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chocoholicannanymous · 3 years

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...As Stupid Does (Teen Wolf) 18/19

AN: As you might have noticed I've updated the chapter count, making this the penultimate post. It is, however, what I consider the last chapter of ...ASD. If you'd like you could read this and have the story (and the series) end now. The last chapter is going to be what I intended for a fifth and final part of the series, but I've decided instead to post it together with this story, I guess as an epilogue of sorts.

(Oh and yes, I'm aware that this chapter is shorter than many of you would prefer. It should, tbh, have been part of last chapter, but that didn't happen. I'm choosing to focus on writing the last bit of this 'verse instead of trying to pad this chapter.)

Part 17, Part 16, Part 15, Part 14, Part 13, Part 12, Part 11, Part 10, Interlude, Part 9, Part 8d, Part 8c, Part 8b, Part 8a, Part 7, Part 6, Part 5,Part 4,Part 3, Part 2, Part 1,Not Stupid, Stupid Is… and pre-verse ficlet I’m Stupid (Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me)…

As Stupid Does

part 3 of the Stupid ‘verse

Stiles knows that so many of the problems between him and Derek (or really, him and everyone) were caused by him not thinking things through. For someone so obsessed with research he's always had a strange way of jumping in feet first, without looking. He's heard it all his life – not stupid, but just doesn't think. It's the adhd, he supposes.

Regardless of why he is that way it's something he's been actively trying to change with Derek, to think before he leaps and to look at things from every angle. He doesn't always succeed, but he tries.

Well. If he's honest with himself he passed the line between thinking things through and over-thinking them a while back.

He's so, so tired of twisting every idea back and forth until it feels worn.

So he leaps again.

Toronto went well, right? It was a huge step in the right direction, days of being together the way Stiles wants. Surely they can have more of that? So the next time they talk he slides in a casual-only-in-the-term-of-he-wants-it-to-be-but-it-truly-isn't-at-all invitation for Derek to celebrate his birthday with him in LaPush, complete with staying in Stiles' cabin.

The lightning-quick “yes” makes him almost float.

Of course, that doesn't last long. The closer his birthday comes, the more Stiles thinks about what it means that he invited Derek to stay with him, about how they're getting closer and how their relationship is progressing, and he panics. Not about being with Derek, or sharing a life with him, or even having sex again (they're not quite there yet, but Stiles know that they will be). Oh no. He panics about being a selfish little shit.

And he does so hard enough to make a pack full of 'wolves sneeze on the regular, and for his dad to start looking worried.

Dr Bianchi agrees to see him on a Sunday, with practically no warning, and Stiles spends half an hour with words pouring out of him.

“Derek finally has his sister back, and a working pack, and I'm making him leave all of that behind because I'm selfish enough to put my desire to never set foot in Beacon Hills again before Derek's, well, everything. All of that because I'm too greedy to let him free.”

Dr Bianchi looks at him, and then does something Stiles has never seen her do before. She laughs. Long and hard, and if he wasn't busy feeling insulted by it he'd be amazed with how her laughter sounds like bells.

Once her laughter ebbs out Dr Bianchi dabs at her eyes to remove some stray mascara or something before looking him straight in the eyes.

“Are you done being silly?”

And now Stiles is really insulted.

“Oh dear. You have reached that stage. Well, let's do an exercise.

“Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing, slow deep breaths. Find your center. Are you there? Good. Now imagine that Derek hadn't found you. Nothing else about his reality changes, except he doesn't find you. So. He doesn't find you, he doesn't come see you, you don't get back together. He's got his pack in Beacon Hills, his legacy land, his family's graves, his uncle and the baby sister he thought was dead for years has returned to him.

“Can you see that? Yes? Then imagine five years from now. Is Derek still the Alpha? Is he still living in Beacon Hills?”

“Hell no.” And oh.

“Why not?”

“Because Beacon Hills might be his legacy, but it's also a constant reminder that he's responsible for that legacy now. Of all that he lost. He hangs on because of that responsibility, that duty to the land and his family's memory and the pack.”

And now that he sees it, that he's been forced to open his eyes and see it, Stiles can't understand how he could have been so blind to how much Derek really shouldn't have stayed in Beacon Hills after Laura's death.

“And once Cora takes over he's got no reason to torture himself by living in the middle of all that.”

In a way, Stiles thinks, Derek's never really stopped living in the burnout ruins of the Hale house. Physically he might be staying at the loft, but mentally, emotionally... Derek's never fully left.

“He would be able to leave, knowing that the responsibility is Cora's, and that unless she calls him for help he would never have to return there. He'd only need to go back for her, and Scott's dependable enough that he could hold the territory for her if she was to go see Derek somewhere else for a while.”

He sees it now, the future that Derek could have had, and it doesn't look so bad. He prefers the one where Derek's with him, of course, but. Derek could have been happy and free from Beacon Hills even if he hadn't found his way to Stiles.

“Exactly. Now, we don't know if Derek would have found the help he needed without your resources, but I like to think someone would have realized what he needed and stepped up.

“But we agree that chances are Derek would still have given up the Alpha spark, handed over the pack and the land to his sister, and moved away. That means you are not in any way stealing that from him. I understand you panicking, but you can't let your fears dictate your truth.

“You told Derek that you couldn't imagine going back to Beacon Hills before you even started dating. He knows exactly why you don't want to live in Beacon Hills, knew it from the beginning, and could weigh his desire to be with you against his desire to be physically close to his sister. And you won. That was his choice.

“Don't disrespect him by trying to claim that choice doesn't mean anything.

“But Stiles? You have called Beacon Hills a hellmouth more than once in my presence. Now I'm fairly sure I'm not breaking any confidentiality clauses when I say that Derek agrees, because he's done so right here in this room with you present. Right?”

Right. He really feels silly now, because Dr Bianchi is 100 percent right. He has sat here – and at home, and in LaPush – and ranted about how hellmouths aren't supposed to be a thing, and yet, Beacon Hills, with Derek all but going “amen” next to him.

“Your feelings regarding that town are completely valid. Your love for Derek doesn't change that. Wanting both the man you love and safety doesn't make you greedy, or selfish. Especially not since Derek also has some very bad memories from that place. We both know that part of why you want him to leave there is because you believe it's better for him. Even if he decided to leave for somewhere not here, not with you, you would still want that for him. So no, you're not being selfish for wanting both of you out of a place that's brought you so much pain and sorrow.”

That...hurts, hearing. Stiles is fully aware of how unreasonable he's being, but he actually felt better thinking he was selfish and practically forcing Derek to move because of it.

“Then why do I feel like a selfish shit? If I'm doing what's best for him, then why doesn't it feel like that?”

Dr Bianchi gives him a small smile.

“Because you want to do the right thing, but you're worried you'll make the wrong choice again. You're scared, and you're vulnerable, and you hate both. Just remember that there's a strength in allowing yourself to feel that way – as long as you don't allow it to rule you.”

Easier said than done, and they both know it, but then and there Stiles recommits to not letting his fears rule him.

O--o---o--O

Stiles' birthday is celebrated without much fanfare. He and his dad eat lunch with the Calls. Derek arrives shortly before dinner, which the pack eats at Sam and Emily's and where the biggest difference between today and any other day is that there's a huge cake. Afterwards they light a bonfire at the beach and just spend time together.

When he opens the door to his future home and lets Derek inside it feels heavy and symbolic and maybe like a true glimpse of the future, and Stiles shivers a little. Derek of course misinterprets him.

“Do you regret offering me to stay here?”

“Of course not! It's just, you know, big.”

His heart's as steady as it's capable of being and Derek nods. If his hands shake a little as he climbs up to the loft, well, he's not going to mention it. Once he's up he turns and calls out softly to Derek.

“Coming?”

Derek's hesitant as he climbs up, uncharacteristically slow, and he's still hesitating as he comes to a stand next to the bed. The single bed.

Yes, it's a queen, but. They haven't shared a bed since before Stiles left Beacon Hills. This is a big step.

“I could shift.”

Stiles doesn't know if Derek means shift and sleep on the floor, or shift and sleep at the foot of the bed, but it doesn't matter. That's not the plan. Sure, he's not averse to a furry bed-companion, especially not on cold nights, but his hormones are fully awake and he's got plans, you know? Bestiality really isn't something he's looking to try, not even considering werewolves – or should that be especially considering werewolves? Never mind, just, nope.

“I'm not saying no to having you curled up and warming my feet on a cold night, but this night? I was hoping for this body.”

He smiles, a little wicked, and pulls his shirt off. His pants follow them to the floor, and then he stretches out across the bed.

“I wouldn't mind you warming me up though.”

It pleases him to see Derek pull his own henley and jeans off without hesitation, and it really pleases him to have Derek join him in bed. Soon every bit of lingering chill has been chased away by werewolf warmth, along with every last bit of fear.

It's been years since he touched Derek like this, but his hands remember as they wander while they kiss. Derek however is a bit more restrained, and Stiles isn't onboard with that. He's made his mind up and he wants this. Derek wanting to be careful with him is nice, yes, but it's hard to decide if it's more sweet or annoying.

(His dick is screaming annoying.)

He's just going to have to take the matter cough into his own hands.

Derek stills.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure. I've had months to be sure. I want this. I want you.” He twists his hand a little, then pauses. Right.

“But if you're not ready, then I'll wait. I don't want this unless we both do.”

Consent is always going to be a sore point for both of them, and while Stiles would prefer a different kind of pillow talk he can deal. He hasn't spent all this time and effort getting over how they were in Beacon Hills just to make the same mistake again, only the other way around.

“I do.”

Stiles loses his breath, staring into Derek's eyes, sucker-punched by those words. Then he practically throws himself at his wolf, hands and mouth and desire.

It's everything good from before, yet somehow nothing like it used to be.

They fall asleep tangled up, sweaty and sated.

Stiles wakes up, afraid that he's going to regret what happened, or that Derek will regret it, or even that Derek will be gone – which is stupid, since he can feel Derek with him, a line of warmth half covering him, but fear is never rational. And then he takes the time to center himself, to feel, and he knows.

This is how he wants to wake up for the rest of his life. Warm, safe, happy.

Things will be hard. He's got another three years left of college. Derek's got another year, at least, of being the Alpha of Beacon Hills. They're not going to have enough time together and there's always going to be the risk of some spectacular shitshow going down. And that's without considering their relationship.

They're going to be messy, and imperfect, and sometimes stupid. They're going to fight, and disagree, and wonder if they made the right choices. They're going to storm out and slam the doors and go to bed furious. But they're also going to be happy and in love and together, and they're going to fight to stay that way.

And that, Stiles thinks, is anything but stupid.

He turns around and burrows into the arms of his 'wolf, at peace.

#chocoholic fics #teen wolf #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #...asd #stupid 'verse #twilight crossover #in 2021 we finish our WIPs

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jess-the-vampire · 4 years

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Sky and the Forces of the Multiverse, Chapter 41

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"LANDON!?".

Landon seemed startled, sure, he was expecting maybe something when holding onto one of the most powerful magical weapons in the world, but this was still shocking to him. No one could've told him this was going to happen to him. He thought he was just going to take the wand for a minute, use it himself so celeste didn't have to, and hand it over when he and sky

both found bernard.

But his cheeks felt...warm?

Was this how his mom felt when their cheekmarks glowed?

His mom.

He was at a loss for words.

Years of feeling inferior to his brothers, and their superior mastery of their demon abilities, their father's.

How could he have never considered the weaker side he got from his mother might of led to this? His mother had markings, his mom used a wand before, he seemed in utter awe of this revelation, something he and no one else considered. Though considering his exposure to pure magic most likely only escalated this on him and made it worse, he reached up to touch his face, but his face felt normal.

But it was still glowing.

His face was glowing.

"Judas...I was just...i wanted to do the spell...the spying spell and find him and...judas what...how..". Judas wasn't even mad, reaching out to touch his brother's face, lost in thought, they had to tell their parents about this one. There was no way they couldn't mention this to them, landon barely knew what to do with this information and they would know better then anyone.

"Landon...I...", judas didn't seem to know what he should say, should he be impressed?

Scared? Should he do something about it right now?

Landon quickly put the violin and bow down on the bed quickly, heading over to a mirror to look at his face, "S-sky...celeste...how do you turn these things off!? You can turn them off right? Please tell me these aren't permanent!?". He was patting his face as if it was somehow a light switch that would just turn his markings off, but of course they stayed as it, glowing pure white as sky's would when performing much more powerful magic.

"Knowing your mom's...they're probably not permanent, but like, if you keep panicking they're not going anywhere, you need to chill and they should die down...".

"What?! What do you mean by that?!".

"Dude, magic and emotions are basically linked, if you keep panicking, you'll just keep them on!", she said, waving her arms, "Take deep breaths or something, don't panic! Once you chill the magic should fade down...hopefully...". It was probably hard for landon to just calm down though, his face was glowing and he had his own magical wand pop up in his hands.

Of course he was panicking.

Any reasonable person would.

Landon tried to calm down, breathing and thinking of words, but the marks had yet to fade, probably because landon wasn't actually calm and was just trying to force it. The boy's mind was not at ease and for now they were just going to have to deal with it as is, the wand was still sitting on the bed, shiny and fantastical. Of course landon would have a violin as a wand.She'd never seen it used by anyone who wasn't in her own family before, not even the one

Queen Lucitor had, so this was a new one for her. What was celeste's blue teardrop gem was now what seemed to be a beautiful ruby, the gold wouldn't really be the first thing sky would think of when it came to "Landon", but then again sometimes wands didn't look exactly like their wielders either.

Even Celeste seemed to like landon's wand more then her own.

Landon was so obsessed over what just happened he nearly forgot why he waned to borrow the wand in the first place, quickly turning to sky again in more panic, "Bernard! We need to find him...I need to...". Only for judas to quickly intersect, "Oh no no, we have our friends and grandpa out looking as is...right now we need to tell mom and dad what just happened...".

"Judas..", sky said, tapping his shoulder, "C'mon, it's his crush and best friend...maybe that takes more priority right now, we can do it right after...and tell them what we found...if we find anything.". Guess she had a point, it was just last time sky used that spell, they did get exposed because of it, then again they also saved angel because of it as well...

He gave in, if only because a life was possibly on the line if they did nothing.

"Alright...I guess you're right, but unless he's in critical danger...we don't go in immediately, we need a plan if he is...just...be careful", landon still seemed highly nervous, no longer confident he could actually use this wand to do anything, in fact he wasn't even sure he wanted to touch it even thought he knew he had to. Celeste sure seemed uncomfortable in giving it to him now.

Sky gripped her own wand, praying it worked and her lessons were paying off.

Now she was teaching others like eclipsa and her mom taught her.

Landon carefully grabbed ahold of his wand, because it wasn't a traditional wand it was hard to say if landon would even follow the same rules sky did, but they didn't have much of a choice here if they wanted to do this, and they didn't have a ton of time to goof off if bernard was in any sort of trouble either. They needed to get themselves together and hope for the best.

"Ok well...hold the wand like this...uh...get a good grip on it, point it away from you...please...", landon stared and tried to adjust his wand, not really sure which way the magic would be shooting from considering it's shape. This was probably not the spell he would learn first on a regular day but it would have to be the first one for this case, though celeste looked about ready to take her wand back and just suck it up and do it herself.

"Ok, just repeat after me...and just...concentrate on what you're looking for...you need to focus...we might not get it right away...", landon nervously nodded, "Sure uh...i'll try...". He better try, if he didn't they might end up looking somewhere else entirely and be entirely off track, though him being her partner in this only made sky more nervous.

Sure, others had done it fine before but-

Luna, was a professional.

Her mom, was a professional.

Eclipsa, well eclipsa made the spell, so yeah.

They just, well they had to be careful.

"Ok...follow my words on this...", Sky coughed, nervously eyeing landon, "I summon the All-Seeing Eye...To tear a hole into the sky... Reveal to me that which is hidden...Unveil to me what is forbidden." Landon attempted to speak the same words as she did but he clearly fumbled a few of them, resulting in a spark from sky's wand, a tiny hole appearing before vanishing...and a spark only from the demon's new wand.

"Sorry...", landon quickly started saying the spell under his breath to remember it, "I'll try again, i'm ready...". Celeste looked nervous nearby, it was a bad idea to let landon do this wasn't it? Not that she would be much better with this spell, but still, this was a rough spell to make landon do when he was panicking and not sure even what he was doing was good or not.

It was just more stress on top of stress.

"I summon the All-Seeing Eye...", both parties started off, slow, giving the other more time.

"To tear a hole into the sky... ", their wands started to spark, small glow coming from both.

"Reveal to me that which is hidden...", their eyes were shut tight, gripping for impact.

"Unveil to me what is forbidden!".

A reaction, both wands forming eyes, a purple portal opening before them and-It closes, it's shape vanishing from where it was and leaving the users again in the dust.

Again, they have to keep trying.

But the next try failed, and so did the next, the portal vanishing over and over.

However, it did seem to be getting better, small improvements, but they weren't fully getting it right, and even so...sky was doing better then landon.

They didn't have time for this, they needed to get it right.

He knew he was just starting out on magic he barely knew much about but he was quickly starting to feel just as useless as he did before, only he could possibly discover something about himself he hadn't known before and then proceed to screw it up when he needed it. He wasn't good before, of course he wouldn't be good now? What had he even expected?

His anxiety was quickly effecting his magic, and everyone in the room could tell.

This was a bad idea, and faint green light from his wand was a clear sign of it.

Landon was about to give up until celeste grabbed his shoulder from behind, "Do it again...c'mon, your boyfriend needs you right? If he's in danger you can't give up and sit here...dude just...have confidence in yourself. You did a bunch of dumb stuff but you can get better...don't give up, this is not the time for your to chicken out on doing something you care about...".

She was right, he was already giving up, and as sky started to raise her wand to do it again he started already chanting the spell again, sky being the one to try and quickly follow. Landon still wasn't good but it seemed having celeste helping him helped boost the power, a faint glow around the both of them to help make landon's attempt at a spell more powerful.

And this time, the portal finally stayed, sky in utter relief.

The portal however, showed very little, in fact it was too dark to see anything.

At the very least it ruled out a few options of where the human was.

