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rosemaidenvixen · 2 years

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The Pinned Moth

Chapter 3: Venom

Ao3

Content warning: torture, dehumanization

“Ready for another loop de loop King!”

“You bet I am!” King gave him a thumbs up from his seat beside him.

The Collector pulled the edge of their star, laughing as it spun upside down in the sky. It was so good to finally be free! Out of that stupid disk, free to fly and play wherever they wanted.

A giddy feeling bubbled up inside him.

And he had a new best friend to share it all with.

They couldn’t wait to start playing Owl House with King, but for now they were having a blast just flying around exploring the Boiling Isles. So much had changed since they were locked up, a whole new world to play in and explore–

“Hey wait stop!”

More surprised than anything else, the Collector jerked their star to a halt “What is it?”

“Go down there!” King pointed at the ground.

The Collector peered over the edge of the star. They were flying over a city, with King pointing down at the balcony of one of the buildings.

Why did King want to stop here? Nothing about this building looked any more fun or interesting than the dozens of other buildings they’d flown over. But King knew a lot more about the Boiling Isles than they did so maybe…

The Collector lowered the star to the ground and dematerialized it, King landing on all fours and immediately scurrying inside. They followed after him, entering the building and going through twisting hallways until they came to a big room. King ran straight towards a set of bunk beds in the corner and immediately dove underneath them.

The sounds of claws scuffling against wood and fabric echoed out from the small space as King scampered around before he crawled out holding something.

It was a stuffed animal, with long floppy ears and a single button eye.

King grabbed it with both arms and squeezed it tight to his chest.

Oh, that was it, King just wanted to get his toy.

He stepped up close “If you wanted a toy we have plenty at the Archive House,”

King jumped a bit before he looked back over at them “I know we do, but this is François, he’s…special,”

“Special? How?”

“Well…someone special helped me get him on the first day I met her, she even broke into the Bonesborough precinct to get him back for me,”

The Collector felt the smile drop off their face, something about the way King said ‘Someone special’ made him feel queasy inside.

“Someone special?” they plunked down on the edge of the bunk bed “Who?”

“Oh, well…you remember when I first let you out, there were those witches and that human there,”

“The ones who ran off cause they didn’t want to play?”

“Uh, yeah, the human was Luz, she was the one who helped get François, she’s…she’s like a big sister to me,”

The Collector froze where they were sitting, the queasy feeling inside him twisting.

King was his best friend, he didn’t want some human sister coming and stealing him away.

They leaned back, swinging their feet back and forth in the air “Soooo..…when is Luz coming back?”

King slumped, arms falling to his sides, François dangling limply from his paw “She….she’s not, the only portal was destroyed, and besides, the human realm is her home,”

Cool relief washed through him but he tried not to show it. They weren’t really happy that this human Luz was gone forever. That made King sad, and he didn’t want King to be sad. But he did feel a little better now that he knew she wasn’t coming back.

He didn’t feel good that King was sad, but at least this way Luz wouldn’t be around to get between him and King.

“Well we can have lots more fun without some boring old human slowing us down,” they materialized a new star inside the building and jumped on top of it “Come on, let’s take François back to the Archive House,”

Brightness burned from behind their eyelids. The Collector groaned, rubbing an arm across his face, sleeve doing little to block out the light, the heavy fuzziness pressing in all around them. Sounds joining the brightness dragged him fully from his sleep, the events of yesterday flooding back to him.

The humans, hide and seek, the bubble, the fuzziness blocking his magic, the boring gray room.

The Collector pushed themself upright from where they had curled up to sleep on the floor of the bubble. Spotting a group of humans stepping in through the door all clad in matching white cloaks and strange black goggles. He glared at them, scowling as they approached.

He got to his feet and stomped to the edge of the bubble, banging a fist on the glass “Hey! Let me out you fibbers!”

The humans ignored him, again, stepping up towards the nearby metal boxes, mumbling with each other. One of the humans, with long pale-yellow hair tied behind their head, stepped past the boxes, coming close to the bubble.

Finally, one of the humans was paying attention to them.

He stood at the edge of the bubble, as close as he could get to the human, folding his arms across his chest “About time, do you know how boring it is in here? Just tell me what spell you want already,”

The human didn’t respond for a few seconds, just kept calmly looking at them, then the human spoke.

“You all have the training and the clearance that qualify you for your positions, so I won’t waste any breath reciting protocol. Just know that this specimen could very well be the proverbial golden goose, and as project director I am directly responsible for all the results we get. So if any of you fail that will reflect on me, and I do not tolerate failures on my record,”

They spun on their heel and strode briskly back towards the others “This specimen is more valuable than every other specimen and piece of equipment at this facility combined, and I expect you all to act like it,”

The other humans all stood up straight and coursed with “Yes ma’am,”

The Collector felt heat surge into their face as the human walked away. Oh sure, the humans wouldn’t talk to him but they would talk at him. And what were they even talking about? What was a specimen?

“You know, I can’t do any spells for you if you don’t tell me what you want,”

None of the humans reacted, just kept fiddling with the buttons and switches on the boxes.

Ignoring him, like always.

Their hands balled into fists at their side, crackling with red sparks. He wanted to completely let loose with his magic, blast this stupid bubble with everything they had and make those humans pay attention to him, make them sorry that they ever put him in here.

But he didn’t, he’d done that yesterday and all it did was make him so tired they fell asleep. Instead he plunked down on the floor of the bubble on the side closest to the humans, folding his arms and glaring over at them.

If these humans wanted to be mean jerks and keep him stuck in here and ignore him, fine. The Collector had gotten out of the Titan’s disk, he would get out of this to, no matter how long it took.

And he could wait for the perfect chance to get back at the humans.

So he kept his eyes on them, watching and listening closely.

“Above all else we can’t risk burn out on either end,” ‘Ma’am’ spoke up “So we’re going to cap the harvest capacity at ten percent today. We’ll start with a ten second run and see what that gets us, then we’ll go from there,”

“Understood,” one of the other white coated humans replied “I’ll initiate start up procedures while Johnson and Warrick take measurements,”

The Collector frowned, what were these humans talking about? It didn’t make any sense. They understood some of the words but had no idea what they all meant togeth–

A sudden humming noise startled them out of their thoughts, they pressed a palm against the glass, trembling under his hand. The entire bubble was vibrating with the humming sound, combined with the fuzziness it made everything seem wavery.

Glancing around, it seemed like the humming was coming from above them, from the cables and pipes connected to the top of the bubble. Leaning into the curve of the glass, the Collector craned their neck to try and see above him.

Up above, where they could barely see thanks to the roof of the bubble, it kind of looked like there were lights up there turning on to.

“Start up complete, shall I go ahead and initiate at ten percent?”

“All clear, proceed,”

“Alright let’s fire it up,”

One of the humans pulled a lever on a metal box, the humming growing louder and deeper, a rumbling now “Initiating in five…four…”

Giving up on looking outside, the Collector stepped away from the edge of the bubble, moving towards the center, still staring up above them. The rumbling was even louder now, thundering through the bubble, nearly drowning out the humans’ voices.

“...three…two…”

What was happeni–

“One.”

The rumble broke into a thundering roar, shimmery black roof of the bubble blazing with light, the thick fuzziness turning sharp as knives.

He couldn’t move, there was a shout in his throat but he couldn’t open his jaw to let it out. It was too bright to see anything, too loud to hear anything, all they could feel was the pain crackling though their entire body. It felt like thousands and thousands of tiny white hot stars were shooting through every inch of him, stabbing through him again and again and aga–

Everything stopped. Light vanishing and roar softening into a low growl before going silent, the sharp pain fading back into fuzziness. The Collector sank limply to their knees, breath coming in deep, heavy pants. The pain was gone, but there was still a faint prickling in his hands and feet, an echo of that awful agony...

As their heartbeat slowed the voices of the humans outside the bubble came back into focus.

“--unbelievable, was this really the output at just ten percent?”

“You bet it was, check the read out yourself if you don’t believe me,”

Raising his head, the Collector saw that all the humans were clustered together around one of the screens.

“This is amazing! If this is the output at just ten percent we could be looking at an indefinite energy source,”

“Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves,” Ma’am’s voice this time “We’ll proceed as planned today, remain at ten percent for steady increments. We’ll go over our data tonight and then make a plan for subsequent testing. Now we’re still in the green, so let’s go ahead with fifteen seconds.”

“Yes ma’am,” multiple voices said at once.

As the Collector watched the humans moved away from each other and went back to hovering around the metal boxes, jerking as the humming started again.

“Initializing in five…four…”

The Collector slowly backed away until their back hit the edge of the bubble, heartbeat pounding as the hum deepened into a rumble, anxiously glancing back and forth between the roof and the humans.

“Three…two…”

“H– hey wai–”

“One.”

The rumble pitched into a roar, blazing light filling the bubble, the fuzziness sprouting teeth and tearing into him. This time he managed to let out a shout before being pinned down by it, but couldn’t stop, shrieking and shrieking as the white hot pain went on and on and o–

It stopped, the Collector slumped back against the side up the bubble, sliding to the ground, shriek dying off into a raw croak, arms and legs tingling, heartbeat booming in their ears.

What was going on? What was happening to him? Why were these humans doing this?

The humans were talking more, he struggled to focus on their voices.

“--s the specimen stable?”

“Yes, the levels have dipped but the vitals signs are holding steady,”

“And is the Lamp still in the green?”

“Yes Ma’am,”

“Excellent, let’s go again, twenty seconds now,”

More fiddling, switches flipped and levers pulled, and then the humming.

The Collector struggled to their feet, wobbling on trembling legs, shaking arms bracing him against the side of the bubble “H– hey, wait, that really hurts!”

The humans kept on ignoring him, pressing buttons and pulling levers. The hum deepened into a rumble, soon it would be a roar.

“Five…four…”

Their breath hitched, heartbeat speeding up. They frantically pounded on the glass “Stop it! That really hu–”

“One.”

Roaring light crashed down all around them, thousands of needle sharp fangs tearing into him. He couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, couldn’t even blink, just wait for it to be over.

When it finally stopped the Collector found themselves lying on the floor of the bubble. Their entire body felt numb all over, head spinning. They could still feel, twitch their fingers and toes, but when they tried to move nothing happened.

The garbled sounds of the human’s voices came from outside the bubble, his head felt so fuzzy it took everything he had just to try and listen to the words.

“--cool off period for the Lamp?”

“I don’t think so, at least not yet, so far it’s handling the drainings alright,”

“Then let’s proceed with 25 seconds and then see where we’re at,”

The Collector tried to sit up, their head made it an inch off the ground before plunking back down, the fuzziness and numbness combining into an unbearable weight. Even their mind felt thick and heavy, words jumbling around together in a confusing mix, but there was one that bubbled to the surface, even as the machine hummed back to life.

Drainings.

“Five…four…”

The humans were using these machines to drain his magic, and taking more and more each time.

“Three…two…”

The hum pitched into a low rumble, thrumming through their bones. The numbness was creeping away, leaving an unpleasant prickling in its place, but not fast enough, they could wiggle their hands and feet, work their jaw open and shut, but still couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

“One.”

He squeezed his eyes shut as the rumble broke into a roar, bright light and searing pain crashing down all around him.

#the owl house #rmvwrites #the collector #original character(s)#the pinned moth #dark #tw torture #tw dehumanizing language

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fandomwriterstuff · 3 years

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Traumtänzer (Pt. 5)

Part 4

Part 6

Rated T, canon-typical violence

German Translation:

Schatz - Treasure

Schätzen - Little Treasure

Zimniy Soldat - Winter Soldier

Otlichnaya, soldat - Well done, soldier

The drive over wasn’t too long, and as soon as you exited the car you found yourself at Helmut’s side with his arm tight around your waist. You found it oddly comforting considering the situation. Your skin felt tight with anxiety and you bit your lip again, turning your face into the fur adorning your date’s coat in order to hide your nerves. Hopefully observers thought you appeared loving and enthralled with Helmut, and not nervous beyond belief.

You entered a dark and busy club. It was different than anything you’d experienced before. Pounding music and warm bodies, it was almost too much, but Helmut’s hand on your waist kept you grounded.

“Hello gentleman, and lady,” the bartender nodded at you, though he paid you no mind otherwise. Being Helmut’s arm candy really did have benefits. Nobody paid you any attention. “I wasn’t expecting you, Smiling Tiger,” he addressed Sam.

“His plans changed. We have business to do with Selby,” Helmut’s hand tightened on your waist and you leaned up to press a soft kiss to his neck. You could be his fiance for a night.

“The usual?” The bartender nodded at Sam before producing a snake and cutting it open. Your stomach roiled and you wanted to be sick. Sure, you were a refugee, you would eat nearly anything at one point in your life, but that time was over. Helmut gripped your hip, surely he would leave a bruise, but you didn’t mind.

You like that, don’t you? Your own thoughts were intruding into your mind and you smiled at the bartender when he offered you and Helmut regular shots.

You’d never had hard liquor before, only the beers you could occasionally get at the refugee camp and the wine you drank in your home. But, you had a part to play and you would do it well. You poured the shot down your throat, and felt it burn, but when you tilted your head back down you smirked and glanced up at your date, kissing the edge of his jaw and snuggling closer to his side. You were playing a part, but you could also enjoy it a bit, no?

There was a presence behind you, and then a voice. It was American.

“Got word from on high, you ain’t welcome here,” Helmut turned, keeping you encased in his arms, and shrugged.

“I have no business with the Power Broker. But if he insists, he can either talk to me or…” Helmut nodded towards ‘The Winter Soldier.’

“New haircut?” The American asked, looking over at James (who was looking particularly menacing).

“Or,” Helmut started “Bring Selby for a chat.”

The man paused.

“Who’s the lady?” he slid his cloying gaze onto you and you forced a smirk onto your face as you soaked up Helmut’s attention.

“My fiance, Y/N,” he looked down at you lovingly and winked as you struggled to keep your face impassive. How did he know your name? You’d only ever gone by Maus in front of him.

The man harrumphed and walked away.

“Y/N, interesting,” James raised an eyebrow at you. “You told Zemo your name but not us?”

“No,” you hissed. “I didn’t.”

“Keep in character, liebling, ” Helmut pressed a kiss to your temple, and you were only a little bit ashamed to say that it did help calm you.

There’s a man approaching us , you told Helmut in his mind, as his back was turned. He responded immediately.

“ Zimniy soldat ,” he called, and James nodded at him. Helmut called for him to attack, and attack he did. You watched in awe as James easily took down several men, and Helmut whispered something to Sam that sounded like “Didn’t take much for him to fall back into form.” You couldn’t help but agree. Nonetheless, Helmut tucked you into his side, shielding you from the violence. You were loath to inform yourself that his cologne was turning you on, but it was there and it was happening. You placed a small hand on his chest as he held you close and breathed in slowly again. You wanted to calm your anxious and frayed nerves, you also wanted to smell that cologne again, but you were also trying to read minds.

You were pretty sure it was working because you started hearing snippets of thoughts in different languages. You were cut off by the sounds of many guns and Helmut’s: “ Otlichnaya, soldat .”

“Selby will see you now,” the bartender interjected.

There was a brief pause. Sam checked on James. Helmut checked on you.

“ Are you alright, liebling?” He caressed your cheek, bringing his forehead to touch yours.

“ I’m perfect, schatz,” you responded, tilting your head to catch his mouth with your own, only for a second.

Soon, you were walking into the lion’s den. Selby was a lot more frightening in person than you thought, but you could play a part. You sat next to Helmut, his hand on your crossed thigh.

“By the way, I thought you were rotting away in a German prison?” Selby asked, and Helmut raised an eyebrow, about to respond, when she asked him: “And I thought your wife was dead?”

His hand tightened on your thigh nearly painfully and you rested your head on his shoulder.

“She is,” he frowned. “It has been a long time since her passing, this is my fiance.”

“Excuse me if I don’t trust your arm candy,” Selby snarled. “A man with morals and virtues such as yourself walks in here with a woman he claims is his fiance, the Smiling Tiger, and a man who was supposed to be reformed? I don’t think so. Kill the Baron,” she called, and in a split second you had thrown yourself over his lap and were straddling him, fearful eyes locked with his own shocked ones as a gunshot rang through the room.

Nothing happened.

“A blank?” Helmut asked, eyes locked on your own, full of wonder.

“My god she is willing to die for you,” Selby whistled and relaxed back into her seat. “Relax, girl. No more guns, I promise,” you didn’t want to show that your legs were shaking, so you planted yourself across Helmut’s lap and rested our face in the crook of his shoulder. His hand drew absent shapes on your back.

You zoned out for most of the talking, content to let Helmut press soft touches to your neck, your back, your thighs. You came to the startling realization that you were wet for the Baron when Sam’s phone rang and all Hell broke loose.

“You can do this, liebling. Get us out of here,” Helmut whispered in your ear.

“Hold on to me!” You grunted. You felt Helmut wrap his arms around your waist and you harshly grabbed James and Sam by their arms, digging your fingernails in as that pull in your gut tightened and cramped. Mein gott, you were going to be sick.

“ You can do it, Y/N,” Helmut whispered as you screamed in his ear, possibly deafening him. Your entire body cramped up and seized as you dematerialized the four of you and rematerialized outside the club.

“I can’t go any farther,” you panted, leaning heavily on Helmut as you caught your breath.

“You were incredible, schätzchen,” Helmut whispered as Sam and James took off. He was saying something else, but you couldn’t take it anymore, your vision was swimming and your muscles were failing.

All you would remember was Helmut carrying you like a princess towards a shiny car.

Masterlist

#helmut zemo #fanfiction #fanfic #baron zemo #zemo x reader #zemo x you #selby #sam wilson #bucky barned #tfatws

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saiilorstars · 4 years

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Falling in Temptation

Previous chapters • Sequel to Stars Dance • Fairy Tale Memoirs (Companion story)

Ch. 22: Finding Each Other

Fandom: Doctor Who // Pairing: 11th Doctor x OFC

Chapter summary: The Scream makes his final play against the travelers, leaving them trapped in his own personal world. Only Avalon and the Doctor seem to mildly remember that perhaps the lives they live now aren't correct.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles

[If you’d like to be added to this specific OC’s stories/edits, send me a message!]

Disclaimer: The arc is part of an actual comic story that I’ve rewritten to fit the story here! But the essential plot and part of the dialogue belongs to the comics!

Avalon ran as fast as she could through the 'forest' that now was the TARDIS. She could hear it hissing behind her, coming to get her. It was all too much like the…

"AAAH!" She screamed when the Scream itself jumped in front of her, all dressed in a white suit and looking far bigger than the last time they met.

Her eyes widened.

He's what they met shortly after the Silence in 1969. "I...I remember you. It's you. I...I forgot you, just like with the Silence." She stepped away from it. "It's you who's been following us. How could...how could I just forget that!?"

Lena had brought them back to Earth because of a mysterious letter with coordinates. They traveled to the planet where they bumped into the ugly thing who nearly sucked out hers and the Doctor's memories to create the Sapling! She just...she just forgot all about that! She forgot the Scream was still coming for them. How could she forget something like that!?

"I wassss folllowing the Doctor, not hissss pet!"

Avalon frowned. "I am more than a 'pet'. But you would know about that, huh? Your Silence brethren haven't left me the hell alone!"

"I witnessssed your capture...your trrrrrips...Koooovarian…" Avalon swallowed hard as she took a few more steps away. "They arrrrre not doooone with yourrrr family."

"I should've known, you're part of them!"

"Nooooo!" the Silence seemed to shout. "They know noooothing offf meee! They cannot rrrrremmember me!"

Right, it was why he was an special type of Silence. Not even his own kind could remember him.

"That must suck," Avalon could say that honestly. "Not even your own kind can remember you? Must be lonely." The Scream seemed to stop for a moment, staring at her through its hole-eyes.

"Avalon!" Rory stumbled into the clearing. His eyes eyes widened at the sight of the Scream. "I remember you!"

"Yeah, its super power made us forget he was chasing us down the galaxies!" Avalon quickly rushed to his side.

The Scream fired purple electricity at them, forcing them to break into another run. "I ammmm the Screeeeam! I exisssst! Don't turn yourrrr back on meeee!"

The two kept running and running until they could hear Amy's frantic voice paired with the Doctor's. They crashed into them, actually, knocking them to the grassy ground.

"I found you!" Avalon beamed at the Doctor. She had fallen over him but didn't seem to mind the harsh crash.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor sat upright and kept a tight hold around her. After the Sapling sprouted roots, the whole TARDIS went haywire...but at least they were still together, litrealy. The box was still together.

"Yeah, Rory and I were running from…" Avalon trailed off with a curious expression taking her face over. "Never mind."

"Doctor, where are we?" Amy took Rory's hand to stand back up, prompting the other pair to do the same. She had been running from something, or she was just running, and she stumbled into the spot where the Doctor was.

"Still in the TARDIS of course! And good news: the Sapling's mature form is mnemomimetic! It's literally turning our stolen memories into fruit!"

Avalon blinked, her eyes drifting to the funny looking branches hanging from above. Some of them seemed to be shaped like people. "You mean...my memories are...hanging all around us?"

"Yours, but mostly mine! I have a lot!" the Doctor didn't look as bothered by her. He grabbed her hand and motioned for them to follow him. He brought them down the 'forest' into a room resembling their console room, only this one was covered in moss, branches and leaves. "Okay, well I still haven't found a console room with power. My shiny new one's been completely swamped by the Sapling's root system."

"But...but the TARDIS is stable at least, right?" Amy shot him a look. That was the whole point of the Sapling sprouting his roots. Not a minute after asking, the branches around them started to grow more, some of them wrapping around Rory's arms.

"Hey!" he frowned and fought to free himself. Amy quickly hurried to help him.

