#and i love it. i wanna put her in a test chamber and see how she functions

[fayesdiary]

reverse unpopular opinion for....aw heck, go ahead with Rhea for this one as well

This might as well be a part 2 to the previous Rhea ask so :D

I find Rhea to be so compelling for several reasons, one of the biggest being the inherent contradiction that she is very much capable of caring, loving and trusting others, sometimes with some insane gestures when you realize their meaning behind them (ie. Saving Jeralt's life by giving him her blood thus risking outing herself because of it, letting Catherine keep Thunderbrand despite the fact it's the one Relic she could safely recover- implicitly trusting her with one of her family's remains without any obligation to do so, risk angering a noble house to give Cyril a better life and treating him like her son in all but name)... And yet she cannot, for the life of her, bring herself to be honest with them.

Something fascinating I noticed about Rhea is that she ironically seems to prefer people who are blunt with her, because look at the people she's closest to - Seteth spends all of Part 1 openly questioning her, Flayn is constantly on the verge of accidentally outing herself, Cyril is so direct and honest he sometimes accidentally comes off as rude (Shamir too even if she's not as close to Rhea) and Catherine wears her heart on her sleeve.

Heck, all of them are either not that religious or outright non-believers, which ironically I believe helps reassure Rhea they love her because of who she is as a person and not because she's the archbishop, especially given how much she implies to find the position incredibly alienating.

And isn't that just so fascinating? That she is more than capable than loving others and caring for them risking her own personal safety, she appreciates people being honest with her.... But cannot, will not be entirely honest with them in turn.

Because make no mistake, that right there is Rhea's true fatal flaw: her compulsive need to keep everything a secret.

From the big but understandable stuff that would get her and her family scrapped for parts if it became public to downright pointless shit to hide like not liking hot drinks, and it's the one trait that screws her over the most, between being the reason Jeralt left (since she didn't tell him ANYTHING about what happened with Byleth so he assumed the worst and fled) and the thing preventing her from making connections as deep as she actually wants (like even just telling her loved ones how much they mean to her), as well as getting the support she actually needs. And because she feels she has to bear everything on her shoulders, she crumbles under the weight because no matter how hard she tries, she will never be good enough.

In that sense the role of archbishop is a sort of mask to her. It's definitely a part of her, but also something she has sort of burrowed into like a safety net preventing her from being true to herself. Because that'd mean making herself vulnerable, in more ways than one. To say nothing about putting her surviving family and remnants of her dead kin to jeopardy.

If she were to open up she'd be... More lively, I think. Definitely sillier if Heroes is any indication, and arguably more willing to take a direct approach in helping people. And definitely more loved and happier.

And perhaps, one day she'd realize she doesn't need to bring her mom back to fix Fódlan. She's not doing it alone anymore, after all.

[sakuraaachan]

Virtual Experience - Izuku M.

​Have you ever loved someone so much you created a fantasy virtual world to have sex with them? No?…..Okay.

Izuku Midoryia x Reader

Rating: mature, smut

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This is the full version of this story!

“Going stupid on that cock huh?”

You couldn’t speak, your body stuffed with Izuku’s cock. He relentlessly pounded into you while you held onto his shoulder for dear life.

He groans into your ear. ”Answer me baby.”

“Yes-yes- mhh!” You struggled to moan out, some drool coming out your mouth. Your nails start to poke into Izuku’s back. You're unable to see and only hold onto Izuku in hopes you won't get lost in the abyss of pleasure you were in.  

You can hear Izuku chuckle, “relax baby you're gonna make me cum too fast.”

You close your eyes, doing your best to breathe while relaxing your muscles.

“THE TIME IS CURRENTLY 6:00PM, NOW SHUTTING DOWN”

The word goes black as you're brought back to reality. You remove the headset from your face, wiping some sweat from your forehead. 

“How was that?” The intercom turns on, Mei Hatsumes voice speaking into it.

You look over at her through the glass doors, a smile on your face. “It felt so real Mei, your work is amazing.”

“Our work,” she corrects, pressing a button to release cold air into the chamber. “And of course it is a VR sexual experience you can actually feel, now that’s the future.”

The door makes a loud click as it unlocks. You grab a towel before exiting and heading up the stairs towards your shared office. 

“So you're gonna tell me why you chose Deku as your male participant?”

You pause as you enter, looking at Mei with a shocked face. “You looked at the code didn’t you?” 

“Duh! Now tell me everything.”

You sigh in defeat as you slumped into your chair, “so maybe being able to feel him up everytime he rips his suit was kinda getting to my head.”

“So that’s why you wanted to make this,” Mei allows a smirk to come over her face. “Pervert!” She shouts playfully, pointing a finger at you.

Pouting as you let out a small whine, you cross your arms. “Haven’t you ever wanted something so bad, but it was just out of reach?”

“You two are pretty close, so why would he reject you?”

“Have you seen the curves on Uraraka-san? You should have seen them in UA, it was disgusting how obvious it was that she was crushing on him,” you stare at the framed photo of you and Izuku at graduation.

“Doesn’t mean he liked her,” Mei mutters, shrugging her shoulders before abruptly turning your chair to face her. “Use the VR again.”

You raise a brow, “huh? I just got off and it’s 6:30.”

“Just go!” She persists, pulling you out the seat and pushing you out the officer door. “I wanna try something so get going!” She gives you one last push before slamming the door, you huff before going back down the stairs.

“Mei, can’t this wait for tomorrow?”

“Is someone talking?” She blankly ignores you, opening the glass chamber to the VR testing room. 

“Mei!” You groan, reluctantly going into the room. “Whatever your testing, it better be worth it.”

She locks the door as you place the body pins on your chest, you take a deep breath before putting on the headset. The system loads you up before eventually you're placed in a different reality.

“Y/n? Are you okay?”

The system specs in your eyes, loading as you get used to your surroundings. “Oh! Yes, I’m fine,” you blink a few times as your vision clears. 

You're in a fancy restaurant, one that was illuminated by an orange light setting. Across from you is Izuku Midoriya, dressed in a fancy black suit. He smiles at you, a little bit of concern in his eyes. “Are you sure? Maybe you had too much wine?” 

You giggle at his caring nature, “It’s nothing Deku, I just spaced out a bit”

He places a hand over yours. “Please...just call me Izuku.” Your face heats up at the contact, and a smile melts onto your face.

The waiter comes up to the table, a few more behind him. “Here is your check Mr and Mrs, and a complimentary champagne on us,” the waitress places a tray down, smiling at the two of you.

They walk away and you reach for the check, but Izuku grabs it from you shaking his head slightly. “What type of man would I be if I let you pay?”

“Oh, it’s okay Izuku, you do so much for me already….let me pay you back at least.”

He places his card in the checkbook, placing it down by the edge of the table. “You can pay me back later, tonight.” His voice is deep, hotter than it was before. 

“O-oh” You flush.

“Y/n? Hatsume-san?” 

Mei slams her laptop shut as an uninvited guest enters the office. “Deku! What a surprise, come here for some more testing?” 

Izuku shakes his head with a small chuckle, “I’m here to see Y/n, she wasn’t answering her phone.”

Opportunity rushes into Mei's head and her grin widens. “Y/n is just testing our latest invention,” she points out the large window and Izuku walks over to look out.  

He arches a brow, “is there something wrong with her?”

You were a sight to see, sitting down on a couch with your legs spreaded. Neck craned back with your mouth opening from time to time.

“We're still working on the name but introducing Fantasy VR, this baby allows you to have sex with anyone of your choosing.” 

“Like..transportation?” Izuku asks.

“Illusions, nobody’s actually in there. Just Y/n’s subconscious, and the code of whoever she is doing it with. ” Mei explains, watching your trembling body. “I wonder who it is.”

“Me too,” He whispers.

Your heart rate spikes up, sounding an alarm on Mei’s closed computer. The girl grabs a nearby tablet before turning off your simulation. Izuku watches as you pull the headset off, brushing the sweaty hairs out of your face.

“This is literally the best thing ever Mei, we gotta make it portable.” You let out a laugh of amusement, “having sex with I-”

“You have a visitor!” She interrupts you, pressing the AC button. Confused you look at the window, the man that had just “fucked” you standing next to your best friend.

Shit.

The door clicks as it unlocks and you pull it open before exiting. It was like the walk of shame as you went up the stairs, with every step more embarrassment built within you. “Heyyy Deku…” You enter the office, grabbing the towel you left at your desk. “What brings you here?”

You try your best to act nonchalant, despite the blush that creeps up your cheeks. Izuku raises an eyebrow, his expression a mix of curiosity and concern. "I tried calling you, but you didn't pick up. I was just worried. Are you okay?"

“Fuck, it’s friday isn’t it.” You facepalm, groaning into your hand. “Shit, I’m sorry”

“It’s okay, it seems like you’ve been busy.” He jokes, chuckling slightly at your flustered state. 

You give him a sheepish smile, using the towel to wipe off the remaining sweat from your face. "Yeah, sorry about that. I was... testing out a new VR invention Mei and I have been working on.”

“Hey lovebirds calm it down a bit, I need to use Deku,” Mei interrupts the two of you, patting her plastic model of the VR headset. “I haven’t tried this baby on a male yet, since he’s here at perfect timing.”

You shake your head at her with a disapproving look, “no, it’s still just a prototype we don’t know what the after effects could be-.  

“Sure.”

You turn to Izuku shocked, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Deku, you don’t have to do this, it’s just a prototype, the effects-.” 

He shakes his head, “It’s fine, I owe it to you guys for always fixing my suit.” He glances out the window, “besides, I’ll be locked in a quirk-proof chamber, it’ll be fine.”

“Testroom 5” Mei tells Izuku as he exits.

“Are you insane?!” You whisper yell once the door shuts. 

“This is your chance to see who Deku wet dreams about” She says suggestively, typing quickly on her laptop.

“I don’t want to invade his personal privacy,”

“You already invaded it when you made a device to have virtual sex with him.” She continues to type, “I saw an opportunity and I took it, you’ll stay single forever if you don’t take chances.” 

“What if it fails, and he likes someone else…” Your voice drops, looking down to the floor.

“Then that’s it, at least you’d know” 

“Hey, you guys ready?” Deku's voice interrupts the two of you, Mei clicks the mic button before speaking. 

“Sending Y/n in to help you with the body pins”

“What is this fucked up romance going on in your head?” You question, crossing your arms at her. “Expect me to just confess my overlonging feelings for him as I help him with body pins?” You walk over to the office door, before mocking yourself “oh Deku, I’ve loved you since high school and I created a whole sexual fantasy land because of how badly I wanted to have sex with you, yeah that sounds fucking romantic.” 

Mei spins to face you, “it’ll be something like that.”

You scoff at her before exiting and marching down the steps. “Alright hot stuff you know the drill, shirt off.” Deku complies immediately, tugging his shirt off overhead and giving you a view of his abs. He throws the cloth onto the couch in the room and you walk over and smooth a hand over his chest before placing the clips.

“So how does this work?” He breaks the silence.

 You stick on the last pin “you can have sex with anyone of your choosing, just think of them while the VR loads your subconscious into the programmed reality.”

“Hey, I’m going to get some takeout,” Mei’s loud voice booms in the chamber, scaring the both of you. 

“Okay!” You shout back, grabbing the headset and handing it to Izuku. “You’ll be in there for 30 to 60 minutes, and nothing will happen to you here…besides the moaning and whatnot but, that’s why we have soundproof chambers.”

He places the VR above his eyes, and you help fit the strap to his head size. It was hard trying to keep his green curls out the velcro strap, you have to note to make an easier way to put the headset on. “Also, try not to get into stressful situations, the headset will kick you out if your heart rate goes up too high, don’t want you to have a heart attack.”

He nods. “You said it could be anyone right?”

“Mhm!” You finished tightening it, stepping back a bit with a victorious grin. “You could have sex with Dynamight if you wanted-...” Izuku doesn’t look amused at your joke. “Yeah…that sounded better in my head- okay! So enjoy and I’ll be up there keeping an eye on your vitals.”

He lets out a hum before sliding the headset down, a second passes before you leave. You tug at the handle, but it wouldn't budge. Did Mei lock you in before she left?

“Fuck-fuck, Mei! I’ll kill you for this!” You shout, still roughly trying to open the door which still wouldn’t budge. “Aww fuck me” You curse, walking over to the couch in defeat. Now you’ll have to listen to Izuku fuck who ever he wants. “I’m going to murder you Mei Hatsume!”

As you sit on the couch, frustration and embarrassment wash over you. You can't believe Mei locked you in the room, leaving you to listen to whatever is happening inside the virtual reality chamber. You look at Izuku, who stands in front of you still unaware of your presence in the room. You should wake him up, savor the little bit of his privacy you haven’t invaded.

But…you’ve never tested interrupting the fantasy while the VR was still active. It could have very dangerous effects. Shit.

A bead of sweat drops down Izuku’s chest, and his fist clenches. You watch through your lashes, staring at the bead as it slowly moves through the maze of Izuku’s chest. How lucky.

Eyes landed on a boner sitting in Izuku’s pants, gosh and he was packing. Your eyes widen and you place a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from gasping. 

“Puppy-” He groans out, his fist clenching again. 

You feel a spark in your pussy, as you clench around nothing. He groans again, making you moan at the feeling it brought to you. “Shit-” you curse, crossing your legs before chewing on your bottom lip.

His hips seemed to thrust every now and then and more sweat rolled down his chest. It was a heavenly sight to see and you had a front row seat, but the throbbing in your cunt was becoming unbearable.

You uncross your legs and hand drifts in between your legs, pressing at your clothed clit to try and relieve some of the pressure. You moan, clasping a hand over your mouth before looking over Izuku to see if he had heard you. 

He remained the same.

You hand teases the waistband of your sweat pants, and your eyes darted at the glass wall from time to time, making sure Mei wasn’t back at the office yet. 

“Y-your such a good girl- taking my cock like this- ah..fuck.” 

You unconsciously whine, allowing your fingers to do as they please as you listen to Izuku’s grunts and cries. It felt heavenly, the risk of getting caught adding more pleasure to it all.

“THE TIME IS CURRENTLY  8:30PM NOW SHUTTING DOWN”

Damn, you glared at the speaker. Taking your hand out your pants, still unsatisfied. Izuku should have taken off his headset by now, but he remained still. 

“Deku?” You squeak, afraid of the questions he might ask. 

The male remains unresponsive.

You arch a brow, swallowing your pride and getting up to take his headset off. “Hey, Deku…are you okay?”

You pull the VR above his eyes, and his dark green orbs immediately meet with yours. “Deku?” You ask again, but there still isn’t a response. 

You're cut off when Izuku slams you against the glass wall of the chamber, the sound of the VR headset crashing to the ground making you cringe. “Midoriya-?”

“I’ve always wondered why you never call me by my first name.”

His mouth traces over your ear as he whispers into it, a shiver goes down your spine leaving you at a loss for words. “I don’t think you understand what you do to me Y/n.”

He moves so his face is in front of yours. His eyes were filled with lust, so different from the way he’d always look at you. “Say it.”

“W-what?” You quiver, feeling tiny in between Izuku’s arms and the wall. “Say what?”

“My name!” You squeeze your eyes shut as he shouts. He mutters an apology, taking a second to breath. “Please. Say my name.”

“Deku?” 

“No.” He says in a faint whisper, “my first name.”

“I-izuku,” you hesitate, unable to figure out what could be the cause of Izuku’s sudden actions. It had to be a side effect from the headset, but what could you do? It didn’t seem like Izuku wanted to hurt you, so what..-Your lips never felt anything so warm and soft, your eyes widened as Izuku’s sudden kiss made your knees feel weak. 

He caught you before you could fall, slotting himself in between your legs. Hypnotized by the drunk feeling his scent gave you, slowly you parted your lips and allowed Izuku’s tongue to slip inside.

He pulls away, moving his face into the nape of your neck. You gasp for air as finally you're able to think, but your thoughts are stolen from you as Izuku presses his boner into your clothed pussy.

“Ah-! Izuku-” You squeak in surprise, holding onto his shoulders. 

“Who did you fuck?” He continues to rub himself against you, staring you directly in the eyes. “Come on puppy, tell me who you fucked with that damned machine.”

You can’t think, looking up at the ceiling as all the built up pressure from before was finally being let out. It felt wonderful, fantastic, so good you wanted to pull away from it.

“Who.” He stops humping you, grabbing your chin and forcing you to look down at him, “did you fuck?”

You hesitate, feeling embarrassed but Izuku wasn’t going to take silence for an answer. He presses himself up against you roughly, making you speak out. “You!” You shout, “I made the whole thing for you!”

He groaned in response, “gonna make you feel so good.”

Your back hits the soft couch in the room, Izuku’s body never straying too far from yours. He tugs at the ends of your sweatpants, and you lift your butt up to help him pull it off.

The garment is tossed to the side and his hands run up and down your thighs. He brings his face in between your legs, nudging his nose into your panties and taking a huge sniff. You let out a small gasp before he’s sliding your panties off.

He doesn’t wait before he starts to devour you. His tongue licked up the slit of your pussy as he pushed your thighs up against his shoulders.

“Oh shit-!” You squeak, propping yourself up onto your elbows to watch his green curls bounce as his head moves in between your legs. He sticks a finger inside of you before starting to suck on your clit making you drop your head back with a loud moan.

You drop onto your back, filled with helpless pleasure as your hands begin to reach for something to hold onto. Your hands find themselves in Izuku’s hair and you swear you can feel him smile into your pussy.

A feeling begins to coil in your stomach, you were close and Izuku wasn’t planning on stopping yet. You started to push his head down, moaning out desperately from him to make you cum. 

Your eyes roll to the back of your head as the feeling inside you finally comes undone, Izuku laps up your juices before tapping on your leg to let him go. Once he’s released, he crawls back over you with a sweet smile on his face, one that looks so innocent in contrast to his recent actions. You're both catching your breaths, chests heaving up and down in sync.

He kisses you, the taste of yourself still on his lips, but you're too spaced out to care, caught up in your own pleasure and excitement. Your hands begin to travel down his chest, starting to tug downwards at his pants.

He chuckles. “Can’t wait, can you?”

“Shut up and lose the pants.”

He pulls away slightly, pulling down his pants and taking his boxers with him. Your jaw slacks when you see his dick, it was bigger than how it looked on the VR. He takes pride in your reaction, a smirk reaching his lips as he crawls back on top of you.

“I never want to see you use that machine, ever again,” his mouth hovers over your ear, “when you want sex, you come to me, not some fucking piece of plastic.”

His hips move slightly before you feel the tip of his dick poking your entrance. His right hand comes up to lace fingers with yours, the two of you just staring at one another intently. Slowly his hips move forward and he starts to enter you. Your grip on his hand tightens and you hold onto his arm, pain seeping within your body as he ventures deeper inside.

He bottoms out inside you, staying completely still as you adjust to the size within you. His face is in the crook of your neck, distracting you with kissing and sweet nothings.

You gasp out the breath you hadn’t known you had been holding, a small string of curses coming out of your mouth. 

“God fuck,” he whispers. “Waited too damn long.”

The feeling of pain subsided into an uncomfortable sensation, and your legs wrapped around Izuku, forcing him to move further into you. You both moan from pleasure, and Izuku takes it as his sign to start moving, going slow in case you're still adjusting. 

You cry out for him, holding onto his arms as you pleaded for him to move faster, “please Izuku, god please.” He had you hypnotized, drunk off his kisses and intoxicated by his smell.

“Ah-mhmm, haaa-” You're unable to speak, your mouth hanging open as Izuku rocked in and out of you. He captures your mouth again, the kiss is messy which only adds more to your fantasy.

“Mm fuck” he curses as he pulls away from the kiss. You start to whine out broken praises, feeling the warmth of your upcoming orgasm starting to build up. You can’t think, not a single thought is able to process in your mind, tears begin to flow out your eyes and you cover your mouth with your hand.

Your voice threatens to scream out and the lack of oxygen makes you feel slightly light headed, the room spinning around you. He groans at your now muffled whimpers, his finger going down to your clit and starting playing with it.

It felt like time slowed down as your building up orgasm tumbled down, you stared Izuku in the eyes as your entire body just stopped functioning. He doesn’t stop though, but you can feel the long thick streams of cum spurt from his cock inside you, both of you sweaty messes.

A couple more thrusts for good measure before he collapsed on top of you. The world doesn’t come back to you yet, you basically been fucked dumb. You start to catch your breath, struggling with the heavy weight on top of your body.

“Izuku?” You whisper. No reply.

You move your head to look at him, the man was knocked out. A small groan escapes you as you start to wiggle, accidentally pushing Izuku off the couch and onto the floor when you attempt to lift him.

“Shit,” you curse. 