"Bernard?", landon got closer to the portal before being pulled back by celeste, "Don't get close to it...you might as well be trying to die, we know that thing can at the very least see these spying portals...so if they break through we're out of serious luck". Landon backed off,

"So wait...he can't hear any of us through this thing?", and everyone shook their heads.

"The whole "Spying" thing is kinda pointless if the person being spied on can see a giant spying portal in front of them, that was why it was a shock when she tried to break it before...she shouldn't see it", landon looked at the dark portal more skeptically, if bernard was in there he wouldn't have any idea anyone was even looking at him. Or maybe they got it completely wrong and weren't tracking him much at all.

After last time, that masked person was sure to have put extra measures up so they never spied on them again.

"Well, now what? should we just-".

That's when the door finally opened, a spider prince and half-slime princess returning with a pile of snacks, accompanied by a server who had some on a small table. Clearly they had expected to come back to everyone as they were, quiet and waiting, but with landon...how he was, everyone up and freaked, and well y'know...the giant portal sitting in the center.

And judas worked fast.

The two were pulled in with the table and the worked was shut out, with a quick "Thanks" from the demon prince as the bewildered royals nearly dropped the goods they were carrying on them. The food was put down as the two royals took in the scene before them, their faces had entirely dropped, and though they were looking at the portal, landon was definitely more of interest right now.

They were just...staring at him.

"So...landon wanted to find bernard...and well...yeah", sky said, rubbing her hands together,

"Look...we're all a little freaked out right now, ok?". Angel was quick to come close, all his eyes directly on the glowing cheekmarks, "Wait...he can do that? I mean sure, i've seen Queen Lucitor with them despite being human...i've never seen them on well...a monster before...".Considering meteora had them, and no one in this room had seen her, yeah, this would be everyone's first occurrence seeing this on a monster.

"They're not permanent...I think...", sky tapped her chin, "Queen Lucitor's aren't...but when you use butterfly magic or maybe get a little emotional, they'll act up...mom always told me they were more of y'know...a tracing of a mark since you guys aren't really mewman...but still marks anyway. But yeah, guess landon's gonna be getting used to this...".

Landon felt his face, "I have marks, i used a wand...and I did magic...".

"How did it feel...?".

Landon paused.

"Weird...but...I guess not...terrible either...".

Nora approached the portal, curious, though there wasn't much to see.

"Nothing?".

"Nothing...it seems".

Angel took a look at the portal next, contemplating what he was looking at, his ears flickering. "Well, I think you mentioned before last time you tried something like this a counter spell was used...right? To make sure you couldn't see what you were looking for...so...I guess it figures they'd be using one now. I'm not exactly an expert on your magic but well...that seems to be the case". He was right, they weren't stupid, whoever they were, of course they had protection up just to be safe.

"Yeah, but how do we counter a counter spell?!", sky asked, frustrated, "Even luna had no idea how to really fix this thing, not that he had a chance before they tried to break through, so what we were supposed to do about it?". Luna sure wasn't here to help them either, so it was all up to them to figure out something soon if they wanted to know what was being blocked from their eyes.

But what?

Judas came closer to the portal, thinking carefully before taking out the charm he had gotten from luna. This was possibly not going to work, he didn't exactly know what would happen, but it was at least worth trying just to text. At worst it didn't work and they had to try something else entirely, he hesitated before reaching out his hand to touch the strange portal.

he felt a strange stinging sensation as a finger touched the portal and he felt as if his arm would trigger from the sensation, thought upon closer look it did seem the mere touch of his finger left a small see through hole in the counter spell. Judas was purely experimenting but he actually felt impressed with himself, and so did sky who nodded with approval.

"Huh...nice thinking, guess it wasn't all bad you saw luna today...".

He clutched his arm, "Well, if this actually works, I-I can try to open up a bigger hole in this spell and we could try and peek inside and see what's happening, but...we'd need to be fast...it's not exactly the best feeling...". There seemed to be an agreement on this as the right solution, and judas looked to landon before looking back at the portal awaiting him.

He kinda wondered if maybe he should hand it to someone else, especially if this could trigger his arm into a reaction.

But he felt himself push that out of his mind, was he an idiot? Someone's life could be in danger here.

He gritted his teeth and went in, if he had to deal with the arm because of this, it would have to be a risk he was willing to take.

He pressed his palm flat against the portal, the stinging remaining as he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. Sky and Landon were the ones to approach to get a quick peek inside, the sooner they did the sooner judas could get off before he couldn't anymore. Inside of the growing hole in the blockage they could finally get a view of whatever it was they wanted to hide.

Before their eyes they could spot stone walls, rather old ones by the look of it, the room itself was not very defined and seemed to be small.

But that's not what mattered, because their eyes quickly too attention to the main event.In the center of the small room, annoyed and lost in thought, was a very familiar pierced, sweater wearing human.

Bernard was playing with what looked like cuffs around his arms and legs, and landon only stared at him, not sure how to react his expression was quickly twisted into one of serious anger, though upon closer inspection he seemed to also be crying. He was going through so many emotions at once and as judas removed his hand from the portal he had to pull landon away from the portal.

But not before sky snapped pics with her compact of the scene.

"Landon...are you-?!".

"WHERE WAS THAT!? I'm gonna CRUSH THEM!".

His eyes were glowing in anger, flames around him explosively that everyone had to stand back from his outburst. This was the maddest anyone had ever seen landon, and with his marks it looked like he might combust. Judas rubbed his arm before quickly trying to calm his younger brother down with a hug, pulling him into a tight embrace before his anger got the best of him.

"JUDAS LET GO OF ME! I NEED TO- I-I need to..." back to tears, as his eyes stopped glowing and he was crying into judas's shoulder, where were they supposed to go now? That barely told them anything about his location! Bernard being locked up anywhere really tugged at landon's heart, just thinking about how long he might've been in there, was he even eating?

What if he was hurt or-?

Sky's compact buzzed, she quickly pulled it out and her blue eyes widened.

"Hey uh...sunny texted me...they know as well...", sky gritted her teeth, "He was taken to be held ransom...".

"Held ransom for what?".

"They want a wand...".

Angel stiffened, considering how in the dark he had been about Her's plans, hearing this must've been making him rethink a lot of things. Though considering how much they seemed to thought they had targeted a rather powerful item in the underworld, and how loki had gone for celeste's own wand awhile ago, there did seem to be a high interest in magical weapons for whoever this was.

"Why? Aren't they powerful enough without one?", celeste grumbled, "They never needed one to do magic before...what could they possibly need the wand for?".

That...was a good question actually.

They clearly had shown to be rather powerful magically, whoever they were, they had no need for a wand to do spells, so what was the point in even having a wand at all? Most of anyone who wanted the wad simply wanted magic and to perform magic, something most beginners needed a wand for. There was little benefit to owning a wand unless you wanted to become powerful with magic.

Guess for the time being however, that didn't matter, what mattered was they wanted the wand for the boy.

And no one in their right mind wanted bernard in danger, or for this person to have an all powerful wand in their possession. This all seemed to be familiar to sky, her mother told her story once about giving up her wand for queen lucitor once, who had also been kidnapped and held ransom for a wand. Her mother had chosen her friend over the wand, a bold move, but if possible they wanted Bernard back and the wand.

Besides, sky might need her wand to bring her sisters home.

It would be no use with someone else.

But what could they do?

Well one thing was clear.

"C'mon, we need our parents...now...".-The removal of the bugs sent the couple out of control, they talked over each other, were constantly panicking and asking questions, and overall all their emotions were let out to everyone. The diazes had no idea what had been happening, so even they needed to be a bit filled in on what they were missing. This had gotten chaotic rather fast and now they were overwhelmed by bernard's family.

Though their reaction was fair.

Dave would be the same if tom was kidnapped like that.

Sunny was texting sky and carefully slipped her compact to her grandpa, sky had sent them the pic which he carefully kept away from the distressed parents.

They didn't need to see that, they were under enough stress.

"Tell sky to talk to tom and marco...we should stay here...just in case that thing notices we destroyed those bugs and come back...", the parents were in danger too and leaving them here alone was out of the question. Though as sunny texted dave whispered to her, "for the record, I'm impressed with your skills finding those bugs, well done back there..".

"Well...it's something you and papa taught me back home...I'm good with this stuff...".

"I can tell, and I appreciate it...".

Sunny beamed.

"And mason...?", he turned to look at his grandson. "Despite what happened earlier...thank you for helping out too in this..". He reached over and fluffed his grandson's hair, "You did good...thanks mason.". Mason seemed actually rather flattered, even if what he did to help was small at best. At least this time around he didn't get caught and make things worse.

"What are we going to do?", he asked innocently, Curious what their plan even was at this point.

"Well, we're just going to stay back for now, keep them protected, sometimes the best thing you can do is put it in other's more capable hands.", he sat back and watched the couple talk to the diazes, "Marco and Tom are experts on going out on missions, if they can figure out what to do i think they can handle this well...". His attention turned to bernard's family, tapping his fingers.

They turned to him, still incredibly uncomfortable and anxious as any couple would be under these circumstances. But at the very least they were talking and giving them some sort of assistance instead of pretending there was nothing wrong while obviously acting like something was probably wrong. The former king of demon still lined with more questions about the kidnapping.

"So...question, this was all done for the sake of ransom...correct? We never received a ransom before this point so i was curious about how they thought we'd hear about this?". The couple exchanged looks, "Well, with your grandson and our son being friends they thought we'd tell you... or he would find out, but well...we never were sure how to get in contact with you...I think they assumed we all in really good contact".

Dave pointed to the diazes.

"Oh...right, that might've worked...we were well...a little panicked at bernard being taken by a magic flying doll...sorry.", they shrugged their shoulders sheepishly, "Bernard...tells us stories sometimes about well...landon, but we never thought this would well...lead to something like this. Granted, him going to a demon realm probably wasn't rather safe to begin with."

"It's a bit safer then it used to be...", the old king quickly added in, "My kid in law really knows a lot about making things safe i'll tell you that. Bernard was safe being there...but unfortunately it seems someone took notice of him.". Honestly after this they were lucky if Bernard would be allowed back on mewni considering how going to mewni led to him being kidnapped.

The man couldn't even completely defend his own kingdom, he nearly died several times down there, some of which were doing rather simple tasks.

But it HAD improved, and it didn't seem they were the direct cause of this situation themselves, bernard seemed to have just been unlucky as the captive for this. He however, had not been harmed by the looks of it so at least he was still better off then what had happened to angel, though they were on a time crunch and who knows what would happen if they didn't act now.

No one wanted t think on that.

"How can we guarantee his safety?", Mrs Lydia nervously twiddled her thumbs, "We don't know anything about your...weird world how do we know he'll be back in one piece.".

There was really no easy way to say it honestly.

We can't", the man said plainly, "But...honestly if we don't get him back safe and sound I don't think landon will ever forgive us, and that's enough for my family to make sure of it.".

They didn't seem to know how to react to that, but they didn't have much of a choice but to trust in them for the time being. Lydia let out a weak laugh, "Bernard used to hide chocolate bars around the house...since we weren't fond of him having sweets...I remember cleaning his room to find one hidden in a show box...he's such a smart boy...though strange.".

"I see you miss him.".

"Any sane parent would...I just wish we hadn't fought before the kidnapping...".

"You had a fight?", that seemed to make everyone pause for a moment, as if wondering if something more had happened during this whole thing.

The couple exchanged looks, "We aren't big on his well...magic thing, we don't find it practical, he's always been upset about it with us.". The mention of it seemed to get sunny's attention, who frowned and bit her lips. "You mean you don't support his hobbies? But he's really passionate about them! Why wouldn't you support something that makes him happy?!".

"Well...it's just not practical as a career...few make it and he could work on something else...prepare for something more...helpful for his future".

They said it so casually and it really seemed to bother sunny in particular, not that it didn't bother the others, even the smiley diazes were feeling the tension in the room from that comment. The couple seemed to have noticed they hit a nerve with the people who were here to protect them and seemed to fall silent, no one in this room knew Bernard that closely but they did know his magic seemed to make him happy.

"I'm a prince...", mason said, his legs swigging off the side of the couch," I like to garden...I know I'm not built to garden and I know being a prince gives me an advantage, but...being able to garden just means a lot to me...it makes me happy. Bernard has magic, magic makes him happy, why don't you want to do anything that makes him happy?".

"Well it's not that-".

"Pardon me Mrs Bonderio", The diazes finally spoke up, Angie raising her hand, "But whether or not your son makes it as a performer, if he decides he doesn't want to do that, maybe it's best for him to figure that out himself instead of picking that for him? Raf here paints for a living and I do lectures, they're not the kinda jobs you would expect typically but they made us rather happy anyway...sometimes the best jobs for us are not the ones people first think of".

"If you ask me...", dave interjected, "I think bernard would prefer to come home somewhere he could enjoy what he enjoys...i'm sure he knows he's loved but...supporting your child is just as important...I promise you that.".

They didn't say a word, though Mr Bonderio said less then his wife, preferring to let her speak.

Must be a rather quiet man.

"We'll find your son, but I think you all have some stuff to talk about once you reconnect.".-

Tom and Marco were handing some meetings in tom's office, signing some paperwork when judas came in, the demons they were talking to leaving and shooting the prince glances as they headed out. Honestly it was embarrassing to interrupt his parents like this, but it was for important reasons, so there was no time to waste anyway. They had to get this done now before things got worse.

"Judas! Alright, what happened?".

Judas shuddered, "It's a long story but...don't freak...ok?".

They shot him confused looks as judas motioned for landon to come inside, accompanied by celeste and sky.

Wand and marks in full center.

The reactions between the two were mixed.

Both started in shock, as anyone would, marco pressing a hand to their lips as they processed what they were both seeing. Landon felt so uncomfortable, he wasn't sure what his parents were supposed to think about this, his dad was already upset about what happened to judas when he was created. How was he supposed to process landon having cheekmarks?

Marco walked over first, reaching out to touch landon's face, their marks lighting up immediately at the meer touch.

Then they began to cry.

But their face had warped into a smile before landon was crushed in a hug.

"They're beautiful...".

Landon was frozen stiff, not sure how to react to that.

"Oh landon...you performed magic!? I'm so impressed! What spell did you learn?", the boy seemed rather overwhelmed, stumbling on his words, red faced. "Uh..well...I um, I wanted to find bernard and-". Marco looked at him dead in the eyes, "The all seeing eye...that was the first spell I ever tried as well, you...did the all seeing eye too?! To find bernard? Landon that was both irresponsible...but...also rather impressive".

"You're not mad?", he said, eyes shifting.

"Mad that you discovered something about yourself through the love you have for someone you care about? Well, we'd be hypocrites to be mad about that...at least you didn't do anything super dangerous...". They ushered tom to come forward, and tom was still gawking at the sight in front of him, the purple and pink demon coming closer and looking carefully at the boy's marks.

"You're so much more like marco...I...wow...".

Landon was crushed from a group hug with his parents, judas's face twisting into a smile behind him at the sweet scene before him. He knew their parents couldn't ever be mad at landon for this happening, but landon had every reason to be anxious about it and to feel anxious about it. As his parents gushed about landon's cheekmarks, judas coughed to get their attention.

They had other matters to get to.

Judas held out his compact, the picture sky took and sent to the other plain in view for the couple to see, tom immediately taking it from his hands, "Y'know, normally I might get mad you did this without saying a word but...if this saves his life...I can't get too mad...just tell us next time." He took the compact from him as marco further looked over landon.

Tom rushing to get in contact with star to further identify this location.

"I'm sure you feel a little strange...", the human mumbled, thumbs tracing over the markings,

"Don't worry, you'll get used to them...they're not permanent anyway." As if to demonstrate, marco's own moon marks vanished, only making landon more embarrassed, "I-I can't seem to turn them off...I think i'm panicking so much I can't seem to control them at all-".

"It's ok, this whole thing is kinda freaky...take it easy...ok? Don't stress out. We'll handle this".

"You sure you're ok?".

"Landon, we love you now matter what...all your imperfections, all your weird quirks...you don't have to be afraid about dealing with this alone or being a freak...your are important to us and we aren't gonna get mad at you for something like this. You look fantastic and we'll help work through it so it doesn't feel nearly as scary...you got it?", they waited for landon's answer.

His shoulders relaxed, nodding.

"Yeah star, come over as soon as possible, if we can identify the stones we might know where he's being kept...but the sooner the better, call your mother if you have to, we need to act fast.". Landon was torn between his emotions about his marks and his emotions about his crush and best friend being in danger, he was a mess of anger, sadness, and anxiety.

Judas could tell too, his arm still in a bit of pain, and he was trying hard to keep it from getting any worse.

His brother was in no emotional state to go anywhere right now, and he probably wasn't either.

Marco ushered them all out of the office for now, surprised to see celeste sitting outside of the door, next to sky who was still holding her own wand. They were eating from one of the trays angel and nora brought them, angel and nora next to sky and also eating, startled by marco's sudden entrance. It didn't take long for marco to put two and two together when they say sky with her own magical weapon.

"He's using your wand...isn't he?", they asked celeste, who didn't look at them, but nodded.

"Landon, maybe you should give it back to her...for now...", Landoned stared at his wand and bow before handing it over to his half sister, the girl taking it from him as they transformed back into her red, blue and gold rainmaker wand in a flash. Landon's cheekmarks finally fading down without the wand under his control, though with his emotions right now, they could easily come back.

But his mom being here did seem to help.

Angel reached out, offering landon a roll, the boy taking it and biting into it.

All they could do was wait for now.

Star was quick to send guards out almost everywhere she could after seeing that picture, though tom had to tell her to minimized most of them, considering whoever kidnapped the boy could catch on and either hurt him or go somewhere else. This was their opening to find him and they could easily lose it if they knew what was happening and for all they knew they had ears in many other locations.

They needed an idea where to look and they needed to go there without looking suspicious.

With jackie gone, Kelly was already here to help out, right next to katrina.

They were already both giving out plans of action and marking off locations they knew were not this one.

But considering how big mewni was, this didn't help as much as they liked, there was no reason to believe bernard was still even on mewni and not in an entirely different dimension.

"Maybe our best approach is lucy...even if she is a well...rather large and easy to spot dog...", tom scratched the back of his neck, "Or we wait till the ransom arrives and have her come to us while the rescue happens...without a clear idea where he is a rescue is going to be even more tricky...maybe if had had something on him that maybe we could track...".

