#because using his fire spell to a light a tiny candle a distance away is the equivalent of using a bazooka to knock a can over LOL

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Smth fluffy with Four and... how about Hyrule, for the writing prompts? Maybe they go exploring together or smth.

(@tempestraccoon @artisticgamer @luckybyrdrobyn)

This developed into a whole freaking fic, so here you :)

(AO3 link)

With a new world to explore, the team had split to cover more ground and get a better understanding of where they were. Four and Hyrule had paired up and were spending some amicable time chatting and wandering the forest before it slanted downward into a gorge, rock replacing soil, mossy stone replacing trees, and a mist overtook them quickly. When they reached the open maw of an enormous cave, Hyrule immediately pulled out a candle, lighting it with a flick of magic.

Four stared at the cave hesitantly, glancing back at the mist that encased them. The world around them was lost in hazy white. "We should inform the others before we go too far."

Hyrule shot a cheeky grin over his shoulder. "What's the matter? You scared of a dungeon?"

Four pursed his lips, mildly annoyed. He wasn't scared, thank you very much. He just wanted to be sure everyone was informed. Communication was important in--

"Hey!" he shouted as Hyrule wandered ahead, heedless of his statement. "Ugh, fine, wait for me!"

The fog seeped into the cave alongside the teenagers, reflecting Hyrule's candlelight. It danced and swirled, creating false movement that made both of them jump, though it was clear Four had a bit more apprehension to him than Hyrule did. When the traveler giggled at Four jumping once more, reaching for his blade as the fog teased him again with its motions, the smithy grumbled and marched forward blindly, smacking face first into a stone wall.

"You okay?" Hyrule asked.

Four rubbed his nose and felt the cool, damp stone. "Yeah, but we're either walking in circles or this cave isn't actually a dungeon."

Hyrule squinted, moving his candle forward a little bit. As he glanced around the space, Four noticed cracks in the walls, water dribbling lazily along the paths they created. Then he smiled.

"Wait!" he pushed Hyrule away from the wall and pulled out a bomb. "I have an idea."

He lit and tossed the bomb quickly, and both heroes grabbed their shields to protect themselves from the blast after taking a few steps away. The explosion rocked the cave and shoved the fog out of the space, giving them a clear path ahead through the jagged hole Four had created. The water dripped more heavily now, and the two walked ahead side by side. A pressure difference between the cave's entrance and the dungeon proper blew out Hyrule's candle, and their faces were lit with the glow of multicolored crystals, radiating the space in an enchanting splendor. The pair smiled as one and rushed ahead, original mission forgotten.

The entrance to the dungeon was enormous, with high stone ceilings and stalactites and stalagmites creating pillars that served as canvases for the reflective light emitting from the pools of water in the area. A waterfall was at the far side, spraying the area with mist.

"It's a water temple!" Four breathed with wonder.

"What are we waiting for?" Hyrule exclaimed with a laugh, grabbing Four's wrist. "Let's go!"

"Wait we need to find the next door--"

"I see it, it's behind the waterfall!"

Hyrule reached into his adventure pouch and pulled out an entire raft, tossing it onto the water and hopping aboard before dragging Four. The pair attempted to steer the little raft with their hands, but the current of the waterfall was too strong, so Four slipped his flippers on and dove into the water to push the raft while Hyrule cheered him on and assisted as best he could.

As soon as they'd cleared the waterfall, the current stopped pushing against them and instead pulled so harshly Four nearly lost grip of the raft entirely. Hyrule hastily dragged him aboard as the entrance behind the waterfall quickly turned into a water slide, leaving both boys yelling as they slid with a speed Four didn't even want to fathom.

The tunnel swiveled back and forth, pushing the raft nearly onto the walls entirely as they splashed back and forth, making their way to the bottom. Eventually it ended in yet another waterfall, sending the boys flying off Hyrule's raft and straight into the frigid depths.

Four's flippers allowed for him to move briskly, grabbing Hyrule and dragging him to the surface just in time to see a snakelike water monster with teeth the length of Four's hands speeding towards them. Four yelped, pulling Hyrule with him as he desperately searched for the raft. Instead, he found a singular small island made of stone and made a beeline for it as the monster attracted more similar looking friends, all snapping at his heels.

The boys crashed onto the island, one of Four's flippers caught the eel's teeth. The smithy let out a yell, and Hyrule dug his blade into the eel's forehead, making it release his friend. The pair panted for air as the remainder of the beasts swirled the island just out of reach.

"Now what?" Hyrule muttered as Four examined his thankfully undamaged flipper. The room was eerily lit, bathed in red light from crystals in the walls and the earth below. It stained the water a murky burgundy color and outlined the silhouettes of countless amphibious beasts.

"These dungeons usually have themes," Four surmised, rising and looking around. "The entrance had lots of colors, for instance. This room is only red. Maybe there's something from that?"

"Fire!" Hyrule said with a clap of his hands.

"Traveler, we don't always have to set things on fire," Four deadpanned. Honestly, the freckled teenager was worse than Wild sometimes.

"No, look!" Hyrule pointed up. Four followed his finger and traced around the large area, spotting four stalactites with single candle chandeliers hanging from each. The candles were unlit.

Four's smile matched Hyrule's. "Okay, fire it is!"

Hyrule focused, his eyes glowing mildly in the darkness as he thrust his sword towards one of the chandeliers, sending a fireball towards it. It hit the stalactite just above, and the traveler huffed a little.

"It's so dark," he grumbled. "Let me try again."

Four watched him hesitantly. "Traveler, doesn't that spell take a lot of energy?"

"It's only four candles," Hyrule said dismissively.

"Yeah, which means you have to cast it four times, assuming you hit it the first time," Four noted. "We should go back and--"

Four stopped mid sentence with the grim realization that they couldn't go back. He couldn't swim against that current while pulling Hyrule along.

Great. He shouldn't have gone along with this... but he had to admit his curiosity was piqued at this point. He just wished he'd been a bit more prepared for it.

"What if we make our own fire arrows?" Four suggested. He grabbed five arrows from his quiver and placed them on the ground. "Use your spell to light the tips and then we can fire them at the candles."

Hyrule brightened at that. "Okay!"

With a brief moment of concentration, he swung his sword once more as it sent a blaze of energy outward.

Four realized his mistake just before the spell made contact with the arrows. Hyrule quickly recognized the issue immediately afterward.

The arrows were a sad little pile of ash with a black spot burnt into the stone.

"We need less fire."

"Yeah."

The pair was silent as they pondered the dilemma, and Hyrule snapped his fingers. "What about the candle? We can light the arrows with the flame from the wick."

Four smiled in delight. "That just might work!"

With that, Hyrule pulled out his candle and lit it carefully. Four crouched down to light the tip of an arrow, which slowly warmed before flames licked at the wood around the stony point. Four aimed hastily, the flames moving quickly up the shaft, and let the arrow loose.

Just a hair too short.

Biting his lip, he tried again, and this time the arrow flew true. Both heroes jumped and laughed with glee. Hyrule aimed next, his arrow managing to hit the candle while Four lit the opposite one.

Four's chest bubbled with excitement as they worked together. He was used to working as a group, but it was literally with himself. This was filling a void he didn't even realize he'd had.

He supposed he didn't realize how lonely being his own companion could be. He'd had Ezlo on his first journey, at least. But here he didn't just have a companion, he had an equal, a fellow Hero of Courage.

He was suddenly grateful they'd stumbled onto this place.

With the final candle lit, the room shuddered, and the water around them drained down to the stone at the bottom. The volatile fish flailed helplessly, and Four and Hyrule eagerly jumped down and eliminated them with their swords. Hyrule retrieved his raft, stuffing it back into his pouch, and the pair looked around for clues.

The entranceway to the next room became apparent when they turned to look back at their little stone island. The base of it held an open doorway, with stairs leading downward.

Hyrule raised his candle while Four grabbed his lantern, and the pair walked down a spiraling staircase together. The red glow of the previous room faded, leaving them with their respective lights to guide the way.

"I missed this," Hyrule commented. "Adventuring isn't all about just fighting monsters, you know? It's about discovering things and figuring out puzzles!"

Four had to laugh at that. "My adventures were usually kicked off by something, rather than looking for puzzles to solve. But I have to admit, they are fun."

As is the company.

"I wonder when we'll find the compass and map," Four thought aloud.

Hyrule waved a dismissive hand and trilled his lips. "We'll figure it out, don't worry."

Four shot him a flat look, but any response from him was interrupted as they entered a new room.

This new room was smaller than the previous, but had a taller ceiling. The crystals here glowed bright blue, and there were holes in the ground where water would spout out with enough pressure to create a geyser that nearly reached the stalactites. When Four traced up the geyser's path, he saw handles hanging from the stalactites just above them. The room had multiple platforms, most of which were far out of Four and Hyrule's reach, and the floor was littered with what looked like lily pads and little glowing stones of different shapes. They almost looked like kinstones!

"Well... water's the theme for this room, I guess," Hyrule surmised, staring at the geysers. "But I wonder what the end goal is?"

"I don't see an exit," Four commented as he glanced around the room. "I mean, there are platforms, but..."

He trailed off as his eyes hit something that looked eerily familiar. It was a symbol in the opposite wall, carved in and glowing bright blue. It consisted of two parallel lines pointing straight downward before angling together to join at a point.

The point had a key hole in it.

"We're looking for a key," Four breathed, his mind buzzing with all the ideas that were floating through it. What was that symbol? Why was it familiar? How were they going to find a key when there were no treasure chests in the room? Did they miss something in the previous room?

"Maybe one of the levers reveals a chest?" Hyrule suggested, staring at the geysers.

"Let's see," Four offered, walking towards one of the geysers. He placed his shield over the hole when the water settled and waited. When the pressure built up and the geyser returned, it shot him into the air with a yelp. He did his best to maintain his balance, excited and terrified all at the same time, and was satisfied when he felt even on his feet. Reaching up, he stretched his fingers to grasp the lever...

Only to realize he was too short to reach it, even with the help of the water geyser.

Hyrule laughed. "Need a hand?"

Four's very sour response was cut off when the geyser settled, sending him falling to the ground. Hyrule ran over to try and catch him and only succeeded in serving as a cushion as Four landed directly on him. Both teenagers groaned, slowly disentangling themselves from each other just in time to roll out of the way as the geyser returned.

When the water subsided, Hyrule pulled out his own shield to emulate Four's previous action. The smithy simply huffed, crossing his arms and watching as Hyrule was blasted into the air. The traveler reach and managed to curl his fingers around the handle, and when the geyser disappeared, Hyrule maintained his hold, preventing him from falling rapidly and also yanking the lever downward.

For a moment, nothing happened, and then all the holes in the floor gurgled, water slowly rising out of them. It started to flood the room, and Four looked around wildly for a place to climb. There were still those elevated platforms--

Oh, wait, the lily pads were rising too! Those gems on them had to be useful for something.

Of course, the real concern was whether the water was going to continue rising and they'd have to flee into the stairwell so they wouldn't drown.

Four began to worry when the water reached up to his chest, and he called for Hyrule to let go so they could get out of there, and then the bubbling from the holes suddenly stopped.

"Each lever is for a different water level," Hyrule explained from where he hung, pointing to the platforms. "Look! You can push the lily pads to the first platform!"

With a relieved sigh, Four slowly waddled through the water before giving up and just swimming. Putting his flippers on made the venture much faster, and he started tracking down lily pads. But it soon became apparent that they weren't just floating pads, but had stalks attached that would only stretch so far.

Some of the pads wouldn't reach the platform. And the platform had lily pads as well, with some gems matching the ones on their level.

"Okay," Four parsed out. "This platform has a purple and a red stone, and they're cut a certain way. The main level has purple, red, orange, green, and pink."

Hyrule finally let go of the lever, tucking in his legs to land smoothly in the water. Immediately, the water began to recede.

"Wait!" Four shouted, but it was too late. The room dried out, and the geysers returned.

Hyrule and Four both sighed. This might take a while to figure out.

Or it might take multiple people to pull levers.

Four shook his head. He'd cross that bridge if need be, but he'd rather not. Not if there was another solution. Most dungeons were designed to be solvable alone.

Well. Mostly. Sort of.

The pair spent the next five minutes figuring out which lever did what and how they could use it to their advantage. There were three in total, one on the left, one in the center, and one on the right. The one on the left brought the lowest level of water, center brought highest, and right bright medium. The geysers didn't come when any lever was activated, and it would only stay that way while Hyrule was actively hanging off it.

It was a good thing there was two of them. Four would have definitely had to split to solve this room. Hyrule would have had to figure something else out entirely.

The real issue was trying to match the stones with whatever platform was closest based on the stalk length. It quickly became apparent that not only did they need to match the color, but also the shape - certain stones fit together. The red created a handle, the purple a stalk, the pink and orange were the biting edge of the key, and the green slid overtop the blade end of the purple stalk. At least, that's what Four had managed to figure out. He was fairly good at matching stones together, after all.

Hyrule worked on which water level to choose while Four ascertained how to fit the pieces together. Together, the pair managed to finally get the key assembled, and Hyrule finally fell into the water as Four swam to the last destination. The water drained out of the room, and all that was left was to go to the symbol.

Hyrule flexed his fingers, rubbing his hands against his tunic as Four shivered a little from being completely soaked. "That took a bit of work, but it was fun! I'm glad you were here, that would have taken forever to solve by myself."

"You figured out the water levels," Four pointed out with a smile. He wasn't going to admit that he was grateful for other reasons, but he did feel compelled to remind the traveler that he was just as good at these puzzles as Four.

Hyrule shrugged sheepishly. "Let's figure out what this leads to. Do you think it's a boss key? Maybe this is a mini-dungeon."

Four had to admit, he was starting to hope it was. They didn't have food provisions, and it felt like it had been hours since he'd last eaten. Still, he was willing to continue on this adventure with his friend.

The pair walked to the wall, and Four slowly inserted the key into the symbol, gently pushing it along so it slid into place.

The wall shuddered and split right down the center of the symbol, pulling it apart and revealing the next room. As Hyrule and Four entered, the wall slammed shut behind them, making both jump a little before they tensed with anticipation.

This had to be a boss room.

The area consisted of multiple stone islands that shifted, rising and falling above the water level. The only island that remained stagnant was against the opposite wall, and it was entirely taken up by an enormous purple clam shell that was closed. A single, solitary lever hung from a stalactite in the center of the room.

"So is the boss in the water, or in the shell?" Four whispered.

"Guess there's only one way to find out," Hyrule noted, stepping ahead.

Four sighed and followed, examining the surroundings to see what they could use to their advantage. The clam shell opened slowly, making both heroes freeze, and Four felt his heart stop for a moment.

Was that Sky?

Someone who looked just like Sky was lying motionless in the clam. Had the boss monster gotten hold of their friend?

"Sky!" Four called out, rushing ahead and skipping over multiple islands as Hyrule yelled after him.

"Smithy, wait! We don't know if--"

Hyrule's words were drowned out in the echoing chamber as Four called out again to get their brother's attention. How had Sky gotten down here? Had he solved all the puzzles only to get defeated at this point? What was that beast doing to him?

Where was his companion? Sky had gone off with Warriors! Where was the captain?!

Four finally reached the stone that had the clam and then he felt his stomach lurch in realization.

Sky's legs, which were hidden from a distance, weren't legs at all.

They were a white tail.

"What in the name of--" Four choked back the rest of his exclamation when Sky's eyes snapped open to reveal nothing but blood red staring at him, and he let out a hiss with sharp teeth.

"Four, get away from it, that's not Sky!!" Hyrule shouted. "It's a shapeshifting beast, get out of there!"

