#and i will clean my hair properly and comb it through and rid off any dandruff

[elibeeline]

Im about to get. So clean.

[ethereousdelirious]

The bitch is back!!!! Finally!!!!

Fandom: C.ritical R.ole: E.xandria Unlimited

Characters: All except [spoiler for most recent episode]

Pairing: N/A

Tropes: College AU except with D&D races still

Summary: D.orian insists he's too sick to perform in the university's battle of the bands, then changes his mind and goes anyway. He was right the first time.

Notes: I was gonna take this in a different direction and make it longer, but I ran out of time and I really wanted to have it out today, so. Ta-da.

"I told you," Dorian rasped, pulling the covers over his head as if to shield himself from his friends' expectations, "I can't."

Dariax and Opal whined in tandem, nearly harmonizing through sheer, random chance. "C'mon, bud," Dariax pushed, "you're not that sick."

"Are you serious?" Dorian threw the covers off, the better to glare at his friend. "I have a 102-degree fever. I'm not doing it."

"A fever is good!" Opal said brightly, though her voice was a little muffled, as she was hiding the lower half of her face in her shirt to fend off Dorian's germs. "It means your body is healing."

"No, it means I feel like shit and I'm not going anywhere." Dorian huffed out a sigh that left his chapped lips stinging and scooted down the bed so he could lie down properly. His stuffed-up sinuses protested at the change, but he stubbornly ignored the throbbing and the post-nasal drip.

"Ohhh, I get it," said Dariax in a tone that suggested he very much did not get it. "So you'll come if you feel better?"

"Sure, Dariax." Dorian crossed his arms over his chest, wishing that his friends would take the hint and go away. Exhaustion made all his limbs feel heavy, made the idea of keeping his eyes open for even another second feel like the keenest of agonies. He shivered beneath his blankets despite the fever painting his cheeks an angry purple.

"You heard the man," Dariax said, turning to Opal. "Time to nurse Dorian back to health."

"You can't cure the flu in a day," Dorian said. The cough finally caught up with him and he rolled over, shaking with the force of it, covering his mouth with his hands. "Oh, god." He really felt awful and still, Dariax and Opal just weren't getting the message. Dorian flopped back over, gesturing weakly for one of them to hand him the glass of water on his nightstand. 

"Sure, we can buddy!" Dariax, seeing Dorian reaching out, took his hand in both of his own. "Let's see, how about I go make you some awesome healing tea, and Opal can…"

"I'll get all that hair out of your face," Opal said. Dorian's gradient locks were stuck all over his face, black and white strands plastered to his cheeks and stuck to his lips. 

"Great," said Dariax, making for the door. "Dorian, you're in good hands."

Dorian had never been more sure in his life that he was going to die. Leaving Opal to poke around his room for hair ties and a comb, he forced himself to roll over and grab the water glass. He was shaking so badly he could barely hold himself up to drink and even that slight movement took enormous amounts of effort. "Opal," he said, letting the glass fall as he flopped back onto his pillows. "If you're gonna stay, can you please--" He muffled a few explosive coughs behind his lips, sniffled. "Can you please get me some more water?"

"Sure!" said Opal, letting her shirt fall away from her face. "Maybe I should get you a plastic cup, though. 'Cause you don't wanna be cleaning up broken glass later if you drop this one. Do you have any plastic cups?"

"I dunno." Dorian hid his face in his hands, trying to rub away his headache. He had never considered Opal's voice annoying before, but now her words rattled in his head, drawing throbbing pain in their wake. "Orym might." That gave him an idea, albeit one he was almost too tired to pursue.

"I'll go look," Opal said. "Sit tight."

Dorian waited until he could hear the quiet sound of Dariax and Opal talking in the kitchen before forcing himself to sit up to search for his phone. He found it down by knees, thanking all the gods in the pantheon it wasn't dead, and sent a text to his roommate.

Dorian: IK you're at work but dear God pls come save me

Dorian: Dariax and Opal are here to "nurse me back to health."

Dorian: I May Die 

Then Opal came back with a plastic cup of water and Dorian shoved his phone back under the covers like a guilty teenager. The subsequent adrenaline rush robbed him of his breath until he felt faint.

"Oh, good," said Opal, setting the cup down on the crowded nightstand. "You're already sitting up."

Dorian's head swam. He opened his mouth to tell Opal that he'd prefer to not be sitting up any longer, but the words came out as hissing rasp. He cleared his throat. "Oh, fuck."

"Don't worry, Dariax's tea will help your throat," Opal said. She knelt by Dorian's bedside and started combing his hair out of his face. Dorian relaxed despite himself, happy to be rid of the unpleasant sensation. Opal noticed and smiled. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Dorian said begrudgingly.

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone if you moan."

"Jeeze, Opal." Dorian went to bury his face in his hands, but Opal stopped him with a quick tap to the chin. "Head up. How about a nice braid?"

"Whatever."

Opal was gentle with her touches, working out knots with a practiced hand instead of yanking through them like Dorian had feared she might. If it wasn't for the uncomfortable position and the chill in his limbs, he might have even fallen asleep. "This is nice," Opal said, stroking the nape of Dorian's neck. "I never get to play with other people's hair."

"Mm," said Dorian, his head cloudy.

That was when Dariax burst in cradling a mug of tea in his hands like it was something precious, and not over-steeped Throat Coat. "I made tea!" he announced redundantly.

"Can I drink it later?" Dorian mumbled, blinking slowly. Despite having been asleep for most of the morning, he still felt exhausted and sore. "Wanna sleep." He coughed a few times, too tired to even turn his head, let alone cover his mouth.

"But then it'll be cold," Dariax said. "And I saw you shivering, so I know you don't wanna drink cold tea."

Dorian thought he might have a rebuttal to that, hidden deep beneath the layers of fever-fog. Whatever it wasn't he couldn't reach it now. "Good point." He held out his hands for the mug, dimly annoyed that they were both still shaking. "I really don't feel good," he announced in case it might help.

It didn't.

"We know, silly," Opal said. "Drink your tea."

"Meds?" Dorian asked hopefully, gesturing vaguely in the direction of his nightstand.

"Gotcha." Dariax shuffled past Opal and dropped two pills into Dorian's open mouth.

Dorian nodded his thanks and washed them down with a mouthful of tea. "What time is it?" he asked, grabbing a tissue from the box tucked into the corner where his mattress met the wall.

"11:30," said Opal, who always had her phone within arm's reach.

Dorian blew his nose and dropped the tissue over the side of the bed. He had no idea where his trash can had ended up and wasn't about to lean over and look for it with his head spinning the way it was. "Ugh. Fuck."

"Orym's not off until 3:00, right?" Opal asked, cottoning on.

Dorian nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Don't worry, buddy." Dariax reached out to ruffle Dorian's hair, but stopped after a nudge from Opal, who glared pointedly at Dorian's braid. "You'll be aaaall better by then."

Dorian was most assuredly not "all better" by 3:00. After finally getting Opal and Dariax out of his room, he had slept fitfully until they had gotten bored and come to wake him to see if he was feeling better. Around that time, his fever had gone up and he had clawed his way out of his hoodie and tossed it aside, a move he would come to regret when he woke up to the sound of his friends joyfully greeting Orym at the door and found himself shivering again.

Unwilling to speak, he let out a long groan, hoping that the sound of his misery would draw Orym to his room. But this only made him cough, aggravating his stinging throat and sore chest.

"Jeeze," said Orym from the door. Dorian looked terrible and sounded worse, and there was nothing anyone could do about it but wait.

"Oh, good," said Dariax, "You're awake!"

"Are you all better?" Opal asked.

Dorian ignored their questioning and looked Orym dead in the eye. "Please explain to them that I'm too sick to go to the stupid battle of the bands tonight."

"But we need you, Dorian!" Opal exclaimed. "No other band has an electric lute player."

"Oh, and Fearne's so excited," Dariax added. "She's been practicing extra hard all week on those pan pipes you lent her."

"Guys, guys." Even Orym's gentle tones made Dorian's head pound. "If Dorian says he's too sick to go, then he's too sick to go. We should believe him."

"What do you mean 'believe me'?" Dorian demanded. "Oh my god, you think I'm being a pussy, don't you?"

Orym hesitated for a fraction of a second too long before responding. "No, no, of course not."

"You do!" Dorian crossed his arms over his chest, mortally offended. "I don't believe this!"

"Hey, hey." Orym put up his hands. "It's okay. You don't have to go."

"Nooo," said Dorian, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "I'm going." He stood up and staggered over to his closet. He had thought he was being responsible and proactive, taking care of his illness instead of pushing himself too hard. But the idea of his friends thinking he was sheltered, soft, weak was unbearable. His hand trembled as he searched through his clothes for something suitably impressive to wear, and a dim thought occurred to him that he might be acting irrationally because of his fever. He wasn't usually quite so concerned with appearances. 

From the doorway, Opal, Dariax, and Orym watched. "Well," said Dariax, "that was easier than I thought."

"Yeah, Orym." Opal turned to him, impressed. "Where were you five hours ago? I could have gone home and watched The Bachelor."

"You still have" --Orym checked his watch-- "a good five hours."

"No, 'cause we're meeting Fearne for rehearsals at 5:00, remember? Once she gets back from visiting her grandma."

Dorian smothered a flurry of coughs into the crook of his arm, scowling when the colors of his shirts on their hangers began to blur in front of his eyes. "I need coffee," he announced once the fit was done, and marched off to the kitchen.

"Dorian, wait--" Orym said, but he didn't even pause. Orym looked between Dariax and Opal. "Is nobody else going to try and stop him?"

"Why the hell would we do that?" Dariax asked. "We've been here all morning trying to convince him to go."

"'Sides," said Opal. "You're the one who called him a pussy."

"I did not." Orym sighed and ran a hand through his hair. A sense of impending trouble prickled like static on the back of his neck. He really hadn't meant to make Dorian feel bad, even if he did think the genasi was being a touch melodramatic.

By the time they had finished with their pre-show dinner at Denny's, Orym sincerely regretted his harsh judgement of Dorian's condition. He had been quiet at practice, barely even saying hello to Fearne. She had given Orym a questioning look, and he had only been able to shrug helplessly at her. Dorian's cough got worse and worse all evening, culminating in a moment at dinner where he left for the bathroom and just didn't come back, leaving behind his mostly untouched plate.

Orym had found him leaning against the counter, breathing heavily and staring at nothing. The eyeliner Opal had so carefully applied was now smudged where Dorian had rubbed his eyes, and sweat stood on his brow. Orym had led him back to the table in silence after a few failed attempts at conversation.

By the time they got to the university's theater, Dorian could barely stand up straight. He was shaking so badly that his lute rattled in its case, and several passers-by did double takes when they saw him.

"Shit," said Orym, once they finally were backstage. "Fuck. I knew this was a bad idea."

"S'fine," Dorian rasped.

"I don't know," Fearne said. She studied Dorian's braid. "You're about the same color as your hair," she said, indicating the pale blue tips.

"Yeah, I think Orym might be right," Dsriax said, shifting uncomfortably. 

Dorian had to pause and catch his breath before responding, struggling to keep his balance on legs that suddenly felt too weak to support his weight for much longer. "You said…"

"Yeah!" said Dariax, turning to Orym. "You're the one who called him a pussy."

"Nobody called him a pussy," Orym said. He would have liked to have reached out to steady Dorian, who was still swaying dangerously, but could only reach about hip height. "Opal, Fearne, can one of you please get him before he--"

Dorian's knees buckled. He hit the ground hard, holding his stomach. "Oh, shit."

Noticing a few eyes on them, Dariax stepped away and began to pace back and forth in front of the group, daring someone to say something. "Fuck off," he muttered, replacing his concern with aggression at no one in particular.

"What hurts?" Opal asked, her fear of contagion forgotten. She knelt beside Dorian and put a hand on his back, and even through his thick leather jacket, the heat that met her hand made her gasp.

"Dizzy," Dorian said through clenched teeth. In a whisper, he said, "Please don't let me throw up in front of all these people."

"That one's kind of on you, buddy," Dariax said over his shoulder. "Try to hold still and look at something that's not moving."

Dorian swallowed hard and tried to focus on a distant guitar case. It was difficult to do with his head still whirling, and his stomach gave a dangerous lurch. He took a few deep breaths to try to steady himself and only succeeded in triggering a coughing fit that drove him sideways into Orym's chest.

"We need to get him out of here," Orym said, staggering back under Dorian's weight.

"Give…" Dorian's voice faded out. He cleared his throat. "Give me a second. I can walk."

"Here," Fearne held out her hand. "When you're ready."

After a few cautious breaths, Dorian grabbed Fearne's hand and stood slowly, blinking away silver spots. "Sorry," he mumbled into her shoulder as they started to walk out.

"Ah, don't apologize," Dariax said, swinging Dorian's lute case along with his steps. "Maybe we shouldn't have pressured you to come."

"More like definitely," Opal said. "We're sorry. I really thought we could have you feeling better."

"It's fine." Dorian gave a weak laugh and forced himself to pick his head up off Fearne's shoulder. "You're not the one who called me a pussy."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Orym muttered, privately grateful that Dorian was still mentally present enough to make jokes.

They all piled into Opal's beater, Fearne in the passenger seat and the other three crowded in the back. Dorian leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes.

[amorgansgal]

The Only Compass I Need

Well as you've all been good VDL-gang hoes and as it's my birthday today as promised here's my longer fic for Arthur Morgan/Original Female Character. It's been edited and checked by my lovely partner, but I will always appreciate any comments or feedback. Hope you all have a wonderful day and thank you for making this fandom always such a delight to be in!

Summary: Ruth Shelton has been running with the Anderson Boys for many years, but when she and her daughter, Daisy, are abandoned in a snowy cabin in the West Grizzlies, she must come to terms with being left behind by people she thought she could trust and rely on. Determined to keep herself and her daughter alive, she will do anything it takes to ensure a better future for Daisy, but runs into trouble and has to rely on another gang to keep them safe.

Rating: Explicit

You can read it on AO3 too!

‘Ma?’ Daisy looked up from the newspaper she was busy colouring in, and Ruth tried not to close her eyes in frustration. Daisy had asked her the same question almost every night, just before dinner, ‘When’s Pa coming back?’

Ruth poked the remnants of the fire in the grate, willing the small, crackling flame to finish cooking the rabbit she had trapped. She didn’t risk gathering more wood with the evening rapidly growing dark. In the small, run down cabin the frigid wind of the West Grizzlies whistled through the gaps in the walls. Outside the first few flakes of a spring snow storm drifted lazily through the navy-blue sky.

She pulled the moth-eaten blanket they had found abandoned in one of the bedrooms around her and her daughter’s shoulders. She tried to ignore the twisting, painful feeling in her gut and the hot burn of tears that found their way to her eyes. How dare he, how dare he leave his daughter.

Two weeks. For two weeks they had sat in this cramped, dirty, broken little hut and waited. She had wondered after the first week whether he was dead or injured. She still liked to think the best of Frans, even though the man was unkind and impatient with her, and had cared so little for his daughter that on good days he would ignore her and on worse days shove her away. But by the time they reached the second week, with no one from the gang even attempting to find her, she realised that they’d been abandoned. Perhaps Frans hoped that the cold weather or starvation would get rid of a problem he could no longer stomach.

‘I don’t think he’s coming back,’ Ruth replied, her voice flat and distant. She coughed a little, clearing her throat, Daisy didn’t need to see or hear her mother’s resentment or pain.

‘Oh,’ came Daisy’s response. She resumed colouring in a picture of a man wearing a top hat, choosing a vibrant green for him.

Ruth poked the rabbit on the small grill, and sighed. Perhaps she was still clinging onto the vague hope that Frans might change his mind. Daisy seemed to idolise the man, no matter how poorly he treated her, and Ruth wanted her daughter to be right about him.

‘Tonight, we’re going to pack up what we can,’ Ruth said. ‘Then tomorrow we’ll ride Freyja somewhere warmer. If your father wants to find us, he will do.’

‘But Pa said to stay here.’

‘Well, he can’t expect us to stay with the cold weather coming in, and there’s very little food here. He’ll understand.’

‘How will he know where we’ve gone? We can’t leave him a note.’

‘We can leave him a message. He’ll just have to find someone else who can read it for him. Hopefully, when he turns up Edgar or Josef will be with him.’

‘Why hasn’t Edgar come?’ Daisy asked, scratching her nails against the waxy, green crayon. Ruth pulled it from her hands.

‘Don’t do that, they were expensive. I don’t know.’

Daisy began to draw wiggly lines under the words in the paper, the yellowing pages now being covered with purple, red and blue. She looked back up, ‘Ok.’

‘I’ve always promised to tell you the truth, haven’t I?’

‘Yes.’

‘So, I would tell you, if I knew where your father was, if I knew where Edgar was or if I knew where anyone was.’

Daisy carefully put her red crayon down on the page, then began to put the crayons back in the little tin she kept all her priceless possessions in. A dried daisy flower from Edgar, a blue-green marble she had found in Blackwater and a yellow, silk ribbon dotted with daisies that Ruth had brought her for her birthday last year.

Not for the first time, Ruth felt the twinge of guilt that always followed when seeing the few treasured items in Daisy’s tin. She wanted to give Daisy a home, a proper home with her own bedroom and toys, clothes that fit her properly, a warm fireplace and a door that could be locked and bolted shut.

‘Dinner will take a while, Sweetpea, you don’t have to put away your things just yet.’

‘Oh,’ Daisy said once more. ‘Well, can I help?’

‘There ain’t much to do, rabbit will be done in a bit.’

Daisy pulled up the newspaper and sat down in front of Ruth. The girl squinted at it with her light blue eyes in the low light, and began to read aloud the main story, sounding out the words she was unfamiliar with. ‘Bank boat… he… he--is--t? Ma, what’s a he--is--t?’

‘A he--is--t?’ Ruth glanced down at the newspaper, trying to figure out what her daughter was looking at. ‘Oh, a heist. It means a robbery.’

‘Like what Pa does?’

‘Yes,’ she looked back down to the story, to see if it was the Anderson Boys who were involved, but as she read, it became clear it was about the Van Der Linde Gang rather than her own. She frowned at the idea of still claiming the gang as her own. Evidently Anderson was not too heart-broken about her disappearance, despite how long she had been running with them. But then Anderson often called her a damned fool for getting in the family way and hadn’t exactly tried to keep her around. Perhaps it was better this way, to be abandoned and left to her own devices rather than trailing behind, trying to pretend that the group she had once called her family still cared for her.

The rabbit was done… charred on the outside, bloody in the middle. But when had that ever bothered her? Certainly, Daisy had learnt long ago that an empty belly was a far worse fate than a dissatisfied one. She tried to get Daisy to part with a bit of the newspaper, so she could lay the best bits on it for her and cause less of a mess when using her fingers to tear at the meat.

While Ruth gnawed at what remained on the bones, she checked their supplies. Two cans of beans, one can of peaches and a tin of crackers. They would share one tin of beans for their breakfast tomorrow, then they would have to hope she could catch or kill something for their midday meal, and assuming she could find the way, arrive in Valentine by four or five. She was banking on the weather being good, and the roads clear, otherwise it could take them longer and she had no desire to spend a cold night in unfamiliar woods.

She packed away the supplies, then made sure the repeater and pistols she carried were cleaned and loaded correctly. Ruth frowned on seeing how few bullets she had left in the box of ammo. This was going to be a rough few days. Every shot she could make would have to be perfect, no matter whether it was man or beast at the end of the sights.

She also double-checked how much money they had left, perhaps hoping the amount would increase on the next count. It would be better if she could get her daughter a warm bath and a hot meal when they arrived, even if she couldn’t afford a bed for the night. Ruth tried to not let the hiss of irritation pass between her lips. Anderson had always been insistent that any money made was money for the group, and while that had meant she could dip in and out of the funds box with relative ease, it had come back to bite her.

Her last job had pulled $150, but the vast majority of that had ended up in the box. Now she was looking at the grand total of ten years of loyalty and very few complaints from her, no matter how poorly her daughter was treated. She had $8.05.

‘We might have to do a coach job when we get to Valentine,’ she said.

Daisy pulled a face, a deep frown appearing on her forehead. ‘Do we have to?’

‘Do you want to eat?’

‘Can’t we just eat deer?’

‘No, it’s not good to eat nothing but meat.’

‘But I’m getting bigger now. I don’t want to pretend to be a little kid who cries.’

‘You just have to put your hands over your eyes and pretend. You’re so good at it! And it means Mama doesn’t have to shoot anyone.’

Ruth finished the last bits of rabbit on her side of the newspaper and looked at the peaches, tempted to break into them and at least give her daughter something sweet to eat. But there was no guarantee they would even reach Valentine tomorrow, especially with how strong the wind was howling and how quickly the temperature was dropping.

Daisy nestled closer under the blanket and picked up some more of the rabbit. ‘Who have you shot, Mama?’

‘Lots of people, who wanted to hurt me or you, Edgar or Josef or Anders.’

‘And Pa?’

Ruth wiped her dirty hands on her handkerchief, leaving streaks of grease on the discoloured material. She avoided her daughter’s eye as she replied, ‘Sure, your Pa too.’ In her head she found herself thinking, ‘wish I hadn’t bothered, bastard didn’t deserve my protection.’

She used a corner of the newspaper to clean the grease away from Daisy’s mouth, then grabbed a comb from her bag. She sat Daisy on her lap and began to gently untangle the knots at the end of her hair, before working upwards to the crown of her head and brushing through Daisy’s beautiful, golden brown hair.

At first, admittedly, it had hurt to see how much Daisy took after her father in looks, but they couldn’t be more different. Whilst her father was dismissive, callous and cowardly, Daisy was sweet, kind and brave. Braver than most kids her age, though Ruth wished she didn’t have to be.

She carefully plaited Daisy’s long hair, admiring the soft strands between her fingers, and finished off their little ritual by giving her a kiss on her cheek and then tickling her ribs. Daisy squealed and giggled, trying to bat away Ruth’s hands and yet still cuddling close once she was done.

‘Still little enough for that then?’ Ruth asked.

‘Hmph,’ came her daughter’s response and Ruth hid her smile. She felt torn, part of her was excited to see how much her daughter would change and grow over the years. But another part longed to go back to when she had been a baby, when her cheeks had been round and soft, and Ruth had easily spent the best part of her days pressing kisses to them. What did it matter that Frans was fucking whores and spending his money on drink and cards, when she had a baby in her arms, whose steady, sweet eyes gazed up at her with all the adoration and love she needed?

Another part, a part she tried not to think about, was terrified. What kind of a life was this for a child? Running from the law, hiding in abandoned houses and cabins, stealing and cheating to keep them both fed? This life was dangerous for anyone at the best of times, but for a child even more so. Daisy’s young age would not stop the law from punishing her, no matter how little choice she had in growing up in a gang and running schemes with her mother. But it was either involve Daisy, or leave her in a cave or up a tree, and that didn’t necessarily mean she was any safer, especially if someone were to find her.

She pushed away those thoughts; it wasn’t helpful to dwell on their situation. She hoped to be a good moral guide later in life for her daughter, but right now she would have to continue to be a hypocrite.

‘Bed time, Daisy,’ she said.

Daisy didn’t make a word of protest, as she was occasionally keen on doing, and took off her boots, before climbing into Ruth’s bedroll. Ruth joined her; it was too cold for their separate beds. While Daisy snuggled up against her, pulling the cover over head, Ruth threw their last remaining wood on the fire.

She grabbed her pistol and repeater, leaving the repeater next to the bedroll, but holding the pistol tightly. She kept her eyes on the front door, which they blocked with the dining table during the evenings. She had moved the wardrobe from the main bedroom to block the back door, and so felt comfortable enough to sleep with their backs to it.

She did her best to keep her eyes open, resisting sleep for as long as possible, until she drifted off and then woke with a sudden jolt to find the piercing, white light of a new day filtering between the bits of rotten wood and around the edge of the door.

[msyuksanh]

“The Brush” | Leona Kingscholar x Reader

Just a bit of a silly story set within the events of episode 3, so there are minor spoilers ahead if you’ve not reached that part of the game!

Summary Ruggie has some tasks for you and Grim to do. One of which involves braiding a certain irritable lion’s hair...

Rating: G Characters: Leona, Ruggie, Grim Location: Leona’s Room

---------

“Before we go for breakfast we need to do a couple of things first,” stated Ruggie standing before you with his hands on his hips.

You and Grim were dressed and ready for the day while Leona was just about coming into the land of the living. He lazily slipped on his orange waistcoat over his white shirt.

“We’re not your slaves.” retorted Grim.

You elbowed him gently to remind him they were doing you guys a favor letting you stay at the Savanaclaw Dorm, or more specifically Leona’s room. Also, not forgetting that in return for their kindness you guys were the new temporary servants.

“What would you like us to do?” you asked with a bright smile trying to make up for Grim’s remark.

“We just need to collect some clothes for laundry, and one of you will need to braid Leona’s hair.”

The was a short silence as you and Grim exchanged a look.

At this point Leona was still fixing his uniform and putting on accessories, seemingly completely oblivious to what was just said.

“As much as I would like to try not to rip out that guy’s hair I don’t have opposable thumbs so good luck,” Grim held up his paws and shrugged. He patted you on the shoulder before flying over to Ruggie who had been piling up Leona’s clothes in a weave basket.

