#basically it looks like a bomb went off in this certain corner of my room where i keep all my 'paper records'

[cartoon-skeleton]

Incomplete experiment, but I like it

[the-sweet-madame]

ᴀ ꜰᴀɪʟᴇᴅ ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘɪɴɢ (𝘟𝘪𝘢𝘰 𝘹 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳, 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘈𝘜)

Summary: Reader gets kidnapped but literally knocks out everyone, then Xiao comes whom is her bodyguard. I just really wanted to call him a pretty boy, okay?

Female reader! Happy reading :)

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"Well, it seems that you took a lot longer to arrive here than I anticipated, pretty boy," [Y/N]'s lips curled into a smirk as she stepped over the bodies, making sure to rub her black leathery shoes right in their faces as the sound of their bones cracking and loud groans of pain echoed through the room.

Xiao's golden eyes narrowed, "It's going to be a pain to clean this up."

Xiao was sent to go “rescue her” as she was kidnapped around an hour ago, honestly, the people who kidnapped her were quite dumb to leave their location on a piece of paper and asking for money from an obvious dangerous and rich family. The place she was kept in seemed like it went through hell and back and experienced a massive earthquake in the middle of it then was left for a couple of years. Spider webs occupied the corners of the entrance, the paint chipped off in certain places with cracks and holes in the walls. The “house” was nowhere stable.

Her shoes clicked against the wooden planks, the female giggling when she was at least an arm’s length away from him. She took half a step forward and placed two fingers under his chin, lifting it up. Her thumb brushed against his sharp jawline lightly, the tips of his hair tickling her hand. His skin was soft and delicate to the touch, it could be compared to silk.

“That’s better, keep your head up so I can see your pretty face,” A playful smile tugged at the corners of [Y/N]’s lips, her personality was chaotic and carefree, much in contrast to the male in front of her whom is against her actions. She looked into his golden galaxies, though the stars that were supposed to shine in his eyes were hollow. His cold glare hardened; any normal person would’ve been intimidated by him first glance, but it was such a beautiful sight to [Y/N].  

He lightly pushed her hand away, ignoring the tingly sensation that stung him as soon as she came in contact with his porcelain like skin. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in her, something about her wildness was intriguing. Seeing her up close was certainly a pleasing sight. Her long lashes fluttered slightly, her bottom lashes tickling the slightly visible flakes of red, her [e/c] eyes full of wonders and most likely mischief.

“Your carelessness is bothersome,” Xiao’s scowl deepened slightly before he added, “And that’s what got you kidnapped in the first place.”

“But I knocked them all out, didn’t I? Besides, they were pretty weak anyways,” She laughed and tapped his nose, “Stop frowning, or your face will always be like that. And that would be a great shame since you have such a pretty face.”

“Don’t touch my face,” Xiao snarled, honestly, he could not tell if him taking a liking to her was something to regret or not.

Dating her is basically dating a bomb. Chaos and bold is what she is. But she was so irresistible to him to the point where it drove him mad, but he still kept his stoic demeanour.

“I’ll think about it,” She winked and opened the window of the room that was at the edge of the room, yet again stepping on the bodies purposely as she made her way there.  “Also, please call Lia to clean up this mess! Please and thank you!”

“Wait-” Xiao silently groaned, she was already out the window.

“Why must I deal with this chaotic creature?” He muttered dialling Lia’s number on his phone.

[my-soul-sings]

kiss the girl: ch 5

Fandom: Tears of Themis Characters: Artem x Reader

Summary: Armed with a trusty book, Artem Wing attempts to win the woman of his dreams.

ch 1 | ch 2 | ch 2 extra (ft. marius) | ch 3 | ch 4 | ch 5

***

“Surprise him with flowers.”

It all began one morning, when you went to Artem’s office to look for a case file, and stumbled across a certain incriminating book that was hiding in his drawer.

The title said it all: “The Psychology of Love”. The contents of the book were even more damning—flipping it open took you naturally to the page where a plain black bookmark had been inserted, and you found yourself reading a chapter about practical tips for wooing a woman.

As you read the book, you’d periodically look over your shoulder every now and then in case Artem arrived and caught you red-handed (although you were technically only going through his drawer because you were looking for a case file that he had told you to find in his office).

You immediately recognised the practical pointers as the things Artem had been putting into practice lately. The flowers, the compliments, the dinner… What you’d initially thought was odd behaviour on his part suddenly all made sense, and it basically confirmed your suspicions that perhaps your boss did have feelings for you, and that yours weren’t one-sided like you had thought after all.

The revelation had your cheeks warming and your lips spreading into a huge grin. All that had to be done now was for both of you to confess and then you’d officially start dating, just as you had hoped for a while now.

The next question then was how to go about doing it. You considered asking him about the book directly, but that wouldn’t be any fun at all. Sure, you might get a laugh out of seeing Artem’s ears turn red and his words coming out in a timid stutter, but you wanted to be more creative with this.

And as you scanned through the book, a brilliant plan began to formulate in your mind. One that had your smile turning from gleeful, innocent and warm, to something a little more wicked. Just a little.

With all that Artem had been doing for you lately, naturally, it was only right that you returned the favour.

***

Artem’s morning routine hasn’t changed much as far as he can remember. In the mornings, he makes breakfast, a cup of coffee, then drives to work and enters the office building. He’ll greet his colleagues who are already all set up in the office and doing their work or rushing some prep work before going to court, and then settle down in his room to check his emails.

It’s not a particularly exciting routine, but Artem has gotten used to his life as a working adult; more routines, less surprises and spontaneity.

That’s why Artem isn’t used to being surprised, or having to figure out at 10am why his colleagues keep staring at him or greeting him with vaguely suspicious smiles on their faces. With every step he takes through the office he can feel their eyes on him, like visitors eyeing an animal in a zoo exhibit.

Artem wonders if it’s something about his appearance, but he’s wearing the same thing he usually does, and he has combed his hair like always. Besides, he also subtly checked to make sure his zipper wasn’t down when he first noticed his colleagues acting strange, so that can’t be it either.

His mind runs through the many possibilities for his colleagues’ strange behaviours, but can’t think of a reasonable explanation.

Thankfully, he doesn't need to think for long. He finds that explanation placed conspicuously in the centre of his desk, which is usually left clean and neat when he leaves the office for the night.

Artem is so stunned he doesn’t even realise that someone has knocked on his door until he feels a tap on his shoulder and hears a stifled laugh coming from his left.

“Everyone’s been going crazy since the flowers came. Did you send a bouquet of roses to yourself?” Celestine asks between giggles. Artem doesn’t blame her—the sight is quite incriminating. He can’t think of anyone who would send him flowers when there is no occasion to celebrate anything. Not to mention, roses? That’s quite the choice of flowers for someone who is single…

“Did you do this?” Artem asks, turning to her, although even he thinks the accusation is absurd.

“Me? Of course not. Do you know how expensive flowers are? I’d only spend it on my darling—”

“Enough,” he interrupts her, pinching the bridge of his nose and releasing a vexed sigh. First things first, he needs to do something about the flowers before more people see and start gossiping about him.

“You don’t look so happy for someone who just received flowers,” Celestine says, watching as he places his things down on his chair and desk before moving to inspect the gift. He’s eyeing it about as warily as one might a ticking bomb.

“Is it a secret admirer? Or— Don’t tell me, you’ve been making moves on someone else?”

“Of course not,” he hushes her, casting a wary glance towards the window of his office, in case they’re overheard by mistake. She’s not at her desk, and the anxious beating of his heart calms down slightly when he realises she probably hasn’t arrived in the office yet. That gives him some time to dispose of the evidence.

Turning to Celestine, he says in a low voice, “Don’t be so loud. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea.”

Celestine rolls her eyes, folding her arms. “She already saw the flowers.”

“What?” Alarmed, he looks out the window again, but there’s no one at her desk.

“She just dropped her things off on her chair and rushed to the restroom,” Celestine explains in a dismissive tone that does nothing to quell Artem’s concerns.

She’s seen the flowers. She’s going to think that he’s been flirting with someone else, or that he sent flowers to himself. Either way, it doesn’t look good.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” Celestine remarks, scrutinising his expression. He supposes he does. How else should he look? Festive, now that he might have lost his chance at wooing the woman he’s had a crush on for so long?

“Get a grip, Artem. First things first, who are the flowers from?”

Right, right. He should confirm that first. There’s a small card sticking out from the side of the bouquet, and he fishes it out, reading it while keeping it out of view from the curious eyes of Celestine. She immediately fires off protests in response, but he’s taller than her and is able to keep it out of her reach by extending his arm all the way up.

I wasn’t sure what flowers you’d like, so I went with roses, because… well. You should be able to guess why. I’ll see you soon.

It’s a message straight out of a horror movie. Artem doesn’t want to see this person. He doesn’t want anyone to see him with this person, for that matter. He would be ruined beyond repair.

Unfortunately, the card isn’t signed. Not on the front or back, and there’s no other card to be found in the bouquet. So now, he has to deal with a mystery admirer who seems to know where he works or lives. Maybe both.

He briefly contemplates getting a personal protection order but immediately dismisses the thought; there’s no way. It seems his only option left is to wait for this secret admirer (or prankster; he still has his doubts) to track him down.

“Hey! I wanted to read that!” Celestine grumbles when the note is crushed in Artem’s fist and stuffed into his pocket.

“Read something else. You just told me yesterday that you’re drowning in work.”

Not sure where else he can put the bouquet, he decides to put it on the floor, in a corner of his room so it’s less conspicuous to anyone who passes by.

“From how you’re still panicking, I’m guessing the flowers weren’t from her after all?” Celestine asks, clicking her tongue.

“You thought they were from her?”

“Yeah. She saw the flowers in your office this morning and walked away looking quite happy.”

“Oh.” That’s strange, he thought she would be mad. But if she’s happy, that can mean only one of two things: either the flowers were from her, or she’s happy thinking that he has a partner now.

It looks like he’ll be playing a tedious guessing game for the rest of the day and the next couple of sleepless nights.

“I could ask her if you want?” Celestine offers, being helpful for the first time since entering his office.

“That won’t be necessary. I’ll handle it,” he replies, clearing his throat and sitting down. He’s wasted enough time on this—he’ll worry about it after work.

Celestine takes that as her cue to leave, and this time, she graciously doesn’t leave a mocking remark behind when she closes the door.

continue reading on AO3 (see replies to this post) 

[aminiatureworld]

Debris

Characters: Jaehee, Yoosung, gn!reader

Word Count: 2,755

Warnings: Swearing

Premise: In which Rika’s apartment blows up and the reader’s s/o evaluates their emotions.

Author’s Note: I haven’t played Yoosung’s and Jaehee’s routes in about a year so this probably won’t be too canon compliant. That being said it felt great to get back to my fic roots. I Hope y’all enjoyed this nostalgic journey! I especially tried to distinguish their personalities in writing style.

Also, if a whole apartment blew up the building would collapse and most likely everyone inside it and immediately around it would die but we’re going to pretend certain laws of physics and stuff don’t work. Idk maybe Mint Eye used a low explosive like gunpowder.

Jaehee

She hadn’t meant to forget about it, she really hadn’t. It was only, well, life was so complicated at the moment. Work, contemplating what she wanted to do with her life, surely it was enough for one person; even more so for an overworked secretary. Besides, she didn’t want to think about the terrors of the world when she thought of you. Indeed, what did she want to think of when she thought of you?

All these questions swirled around her head. Earlier Jaehee might’ve dismissed such foolish questions. After all, thinking about such things didn’t get meetings done or stop Mr. Han from doing something idiotic again. Jaehee didn’t have the time or the privilege to think about what she wanted in life. It was enough to be here, to have a good paying job and a roof over her head and some semblance of freedom from what she’d left behind.

Maybe it was for that reason that she had forgotten about the apartment situation. Her horizons had already been broadened so much, perhaps there simply wasn’t room for anything else. Even if that anything else included your own safety.

Getting calls from Seven wasn’t necessarily unfamiliar, but nevertheless Jaehee still felt a sense of unease at the number that suddenly appeared right as a company meeting was about to begin. Luciel knew the RFA members’ schedules like the back of his computer, more than the members themselves in the case of Yoosung most likely. Besides, Jaehee had told him this coffee situation was proving to be incredibly important. Why then was he calling her now?

“Luciel, I don’t know what you want, but I have urgent matters to attend to. Could you please call back in about an hour and fifteen minutes?”

“Jaehee, I think you’ll want to hear about this.”

“What, what is it?” Sometimes Seven’s tendency towards cryptic messages was truly too irritating. Still his voice was certainly more agitated than the normal, joking tone that he took. Already Jaehee could feel the familiar tendrils of anxiety.

“You know how I told you guys about the hacker, right?”

“Yes, the one that was trying to get into Rika’s apartment. Didn’t you say that you had taken care of it?”

“That one. Well, I thought I had, or at least, it certainly looked that way. I didn’t, damn, I didn’t think that the bastard would be able to hide what he was doing from me. Who on Earth is that man I don-”

“Luciel, please keep this short.”

“O-oh. I’m sorry. Well, apparently, he wasn’t done. I got a notification, or, well, more like I saw it on the news. The apartment complex, uhm, well, haha…”

“Seven!” Jaehee had the sneaking suspicion she knew what was about to be said. Still a distant part of her brain retained the calm of denial.

“Sorry! I, what I mean to say is, the apartment. The apartment got, set off.”

“Set off?”

“Blew up. Boom. The bomb, I don’t know how, but it was triggered. And now, yeah. The whole block is half covered under rubble, and we don’t, I don’t, have a lot of information about the people inside the apartment. I’m doing the best I can, trying to get into the CCTV footage outside. But, uh, yeah. I thought you should know. Since, y’know, I know that you seemed really close wi-”

Maybe it was unpardonably rude for Jaehee to hang up on Luciel, but in that moment she could think of nothing else to do. It was as if, in letting the line die, she was rewriting time, so that nothing had happened.

Jaehee made it as far as the doors of the conference room before turning around and dashing towards the staircase. Taking the stairs two at a time she didn’t bother to clock out or tell Jumin about what was going on. It wasn’t important after all. How could it be? The explosion, that was what took precedence in her mind. More than work, more than these strange questions, all she could think about was you. She had to find out if you were okay, had to contact you in some ways. If not, if not. If not then what?

“Seven, I need the address to Rika’s apartment.”

“What? No are you crazy? You can’t just go to the place the hacker blew up. Besides, the location is confidential.”

“Not when it’ll be on every television station in Korea. I need to find out if they’re okay.”

“You can’t just go rummaging through wreckage on your own, you won’t even get past the yellow tape. It’s better to wait.”

“I’m going.”

“Wait! At least let me try to call them first, okay?”

“It would be faster if I went.”

“No. No it wouldn’t. Just give me a second. I’m already trying to figure out where their phone is. I’m almost done.”

For once Jaehee didn’t even question the legality, or morality, of Seven’s actions.

As it turns out you had been going grocery shopping – against Seven’s recommendations – and as such were at the tail end of the blast radius. Staring intently at the hospital address Seven had texted her, Jaehee quickly made her way over to the front desk. Having finally messaged Jumin, she made it through the entrance quite easily – sometimes being the secretary to a well-known CEO-to-be paid off.

Your room was in a quieter corner of the hospital, away from the groaning and shrieking of those who hadn’t been as lucky. The bomb had been a small sort of one, made up of a low explosive. Apparently V and Seven’s reservations truly hadn’t been feigned. Perhaps Jaehee should’ve felt grateful that they had made a bomb that was relatively ineffective. In that moment however she couldn’t bring herself to feel relief.

The soft smile that illuminated your face as Jaehee walked into your room was enough to make her heart ache.

“Hey Jaehee. Hope I didn’t cause too much work for you.”

“Work for me? How could you think of something at this time? What about you? Are you too badly hurt? What happened? Is there something I can do for you?”

“Jaehee please! Calm down. I was basically fine. A few cuts and bruises are nothing to worry about.”

“Did they check and see if you inhaled anything? What about your head, did anything hit it?”

“Hey,” you replied softly. Taking Jaehee’s wildly fluttering hands in yours you smiled softly. “Thank you for worrying about me, but I’m fine. Really. Don’t make yourself sick over me. You already work too much.”

“I’ve informed Mr. Han I’m going to take a few days off. I want to make sure that there are no side effects to what just happened.”

“Well, I’m very flattered, happy even. But you have to take care of yourself too Jaehee. It’ll just make me unhappy if you get sick over me. Besides, there are other things to worry about. Like what you’re going to do about your work and what you love and stuff. Don’t bury that stuff, alright?”

“Think of me still, how odd you are,” Jaehee let out a sigh. Nevertheless, she said nothing more. It wouldn’t do to make you worry about her after all.

Though you couldn’t exactly call it nursing you back to health Jaehee was certainly attentive in the week and a half to come. All throughout the time she kept thinking, about you, about her, about what all this meant. In truth it was only after you were safe that Jaehee could acknowledge how terrified she had been, enough to consider diving through the wreckage of an apartment. You had opened up a whole new world to her, without you Jaehee would’ve never begun thinking about herself, about her own happiness. She had so much to thank you for. Even more, Jaehee had the sneaking suspicion that she would want to thank you even if you had done nothing.

“I’ve made my decision.”

“Oh?” You smiled, puzzled by the sudden conversation.

“I’m going to attempt to start again, to start doing something I want to do. I hope that you’ll join me in this endeavor.”

Your smiled was blinding.

“Of course, I will!”

Perhaps now Jaehee could acknowledge the love that bloomed within her at your assent.

 Yoosung

He knew it was going to happen. He knew that there was no way of escaping it. Maybe that’s why he almost felt like a burden had been lifted when he finally heard that the inevitable had happened.

Ever since Seven had first revealed the bomb in Rika’s apartment Yoosung knew it was going to go off. It wasn’t some weird dream thing like Zen, or some calculation the way Jumin or Seven might do. Yoosung just knew, somehow, he really did just know it. He tried to put it off, tried to stop it even. If he could go with Seven to find out about the hacker, if he could stop this weird organization, if he could get V to finally tell the damn truth, then maybe, maybe he’d be able to prevent it.

Luck was never on his side though, this Yoosung had learned long ago. He wasn’t strong enough to stop the bomb from going off, he wasn’t strong enough to keep you safe. All these things that he wanted, needed to be, and he couldn’t do any of those things. You were the first person he had formed any sort of deep connection with since Rika. Maybe that’s why he kept mixing you up in the beginning; after all, it was the first time he even began to feel a similar amount of happiness since her death. And now you were in danger of going away as well. It haunted Yoosung. He never thought that he’d ever use that word to describe, he found it sort of pretentious, but really it was the only word he could think to describe the situation. Every text, every voice call, every reminder that you were alive, that you were somewhere on this Earth, it was like a lifeline, one he was desperately grabbing onto.

“Hey, Seven?”

“What?” Seven’s reply was muffled by the cheap sandwich shoved into his mouth. Secretly Yoosung found the convenience store sandwich bread disgusting, but right he wasn’t thinking about that.

“Something’s blinking.”

“Gonna have to be more specific.”

“Something on the monitor, it just started blinking red in the corner, one of the tabs in the bottom, it might’ve just opened too I don’t know.”

“Let me check,” Seven replied, ambling his way over to the monitor. Once he saw the icon though he let out a loud series of curses. “Shit, shit, shit, shit. Yoosung?”

“What?” Yoosung already knew that something had gone wrong. Adrenaline began to race through him, and the world suddenly seemed both all too fast and all too slow.

“Grab my phone and go to the RFA app. My version has a tracker on all the RFA member’s phones. I want you to make sure that there’s one around Rika’s apartment.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“Yup and sleazy. Now look.”

Yoosung tapped on the app with trembling fingers. Seeing the icon, he paused. He needed to know. Before he looked, he needed to know.

“Hey, Seven.”

“What.”

“Did, did something happen to the apartment.”

“Yoosung, I need you to understand that it’s probably fine.”

“Probably, Seven what are you talking about?”

“It’s, it’s, something went wrong.”

“Went wrong? What went wrong? Seven, stop being so damn cryptic!” Yoosung’s voice was shaking by now, but he pressed forward.

“Fine.” Seven let out a long sigh, before breathing in deeply once more. “The apartment, it blew. I don’t know how or why or what but the bomb went off. And now we need to make sure that all the members of the RFA are safe.”

That they’re safe. Yoosung knew what Seven was trying to say, what he refused to say. Still the words seemed so odd. Of course Yoosung knew it was going to happen, knew that he wasn’t going to be that lucky, knew that V and Seven’s secrets would eventually fuck something up. But still, it was too soon, it was not right. Just because he had seen it coming didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt any less. Letting the phone drop from his hands Yoosung drifted down the hall towards the bathroom; where he promptly crumbled into a ball and let the tears flow.

Yoosung didn’t know how long it took to figure out you were alright, didn’t know how far away the hospital was or how much Seven stepped on the gas. His mind was surprisingly blank, wiped free of any sense of time or space. Even learning you had survived – by climbing on the neighboring fire escape and running like hell when the warnings started going off – didn’t clear the fog around his brain. Wandering down the hospital, half pushed by Seven, he wondered when this odd nightmare was ever going to end.

The moment he saw your face the world sped up again. Not realizing that Seven had decided to stand outside instead of watch the scene in front of him, and frankly not caring, Yoosung catapulted himself towards you. Crushing you in a hug he buried his face in your neck, trying to convince himself that you were real, that you were alive, that you weren’t going to be put in the ground and have dirt shoved upon you. That you were really, truly, still here.

“I should’ve been there to protect you.”

Night had fallen, and visiting hours were almost over at the hospital. At first Yoosung had been all smiles, all very teary smiles. Fussing about you, fluffing your pillow, yelling at Seven about what food would be appropriate to give you, Yoosung had ridden the wave of manic relief that kept him from thinking about everything that he’d been beating himself up about for the past, who knew how long. Now that things had slowed down however, he found himself thinking about them again.

Talking to you was the only way Yoosung knew how to make all the doubts and worries go away. He wasn’t cool like Zen or in control like Jumin. He desperately wanted to talk to you, wanted to know what you thought about everything and anything. And this was part of that. Now that he was here, in the quiet of the evening, Yoosung realized that he couldn’t bring himself not to talk to you about it.

“Don’t beat yourself up about that Yoosung,” you replied softly. “It wasn’t something you could predict. Besides, you could’ve gotten hurt, and then where would we be?”

“I know, but still! I, I really like you, I want to be your boyfriend when this is all over. But I can’t even protect you. I couldn’t save Rika, and now you almost died!”

“I didn’t almost die, Yoosung you’re exaggerating.”

“No, I’m not!” Frustration and fear combined in Yoosung’s voice, and he found his words cracking pathetically. “I’m not even mature enough to protect you, I’m not strong enough to be someone, someone worth something.”

“Yoosung, please listen to me,” your voice was soft but firm. Yoosung quieted, staring at your linked hands. “There are different kinds of maturity in the world,” you continued. “Sometimes being mature means not giving into emotions, or being really strong, or really good at doing all the things you’re supposed to do when you grow up. But you can be mature in other ways. Yoosung, I think you’re really matured when it comes to being kind. Not a lot of people are kind like you, or care about people a lot. And I really love that about you. So, I hate when you act like it’s a bad thing, or like you’re weak or something. You aren’t weak because you can’t control the world or because you aren’t ‘cool’ or something. In fact, you’re one of the strongest people I know!”

Yoosung was silent, trying to let your words sink in. He wasn’t good at accepting compliments, he never had been. Still, in that moment, he felt unbelievably light.

Smiling softly, finally letting himself look you in the face Yoosung felt his heart flutter as you smiled back. He didn’t quite believe in you, or himself, yet. But in that moment, he couldn’t deny how much he loved you.

