#could’ve sonicced the crack back together too

[rowanthestrange]

It feels notable that the Doctor didn’t come back and fix the window.

We make a point that it’s going to be a problem, but nothing.

[jnkgrnde]

— after last night

parings : shuri x black!fem!reader

warnings : descriptions of sex, shuri kinda being a player before she met you

summary : you and shuri have been seeing each other for a while, and after a special night together, she realizes how she truly feels about you. based off of ‘after last night’ by silk sonic.

the sun shined brightly through the curtains into shuri’s room. her eyes cracked open and she was about to groan when she saw you sleeping peacefully beside her. you were sun-kissed to say the least; the light reflected off your beautiful skin, and it tried seeping into your eyes.

she admired you longer than she would’ve ever admitted. her heartbeat increased the more she did before she heard you shuffling, groaning softly and turning your head to avoid the sunlight. “good morning.” shuri quickly cleared her throat, throwing out a flustered “good morning.”

“how did you sleep?” she asked, looking right at you while you tried opening your eyes and adjust them to the light. “you already know the answer.” you bashedly smiled and shuri could’ve sworn she had hearts in her eyes.

usually after her hookups she would leave or escort whoever she was with out of the palace, but with you.. you had this type of hook on her. it kept her coming back for more.

whenever you saw her and greeted her, she lost the confidence she held up on the grounds of wakanda, and all of a sudden she was stuttering around you. there was multiple times when she elbowed okoye for snickering at her antics.

it didn’t take her long to realize that she’d have to drop her reputation in terms of relationships. she wanted to show you that she was the one for you and vice versa.

you stretched before getting up and shuri’s eyes trailed over your body and the events of the night before flashed through her head. your moans and whimpers, the feeling of you around her fingers.

you were so sweet, so pretty.

you got dressed and she saw you out, her eyes lingering longer than needed. she shut the door and sighed, immediately thinking when she would see you again.

she walked into the lab with a too-big smile on her face, and riri teased her endlessly about it. “who’s got you smiling like that?” was thrown at shuri while she was working. “Bast, do you ever mind your business?” she jokingly asked. “is it that girl that’s always around you?” riri further questioned. “y/n.” shuri corrected her.

she was practically in love with you and she didn’t know what to do.

she wanted to treat you to anything you wanted and more, she wanted to hold you close when you wanted to, she wanted to hug you from behind while you cooked together.

so, she asked for advice on what to do and say so she could ask you out.

a couple days later, she invited you to the palace so you could hang out. she was nervous and started pacing around, her hands sweating with a million thoughts racing through her mind. her phone buzzed in her pocket and she tried to walk as slowly as she could to the doors before opening them.

your eyes sparkled as you looked at her, light pouring in from both the moon and the city behind you. a smile was placed on your glossy lips and she had to hold herself back from kissing them. “shuri?” you asked while snapping your fingers. “ah, i’m sorry. come in.” a chuckle escaped your chest as you walked in.

“what did you want to talk about?” you asked, walking to sit down on the comfortable couch. her throat bobbed when she swallowed. she sat down beside on the couch and wiped her hands on her pants. she inhaled deeply before starting, “i’m just gonna get straight to the point.” she looked at you and you had a patient look on your face. “i’m in love with you. i’ve been in love with you for longer than i’d admit, and i know it sounds bad coming from me because of my reputation, but i promise i haven’t been with anyone but you. i’ve only had my eye on you ever since we met, and being with you has only furthered my feelings for you. if you don’t want to have anything, then i completely underst-“

she was cut off when your lips met hers. her delicate, tattooed hands found home on your waist while yours held her strong cheekbones.

“it took you that long to confess, princess?”

[thebigpalooka]

you’re not my dad (redemption arc)

I was gonna tack this onto @humanityinahandbag​‘s post but I’m not good with computers so I’m just posting this on its own, but to be clear, this is a follow-up to her amazing wonderful-awful half-drabble right here because I recognize my complicity in this crime.  However, when I offered to ruin her day, I was VERY CLEAR that when I lay my hand on something, everything turns out okay in the end.

So, for my own personal little version, read on.

Funny how, in spite of it all, it never occurred to him to do anything but go up to his room.  How after everything he’d shouted, he obeyed without a word because if he opened his mouth again now -

“I can’t believe you’re making such a big deal out of this, you’re always telling me what to do all the time!”

“Yeah, well, that’s my job, dude!”

“No it’s not!”

“Uh, it kind of *is*, and you better make it *your* job to start listening.”

“You’re not -”

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to remember that part.  He’d never seen Tom look like that, didn’t know what it meant, exactly, only that it was bad. And Tom was an adult; he shouldn’t have been able to make him look that way, had wielded a power he didn’t even know he had, and it felt just as damaging as the last time he’d exploded.

He moved to sit on the bed, then on the floor, then finally ended up in the beanbag, curled almost into an actual ball.  He couldn’t visualize, in that moment, all those trips it had taken to bring his things up here from the woods, couldn’t see Maddie smoothing out the comforter they’d picked out, couldn’t see Tom balanced on the ladder as he tacked up christmas lights.  He only remembered that the bean bag was his, so he didn’t have to feel guilty there.  

He felt guilty anyway; it oozed up from the inside and pooled in his gut when he heard footsteps on the attic stairs.

When both of them topped the steps, he knew it was real, real bad.  He clenched his fists, and as they eased to sit down on the floor in front of him, he sat up straight, panic spilling his thoughts out into words as fast as they formed.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay?  I’m really sorry.  I don’t know why I said it, but it didn’t mean anything, so I’m sorry.  And we can forget about it, right?  I can follow the rules, and we don’t have to talk about it, okay?”

“Sonic….”

“I just don’t see why it has to be a big deal!”  He darted a look up at them before focusing on picking at a piece of duct tape he’d stuck over a tear in the bean bag.  “People say dumb things all the time, and I won’t do it again, so -”

“Bud, this is serious,” Tom interrupted again, a little more firmly.  

He squeezed his eyes shut.  “...I know, but - look, I’ll make it my job to start listening, just like you said, so - so -”

“Hey.”  A warm hand landed on his shoulder and his eyes flashed open, bright electric blue.  Terrified.  

Tom looked scared too.

“Honey, calm down.”  Maddie’s voice seemed close and distant all at once.  “Take a breath.  Slowly, okay?”  She smiled faintly.  “I know that’s kind of not your thing, but….”  They waited until he snorted an awkward breath and huffed it out again.  “There you go.”  

“Sonic, I’m not talking about what you said when you were mad.  I’m talking about what you said in the garage.”

His reeling thoughts locked up.  The garage?  The garage?  What had he said in the garage?  Then he remembered, and he felt hot and icy all over.

Are you gonna make…

Please just…

Don’t make me go, okay?

They waited a second before Tom spoke again.  “Is that….”  His voice was husky.  He cleared his throat.  “...is that something you’ve been thinking about?  About us send - sending you away?”  His voice cracked again and he winced.  Maybe all three of them did, hearing it out loud.

“No,” Sonic lied.  Didn’t know why.  “...I mean, sometimes, maybe.  I dunno.”  A shrug, like it was the most natural thing in the world.  It was, right?

Tom and Maddie exchanged a look.  God, god, god, they’d thought about it too.  He clenched his fists again, and they trembled with the strain of sitting still.  He could’ve been up and out the skylight and into the woods in a second flat.  Heck, he could grab a few things on the way out.

“How long have you been worrying about that?” Maddie asked.  Her voice was so gentle that he had to swallow back the lump in his throat before he did something embarrassing, like cry.  He shrugged.

“I’m - pft, I’m not worried about it.”  Another lie.  He smiled a smile that felt as tight as a strained rubber band.  “I’m just… I’m….”  He clunked his shoes together.  The words came out like a fast train.  “....I like it here and it’s really cool, and I’m really glad you guys let me live here, so I wanna be a good - you know.”  

But he didn’t know.

Tom ran a hand over his hair, letting out a long breath.  Maddie rubbed his arm and Sonic felt vaguely jealous.

“I’m sorry.”  A muscle tightened in Tom’s jaw.  “...I’m really sorry, buddy.”

Sonic stared.  “...For what?” he almost whispered. 

Here it comes.

“I sh….”  He stopped.  Maddie’s hand had paused on his arm; she moved it to stroke his shoulder.  He cleared his throat again and for a second, Sonic had the sudden and bizarre sensation like Tom was gonna cry, himself.  Until that moment, it had never occurred to him such a thing was even possible.  When he spoke again, his voice sounded almost normal, but the awareness remained.  “...I should’ve made sure you never had to worry about that.  I messed up.  And I hope you can forgive me.”

For once, he was speechless.  Tom shifted forward, settling a hand on each shoulder.  The touch made his chest tighten again.  “Sonic.  No matter what happens, no matter how mad somebody gets or what anybody says, nobody is ever - ever gonna send you away.”

“This is your home, sweetheart.”  Maddie squinted, reading his gaze to make sure he was listening.  “It’s our home.  All of us.”  She found one of his hands, resting limply against his knee, and squeezed it in her own.

“We may not understand all of it yet, exactly.  But we’re a family.”  Tom lifted his brows, paused to let the word fill up the silence.   “Ozzie and me and Maddie and you.”

“Oh.”

He felt dizzy.  Lightheaded.  He felt like he was gonna puke.  He felt too embarrassed to go on living.  He felt like a stone statue and he felt like he was going to fly apart into a million pieces.  It felt like a gazillion pounds of lead had just poured out of his shoes.  Like his head was gonna pop off on a spring like a jack-in-the-box.

“...Y-yeah, I know that,” he lied once more, slowly this time.  “I know that.  We’re … we’re like a family.”

“We’re not like a family.  This is our family.”  Maddie swung his hand back and forth a little.  “Sometimes a family is - you know - a pretzel lady, a donut lord and a blue blur.  Right?”

“Makes sense to me.”  Tom studied him.  “...Make sense to you?”

The hand that wasn’t closed in Maddie’s was closed in Tom’s.  He didn’t remember when that had happened, but he was clasping it so tight that he could feel his knuckles straining against his glove.

“Yeah.  Of course.  Sure.”  It wasn’t a lie this time.  He still felt like crying, though.  He shifted away and they let him do it, releasing his hands. He tucked them around his legs again.  “That’s cool.  I’m - yeah.  I mean that’s awesome.  Of course we’re - we’re a family.  That’s - you guys are  - I mean, we’re the best family.”

“Good.  We think so too.  So that means we’re sticking together.  Even if we have arguments or something crazy happens.”

“Crazy?  In this family? Pfft.  Not likely.”  Tom grinned.  Sonic knew it was his benefit, and smiled back, or came the closest he could when his stomach was still turning flip-flops.  Maddie smiled too.

“We’re a team.  No matter what.”

“Yeah.  Okay.  Cool.”  He looked at his shoes.  “...Thanks, you guys.”  

There was an awkward pause.

Maddie understood before either of the boys did.  She let out a breath.  “Well.  I better go check on Ozzie - I bet he’s gonna want outside.  Then we can decide what we wanna make for dinner, okay?”

“Y-yeah, sure.  Sounds great.”  Sonic froze as she bent and kissed his forehead.  Made him feel warm and squirmy all over, but he was glad.  She brushed her fingers against his ear with a smile and then rose to retreat quickly down the stairs.  Even then, Sonic didn’t quite know if she’d understood how hard it was to talk in front of just one person, let alone two, but as Tom rose, looking faintly confused, and began to follow her, Sonic managed to work up enough nerve.  He jumped to his feet.

“H-hey, donut lord... about… about that other thing I said….”  

Tom stopped.  Sonic waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.  He swallowed.  “...I really am sorry.  I didn’t mean it.”

Tom nodded.  “It’s okay.  Everybody says things they don’t mean when they get mad,” he murmured.  

Sonic squirmed.  “Yeah, I know, but - I … I really...really didn’t mean it.  Um.”  He squeezed a pop out of one knuckle.  “It’s just that, if it wasn’t for you, I’d be puking up mushrooms full time by now and … a-and besides that, you’re pretty much the coolest person I know, and I have an extremely developed instinct for coolness, it’s kind of like a sixth sense, really-”

Tom’s face twisted with amusement and emotion at odds with one another.  “Sonic....”

Sonic shook his head, letting his hands talk in a bigger and bigger arc.  “A-and it doesn’t really matter what it is, because we know what it is, don’t we?  It’s just our thing, our cool guy thing, that’s all, but I just don’t wanna let you down.  Okay?  Look, all I’m saying is, you’re my favorite person.  And not in a weird way, it’s totally, totally cool -”

“Sonic.”  Tom dropped to one knee so that they were eye-to-eye.  His smile was humiliating.  And great.  “...I feel the same way.  I love you, bud.”

Strong arms drew him in and hugged him.  For a second, he was scared he’d blow up the whole house.  But that didn’t happen, and so instead, he shut his eyes tight and stretched his arms as far as they’d go and held on tight.  And he mumbled it back, whispered it into Tom’s shirt because he couldn’t say it any louder, but they were so close, it was perfectly, perfectly clear.

[myboipracticallyimagines]

Right Beside Me - The Doctor x Reader

Prompt: The Doctor ages from 9-13 and reader must deal with the toll of change and loss. Reader goes through the many regenerations of the Doctor. 

You first knew the Doctor on his ninth body, more or less that is, but he preferred ninth. You were beside him the day he turned into his tenth self. It was shocking, and heartbreaking, and left you lonely in a way you’d never felt before. The man you had grown to trust, one might even go as far as to say love, had transformed almost completely, leaving you longing for someone who was still sitting right beside you.

 The aches in your chest slowly ceased as you came to the realization that he was still your Doctor. The way he always made sure you were safe first in a dangerous situation never faltered. The way he looked at you when he was sure you weren’t paying attention was still there. He was still your beautiful, loving Doctor. 

It was on this face you told him you loved him. 

You had just returned to the TARDIS after the events on the way to Midnight. Donna had already retired to bed and you were left alone with the Doctor. You sat on the floor, back resting against the railing. The Doctor sat with his back to the console, clearly shaken as well.  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he finally said, eyes still yet to meet yours.  “I’m sorry I couldn’t help more. I wish I would’ve done more but I felt so powerless.”  “It’s not your fault. There is nothing you could’ve done to change what they had already decided.”

“I thought I was going to lose you,” your voice shook as you uttered what had now become your greatest fear. “I was so scared, Doctor.” “Hey, come here,” the Doctor soothed you, moving to sit beside you. He wrapped his arm around your shoulder, allowing you to push yourself into his side. He had removed his suit jacket and you could feel the warmth of his skin under his thin white shirt. 

Maybe it was the fear of losing him, or maybe it was just the stray adrenaline left in your veins, but something in you snapped. “I love you, Doctor. I don’t want to lose you.”  “I wish I could give you everything you want, but I can’t. It’ll hurt you to love me. I’m not like you - you already know that.”  “I do.” You were both quiet, but only for a moment. “I’d rather be hurt by you than be loved by anyone else.” Your voice was barely above a whisper, but it carried the weight of an anchor.  “I couldn’t do that to you.” “Doctor, you’re hurting me more by pushing me away. I’ve loved two of you now and I’ll love how ever many more I can. I wish my life was more than a small blip in time to you. I wish you would open yourself up to someone. You’re so alone, Doctor. I can see it when you think no one is watching.” “You will age and I will not. It will be the hardest thing you’ve ever endured.” “Please for once in your life stop being sensible and kiss me.” 

And he did. You didn’t know which one of you it surprised more, but your bet was on him. He grabbed you with a ferocity you had only seen on the worst of occasions. His moves were sloppy, but deliberate, showing a side of him that he had never shown you before. Never had you seen the doctor so uncalculated and free. You matched your energy to his, easily returning his passion. 

It was easy to love the Doctor. He was caring and kind, always leaving the world better than he found it. Or at least, he tried to. 

His last weeks on his tenth face were hard, to say the least. It started on Mars and only got worse from there. You could see it chipping at him, making him more irritable, to the point that he wouldn’t even want to be near you. Everything came to a climax when the Doctor defeated the Master. The finality of the situation allowed you to relax for the first time in what felt like an eternity. 

It was over. All of the Masters were gone, leaving only the Doctor. A bloodied and bruised Doctor, but him nonetheless. You were trapped inside of a cage, only a glass one, thankfully. Your fingers tapped against the glass, trying to draw his attention to you. He needed medical attention and a lot of rest and the sooner you got off of this planet the better. 

He slowly stood, eyes locking with yours. “You did it, love. I’m so proud of you.” You smiled, pressing your hands to the glass. “Help me get out and lets go home.” You don’t know when you started calling the TARDIS ‘home’, but at some point it became the truth. He walked towards you. “The Master left the nuclear bomb going. It’s gone into overload.” Your stomach sank. It was over. It was just over. Of course things didn’t end perfectly, they rarely did. “That’s not good, is it?” you ask, your voice beginning to get choppy as you fought back tears.  “No, all the excess radiation gets vented into there,” he says, nodding his head to the glass tank you were still encompassed in.  The Doctor would never leave you in a situation like this. His face was contemplative, sad even. You wipe your tears away quickly. “You can’t let me out, can you?” “It’s gone critical. Touch one control and it floods.” He pulls his sonic from his pocket, twirling it around in his fingers. “Even this would set it off.”

A sob forces its way through your throat. You press your hand harder to the glass, desperate for the closeness of the man you loved. He obliged, pressing his own hands on the other side. “Please leave me. I don’t want you to see it, Doctor.”  He draws in a sharp breath, “Oh, right then, I will,” he says, walking in only a circle to return right in front of you. “Because you had to go in there, didn’t you?” Anger now mixed with his sadness. “You had to go and get stuck. Because that’s who you are,” his voice cracks, looking you in the eyes once more. The anger in his voice has passed, leaving him looking smaller than you’ve ever seen him before.  “Please leave me, Doctor,” you cried out. “We always knew that I’d die before you anyway,” you said with a small laugh. It was all you could do to keep from crying. “Of course we did. Look at you, not remotely important!” He walked another few steps away before turning again. “But, me? I could do so much more!” He was no longer speaking to just you, maybe he never had been. He screamed at the sky, the way a child screams at their parent when they know they are being unreasonable. “So much more!” He drops, using a table as leverage. You want nothing more than to hold him as he shakily says, “But this is what I get. My reward.” His voice jumps again, rising with intensity as he shoves the contents of the desk onto the floor. “It’s not fair!”

He calms, his eyes finally meeting with yours. His eyes melted, showing the fear truly inside of him. You ache to console the Time Lord as he stood in front of you, body shaking as he tried to calm himself down. Slowly, he began moving towards you once more. “I’ve lived too long.”  “Please don’t. Whatever you’re about to do - stop it,” you beg. You remembered his first regeneration and how it crushed you. You knew that it would be even harder now that you had fallen even farther in love with this form of himself. “Doctor, please stop.”  He stopped in front of the door, pressing his hand against yours through the glass once more. “I love you.” 

He quickly opened his door, slipping in and leaving you just enough time to slip out before the radiation poured in. The tank turned red, illuminating his skin in a way that caused him to look non-human. He groaned in pain, sinking to the floor. You knelt beside him, telling him every reassuring word you could think of, aching to soothe his pain. His body curled into a ball, in the fetal position. It was the most vulnerable you had ever seen the Time Lord. You cried out to him, feeling the pain that he was going through in your own chest.

Not long after, it was over. The lights returned to normal and his screaming stopped. He stood, opening the door and simply stepping out. “Is that it?” you asked, knowing that it was too good to be true. His face remained unchanged, still the Doctor you loved.  “No. I’m going to change,” he said solemnly. 

That night he gave you instructions on how to drive the TARDIS. He knew that this wouldn’t be the last regeneration you saw and wanted you to be safe when the time came. You parked down at a safe location, hopeful that no one would bother you.  

That night he regenerated, causing the death of the man you fell in love with. But, you didn’t fall in love with a man, you fell in love with the Doctor. Your heart grew fond of the new face of your love. He was goofier and much stranger than his tenth form. But, in those few moments where the world fell around him, he was harsher than him. His soft edges masked the true sharpness of the man, making the shift even more alarming. 

You had forgotten how much his demeanor changed when he first regenerated. Everything was brand new and you had to fall in love again with not only a new face, but parts of a new man. His physicality was not the only change. There were days that you missed how easy it was to be with his last regeneration. Everything was smooth and you could sense his reactions almost as quick as he could. 

