#but doctors here refuse to do work. even if the work involves doing 5 seconds of paperwork to send me to a specialist.

[batz]

i really think that some doctors need to be mauled by wild animals what do you MEAN didnt believe theres glands under your tongue!!! how many millions of years ago did he go to medical school!!! im so mad for you right now

i think some doctors just get like disillusioned or whatever but its NO excuse for them to not know that there are salivary glands under the tongue or other very normal things to know. and then be v rude and dismissive about very normal concerns. but maybe the doctor did know what was going on and just wanted me out of the clinic asap.

but also ive had to point out like rlly normal anatomical things to doctors lately im wondering if walk in clinics are just hiring randos off indeed at this point LMAO

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Festival Accompanying Chapter 6

I wonder how much new research Takano had done that could turn around people into being interested in her grandfather's research. Did she manage to make some great breakthroughs that opened up interest in behavioral changes caused by parasites. Or maybe she's getting research support because she's made herself into a prominent name.

Takano musing about how long ago it was when those men trampled her grandfather's thesis while a different group marveled at it feels like it has a bit of spite in it. If she could, she would probably force those same men to tell her how good her research is.

Dr. Takano has passed away. I felt genuinely sad when that came up. Taht meeting in chapter 5 genuinely broke him and he died despairing his research would never be finished.

Koizumi DID set up Dr. Takano to fail!

Dr Takano's research was discredited and he was set up for ruin because of politics. If his research became public, it could potentially harm Japan's status in international matters.

Koizumi manages to explain the main points about the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. On the night of July 7, 1937, an unknown person fired a gun which sparked the incident and this led to the second SIno-Japanese War which eventually escalated to the Pacific Theater in World War II.

I decided to do a little wiki diving to learn more about the incident. Everything here is just a summary of the Wikipedia article for the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. For several years, Japan had been trying to expand and conquer lands in the Chinese and Korean mainland as well as several islands in the Pacific. Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931 and it and China had been dealing with constant tensions.

On the night of July 7, 1937, Japanese forces and Chinese forces exchanged fire with each other outside Wanping after Japanese forces stationed at Fengtai crossed the border to do military drills. One Japanese soldier went missing and Japanese forces demanded to enter Wanping to search for him (The man in question later returned to his unit and claimed he had gotten lost after having to step away to relieve a stomach ache).

Japanese infantry attempted to breach Wanping's walls but were repulsed. Both sides began mobilizing reinforcements in response. The mayor of Wanping, Wang Lengzhai, attempted to negotiate peace but the negotiations failed.

A few minutes after Lengzhai returned to the city, a shot was heard and the Battle of Beiping-Tianjin, the first battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War, began.

After a ceasefire had been declared, China was held responsible for the incident. And while attempts to de-escalate were made, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident would be the point where tensions finally broke.

That unknown gun shot is a point of great controversy for all parties involved. Some speculations include it being planned by the Japanese as a pretext for invasion, if it was caused by the Chinese Communist Party, or if it was simply a scared soldier who fired in a panic.

As with every colonizer nation, Japan has a general stance of refusing to acknowledge fault with the incident and the second Sino-Japanese War, and by extension the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, is a major point of contention between China and Japan to this day.

So going back to the chapter. It would be in Japan's best interest to not let Hifumi Takano's research become public. In particular, his research is based on how he noticed there was a higher rate of friendly fire caused by soldiers from the Hinamizawa region. And it turns out one of the soldiers stationed at the bridge was from Hinamizawa.

So that's it. The good doctor's life and work was ruined because the Japanese government wanted to cover up even the possibility of fault with the incident. Part of its standing in the world stage depends on them appearing blameless for the incident and it will go to whatever lengths possible to keep that standing.

And after hearing all this, Miyo Takano stands defiant against Koizumi's threats. The years have changed her outlook on that day the lightning missed. Back then, she challenged god to give her either death or salvation. And when the lightning missed her, she took it as a sign that god would save her.

Now, she seems to look at it as god was going to kill her, but her will made the lightning strike miss. And her will for the future is what saved her. The years have given her the confidence to believe she has the absolute will to change fate, and she can stare down a bullet and expect it to miss.

And in response, Koizumi laughs and offers her his full support.

And the chapter ends with the truth behind Irie Clinic. Through Koizumi's influence, a research facility was built in Hinamizawa with support from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. And to cover up the research, it is disguised as a clinic.

Takano herself is a Major in the Defense force and is ultimately the one in charge of the clinic. And Koizumi brought Irie, Okonogi, and Tomitake along to act as the face of the clinic, the fixer, and the contact. Takano's opinion on Tomitake was that he'd be easy to pull more funds out of. So I guess she's only dating him entirely for her own ends.

back

Spoiler Discussion

Koizumi didn't fire the gun so we won't get to know what would have happened. But late in this arc, Rika and her friends will face down this same scenario. Hanyu will stand in everyone's defense, ready to take the blow. And the bullet will miss.

[skztalkergo]

stray kids reaction: you got your wisdom teeth removed

chan

lowkey traumatized but he’s the nation’s father so he’s gonna step up to the plate or die trying

waves away the nurse with the wheelchair while you’re still half-conscious and carries you to the car himself

drives you to his place and tucks you into bed and stalks around the dorm yelling at people who are louder than his newly-instated appropriate decibel level

also yells at anyone attempting to record you and your loopy behavior

religious about your medication, you will not miss a dose, even if he does get kinda squirrely when you request the codeine

brings his work home for once and sits in bed next to you on his laptop until he’s deemed you Safe To Leave Alone

addresses you by dumb things like “hey there superstar” or “that’s my brave girl!”

minho

has had his phone out and recording since the moment the nurse came to get him from the waiting room

the 20 minute long, deeply unflattering y/n crack compilation will be available for viewing before you’re back to eating solid foods

that being said, he’s surprisingly helpful and blows off practice because he refuses to leave you alone for the first 24 hours post-op

threatens to tape your hands together if you don’t stop poking at the stitches

spoon-feeds you applesauce and does not hesitate to scream “HERE COMES THE AIRPLANE” even though you’ve been lucid for several hours at this point

changbin

another videographer, but considers this to be a boyfriend privilege and will not hesitate to fight anyone else with a phone in your vicinity

really stressed and fails to conceal it, resulting in you comforting him before the surgery

afterwards, though, he goes into full Mom Mode, going so far as to call both his mom and your mom to gauge appropriate steps (he doesn’t trust the internet)

will attempt to cook for you, but if it falls through he’ll badger chan or minho until they make you soup (and he’ll pretend he made it, and you’ll pretend you believe him because you love him <33)

hyunjin

kind of helpless but does not hesitate to baby the actual heck out of you

A Level 10 Fusser

he changes the pillow arrangement of the sickbed he’s made you so often that you yell at him because it keeps waking you up

can’t cook, so he boils chicken broth and stands over you menacingly because you are legally obligated to drink the entire mug

also force-feeds you healthy things like mashed up avocados and mangoes and doesn’t listen when you tell him you just want to consume Spaghetti-O’s

squishes your swollen cheeks and won’t shut up about how cute they are

brings kkami over to comfort you, but then gets jealous when you cuddle kkami instead of him

jisung

also kind of clueless, but puts his whole heart behind it

sits next to you in bed while you nap and memorizes the entire WebMD page on dry socket, so that when you wake up he’s there with ice packs and tea bags and salt water and a billion other things to try

tells you that you shouldn’t talk to speed up the recovery process, but forgets his own rule 10 seconds later and gets confused when you won’t answer his questions

freaks the heck out when you start bleeding again a few hours after the surgery and has you halfway to the car before you tell him to just help you put some gauze on it and wait it out

pets your hair and sings you to sleep

felix

Stage 5 Clinger

assumes personal responsibility for your recovery and is probably more invested in the process than you are

not afraid to get his hands dirty and do the un-glamorous things like change your bloody gauze and carry you to the bathroom when you’re still loopy

stress bakes while you’re asleep but bakes the cookies half as long as normal so they’re kind of mushy and you can still eat them

canned soup is his vibe but he’ll put cilantro or something on top so he feels like he did something

sleeps wound around you like a little boa constrictor and isn’t mad if you drool on him

seungmin

medical philosophy is that you should let nature take its course, so he’s not really a coddler

more of the type to put you in bed with a stuffed animal and pat you on the head and then go sit in the living room where he can hear you call if you need him

good to have around if you’re nervous before the surgery, because he’s extremely calm and has the power to rationally talk you down from all your irrational fears about complications

will cook simple foods for you until you’re better

super good about remembering when you have to take your meds, and won’t go to sleep before you in case you’re in pain

jeongin

also vaguely traumatized, he has less than half an idea what to do but he refuses to leave you alone

even if it means getting chan or hyunjin involved, he is going to treat this as a learning chapter on his Road To Ultimate Boyfriend

holds your hand in the car the whole way to the doctor’s, and buys you flowers afterwards even if you’re too loopy to appreciate them

sets up camp wherever you are, complete with his laptop that is playing your favorite movie on loop and a list of internet-approved soft foods

keeps a meticulous list of all your medications so he can remind you when to take them, and dresses you in his oversized hoodies because it makes him feel better more than it makes you feel better

[consumeconstantly]

Those Who Are Kind

1| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (you are here) | next

Summary: Siblings are the last thing on Marinette’s mind as she begins her frantic search for Tikki. Really, she can’t even consider them siblings, not yet. But they’re along for the ride, whether she wants them to be or not.

Duke doesn’t know what to make of the current situation.

He’s always known that the Waynes are crazy, insane, even, but he loves them all the same, in the begrudging, cautious way he cannot shake. (This approach has served him well over the years, allowing him to avoid multiple schemes that Tim or Jason typically start up to rile up Damian. From there, everything is guaranteed to snowball. The only time things get really bad is when Cass gets involved.) To him, it’s always been a bit uncanny how similar all the brothers looked, despite the fact that none of them shared blood. All of them had the same sharp jaw, piercing blue eyes, chiselled cheekbones and defined bodies. Only Tim and Damian differed slightly, with Tim having a dancer’s figure instead of that of a body builder or demolitions expert, and Damian having green eyes instead of blue. It’s also disconcerting that everybody the Waynes are more intimately involved with have some sort of alter ego. He often joked with other members of the Justice League that heroism ran in Bruce’s blood.

With the new addition of Marinette to their family, he has to say that he’s been proven right.

A girl who had absolutely nothing to do with the Waynes in any capacity other than the fact that she and Bruce share blood becoming a hero. The leader of a team. Fighting supervillains at the age of thirteen.

He’s very, very glad that he was not adopted by or shared blood with Bruce. He doesn’t think he could have handled being a superhero at age thirteen. He can barely handle being Signal now some days, and he’s an adult. The amount of responsibility on Marinette’s shoulders is difficult to understand. To be the sole wielder of magic that can revert an entire city back to its original state. To bring people back from the dead. 

Dick is strangely quiet. A car is driving them from a pit stop near a zeta tube to Marinette’s hospital. 

Hands down, Dick is the most sane male of the Wayne family, not including Alfred. But there are times when Duke sees the weight that he carries. All the times that he refuses to talk about the burdens that he bears. Moving forward with a smile when he’s in pain. When he gets in a mood like this, he’s hard to read. But given the circumstances, it’s fairly clear exactly what’s bothering him. 

“He’s known about her this entire time,” Dick says, tinted windows allowing Duke a glance at his expression, carefully devoid of any telling emotions. “Nineteen years. He kept her a secret.”

“It’s Bruce.” The man is known for keeping secrets. 

“Yeah, but Marinette is family. She should have been, at least. And now…”

Now she’s all alone when she should be surrounded by people that love her, praising her for her victory, for how she shouldered so much responsibility at such a young age. But by bringing her to a hospital in America, she’s been cut off from her team, and any support system she should have had is gone. 

“You and her,” Duke says, looking for a way to comfort him. “You’ll get along. You’re similar, after all.” After they brought Gabriel and Lila to the a top security prison and sent Emilie to a hospital that couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her, they got two files from Tim. One detailing Ladybug and all of her exploits. The second, detailing Marinette’s life. 

Duke has watched the videos. Has watched how Ladybug leads by example, comes up with the plan and begins the execution. How she shoulders more battles than she should. 

He’s seen Marinette pull people together with a smile on her face, even while she’s running on empty after a strenuous akuma attack. 

Dick and Marinette are alike. 

“We’re too much alike,” Dick says. “I suspected for a long time that Bruce had another kid that he wasn’t telling us about, but I thought that if he was keeping her away from us, then maybe she’d have a shot at leading a good life. A normal life. Not the one she got. Sabine’s— Bruce’s biological daughter shouldn’t be somebody like me. She deserves better.”

Duke is acutely aware that Dick’s parents were also murdered, but whatever relation he had with Sabine is something he’s never been willing to talk about. There are pictures in his apartment of a petite Asian woman with a soft smile standing next to him, but whenever asked about her, Dick never gives a straight answer. 

“Nobody has the ability to change the past.” Duke claps a hand on his friend’s shoulder. He sags imperceptibly under the weight. 

Well— actually, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities, given the fact that magic, aliens, and metahumans all coexisted, supplemented by the fact that multiple members of Marinette’s team do have the ability to travel back in time, but that’s another matter entirely. There’s not a lot of information on the Miraculous, and all of their knowledge is coming from Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Zatara, and even the three of them don’t know everything. 

“But you have the chance to do good by her. Be a good older brother, like I know you are.”

A thin smile appears on Dick’s face. “She’s going to need more than just one good influence on her life. And Damian is better, but you saw how he looked at her when Bruce brought her through the Zeta tubes. Tim’s not going to react well either, and Jason is a wild card. She’s not going to get the support she needs if she stays with us.”

Duke crosses his arms, knees brushing up against the back of the car seat. “The only person whose actions you’re responsible for are your own. Don’t worry about them. If they don’t like her, they’ll just avoid her.”

That’s certainly not true— all of the members of the Wayne family are notorious for going hard after all of the things they don’t like. But... it’s comforting to hear. Sometimes temporary and known lies are much nicer than harsh realities.

#

She’s gone.

All of her belongings are missing, the IV needle is hanging from the stand, the window open, and Marinette is missing from her bed.

At least she left a note?

Be back soon — Marinette

“Great,” Duke mutters under his breath. “Another incredibly vague, cryptic Wayne.”

Dick’s face turns to ash. “Her legs. Her head. She can’t go out so soon. Hold on, maybe Barbara can pull up some footage.”

“On the bright side, there’s no blood,” Duke says. 

“That’s not a bright side.”

“It is,” Duke argues. “She fell in the worst places possible, right on top of that broken glass casket. If she’s not bleeding that clearly means she didn’t pull her stitches on her mad escape out.”

When Ladybug fell, they’re not exactly sure what happened, because the screen showed Ladybug collapsing almost gracefully. When they arrived on the scene, she flickered between Ladybug and Marinette as her earrings beeped. Her legs were slashed from falling on the glass with a seemingly unnatural force— simply falling would not have garnered cuts that large— and her head was twisted at an odd angle, debris bloodied beneath her.

Somehow, the Miraculous Cure seemed to be working backwards. Not from the epicenter out, but rather from the edge of the damage, in. It worked slowly, every mile taking minutes instead of mere seconds. It hadn’t happened before in any of the battles.

It was useful in apprehending Hawkmoth and Pavona, who were still knocked out. But Marinette, even after the Miraculous Cure washed over her, didn’t get healed. Her injuries didn’t revert. There was still a gash on her stomach from Hawkmoth’s cane, still muscles exposed on the back of her legs and blood on her neck. When she was first brought in, the doctors feared that she may be permanently incapacitated. 

Good at keeping to her word at least. She came swinging through the window with worry on her face and grief in her eyes. 

“I need to go back to Paris,” she says. 

Dick will undoubtedly say no. He’s a very protective person, and Marinette is the center of his current efforts. 

But she doesn’t look injured. He eyes her stance. She’s standing with no effort, walks with no limp. No hospital dress, no blood on her neck, no bruises in all of the places he was expecting them to be. Marinette does not look like she just faced a world ending threat less than twenty four hours ago. She certainly doesn’t look like she’s permanently lost the use of her legs. There’s the familiar Wayne Brand Stubbornness in her eyes— no way she’s not Bruce’s kid— that tells him that she’s going to get to Paris one way or another, and that they’re either lucky they were even notified in the first place or that she wants to use a resource that they have that she does not have access to. It’s fairly obvious what that resource is, considering that Paris is nine hours away by any normal plane and it sounds like she wants to get there in minutes, and not hours. Duke also knows that if they don’t take what she’s offering now, she’ll use an alternative method that definitely won’t be as nice or clear cut. 

He jumps in before Dick can say anything. “We’ll take you as long as we go with you every step of the way.”

Oh, he’s going to get in so much trouble for doing this. Dick is looking at him with his Disapproving Dad glare, and he can imagine Bruce going into brooding silence when he hears that Duke allowed this to happen. 

Marinette’s lips pinch together, but she nods. “Where’s the nearest zeta tube?”

#

Barbara gets Dick’s text and sighs in frustration.

She’s already got her hands full with watching Tim, who’s spiralling trying to find information about the Miraculous, muttering under his breath in the way he does when he gets a particularly hard case to crack. He’s gone through six cups of coffee in the last hour, and he kicked off his research with a combination of 5 Hour Energy, Monster, three packets of sugar, and 10 caffeine shots. Soon, she’ll have to start limiting his caffeine intake, but right now it’s clear that any attempt to get him to stop his research now will fail spectacularly. At least she’s not in charge of Damian and Jason. Wherever they are, they’re definitely on the move and not happy.

She never thought she'd be able to say she’s happy about being paralyzed from the waist down, but she certainly doesn’t want to be chasing after one of the two hellions. Cass definitely has her hands full and whoever’s watching Jason— wait, is anybody even watching Jason? Typically Roy gets stuck with Jason-sitting duty, but he’s been out for a while. 

Barbara groans. Jason is probably on his own, wreaking havoc.

Great.

She’ll deal with that later, even though she has no doubt she’ll regret that decision, but if Marinette is gone from her room, Dick needs the footage, and somebody needs to find where she is. The nurse put in her latest report that her legs were almost healed and that she didn’t show any signs of a concussion, but Marinette was in bad shape when she got admitted to the hospital. Even though Barbara doubts that there was any misdiagnosis, given that Bruce sprung for a VIP room in one of the pricier hospitals, in a world where magic and aliens are present, who knows what’s true or not.

“Tibet!” Tim jumps up from his hunched over position for the first time in hours. “I’m going to Tibet, the closest zeta tubes are three hours by car away, but I can get somebody to loan Wayne Industries a helicopter while I’m over there.”

“Sit down, Tim.” Barbara takes her glasses off and pinches the bridge of her nose. Why can’t Bruce rein in his children? Why is she the one stuck babysitting? “Marinette left her hospital room.”

That certainly gets Tim to put the brakes on his movements towards the zeta tube in the bat cave. 

“What?”

“I said, she left her hospital room. Just sit down while I send the information over. It’s not going to do you any good to rush into things anyways.”

A quick review of the surrounding CCTV shows that Marinette didn’t travel far, just around the hospital. She’s looking for something, calling out for it, too. Barbara grabs that file and slows it down so she can read her lips. “Dickie? Do she and Dick know each other already?”

A quick text back to Dick reveals that Marinette has already returned to the room and—

Oh, hell. 

“Well,” Barbara pushes her laptop away from her, letting Tim watch the files she’s pulled up. “It looks like we’re taking a family trip to Paris.”

#

Somehow, Marinette almost manages to lose all four of them within the first four minutes of roaming around Paris.

Luckily, their family has an almost absurd amount of luck between all of them (not all of it good) and the person Barbara was half sure she could only find in prison, beating up Hawkmoth and Pavona, runs into Marinette on the streets and herds her back to them.

“Lose something?” Jason asks, arm slung around Marinette’s shoulder, the smaller, younger girl looking rather upset at having her plans thrown off.

“I told them that they could follow me,” Marinette argues without much real bite. It’s not my fault if they can’t keep up, is the clear meaning of her statement.

Again, Barbara is very impressed that the barely nineteen year old somehow managed to shake off vigilantes with decades of experience with ease. But it is, at least, partially due to her disability. Every time she goes out in her wheelchair, her heart aches a little, especially as the civilians she passes eye her with pity. Barbara doesn’t want pity. Doesn’t need pity. She shouldn’t feel anything when people look at her like she can’t keep up, because she can keep up.

Most of the time, anyways.

It doesn’t matter how she uses her tech skills to modify her wheelchair and deck it out with all the equipment she could ever need, or that she can easily get up to speeds rivalling sports cars for short periods of time before the power runs out. When she’s stuck in her wheelchair, she loses the maneuverability she had when she wasn’t paralyzed.

She couldn’t follow Marinette through the alleyways because she was stuck. Barbara was the one who noticed her escape first. If only she were more capable, she could have—

But it’s okay now. Jason ran into her. Marinette is back with them. 

“I need to search for something, and none of you can help.” She’s not intentionally being rude when she says it, and if anything, sounds apologetic. Barbara sees the similarities between Marinette and Bruce. It makes a lot of sense that the two of them are father and daughter, when the two of them are so insistent on keeping major issues to themselves. Marinette twists herself out from underneath Jason’s arm, clutching her purse. Her head doesn’t move, but her eyes are wild. 

“We can help,” soothes Duke, ever the voice of reason. “You know who we are.”

“And I’m guessing you’ve all either deduced who I am or have been told my identity,” counters Marinette. “Which means you should know why I can’t have you helping me.”

Barbara and Duke exchange pointed glances. 

“That’s not really clear to us, actually,” says Barbara. Marinette isn’t moving, but the way her shoulders tense makes her believe that the younger girl is ready to run at the drop of a hat. 

A small group of people from the parade on the streets tumbles into the alleyway they’re resting in. They smell like cheap booze and sweat. 

“What are all of you doing in this alley?” one says, after he finished vomiting up his last (very colorful) meal. “You should be out there partying with the rest of us! Celebrating Ladybug and her team.”

