#anyways. feel free to ask oc questions about her or anyone else i am once again in a doodling mood kcjvkc-

[shooks-stupid-stuff]

it's her

ms. wanted in 17 states

additional doodles, both new and old, plus info-dump beneath the cut-

btw some of these are really similar to the ones on the doodle page since uh. i did them today so my brain was in the same place kcjvkcv (and the full body one was just taken from the doodles lol)

first one is like. a year old also-

and technically there's more, buuuut im saving them for a separate post since they're related to a dumb au(?) thing kinda jcbjkcv-

ok anyways time to ramble about the crime woman!!!

carmine chatarra, my beloved 45 year old garbage shitty used car saleswoman who is definitely not involved in shady dealings of the mafia whatever are you talking about :]

anyways i honest to god do not remember how i came up with her but like. im so glad i did, she's so funny-

she constantly smokes and smells like cuban cigars (which are technically illegal btw) and i mean just look at her. she looks so greasy. and also she's 5 ft 1 1/2 in she's fucking SHORT

uhh hmhmhm what's some actual information i can give? uhhh one of her eyes is (assumedly) fake, she can still see just fine though for Reasons. ...it's kinda hard to talk about a lot of specific things tbh bc a big bit of her character is just that like. all info known about her is just rumors and no one knows what's actually true or not-

she's definitely strong, she will kick your ass if you annoy her enough. also she's usually like very chill, and likes to talk A Lot (she is kind of annoying to everyone and anyone around her), which is funny considering i opted to draw her Annoyed multiple times today lol-

...yeah idk what else to say, she's simply my funny (alleged) crime woman and i like her a lot, thank you for coming to my ted talk-

[lake-archive]

Chapter 26 - Just A Thank You!

AO3 Link

Fandom: Ensemble Stars

Series: Alte Liebe Rostet Nicht

Characters: Izumi Sena, Anja-Sophia 'Ann' Wolff (OC), Nyeli (OC by @watersofcamelot)

Previous Chapter - Masterlist - Next Chapter

What is one of the hardest things you have ever done? If Izumi had to answer that question he would say the following: Saying 'thanks' to someone. And not just anyone. It was going to be Ann of all people. Ann, his not–so–favorite person. Then again, given recent events they weren't as bad as he once thought, he kinda had to admit… Much to his dismay.

And sure, it had escaped his lips one time yet that was in the heat of the moment. Now that everything has blown over and that Izumi and Patch have finally started to properly reunite, more thanks are in order. Yet words… When he had entered that office he was at first solely a stuttering mess. The words just didn't want to come out of his mouth which made the brunette tilt her head in confusion, questioning why he was just beating around the bush for a good while. He could admit to it to himself yet when it came to say it out loud… It didn't want to escape his lips. It didn't come out, not properly at least. 'It's just one word! Get it over with!' he told himself in his own thoughts and yet it was more than a word escaping his lips all of a sudden:

"You've got time this Saturday, don't you? Of course you do! Meet me in front of this building at exactly 10 am! And not a second later! If you do, I will make sure that you won't hear the end of it! Be on time!"

Before Ann could even agree Izumi had just dashed right out of their office, feeling that his own face had to be the spitting image of embarrassment. What had he been saying just now? Why was he saying nonsense like that!? 'Meet me in front of this building at 10 am'!? What was he doing!? Inviting that klutz to a date!? No, that wasn't it! The idea would never cross his mind! Then again… What would he even do with them around? He didn't even give them a choice, nor a response. Would they even show up!?

He could have just gone back yet didn't feel like it. Facing Ann again was not something he was too eager about, at least not until Saturday. Great, he talked himself into a corner here and had to come up with something. He technically forced himself to spend time with them, much to his own dismay. So it's up to him to come up with an excuse! As long as it was something which would scream 'Thanks for what you've done' and nothing more. He didn't have to enjoy his time with them, not like he was going to anyway. All he had to do was 'thank' them. Yes, that's all! Nothing more, nothing less! If he can't say it he has to show it! Just… How? Urgh, talk about saying something before thinking… Sometimes he just felt like a complete idiot.

Given these circumstances he didn’t expect much of it, not really at least, yet Izumi was almost taken aback when finding Ann standing right in front of him. And in their arms there was another little guest— Little Patch decided to join. Or Nyeli, as everyone else called him. Izumi wanted to get used to it yet he always falls back into calling him ‘Patch’. Yet the kitty didn’t seem to mind, perhaps somewhat preferring it. As for why he was here? Well, in Ann’s words… “Ritsu–San is busy today and… Asked if Nyeli could… Come with. So… Here!” Long story short: The two will have to play cat–sitters. Well, not like Izumi would be complaining nowadays. 

Regardless, that didn’t make things easier as he still had no idea what to even do. He had days to think and yet nothing. Maybe there could be an excuse found given Patch showed up uninvited, a scapegoat perhaps? He wouldn’t go that far but— Wait a minute… 

The model took a good look at Ann and their attire. It was… Not much different from usual yet still off putting, to say the least. Was this how they spent their free time too!?  In a shirt which was messily buttoned up with extra large trousers, the attire lacking any color whatsoever? Even their glasses were not that colorful. And oh god the hair, a mess as always! If they wanted to celebrate early summer they were not in the right mind! Even if they don’t, this was just a depressing sight! All black too, aren’t they hot!? Actually, those clothes have to be old! They are used, maybe even older than themselves! How would that even happen!? Actually, maybe they got them out of a bargain bin. Or a trash can, whichever it was. They were still old… Talk about no sense of fashion whatsoever! They were a laughing stock at that rate! And it made his eyelids twitch when just looking at them! How can they walk around like this!? How can they even be comfortable like thi—

Wait, old clothes… Out of seasons… It suddenly hit him and he would have loved to bash himself against a wall for not having had that idea sooner! A new outfit set as thanks! Yes, that could work! Something which would be presentable! Not them walking around with… Whatever this was. 

Back to reality, finally, he had his gaze right at them with crossed arms, just staring right at them for a moment which made them stare back at him, a little confused. Even Patch was wagging his tail a little, not understanding any of this either. 

“Izumi? Still… No idea why you—”

“Say Patch…” He interrupted them before they could even think about finishing that sentence. “You think Ann over here needs a little style change?”

“Style change? Wha—”

“Nye!” It shot out of the cat’s mouth from one moment to the next, the face all too eager. It seems that Ann needed only the sound to truly understand, their head shooting down at Patch who was wagging his ears all too eagerly. One would think they were close to dropping him and yet they were keeping a grasp on him, overly careful with him. 

“Wha— But… Nothing wrong with—”

“Everything’s wrong with your outfit!” Izumi interrupted, very stern sounding. “I don’t even wanna know where you got that from! Let alone your fashion sense!”

They stared for a moment yet were close to grumbling under their own breath yet the only word he could make out was the word ‘Mami’, assuming she was mentioning her own mother. But he didn’t let that bother him much. “Whatever. You’re coming with me today. We’re going to find you a more suitable outfit! This is horrendous!”

“But… I like…” Ann was about to say, protest even yet one looked down at the eager kitty and who could say no? Not to mention that Izumi himself was glaring right at them they almost flinched and finally gave in with a sigh.

So long story short: It took convincing but they managed to come to an agreement and Ann allowed themselves to be dragged into the next best clothing shop. Once in there Izumi didn’t waste any time whatsoever, getting them into a booth with a set of clothes and the outfits varied. The first few tries were a little colorful yet he came quickly to realize that it felt somewhat out of place for them. Anything else but black and white just didn’t seem right.

Patch even agreed, scribbling scoring signs yet at a point seemed to have gotten more creative than mere scores. He was rating the outfits with… Food, funnily enough. It took a bit to figure out that scale yet soon anyone could get behind it. Onions were the worst possible rating an outfit could get, broccoli being a very close second. Something like a piece of chocolate was alright, any type of meat was ‘good enough’ and tuna would probably mean the utmost perfection. Yet none of those outfits had scored a ‘tuna’ yet. In fact, as long as there was color involved Patch would rate it with either ‘onion’ or ‘broccoli’. And it was like a punch in Izumi’s very own guts. After all, it meant that he also messed up. He, the model of the group! The guy who had an eye for these things!

And he tried a lot, even once removing the color of the clothing… Ann just looked better in black and white attire, that was all. Of coure white was prioritized due to the potential summer heat coming up, he was making sure of that. He tried a lot, made them try on every combination he could think of, usually involving shirts and jeans or shorts at first until he jumped to dresses later. Some plain and simple ones, others with a few extra ribbons, some with long skirt halves, others with very short ones. 

The rating for these pieces from the second judge on Izumi’s shoulder? It wasn’t broccoli or onion at least, but was chocolate or meat good enough? Of course not! He needed that tuna rating! They had to be of the same opinion here! This had to be the perfect fit! Even if it was at Ann’s expense for the next hour or two.

“Uhm… Are we… done?” They asked from the cabin they were inside right now, a bit overwhelmed it seems. And yet, even with that hitting Izumi’s ears, he responded: “Not until we secured the tuna!”

“Nye!” Patch said, his voice more than agreeing.

“Tuna?”

“Hah, don’t worry about that. Just get out when you’re done. And if it’s still not good enough… I’ll get a few more.”

“More!? It’s—”

“Don’t talk back and just try it! Or we’ll be here until the store closes!”

“ Wir werden so oder so hier sein, wenn ihr beide so weiter macht… ”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing~”

As much as it irritated Izumi he couldn’t protest against something he literally didn’t understand. So he had to let it slide. Thus there was only rustling coming from the curtains, both he and the kitty staring somewhat in anticipation, Izumi himself praying that this was it. This had to be it! The seconds passed, the minutes until eventually…

Ann took a step outside, moving the curtain aside and slowly taking a step right outside the tiny room they had been caged in for a good while now. And needless to say… He and Patch were staring almost in awe. At least the kitty had some wide eyes while swaying his tail from one side to the other, even hitting one of the model’s cheeks. 

Sure, Ann themself looked rather embarrassed, to say the least. Their body language gave it more than away, gripping onto the black skirt portion reaching down to their thighs. In truth it was a dress with long sleeves and a turtleneck they were wearing, it was hard to tell thanks to the white shirt with the v–neck. Some white socks for decency and even black shoes with heels… They could barely stand on it seemed, judging from their shaking legs. It may look too hot at first glance but rest assured, the fabric picked was rather light. Besides, the white shirt had been picked to prevent them from heating up too fast. That and a white dress looked a bit outlandish on Ann, it was rated ‘broccoli’ for a reason… 

Regardless, it seemed to be suitable and Izumi couldn’t help but almost grin. He was about to say that he did not do bad on this one and yet… The rating was ‘meat’ when looking over at Patch, though staring in awe regardless.

“Wha– Oh come on! Were you spoiled by Ann and Kuma–Kun or something!?” He shouted, or almost did. “Your standards are worse than mine! And that’s saying so—”

“Nye!” A quick interruption and a light bonk on the head with the notebook Patch had used to scribble his ratings onto, then pointing at something with one of nubs. He made the model turn back to Ann, staring at them closely, their face in particular.

“Nyeli, ich verstehe was du mit dem Kerl durchgemacht hast! Das ist aber zu weit! ” Ann sounded as if they were scolding the kitty in the meantime yet this one ignored it, only pointing at the face which forced Izumi to look closer. Something on their face… He had ignored the conversation going on by then, let alone what had been said. 

All he did was step closer and closer, perhaps getting a little too close.. Until suddenly believing to understand what his little brother meant. Whatever Ann had told him or even Izumi himself, it had been suddenly interrupted with: “Hey, do you even need those glasses?”

“My… Glasses?” They repeated before shaking their head. “Really… Not. Why do—”

“And off with them!” Izumi suddenly announced, taking them off quickly with his hands before they could even make a move. He saw their face turning red from that, first stuttering non stop before silently shouting: “Ey! Give that back!”

“No can’t do.” He sighed and had a closer look at them without those glasses and… Even he was taken aback. Dare he admit that they looked better without those pesky glasses in the way? It blocked their face a little and made them look silly. Their face… Was good looking. Sure, nowhere near Yuu–Kun's level of looking good, no one could ever match Yuu–Kun, but it was not a face worth hiding behind. No, not even close. He saw worse than that already. 

“Those glasses have to go.” He suddenly announced, making Ann freeze in their position all of a sudden. 

“Wha— Ey!”

“Are they even real ones?”

“Well… That— Not your business! Give it ba—”

“Nye!” The conversation would be cut short, both of them looking at the cat in question who finally held up one of the drawings he did… And the result would of course be pleasant, to the point it left a wide grin on Izumi’s face. 

“There you have it. Tuna~” He said, saying it as if they should understand what this meant. Then again, they knew the kitty for a long time, they should get the hint.

“Eh!? Y… You too Nyeli!?”

“Nye!” A quick nod from the kitty.

“Looks like we finally got you that outfit. Be grateful.”

“That–”

“Also how about you wear those glasses less? Yeesh, I don’t even know why you’re hiding yourself like that.”

“Huh? What are you…”

“Nevermind, just thinking aloud. Anyway, since it’s my thanks to you I’ll pay for it. All you have to do is accept it.”

Despite this having started with something not even Izumi was sure he could manage, it turned out to be rather interesting. Needless to say, it wasn’t all that bad to see a different side of Ann after some time. He… Wouldn’t complain if he saw it more often. But that’s all there is to it! Nothing more!

Previous Chapter - Masterlist - Next Chapter

[mareenavee]

Congratulations! You've been given the opportunity to create a brand new NPC for vanilla Skyrim, completely with vanilla bugs.

Who would this person be? How did they get to Skyrim? What are some funny things they might say in passing? Would they be a follower -- and if so, how would they fight? If not, why? and are they safe? Feel free to elaborate and answer unasked questions about this critter. (: This can be related to your fic(s) and/or existing OCs or completely separate just for fun.

Tagged by the most esteemed @paraparadigm except not really, it was an Ask I sent her for funsies (read her amazing answer here!) and she turned it into a tag game lol

So without further ado, I am pleased to introduce you to...

Oft-Forgotten, Argonian sneak thief. Or, would be, really, if he was any good at sneaking or thieving. He uses a two-handed war hammer, which, in hindsight, is the perfect weapon for sneak attacks, come to think of it.

He's a nice green lizard man. Generally cool and collected. Tries to befriend everyone around him, but bless his heart, when he tries to talk to others he accidentally steals things off their counters every single time. In full view. He can't really help it. In this way, every Hold has bounties in the books for him for petty theft and/or destruction of property. The guards kind of recognize him, but can't be too sure. They say "Hey, I know you?" and then when Oft tries to pay his fines, they just say "Hmm? Need something?" and so, the crimes just kind of linger, unresolved.

He'll follow you, too, if you ask, but has a tendency to wander off. Sometimes he complains about how gross caves and/or Nordic ruins are in broad daylight in the middle of the street. Maybe he has unresolved trauma regarding things like this -- it's hard to say. When you ask him, he's often prone to get caught up in your hit box, fall over and drag unceremoniously behind you by some kind of odd force you can't quite explain. Almost as if stuck to your shoe. He recovers upon fast travel.

Oh and don't get me started on Giants. He's prone to trying to befriend them, too, but considering he sort of always brandishes his war hammer no matter where he's walking, they...take him as a bit of a threat. How he's survived blows from Giants that launch him so far up in the sky it's hard to say when he'll be back down is beyond you, but he gets up, brushes it off, and rushes off to continue adventuring, no harm done. He must have the favor of some Gods, or is exceedingly well preserved by the Hist. You're not exactly sure how that works, anyway.

He's not one for walking off the beaten path, though. You once climbed to the Throat of the World, assuming your friend was behind you the whole way, only to find he'd disappeared at some unknown point. Choosing not to reload your save to when you last remembered him being there -- for some strange reason, you can't remember how long ago that was, really -- you trek all the way back down to Ivarstead and find him under the bridge in the river, face crushed to the bricks. You try to talk to him, but somehow he warps through the solid structure until you can only see some nostrils and the edge of a horn. This, too, resolves with fast travel.

Regardless of his...weirdness, at least you can rely on him for good conversation. You think. You're not really sure. Every time you try and recall a detail he's said, the only thing you can remember is battle cries, and those comments about caves and ruins. You turn around, recalling this and find he's gone again. Maybe he actually is a good sneak thief and you've just forgotten.

~*~

Since Para made this a tag game, let's tag @changelingsandothernonsense again (: And @friend-of-giants as well! And for some writing practice, why not @thattalviel, and @orfeoarte? I'd love to hear from @airiat, @saltymaplesyrup, @elfinismsarts, @goddess-of-sorrow and @thequeenofthewinter too! And as always, if you're up for it, @the-storytellers-seer!

Also honorary tagging anyone else who wants to try this!

Feel free to make these NPCs as serious or as silly as you want! Para and I are just, apparently, in a mood today lol

[yslkook]

BORDERSZ (4)

mind of mine masterlist

summary: jungkook accompanies you on your journey to purchase a brand new car. jimin charms your pants off (or attempts to) and sora has a proposal for you that you don't quite say no to. pairing: “badboy” jk x “shy/reserved” oc warnings: cursing, alc, excessive use of pet names, kinda toxic friendship

It takes about two weeks for Jungkook to understand exactly what kind of car you were looking for- essentially a sturdy vehicle that would get you from point A to point B without fail. Something reliable, would last for years and years, something efficient. Not necessarily anything fancy or luxurious.

But Jungkook had finally got you to shyly confess that you wouldn’t mind having heated seats in your car. After all, it had been something you’d dreamed of ever since you had received your driver’s license-

“Nothing else? Just heated seats?” Jungkook implores curiously as he pours over your meticulous binder for the fifth time. Honestly, you didn’t really need his help. You already knew what you were doing. His presence at the dealership will probably ensure that you’re not getting scammed, if anything. He loves his friends (two of them being his roommates), but he knows the truth about how they make their sales.

Mei and Mina call them sleazy car salesmen for a reason after all.

“It’s not ‘just’ heated seats!” You protest, “We never had the money for cars with heated seats when I was growing up. So that’s what I want.”

“How about leather heated seats?” Jungkook suggests, “Leather seats have better ventilation-”

“Oh, I know,” You say matter-of-factly.

“Of course you do. Smart ass.”

It feels incredibly domestic, walking into Namjoon’s car dealership together with Jungkook. Shoulder to shoulder, hopping off of his motorcycle together. He had taken it upon himself to purchase a second helmet, despite your insistence that you would pay for one.

But he had told you not to get a big head, that the helmet wasn’t for you specifically. That he needed a second helmet anyway, and you joining him on the motorcycle more and more as of recently was just the impetus for him to purchase one.

So you say nothing when it’s clear that he had bought the helmet with you in mind- it’s a sleek, glossy lilac color. A similar shade of lilac as your phone case, your favorite small backpack, and your work notebook.

You say nothing about it, only keeping your small smile to yourself.

Of course it’s Jimin who immediately jumps up to offer you assistance today. He gives Jungkook a Cheshire grin, mischief dancing in his eyes. Not that you would know otherwise.

He knows Jimin won’t let him live this down. At least Taehyung might have a little more tact than Jimin.

“So are you both looking for a vehicle together?” Jimin asks once you’re both seated in the comfortable leather seats in front of his desk, when in fact he knows damn well that you’re not.

“Huh? N-no, I’m looking for a car. Jungkook is helping me out,” You say, your face heating up at the implication. Isn’t Jimin one of his roommates?

Jungkook’s tongue pokes his cheek. You notice.

“I’m here to make sure that you or Taehyung don’t scam her,” Jungkook says, “Where’s Joon? He’s less...annoying than you.”

“Joon can’t even drive a fucking car. He has no business trying to sell them,” Jimin says swiftly.

“Er,” You interrupt softly, “Isn’t he your boss? He owns the entire dealership, doesn’t he?”

Jungkook stifles a laugh at your presumed innocence. You offer a slick smile to Jimin when he scoffs in amusement.

“Yes,” Jimin says, “So tell me. How can I make your dreams come true?”

If Jungkook wasn’t with you, you think you would’ve fallen victim to Jimin’s charms long ago. He’s nice, a little flirty and funny. But helpful. You can see how someone might end up paying more than they’d need to with Jimin being their car salesman.

You listen to every word Jimin says, taking notes in a specific section of your binder with your favorite black ballpoint pen. You need to have all the information at your fingertips before making a big decision, no matter what it is. Jungkook had teased you for it at first, but he’s become accustomed to your thought process.

Jimin has shown you at least five different types of models of cars ranging from sedans to SUVs. In theory, they all fit the bill. But you haven’t really felt the connection with any of them.

Jimin is nothing if not patient, though.

“I’m sorry,” You say, “I know I’m being meticulous. You must be annoyed.”

“It’s my job, sweetheart,” Jimin shrugs, “Besides, you can repay me with your phone number maybe, huh?”

“That doesn’t sound like an ethical business practice,” You say flatly while Jungkook glares at Jimin (who only smirks at him in return), “You already have it. From when I made the appointment.”

“Is that an invitation?”

“You wish,” You roll your eyes, “Does every one of your clients get this treatment or is it just me?”

“Nah, it’s just anyone who catches Jungkookie’s eye,” Jimin winks at you and Jungkook is about to strangle his roommate. Perhaps he should put an ad out for a new roommate, considering he might kill his current one in the next five minutes.

“O-oh,” You falter, cheeks blazing at this point, “Can we look at a few more? I’m gonna use the restroom really quickly. Maybe even grab a coffee.”

“Sure, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Will you fuckin’ stop it? I can’t believe you,” Jungkook hisses, “We’re literally at your workplace and you’re putting the moves on her-”

“Oh, will you relax,” Jimin says breezily, “I’m just seeing if she’ll take the bait.”

“There’s no reason for that shit,” Jungkook says, glaring at his friend, “Cut it out.”

“I like her,” Jimin says, as if he hadn’t spoken, “She’s cute.”

“Back off,” Jungkook says, “And while we’re at it, just for you being an ass. You’re gonna give her heated seats for free.”

Jungkook watches your eyes light up at the car that Jimin is currently telling you about. He can already tell from your wide eyes and soft, excited smile that this is the one. You’re already running the checklist through your head, physically looking at your notes as Jimin easily answers your questions.

“Can I take her for a test drive?” You ask Jimin and he somehow produces a set of keys for the exact model from his pocket.

“I knew this would be the one…” Jimin says as he takes you to the parking lot to grab the test car. Jungkook rolls his eyes in fondness and heads off to find his other roommate, Taehyung. And to say hello to his friend, Namjoon.

“It suits you,” Jimin says once you’d taken the car out for a drive and brought it back safely.

“You think so?” You ask, giving the keys back to him, “I bet you say that to everyone.”

“Only when I mean it, sweetheart,” Jimin winks at you.

“How lucky for me,” You mutter under your breath, “So...what are the next steps?”

“I bring out the contract, you sign it, and you take your new car home,” Jimin says confidently.

“Yeah,” You say dreamily and look outside to the car in longing. You’ve done the homework, done the research. Went through this logically and meticulously. Even if the car does start depreciating the minute you step out of the dealership… You want it. It checks all of the boxes, you know you’ll get your money’s worth from it.

But before you give Jimin the okay to draw up the contracts, you want to tell Jungkook. You spot him talking to Taehyung, his bunny smile on display (which makes you smile in turn) and excuse yourself from Jimin for a minute to go after Jungkook.

“Hi,” You say and introduce yourself to Taehyung, who offers you a wide, boxy smile, “I’m gonna get it. The car, I mean. I love her.”

“She passed the vibe check?” Jungkook asks.

“Yeah. She passed the vibe check.”

When you comb through the hefty contract with sharp eyes, Jungkook is somewhat amused to see the free of charge cost for the heated seats. Jimin only winks at him in response.

You can’t seem to find anywhere else where Jimin may be overcharging you, so you ask Jungkook to review it, too. And surprisingly, Jungkook finds nothing out of the ordinary. He knows how Jimin operates here, trying to gain any extra cent of commission that he can. Not that that’s a terrible thing.

“It’s yours, sweetheart,” Jimin says fifteen minutes later, once you sign your name on the dotted line.

“Really?” You let out an exhilarated laugh, adrenaline suddenly coursing through your veins, “Really, really?”

“Keys are yours, and someone will bring the car out front for you,” Jimin smiles, “Congratulations on your first car. I’m honored that you chose me to help you make this purchase.”

“Wouldn’t have had it any other way, Jimin,” You beam. After a moment of deliberation, “Oh, by the way- have fun on your date with Mina tonight. I heard all about it.”

Mischief dances in your eyes and Jimin’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline as he lets out a surprised laugh. Jungkook looks at you proudly- that’s what Jimin gets for being a menace.

Jungkook wraps an arm around your shoulders and walks you out of the dealership and you slowly wrap a tentative, shy arm around his waist. You both wait shoulder to shoulder for one of the dealership boys to bring your brand new car out front.

In the meantime, you try to pluck up the courage to ask Jungkook to have a drink with you after. To celebrate and to treat your friend for helping you out for the last few weeks. You bite your bottom lip in nervousness and Jungkook notices. He wants nothing more than to gently pull your bottom lip out of your own grip, but refrains from doing so.

But you realize, it’s Jungkook, this is your friend and the comforting, warm scent of laundry that envelopes you gives you a little courage.

“Do you want to grab a drink or something after this?” You ask softly, “I… wanted to treat you. For helping me the last few weeks with the car stuff.”

“C’mon, baby. You know I’ll never say no to a pretty girl buying me a drink,” Jungkook says, lips pulled apart into a sly smirk.

“Oh, that’s all I am to you? A pretty girl?” You roll your eyes and shove his shoulder playfully, despite the heat in your cheeks.

“Not at all,” Jungkook murmurs, tightening his hold around your shoulders and looking at you with sincerity dripping from his big, brown eyes, “You’re my pretty girl.”

If he didn’t have a strong arm around your shoulders, you’re certain you would’ve evaporated into the floor at his words.

The image of Jungkook smoking outside of the bar right under the glowing, purple neon lights is an image you haven’t seen very often. A strand of dark hair falls in front of his face as he lights his cigarette, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration.

Even from this distance, you can see the purse of his lips and the silver glint of rings on his fingers. It shouldn’t send a rush down your spine the way it does, but you won’t deny it. When it comes to Jungkook, you won’t deny your feelings. Or your attraction.

For some reason, a thought crosses your mind- you hadn’t told Sora that you had purchased a new car. Much less that Jungkook had helped you pick one out. But you push her from your mind easily, as if you’ve been doing the last few weeks. It’s been difficult for you to keep Jungkook out of your conversations with Sora- she always has a way of bringing him up more than not.

But it’s not just Jungkook she has a strong, stubborn opinion on. It’s everything these days- you had showed her cars that you were interested in and she had shot every one of them down, she always has something to say about your passion for work (or rather she never pays enough attention about it), and she even had something negative to say when you had timidly brought up that you were maybe thinking about another ear piercing.

You’re growing tired of it. You find yourself getting nervous around her, like you’re walking on eggshells around her. Even when she just texts you, your heart speeds up in anxiety. But at the same time, there is a voice in your head telling you not to upset her.

As if that’s somehow the worst thing that could ever happen. Objectively, you know Sora. You know she’s stubborn and loud in her opinions and always has to get her way. But at the core of it all, you want to believe that she has a good heart. Because if she doesn’t have a good heart… Then what were you doing this to yourself for? What were you surrounding yourself with all of this negativity for?

You can sense Jungkook’s dislike of her, even if he doesn’t outright say it. But you’re no idiot. Mina and Mei have been honest with you on their opinions of her. So has Yoongi and Hobi.

They all think she’s dragging you down and that you’ll spiral in her negativity if you don’t open your eyes. They’ve all had a few choice words for her, but you find yourself uneasy whenever the topic of Sora comes up.

The more you hear it, the more you wonder about your supposed best friend. But you push those sour thoughts away to focus on the man in your field of vision.

Your heart hammers in your chest as you approach him on unsteady feet.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Jungkook mutters with the cigarette in between his lips when you get closer to get a good look at him.

“I’m not looking at you like anything,” You reply, eyes subconsciously wandering to the cigarette. Your nose scrunches at the smell without you even realizing it.

“You look like my mom when she first saw me smoking,” Jungkook says bluntly.

“Your mom? You really wanna compare me to your mother?” You raise an eyebrow, “Don’t know what that says about you, Jungkook.” Jungkook lets out a surprised laugh at that.

“Shut up,” Jungkook rolls his eyes and peels himself off of the brick wall before putting his cigarette out and tossing it in the ashtray next to him, “I think you owe me a drink?”

Jungkook, you decide, is dangerous and warm all at once. The starry glint of his big, doe eyes throws you off more than once, leaving you either stammering over your words or choking on your drink when you try to reply to him.

The bar is quiet and nearly empty, only the sounds of faint music playing in the background to keep you both company. You’re both facing each other at the bar, knees touching ever so slightly.

Even that simple touch makes you feel warm all over.

Jungkook slides your drink towards you, a soft ‘thank you’ pushing itself out of your lips. You suppress a shiver when his ring clad fingers brush over yours, and he notices the way you tense up a little bit with his touch.

He appreciates the way the dim lights shine on your hair and illuminate the planes of your pretty face. He thinks it’s the perfect lighting for a photo of you- the dark colored jacket and your dark wash jeans blending into the colors of the bar around you. Something at the base of your neck glints as you turn to face him.

“Cheers, to your new car,” Jungkook murmurs, tipping his glass towards yours.

“Cheers to you for helping me,” You reply with a smile, clinking your drink with his.

“Pleasure’s all mine, baby,” Jungkook says, “You deserve it.”

“Deserve a vehicle that will have hardly any value in ten to fifteen years?”

“You deserve something for yourself,” Jungkook corrects, looking into your eyes as if he can see right through you. You’d told him how you had grown up with one car amongst a family of five, and how money was tight when you were younger. You were the eldest of three, and now that everyone was older, you had slowly started dipping your toes into the concept of having things for yourself.

You whisper a soft thank you and take a sip of your drink. “My parents were so excited about the car,” You say quietly, “Told them I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Oh? You told your parents about me?”

“Had to tell them about the man who got me heated seats for free,” You reply with a knowing grin, “You think I didn’t catch that?”

“Heated seats were the least Jimin could’ve done,” Jungkook rolls his eyes.

You wave him off, “I like him. I could see why him and Mina are good together. She told me they’ve had this weird on and off thing for, like, a year now? Like c’mon. Get it together.”

“Yeah. Don’t know why they keep denying the inevitable,” He says, voice full of something barely concealed.

“The inevitable?”

“They both have their issues but… They would make it work if they sorted themselves out,” He says softly, a tenderness to his eyes that makes your belly flip. You don’t know if he’s talking about Jimin and Mina or about… something else.

Something else being you and him.

“Maybe one of them is scared,” You whisper.

“They can work through it together,” Jungkook replies instantly. The air in between you both is charged, plush with tension and electricity. You look at him unsurely, with wide eyes, and god, if Jungkook doesn’t want to sweep you off of your feet and pull you in for a kiss.

“Jungkook, I-” You murmur, voice soft and deafening, silky like honey in his ears. The moment is right there, ripe for you, ripe for him...

