#both our audreys are gone this whole week

[lovecommajaime]

i’ve been too unormal lately

[bbrissonn]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐔 𝐊𝐈𝐃 | ᴛʜᴏᴍᴀꜱ ʙᴏʀᴅᴇʟᴇᴀᴜ ₍₂₎

warnings: thomas isn’t in this part like at all, this is mainly just y/n and brendan arguing :)

pairing: thomas bordeleau x brisson!reader 

wc: 1.1k

au masterlist

you sighed from your seat on the couch before taking a sip of the drink you had poured yourself a couple of minutes ago. it had been almost a week since the whole situation at the restaurant with your brother happened and he had yet to talk to you. he talked to thomas every once in a while, but only if he really had to, not wanting things to be too awkward in the locker room. 

you and thomas weren’t as public with your relationship as before, when you’d be in front of others, the most amount of pda that would take place would be him holding your hand and kissing each other’s cheek. but that was it. you both didn’t want things with brendan to get worse, and being all affectionate with the other would just make it worse. 

you still slept at his house every night like you did before, and when you’d be sitting on the couch with only matty, audrey and truss around the two of you would act like you did before, cuddling and kissing whenever you wanted. it was pretty hard not talking to brendan anymore, especially since the two of you were so close growing up, and you still had to do your weekly family face times with your parents and jordy. neither of you had told them what happened, both not wanting things to be awkward between the five of you. 

plus, you and brendan argued all the time, this was no different than the other times, but it was also completely different. brendan had pretty much just said that he didn’t approve of your relationship and that he wasn’t happy for you and bordy. now maybe he hadn’t said those exact words, but you knew deep down that’s how he felt. 

“you okay?” truss asked from beside you, he was the first one to find out about your relationship with his roommate, coming home earlier than thomas had thought he would, finding the two of you kissing on the couch. it took a lot of convincing and negotiating for him to agree not to tell a single soul and help the two sneak around a bit. and ever since the night at the restaurant, he had been giving you updates on your brother and making sure you were okay. 

“yeah, i guess.” you answered, your eyes shifting from the wall next to you to the boy on your other side. you sent him a small sad smile as he rubbed your back a little bit. 

“you guys are gonna be fine, you always are.” 

“yeah but this is different, truss. he doesn’t even look at me, this is the longest we’ve gone without talking to each other and i hate it.” you explained to the defense man, making him sigh a bit. 

“you guys are siblings, siblings argue all the time, this is normal–” 

“no it’s not! you don’t ignore your sibling, let alone your twin sister for a week. and then when we facetime our parents he acts like everything is all rainbows and butterflies between us when it’s not.” you told him, a little bit of anger in your voice, anger towards who? you had no idea. 

“give him time, y/n. he’s been holding all that he said in for who knows how long.” jacob said before getting up and joining some of the other guys in the corner of the room, leaving you all alone with all of your thoughts.

~

“what the fuck!” brendan yelled when you entered his room without knocking the next night, quickly throwing his blanket over his bottom half so only his torso and head were showing. 

“what the fuck!” he repeated when you sat down on his desk chair and positioned it so you were facing him. 

“you’re gross.” you told him as you looked him up and down, it was pretty simple to figure out what he has previously doing before you walked it, which was a very brave thing to do considering none of his roommates were asleep yet and none of them understood the principle of knocking. granted you clearly didn’t either.

“do you know how to fucking knock? i was busy!” he angrily told you, slipping his sweatpants and boxers back up under his blanket. 

“why’d you do it?” you asked, ignoring his previous question. eyes focused on his own, tongue poking out of your mouth to wet your lips. 

“do what?” 

“why’d you blow up at me in front of everyone?” 

“why’d you go behind my back and fuck my best friend?” he bit back, you knew your brother, and if there was one thing he was better at than hockey, it was arguing. he was one of the most stubborn people you had met, but so were you. so you knew this wasn’t gonna be just a short 10 minutes argument. 

“i asked you first.” 

“i’ve been waiting longer for an answer.” 

“and i already gave you an answer, brendan.” you sassed him, crossing your arms over your chest. 

“no. you told me ‘it just happened’ and ‘we can’t control how we feel’ like i’m some sort of idiot. i want to know why you kept it from me for 2 fucking months, y/n.” 

“because i know you, brendan. you would’ve gone all crazy on him and you would have me on lockdown 24/7.” you answered, as if it was obvious and a 3 year old kid could figure it out. 

“oh, i’m sorry for caring about my sister, i didn’t know that wasn’t allowed. silly me.” he said, his voice full of sarcasm, making you roll your eyes. 

“i didn’t say that–” 

“but that’s what you wanted to say–” 

“god, you’re such a fucking asshole bren–” 

“right, i’m the bad guy here for being pissed that my sister and my best friend went behind my back for two fucking months. you’re so right, y/n, i shouldn’t be pissed because you’re happy and that’s all that fucking matters to you, right? as long as the little princess is happy and everything goes her way, no one else is allowed to have emotions and express them.” 

“i–” 

“just go home, y/n. like, go home home.” you froze the second you heard what he had said, it took a little to fully understand what he went by home home, he wanted you to go back to LA. you were about to say something else when he got up from his bed and left his room, making sure to slam the door and soon after, you heard the front door slam close as well and his car turn on and driving away from the house. and you were left once again all alone with your thoughts.

taglist <3 @mack-samo @hugheshugs @nickblankenburgg @studsccsnackavoybambi @here-for-bords @bemybinarystar @ancient-remnants-of-love @power2myheart @cuttergauthierr

[purrincess-chat]

Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s Spite Playlist: Remix CH29

The plans are in motion! Just a reminder, after I post CH30 next week, I will be taking a break through the month of September to finish up the final edit. I’ll probably be scarce around this blog as well during that time cause I’ve got to work on my BB piece as well, but my queue is loaded through like January of next year, so it’ll be like I’m not even gone. 

Previous     First      Next       AO3

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Chapter 29: Take Cover

Marinette and Adrien stared at his phone, jaws hanging agape. The silence stretched on until Chloe sighed, and Marinette blinked out of her trance.

“I’m sorry. We’re going to what now?” she asked.

“Ugh, just get over here.” Chloe hung up.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged bewildered looks, and he shrugged as if to say, ‘I have no idea what just happened either.’ Chloe wasn’t one to keep waiting, so they gathered their things and piled into Adrien’s town car. On the drive over, Adrien laced their fingers together, tracing patterns on the back of Marinette’s palm with his thumb. She smiled up at him, that familiar, fluttery feeling spreading through her chest.

She’d dreamed of being Adrien’s girlfriend since they day they met. To her surprise, she was calmer about the whole situation than she’d expected. She wasn’t planning their wedding or naming their future pets, and she’d only daydreamed about his soft lips twenty times that day. They knew each other better now and had grown more comfortable with one another.

Adrien was a true friend and a stable rock in the middle of a storm, always there for her to fall back on if she needed. If it weren’t for him, she would be drowning in her own anguish. Lila may think she had the upper hand, but Marinette and Adrien were the perfect team. Nothing could stop them when they worked together.

Chloe was staring out at her balcony when they arrived, a pensive frown wrinkling her forehead. She turned to them, pursing her lips to mask her expression as they approached. They eyed each other in tense silence until Marinette spoke up.

“So,” she started, “what?”

Chloe rolled her eyes and rubbed her temple with a sigh.

“Look, don’t go getting any ideas. This isn’t about you; it’s about revenge,” Chloe said. “Lila seems to feel the most threatened by you, so I think it will have more of an impact if your name is associated with all of this charity work, and the only way to make anyone else care enough to report about it is to make you someone worth talking about.”

“What makes you think Lila is threatened by me?” Marinette asked with a disbelieving grunt. “All she ever does is toy with me.”

“And why do you think that is?” Chloe rolled her eyes when Marinette still seemed lost. “When someone like her feels threatened, they lash out and try to bring you down.”

“Is that why you were always so mean to me?” Marinette’s eyes narrowed, a smirk curling on her lips.

“Don’t lump me in with her! I’m mean to people for the sheer entertainment of watching them suffer. Totally different.” Chloe scoffed.

“Okay, so how exactly do you plan on making Marinette famous?” Adrien asked.

“Easily.” Chloe shrugged. “The dumb brat has already started making a name for herself, and more and more important people are starting to notice her talent, if you want to call it that.”

“I will ignore the insult in favor of the compliment.” Marinette crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip.

“Look, even my mom has complimented your work, so I think we should—as disgusting as this is—ask my mom to help you launch your fashion career.” Chloe cringed as she said it.

Marinette stared at her for a long moment, and Chloe shifted her weight with a moan.

“Stop looking at me like that!”

“You’re being serious right now?” Marinette asked.

“I know. Even I’m shocked.” Chloe wrinkled her nose.

“You want to help me start my fashion career? Now?”

“It’s the only way to take down that brat for good,” Chloe said, cheeks pink. “After this, I will go back to hating you and thinking you are a talentless nobody.”

“This is uncharacteristically nice of you, Chloe,” Adrien said with a smile. “I’m proud of you.”

“Don’t get any ideas, Dupain-Cheng. I’m not going to be caught dead wearing your trash, but my mom wanted to train you, so I think it’s our best shot.” Chloe shrugged.

“So, what? We’re just going to walk up to your mom and ask her to work with me?” Marinette scoffed as if it were the most absurd thing she’d ever heard. Because it was.

“Pretty much.” Chloe marched past her.

“Wait, we’re going right now?”

“We want to take Lila down this century, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe said pointedly, crossing the hall to her mother’s suite.

“But…wait, Chloe-” Marinette rushed after her as she barged into the room across the hall.

Audrey was in the middle of a hot stone massage, and Marinette curled her shoulders.

“I don’t think we should disturb her-”

“Mommy,” Chloe said, and Audrey gave some groan of acknowledgement. “You remember my dreadful former classmate, the one who designed the feather hat for Adrien?”

“Vaguely,” Audrey said.

“Well, Clara Nightingale walked the red carpet in one of her designs, and I think you should back her brand,” Chloe said.

“I thought you hated this girl-”

“You and me both,” Marinette grumbled.

“-now it sounds like you’re being nice.” Audrey choked on the word.

“There’s a nasty girl at school that I want to get rid of, and I need to make Dupain-Cheng famous to do it.” Chloe explained.

Audrey moaned as the masseuse worked a knot in her shoulders.

“Get me a portfolio by this time next week, then we’ll talk,” she said.

Chloe clapped her hands together. “Thank you, Mommy.”

“Wait, I’m sorry, a week?” Marinette blanched.

“Fashion moves quickly, dear, so if you want to be relevant, you’ll get me your portfolio with a pitch by next week,” Audrey said more sternly.

“She’ll have it ready,” Chloe promised.

Marinette shot her a look. “I’m not so sure she can-”

“Enjoy your massage.” Chloe grabbed Marinette’s arm and dragged her from the room.

“Chloe, I don’t know if I can-”

"Oh, shut it." Chloe clamped her hand in a mouth-shutting motion. "You are annoyingly persistent when you want to be. I've seen you accomplish way more in less time, so don't you even say you can't do it because if anyone has got what it takes, it's you, and if you tell anyone I said that, I will destroy everything you love."

“A week? To come up with an entire line,” Marinette said. “Not to mention it has to impress your mom—the queen of fashion!”

“And?” Chloe shrugged. Did she hear herself? What was so hard to understand about the absurdity of the situation?

“Chloe’s right, Marinette, you can do this,” Adrien took her hands and gave them a reassuring squeeze.

“But what if I can’t?” Marinette asked. “What if Audrey hates my designs or if I can’t come up with a whole line in time?”

“Then your fashion career is dead, and I’ll just get rid of Lila my way.” Chloe sauntered back to her suite. “Toodles!”

Marinette leaned her face into Adrien’s shoulder with a moan, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly.

“I know this is a lot of pressure, but you are the most amazing girl I know. You’re an incredible designer, and I know you’re going to crush it.” He pressed his forehead to hers, those green eyes shining with a confidence she wished she felt.

She took a deep, centering breath and nodded.

“Okay.” She pressed her lips into a firm line. “Let’s do it.”

♪♫♪ Misery Business ♪♫♪

Lila glared down at her phone screen, her laptop playing Clara’s acceptance speech in the background which only made her blood boil hotter. As if that stupid bakery brat needed more attention. Marinette pulled a couple fast ones on her, but Lila always got the last laugh. She stared down at Adrien’s Instagram post again with a scowl.

“So proud of @marinette-dc! I’m so lucky to have such an amazing girlfriend like you.”

Most of their classmates had already liked it, but it didn’t matter. Lila would figure out a way to spin this back on Marinette. The cracks were already forming in her little good girl reputation. Lila just needed to apply pressure, then everything would come crumbling down.

♪♫♪ Look What You Made Me Do ♪♫♪

The next day at school, Marinette was quite the hot topic after her big debut. Everyone was buzzing about Clara’s dress, and she received compliments left and right, though she found it hard to enjoy her moment with Audrey’s deadline looming over her.

She’d spent all night brainstorming ideas, but so far she had nothing. Nada. Zilch. No ideas. No inspiration. Nothing, and she was a sweaty ball of nerves. Numerous times she’d tried to give herself pep talks. She saved the city on a daily basis, fought ten-ton monsters and tricky magicians. How hard could it be to design a few dresses and coats?

Infinitely hard, as it turned out. In fact, part of her wished it was as easy as fighting an akuma. That there was some clever shortcut to her end goal, but there were no such things in this case. Just her own imagination and the wall between it and her sketchpad.

“Why so glum?” Macy asked as Marinette shoved books into her locker. “Shouldn’t you be excited about your dress? Everyone loves it. Things didn’t go bad with Adrien after we left, did they?” She cupped her cheeks in horror.

“No.” Marinette assured her with a laugh. “Everything is fine, but I just… Another amazing opportunity has fallen in my lap, and I don’t think I can do it, and I’m stressing out over it.”

“Yeah, you are breaking out a little.” Lisette pointed out, and Marinette covered her chin with a groan.

“You’re amazing, Marinette, and you always find a solution,” Macy said, but when Marinette seemed less than convinced, she pursed her lips. “Tell you what, Lisette can help you cover your zit, and we’ll help you get your mojo back, okay?”

“Okay,” Marinette said, allowing Macy to tug her to the bathroom where Lisette managed to completely erase any signs of her stress. Honestly, she was a wizard with a tube of concealer.

“There they are with the lady of the hour,” Eliott said when they met up for lunch. “How did your alone time go with a certain model last night?”

“He gave me this necklace.” She pulled it from under her collar with a soft smile.

“How romantic!” Lisette said.

“How sparkly.” Macy added with a longing look until Eliott nudged her with his elbow.

“We should double date this weekend. The weather is going to be nice, so we could go golfing.” Eliott suggested, and Macy shot up.

“Oh! Can I come? My parents are part-owners at one of the courses so my dad can play whenever he wants.” She bounced excitedly.

“Fine, but you have to bring a date,” Eliott said.

“I’ll just bring Martin again.” Macy shrugged.

“That’s cheating.”

“How? You said to bring a date, so I’ll bring a date.”

“You didn’t even ask him!”

“Fine! Martin, will you be my date?” Macy turned to him with pleading eyes, and his cheeks flushed.

“Uh, sure,” he said.

“Ha!” Macy stuck her tongue out at Eliott.

“That’s all fun and everything, but I’ve never played golf,” Marinette said. “Besides, I have a lot to do.”

“Oh, come on, Marinette. We can teach you,” Macy said. “Please?”

“I-” Marinette hesitated when they all gave her pleading looks. “We’ll see.”

“What’s so urgent that you can’t come out, Marinette?” Eliott asked as they took their seats.

“Does it have to do with that girl?” Martin lowered his voice.

“Kind of…” Marinette took a deep breath before explaining the entire situation—the plan, her deadline, all of it.

“Whoa, you’re really gonna pitch to Audrey Bourgeois?” Lisette whispered, eyes wide.

“I’m gonna try,” Marinette pushed her peas around with a spoon. “I’m kinda running on empty right now.”

“If you need any help let us know, okay?” Macy reached out to place a hand over hers.

“Yeah, we know tons about fashion and starting charities, not to mention handling drama queens.” Eliott echoed. “We’ve got your back.”

Marinette smiled, though the sentiment didn’t reach her eyes. It wasn’t their fault that Marinette was never going to make it in the world of fashion. When she inevitably failed, Adrien would probably dump her, Lila would take over the world, and she’d be left selling stupid little trinkets off of a cart to tourists. Why did she let Chloe talk her into this?

♪♫♪ Yeah Right ♪♫♪

“Good morning, Lila! I have your geometry homework!” Sabrina greeted on the front staircase the next morning.

Lila feigned a smile. Sabrina was annoying, but she did all of Lila’s homework, so she usually didn’t complain. After that brat Marinette scored a point against her last night with the award’s show, Lila wasn’t in the mood to deal with clingy girls with dependency issues.

“Thank you so much, Sabrina. You’re such a sweetheart,” Lila said.

“How is your ankle feeling? Do you need anything? Aspirin? A hot compress? Foot massage?” Sabrina offered.

“Well, it feels much better than it did a week ago, but if I walk around a lot, it gets a little sore. Would you mind taking my bag to my locker for me?” Lila slipped her bag off her shoulder and held it out.

“Of course! You rest that ankle,” Sabrina said without hesitation.

Lila smirked as she trotted off to the locker room. At least Sabrina was easy to get rid of. Some of her other idiots would have insisted on walking her to class—a commitment Lila didn’t have time for today. She needed to figure out her next move against Marinette. Everyone was still conflicted over the stairs incident from the Louvre. That stupid goody-goody built up a reputation over the years that wasn’t so easily collapsible. Even still, every shred of doubt Lila could cast would pile up in the end.

“I see you’re still walking around like you own the place.”

Lila stopped a few steps into the school, jaw clenching. Adrien was leaning against the wall just inside the door, and he pushed away when she narrowed her eyes, taking slow, deliberate steps toward her.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, I do own the place,” she said. “Or I will soon enough.”

“I’ve warned you before, Lila, but you didn’t listen. What you did to Marinette was not okay,” he said darkly, green eyes narrowed into slits.

“Oh? And what are you going to do about it? Call another one of your celebrity buddies to call me a liar? Go ahead, it’ll help me win these losers over even faster.” Lila crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip. “You can’t beat me, Adrien. You’re too nice to get your hands dirty.”

“If you do anything else to Marinette, you’re going to learn how nice I am.” He glowered down at her, sending a shiver down Lila’s spine. “You hurt someone I love, so enjoy your reign while it lasts. Pretty soon everyone is going to see you for who you really are, and I won’t feel sorry for you.”

He brushed past her, and Lila rolled her eyes. He was bluffing, and even if he wasn’t, Lila could handle anything he threw at her. Whatever they were plotting, Lila wasn’t going down without a fight.

[thebluestbluewords]

HEIST HEIST HEIST

I saw this post today and got inspired, SO here is Descendants Could Have Been A Heist Movie, thebluestbluewords take :

(this is very much an outline and not a full fic yet, but I might yet write this someday)

Taking this whole heist movie idea very seriously, this would be (and might yet be if I have the time for it) a fic about how the first Descendants movie would have gone if it had been a heist movie, rather than a fairytale.

The main plot of the movie is no longer about learning to choose good and seeing that kids don’t have to follow in the footsteps of their parents- it’s now a high school political intrigue about stealing a wand.

(don’t worry about the larger themes there- the wand might be stolen for many self-serving reasons that go beyond 'doing what their parents say'. Maybe they’re stealing it to make a larger statement about opening the isle. Or about how treating villains as villains is wrong and they deserve trust because it makes things so much more fun for them in the long run)

(can you tell I haven’t decided on the overall tone of this AU yet lmao)

The story starts when the VKs are being told to get the wand, hand it over, it’ll be easy.

Sure, they say.

Sounds great, they say.

Give us your spellbook and magic mirror and whatever else you’ve got to give, and we absolutely won’t use them to betray you and open the isle on our own terms, they don’t say.

(this story ends before we get to that point, but the implication is there)

The kids arrive in Auradon, as in canon.

Unlike canon, they don’t immediately go for a break-and-enter approach to the museum, because if they’re going to heist this, they’re going to do it right. A good heist takes planning, and patience, and research.

What they do is wait until the weekend, and then inform the school admin that they want to get to know the culture of Auradon.

The museum seems like a great place to start, Evie says earnestly.

We didn’t have anything like it back on the Isle, adds Mal. It would be such a good learning opportunity for us.

And we could see the town. And the candy store. Say the boys.

The school admin caves, because it would be wrong to deny these kids a chance to get to know this history of goodness! They’re just teenagers, and they’ve been doing so well with their first week, and of course they can go into town, do they want a school car to drop them off?

They do not.

The museum is kind of a bust. They spend some time scoping out the security, but they’ve had a whole week to magically-google everything they can about this place, and it’s not much of a surprise that there’s a functionally unbreakable magical alarm system set up around all of the objects.

Time to reassess the plan.

(this is where the political intrigue comes in)

Ben is still a Fundamentally Decent (if slightly boring) guy in this.

Of course, he’s also the one on the line if this whole villainy exchange program goes wrong. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he would come to check up on his flagship students after they have a day out exploring the town.

Oho, Mal thinks. Here’s something they can work with.

Ben is sweet. He’s not terribly interesting, at least at first, but he seems like a guy who genuinely cares about the idea of bringing villain kids over, and can probably be manipulated to their purposes without too much effort.

So the VKs think over their potential plans to get the wand, and decide that yeah, if they can get an in with the future king of Auradon, that’s probably a pretty solid place to start.