Looking around the room, you had almost forgotten where you were, what you were doing, and you totally just took advantage of your best friend as he was not in his right mind. He was under the influence of the side effects of the VR and you completely took advantage of that! 

Your hands begin to run through your hair as a million thoughts processed through your head at once. Holy shit, you actually just had sex with Izuku Midoryia, who is not only the number one hero, your best client, and your literal best friend.

Would he be disgusted? Mortified, maybe he would feel bad for you. “Fuck!” You curse again, hopping off the couch and searching for your clothes. Oh shit, Mei! Who knows how long you had been in here with him, what if she had seen you?!

You quickly put your clothes back on, before grabbing Izuku’s boxers and attempting to put them back on him. It was the least you could do, after you exploited him. You fold his pants up and place them neatly on the couch before walking over to the door and pulling at it again. It still wouldn’t budge!

Wait a minute…this was test chamber number 5 right?

Instead of pulling at the door, you give it a small push and it opens easily. “No…fucking-” you mutter under your breath.

You quickly exit the room, giving Izuku’s unconscious body one last look before you swiftly make your way to the exit. He’d be fine, those test chambers were one of the safest places in Musutafu.

“I’m sorry Izuku.” 

It had been a week, a whole week of you arriving to work stupidly early and leaving just before Izuku’s patrol schedule would give him enough time to stop by. A whole week of ignoring all the messages you’d been receiving on your phone, most of them from Izuku.

It was a Wednesday morning, Mei would be coming in quite late since she had to run some errands across town. You were currently on a small break, taking small bites of your oatmeal as you watched your favorite show on your laptop.

But you couldn’t focus. A million thoughts and each of them were about Izuku, the way he made your body feel, the sounds that came out of him, how his tongue felt in between your legs. 

There was no way you could ever look at Izuku the same again. How could you ever apologize for what you did, and to make matters worse, you just left him half-naked in that chamber.

What could he possibly have to say to you?

“Hey.”

You clicked the spacebar on your laptop, pausing the show and turning over to the door of your office. Izuku stood there dressed in his regular clothes with a bag strapped over his shoulder.

Your eyes widen but you're quick to mask your look of surprise with an awkward smile. “Hey.”

A moment of silence passes before you clear your throat. “It’s um, very early, what are you doing here?”

He doesn’t say anything, almost like he forgot himself. “Oh yeah…My suit, it’s um…ripped.”

You hate that Mei isn’t here so you can’t just throw this onto her. With a small sigh you get up from your chair, tossing your blanket aside and walking over to Izuku. “Come on, let’s get that fixed up.”

No matter what happens between you and Izuku, you still would never want him to go somewhere else to fix his suit. It’s like cheating on your hairdresser. 

It was unbearably silent between you two. Your plan was to act like Friday never happened but it was easier said than done, just seeing Izuku made you want to clench your legs together. 

“You haven’t been answering my messages, or calls.”

There it was, the elephant in the room. How were you supposed to act like nothing happened between you two, when you’ve been ignoring him for the whole week!

“My phone has been acting weird, I think it might be broken,” you mutter out a lame excuse as you take Izuku’s suit out the bag and lay it out on the table.  Like hell he would believe that. Your best friend could make a whole new brand of phone that would be 100 times better than any phone you could buy now.

He only clicks his tongue and nods and you begin to look over the suit for the damage. “It’s over here,” you almost squeak as you feel a chest press up behind you, Izuku leaning over you to point at where the rips were.

“Thanks,” you mutter out breathlessly, his actions not helping to the throbbing in between your legs. The way his abs felt pressed against your back reminded you of how he held you up against that wall, humping himself in between your legs to pleasure himself and you. 

You stop yourself before you lean back into Izuku, moving away from his arms and over to the waist of the suit. If you didn’t know any better, you could say the marks looked intentional. Just too clean to be from a battle, and too straight to not have been done on purpose.

Should you say something? Why would Izuku cut his suit on purpose? No, no, just fix the suit and get him out of here.

You walk over to the nearby computer, typing in a few codes before the table you had set the suit on begins to move, it descended into the floor before it was covered by a glass panel. Some robot hands appeared out from the side before beginning to work on the repairs.

You finish typing on the computer, “alright, should be about 5 minutes.”

“Can we talk?”

A strong smell of bleach enters your nose, the process of repairing is almost done, and is now on the cleaning cycle. The smell is so strong you can’t find yourself to reply to Izuku. “Is it just me, or does that bleach smell really strong?”

“No-”

The smell irritates your mind, it doesn’t help that your heart is racing too. “Geez, that smell is strong,” you breathe out, stumbling out of the cleaning room for some fresh air. Izuku follows behind and though you’ve left the heavily scented room your mind is beginning to spiral. 

“Y/n, please, I just wanna talk-” he pleads, but you couldn’t listen if you wanted to run down by fatigue. 

“Yesh, yeah, we can talk, just wait here” you put your hand up to stop him. “I’m gonna go get some water.”

He stands still as you make your way to the cafeteria in the building. The cleaning room was quite a ways away now but the annoying smell of lemon bleach clouded your nostrils. You don’t even make it to the cafeteria before you sprint into a nearby bathroom and start to puke your guts out. You attempted to keep your hair from falling into the toilet bowl, but it was quite difficult as you emptied your stomach into the toilet.

You weren’t used to throwing up, you never really drank to that point, and your stomach was normally quite strong when it came to bad food. You stop puking, and rest your face onto the side of the toilet as you catch your breath.

You rub your stomach, it was strange for you to just become sick all of a sudden. Weakly your hand comes up to flush the toilet, and you carefully lift yourself up off the floor. You trudge out the bathroom, leaning against the wall as you take a second to catch your breath.

 A weird smell hits your nose, making you want to vomit all over again, and it was coming from outside the bathroom. You walk over to the door and open it, catching one of the building  workers who was carrying a plate of food off guard. “Ma’am?” She asks.

“What is that? It smells terrible.” 

She brings the plate in front of you, before taking off the cover to show a very beautifully plated breakfast. It looked absolutely delicious, but the sight and smell of it was going to make you throw up again.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” you quickly run back into the bathroom as your mouth waters, starting to vomit into the toilet again. The worker follows, placing her tray of food onto the bathroom counter before walking over to help.

She grabs your hair and holds it up, a smooth hand running up and down your back. She lets out a small chuckle, “I was the same way when I first got pregnant.”

Pregnant? 

“But--” You try to speak in between breaths, “I’m not pregnant?”

The worker only shushes you, continuing to rub your back. Her words still don’t leave your mind, and now that you think about it, you and Izuku definitely didn’t use a condom, and he was too out of his mind to pull out.

It’s way too early for you to be showing signs this heavily though right?

Right?

The vomiting stops and you sit there and take a moment to catch your breath. The worker stands up, “I’m going to get you some soup, my mother used to make it when I was pregnant, it doesn’t have any strong smells so you’ll be able to eat peacefully.”

She opens one of the cabinets in the bathroom and grabs you a few small white towels, placing them next to you before exiting. You flush the toilet again before slowly standing up, grabbing one of the towels and running some warm water on it. 

You drag the cloth over your mouth, wiping away any residue that might be left from your previous puking session.

Pregnant? This couldn’t be real, the universe had to be just toying with you, punishing you for taking advantage of Izuku.

As you stand there, the weight of the possibility settling in, you can't help but feel overwhelmed. Thoughts race through your mind as you try to process the implications of the situation. The worker returns with a bowl of soup, and you gratefully accept it, hoping it will help settle your stomach.

The take out bowl, lifting the lid she had put on it to glance at the soup. She was right, it was odorless, and looked delicious. "Thank you," you manage to say, your voice still shaky.

She gives you a kind smile. "You're welcome, dear. Take your time and eat slowly. It'll help you feel better."

You leave the bathroom with the soup in hand, avoiding the cleaning room where you had left Izuku and entering your office. 

 Mei turned to you, her laptop was still closed which meant she probably just got here. “Whoa you look like shit.”

“Thanks,” you say swifty, grabbing your bag from a nearby couch. “I’m not feeling well so I’m gonna go home, I have a really bad stomach bug.”

Mei eyes you suspiciously, she had gotten into the habit of doing that after your refusal to tell her what happened last week. With the damages to the VR set, and your constant avoidance of Izuku, it was hard to say nothing happened.

“And this has nothing to do with Deku, who’s currently coming up to the office now.”

Shit. “Nope, nothing! Okay bye!” You burst out of the office and hurried to the elevators, spamming the button so you could get down to the garage floor. 

As you anxiously wait for the elevator, your mind races with thoughts of how to handle the situation. You can't face Izuku right now, not when you're still processing the possibility of being pregnant. The elevator doors finally open, and you step inside, relieved to have a momentary escape.

Once you reach the ground floor, you rush to your car in the garage, hoping to make a quick getaway. You start the engine and speed out of the parking lot, the weight of the situation weighing heavily on your shoulders.

Driving aimlessly until you find yourself on a quiet street, parked by the side of the road. Tears well up in your eyes as you struggle to come to terms with everything. You feel mixed emotions. What will this mean for your relationship with Izuku? And if you are pregnant, what choices will you have to make?

You take a deep breath, trying to steady your emotions. It's clear that you can't continue avoiding Izuku or the situation at hand. Things had just gotten very serious and it was time to face the truth and have an honest conversation with him. You reach for your phone, intending to call him but stop when it rings. He was calling you.

You hesitate. Maybe you should wait. Just until you have some more information. The uncertainty of the situation weighs heavily on your decision-making process. Once Izuku’s call ends you quickly grab your phone, opening your search browser and searching up how early signs can show, and what the symptoms were.

The internet seemed to make it worse, listing each of your symptoms in many different articles. Before you know it you’re starting to cry, small sobs leaving your mouth.

You stared at one of the articles, a huge text practically mocking you. ‘It’s going to be okay!’ But it wasn’t,  it was not going to be okay.

Was buying a pregnancy test always so awkward? 

The long line on the one register that was open, the simple music they play to drown out the silence in the store. 

Standing with a hoodie pulled over your head and a stack of pregnancy tests in your arms, each a different brand, you can't help but feel self-conscious. The aisle you found yourself in seemed so distant from your usual shopping routine, and the music playing in the store only amplifies the awkwardness of the moment.

The weight of your situation hangs heavily on your shoulders while you wait for your turn to make the purchase. You glance around, hoping that no one you know sees you here. The line seems to move at a snail's pace, prolonging your discomfort. Each passing second feels like an eternity as you become acutely aware of the cashier's gaze and the potential judgment of other customers.

You were next in line, but the grandma that was in front of you just decided she wanted to take her sweet time. Pulling out her phone in request that the cashier explain the store’s mobile app to her. You let out a small groan of frustration, starting to tap your foot on the ground.

“Y/n?”

You freeze. Hoping that maybe whoever called your name would figure it wasn’t you.

You almost jump at the small tap of your shoulder, slowly turning around to meet the face of Uraraka. 

“Ohhh heyyy Uraraka,” you extended out the words, trying to act surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh I was just patrolling around and wanted to grab a snack,” she says with a sweet smile. “What are you-“ she glances down at the unmistakable items in your hands.

You drop all the pregnancy tests onto the conveyor belt, “I’m  just grabbing some items for a friend!” The transaction feels like it takes forever as you fumble for your wallet, your fingers seemingly incapable of functioning properly. 

“You know, Deku has been asking about you.” Her voice turns into one of worry, “he says you haven’t been answering his calls.” 

You feel a mix of relief and anxiety as Uraraka believes your hurried explanation and doesn't press further about the pregnancy tests. However, her mention of Izuku only adds to your growing unease.

"Yeah, I've just been really busy lately," you reply, attempting to sound nonchalant as you finally locate your wallet and pay for the items. "Lots of stuff going on, you know?"

Uraraka studies your face for a moment, her concern evident in her eyes. She reaches out and gently touches your arm.

"Y/n, if something's bothering you, you can always talk to me," she offers, her voice filled with sincerity.

 “Well, I really have to go.” You tell the cashier to keep the change, grabbing your plastic bag. “Bye Uraraka,” you say quickly before walking out the store. 

The one thing that could have gone wrong, went really fucking wrong. Uraraka would definitely tell Izuku that she saw you here. You purposely came out into the store when you knew Izuku would be across town patrolling so you wouldn’t have to run into him.

You look at the tests in your bag, it felt like the word ‘pregnancy’ that’s printed on the box was just mocking you. You throw the bag into the passenger seat of your car before getting in, leaning your head on the top of the steering wheel.

“Fuck…fuck!”

You contemplate your options, the right thing to do here was to stop being such a coward and tell Izuku straight up. But you weren’t going to do that, not yet. So you decided on locking yourself in your home until you gained the courage.

While navigating through the street you mind seems to torture you with all types of different sinarios , each of them ending with Izuku finding out and hating you forever.

You step out of the car, once you arrive home, and retrieve the bag of pregnancy tests from the passenger seat. As you enter your apartment, you close the door behind you, creating a barrier between yourself and the outside world. The familiar surroundings offer a temporary sanctuary, shielding you from the uncertainties that have been plaguing your mind.

You toss the bag onto the table, walking over to your fridge and taking out a gallon of water. You were going to need a lot of pee. As you chug down glass after glass, you find yourself pacing back and forth, your thoughts consumed. It is important that you stay honest with Izuku here, but fear grips you tightly.

Sitting down at the table, you reach for the bag of pregnancy tests and carefully examine them. Each test represents a potential answer to the question that has been haunting you. The longer you keep this secret, the harder it will be to face the consequences and find a resolution.

You take the bag and head to the bathroom. Filled with anxiety and hope, you follow the instructions carefully and lay out the multitude of tests you had on the counter. 

You sat on the edge of your bathtub, biting down onto your knuckles as you awaited for some form of answer, but your wait was swiftly interrupted by a knock on your door.

Startled by the knock on the door, you quickly stand up, leaving the pregnancy tests on the counter. Your heart races, wondering who could be at your door at a time like this. The interruption adds another layer of tension to an already overwhelming situation.

Your heart almost stops as you peek through the peephole, it’s Deku and he’s holding many brown bags. You want to ignore his knocks, pretend like you weren’t home. But he calls out for you.

“I know you in there. Just open up please.”

Despite the fear inside you demanding you to say no, you opened the door to your friend. “Hey.”

"Hey, Izuku," you reply, trying to keep your voice steady. "What brings you here?"

Izuku shifts nervously, his gaze flickering from your face to the ground and back again. "I've been trying to reach you, but you haven't been answering my calls or messages," he says, his voice filled with genuine worry. "I was really concerned. Are you okay?"

You swallow hard, the weight of your secret pressing heavily upon you. You're not ready to face the potential consequences and the impact it may have on your relationship with him.

"I... I've just been dealing with some personal stuff," you manage to say, though your voice quivers slightly. "I needed some time alone."

Izuku's concern deepens, and he steps closer, his eyes searching yours for answers. "Y/n, you know you can always talk to me, right? I'm here for you."

His words are filled with sincerity, and a part of you longs to open up and let him in. But the fear of his reaction and the uncertain future holds you back. You can't bear to lose his friendship, especially not now. You change the subject.

“What cha got there?” You point to the brown bags in his hands. 

“Oh- these, some grocery, figured we could make some dinner together.” He says sweetly, walking inside and placing the bags onto the countertop. “I got all the ingredients to make your favorite.”

A small smile tugs at the corners of your lips as you step closer to inspect the contents of the bags. Izuku's gesture brings a sense of comfort and normalcy to the moment.

As you unpack the groceries together, a sense of ease settles over the room. Throughout the cooking process, conversation flows easily between you. You discuss everyday topics, while he shares villain stories, and engage in laughter that momentarily lifts the weight from your heart.

“You should have seen Mei’s face, she looked more pissed than Bakugou” you chuckle as you chop the carrots. Izuku's laughter is warm, his peace bringing the same butterflies you felt in highschool to your stomach. 

 "She does have that fiery temper, doesn't she? It must have been quite a sight." He says, standing over by the large pot. You glance over at him, he looks silly with the apron you forced him to wear, but you couldn’t love him any less. It's in these moments that you realize how much you cherish his presence and the connection you share. But there is something important hanging in the air between you.

But for now, you choose to enjoy the simplicity of the present, relishing in the familiar banter that has always made your friendship special. Until a sharp pain shoots through your finger as your hand slips and the knife almost chops your thumb off.

“Shit!” You curse at the pain, holding your hand up and seeing the crimson blood flow out the wound. 

“What happened?” Izuku turns around immediately, grabbing a paper towel to help you with the bleeding. “Where’s your first aid kit?”

“The bathroom,” you say, putting pressure on the wound as he leaves the kitchen and walks down the hallway. The pain throbs through your finger, causing you to wince, but none of that matters when you remember what you had laid out in the bathroom.

The pregnancy test!

You follow Izuku's hurried footsteps with your eyes, cursing him in your mind for his quickness. The pain in your injured finger momentarily fades into the background as your thoughts are consumed by the pregnancy tests laid out in the bathroom. But it’s too late. 

He’d paused in the bathroom doorway, eyes set on the multiple pregnancy tests on the bathroom counter. You peaked over his broad shoulder, they still had yet to show results. 

Izuku turns his head slightly, glancing at you with surprise, concern, and a hint of fear in his eyes. He opens his mouth to say something, but the words seem to escape him, lost in the moment. His brows furrowed in confusion, searching for an explanation that you have yet to give.

He finally summons the courage to speak. “You’re pregnant?” 

“I-I don’t know yet,” you mutter.

He’s fully turned around now, looking at you with an intense eye. “Is this why you’ve been avoiding me? If you thought I wouldn’t take responsibility-”

“Wait- you remember that night?” The words escape your lips before you can stop yourself.

Izuku's expression softens. "Yes, I remember," he replies, his voice laced with vulnerability. "I've been trying to reach out to you, to talk about it, but you've been avoiding me."

Guilt gnaws at you, and you lower your gaze, unable to meet his eye. "I didn't know how to face you, Izuku. I was scared and confused. I took advantage of you…."

“Took advantage?” He repeats humorously. “Y/n…I was well aware of what I was doing. If anything, I took advantage of you.”

Now you were at a loss for words. You stutter as the guilt and self-blame that had been weighing heavily on you start to dissipate. “No, no, it was a side effect, from the VR.”

“Well, maybe it influenced me,” he shakes his head. “But it was you I had in that simulation, and when I saw you in the room with me, I couldn’t help myself.”

You stand there, stunned by Izuku's words. "Izuku," you say. "I didn't know. I thought I had crossed a line, that I had taken advantage of you."

He reaches out, gently wiping away a tear from your cheek. A wave of warmth spreads through your chest. The barriers that had kept you apart crumble, and a renewed sense of closeness envelops you both.

But the moment is interrupted by a loud beep from one of the electronic tests you had bought. With a quick glance at each other, you both swiftly made your way back into the bathroom, each test fading in a result. 

Not Pregnant. 

You could almost pass out from the relief you felt, another tear slipping out your eye. You begin to laugh at yourself, a self-deprecating laugh.

Izuku puts his hand on your shoulder, pulling you close. “What’s so funny?”

“I was so stressed out for nothing,” you say with a sigh. “I literally thought my life was over.”

He pouts, “and what’s so life ruining about being pregnant with my kid?”

You can't help but chuckle at Izuku's playful response, his words easing the tension that had built up inside you. You lean into his embrace, feeling a sense of warmth and comfort enveloping you.

"You're right," you reply, a smile tugging at the corners of your lips. "Being pregnant with your child doesn't sound so bad after all."

“Great.” He says, lifting you up easily into his arms. “Then you won’t mind trying again.” 

©LuvloveUni

[pumpkinsy0]

i am a free person and i want to make another portal 2 au with pony and curly so fuck it, i love robots and i love purly so hear we go

(for context atlas and pbody are robots made to be test subjects essentially, by glados, basically their robot boss, the blue one is atlas and the orange one is pbody)

•pony is pbody and curly is atlas, AND NO ITS NOT BC OF THE COLOR MATCHING, its bc atlas is the more combative or at least more risk taking and apprehensive than pbody, while pbody is more open to new things

•yes they were made only to test and not to have fear or pride or anything like that but i say let them LOVE, which does canonically happen between atlas and pbody, they obviously r close to each other, so im making pony and curly robots GAY

•when theyre testing and either pony or curly gets crushed and dismantled the other just sits there kinda sadly cause chances are it was actually their fault</333

•they still do test because thats literally what theyre designed to do so they cant stop but they are obviously upset

•BUT ITS ALL GOOD CAUSE THEYRE PUT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN WOOOOOO

•yea they were designed to be cooperative and trustful towards each other, but i think it would be funny if curly was purposely trying to b a dickhead and is single handedly the reason why they take so long to complete test chambers, dude is pressing every button he sees just to mess w pony, hes placing his portals sloppily, its really a mess

•in my other au i made angela glados so fuck it thats still the same thing here, angela treats pony and curly like theyre her disappointing employees (which they are)

•in this au, pony and curly are made up of personality cores that used to be attached to angela to make her more controlable, and it lowkey kinda shows in pony and curly, they r both made with the curiosity, intelligence, adventure, fact, and morality core (for angelas peace of mind that they wont go behind her back and try to dismantle her lol)

•pony and curly like switching each others portal guns bc they like the colors, doesnt give them any special ability they just like the color switch up lol

•the entire testing facility is pretty run down and over run with flowers and vines n stuff and sometimes they walk around bc they have no test to do just yet so they just pick up the leaves n flowers and give it to the other cause wtf else r they gonna do, go on a dinner date??

