from Nico and knelt down to kiss the top of Bianca’s head with a goodbye, I love you.

“Thanks for the cookies,” Nico said, eyes flickering up just long enough to catch Will’s brilliant smile.

“Please don’t let Bianca eat all of them.” He walked around Nico to put on his shoes and grab his coat and his keys. “I’ll see you later, and I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.”

When Will turned back around to face him, Nico held the plate of cookies out toward him. “Take one. Or three, it’s not like I’ll be able to eat them all.”

Will took a single cookie and bit into it, letting out an appreciative noise at the taste of chocolate. He swallowed the bite before saying, “Bye, Nico,” and started out the door.

“Bye, Sunshine.”

FROM: Kayla; Hey Will! It’s me, your favorite half-sister! I just remembered that you live in New York now, so I wanted to invite you to my Christmas party on Friday! It’ll be pretty small and you probably won’t know anyone besides me and Austin, but we would love to get to know you better, so you should come!!! And YES you should wear your ugliest sweater!

TO: Kayla; I’ll have to make sure I have someone to watch my daughter, but that sounds great! Also: who’s Austin?

FROM: Kayla; Our brother??

TO: Kayla; We have a brother???

Nico was still fragile after the anniversary of his sister’s death, and all Will wanted was to wrap Nico in his arms and hold him until his smile returned, but Will knew that the touch wouldn’t be welcomed. Nico flinched even when Bianca hugged him, and it broke Will’s heart to see him in such a state.

It made him feel even worse when he had to ask Nico to stay late on Friday just so that Will could go to a party. Nico told him continuously not to worry about it, and Will kept saying that he would try not to be out late and promised that he would finish the guest room soon.

Will changed into a pair of jeans and his only Christmas sweater before requesting an Uber and leaving for Kayla’s apartment - he didn’t want to drive himself in case he decided to have a few drinks. He realized that he’d made the right choice when Kayla insisted on doing a shot with him as soon as Will arrived, and then pushed a cup of spiked eggnog into his hands.

After just an hour into the party, Will was already well past tispy.

Nico never slept well in December, and had already been planning on leaving once Will came home so that he could try to sleep in his own bed. Then it was after two in the morning, and Nico heard a kind of faint scratching coming from the direction of the front door, like someone struggling to get a key into a lock.

Nico felt a surge of anger flow through him, and tensed when he finally heard the door open. “Honey, I’m home!” Will’s voice came from the kitchen, followed by drunken giggles and the sound of keys being dropped on the counter.

Nico rose from the couch and stood at the end of the hallway, stopping Will before he could leave the kitchen. “Bianca’s sleeping,” he said in a harsh whisper. “You should keep your voice down.”

Will was smiling brightly down at Nico, but he quickly melted into a childish pout. “Are you mad at me?”

Nico huffed, crossing his arms and glancing to the side. “No, I’m not mad, but you’re going to wake Bianca--”

“I don’t want you to be mad, at me or ever,” Will cut in, stepping forward. “I don’t want you to be sad anymore, either. I want you to be happy. Can I help you be happy?” Will came even closer until his hands were resting on Nico’s arms and he was leaning in, sky-blue eyes flickering from Nico’s eyes to his lips and back.

Nico felt frozen under Will’s hands, under his gaze, feeling Will press even closer until Nico could smell the alcohol on Will’s breath, and pushed him away. “Don’t touch me!” Nico exclaimed, stumbling backwards.

When he looked back up, Will was pouting again, looking like a puppy that Nico had just kicked away. Nico pointed down to the other end of the hall where Will’s room was located, and said, “Go sleep this off.”

“Come with me,” Will said, stopping directly in front of Nico once again.

“No,” Nico told him sternly and shoved Will toward his room. “Go to sleep. I’m going to get you some water.”

He waited until he heard Will’s door opening before he looked up again, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Nico started back toward Will’s room when he heard a loud thud, concerned at first before he heard laughter, loud and bubbly, and when Nico pushed open the door he saw Will sitting upright on the floor with his legs out in front of him.

“I tried to take my shoes off and I fell over!” Will cackled.

Nico walked past him and set the glass down on Will’s nightstand before he tugged off Will’s shoes and pulled him back to his feet. Will immediately dropped down onto the edge of his bed and pulled Nico in until he was standing between Will’s knees.

“Stop,” Nico said, shaking off Will’s grip and walking across the room to leave. “You’re going to overheat if you sleep in that sweater.”

“Why don’t you come over here and take it off of me?”

Nico froze, one hand on the doorknob. Why is this happening to me? he thought to himself. Since moving to New York, Nico had been relying on meaningless hookups to distract himself from the pain he felt, most frequently around that time of the year, when he was at his lowest. He’d been better since he’d started looking after Bianca - having another person to look after had proved to be a much better distraction than sex - but Nico had been starting to crave another person’s touch more than usual. Not just anyone, either, but Will’s touch specifically.

Why would Will only start to show interest in him when he was too drunk to take off his own shoes? Why did it have to be now, when Nico’s head was clouded by so many other thoughts and feelings that were normally exactly what he would want to be distracted from? Why wasn’t Nico jumping into bed with Will right now, when both of them so clearly wanted it?

Nico’s hand tightened around the doorknob, turning it and opening the door. “Goodnight, Will.”

He closed the door behind himself as he walked out, and flopped down on to the couch. Nico took out his phone and started to write out a text.

TO: RARA; are you awake? i need someone to talk to

Will felt like he’d just walked through Hell. His head was pounding and he felt like any movement would cause him to vomit. His ass hurt for some reason, so he assumed he must have slipped and fallen on some ice outside at some point. He couldn’t even remember how he’d gotten home the night before, but at least he knew he hadn’t had his own car.

Will crawled out of bed and left his room, making a pit stop in the bathroom and waiting there for the nausea to pass before he went out to the living room.

“Daddy!” Bianca exclaimed as soon as she saw him, and Will winced at the high pitch of her voice. She jumped up off the couch and ran toward him, wrapping her arms around him, and said, “You were asleep for so long! You never sleep longer than me!”

“I guess I was just really tired,” Will told her. He glanced back toward the couch where Nico’s eyes were fixed on the TV, and Will felt himself flood with some kind of guilt, but for what he wasn’t sure. “Why don’t you go watch some more TV, Bi?”

“Okay!” Bianca replied, and returned to the couch.

Will stood in the hall awkwardly for another moment before saying, “Um, Nico? Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Nico didn’t look at him as he stood up and walked into the kitchen. By the time Will met him there, Nico was already sitting at the table, so Will sat down across from him. Nico kept his eyes trained on the table.

Will didn’t know what to say, so he tried, “Are you mad at me?” Nico flinched, and Will tensed at the sight. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to drink that much, or--” He rested his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands. “I don’t even know what time I got here, but it was probably really late, and I’m sorry if I woke you up when I got back.” Will groaned into his hands. “I bet I made a fool of myself in front of my brother. So much for first impressions, right?”