"No, no! Stop!" the Doctor frantically called as if the Sapling could still hear then. He...wasn't sure if the Sapling could hear him. His hearts sank. He wasn't sure where the Sapling was or if he still was around. "If the Sapling doesn't stop growing then the dimensional dams will break entirely. If that happens then all the 'bigger on the inside' will continue leaking, taking the Sapling - and our memories - with it."

"We can't let that happen," Avalon quickly said, not even speaking for their memories. The Sapling was waiting for them to find him. "We're going to get to him before any of that happens!"

"Of course we are!" the Doctor nodded but then quietly admitted he wasn't sure how to go along with it.

"Uuh...Doctor? There's a corridor," Amy said, making them turn in her direction. She was pointing at a metal corridor that hadn't been there when they first walked in. It was wide open for them.

"But it's new," Avalon said. The metal wasn't covered with any moss or branches.

"If I know my TARDIS, she's desperately trying to contain the Sapling's roots so we can find a clean console room," the Doctor squeezed Avalon's hand still holding his. "She's literally shifting her own internal organs around."

Avalon could literally feel her heart cracking. "The TARDIS is doing that for us?" She pulled him into the corridor and stopped to look around. "She must be in agony."

"She is," the Doctor knew it. He gently touched the walls and thanked the TARDIS for soldiering on for them. They needed to solve this quickly.

The group hurried down the corridor and found a brand new console room...to them. For the Doctor, it brought out a small nostalgic laugh. "I can't quite believe it's still here after all these years." The console room was the very first one he had back in his first incarnation.

"What, this is actually a real console?" Rory looked around without seeming that impressed by it. It didn't really look like the Doctor, but then again there were so many versions of the man. Maybe this one represented whatever version used it.

"She knows me better than I know myself but she didn't back then," the Doctor came up to the console with Avalon. "That's why she gave me this beautiful blank canvas to begin with."

"And then you proceeded to draw all over it with crayons," Avalon innocently said, meeting the Doctor's sarcastic frown with a smirk.

"It was a foundation! A promise! With every regeneration she gets to know me a little bit better! The adventures we had in here though, the ones I can remember anyways. Monoids, Aridians, Voord, Krotons…"

"There are aliens named after stale bread?" Amy raised an eyebrow, genuinely making Avalon and Rory burst into laughter.

"No!" the Doctor huffed. "Well, yes, actually but these are spelled differently. Krotons are nasty, crystalline mental energy vampires! Oh...oh, I'm getting so slow in my old age! I once used the H.A.D.S. to save the TARDIS from the Krotons!"

"H.A.D.S.?" Avalon made a face. "What the hell is that?"

"Hostile Action Dispersal System. It's a defense mechanism which temporarily distributes the TARDIS' atoms over a wide area - or teleports it - when a breach is imminent."

"And why is that useful to us right now?" Rory inquired.

"If I can convince the TARDIS that the breach threat is internal before I activate the H.A.D.S., then it'll dematerialize around the Sapling, effectively separating them!"

"That could work!?" Avalon jumped on the chance.

"Hold on there mister!" Amy suddenly pointed a finger at the man. "If the TARDIS does that then it'll leave all of us outside in space! Last time I checked, none of us are space-proof!"

"I was getting to that!" the Doctor huffed. Honestly, did they think he would forget that detail? He moved around the console, and gently tapped the glass time rotor. 'Hello? I know you're busy trying to contain the Sap...the infection, but I have a plan. If you can give me any manual control, then I promise I'll get all of us out of this in one piece!"

"Did you just call the Sapling an infec-" Avalon was cut off by a strong, glowing white light erupting from the Time Rotor.

If the TARDIS believed it was an infection causing this mess then she would definitely agree to giving some control back to them.

The Doctor cheered. "That's my girl! To think, if it hadn't been for that very timely intervention, I'd have borrowed a crummy old Type 53 instead!"

Avalon raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so somebody helped you steal the TARDIS? You had an accomplice!"

"Doctorrrrr," the Scream emerged from the branches on the wall. "You mmmmemoriesss will keep the wood from ssswallowing my consciousnesss whole! Ssssurender to me or you pets diiiie!"

"He really needs to stop calling me a 'pet' or so help me!" Avalon snapped.

"Oh my God, I remember him," Amy blinked behind them. She and the Doctor were going through the same realization that they'd forgotten all about the Scream coming after them. That was the thing about the Scream, it's what made him extra deadly. All on his own, he had the power to make his enemies forget he was hunting them down.

"You remember evvverything," the Scream came closer to them.

The Doctor jumped in front of Avalon, putting on his best grin. "Hello! I'm the Doctor, lovely day, isn't it? And you are?"

"What!? I ssstole some of your memmmoriesss! I know you, Doctor! Yet you dare mmmock me? You maaaake light of my pain!?"

"Pain?" frowned Rory. "Has he seen what he's caused!?"

The Scream seemed to grow in size. White steam was billowing from its body. "You willll pay for thisss insult, Doctor! I have the your TARDISSSS and the Sssapling, my plan issss complete!"

The Doctor's grin dropped from his face to be replaced by a glower. "You're the Scream. You're part of the religious order. And you're angry because no one remembers you." But if anything, it should be afraid of him. He was part of the Silence and the Doctor still remembered what he promised to do if he ever saw another Silence again.

They would die for hurting his Ava.

"You will know when I have all the endless memmmories of your TARDISSS core. I shall use the Sssapling to ssspread across the universe and all will know mmy nnname!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the Scream. "You want to be remembered? Then earn it. You know what your kind never get?" Avalon watched his hands reach back for the console and she stepped closer to hide his arm movements. "You think by some terrible act or other that your name will go down in infamy. When, really, even if you succeed in whatever plan you've cooked up, people are just going to pity you. They might even despise you, if you give them reason to. The Sapling's an innocent, scared child. He has the potential to be anything, absolutely anything so leave him be!"

The Scream stayed silent for a moment, almost looking like he was considering the Doctor's words, but then…

He struck his white energy towards Avalon. She screamed and fell back with her eyes shut.

"AVALON!" the Doctor turned completely for the console to activate the H.A.D.S.

Amy and Rory wanted to get Avalon up but the energy around her enveloped her. She writhed in pain with her eyes still shut. She was seeing so many images in her mind at the moment, all of them rushing as light speed like a movie. She couldn't tell most of them apart but...some of them were of her time with Kovarian.

Not those. I don't want to see those!

But suddenly, the Scream was forced to stop. The H.A.D.S. was in full motion! The TARDIS was groaning altogether, pushing the Scream away. Avalon sucked in a sharp breath once she was set free, but her mind was far too frazzled to understand what was happening. Amy and Rory quickly snagged up their granddaughter from the ground, keeping her between them.

"Doctor, what's happening!?" Amy exclaimed just before the TARDIS properly exploded.

The last of the TARDIS' energy went into shielding everyone while they drifted in space. The Doctor was barely able to use his sonic to bring everything back together...everyone. And when they joined together again, a certain pair joined together, combining memories and branches and Silence all together.

~ 0 ~

Avalon's eyes snapped open as she woke with a sharp gasp. She sat upright on her bed, her eyes scanning her bedroom like there was something she was going to find…

"Avalon?" She heard Lena knocking on the door. "Avalon! You need to wake up! Mels, Amy and Rory are going to be here in one hour!"

Avalon blinked for a few seconds before slowly getting out of bed. "I'm...I was sleeping…" She whispered and cast a glance at the bed. Why was she repeating that? Yes, of course, she was sleeping. It was night time, so she slept. That's what she always did. She shook her head without thinking.

NO.

She stiffened. "Where'd that come from?"

"Avalon!" Lena knocked, or banged, on the door again. "Seriously! We're going to be late! Mum and Dad are already eating breakfast!"

"Mum?" Avalon whispered. "My...my Mum?"

Lena groaned and Avalon heard her stomping away. Why was she acting so weird? Yes, her parents made breakfast. That's what they always did. And...and she had plans today. Yes, yes, just like always.

She came up to her window to check for the weather. It looked like a lovely day. The sun was shining so brightly, reflecting beautifully on the far-off Citadel's dome. Avalon stared at it for a moment more, wondering why it was only that city that had a dome.

Becausssse it's a higher part of the town.

Avalon gasped at the new sound. She looked around and then a moment later thought herself a fool. Who else could have spoken to her? It was just her in her room.

~ 0 ~

Avalon came into the kitchen to see Emmalina Reynolds coming to the table with a new pile of pancakes that Rylan and Gavin were practically ready to devour. Lena chuckled as her mother smacked Gavin's hand away from the plate until it was set on the table.

"Honestly, you act like I never feed you!" Emmalina sighed until she saw Avalon at the threshold. "Good morning. You slept well!"

"Just like always," Lena added. "Wish we all slept like Avalon."

But Avalon didn't speak, nor move. She was staring at Emmalina with eyes wide. She felt something in her stomach, something like...like she wanted to throw up.

Look!

"Avalon," Emmalina softly called. "Are you alright?"

Avalon blinked and realized there was something on her face. When she touched her cheek, she found a tear. She was crying. Why was she doing that?

From the kitchen window, the Scream silently watched the Reynolds 'family'. The girl was stronger than he anticipated. Her mind was trying to warn her that the setting was fake, but why? He expected such a thing from the Doctor, but this girl? He would just have to keep manipulating all the memories he had, and since he and the Sapling were joined now...he had plenty of memories to draw from.

~ 0 ~

Avalon and Lena came skipping down the front steps of their home to where Amy, Rory and Mels were waiting for them.

"Took you long enough," Mels huffed. "Seriously, what took you so long?" Avalon tilted her head at Mels. Seeing the stare she now claimed, Mels arched an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"She probably recognizes her dress," Amy joked and shared a laugh with Lena and Rory.

"I borrowed it!" Mels exclaimed.

"Right!"

"I...like your hair," Avalon's hand came to rest over her own hair. Mels' hair was as curly as hers, but more ashy brown of course.

Mels smiled like she already knew her hair was good. "Thank you, sweetie. And just so we're clear, this is your dress."

"Avalon, what's the matter with you?" Lena spared her sister a weary glance before talking to the others. "She's been acting so weird today, it's not funny."

"Ah, she's just sad she couldn't find a date for the concert!" Mels came over to put her arm around Avalon's shoulders. "It's alright, I'm sure we'll find you someone to go home with."

"Mels!" Lena, Amy and Rory all chorused with the same groans.

Avalon, however, flinched at the idea of it. "I wouldn't," she said all too certain as well. Something about going home with someone...didn't settle right. It gave her that feeling of throwing up again.

"Let's just go before we're late," Rory motioned them to start walking.

Somewhere along the way, Avalon moved so that she was walking with Amy instead. There was something nagging in the back of her head, making her believe that perhaps Amy could help her out. "Hey Amy, do you ever get the feeling that...that something's kind of off?"

Amy made a face at the question. "Off? Like what?"

"I don't know," Avalon shrugged. "Like...like there's something you're missing?"

"Don't think so…" And yet, as Amy answered she began to look away. Avalon noticed it and thought that maybe she would change her answer. But just like that, Amy shook her head. "Nah! I think you're just tired!"

"No, I...I've been sleeping a lot, actually." Avalon thought that was pretty weird. Sleeping...a lot. She did that a lot, right?

"Yeah, and talking in your sleep from what Lena says," Amy chuckled. "You've been dreaming about someone, huh? Some nice fella out there that's caught your eye?"

Avalon blinked. "What? No I haven't!"

"Yeah, you have!" Lena chimed in from behind. "I bet it was some princess stuff cos you kept saying 'Fairy Tale Man' over and over."

"Oh," Avalon came to an automatic stop, even though she had no idea why. Something was sparking in her mind...a faint image. A man. She saw a man.

"What's wrong now?" Lena groaned.

"I thought I saw someone...in my head," Avalon brought a hand to her forehead. She rubbed her skin in hopes of getting that image back. "A-a man. He…"

"Ha, I knew it!" Mels laughed. "Avalon's thinking of her dream man!"

"Aren't we all?" Amy said, only to have Rory huff at her.

"Husband!"

Amy laughed and went along with him. "Right!"

"I swear Avalon, we'll find you a boyfriend by tonight," Mels promised, never noticing the way Avalon's face crinkled.

Something about the term 'boyfriend' didn't sit well with her.

~ 0 ~

"I can't put my finger on it but something's just not quite right about this place...this city." A homeless man maneuvered himself through the plant matter - er, forest - as best as he could. He was sure that if he kept pulling on one of those branches there would be something underneath it. The forest just didn't look right to him.

You need to ressst, that'ssss all. Too many adventuressss.

The man stopped. He had broken a part of a branch and stared at it, like something was supposed to be coming back to him. "You might be right. Perhaps I've been pushing it a bit." The man allowed for the Scream to take the branch from him. "What would I do without you, old friend?"

The creature was his only friend on the streets. He didn't have anything else, anyone else. Although, it was funny because he kept thinking of this woman...he couldn't quite see her but he could think of her. And he could smell her too if he really concentrated. Lavender. She smelled like lavender. Lovely scent. But she was probably just a dream. He dreamt someone up to make him feel less lonely.

"You would losssse yourssself in the night. Don't you thiiiink you look ttttired? Let'ssss go to the ssshelter? Get a hott meall." the Scream pulled him out his thoughts. That was the problem with the Doctor: he thought too much. The girl, while more aware, was more malleable. He didn't need to physically appear to her, much less the other two travelling with them. Those two were puppets.

The Doctor stopped to look at himself in a reflection. Funny, there was a mirror amongst all the plant matter. His eyes widened. He didn't quite like the beard on him but he liked his hat. Although, maybe it should've be more red and a bit more bowl shaped. What were those things called again?

"Maybe I do feel tired," he realized when his thought once again drifted to the woman. For some reason, he didn't think she would like that red hat he imagined. "I feel like there's a fog in my mind. Like something's just out of reach but you can't recall what. But there's still so much to see out there! I've never seen a Star Whale keening for its mate! I've never seen a sycorax ship deploy its faith coils to pray its way out of a gravitation blizzard!"

Doctorr, weee talked about thisss. You delusssionesss...

The Doctor stopped and exhaled. "I...was making things up again, wasn't I? Maybe Avalon could write them down for stories…" He trailed off, where did that come from?

The Scream ushered the Doctor away from the plant matter. One more pull of a branch and he would've discovered a hidden console underneath it. But now there he went again naming that pet! "All nonsensssse. No one else is hhhhere. It'ssss jussst you and meee, rememberrrr? Besides, every adventurrrer is rrrright heeere where you left it. Out here, on the streets."

The Doctor stared at the city ahead of them. Tears came to his eyes. There was a whole big city and he had no one to see it with. He would wander the streets on his own all day. "Yes, yes, of course. I don't need a home. I never did." He had no home.

Funny, that woman he kept thinking of would be a nice someone to see that city with, but she wasn't real.

~ 0 ~

Music blared, leaving ears ringing but no one cared. The crowd cheered and sang along to the music.

Except for Avalon. She was more preoccupied with the crowd itself. Everyone seemed to be having a good time but she couldn't help think that some of them...were just weird. It wasn't a nice thought at all, she knew, but the more she stared the more she couldn't shake the feeling off.

There was a metal man, for starters, bobbing his head to the music. Avalon felt like she should be afraid and yet...no one else seemed concerned. Then there was this lady who was all gray and her skin seemed kind of hard. For a moment, Avalon thought the woman should be covering her face.

Sssstop looking.

Avalon snapped her head behind her, as if the hissing voice would be right behind her. Where did that keep coming from!?

"Avalon, what are you doing!?" Amy laughed and pulled Avalon closer to her. "Sing along! He's singing your favorite song: Blue Box Blues!"

"Blue box…" Avalon whispered. She wrapped an arm around her stomach. She wanted to throw up again. "Amy...Amy something's not right."

"Yeah! You're not singing!"

"AMY!" Avalon shook the woman. "Just listen to me! Something's not right! All day I've been getting these feelings like...like I know that I've forgotten something but I don't know what it is! Plus...there's just something off!" She brought a hand to her hair, grasping strands as she frantically looked through the crowd...as if there was someone she was supposed to find.

"Okay, geez, Avalon. Just calm down," Amy cautiously grabbed Avalon's arms, keeping her steady. "I'm listening. I'm really listening."

Avalon felt tears in her eyes. Her breath was raggedy like she'd run a marathon just then. "There's...there's a voice inside my head. It keeps...hissing at me…" She scrunched her face. It made her body shiver just thinking about it. "I need help, I need a doct…"

There was a spark of recognition across her eyes for just a brief second, half a second. Though Avalon forgot about it, she knew she had to get out of there. Actually, not just her. "Rory!" She reached past Amy and grabbed Rory's arm. "We have to go!"

"What, hey! The song was just about to end!" Rory complained as Avalon dragged him and Amy out of the concert.

"Avalon, I think we should get you home!" Amy exclaimed just as Avalon brought them to the streets.

"You two need to get a grip and realize that it's not…" Avalon let go of the two when she saw a swirling portal across the street. Her eyes widened as it stretched out to become like a crack in the air. "What's...that's not...this isn't…" She looked around the street with both hesitance and fear. "Is this real?"

"Hey...that looks…" Amy blinked at the crack. She shook her head and that odd feeling she got from just looking at the thing.

"Cracks," Avalon breathed in. "There's cracks in the universe. I...somebody said that. Somebody else said that too, and I…"

"No, it's true! I found three more cracks in the last street!" A man's voice carried over, pulling the trio's attention to the end of the street where a homeless man was running down, excitedly babbling on. "I wonder if there's more!"

"There's one right here!" Avalon found herself blurting and promptly covered her mouth when she realized it.

The Doctor came running down to stop beside them and see the crack proudly scarring the air. "Interesting! Do you know what the crack is?"

"Clearly we don't or else we wouldn't be here, right?" Avalon's sarcasm made the Doctor smile.

"It's a crack!"

"But that we clearly knew!"

"Avalon!" Rory hissed. "Stop fighting with a homeless man!"

Avalon turned around, her hair flipping with her. The Doctor sniffed the air when he got a whiff of...lavender.

"You smell like lavender," he turned the woman around without even thinking it. Avalon looked at him strangely and despite being a homeless man, she didn't really feel scared. Actually, he was kind of cute.

"I don't like your hat," she had to say when she got a look at the ruddy thing.

"Yeah, and you don't like fezzes either!" The Doctor's eyes widened as soon as the words left his mouth.

"...Doctor?" Avalon's hand shakily reached to touch his face and the Doctor just let it happen. There was something quite warm about her hand and her gentle fingers.

"Ava…" He hummed in content.

"Enough!" the Scream hissed as it appeared in front of them. Avalon yelped and jumped back. Amy and Rory did the same from their spots. The Doctor quickly barred the way to Avalon, not even realizing when he did it. "You two togetherrrr againnn! I ssssupose it was inevitable! I tried to make thissss painlesss. The memory transferrrr is ssso much cleaner with a living victimmm, but ssso be it!"

"How did we forget again!?" Amy cried angrily, shooting Rory who was also remembering the real situation.

"What!? Don't look at me! You forgot too!" he shouted back.

But their argument was cut off when the Doctor and Avalon cried in pain. They were disintegrating like Orphan had, only instead of white bits they were releasing small green leaves.

"Everyone thinkssss they want to ffind the truth…" the Scream watched the pair fall to their knees on the ground. Roots sprouted to force them down. "Until the truth findsss themmm. You wanted a home, Doctor? I shall eat you now. A hot meal for the homeless man!"

"Ah, Doctor, how do we help you!?" Amy ran towards them but the Scream fired at her to keep still. Rory yanked her to his side, motioning they would freeze there...at least until they figured out a way to help the Doctor and Avalon.

The roots, which were the Scream's own tendrils, wrapped around each of them. It invaded their minds, intending on taking everything he could find. He just failed to realize that it was a two-way connection. Memories were flowing out from the pair but at the same time memories were flowing in from the Scream, the very memories the Sapling once upon a time took at the time of his birth.

"The Sapling…" the Doctor sucked in a sharp breath, "He's a tree isn't he? That's where we found him...a forest planet?"

Avalon could see the memory he talked about, but she literally felt her insides being crushed. "He's...going to kill us!"

"How sweeeet that you rememberrrr again. You think of the Scream and you knooowwww fffeear! Soon you shall beee entirely consumed. Sooon you shall nottt existtt. You shalll only exisssst in here! In my head! My memoriesss! NOthing will exist, other than the Scream!"

And then the Scream, everyone for that matter, heard the Doctor laugh.

"Are you seriously laughing!?" Amy incredulously stared at the Time Lord.

He was. He truly was even when the branches were wrapping around his body. "I just realized...well, I remembered. This entire world is populated by my and Avalon's memories. You just threw in Amy and Rory cos you had no idea what to do with them yet-"

"Thanks," Rory cut in with the exact flat face his wife had.

"-and because the Sapling wouldn't let you get rid of them. This place is an entirely subjective environment and you're about to kill us! Then Amy, and Rory...so what happens when we're all gone? Who will be here to remember you if it's just you?"

"Ha…" Avalon found strength to laugh for a tiny moment. The branches were squeezing her tight. "If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around…"

"...does anyone know?" the Scream realized.

"Ava, I'm passing a psychic message to you via the root system." the Doctor quickly said before the Scream could enact what promised to be even more outrageous than what he already did, "A plan. Listen to me, Ava. Just listen."

Avalon wanted to point out that she had no idea how to receive such a message, but the Doctor went ahead anyways. She closed her eyes and let whatever happen, happen.

The Scream...screamed. A white light had eradicated his entire world, leaving only him in a white place. Was a room? A world? He didn't know.