"His cell phone!", marco said suddenly, "Maybe he still has that! We could use that to go and find his location!".

"Marco, he has a human cell phone! It's not like a compa-".

"Landon provided his number, if we have his number, we can find his phone...", Star looked outright surprised, guess there were still things about human tech she still didn't know anything about. Tom on the other hand, well aside from being impressed marco could hear him mumbled under his breath a little, "Well...that's a little bit creepy...actually...maybe more then a little...".

"I'll go get this sorted out...we'll meet back here with a plan...guess we'll be skipping on dinner tonight...Tom, get your mom, star you outta find eclipsa and janna, kelly and katrina? See if you can get ahold of jackie. "., marco raced out of the office and the group disbanded for now, all with a mission on their hands and no time to goof off. The kids all watching them pass by.

They didn't even protest at not being in the meeting.

They were tired enough as is.

Judas himself was trying to go back to sleep, clutching his arm, though even sky could notice his arm was acting funny, like it was trying to shift but resisting heavily. It probably was not making it any easier for her best friend to get any rest. Honestly after doing that she probably owed him quite a lot, even if he did it not expecting anything in return.

Angel was sharing food with her, everyone back to sitting around and talking and contemplating everything happening.

Especially landon.

If Sky could read his mind right now she was sure it'd be full of anxiety and tons of overwhelming thoughts, he was mostly staring at the floor. His parents probably wanted to spend time with him in his time of need but with bernard at risk they were just going to have to leave him with his brother and his friends, there must've been something strange about going through your life seeing yourself as unremarkable.

Only to find through your mistakes you were more special then you knew.

But landon didn't seem...happy about it, anyone might of found having secret powers exciting.

He wasn't sure what to make of them.

Was he happy? Terrified? Sad? Angry?

There was so much to think about now, more then ever.

And the thoughts of bernard in trouble were only making those new emotions more complicated.

He was hugging his body and squeezing his shoulders, wishing he had confessed before this all went down just in case he never got the chance to confess. If Bernard was brought back he HAD to confess, after he rested, well...after everyone rested. He might never get a chance and his parents might never let him see landon again after this entire thing and-

"Landon...for the record...what you did back there was pretty cool."

Sky offered him a donut, the demon taking it without looking much at her.

"I had help...", he was quick to dissmis exactly what he did it seemed, kinda reminded sky of herself a little.

"Still...pretty cool for a first spell...".

"Thanks...", he said, though his voice was still on the downer side, sky had dealt with landon for years, his bitter attitude and grumpiness were common to her. Though she really had no idea how to deal with it, sitting there and twiddling her fingers. She kinda wanted to cheer him up, something she usually never did but felt inclined to considering how upset he was but she didn't know how.

"Hey...um...landon...I know this whole things is sorta...freaky...I...got mad when angel was well...almost killed...I went off the edge too...wanted to hurt her for what she did.", landon eyed her, wondering where exactly this was going, "So I just...while you're dealing with these new...emotions and stuff...just...be careful...i'm not a demon but...I know magic can get out of hand if you're not careful...".

"We both should want to crush her...", he added, "Does it matter if they're hurting someone we care about?".

"I dunno...but like...when you start hurting people with green magic around here, they tend to make you out as the bad guy...not to mention when magic goes green...well...anything can happen...you don't think I wanted to break the chandelier right?". Landon went quiet at that, he clearly knew internally sky probably didn't, though what if she did?

What if she did and didn't know she did? Had some sort of urge to hurt someone but was unable to really control it before it got out of hand?

"Look, it's just...magic is complicated...and you know less then I do about it...if you ever use that wand again...just...be careful...you don't wanna attract the wrong kinda attention...", though the demon crossed his arms, eating his snack, "Not like I get much attention anyway...right now I just want to save him, that's it...that's all I care about...I want him to be ok...".

"I'm sure he's thinking about you throughout all this...".

"Knowing him...he's not scared...well...not showing he's scared...but he's thinking of some way out of it...", something about that seemed to almost make the demon smile, a faint redness on his face, "He'd never just sit there and let his happen...he'd want to figure out an escape plan himself...like any magician would. Though he'd have to improvise.".

"You think he is?".

"I know he is.".

He sat back and kept eating, "I-I...I'm going to tell him...".

"What."

"I'm going to confess...as soon as he gets back.".

She looked at him like he was crazy, probably because she thought he was, "Not sure after a kidnapping the first thing he wants to hear is a love confession from his best friend there bud...". She didn't meant that to sound rude or anything, it just did baffle her that he intended to do this after bernard hopefully survived a kidnapped and dangerous rescue.

I'd be like her telling nora she was in love with her right after saving her from where she was locked up while her parents were still missing.

There were times where it was best left secret for the time being, even if she admired his boldness here.

Did landon even seem sure he was ready?

He'd never confessed to anyone before, and this was a big moment for him in general. His hands seemed to be shaking and sky only could scratch her neck as a response, "Just uh...be careful...". She left the boy to her own devices only to find angel was staring at her, quickly turning his head, embarrassed to have been caught eavesdropping as his ears pressed to his face.

"Uh...sorry...".

"You heard your name and got curious didn't you?".

He turned redder, "Y-yeah...sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation...".But sky simply shrugged, "Whatever, it's fine, I could talk if you want...like maybe how you and nora seem to be getting close...". Angel stiffened in his seat, his legs twitching a little,

"Oh? Uh...yeah...I guess we are...working with you guys has just uh...kinda brought us together...she admires you both and I went from fighting you to getting along with you so...we've become friends because of you...".

"Well, I think it's great".

"You do?".

"Hey, seeing you and nora go from no friends to a ton of friends is nothing to scoff at...trust me...", she leaned back against the wall, "A lot has changed since we were fighting...don't think we'll ever be the same after all this is over...". She was right about that for sure, no one would get out of this the same as ever, it was far too large to really do that.

"I um...I'm sorry we never became friends before this point...I would've liked being friends for much longer...", he seemed to still have some regrets only for sky to pat his shoulder, "Best not to worry about it too much, judas regrets a lot just as much...now that we are friends, better that you make the most out of it instead of think about what could've been...maybe we needed to fight to learn something or another...".

"You think so?".

"Judas told me his parents were originally enemies, now judas fussing about how lovey dovey they get every time they're in the same room together. Like they're first date was literally his dad tricking his mom into helping him win a badge or something and then that led to them somehow singing to each other? Anyway point is, well...I kinda felt like a total jerk to you...".

"Yeah well...so did I...".

She found herself laughing to herself, "Yeah and y'know...i'm really glad we're not doing that anymore...fighting like that. I'm actually really happy that we're well...friends...it's weird to say but...I like working with you...". Angel smiled softly, he liked hearing that honestly, "Yeah It's a bit...odd...all things considered but...I do prefer this over you and judas pining me down...".

"Eh we can still pin you down, just...not from fighting like that...", she joked, "Yeah...it's well...I'm sorry If i ever...said anything mean or stuff...before...I don't...want to be like that...not again. Maybe it was justified to be upset about my mom and that you were attacking others...but I just mean...I'm sorry if I ever went too far, you shouldn't have to be the only one to apologize for all that...".

"That's...really nice of you...", he clutched his knees against his chest, "Thank you.".

"Y'know, with eclipsa teaching us magic and landon now having well...THAT...maybe we could sorta teach him or something? Together, i mean you're magic isn't the same as butterfly magic but y'know...you learned a lot about it with me...so...maybe we both can help him out.

I mean, if mom is gonna be busy and eclipsa well...yeah...maybe keeping landon from using the magic he has badly might be a good idea...".

He seemed to like that idea, though sky got a sneaking suspicion he was a little worried about it.

She had used it badly too after all, not all on purpose.

It was a nice thought, but how could she teach someone something she didn't even fully know how to do? She'd have to think more on it, she just knew looking at landon himself, that if they weren't careful, landon could abuse the new power he's discovered. Her mother could also do it, but better to be around her in her eyes then her mom at this point.

At the very least, everyone HAD to keep an eye on landon from this point forward.

"I think bernard will make it...", sky mumbled.

"How come?".

"Galexia has a drawing of um...a hug...everyone is in it...including him so...he has to make it...I hope.".

Angel was silent at that, but a nod from him said he trusted her on that, even though he knew as well as she did by now that not all of lexi's drawings would come true or not into the world. In her own eyes though, there was no reason to hurt bernard, the masked being only attacked angel because he planned to expose them and tried to attack her.

So they didn't hurt just to hurt.

If bernard didn't do something stupid, which from all her encounters with him told her he usually didn't...no harm should come to him.

But then again, she couldn't promise that,

What she could promise was everyone here would be here for landon no matter what throughout this, there was no way even his parents could kick him from helping out now . He was in too deep, and he was much too important to be neglected. Even angel seemed nervous around landon, knowing the pain of a loved one being in danger and feeling helpless all too well at this point.

Judas slept nearby, grasping his arm in his rest.

At least he was getting rest at all right now, though the way it was acting put sky in worry, she still had the device to zap him if needed, she still had her tazer, but would that do anything? If that portal situation told them anything, pain only provoked it, it didn't send it back. Angel and Nora looked just as concerned about the arm, the necklace clearly wasn't doing much to affect it.

It seemed to be hard as is to keep it from coming out by force at the moment.

Though the shifts in purple and the fingers unfusing and fusing together was not pleasant to look at, in fact it was shocking judas could sleep with it happening, unless it wasn't as painful as it looked. Though as Sky looked it it, it almost seemed to move in line with judas himself, not entirely, but it did make her wonder a little. She'd never seen judas force back a transformation before.

Curious.

Though soon enough, the adults started to return, the most important and first being marco themselves.

"I HAVE IT!", quickly heading inside the office, Tom following them behind soon after, ushering the kids inside to update them. Judas had been awoken by his mother's loud excited boasting anyway. The Queen quickly put the phone out for everyone to see, and sure enough, it had marked a location for bernard's phone. "I might've went to the compact store and had them track it down...compacts and cell phones connect after all...he seems to be...in the musty mountains somewhere.".

The news seemed to bring some light into landon, but also some fury.

"So...what now?".

"Well, star's already sent some spies over there...when they find his exact location, we go in for the attack.".-

Marco smirked as his mask magically appeared on his face, his eyes glowing and his mask ready for action.

Tom already getting dressed up in a cloak to better hide his face.

Star in armor under her own cloak.

And Janna...well janna was already wearing a cloak before they even told her what was happening.

Today they were going to save a child, and maybe catch a criminal.

And the kids?

Left behind, as they expected they would be.

Left in worry and in anticipation.

They trusted their family would be fine, it was more, well...what if they were walking into a trap or something? Or maybe she was one step ahead of them if they had figured out her location? It was always scary when your parents went out, cause sometimes you never knew if they'd come back. The kids left to their imaginations at what the adults were up to.

And as they were stuck there, their parents were already walking through the musty mountains, following marco's tracker closely and hiding themselves as much as possible. This was far from their first rescue mission, would unlikely ever be the last, though it was tense each and every time. They were tough fighters but they'd had their fair share of defeats as well.

And they were almost going into deep waters on this one.

There was a sense of dread, unsure of what they were to find when they found the boy, they knew he was unharmed, sure. But even if she weren't there waiting for them no doubt it would be full of traps just in case someone like them found their way or the boy himself attempted to escape. They were all on caution, well, everyone except for janna it seemed.Janna was cautious, but she was always loving every minute of this.The musty mountain town was quiet, they were more eventful with their underground mountain city then on the outs in most cases. Making this town in general incredibly scarce in people. It was hard to say where bernard was, he could be in any of these buildings, but he could also be buried deep underground in a hidden cell. There was no way to be sure without more investigation.

Their spies pinpointed them here, but while they were out to make sure no one escaped and look out for further info, it was time the royals stepped in to get into the action.

"We might have to split up...", Tom acknowledged, "You and janna? Me and Marco?".

Only for janna to snicker, "Really? If we let you two go together you won't be able to keep your hands off of each other.". Tom blushed and Marco patted their back, Yeah, but i'm not going with you because you can't seem to keep your hands off me now can you?". They looked to Tom and the idea of working with Janna didn't seem to please him too much either.

"Actually, let's just go with the first option...", star piped in, "I have better control over janna then you guys anyway, just stay focused on the job, we gotta hunt for the juicier details". Marco rolled his eyes, he and tom could focus on the job if a boy's life was in danger, they weren't that love struck. As long as star and janna didn't get into too many hijinks.

Which always happened with them, no matter who they were working with.

They split off, one team going one way and the other team going another.

They knew from the tracker they were close, but a tracker could only do so much unless they knew where the phone itself was.

And they didn't.

Tom almost felt relived seeing the woman head off, the less pressure on him during all this the better. He didn't need star or janna judging how he and marco handled things like this, hopefully both of them could come back with joined info of the next step. Tom turned to his partner and sighed, "So...where should we start? Got any good ideas fof where someone with a murder boner for spider teens would hide someone?".

"Honestly maybe the best thing we can do is ask some locals, see if they've noticed anything strange".

"How do we know none of them are working for...you know who?".

"Well tom, the glowing eyes might be a dead giveaway, though last we heard from angel he was the only one who did it willingly.", there was a chance there was more and angel never met them but still. Granted, with how much of a criminal they now were, anyone would be a fool to trust them at all. Angel was a fooled teenager, so they could go a little easier on him.

But anyone at this point who went on their side...

Well they'd have to meet the wrath of some of the most dangerous rulers in mewni.

Their first stop to investigate? The local tavern, a place where many criminals they could interrogate could be. Not that they expected to just spot a masked being getting drinks at the bar but it was good a place as any to ask about anything weird and suspicious from people too drunk to remember what they said. Granted, they could also send them on a wild goose chase by rambling stuff that didn't actually happen.

They'll just have to take their chances for now.

The bar was mostly mad of stone, with a wooden roof lines with straw, on the inside it actually looked rather beautiful all things considered. It had a fireplace, plenty of tables, a warming atmosphere. Well, the pigoat's head on the wall wasn't exactly very welcoming, but other then that it wasn't too bad. Even though the people occupying it were a varity.Some looked intimidating, some were just casually hanging out, others were dancing and singing to music nearby.

The Musty Mountain Kingdom were a kingdom of mole creatures mostly, it was a mining kingdom for the most part. They weren't close with the butterfly or lucitor kingdom overall, keeping mostly to themselves and themselves only. At the very least that decreased their chances of being recognized, if they had gone to something like the mer folk kingdom they'd been lucky to make it out unnoticed.

Tom nodded to marco, who headed to the bar as tom took a seat at a table, watching some of the residents, some had looked upon them as they entered, but went back to their own tasks soon enough. Marco themselves had been to plenty of bars in his life, they kinda had a knack for places like this, and how to mostly act so no one noticed what they ere up to.

And the mask on their face certainly made them intimidating for anyone watching them.The bartender gave marco a look as they cleaned some mugs, mugs that seemed to be made of skulls actually.

They seemed to be worried marco was about to start something with how they were eyeing them, before sitting the skull down and looking at them in the eyes. "Can i help you?", they weren't being rude, but not being nice either, in fact marco thought they were trying to our-intimidate them. Just judging from the way they squinted their eyes and leaned across the counter.

Marco shrugged, "Oh, just hanging out, looking for someone...".

"Oh?", they snorted, "Well if it's the person who gave you that face, then better look elsewhere."..

Marco assumed the guy was talking about the mask, but who knew at this point.

Regardless, how rude.

Marco ignored that comment and proceeded to move on with the ask at hand, "No, not them, see, I'm looking for someone in black, wears white mask, perhaps has magic powers...".

They were slightly deepening their voice, hoping maybe it would be enough to send some shivers down the moleman's spine and hide their identity just that much more.

They snorted in response, "Who are they, your lover?".

"Nah, trust me, I have someone way better...but enough jibber...have you seen them?", marco's face turned cross, his eyes glowing a little more as the moleman started turning away from their gaze. "Well, a lot of strange people come in and out every day, can't be expected to remember all of them, might of had a few weirdos like that come in...like you for example.".

"Yeah but this weirdo is pretty hard to miss, i don't see many people around here in big black dresses and doll masks...".

The guy was clearly trying to avoid telling them something, and marco wasn't going to fell for his mind games. The moleman went silent, continuing to clean a clearly already clean mug, marco glaring at him. "Sir, if you have any updates...I'd like to know, this is important, I don't think you'd want to cross me if you can help it. If you have any info, I'd like to hear it.".

He coughed, "Are you gonna buy something or not?".

Marco continued to glare, getting drunk would only make it harder to get things done, instead a glare of magic coming from their hands, getting the bartender's attention. He gulped, "Look...someone might of come in looking like that, but only for a day, we haven't seen them since...they're probably long gone by now...might as well head out somewhere else.".

"You're not being honest with me, I can tell.".

The monster snarled, "Look pal, if you wanna find your friend you're better off heading out and looking for them yourself...not bothering me about it". Then the bartender's attention turned elsewhere, to tom in fact. The king was talking to a few of the the people at the bar, and in fact, they were all smiling and laughing together, tom cracking jokes at them and making them holler.

Well, good to know tom wasn't taking this seriously.

Marco shot him a look as one of the bigger and scarier mole people put an arm around him,

"Yeah that freak of a woman went off about some underground house she stays in, I think that's what it was, either way she was obsessed with it!". Then another piped in, "That creep can't leave anyone alone, wants to shut us up they do! No one can talk squat about them!".

Marco was baffled.

Of course Tom figured out info from just talking and making friends with some drunk criminals, of course. Tom even looked at marco with an awkward expression, like he hadn't even expected this to work all that much. Marco sighed, tom was too cute sometimes, at least they got something good from this. Though the bartender looked utterly horrified about the scene.

"Get out", he said, rather rudely, more then he ever had been before.

Marco turned back to the mole, who pointed at the door, "The lot of ya! Get out! We're closing early today!".

And despite the protest, tom and marco and the rest of the crowd were quickly moved outside, the door slamming shut behind them. Leaving them all back outside, and a little frustrated they couldn't explore the place further of dna or any clues of the thief's whereabouts. Marco simply shrugged, "Well, he was pretty close to kicking me out honestly anyway.".

To be fair, it wasn't the first time marco had been kicked out of a bar.

