#got real carried away with the Dramatic Shading Scribbles

[paper-enigma]

@potatoeofwisdom hey bro remember when you said ‘what if he gets hit by a car’? Weeellll

.

,

I made it supper dramatic >::]

[honey-milk-depresso]

The Wild and The Quiet (Floyd Leech x Kuudere Reader)

Part 1 : How You caught feelings in your fishing net.

“Koebi chan~~~!”

“...hi, Floyd..”

“Where are you going???”

“...back to Ramshackle..”

“Ehh??~ Can I come~?”

“...fine...”

It was quite funny to see the two of you interact. You and Floyd were complete polar opposites of each other, where Floyd is that wild, rambunctious and certainly loud student, you were the much calmer, shy (or seemingly emotionless-) and quiet student.

Well, you know what they say, opposites do attract.

How Floyd even got attached to you was a mystery even to yourself.

You had no idea how he even started clinging and conversing with you everyday at every hour. You didn’t try to bath in the limelight, well, accept you possessing no magic. But that certainly wouldn’t attract anybody, right? There’s nothing spectacular about that. In fact, that would have sounded lame and boring to anyone’s ears, so certainly Floyd wouldn’t be interested in something “boring”, right? Well....

Floyd at first, for the most part, scared you like any other student would be scared of Floyd. He was tall and intimidating, his attitude is very unexpected, at one point he’s smiling and another his face darkens and your met with his fist. You never know, and that’s what scared you sometimes.

But, you never showed that fear. Towards him. Towards anyone. Something in you had always made you tell yourself: “Don’t show them how vulnerable you are.”

Over time, you got used to the large, rambunctious mer-eel’s shenanigans. And over time, you secretly enjoyed his company. You just thought of it as him always treating his friends like this. Although, you would admit, you wanted your relationship with him to grow a little further.

Stepping into the Ramshackle dorm, you made way for Floyd to come in to which he sloppily went in before making himself comfortable on your couch.

You put down your bag and took out your notes and homework, before heading to the coffee table, where Floyd rested on the couch behind it to do your work. Floyd stared at you lazily as you scribbled away formulas and answers.

“...You don’t have work to do?”

“Eh~~ I can do it later.”

“...You should do it now.”

“Huh~~~? I don’t feel like it..”

You stopped writing and glance back at him, he closes his eyes as he wore a relaxed expression on his features. You hesitated a little, eyes averting away from him for a few seconds before turning away from him again.

“.......Want to do homework with me...?”

His eyes shot opened and widened. This was one of the rare moments where you offer him to do something with you. It’s usually him who forces offer you to do something with him, but it seems the tables have turned. He smiled a toothy grin before standing up and bending low where he rested his chin on your shoulders.

“Ehehehe~! Why didn’t you say so!”

Just went he placed his chin on your shoulders, you swore you shivered a little due to the skin sudden cold feeling of his skin. Of course, you showed no sign of being affected, and just shifted more to the left sub consciously.

Floyd came back with his own homework and writing materials, but rather than sitting opposite from you, he sat beside you on your right, which made both your elbows rub in contact of each other, making it even harder for you to focus on your work as your flustered emotions continued rising inside of you, harder to contain.

Floyd was simply oblivious and in his own bliss of being able to do something together with you and did his work.

A few moments of him being halfway distracted and started talking to you, to which you asked him to go back to his own paper continuously, you finished your second to last worksheet. All that’s left is the alchemy worksheet Professor Crewel has given you today, which was assigned tomorrow. Obviously do it now, who wants to be discipline by the strictest professor around.

You took it out of your file and.... it’s crumpled, almost life it was bleached, as the ink prints were faded and smudged. Words were written all over it: Loser, weirdo, bitch.. a bunch of nasty nicknames which you admitted kind of put you down. 

You should’ve known. Those Savanaclaw delinquents and their constant bullying towards you. Jack had to always chase them away for you, but he doesn’t take the same Alchemy class as you did. Those Savanclaw students did on purpose so that you would be scolded by Professor Crewel for having a toilet paper of a worksheet. Great, now you have to ask Deuce or Ace. Grim certainly can’t help.

