#breaking bad can be such a fucking thing about parenthood and legacy and it makes my tummy feel weird

[unfolded73]

This Graceful Path (13/19)

Summary: Emma has just moved in with Mary Margaret and started working as a deputy in the Storybrooke sheriff’s department when she meets Killian Jones, the town’s introverted harbormaster. When a prominent Storybrooke resident is found murdered, Emma tries to juggle solving the case with new friendships, parenthood, and romance. A Season 1 Cursed!Killian AU.

Rating: Explicit per CSBB guidelines (violence, sex); more of an M on unfolded73’s scale. The sex, when we get there, is not extremely graphic in nature. Same with the violence.

Content Warning: This fic contains two major character deaths, one canon and one not. (You’re already past them.)

Total word count: ~ 75,000

Acknowledgements: Thank you to @j-philly-b for betaing this monstrosity. Thank you to @caprelloidea for all of the read-throughs and cheerleading; not sure I could have written it without your excitement early on. Thank you to @teruel-a-witch for the original prompt on tumblr which sparked this fic. Thank you to @pompeiiablaze for the wonderful art which accompanies Chapter 3 and 9 and one later chapter. Thanks to the CSBB mods ( @sambethe in particular, who had to look at my check-ins) for your support and for enduring my neuroses.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 – AO3 Link

Chapter 13

Killian’s pulse was racing, and his mind whirling with so many sets of memories, so many feelings, that he almost collapsed to his knees as he fled down a stairwell to get out of the hospital.

Pull yourself together, Dearie, a now-familiar voice (and now he knew what it was, he knew) murmured inside his head. First things first, get the dagger. Second, figure out what she knows.

It wasn’t hard to sniff the dagger out. He could hear it, like a mosquito buzz vibrating inside his skull, and he knew that someone had brought it close by. He followed the dagger’s pull to Emma’s squad car and saw it through the passenger window, sitting there on the fucking car seat like it wasn’t the most powerful weapon in the realm. Like it wasn’t the key to everything he’d become. It was wrapped in a shirt, and the sight of it stirred a fuzzy memory of his own hands, leaving it that way under a loose floorboard. With an exhale, he figured that Emma must have been waiting to get it back to the sheriff’s station before she examined it. Perhaps she hadn’t looked at the blade. Perhaps she didn’t know.

Reaching into his inside jacket pocket, Killian pulled out Emma’s car keys. He didn’t know at the time what possessed him to take them off of her in the hospital. Had felt them inside his pocket as he sat beside her, keeping vigil by her son’s bedside, and wondered why he’d done such a thing. Now he knew. Some part of him (Some part? the voice in his head said, giggling. You mean, me?) knew that the curse was about to be broken.

Unlocking the police car, Killian snatched the dagger off the seat, unwrapping it. He held it up in the dim light of the parking garage and read the name inscribed on the blade.

Killian Jones.

He slid the dagger into his belt and sauntered away. The bloody t-shirt he idly threw into a garbage can on his way out.

The town was in chaos, everyone running around shouting, reuniting with lost loved ones or weeping as the conflicting sets of memories clashed in their heads. No one paid him any mind as he strolled up to the front door of Gold’s shop and smashed in one of the window panes with his elbow, the thick leather of his jacket protecting him from the shards of glass. Reaching through the jagged hole with his prosthesis, he flipped the lock on the door.

The shop was dark, dust motes dancing in the single beam of light that illuminated the room.

“You’d better find a better hiding place for that dagger, Dearie, before your girlfriend gets her hands on it again.”

Killian looked up from the cabinets he’d started rifling through, glaring at the apparition of Rumpelstiltskin that had materialized at his side. “Begone, demon.”

“Ah ah ah, you know what I am now, no need for name calling. And by that I mean, you know what you are.”

Killian twitched, his senses buzzing with contained energy that he had no idea how to channel. “I’m the Dark One.”

The Rumple from his mind giggled, dancing around the shop. “That you are! And now that pesky curse is over and we can begin to reclaim our legacy.”