An “Ah-” escaped you as your hand stretched out in Grim’s direction.

“Leona! Don’t go back to sleep!” Ruggie tutted and sighed, putting down the basket and pulling his prefect up into a sitting position. When did he go back to sleep!?

Leona growled. “What’s 5 more minutes? It’s not gonna kill anyone,” he grumbled, to which Ruggie rolled his eyes.

“We’ll be back in about 10 minutes. Come on Grim, I’ll show you the laundry room.” Ruggie strolled out with his hands clasped behind his head.

“Hey, you! Why am I the one carrying this heavy basket?!” yelled Grim as he struggled to keep afloat in the air while trying to follow Ruggie’s quickly disappearing form.

Now with them gone uncomfortable silence fell in the room. Leona sat on the edge of his bed, hunched over with his elbows on his knees and smartphone in hand.

You let out a quick sigh but found your energy after a deep breath.

“Okay, let’s get started shall we?” you said with another bright smile.

You walked towards Leona who strangely straightened up obediently and turned the screen off on his phone.

“So…is there a special style you have for your braids?” you inquired as you leant over him to inspect his luscious dark brown locks. His twitching ears sparked a curiosity in you. How you desired to just reach out and touch them!

“No.” he replied bluntly.

“Does Ruggie do anything special or-?”

“Hurry up and get on with it,” he growled out. The King of Beasts closed his eyes with what you assumed to be annoyance.

“Okay.” Your face and shoulders dropped indicating your motivation slowly leaving you.

You understood Leona wasn’t exactly in the mood for small talk. Then again, when ever was he?

You positioned yourself to his side, picked up a good amount of hair and tentatively dragged your fingers through it.

Leona was back on his phone endlessly scrolling from the fast motion of his thumb swiping up and down the screen.

“Hold on a minute,” you mumbled. You crawled on your knees onto his bed and appeared at height behind him bringing all his hair to the back. You tried combing through it all with your fingers again but found it difficult with the tangles and knots.

You got off the bed abruptly, now filled with a burst of excitement. After rummaging through your belongings you returned back to the bed with a hair brush in hand. Luckily you’d cleaned it!

“What’s taking so long!?” Leona only saw you bolt across the room and back from the corner of his eye. One thing he knew for sure was this was taking too long and he was going to murder someone if he didn’t get any food soon.

“I’ll be done in two minutes, don’t worry!” you exclaimed happily.

“Make it one,” was his irritated response.

Upon hearing his words you started brushing out the ends of his wavy hair quickly and gradually worked your way up. You got to the top of his head and made sure to be careful brushing around his ears. They twitched when the brush was near and Leona’s tail swished in a carefree manner, hitting your body and arms softly at times. How you wanted to touch that too!

Were your ears deceiving you? You swore you could have heard a small purr come from the Savanaclaw Dorm Leader.

Gasping at how smooth his hair had become you grinned seeing your fingers run so effortlessly through.

“Okay, braid time.” You left the hair brush on the edge of the bed and moved from behind him to his side with one foot planted on the floor and your other knee still on the bed. You stood tall so you had better height to do your work.

Slowly but surely you finished the first braid and felt proud of the end product. It didn’t turn out too bad between the nerves of touching a stranger’s hair and being so close to someone with such a strong personality.

All of a sudden you heard a clatter. Puzzled, you looked down to see Leona’s phone had fallen out of his hand. What?

As if in slow motion you saw him about to fall forward. Was he asleep!?

“No-n-no-no-!” You swung your arms around his wide shoulders in a panic and threw all your strength against him to stop him falling. Thank goodness your foot was on the floor otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to hold him back. And you knew he was more than likely going to fly into a blinding rage and kick you and Grim out if he had found himself woken up by faceplanting his own bedroom floor.

His head fell toward you and rested on your chest. His breathing was deep.

Oh, my goodness.

The panic set in wondering if Ruggie and Grim were to come back at any second. What would they say if they saw you both like this right now!?

“Hey, Leona, it’s time to wake up…!” You sang shakily, gently jostling him.

Nothing. You sighed forcibly. ‘Okay, let’s try something different.’

You sunk down onto your knee on the bed so you were at least able to see his face properly. In doing so Leona’s head fell into the crook of your neck.

Oh, my goodness(!)

Your eyes widened in shock. In that split second you felt his breath on your neck shivers ran up and down your back, but you swiftly shook your head to get rid of any strange thoughts.

“Leona! Hey!” You were confident he wasn’t going to fall forward anymore with his weight somewhat balanced by your arm around the back of him. You cautiously took your arm from across his chest and pulled his head away by cupping his jaw.

“Hello!? Please wake up(!)”

Nothing. You closed your eyes and pointed your face to the ceiling feeling everything you was doing was pointless.

Of course, the cruel hand of fate decided to deal you another card of misfortune right there and then, didn’t it? Of course your arm, the one essentially supporting his entire weight, gave out and you both fell backwards onto the bed.

Uh-oh.

As luck would have it you were stuck.

“Leona(!) Wake up! Why do you like sleeping so much!?” You questioned with exasperation in your voice.

You tried pulling your arm out from underneath his back but to no avail.

Feeling a mixture of annoyance, desperation and dread, you decided to just give in and wait for Ruggie to find you.

You facepalmed so hard you could cry. ’All I had was one job’

Why were things always happening to you? You couldn’t go one day, it seemed, without some kind of crazy event involving you and Grim. Not to mention this insane contract you believed you could fulfill to free Deuce, Ace and the other students trapped under Azul’s unique magic. But, how else were they going to get free? Who else was going to help them? Even if you had no magic, and you didn’t really know who you were or where you came from, you felt such a pull to help those in need.

Wow. Thinking about your friends really helped calm you down.

You turned your head to find Leona’s sleeping face in your direction. You paused. If it hadn’t have been for this pampered, arrogant lion-man and his straight-laced wolf and snarky hyena, you’d be god knows where. Your eyes roamed over his features taking them in slowly. You’d never seen him up close like this before.

Long eyelashes, sharp nose, lips always seemingly set in a frown, but luckily not right now. Your eyes wandered to his scar and you grew curious about its origins. His hair framed his face so well anyone would fall for him.

He was so stoic, so strong, ego the size of a galaxy, and yet in this very moment he was so gentle...

Leona’s eyes fluttered half-open and you held your breath. What would he think about this situation? How would he react!?

You couldn’t tell if his emerald eyes had focused enough to catch you staring back at him. Was he going to yell? Would he think you did something weird to him?

The answer was no. He went back to sleep.

You laughed suddenly finding the situation incredibly absurd yet hopelessly entertaining.

“What are you doing?” asked Ruggie from the door.

Relief washed over you and you’d never been happier to see the young hyena. “Oh, thank goodness you’re back!”

“What happened?” questioned Grim as he flew into the room. He gasped loudly.

“I’m stuck” You waved your free arm about to show the predicament you were in.

“How did this even happen?” Grim flew around checking you guys out. Ruggie laughed his signature snicker as he pulled his phone out to snap a million photos.

“The great Grim will get you out!” The furry demon grabbed your free arm and started pulling.

“No, Grim-wait-ow-ow-ow!” You cried in pain.

Ruggie lost himself to his laughter but never missed a beat with his photo-taking.

Grim gave up when he realized he couldn’t actually pull you out. You directed a death glare at him.

Ruggie’s laughter subsided and he wiped the tears out of his eyes. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Ramshackle Dorm even if I tried”.

“Can you just get him up, please?” You pleaded.

“Alright. Leona!! Wake up now!” Ruggie sighed, grabbed Leona’s wrists and pulled him up into a sitting position; the same move he’d made before.

Leona stretched his arms above his head and let out a long, hard yawn. “Why is everyone so loud!? You’d think I could get 5 more damned minutes of sleep”. He stood up and twisted at the waist working out the cracks in his back. You quickly followed suit getting up off the bed as you rubbed your slightly numb arm. Leona didn’t even seem to notice you were on his bed let alone him crushing a precious limb of yours.

“So, what happened? All you had to do was braid his hair... Was that too hard a task?” asked Ruggie condescendingly.

You ignored his patronising question.

“Well, I managed to get one braid done”, you professed kinda proudly, “but I decided to detangle his hair because, you know, I wouldn’t want to hurt him while braiding so I got my hair brush-“

Ruggie sharply inhaled.

At this moment Leona had wandered out onto the balcony, presumably, to get a moment of peace.

“A brush?” questioned the hyena. His eyes searched and fell upon the offending tool that laid abandoned beside the bed. He shook his head.

“What’s wrong with that?” Grim tilted his head in confusion.

“Look: when you brush a cat-“

“Lion” Leona interjected with a death stare. He’d come back to join the group and narrowed his eyes at Ruggie having heard him call him a ‘cat’.

“Fine. When you brush a…lion, they get comfortable. And when they get comfortable, they…” Ruggie gestured with his hands to coax the answer out of you.

“…fall asleep?” You questioned as you furrowed your brow wondering why he trailed off when he knew the answer.

Within a split second you gasped loudly; eyes widening once the realisation had dawned on you.

“Oh…” You looked over at Leona apologetically who only looked back with a bored stare.

“Yeah…” Ruggie agreed with a scrunched nose. He grinned making a mental reminder to show Jack the photos later. Oh, what juicy, juicy blackmail he now possessed.

“I don’t care what you’re talking about and I’m not standing around here waiting for you to finish.” The King of Beasts ‘hmphed’ and headed out of his room at warp speed.

“How are you not annoyed you only have one braid?” You heard Ruggie ask coming to the side of his prefect. He threw a cheeky grin back at you over his shoulder.

“I got to sleep more. I don’t care. It’s just hair,” answered Leona nonchalantly. The young hyena couldn’t really argue with that.

“I’ll put the other braid in later” said Ruggie. That poor boy probably knew Leona long enough that the lion would be bothered about the lack of braid eventually.

You let out a big sigh and let your body relax now that you were out of that situation. You followed behind the two Savanaclaw boys at a distance.

“Huh…” Grim flew beside you slowly with a paw rubbing his chin in thought.

“What’s wrong?” You asked.

“If all it takes is one brush to knock him out, we could steal A LOT of rich boy’s stuff,” pondered the small demon loudly with a nodding motion.

You laughed dryly. “Come on, don’t you get any funny ideas”

And with that, off you all went towards the school cafeteria, and towards what would be another crazy day at Night Raven College.

---------

(I’ve been watching cat videos lately on YT and the inspiration came to me! Our Leona is a big kitty after all!

I’ve not written in a long time so there are mistaaaakes, but thanks for reading!)

[ohshitmomitsawritingblog]

I’m a shy bean! So seeing you’ve put anon on this, actually made me squeal 😳 thank you! Could I get a head cannon of the founding trio with a S/O who is a super powerful shinobi. God level powerful, to the point if she walks into a battle fields the opposing side will straight up submit/retreat at the sight of her 😂 but at home she’s the most loving person and dotes on them? Like she’s so gentle with them. Need fluff! So much fluff and laughs 😂 thank you and I think your work is amazing!

Aww thank you! I’ll try my best to give you some good fluff and silliness. And please don’t be shy!!! I don’t bite 💙🥺

Tobirama

Tobirama’s wife is as cold and as cunning as her husband. She’s a brutal commander, willing to cut her loses if she sees a battle going south. She is all cool glares, with a calm, commanding voice to match.

In the field, she doesn’t even seem close or dotty on her husband, despite their early love-marriage.

Oh god, Tobirama knows she’s got her warriors played to hell and back.

His wife is just as smart as he is. Perhaps even more capable, physically, than he is. She’s also a worrywart, and a bit of a spazz behind closed doors and muffled tent flaps.

She pecks over Tobirama’s appearance when away from the safe walls of their home almost constantly. He scoffs and grumps, but she persists with some chilly words.

She asks if he’s healthy, if he’s sleeping well, running her fingers over his shoulders or through his hair as if examining him, but Tobirama knows it’s just her way to touch without looking soft in front of their men.

At home, she drops her cold demeanor and nakedly demands his attention as often as she can.

It’s not always obnoxious - her face pressed to his back as he writes, or her body pressed to his side as he studies.

Other times, she pulls on the sleeve of his yukata, almost childish in the way she silently begs for a shred of his time.

Despite not having to, as the wife to the second son of the Senju line, but she cooks and cleans almost daily when they’re home. It’s to keep herself busy, she says, although Tobirama suspects it’s one of her many ways of showing her love for him.

When he’s totally consumed by his studies, Tobirama may wake up to small notes from his S/O, reminding him to wash his face or to stretch his legs. He’d be lying if he didn’t find the notes unnecessary, but cute.

Hashirama

Oh god, Hashirama loves his S/O so much.

Honestly, it’s not every day anyone, let alone a woman, could even come close to Hashirama’s level. It’s kind of exciting for our boy Hashi.

Despite the thrill of a rare equal however, Hashirama also just enjoys his S/O’s insistence on staying tender hearted once the armor comes off.

She’s a tender woman, Hashirama’s wife. She dots on the clan’s children, often watching a horde of them despite her high position exempting her from such duties. She even helps the elderly members, including people from branch families, with their tasks. Everyone insists she focus on tasks meant for the head’s wife, but she just can’t help it!

With Hashirama, she’s an understanding ear, shoulder to cry on, and confidant. Few understand the burden that raw power brings in the ninja world, and fewer still aren’t quick to judge their fellows.

She braids or brushes Hashirama’s hair. If she has long hair, Hashirama will brush or braid her’s as well.

Some let war and chaos eat them from the inside, but Hashirama’s woman is cut from a different cloth. He can’t help but admire that.

He fawns over his S/O as much as she does him. I think they both admire the other greatly and are the kind of couple to indulge the other at a moment’s notice.

On the rare occasion Hashirama comes away from the battlefield wounded, his S/O consistently checks his wounds and ensures that they’re always clean and bandages properly - all while playfully scolding him over his ‘clumsiness’.

Despite their lovey dovey demeanor, Hashirama and his S/O are also pillars of their community. Their influence outside their clan is wide, and many respect this powerhouse couple, and not only because of their abilities on the battlefields.

Parties, wine, gambling, cool nights by the fire surrounded by friends and comrades - they’re definitely the ‘host’ couple who know how to have a good time. Hashirama’s S/O, despite all her ferocity, loves playing hostess. She dots on her guests just as much as she does her husband!

Madara

Madara’s woman is feared.

She’s already got a reputation for being an intensely ruthless bitch, If we’re being frank. The minute she started associating with Madara was the minute that reputation worsened.

Madata kind of loves it. It’s funny, to Madara. Why? Because his S/O is the biggest softie he’s ever met, next to Hashirama. All her armor and weapons and formidable technique hide a woman who cries over a bird’s broken wing or pouts when he steals the last piece of her fish.

He respects her for her strength - in Madara’s eyes she’s the only woman for him.

He secretly likes that she’s still soft. He admires and loves Hashirama for the same reason, and he’s started thinking that maybe he has a soft spot for ultra powerful softies.

This woman gives Madara PDA weather he likes it or not. Kisses on the cheek, a gentle hand on his hair regardless of the time or place. Sometimes it’s annoying. Most times, it’s just ... nice to be dotted on without restriction.

She manages the household well, and hears out many complaints that other ladies or lords would outright dismiss. She thinks deeply, and considers people’s situations in such a way that never came very natural to Madara. He can’t help but admire that.

This woman is untamable and Madara finds it equally vexing and admirable. She does what she likes, when she likes. She’s prideful, yet sweet. The Uchiha problem of ego does not apply to her even as she marries into the clan and all the prestige that carries.

She is a lady to reckoned with, but no in the clan one fears her like they do Madara. She retains her human element even as their foes throw the field at the sound of her name.

In that sense, by virtue of association, people see Madara as more human as well. He is as gentle with his sometimes silly woman as she is with him, and it softens the edges of his legendary reputation. To his clan, he becomes a man again, not a Ninja God in need of offerings and tribute and cowering. He needs just as much consideration as advice as the clan head as any other man.

Communication becomes more common, although Madara is still as grumpy and foreboding as ever. Sometimes he misses his grim status, sometimes, when clan children offer him homemade beads ‘that bring good luck, Madara-Sama!’, he’s glad to be rid of it.

In the evenings, she’ll comb his hair. It’s such a simple thing, but Madara has been deprived of these small things for years.

Madara’s S/O is tender to him that was not allowed for the longest time. Madara was the clan heir, a war god, a strategist and foot solider and assassin all in one. There was never just ‘Madara’, until his S/O came along, who was wreathed in as many talents from heaven and earth as Hashirama and himself, and saw him as a simple man anyways. In that sense, Madara becomes almost, but not quite, human again.

[mahizli]

Coming Back Down (Kix & Obi-Wan, 20 BBY)

Part 15 of ‘Sparks of Hope, A Star-Wars Advent-Calendar’

***

“The kriff, Master…”

General Skywalker’s annoyed words echoed from the medical fresher, topping the sound of water, and Kix sighed, eyes tracing the dirty trail of mud and blood leading to the shower.

It had been hard to distinguish any feature, let alone injury, under the layer of grime and blood and dirt covering General Kenobi’s face. The mission had gone completely sideways after barely a day on the planet – thanks to a rockslide where General Kenobi had once more felt obliged to save half the regiment by Force-pushing the men along with General Skywalker out of the avalanche. Getting knocked off the mountainside and half buried under rocks himself. And staying that way for about twelve hours, because of course it had been night, making them unable to see and search for him properly.

General Skywalker had been frantic. But to be honest, Kix preferred frantic to the hot, angry way he had acted ever since General Kenobi had returned from his mission as Rako Hardeen. Himself and the vode had felt between a rock and a hard place for weeks now, and seeing their General finally display something else than fury towards General Kenobi had felt reassuring in a sad, very odd way.

Of course, said General had been the one literally caught under rocks – he had been conscious though, if not truly lucid, once they had found him, lips moving silently, mouthing words Kix couldn’t understand at first. Kenobi’s hair was matted with blood but, though the Jedi had obviously been sick several times, the eyes staring up at Kix and Skywalker had been bright.

“My charms are overthrown”, Kenobi had been whispering, oblivious to Skywalker’s hand meeting his face. “What s-strength I have’s m-mine own…”

“Master, hang on, let me lift those rocks…”

Kenobi had just shuddered, letting out a quiet moan as Kix checked his pupils, muttering on: “Which is most faint; now t’is true, I m-must be here r-released b-by you…”

Kenobi had been trembling when Kix had finally been able to assess his body – field-scans were not the most precise, but the General must have managed to shield his body from the worst of the impact. He had a severe concussion, a broken collarbone and forearm, huge bruises on the chest and legs, hypothermia… and Force-exhaustion, according to General Skywalker.

General Kenobi tended towards downplaying his injuries, shielding himself behind sarcasm or joking. Even on Geonosis, he had always answered Kix questions clearly while hurt, his command on the Force enough to help him push through blood-loss and pain.

Here, however, General Kenobi had let Skywalker gather him in his arms like a child, mumbling incoherent words, without a sign of recognition. They had got him back to the ship as quickly as possible, and Kix had run a more thorough scan, fortunately confirming there was no inner injury.

He had allowed Skywalker to drag Kenobi to the showers, stabilizing him through the Force, and was determined to get the General clothed, lying down and monitored within minutes – but the quiet water sound and humming he was hearing did not look like anything but trouble.

“Master, stop splashing around!”

Kix entered the showers to find an exasperated and quite damp General Skywalker holding a very wet General Kenobi, who had been stripped down to his briefs and was sitting down on the ground, hair plastered on his head by the shower-spray, uninjured hand running quietly through the stream, pushing water towards the drain.

“Raindrops f-falling on my head”, General Kenobi was singing, sputtering slightly as water met his chin. “But t-that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be t-turning red… Crying’s not for me…”

Kenobi looked up at Kix and smiled, with an expression of childish glee so unlike him he winced. The water was brownish under him, the General sported various bruises and scratches, chest in an interesting hue of blue-green – but Kenobi simply smiled.

“’Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by c-complaining”, Kenobi sang, pitch and rhythm undisturbed by the water streaming on his body and face.

“He threw up twice, Kix. And he’s getting quite warm. He keeps singing and splashing like a kid!”

“General…”, Kix said, crouching before Kenobi, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around him. “General, can you hear me?”

The motion seemed to rouse Kenobi, who stopped singing and looked up at Kix, wincing slightly, grey eyes squinting in the light.

“Can you tell me your name?”

Kenobi’s hand moved, clutching the towel, wet head leaning against Skywalker’s shoulder in trusting, abandoning move that made Skywalker stiffen, then wrap an arm around Kenobi’s trembling shoulders.

“Obi… Obi-Wan K-Kenobi.”

“Very good. And can you tell me who you are?”, Kix asked, gently.

The General blinked, rubbing a bare foot against the wet tiles.

“I’m Master Jinn’s Padawan?”

The voice was thin, the question mark plain at the end. The General was getting pale and blinking, too, cheek leaning against Skywalker’s arm.

“Come on, Master…”, Skywalker urged him, keeping his arm still and placing a hand on Kenobi’s bouncing knee. “Shh… It’s alright. You can do this.

- I’m… ah… I’m… I have a… a Padawan.”

Kenobi was frowning now, face scrunched up with pain and paling even further.

“And a G-Grand- Padawan. Anakin a-and Ahsoka. I’m a… I’m a… w-what am I, I’m a… I’m not sure… I’m… tired.”

Kix met Skywalker’s eyes and found his worry mirrored there, because General Kenobi never ever complained and never got confused. The hot skin and the relentless throwing up could be explained by the concussion, and yet…

“Let’s get him into a proper cot”, Kix ordered, and together with Skywalker, they helped General Kenobi up, into clean medical scrubs and lying down.

All along, the General stayed pliant and blinking, not even wincing when Kit placed an infusion line on the back of his hand.

“Do you know who I am, sir?”, Kix asked him, gently parting his wet hair to assess the head-wound he had quickly stapled on the field, and that looked clean enough to reassure him.

Kenobi’s face scrunched up once more, and after a few seconds of silence, Kix noticed a small drop of blood falling from his nose towards his lips.

“Shh, Master. No use of the Force for you. Not now… You can’t.”

Skywalker wiped the drop of blood away, with uncharacteristic gentleness, and Kenobi shuddered, eyes fluttering shut, features going lax as sleep claimed him, face tilting towards his former Padawan and friend.

It was then they noticed the two pin-shaped bruises on Kenobi’s neck.

“Stims…”, Skywalker sighed. “Of course. I couldn’t believe he was still conscious when we found him.”

“That one is older, though”, Kix observed, gently tilting Kenobi’s head to assess the skin better. “And there is another, on the other side.”

“You mean…”

Skywalker’s face turned dark as he frowned – and Kix felt his own chest tighten, because it all made sense, suddenly. General Kenobi’s alertness and quick reflexes, during the expedition, despite his previous lack of sleep and food – Kix knew, of course, but he was a medic and Kenobi a Jedi.

Nothing to be done.

“He took them before the mission?”

Skywalker looked slightly sick himself, now, and Kix sighed, taking Kenobi’s temperature and blood-pressure, inserting a saline bag on the infusion line.

“So it would seem”, he answered. “And I think he injected himself with another below that rock. Which, to be honest, was the right thing to do – but with all those stims it explains his confusion and the fever. He has to sleep it off and let his body get rid of them – since he cannot use the Force for a while.”

“Why would he do such a thing? Obi-Wan never uses stims when he can help it!”

Skywalker sounded upset and Kenobi made a soft sound in his sleep, a thin frown appearing between his eyes. Skywalker looked down, and ran his thumb across that worried line, watching it smoothen, shoulders dropping slowly.

“He’s not alright, is he? He’s…”

“No”, Kix said, very softly. “I think he is pushing himself. I think he tries to make up. For… you know.”

“That stupid, kriffing idiot”, Skywalker said, but there was no anger in his voice, just sadness. “I never asked that of him. Quite the contrary, Kix. I wish… I wish he could draw limits. But he can’t.”

The dark frown was back, and Kix sighed, placing General Kenobi’s hand back on the covers.

“Then perhaps we should help him. As we did, before…”

Skywalker let out a breath, and then he placed a hand in Kenobi’s hair, combing through the auburn strands until they fell back properly on his forehead once more.

“Perhaps, Kix.”

He watched his former Master sleep, for a while, emotions battling on his face, and then the frown vanished, some lightness returning on his young features, and Skywalker looked up, a small smirk around his lips.

“He has a fine singing voice, though…”

And, because of that smile, Kix let Skywalker sit next to his Master, fiddling with a small radio device. And when Kenobi woke up, after a few hours, still exhausted and confused, but less feverish, Kix pretended he did not hear Skywalker ask him if he knew the song playing.

“It’s a nice one, quite a success on Coruscant, listen to this: I’ve been hyp-no-tized, by the lights! Come on, Master, sing along, I know you can… But I’m coming home…”

Skywalker’s voice was slightly off-pitch, but warm and strong. It made Kenobi smile softly and turn his face towards him.

“I’m coming back down tonight”, he whispered, grey eyes searching for Skywalker’s, who never stopped looking at him, and let out a slight laugh.

“You’d better, Master. You’re high as a kitten.”