Tom snickered to himself, "Well, that was fun...didn't realize how much of a charmer i was...", he sent marco a wink and marco rolled their eyes, smiling. "Well, at least that wasn't a total waste of time...we outta meet up with star and janna, wherever they went. We can exchange anything we've found and maybe we'll be a step closer to his location.".

Maybe, it depends what the girls had actually done with their time, for all they know they went widely off track, which was very accurate for the both of them. In some way marco wished he had taken their son along, judas was not someone they ever wanted in danger but they could trust judas to keep focus on their task. Though if star truly cared about something, she'd get it done.

That he didn't doubt.

Tom talked more to his new bar friends to gather any further information on the masked being. Apparently they had indeed been spotted, but not wearing the same mask, they were talking about someone in a dark cloak and cat mask. But they considered it to be the same person judging from tom's description, people had mostly seen them as a ghost.Seems the knew look kept them from being spotted as the wanted criminal they were.

But an underground house? Were they living inside the mountain ?

They had to take a chance that this was real and not the rambling of a drunk mole monster, just because the bartender seemed rather bothered by it being mentioned. They were just going to have to do some digging, maybe some actual digging at one point. "We've never seen the house, there are just rumors going round about hearing chanting under the ground...and since that thing is a new addition...we assume they're connected.".

Another one of the crowd piped in, whispering, "The town's been a little...antsy about that gal, something about her seems...off...unsettling even. No one can talk around her...and no one wants to cross her...frankly hearing someone come by with answers is a relief.". Marco seemed to be thinking hard about this, seemed the being had relocated here to stay in hiding after they say then last, knowing the people hear knew little about them.

Clever, that means while they never found her old hideout, she had a new one within their reach.

"Has anyone ever...seen them without their mask?", tom hesitated to ask, but it was worth bringing up despite him knowing what the answer would be.

"Sorry, no, no one dares to challenge whoever that is...not even the toughed among us.", nodding to their fellow monsters, "Ripping off a mask is just asking for a fight, but i tell you, they must love it enough to keep it on all the time, who goes into a bar with a mask all over their face...honestly!". Tom furrowed his eyebrows, "You're right...that...is strange.".

"But well, we're heading off to the next tavern, you coming big guy?"

The gang of scary looking mole people nodded to tom who sheepishly shook his head, "Uh sorry, not now, maybe later...uh...thanks for talking to me!". The mole people waving him off as tom sighed, amused. But his face shifted, really considering what was just said,

"Marco...most people go to the bar to have fun, party sometimes, but usually to eat and drink...".

"Yeah?".

"If this person isn't there to eat or drink, and clearly not since their mask never came off, and they are mostly definitely not there to party...why do they go into the bar?".

Marco scratched his chin, looking back at the tavern that kicked them out, "C'mon, let's go meet up with the girls and contact katrina, but we have to be fast...I think we're not done in there just yet.".-

Meanwhile Star and Janna found themselves nearby, checking out everyone's homes door to door, partially because janna probably just wanted to get into people's houses. It wasn't going much anywhere so far, unless you counted scaring some of the residents, but you couldn't prove the thief wasn't hiding in a regular old house nearby unless you made the effort to check!

Though they probably wouldn't be invited back inside anytime soon.

Another door slammed in their face as star check another one off of the list.

"I don't think this plan is working janna, we might have to go try something else if we wanna get a step closer to saving bernard...and...janna?". Star turned around to find janna speaking to more residents a smirk on her face and a terrified one on theirs, when you wanted to intimidate someone, you called janna, even tom wasn't nearly as scary as she had made herself out to be.

She had a presence about her, she always tended to scare the living heck out of anyone that crossed her just by standing in the same room as them. It's probably one of the reasons she made such a good queen, no one wanted to cross her. If she didn't intimidate them then she had plenty of others ways even without magic to help her out with the most unruly of mewmans and monsters.

If she was taking this whole thing seriously she had a good chance of getting some real info from these people, if they didn't keep slamming doors in their faces over and over again to avoid eye contact. If they didn't make progress soon, well they'd meet up with the others empty handed, and they couldn't afford to do that. Not when someone's life was in their hands.

They were going to have to figure out a whole new plan if they wanted to find what they needed, this was getting them nowhere and they didn't have all night to keep running around like earth girl scouts.

Star tapped janna on the shoulder, getting her attention away from bothering the townsfolk who were more then eager to get away from her. Janna crossed her arms and seemed to realize star had a few ideas of what they could do next. Star nodded to some kids playing nearby, maybe the adults would refuse to say something, but kids? Well who knew, maybe they had a better chance.

She knew how they were as kids after all, if they weren't getting into trouble, trouble usually found them.

Star dragged janna long over to the kids playing with a rock, smiling at them as they mole kids started at her in confusion. She kinda stood out with how colorful she was in this grey and dirty town, and so did janna. If they weren't careful, they might scare the kids off thinking these two weird woman were up to no good , star quirk to get to the point.

"Um hey kids! We're looking for someone...you seen someone creepy with a mask around here?".

They kids looked at each other, then at the queen, "You're weird".

Janna snorted and burst into laughter, "I love them already.".

Star tried again, coughing.

"Um...I'll give you candy if you tell me...with insect cores?", bribing tended to work with most kids, janna sure knew that well enough.

The kids looked between the three of them and the middle one stepped in, "The witch doesn't want to be seen...she lives under the dirt and speaks to no one, anyone who meets her gaze may suffer a terrible fate.". The kids's eyes seemed to be darting around the area, as if expecting said witch to come out and grab them and punish them for speaking about them.

"She doesn't talk...to anyone?".

They shook their heads.

"Momma sees them at the tavern, they go in, and rarely come out...they're like a ghost.".

"Tavern?"., that wasn't really what star had been expecting to hear, if anything.

"Yeah, the PigGoat's demise, it's haunted.".

Star looked over to janna, who as already heading out on her way to said tavern, star almost running away she she remembered her promise, reaching into her bags. "My wife kinda likes passing these out to gross people but glad someone likes them!". She eagerly headed out some scorpion lollipops, finally happy to be rid of those things, the kids taking them before stuffing them...into their ears.

Ok...

Star, maybe a tad grossed out let out an awkward wave before running off to find janna, knowing janna would very much get herself into trouble if star didn't catch up with her in time. Janna tended to like finding trouble, and knowing her she was already prepared to break inside of this tavern. That is until star found the woman lying on the ground .

Two familiar royals under her, one holding their talkie with katrina on the other end.

"JANNA!", marco said, annoyed.

"Hey marco!", janna said, brushing off her outfit, "Good to know you guys weren't too far, better watch where you're going though, there's 5 eyes between the two of you.". Tom shot her a look before star approached, "Guys! We thinks we might have a lead...there's some tavern...that she goes into...we should check it out...we should...guys?".

Tom and Marco exchanged looks, sitting up in the dirt, concerned.

"Which tavern exactly?".

Star looked spooked, as if she said something particularly awful to them, and it didn't take long for marco to get ahold of katrina again, their heart beating fast.

"Katrina? I think we found the exact location, get over here fast, we should strike right away."

#star vs the forces of evil #svstfoe #svtfoe #sky and the forces of the multiverse #tom the demon #tom lucitor #marco #marco diaz #tomco #my art #tomstar bby #starco bby #tomco bby #ostar bby #janstar bby #star butterfly #janna ordonia #fanfiction #fanfic

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miraculouscontent · 5 years

Note

Is it cool if we ask for them anyways? Your thoughts on Desperada I mean? I mean, lots of people are split on that one and you’re one of the Lukanette Queens, so I’m sure we wanna hear what you have to say, even if it’s not that salty.

L-LU–

LUKANETTE QUEEN???

*incomprehensible noises*

I-I mean, yeah, I guess I can still give me thoughts then–

[A Matter of Timeline]

(if you don’t want to hear about timeline analysis, skip to the next point; it won’t have a huge impact on my actual thoughts anyway)

Firstly, I want to make something clear: “Desperada” does take place before “Silencer.” Like, it just does. This has nothing to do with how I feel or what I want either; it makes sense from a narrative standpoint (I acknowledge that the show has a habit of not making sense but still–).

I know what Thomas said about production codes being the episode order, but the reality is that the production code order is the easiest thing to point to because of the hero line-up.

“Desperada” and “Startrain” come before “Party Crasher,” for example. Following the production codes is the safest way to watch the series without accidentally stumbling upon a new hero who didn’t get their debut yet.

Anyway, “Desperada” acts as follow-up to both “Captain Hardrock” (showing Anarka outside of the music festival) and “Frozer” (showing Marinette’s friends discussing Adrienette-related matters). Not only that, but it fits perfectly between “Frozer” and “Silencer.”

Let’s look at the facts; specifically, Marinette and how she interacts with Luka.

“Captain Hardrock” had Marinette be initially startled by Luka. She was a bit shy around him, thought he was a generally cool guy, but was comfortable once she calmed down. There was something there, which Alya took note of but chose not to take beyond that, and Marinette was in complete denial that there was anything special there.

“Frozer” was when Marinette began to be wholly comfortable around Luka. He was the one to comfort her, he was the one who caught her when she fell (twice), and he practically had her in the palm of his hand with his flirting compliments. They were unable to get anywhere relationship-wise because of Adrien being there with Kagami, but Marinette did wonder about how Luka felt about her (which “Desperada” ALSO calls back to, going from “Frozer” with “Do you think [Luka’s] just like Adrien; just a friend?” to, “Luka? You know he’s just a friend,” because Luka let her go to Adrien in “Frozer”).

Plus, despite the interactions she’s had with Luka, Marinette isn’t entirely flustered around him. She likes him, they have chemistry, but she isn’t blushing to any substantial degree.

“Desperada” advances the idea of Adrien being around while Luka and Marinette are spending time together. While “Frozer” focused more on Marinette’s struggle/ability to be selfless, “Desperada” follows up on Luka’s selflessness from the end of “Frozer” and Marinette’s inability to think about anything else but Adrien.

Now, the thing–the important thing–about “Desperada” existing is that “Frozer” didn’t do a good enough job at getting Marinette to notice Luka when Adrien was around. He helped distract her and she was close to it, but she wasn’t quite there. In addition, more often than not, the reason Marinette put her focus back on Luka was because she fell or something drew her attention away from Adrien.

“Desperada” puts her on the right track, because everything that the episode does is pushing her to see that Luka is there. She doesn’t give an immediate “no” when Kagami suggests that Luka is her boyfriend, implying that something is stopping her from denying it, but she’s not there yet and Adrien is taking up all her attention.

And, by the end of the episode, she understands.

She stops seeing just Adrien and is able to see both of them. Then, what happens immediately afterward when “Silencer” kicks in?

Well, well, well, look who’s seeing Luka romantically now?

There are other reasons as well, like the fact that “Desperada” has the girl squad mentioning Marinette’s crush on Luka but don’t talk about Luka’s feelings at all, and the fact that Alya states that Luka and Adrien “haven’t chosen anyone either” when Luka basically confessed to Marinette in “Silencer” (and if Alya “I noticed a thing so give me ALL the details” Cesaire isn’t aware of it, then she’s not doing her job right). Marinette also has no reaction to indicate that “Silencer” has happened (I’m not even talking about a “she remembers it fondly” way; just an “it happened” way).

Like, I don’t think highly of the writers but even I don’t think they’re that inept to touch on the plot of Lukanette VS Adrienette without mentioning that Luka is in love with Marinette and has basically stated as such.

Also, that makes Luka’s transformation in “Silencer” highkey adorable because he’s clearly taking inspiration from his time as Viperion, meaning that he remembers the experience fondly but just not enough to override the akuma-given personality to despise Ladybug.

Anyway, point being: “Silencer” comes after “Desperada” for reasons unrelated to making the episode easier to swallow.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled critique.

[A Friend in Need]

Now, I don’t want to blame all of Marinette’s problems on her friends…

…but, well, here I go. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I feel like I tread this topic no matter what the episode I critique is, but Marinette’s friends do not know how to handle her nor respect her. For goodness’ sake, I just talked about this in my post about “Reflekdoll” but apparently we’re gonna do it again.

Let’s start with the fact that, just like in “Gigantitan,” we have characters making mocking comments about Marinette, this time with her inability to speak with Adrien. I’ve said before how I feel about Marinette’s friends mocking her clear and obvious anxiety and how it’s extremely damaging because joking about it normalizes the behavior and causes them to not do anything when it happens because “it’s just Marinette being Marinette” and doing anything to fix the problem would be “too hard” because apparently Marinette going out of her way to care about people while not getting the same in return is fine with them.

And can we not with characters shipping Marinette with other people behind her back without confirming whether or not Marinette is actually in love with them? That’s weird. I mean, I don’t even know how her friends presume that Marinette likes Luka; it’s one thing to say that they’d be better than Adrienette, but while Luka and Marinette are being extremely cute together, Marinette isn’t a mess nor is she stammering away, meaning that she’s not showing her usual “love signs” to imply that she has feelings for someone. Alya was only (vaguely) teasing her in “Captain Hardrock” but now she’s talking about it for real, like, what? I might ship Lukanette but that makes no sense to me.

By the way, I take offense to the fact that this is after “Frozer,” where Marinette wanted to give up on Adrien but her friends weren’t having it. Yet, now, when Alya decides that Marinette can give up on Adrien and go to Luka instead, it’s perfectly alright? ‘Scuse me?

Also, when Kagami suggests that Luka is Marinette’s boyfriend, Marinette is looking around in a panic, from Luka, to her friends, to Adrien, etcetera, which is clearly a cry for help, yet her friends do nothing about the issue. I don’t blame Luka because him confirming that they’re not dating would imply that he’s not interested, and he at least gives Marinette a reassuring smile, but her other friends just stare at her blankly.

Even if they’re trying to see how she reacts or what she reacts with (since they were just talking about the possibility of Lukanette), this literally is not the time when Marinette is roasting in the sunlight that is Adrien freaking Agreste. Satiate that curiosity for at least a second before Marinette starts hyperventilating, guys, and why would Marinette still be dying over Adrien if she was dating Luka?

Alya, Mylene, and Alix are clearly freaking out at Adrien being there and one can see that they’re thinking, “oh no, it was going so well between Luka and Marinette but now Adrien’s here,” but they don’t do anything to keep Marinette’s emotions at bay. No comforting touches on the shoulder, no signs/hints for what to do next, nothing.

Also, I just gotta call out Alya specifically here because oh my god. “Reflekdoll” had Alya doing too much and now here comes “Desperada” with Alya not doing enough.

First off, Alya only teased Marinette about Luka back in “Captain Hardrock,” so it’s no wonder why Marinette’s not going to take Alya seriously here when Alya implies that Kagami might be onto something. Not only that, but what Kagami was onto was Luka being Marinette’s boyfriend; something that, if Marinette had considered it, it was only briefly. They’re friends, and that’s just a fact, so I’m not surprised in the slightest that Marinette waved Alya off.

Like, Alya, maybe don’t try to push Marinette in another direction without properly talking to her about it, because it’s only going to further her disillusion/confusion on the matter???

If episodes like “The Puppeteer 2″ and “Reflekdoll” were to take place after this, just put me out of my misery now because POOR MARINETTE.

And, as is typical, Alya just smiles and rolls her eyes, but doesn’t take things further. She hints, she teases, but she doesn’t address the issue. How is Marinette supposed to take Alya seriously anyway when Alya is known for shipping Adrienette so hard that she completely ignores how Marinette feels?

SPEAKING OF WHICH…

The guitar scene.

Let me state right off the bat that Marinette has tunnel vision around Adrien, and I’m going to fully acknowledge that (see next topic of discussion).

But, Marinette noticing and choosing Adrien to point out was Alya’s fault. Alya had always carved herself out to be in the pursuit of getting Marinette close to Adrien and she was the one who witnessed Adrien asking Marinette to sign his Jagged Stone CD (because he’s a fan as well) all the way back in “Guitar Villain.”

Not only that, but instead of understanding that it’s never a good idea to be vague or leave room for error when it comes to Marinette and Adrien, Alya chose to jab a thumb in the direction of Adrien instead of saying anything. It doesn’t matter if she meant to direct Marinette to Luka, because Adrien was in front of Luka.

Thus, when the scene hit, my reaction was literally, “Alya, honestly, what did you think was going to happen?”

When Marinette is panicking over Adrien, she needs guidance to do things correctly. She needs direction; someone/something to tell her what do next. On top of that, Jagged just flung all this pressure on her about needing a guitarist (by the way, unrelated, but I don’t see why Jagged couldn’t take over for guitar while Adrien does piano).

Yet, when Alya clearly gave Marinette the wrong instructions, what does she do? Again, make faces and proceed to not do anything to fix the problem.

All it would’ve taken is for Alya to go up to Marinette after Adrien admitted, “I’m more of a pianist actually,” pat her shoulder, and say, “Girl, I meant Luka!”

Marinette would’ve glanced over, looked at Luka, and gone, “Oh! Duh, of course!”, because I’m 100% sure that Marinette doesn’t mean it when she calls Adrien “the best musician” since she’s basically never heard Adrien actually play (and I mean alone, so excluding cases like “Captain Hardrock”). It’s just the tunnel vision talking, which we as an audience know because Marinette was complimenting Luka earlier for his skills.

Anyway, if Alya and friends are just there to react to Marinette screwing up without actually caring about how it’ll look for her, they should not be in the scene.

Though, the fact that they are and Alya has to take the initiative almost implies that Marinette honestly might’ve gone with Luka had Alya not intervened.

…So, literally, Alya’s presence in the story only serves to hurt Marinette.

As usual.

And by the time the scene is over, Marinette is doubly stuck on Adrien. The ultimate problem in the episode is the dialog, which is so stilted for the sake of the joke hitting that it doesn’t come off as a surprise and makes the scene feel a lot less “real.”

And for the inevitable question of, “but, Clarity, why aren’t you talking about how cringe-y the scene was?”, honestly–like–yeah, it was surreal to watch, but this isn’t “The Puppeteer 2″ where Marinette was embarrassed in the moment. She didn’t even have to endure any teasing/lectures/looks/etcetera, because she was oblivious. Once the scene ended, Marinette feels bad and that’s the end of it, whereas “The Puppeteer 2″ lingers forever on it and won’t let it go.

…Also, while we’re on the topic of the guitar scene–

[”Yes, That’s the Point”]

This episode doesn’t kill Lukanette. This episode kills the love square.

