#but i never heard it in my life so it had me laughing hars

[the-acid-pear]

Like look at another movie that was really weird and divisive with wacky visuals and sexual themes, just like men had: Beau Is Afraid.

Beau too was a fucking trip but in that movie we had an story. We had a starting point and an end goal. You'd even argue this is a vague take on the odyssey too. Sure it was kind of insane for better and for worse but all of its scenes and themes tied to a bigger picture.

MEN is so over the place trying to bring in so many details but refusing to give them a reason to be. In BIA at least you can go "Beau is hallucinating/living out his intrusive/paranoic thoughts" and it makes sense because if you have mental illness similar to him (I do) expecting the worst to happen is what you do, but here it's taken to 11 bc well he's imagining it a little too close. In MEN there's not a single semblance of an explanation on anything. They vaguely maybe imply paganism but I'm just making huge assumptions.

Like BIA is a movie that gives you stepping stones to tie it all together, while MEN is a movie where you just gotta write fucking fanfiction for any of it to make sense. And I'm so upset about it. -_-

[foldingfittedsheets]

I, like I suspect many of the tumblr populace, ran into the issue in my youth of reading a lot of words I never heard spoken. My vocabulary has always been above average but my implementation is often flawed.

Like the day I told my dad I was the epitome of something and he laughed in my face. It wasn’t my fault that I didn’t correctly intuit the emphasis. (Mine was Ep-i-TOME vs Ep-i-to-ME).

My dad didn’t apologize for his rudeness but after my initial disgruntlement I just learned to roll with it. I’d get corrected and laugh it off. Some words were more frustrating though because it necessitated having to rework the word in my brain every time I read it. Like a few years ago when I learned I’d had “seneschal” wrong for decades. (I can’t explain why I thought it was sen-shull and not sen-es-shawl)

I learned that I had harbinger wrong during a Transformers movie without needing to embarrass myself. Thanks, Shia Lebouf. (Har-bing-er (wrong) made way more sense than har-binge-er (right) but no one asked me)

At this point in my life though I’ve managed to work out most of the kinks. I don’t often get corrected anymore.

But there’s one other snag that crops up between me and my beloved. I’ll confidently say a word and they’ll go, “That’s not how that’s pronounced.”

“Yes it is,” I’ll say, very firmly. Because in these cases I’ll generally have heard with my ears and repeated a word verbatim. I’ll know I heard it, so it can’t be wrong.

And pretty much every time I’ll be saying the British pronunciation instead of the American one. I’ve consumed enough British media that often it’s the only time I heard certain words said and I never realized American English handles it differently.

In some cases I’ll switch to the accepted American one. But they can pry machismo out of my cold dead hands, the American version is so stupid I can’t even handle it. I now recognize we stole the Spanish word but we made it worse.

[crookedkryptonitebeliever]

Yandere Coworker (part 12)

Thank you @i---believe---in---pink for commissioning this chapter.

(2041 words)

Tw: afab reader, reader is pretty mean to Cyprus, Cyprus becoming angry and yelling at reader

Please vote on the poll down below

Masterlists (+commission info), part 1, part 13

You rubbed your eyes with the back of your hand, Cyprus must have thought you were doing that excessively, as he would grab your wrist and pull it away from your face. He gave you a look from the corner of his eyes before returning his attention to the road.

You slumped in your seat, resting your cheek on the seatbelt. Cyprus's hand would find its way back to your thigh, where he would knead and squeeze them as much as he liked. You simply stared at it, because it would always return no matter how much you slapped it away.

You brought your chin up and looked forward. This farmer's market must be far, all you could see is a long strip of asphalt and grass around the car. The sun was shining bright and the air was silent, he refused to turn the radio on or play some music, because he wanted you to talk to him. Cyprus wanted a conversation, to connect with you better by sharing things about each other. But you're just not interested, you wanted to go home and catch up with sleep. Having Cyprus in your life is such a curse, everything was thrown off balance and he kept bullying you. Plus, he kept your phone away, and you're forced to simmer in reality.

"What's your zodiac sign?" He asked, resting his hand on your thigh.

You shrugged. Claiming not to be interested in it just so he would leave you alone in peace.

"Hm." He flicked his turn signal switch to the right before making a turn. "I'm a Cancer, my birthday's on the third of July. And if you're wondering what to get me, I just want your cute little ass on my face." Cyprus sported a playful smirk on his handsome face.

You told him you hope he gets cancer on his birthday. Which made him roll his eyes and click his tongue.

"Someone's cranky." It was followed by a laugh from him. "Sleepy?"

You snapped, telling him you didn't want to go on this stupid date this early in the morning. Wishing that you had never met Cyprus because everything was fine before then, but he had to come around and ruin it. He should just shrivel up and die.

There were a few beats of silence before he began speaking again.

"Wow, where the fuck did that come from, princess? That was a lot to take in." He tried to keep the tone lighthearted, but you could hear a twinge of hurt in his voice. "I must have woken you on the wrong side of the bed today, you were never this mean to me." Something in the way he said that suggests Cyprus is trying to get you to tell him the real reason why you're so moody today.

You sealed your lips shut and looked out of the window. You wanted nothing to do with him and he probably got the hint, as he removed his hand from your lap and placed it on the steering wheel.

Your eyes somehow itched way more than usual, so you went on to rub your eyes again with both hands.

"Stop that-"

You snapped at him again, curling yourself into a ball, pressing yourself far away from Cyprus. He opened his mouth to say something but ultimately decided against doing so.

He looked troubled but you didn't care. Unfortunately, you're too upset to give a damn and you don't know why.

The rest of the ride was driven in silence, neither you or him said a word. And eventually, Cyprus has reached his destination, driving further past the tents and stalls to enter an underground parking lot.

"We're here." Cyprus pulled his handbrake up and killed the engine. He took the keys out of the ignition, but made no move to open the door.

Because he was staring at you, who is now refusing to budge. Hiding yourself in your corner with your knees brought to your chest.

He brought a hand up to your head, petting your hair affectionately. "Baby? I said we're here-"

You yelled at him, saying you heard him the first time. All that while harshly shoving his hand away from you.

"What the fuck is up with you today!?" And it seems like that was the last straw for him, Cyprus furrowed his eyebrows and crowded you from his seat, making the only escape route the door, but it was locked and you somehow couldn't open it no matter how much you tugged on the handle or toggled with the lock.

You said you hated him, he has ruined your life. Perhaps you were trying to mimic what his exes did, you don't know how they could withstand the pressure of his menacing presence. Or maybe they liked it, you definitely didn't.

He sternly called you by your name. "Look at me."

You refused, burying your face in your arms.

"Look at me!" He scolded, this time Cyprus seized you by the jaw and forced your face to his. His grip on you was almost bruising, forcing you to pucker your lips as his fingers dug into your cheeks.

He glared straight at you, steely grey eyes darting all over to examine whatever might be causing your sudden and severe hostility. Though his expression softened when he realized what's been behind your intolerance today.

"Ah." He sounded out, "That figures." relieved and annoyed at the same time. Cyprus brought his thumb on your lower eyelid and gently pulled it down. He then pushed your upper eyelid up.

"Pink eye. I told you not to hang around Nancy." Nancy was one of your nosier coworkers, she had just come back from a medical leave and Cyprus was already telling you to avoid her. You didn't listen despite how she would have coughing fits and bad coughing etiquette. In hindsight, maybe you should have heed his words, but you were desperate to regain some agency over yourself. So you rebelled.

He continued checking your eyeball even after he knew what he was looking at.

It felt invasive, so you thrashed in his grip enough for him to loosen it.

He sighed, taking his keys out of his pocket, jabbing it into his ignition and restarting it again. You winced when Cyprus revved up his engine and allowed its roar to bounce off the basement carpark walls.

"I knew you didn't mean any of it; the crap you said to me. But you really need to say what's bugging you next time... not just take it out on me." He brought his handbrake down and shifted gears.

You remained static in your position and stayed quiet.

"I know you wouldn't, though. It's like it'll kill you to open up." Cyprus drove away from his perfect parking spot, pressing on the gas pedal as if he was in a rush.

"It's fine, I totally love playing detective." Snarked Cyprus sarcastically.

You merely rubbed your eye with a finger.

--

"One more drop, princess." He whispered, holding cupping your cheek and using his thumb to pull your lower eyelid down. Once the last droplet of your antibiotics reached your eye, you blinked hard and held onto his wrist.

"That's a good girl," Cyprus whispered as he pecked you on the forehead, before screwing the cap back on the bottle. A few seconds later, you started to feel the relief in your diseased eyeball.

Cyprus had driven you to a nearby pharmacist, where he would buy medicated eye drops for your conjunctivitis. He had insisted that he is the one to administer it because he claimed that you wouldn't know how to do it correctly despite being there when the pharmacist verbally gave you the instructions. It wasn't cheap, but he still footed the bill himself.

You shook your head and blinked rapidly, allowing the medicine to spread evenly. Cyprus brushed any stray hairs away from your face with his fingers, you were too distracted with the sensation you have in your eye to push him away.

"Well?"

You looked at him. He has his arms crossed and is leaning against the side of his car.

"Aren't you going to apologize? You were so fucking mean to me earlier." He looked away momentarily, seemingly trying to hide something on his face before bringing back his focus on you.

You froze and couldn't get anything out, yes, you were unreasonably rude to him. But that may be your only ticket out of this forced relationship... Well, your last resort is to go to the police but you don't think it has come to that yet. It's not... Illegal to be a jerk to Cyprus as long as you check yourself from time to time.

You were brought out of your thoughts by an incoherent grumble from Cyprus, he massaged his brow. "Okay, we don't have to do that now, you're definitely still a little prickly for some reason and I think I know why." He took a deep breath and exhaled as he opened the door to his passenger seat.

You stared blankly at the interior of his car, he gestured for you to go in. "Come on, get in. I'm going to have to fight for another parking spot, and that's going to take a while."

You looked around you, god knows where you are right now and you have no smartphone to navigate your way back home. There isn't a bus stop in sight either. Perhaps you could slowly inch your way to the general direction of your home? Your shoes are intact and pretty comfortable, there has to be a bus stop somewhere.

"You are not walking home, I'll fucking wrangle you into this car if I have to." As if he was reading your mind, Cyprus quickly closed the space between the two of you, so that your face is almost smothered in his broad chest.

You begrudgingly agreed and went into the Passenger's side on your own. He closed the door for you and shook his head while walking towards the driver's seat.

The distance between the pharmacy and the market wasn't that far at all, it was short enough that Cyprus didn't try to initiate any small talk or touch you either. Or maybe he was still freshly wounded by your recalcitrance.

Cyprus only reached out to pull your hand away when you're about to rub your eyes again.

"Here." He picked up his thermos flask in his cup holder and handed it to you. "Drink up, you only had a tiny sip of water today."

You cautiously took it from his hand and opened it to access the crisp, refreshing water with ice cubes bobbing around.

He was right, Cyprus isn't looking for a motherly partner to supplement his life. He is the motherly one who you now realize took care of you very well no matter how much you didn't like his personality.

From cutting your steaks without needing to ask, making your meals, taking you to the clinic, and paying for anything you can think of. Yes, it's irritating that he would drag you to dates that you didn't even want to go on in the first place, but his intentions were for you to experience the world and all its novelty alongside him. He just wanted you to have fun differently and he isn't stingy with his money.

However, that doesn't discount the fact that he's doing all these against your will, touching you despite your numerous "No"s and rejections, forcing you to play along with this romantic fantasy of his in the office and holding your items hostage, so he could keep you in his apartment.

You brought your attention to him again, he's sulking. A stark contrast from his cheery, teasing attitude from this morning.

Somehow, you felt guilty for lashing out at Cyprus earlier. He did make you cry, though. So this could have been payback for it. However, he apologized, albeit sounding patronizing and infantilizing.

But if you apologize, it will only send a message that you're genuinely interested in being with Cyprus. Worsening his chronic disability to heed your rejections.

You thought about your next move.

[harryscherrypie]

You pop, when we get intimate

husband!Harry Styles x fem!reader

summary - how your moans made their way into the background of cinema

warnings - smut, poorly written, slight voyeurism? Harry wants to put your moans in a song so yeah, fluff

wordcount - 2,8k

a/n - Oh god, this one physically drained me. I've been writing it since like august, but the smut never came out right, I hope you like this one, my second smut ever and I'm still a bit awkward writing it so patience, please.

If you have any feedback on my writing, please let me know, it would help tremendously,

Hope you enjoy it.

----

“You want to what?” You almost screeched as you looked at Harry with wide eyes.

“You heard me right,” he smirked.

You knew Harry could be unhinged when it came to his music. In his previous work, he wasn’t afraid to use intimate bits and pieces of your relationship, just to complete the storytelling. But this was too much, even for him.

“You are absolutely crazy,” you laughed and shook your head.

He had to be joking. Right?

This wasn’t what you were expecting today. You and Harry were both at home. You were working on a project for work and he was working on songs in his home studio. After being locked away in there for about 5 hours straight he came out into the kitchen and nonchalantly asked the craziest question you’ve ever heard.

“Will you let me put your moans into one of my songs?”

“Look, we don’t have to do it, I understand if you are uncomfortable, but I think it would go in the song perfectly,” he shrugged as he moved closer to the couch, where you were sitting. He crouched in front of you and you opened your legs to make space for him between your legs.

“I don’t know Har,” you mumbled as you leaned closer to him. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into him. It was an awkward position but you didn’t mind, you were glad to finally have him with you after he spent the few previous hours locked away in his studio.

“As I said, baby, if you are uncomfortable, it’s out of the window, you know I would never force you to do anything you don’t want to,” he kissed your cheek gently and placed his forehead against your temple.

“Let me think about it hm?” You asked and he nodded happily.

“Thank you,” he mumbled as he pressed his lips against yours softly.

----

That was 2 weeks ago, and to be honest, you thought about his question non-stop. You roughly knew what he wanted to do. He didn’t want to put your moans to the forefront of the song. He wanted them in the background, just loud enough to slightly hear over the music, he didn’t think anyone would catch onto them after the first listen, and that calmed your mind slightly.

Harry was spending the night at his studio in the city when you decided to agree to his proposition. It wasn’t unusual for him to spend nights at the studio. He always said that he felt the most inspired when he worked alone and during the night, and you could understand that.

You retyped the text a few times before you hit send. Just a couple of minutes later, a long voice message came from Harry.

“Oh my God, are you for real? Are you 100% sure? I don’t want you to do this just because I wanted it, please tell me you are sure,” even though he sounded concerned, you could hear a tinge of hope and happiness in his voice.

“Yes, I am sure, I know you would never do anything to hurt or embarrass me, I trust you with my life, Harry,” you sent back a voice message and quickly moved to gather your stuff and get to the studio.

It wasn’t far away, only about 15 minutes from your shared apartment. You listened to a podcast you started listening to while you were working earlier that day as you drove towards the studio.

You parked in the parking lot beside the studio and got out. The lights in the entire building were out, only reassuring you that Harry was in the building alone, maybe except for a couple of security guards, who were going to stay on the bottom floor, so it didn’t bother you.

You walked into the building and greeted the security guard who had a shift that night. You handed him your ID for him to check your name on the list of people who have access and wished you a good night.

You took the elevator to the rented studio, which was on the 8th floor. As the elevator slowed down, you called Harry to let you in.

“Hey, I’m here, can you let me in please?”

“Of course, love, I’m going to be right there,”

You only waited for about 2 minutes, before the door opened up and your husband appeared.

“Hey,” he smiled and pulled you towards him. He rested his chin against your shoulder as he gently swayed your bodies from side to side. You reveled in the feeling for a few moments before he slowly pulled away.

“Come on,” he tugged on your hand and pulled you into the studio with him.

He locked the door behind the two of you and led you towards a small couch in the back of the room. He sat down, pulled you right on top of him in one fluid motion, and rested his palms on your hips.

“I missed you,” he mumbled as he peppered small kisses around your face.

“I missed you too,” you smiled and rubbed his back gently.

“Baby, are you absolutely sure?” He asked concerned.

“Do you want me to change my mind? Because it sounds like you do,” you teased as you swiped your fingers around the surface of his cheeks.

“Let me get things ready, drink some of my tea if you want, it should be still hot,” he smiled and handed you the mug full of herbal tea.

You took the mug into your hands and blew on the tea gently. You watched Harry as he toyed with the soundboard and the computer from the couch. After a few minutes, you placed the mug on the table in front of you and stood up.

You moved towards him as quietly as you could, trying to scare him. He squealed lowly as you dug your fingers into his sides. You wrapped your hands around him while he quietly laughed at your antics. You raised to your tippy-toes and placed your chin on his shoulder.

“You little minx,” he smiled and opened up a program on his computer screen.

“Are you done?” You asked and pressed a kiss to the side of his neck.

“Almost, be patient,” he mumbled. Your eyes wandered from the screen to the profile of Harry’s face. You allowed yourself to admire him for a while before he spoke up.

“I can see you staring,” Harry said absentmindedly.

“I am getting bored and horny, so hurry up,” you whined jokingly.

“I am done, the mic is on, we can go in,” he turned around and pulled you into him. He kissed you gently, and unhurriedly. Even though the both of you knew what was going to happen in the next few minutes, the kiss didn’t get steamy. It stayed soft and gentle as if to bring each other comfort.

“You can still say no, you can always say no, I won’t get mad,” he reminded you as he placed his forehead against yours and closed his eyes in bliss.

“I know,” you rolled your eyes. “You told me like 5 times already,” you joked and he ‘tsked’ and raised your chin to keep you looking at him.

“I want you to be comfortable, and know that you can back out anytime you feel like it is becoming too much,” he stroked your cheek. You nodded in acknowledgment and tugged at his hand.

“C’mon, let’s get this over with,” you said.

“Eager, are we?” he teased but complied and let you lead him to the booth.

“You were hopeful, weren’t you?” You teased when you saw the inside of the booth. There were blankets and pillows strewn across the floor, with some towels and water bottles to the side. Your heart fluttered. You couldn’t have asked for more. The fact that he went out of his way to do this to try and make you feel more comfortable made your heart squeeze inside your chest.

“Guess you could say I had a hunch,” he winked jokingly and pulled you into the booth. He pulled you to sit down on the floor which was cushioned by the soft pillows.

“It’s so cozy, I love it,” you mumbled as you ran your hands over the soft fabric around you.

“Only the best for you, my love,” he smiled.

“C’mere baby, let me kiss you,” Harry pulled you onto his lap and quickly pressed his lips to yours. You stayed like that for a while. Pressed up against each other, lips moving against each other.

“Turn around baby, sit between my legs, it’s going to sound better that way,” he whispered into your ear and you complied. You shifted your weight and turned around, careful not to hurt him. You nested between his legs and pressed your back against his chest. You felt him lean against the wall behind him and get comfortable.

When the both of you got comfortable, you turned your head to the side, so you could face him.

“How are we going to do this?” You asked curiously.

“Well, I don’t think I’m going to be able to fuck you unless I want all of the moans in the background to be mine, so that’s out of the window,” he grinned and kissed your neck.

“Yeah, you tend to be just a tiny bit loud,” you smiled and raised your hand with a small space between your thumb and pointer finger.

“Get your shirt off, woman,” he jokingly ordered and you raised your hands above your head.

“Get it off yourself,” you smiled. The shirt landed somewhere to your right. You didn’t have time to look because Harry pulled you into a kiss immediately after the shirt stopped touching your skin. He didn’t waste any time and cupped your breasts in his hands. He kneaded the soft flesh roughly, making you moan into his mouth.

“So beautiful,” he mumbled against your lips as he ran the tips of his fingers over your stomach and hips. You moaned at his praise softly and raised your hips off of the ground slightly, trying to tell him you wanted him to slide your sweat pants off of your legs.

Harry knew you like the back of his hand, and immediately understood what you wanted from him.

“Raise your hips for me, love, just a bit,” he murmured against the side of your face and you complied, air leaving your lungs at his words, wrapping your arm around the back of his neck to get some stability. He swiped the fabric of both sweat pants and your underwear from underneath your butt, and down your legs.

“Straighten your legs,” he ordered and you did, just for him to hook his knees around your legs and pinning them to the ground, spread out. You let out a shaky breath, tensing up from the sudden cold feeling touching your hot core.

“Relax against me, and let me do the work,” you nodded your head desperately and you laid your head against his shoulder, burrowing your face in his neck.

At first, he didn’t do anything. His slight touches were teasing and almost non-existent, dancing over your heated naked skin.

As his hand traveled down, over your thigh, it nestled itself on your inner thigh, incredibly close to where you needed him, making goosebumps erupt all over your skin.

He was so, so close when he suddenly started to pull away. In the deep feeling of desperation, you forcefully closed your legs and pried them from underneath his, with a loud whine.

“Please, don’t do this to me,” you whined and Harry tsked disapprovingly.

“Be good for me, or you won’t get anything,” he threatened, and you nodded understandingly. You knew he wouldn’t do that to you, after all, he needed this but you knew the longer you would misbehave the longer it would take for him to properly start.

he pined your legs underneath his again, this time a lot firmer than before and his hand went back to the place it was before.

This time around, he didn’t waste any time and dived straight in. He pulled your hood apart with two fingers, leaving your pulsing clit uncovered in the slightly cold air of the recording booth. He smeared your wetness over his fingers and started rubbing soft circles on your clit, making you lean back into him a little more, feeling a jolt of electricity flash over your spine.

“Is that good lovie?” He asked, already knowing the answer. You nodded vigorously, letting a breathless moan tumble out of your mouth. He didn’t take his time easing you into the feeling, as he started rubbing your clit a bit more roughly.

You didn’t understand how he did it, but you already felt the familiar knot forming in your stomach. The feeling of the cold rings pressing against your heated skin only made the motions of his skilled fingers make you feel so much better.

You could feel his fingers starting to explore, the thumb circled your clit and the rest went downwards until you felt them prodding against your wet hole.

“Please, give me your fingers,” you moaned out and he kissed the side of your head.

“Be patient,” he murmured.

He teased you, only letting the tips of his finger dip into you before he pulled them away, only focusing on your clit.

You couldn’t wait anymore, you gripped his wrist and looked him in the eyes, with a pleading look on your face.

“Please,” you whispered and he rolled his eyes, nodding, as if annoyed. You let go of his wrist, settling back against him.

He dipped his fingers in you again, going deeper this time. You spread your legs slightly more, trying to take as much of his fingers as you can. You moaned loudly when his fingers prodded against the sensitive spot inside you. The motion made you grip the loose fabric of his grey sweat pants you could almost feel him smirk behind you.

“Oh, God,” you whispered out as you fought against the flutter of your lashes, struggling against the urge to close your eyes in absolute bliss.

He quickly moved his fingers in and out of you, thumb on your clit, trying to graze the sensitive spot as much and as best as you could. Soon, you were a moaning and whining mess, too close to your orgasm to let out anything except the gasps of his name.

You were so, so close. The feeling in your belly almost too much to bear.

“Let go for me my love, cum for me,” he whispered against your ear.

You tried to hold off for a while, wanting to enjoy his touch for a bit longer, but you couldn’t it wasn’t possible.

You let go with a loud moan as the hot blinding pleasure hit you, making you see galaxies for a few moments. You desperately tried to close your legs around his hand, but this time, he was ready and didn’t let your legs slip from his. Harry continued to rub your clit even after your orgasm, making you whine and try to get away from him.

You felt sleepy. Your eyes were too heavy to keep them open and your limbs felt too heavy to move on your own. You felt yourself being moved. From between Harry’s legs to laying on a fluffy pillow with a warm blanket draped over you. You felt Harry slip away from you, and you tried calling out for him.

“M’just going to turn the mic off, I will be back in a minute, I promise darling, then I’ll clean you up,” he promised lovingly and you nodded, snuggling into the soft fabric of the pillow underneath your head.

He was right, after about a minute you could feel his presence again as the pillows around you shifted underneath his weight.

“I need to pull the blanket off, prepare,” he warned and you braced yourself for the chilly feeling.

You were grateful he cleaned up very quickly. He quickly wiped you up, and slipped your underwear on, mumbling encouraging words when you flinched away from being too sensitive.

“Sit up for me,” he gently ordered and pulled you up to rest against him. He opened the water bottle only an arm's length away from him and placed it against your lips, urging you to drink just a little. You took a few sips, but soon grew tired of it, and tried to lay down again. This time, he laid down with you. He threw a blanket over your bodies, snuggling your almost bare form to his, gently brushing his hand over your hair in soothing motions.

“Did so good for me, my best girl,” he mumbled as he peppered kisses around the back of your neck.

“At least credit me for the song,” you joked weakly, making Harry’s laugh the last thing you heard before you slipped into a well-deserved slumber.

----

This is it folks, hope you liked it, please reblog and like to let me know, it makes me very happy to see.

Anyway, thank you for reading <3

[klaustozier]

demon ; nijiro murakami ver.

SUMMARY: you are a demon hunter and one of this demons is very different from what you are used to.

warnings: demon!Nijiro x fem!reader; Nijiro is 190cm or 6'2 (i think you can write it like this); big!cocks, that's it cocks, two dicks; double penetration; he has tentacles 😳 (no, he won't fuck you with them); his eyes are black and his canines and lateral incisors are pointed; I'm out of my mind; praise kink; degradation kink; fingering; play with nipples; hanging; oral on you (his tongue grows); there will be no condom use (but you know you should, please don't do this to me and use a condom); double penetration; cum inside.

english is not my first language, i'm sorry for any mistakes

word count: 1,7k

i'm sorry for taking so long.

enjoy.