His eleventh form was a bit harder to learn, but you found yourself deep in love once more. Before you realized it you were used to the face you were waking up beside. You no longer had the jolt of confusion that you had when he first changed. All you felt as your eyes slowly focused on him was love.  “Good morning,” you’d whisper as he looked over at you, a blissful smile present on his sleepy face.  “Good morning, darling,” he’d reply, brushing his hand through your hair.  It was nice to have a calm moment together before you got into whatever antics came along with traveling with the Doctor. 

You enjoyed those adventures until your last, kissing him goodbye once more and waiting for his next form. It was hard and painful, but you did it again. 

And again. 

The Doctor was hunched over the console, clearly still feeling the effects of the new regeneration. He would need rest and lots of it. You had been through this three times prior, and were able to help him come out mostly unscathed. The Doctor stood, allowing you to finally see his new reincarnation. It took you a few moments to comprehend that this new face was that of a woman. “Oh,” you simply said, digesting the new form.  “Am I ginger?” she asked, her face lit up. When she smiled you could see the resemblance to her tenth face. Every regeneration, this one a little more so, startled you slightly. Even with your many years of loving the different forms of the Doctor, it was easy to shut down at a new regeneration. It normally took about a week for you to fully warm up to the new face, but it always happened.  You smiled. “No, blonde, and also female,” you said, pulling out the console mirror. 

“Blimey, never been one of those before,” she said, examining herself fully. “On another note, I believe I’m about to have a surge.” You knew that was your cue to retreat to your bedroom, and you did. You would often wait here for a day while the TARDIS was already parked at a decidedly safe location. 

Like every regeneration, the Doctor found herself in immense trouble, before consequently working herself out of it. Once the days of strife had settled, you thought that you could afford a day to relax. When you woke up, she was already out of bed, sitting on the couch in the corner, seemingly unaware that you had woken up.  “I thought we agreed on a lie-in, love,” you said, hoping to draw her back into bed for however long you could.  “Are you still happy?” her voice traveled in a straight line, more contemplative than accusatory.  “Of course I am, besides almost being caught on fire on that last planet. Why do you ask?” You shuffled to the couch, sitting cross-legged beside her.  “I’ve been through four changes with you now. No one has ever lasted this long.”  Your fingers slid up her jaw, resting on her cheek. Her eyes meet yours as she lets out a small huff, waiting for your answer.  “I’ve been with four of you, and I plan to be with as many more as I’m able to. I love you and each new day I spend with you is a gift in of itself.”  She smiles, your answer suffice for the time being. “Then let’s get going.”

[unwillingadventurer]

fic- Ian and Graham chat in a waiting room.

...

Shuffling into the waiting room at the medical centre, Ian Chesterton rested his walking stick against the wall and then sat down on one of the comfy chairs. Opposite was a man who kept glancing at his watch.

“Are they running late?” Ian asked.

The man laughed. “Nah it’s me, mate. My lift got me here half hour early. Usually she’s late so that’s something!”

“I’m early myself. Couldn’t relax. Got an earlier bus.”

“The number 17?”

“That’s it.”

“I’m not from around these parts, well not for years anyway but I do know me buses. I’m Graham by the way.” He leaned across the little table— which was full of outdated magazines— and shook the old man’s hand.

“Ian. I’m here to see the grief counsellor. I’m a bit nervous truth be told.”

“I’m here for that too…. well…that amongst other things that have been bothering me. Don’t be nervous though, I’ve been a few times, you know… to talk about stuff. Sometimes your family and friends want to help, they love you and all that, bless ‘em, but they’re not always the best at reassuring words.”

“That’s true enough. I have my son but I don’t like to bother him.”

“It’s a cracking place this,” Graham said, peering around at the freshly refurbished building. “Very nice. Puts you at ease. Was it your wife you lost if you don’t mind me asking?”

A sudden tear formed in the corner of Ian’s eye. “Yes, Barbara. Last year.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, mate. I lost my wife Grace recently.”

“How awful, you’re still very young.”

“Keeping busy what’s been getting me through. I’m travelling. I know, I know, crazy at my age but here I am.”

“Did a bit of that myself back in the ‘60’s. Wonderful times. But they remind me of Barbara. We travelled together you see, so even though those memories are good…well it makes thinking of it just that bit harder.”

Graham nodded and there was a brief pause. Both men smiled awkwardly and laughed as they glanced at their wristwatches at the exact same time.

“Blimey, it’s only been two minutes since I last looked,” Graham noted.

“A watched pot never boils. I’m sure the long wait will be worth it.” Ian reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag of sweets. “Humbug?”

Wriggling his fingers excitedly, remembering his own grandparents giving him humbugs as a boy, Graham reached into the paper bag and pulled out a sweet. He unwrapped it and then placed it into his mouth, sucking it carefully. “You not having one?” he said with his mouthful.

“Just had one. Have some sherbet lemons for later too, left over from the grandkids visit. Have you got grandkids yet?”

“Just the one. My wife’s grandson, Ryan. He’s a good lad. He’s actually one of the ones that kind of persuaded me to give this a bash.”

“Sounds like my Emily. She’s my granddaughter. She’s been very helpful. She set me up one of those social medias so I can talk to a few more people. What do you call it, tweets?”

“That’s it. It’s a lark isn’t it?” Graham sniffed. “So, what was your wife like?” he asked, finally finishing his sweet.

Ian took a moment to think and then took two photographs from his wallet. He pointed to the first picture in colour. “That was her the year before she died, and this one in black and white is when she was young when we’d just got back from travelling.”

“She had one excellent bouffant and your barnet weren’t bad neither.”

Ian laughed. “She was a wonderful woman. Intelligent, kind, remarkable really, and always true.” The last few words caught him unaware and his voice trembled with sadness. “And what about your Grace?”

“Strong, kind, so so funny. She always had me in stitches and that wasn’t just because she was a nurse.”

“Sounds like Barbara and me when we had a laugh together. I was a science teacher in those days and she was next door in the history classroom. I used to say there was chemistry between us.”

Both men smiled and each took a moment to reflect on the memories they had shared with their spouses. It was quiet for several moments.

“It doesn’t seem to get any easier,” Ian said. “People always say that she had her innings and yes, Barbara had a wonderful life. We were happy together. But being left here without her has been the hardest thing I’ve ever faced and I’ve faced some real monsters.”

“I get that, mate. Hang in there. For me it’s the lack of time we had— the what could’ve beens, you know? I’ve seen some amazing things and I always think ‘Grace would kill for this’.”

“She’s with you somehow,” Ian said with a smile. “I have a feeling.”

“Cor it’s like we’re giving each other a good talk here. Should we tell the therapists to go home?” Graham laughed.

“It’s been nice to have someone understand.”

At that moment, a young blonde woman walked into the medical centre, wearing a long coat and looking around the room curiously. Her hands were thrust inside her pockets and she was shuffling her feet awkwardly across the floor until she spotted Graham in the waiting area.

“You done yet, Graham?”

“Done yet? Doc, I’ve only been here fifteen minutes and the appointment aint ‘til one.”

She sat down next to him and placed her feet on the table. “Right, must have got my timings off. I’ve been around the whole universe in the time you’ve been sitting here.”

“Doc!” Graham cocked his head, indicating that they were not alone and that Ian was sitting opposite, very much listening.

“Oh, right, humans.” She turned her head to look from Graham to the man, but when she did, her mouth hung open and she squeaked. “It can’t be!”

Ian wondered why the woman was staring at him in the way she was, mouth open wide, eyes bulging. He was unnerved by the intense gaze.

“Do I…know you?” he asked.

“A bit yeah.” She suddenly held a magazine over her face and leaned over to Graham. “It’s Ian! It’s Chesterton, Chesterfield. I am having a mad day right now,” she whispered.

“Eh?”

She lowered the magazine and grinned before reaching into her pocket, pulling out her sonic screwdriver and waving it in front of Ian’s face. It whirled as the yellow light scanned over him. She scrunched her face up as she looked at the screen on the device.

“What is that thing?” Ian was still shielding himself with his old frail hands.

 The Doctor smiled. “Sorry. Double checking it was you.”

“Are you a doctor then?”

“Yeah, I am as a matter of fact.”

“Why were you doing that with that silver thing?”

“Routine check. Check your blood pressure, heart rate.”

“It’s up right now,” Ian said, feeling a little like an experiment.

“It feels like that spending time with her, my heart’s always going like the clappers,” Graham added.

“You should try having two of them!” the Doctor said.

Ian and Graham exchanged glances and there was an excruciating silence for several minutes as the Doctor continued to stare at Ian, this time grinning like a Cheshire cat.  

“How have you been?” she finally said.

“I’ve been alright. Good days, bad days.”

“And how’s Barbara?”

“Doc!” Graham nudged her.

Ian’s eyes watered. “I’m afraid Barbara passed away. Did you know her?”

The Doctor’s eyes also appeared to water and she looked down at the ground suddenly, not speaking for several moments. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. And yeah, I did know her.” The Doctor suddenly sprung to her feet and headed toward the doors. “I’ve gotta go, be back in a minute.”

“Is that young lady alright?” Ian asked, watching her leave.

“Don’t know, but she seemed to know you, didn’t she? And your wife. I think it upset her. Your Barbara really must’ve been something.”

“She really was. I suspect your Grace was too.”

“One in a million.”

Suddenly without warning, the Doctor re-appeared, causing both Ian and Graham to jump in their seats.

“Bloody hell, Doc!”

“Sorry about the quick exit there. I had something in my eye.”

“Thought you were a bit upset, Doc.”

“I’m fine.”

Ian sat forward as the Doctor once again sat opposite. “How did you know Barbara?”

The Doctor took a moment’s pause. “Ah. Well, now that is a very long story, which I will tell you about if you want to grab a coffee or tea sometime. Graham can come too.”

Ian nodded, unsure of the invitation.

“My door is always open. Except when it’s closed. Which actually is most of the time. But give a steady knock and I might hear you and we can have a catch-up.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude but how do we know each other? My memory’s not as good as it was. Were you one of Barbara’s students?”

The Doctor smiled, nodding. “Yeah, you know what? She was an amazing teacher. I didn’t always want to learn but you both taught me a lot.”

“Me? You were one of my pupils?”

“No, Ian, but my granddaughter was one of yours.”

She looked deeply into his eyes and then he looked deeply into hers and he felt a peculiar sensation travel down his spine. The Doctor was staring at him and for a moment it could’ve been the white-haired old man looking back.

“Doctor? You mean…it’s you, after all these years?” He grabbed her hand in his and squeezed it. There was a brief pause as everyone tried to take in what had just happened.

Graham leaned forward, took a pause and then said: “Hang on, you’re a grandmother?”

Our ko-fi

[idjitlili]

Firework

Kili x modern!reader

Summary: The company turning silent  at the random lyrics you quietly say to yourself.

wordcount:2674

"Do you ever feel like a plastic bag Drifting thought the wind Wanting to start again" you had whispered to yourself ,not knowing the company had begin quieting down ,as you really didn't speak much,it's not surprising really being thrown into a different world not knowing if you ever get back home.You felt like Kim jong un ,in the interview. Damn you had wished to be James franco.

"Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin Like a house of cards One blow from caving in

Do you ever feel already buried deep Six feet under scream But no one seems to hear a thing." you still hadnt realised the company was dearly concerned and silent as they heard you spit out these things,they felt horrible they couldnt help. Deciding you didnt want to speak all of the lyrics to firework,you just skipped the the end.

The company were about to hear some purposely bad singing,you did it because it's more fun,singing in a horrible low man pitch or a high squeaky pitch.it was great in your opinion ,to annoy people.

"Baby you're a firework Come on let your colors burst Make 'em go "OOOh.oh, oh!" You're gonna leave 'em fallin' DOwn down down BOOOOM,BOOOOM,BOOM" shouting each boom like a dinosaur ,oh by the way you were in a lake bathing.

"Even brighter than the moon, moon, MOOOOON Boom, BOOM, boom Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon." you had turned around to see the whole company rushing towards you with their weapons in hand,your face flashed red,you had used your arms to cover your breasts,you had finished bathing anyways. GRabbing your towel from the side on a rock now covering yourself with that.

"have you heard of privacy?" you had spoke walking out of the water,onto the rocky ground,damn dwayne,the company had looked shocked at your rudeness.

"We heard shouting, we thought you were in danger, lass."bofur had piped up,luckily Gandalf hadnt bothered to check on you knowing you just doing you,same with some of the other dwarves aka Bombur ,Balin ,OIn, and a couple of the others that didn't think you were in danger.

"bRuh,you know I could've been being down something else and bOOm ,I don't you to see that ,or I could have been bleeding out my god darn VAGINA!" okay so you were a little mad,KIli had smirked raising his eyebrows ,when you had said the first thing,you had blushed looked away from him

They had simply muttered apologies to you ,before walking away,yeah they were a little embarrassed as they hadn't seen you burst out like that being ,you always kept everything to yourself ,mostly not wanting to anger Thorin. You thought that they had all left turning to drop your towel to dress;yet someone had cleared their throat. You had turned like sonic ,to see the youngest dwarven prince standing a couple of steps a way,you were glad he had let his presence known otherwise he would've gotten a whole view of your cake. You just stared at the dwarf who stared back still smirking.  

"that was some lovely singing." bruh why did they all rush to yo,thinking you were being stabbed then? "that wasn't bloody singing ,screaming." you had grumbled out walking closer to him pushing him to face away ,when he had turned slightly back you had glared at him. Allowing you to get dressed ,god darn it was chilly.  "I would like to hear you scream sometime ,how about it?" you had scoffed at him playfully ,you knew he was just joking but it was horrible to be led on. LIttle to his knowledge you knew about that scene with the male elf ,you hadn't watched the hobbit it many years ,and that smaug was pretty much all you could remember right now.

"it's not like you got time ,oh darn those male elves." you had spoken doing a very rude gesture ,not that he could see but you were dressed mostly now, "oh your high cheekbones, and oooh ah your perfect skin,and those mhmm tight little asses." in with that that you had snuck up on the prince cupping his ass in your hands ,before swiftly leaving the dwarf in a certain bone city. He had not expected that from you, he thought you were shy,well you were ,you were just comfortable around him.

Neither had talked to each other for a couple of days and you knew Gandalf was leading you all to Rivendell but that was a secret.  You felt like being attacked by orcs was the perfect time to sing wrecking ball  horribly and dance to which fighting off orcs. You all had been hiding behind a rock when you had began quietly speaking the lyrics.

"We clawed, we chained, our hearts in vain We jumped, never asking why We kissed, I fell under your spell A love no one could deny.." so quickly only kili,fili maybe bilbo could hear as they were all next to you,Thorin had told kili to shoot one down,indeed he did but you just felt like being a wrecking ball today.

"Don't you ever say I just walked away I will always want you I can't live a lie, running for my life I will always want you" you had became slightly louder drawing the others questions as you turned to kili ,gently putting your hands on his face ,as he looked at you like you had just pooped in the shower instead of a toilet,pulling your hands down and to your sides like Tom Holland on lip sync.

You had quickly rushed to the edge of the rock spotting an orc on a warg ,spriniting after it dagger in hand ,shouting:

"I CAME IN LIKE A wRECKING BALL" Boom the orc was dead as you had jumping on it ,slicing your daggers mentally shouting ljust like drax in Guadians of the galaxy two. You had been so quickly been pulled off that orc by KIli as he ushered you to run with the company ,pulling you along by the hand. "What were you doing?!" he had spoken quite angrily.

"Don't you ever say I just walked away I will always want you I can't live a lie, running for my life I will always want you," bruh these lyrics were too similar to the situation you were in right now.  He had scoffed against the wind,not being able to resist to crack a small smile for whatever reason.

Anyways soon you had reached Rivendell and just as you had fortold Kili was into the male elves,he had twirked up a side of his lips closing an eye to gesture the ellon behind him,god. You had been sat next to him ,Bofur on the other side of him. Kili was trying to cover up that he actually liked the elves ,due to his uncle and Dwalin and their judgemental galances."though that one isn't bad." he had smirked making Bilbo choke ,and the company burst out into loud laughter. Kili's face red in embarrassment,you had made eye contact with Fili who you would tell often about his brothers love of the male elves.

You had smirked ,mouthing "what did I say?" before doing the same hand gesture as before of jerking someone off,you tried to not let KIili see,but soon he had noticed ,you had just grinned nervously at his unimpressed face ,using that hand to slip the wine awkwardly. After a few minutes you had piped up to Bilbo to try remove the tension between you and Kili. "so.....Uh Bilbo have you tried Lembas bread?"gaining his attention,shaking his head no ,then the elves started their song again causing several dwarves to groan.

"I feel like I'm at a funeral." Nori spoke up in annoyance,while Oin had stuffed a napkin into his trumpet,"Did someone die?" ,Bofur had stood up standing on a table in which in around 77 years will be sat the ring of power. "There's one one thing for it ,lads. plus one lass" aha you were recognised for once as part of the company. Kili had nudged you in the side with his elbow briefly before whispering "maybe you should sing with him ,or maybe we should get a chamber together after this ,and I can hear you scream." you had turned into a beet ,pincing him hard, as a small moan come out of his parted lips,before Bofur started singing.

"There's an inn, there's an inn, there's a merry old inn, Beneath an old grey hill ; And there they brew a beer so brown That the Man in the Moon himself came down One night to drink his fill.

The ostler has a tipsy cat That plays a five-stringed fiddle ; And up and down he saws his bow Now squeaking high, Now purring low;

Now sawing in the middle So the cat on the fiddle played a hey-diddle-diddle A jig that would wake the dead ; He squeaked and he sawed and he quickened the tune, While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon :

"It's after three !", he said." just as Bofur finished dancing and singing wonderfully ,god his voice ,anyways Kili was about to throw a roll /cake thing at Lindir ,you had grabbed his arm before he could. You knew it was a food fight but throwing it at that elf didn't seem right,when he offered nothing but kindness.Kili had looked at you questionly ,"his hair looks like it took him long time ,it wouldnt be right,plus he looks your type ,you wouldn't want to screw your chances already." you had grinned at him,only to throw the thing right at Lindir's chest,ruining his shirt.

You had stood up straight away grabbing a napkin,rushing to him,you had smile at him once you had gotten close to him."uhh..LOrd Elrond,can your marchwaden and I be excused?" you weren't going to explain it furthur as it was clear,Lindir expression was still in disgust of the dwarf actions,yet Elrond's was soft. "of course," he had stated simply causing you to grab Lindir by the arm pulling him to the hall in hopes of finding some water.

"I am so sorry about your shirt,I tried to stop him." you spoke passing him the napkin to try remove the cake ,in which he took."My lady ,I appricate your effort,however I assure you worse has occured to me ," his voice smooth as ice,as you reached a foutain he dipped the napkin a little to help remove the cake ,he was very handsome. "you like that dwarf don't you ,my lady,I hope I am not being too bold,if so please say." you had sat on the wall of the fountain ,as did he ,you had blushed at his words.

UNknowningly to you a bunch of dwarves were heading this way,stripping to bathe in the fountain.

"No,no that isn't too bold ,,it is true." before either of you can speak there is a roar of laughter and huge splash in the fountain soaking both you and LIndir ,both of you had turned around to see a very naked Kili alongside most of the dwarves. You had pulled LIndir to stand up ,you were blushing hard. "whatever you do ,don't look down."you had whispered to Lindir who didn't say anything ,as someone had tapped your shoulder,when I say think of that hippo from madagascar getting out of the water that is exactly what it looks like now. His hair slicked back,the sun glinting on the water droplets on his muscular body.

"hey ,LIndir is it?Can I talk to y/n?"KIli had sent killer glares to the tall elf,you had pinched kili again to try get him to show some manners. "when this quest is over,Lindir I will sure to return with a new shirt for you." in with that he had smiled at you before leaving you with a very naked prince,you tried to not look ,just trying to look annoyedly at the dwarf who just sorta smirked at you.

"really? you didnt ev-please put some bloody pants on"you had shouted at the dwarf in annoyance ,he did have a full package and you couldn't help but glance he had chuckled at you. "oh so you checked me out,I'm honoured." he had smirked even wider than you thought was possible,turning into bloody pennywises nose. "..uh...." before you could even think of what to say,he had scooped you up into his arms before throwing you into the water,you had gasped now soaked,you had pulled kili over by his foot only for him to fall right on top of you.  His bare chest against your soaking tunic ,and his pipe was on your bare stomach ,where your tunic had risen up ,his eyes looking back into his shocked ones. THe water well over your face ,as you were both underwater.

