#but Game Knuckles? TWO MOMS CITY HERE WE COME

[kamenrideryeets]

Penders: I own the concept of Knuckles having a father.

Fanfic writers on their way to give Knuckles two moms: OKAY, IF YOU SAY SO

[bombshellsandbluebells]

okay thoughts please! i’m fully on board with ted going back for Henry (after being a lil bummed), because that’s so clearly his journey, but i also really wish that instead of him going to Kansas, they would have had Henry and Michelle come to Ted. i think it would fit with the idea that part of Ted’s growth journey has been about asking for what he needs from people and prioritising his own wants and needs, and with a huge support network for Henry and Ted and Michelle, and Henry loving it there and loving the team and stuff, i think it could have worked. but obviously i always wanna know your thoughts!

*cracks knuckles* alright, let's go lol

One of the ways I read the final season - a story thread that I don't see anyone else talking about - is that on top of missing Henry specifically, Ted is homesick.

Ted starts the season questioning why they're still in England. He spends most of the season directionless and floundering, and, up until "Sunflowers", contributes very, very little to how well the team is performing other than encouraging them. The ONLY thing that makes the team successful in 3a - before the "Sunflowers" Total Football breakthrough - is Zava, and Zava wasn't Ted's idea. He wasn't even responsible for GETTING Zava, Rebecca was. And he has absolutely no control over what Zava does.

Ted's creativity led to Richmond almost winning the final match in s1, a huge achievement for where they started. The skilled team of coaches he brought together by pushing Roy and Nate leads to them getting promoted in s2. But in s3, Ted is no longer the driving force in the team's success.

Not, at least, until "Sunflowers" - the episode I think best highlights Ted's longing for home.

Towards the start of the episode, Ted says he wants to eat at an American restaurant, because he wants a taste of home, and Beard vetoes it. After, they go their separate ways for the night. And that divide there is honestly is what made me start thinking "oh, Ted is going to home to America, Beard is going to stay."

Ted spends the rest of the episode alone, seeking out things that remind him of home. The Van Gogh painting he's captivated by is "Sunflowers" (notably the episode's title) and when he talks about it, the very first thing he says is, "Where I'm from, Kansas, this here is our state flower."

The reason Ted is staring at the painting, the reason he is so moved by it, is because it reminds him of home. (We see the sunflower thread come up in "Mom City" too, when we find out that sunflower bread is Ted's favorite.)

Afterwards, he goes to the American restaurant, and it is only HERE, surrounded by things that remind him of home, watching a game that reminds him of his father, that he FINALLY finds his creativity and his inspiration again and thinks of Total Football, the very first idea Ted comes up with in s3 that has any real affect on the team.

(Also, there's the moment with the BBQ sauce - of all the ones the waitress could have brought, she brings the brand that Ted said gives him a taste of home all the way back in s1.)

I've seen a lot of people argue that Ted only decided to go home in "Mom City" because Dottie guilt tripped him, but I think that idea has been in the back of Ted's mind since "Sunflowers", but two big things were holding him back: wanting to finish out the season and try to win it, AND the genuine fear he feels about going back and addressing his relationship with his son.

By the time we get to the finale, both of those things have been addressed.

The season is almost over and Ted finally admitted - to his mother and himself - what he was still scared of with Henry. What happens with Dottie in "Mom City" doesn't make Ted decide to go home out of nowhere - it lets him get over that last big hump of how his issues with his father were affecting his relationship with his son. He admits that yes, he's scared to get close to Henry. Because Henry is going to leave one day. But that's just what parenthood is - Henry IS going to leave Ted eventually, one way or another. But that fear of people leaving, of things ending, (of, in Ted's mind in some ways, him quitting) can't drive his actions.

Like Ted says all the way back in 2x01, that is in many ways one of the theses of the show: "It's funny the things that come into your life that can make you cry just knowing they existed, can then become the same thing that make you cry, knowing they're now gone. I think those things come into our lives to help us get from one place to a better one."

Ted went to England in the first place because he was running. He left because he was giving Michelle space because of the issues in their marriage. And he stayed away because some part of him was scared to go back and be a father. And being in England let Ted work through so much.

He tells Rebecca in s1, "This job you gave me saved my life. It gave me the space to see what was really happening." But that isn't limited to the issues with Michelle - it's every single issue Ted has, from his inability to express his feelings to his lingering anger and grief over his father to his abandonment issues.

I've seen people arguing that Ted goes back because he feels obligated to for his son, that it's a sacrifice for him, and it means he was still never able to articulate his negative emotions or what he wants, but I strongly disagree. I think that was addressed when Ted was FINALLY able to honestly tell Michell and later his mother how angry he was with them, how much they've hurt him, and how much he doesn't like certain things they're doing or have done to him.

Also, I find it very interesting that despite all the alternative ideas Rebecca gives him in the finale, Ted never says anything. It is noticeably one of the ONLY scenes in this show were Ted just sits there quietly. It's not that Ted doesn't want to tell Rebecca how he really feels, because they have the kind of friendship that lets them be honest with each other, it's that both Rebecca and Ted know he's made up his mind and is at peace with his decision - he doesn't need to say anything.

To me, it's not enough that Henry comes to England, Ted wants to go home. The decision is as much for him as it is for his son. He's no longer needed at Richmond - he changed all of it for the better, but now Roy is able to step up where needed without prodding, and the team is able to support each other, reach out to each other, and forgive each other without Ted meddling.

Ted came in and made Richmond better. But Richmond came into Ted's life and made him better too, and helped him go back home in such a better place than he was when he left.

As for Henry moving to England:

Part of it is that just because Henry likes England, I don't think it's realistic or necessarily the best decision for him to just uproot his life and Michelle's - it's weird how people argue Ted didn't do what was best for him, but never consider whether asking Henry and Michelle to move would be good for them. (Obviously we don't know; it's not addressed.)

The thing is - there's is no possible 100% Happy Ending that doesn't involve someone saying goodbye to someone.

If Ted stays, his son has to feel abandoned by his father the way Ted did and that cycle continues. If Henry goes to England, then what happens with Michelle? Does she go? Doesn't she have friends and family in America? Does Henry just say goodbye to his mom instead? And if Ted leaves, then yeah, he says goodbye to Richmond.

But that's life. Life pulls people in different directions and when seasons end, you say goodbye to places and people that you LOVE.

It IS sad. It's an ending. It's a goodbye. But it in no way means that Ted isn't going to find a new community in America or that Ted has severed his relationships with the people of Richmond forever. You can move away from people and still keep in touch with them.

Also to me one of the reasons Ted saying goodbye is so thematically perfect, is that WE'RE saying goodbye to the show. The bittersweet feeling Ted and Richmond feel about him leaving is exactly how we feel about the show ending. And that's kind of perfect.

[gineazu]

chapter three

"Normal is just a dream for us, though" denji says

Then the h/c haired man looked at him as if saying 'for you maybe' then speaks up "i still have my goal to accomplish but it can wait" m/n said

Over the years the angelic man has grown soft for denji and always puts him second after his goal but right now denji has seemed to made his way into his cold black unmoving smoker shriveled dead heart

"Doubt I’ll pay off this debt before I die"

Denji takes a bite out the bread then adds on to what he's saying

"Probably gonna die without ever having a girlfriend, too"

The h/c haired man lean onto his knuckles holding his head up with an annoyed look rolling his eyes at the mention of women or dating in genral

He never saw the point of it you can never trust your partner no matter how many promises you make to them or they make to you some promises will always be broken

"Not like I could invite a girl to this dump. No money to go on dates, either"

Denji looks down at pochita before glancing at the man next to him staring a little longer the he wanted to seeing how M/n interacted with the small alternate that he created

A small Appearing on his cheek not knowing how to feel he was soon brought out of his thoughts by pochita making a small noise

"Woo…"

"If I could have one dream come true, I wanna score with a girl before I die…"

'Or maybe even a guy' he thought not wanting to say it out loud .......*:.｡..｡.:*ﾟ:*:✼✿✿✼:*ﾟ:.｡..｡.:*.........

After flashing back to the time they all met denji couldnt seem to sleep right now

"Too hungry to sleep…when I can’t sleep, I start thinking about money, and then it’s even harder to sleep."

He says

"I know what dream I wanna have when I sleep"

He pet pochita on the head looking at the little alternate sleeping on Pochitas paw

"Gonna put jam on my bread and share it with you. Then, I’m gonna flirt with a girl or a guy.."

He whispers the last part

"and play video games with her, and then we’ll fall asleep hugging each other sounds sweet, right?"

Pochita let out a 'Woof!' Causing denji to smile at him but then he suddenly feels sick

"Ngh.."

Denji sits up and coughs up blood feeling dread throughout his body as this happens

Pochita 'woofs!' In worry for the boy

"You know, I heard my mom died from some heart disease that made her cough up blood…"

He turned to m/n who he saw was sleeping for the first time ever well first time ever seeing him sleep and then thought back to what m/n told him once

'I don't require sleep but it feels nice to close your eyes every once in a while'

Suddenly the yakuza boss knocks on denji's door

"Got a devil for you, Denji. Time for work" he says

And suddenly m/n is nowhere to be seen

"Haa…" ♛┈⛧┈┈•༶༶•┈┈⛧┈♛┈⛧┈┈•༶♛┈⛧•

Later that night, in the city. Denji and Pochita ride in the yakuza boss’s car with an uneasy feeling

Wish they’d at least let me dream…i wonder where m/n always dissapears too..' Denji thought

The yakuza boss drives Denji and Pochita to an abandoned fact they all get out the car and started walking

"There’s a devil in here, huh?" Denji questioned

"I don’t see anything. You think it’s hiding?"

"Oh, or maybe it left already?"

Denji continued to question the boss

The boss says nothing but eventually stops walking as if he was a robot

"Ah… Huh?"

"Denji, my boy… We’re pretty grateful to you, you know?"

"Huh? Yeah…"

"You’re as loyal as a dog, and you work for cheap like one, too"

"Right…"

"Only problem with dogs is I can’t stand the stench".

A man stabs Denji and Pochita from behind with a sword in the shadows the little alternate from before stood in anger that two out of three his 'creators' were just stabbed

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐨 𝐈𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚*･⁺‧͙

Denji coughs up blood Pochita does the same the man withdraws his sword

"Even yakuza think about getting bigger and making more money, kid"

The boss said

"So we did like you and made a deal with a devil"

The Zombie Devil grabs the yakuza boss and lifts him into the air

"Ngh…"

"We wanted demonic power…"

The Zombie Devil emerges from the shadows

"And I want devil hunters… dead!"

"Ah…"

"You know, little devil hunter, these guys are dumb as hell. Total suckers"

The yakuza members walk toward Denji like zombies groaning and moaning with not one thought in their heads

"I offer them a bit of demonic power, and they offer to become my slaves

The power turns them into zombies, though See, I’m the Zombie Devil"

"Ngh… Urgh…" denji tried to speak

"And I hate devil hunters because you go around killing us devils. So I’m gonna kill you"

"Boys, tear him apart and toss him in the trash"

The zombies start moaning and groaning louder before pursuing denji

He gets up and starts running away to find an exit

"Shit! Ngh…" he keeps running holding his wound

"How do I get out of here?"

Denji sees the exit and tries to making a run for it almost there

"Ah!"

"Ugh… Ngh… Gah…"

The zombie yakuza boss then grabs Denji by his shoulder

"Shit… Get off!"

He then cuts into Denji’s back with a knife

"Gah!"

Denji falls over and the Zombies continue to walk toward him with malice intentions

"Ngh… Urgh… Ngh…"

A zombie stabs Denji in the back again

"Ngh… Gahh!"

The zombies continue stabbing denji multiple times

"Ah… Gahhh!"

'It’s not like I’m asking to be rich.'

"Ahhh!"

'All I want is a normal life!'

･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

Somewhere in the shadows the little alternate is trying to convince m/n to help them

"As much as i want i can't this is fate he must make a deal he cannot stay human forever" the man looked angered

"As soon as they make a deal i will jump in and help"

[charliedawn]

Imagine you're another being with the "shinning" and hunted by Rose Hat and her gang. Part 1.(my version of Doctor Sleep. Warning : gore. Horror movie. Also, you're a bad a**. 😉😂)

Little Danny loved to explore the hotel, he liked to think that it was an adventure. This is why that when the door of room 374 mysteriously opened on its own, he found himself inside before he could think about the consequences of his action. He looked around, it didn't seem any different from any other room, besides the fact that there was a huge mirror in the center of it. He approaches it and, finding his reflection funny, started making weird faces in front of it. However, his reflection quickly distorted, showing a little girl who was crying instead. Danny was a very curious little boy, and like many little boys as curious as him, he wanted to investigate. He sat on the ground and stared at the girl that hadn't noticed him yet and couldn't help but find her pretty. When she raised her eyes, they immediately made contact with the ones of Danny that smiled sympathetically at her.

" Why are you crying?"

He asked and she sniffled.

" My sister..She's done some terrible things..But I don't know what to do.."

He stared at the mirror for a moment before raising his index to his ear and whispered.

" What should I do, Tony ? She seems scared.."

The little girl raises an eyebrow at his strange gesture, but didn't interrupt him as he replied in another voice.

" I think she needs a friend.."

The boy smiled and nodded vividly in agreement before turning towards the girl again.

" Tony says I should probably be your friend. My name is Danny. What's yours ?"

The girl laughed a little before replying.

" Y/N..Where are you right now ?"

You asked, looking around him with a small frown. He seemed to be in some sort hotel..But, something felt off.

" I'm with my mom and my dad. We came here for his job.."

But, Danny didn't seem too happy about it and you decided to step a little closer to the mirror.

" You see bad things too.."

You said knowingly and Danny nodded frantically.

" I see them too.."

His eyes widened at your confession and he quickly asked.

" Really ? What do you see ?"

You seemed to look around, making sure that no one could hear you before leaning in and whispering.

" My sister..She has someone else with her, someone bad and that tells her what she has to do. This morning, she killed our dog..This is why I'm sad. The more the bad lady stays, the more my sister seems to change..I'm afraid that she will do something awful to my parents.."

Danny listened and put his thumb in his mouth, the only this that seemed to calm him down when he was worried or upset about something. He was afraid that you would find his odd behavior strange, but you only smiled before putting a strand of your hair in your mouth: your own calming process. He slowly took his thumb out and shared his own struggles.

" My father wanted to come here..but the hotel is bad. There are very bad things happening around and I'm afraid that he is going to hurt us.."

In a way, you both understood each other's struggles..But before you could talk more about it, you heard the voice of your sister calling you and freezed. She entered the room and her eyes were immediately drawn to the mirror. She smiled maliciously before standing in front of the glass.

" And who might you be, huh ?"

She asked, but Danny was too scared to speak..He had seen the old woman standing above her and her face suddenly distorted at the realization. She grimaced in anger and screamed.

" Get out of my house !"

The force of the scream was such that it send Danny flying against a wall. The connection stopped and Danny was on the verge of crying when he suddenly heard a door creak. He slowly turned his head towards the bathroom and his eyes widened as he saw someone in the bathtub. He stood up and seemed to be drawn in by the bathroom. He wanted to get out, but couldn't help walking forward, the door closing behind him..

A few years later :

You are walking towards the nearby cinema, unaware that you are being followed. You step in the cinema and buy a ticket before sitting down in one of the comfortable chairs of the dark room. There are other people, a blond girl and a man in his forties. You don't have to wonder about their relationship as the man puts his hand on the girl's thigh. You grimace and try to take a better look at the girl that seemed awfully young..You sigh loudly before looking up at the screen. They had entered together..maybe you were reading too much into this ? However, when you hear the small noises of pain, you stand up, ready to take the girl's hand and run..But imagine your surprise when you see that the moans of pain were coming from the man. You stay speechless, but quickly sit back down, looking at the girl that is whispering things in his ear, things that make the man physically shake. You look around, wondering if anyone else had noticed. Nobody seems to notice what's unfolding, only two people that seem to fix the girl with envy and..something else. You shiver as the eyes of the woman seem to stare straight at you. However, you pretend being as oblivious as everyone else by stuffing yourself with popcorn, making her grimace in disgust and look away promptly. At the end of the movie, you nearly run out of the cinema and enter the bus quickly. You see the two persons following..the blond girl from the cinema. She seems scared and you take multiple shaky breaths before running out of the bus. You curse yourself as you run past the two creeps to take the arm of the girl and put on your best fake smile.

" Hi girl ! The movie was sooo good, don't you think ?!"

The blond one frowns in incomprehension, but quickly understands when you significantly tilt your head backwards. She nods and smiles even wider before playing the game.

" I know ! I'm so sorry to have left you, but I really thought my date would show up !"

You glance backwards and see that the two have disappeared..But you don't feel like leaving the girl alone and whisper.

" My house is a few blocks away..You can hide there for a bit, just to make sure the two weirdos are truly gone.."

She looks back as well and finally nods in agreement. You arrive and lock the door behind you. You then turn towards the blond that is looking around curiously. You smile and look through the window to observe the street.

" Do you have any friends or family around here that you can stay at for the night ?"

You ask and the girl looks at her shoes sheepishly and shakes her head.

" No..I'm alone."

You feel her uneasiness and gaze back at her with a small reassuring smile.

" Don't worry, you can stay the night if you want. But, as I'm supposed to leave tomorrow..I need to know if you have anywhere to go ? A shelter maybe ? Do you want me to call child services ?"

At the mention of the latter, the girl looks up at you with frightened eyes and shakes her head negatively.

" No ! You won't take me there ! You'll allow me to stay here !"

The way she says it almost sounds like an order and you can see that she is trying to use the same trick on you than she did with the older man..but it doesn't work and you only sigh loudly.

" Fine. As I said, you can stay the night. But, tomorrow, I will be going to New Hampshire, so you better find something until then."

She slowly nods and you then make a sign for her to follow you. You open the guest room and she enters. She sits on the bed and seems happy enough. You smile and are about to tell her goodnight when she surprises you by telling you her name:

" Andi. My name is Andi."

You just realize now that you hadn't even asked for her name..You smile and respond.

" I'm Y/N."

Then you close the door and go to your own room.

The next day :

You wake up and get ready before preparing your breakfast. You enter Andi's room, but only find a neatly made bed. You feel a bit sad at the fact that she didn't even say goodbye..but that quickly goes away when you see that you are missing 20 dollars.

" Son of a..!"

You curse and sigh again..Well, it could have been worse. You take your car keys and get inside your car. You start driving towards New Hampshire while following a map. You are supposed to have an interview for the local newspaper and also..You kinda want to get away from the city for a while, too many entities there. You only stop halfway to get your sandwiches out of your bag. You search for through your stuff, but suddenly feel something moving on the backseat. You freeze and your brain starts gathering all the possible explanations..A raccoon ? A spirit ?..You wait and finally, a familiar fair-haired head peeks out from underneath a blanket.

"...Hey."

She greets you with an awkward smile and a small wave of her hand. You can't believe that she 1) actually slept through more than half of the road and 2) that she followed you ! Your shock passed6, you pinch the bridge of your nose in exasperation and ask on an intransigent tone.

" Andi. What are you doing here ?"

She doesn't answer, she just looks ahead with widened eyes and you grit your teeths..Is she actually ignoring you right now ?! You are about to start yelling when she points towards the road ahead. You sigh, but still look and your eyes widen as well when you see who is driving the small van ahead of you..the guys who was following Andi yesterday ! He seems to be following a young boy now. Your blood boils in your veins at the prospect that they were now actually attacking small children.

" Andi. Seat belt."

You say warningly, your hand gripping the steering wheel with such intensity that your knuckles turn white. Andi doesn't wait for you to ask twice and quickly buckles her seat belt. You see that the boy is about to get inside the car and suddenly hit the gas. You had a feeling, a feeling that this boy would never see the light of day again if you didn't stop them. You drive straight ahead and collide with van full force, continuing advancing even afterwards. You make them drive backwards and you glare straight into the other driver's eyes. He seems shocked at first, but when he recognizes you, he smiles. You grit your teeths and yell while raising your middle finger.

" Yeah ! Keep smiling, a**h*le !"

The boy is far away now. He will be able to get back to his parents safely. Andi doesn't scream, but can feel the anger radiating from you. The van drives away as well, and the front of your car may be in a disastrous state, but you don't care. When you're calm enough, you lean back against your seat and look back at Andi, making sure that she is alright.

" Everything's fine ?"

She nods affirmatively before looking at you with concern written all over her features.

" I know that they are creeps but..Wasn't it a bit too much ?"

You close your eyes and remember the screams of agony of a little girl that you had heard a few months ago..You don't know why, but the screams had suddenly reappeared in your head as you had seen the two individuals following Andi yesterday, and even louder with this kid. It is now your alarm when bad thing are about to happen. You hear the screams of this girl that seemed in such pain when she died..You had ran to get to her, but by the time you had arrived, she had disappeared completely. This is another one of the reasons why you had decided to leave your old town. You take a big breath before driving forward.

" You have to trust me on this. They deserved it."

You say confidently and Andi doesn't add anything. She only looks out the window silently for the rest of the way. When you finally arrive, you stop in front of a weird-looking house with dark-tinted windows and a bright red door. You had already seen it of course, but Andi hadn't. She pouts when she sees it and whines.

"Is that really where you're going to live ?"

You ark an eyebrow at the pronoun she uses and cough loudly for her to turn her attention towards you.

" Where WE are going to live, you mean ? You really think I'm going to let you go with those people out there ? Not in a million years. You stay with me, Missy. That you like it or not.."

Her eyes widen, but she quickly smiles excitedly.

" You mean it ?! I promise that I won't steal money from you again ! And I'll even give your watch back !"

" Yeah yeah..Don't get used to it though, as soon as the creeps are definitely off our backs, I'm finding you someone else to take care of you..Wait, what do you mean by giving my watch back ?!"

She smiles awkwardly and you look at your naked wrist and roll your eyes before extending your hand.

" Come on. Give it."

She immediately gets it out and gives it back to you with an apologetic smile. You both get out, and she even helps you with the luggage.

" No more stealing. I'll have a job and I'm sure it'll pay enough for the both of us."

She doesn't answer right away, but you suddenly turn around and wait with your arms crossed expectantly. She finally rolls her eyes and replies with her gaze lowered to the floor.

" Yes, "mom"."

You gasp in fake offense at her insinuation and she looks up at you with a small smirk.

" That's it, young lady. Come on. Get inside and tomorrow, I'll be sure to walk around and see if any schools can accept you. There is no way I'm leaving a fifteen-year old roam the street."

She seems to disapprove and says on an authorative tone, crossing her arms as well.

" I'm not going. In fact, you'll forget ever asking me to do so.."

She tries to use her powers on you again, but you resist her and sigh before entering the house. You don't answer her and she frowns, upset. However, she still enters after you and is agreeably surprised by the interior that is a lot prettier than the outside. You smile at her awed expression, however, you aren't that pleased to be back in this house..

" Home sweet home.."

You still remember how you thought that the walls were full of secrets and that the seemed to be whispering in your ears..They had warned you of what would happen, but you were only a child..What could you have done ? Andi gets you out of your thoughts by groaning loudly.

" I'm hungry.."

You sigh, of course she is..

" Okay, the money you stole from my wallet ? It was supposed to be used for buying groceries once here."

She looks at her shoes almost guiltily before admitting.

" I was hungry this morning..I used it to by a box of donuts and a milkshake.."

You want to be mad..but you can't. You only take out your wallet and open the door. She quickly follows you and you start walking, searching for a shop. You soon find one at the corner of a nearby street and enter. You start looking around for decent prices while Andy starts piling up sugary sweets upon sugary sweet in the...You turn in the soups alley and Andi grimaces in disgust at nearly every single soup on the shelves. You finally take some, ignoring Andi's complaining. You see that the last tomato soup is on sale and are about to take it when another hand shots up to get it. You turn towards the owner of the hand and see an Indian man with a nice smile. He gives you the soup while apologizing.

" My bad, you spot it first."

You smile back politely and take it. You are about to turn around and go when the man introduces himself while extending your hand towards you.

" I'm Billy. Billy Freeman."

You finally shake his hand with a small smile and nod in acknowledgement before replying.

" I'm Y/N. And this girl here is Andi."

However, the man frowns in confusion before looking behind you.

" Hum..Andi ?"

You turn around and see that Andi is gone. You sigh loudly before groaning.

" This girl I swear.."

You then flash your best apology smile towards Billy.

" It was a pleasure, Billy. But, I need to go."

You start walking towards the cashier, but Billy follows you before adding.

" Wait. I'll search with you."

You are about to refuse, but finally nod in agreement. You need all the help you can get to find the girl, hoping that one of those creepy guys didn't get to her first..You shiver just as the thought and feel the adrenaline rushing through your veins as you start yelling.

" Andi ! Andi ! Where are you ?!"

Billy calls her as well, but you finally have to go through the cashier.

" Please, I lost my...sister. Her name is Andi. Can you call her ?"

The lady only nods before making the call. You stay here, biting your nails out of frustration. One minute, and Andi had disappeared. You don't want admit it, but you like the blond midget. You don't want anything to happen to her until you find her a family or help in any case..Suddenly, the woman smiles and tilts her head towards one of the aisles where two individuals had just gotten out of. One is Andi, munching grumpily on a handful of crisps while the other person, a man, drags her forward. You sigh in relief before running towards them.

" Thank God ! Andi ! I was worried !"

She only rolls her eye dramatically before continuing eating, but you can see that she feels guilty when she whispers.

" Yeah..Sorry.."

You look up to thank the man that had found her and freeze on thee spot when your eyes meet. Somehow, you have this feeling to have already seen him somewhere.. However, he doesn't seem to feel the same way as he only smiles before tilting his head towards Andi.

" You're the sister of the little demon ?"

He asks with a small smile and you nod with a slight smile as well. He extends his hand towards you and you shake it accordingly. However, the moment your hand is in his, you feel as if electricity is coursing through your entire body. He seems to feel it too this time as he immediately steps away with a small frown of incomprehension. However, before you could say anything, Billy appears and takes him by the shoulders in a friendly way.

" Hey, Danny ! I see that you've met the new members !"

Danny ? The name is as familiar as the face, but Danny only shakes his head with a shy smile.

" Yeah. Just found the girl and decided to do a good deed..But, I have to come back to work. I'll see you around."

You don't know who he is addressing those last words too, but you still reply.

" I hope so.."

He looks one last time at you before leaving and suddenly, memories flash in your brain that makes you scream in agony in front of everyone. Andi is by your side in and instant and tries to calm you down, but you feel a painful pang in your chest. You open your eyes wide and feel as if you can't breathe..You thought you had locked her up..But, one glance at Danny, and your old demon got out of his prison. You feel cold arms around your neck as she whispers in your ear.

" hello, sister.."

End of part 1! Tell me what you think!

[thedistrictsleepsalonetonight]

Folk Songs (Weiss Schnee builds a home in the aftermath)

She asks Winter if she ever wonders why Atlas is named the way it is. Surely, naming a floating city after someone who was almost always pinned to the ground by the weight of the world would have been a mistake. Icarus, she muses, if it were up to her, she would have named it Icarus.

(Icarus flew and Icarus fell. Icarus, a slave to his own ambitions)

“Is that who you feel like?” Winter asks. “Atlas?”

It’s an honest question put to someone who has spent significant time carrying the family name around, by someone who handed it over when she grew too tall for it. Weiss shrugs.

“It’s not that deep,” she says.

Winter responds to that by patting her back. “Isn’t it, though?” she says, pushing a hand so Weiss straightens her posture. Weiss is sure the movement is unconscious, instinctual. Then Winter moves her hand to adjust the collar of the shirt she’s wearing, and lets her hand rest on Weiss’ shoulder for the rest of the conversation. Neither of them mentions it.

*****

She’s sitting at the piano when Ruby plops down next to her. “Teach me,” Ruby says, hitting a couple of disjointed notes.

Weiss, who is prone to losing her bearings when Ruby is near, plays a couple of notes in response. It’s supposed to be a tiny jingle, but she messes it up.

“I can’t play very well,” she, who has been trained to play the piano, the cello, and the violin since the age of five, says without a pause. Then she balls up her fists, because what she meant to say instead is — I can’t play very well when you’re around. Actually, I can’t do a lot of things very well when you’re around, Ruby.

(Blake and Yang need to come up with their combined manual on love soon. And when they do, she hopes there will be a section titled How to talk to girls you’ve kissed and sworn eternal devotion to but because there was a war going on neither of you ever sat down to define your relationship and now you don’t know what to do with your hands when she’s near. It can be a long section; she doesn’t mind as long as it gives her clear instructions.)

Ruby presses at a note. “What’s this?”

“An F.”

Another one. “This?”

“Either a C sharp or a D flat.”

Ruby stares hard at the piano, and Weiss entertains the crazy thought of kissing her frown away. She’s done it before — on sleepless nights, on ravaged battlefields, as a mark of comfort and of quiet, painful adoration. It’s damning how easy it is to bend to Ruby; every cell in her body calls out a primordial cry for her. How could she, mountain of carefully sculpted indifference, bow this effortlessly to fire?

(Her father, if she deigned to give him the time of day, would probably mutter something about how she’s a disgrace to the Schnee name, and she would disagree. What she feels in her heart for Ruby is nothing short of a miracle.)

“Here,” she says, pressing the notes in order, slowly so she’s sure Ruby can follow. “If you want to play a basic chord, you could just hold down C, E, and G notes together. That’s C major.”

“Like this?”

“No, that’s….to the right. No, not that,” she pauses, brings up her own hand to press over Ruby’s and guide her. It isn’t until Weiss glances up once and sees the mischievous smile on her face that she realizes.

“Oh!” she says, her hands retreating to her lap.

“I’m sorry if I—“, Ruby starts, sounding guilty, and Weiss turns to her, quick as a whip.

“No!” she says, then realizes they’re both almost nose to nose. “Don’t — don’t be sorry, please.”

“Did you not like that?” Ruby asks, her voice soft.

Weiss laughs, and the sound seems nervous to her own ears. “No, I,” she says, “I liked it.”

Ruby’s answering smile is sunlight through her windows in the morning, gradual in its brightness until it’s too much to bear. Weiss shifts, rests her forehead on Ruby’s shirt clad shoulder. The fabric smells a little like detergent and a lot like Ruby’s fruity perfume.

“You know,” she says, her voice half muffled by the shirt. She knows Ruby can hear her though. “I can never look you right in the eye when I talk to you. It feels — feels too much like burning up.”

Ruby shakes: Weiss can almost see her laughing. “Do you know how you can never look me right in the eye when you talk to me? That’s when I get to stare at you. You talk and talk and I just keep looking at your pretty face.”

The sound that comes out of her throat at Ruby’s halting admission is a mixture of acute embarrassment, disbelief, and delight.

“I used to wait two hours for you to come back from your missions with Blake and Nora so we could eat together.”

She feels Ruby press a kiss to her temple. “I used to stay up until 2 am because that was the only time I could be alone with you.”

“I can’t sit next to you,” Weiss tells her, “it’s like there’s this thing between our arms — this—”

“—electricity,” Ruby completes, and slides her fingers through Weiss. Weiss closes her eyes from her very comfortable position and feels Ruby’s lips on her knuckles, soft, careful. When Ruby removes her hand, she feels the loss as acutely as something has been ripped out of her soul. Another random note rings out in the silence.

“Go out on a date with me.” Nowhere in the statement is a demand, or a presumption, just quiet assurance. “Weiss,” Ruby says, when she still doesn’t answer. “Go out on a date with me, please.”

Weiss nudges aside the collar of her shirt and kisses her neck. Then she leans back to look at Ruby.

“What if you don’t like me after we go on the date?”

The question is delivered with just enough amusement, but behind it lies real distress. What if this only works because we’ve been thrown together all these years fighting a weary battle? What if you only think you like me because you haven’t seen the rest of me yet? What if, when you see the rest of the world and start spending time with other people, you realize I’m not up to all that you’ve built up in your head?

“If I don’t like you after we go on that date, then you have my blessing to blast me into space with your Arma Gigas.”

“Ruby—”

“In what world,” Ruby cuts in smoothly, “do you imagine I wouldn’t like you back? In what world does my stomach not twist when you walk into the room, or my breathing not falter when you talk? I have heard a million voices in my lifetime, Weiss, but in what world is yours not the only one I want my heart to cut itself on?”

“Stop,” she says, face burning, eyes closed, “Ruby, you — just, stop talking, I’m going to—”

“Weiss,” Ruby says. “Go out on a date with me.”

Not that the answer is needed, but Weiss nods anyways.

*****

Whitley is equal parts familiar and foreign. There’s the same bristling stance, the Schnee stamp prominent upon his features, his hair, still parted the same side as she would see back when they were children running around in their estate. What’s different is the thinly veiled animosity in his eyes, the angry twist to his mouth.

“You can’t just come in here,” he starts, waving a hand to wipe away the holographic design for SDC office headquarters Weiss has just pulled up, “and start ordering me around.”

“Whit,” she says, watching as he flinches at the old nickname. “I’m not ordering you around. I couldn’t. You’re the expert here—”

“—yeah, I am. The heir who stayed, remember?”

She is reminded, of a game of hide and seek on a Sunday a long time ago. Whitley had hidden himself so well that Weiss couldn’t find him even after wandering all around the estate. And then when Winter had come back from training, she’d abandoned the pursuit, running off to interrogate her sister instead.

You didn’t find me, Whitley had come running, crying after ten minutes, distraught. You and Winter, and — he’d paused to take in a wet shuddering breath too big for his ten-year-old body — you and Winter forgot about me. And she’d known, even then, that what he was protesting was being left alone when they were together.

“I do know a little bit of this, Whit,” she says, mildly. “I can help.”

“I don’t need your help!” he tells her, sharply.

“I’m sure you don’t,” Weiss says, “but we’re the last of Schnees, if you don’t count mom, and we should stick together. I’m not saying I know everything, but I have been training half my life for this, so I could contribute.”

“I’d rather,” he starts, then cuts off abruptly. I’d rather die, she completes in her head, and waits patiently for him to continue. He looks away. “So much for sticking together.”

She reaches out and pats the top of his head. He swivels away violently.

“You — stop, you, you don’t get to do that.”

“Actually, I do,” she replies smoothly, “I happen to be one of your sisters. Not historically a very good one, but I’m what you’ve got, so you’re going to have to make do.”

When Whitley speaks, every time Whitley speaks, all she hears is his ten-year-old version screaming You left me at her, upset and sulking. While Winter made sure Weiss was able to defend herself if she wasn’t around to do that for her, when opportunity to leave Atlas had arisen, Weiss herself had run off, too relieved about the freedom to worry too much about her brother.

He glares at her. “I’m guessing you’ll want something?” he says, flippantly. “The position of the CFO? A seat in the Board of Directors, maybe?”

“Not exactly,” she says, smiling as she messes up his hair one last time before she exits the room. “Dinner every Tuesday and Saturday evening. 7 pm. I’ll see you in two days.”