The creature was trapped in a metal chair, chained to the floor. You should have already killed him, but you couldn't. Because you thought he was handsome. You felt so stupid, just because his face was pretty didn't mean you should spare him.

You were a demon hunter and prevented them from harming humans, so you had to kill him. But what about that brunette hair? And that pretty nose? And that jaw? And those lips?

You'd heard from friends that they'd fucked demons before, that they'd come and then kill them, but you couldn't do that, you were better than that.

"What are you thinking about, baby?", he asked, his voice was low, echoing off the walls of the warehouse you'd brought him to. His black eyes focused on you, glistening in the light from outside, teeth sharpened under his smile.

"How to shut you up as fast as I can", you replied, looking back at the knives on your desk.

"Oh yeah?", you suddenly felt him at your back, your heart skipped a beat, your stomach turned to ice, "Are you going to be nice to me, princess?"

"How did you escape?", your voice was so small, you were so scared, for the first time in your life.

"Ah", he chuckled softly, his mouth settling on your neck, "I have my tricks, baby girl", and you felt things slither down your belly and legs and as you looked down, you saw the long, black tentacles curling around your body. Those tentacles came from his back and depending on how much power he had, he could make more of them. You've never met a demon with tentacles and when you captured him, you didn't find any traces that he was like this, "I can smell you... you smell like a horny little slut, you know?"

"Let go of me now", you growled trying to break free, shifting restlessly.

"You find me attractive, don't you?", he asked, chuckling softly, his lips sliding down your neck.

You squinted your eyes trying to concentrate, "Let me go now", you growled through your teeth, feeling your pussy throb as the black tentacles tightened on your thighs.

"I know you don't want to, I can feel your heart beating", one of the countless tentacles slid along the inside of your thigh, the tip coming extremely close to your crotch, caressing the skin still covered by your jeans, "I can feel your pussy throbbing… you smell", and he took a deep breath, "so good…"

"Filthy demon", you cursed, trying to pick up the small dagger on your table trying to hit the thigh of the tall man behind you, but one of the tentacles grabbed your wrist, taking your arm to your own neck.

"Don't be rude, I'm complimenting you, fucking slut."

"Let go of me", you snarled, once more.

His beautiful lips touched your cheek, staying close to your skin as he spoke, taking the dagger from your hand, "Lie to me and say you don't want me."

"How would I want such a disgusting being?", you tried to be strong.

He chuckled, a low laugh, "Disgusting?", a tentacle positioned around your neck and just wrapped around the delicate area, "I'm a monster, but not that kind of monster, you know? If you didn't want me, I'd just walk away… but fuck, when I felt what you wanted from me", he chuckled, "I couldn't control myself… Want to handcuff me again and blow me for a little while, princess?"

You swallowed hard, "Y-you… we can't…", you whispered, getting tired of being strong.

"No? Why not? Because I'm not human?", you took a deep breath, shivering, "Kitten", the tentacle that held you by the neck tightened, making you moan, "you'll never be able to think of another fucking human again after being fucked by me."

The demon turned you on your heels and loosened some of the grip on his tentacles, giving you the opportunity to move away. Your eyes looked at him, the completely black eyes looking at you with so much evil inside them. He grinned, sharp canines and incisors gleaming beneath his handsome smile, the dimples showing. The tentacles wrapped around you again and his hands gripped your waist and finally he kissed you.

You moaned and squirmed, feeling your pussy throb. The bigger one dominated the kiss, his tongue rubbing against yours, hungry, you just allowed him to do what he wanted. His hands roamed your body while the thick black tentacles did the same, exploring every millimeter of it, making your legs tremble.

Two tentacles tightened around your breasts, squeezing them together only so his big hands could play with the nipples hidden under the black clothes. His thumbs began to rub the peaks, his tongue rubbing on yours, his sharp teeth scraping your bottom lip every now and then, the tentacle on your neck squeezing in perfect pressure.

"Fuck, your are so fucking hot", he whispered, his hands going down to be able to remove your shirt, one of the tentacles ripped your bra, in the back, opening it and taking it off. He took a deep breath, "I'm going to fuck you until you forget your name."

"Please, sir."

He smiled, "What a nice little slut."

"Thank you, sir."

His hand slid around your waist, having your mouth dominated again, being kissed with desperation. When your hand wandered to his cock, your eyes widened, the problem wasn't just that it was a thick bulge against the black dress pants he wore, but that they were two bulges. Your eyes widened and his heart sped up in despair making him laugh.

"Stay calm, baby…", he whispered, his hand caressing your hair, while one of the tentacles slid over your ass and the other over your thighs, caressing you, "If you want, I can transform and just stay with on-"

"No… it's okay…"

The brunette smirked, "Your sweet saint face is just for decoration, right?", and chuckled when your cheeks flushed, "You want to feel full, don't you?"

"Yes…"

He chuckled evilly, "And I'll do whatever you want."

The older one opened your pants with his hands and let his tentacles take them off for him while his hand was busy stroking your pussy lips, making your legs shake. The tentacle on your neck loosened its grip a little giving you time to breathe and adjust before tightening it again. His tentacles removed the knives from the table and placed you on top of the furniture while his hands were busy with your white panties. He thought if he should just take it off and be delicate, or if he should tear the piece with brute force, and he chose the second option, ripping the panties, earning a startled moan from you.

Nijiro smiled, his thumb sliding over the wet lips, giving your clit a little attention, making gentle circular motions. He knelt on the floor, tentacles coming out from his back, threading through the white button-up shirt that was opened as he positioned himself on the floor. Four tentacles gripped your legs, opening you for him, holding you in place for his access. A tentacle touched your wrist, pulling it to your own breast, wanting you to touch yourself while another positioned itself on your free breast and began to slide the delicate tip over your nipple. The soft, smooth, black tentacle slid over your delicate skin, making your moan softly.

The brunette took a deep breath and kissed your thighs before sliding his tongue over your wet pussy. You whined, a sigh leaving your lips, your free hand stroking the soft blond hair. The soft tongue rubbed against your clit and moved all over your wet pussy, sucking on the lips before returning to the tender spot and giving it attention.

"Fuck", you cursed feeling his tongue forcing in your entrance.

You didn't expect to feel what you felt. It was like his tongue was sliding down inside you, reaching in, going deeper inside you back and forth, fucking you. Your moan grew more agonized as his thumb began stroking your clit, letting his tongue fuck you.

His dark eyes focused on you, a wicked smile spread across his face, even though you couldn't see it, his nose was resting on your skin as his tongue tasted you so intimately. Saliva escaped his lips, wetting you, sliding down your ass.

A sly moan left your lips when you felt the long tongue leave you and climb your lips, returning to its normal size when reaching the clit, "What a delicious pussy… so tight… you're going to crush my cock like that, princess…"

"How-how…? How you-?"

The brunette chuckled, standing up, sticking out his tongue. The normal-sized tongue grew down his lips, making your heart race. The tentacle on your breast just held it and offered it to its owner for him to curl his long tongue over the delicate skin, the tip rubbing against the nipple as the length slid across the skin, eliciting a whimper from you. One of his hands took your hand away from your own breast and squeezed it hard, making you moan and his free hand went to your pussy, sliding through the lips, collecting the lubrication before sinking them inside you. Fingers curling, back and forth inside you, feeling your hands grip his hair.

"Fucking thigh pussy", whispered the demon as he retracted his tongue, his eyes focusing on his fingers fucking you, the wet sounds mixing with your moans, "Did anyone ever tell you that you moan like a dirty slut?"

You shook your head, "No… I'm sorry, sir."

Nijiro frowned and then laughed, "Who says I don't like it?", the tentacle on your neck squeezed the delicate area again, pulling you closer to him, "I want to hear every obscene moan that comes from you, princess."

The brunette kissed you again, his fingers still teasing you, gathering lubrication before sliding his finger down to your other entrance, dipping one finger in without difficulty. Which made him laugh and he continued to prepare you gently. Your arms wrapped around his neck as you kissed him, feeling your entrance being opened.

His tentacles still held you in place, holding you all the way to your back, so you didn't have to worry about holding on with your hands. Two of them busied themselves with your breasts, squeezing them eagerly as the tips rubbed against your nipples, making your back arch.

The demon's free hand opened his own pants and pulled them down, along with his boxers. The kiss ended because of your curiosity to see what the two volumes you had felt earlier were about. Nijiro had two members, one on top of the other, very close together, under the lower one there was a pair of testicles. Both cocks were thick, countless veins adorned the fair skin, the red tips glowing pre-cum. You swallowed hard, watching him bring his hand to his lips and let saliva fall, sliding it over both of his cocks. You watched with all attention, his hand went to your lips, making you look at him.

"Slobber on it for me, baby girl."

Promptly, you complied, spittle dripping from your mouth onto the large hand under your lips. After a brief moment, he smeared all of your saliva onto his skin, jerking himself off, one cock at a time. With a sigh, he positioned his cocks at your entrances, forcing his way through. You moaned, grabbing his shoulders, hugging him, your hand sliding across his chest, the open white blouse giving you passage over his beautiful abdomen. Your face was buried in his sweet-smelling neck, you could have sworn he smelled like lavender and lust, but she couldn't be sure.

"Everything okay?", Nijiro asked softly, his hands stroking your hair and back as he sank all of himself inside you, wanting to help you calm down.

"Yes", you replied, slightly agonized, your hips squirming, "Fuck me, please, fuck me."

"Whatever my little baby girl wants."

And the demon began to move. His strong hands held you by the waist, starting delicate movements, the tentacles caressed your thighs, squeezing your breasts, offering them to him. The brunette brought his face to your breasts, lightly nibbling the top of your left breast before enveloping it in his tongue, caressing the bitten skin as the tip of his tongue caressed the peaked nipple. You moaned, digging your short nails into the demon's broad shoulders.

Your moans were agonized, you could feel him so deep inside you, stretching you completely for him. Your moans got louder the faster Nijiro moved, fucking you without any kind of pity. You had never been so well fucked in your life, there was hate and precision in his movements and it was so wonderful. With one hand, he pulled you by the hair, making you look at him.

"You're so fucking hot", he whispered, "How am I going to fuck anyone else and not think about that ass crushing me? And that pussy drooling all over my cock?"

"Sir", you whispered, lost.

"Funny you're supposed to be killing me, not letting me stretch you open, princess", he chuckled, "Aren't you ashamed?"

"Fuck off."

The demon grinned and slapped you across the face, "You better respect me, spoiled slut."

"I'm going to kill-", and you couldn't finish, you couldn't threaten him, after all his thumb went back to caressing your clit while both cocks invaded you with so much desire, "I'm going to cum."

"Come on, little slut, get me all wet, let's go…"

Your inside squeezed him hard, your legs trembled with the tentacles, you moaned loudly, unable to control yourself. He smiled and kissed you, not stopping the movements of his hips, seeking his own pleasure as well. It didn't take long before he was cumming, filling you with cum, making his eyes roll back in his head, his tongue rubbing yours, his hands squeezing your soft ass hard, the pleasure consuming his beautiful body.

"Fuck", he growled holding your face tightly before kissing you again, "No, no, no", he whispered, one of his tentacles gripping your wrist, unnoticed by him (or you thought there was no noticing), your took a silver dagger and was ready to cut his neck, but he stopped you, "It's rude to kill a man right after he cums", he scoffed, "Especially after he makes you cum with so much pleasure. "

The brunette pulled away from you enough to be able to look at you, all trapped by his tentacles, cum sliding through your holes, you were so full. Nijiro smiled and straightened his pants.

"My name is Nijiro. Murakami Nijiro", informed the brunette, "If you want to be fucked very well like that and threaten to kill me again, just call me, princess", and after a peck, the demon disappeared, leaving you naked in your warehouse, head full and cum running down your thighs.

...

permanent tags: @laylasbunbunny @saiewithakatana @hopelezzromanticsblog @mrs-sherlock-holmes

please reblog and leave a like if you enjoyed it! and leave a comment with your thoughts, i would love to know!

see ya next time.

(´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

♡masterlist♡

[multi-fandom-friend]

“Let’s do something fun, yeah?” “Like what?” “Let’s go to a rave” “You’re Joking”

COME GET YOUR FOOD UOU SIMPS. so I got this idea from an artist named @razorsystem on here. They had art of Jason and crew in rave outfits, and being a part of rave culture myself, and the little voice in my brain annoying me until I wrote this, this now exists. Enjoy loves! TW FOR FLASHING LIGHTS AND BRIGHT COLORS ON THE DIVIDER AND FOR THEMES OF DRINKING AND BIG CROWDS

🦇Bruce🦇

🦇 when you first asked him to go? It went a little like this

🦇 “Hey Brucie?” “Jesus, I know that tone. You want something.” “Can we pleaaaase go to a rave?” “Absolutely not” “why?” “I’m too old for that. Drinking? Dancing? Flashing lights? Not my thing.” 🦇 you being you? You convinced him. And he got outfits. Pretty expensive ones too but he’s a hot millionaire what did you expect?

🦇 Once you got there he was a little uncomfortable but once he had a drink and started dancing with you? He was fine. He kept his guard up, of course, but he was fine. 🦇 on your way home he stopped and made you two get pizza and everyone in the pizzeria was looking at you two. A 6 something foot tall scary dad aged man and his partner sticking onto his arm as they giggled together in a bright colored rave outfit

🥀Jason Todd🥀

🥀 when you first asked him he was so confused as to what a rave even was

🥀 “Hey Jaybird?” “Yes, love?” “There’s a rave tonight, wanna go?” “What the hell is a rave?” “What’s a— Jason? How have you never heard of a rave? It’s basically a party with a bunch of bright colors, lots of loud music with even more bass in it, and good vibes. Wanna go?” “Will there be lots of people” “…..yeah?” “I dunno. Maybe.” 🥀 Just like his dad he’s hesitant, but he goes eventually. He probably had more fun than you did if we’re being honest. 🥀 y’all got there and he was having the time of his fucking life. And he didn’t wanna tell you but he loved the outfits you two were wearing, but he hated the thigh high latex boots with a small heel that you made him wear. It’s not that they were “too girly” or anything because he doesn’t think clothes have gender he just didn’t entirely understand how to walk without looking like he had a pole up his ass, so you had to teach him. 🥀 once he got the walking down pat, he could dance with you. He didn’t wanna drink because he still had to keep his guard up and walking in these shoes are hard enough sober just in case. 🥀 he made you two leave a little early but you had fun nonetheless. He ordered takeout and you picked it up on the way home.

💎Dickhead Grayson💎

💎 Immediately said yes.

💎 “Hey bluejay? Wanna go to a rave toni-“ “yes. A thousand times yes.” 💎 and then he showed you a photo of him at a rave when he was younger. 💎 You couldn’t believe your eyes. Your Bluejay in short shorts, a latex shirt and leather harness with platform boots and glitter coating his body was in that photo. 💎 then he got dressed and jesus fuckin Christ he looked awesome. Glittery, but awesome. He helped you get dressed and then sprayed you down with iridescent glitter spray that got in your mouth and everywhere glitter probably shouldn’t be

💎 once you got there, he grabbed drinks for you both and started dancing with you immediately. He had so much fun

💎 he still made you both leave early, just for safety reasons. 💎 he also got pizza with you and you two were standing there like two giddy hyenas. Like seriously. You both couldn’t stop laughing for a good 25 minutes.

🐍 Damian Wayne🐍

🐍 it took so much convincing and so much prodding but you got him to break. 🐍 “But Damieeeee!” “No.” “Come on! I promise you’ll have fun!” “Nope.” “Pleaaaase?” 🐍 you did your pouty face and he broke. 🐍 he got his dad to buy you both outfits and you went

🐍 hated how many people there were. Hated it. So much. But you started dancing with him and he calmed down instantly

🐍 you both left after about an hour and went home, he needed a good pair of very loose sweatpants and a very loose shirt, and a good long cuddle session and he was all better.

A/N hi y’all! If you could follow me or even like this post that would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

[freedomfireflies]

Hey lovey,

How are you doing? First and foremost, I’m so happy to have stumbled upon your blog—I absolutely adore your writing. You have such a beautiful ability to convey a story even in such a few words.

I know I’ve already requested a little something before, but in the event you do find time, and interest in my request, would you write something else for Chris?

Your latest blurb with Harry and Chris reminded me of a fic I read a while back about reader being Chris’ younger girlfriend and him being quite jealous and uncomfortable of her closeness to Harry Styles, given his age.

If you are comfortable, I’d love to see your take on Chris and a younger reader, who’s in her twenties. I don’t really have a premise in mind, but I feel given his history with anxiety and desire to settle down he’d be second guessing his decision to be with someone younger and maybe even feel insecure.

Thanks, sweetheart. 🤍

You are so sweet, thank you so much for reading and requesting 😭💞

“Right, which is exactly what I told him…before I realized he wasn’t even listening.”

“Oh, he never is, no. Unless you’re talking about statistical reports or the number of shares involved, he won’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about.”

“See, that would have been good advice before I wasted half an hour of my life trying to explain why Jack and Rose both being able to fit on the door was a moot point.”

Harry laughs as he crosses his arms and leans back against the wall. “Oh, well, now I’ve gotta hear this.”

Pleased to share, you clear you throat and sneak a glance at Chris. He’s heard this spiel a hundred times, and he smiles knowingly as he nods at you to continue. “Okay, well, obviously they both could have fit. Duh, that’s the first thing they try in the movie. But the second Jack climbs on top, it starts to sink, because it can’t support both their weight. Therefore, they both would have frozen to death, and Jack made the choice to die for her.”

Harry smirks, head shaking as he glances down at the floor. “Well…shit.”

“Exactly,” you agree. “I will die on this hill, it’s such a stupid argument. Because even if things had been different, Jack still would have chosen to die for her because that’s just who his character was. And, honestly? I think we can all agree that saving Leonardo Dicpario just…isn’t worth it anymore?”

He laughs again as Chris slips an arm around your hip and grins down at you.

“You…might have a point," Harry muses.

“Thank you,” you sigh, before you feel a familiar sort of tapping on your waist. You straighten up. “Anyway, thank you so much again for inviting us to your show. It was…so great to see you again, Har. Really. You’re doing so many amazing things. And I’m really proud of you.”

A lifetime of memories pass between you as Harry meets your eye and offers that understanding smile you’re so used to. 

“Anytime,” he says gently, throwing a grin to Chris as well. “Seriously, both of you are always welcome. Just let me know and I’ll make it happen.”

“We might just take you up on that,” you smirk before the tapping on your side increases. “Thank you again, and hey—good luck on your tour.”

“God, yeah, thanks,” he laughs as the rest of his team begins to fervently gesture him over. He winces. “I’m gonna need it.”

With that, he tosses you both a wave before the three of you part ways and disappear down different ends of the hall.

The drumming continues all the way down the corridor and even after you’ve rounded the corner.

It’s not until you find yourselves alone that you place your hand over Chris’s and give it a firm squeeze. “Okay, all right. What’s wrong?”

You slow to a stop, quickly turning to face him as you watch him sigh and look down at the floor. “Nothing. I’m fine, I’m just ready to go.”

But you know him. You know each nervous tic. You know he only taps your hip when he’s anxious. When he needs a reminder that you’re there.

“Chris…” you try again, fingers tangling in his shirt as you tug. “You promised.”

He looks at you, eyebrows weaving through the lace of guilt as he slips his hands around your wrists. “I know, but it’s nothing. Really—”

“Baby—”

“I…just…” He sighs yet again, one palm dragging down his beard. “Look, I know…I know he’s a part of your past. Okay, I know that. And I accept that, I just…I don’t know how to not…think about it.”

Your head tilts as you squeeze his shirt a bit harder between your hands. “Think about what?”

He goes quiet for a moment, eyes flicking between yours. “If you would have been…happier. With him.”

You lean back, almost as if struck by the very notion. “Why…baby, why would you say that?”

He runs his tongue over his bottom lip and shakes his head, seemingly embarrassed. “I know. I know, I just…you guys have a lot of shared history, you know? And I know he’s closer to your age, can maybe give you things that I can’t. So, seeing you guys together, it just…reminds me that I’m not…that I can’t be your past the way he can. That he’ll always be a part of what led you to me…and I just…I fucking hate that.”

With a wounded heart, your eyes soften. “And what is it you think he can give me that you can’t?”

“I don’t know. A husband that you don’t have to push around in a wheelchair,” he huffs, and there’s a hint of teasing, but you know he’s not kidding. “And he’s probably got a little more stamina than I do these days. Can go more places, do more things. Be who you need him to be. And being with him would probably open a lot of doors.”

“Okay, well, I can open my own doors, thank you,” you playfully retort, and you’re rewarded with a gentle smirk. “I’m gonna be honest, it sounds like you think about him a hell of a lot more than I do.”

He snorts and glances off down the hall. “Funny.”

“I mean it.” Your fingers tug once more on his nice dress shirt. “I knew what I was signing up for when I agreed to go on that first date with you. I knew people would talk about our age difference, and I knew there would be things we’d have to work out. I knew. And I still said yes.”

He looks back.

“You know why?” you whisper, now reaching up to press your palm to his cheek. “Because adult diapers or not…I love you. I always will. You’re Captain fucking America, for pete’s sake! And obviously it’s not about how you look. It’s about who you are…but you better believe Harry was eating his fucking heart out when he saw who he lost to.”

He laughs. In that familiar, boyishly charming way you’re so obsessed with. “Wow, thanks. No, that was good. That was good. I’m cured.”

Your response is to reach up and press your lips into his. Firm but loving. Filled with every promise you might never be able to verbally make.

But every promise you plan to keep.

For a moment, he stills, seemingly taken aback by the sudden rush of intimacy. But, after a moment, his hands find a home on your waist, as they always do, and he seems to unwind.

And once you’re sure he’s begun to release some of his anguish, you pull back to see him. Really see him.

“Baby…and I need you to really hear me when I say this…you are the best goddamn thing that’s ever happened to me," you whisper, overcome with emotion.

He smiles, exhaling a gentle laugh as if amused with your effort but you’re far from done.

Your grip becomes a little harder. “I’m serious, okay? Things with Harry…were fine. They were fine. And yeah, maybe he’s a small part of what brought me to you, but you…Chris, you? You…are fucking everything.”

The smile slowly slips off his face at the earnest fervor in your voice.

“Every day when I wake up and see you in bed—in our bed—it reminds me that you weren’t just the right decision. Okay, you are the only decision. You are the only thing that makes sense for me. The only person that I need to be with. Fuck the past. The only future I want looks like you. It is you. You are all of it.”

And you’ve never meant anything more, and you can only hope that he feels exactly how much he means to you.

His expression softens as he releases a deep breath and slips his palm around the back of your neck to keep you close.

“I know that doesn’t fix it,” you tell him gently. “I know that. You think I like running into Minka Kelly and remembering your past? Fuck no. But there is nothing—and I mean this—that Harry could have given me. Nothing. I don’t even—I mean, I can’t even imagine what a future with him would have looked like. I don’t want to imagine.”

Your touch moves to his chest once again, fingers tapping over his heart. 

“When I see him, I don’t think about anything else but you,” you continue. “Honestly. I mean look at you. Come on. Harry doesn’t stand a fucking chance next to you. Not with that receding hairline of his and the complete lack of communicational skills. Seriously, you were such an upgrade for me, it’s not even funny—”

He dips down and kisses you again. Harder this time. As if to say everything he doesn’t know how to say aloud.

“I love you,” he whispers, nose nudging against yours. “I really, really love you.”

“I know,” you whisper back, smiling rather giddily. “And I mean it, Christopher Robert Jamal Evans. You are the best goddamn thing that’s ever happened to me.”

He groans playfully at the use of his full name but kisses you again anyway.

And you let him. Because kissing him feels like coming home. It feels like finally finding your place in the world. 

It just feels…right.

“Take me home,” you murmur the moment his tongue swipes at your bottom lip. “Take me home and make me your future.”

And who is he to say no?

His arm quickly loops around your lower back to tug you into his chest before he leaves you with one final reminder of who he is to you.

And you don’t imagine you’ll ever forget.

“Promise,” he says, smirking victoriously as his hand travels to your ass to give it a quick squeeze.

And you laugh before leading him out of the arena, hand and hand, the anxious tapping now nowhere to be found. 

And you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

~ Other Chris Blurbs

~ Full Masterlist

[shadowofroses]

Rejected idea

Trigun

Reader x Vash

Warning: afab reader, itsekai, Vash is a flirt, mechanical worker Reader, reader has some scars and high pain tolerance.

Summery: I wanted to do a Itsekai Trigun wise, and I realized there was a better way to go about it, and now have a hard time working with this idea. Currently, but will be carrying the Reader idea over to the new one etc, but I wanted to share what I did cause I did like it.

Story idea:

You lifted yourself from the vehicle’s engine as oil decided to squirt out onto your face causing you to twitch. “Dammit Sam, why is it every time something fucked up happens to your vehicle I can’t understand how it got fucked up?!” you lifted a rag from the side and wiped the oil off of your face while the man busted up laughing. 

“You got me!” 

You sighed at that. Looking down at your tank top and scarred up skin from fights you had to break up. “No way in hell I’mma find myself a partner…” You muttered to yourself. 

“What was that Scrappy?” 

You rolled your eyes, “How the heck did your wife put up with you? You must’ve broke everything.”