Well that was until Dwalin had pulled Kili off you ,and Fili had helped you up to stand in the water.Dwalin was fuming at the prince's behaviour," If ye gonna court the lass do it bloody properly,show some bloody respect instead of shoving ye cock on her." he had shouted at the embarrassed dwarf ,who just gulped in response,you didnt want to see anyones cock like this really. "Thank you ,Dwalin but I didnt pull him over," you had spoken quietly ,grabbing kili by the arm ,walking out of the fountain and away.

"where are you taking me?" he had questioned trying to catch up with your rushing steps."to my room ,while I go get your bloody clothes;you will do as I say." and that is it he did not question as you left him in your room returning shortly with his stuff ,as he got changed you began running yourself a bath. You had sat him on the edge of your bed as you stood infront of the youngest dwarven prince.

"Here's the deal if you want to to court me , you will apologise to Lindir ,and you will court me properly like supposed to do. You are very charming and everything I do not wish to be messed around and I... do like you ,next time if you want my attention dont.. flash me in front of everyone .So what do you say to that , KIli?" you had let out with some pauses to rethink certain points before saying them ,looking at the dwarven prince you stared back at you with loving gaze.

"I agree to your deal,will you accept me courting you,y/n/n?"he had stood up ,holding your hands gently in his,you had nodded pressing your lips to his briefly,before pointing to the door. "now go to LIndir while I bath ,then you can braid my hair,"

Maybe you weren't a plastic bag ,cuz god makes no mistakes ,you are beautiful in your own way.

This imagine took longer than I thought ,but I have dedicated this to my two bestfriends jorja and Blake who have been here for me most of highschool,and jorja for  8 years. MOstly blake because of all the lady gaga references I put in this because he hooked me , I remember dancing on the bus with blake after a school trip,and after a drama perfomance and during a drama performance. Singing phineas and ferb together. I remember jorja slapping me in the face with herbs and I remember her chasing me after she said i got no titties ,and graphite. Too my best buds.

[mandadoration]

skip tracer

Summary: anon asked: “ummmm can we get back to mando!reader and bounty!din because idk maybe the ship breaks down and you’re stuck together until someone comes and gets you and the two of you grow close and he tries to you almost let him take your helmet off” 

word count: 4, 642

pairing: bounty!din djarin x mandalorian!reader

Warnings: swearing, sexual tension, making up mechanical jargon

a/n: Changed the wording a little, but essentially the same idea. “Mando”, in this fic, is referring to the reader. There’s a bunch of small time skips (moments later to several hours) because I’m sure you would appreciate it all at once instead of multiple chapters, but also for my sanity. 

Another important note the Din is younger than he is in the series, just because there are a lot of really important things that happen in the canon that I don’t want to just… skip over? (Baby Yoda, Moff Gideon, etc.) I haven’t decided on a particular age, but it’s not too drastic. 

Read this on AO3

The first words you say to Din Djarin are, “Shit.” 

If it weren’t for the fact that you were trying to get the ship’s repulsors back online, you would’ve seen how his eyebrows shoot up, disappearing under the mess of greasy curls at your expletive. He leans forward in his seat a little, cuffs clanking as he tries to peer over your beskar-clad shoulder at the console beeping angrily at you. There’s a fuel leak or wiring problem or something because you’re watching the power drain rapidly right in front of your eyes. You try to stop whatever the massive drain is or turn off non-essentials and reroute the power to your engine, but nothing works and all that does happen is a massive shuddering throughout the entire ship. Your ancient, pre-Imperial gunship, the Skip Tracer, sputters and soon, the entire ship goes dark. 

The second words you say to Din Djarin are, “Fuck.” 

Luckily, the backup generators kick in, bathing the entire ship in low, orange light and making sure you don’t suffocate to death in the cold recesses of space. You sit there for a moment, staring blankly out the windows of your ship at the stars in the distance, and realize that you’re essentially stuck here unless a stray ship flies by and takes pity on you. 

Yeah, like would happen. 

Your bounty’s dry voice interrupts your internal monologue. “This happen often?” he asks. His voice is much too close for your tastes, so you stand up abruptly and push him back into your seat, scowling under your helmet at his smug face. He doesn’t look fazed at your harsh treatment, and his gaze follows you as head over to the mainframe to run a diagnostics check. “All I’m saying is, why do you fly this piece of junk when you’re the fabled ‘Mandalorian’?” Din continues, making air quotes to the best of his ability with his hands bound. His tone is disdainful. “Maker knows those Imps pay you enough…” Your hand hovers over the screen.

“I don’t work for them,” you say stiffly. 

“But you do business with them,” Din points out. You press a few buttons with more force than necessary and turn back to face him while your system runs a full ship scan. He’s sitting languidly in his seat, as if he owns the place, and stares straight at you. If he’s surprised you’re finally entertaining his small talk, he doesn’t show it. “You’re bringing me in, aren’t you?” You tilt your head as you consider the implication of his question. 

“It doesn’t matter who called you in. I’m just--”

“--doing your job,” Din finishes. A bored look flits across his face and smothers the hard set lines of his face as he motions around the Skip Tracer. “You can hardly do that if your ship doesn’t work now, hm?” You roll your eyes and resist the urge to gag him. The mainframe beeps behind you to indicate that the scan was done. You give him the best warning glare you can with a helmet over your head, and turn back to read the report. 

The hyperdrive had drained a massive amount of power from your ship during your last jump, resulting in it overheating and affecting the surrounding parts as your coolants worked overtime to try and get it under control, but you don’t remember the last time you had taken a look at that particular mechanism, meaning that there was only more overheating and possible melting and fraying of the internal wiring. As your ship tried its best to repair what it could, it had only drained the remainder of the power. You didn’t have any spare jumper cells either. 

In summary: not good. 

You heave out an annoyed sigh before plopping back in your seat and trying to get your comms working. It takes some time, and you end up having to pull the heating down a little to even turn them on. The best you can do is send a weak, short-range emergency call. 

“What now?” Din asks. Despite him trying to appear standoffish and generally seem like a prick, you can pick out the uncertainty in his voice. No one in the galaxy wants to be stuck in the cold recesses space, especially with an unsavory companion. You settle in your seat and swivel your chair to face him. 

“Now we wait.”

--

At some point you had fallen asleep in your chair while you were patiently watching your bounty, but you peel open your eyes when you hear a quiet shuffling of clothes and the quiet thump of heavy boots. A quick glance at the time shows that nearly an hour has passed since the ship lost power. 

“What are you doing?”

Din nearly jumps out of his skin, halfway to the door with wide eyes and a hand raised towards the controls. You haven’t noticed until now, but without his weapons, Din really looks like any other human you might see in the galaxy. His cinnegar weave armor has been dyed a dark brown and covered with a jacket to be more discreet, and the tan collar of his shirt peeks out of his scarf. He hardly looks like he’s worth the price on his head. 

You don’t do anything, merely watching how his throat bobs when he tries to think of something to say. He smoothly slides on a mask of indifference that almost impresses you as he straightens up. “Looking around,” he answers. In the dim lighting, you can barely pick up how his ears turn red at the tips. 

“Mhm,” you hum, leaning forward and resting your elbows on your knees. You fix him with a hard stare. “I’ll ask you again, and don’t even think about lying: What are you doing?” An almost pained expression crosses Din’s face before disappearing again. A moment. He mumbles something. “What?” Din looks annoyed. Then a little louder, he mumbles--

“I need to use the refresher.” Immediately, his stomach grumbles. “And I’m hungry,” he sighs. You’re glad he can’t see the amused expression under your helm because you’re sure he would’ve said something snarky about it. 

“What were you going to do about that?” Sure, you might be riling up Din, but with the undetermined amount of time you were going to stay with him, you might as well get some entertainment. 

“I was going to leave.”

“Doors are locked.”

“I would’ve found a way.”

“You don’t know where the food is stashed. Or if I even have any.”

“Would’ve looked. I would assume you eat as well.”

“Did you expect me to stay asleep?”

“Didn’t hurt to try.”

“How do I know you wouldn’t have tried to find a weapon to kill me?”

“You don’t.”

He says his last answer so smoothly and without hesitation that it catches you so off-guard you can’t help the short laugh that escapes you. You shake your head as you stand up, and although Din leans away, you press a button on your vambrace and the door wooshes open. You motion for him to go. “Bounties first.” Din rolls his eyes and turns to head down the ladder. It’s awkward with his hands bound, but he makes it in due time and watches you warily as you climb down as well. “I’ll make something for us to eat. Use the ‘fresher in the meantime.” He raises a brow, but an easy smile graces his lips. 

“I’m surprised you’re even offering me food,” he snorts. You shrug. 

“Don’t know how long we’ll be out here. You’re worth more money alive,” you reason. “Can’t have you starving.” At the mention of what he’s actually here for, Din’s face falls. He clears his throat. 

“Right,” he says. And turns into the cramped refresher and closes the door without saying anything else. While he does that, you dig through your compartments for rations. Without adequate power, you can’t reheat your food, and you don’t want to risk trying to reroute power in case the air recycler cuts off. Hopefully, Din likes shredded bantha meat and Meilroonian pepper sauce. You shake your head. Not that it should matter. He should be grateful you’re feeding him at all. Whether or not he’s picky bears to significance to you. 

As you contemplate how he still will undoubtedly complain about the lack of choices, a loud racket sounds from the refresher followed by a loud swear. You toss the ration packets onto a nearby table and huff as you rip open the door to the refresher. Din lets out a loud sound of protest at that, trying to scramble to pull his pants back up over his hips, but steps on a stray bottle in his panic and starts tipping backwards. You grab the collar of his shirt to prevent him from cracking his head on the rim of the vactube. He stares at you with wide eyes before clearing his throat. 

“You ever hear of knocking?” he asks. You haul him up to his feet, but don’t step back as you look at the mess he made in your refresher. A couple of things that were on your sink and shelves, admitted haphazardly, were knocked over and the sonic shower door was open. From how close you are, you can tell Din is struggling to find your eyes, gaze roaming over your face to try and pinpoint them. 

“You ever hear of not making a mess?” you shoot back. 

“Hard to do that when your hands are bound,” Din says, shaking his cuffs for emphasis. 

“Could’ve asked.”

“Would you have?”

“No.”

“Then why’d you-- Nevermind.” Din breaks his gaze from you to stare at his shoes. You tilt your helmet, but press a button on your vambraces and the cuffs fall off. His head shoots up with a questioning look.

“I imagine you were going to complain about eating with your hands bound, too,” you say dryly. You step away from him and pick up the cuffs. “Clean up your mess,” you order him. Din doesn’t look happy, but eventually nods. “And pull up your pants.”

He definitely doesn’t look happy at that. 

---

You had retreated into the cockpit to eat your meal with a warning to Din that you will not hesitate to kill him if he tried anything while he was unsupervised; you had left before he can hit you with another sarcastic comment. You made quick work of eating, keeping an ear out for any suspicious sounds, but found none and soon went back down to the hull only to see Din Djarin sitting on the floor and picking at his food with a displeased face. “This is disgusting,” he announces. 

“How did I know you were going to say that?” you sigh. You wish you could run a hand over your face, but resort to leaning against the wall with your arms crossed. It was pretty gross, you won’t lie. The sauce was a cold, congealed mess, and the bantha meat was horribly tough. “It’s that or nothing.” He looks like he desperately wants to say something, but eventually spoons another bite into his mouth. 

“Any updates?” he asks. You shake your head. 

“No. Was going to check if I can somehow figure out what was draining the power. See if that fixes the problem,” you say. He makes a small hum of acknowledgement. Then, a pensive expression crosses his face. Din chews thoughtfully for a moment. 

“Mando?”

“Hm?”

“Is it true that Mandalorians can’t take off their helmets?” he asks.

“We can. Just not in front of other people,” you answer almost automatically. It’s a question you often get. 

“How much are you getting paid to bring me in?” You look at him. Not the smoothest segway in the galaxy.

“I don’t bargain with bounties, if that’s you’re wondering,” you say instead. Din curls his lips and pushes the food around with his fork. 

“Wasn’t going to bargain,” he mumbles, “just wondering.” He stabs his food aggressively. The  frown sours his face. “Wouldn’t expect an Imperial sympathizer to bargain anyways,” he says bitterly. You clench your fists, the leather of your gloves creaking, as you stand up straight. Din doesn’t look up from his food, but you can tell he knows that your temper is rising from how he grips his ration packet a little tighter. 

“Told you before,” you grit out, and you’re glad the modulator hides how your voice trembles the slightest, “I’m just doing my job.” Din jumps up and throws his food down, splattering cold Meilroonian pepper sauce over the floor of the Skip Tracer as his eyes flash in anger.  

“And by doing so, you're just as bad as them!” he protests. He pushes his curls back with a gloved hand frustratedly. “I was doing something, trying to take them down, and you’re practically delivering me to them on a silver platter!” Din stomps up to you until you’re nearly chest to chest. From here, you can see the scars adorning his face, including one that splits his right eyebrow neatly in half. “I thought Mandalorians were supposed to be good,” he hisses. “But instead I see that the little creed you follow has changed.”

“And what do you know about Mandalorians?” you snarl at him. You move forward and force him to take a step back. “Hm? Din Djarin?” You practically spit his name. How dare he question the Way of the Mandalore. “What does a mercenary know about Mandalorians?” His angry expression falters, but he stays silent. “Tell me.” Nothing. His mouth is set in a hard, straight line. “All you are is a glorified rebel, thinking that you can take down a hundred people when all you are is a nuisance, a pain in their ass.” Din’s back hits the opposite wall where you’ve practically cornered him, defiance burning bright in his eyes next to a hint of fear. In the back of your mind, you know that’s not true, that Din Djarin was a hated name within the small circles of Imperials, but he seems to curl within himself when you demean him. Your shoulders fall as you force in a deep breath, and you push the heavy metal cuffs into his hands. You’ve hit a sore spot. “Clean up your mess,” you order in a low voice, the second time today, “and cuff yourself. I’m done entertaining you for the night.” 

Then you head up the ladder to the cockpit. Halfway up, you look at him over your shoulder. “There’s a cot over there. Try anything and I’ll find a way to put you in carbonite.” Your threat holds well because Din Djarin doesn’t say another thing, instead scowling at you as he stays rooted in place. 

---

Sleep is fitful for you that night, and it doesn’t help that you keep your helmet on just in case Din does try something. Even after all these years it’s awkward to lay down with it on. Waking up isn’t much better, seeing as you only got in a few hours, but you flush with hot anger when last night’s conversation pops up again. You instead decide to busy yourself with fiddling with the console.

You try to extend the range of the emergency signal, but nothing happens and the console beeps sadly at you. You really hope someone drifts by. Honestly, you’re not sure how many rations or how much water you have left, but you do know you certainly don’t have enough to sustain two adults for long. If it comes down to it, you’ll have to try and directly look into the mechanics of your ship. You really don’t want to do that seeing as one wrong move and you’ll be sent into the cold vacuum of space before you can think twice. Despite having the Skip Tracer for a while, you don’t know much about it. The first thing you would do after collecting Din’s bounty is dropping your ship off at a mechanic and sticking around to figure out more about it. You falter. 

You don’t know why, but the reminder that all Din is is a bounty fills you with some upset despite his scathing remarks. His witty and spitfire attitude was certainly a nice change of pace from the blubbering, begging bounties or the overly-aggressive ones that literally spit at you. But you desperately need the few ingots of beskar promised to you, and with how the ship was malfunctioning, those credits are sorely needed as well. You just need to remind yourself that Din Djarin was just another paycheck. 

Speaking of, you can hear him climbing up the ladder to the cockpit, and you try to busy yourself. The door opens, but you don’t say anything, pressing a few nonsense buttons. Seems like he couldn’t sleep either. Din hovers somewhere behind you, and in the faint reflection of him in the window, you can see he looks unsure of himself. He wants to say something. You let him flounder. Eventually he gathers the courage to say whatever is on his mind.

“The Death Watch.” 

You suppress the urge to spin around, instead tilting your head for him to elaborate. 

“I… I knew the Death Watch.” You rest your hands on the console board, minding any switches that may drain more power. 

“The Death Watch disbanded years ago. You would’ve been a child if you knew them,” you finally say, keeping your voice as toneless as possible. You were a child when you knew them. But they were no more, split apart and forced underground to continue your way of living. 

“I was a child,” he says. “They helped my village a long time ago.” You wonder for a brief moment if there was a possibility you knew him, even through a few degrees of separation, but you stamp that thought out. There was no time to form attachments or even entertain that thought. “So what do I know about them? That much.” His voice is thought, but can hear an edge of challenge. “You guys were… I looked up to the Mandalorians.” You clench your jaw. 

“What changed?”

“You.” You laugh bitterly as you finally turn your seat around to face Din where he stands in the doorway, cuffs obediently on his wrists. 

“Sorry for ruining that for you,” you say, so very ingenuously and not at all sorry. You tap your fingers impatiently against your knee. “Did you need something or are you just here to try and make me feel guilty?” Your head hurts just watching how hard Din rolls his eyes. 

“I’m here because I’m hungry,” he says bluntly. You can tell from his tone that this isn’t really the case, but you’re glad for the change in subject. You aren’t exactly the best conversationalist, and neither of you want to argue again it seems like. “And I believe that you’ll carry out your threat if I start snooping around so,” he shrugs his shoulders, “here I am.” You look at him for a little bit, just enough to make him shift where he stands and look uncomfortable. “What?”

“You would be very bad at sabacc,” you note mildly, ignoring his offended expression as you get up and brush past him to get to the hull to scavenge for something that could be palatable cold. 

“You’ve never seen me play,” Din protests as he scrambles after you down the ladder. You nearly laugh at the indignation in his voice. “So how can you--” His foot slips off the rung, and with his limited movement, he fails to try and catch himself, grip slipping in surprise as he gasps. Luckily, you’re there at the bottom to catch him, hooking your arms under his knees and beneath his shoulders with a soft grunt. 

“Don’t need to,” you say. You lean in a little closer, tilting your head down to make it obvious you were looking straight at him. “You are very easy to read.” He scowls up at you, but you see how his ears turn red. Din is a comfortable weight in your arms, and you think for a second he looks surprised you don’t even look like you’re straining to hold him up. 

“Put me down.”

“Okay.” 

And you drop him. He blinks up at you with a grimace from where he is on the floor. But Din Djarin cannot stop surprising you because he breaks out in a bright, charming laugh, smile lines forming and crow’s feet at the corner of his eyes, pulling at the scars on his face, and the warm sound of it fills the ship. It’s a striking difference from the mood just minutes prior, and definitely a difference from a couple hours ago. You can’t help it, but you laugh as well. You gently poke him with the tip of your boot before turning around to pull out rations. 

“Please tell me it isn’t whatever we had yesterday,” Din says from the floor. You toss the packet over to him, landing square on his chest. 

“It’s not. But I doubt it’s much better,” you admit. “Now get up so I can go eat.”

You’re already in the cockpit and locking the doors behind you when Din calls up to complain that you haven’t unlocked his cuffs. It’s a conscious choice to ignore him.

---

It’s been 0900 standard hours since your ship broke down in space somewhere in the Mid Rim, and Din Djarin is starting to go a little stir crazy. 

“Will you stop pacing?” you ask him, annoyed. After your meal, you had stayed up in the cockpit thinking about whether or not you should charge Greef Karga extra to cover the cost of repairs and emotional labor of being trapped with your bounty. Din had quickly grown bored waiting in the hull and made his way into the upper level, knocking incessantly and asking you to open the doors. After a few minutes, you had grown tired of it and opened the doors without warning, resulting in him literally falling in. He seemed to do that a lot, and you wonder how he went this long without somehow falling into a hole or off a cliff and killing himself in the process. 

But Din doesn’t stop pacing, instead he speeds up. Because of the small space, it’s comical how often he has to turn around on his heel to walk in the other direction. The length of his stride means that he only gets a few steps in every rotation. “Has no one picked up our signal?” he asks. You sigh. 

“No. And sit down.” You’re surprised Din hasn’t made himself dizzy. 

“Have you tried--”

“Anything you’re about to say, yes,” you interrupt. You’ve tried every possible thing to try and extend the signal or just get transmissions going besides actually opening up the ship from the inside. You aren’t that desperate yet. “Din. Sit down.” He, unsurprisingly, doesn’t stop. 