And how much it meant to him that you loved him back.

[themadauthorshatter]

... I’ve already made a draft of this and deleted it, but I’m going back in. 

This is an AU of what would happen if Mareven was healthy and the end game. 

I apologize in advance for any and all MareCal shippers, including myself. 

SO! What happens? 

Simple. 

Everything remains mostly the same in the story except we get more of a doubtful and uneasy Maven as the story progresses, as in he hugs Mare a little longer and is genuinely perturbed when he hears about the ‘bomb’ that went off and looks terrified of Cal when he returns and orders Farley to be tortured. He’s also more hesitant to listen to his mother. 

He still offers Cal’s legion to the Guard, but is a little sadder to say it. 

THEN WE GET TO THE PLOT TWIST OF THE STORY!!!!!!!!!

Maven plays along, but, as he stands by his mother’s side, he mouths, “sorry” to Mare and goes for a gun on Arven’s belt, shooting him in the leg and warning him not to try silencing him or he’ll aim for something more vital. 

It catches EVERYONE off guard, especially Elara, who’s about to risk having Cal or Tibe out of her whispers to get Maven back in line. 

Instead, Elara asks what he’s doing and why, as she thought this was what he’d always wanted. 

“It’s what you want, Mother. Not me. None of this is right. You’re already the Queen. What else do you want!?” 

Elara bares her teeth. “Are you saying you want to live your days with a Red rat?” 

Maven pulls Mare to her feet and pushes her behind him, keeping the gun at them, nodding. “I’m saying I'm not following your plans or listening to anything you have to say. I'll die before I let you in my head again!” 

Well, wish granted because Mare senses the cameras turning back on and Elara lets Tibe and Cal go.

Only to force Maven to shoot her and Tibe, though Maven actually misses him.

Mare breaks free and they make a run for it, Elara shouting that they are traitors and to arrest them, though she does force Tibe to play the part of concerned husband.

Cal isn't in the room because he races after Maven and Mare.

Speaking of which, Maven leads Mare through the castle and finds a hall that goes toward a servant's passage, so they can escape.

Too bad there are guards that round the corner and take aim at them, not only for staging a coup de ta, but also for attempted regicide.

Cal's there too, aiming a handgun at them and telling them to submit to arrest.

They do and are sent to the Silent Stone cells.

Mare is confused and livid and doesn't want to talk to Maven, who keeps pacing and clutching his head and telling someone to be quiet. 

Mare mentally tells him to maybe practice what he’s preaching, but wonders what the hell all that was when they were captured. 

Maven sighs and sits down, back-to-back with Mare, and asks her how good she is at picking locks. 

Her hands are for picking pockets, not locks. 

Maven lets out a semi-bitter chuckle and regards that he shouldn’t have bothered asking because of course she’s better at pockets. he then admits that he’d been so scared of the cells as a boy, his young mind tricking him into thinking that there were monsters or prisoners in the cells. 

Speaking of the cells, Mare breaks her silence and asks why it’s so hard for her to use her powers, even asking if Arven is close by listening to them. 

Maven admits it would be useful to do that, but no. The cells are made of Silent Stone, which is basically Arven being there without him really being there. 

Although she already knows what’s going to happen, Mare wonders what will happen to them, in the Bowl of Bones. 

Maven lists off a firing squad, some Silvers, maybe some animals, and the fact that no matter what, the show will not be short; the people want blood and Tibe is going to give them blood, even if it’s his own son’s. 

“Not if he can’t find you.” 

Both Mare and Maven stand as Cal walks in, dressed formally and holding a set of keys to the cells. 

Maven asks what this is and what Cal’s doing as he opens both Maven’s and Mare’s cells. 

Cal explains that he’s already had to give Julian a head start and hopes that Maven and mare can do the same, can vanish into thin air before their execution. 

Mare asks why they should accept the help, seeing as Cal’s the one who arrested them, but Cal counters by asking who’s idea it was to get them arrested, glaring daggers at Maven. 

Maven has his own question: How does Cal know they won’t be seen? 

Cal looks away and admits that he hopes there aren’t any Red servants that know how to fix the security system.

Maven and Mare exchange a glance and start walking, but Cal gets between them, shackles them, and grabs their arms, telling them to play along and make it convincing so no one questions anything. 

They both do their best reluctant prisoners act up until they pass by Sonya, who inquires as to where Cal’s taking them. 

Cal states he’s just taking them to get some cardio before their execution, seeing as how they’ll need every ounce of strength they’ll need. 

Sonya spits that they shouldn’t and should actually fight with nooses around their necks so they’re easier to grab and throw around, but drops it anyway, eying Cal before she leaves. 

Time’s almost up, so it’s a good thing Maven leads Cal to a servant passage, where they stop and get free, Maven getting his flame-maker bracelets back. 

Maven opens the passage, but Cal stops him and Mare, telling them to be careful now, because if they manage to escape, they’ll be fugitives and will get hunted like deer for treason, Maven for attempted regicide, from what narrative that now exists. 

They nod and thank him for the help. 

Before Mare can follow Maven, Cal grabs her arm again, which makes Mare turn to him. 

The two stare at each other, realizing what’s happening and what’s going to happen. 

The royals will figure out that Cal helped them escape and will probably have him killed for letting two traitors run free. 

Cal is the one who helped her in the first place by getting her the job at the Summer Palace, and now he’s saving her life again, this time also saving his brother’s and risking his own. 

Maven shouts for Mare to keep it moving and Mare pulls out of Cal’s grip, backs away, and races after Maven, Cal watching her leave before closing the passage. 

His face contorts with sorrow, regret, anger, and pain and he clenches a fist as he hears a sentinel shout that Mare and Maven are missing. 

Cal shouts, “They’re this way!” and races down the hallway and away from the bookshelf, trying to make it look like they outran him. 

In the passage, Maven leads Mare by the hand as they soon find themselves underground and under the streets, overhearing an announcement to keep an eye out for the two of them because both are armed and dangerous, Mare especially. 

Maven groans at his father’s words and muses that at least they’re out. 

Mare isn’t as relieved and asks what he was planning with his mother. 

Maven stops in his steps and states that she already knows. 

Mare does know, she just wants to hear Maven say it. 

Maven bites his tongue and clenches his fist at his side, not turning to face Mare as he asks what will happen if he doesn’t tell her. 

She’ll make him tell her, make him talk or she’ll shock him until he dies. 

Maven  tightens his fist but then drops it, admitting he and Elara planned on killing Tibe and using Mare and Cal as scapegoats, sending them to the Bowl of Bones, and having them executed to wrap up the story and solidify Maven as the new King, with no Scarlet Guard and no loose ends to ensure the story of Mare being a Red would slip out. 

Mare demands he define ‘loose ends.’ 

Lady Blonos. The servant girls who dressed Mare as a Silver. Lucas. Julian. Sara. Mare’s family. Kilorn. Cal. Mare herself. All the Reds on the list Julian gave her. 

Mare gasps at that last one, sliding down a wall as Maven explains in increasing panic and with his eyes growing teary that he was along with the ride and all for getting the throne the way his mother planned, but then he began to feel genuine feelings for Mare and her plight and no matter how much Elara tried to take those feelings away, they always came back. She did the same with Tibe, making Maven lose his love for him, and had semi-success with Cal, but didn’t fully remove his love for his brother. It also changed when they killed Blonos and the servant girls, and when Tristan died. It opened Maven’s eyes and made him realize that he was going to kill someone he didn’t want to die. he’d already lost Thomas and it was his own fault, but if he was the reason he lost Mare, too, he’d lose his mind. 

Maven stops his rambling and joins Mare against the wall, admitting that he knows he deserves whatever comes next, but whatever does happen, he just asks that mare know that he is sorry for all of this, for putting her in such danger that now they’re on the run and risk execution if they’re caught. 

Mare turns to him and asks if Elara has the list, if he told her about the Newbloods. 

Maven shakes his head; the raid was going to happen in a few hour hours, so there wouldn’t have been enough time for Elara to look through his mind, write down all the names, and the find them in the blood base, so they have a good head start there, too. 

After a minute of collecting themselves, and a glare from Mare, the two stand up and keep walking until they reach a fork in the path and wonder which is safer.

The only answer they get is a gun pushed against the back of Maven's head and a certain blaonde telling him to go right or she's painting the tunnel Silver.

Mare turns and sees Kilorn and Farley, with the addition of a certain Barrow we all still mourn, don't lie.

"Shade!"

Mare and Shade reunite, though Maven voices confusion as he thought Shade had been executed.

Shade explains that they tried and failed, making an example by teleporting in front of and behind them, saying with pride that no one's faster than him.

Mare is a mix of happy and sad at the news, but Farley brings them back and reminds them they need to keep going or they'll get arrested and killed.

Maven also gets put back in shackles, but acts as a good sport and doesn't burn them off.

They continue throught the tunnel until they reach a train, climb aboard, and get to riding, merrily on their way to nowhere in particular.

Back in White Fire, Elara slaps Cal HARD in the face and demands to know what he was thinking and where Maven and Mare are.

Tibe gets between them, but Cal admits that he didn't fully know what he was thinking, just that he couldn't let his brother be forced to fight when he's still in training. It would be a bloodbath.

Elara asks if that's the same reason why he also let Mare go, or if there's something he's not telling them.

Tibe also wants to know. He understands letting Maven go, but why a Red rat like Mare? If the people see her lightning powers and Red blood, there will be Hell to pay.

Cal's silent, but Elara solves that with a quick look into his mind, seeing all the moments of Cal and Mare being close and friendly with each other.

Elara asks Cal if he's more interested in dirt than diamonds and Tibe gets the picture instantly, upon seeing Cal's reaction.

Change of plan: Cal is getting his legion back in action, and an additional two hundred soldiers to locate and either capture or kill Mare and Maven. No more catch and releases or else it's Cal who fights in the arena and he'll have nothing but his wits to defend himself.

Cal pales at this and gasps that they can't kill him, because then Norta has no heir.

Tibe only glares at him and tells him not to fail before leaving to let Cal get his army ready.

Cal watches his father leave and is broken by the fact that he legitimately screwed up and that his father, as King, needs Maven, his own son, executed with Mare, someone who never should have had her powers to begin with.

Elara glares at Cal for a moment longer and also walks out of the room, leaving Cal on his own.

[toothpastecanyon]

Noie's Friends, Chapter 3

A collection of oneshots about Noie's years at college.

See most updated version on Archive of Our Own.

_____________________________________________________________

“Hmm… what should I have today? What, should, I, have?”

Tapping on the counter. Noie stretched her shoulders a bit, and tapped the register to stop it going to sleep.

“Huh. You know, I just don’t know any of these teas.” The man scratched his stubble. “You guys sell an awful lot of them, don’t you?”

“Yes. We’re a tea shop, sir.”

“Oooh, sir. I don’t get sir’ed very often…” he peered at her name tag. “Naomi. Oh, that’s a pretty name. Where’s it from?”

She shrugged.

“You don’t know? Oh, I know where my name comes from, John’s a good English name, you know? There was a King John once. In fact, how’s about I write it down on this napkin…”

Noie found herself glancing over his shoulder. If only she could tell him there was a line.

“You can call me up anytime, little lady.” He passed it to her with a wink. “Anyway, where was I… Oh, do you guys have Dr Salt? I think I’ll take that over your weird teas.”

“Okay, we’ve got them in the back.” Noie stepped away. “They’re kind of expensive here, though.”

“Aw, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Hey, don’t forget my napkin!”

Noie headed to the back, which was a small tiled room with an asphyxiatingly-strong stench of various spices. Even after a week she still hadn’t gotten used to it; her eyes watered a tiny bit as she headed to the tiny soda fridge in the corner of the room.

“Somebody wants another soda?” A voice - Sara stepped out from behind a column of spices. “They know there’s a restaurant right next to us, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s here for a drink.” She tossed the napkin at her. “Check out what he passed me.”

Noie opened the fridge and picked a soda out. She heard a sniggering from behind her.

“Why did he…” Sara snorted. “Why did he write ‘King John winky face’ on it?”

“Oh my god, did he? I didn’t even look at it.”

“Yeah, look at it there. He sounds like a real catch.” She shook her head. “You want me to go out there? I can always chase off a creepy guy.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Thanks, though.” Noie heard the front door jingle. “Oh, sweet, new people!”

“Now you can tell him there’s a line.”

“Hah! Did you read my mind?” She winked at Sara as she opened the door. “Seeya.”

“Silver!”

Noie recognised the group strolling into the shop - and especially the woman in pyjamas making hre way to the counter. “Bea! Isn’t it Magic 101 for Gus and Mina right now? I thought you guys were coming after that.”

“Hey,” The man glanced between them. “About my order-”

“What, you dreading us?” Bea winked at her. “Nah, there was - heh - a little accident in the labs.”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She stabbed a thumb back at Gus, who seemed to be missing his eyebrows. “You should get the story from ol’ fire fingers over there. I hear primary sources make the most engaging narratives.”

The man cleared his throat. “Excuse me-”

“Oh, I’ll ring your soda up for you, it’s five dollars.” Noie grinned at Bea. “Did he blow himself-”

“Five dollars?!”

“-up?”

“I’m not saying nothing! You’ll have to-”

“Excuse me kid, I’m still ordering!” The man shoved Bea a little back. “Hey, what’s the big idea? I could go down to the gas station and get this for a fifth of what I’m paying here! What kind of stupid fucking-”

Bea tapped his shoulder, and he stopped midsentence with a choking gasp. He grabbed his throat gasping for air, eyes bugging out, and started coughing up leaves and loose soil. She pushed him aside, and leaned an elbow on the counter.

“Okay, so what’ll we have today?” Bea slid the soda away. “Obviously not that - jeez, five dollars? Does anyone actually buy those?” A pause. “What?”

Noie was leaning over the counter with wide eyes. The man was on his hands and knees, making shallow gagging sounds. “Uh, Bea? Is he gonna be alright?!”

“Hmm? Oh, sorry about the mess. Shouldn’t have done that spell indoors.” She snapped her fingers, and everything dissolved into air. The man gave a gasp of relief, and curled up into a shuddering foetal position. “Now I’m the bad customer, right? There you go.”

“But is he gonna be okay?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s an old elven children’s prank. I don’t know why he’s being such a baby about it.” She nudged his leg. “Come on, man. I’ve seen elflings half your age take this better than you. Stop crying.”

As Noie watched, Sara came out of the back. She saw her peeking around the corner- as soon as she caught sight of Bea and the others, she came wandering out.

��Oh, hey guys! Hi Bea!”

“How’s it hanging.”

“You’re here early, right? Why do I feel like- oh my stars, Gus, your eyebrows! Your hair!”

Laughter erupted across the table, and Gus went red. Bea chuckled.

“Yeah, tell her the whole thing, dude!” Bea turned back to Noie. “Eh, I think we’ll all just have our usual. You know what that is, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Noie turned towards the brewing machines. “Alright, gimme a second…”

She got out a pot, and from behind her she heard the ongoing conversation.

“So what happened, dude? Did you blow yourself up?”

“I didn’t blow myself up-“

“Yeah, cause it was a candle spell.” There was a chuckle from Bea. “First time I’ve ever heard of a human hurting themselves on one of those.”

“No, no, okay, so I had my hands like this, okay! I was rubbing my forehead from all the Latin, and then suddenly my head feels really warm and Mina starts screaming that my hair’s on fire.”

“Your hair was on fire, dude. It looked like a campfire up there for a second.”

“Yeah, and then Mr Jasko grabbed me and basically threw me into the lab shower. How often does that water get cleaned, do you think? It smelled really bad.”

Noie poured the tea, and turned around as it brewed. She saw Gus rubbing at his eyebrows; Jess was patting his shoulder.

“Ughhhh… I look like a damn thumb.”

“No you don’t, dude. You still have… some of your hair.”

“Oh yeah, that’s great, that’s great. Some of my hair.” He ran a hand through it. “Shit, and I have a date this Friday! Do you think it’ll grow back by then?”

“I can grow things.” Bea gave a smile. “Hair is kinda like moss, right?”

“Oh no, you are not touching my hair, Bea. I know you too well.”

“Yeah, you do. But really, that sucks, man. I’m sorry for you.”

“Maybe I’ll just wear a hat,” Noie heard as she placed all the mugs onto a tray. “Hats are cool right? He’ll think it’s cool, right?”

Noie walked over. “I’m sure it’ll go fine, dude.” She carefully placed the tea right next to Gus’ book. “At least you gotta get a good grade on the fire spell thing, right?”

“Well, I didn’t exactly light a candle, did I.” He flipped his textbook to a certain page, and picked up his tea. “The lab’s probably gonna be redone anyway. I gotta study up for it.”

“Heh, don’t go saying it out loud again-”

“No. No, I won’t, Mina.”

Noie started going around the table, but Sara suddenly noticed her and jumped up. “Oh my gosh! Noie, I should’ve been helping! Let me do that!”

“Oh, it’s fine-”

She took the tray. “No, no, you made it, I’ll do the rest. Bea, were you paying?”

“Yeah, it’s my turn.” Bea turned around, digging in her pockets. There seemed to be a lull in conversation as everyone set up their books and magi-orbs; Noie found herself standing awkwardly behind Gus, looking down at his textbook.

Huh. She’d never actually looked inside a magic textbook before; it looked a lot like any other, with dense pages of information cut up by a few diagrams and headings - here, the headings seemed to be the spell incantations themselves, judging by the fact that they were in latin. There was one incantation next to a drawing of someone lighting a candle with their finger; that was probably the one Gus messed up on.

She frowned. How do you even pronounce Latin? She tried sounding it out in her head, flam-mul-a ex stud-

There was a shout. The next thing Noie knew she was on the floor, her hands twisted behind her back. She opened her mouth, but-

“D’arvit!” Bea’s voice was right next to her ear, louder and sterner than she’d ever heard. “The hell are you playing at, Naomi!”

“Wh-what-”

“Don’t let me ever see you trying that shit again! You know better!”

Noie blinked; she could hardly form words. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! What did I do?”

“You don’t know?!” A pause. “You don’t know?”

“No!” Noie tried to move her arm, but it wouldn’t budge. “Agh, ugh, I think you’re twisting my wrist!”

There was a moment of silence, and then Bea let go of her completely. She pulled Noie up, and there was something strange in her eyes as she patted her down. She felt along Noie’s wrist, and Noie couldn’t help but notice the whole table had turned around to stare at them.

Noie shivered at that… shivered. She felt strangely cold, strangely drained. She opened her mouth, but nothing really came out.

Mina was the first one to speak. “Uh, Bea,” she started. “What was that about? What happened?”

Bea’s eyes flitted up to her, and then traced across the whole group. She let go of Noie’s arm, and after a moment, Noie could see her stretch a big smile across her face.

“What was that?” Bea asked, and then gave Noie a light shove. “Pranked! It was a prank! You should’ve seen your face, Silver!”

She gave a great laugh, but Noie could still see that glint in her eyes. She didn’t laugh back; no one did.

“Eh? Prank? Nobody up for some good ol’ horsing around?”

“Seriously? That, uh, wasn’t very funny, Bea.” Sara walked over to Noie. “I think you really freaked her out. You freaked me out.”

“Yeah, me too.” Gus frowned at her. “You really shouldn’t tackle someone like that. That hurts.”

“I see your point, I see your point.” Bea raised her hands. “Guess I don’t know my own strength. I won’t do it again… unless, like, hypothetically, you were standing next to some kind of bomb and I had to tackle you to save your life-”

“Dude. Just apologise.”

“Alright, I was getting to it!” She looked at Noie, and held out her hand. “Hey. I’m sorry I freaked you out.”

Noie glanced down at her hand. She gingerly took it. “Uh, no problem, Bea-”

We need to talk.

She froze at a clear voice in her head - Bea’s voice. Still smiling, the elf nodded once, and let go.

“Alright, glad we reached an understanding.” She dusted her hands off. “Now, what was I doing? Oh right, paying for junk! Sara, get over here!”

Sara put a hand on Noie’s shoulder - it was strangely warm, or maybe Noie was strangely cold. “Are you gonna be okay?” She asked. “You’re shivering.”

“Me? Um,” Noie gulped. “Y-yeah, I’ll be, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“You should go stand out in the sun for a bit. I’ll cover for you.”

“Yeah, that… that sounds good. Thanks.”

Sara gave her a quick smile, a squeeze, and then headed off. Noie watched her go, then looked towards the front doors. She stumbled as she made her way over, and struggled a little to open them.

She stepped out into the sun, into the harsh rays beating down on her face, her shirt, her soul…

And still she shivered a little.

She needed… she needed to sit down. Wow.

_____________________________________________________________

The little study session ended much sooner than usual - only a little after the end of Noie’s shift. It was a bit awkward the whole time, with Gus touching his hair and Sara shooting daggers into the back of Bea’s head. For Noie it still felt like an eternity; she’d managed to warm up, but there was still a strange weakness in her knees, a sluggishness in her mind that was hard to shake.

It was strange. The looks Bea kept shooting her didn’t help either. What was going on?

“I think I’ll be heading out,” Gus said, closing his textbook. “Gonna go hat shopping.”

“Oh, if you’re heading out, I might too.”

“Yeah, it’s getting late.”

As everyone started packing up, Noie felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey,” Sara spoke quietly. “You, uh, want a ride home?”

Noie glanced over at Bea, who was ostensibly cleaning her magi-orb; somehow Noie still felt watched.

“Uh,” she started. “That’s okay, thank you. I think I’m gonna walk home - uh, with Bea.”

Sara frowned. “You sure?”

“Don’t worry,” Bea spoke without looking up. “I won’t tackle her again, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Noie gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah, it’s fine. It’s fine, Sara. Thanks.”

Sara didn’t look entirely convinced, but she hugged her goodbye and left the shop. The rest of the group filtered out shortly after, leaving only the two of them, sitting across from each other.

Bea didn’t immediately talk. Noie tapped her fingers a little on the desk; she made a face, and then opened her mouth.

“Bea-“

Bea stood up. “Walk with me, will you?”

“What?”

“Just follow me.” She reached out an arm. “Take my hand.”

“Why?”

“I wanna show you something.” She flashed a smile. “You’ll like it, I promise. Trust me on this, Silver.”

Noie hesitated… but after a moment, she did take her hand. Bea gently pulled her upright, and led her out the door. Immediately they turned into a back alley, and Noie frowned.

“Uh, where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

“Why are you being so weird about this?” She stumbled as they made their way down the edge of a parking lot. “What happened back there? And, uh, not to be rude, but did you do something to me? I feel kinda weird after you tackled me back there.”

“Hmm?” Bea suddenly turned and lead them through a dead bush. “Oh, yeah, sorry about that. It’ll go back to normal in the next few days.”

A twig slapped her in the face. “What? What’ll go back to normal?”

“Your, uh, magic.”

“Magic? What?” Noie could hardly see her through the greenery now. “Okay, where are we going, seriously? There’s got to be an easier way to-“

She stumbled out of the bushes, and blinked hard. Her eyes went wide.

“To…”

They were inside the biggest forest Noie had ever seen in her life. Old growth trees with trunks wider than a car towered way overhead, up into a canopy of leaves that caught all but little flickers of sunlight. Beneath her feet was suddenly ferns and mulch, and all around her were animal sounds - caws, chirps, cheeps, foliage cracking, woodpeckers hammering. This was… Noie looked to Bea, and found her grinning back.

“This…” she managed. “This isn’t Arizona.”

“Sure it is! Also it isn’t. Don’t worry about it.”

“Did you teleport us?”

“No, no.” Bea let go of her hand. “This is, uh… well, there isn’t really an English word for it - let’s call it the Elfscape!” She snorted. “Stars, the Elders can never catch me calling it that.”