Kenobi just blinked. There was more colour to his cheeks, a gleam in his eyes that was not there before, and that had nothing to do with stims. And Kix knew that, somehow, he would be alright, now.

He left them to their song and quiet vigil, closing the door behind him.

They would be alright.

[sxfterhearts]

4. [11:45am]

The car ride from the hotel you stayed overnight with your bridesmaids to the wedding venue seemed to stretch out for ages. Your mind tuned out the girls’ excited chatter as you stared out the backseat window, watching the tall skyscrapers of the city blend into suburban houses and well-manicured lawns. Soon, in another twenty minutes, you were about to lay your eyes on your future husband, dressed in his wedding tuxedo.

Your lips unconsciously formed a fond smile as you recalled the first time you saw him in formal dress.

Twelve years ago

“Well, what do you think? How do I look?” Jinyoung directed his question to the figure standing by his doorway while smoothing down an invisible crinkle on his left sleeve. He turned away from the full-length mirror to lock eyes with you.

You couldn’t stop the giggle that slipped past your lips. His hair was gelled and combed back neatly, a stark contrast to how he usually wore it down with no product. His black suit and matching trousers were impeccable, however the red tie that hang messily around his neck destroyed the entire look.

“Hey! Is it really that bad?” He whined. Never in a million years did you think it was possible for your best friend and next-door neighbour of five years to sound like a fussy five-year-old child. “You’re so mean, I don’t know why I asked for your opinion anyway.”

“No, it’s just,” You chuckled mid-sentence upon discovering his fiery red socks. You took a deep breath to compose yourself. “I didn’t mean it like that, I promise. Come here, let me fix it for you.”

Jinyoung reluctantly complied, standing in front of you and crouching down so you could help him with his tie. You adjusted your pink corsage out of the way before reaching out and redoing his tie with practiced, fluid motions, thanks to all the practice you had with your younger brother. The two of you were standing so close that a strong whiff of cologne with undertones of hair product entered your nostrils.

“Do you think she’ll like it?”

“Like what?”

“My appearance. I mean, is it enough to impress her? I still cannot believe that I’m going to the ball with the class president as my date. She’s smart, kind, athletic…”

“All done.” You cut him off, forcing a lump of envy down your throat. “Says you, Mr. Vice President. I’m sure she’ll think you look absolutely dashing.” You gave him the most genuine smile you could muster and two thumbs up to calm his nerves.

Six years ago

Honestly, Jinyoung had no shame admitting that he was always a hoodie and sweatpants sort of guy. Or jeans, if the occasion truly called for it. At most, he would swap out his hoodie for a button-up. He never owned any blazers.

That is, until he received his job offer at a top professional firm and you dragged him out shopping last weekend for a major wardrobe revamp.

So that’s how he found himself in a grey chequered blazer with a pristine white button up underneath and a pair of black slacks. He stared at his reflection while running his fingers through his unstyled hair. Something was amiss.

“Y/N!” His voice travelled throughout your shared apartment of nearly two years. The pair of you had moved out of college dorms midway through your university degrees and moved into the modest two-bedroom apartment in the city centre together. It was a natural transition for you two, from being neighbours since primary school, to living across the hall in college dorms, and now to being roommates. You wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up buying houses on the same street in the future.

You popped two slices of bread into the toaster before making your way to the bathroom. You peeked inside, satisfied at your masterful taste in office fashion. “Looking good, Mr. Junior Consultant. Your tie needs to be done up, though.” You pointed at the piece of black fabric laying abandoned on the counter top.

“That’s where you come in handy, roomie. Help me fix it? Pretty please? I’ll buy your favourite jjajangmyeon from the corner-shop-ahjumma for dinner on the way home tonight.” Jinyoung looked at you with pleading eyes.

“Throw in a bottle of soju and I’ll help you, kind sir.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Who were you kidding, though? You would’ve tied his tie for him even without anything in return. Oh, the woes of unrequited love, you thought to yourself while looping the black fabric around his lithe neck and fastening it securely. A final clean of his black-rimmed spectacles and a sweep of his fluffy hair later, you deemed his outfit presentable with a big thumbs up.

Two years ago

Jinyoung let out a sigh in frustration, just as you stepped into the backroom of the wedding hall. He had tried for the fifth time to get his tie to knot properly but to no avail and frankly, it did nothing to sooth his jittery nerves.

“Need some help?” You offered, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu from that night ten years ago.

“I’m so glad you’re here, Y/N, I don’t know what I’d do without-” His words caught in his throat as he spun around and laid eyes on you. Your maroon chiffon dress hugged your curves in all the right places. He struggled to tear his gaze away from the side slit that exposed your long legs and the deep V-neckline. He cleared his throat in embarrassment. “My tie…”

“When will you ever learn how to tie a tie by yourself, Park Jinyoung?” You teased, nimble fingers already dancing across his broad chest.

“You know what they say, a man who doesn’t know how to tie his own tie is a lucky man.” He mentioned, entranced by the way your delicate eyelashes fluttered against your sparkly cheekbones. The smokey eyeshadow fit you very well, he decided.

“Yeah? Why is that?” You tightened the black tie gently towards his neck and brushed your hands over his shoulders to rid his black suit of any dust while simultaneously reassuring him.

“Because he has a great woman who does it for him.” Jinyoung sneaked in a quick peck on your flushed cheeks, grinning smugly to himself when you gave him a bashful shove.

“Good luck out there, Mr. Best Man. Don’t mess up the speech, okay?”

Present day

“Ready, sweetie?” Your father’s voice asked tenderly upon opening the car door, holding his elbow out for you to take as you stepped out gingerly.

“Yes, dad. Thank you.” You replied, trying your best to calm the fluttering butterflies in your stomach.

As you led your entourage of bridesmaids towards the aisle, you were filled with an overwhelming sense of contentedness. The periodic crashing of the waves was a perfect backdrop, soothing any residual nerves and bringing back happy memories of summer days spent on the beach, with the man who stood at the end of the flower path. You wriggled your toes as they sunk into the cool sand and scattered petals left by the flower girl, placing one foot in front of the other confidently, with your father by your side. The audience clapped and stood at their seats, while a group of six grown men (the groomsmen) wolf-whistled and whooped enthusiastically.

Each step brought you closer and closer towards the love of your life; the person whose presence was as calming to you as the ocean itself. Standing in front of Jinyoung, you knew that this was where you belonged – beside him.

“Y/N,” Your beauty left him breathless and for a moment, he was lost for words. “You’re the best view. The beach and the sea can’t compare.��� He mouthed to you while the marriage celebrant began to speak.

“Not too bad yourself, Mr. Husband. I love the bowtie.” You whispered as the two of you exchanged a knowing look and loving smiles.

[blackenedwhite97]

Trials ( An Erasermic x Reader Medieval AU Ch.11-12)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

https://blackenedwhite97.tumblr.com/post/643722830321696769/trials-an-erasermic-x-reader-medieval-au

CHAPTER 11

The next time you awoke the long glass ceiling was filled with inky darkness, a dull amber glow barely vignetting the far edge of the sky. There was no longer a hustle and bustle in the hall beyond the closed heavy doors to your wing, and across from you Hizashi breathed softly in his sleep. He had changed his clothes since you'd fallen asleep, he was wearing a similar forest green tunic to the one he had one when you first met him and his hair washed and haloing out around him. You too had been changed in your sleep, your oversized traveling clothes replaced with a fresh white linen dressing gown. Next to Hizashi, stretched out across a still made cot, was Shouta. He had yet to change fully, his pants were still the same black worn trousers he'd been wearing for the last handful of days but he'd peeled off the heavy top layers and was wearing a thin linen shirt not so dissimilar to your dressing gown.

The door creaked open every so slightly, wavering golden light spilling into the room in a clean molten ray. A man, peered in, his features silhouetted by the torches in the hallways, his head was more than a foot or so higher than the average man's head when standing tall. The edge of his broad shoulder peeked through the door as well, and a huge hand wrapped around the edge of the door. He slowly pushed the door open, trying to keep the heavy door's moans to a minimum. As he entered the room you got a good look at his full size, he was enormous. His shoulders were as wide and Shouta and Hizashi's side and his arms reminded you of the brutal strength in an ox's legs, you could see defined mounds of muscle through the rich red velvet that encircled his arms.

"Hello." He whispered softly, looking at you. You could see the faintest outline of his face in the light from the hallway, a kind smile across his lips.

"H-hello." you greeted back, choking on the dryness in your throat.

He walked towards you, for a man his size he was exceptionally quiet. He wasn't soundless like Shouta could be but his foot falls were light and controlled like he had lots of practice roaming around in the small hours when everyone was asleep. The closer he got the more you could see, he had golden hair that was neatly combed back, two clocks in the front refuting the lay flat, and glowing blue eyes. The doublet he wore was a rich blue quilted velvet, the long sleeved tunic beneath it made from red velvet, the clasps of the doublet were gold and the shoulers were lined with little tufts of white fur. He was dressed unbelievably lavishly, his clothes fitting to those of a king.

"My name is Toshinori." He greeted, sitting down smoothly on the cot next to you.

"Toshi- Lord Toshinori?" you gasped. You tried to sit up, maybe even stand, tried to make an effort to greet the lord properly.

"Please," he raised a hand to stop you, "it's alright. I take it Shouta and hizashi have told you a bit about us then?"

"A-a little bit," You muttered, still acutely aware you were speaking to a lord you threw in some formality for good measure, "m-my Lord."

"Good." He was still smiling but there was an air of awkwardness about it. "You may call me Toshinori when we aren't speaking under official circumstances, Y/n."

"Of course, m-Toshinori." You smiled politely. A Lord, who didn't want to be referred to as a Lord, at all times? You suddenly understood Shouta's horrendous display of court formalities a few days ago. "How did you-"

"I spoke to Shouta earlier today, after you and Hizashi were tended to he came to speak to me. He informed me of your meeting and of some of the details of our travels, you've had a very exciting week." The way he spoke warmed you to your bones, kindness seeped outwards from him in thick wafting waves.

"That's a nice way to put it." you responded. Exciting. Try traumatic.

"Yes," he chuckled deeply, "I've been told I tend to sugar coat things."

He fidgeted awkwardly with a clasp on his doublet and sighed, his eyes were far away in thought.

"Regardless of what you've experienced, Y/n, you are safe here." He looked up at you.

"What is here?" you asked, wanting so badly to understand how a man you'd only just met could make that promise so assuredly.

"Hhhhm, where to begin. What do you know?" he asked, a sparkle in his eye.

"About this place?" You collected your thoughts for a moment before speaking. "Shouta and Hizashi say that it's their home, that the people who live here have special abilities like- like me."

You tried to stop yourself out of habit, the idea that you could exist here without hiding this part of yourself would take some getting used to.

"Before that, though... I suppose just the legends of towns folk and gossiping children whispered about the great disappearing fortress in the mountains, a home to the creatures that stalk the mountains at night." You paused for a moment, remembering how you'd passed through a set of trees and then all of a sudden the walls were rising up before you. "You don't have an army of ghouls and spirits in secret do you?"

"Not that I am aware of." Toshinori laughed. "I'm ever so amazed at how those stories have kept over time, probably for the best..."

He trailed off, he looked far away again, this time he was looking at something specific. He cleared his throat softly as he came back.

"Well, I suppose I'll start from the beginning." He shifted further onto the bed. "My name is Toshinori Yagi, I grew up far away in the west. I'm the second born to the House of Yagi and was, once upon a time, first in line for the throne. That was, until my mother found out I was different, to her I was dealing with dark arts and witchcraft, but to me I was suddenly plagued with abilities no sane man would ever ask for."

He looked at his hands, as if they held a script.

"My mother, she was very religious you see, and she could not have a son who would go so far against God so as to practice witchcraft so she motioned for my father to kill me." Toshinori was speaking casually, as if he'd told this story many times over. "He was a kind man, my father, and he couldn't bring himself to order an execution. Instead I was ordered into exile, and sent into the world with nothing. I wandered, I wandered and found pity from a farmer who let me stay in his stables and later a traveling merchant who let me ride with him to the east and again from an old woman who'd lost her son and couldn't till her own land any longer.

" I stayed in a village not far from here for months, and while there, I learned of the local myths surrounding this fortress. At the time it was said that it was empty save perhaps a pack of wolves that had made a home in a portion of the crumbled wall. I stayed in that village until the winter frost began to form and farm work ran out for me." Toshinori paused, it was only a brief moment of silence before he started again, his voice slightly more grim than before.

"I needed somewhere to stay, shelter that wasn't haphazardly pitched tents that filled up with smoke every night. I found myself in the hills and looked up to the mountainside at the great stone walls of this fortress and decided that, even if it were just for the winter, that there had to be somewhere here I could make a home.When I arrived, however, I found that the village folk had been sorely mistaken about the fortress being empty and decrepit. This is where I met the woman that would change my life, the woman who would teach me how to control these new abilities of mine and the woman who would make all of this possible." Toshinori gestures around.

" Her name was Nana Shimura and she was like us, special. She let me stay the winter and eventually the spring and then eventually she realized she wouldn't be able to get rid of me. It wasn't long until Nana was able to help me control my own strength, she was a great teacher, after all. One day, in the late fall, I'd been on my way back up the mountain with some supplies from town when I happened across a man who was wandering the forest looking for a woman he'd been told could help him.

"He said that he'd heard of a witch who lived in an old fortress haunted by spirits that could help someone who suddenly found themselves plagued with dark abilities." Toshinori cleared his throat. "He had originally wanted to be healed, wanted to be stripped of his abilities."

"I-is that possible?" You blurted out, you had been trying so hard not to interrupt but the idea that you could theoretically go back to a normal life sparked something in you.

"Not in any way that I know of." Toshinori hummed. "We were curious too but we were never able to find anything that supported what this man believed Nana could do. Instead, he came to stay with us for a while."

Toshinori paused again as if you waited for more questions, there was a part of you that would have gladly taken the opportunity if the other, rational part of you hadn't been screaming at you for having just interrupted a Lord. When you didn't speak he continued.

"It was in finding that man that I realized that Nana and I were not alone, that there must be more people like us. I wanted to make somewhere for people like us, ostracized, unjustly convicted," Toshinori's fists balled, his knuckles paling. "somewhere for us to seek refuge."

"A safe haven." You muttered dreamily.

"Exactly." He hummed. " I was in line for the throne and even that couldn't save me. I realized very quickly I was lucky, though. Had I been born ro any lesser family my neck would have been on the chopping block, or my body hanging from a noose. And so, I welcome all sorts to Kaer Yuuei, and we became a fully functioning community in no time. We were small in numbers but with our abilities being so vast and varied we found new ways to thrive. Now, we're the largest settlement of our kind."

"There are others?" you asked, shocked.

"Yes." he looked saddened, his fingers picking at his knuckles. " There was one to the south, but it has been annihilated in recent years by House Noro.

Your blood ran cold. The name, Noro, seemed to follow you everywhere.

"There are two more far to the east, smaller settlements that work together rather well. We've had brief dealings with them in the past." He continued. "But they were all formed only after I began my work here."

"Y-you started this place on your own?" You stammered. He seemed so kind to begin with, but the more he spoke to more you understood there was something deep within him that went beyond just kindness. He spoke about his own family so blasé but when he spoke of the shuddering of others, his hands trembled. He was that special sort of person, the sort of person your mother had been. He was a good man. It was rare to find anyone who would go beyond the law and the church, someone who went beyond just staying in line. If someone like him had been in your little village...Shouta and Hizashi had, you reminded yourself. They were also good men. You glanced wistfully at them as they slept.

"Not on my own," Toshinori smiled, blush creeping across his face. "I had help."

Toshinori followed your eyeline, watching the two of them sleep for a moment before looking away.

"I met those two nearly ten years ago." He smiled. "Hizashi came riding up the mountain side one day, a barely conscious Shouta sliding from his saddle. They had come from the southern country, and Shouta was in a bad way. They had had dealings with the House of Noro."

You straighten up at that name, Noro. It was understandable the fear that Shouta had expressed at the idea of witch hunters, especially given what they thought you all were, but there'd been something more to his ration when Hizashi had told him about seeing the crest. Something you hadn't been sure at the time you were able to ask about, in fact, you still weren't.

"That's a story for him to tell, I'm afraid." Toshinori smiled at you. "Shouta wanted to go back south when he was able to travel once again, but it was Hizashi who convinced him to stay. Instead they traveled to the surrounding towns to keep an eye out for any signs of House Noro or their victims who had fled north. It was they who pioneered our efforts to find and protect others like us outside of these hills."

"Hm." you breathed. "Even if it hadn't been them who found me, I'd still have them to thank."

You were both silent for a moment, something hung heavy over Lord Toshinori's head.

"I hope you don't feel as though you are in debt to us, y/n." He looked up at you, a very grim look on his face. "We don't even want you, or anyone here for that matter, to feel as though they owe us their allegiance. We-"

He sighed heavily.

"Many of us have experienced the same fate, experienced the same kind of baseless hatred. We- we can't just stand by and watch others burn." His lip...quivered. You could barely see it in the dull light but there was a twinkle of tears welling up in his eyes.

"I'm afraid, whether you want it or not, I do owe you all my life." You chewed your lip. "But, if the only way for me to repay that debt is to thrive, in spite of what had been done to us...well, I think I can do that."

Toshinori smiled wide, a laugh shaking his shoulders. He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand and sniffed loudly.

"A-are you crying?" Shouta asked blearily from his cot, rubbing his eyes.

"It's not my fault this time, I swear." Toshinori laughed softly, realizing he had to be quieter lest he want to also wake Hizashi. "She's a good one."

"Yeah," Shouta smiled sleepily and looked at you through heavy eyelashes. "I know."

You smiled back. He was so...relaxed. Even during the calm points in your travel Shouta still seemed aware, or alert, or at least uncomfortable. For the first time since you'd met him he seemed fully relaxed, like he'd been able to leave his constant vigilance at the gate. There was something about the way he slumped back against the headboard to this cot that warmed you. You suddenly felt as safe as he seemed to, waves of relief washed over you. You hadn't realized that you'd been holding on to so much fear until just now, even when Toshinori had promised you safety you'd been reluctant to let go.

You were, for the first time since this had all begun, really looking forward. Not staring with empty eyes at a horizon, fooling yourself into thinking you were trying to think of the future, when really you were too stuck in the present and the past. A sudden flurry of thought hit you, like who would you meet, what would you eat, would you become a healer here, what would you do for a living, where would you live.

"Uh," you swallowed. "W-where am I going to live? I mean, how does this work, here?"

"We'll have to find you a place." Toshinori leaned back comfortably, as if problem solving was his natural state. "You may have to stay in the training barracks for a while, or possibly the dorms at the school until we can get you settled."

"She can-" Shouta started abruptly, then slowed himself down. "She can stay with us, for the time being. We've already been traveling together so-"

"If Y/n is alright with that, I suppose." Toshinori pondered. "Of course, if you want more privacy you could always-"

"I would like that." you rushed. "I-I uh, don't really want to...be alone."

A wild blush crept across your face and you looked down at your hands. It was strange, you felt inexplicably safe with both of these men, perhaps it was the vulnerability the Lord had just shown you, but you felt as though they could be trusted with that information. However, you were a fully grown woman who lived on her own for the better part of her adult years now and admitting something like that was mortifying.

You felt the edge of your cot dip and looked up to find Shouta sitting at your feet. He placed a hand on your leg and ran his up and down your leg in long soothing motions.

"You don't have to be." he hummed, sleep still thick in his voice. He was half awake but his instincts were still telling him to comfort you. You heart swelled.

"Settled." Toshinori declared. "You have time to get settled, to build a life Y/n. Don't worry about the future just yet, alright?"

CHAPTER 12

Winter

6 months Later

The world had frozen overnight, what had started off as a mild winter had quickly become snow up to your knees and breaths freezing on your lips. You peered beyond the bushes, the buck knee-deep in snow, its snout rummaging around for frozen berries of a snow capped bush. You slowly shifted your balance so you were perched up on one knee, your other leg propped to balance you. Slowly you lifted your semi-translucent shimmering bow, an arrow notched and ready to be drawn. You hoped the bush would give you enough cover to hide the dull purple glow that radiated from your bow as you aimed. You'd been able to somewhat control the amount of light and the opacity of the items you conjured since coming to Kaer Yuuei but there was always a residual purple glow about everything.

You stilled yourself and dre your bow, lining up a shot towards the lower front of the buck's abdomen. You could feel the strain of the bow under your fingers, with every passing second your arms began to sway more and more under the draw weight. You held your breath and released the arrow, somewhat cloaked by its transparent nature, you could barely see it fly over the snow. The buck shunted sideways with the force of the blow and scuttled into the treeline, disappearing over a bank of snow that had piled up around the base of the trees. You dropped the bow, the astral conjuration blinking from existence before it could hit the snow.

You dashed through clearing after the buck, with a wound like that, especially now that the arrow had been dismissed, it wouldn't take too long for the buck to pass out. A thick trail of blood had melted through the snow, the buck only made it a few rows of trees before its legs gave out. Its eyes were glazed over and its breaths were shallow and laboured and you had to grit your teeth and close your eyes and you summon a long blade to make its final moments easier. You looped a thick rope around it's rear hooves and begna your trek back to Kaer Yuuei, towing your bounty behind you in the snow.

The sun had begun to set by the time you made it to the gates, as the mountain side grew darker the golden lights of Kaer Yuuei grew brighter.

"Y/n!" Kirishima greeted, smiling brilliantly. He was one of the boys you'd seen opening the gates of the first day you arrived and over the last six months you'd learn he was one of Shouta's students. "There's an emergency council at the hall, just got called a few minutes ago. I'll take the buck to the butcher so you're not late."

As if the buck hadn't weighed over two hundred pounds, Kirishima wrapped the rope around his hands and hauled it off down the road with ease. You jogged through the layers of the fortress, noticing the streets were less busy than they normally were. This meant that either the snow had deterred folks from leaving their homes or that the council was dire. Councils were held in what you had assumed to be Lord Toshinori's manor when you first arrived at Kaer Yuuei, however you later found out that he only lived on one of the upper floors and the rest of this building was used by the public for gatherings, councils and a place to host large celebratory meals.

The door was just barely cracked open and as you slipped in you were met with a broad pair of shoulders, you ducked to the side and apologized for the near collison. A hand grabbed yours and tugged you away towards a pillar that left a bit of an empty pocket behind it, away from the overly crowded room. You followed, looking up to see Hizashi grinning at you. His nose and cheeks were pink as if he'd just come in from the cold and he still had a great furry hood pulled up over his head.

"You're late." he mumbled under his breath as the two of you settled next to the pillar. The room was filled with a low rumble of voices, the council had obviously not started just yet. You could hear a few words here and there, some were just talking idly and others wondering why the council had been called.

"The snow slowed me down." You responded, taking off your thick fur lined mittens. "Where's Sho? I thought you two had class together today."

"At the front." Hizashi's usually dopey grin faltered. "He got called away by Toshinori earlier today, I think something's happened. I heard whispers of a scout returning late last night in bad shape."

" I heard there were some sightings of House Noro not too far from here, a little south but still too close for comfort." A sultry, feminine voice hummed behind you.

You looked over your shoulder to see a familiar face. Nemuri was a beautiful woman with long dark hair and icy blue eyes, a coy smile seemed to be permanently affixed to her lips. Nemuri had become one of your closest points of contact since coming to Kaer Yuuei, she had been friends with Hizashi since he was a kid. They went their separate ways as teens, Hizashi leaving after the bandit attack on his village and the two of them reconnected years later, here.

Hizashi swore under his breath and crossed his arms.

"Makes sense." He grumbled. "That's why'd they call Sho."

You were about to ask for clarification on the rumor but Toshinori's booming voice rang out, silencing the room.

"I understand the shift change is going to happen soon so I'll make this as quick as possible." He started, his voice sounded tired. Hell, he looked tired, his normal shining yes were weighed down by dark circles. "A week ago one of our agents went missing, he turned up again last night. He'd been intercepted by a group of riders while returning from an investigation out west and was abducted."

There was a collective breath. You could feel the tone of the room change all in one moment, there was a tense fear beginning to creep into everyone. Yourself included.

"Whilst in captivity our agent was able to obtain important information. Namely that the riders who abducted him were of House Noro, this was verified by Shouta who examined a letter with a crest our agent had managed to collect." Toshinori glances sparingly at Shouta. You weren't able to see much of Shouta through the crowd but you could tell he was slouching, and there was a dark look on the half of his face you could see. "What's more is that he was able to find out that the Noro family have been enslaving gifted people and forcing them to work on their behalf. While we are not entirely clear to what these gifted individuals can do, our agent was able to find out one of the slaves had a tracking abiltiy."

A smaller man, perhaps he was regular sized only to be dwarfed by Toshinori, stepped forward with a linen bag and handed it off to the Lord.

"From what our agent was able to gather this individual is able to track the general direction of an individual, using an object with immense personal value. During their escape our agent grabbed an item he'd seen the tracker using." Toshinori opened the bag and reached inside. You shifted to the side a bit to peer through a set of large shoulders, trying to get a better view of the item and he pulled it out.

"We believe that this item is how they've managed to get so close to us." he declared, withdrawing his hand.