“How long do you think we can stay out here?” You roll your eyes. “Supplies only last so long, and I don’t even know how long the backup power supply will last.” Maker, he’s really working himself up, isn’t he? 

“If we have to worry about supplies, I’ll just put you in carbonite to save us the trouble,” you say bluntly. 

“If you even have the power for it!”

“I told you, I’ll find a way. Now. Sit. Down.” 

He opens his mouth to say something probably infuriating again, but before he can, you reach forward and grab him by the front of his belt and haul him into your lap. His teeth clack together as he audibly closes his mouth, a flush overtaking his face. Din tries to lean back as far away as he can, but you keep your hands firm on his waist, meaning he has to hold onto the front of your beskar chestplate to keep from falling backwards. It’s a tight fit seeing as you take up most of the seat and Din is by no means a small man, but you look up at him. “People travel all the time through the Mid Rim,” you say slowly, trying to put as much calm as you can knowing that a lot of it will be lost in the modulator. Hopefully it doesn’t come across as condescending.  “Someone will eventually notice that the ship is just drifting here or pick up the signal any time now.” He’s still tense, shoulders nearly at his ears as he stares at you with wide eyes. You reach around his waist to press a button on your vambraces to unlock the cuffs, and you slide it off his wrists and drop it on the floor. His hands immediately go to your shoulders, but he does seem to settle down a little. “So relax.” Din’s grip on your shoulder tighten a fraction. 

“Hard to do that when I-I’m in your lap,” he chokes out. If only he can see your grin. Instead, you bring him closer to you, taking delight in the small squeak he gives. 

“You complaining?” If anything, Din blushes impossibly brighter. 

“I--”

“Shh, you hear that?” He obediently shuts his mouth and listens for a moment. 

“No?” You lean back in your chair. 

“Exactly. Blessed silence.” Din scrunches up his face. 

“You’re… insufferable,” he announces. You shrug. 

“I know.” 

And now the conversation has lulled, but Din Djarin makes no move to get off your lap. The beskar thigh plates are digging into you, and it surely can’t be a comfortable seat. Still, the two of you stay where you are. Din licks his lips. “You said that you can’t take off your helmet, right?”

“Not in front of another living being,” you say. 

“When’s the last time anyone saw your face?” he asks. “Has- has anyone seen your face?” There’s an undercurrent of uncharacteristic shyness, almost anxiety as he asks you. You pause. You really shouldn’t entertain your bounty, but--

“Not since I was a child.” He frowns. “I wasn’t born with a helmet on, if that’s what you’re wondering,” you add.

“Sounds… lonely,” he says slowly. You shrug. 

“This is the Way.” Why was he even asking about this? If he knew the Death Watch, then surely he must’ve been somewhat familiar with the Ways of the Mandalore. He even had the nerve to chastise you about it. You don’t have to ask him because now his warm hands are trailing from your shoulders closer to your neck, eventually coming to a pause right on the underside of your helmet. It’s a slow, deliberate movement, and Din’s face is the softest you’ve ever seen it. He starts to push it up. 

But your hands leave his hips and snatch his wrists to stop him just as the console beeps. 

“Skip Tracer, this is the Andaloriaan Sea. We read your distress call,” comes the horrifically crackly and barely understandable voice. “Locking you in and taking you to the closest star port. Standby.” You gently pull his hands down, and Din slides off your lap as an unreadable mask slides on his face to hide whatever he’s feeling. He stands in the doorway for a moment, but ultimately turns back around and heads down to the hull without a word. You start to formulate your next plan of action. You would cuff him and keep a close watch on him while the mechanics work on your ship, then fly back to Nevarro to turn Din Djarin in, tell Greef Karga you expect extra for travel fees and repairs, collect your payment, then move on to the next bounty, the next paycheck. You would forget the nearly 1000 standard hours you spent trapped in space with him. 

But things never really go exactly according to plan. 

---

a/n: More stupidly strong readers >:) bc reader is definitely the top in this relationship.

Fun fact! The Andaloriaan Sea is what I was going to initially name Reader’s ship before I changed it to Skip Tracer. 

--

Forever Tag: @mabelleen​ @mando-vibes​ @isaissafail​

[lakesandquarries]

After the Storm - Chapter Eight

AO3 Link Discord

He forgets, sometimes. 

Or maybe that’s the wrong word. Maybe it’s more like remembering. He looks at Maddie, tucking him into bed with gentle hands, and thinks about a set of wings doing the same. Tom reminds him not to run in the house and he remembers other rules, other homes, other consequences. 

He remembers her. He forgets that they’re different. 

He doesn’t even notice the first time he calls Maddie mom, too busy telling her about how awesome seeing Jojo was and all the fun stuff he wants to do with her. He only realizes when he sees Maddie’s expression change, and he asks “What?” and she just smiles at him and he thinks, oh. 

“I didn’t mean to say that!” he says frantically. “I just meant - uh -“

“You can call me mom if you want to,” Maddie says, gentle as ever. Sonic looks at her, or he tries to, because all he can see is arrows and blood and fading gold dust. 

“I mean - well - I guess, if you - If I - Uh -“

“Sonic?”

“I’ll be right back,” he says. “I promise. I’m just gonna -“

“Sonic,” she repeats, less a question this time and more a plea, but by the time her voice hits him he’s already out the door. 

—

The first night had been the hardest. 

He’d been cold, and scared, and hungry, and most of all he’d been alone. For the first time he hadn’t wanted to run. Oh, he’d tried, but within two seconds he was back, waiting to see if maybe another ring portal would open. He hadn’t slept that night, terrified of what he might miss. 

Once, before everything, he’d asked her: “Are you my mom?”

And Longclaw had laughed and said, “If you want me to be.”

He’d never called her mom. Out loud, it was always Longclaw. But in his head - in his heart - she was his parent. She’d been there for his first words, first steps, first run. But when he tried to say it the words lodged in his throat and instead he’d just made jokes, snarked you’re not my real mom and called her old and told her to stop fussing. 

And then he’d seen other kids on the island with flowers. Big bouquets, carefully designed, big enough to send the smaller kids toppling. He couldn’t get her one of those, but there was a field he knew of, full of sunflowers just starting to bloom. 

He’d practiced saying it as he searched for the perfect flower. “This is for you, mom,” he’d whispered to himself, over and over. 

It didn’t matter, in the end. He could have practiced for hours and it wouldn’t have mattered, because nothing could have prepared him for the sheer panic he’d felt in the moment. It wasn’t until later, sitting in the grass and clinging to the remains of the sunflower, that he realized he’d lost his chance. 

—

It’s a little colder out than he expected, but that’s fine. The clearing isn’t far - at least, not for him. He just needs to sit for a little. Maddie and Tom are great and all but, well, sometimes he wants to be alone. 

“Is that bad?” he asks himself, pacing back and forth. 

“Plenty of people like being alone,” he tells himself, leaning against a tree. The other him sighs. 

“Yeah, but I don’t actually like it! Maybe I’m just...broken.” He sits down in the grass, the spot where he’d first landed. 

Not for long, though. He’s back up and pacing again after a few seconds. “That’s not the point. The point is -“

He’s not actually sure there is a point. 

“The point is that this is stupid,” he huffs, kicking a rock as hard as he can to watch it bounce off a tree. “Maddie said it’s okay if I call her mom! So it’s fine!”

“But what about Longclaw?”

“What about Longclaw? She left! She sent me to a completely different universe, she left me alone -“

“No, that’s not fair, it’s not like she wanted to -“

“But she could have prepared before! If being on that planet was so dangerous, we could’ve left earlier!”

He’s going in circles, mentally and literally. The grass underneath him has been trampled, revealing the dirt, and he’s started wearing a path. 

“Maddie’s not Longclaw,” he reminds himself. “Neither is Tom.”

Except that doesn’t make things any better, does it? He collapses heavily into the center of the circle he’s made. 

“I don’t wanna replace you,” he says, digging his hands into the grass. “But I want them to be my parents too.”

What was it Tom and Maddie had said? They want to help. They want him to talk to them. 

He’s not alone. 

He gets up, and heads home. 

—

“He said he was going to be back,” Maddie reminds him, as Tom gets up again to nervously pace the porch.

“I know,” he says, leaning his head against a post. “That’s why I’m not running after him.” He sighs, rubbing his face with his hand. “Do you think we’re doing this right?”

“We’re doing the best we can,” Maddie says. “That’s all we can do.”

“I just wish he’d talk to us.”

“He told us he was going to come back. That’s  progress. Next we can work on telling us when he needs to leave, and then we can quiz him about his childhood. Now c’mon, sit down.”

He does, dropping himself on the bench next to Maddie. She loops her arm around his, leaning her head on his shoulder. “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. I - hang on I think I see him.”

Tom squints, and sure enough, there’s a little blue figure trudging up to the house. Maddie gently places her hand on his arm, the only thing that stops him from running over immediately. 

“Go easy on him,” she whispers. 

Sonic pauses at the bottom of the stairs, wringing his hands together and periodically glancing at Tom and Maddie only to immediately look away. 

Someone has to break the awkward silence, and it might as well be Tom. 

“Hey kid,” he says. 

“I’m sorry,” Sonic replies, gaze darting all over. “I know I shouldn’t have run off, I just -“

“It's okay if you need time to yourself,” Maddie cuts in. “Just make sure to let us know, okay? I appreciate that you said you’d be back, it’s a good step, but try to let us know when you need space.” She scoots over on the little bench, making room for Sonic between her and Tom. 

“Sorry,” he says again, walking (not running) up the stairs and squeezing into the space. 

“It’s just for future reference,” Tom says. “You feeling any better?”

“Sorta,” Sonic says. Tom is about to say something, but he continues talking. Well. More like monologuing. 

“I kinda wanna call you guys mom and dad but I’m also really scared about it and the last time I wanted to call someone mom she died before I ever got to say it and I feel bad about that and I miss her a lot and also I think I’m kinda mad at her but then I also feel bad about that and I don’t know how to deal with all this?”

There’s a moment of silence, the kind that often follows when Sonic talks. Maddie and Tom aren’t as fast as he is, after all. It takes Tom a second to process Sonic’s words, and then another moment to remember that night in the motel, Sonic talking to himself as he fell asleep. 

“Someone else took care of you before you ended up on earth,” Tom says. “Were they…” He’d wanted to call them mom. “Was she named Longclaw by any chance?”

Sonic stiffens, looking up at Tom with wide eyes. “You mentioned the name that night at the motel,” he says. 

“I did?”

“I didn’t say anything at the time because I didn’t think you meant me to hear. Plus, we were a little busy at that moment. But yeah, you said something along the lines of “maybe Longclaw was wrong”. Was she the one who sent you to earth?”

“It was my fault,” Sonic says, looking down at his feet. “I wasn’t careful enough. I wanted to get her a flower and I guess they must have followed me, because they showed up at our house and attacked. Longclaw….she got hurt. Bad. So she sent me to earth and she told me to stay hidden and never stop running and that’s what I did.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Maddie says immediately. 

Sonic shakes his head. “She always told me to be careful. Stay hidden. But I wasn’t, and...She got hurt. She probably -“ He stops himself, swallowing. “If she was still alive, she would’ve come looking for me.”

“Still not your fault,” Tom says. “The people who attacked her made a choice to do that. You didn’t do anything.”

“How old were you, when this happened?” Maddie aske softly. Sonic holds out his fingers, trying to do the math. 

“Three,” he says, finally. “I think.”

Tom’s glad Sonic is focused on his finger math, because the look Maddie shoots him is one of utter heartbreak. “Three??” she mouths, and Tom suddenly remembers how Sonic had said he was thirteen when they were at Rachels. That’s a decade of solitude, of staring in windows and foraging for food and living in a cave. It’s no wonder he acts the way he does. 

Sonic’s back to staring as his feet. They don’t quite reach the ground, and he’s swinging them back and forth - his version of sitting still. He seems to take the silence as a challenge to fill it. “I asked her if I could call her mom one time but every time I was gonna I got scared. And then…”

And then she’d died. 

“I’m sure she knew how you felt,” Maddie says, voice soft. 

“I miss her,” Sonic says, uncharacteristically quiet. “She always knew what to do. She knew everything. If I’d just listened to her, maybe -“ he cuts himself off before Tom can, about to reassure him it’s not his fault. “I just wanted to give her a flower.” His voice cracks on the last word, breaking into a sob. Tom moves his arm to offer a hug and Sonic collapses against him.

“Thank you for telling us,” Tom says, trying to be as soft as Maddie is. He glances up at her, a little panicked, but she just smiles fondly at him.

“It happened so long ago though,” Sonic mumbles, leaning back and wiping at his eyes. “Why does it suddenly hurt more?”

“Sometimes emotions can be delayed. You think you’re fine in the moment, but then later it hits you,” Maddie says. “I’ve seen it happen at work. Someone’s putting a pet to sleep, and as it’s happening they’re fine, and then ten minutes later in the waiting room they start crying. It’s okay.”

“It sucks,” Sonic says, leaning against Tom again. He lets his arm drop, holding Sonic in a gentle hug. 

“Yeah,” Tom agrees. “But sometimes you just have to let yourself be sad.”

For a brief second, Sonic is silent. Then his voice comes again, very quiet. “Is it okay if I call you guys mom and dad?”

“Of course,” Maddie says, at the same time that Tom says, “Absolutely.”

“But Longclaw’s my mom too,” he adds.

“And that's okay too. Just because you’ve got a new family doesn’t mean you have to forget about your old one. And if you ever want to talk to us about Longclaw, just let us know.”

“She liked sunflowers,” he says, nuzzling into Tom’s arms. “And mice. Also she was really big! And she could fly, and sometimes she’d let me ride on her back, and it was really cool.”

Tom decides he’s not gonna ask for further explanation on the mice. “That does sound pretty cool,” he agrees. 

Sonic nods, the fur on his muzzle tickling Tom’s arm. “I think she would’ve liked you,” he says. And then, quieter, he adds: “Thanks, dad.”

[gallifreyan-writer]

Doctor Who x Reader - A Not So Lost Love

Authors Note: It may or may not be 5 in the morning but that’s when I do my best writing. I have been on the internet for hours trying to find a way to watch episode 9 of Doctor Who and at the same time not see any spoilers and I didn’t want to wait 14 hours for it to be available to stream on BBC America’s website but looks like I’m gonna have to... fuck. Thank you to @lostshadow12 for the amazing request! Anyways I hope you enjoy!

Request: Can u please do 13th doctor x fem timelady reader x(older brother) Dhawan Master where 13th doctor meets the reader again after many years of thinking she was dead and she realises that she still have a crush on reader(just like all her previous incarnations)and The Master not being so amused when the doc flirts with his little sis(cue annoying yet lovable overprotective brother)but he tolerates her just because he sees how happy reader is with the Doctor and allowing her to go of with the Doc but only if reader promise him to visit him and never forget him.

Warning(s): Angst, fluff

Pairing(s): 13th Doctor x reader, Dhawan!Master x Sister!Reader

“Doctor!” A voice that the Doctor knew and loved echoed followed by the mechanical voice, “you will be upgraded.”

“(Y/n)!” The Doctor yelled as he appeared at the end of the hallway. He stood frozen with shock and his eyes widened. There at the of the corridor he saw her as cold, metal fingers gripped her tightly. He could see the fear in her eyes as a single tear ran down her cheek, but through everything, she stood strong.

“Get out of here!” Her voice ripped through her voice caring to the Doctors ears, at this point, his eyes were filling with tears as well.

“I’m not leaving you!” He replied but knew that it was useless, her mind was made up.

“I’ve got this, but you have to get out, this place is going to blow and the world needs you, the universe needs you.”

“Just as much as it needs you. I need you.” His voice cracked at the end.

“I will always be with you. Now go!” She was dragged away with the metalic “Delete, delete.” The Doctor was frozen for a few seconds until he turned away and ran in the other direction not turning around to see her, to see the women he loved. The women that he spent the days with under the twin suns on Gallifrey, on the orange grass. He had lost her once during the time war, but she somehow was able to find herself back to him, against all odds. He knew that this would be the last time that they would see each other, there were no more miracles. If he were to turn and look at her, in that moment he knew that he would stop in his tracks, turn around and risk not only his life but hers and everyone else’s. All that the Doctor could do at this time, was pray that she would beat all odds, but he knew that he was asking too much from the universe, even if he saved it a few thousand times.

As the Doctor finally made it out, within seconds the building that he had escaped, burst into a fiery explosion. There was no way that (Y/n) would’ve made it out alive. He sunk to his knees looking up as the flames felt hotter and hotter against his skin but he didn’t move, he simply looked down on the silver engagement band on his finger. Any pain that the fire could’ve caused couldn’t compare to the pain in his hearts. He had lost his everything that day.

That was a thousand years ago and time has not healed the wounds that still lay deep within. The Doctor never lost hope of finding (Y/n) again but with the years coming and going, it seemed to slowly fade away. The Doctor had few regrets in her life but there was one that stuck with her, she never told (Y/n) how she felt about her, how she truly and deeply loved her. She looked up slightly at the photo of (Y/n) that was sitting on the council. She didn’t always keep it out though as it reminded her of what she lost but she liked looking at it every once in a while. (Y/n)’s soft smile could get the Doctor through anything it seemed, no matter how terrible the time.

“Who is that, Doc?” Graham asked from behind her, Ryan and Yaz standing by his sides.

“What? Oh, no one.” The Doctor quickly replied, putting the photograph out of sight from the others.

“Well obviously she’s someone.” Ryan spoke up.

“Ryan.” Yaz said in a hushed tone as she smacked him on the arm as hard as she could without leaving a mark.

“I just meant that she was obviously someone special to the Doctor, that’s all.” Ryan said, trying to defend himself.

“She was.” The Doctor spoke up, turning to face all three of them, her voice wasn’t as strong as it normally was, she was hurting. “She was brilliant, we grew up together, traveled all of time and space together, and then lost each other once. But, we found one another and started traveling again.” She gave a small smile, thinking back on all the good times.

“That sounds wonderful, what happened?” Yaz asked, trying to sound as comforting as possible but wanting answers.

“She’s gone.” The Doctor said simply looking down at the ground not wanting to see the pity in the eyes of her companions, her smile gone. She didn’t want them to feel bad for her, that was the last thing she wanted.

Some time passed and everything went back to the normal shenanigans, that was until their fun came to a quick halt as the dinner party that they were attending in a Victorian castle during the 10th century became over ran with cybermen.

“What are those things?” Ryan asked as all the dinner guests ran in different directions.

“Cybermen, I’ve had a few run ins with them.” The Doctor said frantically looking every which way.

“So you know how to stop these things?” Yaz asked. The four of them were all hiding behind a table that way knocked over in all of the caos.

“Yes, but we need to get the three of you out of here and into the TARDIS.” The doctor said standing up motioning them to follow her.

“We’re not leaving you Doc, we can help fight.” Graham spoke up.

“There won’t be much of a fight.” The Doctor tried to stay calm, she’s always felt on end whenever she runs into the cybermen, ever since that day. Whenever she sees them, she is haunted by that memory, the memory that plagues her dreams to this day.

“Well there must be something that we can do.” Yaz said as they all followed the Doctor back to the TARDIS.

“There is, stay in the TARDIS.”

“But,” Ryan tried to speak but was quickly interrupted by the Doctor.

“But nothing, I have lost too many to those things. I refuse to lose anyone else.” She spun around to face them before stepping into the TARDIS, everyone else following suit.

“That’s how you lost her wasn’t it, the girl in the photo?” Yaz asked, sorrow in her eyes. The Doctor just looked down, it answered Yaz’s question simply enough.

“She was taken and I couldn’t save her, instead she saved me. I was there when the cybermen took her and there was nothing that I could do. I was useless and now she’s gone.” Tears started filling her eyes as frustration entered her blood stream. “I’m going, and you’re staying here.” With that the Doctor fled out of the TARDIS and used her sonic to lock the doors from the outside so that they couldn’t get out, she knew that it was risky but it was the only way to keep them safe.

The hallways were starting to get harder and harder to navigate through all the twists and turns of this seemingly never ending castle, cybermen were littered everywhere. After some time she came up with a plan but that plan came to a screeching halt when the Doctor came face to face with multiple cybermen when she turned a corner. She tried to turn and run in the opposite direction but her path was blocked by more coming in and surrounding her. Her ears were filled with horrible sounds of metal clanking against the marble floors with their screams of “delete” that have haunted her for so many years. She held them off as much as she could with her handy sonic screwdriver until it short circuited.