Unfortunately, they decide to start this attempt by blatantly flirting.

Audrey is very much a political presence in this fic. She’s not evil by any means, but she is goal oriented and doesn’t necessarily love the idea of VKs coming in and altering her five year plan for herself and her boyfriend.

(I think Aurdey is an interesting character, and I wish she’d been given some better motivations in the first movie beyond ‘mean girl in a high school movie’. So in this fic, where they do still crown the incoming royalty at sixteen, they also believe in setting up children for advantageous marriages. Audrey and Ben have been pushed at each other since they were kids, and yeah, maybe there’s not a lot of actual love between them, but they’re friends and it’s way easier to just date each other and make their parents happy than refuse and risk losing the sway they get with their parents by being the good little obedient golden children who are happy to be put together if it’s what’s best for the future of the realm.)

The point of this is, the VKs send Mal in with her very best flirting, taught to her by Evie in a truly hopeless training montage, and it just-

Fails. Completely.

And now Audrey sort of hates them.

Great.

The other unfortunate piece of this heist is that the relationships between the co-conspirators, the core four, are….somewhat intense. Charged, if you will, with a certain kind of tension.

I’m not saying that Malvie hook up in their pink princess dorm room on the first night and then don’t talk about it for the rest of the story despite blatantly flirting with each other all the time, but yeah actually that might be what I’m saying.

This is the middle of the fic now, and there’s some kind of political drama that leads to the VKs finding out about the coronation.

Maybe it’s teammate bonding, because I think it’s tragically underutilized that Ben and Jay are canonically both sports bros and I want more of that sweet high school sports team drama content.

The point is, they find out about the coronation, and that the wand will be out and about during that day.

Oho, they say. An opportunity.

Building on the sports bros theme, Lonnie gets to be in this story! She’s a cool character and I have a couple of unfinished ideas for her kicking around my fic drive, so she’s going to be here too.

Lonnie finds the VKs in a somewhat compromising state of planning.

Uh, what the fuck is this, she says.

What do you THINK, says Mal, who is not known for keeping her mouth shut.

Looks like...some kind of statement that you’re going to make during the coronation, says Lonnie, who is a nice person and also didn’t hear/see all that much of the planning before she was noticed. (as I’m typing this up I am also remembering the School of Secrets shorts?? Lonnie is absolutely going in this fic as someone who spies on her new friends. It’s almost like canon. She’s the daughter of Mulan. She can sneak when she wants to)

Yes. Exactly. A peaceful political statement, says Evie, who is often a quicker thinker than the others. We are going to… sit at the front in protest. Of how we have been treated. As villains. We deserve the same respect as other students, regardless of who our parents are.

Lonnie is surprisingly on board with this, because honestly, based on some of her costume choices in d1, magical disney utopias seem to be overwhelmingly white for the most part and do not know how to support their international students very well.

(am I still mad about the awful dress she was wearing during the family day scene?? yes.)

So now they have Lonnie on board with their made-up protest plan, and they’ve got Ben and Jay being… actually bros, weirdly enough, and somehow there’s got to be high school political intrigue that I haven’t thought through yet (maybe a group who doesn’t approve of the villainy exchange program is trying to get Ben declared unfit?? Idk. Maybe it’s just different mini kingdoms angling for a good position, and it matters Very Deeply who sits where at the coronation and it’s a whole deal. That one probably works a bit better.) and it’s altogether getting Pretty Far Into Things.

Family day isn’t a big conflict in this AU, because the VKs don’t really care about the whole family gathering and party business without Mal being involved with Ben. They decide to have a chill time hanging out and plotting their heist instead. The wand is going to be taken out before the coronation, but rather than try and grab it in the middle of things, it’s got to be easier to grab it right before or after, while it’s in transport.

They have multiple people who can pick locks. People who can charm guards into letting their guard down for a bit. Ways of getting around even electronic lock systems, given some time.

They hang around the classroom a bit longer after their parent phone call, and get to talking with Fairy Godmother about how maybe, possibly, they could get a real place up at the front during the coronation. It’s a good distraction, and hearing more about the logistics of how things are going to go on the day itself is a perfect segue into asking more about the objects that are used during the coronation. It’s important to understand their new home! No other reason they’d want to know about the history and powers of her wand.

No other reason at all.

They learn that the wand is going into secure storage in Fairy Godmother’s office for the day before the ceremony. Of course, it’s going to be safe enough there. The magical wards at the museum are mostly there in case of emergency, and they’re really more about making sure none of the objects get damaged than they are about theft.

There are no more villains in Auradon, after all.

All things considered, it’s shockingly easy to break into Fairy Godmother’s office the night before the coronation. The wand is in a safe with some magic barriers around it, but Mal has her mother’s spellbook, and Evie has a magic mirror that can look up the answer to pretty much anything they ask, so it’s short work for a pair of magic users who have been practicing their spellwork since they day they left the isle to break the temporary barriers down.

There’s a regular human lock as well, and they give that one to Jay. He’s their lockpicking expert, after all.

And there it is.

Mal grabs the wand. There’s a surge of magical energy up through her hand, burning everywhere she’s touching the silvery metal, but in a way that feels like strength.

And all hell breaks loose.

[callous-and-misunderstood]

Marlos 44 or 117 for the ask game?!

Thank you so much!

Marlos, and 117: “Can I do your hair?”

This got a little sappy, but I love to write a vulnerable Mal...so here’s an angst/fluff one-shot!

It was Saturday. Saturday was Mal’s favorite day of the week because it was the start of the weekend, and breakfast on Saturday was always pancakes, which she always topped with strawberries and whipped cream. She even woke up early to get a full plate, though she often went back to bed after she’d eaten.

But it was now noon, so breakfast was over. And Mal was still in bed with no pancakes or strawberries.

Mal was in a very, very bad mood.

It had been brewing all week, a slowly growing storm her friends had been eyeing nervously. Mal’s bad moods were notoriously destructive, though when her friends worked together they were able to keep her somewhat docile.

But this weekend, only Carlos was on campus. Evie had left the night before to spend the weekend with Snow White and ‘bond’, whatever that meant. The tourney team had a game in Sherwood Forest, and the cheer team had gone with, meaning Jay, Ben, Lonnie, and Jane were also gone. So, just Carlos and Mal were wandering the mostly empty halls of Auradon Prep.

Normally, Mal would relish the quiet on campus, especially since Audrey and Chad were in Sherwood Forest with the tourney and cheer teams. But after her last class on Friday, she’d crawled into her bed, pulled the covers over her head, and hadn’t moved since.

Carlos rapped on her door firmly, unsurprised by the lack of response. He pulled out the spare key Evie had given him and Jay, and let himself into the room.

“Ugh,” Carlos wrinkled his nose as he took in the state of Mal’s side of the room. She hadn’t picked up anything all week, so dirty socks, crumpled papers, and half-eaten granola bars littered the floor.

“Go AWAY!” Mal grumbled from her cocoon of blankets.

“I have strawberries,” Carlos countered, pulling a full carton out from his bag.

Mal paused, then stuck a hand out from her nest.

“Give them.”

“Nope, you gotta get out of bed if you want them,” Carlos said.

Mal groaned loudly.

“M, come on,” Carlos coaxed, waving the strawberries near her, trying to use the scent to lure her out of bed.

It sort of worked. Mal pulled herself up into a sitting position, keeping herself wrapped in the blankets so only her face was visible.

Mal did not look like Mal. Her skin was washed out in grey, her eyes dull and unfocused. This was not just a bad mood. Something big was bugging her.

“Hey, dragon,” Carlos said softly with a smile, keeping his worry out of his voice.

“Hi,” Mal muttered, itching her nose. “Can I have those strawberries now?”

Carlos relented and handed her the carton, which she tucked into eagerly. A bit of warmth came back to her face as she ate her favorite food. Carlos made himself comfortable at her desk, gingerly throwing out a rotting orange and moving aside a stack of assignments that hadn’t been done.

“So,” Carlos said once the strawberries were mostly gone. “What’s up?”

“What’d you mean?” Mal asked nonchalantly, well aware why he was asking.

Carlos gave her a look, which Mal turned away from.

“Come on, dragon. You’ve been grumpier than the actual Grumpy this week, and you didn’t even get out of bed for pancakes this morning. What’s up?”

Mal grumbled, sinking further into her blanket pile. Even after nearly a year in Auradon, she still hated actually talking about her feelings. With Jay and Evie, she could play it off, but Carlos…he always knew. No matter how much she hid it, he would find her with a raised eyebrow and something that soothed her into talking through the issue.

But strawberries weren’t enough to bring her out of her slump this time. This was more than just a bad grade on a test or an art critique that was too harsh or being bullied by a fellow student.

Carlos watched Mal for a moment, taking in her withdrawn energy and the scattered mess in the room. Then he stood, and wandered towards Evie’s side of the room, finding the hairbrush with purple hair wrapped in it on Evie’s vanity rather than Mal’s.

“Can I do your hair?”

Mal looked at Carlos directly for the first time, her eyes watering a bit. That…sounded nice.

Mal wasn’t a fan of physical affection, but her earliest memory was Maleficent brushing her hair to soothe her tears about…something. She didn’t remember why she was upset, but she did remember how loved she felt while Maleficent ran the broken hairbrush through her short hair, humming a song that sounded like something she’d heard in a dream. Of course, as she’d gotten older that feeling of love had died, but. Yeah. Carlos brushing her hair sounded really nice.

“Sure,” she agreed, and let her blanket-hood fall.

Carlos climbed on to the bed, perching on his knees as he assessed the damage. She obviously hadn’t brushed it in a few days, judging by the size of the knot at the back of her head. But it wasn’t anything Carlos couldn’t work through—he’d brushed Cruella’s hair enough to know what was beyond repair.

Gently, he took the brush and began to comb through Mal’s hair.

“It’s so much longer now,” he commented.

“Well, no one’s going to grab it in a fight anymore,” Mal shot back, though there was no malice in her retort, as they both knew that was the actual reason she’d kept her hair so short.

“Hmmm,” Carlos agreed, gently detangling the purple knots.  

Long hair on the Isle wasn’t smart. Jay and Evie had been inconvenienced many a time in a fight by someone grabbing their hair, but they both refused to do anything about it. Mal had her hair length used against her once, and ever since then it had never grown past her chin. But now, it was trailing well below her shoulders.

Mal sighed, letting herself relax into Carlos’ comforting touch. They spent a few more moments in silence, Carlos moving slowly through the rat’s nest in the back to avoid hurting Mal.

“It’s just…” Mal began, then stopped.

Carlos said nothing, knowing that Mal needed space to sort through her thoughts before she spoke.

“I don’t feel like me,” she whispered after a long pause.

“How so?” Carlos asked just as quietly.

“I dunno, it’s just. We spent so long trying to…survive. And I spent so long trying to be my mom, or at least please her. And I know I’m supposed to be all good now, and all Auradon-perfect, but I just. Can’t forget what I spent my whole life being.”

Carlos hummed, setting down the hairbrush once the knots had been detangled. He deftly began to plait her hair into two braids.

“Like. Am I just a pretty pink princess from now on? Not someone from the Isle? I mean, even the other kids have stopped acting like we’re scary. I can’t even get Jane to jump when I say ‘boo’ anymore,” Mal pulled her knees tightly to her chest, letting a few tears fall from her eyes. “I just. Don’t know what is me, and what is someone else telling me who to be.”

Carlos tied off the braids then turned Mal to face him. She looked into his dark brown eyes and saw herself reflected in them.

“Mal, I know I haven’t known you as long as Jay, or even Evie, but I know that we will always be part of two vastly different worlds. We will always be trying to figure out what we actually want, us, not what everyone else wants us to want. We can’t avoid that. I mean, even if we spent our whole lives on the Isle, it wouldn’t be perfect. We would be trying to live up to impossible expectations. It’s the same here, because we can’t just forget where we came from. I can’t forget what Cruella did to me, anymore than you can forget what your mom wanted from you. But now, we have a real chance to figure out who we are, what we want. Yeah, Auradon isn’t the fairy-tale they pretend it is. But we have room to grow, to make our own way. And I’ll be with you the whole time, whoever you end up being.”

Mal was weeping openly now, and Carlos pulled her into his arms, tucking her head under his chin. He rocked her slightly, letting Mal cry herself out.

She should have talked to Carlos sooner, she realized. He had had the hardest time adjusting out of any of them; a year later and he still woke up screaming from nightmares about Cruella. He would never be fully Auradon, no matter how much therapy and medication he did. And neither would Evie and Jay, though they were so good at fitting in. But just because Jay was the school’s star athlete and Evie was running an incredibly successful fashion business did not mean they weren’t from the Isle.

No matter how well they adapted, that was one thing they could never get rid of. The past didn’t just disappear, even though Mal often wished it would.

“What’s that saying, from Mogwli’s human family?” Mal sniffed against Carlos’s chest.

“What?”

“You know, the boy from the jungle, but who’s still a human boy.”

“Ohhh, I see someone was paying attention in history class.”

“Shut up,” Mal headbutted Carlos softly.

“Mm, you can take the boy out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the boy?”

“Yes. But it’s us and the Isle.”

“Exactly,” Carlos pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. “You can’t take the Isle out of us, but that doesn’t mean it defines us.”

[stxrrywildflower]

saudade (3)

pairing - spencer reid x reader

summary - you and spencer finally reunite, the two teams work to solve the case

warnings - cursing, mentions of case, injury

series masterlist

recap:

“where’s my boy?” you asked.

you swore spencer was with morgan. “hey now, relax. he’s parking the car now. should be in any second.”

nervously, you tapped your fingers on your palm as audrey relayed some information to you though you weren’t quite retaining it. all you could think about that any moment, your boyfriend was going to be walking in the door. as soon as the door opened, your head snapped up.

“spencer?” you spoke quietly, looking towards the doorway where the man you hadn’t seen in ten months now stood.

----

tears welled in your eyes as you looked forward. your mouth hung open slightly as you let out a shaky breath. spencer was feeling the same. however, his face relaxed as he took in the sight of you.

in an instant, you both were rushing over to each other. your bodies collided as your arms went around his neck and his were around your waist. the force of your movements caused you two to spin around slightly before coming to a stop. you burried your head into his shoulder, taking in everything you had missed in ten months. spencer’s hand slipped under the hem of your shirt and rested on your back. he needed to feel your skin to make sure that you were really there.

a few stray tears fell down your cheeks, landing on spencer’s shoulder. when you two let go, both were grinning like idiots. your hands moved up to rest on his cheek as his were on your waist. the two of you kissed, sharing an extremely loving moment. but, it didn’t last long due to the fact that neither of you could stop smiling. instead, once you pulled away, you rested your foreheads together.

you ignored the comments made in the background by morgan and clay but instead savored the moment occurring.

“i have missed you so much,” you whispered, now making eye contact with your boyfriend. spencer let out a watery chuckle, “i see you still wear the necklace i got you.”

without even thinking, your hand went down to grip the chain spencer had gotten you. on your one year anniversary, obviously the two of you couldn’t be together. instead, you sent gifts from afar. for spencer, you had managed to find one of the vintage book sets he had been wanting since forever as well as a journal. 

spencer, on the other hand, sent you a simple gold chain necklace. it wasn’t flashy by any means and you absolutely loved it. it never left your neck except for any cases involving water and then the time you were injured. you were honestly thankful that spencer hadn’t said anything about your scar.

now that the initial excitement of seeing each other died down, spencer kissed you again. however, only moments later, a voice made you two pull away.

“hey lovebirds! i know you two are having your reunion but we do have a case to solve,” clay called.

you blushed and hid your head in spencer’s neck. “someone’s jealous that they’re single,” you spoke in a sing-song voice. clay frowned as your whole team snickered. after placing a final kiss to spencer’s cheek, you went up to your desk to grab one of the files while he went over to the boards.

after ten minutes of reviewing some of the details, you went back to the floor area. “alright everyone! since there’s two teams here we’re going to need to split our resources. morgan, abe, and hotch i need you to go to the victims homes. find out what you can about their personal lives. amelia and j.j., the familes are waiting at the police station for interviews. audrey and josh you two are already working on the background information. finally, emily, spencer, and rossi you all stay here and work victimology and geographical profiling,” you ordered.

before everyone could leave, your phone started to ring. “hold on a second, i need to take this. excuse me,” you spoke after seeing the caller name as ‘strauss.’ you then moved to the different part of the office and shut the door being you.

“hello ma’am,” you greeted.

“hello agent y/n, how is the case going?” strauss asked. “i just gave everyone their orders and once i finish talking to you, they will all be leaving,” you responded. “alright well i need to talk to you about something,” strauss started.

you sat down on one of the tables and kept the phone pressed to your ear. “i don’t want to promise anything yet, but there is a possibility your team will be relocated,” strauss’s words made you stop.

“it wouldn’t be for a few months though. quantico is getting an expansion and should be ready by february which is in five months. my superiors are discussing it and with the success rate that your team has had, there is talk that you may be transfered back to washington d.c. and be a second bau team. obviously the details are still up in the air and i have a meeting with some people about in a few days but for now, once you get the chance, i need you to talk to your team about their opinions. once i get the details, you would have to fly out and meet with some people. but again, it’s up in the air,” strauss explained.

“alright ma’am i will talk to my team when we get the chance,” you replied. after exchanging goodbyes, you hung up the phone and entered the office.

“my team, once this case is over or we have a spare moment, we need to have a meeting,” you called. upon hearing the groans of your agents, you added “strauss’s orders.”

from there, everyone dispersed. rossi stood next to you, “everything okay?” you nodded. “yeah,” you simple said. the eldest agent shrugged before turning back to the board.

____

a week later, the two teams were just minutes away from finding the unsubs identity. it was late at night and rain was due to fall any minute. all you had to do was wait for garcia to give you a call with the name and address.

in the meantime, everyone was getting on their vests and making sure their guns were loaded. as your team put on their vests, morgan turned to you with raised eyebrows. “are those the new kevlar vests?” he asked.

you nodded, “strauss sent them as gifts. you’d be suprised what you get when you don’t fight her.” suddenly, the main phone rang. hotch leaned down and pressed the answer button.

“rhett jones, the address has already been sent to your phones,” the tech genius spoke up.

“alright let’s go, everyone make sure you have your communicators on. i’ll be giving instructions on the way over,” you called. everyone left the police station, each going to their separate cars.

josh drove while you were giving orders. “first off, turn your sirens off. he can’t know we’re coming. my team will be the ones storming the building. the unsub is inside and has a victim with him. an ambulance needs to be on standby and for everyone else, wait by the enterance,” you spoke. staticky responses came back, all agreeing with you.

upon arrival at the abandoned warehouse, your team stood in the clearing before you were due to enter the building. as for hotch’s team, they leaned against the cars, watching your movements as they waited. by now, the rain was pouring, creating droplets that streamed down your cheeks and soaked your hair. thankfully, you had already pulled your hair up.

hotch watched from a distance as your team circled up, wrapping one arm around each other. he could hear you giving orders and saw you motioning with your hand. from an outsiders point of view, it looked almost like a huddle a sports team would do before a game.

“clear your room first, announce it and then move on. no one goes anywhere without my clearance. this guy is dangerous and we can’t be going alone. got it?” you asked.

once seeing your teams nods, you all put your hands in for a split second. your pinkie finger and thumb were out. emily looked over to her boss and mouthed, “what are they doing?” hotch, however, just shrugged. after bumping your hands together quickly, you all made your way over to the door. you kept your gun by your side as you glanced towards the piece of metal.

“this is going to hurt,” you mumbled before kicking it hard. 

unsurprisingly, the door swung open and your team rushed in, slowly staring to clear each room. “that’s new,” morgan commented after seeing that you had taken the role of kicking down doors. 

you were in the boiler room when you heard amelia’s voice in your ear. “i think i found something. i’m about to move in.”

you paused, “stand down.” your radio crackled once again. “but he’s in there, and he has the girl,” amelie responded.

“stand down agent green. that is an order,” your voice was stern and demanding. your team knew you hated having to order your team around like that and they knew that you hated using last names even more.

from the outside, hotch and the others listened to you directed your team around. they never heard you talk in that voice, making it most likely something you developed with your new job. spencer ran his hands over the detailing of the car, as he was incredibly nervous. mostly because you were in a warehouse with a dangerous unsub and he wasn’t in there with you.

“unsub is in sight. approach with caution,” you whispered.

out of the corner of your eye, you could see your other five team menbers all surrounded the open space the unsub was in. true to amelia’s word, a girl was with the unsub, a gun pressed firmly to her temple. she was most likely drugged as her she was barely moving except for her breathing. you motioned with your head for clay to move in.

“you don’t have to do this,” abe spoke, keeping his voice incredibly calm. the unsub jerked around just in time to see the six of you step into the light. the gun was then moved from the girls head and pointed directly at clay. you swallowed nervously.

“shame you don’t know about my partner,” the unsub taunted, “he is going to wreck havoc even when i’m gone.” outside, the washington d.c. team all glanced at each other. they had never even considered the possibility of a partner.

“how do we know you aren’t lying?”

“wait until another body shows up,” the unsub smirked.

“just put the gun down,” audrey motioned.

at first, the unsub looked as if he was lowering gun. then his expression changed and he fired a shot directly at clay. you immediately pulled your trigger and a bullet went soaring into the guys heart. after hearing a loud grunt, you turned to see clay clutching his arm with blood seeping through. “leave the unsub, get everyone out of here,” your voice was slightly shaky at seeing your friend shot.

hotch heard the gunshot sound but he knew that he couldn’t do anything. then, everyone heard your voice, letting them know you were okay. two sets of emt’s were already on standby, waiting with a stretcher. your team left the warehouse only moments later. rain continued to pour down, soaking everyone in the vicinity.