And then your phone starts ringing, and Jungkook has never heard a worse sound. Your chest drops for a second when you see that it’s Sora calling you, and Jungkook has never felt as frustrated as he does right in this moment. Each significant moment of frustration over the past few months has Sora linked to it. He wonders if she has a radar for interrupting at the worst possible moments.

You give him an apologetic glance before answering the phone. She only calls if it’s important or if she needs you so you won’t risk it.

“H-hello-”

“You’ll never guess what I just did,” Comes Sora’s excited voice through the receiver. It’s too sugary, too sweet. You wince.

“What’s that?” You mumble, shoulders drooping.

“Got you a date for this Friday, you remember Yunho right?” She exclaims. If your heart wasn’t on the floor already, it certainly was by now. “He wants to take you out- he’s the lawyer, remember?”

“Y-yeah, I remember,” You say weakly, “But-”

Jungkook’s eyes flash at your suddenly dejected frown. That’s what Sora does- she takes you and she turns your happiness into something sad. It’s like she can’t stand to see you happy about something that doesn’t align with her “vision”.

“You can thank me later, babe,” Sora says cheerily. This time, you visibly cringe as you try to protest. Try to tell her that you don’t want a date with this man, that you only want a date with the man in front of you. But you can’t get the words out, she won’t listen and she hangs up on you before you can get a word in edgewise.

“Sorry about that,” You mutter.

“Why? She’s your friend. Not mine,” Jungkook says brusquely and you bristle at his bluntness.

You’re distracted for the rest of the evening, mind on another wavelength. He knows you’re upset, but he doesn’t push. He gets you to smile and laugh a few times, only for your eyes to turn sad right after.

Jungkook only wishes that you’d be able to see what was right in front of you.

TAGS: @kookdbean

MoM tags: @tiemeuptogoldenchains @boymeetsparadise @jungkooksseuphoria @kaepjjangiya @drumsofheaven @ppeachyttae @tae-bebe @yiyi4657 @mygscafe

[wonlouvre]

pairing: doctor!wonwoo x lawyer!female oc genre: modern royalty, arranged marriage, fluff and future angst word count: 3.4k WARNINGS: ANGST (i think it’s just minor though), police and prosecution procedures (someone gets arrested).

a/n: disclaimer!! once again, i am in no way well-versed with investigations and trial procedures. please correct me i have made any mistakes. and!! if you noticed, i made revisions at part 7. our boo seungkwan is a prosecutor at the supreme prosecutor’s office instead of the justice department. they’re completely different agencies. anyway, this part will either make or break our couple. please send me what you think!! i hope you enjoy <3

eight: for all the wrong reasons | masterlist

Whatever you’re doing right now would probably go against Seungkwan’s superior’s orders and oath to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office. But does he care? He doesn’t. Is he scared? He’s not. He never was, unless he’s engaging in something definitely illegal. Well, speaking about a particular case outside the circle of his office in the first place is already illegal. But you are inside and within the office already. Seungkwan will take care of the consequences later

Seungkwan is simple and quick enough to suggest meeting with you at the conference room of their building. He knows you and how much you want to know about this case. This is just a favor he’s returning because he’s grateful that the information you have about the victims made him one step closer to solving and ending this nightmare. 

The prosecutor also invited Wonwoo which could only mean that there are matters that involve the neighboring kingdom and that made you worry. It’s already shameful that this is happening within your kingdom’s territory. But to harm the people of the neighboring kingdom is a different kind of shame and disgust. Everything about this is shameful and disgusting. 

You could go straight to Their Majesties and talk about this, but the Prime Minister already released a statement earlier this morning to appease the public. After much colorful words and apologies, the Royal Family has pledged to cooperate in any investigation and invitation to the court. If you’re being honest, that’s good to hear. If you’re being a lawyer, that only means someone is guilty. 

Seungkwan is currently connecting his laptop to the projector in the background and as he’s about to finish, you can’t help but feel nervous. You were playing with your fingers when Wonwoo placed his hand on yours. He seems to have taken note of your actions whenever you feel a certain way and following that, he seems to finally know how to react to them.

It’s a relief that he’s here even though he shouldn’t have to. More than anyone else, you’re ashamed to be in front of Wonwoo. Ever since you met Jung and Sam, Wonwoo has been nothing but supportive and faithful. Although he has always been, it just got amplified this time around. You ask yourself, if you were to be with someone potentially involved in a crime syndicate, would you stay? Would you believe in them? Would you fight with them? 

You also wish you could ask Wonwoo that. But, a big part of you is afraid to know the obvious answer.

“Are you okay?” Wonwoo asks and the squeeze he gives your hand frees your mind from the scary thoughts plaguing it.

You squeeze his hand back and nod. “Yeah. Just a little tired.”

Wonwoo doesn’t press you any further and just nudges the strands of hair that’s been tickling your eyes. 

It’s right then Seungkwan clears his throat and takes his stand at the podium. “Good morning, Your Highness.”

You sit up straight and lean your elbows on the desk, all ears for what he has to say. 

“Tomorrow, at 12:00 in the afternoon, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office together with the Justice Department will release a joint statement regarding this case. Today, I will brief you with the findings and facts of the initial investigation because I know we are all curious,” he starts before pressing the next arrow key on his laptop. “After this meeting, however, I won’t be able to disclose to you the developments of this case anymore because a week from now, the first trial will be held.

“I have requested the presence of His Highness, Prince Wonwoo, for this is something that concerns his people,” he continues to flash the next slide, “It has been confirmed by Immigration that the prime suspects and victims are citizens of the neighboring kingdom. The prosecution has already requested to Their Majesties of the neighboring Kingdom to grant us the right to investigate and try the prime suspects within our jurisdiction before we deport them. The request was granted and the prosecution is given 94 days to do what we should and what we can.”

You turn to Wonwoo to gauge his reaction. He meets your eyes and just nods, telling the two of you that the presentation can go on. You bring your attention back to Seungkwan and he proceeds to the next slide. 

“According to the orphanage, the victims were adopted earlier this year with complete and legal documents. So we can understand that technically, they weren’t smuggled,” he explains and points at the mentioned documents flashed on the screen. “Right now, we are investigating the following departments: Trade and Industry, Immigration, and Justice. Alongside with that, we are also investigating the orphanage, the Cabinet and,” a brief pause, “the Royal Family.”

The Royal Emblem flashed on the screen and it didn't look as moral as it used to when Seungkwan ended his presentation. You have no basis to make such claims, but you can’t be blamed either. You want to cry and scream because the anger is too much to bear. But you swallow everything and remain silent. 

“We understand that Her Highness expressed her desire to represent the victims, however the court cannot allow that,” Seungkwan says regretfully before announcing, “We would like to inform you that you could be summoned one of these days,” he then turns to Wonwoo,  “Furthermore, the victims will be interviewed and we ask His Highness to let Social Services take care of them. We respect your attachment and concern for them, but it is of utmost importance that they are in our custody.”

Wonwoo complies with a nod and asks one last question, “Is it confirmed that it’s a violation of the Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act?” 

Seungkwan nods and sighs, dejected. “The prime suspects are making it difficult, but we’re sure that it is.”

“Don’t you have to go back to the hospital today?” You ask Wonwoo while you drape your coat on your office chair. 

“I took the day off,” he answers and makes himself comfortable on one of the couches. 

You nod and press the on button of your computer. “I’d love you to stay, but I mean it when I say that you won’t have a blast lounging here.”

Wonwoo laughs and the sound of it makes you smile. You watch him lean his head back against the soft cushion and close his eyes. You’re sure he’s thinking about it as much as you do. And it’s only making him even more tired than he already is. You breathe out a sigh and amble your way to take the space beside him. 

“Go home and sleep,” you whisper and gingerly tap his cheek. 

Wonwoo holds your wrist and nestles his face close to your palm. He opens his eyes shortly after and his gaze has got you blinking in surprise, making him grin. You give his cheek a playful pinch to which he groans against.

You only let go when he sits up straight and turns his body to you. He takes your hands and pulls you closer, your knees touching his.  “I’m actually going home, home tonight.”

You stiffen, aware of where this conversation is going. “Oh.”

“My family wants me present as they discuss this whole case,” he says while his fingers stroke the back of your hand. “It won’t be long though. Three days tops.”

You silently nod, keeping your eyes at your intertwined hands. You don’t have any recollection of talking about your engagement ring. It doesn’t have any history with Wonwoo’s ancestors of some sort. But, you know that he chose it with his father. It’s a stainless steel silver band, no diamond visible. But the words for eternity engraved on the inner portion is made of it. 

You’re suddenly afraid that the shine is already tarnished and you’d have to remove it. 

The two of you don’t need to admit and say everything out loud. But, your engagement is already tested and whatever the court rules is crucial for the survival of your relationship. You’re already uneasy because you don’t see yourself letting go of Wonwoo. You can’t let go of Wonwoo. But now he’s going home and you’re not so confident in what his parents would say. 

What if they don’t deem you fit to marry their Crowned Prince anymore?

“I have something to give you.” Wonwoo lets go of your one hand to pull out something from his pocket, making you bring your gaze back at him. He holds it in a fist and flips your other hand with your palm upwards. You were looking into his eyes when something cold met the warmth of your skin. 

It’s a necklace. 

“A promise of my return,” he says and fold your palms, your turn to hold it in a fist. “I know a lifebuoy doesn’t symbolize that, but you get my point.”

His wit relaxes the tensed atmosphere, making you giggle. “Thank you. I love it.”

Wonwoo regards you with a fond smile and slowly leans close to your face, the tip of his nose bumping against yours before finally pressing a tentative kiss on your lips. One peck, followed by a second and on the third he holds your jaw to continue. Your whole body grows hot as his kisses deepen and you kiss him back with the same fervor. It didn’t take long for him to nip and swipe his tongue at your bottom lip, a plea to allow him to kiss you further. You yield and your heart has never beat so fast. 

You clutch the necklace he gave you against his chest while your other hand smooths against his neck. Every day that you’re with Wonwoo, you wish for it to never end. Whenever he holds your hand, keeps you close by an arm around your waist and breathlessly kisses you; you want them always. You want him. You lov---

You stop yourself right there because you’re not ready to take the fall. 

At the same time, Wonwoo hesitantly pulls away from your lips but his forehead remains against yours. “Wait for me?” he whispers, lips still grazing yours. 

You seal your yes with another kiss.

Jeongyeon holds her breath as she waits for your next question. You called her to your office to have an impromptu quiz game. This is not a traditional occurrence at your law firm but you figured that it wouldn’t be a waste of time to review your paralegal as the case is still on-going and the three day leave of your fiancé ends today.

“According to the Mining Act, foreigners are allowed to invest in mining activities of the kingdom. True or false?”

“I know this!” Jeongyeon shouts and raises her hand, asking for a moment. “False?”

You grin and give her a thumbs up. “Correct!”

“Yes!” She jumps and punches her fist up in the air. 

So far, she hasn’t given a single wrong answer and that makes you proud. You watch her dance excitedly around your office when your phone suddenly vibrates inside your pocket. Letting go of your questionnaire, you take it out and the message on the screen brings a smile on your face. 

j.ww: will be back tonight. dinner?

: can’t say no to that.

Wonwoo never failed to send you text messages or give you calls the past three days he was gone. They were always brief, but enough to assure you that you’re always on his mind. It’s a little corny for your age, but you can’t deny it gave you a sense of peace and security. It made your heart flutter as well but you’ll never say it out loud. 

Finally, he’ll be back tonight. You missed him so much and him not coming back didn’t fail to cross your mind each day. You’re hoping whatever he may have discussed with his parents concluded on a positive note. 

“Your Highness?” 

When you look up, you didn’t expect a tall man, wearing an all black suit, with sunglasses covering his eyes to greet you. You stand properly and put your phone back inside your coat pocket. 

“He didn’t have an appointment,” Jeongyeon sheepishly says. “But he insisted.”

The stranger removes his shades and gives you a smile. “Good day, Your Highness. My name is Kim Mingyu and I wish to seek your legal advice.”

“So Mr. Kim, you want to start a business in our kingdom?”

Kim Mingyu is from the neighboring kingdom who’s apparently rich enough to venture to different kingdoms to expand his business and well, make himself richer. Foreigners are welcomed and allowed to establish their business here so long as they abide by the laws of the land. You have had foreign clients of that kind before, asking how to navigate around without facing legal disputes.

Some are nice and genuine, some are the opposite.

Kim Mingyu seems to be the latter.

Mingyu shakes his head as he sips at the iced water he requested. You can hear the ice cubes crushing as he chews on them and you’re regretting not declining his request for a consultation. This man exudes nothing but conceit and you honestly don’t have the time to stroke his ego. He chugs the whole glass before leaning his arms on the table. Meanwhile, you stayed composed with your back straight even though you’re starting to grow irritated at his actions. 

“No, Your Highness,” he answers. “I already have a business here.”

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Then, what do you require my services for?”

He leans back on the chair again and crosses his arms. “I just want to improve it, but in a legal kind of way.”

“Okay,” you say under your breath, unsure if he’s bluffing you or not. “May I ask what’s your business, Mr. Kim?”

“Mining.”

A stunned silence befalls between the two of you. Is he serious?

“Mr. Kim, you have a mining business in this kingdom?” You try to clarify because maybe you heard him wrong. 

He gives you a high and mighty nod, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. 

“Foreigners are not allowed to engage in mining activities in this kingdom, Mr. Kim,” you remind him, your tone cold.

He shrugs his shoulders and gives you a sinister smirk. “It’s not that hard when you have someone powerful allowing it.”

You are numb and in denial. 

Kim Mingyu is messing with your head, you try to make excuses to keep yourself sane as you run to the car and tell the driver to head straight to the Royal Residences. You don’t even know who that guy is. You don’t have any confirmation of his identity at all. He’s just stirring you up to get a reaction from you. You can’t be vulnerable and you’ll never be. The only way to do that is to stay rational and ask the people he mentioned yourself. 

Your phone is attached to your ear as you wait for Seungkwan to answer. He’s taking rather a while to answer than he used to but it’s okay. You just need to tell him your so-called visitor’s name earlier and maybe he can tell you something, anything, that can ease the growing fear inside your system.

“Your Highness,” he finally answers, just in time when the driver stops at the entryway of the house. You can hear someone shouting from the other line, but you ignore it.

“Seungkwan, do you perhaps know a guy named Kim MIngyu?” You ask and walk your way through the opened and unguarded doors. Odd, you thought, but you ignored it again and continued sprinting to the receiving area. “He was at my office earlier saying some crap about illegal mining, can you loo---”

Handcuffs.

And dozens of men in uniform surrounding your father, The King, made you stop on your tracks. 

“Y/N, I need you to listen to me.” 

But you can’t because this one man with a piece of paper held by one of his hands is talking to your father.

“His Majesty, King XXX, you are under arrest for aiding and allowing the presence and access of foreign nationals and businesses to the mineral resources of this Kingdom, a violation of the Mining Act of 19xx. You have the right to an attorney and in the event that you don’t, the Kingdom will provide you one. You have the right to remain silent and if you waive your right, anything you say can be used for or against you in court.”

 “Y/N?”

You heard what the Royal Police said, loud and clear. You also saw how your father stood up and comply, surrendering his hands to the man holding the handcuffs. When he finally raises his head and meets your eyes, your arm weakens making you drop your phone. Your father shows you a tight smile and quick nod, a false promise that everything will be okay.

You watch, frozen, as they take your father away and all you can hear is the sobs of your mother who couldn’t do anything to save her husband.

The very moment the press took hold of your father’s quiet arrest, it became a mess outside of the residences. News reporters from various broadcasting stations have positioned themselves in front of the camera, making use of your home as their background as they tell the whole nation about the downfall of The King. 

Seungkwan’s words were frantic but painfully true. He has informed you that the prime suspects have dropped the names of every public figure involved in their crime and yes, that includes your father. They were able to present strong evidence in a short period of time, turning the tables and causing chaos at the prosecution. 

Seungkwan told you to stay put and let the Prime Minister do his job. But he wasn’t able to tell you that everything is under control and that your father may just be falsely accused. 

Because he’s not. 

You can see from the window that civilians have joined the crowd and they are livid. You haven’t said a word, you haven’t sat down, you haven’t done anything since you arrived. Your mother is inconsolable and all of the crying has exhausted her, making her faint. If it’s a mess outside what more inside this house with nothing but an eerie silence that’s crumbling you down. 

Eventually, your family will have to face the people you swore to serve with nothing but honesty. When that time comes, will you even have a face to show? Will you have the strength to see their disappointment and distrust? 

What about Wonwoo? What would he think of your father whom he respected? What about his parents who regarded your family with high praises? You tightly gripped on the necklace Wonwoo gave you as you imagined the endless scenarios that could likely end everything. You tightly gripped onto the lifebuoy pendant, holding onto what is left if there’s still at all.

“Your Highness, Prince Wonwoo has arrived.”

Wonwoo looked like he was dragging his whole body from how tired he has been over the past three days. But his pace quickened when he finally saw you. He drops his bag and coat with a resounding thud on the floor and races to meet you halfway and take you in his arms.

His firm embrace swept you off your feet and the only thing that’s helping him to breathe your scent is your arms locked around his neck. 

“What did Seungkwan say? I only heard about it on my way here.” Wonwoo removed his arms from your waist and opted to rub your arms who grew limp by your sides. 

“He couldn’t disclose the full details,” you answer and your head hangs low in humiliation. “My father will be dethroned and worse, imprisoned.”

Wonwoo couldn’t say anything to comfort or correct you and it’s okay. He wants to but you tell him through your eyes that he doesn’t have to. You have thought about it already. You have accepted your father’s fate and most importantly, the fate of your marriage. Wonwoo and his family doesn’t deserve to be entangled with your family’s disgraceful incompetence and lies. 

Maybe you and Wonwoo were betrothed for all the wrong reasons.

So with hot tears streaming down your face and heartbreak tearing you apart, you ask him again. 

“Do you really want to marry me Wonwoo?”

[pioneergirlsie]

Hope is like the Sun || Part 4

Part 3 || Part 5 || Masterlist

Poe Dameron x fem!reader/OC

Summary: You and Poe are definitely not looking for anyone in the mess hall. BB-8 and Threecee definitely are.

A/N: Thank you, Mals, for this adorable idea! Also, please feel free to send me feedback on this series: things you like, things that need work, anything! I’d love to hear from you!

You weren’t looking for anyone in particular, or at least that’s what you told yourself as you scanned the mess hall, food in hand. There was Snap, sitting incredibly close to Karè. Their heads were bent close together, and they were smiling. A group of Blue Squadron pilots in the corner laughed loudly, drawing your eyes further that way. Still not satisfied, you moved on, spotting Paige and her little sister Rose chatting with Jess.

You glanced over the rest of the room and involuntarily sighed. Threecee looked up at you questioningly. There were a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, but one face in particular was missing. You felt a pang of disappointment but shoved it aside.

“Should we go see what Jess and Paige are up to? It’s been a while since we’ve seen Rose, too,” you said to your little droid, forcing your feet to move in their direction instead of lingering near the wall any longer.

The three women smiled up at you in greeting as you sat down in the empty seat next to Rose. You didn’t seem to be interrupting any conversation, and their smiles assured you that you were welcome in their group.

You’d made the mistake of sitting down where you weren’t welcome before, so now you were always a bit wary. One place you knew you were always welcome to sit was by Poe. ‘But Poe isn’t here,’ you had to remind yourself. And you hadn’t been looking for anyone in particular anyway.

“Eila! How’s it going?” asked Jess as you sat down. “Your mission to Felucia go alright?”

“Honestly? It was a little boring,” you replied. “In and out. No trouble.”

“Why am I not surprised that you’d call that boring?” Paige laughed. “You and Jess seem to prefer a little trouble.”

“Taking out TIEs is never a bad pastime!” you replied. Then you turned to Jess. “Make any new modifications on your X-Wing lately?”

“Just tinkering on that new booster I showed you,” she replied. “But Rose has been working on some pretty exciting stuff!”

Rose smiled and turned to you. “Yeah! I wanted to make the targeting system more efficient in our bomber, so I tweaked a few things and…” She went on to explain what she did and how it was all working out. Jess leaned in and began asking technical questions that you smiled and nodded about but didn’t quite understand. Your attention began to wander and you gazed around at all the faces once again.

____________________________________

 Poe wasn’t looking for anyone in particular, or at least that’s what he told himself as he scanned the mess hall, food in hand. There were Snap and Karè, sitting closer together than usual. He kept scanning the crowd. True, he did have to talk to Snap, but he wanted to see who else was here first. Not because he was looking for anyone specifically or anything.

There were some of Blue Squadron, just back from what looked like a successful mission. He nodded as some of them made eye contact. Poe kept scanning. He didn’t linger too long on any one person. He’d be able to tell, even if it was just the back of the person’s head.

BB-8 chirped a question.

“No, I’m not looking for anyone. Just… curious who’s all here.”

“If you’re looking for Eila, she’s over by Jess and Paige and Rose.”

“I told you I wasn’t looking for anyone,” Poe tried to insist as he swept his eyes over the mess hall once more, this time with more purpose.

Poe quickly spotted you, a small smile of satisfaction coming across his lips involuntarily. You looked like you were deep in conversation with the other women. You let out a laugh, making Poe’s smile grow.

BB-8 looked up at Poe, over at you, and then back at Poe, whirring something to himself that Poe didn’t quite catch. Then, louder, Beebee-ate asked, “Can Threecee and I go to the charging stations?”

“If Eila says it’s okay.”

The little droid whirled off with a quick beep of “Okay!”

Unfortunately, Poe couldn’t follow his droid just yet. He did have to talk to Snap. He made his way over to stand by Snap, still sneaking glances at you.

____________________________________

 You still weren’t satisfied with your scan of the mess hall. Threecee watched your face intently. Karè laughed loudly, and you looked back her way.

There. You’d recognize those dark curls anywhere, even if it was just the back of his head. Poe laughed along with Karè and Snap and turned just enough so you could see the side of his face. You smiled upon seeing his smile.

Threecee beeped up at you quietly, “Find someone?”

“I think Poe just got here,” you replied, nonchalant. After all, you hadn’t been looking for anyone in particular.

Threecee looked like she was getting ready for another quip, but an orange-and-white little droid rapidly approached, letting out an excited string of beeps. Threecee responded to BB-8’s hurried message with a rapid-fire response. You couldn’t catch much of it because it was so quick. Your binary skills were improving but not good enough to untangle that whole string so fast. You caught “looking for her,” “smiled when,” and “her, too!”

Then, Threecee looked back up at you. “Can BB-8 and I go to the charging stations?”

“Yeah, if Poe says it’s okay.”

“He did!” Beebee-ate assured you as the pair whirred off.

You shook your head, watching them go. What was that all about? And then someone was scooting into the seat next to you.

“This seat taken?” an all too familiar voice asked.

You smiled up into brown eyes. “Oh, I was saving that, actually.”

Poe quickly moved to get up. “Alright, sorry! I’ll go sit by— “

“I was saving it for this dark-haired flyboy who calls himself the best pilot in the Resistance…” you added, eyes sparkling with mischief. “You haven’t seen him, have you?”

Poe let out a breath of a laugh as he sat back down. “You know I don’t call myself that.”

The conversation at your table had gone strangely silent. Jess, Paige, and Rose smiled at you a bit strangely. You raised your eyebrow at them, and the conversation immediately starts back up.

Poe turned back to you. “So, how was your mission to Felucia?”

“Eh, not the most exciting.”

“No run-in with the First Order?” he asked knowingly. Boring missions were safe missions, but they weren’t always the most fun. Some people craved boring missions, but the two of you were wired a bit different.

“Nope. But!” you said, just remembering. “There was this weird creature I wanted to tell you about!”

From off in a corner of the mess hall in two adjacent charging stations, Threecee and Beebee-ate watched you animatedly telling Poe your stories. He was fully invested in whatever you were telling him, animatedly adding his own comments from time to time. The two droids just beeped knowingly to each other.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Taglist: @agentmalfoy24601 @sunch1ld

Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist!

[softhxtch]

TITTLE: FBI Charity Blind Date Night SUMMARY: For last four years FBI has been organizing a lot of events for charities. One of them are blind dates. This year Emily, Penelope and Derek decided to join in with Hotch’s name. Let’s just say, that at first he’s not the happiest person in the world.  PAIRING: female! reader x Aaron Hotchner CHARACTERS: reader, Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia (at the beginning), Angela, Olivia (OCs), Daivd Rossi and Spencer Reid (literally mentioned once) WARNINGS: none (?), it’s just fluff and cuteness, I mean they go to the hospital, nothing bad happens, but be aware of errors and mistakes. ALSO in this story Jack is not born, not sure why just thought it would fit better. ALSO2: CAC - Crimes Against Children Unit WORD COUNT: 4,5K A/N: i’ve had a long break from writing and with this new year I decided to break it. there’re probably a lot of mistakes, so feel free to correct me. english is not my first language and i’m doing this just for fun!

'Did you send everything correctly? Are you sure?', Emily asked looking over Penelope's shoulder. She tried to keep up with whatever blonde woman was doing, but it was hard since she was moving so fast with her work.

'Yes! Who do you think I am?', Penelope answered with raised voice. Her head was shaking but eyes still glued to the screen. 'Can't you just trust me?'

'I do, we all do. But don't you think it's weird, that we still didn't get anything from-', Emily argued, but didn't even finish the sentence as her work phone started to make sound. She quickly picked it up with short 'hello' and was listening to whoever was on the other side. Her face was slowly changing as more and more words were going through the phone. Emily's eyebrows were risen and eyes bigger, scanning the room around her. Finally she nodded quickly and after adding short 'of course', she put the phone down. 'Hotch wants to see us.', Emily explained.

'Oh god.', was all Penelope could say. She stood up quickly, putting her laptop down on Emily's desk. 'I guess he got the message. Today's the day we die.', she added as dark haired woman also stood up, nodding

'Come on, Derek. You're going with us.', Emily pointed at him, raising her eyebrow.

'Me? I didn't even do anything!', man defended himself.

'It's all your fault anyway. You came up with the idea. Come on.', she added.

'Fine, but to be fair it's our idea. You're as much in it as I am. Just so we're clear.', Derek pointed out, as Emily rolled her eyes. 'Let's go.'

Derek's words were like a signal, because after that all three of them moved towards the Chief's office. They knew it was coming sooner or later. They would be called to see Hotch, he probably would be angry at what have they done, maybe furious and that's it. Maybe they would get more paper work to do. But it was unavoidable, Hotch would find out sooner or later. And some like Derek would prefer it to be sooner, but some like Emily or Penelope - later.

Derek was the one to lead the way to Agent Hotchner's office, with two women right behind him. He knocked two times one the door and opened them after hearing 'come in' from inside. Aaron was sitting in his chair, focused on papers in front of him. Pen in one hand, tracing text that for most people was really hard to understand.

All three agents looked around just to see any signs, that they could help. They paid a lot of attention to the big desk with a lot of papers on it, but everything was the same. Nothing too suspicious, but then in front of there were three chairs. Not one or two as usual. Like especially for them.

'Everything's okay?', Penelope was the first one to break the silence.

'Yes.', Aaron’s answer was short as he looked up from his papers with a raised brow. 'Is there a reason why something's should not be okay?'

'No. Of course no, sir.', blonde woman laughed as all three of them walked more inside the room.

'You wanted to see us?', Emily asked, her voice was quieter than usual.

'Did I?', Aaron answered back with an questions, putting his pen down. All three of the agents looked at each other with confused faces.

'Emily said-'

'What exactly did Emily said?', he asked. Aaron tilted his head, waiting for an answer. His face was stoic and stern as usual, very hard to read for any of them.

'Emily said you wanted to see us.', Derek answered. His eyebrows were furrowed, with thousands thoughts going through his mind per second. He was very much present when dark haired woman got the phone call, but all of the sudden he wasn't sure about it anymore. Maybe she heard something different? Or mixed up his words?

Hotch just nodded slowly. He moved his eyes from Derek to Emily, who was confused with this whole situation. She knew what he said, but just to be one hundred percent sure she went through the short conversation they had, like fifty more times.

'You said, and I quote, 'I want to see you in my office as fast as you can'.', Emily said slowly, her hands in front. It's like she was trying to calm herself down from this confusing situation.

'Exactly. I didn't specify who 'you' is.', man sitting in the chair said, like it was the most obvious thing on the world.

'Oh my God.', Penelope said, waving hands in front of her face as if she was trying to stop the tears. You could visibly see Emily's shoulders going down, her letting out breath she was holding for a long time. Derek just let out quiet laugh and shook his head.

'But since all three of you came here, then I guess something's happened.', he added, putting his hands together on top of the desk. 'You did something, that you know you shouldn't do and now you're just waiting for the consequences. That's why all three of you came here together.'

'I thought we weren't suppose to profile each other.', Derek said.

'Yes, especially when not everyone in the room is a profiler.', Penelope added with a firm nod.

'Garcia, you don't need to be a profiler to see all three of you having weird conversations, barely working in the office and basically being constantly out of place.'

'We didn't do anything wrong.', Derek said, pointing at all three of agents.

'Okay.', Aaron said quickly nodding. 'But next time when you put name that isn’t yours somewhere, you make that person is aware that you're doing this. And they give you their consent.'

'We didn't put anyone's name anywhere', Emily finally said something after, what felt like, hours of standing in their boss's office.

'Agent Hotchner, we write to thank you for joining our 4th annual FBI Charity Blind Date Night. Don't worry we'll make sure to choose precisely your date, just they way you put it in our questionnaire. Thank you so much and see you in February!', man read the email he got few hours ago.

‘You don’t have any proof, that it’s us, sir.’, Penelope said, her voice cracking at the end. Derek just sighed and closed his eyes, knowing how screwed up they are. ‘Anyone could do this!’

‘True, but you three are on the first place.’, he said like it was something obvious. The rest just looked a bit confused how they were first suspects, which made older man sigh. ‘The next one was Rossi, but he’s been out of town for the last few days. In the past he tried to set me up for few dates, but I don’t think he would do it through blind date, that you have to do questionnaire before. Who’s next?’, he asked, making his thinking face for a second, before continuing. ‘JJ? She has her own life and two kids to take care of. I don’t think she would have time to play with something like this. Oh and on top of that, she doesn’t put herself in someone else’s business. The last one is Reid and we all know, that he didn’t do it.’

‘But you have no proof, that all of us did it.’, Penelope started. Her hands were shaking and she started rambling, not knowing how to get out of that situation. 

When Derek and Emily came to her with this whole idea of putting their boss in a blind date she didn’t know what to think about it. She thought that maybe it was a good thing. After divorcing Haley and breaking up with Beth, Hotch didn’t do much dating, or at least that they knew about. And Penelope thought that someone like Aaron Hotchner deserves to be happy. He deserves to laugh with someone who he likes and is not necessarily in a team or a friend of his. She wanted him to have a person, who would be with him in tough times and would take care of him when he needed it. Hotch is a tough person, but Penelope Garcia strongly believed, that there’s a person in this world who would understand him. He just needed to start looking and if she could help, she would do it. 

Of course there’s also a lot of guilt, because whether she liked it or not, she was messing with his boss’s personal life. And how would they even tell Hotch about the fact, that they put him into FBI blind date. Penelope knew he would be furious and angry. So this kind of reaction was weird for her. Hotch wasn’t screaming, showing any anger. Nothing. Maybe a little annoyed, but that’s it.

