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thadelightfulone · 3 years

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All I Want... 25 Days of Christmas Challenge, Day 2

November 15-19th, Part 2

Erik Stevens’ office phone rang incessantly, even after he told his assistant to hold all calls. When it finally quieted down, he stood up to stretch the stiff muscles of his neck, shoulders and arms. He moved in front of the floor to ceiling window that makes up the back wall of his office. Taking a few deep breaths, he rubbed his temples when the cell phone in his jacket pocket started to ring.

“T. Can I breathe? We have been working on this project all morning.” Silence greeted him on the other end. “Hello?”

“My bad. I figured you would be at lunch right about now. It’s after 3 over here.” The voice spoke.

Erik looked at the contact on his phone and started laughing, “Damn man, I’m sorry. My cousins and I have been working on this project and -- let’s just say I am ready for a vacation.”

“It’s ok. I get it man. I have about 4 students preparing to defend their dissertations next month. I am nowhere near ready.”

“That’s right, Dr. Oubre, preparing our future doctors of science and research. So, what’s up?”

“Well, I just spoke with Dr. Giacomo and she said someone came around asking about you.”

“Really for what?”

“Yeah, I guess they came across one of your papers and decided to find you.”

Erik rolled his eyes, “So, why would they go to her and not just reach out to me directly?”

“Look, I don’t know. I am just letting you know what was relayed to me, but I wanted to reach out to you before I gave out your information.”

“Bruh, give them my email and get off my phone.” Erik laughed at how silly Marquis was being.

“Aye, you can never be too sure. I’m just looking out for you.” Marquis whispered into the phone.

Erik walked over to his desk and leaned against the edge, “Quis, man what is really going on?”

“I don’t want to send you another stalker.” Marquis sighed before laughing.

“HA, man. No one could have seen that shit coming.” Erik began to laugh as well. “I definitely lucked out when she graduated before us. Who knows how bad that could have gotten?”

“True, true.” Marquis cleared his throat, “By the way, Serena asked about you. She wants to know when you are bringing yo black ass back to Louisiana? You know to see us, your friends and extended family?”

“What else? I know she didn’t stop there.” Erik retorted.

“Oh, the usual. Has he found anyone yet? When is he gonna settle down? Yada, yada, yada.” Marquis shot back.

“Of course, she did.” Erik sighed out. “I definitely want to take some time off, so I can come and see you both, including my nieces and nephew. I just don’t know when that will be.”

“Alright man, I understand. Look, I just wanted to give you a heads up about the contact. But I gotta run to class now.” Marquis rushed out.

“Yeah, I’ll hit you up later this week.” Erik said before hanging up.

Setting his phone down on his desk, he closed his eyes. Arms crossed over his chest, he relaxed into the moment. Alternating between short and long breathes, he felt himself calming down from the morning and the call from his best friend and brother.

They met in undergrad and were as thick as thieves instantly. You never saw one without the other anywhere on campus. And then, while they were in grad school Marquis met Serena, who would later become his wife.

Laughing to himself, Erik recalled being jealous of what they had and continued to build together. It reminded him of his parents’ relationship and the love they had for one another. He rolled his eyes as his mind started to wander. Serena wasn’t the only one asking those kinds of questions lately.

Shaking those thoughts from his head, he decided to focus on the reason for Marquis’ call. Someone from Southern University was looking for him, that’s very interesting. He hadn’t thought of his alma mater much since returning home to Oakland, about 10 years ago. Outside of Marquis and his family, who he kept in touch with; he never needed to think about it. He had written plenty of papers due to his current research and his studies while he was working on his doctorate, so it does make sense. Well, whoever it is will be reaching out to him soon enough.

---

It’s been three days since DeeDee learned that her mystery man was connected to a current faculty member on campus. She walked to his office and knocked on the open door.

“Hey Dr. O.” DeeDee said to get his attention.

“Come in, DeeDee.”

DeeDee walked into Dr. Marquis Oubre’s office and took a seat in front of his desk. She pulled out her notebook and set it down on her lap.

“So, how are things going?” Dr. Oubre asked as he walked over to the chair next to her.

“They are going, but it could be better.” DeeDee answered as she fiddled with her fingers.

Marquis sat down and crossed his leg at the knee. “What’s bothering you, DeeDee?”

“I’m nervous about how all the interviews went. I mean they were all in September and October, and I have not heard anything.”

“What did I tell you when you left for the first one in San Diego?”

DeeDee sighed and rolled her eyes, “I will know if they are a great fit for me and not the other way around.”

“That’s right. Besides, you visited about 6 schools over a 2 month period. Those are on-campus interviews and that number is unheard of DeeDee.” Dr. Oubre looked at her, “I didn’t even get that many.”

“Really?” DeeDee looked at him in disbelief.

Dr. Oubre discussed his entire experience of applying for a tenure-track position. DeeDee listened as much as she could manage, but in the back of her mind, all she could think about is the fact that her doctoral mentor knew her mystery man. She wanted to blurt it out when she first walked in, but it didn’t seem like the right thing to do. But now, she is reminded that the man can talk and couldn’t wait any longer.

“Dr. O?” DeeDee interrupted his current train of thought.

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you about a former student?” She picked up the notebook, pulling out a printed out black and white newspaper clipping. DeeDee handed it to him.

He took it from her, looked at the image and laughed. “It’s you?”

DeeDee looked at him in confusion.

“You know people talk around here and I am friends with a lot of folks in Computer Science. Dr. Giacomo told me that someone was looking for Erik. I guess I just wasn’t thinking it would be you.” He continued to laugh.

“Oh. Of course, she would.” DeeDee huffed out as she scooted further back into the chair.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh.” He reached for her notebook, “May I?”

DeeDee handed him the notebook. Dr. Oubre pulled the ink pen from his dress shirt and wrote on the first blank page he found. He handed it back to her.

“That’s his email. He said that he is fine with you asking him anything.”

“Wait. What? He is expecting to hear from me?” DeeDee fumbled with the notebook when Dr. Oubre handed it over.

“Yes, he was surprised that you didn’t just search for him using the information on the article.”

DeeDee silently chastised herself, remembering what she told the other professor the other day. “About that, I didn’t even think of it. I saw Southern University and that was all she wrote.” She nervously laughs.

“No problem. I’m sure he’ll be able to answer whatever questions you have.” Dr. Oubre stood up. “So, how’s your unnecessary prepwork going?”

“It’s not unnecessary. I just want to be prepared, Dr. O.”

“DeeDee, you have been studying this stuff for the last 4 years. You know it and your 150 page dissertation shows that.” He moved around behind his desk, “They are only going to ask you about what is in there and what work you want to do with the information from this study.”

“I understand that, but --”

“Look, you have nothing to worry about. It is more a presentation then an actual defense. And I wouldn’t stress about the lack of response from those other universities about your interviews because I know you have applied to others. You got this.”

DeeDee took a deep breath before responding, “You are right, Dr. O. I have applied to about 5 other places, but those were all in my top 2 tiers.”

“And about your upcoming defense?”

“Right again. I know it like the back of my hand. So, I will try not to stress about it anymore.” DeeDee stood up and grabbed her things.

“Glad to hear it. Oh, by the way, you do know Dr. Bell is retiring at the end of the year?”

“Yeah, they told all of us last week. Sounds like the annual department Christmas party will be her retirement party.”

Dr. Oubre handed her a small flyer, “That’s right. Here’s your invitation. Hope to see you there.”

DeeDee looked down at it, “I’m there with bells on.” She laughed at her little joke.

“Nope, you gotta go.” He pointed at the door, while trying not to laugh. “I don’t think we need to meet next week, unless something comes up and you want to talk.”

“I agree.” DeeDee stopped at the door and held up the notebook, “And thanks again for this, Dr. O.”

“You’re welcome, DeeDee.” He sat down and watched as DeeDee left his office.

---

Sitting at her home office desk, DeeDee stared at the blank message box on her computer screen. The only thing typed out was Erik’s email address. She picked up her glass of water and took a sip.

She spent the last hour looking up information on him. Found out that he’s back in Oakland and not even active in the science field anymore. He was the Director for one of the Wakanda Outreach Centers. It was fascinating what she read and found out about the work he was currently doing.

And just like that, she was afraid to move forward. It should be simple. Send him an email about finding the little note in an old textbook. The end. He could do whatever he wanted with the information. But DeeDee’s mind was playing out possible scenarios like stuff she had seen in her favorite sappy romantic movies. And while the thought excited her, it also freaked her out at the same time.

Things like that did not happen to women like her. Sure, she was kind of pretty and low maintenance, but most guys did not find her interesting enough to have a relationship with. And because of that she just didn’t try to pursue them, which is much different than what her friends believed about her. There was no message in a bottle type romance or love for her. So, why even bother?

She closed the email and decided to let the matter go. At least, she found out who wrote the note. Curiosity piqued and answered. Now, time to focus on her future and career.

Taglist: @teakturn @ghostfacekill-monger @shaekingshitup @nahimjustfeelingit-writes @woahitslucyylu @ladymac82 @bugngiz @eyeknowmywrites @ajspencer1892 @blackpinup22 @sarcastic-sunshines

Let me know if you want to be added to the list.

#25 days of christmas challenge #erik killmonger x oc #black panther fanfiction #bp christmas #all i want #thadelightfulone

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fruit-teeth · 3 years

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Matters of Time and Fate (Chapter 16)

It was after breakfast when Olivia spotted a box in the living room, and out of curiosity, she peeked inside. It was filled with an assortment of items, such as a few books, some tools, and some metallic items she was unable to identify. She dug through the box, pursing her lips together in disappointment. She hadn’t had an idea of what she was hoping to find, but she hoped there are at least would be something in there she could enjoy.

“Whoa, there, kid!” Engineer’s voice piped up from behind her, and he gently pulled her away from the box. “What are you after?”

Olivia shrugged, peering back into the box again. “I dunno! Something interesting, I guess…”

Engie thought for a moment, tapping his chin. “Interesting, huh? Well, this is just some stuff for my workspace, you ain’t gonna find anything too interesting in here. Except…”

He reached into the box, pulling out a small camera. “I got this! It’s a real nice camera, see?”

Olivia leaned in to look at the device. It was smooth and sleek, though a little dusty around the crevices, and she watched as Engineer brushed some of the dust away with his finger. “There we go,” he hummed, before passing it to her. “Do you know how to use a camera?”

“I know a little!” Olivia replied, taking the camera into her hands and looking it over. “I saw Daddy use one once…” she turned it around, searching for the button, and she pressed it once she managed to locate it. Instantly, there was a flash, and the camera began to click.

Within a few seconds, the camera spit out a small picture, which Engie tugged out and held up to the light. “There we go! Give it time to develop, and then you got a nice picture!”

Olivia took it from Engie’s hands to get a good look at it, watching as the accidental picture she had taken of the carpet slowly developed. “Oh!” she gasped, feeling proud of herself as she showed Engineer. “Look! It worked!”

Engineer laughed. “Great, yeah! You can use it if you want! I got a bunch of these cameras laying around, go ahead and take pictures! I used to take all kinds of pictures as a kid,”

Olivia stuffed the picture into her pocket, and she turned away to scamper up the stairs. “I’m gonna take pictures of everything!”

“Yeah, go ahead!” Engie chuckled, picking the box up and rising to his feet so he could finish setting the office up.

Olivia ran up towards the bathroom, where she spotted Scout brushing his teeth over the sink. Without giving any kind of warning, she positioned her camera and took a photo of him, the flash catching him off guard.

“Gah!” Scout exclaimed, nearly choking on the toothbrush. “Jeez, kid, what the hell!?”

The camera produced the small photo, and Olivia tugged it out, waving it around like she had seen Engineer do. “Look what I got!”

Scout squinted at the object. “Camera, huh? Cool, but if you’re gonna take a picture of me, it better be a good one!”

“Good one?” Olivia repeated, stuffing the new photo into her pocket with the other one.

“Yeah! Hang on,” Scout wiped his mouth with a towel, before he took another, clean towel and draped it around his shoulders. He then struck a pose, flexing one arm and grinning. “Okay, now take a picture!”

Olivia held up the camera again, snapping a photo. Once it printed, she pulled it out of the slot and held it up to the light, giggling. “Looks like a magazine!’

Scout laughed, reaching for it. “Lemme see!” when she passed it to him, he stared at it for a moment before nodding in approval. “Yeah, looks great! You could be a photo-person or whatever, for newspapers and stuff,”

“Could I?” Olivia looked down at the camera, thinking about it. Any future job besides taking her father’s place had never seemed like a possibility…but, given her current circumstance, taking photos could end up being her job instead.

Just then, Lar-Nah stepped out of the other room, and when Olivia heard her, she turned right back around and took her picture as well. Lar-Nah jolted in alarm at the flash, letting out a yelp.

“What was that!?” she demanded to know. “Why are you taking photos!?”

“Hey, be nice to the kid!” Scout reprimanded. “She’s just taking pictures, she’s gonna be a photo-person maybe!”

Lar-Nah composed herself, before she just shook her head at Scout. “Photographer. You mean photographer. ‘Photo-person’ is not a job,”

Scout waved her off. “Same difference. Hey, kid,” he put his hand on Olivia’s shoulder. “You wanna take pictures around the house?”

Olivia glanced back over at Lar-Nah. Lar-Nah lingered by the doorway, before she turned and headed down the stairs.

“Don’t worry about her,” Scout cleared his throat. “How about you take pictures of like, stuff outside? Or bugs? I dunno, that kinda thing,”

“I don’t want to take pictures of bugs,” Olivia wrinkled her nose. After a moment, she decided, “I’ll take pictures of Teddy!”

“Oh, the doc’s monkey? Sure, go nuts,” Scout turned back to the mirror, slathering shaving cream on his face. “I gotta shave real quick,”

Olivia tilted her head in confusion, watching him apply the shaving cream. “But you don’t have a beard,”

“Better go see Teddy before he takes his nap,” Scout suggested, raising his voice slightly, though it was clear he wasn’t trying to be mean. Olivia shrugged, and she headed back down the stairs in hopes of getting a picture or two of Teddy.

Upon arriving to Medic’s basement lab, Olivia stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked around, trying to remember where he kept Teddy. The basement had been rearranged slightly since the last time Olivia had been down there, so she tried to figure out where Teddy’s playpen had been moved to.

However, as she peeked over the doorway and into the lab, she noticed something unusual. There was a TV down there, now, and Heavy was seated on a couch in front of it. As Olivia watched, she realized that Medic was there, too, but he was curled up beside Heavy, cuddling against him.

The TV showed an old, black and white film, and a man on the screen tripped and fell into a trashcan as a laugh-track played. Heavy laughed out loud, as Medic just clicked his tongue and mumbled something about how ‘predictable’ the show was. Heavy leaned over, nuzzling Medic’s cheek with his nose and chuckling. Medic could not help but smile, exhaling of his nose as he nuzzled back. Then, the two of them kissed one another gently.

Olivia watched in stunned silence, blinking slowly. She almost forgot about the camera in her hands, and without thinking, she loosened her grip on it. It slipped out of her hands, and once she realized what had happened, she acted quickly and attempted to catch it. She managed to catch it, but not without accidentally pressing the button and taking a photo of her own sock by mistake.

Medic startled at the sound of the flash, and he jerked his head up in alarm. “Gott!” he exclaimed, noticing Olivia. “Child, did you take a picture of us!?”

“No, I didn’t!” Olivia pulled out the picture once the camera spat it out, holding it up for Medic and Heavy to see. “I-I was just—!”

Heavy shushed her, getting up from the couch. “Is okay. What you need? Need something?”

“I…” Olivia then spotted Teddy in his playpen, which had been moved over next to Medic’s cabinets. The little baboon was sleeping peacefully, sucking on his pacifier in his sleep. Olivia shook her head. “No…”

“All right,” Heavy smiled at her, though he seemed a little uneasy. “See that?” he pointed to a little bell hanging up outside of the lab. “Ring that next time, yes?”

Olivia looked up at the bell, and she nodded after a moment. “Okay…I will,”

She walked slowly back up the stairs, wondering about what she had seen. Were Medic and Heavy in love? She had seen old movies before where people kissed, and they usually did that when they were in love…she didn’t see what was so great about kissing, though.

Just as Olivia wandered into the kitchen, the side door swung open. She looked towards the direction of the sound, and it was right then that the Administrator walked in with Miss Pauling right behind her.

Miss Pauling noticed the camera Olivia held in her hands, and she nodded at it. “Hey! You’ve been taking pictures?”

“Yeah,” Olivia reached into her pockets, fishing out the photos she’d taken so far and showing them to her. “I got these ones!”

As Pauling bent down to get a look at the pictures, the Administrator set her purse down on the counter to watch Olivia show off her photos. When Olivia noticed Helen watching her, Helen cleared her throat and looked away.

“Olivia,” she began, before looking back at her. “I’m going to hold a meeting with the adults, so you will need to be upstairs for that,”

Olivia frowned, huffing. “I don’t wanna! I was just up there!”

Helen raised her voice just a little. “You have to, a meeting is no place for a child,”

Olivia crossed her arms defiantly, glaring up at Helen. “No! You can’t make me do anything!”

“Really?” Helen crossed her arms in return, taking a step forward. “That simply isn’t true…”

Miss Pauling suddenly cut in, getting between Helen and Olivia. “Hey, I have an idea! Why don’t you go outside and take pictures of plants and stuff, Olivia? It’s really pretty outside, that might be fun,”

Olivia turned to look out the window, seeing that it was, in fact, very nice and sunny outside. She looked down at the camera again, and then shrugged. “Okay…yeah, I can do that, I guess…”

“Good!” Pauling gestured to the door. “How about you do that while we have our meeting?”

“She should be supervised if she’s outside,” Helen muttered, leaning against the counter to rub her temples.

“Oh…yeah,” Miss Pauling looked around, and she spotted Zhanna lingering in the adjacent dining room. “Hey! Zhanna, can you look after Olivia while she’s taking pictures outside?”

Zhanna glanced up, and she nodded. “That is fine,” she walked up to Olivia, taking her free hand and leading her to the back door. “Come, little Olivia,”

“Okay…” Olivia didn’t really want to miss the meeting—she liked meetings, she liked being somewhere where she could feel important. But she didn’t mind being around Zhanna at all, and she found that she actually enjoyed taking pictures.

As the back door closed, Helen let out a long sigh. “What am I going to do with that girl?”

Miss Pauling fell quiet, before she placed her hand on Helen’s arm to get her attention. “We should really get the guys down here for the meeting,”

Helen shook herself, nodding in agreement. “Yes—yes, of course,”

Once Olivia and Zhanna were outside, Zhanna pointed out a patch of grass in the yard. “Look—grass, take picture of grass,”

Olivia wrinkled her nose at the thought. “But it’s just grass…”

Zhanna went quiet for a moment, before she knelt down in the grass and pointed to the soil. “Get close—see?”

“See what?” Olivia moved a little closer to try and see what Zhanna was pointing at. There, in the soil, sat a little stone, surrounded by smaller pebbles. At first glance, it didn’t seem terribly interesting, but the more Olivia stared at it, the more appealing it seemed somehow.

After a moment, she got her camera back out, snapping a photo of the little rocks. As the picture printed out of the camera, Zhanna glanced back up and reached for it. “Let’s see?”

As Zhanna took the freshly printed picture into her hand, Olivia stood behind her and watched it develop. Once it became visible, Olivia couldn’t help but grin with pride. “It looks nice!”

“It does,” Zhanna agreed with a nod. “You are good at this,”

“Yeah…” Olivia stuffed the picture into her pocket with all the others, before trotting away to the trees behind the house. “I’m gonna find more things!”

Zhanna smiled, and she stood up, following closely behind Olivia. “All right,”

Inside the house, the mercenaries were, once again, gathered in the study for another meeting with the Administrator. This time, however, the atmosphere was different.

“So—wait,” Engineer just shook his head with a sigh. “Sage is sending people after us, now?”

“I said he possibly will send someone,” Helen clarified. “He’s been known to do that with opponents, and well, we are no exception. That is why we should waste no time preparing our defenses,”

Heavy frowned. “This is very bad. Of course, we can destroy puny men, men like him. But…why he want this? With us?”

“It’s me he’s after,” Helen explained. “But its your job to make sure Sage or whoever he hires doesn’t penetrate this place and destroy us again. Once you do your job, I will deal with Sage myself…”

Demoman just stared at his shoe, digging his foot into the carpet. “Sure, you will,” he murmured under his breath.

Helen glanced up when she heard the muttering. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Nothing,” Demo responded, clearing his throat.

There was a pause, and Helen made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “You may leave. Make sure you have your weapons on hand just in case,”

As the mercenaries dispersed, they began muttering amongst themselves once they were out of earshot from Helen.

“There she goes again, dragging us into a mess she created!” Medic huffed as he retrieved his bonesaw from one of the boxes. “Not that I don’t mind a new set of targets, of course, but goodness!”

Scout leaned against the wall, shaking his head. “Man, people don’t just settle things themselves like they used to…if I was her, I would’ve messed up that Sage guy myself! In fact, you know what? I’ll do it!”

Sniper just rolled his eyes. “No, you won’t,”

Spy watched these interactions from a distance, before he turned to look at Miss Pauling, who was busy putting away some folders. He made sure no one else was watching, and he then approached her and got her attention by tapping her shoulder. “Miss Pauling,”

Miss Pauling paused, turning to look up at him. “Yeah? What’s up?”

Spy thought about how to phrase his question. “Well…I would like to know about Helen: why is she doing this?”

“Doing what?” Pauling folded her arms, leaning against the cabinet.

“You know her better than anyone,” Spy went on. “What I’d like to know is why she even wants to keep dragging this on, why she’s doing all of this…why can’t she just…?”

“Die?” Pauling finished for him, a glare in her eyes.

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Spy clarified.