“Fuck Hawkmoth and Pavona,” says another solemnly, with neon face paint and pigtails with glitter string intertwined. “Their defeat should be celebrated by even the darkest souls.”

Jason, easily amused by their antics, looks very willing to join them. “Yeah Marinette, we should be celebrating Ladybug not—”

As one, everybody looks at the place where Marinette was, just moments ago. The alley is decidedly empty of a small asian girl with blue eyes and pigtails.

“Fuck,” Jason curses.

“Fuck is right,” Duke agrees, placing a hand over his temple. 

#

Marinette manages to disappear for three hours.

Three full hours.

“She’s good,” Tim says, typing into the holographic computer embedded into his sleeve. 

Paris’ CCTVs are painfully easy to hack into, though he suspects that the lack of attention to them may have to do with the fact that everybody in the city is celebrating. Policemen, politicians, artists, students, scientists—  people from all walks of life are in the streets today, screaming and shouting and being free for the first time in years.

He spies more than just a few dozen people bawling their eyes out within a few minutes. But that’s not surprising, considering how long Parisians have had to suppress their emotions for. 

Dick and Barbara are still in the midst of profiling Marinette, trying to determine the most likely places where she’d stop by, either as Ladybug or herself. All of Ladybug’s usual haunts are decidedly devoid of the young heroine, though Tim does manage to catch a good amount of footage of the other young heroes like Carapace and Rena Rouge, who are most definitely in a relationship based on their makeout session on top of the eiffel tower (one of the first places Tim checked), Viperion, who seems to be the only one from Ladybug’s team to be seeking out the crowd which seems rather atypical considering that the hero never frequented interviews or was spotted on news coverage all that frequently,  and Chat Noir and Queen Bee who Jason insisted were in a relationship as well, though the rest of them believed they were only embracing each other out of comfort— Chat Noir looks like he’s been crying for hours, and Queen Bee looks like she’s barely holding it together.

Ryuko has not shown up on camera once today. Neither has Ladybug.

The second place Tim checks is the bakery. She is not there either, though another girl is. It doesn’t seem like the girl has any ill intent, but Duke is more than happy to pull up past files to see if she’s been there before, if she has any reason to be there, and who exactly she is. 

Just as Barbara and Dick are debating the chances that Marinette would be at Le Grande Paris, she walks past one of the cameras focused on Tom & Sabine’s Boulangerie. Tim has the system rigged up so that any facial matches for Marinette automatically alerts the room. He hadn’t been able to replicate that with Ladybug’s face for some bizarre reason which is why he, Barbara, Dick, and Jason are manually combing through the areas where Dick and Barbar think she may be (magic is why, but Tim has always believed that technology can be used against and with most forms of magic) so it’s lucky that she enters as Marinette. 

“Kagami Tsurugi,” Duke says triumphantly. “She visited often when Tom and Sabine were still alive. Potential candidate to represent France or Japan for Sabre in the next Olympics. Definitely friends with Marinette.”

“Thank God,” sighs Dick. “Now let’s get over there.”

It’s truly, truly unfortunate that they set up shop quite a distance away from the bakery.

They take too long to arrive.

#

Perhaps it was a mistake, telling Kagami first.

No, not just perhaps. It was a mistake. A bad one.

But Kagami was pushing so hard, and Marinette was so tired and so alone without Tikki at her side, without the knowledge that her parents would be waiting for her. Kagami pushed and pushed and pushed about why the house felt so empty, why there was dust on the floor, why the bakery was closed for so long, and where were Tom and Sabine? Why weren’t they there for the team yesterday, when the battle was won, when they knew how important it was to be there for Adrien who had just lost all three of his parental figures? 

The moment the words fall from Marinette's lips, she knows she shouldn’t have revealed it at that moment, because Kagami draws in on herself, lips turning downwards, hands curling into fists. 

Kagami has come a long way from the girl she was in lycèe. The thrill of victory is still something she enjoys, but not something she needs to feel secure in her place in the world. She has trouble expressing her emotions, but when it comes down to it, she communicates everything necessary to understand why. 

With the news of Tom and Sabine’s death, she withdraws into herself, shifts back into that thirteen year old Marinette first met. Logic  and rationale thrown to the wind in favor of cold anger. 

It’s no secret that Ryuko, Ladybug, and Viperion are the main strategists of their team. Viperion, out of his duty of using Second Chance and his ability to keep a level head in the face of constant death. Ladybug out of necessity as her position as team leader and the power of Lucky Charm. Theoretically, the two of them should have been enough. But over the years, Kagami became Marinette's favored confidante; though Ladybug trusts all of her team to keep a tight hold on any information she gives them, Kagami is one of the few who is able to pick apart a given situation and transform the monsters they face into manageable pieces. 

Today, it is Kagami who has broken to pieces. Very angry, razor sharp shards that seek to hurt.

“You lie to the media, tell them a pretty tale of how they died due to a break in. Why do you avoid pinning their deaths on Lila as you should? To absolve a quality woman from guilt?”

Marinette can’t look Kagami in the eyes.

Her parents deserved a peaceful death. To pass on in old age, hand in hand. Not looking on as a family member died, in fear of what would happen next for their daughter. 

“The police know. The judges know,” Marinette protests weakly, but without much eight behind her words.

Kagami just scoffs. “Tom and Sabine were kind people. To not tell the media what truly happened— that’s preventing Lila from getting the full force of what’s coming to her. What happens if she gets out of prison one day? Without any real deaths to her name, she could just flee to another country to escape it all. And when another person loses their life because of her…” 

She doesn’t need to finish her sentence. If somebody else gets injured in any way, shape or form at the hands of Lila Rossi, it’s Marinette’s fault. Marinette gets what Kagami is trying to say. She thinks the same thing, after all.

“My parents would not want their death publicized in that manner.” It’s the truth, but it’s said so weakly that the words come off as little more than a weak defense, and Kagami takes the words and twists their truth.

“You know little of your parents, considering that you’re their daughter.” Kagami stands stock still, not a single extra muscle moving. “Perhaps if you spent more time with them as Marinette instead of unsuccessfully gallivanting around as Ladybug, you’d have realized that Tom and Sabine admire truth above all else, even if it is painful.”

Kagami does not ask a single question about where Marinette was last night, or how Marinette felt over the loss of her parents or when she saw all those she held dear lying still on the ground after Hawkmoth and Pavona’s final attacks. She just purses her lips and sweeps out the door.

And then she’s gone, and Marinette is alone once more. 

#

The bakery is bone-achingly quiet.

Every step Marinette takes creates such a disturbance in the peace that moving hurts. 

But she can’t stay here. She can’t stay here. She does not deserve to stay here. Kagami is right. Marinette was a bad daughter. She could have prevented their death, could have given them justice sooner, could have— 

And Marinette can’t breathe. She tries to, she tries so hard to, but she chokes.

She kneels down on the floor— Kagami is right again, the place is dusty, because Marinette couldn’t bring herself to use the living room and kitchen without her parents, could barely bring herself to sleep in her bedroom because she knew that her parents were not sleeping soundly in the bed below hers— and scrabbles at her throat, vision coming in and out.

Her legs burn. She knows that during the final battle, her legs were cut towards the end of it, and they should be healed, she should be okay now, she’s better than this, she’s— 

Somebody gathers her in their arms. They smell slightly of Lotus flowers, just like Maman, and cradle her ever so gently.

Marinette’s eyes open— black hair, greyish eyes filled with understanding and love and— 

She can breathe again.

She falls asleep.

#

“Cass?” Dick’s eyes widen at her unexpected appearance at Marinette’s home.

“I thought you were on Damian guard duty,” Barbara says, fixating on the red around Marinette’s eyes and the barely dried tear tracks on her face.

“Where’s that Kagami girl?” Jason scuffs his shoes on the hardware floor, silently marking the footprints on the floor and getting a general idea of what occurred before they were able to get here based on Marinette’s current state and the other girl’s absence. “I want to have some words with her.”

Cass inclines her head sharply, eye sparking with anger. Jason’s fists rise unconsciously— Cass rarely gets angry, and whenever she gets angry at a specific person, that means they’ve done something very, very wrong— ready to hunt down Kagami. Marinette sniffles and shifts in Cass’ one armed embrace, to which Cass places a finger over her lip and shakes her head, a universal sign to be quiet.

 Jason scowls but settles down.

They’re quiet as they wait for Marinette to wake.

@biodad-bruce-month

Maribat tag list(to be added onto this pls send me an ask/dm): @our-precipreciousss @my-dear-friend-anxiety

Who Are You (and what will you become) tag list (to be added here just comment): @anjuschiffer @theunquiet-dead @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @cresentmo0n @allulily @myazael @zalladane @rebecarojas07 @keepingupwiththemalfoys  @frieddonutsweets @all-mights-asscheeks @thornalchemist23 @trippingovermyfeet @jiso-lee @redscarlet95 @ira-sairain @screechingflapbiscuitpeach @ramos123 @cutechip @theunquiet-dead @sleep-deprived-aroace @enternalempires @lilkymilky @woe-is-me0 @officiallydarkgeek @miyla-lokidottir @queencommonsense @demonicbusiness @iamablinkmarvelarmy 

@emark7 (i will have the edited version of these on ao3 eventually but i think the link to ch 1 on this one works)

where i ended this doesn’t feel very good but ehhhhhhhhhh my writing process is summary then word vomit that barely correlates which means nothing makes sense unless i edit but looking back at my work makes me cringe so at a crossroads yayyy

also can you guys tell which prompts ive written these for because i’m curious

[castiels-majestic-wings]

Sixth Sense - Chapter 5

Paring: Loki x Reader

Word Count: 3,089

Warnings: Injury Recovery, Harsh!Tony.

Posted: 17/01/2021

Waking up in Asgards infirmary wasn’t what you expected. You expected Odin to have someone transfer you back to earth so human doctors could handle you instead of him wasting his resources. But as you got up you jerked in pain. The stab wound was stitched and bandaged, but you had healed enough to move at least, only if you were careful. Your legs dangled over the edge as Odin walked in. You bowed your head refusing to look at him.

“You have awakened, child. How are you feeling?” You kept your head down, refusing to look at him. He was alone, which made you wary.

“I’m fine. But I must speak to you about what happened when Loki died. I tried to save him, as did Thor. But he died without the darkness within him. I healed him before you could speak again. He gave his life to save Thor’s.” That’s when you looked into his eyes. “He died a hero. I owe him my life.”

“Yes, Thor has told me of your endeavours.”

“When can I return to Earth? With Loki gone I have no purpose here.”

“You may leave with Thor when he returns there himself.”

“Thank you, Odin, and please, tell Asgard of Loki’s sacrifice.”

“I will.” A guard came up and whispered something in Odin’s ear. “Thor has arrived. You shall depart soon” You nodded as he left. Not long after a voice boomed through the halls disturbing your peace.

“Y/N” Thor’s voice echoed through the halls before he walked through the door.

“Thank the Norns that you’re okay!” Thor had hugged you tighter than needed.

“Ow- Thor- Wound!” You gasped in pain once he released you. He held his hands out almost touching you trying to examine you without making contact.

“I’m fine Thor. How’s Jane? Did you save earth again?”

“Jane is fine, and yes I did. Earth sustained some damage but I defeated Malekith.”

“What are you going to do now? ”

“I will return to Midgard. As will you. The Avengers need us.”

“Okay, Just, don’t tell Tony that I was involved. Say I got caught in the crossfire. He would hate to know that I was on the front lines.” You giggled at the thought of Tony yelling at Thor about your safety. You looked back at Thor, ready to leave.

“Let’s go home” You smiled as you got off the bed. Thor had held on to you giving you support as you made it down to the Bifrost. You had been dropped off at your balcony. You headed inside with Thor. Jarvis started speaking as you entered,

“Y/N you have arrived back safely. I shall inform Mr Stark of your arrival.” Before you could stop Jarvis a loud crash was heard from above you. Tony had dropped whatever project he was working on and started making his way down. Footsteps thundering above you. Thor had gently helped you down onto the couch as Tony walked in through the Elevator.

“Hey, Tony-”

“Don’t ‘Hey Tony’ me. Where have you been!”

“Uh. You see I went to Asgard to-”

“No excuses!”

“It’s not an excuse, Tony, just listen and I’ll tell you what happened” He huffed but stayed silent urging you to continue.

“I had to go to Asgard so I could- speak, to Loki.”

“You what?” His voice was quiet but strained. Trying to stay calm at the thought of it.

“Since I can read auras, and I read him when you caught him after the New York attack. I had already found one of his darkest secrets. So I thought if I went to speak to him, with Thor to keep me safe. Then maybe- maybe I could find out why he had attacked us. And I did.”

“So? Why did he?”

“Because he would have died if he didn’t. He was- He was tortured into submission, Tony. If he didn’t obey, he would have died at the hands of that awful creature” Tears began falling from your eyes, yet, you didn’t try to stop them. “He told me everything. All of his troubles, from his childhood to now.” Tony's face no longer showed anger, but empathy, and compassion. Seeing you cry, it made him rethink the situation. How had Loki acted while fighting them? Was he hiding his true emotions? Or did he just straight-up lie to you? He went with the question he wanted to ask, instead of sparing your feelings.

“Hey, kid. Are you sure he wasn’t lying or deceiving you? All he does is lie and manipulate-” Looking at him again the tears continued to fall as shock covered your face. You couldn’t believe that the man you looked up to, wouldn’t even try to understand someone else’s situation.

“Manipu- Manipulate? How could you say that? He- He died saving me, Tony! I saved him from his darkness, so he saved my life in return. I assure you. He was never evil.”

“Kid-” You couldn’t take his criticisms anymore, you were wounded, tired and as far as they knew grieving for someone you hardly knew. You had a connection after he opened up to you so much. Even if you knew he was still alive, you had to act as if he was gone.

“Look I’m tired okay. I just need to rest so my wound can heal.” Not giving anyone time to respond, you walked towards the hallway leading to your bedroom, closing the door behind you before you tried to rest. You heard them talk for a while, you assumed Tony had asked Thor of the details he knew, of your and Loki’s relationship- whatever it was. It wasn’t romantic, but it was more than friendship. It was an understanding of sorts.

You weren’t allowed on any missions until you were fully healed. Tony had insisted you stay in the penthouse until you were in full working order. It only took two weeks for the wound to heal. You knew it wouldn’t take long, but Tony was babying you so much it started to irritate you. So you did what any normal person would do. You left. You grabbed your backpack before heading to the elevator to leave the building.

You made your way through the streets of New York, going to the small cafe you knew wasn’t that far away. It wasn’t on the main street so it was normally quite empty. You walked in smelling the coffee and freshly baked goods. Being a regular there - when you weren’t on a mission- the cashier smiled your direction as you gave her a wave.

“Y/N! It’s been a while. Where have you been?”

“Well I kinda, got injured at work so I was told to take it easy”

“Well, working for the government is always dangerous. I’m just glad you’re okay”

“Yes, I’m fine, can I just get my regular please, Sophie?”

“Sure thing sweetie! I’ll bring it to ya once it’s done.” You gave her a small smile that she returned before getting your order. Sitting at the booth by the window you pulled a book from your backpack. Not long after Sophie returned with your order, you thanked her briefly before letting her get back to work. You enjoyed the serene moments you had here. It wasn’t fully silent, but it was never too loud for you. Taking a sip of your drink you looked out to the streets of New York. It was getting darker. You had left later than you normally would, thanks to Tony and his stupid ‘you can’t leave till you’re better’ rules. But it was still beautiful none the less.

While taking in the scenery a man sat across from you. You stared daggers at him to show you weren’t exactly interested, that was until you saw who it was. Loki. At least, you knew it was him by his aura alone. But he had used an illusion to give himself a different appearance. He had the same face, but he had shorter, light brown hair, that was curled. He also had some facial hair. He was wearing a black trenchcoat that was undone showing the white shirt he wore. And you had to agree, he was indeed attractive like that.

“Loki. I knew you were alive” You gave a shy smile before taking another sip of your drink.

“Well, I thought you might. You said yourself you can always see auras. So I assumed that even if I faked my death you would see through it.”

“Your assumption is correct” A small chuckle escaped your lips. Seeing him look so, Midgardian. It was so foreign, yet you enjoyed it. Having his company again was a nice feeling. Considering everyone thought he was dead, it was risky coming here, but even with the same face his appearance was different so no one would notice unless they were looking for it. You spent the rest of the time ranting about Tony’s stupid rules and overprotectiveness over you. Loki had just let you talk through it, the past couple of weeks had been so draining, so it was nice to rant about it to someone. Once you were done Loki just kept looking your direction for a couple of seconds before eventually responding.

“My judgement on this is that Stark seems so see you as a daughter, maybe even a little sister. So he naturally becomes overprotective when he thinks you’re hurt or in danger of any kind.” You thought about his words and they made sense. Tony had you by your side since you were a teenager. S.H.I.E.L.D found you through him. You never thought about it but he was like a father figure to you.

“That makes sense. But I guess I never thought about it. He is like a father figure to me. But he’s also one of my best friends. He took me in when I was younger.” You looked outside, gazing at the tower in the distance. “I should go back though, I’ve been gone for hours. He would be worried.” Loki frowned but stood up with you as you placed your backpack on your shoulder.

“Let me walk you back, it’s dark out.” A pout appeared on your face, you wanted to walk with him but would Tony recognise him?

“I could change my appearance again so Stark wouldn’t recognise me.”

“There are plenty of doppelgangers in this world. I’ll just tell him you’re my old friend who came to visit” You said goodbye to Sophie as she gave a thumbs up and a cheeky grin saying ‘go get him’. She had assumed you were on a date. Considering how long you spoke, you could see why. The walk back to the tower was short, you wished it would last longer. Since he was presumed dead you didn’t know how much time you could spend together. Granted you hardly spent any time together before today, but it was so nice, you wanted to do it again. And so did he. He never enjoyed time with a Midgardian before he spent time with you. You shared his interest in books, and quiet places. You listened to his problems and empathised with him. You cared for him. There was a new, unknown feeling bubbling in his chest. He didn’t know why, but he felt drawn to you. Could it have been your ability to read his memories? Had you implanted some of yourself into his subconscious? Or was it just that you had cared for him, so he cared for you in return.

Making it to the tower you had insisted he leave you at the door but he entered the elevator with you ignoring your pleas. You knew Tony would ask questions, but Loki was persistent. You knew Jarvis was listening in so you knew you couldn’t speak to him as Loki. But you had assumed Jarvis would update Tony on your arrival by the time you got to your floor. The doors opened and you had stepped into your apartment leading Loki inside. You placed your backpack on the couch before making your way to the kitchen to get a drink. Loki was observing your place, looking for the small details of it that showed your personality. Like the small paintings placed above the television. The pictures of your family you placed on the mantle. Even the way you organised your things. He wanted to know all about you.

“Jarvis, is Tony back yet?” Confused as to who you were speaking with, Loki made his way towards you before being startled by a voice.

“Yes ma’am, would you like me to inform him of your return?” He continued his way to you noticing no one was present when you came into view.

“Yes, but tell him I have a friend over. We met up at the cafe”

“Of course, ma’am” You rolled your eyes before scolding him.

“How many times have I told you to stop calling me that! You’re making me feel old” You grumbled.

“I’m sorry Miss Y/N”

“Who are you speaking to?” The look of absolute confusion on his face made you giggle.

“Oh, that’s Jarvis. He’s the AI.” You turned towards him, mug in hand.

“AI?” You nodded leaning against the counter.

“Artificial Intelligence. He’s basically the security system, he’s always watching, always listening.”

“Why doesn’t a lady have any privacy in this realm?” His voice was quiet like he was talking to himself.

“Yes, we do. But since I’m technically an Avenger, it’s all for my protection. But he will stop if I ask. Since I’m the only female under his watch, Tony made adjustments so I could get privacy when I wanted. It’s voice-activated though. The phrase itself doesn’t matter unless it’s my voice.”

“Interesting” He placed a hand to his mouth deep in thought before you heard the ping of the elevator opening. You didn’t need to look to know it was Tony. He walked into the kitchen as Loki looked towards the door. Knowing he won’t let you speak you let him do so first.

“Why did you leave? Where did you go? And who is he?” He emphasised as he stared daggers at Loki. But you knew not to act suspicious. You shrugged as you answered his questions.

“Because you had trapped me here. To the cafe. And this is a friend of mine.” Taking a sip of your drink you tilted your head towards Loki. Tony continued staring. If he kept looking he might recognise him.

“The names Luke” Loki held his hand out awkwardly and dropped it realising Tony wouldn’t take it. After he introduced himself to Tony you realised the tension was high. Clearing your throat, you put your mug in the sink before making your way to the doorway, which Tony was standing in. You stopped in front of him placing a hand on his arm.

“Tony, don’t ruin this for me. I haven’t seen him in ages, and your pretty intimidating since you’re a billionaire and an avenger. Just leave, please. We’ll talk this through when he leaves.” He looked at your pleading eyes before nodding silently. He left, but not before sending intimidating eyes back at Loki. Once you knew he was gone you exhaled the breath you didn’t realise you were holding.

“Jarvis. I would like a private conversation, can you mute all camera’s until I say otherwise.”

“Of course Miss Y/N.” You waited a couple of seconds before nodding your head Loki’s direction, indicating that you wanted him to follow as you walked toward the couch. You sat down gesturing to the seat next to you. As he sat down you moved your body to face him.

"Now then, I have some questions." He nodded urging you to continue."Why did you fake your death, I've had to pretend that I still think you are supposedly dead."

"Why to take the throne of course. If I became Odin no one would know."

"So you will use illusions to become Odin and take over the throne? But how will you do that with Odin still present?"

"Easy, I used a spell that My Mother- Frigga taught me"

"Used- so you've already done it?!" You leaned closer to him intrigued by his success.

"Of course. I just had to see you first." Leaning back once more you knew you had to ask.

"Well, where is Odin now?"

"A care home here in New York" You pondered whether you should ask him or not before deciding to anyway.