‘Penelope.’, Derek started, trying to make her stop. She was only making it worse, by digging the topic. 

‘You can be mad at us all you want, but a date would be a good thing for you.’, Emily started, making Hotch raise his eyebrows. Derek just groaned in the back, wishing for it to be over. ‘You know, sometimes it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.’

‘My comfort zone?’, he repeated.

‘Yes.’, dark haired girl answered. She put her hands together in front of her, not knowing where she’s exactly going with this conversation. ‘You have to go out sometimes, Hotch. Have conversation with someone, that’s not us. Have a meal, that wasn’t pre made months ago, drink wine and make jokes. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll meet someone wonderful.’, she ended, going closer and closer to the man as she was going on with her speech.

‘I’m not in a mood for a relationship, Prentiss.’, Aaron shook his head, putting some papers together on his desk.

‘That’s why we put you on a ‘friendship list’. It means, that you’re there as a friend and for chairty, not really looking for a lover.’, Penelope said quickly, stepping forward towards Emily. 

‘The answer is still ‘no’, so please cancel my application.’, he shook his head, looking at the papers in his hands. When he hear any movements or complaint  from the three agents in the room, he looked at them again. ‘I will pay the charity in return. And I guess you had to put some money into it too, so I will pay it off. But please withdraw my name from the list.’

‘But sir.’, Penelope started again, bringing his attention. ‘Maybe you should consider what Emily’s said. You know, new experiences.’, she added with nervous laugh.

‘So what’s the bet about?’, Hotch asked, leaning back with curious face. 

‘If you go Rossi said, that he’ll do our reports for a month.’, Emily said after few seconds of debating if she should actually say anything else.

‘And if I don’t?’

‘We have to do this for a year.’, Derek admitted.

‘Please, Hotch.’, Emily begged, coming closer to his desk and leaning on it. She looked into his eyes for few seconds, trying to get some mercy from him. ‘I’m still half way through Reid’s reports from last month. I can’t lose this one!’

‘Well, you should’ve thought about this before going into another bet.’, Aaron answered, trying to keep his stern face, but Derek saw one side of his lips rising for a split of a second. ‘Now like I said, withdraw my name from that list and please go back to work. All of you. You can go and please close the door.’, he added. After finishing the sentence he went back to his paper, waiting for them to leave and when they did, he just couldn’t stop himself from small smile. 

'I thought you wanted to go.', Angela said as we entered my office. She had one of the flyers of the charity events that she took from the entrance to the FBI building.

'Yeah, I did. But half of kids at the kindergarden are sick, I have a feeling, that Olivia is next.', you said, putting bag on the desk. You turn around to your friend and gave her apologetic smile. 'And I don’t wanna leave my sick child with my sister-in-law. She already helps me enough.'

'I'm sorry.', Angela just said, not knowing how to actually react. 'I know, that after last year you wanted to go.'

'Yeah, it sounded pretty fun.', you nodded. 'Plus it would be nice to finally get a kiss on the lips. Or talk to someone in full sentences.'

'Excuse me?', Angela joked, pointing at herself.

'Outside of this office.', you shook head, letting out quick chuckle.

'Someday you'll find someone. I'll make sure of this.', she said, coming closer to you. She stopped for a second and gave you quick hug, trying to make you feel better.

'It'll be kind of hard. Usually when they find out, that I have three year old child, they run. If they don't, then they get scared when I tell them I work for the FBI. And when I go on a date with agent they usually do this, because I'm a Unit Chief and have connections with a lot of important people here.', you explained with a sigh. 'I was excited for this blind date not only for meeting new people, but also because we will be on the same position. I won't be used and person who will be choosen for me would understand where I come from.'

'I know.', she said truthfully, caressing your shoulders. 'You know what? Screw it. I'll take care of Olivia.'

'Really?', you said shocked about the proposition. You knew, that Angela was the last person on earth who would offer herself to take care of kids. It's not like she hated them, just she's not the best with them. Mainly the youngest ones. But kids found their ways to her. Especially Olivia. She always loved being next to Angela and you could be sure, that she would be happy to have her as a babysitter for few hours.

'But it's just this one time.', Angela reminded, putting one of her fingers in front of your face. You immediately agreed and hugged her as a thank you.

'So? How do I look?', you asked after walking to the kitchen. You looked at both Angela and your daughter sitting at the dinning table, consuming their supper. Your friend made circles with her fingers, asking you to turn around so she could see the back of the dress.

When the email with the set up date finally came, you were the most excited since you could even remember. It was something you looked forward to for days or maybe even weeks now. Nobody in your team didn't know about this, except Angela. And she also was very excited for you. Whenever you had breaks from cases, she would come with new ideas for a dress or make up. And even though she'd be brushed off, you actually liked it.

For a long time you had no idea what to wear. Should it be something less formal? Or full on glam outfit? But when Angela came to you with a picture of navy bodycon dress, you knew it's the one. She advised you to wear it with simple black sandals and light make up, adding darker lipstick.

'Mommy! You're so pretty!', Olivia exclaimed from her chair. She still had her mouth full from the sandwich, that you made her few minutes ago. You could see her be really excited about this night, not because you're going out, but mainly that she's gonna be playing with Angela.

'Thank you, sweetheart.', you skilled, coming closer to them. 'I'm gonna be out for few hours and you're gonna be with aunt Angela, okay?', you explained, playing with her hair. Little girl nodded, taking another bite of her sandwich. Then you stood up facing your friend. 'Okay I should be back before midnight. If I don't call you and I'm not home, then you can track my car or phone.'

'Of course, as always.', she said with a wink, which made you laugh.

'And remember, if anything happens - call me. You've been in this house so many times, so you know where everything is. But if you're unsure or Olivia does something, call me okay?', you said, raising a brow.

'Hey! Don't use your 'I'm your boss' voice!', she said, putting finger in front of your face, which made you laugh.

'That's actually my 'mom' voice.', you shook your head.

‘Doesn’t matter. Just go before you’re late.’, she said, pushing you out of the room. ‘Remember it’s really bad to be late for a date, but it’s just awful to be late on a date with FBI agent.’

Aaron was sitting in one of three restaurants, that bureau offered to cover the expenses in. He told Penelope and Emily many times to pick the table somewhere in the corner, where he and the person who was a match to him wouldn’t be in a center of attention. It was a really long time since he went on a actual date or even out with someone, that’s not on his team. For a really long time he hated this whole idea. But the one night he was sitting in his flat with a glass of whiskey and thought, that maybe, but just maybe, it’s a good idea. That maybe Emily was right?

‘I’m really sorry, I’m late.’, female voice took Aaron out of his thoughts. He looked up, expected to see someone familiar, but that wasn’t the case. He thought, that maybe it would be someone that he knew. It definitely would be easier, than starting from zero.

But even if Aaron didn’t know personally the person he’s meeting, maybe he could just recognize the face? Place it with unit, that they’re working in or at least department. But as you appeared it didn’t ring any bell. Aaron furrowed his eyebrows, which made you immediately confused and started looking around. 

‘You’re from FBI, correct?’, you asked, pointing at him and then at the back, getting more and more nervous. ‘The woman in front told me to go to table number eight. And that’s it, but maybe I said something wrong and she didn’t understand-’

‘I am.’, Aaron said immediately, standing up from his seat. ‘I was just expecting someone-’

‘Different?’, you asked, smiling a bit.

‘No, no!’, he answered right away with his hands in front, like he was trying to stop you from something. ‘Someone, that I know.’, he ended, explaining. 

‘Oh, of course.’, you nodded. ‘I’m Y/N Y/L/N.’, you extended your hand with greeting, after what seemed like liftime in silence.

‘Aaron Hotchner.’, he answered, shaking your hand gently. Then he motioned to the table. You just nodded as both of you sat down. ‘Which department are you from? Sorry to be put it so bluntly, I just don’t think I’ve ever met you in the bureau.’

‘CAC.’, you answered, looking up from the menu. ‘I came here from New York few months ago. Got offered Unit Chief position, better salary - guess didn’t have to think through it twice.’, you shrugged.

‘That explains a lot.’, Aaron said with small nods. You just raised a brown, silently asking the same thing he did few seconds ago. ‘I’m from BAU.’

‘Oh ‘The Dream’ unit.’, you said. The statement made Aaron very much confused. ‘When I arrived in Quantico, there were actually quite a lot of changes and I had to hire new agent to my team. And about half of them started the interview with  ‘well my dream is to be in BAU, but this unit could be a good start’.’, you explained.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s not your fault. More of a complement. It’s very rare, that most of agents, that want to work in a field also want to work in your team. And I’ve also heard only good stuff about BAU.’, you said, trying to keep the conversation light. 

In fact this was the last time your conversation went to the topic of work. As soon as some of the comments, that either one made, were about work, you immediately would change the topic. You promised yourself, and Angela of course, that today won’t be about work. It’ll be about having fun and going out with not-so-stranger. 

Aaron saw the effort that you made and he actually really liked it. No work, no phones, no cases, no murders. Just the two of you, great food and wine, that he didn’t even drink yet. He didn’t expect it but he was actually having a good time. So this one time he would answer his previous question: Emily Prentiss was, in fact, right.

‘Excuse me for a second.’, you said, hearing vibrations of your phone from the bad. Aaron just nodded, understanding as you opened bag and looked for phone. When it was found, you immediately opened it and panicked right away.

3 missed calls

2 unread messages

9:39 I know I was supposed to call only when there’s an emergency, but I think it is. 

10:21 We’re going to ER.

‘Everything’s okay?’, Aaron asked, observing very closely your reactions. 

‘I-I have to go.’, you said stuttering. You picked your bag and coat, wanting to leave as fast as you can. ‘I’m really sorry.’

‘What happened?’, he stood up quickly. He grabbed you by the arm, stopping from leaving the room.

'My daughter is in a hospital. And my friend, that's babysitting her won't tell me what happened.', right away the worst scenarios came to your head. What's could actually happen, that the two of them had to go to the emergency room? Did she broke a bone? Or just hit herself and needed few stitches? Or maybe she fell down the stairs and is unconscious? The questions, that were driving you crazy.

'Let's go.', Aaron just nodded and took you out of the restaurant, after paying for the whole meal.

'Wait, no. I can't ask you to come with me. I've already ruined your evening.', you shook your head as Aaron was taking you to his car.

'Don't worry about it. We can do it on a different day.', he waved you off, getting into his car. The comment caught you off guard a little. And you didn't even realize, that you were still standing on the streets until Aaron knocked on the window, getting your attention.

'Sorry.', you whispered, getting inside. He just started the engine and drove as fast as he could to the hospital that Angela land Olivia were at. 'Wait. Different day? We'll meet on a different day?', you asked, thinking about the whole conversation from few minutes ago. He laughed at how at first you didn't realize what he meant.

'If you want of course.', Aaron explained, getting slow nod from you. It was still funny for him how long it took you to get through it all. 'Look, I'm not a parent, but I can just assume, that your daughter comes first for you.'

'True.', you agreed.

'So, I could make huge scene about how you literally stormed out of our date.', he continued to explain his thoughts. 'Or just understand where you come from and help you.'

'Thank you.', you said, looking at him for the first time since you walked inside the car.

'No problem.', he said with a smile.

If it wasn’t for Aaron, you would probably be panicked, running around the hospital. Well, you still were panicked and scared of what exactly happened, but he made you a bit calmer. Told you to step back and he was asking all questions of where to go and what happened.

After twenty minutes the two of you ended up of third floor. Your heart was beating so fast, searching for either Angela or Olivia, but you couldn’t see them anywhere.

‘Y/N, you have to calm down. It won’t help-’, Aaron started, grabbing your arm. You stopped, but didn’t look at him, only scanning the room. And then you saw it. Familiar dark hair and the handbag you bought her for Christmas. 

‘Angela!’, you called her name, bringing the attention. Woman turned around and let out deep breath, being visibly relieved.

‘Oh my God!. You’re finally here. I didn’t know how long I could keep her attention. She was constantly asking for you.’, Angela said. Then she looked behind you, seeing Aaron running after you. ‘Sorry for ruining the night.’, she whispered. 

‘It’s okay.’, you shook your head. ‘What even happened? I leave you for few hours and you end up in hospital.’

‘We just were having fun.’, she explained and you just raised a brow. ‘Okay, we were playing tag. And then Olivia got tired, so we sat down on your bed. Then obviously she wasn’t tired anymore and started jumping up and down on your bed. And she asked me to join her, so I did. And then it broke.’, she started talking very fast and chaotic.

‘You broke my bed?’, you asked as if that was the only thing you could make out of whatever she said. 

‘But I didn’t mean it. I tried really hard.’

‘And where’s Olivia now?’, you asked, trying not to get angry.

‘They took her to a cat scan. Doctor said, that her arm is probably broken.’, Angela explained, seeing you get more and more annoyed. ‘Anyway, nurses asked for legal guardian or parent, so I’m gonna go and tell her, that you’re here.’

You nodded and let her go. Your eyes were closed and head hanged down for few seconds. Were you angry? Yes. Were you annoyed? Yes. But your daughter was fine. She was alive and even though having a toddler with broken arm won’t be fun thing, you’d take it. 

‘Again I’m sorry.’, you turned around to Aaron. He was still standing behind you, just watching the whole situation. ‘I won’t hold you up anymore, you can go. Thank you for everything.’

‘It’s not a problem for me to stay. If you-’, he said, coming closer to you.

‘You’ve done a lot for me today. Beside we have work tomorrow. So let it just be one of us who’s gonna stay up all night.’, you cut him. Aaron just nodded, understanding everything.

‘So, until next time?’, he asked, slowly taking few steps back.

‘That would be amazing.’, you answered. But then realized something. ‘Hey, but I don’t have-’, you started and put hands in coat pockets. Then felt something in one of them. You took it out and made on ‘oh’ sound as you read: Aaron Hotchner, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Behavioral Analysis Unit with phone number. You looked up to look at him one last time. Aaron just shot you a huge small and waved before turning around and going to the elevators. 

[mrsbarnes107]

Secret of the Widow

-part six-

Summary: Post Endgame time period. The team is healing, trying to navigate this new normal they’ve found themselves in when Bucky and Sam bring home a stray with an attitude and a secret. Will the broken team take her in? Or is it too much to bare?

Warnings: language, *eventual* violence and smut, death, fluff, angst

Pairings: Bucky x OC

Disclaimer: this is posted to Wattpad as well and it WILL HAVE PLOT. I’m a Bucky hoe so there will be smut and romancy stuff but this is a series, so plot plot plot.

Forty-five minutes later I walk out of my still steaming bathroom. I wish I could thank Tony for the never ending hot water and place to live, it's a nice change in routine.

I wish I could thank him for a lot of things.

I give myself a little shake. No sappy moments, not right now.

With a lighter step, I throw on some baggy sweatpants and a tank top, leaving my hair to air dry. I'm pretty sure a good first impression was thrown out the window already anyways.

With a final nod in the mirror, I leave the sanctuary of my room and give myself to the wolves.

As I enter the kitchen, the smell of cheeseburgers and salty fries hits me. I'm almost certain I let out a tiny moan, but I'm going to deny it if asked.

"Hey Ali, grab some food and come sit by me sweetie." Wanda yelled from the table, not even glancing at me, unlike the rest of the group.

Banner still seems reserved, like he doesn't know how he's suppose to respond to the news of my existence. Clint on the other hand looks like he has something to talk about, sad curiosity all over his features.

Having not eaten in the last two days, I'm positive I could inhale more of these beautiful beef buns than even Barnes can, who is currently sitting with three burger on his plate and a mountain of fries. Okay well maybe not him, but Wilson for sure. The mans pretty scrawny.

After getting my food, I plop down in the seat between Wanda and Bucky, immediately tearing into my food. Etiquette be damned.

"So where's Petey? He and I have some unfinished business." I'm pretty sure I just heard Barnes try to cover a small chuckle with a cough. I should probably not talk with my mouth full, at least not during my first ever meal with the team.... whoops.

"He's attending MIT, following Tony's footsteps apparently, so he went off somewhere to study his big book of boring." Wilson didn't even bat an eye while answering.

The room settled in silence for a few minutes. It was not a comfortable one at all.

With a loud sigh I set my wonderful, heavenly, beautiful burger down. "Okay. Spit it out. This silence is strangling me and I'm trying to enjoy this God sent meal in peace."

Sam chuckled quietly, wiping his mouth free from the mustard smeared everywhere. "Okay tiny Tony calm down."

That's the second time today I've been compared to Tony. Each time my heart breaks a little. It's nice though, having a part of him so apparent in me that they see it despite meeting me less than five hours ago.

"So you and Stark were close, obviously, Nat is your mom, still weird, and you know Barnes pretty well by the looks of it."

I pop a few fries in my mouth before answering. Mmm fried potatoes doused in salt is a glorious creation. "All of that is very true baby bird."

Barnes hides a smile as Sam glares very unthreateningly across the table at me. My fry hits him right in the nose.

This time Clint joins Bucky in choking down a laugh.

"So how well do you know Barnes here hm? You were eighteen when you met? I wonder-"

Bucky tensed up, jaw ticking away. Wanda just pursed her lips and kept quiet.

I set my hand on his metal arm. "Stand down Sarge, birdys just trying to wind you up." Bucky relaxes, nerves still on edge and eyes throwing daggers at the bird man.

I look to Sam with a raised brow. "I'm a lady Samuel, we don't kiss and tell. Did you have anything productive to ask before you got all pissy?"

He sighed in annoyance, eyes showing slight amusement. "I still want to know how you got those cuffs on us, they have no key or biometric identification. Did you see me enter the code?"

I let out a soft laugh and turned to Wanda. "You should've seen their faces, it was a beautiful sight." With a glance back at Sam I shove another bite of my burger into my mouth, talking around the food. "I worked with Stark for years dude. I have access to, and can override, anything in this building. He gave me full clearance before I could drive."

"But he never let you up here? Even when we were out on a mission?" This time it was Banner who spoke up.

With a small smile I shrugged. "We didn't want to chance me running into any of you, especially after Petey joined. He worked in the lab with me a bit and it made Tony a little wary. Plus Nat worried about Sarge here seeing me."

Buckys head snapped to me, not expecting to be brought into the conversation. "She knew I had no memories though, why would meeting me worry her enough to ban you from the upper levels?"

Our eyes locked for a few seconds before I turned away, glancing at him as I breeze past the question. "Conversation for another time Buck.... so who made dinner? Well complements to the chef Clint, this is some juicy meat."

•••

Dinner continued with light laughter, and small talk. The group introducing themselves and trying to welcome me into the tight knit squad. The atmosphere was kind, but I could see the change caused by the loss of their friends. A year later and the wounds are still barely even scar tissue.

I remember the times I'd be working in the lab and get bored, eventually deciding that the Avengers would be my own little reality show to pass the time. They use to be so care free, at least as much as they could be, laughter filling the halls and pranks pulled on one another. Now it's random bursts of joy until the silence relapses for a bit.

Maybe I can do some good here. At least bring a little more light into the tower, make the darkness fade a little.

Wanda and I decided to have a movie night in the living room while the guys did whatever guys do. She chose some romcom, which we inevitably verbally assaulted as the cheesy plot continued.

"So, Ali, besides Fury is there anyone else in your life?"

"Nah, there's been a few dates, but having to lie about who you are makes things difficult. Although, so does my choice in work and the fact that I'm very rarely interested in anyone enough to put in the effort." I gave her a shrug and just rolled my eyes, keeping the conversation light.

"I'm curious on the team dynamic. Tony and Steve were like the divorced parents that told everyone what to do, is it just a 'go with the flow' situation now?"

Thankfully this made her chuckle. "Apparently this family of ours can't function without parents that hate each other. Bucky and Sam are the exact same way, they've taken the mantle up themselves. But honestly we're still learning our strengths and how we fit without the old pieces."

I gave her a nod, forehead creased while I tried to picture the teams strengths and weaknesses cohesively fitting together.

It wasn't until midnight when we decided to get some sleep, setting plans to go shopping after lunch the next day.

The bed was more comfortable than anything I've ever had the absolute pleasure of laying upon, but I still couldn't pass the hell out.

I just grunted in very extreme annoyance, despite this being a normal occurrence, and rolled out of bed.

After a quick stop to the kitchen to make some tea, I made my way to Tony's lab.

It looked just as it did the last time I was here, seven years ago Thanos time I suppose.

Walking around the large space, knowing that Tony won't be strutting in yelling about his genius breakthrough after his twelfth coffee of the morning, or having him standing over my shoulder as he teaches me the new mechanics of his suit, well it's surreal.

The room doesn't even feel like him anymore. This lab was once a place that brought me a sense of comfort and home, a place where his laugh encompassed the very life of the room, where his sarcasm bounced of the walls in never ending jabs. Now it is just cold and empty. The joy it once held long gone.

I sit in the floor, leaned against his work table. Now realizing that tears are running down my cheeks, a quiet remembrance to a man I cared for like a father.

I don't bother to wipe the tears away, it'd feel like denying him this moment, I just sigh and rest my head against his chair. "Oh Tony, you self sacrificing idiot.. I miss you. So much. I can't believe you left me alone with Nicky, that was just cruel you know. You both did."

With a shiver I set the empty mug beside me, bringing my legs up to curl my arms around.

"Why did you always have to be so hell bent on sacrificing yourself? Everytime this world called, it was always YOU risking it all, YOU flying into a space portal, YOU getting so much hate and blame from the team, even SHIELD, all the time. I just-" a chocked sob surprises me as I realize this is the first time I've talked to him, really talked, in six years.

"You had everything T, a wife, a baby, me and Petey. And they asked you to give it all up, yet this world barely gives you the recognition you deserve. Steve walks out and just leaves, after so much death, so much that needs cleaned up, he makes the most selfish decision i have ever seen, and yet is grieved more than you are. He walked out on his best friend, left the team already broken, and had the audacity to think he was owed that selfishness. A man who gave up everything and asked for nothing in return, overshadowed by the man who had nothing and was handed everything." I let out an angry little chuckle.

"This world is so backwards and cruel. Now I'm left in it alone. What am I suppose to do T? This place, these people, there's no light here anymore. And I just- it's just- it's so hard Tony. My parents are gone and I'm alone and I miss you so much. Being here breaks my heart. Every second I'm within these walls, knowing I'll never hear your laugh, your encouragement or sassy remarks, never walk in to AC/DC blasting while your passed out at your table. Every second I'm here hurts T. I just- I miss you so much dad and I'll never get to tell you how much I love you."

If I hadn't had my eyes closed, or been in the middle of an impressive mental breakdown, I might have heard the footsteps approaching long ago. But my tears brought sleep to me quickly and everything went black.

[kindness-bliss]

New Beginnings Ch. 10

Timothy Thatcher x OC

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: none

 Maya sighed as she sat in the and leaned her head back against the headrest “Why did you lean in to kiss me ?” she finally asked  

 “I just felt the moment was right, you held my hand on your own and I thought maybe it was a good idea. I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, I just did what I felt was right in the moment” he explained “I apologize, I really do. I would never wanna make you feel like it was forced”

  “Don’t do it again” she said softly “Now hurry up so you can drive me home and we can both change, you got your outfit ?”

  “Yeah, just um a black long sleeve button up and black pants, that okay ?” Marcel asked

“Perfect” she grins as they got out “Also feel free to loosen up tonight, I can handle my drinking”

He raised a brow as he pulled in and followed “Do I need to remind you about what happened in Berlin ?”

  Maya widened her eyes as she blushed and shot him a look “You said you’d never bring it up, so don’t start now”

  “Sorry but you causing world war 3 at a club at 2 in the morning that led to us running through the back door isn’t exactly a small thing” he laughed as he brought his bag in “I’m not even drunk ! I’m fine, let’s go dance !” he mocked in her voice “and then suddenly a fight about who knows what and bam we’re in a taxi. How you weren’t some kind of fighter in your life still shocks me”

  “I felt like it” she shrugged “she insinuated my Cartier bracelets were fake so I let her have it, period. Oh yeah and she hit on you right in front of me, she deserved it”

He laughed, shaking his head “how about none of that tonight ? Just fun, enjoy yourself with your friends and celebrate your cover”

“I invited Fabian” she blurted out, taking out her curling iron to touch up her hair “he said he’s coming, I gave security his name”

  Marcel nodded as she took off his t shirt and ironed his shirt “That’s cool, glad he can make it”

“If you two don’t say sorry and make up tonight I swear” she groaned. Yeah they had been friends for a little over half a year but that didn’t mean him and Fabian were back together. Those two were like a married couple and seeing him without Fabian made her sad, he wasn’t the same without him and it killed her inside

  “I can’t promise anything but if he’s there obviously he knows I’m going to be as well so who knows” Marcel admitted as he fixed his hair

  “Lay off the gel, you look you belong back in Germany in some grade school with this haircut” she laughed fixing her eye shadow “Plus it’s gonna be hot in there”

    “Then I’ll take my shirt off,” he smirked. “I think some girls there would  really like to see that, don't you think ?”

  Maya rolled her eyes, going into her closet and picking out a body con sequin dress, something to make her stand out from the others. She wanted to be absolutely sure she looked better than anyone else there, especially after what Tim had told her. Tim. As if that Dickies wearing, missing tooth asshole knew anything about fashion she shook her head. “No one cares Maya, he doesn’t matter at all” she repeated in her head turning and widening her eyes as she saw Marcel changing

   “Wow...wow” she muttered quietly as she hid behind her closet door and peaked, taking a look at his perfectly tan body and abs, watching him check himself out in the mirror while buttoning up his shirt. He had to me the most vain individual she had ever met yet there she was hiding so she could admire him from afar. Her, the actual model, hiding in a damn closet to stare at him of all people. She quickly snapped out of her own thoughts and changed, putting on her heels as she walked out

  “Alright all-” Marcel stopped speaking, practically stopping his breathing when he saw her

“Hey” Maya grinned softly as she saw his face

“Maya….I….” he took a moment to think clearly about what he wished to say, not wanting to make himself seem even dumber than he already did 

“I-wow” he chuckled out finally as he put his hands in his pockets 

“You...you look beautiful, stunning”

  “Marcel, you’ve seen me in dresses but thank you” she giggled 

 “You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve seen, ever” he said sincerely “you look beautiful every single day but tonight is just wow”

She looked at him, trying her best to keep her look calm and friendly but part of her wanted to jump him right then and there. “Come on, let’s get going it’s late” she grinned as she went back out with him to the car and allowed him to take a picture of them to post ******

  “So now explain” Johnny said as he sat with Tim in the living room of his home “why exactly did you um...snap ?”

  “I did not snap” Tim responded calmly as he pet their dog Pawdme 

“I...words didn’t come out as well as I hoped okay, that’s all”

  “Um...you went to college right ? like graduated, correct ?” he asked

Tim nodded as he gave a confused look “uh yeah, I uh have a degree in Journalism, worked at a newspaper company for years. Actually” he chuckled “when we met in evolve I was stil- wait what does this have to do with anything ?”

    “So you’re telling me you’re college educated with a degree in JOURNALISM of all things, like as in good with words and writing yet you don't know how to speak to a woman !” Johnny exclaimed “You legit use big ass words and write pages yet when a girl clearly is giving the whole “take me in the back seat of your car now” eyes you insult and demean ?” “Johnny, enough” Candice spoke up “He gets the point, clearly he’s upset and mad”

“Thanks” Tim nodded, “and to answer all your questions, yes, I get it. I acted like a moron and well here I am trying to think of ways to apologize once again and convince her I want her with me”   

“Well we can all talk about this tomorrow, we got somewhere to go” Johnny stood up dressed in a button up and black jeans along with Candice in a black dress

  “A funeral ?” Tim asked confused as he looked at both of them “sorry for your loss, whomever it may be”

 Candice let out a soft sigh as he looked at Johnny and nodded towards Tim with her head “tell him…”

“Okay, first it’s “Johnny, shut up!” and now it’s “tell him” he mocked in her voice as he put his hands on his hips and looked up at Tim 

“We’re…..we’re going to Maya’s cover launch party, she invited us a month ago and well we RSVP’d and honestly I won’t lie, it looks like a lot of fun, man. She rented out the entire club. It's at EVE and I mean we don’t get to do shit like this, it’s the best club in the city and we’re on the list and I feel special alright ?”

  “Wait wait, what ?” Tim asked bewildered “You two are going ? Like actually going ? This isn’t some sick joke right because if it is I got pranked” he put his hands up “the act can stop now, I get it”

Johnny and Candice looked at each other as they both turned and gave him a sorry look as Candice’s phone buzzed “sorry Tim...we gotta go now, Oney’s waiting with Joanne”

 Tim scoffed as he nodded and opened the door, catching Oney about to knock  “I know, don’t even try to explain” he said as he shut him up before he could even speak

  “Well damn” Oney shot him a look “Guess that means, you don’t wanna be my plus one….”

“What ?” the other 3 asked in unison as they looked at him

“Joanne can’t make it, she has work so that leaves me with a plus one” he showed the message “Maya never said I couldn’t bring Tim” he gave a shrug

“Wait…. He can’t go like that” Candice emphasized “babe quick, go look for a bigger shirt and Oney, switch pants with Tim and Johnny will give you another pair…..NOW !” she raised her voice at the 3 of them as she watched them scurry and go to her bedroom

    “Wow, who knew you could clean up so nicely” Johnny smirked “let me do your hair now, you can’t go out looking nicely dressed with messy hair, oh and cologne, you gotta smell good in case ”

“You’re not serious ?” Tim asked

“You want her to see you looking good right ? So listen to me, if you look good and smell good she’ll like fall in love with you, she won’t even remember you insinuated her work was cheap, or that bikini models are whores or that-” Johnny gulped when he saw him glare at him “here just..just add a little gel and um see you downstairs, hurry up”

  Oney chuckled as he watched him get ready “If this doesn’t work, then I don’t know. Not gonna lie you look….nice. You really do, this is probably what she wanted to see”  

 “Whatever” Tim shrugged as he finished buttoning up the shirt “I just wanna talk to her that’s all, talk to her and get this settled and we’ll go from there” he nodded as he followed him back to Candice and Johnny’s Uber and sat down 

  “Wow” Candice grinned “look at you, I mean it. You clean up so nicely Tim, you really do”

“Thank you” Tim said softly as he gave her a small grin. “How the hell did I get myself into this ?” he thought to himself. None of this was him, he could feel the sweat start to build up in his arm pits as he moved around in his seat lifting his head up when Oney offered him a mini bottle of Patron

“A roadie, to loosen up before we get there. You could use it, need a chaser ?” he offered some seltzer water widening his eyes as he watched him chug it down in one gulp

  “Give me another, now” Tim nodded as he reached out his hand, taking the second bottle and downing it “there, much much better”. No not really all that better but at least it calmed his nerves slightly as he watched them pull up to the club. He looked through the crowd to see who he recognized, some were definitely other models but lots were from work. She really had invited everyone but him, not like he expected it anyways.

    “Remember, leave no later than 3” Candice said as they got out and reapplied her lipgloss “Jesus, she’s popular look at all these people”

  “You don’t say” Johnny looked around “And she invited US, that means she really does like us and thinks of us as friends. She’s SO nice”

“She is. She really is something” Tim whispered to himself as he stood with them ************

“I love seeing you two so happy and together !” Maya smiled a little tipsy already as she put her arms around Fabian and Marcel’s shoulders 

“The two besties are back together ! You can go back to taking your little sexy shirtless gym pictures now !”  