“Hmmmm~? Is koebi chan spacing out? I though you told me to focus, now it’s my turn~!”

He tried snatching the crumpled and vandalized worksheet out of your hand, but you immediately caught it before he could even view it to his face.

Truthfully, you didn’t want him to see it as you felt like you would look stupid in front of him. When it comes to being bullied, you rather hide it than tell anyone about it. That feeling of hiding it made you turn on your instincts and told you to take it back, hoping that Floyd would just let go.

Yeah, those chances of him letting go of something unknown to him were a chances of slim to nothing.

He held on and tried pulling it out of your grip, and he proved to be much stronger than you, easily getting the worksheet.

He faced away from you as you only crouched back, a little nervous of the outcome. 

“....Who did this, y/n...?”

You gulped internally. You had never heard him in such a low, threatening tone. And it’s been quite a while since you heard him call you by your real name.

“Nothing.”

“Koebi. Tell me. Now.”

“I really don’t know.”

Floyd isn’t stupid, and you know. He knows when something’s up, and he would be very persistent in figuring out the situation. It’s his job together with Jade. So why bother denying to him?

“....”

“.....”

“Why do you care?”

Ouch. You didn’t mean to sound harsh towards him. 

Without hesitation, he immediately replied. 

“I care about you, obviously.”

======================================================

“What..”

You saw a familiar teal haired eel in his lab coat,  sleeping soundly under the shade of a tree. 

You were carrying blankets and pillowcases you collected from the Heartslabyul dorm. Trey and Riddle allowed you to used their clothes dryer to hang your blankets and stuff. Pretty neat.

You stared at the peaceful eel. He’s way more different than his wild usual self. You couldn’t help but think he looked cute. He really did. Then you took note of his lab coat. He had alchemy. And Floyd only sleeps at random places if he ever felt moody or sleepy. Maybe he had a rough day in Alchemy class?

Well I mean, who wouldn’t? Professor Crewel and his ridiculous amounts of homework with his seemingly impossible to meet deadlines. 

You quietly knelt beside Floyd and gently draped the blanket around him. Seems like he really is deep in sleep. Sitting down beside him you looked up to the sky and took a deep breath.

Lazily, you felt your eyelids feeling heavy, unconsciously falling asleep on Floyd’s arm. You didn’t mean to, but you were so tired yourself.

Little did you two know, that Azul and Jade were trying to search for Floyd, and only find you and him sleeping.

And little did you know, that Floyd used his fingers to intertwined with yours.

===========================================================

“Oh..”

Cornered by the same Savanaclaw delinquents. Just great.

They’re probably here to extort your food and valuables again.

You know you said you hated looking vulnerable, but you also hated getting into trouble. So you just complied and gave them your bag.

They dumped out all your contents out of your bag, crushing and stepping on them.

In your head, you’re insulting them of how they are equivalent to an angry baby throwing a tantrum, but on the outside, you remain stoic.

Emotionless.

“Hey.”

All four of you immediately looked to the left upon hearing a dreaded voice. Floyd stood, casting a dark shadow as his eyes gleamed danger. The Savanaclaw students stopped their harassing and cower at the sight of the tall eel.

“You three were lucky I didn’t chase you down two weeks ago, after you ruined Koebi Chan’s homework. This time, I’m not holding back.”

You closed your eyes shut as you could only hear screaming from the Savanaclaw students, you went behind the door of your empty classroom until you heard only silence.

Three Savanaclaw students all passed out on the ground. Floyd gave them one last menacing look before he met your eyes with his dramatically softened ones.

He cling onto you.

“Ne~~~ Koebi Chan! You should’ve told them to stay away from you~”

“I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“Huh~~~~? But you need to toughen up a bit~”

“What are you going to do with them?”

He glanced back to the pile of students he had created.

“Ehehehehe~~~ I’m sure they’ll wake up!”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

His sudden change of his easy going attitude to a serious one slightly caught you off guard.

And then very quickly, he grinned a toothy grin.

“Koebi Chan shouldn’t let others tell you what to do!”

He took your hand in his.

“I will protect you! But make sure to protect yourself, too! Ehehehehe~~!”