“amelia go with the girl, call me as soon as you get the maximum information out of her possible. abe go with clay, make sure he’s okay and gets stitches. it’s only a graze but it still needs to be checked out,” everyone watched as you ordered your team around, pointing with your hands in the directions for people to go.

spencer wanted to step forward and ask if you were okay but you had different ideas. you motioned for hotch to follow you as you moved over to one of the suv’s. josh and audrey were already leaning against the car with a slightly damp case file displayed in the hood. “what do we have?” you asked.

hotch furrowed his eyebrows and was about to as what that meant but audrey cut him off. “his only known assets were the people he was roommates with in prison,” she explained.

“how many?” you questioned.

“six.” you frowned at that answer, that was too many. “who did he spend the most time with?” hotch added. you shook your head, “no that wouldn’t make sense. who did he spend the least amount of time with?”

if the two were planning to go on a killing spree, they wouldn’t want to be around each other a ton. “it looks like the lowest was dominic herera. there’s still two other names,” josh spoke.

“get those three to gracia, find if any still live in california and if they own property here,” you commanded.

hotch pulled out his cellphone and put it on speaker. “garcia we have some names for you to run. do any of them own a large building or area around here,” hotch started before reading our the names.

“one, dominic herera owns a house with five acres only fifteen minutes away. sending you the address and photos now,” garcia’s voice echoed out of the phones speakers. so you were rigjt.

“send one to amelia too.”

only minutes after the photos were sent, you got a text informing you that the victim had identified the man as the partner. “you guys go,” you told hotch. “i’ll leave reid and j.j. behind,” he replied.

after the team had taken off to the location, you took your hair out of its original style and ran your hand through it with a deep sigh. “good work you two,” you complimented your fellow agents.

spencer was over to your car in an instant. despite knowing you were okay, he still pulled you into a tight hug and rested his head on yours. “i thought that gunshot was aimed at you,” he revealed.

you looked up at your boyfriend with sad eyes, “what?” he exhaled before adding, “i thought you had gotten shot. and i know the vests you wear do a better job at protecting you than before but i still got scared.”

“yeah well clay drew the short end of the stick and is the one with a graze,” you chucked, “but in all seriousness, i’m okay.”

“you have to explain to me how you managed to find the partner within five minutes” spencer spoke. you rolled your eyes playfully. “that’s something i’ll tell you later,” you said with a kiss to his cheek.

now that the case was done and your teams relocation back to washington d.c. pretty much inevitable, there was only positive hopes for the future between you and spencer.

[thecandywrites]

Blood For Gold Part 12

Wow, my personal life has taken some hits lately, things are going sideways and I've gone through some loss and am about to experience a lot more. And this has been one of my few saving graces in dealing with all of it.

So. Let's go from bad to worse and from big to overwhelming shall we? introducing some new characters. to the right of Ramsey, Audra's mother's mother- Loreiris aka The Saharan Viper. Her parents, Jodhaa and Akbar (I know, super original right? I love that movie) then Akbar's mother, Rahelle. To the right of her, The Jade Empress/Sultana- aka Grandma Anavia, then Audra's heir father- Leucordorize, aka Cory, and his wife, below him, Maradiem.

As always, thanks to @kriskukko for sharing that regency orc art with me. And to @punkhorse96 for all of your wonderful feedback.

Blood For Gold

Part 12

You barely had your “gifts” moved to Amara’s room and had your “Will” in her possession by the time Axal came back and crashed into your bed.

“And?” You asked as you sat in your room and took off your jewelry and makeup at the vanity.

“And the reason Audrey Rogers is his favorite is because she has a double headed, polished red jade dildo that she wears in a harness and rams him with it, just, balls to the wall, rails him with it, railed me with it too, it was glorious.” Axal proclaimed proudly as you dropped your earrings onto the surface of the vanity.

“What?” You blanched, completely taken off guard by that revelation.

“Ramsey loves both men and women, but he is much more preferential to men and if I may be so bold, is very preferential to me. Lucky me, lucky, lucky me.” Axal cooed as he rolled over to look at you through the mirror and even from here you could see the beginnings of hickeys on his skin, despite his high collar on his borrowed English clothes.

“He...he likes to be railed?” You asked, flabbergasted.

“Yes, and it’s because he loves men more than women and has been...I believe the English term is a rake?” He asked.

“Yes, a boyish playboy, that’s what that means.” You confirmed.

“Well his parents are done with it and beyond fed up with it. And in an effort to shake him of his rakish ways, he claimed that you were the only one worthy of him, conveniently at your wedding to Edward, so that you were thankfully no longer on the marriage market and thus no longer available, like a pregnant woman only wanting preserved meat in a fresh produce market and even when he went to the stables, supposedly “comparing” all of them to you, and since there is only one you- Audra, he and his parents were at an impasse until you became a widow, only a year later, which Ramsey confided in me that he was not expecting at all and honestly terrified him because he thought he would have more time, on the range of three to five years, even a decade at least, but his father is pushing him, practically has a cannon to his head by the way Ramsey went on about it. Apparently when it was found out that you would be available, the calendars were marked as to when you would be available again and the ball at Havenfield was planned thusly, to encourage him and you to get together and Ramsey has been recieving coaching for a year by his father about how to properly court a moura bride based on your master. Ramsey is only pursuing you because you are, in his mind, his last and only saving grace from ruination at the hands of his parents.” Axal informed you.

“Oh...oh my gods, he has the homosexual panic in a heterosexual society then?” You asked.

“Very much so.” Axal confirmed as he winked and clicked his teeth.

“But if he likes to be railed and wants to be railed by you- then that means that he and I are at an impasse, I will never share a lover, let alone a husband with you or anyone else for that matter, it’s practically incest, even by our lax Dorierran standards, let alone the English ones. I would never stand for it and I would never be allowed to have a lover of my own here, I like to be railed, not to be the one railing necessarily and I’m turned off to the idea and by the idea.” You argued, finding aversion to the idea of railing Ramsey. Demsey Draft, if he asked nicely, perhaps, but not Ramsey.

“I know, that’s why I have a solution for all of us. So at 3C’s, there is a lady I have in mind, Buchon Octavia Lafronze.” Axal grinned.

“Octavia? Really?” You asked, intrigued at his choice.

“You see, all Ramsey needs is a public wife, a highborn lady who is preferably beautiful, to give him an heir and a spare right? And one that would play to the public right? You have no desire for that. I have always known this about you. She’s closer in age to him and she would have the right temperament and would be a better fit and her mate, Drina, could always pose as my wife if I need to do so here, I will send for them tomorrow morning. She can be here by the end of the week. You just have to play along for about a week and a half. Surely you can do that can’t you?” Axal petitioned as you realized that your circumstances weren’t nearly as dire as you thought they were as you were relieved that Ramsey was not another version of Richard, but rather...in a bind himself, and while he was desperate, he was not as malevolent as you thought he was only a few moments prior. This suddenly made more sense. It wasn’t necessarily Ramsey that perhaps sent for Calla and Bennie, it was probably and most likely his father, wanting to clear out obstacles for his son. That made the most sense.

“I can.” You decided.

“Excellent, however in the second order of business. There is no Demsey Draft at The Red Velvet Rope.” Axal declared before you turned to face him with a frown.

“What?” You asked.

“There is a guy who is called “Draft”, his real name is Kondus Rogers, he’s actually Audrey’s Rogers’ husband and he’s the one who fashioned his wife’s dildo after his own cock which is just as equally impressive, but he is a minotaur, a brahma bull minotaur at that, he’s huge, giant cloven hooves, wide impressive horns, he has to come into rooms ducked and sideways, beautiful, glorious man. But there are no other “Drafts” and certainly no Demsey’s that work there. There is only one moura orc who works there but he’s a midnight orc, like, dark, dark midnight blue orc. But his name is Louko, aka Louis Charter and his moura mark is barely a speck of gold on the back of his neck. That’s it. I went through the whole “catalog” too and looked all of them over, some more thoroughly than others.” Axal informed you as you recalled seeing a minotaur serve you that Sultan’s feast there.

“That...that’s impossible.” You shook your head no, not wanting to believe him.

“I can only tell you the truth of what I found. That is the truth and the whole truth. I would not hold anything back, especially from you. Unless The Red Velvet Rope is keeping him locked up in a high tower or locked in a dungeon or he works at two whorehouses and is really a whore for another place and he was on loan, I don’t know what else to tell you.” Axal shrugged before he got up, stretched and kissed you on the cheek.

“Goodnight Audra, I love you. Don’t do anything I would do and probably will be doing.” Axal wished you before he left your room through the secret door and made his way to Ramsey’s rooms for the night, sauntering all the way.

“He...he can’t be right.” You said to yourself in the mirror before the thought occurred to you.

Convenience and coincidence rarely went hand in hand by happenstance, unless… what if it was connected? Your gut told you that it could be. But your rationality had a hard time figuring out a way for the two to be connected, much less how.

The next day you were surprised to learn that the rest of your family had moved with haste and had somehow, by nothing short of a miracle, had gotten ahold of The Blue Blaze, a speed train meant to expedite moura bride’s travel on the continent that traveled twice as fast as the normal steam trains and had somehow bypassed every other train, even the Orient Express trains, which were delayed by half a day so that The Blue Blaze could pass and supersede them and you felt like you were being led to the gallows the way you had been immediately prepared for your family’s arrival and your nerves were beyond frayed and you were consumed with anxiety because your gut was screaming at you that you needed to flee now before you could face your mother’s shame that you had been defeated in only a year and a half. Moura’s were bred and prepared to live in circumstances much graver than yours had been and come out rather unscathed after decades of “mistreatment”. You felt your mother especially would be extra harsh on you and you had only been able to speak barely a word about it to Amara who seemed immediately aware of your unease and had asked you about it back at the palace as you were waiting for the carriages to come around and take you to the station.

“Why are you so anxious?” Axal asked as he noticed you were pacing the platform, wringing your hands and double checking your jewelry to make sure it laid right as you silently prayed to all the gods who would listen as the Raymonds and all their guests were waiting for the train to come at the station. You were actively ignoring the stares from others on the platform because you were dressed in your traditional clothes as a proper sultana from perhaps Constantinople or the Middle East or even India instead of an English lady and you looked and felt even more foreign here now than you did when you first came two years ago. You felt lost and like you didn’t really belong anywhere. You felt you didn’t belong here in England and you didn’t belong in Dorierra either. You felt like you were homeless and homesick for a place that was neither Dorierra or England. You were excited to see who else might have been coming but you were agonizing over the unknown of how they would react on seeing you again and anxious to know how they would react once they learned the truth of what had happened and to know that you lost to one of the moura's oldest foes.

“I’m not the same woman I was when I left, I’ve been...I’ve been wounded and I’ve been trying to heal but...the wounds that are the hardest to heal from are the ones that no one can see.” You tried to tell him as even Demsey was watching you, wishing he could offer you some kind of aid or comfort as you were clearly distressed. Even Ramsey seemed anxious but he was practically ignoring you and almost glued to his mother while Charlotte was completely oblivious to the plight as she and Zax continued to talk as even Jane felt sympathy for you as Rian kept her company nearby, since Charlotte and Jane kept each other company while Axal kept you company, even choosing to pace with you a little bit, so that you weren’t the only one doing so.

“Do you know why Audra seems as tight as a bow string?” Demsey murmured to his sister Amara who was standing closest to him.

“Apparently, when Audra left, she was similar in many ways to Bennie, Audra is self conscious that her mother will be displeased to see how much she’s changed and think that the changes were not for the better.” Amara murmured to her brother.

“Surely once her mother learns of what she’s gone through, she will have some understanding, and if her mother thinks she’s changed for the worst, she will need to have her head examined. Because Bennie plays to Sierge the way an actress plays to the adoring masses. Audravienne is actually genuine and authentic.” Demsey tried to reason as Amara smiled at her brother’s discernment.

“When I came to check in on her, she was having an attack of anxiety and panic about it. According to Calla, Audra’s mother is...demanding and exacting. Not necessarily soft or all that motherly. And what’s more is Audra’s father isn’t even her father.” Amara murmured, having wanted to tell her brother about this but not getting an opportunity beforehand.

“What do you mean?” Demsey asked.

“Apparently the stables are as their name implies, moura women are dames, moura men are studs, and the stable masters decide who breeds who, on any given day in order to improve genetics. Audra told me that she has two fathers, a house father, or the father who presided over her home and is for all intensive purposes married to her mother and raised her and her siblings as his own. But her heir father or the father who sired her, is someone else, someone who is popular among the stables because he throws the ideal that Audra seems to embody. The way a white mare will throw color onto a foal. Audra told me that her heir father has fathered thousands of children and he never once even learned Audra’s name. I got the impression that they were very estranged. That’s why Axal and Audra look like the twins they are but Rian and Zax look nothing like them, they all have different hier fathers but the same mother.” Amara revealed to her siblings who seemed to gravitate around them.

“Is that true?” Kiera asked Leumeni before Calla approached since she had overheard her name.

“Yeah. Audra’s father is known as the Buttercup Stud. Every kid he has the closest to “the breed standard”, sadly, just like horses or dogs are bred to conform to a standard, the stables are overrun with him and his offspring.” Leumeni reluctantly confirmed.

“Would I ever have to... ?” Kiera asked.

“No, never, over my dead body, any bride who is not moura who comes into Dorierra is automatically disqualified from ever having to be involved in the stables part of Dorierra.” Leumeni finished for her as Amara realized the two had grown that close already but either Leumeni wasn’t being completely honest or you had been over exaggerating, which didn’t seem likely as Demsey seemed to catch onto Amara’s alarm as even he was surprised by Kiera’s interaction with Leumeni as he blinked in surprise at her and gave her meaningful look which she quickly and almost guiltily avoided.

“What’s going on?” Calla asked as she came over with Tzane.

“We’re trying to figure out why Audra’s anxious.” Amara informed her.

“Oh, it’s because of Audra’s mother, her mother, Sultana Jodhaa Lilita, is one of the most beautiful women in the world, but in marinai there’s a term, it means “tiger mother” in the most direct translation. But it means that the mother is demanding and pushes her children for very high levels of achievement and always towards perfection, to the point anything less than perfection is not allowed, much less accepted and severely punished. She makes my mother look like a kind, soft, warm hug with a blanket compared to her. Hell, I’m anxious. Lilita can cut you down to your kidneys with just a look. Much less a word. She can weigh and measure kings and they would be found wanting in her eyes. The only kind, soft mother figure in Audra’s life is actually her heir father’s wife, Maradiem, something of a step mom I guess? In English? But I sincerely doubt she will be coming, or her heir father for that matter, I doubt he could be bothered. Now Audra’s father Sullimon Akbar, he’s wonderful. Firm but gentle and kind and honestly the ideal father.” Calla breathed but the sound of the train coming into the station pulled their attention back as Demsey watched as you seemed to stand extra rigidly as you seemed almost frozen in fear as he was ready to march back to Windsor and go ahead and get Heavencrest geared up for you. You had clearly been through hell and if your family thought they could come here and judge you harshly for it, they were going to be in for a rude awakening, he wouldn’t stand for this and neither should you. He needed to shield you from this. He didn’t know how but he was determined.

Meanwhile Ramsey was in a similar state of panic, he could see your own anxiety as his own whirled within him. He had heard from his mother that your own was a “typical” moura mother, meaning, harsh, demanding perfection, and not exactly soft, kind, understanding or sympathetic like his own, but rather, like his father, and he worried what kind of scrutiny he would undergo himself.

The moment came and your tears flooded your vision at seeing your mother and your house father again as you did your best to bow and greet them respectfully, but you had barely lowered yourself an inch before your mother, uncharacteristically, practically ran to you, grabbed you up and held you fast, hugging you so hard your back popped, which you weren’t expecting. Nor were you expecting her to be crying too. Along with your Papa who also hugged you from the back so that you were effectively sandwiched between them before you just broke down crying, relinquishing yourself to their arms as you noticed that even your grandmothers, Loreiris, who was your mother’s mother and your house father’s mother, Rahelle were here too as they tried to squeeze in and hug you too, which you happily did.

“You are just as beautiful as the last time we saw you.” Your mother cried into your shoulder, before you noticed your hier father- Cory, and his wife- Maradiem and their other children, your half siblings and Cory's own mother, the Jade Sultana- Anavia, standing next to them, wearing their more traditional elven clothes.

“Father,” you greeted formally after wiping your eyes and greeting him respectfully and traditionally, as you were taught.

“No formalities here Audravienne.” He gently cooed to you as he hugged you too. For one of the few times in your life and for the first time, using your name to do so as all of you were once again, brought to tears at being reunited as Maradiem huged you just as tightly as your own mother had as even your heir grandmother hugged you tight as did your “hier siblings”, never in your life did you expect to see everyone in your family, nor their warm greeting, but you would be lying if you tried to deny that you didn't want or need it.

“I thought…” Demsey began before Calla cut him off.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that’s the first time he’s ever called her by her name, even when she was leaving to wed Edward, he didn’t use her name.” Calla murmured to them as she and was effectively shocked before you introduced their hosts as they greeted Yalin and Gregori, giving them many gifts, in thanks for inviting them and hosting them as Gregori happily took the swords with pleasure while Yalin happily accepted all the jewelry, feeling like she was suddenly carrying fifty pounds of gold and jewels before Yalin and Gregori had to hire all the available carriages at the station to bring everyone back as you were squished between your mother and your housefather as your mother held you the way you had always needed her to and once back at the palace, your family insisted on talking with you privately which Yalin and Gregori opened up one of the audience rooms for your family as all of you filed in and the doors were shut, leaving Bennie and Calla and their siblings and the Voyambi’s on the other side as Calla and Bennie pressed their ears to the door while Yalin and Gregori, Ramsey, Charlotte pressed their ears to the other doors on the other side of the room while Jane sat anxiously by, worrying about what was going to happen next.

“What happened? Why are you a shakan?” Your mother implored in marinai as she held your hands in yours.

“Because of the abuse Mama.” You answered honestly.

“What abuse? The contract should have shielded you from any and all abuse, tell me.” Your mother warmly invited.

“I was alienated, persecuted, beaten, raped, poisoned, forced to drink mourkatili by the gallon.” You began before everyone gasped in outrage.

“And did you kill them for trying to kill you?!” Your mother demanded.

“No, I could not repay any of it. All I could do is gather all the evidence I could that it was happening in the first place. They poisoned their own father with Jade’s Crown, it made him go crazy! He would be himself during the day and a violent madman at night and I was locked away with him like a prisoner, three months after I married him, he could not hide it from me anymore and once he showed it, it just got worse and worse. Then when it became apparent that he would die soon, they poisoned me with cyanide and mourkatili, it was in everything, even the water I bathed in so that they could bury me with him. In only a month I was addicted to it, I was constantly drunk and my kidneys bled into my urine, my colon bled into my stool. By gums bled into my mouth. It took me five months to wean off of it without going crazy myself.” You explained as Bennie and Calla shrunk down on the other side of the door, both of them holding their hands over their mouths to keep them from throwing up as tears streaked down their faces.

“What are they saying?” Amara pressed.

“The Morrigans made her drink mourkatilli.” Bennie answered as she wiped at her eyes, her tears streaking her eye makeup and staining her handkerchief as she and Calla both shuddered at the very thought.

“Mouras, more or less, are immune to every kind of poison. To give moura a shot of cyanide, it’s like giving yourself a shot of whiskey. It can get you drunk, and make you sick if you drink too much, but not unless you drink amounts that would kill a village, you’ll recover, you’ll have a hangover, but you’ll be ok eventually right? However a millenia ago, there was the poison of poisons that was made, a poison that would kill anything and everything, including and especially a moura. Mourkatili means “moura killer”. Before the gold plague the only thing that could kill a moura was battle, very old age or a broken heart. We were immune to everything else, until mourkatili was invented. Only it behaves like whiskey laced with morphine or laudinoum or opium or any other very addictive drug, for a moura- it’s better than morphine, better than laudinum, better than opium, better than sex, better than anything and everything. It’s both sweet like candy, yet zesty like orange juice and numbing like morphine, but it makes a moura body bleed, it’s killed countless moura babes still in the womb, when their mother’s bodies choose between saving the baby or saving itself, the body will always choose the latter. It’ll make a moura mother instantly abort a baby, no matter the stage of pregnancy, but that baby will be dead before it’s birthed. It makes your gums bleed around your teeth, it makes your throat bleed, it makes your stomach bleed, it just makes everything bleed but it also makes the blood in your own mouth taste like chocolate. It’s the very first poison mouras are trained at the stables to detect because one sip could either kill you, or turn you into an addict and you kill yourself trying to chase the high it gives you. It’s the single biggest danger to a moura’s life and health and with such a dose, Audra’s internal organs probably look like they’ve been shot with a bird shot and the chances of her mothering a child after this will be especially hard, if not impossible for her. No wonder the stable masters didn’t let her come back and gave her the shakan status, because the shame of having an addict in the family is worth killing her for- to preserve the family honor. The Morrigans destroyed her and poisoned her and tried to kill her and it’s a wonder she’s alive. A single drop of it in a well can kill all the inhabitants of a city ten times the size of London. And she...she just told them that they made her drink a gallon of it. That much should have killed her, made her an addict at the very least. Fuck, how is she alive? How is she…?” Calla wept as Bennie and Calla hugged each other as the Voyambi’s stared in horror at each other as Demsey was seeing red, he wanted to run Richard Morrigan through with a thousand swords and make pay with everything he had, including his life for what he did as one look around, Calla and Bennie's brothers were of the same mind as all of them curled their lips in anger and disgust as all of them were heaving mighty breaths as Duke and Duchess Voyambis were even appalled by such knowledge, to know a countryman would behave so.