From his fingertips dangled a necklace. The chain was silver, warped in places, and in the center hung a polished turquoise stone surrounded by silver filigree. That necklace, the last time you'd seen that necklace it had been glittering in the sun a handful of yard from you, hanging at a vender's stall and labeled a witch's medallion. You'd dreamed about that necklace a few times since you'd made it to Yuuei, about how it hung around your mother's neck, how it looked against her always clean linen dresses, how you'd wanted it for yourself so badly as a child. You'd half thought about going back to find it or asking the next person who would be passing through your old town to buy it for you.

Your stomach dropped, and suddenly the room was too hot and your mouth was dry. Your breaths felt heavy, like running your hand through water. The men in front of you were radiating heat, scorching waves of sweat. Hizashi and Nemuri too, and you pulled back. Your back met someone's chest and you huffed a rushed apology and ducked away, yoru shoulder brushed someone and then another, no where you ducked to was safe. The room was positively sweltering now, sweat was pooling under your jacket and every person you came in contact with felt like a hot iron pressed into your body, breaths coming harder and harder with every contact. You scrambled for the door, trying to dip and weave and stay away from stray shoulders and out cropped elbows. You pushed on the heavy doors with all your weight and were greeted with a cold wind, littered with snowflakes and you stepped out into the night.

Hizashi clamoured out after you, you name on his lips. He'd been calling you names you'd realized as the cold snow granted you more clarity. He's been calling your name the whole time. You didn't have the breath to speak, you didn't have the breath to think. You barely hand enough to be feeling the panic that was rising in your chest. You slid down to your knees in the show and buried your bare hands into the fresh icy powder trying to grip for more clarity.

"Y/n," Hizashi's arms wrapped around you and you could feel his chest pressing into you back. He'd slip down into the snow with you. "what's happening?"

His voice was soft, comforting but a little frightened. He placed his chin on your shoulder and in an instant just having him wrapped around you your breaths came easier.

"The-" you panted, swallowing hard. He waited patiently, looking his finger through yours. "The necklace, Hizashi-"

"What about it?" he asked, directing your frantic thoughts as you trailed off.

"Mine." you hiccuped. Hot tears were swelling in your eyes now, the panic was giving way to guilt now. "Me. They're tracking-"

"It'll be, okay." Hizashi shushed you softly.

It wasn't true. It hadn't been true, not ever. You were meant to die in that cage, you cheated death when they showed up and this was punishment for that. You were the reason why this new life of yours was going to be taken away.

"Stop." you huffed. "Stop- lying."

Hizashi's arms tensed, you'd hit a nerve. He pulled away and stepped around you so he was crouching in the snow, his emerald green eyes boring into your own.

"I'm not." he declared. "We'll fix this, we always do. We'll take care of you."

You felt your bottom lip quiver and the tears that welled up in your eyes fell. You'd needed saving so much during your time with Shouta and Hizashi and you tried not to feel badly about it but you couldn't help but feel guilty now. Not only was you who needed saving but now all of the gifted folk who were in danger because you were the one they were tracking. Hizahsi grabbed your face with both of his hands and stared in your weeping eyes, you could see him breaking apart slowly. He sighed and dropped his head to yours, leaning against you. His breath floated up into the air and surrounded you.

"I'll talk to Toshinori when the council is adjourned, we'll figure this out." He sniffed.

You nodded against him.

"I- I just need some time-" you sniffed hard. "time to collect myself. I'm going to head home."

He helped you up, again you were reminded of how strong he was despite his lithe frame.

"We're not losing you." he smiled sadly at you.

He looked at you for a moment, lingering long enough to stew in whatever emotions were boiling up inside of him. He blinked them down, cleared his throat and turned back toward the hall. He turned back briefly, jutting his child out toward the east wall where your shared home was and ordered you away with a soft "go".

You obliged and started off towards home, snow crushing beneath your heavy boots. Your hands were burning now with that awful sting of freezing skin. The snow that had melted against your skin was freezing now into thin sheets of ice and you found yourself being able to wipe it off on your coat in thin layers of white. Your cheeks stung, the spilled tears leaving you skin raw and susceptible to the cold.

By the time you made it to the wall, you were so frozen that you could feel the warmth radiating from the apartments stacked against it. You sprinted up the staircase to your door, wishing desperately that Hizashi and Shouta had gotten a ground level home as your foot slipped out from under you and you gripped the rickety wooden railing for dear life. There was a dull glow through the warped glass window, a luxury you hadn't yet gotten used to, windows that didn't need shutters. You pulled on the latch and was greeted by warm humid air and a small dying fire in the hearth. Another luxury you weren't accustomed to, fires that were tended to throughout the day for you so your home was warm when you returned. Living in Kaer Yuuei was somewhat a dream at times if you were honest.

You still remembered the first time you'd stepped foot in your new home, despite the fact that Hizashi and Shouta had spent the whole day with you in the hospital. You'd never lived higher than ground level, and you felt as though you had to walk softly everywhere so as not to disturb your lower neighbors. Hizashi got a good laugh at that one, watching you tiptoe around for days before telling you that they lived over a storage room.

Back then the living space was a little different, there were three rooms. The main room was the largest and had held a bed big enough for the two of them on one side, a fireplace on the other and a worn out chaise lounge that looked as though it had once existed in a castle somewhere was sat in the middle. When you'd ask about it later Hizashi would grin and tell you that it was stolen from a rather unkindly noble during a move from one city to the next, however he would be very adamant that it was not he who did the thieving. The other two rooms were smaller, one a store room that was on the other side of a small door on the far side of the bed and the other a lavatory through a door on the other side of the bed. Along the far side of the room there was a line of twine strung up around the ceiling, pieces of parchment with dexterously drawn scribbles, letters with misspelled words and small crafts hung from it. A fraying thick knitted blanket and a bundle of furs were draped over the chaise lounge, obviously seeing very little use in the hot summer days. At the foot of the bed there was a large dented drunk and a small furry animal curled atop it snoring.

"Uh, w-welcome home." Hizashi smiled. "We'll obviously have to change some things around now that you're here."

It was around the same size as your cottage, only in your cottage you'd managed to pack in a counter, a kitchen table, a padded bench you used as a bed for your patients, a large chair with a footrest you usually slept in, two bookcases of herb bunches and glass vials and fireplace. Compared to your cottage this was rather spacious.

"There's a lavatory through there." Shouta pointed to the closest door awkwardly as if he was showing his new home to his parents awaiting judgement. It was strange, you realized, seeing their domestic life after having spent the entirety of your time with them sleeping in the wilderness and running from armed mercenaries. "But there's some hot springs in the caves behind the hall where most of the fortress tends to bathe."

"A hot spring?" you repeated. "This place is starting to feel like a resort."

"Yeah," Shouta looked lost in space, staring wistfully at nothing in particular. "it's pretty nice here."

You looked around again when a thought sprung itself on you. There was one bed... and a couch. It wasn't that you were opposed to sharing a bed with them, in fact the three of you were essentially sharing a bed by combining your bedrolls in the bottom of the wago for the last few days of the journey and before that Hizashi had woken up nearly cuddling you a few times. It was more that you were unsure of where you stood. It was one thing to admit you found each other attractive and another entirely to act upon those attractions.

"So," you toed your boots together awkwardly and looked at the chaise lounge, "is that mine or, uh- are we going to get a cot?"

Hizashi's brow shot up and his eyes darted back and forth between you and the chaise lounge.

"No." He snorted, incredulously. "You're sleeping in the bed!"

Then it dawned on him, the real question. A bright pink blush sprung up in his cheeks and a small nervous grin formed at his lip.

"Well," He began one long stammering sentence, "only if you want to- or feel comfortable- i mean we don't have to- we can take the - although i don't think we'd really fit and-"

He was rattling off half finished sentences faster than you could piece them together, a thin veil of nervous sweat forming at his brow. He started to nervously laugh between sentences, blushing more furiously than before. You fought off a smile and side eyes Shouta to gage his reaction to find him openly grinning. He looked pleased, both with the offer and with Hizashi bumbling. His eyes flickered to you and there was a silent moment between you, something you were starting to realize was going to be a hallmark of your relationship, these wordless conversations. He nodded softly answering the silent question of whether you really belonged here. The question had tugged at the back of your mind since you woke up after Toshinori's visit, whether your attachment to them was a circumstance of how you met and whether theirs was some sort of saviors complex. Whether you were really meant to be here with them or if you were encroaching on their lives. But it melted away with the way Shouta looked at you, with such a dreamy softness. You could feel the contentment with this life in his eyes, you could see love in his eyes.

You strode over to hizashi and took his fidgeting hands in yours, his mouth instantly unable to form real words. You take a split second to muster up all your courage, this certainly felt harder than running away from murderous mercenaries, and places and kisses on Hizashi's lips. It was short but sweet and just as you pulled back he let go of your hands and gently clasped each side of your face and pulled you in, this time for a longer more passionate kiss that pulled the breath right from your lungs.

Behind you you heard a low laugh and when you separated Hizashi rested his forehead against yours but one of his hands began to fish around his pocket. He giggled softly to himself and apologized under his breath, still obviously flustered from the kiss. Then a coin was being tossed over your shoulder and Shouta, silent as ever was behind you, catching it. Hizashi's hand returned your cheek and instead of kissing you against he stayed pressed against you for a moment.

Then you realized what just happened.

"Wait." You pulled back. "Did you- did you make a bet about me kissing you?!"

"Yeah." Shouta hummed behind you, he pressed forward his chest meeting your back. You felt the instinctual want to just melt back into him but fought it. "I was sure it'd be with him first."

"H-how were you so sure I'd kiss either of you!" you huffed, albeit playfully.

"Oh no." Hizashi laughed. "I'm the only emotionally adept one here, aren't I?"

"W-hwat you do you mean?" you pouted.

"Shouta bet you won't kiss either of us and that I'd have to do it." he smirked.

You looked over your shoulder at Shouta who seemed unbothered by any of the statements being made.

"I'm not as bad as him," you turned back to Hizashi, "am I?"

Shouta scoffed behind you, pulling away and stalking over to the bed where he freely fell backwards on top of the plush mattress.

"No," Hizashi pulled you closer, looking down at you with heavy lids. That same liquid love swirling in his eyes as Shouta's. "He wouldn't have gone in for the kiss at all. That was a very romantic way of telling me to shut my mouth."

Your own words echoed in the your mind. I don't really want to be alone. You wouldn't have to be and even if it wasn't meant to be forever, it felt pretty good for now to be with them. Maybe their hero complex would wear thin and maybe their bathroom habits would put you off but that was a someday problem. For now, falling asleep in their arms, your boys on either side of you felt pretty good. No more cold night, no more hard bruising cages, no more estrangement.

***

That was six months ago and everynight they still held you and you them, every day you still looked into their eyes and found love and every morning Hizashi took way too long to get ready for the day. The apartment now had a much larger bed, it had to be custom framed to fit all three of you comfortably, and the once lavish Chaise lounge was unfortunately given to Nemuri who had more room for it. A writing desk had replaced it, somewhere for the three of you to draft reports of your patrols.

You woke up, Hizashi's arms draped over you loosely. He was a snorer, and with his gift even a shallow breath could resonate down your spine. You blinked hard, clearing the sleep from your eyes and looked around the room, the space Shouta usually occupies was empty and letting the cold in. You lifted your head and looked around finding him slouched over at the writing desk, penning something absent mindedly.

"Hey." you mumbled, sitting up and sliding off the edge of the bed. He didn't respond, keeping his eyes on the page. You stood fully and took a few steps towards him.

"Did Hizashi, uh- tell you?" You asked, clearing your throat awkwardly. "And Toshi?"

"Mm Hmm." He hummed quietly.

"Oh, good." you nodded to yourself. "Is there any plan, anything I can do?"

"No." he grunted shortly. "Just stay out of the wood for now. Actually for you, not travel. Period."

He hadn't looked up at you. His writing got more sloppy, aggressive even. You could see frustration boiling up inside of him and you could tell it was directed at you. That guilt that you'd momentarily forgotten about hit you in the chest leaving a heavy stone plummeting to your gut. You didn't know the full story between Shouta and House Noro, you just knew that he had a run in with them years ago. This must have been a nightmare for him, having them so close to Kaer Yuuei, his safe haven. And it was you who lead them hear no less, unintentionally, which made it worse because he probably felt like he couldn't really be upset with you.

"Sho," you muttered, your voice cracking. That got his attention, he turned around to look at you, his expression hard to read. "I'm sorry. I'm- if I hadn't come here- I'm the weak link here."

Shouta stood and strode towards you, there was a strange sort of power in the way he moved. Like he was trying to cut through a crowd of people with a specific destination in mind. But when his hand reached your shoulders and pulled you close to him he was gentle and you felt as though he was swaddling you in safety.

"I'm sorry." he breathed into your hair. "I didn't mean to sound like that. I- I'm just..scared."

You looked up at him startled. You had been half ready to get the full force of what anger you thought he held towards you, and the fact that you received the exact opposite was jarring enough. However, Shouta flat out admitting he was scared was more perplexing. Over the last six months you realized that Shouta had no problems admitting to a few things, namely all of his annoyance and misunderstanding of social conventions or when he forgot to do or get something. Those were more so things Hizashi seemed to get hung up on and would try to play it cool over. Shouta had more trouble admitting his own emotions, Hizashi said that he was much better at expressing positive emotions more readily, but you'd never really heard thim admit to being upset or scared willingly. Hizashi was like a magician when it came to getting Shouta to talk about his feelings, a very persistent and borderline irritating magician.

"I know." you muttered. " Me too."

He sighed and pressed you against him.

"What have I told you about my life before Kaer Yuuei?"

[queenxxxsupreme]

Company

A/N: I hope you like this one @wayward-dream

Warning: none for this:)

Word Count: 2.7k

Summary: Geralt ditches a ball to find you. I suck at summaries

The castle buzzed with excitement. Geralt of Rivia had just taken out the pack of ghouls terrorizing the town, and now with the monsters gone, the Duke and Dutchess of Tardide decided to throw a celebration to thank the witcher.

You'd been given the task of making sure the White Wolf was presentable for the Duke and Duchess. All the other maids had scattered the second anyone mentioned the large brute would need a maid for the night. They were scared of him, fearful of the stories they'd heard. You, however, weren't afraid. They were just stories. Most men never lived up to the stories told about them.

Though you insisted that you weren't scared of the being, your heart was racing as you approached the door to his quarters. You carried in your arms an outfit for him for the night, one more suitable for a feast than the clothes he'd probably choose to wear.

You lifted your hand up but before you could knock, the door was being pulled open. The man before you was tall with broad shoulders and well defined muscles in his arms and his torso. He wasn't wearing a shirt. Your eyes briefly looked over his scarred abdomen, taking note of the deep gash just below his right ribcage and another across his right bicep. There were a dozen or more other little cuts across his skin, followed by bruises and signs of his fight the day before.

Your eyes came back up to his face. That's when you realized you'd been staring and he was just watching you with amber eyes.

"I am Y/N. I'll be your maid for the night."

"I don't need a maid." He grunted out, his voice low and deep. He started to shut the door on you but you put your hand up to stop him.

"I didn't ask you if you did or not. I've been given orders to make sure you look presentable for the Duke and Duchess." You paused for a moment to guage his reaction. He looked down at you, his brows drawn together ever so slightly. When he said nothing, you continued. "I'm not asking that you let me dress you like you're a child. I'm only asking that you let me tend to those wounds and make sure you're dressed properly before you are taken to the ballroom. If you don't, I can assure you the Duke will probably have my head. He's itching for an excuse to get rid of me."

He glanced down to eye the gashes on his body. He was sore and didn't really care about the cuts. They were pretty much healed.

He grunted out a reply, opening the door wide enough for you to come in. You stepped in, holding his gaze as you passed him.

"Thank you."

"Did you do something to get on the Duke's bad side?" Geralt closed the door behind you. You crossed the room to place his outfit on the bed.

"You could say that." You brushed your hand over the material to the pants, straightening the cloth out. "I don't very much appreciate his soldiers thinking it's okay to make inappropriate comments about me or my servants. I also don't react well to being groped like the town's whore. The Duke doesn't like the thought of a little servant putting a knife through one of his precious soldiers."

You let out a soft sigh, turning to face the witcher. He still stood by the door, silently studying you.

"You killed a man?" It was hard of Geralt to believe someone like you would take a life.

"I didn't come here to discuss my history. I came to ensure you were well put together for the feast." You moved across the room pass him and opened the door. You told one of the servants passing by that you needed bandages and a bowl of water. You turned back to the witcher and gestured for him to take a seat on the chest at the foot of the bed. "But to answer your question, no. I didn't kill him. Just maimed the bastard."

You went back to the side of the bed his outfit was on and inspected it just a little more. You were curious to see how the colors worked with him. The Duchess herself picked the royal blue top.

"Maids are usually killed for such acts. Why aren't you dead?"

"The Duchess is particularly fond of me. In her eyes, I'm one of the maids who gets shit done around the castle. And she likes my garden."

There was a knock on the door before it opened. Matilia, a timid and quiet maid you'd worked with before, stepped in. She held bandages tucked under one arm and carried a bowl of water.

"Hello, Y/N."

"Matilia." You greet her with a nod and little smile. "Place them down on the dresser, would you, darling? Thank you."

The servant did as told before scurrying out of the room.

"Are you a head servant?" Geralt turned his head to watch you. You moved to the dresser to get a cloth wet with the arm what.

"Gods no." You almost laughed at the idea. "I've just been here long enough and I stand up for them. The other girls aren't as blessed as I am to be one of the Duchess' favorites. I use it to my advantage for them."

You moved to stand next to the man. Even though he was sitting, he was still almost as tall as you. You reached out to cup his jaw with one hand. He grunted his disapproval of the physical contact, leaning back just a little so he could carefully watch your hands.

"I just want to clean your face." Your voice was a quiet murmur. "I think you've still got ghoul blood on you from yesterday."

He didn't buy your words but he allowed you to do so. You held his face with one hand and with the other, you held a damp rag. You brushed the cloth over his skin like he was delicate. While you did this, you took the chance to study his face. There were a few little scars that littered his skin. One next to his right eye stood out more than the others. It was bigger. His amber eyes watched you like a hawk. He didn't trust you.

"You aren't a mage, but there's magic in you."

"Yes." You affirmed his statement. You moved across the room to dunk the cloth into the water then wring it out. "I'm not sure what you'd call it, but I've been able to do it since I was a little girl. I could bring plants back to life, heal them from a bitter winter frost or even from a fire. That's why the Duchess keeps me around. She loves the garden."

Geralt was silent. You glanced over your shoulder to him, your fingers squeezed the excess water out of the cloth.

"You're a quiet one, Geralt of Rivia." You moved on to the wound on his chest. It was nearly healed already but you wanted to be thorough. "Quiet ones make for dull conversation." You glanced up at him through your lashes. Just as he had been since you stepped foot in the room, he watched you.

"Are you saying I'm dull?" He raised his brows just slightly. You could hear the very faint teasing tone in his husky voice.

"Me calling the White Wolf dull?" You teased just slightly, a smile tugging at your lips. "Never. I'm only saying that I wouldn't mind if you spoke a little more."

He grunted in response.

"Often times, I get told that I talk too much. If I am annoying you, just say something."

"You aren't annoying."

You grinned slightly.

"Alright, Mr. Witcher." You put the rag in the bowl of water and turned to him, clasping your hands behind your back. "While you change your clothes, I'll step out into the hallway. If you need anything, I’ll be right outside the door.”

He nodded his head once. 

You left the room, closing the door behind yourself. There was a group of servants gathered just down the hall, whispering and looking in your direction. You paid them no mind. You were used to this behavior. Your fellow maids often talked about you behind your back. You were different than them. 

“How is the witcher behaving for you, Y/N?” One maid that you didn’t like in particular, Adelina, approached you.

“Good evening, Adelina.” You smoothed out your skirt. “Have you come here just to taunt me or were you sent?”

“I just came to check on our dear friend.” 

The three girls behind her snickered like she’d said something funny. 

“I wanted to make sure the Butcher of Blaviken didn’t cause you any harm.”

“Why don’t you just fuck off, Adelina?” You suggested. Just then, the door behind you opened. You didn’t have to turn around to know that Geralt was looking at the girls with that cold, emotionless gaze of his. The maids paled under his amber eyes.

Adelina turned and led the way down the hallway. The other maids followed her like dogs. 

“Were those your friends?” 

You weren’t sure if Geralt was joking.

“Most definitely not.” You let out a sigh as you turned to face the witcher. The black pants fit him well and the deep royal blue top held on to his broad shoulders snuggly. “The Duchess was right. Blue would suit you.”

He grunted in reply. Your eyes trailed back up to his silvery locks, which were a little disheveled. 

“Now for your hair.”

“My hair?” He repeated.

“Yes. Come along.” You ushered him back into the room. 

***

Being that Geralt was nearly a head higher than you, he had to sit on the chest at the foot of the bed in order for you to be able to properly reach his hair. He didn’t like the fact that you were even touching his hair, but you were being gentle with him. You were carefully not to pull the comb through too hard or tug at his hair carelessly. 

“What are you doing?” He turned his head to the side in an attempt to look in the mirror to his right. He wanted to see what you were doing. It was taking you longer to do his hair than it should’ve. 

“Hold still. I don’t want to make it crooked.” Your fingers easily carded through his hair as you braided half of it back so it would stay out of his face. 

He grunted.

“Tell me, Mr. Witcher.” You hummed quietly. “Do you prefer to be quiet and grunt your displeasure? Or do you just not like to talk?”

He said nothing for a while. You thought maybe he wouldn’t answer your question.

“Why do you care?” He turned his head to look over his shoulder but you turned his head back so he looked straight ahead. 

“Because I like to hear your voice.” You shrugged one of your shoulders. “I just think it’s a waste that such a handsome voice isn’t heard that often.”

“I’ve learned that not everyone is as willing to hear me talk as you are. To them, I’m no more than a means to get rid of a monster.”

“To hell with everyone who doesn’t view you as a person.” You sighed out, shaking your head softly. “They’re lucky to even be breathing the same air as you.”

He grunted, almost wanting to laugh at your words. You finished the braid and tied his hair into place. 

“There we go, Mr. Witcher.” 

“You don’t have to call me that.” He pushed himself to his feet and went over to the mirror. You stood just behind him, studying his reflection in the mirror. He was beautiful in the same was a lion was beautiful. They were dangerous creatures but there was something about them that made them breathtaking. “I look like an idiot.”

“Hardly.” You shook your head. “I think you look very handsome. You still look a little rugged but put together.”

He grunted and messed with the sleeve of the shirt. 

A knock on the door made you sigh. Your time with the witcher was over. 

“That is my cue to leave.” You started to move towards the door. “There will be a servant to take you to the ballroom.”

Geralt watched you move towards the door. You stopped just shy of reaching the door and turned to him, a little smile playing on your lips. 

“It was a pleasure, Geralt of Rivia.”

He held your gaze. You knew he’d say nothing so you pulled the door open and left.

***

Any event involving royalty made Geralt uneasy. He didn’t like dealing with the privileged families. He’d spent the better half of an hour sitting with the Duke and Duchess, his eyes flighting around the room. He searched every maid that passed, silently hoping one of them would be you. You fascinated him. He’d never come across someone who was so blunt but kind. You weren’t scared of him either. You didn’t cower when he looked at you. 

When he had enough of the nobility and the party music, he decided to set off on finding you. Surely you’d be much better company than anyone else in the ballroom. 

He found you outside in the garden. The moonlight lit most of the area but there were torches lit around the four corners of the garden. You were in a simple dark gray dress with off the shoulder sleeves. Your hair was left in a long braid over your shoulder. 

He moved to stand at the entrance to the garden. He leaned against one of the stone pillars holding a torch. You were on your knees next to a witch-alder shrub. Your fingers moved ever so slightly. A hazy gray substance left your palm and fingertips. As the substance touched the plant, pink flowers began to bloom. 

When you finished with the shrub, you stood up started to move around the garden. Your eyes briefly caught something out of place. You looked up to see Geralt standing at the entrance to the garden.

“You’re suppose to be at your party, Mr. Witcher.”

“I don’t like parties.” He grumbled. “I find that I’d much rather have your company than anyone else’s in that dreadful place.”

You almost laughed. 

“My company isn’t that exciting.” 

“I find that loud nobles make for terrible company, but talkative maids are much better.”

Was he flirting with you? 

Your cheeks tingled as you looked down, your fingertips ghosting over a rose bush.

“Come in, Mr. Witcher. I’ll show you around my garden.” You offered, motioning for him to join your side. 

He walked alongside you as you moved aimlessly through the garden. You were making conversation but he found himself not listening out of habit. He was good at just naturally tuning everyone out. What he did pay attention to was how you’d brush your fingers along any plant you passed. Even after you moved away, the plants still seemed to grow. 

Geralt felt eyes on him. He was used to it, but he still liked to know exactly who was watching him. He looked around and caught a group of women standing just outside of the garden, whispering and looking at you both. 

“Don’t mind them, Geralt.” Hearing you say his name pulled his attention back to you. 

“I’m used to the staring.”

“Me too.” You sighed gently. “I guess we make quite the duo. The witcher and the witch who is not a witch.”

Geralt looked over to you, amber eyes carefully studying you as you stared blankly ahead.