Something in you told you that the warm feeling blooming in your chest, would only grow bigger.

============================================================

Want me to do part 2????

How to procrastinate 24/7

[travellvogue]

Friend of a Friend

Chapter 1- Reunited

The wheels of the black taxi crunched against the gravel as you pulled up to the players entrance, hauling your bags out of the boot and brushing a quick ‘thank you’ to the driving, completely aware that he was beyond disappointed for being assigned the teams photographer to drive to St George, rather than the infamous Harry Kane or Raheem Sterling. 

But here you were, bags of equipment thrown over your shoulders in a less than delicate fashion, Y/N Y/L/N, about to embark on the biggest adventure of your career so far. The building looked down on you, windows forming it’s eyes, a large gaping door for a mouth, ready to swallow you up and introduce you to a new side of the world. Pulling your case behind you, walking inside to be greeted by a few faces, it’s as though you’d been pushed into a washing machine, tumbling around whilst being passed a room key, lanyard and schedule, “you must stick to this” you’re strongly instructed. No problem there, you were here to take pictures, nothing more. 

Stood in the entrance of the dining room, plastic chairs neatly tucked under the oak wood tables as far as the eyes could see, a clatter of pots and pans coming from what you presume was the kitchen. A mutter of noise leaked through the floor to ceiling windows, raising your eyes to watch the huddle of men stood of perfectly neat astroturf, you wondered for a second if people would get on their hands and knees to trim the corners of the surface, the immaculate shaded lines about the be destroyed by the studs of several football boots in a matter of moments. 

You spotted him, stood in the sea of footballers, his pink boots catching under the sunlight making you smile. “Real men wear pink” you whisper to yourself, remembering the time you’d told him that over face time when he was giving you a ‘boots haul’ as he likes to call it. He didn’t know you were here, god you didn’t even tell him you got the job. You’d use the excuse that you were keeping it at a surprise, but truthfully you weren’t sure if you even wanted to be here, the thought of being surrounded by people that earnt your monthly wage in a matter of short breathes was intimidating for a young girl. Yet you can’t help but feel a comforting warmth flicker alight in the depth of your stomach, simply at the sight of him. 

The thought of going outside to wave quick ‘hello’ crossed your mind, but you decided to stay put, sitting down at the nearest table and pulling your laptop out. Connecting to the wifi that seemed to take an exhausting amount of time to connect, (despite the facilities being modern the network failed to keep up), making yourself familiar with your schedule, cringing at the seven thirty arranged awakening, at the top of the printed out page. The black ink pen that had been used to scribble your name at the top had been smudged under the pressure of someone's hand- a leftie, you presumed.  As you read it, your name comes alive. 

“Y/N!?” your name echoes through the reception room, the familiar voice bouncing off the walls, drowning your ears in the comfort of having someone neighbourly here with you. “What are you doing here?!” The floppy mound of brunette hair is the first sight that welcomes you, noting the lack of hair gel, maybe he’d taken your advice to wear it naturally more often, that’s how he looked best after all. Shining white teeth and piercing eyes following quickly, the beaming smile warming you from the inside-out. His beard had grown longer, you liked it. He lunges towards you, muscular arms enveloping around your smaller frame, lips pressed to the top of your head in a warming kiss, tingles running down your spine at the contact. 

“Mr Ben Chilwell” you beam playfully, arms wrapping around his body for a warm embrace. In the midst of bewilderment, you felt at ease, like you were home again, his arms providing you with such familiarity that the worries of starting a new job- which was quickly frankly your biggest move yet- fade away for a minute. You pull away reluctantly, his warmth carried away from you, 

He’d helped you find this job, texting you as soon as he heard that the England NT were looking for a new photographer. You remember the day clearly, sitting in his kitchen, cup of tea in front of you on the expensive marble counter, the brown liquid growing cold under the conversation. He showered you with compliments, dramatically convincing you that this would be such a great opportunity for you. “It’s what you’ve been waiting for!” he beams, tilting his head like a dog waiting for a treat. Silence. Your mind working through your options. “Fine” you breath out. 