“Wha — what?” she hears him ask from behind. “What are you — no! I’m not doing…. Weiss!”

*****

When Weiss goes to pick Ruby up for their date, she’s greeted by the entirety of Mantle and Atlas instead.

“We’re not that many people, please,” Blake says, before she joins Yang at the door. “Oh. Oh wow.”

“Do I — does this look, okay?” Weiss asks, smoothing the front of her dress nervously. She didn’t quite trust Jaune’s choice in dresses, but this was what Oscar, Robyn and Winter had collectively agreed on: a midnight blue slinky…. thing that didn’t quite reach her knees and was making her feel very awkward.

Yang’s jaw is still open, her head moving back and forth between Blake and her. Blake closes it for her.

“Okay?” Nora calls out, as Weiss enters the house further. “Girl, if Ruby doesn’t get down on her knees at the end of the night, I’ll give away all of my wealth to the good children of Mantle.”

“Nora!” you say, scandalized, the same time that Yang screams Ew.

“What? I didn’t mean it that way,” she says. “But don’t you think it’s interesting how both of you jumped to….”

Ren covers her mouth with his hand, smiles wryly at the rest of them.

“Also,” Emerald points out, poking her head out from behind the fridge. “Doesn’t Nora have like, five lien to her name?”

And that will not go to the good children of Mantle tonight, comes through in the muffled voice of a still incapacitated Nora. Weiss walks around the room, trying to calm her nerves. She doesn’t want to walk too fast and sweat through, or rip something, but there’s this electric charge festering under her skin everywhere, and no amount of balling up and releasing her own fists seems to help. She tries to take a deep breath, discovers her lungs aren’t ready for it yet.

“Hey,” Blake’s already at her side, one hand gently resting on her abdomen, the other on her back. “Breathe. Breathe with me, Weiss.”

She focuses on Blake’s steady voice, on the numbers she counts out, and slowly her breathing evens out. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m such a mess.”

“Please,” Yang says easily, “you should’ve seen Blake after I kissed her the first time. She nearly passed out.”

“That’s because you weren’t wearing clothes!” Blake shoots back, defensively.

“Oh yeah,” Yang says, staring off into space. “Wait, why wasn’t I wearing clothes?”

“Can I just say,” Ren said, looking pained, “how much I do not want to hear this story.”

“I’m okay now,” Weiss says. “Also, why aren’t you guys helping Ruby get ready?”

“You think I need help getting ready?” Ruby’s voice rings out from behind her, and Weiss turns, and

(Had she just thought that she was okay? Because she’d never been more wrong in her life.)

The sight of Ruby, standing near the door rips the breath from her lungs so fast she’s left reeling. It imprints itself upon her memory, a postcard polaroid for the end of all her days, and Weiss wonders where to look. Surely she’s not allowed to look at Ruby directly — isn’t it illegal to look upon angels? She wants to shield her eye, hide her face, wants to turn and run away because she’s sure there’s a world out there where she’s worthy of holding Ruby’s hand and walk beside her, but this can’t be it.

“What?” she says, stupidly, when she realizes Ruby had asked her something but for the life of her can’t remember what it was.

“I — nothing,” Ruby says, walking forward. “Weiss. You look….”

She trails off into silence, until Emerald says — Yo, can I get in on that bet you were talking about earlier — and gets shushed loudly.

(Weiss wants to warn her against it. She’s convinced she’s going to be the one getting down on her knees and proposing marriage at the end of the evening)

*****

Life moves on. Weiss holds Ruby’s hands in hers, and watches autumn turn to winter. Whitley smiles at her on their fifth dinner date, and then, to make up for it, turns down all her proposals for the next two. Sun and Neptune come to visit, and Yang spends the entire time doing pushups ominously in full view of both Blake and Sun, to the former’s amusement and the latter’s bemusement. Oscar goes on his first date with a girl from Mantle, and discovers at the end of the night that Jaune, Ren, Nora and Emerald had been following them the entire time. Qrow makes a half-hearted attempt at warning her of the consequences of breaking Ruby’s heart, and when Whitley and Winter discover that, they kidnap Ruby for half a day. Ruby refuses to tell her what happened, but she also refuses to kiss her in public the whole next week.

Weiss decides to move out of the Schnee estate when she finds a tiny apartment in Mantle, a building over from where Blake, Yang and Ruby have theirs. There’s a lot of light and her favorite spot in the entire place is a corner where the previous family had marked the heights of their three children, apparently named Lee, August and Celia. Ruby draws a line next to it, names it Weiss’ patience level for the day and marks it at random points, depending on her mood. Her mother gifts her flower plants, and subsequently, vases, when Jaune breaks the few that Weiss already had.

The first night, when they’re all exhausted from the multiple trips up and down the stairs and are all crashed in the living room, Ruby finds her outside on the balcony. Weiss knows as soon as she enters through the door — Ruby’s presence carries trough the air — but she only looks back when there’s a red cloak wrapped around her from behind. She feels familiar arms wrap across her stomach and leans back.

“Miss home?”

“This is home now,” Weiss replies, and is surprised to find that the thought does make her a little sad, regardless. “But yes, I do.”

She’s going to miss living with Whitley and her mother, will miss sleepovers when Winter comes down to visit. All the loneliness in the world wrapped up in one large house, and it still stings to leave it behind.

“You know, I heard Robyn’s place isn’t too far from here,” Ruby says. “And if Robyn isn’t far, then—”

“—Winter isn’t too far.”

“—and Whitley and Oscar are already planning a video game session here next Friday.”

Weiss arches back, and kisses Ruby on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“Whatever for, my darling?”

“For,” she flounders for an explanation that sounds normal. Thank you for loving me, while accurate, isn’t a very healthy sentiment to express, “for keeping me warm, always.”

Ruby chuckles against her cheek. “Okay.”

“And Ruby?” she asks. “I know this is the first time I’ve moved out on my own, and I need to build my own life here, and I will. But. In a while — maybe….”

Ruby hums to let her know she’s waiting.

“I’m just saying, that there’s. I mean — I’ve left half my closet empty. So, if, in a while, you ever want to. I just want you to know that I want to build a life with you.”

“Weiss Schnee,” Ruby says, and even with her eyes closed Weiss can hear the smile in her words. “If in a while, you want to share your closet space with me, then it would be my greatest honor.”

*****

She knows Ruby’s up even before she’s completely conscious.

It’s the little things — the fact that Ruby’s arm isn’t weighing on her shoulder, that her leg isn’t slung over her thighs. Weiss blinks, and turns over in bed, concerned.

Ruby stares back at her, wide-eyed.

“Can’t sleep?” Weiss whispers.

Ruby shakes her head slowly. There’s something in her expression that has Weiss worried. It’s not that she thinks they’re in any danger at the moment, but there’s some unsettling thought going on behind those beautiful eyes.

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you watch that movie,” she says, but Ruby shakes her head once again. “What? No ghosts scaring you?”

Ruby opens her mouth, clears her throat once. “Only the human kind,” she says.

“Hey,” Weiss asks, bringing up a hand to brush the hair off her forehead, “sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

“Does this still bother you?” Ruby asks her in return, her hand sliding under Weiss’ shirt to expose the scar Cinder had left behind when she had impaled her. Weiss looks down, struggles to make out the tiny line in the dark. She wants to ask another question, but at this rate they’ll be stuck in an eternal loop and she does want Ruby to get some sleep, because she tends to lose her appetite if she doesn’t.

“Sometimes,” she says. Then she smoothens out a tiny crease that’s formed between Ruby’s eyebrows. “You want to tell me what you’re thinking?

“I didn’t see her do it,” Ruby starts, after a while. “Cinder, I mean. I only turned when you fell and I. Weiss.”

“Ruby,” she says, pressing her forehead against Ruby, kissing her once. “Stop.”

“—no, I. And then I left to fight. I left you with Jaune and Ren and Nora, but I still left, and every day I think about it, every single day, I think about you lying on the ground, the blood spreading on your dress, and if Jaune hadn’t been there—”

“—but Jaune was there!” Weiss tells her, not knowing what to say to make it better. Ruby is in so much distress; her voice is in shreds, and there’s a tear making its way across her face. “I’m fine. I’m safe.”

“I’d have killed her,” Ruby says, simply, her voice raw. “I would have killed her. I should have.”

“Ruby, no.”

“If you’d — if something had happened to you,” Ruby says, pausing, frustrated. Her eyes are closed tight, more tears squeezing out of them by the second, and Weiss tips forward to kiss one away. I’m safe, she says. You’re safe. We’re all safe. Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. We’re safe, she says, as she kisses her temple, her rumpled up hair, the bridge of her nose, and she has no idea how or when her words turn into I love yous in her mouth. I love you, Ruby, she repeats over and over, wanting to imprint the words on Ruby’s skin, wanting to tattoo her kisses on her cheek so the mark never fades, so she’ll never forget, I love you so much. And it’s easy in the thin light of the moon, to pull out the words from where she’s been hiding them, keeping them safe her entire life. There’s a moon in the sky and Weiss loves Ruby. There’s a garden blooming in the balcony and Weiss loves Ruby. For as much as love threatens to bring about her end, Weiss loves Ruby, and that love is both the beginning and the never-ending middle to her story.

*****

Tell me about what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, Ruby asks her, laughing, one morning over breakfast, and Weiss tells her there is destruction, but also that love is born in the carnage.

“Our hearts are but collateral damage, my love,” Weiss says. “But my heart, regardless of the damage it bears, is yours to do with as you please.”

*****

Robyn builds a school in Mantle.

No, that comes later. This comes first: Weiss grows tired of sitting in an office. She loves Whitley, but if she has to design one more plan, or take one more call talking to people about dust, she will kill herself.

Actually, wait. That comes second. This is what comes first.

Weiss grows tired of fighting.

*****

“My name,” she says, knowing from the whispering going on in the rows, that the information she is about to share is redundant anyway, but formalities are important, “is Weiss Schnee, and in this class we will be learning Grimm Studies.”

She’s pretty sure she hears someone whisper Hero of Mantle somewhere in the back rows, but ignores it, in favor of writing a couple things on the board. She jots down the curriculum and a brief lesson plan, acutely conscious of whether the clothes she’d had Ruby pick out for her this morning were appropriate class attire. The tie with dogs on it wasn’t something she could have helped, anyway, since she’d lost a bet with Emerald a while back. After she’s done, she turns around and asks the class if they have any questions.

“I have one,” comes a voice from the door, and Weiss closes her eyes. Of course. Of course they would come. “Miss. Schnee,” Yang continues, jumping on top of a desk in front of what seems to be a very impressed student, “when will the kids be divided into teams?”

There’s a lot more pointing, whispering and an abundance of awed looks going on in the class now.  

“That is not something the students need to be worried about right now,” she answers, evenly.

“Actually, jumping off of Yang’s very astute question,” Jaune chimes in, “will each team also have a leader?”

She’s going to kill them she’s going to kill them she’s going to kill them

“Yes,” she says, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Awesome!” Blake adds, brightly. “But, in the event that they do not like their leader, and think their leader is an incompetent idiot, what can they do?”

Nora and Ren titter from their place at the very back. And from where she’s sitting between them, feet kicked up onto her desk, as casual as she had been all those years ago at Beacon, Ruby smiles, and raises her hand.

“I’d like to know the answer to that myself,” Ruby says.

She takes in a deep breath, summons the Arma Gigas. Has him sit just behind her.

“Now,” she says in what’s her best attempt at authority, “not only will I not be answering any of those questions, but also, unfortunately, question time is over for the entire class. If that thing I have summoned behind me is scaring you, please do not worry, I will make sure it only stands up when one of the six idiots sitting amongst you say something stupid.”

“Okay so,” she says, then takes it all in. Thinks back to years and years ago, when she’d been one of the students sitting in a similar classroom in an academy, miles away, next to people who’d end up meaning more to her than she ever imagined. After all the years of fighting and bleeding, here they were, trying to do something to make the world a better place.

This is not a tale that ends in tragedy, she thinks, and starts talking.

[the2ddragonsingerqueen]

Team Amy in Sonic Movie 3

I just can’t stop thinking about Sonic since I saw the sequel. Now that it’s out, it gives us a lot of time to think about what could we expect from Sonic Movie 2. As many of us know Shadow is gonna be a main focus in Sonic Movie 3, I had an idea for Amy’s role in the film. In Paramount’s version of Sonic, it focuses on Sonic having a family and many of the fans have loved the found family that has a superspeed hedgehog, a supergenius fox, a superstrong echidna, a donut dad, a pretzel mom, a badass aunt, a chill niece, an adorable dog, and a secret agent uncle. But if Casey and Miller will be expanding the franchise by adding more characters, It’d be to know if the Wachowskis aren’t the only family with alien children. So I was thinking, if the Wachowski family has adopted Team Sonic( which is Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles), maybe there’s another family on Earth that has adopted Team Amy( which is Cream, Cheese, Big, and Amy). Ok, hear is what I think. In the third movie, it could continue Sonic’s story in being a kid while also learning how to harness the power of the Master Emerald with his family’s help, and while fans speculate that it’s other major focus is Shadow’s story on discovering his past, as you remember in the Sonic games, he develops amnesia in Sonic Heroes, and gets on a path of revenge when Eggman convinces him the humanity is not worth saving. Another focus could is the discovery of more Mobians on Earth. In Sonic X, the government eventually develop an alliance with him and his friends and give him and his friends citizen rights, that’s what should happen in the third film. G.U.N decides to grant Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles citizen rights after seeing their heroic actions in the sequel, and even maybe invite the president(reference to the mayor in Sonic X) but before they can do, they also inform the Wachowskis that there is another human- alien family on Earth. This could lead the Wachowskis to go on another city adventure to meet this other family, and this could lead to the setting for Sonic Movie 3 to take place in a big city(reference to Sonic Adventure 2). Whatever city they end up traveling to, this is where they could meet Team Amy’s family. Here, it could be revealed that these alien kids could have been raised a bit longer than how long Team Sonic has been a family and I say this because I could imagine Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, were not the first aliens to come to Earth as the Owls had been on Earth in order to protect the Master Emerald, and maybe during the time of when Sonic first arrived, or in his lifetime of isolation before the first film, there were other aliens who came to Earth in seeking for escapism from their home planet’s norms or others trying to look for Sonic. Here we meet the parents of the team and were met up by G.U.N with the same conditions as the Wachowskis. And this family could be a parallel for Team Sonic and possibly help their stories grow. For example, Cream could parallel to Tails, both are small and both could relate in feeling left out from other kids their age( Tails with his two tails, and Cream with Cheese as her truly closest companion) and maybe even more hard for Cream cause she still has a mother out there alive, Vanilla(or maybe she is on Earth with them), as Tails, we don’t know about his parents or folks, but some could assume that his parents didn’t approve of him because of his two tails. Since being on Earth in Sonic 2, he has learned that being weird is not a shame or burden and that since he has found a family which includes his hero, he could help Cream in that even though she may feel left for only talking to Cheese, she is not alone because she has people who took her in out of love for her. Next is Big being a parallel to Knuckles. Knuckles is a warrior who spent most of his childhood training to hunt down Sonic and honor the legacy of the Echidna Warriors. But now he is in the Wachowski family, he is learning how to have fun and catch up on the time he missed while spending his life hunting down his future adoptive brother. We currently don’t know what’s to come in the Paramount Knuckles spin-off series, I can assume Knuckles will grow more. Big, a large purple cat with a love of frogs, could relate to Knuckles in both their size and strength. Both are large characters with muscles and it’s due to their size and strength that they are misinterpret as dangerous or brutes. But those judgements are wrong: Big is well bigger than others but he is actually a genuine curious cat who enjoys his time with froggy, and Knuckles is a warrior who is learning more about the fun essence part of childhood. And last but very specially to complete, Sonic and Amy’s parallels. In the past, we have seen Sonic and Amy as a romantic couple, Amy chasing for Sonic, Sonic chasing away from her, and some incarnations they are friends. But maybe in this third film, Sonic is the one chasing Amy. There could be a specific reason why he would fall for her: He has grown with a family which he loves dearly and can’t imagine life without them and wants to enjoy every second on Earth and while he does want to be a hero, he still has growing up to do and loves being a kid. But the reason he becomes so drawn to Amy is because they are both hedgehogs, which causes him to try to find a common ground with someone who is just like him, not just a Mobian, but a hedgehog Mobian. It could work the same for Amy. If she has spent more time than Sonic in living a life, she could find his attention span toward her awkward and slightly annoying at first, but as soon as she discovers his reasons why and his story, Amy could start to question this as well, which she never did before and it could help her explore parts of herself she tend to forgot and it could help her realize how much Sonic is like her in many ways. This could also help Shadow, someone who is more lost than the two of them, as he was created as the Ultimate Lifeform with a dark, horrific past which led him to hate humanity and take on a role as a villain since he would give them the same grief and pain they put him through when the government took Maria away. But the more time Shadow engages with Sonic and Amy and their families, he could start to realize the bonds with these Mobians and their humans is somewhat related to how he was when Maria was still with him. There, Shadow could realize that not all humanity is as bad he remembered it being, and soon could join forces with them and stop whatever evil has come, then Super Sonic and Super Shadow could be introduce. This is all for now but feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below.

[floralseokjin]

The Zoom Halloween Party

⇢ and beyond timeline (after crystallised)

[saga index] [drabble index]

 kim seokjin x reader // slice of life, humour // 2,556 words  

a/n; thank you to all the anons who gave me ideas for this halloween drabble, it wouldn’t exist without you! 

“I have to say your costumes are pretty lame this year, you guys.”

“We’re having a Halloween party over fucking zoom, forgive us for not going all out.” 

Seokjin bit straight away, unable to help it. He and Namjoon were like cat and mouse at all times, but even you had to admit to being offended by your friend’s dismissal. 

Halloween was finally here, and while you couldn’t celebrate in person together, the marvels of technology were letting you celebrate virtually – although this was more like a Halloween hang out than a Halloween party. 

“I’m just saying,” Namjoon shrugged. “Hoseok went all out for his.” 

You looked over at Hoseok’s screen, watching him smile smugly. You had to admit he made a great Joker, but it was also the year 2020... He and his girlfriend, Nora were like two years behind with the whole Joker and Harley Quinn gimmick, it was old now. 

Seokjin rolled his eyes, willing to argue black and blue. “It’s only good because his mom helped him with the makeup.” 

“Oh shut up, you’re just jealous because me and Hoseok will win best dressed tonight!” Nora scoffed under Hoseok in her own little screen. 

Pouting like a baby, your boyfriend crossed his arms. “I’m not voting for you.” 

“If anything, I should win. I make a mighty fine Batman.” 

Attention back on Namjoon now, you all had to agree. But maybe that was because everyone was feeling sorry for him tonight. He was after all, the only single one amongst you. There was Jin and you, Lina and Jimin, Hoseok and Nora, and even though Sandeul was on his own tonight, he had Jess, who was working the night shift tonight. Two months ago there had also been Namjoon and Hana, but not anymore... Let’s just say Namjoon wasn’t having the best of time lately... Getting dumped during a pandemic wasn’t ideal. So he’d paired with Hobi and Nora tonight in some sort of DC-esque collab. He was definitely winning best dressed tonight, but maybe he’d see it as a pity vote… 

“You’re body looks amazing in that suit, Joon,” you complimented, hearing Lina hum in supportive agreement. 

“Hey!” Seokjin exclaimed, sounding mighty offended as he looked your way. You were smushed together on the couch, the takeout you’d ordered on your laps, but you were pretty full now, a belly full of wine already. 

“The devil and an angel though.” Jimin’s voice sounded awfully judgemental. “Come on guys, so basic.” 

“Well, who the hell did you to come as?” Seokjin was loud. 

“Zombie Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly,” Lina replied as if your boyfriend was dumb. 

“Lame,” Seokjin scoffed. “Half of these guys haven’t even watched The Office.” 

“It’s a way more original idea than yours.”

You scoffed. “Um, this is the epitome of everyone’s sexual fantasy, I’ll have you know.” 

“Whose?!” Lina roared, wrinkling her nose. She and Jimin were also squished together, but on his bed, the camera angle giving you an amazing shot of their chins... Not that you would tell your best friend that, of course. 

“We all know what they’re doing after this then,” Sanduel stated. He was dressed as some character from a game he and Seokjin played (a lot.) Nerds.  

“Stop,” Hoseok whined. “Does that mean you guys fucked as The Addams family couple last year?”

“Of course it does,” Namjoon replied matter-of-factly. 

“Jesus.” 

Ah yes, you two really had out done yourselves last year for Namjoon and Hoseok’s joint Halloween party. Thinking about it maybe your devil and angel costumes were quite lame this year…

“As if you didn’t guess,” Lina laughed. “They were reciting all those weird lines practically dry humping in the kitchen at one point.” 

That was your cue, slamming into action, although as luck would have it you had re-watched The Addams Family two nights ago. You gripped Seokjin’s face, yanking him to look at you. “Seokjin, last night you were unhinged.” You began dramatically. “You were like some desperate, howling demon. You frightened me.” A pause for effect. “Do it again!” 

Seokjin took your hand, in character immediately. He leaned down to kiss your knuckles. “Cara mia.” 

You opened your mouth, ready to purr out mon cher in your best French accent but you were interrupted by Namjoon’s gagging noises. “That’s it, I’m leaving.” 

Seokjin snapped his head around, unamused. “Bye.” 

Everyone laughed… just before Hoseok sighed. “Aw, this makes me so depressed. I miss last year, when things were simpler.” 

“This was the worst year to officially become an adult.” Nora joined in with a whine. 

They were 100% correct. There couldn’t have been a worse year to graduate… The past few months had been so stressful but thankfully you were now in a much more stable place. Granted, you hadn’t been able to start the post-graduate internship you’d bagged right before the pandemic hit yet but eventually it would happen, and in the meantime you still had your retail job – and your savings. 

Seokjin had truly lucked out, although his job at his father’s company had been set in stone since high school. He was working remotely until the end of the year (hopefully), rocking that business on top, casual down bottom fashion that he was so gleefully fond of – think a dress shirt and sweatpants ensemble – but you were so incredibly proud of him for adjusting so well after this shitfest of a year. He was your sexy, serious businessman. 

Your friends hadn’t been as lucky though – well, mainly Hoseok and Namjoon who had recently moved back home with their parents while they job hunted. (That’s why the former and Nora were on separate screens – she still lived close by for work.) Lina hated her new job and Jimin still had a year left at college, so maybe he was better off at the moment... Sanduel and Jess were okay too, and had recently moved in with one another, leaving you and Seokjin to… follow suit… 

It came as a surprise to you both, but it made more sense than the two of you living alone. You’d already grown used to it during those couple of months of lockdown at the start of the year and it felt weird after he’d left... It was a big step, but an easy one once you’d found the most perfect apartment to rent together. (You couldn’t officially live with one another in that shoebox of an old apartment, but it had been sad to leave it – you’d shared so many good times there.) It had only been about six weeks since you’d become official roomies, but you were loving every second of domestic bliss. Despite this crazy year, things were on the up, and you were very happy. 

“Now we’re freshly graduated bums.” Namjoon moaned, knocking back the last of his beer.

Seokjin laughed. “Speak for yourself.” 

“We can’t all have a CEO for a dad,” Namjoon shot. 

“That sounds like a you problem.” 

You pushed at your boyfriend’s shoulder, silently telling him to behave. Where was the sympathy for his heartbroken friend?

“At least you’re not stuck doing online classes.” Jimin piped up. 

“I’d actually kill to be back there,” Namjoon chuckled. “I’m sick of receiving rejection emails.” 

“Don’t give up hope, bro.” Hoseok told him. “I have an interview next week so fingers crossed.” 

Nora squealed. “I hope you get it, babe. You need to get your ass back here. I miss you.” 

You all missed him. And Namjoon. Even if you couldn’t all hang out like you were once able to, it was strange to think they were both living in different cities now. Last year seemed like an eternity ago, all you had were memories and even then they were murky. 

“Guys, please,” Namjoon wailed, forehead hitting the screen as he threw forward dramatically. “One of us is single here.” 

“Sorry.” 

In fact, you all felt the need to apologise, a string of them following for no real reason other than you felt really bad for the guy. You knew he’d find a job soon, that wasn’t the problem really – whatever the company they’d be a fool to turn him down – you were just concerned about his mood. Getting dumped had come out of the blue so he was still adjusting, all while his life turned upside down in other ways too. 

He hadn’t lost all sense of humour though, his trademark smirk growing across his face a few moments later. “So who will end up fucking on camera first?” 

Amongst the groans, Sanduel scoffed. “Probably Mr and Mrs. Devil.” 

“I’m an angel,” you corrected, a glass of wine back in your hand now. “Also, why would we fuck on camera? You guys don’t deserve the show.” 

“God, you’re so drunk,” Lina screeched. She wasn’t exactly sober herself. Beside her Jimin winced at the volume. 

“Of course I’m drunk, Lina, this is the first proper chance I’ve had in months.” Getting drunk alone was pretty miserable, now you had an excuse. 

“So it’s definitely them who’ll start fucking first…” Hoseok muttered. 

Seokjin heard him loud and clear though. He hooked his arm around your shoulders, pulling you against him. “Yeah if we leave randomly you know this angel got horny for some devil dick.” 

“Seokjin!” You exclaimed, pushing at his chest. He just laughed, reaching down to kiss you. 

He did look mighty fine dressed as a devil though. Yeah, the red cape was basic but so were your angel wings and halo, but with his dark hair pushed back above his forehead, two red devil horns visible and his eyeshadow off the scale (your doing), he made a very, very sexy Satan! 

Jimin pulled a face. “You’re actually going to fuck in those costumes, aren’t you?” 

“Of course we are.” Seokjin rolled his eyes. “That’s what Halloween’s all about.” 

“No, it’s not,” Nora laughed. 

“I don’t know why you’re all so surprised,” Sandeul sighed before shovelling down some candy corn. 

“You know them better than anyone,” Namjoon chuckled. 

“I was the first to know! Sworn to secrecy for weeks!”

“Yeah, and she didn’t tell me for so long,” Lina whined. Even though it was ages ago now you were still pretty sure she was salty about it. 

Hoseok snickered. “It was because she was embarrassed to be fucking him.” 

You scoffed, about to refute his claims but Sanduel had more to say apparently. “And then I had to deal with Jin moping around when she dumped him for that basketball player.” 

“She didn’t dump me,” Seokjin protested. “We won’t together then.” 

“Bro, you were still moping though.” 

“Awh, you guys,” you whined, running your fingers through the hair on the back of Seokjin’s head. “Stop teasing him.” You leaned in to kiss his cheek but he moved, stealing one from your lips instead. 

“Great Deul, you’ve started them off again.” Hoseok moaned. 

“I don’t care anyway. The amount of times I’ve heard them going at it has made me immune.” 

“Sanduel, we’re not that bad!” You complained, leaning forward to place your glass down on the coffee table. 

Seokjin had your back. “As if we haven’t heard you and Jess fuck before.” 

That however was not at all interesting to your friends though. They blatantly ignored it for a more interesting direction of topic.  

“Did you ever catch them?” Jimin asked, sounding weirdly excited. 

“No actually, which is baffling.” 

“You nearly did – multiple times,” Seokjin informed him, which instantly turned Sanduel grey. Not bothered, my ass. 

“Why are you guys so obsessed with our sex life?” You whined loudly. Was theirs that boring? 

“Ooo, let’s play a game!!” Lina exploded suddenly, sitting up, her head now cut off from the screen. “Who’s the freakiest!!!” 

Seokjin turned to you gleefully. “We got this in the bag, babe.” 

In your eyes, the questions were quite tame, so yes, you and Seokjin really were scoring first place left and right. Although you had a hunch Lina was holding back information. As her best friend you knew what she was like and she was being awfully quiet for someone who’d suggested the game… 

“Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever boned?” Nora asked, six questions in. 

Seokjin didn’t even need a second. “Namjoon’s bedroom.” Your eyes bulged immediately, surprised he’d gone there. 

“What?” Namjoon choked. 

“Sorry, man. It just kinda happened.” Seokjin glanced at you, deeply amused. Poor Namjoon didn’t need more bad news. 

“You guys have fucked in my bedroom?” 

“Well, technically it’s not your bedroom anymore, but yeah,” you shrugged.  

“When?” 

The third degree was real. “A while back.”  

“What the fuck you guys,” he groaned, his face a picture. “And you didn’t think to tell me?” 

“You don’t even know the half of it.” Lina couldn’t help but add. 

“You, be quiet!” You warned, although you knew she wouldn’t spill. Your secret was safe with her. 

Namjoon was looking more and more scared by the second. “What the fuck did you guys do in there?” Seokjin just laughed loudly. “Did you at least clean up?” He got no reply. He was deadly serious with his next question. “Did you make Ryan watch?” 

“Namjoon!” Seokjin cried, practically wiping tears from your eyes. Maybe he was more drunk than you… You hadn’t realised. “He’s a stuffed animal.” 

“That plush is all I have now.” 

“Pity, the guy’s recently been dumped. This is bullying,” Hoseok interrupted, sticking up for his friend. 

“It’s not,” your boyfriend insisted. 

“Aw, Namjoon, I’m sorry,” you apologised, feeling guilty now. How could you make it up to him? “When all this is over you can come over and fuck someone in our bedroom.” 

“What,” Seokjin protested. You ignored him. 

“Who though?” Namjoon asked, sounding sad. 

“You’ll meet someone new soon enough.” Lina reassured him. “You’re any girls dream guy.”  

He perked up at that. “You think so?”

“Legit, man,” Jimin joined in. 

“Wait,” Sandeul interrupted, seemingly realising something. “Is the costume roleplay exclusive to Halloween?” 

… Of course the conversation was back on you and Jin…

“Why?” You asked. 

“Because Namjoon had a fancy dress party for his birthday last year…” 

Seokjin shrugged. “Any celebration.” 

Sanduel instantly looked disgusted. “So you guys fucked as The Incredibles couple?” 

You and Seokjin didn’t reply, but your faces said it all. 

Namjoon groaned loudly. “I want to scoop my brain out.” Then he thought of something. “Was it in my bedroom?” 

“Noooo!” 

“Yes.” 

You both replied at the same time and you pushed Seokjin. Now he was just purposely teasing his friend. 

“Who’s lying?” Namjoon demanded, but Sanduel was too busy going through it, distracting you all. 

“The Incredibles is my favourite childhood movie, man, now I feel gross. I can’t watch it ever again because I’ll imagine you two trying to superhero fuck.” 

Your friends were way too dramatic. It wasn’t even a big deal, they were making it out to be way kinkier than it was, and Seokjin wasn’t helping matters. You were literally just having normal sex dressed up. That’s all. 

“This game has taught me I’m best friends with a bunch of vanilla ice creams,” Seokjin tutted. “It’s called having fun. Something you guys can’t seem to do.” 

“You all suck!” You agreed. 

Hm, maybe you were just as guilty as your boyfriend… It was just too damn amusing goading your friends… 

[storydays]

Season 1, Episode 2, p1

".and in the final round, the Buzzard-Wasps, won with a decisive knock-out." Korra read the newspaper eagerly before peeking over at Tenzin. "What do you say we go to the arena tonight, catch a few pro-bending matches?" She grinned hopefully at the airbender. "That sport is a mockery of the noble tradition of bending." He snapped, ignoring you as your coughed into your morning (tea/coffee/hot chocolate). As intelligent as he is, the man hadn't a clue of where or why you spent so much time in the city. You couldn't keep it a secret from your Aunties, and Aunt Lin or Pema were usually the ones who patched you up.

"Come on, Tenzin, I've dreamed about seeing a pro-bending match since I was a kid, and now I'm just a ferry ride away from the arena." She gestured out towards the city. "Korra, you're not here to watch that drivel. You're here to finish your avatar training. So for the time being, I want you to remain on the island." He took another sip of his tea, as you took another bite of your breakfast. "Is that why you're keeping the White Lotus sentries around to watch my every move?" She waved her hand towards the soldiers, who were standing around the room. "Yes, in order to learn airbending, I believe you require a calm, quiet environment free from any distractions." Tenzin finished sternly.

"All right, you're the master." Korra relented, looking out the window, longingly. It was quite yet tense before you abruptly stood up from the table and stormed off angrily, catching the attention of everyone in the room. "(Y/N)? Where are you going?" Korra asked, confused by your behavior. "Fine! Going to meditate!" You grumble, feeling guilty at your Aunt's concerned look. You quickly made your way to the tree you and your Grandfather planted when you were younger, and sat down, crossing your body into a half-lotus position, breathing in through your nose and out of your mouth, praying for a peaceful session.

Your prayers went unanswered.

--Vision start--

You found yourself watching a middle aged Aang look around curiously. The old monk smiled seeing a small figure curled up on the tip of Air Temple Island, before sitting next to said figure. The two remained silent until the smaller sniffed, and pulled his tunic tighter in its fist. "Are you ready to talk about it, grandson?" You walked closer, to see a young you, look up at him with teary eyes. "Hi, Papa." Younger you sniffled, wiping a tear away. "I'm sorry I left dinner like that." Aang merely pulled you to sit on his lap, and wrapped his cloak around you, waiting patiently for you to say what was wrong, because he knew you wouldn't cry over something so little.

"Now, it's not nice to lie about something so small like that. What's really bothering you, my little monkey?" Aang asked with a mischievous grin. Your (e/c) eyes peered at him from under your bangs. "I'm just scared, of the future." You admitted. "What do you mean?" asked Aang. "When I'm sleeping, I see things. I see the next Avatar, but I can't see their face. I-I know their a waterbender because of their clothes, but that's it. And then I see different endings based on her choices, and the world keeps changing and I am afraid--" "Okay, okay. (Y/N), take a breath, you're hyperventilating. You need to relax, before you pass out. Copy me, alright?"

Aang put your hand on his chest, and mimicked deep breathing. He'd dealt with plenty of panic attacks with the Gaang, and of course with his own kids. Eventually you calmed down and that's when Aang spoke again. "I know the future is scary, and no one can truly prepare for it, but what we can do, is be ready to make the future brighter. And if you're seeing the future Avatar, that must mean your destinies are intertwined tighter than I thought. I know the Spirits have a plan for why they're allowing you to see the future. You've already made us so proud, (Y/N). You're a dual bender, and a master of both air and water at such a young age.

"I know you'll make the world proud." Aang stood up, and began carrying you into the library, as your stomach growled at you. The Airbender laughed, and gestured to two plates of dumplings. "Thanks, Papa Aang." You mumble, curling next to him, as he set a small fire up. "Of course, monkey. Now I believe I owed you the story of how Zuko found his mom.."

--Vision end--

You slowly opened your eyes, as you heard multiple steps heading towards you. Your cousins, Uncle and friend all looked back at you with varying smiles. "(Y/N), are you finished with your morning meditation?" Tenzin questioned. You stood up, stretching your back and legs, before answering him. "Yes, Uncle. Is it time for Korra's first lesson in airbending?" "Yes, now come along everyone." You all headed towards a airbender's best friend. "What is that contraption?" Korra asked aloud. "A time-honored tool that teaches the most fundamental aspect of airbending." You rolled your eyes before muttering to the kids, "Or the first step to airbending. Unless, you preferred the long winded version of saying it." You smirk at Tenzin's irritated face.