 Fabian chuckled “well thank you I think ? Thanks for inviting me again”

“Yeah yeah of course, anything to get you two back together” she sipped her martini, feeling slightly buzzed as she sat next to Marcel and put her hand on his thigh “oh my god, you look so cute tonight I can’t believe I didn’t tell you already” she pouted

  Marcel chuckled as he placed her hand back on her lap gently “Thank you, you’re telling me now and to me that’s all that matters”

“Maya maybe, maybe we can stop the martini’s for a bit” Fabian suggested as he motioned for the waitress to come over and order them waters with lemon

  “What a complete party pooper, I thought Italians were supposed to be fun. This is NOT how Jersey Shore made it seem” she rolled her eyes, pulling out her compact to look herself over as she watched Fabian just laugh at her

 “Hey... still very very pretty,” Marcel grinned as he closed it for her. “There’s no need to keep looking at yourself when you look perfect, now have some water so you can sober up a bit and enjoy your night. Everyone’s here for you”

  Maya stood up and fixed her dress when she saw Candice walk towards her “hey, oh my gosh you look beautiful !” She gave her a hug and smiled, tilting her head when she saw Johnny take a selfie with her custom cake “why...why is he ?”

  “Listen he’s telling everyone we know he’s at a celebrity party and how you’re his friend, he’s truly living it up” she admits with a chuckle

  “I just...I like how you guys came, you two are so kind and nice and to be honest I kinda like you guys here more than the others my agent made me invite” she smiled softly “Can I offer you a drink ?”

  “Oh yeah sure, I’d love one of those fruity ones you’re having” Candice grinned as she walked over to the bar with her “Listen before we enjoy the night, I have to tell you that Oney’s girlfriend couldn’t make it so...so he brought Tim”

    “What ?” she spat out her water “He’s here ? As in right now ? Candice what the hell ? After what happened earlier ?”

Candice sighed as she took her drink in one sitting and got up “Long story short he feels horrible and wants to talk to you, really talk to you. 100% serious this time, no insults nothing so when you’re ready you let me know and I”m getting you two together to talk even if it’s the last fucking thing I do” she nods

  “I just wanna enjoy my night and maybe when I’m a little more drunk so I can let his ass know everything I’ve been feeling” Maya nodded as she cheered her and took what she believed was her 15th shot of the night 

    “So are those real ?” Candice asked as she pointed to her revealing dress “because they look real but they also look way too perfect to be real”

Maya laughed as she touched her shoulder with her arm “They are, but did you drink before getting here ?”

  “May have had a couple roadies” she admits as they continued to drink together, getting rowdier once everyone else came to join

  “Let’s give it up for Maya !” Johnny yelled as he raised his champagne glass “MY friend is a model and she’s on an ACTUAL magazine and on a billboard !”

  “To me ! For being really fucking pretty and having an amazing body !” Maya exclaimed drunkenly as she leaned on Marcel

    “And with REAL boobs !” Candice added as they all cheered together and moved to the dance floor as the DJ played a playlist of mid 2000’s songs

Everything was great, perfect actually until Oney spotted Tim talking to a girl, a little too close for comfort in his eyes as he left and sat down keeping a close eye on him

  “So what brings you here, do you know Maya ?” the girl asked Tim as she grinned and sat too close to him at the bar

  “In a way yeah, you ?” he nodded trying his best to keep up straight as the alcohol from the car ride and the beers he had consumed were beginning to hit him

  “well she won this cover over me. Some thing about brunettes over blondes, Kara by the way” she reached her hand out “and you are ?”

“Tim” he responded as he turned around and faced her, looking her up and down as he raised a brow at the less than favorable red number she had on “drink ?”

    “Vodka soda” she smirked as she ordered “oh is this your friend ?”

“What ?” Tim asked confused as he turned and saw Oney with crossed arms standing behind him

  “You’re drunk, come with me”

“He’s fine with me” Kara smiled sweetly “Don’t worry, your friend is perfect with me here”

“Tim….”

“I’m fine” Tim shrugged “You go and continue being stupid, I’m fine here with her”

Oney shook his head and sighed as he left him alone and went back as he sat down on a couch and watched

 Maya pulled Marcel close to her as she turned around against him, moving to the beat of the music as she felt him move with her, putting his hands on her hips both swaying to the old Ice Cube song that played loudly in the club. They had gone to multiple clubs in the past and danced to way too many songs but this time something was different and they both felt it  

  Marcel felt the jolts in his body as he touched her hips and felt her backside press right against his groin area. Gulping to get rid of what felt like a ball stuck in his throat he made sure to keep his hands there as they moved

  “You good ?” she asked not realizing what was even going on with him as she looked up

“All good, we can keep going” he nodded

He was positive his once black shirt was now soaking and see through with sweat as he tried his best to make sure he didn’t get hard as he squeezed her sides every so slightly. As he heard the song end and change to what he recalled was an old Lil Jon song, he groaned feeling her move quicker.  Part of him felt like it was best to just leave to the car and handle what he needed to do but the other part said he needed to be composed for her. All that went out the window the second he looked down and saw her dress slowly ride up as she moved lower and lower

  “I...I gotta go to the bathroom” he blurted out as he turned her around and saw her eyes, he knew better than anyone what that look meant

  “We….we should go to the bathroom” she whispered as she laced his fingers with hers and leaned in to kiss the corner of his mouth gently

   Marcel shuddered as he looked around and noticed everyone too busy to even notice them gone, he quickly took her hand and rushed to the nearest bathroom with her as he pushed her against the wall and crashed his lips onto hers, moving his hands up and down her hips as he moved down to kiss her neck feeling one of her hands on the back of his neck and the other immediately trying to undo his belt

  “Not...not here” he whispered as he stopped her hands and held them in his as he kissed each of them “This...this is cheap, I don’t want it like this with you. You deserve more”

“My place” she kissed his lips again not wanting them away from hers any longer “You and me, my place. I want you, I need you Marcel” Marcel looked in her eyes trying to see any doubt , going with his gut as he nodded and walked with her, hitting a stall with his shoulder

“Busy” a female voice groaned “um really busy”

  “Sorry” Marcel apologized quickly, cursing as Maya tripped against him causing him to fall against the unlocked door, widening his eyes at the view in front of him

  “What’s going-” Maya stopped speaking immediately as she felt her heart drop to her stomach as she saw Tim entangled with a girl doing way more than kissing. She felt her legs turn into jelly as she watched him kiss and move her against him, at her party of all places.

   Tim heard her voice and immediately opened his eyes as he pushed Kara off and fixed his pants and shirt “Maya ! No…..No listen I-I” he stuttered struggling to form a cohesive thought as he reached his hand towards her earning a hard punch across the nose and kick in the groin “Fuck that hurt !” he grimaced in pain not sure if he needed to grab his balls or nose

  “Marcel, why is she crying ? what’s going on ?” Johnny asked concerned he watched Candice going after her “Did someone hurt her ? Tell me and I’ll knock them out !”

  “That, that’s what’s going on” Marcel said coldly as they both looked at Tim and Kara exit the bathroom both disheveled with Tim’s more than obvious broken bleeding nose

“I told him to stop” Oney spoke up “He didn’t listen, brushed me off. The second he saw me talk to Johnny is when he left”

  “It wasn’t your job to babysit” Johnny answered disappointed as he stared “Grown men can take care of themselves, or so we thought”

“You’re not getting a foot near her !” Oney exclaimed, fed up “How fucking dare you do this to her ? At her own fucking party ? Was this what you wanted all along ? To just come here and ruin her night ?”

Tim shook his head as he held his nose with his hand “I….I can’t….I can’t even talk, where is she ? I need to talk to her now” “You’re getting you and your little prost-.....friend the hell out of here NOW” Oney ordered

  Tim snarled as he felt her touch his hand “get the fuck away from me”, scaring her enough as he watched her walk away quickly and hurried out the door. He looked at the guys and pleaded with his eyes as he watched them walk away from him

Marcel clenched his fists in anger as he calmed himself down for a second before walking quickly to the parking lot of the club searching around space by space as he found Candice consoling Maya on the pavement and rushed over

  “Maya, Maya come on let’s get you home” he said softly as he kneeled in front of her and dabbed her face full of mascara tears with his sleeve. His own heart breaking as he saw how devastated she looked. Nothing mattered more to him than making sure he got her home and safe

  “Listen to Marcel, he’s gonna take you home sweetie” Candice whispered as she helped her stand up as Johnny, Fabian and Oney joined them with sorry looks on their faces “It’s brisk” Fabian said softly as he took off his suit jacket and put it over Maya’s shoulders to cover her up  “I’m gonna, I’m gonna take her home now, is that okay Maya ?” Marcel asked as he pet her head gently 

Maya simply gave a small nod as her eyes stayed glued to the floor, her whole night and heart done for.

[nothing-but-dreamy]

TRUE COLORS ~ Ch. 6

Wanna start? Masterlist

Pairing: DBH!Connor x OC!Maya

Words: 2.193 (yes, it's a bit longer but I really love this chapter and didn't want to cut it somwhere)

Warning: some cursing;

Connor stayed the rest of the evening and the whole night with Maya. And as she awoke the next morning, she was surprised and very happy to see that Connor was still there. As Maya walked into the living room, she saw Connor staying in front of the terrarium, watching her little friend.

"Haven't you met Trevor before?", Maya asked and joined Connor.

"You named your gecko Trevor?", he asked, visibly amused.

"Sure. It isn't that he would care anyway. I mean, it's a gecko. I don’t think he understands one single word I’m telling him. Maybe it’s better this way.", she answered with a wink. Connor smiled but it faltered a bit.

"Hank had called me. Maybe we have a lead for our case."

"Sounds good. When do you have to leave?"

"He will be here in five minutes."

"Oh, then it's good I woke up or you would have sneaked out again, huh?", Maya joked but she saw that Connor didn't get it. He blinked with his eyes and tilted his head. Then, his expression changed as he searched for the right words.

"Thank you, again. I… I really appreciate what you do for me."

"I'm here for you whenever you need me, Connor.", Maya said honestly and Connor nodded before he left to meet Hank on the street.

"Connor, wait!", Maya called out and the android stopped. She ran towards him, got on her tiptoes and flung her arms around his neck.

"Please, be careful, okay? Don’t get shot again.", Maya said, softly smiling and he nodded not knowing what the right reaction would be. This much affection towards him confused him but in a nice way.

***

"Another night spent with Maya, huh?", Hank asked and watched the android closely as he entered the car.

"Yes, it was helpful. Where are we going?", Connor asked as the lieutenant hit the road.

"We have to meet someone."

Forty minutes and a quick stop at the CyberLife Tower later, Hank parked his car in front of an abstract and cubical building. As Hank's phone rang, he left the car to answer it. Connor looked one last time over the area before he left the car as well to join Hank who walked up and down.

"Is everything okay, Lieutenant?", Connor asked as he closed up to his partner.

"Chris was on patrol last night. He got attacked by a bunch of deviants but he got saved by Markus himself."

"Is Chris okay?"

"Yeah, he is under shock but he is okay. These are crazy times at the moment.", Hank said and walked to the front door of the building.

"I have a bad feeling, Lieutenant."

"Bad feeling, huh? Have you checked your program? It might be a glitch.", Hank teased but Connor frowned. After everything that had happened the last few days, Connor was insecure if something might be really wrong with him or his program.

[X] shoot

[O] spare

Connor pointed Kamski's gun at the head of the kneeling Chloe. He looked her straight in the eyes. Her LED was spinning blue. She wasn't concerned. She was a machine and she just watched him patiently. But Connor was disturbed. His LED was spinning yellow as his system was working. There was a clash between his instructions to get information for his mission and … something else.

… I'm convinced you will be able to find a way to solve this case without killing someone. There is always an alternative. To spare someone's life is always better…

Maya's soft voice echoed through his mind and reminded him of everything she had tried to teach him the first night. Suddenly, the eyes he looked into weren't the eyes of Chloe anymore, instead he saw Maya's bright eyes and her smile.

The LED was moving erratic red as he acted against his instructions: Connor pulled the gun away from the kneeling android. Kamski stepped around Connor and watched him.

"Fascinating. CyberLife's last chance to save humanity is itself a deviant."

"I- I'm not a deviant."

"You spared its life rather than to accomplish your mission. You saw a living being in this android. You showed empathy."

"Okay, that's enough. We're leaving.", Hank said and pushed Connor away from the eccentric scientist. Connor was almost out of the room as Kamski spoke up.

"By the way, I always leave an emergency exit in my programs. You might never know.", Kamski said and Connor left the villa with a troubled mind. He passed Hank who followed slowly behind Connor.

"You said you would do everything to accomplish your mission."

"I- I know…", Connor stammered.

"Why haven't you shot?"

"I don't know, okay? I just saw Maya's eyes and I couldn't-"

"Maya?"

"Th...the girls eyes, I meant."

"But you said Maya. You like her a lot, don't you? Well, obviously, she has a good effect on you.", Hank said with a smile and passed a confused looking Connor.

***

"It snows again.", Gary said dryly.

"You mean, it's still snowing. I never saw it stop for one sec.", Maya stated and gave a customer his order while she looked at the grey sky. She liked snow but not if she had to work in this cold truck. Tom, one of the construction workers, who always came over in his lunch break, joined the truck, as well.

"Hey man, have you heard about the deviant attack at the Plaza? They have destroyed the whole place.", Tom said. Maya had seen the so-called 'attack' on the news but even then, she wasn't trusting the anchorman and his information. Somehow, she was sure that Markus and the others hadn't been violent how it got displayed.

"Yeah, man! That's the reason why I still don't have one. I don't trust these things.", Gary admitted with a spiteful undertone.

"They're not things!", Maya insisted but no one supported her opinion. Gary crossed his arms and shook his head about his sister.

"You're sympathizing with these terrorists? After everything they have done so far?"

"They are not violent!", Maya called out and threw the flipper on the table.

"Haven't you seen the news this morning?"

"Sure, I have-"

"Then you saw how they have destroyed the CyberLife store and everything around!", Gary argued back. Maya gritted her teeth. The fact that they had broken into the store with a truck wasn't helpful for her argument. But still, she was convinced that the news had misrepresented the android’s action.

"They just want to be heard! No one would listen to them-", she argued.

"It would be better if they stay silent, if you ask me! Oh, hey, Jim! What's up man?", Gary said and turned over to the next customer. Maya hated it to be ignored but she also hated to have this kind of conversation with her brother again and again.

*

"Hey! Good to see you! The usual?", Gary asked the next customer.

"Yeah-"

"Good but please, send this thing away. It's an android free zone here!", Gary said and Maya turned around to see who his brother was talking to. Maya saw Hank and then, her eyes fell on Connor who smiled at her softly and nodded slightly to greet her.

"Hey, plastic asshole! What are you staring at?", Gary asked angry and stepping into the line between Connor and Maya. This was the point where Maya had enough.

"Gary! Shut the fuck up!"

"Stay out of this!”, Gary hissed and glared then at Connor, “And you, go away!"

"You won't send him away!", Maya hissed back.

"This is my truck and my rules! And I don't send him away! I send it away!", Gary said and turned around to Maya with gleaming eyes.

"His name is Connor and you will apologize to him because he's my friend!"

"Your friend? Are you out of your stupid mind? You can't be serious!"

"I am very serious, Gary!", Maya hissed through gritted teeth and stepped closer to her brother.

"Maya, I swear to god-"

"That's enough!", Hank called out to stop them, "Gary, calm down! It's still your sister you're talking to so, calm the fuck down. Connor, I guess Maya could use a break. Accompany her a bit.", Hank said further and watched how Maya stepped back and out of the truck. She threw her apron into a corner with more force than necessary and grabbed her coat and scarf.

"Hank! You can't let her walk around with this thing!", Gary called out frustrated. Once again, Maya stopped and glared at her brother, ready to jump at him again but Hank pushed her carefully further as he saw her angry eyes.

"I trust him. Connor, we meet us later in the DPD.", Hank said with no room for any more objection from anyone.

*

"I'm so sorry for my brother’s behaviour. Sometimes, he can be such a jerk!", Maya said frustrated after they had walked a bit. She was so angry that she couldn't even look at Connor.

"It's okay-"

"No it isn't!", Maya called out and stopped suddenly. Connor stopped as well and looked confused at her.

"No matter if android or not, no one should be treated like that!", Maya called out and Connor stepped closer.

"You defended me in front of your brother. No one ever did that.”, he said with a soft smile, “Maya, you have the best intentions but not everyone sees it this way and some people won't ever see it like you.", Connor said low.

"It's frustrating.", Maya said but calmed slowly down. The cold air and the falling snow cooled her temper. They continued their way side by side. Maya snuggled deeper into her coat and pushed her hands deeper into the pockets while Connor walked just casually next to her, seemingly unaware of the cold. She watched him, gnawed on her lower lip and asked the question in her mind.

"Aren't you freezing? It's so cold!"

"No. My systems regulate my temperature to a perfect level. See?", Connor said and offered her his hand. Maya smiled because it was completely innocent from him but the butterflies in her stomach danced happily around. She took the hand and because Connor had learnt it recently, he intertwined his fingers with hers. Connor's hand was perfectly warm. And like this, hand in hand, they started to walk again.

"How's your case doing? Was the lead helpful?", Maya asked after five minutes of comfortable silence. The android next to her stayed silent but the LED told her something was bothering him. The LED was spinning yellow with a bit of red.

"Connor?", Maya asked, carefully pushing.

"We have met Kamski-"

"Kamski? You mean the Elijah Kamski?", Maya asked surprised and Connor nodded.

"Hank could make an appointment with him."

"And?", Maya asked excitedly as the android stayed silent.

"We...we haven't found out something useful.", Connor said but stared at the ground, avoiding her glance. Maya knew that he was hiding something.

"Connor, please. Tell me what happened. Something keeps you busy.", Maya said softly and looked at him encouragingly with a smile.

"Maybe he knew something but I…"

"Yeah?"

"I failed. Again.", Connor admitted low and looked away from her. Doubts were written on his face. Maya stopped and stepped in front of Connor. With her hand on his cheek, she turned his face back to her. With a sad expression he looked at the small woman in front of him who was simply nice and sweet towards him. Suddenly, he realized he was going to lose this if he wouldn’t make any progress soon.

"Why do you think you have failed? What happened there?", Maya asked and waited. Connor looked into the distance, his LED spinning yellow as he reconstructed the happenings earlier that day.

"There was this 'Kamski Test'. I had to pass it if I wanted information from him. If I would have passed this test, he would have told me what I needed to know but I… I…", Connor stopped and looked Maya straight into the ocean blue eyes he had seen earlier in a different situation.

"Yeah?", Maya said encouragingly and squeezed his hand, "I'm here for you."

"The test was to kill one of his androids."

"What? That's ridiculous! What kind of test shall this be?", she said shocked.

"It is based on the Turing Test. The test shall show if a machine is able to feel empathy. In the end, Kamski put a gun in my hand while his Chloe knelt in front of me."

"And, then?", Maya asked, feeling on edge. Connor looked away and she tried to give him time. As it was almost too long for her to endure the silence, Connor looked back at her.

"I couldn't kill the android. I saw yo- something in her eyes and I couldn't shoot.", Connor closed his explanation. There was something else. Something in his voice. He wanted to say something else but before Maya could wrap her mind around it, the thought was gone.

"You spared her life because of empathy. That is good. Don't blame yourself, Connor.", Maya said reassuringly but she saw that Connor was still troubled.

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars CXXI (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: The second half of the book starts here! If you’re scared, that’s great you should be -Danny

Words: 4,070

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to: ‘Every Time You Walk Away’ -by D.A. Wallach

Chapter Nineteen: Waiting.

"What do you mean you felt it?" Ron asked her as they made their way to the Headmaster's office.

"It's a long story. I don't even know if I'm allowed to talk about it..."

"You bolted into the room and knew exactly what was happening to Harry, how?" He frowned.

"Can we talk about this later?" She retorted hastily. "I promise I'll tell you everything but please, don't push it, my head is pounding..."

Once inside the office, she heard her uncle's voice coming from the desk.

"Oh, it's you, Professor McGonagall... and... ah."

Mel was surprised to see he was wide awake.

"Professor Dumbledore, Potter has had a... well, a nightmare," said Professor McGonagall. "He says..."

"It wasn't a nightmare," said Harry. "Mel felt it too."

"Very well, then, Potter," McGonagall said, "you tell the headmaster about it."

"I... well, I was asleep... But it wasn't an ordinary dream... it was real... I saw it happen... Ron's dad — Mr Weasley — has been attacked by a giant snake."

Dumbledore avoided at all cost to lock eyes with Harry and directed his gaze to her.

"And you saw it too, you say? Like last time?"

Ron looked at her even more intrigued than before, Mel ignored him.

"Not exactly. I woke up but I was in Harry's bed... I was Harry, like last time," She said clumsily. "But I only felt the pain, I didn't saw his dream until I woke up and went to his room."

"How?"

"I... er..." Mel shrunk in her place, not sure if she was allowed to use her powers like that. "I used Legilimancy."

"How did you see this?" Dumbledore asked, and though he wasn't looking at him, it was obvious the question wasn't directed at the girl.

"Well... I don't know," said Harry, and she heard the tone of annoyance in his voice. "Inside my head, I suppose —"

"You misunderstand me. I mean... can you remember — er — where you were positioned as you watched this attack happen? Were you perhaps standing beside the victim, or else looking down on the scene from above?"

Harry and Mel shared a look. Then he looked back at the Headmaster and continued.

"I was the snake. I saw it all from the snake's point of view..."

Ron held onto her arm in a way he'd never done before, she felt him shaking, now almost as sick as Harry.

"Is Arthur seriously injured?" Dumbledore said.

"Yes," said Harry tensely.

Dumbledore stood up abruptly and the three students jumped back, he reached one side of the office in four large steps and talked to one of the portraits.

"Everard? And you too, Dilys! You were listening?"

"Naturally," Nodded the witch.

"The man has red hair and glasses. Everard, you will need to raise the alarm, make sure he is found by the right people —" He turned around and went straight to the perch were Fawkes was sleeping. "Everard and Dilys were two of Hogwarts's most celebrated Heads, their renown is such that both have portraits hanging in other important Wizarding institutions. As they are free to move between their own portraits they can tell us what may be happening elsewhere..."

"But Mr Weasley could be anywhere!" Harry exclaimed.

"Please sit down, all three of you," Dumbledore continued without paying attention. "Everard and Dilys may not be back for several minutes... Professor McGonagall, if you could draw up extra chairs..."

Professor McGonagall obeyed, and Mel forced Ron to sit down and to let go of her arm, it was starting to feel numb. Fawkes woke up with one gentle touch from the Headmaster, the bird tilted his head and stared at him.

"We will need a warning."

Fawkes vanished in a flash of flames. The old man picked up one of the instruments Mel had yet to learn how to use and placed it in front of them, tiny puffs of smoke rose until they formed the shape of a massive snake, Dumbledore stared at it in concentration.

"Naturally, naturally... But in essence divided?" He mumbled to himself.

The figure then split in two, and Dumbledore made the same expression he'd made when he found out about Mel's bursts of energy. She'd seen that enough times to know one of his theories had been confirmed, and he wasn't pleased. Her uncle tapped the instrument, and the snakes vanished.

"Mel," Ron called, his voice growing impatient and anxious. "What's going on?"

Mel hushed him, but tried to be gentle about it, she'd be acting way worse if this were about her mother; the girl reached for his hand and squeezed gently.

"Dumbledore!" Everard appeared in his portrait again.

"What news?" Dumbledore urged him.

"I yelled until someone came running, said I'd heard something moving downstairs — they weren't sure whether to believe me but went down to check — you know there are no portraits down there to watch from. Anyway, they carried him up a few minutes later. He doesn't look good, he's covered in blood, I ran along to Elfrida Cragg's portrait to get a good view as they left —"

Mel hissed at the way Ron's hand tightened around hers, but she didn't pull away.

"Good," Dumbledore nodded, but Mel didn't know how that could be considered something 'good'. "I take it Dilys will have seen him arrive, then —"

"Yes, they've taken him to St. Mungo's, Dumbledore," Gasped the witch as soon as she came back. "They carried him past under my portrait... He looks bad..."

"Thank you," Dumbledore looked at McGonagall. "Minerva, I need you to go and wake the other Weasley children."

"Of course... And Dumbledore — what about Molly?"

"That will be a job for Fawkes when he has finished keeping a lookout for anybody approaching, But she may already know... that excellent clock of hers..."

"Merlin..." The girl pushed a few locks of hair away from her face.

"Mel, come help me for a moment," The man told her from one of the cupboards behind his desk.

She got up immediately.

"What do you need?"

He handed her two books as he spoke.

"When you entered his mind, did you see anyone else standing next to Arthur or the snake?" He whispered.

"No," She replied.

"And when you touched him," He lowered his voice, she could barely hear what he was saying. "Did he feel... like himself?"

"What?"

"Could you perceive any traces of dark magic in him?"

"I..." Mel tried to recall what she felt when touching his skin, but she couldn't remember anything. "No... he felt like Harry. I mean, I could tell he was angry and scared, and worried... but it was him."

"Very well," He gave her one more book before speaking. "I see your Legilimancy lessons are working, those are greats news. I need you to give me your memories of his dream," He handed her a small bottle. "You know how."

"Ron heard me telling McGonagall that I felt Harry's... That I'm linked to Harry. He'll ask questions..."

"I can't stop you from sharing the information, but please be careful with whom you share it. Now please, the memory..."

Mel pulled out her wand from her pocket and touched her temple with the tip, slowly pulling and guiding the silver stream all the way to the tiny bottle. She tapped on it once and a cork appeared at the top, keeping the memory from spilling. At the same time, Dumbledore placed a black kettle in the middle of the desk, he mumbled 'Portus' and it shone blue for a few seconds before going back to its normal battered look.

"Phineas. Phineas." Dumbledore called to the portrait that had scolded her a year prior.

The portrait did not answer until most of the others were yelling at him too.

"Phineas! Phineas! PHINEAS!"

He jumped in his place, pretending to wake up abruptly. "Did someone call?"

"I need you to visit your other portrait again, Phineas. I've got another message."

"Visit my other portrait?" He yawned. "Oh no, Dumbledore, I am too tired tonight..."

"Insubordination, sir!" One of the portraits exclaimed. "Dereliction of duty!"

"We are honour-bound to give service to the present Headmaster of Hogwarts!" Professor Dippet shouted from his place. "Shame on you, Phineas!"

"Shall I persuade him, Dumbledore?"

"Oh, very well," Phineas grumbled, "though he may well have destroyed my picture by now, he's done most of the family —"

"Sirius knows not to destroy your portrait," said Dumbledore. Mel gave a start at the mention of the man. "You are to give him the message that Arthur Weasley has been gravely injured and that his wife, children, my niece and Harry Potter will be arriving at his house shortly. Do you understand?"

"Arthur Weasley, injured, wife and children, niece and Harry Potter coming to stay," Phineas sighed. "Yes, yes... very well..."

The door behind them opened and the rest of the Weasleys walked in ahead of McGonagall.

"What's going on?" Ginny stared at her. "Professor McGonagall says you and Harry saw Dad hurt —"

"Your father has been injured in the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix," said Dumbledore quickly. "He has been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you back to Sirius's house, which is much more convenient for the hospital than the Burrow. You will meet your mother there."

"How're we going?" asked Fred, looking dazzled. "Floo powder?"

"No, Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the Network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey. We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back... I wish to be sure that the coast is clear before sending you —"

There was a flash above their heads and Mel jumped, holding onto Ron's side and watching as the feather fell next to them.

"It is Fawkes's warning," said Dumbledore, grabbing the feather. "She must know you're out of your beds... Minerva, go and head her off — tell her any story —"

Professor McGonagall left the office without saying another word.

"He says he'll be delighted," Phineas was finally back. "My great-great-grandson has always had odd taste in houseguests..."

"Come here, then," Dumbledore urged them. "And quickly, before anyone else joins us... You have all used a Portkey before? Good. On the count of three then... one... two..."

A wave of pain crashed against her and she held onto the kettle, pushing it back onto the back of her mind. Even if she were to faint at that moment, it would've been impossible for her to fall. She kept it all in, but she found remarkably hard to push Harry's emotions away this time. They felt abnormally aggressive, his thoughts were almost bestial...

She was once again pushed forward and down by the middle, now with the addition of having to struggle with the impossibility of grounding herself when she was literally floating in space. As soon as she felt something firm under her feet, she was welcomed with the frantic insults of Kreacher.

"Back again, the blood traitor brats, is it true their father's dying..?"

"OUT!" Sirius yelled.

Mel was highly disoriented, she was still on the floor and fighting against the pounding on her head, she could see the dim light of the fireplace on her right, the smell hit her face so abruptly that she doubled and threw up, successfully turning off the only source of light in the room.

She heard her mother speak and moments later the lights were on, she kept her eyes close, her body facing the fireplace.

"Mel!" Her mother approached, placing a hand on her back as Mel struggled to breathe. "Move away from the smoke, darling, you're choking..."

"What's going on?" Sirius said behind her. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured —"

"Ask Harry," said Fred.

"Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," said George.

"I'm fine," Mel mumbled to the woman, her face still hidden. "Seriously, Mum, stop it..."

"It was —I had a — a kind of — vision..." Harry said clumsily.

Mel half-listened to him as he continued, her eyes landed on the kettle, the first time she'd travelled via Portkey hadn't been so brutal to her, this definitely had to do with Harry. But he was fine... then what the hell was happening?

Emily gave up on trying to help her daughter after Mel pushed her away a third time.

"Is Mum here?" Fred asked.

"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet. The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore's letting Molly know now." Sirius explained.

"We've got to go to St. Mungo's," said Ginny decidedly. "Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or anything — ?"

"Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's!" said Sirius.

"'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," said Fred, "he's our dad!"

"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?"

"What does that matter?" said George hotly.

"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away! Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"

"Somebody else could have told us... We could have heard it somewhere other than Harry..." Ginny offered.

Mel cleaned the sweat that was dripping from her upper lip and stood up, still facing the wall so she could give herself time to gain control before facing the others, who were too distracted to notice her behaviour. Her head wasn't hurting as much, but there was a massive pressure on the bridge of her nose making it hard to breathe.

"Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's —"

"We don't care about the dumb Order!" shouted Fred.

"It's our dad dying we're talking about!" yelled George.

"Guys..." Her voice came out too weak.

"Your father knew what he was getting into, and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order! This is how it is — this is why you're not in the Order — you don't understand — there are things worth dying for! You would risk everything to keep your family safe!"

"Sirius!" Emily scolded. "We're not having this conversation again!"

"Again..?" Mel stumbled, her back hitting the wall and causing her to grunt.

"Easy for you to say, stuck here!" Fred continued. "I don't see you risking your neck!"

"STOP!" She shouted abruptly. The room trembled slightly, and she had a strange feeling, that it had happened because of her.

Whatever strength she had it fell apart when everyone turned to look at her and stared with wide and frightened expressions at her face.