“I got the job” you chuckle awkwardly, batting your jazz hands in the air, desperately trying not to let your unsettlement rise in your tone. He watches you, knowing you better then you knew yourself most of the time, eyes flicking up and down your body, fingers reaching out and strumming at the lanyard dangling down from your neck, tapping at the laminated picture of yourself. 

“I’m so proud of you” he winks, slinging his arm around your shoulder, squeezing you to his side. You darent tell him his clammy shirt was sticking to your bare arm, the sweat of a hard training session showing in droplets over his forehead. He might pull away if you told him, and truthfully, you weren’t willing to let go of the comfort of him just yet. “So… how have you been, my love?” he beams, it had been a while since the two of you had seen each other, with careers and busy schedules it was hard to find quality time to spend together. Now seemed to be the perfect time for that. “You look beautiful, by the way” he rubs his hand over your shoulder, poking your cheek with his free hand, giggling at the blush that had risen to your face, completely in awe of how- no matter how many times he has to remind you how gorgeous you are- you still grow shy from his compliments. “Missed your pretty smile” he whispers under his breath, low enough for the truth to not reach your ears, catching himself looking at you for too long, nearly enough to be deemed as creepy. Peeling his eyes away from your glowing appearance, listening to your story of the boring taxi driver on the way here, chuckling at the right points. A buzz of excitement ran through his veins, realizing he gets to hear your voice at any given point now you were here with him. 

His body led you along the hallway as the conversation flowed, briefly catching up on the latest friendship dramas and how training was going. Following his footprints on the plush carpet, a risky choice for the amount of studded football boots around. A large wooden door stood in front of the two of you, his arm relaxing from your body. Time to fend for yourself again. An A4 sheet of paper was lazily sellotaped to the wood, a map of the training grounds with a red dot pressed to your current location. ‘YOU ARE HERE’ it read, the vast metres of pitches backing onto the room. ‘The Rest Room’ the metal plaque above the print-out read. 

Did no one notice that the nickname makes it sound as though the room will host an array of toilets for the boys. 

You follow his lead, nervously trailing behind him as the noise of chattering men fills your ears. A few heads turning to face you, beaming smiles towards Ben and slightly more relaxed ones to you, a new face that the boys were yet to learn a name to. A thumbs up from Marcus as he passes the two of you, Jordan sending you a little wave, walking over to you before you could catch who he just ended his conversation with. Ben winks at you, patting Jordan on the back before walking off to the opposite side of the room, leaving you to fend for yourself. 

“Hi Y/N” he holds his hand out to signal for you to shake it, very formal. A smile works its way onto your face, grateful that he’d made the effort to read the name printed on your lanyard, feeling rather ridiculous wearing it, but at least it now stood with a purpose. The conversation was light and easy, Jadon catching your eye and tilting his head upwards in a silent greeting. Jordan talks you through the basics that you need to know for your first few days- breakfast at half eight, come dressed for the day, ‘training starts at staggered times depending on the day, you’ll be there taking pictures at different sessions depending on their importance’. It was easy to see why everyone saw him as such a father figure within the group.

“Y/N, my gorgeous girly!” Ben calls over, no shame in the endearing pet name, hand waving in the air to beckon you towards him. Excusing yourself from the company of ‘Hendo’- as he’d told you to call him- a nickname that instantly made you feel closer to him already. Walking over to your best friend, the glimmer in his eyes failing to hide his excitement, bouncing on the balls of his feet with every step closer you took. A second body emerging from behind the corner of the room, approaching the two men. 

“There’s someone I’d like you to meet”

[vinummagicae]

Blue was his favorite color.  

How unoriginal was that? Wasn’t blue everyone’s favorite color at some part in their life? There were so many better colors to pick from if you asked him; emerald green that shone like the jewel, a deep dark purple that almost looked black in certain lighting--

Blue was his favorite color.

The sheets in his apartment were blue, the duvet color on their bed was multi shades of the color as an attempt to give it some dimension. Like he knew what dimension was which was almost ironic considering the man created a living with words and turning them into art on paper. So many times he wanted to sit him down and teach him about actual art and this so-called dimension but it was almost endearing in a sort of way that he fumbled through life picking out things purely because they were his favorite color.