"Jinora, would you like to explain this exercise, while (Y/N) demonstrates?" Tenzin said, sending you a raised eyebrow, as you got ready. "Well, the goal is to weave your way through the gates and make it to the other side without touching them." Jinora explained. "Seems easy enough." Korra stated. "Jinora forgot to mention you gotta make it through while the gates are spinning." Ikki said, cheekily.

Tenzin stepped forward and sent a sharp gust of wind through the gates, as you then stepped forward. You then began dancing in the wind, fast, fluid, and soft in your movements. "The key is to be like the leaf. Flow with the movement of the gates. Airbending is all about spiral movements. When you meet resistance, you must be able to switch direction at a moment's notice." Tenzin finished, as you sent an equally strong wind, letting Korra know that it was her turn. "Let's do this." she stated, confident.

Now being a air nomad monk, you shouldn't feel as smug as you were. But your mother was from the Northern Water Tribe...so you could feel as smug as you wanted. This was a lesson she needed to learn to be a better airbender, Avatar, and a person. She ran in head first, grunting as she ran into different gates. You snickered, as she fell on her butt, in front of the other Airbenders. Growling, Korra ran back inside, not learning from her previous mistakes. "Korra, don't force your way through!" Jinora called, climbing on your back, to get a better look. "Dance! Dance like the wind!" Ikki encouraged. "Be the leaf!" Meelo danced.

Not listening, Korra groaned, as the gates made her dizzy. Tenzin rolled his eyes groaning. You chuckle, landing next to him, as Jinora jumped down and went with her siblings to look down at the Avatar. You raised your hand, before turning to your uncle. "Well, that was fun. Same time, same place tomorrow?" Your grin widen at your Uncle's annoyed glare, before walking down the steps, whistling softly, feeling Nevermore land on your shoulder. "Hey Nevermore. Ready for some practice?" The (fav color) dragon squealed happily as you made your way to the training area.

You turned towards the sound of footsteps following you. "Yes, Jinora?" You smiled as she blushed at being caught, but she spoke up. "Well, I was just wondering if I could help you with Nevermore's training today?" She asked hopefully. You nod, gesturing her to come forward. "All right, now we're going to work on her flight today. She's getting bigger and it's almost time for her to mature. I need you to keep a steady wind flow, okay?" And this was how Pema found you both before lunch. "Thanks for your help, Jinora." You ruffled her hair, before helping your Aunt serve lunch.

--Later that night--

You stretch your limbs before putting on your uniform, and walking out with Bolin and Mako. "All right, guys. We got this!" You grin, making Bolin mirror your grin and Mako smirked. As soon as the game started, you could hear the announcer speaking over the speakers. You tuned into what he was saying, letting your body take over for the fight. "Ladies and gentleman, I'm coming to you live, from Republic City's pro-bending arena, where tonight, the best in the world continue for a spot in the upcoming championship tournament. Grab your snacks and your kids because this next match is going to be a doozy!"

You grin underneath your helmet, focusing on the game. The announcer rambled on in the background, as you were dancing behind Mako's quick movements and Bolin's sturdy form. Catching the other team off guard was your forte. "This Mako's got moxie! He advances, fires two quick shots. Yomo is hammered back into zone three, by the Fire Ferret's sneaky waterbender, oh! I stand correct folks, Yomo was sent into the sink by (Your fake name)! Now it's up to the rest of Yomo's team to earn their spot! Clock is winding down, can they hold it? The Fire Ferret's line up to pull out their famous Guilt Triple! One, two, and three and the opposing team is in the drain! The Fire Ferrets are in the championships! They're in the championship!!"

The crowd went wild! Screaming your names, as you all walked off to the locker room, chatting happily. "You really came through with the move, (Y/N)!" Mako chuckled, unwrapping his knuckles, as you ran a hand through your hair, ruffling your bangs, ignoring Bolin's wide eyed stare. "Take a picture, Bo. It'll last longer." You snicker, as he blushed at being caught."Sorry, it's just so cool having a airbending master," He whispered those words softly, "Right in front of me! I wanna see you do it!" He begged, using the puppy eyes on you. "No, Bolin. We already talked about this. No one can know. Now, are you gonna sit there, whining, or are you gonna come eat with us?"

You and Mako were waiting by the door, dressed in street clothes(First outfit; instead of sleeves you have one fishnet glove going up one elbow). You were wearing Water Tribe clothes, and waiting for the Earthbender. Mako snickered, watching his brother get dressed quickly, before following you to a restaurant to relax and act like teenagers for a change. You walk with your hands behind your head, looking at the stars, sighing contently, but you couldn't help but wonder:

'What are we going to do now, Mom?'

--The next morning--

You tied your hair up in a man bun, before dusting off your airbender clothing from any wrinkles, and heading out the door. You'd overslept from how exhausted you were from last night's match, and now you rushed to join your family for morning meditation. "Hey, (Y/N)! We missed you at breakfast." Ikki clung to you like a monkey, as you swung her back and forth. "Hey, Cheeky Ikki. Sorry, I was really tired last night, but I'll grab a quick bite to eat after this." Your Uncle smiled at the scene before clearing his throat. "Nice to see you joining us for meditation, (Y/N). It's been a while." He admitted, as you sat next to Jinora.

"Yes it *yawn* has." You covered your mouth, before grinning sleepily at your uncle's confused glare. "All right, everyone. Begin." He commanded. You closed your eyes, breathing deeply, finding your self, sagging in relief as you did not have a vision around your family. You twitch, hearing Korra shuffle and move around. Korra kept shuffling and you cracked your eyes open, irritation flooding them. "Korra, relax." You snap. "I think I'm doing it wrong." She huffed. "There's nothing to do! Let your mind and spirit be free, for air is the element of freedom." Tenzin reminded her.

Korra laughed sarcastically and you snort quietly. Tenzin was not amused. "Is something funny?" He asked, raising a bushy eyebrow at the two of you. "Yeah, you're telling me to embrace freedom, but you won't even let me listen to the radio. And forget about leaving this island." The blue eyed avatar pouted. "Please, Korra. Look at Meelo, he's able to meditate peacefully." Tenzin gestured to his only son. You snicker, looking at the smallest airbender. "Actually Uncle, I think he's asleep." Meelo snored loudly, as Tenzin balked. "Wait, what? Ahh, at least he's got the relaxing part down.: He tried weakly.

"Whatever. None of this airbending stuff makes any sense to me." Korra grumbled. "Korra, I know it's seems frustrating, but the way he's teaching you, it's not only going to help you airbend, but this will help you learn to be patient, and as the Avatar, peace keeping and patience go hand in hand." You spoke up, as your cousins finished their meditation and you picked a sleepy Meelo.

"Yeah, like you know anything about being the Avatar, (Y/N)." Korra said sarcastically, yet arrogantly. You paused in your steps down the mini temple, and turned your (e/c) glare into the Southern Water Tribe girl. "I know more than you think, Korra." You hiss, storming off with a sleepy Meelo, and an worried Ikki and Jinora.

Korra scoffed, looking at Tenzin.

"What's his problem?" She asked, as his gray eyes barred into her soul. "Korra, you need to apologize once he's calmed down. That was rude, and he was only trying to help you. Just like I am. There will be a time when you will want his help, and he may not be there or want to help you if you continue to act like this. Grow up, girl." Tenzin said, sternly before walking off to find you.

"Please, like he's one to talk." Korra did feel guilty, but was too proud to admit it. But she wasn't dumb enough to find you right now.

Even she doesn't want to be on your bad side.

[myhockeyworld87]

Not So Dangerous Liaison - Sidney Crosby - Part 17

Word Count: 3,216

POV: Sid

Warnings: Language, Smut, NSFW

Notes: This is sort of a filler going into the next part, but I really wanted to write this smut part...haha! So I hope you guys enjoy. Happy Reading!

Not So Dangerous Liaison Masterlist

Two days after the incident with the new recruits, you were loading (Y/N)'s suitcases in the car for the flight in the morning to Cole Harbour. "Geez, (Y/N), do you think you packed enough?"

 "Don't start. We're going to be gone for like two months. I'm trying to be prepared for every occasion."

 "You know I do have a washer and a dryer at my house." You teased as you loaded her third suitcase into the car.

 "I am not a light packer Mr. Crosby."

 "So I've noticed."

 "Oh stop whining, you needed a good workout today."

 Grabbing her by the waist you hauled her close before whispering in her ear. "I know of a better workout I'd like to do." She giggled as you nibbled on her ear.

 "You'll have to wait for that. I need to drop off a key to Meg so she can get my mail and you still need to finish packing." She wiggled out of your arms and checked inside the house one last time before locking the door.

 "It won't take long to finish, plus whatever we forget we can just buy."

 She shook her head at you as she got inside the car. "Like it's just that easy if I need a cocktail dress or something."

 "Babe, it is. Whatever you need we'll just go to the store and I'll buy it."

 "You don't need to buy me things; I have money, you know."

 It occurred to you then, that you'd yet to buy her anything. By now you should've bought her flowers at the bare minimum. In fact, if you actually thought about it, she was the one who was always getting you stuff; even if it was part of her job. You would definitely need to rectify this before you declared your love for her. "Well, what if I want to buy you something?"

 "I suppose." She said reluctantly. "Let's just hope I packed everything I need."

 "Well with the amount of luggage you have, you'll be fine." She swatted at your knee, but you grabbed her hand and brought it to your lips to kiss her knuckles. "I'm so excited to show you Cole Harbour." It didn't have the hustle and bustle of the city, but you still wanted to experience all your favorite things about your small little town with (Y/N).

 "I can't wait to see it, and all the baby pictures your mom promised to show me."

 You groaned and rolled your eyes, just thinking about your mom showing (Y/N) album after album. Your mom would be in her glory. "Just tell me you're still going to date me after you hear all her stories?"

 "Oh stop, they didn't scare me away a couple weeks ago. I'm still here, aren't I?"

 "Thank god." The rest of the night was pretty much a whirlwind as you spent it packing, and (Y/N) went through her stuff again making sure she had everything. At eight in the morning, the car pulled into the drive to take you to the airport.

 (Y/N) leaned over as you got closer to the airport, to whisper over to you. "Sid, I think the driver is going the wrong way. The airport was the last exit."

 She was right, but you were using the private airport, the same one you left from with the Pens for all away games. "No, he's right. We're flying private."

 "Is that why you wouldn't let me pay for the ticket?"

 "Well partly, I always take a private jet home. There aren't any direct flights into Halifax from Pittsburgh, so this is easier." Her mouth formed a little O, as the car pulled next to the plane. The pilot came out and shook your hand to welcome you both onboard, while your bags were loaded onto the jet.

 "I guess I don't have to worry about paying extra for my bag." She quipped as she took a seat.

 You took the one across from her, before answering. "So are you trying to say if you knew we were flying private, you would've taken more? Because if that's the case I'm glad I didn't tell you."

 She laughed. "You know I just might have."

 "We would've never got everything in the car." She fiddled with the seatbelt as the plane got ready to take off. "You know we can sit on the couch together if you're nervous. I know you're used to Beau making jokes and stuff. I'm not as funny as him, but I'm good at holding your hand."

 She smiled over at you as you reached over and grabbed her hand. "Hey, I was fine for the last several flights. I don't know what my problem is today." You rubbed your thumb back and forth across her knuckles as the plane soared into the air. She tensed a bit, but as soon as you were in the air, you could feel her relax.

 "Better?" She nodded and soon the captain came across and told you, you were at cruising altitude. "Did you want a water or anything? It's usually stocked with drinks and food."

 "No, I'm good right now." She relaxed into the seat then sat back up. "Do you always fly private?"

 "Yeah, pretty much have for a while now."  She nodded and you could tell she wanted to say something, but then she sat back again. Her mouth opened then closed one more time and it was killing you to know what she was going to say. "Ok, spit it out. I can tell you're dying to ask me something."

 "Have you…" she stopped, then closed her eyes as if trying to find the right words. "Have you ever…you know?" and you shook your head because truly you didn't know what she was asking. "Joined the mile-high club?"

 Your eyes widen at her words. "No." The word slipped out before you had a chance to even think about it. Was she suggesting she wanted to? You definitely weren't opposed to it. The problem was you couldn't read her mind at the moment. So instead you said, "have you?"

 "No, this is the first time I've even flown private… well besides when we fly with the Pens. Though I suppose people find a way to do it on a commercial flight." She was probably right; it did happen, but would it happen right now was the question on the tip of your tongue. A mischievous smile appeared on her lips and you knew that you didn't have to ask anymore. "So…do you want to?"

 "Is that even a question?" You unbuckled your seatbelt before she could even think about answering and then you noticed she was doing the same. When she was unfastened you hauled her onto your lap, her legs straddling your hips, while her mouth came down on yours. You tore off her long dark gray cardigan, then worked on removing her cami.

 "Wait, the pilots aren't going to come out or anything?" she asked when you started to unclasp her bra.

 "Never have," you breathed out and then her mouth was back on yours, while her hips ground down on yours. She gathered your polo in her hands then broke the kiss so she could toss it off to the side with the growing pile of clothing. "Stand up, so I can get these off." You told her needing her leggings off as well. She shimmied out of the pants as you pushed her panties down to join them. Grabbing her hips, you guided her back to the small sofa in the plane which gave the two of you a bit more room to move. She fell back against the leather, and you followed her down, your hands working on the buttons of your jeans so you could free your cock to be inside her. That's when it hit you. "Fuck," you whispered out harshly.

 "What's wrong?" (Y/N) asked when you started to rebutton your pants.

 "I don't have any protection." You'd packed condoms in your suitcase for when you got to the house, but hadn't thought about putting any in your pocket or wallet.

 Her hands reached out to cover yours at your waistband, undoing the work you'd just done with the zipper. "It's ok, I've got us covered."

 "Oh," and you got up going over to her purse.

 "Sid, that's not what I mean." She sat up grabbing your hand and pulling you back. "I have an IUD. I've been meaning to talk to you about it, but it's always well you know…in the heat of the moment, but I'm clean if that's what you're worried about, and I haven't been with anyone but you."

 "I didn't think that you had, considering we've spent like every minute together for a while." She giggled at that. "And I haven't been with anyone either, in case you were wondering. Honestly, it's been a long time since I was with anyone before you, but like you everything's fine. Though if you don't believe me…"

 She stopped you then. "I believe you, Sid." (Y/N) tugged on your hand pulling you down with her as she leaned back against the cushions. You quickly removed the rest of your clothes then settled in between her legs before kissing her once more. Your tongue mingles with hers, lips molding together as your hips rocked into her. She whimpered into the kiss, and so you slid a finger inside her to find her wet and ready for you. You toyed with her a bit until she started to squirm underneath you.

 Slipping the head of your cock between her fold, you almost lost it being able to feel her around you without any barrier. Inch by slow inch her heat engulfed you and you found it hard to breathe. It took you a minute before you could move as you tried to get yourself under control. (Y/N) reached up and tugged on the back of your neck drawing your lips down to hers so she could kiss you tenderly. As you laid there, buried deep inside her you couldn't help feel your love for her bubbling up inside. You'd never felt this way before, never wanted to tell someone how much you loved them at that moment but you also knew it wasn't how you wanted to tell her the first time. So instead of verbalizing your feelings, you started to move in and out of her body. One of her legs wrapped around your waist as she used the other for leverage to meet each of your thrusts. She felt like heaven as you could feel her pussy clench around your cock with each push into her. "Fuck, babe…I'm not gonna last long." No matter how much you wanted this to be good for her, the feel of her warm wet pussy surrounding you was throwing you closer to the edge.

 "Almost…there," she panted out, before reaching down and playing with her clit. You just needed to hold out a little bit longer. You shifted her leg and sped up your pace, the action hitting her g-spot as she moaned out and you hoped to god that the pilots couldn't hear anything through the door. It wasn't long after that, that she was screaming out your name in ecstasy. With one final thrust, you followed her, reaching the high your body so desperately craved as you soared above the clouds. It felt amazing to just spill your seed inside her, and as you lay there trying to catch your breath; you realized your cock was still semi-erect and instead of going soft, it only was getting harder as you stayed inside her, but you knew the two of you didn't have time for another round. While it was the last thing you wanted to do, you pulled out from inside the haven that was (Y/N); you were both a sticky mess. You sat up on the couch and (Y/N) followed you up.

 "So do we get a card or something now that we're members?" You asked as you kissed her forehead and pulled her close still needing some form of contact with her.

 "I'll make you a card that says 'Mile High Member' when we get home." You both just laughed, then you finally pulled your boxers on and walked back to the small restroom to grab a towel for (Y/N).

 "I gotta be honest. I wish this was a longer flight." You told her when came back to the main cabin.

 "Oh really?" You nodded your head, before capturing her lips again; your cock rock hard with thoughts of being inside her again. She picked up her panties and leggings, struggling to put them on as the plane made a turn. "Well don't expect this to happen on any of our Pens flights."

 "Aww come on, you always bring that blanket. I'm sure we can make it work." You teased her.

 "Nope, not happening, besides you sit with Flower, not me."

 "Well, I was thinking I might have to change my seat next year."

 "No way!" She was fully dressed now and you found yourself a bit disappointed as you both sat on the couch, you'd just made love on. "You're keeping your same seat, just like you always have. I'm not changing that superstition."

 "Well, we have time to talk about it." She rolled her eyes as if it was not a point for discussion. Checking the screen, you noticed that you'd be landing in the next few minutes. "So my parents are picking us up at the airport. It's about a twenty-mile drive to the house, but I think my mom wants us to stop at their place for lunch if that's ok."

 "Yeah that's totally fine, maybe she'll show me some of those baby pictures she was talking about."

 It was a little over an hour later and your mom was doing exactly that along with showing her your childhood room. She was literally showing (Y/N) every embarrassing photo she had of you. You had to beg her to stop, telling her that she had plenty of time to tell (Y/N) every humiliating story she had over the next few weeks. The only bright spot was that it gave you a few minutes alone to prepare a surprise for (Y/N). After lunch, the two of you headed to your house promising that you'd have dinner with your parents in the next couple of days.

 You watched (Y/N)'s expression as you pulled down the long drive to the summer house. It was buried down under a canvas of trees; not as massive as the house in Pittsburgh yet you loved it all the same. "It's so beautiful Sid." There was a note of awe in her voice and you felt the same way every time you came here.

 "I'll get the bags in a bit. Let me show you around first." You jumped out of the Suburban and went around to get (Y/N). The inside of the house was nice, but it was the outside that you really wanted her to see. The long dock which held a small boat for you to take her out on, caught her eye first. "Maybe we can go for a ride later tonight." You told her.

 "That would be nice. It's so peaceful and calm here. I can see why you love it." You stood on the patio with your arms wrapped around her waist and there was no place in the world you'd rather be. "What's that over there?"

 "Oh, that's the shooting pad. It's like the one in the basement in Pittsburgh."

 "Gotcha, I couldn't quite make it out from here."

 "I thought about putting a pool in, but I don't know. Just decided to stick with the hot tub." The house in Pittsburgh had a gorgeous pool and you loved watching her swim in it, so you might have to rethink putting one in. "That building over there is my workout room."

 "Oh so if I ever can't find you, I'll look there first." She gave you a little wink and you tickled her under her ribs. "Ok show me the rest." You punched in the code to the house and proceeded to give her the grand tour, saving the master bedroom for last. "It's gorgeous, Sid; it really is."

 "It's not bad."

 "Not bad? It's more than that and you know it."

 "Well maybe. There's lots of room in the closet for your stuff, but move anything you want. I want you to feel at home here."

 She flopped back on the bed, then looked up at you. "Hmm, I think I could get comfortable right here if you'd join me." Your knee pressed into the mattress so you could hover over her body and just as you were about to press your lips to hers the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?"

 "Guess we'll have to go see." You took her hand pulling her off the bed with you as you headed downstairs. You were prepared for what greeted you, but (Y/N) was not.

 "Is there a Ms. (Y/L/N) here?" A young gentleman asked and you could see the questioning look on your girlfriend's face.

 "That's me." She answered as he handed over a beautiful bouquet of roses. You pulled out your wallet and tipped the man before closing the door. "Did you get me these?"

 You shrugged, but replied, "I don't know. You'll have to read the card."

 She carried the six dozen roses into the kitchen, setting them down on the island. You knew you'd gone a bit overboard but wanted to make up for not getting them sooner for her. She plucked the card out from amidst the blooms. You knew the words she was reading but watched as she read them in silence.

 (Y/N), I have yet to take you out on a proper date, but I'm hoping to change all that. I hope that you love Cole Harbour as much as I do and that we'll be spending many more summers here together. Yours always, Sid.

 There was so much more you wanted to say in the card, but yet you tried to keep it as brief as possible. "They're beautiful Sid, but you didn't have to do that, let alone so many." She went up on her toes and kissed you.

 "I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to." You wrapped your arms around her, pulling her close to your chest. "So, how about we go on that official date then?"

 "When...tonight?" She asked pulling back slightly to look up into your face.

 "Yeah, why not?"

 "Well, we don't have our bags inside the house yet for one thing."

 "I can have that taken care of in ten minutes. Ok, twenty with the number of suitcases you brought." She swatted your chest. "So is that a yes?"

 "Umm…how can I say no?" She teased.

 "You can't. I'll go grab the bags and then we can get ready for our date." You planted a kiss on her nose then headed out for the bags, excited that you were finally getting to take her out on what would be your first official date.

[popculturebuffet]

Scotrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (The Comic)

Hello, Hello, Hello scottaholics! And what a beautiful day it is: After decades lost in the lost woods, at least it had that catchy tune to keep it company, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The Game is FINALLY back and performing for you on all platforms!

Even Stadia, the platform most likely to disappear like this game did for a while! Cheap shots at the stadia aside as a huge fan of the franchise as a whole and of this game who played it back on the 360, and had since sold said 360 so I had no way to get it back or ever play the dlc packs. Seriously who didn’t want to play wallace but never got to? Everyone, everyone is the answer. But with those the entirety of what I consider to be the main cast is playable, it has online so you can beat up hipsters, guys in costumes and robots with your friends, it’s a good damn feeling.  And since i’m in a celebratory mood, naturally i’m also feeling like a review. And since it just so happens the next volume up in my look at the comics is Vs the World, seriously I planned this review for this month without thinking to have it come out on the same day as the game until a week or two in, I felt there was no better way to celebrate the biggest day for Scott Pilgrim fans in some time.. and for Brian Lee O Malley as he’ll stop getting twitter asks about it. So with all the exposition taken care of LAST TIME, and the link right there if your curious, we can jump right in. On with the show!

After our opening titles, and yes this comic has opening titles, with Ramona sitting solmely in the rain. 

And Scott caught in the title. The rain shot is real pretty by the way. But yeah once we get past those we’re taken back 7 years ago. Finn found out his father was an asshole, and voiced by Stephen Root so hey you take the good with the bad, Steven just learned the horrifying truth about Gem Monsters, Guardians of the Galaxy saved the MCU and I was trying to find work after college.. wait... sorry sorry that was 7 years ago from THIS year. The comic came out in 2005, though the comic takes place on a sliding timescale where only like 2 years pass so I dunno when this is. Let’s just say 98.  Okay so 1998: Bill Cllinton’s sex scandal breaks, and puts way too much of hte blame on the young intern whose life came to be defined by one stupid mistake she made with a man who was way older and should’ve known better, the tide of the Monday Night War turned in favor of the WWF as Stone Cold Steve Austin became a household name, and it was an utterly standup year for video game relaases with Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, StarCraft, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, WWF: War Zone, Pokemon Stadium, Spyro The Dragon, Pokemon Yellow, WarioLand 2, Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Pokemon: Trading Card Game and Sonic Adventure. It’s like someone took a good chunk of my childhood and squeezed it into one year holy shit, I did not expect this when looking up what came out in 98. 

And while the movie pool wasn't’ quite this amazing, we still had The Wedding Singer, The Big Lebowski, the dude abides, Batman and Mr Freeze: SubZero, The Truman Show, Mulan, the good one not the one made near concetration camps that makes her into a demigod, Saving Private Ryan, Blade, Simon Birch, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, Rushmore, Bride of Chucky, HalloweenTown, Plesantville, and the Prince of Egypt. And in music Weird Al changed from his first signature look to his second, getting Lasik and growing out his hair. Seirously had no idea that was this year. Good to know. Also Elton John got his knighthood. Super shooters. I could go on with 1998 triva for days but I cannot go on for 8 weeks so let’s get to the point here.. during alllla this  Scott Pilgrim, age 16, was starting St. John’s Catholic School and a couple of guys who were up to no good started making trouble. . by threatning to beat him up for no real reason. A fight insues and we cut to the principal’s office as Scott’s still a minor and not allowed to get into death fights just yet under the people’s freedom of choices and voices act. 

It’s here he meets Lisa Miler, a peppy and sarcastic blonde, who’s intrigued by the fact Scott somehow got beat up after being here just 15 minutes and wants to be friends. Naturally for scott next we see him he’s busy playing video games, and annoyed someone else is around and wondering who this person whose now in his basement is. God no wonder teenage me related to him. So for the next few pages we see their friendship in time lapse: Lisa joins him at lunch, then geninely wonders since Scott’s Untentionally a dick if he hates her.. it’s part of why I think Scott has some form of autisim. And not just because I tend to belivie a character is on the spectrum all the damn time, it’s because of the way he acts: while he is nice and charming at times.. he also clearly has trouble relating to people or realizing how his actions effect them and as seen here in a younger form can often be compeltely distanced from normal social queues, not getting how his actions might be seen until Lisa outright talks to him about it. I mean.. it’s not a huge stretch, and it dosen’t mean he’s nto responsible for his own actions, but it does EXPLAIN a lot of them better: why he just sorta forgets about Knives post-ramona but at the same time still cares enough he dosen’t want to hurt her despite you know, that ship sailing just by having moved on. 

But now the two are friends and his parents, who we meet for the first time and sister inquire about her being his girlfirned.. and by next jumpcut his parents apparently don’t want him hanging out with girls? What exactly the fuck? Also they mention Laurence, Scott’s brother whose missing for most of the books and has no real payoff for not being around. Next cut we get KIM!

Thank you Prissy. And she’s.. not all that different, assuming, correctly that their partner project, how she meets scott will just result in her doing all the work.. which not only is how these things usually went when I was in high school a decade later, but reminds me of the time me and my friends curtis and justin were put on a project and when asked who the alied powers were, guessed “Germany?”.... you can understand my fear. And also Curtis punching him for getting nothing done.. and not hard or brutally mind you just once quick in the gut and with full warning. Ah... the adaquate old days. 

So back to Lisa as, since Scott’s Mom has a guitar.. a fact I.. never honestly thought about. Seriously I never realized her children, since the Bass Scott has for most of the books is Laurence’s, getting into music was probably due to her. Also Lisa makes her case for WHY be a band: the school has a regular event called Lunchapalooza, where everyone goes to and since by teen logic, just being in a band is automiacally cool, she figures they can jump from not QUITE being in any cliques to being super cool. Which honestly yeah... while I didn’t know any bands in high school, the fact one of my friends, ironically named Scott, was a DJ automatically made him pretty damn cool once he got past his awkard phase. I never got past mine but somehow was loved by all except that one douchey kid in our group who mocked me for naming my Luxray kim, assuming it was based on Kim possible and not Kim Pine... though frankly how that’s an insult when Kim Possible was a fucking awesome show and character is beyond me but he was just 17 and also a douchebag, it didn’t have to make since it just had to piss off the easily pissed off kid with aspergers. So Scott poses how they can be a band with just their guitars and Lisa concedes drums WOULD help.. I mean it’s what MADE Shallow Gravy. 

So while Kim wonders if Scott is dating Lisa, because teenagers don’t really get girls and boys can be friends without wanting to be together, though not often as teenage boy brains can be rather stupid and horny... can confrim from personal experince. So it becomes clear Scott has a thing for Kim, and when Scott tries broaching it with Lisa she dosen’t take it well and he backpedals to asking her to be her drummer and plans to monday, proving Scott has somehow not gotten better at reading women, or anyone after 7 years. Can relate. 

So yeah he decides to ask Monday, same day as their presentation.. and thankfully missed the bus as he arrives to find the Benvy Tech boys came in, took everyone out and abducted Kim. Because yeah, just in case you were wondering Scott’s life was always like this.. or was it? Questions for later. So one Canadian Version of River City Ransom later, Scott’s made his way to simon... who, since most of you have probably seen the movie or art of the movie.. looks an AWFUL lot like Gideon. Hrmmm. Simon is naturally the final boss here and wonders if this is the best St. Joels can muster. Scott quips back as only Scott can. 

So cue an unsuprisingly awesome actoin sequence. IT’s part of why I love these color editions: While they already LOOKED thoroughly fantastic the added colors really help the series shonen manga meets old school video game vibe REALLY fucking pop. So Simon pleads mercy which like Scott delivering a good quip.. should’ve really been a red flag to younger me and is foreshadowing for later in case I was too subtle. He then does what any noble hero would do.. kicks simon into the sunset, tells Kim how he feels and asks her to play drums. They then make out. Awwww. 

Lisa suprisingly takes it well as the next montage shows.. granted we’ll learn in Feburary she wasn’t QUITE as over scott as it seemed, but the three, along with a friend of Lisa’s whose name I forgot and who DOSEN’T come back so I’m not going to bother learning, form their own friend group, Scott and Kim get an A, and Scott, Kim and Lisa’s band is dubbed sonic and knuckles, which is an objectively awesome band name. Something the series really does great: Video Game Based Band Names. Crash and the Boys, Sex Bomb-Omb, Clash at the Demonhead... we need more bands like this in the real world dammit. So then they play their big game, the two loose their vrigniity.. and then Kim asks scott “your moving to tornoto?” And.. for now.. that’s that. 

While the framing of that will be VERY important in the last volume, as notice how KIM’S the one who brings it up and it’s not explicitly stated scott actually told her, this flasback is great. While it does contribute to the volume’s drifty pacing, more  on that as we go, it brilliantly sets up a LOT of stuff for later, paticuarlly Lisa who I assumed wouldn’t be back and younger me’s jaw fucking DROPPED when she popped up in Volume 4. Granted i’m spoiling that suprise for you now but odds are most of you reading this have either alreaddy read these or were probably wondering if the girl from the animated short ever had any actual relevance in the books. So yes, yes she does. She’s also the pink haired girl you see pop up in the game in the background, as a nod to O’Malley’s comic strip style which had her and Kim as the leads.  Also yeah for fans of the game or movie or even the comics who were unaware.. this prologue got an animated adaption on adult swim to promote the movie. Naturally Micheal Cera and Allison Pill reprised their roles as Scott and Kim, with Mae Whitman voicing lisa.. and honestly being perfect for the roll, and Jason Schrwartzman voicing Simon naturally. While the animation is slightly limited, it still looks decent and expertly translates O’Malley’s art, while sliming things down slightly where needed to fit a short, and the anmation takes a huge bump for the fight scene which like the comic is short but awesome. While it has no real bearing on the film as Kim’s former relationship with Scott never really comes up or has any impact, as the Film while good was based primarily on volumes 1-3 with small pieces of 4 (paticuarlly the iconic “Lesbians gag”), with Wright working off outlines and drafts of 5 and 6, so the last half hour or so is mostly Wright’s invention. 

Not a bad thing as it’s still awesome and not o’malley’s fault but it means kim dosen’t get to do much, and is a big reason why I want an adaptation on netflix or hbo max. While i’d still want changes both because there’s no sense doing an adaptation if your not going to make some tweaks of your own and because it’d be intresting to update the series to modern day, both in societal conventions and so everyone stops saying the r word. Seirously the most telling sign of the series age is that word showing up quite a bit during the first half of the series. Point is there is merit in doing another remix of the story and doing a longer form one so we can get more of the characters, as well as flesh out ones like Steven, Neil (Who was done WAY better in the movie adaptation thanks to the wonderful Johnny Simmons), and Stacey who got the shaft in the books. Again, not slagging off the movie, it’s really great. Just saying there’s always room for more Scott Pilgrim content and we all know it. 

We’ll get back to the comic proper, and the present day of 2005, after the cut. 

So the story proper opens with Scott dreaming of playing video games... because of course he is with Ramona walking in. and finding it charmingly pathetic but wanting her boyfriend to you know, get out of bed. It’s 11:30.  So with Scott’s ass out of bed, we find Scott, Age 23 idiot with a heart of gold and Wallace, 25 king of all gays, on the bus as they talk it getting warmer and Lucas Lee, movie star and jason lee stand in coming to town to film a movie.. and Scott being Scott gets him confused for Luke WIlson. He’s also seen Bottle Rocket which.. good on him. Seriously while not wes anderson’s best film, those were made long afte this comic was published, it’s still a damn good one.. where was his career at this point... looking it up life aquatic was his most recent films and is still one of my favorites. So yeah he was in a good place career wise. 

Scott proudly talks about having Ramona over in a couple days so she can see his place and meet Wallace. But as explained by Wallace for those of us just tuning in, he already met her last volume. You know during that time Stacey thought she could magically make her date not be attracted to someone else.. and yes even almost a month later not letting that one go. Stacey should know better. Not saying i’ts right Wallace keeps poaching her boyfriends, but she still shoudlnt’ try and force a relationship with a guy or even finish a date with one who makes out with someone else, regardless of gender, mid date. She deserves better. In general not just in this one scenario but we’ll get to that. 