"Which one? Would you like me to keep an eye on him. To make sure he doesn't break from your spell. I'm not doubting your skill or anything. But he's the Allfather. He's powerful"

"There's no guarantee that he won't break free from it. But it should last a couple of years at least." Nodding to show your understanding, you held his hand between your own.

"I know that this is what you always wanted. But have you thought of the consequences" Questioning the God of Mischief would normally be a stupid act, follwed by an order, a threat or a beating of some kind. But he wouldn't hurt you. He had proved that when he saved your life, and returned to check on you after you were injured.

"I have. But this is the better option. Odin gave orders to stop Thor no matter the cost. Even if it ends in his death. I can't let him do that. So i took over."

"So the Odin that was with me-"

"Yes, it was me. But I couldn't let Thor know. Making sure the guards didn't kill him when he came to bring you back here was difficult. They questioned why Odin changed his mind so soon."

"Makes sense but-" The elevator opened halting your conversation. Cap walked in holding some papers. Shuffling through them before picking one up as he spoke.

"Y/N I know you just got back but you need to take a look at this" Eyes narrowing you walked towards him taking the paper from his grasp. Skimming through the documents you stopped and re-read the same sentence over and over again. Trying to make sense of it. These were unofficial S.H.I.E.L.D documents. It was Tony's statement. From when he found you all those years ago. And alongside it, was a picture. The item that was the source of your power.

Sixth Sense Taglist: @lovermrjokerr @lord-byron @lucywrites02 @violetica @quirkyreaderwriter @prettysbliss @ditsyisadumbadjective

[buglife]

Bend and Not Break - Ch 5: Epilogue - Hands Down

Read here on AO3 :3

As much as Quirrel enjoyed having a ‘break’, it was starting to get on his nerves.

Ever since he woke up from his pseudo coma two weeks ago, he had been doing nothing but lie in bed and get doted on every single second of the day. He understood why, he had inadvertently scared his family and friends after the assassination attempt and they were still worried. It was a close call, and Ghost especially was more protective than usual because of it. Even when the Knights cleared the doctors on duty, they had been reluctant to let any of them near him. He had to reassure his love that doctors tend to know what they are doing and to let them do their jobs. After getting actual doctors involved, he started to feel better. They at least weren’t like his mother, having bugs spy on him to make sure he stayed in bed. She was serious about her threat and he didn't dare test her.

He was also rather surprised to get an entire sack of mail just for him. All of them were well wishes from various citizens, happy to learn that he’ll be okay. He quickly realized that it would be impossible to personally reply to them all, so he got some retainers to write some thank you notes in return. His mother raised him to be polite, after all, and he was touched by the letter. He resolved to keep them as soon as he could figure out where to put them all.

He felt awful. For a while it hurt to breathe and move. Apparently, the poison affected his nerves and the constant spasms had caused some damage. The high fever did not help much either, and it took several days before he could function without pain medication. He had decided after everything was said and done, to never see soup again as long as he lived. He had consumed enough soup to last an entire lifetime, and if Ghost brought him one more bowl of soup he would throw said bowl out the nearest window. Ghost promised not bring any more soup...only to bring him a bisque for dinner that night.

Sometimes he thought that his mother has had an adverse affect on his spouse.

Thankfully, there wasn’t going to be any permanent damage from the poisoning. He would still be tired and weak for a while as his body worked to repair itself, but he wasn’t in danger anymore. The bed rest however, he wasn’t too fond of, not when there was so much to do still. Sure...he slept a lot...but it was the principle of the matter. He was perfectly able to sit up in bed and catch up on paperwork, but he wasn’t even allowed to do that.

How miserable it is, to be on a mandatory vacation, especially for a bug that was used to just...getting up and doing things.

The only good thing about it was that Ghost would carry him to their personal hot spring in the bathroom and they could spend some time together. Being so busy, they often only saw each other briefly through the day and only had an hour or so before bed before exhaustion claimed them both. It was nice to be able to just relax together, listening to random gossip and updating the various running betting pools. So far, Quirrel had 100 Geo riding on Lurien showing up to court high next time they arranged a meeting together. Ghost bet that he wouldn’t, but Quirrel knows Lurien and Lurien deals with social anxiety by removing social anxiety entirely. It was good to laugh again after such a tense week. Eventually, Ghost started taking up duties again while Quirrel’s health continued to improve.

There came the matter of the prisoners left alive, but Quirrel needed to talk to someone first before he made a decision.

Once he was cleared to walk around again, he and his spouse headed to one of the royal suites. Once doctors were cleared, Poppy the scorpion had been moved from protective custody in the dungeon up to a much nicer room to recover in. From what Quirrel understood from both Xena’s reports and Ghost’s commentary, Poppy was an innocent victim in all this. Venomous bugs tended to get quite a bit of discrimination despite how hard they worked to turn public opinion around. Times were changing for sure, one of the archive researchers, a bee-fly, had recently became engaged to her tarantula girlfriend. It was slow going, however, and he wanted to be sure that Poppy would be alright in the end.

He paused outside her door and knocked. “Remember dear, to be gentle with her. It’s probably going to be intimidating to meet with both rulers at once.”

Ghost nodded. “I’ll behave.”

“You better.” Quirrel smirked.

“Hello! Come in!” Came a the voice on the other side of the door. Ghost took the knob, turning it and opening the door for the both to step inside.

The scorpion was sitting in bed, looking much better than what Xena had first described. The softer parts of her chitin was returning to a healthy golden brown and much of her bandages have been removed. Her damaged eye had started to heal, and besides the odd crack or two in her shell, there wasn’t much visible indication of her harrowing ordeal. From was understood, she still needed plenty of rest and food, but she was well enough to finally go home with an escort from Deepnest.

She was clearly only expecting a doctor or someone else other than a royal, because as soon as she spotted the two kings her eyes widened and she started twitching.

“Oh! Oh I am so sorry!” She clasped her many hands together, eyes darting about as she wondered if she should bow or curtsy or anything else other than just sitting in bed. Quirrel held up a hand before she could work herself into a panic attack.

“It’s alright. We’re just here to check up on you.”

She tilted her head. “Really? Um…” She nervously fiddled her pincers together. “I’m... I’m sorry that this all happened. I never wanted to hurt any bugs, I swear!”

“You aren’t in trouble. We know this wasn’t your fault. You seem like a sweet bug, I’m sorry you had to go through all this.” Quirrel said kindly, taking a seat next to one side of the bed. Ghost took the other side and chirped in encouragement.

“We just want to make sure you will be okay, before my sister comes to help you back home.” Ghost signed each word slowly to make sure Poppy could see it with her bad eye. They patted one of her hands, attempting to show a bit of comfort without completely freaking her out.

“Thank you.” She sounded relieved, most likely she thought she was about to get thrown in the dungeon for her unwilling part in this. “It was really nice of you to give me this room until I felt better.”

“To be honest, you deserved at least something nice after all of that. We aren’t even your rulers and yet you refused to work willingly with the conspirators.”

“You weren’t even a warrior, you are a flower bug. It takes immense courage to stand up for what is right even in the face of pain and fear.”

The scorpion blushed blue from the praise, looking like she wanted to duck under the covers and hide, but didn’t out of social politeness. “Um...thanks...your majesties.” She squeaked, deciding instead to hide her face in her pincers for a moment. She was clearly not used to such comments.

Quirrel sighed, thinking of the best way to word the question he wanted to ask. “I apologize for having to bring up what you went through...but there is something we’d like to know, if you would be so kind to answer. We still have some of the conspirators in the dungeon, including the ring leader. If you had a choice, what would you do with them?”

“You mean...like...keeping them in jail or executing them?” She twiddled her claws in thought.

Ghost nodded. “Yes. Technically it would be up to us because of the treason and attempted regicide. But you were also hurt and you are not one of our citizens, and Deepnest deserves an opinion too. We would just like to know your thoughts.”

“Well...um...I don’t...I don’t want more bugs to die.” She shrank a little into herself as she collected her thoughts. “I mean, my momma always said that you can’t um…learn a lesson if you’re dead, ya know? Maybe they could still learn to be good bugs if someone taught them how, if that’s okay…”

Quirrel smiled. “Those are certainly wise words. We’ll take that into consideration when we make a final decision together.”

“We’ll leave you be for now, your escort will be here to collect you once we are done with our meeting. Is there anything else you need before then?” Ghost tilted their head in a smile, echoing their husband.

“No, you all have been so nice! Thank you so much!” She beamed. “I can’t wait to go home and check on my flowers!”

“Good, who knows, we might drop In to say hello sometime.” Quirrel laughed, leaning in closer to mock whisper. “Don’t tell anyone this, but Ghost’s sibling, Hollow, loves flowers. Their room is practically a jungle.”

“Hollow the Kind? Oh! Oh yes we get some really rare and pretty flowers! I’ll save a few for when you drop by!” Clearly this was the route to go, because now Poppy was vibrating in excitement. Her eyes sparkled, now more busy thinking about flowers than being nervous. “If their room is as big as this one, they might like some Strongylodon macrobotrys! Cypripedioideae might also be nice, there’s enough humidity for those!” She started muttering under her breath, scientific names and common names blending together as she thought aloud.

“Don’t worry, once you are situated and back in business, we’ll come take a look.” Quirrel put a stop to her rambling for now. “I’m afraid we must leave for now, but do send a letter to the palace once you are open again.”

“Thanks! I will!” She was practically shining in joy. Both Ghost and Quirrel gave her a polite little bow, and then left her on her own. She was alone within moments, with nothing to do now but to wait for her escort to take her home again.

She started to vibrate again. Inspiration was coming to her, and she cannot be stopped!

She wondered if she could get a hold of a Amorphophallus titanum, something told her that it was a flower that the royal family would get a kick out of for sure.

---

Hornet sat, awaiting her siblings and adopted brother within the meeting room. Two weavers sat with her, one on either side. She wished she could be here for a friendly visit, she honestly did miss her siblings. Alas, the work of a princess is never finished, and she did not envy her mother, the queen, in any way shape or form. Sure her mother commanded respect and power, but the sheer amount of shit she had to put up with in a day makes Hornet grateful that it’ll be a long time before she has to pick up the crown. She thankfully just had this one matter to finish and then she could go home and hide away from other bugs for a while.

Unfortunately, she was stuck with Tiso, who kept making faces at her when he thought she wasn’t looking.

“Tiso, if you keep doing that, I will pull that tongue right out of your mouth.” She hissed, but her words weren’t completely full of malice. She fingered the needle in her hands, the urge to stab rising.

“Sorry, I’m already in a committed relationship.” He replied, grinning widely. “I don’t think my girls would like that.”

“I would stab you in the head, but I think I would miss your brain from how small it is.”

“Why do you have to be so mean, Hornet.” Tiso fake pouted. “I happen to have a nice brain...I think.”

“Because someone in this family has to be the mean one, and I take on that position with pride.” She bared her own fangs at the ant. She had more fangs than a spider ought to have for sure. Tiso however, had no fucks to give and thus wasn't intimidated at all.

Before Tiso could antagonize her further, the door to the room opened and in strolled the two rulers of Hallownest. Ghost made a beeline to Hornet, swiftly grabbing her up in a hug and purring loudly. “Sister!”

The weavers sighed, now used to all this. At first they freaked the fuck out when the eldritch god of a king picking up their crown princess and hugged her. Even more when they first heard the weird voice in their heads that belonged to said king. Now, it was routine.

“Hello, Ghost.” Hornet wheezed, getting thoroughly smooshed. With practiced ease, she wiggled herself out of their grip and dropped gracefully to the floor. She turned to regard the pillbug approaching her. “Hello Quirrel, I’m glad to see that you aren’t dead. I would have been quite disappointing in you if you died without my sibling’s express permission.”

He laughed and gave her a quick hug. “As if a little poison alone would kill me.”

“You’re a tougher bug than what I gave credit for.” She stepped back once the pleasantries were out of the way. “It boons well not only for my sibling, but for relations between our kingdoms.”

“You just say that because your mother loves watching you kick my ass up and down the village.” Quirrel sighed and took a seat at the table.

“She does enjoy seeing Deepnest having an equal and honorable relationship with the current diarchy.” She smoothly said, all but confirming Quirrel’s statement as she sat down as well. “It’s much easier to come to a mutual understanding when one honors the traditions and customs of the kingdom they are visiting. Only a bug willing to back up their words through conviction is worthy of mother’s time of day.”

“Yeah, but Herrah also gives us cookies after you beat us up. I didn’t know that was part of Deepnest’s honorable traditions.” Ghost added, sitting next to Quirrel and giving him a quick nuzzle.

“Of course it is!” Hornet snorted, tilting her head to the side and adding some amusement to her voice. “Only the worthy get cookies.”

“Am I worthy enough to get a cookie?” Tiso piped up.

“No.” She hissed.

“Mean.” He retorted, going back to guarding the door with a sigh.

“I believe we should get down to the nature of this meeting,” Quirrel finally cut in, arranging the quill and papers on the table. “Not only are you here to retrieve your citizen, but also to represent your mother in the discussions about the prisoners responsible for her harm.”

“Yes.” She cleared her throat, going into princess mode. “Under current Deepnest law, via our new treaty, citizens from Hallownest that commit crimes in Deepnest are to be extradited to Deepnest for punishment, and vise versa.”

“Well that makes things easier for sure.” Quirrel scribbled on a spare piece of paper. “We have prisoners directly responsible for the abduction and torture of your citizen. I believe Herrah already came to a decision on what is to become of them?”

“Yes. Ghost sent the letter a week ago, it gave mother plenty of time to think.” Hornet reached into her cloak, pulling out a letter written on spider silk. She slid it across the table for both Ghost and Quirrel. “She formally requests that the prisoners be transported to our dungeon, where they will be judged and tried by our people.”

“It will be done.” Ghost looked to Tiso and nodded. “Can you run that order down to the dungeons?”

“Sure, Squib.” Tiso saluted, and then was gone.

Hornet looked at Ghost with a frown after the ant departed. “You shouldn’t let him keep calling you ‘squib’ and the like, you are his king and he should respect you enough to use your title, even if you adopted him.”

“Can’t.” They just shrugged in response. “Big brother rights. It’s law.”

“I’m afraid that it’s true.” Quirrel nodded solemnly. “Especially since you let Hollow call you...what was it now? Their ‘Special Spooder Sister?' I’m guessing we should tell them to add a ‘Princess’ to that as well.”

“It’s okay love, clearly she wants to be referred to her proper title, Princess Angey Spooder. I apologize for not using it earlier, dear sister.”

“Next time we have an event, we will alert the guards to announce you with your proper title, Princess Precious Paws. Please excuse our ignorance.”

“OKAY, I GET IT.” She threw up her hands in frustration. “I’ll shut up about the nicknames!”

Both diarchs struggled to contain their laughter and were quickly losing. Quirrel was the first to crack, and quickly dragged Ghost down with him as they laughed.

The weaver guards looked at Hornet, who only returned a sigh and a head shake. “Yes yes, I exist to provide amusement to the both of you. Are we done here?”

Ghost snorted and wiped their eyes, reining in the lingering giggles. “Yeah, just be sure you are here next weekend for Sibling Day.”

“As if I would miss Hollow’s cooking.” She replied with a curt nod of her head. “Now, I will collect my wayward citizen and return to Deepnest. On behalf of Queen Herrah, Deepnest thanks you for your cooperation and care in regards of one of our own.”

“Hallownest is more than happy to work with Deepnest on whatever they need.” Ghost sat up straight and bowed their head, acting the part of a reining diarch. They tilted their head back up slightly, a hint of mayhem within as they looked directly at Hornet. “I will be sure to write a letter to Herrah, thanking her for allowing her most esteemed and beloved daughter to visit us, her Highness Princess Stabby Spider.”

It took all of Hornet’s grace and self control to NOT start a diplomatic incident. But boy...did she want to.

---

Quirrel looked over the crowd, spouse standing beside him as he once again found himself on a podium. Bugs were crowded in the streets and hanging off the buildings, all looking at him as he spoke. It was the same speech he had written what seemed like ages ago, but it seems like this time he’d be allowed to finish it. Any ounce of nervousness was squashed by a cool hand in his, squeezing once in a while to remind him that his spouse was there. It was very welcome, as he felt the constant urge to look to the rooftops of the buildings around them, ready to dodge in case another crossbow bolt came his way.

There were certainly more guards than usual, but it was understandable. He highly doubted another assassination attempt would be possible with how many guards were out and about. Most of the citizens didn’t seem to mind, watching and listening with smiles as he continued to prattle on. He didn’t feel like standing here all day, he had plans.

“And so we formally declare that the Hallownest Memorial Greenhouse is now open to the public! Feel free to inside and have a look! Thank you all for coming today, and we hope you all enjoy it!”

Finally, it was done. Ghost leaned against him as they watched the citizens filter into the multi-story greenhouse. They seemed to be having a good time, and they obviously didn’t need the two rulers to keep hanging around if not needed anymore.

“You know what,” Came the whisper of Ghost’s voice in Quirrel’s head. “Since we are done here...why don’t we do something?”

“Like what, dear?” Quirrel stretched, working out the kinks from standing up for so long.

“We could do something...spicy.” There was a devilish edge to their tone, a hand reaching around to squeeze his side. “We don’t have anything we have to do, we got plenty of time to...experiment a little.”

The pillbug couldn’t help but shiver a little, flashing a grin. “Oh ho...feeling adventurous today, are we?”

“I am.” Ghost reached down to scoop up their husband, not caring on who was watching the amount of tooth-rotting romance going down. “Let’s not waste any time, I’ve been wanting to do this with you for ages.”

Quirrel grinned, this was going to be fun.

---

“Ghost! Don’t rub your eyes after handling the peppers!”

A sharp echoing noise of pain leaked through the closed door and drifted into the hallways, stopping a pair of retainers in their tracks. They stood still for a moment, listening, unsure if they were going to be needed. They could hear one of their kings talking and the other apparently flailing around and knocking things over.

“Why the hell did you buy Dragon’s Breath peppers then? They are supposed to burn!”

A few dishes shattered and there came a slosh of water.

“Love! Stop! I’ll rinse out your- WAIT, BE CAREFUL WITH THE STOVE-”

A bright flash of yellow illuminated the bottom crack of the door and smoke began to drift from under it. There came quite a bit of commotion at that, and they could hear the occupants inside run about and knocking even more things over.

One retainer looked to the other. “What the hell is going on?”

“They are trying to cook.” Replied the other. “I don’t think it’s going well.”

“What gave you that idea?” The first sarcastically snarked, watching the smoke get a little thicker.

The second sighed. “Wait here, I’ll go get the fire extinguishers.”

[The End]

-------

The end :D Thanks for being patient, my now fiancé was visiting and I didn't get much time to write! Now I'm back on track.

Chapter title comes from this song which is so romantic and sweet and it makes me think of two people genuinely in love and all the silliness it entails. These two especially, being NERDS.

What happened to the ones involved with the assassination plot that didn't get sent to Deepnest? They are down in the waterways, hand scrubbing that all clean. No mops, just good ol' buckets and sponges. Poppy did say that just killing someone means that they will never learn the lesson they needed, so both Ghost and Quirrel took that into consideration and put their asses to work to better the kingdom. Maybe after a few decades the lesson will be fully learned >)

ALSO if you are cooking with hot peppers, be sure not to touch your eyes, mouth, or nose, or it will BURN.

[erin-bo-berin]

And Baby Makes Three

MASTERLIST

Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, I’m bringing some more fluff, but specifically daddy Spencer. This was requested by @one-sweet-gubler. I had so much fun writing this one and got a bit carried away as I ended writing about the whole pregnancy instead of just the labor part, so it may be a little long. I hope you enjoy all the Daddy Spencer feels. :)

Spencer Reid/Reader

Rating: G (fluff)

Word Count: 4,278

Spencer was over the moon when you finally fell pregnant.

The two of you had been trying for a baby for a year, with many difficulties. After a plethora of negative tests and even a false positive, you were over the moon when you found out this positive test was the real thing.

You’d taken 6 tests to be sure.

After a visit to the doctor confirmed it, you were determined to make the surprise something special for Spencer.

He had been dreaming about having kids almost all of his life. He was so good with children and the children he encountered at his job, an FBI profiler for the Behavioral Analysis Unit. It was usually scary situations when he encountered kids , but he was always there with soothing words and gentle hugs.

You, with the help of his work family, surprised him at work one day. You were so close to his teammates yourself, you knew you wanted them to be a part of the surprise as well.

You showed up at the BAU under the pretense that he’d forgotten something at home. 

The team had just gathered around the round table to brief about a new case when you walked in. Of course, Spencer was the only one truly surprised one to see you.

You’d apologized for interrupting and said that he’d left something at home that you needed to bring to him. You held up a paper bag, which only confused him, knowing he’d been sure to grab his lunch.

Everyone had watched in anticipation when he pulled a gift box out of the bag.

He’d opened it to a white onesie that when unfolded said Hi Daddy, I can’t wait to meet you. Underneath it was the first ultrasound picture of tiny baby Reid.

He was so shocked that at first he didn’t know what to do. His gaze moved around all the smiling faces at the table, then landed on you, his face breaking into a huge smile.

“Really?” he asked.

“Really.” Your own smile was as big as his.

He’d rushed towards you, hugging you tight and spinning you around in his excitement before the entire team surrounded you both giving hugs and their congratulations.

You were officially going to be parents.

•

Pregnancy wasn’t exactly a breeze for you, yet it wasn’t as bad as some women’s.

The first trimester was filled with lots of nausea, vomiting and exhaustion.

Spencer assured you that it would normally pass by the end of the first trimester. Thankfully it did, but until that point you felt like you lived off of crackers and ginger ale.

He was always the sweetest with you, making sure your supply of both never ran out. When he was home on cases, he’d cuddle with you on the couch letting you have pick of whatever show you wanted to watch—which of course you’d let him end up picking, no matter what. You would lay with your head in his lap and he’d mindlessly play with your hair. Those were some of the best days of your early pregnancy.

By your second trimester, new symptoms arrived, as did the appearance of baby Reid. By 15 weeks, you’d started to show just enough to look pregnant and not actually bloated. 

