#day 10: secret.

[zukosdualdao]

give your all to me / i'll give my all to you

zutara month, day 10: secret, @zutaramonth

summary: the night before they're set to leave to face ozai, katara can't sleep. neither can zuko. "tell me a secret," she asks of him.

warnings: references to ozai's abuse of zuko, kya's murder and katara's discovery, and ursa's disappearance.

other notes: title is a lyric from all of me by john legend. yes this is the second fic i've written about zutara the night before they're supposed to leave for the final battle. no i will not change <3

Though there are several rooms in the Ember Island house, on the first day everyone was here, they’d dragged all the blankets and pillows from them and instead set up in the open room at the front of the house, and that’s how they usually all fall asleep, near to each other—a holdover from Katara and Sokka’s days growing up in the Southern Water Tribe.

Aang is somewhere else, though. She doesn’t know what he’s doing, what he’s thinking.

She doesn’t know what will happen tomorrow.

Toph is snoring lightly, on her back and feet planted firmly on the ground, but Katara’s gotten used to that. That's not why she can't sleep. Sokka sometimes snores, too, but tonight, she can hear his easy, even breathing. Suki is silent in a way she wouldn’t be if she was awake, and Katara knows she’s pulled Sokka up to her side as she always does in sleep.

Zuko is awake. She doesn’t have to look at him or hear anything to know that. 

“Tell me a secret,” she says quietly to the ceiling and to him.

“Like what?” Zuko asks, matching her volume, not bothering to pretend he doesn’t know who she’s asking. Even in the darkness, they have come to understand each other.

“I don’t know. Anything.”

It takes a long moment, but then Zuko says, “Okay.” Another pause, and then: “I use my bending to get the temperature right for the tea. Sometimes.” He says it almost a little guiltily. 

Katara snorts and then looks over to make sure she hasn’t woken the others. Toph shifts in her sleep but otherwise only snores again. When she turns, resting her chin on her hand, Zuko is already staring back at her in a mirror image. His amber eyes are two bright points in the dark.

“That is not a secret. You’re not as stealthy as you think.”

“Oh.” She can just make out the way his frown shifts into a slight smile.

“Try again,” Katara says again. “Something I don’t know. Something real.”

He takes a moment to think it over. “The day of the eclipse,” he says finally.

“Yes?”

“My father… he said something.”

“Was this before or after he shot you with lightning?” she asks. It’s rude, abrasive, but—she can’t help it. He’d said that almost casually today while training Aang, and for a moment, that uneasy anger she’d felt when he first came to them resurfaced. Only now, it was for him as well. 

How could he ever choose to go back to that? she’d thought. To someone who would do that to him?

“Before,” Zuko says, matter-of-fact, not seeming bothered by her intrusive question. Katara blinks, brought back to the moment. “He said… he implied… I don’t know. He said she might be alive. My mother. I don’t know if it’s true, or if he just…”

Katara’s heart stutters. Knowing something like that was awful. Knowing that no matter how she wished for it, her mother would never return this earth was an awful burden to bear. Remembering what it felt like to run with everything she had, only to find… 

But not knowing? Being made to wonder? There’s a different kind of cruelty to that.

“If we win,” Katara starts, then pauses, shaking her head. “When we win—you should look for her. And I'll be there with you,” she promises.

There’s a long, silent moment in the aftermath of that. 

“You will?” Zuko asks, sounding sort of choked. Katara smiles softly at him. 

“Yeah,” she insists. “You helped me. Remember?”

The journey to find Yon Rha… it hadn’t been easy, or particularly pleasant. But it was what she needed. And Zuko helped her get there. Told her what she needed to know. Guarded her. Respected her choice to walk away without a word one way or the other, no approval and no dissent.

Zuko stares at her for a moment, discerning. “You don’t owe me anything, you know. It—it wasn’t about that.”

“I know. But I still want to help you.”

“...Okay,” he replies in a soft voice. Then:  “Now it’s your turn.”

“Hm?” Katara asks, her eyes starting to feel heavy with sleep.

“To tell me a secret.” 

Katara winks an eye open again. Mulling it over, she leans just a touch closer and reaches over to smooth his wild hair out of his eyes and touch a gentle hand against his face, against his scar. 

Zuko leans into her hand.

“I’m really glad you’re here.”

[betryl]

One of the things that most stuck with me is Bunny's nails having dirt under them when they find his body. Not only because the image of him desperately trying to claw at anything he could find not to fall down is very raw – but also because it means it really wasn't as immediate as I thought at first. It was fast but he absolutely did have enough time to think 'he's pushed me down I'm falling I'm going to die'. He didn't die painlessly on the spot but rolled all the way down the ravine bumping into rocks, bushes and everything else fully aware of what was happening and doing everything he could to stop it, and then eventually hit the ground.