Point is while Scott, as usual, is a bit pissy about this Wallace.. has no time for that and issues an ultimatium

And he’s not bluffing, as he fully intends to tell Ramona the minute she walks in the door if he dosen’t break up with Knives. It really shows Wallace off at his best and why he’s Scott’s closest friend: Kim and Stephen do care about him but Kim both has a LOT of unresolved issues and sexual tension with him and keeps eveyrbody including Scott at arm’s length. And Stephen.. while he will OCASIONALLY call Scott out mostly just enables him, either ignoring his college buddy’s shittier behavior or playing along with it and backing him up when Kim rightfully calls him on being a dickhead. While both love their friend they just aren’t the best at dealing with his shit or getting why he does the things he does good and bad.  Wallace on the other hand geninely likes Scott. He’ll lock him out of the house and tell him to sleep elsewhere so he can bang one out, he’ll not wear pants if he dosen’t have to and he’ll certainly hit on Scott just to get a rise out of him, phrasing.. but he also genuinely cares for the guy’s well being. He lets him sleep in their house basically rent free since scott has no money, buys most of their stuff, and is, as we’ll see in this one, the ONLY one of his friends to take an active part in the fight against the exes, training Scott and researching his opponents when he can get info. He won’t baby Scott as seen here, but he will help him, and he will be the harsh voice of reason his friend needs.  And he did TRY doing a softer approach last time, simply telling scott to break up with his fake high school girlfriend. Scott had every chance to dump Knives during the last third of the first book.. it’s just a combination of both Knives and Ramona being in the same place and Scott getting panicky meant he balked. He NEEDS to be pushed into leaving Knives or he’s not gonna. And he also gets it’s not just Scott being a shifty coward: Scott DOES like Knives.. he just found someone who actually challenges him, intrests him and connects with him on his level, versus someone who worships and adores him like a puppy who just happens to be skilled with knives. The relationship with Knives. was an ego boost, an unequal paring that gave Scott the illusion of moving on from Envy. Ramona is him ACTUALLY moving on and given how badly Envy fucked him up, which comes into play in this book and the next, Wallace recognizes that Scott does need her... but this relationship can’t go anywhere if Scott is seeing someone else, and they both know it. Wallace is just the one who’s willing to do something about it to force scott to do something about it. He’s doing this for Knives too: it’s very clear he cares about the girl, was against this from the start, and knew this was going to end in pain and the faster Scott rips off the Band-Aid the faster she can move on to someone closer to her age and far more equal to her. Scott.. takes this about how you’d expect, even calling Double Standard, as Wallace does sleep around.. and while Wallace will be a homewrecker to Stacey.. otherwise it’s not remotley the same. Wallace does his sleeping around either casually or when he does get a partner, with their consent from what we can tell. He never cheats or anything, he just likes to bone. So yeah Scott doesn’t have a leg to stand on and acts accordingly. 

One of my faviorite gags in the series and one that’s etched in my head for keeps. So with a justified Ultimatium over his head Scott calls knives to hang out. Knives.. shows off that as adorable and trusting as she is.. she’s also kind of creepy and shows up just outside the phone booth he’s calling her from.  So the two go to a record store and Knives tries to get Scott into Clash at the Demonhead, her faviorite band. But since i’ts you know, headlined by Scott’s ex as we’ll find out, he’s not into it. But before that can get awkward.. it gets awkward in another way as Knives invites Scott to dinner at her parents place. Which is an objectively bad idea even before you get into the fact Scott wants a way out and as Volume 4 will show us her dad is both not happy with the idea of her dating a white guy and willing to use a katana to prevent it so he dodged a bullet there. Scott TRIES weasling out of it, but his “I’m too old for you” thing falsls on deaf ears.. and actually explains why she thinks this is normal: her parents are 9 years apart. of course obviously two consenting adults with a decade between them is a mite bit diffrent than 5 years between a teenager whose taking this way too seriously and a grown man whose taking this not seroiusly at all and dosen’t get how effed up this is. But Knives is too naive to get that, and papers over any possible concerns about her parents not wanting her to date a white guy with i’m in love.  Seeing that he has no EASY way out of this, as he shouldn’t, Scott just rips off the band aid and bluntly breaks up with her, saying it’s not going to work out. Knives.. is clealry devistatd. To her this was a serious relationship.. and Scott realized that too late.. and thankfully while he didn’t break up with her in the best way, at all, simply syaing i’ts not going to work out and confirming to her he means it, it’s clear from his face this hurts to do and he knows he’s REALLY hurting her and REALLY shoudlnt’ of dated her to begin with. IT’s why Scott dating a teenager dosen’t make him a morally rephrenisvie monster: because he was genuinely intrested, didn’t use her sexually, and there are tangible consequences for his actions. Knives just dosen’t disappear neatly into the sunset so he can be with ramona. The rest of the series covers her emotoinal recovery from being with Scott, and how she very horribly handles it and that’s why this plotline works at all: she’s not some act one contrivance to be thrown away, sh’es a human being, and more than that a young woman who got hurt REALLY bad and got way too in over her head with someone who just..wasn’t the one fo rher no matter how much she can’t admit that. 

We also get one of my faviorite sets of pages as Scott relfects on things and the sheer devistation on Knives face, which credit to a series that even at this early point loves it’s big bold facial expressions.. her’s being more subded just makes it sting MORE. 

This bit to me is vital to keeping Scott sympathetic and to his character. We see he really does regret what happened, dosen’t know how to process it and genuinely feels awful. As I said instead of some exgerated face that would still hurt him.. her face is quiet, clearly unable to process this and clealry lost and hurt.. and that hurts more than any fuck your or sobs he was probably expecting. Just her clearly not getting WHY he’s doing this or why he hurt her, and he KNOWS why he just knows telling her the truth would hurt her even more. But.. as he thinks.. his thoughts move to something else.. and the WHY of why he did this. 

He did it for Ramona. Wallace was as harsh as he was right: he needed a clean slate to actually give this relationship a shot and the smile comes off less as him being a calous dick whose just happy to move on, I mean he is a little, but more jus tsomeone READY to finally move on. He found the right person, he let the wrong one go if clumsily.. he has a future to look forward to and he can smile about that. 

Granted he’s still his usual unteitonally callous self and his way of telling his friends he and knives broke up is to casually say so and say “dont’ worry you’ll meet my new girlfriend soon.” Their reaction.. is my own. 

Look just because Scott is a nuanced douchebag dosne’t stop him from being a Douchebag. It just means he isn’t intolerable to watch and you actually care about him growing as a human being is all. 

So with that out of the way, it’s date night and Ramona is coming over.. also Scott is considering calling her Ramy which no. I'm genuinely in favor of a pet name that’s just a variant on someone’s name but a bit cute, as it’s just the right level of obnoxious, but no, just no Scott. No.  Ramona enters, meets Wallace again and sits down while Scott tries to shoo him out.. because turnabout is fair play bitch. They also see Ramona’s new hair as she dyes it something new for the first time, in this case a very lovely two tone, the purple from last volume but with a darker purple bellow it. I honestly wish she went for multiple colors in her hair again, but likely didn’t since the book was originally in black and white... which still dosent’ make sense as it would’ve been EASIER that way. Regardless Wallace makes himself scarce proving that he’s more than willing to be equal in terms of one of them spending the ngiht elsewhere. What a guy. 

Ramona finds out a few things about Scott: That his apartment is VERY small, just one room with a bed, a cabinet, a small kitchen and a bathroom, which despite what scott says I REALLY dont’ count as another room. Just common sense. She also learns that he can COOK. Yeah while you’d expect Scott to just get a wad of “I did the ultimatum thing okay now gimme” money and buy dinner but no.. he made the whole thing himself from his own recipe.  And once we cut to them eating on the floor.. turns out yeah he not only can cook but is REALLY good at it. She wishes there was a table which, small as the place is.. fair point. I mean at least get some tv trays. You have chairs. Or at least the easy chair. You can get nice padded folding chairs so you have a second chair guys. I know your poor but come on. Also Scott leanrs bread makes you fat. Good stuff. Also Scott freaks out when , while making out with Ramona in bed later, she mentions his hair’s getting kinda long and could use a cut... which turns out to be a thing for him. He isn’t an ass about it he just panics a bit because he’s partially convinced his last relationship’s nightmarish breakup was because of a bad haircut he got. As we’ll see next week, that’s a no but as someone whose a touch neroutic myself I get blaming a larger issue on something trivial. 

So we then get to the next chapter where it’s KIM’S turn to have a dream.. and the only time we see someone else's dreams. Honestly.. I really would’ve liked if it was a recurring device, even have Ramona pop into other people’s Not used ALL the time but I could easily see it being used with Knives to convey her obsession with Scott and her pain or kim again to help move her plots along or Wallace because I want to know what’s going on in his head. It must be a maze of male gentalia and fine liquor the likes of which has never been seen. It’s scotts funeral as Simon killed him and Scott’s corpse wonders if she dreams about this a lot. 

So we see her get ready and wake up her roomate Sarah whose a bitch. And as we’ll see in one of the backups, so’s the rest of her roommates. So drifting into work. Hollie is a character I really liked... the past tense will be explained later. And the first scene is probably why as her and Kim banter effortlessly, with Kim suggesting maybe she was a happy kid... only to admit quickly no she wasn’t, she was pretty withdrawn and then pretty angsty over someasshole who will be named Scott. “Your a holy terror kim, and i’m glad your on your side”> It’s a short scene but the kind this series excells at: just realistic, fun little exchanges bursting with character. I also GENUINELY wish we got more of this kind of thing, as only Knives really gets these kind of scenes to herself for the most part. There ARE scenes without Scott, but not enough like this that just give us as look into what his friends lives are like during the moments they aren’t putting up with his dumbassery or watching him engage in mortal combat. It’s why i’ve been hoping a spinoff will happen even though it likely won’t SOON. I’m sure O’Malley will return to this world some day, but between Snotgirl and Wicked World, which will come out when it’s ready but should be good.. he’s just really busy. But i’d love to see more of Kim.. or Wallace or Knives. The latter two are a no brainer: Knives is the tritagonist of the books, and it’d be intresting to see what she’d be like 5 years at the book, at the same age and stage in life as Scott. And with Wallace it’s because we really DON’T see his friend circle, life or what goes on with him. We hear him talk about a new boyfriend, who we don’t meet until near the end of the series, though you can see him in stage 3 of hte game if your curious, we see him with some random friends in volume 4, but we really don’t KNOW what hyjinks and lojinks wallace gets up to. He’s pretty isoalted from the rest of the main cast, something I hope an adaptation could fix as while realistic i’td be curious to see what his relationship with Kim or Steven would be like. Just food for thought. 

Point is this was a good scene. But as is typical for Kim’s life just when she has some serenity her ex crashes back in. In this case Scott needs to rent some movies, kim works at a rental store and god teenage me really wanted a clerks style spinoff.. but enough spinoff talk. Scott asks kim to bororw them, of course and explains he’s training for his fight with Lucas.. which Kim reacts to finding out her second best friend is in a series of death matches. 

She has understandable questions such as how the hell doe she know that and is he stalking Lucas and just hoping he’s an ex.. which let’s face it would be a very scott move. But nope Wallace told him, likely learning in an interview he dated Ramona or is coming for scott because he knows everything. We also get one of my faviorite exchanges when Kim wonders why Wallace and Scott are roomates.. a valid question he deflects by saying i’ts a long story. 

Also yeah, as much as casting Micheal Cera backfired for the movie.. that panel there proves there wasn’t another choice at the time. When you want a loveable, somewhat douchey, but also somewhat innocent and oblivious slacker.. who you gonna call. Also before we move on.. Kim.. how are you this suprised. You were there for the fight with Matthew. And Ramona giving out the exposition on why he’s there.. and you even did that whole weird space channel 5 thing no one ever did agian and to this day I will never understand what O’Malley was going for and only know the refrence by hearing that’s what it was. Point is you shouldn’t be this suprised.  Anyways we next cut to Ramona and Stacey, as Ramona enters her workplace, second cup, and they talk and Scott’s spider sense goes off... 

I mean it’s just a bad feeling but still.. weird. WE’ll get back to that later. Scott is in the middle of his training.. and I love the mentor side of Wallace and feel it didn’t get used enough as the series went on. As said before he cares about Scott, so he serves as his Shounen Mentor and a great one: he’s stern and makes Scott work, but he also gets his student and what Scott needs to work. I just wish he’d taught Scott some actual combat, but as we see Wallace’s combat skills boil down to yelling useless info from the sidelines.. I mean he can be useful, we’ll see that next week, it’s just he’s not an action guy. But spirtually he’s the guy scott needs to kick his ass into shape. That being said his “training” consists of watching Lucas’ movies, playing tony hawk and when Scott wants to play more Tony Hawk, having Scott do pushups while Wallace plays Tony Hawk.  Before we turn... there is an elephant in the room I just gotta shoo out: Lucas.. is easily the worst setup of the 6 exes. Patel SEEMINGLY comes out of nowhere but his letter and email hint SOMETHING is coming up, and his flashy dynamic entry intro is damn cool and is what turns the series on it’s head, from an indie comic about a guy getting it together.. to that but with huge shonen dustups with epic visuals. Todd is introduced masterfully here, and is a presence from the start of volume 3 as a result, Roxie gets a slight tease in the free comic book day issue, and her not attacking for two months not only sets up tension but allowed for a red herring.. im’ not only hiding that the fourth ex is a she because anyone whose seen the movie or played the game knows the fourth ex is a woman. The cat’s out of the bag, no sense hiding it. The Kentangis show up pretty early on and Gideon is hinted at and built up, as this towering, mysterious figure, his relationship with Ramona, who he is, why he set up the league, and just how fucking strong he is is all obscured, with his only four apperances simply teasing the big final showdown and giving him that much more mysitque. 

Lucas.. is just sorta intorduced like “Hey I gotta fight this guy”. There’s just.. nothing. Scott’s just gotta fight him because he’s next up and Wallace knows that because plot convience. It’s VERY lackluster given what comes before.. and frankly while I like Lucas, he’s the weakest plot and character wise. HE’s not even really EVIL, just a sellout and is more doing this because he has to I guess, and likely because of stuff we find out in Book 6 but sssssshhhhh. We’ll get more into that when the fight happens but it’s one of the books weakest points. The evil ex.. just feels like an afterthrought again despite there being no reason to. Thankfully this would never happen again as I said, but it dosen’t make this any less frustrating. 

So we cut to Sex Bomb-Omb practice, and after that we get more tease for Clash at Demonhead. And Stephen.. is cool with them and entirely happy one of them made it, while Scott is understandably pisssed off about it and not happy one of his best friends is you know, promoting the band of his ex who broke his heart and as we’ll get more into next time, said rising career is what tore them apart. So yeah Stephen’s a dickhead, and I was wrong last time that he got better. He really.. dosen’t. He gets less CREEPY.. but out of the main 6 characters he’s the weakest: he dosen’t have much of an arc, does some very questionable shit in the second half, and his being around means we have to suffer through Julie. I’ll tear into him more on a case by case basis but for once Scott’s not overreacting. While Kim does nothing she also has no idea just HOW bad things were and Scott won’t tell her. Stephen was there the whole fucking time. He just saw Scott’s rebound with a teenager. He knows he was kind of messed up after this. Dosen’t justfiy knives but still he looses the moral high ground he tries to have at times. 

So while Scott shops a song for Ramona to her, Knives calls Scott’s place clearly setting up another suprise apperance. Wallace.. figures out what sh’es doing quick and simply gives her a stern “You have to go” And to me it’s not him being a dick.. he’s both trying to save her from seeing Scott with Ramona and fucking her up worse... and is looking out for her. She needs to move on and moving up to stalking Scott’s not going to help that. Scott dosen’t WANT her anymore, and while he handled it bad, Wallace gets she needs to see that. Granted he could’ve you know explained it to her and tried talking, but as i’ve said he’s not a perfect person and he was also on a time table to get her out of there in case Scott you know, showed up with his new girlfriend and made things a billion times worse. And the two are indeed headed to his place to watch one of Lucas’ movies, and part of that weak setup is that Ramona.. just has no connection with him. It was high school. Scott also pretends he dosent’ remember his. You are a lying liar sir stop that.  So they watch the film together hanging out, and it’s.. really bad. The good one was rented out. I miss rental stores.. a magical time. I mean i’ts better now, streaming means 80% of movies are avaliable if you have a bunch of services and even if you just have netflix or hulu or hbo max, you still get a pretty decent selection each month. Plus digital rentals are super easy. Do miss redbox though. I mean it’s still there I’m just warry of something that relies so heavily on touching things in a state with a lot of trump morons. You CAN get Covid twice and I don’t wanna. Also we get some dated Dialouge as Scott commenting on Lucas being hot, he is good taste Scott, is given a “good job convincing me your not gay”. He and ramona end up having sex though so .. yay? I dunno. The series has a really weird thing about not getting bisexuals exist and as someone whose bi, and really against bi errasure it bothers me, it bothers me a lot. Though given O’Malley apparently has not only far more queer rep in snotgirl but a bisexual lead, he’s clearly learned so i’m not going to drag him too hard on this. It was the early 2000′s. People were pretty damn stupid about this. Creators have gottten MUCH more important issues much worse. 

So the next morning, Scott gets a call from his well meaning but ditzy mom, and reacts like you’d expect. His parents are in Europe to keep them out of the action and what not. Though apparently according to the last book his mom did read volume 3 at least. Or Wallace told her about the relevant bit. You make the call. 

So i’ts Ramona’s turn to meet Sex Bomb-Omb. The group hang out and discuss Gordon Downie. 

Look I don’t know indie bands. I have no idea who the tragically hip are I just know the name is really hipstery. We also get the recipe for Vegan Shepards Pie. None of them are vegan they just wanted to try it and I.. really want to make this some time. Just to see if it’s any good. But yeah it’s in general a fun casual scene, as Kim reveals she and Scott dated, just to break the tension, and Scott tries out Rammy but quickly backpedals. Just fun slice of life stuff. Oh and Knives is watching them from the window and takes Scott dating someone else as well as you’d expect. 

So she gets some hair bleach to do some highlights and calls her friend Tamara over. We met her last volume as she dragged her along to the show, but it’s here we really get to know what she’s like.. i.e. the sane one in the duo, rightfully pointing out Scott’s not that great. Also Knive’s points out ramona’s “fat”, which is thankfully portrayed as petty sniping as while Ramona does have some curves it’s you know.. not remotely a bad thing and the kind of thing a teenage girl would harp on. Still she’s just in STEPS from this happening. 

But yeah.. it’s clear here Knives has some underlying issues to address and really needs therapy  not to go after her ex’s current girlfriend with knives. I mean it’s in the name but still. Then again volume 4 has her dad going around with a katana or something like it wanting to murder her daughter’s older ex boyfriend he dosen’t realize is ex so it’s clear her whole FAMILY needs some therapy. But this does round her out and show there’s more to her.. a pretty violent and obessive side sure, but it shows she wasn’t just some one dimensional ego boost for scott but a person. One whose just as flawed as the rest of the cast.. but more sympatheic because they’ve all got about 6 or 7 years on her and at this age that’s a lifetime. And while Scott DID set this off by dating her which was objecitvely a bad idea... the rest of this isn’t remotely on him. He handled things BAD.... but all he wanted was for both of them to move on. Knives.. simply can’t admit Scott is not a nice person, was probably two timing her as Tamara points out, which as we know he 100% was, and is not some perfect guy she can’t replace: like Knives.. he’s just a person with faults and she’s too blind to see that. 

So before we can get to the crazy stalker ninja fight, let’s instead get to Scott and Ramona hanging out where we meet Gideon, Ramona’s Cat who i’ll call Cat Gideon, both because I love steven unvierse and because it’s less confusing. This is a pretty slight scene as Ramona admits not a lot happened with Lucas and Scott’s apartment is a hole.. which yeah, yeah it is. Also she DEFINTLY dind’t cheat on him with any cocky pretty boys. Which would come off worse if it wasn’t for the pact Ramona was clearly doing it out of regret and Scott just liked like 50 pages ago about rembering his exes when one of them is his second best friend.. which neither would admit but you know it’s true. Stephen is third where he belongs. 

So next morning it’s fight time, and Scott is glad wallace is going with him. It’s awkard going to fights alone. Which leaves me to wonder if before this comic Scott just.. fought random guys letterkenny style. Like they’d call up, schedule it and then he and one or more of his friends would go beat up a guy. It’s just.. hilarious knowing that this kind of thing is common in canda minus the ki attacks , flash effects, wizards, vegan psycics, ninjas, and roboticists. But damn I now want a scott pilgrimized letterkenny now more than ever. You know you do too don’t deny it. I”d love to see the hard right jay fight but iwth a loud “KO!” when he gets his ass knocked out. Also Casa Loma is a very real, very cool Toronto location, as I never realized as a kid, to the point that the lucas fight was filmed there for the movie. 

So Scott approaches Lucas a bit star struck and upon finding out scott is.. punches him out as seen in the header image and throws him into a tower. When Scott regains conciousness, Kim and Neil have arrived and Lucas calls a time out. And it’s here we get to, while being the weakest of the 7, why I like Lucas.. he’s actually a pretty nice guy. At WORST he sold out. But the two have a pretty nice conversation over ritz and baby carrots, with it turning out, unsuprisingly Ramona did cheat on him with a cocky pretty boy, and while like Ramona he’s clearly moved on, it still hurts a bit and understandably so. He also warns scott while she might seem nice i’ts an act. 

I mean it isn’t ALL an act, but she does have a tedency to put up walls and act pretty badly as we’re slowly finding out.. though given Scott does the exact same it only means.. she’s human. She’s not MUCH higher above him in terms of morality and this is where we get our first peaks into the fact the series isn’t just about Scott’s development but hers. But it’s understandably absent from volumes 1 and 2 since we need to know her first, and this volume is about getting to know her a bit and get a feel for who she is, something I ddin’t really get a grip on as a teen, but do now. We see more of who she is good and bad as the walls go down. She’s more SURFACE LEVEL functional than scott, but beneath it has a lot of the same exact issues.  Lucas and Scott continue to GENUINELY bond, as Scott genuinely thinks the guy is talented and Lucas want’s an Oscar this year.. maybe not for the current film which is a romantic comedy with a teen star but hey, stars have done far worse in their Oscar years. I mean at least he’s not making a comedy about himself in a fat suit domestically abusing himself in a wig while he also plays an asian sterotype. He explains he almost didn’t get into the league but felt too important to ramona’s past.. plus he looks cool. Plus they let Patel in despite barely being in a relationship with her and being kind of a tool so they kinda had to let the handsome affiable movie star in. Scott wonders “wait league” and Lucas is understandably frustrated to find out Patel just sent a letter Scott didn’t read.. and at Matthew let’s be clear. I mean.. Gideon has to have known Scott wouldn’t read that since he’s been in his head. We’ll get to that in part 6. Point is they formed a league, hence why their organized enough to come after him like this and Scott understandably glares at Wallace for you know, having him play tony hawk and watch movies yet missing the fucking obvious clue they were all working together and they were only coming at him one at a time by choice. 

Lucas offers to just.. take a bribe and SAY Scott beat him, Scott calls him a sellout jokingly and Lucas proves that while not AS bad as the rest of the League, he’s still a dick by telling him to kiss ramona’s sweet ass goodbye pilgrim. Okay either he’s seen her since high school or he’s fondly remembering a high schooler’s ass. Neither one is nice to think about. But Scott gets out of his ass beating by pointing out a ramp, real thing too used for the movie, and asking him to skate down it. Lucas says i’ts impossible, and Scott just whistles. So Lucas tries skating the impossible and dies via velocity. Yes really. Scott collects his change and gets a gift, a mytryil skateboard he.. can’t use because he dosen’t have a proficency for it and bemoans not picking it up in 5th grade. Also he didn’t get his autograph. He does get some coins though so neat.   Yeah I mentioend Lucas was the least of the exes and I stand by it: He’s an intresting character, not a GREAT person but clearly a charming and nice enough guy who likely offered the bribe not because he’sd a sell out but because he genuinely liked scott, and is easily the best adjusted of the exes. But obviously a near non existant setup and a really hilarious and unsastifying finish just.. don’t really feel sastsifying. I mean i’t slampshaded, but after all the build up of her having 7 evil exes, the next one is just..filler. Not BAD, but not really anything special and giving Scott a an early pokemon victory, but unlike ash having done nothing to really DESERVE it.  Thankfully both adaptations so far VASTLY improved on this. While Lucas is still affiable in the movie he’s also smarmy, if on better terms with Ramona, saying “he seems nice” after the tower throw and throwing in some stunt doubles. His fight goes from one of the least satisfying and weakst of the series, to easily one of the best of the movie. We’ll talk about that more there but obvious Chris Evans version is far superior, keeping the good traits while giving us an intresting fight.. and still keeping the skateboard death because it’s fucking hilarious and the movie improves on THAT too by having scott give flat wows as he slowly dies. The game likewise keeps teh skateboard death, if shortening it, and the skateboard, and while not changing his apperance does make him a hell of a tough boss. Took three tries and some online grinding to take him out. Still a hell of a fight. Point is while I genuinely like Lucas story wise.. this just dosen’t work for me and is pretty damn weak, even if it gives us some godo character insight we could’ve got that, and a fight and still had the finish we did. 

That being said.. we DO get a fight instead, likely why the Lucas fight was so truncated. Next chapter and that evening or the next day or whatever, we pan over the real life tornto refrence library. It is a VERY nice touch thatt the comic and it’s adpations use either real places in toronto or reasonable subsittues. While not canadian myself I love the place and hope to visit Tornoto some day when the world isn’t a living nightmare and it’s really nice that like New York for Marvel, Brian Lee O malley really makes the city feel integral to the comic, like it’s own character. But Knives is ominously perched above.  At second cup Scott is horrified to find Julie. Seconded. Julie takes the moment to give out to scott about him dating Ramona despite telling him no. Okay... 

Yeah as you can probably guess I don’t like Julie. She’s not a good character. The movie did her better, with the bleeping gag and aubrey plaza’s performance, but in the comic.. she’s just the worst. She sucks bad. If she were an ice cream flavor she’d be pralines and dick. While she’s fine on OCCASION, and actually works in the next volume, outside of that she just gets more unplesant, more unlikeable, more bitchy, more unfathomabbly assholish every. damn. volume. I”ll give out about that a bit then too but I have to put up with her for the entire damn comic. Now her being bitchy to Scott is fair to a point: Scott is a mess, and she’s loyal to Envy in the breakup, and Scott’s own friends drag him on a daily basis.  The problems are that she’s like that to EVERYONE, even Knives who isn’t about to stab her much as i’d like that. She’s unberable to Stephen whose tolerance for her is unfathomable, though the ending bits of volume 6 show maybe he just has terrble taste. She’s just a throughly unplesant, social climbing bitch who thinks she’s better than everyone. And it sticks out badly against the main cast; Scott is very bad with women and relating to people, but is also nice, charming and most of the damage he does is not intetional. Ramona puts up walls to keep others out but is also a responsible adult and often cuts through Scott, and at times others, internal bullshit. Wallace is an alcholic, but still a very responsible, very loveable guy who clearly cares about scott and supports him finacially and emotionally. Kim is VERY emotionally distant, very misntrhopic.. but also a good person who as we see as the series goes, has an inner light to her and often drags on Scott because she’s been putting up with his shit the longest and WANTS him to be better. Knives is an obessive and violent stalker.. who was also deeply hurt by an older man, dosen’t GET that her realtionship with scott was wrong and uneven, and is clearly not emtoinallyr eady for the deep feelings she’s having. And Stephen.. well he’s a talented guitarist but also enables scott and julie. Especially him enabling Julie. 

Point is their all pretty well rounded, llikeable characters with flaws. Julie.. is just an ass. And this scene demonstrates that with flying colors. While Scott does ignore her because he’s too worried about his sister and girlfriend becoming friends, understandably given Stacey knows all his dark secrets, Julie spends two pages giving out and treating scott like some bad guy for persuing Ramona against her orders. And i’m going to break down why.. this dosen’t work.. on any level for her.  1) Ramona is not Julie’s property. She’s a big girl with her own free will. They aren’t even remotely close: Julie met her only barely before Scott, and given the dream thing probably not even that. And you could say Julie is just looking out for her... she dosen’t know Ramona well enough to KNOW if Ramona is still smarting over Gideon. She probably was.. but she readily, once the awkwardness passed, went out with scott and dove right into the relationship. While there’s still some scars as we’ll see.. she CHOOSE to move on and that’s her choice. If she wasn’t ready, she woudl’ve turned him down or broke it off by now realizing it was a mistake.  2) Scott has no reason to listen to her. She hates his ass, somewhat justifably but still, she hates him and has been against him since fucking colllege. She took his exes side in the breakup despite Envy still being partly in the wrong but paints him as some abusive dickhead and not just an insesntive dickhead. To him he’s just some villian she needs to reign in for her cool friend who wants nothing to do with her and grows to justifably hate her over time. Scott and Julie TOLERATE each other. They are not friend,s they do not like each other and never will. They are around each other because of Stephen. That is it. If Kim , Wallace or Stephen had asked, or at least made him wait for kinves. he probablyw ould’ve or at least considered it since while they take the piss out of him, they genuinely care about him and actually have shown they care about something other than themselves! Speaking of which the cou de gras 3) She’s a selifsh bitch: She is NEVER not  in any volume seen as out for anyone but herself, and thus scott has no reason to trust her judgement. She berates Stephen, him and anyone who will listen, is only so loyal to envy because she’s famous, and as I said treats EVERYONE like dogshit.  And given Scott is still a very flawed guy.. it takes a LOT for him to be so right and he runs out screaming when Julie mentions her.

So back at the library, Ramona brought Stacey along because the place is a maze. Scott calls Stephen and calls julie evil.. which given the last two paragrahs. Yeah. She is. She really is. But that goes nowhere as he dosen’t have Stacey’s number. He also thinks Julie was responsible for this which while she’s very much not.. would it REALLY be that suprising that if Julie were there she would’ve introdcued the two and set up their little hangout just to piss scott off? God I’m  so sick of talking about her. 

So the two after dropping off Ramona’s package decide to hang out a bit.. not long as Ramona’s got shit to do, but hey I agree with her logic i’m curious about this palce too. But before they can go up an elevator Ramona spots incoming.. and thus we get the fight of the volume. Though given the next one has two climatctic fights and one or two before that, they easily could’ve had both.. this is still the highlight of the volume.  So Ramona snaps off a railing and before Stacey can give out about that she finds out WHY as Knives attacks with a pair of sais. And O’Malley did his homework as while you’d THINK it was just another dumb white person mistake.. O’Malley is asian, thoughw ether he’s candaian korean or canadian chineses, as his last name is korean but he has a large chinese cast in this very comic that might come from experince, I do not know and if you do know tell me. I’d like to refer to him properly as I don’t LIKE lumping all asian cultures into one basket. But not only that he did his home work, as Sai’s, while popularized in Okinawa Japan, were also used in other countries. I bring this up since I assumed it was just a simple mistake even knowing Brian was mixed-race, and was plesantly suprised to fine that know, I was the moron. And i’m fine with admitting that. 

So we get a damn good fight.. and Knives figures out Scott WAS cheating on her. Granted she assumes so due to seeing Ramona at the refrence Library, before he actually cheated and clearly blames Ramona for it, but still, it fucking hurts. Plus while her attacking Ramona, who initally assumes she’s gideon’s doing, which.. yeah sending a teenage assasian just to mess with her head does sound like him. So while Stacey does complain “ramona you can’t just tear out art objects” to which I say... yeah high, Stacey? NOT THE POINT RIGHT NOW SCOTT’S EX IS TRYING TO KILL HER. SHE’S DEFENDING HERSELF.  So we get one hell of a fight. It not only shows off that Ramona is one hell of a fighter herself, as is knives, but just how immature knives is, resorting to constnat fat jokes and taunts showing just how immature she is.. and unlike volume one where it was endearing and we just saw how sweet she was here it just comes off as mean, bitter, and uncomfortable. But again part of the series biggest charm is the main cast are all well fleshed out and throughly human. She’s doint this because she dosen’t know better and was raised in a house where, again as volume 4 will bear out, finding out her dad is going after scott with a samurai sword just warrants a “dad’s are so weird aren’t they” my point is her frame of refrence is a mite skewed. Plus this is a world where everyone but Stacey just calmly accepts big shonen fights break out, so it’s not that unsuaul to want to settle things with a fight and while i’ve joked about her killing Ramona we genuinely don’t know that was the goal> Could’ve been, easily given murder is peachy in this setting and just leads to a respawn according to O’Malley and would’ve just sent ramona back to her apartment. But I genuinely don’t think she has it in her to do it and while she could’ve planend to, she never would’ve. Plus Ramona easily leads the fight as while Knives uses hit and run tactics and tries make her follow.. Ramona is more annoyed than anything as she has shit to do. Knives only gets one hit in and while i’ts a pretty nasty scratch on the cheek, if thankfully not scarring.. Ramona shrugs it off when she brags about it and easily takes knives down with a potted tree. Knives runs and while she tells herself it’s to fight another day.. its really because her opponent was WAY stronger and way more ready for something like this than she probably planned on. She did defintely want a fight, she just wasn’t prepared to be outmatched so handily. It’s also a nice  parallel to last book’s fight: Like with Scott and Matthew,  while the fight SEEMS pretty even, in reality our hero/heroine was alwasy teh one in control and easily took care of the less experinced and less ready upstart, who likely wasn’t expecting a fair fight much less to loose. 

So Ramona and Stacey wisely get out while Stacey explains Knives is indeed Scott’s ex, though is unaware of the cheating thing. Speaking of Scott he’s playing sonic and knuckles, and in fact kept wallace on the line before just to get advice because of course he did hence why stacey didn’t get through to him, but gets a call... from Envy. 

This is easily the second best sequence in the boook, which was lovingly and wonderfully adapted to film and as a result I cannot read it without hearing Brie Larson’s voice for Envy , a nice mixture of seduction and condescension. It’s CLEARLY painful fo rhim, and we do get some things established as Envy toys with him, that it’s been about a year and that she left him for a cocky pretty boy, familiar.. and while Scott claims to not know what he looks like.. given Todd is clearly on her band cover... it’s not exactly hard to put two and two together. So after some awkard catchup and Scott telling her about ramona against his will, we get to the reason she’s here with Scott understanndbly being supscious and calling her a user.. which while Envy denys.. she ends up admitting to. She’s coming to town as estalbished and her opening act backed out, and since Scott has a band, and one that 2/3 of which she knows, she wants them to open for her.  Scott naturally isn’t too intrested and thinks it’s just pity. The sequence. is masterful, using a watchmen style 9 by 9 panel layout and intercutting scott’s pained reactions and clear lack of comfort with flashes of envy on her side.. never showing her proper, but showing his memories or what he’s seen in magazines. It’s really striking and really sells the sheer discomfort Scott’s going through.  So soon after Wallace gets home.. and finds Scott, drained and miserable on the floor, not even responsive. And this really is the scene that shows me that Wallace cares for the guy and cements that asshole he may be, he loves his buddy. He goes through possible scenarios that fit scott: Food poisoning, finding out Wallace saved over his final fantasy save (though he rules it out as last time that happened he was crying), that ramona dumped him.. before Scott let’s out a pathetic and miserable “Ennnnnvvv”. Wallace , who was at ground zero for that relationship as we’ll find out, realizes this and lets out a little shit, unsure how to help and pissed off at that bitch for once again hurting him like this. As I said it shows how Wallace knows scott in and out and loves him dearly.. and how he knwos about this paticuarly heartbreak better than anyone but Scott and Envy themselves. IT’s just a really tearjerking scene, as we get a sense of WHY scott spiraled into an ego boost of a relationship: His last one REALLY tore him in half, and he’s still not completely healed from the emtional bisection. 