Spencer would always rub the tiny bump and talk to the baby, things that made your heart soar. It was little gestures like that that made you fall more in love with him each day.

Not only had your belly grown, but so had your appetite. You had started craving things with a vengeance, something that would often mix horribly with your unbalanced pregnancy emotions. It would be like the two wires would accidentally cross in your pregnancy brain, leading to a meltdown.

One night you’d been craving avocados so badly, you’d gone downstairs to eat the last one that you’d been saving. You found it gone, not even remembering you had already eaten it.

Spencer found you on the kitchen floor sobbing over the fact there were no avocados. He’d ended up running to the store at 9 o’clock at night to buy at least two dozen of them. You’d felt so bad afterwards, but he’d only kissed you and assured you that it was only the pregnancy hormones.

“You’re growing a little human, you’re allowed to be a little crazy sometimes,” he comforted you.

Besides the mood swings, cravings and even heartburn, you were most surprised at the changes in your libido. 

You could attest that your sex life with Spencer had never been more steamy than it was then; you were sure he could agree.

20 weeks came and you’d both agreed to find out the sex.

Instead of finding out at the doctor’s, the team had gotten together to throw a gender reveal party—mainly Penelope Garcia’s idea as she was stoked to have another BAU baby around, so who could refuse her?

Obviously it was a small get together with just the BAU team, Spencer and yourself. JJ had been in charge of getting the results, Garcia had baked the cake with the color reveal in it and of course Rossi had supplied his house as the location, as per usual.

You and Spencer both cut into the cake simultaneously and pulled out the first piece, revealing a pink hued cake.

You were thrilled, but you think it was safe to say that Spencer was ecstatic.

•

Baby names were tough.

You’d yet to start talking about names because Spencer wanted to wait until you’d found out the sex before picking a name.

“I want it to be special,” he whined a little, his bottom lip jutting out, “She deserves a good name.”

“I’m still not naming my child Aphrodite, Spencer.”

You had left it to him to research a name; he was so passionate about it, you couldn’t say no. After all, you wanted him involved in every way possible since he couldn’t technically carry the baby.

“Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty,” Spencer retorted, still flipping through books.

He was on the floor surrounded by text books, baby name books, pregnancy guide books, you couldn’t even figure out what else. He’d always been a big reader, but he made sure thus far to have as much knowledge as he could on pregnancy, childbirth and parenting.

“After all, her mommy is a goddess,” he smirked as he flipped a page.

“Why Spencer Reid, that was actually quite smooth of you.”

You ruffled his hair before leaning down and kissing him on the lips. His hands cupped your belly and he gave it a kiss too.

“Well she wouldn’t exist if I wasn’t.”

You laughed and playfully shoved him, leaving him to his reading.

•

Around 22 weeks, you felt her first movements. At first it felt like a small gurgle from your stomach and you’d stopped what you were doing, waiting to see if you’d feel it again.

When the sensation happened, it was like the soft wings of a butterfly brushing the inside of your belly. You’d ran to Spencer, thrilled that you’d finally felt her move. He pouted when he realized it wasn’t yet strong enough for him to feel from the outside.

“Keep on growing, little one,” he’d whispered to your belly, “Daddy wants to feel your kicks too.”

When she started kicking, she kicked hard.

Spencer’s reaction to feeling her kick for the first time was amazing. You could see all the love in his eyes for the little baby girl you’d both created, growing and getting stronger every day.

“I feel you baby girl,” he smiled at your belly, rubbing the spot she’d just kicked, kissing it gently.

Then he took your face in his hands and kissed you so lovingly it left you breathless.

“Thank you for being amazing,” he’d murmured against your lips before kissing you again.

•

5 months had become 6 months. Six nearly had nearly become seven.

You were almost 7 months and at your third trimester and you still hadn’t picked a name for baby girl.

Although one day, it just seemed to click into place.

“I got it!” he’d declared, looking up from a baby book.

“Okay, let’s hear it,” you said, intrigued.

“How about Arabella? It’s a Dutch name for beautiful.”

“Arabella,” you let the name roll off your tongue and you smiled, “It’s perfect for her. Now what about a middle name?”

He was already flipping through pages again, reading fast as lightning.

“I haven’t gotten that far. I’ve only gotten the first name down.”

You chuckled, “At this rate we might name her by the time she graduates from high school.”

He didn’t reply, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated. It was then that a thought occurred to you, or rather a name.

“How about Joy?”

“Hmm?” he asked, still distracted by the text.

“Joy. For her middle name. Because we’re so overjoyed about her.”

He looked up, thinking.

“Arabella Joy Reid,” he said, trying it out, then looking back at you. 

“It’s perfect.”

•

The final trimester was the real challenge.

Your body was swollen and sore, you felt huge and you were constantly exhausted. Spencer was the best at spoiling you and Arabella though. Between the cute baby things he bought—one being an onesie that said Daddy’s Little Genius—he would fix meals when he was home, run a bath for you and cuddle you afterwards.

You would often make remarks about how big you felt but he would immediately squash your insecurities saying you looked even more beautiful while pregnant.

When he left for work or for a case, he’d always make sure to kiss your bump as well as kissing you before he left, his way of saying goodbye to his girls.

As the time crept closer to her being born, his excitement grew. He couldn’t wait for your family to expand. It was so endearing to see him so happy and excited. You knew he didn’t get to have the same experience as you did currently, so you understood that he was more than eager to have her here and bond with her.

He was going to make an amazing dad.

As much as you wanted to meet your little bundle of joy, the impending approach of labor made you nervous. Obviously being a first time mom, you only knew what you’d heard and read, not what the actual experience would be like.

“Some studies have said that childbirth actually hurts more than broken bones,” Spencer had told you.

“Not helping!” you groaned.

He winced, quickly realizing his mistake.

“Well at least there’s medication now for labor pains unlike in old days when they used to—”

You stopped him in the middle of his sentence.

“Please don’t finish that sentence,” you said, “You better believe the moment I can get an epidural, I’m going to get it.”

“Whatever you’re most comfortable with is fine by me.”

He squeezed your hand, showing you that you truly did have his support. He hated to see you in pain and he knew labor was going to be strenuous, but you knew he’d be there with you every step of the way.

“Just think in two weeks we’re going to be able to finally meet her,” Spencer beamed, stroking your stomach where one of her feet had just pushed hard enough to show an imprint through your belly.

“It’s about time you carried her for once,” you teased, resting your head on his shoulder.

“Oh believe me, you’ll have to fight me before I give up holding her.”

You had zero doubts about that.

•

Your due date was right around the corner when Spencer had to fly to Colorado for a case. 

“You’re sure you’ll call me if anything happens, right?” Spencer asked for the third time.

“Spence, I’m sure,” you answered, “Besides my due date isn’t for 5 more days and my doctor said there’s a chance she might be a tad bit overdue.”

“Tell her daddy says to stay in there until I get back.”

“I will. But keep in mind, she’s as stubborn as you are.”

“Hey!” he exclaimed, feigning offense.

You laughed, “Go save a life. I’ll call you later. Love you.”

After you’d said your goodbyes, you resumed the cleaning you’d needed to finish up before baby got here.

You’d successfully washed and put away all her clothes, washed all the bottles and stored them in the cabinet along with the canisters of formula and set up her changing table with wipes and diapers.

Your hospital bag had been packed weeks ago and sat next to the door. 

Now you just finished small things like washing dishes, folding laundry and vacuuming. Sweeping was definitely not an option since you couldn’t bend down for the dustpan. Oh, how you missed being able to bend down like a normal person.

It was around one in the afternoon when you decided to lay down because you had become exhausted and your back had begun to ache. 

With a quick text to Spencer, you let him know you were napping in case you didn’t answer and he reminded you Garcia was on speed dial if you needed anything.

You fell into a restless sleep, waking about an hour later drenched in sweat, the ache now have migrated to the front of your body. You sat up to retrieve your phone so you could time the contractions, just to ensure they weren’t Braxton Hicks. That’s when you felt a gush of liquid between your legs, soaking your pants and the bed sheets.

Your thumb immediately hit the 1 on screen, dialing Penelope Garcia.

•

Spencer was standing in front of the geo map he’d been working on, studying it when his phone rang. He reached into his pocket, seeing it was Garcia and none the wiser thought she would be reporting more info on the current case.

“Hey Garcia.”

“Don’t freak out.”

His brows crinkled.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Y/N’s in labor.”

“What?!” His answer was so loud, it startled some officers nearby, “She’s not due for at least a week more!”

“Don’t tell me, tell your offspring,” Penelope retorted, “Cause she’s on her way.”

“Has her water broke? Are they sure it’s not just false labor?”

“Half an hour ago, they’re checking her now. I’m staying here until you get here obviously, but I’d hurry cause I feel like she’s gonna want you here to wring your neck when labor really starts.”

 “Okay, I’ll catch the first flight I can and call you back when I get the flight info.”

He said a quick goodbye and rushed to Emily.

“Y/N’s gone into labor and I need to get the next flight out,” he told her, simultaneously looking up flight information out of Colorado on his phone.

“Spence.”

He was too busy searching to catch the worried tone in her voice. It wasn’t until he saw the numerous amounts of cancelled next to all flights that he looked up at her.

“Normally, I’d say go ahead and go. But I don’t think you’re going to get a flight anywhere in this weather.” She pointed to the window behind him.

He turned to see it snowing so hard he couldn’t see anything else but white.

“All flights have been grounded until the storm is over. We’re stuck here.”

“No,” Spencer muttered, starting to panic.

He paced back and forth, his frustration mounting. In one motion he swiped all of the papers off the desk in his irritation, his frustration and anger at the situation bubbling to the surface.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he muttered, sinking down in the chair at the table, his hands covering his face.

His hands pushed through his hair in exasperation, his curls falling back into place moments later.

He wasn’t going to make it there in time. He was going to miss it all.

The love of his life and the mother of his child was going to have to go through labor without him.

•

“What do you mean you’re not going to make it?!” Penelope shrieked.

“All flights are grounded for the next 48 hours until this damn snow storm is over,” Spencer said. 

“And there’s no way you can make it back?”

“I’ve tried everything,” he said, sounding resigned.

“What am I supposed to tell her?”

“The truth. Garcia, you’re going to have to stay with her.”

“Me? I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies!”

“Garcia this is no time to be quoting Gone With The Wind!” Spencer exclaimed, exasperated.

“Sorry, it’s just, Spencer I don’t know what to do and she wants you!”

“Just be there, hold her hand, give her ice chips, encourage her. I’m not letting her be alone. Garcia, please,” he practically begged.

“Alright, alright. I’ll keep you updated. Garcia tech-analyst-turned-midwife out.”

-

You were laying in bed, covered in sweat from just making it through another contraction.

At your last check, you were only 4 centimeters dilated. You still had one more to go before you could get the epidural.

“This suuuuucks,” you moaned.

Your contractions were still at least 5 minutes apart, signaling you were still in the last stages of early labor, if not in early stages of active. All of that to mean the pain medication wasn’t coming until they got stronger and more frequent.

“And they said these are only the mild ones,” you groaned, looking over at Garcia who was grabbing your cup of ice.

She gave you another spoonful and put the cup back.

“You’re doing great though and the doctor said the epidural will help with most of the real intense contractions.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing Spencer isn’t here right now cause I feel like I could kill him,” you muttered.

You were devastated when Penelope told you he was stuck in Colorado. You hated that he was going to miss Arabella’s birth and you needed him here. But at the moment, you were exhausted, sweaty, in pain and very angry that Spencer had gotten you pregnant.

Of course, that was just the pain talking.

-

“I’m so sorry you got stuck with me,” you later panted, having worked your way through the previous contraction.

“Oh, sweetheart, no. I’m honored. You’ve been doing great,” she smiled, wiping your forehead, “Besides I’m thrilled to meet my goddaughter.”

You smiled weakly.

You were currently waiting for the anesthesiologist to set up the epidural. Your contractions had started amping up big time and were coming closer together. It had been several hours since you’d first been admitted to the hospital, the nightfall just outside your window indicating the late hour.

After being propped up against Penelope and neither of you looking at the needle that was inserted into your spine, the epidural was finally taking affect. The sweet sensation of numbness was a relief. You had gone from being in excruciating pain to feeling absolutely nothing and it allowed you to get some rest while your labor advanced.

A few cat naps later, Penelope had sent a selfie of the two of you to Spencer to let him know that you both were still alive and well; things were going smoothly. 

You passed the time by watching tv, talking to Garcia and napping. It took hours for you to progress, but slowly, you did. It was nearing dawn the next morning when it was reported that you were 9 centimeters dilated. It was getting closer to time to meet yours and Spencer’s baby and you found yourself wishing again that he was here with you.

Things progressed fast and by 7 am you were pushing your baby girl out into the world. Penelope was holding your hand as you squeezed it, pushing with all your strength. 

She, the nurses and the doctor kept hollering their encouragement as they told you to push and finally you heard the wonderful first cries of your baby.

You fell back against your pillow, exhausted, overwhelmed, but happy as she was placed on your chest. She was still covered in all the normal birthing elements, but she was beautiful, just like her name implied.

“Oh Y/N she’s beautiful,” Penelope gasped, in awe.

She’d followed the nurses when they’d taken Arabella to clean her off and measure her. 

“Nice and healthy too. Almost nine pounds,” she smiled, “She’s going to be tall like her daddy.”

You smiled and watched as she took pictures of her to send to Spencer.

You reached your arms out and took her from the nurse once they’d swaddled her.

“Hello angel,” you whispered, “You just couldn’t wait until daddy got home, now could you?”

•

It had officially been almost an entire day since you’d had Arabella. 

You’d just gotten her to sleep when you heard a commotion just outside of your hospital room. You heard a mixture of voices, but your heart leaped when you heard your boyfriend’s in the mix. 

Footsteps got closer and you looked up as Spencer practically bounded in, a huge smile on his face. He dropped his go bag and satchel on the floor next to the door and walked over to your side.

“There’s my angel,” he said.

“Which one? Her or me?” you teased.

“Both of you.”

Spencer smiled running a hand over your still mess of hair and kissed your forehead.

“Look at her. You did amazing, Y/N.”

“Well you did kind of help,” you smirked.

“Okay, we did amazing.”

“Yes, we did,” you agreed, handing her to Spencer.

“Hi beautiful,” he crooned, stroking her cheek with his finger, “Daddy’s been waiting a long time to meet you.”

He sat in the chair beside you and snuggled her close. Arabella stretched a little in her sleep, opening her eyes when she heard his voice.

“Someone recognizes daddy’s voice,” you smiled.

“Well hello there Arabella. I heard you had quite the dramatic entrance.”

She cooed, eyes never leaving his face.

You watched the two of them, especially Spencer. He was so in love with her and you were so in love with him.

She yawned and gripped onto his finger. 

“How are you feeling?” he asked, looking up at you now that she was contently cuddled in his arms.

“Tired and sore,” you chuckled, “But she was definitely worth it.”

“I’ll say, I mean look how cute our baby is.”

Spencer held one of her feet that had come out of the swaddle.

“Look at those tiny feet,” he baby-talked to Arabella, before kissing the bottom of it.

She pulled her foot away, beginning to get fussy.

“What’s the matter, Princess?” he frowned, covering her foot back up with the blanket.

“She’s tired and probably hungry. She’d barely gone to sleep before you got here.”

His eyes lit up.

“Can I feed her?”

“Go ahead,” you smiled.

You rang for the nurse and while she fetched a bottle, Arabella began to cry.

“I know, I know,” Spencer pouted, rocking her slightly, “A bottle’s coming, baby girl.”

The nurse returned with the bottle and Spencer took it, placing it gently in Arabella’s mouth. She started sucking greedily, her cries vanished.

You watched them with sleepy eyes, a smile on your face. Spencer looked up, noticing you drifting off.

“Hey, why don’t you rest and take a nap? I’ve got this.”

“You sure?”

He leaned over, kissing you gently.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he looked down at Arabella, “Tell mommy we got this.”

She made small grunting noises as she ate and he chuckled.

“See? We’re good on our own.”

You didn’t argue. You knew you’d need your rest and better take it when you had the chance. You’d began drifting off when you heard Spencer’s words to Arabella.

“I love your mommy so much. Besides you, she’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”

•

Spencer watched his daughter eat all of her bottle while he talked to her. She seemed to listen too, watching him the entire time.

“Just wait until auntie JJ meets you,” he said, “She might ever want to give you back. She’s never had a baby girl.”

He told her all about the rest of his teammates, talked to her about how he waited so long to meet her, he even told her how he and Y/N had met. He set the bottle aside when she was finished, laying her against his chest and on his shoulder to burp her, like he’d read about.

When she was settled, he laid her against his chest, rocking her just a bit. It wasn’t long until he fell asleep along with her.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep when a nurse had woken him.

“I’m sorry Dr. Reid,” she apologized, “I was just making rounds and was checking in on the baby. Do you want me to take her and put her back in the bassinet to sleep?”

“No, I think I want to hold her a little while longer.”

She smiled and nodded before she left the room. He looked down to Arabella sleeping peacefully on his chest. 

His mind couldn’t wrap around the fact that this tiny, perfect little human was his. He was filled with such love for her and Y/N.

He kissed her head gently.

“Not even a day old and you have me wrapped around your little finger.”

He got comfortable in the chair once again, falling back asleep with her in his arms.

Despite all the bad things he saw in his day to day work, good moments like this truly outweighed all the bad.

Tag List: @dreatine​ @reid-187​ @groovyreid​ @reidslibra​ @suvikamahes98blr​ @fuckthealarm​ @whatspunispun​ @iamburdened​ @cindywayne​ @thomasfoockinshelby​ @tinyminy88​ @theitcaramelchick​ @missprettyboy​ @hushlilbabydoll​ @sammy-jo1977​ @theonlyone-meeeee​ @haileymorelikestupid​

[easily-infatuated23]

Undercover- Part Five

Prologue, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five

a/n: hello! parts of this are loosely based on a Doctor Who episode but i felt like it added to this. this series will probably be coming to a close soon but i hope you enjoy! Y/H/H= your hogwarts house Y/E/C= your eye color

pairing: Healer! Draco x Reader

summary: Draco calls upon Harry Potter for help to find Y/N before she is killed by the Dark Saints

warnings: ok so we’ve got a little bit of blood and mentions of torture and violence, and reader is choked for like .5 seconds

word count: 1.4k

Being an Auror is not an easy job. It takes a lot of willpower and strength to be surrounded by darkness everyday and still be able to go home and smile. The job didn’t leave much time for seeing friends but Harry Potter did his best. The oddest friend he had made after the war was Draco Malfoy. He felt sorry for the bully. As much as he hated Draco while at Hogwarts, the war showed him that under his evil exterior, was a scared kid trying to please his parents in any way he could. Harry had even testified at Draco’s hearing. He defended Draco saying that had he not had Lucius Malfoy for a father, he probably wouldn’t have become a Death Eater. After this, he and Draco began meeting for lunch and slowly making amends. It took a few years but the two had managed to build a working friendship, but, the day that Draco called Harry and asked that he come to Malfoy Manor immediately seemed out of the ordinary.

Once Harry arrived, he found Draco looking worse for wear. His face looked hollow and his blonde hair was messy. “Thank you so much for coming. I hate to pull you away from work but this is very serious and I don’t know who else to trust” Draco said, as he rubbed the side of his face anxiously. “Whats going on?” Harry inquired. “Do you remember Y/F/N Y/L/N? She was two years behind us at school in Y/H/H?”. Harry thought for a moment and then nodded. “Nice kid, she kinda disappeared after school if I remember correctly”. Draco sighed and nodded. He then proceeded to tell Harry the whole story. He showed him Y/N’s list and even the book that contained signatures of the most evil witches and wizards as of late. They returned back to the kitchen as Draco finished his story. “And then she disapparated. I have no idea where she is now but, I’m worried about her”. Harry adjusted his glasses. “You did the right thing telling me this. I knew about the deaths and every time I tried to investigate my inquiries were shut down by an anonymous higher up. Now I know why”. In his voice was a tone of frustration and sadness. There had been a war going on right beneath his nose and he hadn’t seen it. Harry looked at the list of names again and frowned. Some had been friends, or in the least faces he grew to recognize from years of passing through the halls of the ministry. “She must be terrified” Draco said remorsefully. “Yes. But she is also brave. This assignment is incredibly dangerous and the fact that she has survived this far tells me that she uses that fear well. As a strange man once told me, fear keeps you fast”.

Draco began pacing back and forth. “What are we going to do?” he asked. Harry thought for a while. The next steps would be difficult ones for sure. “Well, the first thing we have to do is find Y/N and keep her safe and hidden. Even if we manage to get Hiram Baxter to trial, it’s unlikely the ministry will accept a second hand testimony from either you or I. We need her”. Draco nodded in agreement. Then, he remembered. Draco slapped his palm to the middle of his forehead and scoffed at himself. “I’m so thick! I completely forgot that I still have her DNA trace from the hospital. It’ll be risky to use if the Dark Saints have figured out how to use it, but it’s worth a shot”. Harry pulled his wand out of his jacket. “Right, let’s get started”.

Once Draco activated the trace, the two men followed the trail and found themselves on a familiar street. “12 Grimmauld Place” Harry said wistfully. “She really is smart”. The two checked the area for any muggles or unwelcome wizards before entering the former home base of the Order of the Phoenix. After they entered, Draco deactivated the trace. “Even though this was once a place that housed friends, we should still be cautious” Harry said. Draco nodded and drew his wand. Harry motioned for the two to advance down the hall. They were each checking rooms when they heard a loud bang. “That came from one of the rooms upstairs” Harry remarked. As they climbed the stairs the sounds of voices became more apparent.