“Stay away from her!” A voice that she never thought that she would hear again filled her ears and echoed down the corridor. The next thing she knows the heads of the cybermen around her start exploding one after the other in a beam of blue light. When all was said and done, the Doctor looked up from the chaos and saw her face, the face she had longed to see in person for longer than anyone could imagine.

“(Y/n)?” The Doctor asked not believing her eyes, tears quickly filling them.

“Doctor.” (Y/n) said letting out a sigh of relief seeing her. She ran up to her and wrapped her arms tightly around her. She then took a slight step back and continued, “you’re a woman, I like it.” She said with a laugh, the Doctor laughed too.

“I don’t understand, the cybermen, I thought that you were dead, I thought I lost you.” The Doctor’s hand came up to (Y/n)’s face.

“I told you that I would always be with you.” She placed her hand on top of the Doctors, kissing the inside of her palm.

“You don’t think that I would let my little sister die, would you?” Behind (Y/n) stood the master. “Believe it or not but I care deeply about my family, so I put a failsafe in the motherboard all the way back to the first cyberman. Pretty much when they scan the DNA and if it matches close enough the entire system will shut down.”

“Wow, how generous of you.” The Doctor said sarcastically.

“You have to get out, I will be fine, I just need to know that you’re safe.” (Y/n) said directing all of her attention to the Doctor.

“No, I’m not leaving you.”

“I will be fine, go to the TARDIS, everything will be fine.”

“No, I can’t do that!” The Doctor’s tone shifted slightly and raised to almost a shout as the two started arguing back and forth.

“And why not?!”

“Because I love you and I can’t lose you again!” The Doctor finally said. “I went on for so long thinking that you were dead and that I would never be able to tell you how I felt and losing you was the worst pain imaginable.”

(Y/n) didn’t know what to say, her mouth just hung open as she processed everything. Suddenly she just grabbed the Doctor’s face and kissed her. During this exchange, the Master stood next to them awkwardly not knowing what to do.

“Okay that’s enough.” He finally said breaking the two of them up, big brother mode kicking in. “Just go, both of you, I know how to stop this once and for all.”

“What do you mean?” (Y/n) asked, not knowing what her older brother was saying.

“I’m saying that you two belong together, I mean you keep an old photo of her, well him, in your pocket at all times. Just promise you’ll come visit me.” He gave the pair a soft smile.

“Of course, I mean where would I be without you.” (Y/n) walked up to him and gave him a small hug before turning away and running off with the Doctor.

The two quickly got to the TARDIS before turning to one another.

“You ready to travel all of time and space?” The Doctor asked.

“Of course.” (Y/n) replied, grinning ear to ear.

“Brilliant, there’s some people I would like you to meet first.”

“Allons-y.”

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Joseph Allred

Photo Credit: Susanna Bolle

Joseph Allred grew up in Tennessee and currently lives in Boston, where he’s found good company with acoustic musicians such as Glenn Jones and Rob Noyes. Like them, he makes music that can easily be tagged as American Primitive guitar, a category that Dusted’s Bill Meyer invoked in a 2019 review of two Allred cassettes that were issued on the Garden Portal label: “Of all the musicians who convened in Takoma Park, MD last year to attend The 1000 Incarnations of the Rose festival, Joseph Allred hews closest to American Primitive guitar’s mystical spirit.”

But Allred has also made music that has little to do with that approach, and is not even played on acoustic guitar. A quick survey of the seven vinyl albums and virtual basketful of tapes and downloads that Allred has released on Feeding Tube, Garden Portal, Melliphonic, and Scissor Tail Records since 2013 will turn up songs played on piano and harmonium, banjo instrumentals, and sound collages made from cell phone recordings as well as sonically rich and emotionally commanding acoustic guitar soli. Meyer also reviewed Allred’s newest release, Michael, out on Feeding Tube, noting that “his grasp of the essence of American Primitive guitar, which is that music is not just an idiosyncratic reordering of certain influences… that are played on a steel-stringed acoustic guitar, but an articulation of one person’s uneasy relationship to the wider world.”

Mike Gangloff – “The Other Side of Catawba”

Ten Years Gone : A Tribute to Jack Rose by Mike Gangloff

This song was Mike’s contribution to Buck Curran’s 10 Years Gone tribute to Jack Rose that came out last year. In addition to being a moving tribute to his friend and musical co-conspirator, it points to the mystical, dirge-y side of the Appalachian fiddle tradition that I’m particularly fond of, evoking more than a bit the keening wail of graveside bagpipes.

Powers/Rolin Duo — St

St by Powers / Rolin Duo

A lovely ecstatic drone folk album from these lynchpins of the Columbus, OH cat-instagramming scene. Shimmery, rumbly, at once earth-planted and heaven-turned. 12-string guitar paints color washes like the album’s watercolor sun-scape cover and hammered dulcimer fills to the brim with echo, sometimes sounding on the verge of being blown apart by its own reverberation. It’s been providing a much-needed meditation and catharsis lately.

Ostad Elahi — The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi

Nur Ali Elahi was a Kurdish musician, mystic, jurist, and philosopher born in Iran to the Yarsani religious leader Hajj Nematollah. Despite showing a prodigious talent for the tanbur and being recognized as a master musician at an early age, he never played music in a professional performance setting, preferring to use the instrument, which accompanied him throughout his life, as part of a personal spiritual practice. The tanbur has an airy, ephemeral sound often described as dry or even ascetic, but it uses a rolling right hand technique that creates seemingly unending hypnotic swirls of notes.

Buck Gooter — Finer Thorns

Finer Thorns by Buck Gooter

I met Billy Brett and Terry Turtle about 10 years ago when the band I used to play in shared a spot with Buck Gooter on the lineup of a Harrisonburg, VA basement show. I thought of Suicide and Big Black with some primal Ramones-tinted sludge seeping through the cracks, but it was ultimately something uniquely weird in the best possible way. I didn’t get to know Terry as well as I wish I could’ve before he died last December, leaving Finer Thorns as his last album, but he was a special person and a true outsider art savant. I wish Billy the best as he carries the Buck Gooter flag forward on his own.

Stanley Brothers — The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers

My dad sang in a gospel quartet and I used to poke fun a bit by asking if it hurt his feelings that most of the gigs they got were at funerals. Maybe because I’ve experienced a lot of loss in the last decade or so I understand the special place gospel music has around death for some of us, but I think it can call us to start building a heaven on earth just as it imagines a place where our departed friends and lovers watch over and wait for us. These recordings made between 1949-52 are some of the finest gospel and bluegrass to be found and have been my medicine for homesickness and world-weariness.

Arvo Pärt — Für Alina

I did a transcription of this piano solo for a tape that came out on Michael Potter’s Garden Portal label two years ago and found my first experience with transcription deeply rewarding. Für Alina is a quiet, introspective piece, arranged to slowly unfold and then fold back up and consisting of two voices that move together against an occasionally sounding pedal tone. When I arranged it for guitar, one of the alterations I needed to make is that I put the two voices in the same octave, whereas on the piano they’re played an octave apart. Pärt intended the dedication to “Alina” as a consolation to a mother who had recently been separated from her daughter, so distance is a theme of the piece, but I found it especially poignant that the tension between the two voices seems much more pronounced when they’re put closer together.

Julian Bream — Dances of Dowland

The recently departed Julian Bream was a giant of classical guitar but his anachronistic lute playing technique and use of an instrument with some modern amenities earned him the ire of the more authenticity-minded lutenist community (apparently a fairly ornery bunch). I don’t recommend caring too much about the difference between the right hands of a classical guitarist and a dedicated lutenist, and I still love this album of Dowland renditions for the lute. Bream is a particularly good candidate to bring out the drama and flamboyance that can be extracted from the music, and it’s always a treat to hear the joy and mastery he brought with him to whatever era or instrument he happened to be playing.

Popol Vuh — Spirit of Peace

Music can be weaponized and used to challenge oppressive structures in overt and destructive ways, but in the hands of those like Florian Fricke, it creates spaces for self-transcendence and communion with the Divine, which builds the foundation necessary for successfully transfiguring those structures or building new ones. It allows us to enlighten and empty ourselves, to become conduits for Divinity and activate it in the world. Like much of Popol Vuh’s music, Spirit of Peace speaks from soul to soul.

Alan Sparhawk — Solo Guitar

I’ve been experimenting with an electric guitar a little after having gone two years or so without plugging in at all and using some of that time to think about what the electric guitar excels at or might be uniquely capable of. Alan Sparhawk’s Solo Guitar came out the year after he had a well-documented breakdown that led to the cancelling of a 2005 Low tour and an eventual hospitalization, and this album stands out to me as a testament to how bleak and alienated the electric guitar can sound. It’s also a reminder of what made me put the electric guitar down for so long to begin with. It’s a beautiful album, but sometimes I can’t help but hear audio renderings of hellscapes Alan must have been fighting through.

Dorothee Soelle — The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance

Dorothee Soelle was a German Protestant theologian who came of age against the shadow of Germany’s horrific deeds during World War II. She spent her professional career as an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and Cold War arms race, patriarchal renderings of God, and a perversion of Christianity she called “Christofascism.” The Silent Cry stands as one of her most important and widely read works. She imagines an imminent, politically engaged mysticism, one equally at odds with the violent, patriarchal exploitation enacted by capitalism, and other-worldly mysticisms that refuse social analysis.

[stellawolfe30]

~Divinities~

 Our story begins in a lonely forest where birds sing happily and plant life thrives. the sun has just set with the moon taking its place covering the earth in its silvery light. The stars covering the sky with their white light. The sky itself shone of dark purples and blues.

It had been the a very beautiful night for mobians across the globe but tonight we focus on the lonely forest.

Where the moon seems to have focused its light in a small opening between the trees. It’s light covered the grass as it began to glow a faint white. the light only grew stronger and speks of white magic began to float from the ground into the sky. From this light a form began to appear. The magic fading from the grass and surrounding this delicate form.

The light slowly vanished revealing a young hedgehog boy. His body wrapped in a teal and white kimono. He had soft ivory fur and quills that laid over his shoulder and on the grass  . He laid on the grass as if he was in a deep sleep. Not a creature or force of nature dared to disturb him.

He was truly a beautiful sight to behold, as if an angel and graced the land with its presence.

The young boy began to stir. Slowly opening his golden colored eyes.

He lazily pushed himself up and looked around. confusion lacing his face.

“Wh-what?” he said in a soft and quiet voice. He held his hand close to his heart, tears threatening to fall from the panic he felt grabbing a hold on his chest making it hard to breathe. Suddenly both hands were around his chest. His knee’s close to his chest.

Little did he know blue magic began to illuminate from the ground, surrounding him

*crack*

The magic disappeared as he whipped his head around. someone had stepped on a branch. Another hedgehog with black fur. The boy could hardly see him hiding in the shadow.

But he was there.

They shared eye contact for a moment until he looked behind the ivory hedgehog and instantly turned to shadow and disappeared.

The young boy confused to no end looked behind him and saw yet again two hedgehogs. a young azure and and older looking black one. The black one had red stripes on certain parts of his body and he wore straps holding a satchel on one side and a gun on the other.

The blue hedgehog wore red sneakers and a light blue and white scarf.

The silver hedgehog cowered beneath them by instinct alone.

Although, truly the white hedgehog felt safe not only because they looked at him with a sense of worry and compassion.

But something deep inside

Something told him

In his very core

that he could trust them

That this was only the beginning

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2 Eh? im not a girl!!

a blue hedgehog wearing red sneakers, white gloves and a blue scarf,

A black hedgehog with red stripes who wore red rocket shoes and a belt holding a satchel on one side and a gun

Walked side by side in a lonely forest. The sun had just set leaving the moons out and a cool nightly breeze blowing through thier quills. I seems as if they were in the middle of a conversation

“So, you felt it to, something or…someone calling to you?” He blue one asked

“Yes” she ebony one replied

“But what could it be? The chaos emeralds maybe?” The blue on said

“No,  the chaos emeralds have never called to any of us before why now? Its just illogical” the black one replied frustrated

“…,maybe somethings up…like something really bad” the blue one answered

“No, and the emeralds are all safe on angel island and we are heading in the opposite direction. if anyone you should know this faker!” the ebony one said

“Eh….yeah ok you got me there shadow , I have no ide-“

the two boys stopped in thier tracks.

Suddenly a bright light illimuminated the sky’s ahead of them but vanished just as quickly as is appeared.

But then

A cold feeling clenched thier hearts,

the blue one fell on his hands and knees clutching his heart.shadow rushed over to him, the cold feeling fading from his own chest.

“Sonic!” He yelled

“I-im fine, it just..,startled me” Sonic said out of breath

“What was that?” Shadow asked helping Sonic up but he noticed something, under Sonics scarf. Shadow only saw a glimpse so he wasn’t sure but he could’ve sworn he saw a scar

“I-i think whatever calling us is in trouble” sonic said

“Then we should hurry” shadow replied

“Race ya!” Sonic said before speedin off. Shadow activated his rockets boots to follow sonic but byethe time he caught up sonic was no longer running. He stopped by a clearing where a white hedgehog wrapped in a silky blue and white kimono lay on the ground. He seemed to be looking behind him at...something…a shadow but It seemed to notice shadow and sonic, then disappeared.

The white hedgehog finnaly noticed sonic and shadow and immediately became frightened.

“H-hey you dont need to be scared of us” sonic comforted

“We’re here to help” he encouraged

The white hedgehog put his hand on the ground and raised it back up as blue energy engulfed it and  parts of the ground began to glow the same color and raised from the ground.

“Heeeeey, buddy I promise w-were not here to hurt you” sonic stated

“H-how do I know that!” The white one stressed

“Uuuhh” sonic scratched his head in thought. Shadow stepped up

“You feel it too dont you? Your the one who called us here!” He said

“Wha-no?!” The white one said “b-but I d-do feel…something…”

“Ok, so we can all agree that something called us together. So can u put the big rocks down now please?” Sonic said

“O-okay” the white one said moving his hand down thus the flaoting rocks were set down on the ground

“Phew, ok so what’s your name miss?” Sonic asked

“Miss?!” The white hedgehog yelled confused

“I-im not a girl!!!” He continued to explain. Shadow hit sonics side with his elbow

“Hey! ok ok, sorry I just saw the kimono and-“

“K-kimono, whats that?” The still unnamed hedgehog asked

“The dress you are wearing” shadow said

“I-im not” the white hedgehog finally took a look at himself and was shocked. He didn’t remember ever putting this on. where would he even have gotten something like this back…back home.

Where even was he?

“Anyways what is your name?” Sonic asked snapping the young white hedgehog out of his thoughts. He hesitated for a moment realizing, even if there was a chance these guys were lying to him telling them his name wouldn’t hurt

At least he hoped so

“S-s-sil…Silver….my-my name is silver” he said

“Cool, my name is sonic and this is shadow. What are you doing out here all alone?” Sonic said squatting down in front of silver with shadow standing behind

“I-i don’t know, I found s-some kind of glowing rock an-and ended up here…wherever here is?” Silver explained

sonic perked up “Oh well your in luck, were close to emerald city you ca-“

“Wait emerald city still standing?!!” Silver asked with desperation

“What do you mean” shadow asked

“Its was just destroyed, i barely escaped!!” Silver stated

“Noooo, its still here” sonic said

“B-but iblis destroyed it. Its gone a-and so I-is everyone e-else” silver said his voice getting quieter by the word. His eyes starting to water from he memory of his home being destroyed

“Who’s iblis?” sonic asked which made silver finally snap

“Who’s iblis?!?!? only the creature that’s been terrorizing all of mobius for over 200 years. Emerald city was the last place anyone had to go and now its gone!!!” Silver stressed, tears now falling down his face. He noticed this and buried his face into his hands.

 Sonic stood and turned to shadow “I think we should take him back to my place. This iblis guy sounds like trouble” 

“For once I agree with you faker, whoever iblis is, we cannot allow him to terrorize anyone else” shadow stated turning to the crying hedgehog. Sonic then crouched down again

“Hey silver you wanna come back to my place, I’ve got a couple of friends who can help us and we can figure out what’s going on” sonic asked

“Silver wiped his eyes and looked up at sonic “o-okay” silver began to stand but faltered when a sharp pain ran through his left leg. Sonic though was able to catch silver before he fell to the ground

“Agh!…I-i forgot, my legs sprained” silver said (ignore the wierd text something wierd happened here idk )

“Oh, well I can carry you no problem” sonic suggested

“N-no I can fly” silver said activating his powers as a light blue glow surrounded him and lifting his body of the ground but the glow quickly faded and sonic had to catch him again. It was as if on cue silvers stomach grumbled stating he was hungry.

“Nope…can’t fly, too weak” silver said leaning on sonic

“Well carrying it is” sonic said adjusting silver on his back. Shadow picked up a straight stick and pulled out a small roll of bandages from his satchel. Shadow then put the stick on silvers leg and wrapped the bandage around.

“That should be good enough until we can get you to a doctor” he said

“Th-thank you…both to you” silver said

“No problem, I’m sonic the hedgehog hero of mobius, I try and do everything I can so help people. Shadow here is my sidekick” sonic said. Shadow merely scoffed at the statement

“I am no ones sidekick faker!” He stated

 Sonic chuckled “Whatever you say emo boy” sonic said running off

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if you like my story and want to read more here are the links. i wont be posting more chapters here on tumblr i just wanted to advertise my fic. it only has six chapters so far but if you like this id love it if you checked them out on archiveofourown or wattpad

ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

WATTPAD

[sonic-bros]

got any ideas for boom!sonadow to write? maybe a scenario where they absolutely had to team up together alone to get out of somethin and they ended up losing the rest of team sonic

[Read it on AO3!]

“Shadow?” Sonic asked in surprise, blinking at this darker lookalike, surprised to find him in the Buddy Buddy Temple.

Shadow turned, immediately clenching his fists and spreading his stance to get into a fighting position. “What are you doing here?” he asked, eyeing Sonic and his other four foes.

After Shadow had tried to destroy the universe, Sonic had decided that the best idea was to befriend Shadow and try to prevent him from ever doing something like that again—not to mention, he thought it would be fun having someone around who could foot-race him. They’d learned from Eggman that Shadow liked to reside in caves, usually ones with some sort of link to the Ancients, but they had scoured the entire island and never found him.

“We’re looking for some mech suit schematics that the Buddy Beavers had,” Tails said.

“Yeah, but we’ve been looking for you, too,” Amy added, trying to give him a friendly smile.

Shadow tightened his fists. “Why? Looking for revenge?” he scoffed.

“Revenge isn’t really our style,” Sonic said, shrugging while also offering him a smile. “We actually wanted to see if you wanted to come to Meh Burger with us sometime.”

“Tch. I would never eat that swill,” Shadow huffed.

Sonic gave a little laugh, and Shadow eyed him. “That’s actually one of the nicer terms you could’ve used for it,” he said.

“Regardless, I would never agree to go anywhere with the likes of you,” he growled. “I have business here, so stay out of my way,” he added, before turning and taking off away from them.

“Hey! Wait!” Sonic said, dashing off after him.

“Sonic!” Amy yelled, frowning in worry, going to try to run after them, but they were out of sight before she could make it five steps.

“Wait a sec’!” Sonic repeated, catching up to Shadow as they went down some stairs and entered a new area. Before Sonic could grab him, to try to stop him, Shadow used his air shoes to make a sharp U-turn, slamming his fist into Sonic’s chest and sending him so hard into the ground that he put a crack in the concrete. “Ugh!” he gasped as he hit the floor, grimacing.

“Don’t follow me,” Shadow growled down to him, turning to continue in the direction he had been traveling, but he stopped and blinked when he found a sealed door in his path. He scowled and turned back to head up the stairs from which they had come from, but clenched his fists when a door slid down, trapping them. “What is this?”

Sonic sat up, grabbing his chest, making a face. “Yeah, I was trying to tell you this place is booby-trapped,” he said, standing up, glancing around. “I’ve been trapped here with Eggman, before.”

“I am the Ultimate Lifeform. I don’t get trapped anywhere,” Shadow said, and then suddenly disappeared with a flash. A split second later, however, he rammed into the ceiling, dropping down to his feet, gritting his teeth. “What the—?”

“Woah, there must be some sort of teleportation guard,” Sonic said, blinking at him.

Shadow growled in anger, skating over to the door that had closed behind them and spin dashing it. When it didn’t break, he did it again. Then a third time.

