#but still like “”Another teen boy who’s kinda chill how do I converse where is my uncle Help.

[luriuan]

Sokka and Zuko get SO much funnier when you remember this is both of their first times talking to another teenage boy in years. Sokka had all the other boys leave the tribe when he was little and Zuko just hasn’t talked to other teenage boys. They wanna be friends but have absolutely no clue how to talk to other teenagers. I love them so much.

[nbrook29]

Kiss or Slap

Sander doesn’t remember when exactly their group made the riverside near the Scheldt their new hangout spot, but he couldn’t be more grateful for it as a cold breeze washes over his overheated body, providing a momentary relief against the scorching heat falling from the sky. It’s probably why the park is fuller than it usually is on Thursday afternoons, packed with people spread on their picnic blankets, searching for a bit of shadow under the big trees and desperately craving a bit of wind. 

It’s so hot he doesn’t even feel like sketching, preferring to just lie on the grass without moving a single muscle, and dying in peace. Even the enticing smell of cinnamon rolls that Noor brought with her isn’t enough for him to reach out and take one from the basket, the action requiring too much movement on his part.

“Guys, come on, we have to start or we’ll never get it done! Sander, get your lazy ass up.” He grunts when he feels Leon’s merciless fingers jabbing him in the ribs.

“Can’t we wait until it gets a little less hot?”

“No, cause that’s not happening in the nearest future and we need new content,” Nathan butts in, followed by Noor, which makes Sander officially outvoted. So he heaves a deep sigh, puts his shirt back on and ruffles his hair to make himself more presentable, rolling his eyes at Noor’s appreciative whistling.

“Someone’s gonna snatch himself a bunch of kisses today with that smoldering look,” she teases, pretending to give him a once over.

“Is that your way of telling me you want one for yourself, sweetheart?” He’s immensely proud of himself when her entire face scrunches up in disgust.

“Eww, no, feels like incest at this point.” Which is kinda true given the fact they’ve known each other since kindergarten and became best friends making sand castles. He fires an obnoxious wink at her, fully anticipating a shove which comes as expected within seconds, with Noor calling him a creep in between laughter.

“Who should we start with? Senne? Wanna go first?” Sander watches as Leon takes out his camera equipment and checks the settings as the rest collects their things.

“I guess, yeah. And then Nathan after me?”

“I’m not doing it, man, you know Britt, she’s gonna flip out.”

“Be a good reason to break up with her,” Sander mutters under his breath, not really feeling apologetic when Nathan shoots him a glare. It would be a long time coming, and honestly, Sander can’t wait for that moment to come. Just being in her presence gives him chills, she’s that much of a horrible person. A few years ago, he read something about alternate universes and sometimes when he looks at her he can’t help but think there’s a history there with the two of them, in a past life or something. At least it would explain that weird energy between them.

If it’s true, he feels very sorry for that Sander. 

He roots for him to run far away from said devil’s spawn.

“I can go next, I don’t have the ball and chain,” Noor says innocently, but she’s smirking over Nathan’s shoulder at Sander who pretends to high five her in their shared hatred for Britt.

“Yeah, us lonely birds will sacrifice ourselves and take the hit for the wellbeing of our channel,” Sander laments playfully, making Senne snort.

“Dude, you’re on your own by your own choice.”

“And pickiness. Don’t forget pickiness,” Noor adds smugly.

Sander huffs in protest. “I’m not picky! I just...” He cuts off because he’s not about to just explain it all now.

“Just what?”

“Specific about what I want.”

Brown curls, brown eyes, shortish, lean, pierced ear, cute giggle, elegant hands and a smile brighter than the sun. 

To be exact.

“Yeah. That’s picky.”

“Whatever,” he replies grumpily, and decides to ignore Noor’s knowing look. Sometimes he feels like she has a sixth sense and can read him like a book. Or she’s just less oblivious than the boys in their friend group. That’s a totally possible option too.

Thankfully, she doesn’t push him further (she’s awesome like that), though Sander has a feeling she’s gonna grill him later when they’re alone. For now, she checks her lipstick in her phone as they all briefly plan the video.

Not like there’s that much to plan; a few days ago, they decided to shoot a kiss or slap challenge for their YouTube channel because it had been wildly requested by their viewers.

Sander still doesn’t quite know how he became a part of a YouTube channel in the first place, always considering himself to be a bit more, well, sophisticated than that? But Leon was into it from the beginning and made them all participate in exchange for free beer, until one day one of their videos blew up.

If you can call getting 100k views on one video blowing up. 

Anyway, they got semi-popular amongst Flemish teens and even managed to snatch a sponsorship with Mentos (however small the offer was) that paid actual money. And he had just managed to move out of his family house so any money coming his way he welcomed with no questions asked. 

So they’ve kept shooting silly challenges slash anything else that’s a trend at a given time and have been able to cover their art supply needs with what little they earned. And, though Sander refused to admit it in the beginning, it’s actually kinda fun. It’s definitely better than his part time job at Pull&Bear where he has to deal with obnoxious customers on an almost daily basis.

They record a short introduction near the river, quickly going over the rules and explaining that the three of them will be competing in who gets more kisses versus slaps. 

“Hey, you know what, this is actually unfair cause you both can kiss anybody,” Senne points out all of a sudden, receiving four pairs of unimpressed glances.

“No one’s stopping you from getting kisses from boys too, dude,” Sander is quick to shut him up, shit-eating grin on his face as he gives him his first (light) slap to the cheek. 

They follow Senne around the park with a camera as he turns on his charm and smiles sweetly at the girls he chooses for the challenge, doing surprisingly well on the first few attempts. But when they venture deeper into the park and he tries his luck with college girls, he gets 5 slaps in the row to the rest of the group’s utter delight. In the end, his results are a blow to his pride and even Sander feels sorry for him, giving him a pat on the back while trying to hold his laughter in at Senne’s grumpy face.

Noor does much better, naturally, as her upbeat personality and a wide smile have always made boys and girls turn their heads. She gets a kiss after kiss, blush after blush, and two phone numbers in the process. Senne argues again that it’s unfair because no one’s gonna slap a girl anyway, but Leon just calls him a sore loser while Noor shamelessly flirts in French with another girl right in front of the camera.

Sander’s very proud.

Taking a quick sip of water, he gives Leon a thumbs up and starts his round, coming over to three blond girls chilling near the skateboarding ramps, trying very hard not to come off as creepy and clarifying the kiss part being only a cheek kiss. The girls erupt in giggles, but they all grant him a light kiss. One of them tries to flirt with him after, but he shoots her down before she can get too into it.

“Such a heartbreaker, you,” Noor coos at Sander’s pained face when they all walk away.

“That’s you, and you actually enjoy it,” he quips back, sticking his tongue at her.

“I do not, shut up!”

Fifteen minutes and fourteen kisses later he’s officially in the lead, sealing his victory with a kiss number fifteen he receives from a cute redhead. He’s gloating in Senne’s bemused face about nobody choosing to slap him when he stops in his tracks.

It’s the proof of his hopeless infatuation that he’d recognize that laugh everywhere.

He looks around for its source, but he comes up short. Then, his eyes focus on the skatepark area and his heart starts beating faster.

Because it feels like a sign. Like the universe is giving him a chance to finally do something. Make a move.

“Hey, can we shoot one more try?” He asks the guys, trying to sound casual while glancing furtively in the direction of brown curls.

“You’ve already won, but I guess?”

Nobody questions him about his reasons, they just follow him to the ramp.

And he’s so fucking nervous. 

It’s incredible, really, how he generally has no problems talking to people he’s interested in, conversation flowing without him even trying, gaining easy smiles and appreciative looks wherever he goes, some natural confidence to him. 

But that boy. That boy is something else.

He makes him question everything he says, makes his palms sweat and makes his deep hidden shyness come onto the surface.

Sander saw him for the first time during Open Day at the Academie in may, strolling casually through the hallway with his friend, completely oblivious to the turmoil he was causing to Sander’s heart.

That was the day Sander saw an angel. 

Fate placed him on his path again sooner than he could’ve hoped, the boy participating in a 2 week film course at his school only several days after he saw him for the first time. And he tried so hard to convince himself to talk to him over that time, but he only managed a few smiles while passing him by in the hallway. 

That and that one stupid joke he said to him while they were waiting in line at the cafeteria that makes him cringe in despair just thinking about it. Seriously, it’s like his entire cool evaporates when he’s near him.

But, the boy laughed at it. So maybe it wasn’t as horrible as Sander is making it to be. Or he was just being nice. 

Robbe. 

Robbe, who he’s been crushing on ever since that fateful day in may.

Robbe, who was at the same party he was last weekend.

Robbe, who he talked to at that party and managed to calm his nerves enough to be charming and funny.

Robbe, who giggled, blushed and bit his lip at Sander’s dumb jokes that evening.

Robbe, who slipped through his fingers because Sander blacked out soon after.

He almost never drinks, but that one night he did, celebrating the beginning of summer break, and not realizing his usual abstinence meant he was now officially a lightweight. What an awful timing.

Robbe doesn’t notice him right away, having his back turned to him while talking animatedly to his friends. Taking a deep breath and plastering a smile to his face to hide his nervousness, he approaches them.

“Hey guys, got a second?”

He notices the recognition in Robbe’s face right away, and Sander shoots him a quiet “hi” when his eyes meet his, an unsure smile blooming on his face.

“Hey, what’s up?” One of the boys nods at the camera.

“I’m Sander, and we’re shooting a video for our YouTube channel, the kiss or slap challenge,” he quickly explains, the boys’ faces lighting up.

“Hey, we have a channel too! I’m Moyo, this is Jens, Aaron, and Robbe.” Moyo reaches out to bump his fist with him and damn, Sander has to find that channel if Robbe is a part of it.

Jens levels him with a look. “So, you want us to kiss you or slap you?” 

“Pretty much, yeah?” Sander chuckles because he’s aware it’s ridiculous, but he’s a man on a mission here, give him a break.

“I think Robbe should represent all of us, don’t you think so?” Moyo proposes, tongue in his cheek as he checks with the rest of his friends. Sander catches the death glare Robbe sends the boy before looking back at him and crossing his arms, looking a bit out of place. And, fuck, the last thing Sander wants is to make him uncomfortable.

So he asks softly, “you’re in?” and waits for agonizing five seconds as Robbe watches him, eyes narrowed, before his features smooth out and he smiles at him.

“Sure, why not.”

Relieved, Sander lets out a chuckle and tries to keep his cool. “Okay then - kiss or slap?”

Robbe squints against the sun and makes him wait another few seconds before he answers, but Sander’s not worried because there’s a soft smile on his face and obviously his angel wouldn’t-

“Slap.”

Wait, what.

He can hear his friends bursting in laughter at this unexpected turn of events while Sander can only stare in shock because how could he miscalculate the situation this much?

Gulping, confused and heartbroken, he asks, “you’re sure?”, to which Robbe nods with a poorly hidden glee.

“But you have to close your eyes cause I can’t hit you while you're looking at me.”

Heaving a deep sigh and trying to save a face despite the humiliation flooding his body, he nods and closes his eyes, steeling himself for it.

But it never comes.

Suddenly, he feels a hand cupping his cheek and he flinches a little, but then soft lips touch his in a kiss so gentle he blinks his eyes open, not knowing what’s happening.

“That was payback for you promising to call me and not keeping your word,” Robbe whispers against his lips before leaning away, something sad and wistful passing through his face. Sander is left completely dumbfounded, ignoring the hollering from the two groups as his eyes fleet all over Robbe’s face.

It’s difficult for him to collect his thoughts because holy fuck, Robbe has just kissed him and he’s internally freaking out. He finally manages to get his bearings when the remnants of a smile slip off Robbe’s lips.

“I-, Robbe, you have no idea how much I wanted to call you, but I don’t have your number.”

“I gave it to you. At the party?” He doesn’t look like he believes a word Sander is saying.

“Um, I kinda blacked out and don’t remember much after like one-ish?”

“You saved it though, I saw you typing it in,” Robbe argues again, but this time he doesn’t look so sure. “Wait, what’s your number?”

Sander watches him entering digit after digit before hitting call. He fully expects a plain number to appear on his screen, eyes widening when he sees what pops up instead.

zk bambieys 🥺🦌👁️💘🧡💖💞 calling

“Fuck, you did give me your number.” He’s not fast enough to hide his screen from Robbe, but he can't even feel embarrassment once he notices the frown disappeared from his face.

“Bambi eyes?” There's a teasing note in his voice, but his pink cheeks sell him out.

Sander scratches his head. "I was very drunk, you can't hold it against me. Also, your eyes are really beautiful," he clarifies, winking when Robbe laughs at his shameless flirting. "Hey, I tried to find you on instagram, but nothing came up. I was really hoping we're gonna bump into each other again. Sorry for being a dumbass and not realizing I had your number this entire time?”

“It’s okay.” Robbe shoves his hand into the pockets of his jeans, swaying on his heels. Sander decides to put them both out of their misery and take the initiative.

“So if I asked you out, would you say yes?”

It looks like Robbe’s about to nod, but then he bites his lip, an almost cheeky smile directed at him. “I guess you have to call me to find out.” And then he gets on his skateboard and casually skates away to the nearest ramp, pulling a surprised laugh out of Sander.

If he was intrigued before, now he’s totally smitten with this wonder of a boy, because damn. 

Their friends finally seem to regain their voices and speak over each other at what just happened, but Sander doesn’t pay them any attention, just takes out his phone again and pressing the call button. 

Watching as Robbe comes to a full stop at the top of the ramp, he cocks his head with a grin and waits until he picks up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Sander.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Robbe laughs into the speaker.

“Will you go out with me?”

He meets his eyes across the skatepark as Robbe makes him wait again.

Then, with a smile so radiant it overshadows the sun, the boy finally gives him his answer.

“Yes.”

[headcans-oneshots-and-stuff]

Private and Public

Fandom: Teen Wolf Pairing: Stiles Stilinski x reader Word count: 1.4k Summary: People don’t usually realize that you’re in a relationship since you weren’t one for PDA with your boyfriend. It wasn’t that you didn’t like to display affection, it was more the Public part that made you nervous. But one night at a party that might change. Warning: None Requested by Anon: malia x reader or stiles x reader. The reader is like a ('baby gay' for malia) (first relationship for stiles) and is shy/a bit nervous about doing things simple things like hugging or holding hands and they find it cute but also comfort the reader say stuff like its okay, we can take it slow, and kinda just doing things like hugging more often to get them use to it. idk sorry feel free to to change it up and do what you want. Anyway have a good day~ 🦊,🐺or🙃. A/N: so I realize I haven’t uploaded anything at all in over a week, but life’s a bitch so I’m not gonna make empty promises of me starting to upload regularly again. I guess thing’s will be uploaded when they’ll be uploaded. I’m really sorry for all those who look forward to scheduele stuff, but I hope you understand. Lot’s of love, Brina

The red plastic cup in your hand was still filled up to the brim, the only change was the temperature that it had taken on during the hour that you had nursed it without even attempting to take a sip of the gross beer inside. Honestly, you weren‘t all too sure why exactly you had agreed to tag along to the party, neither were you sure why you were even asked to. When Scott had heard of the party a bunch of juniors and seniors had planned to have on a clearing in the woods, he knew it was a recipe for disaster. The pack had tried its best to stop the party from happening altogether, but to no avail, so instead they decided that they‘d come along to keep an eye out for potential danger. Every single pack-member in the appropriate age-group - aka still in school - had shown up, even Brett and Theo had joined in, which meant that any potential danger would have to be careful. Still, you couldn‘t quite understand why you‘d been asked to come along since you were quote-on-quote ‘just a human‘ and were usually kept away from any immediate danger the second it seemed to be in your vicinity. Not today though, today you were basically dragged with them to attend the party no matter if you wanted to be there or not and Lydia had forced you to dress in something other than the nice PJ’s that you had been chilling in earlier that day. “Hey, it’s Y/N, right?” a boy asked as he joined your side. You inspected him for a few seconds until the cogs in your head finally clicked and you realized that he was in your english lit. class. “Mhm, you’re-” you bit your lip and squinted your eyes as you tried your best to recall what his name was, “James?” “Close, it’s Jim,” the boy chuckled and smiled at you. You recognized that smile and even though you had to admit that you were a bit naive, you knew that the boy wasn’t talking to you just for the sake of getting to know you as a friend. Not quite sure what you could do about it, you decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. “This party is pretty boring, what?” “Well, it’s a party in the woods in the middle of the week so I doubt there was much possibility for this to be the party of the century,” you shrugged and looked around at all the drunk people who’d definitely regret drinking so much the next morning. “You know,” Jim started and you had a bad feeling you knew where this was going, “We could get out of here, My parents aren’t home, sooo-” he scratched the back of his head and you just couldn’t help but sigh. “Listen Jim, you’re really nice, really, but I’m in a relationship.” “Oh, Ohh, okay, sorry I didn’t mean to...uhm… I just- I never saw you with anyone, I thought you were- I- Uhm- I’ll leave,” he rambled before taking a big sip of the beer he was holding and walking away with his ears tinted red-ish. You gave another sigh and shook your head slightly as you thought his words over. It was true, now that you thought about it, he had no real way of knowing that you weren’t single anymore and even though usually you didn’t mind that thought, suddenly it was somewhat bothering you. You and Stiles had been dating each other for just about a month now, but besides the other pack members and your families no one really knew about it since you weren’t really into PDA. Well, it wasn’t quite that, if you were honest. It was just that this was your first relationship and you were incredibly nervous at everything it included. It wasn’t that you felt uncomfortable with Stiles, it was the exact opposite actually, being with him was the time you felt most at ease, but you were just very anxious that you’d accidentally screw up. Of course, you also feared that your nervousness would annoy him and he’d decide that you were not worth it, but that fear was absolutely rootless since he was the most supportive boyfriend you could imagine. Oftentimes you could see the longing in his eyes when he was looking at you sitting besides him at Lunch and you knew that he just wanted to put his arm around you and give you a kiss, but held himself back for you sake. He also kept on telling you that it was okay and that you didn’t need to do something uncomfortable just to please him, that he was happy with all the cuddles and kisses he got in private and that he was more than ready to take it slow. What he did to help you otherwise was that he tried to get you used to a little bit of physical contact: hand holding in the car, small hugs throughout the day, cute little texts in class and the such. Suddenly, as you were thinking about it, you felt the strong urge to find Stiles and hug him no matter how many people were around and if you didn’t still have the completely full cup in your hand you’d think you could’ve been a little bit tipsy. You looked through the crowd searching for any sign of your boyfriend and the first thing that caught you eyes was the blond locks of a certain scarf-wearing-werewolf glimpsing through a group of junior girls that were giggling about something. With a rush of determination surging through you, you made your way through the masses of teenagers - somehow managing to hand your cup to someone on the way - and ended up only a few feet away from Isaac without having been accidentally punched or stumbling. It was like a scene in a movie when you came closer and recognized a few other pack members standing around Issac and they acted like a curtain that opened up as you got closer and revealed the most incredible boy in the world. If you’d been an outstander and had seen you stop in your tracks with a goofy, love-sick smile on your lips and your eyes almost watering up, you would’ve thought that you were watching a cheap romance movie, but you weren’t an outsider- no, you were you and you were looking at your boyfriend feeling full of love and admiration. Starting to walk again, you were sure to earn a few confused glances as you slid through between Isaac and Allison and more or less launched yourself at Stiles, your arms quickly interlocking around his waist and you face pressed into his chest. Stiles was obviously surprised at the sudden attack as he stumbled a few steps backwards before stabilizing and reciprocating the hug. You were very happy that your pack was so accommodating as they just shared some confused glances before continuing the conversation like nothing happened. “Are you okay?” Stiles leaned down and whispered in your ear, obviously worried by the sudden need for affection. “Mhm,” you nodded and basket in his hug for a few seconds more before looking up at him and smiling, “I just love you a lot and I missed you.” “I drove you here, we saw each other half an hour ago,” Stiles chuckled, but his cheeky smile showed that he was endeared by your sudden clinginess. “That was too long,” you just sighed and wished he would lean down to kiss you, but then your state of adrenalin and bluntness left you and your nervousness returned. Slowly you retracted your arms and went to stand beside him when you saw that the other pack members were looking at you with smiles on their lips. Blood rushed towards your face and your ears and you suddenly felt more embarrassed than you ever thought you would, even though you didn’t regret it. “You want me to bring you home? It’s getting pretty late,” Stiles asked silently but you could read between the lines and thankfully nodded, knowing that you’d probably ask him to come with you inside when you came to your house and cuddle. Because after all, Stiles was the best boyfriend you could ever imagine and if you couldn’t hug him all that much in public, then you’d hug the living health out of him in private.

[theyscreamjade]

Can you do HCs of Shinsou, Amajiki, Bakugo; teen!Aizawa with a South African s/o who has people saying some annoying comments to her just bc she's from Africa. Like someone says that they're sorry that she struggled with poverty (girl is from a super wealthy family that can buy their family), or say some gibberish with clicks and asks her to translate (s/o can speak five languages: English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and Japanese; understand others. Xhosa has clicks). They ask her if she had...

Melanin Goddess

Hello my dear! I hope this makes your day or night! Thank you for requesting and have a great day! I changed the last one to one that even I had to explain to a friend of mine before who was another race. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Cursing

————————————————————————————————————————

* Let’s start off with one thing here, Hitoshi doesn’t like violence unless he has to use it. He doesn’t mind kicking ass for you.

* You may be independent and can defend for yourself and all, but there are times where he’d use his quirk for the stupidity that people ask you.

* You were just chilling, sitting with your boyfriend and enjoying your lovely lunch.

* Everything was fine and dandy until you heard a tray click onto the other side of the table, across from you.

* Your eyes looked at the figure above you, you didn’t know who she was so it didn’t bother you.

* “You’re from South Africa right?” She asked, looking at you. You cleared your throat and smiled. “Yes, I am.”

* The moment you responded with that. She squealed and sat down. “So! You must’ve had to hunt for food, right?! You’re like a warrior huh?” She asked.