When a few moments passed where Nico didn’t respond, Will peeked at him over his fingers to see Nico staring back in disbelief. “You...don’t remember anything?”

Will tried to think past the pounding in his head, but couldn’t remember much after Kayla had called him a Lyft the night before. He shook his head.

Nico glared down at his hands as they curled tightly into fists on the table. When he spoke, it was through gritted teeth. “And you...drove in that condition?”

“No!” Will exclaimed, and winced when the volume of his own voice caused a surge of pain through his skull. “No, I would never drive drunk, of course not! My sister sent me home in a Lyft, but that’s as far as I can remember. I know I got in a car, and then I woke up here.”

Nico sighed and visibly relaxed, his hands flattening out on the table, though he still didn’t look up. “Good.” He stood up slowly. “Don’t worry about last night.”

“Wait, please,” Will said, reaching out and covering one of Nico’s hands on the table before he could walk away. “Tell me what happened.”

Nico pulled his hand out from under Will’s in a flash, like he’d been burnt by the touch. He sat back down, this time keeping his hands on his lap to avoid any unwanted contact. “Bianca told you about my sister, right?”

“The one who lives on the moon,” Will recalled.

“She was killed by a drunk driver when I was fifteen.” Will felt the air leave his lungs like he’d been hit in the stomach. “We were walking in the woods behind my dad’s house, and I wanted to go inside but she didn’t, so I left her out there, all alone. I had a bad feeling, so I waited for her to come back before I went to bed, and… I think I fell asleep on the couch because the next thing I knew, somebody was pounding on the front door, so I went to open it--”

He took a deep breath to steady himself, and Will saw one of his hands tightening around his other forearm, squeezing at it like he was trying to keep his emotions under control. “This guy was standing there, and Bia was in his arms, and I knew she was already dead, but that asshole with alcohol on his breath kept shouting at me for a phone he could use. Said she came out of nowhere, ran right into his car, like it was her fault--”

“I’m so sorry,” Will whispered.

“I called the police, and he was arrested,” Nico continued, like Will hadn’t said a word. “The EMTs said that her spine was broken, and that if that drunk hadn’t touched her then maybe she wouldn’t have died.” Finally, Nico looked up again and met Will’s eyes, but Will shied away from the emptiness in his gaze. “So, you didn’t drive drunk, and you didn’t kill anybody. Don’t worry about anything else that happened.”

“Did I do something to upset you?” Will tried again. “I was drunk. Whatever I did or said, it didn’t mean anything, I promise.”

“I know it didn’t,” Nico said softly, and to Will his words sounded hollow - it was like Nico had turned into a complete shell of himself. He stood up again, but didn’t allow himself to get close enough for Will to stop him. He started toward the door, put on his shoes and coat, leaving Will frozen at the table. Finally, he turned back to Will and said, “You asked me to go to bed with you.”

He walked out the door before Will could make a sound.

Will stopped calling Nico during his lunch break, instead opting to only send him a text with a time, a place, a please, a thank you. He figured Nico didn’t have any interest in talking to him.

Will would text him when he was leaving work, whether it was at five in the afternoon or three in the morning, and every time Nico would leave as soon as Will walked through the door. Will hated the distance that was between them so suddenly - he felt like they were getting close, like they could soon be friends instead of whatever they were, or maybe they could even be more - but he ruined everything in one night. One night that he didn’t even remember.

He wanted to make it all better, but he didn’t know how. He would have to regain Nico’s trust, little by little, but he felt like he needed to do something for Nico to show him how truly sorry he was for the things he said and did while he was drunk.

He decided that it was finally time to finish the guest room.

During his lunch breaks, Will sat with Lou Ellen to pick out furniture, sheets, curtains, a mattress, and ordered everything online. With rush-order shipping, everything was delivered to his house by Christmas. He’d gotten the day off, watched as Bianca opened her presents - and opened one from Bianca, which she said Nico helped her to pick out - called his mom, and had a two-hour-long internal debate on whether or not to send Nico a merry Christmas text.

In the end, he only sent a merry Christmas in the same text asking Nico to come over the next day, but he figured it was better than nothing, and just polite nonetheless. Then, he spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the guest room and assembling the new furniture.

The next afternoon, when Nico returned - the bags under his eyes looking a little lighter than before - Bianca led him straight to the guest room to show it off. Nico had smiled, just barely, and even looked Will in the eyes when he thanked him.

That night, Will had a shift starting at midnight, so while Nico was there to watch Bianca, Will was in his room, trying to rest before he had to leave for work. Nico had started feeling a little more like his usual self, but interacting with others still exhausted him. So when he helped Bianca get settled in to sleep that night, Nico felt ready to fall asleep himself.

Instead, Nico went into the guest room - his room, as Will had said when Nico first stepped through the doorway - and called Annabeth.

“Hey, Nico, how are you feeling?” Annabeth greeted.

Nico hesitated. “I don’t know,” he finally decided to say. “Do you have time to talk?”

“I’m always happy when you decide to talk to someone.”

“Is that a yes?”

He could practically hear the eye roll on the other end of the line. “Yes.”

“I...think I messed something up,” Nico started, but couldn’t find it in himself to elaborate.

“Okay,” Annabeth said after a moment. “What makes you think that?”

“I don’t know. I don’t feel like it’s my fault, but I don’t know who else I should blame. Maybe it really is my fault, or maybe it’s Will’s or maybe even Bianca’s.” He shook his head, though he knew that Annabeth couldn’t see him. “No, no, of course not, it couldn’t be Bianca’s fault. That drunk asshole, maybe, but never Bianca.”

He paused, waiting for Annabeth to start trying to fill in the blanks, but a full minute of silence passed between them instead.

“My head has been all messed up the last two weeks. I was barely speaking to anyone, and then-- Will got drunk. And he...said some stuff, and I really wanted to-- But he was so drunk that he couldn’t even remember anything in the morning. I got pissed at him because I thought he drove home while he was drunk, and then I told him about Bianca. And then I...left. And it’s been weird between us since then. I don’t know what to do, and I don’t want it to be like this anymore. I want to...fix this, but I don’t know how.”

For a moment, there was silence between them once again, before Nico heard Annabeth sigh, and he knew she had finished processing everything he said. “First of all, let go of your arm.”

“What? I--” He looked down and realized that one of his hands had wrapped itself around his other arm, his fingernails digging in until there were crescent-shaped indents in his arm. Thankfully, he had yet to draw blood. He picked up a pillow and hugged it to his chest instead.

“I know you, Nico,” Annabeth said. “Now, for the rest of that. Let’s see… You were mad because you’re uncomfortable around drunk people, even when said drunk person is someone you care about. Remember when you came over to celebrate Percy’s twenty-first birthday with us? You couldn’t even be in the same room with him. You care about Will, and you care about his daughter, and you were probably afraid that something bad might happen to them because you associate alcohol with what happened to Bianca. You need to understand that that is so incredibly unlikely to ever happen again. So you need to let go of whatever this is that you’re feeling, because Will is fine, and his daughter is fine. You’re just scared, and you’re allowed to be scared.”