The takeaway from the guitar scene is not, “I can’t believe Marinette would ignore Luka for Adrien!”

The takeaway is, “I can’t believe Marinette would ignore even Luka for Adrien!”

This is showing how bad Marinette’s crush is for her. When asked about a guitarist, she picked Adrien because that’s how severe her tunnel vision is; even Luka is not safe from it. She doesn’t care about Luka any less nor is Luka less special to her, but all she sees is Adrien when he’s around and Luka saw that. That’s why he gave up his guitar with a smile and only took it back when Desperada was attacking and he needed to distract her.

He wasn’t hurt by what Marinette did because he understands, and is willing to go along with whatever Marinette says (”If you like, Marinette.”). Marinette even told him at the very start of the episode that he was amazing at playing guitar; Luka can easily piece things together and realize that Marinette isn’t thinking properly when suggesting Adrien (which is proven the instant Marinette leaves the scene, because she immediately vents to Tikki that she didn’t know why she did that, and Tikki is even understanding of this). There aren’t any lingering shots of Luka looking sad or Luka being upset that Marinette didn’t pick him because he’s witnessed her tunnel vision before (i.e: “Frozer”) and recognizes that this is just how she acts around Adrien. I mean, he becomes the snake hero in this episode, and Fu said himself that the snake had to be wise, so Luka knows what’s up. After all, he easily gave her (someone who’s not a professional musician and doesn’t know how to handle an instrument) his guitar so they could “play together” earlier in the episode, so he knew why she’d see no harm in him giving it up to Adrien.

Thus, Luka just smiles at Marinette. There’s no other reaction because he doesn’t have any other reaction. He doesn’t laugh at her and he doesn’t make faces. He might’ve been confused at first, but once Marinette goes up to him and talks about him giving his guitar to Adrien, he smiles and goes along with it because he gets her.

(by the way, I don’t care what the context is; this shot is adorable)

(by the way x2, oh, yeah, I’m so sure Luka wants to play with Jagged Stone when Luka’s usually in a band with three other members who he’d want to get recognition too and also after his mother just went off at the guy for essentially dumping her)

Now, what did get a reaction out of him is when Marinette was sad over Adrien and Kagami bonding, and that was because it was affecting Marinette personally and negatively.

Luka’s selflessness–another trait Fu understood was needed for the snake–shines through in this episode and makes him a perfect candidate when placed on top of the fact that he’s wiser than basically everyone around him.

The problem is that Marinette wouldn’t imagine Luka for the snake immediately because she doesn’t know about Luka’s selflessness. She’s (presumably) not aware of his crush by the time “Desperada” takes place and thus she doesn’t know what he’s doing (or not doing, in some cases) in order to keep her happy and let her figure things out on her own. She doesn’t know Adrien to be completely selfless either, but between the two of them, Adrien won out because he was Adrien “pErFeCt” Agreste. If Adrien wasn’t there, then yes, she’d pick Luka because he’s wise, but her tunnel vision was too strong for her to make a rational decision which is the entire point of the episode.

Well, that, and showing what the difference is between Marinette/Ladybug acting around Adrien/Aspik versus her acting around Luka/Viperion.

Ladybug treats Adrien as something “cute.” She fawns over him, is clearly charmed by him, but ultimately coo’d over basic things like him having a superhero name (her tone in which made it sound as if she was talking to a darn puppy).

The differences are clear. She laughs at Aspik’s joke because she’s too into him to focus wholly and completely on Desperada, whereas she scolded Chat for making the same joke because she sees it as him not taking things seriously.

With Aspik, she insists that they don’t need Chat (only asking about waiting for him once when Aspik throws her off) because she puts too much faith in Adrien’s supposed “perfection” and isn’t thinking properly about what they need during the fight. With Viperion, she acknowledges that Chat is helpful and that he should indeed be there for battle (even going so far as to say, “our team would be lost without him!”).

Adrien distracts her, both as Aspik and as Adrien in her head, to the point where she blurts out the identity of who she wants to give the snake to in front of Chat. Meanwhile, Viperion isn’t distracting enough that she can’t focus, and that’s always what Luka has been good at; he’s pleasant, calm, but not overwhelming to the point where Marinette can’t keep her head on straight. In fact, when Adrien and Kagami first arrived and laughed together, it was Luka who tried to reassure Marinette, and Marinette’s expression changed only when she was looking at him right after his reassurance.

Then, when Adrien waved at her, she did look at Luka again for a sign of comfort, and the true panic kicked in when he was busy waving at Adrien and thus couldn’t focus on her.

She looked at him first to seek out help before fumbling with his guitar, and I think that says something.

With all that in mind, this episode kills Adrienette (by showing Marinette’s tunnel vision) and Ladrien (with Ladybug interacting with Aspik and how Adrien responds to Ladybug) in one fell swoop, with a bonus shot being fired at LadyNoir because look at Ladybug’s face when Adrien (as Aspik) tells her he’s Chat Noir.

We don’t get to see the fallout, but her world had just been annihilated. I have never seen such an efficient murder of so many sides of the love square in my entire life and it’s gorgeous.

Heck, even in thinking of “Silencer” itself, Ladybug only dreamily mentions to herself in “Desperada” that Aspik can read her mind, when it was actually just because he’d Second Chance’d so many times that he knew what she was going to say.

Yet, then it turns out in “Silencer” that there’s someone who can actually read her mind.

Luka.

And–uh–now, having said that, I imagine everyone expects me to pendulum swing in the opposite direction and start going off on Adrien for his behavior

But… well–

[Adrien Actually Wasn’t Bad in This Episode and You Can Pry That Opinion From My Cold Dead Hands]

Okay, I’m just gonna scream for a second because I LIKED ADRIEN IN THIS EPISODE, I’M SORRY.

Like, man, I know he was brought in to freak Marinette out, but that’s not his fault and he’s actually rebelling here!

Seriously, "Reflekdoll” was a decent shot at Adrien rebelling, but that was Alya finding a loophole of sorts. “Desperada” is Adrien, straight-up, ditching fencing practice alongside Kagami to go hang out with his friends and LAUGHING about it.

Amazing. Fantastic. Beautiful. I NEED MORE.

And he and Kagami are freaking cute. They hold hands, they laugh, and Adrien looks super comfortable with Kagami casually clinging to his arm. Even if Marinette was somehow over Adrien, I couldn’t blame her for being jealous over that relationship because those two were too darn cute.

Concerning Marinette too, Adrien was gentle with correcting her when she offered him up as the guitarist, whispering that he’s “more of a pianist.” He clearly doesn’t want her offering to go to waste but is being honest.

Also, Adrien is such a wonderful idiot here in general. Like, it’s the little things.

He opens+closes the opposite locker to Luka to make Luka think that he hid away because of the sound, then escapes out the door which is just as loud if not more so than the locker.

He (as Chat) leads Ladybug to Adrien’s locker, and then uses that as an excuse to be like, “WELP, BETTER SPLIT UP,” instead of just splitting up from the start. I have no idea if he wanted to make sure that Ladybug wouldn’t give up and hand the miraculous over to Luka instead but I think it’s highly amusing.

Also, Adrien acting oblivious to a kwami’s existence like, “bUt–whAt aM I sUpPoSeD to dO???” with his hands up near his chest to feign innocence had me dying.

As for his role as Aspik… honestly, I think it all comes back to what Fu said about the snake: it needs someone wise enough who won’t use the miraculous selfishly. Second Chance is a powerful miraculous that requires self-restraint because the user has infinite chances to do whatever they want.

It would be natural for Ladybug to think that Adrien is selfless, because she sees him care about terrible people like Chloe or Lila and would view that positively, believing him to be pure of heart.

But he’s not, and… I mean, that’s not technically a bad thing character-wise. Even so, Adrien isn’t good for the snake for multiple reasons, one of which being that the snake is a passive miraculous and Adrien is too aggressive and reckless.

The temptation is there because Adrien wants to make a good impression on Ladybug and can reset time with no consequences. It’s not like when he’s Chat Noir and mindlessly flirts or wastes time; he (as Aspik) has all the time in the world to spend with Ladybug.

I won’t deny that it’s the wrong time to flirt. Adrien is clearly off in his own little world and not thinking clearly (much like Marinette), so he spends a little time flirting.

But the important thing is here that he stops.

The first time, he didn’t flirt at all.

The second time, he saw how easy it was to go back and began flirting.

Then, as he was running off after Ladybug was shot, Plagg yelled at him. Plagg knew this was a dumb idea from the beginning and didn’t hesitate to go off on Aspik.

“*sarcastically* Awesome team, alright.”

“I just need a bit more time.”

“To do what?! Charm Ladybug, or defeat the villain?!”

When he goes back for his third time, he’s more careful and looks for a safe place to hide first, at which point it’s Ladybug who flirts with him (Aspik pulled her close protectively, but that’s it, and to me, it shows that he’s more on edge) before Desperada shows up and shoots Ladybug.

Ladybug then gets shot multiple times in sequence before Aspik tries to reveal that he’s Chat Noir (either just because or he’s hoping that’ll change something), but that’s all. After that, it’s just a constant montage of Ladybug being shot. Aspik flirts a couple times on-screen at best, and during most of the moments where Ladybug got shot, he seemed prepared but it’s just not enough, because the snake doesn’t work for him and it can’t be helped.

But he tried, and that’s all I ask for. I didn’t need him to be good at the snake, but I need him to try. Chat Noir is easygoing and doesn’t worry about making mistakes because he’s just having fun, which is probably why it hurt Aspik all the more that he kept losing Ladybug when he was actually being serious. He knew that he was doing his best and he wanted to be the one to save her but he couldn’t because he’s not a planner and he’s sorry for it and even assures Ladybug that she did nothing wrong. He’s even seen rubbing his eye when he turns around to face Luka, like he’d been crying.

I get mad at Chat when he’s not trying or when he’s not being serious, but there’s a clear moment where Aspik understands what he’s doing wrong and he does try. I can’t bring myself to be mad at him when he only briefly gave in to the temptation of having infinite chances to do whatever he wants.

It’s also not a “feel bad for Chat because he got rejected again by Ladybug” moment and THANK GOD FOR THAT.

Then, that brings everything right back to how Marinette/Ladybug need direction when Adrien is around, as Adrien tells Ladybug that Luka should be given the miraculous. He reminds her of his traits, which Ladybug hadn’t been able to remember as clearly because all she was thinking about was Adrien. By doing that, Adrien essentially gave her the go-ahead to see Luka romantically.

And the second Adrien leaves, Luka steps in, and the mental lights kick on.

Yes.

[Luka Cou-fine]

This boy.

This freaking boy.

So, just to be clear, it’s not that I don’t understand the opinion that Luka got the shaft in this episode (though honestly, Kim’s definitely number one on that front and I don’t think anyone will disagree with that), but real quick, let me just give a run-down of what happens with him outside of the guitar scene:

- Luka got to spend a lot of precious time with Marinette before Adrien showed up, which he clearly enjoyed. She complimented him fondly and they got to laugh and play guitar together.

- Luka’s mom was revealed to know Jagged freaking Stone, who may or may not actually be Luka’s dad because she seems to have had a very close relationship with him. Jagged Stone is also quick to point Luka out given his guitar and his “awesome T-shirt,” clearly preferring him over Adrien.

- Literally the entire episode, even if Luka didn’t know it, was pushing Marinette to focus on him, without any insistence on his part, and he got the miraculous he deserved in the end. Oh, and the kwami of said miraculous, might I add, also seems to be the leader of the kwami inside the Miracle Box, given “Sandboy” and how much Sass has direction in that episode.

- Luka was able to use his musical talents twice (thrice if him loaning his guitar to Ladybug counts) to help in the defeat of an akuma that went after his friends and family, then got personally thanked by Ladybug for it.

- Luka has the–I repeat, the–LONGEST transformation sequence out of any hero (YES, I COUNTED; EPISODIC SCENES ARE TEMPORARY BUT TRANSFORMATIONS ARE FOREVER).

SO YEAH, I THINK THE GUY IS DOING PRETTY DARN WELL FOR HIMSELF. I’M SURE HE’LL BE FINE.

Luka isn’t in the spotlight as much in the episode because Luka isn’t active. He takes action when it’s necessary but is perfectly happy being on the sidelines when the situation requires it.

Did he get copious amounts of screentime? No, but I ask: why is that?

The answer is because he’s literally too good at his job. Viperion dealt with the akuma by watching, waiting, analyzing, and slowly eliminating room for error. Ladybug and Chat Noir got shot the first time, then it was only Ladybug, then it was only Chat (as Viperion steadily lessens the severity of the causalities happening). Then, he experimented with his lyre and was able to come out on top immediately afterward.

It’s not that “Adrien’s screentime overshadowed Luka;” it’s that Luka didn’t need that screentime because he was better than Adrien; he was so good that he came out on top by just being himself.

He owned that miraculous, and I can’t imagine how nice it must’ve been for Ladybug to have someone who’s a planner like she is. She’s used to teammates who follow orders, but this was a time where someone was there to take the mental weight off her shoulders and it shows in how she looks at him by the end of the episode.

She doesn’t think that he was a convenient choice, or that he only succeeded because Chat was there (since Chat wasn’t there around Aspik and she could presume that Aspik failed because of it). Luka was simply perfect for the snake and Ladybug acknowledged that.

“You were the right choice, Luka.”

[I’m Out of Things to Analyze So I’m Just Gonna Ramble About Other Bits and Pieces I Adore From This Episode Because I Appreciate All of Them]

- THIS LUKANETTE??? RIGHT HERE???

LASTED ME THE WHOLE DARN EPISODE BECAUSE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA like, yeah, as if a simple misunderstanding based on tunnel vision is going to break apart this relationship, oh my god plz–

- Even Kagami saw that Lukanette was strong; I don’t make the rules I just enforce them–

- I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO SEE JAGGED AND ANARKA INTERACT FOR A WHOLE SEASON AND NOW I FINALLY HAVE IT AND IT’S FREAKING AMAZING. THEY PLAYED TOGETHER WHEN THEY WERE YOUNGER AND THEY CLEARLY HAD A THING (HE CALLED HER HIS MUSE!!!) AND THE HEADCANONS JUST FORM THEMSELVES!!!

- RETURN OF UNCLE JAGGED APPRECIATING MARINETTE, YES PLEASE.

- Anarka uses music metaphors too and now I know where Luka gets them from!!

- Freakin’–Luka’s face when Jagged is clearly very friendly with Marinette and acts as if they’re best buds.

Like, lemme just–

Perfect.

I adore it when Luka is clearly reacting internally, you guys don’t even understand–

- Desperada is fabulous and the sounds her instruments make are hilarious; A good combination.

- KAGAMI PROTECTED ADRIEN AND ROSE PROTECTED JULEKA. MY SHIPPER HEART IS SOARING.

- I like the little stickers on Desperada’s case. They’re cute and… no, that’s not relevant to my enjoyment of the episode at all, but I liked seeing them.

- KAGAMI RUSHES IN WITHOUT A THOUGHT. SHE AND ADRIEN REALLY ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER KFNGJFDGD.

- ACTUALLY SUPPORTIVE TIKKI WHO UNDERSTANDS MARINETTE. YES.

- Luka was so quick to want to help Ladybug i cry.

- Ladybug tries to call Chat Noir and Adrien looks awkwardly off into the distance like he just wants to die.

- Desperada was so salty about Luka’s mere existence. Like, you jealous, akuma?

- Plagg when Adrien was about to transform into Chat Noir: lol how about a nap first- Plagg when Adrien was about to transform into Aspik: YOU MORON, EVERYTHING IS WRONG ABOUT THIS AND YOU SHOULD BE CHAT NOIR RIGHT NOW. I HATE EVERYTHING.

- XAVIER’S PIGEON ARMY GOT CAPTURED AND I CACKLED.

- “Can I love–UH–trust you???” THE FREAKING RECORD SCRATCH IN THE BACKGROUND, I CAN’T–

- THEY ACTUALLY EXPLAIN HOW THEY’RE GOING TO GET THE MIRACULOUSES OUT AFTER LADYBUG AND CHAT GET SHOT BY DESPERADA. THANK YOU. (Sorry, I’m still salty about “Reflekdoll” never establishing that despite Reflekta having two episodes to work with so I’ll take what I can get.)

- I ALREADY KNEW THAT LUKA WAS EXTRA AFTER SEEING “SILENCER” BUT OH MY GOSH I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR A BETTER VIPERION TRANSFORMATION. MOVE OVER, KIM, SOMEONE’S COMPETING FOR YOUR SPOT AND I THINK HE FREAKING WON.

- ALSO, SINCE WE SAW ADRIEN AND LUKA TRANSFORM WITH THE SAME MIRACULOUS, WE CAN CONFIRM THAT LUKA IS EVEN MORE EXTRA THAN ADRIEN. THANK YOU FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY, MIRACULOUS GODS.

- “No need. Ladybug brings enough luck for all of us.” SMOOTH. AS. SILK.

- I was living for seeing Viperion process every situation without even flinching. He saw one/both of the heroes get shot and he just immediately went back, already forming a plan.

- This face:

I’m not speculating on anything; I’m just saying it fills me with warmth.

- Jagged would absolutely fire someone over something as petty as breakfast and I would expect nothing less from him.

- Alya has no business saying it but she rightfully points out that Adrien and Luka can choose who they love as well, so that’s something, I suppose.

So, is this episode perfect? No, absolutely not.

The dialog is too stilted/unreal during the scenes that are played up for excess comedy, Sass either gets fed off-screen post-Aspik or doesn’t get fed at all, they play Adrien’s Chat Noir transformation twice when they could’ve replaced one of those with Marinette’s Ladybug transformation, and Marinette’s friends are terrible at helping her (as per usual).

Yes, I would’ve liked it if this episode had a bunch of Lukanette and Lukabug and Vipernette and Viperbug and Luka+Viperion got like 300000% more screen time.

But, I’m not here to judge the episode on what it isn’t, and a majority (I must stress the word majority; I obviously don’t like seeing certain lines/scenes) of what is here is stuff I either understand the reasoning for or stuff I really like.

Call it a guilty pleasure if you must, but those are my thoughts and I’m standing by them.

#((Defending an episode feels weird.))#category: critique #category: positivity #episode: Desperada #category: long post #word count: over 5000 #other: ask and answer #((This was originally just going to be a five-minute video where I rewatched ''Desperada'' and screamed))#((but heckin' long posts is my domain.))