•like i said before, sometimes they get crushed/destroyed bc they messed up on a test and somethin fell on them or they fell down this big whole or whatever, but they do get put back together, WELL, sometimes the other just, watches them get put back together again, its mesmerizing kinda just seeing how the person u like is made up!!! thats their thought process watching the other get fixed

•i wanna say btw that both pony and curly are both robots, but they dont look like atlas and pbody, they r humanized😭😭

SO YEA PORTAL AU WOOOO I LOVE PORTAL, thats all the hcs i have for now but if i think of more i WILL ramble about it

[skeksha97]

SkekSha and SkekShod Song Fic Ft. SkekSo at the end:

This song fic is inspired by the new song “Lovely Liar” by Stevie Howie but I will be improvising a few words to fit the Skeksis side of things. I highly encourage you guys to check out the actual song as it is really good and worth a listen.

One night SkekSha was heading to her chambers when she was suddenly pulled against a wall by SkekShod and he said acting really suspicious as he knew that another male Skeksis definitely staked their claim to her due to all the love bites on SkekSha’s neck. He then said with an angry hiss as he started to sinisterly sing “Ah, Did you get your fill?” At first SkekSha had no clue what he was talking about as she answered “What are you talking about SkekShod?” Only for him to continue on “How did he make it feel?” To which SkekSha replied understanding now “Oh SkekShod if only you knew.” As she tried to walk away only for him to pin her to the wall again as he continued on “And how did you conceal the moans? Oh I bet it was real.” This started to anger SkekSha a little bit as she said “I don’t have to answer any of that!” To which he replied “Oh I wanna know his name. The one you screamed like Thra’s in vain. Cause I know you don’t have no shame.”

Only causing SkekSha to say with a growl now “SkekShod stop it!” As he only continued on and said “Yeah, tell me when you came to meet him for drinks.” She then said getting more unnerved by this “SkekShod I said stop it! What happens in my personal life is none of your business!” As he again adds on noting the fact that she no longer wears a ring he once gifted to her about a trine ago “Ahh, tell me when you took off the ring.” SkekSha then said “SkekShod I never said I wanted you to get me anything when you gave me that ring plus it wasn’t really fitting my style of fashion sorry to be real with you.” SkekShod however only prodded on as he said “Yeah, how long did it take for him to get you on the floor?” She then finally said “Fine! If you really want to know the details I can start by saying that it didn’t take my admirer long at all.”

SkekShod then went on again as he said “I don’t know how it could be worse then what’s in my head. See a new stain on your side of the bed. Next to a note that you left unread. You were busy doing something else instead.” Only for her to add on “SkekShod you know that bedding other male Skeksis is something I’ve always done since I was given my title by SkekSo himself! Someone needs to keep an eye on the court in away that not even SkekZok can.” Ignoring her however, SkekShod said “You put a black hole inside my mind and I don’t want to fill it with a happy lie. I’d rather hear the worst than a false reply.” To which she replied knowing now that SkekShod now is just provoking her “SkekShod!” Only for him to add on again “Spill it all, baby, don’t be shy.”

SkekSha then turned to leave again feeling annoyed more than anything until SkekShod grabbed her again and said “My lovely liar, I praise you while you’re creeping on me. I almost admire the way you sweeten shit like honey.” She then said with a growl “SkekShod stop it! You do not want to test me!” Only for SkekShod to say back “Do you think I’m that naive?” To which she shook her head as she said “No SkekShod I know you aren’t.” As he answered “To pull the rug out under me? My lovely liar.” To which she said “SkekShod I said stop it!” Only for him to say yet again “My lovely liar, my lovely liar.” She then said finally snapping “SkekShod I am a Skeksis same as you! It is in my nature to lie to other Skeksis. It’s no different than when the rest of you do it. I’m sorry but it’s my job to keep an eye on things as ordered my the Emperor.”

SkekShod then added on again continuing to provoke her “Oh, now you wanna go back?” “Put it in the past?” To which she answered “I never said that SkekShod now if you would please excuse me!” As he added on again “While you still got bite marks on your neck and I’m not the Skeksis who gave you that.” To which she replied “I’m very aware you’re not and I don’t think you really want to know who is because that encounter probably won’t end well for you!” SkekShod though continued on “Can’t go back to before I knew you let another soul get close to you.” This immediately caused SkekSha to answer back “Ah, possessive are we? I knew you were when it came to treasures but I had no idea you felt this way about female Skeksis to SkekShod.” Only for SkekShod to add on for the final time about done with this conversation “Now I don’t want to know what else you did. I think I might actually die from this.” SkekSha thought said being the Peacemaker that she is and trying to resolve the whole thing “No you won’t SkekShod. Eventually you will find the right female Skeksis for you. That Skeksis just isn’t going to be me.”

Just then the two bickering Skeksis hear a dominating and commanding voice say “Treasurer that is quite enough!” This caused SkekShod to jump in surprise until both he and SkekSha turned to see SkekSo standing there as he said “What goes on in the Peacemaker’s personal life is no concern to you. Do I make myself clear?” To which SkekShod slowly nods as he replies “Yes Emperor, very clear.” Not wanting to be on the receiving end of SkekSo’s wrath again SkekShod wisely leaves. Once he does so and SkekSo is sure they are alone he says softly and in a much more loving tone then his normal court tone of voice “Are you alright my love? I overheard everything he said and knew I had to act.” SkekSha nodded in reply as she said “Yes, thanks to you.” Causing SkekSo to reply as he now walked her to her room “If any Skeksis talks like that to you again tell me.” She nodded at this as she said “Yes Emperor, I promise I will” Afterwards, the two fell asleep in SkekSha’s bed. SkekSo feeling extra protective over SkekSha as he protectively wrapped an arm around her.

[taruruchi]

TARU AND ASHI W ❝Wanna go and grab some food with me? My treat.❞ 👁👁????? it can work either way cause they both have connections to monstro lounge HAHAH

I LOVED WRITING THIS SOSO MUCH!! Thank you for your idea, I absolutely loved it, and I hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing <33

“Ashiiii!”

Taruchi ran up to the girl who was just leaving her classroom. She knew the class had just finished a test and she wanted to surprise her friend. Who wouldn't want good food after a test, right?

The grin on Ashi's face brightened as she caught sight of Taruchi. “Heya, Taru!” she happily chirped, putting her arm around Taruchi's shoulder. “Didn't expect to see you outside my classroom! Don't you usually head to Ramshackle right after classes end?”

“Ahaha, yeah,” Taruchi admitted, embarrassed. Such is the life of a major introvert, sadly.

“But I remember you worrying over assignments and stuff since we have a lot,” she continued, “and I thought maybe you'd wanna go to the Mostro Lounge and grab some food with me? My treat!”

“For realsies?!” Ashi exclaimed, almost resembling a puppy with its tail wagging. “Yeah, let's go!” She grabbed Taruchi's hand and started running for the Mirror Chamber.

Laughing, Taruchi ran and tried to keep up with Ashi. “Slow down, you might bump into people!”

“Ah, Ashi, are you here to work today?” Jade greeted at the entrance, formal as usual with just a touch of underlying... passive-aggressiveness? As if he was trying to coerce someone. In all honesty, Taruchi was still afraid of him sometimes.

Ashi happily shook her head, either oblivious or simply ignoring Jade's intimidating sort of aura. “Nope! Not an employee today but a customer!”

“I'm treating her today,” Taruchi said, waving from just a bit behind the girl in front of her. “Hi, Jade.”

“Oh? If it isn't Shrimpy and our manager.”

Somehow Floyd had sneaked up behind them. He had a grin on his face as he ruffled their hair, earning complaints from the two girls.

“Floyd, you messed up my hair!” Taruchi frowned and reached up to straighten it.

However, Ashi was busy looking at her incredulously. “How did you become the manager? Has Azul been overthrown?” Her stunned expression quickly turned into excitement. “Queen! As you should! Can I get a raise?”

“I would if I could,” Taruchi replied, rasing a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh. Yes, she had a relatively high position here now, but... “It's a difficult story. I can at least get you free food.”

Nodding solemnly, Ashi realized, “Now I understand why people run restaurants. It's for the free food. I should just come here with you every time I want food.” Clearly this seemed like a brilliant plan to her, and really, it was.

Taruchi shook her head, smiling fondly. “Sure, I'd love to come here with you more.” She looped her arm with Ashi's. “Now let's go and find a table.”

They marched over to a table by one of the windows, and just beyond the glass was a whole sea of fish and other living creatures, corals and seaweed living harmoniously to make the place as stunning as it is. Could there ever be a more tranquilizing place than this? The owner clearly thought this through, making the windows as big as they are to capitalize on the ocean's natural beauty.

“You like the sea that much?”

Ashi's voice pulled Taruchi back to reality.

“Ah, w-was I staring? I'm sorry, I got distracted,” she apologized. “Sometimes I come here just to do that, it takes my mind off things.”

Ashi shook her head, making it known she didn't mind. “It's all good! It is very pretty and totally hypesies! Plus, that's a nice fun fact to know about you.”

The atmosphere matched that of the view—as if you were peacefully floating through the currents as a jellyfish would. For a long time, it had been hard for this wallflower to match the energy of most people, but maybe it was different this time. Judging from the flow of their time spent together...

It seems like this would be a good friendship.

[apertures-angel-archive]

1 5 and 11 for the selfship ask game 💕

awaaaa hi sorry i just saw this... will answer for both

1- How does your F/O respond to seeing you hurt or upset? Do they act caring, immediately go into “who do I have to beat up” mode, or both? they both become violent but caring, but yag.orath becomes very Very "im gonna kill whoever harmed you" until i tell her that i like tripped or something aha, while g.lados prioritizes making sure any cuts are disinfected n whatnot

5- Do you and your F/O sleep together at night? Is there a specific sleeping arrangement? Who hogs the blankets and pillows? yag.orath and i do, she wraps herself around me hehe so not much to worry about regarding! i flip between us having a giant bed or sleeping on a buncha soft stuff on the floor. she Big, so g.lados only "sleeps" when she's using her bipedal chassis, and she does sleep in the same bed as i do! she doesn't use blankets tho, and if i wanna lay my head on her i gotta put a pillow between us. metal n stuff is hard! she loves laying on me as well hehe

11- Does your F/O have any creative hobbies? If so, what are they? If you have similar hobbies, do you and your F/O encourage each other or work together at all? i suppose you could say g.lados' creative hobby is making test chambers? oh and singing and baking of course! i like watching her make new chambers if i can, n we sing and bake together a lot!! yag.orath i feel like is so new to a mundane lifestyle that she hasn't even thought about creative hobbies yet, but she does enjoy watching me draw n cook n stuff!

[comfort-charrie-berry]

TimeCrossed (Portal fic) Chapter 1: Chelsea

This is a completely self indulgent fic. XD Me and my friend have been plotting out Portal fics for a month or so now, and I decided to start posting the one I've been working on because it brings me SUCH JOY.

Disclaimer: I know there are a TON of Chelley fics out there, I haven't ready very many, (I can't wait to read Blue Sky!) but if it seems like I stole an idea or anything from someone, I promise I did not mean to. Just wanna make it clear that I don't wanna steal anybody's work!

Word count: 783

Warnings: None!

Enjoy! -Berry🍓

Wheatley typed away at his computer, trying to figure out the best way to finance the next testing chamber by the prize winning, “Dr. David of Aperture Laboratories.”

His office mate came in and sat down in his chair, reaching to turn on his computer. 

“Morning. How’re the numbers looking? Mighty fine? Or just fine? Or, worse case scenario, pretty messy?” 

Wheatley huffed. “Oh you know Richard, the usual. Not enough zeros for a raise but just enough for three more tests. Y-yeah, three more complicated white rooms…So science is getting done at least! Which, isn’t great for us, is it?  Good for the company I suppose.” 

Richard started looking over the spread sheets. “Dang. At least we have enough money to put more peoples lives at stake for the sake of adventure. Or ‘science’.” 

Wheatley didn’t fully trust the company, no one really did, but he wasn’t directly involved with the questionable stuff. He just typed numbers and got a paycheck to pay mortgage and get his mother more medicine for her arthritis. 

He glanced at the photo of his mother on the desk next to his monitor. 

He had grown taller than her when he was only fourteen and didn’t stop growing for several more years. Now he was the official “top shelf reacher” for her. But these days, he had to reach a lot for her. 

His smile faded and he kept typing, focusing on hundreds of numbers and counting how many hours until they could go home.

There was a knock on the door. 

“Come in.” Richard responded. 

Wheatley didn’t look up until he heard a woman’s voice. 

“Hi. I’m here with the latest reports you guys needed? Something about,” she flipped through the pages quickly, “more weighted testing cubes and spheres? And the cost of lightweight metal for future robot designs?” 

Richard turned to her. “Wow, such bad news sent from such a good looking lady.” 

She rolled her eyes and shoved the papers into his hands without a word.

Richard rolled his eyes and went back to work.

She looked over at Wheatley and her look of annoyance softened to a smile. “Oh, and here, I have a copy for you too.”

He slowly took them from her, examining her familiar face.

“T-thank you. Um…Have I seen you around here before? I feel like I would’ve remembered seeing such a lovely young lady like you around here.” He winked. 

Richard looked at them both and rolled his eyes. “Don’t flirt with the bosses daughter mate. You’ll get us both fired.” 

Wheatley panicked. “O-oh! You’re Dave’s daughter? That’s why you look so familiar! Man alive! I can see the resemblance. Not that you look like a man of course! It’s just that…you know the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! S-so they say. You must be Chell? It’s Chell right?? Or am I not remembered correctly?” 

She laughed and he felt his heart tighten.

“I’m Chelsea. So, you were close! You can call me Chell if you want.” 

He blushed. “Alright, C-Chell it is. Sorry for um…yeah.” “He’s always been this bad at talking since he was young.” Richard cut in. Wheatley shot Richard a look and then focused on Chell again. “And t-thank you for bringing in the latest numbers. It helps us um…with our, our job. You know. Just…counting the numbers…”

She smiled and nodded. “Of course, Wheatley.” 

He blinked. “You know who I am?” 

Chell bit back a laugh. “You’re wearing a name tag.” 

He looked down at the tag clipped to his shirt and embarrassment flooded over him. “Ah yes…I appear to be.” 

She chuckled and pat his shoulder before leaving the office. 

Wheatley watched her go and his eyes stayed on the door after she’d closed it behind herself. The feeling of her touch on his shoulder lingered.

Richard glanced over at him. “That was painful to witness.” 

Wheatley snapped back into reality. “You flirted first!” 

“I know how to flirt. And I also now know why you’ve never brought a girl to the Christmas party.” 

“Because no woman knows a perfectly great guy when they see one of course!” 

Richard smiled. “Suuure. That’s the answer and not your terrible flirting skills.” 

“I made her laugh!” 

“Ah yes, so clearly she wants to get married and grow old with you.” 

Wheatley froze at the thought and felt his face heat up. Richard noticed the pink in his buddy’s face and laughed hard. “Oh come on! You can’t be this hopeless! You just met the lady!”

Wheatley focused on his computer again and ignored his friend’s laughter. 

Chapter two here!

[imaginary-portal]

Neighbors - Part One

Bucky x Fem Reader

Word Count: ~2k

Summary: Y/N works in the Avengers compound with her boyfriend Jonathan. Bucky Barnes lives in the room next door and finds himself falling for Y/N.

Part Two

Masterlist

Enjoy!

_________

"Y/N? Are you with us?" Y/N snapped her head up. She didn't realize she was staring off into space. The recent sleep deprivation has been costly. So costly that occasionally she sleeps with her eyes open. This meeting was important to plan the attack for the next mission. "Yeah. Sorry." She looked around the room, embarrassed. Bucky Barnes shifted in his seat. Y/N sparked his curiosity. He'd noticed her when he first entered the room, but he wasn't sure why she was there. Half of the room was filled with Avengers, the other half was experts and strategists. "Any suggestions?" Tony asked her, testing her attention span. "I'll have to think on it." Y/N said casually. "How about we take a lunch break. Clear our minds. Meet back here in 30 minutes?" Steve suggested. "Sorry, no one told me you're in charge of meetings now." Tony remarked. "Come on Tony. Look around. Everyone's tired. We'll figure it out after." Steve did have a point. Y/N wasn't the only one who looked drained.

During her lunch break, Y/N went back to her room, where she took a quick power nap. Bucky followed behind her, realizing his room was right next to hers. He wanted to know who she was, so he waited in his room until the lunch break was almost over. He left his room the same time as her. "Hey neighbor." Y/N said, looking refreshed. "Hi. I'm Bucky." Y/N shook his non-metal hand. "I know. I'm Y/N, I work in strategy." Bucky nodded, walking along Y/N's side in the hall. "Ah, that's why you were so tired. They overwork you." Y/N nodded. "Precisely. But I've never enjoyed a job as much as this one. I mean come on, I get free meals and lodging. Who'd pass that up?" The two of them laughed as they reentered the meeting room. "Y/N, welcome back. I'm ready to hear your ideas." Tony pressured her immediately.

_________

When the meeting finally ended, everyone left to grab dinner. Y/N sat with one of her colleagues, where they continued the discussion of the meeting. Her wandering glance noticed several times that Bucky was looking at her. He was sitting with the rest of the Avengers, who were talking about getting suit upgrades. Even though he couldn't hear her, he liked the way she talked with people. She seemed very enthusiastic and educated. "Oh, you like smart girl over there?" Natasha said quietly as motioned her head towards Y/N. Bucky shook his head, not realizing how long he'd been watching her. "No, I just didn't know who she was." Natasha smiled. "It's fine Bucky. You see him over there?" She pointed to a security guard in the corner of the room. He looked off into the distance to see the attractive man. Bucky looked back at Natasha, who wiggled her eyebrows. "We all have a normal person that we're interested in." Bucky looked back at Y/N and watched as a man approached her, interrupting her conversation. Y/N looked up at the man with a smile. The man bent down to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Natasha hissed. "Oh, she's taken. Sorry bud." Bucky looked down at his food, no longer interested in anything beyond his plate.

_________

The next day, the team had a successful mission. It did include some hasty improvising that Tony planned to discuss with Y/N about. He was still wearing his iron suit and had scratches on his face but he wanted to be sure Y/N wrote down his critiques. Y/N walked outside, seeing the Avengers standing in a circle, Steve and Natasha sitting on the ground. A medic cleaned up their wounds as Y/N spoke with Tony. Bucky watched the conversation keenly. Y/N took notes and was very receptive to the critiques. For a moment she seemed to be more patient with Tony than Steve was. That was, until she disagreed with Tony on something. Tony claimed that a mistake was due to her strategy but she believed it had to do with his suit. "Let's test it right now. Stand up there, fly down and blast that trash can." Y/N was confident. Tony did as she said, proving her to be right. "I'll let you get away with that for now." Was all Tony said before walking inside. Y/N scribbled something down in her notebook, smiling to herself. When she looked up, she caught eyes with Bucky, maintaining her smile before walking inside.

_________

The team split up for the next mission. Each strategist was assigned an Avenger to tackle individual weaknesses. Since Y/N showed up pretty well to Tony, she got promoted to Chief Strategist. Therefore, she was given the hardest team member to work with: Bucky. Bucky was only hard to work with because he doesn't engage with people often. He likes to have a plan and the less that plan involves other people the better. What Y/N would find, however, is that Bucky is easy to work with, so she didn't exactly understand what people meant by that.