Pauling sighed, leaning her head in her hand. “Yeah…sorry. I just…” she looked back up at him, brushing her hair away from her eyes. “It’s complicated,”

“All of it?” Spy questioned. “How is it complicated? Is there no simple, straight explanation as to why she’s staying with us like this? Why she cannot simply kill Sage herself?” another thought crossed his mind, and he added, “Why she’s keeping Olivia here?”

“God, Spy!” Pauling sighed again, a little more exasperated than before. “I told you, Olivia is gonna be fine!”

“I know you told me that,” Spy affirmed, lowering his voice a little. “But I am not inclined to believe you,”

Pauling’s hands balled into fists. “Oh, yeah? And why? What do you think she’s gonna do with Olivia?”

Spy looked all around to make sure Helen was not watching or listening in, and when he made sure she had left, he turned back to Miss Pauling. “I think she’s going to adopt Olivia, and then do something to her to get her fortune,”

Pauling went quiet, and she covered her face with her hands after a moment. “No…Spy…”

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Spy pressed, starting to feel angrier by the second. “Miss Pauling, you know I respect you, but I cannot get behind this. Crimes committed against children, to me, are the worst crimes. You know this.”

“No…” Pauling just shook her head again. “No, no, you don’t understand. She’s not gonna hurt Olivia, Spy!”

“And how do I know that?” Spy persisted. “How do I know she won’t—?”

Miss Pauling suddenly blurted out, “Because Olivia’s her daughter! Helen isn’t going to hurt her own kid!”

The words hung heavy in the air. Once Pauling realized what she said, her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth. “I…I…”

Spy blinked, his brow creasing in confusion. “What?”

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hamsterrivals · 4 years

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ok, so.

I made a youtube video, of me narrating Ashita no Joe episode 4.

I was wondering for awhile if it would be ok to upload a video that’s just directly an anime episode of Ashita no Joe.

I thought partly, maybe it would be ok, since that anime came out like before 1970 or something so maybe it’s free domain,

but nah. It is blocked. I can’t find the video at all.

but, that isn’t going to stop me..

I will do the impossible, (even though I am depressed, about someone I know. irl)

and narrate Ashita no Joe episode 4.

I made a whole video of me narrating it with my voice. but it’s blocked aaaa. I refuse to let it go, though.

giga..drill...breakeriswhat I’d say but I am too depressed about someone I know irl.

Ok so anyways, this was gonna be a YouTube video, especially cuz-- [had to delete the explanation] anyways here:

[deleted stuff.....] ...

anyways here:

oh shizzat its 4am I’m fluffin’ tired. so I’m just gonna skim the episode and post screenshots argh my foot is pulsating as I type that as if my entire body is thinking “wow I know you re-watched Ashita no Joe episodes again yesterday but you should watch the whole episode again its godly” I’m sorry ewotjwte its just almost 4am and I had to wake up at 10am yesterday.

the opening plays. and then:

that one guy that is like my dad reads about my stuff

Jebus freakin’ RICE I’m tired. But I need to do something productive today cuz after I woke up at 10am for my social worker I was tired and drained all day from hearing the voices of the people upstairs and the noise in the wall.

my dad I mean Danpai keeps reading the newspaper (like how in -- gah nevermind [deleted cuz I’m paranoid about what [NEVERMIND deleted the explanation]] and

my freakin’ dad I mean Danpai gets mad at Joe just like

I DELETED [can’t say] like 8 years ago cuz of that time when I [=/ Can’t say the details]

GOSH DARN IT this is just like something irl and I can’t even say what it is because I’m too paranoid about people [deleted explanation here]

ok so basically Joe is super successful and doing good things in this world but no one believes him cuz his stupid azz danpai adopted dad figure is a dumb bummie, and then

and then I wanna explain 99 lines but we’re not even 2 minutes into the episode, so I guess I have to skip some parts; I mean it is 4am after all

and then

ok so there’s this snobby lady (at the time ? perhaps she changes at the very very very very end but I won’t give any spoilers about how the very final episode goes itjewiot btw I literally watched this anime starting from the very last episode cuz someone said this series has best ending in anime/manga of all time, and then I started back at early episodes after that, when I first watched this however years ago,)

and then

yes we printed this article cuz .. you’re trustworthy and popular but Joe is just an unpopular guy who helps out orphans and gives his money away to help out orphans

ya know how when I watched the first 11 episode with [won’t say but the guy that begins with Sau and ends with ce that I was friends with for 15 years and he kept making fun of it multiple times in the chat saying “More like a shit a joe.”] well these guys are like wow Joe is a delinquent cuz he is helping out orphans

wow Yabuki Joe used an alt account or some shiz and made a complete lie to try to help society for the better like making a peaceful game and then I mean boxing I mean waterver and then

no one believes ni the main character Joe who is LITERALLY helping out local orphans; and they’re basically like just jealous of him and twisting the truth to make him look bad is what these snobby popular people are doing t hat actually have friends unlike the wondering loner Joe Yabuki,

this very popular snobby lady who actually has friends unlike ab- Yabuki Joe doesn’t care that Joe is actually being helpful and wants to make projects that will bring peace to this world, she will not give him a chance because she cares more about appearances and keeping up her reputation.

....She takes on the full pressure and responsibilty. But can she handle it?

they’re basically like “uhhh do you have [deleted in case it comes off as offensive, since I know some others that make fun of that stuff >=\ which I don’t like either cuz I get made fun of [the deleted thing] too . It shouldn’t even have to be deleted >=\ but I was in a [DELETED] and they made fun of [the deleted thing] so I guess it has to be [deleted] which is so sad for this world ??] and so

the really cool person who *doesn’t reveal spoilers of the end of the series aa* says please leave Train- Yabuki Joe to me !!

i have faith in him he totally will not somehow break this faith that I vaguely have in him and am kinda too shy to publicly admit..

I wonder what Joe is feeling like right now and doing:

s o anyways Joe keeps laughing 99 times in this episode, and, cuz he knows he’s right and just helping out orphans and people that aren’t popular and too afraid to join the b- never mind.

some of his followers don’t respond to his long rants and are like maybe he is going too far and should back down fro mthe very popular snobby lady

Yabuki Joe laughs again

he says What’s the matter with you!? Stop siding with the very popular lady that actually has friends and a good reputation who is a stuck up and like do what is right instead of what . will make people think better of you even if you know in your hear that maybe it might be wrong.

The snobby lady posted on Twit- I mean irl the anime known as Ashita no Joe the they posted a screenshot of me saying “I have family.....” and they mocked him saying “Um.... I have family too....?” as her followers mocked Yabuki Joe on twitter in the 1970s anime or something,

but family isn’t what matters, everyone has family,

what matters is that you all still have a poor reputation because you have no friends which I think is 100% ok but the stuck-up lady who hates Joe for some reason atm just cares about how they’re rich in [deleted snarky remarks] reputation.

stop caring about the dislikes and haters and appreciate the supporters that you do have;;.

yabuki Joe says F THE HATERS THIS IS Just the beginning of [would say but I wanna here but X_X; [deleted the reason why I won’t] because of [deleted] because of [deleted]]

,y gpa; s 1 million followers cuz then they at least know what is right

in this world.

and then joe is like

and then;

then he’s like yea in my heart I know its good to have that many followers cuz I know the true true truth about Yabuki Joe the anime and manga character from Ashita no Joe, he just wants that many followers to program an indie game about- I mean anyways

they say

[OK WHAT THEH ECK I SERIOUSLY DID RECORD A VIDEO OF ME JUST NARRATING THIS ENTIRE EPISODE AND I uploaded it yesterday on a video sharing site but it is blocked cuz of copyrighted content aaa even though this was from before 1970 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa now I gotta explain in text instead of voice like I already did last night AAAAAAAAAAaa]

they say But what would you do with that much power, that many internet I mean irl followers in 197o in Ashita no Joe the anime/manga series?

and then Yabuki Joe says teh

then he’s like What the gosh darn shiz in yoshville mans,

and then

and they’re like Look Yabuki Joe lives in a Terrible place with Terrible living conditions wher e brick dust keeps falling down and then

and like Joe has no problems like getting kawaii innocent ppl to follow him, but the others are a bit suspicious.. of Joe and his behavior..

Joe is like i’m gonna build a huge online hamster game soon.

and then someone tells Abu in tumblr messages I mean they tell

Someone tells Yabuki Joe as you can see if you flippin’ watch the episode yourself (I don’t blame you. I hope someone will check this series out, though. It’s my favorite anime series, to be honest.) anyways and then someone from his fandom of - anyways someone says

He’s so full of himself.

I guess you suffer from delusions of grandeur?

the bully who is even in the same exact fandom as ab- Yabuki Joe of being an orphan says that, and because they’re so big inside, people blindly listen to them.

the true actual innocent follower that knows trainerab- Yabuki Joe is actually honest and truthful is like, wow shut the fak up brah, and then:

Then the “Are you sure you don’t suffer from delusions of grandeur?” doubtful follower who is keeping an eye on Ab-Yabuki Joe I mean and watching over him to try to keep the orphanage safe falsely then says “This is a clown. See this clown? Abu is hiring th I mean Yabuki Joe had this younger person defend him” Wow and then

one of the only innocent ppl in this show besides Yabuki Joe and a bunch of later characters in this series in later episodes that happen soon, know Joe really is telling the truth and that he really is honest and she’s pizzed awf at that hater troll person trying to Provoke joe and such on [deleted] anime & manga series Ashita no Joe the anime/manga series, and then

then they’re like, uh oh maybe Joe does have some loyal followers who know the real truth and we should hold our distance and see what he does and what he is truly like, first, and then

so, then

so then Yabuki Joe shows them their steam profile and the gam I mean the BY- I mean

Joe is like ok I played retro games my whole life and watched cool cartoons like the Rugrats and I play cool games and twisted trolls like the snobby girl try to make it look like I “change my interests to appease others” but come into my YouTube channel office and c the truth that I really DID play a lot of SNES games and then

I mean Yabuki Joe says this is my office and this is where I live,

I live in a factory that rains brick dust,

and then,

AND THEN I WANNA NARRATE THIS ENTIRE EPISODE BUT IT IS FREAKIN’ 4:35am and I gotta get up soon

I mean I flippin’ already narrated this entire episode and commented on it etc. and made a cool video of it but YouTube blocked it AAAAAAAA even tho it was an anime made in

1970 I thought it would be free domain by now and o.k. to upload a video of it to YouTube with audio commentary GOSH AAAaaaa GOSH I WANNA NARRATE THE WHOLE EPISODE

AS I SAID IN THE youtube video that is blocked on YouTube I think it is a requirement cuz like it really pejeroyjoirjyorejijioe

ok have a nice night.

#Ashita no Joe #anime #manga #Megalo Box #screencap #screengrab #screencaps #screen caps #boxing #series #1970 #best #relatable #The best series ever #imo

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savannah-lim · 4 years

Text

Two For One Sacrifice Special || Dave & Savannah

Dave didn’t really know what he had signed up for. An ad in the local newspaper that he’d answered, asking for a local human sacrifice. “Find your peace today.” It had said, and the image with it had been a terrifying tangle of tentacles. This was some White Crest nonsense, alright, and Dave had wanted to understand what the hell was going on, that people felt so comfortable putting ads like that right in the paper. So he’d signed up, told them he was old and tired of living, which were both only partially true. He’d been sent some co-ordinates and a time - 7pm, under the waxing gibbous. Only problem was, those co-ordinates? Near something called the Devil’s Gullet. Dave didn’t like that one bit, as he waited. His coat oversized and loose, hiding his weapons.

Cults, missing people, human freaking sacrifice. Those were the joys of White Crest. Savannah had retraced as many of Javier’s steps as she could. He’d made a pretty big deal about reading the paper every day, even if it did read like the tabloids that wrote about Alligators in the Sewers. That was where she had seen the ad. Human Sacrifice Wanted. Well… that couldn’t be good. But the spot had been filled, and so instead she had been calling the people who printed the newspaper trying to find as much information as possible. That didn’t lead anywhere either, so she tried something else. ‘Can I watch?’ It had taken a while before the answer came back. ‘Fine, we might need a backup.’ So now, here she was, unknowingly at the place where Javier had jumped to his death, armed with her government issued weapon. “Are you the…” she asked, approaching the other man on the scene.

“Sure am,” Dave replied, his eyes narrowed. She didn’t smell like anything too suspicious. She wasn’t a shifter, that was for damn sure, and if he could get closer, he might be able to feel if her heart was hammering. Still left him with a whole range of options. He breathed in deeply, catching the thick scent of coffee, and paper like she spent most of her time in the office. Printer ink, and alcohol still clinging to her clothes. More’n that too, but he wasn’t about to dig deeper into that particular spell. No weird herbs, or magic burning, no blood. Nothing. Weird as hell. “It just you, or are we waiting for a party?”

The evening light was enough for Savannah to make out the man’s features. He had a gruffness about him, a weathered kind of look. He struck her as someone who was very hands-on, who didn’t beat around the bush. She hadn’t finished her sentence. Was he the person who posted the ad or the one who answered it? “Party? Oh, no. This isn’t my idea of a party. My idea of a party is in a warm bar, music playing, maybe some dancing. Not a giant--” She gestured to the huge hole in the ground. “What exactly is this? Why did you answer the ad?”

That wasn’t promising in the slightest. “That’s usually my idea of a party too,” Dave agreed, tilting his head to try to get a better read on her too. “Aren’t you the one who should know?” Dave asked, his eyes narrowing even more deeply. “Hell if I know what this place is. I was sent the GPS coordinates and came right here.” He sighed, deeply. This could be a real problem. If she wasn’t part of them, then she might scare them away. Which’d defeat the whole point of putting himself in danger now, wouldn’t it. “If you weren’t the one who texted, why’re you here? D’you know who did text?”

Well, her guess had been right. “Me?” Savannah questioned, scoffing. “Oh, you think I’m the--” she laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. “Oh, no, I’m the back-up. The person who goes in the hole if you can’t make it or--” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Don’t worry. It’s not going to happen.” She felt her badge from the inside of her jacket, but she wasn’t ready to show it yet. “Don’t know yet, but I’m going to find out.” She spoke normally again, in case they were being overheard. “I’m so excited. I’ve never seen an actual human sacrifice before.” She leaned as close to the hole as she dared, taking a look. “How deep do you think it goes?”

“Ah,” The actual fool in this situation, then, Dave thought a little unkindly. If she was here wanting to die, then he’d have to drag her out of here with him the moment shit went sideways. “Yeah, no need to throw you down there. Why’d you volunteer, if they already had someone?” He’d never even answered her question, but that was his prerogative. I wonder how you’d feel about salt. Dave groaned. That Dane kid was still stuck in his head too. Don’t send anyone out here, he tried to think loudly back at them, no idea if that would work. “Suspect I look the way most other humans look, not much exciting about me.” He didn’t quite hear what she said when she looked down the hole, but it didn’t matter ether way. “Think we got company.” He said, looking behind her, where two figures approached in deep red hoods, although to Dave they looked dark brown. It woulda looked impressive, if the hoods hadn’t come right from the costume store, literally. The price tags still hung on the hoods.

"Why wouldn't I volunteer for something so exciting? I wanted to see what this was all about." It was only partly a lie. Savannah was probably a little more excited about the prospect of busting up a potential cult than she should have been. Of course, unlike Javier, she had the sense to send all the information back at HQ so she wouldn't just disappear without a trace if anything happened. She lifted her eyes to examine the figures as they made their way towards them. "More than one?" she huffed. She'd hoped it would be one person. It made things easier. But they didn't exactly look professional. "Oh, come on. No need for all that secrecy. Go back to Party City and get your money back. Take those things off."

“Right,” Dave said, because she was beginning to look more foolish by the minute. He didn’t have time to say more, as the two approached in their cloaks. They looked young, from what he could see of their jaunt and their long, bony profiles. “You’re not in a position to make demands, ma’am. He is the guy. David, right?” One of them said, and while his eyes were hidden, Dave could see a bad batch of angry acne on his chin. Dave didn’t even blink as they walked over to him, clasping his hands behind his back. He looked back over to the woman, hoping she wouldn’t do anything rash. He almost missed what Acne-Chin had to say. “Shit. He’s not human!”

Savannah’s disapproval was evident as they came close enough for her to get a better look at them in spite of the hoods. “Not in a position to-- Oh, come on. I’m not going to be ordered around by Zac Efron in High School Musical.” She furrowed her brow. Technically, she could have arrested them right now, but she wanted to see what they would do. Advertising for a human sacrifice, though very suspect, wasn’t actually against the law. Not unless she could prove they were going to actually kill someone. “Uh, excuse me? What do you mean not human?”

Dave couldn’t help it, he snorted, trying not to take a liking to her when she’d volunteered herself to die. Still, the kid in the red hood wasn’t done talking, and Dave’d keep himself mild either way, trying not to curse as it revealed him. How the fuck did Acne-Chin know?“I can always tell. Her. We can use her. Can you get the circle going? I’ve got Dungeons and Dragons tonight and we gotta get this thing summoned before then or my grades’ll got to shit,” Acne-Chin said to his friend. A flap of wind caught his hood, briefly exposing the rest of his long, narrow face before tugging it back down. “Don’t worry old man, we’ll make sure you die either way.”

“Oh, no, you have to be able to legally drink to touch me.” Savannah stiffened, her features stern. Now that was enough. He’d made direct threats. Now was as good a time as any. There wasn’t going to be much more probably cause than that unless she actually let them throw this poor bastard into the hole. She reached for her badge, holding it up with one hand, brandishing her gun with the other. “FBI! Hands up, hoods down. You’re both under arrest for attempted murder.”

The acne riddled kid was reaching into his pocket as he was speaking. Dave opted to watch him do it rather than understanding the threats, so when he aimed to stab Dave caught his wrist before he could even do anything. The woman was yelling something, and the two turned to look at her simultaneously, giving Dave the chance to twist the kid’s wrist hard enough for him to drop the tackily decorated knife he was holding. Acne-Chin wilted, and Dave stepped away from him as Acne-Chin raised his hands. He hadn’t understood her yelling, but he could read the badge alright. Thank god she hadn’t really wanted to be sacrificed then. Acne-Chin started panting, his eyes wild as he made a break for the… giant hole in the ground. Before he could get much of anywhere, Dave grabbed him and shoved him to the ground. “No use in running, kid. No sacrifice for you today.”

Savannah couldn’t help but be a little impressed as Dave wrestled the knife out of the adolescent hand of the young man. The other was still brandishing one though, and she had her weapon trained on him. “Uh-uh, don’t do it, Riverdale.” He turned his head to look over his shoulder at his friend, the one who had since been wrestled to the ground, and he sighed, dropping the knife. “Damnit, Tucker, you couldn’t check if you were inviting law enforcement here?” Savannah rolled her eyes and moved in to cuff them. “Save it for the police station.” She tossed a pair of handcuffs to the other man. “Not human, huh? So they’re crazy as well as murderers?”

“Yeah, must be.” Dave lied, because like hell was he giving secrets to the FBI “Figured they were doing something weird ‘n’ creepy from the ad. Figured I was better at stopping them than some random hapless teen, you know.” Dave looked her over. “Turns out, the hapless person ain’t so hapless after all.” He wrestled the kid to the ground proper, yanking his hands behind his back, but the handcuffs were a little trickier to operate than Dave’d realised - he usually killed shit, he didn’t help cops with civilian arrests or whatever. All the while, it felt like the Devil’s Gullet was watching him, which made no sense, and made him want to get the hell outta here. He almost had the kid in the cuffs when the kid squirmed and yanked his arm free and reached into his pocket. Dave saw a round flask full of pink liquid, before it was thrown between him and the FBI lady, and exploded with a loud fizz.

“Oh, so you didn’t actually intend to let them throw you into a bottomless pit with your hands tied behind your back?” Savannah challenged. Well, that was a damn relief. She’d had enough crazy for tonight. But it seemed that crazy hadn’t had enough of her. “Watch it! He’s--” but she never got to finish her sentence. She didn’t manage to get the frat boy cultist into the back of her car by the time the other had thrown the flask. The pink liquid turned to pink smoke, engulfing the space between them. Savannah spluttered and coughed, her vision blurred, her surroundings becoming fuzzy at the edges. She saw Javier in the smoke, surrounded by faces she didn’t know. They were blurred and dream-like, but Javier was clear as day. She saw him jump into the pit, and her scream to him fell on nothingness. He couldn’t hear her.

Her head spun with an unspeakable language, like what she’d heard on Javier’s tapes, and out of the smoke, she saw squid-like tentacles reaching for her like desperate hands. She saw them mixing with Javier’s features, she saw him turn violent, and then her vision snapped back to normal. One teen had vanished in the smoke, and the other was still struggling on the ground having fallen there in the scuffle. “What the hell did you do to me, you little shit?” she snapped, and the boy gave the best shrug he could manage with handcuffed arms.

“Just showed you a little piece of the truth. What you do with it is up to you.”

“Wasn’t on my plan for the day,” Dave snorted wryly, but he should have been acting so glibly as the potion began to fizz. He coughed and spluttered, but didn’t let go of Acne-Chin once. The smoke filled his eyes and nose, suffocating out the rest of his vision. He didn’t see what she did, didn’t see anything more than the deep fog surrounding them. Maybe it was some damn part of the spell the college students hadn’t expected him to show up for, but he didn’t comment on it. Acne-Chin struggled in his grasp right up until the second the fog faded into the air. Dave was left holding the cheap red hood, and nothing else. He looked up at the agent as she snapped, visibly rattled. “Shit. You alright?”

“Ugh, yeah, I’m fine,” Savannah grumbled, rubbing the back of her head and pulling herself up off the ground, wiping off his jeans. She was having a hell of a day. “Just made my head spin for a second.” She planned on grilling this obnoxious little shit about exactly what his friend had poisoned her with. She opened up her car door, placing her captive in the back seat and locking him in. “I’m going to take him to the station and Miranda him. I trust I’ll be seeing you there to take a statement.” Her tone indicated that wasn’t merely a polite request. “Freaking kids and their freaking death cults…” she mumbled to herself, gritting her teeth as she climbed into the front seat. This town was going to be the death of her.