“Har har. I have you know I am heavily packin’ Lil’lady.” The slightly balding gray man said with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows causing you to deadpan. 

“Ew. Did not need to know that.”

“WELL YOU ASKED!” Sam snickered, placing a pipe back into his mouth and puffing it.

You scoffed, throwing a wrench into his general direction as a cloud of sand picked up in the distance. “Yeah, I regret it!”

“Incoming!” 

You turned your head just in time for a vehicle to stop, putting on its brakes hard and someone in red flew off the top of the jeep and past your right ear. 

“I’M GONNA DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!~” you heard before you and Sam heard a thud, turning to the noise, you saw what seemed to be a man in the sand, luckily not hitting Sam’s house. He was wearing what looked to be a red duster jacket coat, his butt and black pants clearly visible as his head was buried in the sand. 

You quickly jumped off the engine and ran over grabbing the man by the waist and tugging at him, “Ah! Sir, are you okay?!” You called out just as you tugged hard enough to pull his head out of the sand, causing you to fall backwards and him landing backside on top of you causing your soul to leave your body. 

The man coughed up sand, turning around, seeing you, his eyes widened, and seemed watery, and sparkly? He grabbed your hands in his, helping you up, “You saved my life! Thank you! You must be an angel! How about I treat you to a drink~” 

Your eyes nearly crossed in confusion, “HAH?!” 

Sam however was bent over howling, as the man’s friends came barreling out of the jeep. “I’m so sorry Vash!” came a feminine voice. 

“You know damn well she did it on purpose!” came a rougher voice. 

“I DID NOT!” 

A man in a darker suit rolled his eyes, moving to light a cigarette. “Princess here was directed here for brake work.” 

“MY NAME IS MERYL!”

You felt your chest tighten as you realized who all surrounded you. Sam had called this planet No Mans Land at times. But it never clicked that this was Trigun that you were itsekaied into.

Nicholas noticed your recognition of them which made him pause to stare at you this time. However Sam slapped your back, “Just brake work? No problem Scrappy here will take care of it.” You blushed at the name but only nodded, at least before you realized Vash was still holding your hands, causing your face to go darker.    

You pulled away from his hands reluctantly as you turned back to the group, not catching Vash’s pout. “I don’t suppose you can pull it into the shop here or will the brakes make it difficult?” you tried to distract yourself, walking over to their vehicle. 

Meryl nodded giving a glance, “as long as I give it a small nudge…”

Roberto gave you a look, “Do not let her, give the keys Newbie.”

“EXCUSE ME?!” 

You gave a chuckle, “That is fine, just take it out of park and turn the wheel. I’ll hook it up and pull it into the shop.” you jogged off into the machine shop, grabbing a heavy hook and running off back to their vehicle hooking the underside. “Sam, hit the…”

“Yeah yeah, yer not my wife, stop bossin’ me around!” the man slurred his words speaking fast, as the chain tugged and started to pull it in as Meryl quickly hopped in to steer it into the shop. “Ya folks hungry?” the man questioned as you went into the shop. 

You shot him a quick glance, “Also, you fucking had that wrench I threw at you stuck in the belt. I’m not fixing your shit anymore.” before you went to crank their vehicle up, causing the older man to bark out laughing. 

“Starting to think she’s catching on that I’m doing it on purpose.” he said with a grin causing Roberto to smirk and shake his head. 

Meryl hopped out of the vehicle as the three guys followed Sam into the main house, “So, what do you think?” 

You dodged under the vehicle. “I don’t know, Meryl is it?” 

You couldn’t see it but her eyes brightened at finally being called by her name. “Yeah, and they call you Scrappy?”

You reached for some tools, and loosened some bolts. “Oh yeah, these brakes are stripped, and actually the name’s (First name) (Last Name). The old man found me not long ago, and gave me the nickname since I haven’t died yet.” you grunted, “Luckily just the back breaks, should be an easy fix. You want me to look at the engine too?”

Meryl’s eyes widened, “OH GOSH PLEASE DO! I just remembered that I forgot to charge it!” 

You lightly smiled, at least this wasn’t far off from what you recalled of the anime. “We don’t have a plant here, but I can steal Sam’s charge from his vehicle. Run inside and get some food while you can.” you told her, as you got to work on replacing the breaks. You heard her walk off and you sighed in relief. It was a good hour before you managed to attach the new ones. Hooking up the jumpers between Sam’s and theirs you easily charged it. 

It was nightfall before you finally got finished. You yawned, wiping some grease off of your face again. The old man talked them into staying the night, as the next city was within a couple hours drive. Roberto stayed with Sam, Vash and Nicholas stayed in the extra spare room where Sam’s kid used to stay in, and Meryl stayed in your room. 

Middle of the night, you couldn’t sleep. You left the room, and moved outside and climbed on top of the roof. You were concerned. Looking up, you stared at the stars, and worms floating around the sky. 

You breathed in the fresh air, taking a deep breath smiling, regardless of being concerned. You knew this was No Man’s Land. You’ve seen Vash’s Wanted posters around. For some reason you never thought you’d run into the Man in question. 

As much as you were thrilled to meet him, and the main crew, you were also anxious. You were wondering if trouble would follow him here. You didn’t want to think of that. But you couldn’t blame Vash, not one bit if something happened. 

You refused to. The third city July was still standing. 

Still, you couldn’t help but think of how beautiful the sky was. You didn’t look up when you heard a noise. But where exactly in the timeline you were…

“Couldn’t sleep?” You felt your breath hitch, you glanced up, your eyes locking onto green-blue eyes, full of trust. Your heart skipped a beat, causing you to look away as you felt your face warm. There was nothing preparing you for how handsome he was. 

You smiled softly looking back up at the sky. “You could say that, how about you?” 

“The gorgeous woman that saved me earlier is being melancholy on the roof in the middle of the night!” that threw you off for a moment causing your eyes to widen, Vash seemed to grin in response knowing he caught you off guard. “What’s on your mind?”

“Gorgeous? Too generous.” You visibly winced for some reason. 

Vash frowned, kneeling down sitting beside you. “Not generous enough. Will you please tell me?” he asked softly. 

You hummed, “I think I have intruded on Sam’s hospitality too long.” you glanced back up as Vash glanced back at you. “I should leave…but…I’m scared to be on my own. Partially why I’ve stayed this long…”

Vash lifted his hand and held it against his chin in thought. “Oh? I assumed you were his daughter or something.” 

You shook your head, “Nah, Sam found me about five months ago. All I had was a few pieces of jewelry, which I sold for a gun and Canteen but…couldn’t bring myself to leave at the time.”

Vash’s eyes widened in realization. “Ooooh, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you from?” you knew he was mentally preparing himself to hear that he was behind how you were homeless, without family. 

“I…it’s complicated. I’m not even sure I can properly explain it.” you shook your head with a chuckle. “Honestly if feels as if I’m within a dream…”

Vash smiled, “You know…” he trailed off, an explosion sounded, causing the both of you to jump up, “WHAT WAS THAT?!” 

“SHIT!” you glanced over the roof spotting bright lights. 

“Bad Lads!” both you and Vash exclaimed. Vash started patting his jacket. “I left my gun in the room!” 

The both of you jumped off the roof to run back into the house. You ran to your room where Meryl was startled awake. “What’s going on?!” 

You grabbed your gun, and quickly loaded it. “Get your friends, get in your vehicle and get out of here. Bad Lads are here!” 

Why you thought out of everything that you could stand tall against the group, telling the more experienced group to get the hell out of dodge. You shoved the gun into your holster and rushed outside where the Bad Lads surrounded the home.

[danikamariewrites]

Would you write a Manon x reader of her taking the reader for a flight on abraxos? Maybe the readers nervous and she comforts and teases them

First Flight

Manon x reader

A/n: I haven’t written for Manon in so long this made me so happy to see in my inbox

Warnings: none

As Manon tightened the last strap around your leg you started to get second thoughts. Sitting on Abraxos was one thing, but flying on him was something else entirely. Manon could tell you were afraid. She didn’t even need to smell it on you, she could see it on your face.

Your eyes darted over every buckle and leather as Manon leaned against Abraxos’ side. She gave you a mocking smile, “You ok, love?” Your head snaps toward her with wide eyes. “Huh? Yes. No, actually I am petrified.”

Manon’s shoulders shake from laughter. “Well you better calm down quick. He can smell your fear.” You look at Abraxos’ head which is now tilted to look at you. You swear the wyvern had a playful look in his eye, a smile on his nonexistent lips, and huffed out a laugh.

You lean back and attempt to lift out of the saddle but couldn’t even get your butt up. Manon climbs on behind you and quickly straps in. She wraps her arms around your middle pulling you against her chest. Manon kisses your cheek giving you a loving squeeze.

“Hey, there’s nothing to worry about. I’ll be here the whole time, holding on to you. And Abraxos won’t do any crazy maneuvers. Right?” She growled out at him. Abraxos bobbed his head in agreement. That made you giggle a little.

After a few more breathes your stomach felt less anxious. The knot loosening just enough that Manon felt comfortable yanking on the reins to signal take off. He ran flapping his wings, soaring toward the bright sky. You squeezed your eyes shut and gripped Manon’s thighs behind you.

The higher Abraxos climbed the more your stomach dropped. You wanted to open your eyes but you just couldn’t. You didn’t want to know how high up you were in case you somehow slipped from the harness.

Manon let go of the reins, hooking them in place on the saddle. She rubbed your arms lifting your hands from her thighs gently. Manon had never been this soft with you. Granted she was still learning how to comfort others in a nonviolent, nonthreatening way. But you weren’t complaining. You liked this side of her.

Manon brought your arms to reach out beside you, keeping them level with hers. Her fingers tracing your palms to relax, uncurling your fingers so you could feel the wind race through them. Holding on to your waist Manon rested her chin on your shoulder, bringing her mouth to your ear so you could hear her over the roaring gusts.

“Relax. Feel the wind around you. Let it guide your movements. Feel it help you.” You took in a deep breath through your nose. Exhaling through your mouth. You did that a few more times and cracked your eyes open.

Looking around you took in the scenery around you. The pale clouds lazily inching through the sky. The sun shimmering as it reached its peak. You decided to be brave in look down. You saw the Wastes rushing by. What was once barren and cold was now full of greenery and life.

A large grin broke out on your lips. You turned your head to look at Manon. Her white braid whipping in the wind as a matching grin spread on her lips. “I get why you like being up here so much.” Manon nodded, pulling your back to her chest again.

You held on to her arms as a way of hugging her. She kissed your cheek and rested her forehead against your temple. Abraxos let out a happy roar that she had not heard since their first flight together in the Gap. She swore she started tearing up. But these weren’t sad tears like she was used to. These were happy tears that she didn’t bother to hide. For the first time in a very long time she was content, peaceful even.

tags: @rigelus @nyotamalfoy @auggiesolovey @bubybubsters @baybay123455 @msiecrane @aroseinvelaris @twsssmlmaa

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 9: MY COOKIES GET SCORCHED

Percy looked brutally offended at the new chapter title Magnus read. Even if they weren't blue, cookies were as sacred a food to him as ambrosia! This must be the most horrible mother to ever exist to do such a thing!

I don't recommend shadow travel if you're scared of:

a) The dark

b) Cold shivers up your spine

c) Strange noises

d) Going so fast you feel like your face is peeling off

"That sounds like the best rollercoaster in existence," Alex savored every word he'd just heard.

"I've never been jealous of a monster before, but that made it come close," Thalia agreed. Running as fast as an Olympic medalist and never growing tired was exhilarating, but still, the Hunters could only travel so fast and no where near immortal speed.

Percy was shifting around in his seat with a wicked smile like he'd just swallowed a bag of blue jelly beans. Blackjack might have some competition for new best ride. "Hey Nico, can you make a few more dog whistles for her? I don't know how else to call her."

"Uh, yeah, I'd be happy to," Nico grinned in surprise. It was the first time Percy had ever asked him to do something useful. Even if the process wasn't fairly easy to him by this point, he'd have studied all he needed to. Also, there was the sudden painful kind of joy in his heart as he realized, Percy didn't associate him with something bad!

"Start charging a drachma a ride at camp, just for her to run them across the field, you'd be rich in no time," Jason chuckled.

"Can you imagine the wavers they'd have to sign without a safety harness on that thing," Magnus shivered in revulsion.

"That thing would make sure all hands and feet came out the same way they came in," Percy sniffed. He had all his limbs to prove it.

"Does the feeling ever wear off?" Will asked Nico eagerly.

"Not really," Nico grinned. He didn't have anything to compare the feeling to, he'd never sat around and ridden a roller coaster, but he still looked forward to doing it every time. The rush was like nothing else he'd ever felt.

"I'd love a ride sometime," Will's smile went from languid to ecstatic in a flash. "Climbing the lava wall gets dull after the 70th win. Most of the kids won't even play with me anymore." He seemed to have a knack for feeling the grooves in the rocks for the next lift, and he'd been there so long he knew all the lava flows by heart.

"Any time," Nico's heart was racing faster than any shadow traveling had ever caused him. He hoped that never wore off either.

In other words, I thought it was awesome.

Okay, this might be the best day of Nico's life. Percy actually thought a power he could use was cool for once?!

But when Will laughed along with the others for Percy just getting something so fun without any real consequences for all of five seconds, it felt deeper. Percy's wild smile and turning to Annabeth and promising her a ride next already made the pride start to fizzle, but Will still being here felt as good as it had from the start.

So maybe this was just the best week of his life.

One minute I couldn't see anything. I could only feel Mrs. O'Leary's fur and my fingers wrapped around the bronze links of her dog collar.

The next minute the shadows melted into a new scene. We were on a cliff in the woods of Connecticut. At least, it looked like Connecticut from the few times I'd been there:

"Because you're such an expert in Connecticut-ese?" Thalia snorted.

"You've traveled through Massachusetts once and Thalia nearly set it on fire, I don't consider either of you experts on the terrain," Magnus scoffed.

Percy was studying Annabeth for reasons other than describing trees. Just a county line or two from someone he wished she'd never met. If things were normal, if their life was like any other kids, Annabeth could have spent her time down near Harvard and Luke could have stayed far away one state over, a world apart.

Their life wasn't like that though, and there was no point dwelling on it. Because then he never would have met her either.

lots of trees, low stone walls, big houses. Down one side of the cliff, a highway cut through a ravine. Down the other side was someone's backyard. The property was huge—more wilderness than lawn. The house was a two-story white Colonial.

Annabeth gave him a proud smile for recognizing that kind of architectural style. Percy grinned back, but the smile started to flicker as he studied that expression...his headache started creeping back as he tried to remember the last time she'd smiled like that at him outside of this room-

Magnus clearly kept reading before the two could verbalize anything to sappy.

Despite the fact that it was right on the other side of the hill from a highway, it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. I could see a light glowing in the kitchen window. A rusty old swing set stood under an apple tree.

The look on Percy's face ruffled Thalia's feathers. She could see that quiet judgment she recognized from Luke. He was sizing this place up as a mark, trying to figure out how much it was worth, and clearly judging the occupants unworthy.

I couldn't imagine living in a house like this, with an actual yard and everything. I'd lived in a tiny apartment or a school dorm my whole life. If this was Luke's home, I wondered why he'd ever wanted to leave.

Alex tried to repress a look of disdain on Percy. If he had to ask than he'd never get it. The secrets that lived in the walls of houses never reflected the structure it was built for.

Mrs. O'Leary staggered. I remembered what Nico had said about shadow travel draining her, so I slipped off her back. She let out a huge toothy yawn that would've scared a T. rex, then turned in a circle and flopped down so hard the ground shook.

Magnus swallowed a whimper but decided it was best to meet her after she'd shadow traveled then. Maybe seeing her asleep would be a smidge less terrifying.

"She deserves about a t-rex's weight in stakes," Thalia sounded almost Sally-like.

"I'll hunt her down something not endangered if I can," Percy uneasily promised. He was pretty sure Mr. D must have been conjuring up food all this time to keep her fed, because the sudden budget of keeping her stomach full made his brain hurt.

Nico appeared right next to me, as if the shadows had darkened and created him. He stumbled, but I caught his arm.

A rush of worry caught Percy up as he glanced at the guy. How many times had he done this and run into a monster? How vulnerable was Nico running all around the world by himself no matter how tough he acted nowadays? It would still never sit right with Percy he seemed so adamant he didn't need anybody's help when he nearly crash-landed. Had he dangled from Percy's fire escape upon landing and only just managed to pull himself up when Percy came out?

Nico was looking stubbornly ahead like nothing had happened. Percy really hoped this odd friendship with Will would convince him what he'd never been able to, that Camp had changed since Percy's first few disastrous months there. The kids would accept Nico if they'd all give each other a chance. He still wanted to believe that anyways.

"I'm okay," he managed, rubbing his eyes.

Will bit at his lip in worry, wondering more every time why Nico's powers affected him so much more than Percy's or Thalia's ever seemed to. She never even seemed winded from her stunts. Percy only felt the maximum of his exhaustion when he pulled a new stunt and still walked away from blowing up a volcano with just a mild vacation.

Nico had apparently been shadow traveling for months. His body should have adapted to it and built up a resilience. Was it because he was a few years younger than them? It could relate to Nico's eating habits, Percy rarely missed a meal and Thalia obviously fended for herself well from what he could tell.

Nico sighed beside him, and then reached over and prodded him in the cheek. Will smiled and put it away for now. Nico hadn't once tried to avoid eating in days, no need to pester him until it became a recurring problem. Nico still wouldn't promise he'd stay at Camp though, so Will wasn't sure how to at least impress upon him the importance of not trying to sustain on shadows. He bet they didn't taste nearly as good.

"How did you do that?"

"Practice. A few times running into walls. A few accidental trips to China."

Alex couldn't help a cackling laugh at the idea even if he felt bad for it. He'd only been shapeshifting with purpose for a few weeks before he suddenly just couldn't in here. He'd had one to many paws stuck, ears fluffed, and tails that wouldn't vanish to know how that went.

"How many is a few?" Jason asked with instant interest.

Nico started counting on his hand. He seemed to give up when he left the first five digits. "Can't give an exact number anyways," he was probably breaking Jason's poor heart with such an admittance. "It's not like I landed with a GPS." Man were those handy when he figured them out and started stealing them. Sadly they got easily broken upon his several pitiful landings. "When I figure out the writing on the nearest building isn't English I try again without figuring it out most times anyways."

"At least I never accidentally ate salt water when I didn't have to practice," Percy told Nico in sympathy.

Nico nodded without comment. Percy really didn't have to train at anything, he'd been perfect and natural and Fabio-esque from the moment he met that minotaur. It didn't feel fair how anyone could be that awesome. At least he didn't run around with his shirt off.

"I remember the first time I tried to summon lightning," Thalia chuckled. "I missed the tree I'd been aiming for and hit someone's car a dozen feet away, which in turn blew up and knocked me the hell out. I woke up in a hospital and had to split real quick."

Mrs. O'Leary started snoring. If it hadn't been for the roar of traffic behind us, I'm sure she would've woken up the whole neighborhood.

"Are you going to take a nap too?" I asked Nico.

He shook his head. "The first time I shadow traveled, I passed out for a week.

Will tucked Nico a little closer into his side, he couldn't help it. He just imagined him in some field of dead grass without a pillow and blanket, possibly raining or the sun baking him, alone. He'd done something amazing and should have had someone there to high-five him with a huge jug of Gatorade and peanut butter cookies instead of sitting up in nothing but an old black jacket.

Magnus didn't say that casually at any rate, he sounded plenty concerned, but he glanced at Nico who shrugged because that wasn't the first, or most likely the last time it would happen, so he read on; but Will still hated how common this was to him.

Now it just makes me a little drowsy, but I can't do it more than once or twice a night. Mrs. O'Leary won't be going anywhere for a while."

"So we've got some quality time in Connecticut."

"You could visit the Mark Twain Museum," Magnus groaned with envy.

"They could have visited the Gillette Castle," Annabeth grinned.

"Look at you two already bonding over America's fifth most boring state," Alex chuckled.

"Why do you have those ranked?" Percy frowned.

"You're just afraid to ask where New York is," he smirked.

Percy didn't answer because he didn't feel like murdering Alex right now if he was right and it wasn't number fifty.

I gazed at the white Colonial house. "What now?"

"We ring the doorbell," Nico said.

"What do you usually do at random people's houses Percy?" Thalia demanded, anything to keep the reading paused for an extra breath or two. "TP it? Egg it? I hope you don't play ding-dong-ditch."

"I save that for special occasions, like Halloween at school," Percy rolled his eyes.

If I were Luke's mom, I would not have opened my door at night for two strange kids.

"Liar," Will accused. "You've got your moms sweep um' up and keep um' down pat." Half the kids at camp looked up to Percy in one way or another for his welcoming vibe alone. Anybody could go up and talk to him and he usually answered with a smile. Sometimes even to Clarisse.

"My mom never let me get the door when she's home so this is invalid," Percy said with a strange expression on his face Will didn't understand until Magnus kept reading.

But I wasn't anything like Luke's mom.

I knew that even before we reached the front door. The sidewalk was lined with those little stuffed beanbag animals you see in gift shops. There were miniature lions, pigs, dragons, hydras, even a teeny Minotaur in a little Minotaur diaper. Judging from their sad shape, the beanbag creatures had been sitting out here a long time—since the snow melted last spring at least. One of the hydras had a tree sapling sprouting between its necks.

Okay, so that wasn't exactly normal, but Magnus was now imagining a situation similar to Annabeth's. Maybe Luke had a dozen siblings in his mortal home too and had felt neglected by a to busy mom?

The front porch was infested with wind chimes. Shiny bits of glass and metal clinked in the breeze. Brass ribbons tinkled like water and made me realize I needed to use the bathroom. I didn't know how Ms. Castellan could stand all the noise.

Alex had a ready, 'you live in the noisiest city in the world,' snip on his tongue, but he knew it wasn't the same. This was, excessive. Everything about what he'd heard so far was.

The front door was painted turquoise. The name CASTELLAN was written in English, and below in Greek: Διοικητής φρουρίου.

"Fascinating," Jason drew the word out in confusion though. It sounded like she was trying to be a very involved parent. Monsters were sensitive to noise and those windchimes could be a sensory deterrent? The toys were to help him learn the names of the beasts? He couldn't put his finger on what the problem was...but then he remembered Beryl Grace hadn't seemed the most stable parent from the little he'd gleaned of Thalia's interactions with her in the Underworld and he may not have the best marker for that even if he could remember.

Nico looked at me. "Ready?"

He'd barely tapped the door when it swung open.

"Luke!" the old lady cried happily.

She looked like someone who enjoyed sticking her fingers in electrical sockets. Her white hair stuck out in tufts all over her head. Her pink housedress was covered in scorch marks and smears of ash. When she smiled, her face looked unnaturally stretched, and the high-voltage light in her eyes made me wonder if she was blind.

"Oh, my dear boy!" She hugged Nico.

Which had really not helped the whole, growing more intolerant of being touched thing, he'd been developing. Something about her solid flesh and how she'd sprung at him. He'd been unprepared and unable to escape her grasp. He'd been growing a dislike of people initiating contact for so long that it still flabbergasted his own mind how soothing it felt to be under Will's arm.

 I was trying to figure out why she thought Nico was Luke (they looked absolutely nothing alike), when she smiled at me and said, "Luke!"

She forgot all about Nico and gave me a hug. She smelled like burned cookies. She was as thin as a scarecrow, but that didn't stop her from almost crushing me.

Every new word Magnus said made the room feel more stifling. It was like running into someone on the street who felt the need to tell you their life story, the uncomfortableness of it just ramped up to maximum.

I would have run away from this too, Percy instantly knew. He wanted to back off the porch, possibly abandoning Nico and his own dog so he could get away faster. He'd never had first hand experience with people like this, no matter how many kids had called him crazy in his youth for the things he'd seen. She clearly didn't live in the same reality he did.

After the initial shock though, Annabeth watched Magnus read the rest a little to calmly. Something in her finally snapped in understanding. She slipped her hand into Percy's, but yet another guilty weight settled deep inside her as she realized why.

After her time on the streets, it wouldn't be uncommon to find someone exactly like this in the nearest alleyway.

"Come in!" she insisted. "I have your lunch ready!"

She ushered us inside. The living room was even weirder than the front lawn. Mirrors and candles filled every available space. I couldn't look anywhere without seeing my own reflection. Above the mantel, a little bronze Hermes flew around the second hand of a ticking clock. I tried to imagine the god of messengers ever falling in love with this old woman, but the idea was too bizarre.

Thalia kept the idea to herself she probably hadn't started this way when she caught a gods attention. Luke had given her a few vague details over time when she'd ranted about her mother too. It had brought them closer together those first weeks. Seeing it in person had nearly brought tears to her eyes. Her mother probably would have gone down a similar hill if Thalia had stuck around.

Then I noticed the framed picture on the mantel, and I froze. It was exactly like Rachel's sketch— Luke around nine years old, with blond hair and a big smile and two missing teeth. The lack of a scar on his face made him look like a different person—carefree and happy. How could Rachel have known about that picture?

Percy felt about ready to crawl out of his skin with stress. Remembering this place, something about Rachel and this woman, they were connected!

Annabeth squeezed his hand, hesitated only a moment and then tucked herself into his side. The way he'd wished she'd been there more times than he could ever count. His hand stayed tight between her as they rested on her knee. She bumped his shoulder and pressed their legs together, her hair falling across his neck and her ear resting against his. She was as close as their two beanbags would allow.