Killian ignored its prattling, stopping his aimless rummaging and thinking. Where would Gold have stashed it? The symbol of his nemesis, the relic of the worst day of Killian Jones’ life — where would it be?

“Ignore me at your peril,” the Rumple apparition continued. “You need me. You need the knowledge the darkness contains if you’re ever going to be anything more than a Dark One in name only.”

Killian paused his search at that, looking up. “What are you talking about?”

The creature rolled its eyes. “The curse may be broken, but this is still the land without magic. What kind of Dark One do you think you’re going to be with no magic?”

“I don’t bloody care. All I ever cared about was getting my revenge.”

“Too bad you don’t even remember stabbing him. Me? No, him. Definitely him. Mr. Gold.”

Killian felt his eyelid twitch and he flinched at the sensation. He felt like there were insects crawling around underneath his skin, and it took a supreme act of willpower not to start scratching at his arms or his face. He closed his eyes, reaching for the memory that the darkness had suppressed while he was under Regina’s curse. He could feel Gold’s fingers clutching at his arm. Could hear the wet tearing sound as blade pierced flesh. Could smell the blood.

“It’s coming back to me,” he muttered, resuming his search.

“You may think you don’t ‘bloody care’ about the Dark One’s magic, but you’ll care soon enough when Miss Swan realizes you’re the killer. With no magic, you’ll be spending your new immortality in jail.”

His eyelid twitched again.

Finally, at the bottom of a tool drawer, Killian found what he was looking for. He held the sharp metal aloft, letting the light catch it. The Rumple apparition went mercifully silent.

Killian disconnected his artificial hand, throwing it on the floor in disgust. With a satisfying click, he replaced it with his hook. It helped, a little, to see it back in its rightful place. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Yes, you did it,” the creature murmured. “You avenged the loss of your hand. And the loss of… but I suppose you don’t care about Milah anymore.”

This time Killian flinched hard enough to knock a few precariously placed trinkets from the shelf behind him. “Of course I care about Milah. She was the love of my life.”

“Oh, so that wasn’t you telling Miss Swan you loved her? Wooing her? Bedding her?” The apparition giggled. “My mistake.”

Killian stalked back out to the main part of the shop. “I was cursed. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“That’s right,” the darkness soothed. “You were cursed. Now you can forget all about Emma Swan and focus on what you are now, Dark One. There is much to be done.”

~*~

Emma focused on the concrete things she could do. Getting a nurse to come to the room and telling her to go find Henry’s clothes so they could get him discharged from the hospital. Packing the storybook back into Henry’s backpack. Better that than acknowledge the confusing swirl of emotions that came from looking the people in the eye who had abandoned her as an infant.

“You must have a million questions,” Mary Margaret (no, Snow White) said.

Emma pushed at the storybook, the corner of it catching on the zippered edge of the backpack and preventing it from going inside. She shoved harder. “Not at the moment.”

“Emma, I just want to talk. I mean, I know we’ve talked before, but we didn’t know we were mother and daughter then, and now we do, and…” She shrugged helplessly. “I want to know everything about you.”

“Should I call you Grandma and Grandpa now?” Henry asked.

David blinked in surprise and then smiled. “Sure, of course, if you want to.”

“You know plenty about me,” Emma muttered, finally getting the book into Henry’s bag. She zipped it closed with a couple of violent jerks of her hand.

“You’re angry with us,” Mary Margaret said, a pleading edge in her voice. “I want you to know, it was the hardest thing we’d ever had to do.”

“We couldn’t have given you up if it weren’t the only option,” David said.

“Was it?”

Mary Margaret took a step back. “What?”

Emma set the backpack down and turned to them. “Was it the only option?”

“Yes! We had to send you through. We did it to give you your best chance,” Mary Margaret said.

“No, you did it so I would save everyone in your kingdom because that’s who you are. Leaders, heroes, princes and princesses, and that’s great. But it doesn’t change the fact that for my entire life, I’ve been alone.”

“If we hadn’t sent you away, you would have been cursed too,” David said.