So Scott gets more bad news next chapter as Stacey tells him about the fight and he’s worried he’s going to loose ramona on top of this. I mean he desrves it.. .but it’s clear she’s the best thing to happen to him after a really rough year of denial and poor decisionss and loosing her will likely only make him WORSE. He also breaks the bad news, to him at least to the band about the gig. Stephen, being kind of a dick who while understandbly excited about a big gig fails to see his friend REALLY isn’t happy about this nor remembers you know, that the person offering this tore his heart out indiana jones style and while they should take the gig despite the risks, it’s too big an opportunity not to, he should be fucking senstive about this. Kim however... has a suprising and heartbreaking reactoin to this. Which is spread over a few panels but i’m gonna string into one image for convince sake. 

Just.. DAMN. I honeslty missed this both as a teenager and as an adult when I read through the books last time but holy shit is this a heartbreaking little moment, even more with the development she gets in later books. Keep in mind, over two books so far, Kim.. really hasn’t shown a lot of emtion. The most upset she’s gotten was getting a bit pissed about another a girl drummer. The only other time we’ve seen her sad was at 17 when Scott left. Her only emotions that we could see were angry and surly. But here? She’s genuinely upset and we see her walls break down for the very first time.. and it’s with the clear indication she NEVER really got over Scott. She never got proper closure and while she hasn’t let it so.. it’s been VERY clear she's been grossly uncomfortable with how he just likes to brush off their history, something that very clearly still bothers her and understandably so: 6 years , while a lot of time, still really isn’t long enough to just .. FORGET your first boyfriend , how he made you feel or the fact he took your virginity and you took his. Stuff like that sticks with you.. I’m ony assuming on the virginity thing but my point remains: To Scott it’s SEEMINGLY nothing, when really he’s probably just trying to brush it off because he dosen’t like dealing with things and given how Kim is wrongly assumed she can’t feel pain. I mean to anyone else i’d be a fair assumption and even i’m not convinced if she touched a hot stove she’d burn, but that’s phsysical this is emotional. DIffrent playing fields. Point is Scott’s kind of a dick and not having ANY closure for anything, Kim is still smarting from him leaving as much as Scott is smarting from Envy dumping him.  And it somehow gets MORE painful.... which should’ve been the tagline for Bojack Horseman now I think about it but yeah: her line is what cuts me up the most “I saw her on the cover of Now. She’s pretty”. It’s a little line, it’s easy to see why I missed it .. but the subtext really stings. It’s that despite being VERY pretty, I had a crush on her as a kid and I still do now.. Kim just can’t help but compare herself to someone whose now a glamrous rock star.  Their equally attractive but all Kim can see is ANOTHER person who Scott cared about more than her. Which seems petty but again he just.. abnadoned her. His moving wasn’t his choice but his not telling her as was framed earlier sure as hell was. And then just.. look at the next people he dates: A glamorous rock star (She wasn’t at the time but that’s for next week), a much younger girl who can’t possible challenge him, and an ultra cool american. To her.. it must feel like he just looks right through her to every other person intersted in him and never even consdered her as a person anymore. I mean.. jesus christ that hurts.. and makes me hate Stephen more since you know he dosen’t notice any of this.. though at least unlike with Scott it’s a bit more understandable because Kim’s so unflappable and he’s already ignoring very obvious and transparent emotional pain why shouldn’t this be any diffrent.  So yeah no one’s happy about this, and that ends up including Stephen as he’s so insecure about his band’s talent he’s pretty sure they suck when their probably at least adaquate. 

So while Scott dosen’t say anything, it’s clear he’s at least consdiering the offer as when we next see him he and ramona are heading to Envy’s show. And honestly it’s just a really sweet scene as Ramona asks about envy and the two banter and hold hands. A really nice palletee clensar since hte last few pages were like I was the one lucas socked in the gut. Also she assures him she dosen’t hate him, and asks about how the breakup happened, turning down any offers to hear the good times.  It was new years eve one year ago, and he mentions it was over her leaving to meet some guy named Todd.. and Ramona finds the story familiar but brushes off Scott wondering if her todd and Envy’s todd wer ethe same guy as a douchey joke. When prying about what happened otherwise, Scott admits it was all a blur.. Ramona isn’t ahppy with the answer.. but it’s nto like it’s that unresonable: he was in deep with Envy, and the breakup was damn bad to the point it took a year for him to recover and end up in the relationship he is now and the one before this was clearly a cry for help. It also helps reinfroce just how much Wallace was there for him and probably WHY Wallace hates Envy so much. They probably live together simply because Scott needed a place after college, was in zero condition to get a job or do anything given his zombie like state.. and Wallace just had him move into his bed, platonically and into his place. It’s probably why while Wallace will complain ocasoinally he isn’t that on scott to find a job. He dosen’t need a paying roomate, they do fine just on his sallary and he has a steady, secure job in some sort of calling office, probably working in medical stuff like my mom. He needs his friend to be safe and happy, then he can get on his ass about being functional, as he is in present day. If nothing else this volume made me realize just how good a person Wallace is.  The one thing he CAN remember, to Ramona’s disbelif is a restraunt opening up, the job story he hinted at last volume: basically it was a fancy tex mex place called, and this is one of the best restraunt naems in the history of fiction brace yourself: The Gilded Palace of Flying Burritos. Naturally, as would I as I love tex mex and that name, Scott loved the place, ate there most of the week and like me with some places I liked waited impatietly to get a job. He did and they were even super generous as the food was FREE.  Which is a euphoric feeling I relate to, though I also liked any discounts I got. seriously when I worked at Bagel and Bagel a good chunk of my paycheck was eating there for dirt cheap every shift. I miss that place so much. Like even after I left there I still like a good bagel sandwitch. And it wasn’t covid or anything it was just low staffed and slowly coming apart due to a lack of a solid manager after Crystal, the manager who hired me, transfered to a store closer to her home, which I do not blame her for. 

Point is I get it even if Ramona thinks this is all made up. Anyways at Lee’s Place, based on the real life Leo’s place, everyone’s gussied up: Steven got an awful haircut and Kim... 

But no time to dwell on how great kim’s..everything is.. who DID  Neil bring to the concert? 

While Kim is VERY much enjoying this, everyone else is a bit freaked with Ramona getting assurance her and Scott dated breifly, with Kim quipping her and neil will probably date even breiflyer, and Stephen.. freaking out, wondering if she seduced him, and asking if they should take him out back and kick his ass.. 

Just..... that’s a lot of douche to unpack and this review has been VERY long and suprisingly hard already.. but fuck it, we don’t have much left to go let’s do this. Okay one did she seduce him.. I mean I GUESS, but really let’s be clear here: Neil is a horny, lonely, monosolobic 19 year old who lives with his sister’s college friend and whose life revovles around said guys band. Knives is adorable. She likely barely had to flirt with him to get him to say yes .As someone who was a lonely 19 year old doofus, I guarantee no matter the red flags I probably woudl’ve said yes provided she was 18 instead of 17, despite the abudant red flags such as neil vaugely looking like scott, neil being the one single man within scott’s circle to get her way back in, as Knives hasn’t realized she’s bi yet or given how much she looked up to Kim, she probably WOULD’VE gone for it. As would any sane person, which neither knives nor I entirley are. So she didnt’ so much seduce him as offer him a girlfriend he didn’t have and him being too intrested in having a sweet, caring girl on his arm to see the giant army of adrestian soldiers needed to carry all the red flags this presents. 

And as for “do we need to kick his ass. “ Stephen.. did you kick SCOTT’S ass? No, you fucking abetted him and only stepped in for the good girl thing. You did NOTHING to stop his relationship with knives or tell him he was screwing up or look out for that girl’s well being. This will bite him in the ass even harder in volume 5, but even now it just makes him look REALLY fucking bad that, even if he probably dosen’t mean it, that’s at all on the table. Also.. Neil, unlike scott is doing slightly less wrong. While he is 20 to her 17, three years.. it’s HALF of what Scott and her’s age diffrence is, and far more equal in power structure. It’s still not.. GREAT, but my point is you did NOTHING when Scott did this, for far flimiser and less forgiavble reasons.. but when NEIL, whose been nothing but weirdly loyal to you dates her, you want to kick someone’s ass. I mean yes he’s being stupid: in a clear role reversal of the Scott and Knives situation, it’s obvious just from her expression that KNVIES is the one in control here, and the one using someone to ease her own pain. Granted it’s wrong, if not as wrong as Scott should techincally know better and Knives very clearly dosen’t, as well as get into a show of her faviorite band. Is what she’s doing wrong.. yeah... while she can’t see it again it’s what Scott did just not QUITE as fucked up due to not being AS embalanced. Should neil probably be dating her after scott did ? No. But should you be threatning him and not scott for you know, setting all this in motion? No. Jesus christ you suck Steven. 

Thankfully while Scott presumibly calms Stephen down, Kim spots Hollie and her roomate Joseph, who will be suprisingly important. He’s very gay, very quite, very bearded and is only hear because the bass player is hot and when prodded on it....

Well said. Also I read that with John Heder’s voice fo rsome reason.. don’t know why, his career ended as quickly as it began because he REALLY did not pick his films well. He saw that he was going to be in a film with David Spade and Rob Schinder and didn’t fire his agent for suggesting it. Meanwhile Scott and Ramona run into Sandra and Monique, Scott’s old classmates who just sorta.. show up every so oftne, often backing up Julie because every Alpha Bitch needs a posse. As Boscha has proven once you loose your posse you loose your bitchy powers. They also ask if Scott and Ramona are an item which leads to a fantagious visual gag. 

Also Stephen awkardly talks to the new couple, about how much Knives loves the band, and because why start reading the room now just sorta.. CASUALLY slips in the fact he knows her is because she and scott dated. 

Granted Knives action this book really EARNED her that curveball.. but still, it’s transparently clear she’s both not over Scott and Neil’s a placebo, and that she loves the band... how the fuck did you get through college, much less get two loyalish friends Steve. 

Kim tries to hide when she runs into Sarah whose with.. someon O Malley does not know, literally captioning it “I don’t know htis girl”. Fucking love that gag even if SOMEHOW kim is the roomate they all hate. Despite hte fact as the side story will bare out, her roommates are all pretty obnoxious, so i’ts probably because she’s the only sane person in that group and their VERY lucky kim just dind’t set the place on fire on her way out and let god do what he should’ve a long time ago. Also we meet Lynette, the band’s drummer who smokes “She must be evil” “Still hot though”... both accurate. Also Luke wilson is there.. no really. Just holy shit that’s awesome.  Okay so with all of that out of the way, it’s time for the show. So after a full volume’s build up , and a really cool build up in the page before we finally properly meet clash at the demonhead, and miss envy adams. 

Heck of  a reveal and not the only one as ramona realized what the audience probably already guessed....

Dun dun dun! And since I don’t like leaving a cliffhanger dangling lest I have to... we’ll be getting to this next week.. what you thought i’d say right now or tommorow? This was a lot. But no i’m not leaving you too long. Next week, Evil Ex Crossover! Ramona and Wallace become BFF’s! We learn what the deal with Scott and Envy is! Scott faces the Ken to his Ryu! And Wallace gets a boyfriend. All this and more next week. for now...

Final Thoughts: This one.. was a VERY rough one to review and it ties back to this volume’s biggest problem: it is not paced very well. Like the series as a whole it has a pretty easy going, slice of life pace. The only ones without this kind of easy pacing are 3 and 6, and even 3 has some slice of life bits, their just both more focused due to the events going on. This one... well....

Pretty much. While this one has very important stuff going on, Scott and ramona getting closer, ramona getting more fleshed out, Wallace showing how deep his character is, Kim also getting fleshed out quite a bit, Knives showing off her crazy side, setting up the next volume, the second ex fight.. it’s all just kinda.. jumbled together. It’s not really until the knives fight onward the book takes on some really solid pacing and really gets going.It’s not a BAD book: ther’es some REALLY good character stuff as I dug into.. but the pacing is just really loose and without the Evil Ex fight as an anchor and with ramona and scott just sorta.. getting to know one another, in both biblical and non biblical senses, it dosen’t have either of the series main narrative thrusts. Even the knvies subplot really amoutns to nothing for now, as Ramona dosen’t find out Scott’s a cheater, and only distrusts knives now. That’s about it. It does improve on book one in characterization, with eveyrone being MUCH cleearer in terms of who they are and settling into their iconic selves nicely. Wallace’s more selfless and protective side pops up, Ramona starts to show mroe of her personality good and bad, Scott’s better traits are mixed a bit mor eeven with the douche ones,  Knive’s far more unstable and violet stalker side emerges, and Stephen.. well fuck him, point is things are coming together.. but O’Malley still isn’t quite at peak power yet. Not bad and still worth a read like last time, just a bit uneeven is all. That being said... if you want O’Malley at his peak.. well then come back next week. Until then i’ll be doing my usual buisness of reviewing birds, refrencing simpsons and letterkenny, and putting my eyes back in after kim’s look up there. For now the sun’s setting and i’m out of here. 

[writersstareoutwindows]

The degree to which my own ttrpg games have come to occupy the place in my brain that fandom did in high school is at this point staggering, and I intend to make it everyone’s problem.

So *cracks knuckles* at long last, here’s a few of the thousands of words I’ve written for Carella Maginus, my dearest bard (affectionate, derogatory). She is the daughter of an ambitious elven noble and a human founder of Crux, a travelling interplanar city. Due to fantasy Punnett squares (and Carella being the revival of an old character, whom I didn’t want to change into a half elf), Carella skews much more human, while her older brother Cassius is much more elven.

Siblings is hard, when your dad sucks and only one of you remembers Mom. When one of you is heir, and one of you is—well, hardly even spare.

-

(The first few paragraphs were a prompt written by my partner.)

“Hey, Cassius?”

Carella’s brother unfocused his eyes and rubbed a stray hand against them, the other holding his page on the dusty tome before him. It was late in the library, and Carella was getting tired of kicking her feet under the table and listening to Cassius, in his boring blue academy robes, turning pages, endlessly studying.

“What?” He sounded tired. Too tired to be annoyed at the interruption, hopefully.

Carella voiced the question that had been nagging at the back of her head for some time. She was a little nervous to ask, but not enough to defeat a curiosity that felt strong enough to swallow her whole.

“What was Mom like?”

Cassius paused, surprised. He marked his place in the book by inserting a smaller booker. 

‘You sure you want to ask about that, Ellie?’

‘Don’t call me that—Cass.’

Her retort made him laugh. Leaning back, he said, ‘All right. You know how Dad is an asshole who tells us how to spend every minute of every day?’

‘Cassius!’

‘Well, Mom was nothing like that. Try not to yell, Carella, we’re in a library.’

She squeezed her fists beneath the table and fumed. But then her brother did something she’d never seen him do before: he softened. The furrowed lines between his brows went away, and as he pushed his hair out of his face, she saw him smile for the first time in days.

‘Mom wouldn’t even give me a bedtime. She argued with Dad that I’d tire myself out eventually. I thought she didn’t know that I was staying up to read even when he did put me to bed, but I never seemed to run out of candles…’

His gaze had drifted. He was looking over Carella’s head as his fingers traced a pattern on the tabletop. She had leaned in to listen, desperate not to miss anything.

‘She used to tell me bedtime stories. Both of us, actually. You were too young to remember.’

‘What kind of stories?’

Carella whispered, because she was afraid of scaring him off. When they were younger, he had been easier to talk to. They would play together, even when he was twelve and she was just six; they hadn’t really had anyone else. These days he was always busy, with heavy shadows under his eyes, and he was more likely to snap at her than talk to her. She didn’t want to break whatever spell was making him talk like this.

Cassius grinned. ‘Adventure stories, when we were lucky. My favorite was about the dragon in Pyre. Well, it’s everyone’s favorite, that story is famous.’

Carella didn’t know it, but she didn’t want to look silly by asking. Dad had said that she asked too many questions; it was better to keep her mouth closed until she had figured things out by herself. Looking at his sister, Cassius tapped his fingers on the table, then pushed himself to his feet.

‘The bestiaries are around here somewhere. Hold on just a second.’

He returned in a moment holding a thick book bound with bright painted wood. Plopping it in front of Carella, he leaned over her shoulder to turn the pages until he came to the section on dragons. A hand-painted illustration of a red dragon, its neck gracefully arched, its raised wings transparent as glass, covered two full pages.

‘This is what she fought.’

Carella had gone wide-eyed. She pulled her feet up onto the chair so she could crouch over the book, the better to see every fine detail: the sharp ridge of each scale, the talons at each wing-tip, the yellow-orange glow of fire in its throat.

‘By herself?’ she whispered.

‘I’m sure the other Founders helped. But she was the one who survived the full brunt of its firebreath in her face, she was the one who got up on its back with all the fires of a volcano raging around them, and she was the one who planted her halberd in its spine and drove it like a ship, all the way down a river of lava to the bottom of Pyre.’

Carella had gone from staring at the dragon to staring up at her brother, whose face had lit up as if he were looking into that bright volcano.

‘At least, that’s how she used to tell it.’

And Carella thought she had heard that, even if for just a moment: her mom’s words, her mom’s voice in Cassius’. At least, she let herself believe.

‘That’s amazing,’ she whispered.

‘She was amazing.’

If Carella didn’t know her brother better than that, she would have said that a bit of his kid self was showing through in that smile. He sat back in his chair, but he’d pushed the magic books, or whatever they were, away by now.

‘She was nothing like Dad. I don’t know why she married him. She never so much as yelled at me, even when she was furious.’

‘Dad doesn’t yell.’

‘Not at you.’

Cassius shrugged, irritated. Carella was holding her hands in fists beneath the table again, this time nervously. Before she could think of something to say, Cassius went on.

‘Whatever. This isn’t about him. He just has a habit of getting into everything and screwing it up.’ He sounded like he was talking more to himself now. ‘It’s what he must have done to her.’

When he glanced up, he blinked as if only just remembering Carella was there. She was sitting very still, watching him with wide and careful eyes—the same way she watched their father, when she was trying to read what he wanted. Cassius swore quietly in Luthién.

He said, ‘She was a really good singer’ as if he were apologising.

And it worked. A soft feeling pricked Carella’s chest. In a warble, she said, ‘She was?’

Carella loved music. She sang and played piano, and was falling fast and hard for the violin. Cassius knew it all too well; more than once, he’d told her somewhat unkindly to be quiet while he was studying. But he’d also accompanied her on the piano a hundred times. Making music was like making her own little world, and she was good at it, too. She knew she was good at it.

‘She really was,’ Cassius said. Now would have been the moment to give his sister a reassuring touch, but he hesitated. ‘She could sing these long, epic story ballads without stumbling once. And she was the best for lullabies. Like I said, she didn’t put me to bed very often, but when she wanted to, she’d just have to start singing, and,’ he snapped his fingers, ‘out like a light, every time.’

‘Did she—?’ Carella paused. It was a stupid question, an obvious one, but still, she wasn’t sure of the answer. She pushed it out of her mouth: ‘Did she sing to me?’

Softly, Cassius said, ‘Of course.’ He only had half a memory, but he shared it anyway, making up what he couldn’t recall. ‘There was one night, you were sick, I remember because you would not shut up. But Mom held you the whole time, just, rocking you, you know. And she sang to you. I could hear her singing all night.’

Cassius hummed a little melody, something simple that Carella didn’t recognise.

‘Mom was...she was a good mom. She was brave. And funny—her stories could make me laugh for ages. And she was strong...I thought she was strong.’

Cassius closed his eyes. Something painful moved across his face, flickering in the low lamplight.

‘Cass…?’

He shrugged. ‘Guess I was wrong. Even she wasn’t strong enough to put up with Dad.’

Carella flinched.

‘What does that mean? Why do you keep saying stuff like that?’

‘Because it’s true? Because if she were still around, maybe we’d be a little less fucked up?’

‘Stop it!’

Cassius raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. It made her want to scream.

‘Well excuse me, Ellie. I assumed you’d finally worked out that our other parent is a bastard, in all but blood. Why else would you ask about Mom?’

Carella looked down, at her fists held tight and small in her lap. She was so sick of Cassius always acting like he knew more than she did. She’d asked about Mom because there was a portrait that hung in their manor, of a woman with soft wavy hair and a clever half-smile, deep laughter lines and Carella’s nose. A woman their father never talked about. She just hung about the fireplace, looking down over her daughter, saying nothing.

‘Maybe I just wanted to know, for once! Did you think of that in your big stupid wizard brain?’

Cassius rubbed his temple. ‘We’re in a library…’

‘I don’t care!’ Carella stood up, slamming her fists on the table. ‘You fight with Dad, and you make fun of him, but then you turn around and act just like him! You think you’re so special, you think you know everything and I’m just some dumb kid, but all you really are is an ass!’

‘Carella! People are going to hear you.’

‘You couldn’t even stay nice for five minutes! Maybe I just don’t think it’s fair that you get to know about her and I don’t. You get to know everything!’

Carella slammed her palms into the bestiary, sending it flying across the table at Cassius.

‘What makes you so special?’

Cassius looked almost silly, holding the book awkwardly, spread-eagled against his chest where it had hit him. But then he glanced over her shoulder, and his eyes went wide. ‘Carella,’ he hissed.

She followed his gaze to see a frowning librarian standing between the shelves behind her. Everything inside Carella shrank into a very small knot.

‘Shouting is not permitted in the library. And there is absolutely no rough handling of books.’ They spoke severely, addressing Cassius but glowering at Carella. ‘I trust, young lord Maginus, that you will be leaving shortly.’

‘We will indeed. Thank you for your concern,’ Carella could hear him rapidly stacking books, ‘we were just heading out.’

Carella was paralysed in that angry gaze until Cassius took her hand. She startled, then hurried after him with her head down. She’d caught a glimpse of his expression, pleasant and calm, but that was the face he always wore in public. He had to be furious that she’d gotten him kicked out.

It was late evening in Crux, and the city was in Prime. Everything was cool and blue, the lapping of the canal waters a gentle rhythm. The city was only rarely so calm.

‘I’m sorry,’ Cassius said as they walked beside the water. He was still holding her hand.

‘But it was my fault.’

‘Not that. The librarians are assholes.’ Cassius raised his free hand to hail a gondola. ‘Sorry I set you off.’ He sighed, then showed her an apologetic grin. ‘I probably deserved it.’

Looking down, Carella just shrugged. This version of Cassius was a rarity, and she didn’t want to get used to it.

She knew more than he thought she did. As he hopped into the gondola and turned to help her, she watched his hair fall back from his pointed ears. In her portrait above the fireplace, their mom had round human ears like Carella.

Carella was good at noticing things. She spent a lot of time watching quietly, waiting to find the unspoken answers to her questions. Cassius was special because he was like Dad. Carella wasn’t, because she was like Mom. And she knew that that was why Dad treated her differently.

She’d just wanted to know if there was something about Mom worth being. Maybe something Dad had overlooked—even though she knew that Dad noticed everything.

Cassius was whistling. It took her a moment to recognise the same lullaby he’d hummed at the library.

As the gabled, gilded roofs of home began gliding into view, he said, ‘I didn’t mean it, you know.’

Carella looked up from where she’d been skimming her hand in the water.

‘What I said about Mom. At the end.’ He wasn’t looking his sister quite in the eye. ‘She was stronger than anything. I wish you’d gotten to know her.’

The gondola had bobbed to a halt, absolving Carella of a response as they clambered out. She wanted to keep her thoughts to herself, without having to pick one out and polish it down and share it out loud. In her head she could hold two images at once, without having to guess which one was right: the silent portrait above the fireplace, cold, remote, and unspecial; or the warm and lively, but faceless woman who sang in a voice deeper and fuller and yet still so like Carella’s own.

[drawlfoy]

The Wonders of Ohio P.6

masterlist (catch up on parts 1-5 here!!)

request guidelines

pairing: draco x reader

request: my original idea :))

summary: y/n’s senior year was going to be great, but her British exchange student is a little weird. this is NOT a non-magic AU. draco’s still a wizard in this fsjifkszfjkd

warnings: language, fainting, bad driving, mentions of drinking and drug use

a/n: eeee this is such a fun bit to write. thank you all so much for being there for me. this is definitely one of my favorite fics i’ve written since it gives me so much creative liberty and the fact that i get feedback and readers for it...just warms my heart. if you’re reading this: thank you so, so much for sticking around. i might come around with more oneshots soon. anyways i hope you enjoy the initial descent into the real real plot. also fluff will be coming soon i promise but i wasn’t lying when i said this was slowburn

tags tags tags @gruffle1 @missmulti @cleopatera @hahaboop @accio-rogers @geeksareunique @eltanin-malfoy @war-sword @cams-lynn @itsivyberry @ayo-cowbelly @nerd-domland @yesnerdsblog @shizarianathania @evanstanfanatic @strawberriesonsummer @hariosborn @night-ving @icintliviinyiniilsiji @erisdogwood @loveissupernatural

word count: 3.4k

song recs:

a pearl -- mitski

movement -- hozier

revival -- deerhunter

Draco was crying.

Or, at least, someone was. The gasps coming from just a wall away were apparent, but Y/N could hear a voice that didn’t quite sound like Draco--which had to be a trick of the mind, because there could be no one in there but him.

She rapped on the door against her better judgement to be met with a flurry of movement--fabric rustling,  and a soft pop that echoed through the air.

“Draco? Are you alright in there?”

Y/N found herself wishing that he wouldn’t open the door. After the Homecoming ask, the last thing she wanted was to see his stupid pretty face again, but she was a good host sister. Emphasis on sister.

To her shock, the door swung open. Just a few inches, just enough for her to see the pile of black shredded paper in the middle of his room and a drained looking Draco glaring back at her.

“Can I help you?” His once pristine white shirt was gray in some places, like he had rubbed ashes on it. 

“I just thought--did you burn something?”

“No. What is it?”

She looked at him a bit closer. His eyes didn’t look red rimmed with the dead giveaway of a crying session, but they looked close. The furrow in his brow was from worry instead of his usual sternness and he kept nervously pulling down at his left sleeve. 

Draco wasn’t crying, but he was about to.

“I…” There was something deeply unsettling about seeing Draco so uncollected and fidgety--almost like seeing a fish out of water or an American conservative with an adequate understanding of class struggles.The air was charged with something yet again, so much so that Y/N could feel the hair on her arms stand up. She decided to avoid damaging his masculinity any further. “Nothing. It just smelled a little like smoke. I wanted to make sure you weren’t burning a candle or anything. You know how my mom is about that.”

He continued to stare at her.

“Would you like me to leave you alone?”

“Please.” 

Well, that was embarrassing thought Y/N as she made her way back down the hall and to her backpack. I get rejected twice in one day. Smooth.

The days following were profoundly more uncomfortable. Breakfasts became uncomfortably akin to the Silent Game and Draco stopped coming out for tea in the evenings. The drives to and from school were decorated only by occasional bits of small talks or grumbles of exams. In short, Y/N knew that she had overstepped a boundary and Draco was pulling back.

School had finally become crazy. Y/N’s life became so entrenched with letters of recommendation and 200 word supplements that the Draco shaped hole in her life was bearable. After all, she was fine before he came, and she was fine now. She’d been silly, allowing herself to fantasize about a kid with some serious trauma and family issues that clearly had personal things that handle before he thought about getting all cozy with someone who was not in the slightest compatible with him. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

oOo

If someone turned a glass of whole milk into a human, that person would be Chad. He was the poster child of an “American” boy--tall, warm blonde hair, slightly tanned skin, and cornflower blue eyes. 

But his personality? Not so much. 

“My beloved husband!” Y/N called out as she saw him speaking to her mother in the foyer while Draco glowered in the corner. She bounded down the stairs in record time, leaping into his arms as her strappy heels swung from her hands. He smelled of cotton and laundry detergent. 

“Hey nerd,” he said, swinging her around in a circle before setting her down. “Did you finish the Econ homework? I was hoping I could take a picture before I leave…”

Y/N drew back to smack him on the shoulder. “You disgust me.”

“You abuse me.”

“And I’ll do it again,” said Y/N. She had forgotten how funny he was. 

“Oh, you two,” Mrs. Y/L/N cut in, stepping between the two and pressing the boutonnière into Y/N’s hands. “Always bickering like a married couple.”

Lizzy snorted from the top of the stairs where she was struggling to stuff a light jacket into her purse. “Hot take.”

“Hold still,” commanded Y/N, holding the pin and attempting to attach it to his lapel. “I’m literally going to accidentally stab you. Cut it out.”

He made a face down at her. “Do it. You won’t.”

“Oh? I won’t?”

“Y/N,” Mrs. Y/L/N’s exasperated voice warned.

“I’ll refrain, but only because the rug we’re standing on was my Grandmother’s,” Y/N said to him, her voice dripping with sweetness. “Consider yourself lucky that you’re not on the tile.”

“I’ve never been more thankful that my late grandmother-in-law had such impeccable taste.” 

“Suck up.”

“Oh, because you’re such a rebel.”

“It’s called motivation!”

“Honey, I want a divor-”

“For Christ’s sake, stop flirting or I’m going to puke,” a cool voice cut in. The group turned to see Sylvia standing in the doorway, clad in a flowing black dress that just barely ghosted over the top of the floor. 

“You look radiant, darling,” Mrs. Y/L/N said.

“And we weren’t flirting,” said Y/N.

Sylvia sent her a little wink before walking to sit down on the couch across from Draco, who was currently perched cross legged and looking profoundly uncomfortable. 

Sylvia, Lizzy, and their dates all opted to take Lizzy’s car to the city while Chad, Y/N, and Draco took Chad’s. The plan was to drop Draco off at the school with ample time to prepare him for the uniquely traumatic experience that was ASB sanctioned after school events, and to the plan they stuck.

“Yeah, go ahead and treat me like your chauffeur, “ scoffed Chad as Y/N slid into the backseat next to Draco. The sports car was surprisingly narrow with hardly any space between them. If she wanted to, she could easily rest her thigh against his.

“It’s called being polite, dear,” said Y/N, flicking the back of his head before turning to face Draco. “You’re really gonna commit to this? Major props, but, like...you really don’t have to go to this if you don’t want to. You can even stay home. I know how to sneak you back in.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “I’m here for the American experience, right?”

“Hate to break it to you, but there is no uniform American experience. It’s all personalized, and I don’t know if you want yours to be seasoned with 14 year olds T-posing in a circle to...I don’t even know. Chad, what kind of music do they play at those places?”

“Fuck if I know. I don’t go to them either.”

“It’s fine. I told Heather I’d be there.”

“Ooookay, whatever you say,” Y/N said. 

They rode in silence for a few more beats. The wind outside was uncharacteristically strong for an early October day, and it looked like a storm was brewing. In their rush to get to the dance on time, they had neglected to take precaution against the wind and ran outside to Chad’s car without a second thought. Draco’s suit, while posh and put together, had clearly bore the brunt of this choice. His tie had become slightly rumpled and his hair mussed, a look that was all types of wrong on him.

“Draco?” she asked. He snapped to attention. “Your tie is all undone. Can I…?” Y/N motioned to his neck.

Wide-eyed and frozen, he met her with, “er...sure.” 

Y/N leaned forward, trying to think past how her thighs were just barely touching his. Her corsage (a tasteful red, thank you very much) bumped against his chest, flattening a bit. She wasn’t very familiar with ties--she’d never had to be in her past experiences--but whatever his was made of, it was expensive. The fabric felt silky and impossibly smooth in her hand as she carefully untied it.

Chad took a sharp turn into the school drop off lot, prompting Y/N to nearly topple into Draco’s chest. His arms shot out to steady her and retracted so quickly that she was left wondering if she imagined the whole ordeal. 

“So it’s true,” said Chad from the front. “Nerds do have bad upper body strength.”

“Shut up,” she responded. Her cheeks felt unbearably hot as she tried her best to focus on tightening Draco’s tie and ignore the fact that she was close enough to smell his cologne--a soft pine, she observed--and feel the shadow of his breath on her face. His hands were clasped together lap, tight enough to turn the knuckles white. 

It was an odd feeling, getting butterflies in her stomach while she was touching a boy that wasn’t her date as Chad careened towards a parking spot and pulled in so violently that Y/N almost went sprawling into Draco again. She looked up at him, getting ready to crack a joke about the absurdity of the situation or the questionable driving; instead, she found herself staring up into his eyes. 

His normally pale eyes looked darker than usual--his pupils were insanely dilated--but that was because it was dark in the car. Obviously. Out of the corner of her eye, Y/N could see his chest rising and falling with an urgency that she hadn’t noticed before.

“Do you want me to uh..fix your...your hair, too?” Y/N said, mentally cringing at how she stumbled over the sentence. To be fair, his hair was ruffled and out of place. It wasn’t like she was making an excuse to touch it or anything.

To that, Draco jerked away from her, his back brushing up against the opposite car door. “No. No, it’s ok. I’ll fix it myself.”

Y/N was sure that her face was tomato red.

“Alright buckaroo,” Chad said from the front, his nonchalant demeanor never more appreciated. “Your hot date is here. Get out of my car. We have a busy day of antiquing ahead.”

Any semblance of casualness left Draco’s body as his eyes widened. “Antiquing?”

“Yeah, remember the place I took you to right after you came here?” asked Y/N.

“Er...don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Excuse me?” She sat up straight so quickly that she felt her hair come slightly undone at the nape of her neck. “That’s rich, coming from the kid going to a school dance as a senior.” 

“It’s probably not going to even be open. It’ll be late by the time dinner’s over,” he said. 

“Since when do you care? Honestly, quit acting weird,” Y/N responded, scootching away from him as he made no effort to get out of the car. 

“I’m not--it’s--erm, nevermind, forget about it.” He cleared his throat, straightened his tie, and brushed off his lapels. “Heather must be waiting for me. Goodbye.”

After a little struggle, Draco managed to best the slightly confusing door handle of Chad’s car and was out the door. Y/N slid across the seat and out with him, shutting the door and grabbing the handle for the passenger side. 

“Y/N?” Draco’s voice called before she had the chance to fully get in and tell Chad to book it. 

“What’s up?”

He took a few steps forward, pausing just a couple feet away from her. His eyes were cast to the rain puddle ridden cement. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“I should be telling you that, king,” Y/N quipped. “Your first real American dance. If you go to any after parties, make sure to watch your drink. Don’t take any substances from strangers--or, anyone, really--”

“Y/N, he’s not a chick.” Chad, his hands still perched on the steering wheel, turned to peer out at her. “He’ll be fine. I think they have beer in Britain.”

“Well, whatever. Have Heather text me if I need to pick you up anywhere. And don’t get in any cars with someone who’s been drinking!”

“Y/N!”

“Ok, ok, I’m coming.” She slid into the car, turning one last time to say bye. Draco was already gone. “Only if I drive.”

oOo

“So Heather and Draco, huh?” 

Y/N scowled at Lizzy as she speared a piece of her salad particularly viciously. “I don’t know if it’s like that. I think he’s just being polite, or whatever. I think British people are just like that.”

“Why are we even talking about that boy?” Chad asked. “He’s got that whole Timothée Chalamet dying Victorian toddler aesthetic if Timothée was blonde and had a perpetual stick up his ass.”

“In a hot way, though,” said Lizzy, her eyebrows wiggling. Jonathan scowled at her side. “Oh, don’t be so jealous. As if I’d ever go for a kid who doesn’t even know what Snapchat is.”