Four leapt off the platform and gasped as the island he landed on slid into the water. The beast pulled itself out of the clam shell with unnerving speed before dragging itself into the water. Four felt his heart jolt knowing he was in the monster's element and had little chance in fighting it while in the water. At leas the could swim a little faster with--

His world lurched as the beast grabbed him by the leg, its claws digging into him as he let out a scream of pain. Then it lurched again when its squealed and released him and he was yanked out by his tunic. Hyrule was on his raft, bow in hand as the beast pulled an arrow out of its arm. At least it now held very little resemblance to Sky aside from its hair and facial structure. The fangs, claws, red eyes, and fin left very little doubt that it was not, in fact, their friend.

But what if it was Sky?! What if something had changed him, had made him into a beast?! If Twilight could use shadow magic to turn into a wolf, what could stop something else from turning one of their brothers into a monster?

Hyrule fired off another arrow, which the beast swatted easily with its tail before tearing after them at a speed that made Four want to scream. An island erupted up beneath them, beaching the raft and saving them temporarily as the beast backed off and circled the land. When it tried to breach the surface and pull itself ashore, Hyrule loosed another arrow, making the beast hiss and retreat.

"Smithy, you have to snap out of it!" Hyrule yelled. "It isn't Sky!"

The ground shuddered, indicating that the island was about to disappear. Four took a breath, focusing, and pulled out a bomb, nodding at Hyrule, who followed suit. The pair drew the beast out so it surfaced and threw bombs just as the island vanished beneath them. The blast pushed the raft away a good distance while also throwing the beast back with a shriek.

"The only way we can fight that thing is by drawing it to land," Hyrule said, looking around for the other islands.

"The land doesn't stick around long enough to do that!" Four argued. Then he glanced upward. "Wait--we need to figure out what that lever does, but there's no geyser or way to get to it!"

"Leave that to me," Hyrule said with firm resolve, eyes narrowed in determination. "We just need to steer it that way. I'll cover you, but you'll have to push the raft."

The two looked at each other a moment, a silent question passing between them. Four nodded. He could handle it. Slipping into the water, he started to steer the raft with as much haste as he could muster, slipping his power bracelets on to help him. Between the two items they moved almost as quickly as the beast.

Almost.

The creature started to gain on them just as they reached the center of the room. Hyrule crouched down, arrow nocked and ready, but Four called out to say they were approaching. There was no way they were going to be able to linger in the center, so whatever trick Hyrule had up his sleeve he had to pull it while they were moving.

The traveler glanced upward, calcualting the distance, and put his bow and arrow away. He took a deep breath and leapt, magic pushing outward as he flew high into the air, grabbing hold of the lever just as the beast snagged Four's leg once more. Four yelled and kicked, trying to pull himself onto the raft when the water started swirling, pulling both him and the beast in a whirlpool that had begun to form. Four grew both dizzy and nauseous, adrenaline making him try to keep track of where the monster was, to the point that he lost sight of his own surroundings until he slammed into one of the islands that had risen up.

Groaning, he held onto the island for dear life, shoving a hand into his pouch to find his grip ring so he could try to scale the slippery stone. The beast screamed as it tore by him continuously, trying to reach him with each successive pass. Four eventually started to climb, coughing out water and choking out, "Don't let go!"

"Are you okay?!" he could barely hear Hyrule, but the words were clear enough in his ringing mind.

Gasping for air, Four managed to drag himself to the top of the island only for it to sink, plunging him into the whirlpool once more, though this time, the water had seemed to have gotten shallower.

Ah. Because there was a giant endless pit in the center of the room now.

Swimming frantically, he and the beast both barely managed to escape falling into the hole, leaving them floundering on the stony ground that was revealed. outlines of islands that had been rising and sinking were apparent now, and Four scrambled for one, tripping over his flippers as the tailed beast tried to drag itself towards him.

Well, at least they had managed to beach the creature.

Groaning, Four finally made it to the island as it rose, holding his leg that had now been injured twice. Blood was oozing out of multiple cuts, some deep enough to make his stomach mildly queasy. He pulled off the flippers no longer needing them, and looked up at Hyrule, who was watching him worriedly.

"I'm fine!" he called. "Just don't let go! This is the only way we're going to be able to fight it!"

Hyrule nodded, his eyes still worried, but his face was set in stone.

Four readied himself, drawing his sword and shield as the island fell, taking him with it. The beast was awaiting him, pushing its torso into the air with its tail as it snarled and reached out for him with its claws. He deflected a blow with his shield, reaching in to attack it before getting smacked away by its tail, which was surprisingly limber despite its thickness.

And goddesses above, it hurt.

With the wind knocked out of him, Four took too long to recover as the beast half dragged, half slithered its way to him. He yelped and pulled out a bomb, but he was cornered and would either blow himself up in the process or run right into the beast's clutches.

This was getting out of hand. He needed Hyrule's help.

Well. What he needed was an extra fighter.

He was outmaneuvered and he knew it. He could either shrink down to try and be harder to reach (and probably get squished in the process) or...

Gritting his teeth, he squeezed the handle of his sword tightly, feeling the magic activate. His mind screamed, his body felt suddenly too tight and too loose, his sternum felt like it was being ripped in half twice over. Rage at the monster, worry over whether it truly was a shapeshifter or not, logic telling him to focus on the moment, and a desire to protect Hyrule and get them out of here split into pieces, becoming overwhelming voices driving him insane until they separated entirely. The beast quadrupled in appearance, magic sealed the tears in his very being, and the four colors stood in the original hero's stead, glaring at the beast with equal measure.

Blue growled, swinging his his blade at the beast's arm as Red flinched a little, looking away from its face. Vio watched the monster move as Green charged ahead as well, aiming for its other arm.

The beast flinched back, overwhelmed and caught off guard. Blue let out a laugh. "Yeah, take that you asshole!"

"Does it even have one...?" Vio wondered quietly before shaking his head. "We need to corner it."

"We're absolutely sure it isn't Sky, right?" Red asked in spite of edging a head, blade at the ready.

"Trust the Traveler!" Green said as he circled around to get behind the monster.

Red nodded and glanced up worriedly at said Hero to find Hyrule staring at them with wide eyes. A different worry crossed Red's face and then he shook his head.

"Let's go!" Blue shouted as he charged once more since Green and Vio flanked the beast. Its tail whipped around to knock Vio back only for Green to leap on top of it and stab into it. The beast shrieked, distrated and aiming its claws for Green just as Red bashed its arm away with his shield while Blue cut into its skin, only to find that its flesh was much thicker than expected. The beast flailed even more, screeching, knocking Green off and flinging Vio across to a rock island just as it rose, knocking him out cold. Red called out to his companion, but Green waved him off.

"Not now!" he said. "We need to kill it before it can hurt anybody else!"

"Pin it in place!" Hyrule called from where he was. "Bring it beneath where I am and pin it in place!"

The three immediately knew what the traveler had in mind and nodded with smiles. Blue led it first, cutting and tucking himself to roll and avoid a counterattack. The beast's tail whirled, stopping by Green's shield, even though it did make the hero stumble. The three slowly started to corral the beast towards the center of the room, careful to dodge islands as they moved. Eventually, Green looked up and smirked.

"We got him!" he said to the other two. "Now keep it here!"

Red thrust his sword forward to make the beast hiss and recoil a little, only for Blue to yell and land a cut on its back. It pivoted in place, trying to keep the three at bay, and Green called, "Now!"

Hyrule let go, pulling out his sword. He tucked his legs above his blade, and just as Blue drove the beast away just a hair, Hyrule's blade sank into its spine with a clean slice, the sound of steel cutting to bone whirling around the room as the water had before.

The world stilled for a moment and then the beast collapsed. Hyrule rolled off, pulling out his blade in a swift motion.

"HELL YEAH!" Blue yelled, bumping elbows with the traveler. "That was a great move, Traveler!"

Red smiled encouragingly before rushing off towards Vio. Hyrule stared at the four, baffled, and then ran after Red just as the other two Colors did. Water was already pooling, filling the room back up as the beast disintegrated into dust. Red quickly pulled Vio off the ground so he wouldn't drown.

"Okay, but how--?" Hyrule asked, pointing at all of them. "What?"

Green sighed as Blue helped Red prop Vio against the wall. "The Four Sword is able to, well, split us into four people. It's... uncomfortable magic, but it has its uses."

"Wait, so are you, like four people or are you..." Hyrule stopped mid question, shaking his head. "You know what, never mind. Let me take a look at him."

Pulling out his raft, he motioned for eveyrone to get aboard just as the water started reaching their knees, and then he knelt by Vio. Letting his hands glow, he hovered them over Vio's head, and the purple clad hero started to groan and move a little.

"Did we win...?" he slurred.

Blue smiled. "Yeah."

Vio's gaze shifted to Hyrule, and he stiffened a little. "Oh. Hi."

"Hi," Hyrule greeted with a smile beforelooking at all of them. "So... wait... if one of you is injured, does that mean you all are? Because the rest of you..."

"We'll have a headache when we rejoin," Green explained. "But it looks like you cleared up the worst of it, anyway."

"Thanks, Traveler," Red said, face beaming. "You're always so willing to help, we really appreciate you."

Hyrule flushed, a little embarrassed and not sure how to take the compliment, and Green took that as a cue.

"Come on," he prompted, reaching for his sword. The others nodded, mirroring him, and before Hyrule could blink the four were one once more.

Four groaned, a little woozy, and Hyrule immediately helped him sit on the raft.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Four nodded, swallowing bile. His thoughts were going to be a disaster for the next day or so, but he'd live. He felt too big and too small, too whole and too broken. He hated splitting.

Movement distracted him, and he blinked the blurriness away in the distance to see the clam shell that held the beast moving aside. Pointing it out, he let Hyrule steer the raft towards the island as they saw an exit glowing in the wall.

"No prize?" Hyrule huffed.

"Wait, I think I see a chest!" Four said, just as eager as Hyrule to find something after all that headache.

The chest was white in color, intricate carvings embroidering its surface, and the pair squeezed together to open it, eyes wide with eager curiosity.

There was a manuscript made of violet crystal, notes carved into its shimmering surface.

"A melody?" Hyrule reached into his adventure pouch and pulled out a flute, glancing at the tablet for a moment before hesitantly playing notes. He stumbled over a few as Four listened, and then the smithy pulled out an ocarina and tried it as well.

"I wonder what it does?" Four asked as Hyrule continued practicing. He looked around to see if the exit was visible before realizing the bright light was just coming from a hole far, far above them. How were they going to get up there?

Sighing, he glanced back and nearly jumped out of his skin as he screamed. Hyrule immediately stopped playing and whirled, only to be met with the same sight.

The beast was back. But now it looked like Hyrule, and its reddish eyes were a soft pink, its face calm and placid, its posture demure and curious.

Four added shapeshifters to his list of most disturbing things I've encountered. As if his mind wasn't spinning enough.

"The melody pacifies it!" Hyrule realized. "Smithy, this is our ticket out of here!"

Comprehension dawned on Four, and he hesitantly reached forward. The world spun dizzyingly as his brain panicked over only having one arm reach forward and not four, and he shook his head to rid himself of the feeling. Hyrule steadied him, watching him worriedly.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked softly as the beast cocked its head to the side curiosity, Four's own face staring back at him.

"Yeah," Four answered shakily. "It's... not something I usually like doing. Splitting, I mean. It's... a lot."

"No kidding," Hyrule acknowledged. "Is that why you haven't told anyone?"

"Champion knows," Four remarked.

Their conversation was interrupted as the shapeshifter moved a little, growing tense. Hyrule put his flute to his lips and played again, and the beast settled.

"Can you take us to the surface?" Four asked the creature.

Hyrule's beastly mirror image smiled and wiggled to face the entrance back to the boss room. It dragged itself gently to the water and slid in before looking back at them.

"Do you think you have to play the entire time?" Four whispered through the corner of his mouth as he gave a hesitant thumbs up to the beast.

"Maybe one more time for good measure," Hyrule threw back with a nervous laugh.

After ensuring the sea creature was indeed pacified, the pair gingerly slipped into the water. The beast wrapped an arm around each of them and swam swiftly, tearing downward into the gaping maw that sucked the water out before. Four and Hyrule glanced at each other through the water, holding their breath and trying not to panic, but then light started to shine as they zipped through the hole. A kaleidoscope of colors danced before them as they passed walls littered with glittering crystals of varying hues, and they quickly breached the surface.

They were back at the main entrance room, the waterfall crashing behind them.

"Thank you," Four said. The beast hummed and sank back into the water.

"All that just to learn how to charm a sea monster," Hyrule said softly. Then he sighed and smiled. "At least it was an adventure!"

Four huffed out a laugh. Yes, he supposed it was. But there was still one question that lingered in his mind, and no doubt was in Hyrule's as well as the pair exited the cave entirely.

"Smithy! Traveler!"

The pair jumped and looked ahead to see that the mist had cleared, revealing Sky and Warriors heading their way.

"Oh, did you find the cave too?" Warriors questioned as he approached them, sharp eyes scanning for injuries. He lingered on Four, probably immediately noticing the blood stains on his leg and head.

"Yeah!" Hyrule nodded, though his excitement wasn't quite as bright as it had been when they'd entered. "Wait, did you guys find it too?"

"Alongside a vile creature, yes," Warriors remarked. Then he clapped Sky on the back. "Sky managed to land the killing blow."

The realization snapped into place with resounding clarity.

"It takes the form of whatever defeats it," Four gasped.

Sky tipped his head to the side. "Huh?"

"It's a shapeshifter," Hyrule explained with a wave. "Did you guys find the melody?"

"Yeah!" Sky immediately answered. "The sea people love it!"

"The--who??"

"There's a whole community of them up the river," Warriors said, motioning with his head and smirking. "You should've seen Vet's face. Come on, we'll show you. Smithy... are you able to make it that far?"

Four let out a laugh, relieved that everything was finally making sense. "Yeah, I'll be fine. You two lead on."

Sky lingered a moment longer, clearly also noticing Four's injury, but when the sword smith gave him a reassuring smile, the skyborn knight nodded and walked alongside the captain. Hyrule and Four stood in place for a moment before glancing at each other.

"Thanks for the help in there," Four said softly.

Hyrule smiled brightly. "We're all heroes, Link. You were amazing."

Four laughed. "Well, come on, if we stand still any longer Sky's gonna start fretting."

The brothers walked ahead, their next adventure awaiting them.

[tricked-out]

Early Morning in the Skellington Manor: Anthology #1

Here's the first of the Anthology chapters! Who's ready for more Tricked Out content? [Read it on ff HERE]

Halloween Town

Mid-January, 1993

Just after sunrise

Ivy blinked awake, confusing creeping across her features at the dimmed daylight outside. She listened for a moment, wondering if the Tailypo had decided to have another fight with the Monster Under the Bed, but only silence met her ears. She groaned and flopped onto her stomach, pulling the lumpy pillow over her head in the futile attempt to fall back asleep, but the slow insistence that something something something was wrong refused to stop tapping away in the back of her mind, growing steadily stronger the longer she stayed awake. After a few more fitful, denial-filled moments, she grit her teeth and rolled out of bed, shoving her shoes on and scrubbing her face. Yawning she let the strange tug in her stomach pull her from bed, cracking open the door into the stillness of the Manor.

It wasn’t completely strange to have the Manor be still - contrary to what Citizens may think, Jack did have his quiet spells, hours (days, really) where he directed his energy towards a project, eventually emerging with a sheepish apology and an offer of attention or food - which did make her feel more like a pet, but oh well.

The point, however, was that even in his focused bursts, it was never fully silent: clinking, mumbling, endless pacing and sometimes small, “harmless, really!” explosions.