"Mel!" Emily gasped, rushing back to her.

"What?" She tried to clean the sweat from her face again and when she lifted her hand to do it, she realized there were bloodstains on her sleeve. "What the..?"

Fred, Emily and Sirius all hurried to her side. Harry stood up, but he didn't move. Emily grabbed her chin and lifted it. Sirius frowned.

"Did you hit something when you landed?"

"No, I–" Her mother walked back to the table, giving enough room to Fred so he could examine her injury. "I mean, not that I remember... I..."

"Your nose is bleeding," Fred told her.

Her eyes found Harry's and something clicked. The pounding on her head was now diminishing, but that was probably the reason her nose was now bleeding, because she'd tried to push it in instead of out, and the tension had been too much.

"I'm not in pain," She said. "I mean it— Fred, stop it!"

The boy let go of her face and searched his pockets. Emily came back holding a wet, cold cloth and placed it under Mel's nose. Sirius guided her to a chair and sat her down.

"George," Fred asked urgently. "You got any Nougat on you?"

"Er..." George searched in his pockets and pulled out a tiny piece. "You're in luck..."

The twin threw it and Fred caught it in midair, he split the two parts and held out the purple one for Mel to take.

"Hold on—" Sirius started, but Mel intervened.

"It'll help..." She grabbed the piece and ate it. The candy was also helping with the headache and she silently sighed in relief.

The sudden moment of shared worry for Mel cause Sirius and Fred to go back to their senses, ending their fight.

"Listen..." Fred tried, this time calmer than before.

"I know it's hard," Sirius said, shaking his head. "But we've all got to act as though we don't know anything yet. We've got to stay put, at least until we hear from your mother, all right?"

"Bad news travel fast anyway," Mel replied calmly, leaving the blood-stained cloth on the table. "The longer it takes to know more about him, the better his chances of survival are..."

"Mel," Emily frowned. "Try and be less cynical, can you?"

"It's okay," Ginny sighed.

Ron sat down slowly, George glared at Sirius but didn't insist. Fred also looked annoyed, but he sat down next to Mel, took the cloth and helped Mel to clean her face. Harry hadn't moved, his eyes were fixed on her, he knew he'd caused her bleeding, but Mel was in no mood to be pitied.

"I'm fine," She repeated, stopping Fred's hand and looking at Harry. "I promise."

Harry blinked as if he'd just realized what he was doing and sank back on his chair.

"That's right," said Sirius, he then looked at Emily. "Come on, let's all... let's all have a drink while we're waiting. Accio Butterbeer!"

"I was going to make tea," Emily argued.

"You're in no state to make tea," Sirius said, and something in his voice sounded strangely anxious. "You've received enough shocking news for one night. You need to rest."

The woman crossed her arms. "What are you playing at, Padfoot?"

Sirius glanced at Mel and her friends, then he cleared his throat and insisted.

"Mily, you know what I mean..."

"Oh, to hell with that," Emily rolled her eyes, walking away from the stove. "Fine, let's drink butterbeer..."

"I don't know if you can–"

"I can drink butterbeer, Sirius!" Emily snapped. "I've done this before all right, I know better than you!"

"Do you?" Sirius scowled. "Because sometimes I still have my doubts about it."

Mel had no idea of what were they talking about. She looked at them and felt there was something going on, but she couldn't tell what. Why was Sirius acting like that with her mother?

Fred left the cloth on the table and stood up, giving everyone a bottle while Emily sat next to her daughter, gently rubbing her back. Mel drank in silence, now that her headache was gone there was now a dull ache on her chest and throat from the vomiting. After forty minutes a third flash appeared in the middle of the table and dropped a new feather with a piece of parchment

"I need to know how he does that..." Mel muttered.

"Fawkes!" Sirius picked up the letter. "That's not Dumbledore's writing — it must be a message from your mother — here —"

George took it and read out loud.

"Dad is still alive. I am setting out for St. Mungo's now. Stay where you are. I will send news as soon as I can. Mum... Still alive..." He said quietly. "But that makes it sound..."

"Let's not jump into conclusions," Emily said quickly. "Let me get you something to eat..."

"I'll do it," said Sirius, standing up abruptly.

Emily let out a scoff and sat down again, Mel got up.

"What's wrong?" Her mother asked. "Are you ill again?"

"No, just need to use the bathroom," Mel said quietly. "I won't take long..."

She reached the main floor and slowly made her way to the restroom. She washed her face and pushed loose strands of hair away from her eyes. She took a deep breath and held onto the edge of the sink. Ten seconds passed until the girl heard soft steps approaching.

"I said I was fine, Mum..."

"I know you're not, though," replied Harry.

She looked up to see his reflection standing at the door frame.

"It was me, wasn't it?"

"That depends," She turned around to face him. "Did you feel a sudden need to attack everyone seconds before we left school?"

Harry looked down in shame.

"I was..." Mel paused in shock. "I thought I was imagining things..."

"I don't know what happened— I just felt... the moment Dumbledore looked at me..."

She remembered what her uncle asked her, something about traces of dark magic in Harry... she wondered if he knew more than he was leading to believe.

"It wasn't your fault," She said. "Not entirely..."

"How come?"

"I have to ground myself so your pain can't get to me... But it was kind of impossible to do while I was flying around, and instead of, dunno, letting it out I just... pushed it inside— I guess that's not the best way to deal with it..."

"You wouldn't need to do those things if it weren't for me," He started, but Mel scoffed and walked past him.

"I'm not in the mood to hear your martyr speech, Harry."

"Is not— I—" He caught up with her, standing in her way. "Why do you insist on acting like it doesn't matter?"

"Because it doesn't matter!" She replied. "You can't do anything about it and I have no choice but to deal with it! Listen, the fact that it's happening to me doesn't mean it can't be the other way around. You felt my panic attack— I'm just lucky..."

"I wouldn't call nosebleeds 'luck'," He said.

"I meant that I'm not in constant danger. I won't die. You could die from one of those visions, we don't know, and do you see me moping about it?"

"No," He frowned. "But if I go you would be safer. If you die..."

"Oh, for fucks sake, Potter," Mel replied angrily. "My death won't be on you, alright? I'm not your responsibility, and you're not mine. We're not obliged to care— if I can do my homework even though I feel the stupid cuts on your hand, so can you. I don't care what my uncle says."

"Yeah, that makes two of us," He responded in the same tone.

After a few awkward seconds, Mel added.

"I feel like I should warn you— They'll ask about... about our lifeline."

"Who?"

"The Weasley bunch."

"It's not exactly a secret, is it?"

"Then why didn't we say anything 'til now? Why not last year, when they asked why I had the same bruises as you?"

"Listen, if you want to tell them I don't care. If you tell them that's the reason why we broke up—"

"You mean the reason why you left me," Mel corrected.

"You can tell them everything," Harry ignored her comment. "They hate me anyway..."

"No one hates you," Mel said tiredly. "Not even me... Wish I could, it would make things easier."

"Tell me about it," He said.

Mel could feel the remnants of their former energy still there, buried deep beneath their frustrations. It was weird to think how years ago Mel could walk up to him and just hug him, or how he would rest his head on her lap and she wouldn't even flinch.

Now everything felt fragile, the wrong step could ruin everything. She didn't feel the same way as before, she couldn't tell what was happening in his mind. It was odd, considering she could now technically see his thoughts if she wanted and even feel his emotions from time to time.

"We should go back," She said after a moment. "Otherwise they'll come to look for us thinking we murdered each other."

"I... yeah, let's go."

Harry turned around without a second glance at her. Not that she was paying attention anyway, it had been months since she'd stopped waiting for him to look back.

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere @t-rexs-world​ @just-here-to-escape-from-reality​ @21bruhs @i-am-scared-and-useless-bisexual

[justcallmefox89]

Decisions, Decisions

Jax’s time in the Devildom grows short and indecision over their relationship with Beel forces them to turn to Arianthi for help.  A new trick from Diavolo spells trouble for Jax. 

Written from the perspective of my non-binary OC Jax.  Also includes other original characters from my Obey Me - Truth or Dare series.  Takes place in the Truth or Dare AU where Arianthi chooses to be with Mammon,

NSFW: mild makeout and groping

I stretch languidly and burrow deeper under my blankets, cuddling back into the warm body beside me.

“Mmmmm,” Beel mumbles sleepily and snakes an arm around my waist to pull me even closer, curling his large body around mine.

I sigh in contentment as his large, rough hand strokes the bare skin of my hip, pausing at the waistband of my boxers.  I loll my head back against his muscled chest as he presses soft kisses against my neck and tugs softly at my boxers, silently asking for permission.

“Yes,” I answer in a hoarse whisper.  Beel gives a deep rumbled of satisfaction as his hand dips below my waistband and he softly strokes me, my cock growing even harder in his hand.  I slink one hand behind me and bury it in his feather soft hair, tugging gently.  His thumb rubs delicately over the barbell of my frenum piercing and I shudder in pleasure.

“Jax.....” Beel lets out a breathy moan and I feel his hard cock press insistently against my ass.  He rolls his hips against mine urgently in an unasked question as he gently starts to tug down my boxers.

I suck in a deep breath and immediately go rigid in his arms.  “Belphie....” I manage to croak out.

“He slept in the planetarium last night,” Beel whispers, nipping at my neck before soothing it with a slow swipe of his tongue.

“Beel........ I....” 

He slowly removes his hand from my boxers and drops a quick kiss on the top of my head before rolling onto his back with a soft huff.  I mimic him, swiping roughly at the angry tears the fill my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble, unable to look at him.

Beel turns his head and frowns at me.  “No.”

“No?”  I squeak out in surprise.

He reaches for my hands, interlacing his fingers with mine.  “You never have to apologize for telling me no.”

Beel raises my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles.

“Nothing happens without you wanting it.  That’s never going to change.  Ever.  So don’t apologize for taking care of yourself.

“Thanks Beel,” I murmur, squeezing his hand.  

“You don’t have to thank me either, Cupcake,” he answers quietly.  “You deserve to be treated like precious treasure.  Because you are.”

He slowly sits up and gives a large stretch.  “We need to start getting ready.”

“But first,” Beel shoots me a cheeky grin, “I am going to take a very long shower.”

I laugh and throw a pillow at him as he makes his way to the bathroom.

A few hours later I walk across the R.A.D. campus, holding a bag of B.L.T. devil sandwiches, and looking for Beel.  Suddenly a small body barrels into mine and a pair of arms wrap tightly around my waist.  

“Ohmygod Jax hi!  I’m so happy to finally meet you!”  

“I am very uncomfortable right now.”  I stare down in shock at the blonde girl clinging to me.

She lets out a high pitched giggle and shakes her head, blonde curls bouncing against her flushed cheeks.  “He said you were funny!  We’re going to be so close while we’re here, I can already tell.”

“Please stop touching me.”  I try to gently extract myself from her grip on my jacket and frantically scan the quad for Beel.

“Oh I forgot, I’m Chloe!  I’m the new human exchange student.  I just got here and found you right away!  Diavolo said you would show me around.”  She gives me an uncomfortably wide grin.

“I’m not a tour guide.”  I put a hand on her shoulder and give her a small push.

She keeps a hand on the hem of my jacket and pouts.  “But Lord Diavolo said you would.”

A hand suddenly snatches the back of Chloe’s shirt and roughly yanks her away from me.  I stumble a little as she finally lets go of my jacket.

Chloe recovers her balance and whips around to glare at my savior. 

Arianthi stares back at her impassively, arms crossed over her chest.  She’s wearing Mammon’s leather jacket, jeans, and a pair of his sunglasses.  It’s been a month since she left for the human realm with Mammon, and she seems more relaxed than I’ve ever seen her, despite her clear annoyance at the current situation.

“Tell Diavolo if you want,” Arianthi replies with a lazy shrug.  “You’re not supposed to be here anyway, and when I get done talking to him you’re gonna be in the first portal back to the human realm.” 

Chloe’s mouth drops open.  “Just because I hugged him?”

Arianthi’s eyes narrow.  “Jax told you to stop touching them.  When they tell you something you need to listen to them.  You’re going back because you’re not supposed to be here; I signed you rejection letters myself, Chloe.”

“Oh, now I know who you are!  Diavolo told me about you.”  Chloe gives Arianthi a snide grin.  

I slowly start to edge away from the two women.

“Fantastic, then you already know that I make the decisions when it comes to exchange students.  We’re going to speak to Diavolo and clear up this extremely unfortunate misunderstanding.”

“But--” Chloe starts to protest.

“Diavolo’s.  Office.  Now.”  Arianthi spits out the command through gritted teeth.

Chloe opens her mouth in shock, then snaps it closed before turning on her heel and starting to walk away.

“So, um, I’ll just be heading out now.”  I shuffle side to side awkwardly while Arianthi glares at Chloe’s retreating form.

She turns to me with a gentle smile.  “Sorry, this wasn’t how I wanted us to spend my first day back home.”

“It’s fine.  I’m just really glad your back.”  I return her smile, then hold up my bag of food.  “I need to go find Beel though so....”

Arianthi shakes her head.  “Go on.  I’ll see you tonight at dinner.  Hopefully.  Diavolo and I are going to have a very long conversation about how he handled the human exchange students while I was gone.”

With that ominous statement Arianthi stalks off in the direction of the administration building.

I find Beel a few minutes later, on his way to Fangol practice.

“Hey Big Guy,” I say, hugging him from behind.  “Brought you something to eat before practice.”  I press the takeout bag into his hands.

Beel gives me a dazzling smile.  “You didn’t have to do that.”

I shrug shyly.  “I wanted to.”

Beel pulls me close to his chest and brushes a soft kiss to my lips.  “Thank you Jax.”

He holds me for a moment longer, until his teammates start calling for him.  I push against his chest.  “You better get going Beel.  You’ll want enough time to eat before you start practice.”

“See you at home.”  Beel grins at me one more time before jogging off towards the colosseum.  

I give him a half hearted wave and trudge towards my spell work class.

Three classes and two and a half hours later I wander into the R.A.D. cafeteria, where I spot Arianthi sitting alone at a table, shuffling through a mountain of paperwork.  I debate going over to talk to her as I buy a sandwich and a drink.

Ugh.  God, just quit being a little bitch and ask her.  She’ll understand it better than anyone else here.

I wander over to her table and clear my throat to get her attention.  “Mind if I keep you company?”

She looks up at me slowly, then kicks out the chair across from her before turning back to the papers in front of her.

“So, what was up with the girl from earlier?” I ask, as I pick apart my sandwich and remove the tomatoes.  

Arianthi heaves an irritated sigh.  “She’s been denied admittance to the exchange program three times.  She’s not a good fit for the program, but since I was gone Diavolo personally approved her fourth application.”

Satisfied that my sandwich is now tomato free, I press the two halves back together and take my first bite.  “How come you denied her all those other times?” I mumble.

Another irritated sigh.  “She a pact chaser.”

“Mmmph?”  I quirk an eyebrow at Arianthi as chew.

“She doesn’t care about the program, or experiencing life down here.  She just wants to make pacts, to bring demons under her control.  She got some romanticized idea of what it would be like, with no idea how sacred a pact really is.  She just wants a supernatural boyfriend.  Demons don’t need to be under the potential control of someone that uneducated and irresponsible.”  

I take a sip of my drink.  “Don’t you have pacts with Mammon and all his brothers?”

“Yeah, but those are pacts I earned or that were offered to me.  And I can count on one hand the times I’ve actually used them.”

“Did you get Diavolo to send her back?”

Arianthi scowls.  “Apparently our lord and ruler has no issues with her reasons for wanting to be here.  So we’re stuck with her for now.”

I remember the way Chloe latched onto me.  “Great,” I sigh.

“Stay close to me and the boys and you’ll be fine.”  Arianthi scrubs her hands over her face.  “I don’t know why I’m surprised Diavolo won’t listen to me.  I knew things wouldn’t be good once he found out about me and Mammon getting married.”

“So, how’s that going?”  I ask, in an attempt to transition the subject towards the thing I really wanted to talk about.

“Being married?”  She smiles to herself.  “Mammon is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“So you don’t regret it?  Staying here I mean?”  My words come out in a rush.

“No.”  She gives me a quizzical look,  “Why would I?”

I shrug and take another sip of my drink.  “It’s just.....I mean...you gave up a lot to stay here with him right?”

Arianthi leans back in her chair and crosses her arms.  “Why do I get the feeling this is about more than my happy relationship?”

“Just some stuff with Beel has me thinking,” I answer quietly, picking at my cuticles and avoiding her eyes.

“What stuff with Beel?”  Mammon asks as he sits down next to Arianthi and slings one arm around her shoulders.

“Nothing!”  The response comes out louder and quicker than I intended it to.

“Well, that’s just a big, fat lie.”  Mammon frowns at me.

Arianthi elbows him in the side.  “Knock it off.”

I glance between the two for a moment, thinking.  “I don’t know what to do about Beel,” I finally say.

“What do you mean?”  Mammon narrows his eyes at me suspiciously.

“I like him,” I whisper.  “Like, really like him.”

“Ah,” Arianthi says in understanding, while Mammon just looks confused.

“I’m leaving in a few months, and I hate even thinking about it.  But then I think about not going home again, and I hate the thought of that too.”

“You could always visit home, like Ari does,” Mammon offers up a suggestion.

I anxiously fiddle with my lip ring.  “My dad will be so sad if I stayed down here, and I’d have to lie to him about where am at and I’d feel like such an asshole for doing it, but I think Beel could be worth it.  Beel hasn’t said for sure how he feels about me staying or not.  I mean, he’s hinted at it......but he hasn’t said for sure.  I know he likes me, and I know he wants to be closer, you know physically, but....  Ugh!” 

I drop my head on the table with a loud thunk.

“Wait, you mean you haven’t....?” Mammon asks, in shock.  “But he said you guys have been staying in each other’s rooms every night!”

“Mammon!”  Arianthi hisses at him in disapproval as I shake my head.

“How come?”  Mammon asks, genuinely curious.

“Oh my god Mammon, you can’t ask people questions like that!  It’s personal!  Plus it’s not like we were quick to get to that stage either,” Arianthi scolds him.

“Have you ever even, you know, done ‘the thing’?”  Mammon asks another question.

Arianthi stares at him, her drink frozen halfway to her lips.  “Did you really just refer to sex ‘the thing’?”

The tips of Mammon’s ears turn bright red.

“Promise me that when we have children you will never, ever attempt to give them the sex talk.”  

Mammon frowns at her.

“If you must know Mammon, yes I have done ‘the thing’.  Just not with Beel.”  I scowl at him.  “It means a lot, when I chose to be with someone like that.  I feel that way about him, but I’m afraid I won’t want to go back home if I go all in with Beel.”

Arianthi sighs.  “This really sounds like something you just need to talk to Beel about.  You two need to get on the same page about what you want from each other.  Either make a clean break or go all in.  This in-between place you’re in will just end up hurting you both.”

“Yeah.”  I forlornly pick at the remains of my sandwich.  

“Hey.”  Arianthi reaches over and taps my knuckles with her index finger.  “For what it’s worth, I’ve never regretted a second of my time here.  Staying with Mammon is the best decision I’ve ever made.”

I nod at her as she and Mammon stand up and gather their things.  I wave at them as the walk away from the table, then go back to picking apart my lunch.  A large hand comes down on my shoulder and I give a sudden squeak of surprise.

I turn to see Mammon standing behind me.  “Jesus, Mammon!”

“Look, Beel cares about you.  A lot,” he says softly, keeping his hand on my shoulder.

I smile, glad to know I’m not alone in my feelings.

Mammon’s hand tightens on my shoulder, and I can feel his fingernails prick my skin through the thin fabric of my t-shirt.

“Beel is the best one out of all of us.  He always has been.”  Mammon’s voice drops low and threatening.  “Do not hurt my little brother.  Get your shit together or get out.”

Mammon steps away from me and gives me a bright smile.  “See you at home!”

“See you,”  I shakily say to his back, watching him walk away as I rub my sore shoulder.

I take out my D.D.D. and text Beel to meet me in my room as soon as he gets home.

A few hours later I’m sitting on my bed, absentmindedly twirling a pencil between my fingers, a blank sketchpad on my lap, when Beel comes bounding in.

“Hey, Cupcake,” he says, smiling and flopping down on the mattress next to me.

“Hey, Big Guy.”   I gently run my fingers through his silky orange hair.

He reaches out and softly tugs away my sketchpad and pencil, tossing them onto the floor.  “Why don’t you put those away for a bit?” He growls, nuzzling into my neck.

I huff out a low laugh as his lips and tongue trace a ticklish path over the tender skin of my neck.   I slowly pull back from him, and take both his hands in mine, silently marveling at how much larger they are than my own.

My eyes roam over Beel’s face, taking in every detail, from the soft slope of his nose, to the curve of his full lips, and the strong outline of his jaw.  My gaze eventually settles as I look into the violet eyes that have captivated me since my very first day in the Devildom.

I take a deep breath.  “Beelzebub, we need to talk.”

[tsarinatorment]

k hear me out but I feel like Lucille Tracy is lowkey Y/N bcccccc we don't have a certain appearance, a certain character, not even a certain death since everyone assumin theories n such

n I don't rly know

This was an unexpected thing to see in my askbox (I don't write their mother much, and normally the random character-related asks I get are for Scott), but it's an interesting question so I'm gonna poke at it anyway.

I assume by Y/N you mean self-insert? I mean, it depends on at what point you consider a character to be a self-insert. I'd call her more of a "canon oc", which tbh is the sort of character I often love playing with because of the freedom that comes with them, rather than a self-insert as such. But then again, all ocs come from us at some point, whether consciously or subconsciously.

What I call a "canon oc" is where there's a very minor character that we know existed, but know little to nothing about, which means that to use them in fanworks we have to make more or less all of it up. I do this a lot in another fandom - if you ever read my Tales From The Heart fanfiction, just about every character in there falls into this category. Law and arguably Bepo are the only two we have enough canon data for to not have to make up most things. But that's not Thunderbirds, and I actually don't do that much in this fandom. Maybe because my muses (unusually for me) are satisfied with the main characters (Tracy boys, specifically).

So, facts we know about "Lucille Tracy":

- She's the Tracy boys' mother - She's Jeff's wife - She's Grandma's daughter-in-law - She's no longer in the boys' lives, or at least is never shown or mentioned in TOS and only mentioned once in TAG (movie she's confirmed dead, but... movie. I take none of my canon info from that)

Facts we assume/take from non-canon sources:

- Her name is Lucille or Lucy (Gerry himself has gone on record saying that's not what he would have named her) - She's dead (although the manner of said death is up for debate)

And, while I am admittedly not an expert on all the information out there about their mother, that's basically it? That's everything I run on, anyway. Beyond that it's just a case of building a picture in my head to use when I do write her.

Is she kind of a self-insert? Personally, I have no interest in inserting myself into the world of Thunderbirds so from a conscious standpoint absolutely not. If anything, I might very loosely base my interpretation of her on my own mother, because in my worldview that's how mothers are, but even there I see more differences than similarities. There's an almost certain chance that I'm also influenced by other people's interpretations of her, as well as tropes in fictional characters that I like to see.

But as a Y/N? Honestly, (and making assumptions about other people's mindsets a little here) I think at most it would be a subconscious connection. She's closer to an oc than anything else, in my opinion.

If anyone else has any thoughts on this, I'd be intrigued to hear them so feel free to tack on!

[hayleyarts]

Broken Without You (Jasper Hale x OC) | chapter 1

Author’s note: Hello! i don’t normally post that many stories or much on here but I’ve been working on a Jasper Hale fan-fiction to try and redeem him and show my favourite cowboy vamp some love. Anyways, this story contains swears and will have some graphic scenes referring to mental health and past trauma. I’ll give more specific warnings where they apply. Also, each chapter is inspired by some music; so if you want to listen to that particular song while you read, you can but you don’t necessarily have to :)

Summary: Eleanor Rae lives in a town where there are seemingly no secrets, but what happens when a certain vampire takes an interest in her. She’ll soon find out she’s not the only one with secrets. Will he be able to put her broken pieces back together? Can she fix him in return?

Word count: 2334

Read Part 2 Here 

Track 01 - Eleanor Rigby by Alice Cooper

Forks, Washington; the rainiest town in the United States. The benefits of living in a rainy town is the fact that the forests nearby are some of the greenest you’ll ever see. The cons of living in a rainy town as small as this one is how there are no secrets; everyone knows everyone for the most part. Therefore, when people see me: Eleanor Rae, they immediately know my back story. Of course, you’re not from Forks, so how would you know who the hell I am, or what my story is. 

The Rae family, also known as my mother Cecilia and myself, lives in a small cottage on the edge of town. Our small, 2-bedroom place is just close enough to town to be considered still in Forks, but with the town being so small, you’re simply ten minutes from all needed amenities. One such amenity is the hospital that my mother works at and the high school I’ve been attending for 2 years. At school I’m known as the strange girl with headphones glued to their head. Everyone has stopped trying to talk with me and try to become my friend, because I’m just ‘too weird’. Outcasts in small towns are rare; no secrets are allowed. Thus, why I envied the Cullen family. 

The Cullen’s were a family that became the talk of the town since freshman year of high school mostly because they broke the unwritten rule of small towns; they had secrets. No one knew what these secrets were, but everyone knew there was something they were hiding. The patriarch was the best doctor Forks has ever seen; Dr. Carlisle Cullen. He and his wife manage to take care of six adopted teenage kids; who in their right mind would do that to themselves? Their kids are a completely different anomaly. Even though they are all adoptive siblings, they happen to look extremely similar; blemish free complexion, model-like beauty, and this sense of grace that normal teenagers definitely don’t have. The thing that bothers me the most is that after a year or so, everyone stopped paying close attention to the strange family, but I didn’t. I mean, it’s hard not to when they’re all so beautiful, especially the brother with the wavy golden hair that frames his face perfectly. He was the one I was the most drawn to, and I don’t really know why. There was something about his presence that calmed me; God I wanted to talk to him. But how does one speak to someone as gorgeous as Jasper Cullen? 

I climb out of my Jeep, my feet planting on the cement of the parking lot. I look up at the building, sighing softly to myself; Junior Year of high school. A lot of people tend to stress about senior year, but to me, junior year is the one that matters. You need to figure yourself out because next year you’re applying for colleges. If you don’t have yourself figured out before senior year, then you’re royally fucked. I take my time to cross the lot before entering the school; the white tiled floor already scuffed from the various footwear. The lockers remained the same, even some of the posters on the walls were the same. The only thing that really seems to change is the people; some with different haircuts or new clothing. Different people smiling and laughing with new friend groups, some people missing because they moved during the summer. Growth spurts from the now sophomores, and then the completely new group of people that no one from the older grades recognized; the new freshmen. The one thing that stayed the same among the students, is no matter how much they laughed and joked with their friends; at the end of the day, we’re all lonely people. 

I follow the flow of people as I make my way to my first class of the day: history. I always dreaded history class because of the teachers that usually instruct the class. Why is it that every boring and/or almost ready to retire man teaches history class? If someone exciting taught the class, I might actually like it more. I arrive to the room, flags of various countries littered over the open door and students were already finding their seats. Luckily the seat in the far back corner by the window was vacant; that’s where I always try to sit. I like that seat because its far enough back that if you doze off in class no one really notices, and if you want to zone out rather than listen to the teacher, then you have the window to stare out of. 

Once I sit down, I take the time to pull my supplies out of my bag. All I tend to use is a notebook and pens while everyone else pulls out tablets and laptops; call me old-fashioned. I flip to a fresh page in the notebook when a voice pulls me away from my task. The accent clearly southern and extremely polite.

“Excuse me ma’am, is anyone sitting here?” I look up and I’m immediately met with the eyes that resemble the most expensive topaz gems; glittering underneath the fluorescent lights. He raises a brow as he gestures to the desk adjacent to me, “Ma’am?”

“Yeah… sorry,” I blush, snapping out of my daze, “There’s no one sitting there, go ahead.” He smiles at my answer as he makes himself comfortable, or well, as comfortable you can on a plastic chair. He pulls out his own notebook and pens, preparing for the class that’s about to begin. I couldn’t help myself from admiring his movements. His pale hands move with more grace than I could ever; placing the pens gently down on the wood of the desk, making sure they were ready when needed to take notes. My eyes didn’t stop there; they wandered from his hands to his choice of clothing. It’s not every day you get to sit this close to a member of the Cullen family, I plan on taking advantage of this rare moment. His clothing was simple but coordinated; his grey sweater with brown buttons matching the brown colouring of his dress pants. The one thing that stood out was his choice of footwear: cowboy boots. They were legitimate brown and black leather cowboy boots, and damn did they look worn in. 

I snap my eyes away from him before he could notice my staring, paying my attention back to the rain falling outside. Its then when Mr. Henderson stomps in the room and slams his folder down on his desk. He seemed about as thrilled about the first day of school as everyone else in this room. He began his lecture the same as every other first day lecture; the expectations of the class, the policies and rules and what he expects from us as students in his class. This isn’t what I dislike about the first day of school, what I hate are the icebreaker activities that the teachers force you to partake in.

“Okay class, for the rest of the period I’m going to have you and someone next to you discuss the answers to these various questions.” His monotone voice explains while handing out a worksheet covered in various questions. Students quickly pair off, some actually participating in the exercise while others begin discussing what they did during the summer. 

“Would you like to be my partner?”

I raise a brow at the southern voice breaking my observations, “What?”

“For the exercise?” He mimics my expression.

“Right… sure.” I blush, chuckling awkwardly.

“I’m Jasper, by the way. Jasper Hale.” He smiles politely.

“Hale?”

He chuckles, “Yeah, my sister Rosalie and I kept our last names.” 

I nod, taking in the new information. I had no idea that he had a different last name. I always assumed that because they were adopted by Dr. Cullen, they all had the same last name. 

“I’m Eleanor… Eleanor Rae.” I smile, turning to face him, “But my mom calls me Ellie.”

“What do your friends call you?” He raises a brow.

“Um… I guess Ellie?” I shrug, “I don’t really have any friends.” I look down at the worksheet, reading through the questions. Most of them were related to history class, some were about life goals, and school related questions. 

“You don’t have friends?” I glance up at him as he asks his question, his brows furrowed. 

“Not really. I like to be in my own little world I guess.” I shrug, “Kind-of similar to your family in that way.”

“How is that similar to my family?” 

“Well, you and your family keep to themselves, so do I.” 

He chuckles, shrugging, “I suppose,” He looks down at the questions, reading the first one off, “What are your goals for after school?”

“Um…” I furrow my brows thinking about the question. What are my plans? I haven’t really started thinking about where exactly I’ll be in roughly two years; after graduation and when I’m supposed to have my life figured out. I hope one of my goals for after I graduate would to attend college and take classes in psychology or philosophy; wanting to learn more about myself in the process. Another goal I eventually want to accomplish is leaving this small town; starting a new life in a new town where no one knows who I am, maybe take some time off and travel the world. Of course, I don’t say any of this to him, instead I respond with, “Probably go to college or something. Get good grades, you know?”

He nods, “That’s what the teachers want us to say.” His face slowly forms a smirk, “I feel like there’s more you want to say.”

I roll my eyes, my own face phasing into a smirk, “Maybe,” I lean closer to him, “But I’d like to hear your answer first.”