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megalony · 4 years

Text

You’re next

This is a new murderer! Ben Hardy imagine that is based upon the request for my previous imagine Broken Rules. I hope you all like it.

Taglist: @lunaticspoem @butlegendsneverdie @langdonzvoid @jennyggggrrr @rogmeddows @radiob-l-a-hblah @rogertaylorsbitontheside @chlobo6 @rogertaylors-lipgloss @sj-thefan @omgitsearly @luckytrashgooprebel @scarsout @deaky-with-a-c @killer-queen-ofrhye @bluutac @vousmemanqueez @jonesyaddiction @rogahs-drowse @milanosaurus @httpfandxms @saint-hardy @7-seas-of-fat-bottomed-girls

Murderer! Ben masterlist

Warning: Mentions of cheating, abuse, violence.

Enjoy.

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

(Y/n) rested her head in her hands as she let the tears fall from her eyes that she had been holding back for what felt like forever. Her fingers knotted in her hair to the point the strands caught between them were almost torn from her scalp with the force she used.

This wasn't fair.

This wasn't right and she knew it wasn't okay anymore.

But Ben couldn't see that she wasn't able to cope with this anymore, his mindset made him assume she would be fine and that it wasn't a problem.

Ben had always told her that she could tell him anything and she could confide in him and he would do anything to help her. And he would, that was not a lie, but telling him this was something he wouldn't be able to help with because he wasn't going to change.

(Y/n) had been with Ben for two years and those years had been exciting, scary and different but they came with a lot of low points. Ben was a hitman, he killed people for a living and from what (Y/n) could gather, he was one of the best at the worst kind of jobs. He was skilled at what he did and he took pride in his job. But it wasn't simple and it wasn't easy for either of them.

Ben had a lot of people who worked for and with him and a lot of them only worked for him because they were afraid of him. Ben had rules that he made sure everyone followed and (Y/n) wasn't excluded from that. She had to follow the rules he set out because if she didn't their relationship wouldn't last very long. That was one of the reasons it was so hard to be with Ben. Remembering that she needed to tell him where she was going so he could make sure she was okay, knowing that she couldn't do anything that would anger him or anything that went against him.

The worst was knowing that Ben had a system. If people broke his rules, they got punished and Ben applied that system to (Y/n). If she stepped out of the lines he had drawn around her she would get a punishment and there was no strict punishment either, it would be whatever he deemed appropriate.

She hated having to abide by the rules he set out because it made her panic like nothing else in her life ever did. And it was worrying to have to know what would set Ben's anger off and come up with ways to calm him down.

But Ben's love for her had always been enough... until now.

Ben was controlling but he was like that because he felt he had to be. He was always in charge and he was used to having the power, giving that over to (Y/n) was not something he felt he could do.

(Y/n) wasn't blind, she knew that what she had with Ben was over the line of unhealthy. She both loved and feared Ben and being with him was so intoxicating but it was unhealthy because it was based on dependance. She depended on Ben and he liked the control that gave him. He loved her but he felt he had to always be in charge and the fire that being with Ben created always seemed to equal out the bad sides of being with him. But she didn't know if she could do this for much longer.

"If this is so bad for you, why have you never said anything? Two years, (Y/n). You've been with me for two years and you've never said something was wrong."

(Y/n) didn't dare lift her head to lock eyes with him because he was intimidating, and part of her wondered if he was doing that on purpose. To make her cower and back down or take back what she had said and try to carry on as normal.

Ben was stood in front of her as she was sat on the sofa, his height and his demeanour made him seem like a tower looming over her and his tone of voice was both intimidating but like he was trying to be gentle.

"Because I've tried to ignore it, but I don't like this, Ben. I don't like having your people following me around if I leave the house, I don't like having the police always hanging around and knocking on the door. You make me afraid when someone breaks a rule because I see what you do to them and it makes me so fucking scared of what you'll do to me if I do something wrong." (Y/n) tried to be okay with everything in the beginning. She tried not to think about the people following her to make sure she was safe.

Ben told her he had his men watching her either from a distance or sometimes walking with her because he had to make sure she was safe and it was sweet and showed he cared more than he let on. But it was hard to go anywhere or do something when she knew eyes were always watching and sometimes judging. And they always reported back to Ben, it was as if he was doing this to make sure she didn't step out of line or go against him or cheat on him.

It was unnerving.

And (Y/n) had seen how Ben treated people. If they worked for him and they didn't do anything wrong he was a good friend. Like with her, he was an amazing boyfriend if the hitman and the anger was stripped away. Ben was intimate with (Y/n), he hugged her, he kissed her, he was kind and sweet and protective.

But when people went against him he turned ruthless and he was someone she no longer recognised. Ben had killed people if they did something very bad, he shot others or threatened to hurt their families. (Y/n) had watched him beat up a lot of his workers because he was skilled at boxing and it gave him a big advantage. He seemed to enjoy when people went against him because he could put them back in line and show others what would happen if they did the same.

(Y/n) had had sleepless nights wondering what would happen to her if she did something that went against Ben.

"It's not healthy to live like this, wondering if I'm going to upset you or get hurt or go to prison for being involved with you." When (Y/n) finally lifted her head to look up at Ben, he had a look in his eyes that she had never seen before and an expression that made a spark of worry ignite in her stomach.

"Is this you telling me you want to leave me?" Ben's head leaned to the side as he suddenly loomed over her. He pressed his hands to the back of the sofa either side of her head as he hovered his face inches from her own. His normally emerald green eyes were almost fully black as he looked like he was going to snarl at her.

Ben had always seemed to have his own rules for himself. He hadn't hit (Y/n) once, he always tried his best not to intimidate or scare her and he tried to be calmer around her. He said if she ever felt like it was too much she could walk away, but that seemed more like a threat to make her stay and ignore what he did. (Y/n) had no idea what Ben would do if she turned around and said she was leaving him. She didn't know if he would hurt her to make her stay or if he would just let her leave but something told her he would put up a fight for her, and not in a good way.

But (Y/n) didn't want to leave him. The relationship may not be as good or healthy as it could be but Ben truly did love her and she loved him more than anyone else in her life. She would do anything for him and leaving him was a nightmare she couldn't live. But she didn't know what to do if she was always going to be feeling this way when she was with him.

"I don't want to leave you... but I don't want to live in fear like this."

(Y/n)'s eyes snapped closed as she felt herself shaking when Ben suddenly took her jaw in his hand, gripping very tightly as he turned her head so she was looking at him properly.

"I love you far too much to let you leave me, sweetheart. But you don't have to be afraid. The rules are just like societies rules, don't drink and drive, don't drink 'til your eighteen. You follow those rules without being afraid, mine are just the same." He spoke so calmly as if he was simply telling her he loved her when he was really trying to keep her in line.

Ben did love (Y/n) far too much for her own good, he felt unnerved by how much love he felt for her. But he had rules for everybody and they may give worse punishments than society does but its the same logic. People know they will get reprimanded for drinking and driving or for taking drugs or killing people or doing something that goes against the rules set up around them. Ben's world was just the same, follow the rules and you'll be perfectly fine.

"If I drink and drive I go to prison, I don't have to worry that my boyfriend will punch me or abuse me or leave me if I break one of his rules. It's the same system but the punishments are worse Ben, you impose fear and it scares me." Ben kept people in line by the punishments he gave and they weren't simply putting people in prison which to some, did look like a very easy option.

Ben would beat people up or kill them or just abuse them for a punishment. He toyed with people and he played on their fear to get them to stay in line and (Y/n) didn't know if she could keep doing this.

"Darlin' you walked into my world and you wanted to play this game. You've never done anything wrong, so therefore you don't have to worry. Fear keeps people in line, I don't do this for the fun of it." (Y/n) had never done anything that went against Ben so he felt she didn't have to feel so afraid, he didn't scare her half as much as he scared others because he played on their fear. He didn't try to do that with her.

Pulling her chin from his hold, (Y/n) took a deep breath before she weaved herself under his arm so she could stand up. She didn't know how to get through to him because Ben didn't see this from her eyes and he didn't seem to want to.

"I'm going out. Don't follow me, don't get your guys to trail after me, don't even call me. Just let me breathe." (Y/n) didn't dare look at him as she spoke, she simply grabbed her bag and hurried out of the living room to try and get to the front door quicker than Ben could reach her. She wanted to be on her own and do whatever she wanted without worrying what time to get back, what Ben was doing, if the police were coming round or if this was the day she would get a punishment.

"You're either going to do something you know I won't like or take the risk of something happening to you. Either way, I don't think it's a good idea." Ben spoke with such ease that it made (Y/n) shake in her boots as he grabbed her arm and spun her around so she was facing him.

Within a split second, Ben had pushed (Y/n) so she was trapped between him and the wall, only a few paces from the front door. Her breath got caught in her throat as she wondered if he was going to trap her in their own home and not let her out or demand that she had someone with her.

"And you're scaring me... let me go Ben, I don't need you to protect me every second of every day." (Y/n) didn't know where the sudden burst of courage had come from because she would usually never dare speak to him like this because it would anger him and she wanted to stay in his good books.

More tears fell from her eyes as she gasped when his hand found its way to her throat. He only applied a very small amount of pressure to make sure her breathing wasn't affected but he could see the fear in her eyes which was why he was doing this. Fear kept people in their place and (Y/n) was no different, he had to make sure she wasn't going to try and go against him or that she wasn't going to walk out and not come back.

"Alright, you can disappear on your own, but you listen to me carefully. If you do anything that breaks my rules, regardless of what you do, I will not let you get away with it easily."

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

"Which one was it?"

Ben swirled the gun around his index finger rather slowly before stopping and taking the safety off the gun. He pointed the barrel at Adam before slowly moving it to point at Joe, then Gwilym, then lastly James. They were the only four men who Ben couldn't account for yesterday so it had to be one of them who had been with (Y/n) last night.

His dark green eyes slowly shifted to look at (Y/n) who was standing beside him, his expression clearly showing he was becoming impatient as he waited for her answer.

Someone had seen (Y/n) leaving a bar last night with someone who worked for Ben but they didn't know who it was. They saw her go home with him and she hadn't been home last night or this morning either so Ben knew what had happened. He had a funny feeling that (Y/n) was going to do something to get back at him but he never thought she would go straight for the worst punishment. But she had and Ben had to know which one of his men was the one who had willingly gone against him so they could be dealt with.

Then he would have to deal with (Y/n).

All four men looked between one another, willing the guilty one to step forward because Ben would shoot all of them and he would proceed to hurt them all until he found out who had slept with (Y/n). Ben didn't care that three of them were innocent, they would all pay the price if no one owned up to the crime.

"You slept with one of these fuckers last night because they had one of my ID badges on them! You were seen (Y/n) so which one was it? If you don't tell me I won't hesitate to kill them all." Ben pointed the barrel of his gun at Joe without turning his head to look at him.

Ben's men all had ID badges to get into the club and someone had seen (Y/n) going home with a man with one of those badges clipped onto his belt. Ben didn't hand them out to just anyone and (Y/n) had clearly gone back with one of them so Ben wanted to know which one needed a punishment for sleeping with her. They all had rules to follow and sleeping with the bosses girlfriend was a rule that no one should have broken at any cost.

(Y/n) cowered back a few paces from Ben as her eyes darted around the four men stood on her left. She only knew two of them and one of them was definitely the person she had slept with last night. But she couldn't tell Ben who it was despite what threats he made because he would kill him. Ben killed people for a living and he had a good reason to be angry this time, he wasn't going to take it easy on anyone. But (Y/n) would rather get hurt than have Ben make her watch him hurt the one she had slept with.

She didn't love the guy she was with last night, she loved Ben but she had been so mad at him and she had been blackout drunk. She remembered walking home with the guy and brief moments came to mind but the next thing she knew she was waking up and hurriedly trying to getaway. But it was no use, Ben had men everywhere and something like this was never going to stay under wraps.

"I didn't sleep with any of them last night, I had a drink with someone-"

(Y/n) couldn't finish the lie she was trying to spin that she knew deep down wasn't going to work. Her head snapped to the right when the barrel of the gun was forced into her temple with such speed (Y/n) could see stars in front of her eyes. She didn't know which was worse, the gun or if it had been Ben's fist since he was the best boxer around. She didn't want to fight with Ben because she was no match for him physically or skillfully.

Ben didn't take well to being lied to.

"Let's try this again. Either one of you fuckers own up to sleeping with (Y/n) last night or you yourself can own up to it. Don't even try lying to me again."

No one moved. No one spoke a word, they weren't lying if they weren't saying anything and they all knew it. But they also knew this wasn't going to go away, Ben wasn't going to give in and let them all walk away without some form of punishment and he would have no problem punishing the innocent if it allowed him to find out who the guilty party was.

"Was it Adam?" Ben turned his body so he was facing (Y/n) but his right arm was outstretched in the direction of the four men standing in a line-up. When he received no answer, Ben unleashed a bullet which hit Adam directly in his kneecap. The ginger groaned and buckled down from the agony he was feeling as (Y/n) let out a sob, clamping her hands over her mouth at how cruel Ben was becoming. "Get up!" Ben almost roared, his head turning in Adam's direction, his eyes burning into his frame until the wounded man hobbled to his feet and kept his weight on his good leg.

"Ben stop-"

"Joe?" Another bullet split through the air and this time landed in Joe's shoulder who let out a torn grunt through gritted teeth as his body jolted but didn't fall down.

The worst thing was that Ben didn't even have to look to know exactly where he was aiming and he simply knew he wasn't going to miss. His eyes stayed focused on (Y/n) the whole time so she knew that she was the cause of the problem because every time she stayed quiet, there was going to end up being three innocent people getting hurt.

"Gwil?" The bullet stabbed down into Gwilym's ankle and caused his foot to lift from the floor like he had stood on a piece of lego or had just realised he had missed a beat in a dance routine. His head tipped back as he growled but stayed relatively still and silent.

"Ben stop it! This isn't fair-"

"Or James?"

"Ben!" (Y/n) screamed when Ben shot the last bullet into James' elbow which tore right through the joint which was most likely shattered now. (Y/n) lunged forward, unsure if she was going to try and tackle Ben or reach for the gun but her efforts quickly stopped when the round blunt barrel of the gun was suddenly pushing against her temple. She could feel it making a circular indent in her skin as her body shivered at the thought of a bullet ripping through her skin and shattering her skull to reach her brain. At close range, it would take less than a second to kill her, that at least meant she would feel no pain.

"Who did you fuck last night?" Ben spoke so calmly but it was clear that there was a storm raging behind his eyes.

His head ticked to the side as his upper lip curled up into a snarl and the muscles around his cheekbones and jaw were pushing up against the skin from how tightly his jaw was grinding the bones together.

In that moment, (Y/n) knew Ben had it in him to kill her, despite how much he said he loved her.

"Do it. Kill me because you're jealous that I found someone else who can fuck me without having to cage me like an animal." (Y/n) spat the words with venom at Ben whose eyes ignited with a sparkle that resembled the first spark of a flame. She had a lot of courage and nerve to say something like that to the man who had a gun pressed against her head. His index finger was already twitching in anticipation to pull away from the trigger and let his arm jolt with the force of unloading a bullet into her head.

It was very clear that (Y/n) wasn't going to tell Ben who she had slept with because she simply couldn't condemn someone else like that. She already regretted sleeping with someone else because despite feeling the tiniest bit empowered that she broke a rule, (Y/n) didn't want to be with someone else. She wanted to be with the Ben she knew and had fallen in love with, not this volatile, unhinged version who wanted to kill her.

A shuddering breath escaped (Y/n)'s lips when the gun was suddenly taken away from her temple. She watched with blurring eyes as Ben tucked the gun into the waistband of his trousers before he suddenly reached out for her.

He grabbed her quicker than she could comprehend like her mind was short-circuiting. Ben grabbed (Y/n) by her hair and lurched her forward before he yanked her backwards until her back hit his chest. He wrapped his left arm very tightly around her throat, leaving just enough room so that she could breathe as he dug his other hand into his back pocket, clearly searching for something which she guessed was a weapon of some kind. She couldn't see why he didn't just shoot her when he had the chance because she wasn't going to speak up or break no matter what he did.

"You might not tell me who you fucked, but the guilty one is gonna own up."

"What makes you so sure?" (Y/n) managed to scrape the words past her teeth with the little oxygen she was able to take in due to the pressure being applied to her throat. If all the men had taken a bullet in their joint, (Y/n) didn't know what would make that one specific guy crack and reveal his dirty secret.

"They're not like me, dove. My men are weak... they won't allow themselves to watch you die." (Y/n) shivered as her body started to writhe against Ben's when she felt something pressing against the shell of her ear. It was very thin, cold and slightly jagged but it wasn't something she could properly work out. It could be metal or even plastic, but it also could be made of glass, it could be small or long, it could be some kind of electric device. She didn't know.

All (Y/n) did know was that Ben's words made her cringe because he was right. Ben had a mean streak and a heart of coal like no one else (Y/n) had ever seen before and it scared everyone. She had seen his face when he killed someone and he held no guilt or remorse or fear, unlike his men who always looked saddened when they were forced to take a life.

"Now, whoever fucked (Y/n) last night needs to speak up because if you don't, the punishment for her is going to be to die."

It was metal, it was thin, it was long and it had a sharp jagged edge.

The loudest, most frightened, shrill scream (Y/n) had ever heard passed through her lips the moment the metal pushed agonisingly slowly into her ear canal. As her ear canal grew narrower, the metal seemed to enlarge the further into her ear it went. The jagged edges cut against the soft nerve tissue in her ear and her body caved when she felt Ben twisting the item that resembled a thin carving knife.

(Y/n) scraped her heels against the polished floor as she scratched her nails against Ben's arm that was around her neck but it did nothing to stop him. He held her weight up by the arm around her neck which stopped her from wriggling in his grip as he drove the instrument through her ear.

A broken scream clawed its way out of (Y/n)'s mouth as her eyes snapped shut so tightly she thought her eyes were going to bleed when she felt the instrument go through her eardrum. She could physically hear her eardrum popping like a balloon before all of the sounds around her became distorted and blurred. Her head turned to the left but the instrument continued to blunder through her right ear, cutting through her tissue and the nerves that helped her listen as she felt a trail of blood slowly pouring out of her ear. Each molecule of blood started to dribble from her ear and fall down her cheek and neck as she couldn't writhe anymore due to the agonising pain.