“But we would have been together. Is that really worse than what happened to me?” Emma asked, her voice breaking. No, she did not want to cry now, she couldn’t. Emma took a few quick steps over to the door. “Where’s that nurse with Henry’s stuff? And what happened to Killian?”

Emma turned back just in time to see Mary Margaret and David exchange a meaningful glance. “What? Who is he in your world?”

“I told you, he’s Captain Hook,” Henry said.

At this point, finding out that the guy she was sleeping with was Captain Hook was pretty far down the list of the day’s traumas. “Is he?” she asked her parents.

David shrugged. “I don’t know, I didn’t make a habit of spending time with pirates. I did hear tales of Captain Hook, but I never saw him.”

“Me either,” said Mary Margaret. “But rumor had it that he’d been alive for hundreds of years.”

Emma wasn’t sure why that, of all the things she’d learned were real today, made her throw up her hands in defeat. “Of-fucking-course.”

“Language,” Henry warned, grinning from where he sat on his hospital bed and swung his bare legs.

“Sorry, kid. How is that possible?”

“Neverland,” Mary Margaret said. “No one ages there. If the stories were true, Hook was an agent of Pan’s, so he must have spent a good deal of time in Neverland.”

Finally, a harried-looking nurse arrived with Henry’s clothes, which she nervously dropped on the floor when she stooped into a deep bow to the Prince and Princess.

“I can’t deal with this right now,” Emma muttered, scooping up the clothes and shoving them at Henry.

“Pardon me, your majesties, but will you be leading the party going to confront the Evil Queen?” the nurse asked.

David frowned. “The what?”

“Dr. Whale said a number of the townspeople were gathering to march on her mansion. Will you be leading the charge?”

“They’ll kill her,” Emma said.

“No, they can’t.” Henry had paused, his shirt halfway on, his chest thin and pale. “I know she’s the Evil Queen, but she’s still my mom. One of my moms. I wanted the curse to be broken, but that doesn’t mean she should die.”

Emma reached out and gently helped to pull his shirt the rest of the way on, kneeling down to button it. “We won’t let that happen, kid. She will need to pay for what she’s done to all these people, but no one is killing anyone. Right?” She looked back and forth between her parents.

David appeared to shake himself. “Right. We need to stop them.”

“I’ll see if Ruby can look after Henry, and then we better haul ass over to Regina’s right now.”

Figuring that the hospital was in too much chaos to bother with formalities like discharge papers, Emma and Henry walked out the door and through the parking garage, her parents trailing behind. Reaching into her jacket pocket, she drew up short, frowning.

“What’s wrong?” Henry asked.

“My car keys, I must’ve dropped them somewhere.” She patted herself down frantically. “David, do you have your keys to the squad car?”

“Yeah, I—”

“It’s unlocked,” Henry called, already over at the car. “Your keys are here.” He pointed at where they dangled from the ignition.

“Shit,” Emma said again. “What was I thinking?”

“You were terrified about your son,” Mary Margaret said reasonably as Emma closed the distance between herself and the car.

She looked at the empty passenger seat and her heart plummeted in her chest. “The knife is gone.”

“What’s gone?” David asked.

“I found what I was pretty sure was the murder weapon. But then Henry called, and I…” She slammed her hands against the top of the car, furious. “Fuck! I’m so stupid.”

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“It’s not your fault, kid, it’s mine. And sorry for swearing.”

“It’s okay,” Henry answered.

“We’ll have to deal with this later,” David said, “after we’ve dealt with Regina.”

~*~

A mob had already gathered outside Regina’s front door by the time they pulled up, having deposited Henry at the diner with a promise from Ruby to guard him with her life. If Regina was going to be dismembered by an angry crowd of fairy tale characters, the last thing Emma wanted was for Henry to witness it.

Emma ran up just as the front door was forced open, the frame splintering from the force of the blow. With a roar, the crowd began to force their way into the house.

“Stop!” Emma shouted, but either no one heard her or no one cared. Then a louder, commanding voice boomed from behind her.

“Your prince orders you to stop!” David shouted.