“Elfscape? Like the Mindscape-”

“It’s complicated, it’s, uh… well, kinda, but it’s more physical than the Mindscape. Or maybe it’s the Earth’s Mindscape?” She shrugged. “Look, it’s complicated even for elves, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Oh, okay?”

“Also, uh, if you see anything between the trees, try not to stare at them.”

“What?” Noie followed her gaze, and saw a shadowy figure far in the distance. There was something eerily… angry, there - she could feel it like a pit in her stomach. She looked back at Bea. “Uh, what’s that?”

“Another elf. They’re probably fine - they just get a bit touchy about outsiders coming here.” Bea gave a laugh. “I’m gonna get an earful about it when I next visit for sure.”

Noie frowned. “Then, uh, why’d you bring me here?”

“Because you are gonna test something for me real quick.”

“Test something?”

“Yeah!” Bea touched her hand, and gently lifted it up. “Alright, that goes - yeah, there. And point for me; any finger’s fine. Yeah, that looks good!”

Noie found herself pointing straight forwards. She raised an eyebrow at Bea. “Uh, okay?”

“Now, I want you to say flammula ex studio.” A small flame appeared on Bea’s thumb; she winked when Noie’s eyes went wide. “Can you do that?”

“Are you trying to get me to do magic? I don’t think I can do that kinda stuff; don’t you have to really practice for it? And-“

“Just! Just indulge me for a second, Silver.” Bea stepped back. “Try it. Please?”

Noie made a face at her, then turned to look forwards again. She felt a little ridiculous standing here like this, but Bea shot her another smile and she sighed.

“Okay… fine. Fine. What do I have to say again?”

“Flammula ex studio. Whenever you’re ready.”

Noie grimaced. “Okay, here goes nothing. Flammula ex studio.”

She’d hardly finished the incantation when she felt a rush of heat. One moment she was standing there, the next all she could see was a great ball of fire coming out of her fingertip.

“Wha- oh, shit!” Noie jumped back and instinctively tried to shake it off. “Bea! Bea! Help, I’m on fire! I’m on-”

With a chuckle, Bea walked over and put a hand over the flames. They seemed to extinguish it, and Noie was left standing there, eyes wide, heart thudding in her chest. Distantly she could hear Bea laughing.

���Now that is what you call no flow control!” Bea patted her shoulder. “You really haven’t done magic before, huh? Wow!”

Noie gulped, and tried to steady her breathing. She forced herself to meet Bea’s eyes, and opened her mouth. “W-w-what was that? Why did th-that happen?”

“Why’d you think? Magic!”

“Magic?”

“You better believe it! Seems like you’ve got a bit more juice in your tank than the average human! A lot more juice, but of course,” Bea winked at her. “I already knew that.”

Noie blinked. “You did?”

“Course I did! Magic’s not subtle, Silver. It’s written all over you!” She patted her shoulder. “Honestly, the only thing I’m surprised by is that you didn’t know. Don’t human schools have those little magic exams in elementary school these days?”

“Magic exams?” Noie frowned. “I don’t remember those… but I was exempt from magic stuff as a kid. Dipper has magic sensitivity, so he-” She glanced at Bea. “Oh. That was, uh, his cover when we were growing up.”

“Huh, not a bad cover.” She rubbed her chin. “Well, that definitely clears it up, but that’s still nuts to me that you didn’t know. I guess that’s just me talking, though; I dunno what I’d do without magic.”

Noie laughed a bit at that, but the sound faded away quickly. She found herself looking down at her hands, rubbing her fingers. They still felt warm, and she frowned.

“Bea?”

“Yeah?”

“You said…” Noie clasped her hands against her chest. “You said I had more magic than most humans.”

“I did.” She chuckled. “Gus’d have a way worse day if he could do what you can.”

“But - how? Is it just… random chance? Do you know?”

“Do you know?”

Bea had that strange shine in her eyes again. Noie hesitated as she stepped a little closer.

“I’m asking you seriously.” Bea was studying her face; after a moment, she looked away. “You know, it’s a common joke that humans suck at magic, but you know why they do?”

“Why?”

“Cause of the Transcendence. Or at least, all that time leading up to the Transcendence, living in a world without magic. Y’know, elves were in their forests, mermaids were in the seas, all your city preters kept themselves under wraps.” Bea touched a budding leaf, and watched it open. “Magic follows magic, and for thousands of years, you guys just weren’t having much sent your way. Now you’re playing catch up.”

She looked at Noie with a knowing smile.

“So that leaves us two possibilities,” she said, and pushed off the tree. “Either you’re just a real lucky human - and that happens! - oooor, someone in your family was a little more in touch with their magic, if you know what I mean.”

“More in touch-” Noie started, and then she stopped dead. Oh.

Oh, she knew exactly where she got this from.

“Anyway, you don’t have to say anything. Just telling you what might be going on” She passed by Noie. “You wanna head home? I’m thinking I should probably take you back to your brother before he thinks I trapped you in an alternate dimension or something.”

“But- what do I do?”

Bea raised her eyebrows. “Do about what?”

“I-I nearly burned everyone back at the tea shop without even realising!” Noie stammered over her words. “What if that happens again? I was lucky you were there - I don’t know how to control that on my own!”

“Hey, don’t panic. Panic makes magic explode, I’ve heard.”

“Wh- that’s not funny, Bea!”

“I know, I know.” She chuckled to herself. “Couldn’t help myself, but, uh, if you’re asking for serious advice, I guess you could just make sure you never read anything that sounds like a spell again. Oh, also, since you don’t have to speak it out loud, try not to think too hard about that spell I taught you, flammula ex studio.” She gave a sly grin. “Yeah, don’t even think about flammula ex studio, don’t even think the words flammula ex studio, don’t-”

“Please stop.”

“Okay, or what you could do - and I think this is better - you could maybe learn some basic flow control so you stop going full blast on every random spell you see. It’s not hard to learn, I bet I could give you a handle on it in a couple hours.”

Noie just stared at her. Stared, as she reached out a hand.

“C’mon, Silver. Let’s get you home.”

After a moment, Noie took a deep breath, in, and out. She swallowed, and then she took Bea’s hand. Bea smiled, and then took them through a bush; they made their way through the greenery, through cool leaves brushing past her face, and then came out in the garden bordering Noie’s dorm. She looked behind her, and saw not a forest but a shrub and the corner of a building. There was a chuckle from Bea.

“Yeah, don’t tell the others about that little trick. They’ll be asking me for shortcuts until the end of time.”

“Hah, yeah-”

“Wait.” Bea held up a hand. “Do you hear that?”

“You!”

A shout. Someone was stomping over to them - someone with a suit, glowing eyes, and a shadow that sported wings. Noie blinked.

“Dipper?”

“You’re okay!” Dipper hugged her tight, then turned to Bea. “Okay, where’d you take her?”

“Back to her dorm, of course.”

“Don’t play games with me, mortal.” He stabbed a finger at her. “I just spent the past hour tearing through pocket dimensions to see where the hell my sister went. Where’d you take her?”

Noie patted his shoulder. “Dipper…”

“Nah, it’s okay, it’s a fair question.” Bea brushed his finger away. “It’s just a little hangout place for elves, it was totally fine.” She chuckled. “I’m glad that’s the part you noticed - you know, not the part where I totally broke her arm a tiny bit. I thought I was a dead girl walking there.”

“You did what?!”

“You broke my arm?”

“See? She didn’t even notice before I healed it, it was fine.”

Noie watched Dipper make several attempts to speak. He clenched his clawed fists - and then, with some effort, unclenched them, and pinched his forehead.

“You… make it very hard for me to like you, you know?”

“Aww, I try.” Bea winked at Noie. “Anyway, I oughtta be heating out.” She took a step away, and then clicked her fingers. “Oh, you know who else could totally help you with magic? Demon boy over here’s pretty good at it, I’ve heard.”

“Magic?” Dipper looked over at her. “You want to learn that? I could definitely help.”

Noie stared back.

“What?”

“You knew I could do magic too?”

“Yeah?” Dipper frowned at her. “I could always tell, why?”

There came a chuckle from Bea as she walked away. “Yeah, you two have fun now! Bye!”

_____________________________________________________________

“So, you had a bit of a day.”

“Tell me about it.” Noie unlocked her dorm’s door and collapsed into bed. “I can’t believe you knew this whole time. You didn’t think to mention it?”

“I mean, no!” Dipper closed the door; immediately he shed his human form, and floated close to her. “I’m sorry, I just - I didn’t think you were that into magic!”

“Yeah, and why wasn’t I into magic when I was a kid again?” She huffed as his face dropped. “No, that’s not a- you don’t have to feel bad about it, but that’s just the truth. I didn’t know about this because of your magic sensitivity.”

“Yeah…” Dipper looked down. “No, you’re right, you’re right.”

Silence hung there for a second. Noie rolled her eyes, and pulled him into bed.

“Hey!”

“Hey yourself.” She hugged him close. “Stop looking so sad; seriously, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m not really ‘into’ magic anyway; I was only annoyed because I’m not ‘into’ accidentally blowing myself up if I read some Latin.”

Dipper snorted at that, and she smiled. Stared up at the ceiling.

“Yeah…” she said. “It’s not important to me, you know? It’s not something I grew up with, or even knew that much about. Even if I had found out earlier… how much would it really matter, you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” Noie looked at him. “I know where it came from, you know?”

“From where?”

“You don’t know?”

Dipper stared blankly.

“From Pinni, of course.” Noie made a face. “From… my mother.”

“Your mother?” He sat up. “Oh, right, I remember now! She was a selkie, right?”

“Apparently.”

“Yeah, yeah, I see that now. I totally forgot you’re a half-selkie-”

“I’m not a half-selkie, you can’t be half selkie.” Noie cut in, and then stopped herself. “Sorry, it’s just- it's a hereditary enchantment, not a separate species. And I'm long past the age when they were supposed to do the skin thing and everything, so I'm not a selkie, I'm fully human."

Dipper was looking at her askance; suddenly Noie heard how that came off. Her cheeks flushed.

"Not that it'd be bad if I was! I'm not, like, ashamed of it or anything, but it doesn't affect me all that much!” She gave a shrug. “Seriously, I live in a desert. I've never been to the ocean in my life - heck, I don't even know how to swim. Why would I go around telling people 'ooh, did you know I'm half selkie?' That'd be so obnoxious."

Dipper didn’t say anything to that. She rose to her feet.

“It’s just - what do I know about any of this, right? What do I know about magic, about selkies - fuck, what do I even know about my own mom?” She gestured at him. “At least Leon left videos, right! At least you and David met him, right! But who the fuck is Pinni? All I ever got was, I dunno, she’s nice? She’s shy?” An angry shrug. “Apparently she came from the ocean, whatever the fuck that means, so it sounds like I’d have a hell of a time tracking down any family on that side!”

“Noie?”

“It’s just - I’m fine that I never met these people, okay? They’re literally strangers to me, I don’t know why people expect me to feel devastated about them or something.” She stared at her hands. “I guess I just… that everything could’ve been so different, you know?”

A pause. Dipper said nothing, and she sighed.

“I could’ve known about magic. I could’ve actually met my parents. I could’ve been a fucking selkie - how weird is that?”

She chuckled, but then she looked back at Dipper. He had tears in his eyes, and she watched him hang his head.

“You could’ve,” he said, softly. “I’m sorry, Noie. If it weren’t for me, you could’ve had so, so much better-”

“No!”

Dipper glanced up sharply. She ran back to his side.

“Dipper, that’s - that’s not what I mean!” She put a hand on his shoulder. “You know, I think about how stuff could’ve been, a-and it scares me! I don’t want that!”

“What do you mean? You deserved so much better, you deserved to know your parents-”

“And if I had them, I would never have had you!” Noie snapped. She put her arms around him. “I don’t care if it would’ve been better. I don’t want to imagine myself in a timeline where you aren’t my brother, okay?”

Dipper hugged her back - lightly for a moment, but then he squeezed.

“And there’s… it feels like if just one thing had changed, I would never have known you at all, and I hate that… you know?”

There was a thick chuckle. “Oh, you might have known me. You’re still a Mizar, after all.”

“But you wouldn’t have been my brother.” Noie hugged him tighter. “And I’m so glad you are. I’m so glad. I love you, Dipper.”

She heard him say something like “I love you too”, but it was too shakey to make out, and when he buried his face in her shoulder, she felt wet tears on her shirt. She smiled at that, at his wings enveloping her, and just held him for a long, long time.

It was a warm kind of quiet. Neither of them quite let go, but eventually Noie shifted her leg, and Dipper pulled back a little to wipe his eyes. They looked at each other, and laughed a little.

“We’re a pair, aren’t we?” She said, and Dipper gave a chuckle.

“We are, we are…” He cleared his throat. “So, uh, I take it you aren’t up for magic lessons?”

“Huh? Oh, no…. Bea was right, I probably should learn the basics.” She brushed some hair out of her eyes. “You know, just so I don’t go blowing myself up accidentally.”

“Yeah.”

“After that… I dunno, maybe it’ll be fun? We’ll see how it goes.”

“I liked learning magic.” Dipper said. “Of course, my magic’s kind of… different from yours, but I think you’ll like it.”

“What, I won’t be making demon deals? Darn.”

“Oh, very funny.”

“I’m hilarious,” Noie said, and lay back down in her bed. Looked out her window, at the setting sun. After a moment, Dipper laid down next to her, and that warm silence descended on both of them again.

Words were needed no more. They held each other like that as Noie’s eyes drooped, as she drifted peacefully to sleep in her brother’s arms.

[anika-ann]

Errare Humanum Est - Prologue

You Said You’d Catch Me (…If I Fall)

Type: series, soulmate AU series  (part 1, part 2)       x Supernatural

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader    Word count: 3930

Summary for series: In which Steve is forced to solve an unsolvable dilemma and inevitably fails, Natasha is nosy in her attempts to be a good friend and it backfires and Sam Wilson is too old for that $#*!.

Also, Castiel is picking up strays from Heaven, leaving them to Sam and Dean to deal with.

Needless to say, it’s a mess, but when it looks like the God himself might be meddling, Team Free Will doesn’t have a choice. It’s not like they would just let the poor woman with amnesia wander off anyway.

(It is more angsty than it sounds, especially in the beginning.)

Warnings: swearing, very brief smut, violence, some blood, major character death (YEP), mourning, angst

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

Don’t you ever bother, my child, trying to win the race against time. Truth is, my beloved, it is such a sore loser that it will never let you win.

-

Steve Rogers woke up with his head pounding so hard he was sure he must have drunk a barrel of Thor’s Asgardian liquor. Not that he remembered doing it.

With his brain in a haze, his hand went to sluggishly rise to his temple as if it could sooth the pain.

He had never sobered up as fast as when he found out he couldn’t do it, something holding his wrist by his side. His eyes snapped open only to be assaulted with a painfully sharp light. A half second later, he revealed he was strapped to a table.

Steve had no freaking idea what had happened, how had he got here or where ‘here’ was, but his instinct yelled at him to break the leather straps. He did so, easily, thanking god for the serum.

What the hell was happening? What the hell had happened?

He gritted his teeth with the effort to get his head on straight. Think, Rogers, think.

To his relief, the pounding headache was fading away, but it offered him no clarity. He couldn’t… he couldn’t recall why he was here and how he had got here in the first place. He wasn’t injured, he thought. If he had been, the serum pulsing in his veins, carved into every cell of his body, had done its job already. Except for his brain cells, apparently.

The last thing he remembered was you. Your laughter echoed in his ears, much brighter than the street and traffic lights illuminating your way as he was walking you home – his haven of the past few days as Tony’s frustration caused by a glitch in his system that he couldn’t figure out was penetrating the Tower’s walls, making the air harder to breathe in when anywhere in the building.

The memory of the twinkle in your eyes, when your gaze met his, automatically brought the briefest smile on his lips if even for a second as he had allowed himself to get lost in the past.

But then the brutal punch had come. Something had stung the back of his neck, an instant dizziness causing him to stumble.

Your horrified cry of his name and the darkness that had followed was like a slap, bringing him back to present.

He jumped to his feet, his eyes quickly examining the room. There was no one in sight. His stomach was squeezed by a cold fist of fear and not for himself.

Your name fell from his lips, silent and wavering.

Someone had drugged him. And you had been there when it had happened. Which, not to point a finger at anyone, but the fact he hadn’t seen anyone coming was totally on you, because when he was with you, he let his guard down, he allowed himself to relax, to forget. To forget who he was to the majority of the world, not to his friends and you.

With you, he was a plain old Steve Rogers, but people were always threatening Captain America’s life.

Fuck.

He prayed to God you were okay. He seemed more or less alright and he couldn’t decide whether that was a good sign. It could mean they had taken out their issues on you instead. His jaw clenched at the idea, the icy shiver that ran his spine in stark contrast to the burst of hot anger in his chest.

If anyone as much as laid their finger on you, he was going to rip their arm off.

Steve tried to shake off the dark thoughts and went to examine the room, this time with his heart hammering, feeling the pulse in his throat. There were two doors on opposite sides of the 40 x 40 ft. room, one to his right, the other to his left. Right in front of him him, there was an enormous screen, stretching along the whole wall. In the corner, there was a little camera. The red dot blinked at him, announcing it was on.

A fraction of second later, the lights in the room dimmed just a bit and the screen lighted up to life, showing a face of an unfamiliar man. He looked like he could use eating a sandwich or two, almost fragile body, deep-set tired grey eyes with wrinkles around them, greyish stubble covering his bony cheeks, contrast to the bald of his head.

“Captain! Good morning!” he greeted him cheerily. Steve squinted, trying to find a clue of what was happening. He could only see the man; not where he was or what was this about. “Good to see you awake. Some of us were getting worried you wouldn’t wake up. Isn’t that right?”

The camera shifted then and Steve’s heart positively stopped.

He lunged forward with his fists clenched on instinct only to realize it would help nothing.

It was you. You with a cloth tied over your mouth, strapped to a chair, a trickle of blood coming from your temple, a strap of messy hair sticking to it. Your cheeks were damp from tears, eyes bloodshot and full of horror. A bruise was forming around your right eye, your line of sight not meeting the lens of the camera aimed at you. Your dress and sweater were dirty and torn as if someone grabbed it too harshly and dragged you away; your nylons ripped, your knees bare and scraped bloody.

Steve didn’t even realize that the raging roar wasn’t only in his mind and actually escaped his mouth, his chest burning with hatred. You sobbed as if you could hear him and Steve understood he wasn’t the only one watching their soulmate.

“You’re a dead man,” Steve growled, causing your eyes falling shut.

While the image stayed focused on you, the man spoke up again.

“And yet I’m still walking…” the man hummed and to emphasize his words, he took several steps towards you – Steve’s feet twitched helplessly, wanting to stop him. But he couldn’t; he had no clue where he himself was, let alone you and that bastard.

He needed to think dammit. And he needed to think very fucking fast. His brain finally kicked in, immediately racing despite the trembles in his body – he couldn’t tell whether it was rage or fear.  When the man circled your chair and aimed the camera lower, Steve was suddenly certain it was pure horror.

There were explosives. There were explosives stuck to your chair and a timer set to two minutes; luckily, frozen. Steve was sure as hell it wouldn’t stay that way as a suffocating lump grew in his throat. He couldn’t breathe in.

The camera moved again, showing the man as he glanced at what Steve assumed was a screen like the one he was seeing, the one you kept watching. Steve didn’t bother wasting his brain capacity on trying to control his expression. The man smiled a toothy grin and Steve wanted to puke, his mind frantically fighting with the heavy stone in his stomach, screaming at him that this was you, his soulmate, basically sitting at a bomb.

“If you’re pissed off now, just wait for what’s to come.”

Pissed off? Oh, Steve was so beyond pissed off. When he was about to get his hands on this man, he wasn’t just about to rip his arm off. He was going to do so with all of his limbs and finish with the carotid, using his bare teeth.

The camera must have been set on a stand, still showing you, as Steve could hear the man shuffle around. The next thing he knew, the screen in front of him split in two separate images; one of you and the other showing nine frames of traffic cameras, all of them aimed at trashcans. Steve didn’t understand.

Yet.

Until the frame of you split into two, the other image showing another timer, simply lying somewhere in an empty room. It read two minutes. Frozen. Just like the one on your back.

Something ugly crept Steve’s spine, a hunch he refused to acknowledge.

“You see, you have two options now, Captain,” the man explained and Steve’s teeth grinded with effort to deny what was set in front of him. It wasn’t what he was thinking, it couldn’t be. “There’s a door to your left – close to your heart, of course…”

Steve’s hands trembled as the man walked to you and almost gingerly loosened the cloth over your mouth, only to tear a strap of your dress after that, revealing your soulmark. It was illegible from the distance, but it still sent a fresh way of nausea up Steve’s throat. A whimper escaped you.

“Pick the left door and save your soulmate. Or take the road to your right and be the righteous man everyone claims you are. There are nine bombs planted over the streets of New York. Busy morning, as you noticed, I’m sure. God, Mondays suck…”

Steve’s head was spinning.

The man was lying. He must have been lying.

“Oh and just so you know, your country is watching. Hacking is too easy these days. Ready to start the race?”

“Wait!” Steve blurted out instantly, catching the man’s attention. It was unfair how much Steve’s voice was shaking, but it was the least of his problems. “What… what do you want?”

The man frowned. “For you to choose. I’m sure you noticed the earbud I gave you-“ No, Steve hadn’t. Having a comm in his ear was a second nature now. “Don’t you worry. You’ll hear us the whole time.”

“No! Wait! There’s… there’s gotta be something-“

The man clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “The timer’s about to start, Captain. You better choose or you’ll lose both, her and tens thousands of lives I imagine. Life is full of hard choices, isn’t it?” he mocked him and this time it was definitely rage that overtook Steve’s mind and body.

Until someone new spoke up, scratchy, weak and weary voice that shattered his heart turned his stomach around.

“Steve? It’s… it’s okay. Go,” you creaked, your eyes shining with fresh unshed tears. It wasn’t the haunted look in your gaze that unsettled something deep inside of him. No. It was the dark resignation that laced the breath-taking colour of your eyes. “Go save lives. I… I knew I’d have to share you with the world. Frankly, I didn’t imagine it would be like this, but— you go and be hero. My life is nothing compared to thousands and we both know that.”

The world swayed off its place, Steve’s knees buckling, actually forcing him to stumble backwards and lean onto the table he was strapped to.

The fuck did you just say? With unshakable conviction no less?

“The clock is ticking now, Captain,” the man informed him swiftly, smile in his voice. It was like a punch to Steve’s solar plexus.

With his own shield.

“No,” Steve choked out, his glare darting from one door to another.

How could he even make such choice?! What kind of a twisted monster did this? Who was this man?

“Your soulmate is telling the truth, Captain, isn’t she? You are the hero. You always make choices to save people no matter how much it hurts you… if it hurts at all, of course. Maybe, maybe you don’t care-“

“Hey, I know you do!” you rushed to interrupt, a spark of life lightening up your face, but Steve’s hands only darted to his hair, fingers interlacing in desperation.  Your voice softened then. “It’s alright, Steve. I… I love you. And I’m so sorry it will hurt when I’m gone… but I believe in you. You can make it…”

“Yes, I can,” he growled, jolting to his right to disarm the bomb.

He could make it. He could handle the global threat and then rush to your rescue even if it meant he would burn to ashes shielding you from the flames.

His conviction only grew when he heard a familiar voice in his ear.

“Cap? Cap, can you hear me?”

It shook him more than the collision with the door. “Natasha?!”

“And company,” Stark supplied helpfully and Steve could cry in relief.

He wasn’t alone. He could do this.

“Can you disarm the bombs?” he panted, nearly faltering in his steps in relief.

Could Steve leave the nine explosives with one trigger alone and save you?