"Is anyone there?" he called out. "Can anybody hear me? I...I don't want to be alone!"

"Because it sucks, right?"

The Scream turned around to find Avalon standing a few feet away from him. She was scowling at him. "I know how it feels to be alone. The Doctor does too. And you used that against us. And you know the funny thing is, if you had just asked the Doctor for help...he would've done it. I know he's said that he'd kill any Silence for what they did to me but I know my Doctor. You weren't part of the Silence. You didn't do anything. All you needed to do was ask for help...but you didn't."

"Youuuu will diiiie!" the Scream pointed at her.

Avalon swallowed hard. "You absorbed the Sapling. You took his powers, right? So use them. Why don't you just make copies of yourself? Then you never have to be alone again."

"I...yes…" the Scream realized that would be an even better plan. With thousands of him, he could take over every planet and force everyone to remember him.

Avalon watched the Scream multiply and multiple until there were really near a thousand of them just staring at her, maliciously planning no doubt. She felt her breath leave her. "Is...is the Sapling inside you somewhere? Can...can you release him? You've got what you wanted. There's so many of you, why keep him?" Her eyes teared up as the memories of the Sapling started resurfacing in her mind. "Please...he's...he's my son. I want him back."

The Scream flatly ignored her. "I can make endless copiessss of me! They willlll spread acrossss the universe! With the Sapling'sssss power I caaaan make millionssss...billionsss of me! I will absorb alll life! The universe willll only be the Screammm!"

"Fine," Avalon spat, her eyes narrowing on the Scream.

"Oi! Bighead!" the Doctor's voice hollered, making every copy of the Scream look away from themselves.

And once they looked away from themselves, it forgot that it existed. Each of them faded away into nothing, leaving no trace that it had ever existed in the first place.

Avalon turned around to see the Doctor, Amy and Rory. It was funny, the white room - she decided it was a room - seemed endless. She had to run for a few seconds until she could join them.

She jumped into the Doctor's arms, hugging him tight. "I did it! I got your message! I did it!"

"I know you did," the Doctor hugged her tight, getting that strong scent of sweet lavender. He truly did love it.

"So he just...he just forgot himself?" Rory felt a headache coming along with just that detail.

"We literally used its own weapon against it," the Doctor said to them as he let Avalon go just a bit. He had completely forgotten her for a moment there and he wasn't interested in letting her go anytime soon.

"So then shouldn't we have faded from existence when the Scream did?" Amy gestured to the white room. "We were inside him, after all. He absorbed us."

"You'd think so, the Scream vanished but…" there was a familiar grin on the Doctor's face that Avalon saw first. "Remember that he merged with the Sapling and now the Scream is gone, so that means we're currently inside…"

"The Sapling!" Avalon gasped, soon sporting the same grin as the Doctor's. "He's still alive!"

"That's really great, but how do we get out!?" Rory exclaimed.

"Hello! Hi!" Amy started shouting into the air. "Sapling, if you can hear us...I'm really tired! Can we just go home!?"

There was a light whooshing air, almost like the TARDIS would make. Before they knew it, the outline of a door appeared a few feet away from them.

"Is it really that easy?" Avalon blinked, stepping towards it.

"If he knows that I'm tired then yeah," Amy shot them a smirk and hurried up to it despite Rory's warning call to wait. Amy opened the door and stepped into the console room, their console room. "Aha! Yes!" But she gasped when she saw the Sapling across from them.

Everyone else did too.

The Sapling was back but he was a little different…and not so little anymore...

"Sapling!" Avalon zoomed right past the group to hug the Sapling, although she had to go on her tippy-toes because now the Sapling was as tall as the Doctor.

"What's wrong with him?" Rory whispered to the Doctor.

"Nothing! He's...matured!" the Doctor grinned and hurried over as well.

The Sapling had grown into a man - a tree man. He had lost his brown wooden skin to be replaced by a white, pinkish skin. His eyes had shrunken a bit, stretched out only slightly. Even his head was no longer that pointy!

"I grew up, Mother," the Sapling pulled away from Avalon to hug the Doctor, revealing his lower voice in the process.

"Yes, you did!" Avalon laughed out of surprise.

"We all go through a difficult adolescent phase where a homicidal memory-stealing alien from a strange religious cult wants to use us to take over the entire universe and turn every living thing into them!" the Doctor stepped back beside Avalon and found her glaring at him.

"Please stop talking."

The Sapling laughed. Avalon gave him a strange look for that. "You even laugh like a grown up. When Rory was a kid, his voice broke so much when he laughed!"

"Avalon, shush!" Rory frowned. This was no time to bring up his teenage years!

"You found me," the Sapling breathed out with a nervous smile. "Just like you promised you would."

"You are family," the Doctor reiterated to him. "You're our son."

"Yes," the Sapling nodded, as if only now just coming to terms with it. "You are my Father, you are my Mother…" He looked past the pair to Amy and Rory, "My...aunt and uncle." The two thanked him for not revealing their true relationship. "I wanted to thank you all for believing in me. You saved me. My race, my DNA...it said that I had to destroy and spread across the universe. That I was a weapon."

"But you're not," Avalon shook her head. "You are so incredible! You're my son!"

"Truly," the Doctor agreed.

"Father, you stole this TARDIS, ran from your people, refused to be what you were told to be. You decided to be kind. You are an inspiration!"

"Oh, well..I…" the Doctor stammered as he looked around, making the others laugh.

Avalon threw her arms around him. "I agree! And you made him blush!"

"No, I'm not!"

The Sapling smiled as the two bickered for a few seconds. They didn't even hear him when he pointed out that they both had their memories back.

"Alright you two, break it up!" Amy came marching up to them and physically ripped them away from each other. "Sheesh! Bad influence on your child!"

"Yeah, yeah," the Doctor waved them off. "So, Sapling, where to from here? Would you like to stay or…?"

"Or?" Avalon frowned, her eyes flickering from him and the Sapling. "What do you mean 'or'?"

"Well, it's just...the Sapling is - as he put it - all grown up. Sometimes, typically, that means he might want to go exploring on his own."

Avalon's entire face fell at the idea of the Sapling leaving them. Without realizing it, she'd become so attached to him. She'd gotten used to having the little one around…

But he's not 'little' anymore and that's the point!

"You're all grown up," she said sadly. "Of course you want to leave."

"It's not that I want to leave you, Mother. I'm just curious," the Sapling smiled softly at her. He walked up to her and put his hands over her shoulders. "But it doesn't mean I won't come back. You're my Mother."

"Not a very good one, I'm afraid," Avalon sniffed. "I-I didn't really know what to do half the time. I'm sorry about that."

"You were wonderful, Mother! So much fun! I will always love our movie marathons! And the Heist! That's my favorite memory with Father."

The Doctor grinned. "Don't fret, I'm sure we'll have another one!"

"No, we won't!" Rory huffed. They just didn't understand that heists were wrong, didn't they!?

The Sapling smiled at all of them. "Yes, I won't go away forever. I'll be back to visit!"

The Doctor moved for the console and rummaged through the under compartments until he pulled out a familiar device. "Take this, Sapling. In case you wander to some, uh, not so advanced parts of the galaxies. And Earth."

The Sapling took the device from him. It was what changed his appearance to a human boy when he visited Leadworth. "Thank you, Father."

"Well...can I have another hug before we have to drop you off?" Avalon was already holding her arms out. She felt like she was about to burst into sobs. So, the Sapling hugged her for a little bit longer than the others.

~ 0 ~

Following into his mother's footsteps, the Sapling chose to start his own adventures in the 51st century. With tears in their eyes, the family parted and went their separate ways. As soon as everything was back to normal, Avalon was shipped off to the medbay for a thorough examination. After breathing in the air from Zoline and undergoing the Scream's own personal world, they needed to make sure Avalon hadn't suffered any setbacks in her health.

"I still think this is all just a tad too much," Avalon sighed in her spot. She scooted to the edge of the medbed while the Doctor hurried back to the computers to upload her latest blood samples.

"Nope! You're not getting up from that bed until I'm done with you!"

A smirk played on Avalon's face. "Ooh, I didn't know you were thinking like that, Fairy Tale Man."

The Doctor winced and shot her a look, though as upset as he wanted to seem the bright red blush on his face greatly contradicted it. "Not like that!" Before she could say anything else, he dove his head to the computers instead. She needed to stop playing with him like that because one of these days…

"So, how is everything?" Avalon asked after a moment of listening to computers whizzing.

"Pretty normal...for you," the Doctor was happy to read. He literally felt his hearts returning to their normal beating speed. Her lungs didn't hold on to any of the poisons from Zoline's air and her brain scans showed nothing was damaged from the Scream's attacks. She was perfectly normal.

He could breathe again.

He turned around and went straight to the ginger, pulled her right off the bed to hug her. "I promise there'll be no more invasions into your head." He kissed the top of her head.

"That would be nice," Avalon hummed. "Although, it does feel kind of nice knowing that even when we forgot about each other, we still found each other."

The Doctor smiled and swayed her a bit. "Of course I'd find you, Ava." Because I love you. Oh, those were still too strong words for her. He didn't want to freak her out after everything that already happened.

Avalon hummed for a few seconds until she spoke again, "Well, I just want to make it clear that you do have a home." She raised her head to meet his gaze. The Sapling had heard all the conversations they had in the Scream's world and was fairly good at giving Avalon the quick run-down of the Doctor's most popular thoughts in that world. He felt like he didn't have a home and that could not be. "You said you didn't have a home, but you do. It's me, Amy and Rory. We're not Gallifrey but I can try to make it as best as I can."

The Doctor brought his hands to cup her face. "You are absolutely wonderful," he said, feeling truly touched with her words. Yes, of course you're my home. I was just so alone in that other world...it's actually not that far from what I used to be."

"Well that's never happening again," Avalon was quick to say, "Because I am never leaving you. I'm here until the end..." Those words brought her to the next point she wanted to discuss - she wanted to yell actually but she didn't want to make things worse. "Doctor, is it really true that you don't have any regenerations left?"

The Doctor's expression turned grim fast. He should've figured that was going to come back sooner or later. He dropped his hands from her face and sighed. "Yes..."

"But didn't you say you were in your eleventh incarnation?" Or had she misheard that bit? She was sure that she hadn't.

The Doctor brought a hand up to the back of his neck. "I...this is my last body. My previous incarnation wasted one regeneration."

"How!?"

"He, uh...I...liked that face, a lot. So I kept it." Looking back at it, it truly was a waste of a regeneration.

"That's one, where's the other one?"

The Doctor would prefer not to talk about that incarnation. He didn't even consider it an incarnation but Avalon wasn't going to let it go. She wanted to know the truth and after everything, she deserved some truth. "There's one incarnation that I don't really like to think of, nor remember. It was the one during the War. That's two incarnations there so...this me...is the last one."

"How could you not tell me that?" Avalon thought about Lake Silencio. River had been wrong. The Doctor didn't die 'mid-regeneration'. He had just died. He would die because he was shot, not because he couldn't make it to the next regeneration. Had the astronaut known that?

You're learning it right now. She stiffened. What if the future was cementing right now?

Tears filled Avalon's eyes when her thoughts started spinning with multiple Lake Silencio scenarios. "Oh my God," she covered her mouth.

The Doctor sprang into action when he saw her tears. "N-n-n-n-no, Ava! I'm okay! I'm alright!" He yanked her into another hug, this time holding her as tightly as he could. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you that. I-I didn't know how to bring it up."

Avalon knew there was no way to bring that up into a conversation. If roles were reversed she would probably struggle too. But she knew it wasn't why she was crying. Her tears belonged to the future. She couldn't let that happen to him. If she was the astronaut, then she would make sure she never hurt him. She could do that. She could really do that.

She rested her hands over his chest, listening to the rhythm of his heart beats. "Then I guess we'll have to make sure nothing happens to these hearts." She raised her head to meet his soft smile. "I can take care of them."

"Yeah?" the Doctor wouldn't mind that one bit.

"Mhm, I'll be gentle with them." Avalon watched him near her lips, her own lips curving into a smile. I'll love them. She paused so subtly that the Doctor never saw it. She had no idea where that thought came from but it brought about special butterflies in her stomach. She looked at him in a whole different light and suddenly the only thing she wanted to do was kiss him until she ran out of breath.

"They couldn't be in safer hands," the Doctor murmured just before kissing her, unknowingly fulfilling her current desire. Avalon quickly moved her arms around his neck to bring him closer and leave their bodies firmly pressed against each other's.

Unfortunately, they were interrupted shortly afterwards…

"What kind of exams are you running here, exactly?" The sharp voice of Amy broke them apart.

"P-Ponds!" the Doctor sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of both Amy and Rory at the doorway. This was bad, bad!

"I told you they needed supervision!" Rory huffed at his wife and crossed his arms.

"Shame, I lost a bet because of you two!" Amy pointed at the pair who were frozen in their spots. Glumly, she reached into her pant's pockets to pull out the money.

"You bet on us?" frowned Avalon before it hit her. "Wait! What about!?"

"That you could handle this relationship like adults obviously!"

"You knew!?" Avalon and the Doctor yelled with the same red blush on their faces.

"Since when!?" Avalon demanded.

Amy and Rory looked at each other to make the calculations. They went back and forth for a few minutes until they agreed. "Two weeks ago!"

"What? And you didn't say anything?" The Doctor arched an eyebrow at them, for a brief moment wondering if they were truly the Ponds.

"Well, it was obvious you guys weren't ready to tell us," Amy shrugged then flashed them a smirk. "Course it just seems like you were a lot more busy snogging than anything else."

"Yeah, since this is all out in the air can we just dial it back a bit?" Rory properly shivered. He did not enjoy catching his granddaughter snogging the hell out of the Doctor two weeks ago. That was not a way to start a morning. He would've yelled for them to stop if Amy hadn't pulled him out of the console room in time.

"You're not...you're not mad?" the Doctor's voice was a tad squeaky, much to Amy's amusement. He was clearly nervous of their reactions.

Avalon moved one of her arms over his shoulder and looked at his anxious face. Poor thing really did look scared. It warmed her heart that he truly cared a lot about what Amy and Rory had to say about their relationship, but at the same time she felt the need to point out it didn't matter what they thought. She wondered why he was so fixated on their opinions anyways.

"We were surprised that you started a relationship without letting us in on the secret," Rory was the one to say and for the same reason the Doctor had asked the question in the first place. He made it very clear in the beginning what he thought about the relationship if it ever were to happen. He supposed that even after he apologized to the Doctor and told him that he would really be okay with a relationship between them, the Doctor would still be nervous. "But we're happy for you, really."

Once again, the Doctor felt like he could breathe again. Avalon shook her head at him with a laugh. "I think your hearts were doing the salsa for a moment!" She gave a light pat to his chest.

He rolled his eyes at her. He didn't care. He just heard that her grandparents were okay with their relationship. They didn't want him away from her!

"Avalon, are you happy?" Amy asked her even though the answer was clear as day.

The Doctor still had one arm wrapped around her waist while she adjusted his bowtie. "Like you wouldn't believe it," Avalon hummed contently. She had just made the biggest realization in her life and she wasn't going to let anyone take it away. "My Fairy Tale Man has made me so happy."

"That's great," Amy nodded before clapping her hands together. "So now that we're all in the loop we can implement the rules."

That certainly snapped Avalon out of her moment. "The what now?"

"The rules!" chorused her grandparents.

"One of the most important rules is you are to sleep in separate rooms, young lady!"

"Oh, c'mon-" Avalon was in the middle of rolling her eyes when Amy reached over to yank her away. "Amy!"

"No, you actually do need to rest tonight Ava," the Doctor pointed at her and earned himself a glare. "Goodnight Ava!"

Avalon gasped as Amy dragged her out of the room. "Doctor! I hate you!"

"Yeeeeah," Rory clapped a hand over the Doctor's shoulder, "For your own safety, you're going to always want to agree with Ava. It's survival. She gets that from her grandmother." Of course he winced when he remembered that Amy wasn't that far away and could possibly overhear him.

The Doctor could half-smile now. "Thanks Rory. So...are you really okay?"

"Yes, of course. I told you this, Doctor. I'm really sorry for what I used to think but I know where Avalon is safest and where she's happiest. And even though Amy and I caught you two weeks ago, we knew something was up," Rory crossed his arms and smirked when the Doctor paled for a few seconds.

"Y-you did?"

"Of course. Avalon was a wreck after Berlin. Three months we spent trying to build her health and her mental health...and then one day, poof! She's not grumpy anymore, she didn't cry as much...she was smiling. My granddaughter was laughing again. You made that happen and I will always be thankful for that."

The Doctor was touched to hear Rory's words. To know that Rory, the person who was most against this relationship, was truly thankful for him...it relieved the Doctor of several layers of guilt. "Thank you Rory. Really."

"There's just one thing I'm going to ask of you," Rory warned, his face softening as he spoke again, "Please keep her safe. I lost my daughter, I couldn't keep her safe. I don't want Avalon to keep suffering. Please promise me that you will always keep her safe. When Amy and I are long gone, promise me that you'll put Avalon's safety first."

"Rory, don't talk about that…" the Doctor hated to think that one day he and Amy would...they would...die. It truly hurt his insides, made them churn too.

"No, we have to. Especially now that we know Avalon's lifespan is just like...doubled or tripled, whatever it is...it's a lot longer than what Amy and I are going to live combined. And that's fine. I would never want to bury her or River first. They need to bury us first. So when Amy and I are gone, you promise me that Avalon will come first no matter what."

"I swear Rory," the Doctor ultimately said. He understood where Rory was coming from. He was, after all, a father and grandfather himself (at least he once was). The need to keep one's family safe was a powerful force. It overrode anything else. Rory felt that towards Avalon and he couldn't dismiss it simply because he wasn't comfortable talking about death. "Avalon will always come first. Her safety will be my first priority."

Rory nodded firmly. "Thank you." He wouldn't share with the Doctor, nor Amy for that matter, that there was still a tiny part of him that still felt like there was a moment coming for them; something that would hurt all of them. He just hoped that the Doctor would fulfill his promise if the time ever called for it.

Author's Note:

And that concludes the Sapling's arc but don't fret, he's not gone forever! He'll be making some visits later on! When I first read this arc I thought the ending was SO cool and yet so sad. I mean, all they had to do was get the Scream to look away from itself to defeat him. I don't know, I just got chills when I read that moment. It was written so nicely and so sadly...*Jake Peralta's voice* Chills, literal chills!

#ocappreciation #doctor who #11th doctor #dw imagine #11th doctor imagines #doctor who fics #11th doctor fics #dw fics #amy pond #rory williams #oc: Avalon Reynolds #fic: falling in temptation

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thelittlesttimelord · 4 years

Text

The Littlest Timelord: The Fall of Eleventh Chapter 46

TITLE: The Littlest Timelord: The Fall of the Eleventh Chapter 46 PAIRING: No Pairing RATING: T CHAPTER: 46/? SUMMARY: Elise Smith is now a teenaged Timelord. In addition to losing the Ponds, the fields of Trenzalore are calling. But first they have to figure out exactly who Clara Oswald is.

[A/N - I really love this chapter. I hope you do too!]

They went back to their respective TARDIS’ and sent a message to the High Council.

It read “Gallifrey Stands”.

The High Council chamber popped up on their screens.

“Hello, hello, Gallifrey High Command, this is the Doctor speaking,” the Doctor said.

“Hello! Also the Doctor. Can you hear me?” Ten asked.

“Also the Doctor, standing ready,” the older Doctor said.

“Dear God, three of them. All my worst nightmares at once,” High Council members said.

“General, we have a plan…” Ten started.

“We should point at this moment, it is a fairly terrible plan…” the Doctor said.

“And almost certainly won't work.”

“I was happy with fairly terrible.”

“Sorry, just thinking out loud.”

“We're flying our three TARDIS’s into your lower atmosphere.”

“We're positioned at equidistant intervals around the globe. Equidistant. So grown up.”

Elise giggled, happy that the two versions of her father were finally getting along.

“We're just about ready to do it,” the older Doctor said.

“Ready to do what?” the General asked.

“We're going to freeze Gallifrey,” the Doctor told him.

“I'm sorry, what?”

“Using our TARDIS’s, we're going to freeze Gallifrey in a single moment in time,” Ten said.

“You know, like those stasis cubes? A single moment in time, held in a parallel pocket universe,” the older Doctor explained.

“Except we're going to do it to a whole planet,” the Doctor said.

“And all the people on it,” Ten added.

“What? Even if that were possible, which it isn’t, why would you do such a thing?” the General asked.

“Because the alternative is burning,” the Doctor said.

“And I've seen that,” Ten said.

The Doctor looked at Elise, who stood next to him. “And we never want to see it again.”

“We'd be lost in another universe, frozen in a single moment. We'd have nothing,” the General told them.

“You would have hope. And right now, that is exactly what you don't have,” the Doctor said.

“It's delusional. The calculations alone would take hundreds of years.”

“Oh, hundreds and hundreds.”

“But don't worry, I started a very long time ago,” Ten told them.

An older, much older, Doctor’s voice was heard. “Calling the War Council of Gallifrey. This is the Doctor.”

“You might say I've been doing this all my lives,” the Doctor said.

One by one, new voices were heard. Voices from the Doctor’s younger incarnations.

“Good luck.”

“Standing by.”

“Ready.”

“Commencing calculations.”

“Soon be there.”

“Across the boundaries that divide one universe from another.”

“Just got to lock on to his coordinates.”

“And for my next trick…”

“I didn't know when I was well off. All twelve of them!” the General groaned.

“No, sir. All thirteen!” his second in command said, “Sir! The Daleks know that something is happening. They're increasing their fire power.”

“Do it, Doctor. Just do it. Do it!”