Meanwhile back inside the audience room-

“It is because I have that proof that they are paying double to me what Edward claimed he could. But the stable masters knew that the chances of my recovery were slim. And I was more trouble than I was worth. So they branded me a shakan and I’ve been alone and by myself ever since. The Morrigans even blocked all messengeraris, all my letters, everything, even after I left them. There was no way for me to tell anyone and they isolated me from every other moura, it wasn’t until only a few weeks ago that Calla left a note inside a book that found its way to me that I was able to find Yalin, and she introduced me to others.” You explained to your family.

“Where are the Morrigan’s now?” Loreiris demanded, drawing her sword as everyone else did the same before Gregori and Yalin hurriedly opened the door as Bennie and Calla did the same, falling over each other to try to get through the door first as all Demsey saw was your whole family have a weapon drawn as they all stared angrily towards you, as you stood there with your hands up, using the universal signal for stop and they didn’t need to think twice, he bolted for you, leaping between Calla and Bennie, thinking they were going to attack but Ramsey managed to get to you first since the door he was overhearing from was closer to you before he pulled you behind him, rather hoping to be run through, so that he wouldn’t have to live without Axal as Demsey was there with him only a couple of seconds later.

“Oh my gods, they’re not after me, they’re wanting revenge on the Morrigans, I told my family what they did to me.” You confessed as you ducked and evaded both of them before Jane burst into tears and sunk down to the floor and you and Rian were the first to her.

“My parents are done for aren’t they?” Jane sobbed.

“Who is this girl?” Your mother demanded.

“This is the Morrigan’s only daughter, who is innocent in all of this. But her parents, as awful and abusive as they are, are the only things between her and living in the street. She was my only friend through all of it and she helped me gather evidence.” You answered as you helped pull her back up to her feet as you consoled her.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, if I can have a moment of your time and attention. While it is true that the Morrigans have wronged Sultana Audravienne, they have been under intense investigation for the last few days. A year ago, when the stable masters initially investigated this matter, they found solid evidence of wrongdoing and have kept that evidence, and they attempted to resolve this matter, thus the current contract that she has with them and the Morrigans. If you wish to legally press charges and wish to sue for damages and accuse them of whatever they might be guilty of, that can be arranged. But if you attempt to kill them in revenge, you will be wanted for murder which will spark a war. Right now, we must do things the proper way here in England. But this will take time. Up to a few weeks at least, maybe even a month. For now, settle in, come together, enjoy being reunited with Audravienne. There is a masquerade ball in only two days, and it will take us about a week but there has been a request for a proper Kamoba battle, which we will gladly host here. Let the tempers flare in the Komoba battle so that in court, we can all keep our composure and our heads and our wits. I will have the best lawyers involved and this matter will be resolved before you depart.” Gregori offered your family which seemed to be the magic words in appeasing them.

“Fine.” Loreiris huffed as she resheathed her sword as did everyone else in your family resheathe their weapons before Axal managed to pull you away from Jane and brought you back over to your family where you received even more hugs and words of encouragement and praise and understanding.

“Are you disappointed?” You asked your mother.

“No, I’m shocked, and I’m angry and very disappointed with the Morrigans. But not with you. You are blameless in this. You survived. You are here and you have persevered against mourkatilli which is a battle far too many lose to. No. I am proud of you. So proud of you. Since you are free of mourkatili now, we will have those masters reevaluate you. You will be coming home. Never again will an Englishman be in any position of authority over you and never again will you suffer at the hands of anyone, lest of all an Englishman. No, no child of mine will ever marry an Englishman after this” Your mother insisted as she said the word “Englishman” with particular hate and disdain and disgust As Yalin, Calla and Bennie all winced and grimaced as they gave each other meaningful looks.

“We’re screwed.” Yalin murmured worriedly to her husband before she translated your mother’s words to him.

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about it. Richard Morrigan has practically dug his own grave, all we need to do is prove he is the only Englishman who is like himself before we let himself bury himself in it before Audravienne is awarded everything he has and thus we will come to have everything he has. We can prove that we are different and that Audravienne would be treated very well here. Ramsey is up to the task to prove he is different.” Gregori returned confidently as Yalin looked from Gregori to Ramsey who looked particularly terrified of the idea as Ramsey looked to Axal who looked particularly anxious with his mother’s words as well.

“Mama, not all Englishmen are like the Morrigans.” You gently countered, thinking of Demsey Voyambi more than anyone.

“I mean the Raymonds, your hosts, act the opposite to the Morrigans, they have been very kind, welcoming and hospitable, they invited you here haven’t they? They are hosting us aren’t they? And they offered to help us. They are good people.” You tried to intercede for Axal’s sake as Axal blew out a breath of relief and gave you a look of gratitude and appreciation as Yalin too was giving you a grateful look.

“It is the Dauphin that has made us coming together possible and you just heard with your own ears what they are about to do for us. We can not snub them or begrudge them. They are innocent in all of this. Let us see how it plays out.” You desperately pleaded.

“What is Audra saying?” Gregori whispered.

“Audra is interceding for us.” Yalin proudly revealed.

“Excellent. Knew she would.” Gregori insisted.

“And you must make sure that her confidence is well founded and must be richly rewarded.” Gregori insisted to Ramsey.

“Yes, of course.” Ramsey forced a smile and a nod.

"Who are you?" Loreiris demanded as she stood before Demsey and appraised him.

"I'm Duke Demsey Voyambi." He cordially answered.

"Who are you to Audra?" She asked as she searched his eyes.

"A freind." He allowed.

"A friend?" She repeated with a raised brow.

"Yes." He nodded.

"A friend who put himself between her and her family? With a look in your eyes that said that you were about to fight all of us off if we posed a danger to her?" She posed.

"Absolutely. She has suffered more than enough and she should suffer no more, not by anyone's hands, not even those who may or may not share her blood." Demsey insisted as Loreiris mouth quirked a lopsided grin at him.

"A good friend then." She surmised.

"I hope so." Demsey found himself nodding.

"Good. But you should know, that the next time you try that, you will be run through and I have a feeling Audra would prefer you alive, rather than dead. Do not face a blade without the proper protection, or a blade of your own." Loreiris advised cooly before she turned and returned to the others.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #383

“the big bully try to stick his finger in my chest  /  try to tell me, tell me he’s the best  /  i don’t really give a good goddamn ‘cuz i got my lunchbox & i’m armed real well”

Ever had a friend online for a long time without seeing a photo of them? Well yeah. Most of my friends are online, and while I've seen pictures of most at least once or twice, some I still haven't. The last time you threw up, what caused it? It was a side effect of a mood stabilizer I started. Any foods from other countries you would like to try but haven’t yet? I'm sure there's something, idk. Do you think the world would be more peaceful without any religion? Yes. Have you ever had a stalker? No. Does it hurt your feelings when people talk shit about things you love? It makes me self-conscious way more than anything. I start to obsess over whether or not the person things poorly or weirdly of me for liking what I like. I just feel judged for liking it, but that's my problem. Do you like it when people give you nicknames? I do, actually. It feels kinda affectionate to me. Do you often find yourself checking out people’s butts? Haha I'm not gonna say it's never happened, but it's not something I make a habit out of for sure. What fandoms are you in? MEERKAT MANOR IS BACK BAYBEEEE, Markiplier, Silent Hill, Shadow of the Colossus, World of Warcraft, Spyro, Wings of Fire, and lots more, honestly. I'm into a lot of stuff, and I don't love in moderation, haha. Are there any fandoms you used to be in, but left? Yeah, like Supernatural, Good Mythical Morning, or Warriors, but it wasn't out of "I don't like it anymore" or anything, I just drifted away. Anything the fans in your fandoms do that pisses you off? World of Warcraft if particular has one of the most toxic fucking fanbases. There are so many goddamn elitists and people who whine about "boohoo WoW is dying" and "omg this game has been trash since Wrath" and yada yada yada and it's annoying as hell. They always find some shit to complain about. Then Silent Hill... ugh. I think people just hop onto the "the series sux after 1-4" bandwagon to fit in with a certain crowd, but that's not the main thing that annoys me; rather, it's the fact the former main admin of the SH wiki made a fucking joke out of us there. He was clearly having personal issues and made a HUGE and utterly ridiculous deal of Silent Hill 4 having heavy symbolism to the main character being obsessed with the bullshit idea of him being circumcised, and it led to a maaaassive thread of us members trying to talk some damn sense into him as he abused his power. He was finally banned by the Wikia staff, but not in time for some gaming websites to publish "news" stories about it because it was just that ludicrous. Now, YEARS later, we still get trolls coming onto the site to try and revive the drama by inserting absolute rubbish into pages or making new ones. Nowadays I'm the main administrator there, and it's fucking embarrassing sometimes. I'm supposed to keep the wiki under control and respected, you know? Ugh, I'll stop. I could rant for a very long time about this. Do you prefer ruffly or regular potato chips? Ruffly. Do you write down your own recipes, or just commit them to memory? I don’t cook. What color do you want to dye your hair? My top three are pastel pink, lilac, and a light creamsicle orange. I REALLY want to dye it SOMETHING. :( How do you like your chicken? Of course breaded (like nuggets, tenders) is my favorite, but I also enjoy is broiled and seasoned well. There's other ways, but because I don't cook, I, uh... don't know how a lot are made lmao. Do you enjoy cheese fries? UUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH YES. Do you eat refried beans? I absolutely hate beans, so no. What is a food you enjoy, but don’t have very often? A whole lot because a lot of it is from restaurants and we don't eat out all that much. As well, my diet is very narrow just because of how picky I am. Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn? Why? I mean, what are we comparing them for? I think Audrey is fucking gorgeous, though. Marilyn is also beautiful. Favorite fictional world? Uh, I dunno. Do you use lint rollers often? No. Do you carry pepper spray? No, but I want to. Has your power ever gone out for more than a day? I think so. Other than a dislike button, what’s something you wish Facebook had? Hm, I dunno. What time do your parents normally get home from work? Mom can't work right now, but I think Dad gets off around 5PM. Are you afraid to ask people out on dates? Yep. Do you think it’s better to look for love or let it find you? Both can work, but I definitely prefer to let it find me. I feel that *in general* that usually has better results. Have you ever found yourself worrying about commitment? No. I'm a very committed person romantically. Would you get involved with someone if they had a child already? No. Have you ever had a rash from poison ivy? I don't believe so, no. Do you have any chairs in your bedroom? No. Did you watch Elmo as a child? Some, yeah. Do you know anyone who doesn’t eat meat? I don't think so, off the top of my head. When you throw up, do you cry? No, but I'm a whiner and will also shake from fear because I have such a phobia of vomiting. Doing it totally turns me into a baby. Who was the last person to carry you? I couldn't tell you the last person to full-on carry me, but back when I tore a ligament in my foot, my mom kinda had me lifted when she would help me walk. Is it easy for you to accept loss? Absolutely not. I handle it very, very poorly. Have you done anything sneaky lately? No. Have you ever had a rolling back pack? Yes. Who knows you better than anyone else? My mom, probably. Would you ever want to go to Brazil? Sure, if the opportunity came up. Are there any medical conditions that run in your family? A lot, mostly heart problems. What band has the best guitar solos? Metallica imo. Who is the biggest jerk you've ever met? She was somehow my former best friend. Have you ever swerved off the road to avoid hitting an animal? I've never been in that situation, thankfully. What's a charity you would never donate to? I'm really not familiar enough with charities and their practices to know which ones are sketch or not. Have you ever grown your own herbs? No. Do you have any exes you'd consider dating again? Yes. What were some of your favorite classes you took in high school? Art and German. Mythology was fun, too. Do you know anyone with a profession in law? Yeah, I have a cousin that's a lawyer. Have you ever Googled yourself? Yeah, outta curiosity. What's the shortest amount of time you've had between relationships? Like, two days. Part of the reason I left Girt was because I liked Sara. As a child, what comfort foods did your parents make for you when you were sick with a cold or flu? Chicken noodle soup. What's a movie series where the sequel was better than the original? Ha, for some reason Inspector Gadget came to mind. I guess from mentioning my childhood. I was FUCKING OBSESSED with that movie as a kid. The first one's fine, but I love the second one. Does your car have heated seats? Mom's doesn't. What is the strangest pizza topping you've ever eaten? Nothing strange, really. Describe your hometown. What’s it like there? Small and dangerous. Lots of run-down areas. A gang nearly broke into our house once, if that helps you get the picture. What was the last video game you beat? I replayed Silent Hill 2 forever ago. What did you learn from your last failed relationship? It really just taught me that you need to take care of your own mental health before you can effectively handle another's properly and strike a healthy balance. What country does your favorite band hail from? Britain. What’s something on your to-do list that never actually gets done? Finish decorating my room. -_- Have you ever been really passionate about something but then lost interest? If so, what was it? Good Mythical Morning, I suppose. I used to be OB-SESSED. I still adore Rhett and Link as people, they are fucking wonderful human beings and excellent entertainers, I just drifted away from their content. I don't really know why. Do you sleep with the TV or the radio on? No. What’s the worst thing about being male/female (whichever you are)? Menstrual cycles, I'd say. It affects your mood so much, and as someone who's bipolar, it can be very confusing. I like to know why I'm feeling a certain way. What movie has the best special effects? /shrug How many work hours per week is too much for you? I wouldn't know, I've never really worked long enough to figure this out. Can you remember your first day of school? I think I have the faintest memory of it. I know I was very scared to leave my mom (I had absolutely awful separation anxiety from her) and I MIGHT have cried, but I don't really recall with certainty. Have you ever entered a modelling competition? Would you? No thanks. Did you keep any drawings/stories from when you were younger? Most, no, because the level of cringe is LITERALLY unbearable for me. Do you have a safe? Mom does somewhere. What’s the scariest thing to happen to you so far? The breakup. That night was just fucking terrifying. I was so certain my life was over, like the situation was so, so impossible in my head. What was your last dream about? (or your daydream if you don’t remember) My memory's faint, but I just remember I had a nightmare where a LOT of my bones were totally snapped in half. When was the last time you saw a relative? Excluding my immediate family, I last saw my now-departed grandmother and my uncle a while back at a hotel as they were passing through. Have you ever been in a TV audience? No. Are you in any way close to reaching a personal goal? Not really... Do you prefer crosswords or word searches? Word searches. Do you like making collages? Not really. Do you remember any inside jokes from childhood? No. What would you love to learn to do? Digital art, like drawing on a tablet. Do you prefer monkeys or lemurs? Lemurs. Do you watch movies based on the actors or the movie plot? The plot, 100%. Are you more shy in real life or on the internet? I am WAY more shy irl.

[vegalocity]

Spicynoodleshipping 16/32

Prompt meme

16: Naughty kiss || 32. Getting caught in the act

Not only must you go to horny jail but I give you homework, hidden in this one is a secret in regard to the theatre AU, whoever finds it gets to suggest a musical for me to replace Singing in the Rain in AU canon bc i realized i can’t make those fucking dance numbers realistic with where i have the characters talent levels in this AU

--

“You know I get that Sandy couldn't figure out the giant puppet in time, but I'm not sure if the 'posion ivy' look really works for The Plant.” Red Son tugged at the neckline of the green bodysuit peering at himself in the full length mirror. He would be more perturbed if the 'poison ivy look' wasn’t exactly what Tang was going for when he'd presented the garb to Red Son. The skintight unitard was the same shade of vibrant green as they'd used on the plant puppets stem, with the lighter yellow green of the bulb on his sternum and shoulders for symmetry, vine patterns and leaves had been hastily yet sturdily stitched up and down the costume to make it look more plant like, and unfortunately, due to the tightness, and the 'strategic vine patterns which would make the best shadows against the lightning and has nothing to do with muscle emphasis don't be ridiculous Red' it didn't leave much to the imagination.

They weren't at tech week just yet, but it was looming overhead and he'd have to get comfortable with wearing the outfit underneath the more standard black hoodie and dark jeans required for an actor working a puppet for the small and medium Audrey II's. After they came up with a way to spare Sandy's sanity on the biggest puppet the idea would be that when the plant first starts speaking he'd be in a proper puppeteer's outfit, then when it gets bigger after killing the dentist he'd take his hair down and unzip the hoodie and roll up the sleeves to show a bit of green, and then at the end show up in full costume, move about freely since the only thing the giant puppet could do was open its mouth enough to make it look like it could swallow Audrey (some college girl who really needed the experience as Mei was needed on tech crew exclusively to make this whole thing work, Red Son had offered to be the one fully on tech crew this production but Mei insisted) whole.

“I compliments your hair!” MK speaks up from his own costume inspection, his was far simpler, just some meek nerd stereotype looking number, a pair of fake square glasses perched on his nose, and hair combed back all neat and perfect. “I think you look nice!” Red Son turned away, but it wasn't any use, granted MK could definitely still see his growing fluster in the reflection of the mirror.

“You look like if someone put Tang and Wukong in a blender and put whatever came out in an ugly sweatervest.” 

MK let out a huff “Red, don't be mean.”

“I never said you don't look good, if you interpreted that as an insult that's your problem... Though I was insulting that sweatervest, it's hideous.” He leaned in to properly examine himself from up close, Wukong had said it might be a smart move to employ some 'extra effects' to really make the look stand out, and in a morbidly amused way he wondered how his parents would react if they found out he'd decided he actually was fond of this place and these plays by showing up on stage in like... green lipstick and fake fangs or something.

He was wondering if he'd even have time to get home and pack his bags or if he'd have to be packed up before opening night when MK's arms sliding around his waist caught him off guard.

“You're a real asshole you know that?” his breath was hot against Red Son's neck, sending a shudder up his spine.

“We wouldn't be fucking if you weren't into it.” MK hummed in response, saying something that sounded like 'fair enough' before pressing his mouth to Red Son's neck, effectively ending the conversation there.

Red Son hummed and lifted a hand to press against MK's head, the other resting on one of his arms around Red Son's waist.

“Careful, if either of these costumes get messed up it'll be our heads.” he found himself lightly jabbing. MK didn't seem to pick up his amusement though, because he hummed against his neck and otherwise stopped his ministrations.

“Yeah we should probably get out of them...” he agreed, and THAT was what made Red Son's face fully flush. That... was not what he was suggesting.

But now the gauntlet was thrown down, and Red Son was helpless but to pick it up.

That hideous sweatervest went first, then the undershirt, then Red Son struggled out of the top half of the unitard, the sleeves and collar hanging around his hips when they reconnected. MK was backed into the counter before the long mirror and hopped up to sit on the ledge, his legs wrapped around Red Son's hips and for once his hair was soft to the touch, though the fake glasses pressed wierdly against his face, Red Son refused to pull away even if it was just to take them off.

Red Son bit down gently on MK's lower lip, just enough to draw a thin whine from him and let his hands wander across the exposed chest infront of him. MK kept his arms around Red Son's shoulders, though every so often he'd feel one of the hands splay across his back and try to somehow get them even closer together.

MK's legs tightened around his hips, grinding them together with a sharp motion, Red Son groaned lowly and felt MK's grip on his shoulders tighten, nails starting to dig in-

The unlocked door opened with a click that went off like a gunshot

“Alright boys, any concerns about the outfi-” Tang, of course it was Tang, who else would walk right into a dressing room uncaring of any changing that may be in progress because his brain is all full of fabrics and measurements?

His normally 'disinterested and unflappable' resting face was gone for once, though the only slightly surprised look it was replaced with implied this was neither the first time he'd caught two actors fooling around in the dressing room nor did he expect it to be the last.

“Well they must be uncomfortable if you're both so quick to be rid of them.” he snorted at his own joke before waving a hand “Get your street clothes on and I won't tell anyone. We're still in Pigsy's time increment for the bet, so if you guys can wait until next week to try again I'll appreciate it.”

And really was there anything to do then beyond do as instructed?

“Oh and Red Son?”

“Y...yes?”

“If I see a single leaf torn off of that costume I will not. be. happy.”

Apparently Tang was once their go-to actor for villains, and in that moment Red Son could understand why.

--

Send me stuff!

[bexterbex]

A Soul to Mend His Own | Ch. 57

Warning, PLEASE CHECK TAGS IF YOU SEE SOMETHING YOU DON’T WANT TO READ THEN DON’T READ. Tag lists are closed

Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Will tag as I go along, Will update tags, Slow Burn, Influenced by Star Trek and other Sci-Fi themes, References to We Happy Few, Tons of References and quotes to George Orwells 1984 see if you can find them all, The First Order is the new Big Brother,  but who is really surprised, Blatant Nazi Symbolism, Interrogation Themes, Eventual Smut, Eventual Romance, Really just drawn out Slow Burn, Don’t repost without permission, Torture themes, Suggestive Themes, Execution themes, Disturbing Themes, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Controlling Kylo Ren, Physical Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Possessive Kylo Ren, A character shamelessly based on Zelda

A Kylo Ren x Modern! Reader in a soulmate au with canon divergence. —————————————SLOWBURN————————————–

He is already the Supreme leader, searching the universe to find you, his Empress. Your name on his wrist has been the only constant in his life, while you have doubts about his existence and his acceptance of you. He isn’t in the database and why did the name Kylo Ren cover Ben Solo?

MASTERLIST

Chapter 57: The Dinner Pt. 1

You couldn’t believe your eyes, she was gone as fast as she appeared. But you felt a slight sense of relief watching as the blast went through her heart. But she was gone, and you watched as the blast sizzled into the target. You felt the burning deep within your bones. Their fire burns within you again.