“Ah, look at him, Americans. The original Avenger, rushing to everyone’s rescue. Looks like he has some assistance, but that isn’t going to help. The choice was made. What is one life compared to thousands? Maybe she doesn’t even matter to him, does she?” the man interjected again and Steve gritted his teeth, pushing to his very limit to speed up.

The hall was narrow. No other possibilities – just running straight ahead. He felt like his mind was anything but straight, buzzing frantic images and dark scenarios. Your voice, ironically enough, was not helping.

“Steve, don’t listen to him. It’s okay. It’s okay…”

“Tony? Can you get rid of the bombs?” Steve repeated, gulping when the billionaire didn’t answer right away.

“No.”

Steve’s world crashed that moment and he wanted to scream.

Alone it was then. He had been alone before. He could do this.

“Romanoff can help you disarm it, we have… ugh, great visual of the corridors and of you thanks to the guy. I’m on my way, but it will be a really fucking close call.”

Steve mentally nodded, swallowing his fear. No time for fear now. Later. He could fold like a house of cards later. He wasn’t alone after all. He had freaking Black Widow and Iron Man at his disposal.

And finally, he reached another door. He burst into the room, his shoulder crying in protest when he broke down the door and stumbled in.

The room was plain, identical to the one he woke up – except there was the timer on a table.

01:02

01:01

“Natasha?” he howled as he sprinted to it. “Talk to me.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard.” She sounded confident. That was good.

That’s good, Steve’s mind echoed as he bent over the timer, swallowing thickly. Jesus Christ.

“Alright. I need you to rip off the blue wire at the same time you pressing the button on the left side of the timer. Got it?”

Steve only nodded, not taking a second to breathe in and think it through.

He just did it.

The red numbers of the timer flickered on 0:54 and died. Blood ran cold in Steve’s veins. He couldn’t hear any explosions, but that didn’t mean anything; God only knew how far from New York they were.

“Romanoff?” he hissed, already spinning on his heels and springing towards the corridor that had led him here.

“We’re clear. Run, Steve. Get that son of a bitch,” the redhead shot back, her voice sharp, but with a quiver of worry. Steve didn’t like that in the slightest; Natasha was rarely worried.

It was when the man who had assaulted you informed him he was still watching.

“Oh, silly, silly man,” he lamented, a patronizing note to his words. “Do you think you can make it in time? Don’t be stupid. You made your choice. Deal with the consequences.”

“Fuck. You,” Steve strained through his teeth, his feet barely touching the ground as he dashed through the hall, flashing the enormous monitor in his wake-up room a brief look as he headed to the second door.

It barely gave in as he ran into it, sickening crack echoing the empty space and vibrating his bones. Sharp pain jolted through his shoulder and arm; he was certain he just broke something.

It hurt. It would heal. He couldn’t fucking care less.

“You’re running out of time, Captain… you’re always out of time…” the man nearly sing-sang in mockery, making Steve push harder.

“Steve…” Tony’s heavy voice sounded emotionless through the comms and it felt like a slap to his face. “I won’t make it in time.”

Steve snarled, his lungs burning, his heartbeat pulsing his whole being, but he refused to throw himself off balance by even shaking his head in desperation. He ignored the icy fist that squeezed his insides.

He had to run.

Tony’s voice urged him then.

“Steve, there’s no way you can save her either. The lab’s gonna blow up in seconds. Get out of there.“

“Shut up!” the captain growled and as if it wasn’t enough, your captor let himself known too, counting down.

“Five.”

Shit!

Steve really would have to shield you from the explosion. That was gonna hurt a lot.

Well, though luck. He would burn before giving up on you.

He could see the door at the end of the hall now, his muscles crying with effort, his eyes burning with unshed tears or desperation.

He had to make in time to get you of the chair and cover you!

“Cap! Get the fuck out!” Natasha cried out in his ear, but Steve blatantly tuned it out.

He would have ripped the thing out of his ear, but that seemed like too much effort for now. He had more important goals.

“Four.”

He clenched his fists, bracing his body for the impact as he would throw himself against the door.

“Three.”

Pain erupted in Steve’s other shoulder as he collided with the metal, the door flying in the room with him.

“Two,” sounded on his right as he barely kept himself upright, quickly scanning the room. You were there, still on the chair, twenty feet from the door. The man stood by your side, hand on your shoulder, his head tilted to side with curious smile. “Hi there, Captain. One.”

Steve’s glimpsed the horror in your eyes, perfectly mirroring his own.

“Steve!” three voices yelled at the same time as he lunged after the man.

A fraction of second later, his body was thrown backwards with a shockwave, feeling as if on fire.

And then there was nothing.

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺

He nuzzled his nose to your hair, perfectly blissed out.

He learned to love Sunday mornings. Before he had met you, the day of the week had made no difference to him; he would wake up at 5:45 and get ready for his morning run and the only indication of something being different had been the amount of people he had been meeting on his route. Saturdays had used to be rather crowded, but not Sundays. On Sundays, people had idled. And you had convinced him to do the same.

It hadn’t required much effort from your side; especially after the first time Steve had got to make love to you. Since then, most Sunday mornings were reserved for lazy rolling in the sheets, exchanging sloppy and sensual kisses, wandering hands and lips and finding paradise in your bodies entangled.

He reached his peak shortly after you – because you always came first, an unintended pun, one Steve had made when he had been being absolutely sincere about your pleasure being the priority and you had laughed at it until your belly hurt – and now he wished for nothing but for cradling you in his arms for little longer.

His palm was sprawled on your stomach and he used it to bring you even closer, half-heartedly trying to convince a certain part of his body to stop reacting to your intimate position.

Too late, judging by your chuckle.

“Steve,” you whispered, rubbing your bottom against the hardness, apparently deciding to torture him sweetly. God, he would take every second of that torture and begged for more if it meant hearing you moan his name like that. Christ, this got him going.

You shifted in your position, catching his mouth with yours, fingers of your hand interlacing with his on your hip as you rocked into him once more.

Steve could die a happy man right there as he felt your heat, your tongue shamelessly twisting against his. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who was insatiable today. He moaned to your mouth when your hands sneaked between your bodies to guide him in and a shot of ecstasy made him arch his back at the contact.

Your smile was lost to the moan that left your lips.

“I love you,” you whimpered and Steve didn’t waste a second before returning the words, even though they paled under the actual force of what he was feeling with you. Love had never felt this intense before.

That was when the alarm blared, annoying and intrusive sound that had you both crying out in frustration.

Steve had forgotten about the brunch you had arranged with Ryan and his boyfriend.

“Turn it off,” he whined, locking his arm around you to keep you close.

“You know I can’t, Stevie,” you replied, not less annoyed than him. “Looks like we need to go back to reality.”

The intrusive beeping continued as Steve slowly blinked his eyes open. His eyelids felt unnaturally heavy. So did the rest of his body, which seemed to be hurting in too many places at once.

It took him few moments to assess the space he was in – lying in a bed, a beeping machine by his head, wires leading to his body, an i.v. in his arm. He knitted his brows together, reaching for the needle – it must have been why his body was so heavy and his mind so fuzzy.

Sharp pain erupted in his arm and torso, low hiss escaping his lips.

“Careful, Cap,” Tony’s voice brought Steve’s attention to the door where his friend was standing, slowly making his way to the bed. “You got yourself a lot of burns. If it wasn’t for the serum… you’d be a toast.”

“Burns?” Steve creaked, his throat scratchy.

When had he got-

Burns. The kidnapping. The choice he had been forced to make. The explosion.

Everything came rushing back to him in a horrifying fastforward.

“Did-“

“You saved lots of lives, yesterday,” the billionaire informed him, serious and excessively soothing.

It didn’t calm Steve’s suddenly rapidly beating heart. This wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. This wasn’t what he was asking; he knew that much. His thoughts were on you.

Did you survive?

“Did… did she-?“

Tony’s grim expression and solemn shake of his head told him everything he needed but didn’t want to know. Everything he refused to acknowledge, because it simply couldn’t be.

“No,” Steve rasped, his throat burning as much as his eyes and the rest of his body when he tried to sit up, his stomach twisting.

No. This couldn’t be.

It couldn’t, but somehow he already knew it was the truth. You would have been here by his bedside, watching over him. Or you would have been the first thing Tony mentioned, updating Steve on your condition.

Steve remembered with painful clarity the terror in your eyes before everything had gone black. The explosion. You had been in the centre of the room, the bomb basically strapped to your back.

“I’m sorry-”

“No,” Steve repeated stubbornly, setting his jaw tight so it wouldn’t tremble. “She’s… she has to-“

“I’m sorry, Steve. I… I really am.”

The crushing weight on Steve’s chest made it hard to breathe in, his throat closing up in effort not to scream. He squeezed his eyes shut, tears threatening to spill.

No, no, no… someone please wake him up from this nightmare. Please. You had to be alive. You had to, because otherwise… otherwise-

Otherwise he had failed you. Otherwise he was alone in this world again. Otherwise his heart was shattered and he would rather if it stopped. Otherwise his life was thrown back to the shadows he knew after coming out of the ice and further, kicked down to a pit of complete darkness. Otherwise he lost his soulmate.

“Please, leave,” Steve strained through his teeth, not bothering to open his eyes.

You were gone. You were gone, your body burned to ashes in the explosion Steve hadn’t stopped in time. He felt like the bomb exploded right inside of his chest, ripping his heart to shreds, pulsing pain pumped though his veins.

He heard no protest, only a sigh from the other man and a click of a door.

Only then, the first sob shook his whole body and he let himself to break down.

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Part 1

༻༺༻༺༻ღ༺༻༺༻༺ 

Well… that’s a really long prologue, I know. The chapters should be shorter from here.

Title – inspired by Halsey’s Without Me

Thank you for reading!

Please don’t hate me... it’s a Spn crossover, put two and two together ;)

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Tags: @cxptain @smilexcaptainx , @murdermornings @irepostthingsiwanttoseelater , @polarcrystall @eliza5616 @rayofdawnworld @victor-criss-bish @skychild29  @elysianecho @simmisblog @scentedsongrebel @orions-nebula, @sergeantrosabellaswan​ @songofcosplay​, @ilovesupersoldiers​ @wxstedhexrt​ @silver-winter-wolf​ @nova3312​  @guardian-tn @janieavalos, @vxidnik​

Hello there! Like I said I would, I kept the taglist. If anyone wants in or out, DM me or send an ask :-*

[courtofjurdan]

One Chance part 2

Jurdan College Au - masterlist

*I hope you guys enjoy this. I am not the best but I tried. Feel free to tell me what you would like to see and any advice or tips. Thanks, enjoy!!*

Summary: Jude is just an average college girl at Elfhame University with her twin sister Taryn. She is trying to learn the ways of life with tons of school piled upon her, but when she sees a certain person that she met some time ago, her world gets shook in too many ways. 

Jude is beyond livid for the fifteen minute homeroom class which they have to go for attendance. The bomb tries to talk to her, but Jude just ignores her, well, really she is deep in thought of how she can kill Cardan. So when the professor Noggle says dismissed, Jude jumps up from her seat but before she can leave a strong hand grips her shoulder and turns her around. By God if this is Cardan I’m going to smack him. 

She turns around, sees his pretty face and smacks it hard. She could hear the remaining classmates in the room take a deep breath of air. She surprised herself with how hard she could hit when she becomes angry. Cardan put a wicked smile on his face as he said,”Jude, Jude, Jude, my sweet Jude, did you miss me?” This was obviously said in his sarcastic tone of voice.  

Jude rolled her eyes,”Yeah, you wish.” She walked out of the class room and went to her other class which thank God, was without Cardan. The roach tapped Jude on the shoulder once she sat down and asked,”Is everything ok?”

“Why is he here? I can’t do college with him here. Heck, I barely survived high school with him.” The anger in her voice disappearing, replaced with a little bit of worry.

“Remember Jude, we are always here for you” he said while placing a hand on her shoulder and looking at Bomb and Ghost. Jude just nodded. Next Jude had a break from classes and she sat outside the university until her friends were done with their class so they could go get lunch together. And so coincidentally, Cardan had a break too. They didn’t have the same classes but they had the same break time, wonderful. He finds Jude on her phone, sitting on a bench. Jude quickly looks up, sees who it is and says,”Nope, nope, I am not sitting here wasting my time talking to you.” She begins to get up to walk away. 

Cardan puts his hand over his heart and scrunches up his face acting like the words sting. “Jude, how many times do I have to apologize? I went too far, I get it. You can stop avoiding me now.”

She turns around, face red with anger,” No Cardan, I can’t stop avoiding you. What you did was unforgivable. Do you know what people told me for the rest of the year? That I was worth just as much as the dirt on the bottom of their shoes. And you know what? I started to believe it.” She was basically shouting at this point. She didn’t mean to let that last bit fall out of her mouth. She didn’t want to seem vulnerable in front of Cardan.

“Jude-” but it was too late. Jude had already walked away before he could say anything else. Well, it wasn’t like he knew what to say either. 

She went and sat at the other end of the parking lot hoping no one would see her. She just wanted to scrunch in a corner and never come out again. She wanted to go back to before her parents died. She wanted to go back to when life was good, and fun. As she sat here with her thoughts bundled inside her head, she sees Taryn and Locke walk out the door. Please don’t see me. Please don’t. Too bad. Taryn saw her. Taryn with a happy face, and Locke with an amused face, comes up to her. Taryn quickly lost her happy expression and replaced it with a worried one when she could physically see the anxiousness of Jude. 

“Jude, what's wrong?” Taryn asked, worried.

Jude rubbed her face and started to get up. “Nothing you can fix.” She hated how resentful the words came out. 

Because Locke always has to make his presence known he spoke up,”Man, I wonder if this has anything to do with Cardan.” Spoken sarcastically. 

Jude, through gritted teeth,”I wonder if it does, Locke, it would be nice if you would let me know.” Jude walked away knowing that any moment her friends would come rescue her from the trap of everyone else. 

   Not much longer later, Jude meets her friends and they get into the bomb's car, and goes to a little diner called Underseas diner. Everybody talked at the table except Jude. Ghost knew something was up so he asked her, “Hey Jude, did anything happen while we were gone?”

“No, nothing worth telling.” 

“Jude, we are your friends. You can tell us anything.”

“I am just thinking.” 

The Bomb pipes in,”Sure, It’s ok boys, i’ll get it out of her later.” Bomb then continues to wink at Ghost and Roach. They laugh as Jude rolls her eyes and smiles.

They all ate together and celebrated their first day of college. Unfortunately, Jude had one more class she had to attend. It was her least favorite, it was literature. She hated anything with paper and reading but oh well, there’s college for ya. 

She was running a little behind so when she got to class, there was only one seat left. It was by the one person she was trying to avoid. It felt like the universe was trying to pull them together and she didn’t understand why. She groaned inwardly and went and sat down. She sat as close to the side of her chair away from Cardan as she possibly could. 

She was thankful though because this time he didn’t try to talk to her. She would just periodically see him look over. He also kept on hitting his pen on the desk, Jude guessed it was out of boredom or it was a nervous tick. Do I make him nervous? Jude thought. 

When they dismissed the class, she was out of there before the professor could even finish the sentence. She raced back to her dorm. Her dorm felt almost like a security blanket. A safe place to hide. 

She changed into some comfortable clothes, and sat down on her bed. She ate some mac and cheese and watched some netflix. Then she heard her phone buzz. It was Vivi. 

She said flatly “Hello.”

“Umm, Hi I wanted to see how your first day was?” Vivi said hesitantly.

“Oh Vivi, it was great.” 

“What’s wrong? Did something embarrassing happen? Don’t tell me you started your period and it got all over her bottoms in front of everyone?”

“Uhh no, Vivi, that didn’t happen. Cardan decided he needed to join college. I walk in homeroom, and there he sits, in all his glory.”

“Ohhhh Nooooo” 

“Yep, I smacked him in the face in front of a bunch of people.” 

“Oh wow, Jude.” Vivi paused. “I swear, one day you're going to end up with him. Your biggest enemy is going to become your best friend.” 

Jude was quiet for a moment and then said,” I got to go Vivi, someone is calling in.”

She heard Vivi say, “sure” right before she hung up. 

There is no possible way Jude could ever think about Cardan being the one for her. Just thinking of all the stuff he did. The bullying scarred her. She at least hopes Vivi was just joking because if she wasn’t, and she is being literal, then she might be right because when is Vivi ever wrong? 

Day two of school and Jude was not prepared for it. She gets up and ready, she forgets breakfast because, well, is that really important? When she walks in the grand wooden doors people are giving her weird sneers and smirks. She thought maybe something weird had happened before she got there. But, all that changed once she knew what her locker had on it. It is senior year of highschool all over again, she thought. 

Someone had taken a video of her slapping Cardan, everyone probably knew that reunion was worth looking at. They took screenshots of the video at different points of view. She didn’t even realize her peers had their phones out because she was so angry at Cardan. They had put notes on her locker saying “Maybe kissing Cardan would make him want you. Try that next time.” She was mad. She looked around and saw that a crowd was enclosing her, and people were laughing. But she wasn’t going to give them the last laugh. 

She looked around looking for one particular face. And boom, right there leaning against the other lockers, with the biggest smile he could muster was Cardan. She pulled him to the middle and said very loudly, “Ok, ok, if this is what you guys are dying to see then i’ll make it happen.” She grabbed Cardans chin, and brought his lips to her mouth. Cardan’s back hit the lockers with a thud. It was a hard and deep kiss. Like almost something they both needed, but would never admit. Jude broke it off abruptly, surprised. Not surprised that Cardan didn’t back away, or make some witty remark, but because she was feeling something that she couldn’t place.

She quickly turned to her silenced audience, and said with a big mask of a smile on her lips,”Happy?” and she walked right back out of those big grand doors. On her way out, she passed Bomb with her mouth hung open, the Ghost and Roach had wide eyes plastered on to their faces, and Taryn with a frown and Locke with a smirk of enjoyment. Jude was walking back to her dorm and the one thing she thought about was that it was only the second day and she would already miss a class. And, maybe how sweet that kiss was but she quickly shook her head to get that thought out immediately. 

Jude went back to her dorm, and bawled. She was humiliated, again. She couldn't believe she didn’t see the trap coming. She kept on wondering, Was this Cardan’s doing? Did he have this ultimate plan? Little did she know, she would soon find out. She did the only thing she knew to do. She called Vivi. 

“Hello” Vivi greeted.

“Vivi, it is senior year all over again.”

“Woah, Jude, what’s wrong?” 

Jude told her the rundown of what had happened. 

“Jude, walk your butt back into your next class and show them who’s boss. Don’t show them that their words hurt you because that will only want to make them hurt you more,”

Through the sniffles,” Ok I will. Love you, bye.”

Vivi always knew the right words to say. She was, if not more, just as strong headed as Jude was. Vivi became the closest thing to a role model Jude would ever have. 

Before she knew it, it was 1:30. Her next class started at 2. She debated on going because Cardan was in it, but then she thought that she is not letting everybody win, she will walk in there with confidence she didn’t know she had. 

She walked in the classroom and everybody looked at her. By now, everybody knew because rumors spread like lightning. She looked in the back and found a wide pair of black eyes looking at her gaze. She sat down with a friend she met yesterday in this class. Her name is Sophie. Sophie gave her a small smile, and Jude gave the same back. 

Class was over rather quickly, and Jude decided to be the last one out this time. She let everyone go, keeping her head low. She went to get up to leave once the room was cleared out, but realized quickly that one other person lingered behind. In the silent room, you could hear Jude’s stomach growl so Cardan said hesitantly,”Jude, would you like to get something to eat with me?”

     Jude retorted back defiantly while she got her bag,”Isn’t there like five hundred other girls here you rather ask?” 

“No, there isn’t.” He said quite confidently which drew Jude back a little bit, but still, she did the Jude thing -

Jude just rolled her eyes and started walking away.

“Jude -wait, I’ll buy it. Just come. Please.” 

She stopped dead in her tracks. She heard a “please” come out of Cardan Greenbriars millionaire mouth. She turned around slowly, saying, “Ok, only because I’m not paying, and I’m really hungry.” He nods his head and puts a small grin on his face that made Jude almost pity him until she remembers that she doesn’t know his motive. 

[turning-dreams-into-chaos]

Butterflies

*Not my Gif*

Request: Hey,I just saw that your requests were open and I was wondering if you could write one about a slytherin reader and young remus and you dislike each other but secretly like each other?Thanks and amzing work👍👏

Requested By: @lespaceboi

Post Date: 8-28-19

Paring: Remus Lupin x Reader

Word Count: 3.1K

A/N: Idk if it’s what you wanted exactly but I got carried away

~Master List~

Requests are closed

You were making your way to your common room after breakfast with your book in your hand, barely paying attention to the people around you. You did this often, reading while walking, and people pretty much knew to lookout for you whenever they saw. People were pretty helpful like that, moving you or others out of the way if you were going to collide or giving you a swift turn when they knew you were headed to a certain class and were going to miss the hallway. Everyone was watching out for you, well almost everyone.

“Oh!” You groaned as your butt hit the floor, your book spun across the ground before a hand stopped it. You looked up before meeting the brown eyes you’ve grown to hate. “Ugh. It’s you.” You grumbled as you pushed yourself up sticking a hand out to Remus to get your book back. He gave you a forced smile before turning heel and walking away, your book tucked in his arms. You rolled your eyes, walking after him as he begun to walk backwards.

“You know Y/L/N, people tend to walk better when they’re not nose deep in a book.” He jokes as you mocked the smirk on his face.

“You know Lupin, people tend to read better when their books aren’t held hostage.” You both came to a stop at the Fat Lady and Remus looked down at the book.

“Advanced Potions? We don’t take that for another year. Or do you Slytherins find yourselves in different classes?” He raised his eyebrow as you snatched your book away.

“If you must know, I’m reading it for fun. Now I get to ask, why are you like this with me? I see you with everyone else yet you’re only a pompous ass when you’re with me.” You pointed out as he laughed. You hated that laugh, it meant he knew something you didn’t and god only knows how many times you hear that laugh. You bit the inside of your cheek before turning around making your way back to the Slytherin Common Room.

Remus watched you leave as a victorious smile crossed his face and he entered the common room. His eyes fell onto his best friends. Peter and Sirius were face first on the floor talking as James tried flirting with Lily again. Remus took the seat opposite of them and Sirius moved himself onto his elbows and peered up at the boy.

“Tormenting Y/L/N again?” He asked as everyone turned to look at him, taking in the smile plastered on his face. Remus just furrowed his brows and crossed his arms, glancing around at his amused friends.

“How’d you know?” Everyone basically groaned as Sirius shot him an Are-you-kidding-me look.

“Mate its all you ever do now a days.” James spoke as Lily nodded her head.

“Honestly, it’s either you torment her or she torments you. And whenever you’re not with us-“

“You’re with her.” Peter interrupts Sirius as they both nod. Soon all four of them are doing it and Remus couldn’t help but sink into his chair a little. Was he really like this? Sure he treated you differently, but he always chalked it up to loving your reaction. You were always one to sass him back or something and Remus always thought he liked seeing you worked up. He hadn’t realized that he in fact spent so much time with you.

You hadn’t realized it either, but Remus was soon taking up all your thoughts. You couldn’t even look at your Advanced Potions book as you tossed onto your bedside table because all you saw was Remus smug expression. It made your stomach churn.

Lucky for you, the next few days were spent Lupin free, just how you preferred. You made your way into the library with the potion book in hand, finally finished and ready to turn in. You had some spare time today so you made your way through the aisles of books, scanning for anything really before a certain conversation started playing on the other side of the rack.

“I swear I didn’t know it was Moony’s chocolate when I ate it!” A voice you recognized as Sirius Black’s said as you shook your head, trying to block them out at the nicknamed mention of Remus. You drifted your fingers across the books in hopes of hurrying up before you heard someone else talk, who you rightfully guessed as James.