* Hold the hell up? Did you...DID YOU?!

* Hunt?! HUNTING WHAT?! WHO THE FUCK DO I LOOK LIKE?! EEP FROM CROODS?!

* “No, I never had to do that.” You said, laughing awkwardly. “Really? I though you had to, that’s what I see in the movies.” She continued.

* “Well, Everything on the movies isn’t always correct.” Shinsou would butt in, his annoyance obvious in his voice .

* “I was jus-“

* “stand up..” he ordered, suddenly taking control of her.

* He hates how people are quick to judge based on what’s shown within the media of your country.

* Regardless of what others think of you or your country, you’re perfect in his eyes. You’re the best thing walking and there was nothing that could ever possibly change that.

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

* Young Shouta is the same as he is now, just probably sleeping less than before.

* You, Present Mic, Shouta, Midnight and Shirakumo. The small group were laughing and giggling about random issues and topics going on within the world at the moment while walking home.

* The golden hour was glowing off your skin while Shouta held your hand, glancing every now and then to see your gorgeous smile.

* “I still can’t believe you’re from South Africa, I know it’s absolutely gorgeous!” Midnight commented while you two stepped into the train.

* “She’s not from Africa..” someone commented, catching the whole group off guard.

* “Excuse me?” You asked as a man looked over.

* “You can obviously tell she’s not African, they’re poor. She’s obviously an American.” He said as Present Mic’s face tightened a bit.

* “Yo, I’m not gonna al-“

* “He’s just a miserable idiot who doesn’t have anything else better to do then to listen to teenagers conversations, obsess over young girls and deal with his shitty life. I suggest you find something else to listen to old man, you wouldn’t know anything about what’s mine even if you had the chance.” Shouta said, leaving you and Midnight speechless.

* “OH! Here’s our stop!” Shirakumo quickly responded, happy to hear the train stop. The fluffy boy pushed his group out as quickly as he could to avoid the anger of the middle aged man.

* His grip on your hand stayed tight, he despised know-it-all’s. Especially the ones who claims that you’re not who you are.

* You’re Y/N, and regardless if your country is rich or not. He’ll always love you.

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

* He hates how ignorant people can act and be with it comes to you.

* He seriously despises it within the highest degree, it makes him want to blast any asshole who THINKS about saying some dumbass shit to you.

* This included his friends or anyone to be exact.

* The Baku-squad was just chilling, relaxing at a restaurant. His arm was slung over your shoulders and you were close to him, looking absolutely adorable in Mina’s eyes.

* Denki was seeing a girl..who’s personality wasn’t necessarily up to par to put it in kind words. But in Bakugo’s term, She was a bitch.

* “I have a question.” She said suddenly, gathering everyone’s attention within the circle booth. “I notice you’re South African right, Y/N? (She said your name wrong.)”

* “Yeah, born and raised before moving here, what’s up?” You questioned.

* “You never really dress like a African, I noticed.” She said as Sero spat his drink back out.

* Kirishima’s eyes snapped wide before he looked towards Bakugo who’s glare was darted at her.

* “I just noticed that, and I-“

* “LET ME EDUCATE YOU ON SOME SHIT, BRITTANY!” Mina said as she slapped her hand on the table. “It’s pronounced Y/N. Say it right or don’t say it at all, Next. Just because she’s from Africa doesn’t mean she should dress like one. You’re from Jaku City but you dress like you’re from America with the absolute bullshit all over you. Third and last, I don’t like you. I don’t give a fuck if you’re Denki’s bitch, don’t ever talk shit to my girl like that ever again, clear?” She said, showing a different side to her that left everyone speechless.

* You smirked, knowing you’ve been teaching her to the secret dark-side that she hardly channels.

* Even though, Bakugo let Mina have this one. The next one we going to be his victim because he’s going to defend for you and your country. He loves that Melanin honey.

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

* He’s a obvious shy, silent but deadly type. I love him as a character but I can’t fully relate to him like I would with others.

* Probably because I was once like him before I stopped giving a fuck, ANYWAY! Tamaki is a absolute shy sweetheart when it comes to you. He sees and knows the constant questions and random things you’re asked by younger peers or strangers when they find out that you’re South African.

* Just some people..kinda get the wrong ideas sometimes.

* So, You, Mirio, Tamaki and Nejire were heading to your next class, walking with one another while discussing the ideas for the upcoming festival.

* You were apart of the group who saved Eri, you and Mirio basically took care of her and she’s come to love you and Tamaki.

* You loved how adorably shy your dear boyfriend is and how cute he could be with you, especially when it’s just you and him.

* Suddenly, a other classmate appeared and held his phone to you. “Do you know him?” He asked suddenly, showing you a picture of you and Rock Lock, you were assisting him when you the picture was taken.

* “No, I d-“

* “OF COURSE SHE DOES! The know each other! All of them know each other.” His friend said from behind, stepping beside his friend.

* It’s the ignorance for me.

* You were about to say something with Tamaki’s hand touched yours, grabbing it suddenly. “J-J-Just ignore them, B-Bunny.” He whispered to you. He’s extremely humble and refuses to let you suit down to their level. Without saying a word, you walked forward with your boyfriend.

* Guilt suddenly rushed through his veins when he was pulled by you. “I-I didn’t defend for you, I-I-I’m sorry..” he apologized quickly before you smiled.

* “No, you did. You helped me from being suspended or being another racial stereotype, Tama. Thank you.” You reassured, facing him when you two arrived at the door.

* Your soft hands touched each of his cheeks and you pecked his nose, making blush cover his cheeks.

* He loves you more than he thought he could ever, he was afraid to love at first. Each day with you, just..makes his day better each and every time.

* Regardless of your skin, country or even your quirk. You’ll always be perfectly amazing in his eyes. He just has a hard time expressing it at the moment.

[meimae]

Look at me, not being on time for my April Immersion Overview as is the usual. (・w・;

First, little blog updates to get out of the way:

I reached 100 followers! Got an influx of people checking out my 1 year update post, and got plenty of nice compliments on my data collection.

For those of you wondering just why I keep up with so much data, it's mostly because it can get really hard to notice how much you're improving in a language especially with something like immersion learning that for people who don't get it feels like a waste of time or a time sink.

Graphs showing consistency, improvement in reading speed, increasing vocabulary counts, and generally just seeing numbers grow turns language learning more fun and motivating for me, and if as a bonus, it encourages someone to try immersion learning then that would be cool!

With that said, whether you're here as a fellow language learner, graphs enthusiast (笑), or just want some Japanese media recommendations, ようこそ! 

Also, made a tiny DP change - it’s チト from 少女週末旅行. Pretty sure it’s the first manga series I ever finished in Japanese (not the first one I started since ちはやふる is still ongoing), and I always felt a bit of a ☆connection☆ with  her - between her book-loving personality and being a no-nonsense kind of person, there was no way for me not to enjoy her character. Great beginner anime/manga if you’re not into most beginner recommendations.

-☆-

April has been a pretty good immersion month, as I was able to dip my toes in a variety of media. A bit competitive, too! The club I joined has been pulling all the stops to get to the Top 20 Immersion Leaderboard in it’s first month. I was able to snag the 9th spot among a bunch of people of different comprehension levels (the majority being N1+ since they’re able to comprehend much more and in turn stand longer immersion hours). Lots of tiny complaints though of potential “whitenoising” content (”listening” and “reading” but not comprehending very well just to get a large number to post), but really what can you do? People lie all the time on the internet. Besides, it’s internet points that doesn’t do anything beyond being a little shiny I guess.

Enough about that, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details you came here for!

ANIME

フルーツバスケット

Might need to rewatch this one. Felt like I didn’t connect with the characters the way the rest of its fandom has. I’m kinda sad about it, since I normally love Slice of Life and Fantasy, and I know this is one of my friend’s diehard shows.

ラブライブ! School Idol Project S2

A filler anime to watch tbh. Nice and easy enough to follow for beginners. Pretty good songs. With regards to it being a show about music and moe, I still 100% prefer K-On! if I’m going to be honest, but for a show about non-toxic idols, it’s good!

魔法少女まどか☆マギカ

First read this as English translated manga when I was 13 or something. Mistakes were made. Let’s all just agree to throw キュウベえ into a pit of fire and never talk about it again. Great ending and a show that really reworked the magical girl genre. But seriously, I was traumatized by マミ’s death then and now, help.

四月は君の嘘

Already knew what was going to happen even before watching this so I didn’t ugly cry like I was expecting. Still got that awful sinking feeling though. 10/10 would recommend for a good cry. Also, I’m planning to read the manga, might enjoy that more, because I’ve always liked it more than anime actually. *shocked pikachu face*

ホリミヤ

Watched before I even finished the manga which felt like a mistake at first until I realized that it perfectly stops where I stopped reading. Nice and comfy anime, the kind I would have loved as a teen. Fun animation too, making parts very dramatic even though it wasn’t really that deep of an issue even in the manga. Just teens feeling feelings. Still salty that we lose bad boy styled 宮村, but I get why it had to happen.

AUDIOBOOKS

氷菓

Second re-listen. I understand it fine, but it’s very easy to drift off when you can’t catch all the words so I had to replay often. Will have to mine more from the anime/book.

君の名は

I mined from the anime, and was really pleased to be able to follow all 6 hours of this audiobook perfectly fine. Will need to read the book, because I realized just how seamless reading it would be after listening to it with hardly any issue.

BOOKS

キッチェン

Completed! Read my thoughts about it and see my stats on this post.

君の膵臓を食べたい

Still trudging on with this one. It’s not a bad story, it’s pretty well written actually, I just made the mistake of watching both the anime and live adaptation first, so I know exactly what’s going to happen and it’s killing my motivation to keep reading. I guess reading the book first before watching the movie still applies in any language with me. Really need to 頑張れ and finish so I can move on. 

三日間の幸福

Started reading towards the end of the month, mostly because I realized that every chapter is only 5000-15000 characters long, and I was able to read up to 40k in a day with Island most days. Only two chapters read so far though because I got distracted by manga, but it’s shaping up to be a really good plot and potentially a really sad one, too, so I’m interested.

DRAMA

花ざかりの君たちへ イケメンパラダイス

Heard this was a classic so I gave it a try. Loved 生田 斗真’s character in this one the most especially all his internal dialogue acted out. Also, 小栗 旬 in anything is bound to be a good watch. Simple and fun watch. They dragged the ending so much though lmao 

ごくせん

Look, I see 松本 潤, I click. Definitely the kind of show you should watch for some great life advice. Planning to watch the 2nd and 3rd seasons even if there is a terrible lack of 松本 潤, because I love my strong female protagonists, and man, ヤンクミ is such a great character. Need to read the manga, too, if I can find it.

極主夫道

Oof, this was kind of hard. The yakuza talk was throwing me off, but the rest of it was enjoyable. Not really plot heavy as I thought it was going to be. The comedy side of it was fun and predictable after the first few episodes. Overall, pretty good slice of life, family story with a twist.

MANGA

Read a bunch of manga this month, mostly because I am struggling to find the next vn to read.

おやすみプンプン

Read a couple of volumes (6-7). This manga is so good, but it’s so depressing I need to stop to take a breather every once in a while. Please don’t leave any spoilers. The club has been reacting to me reading this, and it has mostly been a lot of crying emotes. It’s both been enjoyable to see and really worrying. 笑

チェンソーマン

Club recommendation. Only read the 1st volume so far. I really need to get into more 少年 anime/manga. That’s currently my 苦手 genre which is awful because literally all the top anime/manga is 少年 help. I just can’t enjoy it much still even though it’s comprehensible to me.

ちはやふる 中学生編

Read Vol. 1, chill read to me at this point after reading 45 volumes of the regular manga. Look, it’s my favorite 幼馴染 manga in baby format, of course I’m going to read this! 太一 has been a flake way before season 3 confirmed. Don’t come at me たいちはや stans bc I also like his character.

約束のネバーランド

Volume 7. I’m taking my sweet time with this one, because I heard the anime for season 2 sucked, so I’m avoiding it like the plague. This is 少年 how am I enjoying this and not everything else what.

ヲタクに恋は難しい

Enjoyed the anime hated the movie why did they make it a musical that sucked (ps i normally love musicals hated this one) 

The オタク jargon is kinda hard to read suprisingly but I do enjoy this ship very much. It’s a lighthearted take to otaku culture which is great because seriously it’s scary out there.

ツバサ -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-

It’s my childhood ship, obviously I will read this again (read in English several years ago). Still as plot twisty as I remember it being (now at a bonus hard level reading it in Japanese 笑). Really enjoyed reading this one (I finished it this May).

-☆-

I’m starting to really dislike furigana in manga. It was a great help as a beginner, but now it’s like training wheels that you can’t take off. I feel like the gains I’m getting from manga is much lower than it was when I first started which makes me both proud of how far I’ve come, but also sad because I love manga. Sad that I might have to start choose VNs over it, because it’s not going to challenge me as much going forward. I mean it didn’t stop me from reading a lot of it this month, but you get the picture.

VISUAL NOVELS

ISLAND

Completed! See my stats and read my long spoiler filled post here.

ファタモルガーナの館

Picked up this VN and finished two doors (15 hours) before stopping. On the fence about it, because it has been kind of predictable so far, and I don’t particularly enjoy the horror genre. That said, this is more psychological than anything, so it’s probably not that that’s putting me off. The language is not exactly difficult, too - maybe some oddly specific words because it is after all historical fiction (which is one of my favorite genres, btw), and 敬語 is definitely interesting to read for once after encountering so many お嬢様 characters in anime/drama so far. 

I think maybe it’s the conversations that are kind of dull - dots (silence) every few clicks that keeps breaking the flow of reading. Probably judging it really harshly too early, because it’s rated so high everywhere, and I just have high expectations. Definitely not dropping it yet though, just taking a break and testing a couple of other VNs before I settle with whatever I end up choosing. It is, after all, going to be another 50+ hour read, and I just don’t want to not enjoy the process, because having fun with the process is a huge part of immersion learning.

Let me know if you’ve read Fata and if I should continue! 

-☆-

That’s it for this month!

If you have any suggestions on what to watch and read next, please send me a reply, especially for VNs because I’m struggling over here.

[unfilteredaj]

A night out (Rorschach x Reader)

(A/N- This is probably SO OUT OF CHARACTER and it's kind of dumb but I love Rorschach and wanted to write a self-indulgent ficlet)

(Warnings: EXTREMELY corny and self indulgent fluff, Cursing, mention of being followed/a stalker... nothing really that bad tbh.)

---

Rorschach wandered the streets of New York, the crisp chill of the night clearing his head more and more each second. Even though his friends had all been more than welcoming of his couch-surfing, he needed some time away from them. Time without the pressure of a case to solve.

His little bubble of quiet was burst by something odd, to say the least. A girl he'd briefly noticed a minute or two earlier strolled up to him, giving a wave and an excited "Hey!"

She threw her arms around his neck as if he were an old friend. She was wearing a small backpack over a hoodie with a band logo on it and looked no older than her early 20s.

Rorschach froze, confused. He obviously didn't know this girl.

"I am so sorry to just barge up like this but I'm pretty sure I'm being followed. Please just walk me to a bar or something." She whispered, sounding frantic. He looked around, seeing a suspicious looking guy a few hundred feet behind them. Rorschach nodded, playing his part and hugging the girl back. She looped her arm with his as they walked.

…

"What were you even doing out so late? Especially alone?” He asked after a few minutes.

"I dunno. I wanted to see the city at night, I guess. It was kinda dumb to go alone." She laughed, her tension melting. Her giggling strangely reminded Rorschach of the jingling sound her many bracelets and rings made. She un-looped her arm from his, thrusting her hand out for a handshake.

"I'm (Y/N). Thanks for helping me back there."

He returned her handshake, her fiery enthusiasm annoying and a little endearing at the same time.

"Just call me Rorschach." He said gruffly.

She flashed a toothy grin at him. "Pleasure to meet you. So.. where are we going?"

Rorschach shrugged. He didn't really have a destination. "You said to walk you to a bar..."

She groaned dramatically. "That would be so boring, though! A moody, mysterious stranger is far more interesting than a bar. I can't leave now. No way! You're stuck with me. Lets walk and talk a bit more.”

"Fine."

Rorschach let her lead, his own boredom convincing him to stick with this strange woman.

....

"Hey what's with that sign? It pretty neat, and the world IS burning... but why carry it around?" The girl asked after a few minutes of casual conversation that mostly consisted of her talking a lot and Rorschach giving small replies.

He shrugged. "Why deny the truth in the face of Armageddon?" He said rhetorically.

She chuckled, tilting her head at him. She broke into another grin. "Can I hold it?"

Rorschach looked deep in thought for a second, but before he'd thought about it for too long, she grabbed the sign anyway.

He huffed in annoyance and she just stuck her tongue out at him. But he didn't take it back. He instead watched as she twirled it around a few times and admired it.

"You are so weird. I like it!" She said matter-of-factly, handing it back.

Rorschach just rolled his eyes. He propped the sign in the opening of an alley, letting the girl take his hand and drag him along.

"How do you know someone's not gonna steal that thing? Or what if you don't remember where you left it?' She said

"I'll remember, trust me. Everyone knows it's mine."

He noted that she hadn't let go of his hand. He didn't think it meant much, and he didn't really mind, so he didn't pull away. She hummed absent-mindedly as she looked through random store windows.

A few minutes later, they came across an empty park, and the girl let go of his hand, making a beeline for the swings.

She sat, gesturing for him to follow. Under the soft glow of the park lights he could see her more clearly. Her face was flushed, her cheeks a bright pinkish-red from the cold.

“So what’s your story? Do you live here? In the city, I mean?”

Her question seemed innocent enough, but Rorschach knew the whole story seemed more sad than it actually was.

“Yeah. Somethin’ like that.”

The girl laughed again…. She was impossibly bubbly. But paired with her unassumingly pretty face, it suited her.

“And you?” Rorschach gave her an opportunity to talk more…listening was easier for him anyway.

“Oh! I’m just visiting for the winter. But…I kind of want to stay longer. There’s so much beneath the surface here… so much to see and do. So many interesting people.” She nudged him.

“Interesting isn’t the word I’d use. More like dangerous. Someone like you…this city will tear you apart if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

"....Do you really think the world is ending?" She asked after a long pause.

Rorschach shrugged. "Dunno. Probably. There's so much filth... Bad people doing fucked up stuff..."

"But there are still some good people.... You seem like a good enough guy. I mean, we've been hanging out alone for almost an hour now and you haven't tried anything suspicious. I knew my sixth sense was right."

Her eyes had the same glimmer as a kid telling a friend a secret.

"Sixth sense?" Rorschach asked, his interest piqued.

"Oh, You're suddenly curious for once?" She teased. "I have this sense about people. Like you, for instance. I can tell you're a loner. You think being alone is less complicated. You seem smart, and I think you're a good guy even though you're a bit rough around the edges."

He smiled a little at her observation. It felt strange, but good. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd relaxed like this.

Snow started to fall, a thick veil of white quickly covering the park.

(Y/N) tilted her head back to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

"Let's go get hot cocoa!" She exclaimed, pulling Rorschach from his swing.

"Ok..."

She gripped his hand like an excited kid, pulling him into the nearest 24 hour diner.

....

She giggled as she reached across the table, gently brushing snow from his hair.

"Why?" he muttered, cringing a little.

"Sorry." Her voice retreated with her hand. The red in her cheeks had lifted to a slight pink, but now her cheeks blazed again.

"I'm not really... good with people..." He said. His face showed no shame or remorse. This was just a fact.

"I get it. But.. why help me earlier? Why let me drag you around town all night?" She asked

He stared a her blankly for a long while. Just when she thought he wasn't going to say anything, he answered.

"You needed someone....Maybe I did too." He shrugged, mostly talking to himself.

The Waitress brought them their drinks, And they gladly accepted the warmth.

“I can’t believe you didn’t get hot cocoa! Black coffee is for Cops and School teachers running on empty.” The girl laughed.

“You like me. Why?” Rorschach said suddenly.

“Hmm… I dunno. Helping me lose that guy was the first thing…” She Began. “but you seem so confident in yourself. Like you aren’t bothered by anything. But you have these walls up to keep the world out. You seem like someone who needs help coming out of your shell. And besides, don't think you mind the company, or you’d have dropped me off at a bar an hour and a half ago.”

“I don’t have many friends. I’m not friendly or outgoing. I’m kind of a recluse most of the time. But that doesn't bother you. You’re like a tornado of post-teen energy. I can’t really look away at this point.” Rorschach admitted. And it was true. For some reason, she intrigued him.

“You’re adorable. So angsty. Like a ginger Bruce Wayne… just without all of the annoying ‘rich boy’ machismo.” The girl smirked into her mug of cocoa.

It was a strangely fitting assessment, little did she know.

“Adorable?” He looked at his companion as if she’s just spoken another language.

“Oh for sure! It’s funny though. You've got this... weirdly charming look to you.” Her analysis sounded lighthearted and informal, but something in her eyes told Rorschach that it was genuine.

He guessed if he were someone else he’d like her too. She was nice, in an energetic, ditzy sort of way. And he did find her pretty. Before he could reply, (Y/N) had her face pressed against the glass of the window beside her, admiring the snow.

He took the opportunity to change the subject.

"You like the Snow?" He noted.

"I love it. I'm from the south... We never get to see it." She said longingly.

"Maybe if you stay in the city you could see it more often." Rorschach muttered.

Her eyes were practically stars when she turned to smile at him.

"You think I should stay? But I thought you said it was dangerous."

"That was when you didn't know anyone here. You know someone now."

He sipped his coffee, his eyes flicking away from hers for a few long seconds.

“It’s getting kind of late. Whaddaya say, handsome… walk me home?” She said hopefully.

“…Ok.”

They payed for their drinks, and ventured back out onto the icy sidewalk.

(Y/N) grabbed Rorschach’s hand again as they walked. And, once again, he didn’t protest.

She yawned, leaning against him a bit.

“I’ve had the best time. I’m glad I saw you earlier.” She grinned.

“Letting you drag me around town isn’t the worst night I’ve had…” he replied.