You practiced for a couple of hours. As Phasma just seemed content in letting you shoot your frustrations out on to the target. Once you were finished you headed back to your chambers for lunch.

Kylo returned as he promised. Joining you for lunch. He kissed you upon entering the dining room where you sat waiting for him. Lunch went on mostly silently with neither of you speaking. He kissed you before he left.

Your lessons with the general went by in a blur, you watched more diplomatic videos and it all blended together. You changed as usual in your dressing room for dinner. Dinner came and went. You changed for bed and made out with Kylo for a bit. You fell asleep like normal and your dreams were a blend from the night before, except every time you were on the desert planet there was a blaster in your hand. You attempted to shoot the woman but before the blast hit her the dream shifted again, the earth beneath you collapsed into quicksand.

You woke up to the pressure behind your ear; you felt like you were in a fog. Kylo kissed you and told you to go target practice with Phasma. You did your routine of getting ready and changing, eating breakfast. Target practice was the only time you felt a bit human once more. But then you had lunch, your lessons, dinner, getting ready for bed, kisses, falling asleep, nightmares: repeat.

This was your life for the next week, the days all blending together. You haven’t felt at all human. A monotonous machine going through the tasks. No smiles, no joy, nothing. The only time you had felt anything was when the blaster fired. Wake up, get dressed, breakfast, blaster practice, lunch, lessons, dinner, kisses, bed, and nightmares.

You woke up to a pressure behind your ear, and then kisses down your neck, “Good morning Kitten, today is a big day. We have our dinner tonight.” His hands then roamed down your sides, caressing and squeezing your body as they had been doing the last few days.

Your brain woke up at the mention of this. When was the last time you had truly had a thought? Had a week gone by without a single coherent thought? You felt a pit in your stomach.

“I’ll be back after lunch, we will get ready during your usual lesson time.” His finger grazed your cheek before he hooked it under your chin, giving you one last kiss before he left.

You sat up. Today was the day you were supposed to be presented officially as the First Lady of the First Order. And time had just slipped you by. You had been frozen, and now you didn’t know how to feel. Something in your gut told you tonight was not going to be a party like Kylo seemed to insist that it was.

Something in the back of your brain reminded you of what Hux had said. That there would be people at the dinner that would not like your status, would not like that you had come from Earth.

You then remembered why you were dreading the dinner, Pryde. He was supposed to be there. He was supposed to be there as a good gesture to the people who would look down upon you. The man who made your skin crawl. Before you could feel like you were going to throw up Adlez and Olivia-Rose were at your side hauling you up and into the bathroom.

“Now m’lady, you are supposed to get ready with the Supreme Leader after lunch but we need to get you prepped before that,” said Adlez. You were being stripped and put in the tub that was filled with fragrant oils. They worked on your hair and skin. Washing away the numbness that you had felt all week. Mending you whole again.

You started to feel human as Olivia-Rose brushed conditioner through your wet hair. Adlez buffed away at your skin before inspecting your nails, “We shall have to do something special for tonight.”

You were washed, shaved, and thoroughly moisturized by the time you had got out. This was the first time you ate breakfast in just your robe with wet hair. You stared out the window in the dining room at the simulated horizon. You turned to Adlez, who was chatting quietly with the others. “Can you change the windows to the stars outside?”

She smiled and got up to do so. You watched as the simulated background beyond your ‘outdoor’ plants changed to allow the galaxy and stars to shine their darkness through. You continued to look out the window as you finished eating.

You followed Olivia-Rose and Adlez into the dressing room. Where they moisturized your skin once more. Olivia-Rose gave you a facial and sculpted your brows as Adlez gave you a manicure and pedicure. They were sculpting you into an Empress, mending you whole again. Or at least mending the you that the outside world got to see. Your mind, heart, and soul still felt empty.

You had no idea how much time had passed before you heard a knock on the door. Adlez went to answer it.

“We need to get ready,” you heard Kylo’s voice through the doorway.

“Of course, we will have her ready for you. Do you need any assistance m’lord?”

“No, I shall be fine, just make sure she is ready.” And then you heard the door shut.

“You heard the Dark Lord, we need to get you ready,” laughed Adlez. It was the first time in the last few days that you remember hearing her laugh.

They placed you in front of the vanity. Adlez doing something intricate with your hair. The same hairstyle she had practiced days before. Olivia-Rose doing your makeup. By the end of their handiwork you looked like you had just stepped off the silver screen with Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Marilyn Monroe. You looked otherworldly.

They then walked you over to the open armoire and helped you dress. Adlez insisted on some shapewear, “You look stunning m’lady, but you don’t want to give anyone any chances of finding out what you are hiding. That is for the Supreme Leader only to know. And besides, the dress is really flowy and this will help you feel more secure.” You took her advice, they really did help the dress fit you that much more.

You still looked like yourself, but a bit better. When you looked at yourself in the full-length mirror. You saw a woman who was fit to be the First Lady of the First Order. A woman who was sure of herself and her position. If only the inside reflected what the outside portrayed.

You thanked both of them and stepped out into the hallway. You could hear movement in the living room, so that’s where you headed. Kylo was for the first time pouring himself a drink from the bar. When he saw you he paused before setting the bottle down. “You look stunning, Kitten.” He stepped out from behind the bar abandoning the drink.  

While you looked like a beautiful garden in your floral dress , he looked like a god incarnate. You were so sure before that nothing could make his chest look wider but you were wrong, oh how you were wrong.

He no longer donned his usual ribbed uniform. He was dressed in soft black leather with a cape attached to his shoulders. His forearms and the underside of his cape looked like they had captured the stars. His shirt fit him tightly and the v of its neck revealed a high collar of the same stars, with the First Order insignia resting among them. His pants and boots were leather that seemed to kiss his powerful thighs and calves. The top of his head had several braids keeping his long luscious black locks out of his face. Oh, how the gods made him handsome.

Your breath could go no deeper than your throat as you were stunned at the sight of him. He seemed to figure out what was happening as he closed the distance between you and took your face in his hand. “Do you feel the same way about me, Kitten?” Heat flooded you as you attempted to nod in response.

A hand graced your lower back, as he whispered into your ear, “Good, I was hoping you would feel that way. But we must be going, after all, you are the guest of honor.” His lips left your ear, and he shifted his body to start to lead you down the hall. You were glad he did not expect you to answer right away as your brain was failing to make even a word coherent.

He led you down the ever-winding halls, your breath still in your throat as you walked next to him. His lips were against your ear once more, “We shall have to get you a drink right away to calm your nerves.” And he was right, not only were you speechless because of him, you were nervous as all hell.

You had failed to notice initially that you were being flanked by the Knights of Ren, all six of them. Wearing their masks and armor. Guarding you both from any eyes that might be watching as you walked down the halls.

You came upon the door to the formal hall, one used for occasions like this. Your heart was pounding before Kylo’s lips came to your ear once more, “Everything will be fine Kitten. No one can harm you while I am here.”

The door opened, and you saw lots of unfamiliar faces, a few you did recognize but lots that you didn’t. And one face you hoped to never see again, but alas he was here and walking towards you. Thankfully Hux was waiting for you both as he announced, “The Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and the lovely First Lady, Lady Ren.” Everyone broke into light applause at your entrance. You watched from the corner of your eye as Kylo’s head lifted in acknowledgment. You chose to smile at the crowd.

Kylo then guided you to Hux, before Pryde could reach you both. “M’lady you look exquisite tonight,” he said bowing to you.

“Thank you, you certainly look handsome yourself.” He did, he was out of his normal black uniform and in a white jacket with black pants. His skin and hair looked rather beautiful against the white.

You then turned your head to watch Kylo, whose eyes were scanning the room like a hawk. He spoke to the general, “Is everyone here?”

“Yes, Supreme Leader they are.”

“And their status?”

“Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, but GH-531, Garel, and more importantly Kuat have expressed slight disinterest in Lady Ren.” The mention of your name grabbed your attention.

“All three of them are standing with tradition, I see?” You watched as his gaze tore to Pryde and the three men standing with him. They all matched him in age and stature.

“Yes, it seems like Senator Ormes Apolin will be the hardest to persuade. Remember his stance on significant others joining meetings and formal discussions.”

“I remember Hux, it took everything I had to not cut out his tongue when Snoke invited him for dinner the last time.”

That name, you were worried now. The man who had previously held Kylo’s position was not a kind man in any sense. You were worried if the man that they were speaking of, this Ormes Apolin if he would do something drastic tonight.

You watched as Hux bowed and stepped back, Kylo guided you around the room where you met various important officials and he did see to it that a glass of champagne was given to you and finished twice over before you finally made your way to the group of aging men.

“Ah, Supreme Leader! Lady Ren, it is a delight to see you again.” Pryde’s eyes were open doors to his deepest thoughts. You could tell by the way he was looking between you two that he had not learned his lesson.

Kylo spoke for you, “General Pryde, Senator Apolin, Senator Slenic, and Ambassador Gakon, this is Lady Ren.” You gave your best welcoming smile to each of them.

Senator Slenic spoke first, “It is an honor to be here m’lady. This whole thing must be a shock to you. Especially compared to where you came from.”

You heard the dismissal of your planet but you played it off, “In many ways it is, but I am learning. Allegiant General Hux has been a great help. But I have been informed that my planet has a lot to offer the First Order and I am grateful to show its opportunity.” You smiled sweetly back.

You could see a small smirk on the corner of Kylo’s mouth. He approved of your answer.

“Yes, I am sure your planet will be very useful. But what about you m’lady? Will you be useful to the First Order,” asked Ambassador Gakon. His tone was the least spiteful. He seemed the most hopeful of the three galactic officials.

“I hope to be, but we can never truly be the judge of ourselves now, can we? I can only learn by what others show me and by doing. It is for the rest of the galaxy to decide whether or not I am useful as the First Lady of the First Order.”

“That’s a new title, isn’t it,” asked Senator Apolin. “Even the Empire did not have such a title. You can not live up to it as it has not existed before you. And as far as I am aware, you have no prior experience.”

You could feel Kylo tense up next to you. But you answered before he could do anything. “I believe it is the Allegiant General that told me that the First Order’s ideals are based on the Empire’s success but we have learned from their mistakes.” You shook your head and spoke, “We are to strive to outlive them, to perfect what they got wrong. They failed in showing a united front with the Emperor. He had no family. How is it that families all over the galaxy were supposed to trust him? My position is to assist the Supreme Leader in any way that I can, as is all of our positions. Or would you disagree?” You waited for an answer.

“I see the Allegiant General has been teaching you well, as a bastard son, he is doing well to live up to his father’s legacy. But all of that gives no comfort as to the lack of experience you hold, it may do you best to comfort the Supreme Leader in his bed and leave the galaxy to more experienced hands.”

You watched as Kylo stiffened at the man’s words, his body rigid and tense. His jaw clenched, and nostrils flared. You quickly turned your head and met the eye of General Hux and nodded to him.

“Everyone please take your seats as dinner will be served,” Hux announced.

You did your best to pull Kylo away from the senator. Trying to avoid any possible blood spilling before dinner. You wanted to get through this thing as quickly as possible and return back to the safety of your chambers.

Kylo took his seat at the head of the table. You were seated to his right and thankfully Hux was seated to his left. You watched as one of the few faces you knew before this dinner sat next to you, Admiral Frantis Griss. You were thankful, but much to your dismay Pryde sat next to Hux, and next to him was Senator Apolin, Senator Slenic, and Ambassador Gakon.

Being seated at the table, you noticed for the first time that you were one of the few women. Most of them being wives of various officials and officers. Even though you were in a society that was supposed to be more advanced than your own, you were still outnumbered by men. Many of whom looked down upon women of your position as no more than bed warmers for their more powerful mates.

Kylo was watching you as you made this realization, you couldn’t tell if he was searching your thoughts yet but he gave a toast to the attendees. He stood, “This dinner tonight is held in honor of Lady Ren who sits here next to me. Today marks the first day that we step out of the shadows of the Empire. We have learned from the mistakes of the Empire—they were too lenient. We are better. We are making strides in the wake of their fall. Succeeding where they have failed. The first major step in doing that is by having a role like hers. A role that is compassionate to the people, one that shows our people's kindness. Something the Empire has failed to do. A role that will provide an example to our people, the way we are to live. A perfect role model for our citizens. To Lady Ren.” He raised his glass.

Everyone echoed and did the same. You flushed at the gesture of faith in you. You gave a quiet, “Thank you,” to the table as he sat back down.

You had no idea what to make of his words, his insistence on you being a role model for First Order citizens. That you were supposed to lead in a way you hadn’t expected. You remembered that Kylo and Hux were supposed to sit you down and talk with you about your role. Have you missed that talk? When you were in your haze, did you miss it? Or had it yet to happen?

You met Kylo’s eyes, and you heard him, but his mouth had yet to move,

“We will discuss your role tomorrow morning.”

Your eyes went wide, he was speaking in your mind. That scared you. You looked to Hux, who sat across from you. Who shared a look at your recent discovery, and a small reassuring head nod.

“Do not be afraid Kitten, this is only temporary. Too many ears to hear, eyes to see and tongues to speak. I will do what I must to protect you.”

The dinner had only just begun, and you were already afraid for your life. If he couldn’t freely speak to you, what danger were you in? Your heart was racing as the first course was served. You repeated the mantra in your head that dinner had only just begun.

[miracle-sham]

When Sitting on the Roof, We are but Coffee Sleuths.

| {Sequel to Death is the Stage, My Art is Your Grave.} |

| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] | | [DitSMAiYG Link] |

| {Repost due to original post disappearing from tags.} |

| Triggers/Warnings: Mentions of drugs/drug ring (in regards to a case), Mild language. |

| After a long day of boring casework, there's nothing better than getting a new commission, and then drinking coffee and having a chat on top of a roof with a certain bat. |

| Word Count: 3051 |

==–==

| A/N: First of all, I'd like to quickly thank everyone for all the positive response and support the original oneshot got on both Tumblr and Ao3! It really motivated and inspired me to continue with this Au (expect at least another sequel, maybe more if I get more inspo but even if I don't there's definitely gonna be one sequel minimum to this). I'd also like to mention, that this took a lot longer to write as I got a cold halfway through writing it and also it's romance based fluff (which is not my forté), but thanks to those who've waited for this! And finally, for reasons that I'll explain in a separate post later, it might be a "little" while before I can start work on the sequel to this one but it will get written at some point. |

| If you want to be tagged in future oneshots/fics, or a specific Au, then send me a DM or an ask! |

| Also side note, Don't Like? Don't Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |

==–==

It's been a month since Marinette got kidnapped, kissed Red Robin, and solved the Elemental Park Serial Killer case. For three weeks she's been held off active duty to make sure her bruised ribs heal but now that she's able to be on active duty again, all the available cases are those that are paperwork heavy. A small part of her misses the immediate healing of the Miraculous Cure but she's not Ladybug anymore and even if she was, it would raise too many flags for her to even use it anyway. But logic doesn't stop her from missing the days when she could literally and metaphorically magic away her aches and pains.

Marinette groans and slumps into her chair, it's been a surprisingly slow day at the GCPD, so when her phone beeps rapidly for a few seconds, she thinks, please be something interesting, and can't help but take a quick glance to see what new notifications she has. The screen reads: '3 new messages from Red'. So she taps the notification and reads through each message.

>RedRob: Hey, found some new evidence on our case, want to meet up for coffee to discuss it?

>RedRob: Rooftop coffee after dark, of course.

>RedRob: I mean I could waltz into a coffee shop during the day in my suit but that might get too much attention for case talk.

Marinette snickers to herself as she reads the messages over a second time. She quickly taps out her response.

>MariBlue: Will we need to worry about one of the other Gotham vigilantes crashing our coffee not-date?

Almost instantly she receives a response.

>RedRob: I'll bribe Oracle or Batgirl, maybe even Black Bat, into keeping the others away.

She sends a heart emoji back, then returns to sorting out her boring paperwork.

Detective Grayson raises an eyebrow at her from over the desk, clearly having caught her looking at her phone. “Red Robin again?”

She flashes him a sheepish grin. “How'd you guess.”

He gives her a deadpan stare. “He's the only person you respond to when working.”

Marinette bites her lip. “Whoops, that obvious?”

“Yes.” Detective Grayson hesitates for a second, he leans in closer—and like a teenage girl at a sleepover in a cheesy teen drama, asks, “So are you dating yet?”

She shrugs. “Well neither of us have asked the other so not really.”

“But you guys are perfect for each other!” He exclaims, gesturing towards her with an outstretched arm—very narrowly avoiding knocking anything off the desk.

It's Marinette's turn to raise an eyebrow. “We literally have only seen or talked to each other when working…”

“So? What do you call you quote unquote "not-dates"” He huffs, making air quotes as he speaks.

She huffs and shakes her head. “There's a reason they're called "not-dates" and that's because we discuss work at them. And anyway it's too early to rush our relationship.”

“Fair.” Detective Grayson stills, frowns and then almost hesitantly, he asks, “Is it because if the mask? The whole not knowing his real identity?”

Marinette rolls her eyes and shakes her head again. “Nope, I couldn't care less about finding out his real identity—at least not without his consent that is.”

He hums, a pensive look on his face. “So you're not curious?”

She shrugs. “Not particularly, why?”

Detective Grayson shrugs back. “Just wondering,” he leans back on his chair and for a split second, Marinette fears he might topple over but somehow he seems unaffected by gravity, “I think you're the first person I've met, who doesn't want to know who's behind a vigilante's mask.”

A smile tugs at Marinette's lips. “I think it's kinda dumb that so many people are obsessed with the people behind the masks because if they're doing good, unmasking them will only deter them from continuing fighting the good fight and all that, y'know.”

He nods slowly, “huh, that's one way of putting it I guess but I agree, the vigilantes do more for this city than people think they do.” Detective Grayson then tilts his head towards the Commissioner's office. “Anyway back to work, don't want to get in more trouble with the Commish than we are already!”

Marinette huffs in amusement and rolls her eyes but complies nonetheless. Wouldn't do to get in trouble so soon after getting back onto active duty!

==–==

It isn't until gone seven pm, that Marinette finally gets home. She slips through the door, locking it behind her. Now that she's in, the first thing she does, as she does every day, is check her online portfolio and commission site.

Marinette plops herself down in her wheely chair and logs onto to her computer, going through all the verification and security Max had kindly added. A new commission notification grabs her attention. With three clicks, she brings up the new commission's details. She scrolls down to the name of the commissioner: one Mr 'T. Drake-Wayne'.

Curious as to why the name sounds vaguely familiar, Marinette opens up a tab on Google with a hum and types in the name. Upon reading the top results, she half chokes in shock and thinks to herself, Are you kidding me? She blinks and breathes in, a small part of her very glad she wasn't drinking anything otherwise she definitely would've fully choked on that or spat it all up from the shock. I know a bunch of well-known celebrities have all commissioned me many times before, but still why the heck is a fortune 500 CEO commissioning me? I'm not Audrey Bourgeois, Gabriel Agreste, or even Valen-hecking-tino. I do celebrities, not fortune 500. The heck. What. The. Actual. Heck.

Eyes wide and gobsmacked, Marinette shakes her head and clicks back to her latest commission's details page to read through the actual commission. After reading the first line, she scrambles for her sketchbook and begins jotting down notes and scribbling down ideas.

Half an hour in, Marinette takes a break to sort out and eat dinner, no point designing on an empty stomach but once she's done eating and washed up, she goes straight back to designing.

Even at a quarter past midnight, she's still at it—surprisingly only three drafts in and so thoroughly lost in her own head in designing, Marinette nearly misses the knocking against her window facing the fire escape.

The rapid rap-tap-tap spooks her so much that she falls out of her chair with an “Eep!”

Marinette, face flushing bright red, scrambles up and scurries over to the window in question. Shoving her blinds out the way, she stares through the window and is greeted with the absolutely glorious sight of a beaming and uninjured Red Robin holding two takeaway coffee cups on the fire escape. He waves at her with one hand and gestures for her to join him on the fire escape.

She can't help but grin back at him and deftly opens the window and slinks out onto the fire escape. He hands a coffee cup towards her and instead of taking it, Marinette gives him a good ol' bearhug—smooshing pressing her face into his Kevlar armoured chest. Which is unsurprisingly, very uncomfortable. She shifts her head to stare up at him (as he's at least whole head taller than her) “Hey,” she greets.

Awkwardly hugging her back, as to not spill either of the coffees in the process, “hey yourself,” Red Robin responds, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead.

Marinette pulls back from the hug and nabs the coffee cup that had been offered to her before their hug. “Thank you~!”

“No problem.” He then gestures towards the fire escape stairs leading to the roof, “after you.”

“So which of our cases did you manage to get a lead for?” She asks, making her way up to the roof.

“The one pertaining to the new drug ring in the fashion district. I've narrowed down where they're storing the drugs to potentially three warehouses near Miller Harbour.” Red Robin answers, following after her.

Reaching the roof, Marinette sits down on the half wall around the roof edge. She glances over at Red Robin as he joins her on the improvised seat. “That's the drug ring dealing Miraclo right?”

“Yeah, that's the one.” He pauses to take a sip of his coffee, “I got the intel from an old friend of Catwoman's called Mackey lives in an apartment that overlooks the Harbour and saw a shipment of the drug arrive at the warehouses.”

Taking a sip of her own coffee, Marinette raises an eyebrow. “And will Detective Grayson and I will be able to get that intel as witness statement?”

Red Robin nods. “Yep, Catwoman's vouching for you both.”