Blue was his favorite color.

His notebooks that he scribbled his next ideas, that he carried around with him everywhere were blue. Even the pens sometimes were that basic blue color that all pens came in as an option of ink. They couldn’t go anywhere without them, something he learned the hard way at a young age. How many panic attacks did he witness just because he didn’t have his notebook near him? At first he thought it was silly, just him being dramatic over a little thing - ha - but soon realized that the writer needed the notebook around him to ease his busy mind. His mind was constantly creating new characters and plot lines for his novels that he needed that small blue notebook on him at all times so he didn’t lose what could be the thing that got him his next paycheck.

Blue was his favorite color.

The shirt he was wearing when he proposed was a soft baby blue. Actually it was denim but Ender let him pretend that he wasn’t stealing the 90’s fashion trend and making it his own. It was cute actually how he declared ‘no Ender it is just a light blue shirt’ whenever he teased him, his cheeks turning this adorable red from the blushing. Though it wasn’t as cute as when he got on one knee and stuttered out to a point it was almost painfully slow, asking if he would marry him. Of course he said yes, he loved that little nerd and made sure to show him just how much he loved him later that night. No he wasn’t crying, thank you very much. He just had something in his eye, that’s all…

Blue was his favorite color, but green was Ender’s.

Okay so green was almost just as unoriginal as blue but he didn’t just like green. Green was boring to explain when asked, so he normally began to describe the first green thing that came to his mind. It’s the same kind of green of the mint that floats in your herbal tea. Or the same kind of green that resembled the grass of a dew-kissed morning when you wake up just before the sun fully rose. The same kind of green that called itself emerald with the way it had its moments of light patches as well as dark ones, never knowing what shade you were going to get until the light just hit it perfectly. It was a color he knew how to describe every time; after all Cole’s eyes were his favorite.

Green was Ender’s favorite color.

It was almost a shame that the only liquor that came in green was midori - is that even really liquor anymore? - or la fée verte. He had his fair share of nights with the green fairy that normally ended up with him curled up on the bathroom floor sweating as the last bits of whatever remained in his stomach threatened to join the rest of it in the toilet. At a young drinking age, he learned that absinthe was one of the rare liquors that could knock him on his ass like that with no memory of the night before. He had a hard tolerance for everything else it seemed, no matter what or how much he drank he couldn’t get to the point of black out drunk like the rest of his so called ‘friends’. That was until he met that wonderful, wonderful green fairy. Everytime he decided to tango with his bottle of absinthe he would wake up on that cold bathroom floor with a hand running through his pitch black curls trying to sooth whatever demons still lingered from the night before. “Why do you keep drinking it? What are you running from?” “...I don’t know”

Green was Ender’s favorite color.

Do you know how hard it was to find green flowers? He didn’t want any Belles of Ireland or anything else that looked like weeds  - though Cockscomb was almost the winner just because of its name alone -  or even carnations that were obviously dyed that fake green. What he wanted was real flowers that were green and that seemed impossible to find. He guessed that was just payback for picking green as his choice of wedding colors but really it was that or more blue and blue flowers were just as impossible to find - they really weren’t but he was just too stubborn to admit to Cole that he was wrong -. In the end they went with gladiolus in a soft pale green that was close to what he was picturing in his mind but still not exact. It went with the ivory decorations that was the other color for their wedding. It was going to look perfect, their wedding was going to be perfect just like their love for each other.

Ivory was supposed to be their color.

It had taken some convincing but eventually once they moved into their apartment, the blue sheets were placed on the guest bed. In their place were ivory ones, satin of course, that Ender ordered off line overseas. He wasn’t exactly sure where but they were expensive and they felt nice on his naked body. It was these same sheets that were caressing his naked skin that night as he lied on his back, head turned to look at the city through their open window. When you were this high up you didn’t have to worry about people looking in while you were having sex, but none of that was happening in their room that night as much as Ender had hoped originally when they got home from their dinner out. “What do you want, En? From us?...From me?” Their wedding was just over a month away, the last details were finally taking place and coming together to create the image they both had in their minds. Well mostly Ender’s, Cole had told him time and time again he would be just happy going down to a courthouse and making it official there; but something stopped him, something was holding him back from giving his fiance what he wanted. He just couldn’t figure out what that was.