“Now now little missy we don’t want to make a fuss” a gruff voice growled in a thick northern accent. There were muffled sounds of someone struggling, and the slight scrapping of a chair on the floor. Harry and Draco inched closer to the door and were met with a horrible sight. Y/N was tied to a chair. She was gagged and had fresh wounds on her face and arms. She had clearly been involved in a struggle. There were three large men in the room. One lounging on the bed and smiling devilishly, the other leaning against the opposite wall, and the third was circling Y/N. He was the man whose voice the two had heard. As he circled Y/N, he would lean in and whisper something foul in her ear or toss her hair. “He’s trying to intimidate her” Harry whispered. The gruff northerner spoke again. “So, let’s try this again. Tell me what you know and you’ll be spared, refuse to speak and you die” he growled. He leaned forward and removed the gag from her mouth before settling into a chair positioned directly in front of her. She gasped for air and took some deep desperate breaths before finally speaking. “Fine, I’ll tell you what I know” she said, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “But first, answer me one question..” The northerner’s face twisted impatiently. “Are you new at this or something because you are really bad at threatening people” she said. Her attitude and posture had changed suddenly. The tears had gone along with any trace of fear or desperation in her voice. “What?” the northerner said, genuinely shocked. “I mean come on, you can’t tell the one person who has the information you need that if they don’t tell you, you’ll kill them. Thats interrogation rule number one”. The other two men shifted curiously as their attention focused in on Y/N. “I mean honestly, you’ve just told me that not telling you will keep me alive. Besides, let’s face it, you and I both know that once I tell you what I know you are going to kill me any way”. The northerner stood up and pushed away his chair angrily. He grabbed Y/N by the throat and lifted her slightly out of her chair and closer to his face. “Then I guess we’ll have to torture it out of you” he spat. “Then do your worst because I will gladly go through any amount of pain before I give up my life” she choked. He let go of her neck and she slammed back into the chair.

Draco and Harry were shocked. Draco had seen how terrified she was in the manor, but here it seemed all that fear had been hidden away. Harry’s mind was spinning. He was desperately trying to formulate a plan that would end with Y/N making it out of the situation alive but every situation he tried ended in death. A jab in the ribs from Draco brought Harry out of his head. He looked at the blonde who was pointing into the room. Y/N’s hands were tightly balled into fists but if you looked closely, there was a dim grey light emitting from between her fingers. Draco looked up at Y/N’s face and found her Y/E/C eyes starring back into him. She had seen them. Her attitude remained completely the same except for a slight wink and a small facial gesture indicating that the two should be ready to hold their breath. She turned her head to the right to look back at the northerner who was huddled up with his associates whispering. “Hey boys, pleasant dreams” she mocked. Then, the most peculiar bit of magic either Draco or Harry had ever seen occurred. Y/N un-balled her fists and the grey light turned into fog and flooded the room within seconds. Harry and Draco held their breath as they watched the three men try to make their way to Y/N before their bodies seemingly shut down. They then heard a sharp inhale come from Y/N and the fog disappeared. The two tentatively entered the room and were met with the sight of three large men passed out on the floor and Y/N smiling weakly. “Welcome to the party” she said.

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

taglist!: @pointlesscoconut​ @bi-andready-tocry​  @lunars​  @spencerreidisbootiful​  @uyenlee​  @theotherscottishgirl 

[beastars-takes]

Zootopia Takes: The Power of Really Liking Each Other

Our main event, Beastars Takes, will resume soon, but in the meantime I want to talk about one of my favorite movie relationships:

Has this been talked about to death by other people? Yes. But this is my blog and I write it for free so I can do what I want.

Note: this is not a shipping post--this is just an examination of their canonical relationship in the movie and why it rules.

At first glance, this is your typical enemies-to-friends story. I love those. But while the typical arc tends to involve two characters who can’t stand each other, who eventually develop a grudging respect for one another (often through some kind of shared ordeal) and maybe thaw into actual friendliness at the end. Zootopia packs all of that into the first half--by the midway point they are clearly not just allies, but friends, and by the end of the film they’re inseparable.

It’s important to recognize this isn’t just for the hell of it, or just to be cute--the closeness and trust they build is the linchpin of their success in the final moments of the movie.

All the reasons why, after the jump.

Something I talked about in the previous post was the messaging of Zootopia, and I don’t want to rehash it too much here. It’s a movie about prejudice, and the work it takes to overcome it. A key theme (one that it shares with Beastars, incidentally) is that friendships with those who are different from you are hard--but they are worth it.

Part 1: They Hate Each Other! (Right?)

Now...it goes without saying that when these two first meet, they bounce off each other hard. Each is seeing the other at their absolute worst.

Judy can’t stand Nick because he takes every bit of optimism she has about this world and throws it back in her face. She want to use him as a prop in her vision of an equal society, where “not all foxes” are crooks. He laughs at her. He humiliates her. All he has to do is walk away, but he takes his time. He twists the knife.

For his part, Nick sees a laughably ineffectual bunny who condescends to him and threatens him with jail for the crime of...humiliating her. She may not personally be a threat to him, but she wields the institutional power of the ZPD--a power he has plenty of reason to be afraid of--and she does it irresponsibly.

On first viewing, Nick inarguably wins this exchange. He avoids arrest, reads her to absolute filth and leaves her stuck in cement.

And he makes her really sad. Nice!

But, and I don’t pretend to be the first person to have pointed this out, on second viewing it’s obvious he can guess her story so well because it’s basically his story. The only difference, in his mind, is that he’s accepted the reality that he’ll never be allowed to live the life he wants, while she is still vainly pursuing hers.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but the people I’ve met who have always most pissed me off are the people who remind me of things I hate about myself. The people who seem to embody the flaws I’ve worked to minimize. Nick’s naive hope is what has brought him the most pain in his life. He sees this bunny full of the same naive hope, surmises that she’s facing the same failures he did and yet stubbornly refusing to learn from them. It’s irritating.

Pictured: irritation.

Maybe I am projecting, but if Nick is anything like me, he probably didn’t walk away entirely happy from this exchange. Yes, he “won,” but he was also reminded of everything about himself that he least wanted to think about.

Part 2: They Are Not Very Good at Hating Each Other

So, the thing about Judy is, she is naive. By default, she assumes people are her friend. But she’s not stupid.

Nick assumes she is stupid, not least because she hasn’t wisely given up on her dreams like he has, and...he learns that she maybe not so fun to pick on after all.

So they wind up doing the first part of this enemies-to-friends routine, allies of necessity.

So, naturally, because he is Him, he makes it his mission to torment her.

In fact, we get two whole scenes where all he does he does is watch her struggle and make this face.

The first read of this behavior is that he’s just enjoying the failures of someone he hates. He says as much later. But I would also argue--from a viewer’s perspective--Judy is ridiculously entertaining and charming throughout these encounters. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and it’s hard not to like people like that.

Is there more happening here than just schadenfreude? I won’t pretend to know for sure. But worth considering.

By the time they’re investigating the limousine, his sabotage has diminished into something more like gentle trolling. And you can’t see this face, in context...

...and tell me she isn’t starting to like him, at least a little bit.

He’s also starting to help! By the time they’re past the minor detour of almost being murdered by a mob boss, he’s entirely cooperative, helping her conduct interviews and look for clues. The movie doesn’t call particular attention to this, but it almost did.

Finally, let’s look at Nick’s behavior when they’re being chased by a rabid jaguar. He could have absolutely booked it, with no regard for the cop who was blackmailing him into helping her.

These moments go by so quickly, but they’re hugely revealing of his true character, even before he defends her in front of Chief Bogo.

He picks her up when she falls.

More importantly, when he gets to the skytram, his first instinct isn’t to jump in--it’s to hold the door for her:

He sees she can’t make it, and she even tells him to leave without her. He doesn’t. He holds the door until he can’t anymore, and as a result he’s nearly killed.

Nick is a good boy.

Part 3: They Are Friends Now

She save his life, so he saves her job. This is a key story beat, and it’s a Disney movie, so there’s not a lot of subtlety (except how the specular highlights in Judy’s eyes fade as Bogo asks for her badge--the light literally goes out of her. Go watch).

But it’s such a sweet moment of teamwork--he was contemptuous toward her from the start because she believed in herself. This is the first time she’s simply given up in the whole movie, and he steps up. Because he believes in her now.

And she believes in him! Or, she wants to.

Judy’s supportiveness here is sweet, but it’s also still a little selfish. It’s not that different from their interaction at the ice cream shop, really: she wants to meet a fox who defies stereotypes, who is easy for her to like. Someone who ticks all the boxes to prove her family wrong.

When he starts being more foxy, later--self-identifying as a predator, showing his claws, challenging her--we learn that her supportiveness is conditional.

Am I being too hard on her? Sure. She’s been in bunny country her whole life. She’s new to this and she’s trying. But that’s where she’s at.

But still! They’re friends now. They’re no longer pretending they don’t like each other. Judy’s openly encouraging, Nick is fully in her corner, and we get a few cute sequences where they keep being more and more impressed with each other.

He’s still not above affectionately messing with her, and she’s getting worse at pretending to dislike it.

And he trusts her enough to let her flush him down a toilet...

Which gives us this heartbreaking shot where he thinks she’s drowned. He cares a whole lot about this bunny.

She likes him too! Enough to want to team up on a more permanent basis. This is pretty standard-fare enemies-to-friends stuff now, but considering where we started, and considering they’ve known each other for all of two days? Not bad!

It’s clear this moment means far more to him than it does to her, too. It’s actually taken very little persuading from Judy to get him to step up and be brave and helpful and trustworthy. The fact that he’s turned around and opened up to her so fast suggests he’s been ready for an opportunity like this for his entire life, and never got it. I mean, look at his face.

The foundational flaw in her worldview is still there, though, and it’s about to do almost-irreparable damage to their whirlwind friendship.

Part 5: Fuck!

So Judy gives her press conference, and gives a great example of why police usually answer every question with “the matter is currently under investigation,” or “we’re not prepared to comment further at this time.” Honestly, though, this is on Bogo--I had coworkers who once did some press interviews, and they spent over a week doing media training. They didn’t even break a major kidnapping case. So, you know.

So she repeats some weird race science stuff she assumes is true because someone in a lab coat said it, which is amusingly similar to how race science (or “race realism”) often propagates--people with low-rent doctorates from crappy universities write a bunch of scientifically shoddy material and people say “well, he has a PhD!”

And then Nick has a PTSD flashback? I don’t want to be irresponsible and make an armchair diagnosis, but also...that is absolutely what is depicted on screen.

You’re not immediately “better” after something like this, which is why I cut Nick a bit of slack when he basically blows up their friendship.

Judy...doesn’t get it. It’s completely heartbreaking, because she likes him, and doesn’t understand why he’s mad, and isn’t self-reflective enough to stop and think maybe he has a point. Not until it’s too late. He tests her, and she fails.

Their friendship has always been a little inequal. He’s trusted her with everything, shown her his deepest vulnerabilities. She’s never trusted him completely.

So he leaves.

I don’t want to impugn her professionalism by suggesting she wouldn’t have quit the force if she hadn’t had that friendship-ending fight, but, you know. Maybe.

This is the second time she gives up, and this time he’s not there to pick her up again.

Judy is intensely goal-oriented, and I don’t think she realized what Nick’s friendship meant to her, as the first person in the city who truly believed in her, until it was too late. Judy is sweet and well-meaning but emotional intelligence is not really her strong suit (which is actually cool to see in a female Disney protagonist, imo).

So, while it would have been nice for her to track Nick down immediately and apologize, I think it makes sense for them to spend time apart. Her own self-perception has been shattered, and she needs time to figure out how she went so wrong.

So when she does come back, she delivers one of the best animated apologies I’ve ever seen. Only AtLA compares, in my mind.

Part 6: They Are Much Better Friends Now

Nick forgives her, because of course he does.

(Sidebar--people talk about how he kept her carrot pen the whole time they were apart. He also kept his handkerchief from Ranger Scouts, AND he only wears shirts that match the wallpaper in his mother’s house. He desperately needs a hug.)

Credit to Nick also, who can’t fight and has no police training whatsoever, who has multiple times been almost killed helping her out, now agreeing to help her out again. She’s not even threatening him with jail this time!

We, the viewers, are then rewarded with this great montage of them being best friends.

She’s finally stopped pretending not to be amused by his shenanigans.

(One other sidebar here--Nick is canonically a really gentle character. For all their adventuring, this is only time in the movie he gets physical with anyone: to protect the bunny. Again, he definitely can’t fight and immediately gets smacked across the room. But it’s the thought that counts, right?)

Per the post title, more visual evidence of them really liking each other.

Judy trips on a dead body, and here we get the second time in the movie that Judy tells Nick to leave without her, and he won’t--this time, he refuses explicitly.

Which then gives us the opportunity for the big moment--the culmination of all this care and intimacy and trust.

In order to con Bellwether, she lets him stalk her, and bite her throat. This has been often pointed out, but it’s important--throughout the movie, Judy’s wriggling rabbit nose has been used as a signifier of fear and suspicion. It wriggles when she’s spying on Nick at the beginning. It wriggles like hell when he confronts her after her press conference.

Not here. Doesn’t move. It’s a great, clearly intentional animation choice that tells a close observer (or more likely, a repeat viewer) that she’s completely unafraid.

She trusts him.

I could write a whole other post about how well-scripted this movie is, how every scene is doing half a dozen different things, but the way the personal and the professional come together here, the way the threads of prejudice and friendship and the police case all tie together in this moment. It’s good shit.

This is basically where things end, in terms of character development, but we get a bunch more shots of them clearly adoring each other:

So there it is.

To sum up, certainly not suggesting this movie invented “characters liking each other,” or anything like that. But it goes above and beyond in portraying a friendship that’s not just one born of circumstance, one that’s authentic and unmistakably loving. Characters who enjoy spending time with each other, regardless of what’s going on around them.

I hope everyone is able to experience friendships like that. I absolutely treasure the few I have.

Appendix: The Shipping Thing

I hope I’ve made all this ship-agnostic, which was my intention. I personally like the ship, and I think the reason it resonates with people is because that love and trust and closeness is clearly there, and a romantic relationship creates a lot more easy opportunities for dialing those things up even higher.

I would also argue, if pressed, that the amount of teasing and physicality that happens reads as pretty flirty. If they were humans I knew in real life, I’d definitely think there was something going on there. But I’m an American, where touching and emotional intimacy tends to be read as romantic. Also, animals are a lot more cuddly than humans. So who knows? I think it’s perfectly reasonable to read them as platonic friends until the end of time.

But, one way or another, they love each other a lot. Shout out to this, one of the most emotionally rewarding relationships I’ve ever seen in a cartoon.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 270: Harry Potter Rules

Previously on BnHA: Present Mic punched Ujiko in the face! It was awesome. I’m thinking about getting a tattoo of it. Meanwhile Endeavor saved Mirko’s life by setting her on fire (reason #15 why I will never become a superhero), and Aizawa did some sexy Spider-Man poses for our viewing pleasure while fighting the rest of these Noumus which are still annoyingly refusing to die. Anyway but back to Present Mic, the undisputed MVP of this chapter. Because you see, in addition to the punching, he also used his Loud Voice attack (literally the actual attack name; Horikoshi will steal all of my jokes and leave me with nothing) to smash open Tomura’s Noumutank! Which I really thought was going to immediately lead to Everyone Dying, but apparently I was wrong! Anyways so yeah, right now Tomura’s just lying down all heart-stopped and not-breathing. Which seems very anticlimactic, BUT I JUST HAVE THE CRAZIEST FEELING that maybe, just maybe, the super powerful villain lad who just spent the last three arcs slowly upgrading his bad self just in time to wage war on the world as the story reaches its climax, might not actually be dead though.

Today on BnHA: DON’T MIND THAT OMINOUS ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND, IT’S NOTHING, IGNORE IT. Ahem. So first of all, as some of the bolder among us dared to speculate, Tomura is not, in fact, dead. He’s still very much kicking it with his nipple-less pecs and truffula tree hair, putzing around in his mental landscape filled with crumbled buildings and disembodied Theatrical Gesture Hands. For some reason he doesn’t have shoes or a shirt in his mental landscape, which was a very interesting choice on Horikoshi’s part, but we will speak no more of it. Anyway so to sum things up, Tomura’s family is all “TENKO WE LOVE YOU” and he’s all “oh hey” and then AFO fucking appears and he’s all “COME HERE MY BOY” which is exactly as creepy as you would expect, and for some fucking reason TOMURA ACTUALLY DOES COME HERE. And lol it turns out Ujiko gave him AFO. Like the quirk. Yes, that quirk. So long story short, Tomura is about to be possessed by AFO’s evil soul or some shit, and to put the cherry on top, fucking Deku out of fucking nowhere, MILES AWAY, is all “HE’S COMING.” Because of course he can sense it, because AFOFA IS REAL, AND FUCK ME THIS IS ALL HAPPENING TOO FAST, FUCK.

I know this chapter has been out since like 1pm, but I’m not getting to read it until 5 hours later because for once in my life I was trying to be responsible and actually get some work done on a Friday. I thought this might lead to less oh-god-I-still-have-to-get-that-done anxiety hovering over my weekend, but instead it just led to oh-god-I-have-to-get-the-chapter-recap-done anxiety hovering over my now! anyways so this might be a bit rushed lol

(ETA: yeah turns out this wasn’t exactly the kind of chapter you could just read quickly and get on with your life lmao. so, then!)

what a nice panel of Present Mic taking out the trash

you heard ‘em fellas. the doctor is secured. good job everyone we did it, manga over, congratulations. now to cut away to a two-page spread of Dark Shadow comically smothering Dabi’s flames with a giant stock pot lid, and that’ll be that! what a wonderful, extremely short and strangely underwhelming arc in which we haven’t even seen the actual main characters do anything yet. but I guess we don’t need them since the main bad guy is lying dead on the floor! everything is just so fucking dead and secured!! do you think if I keep repeating it enough Horikoshi will finally be like “okay geez I get it” and reveal his hand already

Mic is now ordering Ujiko to power down the Noumu, which again, I’m sure he will definitely do without a fuss since after all the good guys have clearly won the day

OH SHIT OH FUCK

rip X-Less. gonna just take a moment here to imprint your beautiful face onto my memory before it turns into a pile of ash. your face, I mean. not my memory. well my memory more or less already is a pile of ash but that’s neither here nor there ANYWAYS

:’)

what are these little sound effects. I think that’s supposed to be a buzzing noise?? anyways whatever it is PLEASE STOP IT, I AM NOT HAVING A NICE TIME SO STOP

ffff Horikoshi sure has done an excellent job of setting the mood in such a way that all of these panels of X-Less doing incredibly mild things are sending my stress levels through the roof. like is anyone else reading his lines more or less like “WELP, TIME FOR ME TO DIE, ANY SECOND NOW, WE’RE REALLY DOING THIS, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING, HERE IT COMES”

(ETA: when is this poor sweet innocent man going to fucking die already.)

LET’S CUT BACK TO MIC ESCAPING THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY

I have the clearest mental image of Horikoshi standing by with a walkie talkie in one hand and one of those remote bomb detonation clicky switch thingies in the other, patiently waiting to receive the go-ahead once all of the important characters have gotten to safety

anyway so now Ujiko is talking again

no fear everyone this is just the beginning of his verbal noumu deactivation sequence. nothing to worry about. everything is fine

yes for some reason his code phrase to put all the noumus back to sleep involves going into rambling detail about his work researching quirk singularities and shit. it’s fine. it’s not a big deal. code phrases are just like that sometimes all right

just ignore the increasingly panicked look in Mic’s eye as he slowly realizes he was way too fucking keen to just leave the “dead” Tomura back there with his laser-eyed hero buddy. anyway so let’s continue learning all about the Quirk Illuminati or whatever the fuck

okay so... he faked his own death? 70 years ago, at age 50 or thereabouts? I mean, that’s interesting and all I guess. not saying I wouldn’t be thrilled to spend the rest of this chapter learning all about Ujiko’s boring evil life. I don’t need to say it because it’s implied on account of Ujiko sucks and is the worst. so yeah can we get a move on though

oh shit?!?

WHOSE NARRATION IS THAT IN THE BOXES TOMURA IS THAT YOU OH GOD OH GOD

also, comparing AFO’s smile to a buddha’s really sent an actual shudder of disgust down my spine for some reason lmao. I personally would have steered that comparison in a different area, maybe less to buddhas and more to Norman Bates from Psycho, but to each their own

oh shit wait up

okay but this is actually a pretty big revelation though, isn’t it? because it’s been hinted for a while now that AFO and Ujiko had some method of duplicating quirks (the fact that all the Noumu share the same regeneration quirk was the biggest clue, but there was also John-chan’s quirk, as well as Hood’s Muscular-esque quirk), but as far as I can recall, this is the first time we’ve had it confirmed. though to be fair I wasn’t joking when I said my memory really has been shit lately sob

anyway so for real though, can you really call it a BnHA chapter if you’re not spending a good chunk of it being hopelessly confused over the ownership of some ambiguous thought bubbles. WHO IS THIS. I do seriously feel like it’s Tomura, because he’s the wrathful one, but another hallmark of a typical BnHA chapter is me constantly questioning everything I know as I muddle my way through

(ETA: yeah I’m pretty sure it was him. still impressive how vague it is though! it could also potentially be Ujiko, Mic, or even Deku. hopefully Caleb’s translation on Sunday can shed some more light on this. though he wasn’t really helpful last time this happened lol.)

SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON

didn’t... you just... say that “preservation” was your quirk?? what do you mean that you wanted it?? CAN YOU JUST FINISH YOUR SENTENCES LIKE A NORMAL PERSON

anyway so here’s a summary of this chapter thus far

present mic: okay goodbye forever x-less

x-less: what a strange thing to say! :) also is it just me or is this machine fucking staring at me

present mic: turn the noumu off please

ujiko: seventy years ago... society... singularity... he’d be 120 years old now...

??: [REPULSIVE FEELING EW WHO’S TOUCHING ME]

ujiko: all for one has the smile of an angel...