But tonight (today?) there was none of that. The clock she couldn’t read didn’t tick, so Ivy’s footfalls felt louder than ever. The wood creaked beneath her feet and she fought the urge to hold her breath, watching the beams of early morning sun filter through the dusty windows. She tilted her head, trying to listen the way Jack and the other monsters did, but eventually gave up, rolling her eyes as she headed towards the place he was most likely hiding - that musty study of his.

She shouldered the large door open, peering into the pitch darkness. The air was stale and silent as the tomb, and Ivy hated how her heartbeat picked up.

Jack was there, sitting at his desk, a single candle illuminating the soft bone of his face, even as it sucked out every other light source in the room. His stitched lips were moving, but Ivy couldn’t hear the words, no matter how she strained. His brow was crinkled and his hands were clenched, but most worryingly of all he didn’t move at all when she entered, no twitch of his body betraying that he knew she was there.

All the while, his sockets were fixed on the great black book that was splayed out before him - nearly half his height and wide as the surface of the desk itself, hundreds of fresh and fading names scrawled within. Ivy had only seen the Book of Records once before, and it sent a familiar chill up her spine.

“Jack?” She asked softly, feeling that dark tug in her stomach grow when the skeleton still didn’t move. “Jack?”

……………………………………………………………

Jack’s bones and skull ached. He’d started the morning off so well, too - a game of fetch with Zero outside, fixing a door upstairs that hadn’t been creaking enough, and even a start on some paperwork for the Mayor, all with the soothing sound of Ivy’s heartbeat in at the edge of his awareness. But he’d just had to go to the Book, to flip through the yellowed pages, to see Sally’s name freshly inked in her graceful script, declaring her to be a full Citizen of the Town. He’d let one finger trace the edges of her name, imagining her cloth-soft fingers brushing over the same spot and stubbornly refusing to admit why he wanted to imagine it. But it had all crashed down when he’d noticed a name of the opposite page - one that had been clear, if old, just a few weeks prior and now all but fully faded away. He’d stared, frozen, at the nearly-faded name, almost illegible to the naked eye. How had he not noticed a Citizen was fading to their Second Grave? When had this happened?

How many others?

Then had begun the spiral that he knew all too well - reading over the names of the past, from years before his own arrival in Halloween, desperately trying to keep the names of those that had passed on remembered somehow.

“You’ve forgotten us, Jack,” came a raspy whisper and Jack shuddered, twisting his skull as though to shake it loose.

“No. N - no, I haven’t, I swear -”

He whispered the dead names frantically, the sense of weight and responsibility causing his shoulders to quake. How was he supposed to fulfill his duties when monsters through the ages were dying off? When he was the only one who knew the names of whatever parts of them still existed? When -

Something pulsed at the edge of his awareness, some insistent sound, tiny and hesitant like a mosquito. Jack brushed it aside, dimly noticing that his aura had gotten larger than usual, but he didn’t allow it to break him from his recital. Sockets tracking across the page, lips moving silently, as he tried to ignore the fact that if he were living his breath would be coming quick and short.

The mosquito grew louder, more insistent, and bashed at the edge of his aura. Mind in the past, Jack pulled in his awareness (when had it gotten so large?) and turned his skull towards the intruder, skull creaking and black aura flaring behind him in warning. He knew that the black of his eyes matched the darkness of the room around him, but the familiar sight of human skin and wide eyes stopped him from flinging the intruder across the room.

“Jack?” The human asked, high-pitched and hesitant. Her own miniscule colors had shrunk down unconsciously, aware of the threat Jack gave off. The cobwebs began to recede from his brain, some of the whispers of the past dying down, and the memories of the now trickling in. The name of the human before him fell into place, and he forced himself to unhinge his jaw and answer.

“Ivy.” He knew his voice was raspy and low, and even to him it sounded as though he were speaking from a great distance. “Are… are you alright?”

Ivy stifled a snort of disbelief, and the familiarity of the gesture did more to ground Jack than the feeling of his desk bending beneath his fingers. “I think I should be asking you that,” she retorted, slowly edging her way fully into the room, though keeping her back to the wall in a way she clearly thought was subtle. “What are you doing?”

He glanced at the Book and shuddered, slamming it shut as though to muffle the voices of the dead within, wincing a bit at how Ivy flinched at the noise. He’d worked so hard to not give her a reason to fear him, and now … a wave of exhaustion hit him and he leaned into his hands, kneading the joints of his metacarpals into his sockets. “It’s … it’s nothing, Ivy.”

“Sure doesn’t look like -”

“Go back to bed.” He knew it was curt, but his jaw was growing tense again and he thought he may need a wrench to loosen his bones enough to move. He heard Ivy cross her arms rather than leave and sighed, knowing he didn’t have the energy to fight with her.

“I’m not gonna let you sulk here in the dark - “

“I am not sulking!” Jack’s head swung up, sockets blazing, and both flinched at the volume of his shout. The spark of her fear he tasted in the air was enough to smother his next wave of anger, but he knew it wouldn’t be the same with Ivy. Jack saw the fire kindle in her eyes, the way her fists clenched, and felt his bones tense in preparation for the storm.

But then Ivy paused, her eyes flickering down to the Book, and Jack heard her take a deep breath. He allowed himself to close his sockets once more, knowing he should apologize but unable to bring himself to speak.

He heard her move closer, her footsteps humanly loud and quiet breath disturbing the stillness of life. It was strange, he passingly mused, to have such a strong presence of life in a room so filled with death.

He thought back to the names, the monsters who’d left to their Second Graves, and wished he had the ability to cry.

“Jack, what’s wrong?” It was the softest voice he’d ever heard her use, but he couldn’t bring himself to answer. His shoulders hiked, his hands clenched even tighter, and he shook his head, cutting off her next words of, “Jack, it’s ok, you can tell …”

No, he couldn’t. Because what would he do if her name was added to the Book one day, only to fade away as she herself did?

There was a long moment, in the stillness of his study, and if Jack bothered to try, he thought he might have heard the sounds of gears turning in Ivy’s head. As it was, he allowed the darkness in his ribs to seep upwards, drag his body and mind down until nothing seemed to matter but the pain in his joints, or the tug where his heart once was.

It was a surprise, then, to feel a warm human hand slipping under his arm. It was only centuries of self-control (and, yes, perhaps exhaustion) that prevented him from tossing the 16 year old across the room as she applied pressure under his arm, lifting him out of his seat.

“Knew you’d be light, Bone Boy,” she muttered, and Jack heard the words as though they might apply to another. He fancied viewing himself from outside his body, escaping the confines of his overly-large form. He thought it might be a funny sight - a skeleton, over 8 feet tall, folded against a deceptively strong human girl in Halloween clothing, her hair still sticking up from sleep. He saw, rather than felt, his feet drag across the floor as Ivy pulled them out of the study. She was saying something, he knew, but no matter how he tried he couldn’t focus on the words. She seemed to notice, switching to her mother tongue, and Jack almost felt the flicker of a grin at the teasing affection behind her words.

They came to a familiar ebony wood door and Jack could feel some hesitancy in his companion before she lifted once foot and turned the handle, gently kicking the door open. He heard her laugh at something, then felt himself being tipped sideways and onto the soft surface of his bed. He half-heartedly tried to sit up, only for Ivy to strike him in the center of the chest, sending him backwards with an “oof!”

“Don’t even think about it,” she said, in English once more. “I’ll tell Null to howl if you try to get up before sundown.”

Zero? Sure enough, the ghost dog was floating over Ivy’s shoulder, casting the side of her face in a white glow. In intense focus, she scratched under his chin, which resulted in the dog flopping over dramatically and drifting down to rest his head on Jack’s ankle, trapping him in place.

“Seriously, when was the last time you slept?”

Words … those were still difficult, getting his jaw and mind to corporate. “L… La - last week.”

“Ok, not awful,” Ivy conceded, head dipping to the side. She blew a tuft of hair from her face and yanked a blanket over his form, despite the fact that his suit and shoes were still on. “But not great either.”

His jaw creaked as he went to respond, but Ivy was quicker. “That’s ok, though. You’ll get through this.” She paused, giving him a rare serious look. “You’re the best, you know that?”

“How -”

“You get this look when you’re su - brooding,” she amended quickly. Jack didn’t think it was much better, but he was too tired to protest. “You don’t have to tell me, just … you’ve always been here for me. So, I just - I want you to, y’know, know it’s the same if you, uh, need somebody to talk to. I’m,” she cleared her throat, eyes flickering to the ceiling. “I’m here for you too, ok?”

She went to leave, and Jack forced himself to reach out and grasp her hand. She paused, pulse back to a normal speed beneath his fingertips and she glanced over her shoulder at him. She waited, dark hair aglow in the moonlight, as he struggled to speak. He tried to tell her the pressures on his mind, the uncertainty of the future, the darkness that crept around them from all sides. But there was too much youth in her gaze, a humanity he hadn’t seen in years, and he was loath to be the first to disrupt it. So he settled back, instead allowing a much softer, “go to bed” escape his lips.

Her own quirked up, expression almost soft. “Don’t worry, Dad, I will.” It always sent a particular warmth through him when she said that, and it allowed him to loosen his grasp, allowing her fingers to slip through his. “Get some sleep yourself, ok?”

She pointed her finger at him in faux sternness, and Jack allowed himself to smile. “I will. Thank you, love.”

Ivy nodded, making a self-satisfied noise. After a final scritch to Zero, she walked from the room, closing the door with a final, “horrid dreams, Jack!”

The skeleton waited until her heartbeat had faded to kick off his shoes. Zero growled warningly but Jack shushed him, laying back down to placate the dog, who rolled his eyes and tucked himself tighter against Jack. Soon the ghost was fast asleep, almost transparent in the sunlight coming through a crack in his blackout curtains. Jack leaned back against his pillow, feeling a different kind of exhaustion begin to tug him down. A few whispers persisted at the edge of his consciousness, but he was able to ignore them, the internal promise of doing better tomorrow allowing him to fall asleep until sundown.

[gilded-knight]

But First There Was Light

It had all happened so quickly. In one moment he had stood beside her, huddled amongst the other tradespeople shivering behind a barricaded door, & in the next there was only fire. But first there was Light.

Yvelian had first encountered the sun as an announcement to a new day. It painted the sky with warm scarlets & magenta, filtering through the golden leaves of the twisting, light-barked trees of his coastal home. He’d only discovered the light in the way it dappled the evergreen landscape & bursting flora that blanketed the hills before giving way to the wide expanse of the sea. He wondered how the sun reached so far, reflecting a rainbow like prisms against the water & towards the shore. There was warmth in the way it baked the sand & crusted the beach’s surface, only breaking when the crash of a wave gave way to the soft underbelly beneath. He recalled wiggling his toes into that sand as a child, scooping handfuls of the grains around him to bury his legs. No more than a torso he’d raise his voice as loud as he could muster, crying wolf over the noise of the water. By the time his brother would answer the waves would already wash away his hard work, drawing the sand back into the surf & leaving him to dry beneath the sun unencumbered.

By the time he understood the sun as more than just daytime, he was still a child - but old enough to become enraptured by the man who taught him. He would watch his brother with wide, ocean-colored eyes and hang off every word. “Respect,” his brother started, drawing back the curtains to allow the light to shine through the salt-pebbled glass. “Tenacity,” he continued, his steady voice soothing - but commanding attention. “Compassion.” He reached towards the bed where Yvelian sat, pressing the palm of his hand gently to his cheek. “These are the Virtues which you must always abide by. Remember them & you’ll always walk in the Light.” 

Telandrian - as he was called then - was his hero. There was no better way to state the way he idolized him, toddling along in his footsteps (though for every stride his infinitely taller brother took equaled three of his own) as he worked. He would clamber onto boxes, willing him to tell him more ‘stories’ of the great warriors of the Light, and of paladins and far-off human bastions dedicated to the magical power. And of course, his brother would succumb to the butterfly-batting of his eyelashes, recalling tales as he ferried various goods from the docks to the boats anchored alongside them. 

Everything he knew of the Light came from him. His parents had faith in the Light too, of course - but the kind of faith that was used in greeting & good-byes. ‘Light keep you’, they’d say. ‘Light bless us’, they’d will. But they never spoke of it the way that Telandrian did - and there was never the love in their voices as they orated. Even soaked through with old sweat & sea & fatigued from a long day - even as there seemed not an ounce of energy left in him, Telandrian would always greet his brother’s wonder with an answer. And that answer was always filled with love.

There came a day when Yvelian was young that his brother went away. As Yvelian clung to his mother’s hand, eyes welling with tears and father bolstering him with a grip on his tiny shoulder, Telandrian promised he would be home soon. The past years had tested them all - but none of those storms were so difficult as this. He remembered when his parents fought - raising their voices & spitting at each other in sharp Thalassian about a child he’d heard of but never met, who Telandrian explained was their half-brother, but with a sour expression said nothing more. There were moments when his father’s face reflected that same expression - but aimed towards him. When his mother would shield him behind her skirt & warn his father to look at their child with kinder eyes. When his father would scoff at the wish, dismissing the pair of them with a passing wave. But even through every rebuke he knew a new day would come. He knew the sun would chase away the darkness again, and his brother would share with him more stories.

How would he do that when he was gone?

Those years passed slowly, with Yvelian hiding away in the workshop of his mother’s jewelry-making business. He learned her trade because it was the only option. The stoic setting of every pin, the mechanical faceting of every gem, was done in the dim light of covered windows & flickering candles. It pained him to look outside, the expectation that his brother would crest the pathway of their home & return to them fading with each passing season until he closed himself off to the idea altogether. 

Still, he became skilled at the craft his mother shared, and as the years of his childhood faded, too, he started to travel across the sea to the mainland, delivering their work to the denizens of the shining capital of their nation and the villages which encircled it. When Telandrian returned things went unchanged. Instead of returning home, his brother returned to Silvermoon. He lived on. He ventured forth. He visited, but to Yvelian it felt more an insult than if he had just stayed away. 

---

The noise came on like crashing waves against buildings too near the shore. It rumbled and roared as it drew nearer, the cacophony becoming more distinct with each shaky breath he took. He pressed his forehead against his mother’s arm & she instinctively held him closer, her worry apparent in the tension of the muscles beneath the linen sleeves of her dress. There were screams of soldiers that earned cries from the collected Quel’dorei, and there were monstrous snarls, the cracking of bones, or metal - or both. There were noises of straining wood and crumbling stone that shook the building of the shop where they were hidden. But they were safe here in the dark, shielded from the battle that they were warned of marching from the human lands to the south. 

And then there was cold. It hit like cannon fire, snaking through the shuttered door & blasting it from its hinges back into the people within. What he experienced thereafter could only be described as chaos. Certainly, he remembered the smell of blood and death - that sickly mixture of metal and bile that spelled oncoming demise. The group shattered, individuals splintering left and right - exposing him and his mother to whatever had found their safehouse. He kept a vice-like grip to his mother’s hand as she pressed him further into the back wall, and he remembered the way the smoky daylight flashed against her wild, fear-stricken eyes. They were battered side to side, and Yvelian tried desperately to drag her towards safety - or, away. Just get away from the door, away from the beasts that clambered through the opening & had begun to cut through those that had drawn breaths moments before. Now they were bodies - or, perhaps just parts. These creatures rent so many, ripping, tearing - and he closed his eyes against a splatter of warm liquid that painted his face. He felt his mother being torn away from him before he could manage to really open them again, and by the time he had wiped that warmth from his face - she was a quickly disappearing body within the storm.

Yvelian jolted forwards, bumped & battered on every side as he sprinted out the remains of the doorway and out into the square. He couldn’t even register the sights that he was met with - his focus pinned to his mother, watching her being dragged bodily across the cracked stones by a hulking figure. “Minn’da!” He cried, reaching forwards as he began to try to close their distance, when a sickening crunch registered in his left ear - far too close for comfort. And then there was the pain.