“That’s a handy skill,” Emma muttered as the crowd calmed momentarily.

“She has to pay for what she did to us!” someone called out.

Emma forced her way through the press of people, finding Dr. Whale holding Regina against the wall of her perfectly appointed living room. Regina looked frightened but uncowed.

“Let her go, Whale. This isn’t your fight.”

“It’s all of our fights. All of the people whose lives she destroyed,” he gritted out, giving her another shove. Regina’s head knocked against the wall, her eyes sparking with anger, but she was clearly helpless to save herself.

Emma shoved Whale aside. “And she’ll pay for that, but not this way.”

“We have a lot to figure out, “ David announced to the crowd at large. “But this isn’t the way to do it.”

“And Regina’s death,” Mary Margaret added with a regal air that Emma had never seen her exude before, “won’t provide any answers. She needs to be locked up: for her safety, and more importantly for ours.”

The crowd listened to them, visibly calming in the face of their leaders. Emma shook her head in amazement. “I suppose there’s something to be said for a monarchy,” she murmured.

“Regina Mills,” she said, pulling handcuffs off of her belt and closing them over Regina’s wrists. “You’re under arrest for…” Emma huffed in frustration. “Whatever the hell it is you did to everyone in this crazy town.” Regina didn’t resist, allowing herself to be handcuffed without a word of protest. But her eyes carried her defiance, and Emma knew this was far from over.

As Emma prepared to march Regina past the crowd, it parted to reveal Killian.

“Swan,” he said, his eyes taking in the scene but revealing nothing of his own thoughts. “What happened to Henry?”

“He’s fine, he’s safe.” A flash of silver caught her attention, and she stared down at the hook at the end of his left arm. “Oh,” was all she could say. The first thought that popped into her mind was, I’ll have to tell Henry he was right.

“I’ll take Regina to the station and you can meet us there,” David said, giving her a loaded glance. He escorted Regina out of her house with a firm grip on her upper arm, Mary Margaret following. The immediate drama over, the remaining crowd dispersed as she and Killian faced each other across the expanse of Regina’s spacious living room. He appeared to be forcibly holding himself still, but she could see his jaw twitching, noticed that his eyes kept cutting to the side as if something was catching his attention. Emma looked where his gaze kept wandering but saw nothing.

“So,” she finally said, gesturing to the hook. “You are Captain Hook.”

“Aye.”

She blew out a breath. “Killian, look—”

“I’m sure you have a lot to deal with right now, love, with the curse being broken. Finding out that your mother and father are the famed rulers of Misthaven and all.”

“See, I don’t even know what Misthaven is,” she said.

“So I’ll understand if you need to take some time and focus on your family. And if a relationship with a pirate isn’t exactly what you signed up for.” He gave her an encouraging smile, and it made her heart clench.

“It’s all really confusing,” she admitted. “Right now, I’m in shock. I think adrenaline is the only thing keeping me standing at the moment. Processing my feelings and how they relate to… people’s fairy tale identities is way beyond me.” She looked down at the hook again.

“Precisely. Which is why I think you and I should take a break.”

Emma blinked. “A… break?”

“Everyone’s in shock. You may be dealing with learning that the stories in Henry’s book are real, but the rest of us have a lifetime of other memories colliding with the cursed memories in our heads.” He drew himself up to his full height, his thumb hooking into his belt buckle. “We’re dealing with the fact that we did things as our cursed selves that we wouldn’t have done if we had had all of our memories.”

She felt her heart seize in her chest. “You mean…you mean being with me.” If someone had asked her to evaluate analytically whether being in a relationship with Captain Hook was a good idea, she was pretty sure she knew what the answer would be. But standing here being dumped by him still hurt like hell.

“It’s not personal, love. It’s just more than I can handle right now. It’s more than either of us can handle right now, I’d wager.”

She swallowed, blinking back tears. “Yeah. I totally agree. A break is the only sensible thing we can do.”

Killian flinched, looking at something off to the side again.

“Are you okay?” she couldn’t help asking.