??: [SON OF A BITCH I’M SO FUCKING WRATHFUL]

ujiko: my quirk... preservation... the truth is... my quirk... preservation... the truth is... my quirk...

all caught up?? grand. also btw is anyone else super disturbed by the fact that Ujiko recognizes Mic as being “Kurogiri’s friend”, like holy shit though? how would he know that. I can’t think of any implications of this that aren’t super disturbing tbh

anyways back to -- LOL WHAT THE

Horikoshi Kouhei: [furiously scribbling notes to himself at 3am] BUT WHAT IF THE FOLDING CITY FROM “INCEPTION” HAD MORE GIANT HANDS

jesus christ. is this like some mental representation of what shit is currently like in Tomura’s mind? lots of crumbly destruction and traffic lights and the house his father built (isn’t it? I feel like it looks familiar), and SO MANY HANDS, HE JUST LOVES HIS HANDS

anyway so at this point it’s a coin toss whether or not anything in this fucking chapter is ever going to make any kind of fucking sense! but here I am voluntarily along for the ride while Gene Wilder sings that creepy boat song right in my ear!

DSFKLDSJ

ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN FLOATING IN A JAR FOR THREE MONTHS TBH. that is some luscious quarantine hair

SDFLKJSDLFKJSLKFDHLKSDJFLKJLKSDJL:FKJSDL:KJ

(ETA: that Tomura in the top left may be my new favorite panel. look at him. all he is is a nose and chin and ~*~HAIR~*~.)

HANAAAAAA AHHHHHH OH MY LORD OH MY LORD! OKAY I’M FINALLY PAYING ATTENTION NOW FOR REAL! NO MORE JOKES! EVERYBODY SHHHH!!!

FFFFFFFFFF

“LOOK AT ME I’M A MAIN CHARACTER I CAN HAVE STRANGE VISIONS AND TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE IN MY DREAMS, SOUND LIKE ANYBODY ELSE YOU KNOW?” TOMURA SHUT UP I DON’T HAVE TIME TO ANALYZE THIS SCENE THEMATICALLY RIGHT NOW I’M TOO BUSY BEING SAD ABOUT YOUR DEAD SISTER WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY CALCULATING THE ODDS OF THIS SOMEHOW BEING FORESHADOWING FOR HER NOT REALLY BEING DEAD. OH GOD, OH FUCK YOU GUYS, I’M FREAKING OUT

WHAT KIND OF YOUNGER BROTHER DOESN’T CALL HIS OLDER SISTER “NEECHAN” TOMURA WHAT KIND OF ANIME CHARACTER ARE YOU

AT THIS POINT HIS HAIR IS ITS OWN INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER WITH THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS WOW

HORIKOSHI PLEASE STOP SHAKING THIS CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE OF SIBLING FEELS SO VIGOROUSLY I AM SO TERRIBLY AFRAID OH GOD

“BY THE WAY TENKO I JUST HAVE TO SAY, YOUR MAN BOOBS ARE SERIOUSLY IMPRESSIVE AND YOU SHOULD BE VERY PROUD.” YES HANA I WAS JUST GOING TO SAY. HOW ASTUTE OF YOU TO POINT THAT OUT. BOY HAS BEEN HITTING THAT BOWFLEX

WTAF IS HIS HAIR THOUGH SERIOUSLY??!

IS IT JUST ME OR IS THIS DIALOGUE BUBBLE ACTUALLY COMING FROM THE HAIR ITSELF. TOMURA. TOMURA BLINK TWICE IF YOU ARE IN DANGER

SJJKJSKJSW

TENKO IT’S ME YOUR GIANT MOM I’M BEHIND YOU HONEY TURN AROUND AND LOOK HELLO HI I LOVE YOU DO YOU STILL WANT TO BE A HERO

ffff why is he so pretty all the time lately

you are very handsome with your billowy hair and ken doll abs, you. sure are having a lot of trippy visions for a dead guy too there

HEY!!!!

WHO SAID YOU WERE ALLOWED -- DO YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST -- ffffffffff I need to be alone with my thoughts for a few minutes fuck

okay well. but since it is getting late I guess we’ll just pack these feelings up real quick and put them inside a box and neatly label it “feelings I have about Tomura having a vision of his mom and immediately turning back into his innocent little boy self in said vision as soon as he sees her.” not too sure about the contents of this box yet but I will have to explore them thoroughly at a later date

oh hey it’s this asshole

“THAT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO, DAD.” jesus Kotaro. get over it

and also guess what, if you go and get Tomura all riled up so he wakes up grumpy and disintegrates the first hapless guy he sees, I will hold you solely responsible for that poor man’s death. I’m just warning you now

oh my

I remember this conversation going a bit differently the last time, but hey

LOOOOOOL

HIGH FIVE. PUT ‘ER THERE

WHY WOULD YOU LOOK SO SURPRISED LOL DID YOU NOT JUST TURN TOWARDS HIM WITH A SINISTER MURDER FACE LIKE TWO SECONDS AGO. LIKE WTF DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN

OH NO OH SHIT

FUCK ME, GUESS IT WOULDN’T BE A DRAMATIC BNHA DREAM SEQUENCE IF THIS ASSHOLE DIDN’T MAKE AN APPEARANCE AT SOME POINT OR OTHER NOW WOULD IT

-- HOLY SHIT?!

RECORD SCRATCH, FREEZE FRAME??

holy shit. holy shit. holy shit. holy shit. holy shit. holy shit

holy shit. fuck

...okay so

is this implying that AFO has been Noumufied? but that doesn’t make any sense, does it? he already had multiple quirks. what other advantages could there be to him becoming a Noumu. well whatever I’m just typing out all of my thoughts real fast for the time being and I’ll try to make sense of them later

or is it because he sees Kurogiri as a father figure? and AFO also?

or is he using Kurogiri’s quirk????? IS HE SOMEHOW WARPING INTO TOMURA’S DREAMS

because that third one, to me, is what this panel most looks like? Tomura says he looks like Kuro, but he doesn’t though. Kuro has a very distinctive face which this is very much lacking. instead it looks to me much more like one of Kurogiri’s portals, with AFO’s buddhaesque smile sticking out. so yeah. I got nothin’. except, again, fuck

(ETA: yeah I obviously have more thoughts about this now, but we’ll get to those in a bit.)

...

.......

-- !!!!!!!!!!LKJLK!JLKJ

oh shit oh shit oh shit 

OH SHIT

NO BABY NO DON’T DO IT

GASP

THEY’RE TRYING TO SAVE HIM AHHHH

I HAVE LIKE TEN THOUSAND THOUGHTS IN MY BRAIN RIGHT NOW YET SOMEHOW MY MIND IS ALSO STRANGELY BLANK?? I DON’T EVEN KNOW?? I’LL JUST KEEP READING

KOTARO ARE YOU TRYING TO HELP HIM OR ARE YOU PULLING HIM TOWARD AFO??

OH HE’S PUSHING HIM BACK!! OH SHIT IT’S A WHOLE FAMILY EFFORT

THEY’RE TRYING TO SAVE HIM AFO IS GOING TO TAKE HIM OVER AND THEY’RE TRYING TO PROTECT HIM OH GOD OH JESUS

BABY TENKO EYES OH MY GOD HE LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE DEKU THAT I THOUGHT IT WAS DEKU FOR A MOMENT

NO TENKO!!!

FUCK -- DOES HE NOT CARE? HE ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN BUT HE DOESN’T CARE?? IS HE TRULY SO PROFOUNDLY MISERABLE THAT HE’D GO AHEAD AND ACCEPT THIS FATE WILLINGLY

NO SOUNDS. NO WORDS. YOU COULD HEAR A PIN DROP IN MY ROOM RIGHT NOW

except that I have the most incredible, chilling, disturbing, electrifying feeling that my mental soundtrack is about to start blaring AFO’s theme from the anime on full blast...!

LOOOOOL SOB OH FUCKK

THE MOST TERRIFYING, DRAMATIC KIP UP YOU’VE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE!! THIS IS IT, IT’S BEEN REAL FRIENDS, THIS IS WHERE WE DIE

-- ARE YOU REALLY, TRULY, GENUINELY SHITTING ME RIGHT NOW

NOW OF ALL TIMES IS WHEN WE FINALLY CUT TO THE TRIO, I’M CAN’T, I’M FUCK

AND THAT’S THE END AHHHHH

holy shit holy shit holy shit. wow

okay so. I don’t really have any sort of neat and tidy way to wrap up this hot mess of a recap lol. so, just... have a whole mess of all of my stupid whirling thoughts

those first four pages really did nothing to brace me at all lol

okay, so. here’s my understanding of all this, I guess. basically we’re going full Harry Potter rules here. AFO horcruxed his quirk, and from the looks of it, a piece of his soul (perhaps even the main piece) along with it. he then passed it on to Ujiko to implant into Tomura

horcrux!AFO then wakes up, and takes over Tomura. so then my understanding is that he’s going to be possessed by him. and I also got the impression that he’s fully aware of that, but just doesn’t care at this point. he knew his family was trying to warn him, but he didn’t care. and that look in his eyes when he disintegrated them just seemed so fucking resigned to me, though. jesus

but now the more interesting thing! so we can liken Tomura to the resurrected Voldemort from book 5 and onward, reborn after transferring his power into a new vessel. which would go a long way toward explaining how AFO was able to sense what was happening from all the way in Tartarus; because if we liken it to Voldemort and his horcruxes, it would mean that he still has a connection to them (similar to the connection between Voldemort’s mind and Harry’s)

but so now comes the really interesting thing -- what does this then imply about the connection between AFO and Deku? because you’ll recall that AFO alluded to a similar mental connection back when Deku first activated SIXQUIRKS. and now we have Deku somehow being magically aware of AFO’s sudden resurgent presence in this chapter. but why?? if the reason AFO and Tomura share a psychic link is because of a shared quirk, why would Deku also be experiencing the same link? the answer is, he wouldn’t -- unless he, too, had the same shared quirk

in other words, I think All for One for All is fucking confirmed you guys. I can’t think of any explanation for this other than that OFA is also a horcrux quirk. a little piece of AFO broken off and embedded in his brother, and then passed along through the generations. and now residing within Deku

anyway. so that’s a hell of a lot to ponder lol. I guess we can at least be grateful for the fact that we’re not waiting two weeks for chapter 271 like Hori originally planned. can you fucking imagine. what a fucking asshole lol

[mae-gi-writes]

Deobi Playlist (EP 5) | The Boyz Imagine

Ep 5: in which Kevin says it’s okay to be different 

The Boyz x Hospital Playlist inspired drabble series.

Main Characters: Hyunjae, Juyeon, Kevin and OC (Mae)

Sides: the rest of The Boyz.

Genre: fluff, slice of life, comedy, BROMANCE BRUH

EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11

----------

“I managed to take out his tumour, but I’ll need him to stay for a few days just so that he can recover fully. He’s under anesthesia for now but he should be up soon,” Kevin flips through his newest patient’s medical file and scans the page for his details. His name is Yeon Hanjo, eight years old, who had suddenly collapsed to the ground a week ago with no indication of an illness whatsoever. An MRI scan of his head and body had shown that the small child had been keeping a tumour hidden within the side of his skull for some time and after some thorough deliberating and research about the best methods to go about the operation, Kevin had managed to successfully draw the tumour out without any mishaps or complications. 

Mrs. Yeon bows before Kevin once more with barely restrained tears coating her eyes. She holds a tissue in her hand, which seems already wet and crumpled into a ball, and Kevin reaches out with another tissue that she takes gratefully. 

Mr. Yeon is at her side, one hand on his wife’s shoulder to provide her comfort, “Thank you, thank you so much Dr. Moon. We--We don’t know what we would’ve done without you.”

Kevin lets out a small, genuine smile, “it’s my duty. Hanjo’s life is just as important as anybody else’s, if not more.”

A few hours after the parents have left and Kevin has done his rounds as he is supposed to, he makes way to Hanjo’s room with a box of chocolate in hand. 

Hanjo is already awake, blinking at the night sky from his hospital bed. The child turns his attention towards the door when Kevin pokes his head in with a smile, “hello Hanjo. How are you feeling?” 

The child shrugs, and looks away. 

Being familiar with the way children react when they are forced into an unfamiliar setting where strangers prevail, Kevin steps in, closes the door behind him and takes a seat at Hanjo’s bed. The child is still not looking at him, chin adamantly pointed towards the outside world. 

“I bought something for you,” Kevin opens up his box of chocolates and offers him the box. Hanjo peeks into it for a few seconds of silence, looks up at his face, then pushes the box away.

While Kevin isn’t used to children not wanting any chocolate, that doesn’t dissuade him from trying. He closes the box and sets it on Hanjo’s bedside table. 

“In a few days, you can go back home. Aren’t you glad?” Kevin chats on despite the reluctance in Hanjo’s body behaviour, “what’s the first thing you want to do when you go back, Hanjo?” 

Still, the child stays silent. Kevin sees his lower lip tremble but decides it is better off not to mention it. He takes it as a fact that Hanjo might be shy, unwilling to converse because he’s a stranger. The only solution to that though is for Kevin to keep trying, which he does day after day. Every time he’d bring something different -- a different candy, or toy that boys his age would’ve liked -- but Hanjo refuses every single item without delay. 

When the date of Hanjo’s discharge looms closer and closer, Kevin can’t help himself but urge him to speak by prompting the child with good news, “you must be excited, only three days left!” he grins at the child in hopes of getting a smile back, at least. 

Hanjo, on the other hand, merely blinks. Then, a fat tear rolls down his cheek before he bursts into tears.

“Hanjo,” Kevin’s demeanor softens then, gently tugging the said child in his arms and scooping him close against his chest. The child keeps on crying, his face now red and tears cascading down his cheeks, staining Kevin’s white coat. His parents, having heard the commotion from outside, quickly slip in with mirroring expressions of worry and take the child from Kevin’s arms, who is left confused and slightly concerned at the child’s suddenly sad countenance. He cannot, for the life of him, understand how Hanjo’s mind works. Kids like him shouldn’t be crying like their world is tearing apart, shouldn’t be subdued and silent and just afraid of everything. 

No, there’s something that’s bothering Hanjo. And Kevin finds his answer a few hours later. 

“Hanjo spent most of his life in Florida, where he was born,” Mrs. Yeon says to him. After Hanjo had fallen asleep, she had ushered to buy Kevin a coffee at the cafeteria. She now sits opposite him, coffee cup clasped between frail fingers with skin wrinkled and saggy from years of work, eyes rimmed with blue aprons and mouth tugged down in a tense, awkward line, smeared with a pale chalky lipstick.

“We moved here just a few months ago. He hasn’t told me anything, but his teacher tells me that he hasn’t been very...interactive with the other kids,” she purses her lips as if in discontentment, “he barely talks, not because he doesn't understand. We talk to him in Korean all the time at home. Somehow though, he barely says a word here. It’s like he doesn’t want to make even the slightest bit of effort.”

“Have you tried talking to him about it?” Kevin asks with furrowed eyebrows. 

She shakes her head, “no, well. We’ve tried asking him about school and stuff, maybe mentioned his teacher’s comments once or twice but that was it. We don’t want to push him either.”

He can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for the said young boy, knowing all too well how strange it is to move oneself to another country altogether, a country where the language is different, the people are different, and how it feels like your entire life has just turned upside down because of that mere fact. 

“Oh that’s just like little Kevin when he just moved here,” Hyunjae can’t help but snigger, prompting Mae to whack him across the back of his head.

“Ouch!” Hyunjae throws her a scowl, “why are you even a doctor? You should just become part of the mafia. Seriously! That hurt--”

She proceeds to shove a piece of lettuce in his mouth to muffle his protests. Juyeon and Kevin exchange knowing glances, before shrugging. 

“You should talk to him,” Mae suggests, and though she’s trying very hard to act normal, Kevin can feel the unease rolling off her, how she’s not looking at him and permanently fixating her gaze on her platter of food. He makes a mental note to ask Juyeon about it later.

For now, he replies, “yeah I should. It’s just a saddening thought. Children shouldn’t have so much trouble earlier on in their lives.” 

“Hey touff, we all haff prwabems,” Hyunjae attempts to say with his mouth still full. He swallows before gulping down some water. Slamming his cup down, he jabs a finger in Mae’s direction, “you and I have a problem.” 

“The only problem that I’ll have with you is killing you by asphyxiation, and before you ask, there is food involved,” Mae cooes. 

Hyunjae shivers, “psychopath.” 

“Nu-uh, Sociopath? Probably. But psychopath?” she scrunches her face up as though contemplating the thought, “nah, I’m too kind.” 

“You flatter yourself too much,” Juyeon rolls his eyes.

“Can we focus on the problem at hand?” Kevin waves his chopsticks around dramatically, ignoring Hyunjae stealing his piece of chicken and replacing it with some ginger instead. 

“Kevin, we all know that you’re the wondrous child talker here,” Hyunjae says, “we’re all counting on you to babysit our kids one day.” 

“Excuse me? Is there kindergarten written on my forehead?” 

“You mean, there isn’t kindergarten written on your forehead?” Hyunjae gasps dramatically, “here, let me--” 

“Don’t you dare, Lee Jaehyun.” 

Kevin waits until Hanjo’s parents leave with promises that they’ll be here to watch over him tomorrow morning, before slithering inside the children’s ward. Hanjo spots him, but doesn’t say anything as the said doctor sidles up to his bed and takes a seat on the abandoned chair next to him.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Kevin murmurs. The child watches as he pulls out a box of pocky sticks. His mother had stated that Pocky is the only asian snack he eats. Surely enough, Hanjo doesn’t hesitate to grab it with his little chubby fingers and Kevin gazes down at him with a fond sympathy gripping his chest.

But then, Hanjo glances up at him uncertainly. Kevin puts a finger to his mouth, “can you keep a secret?” 

Hanjo pauses, contemplates him for a moment. Then, he nods. 

“Cool, because I can’t actually sneak in any outside snacks,” Kevin whispers with a soft chuckle at the alarm washing over Hanjo’s face, “it’s okay, don’t worry. This is between you and me, alright?” 

It takes a few seconds for the child to decide that Kevin’s intentions aren’t all that bad, before he slowly pries open the packet and digs into the snack with barely restrained excitement. Kevin just watches him with fondness, glad that for once it seems like he’s done something for Hanjo, when the child suddenly sticks out the packet, urging him to take some. 

“Oh,” Kevin blinks in surprise, before drawing a pocky stick, “thanks, Hanjo. That’s so nice of you.”

Hanjo just nods, before returning his attention to the said chocolate covered sticks. As his mother had stated, it is indeed his favourite snack. 

“Do you often eat pocky, Hanjo?” Kevin asks. 

The child shrugs, urging Kevin to ask, “do any of your friends eat pocky?” 

At this, Hanjo’s mouth pauses as if in contemplation and Kevin knows that he has hit a nerve. Not just any, but a sensitive one. He hurries to continue talking for fear that he might lose momentum, “you know, I never really had any friends when I first moved here. I used to eat pocky because it reminded me of the snacks my mom used to buy for me, back when we were still in Canada.” 

He can practically see the cogs turning inside Hanjo’s brain as he mulls over the newly acquired information. 

“I was shy back then. I didn’t know how to approach people. They all spoke Korean, I understood them. But I was so scared that they couldn’t understand me for some reason. After all, I never spoke Korean back when I was in Canada, just with my parents.” 

Kevin let the information sink in for the child who was now gazing up at him with newfound interest alight in his big brown eyes and it takes everything inside the said doctor not to squeal at how adorable he looks. Instead, he pauses and waits, waits with the hope that Hanjo will react to this, however he wants. 

“How?”

Kevin blinks. Hanjo’s mouth is open, curiosity filling his features as he continues hesitantly, “how...did you...make friends?” 

While Kevin wants nothing more than to punch the air in success, he decides that this is not the right moment to be celebrating that fact. Instead, he clears his throat and allows his arm to rest on the side of the child’s bed. 

“Actually, the pocky sticks helped me. The kids at my school always brought the same type of pocky sticks and then one day, when one of the girls in my class didn’t have any snacks, I offered her one,” Kevin smiles at the memory flashing before his eyes, “I thought she’d laugh at me when she started talking to me because of my accent. I wasn’t completely fluent. Surprisingly though, she was very interested to know what I had to say, despite the fact that I was so scared she’d just turn away from me.” 

“What was her name?” Hanjo asks.

“Her name?” Kevin tilts his head, “actually, she works here too. Her name’s Mae, she’s a doctor from the Cancer department.” 

Hanjo pauses for a few seconds, before he looks down at the box of pocky in his hand, “I don’t like talking in Korean,” his voice is small, barely a whisper, “I don’t like it here. Everything is different. Everyone is different.” 

“You know, Korean is one of the hardest languages to learn. And you know English. Do you know how amazing that is?” Kevin smiles down, one of his hands going to pat his head, “I know how it feels. It doesn’t feel like home, because home is far far away. But it will get better, Hanjo. It’s okay that you’re not fluent in Korean. You’ll get there, eventually. Look at doctor Kevin, see?” he motions towards his own chest, “I was in the exact same position as you were, once. But it really gets better, trust me.” 

Hanjo is frowning at the snack in his hands now, as though there are different thoughts flying about in his brain, thoughts too complicated for him to explain. But he surprises Kevin when he suddenly looks up and holds out his pinky. 

“Promise?” Hanjo asks, “promise it gets better?” 

“I promise,” Kevin hooks his finger with the child’s, “and you know what? You made your first friend right here,” and he pats his own chest with an amused smile. Hanjo’s lips tilt up in a mirroring expression, albeit hesitant, and Kevin’s heart melted right then and there in a puddle of Hanjo goo.

-----------

Knock knock. 

Kevin blinks away the drowsiness as he raises his head from his desk where he’d been napping just a few seconds ago. Rubbing the sleep away from his eyes, he spots Hyunjae and lets out a groan at the mischievous smirk on the latter’s lips. 

Whenever Hyunjae’s in a mood, he’ll have some kind of face that warns people about it. 

“Get lost, Hyunjae. Not in the mood,” Kevin groans while his friend saunters in as though he hasn’t been straight out rejected. Kevin buries his face back into his arms and Hyunjae quickly lays his head just beside him. 

“What?” Kevin asks with his eyes still closed.

Hyunjae merely giggles, before blowing softly on his face. 

Kevin whips his head around, “you’re so annoying. Get lost.” 