“I don’t understand what Heather sees in him,” Chad continued, his fettuccine plate long forgotten. “He’s got the personality of a wet rag, and she’s so bubbly and...I don’t even know. Do you guys get what I mean?”

“Draco’s got personality,” said Y/N. 

“Not like Heather.”

“It’s not his fault he’s reserved. He’s actually really funny.”

“And that’s what I like to call rose-tinted glasses,” Chad said, gently poking her cheek. 

“Hey! I’m the one who lives with him.”

“Whatever. Let’s just call for the bill. I’m not hungry anymore.” Chad folded up his napkin, placing it on top of the tablecloth and ignoring Y/N’s protest as he got out his wallet and placed a credit card on the table. “It’s on me, guys. You know how my parents are. They’re just happy that we’re all getting together again instead of holing up in our rooms.”

“Thank god junior year is over,” Sylvia added. “That’s really kind of you. At least let me get the tip?”

As the group bickered over the payment options and flagged down the waiter, Y/N noticed her phone lighting up with a notification.

Heather, 6.48pm: Hey girly! Sorry to bug you on your night but Draco wanted to check in and ask where you guys are/what you’re planning on doing tonight.

“Who’s that?” Chad asked, looking down at the little paragraph in the gray message bubble.

“Just Heather. Draco wants to know what we’re doing. Probably because he’s realizing how sucky dances really are and is about to beg us to come pick him up.”

He snorted. “Yeah. Poor kid.”

Y/N typed out a quick “we just finished dinner and are heading to the antique place now. lmk if i need to pick him up earlier” and tucked her phone away in her purse. As much as she resented it, she couldn’t help but wish that Draco wanted to join them instead.

“Are you guys ready to beat it and hit up that antique place?” Marvin, Sylvia’s date, asked. She rolled her eyes and sent him a lazy smile.

“You sound like a dad.” 

“Off like a herd of turtles, baby,” Y/N offered, gathering her things as they made their way out the restaurant door. “Not gonna lie, this place doesn’t show up on Google Maps or anything. I think I know how to get there but none of you guys are allowed to make fun of me if I take too many wrong turns.”

“No promises,” said Chad, winking down at her and giving her shoulder a little squeeze. 

 As they walked, it became profoundly obvious that Chad and Y/N were the only two who weren’t officially an item. Lizzy and Jonathon were walking hand in hand while Sylvia and Marvin whispered in each others’ ears when they had to wait for crosswalk signals. While she had great chemistry with Chad, nothing ever felt real with him. It always felt like an act.

Perhaps the tension between them was because of that one time they kissed and never talked about it again in freshman year after a particularly nerve wracking competitive math round before she quit--something that she wasn’t exactly going to shout off the rooftops for the masses to hear. Or maybe because he pushed her away right after and said it was a mistake. 

Whatever it was, Y/N and Chad were decidedly not romantically involved. She had been shocked when he’d even bothered asking her for the night. Granted, they were always pals and it shouldn’t have been awkward, but drawing the comparisons between her and the other girls was making the evening very uncomfy. Y/N couldn’t help but pray that Chad was going to be the one to break the ice.

“Where the fuck is this place?” he finally said, much to Y/N’s glee. His grace and manners were absolutely unparalleled. “It’s cold and I’m sure it’s going to start raining again.”

“It should be just a few more blocks and then to the right,” she responded. “Sorry. It’s cool as fuck, though. I promise it’s worth it.”

“This is just her ploy to lure us all away from civilization to off us,” Sylvia said, turning around from a few feet in front of them to raise her eyebrows at Y/N. “Eliminate the competition before college apps even begin. I’m impressed, honestly.”

“Now you’ve gone and ruined it all,” she fired back. “Thanks, Vy.”

She was relieved to see that the antique store couldn’t be missed, even if she tried. The sign, a worn and friendly gold, was illuminated by large lights. The words “My Grandfather’s Attic” had never looked more welcoming as Sylvia gripped the door and ushered them inside.

The moment Y/N stepped inside, something felt...different, kind of like the hair-raising feeling she got when she was around Draco. The electricity in the air she felt with him could easily be explained away by the fact that he was, for lack of a better term, the most stunning person she’d ever seen, but perhaps she was slowly getting over him. Perhaps…

She turned to see Chad, his honey blonde hair spilling over his forehead as he focused on a basket of vintage buttons that seemed to glimmer in the light. The furrow in his brow--the same one that she’d been so familiar with after seeing him solve countless math problems--appeared as he examined the basket, turning a red button around in his fingers, soft and and sprinkled with writing calluses. 

Maybe it had been Chad all along. Maybe Draco was just a detour. 

Before she did anything she regretted, Y/N turned and made her way back into the store. The set up was the same as she remembered--interesting and foreign objects hanging from the walls, ceilings, and congregating in baskets and overflowing shelves. She didn’t even realize that she had migrated over to the opposite side of the room until she felt the solid, cool wood of the black box from her dreams pressed into her hand as she turned it over and traced the strange white sign that was etched into the front. 

“Y/N!” 

The sound snapped her out of her trance to see...Heather and Draco? He was jogging towards her despite the fact that he was wearing a full suit. Y/N made an absent note to make fun of him later. 

“Why are you--”

“Put that down!” He stopped a few paces away, his eyes darting around the store at a frantic pace. “We need to leave.”

“Why? Honestly, if you wanted me to pick you up, all you had to do was…” She had to take a breath to steady herself. Her body felt like it was filled with static. “All you had to do was ask.”

“That’s not...ok, just put it down,” he commanded. “Please. Just put the box down. We need to go home.”

“No! This is my last homecoming. I’m sorry your experience wasn’t great, but I don’t...I don’t, uh, appreciate…” The lightheadedness hit, so suddenly that she almost fell. 

“Fuck, are you okay?” Draco was right in front of her in an instant, his eyes scanning her face.

“I feel...” She took a shaky breath. “I feel...starry?”

The last thing she remembered was Draco trying to tug the box out of her grip, his other hand warm on her shoulder.

And then everything went black.

final a/n: so draco got a howler and some wack stuff happened, huh? tell me what you think. 

[seijohsfairy]

𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙴 𝙸𝚃

there’s little that daddy wouldn’t do for you. even when you call him up in the middle of the night to be picked up. especially then. because the night is dark and full of beasts, and only one of them has your best interest at heart.

.wordc. 4k+ tw (step)daddy meian, size kink, blood & body horror (consensual)

+

The giant hand wrapped around yours is warm enough to have your whole arm filled with the heat, walking along the pavement with quick, stumbling feet to try and match his. His steps are heavy in front of you, though he can’t really help it with a stature that noticeable.

There’s no way in which Meian Shugo exists alongside you and you don’t notice him, of course, but the gentle way his fingers are wrapped around yours helps remind you that it’s more than taking notice for you. You look up to him, look up to the way he maneuvers through the bunch of drunk students without having to say a word, and the way people seem to part for him with respect and awe. It’s easy to fall into that same awe, but the soft swell of warmth under your ribs says otherwise. Adoration would be better.

The crunch of pebbles under his feet seems so loud when you get away from the main streets into a calmer few, and you swallow. “Daddy.” When he doesn’t react, let alone turn to you, the cold goosebumps rise up onto your skin. You lift your shoulders a little to snuggle into the huge jacket put over your shoulders, enjoying the way you seem to disappear into it as you’re dragged around. The steps aren’t as hasty anymore. The rhythmic click of your heels on the pavement is comforting in a way, because with each step away from the bar, you know you’re one step closer to home, and therefore, him.

“Daddy, are we almost there? My feet hurt,” you admit, pouting as you look down. Everything is still a tad bit wobbly, but you feel much better now that you’ve gotten out of that club and into the fresh air. Warmth of his jacket that you breathe in and linger in, adoring the dark, manly scent of his cologne. It’s a smell that only his apartment in the city really has. At home it’s still mixed in with cut grass and fresh laundry and the sweet, flowery perfume of your mom, and the combination of it smells like comfort, like familiarity. But Meian alone— your Meian, your mind stubbornly adds even though you know it to be in the wrong, smells like some other beast entirely.

And that’s what it is, isn’t it? Beastly. The way he entered your life, vicious and with sharp teeth to claw his way to the surface, he’d fought for it, and he’d won. And in winning a place in your home, you guess, he won a place in your heart too. Sometimes, when no one else is looking, you notice the way his gaze falls to you. Dark and greedy, slipping over your skin like it was meant to be there from the start. But then you look over, and all you see is the gentle smile he sends you before you go to bed. Before you kiss him goodnight and his hand always comes to rest so gently on your hip. ‘Goodnight, munchkin,’ he mumbles then, letting you go just as quickly. But his touch always seems burned into your flesh, like an invisible hunger for more.

He hasn’t said it yet, tonight. Because daddy is mad at you. It’s easy to tell in the way his wide shoulders are a tad more tense, even though his grip always remains gentle. You don’t think he has it in him to be anything but, fragile as he seems to think you are. Fragile as you become when around him. You pout, fighting a yawn through the words. Because even though you know all this, and you know that he has the right to be mad— be worried most likely, your feet really hurt. A whine falls from your throat before you know it, eyes on his heavy steps when you cross one street. The flare of the streetlights or the shots you downed, one of the two, make little, glistening tears well up as you speak. “Daddy, can you please carry me? My feet really hurt and I’m so tired.”

At that he sighs, and stops. It takes a whole while for him to turn around for you, shoulders rising and falling with forced breaths. And when he does, you kinda wish you hadn’t asked. The pretty eyes you’ve grown so attached to are narrowed, bright colour blown out an inky black. “How much did you drink?” is the first line out of his mouth, and when you open your mouth to answer, “does your mother know you’re over here?” Your lashes flutter, lips pulling down. No, she doesn’t know. She can’t know, because you two fought about it just two days ago. She said that you wouldn’t miss any classes for that ‘shit’, to which you had snapped that ‘you will go cheer for daddy, like she never did’.

It’d made her cry. You’d know it was nasty to say aloud as soon as it fell out, but that didn’t make it any less true. The harsh look doesn’t go, and you sniffle. “I just wanted to be here to support you for your game. Don’t tell mom, please.” There’s a little tick in his brow as he pauses to think it over, shaking his head. It’s not easy. Their split wasn’t easy, and neither was the idea of saying goodbye. So you never did, still visiting daddy as often as you can. You know your mom hates it, she hates the idea of you spending time with him. In the silence of the street, with the gentle rustling of the grassy patch next to the pavement, it’s easy to know why. You love Meian. A lot— too much. And maybe she suspects it just like you do, that he loves you too much too.

His thumb caresses your knuckles where your hand still hangs in his, before he gives a little move to motion you closer. “Your mom would kill me if she were to find out you’ve been here without her permission,” his voice is even lower than normal, you did end up calling him out of bed for this, “and even more that you went to the city alone and I had to take you back.” You mouth a soft apology, to which he chuckles, a frustrated line digging between his brows. But he turns and bends down for you, looking over his shoulder. “Come on, we’re almost there.” You have to jump to get onto his back, wrapping your arms around his strong shoulders as his hands come to rest onto your exposed thighs. He starts walking again, and the gentle sway of the motions and his deep breathing has you resting your cheek against his throat, chin on his shoulder.

He’s so much warmer than you. You pull the huge jacket a bit closer and try your best to cover his exposed arms too. He only holds you a bit tighter, until you get to the car and he places you too easily into the passenger seat. When you wake up again, it’s because he’s shifting you aside on one arm to put the keys into lock, pushing open the door and flicking on a lonely light. You yawn, nuzzling a bit closer into his chest. He’s just so big, and so easy to cling to. He chuckles against your cheek, and then tosses the keys onto the table to put you down on the floor. Which you whine at too loudly, trying to cling to his arm and his warmth a little longer. “I have practice in the morning, come on,” he mumbles, attempting to shoo you toward the couch.

“You’re going to drink some water and go to bed.” You hold a yawn when plopping down onto the soft cushion, and watch as he takes out a glass, fills it, grabs one of the vitamins for you to suck on. Still going through the routine so easily. When he still lived with you, he was always the one to pick your side. In some ways he probably had to, since he was the one letting you and your drunk giggles in. But he was there for you. “You take my bed, I’ll sleep on the couch,” he starts, handing you the glass to sit down next to you with a deep sigh. The couch pulls entirely into a dip with his weight, and he stretches himself out over the back of the couch to place his hands behind his head.

“Why did you and mom get a divorce?” you suddenly ask, staring at the water as you hold it in your lap. His eyes on the side of your face, though you don’t turn. You just bite your lip. “You never actually told me. And mom still gets all weird about it.” It’s quiet for a long time while you take little sips of your water, until your tummy feels full and you put it away. When you turn, his pretty eyes are on you. You’re not sure they ever left your face at all. But he has an unreadable expression on his face, shoulders dropping.

“We… your mom and I,” he tries, running those long, thick fingers through his dark hair, “had a lot of arguments. We fought over a lot of stuff, we fought over you.” The last is paired with a grimace, his eyes shifting instead to the light above the kitchen sink. It’s the only thing that gives you enough light to see him right now. After a little break, he gently shakes his head. “Your mom was worried for you. And — jealous of you. She thought I was doing things to you behind her back…” His eyes come to meet yours again, but this time you think they break you open. Because there’s no guilt there. No shame you’d expect with those words. Just a hunger that sets you alight.

“But you weren’t,” you mumble, unsure of what to say yourself. His large hand comes to rest on your knee, but you can’t look away. The touch is scalding, burning through your veins like poison. “Daddy,” you whisper, growing even softer when the circled touches slowly go a bit higher up the inside of your thigh. “I want to stay with you still.” The fingers go a bit higher again, your belly tensing as you keep his gaze, though you suck your bottom lip into your mouth. “Even if mom was right, I want you to— ah,” you whimper when he scoots you a little closer with his hands hooked under your knees, leaning into you. “I want to cheer for you no matter what mom thinks. Because I love you, daddy.”

The more he leans in, the colder you feel. Your skin is made of goosebumps by the time his huge body is hovered over you, both hands ghosting over your thighs. “Do you know what your mother thought we did, princess?” the whisper is so close to you, his face slowly moving to hover his lips over your ear. You can feel each breath against your neck, making your heart pound violently against your ribcage. You shut your eyes. When you don’t answer, his hands slide even higher, squeezing your thighs in his hands as he brings his face to yours. “She thought I touched you, like this.” The gentle kneading going higher and higher until suddenly his fingers are brushing up against your panties, hands under your skirt.

When you whimper, he rubs one thumb over your panties, gently up and down. And somewhere in the back of your mind you know it’s wrong, but your cunny slicks at the thought. Daddy’s touching you, daddy wants you. Your breaths are shallow and soft. “No, never,” you manage to mumble, and he rubs a bit harder, making you moan. “But I want daddy to… touch me more.” For a few more antagonizing breaths, he hovers there. Until you finally meet his dark gaze, and melt into his touch, his hands. “Please.” You lean the last sliver of distance to press a peck to his lips, and another. Which seems enough to have his walls breaking, because instantly he scoops you up into his lap and wraps his arms around you, kissing you properly.

His mouth opens yours easily, tongue meeting tongue and groans loud in the dead of night. He tastes so good, hands reaching up to grab at the short hairs at the base of his skull, settling in his lap. You whine into his mouth when you feel his cock, hardening under you. Legs spread wide over his thighs, you roll yourself onto his crotch as he takes your mouth as his own and shoves his tongue down your throat until you turn dizzy. He’s so warm, breaths so much steadier than yours. You arch your back to press your chest against his, tugging at the hair desperately for air. When you break away, a thread of spit between your mouths breaks that he wipes with his thumb. And you can’t help yourself from pressing your panty-clad pussy against him, rolling your hips so eagerly. “I can feel you through your pants.”

“Yeah? How does it feel?” he nods, lips twitching when you moan again.

“Good, feels good,” you nod, leaning in again to kiss him more. And now that you’ve started, it feels like you’ll never have enough. The way you move your lips together and you’re able to melt into him entirely is exhilarating. Meian bucks his hips when you suck on the tip of his tongue with little whimpers, before he pulls away to pet at the little bow of your panties. “Daddy’s so big,” you whisper, eyelids fluttering.

He smiles as he pulls the fabric away from your skin and aside, revealing your needy cunny. You’re still in his huge jacket, but it doesn’t seem to bother him at all. “Look at my needy, little baby girl.” Two thick fingers prod between your two bodies to rub into the wetness, all the while you hump his clothed cock. It’s impossible not to, it’s so big and feels so good between your legs, touching your clit. You drop your forehead to his chest, and open your legs a little wider to give him more access. But he moves your slick around with slow motions, one hand holding your hip still when you try to move again. “This wet for your daddy, and I haven’t even done anything yet?” One of his fingers slowly pushes into your needy cunny, and you can’t help but gasp. It feels like two of your own, and instantly goes so much deeper than you can. “Did you think about this before?” he coos, and your cheeks grow warm under his inquisitive eyes.

Of course you did. It’s kind of crazy to admit it to yourself, but you’d spent too many nights thinking about him with your hand buried between your legs. Sometimes even hoping he would find out. As he moves his finger in and out of you and curls it into you, you start littering love all over his neck, open mouthed kisses as his touches make you tingly with want. “Did you touch yourself to me?” he asks before slowly adding another finger, stretching your tiny slit open. Your pussy is slicking all over the bulge in his pants, unable to help it. You suck onto the dip of his neck as you rub your center over his, cock still hardening in his pants. But you hum in agreement and nod, whining as he stuffs his finger in again with perfect precision.

And he smiles, whispering as he kisses your temple. “I did too. Thought about you every time I fucked my hand. How good you’d feel around me, touching me.” The confessions make your brain hurt, you just busy yourself shoving up his shirt to access his perfect body. And it is truly perfect, as to be expected from a professional top-athlete. Your hands are quick to explore the new expanse, and your lips too. While he spreads open your walls with his fingers, your hips stilling to give him better access. “Sometimes I thought about calling you when I was alone in the hotel for away games.” You latch your mouth around his one nipple to suck at the little nub, then switch to the other. “Ah— fuck, baby.”

“Want you,” you admit, your tiny slit clenching around two of his fingers so desperately already. You straighten up to kiss him again, and wrap your arms around his strong, wide shoulders. “Please let me have your cock already, daddy.” His fingers curl with another few pumps, hitting your spot just right, before you try to push at his hand. You’ve waited much too long to drag it out now. “I need to feel you inside me.” Meian holds still for a second to seemingly think it over, but you both know how much you want this. How much you’ve wanted this for too long. ‘Okay,’ he mouths after a sign, before pulling out his fingers and cleaning them off with his tongue. Then he takes your top and pulls it over your head, unclasping your bra with one hand and leaning you back on his lap a little.

It’s only when his mouth comes onto your nipples, rubbing his tongue over them as you grind your wet cunny against the damp patch in his sweats, that you really realize daddy’s going to fuck you. Right here, on the couch. And that he’s huge. His entire body covers you, shoulders, thighs, torso and bottom half. He sucks until you can’t help but moan, head dropping back and fingers tangling in the base of his hair again. “Daddy, please—” you beg this time, because if you keep rubbing your sensitive clit on the clothed head of his cock like this, you’ll come around nothing at all.

“You want it that bad?” he asks, eyes glinting under thick lashes when he pulls away from your tits to motion you upwards. “You’re just so fucking hungry for my cock, huh?” He slides down his sweatpants inch by inch, and you watch as the huge bulge is revealed, twitching. You whimper. He’s so big, thick and veiny and flushed a pretty pink at the tip. You reach between you two to grab him by the base, taking a deep breath. And his hand comes back in between your legs to rub circles on your clit, going a finishing pace already. Your belly tightens as you moan. “Your hand looks tiny compared to my cock, baby,” he says then, moving his mouth back to your tits. His free hand also moves to knead your doughy ass in his hand. “Are you sure you can take daddy?”

“Yes please,” you instantly bob your head a bit too wild, loving the heat that comes from him as you stroke him. The flushed head drools eagerly while you do your best to move your hands up and down his cock, shivering at the thought of it inside. Your puffy clit still being rubbed hard and fast, building your high quickly. Your little cunny is definitely wet and hot enough to take him by now, and you feel like you’re burning through any doubt quicker than you can blink. The smoldering feeling of warmth that comes from his thighs, his chest, everything— you want it. When he pushes his lips back to yours, you beg into his kiss. “I want to try, daddy. Please help me sit onto your fat cock, want it stretching me out. Please, please.”

You move his fat head against your wet pussy and slide it between your legs already, whining when he reaches up to take a fistful of hair and pull your head back. “My baby girl is a fucking slut, huh? Can’t even wait for me to prep you properly?” He loosens up the grip tough, looking between your bodies with his lip between his teeth. “Fuck, daddy’s going to ruin that little cunny for everyone else. That’s alright though, isn’t it?” He pulls your body a bit closer, smiling when your tits rub against his chest and make your mouth drop open. “Gonna let me destroy you?”

Your agreement comes so easily, just wanting to be filled already. You’re already wound so tight, you can barely think. “Yes, yesyesyesyes, ruin my cunny. I want it to be only yours.” With that he lines up better, one hand supporting your hips.

“Sit on it,” he says, and you do. The first push is impossible, like you’re trying to push the wrong end of a puzzle piece in. But he keeps rubbing your clit so perfectly over and over again, whispering softly into your jaw. “Breathe, let daddy in.” You do, and with some more rubbing and your slick being spread onto his massive cock, you slide down a bit of it. The stretch is so wide, he’s so huge. It feels like you’re being fucked for the first time again, barely sliding down at all with each breath. But you want daddy to feel good. “Want me to help you?” he asks, and you instantly nod. So he pushes you down onto him more, kissing your neck while you tear up and cry at the stretch of being split in two by daddy’s cock.

When you finally sit down into his lap, you’re unable to think coherent thoughts. You lean into his chest and cling onto his shoulders, nail digging deep into the tan skin where he keeps you for a second. It feels like he’s fucking you so deep it hits your lungs. “You okay, princess?” he asks, tilting your pretty, ruined face back. Your eyes closed and cheeks marked with lines of tears, your whole body trembling from the strain of not sinking down any lower. You’re spread so wide on his cock it looks like it’ll come breaking through your skin if he thrusts too hard. But when he presses his lips to yours again, coaching you closer to him with gentle shifts, you whimper.

“Yeah, wan’ daddy to fuck me,” you mumble, tears glistening between your lashes. “God, I’m gonna break. Gon’ rip in two, daddy.” Your little breaths are so fucking cute. He can’t help but smile when he lifts you from his lap a little and you let out a string of whines, nails digging deeper.

“You’re doing so well, baby girl,” the brunet nods, slowly bringing you down again. Your pussy aches through every second of it, as your eyes flutter open. You can see the head of his cock through your stomach as he slides it all the way back in, groaning. “Fuck, you’re so tight. Can’t believe I get to fit in this cunt. You’re tiny, baby.” You nod and whine, hanging your face down to watch. Any more and you’d break, you’re sure of it. So when he grabs better hold of you to raise your hips again, you bite your lip, hard. “Gonna fuck you so well, ruin this sloppy cunt for anyone but me,” he hisses, pushing you down onto his cock with one smooth thrust.

“Daddy, daddy, I’m so close,” you think you say. And you whimper out for him again at the pounding that is the head of his cock against your cervix, but you can just cling on and watch as he drops your body down on him. Again and again and again, even when your slick starts going pink from blood, Meian fucks your tiny slit open. “Fuck, fuck— ah, please make me cum around you. Please, please— love daddy’s cock. Love you, daddy.” He grabs you into a hug and holds you still while pushing his hips into your ruined, sloppy pussy, speeding up the tempo until he’s able to use you as a human fleshlight, just pistoning in and out of your body without mercy.

The loud, wet pap of his skin to yours with each thrust is all you can hear, and your pounding heartbeat between your ears. It feels so good you feel like it blurs your vision. You don’t care about anything else. “Love you too, baby girl,” he presses a kiss to your temple and drops his hand between your bodies again, rubbing your overstimulated, desperate clit a few more times. Until your battered cunny tries and fails desperately to clench around his massive cock, your orgasm washing over you so hard your thighs cramp. But daddy doesn’t stop for a second.

“That’s it, pretty baby. That’s one. Let me give you another, okay?” he coos, and you can only nod a vague agreement as you’re still rutted into, the head of his cock ramming up against your walls again and again. You don’t feel the pain. You just know everything feels good. “As a thank you for taking daddy’s fat cock so well.”

[satorisa]

Something Old - Chapter 15: Wonderwall

Rating: T

Summary: After living in Tokyo for the past six years, she decides to head back to Azumano to escape the big city. However, she now has to face everything that she tried to flee from all those years ago. How exactly will she fare when the pages of a long forgotten book start turning once more?

Alternate links for reading available in my description! 

Decided to rename the first part of the Lift the Veil Series as Something Old! Hope ya’ll don’t mind too much!

And with that, this is the end of the first arc of Lift the Veil! The retrospective can be found here.

Happy early Valentine’s Day, everyone!

Chapter 15 – Wonderwall

All the roads that lead you there were winding. And all the lights that light the way are blinding. There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don’t know how.

…

7 PM: dining table at the Harada mansion.

My mother refused to let me help her clean up, allowing her to escape to the kitchen, strategically placing herself for prime eavesdropping out of harm’s way. My father took his usual seat at the head of the table, pouring scotch from a crystal decanter into a glass. And Riku, the instigator of this unusual dinner, was at work.

The decanter clinked as my dad set it down on the wooden table. The ice crackled as it swirled in its amber bath. From the kitchen, the running faucet roared.

I gulped.

“Would you like some?” he offered.

“No thanks.”

I squirmed under my father’s scrutiny. A heavy silence settled between us. Then my mother began to hum from the kitchen.

What did they gain by creating this unsettling atmosphere?

The doorbell rang, and I heard a familiar voice greet my mother. They exchanged pleasantries: him apologizing for not being able to make it to dinner, her reassuring him that it was no issue, before directing him to the dining room.

Hiwatari entered like a blue-haired harbinger of death. The content expression on his face disappeared once he saw me, and he slipped into a seat equally as far from both me and my father.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come earlier,” Hiwatari apologized.

“That’s alright; this was a last minute invitation, and we understand that you’re busy,” my father coldly responded.

Hiwatari fidgeted in his seat. The silence between us was choking. From the kitchen, the faucet sounded like a roaring waterfall.

This was the plunge. And Hiwatari took it.

“Harada-san, why did you really invite me here?” Hiwatari asked.

The awkwardness he possessed moments ago gave way to an adamant expression. His voice boomed, steadfast, knowing that one sliver of weakness would spell defeat.

My father wasn’t a businessman extraordinaire for nothing.

Hiwatari’s instigation cracked my father’s steely gaze. Composure succumbed to unbridled rage.

“Was this entertaining for you?”

Confusion settled on Hiwatari’s face. “Sir, what—”

“How could you come into our lives like that after everything you did to my daughter?” His voice modulated. “Do you enjoy seeing us in pain?”

“Harada-san, please—”

“You took advantage of my daughter’s feelings and broke her heart. And you had the gall to walk into our lives after what you did, helping Riku through everything, taking advantage of our kindness, and worming your way into our family.” The fire in his voice was gone. “What are you intentions with my daughter? With us, Satoshi?”

Absolute silence. The water stopped running. I could hear my heartbeat thumping. Hiwatari opened his mouth. My breath hitched.

“…I’m sorry, sir. I don’t think there’s anything I can do to atone for that. The intentions I have with your daughter are purely platonic now, believe me, but I understand if that is not enough of a consolation.”

My father stood up, glass in hand. “Please, excuse me.”

He left the room. Hiwatari and I got up, chasing after him. We stopped in the kitchen when he went out to the patio. My father threw the drink down. The crystal shattered upon impact, its contents splaying out on the concrete, and he began to scream. I was about to go out, frenzied emotions unable to process my father’s distress, when someone grabbed my arm and stopped me.

It was my mother.

“Don’t.”

“But, Mom, he—”

“Leave him.”

She turned to Hiwatari who stood there, eyes wide, face paler than a sheet, and fists so balled up that his knuckles were white.

Oh god.

“Satoshi,” she whispered. “Satoshi.”

He couldn’t hear her. She gently placed her hand on his shoulder, and he jumped.

“He’ll be alright. You should leave for now.”

“But—”

“We’ll be fine,” she reassured, patting his back. “Just go. Kazama’s waiting for you, isn’t he?”

“Yes, but—”

“Please.”

Her firm tone surprised us. Hiwatari nodded before turning to me.

“Are you coming with me?”

“No. I think I’ll stay here for a bit before I head home.”

“Alright. Take care of yourself.”

“You, too. Have a safe walk.”

He left the kitchen. Only when I heard the front door open and close did I look at my mother.

“Riku told us,” she explained, looking out towards the patio. I followed her gaze to see my father just blankly staring at the mess he made. He looked like a zombie.

“I…had a feeling.”

“…we really wanted to kill Satoshi when we found out,” she began as if speaking to no one in particular. “How hurt was my daughter for her to think the only solution to her problem was to run off to Tokyo and cut off contact with us for six years?

“I couldn’t even be happy about you going to Todai because I spent so much time worrying about you.” She laughed. “How many hours did I—did we—spend stalking your social media just to know that you were alive? And then Riku happened and—” She took a deep breath. “—it turns out the same person who helped one of my daughter’s heal was the same one who broke my other daughter to the point that she pushed us all away.”

“Mom…”

“It took me a while to see why you felt so alone. Satoshi was Riku’s friend. And how could you have trusted your parents with this if we didn’t really raise you for most of your childhood? Even though we have every right to be upset, in a way, some of this was our responsibility. You attached yourself to people who gave you the love we didn’t.”

My mother was still focused on my unresponsive father. I averted my gaze onto my faint reflection in the window. I bit my lip.

“At first, we were nice to Satoshi because he helped so much with Riku. But, at some point, he became your surrogate. To make up for the mistakes we made with you, we treated him like he was our own son.” She laughed. “I was sure your father would do something, but I think he realized just how important Satoshi is to us and just how important we are to him.”

My mother started to rub my back reassuringly. “We’re sorry for everything, but give us some time to process this, alright?”

She grabbed a bag and washcloth before heading outside to clean up the mess. My mother crouched down and wordlessly began to pick up the shards of crystal. My father bent down to help her and—

My mother started to cry. Her small frame shrank with each wail, and my father pulled her into an embrace as if he were clinging onto dear life.

It took everything in me to not break down. I moved my legs that started to feel like gelatin out of the kitchen, and I left the house by shutting the front door, gingerly, behind me.

…

I called in sick for work the next morning.

When I woke up, my body felt heavy. I couldn’t move, so I spent the morning starving in bed while watching dramas on my phone.

Around lunchtime, my phone rang. It was Takeshi.

I picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Boss, are ya doin’ alright?”

“Not really, but I’m still alive. Miraculously.”

“Better than dead, I s’pose.”

“Did Hiwatari-san come in?”

“Nope. He called in saying he was sick, too. Is there a bug going around?”

“If by bug you mean the blood-thirsty Riku who finally told my parents, then yeah.”

“…oh god.”

“Mhm.”

“Well, um, I can’t really do much for ya right now, but feel better, alright? I hope that everything works itself out for ya.”

“That’s alright. Thanks for checking up on me; I appreciate it.”

“No problem, Boss.” I clearly saw the toothy grin on his face in my mind. “I can’t be there for ya today, but lemme know if you need anything, alright?”

“Will do. Thanks again.”

We hung up. My stomach grumbled, and a pang of drowsiness washed over me.

I decided to have an afternoon nap.

…

I woke up to someone knocking at my door.

Thinking it was a solicitor, I stretched a bit before getting comfortable again. Another round of knocking ensued.

I trudged over to shoo them away, but I saw Ritsuko through the peephole. She had two bags in her hand.

“What are you doing here?” I mumbled after opening the door.

“Wow. Not even a ‘hello’ or ‘what is that’ from you?” she asked as she slipped off her shoes.

“…sorry.”

“I’m kidding.” She flashed me a smile. “Your annoying coworker told me to come by if I could. I figured something must’ve happened if he was concerned enough to reach me.”

“Riku told my parents.”

“…yeah. That warrants shitty takeout.”

She headed into the kitchen, scrounging around for plates and utensils while I lied down on the couch, watching her navigate my kitchen.

“I didn’t know what you’d want, so I got all this,” Ritsuko explained as she started emptying out the food containers. “And don’t force yourself to try to finish this is one sitting; this would probably feed a family of eight.”

“So half of it is fair game?”

She laughed. “Sure, Risa. If you insist.”

After plating everything, she started placing the food on my coffee table. I sat up, reveling in this tiny feast, as my stomach rumbled in anticipation. Ritsuko handed me a plate and chopsticks before she sat down next to me and turned on the TV.

We dug in.

“How bad was it?” she asked.

“Not as explosive as I thought it’d be. Emotionally? It feels like someone stabbed my heart with a thousand needles.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Honestly, as much as I want to, I don’t think I can find the words for it right now.”

Ritsuko rubbed my shoulder reassuringly. “Take all the time you need, Risa.”

“Thanks.”

Orchestral music swelled from my TV. We barely talked while watching whatever we had on and, when we finished our food, I helped Ritsuko clean up and put away all the leftovers.

And then I heard another knock on my door.

Looking through the peephole, I saw Hiwatari standing outside, hands in his pockets, unsure of what to do with himself. I opened the door.

“Why are you here, Hiwatari-san?” I asked.

“I heard from Takeshi that you didn’t go to work today, so I was wondering if you wanted to grab some food close by.”

“Thanks for the thought, but I just ate.”

“Hey, Hiwatari!” Ritsuko called from the kitchen.

“Oh, hello, Fukuda.” He then turned back to me. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you had company over.”

“No worries. Do you want to come inside and eat? Ritsuko brought way too much food.”

“Each bite’s gonna cost you one hundred yen,” Ritsuko joked.

“I’m sure that’s far too expensive for the quality of food you brought over,” he quipped as he let himself in.

“Help yourself to whatever is in the fridge,” I told him.

While he piled food onto his plate, Ritsuko and I talked on the sofa, catching up with each other’s lives. She just finished talking about her business ventures when Hiwatari sat down next to me.

“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting your time together,” he apologized.

“No worries, Hiwatari,” Ritsuko said. “We’re all friends here, aren’t we?”

“Yes, I suppose we are.”

“You’re not with Kazama-san?” I asked.

“He has dinner with the Niwas.”

“Sounds like fun,” Ritsuko chirped.

“If I want my brain to turn into mush, then yes, it sounds like a ball.”

“Maybe that might be what you need during these trying times.”

“Absolute not, Fukuda.”

She guffawed.

We just chatted while Hiwatari ate. And, when he finished, I dug out a board game for us to play. After one round, in which Ritsuko royally creamed us, she had to leave. I gave her a hug before she left.

Once the door closed, it was only me and Hiwatari.