[ivarismaybecrazy]

Pirates SMP ended today, as did Decked Out. Secret Life is definitly ending next week (where the hell is my sweater im so upset please it hasn't even been shipped yet aaaaAAAAAA-) and Hermitcraft Season 9 is winding down. New Life flopped HARD, and the holiday season is coming up.

In summary, we're entering MCYT drought season. Buckle up, this'll be a while.

[jestroer]

There is a lot of things that are facinating to me about cletho dynamic, but maybe the funniest thing to me is the progression of it all, because I remember Cleo saying that they didn't really interact a lot with Etho before Last life, so really most of the whole dynamic developed just in the last two years and it went through so much so fast.

First their Last life alliance which was a whole thing on it's own, then it was the whole thing of Etho being deathly afraid of Cleo, then they went to being extremely mean to each other in a very funny way and just the way they were while playing TCG is it's own beautiful thing, then Limited life divorce happened, and now we have whatever Secret life presented us with. They literally have done it all,

[ectonurites]

Byler Week Day 5 — Secret Identities

very loosely interpreting the prompt for today but i've had this idea for a while and... secret identities, Superheroes, that works. anyone who knows me well probably could have seen something like this coming LMAO

also trying to draw Robin & Superboy costumes that look thrown together and home-made when i have spent so much time drawing their actual designs was a challenge

[haunted-xander]

I do think he feels bad but also it's... complicated

[lunarharp]

i wanted to put these four together chatting, cooking, dancing, and trust

[anonymocha]

are you gonna be there with me?

taco bell commercial song got me dyking

[awesome-normal-heroes]

Moms of Heroes

[goldenpinof]

straight™

[girlbloggerinterrupted777]

blumarine spring/summer 2004 .ೃ࿐

[sbnkalny]

Hi, my name is Pierre J. fatcock, you may find yourself in Moss

[mariatesstruther]

happy mother’s day to maria miller

[noyzinerd]

The Sterek Timeline Between The Show And The Movie: Friends To Lovers, Single-Parent, Slowburn

My new headcanon is that Derek had Eli during his time in South America during the later seasons (like around s04-s06).

He wasn't exactly hiding Eli, it was just that no one in the pack bothered to ask and it never came up because Derek only saw the pack around that time when there was a crisis and no time to catch up.

At some point, years before the up-coming movie, the FBI are once again investigating a string of werewolf related murders in South America (that Derek was already investigating, as it involved pack networking and territories and alliances and all that werewolf diplomacy jazz he was looking into in s06) and Stiles and Derek's paths cross again.

So the two of them team up and have a little mini-adventure and Stiles finds out about Eli when he's about 4. Since the sting operation requires careful planning and gathering intel, Stiles ends up crashing at Derek's place for like a month as they work the case. Stiles gets to see how Derek lives and gets to learn more about his adorable son. His heart absolutely melts watching Derek do Dad things, like chasing down errant missing socks and arranging snacks into animal shapes and just being this soft, loving guy he never got to be back in Beacon Hills.

Meanwhile, Derek gets to see how great Stiles is with Eli. Stiles purposely over-exaggerates his already silly, fast-talking, flail-y nature and it's a big hit with the toddler. Futhermore, Stiles isn't afraid to make a fool of himself, so his silly sounds and voices and his ridiculous dancing have this unrestrained honesty that Derek (or anyone else, for that matter) could only ever dream to achieve.

When the mission is over and it's time for Stiles to leave, he instead takes a sabbatical to help with Eli while Derek cleans up pack business for a few days.

But then a few days turn into another week or two because Stiles should really stick around to make sure everything is truly resolved with the case. Got to make sure there aren't any loose ends.

A few weeks turns into a month, because, despite being there for two months, Stiles hasn't actually gotten the chance to see the sights and explore South America. Besides, the FBI won't contact him again until a new big case drops, so why not enjoy himself until then?

And eventually, Stiles just never leaves.

Of course, during this time Derek and Stiles grow closer and slowly get together.

All while the pack is none the wiser.

When the movie events roll around, I imagine everyone loses their mind about finding out that Derek had a kid.

By the time they call Stiles to tell him the mind-blowing news that Derek has a son, Stiles is just like, "Oh, Eli? Yeah, I've known for like 10 years...guess I forgot to tell anyone...whoops..."

(He also forgets to mention that they've been living together as a family for all of those 10 years too...double whoops...)

[raiiny-bay]

reminding myself that they’re my characters & i can do whatever i want with them

[yahoo201027]

Day in Fandom History: March 18…

In hopes of finding an alternative to making pottery for their grandmother, the Belcher kids find out there's a secret room hidden in the school and must break through the walls to find it as Teddy takes up the job of phone repairman and uses the restaurant as his base. ��The Secret Ceramics Room of Secrets” premiered on this day, 6 Years Ago.