He momentarily considered flipping those other guys off their couches so those few loose beans wouldn't be in the way, but Magnus kept reading and it felt rude the longer he had to think on the thought while her breath distracted him tickling his cheek. His eyes darted over, and her eyes were wide open, but sad as they rested on the book. She needed this as much as he did.

Her eyes burned with tears she couldn't shed. She had a bad feeling if Rachel were her, her more crabby side would have come out right now. Had she seen the whole house? Had she seen this woman and more of Luke's life than Annabeth had in her moments there? It didn't surprise her the picture was what she would have focused on to draw, but it was far to close a reminder that Rachel easily could have stepped into her shoes and helped Percy understand this place better than she could have.

"This way, my dear!" Ms. Castellan steered me toward the back of the house. "Oh, I told them you would come back. I knew it!"

She sat us down at the kitchen table. Stacked on the counter were hundreds—I mean hundreds—of Tupperware boxes with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches inside. The ones on the bottom were green and fuzzy, like they'd been there for a long time. The smell reminded me of my sixth grade locker—and that's not a good thing.

On top of the oven was a stack of cookie sheets. Each one had a dozen burned cookies on it. In the sink was a mountain of empty plastic Kool-Aid pitchers. A beanbag Medusa sat by the faucet like she was guarding the mess.

Alex's eyes kept darting around the room. From the book to the door to every crack and again. He'd loathed being locked up in here from the start, but the lull of good food and time away from feeling as if Loki was watching his every step waiting for something had dulled it all pretty well until now.

This feeling made him want to run until he collapsed from exhaustion. This was when he'd go to the nearest junkyard and rip apart the biggest thing he could find with his bare hands until the blood made his fingers to slick to continue. It was a confined feeling he'd rather do anything than sit with.

The gods had done this. They'd left her like this and hadn't cared about the child also stumbling around.

Magnus glanced up from the book, caught his eye. The stormy gray color reminded him of his favorite days, where it threatened to rain all day but didn't, like the universe couldn't go through with its threat to make his day extra miserable. Just a break to not have to scramble for cover, that's all he needed sometimes.

His breaths started coming in and out slightly easier as Magnus turned to keep reading.

Ms. Castellan started humming as she got out peanut butter and jelly and started making a new sandwich. Something was burning in the oven. I got the feeling more cookies were on the way.

Percy swallowed a strong sense of disgust trying to overwhelm him. He hadn't gotten many moments like this with his mom at a young age, to much Gabe interfering, but to be feeling the few he did tainted and flipped on its head made him once again consider if this was some divine punishment from Hades in the afterlife. Showing him the hint of a life he could have had if things had gone worse for his mother.

Above the sink, taped all around the window, were dozens of little pictures cut from magazines and newspaper ads—pictures of Hermes from the FTD Flowers logo and Quickie Cleaners, pictures of the caduceus from medical ads.

My heart sank. I wanted to get out of that room, but Ms. Castellan kept smiling at me as she made the sandwich, like she was making sure I didn't bolt.

Nico coughed. "Urn, Ms. Castellan?"

"Mm?"

"We need to ask you about your son."

"Oh, yes! They told me he would never come back. But I knew better." She patted my cheek affectionately, giving me peanut butter racing stripes.

Annabeth just so happened to be resting against that cheek, so close her eyelashes were fluttering there. He could still smell that burnt cookie on the back of his tongue as his hand pulled hers to his knee instead so he could wrap his other hand around hers. He hated the part of himself still taken away that didn't know everything this place meant to her, but he got the idea. Of to many times her stepmom had left her out of this routine.

"When did you last see him?" Nico asked.

Her eyes lost focus.

"He was so young when he left," she said wistfully. "Third grade. That's too young to run away! He said he'd be back for lunch. And I waited. He likes peanut butter sandwiches and cookies and Kool-Aid. He'll be back for lunch very soon. . . ." Then she looked at me and smiled. "Why, Luke, there you are! You look so handsome. You have your father's eyes."

The strange thing was, most demigods had their immortal parent's eyes, from what Percy could tell. It was an odd connection he'd never thought about until he was sitting in that kitchen staring at this woman.

She turned toward the pictures of Hermes above the sink. "Now, there's a good man. Yes, indeed. He comes to visit me, you know."

Nico wasn't so sure how much of that was her delusion talking and how much was true. A guilty feeling turned on in the back of his mind that, of all those he had revisited, she had never seemed to make the list. Something about that place spooked him more than the Underworld did most people. Between the farm where his sister passed on, the cave where he'd seen the first hint of his mother, and even Camp, that house made him hesitate deep within to go back while he'd checked all others off an internal mental list to retrace his own steps and understand something of his past.

Luke was dead now. If Hermes was going to find a way to fix this, he'd have gotten off his immortal dead ass and done it already. Maybe Nico could take her to, to a place that knew how to make mortals like this more comfortable in their last span of life.

The clock kept ticking in the other room. I wiped the peanut butter off my face and looked at Nico pleadingly, like Can we get out of here now?

Magnus was more used to this than the general teenagers laughing around him he'd been getting to live in these past few days. The slightly off-kilter ramblings, the way they spoke with such confidence things that just weren't right. The old man who circled the block three times before crawling into his hoarder's house because he felt someone watching him. The bag lady who carefully monitored every item in her shopping cart in case someone wanted to steal a precious trinket she'd dug out of the trash. The teenager stumbling around the parking lot in molding clothes and a hospital gown mumbling about the government.

So the way he read as if this were any other day in Percy's life, almost easier to take in than his monster escapades, deeply disturbed everyone but Percy, Will, and Jason.

Then the three of them seemed to realize it as they glanced around the room, and the connection of why wasn't a great feeling that already amplified an existing one plenty right now.

"Ma'am," Nico said. "What, uh . . . what happened to your eyes?"

Her gaze seemed fractured—like she was trying to focus on him through a kaleidoscope. "Why, Luke, you know the story. It was right before you were born, wasn't it? I'd always been special, able to see through the . . . whatever-they-call-it."

"The Mist?" I said.

"Yes, dear." She nodded encouragingly. "And they offered me an important job. That's how special I was!"

I glanced at Nico, but he looked as confused as I was.

"Always great to know we share something as simple as that," Percy said with an awkward smile.

Nobody had spoken in the room since Ms. Castallen had opened the door. Percy doing so now sent a jolt of reality through the room like a fresh sea breeze they needed.

"Yeah Percy," Nico smiled back less awkwardly than he'd ever believed in his life he could. "Because our dads on the godly side aren't nearly as interesting as, you know, confusion. The thing every mammal and a least a few birds have felt."

"Exactly, universal feeling is so much better," Percy nodded.

"What sort of job?" I asked. "What happened?"

Percy's throat was starting to tighten up like the air in the room was getting thinner. He'd spoken up because despite Annabeth not even being a whole breath away his head was really starting to hurt and he needed the distraction again, the one thing that had constantly gotten him through these books without fail. Rachel's red hair kept flickering in and out of his mind like his brain was on fire.

Alex saw that, he really wanted to spark his firey imagination to life and snap out a list of things that could have jokingly gone wrong.

But the results were right in front of them.

So instead he said, "we need to get you enrolled in some tax-prep classes now dudette. Do you even have a concept of how to flip a burger?"

Percy chuckled, a feeling that washed over Annabeth and helped her shoulders relax. He of course had to return, "I bet I could do one of those sign spinner jobs on the corner for Sweet on America."

Even if it wasn't funny, the levity the two always brought really did feel like the weathered spine of the book that had been getting them all through this.

Ms. Castellan frowned. Her knife hovered over the sandwich bread. "Dear me, it didn't work out, did it? Your father warned me not to try. He said it was too dangerous. But I had to. It was my destiny! And now . . . I still can't get the images out of my head. They make everything seem so fuzzy. Would you like some cookies?"

She pulled a tray out of the oven and dumped a dozen lumps of chocolate chip charcoal on the table.

This is what happened when mortals were brought into their world, Annabeth had realized as she sat at that table drinking watered-down Kool-Aid. Either they turned out like her step-mom or Luke's mom. She'd accepted Rachel, with resistance, but now her eyes flickered to Magnus with worry. She grasped Percy's fingers tight.

Sally seemed to be fairing okay though. Magnus had been in here for how long and wasn't hurling abuse at her for being trapped in here all this time in her place.

"Luke was so kind," Ms. Castellan murmured. "He left to protect me, you know. He said if he went away, the monsters wouldn't threaten me. But I told him the monsters are no threat! They sit outside on the sidewalk all day, and they never come in." She picked up the little stuffed Medusa from the windowsill. "Do they, Mrs. Medusa? No, no threat at all." She beamed at me. "I'm so glad you came home. I knew you weren't ashamed of me!"

I shifted in my seat. I imagined being Luke sitting at this table, eight or nine years old, and just beginning to realize that my mother wasn't all there.

Will still remembered the first time he'd realized his life wasn't normal too, and it had been much less brutal than this. Sitting in the back of a bar, sipping on chocolate milk and doodling with broken crayons, a woman had come up to him in concern and asked what he was doing there. He pointed to his mom on stage and said waiting for her.

The look on her face would linger in his mind's eye for months. More than his mom's confusion upon insisting he'd seen a flock of metal birds, more than the snake he'd found in a toilet. It was the kind of feeling that made him look twice at his mom too and wonder where he belonged.

What Luke had done with this feeling as he'd grown was horribly understandable all of a sudden. Why had Apollo allowed him to grow up in the back of a van without telling his mother it might not be what was best for him? What had Hermes been thinking leaving Luke at this place instead of getting him to Camp himself?

The answer, as usual, was one he'd lived with for so long it was his normal, his burnt cookies. That's just how the gods were.

"Ms. Castellan," I said.

"Mom," she corrected.

"Um, yeah. Have you seen Luke since he left home?"

"Well, of course!"

I didn't know if she was imagining that or not. For all I knew, every time the mailman came to the door he was Luke. But Nico sat forward expectantly.

This is why they'd come there, and Nico still felt a little rush of happiness at how well they'd worked together on this. Percy hadn't even known the plan about the blessing and he still somehow got her back on track while Nico had been distracted for a moment.

Like in the Underworld too. They could make a great team if Nico would stop ruining things by being an idiot.

"When?" he asked. "When did Luke visit you last?"

"Well, it was . . . Oh goodness . . ." A shadow passed across her face. "The last time, he looked so different. A scar. A terrible scar, and his voice so full of pain . . ."

"His eyes," I said. "Were they gold?"

"Gold?" She blinked. "No. How silly. Luke has blue eyes. Beautiful blue eyes!"

So Luke really had been here, and this had happened before last summer—before he'd turned into Kronos.

Thalia felt like her hatred was burning anew for him going through with this. For realizing all over again the lengths he'd gone to, the thought he'd put into betraying her and everyone he'd claimed to care about. He'd come back here again to do as Kronos wished rather than the promise he'd made about never coming back.

Luke was no coward though. If she still had to give him one begrudging feeling, it was that fact. Because she wouldn't ever go back even if her mom was alive. Not for anything.

"Ms. Castellan?" Nico put his hand on the old woman's arm. "This is very important. Did he ask you for anything?"

She frowned as if trying to remember. "My—my blessing. Isn't that sweet?" She looked at us uncertainly. "He was going to a river, and he said he needed my blessing. I gave it to him. Of course I did."

Nico looked at me triumphantly.

What on earth a blessing had to do with defeating Kronos Magnus couldn't begin to guess. Were they supposed to somehow take her blessing back? Why did it even count from a woman who clearly didn't even have the mental faculties to hold a conversation? Greek loopholes somehow managed to be more depressing than mortal's laws.

"Thank you, ma'am. That's all the information we—"

Ms. Castellan gasped. She doubled over, and her cookie tray clattered to the floor. Nico and I jumped to our feet.

"Ms. Castellan?" I said.

"AHHHH," She straightened. I scrambled away and almost fell over the kitchen table, because her eyes—her eyes were glowing green.

Percy gasped, a memory ripped straight out of his mind like a god had reached in and jerked it to the forefront. He'd know that shade of green anywhere. It was the same shade as the Oracle's horrifying breath wrapping around him.

"It's okay Percy," Annabeth breathed. It didn't take a child of Athena to guess what his mind was hurting itself to make a leap to. She wished she could take this pain away from him, but baring that the least she could do was offer him a rope to hang onto as the pain in his eyes settled to look longingly at her to understand.

"My child," she rasped in a much deeper voice. "Must protect him! Hermes, help! Not my child! Not his fate—no!"

She grabbed Nico by the shoulders and began to shake him as if to make him understand. "Not his fate!"

Will made a pained, rattling noise in the back of his throat, his hands fidgeting in frustration to pull Nico back and get between whatever this was. That didn't sound like a prophecy, but everything about what just happened screamed at his instincts something of this had gone terribly wrong and he needed to help.

Nico made a strangled scream and pushed her away. He gripped the hilt of his sword. "Percy, we need to get out—"

He'd find bruises on his arm later from how hard she'd grabbed him, Nico frowned. She'd put a kind of fear in him he hadn't known since being in the Labyrinth, the next turn surely his last as something lunged out of the shadows. He'd be rubbing at his arms if Will wasn't doing that for him.

Suddenly Ms. Castellan collapsed. I lurched forward and caught her before she could hit the edge of the table.

Jason was confident that wouldn't be the first time it had happened to her though. The image sat hazily in his mind of her just being left there alone until she awoke and continued the entire cycle like nothing had happened, perhaps a little matted blood in her hair going unnoticed.

I managed to get her into a chair.

"Ms. C?" I asked.

She muttered something incomprehensible and shook her head. "Goodness. I . . . I dropped the cookies. How silly of me."

She blinked, and her eyes were back to normal—or at least, what they had been before. The green glow was gone.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Percy, your Sally is showing," Will repeated with a weak smile. Many other kids would have run out of there like Percy had literally wanted to do, but the moment she was in danger he lunged in to help her.

"Yeah, she's a bad influence like that," Percy whispered, his heart in pieces at imagining this happening to his mom because of having him. Obviously this didn't happen to all half-blood's mortal parents, but it came as a dull shock to him all of a sudden he might not have the worst luck in the universe.

"Well, of course, dear. I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

I glanced at Nico, who mouthed the word Leave.

Nico had been around what many would call the scariest, most horrifying, creepiest, and petrifying monsters, gods, and ghosts for a chat without batting an eye. This woman had scared the piss out of him. Her aura was something he'd never felt before and wished never to again. It wasn't so much as weaving in and out of death, it was jolting off her like sparks wishing to pull others in. He'd never gotten that feeling from any other mortal, not even Rachel who had a unique sense to her own soul for now hosting the Oracle. Something had gone wrong in this woman.

"Ms. C, you were telling us something," I said. "Something about your son."

"Was I?" she said dreamily. "Yes, his blue eyes. We were talking about his blue eyes. Such a handsome boy!"

"We have to go," Nico said urgently. "We'll tell Luke . . . uh, we'll tell him you said hello."

"But you can't leave!" Ms. Castellan got shakily to her feet, and I backed away. I felt silly being scared of a frail old woman, but the way her voice had changed, the way she'd grabbed Nico . . .

She'd done that to Luke, they all easily understood. She wasn't in her right mind, and she'd likely done this on the last day Luke was there, causing a child to run out the door and never look back. Luke had been more afraid of his own mother and what had been done to her than anything waiting to pounce on him outside those walls.

"Hermes will be here soon," she promised. "He'll want to see his boy!"

"Maybe next time," I said. "Thank you for—" I looked down at the burned cookies scattered on the floor. "Thanks for everything."

She tried to stop us, to offer us Kool-Aid, but I had to get out of that house. On the front porch, she grabbed my wrist and I almost jumped out of my skin.

She'd been scary strong, like if Chiron had jerked his arm back. His shoulder had jolted. Her skin had been wrinkled and burning hot from to many cookie trays grabbed right out of the broken oven. Up close she'd smelled as bad as the rest of the house, he hadn't been so afraid since he stood on half-blood hill for the first time in the rain thinking his mom was gone.

"Luke, at least be safe. Promise me you'll be safe."

"I will . . . Mom."

Percy would have said anything to get out of there, but something in him made that feel right. He couldn't hug her, he couldn't promise this woman it would all be okay, but this was the reassurance he could give her.

That made her smile. She released my wrist, and as she closed the front door I could hear her talking to the candles: "You hear that? He will be safe. I told you he would be!"

As the door shut, Nico and I ran. The little beanbag animals on the sidewalk seemed to grin at us as we passed.

Even running for their life, Nico had a really tough time running behind Percy. It was aggravating how much faster he was, and yet had made him kick his legs up faster to see Percy checking over his shoulder to make sure he was keeping up...the view hadn't been bad either...

Back at the cliff, Mrs. O'Leary had found a friend.

The uncomfortable silence tried to linger in the room, deep in their chests as they all looked to each other, someone clearly expecting the other to break the silence and say it was okay to start their usual bullshit again.

That person, was of course, Alex. "Is Thalia back?" His grin was as light as ever as if nothing had happened. "What did you bring this time, robot chinchilla? Robot Huntress?"

Annabeth looked at him blankly, even pretty sure she got the joke that Thalia had once followed Artimes's sacred golden deer made Alex's mind seem illogical and concerning.

"Not me," Thalia shrugged, and Magnus was perturbed he seemed the only one waiting around for a moment to deny the claim of a robot Huntress before he got to many strange looks for not just continuing. Peer pressure won that time.

A cozy campfire crackled in a ring of stones. A girl about eight years old was sitting cross-legged next to Mrs. O'Leary, scratching the hellhound's ears.

"Well she can't be that evil if Mrs. O'Leary isn't eating her," Will grinned.

Nico smiled at Hestia's timing. They'd really needed that sense of homey comfort after such a place, and what Percy was about to go ask his mother would put a strain on such a thing. The Goddess of the Hearth made it feel easily attainable again.

The girl had mousy brown hair and a simple brown dress. She wore a scarf over her head so she looked like a pioneer kid—like the ghost of Little House on the Prairie or something. She poked the fire with a stick, and it seemed to glow more richly red than a normal fire.

"Hello," she said.

My first thought was: monster.

"Well nobody was questioning that!" Magnus groaned. No innocent mortal little kid would stumble upon that hellhound and get that kind of internal process from Percy.

"Calypso wasn't a monster," Alex scratched absently at his chin, "or it could be more of Nico's plan and he summoned another nice ghost mom for whatever this stuff is."

"She was described as nine," Jason said in horror at that assumption.

Alex shrugged and wasn't taking it back.

When you're a demigod and you find a sweet little girl alone in the woods—that's typically a good time to draw your sword and attack.

"This poor guy can't even go bird watching with Grover someday without being worried the next blue tit is going to turn into something and try to kill him," Magnus looked so sad for him too. "He'd see a family of hikers coming up and pull out his pen."

"I'd wait for them to attack me first," Percy shrugged, "and as long as they're mortals it wouldn't even hurt them."

"I don't need you traumatizing more kids by trying to whack them with an intangible sword Percy," Magnus sighed. "You'll get banned from every national park."

"Grover will sneak me in the back," Percy shrugged again, though Magnus couldn't help but notice the guy had never once denied an imminent attack at any point so this really was just asking for trouble leaving his stinking house.

Plus, the encounter with Ms. Castellan had rattled me pretty bad.

Thalia sort of wanted to mock Percy, an easy and old fall back for still calling her Ms. like a proper lad rather than dwelling on that place for even a moment, but then she realized nobody had ever told Percy her name was May. He could have called her that crazy old lady or Luke's mom though, so it was still a nice moment to laugh at him she let pass. She was getting soft in her old age.

But Nico bowed to the little girl. "Hello again, Lady."

"Is that her name, or are we being proper?" Alex chuckled, having been watching over Magnus's shoulder and seeing that capitalized.

"Being proper," Nico said with a respectful, kind smile. Here was an interaction he had no fear in showing, it actually didn't relate to him in any bad way. That was so rare for him.

She studied me with eyes as red as the firelight. I decided it was safest to bow.

Annabeth chuckled and flashed Nico a grateful smile. Now out of that house, she eased back away from him, still conscious of how much he didn't remember about how close they'd grown over the past few months. He did relax, and she hoped that awkward smile was for any other reason than his relief she'd moved away. When she tried to pull her hand back to give him some space, he clutched back with a question in his eyes, and she smiled and relaxed back into her seat, the two just casually keeping their fingers linked now.

Nico was still watching long after she'd looked back away. He knew that smile had been a thanks for keeping him out of trouble. He wanted to promise any time, he was happy to do it, but he knew he'd probably sound like a desperate puppy trying to keep Percy's attention. He didn't need it anymore. The more he told himself that, the more it felt like a comfortable reminder rather than a pathetic insistence.

"Sit, Percy Jackson," she said. "Would you like some dinner?"

After staring at moldy peanut butter sandwiches and burned cookies, I didn't have much of an appetite, but the girl waved her hand and a picnic appeared at the edge of the fire. There were plates of roast beef, baked potatoes, buttered carrots, fresh bread, and a whole bunch of other foods I hadn't had in a long time. My stomach started to rumble. It was the kind of home-cooked meal people are supposed to have but never do. The girl made a five-foot-long dog biscuit appear for Mrs. O'Leary, who happily began tearing it to shreds.

She was a god, Jason deduced, but he still sat wearily in his seat waiting for the shoe to drop. Was this Hera in an alternate form, there to tell Percy again he should be thankful for something else she'd caused?

She hadn't even acknowledged Nico, which put some favor into his idea.

I sat next to Nico. We picked up our food, and I was about to dig in when I thought better of it.

I scraped part of my meal into the flames, the way we do at camp. "For the gods," I said.

Percy hadn't been mentioned doing that at camp lately. Whether it had just been glossed over or he'd been particularly resentful recently with Beckendorf not leading in cabin 9 or he'd just been really invested in that toast, it felt strange to hear him doing so now when they'd just run from an enormous example of the gods blatant mistreatment of mortals, leaving her alone to suffer whatever that was when Dionysus should have easily popped in and fixed her of her madness too.

Magnus couldn't make himself sound to resentful of Percy though, because these weren't his gods. He'd come into this atheist and he sat here now the same way, never quite getting used to seeing them as anything other than over-powerful other beings who sucked at their job. Whatever had nudged Percy into doing it this time had no bearing on him.

The little girl smiled. "Thank you. As tender of the flame, I get a share of every sacrifice, you know."

"I recognize you now," I said. "The first time I came to camp, you were sitting by the fire, in the middle of the commons area."

"You did not stop to talk," the girl recalled sadly. "Alas, most never do.

"There were a lot of kids running around," Annabeth rubbed his shoulder as they slumped in clear and obvious guilt. "You'd just been through a ton."

He gave her a questioning brow, and she shrugged. "Yeah, I did, but I was a blabber mouth of a kid, Luke had to pull me away and throw me over his shoulder more than once because I wouldn't stop following everyone around talking to my heart's content. It, really wasn't encouraged to much before that," she brushed her hair back nervously while Thalia sighed in regret how often they'd had to shush her from asking questions when they sensed a monster nearby. "Hestia enjoyed talking to me so of course I did in turn, but it's not the same circumstances Percy, don't compare us."

He still was anyways. She'd spent her first days there with the loss of Thalia still heavy on her mind and been social, happy at her new home. He'd just been a jerk to most people who treated him like a new celebrity.

Nico talked to me. He was the first in many years. Everyone rushes about. No time for visiting family."

"Vesta," Jason murmured in understanding. A feeling came back to him. Not a true memory, but the sensation of one at least, like he'd gotten from Hylla's name. Sitting by the fireplace, the warmth that came with saying her name in prayer. He smiled, a strange sense of homesick overtaking him considering he had nothing tangible to relate it to.

He sighed and formally addressed Thalia. "Does the name Hylla mean anything to you?"

"No," Thalia promised at once, looking right around at him. "I swear Jason, I really have no clue, Nico seems to know more about you than I did."

He nodded in disappointment and looked back away. That didn't make her lie of omission feel better, but his anger was fading and tempering back out into miserable acceptance he was just going to be stuck like this until he got something back piece by piece like Percy was getting.

"Hey," Nico sighed, "all I knew about was another Camp, and I'd only seen it from a distance. I'd never met Jason specifically, it was just a hunch."

"Nice for all of us to finally be on the same page," Will said into the following awkward silence as Annabeth's eyes went quickly around the room again. The links each of them held fitting into a puzzle she wasn't thrilled to solve for once, it was going to show an image of disaster she wasn't sure how to help Percy with this time.

"You're Hestia," I said. "Goddess of the Hearth."

She nodded.

Okay . . . so she looked eight years old. I didn't ask. I'd learned that gods could look any way they pleased.

"I wonder if Artemis is out there fighting that storm Titan guy as a kiddo," Alex chuckled.

"I don't see why she'd age herself for it," Thalia shrugged.

"My lady," Nico asked, "why aren't you with the other Olympians, fighting Typhon?"

"I'm not much for fighting." Her red eyes flickered. I realized they weren't just reflecting the flames. They were filled with flames—but not like Ares's eyes. Hestia's eyes were warm and cozy.

Like brown eyes, Will thought warmly as he glanced over at Nico's, the most relaxed look he'd seen on his face in a long time, his focus actually tuned into the book with a light of eagerness he so rarely saw. They were the warmest teak color that reminded him of long afternoons sunbathing on the dock.

"Besides," she said, "someone has to keep the home fires burning while the other gods are away."