#paras #with: dave #wickedswriting

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gold-and-rubies · 3 years

Text

In It For The Long Haul - Chapter 7

Probably a violence warning. Claudia’s POV.

Claudia’s eyes widened as she stepped out into Diamond City. It was completely different from what it had been before the war. Makeshift shacks crowded the field and stands. Smoke drifted from the building building in the center. Children wove between the buildings, as adults went about their business. Although it was strange compared to the past, the life filled stadium was a welcome change compared to the rest of the Commonwealth.

They made their way onto the field. The feelings of safety quickly melted away, and replaced by something more sinister. The children seemed to be fine, but the adults were whispering amongst each other. She caught snippets of “Institute,” “Synth,” and “Replacement.” She had heard these things every now and then from the various people they helped, but it was never anything like this. When she had tried to ask about it she never got any answers. Nothing real anyway.

They stopped between the first two buildings. The one on her left had a giant sign that read “Publick Occurrences.” A girl stood on a small wooden box, shouting about the paper. She stopped, and shrugged her pack off. She dug around in it for a bit before she produced a bag of caps.

She held out the bag to MacCready and said, “Why don’t you do some shopping. Get us some ammo and stuff. I’m going to go talk to that reporter.”

“Why? Are you actually going to do the interview?” he asked.

“Depends on what she wants, and what I can get out of it. I doubt you’ll complain about caps, but I’m hoping she can point us in the right direction for help.”

“Fair enough. I’ll be in the market or the bar if you need me,” he said, taking the bag from her.

“Don’t you think it’s just a little too early to start drinking?”

“They’ve got rooms we can stay in,” he shrugged as he walked away.

She rolled her eyes at his back. Dogmeat looked up at her curiously. She nodded, and he took off after MacCready.

She sighed as she turned towards the girl. The moment she got the girl’s attention, she said, “Free paper to newcomers. If the Institute tries to grab you in the night, at least we warned you.

“Uh, thanks,” Claudia replied, taking the newspaper, “Is… Piper here? She said she wanted to do a story on me.”

“Yeah, she’s inside. Probably hiding from the mayor or security,” she said, and then immediately went back to doing her job. Claudia smiled slightly. She was certainly passionate about the paper.

She walked past the girl and the printing press to the door. She took a deep breath before turning the door. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust once she stepped inside. Beams of sunlight that made it through small cracks, and a mixture of candles and lamps provided enough light for her to see. It was cramped, but still homey. It vaguely reminded her of cramped apartments from the early 20th century and before. It was nice in its own way.

“Nice for you to stop by, Blue,” Piper said, walking down the stairs from what Claudia assumed was a loft.

“Blue?” Claudia asked.

“You’re a vault dweller aren’t you? You’re not doing a good job of hiding the jumpsuit,” Piper explained.

Claudia’s hand raised to the collar of the suit. It was more out of habit than nerves. Over a month of not wearing a necklace, and her hand still flew to the base of her neck.

“I am, er, I was,” she said.

“Figured,” Piper sighed, “Look, I want an interview. It’s time Diamond City had a little outside perspective. You do that, and I’ll owe you a favor. I’d offer caps, but I gotta look out for Nat.”

“Deal,” Claudia responded. She did not even take a moment to mull over it.

“Good, good. Let me grab something to write everything down on, and we’ll get down to business. Why don’t you take a seat,” she said, gesturing to the couch.

Claudia nodded before sitting down, as Piper headed upstairs. It felt odd to be in the home of someone she did not know well. Part of her regretted not having Dogmeat stay with her.

Piper took two trips down the stairs. The first she carried a chair down. The second she returned with a notebook and pencil.

“Before we start,” she said as she sat down, “I don’t think I asked what your name is.”

“Claudia-” she sighed before correcting herself, “General Claudia Flynn.”

“General?” Piper asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Minutemen.”

“You’re the one rebuilding them? You seem to be doing a good job so far. You won’t get any arguments from me about how much we need them.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m probably going to have to do a part two,” Piper laughed, “Anyway, Let's start. So, I know you’re from a vault. Was it Vault 81?”

Claudia frowned. She should have guessed that she would ask about the vault. She sighed quietly. She had to stop running from the past. Someone else’s life was on the line, or at least their story was.

“No. I’m from Vault 111.”

Piper’s eyebrows shot up. “Vault 111? I didn’t know there were people in there. It’s the only one in the Commonwealth that hasn’t been explored. What happened? How would you describe your time inside?”

She stared at the wall ahead in an attempt to keep herself calm. She needed all the help she could get. Again she wished Dogmeat was with her, but this time she also MacCready was with her. He was really the only person she completely trusted.

“We barely made it into the vault. We were in shock, and they used that against us. They tricked us into entering these pods. Said they would prepare us for going deeper into the vault. Turns out they were cryostasis pods. They were the rest of the vault for us.”

When she glanced at Piper again, her mouth was hanging open.

“You were alive when the bombs fell? They boxed you all up in a fridge?”

“Yeah.”

Piper leaned back in her chair, “Oh my God. The Woman Out of Time,” she said thoughtfully, “What happened to everyone else? Where are they?”

“Dead.”

Piper’s expression softened, “I’m sorry. I should have known something like that would be the case. You don’t have to answer any more questions about the vault.”

Claudia simply nodded in response.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but what was it like, before the war?” she asked hesitantly.

“Before the war… things were different. There’s the obvious lack of radiation. Disease wasn’t as much of an issue. Neither was murder. But there was a struggle for resources. There was this… malaise. Like you could tell the end was coming. There was a lot of good though. Or at least there was in my life. It’s… complicated. Looking back hurts.”

Piper nodded. “Do you know what the war was about?”

Claudia sighed, “I’m not really sure. I could tell you what the propaganda said it was about. What a lot of the soldiers thought it was about, but what the people actually waging the war knew it was about? My best guess is power and resources.”

“What did the propaganda want you to think?”

“It was about freedom. Protecting our way of life, and all that,” she scoffed as she waved her hand in a dismissive way.

“People were willing to risk their lives for a way of life?” She asked in disbelief.

She simply nodded again.

Piper opened her mouth like she was going to add something, then shook her head as if she was deciding against it. Then she changed the subject, “I’m sure you’ve seen some of the Commonwealth. How exactly does it compare to your old life?”

“The good parts… give me hope. The different farms and settlements show that we can heal, even if it’s slowly. It shows how stubborn we are in the best ways. That people will fight for the right thing. The bad parts on the other hand… the raiders, the gunners… the rampant murders and kidnappings, it’s disgusting. What’s worse is how little is being done about it all.”

“I couldn’t have said it better. The baby you’re looking for, he was kidnapped wasn’t he?”

“Yeah,” she said simply. She felt herself relax slightly. It felt better to focus on the task at hand than the past.

“Do you know who kidnapped him? Do you think the Institute is responsible?”

Claudia looked directly at Piper when the word “Institute” hit her ears.

“I keep hearing that word, and everytime I ask about it no one gives me an actual answer. What is it?”

Piper sighed, “That would be the biggest mystery in the Commonwealth. No one really knows who or what they are. Just that they exist. Their handiwork is all over the place. They create synthetic people, or synths, to do their dirty work. Sometimes they even replace people.”

“They make synthetic people?” Claudia asked. She knew how weird and messed up things in the wasteland could be, or at least she thought she did, but this was a whole new territory.

“Yeah, there are two major kinds you have to watch out for,” she explained, “The first is an obvious fake. Skin looks like plastic, glowing eyes, and the robot skeleton may even be visible. They’re the ones who are usually responsible for large amounts of death. Then there’s the ones you can’t tell apart from humans. They’re more… complicated. And I know that the Institute isn’t behind everything that goes wrong, but it’s still a possibility. Do you think they might be involved?”

“I have no idea,” Claudia answered. She was not sure how to feel about this new information. Part of her was already wishing she was eternally confused about the matter.

“No one ever does. That’s what makes them so scary. This baby, do you have any information about him so people can help look for him?”

“Just his name. It’s Shaun. He was kidnapped while we were in the vault… he’s the only other survivor.”

“I understand why you want to find him now. For this last question I want to do something different. I want you to make a statement to Diamond City directly. The threat of kidnappings is pretty much ignored.”

“I noticed,” Claudia grumbled.

“I know. McDonough makes it very clear. Anyway, what would you say to someone who has lost a loved one, but might be too scared, or too numb to the world to look for them?”

Claudia leaned back against the couch while she thought. She answered after a moment, “You have to have hope, no matter what, that you will find them, or at least find out what happened.”

“A strong note to end on, Blue, thanks,” she said as she finished up writing, “That’s everything. It’ll take some time to put this together, but it’ll be worth it, and when you want to cash in that favor, you just let me know.”

“I think I’m going to do that right now,” Claudia said.

“Really, you’re not going to even take some time to think it over?” Piper joked.

“Is there anyone who can help me find the kid?”

“Oh, that’s it? Yeah, I do, I just wasn’t sure whether or not to point you towards him or not. Wanted to make sure you’d be worth his time, since he’s the only one who will help kidnapping victims, and he’s really good too. He’s a friend of mine. I can introduce you if you’d like?” she offered.

“That’d be great.”

“Let me put this stuff away, and we can head over there.”

Claudia nodded as she stood up. She fiddled with the bottom edge of her jacket as she waited. She should have prepared herself better mentally about this. She was not sure why she did not think she would have to talk about the vault this much.

She jumped slightly when Piper returned, and shook her from her thoughts. She followed Piper as she led the way. She could feel the nerves ease slightly, If anything they turned into slight frustration the moment she spotted the neon red sign. “Valentine’s Detective Agency,” it read with a love heart being pierced with an arrow.

Seriously, I have to go to a guy with a sign like this? she thought.

She sighed quietly as she followed Piper inside. The inside looked a lot more professional than the sign outside. It had two desks, several boxes and filing cabinets, and papers and files strewn about. There was a woman in the back sorting through files.

She must have heard them walk in, because before either Piper or Claudia could get a word out she said, “Sorry Piper, I’m afraid you’re too late, the office is closed.”

“Is Nicky not back yet? It’s been two weeks.” Piper asked.

The woman shook her head, “I haven’t heard from him since he left.”

“Maybe I can help,” Claudia interjected, “If you have any information as to where he went, I could go look for him. I’m no detective myself, but saving people is what I do.”

The woman’s face lit up, “Really? In that case, as Piper said he went missing two weeks ago. He was working a case. Skinny Malone’s group had kidnapped a young woman. They’re hiding out in Park Street Station.”

Claudia nodded, “I’ll get him back, you have my word.”

She hadn’t thought she’d have to rescue the person who was supposed to help her save Shaun.

“He should be easy to spot. He’s always wearing that trench coat and hat get up. Please hurry,” she begged.

With that Claudia turned on her heel, and rushed out the door. Unlike Shaun, she knew exactly how long this detective had been missing. Time was of the essence, and she needed to find MacCready and Dogmeat before she left.

She had only taken a few steps away from the door before Piper grabbed her arm.

“Wait, Blue, I’m coming with you,” she said.

“You sure about that? We don’t know exactly what we’re walking into,” Claudia cautioned. She knew Piper was aware of the dangers, and She seemed like she could handle herself in a fight, but that did not stop her from being concerned.

“Nick’s one of the few friends I have. Besides, the more guns you’ve got the safer you’ll be,” she argued.

“Alright, but we have to find my friend first. He’s a good shot, we’ll need him,” Claudia said. There was no way she was leaving MacCready behind.

“I mean to ask about him earlier. Is he a Minuteman? Doesn’t exactly look like what I would expect.”

“No, he’s not. He’s… a friend,” she replied. She did not want to call him a mercenary or gun for hire, even though he was. She felt like it did not do him justice. He was not just some low-life mercenary just in it for the caps. Sure, they were definitely a reason as to why he was there, but at this point she felt like she could also call him her friend.

“Fair enough.”

Claudia weaved between the buildings with Piper behind her. She scanned the market. MacCready was nowhere to be seen.

She turned to Piper, “Is there an inn here?”

“Yeah, there’s the Dugout Inn, why?”

“That’s where he is,” she explained before she started walking again. For once she actually had an idea where she was going in a somewhat unfamiliar place.

She spotted him and Dogmeat just as they were about to go inside.

“MacCready!” she shouted. She winced slightly when she saw him jump a little. She had not meant to scare him.

“Yeah, boss?” he asked. He looked slightly annoyed.

“We gotta go.”

“You already got a lead?” he asked as he walked up to them. He tilted his head slightly towards Piper as if to indicate her as the lead.

“Kinda? I have a lead on who could help.”

“Let me guess, we have to go rescue him?”

Claudia gave him an apologetic smile, “At least we have help for once.” It had been a while since either of them had slept in a proper bed. The last time they had been in Sanctuary neither of them had been able to sleep there.

“Alright, were we headed?” he sighed.

“Park Street Station.”

“You sure that’s a good idea, Boss?” he asked nervously, “That’s really close to the Boston Common.”

“What’s wrong with the Boston Common?” she asked. To her it was nothing more than a park.

“When people go there they tend to not come back,” he explained.

Claudia’s eyes widened. She thought back to when she got lost in the city before she stumbled into Goodneighbor. She turned to Piper, and asked, “Do you think that’s why he disappeared?”

Piper shook her head, “Doubt it. It’s probably that gang Ellie mentioned.”

“Who are you, by the way?” he asked suspiciously.

“Piper Wright, Publick Occurrences. I was going to introduce Claudia here to my friend, so he could help you guys find the kid you’re looking for,” she explained, slightly irritated, “but now, looks like I’m going to help you save him.”

He narrowed his eyes, “As long as you don’t get in our way.”

“Right, because I want to risk my friend’s life.”

“That’s enough,” Claudia interjected, “Mac, did you get extra ammo?”

He glared at her when she called him that, but nodded, and handed over the bullets he bought.

Then she turned to Piper, “You ready to head out?”

She nodded.

“Then let’s go. Time’s of the essence,” she said as she turned to head towards the entrance. This was going to be a long walk there, and back.

Piper took point as they made their way through the city. Dogmeat trotted carefully by her side. Every now and then Claudia would look behind her to see MacCready’s knuckles grow whiter and whiter on his rifle as they got closer to the park. Piper stopped and dropped to a crouch behind a bus across the street from the park. Claudia and MacCready stopped right behind her.

“Any ideas as to how we’re gonna get to the station?” she whispered.

Claudia surveyed the area. She could not see what the issue was. It was a bit eerie, but it was in the same way that the rest of the ruins were. She looked at MacCready. To someone else he would look completely stone faced, determined maybe, but she could see how scared he was. She was worried he was going to break his rifle.

“We’ll stay close to the buildings, and cross the street once we get to the station doors.”

The other two nodded. They slowly crept along the dilapidated buildings towards the entrance. The ground crunched quietly under their feet. Claudia’s ears hurt slightly as she strained to listen to anything out of the ordinary. There were gunshots in the distance, but they were not close enough to worry her. She kept an eye on Dogmeat to watch his reactions. She was amazed at how quiet he was being.

Once they were inside she could practically feel MacCready relax, despite the voices nearby. She looked at him and Piper with a finger to her lips. She drew closer to the door that led from the stairs to the main entrance, switching from her pistol to her shotgun.

The voices did not sound like the typical raiders. She looked around the corner. They were certainly not dressed like typical raiders either. They were wearing different suits, slacks, button ups, and other nicer clothes. Sure, they were all dirty, but the quality was far above a raider. They reminded her of the mob from before the bombs. After spotting a ghoul she wondered if they were the mob.

She listened to them talk a bit longer to figure out a plan. Though they were dressed nicer, they did not seem to be any better than the raiders she had dealt with. She nodded towards MacCready. He immediately took the hint and inched forward to quickly take out a few of the men. He was able to take out two before the others reacted. Claudia and Dogmeat joined the fight before they were able to ready their guns.

“You two don’t mess around. Good thing you’re not on their side,” Piper muttered. She sounded impressed.

No signs of the missing detective were found there, so they went deeper underground. At the bottom of the stairs Claudia peaked around the wall.

“There’s several of them down there. Not quite sure how many. There’s a lot of places to hide. Cover me,” she said quietly.

The other two nodded, and she ran out. They took them completely surprised. Apparently they had not heard the fight that had taken place upstairs. That gave them a good enough edge to take them down quickly.

Claudia checked the bodies as the other two roamed the area looking for clues. When all three came up empty handed they headed down the subway tracks.

Claudia stopped in her tracks when she saw the vault door. She could feel her blood run cold. She was vaguely aware of MacCready shouting at her. The only thing that shook her was the sound of more gunshots. When she came back to the moment there were three more dead bodies on the ground.

“Are you alright, Boss?” MacCready asked. His voice was filled with concern.

She looked at the vault door again before looking back at him.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Let’s go.”

MacCready frowned at her, but did not say anything. She glanced at Piper, who looked concerned as well, before headed to the entrance. She walked up the stairs, and plugged her Pip-Boy to the console, remembering how she and Nora escaped Vault 111. Her hands shook as she pushed the button. She winced as the entrance opened up.

Together, the group fought their way through the vault. Claudia focused on each individual motion and the end goal. She was thankful that this vault was brighter. It was less decrepit. Lived in.

They moved quickly through the vault until Claudia heard a voice echo through the vault.

“How you doin’ in there Valentine? Feeling hungry? Need a snack?” said the voice.

Claudia motioned to the others to stop. She peaked around the corner of the door frame. On the other side was the vault’s atrium. On the third level was a man standing in front of a round window. Claudia assumed the detective was on the other side.

“Keep talking meathead. You’ll give Skinny Malone more time to think about how he’s going to bump you off,” Valentine responded. He sounded like a stereotypical film noir detective.

“That’s him,” Piper whispered.

Claudia turned to MacCready, “There’s a guy standing guard. Should be easy to take out.”

MacCready nodded, and traded places with her. He lifted his scope up to his eye. There was an agonizing silence as they waited for him to take the shot. The moment the gunshot sounded, they were on the move.

Claudia sprinted up to where Valentine was being locked up. The others were close behind her. She stopped so suddenly when she came to the window that Piper almost crashed into her. Staring back at her was a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

“Piper, is that you?” he asked.

“Yeah, Nick. We’re here to get you out of here,” she responded as she used the terminal on the wall to open the door.

Claudia nodded at MacCready in a way to tell him to keep watch while she went in with Piper. Her eyes widened when she saw all of the Detective. His voice certainly matched his clothes. He wore a patched trench coat, a beaten up fedora, and nice clothes underneath. The clothes were exactly as Ellie said, but his face and body were a perfect match for how Piper had described a synth. Along with the glowing eyes, he had plastic skin that was falling off. He was missing huge patches missing on the left side of his face, and his entire right hand, exposing the metal underneath.

“Gotta love the irony of the reverse damsel-in-distress scenario. Question is, why did our heroine risk life and limb for an old private eye?” he asked, lighting a cigarette in the process.

It took Claudia a moment to respond. Things had taken a hard, bizarre turn that she was not ready for. After all the whispers and fears, she had not been prepared to ask a synth for help, but if he was allowed to live in Diamond City, and if he was as great of a detective as everyone said, she was willing to ask for his help.

“A baby was kidnapped. I need help finding him,” she said simply.

“Well you came to the right man, if not the right place. I’ve been cooped up in here for weeks. Turns out the runaway daughter I came here to find wasn’t kidnapped. She’s Skinny Malone’s new flame, and she’s got a mean streak. Anyway, you’ve got troubles, and I’m glad to help, but now ain’t the time. Let’s blow this joint. Then we’ll talk.”

“Fine with me,” she said and followed him out of the room.

She had only taken a few steps out of the room before MacCready caught her by her elbow.

“You sure this is a good idea, Boss? He’s literally falling apart,” he asked quietly. She had a feeling that was not the only reason he was asking.

She sighed, “Trust me, I know, but it’s not like we have any other options.”

“Let’s just hope this doesn’t come back to bite us in the butt,” he muttered as they followed Nick and Piper down the stairs.

#fallout #fallout 4 #fanfiction #fanfic #violence warning #maccready #piper wright #nick valentine #claudia flynn

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fanficsandthings · 5 years

Text

The Traveler

Jack Kelly x reader, a series

Word Count: 2.1k

Summary: You wake up in a strange place, having no clue where you are or even when you are.

Author’s note: I got the idea for this story from this fic here. I’m making this into a series, though. I have no clue how long it’ll be or when I’ll be posting updates. I’m really bad at planning out stories tbh. I know there isn’t much actual Jack in this, but it’s really just a set up for the series.

Tagged: @ajdolphin19 @actually-races-erster @theaterkid821

Your head was pounding from the pain coming from within as you opened your eyes. Before you, all you could see was a dirty alleyway, litter strewn across the ground. You had no idea where you were or how you got here. The last thing you remembered was getting off the subway in lower Manhattan.

The sounds of the city seemed to be blocked out from your severe headache. You sat up slowly, pushing your back against the brick wall behind you. Putting your arms around your head, you tried your hardest to will away the pain.

You sat for a few minutes until the pain started to recede. Once you were able to think properly, it occurred to you that you had no idea where your bag was. Your phone and wallet were both in there, and you needed to find it. All you had on your person was a couple of crumpled up dollar bills and a few coins in your pocket.

You searched the alley to no avail, not being able to find your bag anywhere. Deciding to search a wider area, you stepped out of the alley onto the main road. You still weren’t quite sure where you were, not being able to recognize any of the buildings around you at the moment. You weren’t even quite sure if you were still in New York City.

Your mind was racing around all the thoughts of what could’ve happened to you. You were certain that you had been knocked out and robbed, but where had they taken you? You looked at the buildings around you, head spinning faster than you ever thought possible. You needed a way to get home. You needed a way to call the police, to call anyone. You just wanted something familiar and to be safe right now.