“Want to grab dessert at Mizuame de Noisette?” he asked. “My treat.”

“I’m down.”

…

After I freshened up, we headed to my favorite café. The scene of food and warm drinks brought a smile to my face, and I couldn’t contain my giddiness when our order finally came out.

“I figured this would cheer you up, but I didn’t think it’d turn you into this.”

“Shut up, Hiwatari-san,” I pouted. “But thanks for this. Truly.”

He ordered an herbal tea (chamomile from what I could smell) and sipped it with a gentle smile on his face. “You’re welcome.”

Hiwatari joked that I looked like a hamster once I began to indulge, but he quickly relented and began to people-watch, giving me some privacy to enjoy my dessert. When I got to my last bite, I offered it to him out of courtesy, expecting him to refuse, but he ate the last forkful and nodded.

“Hm. Not bad.”

“Right? Their matcha mille crepe cake isn’t too sweet, so I figured you might like it.”

“I do. I’ll probably order it the next time I’m here.”

I tidied our table and took our dirty dishes to the bussing station. When I returned, Hiwatari had his gaze focused outside.

“Are you alright?” he asked, eyes still trained on the night’s scenery.

“Yeah” I answered, holding my warm drink in my hands. “Are you?”

“I’m about as okay as I’m going to be right now.”

“And that’s all anyone can ask for.”

He nodded before briefly looking at me. Blue eyes met mine before he lowered his gaze to his cup. A wry smile appeared on his face.

“…do you think it’s terrible that I wish they’d been violent? Punched me out? Cursed me out? Screamed bloody murder at me?”

“A little bit, yeah, but I get where you’re coming from.”

He smirked. “Glad to know I’m not going crazy.”

“You’re already just as crazy as me,” I said. “I mean, as much as I hate admitting it, I used to wish that you did hit me. Maybe it would’ve made it easier for my brain to process how toxic everything was.”

“Harada-san…”

“Sorry.” I forced a laugh. “That’s kind of a low blow, isn’t it?”

Hiwatari shook his head. “You really know how to kick a man when he’s down, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry!”

“…why does it feel like every life lesson you’ve learned is from that situation?”

“Well, it is one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me.”

“Harada-san, please spare me from my misery and just kill me now.”

“Nah. I think you deserve to simmer in that pain a little bit.”

“Good god, Harada-san.”

…

“Hey, Boss! Welcome back!” Takeshi greeted with lunch in hand. “How’re you feeling?”

“Well, I managed to get out of bed, so that’s a start,” I answered, gratefully accepting the bento. “Is Hiwatari-san still off?”

“Yeah. Formally cited emergency family reasons, but we both know that’s a lie.”

“Lucky bastard. I wish I could take the rest of the week off.”

“What’s stoppin’ ya?”

“Well,” I began, snapping off the lid of my container, “the broadcast isn’t going to run itself, there’s a lot I need to review since clearly people don’t know how to do their work, and I certainly don’t want to get caught up in yet another round of rumors again because I so happened to be off around the same time that Hiwatari-san is off.”

Takeshi whistled. “That’s, uh, a lot.”

“Yup.”

My phone began to ring. I expected it to be Riku since I had sent her a message saying we should talk, but I saw Hiwatari’s caller ID. He just saw me yesterday. What did he want from me?

“Well, speak of the devil.”

“What? Your demonic sister?”

“Nope. It’s Hiwatari-san. Excuse me.”

I picked up, trying to avoid Takeshi’s curious gaze in my peripheries. The static of the line gave way to the familiar hubbub of a restaurant. I could even hear Kazama ordering in the background.

“Hello?” I began.

“Harada-san, have you gotten in touch with your parents since that evening?”

“Nope. Why ask?”

“I messaged them, and they still haven’t replied back.”

I tried to stifle my laughter by covering my mouth with my hand. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about them. They’re probably ignoring you.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“No, I’m not,” I said. “They told me to give them some space before I left, so that’s what they’re doing: keeping their space.”

“…why the hell are you Haradas so finicky?”

“Can’t help it. We love being a pain in the ass for everyone.”

I could see him shaking his head. “Well, thank you for your time, Harada-san. Enjoy your lunch.”

“You, too!”

I hung up and ignored the excitement on Takeshi’s face when I noticed the new message on my phone. Riku answered my text, saying that she was free tomorrow evening. I quickly typed out my reply before returning to my lunch, focusing on my growling stomach instead of the pressure of Takeshi’s curiosity.

…

I hadn’t eaten all day.

Takeshi said I shouldn’t worry about my missing appetite, proposing that I was anxious because of the call I had scheduled with Riku. He did drop by my cubicle later that afternoon with a cupcake in hand from a nearby café, saying to save it for my triumphant encounter with the beast.

And when I finally got home, I sat on my sofa, unmoving, while staring at my reflection on the blank TV screen. This conversation wouldn’t spell the end of the world, but it certainly felt like it could. Riku and I had never fought like this.

Ever.

Who knew that being unable to talk to her casually would hurt so much?

So, when my ringtone echoed through my silent apartment, my stomach fell to the ground, my heartbeat quickened, and I picked up.

“Hello?”

“…hi.”

She sighed. “Oh, thank god. I thought you were going to scream at me.”

“I mean, if you want me to, I could.”

“Please don’t. You’ll blow out my eardrums.”

Silence filled our call. Even a joke couldn’t lighten the mood.

“So, are you here to bitch at me again about my terrible life decisions?” I asked.

“No—oh god, no,” she said. “Risa, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“I’m calling bullshit.”

She laughed. “Okay, yeah, I do know. It’s just…a lot.”

“I know. Why else are we having this call?” I could imagine her smiling, and I felt the grin threatening to erupt on my face. “And you’re my sister. I can take ‘a lot’ for and from you.”

“But—”

“Nu-uh. Spill. You’ve got all evening to do so.”

“Well,” she began, “when Daisuke told me, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. Satoshi, your best guy friend, guy you were practically in love with, was the one who hurt you. I was livid.

“And he told Daisuke about it. Satoshi, master of secrecy, shared this secret, while you, unable to keep a secret to save your life, couldn’t even bring yourself to tell me. I was hurt. Like, did you really not trust me enough?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, Risa. I probably would’ve reacted the same way even if you had told me earlier, so don’t worry about it,” she said. “Honestly, I’m still in shock about the whole thing. Why would you put yourself through so much shit just to have him back in your life? After everything he put you through, it just didn’t make any sense.”

“Well, there’s just some things that you just…deal with,” I answered. “If Hiwatari-san and I didn’t get along, it’d be hell for everyone.”

“It’s alright to be a little selfish, yanno.”

“I know, but I wanted—needed—to get through this. For me,” I said. “I didn’t want it to control my life anymore. I was tired of it.”

“Yeah. I know what you mean.”

I had a feeling she was referring to what happened to her after I left, but I couldn’t ask. If she wanted to tell me about it, she would. And this conversation wasn’t exactly the best time to bring it up, anyway.

“You know, Risa, I can’t imagine how you felt when you were in Tokyo.”

“What do you mean?”

“You literally decided to start over; I mean, you refused to contact us for years. How could you do that?”

I shrugged. “I just had to.”

And then Riku started to cry, softly, until those sniffles turned into heaving sobs. Each whimper cut through my heart, but I bit my lip to stop myself from joining her.

“Risa, I’m so sorry. Oh God, I’m so sorry.”

“No, Riku, it’s fine. I—”

“I should’ve been there for you,” she sniffled. “Instead of leaving it to Satoshi. I should’ve known that something was wrong but I—” She continued to cry.

“Riku…”

“I just…didn’t know what to do and I—and I couldn’t contain it so—so I told our parents and—oh god. Oh god, I told our—”

“Riku, please—”

“What have I done?”

I nearly messaged Daisuke to go and comfort her, but I couldn’t. I let her cry, while holding in my own tears, waiting for her to calm down. And, when she finally did (it took someone ringing the doorbell on her end to calm her down), she just laughed.

“Why are we like this?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“We literally have to raze the whole world before we’re content.”

“It’s our stubborn Harada blood. Even Grandma’s still got it.”

“Yes, yes she does.”

I smiled at the levity in her voice.

“Well,” she said, “ as much as I’d like to continue this conversation, I’m exhausted. Do you want to grab dessert tomorrow to actually catch up?”

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

“Awesome. I’ll see you tomorrow then! Good night!”

“Night!”

I stared at the phone in my hand like it was something completely foreign. Its bright screen singed my eyes.

And, possessed, I sent Hiwatari a text that I had just talked to Riku and aired everything out. He called me seconds afterward. The screen with his caller ID illuminated my living room while my cheery ringtone echoed between my walls.

Why was he calling me?

I sent him to voice mail. A message popped up, in all caps, telling me to pick up. What was the urgency?

My phone rang again, and I sighed before answering.

“Hello? Is everything—”

“Are you alright?” he asked. What was that loud noise on his end?

“Yeah, I’m alri—”

“Bullshit.”

“Excuse me? What the—”

“Stop trying to be strong! Stop acting like your life is put together, you stubborn idiot!” I blinked, trying to hold back my tears. “Your sister tried to ruin your life! Your rocky relationship with your parents finally reached its peak! It’s okay to break down!”

“Not, it’s not!” I screamed back, trying to pace my breathing. The lump in my throat only worsened. “Life isn’t going to stop just because I need to! I need to keep going or—”

“Or what?” I heard a car honk on his end. “Harada-san, you don’t have to keep pushing yourself like this! You’ve done enough! You can slow down and relax now!”

“No, I can’t! I need to—”

“Stop acting like you’re still alone! Stop trying to carry all of your burdens by yourself, dammit!” I heard another car honk at him. He screamed an apology. “All of us are here for you, so start letting us in! Not because of the circumstances but because you want to! It’s okay to cry on someone else’s shoulder!”

“Absolutely not! I don’t—”

A loud knock on my door startled me. I got up and looked through the peephole to see Hiwatari, face flushed and slightly winded.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, panicked.

“Harada-san, just open the door.”

“No.”

“Risa, please.”

I unlocked the door. Hiwatari hung up and slipped his phone into his back pocket before running his hand through his hair. Several strands stayed upright.

Something inside of me broke.

I hurled myself at him, digging my face into his chest as I cried my guts out. I heard him close the door before he returned my embrace, rubbing my back to comfort me.

He didn’t say anything. His chin rested atop my head, and we stayed like that until I finally let go. My tears had dried out by that point, and there was a face-sized stain on Hiwatari’s sweater. My make-up rubbed off, too.

I pointed at it, and he looked down and laughed.

“There goes my favorite sweater.”

“You needed to get rid of it anyway.”

He shook his head with a smile as he leaned back against my front door. “Sounds like someone’s feeling better.”

I shot him a toothy grin before standing up. “Anyways, we should probably treat those stains before they set.”

“I thought you wanted it gone?”

“Sure, I do, but that’s not my sweater is it?”

He laughed. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

My stomach growled. And, in that moment, I just remembered that I hadn’t eaten yet. Hiwatari stared at me in concern.

“You haven’t eaten all day, have you?” he asked.

“…yeah.”

He sighed. “Harada-san, I swear…”

“Look, I wasn’t hungry today, okay? And I’ll get myself food, later, I promise, so just sit tight while I find something for you to change into.”

I retreated into my room and dug through my dresser. A lot of the casual tops I wore in college were at least two sizes too big, and I eventually found the biggest Todai sweatshirt I owned tucked away in the back of one of my drawers.

When I came out, Hiwatari was in my kitchen, arms akimbo in front of my stove. He was so focused on the pot in front of him that he didn’t notice me. And, when he did, he jumped.

“Oh god. You scared me.”

“Sorry.” I handed him the shirt. “Try this on and lemme know if it fits.”

He unfolded it and smirked. “Your style really hasn’t changed at all if you’ve still got over-sized clothes like this.”

“You are in no position to be calling me out like this right now.”

“Touché.” He gestured over to the instant ramen packets he managed to dig up. “Make sure you put them in if the water starts boiling.”

“I know,” I pouted.

Hiwatari disappeared into my room to change. He came out moments later; the shirt was a perfect fit.

“Nice swag, Todai grad,” I joked as he handed me his clothes.

He huffed in response while I started to treat the stain on his sweater. After tossing it into the washing machine, I plopped down onto the couch. Hiwatari joined me moments later with the noodles, and he handed me a bowl before we dug in.

“So, uh, what now?” I asked, blowing on my food.

He shrugged. “Up to you.”

I groaned in response.

“Movie?” he suggested.

“Nah. Let’s watch a documentary.”

Hiwatari went along with it sans his usual snark. I expected him to say something about how unfitting it was, but he wordlessly put something on while we ate.

When my washing machine beeped, signaling that his shirt had also finished drying, he took it out before heading back into my room to change. He came back out with the grey sweater on, my sweatshirt neatly folded in his hands, and he handed it to me.

“Thank you again.”

“No problem.”

“Well, I’m going to head out now,” he said. “Um…I honestly didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“Really? ‘Cause I don’t know how I couldn’t have cried from that.”

Hiwatari chortled. A small smile graced his face. “Yeah. I suppose I should’ve held back a bit.”

“You think?”

We awkwardly stood by my front door, unsure of what to do with ourselves.

“You know,” I began, “I think I needed that. So, um, thanks. For talking some sense into me.”

“That’s just what friend do, Harada-san.”

I beamed. “Please, drop the ‘san.’ God. Who am I? My dad?”

Hiwatari blinked before he laughed, mirth radiating from his expression. “Alrighty then, Harada. Whatever you say.”

“Thank you, Hiwatari.”

He pulled me into a hug. “Take care of yourself, alright?”

“Mhm.”

Hiwatari let go with a gentle smile, and I opened the door for him. “Good night, Harada.”

“Good night, Hiwatari.”

…

Riku and I met up at Mizuame de Noisette. We chatted while enjoying the view and entertaining a bottle of Moscato between us. She had a danish in front of her; I had a strawberry shortcake in front of me, and we laughed while she recounted her Zurich trip.

While sharing the details of Daisuke’s embarrassing proposal, our phones rang.

It was a message from our mother.

“She says she’s planning a dinner,” Riku said.

“Does it say anything about disowning us if we don’t go?”

“Yup.”

I sighed. “The crazy lady is back.”

“Do you think Satoshi’s going to be there?”

“Absolutely.” I raised my eyebrow. “Why does that matter to you?”

“Risa, please let me sock him!”

“Um, shouldn’t I be the one socking him in this situation?”

“Yes, but you’re never going to do it.”

“I don’t see why I would need to, but why should you?”

Riku shot me a look that I had just lost my mind. She made a grand gesture meant to signify, well, everything.

“Okay, yes, I get it, but why are you asking me for my permission?”

“I felt like I needed to.”

“I do not like what you’re trying to imply here.”

“Risa, please, I’m begging you—”

I rolled my eyes. “Look, okay, I don’t care what you do, just leave me out of it, alright?”

“Thank you!” Riku sang.

She cracked her knuckles.

It was nice knowing you, Hiwatari.

…

7 PM: Harada mansion.

My parents opened the door. They pulled me into a hug, and we stood there at the entrance of the foyer like a horde of penguins braving the winter. Both Riku and Hiwatari were running late, the former still working her shift while the latter was held back, working overtime on an important case. Honestly, I just wanted them to get here ASAP so I could see them duke it out.

I bet one thousand yen that Riku would obliterate him.

Daisuke arrived shortly after me, greeting our (?) parents before giving me a hug. We then sat down in the living room.

“Are you excited for later?” Daisuke asked.

“Of course! Who do you think is gonna win?”

“Riku. Hands down,” he replied with no hesitation. “Satoshi stands no chance.”

We laughed.

“Is your family coming?” I asked.

“Of course.” Daisuke rolled his eyes. “My mom found out, so she’s planned a stern lecture for him later. My dad found out about what my mom’s doing, so he’s tagging along to make sure she doesn’t get carried away. Grandpa claims he’s coming for the show, but you know he’s just waiting for just the right moment to deliver his own blow. And then Argentine and Towa overheard them talking about it at the table, so they insisted that ‘Satoshi-sama’ needed a lesson on how a gentleman should treat a lady.”

“Would you like some popcorn for tonight’s festivities?”

“Yes, please!”

The doorbell rang, again, and I opened the door to see the Niwa family in all their chaotic glory. Emiko greeted me with kisses before skipping off the kitchen. Her uncontainable, middle-aged energy collided with my mom’s uncontainable, middle-aged energy, and they were so loud that you could probably hear them at the station on the other side of town.

Grandpa Daiki gave me a knowing smile before joining Daisuke in the living room. My dad came by, drinks in hand that his guests accepted, before he sat with them and they began chatting away.

And Kosuke stood there, smiling that kind smile that I came to hate in Vienna.

“How does it feel like to be on the other side of everything?” he asked.

I blinked. Kosuke laughed.

“Well,” I answered, “I wish I didn’t have to go through it, but it feels great. Like a weight’s been lifted.”

He nodded, content with my answer, before joining the group in the living room. Argentine and Towa bounced up to me, pulling me into a tight group hug before letting go, concern pooling in their eyes.

“Are you alright?” Argentine asked.

“Mhm.”

Towa huffed. “I can’t believe Satoshi-sama did that! How rude!”

“Well—”

“Honestly, Risa-sama,  he doesn’t deserve your apologies,” Argentine continued.

“The only thing he deserves is a good wallop!” Towa chirped.

The doorbell rang. And, lo and behold, it was the man of the hour. Argentine and Towa, bubbly moments ago, turned silent. The atmosphere that began to sour muted Hiwatari’s greeting, and I escaped to the kitchen to grab some popcorn and watch the first pickings from a distance. Daisuke joined me.

We watched the shenanigans unfold beautifully. Towa and Argentine eventually turned into their animal forms; the former perched on Hiwatari’s head while the latter crawled under his clothes, lecturing him about manners.

“Well, they’re going at it.”

Daisuke and I broke free from our fit of laughter to see Riku. She held a goblet of red wine while looking at the scene with a smirk.

“But this is only the beginning.”

…

My sides were sore from all the laughing. The whole evening turned into a roasting session exclusively for Satoshi. And Towa recorded the whole thing.

After everyone calmed down, the Niwas had to leave but promised to return soon to actually catch up with my family. Everyone aahed at the quick kiss Daisuke gave Riku and then the Niwas were gone.

Riku and I began to tidy up while my parents went outside to talk to Hiwatari. I kept glancing at them through the window, monitoring the situation in case—

Riku smacked me in the face with a wet dish rag.

“Ever heard of the concept of privacy?”

“Yes, but—”

“Nu-uh. Not hearing it!” Riku exclaimed before shooing me out of the kitchen. “Just give them some time, alright?”

“What about cleaning up?”

“I can manage myself.” Her face lit up. “Oh, you should totally check out what Mom did with your room!”

Following Riku’s suggestion, I headed upstairs to see the renovation. Gone were the dollhouse-pink walls and the wooly white carpet. In their stead were light gray walls, sporting a slight hue of blue, and wooden floors waxed to reflection. My mom replaced the furniture I used in my childhood with sleek, modern pieces; she transformed the space into one of those aesthetic rooms found in an interior design magazine.

Out with the old, in with new.

I sat down on the faux fur rug, reminiscent of the room’s original flooring and looked up at the ceiling.

It was still the same view.

Someone knocked on the door. I looked over to see Hiwatari leaning against the threshold.

“Shouldn’t you be downstairs helping Riku clean?”

“Nope. She kicked me out,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be downstairs helping out like a good guest?”

“They kicked me out, too.”

“Ah.” I patted the empty space next to me on the rug. “Welcome to the Reject’s Club.”

Hiwatari sat down next to me. He leaned back, stretching his arms behind him as he put his weight on his hands, straightening his legs out before him. I curled into a fetal position, resting my chin on my knees.

“How was your evening?” I asked him.

He groaned, and the strange funk that surrounded him dissipated. “Awful. I’m emotionally wounded, and I don’t know how long it’ll take for me to recover.”

I giggled. “Stop being such a baby about it.”

Hiwatari pouted, and I snorted. He laughed at me, his grin so wide that I was sure it hurt, eyes so upturned in joy that I wondered how he could still see, that I felt my expression match his. We eventually calmed down, sighing in content.

He looked at the balcony. I followed his gaze. There was nothing there. Only our faint reflections on the sliding door were staring back at us.

“How was your talk with my parents?” I asked him.

Hiwatari hummed in response. I didn’t expect him to answer. But I also didn’t expect the words that followed.

“Did you ever think this would happen?” he gently asked.

“Never. I thought this would stay locked up in the back of mind for the rest of my life.” I looked over at him. He had a wistful look in his eye. “Did you?”

“No. I had resigned myself to thinking that I would never see you again.”

“And yet, here we are, sitting on the floor of my room, chilling out as if none of that ever happened.”

“Wack.”

I laughed at his uncharacteristic response. He just smirked.

Proud bastard.

“Honestly, I still can’t believe that this is happening,” he admitted. “And I didn’t realize just how much I missed this until now.”

I felt a pang in my heart as all the times I spent with Hiwatari flashed through my mind. Memories that were once bittersweet became nostalgic; I could finally look back on them with fondness instead of pain.

Perhaps, eventually, there will come a day when I could comfortably share this intimate feeling with Hiwatari, but today was not that day. This conversation was becoming far too cheesy for me to stomach, and I couldn’t hold in my sarcastic streak anymore.

Sorry to ruin this, Hiwatari.

“Aw. Look at you getting all emotional!”

Hiwatari balked. “Harada, I’m being genuine here. Did you really have to insert your sarcasm now?”

“I’m sorry, but this whole thing’s just so corny!”

“Oh my god, this girl.”

Maybe it didn’t seem like much: Hiwatari and I bantering in what used to be my room. But, to me, this meant the world. Somehow, despite everything that happened, we were able to fall into step again.

And, with that seemingly menial evening, I was finally able to flip the pages of my life again.

—ARC 1 END—

[alias-b]

sins of my youth. 010

Billy Hargrove x OC! Evie Fenny~ Also posted to my AO3

Summary: It was common knowledge that Billy Hargrove hated Hawkins. Hated Cherry Lane. Even loathed the strange girl next door. Evie Fenny wasn’t too fond of the chaotic Cali transfer either. An awful high school tradition sparks a chain of events that changes everything, ultimately bringing two frayed souls together.

A/N: Hello everyone. Slice of life in Hawkins when Evie ventures out and encounters different residents. Warning that things are going to take a turn so TW for manipulating and explicit physical abuse. Light racism. Evie receives some horrible threats when she tries to make a change for the better. Thank you all for turning in. Heavy heavy chapter, way more personal than I like. TAGLIST OPEN ! Chat with me if you have time. :)

Chapter 10: A Little More Sin

   There were some peculiar things Billy Hargrove noted about the way Evie Fenny slept.

   She burrowed into whatever was around. Face buried like she might be trying to smother herself. 

   She made little noise except occasional whimpers. Arguably cute.

   She went dead still. He checked to make sure the girl was breathing at one point.

   His favorite were the whines that erupted when he tried to untangle himself from her on the couch. Early morning daylight streamed between curtains. Silent white noise scattered the television.

   A reminder of snow tumbling fresh and pristine. Washing away what was before it. Evie had fallen asleep in her fit of exhaustion still wrapped in him.

   Billy simply didn’t feel like leaving so he fell too. Cast in amber. Bodies molded together.

   Evie turned to burrow into the sofa and Blue came to nestle just above her crown of big curls. Billy peered at the empty pizza box and grabbed a marker to scribble a note she’d wake to. Propped it up and grabbed his coat.

   Paused to admire her because that was inevitable. One look cast before he was out into the grey morning. Ice and snow as far as the eye can see.

   “Shit. I'm still in Hawkins.” Billy perched a cigarette between his lips and lit up. Prepared himself for Max’s gawking when he walked in that door. 

   Evie stirred another hour later. Still smelling Billy’s cologne all over the couch and herself. Blue sat perched, licking her knuckle. No doubt begging for more food.

   “I know,” Evie pushed out a groan, “I got you.” Brown eyes focused on bold, black letters. Marked into the grease stained pizza box.

   Billy long gone.

   Probably freaked that a girl sobbed on him and passed out. Evie huffed to herself. Rubbed her eyes and plucked up the box to read.

   “Gonna ask you out…again. Tonight. Seven. I’ll even let you pick where we go.”

   Evie shook her head and pushed up.

   Figured another night with Billy Hargrove is one of the few things in her life that won’t hurt.

*** ** **

   If you asked her, she’d lie.

   Evie totally wasn’t out picking a new top for her not-date with Billy. Definitely not.

   She wasn't worrying over the exactly placement of her curls and wondering if Billy thought they were pretty down over her shoulders.

   Poor girl just...felt the urge to thrift shop. Most of her shirts and dresses were altered items she’d found. Ugly patterns galore. Evie mused over a top with an intricately painted bowl of fruit on the front and spotted a familiar helmet of red hair sitting near the fitting rooms.

   “It doesn’t fit me. It’s too big.” Came a rough woman's voice from behind the curtain. 

   Carol only huffed as she checked her manicure and stood. Evie hid behind a tall rack of dresses when a woman came out.

   She might have had the same vibrant red hair as her daughter. Once. But it was lifeless and tossed into a bun on her head.

   Carol’s mother. Dorthy Perkins. Skinny, nervous thing with a slight pouch to her stomach. Tooth gap and some healed sores in her hairline. Kept rubbing her covered arms. Sunken in and shaky. Noticeable sweat on her forehead.

   Obviously in need of a fix. She used to be a beauty queen like Mona. They might have even competed together, they both had daughters too young.

   She came out in a velvety blouse that was too long for her torso. Little baggy around the arms.

   “You didn’t tie it right. Here.” Carol wasn’t her usual bubbly self. Not the girl who schemed about terrorizing underclassmen. “Maybe we can tuck it into something.”

   “I look so ugly.” Her mother peered aside. Covered her face. “That’s why Jason walked out.”

   “He’s a piece of shit.” Carol mumbled.

   “He was like a father to you. We spent almost seven years together. I’m ugly.” 

   “Stop saying that. We’re better off without him.” Carol asserted herself that time.

   “He’ll be back, he always is.”

   Carol only frowned, faltering. That much was true.

   The false hope of it all killed.

   “This color is pretty.” She went on instead. “You like blue. We can tuck it into that black skirt you have. Maybe a belt.”

   “Skirt’s no good. It’s all worn and discolored. Never should have let you do the laundry.”

   “Someone had to. I said sorry. You were drunk and...I saw those needles.”

   “Carol, don’t speak to me like that.” This switch flipped on. She snatched her daughter’s wrist. Looked like she might try to break it.

   Evie never saw that look in Carol's eyes before. It pricked her own heart with pure, pooling fear. This girl who always looked her best and turned her nose up toward everyone else.

   Because she knew better.

   Carol and Evie had that much in common. 

   Her mother continued. Darkening.

   “I was not drunk. I gave it up. I’m better.”

   Carol wiggled away uncomfortably. Winced at her now irritated flesh. Looked around to make sure no one saw them.

   “Just keep your voice down. We’ll figure out something. You need a nice outfit. You have to get this job. Nail place doesn't pay me enough. I just started.” Carol shook her head at the same time Evie knocked into some hangers backing up. 

   Instantly, she was spotted.

   “Evangeline Fenny.” Her mother plastered this crackling smile as she stood taller. Carol’s arms crossed. Immediate hatred. “Did you lose weight?”

   “Mom.” Carol hissed.

   “Hi…” Evie blinked, lips lifting. “And, no, but thank you.”

   “Oh well, you look pretty. How’s your mother?” It was a courtesy. Mona wasn’t close with Mrs. Perkins. Or Carol’s stepdad. They weren’t liked in Hawkins. Kept to themselves in a dingy house. Drinkers. Users.

   But, that's all nasty gossip. Carol was quick to shut it down.

   “Fine.” Evie started to shuffle off because Carol looked like she was begging silently. Paused. “I like that color too and you can hem the bottom.”

   “Not all of us sew.” Carol turned to ice. Evie reached into her one of her reusable grocery bags. Pulled out a little package.

   “I like to cheat with this. Hem tape. It’s fast, you just iron it along the bottom. It holds well.”

   “Let me pay you for that.” Mrs. Perkins grabbed her worn purse.

   “No, it’s cheap and I picked up extra. They had a sale today.” The second part was a lie. Evie held it as far out as she could. Carol crossed over. Plucked it from her hand with glittery pink gemstones for fingertips.

   A beat. Two girls orbiting the same great planet. Threatening to be yanked into a storm.

   “Thanks.” Carol sucked her cheeks in. “Mom, go change.”

   “See you late, Evie.” The woman wandered off. Carol inhaled sharper. Peered at Evie again.

   “New top to show off for Bowers when school starts?” She flicked her tangerine locks, brow lifting.

   Evie pressed her lips. Brown eyes narrowing.

   “It’s good to see you too, Carol.” She avoided that and turned.

   “I just think you should give it up. It’s really pathetic. Everyone thinks so.” Carol sneered. Looked anywhere else. “The girl who went psycho on Tannen. Dressing up for our teacher. He’s just being nice because he feels sorry for you.”

   Evie paused to peer back. Felt her own pity swell.

   “Then, I guess you have nothing to worry about. Huh.” She watched Carol flame up and went to pay for her items. Not able to look back. Not able to admit a connection was possible or that such distinct planets could ever align.

   Boots hurried out into the cold, cheeks blooming rosy. She wrapped her scarf tighter and got near the bus stop before a hand was jerking her around into the side of a brick building. 

   Speak of the devil and he’ll appear. Evie's shoulders went up.

   “What the fuck, Tannen? I thought Hawkins was scum you’d never set foot in.” She grunted. Saw his furious eyes dart.

   “You really think I don’t know about your fucking band of ragtag shitheads? I saw you all.” He pressed his hand into the wall.

   “Heard you’re single now.” Evie remarked. Fingers ripped her up a few inches by the coat.

   “Don’t fuck with me, Fenny.” He said lower. Dangerous as can be.

   “You already tried that game, Brock, and you lost.” Evie spat back there in the snow. He dropped her down. Laughed.

   “Got closer than you liked. We had a moment.”

   “It was a kiss and you were a creep.”

   "You spazzed, girl, and I'm gonna find out why. What has Evie Fenny so shaken up?"

   "Have you considered it's the effect you have?" Evie sneered.

   “Better be careful in the coming weeks. I just wouldn’t go anywhere alone.” Across the street, his dad hollered for him, coming out of city hall.

   “Daddy’s calling. Bet you’re having trouble getting away from his watchful eyes.” Evie shrugged. Shoving his arm away. "Stay away from me."

   “Like I'd ever hit this for real. Fucking Psycho Sybil. That's what we call you up at Ridgemont. You’re a fat, fucking slut and you’ll never be anything else-”

   “Excuse me!” A sharper voice cut in. Tannen leaned out from Evie to peer at Mr. Clarke. Bundled and unsuspecting. Not intimidating by any means, but he wasn’t backing down. “I think you outta leave her alone, Mr. Tannen.”

   “We were just talking, sir.” Tanned peered at Evie, backing up. “For now. See you around, Fenny. Bet on that.” His dad called for him again so he crossed to go to their expensive, red car.

   “Are you alright, Evie?” Scott Clarke. Hawkins Middle. One of Dustin’s idols.

   She just sniffled. Hadn’t realized she'd even welled up. 

   “Yeah. Fine.”

   “You know he’s the jerk, right?”

   Evie roused to laugh, nodding. Psycho Sybil. That was a new one. 

   “Yes, I do. Thanks.” She looked down at her feet. 

   “Did you take the bus here?” He had a bag of books from the library in hand. Evie nodded again. “Do you want a ride home? I’d feel better knowing you’re safe. Don’t worry about guys like that. He’s going to lose all his hair and money and amount to nothing.”

   Evie broke again to giggle. Little brighter now. What a teacher.

   “Y-Yeah, I guess so.” Eyes peered at Scott’s grey car. ��Is...that a DeLorean?”

   “Gift from me to myself. My pride and joy now. Neat, huh? Dustin loved it. Do you still babysit him?”

   “Not a lot these days, he’s best friends with Steve Harrington. A real cool guy now. I’m old news.” Evie stepped forward, adjusting with all her bags.

   “I’m sure that’s not true. You’re pretty snazzy as they kids say… They do say that, right?”

   “Ahhh, not really.” Evie watched him chuckle.

   Mr. Clarke wasn't like her dad. Lanky and sweet. Always ready to brighten your dad being dorky. Jack was a cool business man. Smooth talker. Scott always made time for his students too. That was the biggest difference. 

   “Can I get you home safe? No pressure, I just can’t stand to see a boy act like that.” Scott gestured and Evie pressed her lips.

   “Okay.” She almost said no. Had this gut feeling she should have. Not because of Scott. The guy was a sitcom star and a genius. A genuinely good man. But, a feeling gnawed like she was being watched. The door swung up.

   “Neato, right?”

   “That’s certainly one word. How strange.” Evie got in and Scott came around. Turned the car on to go. “Thanks...for the ride and for saying something. You didn’t have to.”

   “Of course, I did. Stepping in when we see that behavior is important. It's bare minimum. I was bullied when I was young and one day I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore. The rest is history. Good history.” He turned a corner. Fiddled with the radio trying to find something the kids listen to. Evie smirked a little at that. “How’s your mom doing?”

   “She’s...okay. Working a lot more.”

   “And yourself? I know you had a rough year. I hope that’s not too forward to say. I try to ask Claudia about how your family is. Purely worried teacher talk. You know? I consider Mona a good friend.” He beamed there. Blushing.

   “No, uh, it’s been hard. I guess.” Evie shrugged. Stared at the trees.

   “My parents divorced when I was about your age. It was hard on me. My mom was one tough cookie, even found love again and they’re still happily married. Silver lining.” Mr. Clarke explained. “And I might not understand it fully myself, but I recently ended a relationship. Couple months and we both agreed with her relocating. Still friends even. Nice end. But, it’s something hard to process. A person not being there.”

   Evie turned to see him watching the road carefully. Something resonated deeply.

   “Mr. Clarke?"

   "Yes?"

   "How...do you end a relationship nicely?”

   “You just be as honest as you can, I suppose. This is a person who cares about you, they should understand at some length. Life takes us so many places.” He paused at a light and turned onto Cherry. “Which house were you?” 

   “4817, right next to the Hargrove’s there.” Evie pointed, gathering her items. “I’ll tell my mom you said, hello. Thanks again.”

   “Certainly, do that. Strange not seeing her every morning in that cafe by her shop. Take care and don’t let losers like Mr. Tannen bring you down.”

   “I won’t, Mr. Clarke.” Evie beamed again and pushed out. “See you around.” She stood and jumped at Billy next to his mailbox. A wide grin crossing because of the car make.

   “Look who has style.” Billy bent over to see and Evie rolled her eyes. “Mr. Clarke. We should race sometime.”

   “Staying out of trouble, Mr. Hargrove?”