She jerks back in surprise, nearly toppling off the half wall but managing to cling to the edge in time to keep her from falling. Miraculously somehow managing to avoid dropping or spilling her coffee. Oof, if it wasn't for my stint in Spandex I definitely would've made a fool of myself in front of Red Robin. And here I thought that part of my life had since passed. Marinette thinks to herself, wincing at the newly gained superficial graze across her palms. She clears her throat and attempts to look like she didn't just nearly fall off a half wall. “Catwoman's vouching for us? Since when? I've literally never encountered her before.”

Red Robin, the traitor, snorts at her predicament. “You are the epitome of elegance. And Detective Grayson's bumped into her a few times on the job.”

“Thanks.” She responds drily, layering on the sarcasm thickly. She shakes her head and sighs. “So do you know what the addresses are for the warehouses and this Mackey's apartment?”

He takes an excruciatingly slow sip of his coffee before speaking. “Of course I can, what kind of vigilante do you take me for?” He then proceeds to rattle off the addresses.

Which Marinette jots down on the napkin that came with her coffee, and puts it into a pocket for safekeeping. “Thank you.” With it written down, she pauses then starts kicking her legs in the air. She sniffs. “And I take you for the kind that flirts with innocent police officers.”

Red Robin grins at her as he gently elbows her in the ribs. “I don't hear you complaining.”

Marinette scoffs and slaps her hand to her chest in an overly dramatic mock of shock. “Unfair! If I complained I wouldn't get any hugs or kisses from you!”

Humming he wraps an arm around her shoulders and presses a kiss to her temple. “That's true, what a shame it would be for you to miss out on all those hugs.”

She hums back and the two ease into a comfortable silence; leaning against each other and sipping their coffees whilst staring at the night sky.

Once Marinette gets halfway through her coffee, she glances at Red Robin and hesitates, her earlier conversation with Detective Grayson springing to mind. “Communication is key in healthy relationships,” she prefaces, “so are you okay with our current relationship? Y'know the flirting, the not-dates, the whole me not knowing your identity?”

Red Robin laughs, sounding slightly bitter. “Of course I'm fine with the flirting and not-dates but I'm not going to lie and say I don't have any worries over you not knowing my identity. It's one of the reasons a relationship I had with a fellow mask didn't work out.” Rubbing at his jaw, he tilts his face away from her slightly, as though reminiscing about something. He then shakes his head and turns back to her. “Really, I ought to be asking you that. So what about you, are you okay with how our relationship is?”

Marinette hums. “This isn't the first time relationship I've had with a masked hero.” Then takes a calm sip of her coffee.

“So you've got a thing for masks then huh? Lucky me I guess.” He responds, smirking mischievously, and whilst she can't see the rest of his face thanks to the cowl, Marinette just knows that he's wiggling his eyebrows at her from underneath that cowl.

His comment nearly sends her tumbling off the half wall—again. She coughs and splutters in laughter as she nearly spits up her sip of coffee. It takes her a full thirty seconds to recover and mock gripes, “remind me why I love you again.”

Red Robin cocks his head to the side and grins. “Because I bring you coffee?”

She huffs, “good point.”

“So back to the mask thing, can I ask what happened with your masked hero relationship?” He asks, tone hesitant. He stares at her, ready to back off the topic at the slightest sign of discomfort from her.

Marinette hisses through her teeth and states, “I can trust you.”

His stare conveys an 'I would hope so' whilst he bobs his head a little in a 'yes you can' and a 'please continue' gesture.

She takes a deep breath before speaking, “I used to be a hero, back when I lived in Paris.”

“Oh?” Red Robin freezes, thrown off guard by her admission.

Nodding, Marinette continues. “It was difficult. We started when we were barely teens and had no training and no support except for temporary heroes we could bring in when the battles got too hard for just me and my partner to handle. When we started, we were repeatedly told to never, under any circumstances, let anyone find out our identities. My partner and I, neither of us knew who the other was beneath the mask. And we only knew the identities of the temporary heroes because we gave them the ability to become superheroes. But even then we didn't always know their real identities and they certainly never knew ours.”

“Yikes.” Is all he can respond with, mind racing with questions. “That can't have been good, at least I had Batman and Nightwing when I was starting out, but you had no one to talk to about being a mask, outside the mask.”

She flashes him a watery smile and sighs. “No, I did have someone. Tikki. But we're uh, not in contact any more. Since I retired.”

Still, Red Robin makes a noise of concern at that.

“Anyway, one thing led to another led to another, and my partner found out my identity.” Marinette puts her coffee down then tips her head back and closes her eyes. “We started dating not long after that. But once we defeated the BBEG terrorising Paris and some… concerning things came to light, our—we,” She shakes her head, “we realised that because of that, neither of us were emotionally able to continue our relationship in a romantic way. So we decided to stay friends and I—uh, I retired and moved to Gotham.”

He puts his coffee down as well, and pulls her into a tight hug, although making sure it wasn't too constricting as to not make her uncomfortable. “I'm sorry.”

She leans into the hug, rests her head on his shoulder, and delicately wraps her arms around him in return. “What? Why? It's not your fault.”

Red Robin frowns, not that she can see in their current position, “I know but no one should be forced into becoming a hero at such a young age with no support network.”

Huffing, Marinette buries her face in his shoulder, somewhat muffling her voice but not enough to make her unintelligible, “what about Spoiler? She became a hero around that age and had no support network.”

He sighs. “Spoiler chose to become a vigilante, she wasn't forced. And anyway, she had Robin and the rest of the bats to support her once they realised what she was doing.”

“Hmm… fair.” Marinette pulls back from the hug and pauses. “On a lighter note, I got a commission on my fashion site from Tim Drake-Wayne!”

Red Robin raises an eyebrow and with poorly concealed amusement, responds, “Oh? And what's so special about him”

She rolls her eyes at him. “He's the youngest fortune five hundred CEO, founded the Neon Knights among other charities, and often donates to various charities around Gotham! Plus Wayne Enterprises is one of, if not the most ethical company in the fortune five hundred bracket. Employees get living stipends, and training and higher education paid by the company. They get healthcare and dental insurance. They get flexible work hours, paid breaks, and receive above minimum wage pay!”

He laughs. “I guess he is a pretty decent sounding guy then.”

“Mhmm.”

“So what's the commission then? Or is it a secret?” He teases, leaning towards her.

Marinette dramatically places her hand over her heart. “I guess I can spare you the details this one time.”

“Wooh!”

She bites her lip before launching into a long ramble about the commission, gushing over what design and colour palette she's thinking of going with, what bots and bobs and patterns to add, what stitch to use and how to make sure it fits his style, etc.

Red Robin spends the entire time listening attentively, despite not really understanding half the fashion terms, and staring at her like a love-struck puppy.

“Damn, I love you!” He exclaims once she finishes speaking, then leans in to kiss her on the lips.

Marinette bursts into giggles and kisses him back. Her giggles are seemingly infectious, as once they part from the kiss, both are giggling and flushed red.

A bright flash of white followed by a camera shutter sound immediately distracts them both. They just manage to catch sight of Nightwing swinging away.

She gives him a look, which is somewhat less effective as she's still smiling from the kiss. “What happened to bribing Oracle, Black Bat, or Batgirl?”

Red Robin groans and drops his face into his hands. “Clearly Nightwing was able to one-up my bribe. Probably in the form of giving them copies of the photos both he and Detective Grayson have taken.”

“You mean to tell me those two are working together? No wonder Detective Grayson was asking about our relationship earlier today at work!” Marinette gasps, sounding mildly horrified and betrayed.

“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Red Robin asks, lifting his head up and grinning deviously at her.

She smirks back, “Revenge?”

He nods—the sagely kind of nod. “Revenge.”

==–==

| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot! Comments, likes, and reblogs are much appreciated! |

@casual-darkness

[kylorengarbagedump]

Little Bird: Chapter 16

Read on AO3.  Part 15 here. Part 17 here.

Summary: The horrors of Gilead are too much to bear. You've been selfish.

Words: 3100

Warnings: Handmaid AU

Characters: Kylo Ren x Handmaid!Reader

A/N: Guys... Ren knows she's missing... what the fuck is gonna happen...

(I know but I'm not telling.)

Thank you everyone for your interest and attention to this story. I have no words to express how grateful I am. I love y'all so much. <3

The rest of the house was surprisingly plain, considering its underbelly. Rey and Finn slept on the second floor, and Poe, as their driver, had an adjoining room on the first floor. The facade was one of a normal, functioning Gilead household, with Angel, Wife, and their help all existing in perfect harmony. Part of you wanted to know more about Finn and Rey’s marriage--did they love each other, was it arranged, how had they managed to create the Resistance--but you couldn’t think of a polite way to ask.

Perhaps that was more conditioning. You couldn’t remember if questions like that had appeared unimportant before Gilead.

“Anyway, that’s all for the house,” Rey said. “You’ll likely only be here a few days, but we think it’s important you know where everything is, should anything happen.”

You blinked. “Happen?”

She waved her hands dismissively. “Not that anything has! Or that we expect it to. But it’s better to be prepared.”

Somehow, this did little to ease your nerves. The reality of being involved with a treasonous group of rebels was starting to settle. Of course you could never be a spy for them. You were trying to save your life. You’d done enough risking it at the end of Kylo Ren’s cock.

Rey led you back through the den, a large room lit with tall, dim lamps and a crackling fire. Bookcases packed tight with spines adorned each wall, reaching the ceiling, and a couple of massive leather sofas framed a heavy, carved coffee table at the center. The hardwood gleamed at your feet, reflecting the flames from the fireplace. Rey trudged forward, heading toward the hearth.

“This is a little cliche, I know,” she said. “But we couldn’t think of a better deterrent than fire.”

She pulled a brick out from the side of the fireplace and tugged out a pair of thick, black gloves that went up to her elbows. After pulling them on, to your horror, she reached into the fire, digging into the logs, and yanked at a lever. Nothing happened. But she didn’t seem deterred. Next, she tore away the thick, Persian rug at the foot of the hearth, pushing back one of the slats of hardwood and using it like a handle, wrenching open a rectangular slab of wood, wisps of smoke escaping as she revealed another hidden entrance.

You shrugged, heart skipping again. “You guys have a lot of these, huh.”

Rey smiled, replacing the gloves in the brick. “Just these two. This is the more important one, though. Come on!”

With quick feet, she disappeared down the tiny staircase, the walls closing even tighter than the ones before, compressing your frame like a compactor. You weren’t as fast, surveying your path, noticing the open grate in the ceiling that hung under where the fireplace was positioned. The air was stifling, almost woolen.

“When the grate is open, it becomes pretty much impossible to breathe.” Rey was at an iron door at the end of the staircase, now, spinning the combination lock above the handle. “We hope that in the event of an emergency, it would give enough time to allow for evacuation.”

Swallowing, you nodded, as if you wanted to be worrying about an emergency. Then again, your entire life had been an emergency for the past few years. What did the change of scenery really matter? The lock clicked, and the door opened. Rey waved you on. Holding your breath, you snuck down with your skirts bunched above your ankles, crossing the threshold and into a cooler, open room. She followed, and the door clamped shut behind you.

In front of you was another area illuminated with the same battery tap lights as you’d seen in their war room, accompanied with those similar eggshell crates. Beds lined the walls, some of them occupied, others barren. At the end of the room was a closed door, light peeking out from the frame. As you glanced around the space, each time a pair of eyes landed on you, shame leapt from inside your chest and swallowed you whole. You counted three strangers corralled here, total, all dressed in sweatshirts and jeans that looked about a decade old. And inside the gazes of these strangers, you saw yourself: terrified. Desperate. Alone.

“We have a new addition today, everyone,” said Rey. “Would you like to introduce yourself?”

Throwing a half-hearted wave, you mumbled your name. “Hello.”

“Right!” Her hand at your back again, she ushered you forward. “Clockwise, that’s Louise, Audrey, Gabrielle, and…” She snapped her fingers. “Where’s Sarah?”

“In the washroom,” said the one named Louise, pointing to the closed door.

“Got it.” Hand still guiding you, Rey turned you toward the door and walked you through the locking mechanism and how to get up to the main house, if necessary. “And if anything should happen--these girls know this--pull this lever right here. It opens both grates underneath the fire place. The fire is always burning. After you pull it, you all must escape through the piping in the washroom.” She looked over the room again. “You all remember that?”

The other woman called out their assent. Rey nodded, gripped your shoulder.

“I’ll leave you to get comfortable. There’s a set of clothes underneath one of the open beds. We’ll probably be serving dinner in a few hours. We bring it down here. I hope that’s okay.”

You shifted on your feet, crossing your arms. “So… I’m stuck down here, now?” Shadows stretched across the concrete floors, the tap lights too pitiful to banish them.. “Great.”

Her face fell. “I know. It’s not ideal. But…” She sighed. “Our primary goal is to keep you all safe until transport. We’ve smuggled out dozens of Handmaids with our protocols the way they are.”

“Yeah.” You nodded.

The knowledge that Ren would soon know you were gone was crushing you tighter than the walls themselves. You couldn’t imagine him honestly razing everything within 100 miles just for you--after all, you were just a Handmaid--but then you recalled the last time you’d spoken with him. The ache in his eyes. The despair.

Not one like you.

You haunt me.

A chill cast over your intestines, goosebumps sweeping over your flesh. Your tongue was dry. “When did you say the transport was, again?” You tried to wipe your sweating palms on your skirts.

Rey’s nose twisted in consideration. “We have a contact willing to collect a shipment at the end of the week. So it probably won’t be for a few more days.”

You coughed, trying to clear the dust from your throat. You hoped you’d last that long. “Okay.”

“Everyone all right?” Rey asked, casting a glance across the room. When no one responded, she grinned, and left through the iron door, sealing it tight behind her.

A long, heavy sigh left you, and you turned back to the room, again meeting the anxious gazes of the other women. You shuffled over to an empty bed, reaching underneath it, finding, to no surprise, a pair of baggy jeans and a large sweatshirt. You sat down with a loud squeak, mattress deflating like marshmallow underneath you. Every bed in here was covered with mismatched sheets, the frames combinations of screwed together steel bars and wooden slats.

You regarded the set of clothing with some degree of confusion. The thought of putting them on your body seemed foreign. Wrong. The red dress of your captivity didn’t seem right, either, but at least it was familiar.

“I promise that once you put that stuff on, it feels so much better.” One of the women approached you--the one named Audrey. Her dark hair was short. Very short. She must have cut it the second she was free.  “It’s totally weird at first, though.”

“Yeah.” The sweatshirt was grey, stained, with colorful stripes across the chest area that had faded with time. “I don’t really want to change in front of everyone, though…”

“Don’t!” she said. “Sarah will be out in a second. You can change there.”

You nodded, glimpsing the other women watching you. “How long have you… all of you been here?”

“It’s been about a week for me,” Audrey said with a laugh. “My Commander hasn’t given a shit that I’ve been gone.”

“We both came in the middle of the night a few nights ago,” Louise said, gesturing between herself and Gabrielle. Louise had a crooked nose, and her long, blonde hair was tied in braids and piled on top of her head. “I didn’t know if she’d make it!”

Gabrielle shrugged. “You basically bullied me into it.”

“Oh, please,” Louise said. “Don’t act like you weren’t desperate to get out of Dopheld’s house.”

She sighed. “You’re right.” Gabrielle looked at you. Her eyes were dark pools. “I was just scared.”

Audrey nodded. “We were all totally scared.”

“Well,” you said. “That makes four of us.”

“Five.” Louise tilted her head toward the washroom door.

“Has anyone checked on Sarah?” Gabrielle’s nose wrinkled in concern. “She’s been in there a while.”

You blinked. “Checked on her?” It seemed rude to just… check on someone because they were taking a while in the bathroom. Everyone had their bodily struggles.

Audrey stood. “I’ll do it.” She crossed to the door, rapping it with a single knuckle. “Sarah? Are you okay?”

Frowning, your gaze switched between Louise and Gabrielle, hoping they’d provide you with some sort of context. The hesitation in their expression tightened your chest. Dread loomed over you again, a creature ready to consume.

“What is it?” you whispered. “What’s going on with Sarah?”

“Sarah got here last night.” Louise’s voice floated in the air. “She… She’s having a hard time.”

Audrey rapped again. “Sarah? Open the door, hon.”

A tiny whimper rippled from beyond the door. “Leave me alone.”

“Come on, Sare. You’ve been in there for an hour. You’ve gotta come out at some point.”

The hidden voice was tattered, like fabric with more holes than weave. “No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do,” Louise called, frowning. “There’s a new person here. She needs to get comfortable too.”

“A new person?” A loud sniffle, and shuffling behind the door. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know--”

Audrey stood back from the threshold. “It’s okay, hon--”

The door swung open, revealing a young woman--perhaps the youngest out of all of you--in a sleeved shirt and sweatpants, her long hair swarmed in a nest around her head, her cheeks a furious red. She sniffled again, which stoked the uneasiness in your heart, but what set it aflame was the rest of her appearance. Her hands were shredded, knuckles purple and puffy, and her right eye was an ugly, dead black, swollen shut, accompanying a massive knot at her forehead. A scab crept over a split in her lower lip.

Your jaw dropped. Sarah plodded out of the bathroom, gaze trained on the floor.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know someone else was here.”

“Don’t--uh, don’t apologize,” you said. “I… I only just got here, so…”

She nodded, plopping down on her bed. You sought out direction from the other women, feeling helpless. To get up and just go change seemed a little sociopathic at the moment.

Audrey sat next to Sarah on her bed. “How are you feeling, hon?”

Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know. I keep thinking I see him out of the corner of my eye.” She was blank, numbed to her surroundings. “My… my other eye, I mean.”

“I know.” Audrey offered a sympathetic smile, rubbing her back. “You’re free, now, though. You won’t ever have to go back to his house again.”

Something slithered from the depths of your psyche and seized you, coiling around you, strangling the air from your lungs. Guilt.

“Your… uh, your Commander did this?” Your voice was stretched like film over your throat.

Sarah peeked at you, nodded. “When he learned I wasn’t pregnant.”

Guilt now snaked its way into your vessels, stuffed you with its presence. “I… I’m really sorry.”

She shrugged, face blank once more. “I just want to be able to sleep through the night again.”

“Me too,” said Gabrielle. “I get so tired of looking over my shoulder every day.” She shivered, shaking off a memory.

“Ooh, I know.” Louise reached up and pulled her braids from their spiral. “And to never have to smell his breath again.”

“Or just see his face in general!” Audrey chuckled. “I’m tired of being called a pig.”

“A pig?” You blushed when you realized it was you that had spoken. “Sorry. That’s terrible.”

Audrey shrugged, offering a wry, pained grin. “Wasn’t as bad as when he slapped me.”

With every admission of abuse, more oxygen escaped your body. Of course, your situation was no more enviable--you knew this, logically--but there was something different about your desperate, impassioned rendezvous with Kylo Ren in comparison to these women who were literally being beaten. And worse. Kylo Ren was possessive, manipulative, controlling, perhaps even heartless--but at least you’d wanted every single finger he laid on you.

In the end, you were running because there was a dark, awful part of you that wanted more than just sex, and the battle with your desire put your life at risk. These women were running because they wanted less--less of all of it. The realization lit a match to the kindling of your guilt.

“Do other Commanders know about this?” For some reason, you wanted permission to be enraged. “That this happens?”

Gabrielle snorted. “Of course they do. Some of them even team up, if you’re unlucky enough.”

“Team up?” Your jaw tensed.

“Whatever you take that to mean,” Louise said, “that’s what it means.”

Gabrielle leaned forward, scanning you. “You can’t really be that ignorant,” she said. “You lived it, too.”

“Come on, now. Her Commander must’ve been one of the low-ranks,” said Audrey. “Who was he?”

You looked between them, face hot. The words wouldn’t come out of your mouth. You were ignorant. There was no one to blame but yourself. You’d wrapped yourself in the protective sheet of your Commander’s attention, so twisted and obsessed with your own misery you’d never taken time to truly consider his role in maintaining the system. Kylo Ren hadn’t just subjugated you--he’d subjugated all of Gilead, propped it up on false limbs and shielded it from criticism. By default, he protected each one of the men that these women were running from. By default, he was complicit in, an agent of their power. By default, he was corrupt.

By default, he deserved to be brought down.

“Hello?” Louise waved. “Anyone there?”

You snapped to attention. “Sorry!” you said. “What, uh, what was the question?”

“I just asked who your Commander was,” Audrey replied. “You don’t have to--”

“Kylo Ren,” you replied, and found yourself standing. “Please excuse me.”

“Kylo--” Gabrielle stuttered. “Isn’t he right under--”

“Yeah, he’s Commander Snoke’s right-hand man!”

“She’s his Handmaid? She got away?”

“Doesn’t that make it more dangerous for us?”

“It totally doesn’t, we’re already running.”

Your brain was too busy spinning with newfound purpose. You’d walked over to the door, hands quaking as they worked to unlock the exit as Rey had instructed. Behind you, the other Handmaids were chattering, their stares like weights on your back. Blood rushed by your ears, pulse thumping at your temple, beating with a burgeoning power. The door opened, and you slipped beyond it, holding your breath through the hot tunnel to the main house. Your limbs were moving faster, shoving open the hatch, punching away the heavy rug, and you scrambled out, tripping over your feet as you stumbled through the house.

“Rey?” you called. “Finn? Poe?”

It was strange, how threatening silence could be in this world. You crossed through the den, peeking around the corners, searching like a hound. There was something boiling inside you, like a geyser, ready to explode through your skin, wrench you apart with its insistence. You could feel the words on your tongue, taste them, and they were begging to be given life, to find release.

“Rey!” you shouted up the stairs. “Finn! Poe!”