You spotted an older man, in a nicer suit, walking on the other side of the street. It was an odd suit to be wearing, seeming to be made of a tweed or wool material, but you didn’t have the time to think about the man’s fashion choices. You approached him slowly, observing the way he took the pocket watch out of his pocket. You could barely make it out, but you were pretty sure it said that it was around 3pm. You had gotten off of the subway at 9am, so six hours of your day were missing.

“Excuse me, sir?” you greeted him from behind. He stopped and turned to look at you.

“I don’t want to buy whatever it is you’re selling,” he stated bluntly, taking in the dirt on your face and clothes from sleeping in an alley. He must’ve thought you were trying to scam him or something.

“I’m not selling anything,” you explained. “I was wondering if you had a phone I could borrow.”

The man scoffed at you. “A telephone? I’m sure one of the businesses around here has a coin-operated one you could use.” He turned from you and continued walking, mumbling something under his breath about there being too many children around.

You turned around to head in the opposite direction than the man was going. Standing on the corner of the street, was a boy about your age, with dark hair, holding a newspaper in the air, shouting about burning buildings. As you walked closer, you could see that the newspaper he held up said “The World” on it. You knew that was an old newspaper that hadn’t ran in decades. It was the newspaper from the musical Newsies. You were beginning to think someone was playing the world’s meanest practical joke on you.

“Hey!” you shouted at the boy. You were done being nice. You just wanted to go home. He turned to look at you, confusion etched on his face. “What the hell is that?” you asked, pointing to the paper he was holding.

He looked between you and the paper in his hand for a second, trying to figure out how to respond to you. He eventually responded, talking slowly, in a suspiciously familiar accent. “It’s a newspaper.”

“I know that it’s a newspaper,” you snapped at him. “Why the hell does it say ‘The World’ on it?”

“Cuz that’s the name of the paper.”

“That’s the name of a paper that went out of print years ago. What kind of stupid prank are you trying to pull here?” By now you were pissed off and tired of whatever game this was. “I just saw a production of Newsies last month, and now someone decides that they need to do this to me? What the fuck did I ever do to deserve this?” You wanted to get in his face and scream at him, but you could feel the tears starting to form in your eyes, so you kept a few feet away, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“Listen, I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not tricking you or nothing.” The boy started to take a step back from you, probably hoping to make a break for it and get away from you. “If The World didn’t exist, I’d be out of a job. I ain’t sure what you’re going through, but I gotta go.” He started to turn to get away from you, but you stopped him first.

“Wait,” you held up a hand, hoping to get his attention back on you. “Can you at least tell me where I am before you go?”

“We’re on Park Row,” he informed you. “Just south of City Hall Park.”

“Park Row,” you whispered to yourself, looking down at your feet. There was no way in hell you were on Park Row. You knew what Park Row looked like and where it was, and this definitely wasn’t it. “This can’t be Park Row.” You looked back up at the boy in front of you. “I know Park Row, and this isn’t it.”

“The Brooklyn Bridge is right over there.” He pointed to his left a bit. “Believe me or not, but this is Park Row.” Your eyes followed his finger to the direction he was pointing. You could see the top of the Manhattan tower of the bridge looming over the buildings. There was no doubt that it was actually the Brooklyn Bridge.

When you turned back to the boy, he was gone. You assumed he saw his chance to get away from you and took it as fast as he could. Nothing made sense at the moment, and you weren’t sure where to go or what to do. You decided you’d walk the few blocks it was to the bridge and see if you could find anything familiar there.

As you walked, the buildings around you looked eerily familiar, but still oddly different from what you knew of Park Row. The city hall building looked almost exactly the same, but something about it still didn’t feel right to you. As you approached the Brooklyn Bridge, you were overcome with a sense of familiarity. It was the first thing you’d seen since you woke up that made total sense to you. There was nothing different about the structure that stood before you.

You looked past it to try to get a glimpse of the Manhattan Bridge just behind it, but there was nothing there, besides the open water and a view of Brooklyn. Something in your chest tightened as you tried to wrap your head around what this could possibly mean. The Manhattan Bridge couldn’t just disappear. It was there yesterday, and even if something did happen to it, it wouldn’t be totally gone like it seemed to be.

You saw another boy selling newspapers near the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge, so you made your way over to him. You figured if anyone knew what had happened, it’d be someone who read the news every day as a part of their job; or what they were trying to get you to believe was their job. It still wasn’t entirely clear to you on whether this was real or not.

“Hey, kid!” you yelled to catch his attention. The redhead turned towards you. “What happened to the Manhattan Bridge?”

You could see the moment his face went from showing straight confusion to showing something a little more devious as he responded to you. “Buy a pape, and you can find out.”

You rolled your eyes at his response, but pulled one of the few coins you had out of your pocket. You handed him the quarter and quickly took the paper from him. You caught out of the corner of your eye how his eyes widened as he looked at the quarter before quickly shoving it in his pocket. You turned away from him, hoping he would ignore you and carry on with whatever he was doing before.

Still, he tried to start a conversation with you as you quickly flipped through the paper. “You rich, or somethin’?”

“No,” you answered him shortly, trying your hardest to find any mention of the Manhattan Bridge in the paper.

“So you’s just givin’ out quarters then?” He moved his body so he was in front of you now, trying to get your attention back to him.

“It’s just what I happened to pull out of my pocket,” you said, turning the page of the paper. “It’s just a quarter.”

“Just a quarter? You just paid for my whole day’s work.”

You looked up at him for a split second. “I guess you should be thanking me then.” Before he could get another word out, you angry pulled the paper down and crumpled it a bit in your fist. “There’s nothing about the Manhattan Bridge in here.”

His face grew into a small smile, almost a smirk. “That’s because it don’t exist.”

“What do you mean ‘it don’t exist’?” You pushed the paper into his chest, letting him catch it before it fell to the ground. “It was built over a hundred years ago! It can’t just not exist! It should be right there!” You pointed out past the Brooklyn Bridge.

He looked off across the bridge into the water behind it. “I means, there’s talk about them buildin’ another bridge there, but that ain’t for a few more years.”

You were getting real fed up with whatever was happening to you. You just wanted to know what was going on. You wanted your life to make even a resemblance of sense again. Tears were forming in your eyes again, and this time you didn’t have the energy to try to hold them back. When you spoke, your words came out soft and quiet.

“It was right there yesterday.” You refused to look at the boy next you, as you sat on the ground. You brought your knees up to your chest and wrapped your arms around your legs. You rested your head on top of your knees, as you stared off towards the Brooklyn Bridge. You decided you might as well ask the question that had been on your mind for a while. A question that you knew you didn’t really want the answer to. You looked back up at the redhead, who was looking at you with slight sympathy, but you could tell that this was an awkward situation for him. “What day is it?” you asked him.

“July 15th,” he responded.

“But what year is it?”

He handed you back the paper you had bought, having folded it back so the front page was facing out again. “1899?”

His answer sounded more of a question to you. It was probably more of a “how could you not know the year?” question than anything else.

You looked at the paper you now held in your hands. “July 15, 1899” was clearly written right under the words “The World.” You didn’t want to believe it. How could you? Just six hours ago it had been 2019, but whatever was happening here seemed way too real for it to be fake.

“Are you alright?” the boy asked, though you could barely hear him. The world around you seemed to be going quiet again, like it was when you first woke up. “You look pale.”

You looked up at him again through blurry vision. “I think I just need to lay down real quick.” You moved so you were laying on your back, not really caring that you were in the middle of a sidewalk. Your eyes fluttered shut quickly as your mind whirled around in your head. Maybe you’d wake up to the real world again.

#jack kelly #jack kelly imagine #jack kelly x reader #newsies imagine #newsies fanfic #newsies #newsies broadway #newsies fanfiction #newsies x reader #newsies fic #jack kelly fanfiction #My writing #the traveler series #catch me not knowing when people started using just the word phone instead of telephone #i did a lot of research for this series but that is one thing that i didnt care to look up

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daresplaining · 5 years

Note

Hey, Idk if you know this but imma ask you anyway cause I think you’re cool. ANYWAY, how do other hero’s react when they find out Daredevil is blind? (You have any HC’s that go along with it?)

Hi, and thanks! I’m happy that running a comics blog is considered cool.

This doesn’t actually come up as much as you’d think, because this kind of revelation almost never starts with people discovering that Daredevil is blind. Matt is (mostly) good at pretending he can see while in costume, since that’s an illusion he feels the need to maintain. Instead, what usually happens is this: someone (a fellow hero or otherwise) will learn that Matt is Daredevil, they’ll assume he fakes the blindness, Matt will then explain about the hypersenses, and that will be that. Sometimes he’ll be asked to prove it, but not always.

[ID: Excerpt from Kesel’s Daredevil run. Matt and Foggy are standing together in an office. Foggy has his back to Matt (and the reader).]

Foggy: “Okay, Matt– you can stop pretending, now.”

Matt: “Foggy–?”

Foggy: “This whole ‘blind’ thing. I know you’re really Daredevil! Some ‘best friend’– lying to me all these years… playing me for a fool…”

Matt: “No, Foggy– you’re wrong! I thought you understood… I really am blind, from a childhood accident that heightened my remaining senses–”

Daredevil vol. 1 #353 by Karl Kesel, Cary Nord, and Christie Scheele

[ID: Daredevil and Karen Page are sitting together in a large, fancy, primarily green sitting room.]

Karen: “And, your brother ‘Mike’… the aerial explosion in which you ‘died’… even your ‘blindness’… they were all nothing but ingenious frauds!”

Matt: “Two out of three right, my darling! I never had a brother… and that explosion was trumped up to flush out a would-be blackmailer! But, I have been blind for years… perhaps in more ways than one!”

Karen: “Really blind? I don’t… understand…!”

Matt: “When you get down to brass tacks, Karen… neither do I! As Matt, I told you once about the childhood accident that blinded me! That story was true, but not the whole truth!”

[ID: A panel showing a montage of Daredevil doing cool acrobatic tricks against an orange background.]

Matt (off-panel): “For, in some mysterious way, the same mishap that robbed me of my sight… amazingly sharpened my remaining senses, to far beyond those of other men… enabling me to avoid disasters, and to perform athletic feats that few people even dream of! Taste… touch… smell… hearing… all my senses were heightened! Except perhaps for that secret ingredient called… common sense! Why else would I never have told you before… that I love you?”

Daredevil vol. 1 #58 by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan

[ID: Daredevil and Black Panther are swinging in tandem across the nighttime city.]

T’Challa: “DD… I know I promised no questions… but I have never comprehended how a blind attorney can battle crime with the best of them! –If you truly are blind, that is!”

Matt: “I am… but I’ve got some other super-senses that just won’t quit! Remind me to tell you about ‘em sometime!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #69 by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan

[ID: Daredevil and Spider-Man– who is in his black costume– are crouched on a rooftop, talking.]

Peter: “So… ‘Peter’, huh?”

Matt: “Yup. And in case you’re wondering, my handle is… Matt Murdock.”

Peter: “You’re kidding, right? I mean… Murdock’s blind… I mean… that is… uh, let’s go someplace and talk about this…”

[In the next panel they’re in Peter’s apartment, and in civvies. Matt is sitting on a chair, wearing a white shirt and blue pants. Peter is walking into the room, wearing a green shirt and blue pants.]

Matt: “Faintly acrid, but a nice apartment.”

Peter: “Boy, you really must be blind. And yeah, I had a fire recently. Let me understand– you could tell when you heard my heartbeat as Peter Parker and later as Spider-Man that we were the same guy? That’s some power. What do you call it?”

Matt: “Listening.”

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man vol. 1 #110 by Peter David, Rich Buckler, and Bob Sharen

[ID: A panel of Luke Cage and Danny Rand– both in civvies– standing on a rooftop at night. They are looking up toward the viewer (at Daredevil, off-panel). Danny is holding up a newspaper.]

Luke: “You can put that down. He’s blind.”

Danny: “Oh, he really is blind. I thought he was pretending because of all the heat on him.”

Luke: “No, he’s really blind.”

Danny: “Oh.”

Daredevil vol. 2 #38 by Brian Michael Bendis, Manuel Gutierrez, and Matt Hollingsworth

These are just a few examples, but you get the idea. It’s very rare that someone figures out that Daredevil is blind without it being tied to a full-on secret identity reveal. The best example I can think of is this great moment from one of the Daredevil/Batman crossovers. Trust the World’s Greatest Detective to figure it out…

[ID: Daredevil and Batman are standing together on a rooftop at night.]

Bruce: “Let’s say you’re visually impaired. You favor your other modes of sensory input. A subtle inclination of your head when there’s a sound. An extremely slight flaring of your nostrils, probably indicating olfactory acuteness. You’re practiced– or possess sensory enhancements– making your powers of observation markedly proficient.”

Matt: “Thanks. Yours aren’t bad, either.”

Daredevil and Batman by D.G. Chichester, Scott McDaniel, and Gregory Wright

I love this because Matt’s blindness and powers would affect his body language, and I kind of wish that more characters– particularly those with combat expertise– would notice. As it stands, pretty much everyone who knows that Daredevil is blind also learns about his hypersenses immediately afterward, and since there’s always been a tendency for writers to allow Matt’s powers to get him out of situations that would generally require sight, his blindness doesn’t come up as much as I wish it would within the context of his actual hero work and team-ups. The little evidence available suggests that his fellow heroes are accommodating (we get little details, like the fact that the text on Matt’s Avengers ID card is written in braille) and they’re generally impressed by him, but they don’t make that big a deal of it. Sometimes they’ll forget he’s blind, but he is quick to remind them. In the wider context of the Marvel superhero community, a blind superhero isn’t that weird, no matter what Brainwashed Wolverine™ might claim:

[ID: Wolverine and Matt (in costume, but without his mask) are fighting in Matt’s apartment. Wolverine is slashing with his claws; Matt is trying to restrain him]

Logan: “Hands offa me, you blind freak!”

Matt: “This isn’t you that’s saying this. You have to fight it, Wolverine. You’ve just been reprogrammed.”

Logan (caption): “Listen to you, Murdock: talking like you’re some kinda super hero– Ever wonder why they didn’t ask you to join their fancy teams, big shot? Ever wonder why you always work alone? ‘Cuz you’re blind. Handicapped. Oughta hear the sick jokes they crack behind your back–”

Wolverine (2003) #24 by Mark Millar, John Romita, Jr., Paul Mounts

(This comes after a long rant about how Matt gets more dates than him. Brainwashed Wolverine™ was going through some stuff in this issue…)

One context in which Matt’s blindness does come up is in his interactions with other blind superheroes. In these cases, it usually serves as a source of bonding. Gerry Conway gives us this weird-yet-touching issue in which Matt encounters a blind hero from another dimension:

[ID: Daredevil is standing over a figure (Tagak), who is wearing a purple and orange skin-tight suit and a leopard-print mask that covers his whole head.]

Matt: “Now maybe I’ll get some answers! Like, number one… who you are… and number two… how you pretend to see– when you’re blind!”

Tagak: “How…?”

Matt: “Big clue: the way you hesitated just now… and let’s just say it takes one to know one!”

Tagak: “Then you…? It seems there is much to speak about, my friend!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #72 Gerry Conway and Gene Colan

Since Matt generally works so hard to hide his blindness while in costume, it’s notable that he shares this information with Tagak within minutes of meeting him– especially when he didn’t actually have to.

Here’s a more recent example, from after Matt has revealed his secret identity to the Inhuman superhero Reader:

[ID: A panel showing Reader sitting at a table, with Matt– in civvies and with his arm in a sling– standing next to the table.]

Reader: “Wait… are you really blind? Gotta admit, I kind of liked being on a team with another blind guy.”

Matt: “I’m really blind.”

Reader: “Then how…”

Matt: “You’ve got your tricks, Reader, I’ve got mine.”

Daredevil vol. 5 #609 by Charles Soule and Phil Noto

This example is a bit more complicated, since (spoiler alert) it’s all in Matt’s head, but 1. this conversation seems in-character for Reader anyway, and 2. the fact that Matt would want him to react this way is still significant.

And then there are the villains! One of my favorite examples of Matt’s blindness coming into play in his hero work is this great scene from Waid’s run, in which the Jester– having learned Matt’s secret identity but assuming that the blindness is just an act (as everyone does at first, see above)– sets a trap that is entirely vision-reliant…

[ID: Matt, in civvies, comes across a life-sized dummy of Foggy hanging from a noose. He perceives it in an unrecognizable form with his radar sense. This alternates with panels of the Jester, who is sitting in front of an array of computer screens and getting increasingly agitated.]

Matt (caption): “And what is this? A Jaycees haunted house? Who are you supposed to represent?”

Jester: “He’s staring right at it! Why– why isn’t he reacting?”

Matt (caption): “Real dead bodies have a distinct odor, Jester. This smells like foam rubber and latex. What were you trying to accomplish here? Fail.”

Jester: “React, damn you! That’s your best friend hanging from a noose! Anyone who’s ever seen Murdock in a fight knows the ‘blind lawyer’ gag is a put-on! Open your eyes!”

Daredevil vol. 3 #32 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Javier Rodriguez

I don’t really have headcanons as much as I have a wish to see more of this sort of thing in the source material itself (though I would love to hear other people’s headcanons, if they have some!). We’ve come a long way, in general, from the “Matt’s senses more than compensate for his blindness” attitude that plagued early (and some more recent, unfortunately) Daredevil comics, and Waid’s run in particular made great strides in this area, but I always feel like more can be done. I want Matt to hang out with more of the Marvel Universe’s other blind characters (there are a bunch of them!). I want his blindness to come up more often in his team-ups with sighted heroes. We’ve seen antagonists target his hypersenses, but I was surprised and a little disappointed that, back when his blindness was public knowledge, his rogues didn’t try to use that against him. On the other hand, we got awesome things like this during that period…

[ID: A panel showing Matt on the street, in civvies, signing an autograph for a blind kid with a service dog.]

Daredevil vol. 4 #11 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Matt Wilson

…which is another of the many reasons I’m sad it’s over, as Matt/Daredevil interacting more with the non-powered disabled community is another thing I want– including negotiating his identity as a superpowered disabled person.

There’s a tricky line that needs to be walked in handling this aspect of Matt’s character. In making his blindness too prominent, or too debilitating, there’s a risk of turning him into a caricature or making it seem like a burden rather than a simple fact of his existence. Matt is a complex character, and his sensory array is only one part of that complexity. But he is one of the most prominent blind characters in comics– if not media in general– and I still feel like there are a lot of stories surrounding this part of his identity that haven’t yet been told, in the context of both the civilian and superhero sides of his life.

#nightwing1536 #Daredevil #Matt Murdock #Asks #Sensory Shenanigans #Adventures in Continuity

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swiss-cheeze · 5 years

Text

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater || Tommy Lee x reader

Warnings: uhh, cheating, sexual things I guess, normal Mötley shit

Part 2: https://snitchthewitch.tumblr.com/post/185406896095/cheater-cheater-pumpkin-eater-part-2-tommy

———

Being on the road with Mötley Crüe was always a new experience, but in Tommy’s case; having a girl suck of your dick while your girlfriend is on the other line of the phone is not new. Sadly, that girl on the other side of the line was you, innocent and unknowing.

“Babe? You sound out of breath” you asked concerned.

“I-I just got done with a seat baby cakes it’s all good” Tommy replied as he bit his lip to conceal a moan as the girl went down on his lower half.

“Ah! Was it fun?” you asked with a grin, shifting in your seat to get more comfortable.

“Y-yeah it was great baby” Tommy covered the mouth piece of the phone as he got closer to his end, “look princess I have to go, I’ll make sure to call you later though okay?”

“Yeah! Can tell me all about it then” you said with a smile, “I love you Tommy. Be safe”

“Love ya too babe” Tommy said before hanging up, letting out a low moan and reaching his peak in the girls mouth (of which he doesn’t even know her name).

---

“Tommy, you do remember you have a girlfriend at home right?” Vince said to Tommy as they were setting up for a set. Tommy had told Nikki how great it was to have Heather around and that he was truly in love with her when the pair sat at the edge of the stage alongside Mick and Vince had picked up the conversation after saying goodbye to Skyler.

“Huh? Oh yeah! I was meant to call her last night…” Tommy replied, his mind wandering back to you. It had been a whole week since your last phone call, and a few months since he got his dick sucked with you on the other line. Things may have been starting to get out of hand with all this girlfriend stuff, “but…I mean, if she doesn’t know she’s fine right?” Tommy asked looking to the others. Nikki looked away while slurping his drink, Mick gave Tommy a ‘you know the fucking answer douchebag’ look while Vince just raised his eyebrow.

“Look drummer, its either you tell both of them or we’ll do it ourselves” Mick replied as circled a hand in motion to Nikki, himself and Vince.

“Nah count me out man, I don’t like it when girls are angry, and that’s some scary shit man” Nikki said quickly.

“Fine, me and Vince will tell both Heather and (Y/n)” Mick said. Tommy looked between Mick and Vince who both nodded in confirmation and sighed.

“Fine! I’ll…I’ll figure out something” the drummer responded as Vince got onto the stage and started talking with Doc.

---

Walking home from the nearby shops a news article caught your eye.

‘Mötley Crüe drummer recently found linked with infamous Heather Locklear; see more, page 18 & 19’

Being the ever intrigued you picked up the paper and swiftly glided to page 18 and 19, finding exactly what you didn’t want. Blurry and pixelated photos of Tommy and Heather at a bar, him kissing her, their arms and hands linked while they try to cover their faces with their hands so as to not get caught. Tears brimmed your eyes as you continued reading.

‘Both Lee and Locklear refuse to tell if they are together but by the photos above people speculate they are. How Lee’s current girlfriend (Y/n) (L/n) will react, one can only guess.’

“Ma’am would you like to buy that paper?” the news agency clerk asked, your head shot up to look at the clerk and you coughed to clear your throat as you put the paper back where it originally was from.

“Um, no, no thank you I’m alright” you said with a strained smile. The clerk nodded.

“Shame that” they said pointing to the paper, “he seemed to have a nice relationship with that (L/n) girl, I think they were together for a few years”

“Um, I believe it was four years actually” you said, “funny, I think today was their anniversary” you mumbled. The clerk nodded.