“Yeah, well who else’s could it of been Padfoot! Remus is the only one who saves his chocolate for when he wolf’s out! It doesn’t matter, Full Moon is Monday, just go to Hogmeade tomorrow and replace it.” Your interest was peaked the moment they said “wolfs out” but by the time they were finished talking your mouth just about hit the floor and you were staring off into space. You hadn’t seen the two figures turn the corner and stop when they saw you. You met their eyes before dropping the book you once had a tight hold on and sprinting out of the library.

James turned to Sirius, slightly urgency in his voice. “Do you think she heard us?”

Sirius rolled his eyes as he stared at his best friend. “No I think the girl just likes running.” He deadpanned before pulling James sleeve and taking off after you. The only problem was after you bolted from the library, he had no idea where you went. They were about to run to their room and use the map to find you until a pair of hands landed on their shoulders. They both whipped their heads around, hoping to find you but instead finding the one person they were dreading talking to.

“What’s wrong?” Remus questioned as he looked between the two, he knew something was wrong as they both were panting and practically jumped out of their skin. Sirius gulped, taking a step closer to Remus as he looked down at the floor.

“It’s Y/N.”

You didn’t know where you were going, honestly you just needed to get out of there. Remus was a werewolf. Like an actual werewolf! You didn’t want to believe it, you wanted to just think that Sirius and James were messing with you or they were talking about something else. You paused in your step, closing your eyes as everything finally started to make a little more sense. The scars on his face. The once a month he seemed to be even more intolerable. Hell even the damn nickname! But the more you thought about it, the more you wanted to wrap your head around it. You found yourself alone in the courtyard, no one else around so you took a seat on one of the benches. You rested your elbows on your knees as you buried your head in your hands. You didn’t know how long you sat like that until rapid footsteps behind you caused you to shoot up. Remus was practically sprinting towards you, James and Sirius not far behind. Your eyes widened before your back hit the wall behind you, Remus towering over you. James and Sirius began to move to pull him off you as you shook your head.

“It’s fine. I got this.” You assured them as they took a few weary steps back, obviously not trusting you and Remus together. Remus was furious, his eyes darted between yours as he tried to hold back his anger.

“So what are you gonna do now? Huh? Tell everyone? Let everyone know my secret? Oh no better yet, tell no one until I least suspect it then drop the bomb?” He seethed as you took in his words. You looked over his face, his eyes covered in a faint line of unshed tears as he pursed his lips together.

“No.” You answered truthfully. So many thoughts were rushing through your head, but not one of them involved sharing Remus’ secret to the world.

Remus shakes his head, “You know what Y/L/N- wait did you say no? You’re not going to tell anyone?” He pushes himself away from the wall and your body as you nod your head. He searches your eyes for any chance you could be lying but finds none. “Why not?”

“Why do you care? Its not my secret. It’s not my place to tell anyone.” You snap as James and Sirius go all protective mode again. This time it was Remus who told them it was okay, then telling them to leave you alone for a bit. You wanted to protest, to just let this conversation die but sadly that doesn’t look to be in the cards. Remus turned back to face you, a look of surprise still written across his face.

“I just- I don’t know what to say.” With that, you rolled your eyes, pushing past Remus as you head back towards the castle, talking with your back to him.

“Everyone’s entitled to keep secrets Lupin.”

“Thank you.” He yelled as you fully stopped, turning around to look at him as you shrugged.

“Don’t thank me. I’m literally doing nothing.” You continued walking as he laughed, a light laugh that cause you to bite back a smile. “Well, that’s new.” You mumbled to yourself as you shook the impending smile off your face and headed to your next class.

The next few days were weird to say the least, everywhere you looked Remus was there. Only it wasn’t the same as before. He was being... helpful. He made sure you had all the ingredients in potions, made sure you had any of the books you wanted at the library, and he even helped you when Lestrange wouldn’t leave you alone. But after a week you got fed up. You were on your way back from Transfiguration as you saw the boy of your headaches walking alone. You made a rash decision as you clasped onto his robes, pulling him into the nearest broom closet.

Remus was shocked when you pulled on him and crammed yourselves into the tiny closet. Out of anything you could’ve done, this was not one that he imagined.

“Ow! You’re on my foot Lupin! Just move- come on! Lumos!” You finally yelled before a bright light filled the cramped space. Remus was practically pushed right up against you as you held the wand to your side.

“Why are we here?” He grumbled as he tried to pull his arm up from the very awkward angle, only managing to push into you more.

“We are here because- oh just let me do it.” You paused as you shifted, allowing Remus to fix his arms and place them on the shelves behind you, one arm on either side. Maybe if either of you were less focused on the current events that is your ‘friendship’ you would’ve realized exactly what this looked like. “We are here because the last week you have been acting different.”

“Different?” He questions, already knowing what you were talking about.

“Yeah, different.” You put more emphasis on the word as you gripped your wand tighter. “You’ve actually been nice to me and I want it to stop.” You demanded as Remus bit his lip. He knew exactly what was going on. You knew his secret and he wanted to repay you, so he decided to try and be nice to you more. But you didn’t like it. It turns out for you, the moment you get Remus Lupin without all the snarky comebacks and impossible to ignore pranks, you get more irritating. Your friend was he first one to point out you were more mad then normal, you tried to push the thought away until Remus showed up that day and she told you it was because of him. She knew of your relationship with him, everyone did, it wasn’t like you were keeping your hatred a secret. Remus’ mouth dropped when you to told him to stop being nice.

“I thought you hated mean Lupin.” He mumbled as you laughed.

“I hate you Lupin. Mean or nice, it’s just the nice version is creeping me out.” You gave him a fake apologetic shrugged, catching the way his lips turned up at the corner before he made them normal again. That same feeling in you from when he laughed occurred as you finally took in how close you were to him as you pushed back a little, letting your body press against the shelves. The redness creeping across your face was showcased from the light of your wand as Remus stared down at you. It looked good on you. Made you seem a little more decent than most of your run ins with him where you were both insulting each other until one gave up. He liked this. He hated you, but he liked this feeling in him.

Without much thought he made more room for himself, letting his hands move from the shelf behind you to your hips when the room fell silent.

His hands held you in place as you stared up at him, seeing the way he smiled at you as you came to your senses. You pushed his hands away from you as you opened the door a little, letting the harsh light of Hogwarts infiltrate your little hide out. “Look, I know I’m keeping your secret Remus, but I’d appreciate it if things could just go back to normal.” You whispered before letting the door slam behind you, leaving Remus standing in the dark with a big smile on his face and weird feeling in his gut because for the first time since you and him met you didn’t call him Lupin. You said Remus and it made his heart stop.

The next day he pretended like he felt nothing in that closet, like the thought of you now didn’t make his head race. He carried on like he had before you learned about his secret, using every opportunity to steal your belongings or snatch the book you had your eye on. Things were starting to return to normal and you were enjoying it until something in the back of your head stopped you. Or rather your friend smacking you in the back of the head.

“What was that for?!” You yelled as you rubbed your head. Y/F/N sighed as she fell onto your bed next to you.

“Deal with Remus.” She said as you scoffed. You tucked the book you were currently in the middle of reading under your pillow as you joined her at the head.

“And pray tell why do I need to talk to Remus?”

She practically lit up like a Christmas tree, making you even more confused.

“You called him Remus.” She shouted as your stomach dropped. You looked like you saw a ghost as thoughts of Remus flooded your mind. It was dumb really, how you acted. You pushed yourself off the bed, making your way through the school before seeing Remus leaning against the same closet you dragged him in as you approached. He hadn’t seen you until you tapped his shoulder causing him to stop leaning on the door and allowing you to open it. He didn’t say anything as you followed you in, not even needing you to pull him for him to know to follow. It was dark as you made out the outline of his face and pulled out your wand, lighting up the room.

“What are we doing in here?” Remus whispered as his hands trailed lightly onto your hips in hopes you wouldn’t push them off.

You didn’t.

Instead you reached up and took a hold of his shirts collar, pulling him down to smash your lips onto his. He kept one hand on your hip, letting the other cup your jaw as he ran his tongue across your lip. You didn’t waste a second as your lips parted, being separated more when his tongue entered your mouth. It carried on more like that until you couldn’t breathe anymore. You pulled apart, panting as you reached up to touch your kiss swollen lips. Remus tucked a strand of hair behind your ears as you looked up at him, running your teeth barely across your bottom lip. Butterflies. That’s what that feeling was in your stomach. You liked the way he made you feel.

“I have a secret.” You mumbled as Remus tilted his head, looking down at you. “I don’t think I hate you anymore.” You whisper as Remus let’s out a genuine laugh. You smiled as he nodded.

“Yeah, I don’t think I do too.” He pulled you back up into a kiss and you stayed like that for a while. “You know, I think I like kissing you more than I like fighting with you.”

“You know,” you nodded your head, bringing your fingers up to your chin in fake thought, “I think I have to agree with you on that.” You shared a smile before you paused. “Do you think we could still argue and everything out there?” You asked as you nodded towards the exit. He looked at the door and smirked turning back to you.

“This can be kind of like our little secret. As long as I can kiss you whenever we’re alone.” He concluded as you learn up to place a quick kiss to his lips.

“If you don’t stop talking I’ll hex you.” You threatened as you turned around to face your boyfriend and Sirius who sat next to you and had both been talking all throughout potions. He rolled his eyes, leaning forward on his desk as you crossed your arms.

“You’re just mad cause you don’t have anyone to talk to.” He justified as Sirius watched the two of you in amusement. You stood off your stool, coming right up to his desk as he also stood up.

“No, I just feel bad for Black who actually has to talk to you all day.” You said before you left to go get some more ingredients. Sirius leaned back on the desk, shaking his head at Remus.

“Moony I have no clue how you had been nice to her for a week. She’s a nightmare.” Sirius declared before spinning in his stool and focusing on his potions. Remus on the other hand watched you, carefully seeing the way you picked out your own ingredients and helped someone else find the one they needed. You glanced up at him, catching him in his stares before smiling and winking at him. How could he stand being with a nightmare like you? Easy, you weren’t actually a nightmare and he loved you. And all of your friends were none the wiser.

Thoughts?

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Harry Potter: @accio-rogers

Remus Lupin: @serenefreakgeek

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Downfall Of Us All: Chapter 15

Downfall Of Us All

Chapter 15

AN: I hope everyone is staying safe during this difficult time, and I’m sorry for the delay in updating Downfall. I’ve just been feeling really down, and not really happy for the last two weeks. 

He wouldn't let HYDRA hurt his team or allow Ross to manipulate them into being his weapons. He wouldn’t allow it.

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Natasha felt sick as she went to check up on Grace, she was curled up beside Clint. Her face was pale and tearstained, her hands were clutching at a photograph. "Grace, the autopsy is going to be done tomorrow morning. Would you like to see him, afterwards?" She asked gently, Grace nodded shakily and swallowed. "I'd like that, thank you. What was he doing in Siberia, Nat?" She asked distraught, trying to keep her powers under control. She didn't want to hurt anyone. "We don't know, Grace but we're gonna find out. Tony's going to hold a team meeting in the morning." Natasha explained quietly, her heart breaking for her friend. Grace nodded numbly, tears silently sliding down her cheeks. Clint wrapped his arms around her, and she clung to him tightly. She felt broken. "Nat, who did this to him? Was it S.H.E.I.L.D, or HYDRA?" She asked finally, wanting to know the truth about the bastards who had murdered her son. Natasha didn't want to lie to Grace, she deserved to know the truth and so did Sophie. Their lives were at risk, and it never did well to keep secrets. "We'll know more in the morning, but right now you need to get some rest. What Tony and Lilia found out, it's not pleasant," she warned quietly, and Grace nodded numbly. Her poor boy, her precious boy.

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Everyone was silent as they entered the conference room, Sophie and Grace didn't look like they'd gotten any sleep. Grace's blonde hair was a mess, and there were dark circles under her eyes. "It was S.H.I.E.L.D, wasn't it? They took my Zach, and experimented on him, and killed him! Why Siberia though?" Grace asked finally, her voice becoming cold and Clint could detect a faint Ukrainian accent, and her eyes flashed red. "We think the S.H.I.E.L.D division under Robert Gonzales were authorised by Senator Ellen Nadeer, and....Home Secretary Thaddeus Ross to abduct children. They went after children of Enhanced, Inhuman, Mutants and Gifted who hadn't signed the accords." Tony explained quietly, he looked exhausted and Lilia wordlessly gave him a glass of water. For once, he didn't argue with her on the drink. He'd signed the Accords, in the belief he was helping people, but instead he was being used. The autopsy on Zach was being conducted, and he knew that Bruce, Helen and Jemma would be compassionate.

Tony's gaze found Steve's and Nat's, as if he were drawing support and courage from them.

Tony didn't look as if he'd slept any better than the sisters and had his own trauma going on. It was his own pain that made him a lot more sympathetic than he'd been when Steve had refused to sign the accords. Now, finally, he understood why Steve had resisted. "Grace, I'm really sorry about what happened to Zach," Tony said slowly. "Your son didn't deserve that and neither did the two of you."

Setting down the glass, he raked a hand through his hair as he walked around to where Grace and Sophie sat. "When they hit us with the accords, I was ready, pen in hand. Like Nat said, I thought that if we were held in check but still had one hand on the wheel, we could still somewhat steer." Tony swallowed hard. "They didn't tell us everything. I certainly wouldn't have agreed to any of it if I'd know what their intentions were. For that I apologize." "Ross then grabbed the two of you," Steve spoke up, "and I'm not certain we know the true reason for that. But you're part of this team and I can tell you that we'll do everything in our power here to keep the two of you safe and to get to the bottom of this. We won't let them to do this to anyone else." Sophie lost her composure in that moment, quietly sobbing next to Bucky. Grace looking beyond tears, beyond sorrow now. Tony knew Steve saw it too, that fire in her eyes. They'd have to be so careful with her, so she wouldn't try to strike out on her own. They could kill her or worse. "Team, this is our mission now," Steve announced. "We know they have Pepper Potts, Jane Foster, and Darcy Lewis from the same program. We need to rescue them and any others they are keeping captive." Steve moved closer, placing a hand on Clint's shoulder as he took a knee before the young woman, putting his blue eyes on the same level as hers. "I'm so sorry about your son, Grace," Steve said slowly, as if talking to a cornered animal. "I do know what it's like to try and shoulder the blame for things, even if you're not involved. I want you to understand, it's not your fault what's happened to the other women. Do you understand? Nothing you've done or failed to do caused what is happening to them." Grace appeared to listen, but she was almost too calm, too still. "But you could help us," Steve tried. "Anything you know, anything you can tell us would help us stop them. We'll shut them down, Grace. And we'll find out what happened and why. Just please think about it for me."

For a long moment, Grace didn't speak but then she looked at each of them in turn, before lastly looking at Clint, Sophie and Bucky. He nodded at her, while Sophie and Bucky squeezed her hands. "They never let me out unless one of them was with me, usually it would be Rumlow. But sometimes it would be two other men, I can't really remember them but one of them had silver hair. I tried to run away once, but he caught me in the forest. He was fast," Grace explained quietly, swallowing quietly. "Do you mind if I look?" Wanda asked gently, Grace shook her head and Wanda stood in front of her. Clint stood beside her and tried to keep relaxed. Wanda wouldn't hurt her, and she wanted to help. She felt a strange tingling sensation through her head and kept calm as she started feeling the sensation of her mind being entered.

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Wanda managed to access Grace's memories of Sokovia carefully, she saw images of Grace helping families get food, and basic supplies. She watched as a young man with silver hair hurried to where Grace was working in a tent, talking to a young woman. "Please help me! My sister's in labour, and she's frightened!" The man pleaded urgently, Grace looked alarmed and quickly grabbed a medical bag before following him. "Where's your sister?" She asked gently, the man was trembling violently and pointed towards the forest. "We set up camp in the woods, out apartment was destroyed when Tony Stark's bomb blew up our apartment building," the man explained quietly, Grace nodded and hurried to get her car when the man lunged. He pulled out a needle, and inserted it into her neck, despite Grace's attempts to fight him off. She kicked violently but slumped as a black armoured van came over. "Nice to see you've learnt from our training, Quicksilver." Rumlow said impressed, Wanda felt like she'd been slapped as she got a look at the man. The man began to speak, in response to Rumlow talking. "She is the daughter of a man, who helped destroy my country. I want her to suffer, like my people have suffered," the man said coldly, an expression of hate on his face. It was Pietro, her brother had helped kidnap Grace. Wanda felt sick, and quickly got out of Grace's mind, not wanting to hurt her.

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"What the hell happened? Wanda, what's wrong?" Clint asked alarmed, Wanda looked like she was going to be sick or break down into tears. She was gasping for breath, and Lance helped her sit down. "Pietro was there, Clint! Oh god, oh god, he helped Rumlow and Zemo torture Grace!" Wanda sobbed distraught, and ashamed at what her brother had done. The room fell silent, Grace looked horrified but determined. She grabbed Wanda's hand tightly and swallowed. "That's not your fault, Wanda. You were a victim too, HYDRA hurt both of us." She said quietly.

Wanda fought to regain composure, to try to get out of her emotions. Something occurred to her. "If Pietro was involved, he's likely still involved," Wanda told him. "I might know where to find him." That got Steve's interest. "Now that would be very useful." Bucky and Steve exchanged a knowing glance while Sophie reached for Grace's hand. Clint pulled Grace against him, keeping his voice calm while his expression was fierce. "Wanda, tell us everything you can," Clint bid her. "Please."

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Tony listened from the other side of his desk after the meeting while Clint gave them everything Wanda had on her brother. Tony looked ready to jump out of his chair and into a jet. Steve and Nat exchanged a glance. They needed to bring everyone back down to think things through rationally. "Hey," Steve told Tony, Clint, and Bucky. "Guys, we have to keep our heads about us. You know that. I know we want to protect Grace and Sophie. I know we want to rescue Pepper and the others. But we can't run up against them with our hearts on our sleeves and a half-assed plan. This is HYDRA. I've been dealing with these assholes since the forties. We have to be smarter than that." "Steve's right," Nat told them. "Maybe it's even best if a couple of you sit this out." Clint didn't like that she was looking at him when she said that. "You honestly think I'm going to sit this one out, Nat?" Clint sounded incredulous. "I'd hope you know better than that." "I do," she said with a smile. "You're missing the point. In your case, I'm not worried your emotions will get the best of you. I'm worried about Grace getting away from us." That stopped Clint cold which told her Clint shared her fear. "If she decides to go after them on her own, we could lose her," Nat argued. "And you know she would. She thinks it's her fault they have Pepper, Jane, and Darcy. She won't want to endanger any more of our lives. You know how she thinks." Clint's expression became clouded by worry. "Sophie would try to follow her," Bucky offered. Nat nodded. "Yes, she would. She's already blaming herself for not protecting her younger sister then. She sure as hell will do it now." "Bucky can stay with you," Steve threw in. "Like hell I will," Bucky shot back. "You know me. You know I'm not going to lose my head in there." "I do know you," Steve countered. "If Sophie were in danger, yeah, you could." "You can't leave the three of us out of this one, Cap," Tony offered in a terrifyingly calm voice for him. "I hope you know that." Steve had to try. "Just think about it. If we come up with the right plan, we can maybe handle this without the three of you being involved. I need you two," he said to Clint and Bucky, "to be there for those two women, and you," he said to Tony, "to be here when we get Pepper back. Do you understand? How can any of you do that if you get yourselves killed?" Tony didn't like that at all.

All three of them knew Steve was right, but Clint was torn about what to do. Deep down, he knew Grace blamed herself and if it meant keeping them safe, she would go hunt HYDRA herself. "Cap, you gotta trust us. We're not gonna react rashly, but I made Grace a promise and I've gotta keep it. I didn't save my kids, but I promised Grace that I'd help her get justice," Clint said quietly, and Steve nodded. Tony looked at his Stark iPad, and sighed quietly. "Bruce, Helen and Jemma have finished the autopsy. They're waiting for us," Tony said quietly, Steve sucked in a deep breath and nodded. "Let's get the others, and make sure Grace isn't alone. She's gonna be struggling, Cap." Sam interjected sadly, saddened at what his friend was going through.

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"He suffered from heart and respiratory failure, his lungs and heart were shutting down. I've found unknown drugs in his system, it looks like they were trying to use the super - soldier on him, but it reacted negatively with his DNA. He's already got super soldier DNA, and he has spider DNA from Grace," Helen explained quietly, looking down at Zach's sleeping face. They'd been very gentle, and had put a sheet over his body to hide the scars on his body. Helen could only imagine how frightened the young boy must have been and looked up as Grace entered the room with Sophie, May and Peter. "Did he suffer?" Grace whispered bravely, praying that her son hadn't been treated like a lab rat. She knew that Gonzales's Faction of SHIELD weren't friendly towards her, Sophie or the Avengers. Helen didn't want to lie to Grace and took her hand tightly as she looked at Bruce for help. "He did suffer at first Grace, when they first began doing tests on him. But, he didn't suffer when he died." Bruce said comfortingly, knowing that it was a cold comfort to her. Grace took some comfort in that, she walked to where Zach was and stroked his hair tenderly. She felt tears slide down her face but focused on her son. He looked peaceful, and that comforted her at least. She swallowed, and began to sing a lullaby to him, one that her mother would sing to her and Sophie. "Shlof shoyn mayn tayer faygele Makh shoyn tsu dayn kosher aygelekh Shlof shoyn shlof In ziser ruh Aaaaai lu, lu, lu, lu, lu, lu Shlof doorkh di gantse nakht Iber dayn kepele malekh'lach Makh shoyn dayn aykelekh tsu Ai li lu li lu Daybelakh, hindelakh, faygelakh Tsigelakh, kelbelakh, shof un rinder Shlofen un rooehn yetst aleh baynakht Vi di klayne kinder Shlof shoyn mayn faygele Makh shoyn tsu dayn aygele Ikh bin shoyn meed atsind Shlof, lu, lu Shlof Shlof shoyn Shlof hob ikh dir gezoogt berele Ai, li, li, li, lu, lu Ai, li, li, li, lu, lu, lu Aiiiii, Luuuuu Shlof mayn kind un rooh." Grace sang softly, her voice never wavering, and she kissed Zach's forehead tenderly. Her son was in a better place, he was with his grandparents, friends, uncle and aunt.

Maybe he was even with Cooper and Lila, she sniffled. "I'll find the people who did this to you, мій дорогоцінний хлопчик." She promised thickly, trying not to break down but let Sophie hold her.

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"What was Grace singing to Zach, Clint?" Sam asked quietly, he felt in tears after seeing Grace viewing her son's body with Sophie. "A Yiddish lullaby, the song's called Shlof. I've heard people singing it, when I've been on ops where there are Jewish communities." Clint explained quietly, and they heard Jarvis speak. "Sir, Home Secretary Thaddeus Ross is here with Dr Selvig."