It washed over him in a flurry of waves, one after the other as his other hand mechanically reached for the foreign objects that caused it. Talons tore through his shirt, lodging into the space of his shoulder just above his collarbone. The shock and horror of the moment spurned him to seek the assailant properly, & he struggled backwards away from the ghoul that snapped towards his face just a moment too slow. “Minn’da!” He called again, more a sob than a word as his knees buckled against the weight of the creature and he fell backwards, cracking his head against the ground, a wall of white blanketing his vision.

And then he felt the fire.

The guttural wail that bubbled from his throat was wordless, a noise that came from his core. Somehow he had thrown his attacker to the side, and as he rose to his feet and his vision cleared he saw that the square had taken on an ethereal glow, painting the lifeless bodies that laid around him. They were grouped as though falling mid action, the geists still arms deep in their prey, the elves still holding expressions of horror. But nothing moved. Yvelian fell to his knees, the searing, white-hot fire still lingering in pulses of pain that radiated across every inch of his skin. He found himself squinting, eyes searching for some sign of his mother, still.

But he found nothing. No movement save for the tentative, shivering shadows that crept along the edges of the consecrated ground. So he fell forwards, once again sightless - but this time his eyes shut to black. It felt to him as though time had stopped, that the rise and fall of his chest was a farce. Once upon a time Yvelian had dreamt of becoming a great paladin - like from his brother’s stories. He had imagined himself on an ivory warhorse, wearing glittering armor in silver and blue. As the city fell and the survivors were hurried to the safe bastions within the eastern walls of the city, one could assume those dreams had twisted, tempered by an awakening fire & spurned by a singular, burning premonition: justice.

[nekokoaa]

Wolves Among Us - Bakugo x Reader (VII)

Wolves Among Us – Bakugo x Reader

Series Warning: Fantasy AU, Fluff, NSFW

(Chapter VII/XX) New Mini Series! (((ALL CHAPTERS ARE IN MY MASTERLIST)))

Midterms held me back so much so this took a bit to get out.

Just clearing this up just in case anyone gets ideas while reading the beginning of the chapter. Katsuki and Reader did not have sex. Just making that clear lol Enjoy!

Taglist:

@freedom-for-bum @reallyfuckingangrylatina @risarisarisaa @ashherssss @mels-heart @xa-dia @shanty-lol @amkxh @chims-kookies @fantasticapple 

Inspired by The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter

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

VII. Trust

You had woken up in an awkward position. You had never slept with anyone before let alone a man, the closest you could recall was falling asleep on Izuku’s shoulders when you were hanging out at his cabin one day. Even then, it wasn’t like you were sleeping in the same bed as him. You noticed that sleeping alone had drove you to some habits and made you not aware of your spacing. When you found your legs sprawl all over Katsuki’s bottom half where it had pushed him until he had the bare minimum of the sheep’s wool cloth under him, you felt embarrassed. Thankfully, Katsuki was still asleep and it looked like he took the pillow unintentionally as he was sleeping, and you were using his arm as a replacement.

Serenity was a look all too foreign on Katsuki’s face. The lines that often painted their way between his eyebrows were absent and his eyebrows were lifted and clear of any tension. His mouth was relaxed and left to dangle his soft breathing that nearly slipped through without sound. The wolf ears sitting on his head were twitching occasionally, you wondered what they were picking up. Could it be the silent struggle of the flames on top of melted wax stumps that were burning the entire night, or the soft sound of your inner thighs rubbing together when you had shifted lightly, or maybe the gatherings of wolves outside of the cave in preparation of their morning duties? You could hear neither one of those as well as Katsuki could and you knew he would probably brag about it if you were to express any amazement by it. If anything, all it did was prove just how different he was from you.

And yet, as he slept soundlessly, vulnerable in any way possible, he seemed more alike than you would have normally thought him as. The difference may be immense by senses and strength, but he talked, walked, and slept, exactly like you—maybe his tongue was a little weird biologically, but ultimately without those things, Katsuki was just a normal man.

A sigh left you as you began to raise your body off the cloth. All this thinking about Katsuki made your brain feel a little tired, not only that but you were in desperate need of a bath. A soothing warm bath should help clear any fatigue you were feeling. With that in mind, you left the cave in search for one.

The cave you were staying in was one of many within the mountain. The wolves had paved a tunnel like pathway that lead to different “rooms” whose entrances were being covered by a light cloth for privacy. The pathways were lit by lanterns because there were no windows where the sunlight could shine through and as you were walking through the amazingly shaped tunnels, you wondered how they could have structure this without bringing the entire mountain down. Day after day, these wolves were surprising you with their knowledge.

When you had reached the beginning of the pathway where Mitsuki had left you yesterday, you were greeted with the bright sunlight that made your eyes squint at the sight of it. Your eyes that were used to the dim orange glow of the candles were no match for the natural lightning, you had to wait for your eyes to adjust before taking a look around in your surroundings. The area was bustling with twice as many wolves than last night. They were all busy doing specific errands like shoveling off the snow from the walkways, stools, and tables that accumulated overnight. They were separated by gender; the women were all huddled around a fire where a large pot was suspended above it and some were tending to their small peppy children. The men, however, was doing all the labor work and some were even gathered in a small circle for some reason you weren’t sure about.

“Mornin’ ____.” Greeted Eijirou, who stepped out of a cave different from the one you emerged from. He was smiling brighter than he was when you met him like he was genuinely happy to see you. You liked Eijirou. The aura he gave soothed you, like if he were to walk into a distressed room, his presence would instantly alleviate all anxiety.

But he wasn’t alone when you spotted him. You followed down his hand and it was being held by a smaller hand of a child. A boy who looked no more than eight was standing by his side, oddly close to him as Eijirou was walking towards you. He was a spitting image of Eijirou with red spiky hair, the only difference was his irises held a golden hue.

“Morning, Eijirou.” Once Eijirou was in front of you, the child hid behind his legs and peeked out slightly where you could only see one of his eyes from behind the cloth of his pants. You smiled regardless.

“Are you adjusting all right?”

You nodded. “I am, but it’ll take me a bit to get used to the change.”

“I understand.” His hand went on his hip. “From cabin to cave, I know that’s rough. I know you didn’t have to do what you did but you must really care about Katsuki if you were willing to give up everything for him. That was pretty cool of you.”

The blush that blossomed on your cheeks was not to be mistaken for desire but was prompted by the happiness that spread within your chest by Eijirou’s words. Warmth rose and therefore, reached your cheeks.

“Oh!” He chuckled, and he slightly leaned forward to place a hand on the child’s back, he pushed him softly to where you could see more of him. The child was still clutching his pants tightly and you could see his tiny fangs showing as he gritted his teeth. “This is my son, Eiji. Eiji, this is ____.”

“Eiji and Eijirou, how cute!” You kneeled down to reach Eiji’s height.

“Yeah, we named him after me.” He said sheepishly. “He’s my first born.”

“Nice to meet you, Eiji! You’re such a handsome little boy, aren’t you?” You held out your hand, expecting Eiji to shake it with his tiny hands but instead you received a view of his tiny fangs and the sound of snarls that wouldn’t even scare rabbits away. You stood right up regardless, afraid you had frightened the boy.

“Eiji! Come on, you know that’s not how you greet people. I’m sorry, he’s a shy one. He’s going on his first hunt today so he’s just a little nervous.”

“Hunt? Oh, is that why all of those men are gathered there?” You pointed to the pack of wolves that started laughing for some particular reason. You assumed they were telling jokes.

“Yeah, it’s the morning hunt. I’m usually on the night hunt but it’s pretty dangerous for children to come along.” You wondered if that was the reason for Eijirou’s appearance last night. To think, if he didn’t go on his hunt last night Katsuki would’ve been dead and you would’ve fell into misery. “Katsuki too is on the night hunt but lately he’s been skipping, think you have anything to do with that?” He winked, his words dancing on his tongue in a playful manner.

Your blush spelled of embarrassment and all you could do was look away shyly, afraid that if you were to speak, your words would come out in pathetic stutters. The sound of Katsuki’s name had snapped Eiji from his dazed thoughts that he often wandered to whenever adults were conversing. Light had returned to his golden eyes and he looked between you and Kirishima.

“Katsuki?” He spoke with his voice slightly raised, trying to understand what was being said.

“Yeah, ____’s friends with Katsuki.” Eijirou grinned.

You saw a twinkle in his eyes and his wolf ears became erect. A baby pink filled his fat cheeks.  “Whoa! Really? That’s so cool!” Eiji began tugging on his father’s top, a large grin that mirrored his father’s bloomed on his face. It was like that cautious boy who growled at you never existed, he looked at you with eyes filled with pure joy all because of Katsuki. “My dad is best friends with Katsuki! Don’t you know he’s the best hunter in our pack? He’s super strong! He’s even stronger than my dad!”

“Alright, alright.” His father’s large hand had silenced Eiji when it landed on his head. He turned him around to face the group of men in the distance. “It’s about time we go, ____. We’ll talk some more when we return!”

“It was nice meeting you, miss ____!” A bright smile shined your way from Eiji and Eijirou and they waved goodbye before leaving you to join the pack of wolves. You overheard bits and pieces of their conversation when Eijirou had nudge his son’s arm while they were walking away.

“See? Told ya. Nothing scary about humans.”

You could see the redness of Eiji’s blush from the tip of his ears. “I know… I wasn’t scared…!”

The small moment between father and son made you smile. You watched as they joined the group of men and shortly departed from the mountain with them. The warm company you felt from them was gone and you had to come to terms with the slight loneliness you felt after. It looked like almost half the pack was gone when the group of men left, some were left behind to do other labor work around the area and the women were scattered among the site with either children or friends. Some were carrying baskets to the pot which you guessed was food and other stuff they used to cook with.

You were still looking for a bathroom, but you knew you wouldn’t be able to find it on your own without some help. It was either wander around for hours in a place you weren’t familiar with or just go and ask someone. You quickly decided on the latter and walked up to the group of women gathered around the pot. They were opening the baskets and pulling meat out from it and putting it into the boiling pot. Once you were just a few feet away from them, they stopped, and all eyes were on you instantly. You gulped.

“Hi… um, I just wanted to know—" Immediately, you were met with snarls and baring teeth from the women. Your words fell from the sound, and your confidence faltered at the sight of their glares. The snarling didn’t stop until you had backed away from the group, a permanent scowl left on their faces when they resumed their work.

“Okay, not that group.” You spoke quietly to yourself. Already walking to a pair near another cave entrance, a mother and her child. They looked friendly enough to ask, especially because the mother was kneeled in front of the child and a smile was on her face as she talked.  “Hello!” You greeted.

And you watched as her smile dropped the second she heard you. She quickly stood up and pushed her child behind her. It was the same treatment you got from the last group, snarls and glares until she yanked her child by the arm and walked away from you.

Something was wrong. You glanced around the area and even though most wolves looked like they were intently working or minding their own business, tension lingered in the air. Like an awkward object was thrusted into the middle of their peace, and you were that object. You were invading them by just being. The barrier between you and the wolves were clearly visible, you didn’t belong here, and they were making sure you understood that.

Realization was hitting you at once. What made you think you could abandon your people and be easily accepted into another group different from your own? Especially when there’s a rift between them, a battle between prey and predator. You were a fool, simple as that. A fool who believed such issues between your people and the wolves would be resolved by simply being with Katsuki. Of course, they would still judge you. They didn’t trust an ounce of your presence.

“Hey.” You were swirling in a ditch of your own thoughts to where you couldn’t catch the sound of a gruff voice calling out to you. It belong to Katsuki who appeared almost out of nowhere in a seemingly different attire. It wasn’t much different from his usual, his baggy pants were now an off-white in comparison to the snow in the vicinity and his boots were the color of soot that stopped at the bottom of his calves where white fur puffed out from the tips. Bakugo’s top was a turtleneck, black, and thin where you could see the shape of the muscles of his arms and chest. And over his shoulders was a heavy cape of fur.

You didn’t have any recollection of when he appeared, and you didn’t notice his presence until you felt a hand on your back. When you came to, you met his hardened eyes with a gasp and jumped from fright. Katsuki couldn’t tell whether that fright was from being caught off guard or simply because of who he was, a wolf. He saw the fear in your irises and they reminded him of the night he met you. It’s been so long since he had seen it, since you looked at him like a stranger, and even if it was just a glimpse before you relaxed when you realized it was just Katsuki, he knew you still held some fear underneath that soft smile that had grown on your face.

However, he didn’t say a word and his eyes surveyed the area on what seems to be a normal day for the pack, but he didn’t need his heightened senses to know that the wind chill wasn’t the only thing making this place feel rigid.

“Come on.” With a small push on your back, Katsuki began to lead you to a path that led down the mountain and away from where the pack settled. The path was hardly ever used because the tracks imprinted in the sheet of snow looked like they belong to one other soul and the tracks added by you and Katsuki destroyed the remainder of the pure icy blanket. Katsuki had remove his hand from your back and held your hand to support you. It was such a small act and he did it without asking you. He probably didn’t think much of it or the significance of his actions. You didn’t know if it was a big deal for wolves but for humans, it was sign of affection from your significant other. If anyone were to see you two in this position, they would assume you were together, which you wondered if that was a positive thing. Clearly, Katsuki’s pack wasn’t fond of you and if they found out you were more than friends with Katsuki, they would be strongly against it.

Still, there was no denying the soft heat of your cheeks from his gesture and whether or not it meant a lot to Katsuki, it surely made your heart jump with joy.

The pathway led behind the mountain where the landscape opened into a wide valley. There were no trees in the area except for the ones in the distance upon the horizon. The valley looked as if someone had laid a large white sheet over it, a bed of snow with hills shaped as a woman’s figure. They looked dive-able to any child with a desire to muddle its pristine surface. Even you wanted to run and fall upon the fluffy hills, only to regret your actions immediately after once the stinging ice slip through the openings of your top and skirt and meet with your concealed heated flesh.

“Do you see them?” asked Katsuki as he pointed slightly to the left. At first, you had no idea what he was talking about as you couldn’t see anything but snow, but the longer you looked you began to notice something moving within it. They almost became one with the scenery, but their glowing irises gave them away. They scurried and ran about within the fields of ice, stoic as statues when they stood still and their noses high in the air. The look in their eyes were steady like Katsuki’s.

“Wolves!” You gasped. They were indeed wolves but not like the one holding your hand or the ones that live within the mountains. These wolves resembled dogs with white fur covering their bodies and standing proud on all four legs.

There was a small smirk on Katsuki’s face and he let go of your hand, “Don’t move,” and left you behind to approach the wolves, earning their attention with the crunch of the snow under his boots. Only one of the wolves broke away from the group and wildly sprinted over to Katsuki with its mouth open and its tongue flying in the wind.

Katsuki started to laugh and in a blink of an eye, the wolf was by his side, jumping excitedly and wagging its tail. It was amusing seeing both the wolf’s and Katsuki’s tail furiously wagging in each other’s presence. Such a boyish expression was upon Katsuki’s face as he kneeled down to stroke the wolf’s body and head. “Who’s a good boy, huh? Who?” He laughed again as the wolf dived on his back with his belly in the air and rolled around the snow like he was begging for Katsuki to rub his stomach. And his wish was soon granted when Katsuki’s hand went on his belly and brushed his fingers through his moist white fur. “Look, boy. There’s someone I want you to meet. Behave yourself, you hear? This person, she’s important to me.”

You couldn’t hear the last few words of Katsuki because he spoke it under his breath before he turned back to look at you with a faint smile. It looked sincerely peaceful and farthest from his usual scowl, he flicked his head to motion you to come and with a smile and your hands clasped together, you slowly walked towards Katsuki and his wolf.