“Yeah…shame” they said, then walked off to the chip isle. You started your trek home.

---

A few days have passed since the newspaper incident and Tommy hadn’t bothered to call. The tour had finally finished and the boys had been let go to do what they will until the next album, it was now that Tommy finally called.

“Hey baby!” Tommy yelled happily into the phone.

“Hey Tom” (Y/n) said weakly into the phone.

“You okay babe you sound sick?” Tommy asked concerned.

“Yeah. Just tired” (Y/n) mumbled, “What’s up Tom”

“Oh yeah. Nikki wanted to visit the Sunset Strip on the way home so I’m gonna be late getting to yours” Tommy said, he snickered behind the receiver hoping his lie was good enough, in truth Tommy was going to surprise his girl by coming home the next day instead of the next week.

“Alright Tom, have fun. Don’t get into too much shit okay?” (Y/n) asked numbly, she licked her dry lips as she took a drag of the cigarette in her other hand.

“Yeah I promise babe its okay” Tommy answered. Heather came in from the back room and started dragging Tommy away, whispering dirty things into his ear and palming him through his leather pants, “s-shit. I gotta go (Y/n) I’ll call you when I’m coming to yours!” Tommy hung up the receiver and pushed Heather against the wall.

“See-“ (Y/n) got cut off by the long monotone sound of the line going dead. The girl sighed as she placed the phone back in its rightful place and went to cleaning the house. Since the newspaper moment more and more photos have ended up on the front page of Tommy and Heather as well as the rest of the boys.

---

Tommy opened the door to his and (Y/n)’s shared apartment, “BABE?” the drummer yelled through the house, “GUESS WHOS BAAACCCKKK”

“I can hear you Tommy” (Y/n) called from the kitchen. Tommy walked in and smiled.

“Something smells good” the drummer said, the boy clapped his hands together as he walked over to (Y/n) and wrapped his arms around the girl, kissing her cheek softly.

“It’s just spaghetti” (Y/n) said calmly, those hands have touched her and he touches me without the bat of an eye, the girl thought to herself, his lips have trailed her body the same moment they have mine and he still comes home to kiss me.

“Anything you cook smells good” Tommy said with a smile. (Y/n) let a tear slip through, “whoa babe what’s wrong?” the drummer asked concerned, the girl only sniffed before wiping her eyes.

“I’m tied up between saying ‘nothing’, and saying, ‘you’ right now Tommy” (Y/n) said through gritted teeth.

“What? Why me what did I do?” Tommy asked going straight to a defence.

“Everything Tommy!” (Y/n) finally turned to look at the drummer, “I just can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that you held my hand with yours while holding hers on the other. I can’t believe you could whisper the same lullabies you sang to me to her ears while I lay in my bed sleepless. I can’t believe that while my heart was breaking, you were fixing hers” (Y/n) said through her tears, Tommy looked like a gaping fish.

“’Her’? Baby who’s ‘her’?” Tommy asked faking innocence.

“Oh don’t you play dumb with me you twat!” (Y/n) said, the girl held a wooden spoon and pointed it to Tommy.

“You found out didn’t you…?” Tommy asked defeated, he knew this wouldn’t end well, it was easier to give up and let go now than later.

“YES I BLOODY WELL FOUND OUT AS WELL AS THE REST OF THE GODDAMN WORLD” (Y/n) yelled, “tabloids with your name and photo on it! Newspapers with your print! The telly! EVERYONE FOUND OUT” (Y/n) let her tears fall, “and not one person actually came here or came up to me when I was out to give some sort of condolences! I was a ghost Tommy, A GHOST”

“B-babe please-“ Tommy started before (Y/n) cut him off.

“DON’T USE THAT NICKNAME FOR ME WHEN IT HAS ALREADY COME OUT FOR HER” (Y/n) yelled, the girl sniffed and her lip trembled, “just save all your excuses for someone that actually cares and answer my one last question: did you ever consider the fact that while you were with her, I was at home worrying that I had not loved you enough?” (Y/n) asked softly, the girl looked to Tommy with the most broken heart and shell and Tommy had never hated himself more. The drummer didn’t answer as he knew both himself and (Y/n) knew what the answer was, “that’s what I thought” (Y/n) put the spoon back in the pot of spaghetti sauce and turned off the heat as she headed for the front door.

“(Y/n) please I’m sorry!” Tommy tried to call out and follow the girl, he gripped her wrist and tried to turn her around; the only thing he got out of that was a harsh blow to his cheek and a cold, harsh hug from the ground.

“Don’t lie to me! You aren’t sorry, and if you were, you wouldn’t have done it” (Y/n) yelled, the girl gripped the door, picked up a ready-made bag from the table and walked out. Tommy hissed from the sting of the slap but laid down on his back staring at the ceiling, I just lost the one thing I loved more than anything, Tommy thought.

---

The phone rung three times before Vince finally picked up the receiver.

“Hello this is Vince” the singer answered.

“H-he came home, tried to deny it a-and I left” (Y/n) answered. (Y/n) lent against the pay phone she standing at, tears streamed down her as she tried to cover her sobs with her hand.

“Oh darl” Vince sighed softly, “come over and you can stay here” he said softly, “alright? I’ll send someone over in fact, I don’t want you walking in the dark like this. Where are you?” Vince asked, the singer really care for (Y/n), the pair had been childhood friends and anything that happened to one; the other was sure to be there in a tick. Choose-both-or-get-none type of friendship. (Y/n) told Vince her location and the singer quickly sent out a car to fetch the girl.

---

In no time at all, (Y/n) was already held in Vince’s arms as the girl sobbed into his shirt as M*A*S*H* played in the background.

“H-he didn’t e-even care!” (Y/n) sobbed.

“I know princess I know” Vince cooed softly, “we tried to stop him but he kept denying us” the singer mumbled.

“Y-you guys knew…?” (Y/n) asked, she sat up properly and looked at Vince with a confused gaze.

“We…shit” the singer mumbled, “yeah, we all knew. We told him that if he didn’t do it soon that we would, he kept telling us he would do it but we were so knocked up and stupid that we believed him. I wanted to tell you sweetheart I truly did” Vince finished, the singer himself had tears in his eyes too. (Y/n) looked to Vince and sniffled before wrapped her arms around him and burying her head into his chest again; Vince chuckled softly as he laid down on the couch and held the girl tightly, he played with her hair and rubbed her back before kissing her head, “just rest babe, you’ll be better in the morning” the girl snuggled closer making Vince smile, “you don’t have to do today again. It’s okay”

“Thank you Vinnie” (Y/n) mumbled softly, Vince smiled at the nickname before the pair dozed off together.

#motley crue #Mötley Crüe #tommy lee #vince neil #nikki sixx #mick mars #1313 #tommy lee x reader #cheater!tommy lee #Tommy Lee x reader #kinda Vince Neil x reader #Vince Neil x reader

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amillionsmiles · 5 years

Text

dizzy on the comedown (Keith/Pidge)

Title: dizzy on the comedown Summary: But it was molting season: time to trade the old feathers for new wings. / Keith, Katie, and the light of a small town moon. A/N: Written for the @kidgezine!

Read and review here or continue under the cut.

o.O.o

At this point in his life, Keith had two things going for him. Graduation, and—

Okay, well. Maybe just the one.

Above Mrs. Finkle’s head, the clock crept at a snail’s pace. Time moved slowly enough in Arus already—call it the universal law of small towns—but detention, Keith hypothesized, was where it froze in cryogenic sleep. If not for the one other student sitting two rows behind him and to the left, Keith could have convinced himself he was in bed at home, dreaming.

That was how most days felt, in the midst of senior spring. Like he could just float in and out of them until summer, when he’d be gone for good. As far as cities went, Altea hardly had the glitz and glamor of somewhere like New York, but its population of 100,000 was massive compared to Arus’s 1,800, and for that, Keith couldn’t wait.

In the meantime, though, he saved up his money and cut class. Which had been working just fine until he’d dropped by to grab an assignment and Iverson had spotted him, hightailed it down the corridor, and grabbed Keith by the scruff of his jean jacket before he could get away.

Dragging his attention away from the minute hand, Keith went back to fiddling with the radio on his desk. It was his mom’s, a vintage dark beige beauty that had started glitching last week. Despite not being much of a repairman, Keith hoped to fix it in time for her birthday this weekend. Mrs. Finkle ignored him, tongue darting out to wet her finger as she flipped another page of her book.

Keith messed with a wire and turned the dial. Nothing but static at first, but slowly the faint strains of music overcame the crackle. Keith smiled, stopping short when a ball of paper hit the back of his head.

He turned around. His detention-mate stared back at him with a steady gaze, hazelnut brown hair bundled in two messy braids. Katie Holt, sophomore. One older brother, Matt, who’d graduated last year. Her dad was an astrophysics professor while her mom bounced between running the local library and volunteering at the observatory up in the hills. Keith knew all these facts through no extra effort of his own, the same way everyone knew that his dad had died putting out the fire on Mr. McComb’s farm back in 2008.

What he didn’t know was why Katie was in detention. She didn’t exactly seem like the rabble-rousing type. Then again, maybe the fact that she looked so unassuming was exactly what made her trouble.

Impatiently, Katie jerked her head toward the crumpled ball behind him. Frowning, Keith swiveled in his chair and scooped it up, flattening it on his desk.

Nice, read the note.

Meaning the radio, probably. He glanced back at Katie and raised a single eyebrow in acknowledgement. At the front of the classroom, Mrs. Finkle’s chair scraped backwards as she stood up.

Though it took 30 seconds for her to leave the room and turn the corner toward the bathrooms, it felt like a year. Once she’d left, Keith put the radio in his backpack and swung it over his shoulder. He didn’t know Katie well enough to say anything meaningful out loud, but he granted her a brief nod of acknowledgement before turning his back.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m leaving.” He poked his head out into the hallway to make sure no one was around. The agreement with Mrs. Finkle was simple: as long as nobody saw him busting out, she could plead innocence, and they could both move on with their respective afternoons.

“Isn’t skipping detention just going to get you… more detention?”

At that, Keith turned to lean against the doorframe. Katie had moved to stand beside him, hands curled around the straps of her backpack.

“Trust me, I do it all the time.”

“In that case...” Katie tilted her head. “Lead the way.”

Katie Holt had a bossy streak, apparently. Without further conversation, Keith started down the hallway.

“Do you have some sort of secret arrangement with Mrs. Finkle?” asked Katie, hot on his heels.

“No, she just doesn’t care. I got top marks on all the state evals, and I pretty much carry the class average.” Keith didn’t say it to brag; he’d overheard Mrs. Finkle use the exact same reasoning in an argument with Iverson once. “Besides, detention wastes her time just as much as it wastes ours— hey. ”

Katie had grabbed his forearm, yanking him to the right.

“Coach Sendak always gets his coffee in the break room around this time,” she hissed. “I thought you said you did this a lot.”

“No need to be critical,” grumbled Keith.

They’d finally reached the parking lot. His red pickup truck, shabby as it was, beckoned like a jewel. Before he could head in its direction, though, he made the mistake of glancing over at Katie. She looked on the brink of asking him something, the determination on her face surprisingly imposing considering her stature.

Exhaling, Keith ran a hand through his hair. “What?”

Just as quickly, Katie’s expression transitioned to innocence. “What?”

He leveled her with a look that read, clearly: I don't have time for this. “What are you about to ask?”

She shifted. “I need a ride home. 23rd and Walnut.”

“That’s four traffic lights past Greasy Sal’s, right?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, fine.” Keith gestured for her to walk with him. At his truck, he pulled open the driver’s door, tossing his bag into the backseat. “Get in.”

o.O.o

“Dammit.” For the third time, Katie jiggled the door handle, rapping on the door. “Nobody’s home.”

“Window?” suggested Keith.

Katie shot him a flat look. “I’m not breaking into my own house.”

“Okay, then…” Keith crossed his arms. The Holts’ porch was small, painted gray while the rest of the house was white. A bristly brown welcome mat printed with a cactus laid in front of the screen door; cacti seemed to be a recurring motif, if the several growing in the yard were anything to go by.

He took a deep breath.

“Listen, I’ve got a paper route that starts in fifteen minutes. So either you stay here, or you come with. But I’m leaving.”

“Gee, you’re really selling the appeal of your company,” said Katie. “I’m in.”

It took Keith a second to process, during which Katie sailed past him and back to his car. “You’re—what?”

“I’m in.” Opening the passenger side door, she clambered inside. “Come on—I don’t want to be blamed for you being late.”

o.O.o

As far as newspapers went, the Arus Gazette would hardly win any awards for its journalism. But much like playing in the Little League or driving to nearby Olkari Springs for Labor Day Weekend, subscription to it was time-honored tradition, a given if you’d grown up in town.

“How long does it usually take you to deliver all these?” Katie asked, pushing aside a newspaper tube that had encroached on the space between them.

“Two hours. If you’re trying to get homework done, you could probably just use the dashboard as a desk.”

Shaking her head, Katie leaned back in the seat. “Nah, I get carsick.”

“Suit yourself,” answered Keith, just as the traffic light ahead of them blinked sleepily from yellow to red. The foot he put down on the brake pedal felt like a dampener on the mood in the car; in the silence, Katie turned away from him to stare out the window, her fingers laced in her lap. It was weird. Usually, Keith cared little about forcing conversation. He hadn’t promised he’d entertain her for tagging along on his errand run. Still…

“How’d you get thrown in detention?”

Katie turned toward him, blinking in surprise. “You really want to know?”

Keith shrugged. “Might as well.”

“Hm.” The seatbelt shifted as Katie wriggled around to face him fully. “You know Lance, right?”

“Yeah.” Former Little League rival and youngest child of the McClains, who ran the only Cuban restaurant in town. “What about him?”

“So, basically I rigged the water fountain outside Mrs. Sanda’s classroom to spray in his face, which didn’t go over so well because—” Here, she adopted a high-pitched, nasal tone, “—‘we’re in the middle of a drought!’”

Keith cracked a smile. “Was it worth it?”

“100%. So what’s your deal? Is all the delinquency just a bad case of senioritis?”

“Detention doesn’t make me a delinquent.”

“At its broadest definition, delinquency means misbehavior, and I’d say playing hooky counts.”

“You’re kind of a smartass,” Keith observed.

Katie remained unfazed. “I’ve gotta be, if I ever want to get out of here.”

At that, Keith’s ears perked. Very few people broke beyond Arus’s event horizon. For most travelers, it was a pit stop, but once you settled, you stayed. That was what had happened to his mom: she’d been passing through on her way to a motorcycling convention when her bike had broken down. Keith’s dad arrived to save the day. Three months later, they’d married in the town courthouse, a September wedding, escorted home by a fleet of men and women in leather jackets—members of Mom’s former motorcycle club, the Blades.

“Where to?”

“East coast,” said Katie. “Or maybe Midwest. As long as it’s somewhere cold. I want to see snow.”

“These desert nights aren’t cold enough for you?”

“It’s not the same. What about you? Everyone knows you’re ditching for Altea.”

“Yeah. They’ve got the nearest police academy.”

Katie’s eyes brightened. She had an uncanny way of looking at him, as if he were a gadget she wanted to figure out the innermost workings of. “You’re going to be a police officer?”

Drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, Keith quirked an eyebrow. “If this is the setup for another joke about me being a delinquent…”

Katie pouted. “I’m more creative than that.”

“Good to know. Can you pass me one of the newspapers?”

Obliging, Katie handed him a tube as he rolled down the driver’s side window. With a flick of the wrist, Keith sent the bundle arcing through the air. It landed with a satisfying splat on the front porch, right up against the door. Beside him, Katie whistled.

“Twenty points if you can get it to land directly on the welcome mat,” said Keith, reaching behind him to grab another roll. He held it out between them in challenge.

Katie’s eyes sparked. “You’re on.”

What Keith knew about Katie Holt: she liked a good prank, she wanted out of Arus, and when she grinned, a dimple appeared high on her right cheek. And now he also knew the curve of her shoulder underneath her green flannel, a corded strength only hinted at before, when she’d grabbed him in the hallway. Katie had a wicked strong arm for somebody so small.

“I used to pitch for my brother,” explained Katie, her slight smirk a sign that she’d caught him noticing.

Two could play ball. “In that case,” said Keith, letting their fingers touch this time as he passed her another newspaper, “Batter up.”

o.O.o

The pink and blue of Coran’s Convenience shone invitingly against the night sky as Keith pulled into the parking lot. Wasting no time in unbuckling her seatbelt, Katie leaped out of the car, leaning against the ice machine as she waited for him to catch up.

It didn’t feel like they’d spent the last eight hours together; in fact, Keith was almost reluctant to see the end. They’d made a game of the rest of his paper route, competing to see who could throw faster or with more accuracy. Afterwards, dinner at Flo’s Diner, where between the two of them they’d devoured a healthy serving of chili cheese fries, crispy fish sliders, and apple pie. And now, to close the night, Slurpees from Coran’s.

Coran was Arus’s resident redhead and town gossip. Like a homing beacon, his head whipped toward the entrance when the bell overhead jingled. Somewhat protectively, Keith steered Katie so that the chip aisle obscured them from view as they headed toward the back, where the white lemon, blue raspberry, and cherry ice churned in their respective containers.

Halfway through filling his cup with cherry, Keith was interrupted.

“You’re doing it wrong,” said Katie, taking over. “The trick is to layer all the flavors.”

Keith took the package of Twizzlers she thrust at him, watching Katie top off the Slurpee’s blue raspberry layer with practiced precision.

“You’re a sick little genius, but I’ll take it.”

“Watch who you’re calling little,” she warned. “Corn Pops?”

Keith made a face. “Pass.”

“All right.”

At the cash register, Coran rang up their total with a twinkle in his eye. “How’s your mom doing, Keith?”

Reaching for his wallet, Keith shrugged. “She’s fine.”

“Gonna miss you when you leave for Altea, I bet.”

“I’m not disappearing off the grid, just moving. I’ll visit.”

“Mhmm. And what about you, Little Holt?” teased Coran. “Running around with this one now that Matt’s gone—I hope he hasn’t gotten you into any trouble.”

“We met in detention, actually,” said Keith, finally done counting his change. “Here. $5.79.”

Sensing Keith was a dead end, Coran swept the bills and coins into his hand and redirected his wiles toward Katie with more vigor.

“Trade that story for a Slim Jim.”

“Two Slim Jims and a pack of Mentos,” Katie countered.

Coran laughed, running a thumb over his mustache. “Deal.”

After laying the negotiated items on the counter, Coran leaned over to let Katie whisper in his ear. Meanwhile, Keith sipped the Slurpee, shivering slightly as the cold rushed to his head. Coran’s grin had pulled higher; Keith narrowed his eyes at Katie, wondering what she’d just said.

Once they’d escaped Coran’s gleeful “Stay safe, kids!” he had a chance to ask.

“What’d you tell him?”

“Something much more exciting than the truth,” grinned Katie, stashing their additional haul of Slim Jims and Mentos in the cup holder. “So, where to next?”

In the eerie white-blue lights of the gas station, her lips shone. She hadn’t redone her braids since the afternoon, and the wispy tangles framed her face, giving her a wild softness. It suddenly seemed impossible that Keith had lived all this time at Arus without casting her anything more than a second glance.

He braced a hand on the back of her headrest, getting ready to reverse. “I know a place.”

o.O.o

Keith’s boots clanged heavily as he climbed onto the bed of his truck. Katie had already spread out the blankets; she reclined on them now, elbows jutting out on either side of her head like two bony bird wings.

The cold desert air, combined with the condensation from the Slurpee, numbed Keith’s fingers. When he hit the lemon layer, his nose wrinkled. Wordlessly, he passed the cup to Katie, who accepted with a gleeful look that let him know this had probably been her plan all along.

“Do you do this often?” she asked.

Keith followed her gaze to where the roads out of Arus dissolved into black ribbons through the dry brush. Every so often, a car’s headlight appeared. In the distance, you could just barely make out the lights of another town, but it was mostly cactus and mountains and big desert sky.

“Yeah. My dad used to drive me out here whenever I needed to blow off steam.” He rested his chin on his knees, staring at the horizon line.

A rustle. Katie sat up beside him. “Was it in this car?”

Keith smiled. “Yeah.”

“That explains why the engine sounds so clunky then. You’ve had it for forever.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Keith watched her. The starlight seemed to catch on her freckles, making them glimmer. He wanted to ask if she believed in ghosts. Not the evil, vindictive kind, but the restless sort. The type that might possess you to drive to the outskirts of town and sit in that liminal space between everything you’d known and everything you wanted to be.

“What’s your favorite constellation?” asked Katie, breaking his reverie.

“Aquila,” Keith answered readily. “I like how bright it gets in the summer. And I’ve always liked birds of prey.”

“Poetic.”

“Stars are the only thing I’ll miss about this place, probably.” Even as he said it, though, he knew it wasn’t true; there was the belltower and the trailer park and the way the sunrise seemed to set the grass on fire, and the dark, quiet corner of Mo’s where if you pressed your ear to the wall you could feel the vibrations from the band practicing in the basement. But it was molting season: time to trade in the old feathers for new wings.

“Well, that sucks,” Katie said. “Because even though we just started hanging out… I think I’ll miss you.”

Behind her head, the moon peeked out like an angel’s halo. Messy, he thought—about Katie’s hair, about this, starting something only to leave it behind, but. I’m not disappearing off the grid, just moving. I’ll visit.

Gently, he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind Katie’s ear. This new call was softer, more fragile than the one drawing him away from Arus, but it thud in his chest all the same.

“There’s room to add other things to the list,” he said, tugging her closer, or maybe she pulled him—either way, their mouths met in the middle, Katie’s hand curling around the flannel of his shirt, both a departure and an arrival, all at once. The glare from a passing headlight infiltrated the corner of his vision; instinctively, Keith turned away from it, nestling his face in the side of Katie’s head. Her hair smelled like a tangle of all the places they’d been today, hamburger grease mingled with desert air and notes of coconut.