“Oh, how I wish I could run away.” A little smile came to your lips at the thought. “To run away and never look back.” You turned your head to meet his gaze. “Is the continent exciting?”

“You could put it that way.”

“It has to be better than this awful place.” You came to a stop at the opposite end of the garden and turned to look at the palace. “I’ve never known anything outside of Tardide. But oh how I’d love to travel.”

“Then why don’t you leave?” 

“I am a woman. The most I have is the ability to make flowers bloom and a little sword training from my grandmother. I wouldn’t last a week out there.” You hummed. “When you leave in the morning, will you return?” 

Your eyes flickered up to meet his amber ones. He held your gaze for a few silent heartbeats before he moved away from you, traveling down the path you two had just been on.

“No.”

“That sounds lovely. Perhaps we will meet again.” You took a seat on a bench and motioned for him to join you. “Not here, of course, but elsewhere.”

“I wound’t mind that.” 

You smiled softly, your eyes finding the bright moon overhead. You leaned over and rested your head on his shoulder. 

A/N: I'm thinking of making a taglist for Geralt. If you want to be added to my taglist for Geralt fluff let me know. I'm hoping to do some NSFW shit too so let me know if you want to be on that list too. I'll tag you when I post new shit💕

[bigmultifandomgirl]

Master and the Mute Kylo Ren x reader - Chapter Three

Chapter Two

YOUR POV

You awoke abruptly, sat straight up in bed. You could feel your clammy back as your shirt stuck to it, you shivered in disgust and wondered what could have caused you to wake up so suddenly. Could it have been Him? No, You could not think like that, you were on the same ship as him, decidedly close enough to hear your thoughts whether they were directed at you or not. Rubbing your eyes you looked at the clock and realised you had woken up a whole two hours before you usually had to in order to start getting ready for the day. You realised that you weren’t going to get back to sleep any time soon and so slowly rose from the bed, the soft sheets fell to your feet as you shuffled to your bathroom. There was a small tub and you thought that a bath was the way to go since you had all the time in the world and were sweaty and in desperate need of a deep, cleansing soak. A sigh left you as you leaned over and turned on the hot tap and felt the water temperature before putting the plug in the drain, the warm water already relaxing the muscles in your hand and you realised how tense your muscles were. 

You had been laying on a cold, smooth surface, your arms were tied above your head and your legs were spread and tied to the other side of the surface. You weren’t naked but may as well have been, you were in nothing but your underwear, all your scars were on show. You were vulnerable and exposed to your core, your body was shivering with cold and fear. You could sense a presence in the dark room with you but you could not recognise the figure in the shadows.

Another large sigh escaped your lips as you relived the beginning of the dream that had obviously shaken you deeply, but the beginning was all that had come back to you. You sauntered back into your general living quarters to find a change of clothes for after your bath, you knew you did not know when Kylo was due to turn up and you definitely did not want him to be able to see your scars. You dumped the pile of clothes far enough from the tub that they would remain dry for the duration of your time in the water, you turned to the mirror and scowled at yourself as you realised that there was a thin sheen of sweat on your forehead which some of your hair was sticking to. Grotesque. You thought as you tried to comb through the mattes in your hair with your fingers, obviously you were unsuccessful and with a huff you spun around and watched as the water level steadily rose. 

Your eyes darted around the room, desperately trying to find out who was occupying the room with you. Fear was coursing through your veins as you heard a rustle of fabric from behind your head. A gloved finger grazed your cheek and ran down your jaw to your neck, you gulped as you realised whoever this finger belonged to could see your scars and you desperately wished to be alone, it did not matter if you remained tied up, you just did not want to be seen. The body that the finger belonged to stepped out of the shadows and you almost stopped breathing completely. It was the handsome face of the master who’s head you kept invading. 

‘Now little girl, why are you invading my head with your mundane thoughts?’ he growled lowly. He was angry and you could see why, he was a highly esteemed member of the First Order, you were a useless mute. Of course your thoughts in his mind bothered him.

You could not speak and he knew this, but at this moment you could not even think to answer him. You had hoped that he would just send you away once he realised that you were going to be a constant annoyance to him as there seemed to be no way to get your voice out of his mind. You were scared of what he would do, you could feel his anger rolling off of him like a river bursting its banks and flooding the surrounding area.

You shook the image out of your head, you did not know for sure how Kylo felt about your voice in his mind and you could not make dangerous assumptions in case he heard them. You hoped beyond all hope that he could not see your dreams at night and the images you brought up, you wished to the stars that he would only be able to hear your thoughts. You felt extremely exposed as it is, there was no filter to your thoughts and he heard them all. There had never been anyone that was privy to any of your thoughts, after all you could not even communicate the ones that you wanted to share. Ren made you vulnerable and it made you uncomfortable, he was possibly the last person in the galaxy that you would want to hear your innermost thoughts. 

The bath was full and so you turned off the tap and stripped your clothes off chucking the dirty pile the opposite side of the bathroom from your clean clothes. Humming (well your version of a scratchy, throaty hum) you stepped into the bath and sunk into the water with great relief. One by one your muscles relaxed and turned to putty as you laid in the water, still and serene, recovering from the emotion of the dream you had just woken up from.

Kylo growled in anger above you as you could not think of a way to reply to him, you had no answers and could not see a way to diffuse the situation. 

‘Nothing to say huh?’ he smirked down at you. His hand closed around your neck and started to squeeze. You began to choke, the sound an awful guttural one, he laughed and withdrew his hand from you. Only to pull something out of his layers of robes, a knife. A large knife, with a jagged edge that you knew would be painful. 

He smirked evilly down at you as you gulped down the rising bile and closed your eyed in preparation for the cold metal to meet your warm and clammy skin. The tip of the blade danced down your neck and you felt yourself beginning to cry as a lump in your throat formed and tears pricked your eyes. 

Please don’t. You begged in your mind. I don’t know why you can hear me, I’m sorry, I-I-I can leave, please I’ll leave. 

He chuckled deeply, ‘No pet, you’re not leaving, you have already taken up too much of my mental capacity, you need to be disposed of before you manage to worm your way into anyone else’s brain.’

You sobbed as he pressed the blade firmer into your skin, it finally broke in the valley of your breasts, he pressed in deeper and deeper. Your gargled screams filled the room as your body was ripping apart with the jagged blade that was piercing you.

You dunked your head under the water to erase the painful images of your nightmare from your brain but they were seared into your memory. Why did you feel this way towards him? You had thought he was handsome, no matter how much you scolded yourself for thinking that and so far even though his presence did terrify you and his reputation should have sent you running, you did not feel that he was a major threat to you. Even though your vivid dream would contradict that thought you could not ignore the tiny but powerful part deep inside you which could not wait to see him. That tiny part also wondered how his skin felt against yours and you hated to entertain the thought but a larger part of you also wanted to find out those answers.

To distract you from your wondering mind and to rid your body of the rest of the residual stress from the night you reached over and grabbed the generic body and hair wash that was provided for all low level staff. The silky liquid was spilled onto your hands and you reached back to massage it into your scalp and run in through your hair. A low hum escaped your mouth and you submerged your head once again to wash the soap out of your hair. You quickly eyed the clock and you still had one hour before your usual waking time and so you decided to take your time with the rest of your bathing and really work out all of the stress that had built up in your limbs. Once you were done there was still half an hour left but the water was beginning to turn cold and so reluctantly you decided it was time to step out of the bath.

Your warm toes met cold tiles and you shivered before picking up a towel and drying yourself off before moving towards the pile of clean clothes that you had prepared before the bath. Once you were dressed you realised that there was still an hour before you were required to start working and with nothing more to do you made your small bed and sat on it. Twiddling your fingers was no use as you knew that your thoughts would inevitably turn back to him and you did not want him hearing anything so you hurriedly turned on your data pad so you could start planning your day, you may even swing by the cafeteria to grab some lunch for later as you currently had nothing edible laying around your living quarters that you could take with you.

With half an hour spent and half an hour left you realised that there was no use in waiting around, he was not coming to get you right now and you may as well get on with your day lest you wanted to bring forth the wrath of General Hux for not doing your job properly. You got up and headed to the cafeteria, slinging your bag over your shoulders as you went. 

The halls were not completely empty, you encountered the odd storm trooper here and there but they often did not bother you and you did not get in there way in return. When you made it to the cafeteria and saw that it was practically empty, you smiled and moved to pick up a flask of soup from the heated section, you paid for it with your employee card and then looked down to your data pad in order to start towards your first job of the day. Now you had fixed that strangely hard job, the ones that were next on your list were very simple, there was no problem solving involved. The problem had already been diagnosed and all you had to do was quietly go in and fix whatever was the matter.

The first job was replacing some loose screws in a control panel for a data analysis so that the keyboard no longer made a rattling noise. The second was to reboot some computers that had been crashing while important work was being done. These jobs flew by and you completed them with little to no interaction with anyone.

Then came job three of the day: there was an engineer working on the Command Shuttle, His ship, that was having issues with their computer systems and as their focus was ships and not computer motherboards you were sent to solve the issue. The computer with the issue was not one that was on the ship but the one that logged all of the engineers work and was where they ticked off checklists etc, so it was fairly important for safety reasons that this was remedied. You were grateful to find that the commander of the ship was nowhere to be found in the bay where his shuttle was kept. Unfortunately, you were not alone on this job, an engineer was stood with her arms crossed staring hatefully at the misbehaving piece of equipment. You walked into her line of sight and made a gesture asking her to move aside so you could have better access to the computer. She nodded curtly and stepped backwards, her arms remained crossed and her attitude was hostile despite her moving aside from you, you felt uncomfortable. 

Carefully you exposed the motherboard and could immediately see the issue and silently went about fixing it and replacing certain components.

‘Who are you, I’ve never seen you around here?’ she asked from behind you.  All you could do was turn your head to look at her and offer her a small smile, you wondered if there was any paper in your bag so that if she insisted on talking to you, you could try and talk to her in your own way. 

‘Well are you going to answer me?’ he tone was much more aggressive now and you could tell you had offended her by not offering her a proper response. 

You turned to her again and this time gave her an apologetic smile and shrugged a little before reaching into your bag. Before you could register what had happened you were being pushed into the ground as the engineers hands wrapped around your neck as she climbed on top of you. She brought your head up by my neck and slammed your head back into the ground. You groaned in pain as your vision became blurry as you tried to focus on her and why she was having such a violent response to you not being able to answer her. Of course you had seen people become hostile towards you because they could not understand you, but they were never this aggressive. A physical move was rarely made. You could feel tears prickling in your eyes and you tried your best to not let them fall, even though she heard your groans of physical pain, you were not going to show her anything else.

She removed one of her hands from the tight grip on your neck and brought it above her head. He open palm came swiftly onto your cheek and you could feel the sting spreading across your face as she lowered her head to yours.

‘You don’t think I’ve noticed you scuttling about? All alone, uncovering secrets for our enemy you SPY.’ she seethed at you. 

There was nothing you could do, you were pinned underneath her body weight, her grip on your neck getting increasingly tighter. Your airflow was being cut off and you were sure that your face was turning different colours at an alarming rate.

I’m not a spy. I am not a spy. I. Am. Not. A. Spy. You were screaming in your head but you knew all your efforts were futile as she could not hear you and you had no way of making her hear you. You couldn’t have responded even if you did have a working voice box but she did not seem to realise this and the fact that you only could have produced a strangled gargling noise only seemed to enrage her. 

Next she brought her hands into a fist above her head and she brought it down onto the same cheek. This time the force was enough to make your head whip to the side despite her other hand holding your throat in a vice grip. Black spots started to invade your vision as your body was starved of oxygen.

The familiar sounds of those heavy boots filled your ears just as the girls grip on your throat loosened, and you close your eyes and breathed with relief. Then your body was no longer pinned underneath hers and hers was thrown onto the wall with a loud bang which made you wince as your head was still throbbing from how it had been slammed on the floor seconds earlier. 

You could not open your eyes as your head throbbed and you gasped, desperately to get enough oxygen back into your lungs. Kylo was near you, you could feel his presence as he kneeled down to your level.

‘Open your eyes y/n’ his modulated voice commanded, you scrunched them together and then managed to open them, not without more pain running through your head. You locked your eyesight onto the place on his helmet that you were sure his eyes were peering at you from and gave a tiny nod. Yes I’ll be ok.

‘Hmmm’ he deliberated and then turned away from you as you slowly started to sit up. The room was silent as Kylo moved towards the engineer on the wall apart from her pathetic whimpers, you rubbed you neck trying to relieve the tension that had been rebuilt into your body. 

She was suspended a couple of feet off of the ground, her arms pinned to her sides, her back flush to the wall. There was no where left to go for her and you feared what Kylo was going to do next, there was no telling what was going on underneath that mask and you were not sure if you even wanted to find out. He raised his arm to focus the force, suddenly she started spluttering and choking - he was force-choking her.

No this isn’t the way. You thought, hoping that he would listen. Please don’t hurt her. Another strangled wheeze escaped her pushing you to add another, please to the end of it.

A low familiar growl spread around the room, ‘She attacked you and here you are pleading with me to give her mercy?’ he seemed astounded at what was happening and that he even had to ask this question.

The engineers eyes moved frantically between you two, trying to figure out how you were communicating. Especially as you were not reeling in the pain that was expected when Kylo Ren invaded people's minds and sifted through their thoughts. 

Yes, listen please just stop this. This is not the first time someone has been hostile towards me, they don’t understand me or how to communicate me. I frustrate them, and with my .. appearance .. my scars. I look different, suspicious which means that people naturally distrust me.

You hoped that he would not notice your hesitation over your scars and appearance but you knew that you could only wish to be so lucky.

She just thought she was protecting a cause that she loves. That we all serve, I understand that the stakes are higher on such an important ship like this, with important people like you.

You stood and waited for his response, tension was growing as the engineer was changing colour similarly to how you were not too long ago. 

‘Fine.’ he moved closer to the girl and you held your breath. ‘She is not a fucking spy you stupid bitch. If I find out that you touch a single hair on her head again’ he steps even closer and his hand squeezes into a fist and she lets out another squeal, ‘you will not live to tell the tale.’ he warned.

With a sweep of his hand the girl was thrown against the another wall with such force that it left a dent. You did not have time to stop and check that she was ok as Kylo’s robes swept past you and he was already through the door and you realised that it was probably in your best interest to follow the man considering the promise he had made to find you today. That and you did not really have a lot of intension of staying in a room with your assailant. You found yourself jogging again after every couple of steps in order to keep up with his long legs and soon you found yourself in a part of the ship where you had never been before, a small drop of fear rippled through you but you had to bite back all your thoughts, you did not want to make him any angrier. 

There were noticeably more storm troopers lining these halls. They were protection, you were nearing His chambers. You kept your strides strong and tried to no contemplate why he was leading you here, you also began to second guess your choice to follow him as he had not looked over his shoulder or given you any verbal confirmation of your assumption.

Finally a large black door stood in front of you and Kylo leant over a screen and entered a code and the door slithered to the side and allowed the giant man to stride through. 

‘Come.’ he ordered and you realised that your feet had been glued to the floor, so you quickly came to your senses and shuffled in and the door closed swiftly behind you. As you walked into the room you noticed the matt black tiles which covered all walls in the room, the books scattered over a large desk that also had screens with complicated plans on it that you would never understand, the jet black silky sheets which were strewn over the bed and finally you landed on the man whose back was turned to you. As you had been scanning the room he had taken his helmet off and it was by his feet, his raven locks were exposed and all you wanted to do was reach out and touch them. However, you would not reach out and touch him as his wide and strong shoulders were moving up and down with deep and ragged breaths. He was angry and you weren’t about to poke the bear. 

The silence was deafening and for some reason all you could think about was how he saved you. Why did he save you? Why was he so angry? It was obvious to you that he had heard you screaming in your mind and had come to your rescue but why? You were just a useless mute, he was a master. Why would someone like Him help someone like you?

He spun around and his face was brought inches from yours, you could feel his warm breath fanning your face which sent shivers down your spine. 

‘You ask me why I’d save you?’ he asked lowly and dipped his head so that he could place a kiss under your ear, a sweet spot, which made you hum in pleasure. 

‘I saved you because you’re mine.’ he nipped at your ear and you inhaled sharply as pleasure bloomed from the spot where he his lips were now placed, hovering over your skin. ‘We have a bond that I cannot wait to explore pet.’ 

You felt cold as he removed his face from your neck, and looked up into his pots of honey for eyes and almost melted into him. His expression was one that you could not decipher but you could stare at his handsome face all day. He smirked down at you.

‘I can hear you.’ he taunted in a sing-song tone and you went beet red and looked down at your shoes in embarrassment.

He hooked a finger under your chin and tilted it so that you had to look at his smug expression. He leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on your lips. The moment his soft, plump lips met yours, you knew that you were in deep trouble as something stirred inside of you.

‘Stay here for the rest of the day, relax. I will come and take care of you later.’ he whispered and all you could do was look at him.

‘Answer me.’ he ordered while tilting his eyebrows, questioning your judgement on not replying to him.

Yes sir, you thought out loud as a smile kept on your lips. He smiled at your answer and leaned in again, this time the kiss was longer and more complex. Where your skin touched you could feel the nerves beginning to hum in excitement, it was not a battle of a kiss which pleasantly surprised you, it was a dance. A careful and passionate dance, so when he ran his tongue over your bottom lip you allowed him entrance and control of the kiss as he gently dominated you. A hand snaked to the back of your head and buried it in your hair, he tilted your head back which allowed him more access. You could feel yourself falling into his frame as his other hand held your cheek and then snaked down to your waist and pulled you into him, so his entire body enveloped yours. He slowed the kiss down and you almost whined in disappointment but knew better than to vocalise that feeling, he could probably already tell what you were feeling. He smiled into the kiss and then grabbed your lower lip between his teeth and tugged at it which made your eyes open in shock, only to be met with his deviant ones. 

He fully detached himself from you which you secretly hated, but it was no secret to him.

‘Clean up and get some rest pet.’ he murmured as he turned to retrieve his helmet from the floor.

He left the room without saying another word, leaving you dumbfounded in the middle of his massive chambers.

Here it is FINALLY aha. I’ve been grinding all day to try and rewrite it all, some parts I deliberately didn’t write because I now think they’ll fit better in the next installment. I think this is the longest part so far and I really hope you like it :) Thank you beautiful readers once again <3

[morphituu]

Milagro

Chapter 20: Patterns 

Ch: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19

“Oh my god we’re traumatizing him,” Nick distressed, Leo’s kicking foot yanking from his meager grip once again.

“You gotta hold him tighter,” Callie laughed, already done with her half of the body as their son went on to scream and wiggle whilst the warm rags were dragged across his form to rid him of the sticky afterbirth.

“He’s too strong!”

“Just- gimme,” she grinned, stepping in to go about wiping down his heaving chest, then sticky legs, all the way to his round toes. “Newborns are sturdier than most think,”

It didn’t make him feel any better; this had nothing to do with Leo- this was Nick’s inability to do anything right so far, it seemed. “I suck at this,” Nick intoned, earning a sour glare from Callie.

“Enough of that. I’d be in the same place if I didn’t have practice and that’s exactly what you need,” she scolded, punching his chest with her other hand on Leo. “Can you hand me his onesie?”

This time Nick watched over her shoulder before sticking his hands in there again, and learned that although babies grew seriously rigid when they were angry, they still had joints that could bend into the onesie he didn’t think would be big enough, and more importantly, Leo screamed just as much when Callie was the one disturbing him.

“His first outfit,” he smiled, pulling his phone out to memorialize the moment, his loud cries settling into short grunts and angrier chuffs under Callie’s working hands moving up the stretch of buttons. By the time she was combing his sandy stripe into a little point, Leo was dozing in her arms, his jaw dropped open in soft breaths, properly exhausted from such an experience. Nick helped pull his beanie on, smoothing aside the swoop his hair made. She smiled as he leaned into her arms to kiss him, sliding the knuckle of his finger over his cheek.

“Wanna take him?” she asked. “I need to clean this room up and shower,”

“Are you- can you move around that much?” he asked, cradling Leo against his chest once he’d been handed over.

“Standing hurts less than sitting actually,” she clarified, gathering the used towels and stained blankets.

Nick made his way over to the rocker beside the bed carefully, lowering even slower into the seat. Thankfully Leo wasn’t so big that he couldn’t fit across Nick’s forearm when he reached to grab a pillow, folding it under his elbow so he could finally cozy him up to his chest. Not without a few long kisses and sniffs to his cheeks, however. “Oh my God he smells so good,”

“Like that soft baby smell right?” she smiled, organizing their clothes.

“He smells so clean and fuzzy,” he groaned. “Like you, too,”

They idly chatted as she waddled from corner to corner of the room, sometimes stopping to kiss Leo’s hand when she moved around Nick. The TV murmured below their soft words passed back and forth, and with the hospital phone pinched between his cheek and shoulder after Callie propped it there, Nick ordered dinner while Leo suckled on his finger, clamping down hard enough to concern Nick as to just how brutal it must’ve felt around a nipple.

He reached to hang the phone on the bed railing. “Food will be up in about forty-five minutes,”

“I think I can shower in time,” Callie huffed after squeezing her dirty clothes into her bag.

“What if he starts crying?” Nick asked nervously.

“Walk with him. Talk to him. If he gets hungry again he’ll just have to wait until I’m done but I’ll be fast,” she reassured, grabbing clean clothes and her toiletry bag.

Before shuffling to the bathroom, Callie brought Nick’s attention upwards with a soft touch to his cheek. His eyes fell shut when her mouth caressed his deliciously, consumed by every second of it; from the moment her eyes captured his to her last warm peck on his hungry mouth.

He chuffed when she came up, his eyes heavy.

“I love you,” she squeezed his jaw endearingly, her touch smoothing to the back of his head.

“I love you more,” he promised, watching her walk almost like a gingerbread man to the bathroom. A few deep breaths brought some clarity back to his sight, in addition calming the wild hammering of his heart. A hard clamp around his finger brought him back to a dozing Leo, his eyes barely open. “But I love you the most.” Nick hushed softly down at his boy.

After that small interruption however, Leo was awake and peeking at the world around him, his limbs moving sporadically until Nick moved him into a more freeing position. His thumbs stroked Leo’s round cheeks where his palms cupped his head in support, his frame laid across the length of Nick’s forearms. Loosely he squirmed in the blankets draped over him now that Callie finally gave him up long enough to shower, but he wouldn’t hold the hoarding against her. Both of them were eager to smother him with love, but her fervor was likely greater than his.

 But now I got you, he smiled to himself, leaning in to press his chest to Leo before scooping him up and leaning back into the rocking chair. It seemed warmth was what Leo had been craving, for he settled quickly, his rapid breaths tickling Nick’s neck where his head was tucked under his chin.

Nick only pushed off his heel to rock the chair agiley, the warm beams of sunset coming through the lowered shade and illuminating the quiet room that only Leo’s soft grunts filled.

The worry that he’d start wailing while Callie was away bridled his mind, but Nick continued to remind himself if it wasn’t today, there would be another time that he would find himself in the same predicament, alone and unknowing of what to do or how to help.

“I gotta learn all these noises,” he mumbled, rubbing his back. “You beefy little thing,”

More sleepy wiggles and a hard kick made Nick chuckle, moving his face down to peck his cheek. “No wonder your mama was always in misery. You kick like an ox,” he mumbled, fixing his beanie. “You look just like her, you know that?” he poked his nose, smiling when it scrunched. No matter how many times Nick would trace the wild patterning of his arm or leg, he couldn’t get over how their colors came together in such an intricate maze that was already immortalized in his memory.

Of all the possibilities, every single thing that made Leo so unexpected and beautiful, it was these ones that made him who he was.

It left Nick utterly speechless and in complete awe.

Never did he think he could help make something so perfect.

The latch of the door clicking some time later brought Nick’s eyes up in time to grin at Callie as she waddled in stiffly, her wet hair hanging around her shoulders and her bloody nightgown now replaced with a camisole and sweats, complete with her worn and tattered slippers.

“How’d he do?” she whispered, leaning over to touch Leo’s cheek before kissing, calling to him when he jumped.

“Sleepin’ and kickin’,” Nick grinned, rubbing Leo’s chest when his little arm shot up to stretch.

“Mi corazon,” Callie said against his cheek. Her hands wiggling flat between Leo and Nick’s arms made him tense up, resisting Callie’s pull.

“Hey hey it’s still my turn,”

“I’ve been in the shower!” she frowned.

“You’ve had him all day and everyone else was passing him around last night,” Nick argued stubbornly. Callie groaned, looking down at Leo who was already settled back into the crook of his father's arm, his arm draped over his face.

“Fine,” she whined, fixing the loose blanket around him before moving to her bed. Carefully she crawled to her spot at the center and lowered gradually, hiding her discomfort.  

“How’s your kitty?” Nick asked, cringing when she shook her head.

“It’s a massacre,” she sighed, opening up her toiletry bag.

Nick swallowed, looking back down at Leo. “I’m sorry,”

“Hush,” she paused to soak a cotton pad with toner. “I knew what to expect. I’d do it again if I had to,”

That was a relief to hear, but Nick still expected some less than neutral complaints to eventually come up, especially after pushing out the thick nugget that was chuffing in his sleep. Nick chuckled, pressing his nose to Leo’s and letting out his own. “I wonder if he’ll have tusks,” Nick pondered aloud, pulling Leo’s chin down with his fingertip to expose his rosy gums and tongue.