But before you noticed any sudden moments from the wolf, Katsuki was already by your side. He moved behind you until your back was flushed against his body, he placed an arm around your waist and he cupped his hand around yours. The growl you heard was terrifying, even more horrific than the ones you heard all day. No longer was Katsuki’s wolf a sweet animal, rolling upon the ground waiting to get a belly rub, but was still on all fours with his head low, frightening large fangs bared with snarls that made your skin crawl.

You jumped in fear of the wolf pouncing on you when he took a step closer towards you.

“It’s okay.” Katsuki spoke near your ear as he felt you push against his body. You were practically shaking under the glare of the beast, he could feel it from the tips of your fingers to your waist under his palm. “Fenrir won’t hurt you.”

You wanted to believe Katsuki, but you couldn’t stop yourself from shaking. You bit your bottom lip and watched as his wolf, Fenrir, stalked closer to you. Katsuki had held your hand out towards Fenrir with his hand still clasped behind it. You flinched as you felt the wet nose of Fenrir rubbing against your and Katsuki’s fingers, he was sniffing your scent and trying to familiarize himself with you while still snarling. His gray eyes not once broke contact with yours as any sudden movement from you would probably cause him to attack. Definitely, if Katsuki wasn’t here you would’ve already been wolf food.

“This is Fenrir.” Katsuki proceeded in his introductions. “He’s named after our ancestor, if you didn’t know. Found him when he was just a pup and now he’s the leader of his own pack.” You glanced at the pack of wolves not too far away from you and they were all intently staring in your direction. You gulped as you felt the heat of their stare even at your distance. Certainly, they were waiting for you to make the wrong move.

It wasn’t until you felt a nudge against your hand when the pack started to relax. The snarling had stopped, and the fangs disappeared. Fenrir had pushed his head against your palms which made a soft chuckle leave Katsuki.

“See, all anyone needs is a chance.” Katsuki had long separated his hand from yours. You carefully tread your fingers through his fur, it wasn’t soft at all but was frizzy and needle-like because of the moisture from the ice stuck to its strands. You smiled gently when Fenrir licked between your fingers for no particular reason. “And in time... everyone else will grow to love you too.”

You knew Katsuki’s words held a deeper meaning. He knew you must’ve been feeling down about trying to interact with his pack and he took you out to cheer you up. He had an idea how fascinated you were about wild animals and how you would point out the smallest things from a white hare in the snow to the eagles that soar above the trees. He knew you would be excited to see Fenrir even though your initial reaction to him was fear. “Thank you, Katsuki. You know, I... almost regretted coming here. I thought I made a huge mistake.”

“Anyone would think so after abandoning their own people.” You felt the arm around your waist squeeze you softly, you wondered if Katsuki was trying to comfort you.

“I guess I thought I would be easily accepted, and I was ignoring the issues between my people and yours.” You sighed, pulling your hand away from Fenrir and dropping it to your side. “I’m a fool, Katsuki.”

Katsuki instantly clasped his hand over yours. “Don’t fucking say that...”

“No, it’s true. I am. That’s why it was so easy for me to leave... because I thought I had a place here. It was so easy to abandon my people because I believed I still had a home to come to. I may have a place in your heart but right now I’m stuck in limbo... I don’t belong anywhere. My people hate me, your people hate me... I...” You stopped. You felt like if you were to continue, the tears you were holding back would release and you didn’t want to alarm Katsuki with a sudden emotional outburst. Thankfully, Katsuki couldn’t see your face clearly, he could only see it at a certain angle but to him that was more than enough to see your scrunched-up expression.

“My people don’t hate you, if they did, you wouldn’t even be alive right now. They just don’t trust you yet, all you need is a chance for them to see how good you are. And don’t say you don’t have a home, alright! Where do you think you are?”

In your arms, you thought, little did you know you said it out loud as well.

“Exactly. As long as you’re with me, you’re home. I’m all you need.”

You laughed a little too hard at his words that an unexpected snort came out. It surprised even Katsuki. “You’re so arrogant! Did you really think that sounded romantic?”

“Sounded better in my head.” Grumbled Katsuki, looking away shortly in what you assumed was embarrassment.

“Yeah, well.” You smiled, turning your head as far as you can to press your lips to his cheek, it earned another surprise look from Katsuki. “Think harder.” You had to admit, even though Katsuki’s words just pertains to his self-absorbed personality, a warmth had bubbled within your chest once you heard them. Katsuki was just trying to make you feel better, that’s all it was.

“You’re such an ungrateful human, here I am literally offering you a home.” The harshness of his words betrayed the smirk that grew on his face, you could see a glimpse of his large fangs peeking behind his lips. Both of his arms were now around you and then he sunk his head into the crook of your neck to where you felt his chin upon your shoulder.

Your smirk mirrored his without the sharp fangs, of course. “And you’re the poor wolf that’s stuck with having an ungrateful human as a housemate.”

“I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.” He snorted. “Food and a bed warmer.”

You gasped, quite exaggeratingly. “Is that all you think of me as?”

“Hell no, if anything, you’re far from a bed warmer. I woke up on the floor today.”

You blushed when you realized he was talking about this morning. You didn’t expect him to bring it up. “I’m not used to sleeping with anyone yet so…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you get used to it.” You could physically feel the heat of your cheeks after his velvety whisper ringed in your ear. You heard the raw desire just by his voice alone and the rise of the rhythm of your heart singed to the pleasure that swelled deeply within you. You silently thanked the chilled breeze that blew against your body and splashed itself upon your heated face. If only Katsuki knew what he did to you whenever he acted with such carnality. He must’ve been aware at how suggestive he sounded, even though you were quite naïve on the matters of sex, you weren’t exactly clueless on when a man desired a woman.

Despite that, Katsuki’s words didn’t receive an answer and you stared at Fenrir, not necessarily paying attention to him, but just giving yourself something to look at while you wait for your pleasure spell to expire. Fenrir had returned to his pack after you stopped petting him and fell into a banter with Katsuki. He was now resting in the snow and becoming one with it in color. You welcomed the silence between you and Katsuki, it wasn’t an awkward one but one of comfort. You were basking in each other’s presence, you, specifically, were enjoying being in Katsuki’s arms. One thing for sure was, he was right about you feeling at home whenever he was close to you.

“It’s really cold out here.” You soon broke the silence and it made Katsuki pull away from you, but he didn’t go far. His hand soon found yours and held it firmly.

“I forgot humans get cold so fast.”

“Well, it’s amazing how wolves barely feel the cold at all. Such thin layers.” Your eyes scanned the top he was wearing in amazement.

“Perks of being a wolf.” He smirked, and you rolled your eyes. “Come on, let’s go home.”

“I already am.” Certainly, Katsuki didn’t expect you to say that and his initial reaction had his mouth agape and eyes slightly wide. That all melted once he saw a warm smile from you that had the power to melt the entire valley free of ice. He treated you to his own smile that looked more smug than warm and he squeezed your hand softly as he signaled to Fenrir he was leaving by a quick flick of his other hand before he started to lead you back to the pathway that led into the mountains.

Author’s comments: The next chapter is going to be exciting cause we get to learn more about the wolves and their culture. It's gonna be fun. At least for me.

To those of you mentally asking what happened to Izuku uhhh don't worry, he'll be coming back soon lol THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR THE LIKE, REBLOGS AND COMMENTS ON THIS SERIES IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY LIKE I REALLY REALLY AM SO HAPPY YOU GUYS LIKE THIS FIC. IT MAKES ME SO PROUD *UGLY CRIES*

[visionofnoxus]

☠

// And here you go. Last but not least. I hope it pleases you. Decided to do something of an origin story. Please let me know what you thought of it.

“Secure the perimeter. Two guards on every patrol. And no open fire” Swain commanded, walking through the improvised camp. The soldiers all around him nodded, but did not respond, beginning their preparations for the night immediately. “And should any of the guards get any funny feelings, alert others. I’ll have the first “independent investigator” flogged once the Placidium is ours” he reminded his men, leaving the perimeter patrol and heading deeper into the noxians’ camp area. This was one of the several hidden camps in the surrounding valleys, all of these camps containing seasoned veterans in many hundreds. Together, they’d be thousands. And not one ionian knew they even were here. Leaning down as he climbed inside his tent, general Swain sat down on the bedroll. Putting aside the officer’s sword and the hand crossbow he carried on field missions like this. Making sure the flap of the tent was truly closed, he lit a candle, rolling open a map of the surrounding area, going through his plan once more. 

The islanders were finally beginning to find their fighting spirit, monastic orders starting to offer assistance to the village militias. These monks, assassins and martial artists were strengthening the opposition greatly. Looking at the city of Placidium on the map, the Master Tactician nodded to himself. The noxians were overreaching, advancing too quickly, not fortifying the ground taken and reinforcements that were promised from mainland kept being redirected to chase all kinds of wild rumor. If the Noxians would somehow suffer some catastrophic loss somewhere, the islanders might very well be able to just drive them back all the way to the southwestern coast with ease. An irritated sigh left the ambitious commander. Sometimes he felt like the very land itself was fighting their invasion.

They needed to take bridges, break strongholds and capture the population centers before the entire nation would unite against them. Instead they were raiding country side. Raping, pillaging and terrorizing population, running field tests with zaunite weaponry because Darkwill was curious about the results. Terror was an excellent tool of control and a way to break morale, but this… Frankly speaking genocide was not serving the empire. Once the island nation was theirs, who’d work the fields? Assuming that the soil had not been corrupted by some chemical “test”. Who would produce trade goods? Who would the noxians have digging ore in the mines they’d start here? And that was if they managed to secure the nation. He looked once more at the map. 

Taking Placidium, Swain intended to draw out the ionians from their guerrilla warfare tactics into an open battle for survival. And then he’d crush them there, crippling the defenders. With the capitol of Navori under control, Noxians could start fortifying their holdings, focus their efforts to a single location at a time instead of running about everywhere, burning and destroying yet achieving precious little. Tomorrow, his hidden legions would emerge and assault Placidium in blizkrieg style, and they’d take the city intact. The buildings, the riches, the people. He’d turn the entire city into a hostage and a bait so irresistible that Ionians would march to their own doom to save it. 

“Sir. There has been an issue” Came the muffled voice of his lieutenant from outside the tent. A frown rose on Swain’s face. Since he did not hear any ruckus suggesting they’d been had… “A patrol missing?” The Tactician made an educated guess, one which his officer confirmed moments later. “Get me 6 good men. I’ll be out momentarily”. Taking a gulp from his waterskin, Swain fastened his sword on his hip again and grabbed the crossbow. “What is another sleepless night, when I already have so many?” He let out a dry chuckle, blowing the candle and leaving the tent.

The patrol had gone missing on the eastern side of the camp, the side which was covered with more dense forest leading up to the mountains. It offered plenty of cover for would be assassins, but something in the night air gave the noxian commander the gut feeling this wasn’t one of those “ninjas”. Glancing at the tiny flowers glowing in the otherwise dark forest, he scoffed. “Magic everywhere. And somehow I have hunch this is one of those creatures again” He said quietly, gripping the shaft of a spear. Were this once again some oversized animal with wings, he’d rather keep it a shaft’s distance away from himself rather than try his luck with a sword. “Lieutenant, you have your orders about the main mission. And send a second troop five minutes after us”. “Sir”. With that, the seven noxians began moving, four moving us scouts at front while Swain and two others waited for the first sign of trouble.

Half an hour later they had found the lost patrol. Stepping next to the soldier inspecting the two corpses, Swain frowned, kneeling down as well. “They… This is odd” The scout muttered, motioning at the two dead men laying on their backs. Both had similar situation. Their weapons had been drawn, but no signs of combat were evident. It was like something had pushed them down and they’d just… Stopped breathing. No injuries. Though curiously… Swain brought his hand to hover above one’s chest. “The armor… It’s radiating warmth” The man observed, the scout confirming same on the other victim. “Something hit them in the chest and they died… But not of injury”. Magic. Everything on these cursed islands had to do with magic. A femine chuckle caught the general’s ear and he blinked in disbelief, cautiously standing up. “Sir did you…”. “Yes. I heard it as well. Weapons ready!”. All the noxians readied their weapons, peering into the darkness. 

A second chuckle reverberated through air. What a beautiful, sensual voice. It stirred something in him. Something very primal. “I’d like to give this vixen a shafting of different sort…” One of the soldiers crudely remarked, shifting his grip on his halberd, few others snorting nervously. Swain took that as a confirmation. The spike of sudden lust had not been his imagination. “There” one of the soldiers hissed, pointing ahead. And indeed, on the path lighted by the small glowing flowers stood a young woman, dressed in some kind of very simple and hazy dress. But what a woman… The dress did very little to cover her feminine charms, barely concealing the crucials but those few furs wrapped around her waist did their best to cover her. Her hair was dark and a bit messy, unkempt, but shone like most well kept fur only could. And then there was the face. Slightly alien, yet distinctively human, she was gorgeous. And then there were those cute fox ears. “It’s a demon. Kill it!” Swain snapped the instant his mind connected the dots. Unfortunately her men weren’t quite as strong of mind. A bright orb of light shot out of the woman’s hand while she dashed to the side. The ball struck one of the noxians, man flying on his back lifelessly, the something shifting in the orb, a sliver of some new colour being added as the ball grew ever so slightly.

So that is what happened, Swain thought grimly, observing how two of his men leveled their crossbows at the seductress but missed. She dashed and leaped around with grace of a cat, showcasing no issues in switching between running and occasional dash on all fours for a pounce off a tree. Attempting to get in melee, two noxians charged shouting at her, and Swain saw the golden eyes flash, flames appearing on the tips of her nails moments before those flames set the men alight. The armor resisted the burn, but did precious little to save their owners’ lives, the men falling on the ground while screaming in agony. it might be possible to save their lives, but Swain already scratched them out of the roster. He had no time to care about two wounded. “Watch the magic! It’s eyes glow when it casts” He shouted, the fox-woman’s head snapping in his direction and as her golden irises met with his, Swain felt himself swallowing nervously. The full lips formed words. There was no sound, but somehow the noxian heard her in his head. “You are the alpha then..?”. 

Whatever that meant, Swain did not intend to find out. Another burst of fire shot out, the soldiers it was targeting dodging, but one of them got caught by the glowing orb instead, his cruelly taken and added to the orb’s beauty. “Harrowing take you!” Swain cursed out loud, tossing his spear with a trained and drilled practice. Not his chosen weapon, but the fox appeared to had been briefly distracted by the orb’s growth, Swain landing almost landing a hit, earning him an angry stare and a hiss showcasing the sharp fangs of the foxlady. Drawing his sword and bringing up the crossbow, Swain shouted: “Pull back! Focus on avoiding it’s spells” He shot two of the three bolts towards the fox, her attention now completely on him. Oh no… Throwing her arm forward, Swain saw the orb accelerate towards him, stepping hastily to the side and behind a tree. Supporting his arm, he took aim, letting loose the third bolt and discarding the weapon. Time to run. “Retreat!” He barked, dashing away from the creature, not bothering to check if he’d landed anything. The few remaining soldiers did not question the order, discarding their heavy weapons and opting for speed instead, following their commander. To their great relief, the she-devil did not pursue, instead disappearing into the forest and the morning mist slowly rolling in as the night began to fade.