“Hey, man, chill,” Sonic said, raising his hands. “I’ve done this before. All we have to do is work together to get out. That’s why the Buddy Beavers made these traps.”

“I will never work with you,” Shadow grit out, furious because of the situation, stepping toward Sonic, ready to fight, but just as he did, he stepped on a pressure plate. He looked down, then over at the walls as slits opened in them. Huge axes came swinging out of each opening, more than a dozen in total.

Sonic turned his body so two axes passed on either side of him, his eyes going a little wide. “Listen, all we need to do is press those two buttons over there,” he said, motioning with his head over to the next door.

Shadow turned his body also, scoffing. “Don’t think this means I’ll befriend you and your pathetic friends,” he said harshly, teleporting over to the wall, eyeing him.

“You should give us a chance. We’re a lot more fun than the froglodytes you probably hang out with,” he said, zipping between the swinging axes, to the unoccupied button, pressing it right as he got to it, and as Shadow pressed the other button. The next door open, and both of the hedgehogs dashed through it before watching it close behind them.

“I prefer to be alone,” Shadow huffed, looking around, this time careful where he was standing.

Sonic rolled his eyes, about to say something, but then he noticed the holes in the walls. “Darts!” he yelled. Both he and Shadow prepared to avoid them, but they never came. “Huh?” Sonic said after a minute, carefully walking over to one of the walls, leaning in to inspect one of the holes. There was a sharp hissing of air coming from it, as well as all of the others. “Some sort of gas is leaking in here.”

“I’m immune to the effects of all gases,” Shadow said, crossing his arms, looking around the room.

“Yeah, that’s great, but I’m not,” Sonic said, straightening up to look for the next switch, but he frowned when he didn’t see it. “Do you see it?”

“No,” Shadow said, not all that concerned.

“Okay, okay. Think, Sonic. What looks different?” he said to himself, eyeing every inch of the wall, though his mind was slowly beginning to fog up. He moved a hand to his head as a headache began to form. “Do you see it?”

“You just asked me that, fool,” Shadow scoffed, watching Sonic now.

Sonic shook his head to try to focus, but then nodded. “Right, sorry,” he said, taking a slower breath and squeezing his eyes shut for a second. “We need to get out of this one, fast,” he added, his breath coming shorter with every other inhale. He swallowed down nausea, then opened his eyes to look again, but this time dizziness overwhelmed him, and he had to take a knee. “I… can’t…” he tried to say. He moved a hand to the ground and then slowly slid forward to lay down, blinking slowly to fight the tunnel vision suddenly forming. He felt like he couldn’t breathe—his chest tight, dizzy and tired.

When he opened his eyes again. He noticed the lip at the bottom of the wall he was facing, which continued throughout all of the walls in the room. It was deeper there—about two inches of height where the walls connected with the ground. He peered forward, barely able to see, but thinking he could discern a tiny switch. “I see it,” he mumbled, weakly crawling toward the wall, sliding his hand under the lip, closing his eyes. “Here it is,” he whispered.

Shadow eyed him, pausing for a second before moving over to the parallel wall, taking a knee to reach under the lip also. When he knelt, he could hear the gas seeping into the room, but ignored it as he flipped the little lever. The next door slid open, which meant that Sonic must’ve flipped his. Shadow straightened up, wasting no time to grab Sonic by the back of his neckerchief and pull him into the next room, just in time before the door closed again.

“Wake up, Sonic,” Shadow said as he let go of him, bending down to turn him over and give his shoulder a hard shake. The blue hero didn’t budge, and Shadow’s ears twitched as he listened to him take deeper breaths. He growled in frustration, before raising a fist and slamming it into Sonic’s cheek.

Sonic flinched awake. “Gah!” he winced, sitting up and moving a hand to his muzzle, rubbing the spot where he’d been hit, his vision slowly normalizing, and then he blinked at Shadow, who was still kneeling at his side. “Shadow, you… saved me?” he asked.

Shadow scoffed and stood up quickly. “If you tell anyone I’ll make sure you do stop breathing next time,” he growled. Sonic thought to himself, forgetting to answer, just staring at him in shock. Shadow growled again, expecting some sort of response.

“Oh, right. I won’t,” he said quickly, his mind still too foggy to think of a snarky response.

Shadow crossed his arms and looked away, over at the final door. He frowned, then looked up at the ceiling, eyeing two handles there. He was about to point them out, but before he could, gaps opened in the ceiling, and water came gushing out. Sonic’s eyes widened and he jumped up to his feet.

“W-Water?” he gasped, raising a foot as it already got up to their ankles in a matter of seconds.

“Tch, you sound afraid,” Shadow mocked, glancing over at him, though then he frowned and eyed him. “Wait, you are afraid?”

Sonic moved his hands to his head, looking down in terror. “I can’t swim! What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?” he said, the panic in his voice rising faster than the water level.

“Pull yourself together, blue boy,” Shadow huffed, teleporting up to one of the handles and turning it, then using his shoes to fly to the other and do the same, though just as he turned the second, the first went back to its original position. He growled in annoyance, trying again, but the same thing happened.

“That won’t work, and we. Are going. To drown!” Sonic yelled, watching Shadow.

Shadow dropped back to the floor, the water past their mid-thighs now. “Run around the walls and get up there,” he commanded, but Sonic shook his head frantically.

“My shoes are wet. I can’t get the traction,” he panted, panicking even more.

“Do I need to hit you again?” he growled, but it was rhetorical. “We’ll wait for the water to get high enough so you can reach.”

“I can’t swim!” Sonic yelled again, leaping out of the water and grabbing onto Shadow.

“Get off, fool,” Shadow snapped, shoving him away, into the water.

“Ahhhhhhh!” he yelled, about to frantically splash about, but Shadow grabbed him by his neckerchief again, lifted him up, and then pinned him to the wall, pressing his forearm across his chest, growling at him.

“Calm down, Sonic,” he snapped. Sonic shook his head and grabbed onto his shoulders, shaking with fear now.

“I can’t do this! I can’t—” he cried out, but before he could finish, Shadow leaned in and smashed their lips together. Sonic blinked a few times, tensing up, totally caught off guard. He gripped Shadow’s shoulders tightly, about to try to push him away, but when the dark hedgehog slid his tongue into his mouth, he froze up. A second later, he suddenly melted into it, not thinking about their current situation, just closing his eyes and leaning up into him. He relaxed his hands and then slid arms around the back of Shadow’s neck, cheeks warming up, distracted from the fact that they were becoming surrounded by a huge amount of water. Shadow pulled away, eyeing him with furrowed brows, but Sonic could only smile like the dope Shadow knew he was. “What was that?” he mumbled.

“We’ll discuss it once we get out of here,” he said, having to push off from the floor, so that he could swim and keep their heads above the surface. He left one arm around Sonic so he could support him, glancing up at the handles. “Stay focused on our task.”

“A little late for that,” Sonic said with a grin, clumsily kicking his legs beneath himself, doing his best to help keep them afloat.

Shadow rolled his eyes. “Grab the handle,” he said once they were high enough for Sonic to reach it. Sonic nodded, extending his hand out and grabbing it. Shadow let go of him, to swim over and grab the other. The two hedgehogs looked at each other, before nodding together and turning the handles. They didn’t hear the door, so Shadow’s ears twitched. “Stay here,” he told Sonic, before diving beneath the water.

Sonic watched him swim down, thinking to himself, cheeks still a little warm. He wasn’t thinking about the water at all. After a minute, Shadow came back up, brows knitted together, shaking the water from his head. “It opened, but there’s more water on the other side,” the dark hedgehog said, grabbing Sonic’s free hand. “Hold your breath.”

Sonic blinked. “Wai—” he started, but then Shadow dove down, pulling him along with him. Sonic’s eyes went wide again, and he didn’t have time to get a gulp of air, so he just held in what he had. He kicked his legs uselessly, just being led by his ebony rival. They passed through the open doorway, and then Shadow swam upwards. Sonic squeezed his eyes shut, and just before they got to the surface, his stamina gave out, and his body forced him to take a breath. He got a lung-full of water, but as soon as Shadow pulled him out and onto dry land, he dropped to his knees and began coughing.

Shadow shook off the excess water, eyeing Sonic, before glancing away at the new set of stairs that went back up to where they had come from. He turned and was about to take off before Sonic interrupted him.

“Hey, you said we were gonna talk about what happened in there,” Sonic said, his voice a little hoarse, but he stood back up.

Shadow turned his head to glance back at him. He eyed his expression, before frowning. “I’ll meet you and your halfwit friends at the restaurant.”

Sonic blinked once, and then smiled. “I don’t know if I would call Meh Burger a restaurant,” he said. “And I don’t know if I would say that’s talking about it.”

“Tch,” he scoffed, without otherwise acknowledging what Sonic said. “I’ll see you soon, Sonic,” he said, eyeing him back, before disappearing with a small flash of light, teleporting away.

[shedreamsofstars]

Cataclysm of the Heart - Chapter 3

Start from the beginning  |  Next Chapter

Coughing and spluttering, Sonic lay sprawled on the floor in a lake of water and smashed glass. His chest burned with a vengeful fire at every breath that he pulled from his lungs.

It took a moment for him to remember where he was. A beat longer for him to regain enough semblance of what was happening to lift his head out of the water. Sonic blinked his vision clear as he glanced around the room.

Amy?

He’d seen a flash of pink, he could’ve sworn it. But a quick scan of the room told him that he was alone. Accompanied by nothing but the subtle beeping and whirring of the machinery around him. Even the jets of water had ceased to spit out that loathsome liquid once the tank had been compromised.

Sonic pushed himself to his feet, shaking the droplets of water out of his quills. His body stung at the movement, and it wasn’t until he bothered to look at his arms that he noticed the small scratches across his skin. Some were still beaded with crimson blood - caused by the shards of glass no doubt.

Speaking of glass, somebody had to have broken him out of that damned tank. So where in Mobius were they? He took a small step forward, legs shaking as they struggled to hold his weight with his lack of energy.

He only made it a few steps before his knees gave out under him, and the blue hedgehog was sent crashing to the ground. Sonic groaned as he tried to lift himself up again, pausing in shock as he spotted something pink in his peripheral vision.

It was half-hidden by a desk and the boy squinted to get a better look.

“Amy …” he breathed, body rushing into action.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he ran over to her in a panic, pulling the girl into his arms. Amy’s chest was rising and falling too slowly for his liking, but at least that meant she was still breathing. She must have been the one to break him free, but how did she end up unconscious on the floor?

“Amy … Amy, you have to get up,” Sonic called, shaking the girl gently as he spoke.

The pink hedgehog stirred at the sound of her name. Her emerald eyes fluttered open, glazed and muddled as she came to.

“Sonic?” she said sleepily, voice laced with confusion.

She must have remembered what had happened the next moment though, as the girl jolted up all of a sudden. Fear rippled through her and she stared at Sonic as if not quite believing he was real. “It’s me,” he clarified with a simple incline of his head.

“Oh,” Amy said breathlessly, throwing her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she murmured, grasping at his quills wildly. As though he might disappear if she held him too loosely.

Normally, Sonic would have extricated himself from her already, but the warmth of her body was the only thing keeping him from shivering on the cold floor. So, he let her hold onto him for as long as she needed, if only this once.

“Do you know where Eggman went?” he asked, talking over the top of her head. The girl shook her head against him, her arms still circling him loosely.

“I don’t. I was trying to find him when I saw you in the …” Amy pulled back to glance at where the tank had stood, biting at her lip nervously before giving up on the thought. “Knuckles was following Eggman, but I lost him some-”

A loud whirring buzzed through the air, drowning out the rest of her words. Both hedgehogs turned to the source of the sound, a window at the far end of the room. With only a single shared glance, both heroes were up and headed towards it in an instant.

Sonic couldn’t use his speed in his state and stumbled along only to find Amy beside him, slipping a hand around his waist to support him. A grateful warmth burst through him at the action, all of his pain forgotten as the pair headed to the window together.

As they beheld what lay beyond emitting that horrid noise, Sonic’s pain was forgotten for another reason entirely.

High in the sky, at a distance Sonic knew even he couldn’t reach without help from Tails’ plane, was a giant cannon hovering above the world. Eggman’s cannon he thought. From the sound it was making, and the sinister way the build up of energy flashed in the barrel, it looked to be mere seconds away from firing.

And it was aimed directly at them.

“Amy, get down!”

Sonic flew towards her as the blast from the cannon speared through the air towards them. They crashed to the ground roughly as a loud boom echoed around them and the base shook with an intense roar.

Sections of panelling fell away from the ceiling and came crashing down around them, and Sonic rolled the pair of them out of its way. He did his best to shield the girl beneath him but with both of them so hurt, the blue hedgehog was struggling.

His mind flitted to the window, but it was no use. The higher parts of the building had already fallen and blocked them from sight completely. There was a loud groaning sound as the ceiling shifted above them, and Sonic’s eyes went wide.

A thought lodged itself in the back of his mind and he tried to push it away. But the more Eggman’s base crumbled to pieces around them with no way out, the more it fought its way to the forefront of his thoughts.

Falling debris they could avoid easily, but if the base caved in around them then…

The thought refused to be shaken away, flashing at him as bold as anything.

They were going to die.

He was sure of it.

The blue hero sent a wild glance at the girl, but Amy just shook her head. It wasn’t until she tried to sit up that he realised she was still under him, and he rolled off of her quickly.

“Sorry…” he said, but Amy ignored him.

Her hammer had materialised around her and she hugged Sonic tight as she lifted it above them. It wasn’t until the stone and metal came crashing down around them that he realised what she was doing, but an unruly rock knocked him out cold, and Sonic forgot the world for the second time that day.

Damn him.

Amy stalked angrily through the crowds, her face a mask of stone as she tried to find herself somewhere quiet and empty.

Damn him to the depths of the briniest ocean.

No matter how many times she repeated the phrase in her mind, she felt guilty at the same time. Sonic might have driven a rock right into her heart, but that didn’t erase all of her feelings for him.

Love didn’t vanish overnight … but neither did anger. And anger was exhausting. Hating anything or anybody was exhausting, but it seemed that it was all she could do these days. What else was there to do when she felt so fully broken?

Amy broke out into an empty street and turned into a narrow alley, pressing her back up against the wall and closing her eyes to the world. She took a deep breath, letting the cold air cool her from the inside out.

Why did he have to choose today of all days to confront her?

Because you gave him no other choice.

Amy bit her lip as the truth of her own words hit her. She should have been prepared for him to try and talk to her at the vigil, especially when she’d spent so long making sure he had no way of contacting her. To be honest, she wasn’t even sure that she hated him.

She had been furious, livid even … but that had passed. She was done being angry at Sonic. Especially once she’d realised that there was somewhere else she could redirect her hatred, somewhere where her heart didn’t also find its peace.

None of what had gone down with the blue hedgehog would everhave come to fruition without Eggman pulling strings in the background. Whether he was aware of the fact or not, the man had always made sure that things were so dangerous for them that she and Sonic could never be together even if Sonic had returned her feelings.

Eggman was just as responsible for her pain as Sonic was, and she still had plenty of rage simmering inside her to deal him some well-deserved justice.

Without another moment’s hesitation, Amy pushed off the wall and made her way out of the city proper – in the direction of Eggman’s closest base. She had no idea whether he would be there, or what she would find within and she didn’t care. All she knew was that she was going to find him and raise hell.

Amy barely noticed the scratches from the undergrowth as she shoved through the overgrown bushes in her path. Eggman’s base lay out of the way for his own privacy reasons, but it had clearly been neglected for a while.

The large metallic building came into view through the bare patches between the branches and Amy pulled out her hammer. With a single swing, she cracked the twigs and they fell to the ground in helpless pieces.

“Eggman!” she yelled as she stood outside the large door. She pushed at it to try and open it, but it was locked tight from within. Plan B, Amy thought as she lifted her hammer in the air. If Eggman wasn’t going to let her in, then she would just force her way.

Her hammer slammed against the metal with a ricochet of sound. It vibrated down her arm, but Amy had mastered her weapon enough to not let it bother her as she lifted the hammer to strike once more.

The girl was vaguely aware of a whirring coming from within, but it did nothing to deter her.

The more bots inside the better. She had a lot of feelings to work through and destroying Eggman’s precious robots was exactly what she needed right now.

They seemed to emerge from both nowhere and everywhere all at once, surrounding the girl with deadly glints in their robotic eyes. Amy turned on the spot, eyeing them all with a calculating smirk as she swung her hammer around in her fingers.

“Bring it!” she called as she rushed at them, relishing the adrenaline that coursed through her veins.

In combat, she was not the Amy that had let herself be destroyed by a single person. She was not a broken shell of a girl.

She was swiftness.

She was power.

She was a fighter.

I’m not so sure how I feel about this chapter, but I do think it was necessary. We’re getting closer to the ‘thing’ that the two hedgies keep alluding to and I’m so excited to finally write it.

Thank you so much for reading. Drop me your thoughts if you fancy and until next time, chao :)

[michaelmyersmalewife]

LEVIATHAN | 12. A Call to Arms | MASTERLIST

words: 4k+

A/N: cant believe we’re only 3 chapters away from the end

you can also support this fic on wattpad & ao3

Jodie and the others weren't sure if Serizawa succeeded.

Not that that was their choice. If they had decided to stick around, the shock wave from the explosion would rip the sub apart. And it still might, as they raced back to the surface.

"Thirty thousand yards until we're outside the convergence zone." the commander said as they raced, or at least floated quickly, away from the underwater city and its fallen god.

She was a bundle of frayed emotions ready to burst, and she couldn't help but think of the worst. What if Serizawa hadn't done his job? There was just as big of a chance that he might've died before arming the bomb. Hell, the sub might've malfunctioned just like the drones and he was still back there, waiting. Jodie felt her stomach drop. What if there was something in there other than Godzilla, ready to devour anyone that entered?

They couldn't just go back and try again. They had more nukes but no more subs. If Serizawa failed, they were out of options.

But then, just as Jodie was beginning to feel as hopeless as ever, pure light shone through the abyss. She breathed a sigh of relief, but then the reality of what had happened hit her like the wave that was hurtling towards them too fast to register.

"Shock wave incoming -!" the commander shouted.

When it hit them, Gill reflexively grabbed Jodie's hand. She jumped a little, forgetting that they might very die in seconds. She gripped back, letting that familiar warm feeling wash over her.

In the next second it felt like a mountain had landed on her chest as the submarine was suddenly accelerated to speeds it was never meant to withstand. The hull groaned, shrieked, snapped - the metal walls tearing themselves apart from the force. The smell of something burning filled the air as the lights flickered wildly. And even at the rate they were travelling, they were still surrounded by pitch black water.

But in seconds a faint light appeared above them, growing brighter as they hurled toward the surface by the expanding explosion. They broke into the air, tossed up by a jet of water. Jodie's senses were fried, and for a minute she couldn't quite register what was going on around her. For a brief moment, she felt weightless.

And then the sub slammed down on the ocean's surface like a breaching whale, nearly throwing everyone off of their feet from the impact.

As the sub began to steady itself, Jodie took in a breath she hadn't known she was holding. The lights were still a bit jittery, but as a whole, everything seemed as intact as it could be. Glancing down, she realized she was still holding Gill's hand in a vice grip. They didn't let go.

"You okay?" she muttered.

Breathless and wide-eyed, Gill nodded, letting out a shaky laugh.

"Send a distress message to the Argo." the commander said.

_____

Climbing out onto the submarine's upper deck, rain thundered from the dark sky above.

Waves crashed against the sub below them, rocking it beneath Jodie's already unsteady feet. In every direction, all she could see were the restless waves extending to the horizon.

Behind her, one of the soldiers launched a rescue flare. It shot up, burning brightly but its glow was dimmed when it reached the low-hanging clouds. She doubted anyone would be able to see such a feeble light in the midst of Ghidorah's tempest.

Mark looked around them with binoculars, searching for anything that weren't waves. A ship, the Argo, a blue light..

"Anything?" Chen asked over the rain.

He shook his head. Jodie brushed back the damp hair that stuck to her face, the same spiraling thoughts coming back to her. What if the bomb hadn't cured Godzilla? He was in a weakened state, they could've easily killed him. But he had survived nuclear blasts before, right? But that was decades ago, with older weapons. Did Serizawa die for nothing?

As if to quell her mind, the ocean ahead of them began to boil and churn.