Still no response. Dread again, descending onto your shoulders, hijacking your heart, your breath coming faster, cycling through your lungs. If something had happened, making a ton of noise likely wouldn’t help. You sucked in a deep breath. You hadn’t checked outside. Gathering your skirts, you slunk to the back door, popping the locks and prying it open, inch by inch. Voices hit your ears. You froze. You couldn’t see them--they were around the corner, in the garden.

“We did rush the transport.” It was Finn. Relief tugged at your mind--but he sounded concerned. “The contact still says they won’t be able to make it for another 48 hours.”

“Dammit.” That was Poe. “And no response from bunker?”

“They’re full,” a voice you recognized as Rey’s replied. “They just took in another on emergency.”

“Shit!” A frustrated sigh escaped him. “I thought we’d at least have half a day to figure out where  we’d move her.”

Your stomach flipped. Her. You?

“Well, this is Ren we’re talking about,” Finn replied. “We knew how he might get.”

Now your stomach lurched. Yes, you.

“We still have a few hours,” said Rey. “According to our intel, he’s only just now received report his Handmaid was taken off the streets for re-education. Even assuming he abandons his post, he’ll still need to figure out she never made it to a Red Center and find out who took her.”

More nagging guilt. How hard they were working, just to keep you safe. To keep you from him.

“Should we file the missing report to the Eyes?”

You didn’t want to be rude. But new guilt was morphing, too, liquefying to rage in your belly.

“I’m already on it.” Finn sighed. “Let’s just go with the plan as-is, for now. We don’t know what his intentions are. He might not even come here.”

Your fists clenched. You wanted him to.

“This would’ve been so much easier if she had agreed to work with us,” Poe mumbled.

You trembled, roiled through with fury for the women in the basement, for your saviors, for Johana and Emma and Rose, for--hell, yourself. All of you pinned underneath the monstrosity built by Ren and the Commanders like him, some of you struggling with trembling knees, others collapsing, devoured by the machine as they strained to support its weight. Taking a deep breath, you stepped into the backyard.

Rey sighed. “Well, she didn’t--”

“Wait.” Your voice was cold and foreign. Finn, Poe, and Rey turned the corner from the patio, mouths parted in shock. “I’ll do it.”

A smile cracked Poe’s face. “You will?”

“Really?” Rey grinned.

“Yes. I’ll do it. I’ll be your spy.”

A flock of birds scattered from the yard, taking off into the dusky sky.

[fandom-queenliness]

Day 9: Villains

@felinettenovember I feel like the real villain here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Félix stared around at the chamber—giant butterfly window, iron walkway, gloomy dark, creepy coffin—and came to the conclusion that his uncle was either crazy or Hawkmoth.

Gabriel touched a hand to the coffin—was that aunt Emile? —and said, “Félix, I have brought you here for a just and righteous reason.”

He’s both, definitely both, Félix thought to himself, warily eyeing the older man. Great, fan-freaking-tastic. His uncle is the psycho who’s been making life in Paris hell with constant akumas.

“And what reason is that, uncle?” He poured as much sarcasm into his voice as possible, hoping to mask the worry behind it. What the hell have I been dragged into?

Gabriel turned around; hands clasped behind him. “I want you to help me.”

Find a therapist? Félix was seriously concerned now. There was only one elevator, he couldn’t see Nathalie—she was definitely a part of this—and he was stuck in a room with a man with a dangerous obsession with magical jewellery.

I really hope I’m not murdered in this stupid secret basement. Oh gods he’ll probably stick me in one of those stupid coffins. What did aunt Emile see in him?

Félix tried to compose his thoughts. “Help you with what, exactly?”

Gabriel fixed him with his cold grey eyes. “I know this may come as a shock Félix, but I, Gabriel Agreste, am the so-called enemy of Paris, Hawkmoth.”

What a shocker. Félix wondered how hard Marinette would kick Gabriel when she found out. Of course, he would have to stay alive to tell her.

Gabriel continued, staring dramatically at his wife’s coffin. “I am doing this for family, for her. She has fallen into a coma, nearly dead, after using a damaged miraculous. And now the two heroes who hold the miraculous’ that could save her refuse and fight me. Is that fair?” He whirled around, searching for support. Félix tried his best to appear sympathetic.

His uncle turned again, looking to the window.

“I am fighting for the highest cause; family. But I am losing. Ladybug just brings in new heroes. My akumas make no lasting effect while she has her miraculous cure.” Gabriel sneered the words. “I am alone, with no partner, no one to help save Emile.”

“What about Mayura?” Félix couldn’t help himself from asking. Surely Nathalie was Mayura, what about her?

“The peacock miraculous is damaged.” Gabriel sighed. “I managed to restore it somewhat, to lessen it’s more undesirable effects, but the damage to Mayura has been done. She is no longer helpful… in the field.”

He turned to Félix again—does he need to turn around so much? Pick a bloody direction—and smiled, slow and dangerous.

“So that is why I am asking you to help me save your aunt and become the new wielder of the peacock.”

Oh no. “Why me? Why not Adrien?” Félix burst out, surprised and highly insulted. He was cold and anti-social, that didn’t make him a villain.

“Adrien is too soft; he would not be able to fight for our cause as effectively as you can. And wouldn’t you want to save your aunt?” Gabriel challenged, his expression was dark and dangerous.

Félix clenched his fist, ignoring the coffin behind Gabriel. Emile was dead, or close to it. She didn’t deserve to be stuck in a coffin, hidden under the city, kept alive for years while her husband neglected their son and loomed over the city like a constant shadow. He missed aunt Emile, of course, but he had grieved and moved on, like Gabriel should have.

In his mind, he saw Adrien—silly, hopefully, naïve Adrien. Always hoping his father would look his way. Gabriel had abandoned his son in a useless quest to stop the consequences of Emile’s own choice.

“She’s gone, uncle,” he said coldly. “Keeping her in this trapped state isn’t fair to her—or Adrien. I won’t help you.”

Gabriel paused, staring at Félix emotionlessly.

“Well, then I suppose Miss Dupain-Cheng will  neverachieve her dream.”

That snapped Félix into a state of freefall. Marinette, why is he bringing Marinette into this? He scrambled for a reason, but all that came up was fear.

“What do you mean?” he choked out, anxiety rising.

His uncle smirked, smug, victorious, villainous. “Either you work for me, Félix, and get me the miraculous—or I ruin whatever chance your little friend has of ever working in fashion.”

Félix’s heartbeat slowed, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He won’t hurt her. “You’re only one person. She already has Audrey Bourgeois vying for her, plus a whole number of celebrities to back her up. Your threat is empty, uncle.”

“Is it?” Gabriel raised an eyebrow, that smirk still in place. “But what if one of my promising new models with came forward about how Miss Dupain-Cheng has stolen designs? It’s quite damaging to a budding designer’s career. It would haunt her forever, even if the claims were never proved.”

Gabriel began to circle Félix, looking down at him like prey.

“And what if suddenly poor Adrien came forward about how… obsessive tendencies? My poor son would need to get a restraining order. Dupain Cheng would seem nothing more than a rabid fan.”

Félix couldn’t move, frozen in place as he saw the promise his uncle was laying out before him.

“Oh, and what if I spread the word among other designers about how the girl is so very jealous and conniving, and they wouldn’t want to offer her any internships, she was clumsy and late and absent and wouldn’t even make a good assistant, let alone designer.”

Gabriel laughed, low and dark behind Félix’s back. “Oh, and what if a classmate told the whole world about the horrible girl that bullied her? Slandered her? Pushed her down the stairs?”

He stopped in front of Félix, grinning from ear to ear.

“I could destroy her whole world. Her friendships, her record, her reputation, any hope of a career.” Casually, Gabriel pulled out a brooch from a pocket of his blazer. It was in the shape of a peacock fan, and Félix knew this was the miraculous that Mayura had used.

“How long would Dupain Cheng hold up under the accusations, I wonder?” He held up the miraculous to the light, ignoring the way stiff way Félix was staring at him. “A few weeks? Months? Or would she crumble before I even filed the restraining order for Adrien?

“And it wouldn’t take much to make her break, dear nephew. All I would need to do is make a few phone calls, fake a few designs, and find someone who hates Dupain-Cheng enough to ruin her life, and ask them to spin a few little lies.”

“Rossi.” Félix spat the name like poison.

“Yes, Lila Rossi.” Anger flashed through Félix at the admission of what he already knew. “So very eager to cause harm to your little friend. And such a good little bird too.” Gabriel slid his eyes from the miraculous to Félix. “She told me all about how protective you are of Dupain-Cheng.”

There was more behind his words, a deeper meaning, an assumption, insinuation. Félix couldn’t find it, too busy trying to calm his rage and fear.

He knew three things: Marinette was a bargaining chip for Gabriel. Marinette’s future was in danger. Marinette wasn’t allowed to be hurt.

This, what Gabriel promised, would devastate her. It would crush her. What his uncle promised to do was ruin any chance of the future Marinette dreamed of, ruin her friendships, her relationship with Adrien. Have her labelled for the rest of her life. Pin her under the public eye with no way to defend herself.

This would kill her. Destroy her.

And Félix couldn’t watch that. He wouldn’t.

He refused to see her hurt.

He’d rather risk his own life than her dream.

“Fine. I’ll be your stupid henchman.” Félix held out his hand, glaring up at his uncle, who held all the cards and knew it.  “I’ll work for you. But as long as you swear to not go near Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Of course, dear nephew,” Gabriel promised smoothly, dropping the miraculous into his hand.

“But don’t forget.” He leaned in, breath brushing Félix’s ear. “Her life depends on you.”

Félix closed his eyes. I’m sorry, Marinette.

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (4/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Shades of Gray}

“Thanks, but I'll pass,” Valerie scoffed.

The trio’s ghost senses went off and Sam turned away from the popular girl. I got it. “Same.”

Danny opened his Space Fold while Tucker distracted Valerie, dropping the thermos into Sam’s waiting hand before she climbed onto her scooter to ride off.

“Are you sure you don’t want an-”

“I’m sure,” she scoffed, shoving Tucker away. “Get lost.”

Suddenly the ground began to shake and the ghost dog burst from the ground.

Danny gasped and ducked to the side as Valerie’s dresser was knocked over. His eyes flickered red as he used a bit of ghost strength to catch it before it could fall into the street.

“Wow, nice catch, loser.”

Danny quickly pushed the dresser upright and let go of his ghost power before Valerie came into view. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Thanks, I think.”

“No, thank you.” She looked over the dresser, sighing with relief. She turned to him with a critical eye. “You’re stronger than you look.”

Danny didn’t get a chance to answer before he was plowed over by a ghost puppy.

“Danny!”

As Danny groaned and rubbed his head, the puppy yapped and licked his cheek. He looked up to see it prancing on his chest with its little flame tail wagging. He turned to Tucker and Valerie, who were staring. “Uh, help?”

“Got it,” Sam said, appearing at his side to scoop up the dog by its collar.

The dog immediately started growling and Sam dropped it as it grew into its giant form. Danny scrambled away, but it kept its eyes on the ghost girl.

She flew back as it snapped at her, holding her hands up. “Easy there!”

It crouched down, hackles raised and Sam prepared her ecto blasts.

Without thinking, Danny opened his Space Fold and the dog disappeared inside.

Sam hesitated, glanced at Danny, then shook her fist. “And stay gone!”

“You!” Valerie growled. “Whatever you are, get out of here! You and you're stupid dog have done enough!”

Sam scowled back. “The dog’s not ours. We’re a cat person.”

Danny frowned. I object.

Overruled, Tucker and Sam both said.

“We?” Valerie asked.

Sam gestured to herself. “We.”

“You’re referring to yourself as we? What a weirdo.”

“And here we were about to apologize for what happened to the lab,” Sam snorted and turned invisible. “Nevermind. Have a nice life.”

“You little freak!”

Danny and Tucker shared a look as Danny got up. “Well, I gotta go. Uh, my parents. They’ll want to know about the, uh, ghost sighting.”

“Ghosts?” Valerie asked as he went to his scooter. “Oh my gosh! Those were ghosts?”

“Yeah, hence the whole flying and invisibility and stuff,” Danny said before riding off.

“Why does he need to tell his parents?”

“Oh, Danny’s parents are professional ghost hunters. Kind of,” Tucker said awkwardly. “Didn’t you know?”

“No.” She watched the paler boy turn the corner then turned to Tucker with a flirtatious smile. “Is that offer of help still good?”

“Y-yeah, absolutely!”

“Where’s Tucker?” Sam asked as she met Danny in human form.

He shrugged. Tuck?

I’ll catch up!

The two rolled their eyes.

“How long do you think he’s going to be hanging around her until he realizes she’s not interested?”

“Too long,” Sam said and the two sent off. “Now, why’d you send the dog to the fold? I could have taken it.”

Danny shrugged. “You were going to blast it. You can’t blast a dog.”

“It’s not a dog, it’s a ghost.” She looked over at him with narrowed eyes. “We can’t keep him, Danny.”

“I don’t want to keep him. He’s a menace. I just don’t want to see him blasted.”

“Is that why you didn’t send him to the ghost zone?”

“I did,” Danny huffed. “He just got back out.”

“And now he’s trashing the fold.”

Danny tilted his head. “I don’t think he is. It’s quiet inside.”

“Whatever. You better not have anything of mine in there.”

Danny bit his lip. Did he return that spider plushy he’d borrowed from Sam to use as a pillow last week? “Maybe I should check on him.”

He ignored her glare as he slipped into an alley. After being sure no one could see him, he poked his head into the fold. Thankfully it hadn’t found the plushie, though it was chewing on the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick in its puppy form.

The dog looked up at him and started wagging its tail, so he quickly pulled his head out. “He’s good.”

Sam shook her head. “You’re lucky Audrey II’s not in there anymore.”

“Oh yeah, how’re the Fenton Shears working?”

“Perfect. Strangely enough, she actually likes to be pruned.”

“Yap!”

The two turned to see the ghost dog’s head sticking out of empty air. It gave a dog-smile before its head was replaced by paws making digging motions. Slowly a hole in the air formed, revealing the Space Fold. The dog jumped through the hole and into Danny’s arms.

“Woah!”

“I guess we know how it’s getting out of the Ghost Zone now,” Sam said, looking between the hole and the dog.

“Bad Cujo, no digging,” Danny said, shifting the dog into one arm and waving a finger in its face.

“Don’t name it!” Sam snapped. Then flinched back when the dog started to growl at her.

“No, no, it’s okay. Sam’s a friend.” Danny scratched the dog under its chin and it relaxed.

“You’re getting attached.”

“Am not.” Danny grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled it closed. “I’m just trying to keep it from hulking out.”

Sam made a disbelieving sound and knelt so she could see the dog better without getting closer. “It’s got the Axion Labs logo on its collar.”

“What? Oh yeah, I saw that earlier. It must have slipped my mind after the rampage.”

She transformed and lifted off the ground. “That’s the first place he hit. Maybe there’s something there that could help us get rid of him. He could be an old guard dog. We’ll check it out. Keep him calm.”

“Why me?”

Sam stuck her hand towards him and the dog started growling.

“Alright, fair. But what do I do with him?”

“Train him? Play with him? Take him for a walk? Ghost dog or not, he's still a dog… We think. Good luck!”

Danny glared as she flew off, then looked down at the dog. “Guess it’s just you and me… Wanna take a walk through the ghost zone?”

Cujo gave a yap and wiggled in his arms excitedly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I think I’m actually going to miss him. The look on Skulker’s face when he stole his leg was priceless.”

“What did I say about getting attached?”

Tucker rolled his eyes as he walked invisibly across the outside of a warehouse. “We still can’t believe this was all over a squeaky toy.”

“Just be glad I took care of it before something really bad happened,” Sam said.

An explosion just missed Tucker, who darted away with a yelp.

“TUCKER?”

He turned to see a woman in full-body red hazmat standing on a hoverboard holding a grenade launcher. He took off, but she followed. “We might need some help. There’s a girl here with a really big gun and she’s not setting off our ghost sense.”

“I’m not far. I’ll be there in a second,” Danny said and hung up.

“A human hunter? And it’s not Danny’s mom?” Sam asked.

“Nope. And she can see us while we’re invisible.”

A blast flew past him.

“Her aim isn’t good though. Can’t be our mom then, her aim is scary,” Danny and Tucker said as Danny came near.

Tucker turned a corner and Danny was there, raising a shield as the hunter threw a handful of throwing stars. Only a few made it to them, and even then they bounced off the shield.

“What? There’s two of you?” the hunter said, pulling to a stop.

“Duplication,” they said, shrugging.

“Wait? Is that Valerie?” Sam asked.

“Valerie?” they said, surprised.

The hunter flinched back. “How did y- It doesn’t matter. I’m ending you.”

The two shared a look, then Tucker held out his hand toward the hoverboard.

Nothing happened.

“Ugh, technokinesis proof,” they groaned.

She fired the grenade launcher at them and the shield shattered.

The two groaned as they pulled themselves out of their shared crater. “We can’t fight her, we’ll hurt her. She doesn’t seem to care about hurting us. Don’t we have a crush on her? Not anymore. We hate technokinesis proof tech. Well, at least some good came out of this. Now go.”

Tucker glared, but dove into the ground while Danny flew past the girl.

She took the bait and chased after the faster of the halfas, letting Tucker slip away.

As soon as his partner was safe, Danny waved at Valerie then began flying through buildings until the hunter, unable to go intangible, lost him.

{Fanning the Flames}

“I think we’re the only ones in the whole school who aren’t obsessed with Ember,” Tucker said as they passed yet another of their classmates wearing the rocker’s swag.

“I don’t get it!” Danny said with a frown. “She comes outta nowhere and suddenly she’s the biggest thing since iPhones! It’s so -”

“Infuriating how mindless pre-packaged corporate bubble gum is preventing true musical artists from being heard?” Sam interrupted.

“I was gonna say weird, but, uh, okay.”

“I’m with Sam. She’s okay, but there are way better groups out there who don’t get anywhere near enough spotlight.”

“We’re not listening to your Swedish pop-techno music,” Sam said. “I’d rather listen to -”

The trio stopped as they came to a school hallway that had been vandalized with posters, stickers, and banners for Ember McLain.

“Ember.”

Paulina came up to them wearing an Ember shirt with matching pants. She looked at Sam and scoffed. “Nice earrings. Sale at the 89 cent store?”

Sam’s hand came up to the Fenton Phones she was wearing. Danny’s parents had invented them to filter out spectral noise, but they also worked as wireless headphones and long-range communicators. The trio had taken to using them during lone patrols and ghost fights that separated them enough that their link couldn’t reach. While the boys only really wore them then, Sam wore them often since she thought they made great techno-goth earrings.

She dropped her hand and gave the popular girl an annoyed look as she stepped closer to Danny. “For your information, Paulina. They’re a gift. Danny gave them to me.”

“Really? He gave you earrings?” Paulina pointed between the two with a smirk. “I always knew you two losers would end up together.”

“We’re not losers!” Sam shouted and Danny added, “We’re not together.”

“Well now I feel left out,” Tucker joked as Paulina swaggered off.

“Shut up, Tucker,” the two snapped.

“Hey, check it out! The lovebirds are ganging up on Foley!” Dash snickered to Kwan.

“They can deny it all they want, but I saw Fenton kissing her when they snuck out at lunch yesterday,” Kwan snickered back.

Danny blushed and Sam jumped for the jocks while Tucker tried to hold her back. “It’s called QPR, you neanderthals! Welcome to the twenty-first century! A guy can kiss a girl on the cheek without it being romantic or se-”

“And we’re done here!” Danny squeaked and grabbed Sam to unsuccessfully help Tucker drag her away.

“Calm down, Sam. It’s not like any of us go around talking about our relationship,” Tucker said. “Of course everyone’s going to think you’re dating if they see you two kissing.”

“People shouldn’t assume things like that just because Danny likes to kiss us or the three of us hug!”

“It’s high school. Assumptions and gossip are the lifeblood of this place,” Danny said. “No need to kill Dash over it. Now stow the soapbox and let’s get to class before we’re late.”

Sam gave the two jocks one last death glare, but let her partners lead her off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is insane,” Danny said as he, Sam, and Tucker stood in the school’s front doors, staring out at the crowd that had gathered around the truck Ember McClain had arrived on for an impromptu performance. “It looks like the entire school’s out here.”

He walked out and his breath misted in front of him. He glanced over to see his partners’ ghost senses going off as well. “Uh-oh.”

The trio looked around, but their eyes quickly locked onto Mr. Lancer, who was standing atop a fire hydrant with a megaphone to yell at the rocker.

“Attention, freakishly dressed teen idol! I order you to cease and desist!”

“Desist this, grandpa!” Ember yelled, fiddling with her guitar. She strummed it and a purple energy wave washed over the crowd.

The crowd turned to Lancer, eyes glowing red.

“Pride and Prejudice!”

“Ember’s the ghost? Oh my gosh!” Danny gasped.

“Another blow against mainstream media,” Sam said and the three transformed.

They took off, Danny saving Lancer from the horde and Sam and Tucker shooting towards the rocker.

It was rather easy to get her and her band into a thermos, especially when one of them could shut down her guitar and speakers with a wave of his hand and the other could wrap her in plants when she tried to teleport away.

{Teacher of the Year}

“Why were we up so late last night? We were playing Doomed. We were trying to beat… WE’RE CHAOS! HOW COULD WE HIDE THAT FROM US?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tucker’s eyes widened as he realized the noob he’d been helping play Doomed was Technus. “Oh, man, I could have been using my powers to cheat! Why didn’t I think of that?” He grabbed his phone and called Sam. “Sam! Did you realize I could be the ultimate cheat code?”

“Obviously. I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out. What happened? Did you get pwned again? Wasn’t me this time.”