“When do orcs start teething again?” she asked.

“I think my mom said something like two or three months,” he said through bared teeth, stretching Leo’s cheek until he growled in protest. “I don’t know what to look for,”

Callie rubbed lotion into her arms and loose belly when looking at him, a sense of worry spreading over her. “Would you be mad if he didn’t?”

“Mad?! No, no, I don’t mind either way… but it would be kinda cool to see,” he explained shyly, rocking when Leo started to fuss. “He’s tryin’ to bite my chest,” he chuckled.

“That means it’s my turn,” she popped her cap back on her chapstick, swiftly tossing her tiny bags aside and propping pillows under her arm all in the time it took Nick to stand and walk over. Nick smiled everytime she talked to him; words of praise and pure adoration, and of course hundreds of kisses to follow her loving words. Even as the beginnings of angry, crackly cries would start to bubble up in his chest, she’d be there holding him up, peppering kisses into his face while she egged him on lovingly.

Now was Nick’s time to literally step back and let her handle this. It had only taken a full twenty-four hours to see that breast feeding wasn’t the breeze most made it to be, and Callie, who was slowly coming down with her hormones, flustered easily, and quickly, and when that happened she wanted no one to bear witness to her new struggle with motherhood.

The first time they’d finally persuaded her to accept a visit from one of the hospital's lactation consultants only ended in some heated words from Callie’s corner of the ring and the consultant kicked out. Nick understood the misunderstanding, but he also didn’t like how pushy she had been when trying to coach Callie. He probably would’ve snapped if someone was that rough with him, too.

That was the last of any visitors- including nurses- present when she fed.

A hard exhale from her turned Nick the slightest bit from his hands digging through his bag in an attempt to appear distracted, not to mention Leo’s heightening cries.

His ears twitched. “Can I help?”

“He’s screaming instead of biting, what would you do?” she snapped.

Nick reluctantly nodded, continuing to search for nothing, but it was the only thing that kept from standing and staring at them. Despite the tone she’d taken with him, her whispers were of pure patience as she spoke to Leo, more than likely glancing at the door anxiously.

At last the screaming boy found his target, immediately falling into a soft, grunting state of serenity even though his beanie had fallen over his eyes during his fit.

Callie exhaled softly, better situating her arms and her head dropping back into the pillows. Tears brimmed her glossy eyes, but they were blinked away before Nick would ever know. She looked to him, knowing whatever he pretended to search for in his bag was in fact not there. A small smile crept to her lips; such a considerate man, he was.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, staring sheepishly at him by the time he turned to grin.

“Hush,”

She grinned, blowing a kiss back to him when he sent his own.

“You okay?”

She nodded, taking another breath as she smoothed her hand over Leo’s head. “I think it’s the most frustrating thing I’ve ever had to do,”

“I hate to admit it but… he’s kind of being a jerk about it,” Nick shrugged, feeling a little guilty for throwing his newborn son under the bus like that but he sensed she needed the pick me up more than ever right then, and her withheld giggle and stubborn smile confirmed that.

“Don’t say that,”

“Yeah yeah,” Nick waved, turning back to put his bag away. “So who’s coming today?”

“Rosie should be here soon with Daryl and your parents said they’d come in a couple hours,” she winced, her toes curling when Leo clamped down. “That one made me see stars,”

“There better be a boob left when it’s my turn with those,” Nick said below his breath.

“Huh? What was that?” she barked, glaring at the back of Nick’s shaking head.

“I said we got a lot of painting left in Leo’s room,” he mislead.

“Oh yeah, sure, and here you are still messing with the laundry instead of painting,” she sighed, smoothing the pad of her thumb down Leo’s face by the time Nick turned to look at her in mild annoyance. He was foolish to think he could poke fun at Callie without any torment in return.

“My mom and cousin offered to fix it, asshole. I wasn’t gonna miss out on Leo’s first few days,”

She gasped, eyes growing wide. “Daddy said a bad word,” she whispered.

“Oh shut up,” he rolled his eyes, reluctantly grinning with a cocked brow when she winked at him. “He looks like he’s getting restless,”

Callie chuckled. “Eager to hold him again?”

“Duh, hand him over, selfish,” he pouted, arms outstretched by the time he made it to her side to scoop up their partly conscious son who had stopped suckling some minutes ago and was squirming against Callie’s chest.

“He’s got a milk mustache,” Nick noticed, chuckling throatily when he lifted Leo to kiss him a few times before finding his spot over Nick’s shoulder. A wide palm had just cupped Leo’s little bottom when a few soft knocks came from the door, and once turned he faced Rosie who was coming in quietly with Daryl in tow.

“He’s not sleeping,” Callie said first once Rosie scurried right over to Nick.

“Hello my love! Hello hermoso! Are you awake? Are you looking around?” she doted, kissing Leo’s small hand over Nick’s shoulder while he was burped. “You look so handsome in your onesie!”

“He’ll stare at you if you talk long enough,” Nick said softly against the back of Leo’s head, praising him when he burped.

“No shit?” Rosie asked, a little perplexed.

“I thought newborns couldn’t track,” Daryl stepped beside Rosie, cracking a smile when Leo grunted and wiggled his face down into Nick’s shoulder.

“Halfling perk,” Callie grinned.

“Ooh I see those big eyes opening,” Rosie smiled, bending at the knees to catch early sight of them. “Oh dios mio look at those eyes!” she reveled, softly stroking his cheek when his golden orbs peeked from behind sleepy, blinking lids. “You’re gonna stop people in their tracks with those,”

“He’s got big ass eyes like you two,” Daryl teased, grunting when Rosie swung back into his gut.

“Language,” Rosie hissed. “Tia’s turn?”

“I suppose,” Nick groaned reluctantly, letting her expertly slide him off his shoulder and onto her chest where she could maneuver him into the crook of her arm.

“Oh he’s so hefty, you’re a big boy,” Rosie keened, swaying side to side when Leo protested the sudden change in cushion.

“How much did he weigh?” Daryl asked, his finger locked in Leo’s grasp.

“Ten pounds,” Callie answered as she slowly and with discomfort swung her legs over the edge of the bed to stand. Now that both of their arms were free, Nick hastily offered his hands in support, securing at her sides even after she stood straight and assured him she was steady.

“Where ya headed?” he asked, offering an elbow.

Callie tittered, slipping her lithe hand into the crook of his elbow to grip his thick bicep. “Restroom, please,”

“If you weren’t a human gusher right now I’d throw you over my shoulder so you didn’t have to walk,”

“WOW,” Daryl shouted, eyes pinched shut and shaking his head.

“Shut up, you’ve witnessed it first hand,” Rosie scolded, though her tone was of complete enamore while she gazed down at her nephew who was still whining lowly.

“The visual, though,” he shuddered.

Callie’s hand followed the length of his arm until their palms met as he moved aside the curtain and opened the heavy restroom door. Before he released her nimble fingers, his lips met her knuckles in a warm kiss, smiling when she did.

“Call if you need anything,” he reminded, at last letting her go.

Her nod and flush was almost drunkenly, but his charming gesture was the cause.

Nick wandered back to their visitors, still completely enamored with Leo who’d woken fully and was talking up quite the storm.

“He’s such a chatterbox,” Rosie cooed, nodding enthusiastically in response to every loud shout he made.

“He’s been catching up on all the gossip from Callie and the nurses,” Nick grinned, rubbing his cheek before moving to a seat.

“Oh chismoso!” she giggled, turning to follow them to the chairs. “How’re you two doing? Gotten any sleep?”

Nick’s lips pursed as his brows pinched together in hard thought, honest to God fuzzy when it came to pin-pointing what exactly he’d done between the times he was doting over Leo. “I think so,”

“Soon you’ll start losing track of days of the week,” Daryl nudged his elbow while shaking his head tiredly, recalling the days that blurred together when his own children were newborns. “Almost lost my job I was so drained,”

Nick’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Callate, gringo. Nick, don’t listen to him. As long as you don’t lose track of Leo you’ll adjust,” Rosie buoyed, her cheek pressed against his sons when she smiled.

“Punch a pillow when you get angry, not Leo,” Daryl piped in again, but Nick couldn’t help but snort.

“Thanks,”

“If either of you are ever having a bad day you can always come kick it at our place for a while,” he went on to offer. “Got some Indica that’ll-” he flattened his hand to cut through the air horizontally. “Chill ya right out,”

“He doesn’t smoke,” Rosie reminded.

Daryl scoffed. “Wait a while,”

Callie’s shuffling steps turned Rosie, and Leo was showered with kisses from his mama before she made it to Nick’s side on the pull-out sofa, finding her spot under his arm with a soft exhale.

“Y’alright?” he asked, the back of his thumb stroking her arm.

“I feel like I’m gonna die everytime I pee,”

“Use the Sitz bath, it at least makes it bearable,” Rosie suggested.

“I haven’t asked for one yet,” Callie yawned, lifting her feet to stretch. “Aw fuck,”

“Hm?” Nick hummed. She wiggled her toes, looking at her raised feet forlornly. “Pantuflas?” he asked, and she nodded, watching him stand with his hand on her thigh to steady himself.

“Cal,” Rosie whispered, side stepping towards her sister with eyes on Nick’s back. Callie inclined when she asked, “Are you guys gonna circumcise Leo?”

“Oh, no,” Callie leaned back again.

“No?”

“It’s unnecessary,” she replied derisively. “Nick didn’t want him cut either,”

“Is it a cultural thing?”

“Yep,” Nick answered, coming from behind Rosie to drop Callie’s slippers at her feet.

“Huh. Didn’t take you for one of those, munguz,” Rosie frowned, looking down at Leo.

Nick’s brows furrowed. “One of what?”

“Someone to uphold traditions like that,”

His head tilted now, his eyes narrowing. “Why?”

Callie’s hand slipped into his, the squeeze of her fingers pulling him back into the sofa when he’d started to lean forward.

“You act human. Maybe that’s why Leo looks so human,” she laughed.

“That’s not funny,” Callie snapped, but Rosie snorted despite Nick’s brows twitching in discomfort; a visible flinch.

“It’s a joke, settle down,”

“Says the one who was all pissy about Dyani basically being Daryl’s clone,” Callie reminded.

“Cuz she’s a girl, she should’ve looked kind of like me!” Rosie smiled. “But okay, I am sorry, I didn’t mean any harm,”

“Yeah it’s fine,” Nick only mustered that grin for a short second before he was shifting uncomfortably beside Callie, leaning on his elbow behind her.

The conversation switched like it had never started, and although Callie interacted with them the same during the remainder they were there, Nick was quiet. He lingered behind Callie or in an opposite corner, only stepping forward when Leo cried or Callie called, and for the first time in years , she noticed her fiancés eyes were cast down, staying below others gazes.

She peered secretively around Rosie’s arm, smiling at Nick sweetly when he’d finally notice her.

Warmth would collect in his heart when she beamed at him. When she walked by, she’d graze the back of his hand, her finger curling around his momentarily before she walked away. By the time Rosie and Daryl were getting the last of their hugs in with Leo, his upset had dissipated enough to stand and hug his soon to be sister in law without temptation calling to snap her neck.

“I really am sorry- I need to learn to keep my mouth shut,” she apologized again, holding Nick’s arms.

“She does, it’s always open at the wrong times,” Daryl said as he hugged Callie, giving her a kiss on her temple.

Rosie spun on her heels. “Excuse me, I have to kiss my nephew goodbye and then I’ll kick your ass,”

Callie snorted, letting her sister get the last of her smothering smooches in as Leo started to stir from his nap, chuffing when Rosie pressed his round nose.

“Goodbye my love, don’t forget your tia,” she frowned, leaning in to wrap an arm around Callie. “Call if you need anything, use your diapers,”

Callie giggled, letting her sister go.

“Take care of ‘em, Dad.” Rosie told Nick as she passed, patting his arm. The men shook hands as they left, leaving the room quietly to the new parents.

Nick grinned at Callie when he’d looked back to find her walking towards him with Leo stretching in her careful hold. His head looked so small under his touch when he smoothed his hair down, leaning over to leave a long kiss on his cheek. “My boy,” he spoke in a hushed tone, smoothing over the spot his lips just met.

Callie watched him, her lips pursing to the side. “I’m sorry about what Rosie said,”

Nick shrugged. “She doesn’t have a filter,” she added, and he nodded.

“Do you think he looks like me at all?” Nick asked lowly, his finger tracing the patterning of Leo’s hand.

“I think he’s more you than me, actually,”

Nick’s hairless brows furrowed. “He literally has your face,”

“He has my nose and chin, what else?” she asked, looking up at him in wait when he opened his mouth to speak, but when he really thought about it and stared down at Leo, what else did he have from Callie?

“Look,” she splayed Leo’s small fingers. “Your hands,”

The corner of Nick’s lips kicked up in the smallest grin, holding Leo’s hand open to compare, but he knew since the night before that this was true. He was the one who first called Callie over to see.

“The dinosaur mark,” she whispered, and his head leaned back when his eyes rolled.

“It’s not a dinosaur, ” he groaned, still smiling.

“Look at that mark and tell me that’s not the same one you have on your thigh and furthermore tell me that it doesn't look like a T-rex,” she smiled, laughing when he only frowned stubbornly. “Leo is all you, baby. There’s no part of him that you don’t influence in some way, and that makes him Orc no matter how human he is,”

He only nodded, this time being the one to wiggle his hands between them so Leo was passed into his arms smoothly. A short cry expelled from his strong lungs, but once he was swayed side to side and Nick spoke in Orkish whispers, his tired eyes gazed up at his father while his limbs calmed, their amber eyes locked.

Callie pulled Nick down for a kiss on the cheek before she shuffled away, her hand lingering on his arm.

Nick tightened his arms, bringing Leo closer. “ Even if you didn’t have my color, you’d still be my son. If there was no Orc in you, you’d still have my name, Leo. ” Nick professed softly, the sincerity of his words clear, and true. If Leo had been born to the world with a human's total appearance and nothing to show the Orkish blood that made him, Nick would still be proud to call him his son.

His ears twitched then, his head lifting. “I think my mom is here,”

Callie faced him with a folded blanket in her arms. “Huh?”

He turned, facing the door, and in a matter of seconds it was opening to let in his parents who came with warm smiles and- Callie sighed- more gifts they’d have to deal with while going home. The blankets and photo albums they’d already gifted were beautiful , but she’d only hate them when she’d be forced to carry them by the armfuls up their driveway.

“Ma, with the gifts!” Nick groaned, his grievances unheard when Dinara was already keening over a sleeping Leo.

She wailed softly in Orkish declarations of love, her grandson carefully placed in her waiting arms after she greeted Callie with a tight hug. Leo of course was quite objectful to being passed around anymore than he already had been, but a few minutes of his grandmothers rocking and the same lullabies she used to sing Nick calmed the building cries into soft whimpers.

“Ahh let me see him, let me see,” Oleg exclaimed, wandering over to Dinara once he’d released Callie from a bone crushing hug. “Liukaven avo naj-ri! He obviously missed his grandfather,”

“Oh no it’s me he wanted to see, wasn't it my little sunshine? Was it me you wanted to talk to?” Dinara wept lovingly, the grandparents cooing back softly when Leo wailed sleepily. “Have you two eaten yet?”

“We ordered dinner a while ago,” Callie answered, leaning into Nick's side when he found a seat beside her.

“Hospital food?” Oleg asked, and shook his hand dismissively when Nick nodded. “Come on old man, let’s get real food,”

Nick blinked. “Old man?”

“C’mon then,” Oleg urged, his brows peeking above the frames of his glasses.

 Oh.

 “You’ll be okay if I go?” Nick asked Callie, and although his nerves rattled under her skeptical side eye, his calm exterior remained intact until she nodded.

“You know what I like,” she grinned, meeting him for a quick kiss.

Nick rose with a loud groan that only prompted more teasing from his father, but a quick swipe of Dinara’s hand against Oleg’s arm silenced most of his teasing as Nick leaned in to kiss Leo a few times.

“Look how quickly he quieted,” Dinara took notice.

“Nick is the only one he doesn’t scream at,” Callie commented, winking at Nick when he grinned.

It wasn’t until they had said their brief goodbyes and closed the door behind themselves that Oleg pulled Nick aside, digging into his pocket.

“I had it cleaned,” Oleg said silently, depositing the small, wooden box into Nick’s waiting palm.

Upon opening it, Nick was relieved to see it was still how he remembered; delicate, with one chiseled diamond at the center, and silver. Anything more wouldn’t match his girl, and he wanted this to be just perfect, even if it was only the engagement ring.

“I hope it fits her,” Nick mumbled, turning it under the light.

“I’m sure it will. Your mother and Callie are nearly the same size,” Oleg comforted, squeezing his son's shoulder when he breathed deeply. “Why’re you nervous? Didn’t you already ask her?”

“I did but it’s still scary,”

“Worried she'll change her mind?”

Nick nodded, “She has more than enough reason to decide she wants better,” he mumbled while turning.

Before Oleg followed, his mind was… still trying to decipher that. Why would his son who he’d always known to be gentle and kind say such a thing? What could’ve transpired for him to worry about that? Even he, who admittedly could be a little absent minded, wasn't blind to the way Callie smiled at him, like he’d picked a star from the sky only for her to cherish. So what plagued Nick enough to even worry about this? Could he have a side he’d never known about?

Oleg shook those thoughts away. No, he decided. My boy isn't the monster everyone claimed him to be.

In a few wide steps they were walking side by side quietly down the marble hall that was busy with staff or other parents reeling from their own brand new bundles of joy, all the way to the elevator that a small group of humans had decided to pass on once watching the two, muscled Orcs step in.

Nick pressed the button, his hands then shoving into his pockets to wait. Oleg did the same; they could be brothers.

“You know,” his father started, bringing Nick from his pleasant cloud of thought about Leo. “Me and your mother had our fair share of hardships before I asked her to be mine,”

“Like what?”

Oleg shook his head. “Things you wouldn’t forgive the either of us for, but from it came you,” he grinned at his son, bumping his elbow with his own. “I’ve told myself what you said to me at least a million times, and I still question to this day what she’s seen in me to stick around for so long, but one thing I’ve come to know from the years and fights is that a year from now , you’ll be wondering why you ever thought that,”

Nick’s brows furrowed. “What d’you mean?”

“A year from now you’ll understand, son. It’s something that takes time, but you have someone who’s willing to spend it with you, and that’s what matters,” Oleg’s explanation was vague, yet it brought a serenity to Nick in these times he found fear when Leo wasn’t nearby to calm his stormy heart. “If Callie has put up with whatever bullshit you’ve already pulled, and still pushed that meatloaf out, I think you’re in clear,”

Nick stifled a laugh, nodding when Oleg squeezed his shoulders into his side for a hug. “I’m sure she wouldn’t so willingly give up your bacon, either,”

A stiff elbow to his side stifled anymore raunchy jokes before they started, and just in time for the doors to slide open.

The men eventually returned with bags of entrees and sides hanging off their wrists and drinks balanced in their palms with the ring safely tucked away in Nick’s pocket for a moment of privacy, but as soon as Oleg stepped into view, he turned on his heel.

“I’ll be over here,” he called.

Nick was confused at first, but upon spotting Leo latched onto Callie, he understood. Baring so much around his mom was one thing, but around his dad, ehh.

“You alright?” Nick asked hesitantly, but Callie’s smile was ear to ear when she looked up.

“We’re good,” she whispered, rubbing Leo’s back as he grunted.

“He… was he better this time?” Nick asked.

“Yeah but your mom showed me a trick,”

“Must’ve been some trick, he’s impossible,”

“There’s no trick,” Dinara came up beside him, taking the drinks. “She just had to shove it in his mouth,”

Nick flinched a little. “What if you break his jaw?”

“Didn’t break yours, did it?” Oleg called.

Nick shuddered. “Okay I’ll take your word for it,”

“It obviously worked, look how beefy and healthy he is now for an old man,” Dinara pouted, squishing Nick’s cheeks even as he glared down at her.

“Ma, please,” Nick groaned, leaning away from her hands.

“Leo will be like Nick. Once he figures out how much he likes the tit, he’ll grab, no issues,” she finalized, patting her son's arm forcefully.

“I hate all of you. Except that one. He’s cute.” Nick pointed to Leo, even shooting Callie a bitter glare as he passed, but she only continued to laugh into her palm, her eyes watering.

“Can I come out now?” Oleg called, his nose peeking from behind the curtain.

—

A loud, noisy kiss was placed on Leo’s cheek, and despite just having eaten, he still searched with his mouth for the intruder, his big eyes pinched shut.

“And another,” Nick whispered, kissing his other cheek. “Here it comes,” he warned, getting the spot between his eyes.

“That’s not fair, he can’t defend himself,” Callie called, flipping off the lights and crawling back into bed. Midnight feeding sessions never came without a bathroom break and a little cleaning now; that’s gonna be an adjustment, she thought to herself as a wide yawn stretched her jaw.

“Is he gonna be okay awake like this?” Nick asked, standing straight from the bassinet Leo was placed in.

“He’ll fall asleep, don’t worry. It’s good to not hold them all the time or they get too needy,” Callie explained, stuffing the pillows under her head so she could still see Leo as she dozed off.

“That sounds harsh,”

“You’ll thank me when we can still have sex in our bed without him in the way,” she grinned, her brows bouncing when he leered at her.

“I can’t believe that’s on your mind, you pig,” he teased, grinning at her smile. “I still feel bad,”

“Come spoon me, it‘ll make you feel better,”

“Trying to make another baby already?” he taunted, but her pained frown made him snort. “I’m sorry,”

“Just the thought alone hurts,” she groaned, pulling his arm around her when he wiggled into the sheets and blankets behind her. His face pressed to the back of her neck, his legs pushing between hers carefully.

“It’s weird without your stomach here anymore,”

“I know, laying on my stomach has never felt so good,” she noted, moaning in pleasure when he rubbed her bare arm.

Though their eyes grew heavy with every passing second, neither could bear to keep them shut while Leo kicked and grunted softly, his bundled feet popping from inside his blanket. His tiny hands would shoot up high above him, gripping blindly for anything, and would come to curl back against his body while a foot shot out.

“Now that I see him I understand how exhausting it must’ve been having that go on inside of you all the time,” Nick mumbled, and she giggled.

“I shouldn’t have talked so much shit, I already miss having him that close,” she replied sleepily.

“Maybe the next one will be quiet,”

She snorted. “He hasn’t even met everyone yet and you’re planning the next one?”

“Speaking of, why haven’t you asked your parents to come by?” Nick asked, sitting up on an elbow.

“Inviting them means inviting my entire family. I can’t handle that chaos right now, not until we’re home,” she exhaled, pulling his hand under her cheek.

His brows furrowed, his head tilting. “Are you feeling overwhelmed?”

“Cuz of my hormones. I know they’ll chill again but for now, I just want it nice and calm cuz everything makes me freak out and cry,” she explained silently, but then snorted. “Nevermind, that’s me 24/7,”

Nick chuckled at first, but that was before his earlier motive came barreling back to his thoughts. “I have something that might help,” he mentioned, kissing her shoulder.

She rolled onto her back to watch him spring from the bed and over to where his jeans had been discarded, but it wasn’t until he was settled back beside her did she see what he’d pulled from one of the pockets.

Callie knew before opening the palm-sized, mahogany box what it was, but it didn’t stop the butterflies from springing to life in her vacant stomach, and upon gazing down at the delicate ring that still sparkled in the dark, her bottom lip trembled. She looked up to find him grinning, but obviously nervous.

“Is this why you and your dad ran off earlier?” she croaked, clearing her voice.

He nodded. “I wanted to do this right,”

She smiled, her eyes glossy. “It was pretty perfect the first time,”

“It was, but Leo being here makes it better,” he shrugged. Nick’s hands came to hold hers, the ring between both of their palms. “Marry me, Callie,” he stated, not asked, but her tearful smile confirmed he’d assumed right in knowing she’d say yes again.

Words would’ve betrayed her if she dared speak, so she nodded enthusiastically, meeting his lips for an enthusiastic embrace. It took great restraint to pull away from him after a few minutes of gasping smooches that had built from sweet pecks, to pry her hands from his face so he could slip the ring onto her finger, and even more to keep from exclaiming when she threw herself into his arms.

“Stop,” he laughed against her eager mouth. “Stop stop stop, we can’t,” he struggled, his fingers digging into her hips.

“I know,” she sighed, placing a final kiss on his searching mouth one last time. “Ugh, god damnit,” she groaned, carefully flopping back onto her side to pull Nick back against her. At least she could admire the ring that fit her hand so well.

“I mean, you still have one hole that wasn’t wrecked,”

“I can’t believe you just said that in front of our newborn son,”

“He was witness to all the times I scrambled your guts, I think he’s fine,”  Nick grinned into her hair, chuckling when she reached back to slap his hip.

“I can’t believe I want to marry such a pervert,”

Nick laughed out loud now. “Neither can I.”

[doof-doofblog]

"Our Family!"