Not like the rogue waves that crashed into each other, or an odd crosscurrent, but an explosion of water that was building up, only slower. The sea was being pushed up from beneath by something big.

And then there was a light - not the warm yellow light from the cave or the explosion - an electric blue glow that shone through the waves.

Jagged scutes that could've only belonged to Godzilla emerged like a mountain range, crackling and dancing with energy. His head was the next to breach the surface, rising high above them as waterfalls of seawater fell from his body like curtains. As he continued to rise, tons of displaced water rocked their minuscule craft. Jodie grabbed for the railing as the sub shook.

With a whir, the light from the titan's back shot up his spine - his eyes glowing with his internal fire and shining through the cracks in his scales - as he turned his head toward the heavens. A tower of blue fire erupted from his jaws, stabbing into the dark clouds and igniting them from within. It seemed like an affirmation, a celebration of his sudden recovery - but also a challenge, as the clouds from Ghidorah's storm began to part just ever so slightly.

Maybe no one had seen their rescue flare, but they might've seen his.

Gill let out a winded chuckle as she stumbled back from the force of his ascension, a faint smile appearing on Jodie's face. But then his attention was focused elsewhere - directly at them. The titan's brows knit together, bending down toward them as if noticing their tiny forms for the first time. Jodie held her breath. They must've seemed like ants to him, but nothing in his gaze seemed outwardly threatening despite his intimidating presence. The lizard sniffed the air, sending out a humid puff of air over them.

The sub's commander reached for his sidearm.

"Nobody move!" Mark shouted.

As the titan leaned over them, Jodie became caught in his warm amber eyes, and for a second she swore that he stared back. Like he was trying to say something. And somewhere in the back of her mind she thought he did, or at least a feeling had passed between them. Something that struck deep in her heart.

Godzilla had every right to wipe them off the face of the earth. Not only had they nearly killed him, but they also likely destroyed what he considered his home. And yet, there wasn't that same malicious hostility she had seen in Ghidorah. Annoyance, maybe. But it felt more like a thank-you than anything.

Everything seemed to slow down, the world dropping from beneath her feet until all she could hear was her own breathing, her own heartbeat - and Godzilla's. She had always heard Serizawa, Chen, and Emma talk about the connection between humans and titans, how coexistence was possible between the two. And in that moment, she understood what they meant. What they really meant.

Out of the corner of her eye she also saw Mark staring up at him. She wasn't sure if he saw what she had, but for the first time since Colorado she didn't see hate in his eyes.

Then Godzilla broke their mutual gaze, leaving them all shaken and amazed, but almost with a sense of clarity. For some strange reason, she knew they were going to be okay.

The titan turned, looking down at them one last time before diving back into the sea, scutes slicing through the waves. As his tail splashed back down, Jodie snapped out of her daze.

"I know how to find them." Mark whispered, turning to Graham.

But before he could clarify, a sonic boom shattered the air. She looked up with dread, expecting to see Rodan or some other flying creature. Or worse: Ghidorah. But instead it was the Argo. It didn't look great - battered with smoke climbing from several places - but to Jodie she had never wanted to see anything more.

As they boarded the craft, Coleman was there to meet them.

He must've seen something in their faces, or maybe he had been counting and realized there was one missing among them. But then she realized Graham had still been clutching Serizawa's notebook in her hands. Those two had rarely been apart, 'two halves of a whole mind' they would always say. Coleman's face fell when everyone gathered on the bridge. Everyone except for Serizawa.

"Let's make him proud and not screw this up." Mark said.

"God, how did he, um -"

"By saving us." Chen said.

"So what's the latest, Sam?" Jodie asked, derailing the conversation when she began to feel a lump in her throat.

He let out a heavy sigh. "Where to start - uh, we think Emma activated the ORCA somewhere near Boston. That's why Ghidorah and Godzilla are headed that way now. But we haven't been able to pinpoint its location without the missing piece of the ORCA signal -"

"I've got the missing piece." Mark said, looking over the waveforms on the screen before him.

Everyone stared at him. Jodie tilted her head. She couldn't see anything different from before.

"It's Godzilla, right?" she said.

"But we already tried that." Coleman said, confused.

"It's not Godzilla," Mark replayed the ORCA's signal, pointing to a specific waveform that appeared on the screen in front of them. "It's us."

"What do you mean 'us'?" Foster asked.

"I'm not sure how but Emma combined Godzilla's bioacoustics with a human's to create the ORCA's signal." Mark continued.

"The titans must think it's another apex predator, it's brilliant." Graham said.

Stanton pulled out his flask from his vest, unscrewing its top. "Well, we are a bunch of horny, murderous carnivores."

"Yeah, it's real poetic. Now what?" Foster said.

"We track it, we find it, and we get my daughter back."

After taking a particularly long swig, Stanton gestured at a video feed of Ghidorah's storm. "Great, what about Moe, Larry, and Curly over here?"

"Godzilla will bring balance." Graham with a familiar firmness.

Stanton, already a little tipsy threw her a cheeky look. "Oh, I get it." he said. "A little of Serizawa's old 'let them fight' action. Used to love it when he'd say that."

"No." she said. "This time, we join the fight."

_____

As the Argo sped towards Boston, Jodie stared at the news feeds on the screens in the bridge.

She knew that Emma had turned on the ORCA, but they hadn't told her that it had effectively paralyzed most of the titans. Literally. In nearly every news coverage it all showed the same thing: confused titans Only three were known to still be active - Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra. And now Godzilla.

Maybe she changed her mind, she thought.

After all, she wasn't trying to kill everyone. It was just a reckless mistake. A mistake that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. And even then, Ghidorah and his pal Rodan were still active. Although the tides were turning, nowhere was safe with those two still around. Jodie didn't know how to feel.

At the very least, Godzilla was on their side. And Mothra, though, she had reportedly left shortly after they departed in the sub. According to their trackers, she was headed back to her home in China. But according to the twins, she was "covering her bases", whatever that meant. If she decided to make another appearance, it'd be an even match.

But as for the human side of the army, they didn't have much. Only a fraction of their fleet had escaped Ghidorah's wrath, but more aircraft made it out in time, and they were desperately trying to find places to refuel and rearm before rejoining the fight. Jodie could feel it was going to be a big one.

And now that Mark had cracked the ORCA's code, they were able to get a fix on its exact location, which was where they were headed now. With the remainder of their fighting force coming together, they dove headfirst toward a battle with a being wielding power beyond all understanding. But this time, they had a monster of their own leading the way.

_____

Madison was snacking mindlessly on a tasteless food-adjacent bar of something they had nabbed from the ship when it happened.

Something flashed across her eyes, or maybe it had all been in her head and she just thought she saw it, but regardless she had seen a bright light. Blinking it away without a second thought, she carried on. But seconds later she had felt an overwhelming pang of remorse, and shortly afterward, gratitude. For what? She found her eyes beginning to tear up but she rubbed it away, confused.

Looking around the room, no one else had seemed out of the ordinary. The Regulator was standing by the door, looking out for any possible intruders, and Elena was sitting in a corner of the room, far from the ORCA and the headpiece. The room suddenly felt a little stuffy.

No longer feeling hungry, Madison put the bar away, choosing instead to observe the evacuation.

"I'll keep an eye out for anything weird." she told Elena. The woman nodded.

Taking a pair of binoculars, she headed up the stairs to the roof of the booth. The sky had shifted from rolling gray clouds to a pale, sickly yellow on the horizon. Gusts of wind mussed her hair and spun stray leaves from the roof. The air felt damp even though it wasn't raining. Something about the entire atmosphere felt prickly. It was cool but now and then a warmer breeze passed through, and the smell of something burning came with it. He was coming, she could feel it. At the very least, the last of the helicopters had left the stadium. Boston had become a ghost town for as far as she could see. There was no one left wandering the streets, no headlights moved between buildings, no honking horns. The sirens had died down. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. But with the ORCA's song still blasting away, she knew the calm wouldn't last before the storm arrived.

Its sound was almost symphonic. It was simple, like a heartbeat. But it sounded different since the first time she heard it in action. Those weirdos had done something to it, something that her parents had never been able to figure out back when it was in its earliest development. She remembered how angry it had made Mothra back at the temple in China, and it had a similar effect on Ghidorah and Rodan. But with the other titans, it seemed to freeze them in their tracks, like their minds weren't capable of differentiating between the alpha frequencies produced by their king and the ORCA. Mothra...she seemed to be safe from Ghidorah's reach. But she hadn't heard from her in a while - at least, she was sure that voice had been her. She wondered if the pupa had already transformed. What did she look like now? With Ghidorah taking out every threat to his rule, she was sure to be in danger. Was she still okay?

She decided not to dwell on it, choosing instead to think of the bigger problem at hand. They had carried out their plan, and while it seemed to be working, this was as far as they thought ahead. Now they just had to play an agonizingly slow waiting game. Maybe she put too much faith in them, but hopefully Monarch would figure out what was going on. Maybe her father would be with them. If that were the case, she would stay here in Fenway. If Elena and the Regulator wanted to take cover, she'd let them. Madison wasn't straying from the ORCA's side if it meant a possible rescue.

But of course, the Controller might come after them instead. They could just as easily detect the signal as well, and though her mom had promised to buy them some time, she could only do so much. And he was probably pretty pissed off if he found out, which he undoubtedly would. If he caught them, she doubted he'd let them off easy. That was a pretty good reason to get lost.

So which was it to be?

After a few minutes of debating, her mind began to wander. That feeling from earlier still hung in the back of her mind. It felt really familiar. She didn't want to believe it, but she had to know. Shutting her eyes, Madison searched for a connection.

But like her previous tries, there was nothing.

Just an abyss through which she sloshed through black, shallow water. It was still scary, but with Elena not too far away, she felt just a little more at ease. She called out into the void.

Was that you? Please, say something - anything, she pleaded. I know you're not dead, you can't be.

Somewhere, off in the distance, there was a blue light, glowing and growing in intensity. She didn't have the chance to register where it was coming from before she was submerged in radiant blue.

She felt an odd sense of relief, until she was thrown off her feet, tumbling for a while before landing on something that felt...solid? Madison pressed her hands into the ground, fingers curling around something soft. Sand? Looking around, she found that she was no longer in that dark abyss, but on a beach bathed in a monochromatic blue. Waves crashed on its shore, the water coming up just past her ankle. She stood up.

The only sound she could hear was the ocean, her own breathing, the sound of sand crunching beneath her shoes.

But then she felt something behind her, a light. So she turned around. Just a few feet ahead of her was a wall of scaly flesh, and as her gaze went higher, she saw a leg. And that leg was attached to a torso, and with that torso was a pair of arms that bore claws at least three times her size. It was Godzilla.

His teeth glinted in the dim lighting of the mind-beach, but it wasn't the snarling smirks that Ghidorah usually wore. It was something more genuine, or at least as genuine as a reptilian could be.

You can't put a dent in me that easily.

Madison smiled.

Somehow, the titan seemed to notice her relief, and with a deep rumble that almost sounded like a bass-boosted purr, he bent down. He kept bending until his snout was mere feet away from her. It reminded her of that moment in China, with Mothra. Only she was more hesitant to reach out to him now.

She hated to admit it, but Godzilla intimidated her. His presence was all-encompassing. And it was hard not to feel microscopic around him. But looking into his eyes, there was a humbleness to him too, something tired and old. It reminded her of her father.

Slowly, Madison outstretched a hand.

Godzilla stared at her with a passive gaze as she grazed his scales. And with a puff of hot air from his nostrils, he stood back up. Everything was going to be okay.

But then something in the atmosphere changed, and Godzilla could sense it too. His scutes flashed in warning, looking nowhere and everywhere.

You gotta get outta here, kid

But what about you? Are you okay?

With a roar, Madison was expelled from the headspace before she could send another thought through. Like no time had passed at all, she found herself back on the roof. But something was different.

It began with a strange feeling, the prickling in the air becoming so intense it snapped her back to reality in seconds. Then she felt a pressure in her ears, like when you were cruising in an airplane. And shortly afterward, the wind picked up - the flags that swung on the rooftop flapping harder and harder. But in the blink of an eye they stopped - only to start wildly flapping in the opposite direction. She shivered.

In the distance, something was moving. It was hard to focus on at first, but then she realized it was the sky. The yellowed lens of the horizon was gone, replaced by rolling clouds so dark they were almost black. They poured in like fog, squeezing between buildings with increasing speed, engulfing them, brightened by coils of lightning. Thunder clapped all around her, and a strange deep thudding, like a bass-boosted cackle. Or like an animal sound made in the back of a really big throat.

If dad or the Controller were coming for her, they were all beaten out by Ghidorah.

Like an angel of death, dragging the heavens with him, the clouds began to close around the stadium from every direction. Heart banging in her chest, she wanted to move but found herself stuck in place.

"Madison!" a voice called from behind her.

It was Elena, holding the door open and waving for her to come back inside. She didn't think twice as she sprinted behind the door, helping her pull it closed against the increasing wind. The pressure in her ears increased, the floor beneath her feet pulsed, a plastic cup on one of the desks rattled and rolled to the floor. The booth's windows shook as the charcoal-colored fog filled the stadium. The lights flickered, and the ORCA's song bent into a weird warble.

Then she heard the beating of wings. Very large wings.

Madison backed away from the window, letting Elena guide her to the back of the room. She tried to see through the fog and behind the glass, but she couldn't focus on anything. Not that she needed to. He was there, she could feel it. His beating wings grew louder and louder until they weren't, softening until there was silence. She held her breath.

He didn't know where they were, but that didn't stop Ghidorah from slamming down into the arena. The ground cracked beneath the force of his landing, and the entire building shuddered, knocking them all off their feet. Madison lay on the ground, stunned, while Elena and the Regulator were attempting to prop themselves up with their arms. They all huddled under a table, staring out the window in silent fear.

Ghidorah looked agitated, heads whipping around, searching for something. The ORCA had done its trick, the sound from the speakers puzzling him. He thought he was hearing another top predator, possibly Godzilla or some unknown beast that was challenging his authority. And like any tyrant, he had come here to kill his competition and take back his throne. But there was no challenger to beat, just the stadium.

But that didn't stop him. His right head zeroed in on one of the speaker towers, hissing before ripping it from its mount. When the sound didn't stop, he moved to the next set of speakers, and then the next. All three heads worked in tandem, destroying the threat to his power.

Terror had frozen Madison in place. She couldn't think, all she could do was look at him. Elena wasn't any better. She was shaking, a single tear streaking down her face as it looked like she was holding in a scream. Madison could only imagine what Ghidorah was telling her now. She didn't envy her. Madison closed her eyes, trying to focus on anything other than the three-headed horror outside.

"We have to get out of here." Elena whispered.

"But he'll see us -" she whispered back.

Ghidorah's eyes passed over the booth for a brief moment, and Madison almost choked on her own breath.

"He'll know where we are anyway." Elena continued, brows knitting together. "I'm trying to block him out, but he's..he's too strong. I don't know if I can hold him back any longer."

Her comment was punctuated by another rumble, nearly sending them across the room. Breath heaving, Madison turned to the window, shooting the dragon a deadly glare before crawling across the floor just behind the Regulator. But as they began moving, she still heard the ORCA's hum from across the room. Now that the outside speakers were dead, the only source of the signal was a mere foot away from them.

"Wait," she said, reaching for the ORCA from under the table.

Her arms couldn't quite reach, but from beside her, a pair of hands extended forward, picking it up as quietly as possible. Crouching low, they tip-toed toward the exit only to turn around, feeling eyes behind them. Turning around felt like wading through water, but just as she expected, all three heads crowded up behind the window. Glaring at Elena before passing over Madison herself. The middle head's eyes squinted in an insidious leer. Gotcha.

"Oh shit."

Ghidorah reared back, an ear-splitting shriek erupting from his jaws as golden lightning flared through his teeth. They sprinted for the door, the Regulator ushering them through as the windows shattered behind them. Miraculously, it had missed them all, instead frying every piece of equipment within the room. Even then Madison could feel the prickle of electricity dance along her skin. But it didn't stop there - the lightning followed them as they ran, disintegrating what was left of the broadcasting booth as if it were nothing. As she ran, she felt the lightning's heat seep into her bones, it was almost painful, but there was no time to stop. She screamed, the sound barely audible over the cacophony.

They flew down the stairs, taking two or three at a time as Ghidorah ravaged the rest of the stadium, blasting it with his lightning, slashing it with his tails, ripping out chunks of it with his steel-toothed jaws. He was desperate to find them, his new top predators, titans clocking in at something equivalent to an ant. It would've been funny if they weren't about to die.

Then the stairs ahead of them disintegrated in another blaze of lightning, Elena nearly tripping forward had she not grabbed her arm and tugged her backward. They swerved into a row of seats, a spiked tail sweeping just behind them. Everything slowed as the stadium began to collapse in on itself. Madison found herself falling more than she ran the last several yards, tumbling out onto the field itself.

Elena was still grasping the ORCA in her arms, the Regulator helping Madison up from having scuffed her knee on a piece of rubble.

The stadium's exit was right there, less than a yard away. It would've been so easy to just sprint out of sight, duck into another building and hope for the best. But Ghidorah was there waiting for them, all three heads swiveling to focus on each of their three faces. The dragon's heads wore a sadistic grin, teeth glinting in the dim lighting. The malevolence she had seen in each of their eyes was still there, multiplied by a hundred. Only this time it was directed at them, and them alone.

Ghidorah trilled, but to Madison, all she heard was awful laughter.

[iamsonyeondone]

your anchor // min yoongi

♥ fluffy!!

♥ 2k words

♥ summary: some friendships are forgotten while others are just meant to take a break, and evolve into something better

wow news anchor! Yoongi with his full on attire - a crisp black suit and a black tie around his collar while his hair is swept back

A look™

But there’s a huge contrast between his appearance on and off camera

He tries his best not to wear his suit and tie that much because it gets really stuffy at the broadcasting station, people scurrying from place to place and the vicinity in general is always being packed with writers and his other fellow colleagues

Despite his calm and chill demeanor behind the camera, he still remains professional and respectful to his superiors

Unless they get on his nerves and he has to hit them with the Facts

Which Writer! Namjoon has to refrain him from doing so and drag him away from the situation

It’s also a huge bonus that his expressions are always stoic and it takes A LOT for someone to crack him up

Once he was switching the camera to his colleague, Weatherman! Taehyung, and Tae had this green suit on so only his head was floating

It was a Halloween special afterall

Everyone else in the room was trying to snifle their giggles but Yoongi just sat there with an emotionless expression and nodding his head for Tae to go on

Only the other weatherman! Hoseok and Cameraman! Jungkook has ever made him giggle

And everyone’s trying to find out why??

But we all know he has a soft spot for them

But Yoongi generally a respectful, intelligent and hardworking so even if his cold expression stirs people away, they don’t necessarily hate him because he does his work right 

so you on the other hand was a cameraperson!! because you were always interested in filming and even had a minor in it during college

and you’re pumped!! but also super stressed because what if you don’t do your job right and some sort of malfunction happens??

but you’re just being paranoid because you always double check before filming starts

sometimes it’s hard to film because someone cracks a good joke on set but you’re filming right now and it is NOT the right time to snort right now (y/n)

it happened once and the celebrities joined in the fun with you as you hid your face behind the huge camera

you were lucky enough that everyone else burst into laughter a second later because you would have been in big trouble

and what does Yoongi have to do with you???

because you guys go wayyyyy back!!

the both of you had known each other by being in the same high school

the both of you weren’t the best of friends, but you guys still put in the effort to watch out for one another 

your reason being because he was cute!!! :(((

he was 70% squishy and soft back then

but cute like a little brother, even if he was a few years older

but as time passed and it was time to part ways, there were many friends you had distanced from, one of them being Yoongi

but you didn’t expect to see him in the same broadcasting station as you

and the first time the both of you met felt so nostalgic and awkward

“Yoongi? Min Yoongi?”

“(y/n)?? What are you doing here?” he chuckled, bringing his hand out of his pocket to shake your hand

“I just got a job as a cameraperson here. Looks like you landed a job as a news anchor?” you smiled, and you couldn’t help but swoon at the sight of him

because squishy yoongi has grown mature and handsome and wow that watch on his nice hands look-

“heh yeah,”

and then it’s just s I l e n c e

“I’ll get going then, see you around?”