He smiled a big, phony smile. “I’m fine,” he answered, and it didn’t take her superpower to know it was a lie. “Please tell Henry I’m glad he’s recovered.” With that, he turned and stalked out of the room.

~*~

“So you’re going to leave me locked up in here? For how long?” Regina fumed, pacing back and forth in her cell.

Emma sighed. “I don’t know, Regina, what would you suggest? That we just let you go? Let the angry mob tear you apart?” She took a file out of the filing cabinet and closed the drawer. “Also you committed a crime. Several crimes.”

“None that you can convict me of under the justice system of this realm.” Regina pointed out. “So I ask again, how long are you going to leave me locked up here?”

“I don’t know, ask the Prince and Princess of Misthaven,” Emma grumbled.

Regina chuckled at that. “Not so thrilled with your new role as the Savior, are you?”

Emma looked up, her expression thunderous. “I’m fine with it.”

“Sure you are. I bet your parents right now are trying to figure out how to get back to their land, aren’t they? Assuming that you’ll want to go with them, away from the only land you’ve ever known. Away from frappuccinos and wifi and cars, and into the world of drafty castles and getting everywhere via horse-drawn carriage. Am I right?”

Emma rolled her eyes, but Regina could tell she’d scored a blow. “Sounds like you don’t want to go back either.”

“This land has a lot to recommend it, I’ll admit, but I’d trade it all to be able to cast a decent spell again,” Regina admitted.

“Yeah, that’s just what we need.”

Regina closed her fingers around one of the bars, squeezing as hard as she could and focusing on the sensation of pain in the palm of her hand. “How’s Henry?”

“He’s fine.”

“Where is he staying?”

“At the loft with me and… Mary Margaret and David.”

“In that hovel?” Regina snapped, and then off of Emma’s glare, added, “Sorry.” Regina put on her most contrite face. It wasn’t difficult; she genuinely missed Henry with a pain that felt like a hole in her chest. “Would it be possible for me to see him? Just for a short visit?”

She could see a softness come into Emma’s eyes. “Yeah, I can probably bring him by tomorrow, if he’s okay with it.” The door to the sheriff’s station opened and one of the dwarves came in. Regina bared her teeth in a snarl, mostly out of habit.

“Hey, Walter,” Emma called, gathering up her belongings as if she was preparing to leave. “Thanks for taking the late shift tonight.”

“You’re leaving a dwarf to watch after me?” Regina asked, beyond insulted at that idea.

Emma ignored her. “You’ve got something to keep you awake?”

He held up a large Thermos in answer. “You can count on me, Sheriff Swan. I mean, Princess Emma?”

“Sheriff Swan,” Emma said, grimacing at being called a princess. “Call me if there’s any trouble,” she called as she hurried out the door.

~*~

“Come on, your majesty. Wake up.” Something hit her in the face, and Regina pulled herself up to a seated position, raising a hand as if to summon a fireball. Not that summoning a fireball was possible here, she realized almost as quickly.

Squinting at the body in shadow against the bars, Regina frowned. “What are you doing here, Hook?”

Killian Jones laughed, flicking a paperclip through the bars to land harmlessly at her feet. That explained what had been hitting her in the face, she thought, and she gave the pirate a murderous glare.

“Why, I’m here to be your fairy godmother, Regina. Ask me for your heart’s desire.”

Regina looked over at the desk behind Killian, where the dwarf that was supposed to be guarding her appeared to be sleeping. Killian followed her gaze and shrugged. “I was prepared to knock him out so you and I wouldn’t be disturbed while we had a heart-to-heart, but he was already sleeping.”

“Get to the point, Guyliner. Why are you here?”

“Why, to help you escape your prison, of course. Isn’t that what you want? To get out of here?” he asked, strolling back and forth in front of the bars of her jail cell.

“Of course. So get on with it.”

“Not so fast. If I break you out now, they’ll just find you and lock you up again. The goal is to get you out of here for good.”

Regina crossed her arms across her chest. “And how do you propose we do that?”

He grinned at her, a feral, terrifying grin. “By bringing magic to Storybrooke.”

“That’s not possible, is it?”