He chuckles, “Well, one of my goals is to settle down eventually. Find someone who understands me.”

I blink, “How romantic.” I reply sarcastically with a chuckle. 

“Don’t judge darlin’.” He chuckles along with me. His pet-name catches me off guard, the southern drawl dripping from the word, “Now, give me your real answer.”

“Well I’d love to travel, and maybe start a new life somewhere.” I shrug, “Some place where no one knows everyone else.” I lean back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest. 

“And you judged my answer.” He raises a brow playfully as I blush. 

“Well, both of our answers were cheesy,” I glance back down to the paper with a sigh, “These questions are also lame and cheesy.”

“Then let’s make our own questions.” He retorts, “What…” he pauses to think then continues his question, “What is your favourite movie?”

“Really?”

Jasper laughs, “It’s a valid question. Mine is Pride and Prejudice. Either that or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”

I chuckle, thinking about his answers. They’re both older movies, and one an even older novel. To be honest, those movies seem to match him perfectly. He seems like a gentleman kind of guy, and extremely old fashioned in his mannerisms and in the way he speaks. Not only that, but the western matches his god-awful cowboy boots. 

“Well, probably Jaws or The Breakfast Club.” I shrug, “I’ve seen both of them too many times to count so they’re probably my favourites.”

He nods at my response, “Both excellent movies. Very different though.”

I blink, “Well, your mood changes therefore the things you enjoy watching or listening to at any given moment doesn’t necessarily stay the same.” 

He narrows his eyes at my words. It was like he was surprised by my answer, and that he knew something I didn’t know. He didn’t say anything to my answer, but I could tell he wanted to. He fell silent as the class continues to have their various discussions; his golden eyes shifting from group to group. 

“What’s your favourite colour?” His eyes snap back to me at my question.

“It changes all the time.” He smirks, his answer mimicking mine from previously.

“Well what is it today?” I smirk back, raising a brow. I watch as his eyes look around the room, as if to find the answer throughout the room.

After what feels like hours, his eyes finally land on my own, “Probably green.” I blush, looking away from him, letting my dark hair fall in front of my green hued eyes. I didn’t know why he was trying to flirt with me, I mean… I’m me. Why on earth would Jasper Cull–Hale want anything to do with me? “What’s your favourite?” He tries to get me to look back at him. 

“Red or burgundy.” I mumble, glancing up at the clock; only five more minutes of class left, and, in this moment, I wasn’t sure if I wanted these last five minutes to last forever, or be finished in seconds. Jasper makes me feel differently and I’m not sure if I can pin-point why. 

“Why those?” He raises a brow. I’ve never pondered why I liked the warm colour before. Maybe it was because it symbolized various emotions like passion, love or anger. Maybe I liked the colour red because when I wear red garments of clothing, it complements my pale complexion well. Or maybe it’s because it reminds me of the red flowers in my mother’s garden outside our cottage home; roses, dahlias, and peonies planted in various patterns.  

When the bell rang, signalling the end of class, I only then realized that I didn’t answer the question; thinking of an answer quickly as I gather my supplies so I could move to my next class in my schedule, “Probably because it’s familiar.” I mumble as I leave the class. I only take a moment to glance back at him momentarily; seeing his confused expression before I join the sea of other students in the hallway.

[mybiasisexo]

Blood & Bond

Genre: Angst | Fluff | Supernatural!au | Werewolf!au | College!au | OT12 (altho you only get to see Tao....)

Pairing: None....yet....

Length: 16.4k

Warning: OC | Language

Summary: Kai and his little pack of werewolf cubs’ lives get a lot more interesting when a pretty foreign girl with special abilities decides to befriend them. 

Author’s Note: I finished reading Running With Wolves (debatably one of the best werewolf exo aus ever written and maybe even the best werewolf story ever written idk read it if you havent I swear it doesn't matter who your bias is you will fall for kai!!!) and was like ‘I wanna write a werewolf!au’, but this doesnt touch a candle to the genius that is that story which is why I kinda stopped writing it. I want to make it darker, a bit more mature, so here is this! If I ever decide to humor myself and rewrite it, it will be completely different. So, enjoy this, cause, I mean, its pretty good!!! also who else misses ot12???? Just me??? ok....

MASTERLIST

1. The Witch…Kinda Sorta

“I’m open! I’m open!”

The crunching sound of sneakers against gravel could be heard around the area as a small group of young men ran across the basketball court at a park. It was an intense game, the boys were snarling at one another, not afraid to push and shove to gain the upper hand.

After ten minutes, one of the boys jumped up and with the flick of his wrists, scored the final three points.

“We win,” he grinned after the echoing swish of his victory faded into the trees.

“You cheated,” one of the boys from the other team muttered, wiping the dripping sweat off of his forehead while others around him fell to the floor, breathing hard and exhausted.

“You always say that when you lose,” one of the guys who was on the ground whined, yanking the boy’s ankle, causing him to stumble to the asphalt. They all chuckled around him.

He just sighed.

The young man who had scored the winning points tossed the sore loser a bottle of water, which he took gratefully. “Thanks, Kai.”

“No problem, Chanyeol. Also, I didn’t cheat.”

“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes and chugged half of the bottle.

The six boys sat around in silence, drinking, snacking, and just enjoying the chilling wind dry their damp skin.

“Do you smell that?” One of them asked the others, his big eyes widening.

They all paused, sniffing the air and shaking their heads.

“It smells like a fire.”

A different one shrugged, “it’s probably a forest fire or something, Kyungsoo. Nothing to worry about.”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “No, Tao, it’s close.” 

He stood up and brushed off his shorts, heading towards the smell that only he could distinguish.

The boys that he had left glanced nervously at each other before standing up as well and following their somewhat peculiar friend.

They trudged around the trees, past the playground and the water fountain, until they were surrounding the restrooms that were on the opposite side of the park.

The cement wall that was around the tiny building was covered in graffiti, and the two doors were slightly ajar.

As they approached the deserted restrooms, one of the taller boys began to cough, “ugh, Kyungsoo, you were right. Someone definitely started a fire.”

“And it’s coming from the back.”

Slowly, the group began to circle the building, and once they were at the back of the structure they paused with shock.

In front of them was a young woman. She was kneeling, her back facing them, and in front of her was a pile of black char.

“Uh….” One of the boys named Jongdae was able to muster. His rumbling voice startled the girl, and she spun around in surprise, nearly falling into the pile of black.

The boys gulped once they saw her face. She was a foreigner, which was easy to tell with her deeply tanned skin and big curly brown hair. She was wearing a pleaded skirt and a black tank top with a green plaid shirt on that was hanging off her exposed shoulders. She also had a gray sweater tied around her waist, torn black stockings and dirty combat boots.

“What are you doing?” Kai asked her with raised eyebrows.

“Uh….” She mimicked Jongdae as she slowly climbed to her feet. Her shock seemed to fade once she was standing straight, and she grinned while shrugging, “nothing?”

“That doesn’t look like nothing,” Jongdae said with narrowed eyes, his arms crossed over his chest.

“It doesn’t smell like nothing either,” Tao added with his nose scrunched with disgust. Sehun, who was right behind him, made a show of waving his hand in front of his nose.

The girl laughed nervously, “Well, it’s nothing that you boys need concern yourself with.”

She began to turn back to her work, but froze once she realized something. Her lips curled knowingly as she returned her gaze to the group of males, placing her fists on her hips, “you all are werewolves.”

That startled the group, and the six boys began talking loudly at once, trying to dismiss her wild accusation.

She sighed, “It’s alright, calm down.” They all stopped in unison and stared at her with awe. “Well, I guess since you all are a part of the super realm… I’ll let you in on my doings.”

“Super…?” Chanyeol’s eyebrows scrunched together with confusion.

“I was casting a spell,” the girl informed the group. “I’m trying to… well, recall some things… I guess you could say. I read a book earlier, and it said that burning a certain type of branch could bring suppressed memories to the forefront. But, as you can see, it didn’t work like it should have.”

Everyone eyed the pathetic pile of burnt ash.

“Anyways,” the girl began, twirling back to the werewolves. “I’m Sloane.”

“And you’re a witch,” Tao inferred.  

Sloane’s eyes narrowed at the tall boy, “I am not a witch!”

Static surrounded the cramped space and a second after the six males were on the hard ground, on top one another, unconscious.

Sloan smirked at her handy work, brushed her hands together and hopped over the bodies lying on the floor, strutting away from the restrooms.

~*~

“Yesterday was weird,” Sehun pouted the following morning. The six friends were huddled on the lawn in front of their university. It was a small and rather prestigious school with only four hundred students. Unlike most universities, the students were required to wear uniforms and a lot of the rules were similar to high school.

“I feel like I dreamt the whole thing,” Tao said, adjusting the strap on his shoulder.

Kai groaned, “I really don’t want to be here.”

“Aw, come on!” Jongdae cheered, ruffling Kai’s silky brown locks, making his hair look messier than it was prior. “School’s fun.”

“You only say that because your super power is sweet talking teachers to give you good grades,” Chanyeol rolled his eyes, but the huge grin on Jongdae’s face stayed planted.

“I like school,” Kyungsoo mumbled, causing the other boys to sigh and head inside.

The six of them were only freshman, yet they already held a reputation. As they walked the halls, others stopped and stared—some with envy, others with lust. They were easily the best looking in the school, it also helped that they had a strange rebellious aura that made girls swoon over them.

“They’re staring,” Kai, who couldn’t handle the fame to save his life, whispered to Jongdae, who loved his fame all too much.

“They always stare, Kai. I’m surprised you aren’t used to it by now. Nothing’s changed since high school.”

“Don’t they have something better to do?” He asked, voice rising with exasperation.

Jongdae shrugged and tapped Kai’s chin. “Enjoy it while it lasts, Kiddo. We only have three more years of this.”

“You’re literally three months older than me!” The younger yelled, his hands curling into fists.

“Blah, blah, blah!” Jongdae replied just as passionately.

“Kyungsoo!” Kai whined, wrapping himself around the smaller boy.

“Jongdae, leave Jongin alone, would you?”

Jongdae gulped as Kyungsoo glared at him and nodded quickly, running towards the front of the group to avoid the dark energy emanating from Kyungsoo’s eyes.

At lunchtime, the six schoolboys trickled into the cafeteria and sat around their usual table in the middle of the room. They ate quietly for the most part, some doing homework, a couple were playing cards and betting their chips, Kai was complaining to Tao how much he hated his math class while Tao slowly ate Kai’s rice.

A loud plop on the end of their table startled them, and once they all whipped around to where the noise came from, they jumped. The witch from the day before, Sloane, was standing at the end of their table, hands on hips and eyes slightly narrowed as she scanned the werewolves.

“So it wasn’t a dream,” Sehun muttered, gawking at the figure hovering over their table.

“Mind if I sit, fellow classmates?” She asked and slid into one of the last remaining two chairs before anyone had time to object. She began scarfing down her rice nearly frantically and the boys sat frozen, staring at her with wide eyes.

“The food here is to die for,” she moaned with her mouth stuffed with food. That seemed to knock some sense into the others, unpausing them, and they all began to eat their food as well—all while keeping an eye on the new girl that was currently sitting right beside Kyungsoo.

He scaled her lean body with his eyes, and couldn’t help but to grin at how she was wearing her uniform. The skirt rolled up, so that it ended slightly above her mid-thigh, her dress shirt half tucked, a few buttons at the top undone, her jacket sleeves pushed up to her elbows. She still wore black stockings, but these ones ended above her knees and her scuffed combat boots hugged her feet comfortably. Her hair was still wild and free and she was covered in jewelry—her neck, fingers, ears and wrists wrapped in gold and black.

The dishevelment of her uniform resembled Kai’s.

“How… How are you here?” Tao finally sputtered, the other guys seemed to all let out a collective breath of relief with the question finally out in the open.

Sloane glanced at all the people at the table and giggled softly, “I enrolled.”

“Are you stalking us?” Sehun asked her rudely, his usually soft features hardening into a glare.

She flat out laughed at that, it ringed mockingly, “of course not! I enrolled about two weeks ago. It’s a coincidence that we bumped into each other yesterday. Either that or fate. Most likely fate though….” Her last few words were muttered, her talking more to herself then the boys, but they heard it regardless and they seemed to tense at the word.

“Is today your first day?” Kyungsoo quietly asked the young witch. She nodded. “Mind if I see your schedule?”

She smiled shyly before digging into her bag until she found the slip of paper she needed. Kyungsoo scanned it, nodding here and there and finally gave it back to her, “we have english together, along with Chanyeol. You and Chanyeol also have biology together. You have history with Jongdae and Sehun and trig with Kai.”

She nodded slowly, digesting what he just said before opening her mouth to ask, “So who is who?”

“Oh, right, I forgot we haven’t introduced ourselves,” Kyungsoo chuckled, scratching the back of his head. One by one, the werewolves introduced themselves to Sloane.

Except Kai.

He just watched the strange girl as she blinked at him expectantly.

Finally Kyungsoo sighed and gestured to the broody male, “that is Kai. Don’t mind him, he doesn’t bite.”

“Depends on the time of day,” Jongdae added, causing them to chuckle.

“It’s nice meeting you all,” Sloane grinned. “It’s been a while since I’ve stumbled across someone from the super realm.”

“The super realm?”

“Yeah, folks with supernatural abilities. Such as werewolves, vampires, and wi—” She seemed to choke on the last word.

“Witches? Just like you are?” Kai finally broke his silence, studying her intently.

Her eyes darkened as they met his, “I’m not a witch…Kai?”

He shrugged and chugged his milk. Their lunch break came to an end and Kyungsoo and Chanyeol lead Sloane to their next class.

~*~

“She can’t hang out with us,” Kai informed his pack. Class had finally ended and the six of them instantly headed up to the rooftop, where they usually went when they had to talk about something serious on school grounds.

“Why not?” Sehun asked his leader, he tilted his head like a curious puppy.

“There is something off about her,” Kai elaborated. “I get strange vibes from her.”

“It’s her power,” Chanyeol shrugged. “She’s very powerful. I’m surprised we didn’t notice it yesterday.”

“There are a lot of things you didn’t notice yesterday,” Kyungsoo muttered with an eye roll, remembering the fire only he could smell.

Kai shook his head, “I don’t think that’s it. I mean, yeah she’s definitely powerful, but there is something else about her that puts me on edge.”

“Is it her sense of fashion?” Tao asked with true concern. “I mean, her uniform was like the female version of yours—”

“No it wasn’t!” Kai snapped, huffing as the others started laughing. He pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’m being serious. She can’t be around us.”

A few of the boys sighed, but had to obey their alpha’s order.

As they walked out of the school, Sloane was leaning against the stairs. Once they were close enough, she went up to fall in step with them.

“So, where are we going? Are we doing some supernatural stuff? Are you going wolf? Or can you only do that when there is a full moon?”

It took everything in Kyungsoo not to answer her questions. He could admit to himself that he had taken a quick liking to the foreign girl. The six boys continued walking, attempting to give her the cold shoulder.

She appeared to not register their attempt as she continued. “Maybe something boring, like homework, huh?” Tao could hear laughter in her voice. “Werewolves doing their homework? Isn’t that comical?”

“Sloane,” Kai began, slowing down so that he was walking beside her. She glanced at him, noticing his dark beautiful features. “Stop following us. We don’t want you to hang out with us.”

She stopped walking, “what?”

She glanced at the rest. They were a few steps in front of her and Kai, half circled and turned towards the two.

“You are not a member of our pack,” Kai continued with a voice cold and sharp as icicles, catching her attention again. “What? You thought you could get an in with us because of what you are? You’re nothing special. You’re just another girl. No. You’re just a weird witch.”

He watched her jaw clench and her thin fingers tighten against the strap of her bag, “I told you already that—”

“All the same,” he smiled politely at her and she wanted to slap it off him at that moment. What a typical pretty boy!

She took a step away from the group, “fine. I won’t interfere with you or your math homework. Good luck trying to get that D up.”

Kai arched an eyebrow as she spun on her heels, and winced as her brown curls slapped him viciously across the face as she stomped away.

“That was harsh,” Chanyeol admitted with a sigh. All the boys were watching Sloane’s form blend into the crowd.

Kai didn’t reply, instead he touched his cheek where her hair hit him, when he pulled his hand away he noticed blood on his fingertips.

~*~

True to her word—and much to Kai’s relief—Sloane left them alone.

For the rest of the week, they didn’t see her in the cafeteria, and in the classes they shared, she sat as far as possible from any one of them. She must not have taken it too badly, because whenever they crossed paths in the hallways she appeared chipper. She appeared to bounce when she walked, as if she had zero cares in the world and it caused a lot of stares. The student population were all extremely curious of the foreign new girl who came out of nowhere and was able to eat lunch with Kai and his group of hot friends—even if for a day.

On Saturday, the six boys lounged around Kai’s house, doing homework, studying, playing videogames, whatever to pass the time. The weekend was their favorite—especially Kai’s—they didn’t have to deal with the stress of being stared at and judged for seven hours of the day.

“Who wants to play another round of ball?” Tao asked suddenly, spinning the dingy basketball that he found resting on the floor on one of his fingers.

“I’m down,” Chanyeol said. His eyes turned to slits as he glared at Kai, “plus, we need a rematch.”

“Why?” Kai scoffed. “You want to get your ass handed to you again?”

“Shut up!” The two boys started wrestling around the living room while the others gathered everything needed for their trip to the park.

Once there, they spared no time splitting into teams and beginning their vigorous round of basketball. On one team was Kai, Sehun, and Kyungsoo while Jongdae, Chanyeol, and Tao played against them.

They were tied; Kai had the ball and was about to score the winning point when a strong wind blew the ball out of his grip. They all watched as it rolled off the court and into the semi muddy grass.

“What the—?”

Strange growling noises could be heard from the trees surrounding the park. The six werewolves huddled together, listening intently, trying to figure out what was going on.

Slowly, they made their way towards the trees. Hairs sticking up like the fur on a frightened cat, eyes shining colors that were not the usual brown, fingers curling into claws, they anticipated an attack.

They were not disappointed.

Something flew from out the shadows, crashing roughly into Kyungsoo, dragging him down to the ground. It appeared human, but had bluish-gray flesh with long limbs, fingers, and fangs. It was literally skin and bones and the noise that came out of its mouth when Kyungsoo lashed at it with his claws was chillingly inhuman.

Kyungsoo pushed the corpse off of himself and sat up with wide eyes glowing ice blue, “What the fuck was that?!”

He wasn’t able to get an answer. More of the bizarre looking creatures sprang from out of the shadows, all running towards the six werewolves. The boys did not hesitate to attack back; one by one they all fought against the monsters, but were outnumbered. Tao yelped in pain as one of the creatures slashed the side of his stomach, Sehun stumbled and landed hard on the ground, a crunching noise following suit. Jongdae was thrown across the field and hit a tree painfully, knocking him unconscious.

The werewolves were losing and Kai, the alpha, could feel it. He scanned the field, watching his pack mates battle the creepy beasts. There seemed to be even more coming out of the forest, Kai had to think quickly.

While he was preoccupied with his thoughts, one of the creatures saw its chance for a surprise attack and sprinted towards him, claws and fangs at the ready. Kai sensed its approach at the nick of time, but was too close to the monster to move. Something bumped into him from behind, and he landed hard on the grass. The creature twirled in confusion and froze when it saw whatever it was that knocked Kai over. Kai also glanced up and was stunned to see Sloane hovered over him eyeing the thing that would have killed him a second ago.

She pulled out something shiny from her belt. Kai noticed that it was a dagger with weird swirls engraved in the metal.

“Restitui quondam tibi,” she muttered with the knife over her head. She then dived the knife deep into the soil until only the hilt could be seen.

Bloodcurdling screams were soon heard, so deafeningly loud, Kai winced and covered his sensitive ears with his hands. He watched in confusion and shock as the creatures frantically ran away from the park, vanishing into the trees. The air seemed to still with the newfound silence.

Sloane leaned back on her heels, letting go of the knife that was still pinned to the ground with a relieved sigh. Kai and a few of the others who weren’t in critical condition stumbled onto their feet, glancing around them in awe.

“How did you do that?” Kai asked Sloane.

She let out a breathy laugh and shrugged tiredly, “looks like I can hang out with you after all.”

~*~

“Your nose is bleeding,” Kyungsoo stated, pointing at Sloane’s face. Her eyes widened as she dipped her finger in the warm liquid sliding down her cupid’s bow. With a soft chuckle, Kyungsoo slid her a tissue, which she took gratefully, placing it hesitantly against her face.

Tao, Sehun, and Jongdae were lying on the couches, all three of them unconscious from the pain. Tao’s side seemed to be ripped into shreds, blood running steadily onto the wooden floorboards. Sehun’s arm was broken at both the elbow and the middle of his forearm, while Jongdae’s head was bleeding and a few of his ribs were broken.

“What are we going to do? They’re not healing themselves!” Chanyeol asked desperately, his deep voice vibrating off the walls of the silent room. His arms were crossed against his chest and his eyebrows tried to unite at the center of his forehead.

Slowly and somewhat uneasily, Sloane stood up, “I can help them.”

“But you’re exhausted,” Kyungsoo said, standing up with her to make sure she didn’t fall.

She shook her head, “I can do it.”

She approached Tao first, since his condition appeared to be the worst, “Kyungsoo, can you sit him up for me, please?”

He silently did as he was told, and Tao groaned a bit, but his eyes remained closed. Sloane sat beside him and rested her forehead on his while she wrapped her arms around him, making sure one of her hands was firmly pressed against his wound. She started muttering under her breath and the three boys who were conscious to witness the ordeal stared in shock and wonder as his side began to glow a silver white. Sloane’s muttering became more urgent and she finally pulled away. She gently laid Tao back onto the couch and rubbed her fingers against his ribs that were now hidden by his unblemished flesh. Kai blinked and kneeled down beside Tao, staring at the side of his stomach that was, just a few seconds ago, torn apart with blood gushing out of it. It now was back together, as if it had not been touched at all. Kai ran his fingers across the boy’s skin and Tao began moving, coming too.

Sloane snatched Kai’s wrist and he lifted his eyes to meet hers with a threatening growl. The girl was unfazed, “let him rest.”

Kai yanked his wrist out of her grasp and Sloane walked away as if the encounter never happened, walking over to Jongdae. Kyungsoo again lifted the boy up so that Sloane could press her forehead against his, but this time, she wrapped one arm around his head and the other around his waist. She once again muttered some words, and Jongdae started whimpering silently.

“I know, honey, I know.” She broke her chanting to say and sighed, pulling him closer towards her. After a few minutes, she laid him back down. His breathing was back to normal and his eyes moved against his eyelids.

Chanyeol quickly went to Jongdae’s side, eyes full of wonder as he checked to see that his wounds were healed.

Sloane kneeled beside Sehun’s sleeping form and tilted his head toward her, placing her’s against his. She rubbed his arm as she started her chanting, and quickly finished with him. When she removed her head from his, his eyes fluttered open and he tiredly stared at her. His eyes saying everything his mouth couldn’t. His gaze remained on her as she stumbled to her feet and swayed a bit, his other hand rubbing his once broken arm like she was doing prior.

“Whoa,” Kyungsoo said as he caught Sloane’s now unconscious body.

“Let her sleep here,” Tao’s groggy voice was heard, and they turned to see him lazily blinking up at Kyungsoo, tapping the small space beside him on the couch. Kyungsoo glanced at Kai for approval and the alpha shrugged.

They both started chuckling at the image of Tao’s tall frame clinging to the witch’s body like a koala to a tree.

~*~

When Sloane’s eyes finally opened, she was welcomed with darkness. Something was pressed against her, pinning her down to the soft surface she laid on. She tried to move and froze when she heard a grunt in her ear and a tightening around her body.

A light came on and she blinked, not used to the brightness. She noticed Kai sitting on an armchair; he had turned on the lamp on top of the table beside him. He was gazing sternly at her with gold glowing eyes.

She turned away with a gulp and scanned the room. She was still in his living room, lying on a couch with Tao, who had wrapped himself around her, snuggling close. Jongdae was still resting on a couch, but Sehun and the other two boys weren’t present.

“What time is it?” Sloane asked the brooding werewolf, her voice rough from sleep.

“Eight thirty.”

She had slept for four hours. Sloane tried to sit up again, but Tao’s hold on her was unrelenting, she somehow was yanked closer to the boy, his nose digging into the crook of her neck. She sighed with frustration.

Kai chuckled at her despair, “he’s a cuddler.”

“I’ve gathered.” The two were quiet for a minute. “Are they alright?”

Kai nodded. “Yeah.” The humor left his voice. “You saved us.”

She could hear the question in his statement, and knew he would ask, but her stomach interrupted him with a loud growl.

He grunted, “Hungry?”

She rolled her eyes, “using so much of my power is draining. I need to regain my energy.”

She heard him shuffle around until he was hovering over her with an outstretched hand. His eyes were back to a deep chocolate brown, although she could still see the disdain for her in them, “Kyungsoo’s in the kitchen cooking. Let’s go.”

It was a battle trying to unknot Sloane from Tao, but with a few yanks, she was free and she gratefully smiled at Kai, it quickly turned into a scowl as he dropped her hand as if it burnt him and headed towards the kitchen without checking to see if she was following.

The first thing Sloane noticed once she entered the kitchen was Kyungsoo. He was standing in front of the stove, wearing a cute pale pink apron, which contrasted with his black clothing, singing softly to himself as he stirred around whatever he was making. Chanyeol and Sehun were seated at the island, Chanyeol messing with his phone while Sehun rolled an orange around the granite tabletop, bored and hungry as hell.

They all turned towards Kai and Sloane once they entered. Kyungsoo smiled at them and Sehun nearly fell off his stool as he tried to reach the witch.

When he was in front of her, he just stood there, staring at her intently. She returned his gaze, although a bit self-consciously—for he was just a few centimeters away—and they remained in that position until someone else came stumbling into the kitchen. Everyone turned again to see a groggy disheveled Tao leaning against the wall, “you left me!”

~*~

Everyone gathered around Kai’s dining table as Kyungsoo and Chanyeol set it, placing down the huge feast around the table. Kai woke Jongdae up, and he joined the rest of them, just as ravenous as the others.

Sloane learned something then, and it was that werewolves could eat, and could eat a lot. Kyungsoo had made enough food for about twelve people, and the werewolves scarfed down every bit on their plates as though it were their last meal. There was not a bone left once everyone was satisfied. Chanyeol burped obnoxiously as he leaned back on his chair, rubbing his protruding belly.

“Are you full, Sloane?” Sehun, who was sitting beside her, asked. She nodded and stood up, helping gather up all the dishes and setting up the sinks to wash them.

“You don’t have to do that,” Kai said, coming up beside her as she poured the dish soap into the water.

“It’s alright. I’d feel bad if I didn’t do anything.”

Kai sighed, Sloane felt he wanted to say something, but he refrained and she didn’t push him. The two washed in silence. A few of the boys had left to get ice cream and the other two that were left were laying around on the couch, watching television. Sloane could hear Chanyeol guffaw from time to time and it made her smile.

Once they finished the dishes, they joined the others in the living room. They were all gathered around, a pint per person, and now that they were settled, Kai turned the television off and they all turned to the stranger in the room.

She looked up at them wearily, “yes?”

“We have some questions,” Kai began. She slowly placed her ice cream onto the table and sighed, folding her hands over her knees. “What were those things?”

Her eyes widened in shock, “you mean, you don’t know?”

The boys all shook their head.

“They were—I can’t believe you don’t know—they were vampires.”

“What?!” The boys asked.

“We’ve seen a few vampires before,” Sehun started. “But none that looked like that.”

“There are three different types of vampires, and even calling them vampires is being generous. They are a type of immortal, the ones that crave blood. You have the Ancients, whose blood still runs in their veins because they were turned when they were still alive. Those are the stereotypical vampires that everyone knows. They appear human and drink blood and the like. The second type are the Medietas, they were turned at the brink of death, they are less human then ancients, but still can pass for human. They always have pale skin and dilated eyes; their fangs can’t be hidden….

“Then you have the last kind of vampire, the Mortuum, who were turned after death. As you saw, they are monsters. They don’t have any cognitive thinking, only hunger for blood.”

“Why did they attack us? Why were they here?” Jongdae asked.

“You don’t know much, do you?” Sloane asked, sparing them a judgmental glance. “Werewolves and vampires are mortal enemies, and this just so happens to be your territory. I highly doubt you all know, but this town is a supernatural goldmine! The power that flows through here is strong enough to pull many of us here—myself included. Those vampires were drawn here because of that energy, but they happened to run into you guys, and their instincts kicked in, so they attacked.”

“Why couldn’t we heal ourselves?” Sehun asked quietly, rubbing his once broken arm.

Sloane swallowed thickly, “That’s the thing about being mortal enemies. It’s easy to destroy the other. Vampires have the ability to disable your fast healing as well as your other wolf abilities, as do you to them.”

“How do you know all of this?” Kai muttered, somewhat frustrated by his lack of knowledge.

She shrugged, “I read. A lot.”

“What did you do back there? You spoke that weird language…”

“Latin, the language of the dead.”

“You mean the dead language.” Kyungsoo corrected.

She shook her head, “no, I meant what I said. Latin is the language of the dead. What I did back there was cast a vanquishing spell. It pretty much banned that coven from returning. But, like most spells, there’s a catch. The spell only works for that coven alone—meaning other covens may enter without a hitch—and it only lasts for a certain amount of time, ten years to be exact. After that, they can return and cause all the havoc they want.”

The boys were silent for a while, digesting everything Sloane had told them. Finally Tao spoke up, “….Coven…?”

Sloane groaned and fell back on her chair, “why don’t you guys know this stuff? You’re werewolves!”

“We’re young,” Jongdae defended. “And also, none of us like to read.”

She shook her head and laughed with disbelief, “how you’ve survived this long is a mystery.”

“We got guts,” Chanyeol grinned.

“And lack of brains,” she mumbled, but they all heard her.

She rose to her feet, “I should probably go….”

“Where are you staying? One of us can take you,” Kyungsoo applied.

“I, uh….” She shuffled her feet.

“You don’t have a place to stay, do you?” Chanyeol asked. The pack glanced at her.

“I’ve been staying at different hotels, using spells to trick them into thinking I paid, or forgetting I was even there. I don’t have any money on me.”

“So, you’re homeless?”

She shrugged, staring at her feet.

“You can stay here,” Kyungsoo offered.

“What?” Sloane and Kai asked at the same time.

Kyungsoo shrugged at his leader, “Kai lives here all alone, and he has two guest rooms. You’re going to school with us now, and it would be nice to have you around, being that you know a lot more about this stuff than us…. We have a bit to learn from each other.”

“I don’t want her living here,” Kai spat through clenched teeth. This place was his sanctuary; he didn’t want some strange girl with magical powers who he still didn’t trust to ruin that for him.

“Come on, Jongin, don’t be stubborn.���

“Don’t call me that in front of her. She’s not staying here and that’s final!” Kyungsoo suddenly pulled Kai into a headlock and dragged him away from the living room.

“We need a moment,” he informed Sloane as they disappeared down the hall, into another room. It was dead silent as they waited for the duo to return, Sehun and Tao’s grins never left their face while Chanyeol and Jongdae chuckled every once in a while.