Elise looked in on the High Council chamber and recognized one of them. “Father?”

The Timelord spoke her true name and Elise flinched.

“That isn’t my name anymore,” she spat.

“You can deny it all you want, but you will always be my daughter.”

“See, there’s where you’re wrong. When a Timelord graduates the Academy, they choose a name. That name is a promise. Well guess what? I’m of age and I choose the name Elise Amelia Smith. Because I am the Doctor’s daughter and I always will be.”

Even though she couldn’t see it, three versions of the Doctor were smiling with pride at her. One who had no idea who she was, one she’d met apparently, and the one who was responsible for raising her.

“I look forward to running away from Gallifrey.” She grabbed the lever and flipped it shouting, “Geronimo!”

“Allons-y!” Ten yelled.

“Oh, for God's sake,” the older Doctor groaned, “Gallifrey stands!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They returned to the National Gallery for a good cup of tea before saying goodbye.

Clara sat on the bench with the older Doctor, while Elise, Ten, and the Doctor stood in front of “Gallifrey Falls.” Both Doctors were wearing their glasses.

“I don't suppose we'll know if we actually succeeded. But at worst, we failed doing the right thing, as opposed to succeeding in doing the wrong,” the older Doctor said.

“Life and soul, you are,” Clara quipped.

“What is it actually called?” Ten asked.

“Well, there's some debate. Either No More or Gallifrey Falls,” the Doctor said.

“Not very encouraging,” the older Doctor commented.

“How did it get here?” Ten asked.

“No idea,” the Doctor said.

“There's always something we don't know, isn't there?”

“One should certainly hope so,” the older Doctor said. He stood up. “Well, gentlemen, it has been an honor and a privilege.”

“Likewise,” Ten told him.

The Doctor nodded his head. “Doctor.”

The older Doctor turned to Clara. “And if I grow to be half the man that you are, Clara Oswald, I shall be happy indeed.”

“That's right. Aim high.” Clara kissed him on the cheek and the older Doctor approached Elise.

“You are an exceptional woman. He should be proud of the way he raised you.” The War Doctor gently kissed her forehead and Elise hugged him.

She wished she could take away all his pain. “It’s been an honor meeting you. They shouldn’t be ashamed of you. I’m not.”

“Thank you, my dear.” He looked at his older incarnations. “I won't remember this, will I?”

“The time streams are out of sync. You can't retain it, no,” the Doctor told him.

“So I won't remember that I tried to save Gallifrey rather than burn it. I'll have to live with that. But for now, for this moment, I am the Doctor again. Thank you.” He turned to look at the TARDIS’. “Which one is mine?”

Everyone looked at the war-torn TARDIS.

“Ha!” He went inside and the TARDIS dematerialized.

“I won't remember either, so you might as well tell me,” Ten said.

“Tell you what?” the Doctor asked.

“Where it is we're going that you don't want to talk about.”

“I saw Trenzalore, where we're buried. We die in battle among millions.”

“That's not how it's supposed to be.”

“That's how the story ends. Nothing we can do about it. Trenzalore is where you're going.”

“Oh, never say nothing. Anyway, good to know my future is in safe hands. Keep a tight hold on it, Clara.”

“On it.” Clara stood up and Ten kissed her hand.

He started to go into his TARDIS when Elise grabbed onto his coat.

“Wait.”

Ten turned to her. “We’ll meet again. Don’t you worry”.

“But not like this. We’ll be back at the beginning”.

Ten smiled and put his hand on her cheek as he kissed her forehead. “Saving you is the single greatest thing I’ll ever do. You are beautiful and clever and so, so brave. He’s lucky to have you and I’m proud of you. So proud of you”.

Elise smiled through her tears as he opened the door to his TARDIS.

“Trenzalore. We need a new destination, because I don't want to go.”

Those words caused a pang in Elise’s hearts. Those were the last words he ever spoke before regenerating.

His TARDIS dematerialized, leaving one TARDIS left.

“He always says that,” the Doctor said. He walked up to the painting.

“Need a moment alone with your painting?” Clara asked.

“How did you know?”

“Those big sad eyes.”

“Ah.”

Clara put a hand on his face and kissed his cheek. “I always know. Oh, by the way, there was an old man looking for you. I think it was the curator.”

Elise stared at the painting for a moment longer, before turning to go back into the TARDIS.

“He’s me, you know?” the Doctor said.

She looked at him. “I know. I only see you, no matter what face you have.” She went inside, leaving the Doctor alone.

He sat down on the bench in front of the painting. “I could be a curator. I'd be great at curating. I'd be the Great Curator. I could retire and do that. I could retire and be the curator of this place.”

“You know, I really think you might.” An older man entered the gallery.

The Doctor stood up. “I never forget a face.”

“I know you don't. And in years to come, you might find yourself revisiting a few. But just the old favorites, eh?”

The Doctor winked at him.

“You were curious about this painting, I think. I acquired it in remarkable circumstances. What do you make of the title?” the curator asked.

“Which title? There's two. No More or Gallifrey Falls.”

“Oh, you see, that's where everybody's wrong. It's all one title. Gallifrey Falls No More. Now, what would you think that means, eh?”

“That Gallifrey didn't fall. It worked. It's still out there.”

“I'm only a humble curator. I'm sure I wouldn't know.”

“Then where is it?”

“Where is it indeed? Lost. Shush. Perhaps. Things do get lost, you know. And now you must excuse me. Oh, you have a lot to do.”

“Do I? Is that what I'm supposed to do now? Go looking for Gallifrey?”

“Oh, it's entirely up to you. Your choice, eh? I can only tell you what I would do if I were you. Oh, if I were you. Oh, perhaps I was you, of course. Or perhaps you are me. Congratulations.”

They shook hands.

“Thank you very much.”

“Or perhaps it doesn't matter either way. Who knows, eh? Who knows?”

The curator left the gallery and not a second later, a small girl came running in.

“Grandpa!”

“Clarice!” A woman with blonde hair came running in after her. “I’m so sorry about that”, she said. The woman had an American accent. Something the Doctor didn’t hear very often.

The Doctor smiled. “It’s no problem”, he told her.

“He looks like grandpa when he was younger”, Clarice said.

“He does doesn’t he?” the woman said, with a twinkle in her eye, “Now come along, darling”.

“Bye!” Clarice said and ran out of the exhibit.

“I’m sorry again. She’s a bit excitable at times. Reminds me so much of my father”, she told him.

“It’s really no trouble. I love children.”

The woman looked at the painting. “Interesting, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Funny. It looks like somewhere I know. Somewhere from a dream.”

“Who are you if I may ask?” She had to be part of UNIT to even access this gallery.

She gave him a coy smile. “The Curator’s daughter.”

The Doctor’s mind started racing as she walked off. Was she…? But then that would make the little girl…

He looked back the painting.

Oh, he was going to be busy indeed.

#eleventh doctor #eleventh doctor imagines #eleventh doctor fanfiction #Tenth Doctor #tenth doctor imagine #war doctor #war doctor imagine #clara oswald #clara oswald imagine #the littlest timelord #the littlest timelord: the fall of the eleventh #day of the doctor

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hunterguyveriv · 4 years

Text

Sometimes a Stranger can help you Heal

Another 2 day combined into one for the Day 5 (Conversation in Black Lion) & and Day 6 (Battle Injury/Angst/Healing).

Both Keith & Acxa may seem out of character, but this is how I see the span of time between the time of Zethrid’s ship and when the lions land on the planet Acxa was stationed. It is meant to only center on Keith & Acxa

"What if she makes a move against him? We barely survived our last ground encounter with the Generals, let alone them in the Sincline ships!" The voice of an older female could be heard, "I trust my son enough to hold his own. One of our training regiments was close-quarters combat to simulate an attempted Cockpit takeover. Besides, if this Acxa DOES makes a move against him, I won't need to worry about him..."

In a matter of seconds, the mouth was pressurized and filled with oxygen. Keith landed with the full force of their weight on his left shoulder, causing it to dislocate. The cockpit pathway was now available to both of them as Black turned and rejoined the other lions. He grabbed his numb unresponsive left wrist, picking it up from the area between her navel and waist, letting it drop to the floor. Keith grimaced as the angle his arm was in caused more pain, which he couldn't focus on.

He jumped up, holding his left arm, rushing to the cockpit. Once in, he greeted his wolf, and delicately stepped over him. He was quickly hitting some buttons on the console. The console had a loading wheel before flashing off. He promptly sat in his chair, grabbing his left wrist again and resting his arm on his hip, hand limply hanging between his legs before holding the right-hand joystick. He shifted black to regroup and take the point in the formation.

Acxa was a mere 50 seconds behind him when she entered the cockpit. She saw Keith deliberately not using his left arm but saw some movement out of the corner of her eye. She saw and wast both shocked and startled that he had an injured Tlvdatsi Wolf. She looked back at the paladin, trying to figure him out. Figure out how the ruggle he got an animal supposedly extinct due to Zarkon hunting them down, wanting to unlock their teleportative abilities. She sat down slowly next to the wolf, not to seem aggressive or to jostle it, causing more pain. As she sat down, the wolf whined in pain, causing her to instinctively stroked his fur and prove some sort of comfort.

Over the comms came the voice of the one she knew from the Weblum as Hunk "Guy's we need somewhere to do close by to land and charge the lions! They can't take much more." A soft voice came from the floor, "I know of a place you can hold out." Keith looked at her as she typed on her gauntlet, "Go to Planet Verolgah-VI. You can lay low for as long as needed while they charge up."

Keith typed in the Planet's name and saw it would take 8 hours at their current levels to get there. Plotted a course, and everyone followed. He turned to face her and thank her for everything she had done, but she had fallen asleep next to his wolf. Stroking his fur gently, she had one of the most peaceful looks on her face.

She was woken up by some strained grunting. She looked up and saw a helmetless Keith standing near the cot for the Black Paladin. He had his hand in between the railing to get in it and the wall. He had is bayard in his mouth, chomping his teeth, which some looked Galra, and some looked human on it as he tried twisting his arm. She heard a growl escape his throat, which prompted his wolf to lift his head and look at him cocking his head. She saw him twist his arm relatively fast and yank. She heard a sigh come from him as he reached up and stroked his shoulder a little, telling her it was dislocated. She watched with abated interest then horror as she saw him take his arm from between the wall and railing and then slam his left shoulder full force into the wall. She winced, hearing a blood cruddling pop and a Yelp-like growl from being his bayard.

She watched as he flexed his left arm, even open and close his hand. He took his bayard from his mouth and let it dematerialize into its storage area in his leg armor. He turned, seeing her watching him, causing his cheeks to burn "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you." She waved her hand slightly and stiffly got up "It's all right, but if you needed help you should have asked." She got up and felt his left shoulder region for any severe damage.

Keith stopped feeling heat around his neck, "I know, but I'm still not used to asking for help." She rested a hand briefly on the space between his chest armor and shoulder pad. They stood there in awkward silence for a group of seconds before getting flustered. Keith went back to the pilot's seat. Acxa sat on a small ledge to his right, "But you are the leader of Voltron."

Keith typed on his console's right panel, transferring power and controls back to the left side. He flexed his arm briefly before taking the left joystick releasing a sigh of relief. He looked back at her with a somber look, "Ever since my father died and and my mother-Krolia was out of the picture since I was a mere baby, all I could rely on was myself." Acxa to tell he was still hurting from his past as he looked back to his view screen, "Sure I had Shiro after he recruited me for the Galaxy Garrison and eventually became a type of brother figure to me, but…"

"You still remained an outcast." He nodded as she finished his thoughts. "Even now, when I am with the team it feels like I am still kept at a distance." She sat there intently, "but what of the one called, I think Hunk, from what I remember of the Weblum, he seemed like he was trying to get close."

She saw Keith reach up and touch the area of his right trapezoid and breastbone area. "Yeah, during a trying time, besides Shiro filling that brotherly role, of the team he was the only one who bothered trying." She looked at him, puzzled, causing him to sigh and looked at her. "I was in a dark place leading up to the battle in which Voltron fought Zarkon. Up to possibly a week prior to that battle, I had gone my entire life believing I was human. That was until I met a Blade member by the name of Ulaz."

He reached a concealed compartment that had mostly chewie snacks for his wolf, which prompted his wolf to get up and sit next to his arm, nuzzling it for some, along with his knife. He grabbed a couple of pieces of dried meat for the wolf and his knife. The wolf eagerly took the chewies and ran to "Daddy's Cot" and jumped on it.

Acxa, in a very long time, giggled at the defeated sigh but put her attention back on Keith. "My beliefs that I was completely human started to falter when Zarkon said, 'I fought like a Galra Soldier' which don't get me wrong was quite a compliment in itself." He saw her nod, "As you should." He held his knife forward, the same knife that transformed into a large sword at the Kral-Zera "But it was seeing this emblem on Ulaz's weapon that shook my foundation."

"Once we met with the Blade of Marmora to be potential allies against Zarkon, but things nearly spiraled out of hand until Blade-Master Kolivan put me through the trials in which I awoken the blade." As he put his knife in a secret hilt, he had specially made for his armor, "That is when you learned you were Galra?" He looked at the timer to reach the Planet that her base was on compared to the remaining power time for the lions, it was cutting it rather tight "Correct." He went back to piloting Black. "How did the others react?"

She could see she struck a still-raw nerve with his demeanor change, "Sorry…" He politely waved her off, "No, no, it's okay." He initiated the auto-pilot, he shifted to face her. "Lance, the loud pain in the ass actually didn't insult me about it. He said it even made sense since I made Galra consoles work, and the jacket I wore before leaving for a time reminded him of Sendak's armor. Pidge, she looked at it from a scientific standpoint and Coran. Coran told me he already knew, but felt it wasn't his place to tell me.

"Is that why you helped me out in the Weblum?" She saw him smirk, "Yes and no." She gave him a puzzled look. "Honestly I had no idea you were Galra until I saw your insignia. But my father who was a firefighter, had taught me from a young age that if I saw someone in need regardless of who they are you help them." "Sounds like he was an honorable man," she placed a hand on his forearm. "He was, infact that is how he met mom. Watching a vision from the Quantum Abyss, she crashlanded on Earth preventing a scout from revealing the location of the Blue-Lion…" Smirking quite ironically "something that still irks Allura quite a bit."

That last bit, she barely caught, but something definitely caught her attention "It seems, we are destined to keep crossing each other's path." He looked at her, "Oh?" "Affirmative. According to you, we met the same way your parents and ever since, we have been crossing each other's paths." His face in a matter of Milliseconds to a sudden realization, "You may be right!"

"But why… wait, what about Allura's reaction?" "Maybe because of it? We had grown close before the revelation. We were always stealing glances from one another when others weren't paying attention. Of all the Paladins she was always eager to join me, even was the toughest on me because Red was her father's lion. But it all changed after my trials..."

Acxa could tell he was still hurting. Hurting that, he experienced something that she, Lotor, Narti, Zethrid, and Ezor grew used to in nearly a quarter of a century. "All she saw was me as a Galra. Keep in mind I had a lot on my plate, I needed support from my team, my ENTIRE, team. But she cut me so deep that I was willing to take a suicide mission. Even after her… attempt of an apology, how could I lead someone who didn't want me there in the first place." Acxa nodded, sensing there was more anger and bitterness under the surface.

"Well it's her loss." She placed a hand on his and squeezed it softly. "You will find someone worthy of your devotion." Turning to hide the blush on his face, "Maybe I already have." He flipped his hand over, so their fingers intertwined. They gazed into each other's eyes briefly faces slightly red and purple before the proximity alarm brought them back to the immediate reality.

Planet Verolgah-VI was approaching fast, with systems starting to shutdown. Acxa uploaded a map to her base, which Keith sent to the rest of the lions. She even announced over the comms that they have to be careful entering the atmosphere due to Ion storms that had a tendency to appear out of nowhere. Keith gave the order to put their helmets back on and divert life support and any other unneeded energy to thrusters. Seconds before entering the upper atmosphere, more and more systems start to fail in the lions, "Anyone who isn't piloting, strap in! This is going to be rough!"

#keith voltron #acxa #kacxaweek2020 #kacxa_week_2020 #kacxa week 2020

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gayregis · 4 years

Text

vampire headcanons 2020, pt. 2

part two: “society” and culture

this post is more based upon canon than the previous one. the next will be almost purely conjecture/headcanon.

(previous post)

> how vampires view the conjunction of the spheres, population of vampires on the continent

“I’m the descendant of survivors, unfortunate beings imprisoned here after the cataclysm you call the Conjunction of Spheres.”

Baptism of Fire, pg. 219

regis says “survivors,” but avallac’h also uses this term to refer to humans who arrived on the continent from the conjunction of spheres (The Tower of the Swallow, pg. 243) and when he speaks later about the conjunction, it is in purely logical terms, suggesting that there is not much regret and longing for the other world they came from.

“After the Conjunction of the Spheres there remained approximately one thousand two hundred (1,200) higher vampires in your world. (...) Since the Conjunction - once again calculating according to your reckoning - one thousand five hundred (1,500) years have passed.”

Baptism of Fire, pg. 297

for comparison, dandelion mentions that novigrad has around “thirty thousand (30,000) dwellers, not counting travellers” (Eternal Flame, pg. 134), and even though this is quite unique and remarkable for a city and dandelion tells this fact to geralt in context of describing novigrad as “the capital of the world,” this is a significantly larger number than the amount of higher vampires who arrived to the witcher world during the conjunction of the spheres. there are not that many vampires living on the continent, there were less vampires than the population of a large public high school.

this population is likely spread across the entire continent (the northern realms, the empire of nilfgaard, islands and archipelagos like skellige, and distant places like the far north and zerrikania), so they’re incredibly widely dispersed. geralt calls vereena a “rare bird” (The Last Wish, pg. 62), and did not consider regis to be a vampire until he purposefully revealed himself, which further suggests that higher vampires are extremely rare.

i tend to headcanon that the vampires were more condensed as a group during the time when regis partied (approx. up to 300 years ago) as dandelion describes the world during that time period:

“You’re reading Roderick de Novembre? As far as I remember, there are mentions of witchers there, of the first ones who started work some three hundred (300) years ago. In the days when the peasants used to go to reap the harvest in armed bands, when villages were surrounded by a triple stockage, when merchant caravans looked like the march of regular troops, and loaded catapults stood on the ramparts of the few towns nights and day. Because it was us, human beings, who were the intruders here. This land was ruled by dragons, manticores, griffins and amphisboenas, vampires and werewolves, striga, kikimores, chimerae and flying drakes. And this land hand to be taken from them bit by bit, every valley, every mountain pass, every forest and every meadow. And we didn’t manage that without the invaluable help of witchers. But those times have gone, Geralt, irrevocably gone.”

The Last Wish, pg. 162

the vampires were present enough during this time, and we can corroborate this history with regis’ account:

“So I partied. Revelries and frolics, shindigs and booze-ups; every full moon we’d fly to a village and drink from anyone we found. The foulest, the worst class of ... er ... fluid. It made no difference to us whose it was, as long as there was ... er ... haemoglobin ... It can’t be a party without blood, after all!”

Baptism of Fire, pg. 293

there were enough vampires in the past 400 years to hold parties on the full moon, actual genuine parties. but we never hear of vampires raiding villages during this time period, and geralt who is a current witcher, when asked of dealing with vampires, doesn’t say anything about these revelries and instead describes when he has been asked to deal with vampires but the threat was in fact non-existent (Baptism of Fire, pg. 152). thus we can assume that the vampires just don’t hold such raucous parties anymore, perhaps for a couple of potential reasons: their numbers are more dispersed and there are less vampires who live together in groups nowadays, and they have also likely lost leading figures like regis who were absolute mad lads and led the parties on.

> society, tradition, and language

vampire “society” is loosely tied together, and there exists no rules or authority amongst them:

“With humans, however, there exists a system of rules and restrictions: parental authority, guardians, superiors and elders - morals, ultimately. We have nothing like that. Youngsters have complete freedom and exploit it. They create their own patterns of behavior. Stupid ones, you understand.”

Baptism of Fire, pg. 293

from this anarchy comes a culture defined by partying, i.e., drinking from human villages during the full moon:

“Generally, the statistically average vampire drinks during every full moon, for the full moon is a holy day for us, which we usually... er... celebrate with a drink. (...) The number of teetotallers - because there is a considerable number of them - balances the number who drink excessively, as I did in my day.”

Baptism of Fire, pg. 297

and also characterized by hanging out in crypts, apparently:

(...) It got rowdier and rowdier,” the vampire continued. “Occassionally I went on such benders that I didn’t return to the crypt for three or four nights in a row.”

Baptism of Fire, pg. 294

the full moon is a celebration to them because when it is full, they are granted their full powers: they can shift easily between forms and dematerialize / rematerialize at will. it could also be because the full moon was the thing that they saw when they first arrived on the continent and thus every full moon is now an anniversary of sorts.

i headcanon that their societies, when they manage to have one, are largely based upon these celebratory drinking festivities. whoever is the best at partying is admired and well-liked. it’s a popularity contest of sorts. think of your local annoying fraternity boys.

but if they have no authority in the form of parental or elder guardianship, how do they receieve their names? regis only says this on the topic of vampire naming conventions:

“(...) I’d insisted on adopting the name Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde. Vesemir thought it was ridiculous; pretentious and idiotic. I dare say he was right.”

Dandelion snorted loudly, looking meaningfully at the vampire and the Nilfgaardian.

“My full name,” Regis said, a little piqued by the look, “is authentic. And in keeping with vampire tradition.”