   “Always.” He stood taller to wink at Evie as she waved then shut the door so Mr. Clarke could drive off. "And no one's pushed that guy into a locker?"

   "He's snazzy as the kids say." Evie joked. Billy snickered to himself. “So, Tannen cornered me. He’s upset.”

   “He cause you trouble?” Billy was distractedly stuffing a cigarette into his mouth. Evie’s lips quirked before she plucked it out. Turned it over so he had the correct end between his teeth.

   Billy blinked at her proximity.

   “Tried to. His dad is on him and Mr. Clarke saved the day. I don’t care about Tannen.” Psycho Sybil. Fat slut. Trying to dress up and impress her teacher. Her teacher that she was fucking. Every syllable was another sharp tack in her stomach.

   Evie shifted her eyes so he changed the subject. Suggestive.

   “You get my note?”

   “Hard to ignore.” She peered back at him.

   “That’s how I’d best describe myself, Angel.” Billy mused, blowing smoke aside. Got closer to drop the baritone. “And if I were to show up at the scheduled time? I’ll even wear the white shirt you like.”

   A smile betrayed her face. Nose crinkling. Billy matched it. Not yielding.

   “I might be open to a discussion at that time.” Evie turned. Voice softening. Still intent. “There’s something I need to do first.”

   Billy didn’t ask what. Just watched her saunter up into her house. Enjoyed the view.

   After locking the door, Evie unpacked her bags.

   “Yes, I got you something too.” She watched Blue come to paw at plastic. “I spoiled you, actually. Let’s eat and put your new collar on, shall we?”

   Evie got some stuff done. Food. Real food. Got Blue set up with some cat necessities. Red collar with a shiny bell. Pulled out her sewing machine to work on a couple garments. Until her hands ached. Distractions were good.

   Her personal phone trilled.

   “Fenny residence.” She plucked it up. Same lacquer candy apple as her painted nails.

   “Evie.” Terse.

   “Fredrick. You’re calling me?”

   “I know your mother isn’t home and it’s your line," he explained, "I figured we were safe.”

   “I was...actually going to call you soon, can we talk?”

   “Oh?” His tone changed. “Now?”

   “In person.”

   “Right, then I’ll come get you in a bit.”

   “No, there’s a bus. I’ll take that.” Evie paused. “It’s important.”

   “Don’t let anyone see you on the street. See you soon.”

   “Yes.” They hung up. Evie pulled on a fresh shirt and red hoodie. Brought it up over her curls. Bundled herself to venture out around four that afternoon. Three hours should have been enough. Red riding hood venturing to see the world.

   She caught the bus and got off a street over. Tried to breathe. Nervous hands applied some strawberry tinted chapstick before she knocked.

   “Come in.” Fredrick hurried her inside with one arm. They stood together in the narrow hallway of his rental flat. She brought her hood down. Prepared. He jumped ahead of her, dead set. “Dear, I think I know what this is about.”

   “You do?” Evie dropped her arms. Standing inches from him.

   “The marriage talk. Listen, I shouldn’t have pushed it. I know you probably think coming here to agree to it is what you want. Being a young girl, running off into the sunset is what you dreamed of. But, make sure you’re choosing the best decision for you-”

   “That’s not why I’m here.” Evie spoke flatter. He double took at her expression. Got almost nervous.

   “It’s not?” His entire body shifted.

   “No.” Evie replied. Plain and simple. Not even a second thought. 

   It seemed to jar him. She wasn’t swooning into his arms or falling to her knees in worship.

   “Well, I’m still glad you’re here.” Instantly, Fredrick was on Evie. Snatched her jaw forth for a kiss. Cupped the back of her head and moaned. Needy and sudden. Not the cool, collected teacher who was tsking because a young girl was falling deeply for him.

   “Wait.” Evie was just standing there with her lips open. Eyes on a decorative framed print of Zeus and Europa. Not reciprocating while his tongue wormed inside. “Mmf, wait.” She tilted her head back. “I wanted to talk.” Brown eyes looked all directions.

   "Let's talk after," he purred, "my sweet Evie. Look so pretty in red. Straight from the pages of Lolita. Sometimes I want to call you that, it'd fit you. You never did like Evangeline." It was clearly a joke, but she didn't laugh. "Oh, what about Abigail? From The Crucible. We always liked her. Something with a little more sin."

   Psycho Sybil. Abigail. Lolita.

   "I really want to just talk, is that okay?" Asking permission to not have sex. That was a new one and he did appear irritated. She shuffled and held herself when he stepped back.

   “What’s going on, Evie?” He stood a great deal taller, hands on his hips.

   “I think…” She tried to find all the right words. “I think maybe we should slow down?”

   "Slow down."

   "Ah...stop." Evie corrected herself. Aching. "I think we-"

   “What were you doing in that man’s car today?” Fredrick cut in. Ignoring her.

   “You saw me?”

   “Yes, I was running my errands and I know I can’t approach you. It’ll look too strange. What was that about?”

   “It… Mr. Clarke was just giving me a ride home.” Evie brought her hand up. Clutched at her hoodie.

   “I just wondered if maybe you had a pattern.” He turned his head and shook it idly. “Let’s go sit down. Talk like adults.” He ushered Evie into the living room. She didn’t want to sit but followed to do it anyways. “What’s all this about, Evie? Explain it to me.”

   “I care about you. You were there for me. I know that and I don’t… I won’t take it for granted. I’m just...distracted. You know, high school is ending and I think this... “ Evie closed her eyes. The truth of it was ice. “I don’t want this.”

   “This? Us?”

   She pressed her lips. Tried to stare at his face. Too many emotions flitting across it. 

   “I think we just want different things. And that’s okay-”

   “You came back, Evie. All that time we spent together. That incredible summer we had. We were happy. It can always be like that."

   "But," Evie realized it too, "it won't be."

   "I know you’re scared. But, the future.” He took her hand in both of his. Held it tight. “Our future. We planned it. You must be terrified. Your dad left, that doesn’t mean I’ll leave you. I'll never leave you, Evie. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”

   “N-No…” Evie trembled. Unable to wiggle her hand away. “I think we should...just part ways. I’ll switch classes if you want. I need to focus on finishing school and-”

   “I don’t want you to switch classes, do you think I can’t be mature about this?” He narrowed on her awed face. “This isn’t you, what’s gotten into your head all the sudden? Is there someone else?”

   She froze. Honesty. He loved her, he'd understand.

   “It’s not about that.”

   “But, there is someone else?” Fredrick shook his head. Ran one hand into blond hair. Still clutching her wrist. “You tell them about us? Huh? This isn’t some silly high school game. I asked you for one thing. To keep it together.” Her jerked Evie into him.

   “No! I didn’t.” She winced. “You’re hurting me.”

   “No, I’m not.” Fredrick scoffed. Like she was being truly unreasonable. Alarms started to go off in her brain.

   “I’ll never tell anyone, just...please. I can’t do this. It’s me. I can’t do this. I have to work on myself and it’s not fair to you. That’s all.” Evie tried to stand.

   “We’re talking still, Evangeline!” A finger pointed before he tugged her back into him. Hands latched around her arms. Squeezed harsh marks into skin. “I don’t understand. Suddenly, you want out. You’re acting all afraid of me? Who knows about us?”

   “No one!” She whimpered. Lungs sputtering. “I won’t ever tell anyone. I promise. I just need to think.”

   “You can think right here.” He soothed. Pulling her into his chest. All the games where he played hard to get and she crawled back were lost. He really might lose her. That blared. “Let’s get something to calm your nerves. Then, you can rest and we can keep talking. I fought so hard for us. You understand that? Do you even care?”

   “I don’t need to drink. I think I should just go home. I care, that's why I need to do this. It's a good thing. We can...still be friends.” Evie’s palms were spread on his chest. “My mom-”

   “Isn’t even in town. I hardly think she’ll care even if her daughter is out late. Isn’t that right, dear? We both know she’s always been more preoccupied with her salon and who she’s screwing than her own daughter.” Blue eyes were alight at her. Evie went very still. "I'm the adult, I should have told your mother from the first. But, I couldn't deny you. And she doesn't even care about you, Evie, not like I do."

   "Don't say that..."

   He started to charge. A mad bull clicking its hooves.

   “Everything we have, you just want to throw away? Move on and giggle with all your fucking little friends about me? Is that it? Think you can laugh at me and leave like my wife did-?”

   “Ow, please, let me go.” Evie started to twist in the struggle. Terrified and yanking as he tugged her back into his chest. “That hurts, Fredrick, please. You're hurting me.”

   “I love you, god damn it!” He shook her. Began to flame. “You want to go? Fine!” 

   A hard shove sent her head bouncing into the wall. Flames burst.

   Evie tumbled over into hardwood. Eyes wet. Slumped down. The world almost went black. When she didn’t get up immediately, he was over her. Shifting curls from her face as she made this odd croak. Skull throbbing white hot.

   Memories flashed and burnt.

   “Shit... Shit, Evie. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. You do this to us, you know? Oh, I just love you too much, I won’t lose you. You’re okay, it’s fine. Come, let’s get you to lie down. I’ll make you feel better.”

   Evie licked her lips. Curls shaking as her head rose to see him. Hands braced on the floor to steady her dizzy frame.

   The truth burned now. Became ashes.

   “I don’t love you anymore.” She offered. Small and assured. Fredrick exhaled, petting her hair aside. Time slowed.

   “Since, when?” He grew breathless as if he didn't understand.

   “Now. Just now.” Evie pushed up into the wall. Curled away from his hands. “I want to stop.”

   “Stop? After everything.”

   “It’s me...and it’s you. This was wrong. It's so wrong.” She sniffled. Mascara running. “I think I should go home now. I don't feel well.”

   “What if I said, no? What if I said, I don’t want you to go home?” A slow hand curled around her arm again. He got close to her face. Started to kiss her lips and temple. “I’m so sorry, Evie. Just come to bed and lie down.” He cupped her tender head, nodding. A smile beamed. “We’ll talk about this. I’ll make you feel so good. Yeah? Because only I know how.”

   She tried to be hard. Tried to scare this man who still cast a shadow over her body. Fredrick started to pull her up. Pawing. Evie resisted and stayed on the floor.

   “Then, I’ll tell people about you. About us.”

   “Evie,” he froze to speak slower as if she was stupid, “it’s your word against mine.”

   “I have a lot of words to describe you and this place and things we did. Your word against mine. I don’t need the world to believe me. Just a couple people will be enough…” She trembled and steeled against him. Fredrick dropped her like she scorched him. “They’ll ask you questions. So, let me go-”

   “Is that so? You want to ruin my life?” He set his jaw.

   Evie’s expression wrinkled with contained fury. A wave that would destroy an oncoming ship.

   “No, you do.”

   One snap. She felt the air leave her body. Yanked out crudely. A jerk that howled up her stomach. Sent her diaphragm into a panic.

   He’d kicked her. Hard. Directly in the side. She came up choking and Fredrick lost his mind. Kicked her in the rib and hip until she was curled against the wall. Limbs flailing.

   Screaming.

   Fredrick began to panic too. As the sound echoed. Started to slap at her until that screaming stopped. Evie ripped his shirt trying to wiggle away into the hall. Got jerked over on her side

   “Quiet. Just be quiet, Evie! Shut up!” One knee came down into her chest, held Evie still. Metal seeped along her tongue. A fist closed and the entire crescent of her eye swelled. Sound cut. A hand smacked her lips. Smothered her down. 

   Evie’s whimper choked there. She stilled. Petrified.

   The frame with poor Europa crashed to the floor. Long fractures cast her painted, twisting body.

   Evie stared at it. The shape of the mighty, handsome bull Zeus turned himself into to lure prey. Sweeping lovely Europa off her feet. Lungs were still sputtering to take in fresh air. Not getting enough.

   For a moment, Evie thought he'd really kill her. Turned pink. Then red. Then blue. Then purple.

   "I...c-can't breathe." It was the tiniest squeak imaginable. His knee shifted and some air seized. 

   “I just need you to be quiet,” Frederick whimpered. “I’ll let you go. Okay. I’ll let you go right home if you do it silently. If you tell someone about us, I’m going to have to hurt you again. I won't let you ruin my life. Just like my fucking wife. You can't be like her. You were too special. So, I'll hurt you, Evie. Do you want that? Do you think I want this?”

   The moment her head shook, his hand came up. A gasp as she was able to breathe again. Choking and coughing. Dying.

   “Fuck.” Fredrick turned her body over. “Can you move everything, alright?”

   Evie refused to look at him.

   “Why’d you make me do that, Evie? I can’t believe you. Screaming like a fucking child. I just needed you to be quiet. I wasn't trying to hurt you, damn it, I just needed you to be quiet.” He was breathing heavily. Frantic. Same way he would after screwing her. “God damn it.”

   Hands roamed to check her over. Frederick hovered, tilted her face toward his to prod.

   “Look like a broken doll like this. You’re still so pretty. You’re okay. It’s not bad.” That sounded like a lie. Evie could feel her eye socket puffing. Boiling heat. “We can make it better.”

   He kissed her unmoving lips. Desperately. 

   “You should stay here, let me look after you.” He cooed that. Came down to lie next to her. Bringing her head into his. Stroking her hair and kissing her hot, salty cheek. “I’m sorry.”

   Fredrick was crying too. Into her neck. Hard.

   “I can’t lose you. I can’t stop thinking about you some days. I was ready for it to be you. Do you realize that? If this is about… Just tell me, let me fix it. Evie. I don’t want you to leave me.” He came up and sniffled pathetically. Like a baby. Saw her cold, empty eyes. "I love you, I need you to take care of me. Please, Evie."

   Psycho Sybil. Abigail. Lolita. Europa. A little more sin. 

   Evie was somewhere else. Pressed into the wall to disappear. A hand touched her knee and Evie seized up. Scrambled back. Aching. Gasping to just be far, far away.

   “I won’t tell anyone.” She said without a tremor of emotions. Eyes distant. Evie pushed herself up carefully while he hovered. “I’m gonna go home now. I'll be so quiet.”

   “Let me drive you. Evie. I can fix this.” He begged and pulled at her clothes. “I can put you back together.”

   Evie limped to the door. 

   “No, you can't, Fredrick,” she droned, “but thank you for trying anyways.” That would mean something. Anything.

   It had to, right?

   The door shut and he didn’t run after her. Evie whimpered up to the bus stop while cold licked her cheeks dry. Snow and ice glimmered. Too beautiful for how ugly she felt. She pulled her hood up and paid. Draped herself across a seat in the back. 

   Another two riders got on. Tommy H with an older woman in a plush coat. His stepmom. Caused some controversy back when Tommy was a child. His white dad would marry a black woman after Tommy’s mom passed away. Cancer.

   Christ. This fucking town.

   Nice lady. Sometimes she came into Mona’s shop to see her because Mona knew her way around textured curls. Evie sank down, but Tommy noticed her.

   It was strange, the expression that crossed his face. She was hidden in her hoodie half behind her puffy curls. But that splotchy face and discolored skin gave the obvious away.

   He didn’t jeer and instead sat down. Peered out at the street and saw the orange Plymouth there. Eyes narrowed.

   “Sorry about the car, mom.” He spoke when she joined him.

   “It happens, honey, it’ll be out of the shop tomorrow. We’ll tell dad that I bumped the basketball hoop.” She winked so he flashed a smile, eyes shifted to Evie again intent out the window.

   A couple more riders trailed on. Some hick knocked into Mrs. Hagan’s shoulder on the way. Muttered a ugly slur Evie had heard Mr. Hargrove say on his front lawn. Jeering at their perfectly normal neighbors across the way.

   “You want me to kick your ass, man? Apologize to my mother!” Tommy shot up. Protective little cub. The hick wobbled on his drunk feet. Shrunk to go to a seat as Mrs. Hagen pulled her boy down.

   “He’s not worth it.”

   “I won’t let people talk to you that way.” Tommy’s fists curled. Beet red. "Still my mom." She only kissed his cheek and brought him to her shoulder. Evie watched the back of Tommy’s head. Felt something similar that had curled up her spine when she saw Carol today too.

   We all had our shit.

   Tommy watched Evie get off at her stop. Didn’t say a word. She made herself small and went up into her house. Shut the door.

   Didn’t eat anything. Bones rattled while she got into bed and curled up. Hoodie pulled close. Blue nestled by her crown, purred to comfort her.

   Evie stayed there. Didn’t cry. Hated herself. 

   Didn’t rouse when the knocks began at seven.

   Psycho Sybil. Abigail. Lolita. Europa. A little more sin. 

   Never Evangeline.

~~~~~~~~

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[let-me-write-shit]

Somebody To You: 28

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Word Count: 4,322

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CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Zoey’s parents stayed up talking to Harry for hours before they decided to head to bed. The new couple, along with Katie, put a movie on, talking through the first half as Katie expressed her astonishment at the two of them dating and talked about inviting her best friend to the BBQ tomorrow. Harry and Katie teased each other a bit at the way they talked and the things they said, and when the film finally ended, Katie excused herself to go to bed.

As Zoey left to grab Harry a pillow and blanket, still slightly embarrassed to have him in her childhood home, she felt like she was floating on clouds. All of this seemed like a dream - Harry flying here to win her over, asking her to be his girlfriend, even how well he got along with her family. Her parents were a little more strict than others, more so with Katie since she was the ‘baby’, but they had always been fairly welcoming to all of her friends and relationships, so it shouldn’t have surprised her. Especially since everyone loves Harry.

Even so, she was relieved that they all liked each other. She wondered what his family was like and how well they’d get along. Zoey considered herself pretty adaptable and got along with most people, but would she be able to create a close relationship with them like she did with Michael’s family? She didn’t want to compare. Besides, it was still too early to think about meeting them. She wouldn’t have dared introduce Harry to hers if they hadn’t already met each other.

Harry watched as his girlfriend rounded back into the living room with a blanket and pillow, now wearing an oversized tee and shorts that barely poked out from the bottom, her hair in a top-knot and makeup-free. His smile hadn’t left his face since she agreed to be his girlfriend. From the moment the words came out of his mouth, he knew he was making the right decision. In his heart, he knew that this time would be different. He felt it. And being here with her family in her childhood home was such an intimate experience that he felt like to know.

“You tired yet?” Zoey asked, plopping the pillow at the end of the couch, “You had a long flight.” 

He situated himself, spine pressed to the back of the couch, leaving space for her to slip in beside him. “Get in here,” he said, patting the space beside him.

She grinned, sliding in and throwing the blanket over the top of them, pressing her body close to his and tangling their legs together. Her head rested on his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat.

“Thank you for coming,” Zoey whispered as Harry delicately ran his fingers up and down her arm.

Harry placed a kiss on the top of her head, “Thank you for being so patient with me.”

He heard Zoey snort before saying, “At least you didn’t wait months to figure it out.”

“Yeah. I learned my lesson,” he chuckled, “I can’t wait for all of the ‘I told you so’s from the boys when they find out. And how much do you want a bet I’ll wake up to texts from my mom and sister begging me for updates.”

“They knew about us?” Zoey looked up in surprise.

Harry blushed, “Yeah. They’re the ones who convinced me to fly here instead of calling.”

He noticed her grinning as she looked back down, pulling his hand to her lips and placing a soft kiss along his knuckles before interlacing their fingers again.

His mind wandered, thoughts of bringing her home dancing around his head. There was so much he wanted to show her in England. He wanted to bring her to the town he grew up in and show her around his old stomping grounds. He wanted to introduce her to all of his friends so they could finally understand why he never shut up about her. He wanted to give her a tour of his home so she could see the character and history, unlike his modern LA home she teased him about. But most of all, he wanted her to meet the other two very important women in his life. His mom and sister would love Zoey, he was sure of it. How could they not? He could picture them laughing, exploring the city, or even taking girls’ trips together. He could picture spending holidays and vacations as a family, playing all of their traditional family games, and having holiday meals together. It was still too early to bring her home; he didn’t want to scare her, but he was eager for the prospect. They already knew of her. That was half of the battle. 

“That reminds me,” Zoey suddenly looked up at him, “How do we want to pay this tomorrow? It's a small group of people, and I trust them all, but I know you don’t know them and might have your doubts. I want to make sure you feel comfortable. Should I just introduce you as my friend to be safe?”

Harry’s eyebrows raised and a galled smirk stretched across his face as if she’d just asked the most ridiculous question he’d ever heard. But internally, his heart soared at the knowledge that his girlfriend cared enough to be willing to forego the label of their relationship in case it made his life harder. It made him even more certain that he had made the right choice. And now, all he wanted to do was shout it from the rooftop for everyone to hear. But he’d settle for a few of her family friends at a backyard BBQ.

“Don’t worry about that. I can handle it. I’m your boyfriend now. You don’t have to hide me.”

The two stayed up talking for a little while longer. Harry had asked her how she was feeling about Paul now that she had some time to see him and she confided in him all the things that had been running through her mind since she’d gotten home. Her worry for when his time ends - will she get here in time? How will it affect Michael and Carol? But she was still in a state of disbelief. Even though he had seemed weaker, he was still as lively and energetic as the last time she saw him. It was hard to wrap her head around the fact that that energy would be gone in three months. How rapidly would it diminish?

He mostly listened, every now and then offering his two cents or a piece of advice. But he was impressed by how well she seemed to be handling it emotionally. He knew that wouldn’t last, though.

The conversation somehow ended with them discussing whether or not that had ever crossed paths with aliens at one point in their lives before the responses dwindled to hums and mumbles, and then silence as the two of them fell asleep, nestled together on the couch.

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to sleep together on the couch. By morning, Harry’s arm had gone numb and Zoey’s neck was so stiff that it hurt to move. After taking aleve, making some coffee, and having a bit of food with her family they were starting to feel a bit better and Zoey decided to take him on a little tour around her town. Of course, he had already seen where she went to school the last time he had visited, but he hadn’t seen much else. She drove him past the old playground her and her friends used to sneak off to and play inappropriate pre-teen games like spin the bottle and truth or dare.

“Let’s just say….I didn’t peak until WAY after high school.”

“Yeah, I saw your old family pictures. I could have told you that,” teased Harry, earning a small shove from his girlfriend as she drove on.

The next stop was Slyfox, the bar she and Jess used to work at and visited two days previously. It was closed still, not opening until 3 PM. She parked in the empty parking lot and told him all about her time there, working with her best friend, and the unforgettable memories she made. Harry couldn’t help but smile, listening to her recount old times with such joy that it made him almost sad that he missed out on it all. Her story was cut short when her phone rang and Michael’s name popped up on caller I.D. Instead of declining it like she normally did, she answered with a friendly “Hey.”

“Hey. Where are you?” he heard her ex-boyfriend on the other end.

“Just showing Harry around. Are you there?”

“Yeah, so are the boys. We just got here. Becky couldn’t make it. She had work.”

“Oh, I didn’t know they were coming. Alright. We’ll be right there.”

Harry’s stomach began to twist into knots as she drove out of the empty parking lot and back to her parents’ home. Suddenly the thought of meeting these people he had heard too much about began to make him anxious. And even though he had already seen Michael briefly the night before, the thought of being around both him and Zoey knowing of their long history together and how close their families were was enough to make him want to vomit. It was a lot of pressure. 

As they pulled up to her childhood home, Harry noticed a few extra cars that weren’t there when they left earlier. He shouldn’t be nervous; there was no reason to be. He’d already met her parents and knew they liked him. And he never had a problem with charming anyone before, yet still, his stomach began to do flips.

“You sure you want to meet everyone?” Zoey asked, putting the car in park. “There’s still time. I can take you to the airport and make an excuse.”

Harry forced a smile and grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly, “Let’s go.”

Zoey took the key out of the ignition and they both made their way to the gate at the side of the house that led to her backyard. They could hear the sounds of laughter and loud voices carry out towards the street and they walked further to the back until everyone was in view. The first person he saw was Katie who was swinging on an old, rickety swing set with a wavy-haired brunette girl about her age, neither of whom noticed the two of them walking in. 

Within seconds, the loud call of “Zoey!” rang in the air, catching their attention in time to see four boys making their way over, shoving each other, and laughing. He instantly spotted Michael, who’s hands, arms, and neck tattoos made him even more intimidating in the daylight than it had the previous night when they had met in passing. He began to internally criticize every little thing of difference and similarity in looks alone between himself and Zoey’s ex, something he knew better to do than to go down that rabbit hole. But before he could get too deep in thought, they had finally arrived, each one of the boys giving her a friendly hug, one of whom even lifting her off of her feet which made his protective urge alarms silently blare in his head, forcing himself to play it cool, finally ending on Michael who turned to Harry with a smile.

“Hey. Nice to see you again,” her ex-boyfriend stuck a hand out for Harry. 

He grinned, shaking it, surprised to see that, once again, it wasn’t a death grip as it usually wound up being. “You, too.”

“Holy shit. I thought you were fucking lying,” Dan snorted, amazed at the sight of Harry, followed with nods of agreement from the others. 

“Alright, alright,” Zoey stepped in before anyone could start bombarding him with questions, “Let’s set a couple of ground rules, boys. First, no business talk. Got it?” she directed at Dan who held his hands up in defeat and stepped back, “Second, if you drink, you’re not wrestling on the trampoline. Every time you do that, someone winds up in the hospital. And last but not least, the most important one of them all, no one mentions Harry being here to anyone. And I mean anyone. Got it?”

Seeing Zoey so in control and demanding and how every one of the boys bent to her will in agreeance was so attractive to Harry. No one even tried to put up a fight and having Zoey take the initiative and set a boundary between her friends to make sure there would be no leaks just yet. 

“Yeah, fair enough,” Michael nodded in agreement, followed by the rest of them.

“So what IS the deal though?” Dan asked, pointing between the two of them with a smirk, “Are you two a thing or something?”

Zoey turned to Harry, but before she could even speak, Harry said, “Yeah, we’re dating,” placing a hand on the small of her back. His tone was friendly and kind, but he wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be any confusion on where he stood. Maybe a little part of him was still jealous of Michael. 

He half-expected the news to cause an uncomfortable awkwardness between them, but to his surprise, that wasn’t the case. Sure, Dan turned to Michael to see what his reaction would be, but Michael just smiled at them and nodded with a chuckle, “You couldn’t have gone for a minor boyfriend upgrade? To maybe a guy with better muscles than me? You had to go for a rich, famously attractive musician with better muscles?” Michael joked, causing them all to laugh.

“Don’t be silly,” Zoey plucked at Michael’s shirt and teased, “He’s also got an accent.”

This kicked off an eruption of laughter and banter that made Harry feel instantly at ease. He knew, based on the many conversations he had with Zoey about her pre-move personality, that although she was typically shy around people she didn’t know when compared to her more outgoing best friend, amongst this group of her closest friends she tended to be the center of attention. It made sense - she’s known them all for so long. But to see how much they cared about her in person was something new entirely. Sure, he’s seen the effect she’s had on her new friends in LA. And he was proof enough how quickly people would grow to care for her. But to see the dynamic between the five in front of him was somehow even more profound. They were family. 

And although the jealousy of Michael was still there, Harry became increasingly more aware that there was nothing more than mutual respect and love in a way that any would have with someone they’d known for years. There was nothing intimate about their relationship anymore. If anything, it seemed more like a sibling-type relationship now. They teased each other, had each other’s back, and had the other’s best interest at heart. Harry had learned about a new girl he was seeing and listened as his friends had nitpicked at little red flags at things they had deemed as red flags while Zoey stood up in defense of a girl she hadn’t even met. 

They had talked for a while, Katie and her friend eventually coming over and being given the same lecture that the boys had before Zoey eventually decided she wanted to talk to the adults and that she’d better introduce him to them. From a distance, he could already tell who was who. He could see the resemblance of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis from the pictures Zoey had shown him of Jess. She looked more like her father who stood around the same height as him, a beer in hand and laughing with Zoey’s parents and another couple to their right. When his eyes landed on Paul, he understood what his girlfriend meant when she said he appeared weak. He had never seen Paul before today, but he could almost picture what once was a strong, muscular man withering away. But appearances were misleading, because he was the most energetic of them all, laughing boisterously and dramatically arm gesturing as he told stories around the snack table. The adults seemed to notice their arrival and turned their attention to them. Paul was the first to speak.

“I was wondering when you were going to come and introduce him to us old-farts,” he said to Zoey with a smirk, “LA has really been good to you, it seems.”

Zoey laughed, rolling her eyes, “Seems so. This is my boyfriend, Harry.” Zoey went on to introduce him to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, Paul, and Carol as her mother explained who their children were in reference to them. Harry kindly smiled, shaking everyone’s hands politely and offering a warm greeting. Understandably Mr. and Mrs. Lewis looked a bit confused as she had just told them yesterday that she was single, so Zoey clarified with a whisper, “It just happened last night,” which seemed to appease their confusion. 

Harry nodded, joking, “See what she does to me? I couldn’t stop thinking of her, so I had to fly all the way here to ask her out. I forgot phones existed.”

“That’s our girl,” Zoey’s dad grinned, earning laughter amongst the group. 

Paul nodded, “Well, she’s certainly worth it. This girl has been a godsend to our family. She deserves it all.”

To which both Mr. and Mrs. Lewis agreed, nodding towards her parents, “She certainly has. You raised her well.”

“Okay, now say something mean before I cry,” Zoey blushed.

Harry glanced between them all, their adoration for his girlfriend evident in their smiles and the way they looked at her. With each passing minute, she seemed to impress him more and more. There didn’t seem to be one bad word anyone could say about her other than Paul picking on her for her choice in movies and music or her bad driving. 

Harry took a scarce moment of silence to turn to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis with a soft smile and said, “Zoey’s told me a lot about Jess. I’m so sorry for your loss. I wish I had gotten the opportunity to meet her, she seemed like such a great girl. I almost feel like I know her from all of the stories I’ve heard.”

“Thank you, Harry,” Mrs. Lewis grinned brightly, earning a squeeze from her husband. He was worried that his words might have made them upset at the mention of their daughter, but to his surprise, they seemed delighted that he had mentioned her. Their eyes flickered towards Zoey briefly and he knew what it meant. They were proud. Proud of Zoey for keeping their daughter’s memory alive and for bringing it to LA, a place Jess had always dreamed of going. Zoey had kept to her word.

Harry continued, shaking his head, “No, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think I ever would have met Zoey. And I never would have had the pleasure of knowing about your daughter, or meeting you all. You’ve changed my life.”

This had taken everyone by surprise. Including Zoey. Her emotions almost got the best of her, but she held it in, instead, letting the butterflies whiz and flip in her chest while the adults stared at her boyfriend, impressed and touched. That’s it; he had won them over.

“He’s good,” Paul noted under his breath as the rest of them gave him hugs and thanks. 

The sounds of a guitar-strumming were heard from behind them and they turned to see Michael sitting on the retaining wall that separated the patio from the rest of the yard beginning to sing along with the rest of the guys in his band while Katie and her friend had bobbed and swayed along, singing in. 

“It’s not a BBQ without Michael playing some music, is it?” Carol laughed, watching her son sing You Know It by Colony House.

“That’s my queue,” Zoey grinned, pulling at Harry’s arm. 

Harry quickly waved to the adults before following her towards the boys. Zoey began to jump around and sing along with them, laughing energetically which made Harry smile. Gemma was right in convincing her to come here and he made a mental note to thank her when he got home. Michael and his band weren’t too bad, either. 

“Come on, Styles, join in,” Michael urged with a smile a few songs later.

Harry blushed, slightly embarrassed, but agreed, singing along to Dancing In The Moonlight by King Harvest. Seeing Harry getting along with the people closest to her filled her with such elation that she found herself having to sit and watch in joy as they all sang song after song with one another. The smell of burgers, hot dogs, and ribs on the grill wafting through the air made her mouth water and she couldn’t believe how happy she was at the moment. 

Zoey watched as Michael passed his guitar over to Harry, showing him the chords of a few of his band’s songs and let him play along as the rest of them sang. She couldn’t help but chuckle and shake her head at how intently he listened and played, almost forgetting who he was here with or that he was playing her ex-boyfriends songs with her ex-boyfriend’s guitar. From an outside perspective, she could see this whole situation being weird.

Michael then showed Harry the chords of a slower song of theirs and gave him the beat. From there, Harry was able to figure it out and the familiar sounds of the song Michael had written about her years ago began to play. Instinctively, Zoey looked up just in time to see Paul appear at her side, a hand on the middle of her back as he looked down at her, expectantly. She smiled, turning to him and taking his free hand in hers, placing her other arm on his side and laying her head on his chest as they began to sway.

She listened to the thumping of his heartbeat, trying her hardest to tune out all of the sad eyes that watched the two of them, knowing that this might just be their last dance together. Paul leaned back, making Zoey stand up straighter to look at him. She could see the knowledge in his eyes and the unspoken words begging to come out. His eyes searched her face, trying to decide if he wanted to speak what was on his mind, or not. He wasn’t known for taking things too seriously. But he thought, if there was a time, it was now.

“Thank you for coming,” he said to her again.

Zoey grinned, blinking, “Of course.”

“You know, I’m sorry if this makes you feel uncomfortable…” he started, “but I always thought that you and Mikey would end up together. Carol and I talked about what we thought your wedding day would look like and how many grandkids you’d give us,” he said, causing her to push out a sad, breathy laugh, “And I always thought that I’d be able to dance with you to this song at your wedding. And even though that may not be true anymore, I’m still so happy that he was able to have such a wonderful person in his life who brought so much joy to our son and our family. And I am so grateful for you every day. You deserve every bit of happiness that you get. And, even though you haven’t ended up with Mikey, I’m so glad you’ve found a good guy that makes you happy. I’m truly happy and at peace knowing that even with me gone, my family will have everyone here in their lives for support.”

Hearing Paul say all of his past hopes and kind words with finality made it all feel more real. This amazing man whom she adored would be gone alongside her best friend; arguably the two most important people in her life at one time. She didn’t want him to go. And a part of her was mad that he said any of those things, to begin with. His words were filled with such love and sincerity, yet still felt like a stab in the heart. A tear forced itself to the forefront and spilled down her cheek. Through her watery vision, she saw the tears collect at the rim of his eyes as he let out a shuttering laugh, pulling her closer to him in a tight hug and trying to hide the onslaught of emotions between the two of them. She knew people were staring. She heard the blunder in the chords as Harry had gotten distracted, and the crack in the boys’ voices while they sang along, but she ignored it, both Paul and her taking a deep breath and wiping their tears away. 

Seeing Zoey and Paul’s interaction tugged at Harry’s chest and his mind instantly flew back to his last interactions with his step-father before he passed. He understood why Zoey would take this so hard. Paul was much like Robin in personality; he had embodied strength, kindness, and love, capturing the hearts of all who knew him. Both were amazing men, being taken from their families too soon. His heart broke for everyone here who had to go through the loss of such an amazing person, and for Paul who not only had to go on knowing that his battle would be soon lost but seeing the suffering on the faces of the ones he’d be leaving behind. And at that moment, Harry made a vow to himself to make sure that everyone here would know how much they impacted him.

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