Clint tensed up, Sam placing a calming hand on his should. "Easy, man." Clint nodded but he couldn't make any promises right now. Ross was about as high up on his shit list as Laura and Rumlow. It probably wasn't wise for him to talk to the man right now. Heading for the office, he found them already in the office with Steve and Tony.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What's the Hawk doing here?" Erik glancing his way, clearly distraught. "What's he got to do with this?" Clint was a little taken aback but he decided to play it out for the moment. "Ross here assigned me to mentor, Grace. Problem?" "I want to know where Jane is," Erik told them. "I want to know how she fell into HYDRA's hands in the first place." "I seek the same answers are you, Selvig," Thor's deep voice entered the conversation as he walked in. "We are desperate to find her." "Desperate?" Erik looked at each of them in turn, his expression incredulous. "If you were so desperate, you'd have her back now. Safe. You'd think that you'd look after the mother of your child, even if you're a Norse God." The shocked expression on Thor's face, made Clint's heart sink. "Shit," Steve muttered. Clint would have been an ass about language except, at the moment, he shared their Captain's sentiment. "I'm sorry, what did you say, Selvig?" Thor asked carefully. Clint saw in his face that he was hoping he had misunderstood. "Jane was pregnant with your child, Thor," Erik announced. "She didn't tell you?" Thor did an admirable job of maintaining his composure but a few of them knew him better. Clint knew better. He watched his friend struggle with the information. "Jane… Jane didn't want children," Thor said in a shaky voice. "It was part of the reason we parted. I told her it didn't matter to me but…"

"It gets worse," Tony told them. "She was going the same route as Pepper." "I'm afraid I don't understand," Thor said confused. "Jane had an appointment for an abortion," Tony said carefully. "She was going to…" "What?!" Thor shook his head in denial. "No, I know Jane Foster. She would not do that." "Thor," Steve stepped up. "Let's get out of here, okay?" Thor allowed Steve to steer him from the room, looking like he was barely holding himself together. Erik looked at each of them that remained. "They have Darcy as well." "And my Pepper," Tony told him. "I assure you. We're on it." "And what about the little children found?" Erik demanded. "The mother of one of them, right here. Why didn't she go to the authorities? They could have been saved!" Clint just then noticed Grace stopped just outside the office, her face drained of colour as she took in what the scientist said.

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[minhyunluvr]

look | insouciance

You and Shouto observed the rest of the class as they conversed among themselves, everyone waiting for instruction. Of course, All Might didn't disappoint as his booming voice filled the room a few minutes later. "I see that we're all here now. What we're doing today is indoor anti-personnel battle training, as previously stated. While simple battles are typically occur outside, more heinous villains are known to strike indoors. So, we'll split into pairs for two-on-two battles!"

  "No basic training...?" A small girl resembling a frog spoke up in a croaky voice.

  "Physical experience teaches the basics, young Asui!" He replied in his unusually cheerful voice. Questions sounded throughout the space in curious voices, the oldest male's eyes beginning to bulge. "My power isn't super-hearing! I'll tell you the rules... So, the plan is to have a hero team and a villain team. The villain team will go up to a certain floor and guard a bomb, while the hero team slips into the building and either 'retrieves' said bomb or restrains the villains with a tape." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a tan length of adhesive strap, shaking it slightly before continuing. "The villains must either protect the weapon until time is up or capture the heroes. Now, it's time to draw lots!"

  A few complaints about the method resounded throughout the room before you spoke up, arms crossed sassily against your midriff. "Shh, children. The person who's left in the bottom will either sit out or join one of the groups at some point."

  As things turned out, you ended up being the odd one out. 'Well, I guess this is what happens when there are 21 students...'

  "Well, young Yunseo, it's time to make your decision."

  Sighing, you corrected the man. "I go by (Y/n), and I'll accompany who you wish."

  All Might blinked, leaning his head back slightly before nodding. "That's fine. I'll let you know when it's time to go." Before continuing, he reached into the box beside him and grabbed two lettered spheres. "Anyway, it seems that... Team A and Team D will be going first!"

  A horrified whimper, a loud sneer, and two grunts of determination sounded in the room. Chatter started up as the students searched for the aforementioned groups, noting the tightness in the atmosphere. Bakugou and Iida made up Team D, while A comprised of Uraraka and Midoriya. The boy in the latter team swallowed the stone in his throat before rushing out of the room and over to the battle building in an agitated manner. The other three children followed in a much less hurried fashion, preparing for the scrimmage.

  Anticipation was almost tangible in the air as All Might started the timer. You had resumed your place in the back of the room next to your bi-hair colored companion, sliding down to the floor in disinterest. It was clear that there had been some sort of tension between Bakugou and Midoriya. Shouto looked down at you, emotionless, before turning his head back to the front of the room.

  You stared at the screens as the battle began, Midoriya and Uraraka trudging into the building with clear disregard of their surroundings. Bakugou turned the corner, successfully carrying out his ambush that could have easily been fatal had the pair been any less observant. 'That blow would have been so easy to avoid, had it been me...' You sighed at their negligence, almost feeling pity for their lack of training.

  "There's no point in watching. Let's practice hand-to-hand." As you pushed off of the wall to stand, the building tremored harshly.

  Shouto turned over and quirked a brow as you tripped, shaking his head in amusement. "Karma, (Y/n). I think we should watch to get an idea of how people with less experience plan for future reference."

  Your head cocked to the side in confusion, waiting for his clarification. He flopped his head back to look at you, "It's likely that we'll have to work with some of these people in the future. We have to know what their battle plans are so that we can be prepared if they mess up."

  "Oh, he just got fucking bodied!" Kaminari yelled, eyes glittering. The two of you looked back to the front to see a pained Bakugou on the floor, back bent painfully.

  "Why do you talk like a white middle school boy...?" Kirishima blinked slowly in disgust. Kaminari only winked as a response, turning back to the screens with his fist clenched in front of him.

  "Fine, but I still want to practice." You crossed your arms, nodding over at the male.

  Shouto exhaled through his mouth, "You can practice your battle assessing skills by pointing out what they do wrong."

  "You sound like Jinho...." Nevertheless, you turned, once more, back to the CCTVs and watched the battle. The only thing you had approved of so far was the fact that Uraraka had slipped away in search of the weapon while Midoriya payed attention to Bakugou. It may have been better that Midoriya went for the bomb and Uraraka had stayed, but there would have been a higher chance that he would notice him leave and the girl's quirk wasn't strong enough to defend herself. It had been made apparent that he doesn't go easy on girls, either.

  "Why are they just talking." Shouto rolled his eyes as the blond sat on the floor as the other boy yelled at him from his feet. "What a waste of time..."

  Just as he said that, Bakugou stood and launched himself at Midoriya, the latter boy dodging and catching him by his feet with the capture tape. However, Bakugou swung with right fist before Midoriya could get any good leverage. He dodged the explosion, dashing around the corner and down the hall.

  "How did he do that?"

  "He's not even using his quirk against the guy who placed second in the entrance exam!"

  "The only reason he isn't in critical condition at this point in time is because he knows Bakugou's battle patterns." You leaned flush against the wall, hands resting on their respective adjacent elbows.

  "How do you pick this shit up, (Y/n)?" The only response given was a shrug as you concentrated your attention at the battle in front of you. At this point it was more of a personal fight than a simulated battle, but who were you to say anything about that?

  Meanwhile, Uraraka arrived at the weapon's room. Iida stood guard, albeit neglecting to actually pay attention. He stood, incessant, as the small female snuck behind a pillar. He moved in an erratic fashion, almost seeming to chant something.

  "Of course, she had to fucking ruin the ideal opening that literally anyone else in Japan could have nurtured into a victory. Dumb fuck...." You practically yelled the first part, effectively gaining the entire room's attention. Some of the girls glared slightly at the last part, much to your indifference.

  Kaminari snorted. "Chill your bean."

  "Things like this irk me." You breathed in deeply to regain your former composure.

  "There they go again, talking in the midst of a battle where she could tear another opening while he goes on and on about who knows what." Shouto sighed in the same tone that you had, shoulder brushing yours.

  Kirishima and Kaminari walked to the back wall, standing by the two of you. The former male chuckled lightly, "Uraraka looks like she's about to shit herself."

  Shouto nodded his head.

  "Wow, look who has a sense of humor!" Kaminari looked past you and Kirishima to the red and white hair-colored boy with a smile on his face. He leaned away from the wall, seemingly trying to get a better look at the screen, only to end up on the floor as the building shook almost three times as hard as it had previously. A gaping hole had been blown into the side of the training building, the cause likely being Bakugou.

  "So that's what his gauntlets do..." You noted, holding onto Kirishima's arm for support. All Might yelled orders into the microphone that seemed to have been ignored as the fight continued on, stronger than ever.

  You focused your attention on the screen that covered the battle in the middle of the fifth floor between Iida and Uraraka, wanting to see if she can redeem herself rather than watching Midoriya get beaten half to death by explosions.

  Iida buzzed into Bakugou's ear piece, loosing focus on the problem at hand. You flung your hands into the air in exasperation as she, once again, fucked it up by running straight into the male. He nearly grabbed her, but before he could secure his grip, she began to levitate into the air. The girl shakily floated toward the bomb, nearly touching it and securing the victory. But, of course, she failed at something as simple as that. Iida shot in and moved the bomb, ending with your hands yanking at your hair.

  "I will never be able to fathom why they talk through the battles..." Shouto sighed. Again.

  All Might yelled once more into the microphone, your aggravation for his negligence as a teacher beginning to surface. "Young Bakugou, I will have to end this battle with your team's loss if you use that move one more time."

  The boy looked as if he cursed up at the speaker, Midoriya still on the ground, speaking to Uraraka in her receiver. As you looked over to ever more eventful CCTV, your eyes picked up a crazed look in the blond male's eyes. His red hues shone like whirlpools of blood, as if there had been a shark fest inside of his mind just moments before. That type of look cannot go away, not unless it's sedated with closure. What that closure comes from depends on the circumstance, and this one was beating Midoriya no matter the cost.

  As soon as Bakugou took a step toward Midoriya, you shot off of the wall and re-placed yourself at the front of the room. It wasn't the best day to watch someone get murdered, and the teacher didn't seem to know what to do. Mustering up the most assertive voice you had ever used, you grabbed the teacher by the collar and pulled his face close to yours. "All Might, stop being an irresponsible bitch and do your job as a teacher unless you want your reputation as a hero on the line. Do you really want the life of a fifteen year old boy on your shoulders because you didn't end a simple training exercise? Are you oblivious enough to not realize that even after the timer finishes that this fight will not end? Not for years. They have a deep-rooted... something. And it won't go away unless it gets resolved."

  The man gulped slightly before turning away from you, looking conflicted. He sat for a moment as Bakugou continued to charge the smaller boy before coming to a resolution. "Time is up!"

  "What?!" The class chorused. There had been 43 seconds left in their fight, but he decided to cut it short.

  "All Might, if you thought that this win would satisfy him-" You started, only to be cut off.

  "I cut it because it has a better chance of giving him resolve than directly telling them to stop. By the way, no one tell them that the time wasn't actually over, for their own safety." All Might stood from the chair, walking to and out of the door to make sure nothing else happened with the four students.

  "What was that about...?" The three boys walked over, confusion drawn clearly on their faces.

  "He cut it short because it solves the most problems. Midoriya would have gotten hurt further if he let it run on, but if he told them that he was ending it because of the dangers, Bakugou wouldn't stop. There's also a chance that he won't stop even now, which is why he's going down. By telling him that the time is up, that means that the villains win, so he might gain some sort of temporary closure from that. However, by the look in his eyes... the only time he'll be satisfied is if he completely and utterly destroys Midoriya from the outside, in."

  "...That's dark."

[m.list]

[littlemisssquiggles]

Yo Squiggles. How about you tackle your next Squiggles Script with this idea: Yang finally telling the group about knowing that Raven is the spring maiden, and Oscar’s reaction to finding out she was hiding things just like Oz was. Whether he’s angry or more calm and understanding about that, I’m not too sure.

Alright Miggy, you asked for it. Though I don’t exactlywish to make a habit out of taking requests for RWBY Squiggle Scripts since I like for them to remain spontaneous, nevertheless,I took a crack at another one of your ideas prompts because it is a scenariothat I’m curious to see handled in the canon.

I’m interested inseeing how the CRWBY Writers are going to handle Yang spilling the beans on Raven to the teamand Oscar’s reaction. I have afeeling that the CRWBY Writers more or less might pull another BS approach andhave Oscar be perfectlyfine with Yang keeping her mother’ssecret while chastising Ozpin over his. The only time we’ve seen Oscar becometruly emotional is back in V4 after his first encounter with Ozpin and the dojoscene with Ruby in V5. 

Following that, Oscar was slapped with this ‘perfectly fine’ demeanour even in the face of frustrating conflictthat I, quite frankly find rather disbelieving. Admittedly I’d like to think ofOscar as, not necessarily a ticking time bombbut more like a balloon that is idly sailing floating around without a care in the world untilsomething unexpected comes along to pop him right out of orbit and comecrashing right back down to the reality of the truth, y’know what I’m saying?

Keeping that in mind, I composed this script withthis concept of Yang’s deceit being the pin to finally pop Oscar and unleasheverything he’s been brushing off since Argus. A small disclaimer though. Iactually went for the more angry approach to Oscar’s reaction to Yang’sdeceit. In my imagination, I can see Oscar becoming furious with Yang; angrierthan he should have been with Jaune back in Argus. I went with the angryapproach because I, personally, cannot see Oscar being perfectly fine withYang’s hypocrisy.

Apologies in advancefor Jaune’s characterization in this squiggle scriptas well. As revealed in the canon, Jaune has been carrying a lot of his rageand grief retained from his loss over Pyrhha and it has reflected in hispersonality and overall tolerance to certain things over the seasons. While Iunderstand V6C9 more or less highlighted Jauneovercoming his grief over Pyrhha, I’m not quite convinced he’s done beingangry.

While his confrontation with Oscar may have caused him to finally differentiatehow he views Oscar over Ozpin, that’s not enough to indicate to me that Jauneis done being angry toward Oz and the idea of secrets being kept from the teamas a whole. That being said, sorry if I made everyone’s favourite Arc seem alittle douche-y. 

I needed a secondary character to be especially confrontational with Yang overher deceit and figured Jaune fit the bill better than anyone else. If Yang was toever came clean, Jaune is another I can see being rather adverse to this; maybeeven a bit testy and borderline unpleasant. This is mostly going offof his reaction to Ozpin’s deceit in V6 C8 but youknow, this is mostly my interpretation.

As with every script I do my best to keep everyonein character according to my perception of the character and what I think theywould say in certain scenarios. So, I did my best. Without further ado, let’sjump right in.

RWBY Squiggle Script #012: Divided Once More 

Picture it: Fast-forward. Yang has just finished informing everyoneabout the secret she’s been keeping about Raven. She reveals that she is theSpring Maiden. She doesn’t really say anything else beyond that and basicallywaits for everyone’s reactions to the news. Some folks are understanding, likeher RWBY teammates. Others…not so much.

Ren: So…Raven was the Spring Maiden all the timeand…Vernal was just her decoy.

Yang: Yeah. I’m sorry you’re only hearing this now but…Iwanted you to at least hear it from me. I just…I’m sorry.

Blake: *taking Yang’s hand and smiling at her comfortingly* Yang, it’s okay.

From the other side of the room where he stoodleaning against the wall, Jaune scoffed.

Jaune: *irritated* You guys aren’t serious. You’re comforting her?

Blake: *defensively* Why shouldn’t we? She’s our friend.

Jaune: Yeah but she’s a liar! You knew who the SpringMaiden was and never told us. How could you?!

Weiss: Jaune, calm down. I’m sure Yang had aperfectly good reason to—

Jaune: To lie? Gee, now where have we heard that before?What happened to trusting each other and not lying to each other?

Yang: *defensively* Ididn’t lie to you.

Nora: *chiming in* Yeahbut you certainly didn’t tell us everything you knew about the Spring Maideneither. 

Ren: You didn’t trust usenough to tell us. 

Jaune: I can’t believe this is happening again.I thought we were over this? What happened to no more secrets? No more lies!

Yang: *heatedly* Ididn’t lie! I just—

Yang takes a deep breath, recomposing herself tomake sure she chose her next words carefully.

Yang:  *apologetically* Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys about thissooner. I messed up and I know that. This is why I am telling you now. I’m telling you. I know I can’t make up for everything that’sbeen done before and I don’t expect all of you to understand but…it was my mom.I didn’t want to keep this secret from everyone but I felt like I had to.

Jaune: *incredulously* You had to?

Yang: Yes! Raven is theSpring Maiden but she’s also my mother. The mother I spent years trying tofind. The mother who protected me from Neo. My mother!

Jaune: *confrontationally* Ohyou mean the same mother who betrayed us at the Battle of Haven and helpedCinder go after the Relic? The same mother whose tribe kidnapped Weiss and heldher hostage in their camp. The same mother who abandoned you and never lookedback!

Blake: Jaune!

At this point Jaune was up in Yang’s face; glaringat her angrily prompting Blake and Weiss to immediately come between thembefore things got more heated. Blake is pulling Yang away while Weiss wedgedherself between an infuriated Jaune and an equally annoyed Yang, whose eyeswere turning red in her growing anger.

Weiss: *cautiously* Jaune, that was out of line! You need to stop.

Yang: *from behind Blake* No,Weiss let him say what he has to say. *crossly* I don’texpect you of all people to understand Jaune since…y’know…you’re Mr. Perfect from the perfect home with the perfect big happy family withseven sisters and two loving parents who never backstabbed each other or lefttheir kids behind or worse, died! No, I don’t expect you tounderstand a thing about how I felt but that doesn’t give you the right tostand there and judge me!

Weiss: ENOUGH! 

With all the strength she could muster, Weissfirmly shoves both Yang and Jaune off of each other. Her outburst stunseveryone especially Jaune and Yang.  

Weiss: *furiously* Listento yourselves! Do you have any idea how ridiculous youtwo sound right now! We’re supposed to be friends…a family. This is not how a family is supposed to act! We’re supposed tocare about each other! Love each other! Not deceive or keep secrets from eachother and it certainly doesn’t give you the right to scream at each other likeyou don’t even care about the other people in the room who can hear you! Thisisn’t just about you! *breaking down with tears starting to form in her eyes* It’s not just about you…it’s… 

Jaune: …Weiss? 

Weiss: *tearfully* I…whydoes every family I end up with end up fighting. Why?  

Ruby: *cautiouslyreaching out to Weiss after noticing her tears*…Weiss?

Weiss: …I’m sorry, I can’t go through this again, I’msorr—please excuse me! 

Weiss exits the room before anyone could stop her.Ruby makes a move to go after Weiss but is stopped by Blake. 

 Blake: …I—I’ll go talk toher. 

With that, Blake exits the room leaving everyoneelse in silence. Yang and Jaune appeared the guiltiest at what they hadunearthed.  

Yang: *regrettably* I…I never meant to lie to you,okay? To any of you. Weiss is right. We’re more than just a team. We’resupposed to be a family and…it’s not good to keep secrets from your family. I’msorry I didn’t say anything sooner, I just—at the time, I didn’t think aboutany of you guys. I thought only about my mom and what Salem would do to her ifshe found out she was a maiden. So I made her secret my secret too. I know itwas wrong but at the time, it felt right because…look,there are just some cards that are best played— 

Ruby: … close to the chest?

Yang winced at the strange familiarityin her words but nods otherwise.Jaune: *spitefully* Wow.Well…that sounds awfully familiar now,doesn’t it? You know Yang you talk big about trust but you’re no differentthan… 

Oscar: …Ozpin.  

Everyone’s attention immediately turned to Oscar.At this point, he had been eerily quiet in the corner during the whole ordealand now looked up at Yang for the first time she let the cat out the bag. Hishazel eyes were wide as he slowly processed everything he had just heard. 

Ruby: *concernedly*…Oscar?

Yang : *awkwardly* Oscar…listen, I’m— 

Oscar: …The Spring Maiden…is your mother?

Yang: Yeah, she… 

Oscar: How long did you know about this?

Yang: What? 

Oscar: How long have you known?

Yang: I…

Oscar: *firmly* Answerthe question! 

All eyes fell on Yang now who looked awayhesitantly. 

Ruby: …Yang?

Yang: … Since… the Battle of Haven. 

Nora: This whole time! 

Jaune: *furiously* Howcould you keep something like that from us? How could you think that was okay?! 

Yang: *scolding Jaune* Itold you, She’s my mother! 

Qrow: I don’tbelieve this. My sister was the Spring Maiden we were looking for the wholetime back in Mistral and didn’t tell me. And my own niece knew about it too anddidn’t tell me. You both didn’t tell me anything! So much for blood is thickerthan water.*sighs exasperatedly* I’m going for a dri—I’m going for a walk. I need some air. 

Yang: Qrow I’m…

Ruby: Uncle Qrow? 

Qrow exits theroom slamming the door hard behind him. Ruby’s shoulders slump sadly. 

Ruby: *sadly* Not him too. 

Ruby attempts to go after Qrow but is tapped on theshoulder by Maria.  

Maria: Don’t worry. I’ll handle the ole bird this time. It’sbest you stay here so that you kids can work out…uhm…whatever this is supposedto be. *in alower voice to Ruby* Please work this out before it gets out ofhand. We don’t want a repeat of what happened in Argus. 

Ruby gives Maria an affirming nod and the seniorhuntress smiles at her young protégée before exiting to catch up withQrow.   

 Ruby: Guys, I think we should all just…take a breath andtry to work things through. This doesn’t have to be as bad as it looks. 

Jaune: *grumpily* Speakfor yourself. 

Ren: I don’t understand.  We all saw Raven godown to the Vault with Vernal and Cinder to retrieve the Relic. If Ravenwas the true Spring Maiden and the only one with access to the vault thenwhy didn’t she take the lamp for herself?

Yang: She was going to.

Ren: Going to? 

Nora: *inquiringly* …But…?

Yang: I…. told hernot to.

Jaune: You did what!

Ruby: Yang!

Yang: I had to, okay! If my mom had taken the Relic then we allknow it would’ve only been a matter of time before Salem found her. Cinder killed the original Fall Maiden. She killed Pyrhha!She killed Vernal! She almost killed my mother but she stoppedher before she could. But as strong as my mom is, she’s no match for Salem. Being a Maidenand having a Relic would’ve made her a bigger target forSalem.  She would’ve killed her for sure.I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t risk losing my mom. Not again. Not for good.

Ren: *processing everything* So…you made us the targets instead?

Nora: You made Salem comeafter us instead?

Jaune: To kill us instead.

Yang: I…I’m….sorry.

Ruby: No wait, that’s—that’s actually a good thing. Itmeans—

Oscar: …It was you.

For a second time, all eyes snapped to Oscar.

Oscar: *processing everything* …You’rethe reason we had to take the Relic to Atlas. You’re the reason we got on thattrain. The reason… the Grimm came after us. The reason we got separated. Thetrain crash… Maria…Jinn, it was you! It was all you…

Nora: …Oscar.

Oscar: We’re supposed to be in this together, you said. You can trust us,you said. We’re not going to turn our backs on you, you said. Those…those were your wordsto Ozpin, right Yang? You promised Ozpin that we weren’t going to desert him ifthe truth came out. That we’d never abandon him no matter what we learnt….andthen… we did. We did turn our backs on him. We hurt him.We…betrayed him. I—I betrayed him.

Nora: *worriedly* ….Oscar…no…

Ruby: *equally concerned* Youdidn’t betray Ozpin. You were just…doing the right thing.

Oscar: *distressfully* What right thing? Forcing someone to relive the most horrible time in theirlives, not once but for several thousand years of lifetimes when they didn’t consent to sharing it? Laying out all their failures andmistakes in front for everyone to judge him…andthen… turn onhim! That’s NOT the rightthing! That…that was…CRUEL!  

*distraughtly tugging at his hair; anxiety rising* Salem was his secret. His pain. His mistake. His burden to bear. He didn’t want to show us. He didn’twant us to see it. See his failures. Re-experience them again! He begged us not to show it. But we… we forced him! We forced him toreveal all his secrets and then…we turned our backs on him. We had no right!I—I had no right! I….I betrayed him. I told Ruby about Jinn. I made ithappen.

I hurt him. I betrayed him. I betrayed us….because….

Oscar trails off; his head slowly turning toward Yang.

Oscar: …Because… of you.  

Yang: *stiffening*…What?

Oscar: I did it… because of you!  

Oscar startsadvancing on Yang; hazel eyes locked with violet.