A few minutes later, they arrived at an apartment building.

“Well…this is me. Thanks for the nice night.”

She fished a sharpie out of her backpack, grabbing his hand and scribbling her number on it.

“If you ever find yourself bored and want some company, let me know.” She said.

“I will.” He said, his hand suddenly feeling cold when she let go.

After a few seconds of tense silence, she finally balled her fists into the fabric of his coat, bringing him down for a kiss.

It was quick, and sweet… the same as the night they’d just had.

“Take it easy, Rorschach. And call me.”

With that, she gave a small wave as she disappeared inside.

“What the fuck…”

Rorschach repeated the question to himself dozens of times on the way back to Nite Owl’s apartment.

[teenwolffanclub-me]

Season 1, Episode 10: Co-Captain

Hey there beautiful reader! If you’re new here, this is a series I’m writing where each chapter is an episode from the first season of Teen Wolf. If you’ve been here before, hey! I missed you! Previous and future chapters are linked at the end of each part if you want to catch up.

Pairing: Stiles x Psychic! Reader (eventually)

Notes: I somehow forgot that Deaton existed until I wrote this. My bad guys, but he’s not really that relevant in the first season anyway so...

P.S. Kate needs a therapist, Sheriff Stilinski is kinda bad at his job, and so many people almost die. Seriously, it’s getting ridiculous at this point.

                                                    ————————

Lydia huffed in annoyance, struggling to keep up behind me in her high heeled boots. The ground crunched with each quick step I took, the dirt barely visible through a thick layer of dried leaves. I pulled the sides of my jacket tighter around my sides, feeling a chill run up my spine as a gust of cold air blew against me.

“Allison. When you said you needed to run an errand before we went shopping, a five mile hike in the woods was not what I was expecting.” Lydia had been complaining nonstop since we got here, and didn’t seem likely to give up anytime soon.

We’d been walking through Beacon Hills Preserve for at least ten minutes by now, Allison leading us with a big bag slung over her shoulder. She seemed aggravated, practically running with a tense look on her face. I had no idea what the hell we were doing. She’d been acting weird all week, more angry and on edge than usual.

We were supposed to be shopping for winter formal dresses at the mall. Lydia had been begging us to go all week, since the dance is next Friday. I kept dodging her invitation because there were just so many other things going on right now.

Me and the guys had spent the week trying to figure out where Peter’s been hiding, while keeping Jackson from spilling the werewolf beans to the whole school every time he got pissy.

I wasn’t sure who either of them were taking to the dance, and I honestly didn’t care much. I wasn’t planning on going. No one had asked me, and stuff like that wasn’t really my thing anyway. I definitely wasn’t annoyed that a certain spastic boy hadn’t even mentioned it yet. Not at all.

“Before I forget, I wanted to ask if you’re okay with something.” Allison quipped, not even bothering to turn around and look at us. “Jackson asked me to winter formal.”

My eyes widened and swept toward Lydia quickly to see her reaction. I wasn’t expecting that, even though the two of them had been incredibly flirty lately. It was obvious that Allison still had feelings for Scott, and Lydia for Jackson, so the whole thing was just a big mess.

“Did he?” She tried to sound unaffected as she nearly stumbled over a rock. My arm instinctively stuck out to steady her, and she sent me a small, grateful smile.

“Just as friends, but I wanted to make sure you were okay with it first.” 

Lydia pursed her glossed lips tightly and flicked a lock of hair away from her eyes. Her gloved hands tightened into fists at her sides. “Sure. As long as it’s just friends.”

Allison scoffed quietly, seemingly annoyed. I quirked a brow at her back in curiosity. Yeah, she and Lydia had a bit of a love hate relationship, but stealing her boyfriend was a little over the top. Something was clearly bothering her. I’d been trying to figure it out for days, but she never wanted to talk about it when I asked.

She stopped suddenly, and I nearly toppled over as I narrowly avoided running into her. Her bag dropped onto the leaf covered ground with a thud before she knelt down to unzip it. Lydia and I both watched in curious silence as she pulled out a huge bow and inspected it carefully.

It looked like something a professional would own. I’d nearly forgotten that she was into archery as a kid, but that thing was intense. Plus, why she felt the need to do this right now, on a Saturday afternoon while we were supposed to be shopping, I had no idea. She popped back to her feet quickly and screwed a big cylindrical arrowhead onto her arrow.

“What does that do?” Lydia shivered beside me and crossed her arms tightly as another gust of wind blew past us.

“We’re about to find out.” Allison muttered, more to herself than us, as she strung the bow.

She turned her back to us and raised her arms up beside her head. I watched closely as she narrowed her eyes and scanned the area for a good target. After a moment of wobbling, she let out a breath and squared her shoulders. Then, she let go.

The arrow whizzed through the air with a zip before landing in a tree a few yards away, immediately exploding with a bright waterfall of sparks.

I jumped back, not expecting that at all. “What the hell was that?”

That was not an ordinary arrow. I wondered for a moment how she even got it. It was most likely her dad’s, so she either stole it or knew way more about her family than she was letting on.

She dropped her arms with a jerk and whipped around to face us, her eyes glassy. Their hard edge had disappeared entirely, replaced now with something close to fear. “I need to tell you guys something. It’s going to sound really ridiculous and I-I don’t want you to laugh at me.”

Her sudden change in demeanor was a little jarring. It seemed like this was coming out of nowhere. I glanced at Lydia, who was doing a terrible job of hiding the fact that she thought she was completely crazy.

“We would never laugh at you.” I narrowed my eyes at Lydia, silently pleading with her to be nice. She just pouted and looked at Allison expectantly.

“It’s about my family.” Allison let out a heavy breath and wiped at her eyes. “Awhile ago, I caught them in a lie. A little one. But now, I’ve been overhearing some really strange conversations. I think...I think some of it has to do with Derek.”

“Derek?” I sputtered, my breath catching in my throat at his name. I’d learned earlier this week that he was, in fact, alive after our encounter with Peter. They’d both shown up at school a few days ago to intimidate Scott into joining their pack, which was honestly so much worse.

I let out a sigh and cleared my throat. “I mean, are you sure?”

She nodded, glancing around the trees as if he could be spying on us right now. “Yeah. I don’t think he is who he—”

She suddenly stopped, her whole body stiffening as something rustled in the leaves nearby. I watched her closely as she looked from side to side, wondering if something happened that she wasn’t telling me about. She was acting so jumpy and weird.

“Hold this.” She absentmindedly handed her bow to Lydia, who balanced it on her upturned palms as if one wrong move would set it off.

“What? Why?” Her emerald eyes widened in horror.

“Because I thought I heard something.” Allison whispered harshly, as if that would help the situation at all.

She turned her back to us and took a few timid steps forward.

“Allison,” I sighed, moving toward her. It was probably nothing. And if it wasn’t, she shouldn’t be the one going to investigate. “I’m sure it—”

She turned around just long enough to shush me before continuing on her way. I paused, my lips parting in surprise. Did she really just do that?

I stood in place, my eyes firmly planted on her back until she turned a corner, disappearing among the trees. I was ridiculously confused by her sudden personality change. Up until this week, she’d been terrified of anything even remotely out of the ordinary. Especially after we spent that night in the school.

“She’s being weird. Right?” Lydia breathed from beside me, still standing completely still and holding the bow gingerly.

I nodded, eyes narrowing in the direction she’d gone. I guess there was a chance the noise was something supernatural, but we were in the woods. It could’ve been anything and was most likely harmless. Still, part of me wanted to go after her and make sure she was okay.

“Very.” I moved to walk away, but stopped when Lydia’s panicked voice sounded from behind me.

“Um, absolutely not. You are not leaving me alone with this thing.” Her wide eyes glanced down at the bow apprehensively.

“Oh, for God’s sake...” I stepped toward her, quickly plucking it from her hands, and she visibly relaxed with a heavy sigh.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I dropped it on top of Allison’s bag. She was always so dramatic. I motioned for her to follow me and continued forward. Allison couldn’t have gotten far yet, so I figured we’d find her pretty quickly.

I rounded a corner and immediately staggered to a stop as my eyes landed on Allison only a few feet away. She was crouched on the ground hugging Scott, who looked like he’d just fallen or something. His eyes found mine and immediately widened as he shook his head frantically with a wave of his hand.

I whirled around and nearly ran right into Lydia. Her eyes narrowed into a glare as I grabbed her biceps and jerked her the other way. I had no idea what he was even doing here, but I didn’t want to ruin their moment. He’d been trying to get back on her good side, and apparently it was working if what I just saw was any indication.

“Y/N, what the hell is wrong with you?” Lydia snapped, turning her head to try and see what I was taking us away from.

“Uh. It was a...wolf.” I cringed at my pathetic attempt at lying. I’d always been complete shit at it.

She gave up on tying to see what it was and let me continue pushing her forward, but still glanced at me as if I’d lost my mind. “There haven’t been wolves in Beacon Hills in—”

“Sixty years. I know.” I let out a huff as we made it back to Allison’s bag, and finally released her.

If only she knew how wrong she was. 

                                                  —————————

I crossed my arms over my chest impatiently, watching as Stiles fumbled with his house key for several seconds before finally managing to push it into the doorknob. He was always such a spaz, no matter what he was doing.

We didn’t have much time, but in my experience, Stiles and rushing don’t mix well. We were only stopping here so that he could grab his laptop before we met up with Scott at his house. The three of us were trying our hardest to find a pattern in the people Peter was trying to turn, so that we could hopefully stop him before he kills anyone else. 

“Why would Jackson want to be a werewolf?” I asked slowly, not fully believing what he'd just told me.

He turned around long enough to twitch his eyes at me incredulously before facing the door again. “Because it’s Jackson.”

I mean, fair enough. 

I’d been delivering dinner for mom at the hospital when Scott texted us that he wanted to meet up. Stiles came to get me, since she would need the car to get home in the morning. On the way here, he’d filled me in on his and Scott’s afternoon.

The three of us had a new policy: no more secrets, and no more lies. 

They decided to follow Jackson after school because they still don’t trust him and also, they’re nosy as hell. Apparently, he didn’t make it far before being cornered by Mr. Argent, so it was a good thing they have no concept of healthy boundaries. The fact that they saved his ass didn’t stop him from threatening to out Scott—again—if he doesn’t give him what he wants.

Stiles also casually mentioned that the Argents are actively trying to kill the alpha and his beta, who they think could be Scott, Jackson, or Derek. 

Things were a shitshow, basically.

Stiles popped his front door open and I trailed in behind him. My eyes immediately landed on his dad, who was sitting at their dining room table surrounded by various documents. Stiles perked up at the sight and practically ran to his side.

“Whatcha doin’?” He sang, peering down at the mountain of papers.

“Work.” Mr. Stilinski muttered curtly, his brows furrowing as he scribbled something down onto a notepad.

“Anything I can help with?” Stiles’ voice rose eagerly as his eyes continued flickering around the table.

His dad let out a long sigh and rubbed a hand across his forehead. It looked like he hadn’t gotten a good nights sleep in days. “You know, if you poured me an ounce of whiskey, that’d be awful nice.”

Stiles jerked upright and nearly bolted to the kitchen. I just stood in place by the door, watching him curiously. It was like he’d completely forgotten that we were supposed to be doing something. He had a tendency to be forgetful, especially when stressed. I’d say he was pretty wired lately, since he could barely go a minute without worrying about Scott and all his werewolf issues. 

He reappeared in the doorway a few seconds later, the bottle of alcohol and a shot glass in hand, and quickly pulled out a chair next to his dad. I decided to join them because I was honestly really curious about what he was working on. Plus, getting Stiles back on track usually took a lot more effort than I was willing to give right now. 

“Any leads?” He put the stuff onto the table and picked up the closest paper to him.

“Hey.” Mr. Stilinski swatted his hand away before wagging a pencil disapprovingly. Stiles cried out dramatically and rubbed at his fingers. “You know I can’t discuss that with you.”

“What about with me?” I slid into a free chair on the other side of the table, my lips pulling up into a teasing smile. It instantly dropped at the unamused stare he gave me. 

Okay. Do not joke with a tired Sheriff. Got it. 

I cleared my throat and glanced at Stiles for help, only to find that he was already looking at me, an amused smile twitching at the edges of his lips. He was trying to be discreet about it, so his dad wouldn’t see, and it was ridiculously adorable. 

He sagged back into his chair with a sigh. “Son, the last thing I need right now is you and your girlfriend shoving your noses into my classified investigation, so if you could just—”

My heart nearly stopped beating in my chest at his words. I looked at Stiles with wide eyes, but he was too busy sputtering silently toward his dad to notice. “Uh, we aren’t—” 

We still hadn’t talked about that. Sure, we’ve kissed a few times, but we haven’t gone on a proper date or anything yet, and he didn’t even ask me to the dance. As far as I was concerned, we were...friends? That sometimes kiss?

“Yeah. No. We-we haven’t...” He rushed the words out as he finally remembered how to talk, his cheeks turning bright pink.

“Look. I don’t care.” His dad sighed before sliding his glasses off and massaging his temples. “Just please go do...anything else.”

“Alright. Fine.” Stiles started pouring a shot of the whiskey, his eyes widening after a moment as if an idea dawned on him. He kept going until the glass was almost full before sliding it across the table. “Bottoms up.”

He got up just as quickly as he’d sat down, striding around the table to take my hand in his. I nearly tripped over my own feet as he pulled me out of my chair and up the stairs quickly. He shoved his bedroom door open before practically throwing me inside and slamming it behind us. 

I just stared at him with wide eyes as he leaned back against it with a sigh. 

“I didn’t want him to notice what I did.” He glanced at me fleetingly before pushing himself off the door and walking briskly toward his desk. 

I swear, he never slows down. 

“Which is...?” I drawled, turning around to watch him dig through each of the wooden drawers. 

He tongue swept across his bottom lip in concentration. My eyes followed the movement, my own lip rolling between my teeth. I was always surprised that he could manage to make even the smallest things attractive. “I’m gonna get him drunk. He talks a lot when he’s drunk.”

“So that’s how you know so much about police stuff.” I wandered over to his bed and plopped down, figuring I might as well get comfortable if we were going to be in here for awhile.

He stopped rummaging through his stuff to frown at me. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Manipulating a Sheriff into giving you classified information? That one’s not exactly north on the moral compass.” I dragged my toes along the hardwood floors and leaned back on my palms.

He rolled his eyes and turned back to the desk, searching for another few seconds before letting out a frustrated huff. He practically slammed the last drawer closed. One of his hands came up to scratch at the side of his head as he turned and let his eyes flicker around the room. 

“Where the hell did I leave that thing?” He muttered, more to himself than me.

He suddenly perked up, as if remembering something, and took a few big steps toward the bed. He bent down in front of me and started moving his blankets around. I leaned to the side in an effort to give him more room, since it seemed like he somehow forgot I was sitting right here. My eyes flickered over his face, which was only a few inches away from mine. 

The window beside his bed let in just enough light to perfectly illuminate his freckled skin. It reflected off of his eyes, making them look like molten amber. His nose was scrunched adorably in concentration as he weaved around me to look for the laptop. He suddenly stopped fidgeting and moved back slightly. 

“Ah ha! Got ya, you little...” He trailed off as his eyes met mine. He froze, as if only just then realizing how close we were. 

I stole a glance at his lips before deciding to close the distance between us. It was hard to think about anything else but kissing him when he was this close. My hands moved up to the sides of his face and I tugged him those last few inches closer. When my lips slanted over his, he stiffened against me, as if caught off guard. The contact only lasted a few seconds before he pulled back with with shaky breath. 

I took one look at his stunned expression and erupted into a fit of giggles. 

“What?” He frowned and moved away, his eyes searching mine.

“Why do you always kiss me like you think I’m going to punch you in the face right after?” I chuckled and let my hands drop back down to my lap.

It looked like he was about to argue as his mouth opened and closed a few times. He eventually just dragged his tongue against the inside of his cheek and sighed in defeat. “I just—uh. I want you to be comfortable, and I don’t want you to think that I want you to do something that you don’t want to do.”

My brows furrowed as I tried to figure out what the hell he just said. 

“I’m gonna go check on my dad.” He jerked up to his full height and rubbed at the back of his neck before practically running out the door. 

I watched it bounce off the wall from the force he’d used to open it, and shook my head in amusement. I wasn’t sure how he still managed to be such a spaz around me after all this time, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t endearing as hell. After a few seconds, I wandered out of his room and down the stairs to join him.

“You know, Derek Hale would be a hale—” My eyes landed on Mr. Stilinski, still sitting in the same position we’d left him in, as he stopped slurring for a moment to chuckle at his own slip up. “A hell of a lot easier to catch if we could get an actual picture of him.”

Stiles was sitting in the spot beside him again, already nose deep in some document. I padded over to the table and slid into the empty chair on the other side of the table. I finally processed his words and looked at him in question. They didn’t have a single picture of Derek? He’d been arrested at least two separate times now. How was that possible?

“How do you not have a picture of him?” Stiles’ eyebrows pinched as he voiced my thoughts perfectly.

His dad peeled a small piece of paper off the table and studied it as if it held a code he had yet to decipher. “It’s the weirdest thing. It’s like, every time I try to get a mugshot, there’s like two laser beams pointing at the camera...”

Stiles ripped the picture out of his hands and inspected it closely. I leaned over the table to get a look, my eyes widening at what I saw. It was definitely Derek, but only a fraction of his face was visible through the two bright circles that took up most of the shot.

“Nice.” I breathed before sitting back down, honestly impressed. That was a pretty cool trick and could probably come in handy later on.

“Oh my God.” Mr. Stilinski groaned and slid his glasses off before leaning back in his chair and rubbing his hands down his face. “That ounce hit me like a brick. I’ve said way too much, and if you repeat any of this...”

“Dad. It’s me. I’m not gonna say anything. Come on.” Stiles scoffed and put the picture down, as if his dad questioning him at all was offensive.

The Sheriff’s eyes swept toward me and I swallowed, feeling nervous under his intense gaze. It was like he couldn’t turn off the whole cop thing. Or maybe he just really didn’t like me. I looked away from him and picked up a nearby file to distract myself.

“And Y/N, she’s ya know, trustworthy...too.” A frown pulled at my lips. That stuttering mess made me sound anything but. How did he still manage to be awkward even in front of his own dad?

“See, the thing is, they’re all connected.” Mr. Stilinski started, that jumble of words apparently enough to convince him to continue. “The bus driver that was killed was the insurance investigator assigned to the Hale house fire.”

My eyes widened as I realized I was looking at that very man’s file. I flitted through the pages quickly, looking for anything relevant. 

“Terminated under suspicion of fraud.” I read the words slowly, wondering if it had anything to do with the fire.

I glanced up toward Stiles, who fidgeted in his seat uncomfortably before moving his attention to his dad. “Alright. Who else?”

“The video store clerk who got his throat slashed? A convicted felon with a history of arson.” 

“What about the other two guys? The ones in the woods?” My eyes swept back to Stiles quickly. I’d nearly forgotten about them. They were “mysteriously” killed the night Stiles took Scott into the preserve to get drunk after Allison broke up with him. 

“Priors all over their records. Including—”

“Arson?” I quipped, putting the pieces together easily.

Every single murder was connected to the Hale house fire. But why?

He breathed out a heavy sigh and let the papers he was holding flutter back down to the table. “There’s just so many questions. I mean, if Derek wanted to kill everyone involved with the fire, why start with his sister? She didn’t have anything to do with it. You know, why make it look like some kind of animal did it?”

Stiles looked away from him, his jaw clenching. His eyes flickered to mine fleetingly before moving down to his fingers as he tapped them on the edge of the table, his brows furrowing.

“And, when that cougar showed up in the parking lot, I checked with animal control. Did you know that the incidents of wild animal reports are up seventy percent over the last few months? It’s like they’re just going crazy and running out of the woods.”

It was in that moment, as I saw him so confused and dejected, that a heavy wave of realization crashed down onto my shoulders. Allison wasn’t the only one being hurt by the secrets in Beacon Hills. Not even close. There were so many layers to the problems that all of this shit had created. I hadn’t even considered how it would effect people like Stiles’ dad. 

But it made total sense. Of course, how would they solve any of these cases without the most important piece? He’d run himself into the ground trying to figure out the impossible. Until he knew about the supernatural aspect, he wasn’t going to make any progress. The thought made my heart twist uncomfortably in my chest.

I finally realized how much it was weighing on Stiles, too. It was clear that it pained him not to tell his dad everything. His jaw was tight as Mr. Stilinski rambled on about the unknown, his lips rolled into a thin line. He couldn’t sit still for more than a few seconds, and he kept fidgeting with his fingers. 

It dawned on me then, too, that he wasn’t just complacent in all the lying like I thought this whole time. He was a caretaker. He quite literally couldn’t help but try to protect everyone around him all at once. I had a feeling that even if Scott said it was okay to tell his dad everything, he still wouldn’t.

“Or something’s scaring them out.” Stiles finally sighed, looking defeated. 

Just then, both of our phones dinged with a notification. I pulled mine out of my pocket, brows furrowing at the somewhat incoherent text we’d gotten from Scott.

Mom. Date. PETER!

A second later, another message came through.

MY MOM IS ON A DATE WITH PETER. FREAKING OUT. HELP.

Holy shit. What? That is beyond bad. That’s so fucking terrible I can’t even put it into words. 

My eyes jerked up when Stiles’ chair scraped against the hardwood floors loudly. He bolted to his feet and practically ran around the table, grabbing my arm in the process. He muttered something about us having to be somewhere over his shoulder, but his dad was too far gone to think twice about our quick departure anyway.

We scrambled out the door and into his Jeep, peeling out of the driveway as I recited the address and license plate Scott had sent over. Neither of us said a word as he sped to the other side of town.

After several tense minutes, I spotted the car up ahead. My eyes widened as I realized that it was parked on the side of the road. That couldn’t be good. I saw the silhouette of a man in the driver’s seat, but couldn’t find anyone else inside. 

Oh, God. I hope we aren’t too late.  