Seven minutes later, the two reemerged. Kai huffing and pouting while Kyungsoo’s lips stretched into a heart shaped grin.

He nudged Kai forward, and with an eye roll, the leader trudged to the girl with his hands in his pockets and muttered, “you can stay here.”

“What was that?” Jongdae asked dramatically, his smile stretched evilly.

Kai rolled his eyes again and raised his voice, “you can stay here…Sloane.”

“Thank you,” she said but the other boys’ guffawing quickly swallowed it up.

He cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck, “Whatever.”

His pack left his place soon after that. As soon as Kai and Sloane were alone, he cornered her and sat her down.

“I still don’t think you being around us is a good idea,” he began. Sloane’s eyes were wide as she took in his words. “I don’t trust you. I know you are a witch, despite what you want us to believe, and I’m keeping a close eye on you.”

He sighed, “That being said, you did save my pack’s lives today, and that is something I’m indebted to. So, I promise to let you stay here, as a form of payment for what you did today, alright?”

Sloane nodded with understanding, “I promise, in return, Kai, that I’ll prove to you that I am no threat. As Kyungsoo said earlier, we have a bit to learn from one another.”

“That we do, Sloane. That we do. Let me show you your room.”

2. House Rules & Lone Wolves

“She carries this ancient looking suitcase and it is literally the only thing she owns. It has her clothes in it, and this book that looks just as old as the suitcase, and that is it,” Kai informed his pack mates as they were all walking up to the cafeteria.

It was a Monday, their first day back since Sloane saved them from the vampires, and Kai was having a rough time adjusting to the whole living-with-a-witch-that-may-not-actually-be-a-witch situation Kyungsoo unceremoniously thrust him into.

“Until then, I mean, she’s alright. She’s quiet, stayed in her room for most of the day, and only came out to eat or use the bathroom. We’re going shopping later tonight so she can buy a toothbrush and whatnot.” Kai shook his head in disbelief, “I can’t believe I have a roommate.”

“A really pretty magical roommate at that,” Chanyeol added with a nod.

“You think she’s pretty?” Kai asked, sparing the taller boy a judgmental glance.

“Well, yeah? She’s very pretty,” Chanyeol shrugged.

“That means a lot coming from Chanyeol,” Sehun snorted, nudging his fellow playboy friend.

“If she gives you any problems,” Kyungsoo said, as they all sat around their table. “You can always kick her out.”

Kai sighed, “You’re right, I just… what will my aunt think?”

“What will your cousin think?” Tao asked. “Once he finds out you have a good looking girl living with you….”

Kai’s eyes widened with horror, “he shall never find out.”

“Not to mention,” Jongdae began with a sharp curve to his lips. “What your little buddy downstairs will think about this situation.”

“Jongdae! I’ll have your head!” Kai pounced on top of the table, reaching for his evil friend’s neck, when the center of his problems finally joined them.

“What did I miss?” Sloane asked Chanyeol under her breath as she slid into the seat beside him.

The tall boy shrugged, chuckling all the while, “Kai’s having some issues and Jongdae is really bad at giving advice.”

The girl nodded with wide eyes, placing a spoon filled with soup into her mouth thoughtfully.

After Kai was satisfied with the purplish hue Jongdae’s face took from the lack of oxygen, he settled back down and Tao rubbed his friend’s back as he coughed a lung out.

Once everyone was settled, Kyungsoo began talking, “the full moon is this Saturday.”

All the boys seemed to grow tense once the words were uttered.

Sloane, on the other hand, gasped, “Does this mean you’re finally going to go all wolf?!”

She began squealing.

“Why are you so excited to see us as wolves?” Kai asked, baffled.

Her jaw dropped, staring at him in disbelief, “why wouldn’t I?! It’s not every day you run into werewolves! I can’t wait to see your fur. How big do you guys get? Do you still have your human mind? Is the shift painful?”

“Whoa whoa!” Sehun said chuckling. “One question at a time.”

“Um,” Kyungsoo began thoughtfully. “Pretty big, yes, and yes.”

“But,” Kai drawled out, sending a warning with his eyes to his pack mates before meeting Sloane’s. “You are not going to be able to see our fur. You’re going to stay in the house for the entire night.”

Sloane’s face fell, “What?”

“It’s dangerous for you to be out with us in our wolf forms. Yeah, we do keep our humanity, but the full moon pulls us towards our wolves, those instincts are quicker. You can get hurt if you are not careful.”

Sloane’s shoulders fell, “but… I really wanted to see your wolf forms. I bet you guys are beautiful.”

“We can just tell you,” Jongdae shrugged. “And we can always half shift, you know? Our eyes change colors and our claws and fangs come out. But during the full moon is when we shift completely and it’s out of our control, and aw you think we’re beautiful?”

“Let’s just show her!” Sehun yelled excitedly. Tao gasped loudly and nodded in agreement.

“No,” Kai said immediately. He used his alpha voice, so the others had no choice but to listen. That didn’t stop Tao and Sehun from whining.

“You’re no fun,” Sloane pouted, twirling her spoon in her food.

Kai just shrugged, “being the alpha means keeping a level head.”

“And which head exactly is it that must be level, huh, Kai?” Jongdae questioned with a wicked grin.

“Have you not learned your lesson?!” Kai barked, hopping across the table to choke Jongdae out again.

Kyungsoo sighed, while the others started making bets over if Jongdae would pass out or not, and Sloane lifted her hand from her spoon, even though it remained swirling around her soup.

~*~

“There are rules to my house that we haven’t discussed yet,” Kai informed Sloane as he pushed a cart through E-Mart. She walked beside him, well around him, running from one side of an aisle to the other, tossing things into the cart.

“Like what?” She asked as she studied the different types of deodorant.

“Like…” Kai began, thinking of something. “You can’t invite anybody over without my permission.”

“Well that’s fine. I only know you guys.” She finally settled on a deodorant and continued towards the hair products.

“Any food that’s in the fridge will be for the both of us, I don’t expect you to get a job or pay rent or anything, but if you could hold your keep, you know, cleaning after yourself, cooking dinner, washing dishes—”

“Making sure my hair doesn’t clog the drain. I get it,” she placed watermelon scented shampoo and conditioner in the overflowing cart and continued on.

“Respect my things and my personal space and I think we’ll get along just fine.”

She twirled around to shoot him a quick salute and returned back to leading the way towards the toy aisle.

“Why are we here?” Kai asked skeptically.

Sloane laughed and stopped in front of the board and card games, “We should have game nights.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I think it is. Come on, Kai, live a little.”

Kai rolled his eyes, but helped Sloane decide on a few games they could play.

After they picked them, they headed towards check out.

“How can you pay for all this?” Sloane asked, munching on a Slim Jim that had been rung already.

“My parents had a lot of money,” Kai stated, sliding his black card to pay for their items.

“I couldn’t help but notice the ‘had’ in that sentence,” Sloane pointed out.

Kai shrugged again, feigning nonchalant. He didn’t say anything as they headed to his car.

Once on the road, Sloane played with the radio for a minute until she found a song she liked. She started shaking her curls and Kai pressed his lips together to hide a rare amused grin. Once the song was over, she turned the volume down, “You are one of the younger members of the pack, right?”

“Yup. Sehun’s the only one younger than me.”

“Then how come you are the alpha?”

He winced, “I’m the strongest.” He left it at that.

“But…” She let her sentence carry; knowing that Kai didn’t want to talk about this either. “Never mind. Sorry I asked.”

Kai blinked at her in surprise, and for some odd reason felt guilty, “its fine. I’ll tell you…someday.”

She nodded at him, “I’d like that.”

Kai pulled into his driveway, and the two dragged their bags into the house.

“Thank you again for taking me in. It means so much to me, I don’t think you understand.”

Kai scratched the back of his neck, “You saved my life, this is the least I can do. Just know that I am waiting patiently for you to fuck up so I can kick you out.”

“And ever so charming,” Sloane muttered. She perked up instantly. “I’ll make dinner!”

“I have another question,” Sloane said, once she started cooking. Kai, who was still putting things away, groaned and Sloane took that as permission.

“Why won’t you let me be around you guys once you change?”

Kai clenched his jaw, “I told you, it’s dangerous.”

“I’m not a mere mortal, Kai. I’m sure I could handle it. I can help.”

“There’s no need for help, Sloane. We change, we venture the woods, and then we turn back into humans at dawn. He meet here, eat, shower, and then they all go home. That’s how we’ve always done it, that’s how it will go on Saturday.”

“But, maybe I can fold your clothes for you, or cast a spell to make the shift easier to handle, or something?”

Kai shook his head, “We can handle it. We’ve been shifting together for a few years now. Just stay here and wait for us to return, alright?”

Sloane sighed, “Fine.”

Kai let out a relieved breath. He didn’t want to tell her how they hunted and killed innocent animals. How they howled at the moon for hours. How he used the pain of the shift as a reminder of the monster that he was, of the burden his family and fellow pack members had to carry. She didn’t need to know any of that.  

~*~

The following day, after school had ended, Sloane found herself at the nearest public library. She had decided that she would try to help Kai and his pack as much as possible without being a burden or upsetting the alpha, so she spent about an hour and a half searching for the right books about plants and glancing around at books about witchcraft—coming up empty on the latter.

Satisfied with her borrowed books, she bounced out of the building with a warm smile on her face. The sun was shining despite the chilly autumn breeze, and she could tell that things were finally looking up for her.

Those thoughts turned sour as her body collided with one in front of her. Her newly acquired books tumbling towards the asphalt, but before she could finish her blink, the person she bumped had them stacked neatly in his hands. They never even touched the ground.

Her eyes widened as she took in the stack before lifting them up to see a boy around her age, a stunningly bright smile on his just as attractive face, “here you go, miss.”

“Thank you,” she stuttered, collecting them from his grasp as he bowed and proceeded on his way before she could yell out an apology. She followed him with her eyes; he seemed in a rush, almost running as he crossed the street.

“Weird,” she pouted. His energy was off, and she couldn’t figure out why.

“What’s weird?” A deep voice asked from behind her and she jumped out her skin as Kyungsoo seemed to appear out of thin air.

“I…” She spun back to where she last saw the boy but he was already long gone. “There was a guy….”

Kyungsoo just arched an eyebrow up at her, as she slowly came back to her senses. “How did you find me?”

He shrugged, a smug smile on his face, “I’m getting really familiar with your scent. Also Kai sent me to look for you, he was getting worried.”

She scoffed, “Kai? Worried about me? I’m sure.”

“He worries about anyone he feels he has to protect.” The two fell into step, heading towards Kyungsoo’s car that was parked on the corner of the street.

“He feels like he has to protect me? I’m a magical being,” Sloane almost scoffed. The two settled into their seats, and Kyungsoo took off towards Kai’s house.

“But you’re living under his roof. That makes you his responsibility in his eyes.” He could sense her disbelief. “It’s the alpha in him.”

She nodded understandably at that, “I never got to thank you.”

“For what?”

“For making him take me in. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably still be mooching off hotel workers. I hated doing that.”

Kyungsoo smiled at her, “all in a days work. You’re the first wit—uh… magical being we’ve ever ran into. At least, one around our age, who didn’t want our heads on a platter.”

Sloane smirked at Kyungsoo stuttering over her title. “So you have dealt with witches before?”

Kyungsoo nodded, “yup. Ones passing though who had a dislike for us pups.”

Sloane cracked a grin at that, “you’re funny, Kyungsoo.”

He blinked owlishly at her, “that’s a first.”

She burst out laughing at his reply and shook her head with a sigh, “you’re also very refreshing. I appreciate that.”

“You seem to appreciate a lot of things.”

“I’ve had a past that allows me to do as such.”

Kyungsoo sensed the bitterness she tried to suppress and it piqued his interest. He knew better than to press her on it though, deciding instead to change the subject quickly, “what you got there?” He pointed at the books in her hands.

“Some books about plants. You know plants have a ton of magical attributes? Certain plants give us certain powers or take some away.”

Kyungsoo nodded, “like Wolfsbane.”

“Yes. Which, please remind me, I must read up on. Now that I’m living and hanging out with a bunch of wolves, I need to know as much as possible about you all.”

“Do magical beings like you have plants that are your kryptonite?”

“I’m pretty sure. I haven’t looked into it, but I know there must be.”

“You’ve really made me curious about all this supernatural stuff. We haven’t really worried about these things, I guess being young and powerful makes you really ignorant to certain things at times.”

They finally reached Sloane’s new home, and Kyungsoo held the door open for her as they entered the loft.

“Yeah, we both have quite a bit to learn, huh?”

“It seems so.”

“Sloane!” Tao squealed once she was in his vision. He hopped off the couch and leaped on her, causing the books she was holding to fall again. Kyungsoo quickly plucked them from the air, gathering them into a pile in his hands.

“Wolf reflexes,” he smirked once he noticed Sloane’s shocked expression.

“Is that so?” she sputtered.

“Sloane! Kai told us you bought games! Let’s play some!” Tao, who was still wrapped around the girl said, dragging her over towards the bookcase where the games she and Kai had bought the day before had been placed.

Something Sloane had noticed was the way Tao, Sehun, and Jongdae treated her. Ever since she healed them, they had seemed to hover around her, always needy. She wondered if her power had anything to do with that.

They decided on Apples to Apples, and the rest of the gang joined them in the living room. Chanyeol and Jongdae were both really good at playing, although Jongdae tried to make his answers as inappropriate as possible. They snacked and joked and relaxed for a few hours. Sehun and Tao had Sloane sandwiched between them and Jongdae constantly asked her if she needed anything. Kai was suspicious, but his thoughts on the matter speculated about the same as Sloane’s.

“Those three seem to be smitten with you,” Kai mentioned when he was able to corner Sloane in the kitchen.

She nodded, digging in the pantry for more snacks.

“I couldn’t help but wonder if your power had anything to do with that.”

Sloane stiffened at his tone and spun around, facing the wolf, “are you accusing me of something?”

Kai smirked and shrugged, “you didn’t cast a spell on them to make them act like that, did you?”

“Of course not! Why would I?”

“Because if some of my pack members love you, it would be easier for me to accept you.”

“That’s ridiculous, Kai. I think when I healed them it made a slight bond. They’ll get over it in a couple days. I already told you I’m not evil.” She walked towards him so that she could clearly look into his eyes and so that he could hear her heartbeat better. “I’m not out to get you and your pack. So you can relax.”

Kai blinked at her, noticing her heartbeat remain steady. He clenched his jaw and snatched the chocolate cupcakes from Sloane’s grasp. Spinning on his heels, he returned to the living room where the others were waiting for them to return.

Sloane sunk into a stool near her, holding her head in her hands, feeling slightly exhausted from dealing with Kai’s attitude and distrust.

She was going to win him over somehow.

“You alright?” Sloane lifted her head to see Jongdae watching her anxiously.

“Yeah. Fine,” she tried to smile, but it wouldn’t stay on for long.

“Don’t mind Kai,” Jongdae advised, walking over to the girl with his hands in his pockets and a warm smile on his face. “He’s all bark.”

She laughed at that, “He doesn’t seem to trust very easily.”

Jongdae shook his head at that, “nope. It took him ages to warm up to me, actually.”

“Really?”

Jongdae’s grin stretched mischievously, “I appeared out of nowhere, kind of like you did. He had no idea what to do with me, and I got on his nerves. It just takes him some time.” He worked up the courage to place his hand on Sloane’s back, rubbing it reassuringly. “Will you please come join us? I have to whoop your asses at Apples to Apples again.”

Sloane rolled her eyes and pushed him away, following him out into the living room.

~*~

“Sloane! Sit next to me!” Sehun called as soon as Sloane stepped into their shared history class. She smiled and took a step, but as soon as she did, Jongdae ran into the room, wrapped his arm around her waist and dragged her away to sit next to him. Sehun stared in disbelief before he whined and began sulking, and a few girls that were sitting behind him started quietly squealing to themselves.

Jongdae began laughing hysterically and Sloane started questioning whether coming here was a good idea after all.

“Mr. Kim!” Their history teacher, Professor Park, barked once she entered the room. “Control yourself or I’m kicking you out… again!”

Jongdae waved his hand dismissively, but tried to contain his chuckles.

Their teacher began lecture and Jongdae leaned over to Sloane, “tomorrow’s Saturday.”

Sloane nodded her head; taking notes quickly before turning to Jongdae, “are you scared?”

He scoffed, “are you kidding? This is a part of who I am. I’ve been doing this for years now, it’s routine.”

“So why are you reminding me of it?”

“Because I can practically smell the tension on you. You’re not planning on going against Kai’s order, are you?”

Sloane blinked rapidly at her fellow classmate and shook her head vehemently, “no, no, that’s not it.”

“Well, what is it then?”

“I…”

“Sloane…”

She sighed, but before she could tell him what was going on in her head, Professor Park called on her. She answered her question correctly—annoying her teacher in the process—and returned back to her conversation, “I, uh, had a dream last night.”

Jongdae nodded slowly, “that usually happens when people sleep.”

“Jongdae!” Sloane grinned. “I’m being serious. I had a dream that… well, I can’t really remember what happened, but I remember my emotions, the urgency, the full moon, and fur… lots of it. Something is going to happen tomorrow, something out of the ordinary.”

“Are you psychic?”

“No, but I am incredibly intuitive. Also, I broke a vase yesterday!”

“What does that have to do with anything,” Jongdae questioned, truly concerned for the girl’s sanity.

Sloane grew distracted as the boy in front of her began answering a question. Jongdae watched as her eyebrows scrunched together and her eyes widened in realization, her eyes never leaving his neck.

“Earth to Sloane? You okay?” Jongdae waved his hand in front of her, causing her to come back to reality. “Did you just have a vision?”

“I… did I zone out?” Sloane seemed genuinely confused.

Jongdae pursed his lips. “You were staring at that kid as if he had a bug on his back.” Sloane tried to recall what she was thinking about, but came up empty.

“Great answer as always. Sehun, why don’t you elaborate on what Mr. Zhang was saying?” Professor Park said, staring at Sehun expectantly.

“Uh… I believe he covered it all, Professor?”

Sloane face palmed and Jongdae began his manic laughter again, causing both him and Sehun to get thrown out of class.

Sloane and Jongdae’s conversation was forgotten for the rest of the class.

~*~

“I made dinner!” Sloane’s voice was heard as soon as the door swung open. Six exhausted young werewolves stumbled into the kitchen with relief as the waft of stew overwhelmed their senses. The table was covered in plates and bowls and beside it stood Sloane with a nervous grin on her face.

“Sloane! You shouldn’t have!” Jongdae cried while Tao pulled her into a tight hug.

“You’re a life saver!” Chanyeol praised, quickly yanking a chair back to plop onto it. “Kai was promising us he’d cook and I really wasn’t in the mood for burnt kimchi fried rice.”

“Hey!” Kai barked, eyes slits with the promise of death as he glowered at Chanyeol.

“What? it’s true!” Chanyeol stuck his tongue out at his alpha.

“What did you make?” Sehun inquired, glancing around the crowded table. Kyungsoo smiled appreciatively at the girl before sitting down as well.

“Well, I cooked a stew with astragalus roots in it, some beef, a salad, and warm agrimony tea.”

Once everyone was settled, they all began eating, the moans of pleasure didn’t go unnoticed to Sloane, and she bit back a smile, pleased that her cooking skills were still up to par.

“This is, without a doubt, the best stew I’ve ever had!” Tao squealed.

“Sorry, Kyungsoo,” Kai grinned at the smaller boy, who just rolled his eyes and took a sip of his tea.

“His stew is still better than your kimchi fried rice,” Jongdae muttered and yelped as Kai kicked him underneath the table.

“What did you say was in the stew and tea?” Kai asked Sloane soon after, acting as if he had not just given Jongdae’s shin a nice purple bruise.

Sloane slurped some broth before answering his question, “astragalus roots and agrimony.”

“Are those the plants that you found in your books?” Kyungsoo asked.

She nodded, impressed that he remembered. “Yeah, astragalus helps increase energy, both the body and mind. It will help you with fatigue and unclear decisions. While agrimony helps keep away negative energy and spirits as well as keeping a level head.”

Kai’s chewing slowed as Sloane continued talking. He blinked at her, and she must have felt his gaze, because she looked up at him.

“Is this your way of helping us?” He questioned. She nodded and quickly broke eye contact, awaiting a scolding.

“Thank you, Sloane,” his voice was strained, but Sloane could hear his sincerity. “I should have known you would find a loophole.”

“Aw! Our Sloane is so smart!” Tao gushed with a full mouth. He ruffled the girl’s hair.

“Our…Our Sloane?” She choked. Tao began laughing, murmuring a ‘how cute’.

“Are you still anxious, Sloane?” Jongdae asked soon after.

She glared at him and Kyungsoo cocked an eyebrow, “why were you anxious?”

“I…” Jongdae began his manic laughter and Sloane threw a carrot at him. It shut him up immediately and he pouted, feeling betrayed that Sloane would use violence against him. “It’s nothing really. I promised that I wouldn’t get involved…”

“But?” Chanyeol pushed.

“But… be on guard tomorrow. I feel something will happen, something different.”

“Good different or bad different?” Sehun asked.

She shrugged, “that’s up for you to decide.”

“She also broke a vase,” Jongdae added.

“Jongdae!” Sloane shook her head at him, and his lips seemed to glue together. His eyes widened and he pushed away from the table, causing him and his chair to stumble backwards.

“Now you get why I’m always beating him up, “ Kai sighed as the table burst into laughter.

Sloane just scratched her head and drank her tea, “I really did break a vase though, is there any way I can get you to lend me six dollars?”

“Mmm!” Jongdae yelled from the floor where he was practically convulsing, pulling at the pink flesh of his lips in an attempt to rip them apart.

“Shut up!” Kai ordered.

“It’s your fault you’re in this situation!”

“You really would try to act that way towards a witch and not expect her to retaliate?”

“Hey! I’m not a witch! You want your lips merged too?!”

“No! I’m trying to defend you!”

Outside the moon shown bright, nearly full with the promise of change.

~*~

“I’m curious,” Jongdae murmured sleepily the next day. “Why are we watching a movie about a werewolf hunter?”

“Van Helsing also killed vampires,” Sloane informed, running her fingers through Tao’s brown hair where his head sat comfortably on her lap. He began purring like a kitten.

“I still don’t get why we are watching it, regardless of what he murdered,” Sehun scrunched his nose at a particularly violent scene.

Kyungsoo sighed, “it’s an attempt at distraction. But… it really isn’t working very well.”

“Where’s Kai?” Chanyeol asked.

“He couldn’t stomach the plot,” Kyungsoo shrugged.

“He’s not the only one,” Jongdae muttered.

“Will you guys just relax?” Sloane asked. “You’re transforming in less then twenty-four hours. Eat, rest, and enjoy a cool action flick with both a hot leading and supporting role and horribly depicted werewolves.”

“The werewolves are a bit much,” Kyungsoo relented with a soft chuckle.

“I wish I was that muscular when I shifted,” Tao yawned.

“Those vampires don’t seem that far off though…” Chanyeol mentioned, causing a chilling silence to take over.

Sloane let out a gust of breath and a few of the boys glanced over at her.

“Don’t worry about us too much, Sloane,” Jongdae said. He threw her a reassuring grin after sensing her distress.

“Yeah, we’re big boys,” Chanyeol added, flexing one of his biceps and sending the girl a wink.

“I know. I don’t even know why I’m so worried, honestly. I hardly know any of you.”

“It’s because we’re so handsome,” Tao provided, his eyes still closed.

Sloane lightly smacked his arm and rolled her eyes, “and so dumb.”

“We’ll be okay, Sloane,” Kyungsoo assured with a warm smile. “We always are.”

~*~  

“Look who has finally graced us with his presence!” Sehun yelled as Kai stumbled down the stairs a few hours later.

“Sloane made us have a werewolf marathon,” Tao informed his leader with a slight pout.

“All of them sucked, especially that shape shifting one,” Chanyeol added.

“Um, Blood and Chocolate was actually pretty decent. You have to admit that,” Sloane said. Chanyeol just shrugged.

“Well, I obviously haven’t missed much. It’s go time, you all ready?”

“But, the moon isn’t even all the way out yet!” Sloane said, her eyes widening with alarm.

Kai smirked, “we have to prepare some things. We shift pretty far from the house.”

“But—”

“It’s going to be fine!” Sehun drawled, throwing his arms around her shoulders. “You worry too much.”

“Can I at least—”

“Nope,” Kai interrupted, popping the P.

Sloane groaned with frustration, “then what am I supposed to do?”

Kai shrugged, “watch movies about witches. I heard that The Blair Witch Project is a good one.”

“Not cool,” Kyungsoo chastised as he walked past his best friend to grab some bags.

“What’s in the bags?” Sloane questioned, plopping back on the couch in defeat. She watched as Kyungsoo distributed the bags so that each boy got one.

“Snacks, extra clothes, first aid. Just things we will need if we change back early for whatever reason.”

“That happens?”

“Occasionally. It’s rare.”

“Usually, if we get wounded pretty badly or knocked unconscious, we’ll turn back to our human form,” Jongdae mentioned.

“Oh…”

“Oh great,” Chanyeol said, throwing his arms in the air. “Now she really is going to panic!”

Kai headed over to where Sloane was seated and knelt in front of her, “we do this every month. We will keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary, but until then, it will be just like always. You really need to chill, we know what we are doing.”

Sloane nodded, “I know, I know. Just be careful… all of you.”

Sehun saluted, “aye, aye, Captain.”

Kai rose to his feet, “I am the captain of this ship, and my first command is to head to the van!”

Sloane smiled as the boys said their farewells. Kyungsoo patted her shoulder, Tao gave her a slimy kiss on her cheek, while Jongdae kissed the top of her head. Chanyeol clipped her chin, Sehun rubbed her arm, and Kai walked out without so much as a wave—which was what Sloane was expecting.

“We’ll be back before you know it,” Sehun whispered to her before rushing to the others, closing the door behind himself. 
Now alone, Sloane let out a shaky breath and played with her gold necklace, hoping that their confidence would get them through the night.

~*~

“She is really worried for us,” Jongdae mentioned as they all piled into the van.

Chanyeol jumped into the driver’s seat, Kai in the passenger, while the other four climbed into the back.

“It’s nice,” Chanyeol admitted as he pulled out of the driveway. “She’s like a mother. It’s kind of cute watching her fret over us like that.”

The guys in the back nodded in agreement.

“I just hope she doesn’t do anything stupid,” Kai muttered, closing his eyes and sinking into his seat, mentally preparing himself for what was to come.

The ride was mostly silent, as they made their way to the outskirts of the forest. The moon seemed almost reachable as Chanyeol haphazardly parked and they all filed out. They were in a small circular clearing; the trees in the area were easily fifteen feet, hovering high above their heads.

“You all ready?” Kai asked, locking eyes with each member of his pack and receiving a nod from each. “Alright, here we go.”

It took a few moments, as the moon slowly began to reveal itself. The wolves became anxious, hobbling from foot to foot, claiming to have to pee, and telling stale jokes to pass the time. But soon, they began to feel the shift.

Chanyeol was the first to change. He yelped, startling the other five, as he tumbled to the ground. With his last bit of sanity, he quickly yanked his clothes off, not wanting to destroy them during the shift.

Jongdae whistled, “looking good, Channie!”

“Fuck off!” Chanyeol roared before screaming in agony. Sehun winced as Chanyeol’s arms twisted in odd angles. The others undressed quickly, knowing their turn was soon.

Kyungsoo was the next to begin shifting. Tao, Sehun and Kai quickly joining him. Jongdae blinked in surprise, Chanyeol was practically full wolf now, his russet fur blowing in the breeze, as his snout started to form.

“I’m not shifting,” Jongdae spoke from the corner of his mouth nervously, knowing none of the others were listening, too distracted by the pain. “Uh…” He glanced around and glared at the moon, “what are you doing?! Let’s go! I’m on the clock!”

Chanyeol was full wolf then and his fire orange orbs stared at Jongdae, almost mockingly.

“Oh, shut up!” Jongdae snapped. He cursed loudly right after, feeling the bones in his feet break and expand.

“There we go!” He cheered with his signature laugh as he began to shift.

The shift took around ten minutes to endure, and slowly, the boys changed into wolves. Once Jongdae’s white and black fur fully covered his new body, the six wolves howled, quickly taking off through the familiar forest.

Quick as lightening, the beasts raced through the land, leaping over fallen logs with their tongues lolling out their mouths. A few roughhoused, snapping at each other’s necks, while others chased after squirrels and other small animals. The sense of freedom they felt while they were wolves was indescribable. Although the shift was painful, being a wolf brought a joy that made it somewhat bearable.

A couple hours passed with the six pups playing and running around. Jongdae and Sehun were play fighting, Kai and Kyungsoo were racing one another, Tao got distracted by a frog, while Chanyeol was chasing his tail.

While running, Kai suddenly stopped, causing Kyungsoo to become distracted and hit a tree. After shaking it off he studied his leader. Kai was stiff as a board, the chocolate brown fur on his back slowly rising and his gold eyes glowing brightly against the darkness. He began growling menacingly, and that’s when Kyungsoo smelt it.

He whipped his head in the direction Kai was glowering and joined his low growling. Kai let out a quick bark, and soon, the other wolves joined the two. Immediately smelling a threat, they all snarled dangerously low.

Finally, the threat came into focus.

Another wolf, about as big as them, hesitantly made its way towards the group. It had ashy grey fur and sapphire eyes. It made it clear it wasn’t looking for a fight…

But he was on Kai’s territory.

With a sharp bark, Kai charged the lone wolf, his pack following immediately. They began fighting with the wolf, but he was stronger than anticipated. He was able to ward off Chanyeol and Sehun, and dodge Kyungsoo and Tao’s advances, but Kai surprised him, coming at him from his right and causing him to land on his side.

He immediately rolled onto his back in surrender, but Kai was seeing red. He dug his teeth into the beast’s flesh, causing him to howl in pain. Somehow he was able to get Kai off of him and bite him back in defense. Once free, he turned to run away, but was wounded, and wasn’t as fast as he could have been. Kai, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo were hot on his heels, and once again pinned him onto the moist ground.

The exhausted animal closed his eyes, tired of fighting them off, and awaited the deathblow Kai was so eager to give.

Before he could finish the wolf off, Kai was knocked over. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol growled in surprise as Jongdae stood protectively in front of the other wolf. He huffed and shook his head. Kai got back on his paws and barked, ordering Jongdae to move, but the pup remained in front of the wolf, who was now unconscious.

Sehun and Tao joined the rest, ears perked with wonder, as they watched the confrontation.

Kyungsoo yelped in surprise as his attention was brought back to the strange wolf—who was a wolf no longer.

A boy around their age now lay were the wolf once had. Realization hit them all slowly—except for Jongdae, who had pieced everything together while Kai was blood hungry—and panic slowly took over the situation.

Another werewolf had shown up on their turf and approached them, probably asking to join them, and what did they do? They attacked him, nearly killing him in the process. Four out of seven wolves present were covered in blood, but the boy had bite wounds on his neck and belly, and blood was pouring profusely out of them. Almost without thinking, Kai dragged the boy unto his back and took off, rushing towards his house, to Sloane, who he knew could help the boy. He heard the pounding of his members’ paws against the rough earth as they followed him, some limping. It was a race against the sun, which was beginning to rise over the horizon.