She could have shared the responsibility of the unclaimed kids at Camp, Annabeth thought to herself. She was still in the process of watching over the workings and remodelings of all the cabins. The idea striking her now felt to little to late, but even still she was greatly annoyed at herself she'd never thought of it before. Not that it would have made a difference, it never would have been allowed, but the idea felt right there.

Goddess of the Hearth and home. If a kid had been unclaimed so long at Camp with no other place to go, it would have been their right to go into this Goddesse's cabin and unpack their bags with the intention of never leaving.

Zeus would never have allowed it though, not back then. It wouldn't have been 'proper' to have her cabin about.

"So you're guarding Mount Olympus?" I asked.

"'Guard' may be too strong a word. But if you ever need a warm place to sit and a home-cooked meal, you are welcome to visit. Now eat."

"She's like the goddess of abuelas," Alex's tone held a lilt of his Hispanic heritage love usually only shown in the way he spoke rapid-fire and his brown skin.

"How everybody's grandparents should be," but Percy's tone was more wistful than agreeing. He wouldn't know.

My plate was empty before I knew it. Nico scarfed his down just as fast.

"That was great," I said. "Thank you, Hestia."

She nodded. "Did you have a good visit with May Castellan?"

Good wasn't the word any of them would have used. Informative, creepy, and depressing were all much better variables.

For a moment I'd almost forgotten the old lady with her bright eyes and her maniacal smile, the way she'd suddenly seemed possessed.

"Home can be as powerful as the godly food," Annabeth nodded. Every time she was back with her dad and his family she'd called Chiron, it had been a nearly daily experience there at first. It wasn't being back at Camp, but it was the feeling he gave her that helped convince her she could get through another night in just his smile.

"What's wrong with her, exactly?" I asked.

"She was born with a gift," Hestia said. "She could see through the Mist."

"Like my mother," I said. And I was also thinking, like Rachel. "But the glowing eyes thing—"

"Some bear the curse of sight better than others," the goddess said sadly. "For a while, May Castellan had many talents.

Many talents, like drawing the past and future? Jason noted. Perhaps not that specific, or Rachel used that outlet because she enjoyed such a skill and May Castellan had used her own like Sally may have to get through what they saw, but it did track with what they'd put together in that seeing through the Mist didn't seem like just a one-thing kind of 'gift.' It intertwined to heavily with their world, like a demigod inheriting a part of their godly parent and mortal parent, their ability to dream of what they shouldn't and more.

She attracted the attention of Hermes himself. They had a beautiful baby boy.

The parallels to Percy here were starting to give Magnus anxiety. Thankfully Sally seemed to have avoided this fate, but it still gave his stomach a sickening roll as he once again dared to wonder who his immortal parent could be, who had sent wolves after him for whatever he hadn't done but his father did? It seemed a miracle nothing had ever happened to Percy's mom.

For a brief time, she was happy. And then she went too far."

I remembered what Ms. Castellan had said: They offered me an important job . . . It didn't work out. I wondered what kind of job left you like that.

Possibilities that Alex really couldn't come up with without being an entire shitbag of a person mocking this, which he strived not to be.

"One minute she was all happy," I said. "And then she was freaking out about her son's fate, like she knew he'd turned into Kronos. What happened to . . . to divide her like that?"

The goddess's face darkened. "That is a story I do not like to tell.

It didn't sit right with Annabeth she called it a story. Like an ancient part of Greek history some called a myth. This wasn't just a happy tale that they were going to close and get tucked into bed when it was over. Luke had felt like his life was a cruel joke from the moment he understood the world, and there was no dashing prince to step in and save him like she'd gotten, if only for a brief moment in her own.

But May Castellan saw too much. If you are to understand your enemy Luke, you must understand his family."

The mortal side, or the godly side, Jason frowned. Because Percy knew all to much about the gods at this rate, possibly more than any half-blood before him, certainly more than Luke even with how well versed and even liked Percy was. And Vesta had just denied him the rest of the story of what had happened to Luke's mother. He'd never deny a craving of more knowledge in him, but he couldn't imagine what else she expected Percy to know here.

I thought about the sad little pictures of Hermes taped above May Castellan's sink. I wondered if Ms. Castellan had been so crazy when Luke was little. That green-eyed fit could've seriously scared a nine year-old kid. And if Hermes never visited, if he'd left Luke alone with his mom all those years . . .

It seemed a new, twisted kind of cruel, Magnus shivered. He couldn't imagine how a child even could be raised like that. What little he knew of baby rearing seriously implied constant attention, diaper changes, feeding. How on earth could she even manage that while going into fits over his future without dropping baby Luke on his head once a day?

The idea felt like something out of a Stephen King novel. Something other than a human trying to rear a baby.

He remembered Mr. D apparently had kids while being trapped at camp. His mind flashed up bizarre images of Hermes appearing out of the blue for just a second, his consciousness probably elsewhere flirting with some other woman as he sat the howling child down safely before dashing back off again to deliver some random package. Trying to conjure someone doing all three things at once hurt his head, but for those gods it should have been child's play he supposed.

"No wonder Luke ran away," I said. "I mean, it wasn't right to leave his mom like that,

Thalia shook her head at that. Just by Percy saying that proved he still didn't really understand how bad it had been for Luke. She wondered how much he silently judged her even if he understood why she abandoned her mother too.

but still—he was just a kid. Hermes shouldn't have abandoned them."

Hestia scratched behind Mrs. O'Leary's ears. The hellhound wagged her tail and accidentally knocked over a tree.

Alex chuckled with delight. "She really is a perfect creature of the Underworld in that way, there's no life without death."

"I don't think the tree would agree," Percy muttered before Annabeth elbowed him.

"It's easy to judge others," Hestia warned. "But will you follow Luke's path? Seek the same powers?"

Nico set down his plate. "We have no choice, my lady. It's the only way Percy stands a chance."

Annabeth didn't like the fact that Percy hadn't been the one to answer that. If he had even the slightest doubts or hesitation about what he'd gone through, it would make this coming battle even worse to hear as he mentally resented his newfound, quantifiable abilities.

"Mmm." Hestia opened her hand and the fire roared. Flames shot thirty feet into the air. Heat slapped me in the face. Then the fire died back down to normal.

"Show off," Alex huffed, his hand flopped onto his palm on the armrest. He'd probably kill to be able to do something so murderous and cool.

"Not all powers are spectacular." Hestia looked at me. "Sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding. Do you believe me?"

"Uh-huh," I said. Anything to keep her from messing with her flame powers again.

"That was not the takeaway there Percy," Thalia snorted.

"I like my eyebrows!" Was all Percy seemed to hear.

The goddess smiled. "You are a good hero, Percy Jackson. Not too proud. I like that.

"Percy's personality is actually what made a god like him this time?" Will smirked. "Oh, now we know it's doomsday ahead." He talked to Hestia quite frequently, and it was nice to hear her being given a role in Percy's life. One the gods should be proud to have on display.

But you have much to learn. When Dionysus was made a god, I gave up my throne for him. It was the only way to avoid a civil war among the gods."

"Who made him that kind of a special god and nearly started a civil war?" Magnus asked blankly at that short-sighted gift.

"Mr. D was born a god," Annabeth happily explained, it was such a rare thing to do to a member of her family, and Magnus watched her. His face guarded, clearly experience in here made him already aware this wasn't going to be great fun, but he didn't ignore her and continue playing with his real sibling or ignore her and go about cleaning the house or ignore her and work on his project, so it felt like a success she even had his unhappy attention. "It was Zeus, of course, he accidentally incinerated his mortal mother while she was still pregnant with him and so he took the still undeveloped fetus that is Dionysus and sowed him into his hip-"

"Ew," Magnus really wished these guys would spare details like that.

"Fair," Percy promised. He'd heard this and it was still bizarre to think of someone pregnant in the thigh, of just one leg. He wondered if anyone ever asked to rub Zeus's baby bump?

"And the process," Annabeth continued a touch louder, her excitement to continue obvious, "caused him to become a full immortal being. When he ascended it basically went as well as expected as Hestia briefly summarized."

"Sounds about right," Magnus shrugged, it made as much sense as anything else these Olympians ever did. He missed stories with logical characters personally. He gave his cousin a smile though just to finally see her smile back in person. She looked so at home sitting next to Percy despite her still haggard appearance, how could he do anything else?

"It unbalanced the Council," I remembered. "Suddenly there were seven guys and five girls."

Hestia shrugged. "It was the best solution, not a perfect one.

Will smiled delightfully at that as he stored such a nugget of wisdom away. Nico expected to see that sewn onto a pillow in his cabin or something soon.

Now I tend the fire. I fade slowly into the background. No one will ever write epic poems about the deeds of Hestia. Most demigods don't even stop to talk to me. But that is no matter. I keep the peace. I yield when necessary. Can you do this?"

No, was Percy's automatic thought as his breath caught in his throat. Hestia seemed like an awesome goddess, but more like Calypso than the pang in his heart had a care to remember. She just seemed so happy and at peace with her lot in life, and despite that fire trick, he didn't see himself really being eye to eye with that kind of attitude. She was definitely one of the best goddesses he'd ever met, he might never skip a sacrifice again just knowing she got a portion of it for what she represented in his life, but her path wasn't one he was confident he'd ever walk. Kronos wouldn't just throw his sword aside if Percy did first.

And gods was lingering on this idea giving him a stomach ache. He was really regretting that taco-hell sauce he'd dumped on his breakfast right now.

"I don't know what you mean."

She studied me. "Perhaps not yet. But soon. Will you continue your quest?"

"Is that why you're here—to warn me against going?"

Hestia shook her head. "I am here because when all else fails, when all the other mighty gods have gone off to war, I am all that's left. Home. Hearth. I am the last Olympian. You must remember me when you face your final decision."

Percy decided he did not like the sound of that. He studied the deep red book with the bright orange five on the spine with an unpleasant fizzing over his mind that caused him to roughly run his hand through his hair. The last Olympian standing shouldn't be someone who so reminded him of his mom.

I didn't like the way she said final.

"Is there a good way to say final?" Thalia nodded. "The final anything usually sucks."

"Final day of school," Alex offered, "whether Jason agrees or not."

He flipped him off while also offering, "the final time you're afraid of doing something." He had no specific memory to connect to the idea, of course, but he felt good saying it out loud all the same. Like a promise he'd get something back for it soon.

I looked at Nico, then back at Hestia's warm glowing eyes. "I have to continue, my lady. I have to stop Luke . . . I mean Kronos."

"Thanks," Annabeth told him quietly. "I hate feeling like I'm the only one who still needs to hear they're not the same."

"Yeah, no problem," Percy promised, glancing quickly away from her eyes. He never felt like it was real heaping praise to be thanked by her regarding anything over Luke.

Hestia nodded. "Very well. I cannot be of much assistance, beyond what I have already told you. But since you sacrificed to me, I can return you to your own hearth. I will see you again, Percy, on Olympus."

Her tone was ominous, as though our next meeting would not be happy.

"I never assume you meeting a god is going to be 'happy," Magnus said. Percy's luck just wasn't good enough for that. "The most I ever hope you come away with anymore is, not enemies."

"At least I'm living up to someone's expectations," Percy chuckled.

The goddess waved her hand, and everything faded.

Suddenly I was home. Nico and I were sitting on the couch in my mom's apartment on the Upper East Side. That was the good news. The bad news was that the rest of the living room was occupied by Mrs. O'Leary.

Alex couldn't help a sorrowful chuckle. "That poor baby! I don't think she's going to be able to just turn into a cloud of fur down the fire escape to get out of this."

"I doubt it," Percy agreed with a half-hearted smile. He always knew she wouldn't fit in his apartment, but it was still sad to see in person it wouldn't work out full-time.

I heard a muffled yell from the bedroom. Paul's voice said, "Who put this wall of fur in the doorway?"

"April Fools joke?" Will chuckled. "Percy did promise he'd clean up his room and it went horribly wrong."

"I'm more concerned by how unconcerned Paul sounded," Percy grinned. "He just seemed like some kid had given him a box of plastic apples. Like, thanks man, but what the hell do I do with this?"

"Percy?" my mom called out. "Are you here? Are you all right?"

Percy smiling like that was something none of them saw enough. How he could laugh and know everything would actually stay okay, and it seemed silly his mom was worried for once.

"I'm here!" I shouted back.

"WOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary tried to turn in a circle to find my mom, knocking all the pictures off the walls. She's only met my mom once before (long story), but she loves her.

Magnus didn't even pretend like he wasn't going to stop and hear this story as he looked as wildly around at Percy as everybody else, only Annabeth didn't look surprised.

Percy relaxed back in his seat, kicking his feet out and crossing his ankles without a care in the world. "Rachel had been asking me about how that dog appeared to get us out of the arena, so I explained some of the details she didn't get and about how she was at camp now. Rachel was so upset she couldn't see her again that I IM'd Beckendorf-" Percy's voice was still so emotional saying his name so casually. This had still been months before the Andromeda exploded, but it never felt like he'd gotten enough time. "-to bring her to the city, we were going to meet up at the zoo. I hoped the Mist would blend her in as a statue out front or something.

So he flies in on Guido with Mrs. O'Leary right behind him, but he can't stick around because he's got some project that might explode the whole camp if he's not there to watch it and he runs off and, well," he trailed off with an embarrassed smile.

"You didn't exactly think that one through," Annabeth helpfully added.

"I did not think that one through," he sighed, "Mrs. O'Leary took no interest in Rachel and she started running around the place like crazy to sniff everything. So we're chasing her, I'm still half trying to explain what the heck a stygian ice whistle even is and why I don't have one, and she," he paused and sighed, truly sorry for what had happened, "she tried to jump headfirst into the elephant exhibit. She got to excited, I guess, because she didn't go over them, she tried to go through them. Her head went in and didn't come out of some bars.

So, she's crying, Rachel's promising her lawyers will sort out any damage this rogue delivery truck has apparently caused to zoo employees, and I'm standing there feeling like the worst person in the entire world."

"Time to call mom," Annabeth nodded without surprise.

"I panicked, it was the only thing I could think to do," Percy agreed, "I didn't know how to get her out without hurting her and I didn't think Beckendorf would answer a second IM, or have time to make a rainbow to call anyone anyways!"

He'd wanted Annabeth so bad in that moment, but she'd still been on the other side of the country not exactly speaking to him if it wasn't a war update. He was grateful Rachel must have brought it up at some point though he couldn't remember, since none of this was news to her now. It felt great, the perfect kind of normal to have her telling this story with him even when she hadn't been there. They might as well have been sitting around a fire at camp with the audience talking about their latest quest.

"Rachel has my mom's number and calls her to come down. She gets there and puts her hands on my shoulder and just tells me, Percy, cut her loose."

He still face palmed like he had then, though thankfully not one of them had suggested that obvious answer as they all watched in various levels of concern even knowing everybody had made it out of this okay.

"I jump over and use Riptide to cut through the bars like nothing while my mom starts scratching the spot above her tail, she could only reach because she'd come down there in her heels," he added sheepishly, only finding out later she'd been late to a meeting with a publisher for his non-emergency like the hectic child he always was. "Mrs. O'Leary knocked over a few concrete pillars and trees, I think her tail got hurt more than anything," he finished affectionately.

 "She gets out and spins around, and even though I'm the one who got her out, I think she realized who it was to thank, cause she starts giving my mom a whole bath and nuzzling her. It's probably a miracle she let my mom out of her sight again. My mom talked the zoo people into letting us take home like twenty pounds of raw meat and tack it to our bill and we took her back to our place. Mom went upstairs and cooked it up real quick and threw it out the window for her while Rachel and I checked her all over to make sure there was nothing really wrong with her from what we googled." He finished in relief.

"So what I got out of all that is, you should just stay far away from zoo's," Thalia nodded without surprise.

"My takeaway is, Percy literally can't go on a quest without a girl saving his ass," Alex snickered.

"Both life lessons I willingly accept," Percy chuckled.

It took a few minutes, but we finally got things worked out. After destroying most of the furniture in the living room and probably making our neighbors really mad, 

"It's going to take a godly vacuum to get all of that dog hair out of there," Will grinned. "I hope neither of them have allergies."

"I, um, think they just had to buy some new furniture and left the windows open," Percy abashedly reminded.

we got my parents out of the bedroom and into the kitchen,

There had been a really awkward moment where Mrs. O'Leary had to open her mouth and keep it that way for them to step, a very, very large step, through her teeth and over the tongue to get to the other side. There hadn't been fear per say she'd close her mouth and hurt them, but the drool and smell hadn't made it the most pleasant scene.

where we sat around the kitchen table. Mrs. O'Leary still took up the entire living room, but she'd settled her head in the kitchen doorway so she could see us, which made her happy.

"That really is a great thing about dogs," Annabeth agreed with such a longing smile. "They're just happy to be around you." Her doberman, Frostine, had always lit up every time she walked in the door, while she was lucky if her dad looked up from his book some days.

My mom tossed her a ten-pound family-size tube of ground beef, which disappeared down her gullet.

"Does your mom have a magic fridge?" Nico couldn't help but ask now like he'd wondered then. "How does she always have on hand whatever somebody might want."

"Could be," Percy chuckled, "Posideon owes her a million magic gifts anyways."

Paul poured lemonade for the rest of us while I explained about our visit to Connecticut.

"So it's true." Paul stared at me like he'd never seen me before. He was wearing his white bathrobe, now covered in hellhound fur, and his salt-and-pepper hair was sticking up in every direction. "All the talk about monsters, and being a demigod . . . it's really true."

Percy felt his throat tighten for a whole new reason as he'd looked Paul in the eye. Never in his wildest imagination would he have expected to be taken at word, to be believed without some kind of proof. It had never happened in his life except with his mom. Paul hadn't sat around and argued the point though, he'd taken it far better than he or his mom had ever thought by simply agreeing he'd always thought there was something different about Percy, in a good way.

I nodded. Last fall I'd explained to Paul who I was. My mom had backed me up. But until this moment, I don't think he really believed us.

He hadn't called Percy a liar though. He hadn't walked out or started calling them crazy. Whether he really thought they'd been pulling his leg all this time, it mattered to Percy more than he ever thought it would to feel accepted by another adult other than his mom.

"What did he see though?" Magnus asked with interest. "Did he see a giant poodle?"

"I don't think he saw the hellhound exactly as she was," Nico agreed, "but he certainly saw something destroying his apartment, dog-shaped, that was all big loving puppy eyes. Even confronted with this right in his face, I don't think he saw through the mist, he might have run if he didn't have us there to tell him whatever he was seeing was okay to be around."

"Sorry about Mrs. O'Leary," I said, "destroying the living room and all."

Paul laughed like he was delighted. "Are you kidding? This is awesome!

"I love this man," Alex decided. "Anybody who can be so chill about that chaos is just the best." Magnus tried his best not to look jealous as he did an internal search of how much of a wimp Alex probably saw him. The numbers weren't looking good.

"He really did fit right in, it's kind of eerie," Percy nodded as he glanced at Annabeth. He'd never really believed in that whole soulmate thing songs went on about until recently.

I mean, when I saw the hoofprints on the Prius, I thought maybe. But this!"

"Unless the universe seriously strung out some kind of wild horse, or cop horse, or whatever appearing on that beach," Nico offered. "There were mildly less crazy options to consider than pegasi there."

"The dents didn't come out, that's what I still feel bad about," Percy huffed.

He patted Mrs. O'Leary's snout. The living room shook—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—which either meant a SWAT team was breaking down the door or Mrs. O'Leary was wagging her tail.

"With your luck it would be both at once," Jason reminded.

"Gaurd dogs don't make them hesitate?" Percy asked mock innocently. "Not even mine?"

"Just go peacefully Percy, it'll make things easier," Jason rolled his eyes.

I couldn't help but smile. Paul was a pretty cool guy, even if he was my English teacher as well as my stepdad.

"That's like two marks against a normal person and he's still out here winning top three coolest mortals," Will nodded in surprise.

"Percy's family's just special that way," Annabeth said with a touch of awe in her voice they were so open to taking anybody into that fold.

"Thanks for not freaking out," I said.

"Oh, I'm freaking out," he promised, his eyes wide. "I just think it's awesome!"

Everybody laughed this time boisterously. It really was so charming to have someone so outside their world be so exuberant for it, making them feel less like freaks than many adults in their lives did.

"Yeah, well," I said, "you may not be so excited when you hear what's happening."

Percy raised his hand at all the smiles slipping away. "Percy, the killjoy for this chapter."

"Nah," Annabeth promised, "just you actually showing off staying on topic for once. I'm surprised Nico didn't have to take away your lemonade."

"I was distracted by Paul," he admitted. He'd spent so little time around people in general. Even being the second time he'd come here, it still shook loose a part of his reality this was how people were capable of living. It was the closest he'd ever experienced anything like it before this room.

I told Paul and my mom about Typhon, and the gods, and the battle that was sure to come. Then I told them Nico's plan.

My mom laced her fingers around her lemonade glass. She was wearing her old blue flannel bathrobe, and her hair was tied back. Recently she'd started writing a novel, like she'd wanted to do for years, and I could tell she'd been working on it late into the night, because the circles under her eyes were darker than usual.

Alex lived for that feeling. The single-minded focus where you couldn't put your work down, watching the progress slowly unfold with your hands, the hunger of getting that detail exactly right, the addictive quality of seeing it shape and mold into what you meant for it to be, or even the surprise as something new came into focus.

It had kept him from doing a lot of, bad, things recently so long as he had the next project to work on before he got dumped in here.

Behind her at the kitchen window, silvery moon lace glowed in the flower box. I'd brought the magical plant back from Calypso's island last summer, and it bloomed like crazy under my mother's care.

The scent always calmed me down, but it also made me sad because it reminded me of lost friends.

Calypso was a special kind of nightmare that still haunted him. Not as much as when he'd first gotten home, but at least once a month he'd still wake up from a cold sweat where he'd just spend all night watching her move about her island. It wouldn't sound like a particularly horrifying nightmare to anyone else, he'd never told anyone about them. Still humming, still staring serenely into the night, still as beautiful as ever in her enclosure. It was like watching an animal at the zoo. She might seem at peace, but it didn't stop something in him wishing to break the lock and demand she have the life she deserved.

My mom took a deep breath, like she was thinking how to tell me no.

"Percy, it's dangerous," she said. "Even for you."

Even for you, echoed in Percy's head. He'd always tried to leave out the worst parts of his life when telling her what he got up to, but she knew. Her eyes saw much more than just through the Mist. He worried some nights when he heard her restlessly moving around the apartment and checking on him in his bed what a terrible child he must be. Her wondering if he was still alive under those covers, not being attacked by some monster instead of sneaking out to do Posideon knew what like some other teenagers his age.

"Mom, I know. I could die. Nico explained that. But if we don't try—"

"We'll all die," Nico said. He hadn't touched his lemonade.

The guilt had been eating him alive. He couldn't even look Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Blowfis in the eyes. He hadn't gone into this intending to betray Percy. But he'd known he wasn't doing the right thing when he hadn't told Percy everything they were going down there to do.

If he didn't have Will's arm so tight around him he'd probably be hiding behind the couch by now. Pan hadn't been the worst of it, this was, and he really didn't believe the lie keeping him in place now that Percy wasn't going to try and strangle him again out of memory-madness when it all came up. He didn't know what he was more afraid of. Will stepping in to stop that or doing nothing.

"Ms. Jackson, we don't stand a chance against an invasion. And there will be an invasion."

"An invasion of New York?" Paul said. "Is that even possible? How could we not see the . . . the monsters?"

He said the word like he still couldn't believe this was real.

It probably helped he didn't seem to realize he'd actually met a monster. Mrs. O'Leary certainly didn't count and he didn't even seem to see Kelli. Magnus was pretty sure he was the only one who even vaguely would know how Paul was feeling, and he had never been as thrilled about all this, but that was probably because he'd spent so much time toeing the line of hate for whatever was out there he'd never been able to put a name on those glowing eyes.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I don't see how Kronos could just march into Manhattan, but the Mist is strong. Typhon is trampling across the country right now, and mortals think he's a storm system."

"Ms. Jackson," Nico said, "Percy needs your blessing. The process has to start that way. I wasn't sure until we met Luke's mom, but now I'm positive. This has only been done successfully twice before. Both times, the mother had to give her blessing. She had to be willing to let her son take the risk."

Nico could never do it himself, though he'd deeply wished he could. He would have taken on this burden for Percy without hesitation. He'd grown confident of his powers and wondered if having more would finally put him on the same level as Percy.

"You want me to bless this?" She shook her head. "It's crazy. Percy, please—"

"Mom, I can't do it without you."

The world was saved because of a mortal, Thalia shook her head. She wished she could carve that somewhere up on Olympus even if her dad would blast her for it.

"And if you survive this . . . this process?"

"Then I go to war," I said. "Me against Kronos. And only one of us will survive."

Annabeth hurt her hand more than him even feeling it as she crushed his fingers between hers. She would hate every single time Percy said that as if it were another stroll around the strawberry fields. She wanted him to be a cocky little shit who proclaimed he'd kick Kronos's ass out of Luke's head. She wanted him to be as confident as her who proclaimed himself the hero who would of course come out of this alive.

That just wasn't her Percy.

I didn't tell her the whole prophecy—about the soul reaping and the end of my days. She didn't need to know that I was probably doomed. I could only hope I'd stop Kronos and save the rest of the world before I died.