“As a matter of fact, it is. My predecessor planned on it.”

“Ah, are we finally admitting out loud that you’re the Dark One?” Regina said.

“Let’s keep that our secret until we restore magic, shall we? Hmm?” He ran his hook along the bars, making a clanging noise that set her teeth on edge. “Now, as I was saying, my predecessor stored a very powerful magical ingredient with an old friend of yours. Is she still underneath the library?”

“Oh, that twisted little imp. He hid something with her?”

Killian laughed. “Oh, no no. Not with her. In her. He knew you couldn’t resist bringing her over.”

“And what is this magical item?” Regina asked. “How will we use it to bring magic to this realm?”

“That’s your job to figure out, my queen; I don’t know the first thing about spells. I don’t exactly get all of the knowledge of the other Dark Ones downloaded into my brain.”

“But you know about this supposedly magical item,” Regina reasoned, glaring at the pirate.

He shrugged, but there was a flash of something else in his eyes. Fear, perhaps? “The darkness speaks, but only when it chooses to,” he admitted.

“So how are we going to get this thing out of Maleficent?” Regina drawled.

“We aren’t. The Savior is.”

Regina threw up her hands in frustration. “Sure, she’s going to battle a dragon because you tell her to.”

“She’s the Savior, your majesty.” He pouted, his face forming a perfect moue. “She’ll do it because it’s the right thing to do.” He flicked another paper clip in her direction. “You leave that part to me. Bide your time here a little while longer, and as soon as it’s done, I’ll come and let you out.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you?” Regina asked, her arms folded across her chest.

He laughed. “The way I see it, you don’t have a choice. I’m your only ally in this town.”

Chapter 14

[awesimz]

Hi guys, welcome to my Sims 4 “Differences in the Family Tree” legacy, which came about solely because my Sims 3 game keeps shitting out on me and I have finally run out of fucking patience, lol. TS4 runs so much faster on my PC anyway, and while I do miss the open world aspect, I can’t deny there’s something very pleasing about not lagging 24/7, lmao. This legacy has also been paired with the mini challenge “Runaway Teen”, but it’s pretty much only relevant during this episode so it’s not that big of a deal. I honestly just wanted more of a challenge.

At the moment, the only expansion pack I have is City Living, and the only game packs I have are Parenthood and Outdoor Retreat. 

Now, without further ado, let’s begin our little story :)

Meet Serah, our founder. After growing up in a household that was extremely controlling to the point of near suffocation, she ran away as a teen to finally find freedom from her oppressive parents. It was a spur of the moment decision, and while Serah desperately craved independence, she also wasn’t aware how hard it would be to strike out on her own. She crossed a few towns before finally settling down in Willow Creek, attempting to keep under the radar so that her parents wouldn’t find her and bring her back home.

Unfortunately, keeping under the radar meant that she couldn’t enroll in school, and because she couldn’t enroll in school, it meant her future job prospects were going to be very limited. More than that, being on any kind of pay roll could put her name back in the system, which would make it easier for her parents to find her. Therefore, Serah figured her best bet was to attempt to live off the land.

It... was probably going to take awhile until she started catching anything of quality though.

At least she looks pleased with herself.

She started her garden on a little patch of land she found on the outskirts of town though, knowing she would have to do more than fish to get by. (Also the damn thing is her LTW and the entire basis of the first part of this legacy challenge, so there’s that haha).

She also started digging up what she hoped were ‘treasures’ every chance she got, because right now she was sleeping on benches outdoors or couches in karaoke clubs and lbh, that shit was hell on her back.

Also it’s kinda just plain sad.

The park was easily Serah’s favorite place to hang out though, as it had not only all sorts of ways to make money, but it also gave her an opportunity to socialize with teens her own age.

Cassanda: So you’re, ah... not from around here, right? I haven’t seen you in school.

Serah: Yeah, I’m just passing through. My family’s moving to the city, but we stopped here to visit my grandparent’s first. It’s all pretty boring, which is why I’m hanging around here.

Lies.