Y/N entered the meeting room with a computer and notepad. Bucky sat at the table, relieved to see Y/N as his strategist. Y/N sat across from him and logged onto her laptop. "So, what do you feel is your biggest weakness on missions?" She stood up to plug her laptop into the projector. Bucky watched her as he tried to think of his answer. "I guess it would be that I can't fly so I'm always stuck on the ground. I rarely have a height leverage." Y/N nodded, sitting back down. "What if I told you that doesn't really put you at a disadvantage?" Bucky furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "I mean, if flying was the main priority for a mission, only half of the team would be going. After looking at some of Tony's footage, it looks to me that your main weakness is your range." Y/N played a clip on the projector that showed Bucky falling because he couldn't reach behind him. "That metal arm isn't so flexible, yeah?" Bucky sat, astonished. "Yeah, you know what, you're right. I never realized that before." Y/N nodded, typing something on her computer. "So I scheduled you some training sessions this week. They're gonna teach you some new combat moves and flexibility, so it shouldn't be as much of a problem anymore." Bucky nodded, content with the plan.

"Wow. That was easy." Y/N said. "They told me you were the hardest to work with but if I was with Tony I'd be in a meeting for hours." They both laughed as Y/N shut her laptop. "So how's the compound life treating you?" Y/N switched topics. Bucky shrugged. "I mean I can't complain. I've spent a lot of time living in torture chambers." Y/N nodded, understanding the seriousness of the conversation. "I read that in your file. Are you getting any help for dealing with that stuff? You know, mental health is just as important as your physical health." Bucky shrugged again, not really answering her question. "Well there's a lot of resources here so use whatever you need. Not to sound corny, but I'm also available if you ever need someone to talk to. You know where my room is. My door is always open, unless my boyfriend is sleeping, in which case I advise you not to come to our door." Y/N laughed, realizing the ramble she went on. “Wanna grab lunch? I’m starving.” Bucky took up her offer, walking by her side in the halls. Along the way, he got a whiff of her perfume, which was a pleasant and enticing scent.

“Are you single? I can hook you up with my friend Clara. She’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet.” Bucky shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich. “Thank you but I’m not interested in a relationship right now.” Bucky lied. To tell the truth he was lonely. To tell another truth he was interested in Y/N. “Understandable.” Y/N said as Bucky swallowed his food. “So what’s your boyfriend like?” Y/N bit her lip as she thought of the perfect way to describe him. “Jonathan works over in aircraft. He’s very logical, focused. He has big plans here.” Bucky raised his eyebrows. “What about you? Do you have plans here?” Y/N nodded, poking around at her side salad. “I do, but they’re not as ambitious as his, you know? I’m already Chief of Strategy so I’m not sure how much further I can go.” Bucky shook his head. “Don’t limit yourself. I can tell you got potential.” Y/N smiled at his compliment. “Thanks Bucky, you’re a nice guy. What about you? Do plan to stay here, work government contracts?” Bucky nodded. “For now. But I guess wherever Steve goes I’ll go.” Y/N awed. “That’s sweet. I love a good friendship.” They both sat in an awkward silence as they thought of something to say. “What do you do for fun?” Bucky scrunched his eyebrows. “I don’t do anything.” Y/N rolled her eyes. “Come on. You gotta do something. You like music? Movies?” Bucky shrugged. “40s music is nice.” Y/N's eyes beamed. "Oh you must know Frank Sinatra, yeah?" Bucky nodded. "Yeah he's all right." Y/N took a large bite of food. "Classic." she said with a mouthful.

"Well, well, well, if it ain't two troublemakers." A man approached the table from behind Y/N. "Jonathan!" Y/N said, excited. She pulled out the chair next to her and the man took a seat, plopping his food on the table. "As you may know, this is Bucky." Y/N tried introducing the two, and Bucky corrected her by saying "James" as he shook Jonathan's hand. Y/N's eyebrow wrinkled. "You do nice work out there, kicking ass." Jonathan complimented as he began eating. Bucky nodded and looked down at his food, no longer interested in conversation. "How's aircraft today?" Y/N asked Jonathan. "Stupid, as usual." Y/N playfully rolled her eyes, but Bucky took him seriously. "What's stupid about it?" Jonathan swallowed and wiped a crumb out of the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "Everyone is so caught up in team work when sometimes things could be faster if we just worked alone." Y/N chuckled to herself. "Easy for you to say when you know everything that goes on there. Not everyone is as advanced as you." Bucky held back an eye roll, growing a distaste for the way Y/N was feeding the man's ego. Jonathan caught onto this, sensing a feeling of disapproval from Bucky. "You'll see. Things will be better once I'm promoted to supervisor." No one replied, instead eating more food.

"So how did you two meet? Is Bucky not logical enough or something?" Jonathan tried cracking a joke. "No, we just split up into groups so everyone needed help." Y/N rebutted. Jonathan shook his head. "They just say that to make the weaker ones feel better. The airborne Avengers: Iron Man, Vision, Falcon, their combat is much more calculated, less error." Y/N smacked Jonathan's shoulder. Bucky expressed an eye roll this time. He didn't know why he was still sitting with this obnoxious couple. "Be nice. And that's not true. Remember when I told you I proved Tony wrong about his suit versus my strategy?" Jonathan shook his head, a confused look on his face. "Well anyways, that's how I got promoted. I'm at a higher rank than you now." She stuck her tongue out a Jonathan, who gave her a kiss on the lips, smirking at Bucky as he pulled away. Y/N regained composure, wiping a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry Bucky. I promise he's nice when he opens up to you." She looked at her watch. "Shit. I have a meeting in five minutes. I'll see you guys later." Y/N quickly grabbed her bag, gave Jonathan a kiss on the cheek, and promptly left. The two men sat in an awkward silence. Jonathan swallowed the last bite of his food, glaring at Bucky.

"You don't go taking my girl, got it?" Asshole. Bucky nodded affirmatively, picking up his trash and leaving the table. ——————

Copyright © 2021 imaginary-portal. All rights reserved

[imaginewarehouse]

Marcus White x Jonah’sSister!Reader || Oneshot

Plot: 

You find out that you are pregnant... with Marcus' miracle baby.

Warnings: Pregnancy, panic attack

🔆  🔆  🔆

Carefully, I pick out one of the pregnancy tests from the shelf. Then grab another... 2 more... and another. Just to be sure.

As I go up to the pharmacy desk, I thank god that Tate isn't working here anymore; I never would've gotten away with this. He would've snitched to Jonah or something, for his own sociopathic enjoyment. Instead, the new guy thankfully rings up and bags my items casually, not really caring what he flings into the white plastic bag- then hands it to me with a soulless customer service smile. If I had to describe it, I'd say its if the man had been working here for years before finally letting the job kill him on the inside- just in time for the wind to change and stick his face like that. Honestly, I never see the guy without this smile. Not even in the breakroom. Its unnerving.

Still, I take the bag and smile back even though I know he for sure doesn't really mean it and turn around so I can walk (The long way around the store, so I don't pass the doors to the warehouse) towards the employee bathrooms... but stop short, jolting into panic mode immediately. Freeze, freeze, freeze!

There's Isaac, standing as tall as a bear in my path behind the aisles, with a scanner in his hand and a surprised look on his face. Or at least as surprised as he would ever convey.

Clearly, though, he saw the tests. And I'm screwed. He is absolutely the well, second last person I wanted to catch me doing this; Buying these.

A nervous smile flickers onto my face and I walk the short ways over to him, hugging the bag to my front. He's still just staring; Mouth half open and eyes a little less dead, then usual. "Oh, hey Isaac! How's is going? You got sent to pharmacy today? That s-sucks... " Honestly I didn't think he was allowed to be assigned pharmacy...

Completely by-passing the option to forget what he just saw and exchange polite chit-chat with me, he instead closes his mouth and his eyes, shakes his head and then opens his eyes again. Then inhales. "Are those what I think those are?"

"Wh-what?"

"Pregnancy tes-"

Shit- Giving him a desperate expression, revealing my true feelings today - being complete and utter panic, - I cut him off. "SHHH! Isaac! No- uh. Yes. Um... Would you believe these aren't for me?"

"Mmm... " His face twists slightly into one of thought, tightening his lips together and sizing me up. "No, I don't think so."

"Well!- " I'm totally ready to make up an excuse... but peter out as soon I try. I could do it. I could string together some kind of half-believable bullshit like 'They're for Amy', but he would still go and tell Marcus and he would find me and... I would still have to have the conversation earlier then I want to. So instead I drop the façade, and my shoulders, and show just how tired I am. "I want to find out myself before breaking the news to Marcus. Okay? He might be unhappy about the idea and then we do the test and it turns out I'm not pregnant and then I just stressed us both out, for no reason! And, on the other hand, what if he wants it and it turns out I'm wrong about this? Please, Isaac, just don't tell him yet. Please, please." I feel like no matter how many pleases I use they may still not change anything. But I'm desperate.

He stands still for a few minutes... so long in fact I think he may be in shock himself, or having some kind of drug induced anxiety attack, and am about to wave my hand up in his face or say his name again, when he finally breathes a little more obviously and I relax back down to earth. "... Well, lets go find out then, right?"

"What- You- you want to come?" Something in me relaxes at the thought- I don't really want to do this alone. I want someone there, like in the movies, to hold the box and just read me the instructions. But I imagined it would be someone I'm actually close friends with, who can hold my hand and wouldn't care that it recently touched a pee-stick. I did not expect that person to be Isaac - Isaac, who likes to watch homeless people kill each other with shopping trollies and sticks and trash can shields like in a horrible, pitiful, modern-day coliseum, - in a million years.

But he nods.

"Yeah, sure." He puts his scanner on the shelf, and we set off the way I was going. He seems to silently understand why we have to go the long way around- to avoid passing the doors to the warehouse. Or he just doesn't care. Either way, I'm thankful he doesn't try to re-rout my course. Or even mention it. "Good excuse to slack off work... besides I should probably get out of this section, anyway. Hey, it is Marcus- right?"

I sigh- I suppose the companionable silence was too much to ask for. "Yes Isaac. If its a thing, in the first place."

"Yeah, right."

___TIME SKIP___

"You're having a miracle baby, you know? He's not supposed to be able to do that- isn't that kinda... good?"

I only whimper in response from |my new home| the cubicle I've been taking the tests in, holding my head. How am I going to do this? I have college, I have this job, I have my studio apartment to continue paying rent for! Marcus and I don't even... there isn't even... we haven't labelled it yet, and... Oh god, I'm shaking.

Isaac heaves a sigh outside, his chair creaking as he shifts. "Well, that's... three positives, so far." Isaac's memorable, slow drawl seeps through the cracks in my cubicle and takes away my thoughts for a moment. And my breath.

3 positives.

3 positives.

Not one, not two... three.

... Then he goes on, a whiny tone in his voice. "Do we really need to do another one?"

I breathe in deep. I don't know what else to do. The next logical step would be telling Marcus or Jonah, but I'm ready for neither of those. So procrastination through pregnancy test, it has to be. "Uh, yes. We do. Um... can you, please?- "

"Ughhh. Yeah, yeah. I'll get you more water. Stay here." Then Isaac, who has surprisingly been very helpful, even getting me tape so I can stick the finished tests up to the door in front of me so that I can compare them easier, disappears out of the women's bathroom, leaving me with my thoughts.

I peak back up at the tests, feeling panic fill up my chest cavity like its anxiety gas and my rib cage is the gas chamber- and my heart's the poor organ at deaths row. I'm... pregnant.

Oh my god. I'm pregnant. There is a human being growing inside me, right now. A human being who will require time that I definitely don't have, money that its parents certainly could not scavenge if we scavenged for used soda cans like Myrtle and sold them in our spare time, effort that I'm terrified might not even be in me at this point... A baby that needs some semblance of a comfortable, stable home, which I do not have for it.

I'm just burrowing my face into my arms and knees atop the toilet seat when the bathroom door opens again. Looking up, I immediately ask for Isaac- because that was really freaken quick, for him.

And get a familiar, confused sounding voice call back "... No, its Amy... Sorry, I just need to pee. Are you going to be long?".

"Oh!" Oops. Immediately, head going empty with panic, I unlock the door and and jump out to let her in. "No! I just finished. Um- go ahead. I'll just wash- wash my hands."

Now seeing each other, I see Amy's forehead crease and her eyebrows furrow in confusion and concern at my pink cheeked/pale faced appearance and the panicky way I'm talking. She reaches out toward me. "... Y/N, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I laugh, the most nervous sounding laugh ever. "Don't worry."

Amy's nose screws up. "... why were you waiting for Isaac?"

"We-we're just having an affair."

... what??

Her eyebrows furrow even deeper. "Okay... I'm just gonna go... pee... now... " She says slowly, gradually disappearing into the cubicle; Not quite sure what to say back to that.

I sigh in relief when her eyes aren't on me anymore and the door locks, thinking flushing some water onto my face might calm me down, when a loud GASP comes from Amy and I i m m e d i a t e l y remember the tests stuck to the wall. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!!

Amy comes right out of there, looking at me with completely new eyes now- understanding truly why I'm pale, I'm sure, and definitely why I was acting the way I was. "Y/N! You're... pregnant??!" I open my mouth to respond. Maybe say 'yes' seeing as that's the truth and the only proper answer, but I choke on my words and instead say, "Isaacs getting more water so I can take another test."

"I think 3 is a pretty conclusive number!"

"I-" She is not wrong, but I don't want to do anything else but take another easy test, and get defensive instead. "I bought four, I'm doing four!"

"Wh- Is Isaac the father!?"

"God, no." Isaac and I both spit back in offense.

I whip my head around when i realise he wasn't supposed to be there yet at all, and- there he is in the doorway.

... Jonah right behind him looking sicker then me. My jaw drops. "You brought Jonah??!"

"Uh, no, I was just waiting outside for, um," He gestures to Amy and my stomach drops. So he heard the whole thing. Could this get any worse??! Well I mean of course it could, Marcus could be here. Stupid question. Don't ask questions like that; It always summons the worst, in movies. "You're pregnant!? Who- you know what, unimportant right now. Do you wanna sit down??"

I shake my head, taking a deep breath and holding my hand out to Isaac. "No, I'm fine. I have a test to do. Water, Isaac?"

"Here." He hands me the bottle, and I go to disappear back into the cubicle before jumping back away again, remembering that Amy still needs to go and gesturing for her to go, ridiculously enough. She shakes her head and gestures back, like I'm crazy, to take it instead.

I do so and lock myself in, starting to chug the whole bottle.

A blessed silent moment passes... before Jonah speaks. "Is the 4th test really necessary?- "

"For the love of god- Let me take the fourth goddamn test for fucks sake!"

___TIME SKIP___

"... so what is it?" Amy asks 10 minutes later, breaking the deafening silence, as I sit back down on the toilet seat and hold my face in my hands again.

"... Positive... "

Isaac sighs. "Who would have guessed, really?"

No one tells him to shut up. He's right. But also no one agrees, because I'm a fucking 23 year old pregnant girl and I will kill them.

"So... what now?" Amy asks, speaking to the room, but expecting me to answer.

"Well, I'd like less people to be here, honestly." I pipe up, removing my hands from my mouth to speak clearer.

"Done. Isaac, Jonah, get out."

"What? I was here before you... lady." Isaac exclaims, offended, but a moment later I hear the door close, anyway. I assume it had something to do with Amy's signature resting bitch face- cranked up to eleven. "We'll just wait out here, then! Yell if you need us."

"Yep... " Amy responds to him, sounding exhausted and I can totally imagine her rolling her eyes right now. She takes a deep breath, and sighs it out. I hear her rest carefully down into the chair Isaac vacated. For a moment she thankfully says nothing, and I do wonder whether I should... but I don't know what to so say. So I just stay hidden in the cubicle, silent until Amy takes another deep breath and asks the question. "Who is it?"

I take a deep breath, knowing that once I say it I cant take it back, while on the other hand... its done, anyway. He's already the father and I cant change that (Would I if I could, though?) but telling Amy may either make or break my confidence in having him as the dad of my kid. Not that I have a choice... I just know that Amy's going to be worried about it and I don't know if I can handle the criticism right this moment.

Finally I spit it out though. Marcus.

...

"Oh- wow."

Uncomfortable, I shift on the closed toilet seat. "Yeah."

Her voice gets higher, clearly fake and trying to sound like this is better then she really feels it is. My heart plummets into my stomach like a terrible roller coaster. "Well, that's... " She pauses, searching for a safe word to use, assumedly. "Great!"

"... 'great?" For some reason that word, and Amy's tone... hits something wrong, in me. Panic flickers deep in my chest and my stare on the wall gets colder, harder. "... you think this is 'great'? Really? You? No, you don't. Do you hear yourself? 'Great'. Puh! This is Marcus. 'Been to jail' Marcus. 'Ex Con' Marcus. 'Creator and CEO of BOOB CHEESE', Marcus. Marcus who shits in the shower and thinks breastfeeding is akin to whipping your dick out in public, Marcus who has a tattoo of his mother on his back for Valentines day- "

Okay so maybe I'm just picking on him because I'm inadequate, because I don't have the time for a baby, because if I'm trusted with this perfect thing then I will ruin it... I'll pick work, instead of love, and they'll grow up with less of it then they should have and I'll be to blame...

But I don't want to address that yet. I cant.

"Y/N."

"Neither of us even have the money for this." I'm panicking again. "He lives with his mother! And- what if he gets mad... " I suddenly get worried, my eyes go round and I cover my mouth. "I really like him Amy. I cant have him mad at me. Not for this. Not him. Please don't let him hate m- "

"Y/N! Calm the fuck down, okay, right now. Don't speak. Just... take some deep breathes okay? First of all, Marcus is not going to be 'mad' at you. He's sure as hell is not going to hate you. You're spiralling, just take some long breaths." Amy makes it sound like a ridiculous idea with her tone, that he might be mad or he might hate me. I do as she says as she talks; take deeeeeep breaths. Slowly, I start to clam down. "He might be shocked, yeah, but he's- he's not like that. He's an idiot, not a total asshole. Take it from me, I know what I'm talking about here. I promise you. Whether he'll be good at being a parent, is... debatable." Everything she says makes sense. And she would know- you've met Adam. "But he'll be there, at the very least.

And... and you'll be a great mum, anyway."

I feel my heartbeat start to slow down again as I breath. I close my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest and rest back against the wall, carefully.

I really hope she's right on that second part.

"... thank you."

___OUTSIDE THE BATHROOM___

Jonah rubs his neck in nervousness at his sister in the bathroom dealing with something like this, pacing around the small hallway area before turning to Isaac. He raises his dark eyebrows. "So, do you know... wh-who?? I mean... the guy, that- I mean, does he work here, or... ???"

"Its Marcus." Isaac pulls out a bag of trail mix from his vest pocket and starts picking through, standing by the bathroom calmly. The brother to whom he just broke such detrimental news - that his sister, has Marcus White of BOOB CHEESEs baby inside her, - widens his eyes until they're more like dinner plates. "Yeah, they've been talking for a while, man. You didn't know?"

"I- I just thought she wasn't interested in... guys... " All her time must be busy with balancing both school and work, plus her friends... how can she possible have had time to... But on the other hand, he realises that its a bit naïve to think that his younger sister still isn't interested in 'boys'. Part of it might have been wishful thinking.

Isaac barks out a laugh. Its a stale, dry sound that makes Jonah really uncomfortable. "She also went out with Tate. Had a bit of a thing for Sayid for a while, too... "

"What!?- "

"Jonah!" At Amy's exit from the bathroom, he calms down immediately and straightens up. She raises her brows at him. She nods into the bathroom. "She wants you."

Yep- it takes him about 2 seconds to fly into the bathroom... to find his sister still hidden in the cubicle. He sighs, pressing his hand against the door. "Y/N? Amy said you wanted me. Do you want me to get you something to eat? Its just, I'm the only one who knows your snack preferences... and maybe we shouldn't eat in here, cuz its kinda gross... but if you want to, that's cool too!"

She doesn't respond for a minute, silent apart from the careful peeling of tape from the cubicle door.

Then the peeling sounds stop. A moment later her voice, sounding small and tentative as if just saying this would open Pandora's box, slips out. "... how're mum and dad gonna react?"

Its a rhetorical question. They both know it'll be bad - and they'll like Marcus even less, - , but its said so he knows what she's worried about. He sighs and leans back on the door. "Well very, very badly. But that doesn't matter right now. I'll take care of them."

"How valiant." Her voice is still small, quiet. But she sounds less scared; She always believes her big brother. Even when she knows logically that he cant protect her from them. Not their parents.

"Well, I try."

"... hm."

___TIME SKIP, BACK OUTSIDE OF THE BATHROOM___

"She is not leaving that bathroom," Isaac shakes his head. Its been an hour, and they've all been in there with her a couple times but she has not left the cubicle. Not even peaked her head out. She hasn't even e a t e n anything while she's been in there. Its starting to worry them. "Maybe we should go get Marcus."

Immediately Jonah looks up from his phone - having been reading up on pregnancy. What is going to start happening to his sister, now?? - and shakes his head, firmly. "No, she'll tell him when she feels comfortable with it. We aren't doing that."