“You’re trouble, Keith Kogane,” said Katie. She wrinkled her nose when she said it, and Keith was almost embarrassed by how fond he was of the gesture, already. It crackled in his chest, like a radio picking up a signal after hours of silence.

“So are you.”

#voltron #pidge #keith #kidge #kidgemas #my writing #fanfiction #ff: voltron

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thirstygirlclub · 5 years

Text

Duchess 12

Chapter 12 – Lost Cat

Happy rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time since he got to work that morning. Juice would just not shut up about Catherine and, though he understood his friends obsession with her, he also needed help with logging the work the car had had done on the computer. Technology was never his particular area of expertise and he didn’t know what to press to get the damn invoice to print off. He couldn’t even handwrite it either because his writing was bordering on illegible.

“Have you seen her eyes?” Juice continued to gush, “They’re like this crystal blue colour. Amazing. You know how much I love girls with blue eyes right? Just something about them, I don’t know.”

“Shut up,” Happy huffed, resisting the urge to correct his friend, “and help me with this. What do I press?”

“How many times do I have to show you this, man? Look at that thing with the printer symbol on it- no that’s new docu- fuck’s sake. Give it here. I bet even Chibs will get this shit faster than you will.”

“I heard that!” They heard Chibs call from the work bay.

They laughed as Happy tried to watch what Juice was doing on the computer. All the symbols looked the same and he had managed to press something to format the document properly so all the writing was on the right lines and in the borders. Happy would never understand why Clay didn’t just get a receptionist or something to do it for them. Sometimes Gemma would be in to help and occasionally Viv but they both had their own stuff to do.

“Are you boys nearly done?” Chibs asked from where he was stood in the doorway wiping his hands on a rag, “Miss Hulme had been waiting forever.”

“Dickhead over here messed up the invoice; I had to fix it.”

Happy smacked Juice on the back of the head with a quiet tut but the other two just laughed as the printer started to spit out the piece of paper. There was gossip around the garage that the printer in the office was older than Jax but it was highly unlikely. However, from the choking, strained whining noise that came from it and how slowly it printed stuff out it was easy to believe.

“We really need a new printer,” Juice sighed as the machine begged for death and Chibs hovered near it to catch the paper and Happy nodded in agreement.

There was a tense pause as the noise stopped and Chibs held his hand nervously over it, ready to catch the paper. All three men were holding their breath and had their eyes focused on the old printer.

“Ah ya bastard!” Chibs shouted in both anger and surprise as the invoice shot out; making all three of them jump, “I’ve got it Miss Hulme, here you go.”

Chibs walked back out to the work bay and handed the lady the invoice to look over and sign. Miss Hulme was one of their best customers. She was an older woman with lots of money and a huge crush on Tig.

“You think Catherine would wanna work here?” Juice asked while he started printing out a second invoice for their files, “I think we’d get loads of new customers if she did. She know how to work computers?”

“Doubt it,” Happy shrugged.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in her or think she was stupid but… he imagined she’d get distracted easily and forget to do things. And she maybe she wouldn’t really know how to use a computer; he didn’t and he felt he was marginally more sensible than she was. Besides, if she worked there Happy wasn’t sure he would be able to concentrate on his job if she worked with him; he would just want to sit with her all the time and just be with her. He was becoming a sap, he realised, and it needed to stop.

“You’re probably right. Gemma’s looking for a cleaning lady though, right? She could do that.”

“She has a job.”

“Pft! Working for that asshole in that fake fancy strip club? She’s gotta hate it there.”

“She’s fancy,” Happy stated, “she probably likes it.”

Juice shrugged and they both jumped again when the second invoice was spat onto the floor. Grumbling, Happy went to pick it up when he was disturbed by the sound of a familiar voice shouting for Jax. All heads turned to the forecourt where Jack was stood holding Romeo and looking both worried and in pain. Jax jogged over to the teenager, put his hands on his shoulders and shook him slightly.

“What’s going on?” Happy asked as he approached, the invoice forgotten.

“I don’t know where she is,” Jack all but sobbed to him and Jax, shaking his head and cuddling the little dog closer, “she’s gone. I got a call to- she said to meet her at Theo’s place but-” he shrugged hopelessly, “that was yesterday. I’ve not heard from her. What if Jerry- ”

The boy was holding in tears but no one would have blamed him for crying. Chibs came wandering over with a very forced look of calmness on his face. Romeo was looking around happily and wiggling in Jack’s arms to get to Happy. His fur was matted and messy too. Catherine wouldn’t be happy about that.

“Where would she have gone?” Jax asked, “Did she say?”

Jack shook his head again and looked at them with wide blue eyes. Happy had expected them to be grey but then again Jack and Catherine looked nothing alike. He was breathing heavily like he had been running but then it dawned on everyone that he probably had ran all the way from the centre of town to the garage in the midday California heat.

“She had something to do,” Happy said slowly, trying to figure out what she had meant, “that’s what she said.”

“What though?” Jack demanded, rounding on Happy angrily although there was something of a theatrical way about how he was acting, “Did she say what or where she was going?”

Happy shook his head and raised his hands up to stop Jack from advancing any closer. Jack was the same height as Happy but built wider and looked strong, plus if Happy was to hit him he didn’t imagine Catherine would be too pleased. If she was still alive.

The thought that something had happened to her made his stomach drop and his brain get hot and he wondered if perhaps that was how she felt when she was confused.

“She’ll come home,” Chibs said reassuringly but Happy couldn’t help thinking that it sounded like he was talking about a lost cat, “have you got a number for her? Does she have a phone?”

“Yeah she’s using Mom’s but I’ve been calling it all day and it’s going straight to voicemail.”

Chibs stopped Happy from walking to his motorcycle with a stern shake of his head and tugged on the work shirt Happy wore. There was going to be no way that they were going to go and look for her when they were working. Jack was directed to sit in the bar and just wait because there was nothing else for any of them to do but try and not concentrate on the missing girl. Woman, Happy reminded himself, Catherine isn’t a girl; she’s a woman.

“Stop fretting,” Chibs growled at Happy, annoyed with the anger that was coming off of him in waves, “she’s fine.”

“You don’t know that,” Happy sighed from under the hood of a car, hiding his face from his friend, “she might be dead.”

“Don’t say that.”

There was dread in the Scotsman’s voice which betrayed his calm tone from before. Happy knew what he was thinking because he was thinking the same thing. Catherine hadn’t killed Jerry, only got him in the shoulder, and there hadn’t been anyone stationed outside the house so he could be anywhere. She was safe when she was in the clubhouse with them but then as soon as she left he could have got her anytime. Happy had given her money for a cab back from the hospital but she may not have used it. Maybe she had used it and Jerry had just got her before she could get inside. What if she had been kidnapped by the cab driver?

He was getting stressed just thinking about it.

“She’s fine,” Chibs said again sternly from close beside him, “just act normal for the kid, ok?”

Happy looked behind him to see Jack walking over to them. He just looked back down into the car engine. It was a mess so he would be able to just ignore Jack and concentrate on his job. Happy had decided that he liked Jack even though he thought the kid was an asshole when they first met. Jack genuinely cared about his sister and it was nice to see.

“I’m sorry for coming to you guys,” the boy said, “we just… don’t have anyone else; Mom’s in hospital, Dad’s de- missing somewhere and Uncle Jerry...”

“Hey, don’t worry about it; we understand.” Chibs was saying kindly and patted the kid on the shoulder, “It’s tough moving somewhere new where you don’t know anyone. We all went through it.”

“Yeah but you had like… ready made friends.”

And that was the moment that Happy realised that Catherine and Jack must have been so lonely the entire time that they were there. That’s why she told him that he was her best friend; she didn’t have anyone else. The thought made him feel sad but she had him now.

Catherine POV

I was so tired and my eyes were dry and painful when I opened them. I was curled up on the armchair beside Mom’s bed with a thin, scratchy blanket over me. Mom was awake and sipping her morning coffee and reading the newspaper with her one eye. She still looked so dignified and high-class even though she was in hospital. She looked literally so unbothered by anything that she may as well have been having breakfast in our villa in France. The one we used to have.

“Morning Mom,” I said hoarsely.

“Good morning Honey. How are you?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know how I was because I kind of didn’t feel anything. I was just… meh. I know I should be maybe upset or angry or whatever but I just couldn’t. After everything that happened in the past 3 or whatever days I just couldn’t feel anything. I know there was something behind it, like, when a lot of the people we would go to in the ambulance had gone through something they would just be normal but then later on they would go crazy. I guess I had that to look forward too.

“Tired,” I answered eventually.

Mom just nodded slightly, flipped the page over and sipped her coffee again. She hadn’t looked at me this entire time. Whenever I had asked her about everything last night she just refused to answer me and told me to go to sleep because I was tired.

“Mrs Dillinger?” A soft voice said from the door way and I looked around to see Jax’s girlfriend Tara stood in the doorway, “Good morning.”

Mom finally looked up from her newspaper to look at her. Tara was wearing doctor clothes. I didn’t know she was a doctor and I especially didn’t know she was Mom’s doctor.

“How are you feeling? Any better?”

“Yes thank you Doctor. Those painkillers work wonders!”

Tara smiled and walked in to check the charts on the end of Mom’s bed. It was kind of awkward how quiet it was but there was nothing I could really say to either of them. Tara looked up at me and smiled politely then did a double take. I waved slightly then put my head on the back of the armchair and closed my eyes again. I felt so tired.

“Jax called me,” Tara said and I opened my eyes again, “your brother’s looking for you. He’s worried.”

Ugh. I forgot about Jack.

“He should be in school,” I coughed, “where is he?”

“The garage. I think you should call him and tell him you’re safe.”

I sighed. She was right. Tara seemed like a grown up grownup, you know? Like I’m an adult and stuff technically but Tara had everything together. I was kind of jealous honestly.

“Are you ok? You’re breathing sounds off.”

“Yeah, no, I’m fine. Just kinda sleepy.”

But she was already coming over to me with her chest listening thing in her ears. She did a few tests like asking me to cough while she listened to my lungs but when I did it made me cough even more. Then she looked into my eyes with her little torch then she looked up my nose which was kind of weird. She hummed thoughtfully then Mom pointed to a little trashcan beside the chair and told her that I had thrown up too. I didn’t even remember that. I didn’t remember much of last night after I saw Daddy in the car.

“Where have you been, Cat?”

I looked at Mom, panicked, but she didn’t say anything and I couldn’t answer either. Obviously I couldn’t tell her where I had been because she might tell the police or Mr Lowman and I wouldn’t want either of those things to happen. When I didn’t say anything for a while she just frowned in a kind of worried way but let the subject go. She said something about a chest x-ray or a blood test but I refused; mostly because I didn’t have any money to pay for it.

“Just make sure you call the garage, ok? I think he’s still there.”

I nodded and she let Mom know she would be back some time later to give her some more medicine then left. I was left with Mom in an awkward silence. I hated it so much because it just made me realise how much I didn’t know her. Like, Mom never really spoke to me after I stopped doing pageants and stuff and even less when we moved here. She was always at work or in the city or something and I never knew what she was doing and she didn’t know what I was doing either. Could she really blame me for wanting to be around Mr Chibs and Mr Lowman? They were proper adults that helped me when I needed them which was way more than what she had done in the two years since I stopped being a pageant girl.

“Well? Are you going to call your brother?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess.”

I pulled out Mom’s phone from my pocket and found Jack’s number from through all the other contacts in her phone and called him. He answered straight away and asked immediately where I was but I told him not to worry because I was with Mom. But then the phone sounded like it was being rattled around I heard Jack protesting.

“Hey- Wait-”

“Where are you?” I heard Mr Chibs say seriously, “We’ll come and get you.”

I couldn’t help smiling at the worried tone in his voice. Such a dad.

“I’m ok Mr Chibs, I’m at the hospital with Mom. I fell asleep, that’s all,” I told him.

“I’m coming to get you sweetheart, are you ok?”

There was more sounds of Jack arguing and some barking that would have come from Romeo and then I could hear footsteps. He called Mr Lowman over and told him where I was. It was kind of nice to hear that they were concerned even though they didn’t need to be.

“No Mr Chibs, honestly!” I insisted, sitting up when I heard a car door opening, “I’ve got money for a cab and I need to go see Theo about work and stuff anyway. Can you please tell Jack to take Romeo back to Theo’s place and go to school? I don’t want him to miss anymore. He’s clever, you know?”

He sighed and the speaker rattled.

“I’d prefer it if I picked you up.”

“I’ll come see you guys later, ok? I’ve just- I need to some stuff first. Like get changed. I promise I’ll stop by and bring you food and we can have dinner.”

There was silence then I heard the car door shutting again and more annoyed talking then Mr Lowman saying something. It was so hard to understand him over the phone but I think I kind of got the gist of it; he was angry that Mr Chibs wasn’t coming to get me. I couldn’t let them though, right? Like, if he came to get me then he would see how much of a mess I was and stuff and he would ask questions and I just don’t think I could lie to him.

“As long as you’re safe Catherine,” Mr Chibs said finally, “that’s all we care about.”

Tears came to my dry eyes and made them sting. I clasped my hand over my mouth to silence a quiet cry that came out and I heard the car door opening again. I don’t even know why I was crying, honestly. Maybe this was where I was having a breakdown now.

“I’m bringing Jack and coming to get you. Get in the car Kid, bring the dog. I’ll see you soon Catherine… you’re gonna be alright.”

I think I know why I was crying. Mom sat in her bed, not talking or looking at me while I cried, but Mr Chibs only had to hear me cry once and he was already on his way over here. Mr Chibs was a better parent to me in like 3 days than Mom and Daddy had been my entire life. Like, yeah they had given me literally everything I had ever wanted but Mr Chibs was just… nice. He made me hot cocoa when I was cold and wet; and when I came back after… Jerry, he put me to bed and sang me to sleep when I couldn’t. I wish he was my real dad. I wonder if maybe, since Daddy was gone now, Mr Chibs could adopt me.

I hung up the phone when he said goodbye and Mom looked at me. She promised me yesterday that she would look after me, that we would look after each other, but maybe she had forgotten that. It was like she hadn’t just lost her husband and made me destroy his body.

“Who was that?” She asked like she would when I would be on the phone back at home, like I was talking to some bad people.

“Just Mr Chibs. He’s gonna give me a ride to Theo’s place so I can go to work.”

She smiled at me then and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back at her. When she reached out her arm to me I stood on my aching legs and went to cuddle her. I know she was being weird right now and she wasn’t telling me things but I just wanted her to love me, you know? Like, I just wanted her to be happy with me.

“Good girl,” she said to me, “make lots of money today, ok? I promise I’m going to get all that money that Daddy stole from you back.”

“Then can we go home?”

Mom sighed and kissed the side of my head firmly. I guess that was a no.

“I love you Catherine, remember that ok?”

I said nothing and left her room before going down to meet Mr Chibs outside but saw he was stood in the reception with his hands in his pockets. He looked really tall and always wore black. He would have looked scary if I didn’t know him I think but I knew he was a kind man. I was about to wave but then I saw that he was talking to Tara and they looked serious but then I saw they saw me and they stopped talking. She walked away quickly with a small nod of her head and he patted her arm gently with a small smile. He had a really friendly smile. As soon as Tara left I skipped over to Mr Chibs and he immediately hugged me. It was the kind of hug you see dads give their kids on TV that was so tight and comforting and completely surrounded me. It was nice.

Mr Chibs held me by the shoulders and looked over me worriedly. More than Mom had looked at me all night and morning.

“Are you alright, Sweetheart?” He asked softly and touched my cheek.

“Fine,” I nodded and smiled shakily, “Is jack at school?”

“He’s not happy about it. Come on, there’s someone in the car that is gonna be pleased to see you.”

I frowned in confusion but then slipped my hand into his as he led me out of the hospital into the parking lot and pointed at a black car. At first I didn’t know what he was pointing at then I saw a pair of pointy brown ears poke up at the bottom of the driver side window then Romeo’s beautiful little face peering through.

“Oh my gosh! Romeo!” I laughed happily and ran to the car to get my boy.

The car doors beeped as Mr Chibs unlocked it. When I opened the door Romeo literally jumped into my arms and started licking my face and trying to get as close to me as possible. I felt so happy that I wanted to cry. I hugged him tightly and buried my face in his soft fur. He was so messy looking though! I hated him looking messy and tried desperately to straighten it out as quickly as possible.

“I can take you back to TM if you don’t want to go to work-” Mr Chibs started saying but I cut him off with a laugh, “I’d rather you were-”

“Stop being such a dad!” I laughed again as I hopped into the car, “I’m fine! I’ve gotta go back to work at some point, you know? I’m not making money if I’m not at work.”

He looked like he wanted to be sad or angry but he smiled at me and patted my head before ruffling Romeo’s ears.

We drove in silence. Kind of silence anyway because I was talking to Romeo about things that were going by and asking him if his uncle Jack had been good to him. Mr Chibs was laughing quietly as I spoke but didn’t interrupt. It was a short drive but a nice one and talking to Romeo was distracting me from thinking about everything because if I stopped talking for one second I think I’d just break down. I didn’t want to do that in front of Mr Chibs.

“Here we are. Last chance for having another day off,” he offered.

“I’m gonna be fine, just tired, you know? I’ll see what they have left after dinner tonight and bring some round for you guys ok?”

“Round where?”

“The garage.”

When I looked back to him my face fell from the smile into another scowl; he was looking at me kind of patronisingly. Had I been stupid again? I didn’t think I had.

“Did you used to think the teachers lived at school too, sweetheart?”

I blinked and tilted my head to the side, looking at him with a frown.

“We don’t live at the garage, Catherine.”

I guess I should have realised that. I looked down at my lap and tried to hide my light blush behind my tangled hair. I felt so stupid now but then he chuckled lightly and patted my forearm. I looked back up at him and smiled slightly.

“Here,” Mr Chibs smiled and pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen before writing an address and phone number on it, “this is where we live. I’ll ask Hap to come over as well, ok? He’ll be happy to see you.”

“He will?”

Mr Chibs nodded with a smile and handed me the paper. His writing was nice even though it was written in ballpoint pen on a crumpled up receipt. I nodded and looked over it a few times to try and remember it because I would probably lose it while I was working. I remember walking down his street when we first moved here and me and Romeo would explore for hours on end. It was in one of the nicer parts of town. Not as nice as where my house was though.

I said a quick goodbye to him and started to clamber out of the car with Romeo under my arm but when I looked back at him to wave he looked worried and sad again. With a small smile I sat back down and leant over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek and patted the hand that was on the gear stick.

“I’m gonna be ok,” I reassured him with another nod, “I promise. Thanks for the ride.”

He didn’t look convinced but pressed his lips together so that they completely disappeared and he looked like he just had one big beard and it made me laugh. I think he would have been a really good dad; his little girl really missed out.

With a final wave, after shutting the door, I walked into work. I took a deep breath and hitched Romeo up higher so that his head was under my chin and cuddled him slightly harder. As soon as I was through the door I was attacked into a massive hug by Kathy who sounded like she was nearly in tears. I laughed and lied to her; telling her I was ok, just shaken up, and that I probably needed a new uniform and she hurried me upstairs where the spares were kept. There was a couch up there where I guess Jack would have slept and was actually used as a staff room during the day.

Theo was going to need to order me a new uniform because there was no way in heck I was going to go back to the house to try and get my own. I just told him mine got damaged in the wash or something. He was kind of annoyed but seemed to understand. He also let me have my wages a couple of days early because I told him I was desperate. He wasn’t happy about that either but I guess looking like a homeless man made him realise I really needed it.

Working was actually a really good way to distract myself too. That was until Jack came in with his face all bloodied again and the whole of the past couple of days came back to me in waves. I hurriedly handed the guests their drinks and chased him through the dining room, dodging tables and guests and trying to keep the hair that had fallen from my bun out of my eyes.

“Jack wait!” I shouted as he disappeared into the kitchen, “Jack!”

Salvador the chef shouted something in Spanish and waved a big knife around then just went back to chopping and muttering under his breath as I continued to chase my brother through the kitchen.

“Jack stop my legs hurt! Why aren’t you in school?”

“I’m not going there anymore!”

I finally grabbed his arm and turned him to look at me. His face had different cuts on it than it did before and that gash had opened up again. He had that face on like he did when Daddy would tell him off and I wondered if that was my job now. I wasn’t ready to be a dad.

“You need to go to school!” I shouted at him and stamped my foot, “You’re clever! You’re supposed to go. You can’t stay here.”

“Where am I gonna go Cat?! We can’t live here in this strip club for the rest of our lives, and we are obviously not gonna go back home or to LA. So where?”

I sighed and shrugged. What was I supposed to say? How could I tell him that I didn’t know? He was just a kid and I was his big sister and I didn’t know what to do or say to him. Jack just huffed and turned to go up the stairs. Theo shouted at me to get back to work from across the kitchen. My head switched from looking between Theo and up the stairs where Jack had gone and I just wanted it to stop. Before I could decide which way I wanted to go Jack had charged back down the stairs with a small bundle of clothes in his hands and his rucksack. Had he gone back to the house?

“I’m going to a friends.” Was all he said and barged passed me again, pushing me back against a wall and passed the food waiter’s; causing someone to nearly drop his plates.

“Jack!” I shouted angrily but my brother just left out of the kitchen and back through the restaurant.

I sighed and rubbed my face. What was I supposed to do?

Theo shouted angrily at me to get back to work and I had literally no choice but to do what he said. I spent the rest of the shift worrying about Jack and not concentrating on my work. Luckily I was kind of good at my job already and didn’t really have to think about it too much until the dancing girls came in. There was a couple of them, like Bambi, who said hi and waved at me from across the room. I watched them disappear into the changing room behind the stage thoughtfully. Then, I felt like crying when Kathy walked in for her shift at night which meant mine was finally over.

She hugged me tightly when she saw me and looked at me like Mr Chibs had done.

“What happened Cat?” She asked in a whisper, “Jack came in- he looked awful!”