“But Kebiiin,” the taller man whines and nestles his face even closer so that Kevin’s soft hair tickles the bridge of his nose, “I have important news!” 

“What news?” comes Kevin’s mumble.

“I’m getting married.”

“To who?” 

“To you.” 

“No you’re not.”

“Okay fine, to Juyeon.” 

“No you’re not.” 

“Okay fine, to Mae then.” 

“Do you know,” Kevin asks slowly, “why is she acting so weird?” 

“Weird?” Hyunjae snuggles even closer, breathes in Kevin’s soft vanilla scent, “like usual Mae kind of weird or weirder than weird?” 

“No, she hasn’t been talking to herself. But she has been avoiding me.” “Oh.” 

“Oh?” Kevin whips around to look at him in alarm. 

Hyunjae draws back to stand, leaning against the opposite doctor’s empty chair as Kevin straightens to look at him with growing concern, “what do you mean by ‘oh’?” 

“She did ask me something weird the other day.” 

“About?” 

“About who you were crushing on.” 

“WHAT?” Kevin’s eyes grow wide, “what did you tell her?!” 

“That I had no clue.” 

“Oh thank god,” Kevin visibly slouches in relief. Then, his eyes grow wide, “wait--Does she know then?! That I--” All it takes is for Hyunjae’s face to take on a suspicious air for Kevin to realize that he is not out of dangerous waters yet.  He scrambles up and holds onto Hyunjae’s sleeve, “what?” Kevin demands like it’s a life or death situation. Which it is to him, “why do have that look on your face?” 

“Look Kev, mate, I definitely did not do anything.” 

“But?” 

“I never said there was a but.” 

“You implied it!” 

“Okay fine,” Hyunjae huffs, “but, someone seems to have leaked this information to her, like it or not--” 

“What?!” 

“--and we all suspect that it’s the Neurosurgery resident, the one that comes from Toronto--”

Kevin sucks in a sharp breath, “Jacob Bae?” 

“If anyone asks, this did not come out of my mouth,” Hyunjae is quick to defend while raising his arms in the air in mock surrender, but Kevin is too preoccupied at the thought that his secret is now out in the open for everyone to dissect and digest. How in the world does Jacob know about this? He barely even talks to him! 

Unless...unless it’s that obvious? 

His head snaps up so suddenly, eyes dark and so vividly intense on Hyunjae’s that the latter can’t help but yelp in return, “Hyunjae,” Kevin says slowly, “you’re sure...you’re sure you didn’t say anything?” 

“Are you implying that I lied to you?!” Hyunjae gasps mockingly, “Kevin, I’m--”

“Shut up and be serious for one second.” 

“Of course I didn’t! Who do you take me for?!” 

“Shit,” is the only thing that Kevin has to say, “Shit. Shit.” 

[lady-wallace]

Whumptober Day 28: “Such wow, Many normal, Very Oops” (Supernatural)