"Yeah, it isn't up to us." Amy agrees, while still looking like on a deep, unsympathetic level that is tired of standing here... she definitely wants to drag Marcus here. But she also knows that Jonah is, unfortunately, a n n o y i n g l y, right.

Isaac heaves a deep, frustrated huff and gets comfortable on the floor.

___TIME SKIP: 3 HOURS LATER___

Finally, Jonah breathes in a deep, exhausted breath and puts his phone away. That's enough of that. He's sufficiently disgusted. He looks down the hallway, out to the store. Then to Amy playing solitaire on her phone and Isaac drawing slowly on the ground. "... Well, I mean, it's Marcus's baby too, right? He should know... right?"

"Mhm,"

"Yep, that's right."

"And... besides, Y/N might need him, right? Maybe he could get her out."

"You make some good points."

"I just wish they weren't points we already mentioned." Amy looks up from her phone and turns it off, flashing an sarcastic, displeased kind of smile. "Earlier."

"Yeah well... " He rolls his shoulders, looking away from Amy's piercing gaze- god, her face is like a loaded gun with no safety. And he's totally into it. He coughs, then whispers. "So, who wants to go get him??"

"Not it."

"I would, but ah... nah. I'm down for the count, down here."

"So... me."

Amy nods, making a 'shoo'-ing gesture with her hand. "Yep, you, Jiminy Cricket. You made us stay here for hours- you go get Marcus."

Looking to Isaac for help, Jonah is just met with the deadest eye's he has ever come upon, so he eventually sighs deeply, wiping sweaty hands on his jeans. "Fff-fine. Wait here."

___IN THE WAREHOUSE___

"Uh, hello? Hi- have you seen Marcus anywhere? Wh- No? Well if you see him can you tell him I'm looking for him? Its about Y/N."

The warehouse worker with the nametag reading 'Nigel' that Jonah's never spoken to before in his life and who prior to his words, had the new deadest eyes that Jonah has ever seen, suddenly beams- a twinkle of evil mischief in his eyes. "Oooooh, cats outta the bag, huh?"

Jonah blinks. "What?"

"You found out about Marcus and your sister, and now you're gonna beat him up? I was waiting for this moment." Nigel clarifies, actively looking around the room for Marcus now as Jonah rushes to explain that no, that is not what he's here for. Please don't say that so loudly- "HEY RICO! You seen Marcus around?? Y/N's brother's here to deliver an ass beating." Half a second passes while Jonah's ears ring from Nigel's screeching before something new apparently occurs to the warehouse worker as his eyes widen and he turns again to who must be Rico. "And you owe me 20 bucks!! Told ya he'd come!"

How often is Y/N in this place? Just seems weird, these guy's saying her name so casually... Jonah's forehead crinkles in thought as Rico rolls his eyes and groans, walking off to assumedly find Marcus. I'm learning a lot about my sister, today... Not sure how I feel about it...

Jesus Christ, has she eaten the cheese, too??!

Jonah doesn't get a moment to panic about that particular bit of nightmare material before he realises Nigel is still standing, awkwardly now, arms straight at his sides and eyebrows raised expectantly, right by him. Watching him, instead of returning to his job. Jonah raises his own eyebrows back; Shrugging. Like, what?? What do you want?

Nigel just just shrugs and shakes his head back passive aggressively, crossing his arms. Like, he doesn't know. Fine, we'll just stand in silence, then...

"Jonah! What's up, buddy? Visiting me in the warehouse- this is so nice! Want me to take my break now, cuz we totally can. Just let me wrap one last thing up and then we'll be back in my car, together. Listening to tunes; Ya know. Guy buddy stuff." T h a n k f u l l y, Marcus seems to rush from wherever he was in the depths of shelf-land when Rico apparently found him and cuts off the awkward stand off between the two men, dropping a hand on Jonah's shoulder and beaming. "What up, man?"

Quick to turn away from Nigel and get to what his mission really is at the moment, Jonah graciously ignores the touchy greeting... despite the awkwardness on his end and the fact that Nigel is still there, watching.  "Actually, I wanted to talk about, uh, Y/N."

Marcus' eyes immediately widen and his eyebrows raise, taking his hand off Jonah in favour of ringing his hands and stepping back nervously himself. "Oh, man... you found out, didn't you? Did she tell you? Cuz like, I know the bro code says its not cool to bone your friend's sister but- "

"Ah, ah, ah!" No, no, no, Jonah does not want to hear those words. No. "No, um. That's fine, whatever. Y/N's sexuality is her own. But- "

"Its a ruse, Marcus. He's here to kick your ass." Nigel insists, still very much there despite everything about this situation having nothing to do with him and instead just freaks Marcus out more as the warehouse head's eyes go even wider and he takes another step back- raising his hands in surrender.

"No, no! Nigel!- That's... no. I'm not here to kick anyone's ass! The asses here are all perfectly safe, I promise. Okay?" When Nigel's expression doesn't change a lick, Jonah gives up and just gestures off in a random direction. "Nigel, could you give us a minute, here?"

"What, so you can jump my boy here alone?"

"Alone?? Who's alone?" Jonah is getting increasingly irritated. "We're literally surrounded by other warehouse workers!! Ones who are actually doing their jobs, by the way. Maybe you should- "

Marcus finally intercepts and pats Nigel's shoulder, getting his attention from looking confrontationally at Jonah and smiles relatively softly at him. "Its okay, Nigel. If Jonah wants to kick me in my junk once- he's kinda entitled to it. Bro code and everything. Why don't you get back to work? I got this. Thanks, though." Nigel leaves, with that, but certainly not without giving Jonah one last greasy look over his shoulder and an 'Okay, Marcus. But call me, if... you know... '. Along with an extra evil squinty look at Jonah. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks bud. I know I can count on you." When Nigel is finally out of the picture, Jonah feels fatigued and just wants to get back to Y/N. At least its just him and Marcus now, though, so they should be doing that very soon. "So! What'd you want? If you really do wanna hurt me, then, can we go outside? By my car ideally, so I can drive the emergency room right after? Or you, cuz I mean... you're small, man. And I'll have to defend myself. Even if its fair. Its instinct, you know? You get it."

"I'm not gonna hurt you?? Why does everyone think- " What is wrong with people here? Do I give off a confrontational aura right now, or something??? "Ugh, whatever. Y/N needs you- she's been in the bathroom for 4 hours. We did try to get her out ourselves, but our attempts have been... l-lacklustre." Lacklustre? Okay, even he is surprised to hear that one come out of him.

"She needs... me? Like, she said that?" All of a sudden Marcus' expression changes. Worry wells in his eyes and his forehead creases, and he glances at the door out to the floor before returning to Jonah, looking restless now as his body fights with him to go, immediately. "Oh, what's wrong with her? Is she sick??"

"Uhh... in a manner of speaking... Look, I just think she needs to see you right now."

That makes the taller man move towards the door, clipboard dropped on a box on his way. "Of course; Right away man. Come on, lets go see her. So you really don't know what's wrong?? Should we pick up some root beer on the way?" Jonah follows behind, hand on his chin as he answers Marcus' questions. Wow... He did not expect such a response from him... He... kinda respects it, in a way. Its a pleasant surprise, at least.

___BACK TO YOU AND YOUR POV. God I hate third person. Its so hard, I want to cry___

"Y/N? You in here??" As soon as that voice registers in my mind, my heart beat skips in the worst way and I almost start to full on panic all over again, but thankfully instead just freeze and only widen my eyes. What the hell? The door to the employee bathroom closes as Marcus shuts himself in and you watch his boots appear under the door to your stall. "What's going on? Jonah couldn't tell me what's wrong with you," Jonah. I glare at the stall door. I'm going to kill him. "But I brought you some root beer for you- a total cure all. I promise. And some (Enter your favourite snack) cuz I know you like them. Here," He stretches up and holds the items over the stall door, and, feeling genuinely touched that Marcus was sweet enough to bring these, I get up off the toilet seat and accept them from him.

"Thank you, that's really nice. I'm... not sure, that the root beer will fix this, though." I speak carefully, sitting down and holding the items in my lap close to my stomach.  

"Course it will! I poured some in Mateo's ear once when he had an infection... I think it worked?"

Probably not. "This is a lot bigger then an ear infection... Kinda permanent, too?"

"Oh god, is it cancer?" He pauses for a moment but before I can put that particular worry at rest... or remind him that cancer is not always permanent... he makes it worse, and I fight not to facepalm. "The plague??! Its still a thing, you know. Jesus, its not that is it? Please tell me its not that! That would be the worst!" I mean... yeah, it would.

"Oh- no no! No, nothing like that!! I'm just pregnant!"

... wait.

Immediately I want to take back my words and say them differently- because is that really the way I just broke it to him?? Oh my god. My hand slaps over my mouth- then pulls back an inch to speak again, but is definitely on guard to slap again and prohibit anymore stupid to come out. "I mean! ... N-no big deal?" My voice gets tiny. "At least its not the plague, right?" I'm just making this worse, so I cover my mouth again.

Marcus does not respond, and I can imagine his face crystal clear, without having to look. He would have his mouth hanging open like a cartoon character, his shoulders have dropped, eyes are blank, and he's pale as hell. Oh god... oh god oh go oh god... I cover my whole face now and just try to breath evenly, and not talk anymore. I was right! He's not going to even like me anymore, this is going to ruin how he looks at me- I cant have Marcus look at me coldly. I really cant.

Finally, a few minutes later the door to the bathroom creaks open again and I know it's not Marcus escaping because I can still see his boots under the door and they haven't shifted in a while. Amy's voice rings out, too loudly in the stock silent bathroom. "... everything okay in here? We haven't heard anything in a while- Marcus?"

He doesn't respond.

I hear Amy walk in now, her heels click-click-clicking on the tiled floor. "Marcus? Marcus, are you okay?" She snaps her fingers, assumedly near his unresponsive face. I slip my fingers down to just cover my mouth, straining my ears to hear any movement from him. "Wake up!" Another snap. "Marcus wake up."

All of a sudden I hear shifting and his boots shift slightly and I squeeze my eyes slowly shut- now he speaks. Now's the part where he speaks. Now's the worst part! He either leaves, or stays. "Uhh... I'm awake, okay?"

...

Amy and I are both startled by the seriousness in Marcus' voice- Amy evidently in the way she responds, backing out of the room. "... Okay! Um, well talk. To Y/N. I'm... just gonna... wait outside... "

Marcus just grunts in response, turning back to my stall door. Then he wraps his knuckles against the surface and I flinch- unsure whether to unlock it and be a grown up or stay hidden away like I really, really want to. Its not like I'm afraid he'll hurt me or anything, not at all! Its just... I don't like to disappoint people and I'm terrified at seeing his face. "Y/N? Can you come out, now?"

"Ummm... no... " I wince, keeping my eyes closed to the world. As if that'll hide me from it.

"No???" He asks, bewildered.

"No... "

Marcus' voice isn't at all as cold-serious as it was when he spoke to Amy, but still. There is still definitely an unfamiliar focused quality about it, and its making me nervous. "What? Come on. What do you think's gonna happen? I'll yell at you? Come on, that's not gonna happen; Come out. "

"I'd really rather stay in here... " I fire back.

"Don't be scared of me." He really does sound trustworthy... but that fear, man; She's one unrelenting bitch.

My voice goes high pitched when I answer, too vehement to be the truth. "I-I'm not! Silly! Why would I be scared of you??" My eyes open up again and I just wince. Such a liar.

"Aghh... " I just listen to him shifting around out there looking for something for a bit, or thinking of what to say next, while I myself sit and think comfortable that there is nothing that will make this worse, seeing as I'm safe and sound in this toilet stall... before his boots disappear from my vision under the door and I hear him disappear out of the bathroom then return again almost immediately, going into the stall beside me and putting something down on the toilet seat in there.

Oh my god- he wouldn't dare! He would not-

Then all of a sudden he's climbing over the wall and I have to jump off the toilet seat and press closely to the stall door, root beer and snack still hugged in my arms like teddy bears. Marcus eases himself over the wall and onto the toilet seat before my eyes, then jumps off it to the tiles again in front of me, while I gape wide at him. "I- what- Marcus!"

"Well you weren't coming out! It was my only option!" He exclaims, and now that I see him I do relax a bit. There's no coldness in his face now, and there is certainly no unfamiliar, unfriendly seriousness, either, seeing as the man just climbed into a toilet stall to get to me. Very Marcus-y. I slowly let out a relieved breath, which is still also a 'calm down' breath as the pressure is certainly still on. I can see him, but he can also see me.

Eager to avoid the issue at hand, I snap. "You might've kicked me!"

"No, I wouldn't have." He makes a defensive 'pshhh' sound immaturely, waving me off with a hand before resting them both on his hips and looking right at me. I give him my own dubious look right back- What makes him so sure??? He rolls his eyes. "Whatever, anyway." Suddenly, a beautiful big smile spreads across his face; the kind that still makes me a little bit weak and almost forces me to smile back. Even now, in this situation. "This is great."

And then I'm speechless, mouth closed and eyebrows furrowed together. ... Great? What? Quickly he moves to clarify, before grinning that goofy grin of his. "The pregnancy! Man, I've seen enough girlfriends get pregnant over the years... its nice to see one having my baby." A moment passes and my system is just registering this reaction - not even relieved, yet. Just in shock and a little less anxiety, - before he drops his smile, raises an eyebrow, and adds: "It is mine, right?"

Still shocked, I answer as if the question was more on the lines of 'That was my cupcake that I just ate, right?'. Meaning, probably too casually. "Oh- oh, yeah! Abs- absolutely." He doesn't seem to mind.

He beams again. "Great! We'll be awesome parents- that is assuming you wanna keep the baby, right?"

"Uh... " All I want to say is yes, right now. Even as the complications of raising a baby right now linger in the forefront of my mind. But at the same time I'm looking at Marcus and I just want to. I want to have the baby, and I want to do it with him... in the moment, he's the absolute perfect person to do it with. I choke out, "Yeah."

He fist pumps the air at that response, and finally the relief starts to settle in my stomach and my heart... a smile grows on my own face. My eyes even get a little watery with the powerful relief. "YES! That's right, I'm gonna be a Dad. Whoo! We gotta tell everyone. But how, do you think? Should we get a cake or something that says it in icing?? Or should we just go out there and announce it over the speakers? Or should we just not tell anyone? Cuz on the one hand, I wanna tell everyone- but on the other... I don't really want Carol to know you're pregnant. That could be bad."

"Um... " I don't even know what to say. I just want to hug him, so I do. I step forward and wrap my arms around his middle, burying my face in his coveralls and the body I've become so familiar with over the past months that smells so uniquely - and not always so pleasantly, but definitely comforting,  - like Marcus and squeeze tight, closing my eyes. He smells like that 'new furniture' smell that's really just 'warehouse', and an unfamiliar home, and a little bit of B.O.

Thank god.

Amy was right. Of course she was. Even when I was stressing, I knew the image I had of Marcus getting mad about this didn't feel quite right, but... you have to prepare yourself for the worst, you know? I'm just so glad he's the way he is though, as he wraps his arms around my shoulders in return and bends his neck to press his cheek to my head. "I'm really happy about this. And I know we haven't figure anything out. With us, with money, with anything actually, but... we will, okay? I'll do my best, I promise."

"... Thank fuck." I chuckle, although its muffled and get a similar sound from him in return. "I'm really happy, too." He rubs my back in that rough, comforting way that guys do and I might as well melt; He's too wonderful. I bite my bottom lip, thinking my next move through before taking a deep breath and deciding to take the plunge and ask. "... hey... um... b-boyfriend?"

Marcus immediately pulls me back and holds me at arms length, a crazy-big grin splitting his face. "Oh, yes! This day just keeps getting better and better; Come on, we definitely have to tell everyone this, lets go." Excitedly, he slips past me and unlocks the stall door finally, but pauses and turns back to me before its pushed open at all. I tilt my head in curiosity- what's up? "Unless... congrats sex?"

...

Oh my god- a snort, transforming into a laugh slips out of me before I can stop it. I pull him closer by the front of his coveralls, grinning at both the idea and how silly he is and gently tug him down closer to my level. I close my lips and knit my eyebrows together understandingly. "... How about you come over after work? First we should probably deal with the others? You know, the ones hanging outside right now?"

"Oh, yeah, probably. Oh man- I'll be basically related to Jonah now!" Oh- well- not exactly but... okay fine. If it makes the guy happy. "Ha ha, look forward to seeing this face every Christmas, bro." Oh boy.

I just grin at that - Goodluck Jonah, - before leaning up the rest of the way and pressing a careful kiss to Marcus' lips which he immediately returns with enthusiasm, hands abandoning the stall lock and collecting my waist instead.

This is going to be okay.

It will work out. I hope.

BONUS:

Later in the breakroom while Marcus is busy with talking to some of the other Cloud 9 employees about the news, Jonah takes the seat next to me and I raise my eyebrows at him- he's obviously dying to say something. I know my brother at least that much. He sighs.

"So... you... haven't eaten the cheese, right? I mean, I have but I'm hoping you haven't been put through such, uh, cruel and unusual torture... "

"Oh, no. Absolutely not. I managed to convince him it was cannibalism for women." I grin, returning immediately to my Cloud 9 Caesar salad as Jonah sighs long and hard in relief, relaxing back into his chair.

[wyn-n-tonic]

Golden, Like Daylight -- Part I

Word Count: 1,314 Warnings: PTSD. Drug use. As always, if I forgot anything, please message me and I will amend this warning ASAP. Note: In my head canon, Frankie has a daughter, I write a bit about this. I understand talking about babies can be triggering or people just don't like kids but it feels weird to say, "Warning: Baby." Feels a bit ominous. Like, it's not a vampire but just... ya know... be warned. Updated Author's Note (5.7.21): This is not a reader insert. At the time of writing this, I wasn't comfortable writing in the second person nor did I feel as though it was appropriate for what I wanted to explore in this series. This series is my absolute baby and it means so much to me. Thank you for reading. 

MASTERLIST | PART: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX

It comes like lightning in the night, cracking through the tree of his spine heavy with years of hurt.

The first time he was tear gassed in the chambers at boot camp.

That time he crashed the chopper, losing twenty-something men all twenty-something years old. Men… they weren’t men. They were babies, he was a baby.

He remembers the time he had a panic attack in the jungle, squeezing involuntarily on… a kid, not the target.

He remembers the woman’s wail, “¡Mi hijo! ¡Mi bebé!”

My son! My baby!

He killed her baby.

“I killed the baby!” He’s up but his heart’s somewhere else, outside his body. It’s beating so fast he can’t even feel it anymore, not sure if he feels anything anymore and then—

Cool hands on his feverish back, he’s so hot she feels like ice and he sighs contentedly. Marrying the coldest girl in all of Texas had its perks. Her fingers wind into his too long curls at the base of his neck, her lips on his shoulder as she shushes him with a kiss.

“Come back to me, Francisco, you’re safe.”

“But I—“ he’s stuttering. Fuck.

“It wasn’t your fault,” her arms curl around his chest and she’s scooting closer to him now, pulling him into her as hard as she can, “None of it was your fault, it’s okay.”

“How can you say that?” The tears come like wildfire as he chokes out, “How can you hold me like this? Like I’m not a monster?”

Her arms pull tighter against his torso, he didn’t know that was possible. He doesn’t know how this is possible, how he deserved this. This woman, this love, this family she had made for him.

“Baby, listen to me,” her voice is hard and warm, honeyed whiskey to his aching ears. Splintered mind. Broken body.

He nods his head in the dark, whispering a soft, “Yes,” around a lump like coal burning through his neck.

“You are not a monster. The things you did, the things you saw, the horror that was inflicted upon you was not your choice. When you put the flag on your shoulder, Francisco Morales, you gave up autonomy in your decisions. You represented men who played chess with your life and you made it out. You made it out and they threw you away when you needed them the most but I’m not going to. Our daughter is not going to. You are not a monster, baby, and we will get through this together.”

“Luna,” he breathes. His girl, his perfect little girl, “Where is she? Is she okay?” He’s still panicked.

“She's in her crib, baby,” her lips press softly to his shoulder again, “Do you want to go see her? Wanna go make sure she’s okay with me?”

He’s nodding again, untangling fingers from hers to swipe at his cheeks quickly. Afraid, every day, that this tear or that will be the one that changes her mind, changes her heart.

She lifts herself, holding steady to his shaking body the whole time. As if he’s the rock that the storm of her life batters against and not the other way around. Her hands find his and she’s lifting him too. His balance is unreliable, he never lets her go, trailing along the hallway to the baby’s room.

It’s quiet, peaceful. His happiest place, painted like a sunrise. He wanted it that way, clouds around her cradle, his baby growing up in the heavens. He remembers the first time he ever went up there, like it was the first breath he ever took. All rising pinks and melting blues.