Hissing in pain, Ahri limped herself to safety higher on the forest-covered slopes. Reaching one of the pristine ponds offering clean water that flowed downwards alongside a tiny river, she crouched down, hissing and staring at her thigh. A crude human made stick had pierced the skin, sinking into her leg. A cruel move by the alpha of the Noxian pack. She wondered why they’d chosen to run, for with her injury, her greatest defense, her speed and agility, had been taken. Knowing what must be done, having witnessed the villagers nearby do similar things after fighting with the noxian packs, she gripped the shaft. Gritting her teeth, the vixen yanked the bolt out, her eyes tearing with pain. Why was it, that humans started leaking water from their eyes when they hurt, she wondered as she ditched the offending stick to a nearby bush. Wiping her tears, annoyed at them, she limped closer to the pond. Ahri would have to wash the wound and rest a few days before she could hunt more foreigners.

[sweetlangdon]

From Eden: Chapter 8

Notes: Michael Langdon x Reader/OC. Evil Power Couple fic. It’s difficult to write a summary for this one, because I don’t want to give away the twists. (It’ll also include canon rewrite/divergence for the later half of the season.) It has plenty of angst and fluff, and a bit of character study.

Warnings: Swearing, blood, murder, graphic violence. Very brief mention of suicidal thoughts. There’s a lot of angst in this chapter. 

Chapter One     Chapter Two    Chapter Three     Chapter Four    Chapter Five   Chapter Six      Chapter Seven     Also Available on AO3

The blood ritual at the Cortez had left her physically and emotionally drained—Michael had guided her home, both of them tripping on unsteady legs, their bodies heavy like they’d been weighed down with stones, feeling an exhaustion they couldn’t quite name. She hadn’t wanted to be alone, then. She didn’t know what to feel, how something could make her both so whole and powerful and yet so empty. Michael had been hesitant to leave her side, and she hadn’t even asked him to stay. He just knew.

“Don’t you need to get back to Hawthorne?” She peered up at Michael from where she’d curled around her pillow, watching him undo the elegant silver clasp of his cape. There were shadows under his eyes; he dragged a hand down his face, shoulders drooping as he let out a sigh. He looked as tired as she felt.

Michael left his cape across the chair in the far corner of her bedroom and went around to the other side of the bed, slipping off his shoes before he settled next to her. A moment later, the warmth of his presence lapped along her spine, his arm draped over her waist, tugging her into his chest. She dragged one of her arms out from under the pillow and laced her fingers between his, her thumb wandering over his knuckles and up his wrist. She felt Michael’s fatigued exhale against her back, the slightly anxious rhythm of his pulse against her fingers. He didn’t want to talk about it, but the ritual had left him shaken, too.

This time, she was absolutely certain that he’d pressed a kiss into her hair. “The only place I’m needed is right here.”

Her eyes fluttered closed. A few stray tears spilled down her cheeks and she tasted the salt on her lips. “I don’t want to get you into trouble, not so close to the test.”

Michael burrowed his face into the back of her shoulder, lithe fingers threading through her hair. She could fall asleep under the spell of his gentle hands. She had, before, many times over the course of their relationship. He pulled her closer, the warmth of his fingertips spreading across her hip. The scent of candle smoke and iron and whatever strong drink her father had shared at the Cortez lingered in her nose. The faint trace of sandalwood and jasmine that usually hung in her bedroom wasn’t powerful enough to suppress the echoes of their blood ritual.

“That doesn’t matter.” There was another deep exhale, but his pulse had slowed somewhat.

“Michael—”

“They won’t question my absence,” his voice was low, muffled into her shoulder. “And you’re far too important to me.” 

Michael’s fingers tightened around hers, and for a moment, if she closed her eyes, it seemed like they were just two kids in his bedroom with the rain tapping against the window. But she couldn’t pretend, couldn’t hold onto that illusion if she’d wanted to. Too much had changed since then.

Her lower lip trembled and made her voice shake. “I’m scared,” she confessed. “I’ve never been afraid like this before. Of…what we’re supposed to be doing. Of—”

“Afraid of me,” Michael murmured against her shoulder. It was so quiet she almost couldn’t hear it, but when she did, it was as if that damned ritual knife had torn right through her chest and stabbed her heart. She hadn’t missed the hitch in his breath, the tremor in his words.

“No.” She squeezed his hand, her fingers cold and numb from the lingering anxiety compared to his. “Never you.”

“If I had known about the ritual…”

“It’s not your fault,” she assured, softly. “I’m glad I didn’t have to go through that alone. It’s just…this is a lot to be okay with in such a short amount of time.”

She knew that the ritual would change her irrevocably, and it had, just not the way she’d envisioned. Maybe she’d been stupid to think that her immediate future would involve a lot more fire and brimstone, that maybe those pitch black eyes staring back at her would be permanent. She hadn’t recognized her own reflection in her father’s study, and she’d only seen Michael like that for a fleeting moment the night they’d burned down her aunt’s house. She’d always known there was something dark in her soul, but the knowledge that she wasn’t fully human—and half-demon, no less—had left her reeling.

“None of this has been easy for you.”

He shifted slightly, his chin digging into the crook of her shoulder, soft curls brushing the side of her neck and ear. The low rumble of his words resonated into her back, and that made her feel warmer and more whole than anything her father could’ve told her about where she’d come from.

“But there’s no one else,” He sounded so quiet and more terrified than he’d ever admit, that confident façade left behind at the doors to the Hawthorne School. This was the boy who’d always shared the truth with her and feared it leave him abandoned yet again. “I wouldn’t choose anyone except you to stand at my side in all of this. I don’t want anyone else.”

“I’m right here,” she whispered back to him. “I told you I’m not going anywhere. I promised you that.”

A promise was a promise. She had no intention of breaking it or leaving Michael’s side when there was nowhere else she’d belong. The fact was, neither of them could do this alone, and neither of them wanted to. They had little choice but shoulder the burden of their birthright together. And carry on.

***

Michael returned to Hawthorne in anticipation of completing the test of the Seven Wonders, and she went back to her mundane life of homework and avoiding her parents, a little envious of Michael’s unconventional education. She also hated being apart from him. But separated as they were, the increase in the strength of their combined power was almost immediately perceptible.

There had always been this invisible thread between them, a tether in the darkness, but now it had become more resilient, connecting them across great distances. A current of energy that let them know where the other was, and that they were forever bound. It was a comfort to her; gentle, whereas everything else about her newfound power was unwieldy and prone to give her headaches. Her father had unleashed Hell within her and hadn’t exactly given her any guidance on how to tame it for good use.

She hadn’t seen him since the Cortez and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

On the eve of the test, Miriam told her they had an errand to run for Michael. She’d been sitting at their tiny kitchen table, her fist propped under her chin, paging through the Book of Revelation. As if it would answer some things beneath all of that flowery language and prophecy. It certainly didn’t do a damn thing to ease the internal panic she’d concealed after her father had declared that she was supposed to be some kind of leader. Of legions. A soldier of the apocalypse she’d help create. Her father had had millennia to earn whatever rank he currently held, she was sure, and she was just a human with some demon blood whose primary concern right now was getting into the college of her choice.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she slid into the passenger seat of Miriam’s car.

It was late, nearing midnight, and she wondered what sort of errand they could’ve possibly needed to run at this hour. It definitely wasn’t just a drive up to the corner store. Late night trips in the Mead household usually entailed rituals of whispered Latin and sacrificial blood in some unfortunate soul’s backyard.

Miriam shoved the key into the ignition. “It’s best if you don’t ask a lot of questions. The less you know, the better.”

They meandered through empty back roads under a clear night sky, following a trail that Miriam apparently had picked up. She kept the window rolled down a little to let in the chilly air tinged with the scent of fresh cut grass and damp earth. It had rained sometime during the day; the headlights reflected off the slick asphalt and puddles still gathered in the roads as they broke through the shadows of the trees.

With the radio droning on softly in the background, and her attention out the window, her mind miles away, she nearly drifted off to sleep. The car slowed, gravel crackling under the wheels, when they inched closer to a gas station. It was bright, set deep into the wilderness without another soul around. Except for the car that had just pulled in.

“Get out,” Miriam whispered.

“What? Why?”

Miriam shot her a stern look, lips curving into a frown. The blinding white light from the gas station made her jet black hair look glossy. “Didn’t I tell you not to ask questions? Now, stay close, but stick to the shadows until I call for you. If for some reason this goes sideways, take the car and meet Michael outside Hawthorne. Last thing we need is for you to get yourself killed by a damn warlock.” Miriam reached over to the glove box and emerged with a kerchief, which she wrapped around her head and tied beneath her chin.

Her eyes went wide, her hand stilled on the door handle. “Wait, warlock? But—”

“Don’t you start. Go on, get.”

“Why don’t you just let me take care of it?” Her fingers curled around the handle, but she’d yet to make any real effort to budge the door open.

“With the way your powers have been acting? You set my curtains on fire two days ago.” In the dark of the car’s interior, Miriam’s eyebrow rose. She pursed her lips, and the glint in her eyes turned into something more sincere. “No, I can handle this. I’ve gotta protect my Devil babies.”

She had seriously misjudged Ms. Miriam Mead.

Hidden by the night that had enveloped the woods, she waited near the tree line with a clear view of Miriam’s car. A man was already leaning against the side of his own car at one of the pumps, arms crossed over his chest, when Miriam pulled up. From this distance, she couldn’t really see anything but his dark hair and sharp clothes and a distinct swagger. A warlock, Miriam had said. She wasn’t sure what his problem was, but if it was enough to have them out here in the middle of the night committing murder, then she guessed it had to be pretty fucking important.

Miriam engaged the warlock in some small talk, and he obliged to help her with putting gas into her car. She couldn’t hear the echoes of their conversation from so far across the road, but she knew Miriam had a disarming way of playing the part when she needed to. She waited, holding her breath, for a sign of a struggle. It didn’t come. Distracted, the warlock never saw Miriam take a swipe at his ankles until it was too late.

“Holy shit,” she breathed.

The warlock collapsed onto the asphalt, a cry ricocheting off the trees. It would be a mess, she mused, even if she couldn’t see the way the blood had exploded from his broken flesh. Once the warlock was vulnerable, on his knees, crashing toward the ground, Miriam sliced the fragile skin of his throat. And she took that as her cue to break through the tree line, fists stuffed into the pockets of her hooded sweatshirt as she dashed across the empty road.

Miriam exhaled a long-suffering noise when she reached her side. “What’d I tell you about staying put? That damned ritual give you selective hearing or something?”

She pushed up the hood of her sweatshirt. “Who was he?”

The warlock lay at their feet in a pool of crimson, polished black like ink on the pavement. There was still a weak gurgling sound as he choked on his own blood, his clothes stained with it, his handsome face coated with the spray from his neck. He stared up at nothing, pale blue eyes unseeing and lifeless.

“A threat.” Miriam pulled a box of matches from an inside pocket of her coat. “You go get in the car and I’ll clean up the mess.”

“I’m perfectly capable of cleaning up a mess,” she said. “You don’t have to do all the heavy lifting, you know.”

She held her hand out over the warlock’s body with her palm facing downward. Miriam’s hand shot out and smacked hers away, and she tried to level Miriam with a glare, her mouth opened in annoyed silence.

“At a gas station? Are you crazy?” Miriam whispered, though her voice wanted to edge into a shout. “None of this’ll matter if you blow both of us to pieces trying to clean up.”

“Thanks for your confidence.” She lifted an eyebrow.

“We don’t have time to—”

Before Miriam could protest any further, she held her hands over the warlock’s dead body where the blood was beginning to run into the puddles left from the rain. She drew from the well that had been offered to her, from the ancient, dark power that had coursed through her veins since her birth. The rush was enough to make her sway a little on her feet, but she kept a tight hold on it, willing it to manifest where she needed it. Her control was shaky at best, but she focused, directing just the right amount that hopefully would do the job and leave her and Miriam unharmed in the process.

Flames sprung up from the pavement around the warlock’s body, licking at his clothes until they ignited. The heat of the fire drifted upward to meet her outstretched palms, the orange glow tossing deep shadows across their faces. The barest trace of sulfur cut through the scent of blood and damp earth.

She felt Miriam’s hand on the small of her back. “Let’s go.” When she tore her eyes away from the body burning at their feet, Miriam was grinning. “Michael will be expecting us.”

 ***

Days later, there was an ache deep in her chest that she couldn’t explain. The acceptance letter that her parents barely acknowledged—even though they insisted on a university education with their newfound wealth; she wasn’t stupid, it was just means to get her out of their way—sat neglected in her bedroom. The ache evolved into a sharp pain, wrapping itself around her ribcage with claws and teeth and a strong, unbearable feeling that something was horribly wrong.

As much as she didn’t want to, she stifled the impulse to show up at Hawthorne. If she got herself caught, she knew it would only make the situation worse. Michael had already conquered the Seven Wonders with little difficulty. But her gut feelings were seldom incorrect. Something had happened. Every frantic call to Miriam’s house phone went unanswered, and her cell phone brought her straight to voicemail. She left a few panicked, slightly breathless messages before she finally pulled on a jacket and materialized outside of the house she’d come to consider more of a home than anywhere else in her life.

A home that was dark and unoccupied.

Streetlights filled the empty driveway with a dim orange glow. Her eyebrows pulled together, considering the darkened windows as she rounded the corner to the side doors. She tugged on a handle and found it locked, a realization that made the pain in her chest flare like a piercing stab wound. It would be no use to venture inside. Miriam wasn’t here, and it looked as though the house had been like this for some time. 

The radio silence from Miriam made her think the worst—she would never just disappear like this, never be so out of touch. The chances of her skipping town were unlikely, but she refused to dwell on the grimmest of all the possible outcomes. She felt guilty enough for not getting here sooner, for not knowing how to translate the dread that had coiled around her insides. For doubting Miriam’s care and love for both her and Michael. All of this power at her disposal and she had no idea how to use it to help the situation or follow Miriam’s trail. What good was she, then? It didn’t make her some great leader of prophecy, it just made her goddamn useless.

Maybe she would have to sneak into Hawthorne, after all.

She stuffed her hands into her pockets, exhaling loudly, tears welling in her eyes, wondering if the dread inside her was something more profound, like grief. 

A shape caught her periphery, a familiar ripple of power and light hitting her senses. She didn’t realize it was magic until it was too late.

The darkness swallowed her whole.

***

Four days.

Michael had stayed in this pentagram for four agonizing days, watching the sunlight move across the trees. Time seemed to slow down around him. He never counted the hours, left at the mercy of the passing sun overhead and the long shadows in the dirt. Except for the occasional birdsong and the rustle of leaves, there had been silence. Frustrating, resounding silence.

There was no one left. A hollow ache settled in his bones and gnawed at him with more violence than the hunger and thirst. His father had abandoned him, presumably because he’d already failed at the one thing he’d been put on this earth to do. He’d lost sight of his path and was now stumbling around in the dark once again, grasping at nothing. What was the point, now?

The acrid scent of burning flesh still clung to his nose like a ghost, his mind plagued by the images of his Ms. Mead charred beyond recognition. The grief that Michael could barely process since he’d dropped to his knees in this circle had numbed him; it came and went like the tide, stronger when the sun dipped below the horizon and the night’s quiet seemed more crushing. Sometimes, it had been accompanied by a fiery rage that he couldn’t contain, that left him exhausted from screaming into the forest until it felt as if he’d swallowed broken glass. In the moments when his fingertips had hovered over the burnt bodies, Michael thought that he’d lost them both to the witches.

And maybe he had. But they hadn’t set fire to her.

Four days and he couldn’t feel any sign of her. It was like the tether that bound them had inexplicably snapped, snuffing out the light that had helped to guide his path. Michael knew what her power was like, knew what it did when it mingled with his even when they were apart. The loss of her power was the least of his concerns, though—it was the absence of her that made his soul feel incomplete.

She was just…gone.

When he’d asked Cordelia Goode where she was, Michael had noticed the glint in her eye of an answer that she would not give. Whatever the witches had done, it had concealed her from him.