When he had asked him the question and slipped that emerald green ring on his finger, he had been overjoyed and almost taken back by the love he had felt in that moment. But after… It wasn’t something he was used to, being loved and it scared him. What if he couldn’t give that love back? What if years down the road Cole realized how fucked up Ender was and tossed him aside like everyone else had in his life. Yet, it wasn’t also just that. Something about the idea of being tied down to one person for so long scared him. The idea that he couldn’t be with someone else ever again, well who the fuck wanted that? These weren’t new thoughts to him, they had been ones that had started creeping up on him when they officially started dating over a year ago after many years of friendship and well now-- “I don’t know anymore…”

Now green was still his favorite color.

Green was Ender’s favorite color but blue, blue was his . It was this reason why Ender reached for the small blue pill that had three little letters on it, SKY, and placed it on his tongue letting the euphoria that came with it. Since coming back from a weekend solo trip to Oslo with the baggy in his pocket, Ender had spent most of his time lying on the bed seeing visions of blue and green over and over again reliving in the past ...just doing anything to see his favorite shade of green once again.

[browniefox]

The Dark And Light Sides Of The Moon 9

Pro No Even’s of @trulymightypotato‘s Royal Expectations

Snow and Gar finally talk it out

Aftermath of learning the truth goes smoother than one may think

oOo

On the bright side, the cut was fairly clean.

Lark’s face was screwed up in pain, sweat spotting his brow. Snow was running his fingers through Lark’s hair, muttering words of comfort. Gar meanwhile did his best to gently pull Lark’s hand off the part of the cut it was covering. It was hard, since by now Lark was doing extra harm as the nails started to pierce his skin.

“Lark, Larkspur, I need you to let go,” Gar knew Lark probably wasn’t paying attention. It was probably the kid’s first real injury that approached anything close to serious. Still, he managed to get not-his son’s hand off the cut and put his own hand over it. Carefully he eased his own magic over the slice, encouraging the flesh to knit back together, closing up at if it had never been opened in the first place, healing over without a mark.

“Lark, bird, you’re okay,” Snow comforted as Lark’s eyes darted over. He may be healed, but the echoes of the pain didn’t fade quite as quickly. Lark moaned and slowly sat up, rubbing his now-healed arm.

“Thanks dad.” Gar stopped breathing at the word. He didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t his to have.

“... you should get some rest.” Gar got up and pushed his way through the crowded grounds.

He should’ve just stayed in his room. Kept away from everybody until they figured out what was going on.

“Garuku,” Gar stopped at Violetscale’s voice. They were staring at him with those long-dead eyes that cut deeply into Gar. “You do know you’ve done nothing wrong.”

Gar didn’t respond to that, simply turned back around and continued on his way. People from the inside smiled at him, waved to him, believing they knew him. Not realizing he was just an imposter. He went back to a room that wasn’t his, sat down on the bed of a stranger, and pulled the medallion out from under his shirt.

At least back at home, he knew where he belonged.

*knock knock knock*

Gar didn’t respond, hoping whoever it was would leave. They didn’t though. The door creaked open and the person Gar wanted to see the least came in. Snow stood awkwardly in the doorway for a moment.

“Thank you for healing Lark.” Snow said after a long moment.

“I just did what any decent person would do.” Gar shrugged off the compliment. Snow didn’t leave though, if anything he came farther in. And farther in. In fact, the door closed and Snow was on the opposite side than Gar wanted him to be on.

He heard Snow draw a deep breath.

“Gar…”

This was it. It had to be. When Snow would finally lay into him about his anger, his disappointment. Gar braced himself for the onslaught of ‘stay out of this’ and ‘you’re not him’, ‘you should’ve have ever gotten the chance to even glimpse what you missed for your mistakes’. At least he’d already heard it all from himself.

“... I’m sorry I failed you.”

Wait what.

Gar finally looked over as Snow, whose face was overflowing with guilt.