He wanted her to feel that freedom from the very beginning. —————

He was so fucking scared when she came into this world.

He was afraid of marring her innocence with his past. He didn’t want his traumas to manifest upon her upbringing, the way his father’s had his.

That first cry shattered his heart but when she wrapped her tiny hand around his finger, he was whole again.

They named her Luna, because he could always find the moon above the clouds. Could always find his way home.

That’s when he started using again. His fear of fatherhood choke holding him, undoing all his hard work. His therapy, his group therapy, his NarcAnon. He promised himself it would just be once.

Just to get through the day, Frankie.

And it turned into…

The week.

The month.

Six.

Next thing he knew, he was flying high and fucking up. Nose bleeds and slurred words, too fast movements and too fast reactions. He was randomly selected for a drug test.

His license was suspended. He was grounded, under review pending cleanliness of a piss test.

That’s when Leah snapped. His patient, strong wife. She’d said things here and there about his use. Argued about money, “Where's it going, Francisco?” The name she uses when she’s calling him back to her, pulling him into her or, like now, close to killing him. Eyes wide with anger and fear at watching her family fall apart because of the actions of one man.

“I'm not going to beg you to get clean. I am telling you,” the tears streaking down her face, voice raw with contained rage bubbling to the surface, “You were able to do it by yourself once, so get your shit together. Or I swear to god, Francisco Morales, I will walk out that door.”

His eyes haven’t left hers the whole time and he knows she’s serious. She promised she wouldn’t leave a man actively working against his ghosts, she’s soothed more sleepless nights than anybody should’ve, but she never promised to stay through active drug addiction. Could not. Would not bring her daughter up in a home dusted in white powder.

He nods, “okay,” lifting his hat from his head and he is pouring buckets. He’s coming down from earlier but he knows he’s gonna need more soon. And another after that. So on and so on until—

He sees the door slamming on an empty home, shocked still with the future his actions will lead him to.

“I’ll find a meeting tomorrow.”

Her glare bores deep, “you’ll find a meeting today, Frankie.”

He bites his lip, not daring ask for another hit to get through til then.

“Francisco!”

The world comes back into focus. How long had he been staring at everything and nothing? His eyes find hers again and his voice is weak as he says, “My stash is in the box with my dog tags and medals, my first pilot’s license.”

“I know.”

He’s nodding again, of course she does.

“The withdrawals are going to start soon, how should we handle this?”

She crosses her arms, pain stitched through every feature of her face, “I think you should stay with Benny and Will for a while. Until you’re clean.”

So he did.

One week goes by and he sweats with a restlessness he’s sure will bust the very seams of his being.

Two weeks and all he wants is sleep, even with the nightmares.

Three weeks and, Jesus fuck, he’s hungry.

Four weeks and the depression sets in, deeper than he’s experienced since he first started getting help back in civilian life.

Five weeks and he’s… not cold anymore. He doesn’t sweat. He doesn’t feel anything, he can’t concentrate on anything.

Can’t focus on Benny’s shitty fight lessons. Doesn’t even listen when Will practices that fucking speech like he hasn’t given it a million times already; to cadets, to soldiers, to the mirror. The only things he can think about, the only things he cares about, are still too far away.

Leah, Luna, the sky.

He needs all three to be whole.

To be Frankie.

A desperate man aching to be complete and to provide again.

That’s how Santiago Garcia found him.

TAG LIST: @greeneyedblondie44​ @justanotherblonde23​ 

[theblackswanuniverse]

how do you think a combat session would between Raya and her Ba? like Raya has this idea her Ba is THE best and Benja is totally not ready for how skilled Raya became.

Hi, I'm not very good at action scenes so I don't know how well this turned out, let me know and if you have some more prompts, send them in! I will do them all eventually (i have a bit of a habit to take a prompt and run with it until it becomes something else, so...my apologies hjksghk)

Cause you were the first that really loved me

Raya had missed it immensely.

She had missed her hometown, now lively and fervently celebratory as she had never seen it beofre, her people incredibly happy and proud that their Princess had fixed a broken world and brought everyone back.

She had missed her Ba, the hurt and burden of loneliness suddenly gone away as soon as she had hugged him, his body warm and strong and protective of her exactly as she remembered.

Chief Benja was the exact replica of the man she knew when she was a child, the passage of time visible only when both of them were standing close together, Raya being almost as tall as his father these days.

He was still recovering, his leg still wounded from the arrow that struck him six years ago, and he was adamant on training to get back into shape as much as possible.

And while his body was still the same, he felt older than ever when sparring with his daughter. Raya had grown to be a fierce and strong woman, and her combat skills were completely different now than when they last fought.

His daughter may have gotten taller and heavier, but she was still much more silently swift and quick witted than he remembered, giving him a run for his jade.

They had been sparring for almost an hour now, alternating between eskrima sticks, swords and hand to hand combat, and if Benja was starting to sweat, his daughter seemed as fresh as if they had just started.

She effortlessly deflected the punch aimed at her stomach, moving to her left with a backflip and grabbing the sword that had fallen to the ground, pointing it at her Ba as soon as he turned in her direction.

“Point for me. Again. Are you sure you wanna keep going, Ba?” Raya was grinning now and had been cockily teasing him for a good ten minutes.

“One more” simply replied the man, and they both assumed their positions, testing each other before lunching and meeting in the middle.

Benja put one foot in between her legs, making her loose her balance and grabbing the sword, but Raya was quicker, loosing the sword to roll around and grab the two eskrima stick from the ground, twisting them between the blade, making it fall far to the ground. In a couple of seconds, she knocked him down again, a stick pointed to his throat and another at his wounded leg, effectively blocking him.

“Surrender?”

His father nodded, painting visibly. “A rather unorthodox method, but clever nonetheless.”

Raya smiled, shrugging while putting away the eskrima sticks “That’s what happen when you fight with Namaari, I guess”

They both sat down, feet deep into the water around them as they paused for a minute.

The secret chamber was no longer used to hide the Gem, both of them had decided that it was best if the dragons had the relic, so the room had been slowly turned into a temple accessible to anyone who might seek quiet and peace. The Heart servants often saw them head there to enjoy the time that they were able to have together when not busy with their diplomatic matters, careful not to disturb them.

“I’m still waiting for that sparring session” said Benja, washing the sweat out of his face with the fresh water.

Raya snorted “Pretty sure Namaari would let you win. She still doesn’t know how to act around you, I think she still feels guilty”

His father hummed, an amused smile on his face. “I’m not sure it has to do with that”

Benja may had been missing from his daughter’s life for a while, but he hadn’t lost his perception, and he prided himself to be the one able to know his daughter deeply. Raya, on the other hand, seemed to be highly always aware on the battlefield, but far lacking when it came to social situations. Benja found it quite amusing how oblivious his daughter could be, especially when it came to Namaari.

“What do you mean?” his daughter turned to him, with her head tilted in curiosity and brows furrowed. She almost looked like a child again, her features softening up a bit. It would always bring a tug in Benja's heart seeing how much she had grown without him.

He contemplated telling her, but decided not to, feeling it was something the two of them had to figure out how to navigate. And maybe, a selfish part of himself still wanted his daughter with him for as much more as he could get.

“Come on, up. We’re going again” smiled his father, Raya groaning as a response.

Benja might still be a bit out of shape, but he will make sure he is the best warrior his daughter ever fought with.

[3laxx]

Kidnapped

“Noceda.”, she called out and from the dense forest, a stone came flying. She had to roll her eyes at Luz’s antics. Not even after graduation, Luz had matured a little. She had downright refused to grow up, which made Amity feel exasperated. She just loved that dumbass. “I know you’re there. Leave or fight.”

Just a small request my girlfriend made and I couldn't resist writing a tiny Oneshot for it. A lot of the story is in context, but honestly, it's very basic. I hope you have a lot of fun reading it!

Ao3 / FF.net

---

Amity had felt Luz’s presence long before she had even shown herself.

Stopping, the young witch sighed, then she conjured up a fireball. They would know if she didn’t attack, they watched her every step over the gem she had to wear. They saw and heard everything she did.

It made sure she stayed in line, after the rebellion she had put up before joining the Emperor’s Coven. But again, she had been too weak to resist her parents. Leaving everything she loved behind, she had to obey their terms.

“Noceda.”, she called out and from the dense forest, a stone came flying. She had to roll her eyes at Luz’s antics. Not even after graduation, Luz had matured a little. She had downright refused to grow up, which made Amity feel exasperated. She just loved that dumbass.

“I know you’re there. Leave or fight.”

She was not in a mood for a fight right now. The day had been hard in the Emperor’s Coven. Being protégé to the position of Head of the Coven, as the youngest of all members already, left her with more tasks and responsibilities than anyone else. She was just tired, wanted to get home and crash on her couch and maybe get some shut-eye before having to do this all over again tomorrow.

Another pebble came flying, bouncing off the forest ground only to roll the rest of the way to her feet. Rolling her eyes, Amity looked in the general direction of where it came from.

“I take it you wanna fight, so bring it on.”

Readying herself, Amity took a wider stance and conjured an ice spike with her other hand, glaring. But Luz wouldn’t be impressed. Suddenly, a vine shot out from the ground between Amity’s feet and grabbed the gem around her neck, effectively breaking it when it squeezed. Rolling her eyes, Amity let the fire and ice go, looking at Luz to emerge from the forest.

“Damnit, that was the third one this week. If you don’t stop destroying them, they’ll give me something else that you can’t break as easily.”

Luz merely grinned at that, strolling over and leaning into her face.

Puberty had hit the human hard. Her face had become sharper, and she had sprouted up like bamboo. For a while Luz had stayed the lanky teenager, especially in school, having grown most of her current height in just one year, while Amity had been slower in catching up. Even now, Luz stood taller than her, even if she was wearing heels, but only by a little.

Ever since she had turned of age, the Emperor had sent his guards after her as well. Amity couldn’t say she approved of that, but running from the law and fighting had made Luz lean and somewhat muscular.

Titan, how did she not know what kinda effect she had on Amity with that body, and this hair and those eyes and everything around her?!

“Then I just gotta think up something new to have us talk in private.”, Luz grinned, before leaning back again, making Amity huff in annoyance.

“What do you want, if not fight?”, she asked, trying not to come off as curious. Well, if she was being honest, she probably knew what Luz was up to.

“I want you to turn your back to them. You look tired again, what’re they making you do?!”, Luz exclaimed, throwing out her arms as she turned away, “We used to be friends, Amity!”

Crossing her arms, the young witch looked away and furrowed her eyebrows.

“That was a long time ago. I have a new life, and you should finally join a Coven.”

“I will not join a dumbass Coven as you did.”, Luz spat back and Amity couldn’t agree more. The Emperor’s Coven had not been her first career choice after school. She couldn’t do anything about it, though. There was no way in hell she wouldn’t hold up her end of the bargain.

“If that’s all you wanna talk about, I’ll excuse myself. You know my answer, Luz.”

The human quickly turned back to her and grabbed her elbow, making Amity recoil.

“Wait, don’t go. I-… I just wanna catch up.”, she could see the determination in Luz’s eyes. And Titan curses her, she was too weak to resist again.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes, to see what’s up. Because you broke the gem, again.”, grumbling, she freed her arm from Luz’s grip but didn’t leave. The human sighed before nodding.

“We have a little time. Just a few minutes.”, without giving her permission to talk, Luz just continued, “Listen, Eda, Lilith, and I, we can help you. We could cover you, maybe make your life a little easier. If you just listen for once.”

Huffing, Amity shook her head.

“I will not become your spy. This is not happening.”, she hissed and Luz rolled her eyes.

“Fine, be that way. But you’re making a mistake, Amity. And you’re making your life harder than it should be. This isn’t easy for any of us, but you need your friends. I can see you breaking, please, I just want-”

Lashing out, Amity threw a fireball at her, to which Luz casually responded with a shield spell, glaring at her.

“You know nothing, Luz. You have no idea what I’m going through. And you do not know what I need.”, she yelled, already drawing a spell circle for her next attack, but Luz stopped her hand midair and got close again, their noses almost touching.

“I know that you’re hiding something.”, she got really quiet and Amity gulped at the proximity, “I know that you’re not in the Emperor’s Coven out of your own free will, otherwise they’d trust you.”

Amity turned her head to the side but Luz wouldn’t back down. Instead, she interlaced their fingers, trapping both of Amity’s hands to keep her from doing magic, and Amity let it happen.

“You-… You don’t know what’s happening, Luz. Just let me go.”

Luz shook her head and furrowed her eyebrows, following Amity’s face to catch her gaze again.

“I can’t let you go and you know damn well that I’m terrible at giving up.”, growling, Luz forced her back against a tree, so she wouldn’t have a way out, “Just tell me what’s going on. We’ve been playing this game for years now and you look like you aged twice the time.”

Growling, Amity turned back to her.

“Are you saying I have wrinkles?!”, she exclaimed, and Luz let out a hearty chuckle at that, taking some tension from their situation.

“You look tired, Amity. Something is weighing down on you, but you won’t trust me with this.”

Sighing, Amity turned away again, then she shook her head and tried to control her breathing at the familiar scent that came from Luz leaning so close.

“I can’t, Luz. Let me go, they can’t see us like this.”

The human only pressed closer.

“I’ll risk it. Tell me what’s going on right now or they’ll know you’re not in it for real.”, at that, panic clawed at Amity’s throat. Luz didn’t care about her reputation, but Amity very much did. It meant life or death for her.

“Luz, let me go right now.”

Beginning to resist, Amity pushed against her, but Luz was taller and by now a little stronger than her. Damn those humans and their physical strength to make up for a bile sac.

“Only if you tell me what’s going on!”, she pushed and Amity cried out in frustration.

“Let me go!!”

After a short wrestling match, Luz let go and Amity immediately stumbled back, drawing a circle to conjure two fireballs.

“… You’re scared.”, Luz finally concluded and Amity growled, “I thought you were worried about them thinking differently of you if you strayed but you’re downright terrified. What are they doing to you?!”

Amity squeezed her eyes. Images flashed through her head, of her parents pressuring her into joining the coven, of the Emperor testing, controlling her, of the other members challenging her, pressuring her, angry about her being the youngest of them up for the biggest promotion, her parents locking her into the discipline chamber to study, endlessly, without food or water-

“… -ity, Amity! What’s happening, what’s up?!”, she got snapped out of her shock by Luz softly shaking her shoulders, but out of her panic, she pushed against Luz. Momentarily, the human screamed, then something sizzled and she stumbled back.

When Amity opened her eyes, she saw Luz looking at her in surprise, her jaw looking red and angry, as well as her collarbone. Breathing heavily, Amity stumbled back, when Luz surged forward and engulfed her in a tight hug again, pressing her shivering body against her while grabbing her staff and lifting them both up and away, not to be found by the guards sent to Amity’s location.

Shivering, Amity pressed her face into Luz’s shoulder and felt hot tears welling up in her eyes, before they softly set down somewhere else, Luz parting from her.

“… It’s okay… I’m okay.”, she soothingly mumbled, rubbing Amity’s shoulders, “… What do you need?”

Conjuring up two healing circles, Amity softly cupped the burns she had caused, then she looked up to Luz with a grimace.

“… I’m so sorry for burning you, I didn’t mean to, I-”

Shaking her head, Luz pulled her close again and rested her nose against Amity’s hair, closing her eyes.

“Don’t apologize, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

For a moment, they remained silent, just listening to the sounds of the night, before Luz finally brushed over Amity’s back and sighed, breaking the silence while she healed.

“… Why’d you join the Emperor’s Coven?”, Amity already shook her head, not wanting to discuss this right now, but Luz leaned down and cupped her cheek, her palm feeling so nice and warm on her skin, “Amity, I want to help you. And I know you’re somehow being blackmailed. I just don’t know what it is. If I knew, I could help you.”

For a minute, Amity didn’t reply, then she sighed and shrugged.

“My-… My parents, they-… They wanted me to join, and, they didn’t leave me a choice, I-”

But Luz shook her head. That was an excuse, she wanted to hear what they had in their hands against her. Why Amity wasn’t leaving the Coven. Leaning back, Luz caught Amity’s gaze, willing her to be honest.

“Why did you join the Emperor’s Coven?”, she asked again, softer but with more emphasis, this time, and Amity felt herself hiccupping.

“… Because I’m in love with you.”, she finally pressed out and Luz blinked at that, once, twice, before furrowing her eyebrows.

“You-… You are?”

Under tears, Amity chuckled, then she shrugged and shook her head, looking away.

“Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t know. Back when we were fourteen, I wasn’t exactly subtle about that.”

Weaving her fingers through her hair, Luz leaned back and looked up to the sky, then back down to her.

“You’ve been in love with me since we were fourteen?!”, she incredulously asked and Amity sniffled, nodding with an awkward smile.

“Well, yeah. It’s stupid, I know… But just before graduation my parents found out. I was due to apply for the Coven and they wanted to know why I refused. I-… It was accidental, but since then, they threatened that they’d petrificate you, given the chance. If I joined the Coven, you’d at least be arrested alive.”, she let her head sink, and Luz’s shoulder caught her forehead, “I’m sorry… That’s why I can’t leave. I-… I can’t leave the Coven, or you’d be in danger to life.”

Slowly nodding, Luz kept her close, then she embraced her in a tight hug.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know…”, she sniffled and only now, Amity felt her shaking.

“It’s-… You couldn’t have known, Luz. I don’t blame anyone but myself.”

In an instant, Luz’s hug around her got tighter and she felt as safe and protected as never before.

“Your parents are to blame. And the Emperor. And the stupid Coven system.”, she immediately argued and Amity couldn’t help but chuckle at Luz’s burning passion for the wildlife.

“… Thank you, Luz. For kidnapping me.”

In an instant, the human leaned back and her face brightened.

“Right! I kidnapped you! We’ll go to the Owl House and I’ll never give you back!”

Laughing, Amity brushed away her tears and shook her head.

“That’s a terrible idea, Luz. You gotta bring me back at some point.”

Deciding to take her chance at that moment, Luz pulled her close to kiss her. She had never told Amity that she had developed feelings for her as well, even if they came later than Amity’s had.

“I can keep you for as long as you like.”, she then whispered and Amity smiled.

“Maybe a little while…”

---

Let me know if you liked it!

[shera-dnd]

New chapter arriving a little early today. This time featuring Weiss’s lesbian awakening at the hands of a certain Knight of the Fall Maiden

As usual you can read here or over on AO3, just follow your gay little heart (like Weiss is hopefully gonna do soon)

It had taken Weiss a couple of days to get used to not wearing her helmet, and a few more still for her to ditch the armor altogether. She hadn’t engaged in combat since those first couple of days, and even if she did, she was more than confident that she could best her opponents with sword alone.

Now, with the protection of Lady Ilia’s shawl she was given a level of freedom she did not expect. She was able to roam the festival grounds without a care in the world, no longer weighted either by iron or name. Tied down no longer by responsibilities to her father nor to House Schnee as a whole.

Of course Lady Ilia accompanied her wherever she went, though now Weiss saw her less as a shackle and more as a companion, with whom she spent time happily. She hoped that by putting aside her iron she had made herself more approachable to Lady Ilia. She had the fae to thank for all this after all.

“Must we really accompany those two once more?” Lady Ilia demanded as they followed a little ways behind Lady Yang and Lady Blake, who were both very openly and blatantly flirting.

“Lady Blake is our friend, Lady Ilia,” Weiss replied, “shouldn’t we be happy to accompany her in such a joyful evening stroll?”

“Oh, I’m plenty happy,” Lady Ilia countered, clear annoyance disproving her own statement, “though I do not understand why I must be exposed to these love birds every day.”

“Because Lady Blake requested that we accompany her,” Weiss informed, a playful grin forming on her face, “besides how else will you reach your daily quota of snark and mockery?”

“I’m sure you’d still give me plenty to work with, Lady Gigas,” Lady Ilia replied in kind, using the false name they had chosen for Weiss’s disguise.

“You know nothing delights me more than being of help to you, Lady Ilia,” Weiss added. The two of them looked at each other with an attempt at annoyed glares which very quickly dissolved into amused smirks.

“If you two are quite done,” Lady Blake called, “we’ve arrived.”

Around them sprawled the tents of the valean envoys and the Knights of the Fall Maiden, above them fluttered the flag of crossed axes over a crown, the symbol of their kingdom. They would finally meet Lady Blake’s companions.

“Come here, men,” the knight called in the valean tongue, “I wish to introduce you to my friends.”

With that many of those present gathered around the four of them to exchange greetings. Plenty of these knights had been bested by Weiss the week before, but none of them seemed to hold a grudge against her, and many had taken the opportunity to request rematches, which she gladly accepted.