He was alone.

Michael knelt in the dirt, the clear, earthy scent of the forest unable to scrub away the odor of scorched flesh. He hunched over, elbows resting on top of his thighs with his face buried in his hands. The once carefully parted hair underneath his dirt-streaked fingers had become a greasy, unkempt mess. Stubble along his jawline prickled at his hands as he dragged them across his face to wipe away the fatigue. Michael’s formerly pristine clothes were now ragged and caked in filth, his appearance a testament to the past four days of aimless waiting.

A low, waning sun spilled golden rays over the dirt and stung at his tired and bloodshot eyes. Four days of catching a few minutes’ worth of sleep wherever he could manage them had done terrible things to his mind. The world spun around his head, in and out of focus. Michael could no longer tell what was real and what wasn’t. Had it really been just four days? How long would it take for him to waste away in this forest?

Michael’s fingers itched to conjure his knife. It was tempting—the thought of the blade kissing his skin so he could finally be at peace.

“Michael.”

He knew that voice. He’d know it anywhere.

The sound of it filled the air like a melody to his heavy, aching head, and he lifted his face from his palms in response, those dark and violent thoughts withering away with the breeze. There was something wrong in her voice, a dissonant note that made his blood run cold. When he finally turned around, the streaks of daylight, now burning orange as if it was fire across the dirt, caught the highlights in her dark hair and beads of scarlet running down her ashen lips.

“You left me.” Tears mingled with the blood dripping from her chin. Michael saw her hand clutched against her chest, the dirt at her feet pooling with deep crimson from a wound he couldn’t find, her fingers slick with bright red. “After everything,” her breath shuddered, gasping, “why would you leave me? How could you let them kill me?”

She staggered forward, approaching the circle. How had she found him, when he hadn’t even felt her presence in days? Michael caught her once her knees gave out, cradling her in his arms, fingers raking through her hair. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking, trying to find the source of all the blood.

A tear slipped down the curve of his cheek just when he thought he’d had no more left in him.

“I never wanted this to happen.” Michael desperately searched for a wound that wasn’t there, a wound that he didn’t think he would be powerful enough to heal. Not yet, anyway. He tried to temper his sorrow with anger instead, but the pain burned white-hot through his chest as if he could feel her wound as his own. “We’ll kill them all, I swear it. They won’t get away with what they’ve done to you and our Ms. Mead. They won’t survive us, I promise you that.”

She reached up and touched her fingertips to his cheek, leaving bloody fingerprints behind. She was so pale, the scent of blood all around them, the warmth retreating from her even as he held her close.

“Michael,” she whispered again.

“It’s all my fault.” A trembling hand cradled her ashen face. “I…I failed you, too.”

An apology wouldn’t be enough. It would never be enough for the feeling that carved its way through his ribcage like cold steel. Was there a name for it, the pain of having part of your soul ripped from you? A word for an emotion stronger than grief?

Michael gathered her to his chest when he felt her go still, his tears falling into her hair. “Don’t leave me like this…please…you’re all I have left…” He let her go to trace the fragile skin of her throat with his unsteady fingers. Her skin was cold to the touch, and no matter how hard he tried, he could no longer feel the once steady, strong rhythm of her pulse. She lay across his bent knees, unmoving, while he leaned over her.

Michael sobbed and pressed his forehead to hers. “I can’t lose you.”

He held her, dragging his fingers through her hair and sobbing her name until the illusion finally broke—her lifeless body vanishing in the next instant. The last of Michael’s sobs faded and he lifted his tear-stained face from his now empty hands.

All of it had seemed so frighteningly real—she had felt so real.

But it was just another cruel trick.  

Where are you?

@lastregasolitaria @mylippo @zeciex @lvngdvns @langdonsdemon @yourkingcodyfern @sojournmichael @gabnelson98 @rainbowrosesjas @antichristlangdxn @keavysmithxoxo @artistlunadrayne @codysfallenangels @batgirlbride @mileeyyowens @dead-witch-boy @boofy1998 @gentianea @cryptid-coalition @langdonsrapture @kinlovecody @yuriohoe04 @electricurie @marvel-rpdr-and-ahs @gallxntdean @langdonscurls @jcshadowkiss-blog @frozenhuntress67 @sebastianshoe @dixmond-taurus @bookobssesed99 @sassylangdon @queenie435 @holylangdon @langdonfern @toofreakingbisexual @angsty-otters-blog @denaexr  @mr-langdonn @micheallangdons @lostin-fern @crazedcatcuddler @satansapostle @monsucre @ritualmichael @fernshorrorstory @queencocoakimmie @bluelancesredswords @theharvestgirloffire @punkysouls @sevenwondr  @zoebensvn @kylosbabe @sloppy-little-witch-bitch26

[rumbelleshowdown]

The Witch and the Wizard

Author: GoldenPuppetMaster

Prompts: twins, full moon, Belle owns a botanical garden Group: A

Twin flames—souls born of the same soul group. Belle wondered about this phenomenon. She wondered about the power of loving with a love beyond love—a godly love.

Belle French was the town witch; however, her identity was withheld as secret by her clients, at Belle’s request, for fear of being accused of witchcraft. The witch trails had only just begun in Salem, and Belle was determined to avoid accusation long enough to save her sisters from painful deaths. She was furious, devastated, and appalled by the treatment of her fellow witches, yet she continued her craft with fierce bravery. After all, the townspeople needed her help whether by hand or by witchcraft. There were children who were sickly and needed her potions to cure their bodies. Her knowledge of roots, herbs, and crystals aided as powerful tools to ward away evils like jealousy and hate. She would not be deterred from her passion.

On the eve of the 31st of October, 1692, Belle was walking along a dirt pathway beneath a bright, full moon. There was a howling in the distance, and she walking briskly through the trees. About a mile from town, deep in the brush, resided her precious, enchanted botanical garden. Here, she stored thousands of plants like Jasmine, Eucalyptus, Myrrh, and Hemlock. Scientists had traveled terrible distances to examine Belle’s rarest plants. In fact, Miss French’s botanical garden was an award-winning sanctuary for plants as well as for those in distress.

She was careful in analyzing people. She would often choose who she helped by a show of their knitted-brows, or if they were parents worrying for children. She understood that parents were often in a particular desperation to help their children when options were drained. She also knew that they were more willing to keep her secret. On this particular evening, she spotted a figure in the darkness of the trees. At first, she was taken aback, unsure of whether to approach or retreat. A gargling sound escaped the figure, followed by a cry of pain. The figure shifted, and Belle saw a face. She took a step forward, thinking the figure was a hurt animal, but the moon’s light cast upon his full frame and Belle learned the figure was indeed a wounded man.

“Hello?” She called out in question, hesitantly.

The figure rested against a tree, no, he was gripping the tree for support. The man lifted his head in response; however, his obvious pain denied him to the ability to speak without screaming. His head turned in her direction, and her cerulean eyes fell upon scared honey brown eyes. Belle felt a sudden jolt of fire burst through her chest and a wave of emotion overpass her. Her eyes blinked back tears as she quickly composed herself.

“Are you alright?” She asked, starting toward him.    

“My leg,” he choked out, “I think it’s broken.” He could barely speak, and Belle immediately knew that he was in some inexplicable danger.

“Here, let me help you,” she offered.

“No!” She stepped back slightly; however, remained standing undeterred, “Please, they are after me…”

“Who is?” She questioned.

“The bounty hunters, I’m accused a wizard. If they see you aiding me then you will be tried as an accomplice,” he spoke desperately from fear or from the pain she could not distinguish.

“Don’t worry about those boneheads, you’re hurt and need help. I can’t very well leave you here to die and cause me a guilty conscious.” Belle stepped closer to the man, choosing to stop a mere half-step from his frame.

He appeared shocked by her response, and he did not try to bat her away when she grabbed his arm and leaned his weight on her body.

With her support, he was able to walk slowly with her down the trail.

“Where are we going?” He asked unsure of the territory, and because he was unsure of whether to trust this strange, small woman as he knew they offered rewards to turn in “criminals.”

“Shh,” she silenced him at once, and despite his better knowledge, he followed her direction without further complaint.

Within minutes, they approached Belle’s enclosed garden. She led him to the back where she had built a tiny shed with a kitchen, bathroom, and bed for the days she wished to escape town.

“We’ll be safe here,” she spoke for the first time, “give me a second and I’ll light a candle so that we can see.”

He stood in pitch darkness for what seemed like an eternity; his weight supposed against a railing he assumed was a bed. Finally, and as promised, Belle illuminated the room by placing four candles on every corner of the structure.

When she turned to see him again, it was as if he laid eyes on her, truly, for the first time. She was stunning! Her beautiful blue eyes were indescribable and piercing. He felt completely naked all at once. Her gaze was so incredibly powerful that he felt forced to look down.

“Before I help you…I must know one thing,” she began.

He was intrigued by the mystery in her tone and stated, “which is?”

“What is your name?” She questioned.

As a witch, she knew that names held great power.

Again, despite his knowledge, he trusted her, “Rumplestiltskin…and the rumors are true,” he lifted his head, and looked her square in the eye when he announced; “I am a wizard.”

“You’re a poor wizard if you’re not able to fix a simple broken leg,” she blatantly stated, which shocked Rumplestiltskin enough to cause his jaw to fall open.

He quickly cleared his throat and retorted, “Well, I’ll have you know that the Evil Queen, though most would know as, the glorious “non-magical” Town Mayor, was the cause for this, and the spell she used to break my leg takes time to decipher.”

“Hmph,” she was unconvinced, which irritated him further, “take off your pants” she instructed and his eyes nearly burst from his skull.

“What!” The exclamation was more indignation than a question.

“I have to be able to see the wound to tend to it, so I have to see your leg…not your pant leg…” she explained without judgment or harshness in her tone.

“It’ll be fine. I just need to get to my shop,” he slowly tried for the door.

Belle, knowing his strengths were wasted, waited as he toppled over in a helpless heap.

“Now are you going to let me help you?” she asked with a brow raised.

He looked at her stubbornly. What was it about this strange woman that conflicted like no other inside?

“Fine,” he accepted through gritted teeth and quickly interjected, “but I’m NOT taking off my pants.”

“Fine,” she replied, just as frustrated, “I’ll just have to cut them.”

“You do realize I just saved your life,” Belle started.

“Yes, and I was perfectly grateful until you criticized magical ability…I’ll have you know dearie that I am—”

“The most powerful wizard in all of Oz…oh, wait, that title is already taken,” she was snappy with his inflated ego.

He sighed realizing the argument was ridiculous. He did not care for titles; he was frightened, truly frightened to the core, of the bounty hunters, but mostly a sentence of death.

He didn’t respond, and Belle looked at him quietly.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“No,” he countered, “I’m sorry, I’m foolish. Thank you,” he whispered so intently that Belle felt forced to meet his gaze.

His honey brown eyes were intoxicating and she felt herself falling. She caught her herself, responded with a quick, “your welcome” and focused her energy on his leg.

“Well, it is certainly broken,” she observed.

She stood at once and returned to a work table tucked in the corner of the room. He watched her….admiring her….with a mixture of desire and shame.

She could feel his eyes on her; devilishly, she turned suddenly catching him mid-gaze. He blinked away quickly, but his cheeks were already a brilliant red.

“Here, drink this,” she handed him a small vial containing an indistinguishable purple liquid.

He sniffed the contents and scrunched his face revolted by the scent.

“Just drink it, I promise it’ll help,” she pleaded, and he unwillingly caved to her request.

Strangely, he struggled to deny her. He gulped down the foul liquid. Instantly the pain his leg was relieved. He looked down, and his leg was no longer a mangled mess. Instead, the leg appeared healed. He stood in shock to ensure he wasn’t dreaming. He was certain that his leg would take weeks to decipher the spell and repair.

He looked at her, determined to know, “but, how?”

Her lips could not contain the smile bursting at each corner; she was enjoying his delicious surprise.

“It’s magic,” her smile widened to reveal her crisp, white teeth.

He could only stare, gaping in awe, at this rare, natural beauty.     

###       

[teamkaiforever]

How I Really Feel

(requested by anon)

Kai Parker x Reader word count : 4 2 51 warning : smut , bites , blood sharing .. summary : Reader is a part of the MF gang and a which with a different kind of powers. She likes him but Kai doesn’t seem to like her but that’s not exactly true. *not my gif NOTE : I maay have gotten a tiny little bit carried away with this one…😅🙈  _______________________

“Just another boring day in Mystic Falls…” she thought out loud , walking around the town square. It was summer vacation but there weren’t many summer activities to do in her small hometown , so Y/N and her friends hung out together either at Grill or the swimming hole or at the Salvatores. Y/N stopped in the middle of the street , seeing Kai only a hundred meters away walking down the sidewalk with his phone in his hands. They had welcomed , reluctantly , Kai into their group. He acted ‘nice’ towards every single one of her friends except her. She didn’t understand why and sometimes wondered if it was because her magic was a bit different than the one most witches have. Y/N had too much of it and sometimes when she was upset things like earthquakes , hurricanes , wild fires and so not typically naturally happening events happened. When she had been a little girl and her dog had dissapeared , Mystic Falls had suffered by pouring rain for days until the cute little fella had returned safely home. Y/N actually liked Kai. He was funny , charming but also dangerous. There was something very exciting about him and she felt drawn to him more and more each day but it was useless. No matter what she did , he still seemed to dislike her. “Hey!” she said , blocking his way. He looked up at her , surprise in his eyes for a moment before his eyes returned to his phone screen. “Heey …” he trailed off , stepping aside continuing on his way , leaving Y/N feeling hurt yet again. Every time it was like this - he’d utter a few words to her and then just go away to talk to someone else. That’s why she had been surprised when a few days after running into him , he had walked up to her , offering his help to control her magic from creating mayhem and destruction around town. Y/N had agreed partially because she wanted to spend time with him and maybe figure out why he doesn’t like her , the other half of her had said yes because her magic was starting to get out of hand. Kai rang on the doorbell , shifting nervously on his feet waiting for her to answer the door. Y/N opened less than a minute later, taking his breath away yet again. She was wearing a short dark blue dress with a slight floral pattern and ankle high boots , her hair pulled behind her back in a light braid. He had offered to help her with a spell to control her magic , now he was wondering how he was going to do that when all he could do was think about her in that dress. Every time he was around her , he had hard time to focus on anything. “Hi.” Y/N said with a shy smile. “Come on in.” Kai stepped inside , looking around her house. He had never been inside her house before and was absolutely fascinated how well everything inside suited her. It was as if he’d recognise this was her house no matter what. “Nice house.” he said , picking up a picture of her from her graduation. It had been 5 years since the picture had been taken and she hadn’t changed much except she was even more beautiful now. His breath got caught in his throat. Kai returned the picture back in its place , turning towards her. 