Annabeth kept one of his hands clenched tight in hers, while she reached awkwardly over and smacked him in the back of the head with the other. "Knock it off seaweed brain!" The despair that tried to crawl up her and consume everything every time she heard him say this as if a fact, as if he'd already accepted it, as if she hadn't been having nightmares since that first quest of him dying and leaving her.

He didn't even flinch. He gave her the big sad sorry green baby seal eyes. "I'm trying not to make that a thing?"

She still narrowed her eyes at him to punctuate her point. "Fair enough."

"You're my son," she said miserably. "I can't just . . ."

I could tell I'd have to push her harder if I wanted her to agree,

That notion made sense to exactly none of them. Percy had never pushed back to one single person in his life and it was Sally Jackson because nobody had to explain to the boy his mother was a saint.

but I didn't want to. I remembered poor Ms. Castellan in her kitchen, waiting for her son to come home. And I realized how lucky I was. My mom had always been there for me, always tried to make things normal for me, even with the gods and monsters and stuff. She put up with me going off on adventures, but now I was asking her blessing to do something that would probably get me killed.

I locked eyes with Paul, and some kind of understanding passed between us.

Percy couldn't help but think about his life less than a year ago, when Paul's school had caught on fire and he'd looked at Percy like a criminal, like a delinquent with horror in his eyes for this despicable child he had the misfortune of knowing; to now. This moment. It made Percy's eyes sting in a way he wasn't used to.

"Sally." He put his hand over my mother's hands. "I can't claim to know what you and Percy have been going through all these years. But it sounds to me . . . it sounds like Percy is doing something noble. I wish I had that much courage."

I got a lump in my throat. I didn't get compliments like that too much.

"You should though," Annabeth muttered as if taking this as a personal front. Percy studied her with his own dark circles under his eyes and still noticed her's were ten times worse, imagining what other burdens she was adding to her shoulders. He hoped she wasn't crazy enough to think he needed a hype man. Moments like this would lose their impact a bit if she hired Grover to follow him around camp showering him in compliments.

My mom stared at her lemonade. She looked like she was trying not to cry. I thought about what Hestia had said, about how hard it was to yield, and I figured maybe my mom was finding that out.

Percy had never even considered before giving in was a way to win a fight. But his mom was doing it. That Hestia might be onto something.

"Percy," she said, "I give you my blessing."

Percy tried to draw strength from that. The way she'd met his eyes, the confidence in her voice. She'd once given him her blessing to break every rule and go after Annabeth rather than come home. His mom knew what she was doing. Surely that would be just the same now when it all mattered just as much.

I didn't feel any different. No magic glow lit the kitchen or anything.

"Oh I'm sorry Percy," Thalia gave him a tragic look. "I forgot my part-time job was to follow you around as a backlight to enhance your everyday life!"

"Well you're being reduced to entrances and exits only," Percy sniffed.

Thalia gave him the kind of look that meant he should probably expect a bucket of sludge over the next doorway he came in or out of.

I glanced at Nico.

He looked more anxious than ever, but he nodded. "It's time."

Will glanced over in concern at the way Nico flinched anew and went back to that old, agitated pattern of fidgeting with his ring and then gripping his sword over and over. He hadn't seen that in a while now and to watch it coming back put very obvious alarm bells in his head like he might as well start reciting the fire drill practice. Things in the Underworld had not gone well.

"Percy," my mom said. "One last thing. If you . . . if you survive this fight with Kronos,

If? If! Percy would have rather she yelled at him than that haggard whispered if. He knew that was impossible, but the way he'd hurt her in this one conversation by making her have to use the word if made him feel the lowest he ever had in his life.

Then he got angry. He wanted to ball the rest of this book up in a wad and spit it in Kronos's face. He didn't care where his memories dropped him off or what else had happened. He'd never make his mom say if he survived again!

send me a sign." She rummaged through her purse and handed me her cell phone.

"Mom," I said, "you know demigods and phones—"

"I know," she said. "But just in case. If you're not able to call . . . maybe a sign that I could see from anywhere in Manhattan. To let me know you're okay."

The desperation in her voice had been so obvious to Nico. The way she wouldn't look away from Percy, when last time he'd been there and she'd smiled at him like he actually mattered. He wished he could travel back in time right now to kick the crap out of his own ass for going through with this monstrous plan even if it had all worked out.  He would have done it better, done it right somehow...His mother, he'd actually been hoping to see his own mother instead of Percy's. Anything had felt worth that; but the gnawing sensation of knowing if he'd told Percy the whole truth he probably wouldn't have come made that really hard to convince himself.

"Like Theseus," Paul suggested. "He was supposed to raise white sails when he came home to Athens."

"Except he forgot," Nico muttered. "And his father jumped off the palace roof in despair. But other than that, it was a great idea."

"Wasn't that the guy who dropped off Dionyus's wife on an island after she got him the magic string?" Magnus asked. He'd barely been keeping up with all the gods, he still wasn't real sure which demigod myth was which.

"You got it," Percy frowned, he did not like the fact this guy's history kept popping up in his life even when it was his mom and Paul bringing him up. He really hoped he didn't have to jump in the ocean at any point and his father's abilities abandoned him at any rate.

"When did that come up?" Annabeth asked with interest. She had a whole pile of notes on those stories she'd be more than happy to share if Magnus wanted to actually get caught up when they got out of here.

"When Mr. D nearly threw me off a roof," Percy shrugged.

"When he-" Annabeth spluttered before she caught up and realized it must have been when he was sneaking out of camp on Thalia and Zoe's quest. She'd only gotten the highlight real of what all happened in between, and that detail had never come up before.

"What about a flag or a flare?" my mom said. "From Olympus—the Empire State Building."

Percy's mind flashed back to Rachel's drawing, the army surrounding that very building he'd have to fight through while Kronos tried to rip apart the godly world above. He really wished Rachel had drawn a nice picture instead of sunshine and a stupid, drunk smile on his face, skipping through a field with a rainbow. That somehow would have felt like less of a problem to deal with.

"Something blue," I said.

A blue, strobing light lingered in in his eyes for a moment before he blinked and it was gone. His heart squeezed itself stupid in his chest with hope that was a real memory, but he was still pretty sure he was just nuts instead.

We'd had a running joke for years about blue food. It was my favorite color, and my mom went out of her way to humor me. Every year my birthday cake, my Easter basket, my Christmas candy canes always had to be blue.

Jason didn't have to wonder very much why Percy hadn't thought about Gabe since his mom had used him as statuary practice. He'd been the miserable, worst part of Percy's past. Why would he want to associate him with his favorite color, a joke that might have started with the smelly old sot being able to drown in his own garbage, but had evolved into something between Percy and his mother in all the best ways.

"Yes," my mom agreed. "I'll watch for a blue signal. And I'll try to avoid jumping off palace roofs."

"Hopefully not just those specifically," Magnus muttered.

She gave me one last hug.

Percy chuckled at how little that did to encompass the way she'd gathered him into her arms, her hair tickling his nose. He'd become nearly as tall as her recently with her still only having a few inches on him, but he still tucked his head into her shoulder. Still felt like he was curling up in his mother's arms as she brushed her hands threw his hair to make sure one last time her little boy was safe as he held her back just as tight.

The way Magnus read those simple six words managed to convey a good chunk of that feeling though.

 I tried not to feel like I was saying good-bye. I shook hands with Paul.

Percy watched Annabeth with a pinched throat. He wanted her to give him a sign, anything to say his mom didn't believe he'd dropped off the face of the earth and had died.

It was the hardest thing she ever did keeping her poker face set. She wouldn't let him hurt himself when she could take him home to see her in person when this was finally done.

Then Nico and I walked to the kitchen doorway and looked at Mrs. O'Leary.

"Sorry, girl," I said. "Shadow travel time again."

She whimpered and crossed her paws over her snout.

Nico watched the usual flurry of 'nawws' and 'poor girl' comments for the sweet hellhound. Alex was over there muttering something about a large enough oven to bake her treats. Jason was needlessly mocking Percy that this made trip two and she'd be done for the day no matter what life or death matter Percy would need.

He tried to convince his shaking hands that they were his friends, at worst they'd just yell at him a whole lot for still being such a little shit only months ago. It was not working.

"Where now?" I asked Nico. "Los Angeles?"

"No need," he said. "There's a closer entrance to the Underworld."

"Can we take a break?" Nico's voice broke perfectly on the last word.

"Uh, sure Nico," Alex said at once rather than reaching for the book. He recognized that look of panic in those dark eyes at once as he nodded and took off out of the room. Again.

[serafiel-jacobs]

Soul (Fanfic)

New chapter from my main series 🩷

Pinocchio was reading the notebook, trying to find a way to show Sophia the contents. The parts Pinocchio could understand at least and try for Sophia to make sense of it.

“I guess you are going to have to read it out loud for me to try and make sense of it” Sophia can't look at the words since well, she is at least 4 countries away from him.

“Mmm okay” Pinocchio had a smile on his face.

Sophia was happy to be able to hear him read out loud, Pinocchio loves reading so surely he is great at narrating.

“The… um, anime no, anima? Is the power- power-source of, of the link be-bewt-between, um…”

“Pinocchio…” Sophia sounded concerned, “Are you able to read the words properly?” She thought that maybe Pinocchio was in need of glasses.

No, he is just bad at reading out loud.

Sophia found it a little amusing “Well, time to tell your father to prioritize this” Sophia then asked Pinocchio to tell Gemini to read out loud the words for him, she can at least hear what others say.

—--𖦹—--

Anima

Ergo is one's essence and by concentrating that essence, cleansing it into its purest form the result is the anima. Anime is the power source of the

(The words have been crossed out, even at the back of the page, making them completely ineligible) The link between the potential of humanity and its ability to thrive. Anima has more than just healing properties, it can increase physical strength, and create resistance to certain afflictions including immunity to poisons, truly the key to a longer life for humanity, a wonder in terms of medicine, consuming it has shown to cure even the deathliest of illnesses, rumor has said it has the possibility to cure bone fractions although this theory hasn't been confirmed, needing further study.

Unfortunately, Anima is extremely rare to acquire, Ergo already is hard to get, and the process of converting Ergo into Anima can take up to months only for a small amount to be possible to obtain, as of now, Anima does not seem to be worth the effort.

Concentrating the research on Ergo itself is the top priority, sadly harnessing the power of Anima is…

—--𖦹—--

The end of the sentence was blurred, the rest of the page was in a language neither Pinocchio nor Gemini could understand.

“Seriously Pinocchio you couldn’t read that?” Gemini was acting too sassy today.

“Well can’t be good at everything!” Pinocchio already feels as if he has a lot of good skills and this isn’t a big deal and he can read in his mind perfectly well.

“Listen-”

But Pinocchio didn’t listen to Gemini, instead, he grabbed him, put him inside his cage, and began to shake him. Sophia laughed it’s always amusing when he does that.

Gemini came out of his cage spinning, “Okay, maybe I went too far, but you are still a brat”

“I believe I have heard of this” Sometimes her father would teach her things related to alchemy so she has a good amount of knowledge, maybe as much as an alchemist. But her father taught her all that behind her mother’s back and once she found out she forbade her from learning more.

Her mother was serious about it, her father even slept on the couch for a few days.

When she was a child, sometimes she felt as if her mother disliked her but she was always so loving and caring. Yet everything that had to do with her power as a listener made her mother angry, now she knows that she just wanted to protect her. Plus if her mother was truly against the learning of alchemy she would have never married her father, Sophia can understand now that her mother was afraid that others could learn of her power and unfortunately, that fear became true.

“Your father holds a good amount of knowledge about Ergo as well, I find it would be best to speak with him about this, he can help us even more”

“Father is at work right now” And he actually looked really happy about going to work unlike recently as they were going to test something new, his father tried explaining it to him but he had no clue what his father was talking about, when he gets too passionate about his work, he forgets other can’t understand the special terminology.

“In the meantime, we could look for a way for others to hear my voice” Sophia wonders if an invention like a pocket phone could exist in the future, oh well, maybe that is something for Venigni to think of.

“Why not use a stargazer?” As long as he is touching it, Sophia could use the Ergo wavelengths to communicate with others.

Sophia smiled, “That’s a great idea clever one”

“Hello? What is she saying Pinocchio?” Gemini couldn’t hear her after all.

After explaining, Gemini was in deep thought, “But where can we get one?”

They can’t use the one at Hotel Krat now that is back in business, they could buy one but they are rather expensive and Pinocchio doesn’t have any more allowance money left.

“Thank you for that Gemini” Pinocchio frowned, looking annoyed.

“Come on, you love spending money on me” Gemini chirped, teasing his best pal.

“Since they are mainly used by stalkers, I am sure one of them could have one to spare” Sophia knows that stalkers are trained on how to build stargazers since it is their main method of transportation.

Pinocchio smiled, he knew just who to see about this.

—-

“A stargazer? Sure we have the parts for a spare one lying around” Black Cat was glad to see Pinocchio again so soon and didn’t mind fulfilling his request.

“Although I do warn you, stargazers are regulated, you can’t suddenly use one to transport somewhere, they will ask you to identify yourself as a stalker” Red Fox explains to him how there are new regulations when it comes to using stargazers.

“Why do you need one in the first place?” Black Cat was looking around in a closet for all the parts.

“Um…secret?” Pinocchio knows that he can’t tell anyone about Sophia, not even them and he respects her privacy.

“Ooh how fun, if you get in trouble don’t blame us though, your family is already mad enough at us as it is” Black Cat had found all the pieces and set them inside a box.

“For once, I agree with my brother” Red Fox looked at how her brother rolled his eyes behind his mask, “But before you leave, how about we treat you to lunch? You are always helping us out, so why not return it with this small favor?

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any money left” Pinocchio glared at Gemini again and the cricket just started chirping a tune and pretending to act innocent.

“Please, it's our treat this time, we owe it to you” Red Fox smiled, knowing they would spend a great time together.

—-

“Well his father is going to kill us” Black Cat is panicking.

They went to eat at a spicy food restaurant, they insisted he should try new flavors and as it turns out, Pinocchio can’t handle spicy food at all. He feels as if he is overheating and he can feel his springs moving faster to try and stop it, not to mention how he feels dizzy.

“It’s okay, this will pass” Red Fox knows that this is just eating spicy food, things like this aren’t a big deal.

As usual, things are not normal when it comes to Pinocchio and his unique body, the overheating sensation simply isn’t stopping and he already tried using an ampoule but since his body isn’t actually overheating it’s not working. Sometimes Pinocchio feels as if his body confuses his human parts with his mechanical parts, causing conflicting issues like this.

“This is all your fault! You are the one who made him taste that habanero!” Black Cat was mad at his sister.

“I thought that you know…” She thought that because he is partly a puppet, he would be able to handle it.

“It’s okay I think I’m-“ Pinocchio could feel a burning sensation in his throat, but at least he wasn’t dizzy anymore, “bEtTer noW”

Pinocchio grabbed his throat and tried to speak again, his voice sounding too mechanical because his voice box had been damaged.

“Oh dear” Gemini knew this would end badly.

“FUCK he really is going to kill us now” Black Cat is already planning his will in his head.

“Brother shut up, we can think of something” Red Fox was acting calm but deep down she was also in full panic mode, “Is there anyone else that might help with this? One that won’t get angry at us?”

Lady Antonia is out of the question, Eugéne is a good choice but even if she did work at the union her skill mastery will always be weapons so that only leaves one other person.

“Master Venigni, you have guests” A maid had let them inside, all the staff already knew Pinocchio and they were aware to let him in, even if coming unannounced. They were in luck that it was one of those days Venigni doesn’t work at the union and deals with other private affairs at his home.

Venigni was happy to see Pinocchio, not so happy about seeing the two of them, specially because he needed to talk to Pinocchio in private about the situation, but there was still a little more he must do, it could wait.

“I want to help you Pinocchio but I am not sure your father would be happy about me snooping around your body” Venigni still remembers back then, after he returned safely to Hotel Krat and made his way to see Geppetto upstairs, he opened his mouth but couldn’t speak a word.

“No” That was all Geppetto had said, because he knew what he wanted to ask, no you can’t know how I built him even if we are close friends. No to any following questions you might have and no, I will not change my mind.

“pREtTy PleAsE” Even when his voice is broken Pinocchio sounds cute.

“Yeah, pretty please!” Black Cat was begging him, “And we are really sorry for leaving you all alone back then, we swear!”

“You have our truly and deepest sincerest apologies our past behavior was inexcusable” Red Fox was begging as well, “And the faster he heals the better, isn’t that right?”

That is true, the faster you fix things, the easier it is to avoid further problems. Not to mention there is no need to stress Geppetto over this simple situation.

“Alright, I guess I have no choice, however,” Venigni stared at the two of them, he still couldn’t trust them and he was already doing them a huge favor by not saying anything to Geppetto, “I will ask the two of you to leave”

“That’s perfectly fine” Red Fox was just so relieved and turned to look at Pinocchio, “We will deliver the stargazer to your home today”

Black Cat had almost forgotten about that “We will leave it a the door, waiting for you”

They both were making their way out, and an argument started.

“You are the one who suggested spicy food so you are going to carry it” For once it was Black Cat the one scolding his sister.

“Ugh fine” Red Fox knew that it would be a pain, why does Geppetto have to leave so far away?

The argument turned into friendly sibling bickering, it was good to try and relax. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know someone had caught a glimpse of them walking away from the mansion.

“Mmm interesting” Sabertooth was looking from not too far away, maybe this information could be of use to her new client.

—-

“Now about that voice”

Venigni had taken Pinocchio aside to his personal workshop, Pulcinella was outside guarding as it was best no one suddenly entered. Pinocchio had taken off his shirt as he usually does with this situation, and indicated to Venigni where to look.

It’s not just in his chest, Pinocchio has a few buttons in his body that look like moles but they can be opened to reveal secret compartments.

“Why that’s such a genius design! I can’t believe Geppetto made them look so natural, and how evenly proportional each compartment is to its respective part, oh and the-”

“Ahem,” Gemini had to stop Venigni from fanboying about Pinocchio’s design.

“Right, sorry” Venigni took a good look before seeing the problem, “It looks like a few of your cables accidentally got mixed up”

Venigni has plenty of experience with this, from his work and from when Pulcinella was damaged by Fueco as it happened to him as well. The most logical explanation is that Pinocchio’s body tried to counterattack what it believed to be overheating in his throat, the mechanism trying to find a solution by rearranging itself. Thankfully for Venigni, Pinocchio’s throat is one of his fully mechanical parts, there is no need to worry about him doing damage to the boy’s human side.

Pinocchio said a few words, he was back to normal but Venigni suggested he try not to speak so as not to restrain his voice. Venigni is aware of what Geppetto has been dealing with and making him worry even more about Pinocchio over a simple issue like this is not ideal.

“I’m glad I could help” Venigni played with Pinocchio’s hair, “Not a word about this to your father, and promise me you won’t reveal the truth this time”

“I promise” Pinocchio knows that this is far more serious than him getting accidentally drunk, his uncle and his two siblings could be in serious trouble for this.

—-

When Geppetto got home, Pinocchio had finished assembling the stargazer, after a quick explanation, Pinocchio touched the stargazer signaling to Sophia that everything was ready.

“Can you all hear me?” It was working as intended, Pinocchio was excited that it was all according to plan.

“Geppetto do you remember years ago when my father showed you around our home?” Sophia was only 10 years old yet she remembers most of what transpired, rarely did anyone visit them.

“Yes, Carlo came with me that day, Romeo came as well” Geppetto had told both to spend time with Sophia, Valentinus looked happy about that, they needed to talk in private.

“What you do not know is that I hid away in the room” Sophia was always intrigued about her father's work, “I recall the conversation, later I asked my father for more information and he was happy to clarify”

Her father was very kind, intelligent, and caring, but also very oblivious, Sophia overheard his conversations with others all the time and never got caught, her mother did catch her, and she was furious, Sophia simply got better at hiding.

“I thought you were supposed to be spending time with the two of them” Geppetto was confused.

“Uhhh about that…” Sophia has no choice but to confess, “They kind of went outside to play a prank on someone” Apparently one of Carlo's school bullies lived near her home.

“What?” Geppetto facepalmed he should have figured Carlo was capable of doing something like that, he couldn't help himself and smiled, remembering his mischievousness.

“It's my fault, I wanted to spy on my father from the start” Not a hobby most kids that age like so the two of them ditched her; now that she thinks about it she was a weird kid, Sophia remembers how her parents scolded her for keeping a bug sanctuary on her closet as it ruined most of her clothes, then years later she got in big trouble because she did a little experiment, her father was amused, her mother wasn't, apparently it is not acceptable to use your hair to harvest caterpillars going through the metamorphosis stage. To give credit to her mother, she built her a bug sanctuary for herself in their home, to this day Sophia is surprised at how her mother surprised her with that, one day she woke up and her mother had a surprise, a beautiful place in their garden for her to do all of her endeavors.

“You are just like your father you know that?” Sophia remembers her mother's voice, “So oblivious, you could have just asked me for one, no need to hide those creatures in your room”

Sophia smiled, she was so delighted.

“And keep your experiments here and not in your hair,” Her mother laughed, “You better not steal your father's equipment young miss”

Her mother knew her too well, Sophia remembers those moments with fondness.

“So is this about his canceled project from years ago?” Geppetto has a good memory despite his age.

“Correct” Sophia stated, “He asked you for permission to use the factory to run a test and you said no”

Pinocchio wanted to ask why but remembered he should not speak much, besides he would find out soon enough.

“I couldn't close the entire factory because of that, even if it was for a day, considering how he told me he wasn't even sure if it would work, I, unfortunately, had to decline” Not to mention that by that time his relationship with Valentinus had become a bit strained considering what happened with Camille, “Is this about Anima then?”

“Also correct” Sophia was glad that Geppetto was following along nicely, “Now your help would be appreciated, my father said he wanted to use one of the furnaces from the factory to make Anima, why is that?”

Sophia's memory then becomes a little fuzzy after that since she was just a child, the next thing she remembers is getting into a dumb argument with Carlo because he thought crickets and grasshoppers were the same bug and Carlo was too stubborn to listen to her, although in his defense she shouldn't have basically shoved in his face the two bugs so that he could see the difference properly, that backfired because they ended up jumping in Carlo's hair and he panicked trying to take them out, Romeo was just watching finding it all so amusing.

“Anima can only be made in extremely high temperatures with concentrated amounts of Ergo” Geppetto knew that Valentinus was excited about the project, “I had to say no since it could accidentally cause an explosion”

“An explosion?” Gemini didn't like where this was going.

“We could make the anima in small amounts, concentrate the Ergo, purify it, and mold it, only at best a dozen at a time, I did consider building a puppet similar to Fueco for the job, as it needed some sort of core to absorb the power” Geppetto let out a sigh, “Valentinus said that small amounts wouldn't work for what he planned so he gave up on it, he did try to convince me more than once, actually last time he tried to convince me was when…”

Geppetto stayed quiet, the last time the day before Valentinus and Isabelle passed away, the day before Simon killed them.

“Geppetto I know this time you will finally agree!” Valentinus looked delighted, “I found a way for the Anima to absorb the heat without much hassle”

Geppetto wondered how he got into his office unannounced, past security when the reputation of the alchemist was going downhill due to the petrification disease, many hated Valentinus since he was their leader, the public enemy they could blame.

“Really what did you find?” Despite everything, Valentinus was his friend.

Someone he trusted and cared for, over time, Geppetto became less fond of the alchemists' activities but he knew Valentinus was a good man, he wasn't the only good alchemist, and there were many like him who wanted to help others, alchemists who Simon got rid of after killing Valentinus. Simon also was his friend once, yet unlike Valentinus, Simon never made the effort to try and fix things, obviously because Geppetto now knows the man was a psychopath with a lust for power.

“What exactly did you find?” Geppetto is a man of invention so couldn't deny how interesting it is to learn something new.

“When combined with disruption crystals, there is no longer instability, we will be able to fully control the outcome, I know, ironic considering name the name of the crystals and their original use” Valentinus sat down, his happy demeanor changing suddenly, he looked tired, “I was hoping this could work, it is the only cure I can think off for the petrification disease”

Valentinus looked defeated, back then he said something strange before leaving, it is clear now what happened and what he meant.

“I think I might die”

“I can understand perfectly well how stressful work is, even more with this health crisis” Geppetto was trying to reassure him.

“I'm worried about Isabelle, I am even more worried about Sophia” Valentinus looked frantic, like a tiger in a cage, “I made a mistake Geppetto, I was so stupid, I shouldn't have-”

“Valentinus calm down” Geppetto was getting more worried, “Whatever that illness is, you are a smart man, you can figure this out, I will make preparations you only need to tell me what I have to do”

“It's my fault the disease spread, I was so blind to everything” Valentinus kept speaking frantically, “I was so obvious as usual, no I was so stupid”

Geppetto opened his mouth again but Valentinus didn't let him speak.

“Geppetto you don't understand, Sophia…” Valentinus clenched his fists, “I can't let anyone hurt her, you are a father too, what would you do if you lost Carlo?”

“Please Valentinus don't say that!” He didn't even want to think about the possibility, “Look I get that this hard, a lot of people hate you, some would even go as far as to hurt your family”

Geppetto stood up and got closer to Valentinus, putting a hand on his shoulder, “I know this situation won't get better magically, what matters is to stay focused, if you are too concerned perhaps it would be a good idea to find shelter for Isabelle and Sophia”

Valentinus still looked uneasy, “That… could work”

“I believe in you, you are a good man Valentinus”

“Tomorrow there is an event in the charity house” Valentinus stood up preparing to leave, “My wife and Sophia have to be there, as soon as that's done, I'm taking them out of Krat”

“Father?” Pinocchio asked, his father had remained silent for too long.