“There.” I said, pointing at the car. Stiles immediately veered off the road, but he wasn’t slowing down. I put my hands on the dash for support and looked over at him frantically. “Uh...Stiles?”

I lurched forward, my seatbelt digging into my shoulder as he slammed into the rear bumper of the car. My jaw dropped in shock as smoke started pouring out from under the Jeep’s hood, which was now bent. 

The passenger door in front of us popped open, a very angry looking Ms. McCall tumbling out. “Oh, God! Stiles!”

Well, at least she was still alive.

“Ms. McCall?” He scrambled out of the Jeep, looking flustered despite doing that very much intentionally. 

“Yes!” She threw her hands up in exasperation as she walked around to survey the damage. 

“Wow. Well, this is just crazy. What a coincidence!” Stiles chuckled nervously as he met her between the cars. 

I threw my door open and slid out, immediately shivering as the freezing night air wafted over my skin. My head tilted up to the sky as it started sprinkling. Great. That’s just what we need right now. I came to a stop beside Stiles, crossing my arms tightly over my chest to hold in of my warmth.

“I-I really don’t know what happened. You guys came out of nowhere.” He let out a huff and put his hands on his hips, eyes twitching as he raised his eyebrows, hoping she would buy the excuse. 

“Came out of nowhere? We were parked on the side of the road, Stiles!” Yeah, she so wasn’t believing any of this for a second. 

“How crazy is that?” His voice rose with panic as Peter came striding toward us, looking equally as unamused. “Man, we should probably call the cops. Do like an accident report or something?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Peter drawled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. What was with the Hale’s and leather? Was it a fashion statement? A werewolf thing? Or did they just not own anything else?

Either way, being this close to him was making my skin crawl.

“Are you sure?” One of Stiles’ eyes squinted shut as he lifted a hand to rub at the back of his neck with a forced grimace. “I think I’m feeling a little bit of whiplash.”

“Whiplash?” It looked like Ms. McCall was going to injure him herself as her voice became sharp with frustration. “You hit us!”

Peter suddenly turned his back to us and began muttering something under his breath. I peered around Ms. McCall’s shoulder and watched as he seemingly talked to himself. My brows furrowed in confusion and I pulled my phone out of my pocket. As I suspected, there was a new text from Scott saying that he was here a few minutes ago. 

I looked around, but couldn’t find him anywhere. My eyes landed on Peter again as he continued taking slow steps away from us. He was clearly talking to Scott, who would be able to hear him from a good distance away. But where was he?

“You know what, I seriously can’t do this right now.” Ms. McCall threw her hands up and walked back to the car with a huff. 

Without thinking too hard about it, I started walking toward Peter. I wanted to know what he was saying, and what the hell he thought he was doing by going after Scott’s mom. If I stopped for even a second I would’ve realized how epically stupid that was, but at the current moment I was too angry to care. For some reason, putting a human face to the alpha had made him just a little less scary. 

I only made it a few steps before a firm hand on my wrist stopped me. I turned to see Stiles staring at me with wide eyes. “Are you out of your freakin’ mind?”

At the touch of his skin on mine, I suddenly felt like the earth shifted beneath my feet. I staggered back a step, a gasp escaping me as a vivid image of Scott flashed in my mind. The only thing I could see was his face, scrunched into a pained grimace.

Stiles ripped his hand away and I was dropped harshly back into the present. “Whoa. What? What?”

I stumbled to the side, feeling lightheaded, and met his wide eyes. He stared at me with parted lips, his eyebrows raised in shock. The vision had come and gone too fast for me to see what was going on, but I knew it couldn’t be good as my stomach tightened uncomfortably.

“Do that again.” I rushed the words out in one breath. “Touch me again.”

He stammered silently for a few seconds, his confused eyes searching mine. I jutted my arm out toward him expectantly and he rolled his lips into a thin line, looking uneasy. After a few moments of hesitation, he slowly wrapped his hand around my wrist again. 

My eyes fluttered closed as the image of Scot instantly returned. I could no longer feel the rain on my face or the chill of the night air. I was just looking down at Scott, watching as he writhed around on the leaf covered ground, a wet stain on his shirt just below his heart slowly expanding.

A thick liquid stained his lips and chin. It looked like blood, but was almost black. He took in a hoarse breath, his chest heaving from the effort.

Suddenly, my eyes snapped open with a jolt. I nearly toppled over as my legs gave out under me. Stiles wrapped his hands around my biceps and studied with me a hard look. I blinked at him a few times, trying to get my eyes to refocus.

“I’m sorry, but I had to stop. It looked like you were in pain. What the hell was that?” His voice was tight with concern as his eyes flickered around my face.

I rubbed a hand against my chest in an effort to steady my breathing. My head pounded harshly as I looked around, trying to convince myself that I was actually back in the present. 

“We need to go. Right now.” I made a move toward the Jeep, but Stiles stood firmly in place, stopping me easily. 

He gave me a hard look and shook me slightly as he spoke. “Okay. You’re really starting to freak me out. What’s going on right now?”

“I’ll explain on the way. Just...please. Trust me.” His eyes twitched as he swallowed slowly. I tried my hardest to silently convey how serious this was. If we were going to make it to Scott before whatever the hell that was happened, we needed to go. Now. 

He hesitated a moment, looking at me as if he wasn’t convinced of my sanity, but eventually nodded in agreement. I let out a breath of relief, casting a final quick glance at Ms. McCall and Peter as I climbed into the Jeep. I was nervous about leaving her with him, but right now Scott was the priority. 

I just hoped we would get there in time. 

                                                —————————

I squinted through the darkness, using my phone’s flashlight to help illuminate our path as we walked through the woods. It was nearly midnight now, the sun long gone. I was starting to lose hope that we would find Scott. It looked like he was somewhere in the preserve during my vision, but we had yet to run into a single other living thing yet. With each passing minute, it seemed more and more likely that I was actually just crazy.

“So I’m your anchor? Me. Stiles.” He asked from beside me, for the third time in ten minutes.

I sighed, pulling his jacket tighter against me as a gust of wind brushed along the back of my neck. He’d given it to me without hesitation when we got out of the car, already assuming I’d be cold. Since we had nothing else to do while looking for Scott, I told him about what I saw by the cars and explained how Derek helped me with my visions last week. 

He wasn’t happy, to put it mildly. He probably hated the guy more than any of us, and had since let me know how much he despised the idea of me being alone with him. Repeatedly. 

“Don’t go getting a big head about it.” I quipped, mostly joking. “I’m sure I could pick a new one if I wanted to.”

He stopped walking and looked over at me, utterly offended. When he leaned forward to narrow his eyes, I noticed something over his shoulder. I took a big step toward him and shoved his head out of the way quickly.

“Hey! What the hell was—”

“Oh my God.” My heart instantly started hammering in my chest as I saw a crumpled figure a few feet ahead. “Scott!”

As I sprinted toward him, I heard a low, pained groan. Within seconds, I fell onto my knees beside him. His eyes were fluttering as he stared vacantly up into the sky and clutched his injured side. My hands twitched in the air above him, wanting to help but having no idea what to do. Thick smoke started pouring out between his fingers, and I reeled back in disgust. 

Stiles scrambled to his other side a moment later, wide eyes flickering back and forth between Scott and I as if he couldn’t believe that I was right. Honestly, I couldn’t either.

“Allison...” Scott choked the word out, barely able to get a breath in. 

“Seriously?” I shouted urgently as panic surged through me. “You’re literally dying and that’s all you can say? What the hell happened?”

“Derek...Jackson was...” He sputtered and coughed, thick blood oozing from his mouth.

I groaned in frustration. This whole gasping out one word at a time thing was not working for me. I looked up at Stiles desperately. “We have to do something.”

“Uh. Right. Okay...” I could practically see the gears turning in his head as his eyes flickered around spastically before finally coming back to mine. “The clinic. We have to take him to the clinic.”

“What?” I breathed, surprised by the suggestion. 

“Just, come on. We don’t have much time.” 

We both draped each of Scott’s arms over our shoulders and started dragging him back the way we came. I was obviously Incredibly freaked out because he was dying right in front of us, but I was angry, too. I was so mad at myself for not being able to see this sooner. If I had control over my visions, we could’ve been here before he even got hurt. I couldn’t help but feel partially to blame for the whole thing. 

Within minutes we were barreling through the vet clinic’s doors. We came in using the garage, the same way Scott had told us to when Derek was in this same position. It was obvious that he’d been shot with a bullet covered in wolf’s bane, since he wasn’t healing at all. Stiles and I dropped him onto one of the metal operating tables the second we got in the room.

He was passed out cold at this point. I bent over to rest my hands on my knees, my chest heaving with labored breaths. He was heavy as shit, and Stiles and I aren’t exactly the peak of fitness. After I caught my breath, I stood up straight and immediately froze at the sight of Deaton in the doorway.

He was just standing there, observing us curiously. We were so screwed. He could charge us with breaking and entering, at the very least. Plus, Scott was laying on his table with a bullet hole in his chest. There was absolutely no way to explain this, and we didn’t have time anyway.

“Uh...” I stammered, not sure what to say. 

“Remove his shirt.” Deaton said slowly, his eyes firmly planted on Scott as he walked across the room. 

Stiles and I exchanged a quick glance, but did as he said. I grimaced and reared back as I saw the bullet wound properly for the first time. It was still discharging that weird smoke and was oozing a thick, nasty looking black liquid. Deaton returned to the table with a pair of long tweezers, gauze, and a small jar. He looked strangely calm as he peered down at Scott’s unconscious frame.

“I thought you were a vet.” My eyes trailed over him as he snapped on a pair of medical gloves. I appreciated the help from an adult right now, but he wasn’t exactly a doctor.

He glanced at me fleetingly before picking up the tweezers. “That’s correct. And ninety percent of the time I’m mostly treating cats and dogs.”

“Mostly?” Stiles muttered from beside me, his eyes glistening down at Scott with worry. 

Deaton paused just before digging the tweezers into Scott’s side. He looked at the two of us, a small smile pulling at his lips as if he knew something we didn’t. “Mostly.”

Just then, my phone started ringing loudly. I winced at the high pitched tone and reached into my back pocket to fish it out, but stilled when I came up empty. My brows furrowed as I patted my hands against my jeans. I could’ve sworn I put it back in there once we found Scott. 

“What are you doing?” Stiles eyed me curiously from the other end of the table. 

“Have you seen my phone?” I muttered, walking around the room to look around the floor. The ringing kept getting progressively louder, to the point that it was almost painful. I rubbed at my ears as I continued searching. 

“Y/N...” Something about his tone made my attention snap back to him. I glanced down at his hand as he held it out toward me. “You dropped it in the woods so I picked it up...”

My breath caught in my throat as I looked down at the screen. It was black. There was no one calling me, but I could still hear the ringing even now. It didn’t make any sense. I took it from him with a shaky hand, avoiding his concerned gaze. I nearly jumped out of my skin as it started actually going off the second my fingers touched it. 

My eyes flickered up toward Stiles and Deaton, who were both watching me closely. I cleared my throat and turned my back to them before answering. 

“Y/N!” Allison yelled harshly, panic clear in her voice. I immediately stiffened. What more could go wrong tonight? “You’re never going to fucking believe this.”

“What?” I breathed, my heart already beating erratically in my chest with anticipation.

“My aunt just showed me this creepy room we have in our basement—which I didn’t even know was a thing by the way—and you’ll never believe who she has chained up in there.”

I blinked a few times, taking a moment to process what she said. “Allison, just spit it out already.”

“Derek fucking Hale! And—and that’s not all. He was...he’s. Oh my God, I can’t even say it. He’s a...a...”

I pinched my eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable bomb to drop. How did he always manage to get himself in these ridiculous situations? Like, are you kidding me right now? As if dealing with Peter wasn’t enough, he goes and gets himself kidnapped by the Argents too.  I turned back around to face Stiles and Deaton, my gaze shifting to the fresh bandage on Scott’s side. I took the relieved look in their eyes as a good sign that he was going to be okay. I held onto the small hope that Allison’s innocence had been preserved and she wasn’t about to say what I thought.

“You’re going to think I’m crazy, but he’s—she said that he’s a...werewolf.”

Yeah, I knew we weren’t that lucky.

Episode 9                   Episode 11

[excitedlysuffering]

Quarantine Headcanons: Akatsuki Edition

I didn’t add Zetsu and Tobi cuz I don’t really know much about them🥴 anyways hope you enjoy this midnight post❤️

Pein~

• Oh, he’s ready to cry

• Even though he’s always holed up in his office anyways, all the members of his organization are not usually under the same roof

• After three days he’s seriously contemplating killing the whole group and starting fresh with a less chaotic group

• Thank Jashin for Konan

• He gets his work done a lot sooner since he has no meetings or missions to distract him

• Probably ends up with a few new piercings just cuz he’s that bored

• He loses count how many times he redoes his nails, just for some sort of stimulation

• Not like any disease could kill him so what’s the point of this again??

• Overall, his coping skills are practically non-existent

Konan~

• She’s not overly upset

• She knows how to avoid the stifling testosterone and put an end to conflict

• She bakes a lot at first to pass the time and learn something new

• That only lasts a little over a week before she gets bored (much to everyone’s dismay)

• Does TONS of origami

• Takes the time to learn extremely advanced designs she’d always been too busy for

• A lot of time spent with relaxing with Pein

• She kinda gives up on her nails for the time being

• No one’s going to marvel at them before they die, so what’s the point?

• She is okay with the quarantine but does struggle a little

Itachi~

• He’s worried

• He already has a respiratory disease, he does not need another one

• He plans on dying because of Sasuke, not some hyped up flu

• Is extremely careful

• Masks, gloves, sanitizer, and Lysol everywhere

• Germaphobe™

• If he can, he’ll stay in his room as much as possible

• That one stickler that is like “dId YoU wAsH yOuR hAnDs?”

• He’s usually so calm and collected, but he turns into a frantic hoarder

• Food, toilet paper, and everything he could need all in his room

• Did someone just cough twice?

• That person wakes up in an isolated room where they are locked in for 72 hrs

• His nails go to crap cause he bites them incessantly nowadays

• Poor Itachi is just miserable the whole time

Kisame~

• He has a healthy level of fear

• He’s not going to town every day and exposing himself to it, but he won’t stay completely isolated like his partner

• Really doesn’t care for everyone’s over the top reactions

• He realllyyyy hates being surrounded by all the conflicts amongst the team

• He def misses Itachi since his partner is literally avoiding everything that breathes

• Has to sneak to feed Samehada using his team’s chakra

• Spends a lot of time at the nearby lake since his spot is open

• Kinda confused what the hype is about

• ‘Most people don’t die, get over it’ type of attitude

• He won’t care and no one can make him care

• Okay, but he’s half-shark are human diseases really a problem for him?

• Kisame is chill is nails stay impeccable

• He’s doing alright

Kakuzu~

• Oh, he’s pissed

• He can’t go on missions and he can’t earn money

• Plus, his dramatic teammates destroying things costing him extra money

• Definitely has a few of Hidan’s body parts laying around

• “If you leave me alone you can have them back”

• At first, he’s okay

• He counts his money all day in self-isolation

• But except for losing money, his finances are stagnant

• He actually gets BORED of counting money. Quarantine is that bad

• He fights Hidan a lot so he can have something to do

• Lots of decapitation

• He makes someone else do his nails he has no patience left

• He copes better than most, but still has a bit of a hard time

Hidan~

• This annoying mofo

• He’s excited

• Spends sooooo much time praying to Jashin

• He tries so hard to convert the others that as soon as they see him they hide

• It only took two days for him to realize it’ll be harder to find sacrifices

• Definitely tries to sacrifice Deidara

• “C’mon, gender-bend, don’t you want to finally be useful?!”

•’He’s not so excited anymore after about a week

• Is more irritable and confrontational

• Being stuck in close confines with someone who likes to decapitate you for weeks tends to do that to a person

• This masochistic boi. He really exposes himself to it

• Wants to feel the pAiN

• This time Itachi cuts him up (full hazmat suit donned ofc)

• He ends up locking himself in his room

• Spends A LOT of time with Jashin because he knows he’s going crazy

• A stir-crazy Hidan is a more dangerous than usual Hidan

• He honestly has whole conversations with EACH INDIVIDUAL NAIL as he paints them

•He is 100% suffering the whole time

Sasori~

• “Wait, we’ve been under quarantine for a week?”

• Sasori is always self quarantined in his room working on puppets and avoiding the idiots he surrounded with

• He’s happy at first

• He literally doesn’t have to leave his room for anything

• That turns to dread real quick

• Deidara gets bored very easily and there are holes in his bedroom walls and destroyed puppets to prove it

• A little bit of poison puts an end to that problem

• No one really sees much of him during the quarantine

• “Hey… I haven’t seen Sasori in like a month. Is he even alive??”

• You know he collects bodies of the shinobi that died for new puppets

• He’s not scared in the slightest

• He doesn’t have a respiratory system so no worries there

• His nails are probably a new color everyday despite the fact that no one ever sees them

• Oh Sasori is thriving and surviving like nobodies businessss

Deidara~

• Ha! qUaRaNtInE!

• If Deidara wants to leave the base, you’d best believe he will leave the base sauntering out like a true diva

• No one wants to stop him tho

• Deidara doesn’t give two flying fricks if he’s inside or not, he will make ART

• Oh he’s extra chaotic

• Pranks 24/7

• Almost scares Itachi to death waltzing into his room coughing like he’s about to die

• Sasori realizes his puppets are going missing one by one and his poison is… juice?

• Deidara goes missing too

• Pein literally makes him leave for a week

• He destroyed a city so he’s back now

• He literally doesn’t care

• He’s a teen, no flu will kill him

• Goes out of his way to cause trouble

• Until he sees how actually panicked some of his teammates are

• He actually helps out, buying supplies and running a few errands here and there

• Actually takes time to decorate his nails. Explosions painted on and everything

• He’s two steps away from a bedazzled straight jacket and a padded room by the time this is over

[splendidlyimperfect]

When Natsu runs into five-year-old Sting and Rogue at the Grand Magic Games, he thinks they're cute kids with a serious case of hero worship. But when it turns out that they're both Dragon Slayers and they belong to the ruthless Sabertooth Guild, something doesn't feel quite right. Natsu and Gray quickly grow protective of the two little kids, and they do their best to build a relationship with them to try to keep them safe and figure out what exactly is going on at Sabertooth. 

Chapters (1/?): 1 Fandom: Fairy Tail Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Gray Fullbuster, Rogue Cheney/Sting Eucliffe, Laxus Dreyar/Freed Justine Additional Tags: Canon Universe, Not Canon Compliant, like not even close, Dai Matou Enbu | Grand Magic Games Arc, Sort Of, Childhood Friends, Cute Kids, Hero Worship, Fairy Tail Dragon Slayers, Protectiveness, protective Natsu, Protective Gray, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Parenthood, sorta - Freeform, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trans Character, Nonbinary Character, Trans Gray, Trans Sting, Nonbinary Rogue, they're just adorable baby dragon slayers and Natsu wants to adopt them, and kind of does, Mutual Pining, because Gray and Natsu are idiots

a/n:  so this fic basically took a look at canon, told it to fuck off, and then kinda wrote itself. tenrou never happened, fairy tail and sabertooth are both competing in the grand magic games, but sting and rogue are only five and not on the team yet. also, dragon slaying is just a type of magic and doesn't actually come from dragons (plus the slayers all have awesome scales).

art is mine

-----

“I’m Sting and I’m five.”

Natsu frowned, setting down the fruit he’d been inspecting and looking around for the source of the voice. Eventually there was a tug on his pants, and he looked down to see a little blond boy staring up at him.

“Hey, bud,” Natsu said, glancing around the market for the kid’s parents. “Are you lost?”

“Nu-uh.” Sting shook his head. “You’re Natsu! I know ‘cause your hair is pink an’ I saw you on the screen.” He pointed to the enormous lacrima overlooking the market that was showing the highlights from the morning’s fights. The Grand Magic Games logo flashed in the bottom corner as Natsu’s face filled the screen, brows furrowed in concentration as he tag-teamed against another guild with Gray.

“See?” Sting looked pleased with himself and grinned, and when Natsu saw pointy incisors poking out over his lip, he raised an eyebrow.

“Those are some pretty sharp teeth,” he said, flashing his own in a wide smile.

Continue reading on AO3

“I’m a dragon slayer too!” Sting said, nearly vibrating with excitement. His eyes were wide and as bright blue as the summer sky, and he had a wild smattering of freckles across his nose. Now that Natsu was looking for it, he could just barely see the pearlescent white sheen of dragon scales that ran from Sting’s temples down the sides of his face to his neck.  

“You are, huh?” Natsu crouched down next to Sting, who bounced on the balls of his feet. The scales were similar to Natsu’s own, and he had the faint scent of draconic magic, but Natsu only knew two other slayers that had been born with the power – Wendy and Gajeel. It was an incredibly rare power, and something about the situation didn’t feel quite right.

“What kind of dragon slayer?” he asked as he tried to pick out what was masking the dragon scent. There was something else, something familiar that faded away each time he tried to remember it.

“A brave one!” Sting grinned. “Like you! An’ when I’m big I’m gonna win too ‘cause I’m super strong. Me an’ Rogue!”

“Rogue?”

Sting turned to stare at the soft shadow of the fruit stand that spread out in the afternoon sun and put his hands on his hips. “Rooooogue,” he grumbled, poking it with his toe. “Come out!” The shadow wobbled. “Please?”

Natsu frowned as the shadow on the ground shifted, coalescing as it rose and forming into another small child. They were thin and lean where Sting was still round and baby-faced, with long dark hair that hung in front of their face. It didn’t quite conceal their own scales – dark where Sting’s were light.

“That’s Rogue!” Sting said brightly, grabbing Rogue’s hand as they shifted uncertainly. “They’re shy. But they’re my best friend. Who’s your best friend?”

Natsu laughed at Sting’s wild exuberance. “Uh, probably Gray,” he admitted.

“Gray is your best friend?” Sting asked, eyes wide as he pulled Rogue closer to him. Natsu nodded. “You did a fight with him today! He’s super strong. But not as strong as you ‘cause you’re the strongest.”