Baptism of Fire, pg. 316

which is incredibly vague and unhelpful. all we know canonically is that vampire names are traditionally long and comprised of many names, likely in the same structure that regis’s is constructed in.

my suggestion to all of this is that vampire names are given to them by their peers, and they likely have developed their own various traditions of giving individuals names, based upon their most apparent qualities. regis is a latin name meaning “king” (genitive singular form of rex), which could be based in how the other vampires viewed him and how fun he was at parties.

it doesn’t really make sense for vampires to be using latin, but latin does exist as a language in the witcher universe, and regis uses a bit of latin randomly in an otherwise useless exchange:

The Witcher stood. “ Go on. Run off and pack. And be quick.”

“It won’t take me very long. Omnia mea mecum porto.”

“What?”

“I have very little luggage.”

(Lady of the Lake, pg. 139)

this is a reference to bias of priene, one of the seven sages of greece, quoted by cicero in his stoic paradoxes (paradox i), as saying “i carry with me all my possessions” / “all that is mine i carry with me”. this is likely just a reference that was intended to compare regis with bias of priene, who is known for his integrity and defense of others, his philosophical and humanist nature.

thus latin being the language of the vampires likely does not hold any ground, because regis is not the only individual that uses latin in the books. season of storms is infamous for its overusage of latin (“primo, secundo, tertio,” anyone?). in addition, vereena is not a latin name. vampires do have their own language, but it is unidentifiable to geralt yet is still able to influence him with feelings of terror:

He heard singing. He didn’t understand the words, he couldn’t even identify the language. He didn’t need to - the witcher felt and understood the very nature, the essence, of this quiet, piercing song which flowed through the veins in a wave of nauseous, overpowering menace. (...)

He could still hear her song, even though her thin, pale lips were held tight and not the slightest sound emerged from them.

The Last Wish, pg. 62

from what we can glean, vampires do not typically speak aloud like humans do. regis is an outlier as noted by geralt in the quotes cited in the previous post. in the last wish, vereena speaks solely through telepathy to geralt:

You. You will be the first to grow weak, Sorcerer. I will kill you.

The bruxa’s lips didn’t move, but the witcher heard the words clearly; they resounded in his mind, echoing and reverberating as if underwater.

The Last Wish, pg. 65

the only aloud vocalizations vereena makes are the screams she does in combat and when she screams in pain, which can be considered common for vampires.

(next post)

#vampire headcanons #the witcher #vamp squad #regis #why did regis randomly quote cicero. does he even know who cicero is. do humans in this universe even know. what the fuck #long post /

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snarky-bee · 4 years

Text

ZevWarden Week Day 6

Bloodstained Clothes: Injury

***

Their party had only just climbed another set of stairs up to the fourth floor in Kinloch hold when a door flew open at the opposite end of the hall with enough force to nearly knock it off the hinges.

A tall skeleton-like thing floated through the door, eyes glowing red and locked on her. With a wave of its spindly hand, a force lifted her into the air and flung her back into one of the stone columns in the middle of the room. Her elbow cracked against the stone and she fell to the floor with a piercing scream.

Shooting pain radiated up and down from her elbow. Her hand went numb, dagger clattered to the floor. The giant demon thing floated slowly towards her, shadow looming over her curled over form.

She scooted backwards, using her left arm to pull her back across the floor.

Zevran turned towards her with alarm in his eyes and sprinted at them, sword and dagger drawn in fury as he placed himself between her and the towering demonic entity. It swiped a long clawed hand in Zev’s direction and spewed trails of dark magic towards him, making the assassin flinch and cry out. He recovered quickly and thrust his sword up into the thing just as it dematerialized into smoke, only to appear behind Wynne instead.

“Warden. Are you alright?” he kneeled at her side, reaching towards the arm she clutched against her chest.

“Broken,” she said through gritted teeth. “Help Wynne.”

He nodded once, and cast a worried look at her once before taunting the demon in a loud voice, cackling as he too disappeared in a blast of smoke and reappeared at the demon’s back.

Kallian crawled back behind a toppled desk and finally braced herself to inspect her injury. Sweat prickled on her face as she clenched her jaw and squinted down at her left arm, expecting to see the white of bone popping out. No bone. With trembling fingers she tried to pry off the leather bracer. Just the lightest of tugs to the buckle and she let out a squeak of pain. Bad idea. No touching.

Sparks flew and the hairs on her arms rose with the crackling of magical energy filling the room. She glanced around the desk. Wynne had the attention of the demon still. Fuck.

She looked down again. Her right arm just kind of looked… wrong. There was a lump where there shouldn’t have been one under her skin and her wrist was limp. She clutched her knife tight in her left hand in case anything came near her. But her palm was sweaty and her hand still shook. It was all she could do to not focus on the throbbing pain in her arm, just tightly clutch her dagger and pray to Andraste that the others could finish off the demon without her help.

Leliana yelped and Kallian ducked around from her ‘hiding’ spot to see the redhead tumble to the ground next to the desk then get yanked towards the demon with an invisible force.

Alistair charged at the demon from behind and cracked his shield against it, following through with a mighty thrust of his longsword.

Meanwhile Kallian sat there clutching her dagger until her knuckles went white and her nails marked her palms.

An unearthly shriek pierced her ears and then the room was only filled with the sounds of panted breaths and weapons sliding home in their sheaths.

“Wynne!” she cried out brokenly at last. Her eyes scrunched shut and she tipped her head back against the wall, breath ragged.

“Kal!” Alistair shouted in alarm, rushing over with Zev close behind.

Zevran reached out for her bracer and she flinched.

“Don’t touch it!” she shouted.

Wynne tutted. “It will need to come off before I can properly heal you.”

Kallian paled and stared up at Wynne with wide eyes. “What do you mean? Just do the bloody magic,” she spat.

“If I go in blind I could just make it worse. A broken bone is no cake walk.”

She resigned herself to the inevitable. Wynne was gentle but just the jostling of buckles made Kallian’s face twist in pain until tears leaked out the corner of her eyes. “Maker, stop!”

Sharp pain scraped her nerves and she groaned when Wynna got the damn leather bracer off her arm. Faster than Kallian could react. Wynne pressed two fingers to her arm and something snapped. No words came out of her pained shout. Her scream turned into a groan. The groan turned into a whimper of relief when the cold soothing feeling rushed through her skin, then all at once warmed up.

“Never broken a bone before?” Zevran asked.

Kallian’s eyes fluttered back open to see him smirking at her and she scowled. “No. Not really a fucking habit of mine.” Wynne was going through her pockets and only came up with annoyed sighs. “There’s an infirmary further up the tower. I didn’t get a chance to grab supplies before,” she gestured around them. “You’ll need that arm bandaged and a proper sling.”

“What?” Kallian remarked. “But you healed it.” She flexed her hand a few times, her arm back and forth with twinges of pain as if the muscles were fighting back against her. “It’s fine!” she growled.

“The bone is fragile from new healing. The same as if you had waited the two months for it to heal on its own. If you fight with it, you’ll risk another break.”

“Bloody demons,” Kallian grumbled.

Alistair and Leliana both had some extra bandages in their supplies so between themselves, Wynne was able to form a tight wrapping around her forearm and up over her shoulder, pinning her right arm tight against her belly.

“It might be best for you to head back down where the other mages are waiting,” Wynne suggested kindly after helping Kallian sheath her other dagger.

“Funny thing about dual-wielding, I’m actually alright with just one hand too,” she argued.

To make a point, she propped herself back up to standing, wiped her forehead of sweat, and marched ahead through the open door. It was just a matter of not letting any enemies get her from the right side.

“How are you with a sword?” Zev asked her.

“Not my favourite thing but I’m fine, I guess.”

He undid the belt at his hip, and with it passed over his own longsword. “You should fight with this. It will be easier to block with a longer blade. You are used to blocking with one arm and striking with the other, no? A longsword is better at doing both.”

Her eyebrows went up as he placed the sword in her right hand. “What about you?” Then she snorted. “Let me guess, a few more daggers hidden on your body?”

He grinned. “But of course. What kind of assassin would I be if not?”

“You know this is the second time you’ve had to lend me a weapon already. Starting to feel like you think you have to be my own personal armoury or some shit,” she teased.

He nodded gracefully. “I have sworn an oath to you, have I not? Whether that means ensuring no demon reaches you, or that you have a sharp blade, I am happy to oblige.”

She had thought his whole oath thing was for dramatic flair, but he seemed to have taken it upon himself to be her personal guard. As long as he wasn’t stupid about it, she wasn’t mad about him having her back like that. Kallian would do the same.

“Um… could you,” she gestured to the straps of the belt hanging limply, her left elbow wiggling in uselessly in the makeshift sling.

“Ah, allow me,” Zev said. He deftly took the sword belt in hand and wrapped it around her hips. His hands skimmed her waist, arms wrapping around her from behind as he tugged the belt through the metal loop. He slipped a finger between the leather and her hips, checking the fit. His hands lingered on her hips a moment longer. She could feel his mouth close to her ear, his warm breath. And then he stepped away, readying his own weapons.

Kallian swallowed and ducked her head to hide the blush.

#zevwarden week 2020 #zevran arainai #kallian tabris #zevran/tabris #zevlian #snarky writing #injury trope #i was working on this bit for my next chapter anyway so HERE have a preview for ch.17 of red sunrise

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trashogram · 4 years

Text

Devotee II.

Ryuk/Misa

Warnings: Emotional/Psychological Manipulation, Abusive Relationships, Dubious Consent to Interspecies Relations, Painful Sex, and Sociopath Light Yagami

Part One | Part Three

When he fully processed Light’s proposition, Ryuk had cackled madly. His crowing built up like oncoming thunder, and the chains he wore rattled and clinked with the intensity. He laughed so hard that he had to hold onto his sides, long arms wrapping around his emaciated stomach as if it truly strained him.

Misa had stood behind the arrogant man, looking pale as a ghost. Her eyes were wide as the moon and she was uncharacteristically silent during their exchange, but it wasn’t hard to see why with the whole picture.

“You’ve finally lost it, Light-o.” Ryuk guffawed, feet finally back on the ground after he’d risen out of astonishment.

Light was unphased. “It’s not a joke.”

The laughter finally stopped, and Ryuk stood there with mounting confusion.

“... Why…?” He was truly dumbfounded, brain short-circuiting over how this could possibly be happening.

“You can’t trade her for the eyes.” The god of death chided Light. “No way would - ”

“ - Would offering Misa be enough to gain Shinigami eyes?” Light interrupted. “That’s fine. I figured as much.”

“That’s not what I want.” Light said, lips quirking. “I don’t want anything from you.”

He reached behind himself and pulled Misa forward by the wrist, holding her out for the shinigami to take, as if Misa was just another apple.

Ryuk reared back, head swiveling so fast that were he not already impervious to death, he would’ve broken his neck. Misa looked up at him with her hands clasped together in prayer.

“Ryuk.” She addressed him, voice hoarse. “Please, please do this with me. It’s all I want.”

He’d grown so accustomed to these particular humans, it wasn’t far-fetched to think he’d seen everything they had to offer. Misa’s devotion to Light Yagami went to great lengths, so far that she’d been willing to give her life for his ‘cause’... But this was crossing a different line entirely.

Ryuk’s bulbous eyes bore into the second Kira. He wouldn’t lie to himself. Misa may have been a human, and he a Shinigami, but Ryuk found the young woman plenty attractive. It didn’t matter much, knowing how crazy she was for Light, and how Misa wouldn’t have considered this in the first place. This kind of thing had likely never crossed her mind, nevertheless she was currently begging for Ryuk to fuck her.

She’d rather die first, wouldn’t she?

Or maybe she would die if she didn’t do this. Misa did look like a hostage at the moment, and Light was keeping her there with a harsh grip.

“Please?” Misa’s voice thickened with emotion, misery.

Ryuk was a little sad at the thought of Misa being disposed of so soon. And there was no rule against this, so if he did ‘help’ her here, it wouldn’t be enough to kill him.

There was another long silence, before Ryuk acquiesced by nodding.

“Alright.”

-------------

“You have to pretend it’s me.” Light had Misa by the shoulders, the caricature of a life coach trying to pep up a client. “That’s the only way this is going to work.”

His natural nonchalance so understated the demand that he had made of her, which he was well aware of. If this parasite of a woman weren’t so delusional, she’d already have left him and never looked back. Of course, she wouldn’t get very far considering he would just kill her, but still.

No sane person would possibly go through with this.

Light had adapted to Ryuk’s presence quickly, and regarded him with the same fondness one might bestow a stray cat. At his best, Ryuk was a not-quite-captive audience to Light’s triumphs, completely aware of how far Light had gone to secure his place as god.

That didn’t erase the fact that Ryuk was inhuman.

He was hideous. 7 feet tall while hunching, with grotesque blue-gray skin marred by stitches and deep grooves in his eccentric clothing. Ryuk was the stuff of nightmares, watching everyone with unblinking yellow eyes and a permanent grin on his ghastly face.

To Light, the shinigami barely resembled a man and looked more like an abomination trying to pretend it was human.

So, Light almost felt sorry for goading the little blonde gnat he called a girlfriend into fucking said abomination.

There wasn’t any reason for Misa to do this, truth be told. He’d planted the seed in her head that this was some nebulous albeit highly necessary test to prove her worth. If she had time to think it over, Misa would’ve realized how little sense this “test” made.

But for his own intrigue, and out of more than a little resentment, Misa’s strings were plucked expertly. She was already so needy, wanting affirmations of his love if ever he could spare them.

Light squeezed her shoulders and held her close. He faked actual care with all the grace of a trained actor.

“I know, I know.” He hushed. “It’s scary. It must seem impossible to you. It would seem that way to anyone, I’m sure.”

Why put her through it, then? Ryuk thought wryly. Aren’t you supposed to protect people you love?

Ryuk waited on the edge of the couple’s bed meanwhile, observing their silhouettes while listening to them whispering in the doorway. He felt confident that Misa herself was aware, on some level, that everything Light said was bullshit, but also knew that that didn’t matter.

Misa Amane wasn’t stupid - she was spontaneous and flighty, posing an issue more because she didn’t fit into Light’s rigid worldview then because of a lack of a brain. Nevertheless, her heart typically outbid her head when it came to decision making; and she was perpetually a prisoner to the irrational fantasy that Light genuinely cared for her.

“But I know you can do this for me, Misa.” Light said tenderly. “You’re so brave. The only one that’s worthy enough to be Kira’s wife.”

Ryuk wouldn’t have believed it had he not been Light’s shadow for this long, but that faux kindness worked. It took longer than Light would have probably liked for Misa’s shaking to have lessened somewhat. Her heavy breathing tampered down while her boyfriend held her close and rested his head atop hers, arms wrapped around her tightly like she was precious.

Light gently detached her from him again after a small eternity, putting a hand under her chin to ensure they made eye contact. Misa sniffled, nodding slowly.

—-----

The door opened with a creak, with Light and Misa filing in, the latter of whom looking like she was about to be executed.

When Misa turned on her heels to face Ryuk, she was unaware of the smug look on Yagami’s handsome face. Ryuk didn’t comment, averse to the unprecedented disgust that settled in his gut at Light’s callousness. He’d never felt disdain for Light’s actions before, though he’d gone beyond what Ryuk believed to be the limit of atrocities for a single human.

Instead, Ryuk’s attention focused on Misa as the girl crept forward, inch by literal inch. She was standing six-feet away from him before he reached out and carefully tugged her the rest of the way by her waist, making her squeak. He let go as he saw the clear trepidation in her brown eyes from this close.

The woman looked lost standing there, until Light cleared his throat expectantly.

Ryuk’s brow lifted. “You’re gonna be in here, too?”

Light shrugged, taking a seat parallel to the bed. The bastard was actually failing at containing the smirk on his face over this.

“Freak.” Ryuk chortled uncomfortably.

Misa inhaled and exhaled a few times, shoulders rising and falling, before masking her fear with determination. Her counterpart cocked his head, watching her curiously.

Without warning, Misa’s eyes shut tight and Ryuk balked when she pitched forward. The woman was so short that she needed to apply her weight on her toes as she made to kiss him. She couldn’t make it all the way, with Ryuk’s mouth being as big as it was, but she pecked his lower lip before drawing back.

He watched her return upright, noting the scrunch of her nose. Oddly, it wasn’t a look of disgust on her face as much as it was one of perplexity.

“You’re really cold.” Misa determined out loud.

“Oh, uh yeah...” Ryuk replied, flinching at the sound of his own voice. “Sorry, about that. Not much I can do…”

The silence that followed was awkward, making Ryuk twitch, and he scoured his brain for a way to end it all.

His taloned hands came to rest on Misa’s hips, allowing him the opportunity to savor the heat that had seeped from her body into her clothes. Even with the fabric of her shorts in the way, he was able to feel the shape of her, and her supple flesh.

Misa grabbed Ryuk’s claws, steadying herself in his grip and wincing at the fact that the shinigami’s hands were just as cold as his lip. Her hands quickly slid from his, up to grasp the leather covering his lean arms.

Her touch started a flurry of feelings inside his abdomen. He was uncomfortable, but the feeling was slowly fading away in favor of excitement.

It had been a while since Misa’s touch had forced him to dematerialize out of shyness. He still felt strangely when she made contact with him, but it was less of a churning in his stomach and more of a fluttering. Ryuk had begun anticipating her affectionate gestures over time, to where he was bummed out if a day passed and he’d been neglected.

Never had his desire for physical contact with her amounted to a shared embrace or groping, however. He wasn’t as delusional as Misa, no matter how badly he wanted something.

“Don’t you think she’s overdressed, Ryuk?” Light asked across from them.

Misa dug her nails into Ryuk’s sleeves while his hands rose to the hem of her tank top and he started to lift it up. He was already pulling the flimsy piece of clothing over her shoulders before Misa remembered to lift her arms up.

When it was off and thrown to the side, the girl immediately covered her chest.

Ryuk chuckled, dragging his knuckles against her side, feeling her ribs beneath layers of skin and muscle. For her part, Misa did an excellent job of not recoiling violently as she so obviously wanted to.

Her arms were akimbo for a moment. Then, Misa placed her much smaller hand over his, holding on to stymy any potential brusqueness on his part.

He didn’t apply any pressure or make a grab for her. Ryuk skimmed, content with just being able to touch her for the time being. His hand traveled past her shoulder up to her neck, and soon tangled in her hair. The palm of his hand was large enough to cover the back of her head in full.

Ryuk’s shoulders straightened when Misa warily leaned into his touch, letting him cradle her head and thread her yellow locks between his spindly fingers in earnest. He didn’t say anything when Misa closed her eyes, just marvelled at how silky her hair was and how it compared to her skin.

Humans were squishy beings, but Misa in particular was soft and smooth just about everywhere.

Ryuk hadn’t given it too much thought before then, but he liked the consistency. Touching her was nice, even more so when Misa gave him access to her willingly - well, semi-willingly.

Their audience of one sighed on the sidelines, unwilling to pretend to be a wallflower.

Light rested his head on one hand, watching the two, who, to Light’s chagrin, weren’t exactly falling in line. He knew that Misa was a magnet for shinigami, but seeing Ryuk be so gentle with her upset Light’s stomach. The man supposed that it was his own fault, hoping that Ryuk might lose the few brain cells he had and break Misa as soon as he got to her.

Then again, that reluctance only solidified proof that Ryuk was able to be manipulated where Misa was concerned.

“You do know what sex is, right Ryuk?” Light spoke up again, impatient. “Or do we need to give you the talk?”

Ryuk scoffed, mood souring somewhat.

“You don’t have to be so nosy, ya know?” He snapped, pushing aside the irony of his own words.

Misa looked toward Light each time he spoke, and Ryuk found that to be a contributing factor to his own ire. He felt like complaining over her lack of enthusiasm as well… maybe that was overdoing it in terms of ignoring irony, though.

The shinigami eyed the shorts around her waist and the bra on her chest. Given his purpose in life, Ryuk possessed a wealth of patience compared to your average human, but considered that he might be on a time limit.

The tentative exploration ended as soon as it began, and without another word Ryuk yanked at her shorts with his free hand.

“Hey!” Misa went rigid with alarm. The shinigami silenced her by placing his mouth over hers, eagerly pulling her in until she was crushed against his bony chest.

The model began to thrash, unprepared for Ryuk’s tongue to sweep over her lips and worm its way down her throat. She took in a mouthful of him, gagging on the unbelievably long appendage. He was too rough, too clumsy, and literally tore off her brazier in his insistence to swallow her whole.

At the feeling of sharp teeth pressed against her, Misa felt fear consume her. It would be very easy for Ryuk to either choke her this way, or for his fangs to bite off her tongue and make her bleed out.

“You’re going to suffocate her, Ryuk.” Light’s voice put a pause on things.

Ryuk halted, and Misa pulled away until she was free to gasp for air. Ryuk was dismayed at first, regarding Light as a pest in a bizarre switch of roles. Yet, when he saw Misa’s skin beginning to return to a normal shade, from the bluish cast it had taken on, Ryuk felt sheepish.

“Oops.”

“It’s fine.” Light was perched on an armchair, legs crossed as he maintained the role of a passive observer. “Just keep it in mind that humans have to breathe from now on.”

Misa twisted in Ryuk’s grasp as much as she could, incredulous. “Light! Can we st -”

“AH!” She shrieked.

Ryuk didn’t wait for more information before he was at her again. She was in shock as Ryuk took one of her breasts in his mouth and swirled his tongue over her nipple. He hummed against her malleable flesh, delighting in how Misa began struggling again while simultaneously mewling.

Ryuk hadn’t spent a lot of time watching humans engaging in sexual activity -- if he saw it, it was usually by accident and normally just tickled his funny bone.

Her hands had moved from his arms to his shoulders, and now she was digging her manicured nails into the back of his neck, either to keep stable or to throw him off.