“Thank you, Annabeth,” Nico said softly. “I think I...need to go to sleep now to think some things through. Did I tell you that Will was fixing up the guest room in his house so that I wouldn’t have to sleep on the couch anymore?”

When Annabeth replied, Nico could hear the smile in her voice. “You two are perfect for each other. Goodnight, Nico.”

“Goodnight.”

He hung up the phone, squeezing the pillow tighter to his chest for a second before rising off the bed. Nico changed into his pajamas and grabbed his toothbrush from his backpack before heading to the bathroom.

The door opened when he walked up to it, and he was momentarily blinded by the bright light that poured over him. He blinked a few times, his eyes finally adjusting enough that he could make out the shape of a person standing in the doorway, practically glowing in the light behind him. Nico saw Will standing in front of him, his hair damp like he’s just gotten out of the shower, water dripping down his tan and freckled chest, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

Nico was frozen to the spot, his brain overloading at the sight in front of him, and he didn’t even register the embarrassed look that was growing on Will’s face.

Will ran a hand through his hair, shaking more water droplets onto his chest and shoulders as a blush rose up his neck. “Uh, sorry.”

He stepped around Nico and hurried into his own room. Nico stood stuck to the floor for a few more seconds before he could manage the couple of steps into the bathroom and finally allow himself to breathe.

Will had to be at the hospital at midnight for the start of his shift, but there weren’t any incoming emergencies so he was able to rest in one of the on-call rooms. Except that he couldn’t clear his head enough to fall asleep - the image of Nico staring up at him with wide eyes when Will got out of the shower kept popping into his head, and Will couldn’t think of anything else for the rest of his shift.

It left him tired and cranky by the time his shift was supposed to end, and so he was even more frustrated when he was told to stay for another eight-hour shift.

By the time is second shift was coming to an end, Will felt ready to drop, but he was paged to the emergency room about twenty minutes before he was free to leave. He dragged his feet all the way to the front desk and leaned heavily against it when he asked why he had been paged. The nurse behind the desk simply handed him a patient chart with a bed number on it.

Will heaved a sigh and walked toward the bed, going past an empty bed and momentarily debating whether he should climb in and take a nap instead of doing his job, but he continued forward instead.

He was already introducing himself before even looking at the person sitting on the bed, but when he finally did, he recognized Nico immediately through the tears pouring over his cheeks. Nico was curled up with his knees pulled close to his chest, his arms hidden from view by his legs, and to Will he looked so small and vulnerable.

Will cut off his own introduction and said, “Nico? What happened? Where’s Bianca?”

Nico’s head tipped forward until his forehead hit his knees, and he shook his head repeatedly. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I checked the allergy list, I swear I did! I’m so sorry!”

Will felt a shot of ice run up his spine that turned him stiff for half a second before he took a deep breath. “Nico, you wouldn’t be in your own bed if something weren’t wrong with you, so please tell me what happened.”

“I’m so sorry,” Nico said again.

“Forget about Bianca for a second and tell me what’s wrong,” Will tried again in his most soothing voice.

Nico seemed to curl in tighter on himself, almost like he was trying to hide something that was held close to his chest, and he continued to apologize though his voice had faded to a whisper.

“Nico, show me your hands, please.”

He didn’t budge.

Will set his hands on Nico’s arms, just beneath his shoulders, and Nico seemed to flinch away from the touch. Will pressed Nico’s shoulders back until his hands were no longer hidden from view. He looked down to see Nico’s hands and forearms splattered with blood, almost up to the elbow, and Will gasped at the sight.

He took one of Nico’s arms in his hand, gripping it tightly despite how Nico tried to pull away from him, and examined him for injury. There appeared to be tiny gouges taken out of his skin, most crescent-shaped though a few seemed to have been torn to a larger size.

Will examined Nico’s other arm next, though most of the blood stopped at his wrist and was more concentrated around the tips of his fingers - as if Nico had clawed open his own skin until he drew blood.

Nico continued to apologize.

“Stop apologizing,” Will snapped, his patience having been drained away after hours of working with no rest in between. Nico’s jaw snapped shut with so much force that Will heard his teeth click.

In silence, Will wiped the blood from Nico’s arms and hands, and noticed a series of similar crescent-shaped marks along his arms.

“What are these?” Will asked. Nico didn’t respond, but tried to pull his arm from Will’s grasp once again. “Nico. Why do you have scars on your arm?”

“My dad used to yell at me, and...and hit me,” Nico said cautiously, like he was afraid that saying the words would cause his father to appear out of nowhere and do exactly that. “When I kept my mouth shut, I didn’t get hit as often. This was the only way to shut myself up.”

Will saw his hand closing into a tight fist and quickly pried it open, wrapping the palm in a few layers of gauze before Nico’s fingernails could break his skin. He tried to be quick about bandaging up Nico’s arm, though some of the larger tears needed a couple of stitches each. Once Will had finished up, Nico’s panicked breathing had returned to normal, so Will deemed it a safe time to ask about his daughter once again.

“She wanted to make brownies,” Nico told him. “She wanted to taste the batter but I told her not to because of the raw eggs, but I turned my back for a second, and she just have tasted it anyway because then she was choking but I couldn’t figure out why. So I took the...the pen from the drawer, the epi pen that you keep in the kitchen, and I used that and then called an ambulance, but I-- They separated us because I was panicking so I didn’t see where she went, but I’m so sorry--”

“I told you to stop apologizing.” He gathered up the supplies he’d used to dispose of them and stood to leave. “Wait here,” he said to Nico, and closed the curtain around his bed as he left.

His shift had officially ended about ten minutes ago, but he knew he would be staying much longer than that already. Will returned to the front desk to ask where Bianca had been taken, then tracked her down in her own bed with a single doctor standing over her.

“Bianca!” Will exclaimed upon seeing her, and rushed forward to press a kiss to her forehead. “I was so worried when Nico didn’t know where you were. How are you feeling, Bi?”

“I’m okay, Daddy,” Bianca replied, her voice slightly raspy.

Will looked up to the doctor who appeared to be checking the readings on the machines around them - he recognized the other man immediately. “Cecil, how is she?”

“Like she said, she’s okay,” Cecil replied. “That babysitter did everything right; perfect use of the epi pen, got her here in good time. It really freaked him out, though, huh?”

“Is Nico okay?” Bianca asked suddenly, looking around Will to see if Nico was hiding behind him somewhere. “Where is he?”

Will felt a little hurt, a small part of him feeling like Nico was almost starting to replace him as Bianca’s dad - wasn’t he good enough for his own daughter?

“Nico got hurt when the ambulance was bringing you here,” Will explained, trying to leave out as many details as possible. “I helped him out, though, so he’s just fine now.”

“You’re such a good doctor, Daddy,” Bianca told him. “Can Nico come over here?”

Will tried not to outwardly frown. “Of course he can. I’ll be right back.”