“yeah, sure. see you around too,”

and you just sonic zoomed right out of there because your heart is racing a mile a minute, your palms got clammy and what is this??? why is your face so red???

you only thought he was cute like just average cute

but he turned into a Whole Man

and if you hadn’t run off, maybe you could’ve caught a glimpse of his gummy smile

but you didn’t hear that from me

and it was to be expected that you’d see him almost everyday now because they were currently short on staff for the camera crew so you always took the shift for the 8 oclock news

which was when Yoongi is doing his job as the news anchor

and oh my goodness can he look any better on camera??

and every time the news ends, Yoongi comes your way and gives you a smile, saying you did a good job and you could melt on the spot

and after working there for a month, it becomes routine that the both of you hangout at the break room with instant coffee and reminisce about the old days and finding out about the current lives of your former schoolmates

and it feels like the bond had never left

It feels exactly like the old days because Min Yoongi becomes even more enamored by you

the way you smile so wide and chuckle over the shooting you had that day or the way your face turns all serious with your eyebrows furrowed when you’re concentrating

and dare I say, he is Whipped for you

since day 1 but he never had the guts to tell you

that’s when the anniversary of the broadcasting station came and all the workers were invited to celebrate it

of course it was a formal event so you had to wear something more special other than the hoodie and jeans you wore to work everyday

and it feels weird arriving to the venue all dolled up as your colleagues cheered for you because you look stunning hunny!!

and as you’re walking through the hall, talking to fellow friends and colleagues, you spot Yoongi at the corner with a wineglass in hand

you made your way to him and once he spotted you, he nearly spilled his wine

because can you get any more beautiful??

“Keeping to yourself again?” you chuckled, swooping up another glass from a waiter who was passing by as you chuckled

and that gummy smile hoLy

“You should already know how I am as a person, (y/n). Just as much as I know you feel uncomfortable wearing that, even if you look gorgeous in it”

and you kinda just,,, took a few seconds to think because,, Min Yoongi just complimented you

you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself, you thought to yourself as you took another sip from your glass

“You don’t look too bad yourself, Suga,” you teased as you looked towards him from behind your glass

and that shocked looked on his face makes your burst out laughing

“We don’t talk about my Soundcloud here you, doofus,”

“Yeah, but they’re missing out on a masterpiece,”

“Oh really?? How about the one that’s standing right in front of me?” 

and the tables just FLIP the don’t turn they FLIP because you’re losing your mind and internally panicking over that deliberate flirting

and,,,you don't know how to respond

your cheeks turn rosy pink to the point where it reaches your ears and your eyes immediately avoid his gaze because suddenly there’s this look in his eyes you can’t decipher

it’s love (y/n) get it together will you??

and yoongi is losing his mind too because where did all these obnoxious flirting come from??? who did you learn this from, min yoongi??

“I’ll go take a breather, it feels a little stuffy in here,” you chuckle nervously as you shoot him a sheepish smile before leaving the hall to enjoy the calm and quiet of the hallways

at that moment, yoongi knew he effed up

did he just destroy a friendship like that?? and the thought of him losing you had his mind running a mile an hour and before he knew it, he was tracing your steps to see where you had escaped too

a part of him wanted clarification, to see if you really didn’t reciprocate his feelings

or else he wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully that night, or even from that day onwards

as soon as you heard footsteps behind you, you turned your head quickly to the source of the sound 

the person you least wanted to see standing in front of you with a,, worried expression?

you wished he had come later, when your thoughts were rational and not thinking about a way to plant your lips on his or runaway to another country

but you couldn’t run away now that he stood a few inches from you, a little breathless from frantically searching for you along the corridors

“Sorry if I startled you back there I just- goddamnit,” he sighed, frustration evident in his voice as he continuously ran his fingers through hi hair, his sleak and swept back hair turning messier by the minute

“What? What are you apologizing for?”

“I took it too far and flirted with you, my friend. I should’ve known you didn't like me back-”

“like you back?”

“Yes, (y/n), I like you, is it not obvious enough?”

and you’re just standing there with a flustered and frustrated Yoongi, his eyes trying to see what kind of emotion your eyes were portraying

it took you a few minutes to let everything absorb into your brain as you chuckled nervously, brushing stray strands away from your face

“so the feeling’s are mutual?” you questioned him, hope in your eyes as you bit onto your lips

and his eyes sparkle

and he wants to kiss you and sweep you off your feet

but instead, he lets out elated giggles, gently taking your hands in his as you allowed him to do so

he planted a soft kiss on your knuckles while his gaze never left you

but you catch his eyes trailing back to your lips as they curled into a soft smile

“You know, kissing doesn’t sound that bad right now. Maybe I should find a dashing guy back at the hall-”

Yoongi chuckles, his gummy grin plastered on his face as he slowly grabbed you by the waist and brought you closer

placing his hand at the back of your neck, he gave you one last look before planting a soft kiss on yours, the feeling of it melting your heart

you couldn’t help but smile into the kiss, causing him to break out into another fit of giggles as the both of you broke apart, resting against one another’s foreheads

“We’re idiots aren’t we?”

“Yeah, two idiots in love,” he smiled endearingly towards you before going for another kiss

“Wanna ditch the party and get some lamb skewers? the sliders here taste like bricks,” you scrunched your nose in disgust as the both of you walked down the hallway with your fingers interlaced

“Sure thing, babe,” he smirked, as if you couldn’t get any redder by the nickname

wow you guys are so cute :’))

so now that the both of you are now a couple

meeting at the break room doesn’t only consist of instant coffee ;)) 

and now that every time your behind the camera, Yoongi sometimes break out into a smile when he reads out articles that remind him of you

and everyone around the world has been shaken to the core

because handsome stoic dude has emotions

and of course his friends tease him about it

but he’ll gladly boast about you to them

like one time Hoseok teased him for smiling at you so endearingly while you prepped the cameras before filming

because he’s Whipped, didn’t I say that already??

and he’s like so what? they’re cute as hell, of course i’ll smile

and he HAS to say it in front of you and embarrass you

now everyone is pushing you guys to get married with all these articles of famous celebrities getting married

it’s understandable because time flies and the both of you have been together for 3 years now??

but I don’t think you have to wait that long ;))

you didn’t hear that from me or Yoongles will kill me HAHA toodles

a/n: I’ve got stupid writer’s block for the past few days so I took a break and caught up with all my groups until I stumbled upon that post about Yoongi wanting to be a news anchor HAHA I love me man ok bye bye hope you guys are having a good day/night!! 

[vriskaserbet]

Far In Time.

Summary: Smack was once Victor and once, he was someone completely else, though the whole story is hard and long to track. Through three small parts, plus a bonus, one can get a glimpse into the life he (had) has lived through and begin to understand the bigger picture.

Rating: General audience.

Warnings: N/A.

Characters: Smack, Shelby, Pent, Gino, plus some OCs that are smacks family + shelbys parents!

Tags: Fluff, angst, humor, weddings, unrequited love (seemingly), polyamory, etc

Ao3 link: Right here! 

 From the very beginning of existence, his Desire had always existed.

He never pushed nor shoved, he simply gave a gentle, guiding hand upon the beings of Earth; regardless of their species or their makeup. Soon, he could see the effect of his presence upon Life’s creations. Curiosity began to make the foundation of each creature, as they explored the world They had all created.

When the humans began to flourish upon the Earth, that is when his Desire truly flourished. From the beginning, the humans were some of the most curious of all animals. Even at their earliest states, they had found unique ways to change their existence, to building, to invention, to experimentation, and shared it all with their peers.

He became quite famed among the intellectuals, those who debated in public, the scientists who tested abstract concepts, those who wrote books filled with all sorts of complex and detailed theories. They always looked upon him with great pleasure, even insisting he was the true measurement of a man, of an intelligent man; to have Knowledge.

                                                 October 25th, 1996.

After a final push, Victor Alifrazier is born into the world. Almost immediately, he let out a fierce wail, letting the entire cramped delivery room know of his arrival. The nurses and doctors laughed gently, placing him upon his mother’s bare chest. Margaret Alifrazier smiled, tears in her eyes, feeling his small hands move against her chest, still crying as the doctors began to quickly dry off his body with a towel.

She reached her hand out, giving just a small comforting rub to his head, mumbling absolute nonsense at her baby boy. It was only for a moment though, as they cut his umbilical cord, then took him off for quick tests. She rested, sighing with relief that it was finally over.

“I’m so proud of you honey, he’s beautiful,” her husband, Joseph “Joe” Alifrazier, gave her a kiss against her damp cheek. She lazily smiled back, simply waiting for when her son would finally be returned to her.

When he was brought back, he began breastfeeding, eagerly drinking his first meal. It was here she gasped, for when he opened his eyes for the first time, she saw a right eye of vibrant blue and a left eye of stunning green.

                                                  March 5th, 2014.

The Sonic he was going against was a tough one, playing an aggressive game. It was hard to fight back from how fast he was going, quickly attacking his character, then retreating back to go on the defense. Though, Smack wasn’t just any beginner Smash player. He spent hours training his game on Lucario, his current main. He stayed focus on the match, rapidly tapping the buttons of his 3DS as he continued the brawl.

“Y’know, Smack,” Gino began, adjusting his seat so he could recline back better. He had his window open, so he could blow out his cigar smoke easily. Their usual getaway driver handled the wheel, blending into traffic perfectly. “You did a good ass job today. But, I really wanna say, I like the way your brain works. I mean, who else can break into a building, sneak through that fuckin’ maze of air ducts, take out those guards, keep the ball rolling for an important heist… then immediately go to his video game without even breaking a sweat? A genius like you, no one else.”

Smack grinned. He had cracked the predictability of the Sonics’ movements and the flaws of his approach. Now, he had the upper hand in the fight, countering his attacks easily. It wasn’t long before he made Sonic lose one of his three stocks. “Thanks, Uncle Gino. But, it’s really all about experience and practice.”

“Though, you ARE a genius. Einstein is rolling in his dusty ass grave.” Pent said. As always, he had taken the right seat, Shelby taking the middle seat. They held hands, their engagement rings shining from the passing by street lights.

“I’m not a genius, guys.” He insisted.

Everyone objected to that, even the driver. Smack snorted, taking down another stock. He rolled his eyes, despite how his hair completely covered them from view.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop protesting. Thanks, means a lot.”

“No problem! You don’t need to be so humble, y’know! You really are smart.” Shelby said, reaching to his shoulder to pull him closer. It was an awkward position, his seat belt pressing into his chest and stomach, but he kept steady in Shelby’s hold as he finished up the match. Lucario posed dramatically, as the announcer declared Smack’s victory.

Winning another match, getting to practice more on his Lucario game, stealing an incredibly valuable set of jewels, practically cuddling with his best friends… now, that was Smack’s favorite kind of day.

                                                  December 5th, 1996.

In the weeks to come, Victor stayed surprisingly quiet. After his initial cry, he had barely cried again, especially at such a loud volume. Perhaps, Margaret was simply just experienced after raising twins. She just understood what he needed or wanted faster, this time. Her friends had theorized the second go at parenting always seemed to be easier and the parenting books seemed to agree with them. Of course, she wasn’t complaining, just curious of the way he never seemed to burst into tears like either of her twins had at the smallest of problems.

On the subject of the two, both had reacted well to Victor. Janya, the elder one, enjoyed talking and playing with her baby brother. Though, she was always more interested in his future, of finally getting to teach him all she knew or showing him her favorite movies. Johnny, the younger one, was the one who found joy in the quieter moments of Victor. He enjoyed rocking him to sleep, just getting to hold him, even reading stories to him. He was just like his father, who similarly loved every part of Victor’s development, every hard part of raising a little baby.

As the winter months came, the parents wrapped their baby boy in a blanket and held him close, as love filled the house.

                                                  February 14th, 2015.

The spotlight followed the newlyweds, as they made their way to the dance floor together, hand in hand. Everyone’s cheers and claps silenced, replaced by the speakers playing a soft, slow love song. Shelby and Pent danced like no one else were in the world, their gaze only on each other. Pent’s wedding dress seemed to sparkle in the light, with the long tails of Shelby’s tuxedo twirling around as she moved. It was only when Shelby dipped Pent downwards that they even looked at anyone else, managing to find Smack in the crowd.

They eagerly waved at Smack like the dorks they were. Smack waved back, hoping the lack of lights ensured they couldn’t see the thick tears on his face. Shelby brought Pent back up, continuing on their dance.

Gino, who sat to his left, offered him a tissue. Smack eagerly took it, wiping his eyes and blowing his nose as quiet as he could make it.

“…They look so perfect together…” Gino whispered out, a proud smile on his face. “I still remember when you were all little kids… playing your GameCube… drawing your little weird stories…”

“So, you mean we haven’t changed one bit?” They laughed quietly, silent again until the dance was finished. The venue erupted into loud cheers and cries, the spotlight shutting off as the lights all came back on.

Pent and Shelby walked, holding hands again, to the same row of seats where Smack was. It was where their immediate family members and close friends had been grouped together. As one would expect, Smack was placed right next to them.

“So! How’d we do?” Shelby asked, with a hopeful smile.

“Hmm… well, you finally didn’t step on Pent’s foot, so- “ Shelby gave an offended gasp, making all three of them burst into loud laughter. Nearby, he could hear Gino and Shelby’s parents laughing amongst themselves as well.

“I am SO kicking you out of our house, I swear to God,” she said it with a smile, well aware he was there to stay.

“You’re not going to move out?” Shelby’s mother asked, though her tone didn’t seem to be negative, only surprised. “Aww, I just knew it! Y’know, he,” she gestured at her husband, “was saying that you might move out after the marriage. And I said no, they’re too close! They’ve always been together! They wouldn’t let anything like this come in between their friendship. And look, I was right!”

Her father spoke next, with a sheepish look on his face. “Ah, I never said it to be rude, by the way. I was merely saying my concerns to her. Smack, you’re already aware of how close I view you. You’ve always been a wonderful part of my family, especially with how happy you make my little princess.”

Smack shrugged his shoulders. “It’s no big deal. Unless you have the strength of a hundred men, there’s no way you’re dragging me away from my best friends.”

His parents, who took the place Pent’s parents could’ve sat at, spoke up next. “And Smack can win any fight!”

“Hey, this is their day!” Smack replied, making the row burst into laughter. It was then for the couple to make a toast, so the conversation ended there, as they gathered everyone’s attention. Smack stared up at his best friends with a smile, his hidden eyes shining with love.

For as happy the day was, Smack felt a sense of guilt building up in his stomach. He kept everything hidden as always, under his usual smiles and attitude as he had been for countless years.

For he loved them so, so much.

  However, it was an incredibly foolish act to view his Desire as only a part of those groups of people. The snobbish perception that true Knowledge only existed within academia, with those of a certain “class” was a false one. He was in all humans, who uniquely used him as they saw fit.

The warriors drafted battle plans, engineered new weapons, hid in plain sight to gain secrets, they fought with everything they had learned until they were left dead on the ground.

The everyday workers, those who cleaned, who sold things, who greeted customers, who put away packages and everything in between; they found every little way to work faster.

Children explored their world, slowly learning their language and the motions to walking.

Mammals, reptiles, birds, all sorts of animals, while Life’s own creation, inevitably flocked towards him. Most with born with everything they needed to know, some even able to take care of themselves fully from the moment they emerged.

To every living being, he influenced.

                                                 October 25th, 1997.

“Happy Birthday, dear Victor!” his family sang to him, as Joseph presented a small cupcake towards him. He sat in his chair, his eyes focused solely on the single candle, the flame flickering.

“Happy birthday to youuu!” Everyone cheered, Janya blowing on her party horn loudly. Yet, Victor stared at the flame, uncaring of the cupcake.

“C’mon, blow it out! Like this,” Joseph blew softly, careful not to hit the flame. He still didn’t move.

Johnny snickered. “Dad, I don’t think he can do it. Maybe we should blow it out for him.”

Margaret nodded. “I think so too.”

“No way! He can do it! C’mon, like this Victor,” he blew again, frowning when Victor didn’t even move an inch. “Maybe he’s just stubborn.”

Victor started to move, raising his hand in the air. “Oh! See! I think he’s got it— “ Joseph went silent when, with all of his strength, he smacked the flame. It disappeared in an instant, causing him to look at his hand and the cupcake with a curious expression. Everyone blinked.

“My baby!” Margaret ran to him in fear, uncaring that the crowd around them began to laugh.

“Is he okay?” Joseph asked, while Janya and Johnny snickered to themselves.

“He’s a little smacker, isn’t he?” Janya said.

“Smacker sounds like a cute nickname.” Johnny said.

From that moment on, Victor began to be jokingly called ‘Smacker’ by his siblings. Within a week, it was shortened to Smack. His parents joined in on the joke, to the point where it ceased to be a joke, simply just Victor’s official nickname.

(Though, later on in life, especially in his early years of school, Smack had practically forgotten his legal name; confusing those around him as he introduced himself as Smack and wrote Smack on any drawing or piece of classwork or homework he did. His parents sighed, his siblings laughed, but in the end, Smack winded up becoming what he identified better with.)

                                                   October 31st, 2015.

“Have a Happy Halloween!” The trick-or-treaters thanked her as they returned to their parents and siblings, rejoining with the crowd of children across the street. Shelby rocked in her chair, smiling to herself. She rested a hand on her growing stomach, rubbing it gently. The three of them sat in chairs just outside their front door, so they could greet the incoming trick-or-treaters easily, especially for Shelby.

Like every Halloween between the trio of dorks and nerds, it was an excuse to cosplay. This year, they had chosen a theme, of Super Smash Brothers characters. Shelby went for Rosalina, Pent went for King Dedede, while Smack went for Ness. They kept their hair the same, keeping it somewhat casual for a simple Halloween night.

Though, their house didn’t exactly scream casual. The entire house was completely decked out with Halloween decorations, along with the front yard. One could only imagine the amount of pumpkins and ghosts inside, as well.

“Hey, Shelby,” Smack spoke up, twirling his baseball bat as he waited.

“Yeah, Smack?”

“So, I’m curious. When the kid is born, are ya gonna take them trick-or-treating or are ya gonna wait ‘till they can walk?” Currently, Shelby was five months pregnant, thus the trio had plenty of time to think of the future.

“Oh, I’m definitely taking them trick-or-treating! It’ll be so much fun! …Plus, I finally have an excuse to trick-or-treat again! Now no one can judge me!”

Pent snickered to himself. “I’m just imagining us fully decked in cosplay with this little baby in our arms, they might not even have teeth yet, and we’re just like, GIVE US CANDY NOW.”

Laughing, Smack added onto it, “And we’re just like, what? A small ass bag of M&Ms? THIS IS THEIR FIRST HALLOWEEN BRENDA, BE GENEROUS!”

“Don’t be rude, Brenda! They needs them king sized candy bars!” Shelby finished, causing all three of them to break into a fit of laughter.

Once it died down, Shelby spoke warmly. “Though… I really am looking forward to it. Having a Halloween with my little baby in my arms… showing them my favorite Halloween movies… making Jack-o’-Lantern’s for the first time with them…” she sighed happily. “It’ll be amazing. I can’t wait for it.”

Pent reached for Shelby’s hand, holding it gently. “Me to.”

Smack stretched out his arm, resting it on their hands. “I will personally make sure they watch Scooby Doo’s Night of Hundred Frights.”

“Hey! Stop using your powers in public, jackass!” Pent cursed, though Shelby just laughed in response. Smack pulled his arm back, with his usual grin.

“But, to be serious. I’m really happy I get to be a part of their life. I promise, I’ll always protect them.”

Shelby smiled sweetly. “You’re the best, Smack. Thank you for always being there for me. That’s why I’m always here for you to!”

“Of course! What are best friends for?”

Another group of kids started to head their way, so the conversation stopped there.

Through his smile, he wondered if his time to confess was slowly slipping away.

             He was running out of time. They all were.

His head was bleeding. His future vision wasn’t working. Everything hurt.

But he had to keep running.

They only had one shot at escaping.

 He could see it so clearly, especially when he used his future vision. The unlimited possibilities were quite overwhelming at times, but it always made him so joyful to see how far-reaching his Desire had become.

“You make me incredibly proud,” Life would coo to him.

“You’re so amazing,” Death would lovingly say.

Over and over, they would compliment him. He would wrap his first pair of arms around his lovers, using his second pair to hold their hands and typically, he would bring his third pair to his mouth to cover his embarrassed smile.

“It’s only because of your work, that mine can travel so hard.”

“You always say that.” One of them would complain, but enjoyed his close affection anyways, typically taking a break for quite some time from their jobs.