If her intention was to ward him away, Misa was failing spectacularly. The feeling of being clawed wracked Ryuk’s body with tremors, encouraging him to return the favor by marking her back with his talons.

He’d seen humans going at it before, in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of places, but was surprised by how much he was enjoying it.

Still suckling, the death god finally managed to take off her shorts with minimal damage. Misa was completely bare by the time Ryuk let go of one breast to suck greedily at the other, his shark-like teeth grazing her areola.

Misa was jarred forward, feeling like an unwitting passenger on the world’s worst rollercoaster while being pulled, prodded and wrenched to the shinigami’s liking. His talons were scraping over every bit of skin that he could reach, from her upper back down to her ass, which he kneaded with bruising enthusiasm.

Ryuk let go, drool pouring down his chin as he gave her a hooded stare.

“Yum.” He said huskily.

Misa flushed as a sharp, gleaming grin stretched the corners of Ryuk’s mouth. His typical laugh was muffled while he moved in for another slobbery kiss. With the return of his overly-long tongue, Misa clamped down on it with her blunt teeth in an effort to stop the assault. She jumped when all it did was change Ryuk’s sniggering into a groan, provoking a twinge of heat in her lower belly.

The second Kira whimpered, losing her will to continue fighting. In the background, Kira himself smirked as her conviction visibly dwindled.

#ryuk #misa amane #death note #part 2 #of 3 #light yagami

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thedyingtimelady · 4 years

Text

Falling for the Opera Cape

the dying Timelady (OC) x Third Doctor Fanfiction. The third Story of the Soul bond Saga

Summary: Catherin landed on Earth, meeting the third Incarnation of the Doctor, ready to make a soulbond with him, after managed to get her Bond with the second Doctor. Arriving his Lab, Catherin realize, that the Doctor has something on his mind: That involved her, him and something tempting~ But someone has other plans with the dying Timelady....And not only her life is threated.....

Part 1

“That’s shouldn’t happen.”, the Doctor mumbled to himself. He held the dematerialization circuit in his hand, while looking at the console of the TARDIS. Another failure. Another day waisted and another day he would be stranded here. The Doctor sigh, rubbing his neck and putting the circuit on the Time Column. Now he needed a break. A cup of tea and some biscuits would be great right now. He wanted to turn around, to leave the TARDIS, as small arms wrapped around him and someone hugged him from behind. The Doctor frowned. He didn’t hear someone coming in. Then he smiled. “Jo? Did you work on your sneaking skills? They´re are pretty good now. You should be proud of yourself.” The Doctor didn’t get an answer, as the hands starts moving over his chest, softly open a button of his sark. Now he froze, starring at the hands. That aren’t Jos. Jo wouldn’t do something like that. And that hands didn’t even had many rings on their fingers, like Jos did. “Stop it now, Please. Whoever you are. This is improper! A lady shouldn’t undress someone like that!”, he said with calm, but firmer voice. The hands didn’t stop by his words and open another button. The Doctor grabbed the hands. “It’s time over now, young Lady. We will-“, he turned around and stared at the Lady Infront of him. “Catherin!”, he started to grin and holding her hands in his. “What are you doing here? And why do you undress me?”, he asked her sceptical. Catherin giggled softly, holding his hands tight in hers and gave him a beautiful smile. Oh, this Woman owns his hearts for a couple of centuries. Adventures with her was always very fun. He wondered why she didn’t visit him for a while. Here on Earth, he felt how time passes and sometimes it was just unbearable. In this moment, he was happy to see his beloved Catherin, ready to take her out for dinner. Finally, some distraction and quality time he could spend. “I wanted to greet you a bit differently today. I hope, I didn’t shock you too much.”, she grinned cheeky at him, winking. “Taking off my clothes is a greeting for you? Maybe I should greet you like that too”, he grinned back, as her face turned red. “Y-You wouldn’t do that, right? You are a gentleman!”, she shouted, blushed even more. The Doctor laughs and put his hand on her back, leading her out of the TARDIS. “Of course, I wouldn’t do that. You should know me better. So, tell me why are you here? Not that I wouldn’t enjoy your company my dear. Maybe we should go out and eat some dinner? I know a nice restaurant, where we could eat in peace.”, he smiled at her, while leading her out of this lab. “Where is Jo?”, wasn’t the answer he wanted from her. The Doctor looked at Catherin, while they leaving the building. “She has her free day. So, she isn’t here.” “What a pity. I wanted to see her.”, Catherin mumbled, looking a bit sad. Catherin adores Jo very much. She was like a daughter for her, even she wouldn’t tell her that. The Doctor had a short thought about Jamie. She really loved Jamie. She saw him as her son and protected him always. The Doctor wondered, how many future companions will have this privilege to be called a son or a daughter of Catherin. “You will see her soon Darling”, he smiled at her, walking with her to Bessie. When both sit down in the car, the Doctor started the motor and drove off the UNIT- Area to the next city.

Darling

I never thought, he would give me instead such a sweet nickname. While the Doctor and I drove around the city, searching for a nice restaurant, I disappeared deep in my thoughts, thinking how I could tell the Doctor, that I wanted a soul bond with him, in the best way.

I learned fast from the last time, that such a question could make a lot of trouble, if you ask it in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I didn’t realize, that we already stopped, as I felt a hand on my arm.

“Catherin? Is everything okay?”

“Oh yes Doctor, everything is fine”, I smiled at him.

He gave me a charming smile, what made my legs becoming pudding. I was melting already. Suddenly I blushed, only by the thought, laying in his arms, while dancing to beautiful music, staying so close to him. He smelled so good and his velvet suit looked so good at him.

The Doctor kept smiling, as I notice, that I stared at him.

“You are really cute Darling”, he said softly in his rough voice.

I was so done. Nobody could save me from this gorgeous man. And I didn’t want to be saved!

Like the gentlemen he is, he helped me out of the car, holding my hand, so I wouldn’t slip. When I felt ground under my feet, he still holds my hand, making no effort to letting it go.

We walked into the restaurant, still holding hands, my inside screaming of excitement because of it, looking at the waiter and smiling.

“Hello, can we please have a table for two in a quiet area? I want to be alone with my beautiful date”, the Doctor said smiling.

You know this cartoons, where one character is all silent outside, but inside they start to scream and run around in panic/unbelieve, because the one person they like, is like… all flirty and great and it´s just fucks their head so much up, because they never expected that would ever happened?

This was me right now.

I was staring at the Doctor, letting him leading us to our table, sitting opposite to him and taking the menu in my hand.

It was a very fancy restaurant. The tables were out of very dark wood, the seats with bolster, out of dark red fabric. We were sitting in the near of a big window, with dark blue curtains. Suddenly, a big curtain was pulled around us and we sat alone, isolated from the rest of the restaurant.

In a second, I looked up to the Doctor, who had his arms on the table, resting his head on his hand and watching me carefully.

I felt the warmth rising in my cheeks, knowing that I blushed, because of the bigger smile on the Doctors face.

“You are so beautiful”, he whispered, taking my hand in his, softly kissing it.

Did I told you, that I was done? Now I was it. In the best ways. He locked me with his charm and now I couldn’t escape.

“Do you have money?”, I asked him, trying to distract myself.

“The Brigadier told me to send the bill to the office of UNIT. He said, I could have a certain mount of money for a month, because he knows, that I never have money with me.”, he nodded, leaning back to watch me more, smiling softly.

I nodded too, smiling lightly. Then I study the menu, decided for some Pasta with Pesto. I loved the Italian food very much. It was one of my favourites of this beautiful planet. The Timelord never had any taste for good food.

They never have any good taste of anything.

I was talking with the Doctor for a while. We laughed and telling us stories. Because he couldn’t travel everywhere, he was desperate for hearing what kind of Adventure I had. Fighting against Daleks, running away from Cybermen. Landing on unknown planets.

As our food arrived, we started to eat, having a relaxing silent around us.

The Doctor was drinking wine, what made him look more like a real dandy. I sigh softly, watching him and blushing, as he smiled back to me.

“You like the outfit?”, he asked, while putting his wineglass on the table.

“Yes, very much. That velvet suits are just wonderful on you. I love the dandy-look very much.”

“I knew it. Better as looking like a hobo”, he marbled, finish his plate.

For me, it was a mystery, how the Doctor would despite his previous Incarnation.

“Don’t be mean to him. I just visit him, before landing here. He has his own style and looks very cute in it.”

“Ha! Cute! He is such a pain in my back. I really hope, the Timelords not putting us together again. I can´t stand him.”, the Doctor waved with his hand and looking away for a moment, but then smiling again at me, leaning forwards.

“So, I have to ask you something. Would you like to make to soul bond with me?

I couldn’t say anything as he said that words out loud.

It was unbelieving for me. I had such a hard time talking to the last two Incarnations of him, trying to make a soul bond with them, having so much trouble because of it. And now he was sitting Infront of me, asking me, If I want to have a soul bond with him.

With an open mouth, I stared at him, then close it and shook my head.

“No?”, he whispered and looking all sad for a moment.

“I-I mean… I know it´s a lot of to ask. You know by yourself, how much work this soul bond is. But I really believe, that we should be together. I believe that the other two would say yes in two heartbeats. I mean, who could say No to you?”, he grinned softly.

“You. You said No twice, as I asked you for a soul bond, even telling you, that I married your future Incarnation Number 12, showing you the ring. It was such hard work to get a yes of you, making you realize, that we are made for each other in the moment, when we hold hands for the first time, when we were in the academy, as the sunset making the orange sky even more orange. And our first kiss. Oh Doctor. You said No, it broke my heart even more. But I already started to make a bond with you, so yes. I would love to bond with you”

Now it was the Doctor who´s mouth was wide open, staring at me while I was talking.

“Is that true? This hobo said No to you? How he dare! I can´t believe it!”, he growls, making his hands to fists.

Typical Doctor. Clearly, he tried to give the second Incarnation all the fault, even when the first one, was the hardest and the most to blame. I forgot the time, when I was fighting for a soul bond with the first Doctor, don’t trying to make myself sad. Even now I have the soul bond with the original Doctor, sometimes the sadness and the memories floating my head, making my chest heavier. It was hard to breath in such moments. My Anxiety got really bad, so I usually hide in my own TARDIS, waiting until the panic disappeared for itself.

“No… Don’t blame him. It´s okay now. I have the soul bond. That all I need.”, softly smiling, I showed him my wedding ring, what had 14 small squares engraved in the white metal. Two of the squares had a different colour. One of them was a light grey, the other one black.

“What is the meaning of the colours, Darling?”, he asked me, while holding my hand softly, admiring the beauty of the ring.

“Each colour represents one of your Incarnation. The grey one is the first and black is the second.”

“Why did you choose these colours?”

“Grey for his trousers and Black for his hair. Obviously!”, I laughed, looking amused at him.

The Doctor made a sceptical face, raising his eyebrow. But then he grins at me, giving my ring a soft kiss and winked at me.

“I wonder, what kind of colour I will get.”, the Doctor spoke softly at my hand, not letting it go.

“This will be my secret”, I smiled mysteriously, holding his hand tight.

After the dinner, we both drove back to the UNIT-Area, entering the lab of the Doctor. I walked to his TARDIS, softly touching it with my hand.

“Hey my friend. Long-time no seen. I missed you.”, I said to the TARDIS, leaning my ear against her walls.

No sound.

She was sleeping.

“I really hope, I will fix her soon.”, the Doctor repined, putting his Opera cape over his chair.

I turned around and looked at the cape, while my thoughts driven away again.

He will, he will soon fix the TARDIS. But I couldn’t tell him. It was not allowed, so I was silent and touched the fabric, rubbing it between my fingers.

I loved this cape. It was such a charming part of his style. It made his outfit complete.

I felt his muscular chest against my back, his hands resting on my hips.

“You like the cape, hm? It´s a lovely piece of clothes, don’t you think?”

His voice was rough in the near of my ear. His hands moving around my hips, going up to my waist.

I was wearing a dark blue dress, with small straps. The heat of his skin pervades through the dress, letting it felt on my own.

His lips were close to my neck, I felt his hot breath, what gave me Goosebumps.

“You know what´s lovely too tonight Darling?”, he whispers in my ear, his hand moved over my back.

I was about to turn around to him, wanting to kiss him so badly, when I heard a “click”.

The moment I turned around to him, I felt how my strapless bra was falling under my dress, landing on the ground.

The Doctor bowed down quickly, grabbing it with a cheeky smile on his face.

“Well, Hello Catherin”, he greeted me. “I still think, a Lady shouldn’t just strip people like that for a greeting.”, he told me, waving my bra Infront of me.

“Doctor!!”, I shouted. I couldn’t believe it! How he dares! I tramped towards him, trying to take away my bra from him.

He laughed, holding it up, so I couldn’t reach it. Why does this incarnation had to be almost 6 feet tall? It was so much better, when the Doctor had my height.

“Come on Doctor! That’s not funny!”, I said annoyed, going on my toes to grab my bra. “And not very gentleman-like! Shame on you!”

He laughed, stepping back, so I was falling against his chest.

I blushed immediately, when my soft chest falls against his hard chest.

The Doctor himself stopped, staring down at me. Now he pressed his hand on my back, pulling me closer to him, pressing my chest more at his.

“Doctor”, I mumbled. What a sensual feeling filled my body. My heart beats faster, I felt his two heartbeats almost losing they rhythm. The Doctor let go of my bra, careless throwing it away and then kissed me.

It was a soft and deep kiss, filling my mind with nothing, but just him. The Doctor picked me up, sitting me on his lab table and strokes my hips, without stopping the kiss.

My fingers running through his silver, fluffy hair, what I adored so much. I grabbed his collar, pulling him closer as possible. I never wanted this feeling to end.

“Doctor?”, Jo´s voice filled my head in a few blinks. Everything was forgotten. The sensual feeling, the kiss, everything.

I jumped from the table, pushing the Doctor aside.

With a highspeed, I grabbed my bra, open the TARDIS door and throw it inside, smashing the door shut.

I ran my hands through my hair, over my dress, making it look like, I just came from a nice date.

In the same second, as Jo open the door, I was smiling at her brightly, walking towards her.

“Jo!”, I grinned at her.

“Catherin!”, she shouted surprised and happy, hugging me tightly.

I hold her closer to me, resisting to stroke her head and cuddled her for a few seconds. I was sad, when I had to let go of her, but I didn’t want to bother her with my parentally behaviour.

She shouldn’t know, that she was such a sweet girl to me. Like a daughter.

Unlike Jamie, I just couldn’t call her my daughter so easily. Jamie was a young boy; Jo was a young adult.

Would I call her “my daughter” in any case, she would easily get scared or irritated from me. The worst case in my mind was, that she would say something like:

“I already have a mother. Why should I call you like that? That is so weird! Please leave me alone!”

I knew it. So, it must stay a secret and all my feelings would be locked up, deep inside a dark corner of my heart, never to be revealed.

The Doctor came closer, smiling at both of us. His eyes didn’t have a spark of anger or disappointed in it, because I broke our kiss so sudden.

We talked with Jo for a while, then she invited me into her house.

I looked up to the Doctor, who nod softly.

“I would love to! Give a minute okay?”, I said to her.

“Alright!”, she grinned, leaving the lab.

I turned to the Doctor, who gave me a quick and softly kiss on my lips. Then kissed my forehead and gave me a warm hug. He knew what was in my mind right now.

“What should I do? I love her so much. She means so much for me. I don’t know, If I really can hold my secret.”, I whispered in his suit, shivering.

“Everything will turn out fine. I know it. Don’t worry. Enjoy your night with her. Forget the sad things. Come back tomorrow with her and we will find something, what will distract you.”, he said softly, giving me a lovely smile.

I kissed him again, looking softly at him.

“We will talk about the bond tomorrow, okay?”, I asked.

“That’s fine for me.”, he nodded again, giving my cheek another kiss, before letting me go.

When I came out of the building, Jo was waiting for me next to a big car.

Her parents are rich. I couldn’t give her such nice presents.

I shook my head, smiling while walking to Jo. She took my hand and got inside of the big car, who naturally had a driver.

We were laughing and talking, while I wanted to hold her in my arms, what was killing my soul, burning deep in my flesh.

In such moments like that, I felt my age in my weak body. I felt the pressure. I looked out of the window, darkness around us, not noticing, that a faint, green string was wrapped around my little finger, that nobody but I could see.

My Soulmate was close. Too close for this Timing.

#the dying timelady #third doctor #third doctor x reader #fanfiction #doctor who #classic who #catherin white #jo grant #soul bond saga

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thiswasinevitableid · 5 years

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Anniversary (Taakitz)

This is my gift for @iamthehelperdog for the @thecandlenightszone 2019 exchange. Also my first time writing this pairing, so I hope it turned out okay!

Kravitz steps through the rift into the living room, enjoying the satisfaction that comes with the days work of a reaper and the drama his profession lends his entrances.

Said drama is cut very short when his next step sends him stumbling over the largest wolfhound on this or any other realm.

“Ow.” He mutters into the rug, the fanciest one Taako could get his hands on, while the dog snuffles his head.

“Mango, I swear if he just damaged my bone daddy I’m gonna blast you into the next century. Taako’s in the mood to get dicked down tonight, not take his boyfriend to the fantasy E.R.”

“Sorry Kravitz!” Magnus calls from the general direction of the kitchen before whistling for the hound.

“It’s fine!” He calls back, standing up and resting his scythe in the holder by the front door (okay, so it’s technically for an umbrella, and the scythe will dematerialize in a matter of moments, but the domesticity of the action makes him smile).

“Nice to see you Magnus. Hello, love.” He pecks Taako’s cheek, not wanting to interrupt his flow as he cooks. It’s hard not to do more; Taako’s wearing the gold and teal skirt that shows off his legs, and his hair is pulled into the kind of messy bun that only he and a few sorority soceresses can make look good.

“Reap anyone good today bones?” Taako dumps something heavily sage-scented into a dish.

“Nothing too unusual. Though I’m sort of worried that Barry and Lup have created a trend of lich lovers.”

“You mean people wanting to have sex with liches?” Magnus reaches for one of the slices of bread on a nearby tray, only for Taako to whack his hand away with a magically elongated spatula.

“Not quite. It’s more that they think what Barry and Lup did was romantic, even though the process was done as a fail-safe more than anything else. Setting aside the whole “defying the laws of death” issue, that process can backfire so messily that it’s better to head it off when we can.”

“What do they think of the whole thing?”

“Barry’s slightly embarrassed and Lup thinks it’s hilarious and, I suspect, a bit romantic. Even if she’d torch me for suggesting that.”

“You bet you tight skeleton ass she would.” Taako shoos their spectral cat, Dust, from her spot hovering above the counter.

“So do they get a warning or-”

“It depends, mainly on how likely we think they are to try again.” He goes on to explain the rather star-crossed pair he dealt with that morning, as well as a spectre who was adamant about staying a ghost rather than crossing over.

At first it feels like any other catch-up night, but as he and Magnus chat, something itches at him like pinfeathers, a sensation he long ago learned to trust. Something isn’t right.

Usually when he’s at the kitchen table, with by himself or with their friends, Taako is a motormouth in motion, chatting away as he cooks. Tonight, his comments are limited.

Maybe he’s just in a contemplative mood. His boyfriend is allowed time to ruminate just like everyone else. Even if he usually does so out loud.

But the itching in his marrow doesn’t cease. He looks over at the elf again. He loves watching Taako cook, the way he moves through the kitchen like a dancer on a stage. As he searches his movements, his profile, for some sign and starts going a bit starry-eyed from how beautiful he is, it hits him.

The dogs.

Taako never lets dogs, Magnus’s or anyone else’s in the kitchen. It’s one of his rules.

Yet here they are, the wolfhound asleep beneath the table and the lab nosing about for dropped food.

Either his boyfriend is under some sort of mind control spell, or something is wrong.

“Love, I’m going to grab wine for tonight from the cellar. Do you have a preference?”

“It’s all hearty stuff, since we’ve got brawny here, so something red.”

“Got it. Magnus, would you mind helping me? I want to bring up several options just to be safe.”

“Sure.” Magnus shrugs with a smile and follows Kravitz out of the kitchen and down to the lower level. It’s only once they’re halfway down the cellar, safely out of range of elf-ears, that Kravitz poses his question.

“Does Taako seem off to you tonight?”

“Kinda? He let boys into the kitchen, but I didn’t say anything because I was kind of hoping it means he’s changed his rules. Not that they’ve got to go everywhere with me, but they look so sad waiting for us in the living room.”

“How was he before I got home?” They hit the bottom step, Kravitz scanning the shelves for the right bottle.

“Normal Taako. We talked about the new floating aquarium Angus made Stephen, he complained about the restaurant down the road...but didn’t say he could make their stuffy a billion times better. Oh, shit.”

Kravtiz starts, nearly drops the bottle, “What?”

“It’s the 15th, right?”

“Yes…”

“It’s the anniversary of the, y’know” Magnus puts a hand on his throat, making a choking noise.

“Oh no.” That explains everything.

“Wait, he never told you?”

Kravitz sighs, leaning against a nearby wine rack, “He’s told me about Glamour Springs, though for obvious reasons it’s not a popular topic. But he never mentioned a date, not that I can remember anyway”

“Hey, it’s okay, I only know it because he once got sloshed on Dwarven ale and told us all about it. Don’t know why Merle always uses Zone of Truth when he could just give people that.” Magnus is trying to lighten to mood, and Kravitz lets him.

“Might be harder to toss out during a fight.”

“Dunno, I got a pretty good arm.” Magnus grins, takes the two bottles Kravtiz gives him, and leads the way upstairs.

-------------------------------------

The rest of the evening is perfectly pleasant, Taako seeming ore like himself as they talk over dinner. He even lounges, his preferred mode of rest, feet in Kravtiz’s lap, while Magnus does the dishes.