“Just… family stuff, you know? You think we could talk about this another time? I need to go and meet some people.”

Kathy nodded and I walked with her to the kitchen where I could ask Salvador if there were any leftovers. She caught me up on the drama that had happened over the past couple of days. Apparently two of the girls got into a huge fight on the stage in front of everyone about one of them stealing the others guy. I was shocked but it was also kind of regular thing. They were both new and were told to never come back so there was an opening for another couple of dancers. I knew what she was trying to get at and honestly I was starting to consider it.

The only thing that used to stop me from talking to Madame about dancing was Daddy and he wasn’t here anymore.

“Where’s Madame? Have you seen her today?” I ask Kathy and she clapped excitedly and squealed before pulling me back out to the restaurant area.

“Go,” she hissed and pushed me towards the older lady.

Madame used to be a dancer too but stopped when she got too old. She was only 40ish though but apparently the guys only spend money on girls that are younger which is literally so weird because Madame is beautiful. She smiled warmly at me when I approached.

“Hey- um. Kathy said you have room for a dancer?” I asked, tightening my bun; knowing I looked like a literal mess right now and I don’t look like the kind of girl she would hire to be a dancer, “And I was kind of wondering- I mean- I can dance kinda and I sing and play the piano-”

Madame laughed and held up her hands to stop me.

“Cat stop! Anyone can dance, you know this. Besides, I’ve had my eyes on you for a while now; I think you could do really well on stage. Those girls thought this was just any kind of a club and I told them if they wanted to do that they could go to The Jellybean. You understand what kind of establishment I run here though so I don’t think you’ll be any trouble.”

I nodded slowly, excited now. I hadn’t been on stage in a long time and I missed the attention, honestly.

“Come in tomorrow night. We’ll talk about it then.”

I nodded again as she walked away and I turned to Kathy with a grin and she was doing small, excited jumps and clapping again before Theo sent her to do her job. I don’t know what was up with him today, normally he let me and Kathy talk.

(((((split)))))

So, it turns out that Salvador had so much food left over from the evening time rush because they make everything on the menu first and then serve it after. The whole food side of it was weird and different to me because I was literally just a drinks waitress and know too much about the restaurant side of it.

“Can I take some of this?” I asked Salvador as he was tipping some leftover croutons in the trash, “If you’re just gonna throw it anyway, you know?”

“Huh? Sure, why not? Call this my charity work for the week,” Salvador laughed.

I laughed with him but mine was probably too high-pitched and quick. Never in my entire life have I ever been called a charity case and I was literally so offended but I didn’t say anything, mainly through being scared of what he would say/do if I argued with him. I didn’t need another Jerry situation, especially not at work. I needed to come back here.

He bagged up pretty much all the food because he literally couldn’t bear to throw all his ‘finely crafted’ food in the trash. I wasn’t sure how I was meant to carry it all to Mr Chibs’ house or how we were supposed to eat it all. I guess he could keep some for the next few days if he wanted, and if Mr Lowman was there he could take some back with him. Besides, hopefully Jack would come back too; he could eat like a horse. I wish he was here now though because I wasn’t going to be able to carry all of the bags and Romeo at the same time. Romeo was just going to have to walk I guess. I didn’t want to waste my money on a cab.

When I arrived at the house I was literally so tired but I didn’t even need to knock because the door was thrown open and Mr Chibs had come out and taken some of the food bags off of me. I didn’t even notice the row of motorcycles lined up along his driveway until I halfway passed them. How many people were here? I thought it was just going to be Mr Chibs and maybe Mr Lowman, me and Jack if he ever turned up again. It’s not the first time he had disappeared. Sometimes he would stay at whatever friend’s house for days.

“Never seen you in your uniform,” Mr Chibs said, interrupting my thoughts, with a warm smile in my direction, “you look cute.”

“Thanks, Mr Chibs. It’s not so bad, I’ve seen worse.”

He laughed and led me into the house. Along the wall of the entryway there was loads of matching jackets of their club. In the living room and on the couch sat Mr Lowman, Mr Juice, the hairy man who’s name I didn’t know while the man that had saved Jack (Mr Tig?) and a blonde man I didn’t recognise seemed to be fighting over who would sit in an armchair. When I was about to ask why everyone was here Mr Chibs told me that they heard there was free food and came straight over. I could see Mrs Chibs pottering around in the kitchen like she didn’t have loads of biker men in her house; I’d be frantic about my floor and furniture getting dirty.

Romeo ran inside, yapping happily and wiggling at Mr Lowman who picked him up and turned to look at me over his shoulder. I waved as best I could with both of my hands full and he nodded seriously. Was he angry with me?

“Oh Cat!” Mrs Chibs exclaimed, wiping her hands on a towel, “How are you? I heard about what happened!”

“Yeah-” I said awkwardly, “yeah I’m fine.”

“Filip said you had-”

“Food everyone!” Mr Chibs shouted, interrupting his not-wife with a small, pointed look at her and she looked mad.

All the men stood up and rushed over to Mr Chibs and grabbed the bags out of my hands. I gasped in surprise and stumbled back slightly but kept my cool. Romeo wiggled in Mr Lowman’s arms when he walked over to the kitchen where the food was. He loved human food.

“What is all this stuff, Cat?” Mr Juice asked, beckoning me over to let them know.

“Oh, um… so… this is chicken paella, roast lamb ribs and stuff,” I said pointing to the boxes containing potatoes and veggies, “tortilla Española, that’s a mushroom risotto and this is just some starter stuff.”

“Quiet night?” Mrs Chibs asked, helping herself to some lamb and potatoes.

I nodded.

I couldn’t really do anything but hover around. Mr Lowman was eating paella out of the container while still holding Romeo, Mrs Chibs managed to get herself some lamb and stuff before the rest of the men got it all.

“Can we leave some for Catherine, boys?” She said, smacking Mr Juice’s hand away with her fork.

“Oh! No, I’m ok. I’ll just have whatever is left.”

But Mr Lowman pulled a plate out of a cupboard and handed it to me, nudging it into my stomach when I didn’t take it; making me grab the sides. He still hadn’t said anything to me but he smiled so maybe I had been forgiven for whatever it was. There wasn’t much food left after the guys had piled up their plates and I worried there wouldn’t be enough for Jack when he came over let alone me. When Mr Lowman saw me hesitating and looking around at the empty containers he took some veggies and potatoes off of everyone’s plates and putting them on mine then spooned some risotto next to them.

“Eat,” he said with a nod and fed Romeo some chicken and a piece of lamb fat.

“Thanks…” I whispered, feeling kind of bad that I had food from everyone’s plates but they didn’t seem to mind, Mr Tig actually stood up from the chair and gestured for me to sit down so I smiled at him.

We ate in silence for a while, the only things anyone said was how nice the food was until I turned to Mr Tig. He was sat on the arm of the chair I was sat in.

“I don’t- um… Mr Tig?” I asked nervously looking up at him and he looked down at me curiously, “I don’t think I thanked you for helping Jack yesterday. It really means a lot, so… so thank you. If I can ever do anything to repay you please let me know.”

Mr Tig’s eyes softened and he put his hand on my shoulder, gently rubbed it while shaking his head.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. My dad was err… he wasn’t too good to me as a kid. I woulda wanted someone to help me too.”

There was something about how he spoke that made my heart hurt. I guess he had been some stuff too. Maybe they all had. Maybe all of us in this room had been through stuff that hurt. I wiped my eyes when I thought of that and looked around at them all. Is that why they were friends? Did they not have anyone either?

“That’s horrible, I’m sorry,” I said to him, patting his hand, “but thank you anyway.”

“So, you like me now?” He asked with a smirk and I nodded happily smiling back.

But then the hairy man just had to ruin the moment.

“What about me? Do you like me yet?” he asked.

I whipped my head around to look at him and scowl.

“Obviously not. Why would I like you?”

The blonde man started laughing but I glared over at him before turning back to the other man and still scowling at him. I folded my arms while I waited for an answer. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mr Lowman smiling while he ate.

“Is this another rhetorical question?” The Hairy Man asked with a laugh.

I still didn’t know what this meant but I was angry and didn’t care.

“So, one: you grabbed me in that disgusting little motel, and you shouted at me there too and I hate being shouted at; then you make my floor all dirty and started smoking in my room then you came here, where you weren’t even invited by the way, and stole all the risotto. It’s literally the only thing I could eat. So no. No I do not like you.”

I huffed and turned away from him, resting my head on Mr Tig’s leg and scowling at nothing in particular. I wasn’t even hungry anymore but I didn’t feel bad for shouting at him. He shouldn’t have been so horrible all the time. Mr Lowman was scary when I first met him but at least he didn’t grab me like the other man did and he had never shouted at me either. I know I was sulking but I wasn’t embarrassed. Just tired.

Happy/3rd Person POV

Catherine was perhaps the only person he had seen that still looked pretty even when she looked like shit. She still had cuts on her face and beneath the collar of her shirt he could see the bruises the Jerry had left on her neck and he knew that beneath her uniform there was a cut on her side and bruises on her arms and body, friction burns on her knees and elbows and things that Chibs had told him were signs of smoke inhalation. He also knew that somewhere on her head there was a clump of hair that had been ripped out. There were bags under her now closing eyes and she just looked ill. But still pretty all the same.

Tara had told Chibs she had smoke inhalation. Chibs had tried to keep it from Happy and only tell Jax but that was never going to work. As soon as Chibs had arrived back in TM Happy had been all over him, asking how she was, where she was, what she was doing and if she was ok then he no way not to let him know what was going on. It had taken everything in Happy’s being to not go to her work and make sure she was ok himself.

“She’s kind of a brat,” Kozik said quietly when he caught Happy glaring at Tig who had Catherine resting her head on his thigh.

“Yeah,” Happy smirked, “she is.”

Kozik looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a small smile; showing he knew exactly why Happy liked it when she was like that and he didn’t say anything to argue it. But then his attention was brought back to Catherine when Tig started to stroke the stray curls away from Catherine’s face with a weirdly soft expression. When Catherine had first lay on him he looked like he was about to make some kind of remark about her being there but Chibs shot him a sharp glare and his mouth snapped shut again. That didn’t stop Happy’s jealousy though because, as with Jack at the clubhouse, he wanted to rip Tig away from her and sit there and put his hands through her hair but the Pomeranian sleeping on his lap was stopping him.

“Not your usual type,” Kozik chuckled, “you asked her out?”

Happy scoffed and stroked the dogs head gently; making him sigh and shift.

“Why not?”

When he looked back up at his friend he wondered how he could tell him without Catherine overhearing everything. There were a lot of reasons that he wouldn’t ask her out, mainly because he was scared that she would say no. She didn’t feel anything for him, that much was clear; she still called him by his last name for god’s sake, but also because he couldn’t be sure how comfortable she would be with what he did for work. He just shrugged and cast his eyes back over to her. She had been through so much; he wasn’t sure he wanted to put her through any more.

“You like her though, right? I know you, Man, more than anyone else in this room. Ask her out. Take her back home.”

“She ain’t got nowhere to go.”

There was nothing Happy wanted more than to invite her to live with him and Mama until she was back on her feet but there was nowhere for her to sleep. Plus Mama would be beside herself and probably show Catherine all of his baby pictures and she really didn’t need to see a baby Happy in the bath; it would probably scar him for life if she did. His mother had been pestering him since he was a teenager to bring a girl home so she could show a girl photos of him as a child but he never found anyone he liked enough to introduce to her. Catherine though… Catherine was different.

“At least introduce me,” Kozik sighed in false annoyance and tapping his shoulder before standing up; causing the little dog to lift his head and look at him.

Happy still didn’t want to put Romeo on the floor since he looked so sleepy so he settled him in the seat that Kozik had just vacated and stood up as well. Almost as if she knew Happy had moved, Catherine opened her eyes and fixed them on Kozik warily as he all but loomed over her.

“Catherine,” Happy gestured between her and Kozik, “Kozik. Kozik, Catherine.”

“Oh,” Catherine mumbled almost incoherently, “it’s nice to meet you.”

She held out her hand to shake his but when she did Happy immediately clocked the burn marks on her fingertips and the bruises he already knew were there showed under the cuffs of her crisp white shirt.

“Herman Kozik,” the blonde man clarified with a smile.

“German?” Catherine asked.

“No… Herman.”

At first she looked confused; tilting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes at him but then she laughed happily. She pulled her hand back from him to cover her mouth while she did and sat up from Tig’s leg and nobody could help smiling along with her, Happy included. He tucked his chin to his chest and let out a small laugh. It was good to see her genuinely smiling.

“Just wanted Hap to introduce me before I left,” Kozik told her once her laughter had calmed to quiet, happy chuckles, “and thanks for the food.”

“Oh, that’s ok. Thanks for coming. You’re nice.”

Tig scoffed but Catherine didn’t seem to be notice.

Catherine POV

I was beginning to think maybe I thought everyone was German. Maybe they were secretly although I don’t know why they would keep it a secret. Either way, I liked him; he was nice and I like him and he was a friend of Mr Lowman’s and he had mostly nice friends. Mr Tig was nice too and I forgave him for smoking in my bedroom because he helped Jack and he was there helping at the house when everything happened. The hairy man was there too though. Maybe I could forgive him one day. But not now though, it would just be embarrassing to say I didn’t like him then now say I did.

“Hey, Cat?” Mrs Chibs asked, “Do you have anywhere to stay?”

“No Ma’am,” I said, shaking my head at her.

I didn’t know what I was going to do or where I was going to stay that had room for me and Jack and Romeo. I didn’t have any money so I couldn’t buy or even rent anywhere. I didn’t have any friends and I think that if I asked Theo if we could stay at the lounge again I would get my head bitten off. I don’t think he likes me anymore after Jack’s misbehaving today so that was a no go. Then Kathy might have room for one of us but not all three.

“Stay here sweetheart. Do you have work tomorrow?”

“Yeah, all day. So like, breakfast and lunch and dinner and I literally have no idea how I’m going to get Jack to stay in school. He came in today looking like he’d been beat up and angry and I just- I didn’t know what to do. What are you supposed to do with teenagers?”

I looked around at all the grown-ups but they all looked sort of awkward. Maybe they didn’t know what to do with teenagers either. I shouldn’t have to be doing this, was all I could think as I looked around confused and tired and sad. When I looked at Mr Lowman I saw him studying my left hand and I fiddled with my neck scarf. He was looking at my fingertips where I knew I had burns from the matches last night; after I couldn’t look at Daddy anymore I just kept lighting matches and letting them burn until it hurt my fingers then I would throw them in the dirt. It was like I couldn’t stop watching them.

Thankfully though, Mr Lowman didn’t say anything about it and just looked at it suspiciously until he noticed me looking at him. I know my eyes were wide and shocked but he nodded at me to let me know he knew about them. I kind of wanted to tell him that maybe I was going to start dancing soon and all about my conversation with Madame but I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Mr Chibs and their friends. That would be weird because they weren’t my best friends. Mr Lowman was my best friend and I feel like I could tell him everything. Almost everything. Like, only legal things because I was no way going to tell him about what I had to do last night.

Suddenly, Mom’s phone rang and I jumped and looked at it. It was Jack. I grabbed it off of Mr Chibs’ coffee table and answered it.

“Jack?!” I asked frantically.

“Sorry Cat,” I heard him whisper, “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble today.”

I looked around at the people looking at me before standing and looking for somewhere to go where I could talk in private. Mrs Chibs gestured to a door through the kitchen that I guess led to her backyard. It was dark now and kind of chilly.

“You didn’t! Where are you Jack? Are you ok?”

“I’m at Aaron’s house. You wanna talk to his mom?”

Before I could answer I heard him talking to someone and the phone being passed over to a lady.

“Hello? Is this Jack’s sister?” The lady asked. She sounded older and kind.

“Yes? Who am I speaking too?”

“My name’s Judith Lawson, I’m Aaron’s mom. How are you doing?”

“Yeah- I’m- yeah. Is Jack ok? Where do you live? Where is he sleeping?”

“Don’t worry, Cat!” Mrs Lawson laughed happily which just frustrated me, “I’m not letting them sleep in the same bed. We have a spare bedroom that Jack stays in when he comes over. I won’t have any underage sex under my roof!”

I stared out into the dark yard in silence as my stomach dropped and my mouth went dry. I didn’t know Jack had a boyfriend; he never said anything too me. I would like to think that he would have told me if anything exciting like that happened. Obviously not. And now there was this whole thing about him being sexually active just made me feel so stressed about being kind of a parent.

“Oh! Didn’t you know? I’m so sorry if you didn’t know he was gay I-”

“I knew. I just didn’t know he was- are they- I mean… I didn’t know he had a boyfriend. I’ve never met him. Jack never said anything.”

“I’m sorry… it’s just that he comes around a lot so I thought you would have known.”

I already didn’t like Mrs Lawson. She sounded patronising and like she was trying to make me feel bad about not knowing about Aaron but how was I supposed to when he never said anything? I mean, I hadn’t even seen my family since I started working 13 hours a day. Yesterday was the first day in a long time that I had even seen Mom.

“Can you put Jack back on the phone?” I asked, trying to hide that I didn’t like her but I don’t think it really worked.

More sounds and talking then Jack was on the phone. We were silent for ages and I sat down on the door step with a sigh.

“I’m really sorry Cat,” he apologised again, “if you want you can meet him tomorrow. Like, come here and meet him and his family. You’ll like them. It’s like being back at home again. They have this big house and Aaron’s really sweet. He’s good to me.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“Math class. He sits behind me.”

That was really cute and I couldn’t help smiling even if it was shaky and I was about to cry again. I didn’t even know why anymore; I just couldn’t stop crying right now. What had happened to my family? I know me and Jack were mean to each other but that doesn’t mean we weren’t close. We used to tell each other everything and Daddy used to let me have everything I wanted and when I was a kid Mom used to be sort of nice to me. We used to be kind of close.

“Are you ok though?” I asked him quietly.

“No,” Jack admitted and started crying.

“Me neither.”

We cried on the phone together for a while and I heard a kind voice talking to him and I guessed that was Aaron. He sounded nice at least.

I let him know that I was safe and that I was glad he was too but I needed to go because I had work early tomorrow. He had done his homework and everything but I told him to make sure he goes to school tomorrow and he promised me he would. All that I needed to do now was find somewhere to stay until I had money for an apartment or something because apparently Mrs Lawson was fine with Jack staying at hers until I found us somewhere or even until Jerry left the house.

I wondered if Jerry was still there now. It had been over 24 hours since I went to get Mom’s car last night when he was still there. I wanted to go and see to maybe check if I had any clothes left that Jerry hadn’t cut up. The thought of going made me feel sick though. I just wanted to go home.

As I hung up I felt someone come and sit beside me. I looked to my left and saw Mr Lowman looking down at me with a frown only to surprise me by wiping the tears off of my cheeks clumsily. Like maybe he had never done anything like that before. I smiled when he wiped his hands on his jeans.

“I’m ok,” I told him with a small nod, “I promise.”

He didn’t look convinced but didn’t push anything. I think maybe that’s why I liked him so much; he never ever pushed me to talk about anything I didn’t want to and sat with me until I felt better. I leant over and rested my head on his shoulder and he reached his arm over my lap and rubbed my leg comfortingly before resting his head on mine.

“I need clothes.”

“Stores are closed now.”

I shook my head and I think he realised what I meant.

“No. Not after last time.” he said quietly and stopped rubbing my leg, “You can’t go back.”

“I’ll be ok. I mean… I was last time right? After I shot him and Mr Chibs came in anyway. I just think there has to be some of my clothes left. I don’t have money to buy anymore with and I need to get Romeo’s leash and food bowl. And maybe Jerry’s gone, you know? Maybe I could sleep in my own bed.”

Mr Lowman sighed and stayed quiet for a while.

“I’ll get your stuff. Stay here with your dad.”

Then he stood up with one last pat of my knees. I looked up at him with wide eyes and watched him walking through the kitchen before scrambling to my feet and following him. I wonder if he meant to call Mr Chibs my dad or if it was an accident. He started talking to the nice man, Mr Kozik and Mr Chibs while the others listened. When he was finished talking, Mr Chibs rounded on me with his finger pointed at me like he was going to tell me off.

“You’re not going,” he said firmly as he walked towards me.

I folded my arms and scowled at him which just made him shake his finger again.

“Not after last time, no way in hell. Let Happy and Kozik go and grab whatever you need. You can stay here.”

“Daddy!” I protested angrily and stamped my foot and pointed at the two men who were stood watching amused, “They don’t know where they’re going properly! And, and what if something happens? Huh? What if- I can’t- What if he does something to them? I can’t lose anyone else!”

“You’re not going. That’s it. End of. No more arguments young lady.”

I scoffed, folded my arms back over my chest and rolled my eyes. Didn’t he understand I couldn’t lose Mr Lowman like I had lost Daddy? I mean, I know they didn’t know but still. Like, my fear should be enough. I also called Mr Chibs “Daddy” again. I need to stop doing that; he probably doesn’t like it.

When I looked at Mr Lowman to plead with him to convince Mr Chibs to let me go he avoided my gaze, probably because the Scottish man was glaring at them both. I huffed again and leant against his kitchen side.

“Fine. But if Jerry kills Mr Lowman, it’s your fault,” I said, trying and failing to keep the panic and worry out of my voice then looking away from them all.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mr Chibs put his hands on his hips and sigh. I know I was being a brat and really annoying and stuff but I couldn’t help it. I just really didn’t want them to go, especially if it was without me. I didn’t want anything to happen.

“We’re big boys,” Mr Kozik said, “we’ll be fine. Right Hap?”

“I said fine!” I snapped and stormed back out into the backyard; slamming the door shut behind me and walking towards the lawn chairs to sit down.

I didn’t want to see them go. I didn’t want to think about them in that house just in case Jerry was there and they got hurt. I was just going to wait outside until they got back. There was a few minutes of silence then I heard two motorcycles starting up and going down the street then silence again.