Day Twenty-Eight: Such Wow, Many Normal, Very Oops

Prompts used: accidents, hunting season

Fandom: Supernatural Season 5

Read on Ao3

Read on FF.net

~~~~~~~

Dean dragged himself back over to Sam, collapsing beside his brother with a gasp.

"Dean?" Sam murmured.

"Don't move," Dean told him worriedly. "I'm just gonna try to clean this up, okay?"

Sam hummed, and nodded before wincing. Dean was afraid he had a concussion, though that was only one of their many worries right now.

Sam's leg was worse.

He didn't know why they always seemed to have the worst luck. It wasn't enough for Sam to get mauled by a black dog out in the middle of nowhere, but Dean had also gotten shot. By a hunter.

And not their kind of hunter. The kind who usually only shot Bambi's mom. That's just what happened when you were out in the woods during hunting season, he supposed. Still. The guy could have been a little more responsible.

The guy might have even gone for help if he hadn't been mauled by the same black dog that had gotten Sam.

Overall, this trip, which was supposed to be a milk run, ended up with both of them unable to walk out of the woods, and no cell service to call for help.

Dean had tried praying to Cas but the angel couldn't fly anymore what with being cut off from heaven and all, so he didn't know when or if he was going to get there. Or if he'd even heard him.

Dean turned to Sam with the river water he'd grabbed, soaking his last clean handkerchief and trying his best to flush the wounds in Sam's thigh and side. His brother flinched and whimpered. Dean worriedly noted the redness of the wounds and the heat of Sam's skin. He had a fever, and was terrified that sepsis would set in if they stayed out here too much longer without even the ability to clean the wounds properly. He hadn't even had his flask on him. Dean was lucky the same thing hadn't happened to him, though that might have been because he'd removed the bullet from his own leg in the running water of the stream making extra careful to wash the wound. He'd thrown up from the pain, but it had probably helped keep it from getting infected. Unfortunately, he couldn't drag Sam over to the stream. He could barely drag himself.

It was overall a bad situation. The only really good thing was that it felt like the apocalypse couldn't reach them out here.

Silver lining and all, Dean supposed wryly.

Sam cried out as Dean flushed the tender wounds as well as he could. "Easy," he murmured, patting his brother's chest.

"D-Dean," Sam swallowed hard. "N-no point in…"

"Shh," Dean hushed him. "It's better than nothing. And don't worry, we'll get help. It's hunting season, remember? Someone will be around eventually."

But it had been what? Two, three days now? Dean wasn't even sure anymore, and no one had crossed their path. They were deep in the woods.

Dean felt his brother's temperature again, and sat back, wincing as he stretched his own bad leg out. He looked up at the trees and closed his eyes. Cas, come on. If you can hear me…we really need help.

XXX

Bobby Singer wasn't really surprised to see the angel at his door, but he was surprised to see him without Sam and Dean.

Of course, his unasked questions were answered only a second later.

"Sam and Dean are in trouble," the angel said without greeting or preamble.

Bobby sighed wearily. When were those idjits not in trouble? "I'll go get my stuff."

Ten minutes later, he was on the road with an angel riding shotgun.

"You said Dean prayed to you?" Bobby asked.

Castiel nodded. "Yes, I can only assume their phones aren't working. They must be far out in the woods."

Bobby nodded. He knew the area they had been heading to, but he didn't know how deep they'd had to go. Truth be told, he felt a little guilty for not noticing their absence. He'd been so caught up in research that he hadn't realized it was two days later and the boys hadn't so much as called in. Usually cases involving black dogs weren't that complicated.

"Once we get there, will you be able to sniff them out?" Bobby asked.

Castiel frowned, glancing over at him. "I'm… not a hunting dog. And with the angel proof markings I put on their ribs, I won't be able to tell that it's them. I may be able to sense their human souls, however. But I'm not at full power, otherwise I would have simply flown there when Dean prayed to me."

"I know, I know," Bobby said, annoyed, but it wasn't the angel's fault.

When they got to the woods, Bobby pulled up at the head of the nearest trail and got out, slinging his bag over one shoulder and his rifle over the other.

Bobby glanced at the map that was set up. "Well, if no one has found them yet, then best guess is that they're probably out there." He tapped a spot with no trails listed. "There are probably only a few hunters who would go out there, the ones who mean business, but they still might not have come across the boys." Or, there was the other possibility, of course, that Bobby refused to think about. But if Dean had prayed to Cas not that long ago, then they had to still be alive.

"Well, let's go," Bobby said and they started off into the woods.

XXX

Dean tried to keep Sam as cool as possible. He should probably try to drag him down to the river, but he honestly didn't think he had the strength. He might not have any choice later, but right now, he would stick to hobbling back and forth for fresh water with the makeshift crutch he had made out of a branch. For now, about all the energy he had left was spent just sitting there, Sam's head resting on his good leg.

Sam made a sound of discomfort and shifted. Dean stroked his filthy hair out of his eyes, placing the cool cloth on his forehead, mouth pinching with worry. He was sure that Sam's fever had risen just within the last hour.

"Just hold on, Sammy," he whispered to his brother. "Please."

Sam just whimpered in pain and his face contorted as his body shifted slightly.

Dean leaned his head back against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes.

"Cas, come on," he prayed, really hoping the angel could hear him. "We really need you here, buddy."

Maybe he was hoping for a miracle that would never come. After all, the angel, like the rest of them, seemed to be out of miracles.

XXX

Bobby and Cas stood over the remains of what appeared to be a hunter. The shredded camouflage jacket and rifle near his hand being the only real indication. They'd have to use dental records to identify him.

"Must have tangled with the black dog the boys were hunting," Bobby mused, wincing at the smell. The body had to be a couple days old now. Already picked over by the forest scavengers.

"Then maybe Sam and Dean aren't too far," Castiel said.

They continued on until Bobby stopped, seeing another corpse.

"Cas."

The angel turned and they studied a large black dog, lying dead, shot multiple times.

"They can't be far from here. Sam! Dean!" Bobby called.

Castiel joined the call and they hurried on until the angel stopped.

"Bobby, there's a river and…I can feel them, I think."

Relief flooded the old hunter as he and the angel raced in the direction Cas was indicating.

And there they found the boys. His boys. Alive.

Bobby thanked whoever might be listening and hurried forward, Cas on his heels.

"There you are," he said.

Dean was sitting with his back against a tree, Sam's head in his lap, and he looked up, eyes wide as if in disbelief as he saw Bobby coming.

"B-Bobby, Cas," he breathed. "That really you?"

Bobby knelt down beside them and reached out and cup Dean's face, smiling. "Yeah, it's really me, ya idjit. What the hell happened?"

"Black dog got Sammy, and…that poor bastard shot me on accident."

Bobby remembered the dead hunter and glanced down at Dean's leg where dirty strips of his shirt were tied tightly around it.

"Sam has a fever," Castiel said, brow furrowed as he knelt as well and touched Sam's forehead.

"Yeah, he's…not doing well," Dean said, swallowing hard. "We need to get him to the hospital."

"I can call the rangers, I have a satellite phone."

"No need," Castiel said and gently shifted Sam away from Dean and up over his shoulder. Sam moaned, but stayed completely unconscious. "As long as Dean can walk out of here."

"I'll make it," Dean grunted, already pushing himself to his feet.

Bobby caught his arm and helped. "You sure, son? It's a long way."

"Better than waiting for them to find us," Dean said and grabbed a makeshift crutch, leaning on that and Bobby as they followed Cas.

"Man am I glad you found us," Dean said quietly. "Thanks."

Bobby smiled and squeezed Dean's shoulder. "Anytime."

Later when they finally got to the hospital and Sam and Dean were both taken care of and fed and medicated, Bobby found them in Sam's room. The younger Winchester was still unconscious, but the doctor had said he would make a full recovery once he rested for a few days. He'd still somehow managed to avoid sepsis setting in, despite everything, so with some antibiotics he would be back to normal soon enough.

Dean had obviously made his way to his brother room, with his real crutches and he now sat, slumped, beside the bed, bad leg stretched out and head pillowed on his arms at Sam's shoulder.

Cas sat on the other side of Sam's bed, watching over both of them, their guardian angel. He looked up as Bobby came in.

"They're both going to be fine," he said, seeming to share Bobby's relief.

Bobby nodded, the last of the tension in his chest finally releasing. He pulled up another chair, and sat down to watch over all three of his boys.

[my-soul-sings]

Fandom: Wannabe Challenge Characters: Taehee x Reader

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 (pt. 1) | Chapter 4 (pt. 2) | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 (AO3) 

*** 

Chapter 9 (preview) 

***

Taehee was surprising you in a lot of ways. He was handsome, intelligent, a great cook, kind, caring… just about everything any woman would want in a man. He was like a character that had stepped right out of a Korean drama; so far you hadn’t spotted any glaring flaws in his personality. 

...Actually, on second thought, a few did come to mind. 

Taehee was a clean freak, as Hansol and Biho liked to term it. They hadn’t been exaggerating one bit with that term. On the weekends, Taehee would turn the house upside down and start deep-cleaning the apartment, forcing Biho and Hansol to clean their rooms as well after an inspection that involved a lot of disgusted groans from him. You made sure to keep the house as clean as you could, although all three of them assured you not to worry about it, seeing as you were injured. Naturally, you refused to listen. This was the least you could do in return for them letting you stay here temporarily.

Another thing about Taehee was that he was a worrywart. He was like a shadow that clung to you as much as he could, watching you like a hawk and offering his assistance whenever it looked like you might need it—even if you didn’t. Need to open a water bottle? He could do it for you. Got to do the laundry? He could take care of it. 

He was basically treating you like a fragile doll who couldn’t lift a spoon to feed herself. Eventually, you had enough of it and sat him down to inform him that you were perfectly capable of taking care of yourself.

It was only semi-effective. Taehee continued to worry, even getting Biho and Hansol to help keep an eye on you when he had to leave for work. However, he did tone down on his fussing noticeably when you started to show signs of irritation. He was good-natured, you’d give him that, but honestly he could go overboard at times. For some reason he was a bit of a drama queen when it came to you. Taehee didn’t show nearly as much concern and anxiety for his two roommates, despite being friends with them for a much longer time. 

Maybe it was preferential treatment since you were the only woman in the house? Or maybe he was serious when he said that he had fallen for you.

You shook your head, discarding that thought immediately. It was popping up in your head more often than you’d like, ever since he declared that he would take time to prove his feelings for you. What feelings? It was probably hormones at best. It was still ridiculous to believe that he could have fallen in love with you at first sight, with the way you looked when you had first met him. It might have been easier to believe if you had gone there dolled up and dressed to impress, but that hadn’t been the case. 

You supposed that might be another flaw to this seemingly perfect doctor: he was incredibly eccentric, and you couldn’t tell what was on his mind at all. All you could do was take him at his word and his requests for you to trust him. 

Well, those flaws weren’t all bad. Putting them aside, Taehee was a great guy. So were his friends. 

Hansol’s outgoing, warm character made him the easiest to warm up to. With his looks and personality, it didn’t come as a surprise to you when he told you that he was the lead singer of a band. They often did gigs and busking events, and you had promised to attend his next one, which was in a week. Initially, you had thought he was the youngest of the trio, but surprisingly it was Biho instead. Hansol had a strange complex about that too, even though their age difference wasn’t that large. It was amusing to watch when he yelled at Biho for “not respecting your elders”, or when he had to wake the redhead up in the mornings. He was unexpectedly motherly, although you kept that thought to yourself. You had a feeling he wouldn’t take it as a compliment. 

Then there was Biho, the one whom you had met previously when you gave each other a mutual scare. He was the tallest and largest of the three roommates, but he was also the shyest. It was cute, in a way. The main thing you remembered about him was that he was a deep sleeper, which Hansol often complained about since it was his job to wake the redhead up in the mornings. It probably had something to do with the late nights; you had noticed that he was more of a night owl than the rest. Then again, his flexible working hours allowed it; he was a children’s book writer, and apparently his prime writing time was at night. 

All three of them were interesting characters. You had initially thought that living together with strangers would be difficult, but they were all easy to get along with, and you found yourself adapting to the new environment quicker than expected. 

But of course, this wasn’t supposed to be a permanent arrangement. The fact that you had to find somewhere else to live in constantly gnawed at you in the back of your mind, and it didn’t help that the landlady didn’t want to return your security deposit. You had considered raising a dispute, but figured that she had enough to deal with as it was. Besides, you couldn’t ignore the feeling that it was your bad luck that had landed her and the other tenants in this plight in the first place. 

You were, after all, a curse.

Then there was the issue of your part-time job and school. You had called up the florist school and they were willing to push back your classes and allow you to take some make-up classes once you recovered, so that was settled at least. As for your job, your supervisor had been sympathetic and allowed you to delay your starting date. Still, you had to look for other options in the meanwhile to earn some money, since it would be expensive to look for a new studio apartment on short notice. 

Rent was another thing weighing on your mind—Taehee had mentioned that you didn’t need to pay rent, but you had refused the offer, not wanting to freeload off him and his friends. The only problem was finding a job that you could do with one functioning hand. You had been scrolling through job ads for the past few days but nothing had really caught your eye. The only feasible job was freelance writing, but you doubted you had the skills for that. 

“What are you thinking so hard about?” 

The voice startled you and you let out a scream, bottom lifting off the couch as you jumped.

[continued on AO3] 

[why-are-you-even-here-tho]

okay people. i’m gonna be spitting a lot of Words. because i’m feeling a lot of Feelings at the moment and i don’t know how to express them through any other methods so. yeah. 

this is just gonna be me venting so. probably wouldn’t recommend reading but idk u do u i guess. i put most of the things that i think are triggers in the tags, but i’m actual shit at tagging so. if literally anything is gonna affect you negatively just. don’t read. i can’t tag everything and yeah. idk. to the cut now i guess. bye. 

hi lmaooo what the fUCK am i writing lmaoo

so. first. my past week has been fucking shit. 

    first, i was super fuckin stressed cause i had chair placement auditions for band, a 70 point spanish vocab test, and a 5-7 minute presentation of elizabethan crime and punishment all due in the span of two fucking hours on wednesday. and my stepmother. has the fucking a u d a c i t y. to tell me that i’m actually only allowed to study (on my computer, where everything is) for one hour after school each day. like honey i can’t control what i’m fuckin assigned. and she’s already shitty with me cause she thinks that i’m not doing anything when i’m on my computer (which, despite what you all have seen of me, is not true lmao). so she’s super fuckin dumb about that. 

    second. my chickens. which i call my chickens because, up until recently, i was the only person that did jack shit for those fuckin birds. literally. stepmother bought the food and sold the eggs. maybe went outside once every couple weeks. it pissed me off but you know. whatever. that’s not even what i’m talking about this time. but she goes out there, before i do my daily stuff for them, and comes back in- whirlwind if pissed off cause the stuff isn’t done. like honey i haven’t done that yet. and she gets bitchy cause i haven’t done it yet and starts to go on about how she knew that i secretly hated the chickens and that she bet that i intentionally fucking killed some of them (cause a few of them actually disappeared this week)?? like what in the fUCK??? i would never fuckin do that??? and i love hearing her complain about what food and water is full to the top as if she bothers doing literally anything to help with them. so i’m now not even allowed in my own fucking backyard because apparently i’m a fuckin serial chicken killer. fuck that. 

    third. i had. the audacity to forget an entire assignment. and stepmother dearest sees it. and goes fuckin apeshit. i am the epitome of disrespectful and useless and such a little bitch and stupid and do i need someone to go with me to school every day and hold my hand and remind me to breathe? and like. i can take that, in a way. it’s the normal shit i get from this woman. what really, for some odd reason, got me this time? when she asked, i think completely sincerely, actually, if there was some sort of implant that could make me better. like bitch. i’m not a fucking dog, you don’t need to fucking chip me so you know where i am all the time. i’m not a fucking robot that needs a fucking upgrade so that my fucking memory is better. i haven’t really said anything to her (or anyone really) about this (cause i don’t fuckin trust her not to give me shit because of it) but i have. a fuckin Issue. with fuckin dehumanization. and that hit. every single fucking button. so i’m fucking pissed and just decide that hey. i’m gonna go to my room for a minute. so i don’t fucking murder my dad’s wife. and i get shit for that too!!! like what in the fUCK???? and now i’m at my grandma’s for some length of time. in fuckin exile. 

    fourth, because i feel like it’s its own thing. my stepmom. as i’m going to my grandma’s for my tommyinnit arc. stops me for a minute. uses her “i’m being genuine (lie) and just trying to make you understand my point of view (with the attitude that it is the only one that matters cause yeah) because being me is hard :(” voice. tells me. “I just want to help you, but you being here makes me think about hurting myself.” which. yes, i understand is not a thing to just dismiss. i do kinda feel shitty about it. but also. 2 things. one, she said it in such a tone of voice that practically screamed “this is a lie to make you feel like shit”. and two, she?? also does this?? to me??? like honey. the blood on the inside of the thighs of my pants and the pocketknife blade hidden in my jewelry box are saying a bit more about “thinking about hurting myself” than you, sitting there on the couch, rewatching game of thrones for the third time. i sound like an asshole in this bit. but i’m just. fuckin angry. 

     fuckin angry and fuckin pissed at myself. cause maybe if i didn’t fuck that assignment up, i’d not be in so much trouble. if i did the chicken stuff earlier that day i’d be at home still. if i could focus more in class my parents might not be as easy to piss off. if i were just. better. if i were not. like this. if i could do more than just “try to” change. if i could look at my issues and actually work to fix them rather than staying up till midnight on a weekday, spending over an hour typing a fucking essay about the shit i’ve been through this week that nobody is gonna read. maybe even if i just. weren’t here. 

    i wasn’t supposed to exist. there were. so many signs. telling my parents that they shouldn’t have kids. one - the fact?? that my mom had no less than four miscarriages??? before she got pregnant with me??? one would think that they may stop trying after like. two. and my mom already had one son! it was with her first husband (red flag right there lmao) but she had! a kid! already! why go through all that pain? idk. i’m not, and never will be, a parent. two - my parents! actually did! decide to stop trying! to have a kid! and then my bitchy little -9 month old ass was like “hey bitches are you ready for 16 years of hell?” three - there were so many issues with my (i mean. not mine but the only one i’ve been involved in) pregnancy. like. mom got badly sick like. 3 times. she told me one day that her doctor told her that it would be healthier for me? if she kept smoking while she was pregnant???? so that’s fun. and i’m positive that it was not just nicotine. yeah. fun. don’t necessarily have an issue with weed but like. bro. you’re pregnant. no thanks. four - i was a cesarean. not that that’s really an issue. but. i felt like it might go on here. five - i refused! to breathe! on my own! for almost 24 hours! this might have meant something!!!!! 

     i don’t even know what i’m writing anymore honestly. i’m feeling emotions and i hate it. it’s midnight. i’ve spent over an hour writing this.  why am i not working on my fic. bye.

i would like access to alcohol please lmao

[wefoundloveunderthelight]

Marco’s Home for Lost Boys

Read on AO3 - Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 (Or on FF if that’s your thing)

Tagging:

@lfh1226-linda @kmomof4

Chapter 6: No Questions

K: Swan, where are you?

K: Are you with Neal? He’s not answering his phone either.

K: Bloody hell, answer the damn phone!!

Killian slammed his phone down on the table.

“Bugger, where would she go?” Will was pacing in the kitchen.

“Let’s all just calm down for a moment. She just lost her father too. We all knew that was going to be hard on her.” David was currently playing the role of newly elected dad in the middle of the living room.

“She’s not answering.” Robin stated as he walked into the room with his phone to his ear.

“Geez Rob, no one had thought of actually calling her until you got here, Mate.”

“Sarcasm does not suit you little brother.” He snarled at Will.

K: Would you please let me know you’re alright. You’re freaking everyone out.

Killian stared at his phone. He’d give anything to see a message from her, hell even those three little dots that allowed him to know she was alright would be fine about now.

“Maybe we should check the docks. That’s where I found her before.”

“She was 6, not 16.” Killian spat angrily.

“Well, I haven’t heard any other ideas out of you!” August yelled back.

“Ok let’s not fight right now. It’s not helping anyone.” Robin put his hand on Killian’s shoulder, causing him to sit back in his chair.

“Could she be with Neal?” David asked.

“He’s not answering his bloody phone either.” Killian growled.

“Ok so maybe they are together.” David looked around the room at the distaste on everyone's face. “I mean, that’s not ideal either, but where else would a 16-year-old girl go besides to sneak off with her boyfriend, right?”

“Then let’s go get her.” Will jumped up from the table grabbing his jacket.

“If she has snuck off to be with her jackass of a boyfriend she sure as hell won’t want all of us chasing her down and showing up at Neal’s house in the middle of the night to drag her home.” Killian stood up and grabbed his keys from the table. “I’ll go fetch the lass. It isn’t the first time I’ve had to collect her from Neal’s.”

David’s face drops. “What?”

Killian waves him off, “Not now.”

He opened the door and grumbled as he walked out. “One of these days, I’m gonna stop chasing this girl.”

~

His mind is swirling by the time he drives by Neal’s house, not finding the yellow bug on the street or parked in the alley behind the pawn shop.

Where the devil did you get off to, lass?

He drives to lookout point, hoping he’s not about to catch her in a compromising circumstance with Neal. He’s not sure what he would do to Neal right now.

When his search comes up empty, he starts to worry.

Where the bloody hell would she be?

He drives past the police station, Granny’s, and the Town Hall with no result. He’s about to head to the town line when he spots something yellow on one of the back roads. He turns his bike around and turns onto the dark street.

The bug is parked at the back of the road.

What the hell would she be doing in this part of town?

He parks behind the bug and makes his way to the driver’s side door. He bends down to peer in the window when he sees blonde hair.

Emma!

She’s slumped over sideways onto the passenger seat.

He feels his heart drop. He digs for his keys, looking for the spare to the Bug and pushes it into the lock with shaky hands, yanking the door open.

“Swan!” He feels her neck. She’s alive.

His heart starts beating again as he pulls her up against him and then he realizes she is covered in blood.

He hears her groan and pulls her into his arms. “Emma, what happened?”

Her eyes open and her hand reaches up to caress his cheek. “You found me; I knew you’d find me.”

“Emma, is this your blood?”

She nods weakly. “St...stabbed.”

He’s tearing at her clothes, pulling her shirt up as he sees the rip in her flesh. Yanking his scarf off his neck, he pushes it into the wound. “Keep pressure on this.” He picks her up and opens the back seat, depositing her in the back. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

She grabs his hand. “No. I can’t. No police.”

Swan, what have you gotten yourself into?

She closes her eyes. “We were trying to get something for Gold. They took something.”

“Gold!” He yells.

“Neal said it would be an easy in and out.”

“I’m going to kill him.” He grunts.

She puts her hand to his lips. “Shh. Please. It hurts.”

“Keep pressure on it. I know where we can go.”

He pulls out his phone and tries to come up with a story that his brothers will believe.

K: I’ve got her. Nothing to worry about. Lass is pretty upset over Marco. We’re gonna sit and talk it out. Don’t wait up for us.

Killian drives the bug away from his bike, hoping it will still be there when he comes to get it tomorrow. He knows where he needs to go. He doesn’t have a choice. He has to get help. He just hopes Tink doesn’t ask any questions.

~

“Jones! What in the hell are you doing here at this hour?”

Question number one.

“Lady Bell, I do apologize for the hour, but I fear I have nowhere else to go.”

“Are you in trouble?”

Question number two.

She peeks out the door, looking around. She spots the girl sitting on the chair outside her door.

“Aye, but it’s not me, it’s my…Emma. Can we come in?”

“You got your sister into this mess?” She whispers.

Question number three.

“Of course not, what type of gent do you take me for, this is a totally unrelated matter, nothing to do with me. Can you help, please?”

“Get in here.”

He picks Emma up and enters the small home.

“Put her on that table and let me have a look.”

Killian deposits Emma on the table in the corner of the room, grabbing the scarf and pulling it from the wound. “She had a run in with a knife. Purely accidental, you see.”

Tink glares at him. “Accidental my ass, Jones.”

“Killian.” Emma moans and he’s at her side, grasping her hand tightly in his.

“I’m here, Emma.”

“Who did this to her?”

Question number four. Fuck!

“Can you help us or not?”

Tink works as the “unofficial” doctor for those unfortunate enough to get involved with Gold, either by working for him or ending up on his bad side.

She herself would never work for Gold; she’s terrified of the man. He was introduced to Tink after a run in with a particularly smarmy little man, Pan, who shot him in the leg after refusing to settle a debt.

Milah had told him that Tink had helped one of her friends when they had been wounded while doing less than legal activities.

When he met her, Tink spent the entire time lecturing him on why he should stop working for Gold while she patched him up.

“Go and get my kit.” She smacked him on the arm, “Did you hear me, Jones?”

He shook his head, “Uh yeah sorry, kit, gotcha.”

He pauses before turning to Tink, “She’s gonna be ok, right?”

“Get the kit, Jones.”

~

Emma was so cold, why was she cold? She remembers being warm. There was whiskey involved. Her body was warm all over.

And then she was cold.

There was blood. She remembers blood. And Killian.

Wait, Killian wasn't there. No, she was with Neal.

Wasn’t she with Neal?

Neal.

The boy who left her behind.

She remembers him running past her. Did he even look back?

Did he hear her call for help?

Help.

She needed help.

Killian.

He found her. He always found her.

“Emma, is this your blood?”

Blood. Yes, her blood. Was she stabbed? Wait, there was a knife.

“St…stabbed.”

He presses something into her hand. “Keep pressure on this. We need to get you to the hospital.”

Hospital? No, she was breaking and entering. She can’t go to a hospital.

“No. I can’t. No police. We were trying to get something for Gold. They took something.”

“Gold!” She hears the anger in his voice. Knows how disappointed he must be in her right now.

“Neal said it would be an easy in and out.”

“I’m going to kill him.”

The pain in her side is starting to become unbearable. She feels like she’s going to pass out again. She reaches out for him.

“Shh. Please. It hurts.”

“Keep pressure on it. I know where we can go.”

The streetlights pass over her, light and then dark. Her eyes open and close as she drifts in and out of consciousness.

“Jones! What in the hell are you doing here at this hour?”

“Lady Bell, I do apologize for the hour, but I fear I have nowhere else to go.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Aye, but it’s not me, it’s my…Emma. Can we come in.”

“You got your sister into this mess?” She whispers.

Mess? No, she got into the mess. Killian would never be a mess.

Emma isn’t sure what is happening, she is floating into a room she’s never seen before.

It’s hurting. Burning. She can’t bear it anymore.

“Killian.” She feels his hand in hers as the blackness comes again.

“Get the kit, Jones.”

She peers out of her lids, blurry light around her.

“Ok pour that on the wound.”

Searing pain causes her to see red as Killian tips a bottle onto her flesh.

“Ow, what the hell is that?”

“Rum, A bloody waste of it.”

She feels something sharp against her flesh which makes everything go black again.

~

“So, are you going to tell me what happened?”

Great, more questions.

“Nothing you need to be concerned about.”

“She had a pretty big gash in her side, Jones. I would say someone should be worried about that.”

“Aye.” He looks over at Emma, asleep on the couch. He isn’t sure what he would have done if he hadn’t found her. If he had lost her.

His heart pounds a bit faster in his chest.

You didn’t lose her. You found her.

“She’s too young to be involved in what you do, collateral damage and all.”

“I told you it was purely accidental.”

“Yeah, and that’s why you needed my help and not the help of a professional, you know, in a hospital where they treat emergencies that are, shall we say, accidental.”

“The lass is a bit nervous about hospitals.”

“Killian.”

He jumped up from the table and was at her side in a second. “Emma, how are you feeling?”

“It hurts. I have a headache.”

“I’ve got some aspirin in the back.” Tink gets up from the table and disappears into the back room.

“You scared the shit out of me, Swan.”

“I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

“I know who’s fault it is. Trust me, he and I will be speaking.”

She groaned. “Killian, I asked to go with him.”

“That is not the point and you know it.” He leaned toward her, lowering his voice. “Honestly, what the hell were either of you thinking?”

“I just wanted to feel alive again. To know that life doesn’t end for me just because everyone will be gone.”

“No one is leaving you, Emma.”

“Not immediately, but soon you will all be moving on.”

“Emma, you almost got yourself killed because of something so incredibly ridiculous.”

“I’m sorry.” She sighs. “It was stupid to run off with Neal.”

“Where was he when this happened?”

“I don’t know, he ran out before I could get out of the building.”

He felt the anger boiling. “He fucking left you there?”

“I don’t know, when I got to the car, Neal was gone.”

“Neal?” they both turned toward Tink.

“Gold’s son is involved in this?”

“Tink, it’s not what you think…”

“You need to go. Jesus, Killian, I can’t be a part of this.” She pulls him up by the arm, cornering him as her voice lowers. “You didn’t tell me his kid was part of this. Did he do that to her?”

He had to stop all the questions. “I apologize Lady Bell.” He turned and scooped Emma up into his arms.

“We’ll be on our way.” He paused and kissed Tink on the cheek. “Thank you, Tink. I owe you.”

“You’re damn right you do.”

~

“What are you going to tell everyone?” Emma stares outside the window as they drive back to the cabin.

“That you took off to think and we talked things out and you won’t be running off like that again.”

She peers over at him. “And the fact that I have a stab wound in my side.”

“Guess you better make sure they don’t notice that fact.”

“I am sorry.”

“As you should be. This isn’t like you Emma.”

“Who was that woman? Tink?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Emma groaned. “Not even going to explain why she tossed us out after she heard Neal’s name?”

“Nope.”

“Dammit Killian, what the hell is going on? Neal takes me on a B&E date to retrieve something for his father, I get fucking stabbed, you take me to some shady house with a lady I’ve never met before who stitches me up and then throws me out of the house when she hears my boyfriend’s name. Don’t you think someone should tell me what the fuck is going on?”

“First off, watch your language. And Second, maybe he shouldn’t be your damn boyfriend.”

“Stop, I’m sure he has an explanation for tonight.”

He laughs and that infuriates her. “Why do you hate him so much?”

He yanks the steering wheel and pulls the car to the side of the road. “Instead of being there for you after your father dies, he fucking gets you drunk to get into your pants.”

He runs his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated.

“I didn’t. We haven’t.” He reaches out and takes her hand. His thumb running across her knuckles.

“He left you to fucking die tonight, Emma. He got you involved in his father’s shit.” She’s lost in his touch, the way he’s staring at her. Her heart is pounding in her chest. She’s never seen him this wrecked. She feels terrible for making him worry like this.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I lost you tonight, Swan.”

She looks up and realizes that he’s crying. Without thinking she reaches out to wipe the tear as it falls down his cheek. “I’m sorry, Killian. I just…I’m scared. I don’t want to lose everyone.”

He laughs, choking on his tears. “You can’t get rid of me, Swan.”

She wraps her arms around him and he envelope her, his hands tangling in her hair. “I’m so sorry, Killian.” The tears suddenly fall from her eyes and it feels like all the emotion is leaving her body at once. They stay that way, her crying into his shoulder while he holds her in his arms as she falls apart until the pain in her side becomes unbearable.

“Ouch.” She laughs while still crying.

He pulls back quickly, reaching for her side and ensuring that her bandages are still dry. Their eyes meet and Emma’s stomach flutters. “Sorry, I uh, I should get you home.”

She pushes his hair off his forehead. “Thank you, for finding me tonight.”

“I’ll always find you, love.”

“I love you, Killian.”

“I love you too, Swan.” He kisses her cheek, turning back to the steering wheel and pulling back onto the road.

They sit in silence for the rest of the ride, silently tip toeing through the house, and then pausing at her bedroom door. He leaned over and kissed her forehead, shivers going up her spine.

“Goodnight, Emma.”

She smiles up at him and backs into her room. “Night, Killian.”

Closing the door behind her she yanks the shirt over her head, wincing at the pain in her side. She toes off her jeans, a loud thunk sound startles her as an object hits the floor. Her phone lights up and she sweeps it off the floor.

N: Ems, are you alright? Sorry I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t go back for you. If I got caught there, my dad would kill me. Call me in the morning.

She threw her phone into her clothes pile.

That asshole just left her there to save himself.

She groaned and then retrieved her phone, falling backward on her bed.

E: I’m fine, glad you made it home, but I don’t think we should see each other anymore. Sorry.

Notes:

Last time jump coming... Things are about to get interesting.

[pixiegrl]

For the prompts, 29 and 15 with Lashton? Love your writing!

Hello anon! This was for a prompt on tumblr for Lashton, in a waiting room with “Is there anything I can do to help?” It ended up being goofier and fluffier than intended but @calumsclifford gave me the idea and I ran with it. Enjoy!

As always it is also on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26431231

Calum hiccups and immediately starts crying again, loud broken sobs. Luke tips his head, counting to 10 and willing himself to not just, get up and leave Calum. Regrettably, Luke is the only one with a car and he can’t just leave Michael at a hospital. He also can’t just abandon Calum here because then Michael will have to deal with an upset Calum on top of the injury and Luke will never hear the end of the whining.

Calum’s sprawled over Luke’s lap wailing at the top of his lungs. Everyone in the ER waiting room is shooting them concerned looks, but it’s 2am on a Monday so no one is actually coming over to check on them.

Luke’s counting to another set of 10 because Calum won’t stop whimpering about Michael’s “never going to recover” and “it’s all my fault,” when Luke hears someone clear their throat next to him. Luke glances over, immediately embarrassed that there’s an attractive guy with light brown curls, hazel eyes, and an old All Time Low shirt with his hands shoved into his pockets staring at the two of them. The one time Luke’s got a snotty Calum in his lap, his curls look flat and greasy, and he’s exhausted would be the time that a hot guy with good music taste comes over.

“I couldn’t help noticing that your friend seems very, uh, upset. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Michael is dying!” Calum wails, flinging himself further into Luke’s lap. The guy looks alarmed, taking a step back.

“He’s exaggerating! Michael is fine! He fell off a skateboard trying to do a “cool trick” and landed on his wrist funny. He thought it might be broken, but he’s going to be fine Cal! I’ve been trying to tell you that for the last 3 hours,” Luke huffs, trying to smack Calum upside the head. At any other time, Calum would have latched on to the fact that a hot guy is talking to Luke and tried to drop hints that Luke is very single and very bisexual and would love a boyfriend. Now, Calum’s too worried that Michael’s at death’s door over a small enough injury.

“He’ll never be able to play guitar again!”

“In 6 weeks, he’ll be perfectly able to play guitar Calum.”

The guy snorts and tries to hastily cover it up with a cough, when Luke looks over at him.

“What are you even doing in an ER at 2am on a Monday?”

“Oddly enough, something similar. My brother Harry tripped off his skateboard and landed on his face. Thinks he might have broken his nose, so here we are,” Ashton says, waving his hand around the waiting room. He pauses before sitting down a few seats away from Luke.

Luke feels a spike of heat in his chest. The cute guy is sitting near him! Calum is not scaring him away. Maybe he’s Luke’s soulmate. Wait, now Luke sounds like Michael and Calum and he refuses to be them.

“Is he going to be okay?”

“This isn’t even the worst thing that’s happened. Michael got burned once, totally got half his face and his eyebrows and Calum was inconsolable. I think Michael ended up having to hold him while the doctor was trying to bandage him up. Whenever Michael gets an injury, Calum acts like Michael’s on death’s door.”

“Because he is Luke! How can you say you’re his best friend and then just disrespect him like this?” Calum yells, muffled by the fact that his face is pressed into Luke’s jeans. Luke rolls his eyes. The guy smiles and Luke feels his heart skip a beat. Is he sharing a moment with a stranger in a waiting room? Is he in a rom-com?

“Ashton.”

“Hm?”

“My name. It’s Ashton. Since Calum here said your name, I figured it was only fair that you know mine too.”

“Well nice to meet you Ashton. What do you do when you’re not taking care of brothers with broken noses?”

“Taking care of little sisters who are just the right age where the wrong nail polish color is the end of the world, working at a coffee shop, playing drums.”

Luke perks up, “We’re a band. The three of us. Michael’s guitar, Cal’s bass, and I sing. Play guitar too, but not as good as Michael. We’re looking for a drummer.”

“You guys any good?”

“You could come see us practice for yourself.”

Ashton hums. He gives Luke a once over. Luke goes a little red, ducking his head to stare intensely at the back of Calum’s head. God, he needs Michael here to handle this Calum’s a terrible wingman. Next time, Luke’s going to break Calum’s wrist so he has Michael with him as a wingman.

“I don’t just give out my services for free you know. Drumming is alot of work and I deserve something in payment.”

“Oh? I mean, I work in a bookstore, Michael’s in a music shop, and Calum teaches football we don’t have like alot of money to go around. It’s why we don’t have a drummer yet.”

“You’re in luck because I’m a cheap drummer. All I ask for is a date with a very cute, blonde singer.”

Luke’s startled. Luke’s so startled he’s not sure he’s still breathing and he considers asking the nurse at reception if he’s still alive. There’s no way Ashton’s asking Luke out on a date. This is not happening at 2am on a Monday in an ER waiting room.

“Uhhhh, I would have to check my work schedule. I'm very busy selling books to bored teenagers and very excited children,” Luke says. He’s staring at a point over Ashton’s left shoulder, hoping that if he doesn’t make full eye contact with Ashton he won’t do or say something embarrassing.

“Well, I’m also busy selling coffee to angry businessmen and stressed college students. I think the best thing we could do is exchange our phone numbers so that way we could text each other about our schedules and set up a band practice day. Or a date. Whichever comes first. But just so you know, I know a really nice pizza place around here that I love to take a certain singer to.”

Luke’s too shocked to argue with Ashton. He simply nods, taking his phone out of his pocket and handing it over to Ashton, unlocked and everything. Ashton smiles, entering his information and texting his own phone before handing it back. Luke notices that he saved his name with a little drum next to it. As if Luke has more than one Ashton in his phone that he wants to text on the regular.

They chat for a bit about music, their jobs. Luke tells Ashton about Michael and Calum, that they’ve been friends for close to 5 years now, that Michael and Luke didn’t get along at first until music became involved. Luke shares that Michael and Calum have been dating for just as long, that Luke’s painful single (not for lack of Michael’s trying to find Luke someone). Ashton tells Luke about his siblings, his mother, that he’s just broken up with his boyfriend (he looks at Luke shyly when he says it and Luke grins at the idea that Ashton wants to go on a date with him already).

Luke loses track of time until the doors leading to the hospital wing swings open and Michael comes out, all pink hair and disheveled clothing, brace on his left wrist and a lollipop sticks out of his mouth, grinning around it. Calum lets out a cry that Luke can only imagine wives make when their husbands return from war and runs towards Michael flinging himself into Michael’s arms crying. Michael looks startled, but unsurprised, patting Calum on the shoulder, leading him back to Luke.

“The doctor said it’s just a sprain. I gotta keep it in the brace for a few weeks and come back for a check-up, but it’s nothing serious,” Michael says.

“But it could have been!” Calum wails again. Michael rolls his eyes, fond, pressing a kiss to Calum’s forehead.

“Considering the crying your boyfriends doing, I thought you were on death's door,” Ashton says. Michael looks over at Ashton confused.

“Who are you?”

“The man Luke abandoned me for in your time of need,” Calum says, glaring at Luke. Luke throws his hands up in mock surrender. Michael looks like he’s fighting back the urge to laugh.

“Ashton. Apparently, I’m Luke’s new boyfriend.”

“He’s our new drummer! We’re not dating! We haven’t even been on a date yet,” Luke rushes out, leaning over to smack Ashton. Ashton lets out a delighted laugh. Michael’s grinning maniacally now. Luke needs new friends.

“I would call this a first date.”

“You’re not allowed to call Michael’s trauma a date,” Calum protests.

“If it gets Luke a first boyfriend, it could be my funeral and they could call it a date,” Michael says. Calum lets out another wail and collapses onto Michael’s shoulder.

“I feel like you missed the part where I said he was our new drummer.”

“Oh I heard that but it’s not nearly as important as you getting a boyfriend.”

Luke jumps up starting to usher Michael and Calum out of the waiting room, “Well it’s 3am on a Monday and we have to go now because you are very injured and we should all sleep,”

“You should call Luke he’s very free all the time for dates!” Michael calls over his shoulder. Luke really needs new friends.

(Ashton still texts him at 5am, letting him know that Ashton’s brother is fine and that Ashton is also very free any time for both band practice and dates.

“You should send him a dick pic.”

“I’m not sending him a dick pic, Michael.”

“How else will he know you’re interested?”

“Are you breaking up with me for the waiting room guy Luke abandoned me for?”

“Not when I don’t know what his dick looks like and I’ve seen yours...on second thought, Luke send Ashton a pic of Calum’s dick instead.”

“I’m quitting this band,” Luke moans, flopping face first into the couch.

“Hey, if I hadn’t injured myself you wouldn’t have a boyfriend,” Michael protests.

His phone beeps. Ashton’s sent him a little heart emoji. Okay fine, maybe Michael and Calum aren’t terrible friends. It did get Luke a date with a cute guy.)