It was after she had assumed she had met all of Lady Blake’s companions that she was greeted by the sight of a new arrival. An arrival that caught both her eye, and every scrap of breath from her lungs.

She was a tall woman with a flowing mane of red hair. Her body may not be as large, nor bulky, as Lady Yang’s, but the lean muscle it had looked as if it had been sculpted from marble, and the sweat - from what was clearly an intense training session - gave them a shine that made it near impossible for Weiss to look away.

She was starstruck.

“Lady Nikos,” Lady Blake called, “I hope I haven’t interrupted your sparring practice.”

“Hello again,” she greeted, with a lovely smile on her face, “are these the companions you have spoken so fondly of?”

With that she happily greeted the four of them and then continued to hold an animated conversation with her fellow knight. Weiss’s mind was having a difficult time grasping what was being said, most of it focusing on the lovely sound of Lady Nikos’s accent, and the insufferable smirk on Lady Ilia’s face.

Before she could question her companion on this another knight stumbled after Lady Nikos. A blonde man that Weiss first assumed to be her squire, but whose regalia was that of a full fledged knight.

Her next assumption was that the man had stolen his gear from an actual knight, though Lady Blake would have apprehended him if that was the case.

“Sir Arc, good to see you’ve survived your sparring session,” Lady Blake welcomed, the title as unfitting on him as his armor.

“Jaune’s been getting better and better,” Lady Nikos assured her, though why someone like her would waste her good will on such a buffon was beyond her.

“It’s only because of your teachings, Pyrrha,” he replied, offering the recognition back to the one who actually deserved it, “I wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”

“Nonsense, you’d still be a knight of great renown,” she assured him, quite wrongly in Weiss’s fair opinion.

To drive her point home she took his hand and gently pressed a kiss against his knuckles. Weiss decided then that she despised Jaune Arc with all her being.

With her mind now being assaulted on three fronts - two annoying and one lovely - Weiss did not contribute much to the conversation, which only aggravated Lady Ilia’s accursed smile.

It was only later, when the two of them had been separated from the group that Weiss finally had a chance to question her on that.

“What amuses you so, Lady Ilia?” Weiss asked, making no attempt to hide her annoyance.

“Nothing much,” she replied, her tone as unbearable as her smile, “only that you’re so clearly smitten by Lady Nikos.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Weiss scoffed.

She was not some foolish little princess swooning over any knight who so much as flexed a bicep in her vicinity. More importantly she did not seek the company of women in that way...at the very least she was pretty sure she didn’t.

“That you wish it was your hand, not Sir Arc’s, that she had kissed,” Lady Ilia replied with certainty.

“That is…not untrue,” Weiss admitted, “but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Doesn’t it now?” She teased, “does the thought of a strong woman in knightly armor, carrying you off into the sunset not set your heart aflutter?"

“It very much does not,” Weiss informed her, unamused.

“Then perhaps you wish to be that knight in shining armor,” she tried again, “brave, powerful, holding a swooning maiden in your arms as she declares her undying love for you.”

That thought certainly brought some color to Weiss’s cheeks. Though it was obviously only because it played to her dream of becoming a knight, and not because of any previously undiscovered attraction to swooning maidens.

Certainly not.

“Oh Lady Schnee,” Lady Ilia continued, hands clutching her chest as she leaned back in a clear mockery of said maidens, “you’re so handsome and strong, please carry me off to your chambers so you may ravish me.”

“Yes, yes, you’ve made your point,” Weiss rolled her eyes, deigning to ignore Lady Ilia’s nonsense in favor of preparing their camp once more.

That was certainly a lot for her to process all at once. Certainly she was surrounded by women who held interest in other women, but that did not speak of her preferences, right? Though if she was so certain she shouldn’t be having all these doubts right now.

Perhaps she enjoyed the company of men and women, much like Lady Yang’s mothers. Though she couldn’t quite remember a time in which a man’s company did to her what the mere sight of Lady Nikos did.

She needed something to get her mind off of this. Something that would both distract her and help her think more clearly. Thankfully she knew just what could save her in her hour of need.

“What are you doing?” Lady Ilia asked, as Weiss began searching through her belongings.

“Searching for my training swords,” she informed her, “the two of us are gonna spar.”

“I see,” Lady Ilia replied, seemingly not much entertained by this idea, “and why is that?”

“You’ve claimed to know how to defend yourself,” she explained. Having found the pair of wooden swords that she had stashed away - just in case Winter could spare some time with her - Weiss tossed one over to Lady Ilia and continued, “I wish to test that.”

Her reasoning wasn’t entirely untrue. She did want to measure her companion’s skill, just to be sure she would be safe were they ever separated, and that explanation dealt a far smaller blow to her pride than, ‘I’d rather swordfight you than sit around and question my sexuality all night.’

“Very well,” Lady Ilia agreed, getting up and giving her sword a few practice swings, “though do not be saddened when I put an end to your winning streak, Schnee.”

“My lady,” Weiss replied, in a tone she knew annoyed her companion deeply, “you know you could never sadden me.”

“You know that won’t stop me from trying, Schnee,” she replied, matching Weiss in her annoyance.

This would bring her such joy.

“On my mark then,” Weiss declared, taking a proper fighting stance, “begin!”

The word had barely left her lips before Lady Ilia’s sword was already swinging for Weiss’s head. She barely had the time to block that blow before another hit came her way, then another, and another still. Lady Ilia pressed the offensive with a terrifying fury, backed by skillful swordsmanship.

Sidestepping her next blow, Weiss finally managed to get her footing again and swing her first blow towards her opponent. Lady Ilia evaded it masterfully and pushed the attack once again, only to be stopped by a follow up blow of Weiss’ sword.

Oh, this was exhilarating. The intensity of her lady’s attacks, the rhythm of their push and pull, truly nothing could get her blood pumping quite like a good fight, and Lady Ilia was giving her exactly that.

“I wanna see you grinning like that once I turn you into worm food, Schnee,” she threatened.

Oh? Had Weiss been grinning this whole time? Perhaps she had been enjoying herself too much. Not that she had any cares right now. There was only space in her mind for the fires of combat, both with blades and words alike.

“Your skills with the blade are matched only by your eloquence, my lady,” Weiss declared, trying to keep a calm tone even as the fight continued.

“And yours is only matched by your fairness,” Lady Ilia countered, matching Weiss blow for blow.

“I’ll be taking that as a compliment,” she replied, taking some ground as well while she was at it.

“Not once I’m done beating your face bloody!”

Weiss laughed.

She couldn’t help herself really, not when she was enjoying herself so much. She hadn’t had such fun in ages, so of course she had been grinning and laughing like a complete fool. It did not help that her sparring partner was making herself a fool in much the same way.

Perhaps it had been such bouts of laughter that had caused Lady Ilia’s stance to slip for a moment. Making the best of the opportunity she had been given, Weiss lunged forth, hitting her partner’s sword with force, knocking her backwards with the blow. Though she did not wish for her companion to suffer any real wounds, and dutifully caught her in one arm before she could touch the ground.

Her breathing was labored, heavy with strain and adrenaline. Lady Ilia did not find herself in a much better position, clinging to Weiss’s arm to keep herself from falling back as the both of them simply held themselves like that. Their bodies pushed oh so closely as they allowed themselves to slowly recover.

“I must admit, Schnee,” Ilia was the first to break the silence, “you’re quite the fighter.”

Weiss did not care to stop the smirk that had returned to her face, “it wouldn’t do for my lady to have a poor knight at her service.”

Calling herself a knight was perhaps a bit much, but she felt she could allow herself such indulgences in this moment. As expected, Lady Ilia clearly disagreed, rolling her eyes at Weiss’s self satisfied comment.

What wasn’t expected was for her body to fracture into a kaleidoscope of butterflies, each of them flying away and dispersing into the air. Weiss froze in stunned shock, unable to move as her mind tried to grasp what had just unfolded.

She felt hard wood gently press against her back, before the real Lady Ilia allowed herself to retort, "and it wouldn't do to let you grow too cocky, Schnee."

The Ilia she had fought was an illusion.

Now that had returned the smile to her face.

Weiss righted herself and turned to face her sparring partner. Ilia’s excitement was written on her face as clear as day. She smiled not only at the fact that she had bested a Schnee, but at the simple joy of a good fight.

It struck her then that perhaps there was some truth to Lady Ilia’s assumptions. Perhaps she had certain preferences when it came to her partners. That was certainly a lot for Weiss’s poor mind to digest while still being pumped full of adrenaline. Maybe it would be for the best if she saved the self questioning for later, and just allowed herself to enjoy this moment of joy.

“Again?” Weiss asked, already knowing what her lady’s answer would be.

“Again!”

[angeli-marco-writes]

Bill and Fleur - Our Spot

A/N - I do not own these characters, this is a work of fiction. Fleur is an absolute darling and I absolutely adore her. Please enjoy this cuteness despite the awful writing from my wattpad. It was fun to write in my two best languages as well, even if the French is just in bits.

Warnings - mentions of other character death, fluff, bad English and French for 1.6k words. 

Summary - After the final task, Fleur finds herself in despair, and goes to the only spot she can think of to unwind, not expecting to be approached by a handsome stranger.

AFTER CEDRIC'S DEATH and the events of the maze, Fleur could be found in a hidden corner of the Hogwarts grounds that she'd discovered in her time there. She didn't realise anyone else went over there, until she heard footsteps. She didn't really want to be found, she was heartbroken and kind of traumatised. Inside that maze she'd encountered terrors that she never thought could be real.

She looked up, still wearing her blue velvet tracksuit in the faint moonlight mingling with remaining sunlight, and was met with the strikingly handsome ginger gentleman that she'd marvelled at in the stands, and in the relatives room much earlier on.

"Fleur is it? Are you ok?" he asked softly, going up to her and crouching next to her sitting figure. She wiped her eyes instinctively of mascara mingled tear tracks, even though they'd been dry for a while and met his eyes, nodding.

"Yes, I am ok merci. Cedric dying just upset me. Sorry, my Eenglish is not good. Comment t'appelle tu?" She spoke gently, seeing the man sit down next to her in the grass.

"Je m'appelle Bill. Nice to properly meet you." He held her hand gently and kissed it gently, making her chuckle a little but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "I don't speak much French, but I speak enough to get me through a conversation. and your English isn't too bad." He winked, causing her to smile again.

"I'm so sorry zat you found me here. I'm a mess, covered een mud!" She insisted, pointing to the patches of tried mud and blood stains all over her pale tracksuit, but Bill kept his grip on her hand firmly, so she let it happen, intertwining her fingers with his.

"You're beautiful you know?" He murmured after a moment of silence, making her flush a little despite constantly receiving compliments on her looks. She was startled also at how forward he was, and she felt special, like he really saw her. "I know you're part Veela, I can tell, and my brother said so... but it's not just that. You're beautiful even when you're dishevelled and muddy." He chuckled. "And you were so brave to take on that tournament. as soon as I saw you in the chamber and I saw your eyes, and then I saw you outside the maze and I was rooting for you despite Harry basically being my brother." he continued and she laughed a little.

"You should not 'ave looked at me before ze maze. Your handsomeness distracted me." a coy smirk began playing on her lips. She moved her spare hand up to brush some stray red hair off his face and tuck it behind his pierced ear.

She couldn't help but revel in him, despite her own good looks. He was tall and muscular, freckled with piercing blue eyes and a warm smile. He had quite long fiery red hair which was tied at the base of his neck in a little pony tail which suited him, as well as the fang dangling from his ear. Fleur had never felt this way about anyone before, she'd never been nervous around a guy due to her Veela heritage, but that didn't matter here. Despite only knowing him a short time, she felt that Bill could see who she really was beyond her billowing silvery blonde hair, perfect good looks and terrifying anger.

"You wanna talk about any of it? I don't have to get home for a bit, I was just visiting Harry in the hospital wing with mum, and before you ask, he's fine." He said, seeing the sorrow in her eyes, and she nodded. Bill sat down on the ground and pulled her velvet covered legs into his lap, allowing her to be comfortable.

"I feel like I failed me and my school in zis tournament. I did not complete ze second task in le... le lac. Ron et Harry saved ma Gabrielle. Et I messed up in ze maze, bringing shame on Beauxbatons et Madame Maxime. C'est mon année finalement, I wanted time to do somesing special and I failed. And Cedric-" She paused, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "We were friends, ze four of us. Because of this task. And now 'e is gone. I'm so sad he's been killed." 

A lump began forming at the back of her throat and all her pent up emotions from the past year were being released. Bill could somehow tell that she'd be shunned if she showed this emotion to her classmates or headmistress, so he let her cry it all out, wrapping a reassuring arm around her.

"Fleur, you didn't fail your school. You performed admirably in this tournament. It's designed to test you and put you out of your depths ok? Quite literally in that second task, and no one blames you. You were an admirable champion and you've brought glory to your school in your final year, that's nothing to be ashamed of. And Cedric. I know you were friends, Harry wrote to me. Cedric lived in the same village as my family, I saw him growing up; the same year as my brother-" He began, but was cut off by a confused expression from Fleur.

"Your brother eez en Harry's year, non?" She asked with a bemused face, perfectly illuminated in the moonlight, and he laughed, having to gather himself before continuing. He held her legs closer to him, absently drawing shapes on her joggers, but she didn't mind.

"I have five brothers and a sister," He said, and her jaw dropped in response. "There's me, I'm 24, Charlie's 22, Percy's 18, Fred and George are in 6th year here so they're 17, Ron is in Harry's year so 15 now, and Ginny my sister is a year below Ron, she's 13."

Even after he finished, Fleur still looked astonished.  She was admittedly a little awestruck, and it took her a while to speak, to find the words. Bill couldn't care less, he could sit with this beautiful young woman in his old spot under the stars forever.

"You 'ave a grande famille!" She said and he chuckled to himself, their oceans of eyes connecting and forming a bond. "It's just me and ma soeur Gabrielle, she eez almost ten." Her heart seemed to glow as well as her cheeks when thinking of her sister, and Bill could instantly tell they were close.

"Family's amazing isn't it? I want a family of my own one day, just maybe not with seven kids..." he said playfully, and her tears subsided, leaving her able to just enjoy his presence.

"It's ok that you're sad about Cedric, you know, a lot of people are, and you'll be able to go to his funeral. But the ones that love us never really leave us do they?" She nodded, a smile meeting her eyes this time. "There's that gorgeous smile. I know I only saw it at the start of the task and I've only known you, what a day? Properly, less than an hour, but your smile is wonderful." He marvels at her perfect pearly white teeth and her dusty pink lips. 

He didn't mind that she was donning a dirt covered tracksuit with mud and blood on her face, he didn't mind that her hair was messy and held together by a breaking hair bobble, he didn't mind that they didn't speak the same language or that she'd just cried to him. Bill just enjoyed her company and honestly never wanted their meeting to end.

"So, when school ends, what are you gonna do?" He inquired, breaking the silence and pulling Fleur in closer to him, she happily agreed and nuzzled her head in his neck.

"I'm working at Gringotts 'opefully, maybe just in a shop, to make my Eenglish better. Just for ze summer." She smiled before asking him a variation of the same question and seeing his eyes light up.

"I'm a curse breaker for Gringotts!" He grinned, and she joined him, her cheeks beginning to ache. "I was working in Egypt, but now things are getting bad here, I'm gonna work at the main building in England. Guess I'll be seeing you at work then." He teased and nudged her lovingly which she thought was more than amiable.

"You will 'ave to 'elp me," she gazed up at him with wide eyes and he nodded almost immediately in agreement.

"Anytime..." he murmured, their faces getting closer until their lips were inches from one another. "We shouldn't do this. we'll be working together and I'm years older than you." 

He tried to reason his desire, but couldn't even convince himself as their lips met in a lustful kiss. Their lips moved in unison, understanding one another, and they didn't dare let go until they couldn't breathe.

"Madame Maxime will want me at ze carriage now. Eet was nice to meet you, Bill Weasley." She blushed as she stood up and scrambled away, the moonlight reflecting off her hair, but Bill hurried after her and caught her wrist.

"Here." He said, slipping a hair bobble on her wrist. "Yours is about to break, and I know how often they go missing. A token to remember me by, until I see you next month of course." He flushed himself, his cheeks matching his hair, as she stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss to his cheek.

"Fleur Isabelle Delacour. I come to England on ze 10th of July."

And with that, she ran off into the starry distance, he could see her small frame turn into a faint shadow as he smiled to himself. Maybe it wasn't so bad that someone found his old spot, maybe it was their spot now.

[rosenmarille]

First of all: that One Day bit is quality content. Second of all I read "3.5 for Holly" and am Highly Interested

HI yes! i will explain, however i first have to correct myself. its actually a part 2.5, not 3.5. like i mentioned in the other post, the part is called “heart unbound”, this is about 25 years after battle tendency, when holly is in her early 20s!!

the rest of this im gonna put under the cut

so the setting. joseph (43), suzie, and holly (21) live in new york, smokey is in georgia, lisa lisa (75) is Somewhere in the states, erina and speedwagon have passed away (sad). its 1963! the speedwagon foundation has continued expanding, with joseph and lisa lisa closely involved after speedwagons death. they’ve mostly moved their attention into new territory, but still have all their old research kept. stands aren't a thing yeeet, but its been long enough that the pillarmen have faded into unpleasant memory.

until one night the power at the swf hq goes out for just a moment too long, and santana manages to escape.

joseph and lisa lisa are contacted asap, and they decide to travel down to texas and find him (preferably take him out for good this time). holly, who has grown up hearing about jojo’s wild escapades, really wants to come along. she knows some hamon! she can defend herself! come on!! (yes i said it, holly learned hamon, do you think having lisa lisa for a grandmother would result in anything less?) anyway, joseph and lisa lisa Really don't want her to come since it could be really dangerous and they'd rather not put her in harm’s way.

so holly (rich, unsupervised) books a plane and goes after them.

we skip to texas!! joseph and lisa lisa investigate at hq and the surrounding area and find practically no trace of santana or where he might have gone. when holly arrives, she decides that since she can't look into hq without getting caught, she’ll ask around with locals, and manages to hear rumours about a new sort of cryptid (only appears at night, weird anatomy etc), both cattle and people have been disappearing, but on a very small scale. she looks into similar stories and realizes that santana must be moving south, though what he's planning, she doesn't know. but she will follow!! (and leave breadcrumbs for her family to pick up on this pattern too, she guesses. not so helpless now, huh?)

so this goes for a while, taking her down into mexico, until she is pretty sure that she can triangulate the missing people reports accurately enough to actually Find him. holly isnt stupid, she doesnt think she can win in a battle against a pillarman. what she’s hoping to do is prove herself to joseph and lisa lisa by prepping and helping out enough for them to then take care of the problem. she's an adult now and she doesnt appreciate being treated like a child. (you may say this contradicts how she behaved towards joseph in part 3, but to that i counter: she's in her 40s in that one, and her being an adult is established enough that she knows she can act a lil silli without that being put in question)

but hey!! she does find him!! she decides to stalk him for a bit, see what he does. so she happens to be there when santana attacks a young woman (midnight snack), who pulls a KNIFE instead of running away, so Holly rushes in and deflects an attack with a quick hamon swipe. santana has learned from his previous hamon encounter and instead of sticking around, he decides it isn't worth it and absconds instead (smart). (at this point you might notice this is the first fight of the part. yeah it be like that in this one. call it battle untendency) 

holly and the woman (who later introduces herself as Maria (no last name yet; but named after Maria Maria by Santana (lol)) also get out of dodge and hide out in an alley, where maria decides that she needs to know what the fuck that Thing was, yesterday. magic?? sparkling?? hello??? and hollys like uhh hah yes so. that's an ancient semi immortal vampire creature? and this is sunlight breathing magic, which he's allergic to. yea. and maria is like ................yeah okay i buy it. teach me sunlight breathing magic, i wanna come.

maria side paragraph! she's our oc and we love her. remember that awful scene from the santana arc with all those prisoners and the one kid who doesn't get sacrificed? that's her older brother. he was “let go” but “let go” basically did just mean “free to wander the desert and find civilisation maybe”, so when he did eventually find his way back home, he'd been severely traumatized, plus on death's door. other prisoners had been turned into vampires to test on the pillarman discovery, so the word “vampire” is something he'd have heard and conveyed to his family, who didn’t. really believe him. he also hasn't really recovered from that experience :( then the war happened and maria's dad served in it, and afterwards decided that his other child needed to know how to defend herself, and maria learned how to handle a knife, as well as how to physically fight. their family managed to avoid post war financial problems for the most part, and maria was able to finish her studies! she's a pilot :)  she is, however, harbouring very deep anger and resentment for what happened to her brother, and has not really had a face to direct that anger towards, so it's been on a relatively low burner for the most part, but now there’s talk of vampires and a person she can blame for her family’s trauma.

they exchange notes and she realizes that yeahh, that is pretty much exactly what her brother had told them, so it was true. hah :) yes actually, i would like to learn vampire killing magic please holly. and holly, who didn't really want to bring someone with her, but kind of does believe in accidents not being a thing, decides that yeah, she probably should bring maria along. and sure!! if they have to deal with sanata again, why not teach her hamon!! they share stories and continue to follow the trail while they train together, and become really close friends! jobro time.

we've now reached the first third of the story.

we travel further south!! soon, holly begins to realize......... ohh..... the temple they found santana in.. that's south of here, isn't it? oh huh. what could he want there?? the masks have been destroyed as far as she knows?? she doesn't know enough first hand to know what significance there could be, but the girls prepare for anything. maybe a big weapon the researchers had not been able to identify?? MOre pillarmen, secretly living underneath the temple??? 