Happy/3rd Person POV

“Shit,” Kozik chuckled as they walked towards their bikes, “you ever end up with her you’re gonna have your hands full.”

Happy smirked again and climbed on his bike as he pulled on his gloves but he couldn’t help thinking about the panic in her voice and in her eyes. What did she mean by anyone else? Who had she lost? Her housekeeper? Maybe she was talking about her mom. But she was worried about him. So much so that she would put herself back into danger and through all that again just so she knew he was alright; that had to count for something. She at least cared for him which was something he wasn’t used to people outside of his friends and family.

Catherine was his friend, Happy realised, she cared for him because he was her friend and it made him happy. She didn’t know who he was or what he did; Catherine just saw him as a normal guy so she wouldn’t have any idea that he could handle whatever it was Jerry would throw at him. That was why she was worried.

“Come on,” he told Kozik and started his bike, “sooner we go, sooner she can stop panicking.”

“She’s got you already, hasn’t she?”

Happy didn’t reply, just backed his bike out of the line and started driving towards her house.

OHMYGODI’MREALLYSORRY – this is a nothing sort of a chapter so I’m not entirely sure how I managed to stretch it to over 10,000 words. I have read and reread this so I think maybe all the mistakes have been ironed out but apologies if they haven’t.

Stuff should start happening soon, I’m just getting everything lined up in my plan so it happens logically, you know?

Sorry again! Until next time,

Doe xxxxxx

#duchess #happy lowman #happy lowman x oc #happy lowman fanfiction #happy lowman imagine #sons of anarchy #sons of anarchy fanfiction #sons of anarchy imagine

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catsafarithewriter · 5 years

Text

Haru Yoshioka, Monsterhunter

A/N: Belated Secret Santa (or not-so-secret, since you asked for this, but who knows? maybe you forgot asking for it) for the ever-lovely @tcrmommabear, Shelby, my dear. You asked for Haru the Monster Hunter, so Merry Christmas!

(To my official Secret Santa: your present is coming! Sorry!)

The idea of Haru walking away from the Bureau after her Cat Kingdom adventure, aged 16 and with a whole world ahead of her, was to give her the chance for an ordinary life.

Haru knew that and respected that.

She just didn’t necessarily agree with it.

The thing about discovering that the world is made up with magic and mystery, hidden just behind the mundane veneer of ordinary life, is that it suddenly gets very difficult to unsee it. Suddenly, she could no longer ignore the shapes in the shadows, the shifting forms in the smoke, the people who - if looked at for just a moment too long - didn’t seem quite real. And, upon realising what she was seeing, she couldn’t just pass it by anymore.

Most supernatural creatures weren’t inherently malicious, she discovered. Petty, maybe. Fickle, definitely. But as long as people respected them - or, at least - kept their distance, and most people instinctively did even if they didn’t realise it, then there was no problem. Usually. As long as she figured out what the problem was, it was no big deal.

However, there were always the exceptions.

A month after the Cat Kingdom adventure, she discovered an oni had taken up residence in the school sports shed.

One heavy research session, several missteps, and a soybean-and-holly rite later, it wasn’t anymore.

And, after that, things had just kind of... spiralled. Snowballed. That was the word she was looking for: snowballed. Things had snowballed and so, here she was, nearly a decade later, breaking and entering into her local museum at half two in the morning.

Not the most logical of career steps, she had to admit, but it had made sense at the time. Things usually did. It was only later, when Haru was trying to explain why all the generators at the carnival had simultaneously blown and she was standing over the main one with a wrench and a fire extinguisher, that it all fell apart.

Oh, sure, the carnival loved ghosts as far as the Haunted House ride went, but the moment she started trying to explain a spirit had been living in the electricity and was the reason for two near-electrocutions in the past week, it was like they didn’t want to know.

Hypocritical, much?

She hopped over the low rope fence that marked the museum grounds, and started for the back entrance with lockpicks at the ready. A sign hung above the handle.

This door is alarmed, it said.

It wasn’t.

They never were.

Well. Nearly never.

Inside, the museum was dark. Quiet. Her footsteps echoed along the tiled floor, long shadows cast from the heavy-duty torch she held in one hand. Just what someone might expect from a museum in the small hours of the morning, if that same museum hadn’t also been the location for six missing people in two weeks.

She stopped by the Asuka exhibit and fished out a printed map marked with six dots.

Six dots for six missing people.

Three kids on two different school trips. One young artist. An accountant. And a museum curator.

There had been some difficulty tracking down their last known locations. For starters, the museum had never invested in security cameras - something they were now reconsidering - and, while this was working to her advantage right now, it did mean she only had eyewitness accounts to guesstimate how these people had vanished.

For the artist, there was only the vague account of employees seeing her briefly on the second floor. The accountant had been with his family, detoured to the bathroom and never returned. The curator was the vaguest; she never arrived home and no one saw her leave at the end of her shift.

The schoolchildren though... that was where things got interesting.

Sure, she could understand something snatching away an errant visitor or employee who strayed into an otherwise empty room or stayed too late after hours. (Didn’t mean she was about to let the creature get away with it, but she had encountered enough monsters to know that was their usual modus operandi.) But three kids disappearing in a crowded room, surrounded by their peers and teachers? That took some doing.

That was where she would find her answers.

The room in question was the temporary exhibit space, recently renovated as a local history piece. She remembered it being announced in the newspaper - history from your town, it had declared. Artefacts from the people who had lived here! She supposed, with a call like that, it was unavoidable that something brought in would have been haunted. Still, that was why she did what she did. To stop supernatural happenings like this.

She gently eased the door open. It squeaked. But nothing came at her, nothing moved. It was... just an empty exhibit.

She lowered the torch she had raised above her head, gingerly flicking its beam across the room. Illuminated were mostly items she recognised from her grandmother’s era. Musty clothes, traditional wooden toys, and old collections of make-up and dressing table items. Schoolbooks from nearly a century back were resting in glass cages, carefully selected pages open for the public’s perusal.

And... bingo.

She came to a halt before a wide, low display, sheltering an old dollhouse.

Not that she had any evidence yet that this was the cause. But, come on. It was an old dollhouse. It practically screamed haunted.

Haru hunkered down, bringing her eyes to the same level as the house’s first-floor windows. It was closed, which seemed strange for a museum piece. She would have expected it open, so the visitors - and the occasional monsterhunter - could see all the little details that made up the interior. As things stood, she could only see a glimmer of white paint and tiny fabric cushions through the wooden windows.

Something moved inside.

Nope.

Noooooooope.

She could walk away now. No one would blame her. Not least because no one knew she was here in the first place. Of course, that would still leave whatever monster was causing this at large, but even so...

Haru groaned and knelt back down before the dollhouse.

“Dammit,” she muttered. “Sometimes being the good guy sucks.” She flicked her torchlight over the exhibit, the glow catching on windows and doors and what little details lay inside, but no more movement. “Hello?” she whispered. And then, because she felt a little foolish whispering in an empty room and she had generally found that sounding scared in such cases was a bad idea, she tried again, louder. “Hello? Is anyone there? I’ve come to talk to you about the people you’ve been taking.”

Her torch tapped against the glass barrier and then

She wasn’t in the museum anymore.

She was in a traditional bedroom, with futon bedding and sliding panel doors to a living room. A lantern hung overhead, but no light came from it. A lone circular window revealed a giant world beyond.

The dollhouse.

She was in the dollhouse.

And tiny.

Haru barely resisted the urge to groan again. As things went, she merely dropped her forehead against her wrists and rubbed at her eyes. When she opened them, she was still in the dollhouse, but now there was a new shadow falling over the wooden floor.

She whirled and slammed the torch into the - side? Into the side of whatever had approached her. (Her mistake. She had assumed it would be a child ghost. Creatures that haunted dolls and dollhouses tended to take on younger forms, and that smack should have landed its head.) The thing - she caught a glimpse of grey material in her hurried state - staggered, and she swung her free hand into her backpack. She found her pouch of herbs and beans, a concoction she had discovered (through a fair bit of trial and error) to be effective with oni or Japanese-based ghosts. She threw down a handful at the creature. Smoke and sparks sizzled off.

That was partly her own invention. It didn’t do much with ghosts, but it sure looked intimidating. Any moment now, the ghost should be receding, giving her some time to find its source of power within the house and--

It coughed.

The creature - ghost, monster, oni - coughed.

A gloved hand appeared through the smoke and waved away the fog.

So. Probably not a ghost then.

Haru shifted her grip on her torch, ready for another swing, when the creature staggered out of the smoke and she could finally see the cause of all this trouble--

“Baron?”

The feline Creation coughed again, politely into a handkerchief, she could now see, and met Haru’s gaze. "Haru?”

She grinned. “Long time no see, huh?”

His gaze travelled over her - to the slightly-dented torch (she had used it as a blunt instrument more than once and, frankly, it was a miracle it still worked), to her still-dusty hands, to what Haru liked to consider her ‘monsterhunting gear’ (which was practical clothing, with the luxury of a long coat and a smidgen of leather) - before finally putting all the context clues together.

“Haru... what are you doing here?”

Okay, so maybe he hadn’t pieced the clues together.

“Same reason as you, I’m guessing,” she said. “Haunted dollhouse, people vanishing without trace, possible monster activity...” She ticked off the points on her fingers. “All in a day’s work.”

“You do this regularly?”

“Sneaking into museums or getting trapped in haunted dollhouses? Because the latter is definitely a first for me.”

“Seeking out the supernatural,” Baron said.

“The official term is monsterhunter,” Haru corrected. “And I’m pretty good at it.”

Baron glanced down at his jacket and picked off a remnant of the anti-oni concoction. “Is this... a soybean?”

“Roasted,” Haru confirmed. “It helps drive oni away. As do sardine heads, apparently, but that gets a little smelly to keep in a bag.” She couldn’t help it: she beamed. “I know these aren’t the best circumstances, but I’ve gotta admit it: it’s good to see you again. Sorry for throwing soybeans at you. And hitting you with my torch.”

He smiled back, and Haru’s stomach did a funny little flip.

(After all these years, really? Couldn’t a woman grow out of her schoolgirl crush, she lamented?)

“It’s good to see you again, Miss Haru.”

There was a roar from deep within the house.

“And I believe that is our cue,” Baron said. He extended a hand to Haru. “Are you coming?”

Haru hefted her torch in her spare hand. “Always.”

#the cat returns #tcr secret santa 2018 #cat writes #monsterhunter au #i know you wanted baron to swoon #but i just couldn't fit it in #i'm sorry #have baron mildly confused but also impressed instead #he may swoon later i dunno #the cat queues #look i haven't written anything proper in a month due to christmas and stuff going on #so hopefully this is the turning point

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pizza-is-my-buziness · 6 years

Text

“You made the front page.”

Jemma barely looks up from her tablet when Daisy enters the lab. “Hmm?”

Daisy brandishes the paper in her hand. Honestly, she’s glad that people still make printed papers because it would be a lot less dramatic for her to wave around her phone screen. “The paper. You’re a star.”

This gets Jemma to put down her tablet, turning her full attention toward Daisy. “I think you’ve got it turned around.” She takes the paper from Daisy. “You’re the star. I’m just there beside you.”

The picture isn’t exactly one of Daisy’s finer moments but she’s willing to forgive the photographer who captured the shot because it’s provided her the perfect opportunity to study Jemma without looking like a total creep. In the picture, she and Jemma are frozen in one of the unfortunately common post-battle moments that involve Daisy regretting every single choice she’s made for the past twenty minutes while Jemma starts patching her up.

Daisy shakes her head. “No, it’s a good picture,” she assures Jemma. “You don’t look like you want to rip my head off.”

Jemma rolls her eyes, making a face in Daisy’s direction. “If I ever look like I want to rip your head off, it’s only because you’re completely ridiculous and take far too many risks in the heat of trying to save the world,” she points out. “It’s coming from a place of-”

Jemma hesitates for a split second and Daisy feels herself perk up.

“Worry and concern,” Jemma finishes and Daisy tries not to look too disappointed.

Not that she’d ever imagined the love confession coming before the first kiss but Daisy can be flexible.

She figures she’s earned it after all these years of pining.

“You still look like a star,” Daisy says, letting her eyes linger on the photo once again.

She’s looked at it enough, her eyes always lingering on the way that Jemma’s hand rests against her thigh, wishing that she could remember how it had felt, in that moment. Unfortunately, she’d been just a little distracted, what with all the blood and rubble and saving-the-city things going on.

Jemma smirks, tossing the paper into the trashcan with a shake of her head. “I think I’ll leave the celebrity thing to you, Quake.”

Daisy waits until Jemma has left the lab, her attention back on her tablet, before she fishes the paper out of the trashcan.

It is a good picture.

There’s nothing wrong with waiting to hang onto it.

~ ~ ~ ~

One of the things Daisy had never considered about being a superhero was the fact that being a superhero meant that people actually knew who you were. That they put posters of her on their wall or wore shirts with her face on them or imagined themselves to be actual Quake-groupies.

Or that they spent their valuable time writing stories about her personal life.

Daisy had known about this aspect thanks to the last time a Koenig had visited the base, though she’d always managed to stamp down the curiosity that sometimes slipped through her mind, making her want to search up this bizarre Quake and Black Widow fanfic.

It’s a little harder to force down the curiosity when Fitz uses the words Quake and Jemma and fanfic in the same sentence.

Daisy is pretty sure he meant the observation to be humorous, a little hilarious story thrown into the end of the day’s briefing. But the statement “apparently people are now writing fanfic about Quake and Jemma after the whole Dallas thing” only results in a round of blank stares.

“Say that again?” Daisy says, leaning forward in her chair. “They what now?”

Now that no one is laughing, Fitz seems to be rethinking bringing the information up at all. He rubs the back of his neck, looking uncertainly at Jemma. “I…” He shrugs. “I guess everyone saw the picture of the two of you and now…I mean the Internet is talking about it. The two of you.”

Jemma lifts her eyebrows. “They’re talking about us?”

Daisy furrows her brow, pretending to closely study the dossier in her hands, rather than think about the word us.

“Well, yes,” Fitz says. “Only they don’t know your name because the article just said SHIELD agent but…you seem to be quite popular on the Internet these days.”

“Huh,” Daisy says thoughtfully, going for nonchalant. “People are writing stories about us.”

She looks at Jemma, studying her features, attempting to determine how she feels about all of this.

Jemma is looking at her, apparently doing the same thing, leaving the both of them with strangely blank expressions on their faces.

“People have too much free time,” Jemma says finally.

Daisy forces a laugh, nodding. “Yeah, way too much free time.”

As soon as she’s back in her room, Daisy pulls out her phone. It’s not hard to find the sites with the stories. Reddit and Tumblr links come up along with actual news articles about the incident in Dallas. No wonder Fitz was able to find them so easily.

Daisy feels almost guilty as she clicks on one of the links, skimming the story that was apparently inspired by a simple picture of Jemma taking care of her after the dust started to settle. Or, at least, the incorrectly named Jemma-inspired character.

One story leads to another and…another…and…Daisy is honestly impressed by how many stories are actually out there.

Maybe people do have too much free time.

But there do seem to be some similarities between the stories, like the Internet has collectively agreed on this fictionalized version of the SHIELD agent who faced the end of the battle to administer aid to the brave Quake.

Seriously, that was one of the summaries.

Not that Daisy is going to complain about being the brave Quake or anything.

And, well, Daisy can’t entirely disagree with that particular sentiment. Jemma hadn’t even waited to make sure it was completely safe before checking on her and, well…Daisy still can’t bring herself to get rid of the newspaper article, even days later.

“You take too many risks,” fictional Jemma says, though Daisy has no problem hearing real Jemma’s voice in her head as she reads. “I just worry about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” fic Quake assures her with bravado, “I’m tougher than I look.”

Maybe these writers are actually ex-SHIELD agents because Daisy is pretty sure they’ve had this exact conversation a thousand times before.

And they’ll probably have it a thousand times more.

Though, reading fictionalized Jemma saying, “next time you do something ridiculous I’m going to let you bleed to death out here” gives Daisy a twinge in the middle of her chest, fills her with a longing for the real Jemma that feels almost palpable.

It’s Jemma and it’s…not.

But it makes her put her phone down and finally leave her room, deciding to seek the company of real, actual SHIELD agents instead of the ones cooked up in people’s brains.

Daisy finds Fitz, Mack, and Jemma in the common room. “Hey.”

Mack and Fitz barely glance her way, engrossed in their video game. Jemma looks up, her cheeks flushed, quickly laying her phone face down in her lap. “Oh, hello Daisy.”

Daisy smirks, eyebrows lifting. “Whatcha doing there, Jemma?”

Jemma starts to make a noise of protest but Fitz interrupts. “She’s looking at those Quake and Elizabeth fics,” he says without looking away from the game. “Elizabeth. What a ridiculous name.”

“Oh, you are, huh?” Daisy grins, hoping her toothy smile hides the relief that she wasn’t the only one curious enough to check them out. “Just a little light reading?”

Jemma’s cheeks get redder and she looks half-tempted to through her phone across the room. “They’re…completely ridiculous. I just had to check to see how absurd they were,” she says defensively. “In some of these stories, they actually have you cooking me dinner. Like you’ve ever successfully made anything without burning it.”

“Hey, I tried that one time, okay! You’ve gotta give me credit, at least,” Daisy protests. “But what about your character doing something other than reading lab reports or studying something through a microscope. It’s a miracle you even stopped studying specimens long enough to actually read those stories.”

Jemma grins at her and Daisy realizes, too late, that she’s just given herself away. “Oh, so you read the stories too, I see.”

Daisy wrinkles her nose, sighing. “Some of them…”

Mack snorts out a laugh, shaking her head. “At least Quake and Elizabeth can get their shit together,” he mumbles.

Daisy and Jemma turn toward him in unison. “What?”

“Nothing,” Mack assures them with another chuckle. “Nothing at all.”

~ ~ ~

The following morning, Daisy happens upon Jemma in the kitchen, studying her phone as she waits for the water in the kettle to boil. “Still reading some scintillating fics?”

“Oh, no,” Jemma says, lowering her phone, though her ears do turn a little pink. “Just…reports.” It seems to pain her admit after Daisy’s observation yesterday and Daisy has to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling victoriously.

The kettle whistles and Daisy leans against the counter. “You know, that’s one thing those stories didn’t get right. None of them mentioned your tea addiction.”

“All them mentioned how hard-headed you are, though,” Jemma says affectionately, taking two mugs down from the cabinet. “Almost like they know you.”

Daisy rolls her eyes. “Is it being hard-headed if you’re trying to save the world?” She accepts the mug that Jemma hands her, though she’s still trying to acquire a taste for tea. “Did you notice a lot of those fics talked about you taking care of me?”

Jemma tilts her head, studying the tea bag steeping in the water. “They were clearly inspired by what I was doing in that picture.”

“Sure,” Daisy agrees. “But you do, you know. Take care of me.”

Jemma looks up at her. “Because you’re so hard-headed and stubborn.”

“I think you mean heroic.”

“Maybe I do,” Jemma agrees with a nod. She hesitates for a moment before saying, “Daisy…” without seeming to commit to the idea of continuing the thought.

Daisy lifts her eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“Did you…never mind, actually.” Jemma shakes her head, watching the steam twist out of the top of the mug.

Scoffing, Daisy nudges her. “You can’t do that,” she chides. “What were you going to say?”

Jemma swallows, pursing her lips before saying, “Did you notice how in a lot of those stories we were…that we…you and I…I mean not you and I but…that the characters…that we…that they…were a…couple.”

At first, Daisy feels like she’s misheard the question, that she is somehow missing what Jemma is asking her. Like she’s misunderstanding the basic words of the English language. “A…couple?”

It doesn’t seem to be the right word to use in a sentence about herself and Jemma, despite all the times she’s wished differently.

The rest of Jemma’s face turns pink along with the tips of her ears and the blush brings Daisy back to the present. She’s not sure that she’ll ever get tired of seeing the color creep across Jemma’s skin, making her freckles stand out, betraying the feelings running through her mind.

“It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” Jemma says quickly, clearing her throat. “That people would see that picture and think…that.”

The word ridiculous stings a little, difficult to brush aside. “I didn’t see any of those stories,” she says, almost mechanically.

Jemma nods, once again fixated with her tea, cooling now in her hands. “Right, well.”

There’s something in Jemma’s tone, something in her face, almost like she’d hoped she wasn’t the only one who’d seen them.

Like the word ridiculous isn’t right after all.

Something that makes Daisy ask, “What happens in those stories?”

Jemma looks up, surprised by the question. “Oh, well…several different things,” she says. “But usually the stories involve you getting hurt, me taking care of you…”

“So pretty much reality.”

“Unfortunately,” Jemma agrees. “Though after…there’s always a-”

Daisy doesn’t let her finish the word, unable to maintain the distance between them anymore, unable to stop herself like she’d done so many times before.

Hundreds of times, she’s imagined doing exactly this: kissing Jemma, pulling her close, holding her with only vague intentions of letting go again.

She’s suddenly very glad that she’s finally listened to that little voice in her head, the one urging her to stop wondering and finally kiss Jemma.

“Yes,” Jemma breathes when Daisy moves away from her. “Just like that.”

Daisy keeps hands settled on Jemma’s waist, feeling the heat of her against her skin. “I would have been happy to thank you with a kiss before, you know.”

Jemma nods, setting her mug aside so that she can slip her fingers through Daisy’s hair. “Then I think you’ve got some lost time to make up for.”

As Daisy leans in to kiss Jemma again, she can’t help but smile. “All our loyal fans are going to be so excited to learn that we’re actually canon.”

Jemma is smiling as she kisses her, though Daisy is pretty sure there’s an eyeroll through in there somewhere.

That’s another thing all the fics missed out on. Despite the writers’ best efforts, they hadn’t entirely succeeded in capturing everything Daisy loves about Jemma Simmons.

Not that she minds.

She’d rather have the real thing anyway.

#skimmons #bioquake #prompts #this was way too much fun to write #I missed these two #OTP forever

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