Before he could step away, Cecil caught Will’s attention by saying, “I’m going to get her discharge paperwork started. Should I grab you an extra for the babysitter?”

“Yeah, thanks, Cecil,” Will replied, and went back to where he’d left Nico.

He’d curled up on himself again, picking absently at the edges of his bandages, but he seemed to have stopped crying for the time being. Will approached him, told him that Bianca wanted to see him, and started walking away again. He didn’t want to deal with Nico, he just wanted to take his daughter home and fall asleep on the couch while they watched a movie together. He didn’t want to be replaced by Nico as Bianca’s father, no matter how stupid the thought made him feel - of course he couldn’t be replaced, but was he not providing enough for her on his own?

He needed to sleep, most of all. That would reset his brain and make him stop thinking such stupid, selfish thoughts. Could it really be that he was unable to stop thinking about Nico just hours beforehand?

Nico had started crying again by the time they walked up to Bianca’s bed, and Will had to stop himself from rolling his eyes - what was wrong with him today?

“Nico, why are you crying?” Bianca asked.

“I was worried about you,” he replied, reaching out and wrapping one of his hands around hers.

“Don’t worry about me! I’m okay!” Bianca told him with a bright smile. She turned her focus to Will and asked, “If I’m okay, that means we can go home now, right? I want Nico to make mac and cheese for dinner.”

“We’ll be home soon,” Will replied, and planned to end the thought there, but something pushed out of him, “I’ll make mac and cheese for you when we get home. I think Nico needs to go to his own home and take a break.”

Nico stared back at him with shock clear on his face. “No, I’m fine, it was just an accident, Solace.”

Before Will could argue, Cecil returned with two clipboards, one of which he handed to Will, and the other was given to Nico. Will checked a few boxes and signed on a couple of the lines before offering the clipboard back and scooping his daughter up in his arms.

“Let’s go home, Bi,” Will said, and started walking toward the doors.

Nico hadn’t even picked up his pen, instead watching them leave with an expression mixed with shock and sadness. “It was one mistake.”

The last time Nico spoke was two days ago when he left Annabeth a voicemail that said, “I think I might’ve been fired,” and then proceeded to ignore any call or text he got afterwards that wasn’t from Will - there hadn’t been any from Will.

He didn’t sleep, or he was pretty sure that he didn’t sleep, just stared blankly at the wall and checked his phone every time it buzzed on the mattress beside his head. He never checked in on his online classes, never did any of the work, never ate or drank unless Hazel forced it upon him.

Nico would have missed his own New Year’s party if Percy hadn’t gone into his room and physically carried him out to the couch to socialize with Annabeth and Hazel, and Luke who took up residence on Nico’s lap for a majority of the night, playing video games on Percy’s phone.

Percy tried to talk to him a few times, though nothing he said managed to get through to him. Hazel had most likely gotten fed up with Nico’s mood swings, if her blatant ignoring of him was any clue. Annabeth, however, had sat down next to Nico and started reminding him of the conversation they’d had a few nights before, and coaxed Nico into explaining what had happened that brought him to the state he was in now.

“If it was an accident, then there’s no reason for him to fire you,” Annabeth assured him. “You’re worrying for nothing again, just give him some time to calm down.”

Nico nodded slowly. “Thank you.”

“There’s nothing else you’re upset about, is there? Nothing about your sister?”

He shook his head. No, just Will. Everything was about Will nowadays, wasn’t it?

After the Jackson-Chases had left and Hazel had gone to bed, Nico made his way into the kitchen for the first time in days. He drank a few glasses of water, ate some of the raw vegetables that had been on some veggie tray Annabeth had brought over and left there, and then started baking cookies until the early hours of the morning. That night, he finally managed to sleep.

He was woken up by the feeling of something landing on his legs.

Nico sat up with a groan, rubbing at his eyes before looking to see what had fallen on him, and saw Bianca sitting on his shins. “Bianca?” Nico asked, taking a quick glance around to make sure he was in his own room. He was, so how did she get there?

“You’re awake!” Bianca exclaimed with a bright smile. “Hazel told me to wake you up.” She hopped off the bed and started pulling at Nico’s arm until he rose from the bed as well. He was dizzy when he stood, and he desperately needed a glass of water. “Come on! Daddy wants to talk to you!”

Nico wouldn’t have been able to move if Bianca hadn’t been tugging him out the door.

“Daddy! Hazel! I woke up Nico!” Bianca called as she walked Nico into the living room where Will and Hazel were sitting on the couch.

“That’s great, Bianca,” Hazel said, getting up and walking toward them. She took Bianca’s free hand and said, “Let’s go to the kitchen and give your dad and Nico some time to talk. Nico stayed up really late last night making cookies, and I bet he made them just for you.”

She glanced up at Nico with a raised eyebrow, silently asking if it was okay to leave him alone, or maybe asking if it was okay for them to eat the cookies. Nico mentally scanned Bianca’s allergy list that he’d memorized months before - though he still wasn’t sure what had caused her reaction a few days prior - and nodded once. Yes, they could leave, and yes, the cookies were safe for Bianca to eat.

He watched them leave the room, and when he turned back, Will had risen to his feet, staring right back at Nico with a completely neutral expression on his face. Nico felt himself shrinking under Will’s gaze, his arms crossing over his stomach, one hand absentmindedly starting to scratch at his arm - he’d taken the bandages off already, though the cuts were still pretty fresh.

Nico was waiting for Will to speak first, but when he didn’t, Nico blurted out, “Are you going to fire me?”

Will’s neutral expression broke in surprise. “What? No, you thought I came all the way over here just to fire you? I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and shuffled his feet uncomfortably. “I tried calling you, but Hazel answered and said she didn’t know what was wrong because you weren’t talking to her. She gave me your address so I could come check on you myself.”

“Oh.” Nico’s hand tightened around his arm, his gaze dropping to the floor. “You...didn’t have to do that.”

Suddenly, Will’s shoes were in Nico’s line of sight, and Will’s hands were wrapping around Nico’s wrists and pulling his hands apart. Nico’s immediate reaction was to try to tug his hands from Will’s grasp, but Will didn’t let go. “Stop--” Will started sternly, but caught himself and continued in a much more relaxed voice, his grip on Nico’s wrists loosening but still not letting go. “Stop hurting yourself. Stop beating yourself up over this. It’s not your fault that Bianca had a reaction, and I’m sorry for snapping at you. I was tired and worried, and I know that’s not an excuse for how I acted, but...I’m sorry.”

Nico’s eyes flickered up to meet Will’s, and for the first time in days, Nico saw the sky.

“I never should have said that you couldn’t come home with us,” Will continued. “You were just as worried about Bianca as I was, and you should’ve been at home with us that night so that you could’ve known she was okay. And… And so we could’ve known that you were okay. She-- I--” Will sighed. “We both miss you. Please come back?”

Nico felt his chest swell up when Will looked at him. Like his lungs were filling with water, or panic was rising up in him. Or maybe it was something else.