As he rubs his feet (and notes that he’ll need to repaint Taako’s toenails soon), he wonders if he should bring up the date. He could let Taako be, let him do whatever he needs to in order to deal with what he’s feeling.

But what if Kravitz is what he needs, and he’s too haughty to admit it? He can’t bear the thought of being able to help the man he loves feel better and not doing it because he misreads the situation.

Taako makes it easy on him.

“Alright, bone boy, spill; why did you have Magnus go down to the cellar?” Taako crosses his arms, blocking Kravitz’s path to the dresser (so what he can materialize clothes? Taako bought him some black silk pajamas and he likes looking dapper in them, damn it).

“To help me carry wine. I wanted to bring you a selection.”

Taako arches an eyebrow, “You have one of the best palates for wine of anyone living or dead I know. You didn’t need to grab more than one.”

“Uh, I wanted Magnus’s opinion?”

The eyebrow arches higher.

“Okay, you’re right. I knew that Languedoc would be perfect for the steak pie you made.” He sighs, sits down on the bed, “I was worried about you, and I wanted to ask Magnus if he was noticing the same things.”

“Worried? Cha’boy is fine.” Taako waves his hand dismissively, “He made a baller dinner and is gonna get boned by his hot boyfriend. What could be wrong?” He pulls his hair loose from it’s ties, shaking it out in a way that’s almost comically gorgeous.

“Magnus told me what day it is.” Kravitz says softly.

Taako sags, tries to recover his glib demeanor only for his disguise to flicker, then disappear entirely. He glances behind himself at the mirror, winces with distaste, turning his Wonderland-aged face back to Kravitz.

It’s not that Kravitz doesn’t notice the difference between the faces. He simply doesn’t care. Taako is Taako, and Kravitz loves him, and would worship the ground he walks on, no matter what face he wears.

He holds out his hands and Taako takes them, let’s him guide the elf down to sit beside him.

“Dove, you don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to. But you also don’t need to conceal whatever you’re feeling from me. I love you, and I want to help you if you’re hurting.”

“I’d really rather not focus on it. But I got a feeling you’re not gonna let it go.”

“If you need me to drop it, I will. I could also give you something else to focus on.”

Taako glances at him, skeptical, “Like what?”

“Well” Kravitz strands, grabbing a bottle of massage oil from the dresser, “I thought I could make use of my magic fingers.” He wiggles them in the air, making the elf snicker.

“Sure, go for it.” Taako pulls off his blouse, tossing it on the floor before rolling over on his stomach. Kravitz straddles his hips, rubs the oil (a warming one, to correct for the chilly skin) on his palms and kneads his fingers gently and precisely across Taako’s back.

Taako sighs, though all the tension stays put. Kravitz focuses on his task, on the shape of the man beneath him, humming a concerto as he does.

“So you gonna ask me stuff or…”

“I’m going to massage you. You can talk about whatever you want.”

“What if I wanna talk about what Dust got up to today?”

“That’s fine.”

Taako huffs, muttering something about difficult birds into the pillow. Kravitz manages to get the knot in his right shoulder loose.

“....It’s not even about the audience. Not this time, anyway.”

Kravtiz makes a quiet noise to acknowledge that he’s listening.

“It’s, ugh, it’s Sazed.”

This time Kravitz has to keep his own shoulders from tensing; there are strict instructions that reapers are not allowed to punish souls for personal reasons. But if Sazed ever comes his way in the afterlife, the man is in for an earful (and will still be better off than if he runs into Lup. Goddess help him if that happens).

“Just...I think of myself as good with people. Everybody loves Taako, y’know but--hoo, yeah, there’s a spot--how the fuck am I supposed to believe that when I misjudged someone so badly?”

“Love, if you gesture like that it makes it hard to rub your arms.”

“Look, bone boy, you wanted me to open up, so I’m opening. I got the wrong read on someone I thought I could trust and forty people died, because he wanted to either frame me or kill me or both and I just, just” the next inhale is shuddery, “what if that happens again?”

“For starters, you have me, and I’m a decent judge of character.” He circles his thumbs along either side of the elf’s spine, gets a moan that’s sweeter than any song to his ears, “and it’s not just me. You have Magnus, and Merle, and Angus, who I’m quite certain will run a thorough background check on anyone he suspects of potentially being a threat to you. And that’s before we even get to Lup.”

“You-” Taako yawns, nestles his head down into a pillow, “you going somewhere with that?”

“When you were making the show, it was mostly you and Sazed. There was no one else who cared about you who could give you perspective, warn you if he seemed twitchy or you seemed too unkind to him. It’s not like that at all now. You have many people who care about you Taako, present company included.” He leans forward, kissing the back of the elf’s head.

“You do more than care, my man” the tease is back in voice, and Kravtiz is relieved to hear it. Narrow hips twitch under him as Taako adds, “could do more than that right now if you wan-” another yawn and Kravitz laughs, rolling off of him.

“Raincheck until the morning, my dove? I do like when you go melty and relaxed when we fuck, but you look ready to drop.”

“Fiiiiiiiiiiine.” Taako huffs, crawls, and flops his way under the covers while the reaper washes his hands. Hops under the covers himself, Taako glomming onto him as soon as he’s within range. He switches off the light, cuddling the elf close.

“Hey, bones?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Thank you. For, um, for listening. And for not pushing it.”

Kravitz brushes golden wisps of hair aside, kissing him tenderly and as long as he can before the elf needs to pull away.

“Any time, dove. Any time.”

#fanfic #taakitz

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unlockthelore · 5 years

Text

Quick Break

Roxas used an illegal move to one-up Xion and finds himself at a disadvantage.

Part 2 of the Twilight Mirage series. For more updates, follow the twilight mirage tag on this blog.

Although there was no immediate threat to the worlds, aside from the lack of one specific person who all owed gratitude toward, staying on top of their fighting skills was important. No one knew when they would be called upon to be the Wielders of Light, and that in itself was more than enough reason to be ready. Roxas figured it would be best to train with Xion. Considering that they were close enough to know one another’s faults and strengths, they complemented one another. And it was easier to let off steam with someone you trusted.

Over and over, their key blades clashed, sparks flying and shouts echoing off the trees surrounding them. Leaves trembling with the force of spells ricocheting off willowy branches and anyone who was curious to know what was happening on the outskirts of the Old Mansion were wise enough to keep away. In between guarding from another one of Xion’s onslaughts and looking for an opening, Roxas’ mind began to wander. Times like this brought him back to their days as part of the Organization, the days where it wasn’t all that bad, and they had free time to do things like this.

Simply be.

At the time, he thought it was nice to have a friend. That it wasn’t odd when he’d catch himself admiring how her skin flushed pink around her nose, cheeks, and the tips of her ear. When her hair would brush against her chin and she’d tuck it back, his eyes following every movement as if it were happening in slow motion.

Or when she’d look back at him over her shoulder, blue eyes twinkling like the sunlight reflecting off the water’s surface, her lips moving but the sound delayed — calling for him to hurry up, and he’d startle — notice that he’d been standing still as if someone cast Stopga on his legs.

When he joined with Sora once more, he wondered if he only thought she was beautiful because she resembled Kairi and Sora’s feelings for her were so strong that it affected Roxas’s own. Gaining his own heart, meeting Kairi for the first time in person, he didn’t feel that vague flutter in his chest or the need to commit every smile and glance to memory. No twisting in his stomach beyond the irritation he felt when someone was badgering her — nothing that was like what he felt for Xion.

Her smile, he sorely missed it in the few fleeting seconds he could recall her name. And when those memories came flooding back, he felt such relief that he could almost cry.

Another clash of their Keyblades and he blocked reflexively, his knee buckling as she pressed closer, the sparks flying nearly blinding him but between the cross their keyblades made — her eyes filled his entire world.

Maybe that’s what made him do it.

Pressing forward, his hand curving up in an arc to knock her keyblade away before he darted forward to press a kiss to her cheek. Everything that followed was slow in his eyes. Her own widening, not quite registering what happened, her key blade falling from hand and caught in his own as he pulled back. Warmth lingering on his lips as her own parted, first in a gasp and then a shout.

“Roxas!”

He grinned lazily, turning her key blade around while his own dematerialized, shoulders hiking in a half-hearted shrug. “What?”

It was hard to feel like he was in trouble with the way she looked. Mesmerized ocean blue eyes darkened, nose scrunched, brows furrowed, and cheeks a few shades too pink for embarrassment. She was too cute but he doubted that she would let him get close enough to hug her. With her arms folded across her chest, she glared at him and he knew he was in some form of trouble.

“That’s cheating and you know it!”

“I thought we agreed that we can kiss whenever,” he rubbed his fingers along his chin, feigning curiosity as he rolled his eyes to the sky. After a second passed, he looked at her and shrugged. “Won’t apologize for thinking about kissing you when we’re training.”

Her blush worsened and she almost seemed close to fuming. “That’s not the point!” She snapped, her keyblade disappearing from his hand and appearing in her own with a sheen of light. She pointed it at him, her lower lip poking just a bit in a pout. “How am I supposed to concentrate when you do that?”

Roxas hummed thoughtfully, strolling toward her leisurely till the flat of her key blade’s tip pressed against his chest. “When I do what exactly?”

What he wanted to hear was her argue back at him. Perhaps throw a quip or two. But she didn’t. Her eyes widened and her breath caught. A startled look as her key blade vanished in a sheen of light and she drew her hand away as if burned. He realized his mistake a second late. Right. His hand pressed to his chest and he frowned.

Despite putting down his coat and wearing street clothes more often, he could still remember it. The way her Keyblade pressed against his chest, her face hidden beneath her hood, the tears.

Even if they had grown from those days and were getting better with each passing second, those memories would always hold pain and regret.

“Xion —“

“Kiss me,” she mumbled. His eyes going wide and he tipped his head to one side, knowing that his face was reddening. But she wasn’t looking at him. Staring down at her feet with her hands at her side. “… It’s hard to focus.”

Oh.

“Well…”

How was he going to explain that to her? It was the same for him, really. When she was around, it was hard for him to focus. But when they were fighting together, he felt stronger.

“That’s because… you care about me.”

Something in his chest shuddered. A warm pulse startling him as he took a hesitant step forward, the grass shifting beneath his sneakers with every step he took to close the distance between them.

“And… you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me,” he assured, the warmth doused with cold dread as she lifted her head, meeting his eyes with a sorrowful expression. “… Not if you can help it.”

Xion’s eyes shimmered, glazed over with something, and he felt his heart ache. Opening his mouth to apologize, a tight embrace knocked the breath out of him. He wasn’t used to being hugged. Not now even. His hands hovering in the air before finding their place at her back, his arms winding around her as he held her tightly.

“I didn’t think you’d be this distracting,” Xion muttered, her words muffled against Roxas’s shoulder.

He chuckled, squeezing lightly. “Well, now you know how I felt whenever we were paired on missions..”

“You… felt like this then?”

It was a little embarrassing to admit but if she was going to be honest with him, then honesty is the least Roxas could give her in return. “All the time,” he admitted. “Wanting to impress you or get your attention. I mean, I wanted to be friends but… I just wanted you to notice me.”

For so many days, he’d been the Keyblade Wielder. The one who would complete Kingdom Hearts. And it wasn’t so much as everyone noticing him but what weapon he held in his hand. And the person that he was connected to. All the things that made up his identity were just belongings of someone else. Hand-me-downs. Nothing that he owned.

But Xion looked at him as if he were someone new.

So did Axel.

They were his first real friends.

And to feel this way about her. Xion was his first real love.

“You were one of the few people that I noticed…” Xion’s voice came through clearer as she laughed, her cheek resting against his shoulder, dark hair filling his vision when he looked down at her. “I just wanted you to like me.”

Liking her was a bit of an understatement.

“Alright… how about a promise? I won’t kiss you when we’re training until we’re done.”

Slowly, she pulled away from him and his breath caught as she stared up at him with a dazzling smile.

“Deal.”

It felt like someone casted Thundaga on him. Electricity running up and down his spine, his heart fluttering and everything just felt charged. He knew he was staring but she didn’t say anything, just rubbed his back and smiled up at him as if he were the only person in all the worlds.

Her smile really shouldn’t have been able to do that to him.

#kingdom hearts #kh #rokushi #xion #roxas #fanfiction #my fanfiction #twilight mirage

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kaylathekittykat225 · 5 years

Text

Power House of My Heart // Wally West X Reader

Warning/s: Robin being a dick ;), school, mentioning of studying (come on, it’s summer, we don’t talk about this time of year)

Word Count: 3,305

Yeah we’re back! *Insert Clap* Back again!

Much later in the say, but what else is new but being hecking busy. If any of you guys want to request anything, message me! I’m open to most anything! I have a Steve Harrington x reader coming up next, kinda cutting away from my Young Justice theme, but I am swinging back to the batboys, cause they are my weakness, as is fluff, so I am half tempted just to write fluff the rest of my life.

Here’s my Masterlist.

Have a happy Saturday! -----

It was a random Friday night, and all through Mount Justice, not a creature was stirring not even a- "Sweet baby Jesus almighty!"

The hall was quiet and still except for in the lounge, where you sat on the couch, hunched over your biology book, groaning for the umpteenth time since you sat down to read the chapter. The rest of the team was out and about enjoying the beginning of the weekend while you worried about your Monday test.

And no matter how much you tried, your brain was not accepting the gibberish filled book trying to explain to you that the Golgi Apparatus was the power house of the cell. "Or was it the Endoplasmic gobbligoop?" You flipped back a few pages, only to read that one, there were two Endoplasmic Reticulums and neither of them were the power house, and two, that you were totally screwed for this test.

"Dammit, Mitochondria, Mitochondria, Miko te replica..." You shut your eyes as you leaned your head against the back of the couch, trying to furiously rub the familiar stinging starting to form in your eyes. "Don't you cry, don't you dare cry," Ever since the beginning of the year, you could not wrap your mind around the college Biology course you had forced yourself to take, questioning once again why you decided to take college level sciences in high school.

"Why am I so stupid?!" You stood up, shouting angrily as you started to shuffle down the hall to Wally West's room. Your sneakers scuffed against the floor, the noise echoing around you until you stood in front of the metal door. Keeping the packet under one arm and the book held in your hand, you lifted your opposite hand to knock, only for it to swing open before your knuckles could brush against it.

"Wow, you are three minutes later than what I predicted." Robin cockily grinned down at you, leaning his weight against the door frame, even if he was skinny, he still blocked the view of the room.

"Robin, can you please move?" You looked up at the young civvie dressed teenager, your homework not giving you the chipperiest attitude and not wanting to deal with Robin. "I just want to ask Wally for some help and then I'll be out of your greasy hair."

"Wha-you-I do not have greasy hair!" He ran his fingers through his hair, almost trying to prove you, or himself, that his hair was in fact not greasy. With Robin lifting his arm to check his hair, this gave you the perfect opportunity to sneak under his arm and into the room he was safe guarding from you.

"Hey, Y/N, what brings you to my luxurious castle?" Wally hung over the edge of his bed, his feet kicking the air while his hair almost brushed the floor and his face grew redder every minute with the blood rushing to his head. "Pop a squat babe, let's see what the Wallster can do for you." He flipped himself up to sit upright, his hand reaching towards you for the packet you still had hidden under your arm.

Instead of handing it to him in his hand like he wished, you quickly rolled it up and smacked his over the head with the packet, a whine coming from his as he glared at you for attacking him. "That's what you get for calling me babe, just help me with this Biology will ya, I don't need your flirtatiousness or Robin's grease infecting me."

"Ooo, bio, my favorite," He happily squealed as he ripped the packet from your hand, uncurling it and reading through it as a fast speed, muttering to himself every few words, "Fish, buoy, seagull, hormones, air horns, assholes-ow! You need to quit hitting me!" His happy green eyes turned their glare on you, rubbing the back of his head where you hit him again.

"Don't talk like that, just explain to me what I don't understand."

"Well that's just it, what's not to understand? You're just learning basic cell components and those are simple memorization of the components and its function." Wally rocked his weight around, jumping the bed up and down as he shifted his full attention to you. "So, what's the RER and what does it do?"

His childish grin graced his face, but that wasn't what caused your mind to be swiped clean, it was as if the last three hours of studying didn't happen. "Th-the what now?"

"Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum?" Robin muttered inaudibly from his corner of the room, his mouth shoved into his palm, keeping his words mush to your ears, while Wally recognized the confused look on your face as one of loss. "Uh, okay, I guess...let's start this way then, Y/N, where are the ribosomes made and what do they do?"

Ribosomes, you remembered seeing that word before, it helps..."make the DNA in the nucleus?" You asked, looking for a trace of the correct answer in his eyes, praying you at least remembered that for next week's test.

Wally happily nodded, his grin getting bigger as his hands gestured for you to go on. "And they...they um..." Uh-oh, blank brain again..."Dammit," Groaning, you sat forward and dug your palms into your eyes, counting to ten to keep yourself from bursting into tears.

"Hey, hey Y/N, you got this. I know you know this, you're just over thinking this, settle down and let your brain know what it knows." Wallis hand ghosted over your thigh before gently squeezing just above your knee, his touch hesitant, judging everything he was doing based on how you reacted.

That's just it, what did you know? You knew your name, your birthday, your parents.

You knew Wally had gorgeous granny apple green eyes, always had a sparkle of mischievousness behind them ready to burst.

You knew he had a gentle soul, a heart of gold, he was too kind for this world.

Too kind to you.

Too patient.

You were an idiot compared to him. By the time he was thirteen, he built himself his own build your own Flash machine, is one of the smartest kids in the League, and you didn't know why he bothered trying to help you understand this horrible subject he got giddy just thinking of that you knew you would never comprehend.

You could barely remember that the power house of the cell was the nucleus.

"It's the mitochondria, you idiot." Robin finally pulled his mouth out of his hand, the comment coming much harsher than anyone anticipated. Crap, how much of that did you actually said out loud?

You turned to Wally to see his reaction, but his focus was glaring at his best friend and his comment. "What?" The heat left your face, your throat drying out and closing.

"Robin, shut up while you -" Wally stood to his feet to try and stop his best friend from running his mouth, his instincts telling him to speed over before this got any farther with insulting someone.

"Wally, if she's going to have a test on Monday, I might as well tell her she's wrong and probably screwed for the test." The speedster sped over and slapped his hand over Robin's face, but...not fast enough. You heard every word he said, and you knew every word was really.

That's something you knew.

That you were stupid.

"The ribosomes help make proteins." Before you could see the look on Wally's face, you bolted, leaving the room while it sounded like Wally yelled something about "dick" at his friend, kind of rude coming from Robin, it was also warranted.

You ran down the empty and dead hallways, your book and note book left in the room, your eyes were fixed on the Zeta tubes, too far away and seemingly getting farther away from you as you ran faster. The quick pitter patter of feet sped behind you, Wally calling after you and running to catch up with you. "Y/N, wait!"

"Home!" You yelled at the Zeta tube, kicking the systems operating board as you ran in to keep Wally from following you. Your center was balance was thrown off and you somersaulted over your body, your body dematerializing and then rematerializing. The golden rods swimming in your eyes as you tried to find your bearings.

Your body slammed into a door in front of you, the Zeta Tube dropping you where you wanted to be, but for some reason it thought that you lived in a closest. You weren't fricking Harry Potter!

You didn't bother to push the door open, you felt safe, this was your safe space, this was where you came to cry. Yes, you had a cry space, because no one needed to see you cry. Tears finally rolled down your face, your body knowing where you were, your safe space.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit. I'm such an idiot!" Screaming at the top of your lungs in the tight space helped a bit, but not enough to suppress your angers.

Anger at Robin.

Anger at your homework.

Anger at yourself.

You drew your legs in closer to your body, latching your hands together to hold your legs tightly to your chest, muffling your sobs in your knees, your face hidden behind your legs, your mouth pressed into your knees and your eyes staring at the light shining under the door to keep your mind focused on something other than your pain.

The door swung open, almost ripped off its hinges, revealing a silhouette of a well-built young man with his arm drawn back, the other held a bow with an arrow pointed right at you. "How the hell did you get in here!" He held his posture for a few seconds longer while you stared wide eyed into the crystalline eyes of Red Arrow.

"N/N?" His face fell in shock as he looked down at you, dropping his bow as he shoved the dresses above you away and knelt in front of you.

"Roy!" You leapt forward into his arms, wrapping your arms tightly around his neck as he pulled you out of the closet, your legs instinctively going around his waist as he stood and walked over to the bed with you held tightly in his arms. "Roy, I missed you so much." You cried into his shoulder, your fingers held tightly to the back of his collar for dear life.

"I have you, N/N, I got you, don't worry." He whispered in your ear, his grip around you tightening around your waist, his big hands running up and down your back, sending goosebumps along the path of his hand. "What's wrong, N/N."

You muttered into his shoulder, but he couldn't catch what you said, sobs still shaking your body, his unusually gentle gestures not calming you down as fast as he had hoped. "Breathe, Y/N, breathe, in and out. Match my breathing," He slowly breathed in and out, keeping these movements slow and thought out, having to take care of your panic like attacks before.

You slowly listened to what he was telling you, you got you breathing under control and your sobs stopped but the tears never did. "Robin's being a dick." You finally whimpered into his shoulder, your hands now just clinging to each other instead of strangling him through pulling at his collar.

"You don't know how much I agree with you," Roy chuckled quietly, chuckling at the knowledge he held close to him ever since his best friend trusted him with his identity.