Y/N was leaning against the stair railing , her hands folded on her chest watching him with curious eyes. Kai put his hands in his pockets , trying hard not to shorten the distance between them and do what he had wanted since the day they met. “You are unusually quiet. It’s making me nervous. Then again … you never say more than 5 words to me anyways … ” she said slighly rolling her eyes , pushing herself off and heading for the kitchen , Kai following her closely behind not taking his eyes off her. “So , how do we do this ?” Kai glanced around the kitchen , putting some popcorn in the microwave. “How does popcorn help us ?” she asked a little confused with a hint of annoyance in her voice. Kai sighed. “Well , you seem tense and nervous and … the spell won’t work if you are acting like that. You need to relax in order for your concentration to be perfect otherwise who knows what might happen. So , we are going to sit on the couch watching TV until you losen up a bit.” he said trying hard not to think about the fact they’d be sitting on the couch less than a meter away from each other and he wouldn’t be able to touch her. Y/N rolled her eyes , the sounds of popcorn popping in the microwave filling the silence. She got out a bowl ready and when the ding of the microwave came , she moved the popcorn into the bowl. “Oh-kay. You are the expert…” she said ,waking a few light steps towards the couch and tossing herself on it. Kai sat down at the opposite end and she passed him the remote. “So , I was wondering … how does this whole heretic thing work ? Doesn’t it hurt when you siphon yourself ?” Kai reached for the popcorn taking the bowl from her hands , their hands touching for a second , trying to find an answer to her question. “It doesn’t hurt or at least so far it hasn’t. It kind of works like a wish but not quite exactly. It just happens..” he said tossing popcorn in his mouth. He reached into his pocket pulling out a folded old looking page , handing it to her. “That’s the spell. It should keep things under control at least for a while - you will have to cast it every few years if I understood it correctly. Although I don’t see why you’d want to use it. I like your magic just fine…” he trailed off , his eyes moving onto the TV switching to another channel. Y/N studied his face for a moment , then the page. “Of course you do…” she muttered more to herself than to him , getting up to get things for the spell ready. Kai’s gaze followed her around the room , but each time she met his eyes he looked away. It took her a few minutes to spread the candles across the floor as instructed , drawing the circle and everything. Y/N glanced at Kai and sighed. He had agreed to help her but clearly still didn’t like her. “Are you going to help me with that spell or not ?” Y/N called out to Kai , who was sitting on the couch tossing popcorn in his mouth while watching some TV show about superheroes completely ignoring her. “It was your idea to help me with this and for this to work I need you here with me. I can’t do this on my own…” Kai glanced at her , pressing pause on the show he was watching and got up walking towards her. “Fine , fine.” he said sounding slightly annoyed. “Take my hands , concentrate….and stop being so agitated.” Y/N took his hands , feeling a little nervous touching him. His hands are so soft. she thought to herself , trying hard not to think what it would feel like if he touched her… pushing the thoughts aside. She did as Kai asked concentrating and trying to be as calm as possible. They began chanting the spell , over and over again. The candle flame raising high around them. Y/N kept waiting to feel the change , to feel her magic put in between boundaries so her moods would stop affecting her surroundings but nothing happened… except another fire. She opened her eyes seeing the flames about to incinerate the living room. Kai was faster than her , chanting the spell putting the fire out. “That’s it! I give up ! I’ll never find a way to get this under control…” she raised her voice turning around heading out of the room. Kai grabbed her hand spinning her around towards him. “You are not a quitter. Things like that happen. Lets try it again…” he said , his voice calm. “You can do this. I believe in you.” Y/N scoffed. “Spare me. You spend all your time acting as if I don’t exist and now you act as if you know me … ?!You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.” she said freeing her hand and heading towards the door ready to kick him out , a step away Kai grabbed her hand again spinning her around towards him so fast she got smacked against him. He held her close , his blue eyes burning with fire , piercing into hers. “Get out.” she raised her voice. “Why are you even here?! You don’t care about me or what my magic can do. You hate me… So just get out of my house and leave me alone! ” Kai couldn’t take it anymore. It was one thing keeping his distance , acting as if he doesn’t like her but it was completely another hearing her say she thinks he hates her. There was something about her expression that broke a boundary he had created in his mind to bits. He didn’t like the thought of her thinking he doesn’t care about her. “You want to know why I am here ?” he asked angrily , his eyes piercing into hers intensely. A long moment passed in silence before he spoke, his voice calmer than before. “You.” Kai said smashing his lips against hers backing her against the wall , scooping her up, Y/N hitching her legs around his waist , her hands cupping his face pulling him closer to her. “Let me show you how I really feel about you…” Kai trailed off , his lips smashing against hers again kissing her fiercely. “… how much I crave you and want to touch you … Kiss you … Make you scream my name as you fall apart under my touch.” he whispered in her ear , his hot breath tickling her skin a moment before he nibbled on her earlobe. “I want to make you mine … again and again.” he trailed off. Y/N felt about a dozen butterflies flap their wings in her stomach , her cheeks flushed and her heart racing at his words. It’s not like she hadn’t thought about him that way , just never imagined it would actually happen specially considering how he was acting around her. Kai’s lips were hovering over hers , his eyes piercing into hers. She felt her breathing turn shallow , he pushed against her again his crotch grinding hard against hers , making her feel heat down her core with every movement. Y/N was at a loss for words , her head was spinning. Kai had taken her breath away completely. “Then s-show me.” she stuttered , getting lost in his blue eyes noticing how they had turned a darker shade of blue , darkening still. A grin showed on his face , his lips smashing against hers again , drowning her in the kiss. Y/N felt his fingers gently brush her hair off her neck before his lips found their way there. He drew a few circles with his tongue in her skin before his lips pressed against her skin , sucking on a spot then another leaving splotches on her skin , marking as his. Y/N tangled her fingers in his curls , gripping on it slightly. Kai let her feet onto the ground , a devilish smirk on his face as he pinned her wrists over her head. His hand tugging at her dress while he whispered in her ear all he wanted to do to her. Y/N felt his fingertips slowly moving up her hip , pulling her dress up. For a moment he teased her folds , never taking his eyes off hers. Kai pressed his fingers against her clit , seeing her close her eyes throwing her head back at the feeling , a soft moan tumbling off her lips. “OH sweetheart , you’re so wet…” he said his nose brushing against hers , his voice dropping a few octaves. “…you will be dripping all over by time I’m done with you.” his hot breath intoxicating her , as his fingers kept playing with her clit. A soft moan escaped Y/N’s lips , she felt her mind get cloudy just thinking about what everything he had planned. Kai’s fingers moved up , towards her stomach and then down grazing her clit for a second before disappearing. “I hope you are not attached to this dress.” he whispered ripping it off her. “Oops…” he bit his lip at the sight of her semi naked body. He reached his hand behind her back unclasping her bra , letting it fall on the floor. Kai pushed himself off her taking a step away , his eyes turning black with lust. She tried to move , to free her hands with no luck. He was a vampire , there was no way she’d be able to. “Don’t move.” he said serious , letting her hands free to her side and she tried hard not to but it was torture. Y/N felt Kai’s fingers playing with the waistband on her panties before slowly pushing them down her legs , his fingertips grazing her skin the whole way down sending shivers all over her body. She wanted him , to kiss him , touch him .. “Kai ..” she started to say but he shushed her , kneeling down in front of her , parting her legs. His lips leaving soft kisses on her thighs , his fingertips on her thighs definitely about to leave bruises. Somehow the thought excited her even more. Kai grazed his hand on her folds , a moan escaping her lips. “Look at me princess. I want you to look at me.” his voice demaning. Kai’s eyes met her eyes as he teased her folds , spreading her arousal getting his fingers covered with it. Y/N tried hard not to close her eyes getting lost in the feeling but it was becoming harder with every passing moment. Her heart was racing as if it might leap out of her chest. Kai pushed two fingers inside her curling them around slowly before pulling out and pushing them again , each time going a little faster. She felt his light breath on her core as he pressed the flat on his tongue against her clit. Y/N’s mouth hang open , her soft moans filling the air. Every time he pushed his fingers inside and her eyelids closed or started to close , Kai demanded she opened them. Y/N moved her hips down on his mouth as he sucked her clit with swift motions. Kai hummed and moaned in response , the vibrations adding pleasure , his fingers curling inside her exploring every inch. Her hands reached for him but he used his magic to pin them back up. “K-Kai I’m close ..” her eyes rolling in her head , her eyes fluttering closed , feeling her release getting closer. Kai’s fingers fastened their movements curling inside her , pushing in and pulling out. He used his magic to hold her still against the wall feeling how her knees were about to buckle at any moment. She screamed his name , her orgasm washing over her , her body shaking. He didn’t stop , instead his fingers curled inside her with an even bigger force , going deeper than before , his ring grazing her clit a little. “You taste fucking amazing” he said , placing a soft kiss on her thigh feeling a different kind of hunger. Her moans were getting louder , turning into small screams as his fingers pushed in and out of her , slowing down for a few seconds before speeding up , faster than before. If it wasn’t for Kai’s magic holding her still she’d be on the floor. Her walls clenched around his fingers as another orgasm wave hit her , stronger than the first one. She couldn’t keep her eyes open as he demanded even if she tried , but this time he didn’t protest. Kai watched her body arch off the wall, her mouth semi open , loud moans escaping her lips mixed with his name. He released his magic hold on her , catching her in time just as her knees buckled. Y/N was out of breath , feeling as if flames were licking her skin. Everywhere Kai touched her bare skin it felt as if another fire started. “Look at you , my beautiful princess.” Kai said smiling , lifting her up bridal style. “You can’t stand on your feet because of me…” he said lovingly , his lips finding hers. “… and I have barely just started.” he whispered. For a moment he got worried he might’ve pushed it too far , except when Y/N hooked her hands around his neck she whispered in his ear. ‘Fuck me.’ Y/N had no idea how Kai was able to drive her this crazy. Even in her wildest dreams she hadn’t imagined how good it would feel being with him like that. He was a little rough , he knew what he wanted but he was also gentle. Kai carried her upstairs in human speed giving her a little time to recover before tossing her onto the bed like a rag doll crawling over her. His lips finding hers , leaving sloppy kisses on the way down while his fingertips traced up her thighs. Y/N tried to push her thighs together not sure she could survive another massive release , but it was useless. The second Kai touched her bare skin she turned into melted all over again. He parted her legs not taking his eyes off hers as his lips kissed every inch of her thighs on their way up , his fingertips tracing patterns on her skin. He was teasing her , letting her catch her breath for a moment before he continued playing with her. “Don’t scream.” said Kai , his fangs coming out sinking into her thigh super close to her core. A loud gasp escaped her lips at the sensation followed by a moan , not expecting it to feel this good. Kai pulled away and she could feel his tongue on her thigh not letting any drop of her blood go to waste. His fingertips played at her entrance , teasing her rubbing her clit at rough eights and slowly spreading her arousal before entering her again. Y/N arched her back , her hands grabbing for the sheets. Kai curled his fingers around her walls , moving at an agonisingly slow motion while his thumb drew light eights with her clit , pulling his fingers out and pushing them in going at a faster rhythm getting her closer to another release and just as she was about to get over the edge he pulled out his fingers , blowing at her clit for a second. “Please Kai .. I need it.” she moaned , her fingers reaching for her clit but he swatted her hands away. Y/N felt herself dripping onto the sheets , aching for his touch more than before. “Tsk - tsk … no , no … Did you forget ?” his tone soft at first before getting serious again. “Don’t move.” Quickly Kai took off his shirt , pushing down his jeans and boxers at once. His fingertips tracing their way up her thigh , glazing across her clit (a soft moan escaping her lips) not stopping for a second on their way up to her breasts as he crawled over her. He cupped them , the flat of his tongue pressing against her right nipple , then repeating his actions on the left one , sucking on them listening to her moans , getting lost in her. His hands massaged her breasts , squeezing her nipples between his thumb and index finger ,making her moan out a little louder. Y/N could feel his hard length resting on her thigh and all she wanted was to touch him. Ignoring his words , she reached for his thick shaft wrapping her fingers around it , gently rubbing the tip in slow circles. A low growl came from deep in Kai’s throat , he lifted his head meeting her eyes , a small smile on her face. “Naughty girl..” he cooed as purple / black veins showed under his eyes disappearing shortly after. Y/N’s breath got caught in her throat remember the feeling of absolute bliss she felt when he bit her. Kai pinned her hands over her head. “How much do you want it ?” “Badly .. Please Kai … Fuck me , please ..” Hearing her beg for him was music for his ears. Kai wanted to fuck her senseless and to taste her blood again. There had been something about it - she was delicious and seemed to enjoy the bites as much as he does. His fingers brushed her cheek before snaking around her neck , his grip getting a little stronger for a moment right before he sank his fangs into her neck. There was no fair warning no nothing this time. Y/N let out a loud gasp , her body arching towards his. She tried to free her hands but he wouldn’t let her. He loved having complete control over her body. “MMmm that feels amazing ..” she muttered feeling Kai drinking her blood. He didn’t bit for too long , only enough to get a taste. Somehow she freed her hands , pulling him in for a kiss , tasting her blood on his lips. Kai moaned into the kiss , his hard length entering her at once with a hard deep thrust at the same time. He was a little bigger than she had expected , stretching her out to the brim , the feeling completely taking over her. “Fuck you are so tight..” he grunted , thrusting deep inside her slowly , feeling every inch of her around him. Y/N was holding onto him , her nails digging into his back drawing blood as he kept going , pushing in and out of her speeding up with every thrust finding their perfect rhythm. Kai rested his forehead on hers , looking into her eyes. “F-faster Kai..” she moaned out , feeling his hot breath on her face intoxicating her. His lips touched hers barely as he started thrusting fast and deep hitting all the right spots. Every thrust leaving her wanting more. Kai pulled himself up a little , his fingers wrapping around her neck strong enough to hold her in place as his hips met hers , the sounds of flesh on flesh filling the air. Y/N wrapped one of her hands around his wrist for support while the other reached for her clit. “Let me.” he said pushing her hand away , rubbing it in rough eights , his thrusts never losing it’s pace. Her walls clenched around his shaft , a growl escaping his throat at the feeling and his vampirism showing again. His emotions were on overdrive blurring into one… “Fuckk K-Kai , I’m clo- ” Suddenly Kai leaned in sinking his teeth into her neck again , her third orgasm for the night washing over her pretty much at the same time. He flipped her onto her stomach , propping her ass up in the air , pushing her face onto the bed. Y/N could feel her liquids dripping down her thighs. Kai placed his hands on her hips and entered her at once , the sounds of flesh on flesh mixing with their loud moans and grunts. Kai leaned in , placing a soft kiss on her shoulder. “You won’t be able to walk straight tomorrow…” he whispered his breath tickling her skin. Kai grabbed at her hair pulling it slightly as he thrusted in particularly hard in her. Y/N’s hand reached for her clit , rubbing it. When he noticed , he pushed her hand away his fingers replacing hers. “Fuckkk K-Kai… ” she moaned out , getting closer to another release her vision starting to get a little blurry. Kai felt her walls clench around his shaft , a loud grunt escaping his throat at the feeling. “Fuck - ahh .. I’m close” she moaned out. “Hold it …” Kai’s thrusts started to get sloppier but never losing their pace , Y/N rolling her hips back at him. He wanted them to come at the same time. “I d-don’t think I c-can..” she moaned out feeling about to tip over the edge. “Yes you can , baby girl.. for me , just a little bit longer.” His thrusts were getting harsher , deeper. He pressed his fingers onto her clit , rolling it between his thumb and index finger. Y/N moaned out his name louder unable to hold it anymore. “Let yourself go baby girl” he grunted , feeling her walls clenching around his shaft as he came too. Kai held her body up , finishing her off with a few more thrusts before both of them collapsed onto the bed catching their breath. Their heavy breathing the only sounds in the room. He placed a kiss on her shoulder , rolling off her onto the bed. Kai rolled her over onto her side, a grin on his face at the large wet spot on the sheets. Y/N rolled back her hand on his neck as she leaned in to kiss him. “Promise me we’ll do this again.” Kai laughed pulling her closer to him. “Just say the words … ” he bit his wrist bringing it to her lips. “Drink up.” Y/N wrapped her fingers around his wrist , drinking his blood hearing him let out a sigh of pleasure. She looked up meeting his blue eyes , his other hand stroking her hair. Y/N let go of his wrist , blood dripping down her chin. Kai’s thumb reached for her lips , wiping off the blood before pulling her closer to him again.

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MASTERLIST March / April 2017

MASTERLIST MAY 2017

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