“Okay.”

Nico had been back for about a week. He still seemed cautious about what to cook for Bianca, but he’d started to let loose a little. He’d started spending the night more and more often, cooking breakfast and driving Bianca to school almost every morning, and still sometimes falling asleep on the couch with his laptop on his lap.

They were almost back to where they were before Christmas. Where that was exactly, Will wasn’t sure. Something closer to friends than boss-and-employee, but with hints of something more.

Which left Will feeling jealous.

It took him a while to come to that conclusion, but he couldn’t find any other words to describe how he was feeling. How he wanted to change the topic whenever Nico mentioned Hazel, or how angry Will felt whenever he even thought of her. She was quite possibly the sweetest person Will had ever met, and she obviously made Nico very happy, and Will wanted Nico to be happy, right?

No. Will wanted Nico to be happy with him. Not Hazel.

So. Will was jealous.

And then, just days after Will had made this revelation, Nico’s car had broken down. Nico’s shiny, expensive, never-had-a-problem, high-school-graduation-present car had broken down.

Nico didn’t bother telling this to Will until he arrived a few minutes late one day with Hazel trailing into the house behind him.

“Hey,” Nico called into the house, and Will rushed around the corner, smiling brightly until he saw her. “Sorry I’m late, my car broke down. Hazel had to drive me.”

Will tried to smile back at Hazel, greeting her politely, but he just wanted her out of his house.

“Thanks for driving me,” Nico said to Hazel, leaning in to kiss her cheek, and Will felt his blood boil. “I’ll let you know if I need you to pick me up.”

“I can take you home,” Will cut in. “Uh. Probably.”

Nico smiled. God, Will had missed that smile. “Sure, we’ll see.” He stepped to the side, opening the door for Hazel to leave, and said, “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Will,” Hazel said to him with a quick wave. “It was nice to see you again! And bye, Nico, I love you!”

“Love you, too,” Nico said, shutting the door after Hazel walked out. He turned back to Will and rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling.

Will needed to get out of there before he did something stupid.

“I’ll text you when I’m on my way home,” Will forced out, stepping into his shoes and grabbing his coat.

“Sounds good,” Nico replied, already walking away. He turned back just for a second and smiled. “Bye, Sunshine.”

God, Will had missed that, too.

Will could barely get through his shift with the jealousy rooted so deeply in his bones. He kept hearing Hazel’s voice in his head, telling him things like how she’d met Nico, or what they’d done for their first anniversary. Will had had to scream into a pillow in a locked on-call room for about a minute before he could get back to work. He desperately wanted his shift to end so that he could go home and have dinner with Nico and Bianca. And after Bianca went to bed, Will would have Nico all to himself, even if it was just platonically.

When Will got home - hours after his shift was supposed to end, and too late for his platonic fantasy dinner-and-a-movie plan - the only thing he could hear was the TV playing in the living room. It was unusual, since it was past Bianca’s bedtime and Nico tended not to watch TV on his own, and so for a second Will feared that Hazel had returned.

However, when Will rounded the corner, he saw only Nico sitting on the couch. He was slouching, staring just to the right of the TV as he chewed on his thumbnail, his knee bouncing as his foot tapped to an unheard beat. He looked nervous. Will had never seen him like that before.

“Nico?” Will asked quietly as he walked further into the room, and Nico jumped, head snapping toward Will. He really must’ve been distracted. “Are you alright?”

Nico shrugged, looking down at his hands.

“Nico,” Will tried again, sitting next to him on the couch. “Tell me what’s wrong. Please.”

Nico took a deep breath. “Bianca asked if I had a girlfriend,” he rushed out.

Now Will was even more confused. “Okay. And?”

Nico groaned, grinding the palms of his hands into his forehead, leaning forward with so much force that he almost tipped right off the couch.. “No, not okay! It’s not, because I don’t-- I’m not--”

Will felt a spark of hope. I don’t...have a girlfriend? I’m not...straight? Will held his breath.

“I’m gay and I didn’t know if you were okay with that, so I didn’t tell Bianca anything, because I didn’t want to teach her something that you weren’t okay with.”

Will forgot to breathe. For a little while. He figured by now his face was pretty red, but from blushing or lack of oxygen, he didn’t know. When Nico realized he wasn’t talking, he looked up at him, finally pulling his hands away from his face. “Solace?”

“I’m okay with it!” he said, probably a little bit too loud. “I’m okay with it because I am, too. I’m-- I mean, I’m bi, and she knows, and I think she understands it, but yeah, anyway. Yes, I’m okay with it, you can tell her. If you want.”

Nico’s eyes were wide - and Will’s probably were, too, but he was still trying to catch his breath and couldn’t really control what the rest of his body was doing right then. He was pretty sure he was smiling like a maniac, but he couldn’t help it. Nico’s gay! And not dating Hazel! Will might actually have a chance with him!

“You’re...” Nico started. “Okay. Okay.” He stood up and grabbed his backpack off the ground next to him. “I have to go home.” Nico rushed out of the living room, and made it all the way to the front door before Will remembered that Nico didn’t have a car. Frankly, he probably remembered before Nico did.

Will shot up, running after him and catching him before it seemed like he was about to start walking home. “Nico! Hang on, it’s like, zero degrees out, what are you doing? Come back inside, I’ll drive you home in the morning.”

Nico was already visibly shivering when he turned back around. “Okay. Okay.” He brushed past Will on his way back inside.

Will hated storms. He hated the rain, and he hated being stuck inside the house, and he hated thunder that shook a house’s foundation. Bianca hated the flashes of lightning that made a room as bright as day for just a second before the thunder boomed around her. Nico hated storms for a completely different reason.

There was a snowstorm coming down from the north, bringing with it at least an inch of snowfall and a high chance of thunder and lightning. Will had already gotten an email from Bianca’s school that announced the building’s closure in anticipation for the storm, and Will started to worry that he wouldn’t be able to make it to work in the morning.

He had hurried home after work that evening, partly because of the forecast, and partly because he’d gotten a text from Nico saying, text me if youll be home by 6 and ill make enough dinner for the 3 of us. Will, loyal fan of Nico’s cooking that he was, would have traded shifts with someone if he had to be at the hospital later than six that night. He would not miss out on Nico’s cooking.

So he made it home just as the snow was starting to pick up. When he walked in the door, Nico was putting the finishing touches on the meal, and Bianca had her face pressed into a window, watching the giant snowflakes fall. She’d never seen snow like that in Nashville.

Will stomped the snow off his boots, untying them and leaving them by the door, then hung up his jacket and scarf. After living in Nashville for most of his life, Will still wasn’t used to the negative temperatures that hit New York.

“Please tell me dinner will warm me up,” Will said, rubbing his hands together.

Nico rolled his eyes (he’d gotten used to the cold weather, unlike somebody) and pointed to each pot and pan, naming off each food and giving a brief description before Will could ask (because he knew Will would ask).