Oscar: *voice slowly rising* You… started all ofthis! You’re the one who kept questioning his actions. Probing him for answershe wasn’t ready to give…

At this point,Yang is slowly backing away from Oscar; surprisingly fearful of the rage risingin his demeanour. But Oscar kept pushing; slowly backing her into a corner.

Yang: *nervously* …Oscar; pleasejust—

Oscar: You’re the one who confronted Ozpin. You’re the one who kept…asking.Kept…pushing him…because you wanted the truth. You…demanded it! You just wouldn’t let it go!*voice growing louder as his realizationslowly boiled into anger*What happened to nomore lies and half-truths? That’s what you told him! You forced him to give up all of his secrets when you’ve beensitting on your own THIS WHOLE TIME! You had no right!

Yang: *sadly*I…

Oscar: …This is your fault!

Oscar pushes Yang once. She takes it quietly; guiltwritten clearly on her face.

Oscar: …This is all… YOUR FAULT!

Oscar pushes Yang again, a little harder. Yangactually feels the force a little more this time and winces but she’s still tooguilty to react; head hanging low.

Oscar: EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT!  

By the third shove, Yang is practically slammedinto the wall with Oscar’s shaky hands, trembling with rage holding her by thescruff of her jacket or as much as he could grab with Yang’s towering heightdifference compared to his short stature. At this point, angry tears arerolling down Oscar’s dotted cheeks and Yang couldn’t bring herself to look awayfrom his infuriated expression.

She had never seen Oscarthis enraged. This hurt. Not even back in Argus. The feeling wasdefinitely mutual from the others in the room. All except for Ruby.She, on the other hand, had witnessed Oscar lashing out before. Seen whathappens when his frustration rose to volatile levels. For a second time sincethey’d met, this was Oscar’s tipping point andwhat was sad was that it was her own sister who brought him to this level of resentment.Immediately, the arms of Jaune, Nora and Ren reached from behind Oscar andquickly restrained him before he did something else to Yang he’d later regret.

Oscar: *angrily fighting against JNR* Let go of me! Let me go!

Nora: Oscar you need to calm down!

Oscar:  Don’t tell me to calm down! *turns his anger back on Yang* SHE DID THIS! YOU’RE A HYPOCRITE!

Yang: *guiltily* Oscar, I’m so—

Oscar: *pissed*So what! Sorry? That’s all youhave to say! Ozpin left because of you! You want me to feel sorry foryou? Where was that sympathy for Oz?! You had the nerve to expose Ozpin for hissecrets—oursecrets— when you’ve been sitting on your own! This whole time! Unbelievable!

Ruby: …Oscar…

Ruby plants herself in front of Yang. She attemptsto intervene but in his outburst,Oscar even reflected his irritation on Ruby, making her flinch under hisintense gaze.

Oscar: *warningly* DON’T!You cannot be taking her side!

Ruby: *taken aback* …I’mnot taking anyone’s side! *expression saddening* I just want all of this tostop!

Oscar: *solemnly*….Well…that makes two of us.

Oscar was full on crying at this point; face in hishands. He had even stopped thrashing at JNR who let him go. They each did theirbest to show consolation for the young farm boy with Nora even trying to hugOscar but he pushed her off him which left the thunder goddess stunned.

Oscar: *sobbing* I wantthis all to stop! I’m done! With all of this!

And he was off. Before anyone could really stophim, Oscar went straight for the door.

Ruby: Oscar…wait…

Ruby made a grab for Oscar’s hand but he quicklywrenches it away from her reach as if he’d been touched by burning steel. Likethe rest before him, Oscar storms out of the room, slamming it harshly inRuby’s face, much to her distraught. And then there were five.

Nora: *sadly* You know;here I thought we were free from drama once we got to Atlas.

Jaune: Anyone else has any super important informationthey were hiding from everyone else? 

Ruby: *testily* JAUNE!Can you please NOT do this right now! You’re not helping! Can’t you seethe team is falling apart!

Jaune: *annoyed* Whatteam? This isn’t a team. And we’re not a family either. We might as well… be strangers.

And then four as Jaune stomped out after Oscar.Upon Jaune’s departure, Ruby officially breaks down.

Ruby: I…I can’t deal with all of this again.

Ruby crashes on the couch, face in her hands.Fortunately, Nora was quick to sit next to her and offer her a hug ofreassurance which Ruby accepted. Yang was still stunned from Oscar’sconfrontation to move.

Nora: *comfortingly* Hey,listen. Ren and I can handle Jaune. You don’t mind him one bit.

Ren: She’s right. Don’t take what he said to hearteither. His anger—this isn’t really about youor Yang. It’s…more him than you iswhat I’m trying to say.

Ruby: *groaning* Thisis exactly like what happened in Argus. Can someone please gocheck up on Oscar?

Ren: Shouldn’t we leave him alone? He seemed veryupset.

Ruby: Exactly! I don’t want him to be alone when he’sthis upset. The last time he got like this, he—*emotionally; tearing up slightly* I don’t want him to be alone right now.He has to know he’s not alone, okay?

Nora: *rubbing Ruby’s arms comfortingly* Don’t worry. After we findJaune, we can check up on Cute Boy Oz too.

Finally Yangspeaks.

Yang: No. I think it’s best if you checkup on Oscar, Ruby.

Ruby: *miserably*That’s…if he’ll actually talk to me.

Yang: *reassuringly with a half-smile* He will. As madas he is right now, Oscar’s always had a soft spot for you. If he does runagain, you’re the one he’ll want to chase after him.

Ruby: *concernedly* But…whatabout you?

Yang: *reassuringly* I’llbe alright. I’m going to go check in with Blake and Weiss. I just—I thinkit’s best if Ispent some time awayfrom everyone for a little while. Especially Oscar. I…don’t think he’ll be comfortable withme around right now so maybe I should…go somewhere else or something. I couldalways ask Neon and Flynt if I could crash with them for a while.

Ruby: *incredulously* You’removing out!

Yang: …At least until everything blows over.

Ruby:…But—

Ren: I think we can alluse some space from each other right now. Perhaps…some time apart would be bestto help defuse any lingering tensions.

Yang: Yeah.

Ruby: … R—Right.

Yang: I’m gonna go look forBlake and Weiss.

Ren: We’ll see to Jaune.

One by one, Nora, Ren and Yang each depart withNora and Yang both flashing Ruby reassuring looks and gestures as they madetheir exit. And with that, Ruby was alone. Despite being together in considerablythe safest kingdom in all of Remnant, for a second time, they were divided andRuby was at a loss on what to do to fix it.

Ruby: *sighs miserably* I was wrong. This is worse than Argus.

And scene.

Not sure how to feel about this one. I’ll leave theverdict up to you readers especially you, Miggy. As a small heads up, I might make a sequel script to this. Two in fact. One featuring the RosegardeningRosebuds and another with Pine Dragon (thisis what I’ll call the FRIEND-ship between Yang and Oscar) again, possibly.Not sure. In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[kiara-carrera]

"you're so, so, so pretty" fOR BROOKE AND DAK PLS (its okay if you don't i just wanted to make you laugh lol)

send me a soft sentence starter

If there was ever to be a rule on parties and Brooke Holliday, it would be that under no certain terms was she allowed to drink in excess. No many how many alcoholic beverages she consumed, no matter if she tried to drink regularly, there was absolutely nothing that would get her acclimated to alcohol. She was a lightweight through and through, the girl with a taste for straight vodka being wasted after maybe two beers.

She knew this. Jughead knew this. Archie knew this. Betty knew this. Basically, everyone in Riverdale knew this. Honestly, her mailman probably knew, if the pitiful looks he’s given her while seeing her hungover the next mornings over the years was any indication.

Everyone knew it. Well, everyone except her new boyfriend, his best friend, and her newest friend (who happened to be dating said best friend of said new boyfriend, but that point was sort of irrelevant).

Either way, those three didn’t know it, which is exactly how Brooke found herself drinking well beyond her limit that Saturday night. It was the dead of summer and somehow, the blonde teenager had managed to convince everyone that attending Reggie Mantle’s midsummer blowout was a good idea. It had been a hard road, considering A) her boyfriend, Sweet Pea, still sort of hated most Northsiders and definitely didn’t care for the Mantle boy; B) because Reggie sort of kinda brought a gun on Riot Night when Fangs was getting let out of prison; and C) because although Dakota Chambers was dating a literal gang member, she was still the most straight laced good girl the world had ever seen.

Either way, the Holliday girl had worked her magic somehow, the group of four now finding themselves in a somewhat secluded corner of Reggie’s basement, pretty much ignoring the crass rap song playing and the hoard of debauchery happening on all levels of the house. The two girls were sat next to each other on the couch, where Dakota was trying her best to pull down the skirt Brooke had pretty much insisted that she wear to the party. It was pretty, but it was a little shorter than the skirts that Dak normally wore, despite Kevin Keller’s usual schemes of trying to get the Catholic girl to show a little skin. Sweet Pea was perched on the arm, drink dangling loosely from his hand and his other arms tossed carelessly behind Brooke’s shoulders. Fangs was left to sit on the floor, but he looked rather content, smiling up at his girlfriend with constant heart eyes.

Brooke was giggling up a storm at some joke that Fangs had told at the sight of Reggie Mantle trying, and subsequently failing, to pick up some girl across the room. She was a happy drunk, that was for sure. By the time she had down her second cup of … whatever was in the cups she had procured for the group upon arrival (making sure to grab a bottle of water special for Dakota), she had moved onto a sad little wine cooler she’d gotten off of one of her fellow Vixens, but it was almost too easy to see how drunk she was getting.

The three with her had begun to notice her complete change in demeanor, Sweet Pea having slipped her drink from her grasp when she hadn’t been paying attention. But after a few rounds of giggles at Fangs jokes, she had noticed and was now trying to get her drink back.

“Oh, come on, baby,” she whined at her boyfriend, the affectionate nickname making Fangs snort. “It’s — it’s just one, uh — one drink!”

“Yeah, I think you’ve had enough there, princess,” Sweet Pea told her coolly, already wondering how the hell he was going to deal with her later tonight when they made it back to his trailer.

Dakota was certain that, despite knowing Brooke since they were literal children, she’d never seen Brooke drunk before. Granted, she barely went to parties unless Kevin dragged her to them, but she always ended up leaving early. And she’d never really been friends with Brooke before this year. But again, irrelevant. The blonde wasn’t blackout drunk or anything, but she was giggling at basically everything, eyes wide in childlike wonder, and her cheeks were tinged pink from her alcohol induced flush.

Biting her lip, Dak glanced at Fangs and Sweet Pea. “Should we try sobering her up?”

“I’m not drunk! And I can hear you, you know,” Brooke replied stubbornly, turning her attention to the girl beside her.

“Brooke, you’re like one drink away from being bombed out of your mind,” Fangs quipped.

“Am not!” She crossed her arms like a child, rolling her eyes dramatically at the boy. She turned back to Dakota, batting her eyelashes at the girl. “You believe me, right Dak?”

Dak gave her friend a small smile, before putting her bottle of water in Brooke’s hands. People sobered up by drinking water, right? “I think you should try drinking some of this for a bit.”

Brooke gave her an odd look, but clearly didn’t catch the underlying motive that Dak had with the water. She grinned brightly, giggling as looked at the water bottle. She set it down on the couch, grabbing Dak’s hand.

“You’re so sweet, Dak, you’re like the nicest friend I’ve ever had,” the blonde started, squeezing Dak’s hand tightly.

Dak’s brow furrowed, but she squeezed Brooke’s hand back. “I think you’re a good friend too, Brooke.”

“And you’re so, so, so pretty,” Brooke said, cocking her head to the side and sighing in a dreamy fashion. Hiccuping slightly, she added, “Like a Disney princess or something!”

Still confused, Dak let out a small laugh. “Thank you?”

“So pretty, I’ve always thought so. Like a princess,” she repeated.

And then the next set of events confused Dakota even more.

Within a split second, a literal blink of an eye, Brooke leaned forward with a giggle, drunkenly closing the space between the two girls. Her hands flew up to cup Dakota’s cheeks and then she was kissing Dak. She pressed their lips together sloppily and Dak’s eyes flew open wide in surprise.

The kiss lasted maybe five seconds before Fangs leaped into action, yanking his girlfriend back into his arms, slipping onto the couch behind her. Sweet Pea did something similar, moving the arm resting on the back of the couch onto Brooke’s shoulders, tugging her back slightly. He wasn’t as angry as Fangs, knowing Brooke definitely didn’t have a handle on what she was doing, but he definitely wasn’t pleased watching his girlfriend lock lips with someone else.

“What the fuck, Brooke?!” he cried out as his arms tightened around Dakota, glaring daggers at the blonde girl who began laughing. “You can’t just kiss my girlfriend!”

She looked at him oddly for a second, then at Dakota who looked the most uncomfortable she’d ever been, before craning her neck up to look at Sweet Pea who looked excessively annoyed with the situation and her. “Did I do something wrong?”

One thing was for certain. Brooke was never drinking around Dakota ever again, especially if Fangs had anything to do with it.

[anodyne-sunflower]

100 Years-Stephen WraysfordxReader

A/N: Inspired by 100 years. Went a bit of a different route on this one. It was the first idea that came to mind for this song, so yay. Also, this came out to be a one shot lol My bad.

MOOD MUSIC: 100 Years by FatM

***

Fingers grabbed your dress punishingly, causing an ache that seemed to vibrate into your whole body. It was sorrow enough to feel weak, but to be the only one around fighting to survive...that was a harsher sentence dealt by the gods. “No!” You screamed, kicking your legs and tightening your grip on the soldier’s arm as he dragged you violently into the nearby home. The bombs had done their jobs, and stray soldiers littered throughout the village in search of anything useful. Unfortunately, survivors were deemed just that.

“Stop struggling!” He yelled back, his thick accent hard to understand as either German or Russian. It was never easy to tell now days, you merely ran from anyone in uniform. He threw you down to the ground and searched your body for any hidden weapons. You were likely no cause for concern to most, but it was a fool’s action to pretend you weren’t a possible threat. Yet, you still fought him, scratching at his face and slapping at his chest as he tore the necklace from around your throat. He observed its value with his eye, a smile on his lips as he leaned down to address you. Only those words never came. In a flash of light he was upon you, blood splattered across your face and dress as he gurgled some end to his life and laid heavy atop you. For a moment, you laid there shaking, breath trembling with fear and relief alike. Somewhere deep in your mind you knew it was a bullet that took his life, but your current state didn’t allow that logic to come through.

“Check the other rooms. Make sure every bloody corner of this home is secure.”

“Yes, Lieutenant!”

With a quivering hand you dared to touch the fallen man’s chest, holding your breath tightly as you heaved with all your might. He fell unceremoniously to your side, the thud of his body making you want to hide away in some deep corner of the world. There was no humanity in this, and yet you did it all the same. All in the name of survival.

“For god’s sake, Firebrace. Help her up!” The soldier yelled, motioning for another behind him to relieve you of the duty to yourself. You watched them both carefully, noting the casual way the one in the cap belted his weapon. He was a tall, ominous presence. Yet, through some unknowing force, you felt some sliver of comfort by his side. It was only when he glanced down at you, with those green uncaring eyes, that you felt some fear take you. “Be quick about it.”

He ordered, not revealing any discomfort at the blood that drenched your body now. The only emotion you happened to see in his eyes, was surprise. Perhaps at his own distaste of his actions, or simply at the fact he found any survivor here. But, that expression was fleeting, and you still took it upon yourself to watch him carefully as he reached the corner of the room. His eyes settled on the table there, sometimes glancing out the window cautiously. Although, it was plainly obvious by now, these English men had taken this village for their own. It seemed the one attacking you, was a stray of the Central Powers army, after all.

“Here, miss.” The other soldier, Firebrace, extended his hand towards you. Remnants of a smile on his lips as he awaited your cooperation. There was gentleness in his gaze, but you cared not for it. In your mind, allied or central, those in uniform meant certain death. With little manners, you moved from him, scrambling to the edge of the room and spitting upon the floor he walked on. Damn his kind gaze, and damn his uniform. Those symbols were just patches on a dress tunic. Nothing more.

“Are you hungry, miss?” Firebrace knelt down by you, worn smile still there as he attempted to still your anxious nature. But, you paid him little mind. Opting to ignore his offer of food in spite of your growling stomach.

“Leave her, then.” The one in charge spoke up, sifting though papers on the table as he nodded for Firebrace to join him. “Gather the others. Have them bring in our supplies. This place will do for a command center, for now.”

“As you wish, Lieutenant Wraysford.” Firebrace followed, rushing some other soldiers out the room as he went to retrieve their belongings.

So that was his name, you gathered. It somehow suited him, as if the syllables themselves carried the weight of his duty.

“Is this your home?”

The question caught you off guard, his sudden interest in your life now making you apprehensive. You supposed it would’ve done you better to respond. After all, you weren’t acquainted with this lot, and he could do as he willed with you if he wanted. However, he merely sighed at your lack of response, his boots stomping along the ground as he came to you.

With a heavy sigh, he kneeled down before you, causing you to retreat stiffly into the wall. He rested one arm on his thigh, licking his lips as he offered another question. “Do you speak english?”

It was the first question you felt any comfort in answering. “Yes.”

“You have an accent. Where are you from?” There was distrust in his voice, and you supposed you couldn’t fault him that. These days, trust was in short supply and female spies were hardly an unimaginable concept.

“You can sit there all night if you please. Just know,” he rose back up. “If you’re any threat to my men or me...I will kill you.” There was hesitation in his eyes, yet all the same you knew he meant it. He would carry the burden of life lost at his hands, if it meant keeping those around him alive.

“Italy.” You finally answered, watching as he turned back to look at you. He simply nodded then, and continued on paying you no mind. It was in this palpable silence that you decided to observe them all. Noting the numerous soldiers drifting in and out of the building with boxes and crates. Some were holding supplies, others maps and pages of what you could only guess were plans of a sort. It was as if you didn’t exist to any of them. The greater threat of their enemy was gone, and you were, if at all, of very little consequence.

“Do you have family?” Again, he broke the silence, his gaze still on the papers at his table as he sparked the conversation. It was strange to you, that he’d even care to ask such a thing. Maybe he was lonely, you contemplated, or maybe he was digging for information through the veil of kind inquiries.

“Dead.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He appeared genuinely struck by that comment, but aside from those expressive eyes of his, there was little else to read from his face. “And your name?” He pressed on, though he still seemed preoccupied by those papers. No doubt deciding his next move in this war.

You had to pause at that one, unsure of your response. There was power in names, you were taught at a young age. But, all of that likely meant little now days. The world was flung into chaos and all that mattered was country and cause.

“I assume you have one, don’t you?” He commented, almost amused by your vow of silence towards him.

“Y/N.”

“A lovely name.” A thing all men say, you had come to learn. As if that compliment alone could wash away the distrust you felt. You could only stare at him, eyeing his table like a life line. In a way, it might’ve been. Especially how passionately he pointed at the maps and papers while he spoke to another man dressed like him. They seemed entangled in some deep conversation, not caring in the least that your ears could possibly listen in. For a second, you entertained the idea of running off, but it didn’t matter anymore. Even if you got passed them two, the others could easily dispatch you. There was no hope in getting very far.

“Thank you, Weir.”

“Aye. Don’t go far, Wraysford. Might need you for things.” This Weir waved, patting another soldier on the back as he left the room. They all looked tired, some barely dragging their feet along like they were already dead. Even this Wraysford fellow appeared worn and exhausted, his eyes darkened by the circles underneath them. His hands were dirty, caked in all manner of impurities and it contrasted the way he carried himself. With pride and dignity that you’d come to expect of most soldiers. But the lower your eyes took you, the more you realized just how wearied they all were. His boots, which appeared to be fine leather at one point, were now chipped away at, signaling that the area they came from was not ideal.

For some reason, that gave you the courage to speak up. Wondering on about this man named Wraysford and where he came from. “And you?” He seemed taken back by your question, no doubt surprised by the curiosity now directed towards him. However, his eyes seemed to brighten by it. As if the overwhelming change of topic from war tactics to basic human conversation was preferred and welcomed.

“What of me, Y/N?” He replied, in no particular manner. Yet, the tone of which he spoke your name had a hint of eagerness to it. Like his loneliness was rolling over in waves to be eased.

“What is your name?” You sat unmoved in your spot, fidgeting with the hem of your dress. Wraysford leaned up to his full height, looking you up and down to check for any form of trickery. He had clearly learned far too many harsh lessons by speaking with those outside his uniform.

“Lieutenant.”

“That’s a title, not a name.” You pointed out, observing the corner of his lip almost curve into a smile. A rare thing to witness, you guessed.

“Names mean nothing now.”

“Then why ask mine?” It was almost offensive to you, the lack of trust he sent your way. It may have been entirely warranted in these times, and yet you felt that ache in your chest all the same.

“Lapse of judgement.” He answered, letting the papers he held slip back to the tabletop as he drew towards you. It was like his interest had been piqued, and with that he kneeled once again in front of you. With a stern look your way, he sighed, falling back into the wall and resting his head against it. The heels of his boots scuffed the wooden floorboards, only adding to the damage already done by bombs and bullets alike. You couldn’t divert your gaze elsewhere, so you watched him, noting the refined way he tilted his cap up and removed it. It left his hair a mess, but it only added a charm to him you hadn’t noticed very well before. Up close you could see the fine details of his face, the freckles that dotted every inch of skin. It gave him a less threatening vibe than before and in some way it calmed you. Beneath the cap, laid a human being, capable of atrocities and kindness all the same. Just like you.

“Tell me, Y/N...” he paused, running a hand through his hair as he laid his head roughly back against the wall. He closed his eyes in a mock sense of peace, an official signal of his hint of trust towards you. “How have you survived this far?”

It wasn’t an off inquiry, though you still found it a strange thing to ask. A woman surviving on her own with little food, and no supplies was a likely death sentence. But, here you stood, and only now had you truly thought back on it. Surviving was simply in your nature, you gathered, as it was for everyone. “I don’t know.”

“Hm.” Wraysford chuckled softly, opening one eye to inspect you. There was a strange tug then, like your own curiosity wanted to reach out and graze his cheek in wonder. Maybe that was just your caring side, a symbol of comfort you wanted to offer him. The time for such fancies was over now, though. All you could do was remain silent until he relented.

“It seems that makes two of us. I don’t know how I’ve gotten this far either.”

For him, a lieutenant, to admit to that...it pained you. They all seemed plenty prepared to fight, but in truth, a weapon meant little for survival. It was the mind’s resolve that truly fought this war. You wished he’d see that, because he no doubt had to bare witness to acts no human should see. “I’m...sorry.” It made no sense to apologize, but in that moment you felt for him. For all your anger towards the world and the heartache brought upon you by soldiers of all kinds, you knew he never wanted to harm anyone. Perhaps you were merely sorry for his struggles, or even for him falling into a second of weakness.

“For?” He asked, head leaning up to finally look at you. He held his cap in one hand, dangling it from his knee while he sat there. If it wasn’t for your presence, you were certain he’d of fallen asleep.

“I don’t know.”

“Well,” he looked away. “I suppose we all have something to be sorry for these days.”

Another harsh reality, you agreed. Who hadn’t committed a crime to a certain degree. Whether it was killing, stealing, the list went on. “Do you have family?” You blurted out, wondering if he was perhaps married. It was a strange thought to have, but he was so obviously a handsome man, even beneath all that muck and dirt. Someone with a passion like that in their eye, they had to have someone waiting on them back home.

“No.” Wraysford said, once again averting his eyes as if to conquer the demons of his own thoughts. There was another silence then, for a long while. So long, in fact, the light outside had already drifted to darkness and the other soldiers had begun to pick corners to sleep in. You watched them all, wondering about their own families back home. Were they all as alone as you? Or as lonely as Wraysford seemed? It was a depressing thought to linger on, it nearly soured the entire existence of these men.