“No, Technus showed up in Doomed.”

“What? Where are you? I’ll meet you there!”

“Level three. Should we call Danny?”

“No, just let him study. Between my grab bag of secret power-ups and your ultimate cheat code, we’ll be fine. He needs to make up that test if we don’t want his parents to come sniffing around.”

“I still don’t get it,” Tucker said as he waited for Sam to reach his character. “Danny’s had straight A’s for years. Why would his parents be mad about one F? It’ll only take him down to a C at worst. My parents are just glad that I’m not failing.”

“The curse of being a family of geniuses I guess. All I know is that if I have to hear him complain about his grades almost falling to a B one more time, I'm decking him.”

[etlunainmorte]

❄❄❄

***

June 12, 1898, (L/N) Mansion

"Charades, Daniella." You repeated for the third time that day as you waited for Roselle and Maria to finish doing your hair. "Charades."

"I know!" Your best friend, Daniella, answered playfully as she picked up the lace veil from your vanity table.

"Why am I the bride, again?"

Your fair friend shrugged her shoulders and raised her eyebrows. "Victor is the groom. Naturally, you must be the bride."

"It doesn't make any sense! We're just playing charades."

"Exactly!" She exclaimed as she took a closer look at you. "You look gorgeous."

"Wait, is there any other way to - ?"

"No!" She cut you off, grabbing your hand and dragging you out of the room. "The poet is waiting, let's go!"

You had no choice but to let your friend lead you towards the living room where the others were waiting. Dressed in an exquisite white dress made of frills, and lace, and silk, and your hair in the most exquisite style that was all the rage as of late, you nervously went down the staircase, thinking about what Victor would say when he saw you like this.

Ah, yes, Victor,...

The moment you merely thought of his name, your mind went in total shambles.

The man has been acting,... not so normal these past few days. You would always catch him staring at you at the corner of your eye. He spent more and more time with you than with the others. The poems he read to you during the last few weeks were all about love and nothing else. Even the letters he sent you were longer than usual. And when you do look into each other, he would look at you as if you're the only person that mattered, and no one else.

It's as if,... you have somehow become the apple of his eye.

Of course, you didn't want to jump into conclusions and assume that he loves you, no. What if you're wrong? Then, you'll be the one who'll end up hurt and embarrassed.

However, despite all that, you felt cold and empty without his company. You felt so sad every time he bade you farewell for the night. And you felt so, so happy when you're spending time with him.

Yes. You were completely magnetized by the man, and you didn't know how to stop yourself from falling for him any deeper. He, like the rest of your father's guests, would leave after the summer festivities. He would go back to London where he lives. And there, he would find another woman he would love and would love him in return. Then, he would forget about you.

The thought of him loving another woman hurt you so much, like something heavy was crushing your heart.

As much as you hated it, you must end this. Victor must know about this,...

You were brought back to reality when you heard the cheers of the guests who've been waiting for you. You looked up, saw their happy faces, and felt nervous all over again.

But, what did make you even more nervous was the presence of the handsome man waiting for you next to the makeshift altar comprised of one small table and some chairs in the middle of the vast room.

His emerald eyes gleaming, his smile ever so enchanting, you felt yourself melting like ice under his warm gaze filled with pride and adoration.

Ah, there it was again, that strange sensation in your chest and stomach every time he looked at you,...

"Here you go." Daniella whispered as she carefully placed the lace veil on top of your head. Then, she linked her arm with yours and with gentle steps, she led you towards the altar where Victor was waiting.

Strange, you thought. It really felt like a true wedding.

And the man you came to love was waiting for you there,...

Ah, charades,...

The moment Victor took your hand in his, you two were made to stand, by your giggling friends, led by Daniella, of course, on some makeshift platform made of pillows and cushions.

And then, the ceremony began.

Turning the pages of an old Encyclopedia on herbal medicines, one of your friends, who was playing as minister for this special event, cleared his throat and started uttering the vows.

"Do you, Lord Victor Blake, take Lady (Y/N) (L/N) as your wife? Do you promise to love and to cherish her above all else, to care for her, to support her through thick and thin, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, 'till death do you part?"

Victor turned his eyes towards you. Gently holding both of your hands in his, he recited the words that seemed to ring clearly like a bell all over the place.

"I do," He began. " ... take Lady (Y/N) (L/N) as my wife. This fool will love and cherish her above all else in the world. I promise to care for her, to support her through thick and through thin." 

For a moment, you thought he forgot the rest of the words. However, when his grip on your hands tightened a bit and his gaze on you seemed to intensify, he spoke once more.

And his words,... made you truly emotional.

It's as if,...

... this was all real, and not just charades.

"If falling for you is a sin, then I refuse to repent." He said, his deep voice making you feel warm all over. "Like a river that flows to the sea, or a fool rushing in, I have fallen deeply in love with you. I cannot help myself from falling in love with you, my dear darling (Y/N). I will stay with you, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. And I shall never stop from loving you, even after my death. My soul shall seek yours, and we will be together again,... in our next lifetime. And the next. I will always love you, my dear, beloved (Y/N). Until the end of time."

For a moment, you felt your eyes burning at those incredibly breathtaking words.

You wanted to ask him, are those words true? Will you really love me despite everything? Will we be together again in our next lifetime? 

Will you really love me until the end of time?

You were brought back from your reverie when you realized that the minister was done asking you the same question as Victor's. It seemed that your mind has gone elsewhere as he spoke. And who could blame you?

With a slightly audible hum, you answered, "I do,... take Lord Victor Blake as my husband. I promise to love and cherish him above all else. I will take care of him and support him. Through thick and thin, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health." 

You gulped and forced yourself to look into the beautiful eyes of the man before you despite feeling the heat crawl up your cheeks, giving you a strange and giddy sensation. Then, he gave you the most devilish smirk you have ever seen him make. Oh, he must've seen you blushing so badly, the charming devil! You cleared your throat, tried to get over your embarrassment, and went on with your vows.

"If your soul shall seek mine after death, then I shall wait for you in the next lifetime. Then, the next. I will wait for you, for as long as it takes. J - just,... don't forget about me, alright?"

He chuckled and shook his head, that devilish smirk of his never leaving his handsome face. "Why would I forget my sweet, little lady?"

The minister cleared his throat, fished out something from his pocket, and produced two simple rings made of silver. He offered the smaller one to Victor and gave the larger one to you. And after overseeing the two of you as you exchanged rings, wearing them on each other's finger, he spoke with such loudness and clarity that set the whole atmosphere in a festive mood.

And as the minister pronounced you man and wife, Victor ever so gently laid his hands on your cheeks and gave you your very first kiss.

Your very first kiss!

And it felt,... oh, so good! His lips were so soft and smooth, his movements oh so hypnotic. You even felt your knees giving up on you that you have to cling onto the lapels of his white coat for support. Your hands travelled from his lapels to his black undershirt, his jet - black silk cravat, then to his high collar. And when your hands finally went around his neck, his arms went around your tiny waist, pulling you closer to his warmth, carrying you and twirling you around in happiness.

And then, Daniella started singing with all of her out of tune might! "For he's a jolly good fellow! For he's a jolly good fellow! For he's a jolly good fe - llow!"

"Hey, isn't that the wrong song?!" You heard one of your friends ask.

"I don't care! Victor is a jolly good fellow now!" Daniella, being a really stubborn girl, retorted.

Then, Maria and Roselle, your two most faithful maidservants, joined in the singing as they started throwing rose petals at you and Victor.

"For he's a jolly good fellow! For he's a jolly good fellow! For he's a jolly good fe - llow! Which nobody can deny!"

"Congratulations, (Y/N)!" Daniella told you as she handed you a single stem of a deep red rose.

"Thanks, I guess?" You answered sheepishly as you received the flower from your friend. Since when did charades become so realistic?!

"Alright, stop moving for a while so I could take the goddamn photograph!" The minister barked his orders like a general, making all of you laugh. He was already waiting for all of you to settle down for a nice group photograph but, everyone just couldn't stop laughing because Daniella kept singing the out of tune song for Victor. And Victor? Well, he refused to let go of you from that day onward. Like a real husband to his beloved wife.

It was,... simply one of the happiest days of your life,...

***

❄ Three Wishes ❄

***

XII

***

December 31, 2019, Fleminger Estate

Your eyes just couldn't help but scan the sea of faces right before you. Nico has already left you alone, saying she has some important things do. Well, you don't want to bother her or anything but, being left with these total strangers? And without her by your side? It kind of made you feel sick.

And now, your discomfort has only heightened the moment Christopher waltzed in with his very gorgeous and voluptuous date who looked very much like Audrey Hepburn. He was a real charmer, that evil snake. In a span of only a few seconds, he managed to catch the eyes of all the ladies in the room, and his smart attire of white vintage ensemble that resembled that of a Victorian era Doctor's gained the respect of all the men. Well, maybe not all men,...

For there, in the middle of the dance floor, was another man dressed entirely different compared to the other guests. And he, like Christopher, was gaining a lot of attention. But in a really bad way. He was dressed as a cowboy, and he was busting out some Michael Jackson moves that looked so embarrassing and cheesy as hell. And you were ashamed to say that you perfectly knew who that man was,...

"Sorry about that." A stunning blonde dressed entirely in black satin suddenly apologized. Apparently, she, just like you, was watching the whole spectacle from the safest corner of the massive room. And she was just quietly standing next to you the whole time.

"I'm s - sorry?" You stuttered, looking up at her and feeling a bit insecure that a very lovely - looking and absolutely tall woman was speaking with the likes of you.

"My partner." She answered as she pointed at the dancing cowboy, who was now confidently doing the moonwalk. "He is making a huge spectacle of himself. He really wants to win the title of King." With a haughty smile and a slight chuckle, she crossed her arms and shook her head. "As if that would pay all of his debt."

"Would you like to be the Queen, then?"

"Me? Oh, not really, no. But, I think," The blonde mused, then pointed at the woman in Christopher's arm. " ... she does."

"Do you know her?"

"I do. Her name is Lady. She's a fellow Devil Hunter like myself."

That name! "Oh, so that's Lady!" You exclaimed as you observed the brunette's prim and proper movements. She really was a perfect partner for a man such as Christopher, if you're being honest. "I've heard her from V. Wait, if that's Lady, then you're,..."

"Trish." The blonde said, offering a hand to you. "Call me Trish."

"I'm (Y/N)." You replied, taking her hand.

"Ah, yes, (Y/N)! So, I've heard from Vergil. You're V's girlfriend."

"I, ahh," You looked away, your worry for the man going back to plague your mind. " ... not exactly. No."

"Aww, why?" Trish asked with a concerned look. “You see, V is actually really - "

"(Y/N), dear! How delightful of you to come!"

A very obnoxious voice came booming in, and you absolutely despised it uttering your name. Christopher and Lady came towards you and Trish like the royal couple that they were, making you even more embarrassed and uncomfortable. And the moment you laid eyes on him, you felt so sick and heavy, as if something invisible was strangling you and forcing the air out of your lungs. His eyes looking so vengeful, and his smile as sardonic as ever, he looked exactly like the villain that he was.

And it made you despise yourself even more for ever falling head over heels with the likes of him.

"Trish?!" The woman named Lady spoke, startled upon seeing the blonde next to you. "I thought you're not coming!"

Ugh, and his partner sounded so equally loathsome,...

"But, here I' am." Trish answered nonchalantly.

"Wait, don't tell me you're here to snag the title of Queen?!" Lady asked with a forced smile, as if she was feeling threatened of her fellow Devil Hunter.

And this amused Trish. "Oh! Am I?"

"You must be." Lady replied.

"Are you sure about that?" Trish sassed back.

"Ladies!" Christopher interrupted the two before they could grab each other's throats. "You're both Queens to me alright?"

"Thanks, Chris." Lady pouted, crossing her arms as Trish rolled her eyes.

"And speaking of Queen," Christopher began, fully focusing his eyes on you. " ... where is your King? I mean, he's not hiding here somewhere like a shy, domesticated, elementary kid, is he?"

The way he emphasized those words,...

It felt like,... !

"He's not!" You couldn't help but raise your own voice. You just couldn't stand his pride and arrogance.

"Aww, then where is he?"

He,... knows what's going on! "He's,... only gonna be a bit late."

Christopher laughed boisterously at the top of his lungs, making the other guests look at him. And at the same time, you heard some familiar voices whispering not far from where the four of you were.

"I told you I'm not sick, granny!" A male voice argued almost irritably.

"Oh, learn how to play along for once, will you?!" A shriveled - sounding female voice retorted. "Those cops were about to give me a ticket for real!"

"Well, that's because you were speeding past the allowable limit. You're worse than Nico!"

"Oh, shut the trap up and ready that guitar of yours!"

"He's gonna be a bit late? Are you sure about that?" Christopher boomed, making his voice even louder.

And honestly? You were so close to punching that narcissistic smile off his freaking face!

"Oh, maybe he's not gonna show up!" And he went on with his insults. "Maybe, he's - !"

"Ahem!" That man from earlier cleared his throat, successfully gaining everyone's attention, including yours, Trish's, Lady's, and Christopher's. Yes, especially Christopher's. You turned around,...

... and saw Kyrie's boyfriend Nero, not in vintage clothing but in his casual attire, standing a few feet away from you and holding a guitar of all things! And he was actually looking intently at you!

Christopher raised his eyebrow at Nero and was about to re - launch his tirade regarding V's tardiness when the young Devil Hunter started skillfully plucking the strings of his guitar.

"What in the actual,...?" Christopher could do nothing as basically everyone in the room stopped what they're doing and turned to see what was going on.

And the moment a deep, velvety, and clear voice started singing, everything stopped. Even time, itself.

***

❄ @la-vita , @dreaming-gamer , @birdgirl69 , @clevermentalitybeliever , and @v-vic . ❄

***

"Wise men say only fools rush in.

But I can't help falling in love with you.

Oh, shall I stay, would it be a sin?

Oh, if I can't help falling in love with you."

Lady and Trish both gasped. Christopher's eyes widened. Even Dante stumbled on his steps.

For there, just behind Nero, was the man, himself,...

And now, he was actually walking towards you as he was singing the song!

"Like a river flows, surely to the sea,

Darling, so it goes, some things are meant to be.

Take my hand, take my whole life too.

Oh, for I can't help falling in love with you."

"This is,... the most curious thing!" Lord Fleminger, who organized the New Year's Ball, exclaimed as he spied on the newcomer from his place on one of the balconies.

"What is?" His balding secretary, who was standing right next to him, asked.

"There!" Fleminger answered, excitedly pointing at the singing man dressed entirely in Victorian era high fashion, who was already making a huge impression on his guests. "Elvis Presley! In the flesh!"

The secretary narrowed his eyes, looking closely at the singer, and gasped. "My God! It is! A Victorian Elvis Presley!"

"Yes." Fleminger nodded in agreement. "We now have,... a potential King!"

"Oh, like a river flows, surely to the sea.

Darling, so it goes, some things are meant to be.

Oh, take my hand, take my whole life too.

For I can't help falling in love with you."

You couldn't help but smile as the man tenderly sang the sweet song for you. Who knew he could sing really well?! Who knew he was planning this all along?!

Who knew this would feel oh so familiar to you?!

Those lyrics,...

That song,...

"If falling for you is a sin, then I refuse to repent. Like a river that flows to the sea, or a fool rushing in, I have fallen deeply in love with you. I cannot help myself from falling in love with you, my dear darling (Y/N). I will stay with you, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. And I shall never stop from loving you, even after my death. My soul shall seek yours, and we will be together again,... in our next lifetime. And the next. I will always love you, my dear, beloved (Y/N). Until the end of time."

It's as if,...

... you've heard something so similar before!

Everything about him, his white coat and pants, his black undershirt, his jet - black cravat, even his metal cane which he always carried around!

Him looking like that, and you listening to those words like you were in a wedding,...

You,... have seen this exact moment before!

But, when,...?

"Oh, for I can't help falling in love with you,..."

***

❄❄❄

***

[unapologeticallyjaylos]

descendants halloween week - day 1

prompt: vampire

pairings: jay x carlos ; mal x evie

rating: T for sexual references/language

cameron boyce had somewhat long incisors and it inspired this little ficlet. i miss you, cam. thinking of you always. 

---

The deciding of Jay’s costume for the Auradon Prep Halloween Party had been very last minute.

“You look good,” Carlos told him for the hundredth time, fixing his own eyeliner in the mirror. He’d gone a bit heavier on the stuff tonight, and it stood out against the pale white foundation he had on. 

“You look sexy,” he blurted back, raising an eyebrow. “I like that makeup.”

“I’m shocked,” his boyfriend deadpanned, applying the final touches to the fake blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “Stop gawking, Jay, or we’ll never make it out the door. Do you want Evie to be on our asses about being late or not?”

“Not.” Jay returned his attention to the mirror in front of him. “‘Los, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m ready. That’s the whole point of this costume, right? I don’t have to do anything?”

Huffing, Carlos set the vial of fake blood on the bathroom counter and turned to Jay, messing with the shredded shirt and dangling the sleeve off his shoulder. “It has to look - hold still - more disheveled. Mess up your hair. Oh, shit, not like that - give me the brush.” Carlos snatched it from him, artfully teasing Jay’s long strands until he was satisfied. “Now hand me the foundation - not that one, the darker one.”

After several more minutes of fussing and adjusting from Carlos, Jay thought he looked pretty damn good. The smudges of dark foundation streaked across his mostly bare chest and cheeks like mud, and the shirt definitely looked more “ruined” after whatever Carlos had done to it. There was one last thing, though - the defining element of his costume - that needed approval.

“Hey, Pup?” Jay turned his neck, pointing to the two red bite marks on his neck - perfectly spaced and fang-like. “This look alright?”

Carlos’ lips curled into a wicked grin. “That,” he laughed, “is the best damn part.”

“Christ.” Jay loved the look in the freckled boy’s eyes, how he eyed the bite like it was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. “Never took you as the possessive one in the relationship.”

“A fatal mistake on your part.” Carlos leaned into the mirror, baring his teeth. He hadn’t needed to buy fangs from the costume store, as his own incisors were prominent and pointy enough already. Jay loved his boyfriend’s natural kind-of baby fangs; he liked to tease Carlos that he was a real vampire sometimes.

“Ready?” Jay motioned dramatically to the door. “I got like a hundred ideas for pranks to play on these sons of bitches. They’re too soft; they have an entire holiday dedicated to scaring people, and they always default to giving out candy instead.”

“As long as I get some chocolate,” Carlos laughed, “I’m good.”

The girls met them at the bottom of the stairs, raising their eyebrows. Evie looked stunning as always, dressed as a ghoulish Snow White - her makeup corpse-like and dark, as if the princess had never been awoken with True Love’s Kiss. And although Mal had initially complained about dressing up as a princess, she didn’t look any less terrifying in her zombified Aurora costume - right down to the golden curly wig on her head.

“You know,” Jay commented, gesturing to her getup. “Audrey might take some serious offense to that.”

“Well, let her,” Mal shrugged. “I heard she’s coming as my mother with a sword-in-the-heart just to torment me, so I’m just meeting her challenge.”

“And I already cleared mine with Snow,” Evie added, looking a little breathless. “She said it was a spookily perfect idea.” She’d been speaking - tentatively - with her step-sister, and so far, things had been going pretty well from what Jay had heard. He was just glad he didn’t have to beat any princesses up for disrespecting her.

“Well, I said you should go as a Sexy Snow White, but I was outvoted,” Mal shrugged, the comment earning her a nice solid punch from her girlfriend and an indignant “Mal!”

“Changing topics,” Evie laughed, still blushing fiercely as she stepped forward to inspect them both. “What have we got here? Carlos was very secretive on the phone this morning, and I’ve been bugging him about it all afternoon. All he said was ‘there’s more to it than meets the eye.’”

“You little shit,” Jay muttered to Carlos with a smile.

“Well, I’m a vampire,” Carlos grinned, showing off his costume. “And he’s my victim.”

Jay pointed to his ripped ensemble and the bite on his neck. “He got me.”

Evie’s eyes were bright. “That’s adorable! And Carlitos, your makeup is stunning.” She came closer to inspect the bite on Jay’s neck, turning around to motion Mal closer. “Wow, who did the makeup on this? Carlos, was this you? It looks so realistic!”

Even Mal looked impressed as she peered in, ruffling Carlos’ curls. “Pretty solid, Spots. You might just be as good as Evie with a brush.”

“You wanna know a secret?” Carlos batted his eyelashes, smiling angelically at the girls. “Jay got that hickey last night. It’s not makeup - just a fuck mark.” Then he grabbed Jay’s hand and took off towards the doors at a run, laughing like an idiot in love.

“You wild little fuckers!” Mal called after them, hiking up her skirt to follow. “You planned your entire costume in one day around a hickey?? I’m surprised the people next door don’t hate you both!”

“You bit the shit out of him, Carlos!” Evie shouted, her heels clicking on the cement as the girls burst through the doors behind them. “What, is that like a kink or something? Dammit, those sharp little almost-fangs of yours did that, didn’t they?”

“Maybe I’m a real vampire after all!” Carlos joked over his shoulder with a laugh. “And what Jay and I do in the bedroom is entirely our secret!”

“You better not take that makeup off tonight,” Jay told him under his breath as they ran. “I meant what I said earlier; it’s sexy.”

“Round two, huh?” Carlos laughed, slowing to a stop just as they reached the entrance to the party - the girls a few yards behind them. “Too bad we don’t have another costume party tomorrow night. We’ll have to cover up the marks with regular old foundation in the morning.”

And this time, it was Jay’s turn to flash an evil smile. “Who said anything about covering my hickeys up?”