“Is that so?”

Another shadow appeared behind Natsu followed by a chill breeze and the scent of peppermint. He looked up to see Gray standing above him, arms crossed over his chest with an amused look on his face.

“Hey, he’s only speaking he truth,” Natsu said, grinning and pushing himself to his feet. Gray rolled his eyes. “This is Sting and Rog—”

“Can you make anything out of ice?” Sting interrupted, taking a step forward and staring up at Gray.

“Yeah, I guess so?” Gray said. “As long as I know what it looks like.”

“Can you make a snake?”

Rogue, who had moved to hide behind Sting, perked up at the suggestion. Natsu watched the nervous expression on their face transform into a shy smile as Gray held out his hands. Snowflakes spiraled out from his fingertips in pretty patterns, then coalesced in his palm, swirling together into the form of a tiny snake.

“Whooooa,” Sting said, leaning forward to stare at it. “Can I have it?” Rogue kicked the back of his leg and whispered something, and Sting quickly added, “Please.”

Gray laughed, handing the ice sculpture to Sting, who said a quick thank you, then promptly turned around and held it out to Rogue.

“It’s for you!” he said, grinning. “Snakes are Rogue’s favorite,” Sting explained to Gray as Rogue took the sculpture and gazed at it with a tiny smile on their face.

The conversation was interrupted by a muffled burst of static from the lacrima screen, which was followed quickly by an announcement from the stands, marking the twenty-minute countdown to the start of the next event.

“We’re not up, are we?” Natsu asked, squinting at the screen.

Gray shook his head. “Nah, it’s Erza. We should head up to watch, though.”

Natsu nodded, then looked back at Sting and Rogue. “Where are your parents?” he asked.

Sting’s bright smile darkened for a second. “Gone,” he said. Then he quickly added, “We got a guild though.” He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt to show them the mark there – a while tiger’s head.

“You guys are with Sabertooth?” Natsu asked, giving Gray an uncertain look. Sabertooth had almost won the games last year, and Erza had barely managed to pull Fairy Tail to a victory. The guild was strong, but they were also known for their ruthlessness, which seemed incredibly at odds with Sting’s bright personality.

“Yeah!” Sting wrapped his arm around Rogue. “When we get bigger, we’re gonna be on the team an’ be the strongest and win!”

“Oh yeah?” Natsu raised an eyebrow, trying to hide a smile. “You think you’re gonna beat me?”

“Oh.” Sting frowned as if he hadn’t considered the idea. Then he perked up again. “That’s in lots of years so you’ll be too old to fight an’ we’ll fight different persons.”  

Gray burst out laughing, slapping Natsu’s shoulder. “Yeah, pyro, you’ll be ancient in a few years, don’t you know?”

“Shut up,” Natsu said, rolling his eyes and swatting away Gray’s hand. “All right you two, where’s your guild sitting?”

Sting chewed his lip. “We’re not allowed,” he said, looking back at Rogue, who nodded.

Natsu frowned as the uneasy feeling in his stomach intensified. Sting seemed like a sweet kid, but he and Rogue certainly weren't old enough to be wandering around Crocus on their own .

“You’re not allowed to sit with your guild?”

“Master said we have to be bigger,” Sting said sullenly. He kicked at a rock on the ground. “An’ stronger.”

“Asshole,” Gray muttered, glaring up at the screen. Jiemma, the master of Sabertooth, was featured in the pan-over of the crowd, large and imposing with his arms crossed over his chest.

“What’s a asshole?” Sting asked, and Natsu sighed, elbowing Gray in the ribs before shaking his head.

“Not a word for little kids,” Natsu said. Before Sting could argue that he wasn’t little, Natsu added, “How ‘bout you two come sit with us?”

Sting’s eyes widened and he stared up at Natsu in shock. “With you?”

“Yup.”

Gray gave Natsu a look that clearly meant we’re not here to babysit, but Natsu ignored him and held out his hand to Sting.

“C’mon,” he said, smiling when Sting tentatively took his hand, Rogue trailing along behind him. “Come meet Fairy Tail.”

~

And that was how Natsu ended up spending the afternoon with an excitable, incredibly talkative five-year-old in his lap. Sting was remarkably well-versed in magic for someone so young, and Natsu was impressed by his ability to quickly assess the player’s strengths and weaknesses. He also had a million questions that Natsu had trouble keeping up with.

“Where Erza’s armor goes when she stops using it?”

“Why Lucy’s keys don’t need a door?”

“Where does Gray’s ice come from?”

“Is Laxus made of lightning?”

“Did Gajeel’s piercings hurt?”

Rogue, meanwhile, sat quietly between Gray and Natsu, watching the battles with the intensity of someone much older. They held the snake ice sculpture on their lap the whole time, looking down at it with a shy smile when they thought nobody was looking.

“Who are the brats?” Laxus asked when he rejoined the group after his event, raising his eyebrow at the two kids. Sting turned to scowl at him but brightened when he realized who it was.

“I’m Sting and that’s Rogue and we’re dragon slayers too!” He bounced in Natsu’s lap, staring up at the scales on Laxus’ face. “I’m gonna be strong like Natsu when I grow up.”

“You are, huh?” Laxus sat down next to them, taking up enough room for three people. “You look pretty scrawny to me.” Sting huffed at him and Laxus laughed. “Well, hothead here wasn’t very big at your age either, so you might have a chance.”

“You knowed Natsu when he was little?”

Laxus laughed. “Yup. He used to follow me around all the time, asking me to—”

“Nobody wants to hear about that,” Natsu said quickly, kicking Laxus in the ankle and glaring at him.

“No, we definitely do,” Gray said, leaning on the railing and looking around Rogue at Laxus.

“Oh, fu—”

“Language,” Gray interrupted, grinning at Natsu. “Don’t wanna corrupt the kids.”

“What ‘corrupt’ means?” Sting asked, looking over at Gray.

“It means that Natsu says bad words that you shouldn’t say.”

“I wasn’t the one who called Jiemma an asshole,” Natsu protested, then winced as Sting frowned at him. He was about to apologize when Sting looked away, then quickly turned back to Laxus.

“Why your eye is like that?” he asked, pointing to Laxus’ scar.

Gray and Natsu both cringed at the question, but surprisingly, Laxus didn’t react. “It happened a long time ago,” was all he said, then in an unusual display of affection, he ruffled Sting’s hair. “You get lots of scars fighting bad guys.”

“Me too!” Sting said excitedly. He squirmed in Natsu’s lap and looked at him again, the slight against his guild master clearly forgotten. “I’m gonna fight lots of bad guys and be just like you.”

Something warm spread through Natsu’s chest at Sting’s worshipful gaze. It ached in a soft, quiet way, and it took him a second to realize that it reminded him of the way he used to look at his father. Thoughts of quiet nights in front of the fire surfaced in his mind, time spend talking with his dad about battles he was going to fight and monsters he would kill. His father had always encouraged him and had made up story after story where Natsu was the hero who slayed the dragons and saved Fiore.

Natsu hadn’t been able to save him, though, and it still hurt.

“Yeah, bud,” he said quietly to Sting, hoping that bright smile never faded. “You’re gonna be awesome.”  

~

By the time the games were over for the day, the sun was setting, and both Rogue and Sting had fallen asleep. Sting was still curled up in Natsu’s lap, head tucked under Natsu’s chin, breaths slow and even with Natsu’s arms wrapped around him. Rogue had drifted off leaning against Gray, and when they’d nearly fallen over, Gray had pulled them into his lap. Now Rogue was fast asleep with their arms around Gray’s neck and their face pressed against his shoulder, with the frozen snake still clutched in one hand.

“Aww, you guys are so cute,” Lucy said, leaning against the railing across from Natsu. “Shouldn’t they be with their parents, though? Not that I’m complaining, they’re adorable.”

Natsu looked down at Sting’s wild curls as a warm sense of protectiveness flooded through him. “They’re with Sabertooth,” he said.

“Sabertooth?” Erza, who was sitting next to Gray, gave Natsu a surprised look. “You can’t be serious. They’re only children. As coarse as it sounds, what… use would Jiemma have for them?”

“They’re dragon slayers,” Natsu said quietly. Gray reached up and brushed Rogue’s hair out of their face, tucking it behind their ear to show off the fine, dark scales that ran down their face. Erza’s eyes widened and she leaned in, then looked over at Natsu.

“So… he’s keeping them for their magic?” she asked.

Natsu sighed, wrapping his arms tighter around Sting and trying to will away the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Children without families joined guilds all the time – Fairy Tail was the perfect example. But Sabertooth had never given an indication of being anything other than ruthless, and from what they’d seen, it was no place for children.

Unless those children had the potential to be powerful.

“That’s awful,” Lucy said softly, giving Natsu a sympathetic look. “They’re not weapons.”

“We can’t prove anything,” Natsu said. Sting shifted on his lap, turning and pressing his face to Natsu’s chest. Natsu’s leg had been slowly going numb for the last hour, but he refused to move.

“I didn’t know there were other dragon slayers,” Erza said as she studied Sting’s scales. “Are they like you? Or…”

She trailed off, but they all knew that she was referring to Laxus and the lacrima that gave him his powers. Natsu clearly remembered the day Laxus had disappeared with Ivan – it was the first time Natsu had ever seen Gramps look scared. Laxus had reappeared six months later with a scar on his chest and a bitter scent of dragon magic and had refused to speak to anyone but Freed for months.

“I don’t know,” Natsu said honestly. The question had been plaguing him all afternoon, and he still hadn’t been able to figure it out. “They don’t… smell right.”

“What do you mean?” Gray, who usually teased Natsu about his heightened senses and tendency to find people by smelling for them, looked concerned.

“It’s…” Natsu frowned. “Gajeel and Wendy have a specific scent—it’s like a color? Like a dragon but a color at the same time. Wendy’s blue, Gajeel’s gray. Laxus has it too but it’s different, like, uh… cherry-flavored soda instead of actual cherries. But it’s still cherries. Sort of.” He looked back down at the sleeping boy in his arms. “They’re different.”

“Different how?”

“I don’t know, and it’s driving me crazy. Something’s not right, but I don’t know what it is.”

Rogue yawned, wrapping their arms tighter around Gray’s neck and making a sleepy sound. The expression on Gray’s face was soft as he let Rogue get comfortable, and it made something warm spark low in Natsu’s stomach. He tried desperately to ignore it, tucking it away with all the other feelings for Gray that made his cheeks hot and his chest tight.

“There they are!” A voice came from behind them and Natsu turned to see a young woman about their age with silver-white hair running up the stadium steps. “I’m so glad you found them,” she panted, out of breath when she finally reached them. “I was so worried.”

“Yukino?” Lucy asked, frowning, and Natsu realized that she was the other celestial mage from Sabertooth.

“Yes, I’m so sorry.” She gave Gray and Natsu both a grateful look. “They weren’t back at the inn and Jiemma was—” She cut herself off and gave them a tired smile. “Thank you for taking care of them. This one—” she gestured at Sting, who burrowed deeper against Natsu’s chest “—can be a handful.”

“He was fine,” Natsu insisted, fighting against the urge to hold Sting tighter, to take him and run away from this woman who seemed kind but afraid. “He said they—”

“They’re here because they said they couldn’t sit with you,” Gray interrupted, voicing Natsu’s thoughts in a much icier tone. “We found them in the marketplace. Alone.”

Yukino’s expression turned regretful. “They were supposed to stay at the inn and watch on the lacrima,” she said quietly.

“By themselves?” Gray glared. “They’re five.”

“I know that,” Yukino snapped, immediately sighing and rubbing her face. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day. Thank you for keeping them safe.” She looked at Natsu, then added, “He really looks up to you. I’m sure he was very excited to finally meet you.”

“He’s a sweet kid,” Natsu said softly. The frustration at not being able to figure out the strangeness of the two children was compounded by the sinking sensation in his stomach at the idea of relinquishing them to this woman. “They’re dragon slayers,” he said, looking up at Yukino. “Where did—how did—”

“I have to go,” Yukino interrupted, glancing behind her furtively. She wrung her hands, and everything about her exuded an aura of anxious fear. “Please. I have to bring them home.”

“Is something wrong?” Erza asked, frowning as her hand rested where her sword would normally be sheathed. “Are you in trouble?”

Yukino shook her head. “No, it’s just late. I need to get them back.”

She reached out her arms to Natsu, giving him a pleading look, and he hesitated before nodding and slowly relinquishing his hold on Sting. Sting made a quiet, sleepy sound as Yukino shifted him onto one hip, then pulled out one of her celestial keys. A second later, Libra appeared, giving Yukino an irritated look before she saw the sleeping kids.

“I’ll take them,” she said to Gray, who looked ready to knock her down the stands with his ice. Natsu could see the muscles in his jaw tighten as he looked down at Rogue, then back at Libra, and finally to Natsu. There was a pleading look on his face and it made Natsu’s heart ache, but he gave Gray a tiny nod. They couldn’t just keep the kids – they already had a home, and even if the idea of them being with Sabertooth made Natsu want to punch someone, it wasn’t his call to make.

“Thank you,” Yukino said softly as Gray reluctantly attempted to lift Rogue from his lap. Rogue’s arms tightened around his neck and they made a soft, protesting sound, and the angry lines of Gray’s face softened. Eventually Rogue let go and Libra took them, and Gray sat back down, shifting closer to Natsu.

“Thank you,” Yukino said again, giving Lucy a quick nod before turning away. As she walked away with the young dragon slayers, Natsu couldn’t help but feel like he was making a terrible mistake.

[jjsjuiceboxx]

LOVE TRIANGLE

POPExREADERxTOPPER

REQUESTED FOR: @letsgofullkook

SUMMARY: a love triangle between readerxtopper and readerxpope

⚠️WARNINGS⚠️: underage drinking, smoking, cuss words, angst.

︎A/N- revamping my stuff so I’m just editing for decoration and stuff to make it pop more and draw attention ( no changes to the actual fic ), happy reading :).

☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎

You were currently on hms pogue with John B, Kie, pope, and JJ you were zoning out looking how the suns reflection could be seen from the water of the marsh, you were pulled out of your thoughts when Kie started to talk about the kegger tonight at the boneyard.

“ok so who is going to bring what?“ Kie asked looking to everyone expectantly.

Across the boat you can see JJ smirk “you all already know I’ve got the weed.”

“I’ll have the kegs filled up and take them both to the boneyard.” John B stated

You were about to speak but was cut off suddenly when you felt a cold chill approaching, “hey are you ok y/n?” Pope asked you slightly concerned.

“Yeah dont worry Pope I just got a cold chill suddenly it’s gone now tho.” You smiles sweetly at him for even noticing and then instantly be concerned Pope eyed you suspiciously he could still see chill pumps on your arms so he walked to his bag and pulled out his hoodie, his favorite one that he won’t even let John b or JJ wear.

Instead of Pope handing it to you he put it over your shoulders letting you slip your arms into them then he zipped it up for you, you blushed at the action heart pounding pope smiled at you.

“Really she can wear your hoodie without asking but when we ask nicely you don’t let us? Man I even say please I never say please!” JJ explained shocked

“She isn’t a cluts like John b and doesn’t spill beer everywhere and I cannot have you making my hoodie reek of weed, besides it’s Y/N we are talking about she doesn’t need to ask” Pope state’s non challenger

“Wow pope you’re a changed man.” Kie said laughing at the end and sending a wink your way

You were close with all the pogues but you and kie were the closest gossiping with one another about kooks and the boys while you did face masks and painted each other’s nails she knew you had a crush on pope which is odd considering he isn’t your type but he is so smart and it’s almost mysterious and he isn’t afraid to tell random people he wants to be a coroner and then proceed to tell them facts about what happens after you die and you couldn’t help but catch feelings.

“Wow pope you’re a changed man.” Kie said laughing at the end and sending a wink your way.

☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎

You and the rest of the pogues were now at the boneyard setting up for the kegger kie brought chips and a speaker to blast music, John b had the kegs and was setting them up, JJ sat down on a big fallen tree with his small contribution his weed, pope had a cooler with ice and more drinks inside while you carried a beach chair and solo cups kie also had you pick up straws for some of the beer in the cooler and it HAD to be recyclable.

“Y/N you know even at parties we have to save the turtles and other animals and our only earth.” She said seriously when you went to object she gave you a stern look.

“Yeah yeah....right the straws” you said kinda scared

“recyclable straws recyclable is important” she hollered after you now you were putting the straws on the table and putting solo cups out to be easily grabbed when you saw a few kooks show up a little earlier probably to set up their own beers and what not

But you couldn’t help but think Topper would be here yes he was dating Sarah but he always flirted with you before and during the relationship you at first hated it but one day when he stopped you realized you miss it so you decided the next time you saw him you would flirt first and so you did he then offered to get you a coffee and eat and you really got to know topper not kook topper, he hated pogues and was rude to them but he has never said anything bad about you atleast not to your face he always bullied the others.

As more people showed up you started to get anxious about toppers arrival you knew he was coming he always does the question was when ? And do you go up and talk to him ? When it’s just him and you you guys always talk about real stuff and you see that topper is just like the rest of us just slightly more perfect and put together.

You decided to start getting drunk to calm your nerves once you had two cups you were tipsy still sober enough to remember things and control yourself but a lot more relaxed and care free you saw pope walk away from taking to a girl and decided to dance with him.

“Pope come dance with me I love this song” you said cheerfully while spinning around

“Fine but If you get sick from spinning I’ll be mad” he laughed grabbing your hand

You and pope danced for 30 mins or something laughing and joking around and then suddenly you caught a glimpse of a tall tan boy with frosted tips along with Sarah and Kelce right by his side a slow song was playing and pope had you facing the entrance to the boneyard suddenly you and topper made eye contact he Gave you a slight nod in which you returned with a smile but it suddenly shifted when he looked away shaking his head so pulled back from pope and started taking his hoodie off

“I’m getting hot from all the Dancing I’m gunna grab a drink and cool off” you told him Pope pulled you into a tight hug that lasted about a minute.

“Thank you for dancing with me I’ve always wanted to slow dance with a pretty girl.” Pope stated shyly scratching the back of his head.

“Aww I’ll slow dance with you anytime handsome” you said blushing getting on your tip toes and kissing his cheek letting it linger for a bit you back off seeing him blush under the moonlight you handed him his hoodie and walked to get a drink.

While waiting in the line for a drink you looked up to see Sarah climbing a red buoy and Kelce and topper trying to get her down safely you looked away not wanting to catch their eyes. You hadn’t noticed but topper gave up as Sarah was being rather difficult while kelce climber up with her to pry her hands off the top of the buoy.

You felt a light tap on your shoulder prying your eyes away from John b trying to impress tourons by juggling some beers, your eyes met a pair of eyes you were all familiar with, topper.

“Hey there ken of the outerbanks, hows it hanging in the Barbie dream house?” You questioned amused

Topper laughed at your nickname you gave him “it isn’t the Barbie dream house when she isn’t my Barbie you’re” topper declared

You and topper during many of your hang outs tho you like to calls them private dates where you just talk and laugh he was wearing a bright salmon polo and khaki shorts with a belt and some sperrberrys to match and let out a little chuckle and said he looked like your old ken doll you have “accidently” taken from school, oops.

Topper laughed “ok ok fine I’ll take it but you have to be my Barbie” he said laughing

“Ok I’ll be the Barbie to you ken”

And hence the day the nicknames had been born. By this time it was your turn to get your drink topper took your cup and filled it up and gave it back to you while he did his.

“Wow who knew topper Thornton could be such a gentlemen” you mocked

“Oh haha you’re so funny aren’t you Barbie” topper said sarcastically

You were about to come up with a remark when he suddenly turned to you stopping you in your tracks looking at you seriously.

“Hey can we like uh talk somewhere?” He questioner awkwardly.

“Yeah of course top Ik a good place” you motioned him to follow you in a set of bushes near the woods looking around once you got there for any horny drunk teens only to find none.

“Is everything ok topper? You’re never really serious unless something is wrong” you said worrying you know a conversation with topper was serious when you said his name and not a nickname.

“I know you’re friends with pope and I’m with Sarah but I can’t talk to Sarah or rafe and Kelce the way I can with you I feel like the real me I had forgotten about and you help me find it again, I don’t know I guess I got slightly jealous seeing you dance with Pope and laughing while wearing his hoodie” topper said quickly

You put your hands on either side of his cheek making him look you in the eyes you stared at him in an adoring way “topper I feel the same but I’m a pogue you’re a kook even though we understand one another not everyone can see it that way, I mean rafe could unfriend you Sarah wouldn’t be around and I don’t want you to lose that because of me” you said softly

“I know I know it just sucks because I do really like you I want To be with you, don’t get me wrong I like Sarah too but I feel pressured because of my parents saying and putting words into my head makes me wonder if I really like her or if I just think I do, but one thing for sure I know I like you” topper stated stepping closer

By this time Sarah was looking for topper him being gone far to long for “getting a drink” when she neared the keg topper was no where insight “hey kie I know you hate me but have you seen topper? He was getting drinks and now he is gone” Sarah explained looking around

“ I saw him walk down the beach following someone too dark to tell who, I know what you’re thinking that I’m saying that to upset you like or whatever but I’m not” kie defended rolling her eyes.

“No I can tell when your lying I believe you thank you” Sarah said walking off in the direction joe pointed too.

“Topper I like you too but I don’t know how this could work and I don’t want to hurt you saying this but I also like pope but we don’t flirt nearly as much as we do he doesn’t know I like him” you said looking down not wanting to hurt him

“ hey hey it’s ok friends who spend all the time together are bound to catch feelings whether it’s one sided or not I’m not upset thank you for being honest” he said smiling softly tucking some hair behind your ear you smiled leaning into his soft touch.