Will helped Bianca set places at the table as Nico brought the food over, and as soon as they all sat down to eat, Nico’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket as Will and Bianca looked at him in confusion. Nico’s phone had never once rang in front of them in all of the time that Nico had spent at the house. He never got a call, he never got a text, he never so much as got a twitter notification. They watched him press end call and set the phone down next to his plate.

When Nico noticed them watching him, he gestured to the food. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

Will scooped some food onto Bianca’s plate, not exactly sure what he was giving her, just making sure it was small portions in case she didn’t like something, and then gave himself slightly larger servings of everything.

He saw that Nico had just taken a bite of something when his phone went off again, only this time what sounded like a call was really just a large amount of texts coming in all at once.

“I’m sorry,” Nico said as he picked up the phone to stop it from vibrating the entire table. “I had my phone turned off today for this exact reason, I don’t really know why I turned it back on now.”

“It’s fine,” Will said, though he was worried that something was wrong. “Is it something important?”

“No.” Nico took another bite and his phone started buzzing again in his hand. He looked at the screen and winced. “I’m sorry. I have to take this.”

He stood up and headed toward the guest room, answering the call when he was only halfway through the living room. “Hello, Father, does this have to happen right now?” There was a pause, and then, “I was trying to enjoy a nice dinner--” and then the door shut, and Will could hear no more.

Him and Bianca picked at their food for a little while in silence. Will still had no idea what he was eating, but it was good. Some kind of pasta with vegetables, though not with any kind of sauce that Will recognized. Normally, he would have been concerned about Bianca’s allergies, but he trusted Nico not to cook something that she couldn’t eat.

“Is something wrong with Nico?” Bianca asked, and Will noticed she was just pushing most of the food around on her plate.

“I don’t know, Bi,” Will answered honestly. It was shaping up to be a strange evening, and Nico sure was taking a while with that phone call. “I just hope he doesn’t have to leave,” he said as he looked out the window. “I don’t think there’s any getting through that snow, no matter how long you’ve lived in New York.”

The two went back to eating, not speaking, and hearing only the increasingly powerful gusts of wind, the sounds of forks scraping across plates, and the occasional muffled noise coming from the guest room whenever Nico raised his voice.

Will wanted to go check on him, but thought it might be an invasion of his privacy.

The thunder started not long after. Will hadn’t noticed any lightning mixed in with the snow, but the deep rumbles that shook the house were unmistakable. It made him wish he’d bought a house with a basement, someplace that he wouldn’t feel the ground shake under his feet.

Bianca had finished eating, and Will was starting to feel full, but Nico’s plate remained full and almost untouched. Will’s worry grew.

He didn’t know how long he poked around at the small amount of food left on his plate before he couldn’t see it anymore. He looked up, looked around, but he couldn’t see anything anymore, except the now-present lightning that gave him flashes of his own home.

And that’s when he finally heard a door opening.

“Thank god,” he heard Nico say from the direction of the guest room, but he still couldn’t see him. “The cell towers must be out.”

Will heard his footsteps stop as he entered the kitchen.

“So much for a nice warm meal,” Nico muttered, and suddenly the flashlight on his phone lit up.

“Nico are you okay?” Bianca asked, and Will could see just enough to spot the confused look that Nico gave her.

“Yeah, Princess, of course I’m okay. Why would you think I’m not okay?”

“You were on the phone for a really long time and I heard you shouting.”

Nico winced before starting to clear the table. “I’m sorry. I never should have turned my phone on today.”

“If it was your father, then I’m sure it was important,” Will said stood to help. “Bi, can you help clear the table please?”

Bianca took her plate to the sink as Nico huffed. “It wasn’t. Nothing he couldn’t have said in a text. A two word text, instead of--” he looked at the time on his phone “--a thirty six minute phone call. God, I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for,” Will told him. “It’s not like this was supposed to be some special family dinner or something.”

But suddenly, Will got the feeling like it was supposed to be something exactly like that.

“Right,” Nico muttered, then louder said, “Do you have any candles anywhere?”

Will packed up the leftovers while Nico ate a little bit more of his now-cold food, but he quickly lost his appetite at the taste. It wasn’t the same when it wasn’t warm anymore.

The three of them each carried a flashlight, and Nico had gone around lighting candles in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom, though the faint light in the house only made the flashes of lightning outside so much more prominent. Will noticed that with each lightning strike, both Nico and Bianca flinched. Will made sure to close the curtains in the living room to help block out the lightning, and moved the candles from the kitchen into the living room as they all settled down there. The candlelight made Will’s hair look golden, but only succeeded in making Nico look tired.

The three of them sat on the floor in the living room playing Go Fish in the candlelight, until Bianca got too tired to play anymore.

“It’s dark and scary and I don’t wanna sleep in my room by myself,” Bianca complained when Will decided it was time for her to go to bed.

“What if we all sleep out here?” Nico suggested. “We can all bring out a bunch of pillows and blankets, then it’ll be like a sleepover.”

“Okay!” Bianca said, and she jumped up and ran to her room, clicking on her flashlight as she went. She came back quickly with her arms loaded full of pillows and blankets, and dropped them all on the floor in a heap. She plopped down on top of the heap and curled up like she was going to fall asleep right then.

“Just because it’s a sleepover doesn’t mean you don’t have to brush your teeth, Bi,” Will said in a very dad voice. “And put on some warm pajamas, too.”

When Bianca complained, Will stood and ushered her toward her bedroom to make sure he had warm enough pajamas. Nico cleaned up the cards before heading off to the guest room to change into his own pajamas. Thankfully, he’d been keeping some of his clothes in the dresser, since it was easier than bringing a change of clothes every time he came over. He changed into sweatpants and a long sleeve t-shirt, grabbing his backpack, a pillow, and the comforter and a pillow off the bed before heading back to the living room.

Bianca and Will were both in the bathroom brushing their teeth when he walked past the open door, Bianca in footie pajamas, and Will still in his scrubs.

Nico set his things down next to the couch. He went to brush his teeth when he noticed that both Will and Bianca were out of the bathroom, and when he came back to the living room, Bianca looked ready to fall asleep, and Will was nowhere to be seen.

The coffee table had been moved away from the couch so that there was more room for them all to spread out, which must’ve been Will’s doing. Nico sat on the ground, leaning back against the couch, and pulled out his phone. He might as well read all those texts he’d gotten earlier.

As soon as he’d opened up the messaging app, Will came into the room with a pile of blankets in his arms, and plopped them down next to Nico, revealing his blue flannel pajama pants and luminescent orange sweatshirt with the name of some college across the front.

“You’re practically glowing in the dark,” Nico commented, putting his phone off to the side.

“It’s going to get pretty cold with the heater not working,” Will said with a shrug, stuffing his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. “Gotta keep warm.”

The two of them were quiet as they situated themselves, and in a couple of minutes, they were both wrapped up in blankets and listening to the quiet snores coming from the six year old across the room.

“I figured she’d be out pretty quick,” Will said, smiling at his daughter.