(there are gonna be some scenes that involve lisa lisa and joseph figuring out where they need to go, and maybe also realizing who set that trail, maybe they have smth else going on, who knows) 

holly and maria follow santana and eventually do find the temple, and prepare to stake it out, hopefully hopefully not alerting him to their presence, because that would be.........bad. (tho tbh marias kinda itching to try out vampire begone magic. wouldn't You want to if you suddenly learned how?) neither of them have ever been here so they're honestly pretty floored by the temple interior, the tunnel that leads into the main chamber dark and uninviting, with who knows what hidden dangers are lurking about. 

and then they see him. santana is investigating the place where the pillar had been cut out of the structure, the stone masks crushed and broken, strewn around the floor, running his hands over the broken stone. Then he walks to one of the murals carved into the wall, a large one, similar to the one speedwagon had been investigating, with the 4 faces representing the pillarmen, and he lingers there. dips his head, then walks back to the empty space of the pillar and sits down where it was, crosslegged, and closes his eyes. and then he stays still. what does That mean?? 

the girls decide this is enough, they should fall back and formulate a proper plan, maybe wait for joseph and lisa lisa to catch up. buuuut we can't have that be the end of it, and so something happens, maybe one of them trips? steps on rubble that falls loose? they make a noise. and get noticed. 

change of plans! fight now! except there isn't an attack? they stay still but “i know you're there.” damn it. battle formation, stances ready, they make their way into the chamber, where santana hasn't moved at all. he's still sitting there, but he's looking at them now. holly asks what he's doing here, he asks the same back. she says not to play dumb, hes been killing people this whole time, he has to answer for that! and to that, santana honestly looks a bit confused because. has he? in his defense, he's not human, his prey is humans. pillarboy has to eat.

marias like “well? aren't you going to attack us?” and he's like “not unless you bother me.” and closes his eyes again. the girls aren't sure what to make of this.

santana side paragraph: first of all, this is a santana stan account. name one (1) thing he's done wrong, canonically. woke up in a strange place. captured?? got his bearings, tried to Leave and was accosted! shot some nazis (go king), and finally only snapped when joseph got mad he didn't laugh at his clownery. anyone would get murderous as a result. tried to escape further, ultimately was stopped and detained Again! morally, he's above joseph. 

so they're just standing now. since their earlier encounter where holly used hamon, santana refuses to talk more at first, but holly has the bright idea to get his trust by having maria restrain her and then stand back with her weapon -- a show of putting herself in a helpless position and promise she wont attack. that’s enough for santana to agree to come closer and have a proper conversation.

holly asks again why he's here exactly? what's here? and he tells her that if she Must know, he's waiting. waiting for what, she asks. and maria looks back at the carvings and realizes “oh. there should be 4 of them.” now santana looks mildly uncomfortable, and holly rememebers that “oh fuck, dad killed all of them.” and then “wait they were evil tho??” and then again “wait fuuck, didn't the leader guy say they left this one behind in mexico on purpose? oh man does he Know?” holly finds herself in the position of “not only do i have to tell this guy his friends aren't coming because they're Dead, they also kinda abandoned him.” yikes.

meanwhile maria is kinda pissed that her one chance at revenge might have just been taken from her. she still blames santana for what happened to her brother, and she refuses to let that go. she’s too stubborn and proud for that. and now, especally since holly seems to be focused on creating a bond, it feels like a slap in the face. so she kinda… snaps, ruining their chance at resolving this peacefully and causing santana to run off again. she and holly have a fight. it sucks.

soon after that joseph does find holly and he Does send her home. maria, after explaining her intentions, stays with them. holly is heartbroken :( after shes gone, joseph and lisa lisa make a plan to trap santana, aimed to go off in a few days prep, and during this, maria is starting to realize that that... really isnt the right thing to do... shes now had some time to sit alone with her guilt and regret about how she handled the situation, ssso she gets an idea on how to make up for it...

meanwhile holly is sitting at home and is sad, until suzie drives her somewhere in guise of going to a fancy lunch with smokey (whos in town), but really she drives her to the joestars airpad where her friend marua(!!) is already waiting in front of joseph’s plane, which, turns out, she hijacked in the south and flew all the way up here, and suzie tosses holly a bag with clothes and stuff and tells her to hurry up and get going :3

and hollys all "but what about lunch with mr smokey? :o" and suzie winks at her and says "don't worry, he's waiting for me to tell him everything went well at the restaurant ;)" and then holly gives her a big hug, runs to her friend and hugs Her, and they are off to fly back south to save some lives. on the way, maria apologizes and explains -- how she had harboured this resentment for so long that the sudden target for her blame put in front of her, plus the immediate removal of it were so jarring that she acted impulsively... she knows santana isnt at fault for what happened with her brother... and now she just hopes they make it in time.

as luck would have it, they catch up with joseph and lisa lisa just in time to jump between them and santana (maria accidentally cuts off joseph’s prosthetic hand in the process and freaks the fuck out before realizing it’s fine) and try to talk it out. it’s a tense few minutes, but holly is determined and stubborn, and she manages to get her dad and grandma to see her side of things and santana is saved! they find something for him to eat, giving him the energy to heal his wounds. pillarmen absorbing shit never gets old.

And from there it’s mostly just everything getting settled down and smoothed out. they get back in touch with the swf and tell them the problem is handled. santana turns out to be a relatively peaceful dude when his life isn’t being threatened, and he becomes a good friend with all four of them, but especially holly and maria. they help teach him about the modern world and he decides that he’s going to do some travelling and learn about the history of his culture and other ancient mesoamerican cultures he interacted with in his youth, and he shares the things he learns with the swf so they can get the info about where theyre needed etc.  maria gets hooked up with one of the many therapists we decided work at the swf that has experience with the supernatural things she and her brother have gone through. holly, maria, and santana stay in touch and go on regular trips together. holly receives many post cards.

it’s all really good and happy :) thats heart unbound baybee!! <33

[novannna]

Same Sea, Same Soul, Same Heart

Chapter 2

Danna is the daughter of a noble in Gatlon city.  Gatlon is ruled by King Hugh and King Simon, members of the Renegades, the gruop that saved it from the anarchists and Ace Anarchy.  Nova is the niece of Ace Anarchy and is the worlds most feared and dangerous pirate.  She kidnaps Danna as ransom, and while they travel back to Danna’s father the two girls begin to realize they weren’t so different after all…

link to masterlist

Link to Chapter 1

Danna woke up in a cramped room, her hands still tied behind her.  She spotted a glass bottle behind her, just inches away.  She stretched her hands out, and grabbed onto the smooth surface.  She brought the bottle down hard on the wooden floor, cringing when it shattered loudly.  Danna let out a relieved breath when no one came running. Her hands searched for the biggest shard.  Her fingers latched onto a large, jagged piece of glass.  

Danna angled it upwards, and began sawing at the rope.  Finally, after an eternity of sawing, the rope broke.  Danna dropped the glass and rubbed her raw wrists,  They were covered with small cuts from where the glass had slipped, and a few layers of skin were rubbed off from the tough rope.  

She pushed herself up and looked around the room.  It didn’t have any furniture, but there were a number of barrels pushed against the back wall, as well as a  few bottles scattered across the floor.  Danna felt around her skirt, searching for her two daggers.  She exhaled gratefully when she felt the hard metal lumps. She reached into her full skirt, and grabbed the two blades.  She gave them a quick twirl, the familiar weight comfortable in her hands.  

Danna stalked over to the door, and cracked it open.  A man was standing outside, guarding it.  She threw the door open, and held her knife to the man’s throat.  

“One word, and I cut,” she snarled.  “I’m not afraid to get blood on my dress.”

The man raised his hands.  

“Good.  Now take me to your captain.”

The man breathed in suddenly.  “Captain don’t like to be disturbed.”

“Disturb him anyway.  It's that or get your throat slit.  Seems like there’s only one good option,” she hissed.  Danna dug the knife in a little deeper.  

“Alright, alright,” the man surrendered.  “But they won’t be happy.  And don’t think you can beat em.  You don’t know what you’re walking into.”

“My problem, not yours.  No take me to him.”  When the man didn’t budge, Danna slammed her body into him.  “Now!”

“Okay, okay.”  He led her through wherever they were, walking as quickly as he could with a blade to his throat.  Finally, they stopped in front of a wooden door.  

“Captain’s in here,” the man said nervously.  

Danna raised her eyebrows.  “Doesn’t look like much.”  It really didn’t.  The door was just a plain, unfinished door, with a small peephole near the top.  

“Trust me, this is the captain's office.  You really don’t wanna make them mad.  I would just go back to your room, and wait for them to come to you.”

“Doesn’t he know?  It's rude not to meet your guests.”  Danna paused.  “He really scares you, doesn’t he.”

“Captain’s powerful.  It’d be stupid not to be afraid.  You should be too.”  

Danna ignored him, and opened the door.  She dragged the man in, and glared at the figure waiting for her.  

“Well that certainly took longer than expected,” they said.  He was sitting in a large chair, facing them.  A large set of glass doors was opened behind him to a small balcony.  The view of the sea was all she could see.  

The sea.  They were on a boat.  It all clicked.  

“You’re pirates!” Danna exclaimed.  

The captain sighed.  “I thought you said she was smart,” he said to Danna’s captive.  “You can let’m go, Miss Bell.”

“No.  I know you must care about your men, so he’s my insurance.  I go, he goes.”  

To her surprise, the captain burst into laughter.  “Men are replaceable,” he said, flippantly waving his hand. “It’d be a terrible shame to get blood on the floor again though.”

“If that’s how you think about them, then why would they be loyal to you?”

“My dear, we’re pirates.  We have no honor.  They all know I don’t give a damn about their lives.  But at least they’re well paid.”  He chuckled again.  “Let the man go.”

“No.”  Danna glared defiantly.  

“Darling, if I wanted to hurt you, I would’ve already.”  He drew an elegant dueling pistol out of his coat, and trained it on Danna.  “Now, let the man go.”

“Fine,” Danna spat out.  She lowered her knife, and the man backed away from her quickly.  

“You’re dismissed,” The captain said.  The man nodded, and quickly retreated, the door swinging shut behind him.  

The captain tucked his pistol back into his coat and rose.  He was a long red coat, with gold brocade, and a hat pulled low over his face.  A sword was strapped to his hips, and a pair of pistols were strapped to his chest.  

“So,” he said.  “You escaped your room.  Took you long enough.”

Danna stared at him quizzically.  Was he amused?  “What do you mean?  What are you talking about?”

He chuckled.  “It was obvious you were going to escape.  Do you think I would be stupid enough to leave you with your weapons?  And bottles lying on the floor?  And only one guard, and an unlocked door?”

“Oh.”  Realization dawned on her.  “It was a test.”  He nodded slightly.  “Why bother?  Why do you even want me?”

“I was curious to see who put up so much of a fight.  And I want you, because your father will pay a handsome ransom for you.”  He grinned.  

Danna cocked her head, and stared at his face.  Something about it seemed off.  As well as his voice.  It was higher than would be expected.  And softer.  She shook herself.  She was losing focus on the real issues.  

“You’re wrong.  He will send the Renegade’s navy after me, and he will find me.  And you’ll hang for your crimes.”

He raised his eyebrows.  “That so?”

“Yes!  It is,” she said boldly.  “He will never pay a pirate a ransom for me.  And I think I will enjoy watching you hang.”

“You wouldn’t be the only one.  But unfortunately for you, I won’t get caught.  Do you know what ship you’re on?”

“It doesn’t matter.  Once the Renegades are onto you, you’ll never get away.”  

“Oh, but my dear, the Renegades are always looking for me.”  He smiled, and spread his arms wide.   “Welcome to The Nightmare.”

---

Danna backed up, her eyes wide with shock.  “Thats…”

“Impossible? It isn’t.”  Nova was grinning on the inside.  She loved seeing the look on peoples faces when they learned who they were talking to.  Her ship, The Nightmare was one of the most infamous vessels in the sea.  The Renegade Navy had been trying to catch it for years to no avail.  It struck, wreaking havoc, then disappeared.  In and out, barely seen, but leaving its memory lingering behind.  

“That means you’re…”

Nova finished for her.  “Captain Noah Artino, at your service.”  She took a small bow.  She liked pretending to be a boy.  No one but her crew and the Anarchists knew who she was.  It made it easier to infiltrate places.  As well as not be underestimated.  She was Noah Artino to the world.  And it worked out for everyone that way.  

Fear flashed across Danna’s face.  “I thought Nightmare didn’t take prisoners.”

“They do if it’s in their best interest.  What would your death get me?  Absolutely nothing.  But your life…  I know your father will pay any sum for you.  Even if he sends Renegades after me first.”  

“You have to bring me back,” Danna tried again.  “Without me-”

“What,” Nova interrupted.  “Without you he’ll what?”

Danna’s silence was answer enough.  

“He’ll be fine on his own.  He doesn’t value your opinion, and for the record, neither do I.  Now, can I trust you to go back to your quarters without threatening the life of another member of my crew, or do I have to take you myself.”  

“My quarters?  That’s what you call them?  The closet you shoved me into?  It doesn’t even have a bed!”

Nova shrugged.  “Not my problem.  If you really want, I can get you a hammock so you can sleep with the crew.  Or you can stay in my chambers.  It’s up to you.”

“The closet is fine,” Danna grumbled.  

“Good.  Now, shoo.  I actually have work to do.  I wouldn’t expect you to understand what that is though.  I doubt you’ve done a single day's worth of it.”  Nova was trying to goad her into a fight.  And Danna fell right into her trap.  

She whipped out her dagger, and ran at Nova.  Nova neatly side stepped her wild swings.  

“You’ll find that I’m a more difficult opponent to beat than my crew,” she called out cheerfully.  

Danna screamed with rage.  “You don’t know anything about me!”

“On the contrary, I know everything about you.  I spend time getting to know my victims.  I’ve got you completely figured out.”  Nova grabbed Danna by the arms, and bent her wrist backwards, forcing her to drop the dagger.  She shoved her into a chair on the opposite side of Nova’s desk.  “Sit, and let me explain something to you.  Or should I strap you down?”  Danna fumed, but didn’t move.  “Excellent.”  Nova took a moment to collect herself.  “You are an open book.  From the minute you were born you have been pampered.  You haven’t spent nights hungry, or almost died because you had to risk your life to survive.  The hardest thing you’ve ever done is train to learn how to fight.  Which paid off. You're not a terrible fighter.  But you don’t know the pain I’ve felt.  You can go to bed sleeping peacefully each night.”  Nova was beginning to get angry.  “You fight with your parents about who you’ll marry, or what you want to do with your life.  And you have infinite options.”  Nova paused, and glared at the girl.  “Me, on the other hand.  I was brought up with two choices.  Fight and steal, or die.  I’ve never known the comfort of peace and safety.  I’m safe now, but any minute some cocky pirate can come barging through that door, ready to fight me for command of that ship.  One day, I won’t be lucky.  I trust my crew, but they’re pirates.  We have no honor.  If they think they can win against me, then they’ll try and kill me.  When I’m on land, I have to steal if I want a meal or a place to sleep.  I risk Renegades finding me, and stringing me up, just because I don’t want to starve.”

“You’d deserve it,” Danna muttered.  

“I would.  But you’re not getting my point!  I know you.  I know every single one of your kind.  So trust me when I say this.  I don’t give a damn about what you want or what you have done.  You’re only worth is the money your father will pay me for your safe return.”  Nova slammed her dagger between Danna’s fingers.  She yelped, and jerked backwards.  

“Now go.  Keep your daggers.  But if you even think about leaving your quarters without explicit permission from me, I’ll throw you overboard without a second thought.” 

---

Danna was absolutely furious.  Noah Artino, the infamous pirate was telling her she had known no struggle in life.  He was completely wrong.  But at the same time, part of her mind was really wondering if she should rethink everything.  Her heart was still racing from the knife he had stabbed between her fingers, and her dark skin felt warm.  

“Now go,” he said.  “Keep your daggers.  But if you even think about leaving your quarters without explicit permission from me, I’ll throw you overboard without a second thought.”  The nerve.  That he was the one ordering her around.  And her quarters.  She barely had enough space to turn around.  Not that she wouldn’t be able to handle that though.  

She should not be here.  She should not be in the middle of the ocean, because some criminal wanted to use her.  Use her to make her father pay some of their rapidly fading money.  Danna had heard the rumors.  She knew Nightmare and his crew were rich with the profits of innocent people, trying to go about their lives.  

And she was another pawn on his board, moving around by forces beyond her control.  Danna refused to be used.  

As Noah Artino turned around, facing the sea, she yanked the dagger out of the wood, and hurled it at his head.  For a second, she thought it would really work.  

But he ducked at the last minute.  The blade pierced his hat, ripping it off his head, and pinning it to the wall behind him.  He ripped around, anger, and a little bit of fear in his eyes.  He morphed his expression back to its completely emotionless facade.  

Wait.  No.  Not him.  

Without the hat hiding her face, it was obvious that it wasn’t a man's face.  And hair that had been hidden, tucked up inside the pirates hat now flowed loosely around her head.  

“You- you’re a girl,” Danna stuttered in shock.  

“Very astute,” the pirate captain said.  Her voice was lighter now, as if she had been making a conscious effort to make it sound more masculine.  

Danna laughed.  “You’re kidding me.  The infamous Nightmare, the one Renegades have been looking for ever since they emerged is a girl?”

“No need to sound so surprised.  The Renegades have many female soldiers in their ranks.”

“Yes, but… you’re a pirate!  Pirates are rough men.  Criminals, and murderers.  Not women.”

Noah Artino burst out laughing.  “Oh darling, you’ve obviously never met a real pirate before then.  Almost half my crew is female.  We just don’t get caught.  That's why you never knew.”

“Why bother?  Why let the world think you’re a man?”

The pirate shrugged.  “No one underestimates me.  It makes life easier.  Tales of the dreaded Nightmare, sneaking in to slit your throat and steal you daughters.  No one would guess that it’s a girl.”

“Do you?  Steal people’s daughters I mean.”

“Besides you?  No.  They come willingly.”  She winked, and Danna bit back a laugh.  “Nice throw, by the way.  Pity about the wall though.  Just fixed it.”  She sighed while she yanked out the dagger.  “Now, don’t think knowing the truth changes anything in your situation.  You can go.”  The pirate pointed at the door.  

Danna felt a surge of annoyance rise up.  The pirate was still just as irritating and brash as a girl.  “Is Noah your real name?”  She asked.  

“No.  And I don’t see how that is any of your business.”  She stood, and opened the door.  “I’ll see you when I feel like it.  Step a single toe out of line, and you’ll be swimming with the sharks.  Now go.”  She pointed out the door and tapped her food impatiently.  

“You trust me to go back on my own?”  Danna asked.  She was confused by the pirate’s trusting behavior.  

“Not at all,” she responded.  “Moxie!”  She screamed. Someone came running down the corridor.  

A woman wearing long trousers, a man's button up shirt arrived.  “Yes, Cap?”  She asked breathlessly.  

“Take Miss Bell to her room.  Bring her a meal, then post two guards at the door, and lock it tight.  She’s prone to escaping.” 

“Yes ma’am.”  Moxie saluted.  She yanked Danna forward by the arms.  “Come on, Captain’s orders.”  Danna stared at the woman in surprise.  She was a lot stronger than she looked.  Danna glared at the captain.  

“You have to take me back to my father!”

She smiled, and placed her hat back on her head, this time keeping her short black hair down.  “That’s the plan.  In the end we’ll all be happy.  You’ll be with daddy dearest, and I’ll be a fair bit richer.”  

“You’re a terrible person!”  Danna screamed while Moxie pulled her down the hallway. 

The captain tipped her hat.  “Of course I am.  I am a pirate after all.”

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