“You became a-a demon and were forced to kill, ruined the magic of the Changing Lands when it was the last choice you had, lived longer than anybody should be forced to. And you still managed to turn things around, save the Realms, and where the ever-loving Fuck was I?!” Rage replace the guilt as Snow stared down at the ground, at nothing? “Did, did Soulstealer get me there too? Was I just some useless puppet? Did I die without the death even being able to help my Royal? You must-” Snow swallowed, afraid of the words in his own mouth. “You must hate me?”

“Hate you?” Gar stood up. “Snow, I, what… Snow, I don’t hate you.”

“Then why can’t you stand to look at me?!” Snow shouted, taking a step forward. “Why do you seem like you’re avoiding me?”

“Because YOU hate ME!” Gar shouted back. “I’M the reason L- Lo- Lozul is gone, I’M the reason those kids don’t have their father here, I’M the reason my world was so ruined for years! I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be ruining this more than I already have!”

“I. DON’T. HATE. YOU.” Snow stepped forward enough to grab Gar’s shoulders. They were finally looking each other in the eyes. “I… I’m proud that managed to do what you did. That you held in there… without me.”

“You didn’t die. I tried to save you but I messed up. But you were able to save my daughter, take her to the guardians, keep her safe. You’re the reason I’m human and alive now.”

And they stared at each other. The words shouted bounced around for a long while, and with them a weight felt like it was lifted off of Gar’s shoulder.

“I will find a way to get you home.” Snow promised.

“SNOW, SNOW, SNOW, SNOW,”

A crescendoing shouting drew the two Protector’s attentions, and Snow opened the door, looking out into the hallway.

“Yes?”

“SNOW! Snow, there’s-”

“He looks just like Lo-”

“-alking style was we-

“-ust sort of nodded to me, which only-”

“-estroy the Kingdom!”

“Piya, Crumpler, I can’t understand I word you’re saying.” Two soldiers skidded to a stop before Snow, moments away from bowling him over. Gar perked up at the familiar names.

“Snow, there’s an imposter Lozul walking around.”

“Is there really?” Snow raised an amused eyebrow.

“Oh definitely. I don’t think he knows we’re onto him yet though.”

“Does he look something like this?” Snow waved Gar over, a mischevious grin on his face.

“Hoi!”

“Demon!” One of the guys - he sadly had no idea whether it was Piya or Crumpler - slapped him.

“Crumpler, it’s alright.” Snow tried placate the upset man. “Everything’s okay.”

“Then who the hell is that?” Piya pointed at Gar, hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Just an old friend.”

“This is some magic stuff going on, isn’t it?” Crumpler squinted at Snow, then looked at Gar.

“You got us.” Snow held up his hands in surrender. Crumpler sighed dramatically.

“You two make it so hard to do a good job.”

“At least it’s not as bad as when we were younger.” Snow chuckled.

“When we were younger, we had less to lose.” Piya pointed out. “Now there’s kids to think about, and a definite future instead of just a Hopefully There Is One.”

“Those were the days.” Snow sounded almost wistful. It was easy to romanticize times you’d already lived through.

“Snow!”

Snow sighed and shook his head lightly at the familiar voice. Gar looked down the hall, opposite the way Piya and Crumpler had come, to see Agora.

Limping.

“Agora!” Gar shouted and rand down to them. The young protector looked up at Gar with wide, terrified eyes. They leg was bleeding, as was a slice on their stomach, and their eyes was steadily bruising. “Agora what happened?”

“Edel’s been taken.”

oOo

Despite Snow’s continual reassurance, Lozul didn’t trust Gar.

He just had a thing against a demon - ex or current - being so close to his family.

But, frankly, there was nothing he could do about it. Which was the worst part.

“Lozul, are you ready for today’s meetings?”

Lozul jumped as Molly entered, already dressed for the day. Lozul sighed and put the wolf helmet back over his head.

“I supposed I am.”

Oh, it’s the meeting time of year? Snow floated into view. I haven’t seen those troublemakers in a while.

Molly jumped upon seeing the shade.

“Don’t worry, it’s just my old protector, Snow.”

“How… did you get here?” The queen asked, watching the shade.

Bluescale brought me. Lozul needed an explanation.