The room remained silent for a while longer, your tears dried across your checks, and you could feel your eyes all red and swollen, sensitive whenever you blinked. "Roy," He hummed back in reply, his check pressed into your hair, and his body gently rocking back and forth to the silent tune stuck in his head. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

He gently pushed your body away from his, his arms leaving your waist to gently hold your face, holding your eyes with his own. "Who told you that? Do I need to go stick someone with an arrow through at your school?" You shook your head, your E/C eyes never breaking with his clear crystalline eyes.

"No, but Robin just said-"

"Hey, Y/N, you are not stupid, do you hear me? Stupid is not a word in your world. Who convinced Dinah to train her even when she was just a regular girl? Who is the youngest person ever to join the League? Who can best Batman at hand to hand contact? Who sends fear into the hearts of every villain in Star City when they hear the name Y/S/N?" You tore your eyes away from him, knowing everything he said was true, but you never wanted to admit it.

"Me."

"Yes, exactly, Y/N, you. School had never been your strong suit, and I am so proud of you for getting this far, but that doesn't mean you're stupid. That means your brain is focusing on street smarts, on how you could get out of a situation if it went south. The same smarts that proved to Dinah that you could best her on the first try." You groaned and hid your face in his chest.

"I just wish Wally could see me the way you do," You mumbled into his chest, feeling Roy press a gentle kiss to the top of your head, a calm wave washing over you almost immediately.

"Hey Speedy, no need to hog all the good-looking girls!" A childish voice chuckled, followed by you being sweated away from Roy in a flash faster than lightning.

"Wally!" You knew as soon as his chuckle filled your ear and you were already speeding down 5th Avenue that it was Wally using his supersonic speed to get away from Roy. Your arms instinctively found their way around his neck, pulling yourself closer to his body, hiding your face where his shoulder and neck met. "Wally stop!"

But he only got faster, the grip he had on your waist got tighter the faster he ran, either ignoring your pleas or not hearing the over the roar of the wind.

"Wally, please," your voice got lost in the wind, your focus now on the dark spots littering your eyes, his super speed causing him to cut through the air like a bullet, cutting any air from coming to you off. "Wally," Your mind was shutting down, you could feel the air around your, but had no way of breathing any in.

All you could see was your surroundings zipping around you before you passed out.

<<<>>>

"Y/N! Y/N! Come on, wake up!" Your senses were slowly coming back to you, you could breathe again!

You sat up in shock, gasping for air to allow it back into your system. Except you ended up chocking on the air you got into your lungs because you couldn't get it fast enough. "Whoa, calm down there Nellie, don't need you passing out on me again."

Looking over to your right, you saw Wally squatting down next to you, his goggles hanging around his neck, his grin cutting his face in half, although it held a hint of relief in it.

You growled at him mid cough and shoved his head, successfully pushing him over in anger, his squirming in surprise by your outburst. "Why's you do that you idiot?" Words finally left your mouth after you calmed down, and they shot at the ginger faster than Roy's arrows.

"What'd I do!"

"You nearly killed me because of you recklessly using your speedster abilities!"

"Oh," His demeanor shrunk and he sat back on his ankles, shifting his body to allow his legs to fold under him to sit more comfortably, his green eyes continuing to scan your face to see if anything was wrong. "I'm...I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen. I was mad and forgot you weren't used to my speed, I just got so mad when I saw you and... And I'm sorry about what Robin said, I thumped him on the head real hard."

You chuckled at his comment, imagining the very unhappy Robin complaining about being hit on the head. "You don't need to apologize for him, I'm stupid at science and he's perfect. Can't blame him for his perfect qualities." You explained how you felt of the younger vigilante as you pulled your legs close to your chest, curling yourself into a ball.

"Robin only thinks he's perfect and amazing, and the only person I know who is perfect is, well you, Y/N," The words stumbled out of his mouth, and not as gracefully as he wanted, but his words caused you to go as red as Wally's hair with blushing.

You looked at your lap, trying to swipe your hair out from behind your ear to hide you bright face and smile. "Th-thanks, Wally, you are too. Perfect, I mean." You looked up at him, watching as his red gloved reached forward to brush the giant clump of hair blocking your face back behind your ear.

"Y/N,"

"Wally,"

The two of you accidentally spoke at the same time, finally able to break the tension that hung between the two of you and brought a laugh out of you. You managed to tell him that he could go first in between spurts of laughing. "Well, Y/N, you see for a long time now, since I actually saw you take both Rob and Conner down within seconds of each other, I couldn't help but find you very hot in that moment, and since then I've like, likes you. You know, liked you like you. I just...didn't want to tell you because I saw how close you were with Red Arrow."

You couldn't help but look at the ginger in surprise, "You think I'm with Roy?" He nodded sheepishly, his hand going to rub the back of his neck, he seemed ashamed of himself, almost like he through t he was getting between you and Roy. "Well, Wallace Rudolph West, it is a pleasure to meet you, I am Y/N Y/M/N Harper." You smiled at him with your hand extended towards him, waiting for the handshake you offered, and awestruck look on his face, bringing out your smile. "Roy's my older brother."

"O-oh." His eyes still wide from when you announced your name, finally shaking your hand even if it wasn't really needed.

"Honestly, I don't understand what people see in him, he's way too hard headed to find attractive." A grin finally cracked his face, relief rushing over you as Wally finally started laughing and his body relax, the tension again dissipating.

"Y/N, can...can we, I-can I...kiss you?" Your face heated up as you nodded, the two of you leaning closer together until Wally closed the space between the two of you capturing your lips with his.

The kiss was not heated, you both were too nervous and you were too inexperienced to do anything, but it lasted long enough for when you pulled away first, you tried hiding how out of breath you were. "Wow," You breathed out, your lips pulled into a smile.

"Awesome," Wally smiled back at you, his face losing some of his blush while yours got redder. "You look so cute, all nervous and red." He chuckled, gently tapping your nose.

"Stop," You giggled as you shoved his hand away, hiding your face in your hands.

"Hey, I'm only telling the truth." His hand grabbing for yours and pulled them away from your face. "And you know what I think?"

"Hmm, what?"

Wally leaned forward and pressed his lips to yours one more time before answering his own question. "I think we should do this kissing thing more often."

#wally west x reader #kid flash x reader #kid flash imagine #kid flash one shot #wally west imagine #wally west one shot #yg imagine #young justice imagine #young justice x reader #yg x reader

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annhellsing · 5 years

Text

Thirsty.

notes: i gave up near the end and this sucks but have the first original thing i’ve written in two years. it sucks, ha. rating: teen af pairing: dracula kinda / female reader. word count: 3,284

Autumn slouches in to the city a little late this year. The leaves don’t turn until halfway through October and you were doubtful that homey, fall chill would come at all. The mad sprint towards winter is awfully hard for the weather to pass up, you imagine.

But in the middle of the month, you’re greeted with red leaves and grey skies. It rains every other day and any lingering humidity evaporates into a wet kind of cold. It sticks to your clothes and your hair, a sharp breeze blowing off the lake freezes your fingers on the walk to work.

You have your phone in your hand on the 31st, outside the warmth of your jacket pocket. It rings for longer than you expect, the noise rattles around in your head this early.

So when it stops and the call time starts ticking, you almost don’t register the hesitant, “Hello?” on the other end.

“Oh!” you exclaim, “hi, I know it’s a little last-minute but I was thinking about being a vampire this year. But the thing is, I can’t find anywhere that’s still got teeth in stock. Could you check if you have any for me?”

There’s a long silence on the other end of the line, you’re almost certain you can hear someone whispering. You hold the phone a little closer to your ear, tilting your head to try and hear what on earth is being said.

“It’s okay if you don’t—” you start, but there’s a sound like a frenzied gasp before the voice from earlier replies,

“You want to become a vampire?” they ask. It sounds like a man with an accent you can’t place. Without thinking, you laugh.

“Ideally, yeah. But all the usual places tell me it’s too close to Halloween, there’s nothing left. Shame on me for waiting, I guess. So, you got what I need?” the voice goes quiet again, but there isn’t any whispering to listen to.

“It can be arranged,” he says. You find yourself giggling again.

“That’s great, I’ll swing by around five,” perhaps the disembodied voice seems to sense the end of the conversation. There’s something frantic about the response.

“You know the way?” he says, “it’s quite remote,”

“Yeah,” you sound bemused. The man on the other end doesn’t sound so old to be unfamiliar with Google Maps. “Don’t worry about it. I’m in the area.”

There’s a muffled sort of sound, you can almost distinguish a, “Ah, yes, in that case—” before you’re greeted with more silence.

“I— cool, then. I’ll be there later on today. Have a good one,” you take the phone from your ear and tap the red button. The conversation ends.

Local costume stores are the weirdest, little places.

—

Have a good what? Dracula wonders why you were not more specific. His phone goes silent, the sound of a stranger’s voice still ringing somewhere in the high ceiling. It was like cold water thrown over him, both the scream from his device receiving a call and the idea of speaking to another person.

It’s dark in the chapel, lit only by braziers before the dilapidated organ at the end of the aisle. The sound of him playing nearly drowned out his ringtone, if it were for the infernal buzzing he might’ve missed the call. Fear grips him at tat.

He looks up at the bell tower that extends forever, turning over the conversation in his mind.

A hundred years of silence gave way to a very pleasant numbness after a while. His need for companionship dwindled, or perhaps he only wished it would. He grips the phone in a cold, tight fist and wishes he asked the name of his newfound companion.

But you’ll be here by five o’clock, apparently, though he knows not how. The why, on the other hand is clear. You wish to be like him.

He shoves the phone in his pocket, where he’d forgotten it for decades. How remarkable that its first and only connection would drag him forcibly from isolation. A century ago he might’ve been annoyed, might not have agreed so easily to such a commitment. But the promise of contact dissolves any hesitance on his part. He couldn’t feign disgust if he wanted to, not when this is perhaps his last chance.

The door to the main hall is ajar, spilling candlelight onto the stone. Worse still than the cathedral is the rest of the castle, he knows the state it’s in. And it won’t do for guests, certainly not ones who’ve expressed interest in staying here forever.

He takes two steps and thusly dematerializes, turning to smoke in a blink because he wills it so. The door is shut with a loud bang and a scattering of dust, Dracula’s allowed the place to crumble around him with no thought to its presentability.

There is a great deal of work to be done. He crosses the great hall in a blink, moving over old, brown bloodstains scattered on wood and a faded carpet.

It might, he thinks, be time to wake some help.

—

The costume store was a bust, the bell rings over your head as you leave empty handed. A bored teenager manning the front desk gestured vaguely to a picked-over rack and an absolutely tragic lack of something to pass as a vampire costume.

You thought it best not to ask after the man on the phone, she went back to browsing a magazine while you put up the pretence of shopping. Now, the cold bites your cheeks as you make the trek home.

Disappointment hangs heavy, but what did you expect? It’s the day before Halloween, the whole situation just snuck up on you. The sky is charcoal above your head, the light deciding that it’s had enough even on an overcast day. Soon, you’re walking in the dark down an abandoned street flanked by townhouses.

You can pick yours out of the bunch, it’s the one with the kitschy Halloween decorations scattered lovingly in the front yard. There’s an orange glow welcoming you, you consider that might just be more fun to stay in and hand out candy if you’ll be spending the holiday without a costume.

It doesn’t sound too bad, you suppose. You put your key in the lock and jiggle it slightly before it can turn. Inside is just as dark but decidedly warmer.

More important than any existential crises about what you’ll wear is how you’ll squirm out of the party you’ve been invited to. It seems like something of a cruel joke, to finally have plans only for life to eclipse them. You barely remember the host from high school and contemplate for a moment the embarrassment of being asked by strangers who you’re dressed as.

It’s not life-ending, but it wouldn’t be much fun.

You settle on the couch, reaching without looking to turn on the table lamp. In your other hand, you unlock your phone. It opens to the same page you landed on just before that strange, brief call earlier this morning.

The phone number’s written out on the costume shop’s website. Out of pure curiosity, you dial it up again.

“Corrine’s Costume Castle,” a familiar voice says over the phone. But it isn’t the man, you must be speaking to the girl at the counter. “How can I help you?”

“Hi— uh,” at this distance it might be safer to mention the other person you spoke to, “I had a chat with another employee earlier today, we talked about what was in stock. Could I speak with him?”

A pause, then, “Nobody else’s been in today,” the girl replies. She sounds like her nose is still half-buried in the magazine. “Maybe you got the wrong number? There’re a couple other costume shops, like, a stone’s throw away.”

“That’s probably it, whoops,” you tell her, perhaps a little too quickly, “thanks, have a good one.”

The line goes dead. You pull up the list of recent calls, looking to the one right below what you just dialled. You grip your phone a little tighter.

There’s an extra digit. Whatever number you called this morning, it wasn’t anywhere local. You were tired, your finger must’ve slipped and hit one number too many. And it made a great deal of difference.

—

He keeps time with the grandfather clock at the end of the dining room. Its large face and iron hands tell him it’s nearly nine in the evening. Long, thin fingers tap glass-like nails on the table. The blood in his glass has coagulated.

And still you have not arrived. Dracula is too cynical to be panicked, or to assume you’ve somehow lost your way. If it weren’t for the single number, your number trapped in his phone screen he might wonder if he imagined the whole thing. All his excitement and for nothing.

Glaring at the top half of his flip phone solves nothing, however. He shoves the glass of blood away and it falls over onto the table with a thud. Red blood gone cold and slimy trickles out, on to the tablecloth. In a flash, a man materializes and quickly removes the unwanted offering.

But the stain will stay, Dracula knows. He glances at it before turning his eyes back to your number. A brief pause before he decides what he’ll do.

Inhaling needlessly, he clicks the redial button and watches his phone spring to life. It doesn’t feel like very long at all, despite his mounting anxiety, until you pick up.

“I’m sorry,” is the first thing he hears. No hello, no hesitance.

“You are late,” he replies, keeping his tone very cool. Despite his inclination to think the worst, Dracula is coldly polite. You sputter on the other end of the line, it’s not exactly encouraging.

“Oh, man, listen—” you cut yourself off, “your area code is in Romania and I am decidedly nowhere near there.”

“Why would you insist you were nearby if you were not?” Dracula asks, the ice in his voice unmistakable.

“I didn’t actually know it was you I was calling,” you try to explain, “I dialled the wrong number, I just didn’t realize it.”

“It was a mistake?” he asks. And, just there, just around the edges is the faint trace of disappointment he’s tried to conceal. Perhaps you realize how much he’d been hoping.

“I thought you were a costume shop I live near, I wanted to go as a vampire for Halloween,” he exhales sharply, just as needlessly. As if what you’ve said is preposterous.

“I should have known,” he grits his teeth, the ends of his fangs press against his bottom lip. Such is the sudden pain in his chest that he can’t bring himself to care if you can hear it.

“Who are you?” you ask it, very slowly. He considers what he’s saying, what you must think of him and his jaw unclenches. You might hang up if he scares you, he grips the phone tight enough that the plastic is in danger of giving way.

“The name may not be familiar to you any more,” he begins. But to his great surprise, you laugh uneasily.

“That’s kind of the point when talking to strangers,” you tell him.

“In this case, it is somewhat different,” he says, “I asked if you wanted to become a vampire because it is a wish I can grant.”

“You’re a vampire?” you ask, sounding more bemused than incredulous. He doesn’t know why he cares if you believe him. “Like, Dracula? That isn’t your name.”

“How astute,” he replies, “yes, like Dracula. But that is my name.”

There’s a clunking sound from the other end of the line. What you say is rude and barely audible, he pushes his chair back from the table and stands.

“Pick up the phone,” he says, to his horror it’s more of a question than a demand, “please?”

“Shit, that’s—” your voice gets closer again. And though it sounds breathless and disbelieving, it’s still beautiful to hear. “You have to be kidding me.”

“I assure you that I am not,” he replies. He’s greeted by your nervous giggle.

“That’s— shit,” you finally decide. Dracula’s laugh is significantly more stilted, like the rustling of reeds.

“So you have said,” he seems just as startled by his own laughter as you.

“I mean, the logical progression of that is can you prove it?” you ask, but some of that earlier mirth slips back into the way you say it.

“Well, if you cannot make the journey here—” he starts.

“You think I’m going to let a vampire in my house?” you tease. Part of him wonders why you’re still on the line, even Dracula’s aware of the dissonance. “And one I barely know at that?”

“It was only a suggestion,” he replies.

“I want to believe you, actually,” you say, your voice sounds softer. Perhaps a little sad, “for a lot of reasons.”

“Why is that?” he reclines in his seat, propping his elbow against the armrest. The phone is still clenched in his hand.

“Maybe I’d be less alone,” you say it like it’s nothing, but his still heart gives a strange lurch.

Dracula’s hand errantly finds his chest, he presses his palm to his sternum but finds no movement. There is no source of the sharp pain in him, so distinct from but nevertheless in conjunction with loneliness.

“I am not lying,” he sounds perhaps more insistent than he ought. He worries briefly that he might offend or terrify. “I swear it.”

“On what?” you ask. To his delight, you brighten a bit.

“My own grave,” he replies, to a specific end. And it works, he hears your soft shout of laughter so many miles away. It’s a warm sound.

“Do you get lonely? In Romania?” you sigh and seem to regret saying it the second it’s said. Dracula hums.

“You are the first I have spoken to in a century,” he admits, “I think I am only beginning to understand how lonely it can be.”

“Wow,” you sound less incredulous, unflinching, “will you laugh at me if I offer up comfort?”

“Why would I do that?” he knows before you answer.

“In case this is a prank,” you tell him, “or you’re not who you say you are.”

“Whatever you choose to believe, I will not laugh,” is all the reply you get.

“That sounds like a level of isolation I don’t fully understand, honestly,” you seem to make your decision, “provided it’s true.”

“There is a reason I do not want you to hang up again,” he says, “considering I will be receiving no company this evening.”

“I won’t hang up,” you tell him, “I haven’t talked to anybody I know since I got an invite to this Halloween party.”

“Which is why you needed the costume,” he says, the pieces start to fit together. You hadn’t meant to call, that’s true, but he has a promise from you.

“Yeah, exactly. I put it off and now I’m stuck,” you say, “I wanted to be a vampire but it didn’t work out.”

“What I offered is considerably more permanent,” he says, he can hear the smile in your voice.

“I guess so, but I don’t know if I stand by my original hesitance,” you say, “unless you’re actually just crazy. Now you’ve given me hope!” you exclaim. But you sound uncertain, especially uncertain. “It’d solve a lot of problems, being a vampire.”

“Perhaps, but it creates many of its own that are distinct,” Dracula says. He’s become careless with his tone, settled into his chair.

“Oh, yeah,” you say, “but it’s been such a long time since anything happened to break up the monotiny. It’s just nice to dream.”

“I have been without companions like myself for considerably longer than a hundred years,” he says.

“Don’t you have brides?” you ask. Dracula hums and the sound is humourless.

“An exaggeration,” he dismisses. You choose not to press it.

“At least I go to school with other humans,” you tell him, “would you really turn me after a half-hour conversation?”

“If that is what you wanted after all,” he replies. Dracula blinks and shifts again in his seat.

The conversation is one he never expected at all, he hadn’t the faintest idea where it would lead. But it has turned sharply, come full circle with a new understanding shared by the both of you.

But then, there is a change.

“Oh, dammit,” you mutter, sounding distant from the speaker.

“What is it?” Dracula asks, “what is wrong?”

“Nothing, sorry,” you reply, “I just got a look at the time and the party—” the dread in your voice does something special again to him. There is another lurching that he still fails to anticipate. But Dracula does not assume that he is dying again a second time. “It starts soon and I’ve got nothing.”

“That is unfortunate,” he sounds at a loss. Perhaps now you will break your promise. His heart sinks and the sensation is intense.

“I don’t know if I want to go, now,” you admit with a sheepish softness to your tone. “But I probably should, I can throw something together.”

“I understand,” it isn’t that he’s run out of words to say, but he knows when the fun’s ended.

“It’s been nice talking to you,” you tell him. He thinks you might just mean it.

“And I to you, my dear,” Dracula holds the phone to his ear, even as you say goodbye. Even as the sound of your voice and the slight static is interrupted by nothing.

He flips the infernal thing closed after a few moments of silence and sets it on the table. Dracula lifts his hand, debating summoning a minion to bring him a fresh glass of blood.

The buzzing from his phone is short and amplified by the hard wood underneath it.

—

The party is loud, painfully loud but you breeze through it easily. While the dark corners look appealing, you do have someone to greet. You see your friend through the crowd, Marnie’s wearing a red wig and you couldn’t miss her.

A few people turn to stare as you weave between bodies. The alcohol is flowing and the world is all dazzling colours. Distantly, you hear Monster Mash pouring from someone’s speakers.

Arms are around you as soon as your in range. Marnie’s always been friendly, even more-so when tipsy.

“I was fully expecting the text saying you weren’t coming,” she says with a laugh in her voice. You know what she means.

“I almost did,” you tell her. She holds you suddenly at arm’s length.

“Oh, my god, you look incredible,” she exclaims. Her head lolls, she looks you up and down with a beaming smile.

“So do you,” you reply, “you’re a perfect little mermaid.”

“The wig’s from Party City, you don’t have to lie to me,” but where the fuck did you get those contacts?

“My friend knows a guy,” you tell her, glancing over your shoulder.

Marnie’s eyes follow you over the sea of people dancing and enjoying the revelry. Tucked into a corner that you found more than appealing is a man. He’s tall, death-pale in a way that only makeup can explain. He stares off into the middle distance but suddenly and sharply turns to look directly back at you.

“Who’s he?” Marnie asks, “is he in one of our classes?”

“Not exactly, it’s a little more complicated than that,” you say, but you don’t turn back to look at her. You smile, showing fangs.

#not tagging this as anything basically bc it's just garbage lol #if there are any mistakes it's bc i have no time to edit rip #anniewrites

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