Broken sounds left (Y/n)'s chapped lips as she choked and moaned at the scrutinising agony that was pushing her close to blacking out.

How could Ben do this to her?

"There there, sweetheart." He cooed cruelly in her good ear when he finally stopped driving the instrument through her ear into her head.

(Y/n) couldn't hear anything else over the sound of her heartbeat that was going manic inside her chest and every single blood vessel that felt like it was going to burst. She felt like she was going to be sick as her body was coming over in a cold sweat even though she was beginning to burn up.

"If I move this one more inch, it will go through her brain and she will die. But if someone owns up, she can go to hospital and she'll live. Which one of you can deal with her death on your conscience?" Ben had pushed the blade to within an inch of her brain and if he pushed it just a little more, (Y/n) wouldn't live through it. She was barely managing to pull through this but if someone owned up then she could go to hospital and her eardrum would heal on its own.

But Ben wasn't going to wait forever, he was silently counting down in his mind because he would have no problem pushing the metal right through her ear and letting her body fall limp in his arms. But he knew none of his men would be able to cope with that. They had all felt wary for (Y/n) because she was with Ben and the one who had slept with her wouldn't be able to live knowing that he had let her die.

When Ben placed his hand back around the handle of the instrument lodged into (Y/n)'s ear, he pushed it upwards to move it in her ear which earned a tortured sound to pass through her lips that were losing their blushing red colour. He wriggled the instrument around for a few seconds before gripping the handle tightly, showing them all that it was going to dive through her brain in a few seconds if no one spoke.

"It was me, I- I slept with her." Gwilym tipped his head down as he let the tears fall from his eyes.

He couldn't let Ben kill (Y/n) when she didn't deserve it. Ben had pushed her away to the point she went to someone else for comfort and to break free from his constraints he shackled her in. She deserved to do whatever she wanted and to be with someone who wasn't going to draw lines around her or treat her like this or abuse her. Gwilym didn't want her to die for a mistake that hundreds of people made every day, for a simple mistake that didn't warrant the loss of her life.

Ben's eyes narrowed but when he saw Gwilym mouth 'I'm sorry' to (Y/n), he knew that he wasn't simply saying that to spare her life. He was owning up because he had committed the crime. (Y/n) shivered in Ben's arms when he pressed his lips to her temple like he was trying to soothe her and calm her down. But when he moved his lips to the shell of her ear, the words he whispered to her made her breathing stop as her eyes bulged from their sockets.

All four men looked panicked when they saw how Ben looked displeased that he couldn't end (Y/n)'s life as if Gwilym had just stopped him from completing the last level in a game.

"No!!"

Gwilym's eyes flooded with horror as a scream left his lips when Ben's hand moved to the instrument, but instead of tearing it out of (Y/n)'s eardrum, he simply gave the handle a whack with the base of his hand. Everyone choked as they watched the instrument bludgeon through (Y/n)'s ear and the moment her body dropped like a ragdoll, they knew it had hit through her brain.

No one could comprehend Ben's actions when he simply let (Y/n) fall from his arms, allowing her body to crumple to the floor before his gaze set upon Gwilym. A fire lit up his pupils as his lips bent into a sinister, broken grin that showed he was enjoying this far too much.

"You're next."

#ben hardy #ben x reader #ben hardy imagine #imagine #murderer! ben #borhap #joe mazzello #gwilym lee

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toartemis · 5 years

Text

Come on Love, Draw Your Swords - Prologue

Part 4 of The Moon’s Serenade series. Feel free to read this on Ao3.

Summary:

Sing to me, Moonlight For you, dear, are honey-tongued I dream just for you.

Or: The one where Jude finds out she's pregnant, and Cardan begins collecting a thousand plants.

Word Count: 2,352

Warnings: There is a brief description of vomiting in this part, if you're uncomfortable with that and would like to skip it, stop reading at “Almost too late,...” and continue at “This is another reason why…”

Preview:

She doesn’t remember why it began, but it had something to do with not wanting to be closed up indoors, or feeling anxious and jittery. Perhaps both. From then, it became something she liked even when she felt perfectly fine.

Jude has not felt fine lately.

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This morning is the same as the last ones have been. Dew lies softly on the ground. Birds sing their brittle songs. The heavy, late-summer air shifts around Jude as she sprints down paved roads, sweat rolling down her neck, heart pumping. Her sneakers grip the gravel just right as she propels herself forward, forcing her body faster and faster. Jude loves running, she started doing it regularly three years ago when she would visit Vivi in the mortal world. She doesn’t remember why it began, but it had something to do with not wanting to be closed up indoors, or feeling anxious and jittery. Perhaps both. From then, it became something she liked even when she felt perfectly fine.

Jude has not felt fine lately.

She arrived at Vivi’s house a week ago, a month or so earlier than they had planned for her to. It was unannounced, but Vivi and her latest girlfriend, Aleena, didn’t seem to mind. They let her take the guest bedroom with no questions asked, which worked well for Jude because she had no answers to give.

She’s been restless. Jude knows something is off with herself, but she hasn’t been able to pinpoint the reason. It’s kept her awake for so many days she’s begun to lose count. Cardan has noticed, and is convinced it has to do with a recent fight they had. It was ugly and loud, but they made up quickly, and Jude paid no mind to it after. She thought for a short time that it might have to do with the pressure of ruling, but dismissed it eventually because she genuinely feels comfortable with her status now.

Six years have passed since she’s been the High Queen. In that time, the unrest at Jude’s position has dwindled. There are still the occasional threats, but no more than there are to the High King himself. Most of the Folk have come to terms with her, or have been thoroughly distracted by the many feasts and revels the over time to care much. At one point, a small war was fought between the Crown and a sizable group of those opposing their rule, and it was won after mere months. Oak returned, for what was supposed to be permanently, sometime over a year ago. Cardan and Jude, with palpable tension, were nevertheless fully ready to step down so that he may take the throne, as promised.

He refuses to rule to this day, and splits his time between the mortal world and Faerie, claiming he wants nothing to do with being king.

So Cardan and Jude have continued to reign side by side. Jude is happier than she could ever hope to describe, despite the pull in her gut that tells her something isn’t quite right anymore.

Her thighs shake, the burn scorching through to her feet. Her fingers have gone numb, and she stumbles to a stop in front of Vivi’s front lawn. As she laces her fingers behind her head, sucking in air, she begins to walk up the driveway.

Inside, no one is awake yet. Jude grabs a glass of water, and a short glance at the clock on the microwave tells her it’s 8:13 AM. Jude left at 5:30. Her eyes squeeze shut as she attempts to calm her breathing, but her heartbeat is still wild behind her ribs. She can feel the lingering flush on her skin The sweat on her body turns cold and sticky too quickly.

Almost too late, she recognizes what’s going to happen.

She’s in the bathroom down the hall in seconds, slamming the door behind her, hunching over the toilet, the back of her throat becoming wet before an overwhelming wave of nausea has her gagging, throwing up the water she just drank.

This is another reason why she’s been on edge: bouts of nausea. It has been happening for over a month and trying to hide it from Cardan was getting to be too tiring. That’s how she found herself in the mortal world earlier than scheduled. Jude’s never had a problem like this before and she’s been chalking it up to stress, but the longer it goes on, the less sure she is about it. About anything, really.

At some point, Vivi knocks on the door.

“Jude?” Her voice is tired and annoyed. “Are you throwing up again?”

Jude wipes at her mouth and leans her cheek against her arm across the toilet. “Go away.”

“That’s the fourth time this week,” Vivi says. Jude can hear footsteps outside the bathroom and harsh whispers, before they recede. She doesn’t know how long she sits there on the floor, but she feels groggy and frustrated, and after all that’s been going on, she wants to cry.

There’s another knock on the door. Jude lifts her head as Aleena walks in, all long legs and deep, dark skin. She kneels before Jude with a bag in her hands, worry etched across the smooth skin of her face. Her winged eyeliner is sharp and bright yellow.

“Are you alright?” She asks softly, pressing the back of her hand to Jude’s forehead. Jude really likes Aleena, she’s sweet, brilliant, and doesn’t put up with Vivi’s shit. She also doesn’t mind the whole Faerie thing. “How’s the Queen doing?”

Jude huffs a small laugh and gives her a tired smile. “I’m fine. Just pushed myself too hard, I suppose.”

Aleena raises an eyebrow. After a moment, she says, “These are from Vi and me. Come out when you’re ready,” and she leaves, gently shutting the door behind her. Jude looks down at the bag she’s left her with and hesitates before reaching for it.

As soon as she processes what the contents of the bag are, the color drains from her face and she’s immediately embarrassed.

The boxes stare back at her, intimidating and filling her with a sense of dread.

That’s —

Jude drops the bag, her hands shaking. She takes a deep breath, then another, and dares to look down again, and, yes, those are most definitely what she thinks they are. Humans use them to test for pregnancy.

Heat takes over her. It shouldn’t be possible, they’ve been too busy to spend that much time together recently save for some early walks and lounging around, and then the unsettling feeling Jude’s suffering from started and things between them became slightly strained. She can’t remember if they—

No, wait, yes, there was one time, recently —

Shit.

Her body stills as it dawns on her that there really could be a possibility. It was a few months ago, maybe. They had just woken up, and the gentle touching slowly turned to soft kisses, which turned to sleepy sex and Jude had honestly forgotten about it completely.

Panic pierces through her and she tears open the first box, the two tests inside falling into her palm. She doesn’t know exactly how to use them, but she can guess, and after the quickest skim over the instructions, Jude is yanking her tight leggings down and sticking one between her legs.

The waiting is the hardest part. Jude doesn’t usually bite her nails, but she finds herself chewing on them and goes to gulp water from the sink instead as a distraction. Pacing only gets her so far in the small room, shoes squeaking against the small tiles and padding over the bath mat near the toilet over and over again. She can hear her sister in the kitchen, presumably pouring bowls of cereal. Anxiety rushes in her chest, spiking in her fingers. She might throw up again.

Finally, she can’t stand waiting any longer. Jude snatches the test from the counter and tries to give herself a second to breathe before looking.

Her stomach drops.

Oh.

She doesn’t let herself think. Tears spring to her eyes involuntarily as she rips open the next test and repeats her process, pressing on her bladder.

Jude doesn’t notice the time passing now, she keeps her gaze trained on the wall in front of her until the results show up.

Sure enough, there’s a faint line glaring up at her, just like the last one.

Oh, no.

Her mind goes blank. She wrenches the door open, marching right by Aleena and Vivi to the fridge. They watch as she gulps as many glasses of water as she can, not saying a word. Then she barricades herself in the bathroom again as soon as she sets her cup down. Jude doesn’t leave until the other box of tests are sitting on the counter, four in total with soft pink symbols all telling her the same thing.

Her fear comes slow as reality sets in, then all at once.

No, no, no, no —

Jude’s back hits the wall, and then she’s sliding to the ground, her head in her hands, and all she can think is: this can’t be happening, I can’t have a baby, I won’t be a good mother, what will I tell Cardan?

Cardan.

“Fuck,” she whispers. And suddenly, her thoughts jump right into what her next steps should be. She purposely doesn’t think about what will come later, setting those aside to freak out about another time. Right now, she’s going to view this as a problem she needs to fix. She blots at sweat she didn’t realize had gathered on her face before she stands. Her feet have taken her back out the door before she really processes it. Then, she’s standing in the kitchen again, exhaustion weighing on her shoulders, Aleena and her sister looking at her expectantly.

“I’m pregnant,” she says without any warning, no real emotion behind it. A flash of amusement crosses Vivi’s face, and Aleena looks sympathetic. There’s a lengthy pause where none of them say a word, Jude’s announcement hanging thick in the air between them. Vivi clears her throat.

“Well, no surprise there,” she says, and Aleena slaps her on the shoulder.

“I don’t know what to... “ Jude trails off. She’s floundering right now, which is a state no one ever gets to see her in. “What to tell him,” she finishes, hating the vulnerability of her words.

Aleena crosses the kitchen to stand before her and takes her hands. “Just tell him the truth.”

Jude laughs stiffly. It’s funny, because though Aleena likes Cardan, every time they’re in the same room they bicker, and she calls him a drama queen. Jude wonders how Aleena would handle telling a melodramatic mythical creature that she’s pregnant with his child.

“That’s easier said than done,” she says, pulling her hands from Aleena and taking her hair out of her ponytail, combing her hands through the strands. She sighs. “How do you tell the bratty High King of Elfhame he’s going to be a father?”

Vivi snorts. Jude folds her arms in front of her.

“I’m sure he’ll take it like everyone else would,” Aleena offers.

“But Cardan has never given any indication he wants children, we always— he just—” Jude is gesturing now, words tumbling out of her mouth uncharacteristically. “His past wasn’t very — oh, damn, I just don’t know what to do.”

It isn’t until Vivi touches her, hands on her shoulders and pulling her into her arms that Jude stops rambling. They don’t get this close very often.

“It’ll be okay,” she says, voice low and confident, ”Just tell him, he’ll be fine. He loves you, you know that.”

Jude relaxes a bit. She knows Vivi is right. She needs to tell him, then they will announce it to the Court. The thought makes her queasy all over again, but she knows there will surely be some who are pleased that the High King and Queen will have an heir. After that… Well, she hasn’t gotten that far. If she thinks about it, she’ll absolutely lose it.

“Right,” she mumbles into Vivi’s shoulder before pulling away, straightening her posture, trying to compose herself. “I’m going to go. I have to… I have to go and tell him.”

Aleena looks alarmed. “Right now? Are you sure you wouldn’t want to stay and get him to come here? Summon him, or something?”

“No,” Jude says, “I want to go home. I need to go home.”

"Should I come with you?" Vivi asks. Jude shakes her head and steps away, a sudden, deep longing spreading through her chest. She's disoriented, this all feels unreal, like she's watching it happen from outside her body.

“Okay,” Aleena says, understanding in her eyes. She steps up next to her girlfriend and takes her hand. “Do you need to get anything ready?”

“No, I have everything I need, you know all of my mortal belongings stay here."

She's in a true rush to leave. It's strange. Minutes ago she wasn’t sure when she would ever go. The whiplash should be startling to her, but it isn’t.

Jude does grab Nightfell from the guest room and throws away the pregnancy tests, but aside from that, she really has nothing else with her. She’ll return in her dirty tank top and pants; she doesn’t care, she just needs to get back.

She leaves swiftly, giving a hug to Aleena and a nod to Vivi before striding toward the front door of the house. As she closes it behind her, Aleena calls after her.

“Jude!”

She looks back over her shoulder, butterflies fluttering in her belly, and meets Aleena’s dark eyes.

“Congratulations,” she says with a big smile and soft eyes. The flash of anxiety is back, and Jude tries her hardest to appreciate that Aleena is trying to make her feel better. She barely manages a smile.

“Yeah,” says Vivi, “You better make me the godmother, or something.”

And though it’s full of nerves, Jude laughs, then shuts the door. She wishes she could go back in time to when she woke this morning, but the last thirty minutes have felt so pivotal. It's almost as if she knew change was going to come. Her life, as insane as it already is, has just taken a turn once more.

----------

Okay, this is a rough start, but there’s a good chance I’ll be coming back through and refining/updating. I’m really excited to post the later chapters, though!

Thanks for reading!

#the cruel prince #the wicked king #the queen of nothing #the cruel prince fanfiction #jurdan fanfiction #jurdan #judecardan #jude duarte #cardan greenbriar #tfota #tfota fanfiction #my writing #my work

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scatterpatter · 4 years

Text

An Alicorn(get it? get it???) fic because im self indulgent

I just wanted to write about Corren and @jazznet‘s Alistair(GET IT? ALISTAIR AND CORREN- ALI COR-N? pls laugh im beg) bonding and stuff, so like... I did. I lov them a lot so have nearly 4k words of them snarking at each other

Word Count: 3,853

Content warnings: swearing, off-screen character with unnamed severe illness, implied toxic familial situation, mentions of death

“Ah, well, can’t say this is the deadliest situation I’ve been in!”

“Speak for yourself, dipshit!” Corren yelled, tugging Alistair’s wrist harder as they weaved through the trees of the forest, nearly tripping over thick tree roots and dense shrubbery “Is it still tailing us?!”

Alistair glanced behind them for only a moment, and lo and behold, there was a massive dragon flying just above the treetops, eyes fixed on the two F.U.C.K.s “… You got any teleporting spells left?”

“You think I wouldn’t have cast one if I did?!” The Marelienth yelled, panic spiked way too much to bother acting nice. If he had any 4th-level spell slots left, he could easily teleport the both of them a good 800 feet away from the situation, but of course he wasted them all earlier in the fight.

“Well, at least we know everyone else is safe!” Alistair chirped, sarcasm in his tone to combat the adrenaline as they both ran for their lives.

“Yeah, good for them, let’s maybe not get killed ourselves before we celebrate!” He tugged on the human’s wrist to get them going once more. Maybe if he could get under enough tree cover, they could get out of sight and the dragon won’t notice them… Corren cast a brief look over his shoulder-

Oh.

Oh no.

The dragon was still right behind them, only rather than just chasing them down, they began to suck in the energy around them, a bright fireball forming in its mouth as it prepared a breath attack.

Oh, fuck.

His gaze quickly fell to Alistair, sizing up his wounds. Normally their leader had enough health to survive some of the heavier hits, but he was already looking roughed up from before. Oh no… he might not instantly get killed if hit, but he’ll definitely get knocked out, and leaving him half-dead with a dragon probably won’t end well.

Corren, though, knew he himself was going to die instantly if hit. And death doesn’t sound very good right now. He’ll take a hard pass. But without the ability to teleport…

Wait. He didn’t waste all of his lower-level magic yet. Maybe he could…

Oh, fuck it.

With a quick wave of his hand, he summoned a rope that seemed to come down from a blank space in the sky, almost as if leading up into nothing, and ending about 10 feet above them. He gave it a quick test tug before handing it to Alistair. “Climb.”

“What is-”

“NO TIME, JUST CLIMB.” He barked, nearly shoving the human to climb the rope, satisfied once he did so and quickly following suit, the heat of flames brushing by his ankles as they both disappeared from the area.