“So, then, you know about Gar?” She bit her lip nervously.

“I don’t blame you for keeping it from me.” Lozul quickly said. “But yes, I do know now.”

“I’m sorry, I-I was just trying to do what I thought was best.”

“What’s done is done. Let’s not be late to the meeting.”

The rest of the Nobles were in there. A few had some unsettling grins on their faces. Phil was missing from the beginning. Molly took her place next to Wade, quickly scribbling something on a piece of parchment and pushing it over to her husband. Lozul’s eyes tracked the clump of shadows that was Snow as his deceased protector slipped under the table.

“Good. I was worried about this being dull.” Bluescale was standing against the wall, watching the group with a small, proud smile.

Lozul had to admit, he’d been surprised how… professional everybody was being. Sure, a lot of them were asleep or not paying attention by the end of the day, but nothing completely wild had happened. Perhaps it was because there were so few. When you had 98+ people in a room, there was constantly people getting away with things. Getting away with, as in before things just inevitably devolved into complete and utter chaos.

King Wade started to on about the financial state of the kingdom and and Lozul let himself get distracted by the shadow on the other side of the room creeping up near Protector Kjellberg.

“Snow?” The whisper caught him off guard, and he turned to see Amile also watching Snow’s journey to Felix.

“Is it a bit cold in here?” Felix asked, shivering.

“Oh, must be me.” Bluescale replied and winked at Lozul.

“Hey, what was that wink abo- AARGH!” Felix slammed his head back into the wall in a desperate effort to get as far away from the sudden chilling mass of darkness in front of him.

I’M THE GHOST OF PROTECTORS PAST, HERE TO RETURN YOU TO THE GRAVE WHERE YOU BELONG, Snow bellowed.

“Snow!” JP jumped up, staring at the darkness. “But I thought you were gone.”

I’m just here for a quick spookening. Snow floated to the center of the room.

“Please tell me you’re not actually going to re-kill me.” Felix pleaded, still pressed up against the wall to be as far from the shade as possible.

Don’t worry, it takes too much effort. I’m just here to… chill, for a bit. Carry on please.

He then proceeded to be the biggest distraction of the morning, floating through people, messing with notes, and generally being a nuisance. But it was pretty clear nobody was really focused today anyway. Not much progress was done that morning, and eventually Bluescale left early, apparently not being able to stand statistic for much longer. Not that Lozul blamed her in the slightest. If he wasn’t obligated as a ‘Protector’, he’d be doing something else too.

It was a relief when it the break for lunch came, and everybody basically ran down the dining hall. The first one through the door was the very unfortunate PJ. The second he stepped into the room, a vine whipped down from the ceiling, wrapped around his foot, and returned from whence it came.

“Oh hey PJ, nice to see you hanging around.” Phil’s voice could be heard from the dining hall.

“Great. It’s begun.” Wade stepped to the front of the group, drawing his sword. Dan cursed.

“I should’ve known by how Phil didn’t even try to come to the meetings. I guess I didn’t think he’d be up to doing something on this caliber. JP, where’s your wife when we need her?”

“Stick close to me.” Cry instructed, going up next to Wade. “We can make it through this.” Some lightning crackled around them like a force field. Half of the group stayed outside of the hall, cheering them on. The vines did try to grab them but jerked back upon getting zapped.

“Nice job Cry!” Jess cheered. “Let’s go get some lunch.”

And that was when Cry slipped.

The break in concentration was enough time for the vines to go down and pluck Jess, her Protector, Static, and Wade up to the ceiling. Lozul managed to freeze the two that tried to grab Molly and himself, and Cry started the electric field just in time to avoid the same fate as everybody else coming to Felix, Dan, and him.

“You might want to watch your step.”

Lozul looked up to see Bluescale and Greenscale lounging in vine-swings, Phil grinning down at them.

“PHILLY I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!” Dan shouted upwards.

“We’ve got to keep moving Dan.” Cry said, shuffling forward unsteadily on the ice. “The others are counting on us.”

“Oh he’s going to have it coming to him tonight.” Dan muttered.

Lozul couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled in his chest.

This was just starting to almost feel like home.