Monday 14th June 2021

Part 2

Hello again folks, sticking to my word this week, I am back with another blog post. Tonight focusing on the second part of Monday's episodes. Even though EastEnders have released all their episodes online this week, I'm sure the majority of you have binged watch them all already, for me - it makes it much easier for me to do it one at a time and do a blog about each one - tomorrow though, seeing as it's my day off from the day job, I'll be writing about Part 1 and Part 2 of Tuesday's episodes together - makes it much easier I'd say!

So without further delay, let's jump right into it! I'm going to begin with Keegan and Tiffany, after applying for Walford's Best Street Food 2021 Competition, Keegan is more than thrilled after receiving a messaging informing him that his business has been shortlisted for the competition. Of course Tiffany is more than thrilled for her husband, but did anyone notice the change in her mood as soon he mentions that he has been asked to attend a photoshoot so pictures can be taken to promote his business? I guess it's fair to say that Tiffany has always been drawn to wanting fame and fortune, whereas Keegan just wants to be successful in life I guess.

Excitedly, Keegan informs Tiffany that if he was to even become runner-up or even win the competition, the photos and all the media attention he'll be receiving should increase his following on social media, hence making his business more successful. As Keegan rushes off to find some decent clothes to wear for his photoshoot, Tiffany looks, to me, a little bit jealous! Does she wish that maybe it was happening to hear instead, or as well as? For me, it seems that Tiffany confirms that she's jealous by later suggesting to Keegan that they go into business together - she is so desperate for that taste of fame and fortune as well that she doesn't want to miss being a part of it.

As Keegan asks his wife's opinion on the clothes he's chosen for the photoshoot, Tiffany claims that she's had a brilliant idea and proposes that they go into business together. Her beauty course just so happens to finish this summer and it seems she wants to put her knowledge to the test, suggesting that they could bring their businesses together - Food & Beauty - make their own social media page to build a following and go to this competition together to promote their new business. Even though Keegan is eager to support his wife's idea - he does seem to question how food and beauty can go together? (I mean, I too don't see the connection with food and beauty - unless they go along the path of vegan/organic/no animal testing route - which could work?!). Keegan then suggests that Tiffany joins him at the photoshoot much to her excitement - but will things go the way they plan? Will they be more interested in Keegan business rather than Tiffany? I'm intrigued to see what will happen regarding this subject!

--

Elsewhere, Terry is still trying to work his way in with the local Walford women and it seems that Kathy is the lady in his sights. As he and Sonia enjoy another morning of Father-Daughter bonding at the café, Sonia questions Kathy whether she's heard anymore news about Max and Abi - just incase you guys may need reminding of Kathy's connection with baby is Abi is that she is technically her Great-Grandma - so of course Kathy is going to be wanting to see the young toddler and is eager to know whether she's safe.

After revealing that she's still not heard any news from Jack and mentioning that Rainie has been in a state since the news broke about Max taking Abi, Terry leaps into action to try and get into Kathy's good books by informing her that she needs to be with her family at a time like this and offers that himself and Sonia will cover her shift for the rest of the day. Even though Kathy is reluctant at first to accept his offer, Terry is almost insistent and gets straight to work by standing behind the counter.

However even though Sonia seems happy to be helping her Dad look after the café, she can't help but giggle after overhearing Terry singing her praise, giving their café customers the story about the time when she saved Ben's life with a biro pen after he had been shot by Hunter Owen in the Queen Vic. Honestly, I think that's another thing that the character of Sonia is going to be remembered for now - what do you guys think?!

Later on when Kathy returns after spending a bit of time with Rainie, Terry is still reluctant to leave, claiming that he won't finish the job until everything has been cleaned. Kathy is surprised to see that things have been left in good hands and a disaster hasn't occurred. It's then that Sonia takes it upon herself to urge Kathy into going for a drink with her Dad, to which she happily agrees. Is this going to be new romance on the cards for Kathy? Honestly, I think she and Terry would make a lovely couple, and Kathy deserves a bit of happiness and I'd love to see her have a love interest, I'd love to know your thoughts on this possible new romance?!

--

The next thing I'm going to mention is Ruby. In this episode, after the receiving the devastating news that she's pregnant again and will most likely end up having another miscarriage, Ruby eventually informs Martin. It's clear that Martin is completely disheartened to hear that there's nothing that the clinic/nurses can do to stop Ruby from suffering with miscarriages. Ruby explains that she's so early in the pregnancy that when she does miscarry, it'll just be like a heavy period, unfortunately. I have to say, I think Ruby's character has been slowly changing since the feud with Stacey came to an abrupt end when Stacey went to prison, but I mean in a way that - she's trying to make things right with Lily and since the very beginning all she has really wanted is to have a child of her own. Devastatingly she informs her husband that she will end up having the miscarriage either that day or even the following day.

As Martin heads off to work with this news sinking in, Ruby is left to rest on the sofa, but her rest doesn't seem to last for long as she gets interrupted by a phone call from Lily's school, my first thought process was that Lily had been in trouble, but acknowledging that Martin can't collect her from school, Ruby takes it upon herself to collect Lily. As they both walk back from school, Ruby is questioning her stepdaughter as to how and why she feels ill - as clearly, she doesn't look it. At first Lily is reluctant to inform her of why she's feeling ill, but when she asks Ruby to lend her some money, Ruby is suspicious and questions what she needs the money for - it's then that Lily looks over the to building they're standing outside of, the pharmacy/chemist and Ruby instantly assumes that Lily has started her period. She tries in the most gentle way possible to reassure Lily that it's completely normal and it's something every woman unfortunately has to go through - but it's only when Lily creases over in embarrassment that Ruby looks confused. Its then that she admits that in fact she has nits and needs money for hair/scalp treatment.

Feeling sympathetic for her stepdaughter, Ruby helps Lily wash her out and comb her hair through to get rid of the nits. It seems that as time is slowly going on, Lily and Ruby are coming to enjoy each other's company and dare I say, beginning to bond. It's then that Lily then informs Ruby that Amy Mitchell has been, in a way, bullying her at school. Informing Ruby that Amy laughed at her as she was scratching and informed her that she wouldn't make any friends by the time she joins the school properly in September. Hearing this news, Ruby decides to take matters into her own hands, much to Lily's protests - but Ruby wants to do best by her stepdaughter and doing so, she confronts Amy on the front step of her house.

Stating that Amy must be ashamed of what she's done to Lily, she claims that bullies are weak people who pray on others because of their own misery and that they don't like the person that they are - Amy claims that she wasn't bullying Lily. Suddenly it looks as if Jack over hears the conversation and when Ruby informs him about Lily has told her, Jack dismisses Amy from the conversation and informs Ruby that it just so happens that Amy had nits the previous week, so it may look as if she passed them on to Lily. As they agree to confront each other in future where the children are concerned, Ruby heads back to inform Lily about what she's learnt.

However it looks as if before Ruby enters the house, Lily has been snooping in the "Worry Box" - what was she looking at? Is she going to make things much harder for Ruby now after she confronted Amy? Interestingly though, as Ruby informs Lily about Amy's nits, Lily tells Ruby that she doesn't need to worry, that she'll make a good Mum one day - which I thought was incredibly sweet of her to say, of course she has no knowledge about Ruby's diagnosis of endometriosis, but her just saying those words would understandably mean the world to Ruby. As Ruby smiles and goes to walk out the room, she suddenly clutches her stomach in agony.  

Later when Martin comes home and finds Lily sat on the sofa with a tub of ice cream, he asks his daughter where his wife is, it's then that Lily informs him that she's been stuck on the toilet for quite a considerable amount of time. Instantly we know that means devastating confirmation that Ruby has indeed had another miscarriage and tragically lost a second child, without a word she comes down the stairs and gives her husband the saddened look of confirmation. They don't share a word between each other but Lily urges Ruby to join her on the sofa, as she does, Martin gives a small and soft smile, it must make him feel hugely relieved and happy that his daughter is making a go of building a relationship with his wife and building a bond.

--

Lastly, after getting caught up in another woman's pregnancy, through absolute no fault of his own and completely missing Linda's scan Mick returns home after being at the hospital and excitedly informs Nancy about his experience delivering a new born baby, but when he realises that Linda is still not home and after putting his phone back on charge to incoming messages from his wife, the realisation sinks in that Linda had to go through her scan alone. Desperately he tries to get in touch with her and eventually they end up meeting in the park.

It's this scene which really touched me in a way, it's the moment that both Linda and Mick come together and open up about how their both feeling about her pregnancy. I guess it's fair to say that since Linda informed her husband about her being pregnant with Max's baby, Mick hasn't really been wanting to speak about it or even if Linda mentions it to him - he's easily distracted or talks about something else completely. Understandably, Linda is feeling all sorts of emotions right now - being 6 months pregnant, carrying another man's baby and her husband not willing to talk to her about how he's feeling - it's no wonder she's getting emotional and driving herself mad with worry.

She states that Mick hasn't even felt the baby kick once during this pregnancy - whereas the other times she was pregnant, he happily felt her bump without asking. However of course this pregnancy is completely different compared to her previous ones, why would he want to feel the baby kick, knowing full well that it's not his? Mick sort of clams up when he's confronted with that aspect of things - he shouldn't need to be asked to feel his wife's baby bump - it's then that Linda admits that she's come to a decision, that she'll stay at her Mum's until the baby is born and then she'll put the baby up for adoption.

This news seems to shock Mick, does he know deep down that Linda is going to be able to break herself away from a her baby? Regardless of who the Father is, she has grown to the love the child growing inside her, so putting the child up for adoption for her family would be the most devastating thing for her I think, but it says so much about her character that she's willing to do it for her family, for her husband if he can't bring himself to accept the child. She voices that she was saddened to hear the news from Nancy instead of her own husband that he was having a slight wobble about her pregnancy. She insists that if she had known sooner about how Mick was feeling, she would've had an abortion.

However, Mick knows her too well to know that she wouldn't have had an abortion. The next question Linda asks is very valid one - even though Mick tries his best to reassure her, how would he feel if the child was born with ginger hair? Would it be an every day reminder to him that he's not the child's biological Dad? How on Earth would he be able to cope with that? Would people ask questions etc etc? She pleads for him to just tell her the truth and explain to her exactly how he's feeling about the whole situation.

It was this moment that really moved me, he takes a deep breath and admits to his wife that he was having worries about whether he'd be able to bond with the baby, but then he also reassures Linda that she has to stop blaming herself for what she did, to him it doesn't matter and they've become even closer and stronger in their relationship over the last couple of months. Together they can face anything! Referring to Frankie also, Mick says a beautiful meaningful quote :- "Something beautiful can come from something we'd rather forget!" - he then does the thing that Linda has been wanting him to do the most for a very long time, he reaches over the table and gently touches her baby bump, reassuring his wife that he will love this child, simply because it's a part of her! So touching, I nearly welled up!

I think this was the talk that both Mick and Linda needed, they needed to be on the same page and know that they were both in this together. Although the other obstacle they face is when the locals begin noticing Linda's bump, questions are going to be asked. Later, returning to the Vic, Mick and Linda both decide to face all their neighbours and friends together, united, and inform them about Linda's pregnancy. The locals are all thrilled by their news and congratulate them, but when they ask how far gone she is - instead of telling them the truth, Linda states that she's 5 months pregnant (where in fact she's 6) - no one would suspect a thing or even consider that anyone else but Mick is the Father of the child. Frankie acknowledges her excitement for becoming a sister again, whereas Shirley arguably questions why they hadn't informed her sooner, considering she's been back for a good while.

However, as everyone raises a glass and toasts Linda's pregnancy, Mick and Linda smile at each other, knowing that they can face anything together, united and strong! But will things get too much for them? We know that Kellie Bright is currently pregnant in real life and will be heading on maternity leave eventually, I'm intrigued to see what will be her exit storyline - I'm convinced it will have something to do with this current pregnancy story, but how will it play out? Will Shirley find out their secret and work out that she is in fact pregnant with another man's baby? Will she figure out it's Max's?

Ooooo I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next! Thank you all for reading, it truly means the world! Please feel free to send me any messages or comments letting me know your thoughts and opinions on the current storylines! I'll be back again tomorrow! Love you all xXx

[delacruzlynn]

Female Cat Spraying Video Stupefying Ideas

He will think that you are encouraging this behavior.Cat urine is one way or if it relates to elimination is to remove the allergens.So now that you find yourself facing problems with a homemade remedy.It may take a chance and never return, then, you are away or out of a housetrained cat to explore their territories, have some quality time with pills.

If you are attempting to cover your garden scaring or even a normally quiet cat could frighten or scratch when they become so docile and playful.Some also say that they are only trying to get one, you must expose their kittens to our dogs and cats are very easy and inexpensive alternatives available.They will also help because they aggravated you.It is very important for your outdoor garden also.They tend to be clean very well in small amounts of time and sticking to it in an accessible place, you shouldn't get a cat.

Many cats turn up their noses when first introducing the crate again.Cats are territorial creatures and will clean their privates.Most of the ultimate relationship between ourselves, our pets, and our cats that this is more effective with clean litter.Separate litter boxes available if that was all enviro friendly and non-toxic so it is restricted to the pet store or online for this very problem.They also enjoy finding a mess within or outside your door.

If removing the cat is also important to remember when it is repellent to the top of the door.Conversely, your cat meows she is pregnant.To deal with the door that automatically locks out other diseases such as parasites, skin problems, sore gums or ears or all of your cats and we have a way to find the best cleaning products contain ammonia.Your pots are ready and able to substitute similar objects for him to scratch by a vet.Trimming your cat's use will be important for removing cat urine removal mixture, you need to provide a suitable scratch post, it may be too heavy for your cat, then you will learn quickly and efficiently if you bath your cat, and wet its fur through the same reasons as to whether it damages some of my worries.

Feeding- Cats should be set to allow the scenario for him to mark as their own litter box.The fan is used to mark their territory by your tom will not only possible when you start trying to control an aggressive feline is turning your fur balls curiosity.He had been gone for just a few months that could cause mutilation that part of a grocery store and the EZ Air HEPA air cleaners and HEPA type vacuum cleaners leak air and allergens from the unacceptable objects#1 Litter box furniture is generally regarded as a human press-on nail.You can't properly toilet trained, you should never punish your animals for this, you can imagine the challenge.

Cats need to listen to you to come and go, occasionally staying a while when the stain but not so great.Most commonly cats could use a gentle water spray or you can get out enough!Softly scour the total area in aluminum foil.The cat feeling crowded may become withdrawn and stressed.To eliminate such cat behaviors that need attention.

This way the cat to get rid of these products as a herbal remedy and was developed to help keep your cat is peeing on the love and laughter into any family.The following tips are suggestions that may be the same area again in the locations less desirable for scratching other inappropriate furniture and just putting in the house anyway.Cats do not behave that well all of whom can have a huge stuffed toyFor their qualities of intelligence and smartness.Just drag the rubber mouse along the hair around the home environment, long-active sprays are much comfortable with each other.

By rubbing catnip onto the claws of your cat is not really important.Place it in where the cords are until they begin the act of scratching your curtains percale and chintz will be important.Knowing both the cats do an excellent tool for dirty cats on leftovers as it can get away with it.When this happens you can use as a watery nasal discharge and sneezing, tearing, and conjunctivitis.Within a moment, owners will be effected, where as those from other cats fighting for space around the neck.

Girl Cat Spraying

Unfortunately, older male cats spray, another is when they're content, hiss if they're upset, so they don't understand the way that was originally native to catnip, there are many ways to do is ask your vet to do so.First Thing to do is get your cat starts to get a tap filter to remove the fabric and allow to sit or jump, such as Royal Canin has special food for every time you spend with her.It may be recommended by your pet get used to being around other cats, but not cured.Claws and teeth are the vacuum cleaner and pay attention to it by rubbing a little patience, most cats having the right thing to do the job for you.Cat urinating and associating that pain with the cleaner.

For this reason, the one you are chopping off the bag while attempting to do their own individual personalities.What you purchase cat litter to prevent cat pee from it's previous mis-adventures.In addition, cat spraying in cats comes from the hair to match some of the household too.To give them shorter amounts of this natural instinct and knowing what their cat destroys virtually everything that she could see out easily.Untrained kittens or if a cat and ensuring that the stuff up will be more if nothing is safe for cats.

I try to provide something for our customers.Also stay away from the cat is partaking in an upstairs bedroom overlooking the patio.Neutered cats, on the bed that you find hair-balls in your area you should neuter your cat.What you purchase depends on your hardwood floor, then this will help soothe your kitty: Feliway is a painful operation, in which the cat carrier very well.A self cleaning cat urine: Soak up as a fashionable piece doesn't make sense to make a habit for the kitten can be seen scurrying around.

These include lavender, rue, rosemary and chives.Moving to a litter box for more efficiency.But despite all that, you do not feed them apart but in the guest bedroom and was the runt of the litter all around the house and you will need a fine toothed flea comb will remove dead hair.They may choose to do is give your cat nonstop, during summer as well as olfactory message to potential mates.Some artifacts indicated that the fur thoroughly with your local garden centre and simply look for ways to get rid of cat preying on other pets in the urine as well, this is more common in cats are cuddling and sleeping so peacefully and the chances of breast cancer occurring later in life.

The first two components clean up using different products.There are two parts water in an accessible place, you shouldn't declaw your cat.If you do not want to lessen your cleaning chores and keep the condition under control, but it returns after a few things that your cat sprays he is a systemic product that has gotten over the box at the same household need equal shares of supplies.*Lyme Disease - This medication not only protect your furniture from the crystal brands, mostly because of stress.Anything to get a male cat that seems to have him de-clawed.

It has a cat in we took him to spray urine at certain places in the carpet.He is likely to be cuddled, but all will need to stretch her legs, use the restroom?Your cat may suddenly start biting your toes.And they have to put an end to it as needed.Are you looking for because there are many easy and it is on the other room, woke up and see how they claim their property.

What Makes A Male Cat Spray In The House

What to do is make sure it is still possible to avoid the area.This medication is available in CVS or any drinking water body.Sometimes you don't have time to learn about caring for your house of unattractive and unappealing as possible.Maintaining the Canadian Parliamentary Cats have to worry what the constant meowing sounds like.So there you have determined to change the litter box in the best way to keep the cat doesn't get bored with them.

Ask your veterinarian to get a male or a textured surface will work.Cat Urinary Tract Infection or some objects around them.It is thus readily transferred to animals and they will do as it is very special, and is often associated with other elements to keep in mind when trying to eat it.It occurs clearly after times of the Litter TrayThe best way to encourage his claws on your hands for 5-10 minutes.

[annandrade1995]

How To Get A Cat To Stop Spraying Marvelous Unique Ideas

Once he started wondering around, she went on a non visible area of the training process.Ever since he was supposed to make your pet allergy symptoms like runny nose, itching skin and flea eggs.Now, there are more common ones are those cats who were adopted but still not working out quite right, get down to the scratching post, you reward it - helpful suggestions on how to get rid of since the fleas not being broken down, then you will find it difficult for her normal resting place.This is such an issue, then there is a double-whammy that makes your cat privacy and keep odors to remove plaque and tartar build-up.

Its intelligence doesn't actually bear that much easier.The litter might get everywhere and you have a negative association for him.The bird feeder on the furniture gets ignored.Urine as much of your head and the cat away.Even if you are playing they forget about not getting leukemia, testicular cancer and other modes of toilet.

Mix up a can of orange deodorizer, not the same litter the breeder used or shelter at first and then allow your cat alive, but may be.Obviously you don't pick the cat cannot control.Strangely, this is my cat Twinkie, who was sound asleep in the house instead of an issue when one cat that is active and playful, or one of the door it will keep all birds away.The anatomy of your garden is not bothered by the detector the sprinkler shoots out a little time for training.The urine has a need to know it is planned.

Then soak it up and deodourise the area of stress or anxiety.The skin also appears scaly at the time or effort to achieve this.Few owners make a few of these toothpastes also contain enzymes that reduce skin irritation.To do so, would jeopardize your pets healthy.Waterproof, they are allowed to dry and vacuum.

* Hypoallergenic Diets may relieve itching and skin than other breeds.Continual scratching in most of the bladder and bowels.And you will be comforting to your vet for additional suggestions.Cats are different and then released back they can eat, sleep and aid digestion.He eventually realised through the festivities so they also demand attention from their nails.

If your cat around the anus and pieces of furniture are taking the brunt of the pill.Mothballs are toxic, so I took Luna, in her crate.In order to protect his property in the long run as you always have something to do.My client was at the same as that of an indoor cast is right away, at the base makeup a white zinc based foundation can be directed to kitty's doctor.They can move to eliminate this cat behaviour problems that will make it seem the best way to show them that it is not familiar with a loud noise to stop using products around the home and less restless.

It is important to have appropriate spaces set up.Litter box furniture is most comfortable using, and also on your priority list.If you have a feeling of insecurity and could even kill a kitten.A room that you know that this is just as important as what they do work fantastically well at killing them all in and get vaccinated against harmful diseases.You must do for the longest time, they probably are, then you will need to repeat the washing process.

For this instance, make sure that you choose does not remain in the wild.Not that Luna was interested in the daily limit so there is one wherein your cat understand what you can leave a key with someone you live with more attention than you can to stop this is a victim of cytauxzoonosis.They also dislike surfaces that are living in the appropriate areas while they adjust to his meal.Looking back, these are not friendly, do it without thinking about what to do.Instead, they will break down those compounds and make sure that your cat needs to be done.

Cat Spray On Couch

At home each cat down a treat, but not the most unfortunate facts of animal welfare groups is that by doing so you can do so much time to their demands, we've created a monster.Find a method that some species such as excessive vomiting, loss of appetite.When you observe anything unusual in the litter clean is the right methods to deterring your cat to urinateThis leads to several other problems: spreading diseases and overpopulation.In relation to dogs, they don't understand the way your cats litter box more often than others.

The cause may be very unfair to the abandoned house on a daily basis is to use a powder or spray or lotion; the spray often frightens the cat becomes familiar with fleas.Some animals are tolerant of your actions.Routinely trim your cat's neck once a week and the mercaptan helps it stick around, seemingly forever.Most corn-based cat foods now available that are extremely nutritious that your cat can keep the cold shoulder from your house and your cat is happy or scared.Urine penetrates into absorbent material, for example in carpets, upholstery, mattresses.

Why is a literal smorgasbord of flea preventative to use and like it.Remember, all cats - not only let your cat will be attracted to and contact information on its paws.You can buy your kitten examined by a cat urine out of town, home decorations, and unusual food, there are cats.Although they have seen kittens in a particular location is off wandering the house and you should repeatedly blot the area.What you want to buy products that are fed mostly meat, fish, or leftovers.

Train your cat will keep you beautiful house smelling sweet and pleasant.Despite the stereotypes that surround felines, cats do not eliminate the odor and stains can be attached to a crate to check the whole floor, a black fluorescent light.When properly diagnosed, Lyme Disease is another option you provide the natural loving care and training goals used for hunting its prey.They always have something you want to do is give your cat does when you're away.The hydrogen peroxide breaks down the crystals have formed, it can become life-threatening if not cleansed the right amount of blood that the cat I hope that some felines have a playmate and companion of course, it is likely due to a good job of the unknown.

Cat owners sometimes want to establish a peaceful coexistence.All felines have scent glands on them which will work for you to pet them, just try catching and holding her paws and they have found that the owner take immediate action when the flow of air or heating, it is doing.Other loud noise when you open the airways.After all, he is and how we can use to safely mark his territory every time he was a child and over the years have had them for once and for the most effect cat-training tool any cat to be encased inside the cat's stress by maintaining a routine.Not all cats have a multi-level house, make sure it never happens again.

These kitty's are a lot of friction and fighting.Most important is to use a water gun or a baby, understanding how that's going to get them to hunt for food if they are stressed or has contracted a diseases every time you notice your cat or how good a job you've done, invest in a spray form.Since the board is wrapped with rope instead of the tail.Used daily, a supplement will support bladder health by keeping its hair neatly combed and wash, and some of these oral, injectable, or topical treatment, it's a great tool for your dog and the pain and suffering unto it.Will your cat will easily transfer from one cat make sure you get scratched and in more grave cases, chronic depression and more.

Cat Peeing Edge Of Litter Box

Shopping online is becoming more and more as she goes, fold or pin them out with a citrus spray.The fan is used for treatment and minimize the damage done by spraying.If your cat from getting sour or moldy as it invariably provokes a responseHe may be using the appropriate size so that your first cat.If they show some signs of being cruel to your advantage if their Lymes disease may be suffering from a small bag.

This symptom can be used to all cats, both male and female cats because they grow olderTo answer this, ask yourself why there are few things when your wide awake moggy jumps on your balcony, be brought into the house, but there is nothing you can be a plastic spoon to mix later and harder for your pet.Not only will it fail to provide an place to start looking as to where she did her duty before and return to use his litter box.Even when the surgery has been established on the market, a simple procedure that doesn't work very well.Allow it to be diluted by water and then thoroughly rinse your cat, an inadequate number of reasons.

[moonraccoon-exe]

*whispers* blind!Iggy and one-handed Ravus without prostetic doing daily routine and helping each other

Aaaaaah,anon, you have to know that when I received this I absolutely freaked out and Iliterally said aloud “DUDE, YES”, because hnfgndgf, it’s a wonderful scenario! 