It took about thirty minutes to get back to the house. Kai yipped once he saw the familiar wood of his home, but as soon as he left the clearing of the trees, he stumbled and fell, convulsing as his human form began to resurface.

One by one, the boys began to shift back to their human forms. Kai tried to crawl to the door, as he was still changing back with an unconscious guy still on top of his back. It was a struggle, but he was able to bang on the door, leaving blood stained handprints in his wake.

“Sloane!” He croaked, his voice was still laced with his wolf. “Sloane! Please help!”

Exhaustion got the better of him and he relented. He was aware long enough to see the door swing open and smiled with relief as a startled Sloane appeared before him.

~*~

Could it be possible for silence to be so loud it could startle someone awake? That’s what Kai’s first humane thought was as he jerked from his sleep. He was disoriented, still stuck between his wolf and human minds, but as he began blinking into focus, he realized that he was in fact human.

He sighed, running a hand over his face as the night’s events began surfacing. He was in his bedroom, clad in only a pair of black boxer briefs. He glanced at the clock on his nightstand—three forty-six. He checked the skin of his stomach, remembering he took a hit, but saw that his slight wounds were already closed in a fading pink.

He still had dried blood under his fingernails.

With a groan he climbed out of bed, trudging down to the living room. Once down there, he noticed that the television was off. Everything was off and it was silent. The silence made him feel incredibly guilty of his behavior, and he needed some type of distraction.

Chanyeol, Tao, and Kyungsoo were all in the living room, asleep. Tao on a couch, Kyungsoo siting up in the armchair, his chin resting on his bare chest, while Chanyeol’s tall frame was sprawled on the floor.

Kai headed over to the kitchen and saw Sehun sipping on a glass of milk. They locked eyes and Sehun bowed his head a bit in greeting, his face blank of any emotion.

“How long have you been up?” Kai asked the younger boy, his voice still rough with sleep.

Sehun shrugged, “about twenty minutes. The groaning woke me up.”

Kai cocked an eyebrow but didn’t question. “Where’s Sloane and….” He dropped his head, the guilt closing up his throat.

Sehun sighed, leaning back in his chair and drinking more of his milk, “in her room.”

Kai patted the wall before heading down the hall to his roommate’s room. After some hesitation, he knocked quietly.

“Come in,” he heard her say, and did as he was told.

Sloane was sitting on the floor in the middle of her room, Jongdae sat at her desk, looking the most serious he ever has, and on the bed laid the werewolf Kai tried to kill. He gulped, seeing him in the light. His wounds were closed, but the dried blood still remained.

“He was having trouble earlier, but he’s all healed now,” Sloane informed, her eyes never leaving the stranger’s sleeping form. “You got him pretty good.”

“I didn’t know,” Kai said.

“I know.”

“I did,” Jongdae admitted. His voice was hard with anger, and when he locked eyes with Kai, they were stern and shown a bright hazel—his wolf’s eyes. “I tried to get you to stop.”

“You did,” Kai sighed, looking down at his bare feet.

“There’s a question I can’t get out of my head, Kai. I keep wondering what would you have done if he hadn’t shifted back? Would you have killed me too? Just to get to him?”

“Jongdae! You know I wouldn’t.”

Jongdae shook his head, “how could you be so careless? How could you let your bloodlust take control over you like that? You weren’t you, man….”

Kai kept his head low like a scolded child, knowing he deserved this.

“You nearly killed someone, and for what? What reason, Kai? Because he was in your territory? Please, you don’t kill someone who approaches you with caution! You don’t deliver a deathblow to a wolf who has his fucking belly up in surrender!”

“Jongdae!” Sloane called. She spun around to see her usually casual and goofy friend. He was glaring at Kai, his chest heaving. “You’re going to wake him up.”

Jongdae stood up and walked out the room, but when he was in front of Kai he muttered, “I’m disappointed in you, Leader.”

Once he was out of the room, Sloane sighed and Kai sat where Jongdae was sitting prior.

“He’s right,” he confessed, running his fingers through his hair to yank on the strands. “What was I thinking?”

“You told me that it was dangerous,” Sloane began, after a small silence. “You being a wolf. You said that you don’t have complete control; that the wolf takes over. You saw a threat and proceeded to get rid of it.”

“But Jongdae is right. When he approached us, he was cautious, letting us know he didn’t want any trouble. Still, I attacked him. Even when he was surrendering, I was all too willing to end his life. I’ve never been like that before. It scares me.”

Sloane sighed, sitting a tad straighter. “I know this guy.”

“What?” Kai’s arms fell limply at his side.

“I mean, I don’t know know him, but I saw him earlier this week.”

Kai didn’t know what to say to that.

“At least you stopped,” Sloane continued. “At least you were able to get him here safely.”

“Not without him nearly bleeding out.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m here then, huh?”

They sat in silence, watching the boy sleep. He had pale skin and jet-black shaggy hair. His face was blessed with angelically soft features and his build was sturdy, yet lanky.

He began twitching in his sleep, and with a loud gasp, the boy sprang forward. His bare chest was shiny with sweat and was rising and falling quickly.

He sensed the two in the room and jerked his head towards them, “who are you!?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Sloane murmured with a soft, yet dazzling smile.

The boy looked confused, his eyes wandering back and forth between Sloane and Kai as his nose flared.

Finally, his eyes widened with realization as they bored into Kai, “You…you tried to kill me!”

Kai winced. Of course, he would recognize his scent.

“I—”

“Don’t worry about him right now,” Sloane interrupted. “As a matter of fact, he’s leaving.”

“I am?”

“Yes,” She said sternly.

Hesitantly, Kai left the room, shuffling back to the living room where the others were sitting, awake and aware.

“We heard him. Is he awake?” Kyungsoo asked.

Kai met his eyes briefly before nodding.

“Come here,” Kyungsoo ordered, pulling his leader down on the chair with him. “We’re not angry with you, Jongin.”

“One of you are.”

“Jongdae will get over it,” the shorter boy assured. “Don’t beat yourself up, alright?” Kai didn’t answer, so Kyungsoo punched him slightly on the arm. “Alright?”

Kai nodded again and sniffed, not wanting to cry in front of his members.

~*~

“Do you remember me?” Sloane asked the werewolf, who had relaxed somewhat since his attempted murderer left the room.

He studied her and slowly nodded, “the girl… I bumped into you earlier. You dropped your books….”

“And you caught them all before they had the chance to even hit the ground. I should have realized it then, but I still don’t know much about werewolves.”

He blinked at her.

“I’m sorry about what happened last night. I’m not even sure they all know what happened, but I know they are all incredibly sorry. Especially the one that was in here. He’s the leader of this pack.”

“And what are you? You’re definitely not a werewolf.”

Sloane grinned, “That I am not. I’m not sure what I am. I hope you don’t mind, one of your wounds was infected, so I took the liberty to help with healing you.”

The werewolf reached up to his neck, but was met with smooth flesh. He sighed with relief and glanced back at the girl, “you’re overflowing my senses with your power. Are you a witch?”

“No,” she answered, mostly out of habit.

He stared at her in wonder.

“Are you hungry?” He shook his head. “Are you tired?” He shook his head again. “Are you going to tell me your name, at least?”

He finally broke into a smile, and it was beautiful, “Baekhyun. Byun Baekhyun.”

“Hello, Baekhyun. My name is Sloane Collins. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“You as well.”

“One of the members brought you some clothes… It’s not much, but it would probably be easier on the both of us if you were clothed.”

Baekhyun glanced down at himself and his face turned an endearing bright red.

Sloane chuckled and placed the pair of shorts and plain white shirt on her bed, “I’ll be in the living room. It’s right down the hall.”

He smiled at her appreciatively as she headed out.

Sloane fell on top of the couch with a huff. Sehun and Jongdae quickly joined the others in the living room and they all stared at her expectantly.

She groaned when she realized all eyes were on her, “what?”

“You know what,” Kai said.

“He’s awake…”

“We know,” Tao sang, pointing at his ears. “What happened? Is he alright?”

“He’s fine… A bit disoriented, but fine.”

“Did he tell you anything about himself?” Kai asked.

“His name is Byun Baekhyun, but that’s all the information I have on him. He’s changing right now, I told him to join us once he is dressed.”

It didn’t take long before Baekhyun was shuffling into view. He nervously glanced around the room at the werewolves before making his way to Sloane, sitting stiffly beside her. He stared at her expectantly, blinking innocently, but jumped as a few of the boys groaned.

“Not you too!” Chanyeol complained, throwing a couch cushion in the air.

“W—what?” The boy asked, utterly confused.

“She healed him,” Kai informed his pack, although none of them realized what that meant.

“Anyways,” Sloane began, demanding their attention. “I believe there is something that needs to be said before we continue any further.”

She gave Kai a meaningful look and he cleared his throat uncomfortably, “I’m sorry, Baekhyun. About last night, I didn’t mean… it was not my intention….”

“It’s alright,” Baekhyun stated with a small smile.

“It’s not!” Kai countered, finally working the nerve to meet the stranger’s gaze. “I was going to kill you.”

“But you didn’t,” Baekhyun said with a shrug. “That’s all that matters.”

The other boys apologized as well, and Baekhyun accepted them graciously.

“Now that that’s all out of the way,” Sloane said. She turned towards the boy, “how did you end up in Kai’s forest last night?”

Baekhyun shifted uncomfortably, “well, I’d been in town for a couple weeks. I knew there was a pack nearby and was waiting to approach you, but I didn’t know what to say. I decided that the full moon would be a good idea, because you would see me as a wolf and not question it… at least, that’s what I had hoped for.”

“Why did you want to meet us?” Kyungsoo asked, handing the boy a glass of water.

“I don’t belong to any pack,” Baekhyun informed once he chugged half the glass. “I’m alone.”

“He’s a rogue?” Tao asked, the pitch of his voice higher with fear. Sehun, Chanyeol, and Kai’s eyes changed into their wolfs’ at the idea of a rogue.

“Calm down!” Jongdae barked. “If he wanted to kill us, we would have a while ago. Not all rogues are vicious anyway.”

The three relaxed, and Jongdae rolled his eyes.

“What happened?” Sloane asked, visibly concerned. “Why are you alone?”

Baekhyun stared at his hands that were wrapped firmly around his cup, his knuckles were snow white from how tightly he gripped it, “I don’t know. I’ve always been.”

“Were you bitten?” Kai asked.

Baekhyun shook his head, “no. I was definitely born a werewolf, but I’m an orphan. The first time I shifted, it was in front of my foster parents. They were so terrified they kicked me out on the spot. I’ve been wandering ever since.

“I told you all I have been here for a few weeks. In that time, I watched you. You seemed like a nice pack, and I was envious—especially of you, Sloane.”

His eyes flickered over to her and he chuckled lowly—self-consciously.

Sloane tilted her head, “why?”

“Because,” his kept eye contact with the magical girl. “You all seemed like a family. I knew you weren’t a werewolf, yet they had accepted you. I wish I could feel accepted.”

“You can,” Sloane whispered, and she smiled reassuringly at him. “You can. With us. Right guys?”

She scanned the six pack mates. They were silent, for whatever reason. All of them avoided her gaze.

“Kai?” She tried. 

He scratched his chin and whined silently before meeting her gaze, “what? You want him to stay with us too? As if I have the room?”

The hostility in his voice caused Baekhyun to flinch and his shoulders to slump. 

Sloane was unperturbed, “If he doesn’t have anywhere else to stay, I don’t see why not. He’s been alone all his life. He needs brothers, Kai. He needs you guys.”

“But I—”

“He can stay at my place.” All heads snapped over to the giant who had been sitting quietly on the floor beside the television for most of the conversation.

“You don’t have to feel obligated to do so, Chanyeol,” Kai assured.

Chanyeol shrugged nonchalantly, “Why not? I highly doubt my parents would mind another werewolf in the house. I don’t have a spare room, but my bedroom has a lot of space, and I wouldn’t mind sharing.”

“You would do that?” Baekhyun breathed in awe, slightly overwhelmed by the hospitality the giant shown.

The two locked eyes and Chanyeol nodded firmly, “I know what it’s like to be an outcast, Baekhyun. No one should have to deal with being a werewolf alone.”

“That’s our little Delta!” Sehun gushed, falling on top of Chanyeol. The two began wrestling on the floor, knocking over a lamp in the process.

“Are you alright with adding another member to your pack, Kai?” Sloane asked the tense alpha.

Kai ran through the events that happened not even twenty-four hours ago. Of him attempting to take Baekhyun’s life. He had no idea what the pup had been through prior to that night, and now the guilt seemed to pile onto his skin like dirt, making him feel grimy and gross.

He gasped for air and looked up, looked at Baekhyun—at the earnest and hopeful look in his eyes—and knew without a doubt, that he wanted him in his pack, “any werewolf is welcome. I’m the alpha of this pack, Kim Jongin, but I go by Kai. From this day on, I will be your alpha, Byun Baekhyun. Welcome to our pack.”

All the boys hooted and hollered. Sehun ran over and ruffled Baekhyun’s hair, yelling incoherently in his ear. Sloane clapped along, a giant smile on her face, but it was dim compared to the one on Baekhyun’s.

“Now that that’s all settled,” Sloane said once the excitement died down. “Will you all please get dressed?! I’ve seen enough naked bodies to last me a lifetime!”

“Hey!” Sehun huffed. “We’re all wearing underwear!”

“I’m sick of all the skin! Are you all not cold!?”

“You know werewolves run hot!”

“That doesn’t mean you have to act as if you think you are hot enough to walk around this house half naked!”

“Whatever, Sloane! Don’t act like you don’t like it!”

“Ew! Sehun, don’t touch me!”

The day ended on a high note, the boys’ surviving another full moon.

3. The Sullen Siblings

The halls were silent.

Almost eerie, considering the time. Byun Baekhyun gulped as his eyes skittered around the dimly lit hall.

His ears perked, noticing the small explosions of heels on tile and he sighed from the familiar sound.

“Are you nervous?” Her voice smooth, sweet, comforting. He couldn’t help but smile at just the mere thought of her, but she was there in his presence, an eyebrow lifted as she studied him.

He cleared his throat and wiped his sweaty palms on his pant legs, “is it that obvious?”

Sloane slowly shook her head, “no. Not for others, at least. Come.”

She grabbed his hand and led him down the hall into the office. It was stuffy and smelled slightly moldy, but Baekhyun tried his best not to cringe.

He hated school.

When he actually attended school, he was bullied relentlessly, but he had faith that this school would be different. He had faith in his pack, in Sloane. Hence why he was allowing her to drag him into the office.

His pack. He still couldn’t believe after nineteen years, he was finally able to say those words.

Apparently, Tao is ridiculously rich, and he begged his parents to yank some strings so that they could get Baekhyun enrolled. As before mentioned, their university was prestigious and private, only accepting the best of the best—also known as the rich of the rich—so it came to no surprise that getting Baekhyun in wasn’t going to be an easy feat.

Unless, of course, you’re Huang Zitao.

Baekhyun couldn’t even feign his surprise by Tao’s generosity. Tao seemed rather… Detached. Unbothered by everything. Baekhyun would even go as far as to classify the tall werewolf as frightening. But when he brought it up to Sloane the night before, she laughed, genuinely confused by his assessment.

“Well, if that’s what you see, it definitely won’t last for long. Trust me.”

The two new students headed over to the desk where the principal’s assistant sat and she printed out Baekhyun’s class schedule.

Once they were out, he kept staring at the piece of paper in awe. Sloane noticed the slight shake of his hand and grinned.

“Would ya look at that? We have biology together.”

Baekhyun’s head snapped up to stare at her, his expression still in that dreamy state of disbelief. “We have a class together?”

She nodded; getting the reaction out of him she wanted. “Yup. Chanyeol is also in that class.”

The sparkle in his eyes nearly tripled.

But then the bell rang.

Doors sprang open and hoards of students trailed out, flooding the halls.

Baekhyun’s nerves got the best of him; flashbacks of his brief time in school making him break out in a cold sweat as shoulders bumped into him. He was instantly aware of his clothes and hair and height and everything he ever was insecure about and he could feel a panic attack crawling up his throat.

A warm soft hand slid into his damp one, tightly gripping his limb and bringing his attention to Sloane.

“You’re okay. You’re here with me.”

“And me,” a deeper voice called and Baekhyun was surprised he could hear it over all the chaos around him.

The hall in front of them seemed to part and about five feet away, Kai, Chanyeol, Tao, and Sehun were making their way towards Baekhyun and Sloane. Kai was the one Baekhyun heard and it made some sense now, because people were quieting down as the boys walked.

Sloane had been at the university for about two weeks now and in that time she had sensed that the boys who she was starting to consider her friends were pretty popular. But, she could admit, she was very ignorant to it all—for there were more important matters to her. But now she was seeing it all first hand and wow how could she not have noticed it before? The way girls—and guys—were not only giving them space, but also how they all giggled and gushed once the guys passed them. Not to mention the ogling….

They were viewed as gods here.

She couldn’t help but to wonder where that put her in the college hierarchy.

It wasn’t looking too good.

She shook away her thoughts and the sense of impending doom and glanced at Baekhyun, who would be a part of all this attention in less than a minute.

He seemed to gather what was coming for him, and his free hand twitched at the hem of his uniform jacket. Sloane could tell how uncomfortable Baekhyun felt in it, as if he were not worthy of such things, and it hurt her soul. She was going to do everything in her power to make sure that beautiful smile of his never faded.

Kai and the gang finally met up with the two and stopped before them.

“Did you get your schedule?” Chanyeol asked Baekhyun.

Baekhyun nodded and practically threw the piece of paper at his new roommate. Chanyeol grinned at the action, but didn’t mention it as his eyes wandered down the sheet. He wasn’t the only one with wandering eyes. A lot of the students were now noticing Baekhyun, and he felt each stare penetrate him like a knife.

“We have biology together,” Chanyeol said. Handing him back the paper.

“I know. Sloane told me.”

“Did she also tell you that you’re sweating like a stripper in church?” Tao commented with a slightly disgusted look on his face.

“I….”

“Leave him alone,” Sloane hissed, narrowing eyes on the taller boy. “It’s his first day and you all are giving him more attention than he needs.”

“Well he better get used to it,” Sehun sighed. “It’s not going to get any easier.”

He sauntered passed them, heading over to his next class.

“He’s right,” Kai murmured to Baekhyun. “The students here… they have nothing better to do with themselves, I guess.”

“Ya’ll are hot and mysterious,” Sloane shrugged. “Of course you are popular.”

Kai scowled.

“You think we’re hot?” Chanyeol smirked, eyes glittering flirtatiously.

Sloane shrugged, unfazed. “I have eyes, Yeol.”

Chanyeol stiffened at the name, “you… you gave me a nickname!”

Kai rolled his eyes, “come on. The bell is about to ring.”

The four dispersed. Baekhyun, Sloane, and Chanyeol had their shared biology class next so they headed there.

The minute walk felt like an eternity to Baekhyun. The whole time his eyes flittered around the hall, taking in everything. A lot of people they passed whispered to one another, gazes trained on the three of them. The hot and popular Park Chanyeol followed by the mysterious new foreigner girl and an equally as attractive new boy. Baekhyun didn’t know how to take the ‘being attractive’ thing, so he decided not to let it get to him.

He also didn’t really like the way people were talking about Sloane.

She told him that his strong need to be around her was a byproduct of her power. That a slight bond had been made between the two of them and it would wear off in a week or so, but he wasn’t so sure. Since the first time he saw her, he knew he wanted to be around her. She had a calmness about her, a gentleness that made him like her.

But he seemed to be the only one.

Everyone they passed was either curious about her or completely disgusted. It made his wolf furious that people were so quick to judge someone they obviously knew nothing about.

Chanyeol must have sensed it, because he glanced at the smaller boy with wide eyes that grew impossibly bigger once he saw the glowing deep ocean blue of his irises.

“Whoa, man!” He whispered so that no one else could hear.

Baekhyun’s eyes snapped shut as he tried to control his wolf. Chanyeol’s big hand came up to rub his back encouragingly and after a short moment, Baekhyun’s melted chocolate colored eyes returned.

“Thought we lost you there for a moment,” Chanyeol said. His face was drawn together with concern as he took in his member’s appearance.

“What happened?” Sloane asked as they slipped into class right before the bell rang.

“The way they were talking about you….” Baekhyun locked eyes with the girl and she gulped. The blue was slowly bleeding into his iris.

“They talk,” Chanyeol dismissed, loosening his already lazy tie even more. “That’s what they do.”

“Not about Sloane,” Baekhyun growled, baring his teeth.

Chanyeol raised an eyebrow, then lifted his hands in surrender. “Alright, Baekhyun. You’re right. Let’s sit down, okay?”

Baekhyun was fighting his wolf again and it caused his senses to skyrocket. Sloane bit her lip in worry as he remained standing in the front of the classroom, the teacher introducing him to the rest. His neck was tight with strain and his eyes were closed in case they weren’t the right color.

He bowed quickly once he was introduced and made his way next to Sloane, who immediately grabbed his hand under their shared table.

The bond between them flared, and Baekhyun gasped as energy ran up his arm.

“You’re alright now,” Sloane grinned mischievously. Leaving Baekhyun stunned, but his wolf was dead silent, and he sighed with relief. “Now listen to the teacher and do good in school, okay? We didn’t get you enrolled so that you can scare everyone.”

“Yes ma’am.”

~*~

“I haven’t even been here the whole day and I’m exhausted,” Baekhyun pouted. His backpack was already trailing behind him on the floor and his jacket was hanging off his shoulders.

“It’s lunch time,” Jongdae began in a warning tone. The two had calculus together which was their class right before lunch break. “You better brace yourself. Chanyeol told me about your wolf coming out this morning.”

Baekhyun groaned, ruffling his dark hair. “I don’t think he will be making another appearance today, but—” he took a deep breath in front of the wide doors to the cafeteria. “Alright. I’m ready.”

Jongdae chuckled and pushed the doors open. The dull hum of multiple conversations exploded and Baekhyun shuddered before entering the giant room behind his pack member.

Out of all the boys, Jongdae was definitely the most caring to Baekhyun. He was sure it had something to do with being the only one without a guilty conscious for attacking him the first full moon together. Jongdae has felt like an older brother for the past days, helping him with whatever issues he has had and always asking him if he is all right. Baekhyun has been thankful.

They grabbed a tray and loaded it with food before Jongdae led Baekhyun to a table nearly filled with familiar faces.

“How is it going so far?” Tao asked curiously.

Baekhyun bit his lip. “Besides nearly going wolf a couple times, it hasn’t been too bad. The classes don’t seem too difficult.”

“Has anybody tried talking to you?” Kyungsoo asked.

Baekhyun shook his head. “No. But I have been getting a lot of stares. It makes me nervous, I don’t like it.”

“I told you earlier that you need to get used to it,” Sehun said. “Hanging out with us, well, we get that a lot.”

“We’re kind of like celebrities,” Jongdae revealed with a relaxed shrug.

“Celebrities?” Baekhyun repeated, eyeing the cafeteria and locking eyes with more people than he would like. “I don’t know….”

[chaoticspacefam]

OC Interview Meme - Saarai Ahaszaai

I was tagged for this again by @deepseacritter, thank you! <3

I think all my mutuals have already been tagged multiple times for this so I’m not gonna add any more specific ones, but if you’re reading this and you wanna do it (or do it again), then feel free to say I tagged you! Yes, I promise I mean you!

Saarai, this time, because I highly doubt Ni’kasi would even turn up to an interview unless someone bribed her XD Rai’s quite happy to talk about things though~

-The Pureblood that strolls in looks a lot taller than the HoloNet cameras have made her seem in the past, she has to duck to get herself through the doorway, mumbling something about “architechts needing to pay more attention to tall people when designing doorways”, before offering the interviewer an apology as she accepts the microphone and pins it to the collar of her robe and takes her seat-

? Name ?  -Though she is tall and imposing at first glance, she seems to exude a very calm, friendly aura as she answers the first of the questions, lounging in the chair in a very casual manner, as if they were having a conversation in someone’s living room and not in a studio- “Saarai Ahaszaai. You can call me Rai, if it’s easier for you.”

? Are you single ? “Wouldn’t you like to know~?” -Saarai hums teasingly, even winking a little at the woman across from her- “But no, and I’m not really looking to add anyone else to the circle right now.”

? Are you happy ?  “Pretty content, yeah!”

? Are you angry ? -the playful smirk fades and she looks slightly worried for a moment- "I don’t look angry, do I? I’m not, I promise.”

? Are your parents still married ? -She smiles again, but this time it is partly sad, and partly wistful- "They’ve both been dead a great many years now. But, I suppose...wherever they went afterwards, they probably still are, yes. From what I do remember of them when we were little, they loved eachother very, very much and I think if there is somewhere we go when we die, that wouldn’t change.”

NINE FACTS

? Birth Place ? “Hah! I don’t think there are many people now that know the name. We call it “Nathema”, now, but...it was very much different when we were little. We spent a lot of time on Dromund Kaas, though, more than at “home” home.”

? Hair Color ?  "I believe you’d call this a sort of dark scarlet?” -she flicks an errant strand back into place over her shoulders-

? Eye Color ? “Yellow, as you can see.” -she leans down a little closer to the camera, to give a better view of them for a moment before straightening up-

? Birthday ? -this question makes the Pureblood throw her head back, teeth glinting in the artificial studio lights as she laughs heartily- "Didn’t your mama teach you it was rude to ask a lady her age, dear? Old enough, I assure you~”

? Mood ? "Content, amused. A little hungry, I didn’t eat before I came here, realising now I probably should have, but oh well!” -the interviewer shifts uncomfortably in her seat, although the phrase was not presented as threatening itself, it wasn’t difficult to notice how sharp those teeth are and they’re clearly uneasy at the thought...-

? Gender ? "Female. Simple as that, nothing extra to add to that one.”

? Summer or winter ? "Summer, absolutely.” -Saarai’s answer is almost immediate, and as she speaks about the cold she visibly shudders- “I don’t do well in winter, far too cold for me. Nopeeee.”

? Morning or afternoon ? "Early morning is best, just as the sun is rising. It’s very beautiful, almost peaceful.” -she smiles once again, as relaxed as ever-

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE -She quirks a browstalk in surprise, but sinks back into the seat and nods a little, as if giving the interviewer permission to continue-

? Are you in love ? -She answers without hesitation- "Yes, I am. They’re both amazing.”

? Do you believe in love at first sight ? "Mmmhh, yes.” -Saarai has to consider this question in a little more detail before she can truly give an answer, nodding slowly- “I suppose that I do. But I’ve been told by my sister that I have a habit of “falling for people too easily”, as she calls it, so perhaps that has something to do with it.”

? Who ended your last relationship ? "It was a mutual separation.” -the Pureblood shrugs simply, not seeming awfully upset by it- “She and I wanted different things and we realised it just wasn’t going to work out, so we broke it off.”

? Have you ever broken someone’s heart ? "Not intentionally, but it would be wrong of me to assume that it’s never happened at all.”

? Are you afraid of commitments ? -this time, Saarai snorts, partly in amusement with perhaps a slight undertone of annoyance- "No. I’m not. It’s absolutely possible to be committed to more than one person at a time and I assure you I’m perfectly equipped to do just that.”

? Have you hugged someone within the last week? -Her demeanour softens almost instantly at this question and she smiles warmly- “Yes. My sister, and my son, and my partners. Why, did you need one? I’m told I give good hugs, pointy bits aside.”

? Have you ever had a secret admirer ? "Not that I’m aware of, but I suppose that’s what makes them a secret admirer, eh?”

? Have you ever broken your own heart? -the gentleness vanishes from her eyes and they lock with the interviewer’s intensely. While the gaze itself is not threatening, it’s very clear that she doesn’t wish to talk about this topic further and would like to move on- “Yes. Twice.”

SIX CHOICES

? Love or lust ? -She seems relieved to have left the previous topic unanswered, her smile slowly returning as she continues- “Definitely love over lust. Lust without the love is a very empty, lonely thing.”

? Lemonade or iced tea ? "Do you know, I don’t think I’ve ever had either?” -Saarai’s browstalks pull downwards into a thoughtful frown as she concludes- “Iced tea sounds...interesting, though. I’d probably try that.”

? Cats or Dogs ? “Again, I’ve never had either, but if I had to pick one, I guess a cat sounds nice.”

? A few best friends or many regular friends ? "Why not both? I wouldn’t tell regular friends things I told my best friends, but that doesn’t make them not my friends.”

? Wild night out or romantic night in ? "Romantic night in.” -she huffs softly and shakes her head- “I don’t mind a drink or two every now and then, but I’d much rather be at home with my partners.”

? Day or night ? -She smiles wistfully again- “Night time. Before he died, my father used to take my sister and I outside to stargaze when we were little. Doing that now reminds me of him.”

FIVE FOUR HAVE YOU EVERS

? Been caught sneaking out ? "Caught? No, I haven’t.”

? Fallen down/up the stairs ? -the Pureblood’s browstalks shoot upwards and she looks somewhat accusing, this time- “What did Aria tell you? That was one time! One!”  

? Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? "More often than I’d like to admit.” -Saarai snorts in amusement, shaking her head to herself- “I believe you’d call me a “hopeless romantic”, if you will.”

? Wanted to disappear ? -She looks down a little, but eventually does meet the interviewer’s gaze again- "Yeah. I suppose I did. It seemed like it would’ve been easier, at the time.”

FOUR PREFERENCES

? Smile or eyes ? "Both?”

? Shorter or Taller ? "Usually shorter, that’s just...easier, at the end of the day.” -with how tall she is, this answer was to be expected-

? Intelligence or Attraction ? “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find intelligence very attractive...”

? Hook-up or Relationship ? "Long-term? A relationship. I get attached easily, but I’m not above a few one-nighters here and there, if the opportunity presents itself~”

FAMILY

? Do you and your family get along ?  "My twin sister and I are, yeah. I haven’t seen my uncles for a very long time, but I’d like to think we’re still close and we’ll see each other again sometime soon.” -she smiles gently- “And my son, of course. He knows he can come to me for anything. But, that’s it...that’s the family, or what’s left of us anyway.”

? Would you say you have a “messed up life” ? -the Pureblood tilts her head, going quiet for a long-ish while- “By Sith standards, I suppose no. Not with the way the Empire’s been these days. In terms of how it affected me? A little, but I picked myself back up and we’re doing okay.”

? Have you ever ran away from home ? “I don’t consider it running from home. I ran from the place that used to be home, because it stopped being that way. I’m home now.“

? Have you ever gotten kicked out ? "Nnnn, nah. I’m gonna say no, on this one.”

FRIENDS

? Do you secretly hate one of your friends ? -Saarai hesitates before answering this time, worrying at her lip with one of her fangs- "I don’t know whether I would say “hate”, that’s a very strong word. But “dislike”, yeah, one of them a little.”

? Do you consider all of your friends good friends ? "Most of them, though I trust a few more than others.”

? Who is your best friend ? "Probably Ni’kasi. Or Koth. Can I say both of them? I don’t know if I can pick.”

? Who knows everything about you ? "Ni’kasi again. She’s been in my life the longest, I mean, we’re twins so...that’s kind of a given isn’t it?”