Pope was a little further down the beach then Sarah was pope sat in front of the fire with a marshmallow on a stick while John b laughed at pope trying to teach JJ how to roast a perfect marshmallow for the worlds best s’mores, “JJ you need to hold both hands one on top of the other at the bottom of the stick and then push your marshmallow down at the top till the stick poked through the marshmallow so it won’t fall into the fire and waste the marshmallow, then you hold it just above the flames. No not like that it’s too close you will catch the marshmallow on fire....again. Now you wait 5 mins then rotate it to the other side and then wait 5 mins and do the same all over so it gets a perfect brown shade don’t catch it on fire because one it’s bitter two it is a lot more hot and three some sparks could be left on it that you can’t see and will burn the shit out of your tongue possible 2nd degree burn that grants a hospital visit now you see mine is perfectly brown on all sides now you take your graham crackers and put the marshmallow on one then the chocolate then you sandwich it all together like so and bam you’ve got yourself the worlds best s’more” Pope said with a chefs kiss after he did a technical tutorial on the proper way to make a smore for the poor boy who has never learned how.

“Eww mine looks like toe cheese” JJ said grimacing.

“ I don’t want to know why you know that man.” John b said watching it play out amusingly.

“Just eat it JJ it’s good the best ever honestly, off topic have you seen y/n I havnt seen her in 30 mins” pope asked curiously

“Aww pope you have a crush on the baby pogue” JJ said teasingly

“JJ leave him alone who cares if he likes her damn, but uh I saw her walk the way” John b Pointed in the direction you had went

Pope stood up nodding his head going in that direction to look for the girl he was soo in love with still ahead of Sarah.

You could feel the tension between you and topper being so close to one another he started to lean on slowly and you did too not being in control of your body you were so lost in his eyes your lips finally touched and it was slow and passionate and it felt like time has stopped just as it was getting more heated you heard a twig snap and looked behind topper to see a wide eyed pope standing there.

“ y/n....what’s going on why are you kissing topper ???” Pope asks shocked

“I..I” you stuttered startled that pope who you like caught you kissing another guy you also like

“Topper you there?” You heard Sarah’s voice from behind a tree

“He’s right here” Pope deadpanned looking you straight in the eye

“ topper there yo- what are you two doing?” Sarah asked confused

“We were just talking babe.” Topper said softly

“Yeah If by talking you mean tongues in each other’s mouths” pope said angrily

Sarah stares between you and topper shocked “is..is this true topper?” Sarah asked quietly when topper looked down and didn’t say anything she knew her answer.

“Wow and after all I’ve told you about my past and you do this, you told me you loved me” Sarah said walking away.

“Pope look I ca-“ you were cut off by pope speaking

“No no you don’t get to talk right now, I thought you liked me? I know you never said it but I can pick up some ques, I gave you my favorite hoodie so you were warm I danced with you and I stood for an hour waiting for you and you never showed. Was I just a toy for you to use when topper isn’t here?” Pope asked sad

“What no of course not I like you a lot Pope I really do, but I also like topper as well and I’m so confused I don’t know why or how anything would work with any of us with the no pogue on pogue macking rule and the whole kook vs pogue thing I...I just don’t know” you said ashamed

“Wow, you were just talking shit about topper the other day and now you like him? I’m sorry y/n I can’t do this right now you don’t like me because if you did you wouldn’t have has another guy so pick topper” Pope said tears in his eyes leaving the seen fast.

You looked at topper tears running down your face he immediately wrapped you In his arms rubbing your head as a loud sob shot out of your body and a bunch of oh my gods.

“Hey hey it’s ok just let him cool down and then you can speak it him rationally I’m not mad you like us both I get it all I ask is that you give me a chance and Pope too and then when you’re ready you can choose who you want or choose neither of us” topper said reassuringly.

You pulled out of his embrace nodding your head as you wiped your tears away planning on what to tell pope when everything is calmed down.

[stellar-alley]

Everfalls

•Chapter 15•

This is based off of the artwork by oceanteeeth on Instagram! Also shout out to my Beta super.rose.cosplays!

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

(Summary: Richie and Eddie go back to school. Stan interrogates Eddie and Bill tries to put the pieces of the mystery together. )

~

Tuesday morning came and Richie found himself passing his rooms as he contemplated his latest delema.

“What the fuck am I gonna wear!” He shouted as he pulled on his curls. He groaned when he let go.

A quiet knock brought his gaze towards his door where his mother stood, “Everything alright honey?” She asked with kind yet tired eyes, it was still early after all.

Richie hummed a quick fine from where he stood in front of his closet. He spent another solide 10 minutes staring at the contents before he finally decided on an outfit for the day. In the end he picked out his favourite t-shirt, which was a big light blue hoodie that had ‘Virginity Rocks’ written in big writing, a matching light blue beanie. Accompanied by one of his nicer pairs of black jeans which he cuffed at the bottom to match the warmer weather outside, and a pair of black high top converses.

He hummed, “Nice, nice, nice” Richie snapped his fingers anxiously as he gave himself a once over in the mirror.

When he drove to school that day, Richie actually turned the radio on and allowed himself to listen to the top hits, which he normally hated, he’d rather hook his phone up via aux cord and play his own tunes. But today… something about all of the cheesy love songs actually brightened his mood. Hell, he even sang along to a couple of them.

He walked up the main path that day and smiled at the sight of his boyfriend who leaned up against the same tree he had been a week or so ago. “Hey gorgeous” Richie wrapped his arms around Eddie’s waist from the back.

Eddie squicked, spooked slightly, but then his squak turned to laughter. “Richie! Let go!” Eddie laughed as he playfully thrashed in Richie’s arms.

Instead Richie gracefully twirled him around so they stood face to face. The wolf kissed the rabbit’s forehead which got him a blush of the cheeks from the shorter boy.

“Hey…” Eddie said sheepishly as he looked up into Richie’s big brown eyes, always filled with excitement, now they were filled with something new, love. It warmed his heart.

“Hey shortstack” Rich carefully raised his hand up and pushed a loose piece of hair behind Eddie’s ear.

Eddie rolled his eyes, using it as a way to glance away without seeming off, “Don’t call me that” he complained, but his voice held to annoyance. Before Richie could argue, Eddie laced their fingers together and looked towards the school, “Come on, dipshit. We’re gonna be late”.

~

Bill didn’t show up that day, not during the first period, or lunch, or last. Though Eddie only shared one class with him, fourth period history, that didn’t stop his foot from tapping underneath his desk the entire day.

Home room with Alley was fairly chill, she was normal, which Eddie needed every now and then. She talked about the journalist things, TV shows and fan fictions, online friends and cosplay. It put The Anector’s mind at ease just listening to her ramble on about the latest gossip.

Second Period was math, which he found out after the second day of school he shared with Stan. Even after everything that happened at Bill’s, Eddie trusted Stan. He knew that Stan and Richie had been friends for a long time before all of this started and that they had a tight bond, so he could get used to how close the two were.

Eddie took his normal seat in the third last row, second to the window. It was Stan who decided to take up the seat beside him. Neither of them said anything while Stan got settlers into his seat. Once Stan had his notebook all sorted out and his pens in place he slowly, sarcastically almost, turned towards Eddie with a blank expression.

“Am I going to need to start pulling teeth before you tell me what happened?” Stan’s voice was a mix of worry and concern, also a little amusement as he enjoyed watching Eddie’s face fill with fear at his tone.

Eddie’s face fell, “Uh- No? I just didn’t know if you wanted to know or-“.

“Well I do” Stan cut in like a teenage girl desperate for the latest tea.

“Okay okay, sheesh” Eddie was stalling, not really wanting to retell the story as he barely even liked to think about what had happened. So he just stated the facts, “Bill thinks I killed his dad” He only realized how bad that sounded once it was already out.

“What?” Stan hissed, eyes wide with shock. When Eddie didn’t respond he simply asked, “Well, did you?”.

“Sort of” Eddie made a face. Okay that was as close to getting over practically killing someone as he was gonna get. Eddie tried to not meet Stan’s intense stare, focusing on the compass around his neck, he fiddled with the latch, clicking it open and closed like a pen.

“Sort of?” Stan whisper yelled.

Eddie rolled his eyes with a sigh then proceeded to quickly explain what had happened in The All Lands and what happened at Bill’s.

“What happened after I left?” Eddie asked in anticipation, he worried that the rest of the Losers had suspected something was up by their outburst of weirdness that night.

“Uhhh” Stan hummed, thinking over what he was gonna say next, “I gave Bill a tongue lashing for everything he did to you. He seemed pretty rattled, like a deer in the headlights. But afterwards we went back in, watched Toy Story 2. Bill was first asleep. Then Bev and I raided his fridge. I finished his chocolate milk as revenge, and spite” Stan lightly smirked at his actions. “But yeah if the Losers ask, you had an asthma attack” The light haired boy stared as Eddie nodded in understanding.

“Oh” Stan remembered something and pulled it out of his pencil case, “Here” He handed the phone to Eddie.

Eddie moved the phone from hand to hand, a ghost smile played over his lips as he clicked it open and saw Richie’s ridiculous selfie for a wallpaper. “Thanks” Eddie sent a smile to Stan who in return gave him a slightly smaller smile and a head nod.

~

Lunch was fairly normal. Eddie had met up with Richie at his locker and they walked to the cafeteria together from there. Mike was already there, he saved their normal table for them, he waved when they entered the room.

“How are you guys doing?” He shot them his cannon ‘Mike Hanlon Best Friend of the Year’ smile.

Even though he didn’t ask directly, The Ancestors both got the vibe that he was hinting at the recent occurrences at Bill’s.

“We’re… okay” Richie shared a reassuring glance with Eddie who placed his hand over his knee under the table.

Eddie nodded, “My asthma was acting up, Richie opted to take me home. But I’m all good now”.

Suddenly a pair of arms were wrapped around Eddie, and they weren’t Richie’s, so the rabbit was thoroughly confused.

“I’m so glad you’re okay” The female voice sighed from above him.

Eddie’s shoulders sagged in relief, “Hey Bev” He tilted his head back to smile up at her.

“What the hell happened to you?” She asked as she settled in beside him.

Eddie swallowed the bite sandwich he’d been chewing, “Asthma attack” he informed her with a slow nod and took another bite of his sandwich.

“Shit Eds are you alright? She asked with concern.

Eddie nearly choked on his sandwich, no one has ever called him that, aside from Richie, and he kinda preferred it that way.

“Woah, hold up there Marsh, this is my Eds” Richie playfully nudged her shoulder.

Even though Richie’s voice hinted that he was joking, Eddie had a feeling he meant it. He sneezed Richie’s knee under the table and their smiles brightened a little.

“Does anyone know where Bill is today?” Ben asked from the other side of Bev.

The Losers shared a look of worry, no one answered, no one knew.

“I’m sure he’s just sick, or maybe he’s watching Georgie because he’s sick” Stan supplied a sufficient idea.

~

English class rolled around and Eddie’s mind was filled with thoughts and worries about Bill. He hadn't even noticed the way his foot had continued to tap rapidly against the tile floor, until Richie placed a hand on his knee, stopping the tap.

“You okay?” Richie had leaned over from his desk beside Eddie.

“Fine, just worried about Bill” Eddie sighed and glanced over at Richie.

After that Mr. Brock began the lesson and he explained the trip on Friday a little bit more. Richie’s palms began to sweat just at the thought of the upcoming full moon. He stole a quick glance at Eddie who was subconsciously twirling a peice of hair between his fingers. The wolf still couldn’t believe that his little bunny liked him back.

~

It was Tuesday, which meant it was Stan and Richie’s day to go feast on junk food from the corner store. Which actually worked out pretty well as Bill was Stan’s usual ride, but Bill kinda went awol, so he got a ride home anyways.

This was the one time they got to just fool around and be teens.

Richie found Stan where he stood in the chips ile as he contemplated what flavour to buy. The dark haired teen held out a bag of M&M’s and a bottle of Dr Pepper and a coke. “Yo Staniel, what if I ate mentos and drank coke afterwards? Would I throw up? Internally combust? Or shit my pants?” Richie stared off into the distance as if he was contemplating the meaning of life.

“Oh Richard…” Stan sighed, “The acids in your stomach are strong enough to-”.

“Whatever I’m testing it anyways” Richie declared.

Suddenly Stan let out a mega sneeze, it might have been sudden but he jumped into action and sneezed into his elbow.

“You good Stanita?” Richie questioned with concern.

Stan shook his head, lately the sneezes have been taking out more and more energy from him. He pulled a kleenex from his pocket and wiped his nose. “First, don’t call me that. Second, I’m fine, just a cold” He confirmed.

Richie shrugged, Stan had a history of ignoring his colds until they passed, so Richie left Stan to go find more snacks to rot his teeth.

Stan Rolled his eyes which then fell on the aisle of freezers that stood behind him. He saw the various types of milks that were kept safe in their little frozen prisons. Stan’s gaze fell upon the jugs of chocolate milk which caused his lips to form a small smile.

Bill…

~

Bill Denbrough hadn't left his place at his desk in an hour. He sat facing his board, the pictures and articles had blurred together from looking at them for so long. He spent the morning changing things, adding new pictures (one was an updated photo of Eddie that had bunny ears drawn on his head and a photo of Richie with a question mark over his face). Now, things seemed even more confusing than they had previously.

He knew Eddie had something to do with his father's death. Bill just didn’t know how, yet. He also couldn't ignore the fact that his dad didn’t actually have any physical damage, it did look like a heart attack, but Bill knew it wasn't.

Lying to his mother had become some sort of second nature to Bill, so lying about being sick to skip out on school that day wasn't a chore. Lying to anyone wasn't hard anymore…. Deep down Bill knew that it wasn't good, but he had to do what was necessary.

Bill cut a new piece of yarn and attached one end to the picture of Eddie and the other end to the picture of Richie. From there he looked at his calendar that was placed just above his desk, right before his main investigation board began. He noticed that that Friday had ‘School Trip’ and he was reminded of the Writer’s Craft field trip he had with his class, as well as Richie and Eddie’s english class. Bill smirked and circled the date with a red sharpie.

“No better time”.

Word Count: 2044

I know this chapter was shorter than the last one- chapter 14 was a mega chapter so it was a lot longer than normal. But nontheless I hope y'all enjoyed, shit is about to go down so get excited! We're nearing endgame terriotry so- be ready.

And don’t forget to check me out on Instagram @ stellar.alley if you want to see more of my real life and some behind the scenes content! Also check out my a03 account for more stories @ stellar_alley. Don't forget to like,comment and share to show your support!

That's all from me guys see y'all next week with chapter 16

So Long and Goodnight.

~

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[stringwriting]

New and Uncomfortable

Virgil messed with his hands, rubbing his fingers lightly against the wall to feel the bumps. His ever-present hoodie was warm as he waited in the office for whoever was supposed to show him around his new school. 

This was the third high school he had attended in the past two years, and thinking about it only prompted the feelings of isolation more and more. A few different people came through, with Virgil starting to get up as each entered, only for them to walk past them. 

After a few minutes, Virgil resigned himself to sit down, waiting for the person who was coming just to walk up to him. His hoodie having pulled up over his head in order to try and block out the fluorescent lighting that was buzzing loudly above his head.

Despite trying to stay still, every time the door opened, he automatically moved to stand up. Virgil sighed and scratched a hand through his hair. Finally, a student approached Virgil.   A student with blond curls, blue eyes, and lightly tanned skin. The other teen was wearing a light blue polo which a nice color, or at least it was quite a bit nicer to look at than the yellow of the walls.  

“Hey! You must be Virgil! It’s nice to meet you!” the boy said.   “My name’s Patton!” Virgil cringed slightly.  The boy, Patton was a lot louder than Virgil had been expecting.  He tugged the straps on his hoodie to tighten them around his wrists.

“Uhm, y-yeah, I’m Virgil,”  He scratches his head, and purple bangs fell in front of his face. Virgil glanced the other teen, trying not to seem weird by staring at his new classmate.

“Are you ready for your tour? You and I have passes, so if you want to take a longer tour, we won’t get in trouble, even if we miss a few classes,”  Patton offered his hand, smiling brightly at Virgil. 

Virgil gave a small nod, shoving his fingers into the pockets of his hoodie and fidgeting with the loose threads. “Sure, let’s go.”

Patton nodded, immediately pushing ahead to open the door for Virgil, and ushering him out gently. Virgil noticed that the blond had a grey cardigan wrapped around his shoulders, always ready for colder classrooms.

Virgil nodded, mumbling a quiet thank you as he walked out of the office and into the main lobby of the school.   He hunched in on himself, trying to keep away from the bustling bodies surrounding him. It was just so loud and so cramped, and there were too many unfamiliar people brushing against him.

He quickly made his way to a loose wall, with some difficulty, and pushed himself against it, trying his best to keep far away from the chaos.

Patton followed, pushing his way through as the crowd began to dwindle. Things became calmer as he got closer to the panicking teen. He frowned, moving so he was almost cornering him off from the rest of the school.

“Hey, everything okay?”   We can go find somewhere to sit down for a bit before we do the tour if you’d like. We have an area in the back corner of the school that you can go to if you need to calm down.” Patton offered his arm and a reassuring smile. “It has some bean bags and sectioned off areas. It’s usually pretty quiet back there.”

Virgil gave a quiet nod, leaning into Patton as the other teen began to gently lead him to a different area of the school. It was just like Patton described it, and Vigil also noticed that it had quieter colored walls than the rest of the school and that sheets of tissue paper covered the lights, in an attempt to dampen the blinding effect of the fluorescence.

Patton sat quietly in the seat beside him after they had everything sorted out, and Patton had gone to notify some of the teachers of where they would be found if needed. 

Virgil sat quietly in his seat, having pulled out his phone, pulled out his earbuds and plugged them in, and started his playlist. 

Virgil hummed under his breath, closing his eyes as he tried to focus solely on his breathing. The pale teen tried desperately to calm his nerves, not wanting to become too frazzled in front of the stranger.

By the time a few hours had passed, and lunchtime began to roll around, Virgil had calmed down and had started to have a small conversation with Patton.

Patton smiled, fidgeting lightly with his sweater, “I can go get you some lunch if you’d like.” The teen kept his tone quiet, not wanting to startle the other, “I can bring some of my friends if you’d like, as well. I’m sure they’d love to meet you.”

Virgil simply gave a shrug, lifting his hand and tilting it from side to side to show the other could do whatever he wanted. 

Patton gave a small nod, mentally going over what route they would take to show Virgil the schools after it ended. It probably wouldn’t be the easiest thing to figure out, but he should easily be able to sort out everything.

Besides, he knew a few people who shared some common interests with the quieter teen and was pretty sure that they would be quick friends.

Patton quickly headed through the lunch line, grabbing a few different items, as he didn’t exactly know Virgil’s food preferences, and wanted to be able to play it safe.

As Patton left the line he encountered another teen, one with dyed red hair that was swooshed up in a classic Disney prince style. Patton approached the other, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet.

“Hey, Roman!” He called out, balancing the multiple plates of food so that they wouldn’t fall. “Can you do something for me?”

“Well, of course, my dashing damsel in distress,” Roman nodded,  moving to take a few of the plates from Patton to help the other out, “what is it that you need?”

“Can you meet one of my new friends? I think you’d really enjoy talking to him. He likes Disney just as much as you do, and maybe even more!” He giggled lightly at the end, starting to walk back to where he had been before, trusting that Roman would trail behind him. 

“Someone likes Disney more than I do? That’s a preposterous idea! If it’s true though, where has this man been all my life?” Roman lightly joked around with Patton as they made their way through the school. 

They slowly got closer and closer to the back area, taking their voices down a few notches as they approached. Both of them gave light tilts of their heads to the teacher’s assistant as they walked past her.

Roman grinned as he saw the teen hunched over in the corner, giving a small tip of his head as a hello, then placing the food gently in front of him. “Greetings, Emo King, my name is Roman.”

Virgil glanced up, slowly tilting his head to the side in confusion, My name is Virgil, not ‘Emo King’, Roman.” He gave a small nod of thanks, picking apart one of the food items to eat a specific thing that was in it.

“Ah, well, it was a nickname,” Roman offhandedly remarked, “I heard that you like Disney, and it just so happens our school will be doing a rendition of Wicked later on this year. If you were interested, perhaps you could attempt a part in the show when it comes around. A beautiful man such as yourself would look lovely on stage.”

Virgil gave a slow nod, not completely following where the other had gone, “Yeah, I’m more into the cartoon classics than the more recent ones though, it seems almost as if the very soul of Disney had changed at this point.”

Roman nodded, “You have to at least admit that they still have some spectacular movies. I mean, have you seen either Frozen?”

The purple-haired teen nodded, Prussian blue eyes looking over his extravagant counterpart, “Frozen is one of the only exceptions and the things that Disney has happened to buy from others.”

“You don’t happen to have seen the sequel and the third installment to the Cinderella franchise movies, do you?” Roman quizzed with a skeptical look,  leaned over the other male. The actor hadn’t ever looked so harsh before. He usually reserved that for when he was sticking up for his friends, though one could say that Disney was practically one of the male’s friends.

Virgil gave a small nod, “Yeah, well, I have seen the second one. The one where Anastasia ends up marrying the baker guy.   It was kinda sweet, though I’m not happy how easy the rest got off.”

Roman gave a curt nod, seemingly satisfied with the response.    “Well, at the very least I know if you ever come over to my place, one of the first things we need to do is watching the third installment, and of course both frozen movies when they come out, simply because of the beautiful artistry of the animators.”

Virgil continued to nod along to the other amblings, as he pushed himself into a ball, while slowly nibbling on the food in front of him. He tilted his head to the side slightly as he watched the other.

“-And by the way,” Roman was commenting when Virgil finally began to zone back in on the conversation.   He had gotten lost in his mind for a small amount of time, “Patton, our nerd friend, Logan, and I were all planning on having a movie night this weekend. There is pizza provided at no cost and snacks, so if you want to come you won’t need to worry about eating dinner. Though I will warn you, movie nights often turn into sleepovers.”

Virgil gave a small nod, looking everywhere but the male in front of him, instead choosing to focus on one of the posters that were bedside his head.   It seemed to be one for a GSA of some kind.   “Yeah, cool.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that Friday night,  Virgil was dropped off at the Prince Estate.   The slight chill in the air caused the boy to violently shiver. His blue eyes scanned quickly over the area before he began to walk up to the house in a slightly hunched fashion.