Nico hummed, eyes flickering down toward his phone, when he heard Will speak again.

“So, I’m sorry if this is kind of intrusive, but I have to ask,” he started, “you seemed...angry, with your dad. Is everything alright? I mean, I know you said that he wasn’t the greatest, so I kind of assumed you wouldn’t keep in touch with him anymore.”

Nico sighed and seemed to consider his words carefully. “He’s my dad, you know? He’s the only dad I’ve ever had, and he’s trying to be better, but I wish he wouldn’t just done it years ago, when it mattered.”

“I get that,” Will said. “My dad was pretty awful when I was a kid, too, but he never ended up trying to do anything to change it. He tricked my mom into believing that he loved her, and they got married for about two months, which was enough time for him to cheat on her. I didn’t find out until I was around ten that the reason my dad wasn’t around was because he had another family. Or, well, a lot of other families. Turns out I had at least four siblings I’d never met.”

“Four?” Nico asked incredulously.

Will nodded, and started counting them off on his fingers. “There was Lee - the oldest - and Michael came next, both with different moms, and both of them joined the military. I don’t remember which branches, but I don’t think they ever met. They were both killed in action, so I never actually got to meet them, just heard about them. And then there’s Kayla, the one who had the...the, um, Christmas party.” Nico hid a grin. Will sounded embarrassed. “A-and Austin. I just met him at Kayla’s, but he lives in Manhattan, so I’m hoping I can get to know him better. He’s a musician, goes to Juilliard. He can play anything, like when I first asked him about it, he just listed off all the instruments he can play, which was a ton. And he’s just like, ‘Right now I’m learning the violin, but strings are kind of hard for me, so we’ll see how it goes.’”

Nico smiled down at his lap and let Will’s words hang in the air between them for a moment before he said, “A few months after Bianca died, I found out I had another sister,” The air flew out of Will’s lungs. “Turns out that my dad had gone on a business trip to New Orleans once, and met some fortune teller and had a fling. Child services called our house once, and I answered the phone. This lady just kept saying something about how Marie somebody died and since my father was financially stable enough to support another child, they were flying his daughter to California to live with us. I got really mad at my dad about that, like he’d planned to have another kid to replace Bia, or something stupid like that. After I got over the shock, the first thought I had was, I can’t believe he married a Maria and had another kid with a Marie.”

“So Maria is your mother?” Will asked.

“Was,” Nico corrected. “She died when I was four. It was a car accident during a thunderstorm.” Coincidentally, thunder shook the house right at that moment, and Will saw Nico trying to repress a flinch. “My father had remarried a little while after that, to a woman named Persephone. When she found out about Hazel, she got super pissed at my father and didn’t talk to him for a couple of days, even though that ‘business trip’ had happened in between wives.”

Will gasped. “Hazel’s your sister?”

Nico turned to look at Will. “Yeah. Why, who did you think she was?”

Will shrugged and looked away, thankful for the dim lighting that hid his blush. “A friend, I guess. You don’t exactly look alike.”

“Yeah, but we’re still family. She’s been living with me for a few months until her boyfriend graduates from West Point. I have a feeling they’re going to get married pretty soon, especially if he ends up in the army, which is bound to happen sooner or later.”

“I considered joining up for a little while,” Will said, eyes on Bianca. “Go in as a doctor, they’d pay off my student loans, but then Bi came along, and I couldn’t just leave her alone at my mom’s or someplace for so long that she wouldn’t know me when I came back.”

In the faint light, Will noticed Nico shiver and wrap the comforter tighter around himself.

“Are you cold?” Will asked. “Let me go get you a sweatshirt.” He was up and out of the room before Nico could reply. Truthfully, Will was thankful for the break in the conversation. He wasn’t sure that he was ready to tell Nico about how he’d come to be the sole caretaker for Bianca. He returned quickly, a light grey sweatshirt in his hands, which he tossed to Nico before sitting back down.

“Thanks,” Nico said, once the sweatshirt was pulled over his head. “I hope you don’t mind me staying here tonight.”

“Are you kidding? I could barely get home from work, there’s no way someone could’ve driven you home! I would have insisted you stay, even if you did have your big, fancy car.”

Nico rolled his eyes; Will could see that even in the dark. “It’s not fancy.”

“Nico, that car cost more than my mom’s house,” Will insisted. “I still can’t believe that it was a high school graduation present.”

“Fine, it’s not that expensive for my family.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means...” Nico tucked his hands into the sleeves of the sweatshirt and looked down at his lap. “My father owns a recording studio in LA, so we’ve never exactly been tight on money. And my mother’s father was an Italian ambassador, who left trust funds for Bianca and me. And then when Bia died, her trust was merged with mine. And my mother’s insurance money paid for my college classes and the private schools I went to when I was younger.”

“You’re loaded?” Will asked, voice loud in shock and jaw left hanging open.

Nico’s head snapped up towards his, hands coming out of the sleeves as he held a finger up to his lips, the other hand pointing toward the still-sleeping Bianca.

Their faces were close. Nico could’ve counted Will’s freckles. Will could’ve finally seen the separation of iris and pupil in Nico’s eyes if the lighting had been better. Instead, Will’s eyes dropped to the finger over Nico’s lips. His eyes lingered there for longer than he’d intended them to, and he snapped his jaw shut when he managed to focus his eyes back on Nico’s.

“I can’t believe you’re rich,” Will whispered, finally pulling his eyes away from Nico’s face. Nico had returned his hands to his sleeves relaxing back against the couch again. He looked so small in Will’s oversized sweatshirt, head tilted down sheepishly. “I can’t believe you’re rich and I’ve been sneaking extra money into your paychecks to help you fix your car!”

Nico laughed lightly. “You have?”

“And you didn’t even notice! Do you even look at your paychecks?”

“Not really,” Nico admitted.

“Alright, you owe me now,” Will decided.

“What, you want me to pay you back the money you didn’t have to give me?”

“No, no, keep the money, whatever,” Will said, waving a hand at Nico. “You owe me one answer to any question I ask you.”

“Can I veto something I’m not comfortable answering?”

Will thought about it for a second. “I guess so. But only one!”

“Okay, go ahead, then.”

Will didn’t even hesitate. “What were all the texts and calls about earlier?”

Nico sighed, glancing off to the side where his phone was sitting on the ground. “Well, to be fair, I haven’t actually looked at the texts.” He picked up the phone, turning on the screen and holding it in a way that Will could see just as well as he could. The messaging app was still open, and Nico tapped on the first thread at the top.

FROM: Frank; Happy Birthday, Nico! :)

FROM: Hazel; happy birthday!!! i love u!!!

FROM: Annabeth; Happy Birthday!

FROM: Sally; Happy birthday, Nico. I hope you have a great day!

FROM: Percy; Happy birthday man

FROM: Percy; hppy birhtday unkle nico

FROM: Percy; That last one was from Luke

FROM: ra-ra; Happy birthday, it’s your turn to visit.