“Have you ever loved anyone?” The silence was cut by him, his eyes now fully open and engaged with staring at you. You felt a heat rise to your cheeks, the sudden intimate inquiry bringing back fond old memories.

“Y-Yes...” Once, so very long ago, you thought. Or at least it often seemed that way to you. It was hard to remember how long this war had gone on.

“Dead?”

“Yes.”

He had that expression again, genuine sadness for your plight. It made your heart stir, and for a moment you contemplated letting your tears fall.

“I’m sorry.” He only said, opening his mouth like he wished to add more sentiment to that, but there was none. His words could not bring your love back.

“And you?” You curled your legs closer into your body, holding them to save some heat in this cold. His eyes caught that subtle movement, and he quickly removed his large coat from around him before handing it to you. Beneath the thick article, he seemed thin, yet no less imposing. His suspenders hugged his torso tightly, giving him a distinguished look that suited his status. “Thank you.”

“Yes.” He seemed to finally answer, his eyes centered on his hands as he picked dirt off. It was plain he was trying to concentrate some of his thoughts away from the pain that was so evident in his eyes. At least that, he could not hide from you.

“Is she...” You didn’t want to say it, for fear of harming his heart any further. But, you grew the courage and finished. “Dead?”

His lips fell into a solemn smile, before meeting your worried gaze. “She may as well be...” It felt a horrible thing to even say, but those words seemed to hurt him further than anything you could’ve said. You let him stew in his pain, obviously not equipped with any information or skills necessary to nurse it.

This caused the silence to drift in again, and for a second you believed him to be asleep. Except his voice lingered now, a gentler tone laced within it.

“Stephen.” He stated. “My name is Stephen.”

***

A/N: okay so...not a drabble lol

[mama-ghostie-61542]

Awakening  Ch. 4

Rated M for Mature

If ya recognize it, it ain't mine.

Chapter 4

Dons POV

It was quite late when I heard the scuffle, having heard it long before I exited the lab. I had the extreme pleasure of hearing everything in stereo so I knew that it was Raph and Doc getting into a shouting match over something, but exactly what, Doc was shielding me from. It drives me crazy when she does that.

I followed the sounds to the dojo and found my twin flame squaring off against my older brother while Mikey held the baby and was trying to calm her down.

“For fuck’s sake, Red, she’s just a little girl. She just learned to walk not too long ago!”

“But she’s strong and smart, Doc! She’s old enough to start with the basics!”

“She’s two! When I deem her old enough she will learn, but not before she is ready.”

Mikey noticed the glow around her right fist before I did. He shoved the baby at me; I then handed her off to Leo, who took the baby out of the dojo and went to go play with her and the boys. Meanwhile, Mikey tried to get in between Raph and Doc. Raph just threw him out of the way, which was about as smart at throwing C4 into a roaring inferno.

If I know one thing, inside out, upside down, and backwards; it’s her, it’s Wolf. After he threw Mikey, Raph had no more than turned to Doc, his nictitating membranes over his eyes when she tossed a small wad of energy at the dead center of his chest.

Then, she walked away, yelling, “Bedtime!”

His knees hit the floor a split second before his extra eyelids rolled back. His hand went to his chest where it hit him. Then he grunted as he hauled himself off of the floor.

I stepped forward to help him up, but he shook me off.

“I’m fine,” he growled as he started to walk away from me and toward his room.    

I grabbed his arm. “I learned a long time ago NEVER get on her bad side; that it’s better to stay in Wolf’s good graces; it’s not so painful. By the way, that is gonna sting for a good long while, but once it stops stinging, you’ll be fine. You are lucky it was her and not me. For Christ sake, Raph, Rae is only 2. Ask next time,” I ended as I pushed him away.

With that I stalked away to help put the kids down for the night.

Raph POV

I managed to make it to my room and close my door before I teared up. Wowzers that hurt. Don was right; it stung. It was like getting hit by Bruce Lee’s ‘One Inch Punch’ a dozen times. I looked down to see a small circular bruise starting to color up. Ow.

Then I slowed down enough to think about it. She had hit me with an orb of energy from three to six inches away.  I could only imagine what it would do if it had more power behind it and was from rage rather than just P.O.’d. I did a full body shudder. Then, the stinging in my chest started to ease. Wow. Note to self; no more pissin’ her off. For a girl, she can hit really hard. Ouch.

Dons POV

           After the kids were asleep, I turned my attention to my Wolf. She had soaked up too much energy to fit in that one small orb and she needed to get the rest of it out. I had an idea or three on how to help her. I grabbed her hand and my skin instantly started tingling. A delicious feeling to be sure but it also imparted a sense of urgency. I threw her over my shoulder and headed for the lab. Part of me wanted to get some readings on the amount of power she could handle, but another part of me, the older part, pushed me to diffuse it quickly. I instinctively knew that if I didn’t, she would be a ticking time bomb.

           After I locked the door, I found myself against the wall, her lips on mine and her tugging on my suspenders. My hands settled on her hips. Suddenly, my suspenders were off and she was gently chewing my bottom lip. I gave in, moaning as her tongue gently danced along mine. I moved my hands to cup her head and pull her closer to me.

           I hissed and shivered as she raked her nails along my sides. I returned the favor by sliding my right hand under her shirt and gently raking my own down her back. My reward was her moaning against my lips.

           Suddenly, she pushed away and  started to stalk back toward the back corner of my lab, where I had made a nest of pillows and blankets the night before. As she started off, that t-shirt was whipped off over her head, giving me a perfect view of her back and the three scratches I had just left on her. Before the night was through, she would be mine. I followed, shucking off my pants and gear so I only wore my glasses and my boxers. I could smell her arousal halfway across my lab. The heady honeyed aroma made my mouth water, my head spin and my heart race.

           As I turned the corner into my little nest, there was my goddess, in nothing but white cotton bikini’s with purple lacy elastic and a smile. I could see the shadow of the little jade dragon with the royal purple wings on the left cheek of her perfect ass. I wondered if I bit it, would it bite me back? The leaves and vines of her rank were also visible. I am damned proud of my very sexy little General.

           Her back was to me as she glanced over her shoulder. I dropped to my knees right behind her and started to run my tongue along the bright pink trails I had left on her back. She moaned for me.

“Uh-huh,” I moaned as I started licking the welts, and occasionally nipping at them while growling and snarling.  As I toyed with her back, my hands were busy kneading her breasts and flicking or pinching her nipples. She kept moaning for me, it was setting me on fire. I was close to losing control.

           “Don’t tease, Hawk; not right now,” she whispered as she arched into me.

           That did it. I grabbed her undies and gave them a slight twist, “Get ‘em off,” I snarled against her back.

           She shivered and slid them down over her hips to let them fall to the floor. I got a good look at the tattoo on her ass. Then, I gently bit it. I was slightly disappointed when it didn’t bite me back; damned defective Ghost tat. When her undies hit the floor, I caught the full brunt of her sweet smell. I knew she wouldn’t need much more to take all 12 and a half inches of my rod in one go.

           The feel of her skin against mine was making her already very wet folds drip and run down her thighs. She shifted her hips and pulled me down where she wanted me with one hand and jerked my boxers down with the other.

           I chuckled, “Yes, Boss,” and proceeded to remove my boxers and line myself up.

           In seconds, my throbbing cock was buried in her hot, tight, and very wet pussy. It felt like coming home as her pussy swallowed every inch of me. I couldn’t stop my hands; I wanted to touch every inch of her sweet, soft skin. After the initial slow and deep thrusts, I lost all control, I started thrusting hard and deep, hitting a spot just past her cervix and making her tremble around me. When I got my bearings again, she was trying so hard not to cum until I was ready.

           “Cum for me, my Wolf,” I snarled against her skin as I sped up, hitting her end with wild abandon. Her pitchy moans grew louder and louder.  I would never admit it to anyone else but there was more than just sex involved. I knew, somehow, what button to push when, and she just knew mine, too.    

           She came so quietly that had I not felt her muscles clench and the rush, I wouldn’t have been certain she had. It was somewhere between a soft moan and a purr. Either way my old name was on her lips. It didn’t take much more for me to blow my load, she just felt too good. We were both covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

I rolled us to our side and held her close to me. I will readily admit that not one woman I have slept with in the past holds a candle to this woman. Not one has held my attention for nearly as long as this one has.

We laid there for the longest time, just talking, our voices near cooing. Mostly we spoke of how it felt to finally be home. Our hands caressed each other in the manner most loving. It was perfect. Eventually, we fell asleep in each other’s arms. That night, I dreamt of waking up to her.

I admit, I was afraid to fall asleep and waking up to find it had been yet another bittersweet dream. I held on to awake as long as I could, just watching her breathe; watching the subtle rise and fall of her side, feeling her breath on my arm, as her head rested in the crook of my arm.

In fact, that is what woke me up the next morning, her gentle breath on my neck from where she had cuddled closer to me in the night, her arm resting on my shell, her leg thrown over my hip. I caressed her back, unable to stop myself.

I heard her wake, but her eyes stayed closed.

“I don’t wanna wakeup,” she grumbled.

“Why,” I cooed in return, just kissing the top of her head.

“Because this is a dream and I don’t wanna cry,” she replied, her voice growing thick.

It was all I could do to reassure her that I was indeed there. “Wolf, I promise you, here and now, I am no dream,” I whispered. Then, my lips claimed hers. I didn’t care that she tasted like sleep, mostly because I did, too.

About that time, we heard Mikey banging on the lab door and screaming for Doc.    

A/N--Exact same thing on ffn.

[flourhurricane]

Fallout Week: Day 5, July 19th

Old or New?

...

Old World Soldier

Fandom: Fallout, Fallout 4 Rating: General Category: F/M Characters: Paladin Danse, Claire Lockhart (Sole Survivor), Knight Rhys, Scribe Haylen, Deacon, Dogmeat. Pairing: Paladin Danse / Female Sole Survivor Summary: “Don’t really have a home... not anymore.” Knowing very little about the civilian who saved his and his recon team’s lives, Danse asks Claire about her past. Takes place after Call to Arms, but before Jewel of the Commonwealth is completed. Word Count: 2783

Update: Edited and now posted on AO3!

...

Danse knew there was something unique about his new civilian contact. During their mission inside ArcJet Systems, Claire Lockhart followed orders and performed like an experienced soldier. But the Commonwealth lacked a military presence. There were the Minutemen but they were an inefficient, ragtag group without discipline or honor, and they had disbanded months ago.

Perhaps Claire came from the west and was a former NCR soldier. Her accent wasn’t native to the Capital Wasteland or the Commonwealth, or any settlements in-between. She spoke in a down-to-earth manner, with a charming drawl, and Danse was surprised by how much he enjoyed listening to her talk. He even found it amusing when Claire argued with Rhys: the madder she became, the more she enunciated her words.

“If you really don’t want any more of my help, I can just leave.”

Danse glanced up from his weathered copy of Riders of the Purple Sage as Claire and Rhys entered the police station, their hair and coats dusted with late November snow. Her dog with the peculiar name greeted her at the door, his tail wagging madly. Her friend with the sunglasses and pompadour wig remained seated at the corner table, playing a video game on her Pip-Boy. Haylen was at the terminal, writing her daily report. Danse was almost certain he heard her chuckle under her breath.

“Look, civilian,” Rhys fumed. “You may have helped Top recover that transmitter, but that doesn’t make you qualified to boss me around.”

“Boss you around?” Claire and Dogmeat continued to follow Rhys, hindering him from starting his lookout duties. “I wasn’t bossing you around,” Claire insisted. “All I did was offer to split up the night shifts. Y’all could get an extra hour of sleep. I don’t mind--”

“You’re not a Brotherhood soldier.”

“That didn’t seem to matter when I killed all them feral ghouls.”

Rhys turned around and glowered down at Claire. “Didn’t you hear me the first time, civilian? I don’t want your help!”

Dogmeat growled at Rhys for raising his voice, placed himself in front of Claire, and bared his yellowed teeth. Danse watched as Rhys stepped back, but he could tell the Knight was too aggrieved to walk away.

Danse dropped his book onto the front desk and rose from his chair. “Rhys, stand down,” he ordered.

Rhys switched his attention to his commanding officer. For a second, his anger simmered beneath his skin, reddening his face. (Or perhaps it was embarrassment. Everyone was now staring at him.) Then he complied and backed further away from Claire. Dogmeat’s stance relaxed. He slid down to the floor, but kept one paw on his mistress’ boot.

Danse continued, “Ms. Lockhart and her companion were generous enough to bring the food and medical supplies we desperately needed. If she wants to keep watch in exchange for boarding with us until the weather clears, then I give her permission to do so. Do you understand me, Knight?”

“Yes, sir,” Rhys answered through gritted teeth.

“Good. Your orders are to keep watch for the next two hours. Once you have completed your shift, come seek me and I’ll take over. Make sure to keep warm.”

Rhys curtly nodded and saluted Danse. He strode to the open office area, grabbed his laser rifle and a gray knitted cap from one of the desks, and went back outside. The door banged against its frame as he slammed it shut.

“... Well,” said Haylen, “maybe the snow’ll cool him off.”

Two smothered laughs came from Claire and Deacon.

Danse walked around the desk and approached Claire. “Ms. Lockhart.”

Claire’s smirk softened as she looked at him. “I keep telling you, Danse: call me Claire,” she said. “All this formality may be your thing, but it ain’t mine.”

“Ms. Lockhart,” Danse repeated. He pretended not to notice Claire rolling her eyes and went on to say, “If you have a moment, I’d like to speak with you in private.”

------

“Somebody’s in trouble,” Deacon sang.

Claire snorted. “Probably.” She remained standing next to the corner table and watched Danse disappear into one of the back rooms. Lights were turned on and flickered before pooling into the dark office area. If she strained her good ear, she could make out the sound of a table being pushed along the floor.

Finished with her report, Haylen leaned back into her chair and cracked her knuckles. “You’re not in trouble,” she assured Claire. “Danse mentioned he wanted to talk to you before you and Rhys came inside.”

“Did he say anything else?” Claire asked.

“Nope. But with all the help you’ve given us, maybe Danse wants to know if there’s a way he can repay you.”

Claire looked down at the laser rifle still in her hand. It was the same rifle Danse gave her after they acquired the transmitter. The way it vibrated against her arm when she switched it on. Its classic ozone smell when fired. It brought back memories of her days in basic training. Challenging times, but good ones.

Maybe I ought’a tell him that, Claire thought. She propped the rifle against the way, and at that moment, Danse called out her name. She reached over and the tapped her Pip-Boy’s screen, and grinned as Deacon pushed her arm away.

“Hope you haven’t beaten all my high scores.”

“Just a few of ‘em,” Deacon replied.

Claire knew what that meant: an entire score list with initials spelling the word “ass.”

Dogmeat plopped down beside Deacon’s chair, who started rubbing the mutt’s back with the bottom of his shoe. Claire retied her damp, ginger hair into a new bun as she walked into what used to be the police station’s interrogation room. It was sparsely furnished, with an elongated table, two metal chairs, and random junk scattered on the floor. Danse sat down and gestured to the chair across from him.

“Ms. Lockhart,” he began once Claire was seated, “I want to begin by saying my team and I do appreciate the assistance you’ve given us these past two weeks.”

Claire opened her mouth to speak but closed it when Danse straightened his posture, making himself appear even taller, and folded his arms across his chest. Even without his power armor, Danse was an imposing figure. (Handsome, yes, but still imposing.)

“However, he continued, “I think it’s time you were more forthright with us.”

Claire blinked, confused. “Forthright?”

“Yes.” Danse remained stern but there were undertones of warmth in the next words he spoke. “I don’t wish to insult you, but my team’s safety is my responsibility and I need to be certain no harm will come to them. That’s difficult to do when we’ve invited you into our outpost -- given you and your companions shelter -- and we know next to nothing about you.”

A twist of guilt squeezed Claire’s chest. She had read Danse’s terminal entries last night, when her insomnia and the blizzard kept her from sleeping. Recon Team Gladius had arrived in the Commonwealth last January. Since then, they had lost over half of their teammates. Knight Keane was the most recent casualty, killed by the feral ghouls that nearly took over the outpost. Of course Danse would be protective of Rhys and Haylen. They were all he had left.

“What would you like to know?” Claire asked.

“For starters, you could tell me where you’re from.”

That was the last thing Claire wanted to talk about. Aside from Codsworth, the only people who knew about her 210 years spent frozen inside Vault 111 were Deacon, Preston, and the new residents of Sanctuary. Danse wouldn’t be placated with the usual answer she gave settlers during her travels.

“Where am I from? Oh, I’m new to the area. Used to live in this BIG ol’ settlement far south from here. We called it Texas.”

No, Danse deserved more than a witty half-truth.

“Alright,” Claire agreed. “But I gotta warn you: we could be sitting here for a spell.”

She began with the day the bombs fell. A banquet at the veteran’s hall was scheduled for that evening to honor the female soldiers who served in the Battle of Anchorage. Claire was one of those woman and she had been asked to be the guest speaker. Her husband Nate took the day off from work and her younger brother Floyd came home from college. It was the first time he’d been home since the summer.

“Nate and I were checking on our son Sean. He was only three months old at the time. Codsworth was washing the dishes and Floyd was watching TV, and… And suddenly, we hear Codsworth calling to us to come into the living room.”

The news anchor reported of nuclear detonations in Pennsylvania and New York. Claire remembered staring at Floyd and wondering what would’ve happened if he’d taken the morning train. The television station then lost its signal. Sirens blared. Military vehicles took over the roads. Everyone in the neighborhood panicked and rushed to the vault. There was little time for her family to say goodbye to Codsworth before they fled as well.

Slowly, her voice grew doleful. “Only a handful of families in Sanctuary Hills signed up for the vault program. Even the ones that did, like us, we didn’t really think the world was gonna end. Until the end was a breath away.”

Claire kept some details to herself. Like the sight of the mushroom cloud billowing into the stratosphere and feeling the heat emanating from the blast. The sound of gears and pulleys screeching as the platform lowered “the lucky ones” into the vault. Sean crying. Nate hunching his body to protect their baby from flying dust and debris. Claire gripping onto Nate’s shirt. Floyd clutching her hand, fearful, for perhaps the first time since he was a little boy. And when they believed they protected by Vault 111, some of their neighbors began weeping for loved ones left to die above ground.

Claire did, however, tell Danse about how she kissed Sean’s forehead and told him everything would be okay. That she would be right back. She told him how Nate’s smile calmed her nerves. How Floyd didn’t want to step inside his “decontamination” pod because of his claustrophobia… and how she had to convince him to follow the Overseer’s request.

As she reached the end of her confession, Claire was stoic. She’d had a lifetime of experience before the Great War of suppressing her emotions. But there was a small crackle in her voice when she talked about them. The man and the woman. She could still hear the BANG from the man’s revolver and Sean wailing as the woman took him from Nate’s arms. She could still see Nate’s body go limp and fall back into his cryo pod, and the man’s long, irritated scar as he stared directly at her. The last thing Claire remembered was trying to claw and kick her way out of her pod, so she could kill that man with her bare hands.

“When I was finally released, the man and the woman were gone. Nate was dead. Floyd’s pod was empty. I checked every room for some kind of him, but I think maybe they kidnapped him, too. Everyone else… all the people I used to know… they were all dead.”

Silence unfolded. Danse no longer behaved like the protective leader accessing a possible threat. Instead, he was leaning with his elbows on the table, riveted by Claire’s story. Riveted and appalled.

When Claire looked up, she noticed Haylen and Rhys were standing in the doorway. Haylen’s crestfallen face told Claire she’d heard at least most of her story. Even Rhys appeared sympathetic. When Claire’s eyes met his, he immediately stared down at the floor.

Rhys cleared his throat. “Uh, sir.”

Danse looked over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“The snow’s picking up again. Anything dumb enough to be out in this weather for long is going to freeze to death.”

“Then we’ll keep watch inside the station tonight. You and Haylen barricade all the exits. We can’t chance any raiders or ferals attacking for a warm place to stay.”

“Yes, sir,” said Haylen. She threw Claire an apologetic smile and left with Rhys.

There was another, more awkward silence between Danse and Claire, until Danse stood up and exited the interrogation room. Claire wondered if the conversation was over or if she was supposed to follow him, but he quickly returned with two bottles of ice cold beer. It was the same beer she gave the recon team yesterday. A treat hidden among their food supplies. Someone must’ve packed them in snow, inside the pre-war ice machine.

“Perhaps I should’ve asked if you drink,” said Danse.

“Oh, I drink,” Claire admitted. “More than I ought to sometimes.”

Danse let out a low chuckle, a sound Claire had never heard from him. It was unexpectedly soothing. Mental note to self, she thought: make him laugh again soon.

Danse sat down, opened the longneck bottles, and handed one to Claire. They each took a long swig. Claire savored the malty flavor as it rested on her tongue. It wasn’t a Guinness but it was still the best damn thing she’d tasted since escaping the vault.

“Ms. Lockhart, I’d like to give you my condolences,” said Danse, “but I think what you need more is assistance. I’d like you to reconsider my offer. There’s still a place for you in the Brotherhood, if you choose to accept it.”

Claire set her beer down. “I appreciate it,” she said. “But I already told you, Danse. I don’t think I’d be a good fit.”

“You said you were a soldier, correct?”

“I was, yeah. I was also a lawyer. The army discharged me after I was wounded by a spider mine. Lost most of my hearing in my left ear.”

“And that hasn’t damper your ability to eliminate hostile targets. If I spoke to Elder Maxson on your behalf, I’m confident he’d grant you the rank of Knight. Most initiates train for years before earning an officer’s rank.”

“That wouldn’t be fair to those initiates.”

“The honor would still be well-deserved.”

Danse pushed his beer aside and leaned closer, his elbows back on the door. He could tell Claire was a woman with a determination nurtured by a strong, stubborn soul. It was another reason why he gave her and her company the benefit of a doubt. He wanted to help, repay her for everything she had done. But if he wasn’t careful, Claire would never accept his help.

“... Claire.”

She tilted her head and stared at him, one eyebrow arched, a wry smirk upon her lips. “Oh, so it’s Claire now, huh? You must really want me.”

“I know you’re struggling, no matter how well you’ve adjusted to this new world. What Vault-Tec did to your family and to all their victims is reprehensible. Should you join the Brotherhood of Steel, you’ll have access to advanced technology and resources not found in the wastelands. You’ll have a family of bond and steel ready and willing to fight for you. And I promise you -- right here, right now -- to assist you in whatever way I can in your search for your son and brother. And I never go back on my promises.”

Claire was drawn in by the pure sincerity in Danse’s dark brown eyes. But for one moment, all she could think about was the synth she escorted to Safehouse Ticonderoga. It didn’t matter to the Brotherhood of Steel if a synth was made of all metal or skin and bones: they were considered a dangerous weapon created by the Institute. If a Brotherhood soldier like Danse and Rhys knew about H2-22’s real identity, they would’ve killed him.

“I… I need to talk this over with Deacon.” It was the best answer Claire could give. “We’ve been traveling together for a while now and it feels wrong to make any decisions without talking to him first.”

Danse couldn’t hide his disappointment. It wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, but he was grateful it wasn’t a definite rejection. He gave Claire an understanding nod and told her, “Take all the time you need.”

They sat together for a few more minutes, drinking their beers and idly chatting. Danse had many questions he wanted to ask Claire, about life before the Great War. But not tonight. He knew her emotions were still raw, barely hidden behind her soft smile as she talked about the snowman Dogmeat destroyed earlier that afternoon.

… How she could smile at all, Danse didn’t know. Except that it was possible Claire was one of the strongest people he’d ever met.