He walked up, crunching his bag against his chest as he began to lightly knock on the door. The entrance was tall, marble-looking pillars above an archway that housed a porch.

There was no movement for a few minutes, only the quiet rustling of the wind against the large orchard of trees that the estate displayed. Apple trees, Virgil thought, with perhaps a few pear trees mixed in.

Virgil waited a few more minutes, then went to knock again.   However, as he did, Roman opened up the door. The other had a surprised look on his face, deep brown eyebrows under dyed red bangs scrunched in confusion.

 “Hey, Virgil, when did you get here? You should have rung the doorbell,” he shook his head, gently taking Virgil’s arm, and grasping on loosely when Virgil didn’t try to back away, “we’ve been waiting for you so that we could start the movie.

Roman started to lead Virgil through the house, showing him the way around as the two teens made their way towards the in-home theater that Roman had attached to his room. Everything in the house seemed to be made of sleek metal or dark stained wood, all of which seemed to be tied together with a Victorian-style architecture.

Virgil looked around him, somewhat wide-eyed, and watched carefully to make sure that he didn’t accidentally step too close to anything and risk bumping something out of its place. 

They slowly got closer, the sound of giggly laughter starting to bounce more and more audibly off the walls. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Virgil halfway acknowledged the fact that the lights inside the house seemed to be dimmed. 

Roman grinned as they walked in, seating having obviously been haphazardly pushed to the side of the room to make sure that there would be room in the center for everyone to lay down together, as well as an empty space between large clusters of pillows and blankets.

Virgil gave a small wave as he looked at the only teen he hadn’t met yet, one with dark hair, that clearly had product recently washed out of it judging from the slight dampness. Logan, if Virgil was remembering his name correctly.

Patton squealed, leaping up to tug Virgil to a reserved space that gave Virgil a little more extra room than the others, although Patton assured him he could move closer or farther if he wished.

Logan adjusted his glasses, looking over to the purpled banged boy, “I happen to have learned that your favorite movie is Black Cauldron, so I went through my father’s cartoon stash to bring it.   It was quite interesting to explain to him and my papa exactly why I was so interested in that specific movie.”

“Are you kidding? Mr. Picani and Mr. Hypnos are the best! Besides, Emile usually has fresh baked goods whenever we go over!” Patton beamed at Logan, getting a small nod in conformation from Roman.

Logan sighed, rubbing his temples, “I never said that they were not good parents, I simply explained that it was quite an expenditure of time.”

Virgil let out a soft giggle, tilting his head to the side with a confused smile, not noticing the look that the others gave him when they heard him. Logan tried to hide behind the cup of soda he had poured for himself.

“I was told there might be pizza?” Virgil randomly blurted out, “Do you have any pepperoni?”

Patton nodded, passing him a plate with a small smile, “Yep! We also have some chips and other fun snacks, and best of all: soda with Christmas cakes treats that will get your heart pumping really fast for sugar-high pillow fights.”

Virgil gave another confused nod, “Well, that sounds nice, I suppose.” He played lightly with a blanket that Roman had handed him, pulling the purples plaid around his shoulders.

Roman started slowly turning the lights off, then turned on the projector so that the movie could be displayed on the large screen that they had in front of them. 

As the movie went on, and Virgil was included in a few discussions about what the characters were doing, he slowly started to move closer to the others, staying particularly close to Roman.  He felt safer with Roman in particular.    He couldn’t quite explain it, but he just went with it, as did Roman, who held lightly onto Virgil when the boy moved closer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later on, Dot and Larry would come home, along with their child Kai, from one of the younger kid’s appointments. Yet all they found was a mess, and a group of four teenage boys passed out in the middle of the living room.

They covered the boys in blankets and shut off the lights so that they would sleep easier. The group would have a lot of mess to clean up in the morning, as well as the task of introducing their new friend.

[dulcetminds]

some (concept) playlists

find my spotify here ✨ & my fandom character/ship playlists

this page is updated monthly!!!!

💫 monthly, yearly & get to know me playlists:

 monthly mixtape: updated daily and refreshed every month with no correlation to anything what so ever.

twentytwenty: a song for each day of the year

the soundtrack to my life

my favourites

pass the aux cord, fool: car vibes

🍾🌉 playlists based off cliché concepts:

coming of age indie romcom soundtrack: cigeratte burns on film, a first kiss that tastes like beer and chapstick, and laughter falling on train tracks

not another coming of age soundtrack: red party cups and the never-ending feeling of nostalgia

Mother Nature reclaims: a soft apocalypse mix

tragedy in the dark: set in the 90's, you're driving at night on the highway, passing under street signs and street lights that illuminate your lovers tired face as they trace circles on your thigh

rise up!: (a futuristic teenage rebellion playlist) you live in a world full of holograms and plastic food, the government is corrupt and somewhere out there is a bunch of rebels that are fighting back

an angels kiss in spring: it’s the roaring 40′s and you hit the town in bold red lipstick, curled hair, flared dresses & traditional swing

a wispy field of sunshine: there's something alluring about falling in love under the sun, sipping on raspberry lemonade & kissing someone who tastes like chapstick

the air is fresh out here: i am lost beneath the earth; dirt and moss fill my lungs and i cough up ivy and rose petals as the trees whisper my name so soft, it gets caught in the wing of a butterfly floating by

3am dancing with my lover: fairylights are hung low around the kitchen, my lover has tired eyes full of wonder and we trip over our own two feet, laughter pumping our hearts alive

the last dancers at midnight: my prom could have been better so we're gonna visualise it like a teen romance movie; tired feet, starry eyes & a tender kiss under the disco ball in your high-schools' hall

even my phone misses your call: 'hey, this is [redacted] please leave your message after the beep!' 

you’re so nice to come home to: finally moving into a small apartment with your lover; succulents adorn the windowsills and you both have a love for vintage polaroids and dream catchers — a dreamers dream

I've been in love with you forever: best friends that live next door to each other & know one another like the back of their hand, connected windows, rooftop talks, sleepovers, & everything that comes along with we're best friends & i don't want that to change but i am definitely in love with you

found you in this life: my mother once told me that some of the people we meet in this life, we knew in a past life and it’s up to us to decide where it goes from here

raspberry stains: spring flings includes squashing raspberries between finger & thumb, and dancing under the sun

rollerskating disco rink fever: we're twelve years young & there's a disco ball highlighting our hair as we dance the night away & i'm pretty sure we've happened to scuff the linoleum floor

endless summer afternoon: hopping from shadow to shadow, blisters on our feet; summer, summer, summer!

summer ate me alive: and I want nothing more than to sleep through the next three seasons

ragtag band of misfits from the year ‘87: group of four trying to solve the murder mystery of their late best friend / everyone’s hiding something / he might be in love with the boy he’s known since childhood

[our hands are brushing against each other as we walk]: i want to slow dance with you in the middle of the street

hey, new kid!: its highschool and life is full of rumours and giggling girls & boys with sharp teeth and then english class rolls around ━━ and did the principal just introduce a new student?

🧚🏻‍♀️ specific concept playlists (mostly based on moments and emotions that I've experienced & can’t get over):

head’s a buzz!: stoned out of my mind, I'm pretty sure I met the girl of my dreams last night

 I should be sleeping: but i am walking aimlessly under street lights trying to forget your face, your taste, your voice; with vodka stained cheeks and chipped nail polish

pity party for two: the sudden realisation that the future is scary and we're two lost souls stuck in love with people who helped us grow

we’re under the same stars: It’s talking under the stars till the sun breaks through the trees with him, who makes your stomach ache full of laughter and although the wind is cold against your skin and the sleeping bag is thin, he burns just as brightly as the stars in the night sky, and you want to exist between 3 and 4am forever.

I fell in love for one night: he kissed my shoulder & held me tight

moments left unsaid: I love every part of you when it’s loud, when it’s silent, when you don’t know it at all (basically falling in love with your friends in the moment over the smallest of things like the way they dip their head back to laugh or hide their smile behind their hand or when they slow down waiting for you to catch up or pull you aside to ask if you’re doing okay, etc)

angel in disguise: can angels fall in love?

skate park shenanigans: I spent a the hours 8-11pm at a skatepark with my friends and we don’t even skate but this is the specific energy those hours gave off

you’re dreaming beside me: & I’m dreaming of you

how to be soft, sad & content at 4pm

I wish we could live forever: knowing someone you love is gonna die is the one of the hardest things you’re ever gonna witness

remember when we were in love?: 2015: yellow. open roads. a boy. a girl. my house. high school musical. clouds. stars. a pillow. sunflowers. beauty and the beast. skype calls. a bear. / 2017: a girl. blue, blue, blue. / 2019: a girl. a boy. picnics. skateboards. burgers. your house. an empty promise.

the pretty reckless: my friends fall in love too easily

the ceiling is staring back at me: it’s 1am and I'm thinking about everything and anything

me against the world, vol. 1

me & my apathetic brain: basically Russian roulette with I’ll die anyway by girl in red & just a girl by no doubt

🏳️‍🌈🌈 lgbt+ playlists:

this is for the gays!: for pride month 2019, gay bops to rock your socks to

all I see is her: girls r great!

we should fall in love or something: just kidding... haha... unless?

I don’t wanna b ur friend, I wanna kiss ur neck: yeah, it’s based off I wanna be your girlfriend by girl in red & also my ex but we’re gonna take the former

please look at me the same!: my bisexual teen angst

🦋🏹 ‘old groovy, 70′s, 80′s, 90′s etc music’ playlists:

butterfly dust: old time music that goes together

groovy, groovy: 70′s, 80′s, 90′s

lovestrucklovestruck: nothing goes wrong when you live in your head

she’s gold dipped & cherry wine kisses

funky glow

🥁🍒 genre specific playlists:

metamorphic: rock n roll

devils advocate: it’s like white noise before you enter hell (mostly ghostemane)

you’re not indie till: you skate, own a pair of hot converses, have good fashion taste, drink ice coffee and and and

monsters live amongst us: hiding in plain sight, the people we call our friends / a horror pop playlist

hazy affection: anxiety reducing songs and study beats

softly, sweetly: relax your eyes & dream of simpler times

bubblegum pop: the radio is overrated but here we are

glazed eyes, cherry skies

darkness looms overhead

magic under fingernails / under veins

state of mind: kinda like rap but not, definitely an easy listen to while stoned

moon rockets: fly me to outer space where we’ll become another star in the night sky.

dream & folk pop

my dreams reach the stars: my mind is far away from here / starry-eyed and captivated

local neighbourhood party: songs I'd bang my head to at a party

heavenly hymns

fluorescent heartbeats

take me away, into the night

if you see me listening to this, look away: literally Disney musicals mainly Disney’s descendants & zombies

autumnal breeze: a mix of bedroom pop & 80′s tunes

blueberry feelings: is this soundlcoud or tiktok?

untamed glory: the songs dont vibe together as well as they should but i guess thats ironic given the name of this mixtape

all strung up: my favourite female pop songs & then there's sunflower, vol. 6 by harry styles

candyfloss kisses: baby pop

and that’s on tiktok luv: literally what it says

candle lit afternoons: candles + rain = a gentle quiet in it’s purest form

tenderness: soft, quiet, yielding; murmurs at dusk & the playing of hair

my bed is the warmest place: for rainy days & the chill in your nose

🚀🍁🍓 playlists to listen to when your doing this specific thing:

classic picnic bitch: (cute songs that give me picnic vibes) and we bond over a pack of UNO cards and strawberry-filled desserts

beach bums, baby!: a beach-y playlist

hotboxing ur friends car: get high w/ me!

🥺💫🌞🌻🤩🐝 playlists to grow & fall in love with yourself to:

falling in love w/ myself !!!!!: I'm still learning how I work

then I defy you, stars!

seventeen: I made this when I was seventeen and getting over my first heartbreak and realising that I should never wait for people who can only give half back

no negative vibes here!

💌💖 my romance / love centred playlists:

dancing in my room to the sound of you, you, you (middle school crush vibes)

love cluster: and i guess there are lot of love songs out there but there are also a lot of songs that aren't about love that got me feeling like i'm in love so which is it

lovelorn: (a unrequited love playlist) and we yearn for the hearts we cannot hold; lovelorn, lovelorn, lovelorn

our love has gone cold: I love & I loved

whimsical lovers falling out of love

baby boy blues: fell in love for a day with a boy whose smile is contagious and ever-lasting

you gave me panic attacks & I called it love: unsure if you’re in an unhealthy relationship? leave them.

regret in the simplest of forms: I could have loved you / I think a small part of me did

my favourite ‘what if’: soulmates who weren’t meant to be

seeking love among cruel hearts: perhaps we were friends first and lovers second. but then perhaps this is what lovers are.

it’s a long way down from your window: everyone’s favourite secret relationship trope

heartbreak hotel

i’m yearning for his heart while he gives me his body: I love you, don’t you love me too?

make out w/ me?: songs I'd kill to make out with someone too

miss you forever: sad pop love letter

I liked you better in my dreams: the idea of them has taken root in your mind and it’s much different to how they really are

little bit in love with u: alterous attraction? we KNOW her

drowsy cacophony of love

tracing you back to the roots of my house: I'm sifting through the memories of us, where did we go wrong?

love; a choice or a feeling?: and it is both I suppose, it is a feeling, it’s happiness and soft giggles, faint blush. and then it is a choice, a choice to stay with them or leave. it is a choice to not only love them, but yourself too.

tenderly, tragically: this used to be a collab playlist with someone who loved me fully and unconditionally, things have changed since, but this is whats left; it's our story compiled into a playlist

second chance at love: you make me hard, but she makes me weak

lonely in love: (it was supposed to be just casual sex but fuck, I think I'm in love with you)

silent lovers: skinny love (n.) a type of love where two people are in love with each other but are too shy to admit it

my first love: they say your first love never dies, and love, they’re right

my lover is a liar: victim to broken promises and false truths by a boy who died when he gave me his heart

love locket type of love: I loved you in secret !!

the charms of love: don’t fall in love with the moment & think your in love with the girl! (yes, she’s american by the 1975 lyrics)

almost lovers

💸💄💅🏻⛓ playlists that give off bad bitch energy:

rich girl$: my cash flow will never ever end

kiss the boys n make em die!: femme fatale, girl revolution, girl power

GIRLS. FOOD. GEAR: loosely inspired by people by the 1975

girl, interrupted

you’re like a rhinestone pick-up line: picture this — a girl with a hard attitude that you can’t just seem to get off your mind

back on my bullshit: just got my heartbroken; revamped!

👻👽 my halloween inspired playlists:

hallohalloween: basic halloween playlist

 the fae know my name: humans beware the manic pixies & lip curling fae for although they don't lie they are cunning creatures with kind eyes!

frothy vampire chick meets soft green witch: red fanged lover & a green house full of potions, spells & succulents

sirens lament: sharp teeth hidden under a pretty face

murder at the casino: (in breaking news: monster hunters just cant seem to catch a break!)

the howling

witchy renaissance

fuckin vampires, man!

🥀 if I were series (playlists that only feature one artist based off something specific):

if I were to dance in a faerie ring to hozier songs: maybe I want to fall in love with a faerie and be under Hozier’s rule

if I were to live my teenage years to Lorde songs

if I were to get high by the beach to skeggs songs: BIG greening out energy

 if I were to fall in love to tom rosenthal songs: tom rosenthal songs that make me feel like I'm in love!!

if I were to reminisce about heartbreak to LANY songs:

Hogwarts Houses:

🌻 Hufflepuff

🥊 Gryffindor

🐍 Slytherin

📘 Ravenclaw

[descendantofthesparrow]

Daughter of the Honorable Thief - Harry Hook x reader - part 6

Harry Hook x Daughter of Robin Hood!Reader

 key

 h/c- hair color

 e/c- eye color

 h/l- hair length

 s/c- skin color

 y/n- your name

 clothing reference:

  ---(y/n) POV---

Ahhh, lunchtime, one your favorite times of the day. Breathing deeply through your nose as you entered the cafeteria, your eye caught the baked macaroni and cheese, just calling your name, along with the cornbread and chicken legs near it.

Oh!! (favorite beverage) sounded good too.

Erza skipped next to you, babbling about what she was going to eat. “im in the mood for something strawberry~ oh!!! Strawberry shortcake yum!!”

You snorted at her antics, “erza, real food before dessert, remember?”

Erza pouted before nodding, following you into the line of meals, glancing wistfully to the desert line. You rolled your eyes, patting her shoulder “don’t worry erza, it'll still be there when you're finished.”

The amber-eyed girl huffed, following your lead of the food choices, mac&cheese, cornbread, but getting sliced mutton thigh instead of chicken.

You turned, looking around for seats, before spotting gil waving you over, you smiled, bumping Erza then making your way over to the corner table.

“Hey guys” you cheered, sitting next to harry, erza plopping next to Uma, “ hows it going?”

Uma hummed, dipping a fry in her ranch, tossing it in her mouth. She shrugged, not really having anything to say.

“notin mush” she talked through her food, you snickered, the teal haired girl blushed and swallowed her food “hated goodness class though, it's nauseating.”

Erza snorted, “I would think so, I full hour stuff with FG and her baby talk? Just kill me now”

Uma sorted, looking down at her food. Erza wiggled her brows at you, you huffed and tossed a crumb of cornbread at her.

“Ewwww?!?! What the fuck!?!?!” Mals voice screeched, across the mess hall, Uma, gil, and harry jumped when she screamed and turned, seeing mal making a disgusted face at her oreos. You and Erza glanced at each other, before covering your mouths to prevent Mal hearing you laugh.

Harry blinked, surprised, what the heck? Glancing at Uma, he raised his brow, confused.

“Uma?” he mumbled “wha’ the hell is goin on?” Uma snicked, finally realizing what happened.

“(y/n) and Erza played more than one prank” Uma whispered, not wanting Mal to figure out anything or accuse her of the pranks.

“they also replaced the filling in Mals oreos with blended up baby wipe jelly beans~”

Harry was lucky he wasn’t drinking anything because if he was it would have squirted out of his nose, he snorted loudly, luckily not loud enough to overpower Mals screeching.

Uma reached under the table and low fived you, grinning as Harry began to wheeze. Gil was biting his lip to stifle his laughter, and you giggled, glad they enjoyed your prank so much.

“well,” Uma smirked looking at her boys, “I think that’s a good enough prank for her to be into our group, right boys?”

Harry was still wheezing, so he just gave a thumbs-up as tears ran down his face. Gil nodded, you would be a great addition to the group, you were fun!!

“thank you~” you hummed, taking a sip of your (favorite beverage), eyeing Evie as she turned to look at Harry confused, she raised a brow at you, you just shrugged, the blue-haired girl huffed and turned back to her food.

“what the hell happened’ and why is Harry wheezing?” Harriet had arrived, and she is baffled by Harry's laughter, raising her brows at her little brother.

Uma snorted, shaking her head, “Mal got pranked” Harriet nodded, slapping her bother on the back, she made her way to the food lines.

Harry finally regained his breath, “I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again, lassie, yeh just keep surprising meh”

You giggled and gave a small mock bow, seeing Harriet returning and sliding to the side slightly for her to sit.

Harriet hummed thanks and glanced around the table, raising her brow at Erza.

“who are yeh?” Erza’s eye twinkled and she leaned forward towards Harriet, you rolled your eyes, dear god erza is such a disaster lesbian.

“me~? Erza, Erza Scarlet, pleasure ta meet ya.” Erza gave a flirty grin and Harriet huffed through her nose, looking down at her food.

“sorry lassie, I got meh eye on another lass”

Erza pouted but leaned back, respectful of Harriet.

You turned to look at Uma, seeing her glance between Harriet and Erza. She locked eyes with you confused.

Ah, she's confused by Erza’s obvious gayness. “Erza’s gay, she's known that since we were kids, big ol gay crush on wonder woman as soon as she saw her”

Erza turned to you, unbothered by your easygoing outing of her sexuality as she had given you permission to do so before, “bitch don’t lie and say you didn’t have a crush on her either,  you literally said you want her to crush you between her thighs”

“I’m not denying that” you teased, still grinning “I’m just saying that she was your sexual awakening”

“true true” erza nodded, Uma looked at her boys shocked, they looked back, shocked as well, they didn’t know sexuality was not really bothered with, accepted without a thought, they thought it would be like the isle.

“well,” Uma coughed, gaining yours and Erzas attention. “since we seem to be announcing our sexuality, I feel like I need to get this off my chest” you quickly interrupted, not wanting Uma to feel pressured.

“ you don’t have too, Erza and I are just comfortable with ours and pretty much everyone at the school is chill with that kinda stuff, but you don’t have to feel obligated to share your sexuality, that’s your business, your privacy.” Erza nodded rapidly, wholeheartedly agreeing with you

Uma stayed silent for a moment, glancing at her boys.

“well,” she mumbled, your mini-speech actually making her want to tell you guys even more “im okay with telling yall, as you seem to be people I can trust with it.”

You nodded, Erza grinning along, Uma softly smiled, Harry and Gil following her lead

“um alright okay…” Uma took a deep breath “Im Bi”

“sweet” you grinned, making Uma’s shoulders relax “im demi”

Uma raised her brow, “what does demi mean?”

“oh!” you didn’t know that on the isle, there were few known sexualities on the isle, I mean they were known, just not by the VKs “demi is the shortened term of demisexual, its when a person who does not experience sexual attraction unless they form a strong emotional connection with someone.”

“ah” Uma hummed, that made sense

“I think im demi too them” Gil spoke through his fries “I've never really been super attracted to somebody till I've known them for a while”

You hummed “well if you don’t know then you don’t know, there are lots of people who don’t know where they are on the spectrum and that’s okay, you don’t need a label for what you feel”

Gil brightened, wow you gave really good pep talks.

“im pan” Harry blurted, blushing slightly as you giggled, Erza joining you “wha’? why yeh laughing?”

“be-because,” you snickered “because you must have a fucking time with being attracted to anyone regardless of gender!”

Uma groaned, along with Harriet, “Oh my fucking god you don’t know the half of it!!! He's such a fucking disaster!!! He flirts with anything and everything that moves!!!”