She didn’t need Cassandra going home and telling her parents she met a homeless girl though.

Okay listen some of these frogs are actually worth a pretty penny, I’m surprised.

Which is why she can finally afford...... a bed, a trash can, and two whole walls. lmao.

GIRL YOU ARE IN PUBLIC WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Also side note - is there a way to make them stop walking around in towels after showering at the gym cause this is ridiculous. Manually having to change her myself is tedious. 

Lola: Hey so... my friend Cass tells me you’re just here visiting your grandparents, right?

Serah: Yeah, I think I’m only gonna be here for a few more---

Lola: Oh, come on, don’t lie to me! I live near where you’re camping out, you know! I saw you when I was taking one of my long walks to get away from the crushing despair that will soon be my future, and you definitely weren’t visiting any one. In fact, you looked like you didn’t want to be seen.  Serah: Alright... fine. But if I tell you the truth, you can’t tell anyone. Swear? Lola: Swear.

Serah: So basically my parents are soul-crushing assholes that won’t accept that their child could be anything less than what they deemed to be fit, so I got the fuck out of dodge. I’m dirty, I’m poor, and I will probably never have a real job as long as I live, but fuck it, at least I have my freedom. Lola: ...Wicked.

Yeah, sure, if you enjoy living in poverty it’s totally cool, lol.

The next day, Serah received some visitors.

Serah: Uh... hi?

Serah: Listen, not to be rude - especially since all of you are pretty hot - but if any of you guys’ parents find out about me, I’m seriously fucked. Ya’ll are drawing way too much attention to me right now. Lola: Girrrrrrl, don’t even worry about it; this side of town is our regular hangout; a bunch of teenagers chilling on one lot won’t make anyone bat an eyelash. They’ll just think we found some abandoned shack to make into some kind of silly ‘clubhouse’ or something.  Cassandra: Wait, what do you mean, ‘find out about you’? I thought you were just passing through. Serah: *sigh* Never mind. And it’s not a--! Okay, maybe it is a bit of a shack.  Cassanda: ......I’m still confused. Lola: That’s not a surprise.

Serah: Hey! You though, you look fabulous; and slightly less crazy than everyone else that just wandered into my sad excuse for home. Save me?

Malcolm: Oh honey, if you only knew. But no, just count yourself lucky that people give enough of a shit about you to come by. Not all of us have that.

Serah: Uh, hello? Me, standing right in front of you, offering for you to stay and chill for a bit. There are literal actual shits being given right now. I mean, I might not know you, but fuck it, I don’t really know anyone really in this neighborhood, and if I’ve just gained some sort of posse we need a token gay guy. Malcolm: I’d take offense to that if it wasn’t so disastrously true. You all are in some serious need of my wisdom anyway, and this desperate bisexual vibe you’ve been giving off needs an actual direction. I have a friend of a friend that might be interested. Give me a minute. Serah: You know... I’d be offended too if ‘desperate’ wasn’t entirely accurate. I really need to get laid; it’s been a hard af week.

Serah: Oh... okay, wow. You’re pretty.

Serah: You wanna go to the Romance Festival with me? I know that’s forward as fuck, but I don’t know how to play coy, so. Tanvi: I kind of like the direct approach, honestly. Sure, I’ll go.

Serah: What is this, exactly? Tanvi: Idk, probably drugs. 

Tanvi: You are... pretty fucking hot though. Malcolm said you had this homeless, idgaf rocker chick-chic vibe going on, but it’s so much more than that. Serah: I’m smooth af, I know.

Tanvi: *chuckles as she gets her hands kissed* Sure, we’ll go with that.

She is a bit though, isn’t she? Haha. Then again, they were drinking romance drugs or whatever the fuck they ingested to get in the mood, so really it’s just like they were both roofied. Nice things to give to kids, there, EA.

One of my favorite things about festivals coming into town though is that all of the flowers and produce have regrown themselves and are able to be stolen harvested, which gives Serah a nice little boost to her wallet.

Which means she can get two more walls and an actual toilet! Yay!

She’s getting better at fishing too, which I’m glad for.