Geppetto was snapped out of his trance, “I'm sorry I was remembering something” He then explained what he was told by Valentinus.

“Wait…” Geppetto was making the connection, “Disruption Crystals are on the decline for the past few months”

Geppetto had found that odd, there are supposed to be plenty in the many of mines and caves that Krat has, in the past it was even a nuisance because you could accidentally find some while constructing buildings, he doubts they suddenly went on the decline so fast.

“If I remember correctly” Sophia spoke up, “When the petrification disease was being spread, when Simon took over my father's position, he started lying about Ergo and where it was coming from”

Sophia heard a lot of things while trapped in that tower, her memories are mixed, specially because there are a lot of things she would rather not remember how… how her uncle Simon come to “talk” with her, the things he said to her, he was obsessed with her… she better stop thinking about that now, she is starting to shake by remembering it.

It's true, the alchemist gave them less Ergo to work with, with worse quality, “It seems like it's all happening again but what do they want this time?” Geppetto was at a loss.

“Um,” Pinocchio thinks he knows the answer, “Maybe the same thing? Or something similar?”

When Pinocchio was at Arche Abbey he found a lot of weird things relating to seeking immortal life, or bettering humanity, or crazy talk about human evolution.

“If anima makes your health better then maybe that's why they want it,” Pinocchio said.

“It makes perfect sense, although obviously they want it for nefarious reasons” Sophia smiled from where she was, “Thank you, clever one”

Pinocchio smiled, he felt so smart. He then realized that his father had not said a thing about his voice, which meant that he didn't have to worry anymore.

“Well, we have to worry not only about that but also about the King of Riddles” Gemini has this bad feeling that Arlecchino will be the one to strike first.

“Whatever threat might come first, I will always be by your side Pinocchio, no matter the distance” Sophia reassured him but then took a serious tone, “Although do be careful, I am not close, therefore I cannot bring you back if you were to…”

Pinocchio understood perfectly well, and Sophia can't go back to Krat, not after the fact they were already looking for her or any listener. She is safe far away and with this new method of communication, things can work so much better.

“Sophia if you ever need our help as well, we can figure something out” Geppetto wanted to let her know she can also count on them.

“Actually I need to take you up on the offer” Sophia began to ask questions about her body and how to repair herself if something bad were to happen, not to mention she felt she needed some maintenance.

“Do you have anything near you so you can write it down?” Geppetto was glad to help.

Pinocchio paid close attention, this was also important for him, he knows the basics but things like these are useful to know, even more with the previous situation. —

Venigni had arrived at the factory, a lot of things were on his mind yesterday, mainly about Pinocchio’s systems, who wouldn’t be curious about that? He only caught a surface glimpse of what Pinocchio is made of. And if could only make a similar body to Pulcinella at the very least add some great updates… no Venigni calm down, Pinocchio is special and one of a kind, he respects his autonomy and he respects Geppetto. Just let your work distract you from those ideas. Ugh, he hates his inventor mind sometimes, when you see advanced technology many times your first instinct is how can I do it and how can I make it better, Pinocchio is more than just a puppet, and even if he was a regular puppet he doesnt need the stress of people thinking about him that way; now he felt guilty of his thoughts.

Venigni opened the door to his office and sitting on his chair was Geppetto waiting for him, arms and legs crossed, glaring at him.

“You know don’t you?” Venigni was wondering how his funeral was going to be, “How?” He did everything perfectly, there is no way he should have found out.

“I’m his father I know these things” Geppetto was playing dumb since Sophia was saying important information, “And I made him, I know everything about him, even things he doesn’t realize”

“That’s quite impressive” That’s what Venigni wanted to say but it was best to keep quiet until Geppetto spoke to him.

“I had to interrogate Gemini since I knew Pinocchio would just lie to me” Geppetto found out all the details and Pinocchio just looked away in shame.

“Needless to say I am not allowing him to see those stalkers again” His son was upset but Pinocchio had been lying to him about where he was going each time he saw them and even if it was an accident, Geppetto just had too much of a grudge against them. They kidnapped him and even if it wasn’t them but rather the Black Rabbit Brotherhood who vandalized Hotel Krat, they still did nothing to stop them and aided the alchemists.

Venigni does understand because he doesn’t like them either, first, they left him to fend for himself at the factory while he cowered in fear in that room he could have died at any moment; second, when Hotel Krat was attacked he felt so powerless, the stalkers came so suddenly. Although it was impressive to see Polendina carry Antonia upstairs, he wasn’t aware of how strong he was but maybe Polendina was too worried about her safety and got a boost of strength at the moment. All of them had no choice but to barricade themselves, even when Geppetto right away told them to just take him and leave the rest alone, The Black Rabbit Brotherhood still wanted to terrorize them, because Pinocchio had killed their brother so they were out for blood as well, Venigni is sure that if they weren’t there to kidnap Geppetto they would have killed him as revenge.

Geppetto had a calm look on his face “Look, after thinking about this more, I’m not mad”

“…You aren’t?” Venigni didn’t believe him at all.

“I’m not” Geppetto got closer to him, “I can understand that you only wanted what was best for him at the moment, I also appreciate not wanting to worry me about his health”

Venigni let out a sigh of relief, “Thank you for understanding”

“Not to mention I asked you to take care of him when I’m gone, it’s only fair you know more about him in case something like this happens when I’m no longer around”

Geppetto has already been re-writing the notes he took while building his son so that they can be passed down to Venigni when he dies, also it’s good to have the actual notes in good writing and not in his emotional mess state.

Venigni was touched, he couldn’t believe that Geppetto trusted him with his son that much.

Geppetto was smiling as he grabbed Venigni’s shoulders, it was all great until Geppetto’s voice changed to a somber one, the murderous intent loud and clear, despite how quiet Geppetto’s voice was.

“But until then, never, ever do that again, you are going to forget what you saw, that never happened, don’t mention it, don’t even dare to think about it” Geppetto had a tighter grip, “Don't you ever do that again as long as I live”

“Okay,” Venigni’s voice sounded like a whisper, Geppetto's paranoia about anything happening to Pinocchio is strong today, probably his mind making a million scenarios of why everything could have gone wrong. Also, his inventor instinct to protect his secrets, Pinocchio truly is the greatest puppet to ever be created, even before he started becoming partially human the boy was beyond impressive, beyond what everyone had done before.

“Great!” Geppetto was back to normal, “Now, Conrad didn’t come to work today so it’s going to be a good day”

Geppetto was in high spirits and Venigni felt as if he had gotten out of a roller coaster, It was not the first time Venigni had seen Geppetto switch emotions so quickly and he had never gotten used to it, now he was talking about work, and what they got to test yesterday, how it was a shame that he wasn’t there to see the success and the results.

Venigni took a deep breath, “Geppetto”

“Huh, yes?” Geppetto was too consumed talking about the project.

“You have issues you know that?”

“I know” Geppetto made his way towards the door, “Don’t worry I’m working on that”

[house-of-galathynius]

The Long Road Home

Chapter Ten 

Chapter Nine - Chapter Eleven

Word Count: 3.5k

~

Cornwall, Late July 1779

Aelin had spent almost every day walking up to Elena’s cottage. It became her saving grace. Elena was full of wisdom, full of pieces of advice that had saved Aelin from the torment of the unknown— the unknown fate of Rowan, the life her child may have— all of it would have eaten her up whole had it not been for the old woman.

Even when it had been pouring with rain or boiling hot sun, Aelin had made the journey up to her. The more pregnant she became the harder it was, but she refused to sit in that giant house alone, waiting for news of Rowan, or the whereabouts of Arobynn. So she busied herself with Elena.

But now she was almost bursting, her stomach so big she could barely see over it. The midwives had put her on bedrest only a week ago and she was going crazy with the waiting. No book seemed to bring her comfort, nor did the sewing or the company of anyone. The maids had tried to entertain her with games and mindless chatter, but nothing was a good enough distraction.

In the early months of her pregnancy— even up to a week ago— she had been able to pretend that nothing was going to change in her life. That she was going to be stuck here, exactly as she was, and the only thing she would ever have to worry about was living with Arobynn and his cruelty. But now that she was about to give birth, her fears that had been submerged were now coming to the surface and she was having to grapple with the truth that everything was about to change. That ignoring who the father of her child could be was no longer an option. That in the next week the fate of Rowan will be set in stone. And in turn, her own.

It was late evening when she heard the carriage and the horses. She was holding her breath, hoping it was just another random visitor. But then the heavy front door opened and Arobynn’s voice echoed into the hallway. Aelin felt her stomach drop as his footsteps came closer and closer to her door until they were outside. She heard the maid tell Arobynn that she was resting, but Arobynn seemed to scoff and open the door anyway.

“There’s my wife.” He said drunkenly. He sauntered over to Aelin and she wrapped her shawl tighter across her shoulders and stood from the chair, maintaining distance between her and her husband. “You don’t want to greet me with a kiss after all this time?” He laughed, “of course you don’t. Still completely obsessed with that piece of shit.”

“Arobynn…” she murmured, putting her hand out to stop him coming closer.

He looked her up and down. “I thought there would be a child by now.”

Aelin shook her head. “They think it could be any day.” Arobynn had stopped coming towards her and instead was glancing around the room, at the discarded books and activities.

“Yes well, it better hurry up. There’s only so much longer I am willing to let that adulterer live.” He spat on the floor. But Aelin barely noticed as she played back the words.

Rowan was still alive.

“Don’t look so happy about it. His days are very numbered, darling. But I wanted to make him die knowing you had potentially carried his child. Makes dying all the more hard.”

She could have lunged for him. Aelin imagined sticking a knife in his heart and making Arobynn die the horrible death. But even when she closed her eyes and envisioned it, when she opened them again, he was still there.

“Are you mute?” He drawled.

“No, Arobynn.”

“You are so quiet. You had a lot to say when I caught you all those months ago… begging for his life.” He chuckled darkly, “no matter, a silent wife is preferable these days.”

Aelin never took her eyes off him, not as he circled around the room before stopping in front of her again.

“If there is nothing you want, then I should return to resting.” She said harshly.

He ignored her and settled on an armchair, crossing a leg over the other. He ran a hand through his long hair and then leaned back. “You know, your father never warned me you would be so hard to control. When I offered my proposal of marriage I had assumed you would be a docile, quiet wife,” he grinned, “clearly I misjudged you. Had I known what I do now… well let’s just say you would never have had the freedom I gave you.”

“I never had any freedom. You locked me away in that house, only letting me out when it suited you.” She spat.

Arobynn’s brows rose and he clasped his hands together over his knee. “Did I not allow Phillipa to take you to the market? And when I was gone…” He trailed off. He thought for a long moment then clapped his hands together in surprise. “Of course. Your market trips were not really that. I guess I should have known— Tern was always so unsure why you had such a change in temperament.” He laughed darkly,  “well, that does make it easier to kill him.”

Aelin could do nothing, say nothing. She and Rowan knew the price of their love— that if they were ever discovered it would be the end. And the truth hurt. It pained her to know that he would die because of her. She would take his place in a heartbeat if it meant he would be saved.

“You should kill me too.” She replied eventually.

Arobynn didn’t seem surprised at her suggestion. “And waste such beauty and youth? No,” he stood then, moving towards her once again and taking her chin in his hand, “now I know you are able to carry children, I shall have great use for you. After all, a man should never have just one heir.” He jerked her face away, “besides, this one might not even be mine. I can’t very well have a child of another man as the heir to my empire.”

Aelin opened her mouth to say something then closed it. Arobynn just grinned at her and picked some lint from the arm of the chair.

“Death would be too easy for you. Not only would it be a waste, but making you suffer seems far more painful than dying could ever be. Knowing that your precious Rowan will have died in a horrible manner, knowing that he paid for both of your sins,” he laughed smugly, “yes, having you alive will be a far more satisfying punishment.”

Aelin could not speak. He knew exactly what his words were doing to her.

“The future is bright for me, Aelin. Knowing that you will have no choice but to bend to my every command.”

Aelin scoffed, “so you’re going to keep me hidden away here and make me have more children?”

“Partly, yes. You are no use to me in any other way.” He stroked her cheek, his fingers brushing her skin so gently that it raised the hairs on her skin. But he continued, “why would I want to show off a wife who cannot be loyal to her husband? Why would I risk taking you back to London where you could try and find another man to be unfaithful with.”

She didn’t need to tell Arobynn that there would only be one man she could ever want to be with. Her heart and soul belonged to Rowan and always would.

She stepped away from him, the smell of his cologne mixed with the alcohol making her want to be sick. Her stomach twinged as she moved and her hands moved to cradle it, her face scrunching in pain. It lasted mere seconds, but she could still feel remnants of it, forcing her to sit down on the chair and take a breath.

“Should I get someone, darling?” Arobynn asked.

“Don’t pretend like you care.” She spat.

“I am not pretending. It is in my interest to ensure you remain safe.” His tone had shifted to that of slight concern, but Aelin could not believe it. “Darling, I will fetch the midwives.”

She was left alone in the room. The pain was gone but she knew what it might mean. That soon enough she would find out who’s child she had been carrying— and in turn decide the fate of Rowan’s death. She sucked in a breath, trying to hold back the sob.

Another sharp pain came, quick and strong as it set her body on fire and she groaned, her head falling back as she tried to breath through it. Just like the first it was over quickly, but she was beginning to panic. The midwives were in her room moments later and ushering her to the bed, getting her comfortable as they felt her stomach and got various instruments ready. The male midwife, Arthur Huntley was well sought after amongst the elite of London and Aelin was thankful when he arrived a few hours later, when her bouts of pain were getting closer together and the urge to push was beginning to become too much.

“Open the windows and curtains. We need more fresh air in here.” He exclaimed, before coming over to Aelin. “I will examine you now and ensure everything looks okay.”

She could only nod in response and let him inspect her. She couldn’t hear the words they spoke over the roaring in her head. She gripped the sheets tightly and cried out.

“Okay, Aelin. We are very near to delivery. We are going to move you to a new position and I shall give you instructions.” Arthur spoke slowly and carefully whilst the other midwives moved Aelin.

“Alright, when I ask you to push…”

~

Despite the ache deep within her and the utter exhaustion, Aelin felt better than she had in months. She’d delivered a healthy baby boy, his cries piercing the room, in turn causing Aelin to also let the floods of tears out too.

The midwives had taken her baby to be cleaned up and had returned him to her swaddled in a blue blanket and carefully placed him in her arms.

In all her life, Aelin had never felt the way she did when she got to look at him for the first time. She was bursting with love and adoration, barely able to contain her smile as she cuddled him and kissed his forehead, whispering sweet words. And when he had opened his eyes…

Those eyes.

The mirror to Rowan’s. Aelin could barely contain her tears as she held the little bundle tighter in her arms, thankful to all the gods for giving her a piece of Rowan, something to hold onto, to tuck into her heart and never let go.

She spent hours holding him, not letting anyone else in the room— telling Arobynn that she needed some time. But there was only so much longer she could hold off from showing him the truth. So when the door opened and he strode in, eyes dark, she knew.

He slammed the door behind him, Aelin flinching and covering her baby, shielding him from the evil that had entered.

“You do not need to hide him. The midwives have already informed me.” Arobynn rounded the bed and looked down on Aelin and the baby. “So it seems we have a bastard.”

“Don’t.”

Arobynn rolled his eyes. “You know very well that I cannot allow him to be seen in public. I can’t have people asking questions and wondering why my… child, does not look like me. It will not do.”

Aelin shook with fear. He could not be suggesting what she thought he was.

“He’ll be perfectly safe wherever I send him. I’m not in the business of killing children.”

“You cannot take him from me.” She cried. Sitting up in bed, putting as much distance between her and Arobynn as possible. “He is my son.”

“And he is a bastard!” Arobynn shouted. “I will not have that thing living in my home, pretending to be my own child. He is a disgrace and will never be welcome here.”

She was trembling now, her tears falling faster. “Please.” She begged.

“Give him to me.” He demanded.

She shook her head.

“I will not ask you again. Give the child to me, otherwise I will have to use unnecessary force.” He came toward her, his arms stretching out as he reached for her son. “You will have other children, Aelin. Don’t be so pathetic.” She could barely move, her body weak from labour. Arobynn snatching him from her arms and not looking back once as he took her son away, closing the door firmly behind. His cries getting quieter the further away he went.

Aelin knew she was still there, was still breathing. But she couldn’t feel anything; her body was numb, her heart bleeding as she stared at the door— hoping— that maybe Arobynn would change his mind and return her son. But he didn’t. She had no voice to scream for him, no light inside her to fight— not when it would be a losing battle.

But she ached for him. For the small bundle of joy to be in her arms. She needed to see the green of his eyes, to know that none of it had been a dream. To know that Rowan had really loved her too, and despite the hideous circumstances, they had created something so beautiful and joyous. Though the pain was overwhelming, she closed her eyes and imagined something different. A scenario where Rowan had been by her side the entire time, holding her hand and leaving gentle kisses on her head. Where he would have cried with her at the miracle of their son, the miracle of their love persevering above all else. And then he would have sat with her and stroked her hair as they watched their son sleep soundly in her arms.

By the time she woke the next morning all trace of the events of yesterday had been wiped away. The bassinet was gone from beside her, the blankets and the toys had been removed and she was left with emptiness as she felt his absence all around. Aelin managed to stand from her bed, rubbing her puffy eyes before going to the window. The sun was still shining, its rays spreading warmth over her. But she still felt cold inside.

The house was silent as she dressed and slowly made her way out, finding her usual trail and walking up it, even though the physical pain was almost too much to bear. She didn’t even appreciate the beautiful summer day, not the wind whispering across the trees, or the birds soaring above. Her only goal was to get to Elena’s.

The old woman was waiting for her when she arrived and Aelin did not wait to fall into her arms and cry.

And cry and cry.

All the while Elena stroked her hair and comforted her the way a mother would a daughter. Aelin’s own family unaware of the pregnancy, unaware that her first child was taken from her and would likely never see him again.

“I didn’t even get to name him.” Aelin whispered hours later; the first words she had uttered in a day.

“We can name him now. His spirit will live on in your heart even if he is not here with you.” Elena’s words soft and kind as she helped Aelin to stand and move to the table. “Sit, you need to eat something.”

Aelin watched as Elena poured tea into a cup and then ripped pieces of bread up adding some cheese and apple to the plate before returning to Aelin and placing it down in front of her. Aelin could barely think about eating, but Elena was insistent— and she had just given birth— her body would need to get strong again, to recover. So she took small bites of the bread and cheese, swallowing the food and then repeating until her plate was empty and Elena was smiling.

“Good. Now drink some tea.”

She did as she was told and sipped the tea. Her body feeling stronger already, her mind clearing a little. But the pain was still there inside her; a dull throbbing that was felt in every fibre of her being. Elena was watching her intently and Aelin could feel the tears threatening to spill again.

“He’s taken my baby and he’ll kill Rowan,” she whispered, “everything good in this world he wants to destroy. I don’t— I do not know how to live without them.”

“You do. You have a strong heart and a good soul, Aelin. And I know that your story with Rowan is not over— not yet.”

“You keep saying that! But he is sentenced to death, Elena— Arobynn will make sure that he suffers for this. I am just a girl, I can’t save him from that fate.” Her anger dissipating with every word, Aelin too exhausted to fight.

“I told you the first time we met that your love will survive the harshest storms. I did not lie.”

Aelin wiped the tears from her face. “I fear this storm is one too big to weather.”

Elena rested her hand on Aelin’s. “You have to believe, Aelin. The moment you stop trusting in your heart, that is when the darkness will overcome.”

Aelin had never understood her cryptic words. But she had always believed them. So even though when she arrived home and Arobynn was waiting for her, smiling with glee as he announced that Rowan was dead— she did not let that tiny bit of light go out inside of her. She did not fall to her knees in agony; even though she desperately wanted to. Aelin did not scream or shout, she did not fight when Arobynn took her to his room and used her— even though it was too soon and she was hurting so deeply.

When the storm raged in the night, she watched. She thought of Elena’s words, of how her love with Rowan would survive even the harshest of storms. That even though he was gone, she would have their memories and time they shared together.

So she watched the lightening strike across the sky and then listened to the low rumble of thunder as it echoed around the hills and fields around her. The rain fell in sync with her own tears and when she woke in the morning— the air clear and fresh— the warmth engulfing her once again, she promised herself she would ensure everyday she was making Rowan and Elias proud wherever they may be.

~

It was another few days until she was able to leave the house. But when she did it felt different. The wind was whipping violently around her even though the sky was clear and the sun warm. Aelin had wanted to sit by the cliffs, but there was that warm hand that had been pushing her towards Elena’s. So she let it guide her.

She stopped short when she saw the cottage. Despite the wind, everything around it was still. There was utter silence as Aelin walked closer to the door and peeked inside the now-empty house. Where the large fire place had been was now just rubble, the chimney collapsing down onto it. The bed was nothing more than rotting wood and the table mere firewood now. She carefully stepped inside, accidentally kicking a piece of stone and sending a mouse scuttling across the floor. There was absolutely nothing left— the cottage in a state of disrepair, like no one had been living here for years.

Confused and feeling slightly scared, she rushed back to her own house. She rushed down the hills and when she arrived back she was panting and sweaty. She was met by a servant who held out a letter for her.

“It arrived ten minutes ago.”

Aelin didn’t understand what she was reading. The handwriting had been unfamiliar but she had taken one look at the words and known who it was from.

Dearest Aelin,

Do not return to the cottage again for I will no longer be there. It was my time to go. You must be wondering why I have left so suddenly, and I do not have an explanation for you just yet. But even in my absence I will be looking out for you, as I always have done.

I have no more advice to give you. But you have all the tools and the wisdom you will ever need to succeed in your life. And that is my gift to you— life.

Never stop searching for the love you had with Rowan. It is a rare and beautiful thing to be able to bear yourself to someone and for them to accept every part of you. Even when you feel like giving up, remember my words and feel comfort in them.

It is goodbye for now, but not forever.

Elena

~

Tag List: 

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[sillygate]

often, i yearn for a feeling i had lost long ago. it’s a feeling hard to put into words; i believe it’s the only thing we share, at our core. this naivety, this innocence, this wide-eyed openness and captivity with how grand everything was.

there is something so raw, so pure, so untouched within the unbiased and untainted perspective of a child.

even pain was not so bad. i had felt sad, i had felt angry, i had felt hurt… but i hadn’t felt unsafe. i hadn’t felt that deep, lonely, rotten discomfort that settles in your stomach sometimes.

i know my insights fit too large for my age; i haven’t existed eyes open on this earth for two decades and here i am, preaching of childhood as if it wasn’t in my clutches only yesterday.

but you’ll hear old people describe aging sort of the way i remember riptides. you think you have hold of your own weight, that you harness control, that you’re aware of the world around you.

and then the ground beneath you shifts, pulls you down with it.

your head thumps against the sand and the waves wash over your face and when you open your eyes again there are cities around you where there weren’t cities before and your body aches a lot more.

once, i heard an old person say they felt the same as they did when they were seventeen. we’re not so different, in that sense. the world froze at 11:59 pm on a january 12th a long time ago and it has not unfrozen since.

i have been dreaming for a long time. as an adult, you fall into something that you do not wake up from. there is a certain point where you learn to let go of it all, i think.

i have not learned how to yet.

i think the world stops you on the brink of adulthood every time. and i think as people we are convinced that there is some conclusion, some point in our life where things will cataclysmically shift, but the life you live within is constructed of how you spend each hour.

when you lay stagnant, it’s really not a life at all, is it? when you are still for a lifetime, you are not a human. you are a corpse.

sometimes, i’m convinced that adulthood is a mirage. my body is still laying in a bedridden memory in 2020. when you grow up you die and you become a ghost and you go around like that, like your entire existence isn’t ridden with decay.

when i open my eyes in heaven i will be seventeen years old, and i will tell god of the life i lived, and he will laugh and tell me that it sounds like i had a nice dream.

i will not recognize my grandparents without the wrinkles on their faces. they look more alive here than they ever had on earth.

it’s a shame that we live this way. it seems life has been so convoluted that we’ve turned to religion and spirituality in hopes that death will be the turn around.

i don’t remember thinking about god much until i learned to fear death. and after i had, i went through phases of frantically praying every night, hoping that i was following the rules right. sometimes i’d be afraid that somewhere along the way something had been dropped, missed, mistranslated — that no matter how well i followed those rules, i would still slip through the cracks.

of course, these spells never went away. once you learn to fear death so intrinsically, so innately… it’s intertwined deeply with every aspect of the world.

death is the only truly universal experience. being afraid of it makes you afraid of the world.

and i think now that the senseless ease of youth that seems so far from my grasp must simply be what it is to not be so afraid all of the time.

[insideyourminddddddd]

inside your mind | xavier thorpe x wednesday addams

authors note: i have this fic posted on ao3 if you don't wanna jump around to different hyperlinks (here). thank you guys for all the support on this!! it truly means so much, really proud of this chapter and excited for all to come (it's a long one hehe)

pairings: xavier thorpe x wednesday addams

about: “the back of your head is at the front of my mind, soon i’ll crack it open and see what’s inside.” xavier thorpe returns to nevermore after the events of last semester with an obsession that runs deeper than ever. he’s going to do anything for her.

warnings: jealous!xavier, eventually more (#smut), SLOWBURNNNNNNNNN af

part 0 , part 1 , part 2, part 3

4.