FROM: Leo; happy old day bro

FROM: Jason; Happy birthday son

FROM: Piper; Happy birthday!

FROM: Thalia; happy birthday

“It’s your birthday?” Will asked.

Nico shrugged, eyes locked on his phone.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve taken the day off or something! You didn’t have to come here today, you could’ve-- I don’t know, hung out with your friends, or something!”

“My friends all have jobs, Solace,” Nico responded. “They all had to work today, and I’d much rather be here than sitting by myself in my room all day.”

Will was hit with a realization. Punched in the gut with this realization. “It was supposed to be some kind of special family dinner, wasn’t it?”

Nico shrugged again, putting his phone down in his lap. He seemed almost uncomfortable. “I guess. I made a bunch of my favorite foods, there were cannoli for dessert, too, but we didn’t exactly get to that. My father only called because he was trying to make up for never calling me on my birthday, and I couldn’t get him to shut up. And then he put Seph on the phone.” He sighed again, tossing his head back to rest against the couch cushions. “I just wanted to have a nice dinner for once.”

“If it makes you feel any better, it was a nice dinner,” Will offered, bumping his shoulder against Nico’s. “Would’ve been better with you there, but the food was good.”

Nico’s head lolled to the side so we could look at Will. He had the tiniest smile on his face, and Will wanted to keep it there.

“Tell me about your friends,” Will blurted.

Nico picked up his head. “Why?”

“I--” Will didn’t know. “How do you know all of them?”

Nico paused for a second, staring at Will as if to try to find some kind of ulterior motive. He clicked his phone screen back on and read down the list of names.

“Okay, well. I told you about Frank already, he’s Hazel’s boyfriend,” Nico started. “Hazel, of course, is my sister. Percy and Annabeth are married, and Luke is their son. I actually, uh, really hated them in high school. I was closeted and had a crush on Percy, so I hated him for that, and I hated Annabeth because she was dating him, but I got over my crush and learned to like them both. Oh, and, uh, Sally is Percy’s mom. I lived with her for about a year when I first moved out to New York.

“Ra-Ra is my best friend Reyna. She lives in San Francisco, so I haven’t seen her in a little over a year. We also met in high school, but she was a senior when I was a sophomore, so we only met because we were partnered for a class project. Next is Leo, he’s my cousin Jason’s best friend, and he’s accidentally set himself on fire more than a few times.”

“Accidentally?” Will asked.

Nico shrugged. “It’s a gift, or so he claims. Anyway, uh. Jason, my cousin. He calls me son sometimes because I once gave him a Father’s Day card as a joke but he took it to heart. Piper is Jason’s fiancee. I introduced her to Jason after we met at one of our fathers’ business meetings or whatever. And last is Thalia, Jason’s older sister. Her and Bia used to have a No Boys club when we were kids because they thought me and Jason were annoying.”

Nico closed out of the messaging app and pulled up his photo gallery. “I think I have pictures of everyone, hang on.”

He leaned against Will’s side and held his phone out as he scrolled through a few albums, showing Will pictures of Frank and Hazel; Percy and Annabeth; himself and Luke when he’d been asked to babysit once; Leo that one time he accidentally set his jacket on fire and didn’t notice for over a minute. At some point, Nico’s head fell onto Will’s shoulder as they scrolled through pictures. Piper surfing and Jason falling into the water. Hazel and him scrunching up their noses at the camera. Thalia somewhere in South America doing some wildlife preservation something. Reyna sitting outside a cafe drinking a latte and glaring at people that passed by on the street.

Nico’s eyes were starting to fall closed when he finally put his phone away, having exhausted his gallery of all pictures of his friends. Will had started talking, something about a couple of the friends he’d had in high school, and Nico had tried to listen, he really had, but his eyes had slipped closed and he’d fallen asleep.

He woke up on the floor, pillow under his head and comforter off the guest bed wrapped around him, and he had no recollection of how he’d gotten there.

The floor around him was littered with pillows and blankets, and there were burnt out candles on the tables and TV stand. He sat up and blinked a few times, and then Will and Bianca were there in front of him. He rubbed at his eyes and looked at them again, their smiles unmistakably real.

“Happy birthday!” Bianca shouted at him, and held out a small plate with one of the cannoli he’d made yesterday.

Will was beaming at him, obviously proud of himself, and Nico couldn’t help but grin back.

The snowstorm kept schools closed for the next two days, which meant that Nico stayed over night after night. The power had returned the morning after Nico’s birthday, and while Will had taken the opportunity to shower after their quick birthday celebration, Nico had taken advantage of the newly recovered cell signal to call Hazel. He had her pick him up and take him to get his car, which he’d been planning on picking up the night before, until the snow hit.

When he got his car, Nico returned to his own home, showered, changed his clothes, and grabbed some more clean clothes to keep at Will’s.

He went back to the Solace household and was immediately greeted with Bianca telling him that her school had already been closed for the next day. Good thing he’d grabbed more clothes.

Bianca had insisted on playing video games, and then got angry at Will whenever he walked in front of the screen. He was trying to get ready for work, running back and forth between the kitchen and living room and his bedroom, and by the fourth or fifth time, Bianca had had enough, and gave up on the game.

When Will came over to say goodbye, he suggested, “Why don’t you do the homework you were supposed to do last night, so you don’t have to worry about it later?”

Bianca, still upset, huffed and crossed her arms. Nico just said, “Bye, Solace,” and kept playing the game that Bianca had abandoned.

Will rolled his eyes and muttered something about having two children, and Nico shouted, “I heard that!” before Will walked out the door.

When he returned later that night, Will noticed first the tray of brownies cooling on the counter. Bianca’s bag was where it had been when he left, and a quick look around the corner showed that Nico and Bianca were still sitting on the floor playing video games, right where he’d left them.

Will walked up and stood in front of the TV, arms crossed and with what he hoped was a stern look on his face. “Did you even do your homework like I said to?” he demanded.

Nico paused the game and looked up at him with the biggest shit-eating grin Will had ever seen and said, “Yeah, it’s in her backpack, all ready to go when school starts back up. You wanna check everything over, make sure it’s all right?”

They stared each other down for a little while. Will felt something swell up in his chest. Maybe his lung were filling with fluid and he was dying. Maybe it was something else that had to do with Nico smiling up at him like that.

Will rolled his eyes and turned back toward the kitchen, hearing Nico snicker before starting up the game again.

“The brownies are probably cool by now if you want one,” Nico called to him.

Will sighed in frustration, but went over to the counter and cut himself a brownie. Dammit if it wasn’t the best thing he’d eaten in days. Well, except maybe that cannoli he’d split with Nico the day before. But the brownie had chocolate.

thanks for reading!!

buy me a coffee | other nico birthday event stuff

#mine #my writing #nico di angelo #will solace #solangelo #nicobirthdayevent #i'm in hell #i wanted to uhhhh change nicos birthday and aftermath a little more but i also needed to make sure i posted this by today so

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