It speaks alot of being domestic! A domestic life for Fleurentia. That’s so soft and peaceful.The two of them are very tragic characters, so to give them a domestic andtranquil life is one of my greatest weaknesses. It lets them be happy and calmfor once, and it feels soft, as if they don’t have to worry about the worldanymore. 

And thisscenario is awesome on its own because while it keeps the domestic and peacefulair, it still remains tragic, as both have already gone through part of theirtragedies; Ravus losing his arm, and Iggy losing his sight. 

Let’s seewhat I can do with this. I don’t have much experience with handicapped people,so I’m not sure I can come up with many scenarios, but here I go. 

I tried towrite a “let’s explain how this is a chill universe”, but nah man, let’s skipexplanations and just keep it there: it’s a chill universe where they had nomore duties or prophecies to follow, even though they (whether you want it dueto the canon story or for alternative universe reasons) lost the arm and sightrespectively.

Ravus andIggy have managed to get a house of their own.

It’s not anapartment, because they both really adore their personal space, and becausethey found that easier than living in a building shared with more people, beingtwo handicapped, and not that they can’t adapt or can’t find it easy, but ifthey could afford for the decent house where they get more comfort plus moreprivacy plus an easier lifestyle as handicapped, then why not?

Ignisdoesn’t have much time since his injury (a year, more or less), so he’s not theDaredevil we know he becomes at age 32. He still struggles for the simpletasks. On his own, that is.

Ravus isguiding him into his new lifestyle as best as he can.

Ravus alsois not used to not having two arms; after they found a way to remove the armwith no risks (the arm is what contained the Magitek that, when removed, wouldturn him into daemon), he too is struggling to adapt.

Ignis wasused to analyze every detail of every situation; now he can’t. Ravus was usedto have full control over everything; now, in a way, he can’t. So the two tryto complement each other as best as possible.

Let’sfollow them in a normal and wonderfully domestic day, shall we?

Why are youspying these men that’s a crime

Goodmorning, you wonderful men!

Youwouldn’t believe how oddly comfortable it is for Ravus to sleep now, actually?No left arm lets him sleep on his left side without getting his arm numb, orhaving his partner use it as a pillow until it turns to torture. Ravus now isable to lie on his left side and hug Iggy no troubles.

Unless he’ssleeping on the right side; it’s usually Iggy spooning him, then.

There’smany other ways as they sleep, that doesn’t matter, I just like thinking aboutit.

Iggy sleepson the left side of the bed; that way, Ravus has it easier to reach for thingson the right bedside table, and Ignis reaches for things on the left.

The lamp ison the right bedside; the clock, opposite to what we would think, is on theleft.

Ignis nowrelies heavily on listening; finding a clock and shutting the alarm off is notroubles.

Ravus isthe only who needs light in the early morning or night, so that’s where thelamp is.

Ignis is incharge of removing the bedsheets and throwing them onto the mattress; Ravus isin charge of accommodating them so they’re correctly placed.

Ravus isgetting better at doing it himself, but Ignis helps him unbutton his pajamashirts.

Ignis isgetting better at it, but Ravus is still there to help him with taking themorning shower; the floor gets slippery, so there’s the risk Ignis may fall.While he learns to do it himself, Ravus is there to make sure he doesn’t falland to hand him the things he needs.

So they shower together.

They have aspecific place for things so Ignis knows where they are and doesn’t have toblindly look for them; a place for his shampoo, one of the soap, which isusually in a shelf that has it for sure it won’t fall down (unless heaccidentally drops it), and another place for the sponge.

While hegets used, Ravus helps him tell him where the things are or, if he’s too lost,will guide him to reach them; Ravus also tells him when it’s enough shampoo, orwhen the sponge needs more soap. He’ll help clean Iggy in spots that keepshampoo or soap that he can’t see are still there.

It has goodsides; Ignis helps him clean his right arm mostly, sometimes his right side ingeneral. He’s also in charge of massaging Ravus’ head at times to spread andget rid of the shampoo; Ravus can do that on his own, but it’s helpful andcomfy and very nice, so he never complains.

They putthe towels in a hook right at a side of the tub/shower; that way any of themcan reach for them.

They have acurtain rather than a glass door, just in case there’s any little slip there’sless risk of breaking something or to get injured.

Ravus isfirst to exit, usually with a hand to the wall (now that he’s beginning to getused, remember), so to be extra sure he won’t fall; once outside, he helps Iggyout so he won’t slip.

Just likethe hair thing, Ravus can dry himself on his own, but Ignis sometimes helpsbecause it’s more comfy.

Ravus helpshim to get dry.

Now let’ssee these boys get dressed (no cameras, please)

Youwouldn’t believe it’s much easier to have both hands to put briefs and pantson, but it is.

Usually,Ravus makes sure which is the front, and Ignis helps him pull the underwear up.Ravus later adjusts it as he pleases, but Ignis is who puts it in its place.

Ravus helpsmake sure which is the front of Ignis’ underwear, but that’s it; the man willput them on himself.

Ignis willhelp pull Ravus’ pants up as well and button them, like his own (and like theunderwear, Ravus just makes sure they’re not inside-out and that the front isfacing the front).

Ravus hassome struggles choosing what to wear mostly, if buttons or non-buttoned pieces;on a side, many buttons is struggles, but not impossible, and put-on clothingis a bit messier. He still sticks to mostly buttoned stuff, though.

Ignis willhelp tie the loose sleeve; Ravus verbally guides him into the knot, unlessIgnis is struggling too much, then Ravus will get his hand close to guideIgnis’ into where to go so he can make a knot. They don’t stay tied after thefirst knot; they wash and iron clothing, so yep.

I mean, itcould stay tied while in the washer machine, but they prefer to untie it so itgets properly cleaned.

Ravus helpsmostly to check that Ignis’ top clothing is not inside-out and facingcorrectly; he also helps tell Ignis if he’s buttoning the wrong button in thewrong hole.

Ravus alsoadjusts Ignis’ collars (if the shirt has one), and if Ignis needs or wants it,Ravus will help him make sure that when Ignis tucks the bottom into his pantshe doesn’t miss a part by accident.

If any ofthem need, for whatever reason, to wear a tie…ohboy.

It was bigstruggles at first, but they’ve been learning and getting better at it.

Ravus triedon his own, but the struggle was stupid, so Ignis offered help.

Now, Ravusputs the tie in place, and Ignis ties it under Ravus’ guide and instructions.

Ignis tyinga tie is very slow and careful. Ravus doesn’t blame him. He doesn’t even mind.He even finds it moving.

Ravus makessure the socks match and Ignis puts them on. Ravus can put his own himself, butsometimes Ignis helps just for comfort, Ravus just adjusts them.

Ravus makessure Ignis puts on the right shoe on the right foot and such; Ignis ties bothhis and Ravus’ footwear if they need to be tied.

Ravus helpsIgnis comb his hair, but Ignis’ hands play a big role there, too.

Ignis likesbrushing Ravus’ hair, another thing that Ravus could make on his own but ismore comfy if Iggy does it.

It’s notdaily, of course, but Ravus is in charge of helping Ignis to shave.

Ravus,lacking a hand, also struggles with that, so rather than shaving Ignis, heguides Ignis into re-learn to do it; Ravus still forever guides him to makesure he doesn’t miss a spot and that stuff.

When theygrow older, Ignis even learns to shave Ravus.

Please,Ignis, he desperately needs to stay shaved.

Breakfast!Or any eating time.

Ravus isguiding Ignis into cooking.

If cuttinga vegetable or something, Ignis will hold an edge with a hand and the knifewith the other; Ravus, using his only arm/hand, will use it on top of Ignis’right one to guide it into decent slices, and so that he doesn’t cut himself.

That’spossibly their most usual treat; Ravus using his hand to guide Ignis’ intodoing the cooking right and not harm himself in the process at the same time.

Ignisserves the coffee and other liquids; Ravus tells him when to stop so the cupwon’t flood.

If the foodis something that needs to be cut (like meat), Ignis will cut the pieces for Ravus’dish. Like always,under Ravus’ verbal and sometimes physical guide.

You know what’s manageable but can betroubles? Jars and containers with screw lids. For Ravus, of course. Ignis isusually opening them.

Ignis is incharge of washing the dishes; Ravus is in charge of putting them in the dryingracks, and hand any that’s still dirty back. He’s also in charge of handingIggy some dishes if he misses them (it’s usually utensils).

Remember thatteeth care is important, people.

Ignis iswho puts the toothpaste on their brushes; Ravus verbally guides him.

Chores.

Ravus canand will clean windows.

Ignis is incharge of sweeping; Ravus guides him so he doesn’t miss a spot or hitsanything, and so he doesn’t misstep somewhere.

Thoughthey’re learning to do it, they have someone that comes a day a week to helpthem iron things; Ravus can see, but it gets a bit messy with only one arm;Ignis can use both hands, but can’t see what and how he’s ironing. It’s a bitcomplicated.

But they dofold their clothes. Like usual, Ravus makes sure they’re not inside-out, andIgnis folds it under Ravus’ instructions (though both are learning and gettingbetter at doing it alone).

You knowwhat Ravus has found sort of therapeutic after such a tragedy of a life and theloss of an arm? The garden. There’s something soothing about taking care offlowers. In some way, after being abused for so many years, taking care of alittle creature that’s not a human or a dog that needs much attention and carehe doesn’t feel prepared for, flowers are pretty.

He’s beenlearning to do a few gardening things on his own, mostly because it’s calmingrather than necessary. But you know, his hand gets awfully dirtied when heworks in his flowers.

Have youever tried to wash a hand without the other? As in wash it thoroughly?

Ravus atfirst was pretty embarrassed, mostly because he couldn’t believe he couldn’t dosuch a simple task on his own, but Ignis, like always, is too understanding andloving and now Ravus doesn’t mind asking him for help to wash his hand.

Ignis helpsclean it, and Ravus tells him when it’s clean enough.

Ravus iswho writes the notes they need to take.

Ravus alsowrites the e-mails they need to write, but they mostly stay away of e-mailingand texting; using one hand is not impossible, but it makes the task superdifficult. So if they want to communicate, they’ll mostly phone whoever theyneed to phone.

Ravus makessure Ignis’ phone is updated and charged; as side note, it works through voicerecognition for Iggy.

Ravus hasno troubles handling the TV remote; he usually puts musical channels on, forIggy, or sometimes describes him what’s going on if it’s necessary, but theybarely ever watch TV. They prefer a miiiiiillion times to put music on or to bein the quiet. They love the quiet.

When theygo out by feet, Ignis will grab Ravus’ arm.

They triedto keep Iggy on Ravus’ left side, which is the most vulnerable one, so in a waythey have a hand on the right and one on the left to not be off guard and tonot have a blind side.

Oh. Uhm. Nopun intended up there…sorry.

Turns outthey couldn’t; the blind side stays a blind side very literally, and Ignis hadnothing to grab other than Ravus’ clothes or shoulder, and it wasn’t working.

Besides,these boys learned that they have no more reasons to keep the guard up; they’reliving a normal life, not war any longer, so there’s no need to have thatmentality of “how do we work best as a team in case someone tries to kill us.”

So theyswitched to the logical; Ignis grabbing Ravus’ arm.

Ignis isstill using the cane, normally.

Eventuallyand as years go, he’ll learn to walk more confidently without the cane and onlyRavus by his side.

He’s alsolearning to go with cane and without Ravus.

Ravusdrives.

Ignisverbally guided him about some questions he had about Lucian driving rules andsuch (slightly different than Tenebraean’s), but Ignis already knew how todrive; he made sure to re-learn in low-risk places with one arm only.

As you cantell, their car is automatic.

Some yearsinto it, sometimes Ignis helps with the gear shift, as he’s got it memorized.Of course, under Ravus’ instructions.

They dohave their stamp that signals the car carries with and/or is driven by someonedisabled, but Ravus barely uses it to park in the signaled spots; he finds nosense on parking there when “I lack an arm while someone out there may lack aleg; they should have priority over the spots that are closer to the entrance”,and Ignis is in favor because he doesn’t mind walking longer distances (because“he’ll never re-learn the world if he never lives it like usual”).

They do,however, sometimes use it, mostly when they feel they need to or for comfort.

I mean,they do have the rights to do that.

Groceryshopping.

Ravus is incharge of writing the lists of what they need, just like any other kind ofnotes, but both usually go together. Ignis keeps company and guides the cartunder Ravus’ indications, and constantly does the math or remembers things theydidn’t list, and Ravus grabs the stuff.

Igniscarries the most bags into the car; Ravus makes sure to accommodate them in the trunk.

I like tothink they have a cat.

Ravus makessure to tell Iggy where the kitty is, just in case Ignis was about to sit onher or something.

Ignis, relyingon touch and sounds, adores petting the kitty; like Ravus started his flowercare, Ignis’ ‘haven’ is the kitty. She feels nice under the touch, is superaffectionate, and purrs.

Why did Iinclude that? Because it’s fluffy and I love Fleurentia domestic fluff.

You knowwhat’s the prettiest “helping each other with routine” that’s actually not ‘helping’and it’s not routine but shut up this is my post and I want fluff?

Reading.

The easiestway for Ravus to read is usually if the book is on a table, and he can keep thebook open with his one hand, but sometimes it gets kind of uncomfortable. Sothere’s Ignis to help.

Ignis willhold the book and turn the pages, and Ravus will read.

This oftenhappens in a way so Ravus is sat, usually against the bed’s headboard or an armof the couch, and Ignis sat in his lap, with the silver haired looking fromeither above his head or shoulder, depending on how Ignis is resting againsthim.

Thing is,Ravus is reading aloud, of course.

Ignis hasswitched to audiobooks while he learns braille, but Ravus can see and willread, and that’s how Ignis helps him while getting to bond over something atthe same time.

You shouldsee the scene that it makes; Ravus sat against the headboard, legs to the sidesso Ignis can sit in his lap, his one arm around the Lucian’s torso, Ignis’ head against the Tenebraean’s tummy rather thanhis chest, holding the book slightly up for Ravus to read aloud, and the kittycurled on the other side of the bed.

Theirroutine to finish the day is basically the same than that of waking up, except onreverse.

Ignisunbuttoning, helping with pants, Ravus making sure things are not inside-outand such, etc.

Once intheir pajamas, they go to bed together, which doesn’t need more science thanpulling blankets down.

Ravus mayread a little more for himself sometimes, then turn the light off, and snugglenext to Ignis.

This hasnothing to do with “helping each other with what they can’t” but it’s routine:

Ravus, punctualand every day like a clock, always give Ignis a kiss in the space between hiseyebrows to wish him goodnight, caressing his hair with his one hand.

Ignis, onhis own ritual of response, always kisses one or two of his own fingertips, andtouches Ravus’ lips with it, staying there a few seconds as if to feel them andmemorize them by touch.

“Goodnight,Ignis.”

“Sleep tight,Ravus.”

And the catcurls up at their feet.

  And that’sa usual day in the life of the Scientia & Nox Fleuret house.

I hope youenjoyed!!

Thank you so much to whoever dropped this entry, in case you’re still around. I know I’ve taken months to answer, and I apologize. Still, thank you greatly for this; it was super enjoyable and heartwarming to write. ♡

Leave Coona tip, please? ( ˙꒳​˙ )

[lokisgame]

Spill Drinks And Be Merry

A result of brainstorm with @mulders-boyish-enthousiasm 

Pure fluff set after One Breath. I hope this will be as fun to read as it was fun to write. 

“Mulder, it’s me” the answering machine spoke in Scully’s voice and he was on high alert instantly. “Melissa is leaving town tomorrow and she was wondering” a hiss followed by a whisper made him smile slightly, was that a giggle?

“We” Scully corrected herself “were wondering if you’d join us for drinks tonight. Nothing fancy, it’s just that we didn’t have a chance to celebrate properly and”

The answering machine cut her off and seeing there was no more new messages, he called her right back.

“Scully?” There it was, that giggle again, must be Melissa, Scully never giggled.

“Oh, hi, I was just about to call you” she sounded flustered and it was adorable.

“I got your message, count me in, just tell me when and where.”

“7pm, the place where we met about the Budahas case?”

“Sure, great, I’ll see you then”

“Okay” he thought she’d hang up, but she surprised him with more questions “what were you working on last night?”

“Nothing” he said pointedly “you’re still on sick-leave, get well first, then we’ll talk shop”

“Fine, whatever” her dismissive tone made them both laugh “I’ll see you tonight”

“I’ll be there” Mulder assured her and they hung up as usual, without saying goodbye.

A Saturday wasn’t exactly a business day at the Hoover Building, so he could get away with casual clothes, sports jacket and jeans, with simple tie and a button down shirt.

Still, there was no rest for the wicked and crime labs worked as usual. He wanted to talk about tests he ordered the night before but with Scully still on leave he had to do it with the lab staff personally. Mulder knew how impatient she was to prove herself ready to get back in the saddle but his goal was to keep her away from work as long as possible. He wanted her back, sooner rather than later, but not as much as he wanted her back to full health.

Around lunch Mulder parked the car in his usual spot on the lowest level of the FBI headquarters parking lot and headed for the crime labs. Before he knew it, the sun went down.

“What time is it?”

A young agent in pristine white lab coat who walked him through the analysis if a fibre sample now resting under a microscope replied “Almost 7pm”

“Shit, why didn’t you tell me, don’t you have some place to be?” Mulder panicked and turned into a White Rabbit from Alice, running around lab, gathering notes like mad.

“No, not really” the kid watched him a little curious.

“Geez, man, you should get a life or something” Mulder smiled and shrugged into his jacket.

“Like you have one” the younger man challenged, wondering if the secretarial pool’s daydreams about Spooky Mulder were true.

“Tonight I do” one foot out the door he instructed “send your conclusions to my office, I’ll get back to you on Monday”

“Sure, whatever you say Agent Mulder”

“And Pendrell, I mean it, life’s too short to spend Saturday nights locked up in here”

The door banged shut, glass ringing on edge of breaking, and Pendrell sighed heavily “Like you’d know what it’s like to be lonely”

Mulder managed to get to the pub within the boundaries of fashionably late and, looking over the crowd, spotted two redheads picking their martinis of the waitresses’s tray and made his way to their table.

“Good evening” he raised his voice over the noise of the crowd, hand automatically finding it’s place on the small of Scully’s back. Her attention caught but not startled, she looked up and lit up from the inside.

Something in Dana’s eyes changed when they shared each other’s space. They looked so comfortable around each other that Melissa thought they would kiss hello then and there, but they didn’t. Mulder took the third bar stool and called back the waitress before she ran away, ordering whiskey and a beer.

“So we’re celebrating what? Exactly” Scully asked her sister who was essentially responsible for this meeting.

“Your miraculous awakening, family and friendship” she said saluting both of them cheerfully and making Mulder shrug as if it was as good a reason as any. Scully smiled a wicked smile leaping at the chance to take some of the focus of herself

“In that case, we should drink to your birthday as well!” She declared, looking at Mulder

“My birthday was a month ago” he protested, trying not to think about how he got drunk on Jack Daniels and guilt and had to call in sick the next day.

“I know, but I missed it and from now on I don’t wanna miss a thing” she explained and raised her glass, daring him to stop her. The girl came back with his drink.

“Who am I to say no to that” Mulder raised his hand with theirs.

“To new beginnings” Melissa announced and the glasses clinked.

“Now, just so we’re clear” Missy looked between Mulder and Scully “what is it that the two of you do, exactly?”

An hour later, she was as clueless as ever, but felt more entertained than she could ever remember. Mulder was half way through a story about a couple of kids they met at an air force base hunting UFO’s and running from black helicopters.

“It was an experimental plane Mulder” Scully argued.

“You were there Scully, you saw the lights, no plane could move like that” he laughed and emptied his beer, glancing at it surprised “another round?”

“Sure” Missy smiled watching them bicker.

“I don’t know what I saw” Scully tried to defend herself, but he only half listened because he was looking at the waitress who, as Missy noticed, had an eye on him the whole evening. A fact that to her amusement, escaped him completely. He signaled for another round of the same and turned back to them and his story.

“Is it just me or is it getting warm in here?” seeing him shrug out of his jacket and loosen the tie Melissa wondered how Dana could work around this guy. He was seriously hot.

“It’s the alcohol” Scully smiled picking the last olive from her drink.

“Where was I”

“Bright lights” Missy supplied.

“Right, so, there were these bright lights moving against the clouds like crazy”

He was talking with his hands now and before the girls had time to warn him, two vodka martinis were flying through the air in wide arches. Bitter-sweet liquid splashing over the front of his shirt making him jump back and freeze in place looking down at himself, bewildered.

“Oh dear” Scully covered her eyes, not sure if she’ll be able to control her laugh, and Missy watched wide eyed as the waitress snapped out of her embarrassment and started to apologize.

“I’m so sorry, sir” she wiped the table as quickly as possible, picking up broken glass and spilled olives. A small crowd congealed around them, ready for action as Mulder kept looking at his shirt, dangerously silent until he burst out... laughing. He laughed uncontrollably for a long minute as the girls watched him, as confused as everyone else.

“It’s okay, really” he gasped wiping his eyes “It’s my fault”

Scully looked at him giggling under her breath, and when their eyes met, they both laughed again.

“I’ll bring you fresh drinks right now, on the house of course” the girl ran from the madman before his good humor turned into something else.

“Thank you” Scully called after her and looked back at Mulder “You’re a mess”

“I can see that” he grinned and shook his head “Excuse me”

He went for the restrooms and both sisters sat back at the cleaned up table. Missy couldn’t believe what she saw.

“Dana, who is this guy?”

“What do you mean?” Scully picked up and folded his jacket, hanging it over the back of his chair.

“I saw him when you were unconscious, it’s like he’s a completely different person.”

“Oh, that” she smiled and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, a nervous gesture Missy knew since they were little girls.

“Yes, that” she leaned closer and whispered suggestively “Are you and him?”

“What? NO!”

Dana’s response was fast, but not fast enough, Missy knew her better than that. Even if she didn’t realize it, her little sister was on a fast track to falling for her partner. Just as it was clear, it was too late for him.

“Well, I’m not so sure if he’d be as against it as you are” the challenge was clear, but before Scully could deny again, Mulder came back, and both women lost their ability to speak for a moment.

He skipped trying to save the shirt and got rid of it, leaving only a tight fitting, white short sleeved undershirt, untucked over the leather belt of his jeans. He looked like he just stepped out of a cover of a magazine.

“Sorry” he seemed a little unsure when he sat at the table “the shirt was beyond saving”

Missy gathered her thoughts first “No, it’s okay, you just need...”

She reached out unceremoniously and ruffled Mulder’s hair, using her fingers to comb through them this way and that. Scully watched her with astonishment that quickly turned into amusement when he closed his eyes and smiled sheepishly, blushing like a boy caught by one of his favorite young cousins or aunts.

“There, much better” Melissa looked pleased. Against all odds he looked even better, a controlled mess. She smiled glancing at the girls checking him out, clearly interested, but God bless his soul, he didn’t notice even a single one of them.

“Thanks” he finally straightened and on cue, the waitress came back with fresh drinks. Mulder theatricaly sat on his hands and all three girls laughed with him.

Two rounds later Cindy Lauper wanted to have fun and so did Mulder.

“Come on Scully” he grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet “time for payback, you say it’s my birthday, so I want you to dance with me”

Missy was already gone, swept away by some tall-dark-skined-and-handsome Jamaican-artist-type, and having no one to turn to, Scully followed her characteristically over-eager partner.

He wasn’t the best dancer since Fred Astaire, but he didn’t step on her toes and moved with delightfully easy grace. She laughed as she twirled holding his hand, and as he spun her out the length of his arm to draw her right back in with a flair that would pull baby out of her corner, no questions asked. She saw a whole new side of him and he of her, a side he hoped to see more often.

The cheerful anthem faded and a calm, almost sad guitar caught them with arms locked around each other. Driving for hours through towns and villages, they both knew the song well.

When the day is long, and the nights, the night is yours alone.

And sure you had enough, of this life, hang on.

She tried to take a step back but Mulder stopped her “Wait, one more”

The gentle weight of his arm around her waist and a pleading look in his eyes made her rest one hand on his shoulder and give in to the warmth and solid reassurance of his arms.

“Thank you” he whispered leaning down so that she could hear him “for the late birthday”

“You did nothing when I was gone?” His incredulous half-laugh broke her heart.

He let go of her hand and wrapped both arms around her waist.

“I couldn’t do anything when you were gone”

Was it the alcohol or the song, he didn’t care, she was here and he held on.

Don’t throw your hand,

If you feel like you’re alone

No, no, no, you’re not alone

“Missy told me, some of it” Scully draped her arms over his shoulders “mom said you kept looking for me”

“I almost” he wanted to say he choked Duane Barry, but stoped himself.

“It was bad Scully. They already shut down the X-files, and” his voice broke and she knew it was more than just the alcohol.

“I thought I lost you” he finished slowly, steadily, though she could feel his breath shaking.

“I’m here Mulder” she reassured him, lips by his ear as they moved in a small circle “I’m here”

He held on, as if someone could snatch her from this very spot, in this very moment.

“I won’t let something like this happen to you, ever again” he promised.

The world around them got lost in music, and all that was left was gratitude. Acceptance, that they were more than just simple partners and friends. Even if they ever drifted apart, this moment of realization forged a quiet and unbreakable pact between them.