Ajax was folding laundry when Xavier knocked on his door. He had planned a date with Enid that night and was trying to find the right shirt for it. They never did much - watched a movie, explored the grounds of Nevermore while sneaking kisses, stole desserts from the dining hall to eat while laying in the grass and counting stars. They didn’t need to do anything extravagant; he just liked being around her.

He was imagining Enid’s obsession with raspberry tarts, which he didn’t even need to eat himself to taste, when he realized he’d neglected to open the door immediately and Xavier swung it open instead.

“What the fuck, Xavier?” Ajax laughed as he said it. He swallowed that laugh when he saw the expression on Xavier’s face.

“I need sleeping pills.”

“What?” Ajax had informed Xavier of his prescribed sleeping pills last year, which were compliments of a bout of severe anxiety that had caused him to experience insomnia. At the time, Ajax had been suffering a string of nightmares centered around a loss of control of his powers that resulted in him stoning those around him. Although it wasn’t directly stated, it was an implied necessity at Nevermore to be able to harness your abilities and not negatively affect peers in order to avoid expulsion. Unlike many of his other classmates, Ajax’s home life was less than favorable and attending Nevermore was the most favorable opportunity he’d yet to experience. The thought of slipping up, of doing anything that would compromise his admission, was consuming. Unfortunately, the sleeping pills had actually made his nightmares more vivid and consequently worse. He stopped taking them, and when he got closer with Enid, they stopped anyway.

“Please, Ajax.” Xavier’s tone carried a whine that Ajax hadn’t heard him express before.

“Why?” Ajax, who had previously been looking over his shoulder, turned to face Xavier entirely. “Shut the door.”

Xavier obeyed and closed it before swiftly locking it. Ajax noticed how significantly his hands were trembling. “I don’t want to talk about this. Just give me the pills, I’ll give you whatever you want. You don’t even take them.”

“No,” Ajax stood his ground. “Not unless you tell me why you need them.”

Xavier’s whining persisted. “Don’t fucking do this to me, AJ.”

“An endearing nickname, how becoming of you.”

“Fine.”

Ajax nodded, encouraging Xavier to elaborate. Although stubborn, Xavier rarely kept his walls up for long. Ajax had learned this in the time they’d been friends, and suspected that this stemmed from his sensitivity.

“I have this new roommate, Miles,” Xavier started reluctantly.

“Yeah, I heard. Some legacy kid.”

“I can’t stand him. He’s got this arrogant nature that rubs me the wrong way and today… well, today-” Xavier trailed off, his cheeks flushing at how embarrassing his feelings were to describe. In the case of Ajax, he found emotional expression particularly difficult because Ajax was dating Wednesday’s roommate. It wasn’t that Xavier didn’t trust Ajax. He just didn’t want Ajax to be put in a position of playing the middleman, or for Enid to consult Ajax about Xavier’s opinions and Ajax to feel morally obligated to be honest with her. Part of these insecurities stemmed from Xavier’s perception of the severity of Ajax’s feelings for Enid. If Xavier was with Wednesday, he would tell her anything and everything. There wouldn’t be a sentence in the book of his life that she wouldn’t be allowed to read and remaster. In his mind, he was a rough draft waiting for her reprisal and approval, worthless for now but holding the potential to be made a bestseller by her hands.

“Go on.”

“He knows Wednesday, in this personal way, I guess. I have this drawing of her from last semester, and I put it on my wall and he saw it and he ridiculed me for it and… he… I don’t know. I can’t stand him. I can’t fucking stand him.”

Ajax’s eyes grew wide at the aggression he could sense steaming off of Xavier. Enid had texted Ajax earlier describing a dark-haired guy who’d knocked on their door looking for Wednesday. Wednesday hadn’t been home at the time, but Enid described the boy as both persistent and classically attractive. Like James Dean, but darker. Knowing the way that Wednesday served as the gravitational pull of Xavier’s atmosphere, Ajax could only imagine how much this was eating Xavier alive. Still, he couldn’t connect the dots. “What do you need sleeping pills for?”

Xavier’s already flushed cheeks grew redder. “Do you have to make me explain everything?”

“Xavier, I’m not just going to give you a bottle of fucking pills. Tell me what the hell they’re for!”

Xavier raised his eyebrow. In the majority of him and Ajax’s close companionship, he had rarely observed Ajax express any emotion aside from joy. He was abundantly positive, funny and excitable. Even in an anxious state, Ajax neglected to get to a point of anger. Yet here he was. “What do you think I’m trying to do? I want to sleep.”

“It’s 4 pm.”

Xavier scoffed. “Is it funny, how I feel? I’m not going to bed right now, you dick. I’m taking my shit to my art shed and moving in. I can’t be around that guy.”

“Isn’t that extreme?”

“Are you giving them to me or not?”

Ajax met Xavier’s eyes and held his stare. In the blissful stage of his budding relationship with Enid, he often forgot about Xavier’s struggles with Wednesday. He knew he should feel guilty for it, and he did. But Xavier didn’t reach out. It seemed to be a conversation neither of them wanted to have, so Ajax made peace with it. However, he still cared for Xavier deeply. He missed the fun they used to have together, pulling pranks at every Nightshade social and making fun of Bianca’s controlling nature. Life was quickly changing, but Ajax thought about the past often. It wasn’t his fault that this semester had been great for him, but it also wasn’t Xavier’s fault in the inverse. If giving the sleeping pills to Xavier would improve his quality of life and allow him to get seemingly much needed rest, Ajax would do it. “Fine. But I’m only giving you two to start.”

“Thank you.” Xavier sounded sincere.

“And don’t pay me. I already sell weed. I don’t need to become a bonafide drug dealer.” Ajax walked over to his nightstand, removing the largely full pill bottle from his bedside table.

“But you’re so good at it!” Xavier smirked in a way that gave Ajax the impression that he was getting a glimpse into the old him.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Ajax chuckled in response and handed Xavier the two pills he’d promised.

“I’ll seriously repay you in some way,” Xavier put the pills into the pocket of his dark sweatpants, looking relieved already. “You don’t know how bad I feel, man.”

Ajax nodded somberly in response. “You know, if you actually want to talk about it sometimes, I’m here for you.”

Xavier shrugged, as if they both knew that wasn’t entirely true. “What do you do with the weed money I give you anyway?”

Bum his way into town to buy random things for Enid. Send it to his mom so that she doesn’t write again begging for it. “Save it up so that I can start a cartel with a target audience of starved and emotionally collapsed artists.”

“Fuck off,” Xavier laughed again, for real this time. “I’ll be in the shed.”

He left Ajax’s room just as quickly as he’d entered, leaving Ajax to his clean laundry and Enid-centered daydreams. Meanwhile, Xavier imagined a certain girl of his own.

—

Wednesday was eating a sandwich in the Quad when Bianca approached her. Lately, Wednesday had been spending some more time outside than usual. Typically, she wouldn’t run the risk of sun exposure impacting her notoriously pale complexion, but being outside granted her time to think.

“Wednesday.” Bianca’s voice was characteristically aggressive.

Looking up at her blankly, Wednesday nodded to acknowledge the conversation. “Yes?”

“What did you do to Xavier?”

Wednesday struggled to keep her eyes from widening. What happened to Xavier? Was he okay? “What do you speak of?” She maintained a monotone, composed edge to her voice, trying not to show any degree of affection.

Bianca rolled her eyes. “Don’t play dumb. You know something’s wrong with him, and I know it’s your fault. Didn’t Miles talk to you?”

Miles. The name initiated fuzzy memories of a boy around her age, the son of a couple Wednesday’s parents were close with. In childhood, Wednesday often ignored anyone affiliated with Nevermore. She had no desire to follow in her mother’s footsteps and rejected any semblance of her likeness. Yet, all those efforts had still come to this. It was like destiny. Now that Wednesday thought about it, she recalled Morticia mentioning Miles Atwater’s enrollment at Nevermore in their latest brief call. This wasn’t information that she found necessary to internalize, considering she hadn’t seen him in years. “No.”

“Miles Atwater? Xavier’s new roommate? He’s been telling people he knows you.”

This was quizzical to Wednesday. In the little that she remembered about Miles, she knew that him and Xavier couldn’t be less alike. “I know of him, but we have yet to speak in any recent years.” Wednesday’s eyes flickered to meet Bianca’s, which she always found to be an intense experience. Although Wednesday could be associated as a holder of aggressive energy, she found this sentiment to be highly amplified in Bianca’s case. Bianca’s blue eyes were eternally fierce and a deep swimming pool of fury. If she could, Wednesday bet Bianca would drown her in them.

“God. God. Could you be any more robotic?”

“Possibly. I’ll have to look into it.”

“You’re a bitch.”

Wednesday nodded, processing the term. Bianca had both done and said volatile things to her in the past, but that was a new one. “I have not done anything to Xavier, and I have not spoken to Miles. The conversation is over, Bianca..” Was that first half entirely true? Wednesday pondered the idea. If this subject in her mind was a sink, the rational side of her brain always kept the tap off. If she let her emotions win, the sink would overflow, and she would be presented with these notions of lust and simultaneous guilt that she felt unable to process. She knew Xavier had to be hurting, but couldn’t fathom the degree of pain that Bianca seemed to imply. Couldn’t he just turn it off, like she did? Didn’t he realize that with trust came destruction? Instinctively, she brought her arm up to cradle her shoulder, right where that damned scar was. Strangely, a stinging emotion came over her as she did this, imagining a hand much larger than hers placed upon it. This was a feeling she rarely felt, an emotion she was almost never inclined toward - the urge to cry.

Bianca sensed that Wednesday was closed off, shaking her head. “Just a bitch,” she repeated cruelly before walking away, leaving Wednesday to her half-eaten sandwich.

—

Xavier found himself in a dark space, noting the familiar aroma of distilled vanilla and earthiness that was associated with the indescribable scent of old, rotting books. He had the familiar feeling that he was dreaming, which was notably distinct from one of his visions. As he settled into the dreamstate more knowingly, he realized he was in the meeting room for the Nightshade Society. He had been in this room more times than he could count, yet it felt different. He couldn’t place his fingers on why that was - until he heard a whimper to the left of him.

Turning swiftly, his eyes locked with the wide brown eyes he could draw from memory by now. He felt his heart drop - it’d been so long since he’d gotten to do this. As he stepped back to look at the whole of her, he noticed the gag in her mouth and ropes securing her small wrists behind her back. Wednesday looked exactly how she had when she’d been caught by the Nightshades before and ‘kidnapped’. Xavier loathed the memory of it. When Bianca’s idiot friend Kent had put that bag over Wednesday’s face, Xavier wanted to strangle him. He couldn’t stand the sight of her that day, and remembered feeling both proud and impressed when she had untied herself and ridiculed the society. That’s my girl, he wanted to say.

Something was different this time. Wednesday was struggling against her constraints and actualized fear was clear on her face. Among an overwhelming feeling of confusion, Xavier ran to her. “Who did this? Who did this?” He reached over to pull the gag from her mouth, wincing when Wednesday began to jerk away from him after he’d done so.

“You did this!” She screamed, trying to be as far from him as possible.

Xavier’s face twisted. “No, I didn’t. I would never do this to you. Wednesday, I would never do this to you. I would never fucking do this to you.”

“Don’t touch me!” The expression exuding from her eyes is one that Xavier isn’t even sure how he could’ve conjured, and one that he wouldn’t forget. The look of fear, of anxiety - at the sight of him - was the worst thing he had ever seen.

“This is a dream. This is a dream. This is a dream. This is a dream,” Xavier began to pace, feeling his heart reach an impossibly fast rate.

Wednesday continued to scream among incoherent phrases. One, however, was discernible. The words made Xavier stop walking, straightening his spine to look at her as though she had shot him in the heart. She was screaming Tyler’s name. For help.Xavier couldn’t look at her, at the way her skirt was riding up as she kicked her legs back and forth. This wasn’t real. None of this was real. But why, even in his dreams, did his insecurities have to warp into the object of his greatest desire? He sank to the floor, rocking from side to side as he brought his hands to his eyes. He squeezed them as hard as he could until Wednesday’s screams were muffled, using such force that he felt like he could split his head in two. He relished in this thought, at the notion of every last Wednesday-defined string of thoughts in his brain decorating the cold tile. This is what he focused on, a way out of the agony, until his vision faded to black.

[hiccupmistress]

Star Trek Prodigy season 1 thoughts

Prodigy has become my favorite Star Trek show. No, not just my favorite “new” Star Trek, my favorite Star Trek overall. It captures the wonders of exploration in a way no other Trek show (or movie) has quite managed. 

In TOS, TNG etc. the crew are all professionals. Yes, they’re discovering new life and new civilisations, but its also their day job. Encountering a never-before-seen culture was just another day for them. 

[side note, but “Beyond” kind of touched upon this a bit, with Kirk giving a log entry at the start about how his five year mission had started to feel “episodic” (har har!)]. 

But with Prodigy, this is a purer form of exploration: These aren’t professionals who trained to fly through space and follow Starfleet Directives. These are people who thought they’d never be able to do ANYTHING with their lives, people who had never heard of the Federation, suddenly getting the opportunity to learn of those values and see the universe for themselves. “Enterprise” is the only other Trek show that’s really come close to this, they were the pioneers, before the Prime Directive or anything like that was established, but there’s something so pure, bright and wonderful about the way Prodigy does it. 

I’ve loved Star Trek for many years now, and just about every incarnation does something I like. Lower Decks is a fun romp with in-jokes and a whole lot of love put into it. Picard, whilst a little shaky at times, has some truly heartfelt moments, Strange New Worlds translates the classic TOS/TNG format into a modern taste, Discovery is a beautiful show of diversity and humanity, Enterprise took a lot of risks in some of its concepts, even if the execution wasn’t always quite there. Voyager, whilst my least-favorite, still has some episodes that absolutely changed my life. DS9 is epic and incorporated so much of the established lore for its serialised arcs, TNG is credited with pioneering many things, including but not limited to season-ending cliffhangers, something that’s now standard for most TV! TAS boldly tried to do things that would have been impossible in live-action and TOS of course started it all. But Prodigy? Prodigy is the most I’ve ever enjoyed Star Trek. 

Its made me appreciate Janeway more than Voyager ever managed, its made me laugh, its made me cry, its had me on the edge of my seat. Star Trek Prodigy has absolutely taken the spot as my favorite Star Trek.

[ronearoundblindly]

The Stark Legacy (5)

Memory, part of Book 1: Reality (see previous or series)

Summary: Bucky, Big Sam, and Steve catch up. Tony makes a decision about his daughter. Lil'Sam makes the most of her father's gift.

Warnings: maybe gossip? This series is still Rated Teen/Mature, so 15+ only, please. Remember a rule of this universe is super soldiers do not age!

CHAPTER FIVE—April 2036

“Hey, punk,” Bucky called to Steve, “what are you doing? You're killing me!”

Rogers came running across their makeshift field, casually. “Jerk, whaddya want from me? I’m out of practice. Didn’t I tell you I retired?”

“That was fifteen years ago. Sure your memory’s not going?” Bucky recovered the football from the tree line behind him.

“Really, twinkle toes?” Sam Wilson called over, panting. “Only three hours worth of running circles around me, and you two are tired? I win then. Think Sharon’s got some lemonade?” Falcon jogged weakly to the house.

“He’s right,” Steve said, catching up to Bucky. “He’s getting too old for this. We should go easier on him.”

They smiled at each other. “Never,” Bucky replied, “but a drink sounds pretty good.”

Steve and Sharon had furnished the house simply, in a sort of French farmhouse style, with wooden features wherever possible, mismatching dishes and utensils gathered over the years. Wilson was already refilling his marbled-blue glass when the others sat down.

“One damn grey hair,” he mumbled, pointing back and forth between Steve and Bucky, “is that too much to ask for? I can hardly watch you two without feeling my knee ache.”

“Did you need an aspirin,” Sharon offered with a laugh, setting down more glasses. She turned to Steve. “I’ve got a few more errands before dinner. Need anything?”

“No, doll,” Rogers replied, planting a kiss on her cheek. Bucky noticed a few more freckles on her face than the last time he visited. Every day almost everyone he knew changed just a little, but not Bucky, not Steve. Sharon grew older every year; Steve, ever the loyal gentleman, grew more in love with her every year. The only changing thing about Bucky was his opinion on whether he wanted the same thing or whether it was a waste of time and effort.

“Have fun, boys. Don’t kill Sam,” Sharon called from the door, accompanied by the jingle of keys and a shutting door.

“Don’t you have enough salt for the three of us?” Bucky scratched at his temple hairline strategically.

“Hardy-har-har, Bucko,” Sam mumbled.

“Don’t do that.”

“So,” Steve interrupted, “what’s the news at headquarters?”

Sam cocked an eyebrow. “Aren’t you CC’d on all that stuff?”

Bucky eyed Steve who shrugged uncomfortably. The former leader of the Avengers sipped lemonade at a simple wooden table, surrounded by knick-knacks, wearing plain clothes, and sweating for a fun workout with friends. “You miss it,” Bucky accused.

“Not,” Steve started, fumbling a bit, “all the time.”

“That civilian life not sittin’ so well these days,” Sam chided.

“Sometimes I just miss the…amount going on.”

Bucky chuckled. “Great. You can have it back now.”

“No, Buck, that’s not what I mean.” The bulky man crossed his arms in front of him. “It’s fine. I…ya know what would help? It’d be nice to see you two settled a bit.”

Sam grunted. “I’m a wild stallion. Why you wanna put me in the stables?”

“No chance that lovely Stacy—“

“Nope.”

“I thought you two went to dinner—“

“Nope.”

“Danielle?” Bucky asked.

“Don’t you get started with me.” Sam glared at Bucky. “I’m not the oddly celibate fool.”

“You are not celibate, very true.”

“Buck,” Steve started.

“Steve?” He turned back to Sam. “I wasn’t judging, only recounting the slew of names we’ve heard over the years.”

“It’s not a slew,” Sam burst. “It’s a quarter of a lifetime for me!”

“And you can do whatever you want with it,” Bucky defended, “I never said any different.” He put his hands up in defeat. “Not my business.” He pointed at Steve. “He asked!”

“Anyone heard how the Bartons are doing?” Steve took another sip of lemonade.

“Chaos,” Sam quipped. Then he adjusted, “no, Clint is good, but three kids is rough.”

Steve made a face over his glass. “Shouldn’t we just call it four now?” There was a dark silence. Sam shifted his eyes to the window. “Thought you two were close for a bit?” Steve couldn’t get Sam to meet his eye.

“Little Sam…” Wilson started, pressing his thumb to the corner of his lips. “She’s definitely a Stark.”

“What does that mean?” Bucky asked.

Wilson opened his hand in mid-air. “I don’t know. She was playful, not athletic, but fun. Then she got to asking me more and more questions, about Tony and Pepper and Avengers. I didn’t have answers, and then if I did, I didn’t know if I was supposed to answer them. What would Tony think? I don’t know how Clint does it. How do you raise another guy’s kid in a way her real dad would want? She supposed to believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny or straight to cold, hard truths? I can’t make that choice.”

“From what I’ve gathered, Tony doesn’t make that choice either,” Bucky said quietly.

“Who told you that?” Steve looked concerned.

“Nat,” Bucky replied.

“Anything going on there,” Steve asked.

“She and Bruce try to keep tabs on the girl. I don’t know a lot about it.”

“That’s not what I was asking,” Steve added.

“But that’s the answer you’re gonna get.”

“Wait,” Sam exclaimed, “you and Natasha?”

“No,” Bucky said shortly. 

“I always thought you two might,” Sam continued, relaxing into his chair with a smug look. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Nothing happened…within the last decade. She made her choice; she’s with Banner.”

“Sure you didn’t make the choice for her,” Steve punctuated, unable to help himself.

“Mutual decisions were made,” Bucky asserted. “Look, I don’t know why we got on this subject, but I veto it now.”

Steve sighed. “I just think,” he finished, looking out the window at the browning field in the overcast light, “that we’ve all been through enough to deserve a little happiness.”

“She’s not a Russian spy or an assassin, so stop trying to teach her things that make her a target!” Tony was pissed. Cornered in a lab with a time-sensitive project, he couldn’t escape Natasha’s demands for approval of activities to offer his daughter.

“I don’t think playing cards ever killed anyone, Stark,” Nat flatly stated.

“Yeah, but she learns cards, goes to casinos, attracts some guy with an ironic tattoo and a blue shirt with white collar and cuffs,” he shivered, “and it’s all over. Obie used to wear those awful things. Should have known then…”

“Well,” Natasha started, not sure how to take that, “there’s a lot going on there, but Samantha still needs some variety of stuff to learn. Social skills wouldn’t hurt.”

“Let her be anti-social. It’s safer. Keeps her out of the news and not a target.” Tony’s chest swelled with justification and righteousness, his logic infallible.

“You know you’re the one who makes her a target,” she screamed, much angrier than intended. Nat took a breath and watched Tony’s belligerent look relax.

His eyes remained locked with hers. “She’s not a target if she’s not here and isn’t known by my name. Who’s gonna know?”

“Stark,” Nat tried to begin again.

“You want her to socialize? Fine. She can go to boarding school. Socialize with kids her own age away from Barton. Is that it? He just wants a break?”

“That’s not what Pepper would want—“

Tony slammed down the wrench he held. The ringing of the table lingered. “Don’t you dare.”

She composed herself again. “Stark, I just meant your daughter shouldn’t be farther from you now, and she shouldn’t be left with no defense. The wolves could be circling, and we don’t see it.”

“And we fed them,” Tony exploded. He stalked towards Natasha. “This ragtag team of misfits put a giant target on our foreheads and screamed for attention across the universe! The wolves won’t give a rat’s ass about her if we keep their attention or keep them running.” 

He looked at her, face-to-face, his eyes so dark they looked black. His build would have to wait till he calmed down. He tossed the wrench across the room, smoothly, if loudly, sinking it into the classic foldout, hotrod red toolbox open in the corner. 

“Kid goes to boarding school. Problem solved. Smoothie?”

Thirteen weeks. The mystery of the hard drive kept Samantha going for thirteen weeks. It had made a terrible school with terrible, small-minded children bearable, but only just. Those weeks were spent looking for a compatible power supply, then connecting cables, then a computer old enough to read the programming. She had to convince Laura to let her spend hours locked in her room or hours longer spent at school in the library. She convinced Clint to help her carry the bulky, ancient technology upstairs to her room. She pushed through.

When the day finally came to access the data, Sam was so pleased to find something worthwhile: Howard Stark’s AI. Its name was Mistress, and even at over 60 years old, Mistress was able to help Sam transfer her program to a modern terminal compatible with her tablet. Missy, as Sam called her, was a fellow fast-learning friend, but that made Sam all the more afraid to tell anyone about it. No one much noticed the difference between loner-Sam and recluse-Sam, except with Missy, Sam was happier, more energetic. Laura noticed Sam made jokes, she started using cultural references instead of scientific ones, and she actively asked how the family’s day was at the dinner table. It was such an improvement, why would anyone upset the balance? They all let her develop into a nerd because that was better than the sad, hermit alternative.

Missy helped connect Sam’s homework with real-world purpose, searching for applications of equations, and how and why these ideas were discovered. It was so much more comprehensive than following along in a text. Missy could take Sam down a rabbit hole of any subject, and they’d both come out the other end smarter. Particularly interesting to Sam was Missy’s consistent evaluation of Tony Stark’s body language from video footage. Particularly interesting to Missy was Sam’s recounting of Tony himself and all Sam had ever heard about Missy’s maker, Howard, after he shut her down.

One evening, nearly two years after booting up her best friend, Sam snuck down for a snack before continuing a fascinating and blunt conversation with Missy about the experience of hormonal fluctuations during puberty, when she stopped short of the landing, hearing voices.

“If we thought this school was tough for her, she’ll be eaten alive at that preening castle of teenage monsters,” Clint angrily whispered.

“Honey, it’s his call. We don’t have the right to choose for her instead.” Laura ended her thought unsure as if hoping for it to be an open question.

“She…she’s been here so long, I can’t stand to hear about the names, the graffiti, the…” Clint’s voice trailed off. Sam could hear his exact movement to wipe his hand across his face and land his chin in his palm. It was his signature dad move. “Lila wasn’t teased like this, was she?”

Sam could not distinguish the silent gesture Laura answered with, but Clint’s response made it clear.

“Any of them? Why is this so different then? I can’t believe I’m actually annoyed that my kids weren’t tormented at school…What do we do? You don’t think that hoity-toity academy is a good fit, do you?”

“Did anyone ask Tony if Sam could just come home—go home? It’s been ten years, honey. We can’t keep this up.”

“Sometimes he seems to have a plan and others…I don’t think he ever considered making decisions for a child. Deciding for someone’s life, shaping their future. He’s terrified. Hell, I’m terrified and my kids are grown up, basically. Tony doesn’t like people to see him, ya know, have a soul anymore—“

“Honey, I don’t have an answer,” Laura blurted with exasperation. She calmed quickly. “You should get some sleep. We hardly get to see you, and they’ll want to shoot in the morning and bike after. You’ll be dead to me by dinner if you don’t go up now. I’ll be up after I…”

Sam heard Clint scoot out his chair and rushed back upstairs, her appetite gone.

[Ch 6: Memorial]

[Main Masterlist]