Oh! And look what she found! I wasn’t paying much attention to where she got it from because she was on a digging/fishing spree through the park and I didn’t notice it in her inventory until she came home, but I’m excited. I’ve never had a cow plant in any of my games before.

Eric: Hey, you look to be about my kid’s age; maybe you know him? His name is Blake.

See, and this is why we do not socialize with adults; not even when stopping by the vendors to get something to eat.

Serah: *nervous laugher* Uhhh, actually I’m home schooled, sir. So no; pretty sure I don’t know your kid.

Eric: Ah, well that’s okay. You know, me and my wife thought about home schooling our Blake, but then we realized we didn’t want to spend that much time with our kid. It’s gotta be hell on your parents, yeah? Always having you hanging around? Never having a break?

Serah: No offense, but you sound like a shit parent. Eric: That’s what the gremlins in our house say too, funny enough. Serah: Errrrrrrr....

Girl, just gtfo. Lol. 

Anyway, we give you this brief interlude while Lola crashes Serah’s pad again to give you... her garden! It’s getting bigger :)

Lola: Giiiiirl, I just had the best idea. Serah: What is it?

Lola: Camping trip partyyyyyyy!!!! You in????? Come on, tell me you’re in; it’s not like you have anything better to do; let’s be fair. 

Serah: Uh, aren’t ya’ll in school still? Lola: Seriously? We graduate in two days; that’s the whole reason I want to throw this! Like a ‘coming of age, one last time to get completely hammered and make bad decisions party.’

Lola: I know you didn’t go to school with us, but everyone loves you. Actually, everyone kind of loves you more than me.... so I’m gonna need you to make the call, k? Also btw I think everyone’s caught on to your lie of ‘just passing through’ since it’s been awhile and you’re not only still here, but still hanging out at this shit shack. I don’t think anyone cares though, so just call for me? Serah: .........Fuck it.

Serah: Malcolm? Grab everyone; we’re going camping this weekend.... Yes, there will be showers there, calm down. But also don’t bring hair gel; it’ll probably attract mosquitos or some shit. Also you’ve probably caught on to the fact that I’m homeless by now, so can you bring a tent? I’m poor af, clearly.

And so they all went camping, and had a pretty good time. The truth did eventually come out to all of them though, and everyone promised not to say anything. Even though they were all about to become adults soon and it probably did not matter as much after that, Serah still worried that should her parent’s find her, even as an adult, that they’d drag her back home by her hair.

Anyway, they not only had the good, wholesome kind of fun....

...But they also had the decidedly less wholesome kind as well.

(I think Malcolm had one too many to drink, haha).

Lola: Sooo... you gonna do it this weekend or not? Serah: Do what?

Lola: Make it official with Tanvi, obviously. You’re blind as hell if you haven’t noticed that she’s been waiting. Serah: Wait, seriously?

Serah: I mean, you really think I should? I live in a shack and I garden for a living; that’s not exactly setting her up for an adulthood filled with glamour. Lola: You idiot, she doesn’t care about that. Just go talk to her.

Serah: So you know you’re like... so pretty, right? And down to earth, and... and a whole lot of other stuff that I don’t want to list out cause I’m gonna sound stupid.

Serah: But do you think you maybe.... wanna be my girlfriend? I know I’ve got a shit future ahead of me, being uneducated and all, but I’m hoping that’s not something you really care about right now because if you do I don’t got a Plan B, so.

Tanvi: *laughs softly* You idiot, I don’t care at all about that. Of course I’ll be your girlfriend.

(Well, Lola hit it right on the money, didn’t she?)

Awww :)

Of course they gotta take that obligatory FB photo so they can update their relationship status with a pic, lmao.

Serah: Consummate the relationship with me? Tanvi: I thought you’d never ask.

Right when she got home she aged up too! Welcome to Young Adulthood, Serah; hopefully it’s more stable than your teenage years.

Also all that fishing and gathering on the trip allotted her the bare necessities, yay!

...But oh, honey, I think it’s time to hit the gym. lol.

TBC....