Harry was turning scarlet, slamming his head on the table, covering his face with his arms. “oh really~?” you laughed, feeling slightly bad for Harry.

“yeah,” Uma groaned, “he's flirted with Carlos, evie, jane, Audrey, ben, everyone!!!” you burst out cackling but calmed down quickly when you saw Harry glaring at Uma.

“sorry” you coughed, Harry just nodded pouting, face still red. Uma was about to go on but you flicked her shoulder, causing her to realize she was making harry slightly uncomfortable.

“oh, sorry har” Harry just hummed, his face finally cooling down. “Is alright’ “

“well” Harriet hummed, stealing one of Harrys apple slices, he growled and swiped at her, she just snickered and brushed him off.

“That was an interesting conversation, but I’d rather we stop talking about Harrys fanatics and just go back to normal conversations”

The rest of the group agreed and continued on talking. From classes to sword-fighting styles, the six of you were quickly gaining a bond.

Then the bell rang

“well,” you stood, gathering up your tray, Erza following your lead, “time for the next class, see you later guys”

The four pirate teens nodded, standing as well and tossing their trash away.

You bumped fists with Uma and walked off with erza at your side.

“sooo~” Erza hummed, a shit-eating grin on her face “Uma's bi~”

“yep” you mumbled, tapping on your phone, texting your mother. “that means you have a chance, don’t fuck it up”

“I won't I won't”

“that’s what you said last time when we were taking the history test, and look at your score, 25 out of 100”

“fuck off hood!!!”

---end of part 6---

Comment or message me for part 7

[alocalband]

Adventures in Babysitting NurseyDex, 2.5k, Teen Also on AO3

Dex enters the Haus after his last class of the day and immediately freezes, eyes going wide at what he’s met with.

In the middle of the living room is Nursey, eyes equally wide, a look of absolute panic on his face. And there, on the couch beside him... is a baby.

“What the hell?” Dex asks.

Nursey is the physical embodiment of the complete opposite of chill. “Dex, save me.”

“Who in their right mind would give you a baby?”

“Right?! I’m kind of afraid that if I touch it I’ll break it.”

Dex narrows his eyes at the kid, who is thankfully fast asleep in its carrier. “It’s not yours, is it?”

Nursey’s panic manages to recede enough for him to give Dex a flat, unimpressed look. “No, Poindexter, it is not mine. Tango got it from somewhere.”

“Tango got it from somewhere.”

Nursey throws his hands up in the air, at a loss. “I don’t know, man! It’s Tango! He literally dropped by five minutes ago, told me to watch the thing and then bolted.”

Nursey doesn’t seem to realize the volume level of his voice until after he’s done speaking, and then his head whips around to assess the damage. The baby moves a little, stretching one pudgy arm up. Dex and Nursey both hold their breaths...

But then the baby stills and remains asleep.

They both exhale. Dex rubs a hand over his forehead. “Is Bitty around?”

“He’s at Jack’s.”

“Ollie? Wicky?”

“You and I are the only people in the Haus right now and I am two seconds away from having a panic attack.”

Dex drops his backpack to the floor and moves to stand in front of Nursey. He puts a hand on Nursey’s shoulder and squeezes. It’s rare that Nursey lets himself get this visibly flustered in front of another person, but Dex has known him long enough to be able to usually talk him through it.

“Listen, you’re fine. The baby’s asleep and now you have an extra set of hands. I’m gonna call Tango to yell at him, and then call my mom so she can explain to us how exactly not to kill an infant.”

Nursey nods his head and swallows, looking a little calmer. “Right. Okay, yeah. Chill. We got this.”

“Got your back.”

Nursey actually smiles at that. Ever since they stopped living in the same room, their relationship has been improving be leaps and bounds. Nursey gives Dex his space when he needs it, and Dex lets up on hounding Nursey about shit that honestly isn’t that big a deal. It’s been good.

And, as it turns out, they actually end up spending more time together in the living area or the kitchen than alone in their respective rooms. As though choosing to be in a room together instead of feeling forced into one was the big difference maker.

Dex pulls out his phone to call Tango. When it goes straight to voicemail, he sends an all caps text and then calls his mom.

“Did Tango mention a name?” he asks while it’s still ringing.

“No?” Nursey leans over the baby, squinting at it. “Maybe there’s a tag on it or something.”

Dex resists the urge to facepalm, but only just barely.

“Will!” his mom answers brightly. “You don’t usually call in the middle of the week. Is everything alright?”

He explains the situation, and once his mom is finished laughing at them, she gives a rundown of basic baby care. It essentially boils down to: feed it, change it, don’t drop it. There’s a bag of diapers and formula and other baby related stuff beside the carrier, and she walks Dex through making up a couple bottles in the kitchen, while Nursey stares after him from the living room with a betrayed expression for leaving him alone with the tiny human.

“You’re a smart, capable young man,” his mom tells Dex as they wrap up their crash course in babysitting. “You’ll be fine. Consider it a test run for when you have kids of your own.”

Dex pauses and glances sideways at where Nursey is obviously listening to his end of the conversation. “Mom, we talked about that. I’m not...”

“There are plenty of ways for you to still give me grandkids if you end up marrying another man. How does Derek feel about adoption?”

Dex chokes on his own tongue. “Mom, what? Why would-- Nursey and I are not--”

She starts laughing at him again, because his mom loves him but is also mean like that.

Dex rolls his eyes even though she can’t see it. “I’m hanging up now.”

“Alright. Love ya, kid. Good luck.”

“Love you too.”

He gets off the phone and turns to Nursey, who’s looking a little harried around the eyes again. “Okay, I was starting to feel better with how confidently you made those bottles, but now your face is bright red and I’m nervous again.”

“We’ll be fine. My mom just likes to make fun of me. You’d think that after all this time I’d know better than to tell her about my crushes, but she always gets it out of me in the end. It’s like mom magic or something.”

“Yeah, moms are wily like that.” Nursey agrees, turning back towards he sleeping baby.

They both stare at in for a long moment of silence. Then Nursey clears his throat awkwardly. “So, you, uh, you got a crush on someone, huh?”

Dex feels his ears go even hotter than they already were, and he keeps his eyes steadfastly on the baby. He wonders if it’s a boy or a girl. The triceratops onesie doesn’t really hint in either direction. “Like I’d tell you guys if I did. My mom gives me more than enough shit already for falling for unattainable people.”

“Unattainable?”

“He is so far out of my league it’s not even funny.” The moment he realizes what he just said, he freezes, heart pounding. Fuck. Did he really just...

Nursey turns his head to stare at him, while Dex opens and closes his mouth a couple of times without words.

He is saved, in a manner of speaking, by the sudden shrill cries of the baby before them.

“Oh shit,” Nursey curses, immediately panicked. “How do we turn it off?”

Dex steels himself, puts on his game face, and picks up the baby.

He sniffs it a couple times, but it just sort of smells like baby. So he holds it close and puts a gentle bounce in his step as he heads to the kitchen for one of the bottles.

As soon as the nipple is in its mouth, the crying stops. Dex heads back to the living room and sits down on the coffee table so that he can better hold the bottle and the baby the way his mom described.

Nursey is looking at him like he just cured cancer and defeated Voldemort.

Dex ducks his head, embarrassed. “You’re not gonna be nearly so impressed when this thing spits up all over me.”

“I will still be exactly this impressed, and I will also laugh my ass off.”

“I would flip you off right now but I’ve kinda got my hands full.”

It’s quiet for a long moment, the only sounds coming from the baby in Dex’s arms. Nursey stays standing pretty much where Dex originally found him by the carrier on the couch, watching him.

“Listen,” Nursey starts, and then stops. When Dex looks up, he’s chewing his bottom lip, his eyes darting around uncertainly. “I can pretend I didn’t hear anything if you want? Like, if you want a take-back. A do-over or whatever. You should get to say it how you want. If you want.”

Dex swallows. “No, it’s okay. I’ve actually been meaning to tell you for a while. Some of the other guys know. And obviously my mom.”

Nursey shuffles his feet. “And what about the crush?”

“Oh he knows. Not that it makes a difference.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Poindexter. This guy would be an idiot not to like you back.”

“Oh, he’s definitely an idiot, but not because of that.” Dex hesitates, licks his lips nervously, and then goes for broke. “I mean, we couldn’t even live in the same room for more than a month, I’m not sure you’d be up for exploring what a disaster dating would end up being.”

Time seems to stand still as Nursey gapes at him. Dex forces himself not to look away. He’s put it out there now, he can be man enough to deal with the consequences.

“Wait--” Nursey stutters out. “You-- I--”

And then the front door bursts open and Tango appears. “Hey guys! How’s Addie?”

Nursey immediately throws his arms in the air and redirects his focus to their tadpole teammate. “Oh my god, man, never do that to me again!”

Tango gives them a confused look, but that’s pretty much his default expression. “Was she not good for you?”

“Anthony,” Dex begins carefully, “whose baby is this?”

“My sister’s? Did I not say that? She got into town yesterday and I told her I’d take Addie for some playtime so she could have a break.”

“Okay. Follow up question. Why on earth did you think leaving her with Nursey was a good idea?”

“...Because he was the only one here?”

Dex shakes his head and sighs. “You know what, it’s my fault for asking. Get over here and take your niece already.”

Tango does so happily, cooing at the girl in a way that makes her laugh and clap her little hands together even though her bottle’s been momentarily taken away. Of course he’s magically good with babies. Sounds about right when it comes to Tango.

Dex grabs his discarded backpack and heads for the basement, emotionally exhausted. The last thirty minutes have been a bit of a rollercoaster and he will be happy to hole himself in his bungalow and not deal with people for the next several hours.

Except that Nursey follows him.

He stays a couple steps behind Dex and doesn’t say a word all the way into the bungalow.

Dex tosses his backpack onto his desk chair and stands facing the bed instead of Nursey. He closes his eyes and exhales, feeling his entire body deflate with it. “So I guess I don’t get any take-backs on that last one, huh?”

“If you really want one I’ll give it to you, but I’m kinda hoping you don’t.”

Dex’s eyes snap open, but his body remains rooted to the spot, scared to face whatever Nursey’s expression is doing behind him. “And why’s that?” he asks, a little shaky.

“Come on, Poindexter, you have to know.” Dex feels a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’ve been pigtail pulling for years now, Will. It’s kinda gotten embarrassing.”

Dex finally turns around, struggling not to smile. “You’ve always been embarrassing.”

Nursey’s face is a thing of beauty. On any given day it could probably launch ships and start wars, but right now, broken open in Nursey’s apparent happiness and wonder, it’s the most breathtaking thing Dex has ever seen.

“I have it on good authority that you like me anyway.” Nursey smirks.

The smile Dex was fighting breaks free as Nursey closes the distance between them. He starts to lean in, but Dex puts a hand up to stop him. “Wait.”

Nursey’s brow furrows in confusion, his lips forming a small frown that’s almost more pout. It is totally not adorable.

“I meant it about this probably ending in disaster. We don’t share a room anymore but we still do live in the same house and are on the same team and share the same best friend. There’s a lot of ways for us to fuck things up.”

Nursey tilts his head to the side, considering. After a moment he nods. “Alright, what if we did, like, a contract? Kinda how we probably should’ve done for the roommates situation. We can go over boundaries, and possible consequences, and... I don’t know, just make sure we’re on the same page and are playing by the same rules.”

Dex blinks, a little stunned. “That is a surprisingly mature suggestion for someone who nearly just shit himself at the prospect of being responsible for a small child.”

“Hey, babies are scary!”

“Don’t tell my mom that.”

“What? Why?”

“Because on the phone earlier she asked me to get your opinion on whether or not we should adopt.”

Nursey chokes on air. If he’d been drinking something that would’ve been a legitimate spit take.

“Okay, rule one on this contract,” he tells Dex firmly, “is that all discussions of future child acquisition get tabled until after we graduate.”

Dex smiles. “You think we’ll make it all the way to then?”

“Well I’m gonna damn well try to, Poindexter.”

And how can Dex not kiss him at that?

It’s slow at first, lingering presses of lips against lips, over and over again because neither of them want to be pulling away at all. And then eventually it turns a little more heated, Nursey’s hands in Will’s hair and wrapped around his waist, Dex’s hands fisted in the back of Nursey’s shirt.

“Okay, okay,” Dex pants against Nursey’s kiss swollen lips, “anymore than this should probably wait until after the first couple dates.”

A low noise escapes from the back of Nursey’s throat that could almost be described as a whine, but he swallows and nods, his nose brushing up and down the apple of Dex’s cheek with the motion. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Contract first.”

“I hate how much it turns me on when you’re being all responsible and shit.”

“I hate how much it turns me on when you’re being all self-aware and shit.”

Nursey snorts. “I’m still working on that one, so don’t expect it to come up often.”

Dex takes a step back so that he’s no longer tempted to keep making out, and then sits down on the edge of the bed. “Wanna go get dinner with me tomorrow? As a date, just to be clear.”

Nursey makes a show of thinking this over and then stretching, the movement lifting his shirt up enough that Dex gets a nice view of his lower abs and the trail of hair that leads down into his jeans. The show off.

Not that Dex is complaining. But he is still gonna chirp the hell out of Nursey the next time he does it.

“Yeah, count me in,” Nursey replies with a smile. “As long as we’re considering that our first date, and not the Adventures in Babysitting we had to go through today.”

“Deal.”

From upstairs they can hear the clear sounds of a baby’s laughter, before the sound of the front door shutting as Tango leaves with Addie. They both breathe sighs of relief, and then meet eyes and grin at each other.

“If we can successfully handle a surprise baby, we can fumble our way through a relationship,” Nursey says matter-of-factly.

Dex hoists himself up briefly and kisses him again, quick and certain. “As long as I keep my mom on speed-dial, I think we’ll be okay.”

[1sea2sky]

Nine Comes Home Pt 2

The next morning Nina woke up to the smell of bacon and eggos, she rolled off the pull out couch in the office and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She tied her long brown wavy hair up and made her way downstairs to the kitchen. El greeted her with a hug.

"Good morning Nina. Coffee?" Nina gives a quick nod and smiles while Hopper pours her a large mug of black coffee.  He passes her a plate of eggos waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon along with her coffee. He sits down across from her with his own plate.

"Thank you, Hopper." He smiles at her before he takes a bite.

"I mentioned to you certain conditions you have to follow if you stay here. If you're going to be under my roof you have to follow my rules and listen to me."

"Okay. I can do that." Nina takes a sip of her coffee. El gets up to grab a second helping of eggos.

"You have to go to school while you're here," said Hopper. Nina is shocked; she's smart, she was educated when she was in the lab. She reads and knows her multiplication by heart; the girl is even fluent in French. The whole studying and educating part was never the problem but the social situations were never her forte.

"I not doing that!" her attempt at being a polite, quiet girl was on the verge of flying out the window.

"Well, you're going to if you stay here. Next, you have to be careful with your powers. The lab may not be open anymore but we don't need anyone figuring anything out or bringing more attention to ourselves. Got it?" He stared at her until she answered.

"Fine." she bit her tongue in the attempt to hold back what she really felt.

"Good. Now today I have to be a the station all day so do you mind watching over El? Her friends are coming over tonight so I'll leave some money for pizza and the phone number is on the fridge."

"Yeah sounds good, get some sister bonding and I'll finally meet the gang." El was quick to correct her "the party."  

"It definitely will be a party." Nina lets out a bit of a laugh. She still thinking of how she can get of going to school but that is a fight for another day.

"El can leave if her friends come to pick her up. You don't have to be with her all the time. If you want to leave you'll need this." Hopper passes her a key to the house. "I'll see you girls tonight. Save me a slice or two of pizza."

Hopper grabbed his things gave El a hug and left. El and Nina finish their breakfast and get ready for the day. They sit in the living room together and watch 'The Jetsons' together.

"This is a really nice house" Nina tries to make small talk. "Yes, it is a lot better than our last place, the cabin in the woods." Nina shoots El a look of confusion "You lived in a cabin in the woods? That is almost as bad as being raised in a lab." They both giggled. "I'm glad you're here Nina. I wish Kali was too." Nina nodded in agreement "me too kid."

"So what can you do with your powers?"  asked El. "Well I'm like you, I can move things with my mind. Do you know Sue Storm? The Invisible Woman?" El shook her head. "Well I'm like her but I also get visions of the future."

"Bitchin!" said El. "I guess so. I heard that you can find people with just a photo. Now that is Bitchin!" Nina said with a grin.

The doorbell rang over and over again. Nina mumbles under her breath while making her way to the door. She opened the door to a bunch of kids, while a curly-haired boy continued to ring the doorbell until he made eye contact with Nina. There are four boys and a redhead girl all looking at Nina with a baffled look.

"I'm guessing you are the Party?" Nina said with a smirk. The curly-haired boy was the first to pipe up "Who are you?" El came to the door "this is my sister, Nina. Nina these are my friends."  

As each kid entered the house with games and junk food in hand they introduced themselves, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will and Max. They headed to the living room, as Nina passed she overheard their conversation.

"El your sister is so pretty," Max whispered. The boys were quick to chime in. "Good thing you said something first. She's hot!" Lucas and Dustin stated at the same time. Max playfully hit Lucas' shoulder.

Nina let out a bit of a giggle while heading up to her office bedroom to finish her Stephen King book. By 6:30 she finished her book and went down to check in with the kids. They were in the middle of the living room playing D&D.

"Hey, Nina!" Will welcomes her into the living room with a smile. "Hurry up Will fireball him," Mike interrupts before Nina can say anything. Nina sits beside Will and whispers to him "what do you need to roll ?" He starts shaking the dice "I need a 13 or higher."

He rolls what looks like a 7 until one of the dice is suddenly helped to a 13. "That's not fair El helped you!" Lucas says staring at El and Will. "It wasn't me," El says which causes all of them to look at Nina with wide eyes. Nina smirked and stands up.

"So are you guys hungry?" They answered in harmony "Yes!" Nina laughed  "Any suggestion on what kind?"

"A cheese, pepperoni and meat lovers. Oh, don't for some cheesy bread too." Dustin said with a large smile plastered on his face.

Before Nina could make her way into the kitchen Will brings up her powers. "El said you're like Jean Grey from X- men. She also sad you can see the future. That's kinda badass."  Nina smiled and walked to the phone, before calling she turned back to the kids "Well I heard the summary of what you guys went through. Now is the definition of badass."

Nina called to order for pizzas and the cheese bread. They told her it would take 30 to 40 minutes to arrive. She decided to have a quick shower before the pizza comes. "El, I'm going up for a shower. I'm going to leave the pizza money on the counter just in case it comes before I'm done, so get the door okay?" El nodded in agreement.

During Nina's shower, she heard the doorbell ring. She turned off the shower just to make sure, she heard it ring 2 more times. Nina oped the bathroom door slightly and popped her head out "El can you get that? Eleven?" When she got no answer and heard the kids laughing and continuing their game Nina wrapped her towel around her and made her way downstairs to the front door. "Oh, please let me get it." She mumbled under her breath when passing the living room.

Nina grabbed the money on the counter and opened the door to see a tall blond man with blue eyes and a half-buttoned shirt.  His jaw dropped while he eyed Nina in her towel up and down. Her tanned skin still wet and her hair dripping, he smirked while finally staring into her green eyes. He didn't have pizzas in his hands which meant he wasn't the pizza guy, Nina was slightly annoyed.

"Can I help you?" she asked with attitude. The man was taken aback by the attitude the question was laced in. "Yeah, I'm here to pick up Max. I'm Billy. Max's stepbrother." He reaches his hand out to shake. "Right. Come in." she ignores the handshake and steps aside to let him in.

"Max your brother is here," All the boys were staring at Nina at that point. "We aren't done the game yet. Can I stay a little longer?" Max looks at Billy with some puppy dog eyes. Billy, on the other hand, had a look of irritation due to the request.

"You can stay if you want. We have pizza on the way." Nina offers which gets Billy's attention, he nods in agreement. "I never got your name."  Billy had a curiosity to find out more about this new girl. "It's Nina."

She turns around to head upstairs to get dressed, Billy notices a large scar on her back, starting on her right shoulder. This left Billy feeling slightly uneasy. How could this girl have a scar like that?

Nina threw on a pair of jeans and a basic white t-shirt. Billy was sitting in the kitchen when there another doorbell ring. He opened the door when he notices no one else is making any attempt to open it and there was Steve Harrington with a shocked confused look on his face. "What are you doing here Harrington?" Billy asked while Steve made his way in. "I can ask you the same thing."

Just then Nina came down. "I'm guessing  you're not the pizza guy?" Steve shook his head "No I'm Steve Harrington. I'm driving the boys home."

The door was still open and there was the pizza guy. Nina paid him and set the food on the kitchen table. The kids stopped playing and helped themselves to pizza and ate in the living room.

Nina put a couple of slices aside for Hopper and sat with down with Steve and Billy. There was an awkward silence between the 3 teens until Steve started to ask Nina about herself.

“Where are you from Nina,” Steve asked before taking a bite. “I’ve lived all over the east coast but I was actually born here in Hawkins.” A chill goes through her spine as she says that. “Really? So did you ever go to school here?” Steve asked curiously. “No, but I guess I’ll be starting soon.”

Billy smiled at her words as he finished his pizza “well I’ll see you at school princess. If you need a ride I could pick you up." She looks up at the blonde boy with a surprised look. "Thanks but I'm pretty sure Hopper will drive me. He probably doesn't trust me to go."

Billy and Max get into his Camaro, he couldn't hide his smile when he thought about Nina.

Steve and the boys get ready to leave soon after. As the boys pile into Steve's car, he waits by the door with Nina. "If you want I could show you around, Hawkins. Give you a chance to get reacquainted with our lovely town here."  Steve offered.  

"Yeah. That would be great. Thank Steve!" Nina replied after realizing all she remembers about Hawkins, has to do with the lab. "Perfect! I'll pick you up tomorrow at noon. We can start with lunch at the diner." Steve was excited to get a chance to spend more time with her, but he hid it well behind his charming grin as he walked over to his car.