… Corren allowed himself to breathe as he climbed up and fully into the small wooden structure he made, quickly shutting the small trap door he came in through. “That… was way too close for comfort.”

“Uh.” Alistair still seemed panicked, though Corren took ease knowing he was safe in this space. “What-?!”

“Chillax, it’s a spell I know.” He waved a dismissive hand, taking a seat against the nearest wall to rest. With the adrenaline finally passing, all he felt was exhaustion overtaking. “It’s called ‘rope trick’. We can camp out here for a while, and hopefully when we leave again, the dragon won’t be there anymore.”

“I… oh.” Alistair blinked, his own panic seeming to now die down in their temporary safety. Alistair was a pretty competent spellcaster, so Corren knew he wouldn’t have to explain too much detail for his leader to get the gist of what he was doing.

The human looked around, fully absorbing their surroundings now that he had the time to do so. They were in a small wooden room, the “trap door” being the only exit. Two windows lined the walls, looking out into an expanse of forest. Though, unlike the warm, deciduous forest they were fleeing in moments ago, this forest seemed to be made of pine and mountainous trees, air much cooler and less humid than where they were before. Small bookshelves and chairs made most of the furniture in the room, little drawings and maps tacked to the walls, it was almost like… “Are- Are we in a treehouse?”

“Mhm! … Well, technically no.” Corren pulled a book from one of the shelves, absentmindedly flipping through its pages as he explained “We’re in a demiplane right now. We can’t leave this room, except to exit back to where we came from, so don’t bother trying to climb out a window.” He snorted a bit, remembering the time he attempted to, only to be smacked in the face by the planar equivalent of a brick wall. “I can choose how this looks, though, so I wanted it to look like this.”

Alistair cocked an eyebrow, amusement flashing over his expression beneath the shock “… You do not strike me as the treehouse type.”

“I’m not! Well, not anymore, I guess.” He shrugged, trying to wave off the embarrassed blush he felt creeping on his face at opening up about his… I guess this would be his more vulnerable side. “I uh… I had one just like this when I was a kid. It’s... I don’t know.” He cast a look down to the book in his hands, smiling fondly as he caressed his fingers over the page “It’s kind of comforting, I guess.”

Alistair stood there a minute, seeming to almost study the situation… then walked over, sitting by the Marelienth’s side. “Well, guess we have some time to kill. Got anything good in there?” He grinned, motioning to the bookshelf nearest to them.

Corren laughed a bit- surprised that he caught himself laughing, actually- and set his own book aside “I wouldn’t pick from that shelf, actually. It’s more children’s books than anything than else.”

Alistair smirked “Weren’t you just reading one from that shelf?”

“I was flipping through it for the nostalgia, dipshit.” Corren glared… though they both knew that his annoyance was completely surface level. He quickly rolled his eyes, standing up stepping over to another shelf to browse through the books he stored there. “Hang on, I’ll find something.”

What would Alistair’s tastes be? … He’d probably be more like Julian than Mila, so he’ll browse Julian’s old books. He clicked his tongue, running a finger over each book’s spine, scanning their titles. Would Al be a fiction or a non-fiction type…? … Hm. He paused on one book, hesitant for a moment, but decided it might be an interesting read for the Weathervane.

Alistair blinked in surprise when the book was dropped on his lap, taking it in his hands and reading the title out of curiosity “’History of Spellcasting in Marelienth Society’?”

Corren shrugged. “I don’t know, I thought you might find it interesting, since you’re magical, but it’s also something you probably don’t already know.”

Alistair hummed in response, flipping through a few pages to get a sense of what he was reading. “… Could use more pictures.”

“Oh my gods.” Corren pinched the bridge of his nose “I should have let you pick from the children’s shelf.”

They both laughed as Corren sat by his side once more, unable to help the smug grin as he saw Alistair’s attention quickly shift back to the book, finding a section and quickly latching onto it. He watched the human’s eye scan the page with fervor, absorbing whatever he could in the limited time they had.

Corren couldn’t help the way his smile went from smug to something softer. The way Alistair acted, how he was so passionate about all he did and all he was interested in, the way he loved what he did so effortlessly… Despite any fears and anxieties that weighed him down, he always found a way to trudge forward. It was all-to-familiar to Corren, though it was something he hadn’t witnessed in years. It was… almost uncanny how much Alistair reminded him of…

“Julian!!!” Corren yelled, slamming the door to their treehouse open and giving an angry gasp at the Marelienth inside. “I knew you were in here still!”

The older Marelienth gave a small wave, but didn’t pry his eyes away from his book “Just give me five minutes, I’m almost done this chapter!”

“You said the same thing half an hour ago!!!”

“… I started a new chapter since then.”

Corren groaned loudly, fully climbing into the treehouse and crawling over to his older brother, flopping against his side dramatically “I’m boooooored!!!”

Julian just laughed, finally defeated by the child’s antics, and set his book aside, using just one arm to scoop Corren up as he got to his feet. Julian was still somewhat young, not fully grown into adulthood yet, but still stood a good 6 feet tall. Corren, on the other hand, was still a child, and was very small compared to his brother. “Alright, alright, you drama queen. I need to pick up supplies for tomorrow’s run anyways, so you can come along.”

Corren didn’t seem to mind being carried one-handedly, just swaying his legs happily “Yay~!”

The two brothers left their treehouse, walking past their home and onto the streets of their town of Warrencrest. The forest surrounding their town left a scent of pine in the air, accompanied by a hint of frost to signify the changing of the seasons. Corren was set down at this point, and settled for keeping up a quick pace to match Julian’s longer strides. He held onto his brother’s hand, though, which made sure he didn’t get left behind or lost by chasing some distraction.

With his brother leading them along, Corren let his eyes wander over their town as they walked through it. Warrencrest was a mostly Marelienth-occupied town, and it was pretty rare to see other races around their home. Everyone seemed to keep to themselves, always focused on studying time and magic and all sorts of other things that Corren ‘wasn’t mature enough to understand yet’. He felt like he was living in a bubble sometimes- it was like his siblings were the only ones who wanted to talk to him… about anything other than academics, at least. Though, that really only bothered him so much. I mean, he had 2 best friends, and he just happened to be related to them! It only sucked when they would go on short quests for some extra gold and Corren had to stay home and wait for them to come back.

Speaking of quests… “What’s the job you’re doing this time?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, let me check.” Julian used a free hand to reach into his pocket, pulling a sheet of paper out and unfolding it. It was a help wanted ad, easy to find on job boards outside of stores or taverns. He read over the terms, eyes scanning the details before he sighed and shoved the job offer back in his pockets “Just a delivery run. Apparently the passage to get to this other town is pretty rough on the terrain, and the Client’s getting up there in years, so he figured it’d be a safer bet to pay someone else to do it.”

Corren pouted, disappointed at the terms “Awww, no fighting a big scary monster or anything?”

Julian snorted, caught off-guard by the sheer absurd innocence of such a question “No, no scary monsters. Sorry to be the one to break it to you, little buddy, but questing isn’t always this grand adventure. Sometimes it’s boring, but at least you get paid… like a job!”

“Ew.” The younger Marelienth stuck his tongue out. Adventuring being boring like a job??? Gross. Though that could probably mean… Corren suddenly perked up “Oh! So if it’s not dangerous, can I come with you?”

“Uh, I don’t know…” Julian sighed, scratching his cheek “Like I said: it’s rough terrain. The last thing I’d want is for you to trip and fall down a cliff and become a Corren-Pancake.” Despite the lighthearted joking, he cringed a bit “Uh, yeah, Dad would definitely kill me if I brought you home as a skeleton instead of a Marelienth. Besides, I’ll need you to stay home and take care of our big sis while I’m gone!”

Corren frowned, tilting his head a little “She’s not going with you either?”

“Uh… no.” The lighthearted air he had around him before quickly dissipated, and he squeezed Corren’s hand a little bit “Mila’s still sick, so I don’t think she’ll be able to go questing for a while…”

How sick was she? Usually whenever Corren got sick, he’d be fine after just a couple of days, but Mila’s been stuck at home for nearly 2 weeks now! “… She’s gonna get better, right?”

Julian hesitated, only for a moment, but if Corren were older he would’ve known exactly what that hesitation meant. Instead, he was met with a reassuring smile and a pat to the head “Of course she’s gonna get better. This is our big sis we’re talking about, it takes more than just a little cold to knock a Hartwell down!”

Corren just giggled, content with the answer he got “Yeah, you’re right, but I’m gonna be the best protector until then! I know magics now!”

“That so?” Julian quickly let the lighthearted air roll back in, grateful for his brother’s naivety. “Well, show me something, then!”

Corren just grinned, letting go of his hand to run over to the side of the street, picking up a small rock and trotting back over to him. With a small wave of his hand, the rock suddenly became illuminated, giving off light like a torch.

“That’s ‘Light’, isn’t it?” Julian smiled, impressed by that small spell he was able to cast “Well look at you, learning neat Cantrips! Next thing you know, you’re gonna be the most powerful spellcaster in all of Sekrezia!”

“You know it!” Corren ate up the praise, dropping the rock and putting his hands on his hips in a prideful pose before going back to walking by Julian’s side “You know, I’m gonna be a great adventurer one day.”

“Is that so?” He suddenly grabbed Corren, hoisting him up and over his head in order to perch him on his shoulders and carry the smaller Marelienth that way “You’re going to be a hero and explore the world?”

“Yeah!!!” Corren grinned, not even blinking to the idea of riding on Julian’s shoulders. It made him feel tall! “I’m gonna team up with a bunch of other cool adventurers, and we’re going to save the world from all sorts of eeeevil monsters! And I’ll be super cool and know all sorts of neat spells!” He pushed his glasses back into place after they slipped down his nose a bit “I’ll go down in legends, and everyone’s going to think I’m super cool! ‘Corren Hartwell, the bestest adventurer of all time’!”

“’Bestest’?” Julian parroted, unable to keep in a small fit of laughter at just how pure that was “Alright, well when you’re rich and famous, can I get some of the gold you earn?”

He huffed, bapping his brother on the forehead “No way, stink-face, that’s my hard-earned gold, you can make your own!”

“Alright, alright, can’t blame your poor feeble brother for trying.” He joked, rolling his eyes fondly as they made it to their town’s main market square. “… You’ve got that spark, Corr. I feel like if you really worked at it, you could be a really cool mage. … Almost as cool as me.”

“Almost?!” He squeaked, pouting at the way his brother got such a laugh out of that.

Well, he hasn’t exactly saved the world or gone down in legends, but…

“Corren?” Alistair snapped his fingers in front of the Marelienth to catch his attention, snapping Corren out of his daze “Hey, you still with me?”

“Huh?” He blinked once or twice, pulling himself back to present day to focus his attention on the human “What’s up?”

“It looked like you were spacing out on me, you good?”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m okay.” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, not realizing just how long he was getting lost in old memories for. “Sorry, just reminiscing.”

Alistair nodded, going back to his book for a few moments… then cast a gaze back at Corren. “Why’d you leave?”

Corren went stiff, not expecting such a personal question out of the blue like that. “… What do you mean?”

He cast a look around the room again, noting all of the makeshift maps of nearby areas and crude drawings that lined the walls “It just… seems like you had a pretty good childhood. And this definitely isn’t anywhere near Lilenthemar. So why’d you leave?”

Ah. Corren knew he’d have this conversation sooner or later, but he still didn’t know how to talk about… everything that happened. How could you put what happened into words? He knows that if he’s to stay with the group, he’ll probably have to come clean about everything sooner or later, but… well, he’ll put off that conversation as long as he can. “… You’re right, I did have a pretty good childhood. Things were never perfect, but… I was happy.”

Corren ran a hand along the wood that made the walls. The actual treehouse he grew up in was long gone; wood rotted and the tree toppled, but in this demiplane, it was like his old hangout was preserved in time. … If anything, that only upset him more, knowing that everything around him was just a projection of what used to be, a childhood and innocence he could never get back. “… I’m sure you’d know this better than I ever would, but good things… have a tendency not to last.” He took a deep breath, swallowing his fears and letting himself open the fuck up for once. “After some things went wrong, I wasn’t happy here anymore… and after some more things went wrong, I didn’t even feel safe here. So, I left. I wasn’t even planning on staying in Lilenthemar, but I just so happened to meet Jethro and… well. You can’t exactly say no to a job offer from a man like him.”

Alistair snorted, fond memories of how they met Corren through their shared connection with Jericho’s father… and how they practically broke the poor Marelienth with their shenanigans. That fondness quickly faded, though, in favor of the sympathetic frown he cast to his teammate “… I’m sorry, about everything that happened. You didn’t deserve to feel unsafe in your own home.”

“Yeah…” Corren sighed, folding his arms and avoiding eye contact like the plague. He still wasn’t used to weird and intimate moments like this. “You’re right, I didn’t deserve that, but… hey, sometimes bad things just… happen. And I mean… I’m not really that sorry about it.”

“You’re not?”

The Marelienth shook his head “I mean, it sucked, don’t get me wrong about that, but. If I never ran away, I never would’ve met Jethro or Raerose. And if I never worked for Jethro, I never would’ve met- or eventually teamed up with- all of you, so…” He shrugged, a small smile tugging at his expression “I’d say it wasn’t all bad.”

Alistair just returned the smile, giving Corren a light punch on the arm “So you do love us and our antics~”

He rolled his eyes, grateful to have the tense and vulnerable moment passing for their usual snark “Oh live it up, weather boy. Just be grateful I keep sending your love messages to your boyfriend free of charge.”

“We love you too, Corren.”

He snorted, punching the human back “That’s it, I’ve had enough of your bullshit feelsy mush. That dragon’s probably gone by now, and we should regroup with the rest of the F.U.C.K.s.”

“Aw, can’t we wait just five more minutes?” Alistair pouted, motioning to the book he was given earlier “I’m almost done this chapter!”

Corren blinked incredulously, not believing his ears for a minute. He really just… “Holy shit. You are the same goddamn person.”

That caught Alistair off guard as he suddenly looked at Corren like he had two heads “… Who’s the same?”

“Uh-” He shook his head, embarrassed that he actually said that out loud “Nothing, don’t worry about it.” … Maybe a quick subject change would help, “Well, we could stay here a while longer… but the group might start thinking we’re dead. I mean, unless you want Lautrek to be appointed the new leader in your absence…”

Alistair quickly shut the book, panic setting on his expression “Uh, you know what? Maybe we should head back now. Don’t want to scare the others, haha!”

Corren just smirked. It was too easy sometimes. He opened the door back to the Material Plane, letting Alistair exit before Corren followed suit.

They landed right where they left, only the forest around them was charred completely, some branches and trunks still in flames from the fiery breath attack they barely avoided. The good news, though, was that the dragon was nowhere in sight, so they were safe for the time being.

“Wow.” Alistair remarked, scuffing his boot along the dead grass beneath them “We totally would’ve died if we got hit by that.”

“Oh yes.” Corren nodded in agreement, stretching his back lazily “I would’ve died in an instant, but you? Probably would’ve been a long, agonizing death. You would’ve wished you had low health like me. Like your blood would start to-”

“Ooookay kid, I know you’re a little bit Necromancer, but I need you to dial it down on going into detail over how I would burn to death.” Alistair patted Corren on the back, putting just enough force behind his hits for the Marelienth to get the not-so-passive aggressive message… But then a swift look of fear fell over his expression “Uh, Corren?”

“Yeah?”

“So that dragon was chasing us, so we knew our teammates would be safe?”

“Uh… yes?” He raised an eyebrow, unsure of where Alistair was going with this.

“And if we chose to hide so the dragon would eventually leave…”

Oh no. Corren was starting to get an idea where he was going with this.

“… What’s to say that Dragon didn’t go back to attacking everyone else after we disappeared?” Alistair slowly turned to share that look of horrified realization with the other.

… Oh, fuck.

“I don’t think we thought this through.” Alistair quickly readied his Halberd, looking back to where they came from.

“Thought this through?! I saved our lives!” Corren huffed, pulling out the sniper that was strapped to his back. “Guess we gotta save a few more, greeaat!”

Alistair smirked a little, pulling a health potion from his pocket and quickly chugging it down. “So, starting to regret crossing paths and joining us yet~?”

He scoffed, brushing a stray lock of hair from his face “Aw, cute. Don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily, Stormcrown.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Hartwell.”

#my fics #corren #alistair #julian #listen its a fluff-fest. sue me.#just lET MY BOYS BE HAPPY

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honestgrins · 5 years

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Cutthroat || Klaroline

She’s determined to win, but she’s not above teaming up with a rival to knock out a worse one. (Cutthroat Kitchen AU)

“Chef Matt,” Alaric intoned solemnly, “you are dismissed. Please relinquish your remaining funds.”

As the burly blond handed over the cash he never even had a chance to spend, Caroline bristled with the thrill of competition. Unfortunately for her, Damon and Klaus seemed just as energized, and she highly resented the elbow poked into her side. “Quarterback down,” Damon sneered next to her. “Is the cheerleader next? Maybe I’ll sabotage you with pom poms next, though I’ll be honest, the skirt would be better.”

She scowled as he leered down the line of her leg, tired of his needling and the gross stares. But she knew what she’d signed up for when first auditioning for Cutthroat Kitchen, and trash talk was the least of her worries. Working with tiny pans and utensils hadn’t been easy, but she’d managed a decent frittata in the first round, and she definitely enjoyed watching Klaus grimace at the substitute ingredients he’d been forced to use.

Damon, though, he deserved more than a little hardship for this next round. Glancing over to Klaus, she found him watching her curiously. She arched an eyebrow and nodded to the sleazy chef between them. He smirked, which shouldn’t have left her blushing like it did. It’s just a truce, she reminded herself. Come the final round, he’s toast.

At least, she hoped. Klaus Mikaelson was something of a legend around Chicago, where she’d only just gotten her foot in the door of the industry. While she had full faith in her own abilities, the barbs about her lack of experience and youth weren’t exactly unfounded. All she could do was make up for it with enthusiasm and creativity, which the show usually rewarded. But she’d also survived high school and her sorority house, so psychological warfare was second nature to her.

With the dark gleam of satisfaction on Klaus’s face as he nodded, she wondered if maybe she shouldn’t have conspired with Damon to kick him out first.

Steeling herself, Caroline turned to watch Alaric set up for the next challenge. “Alright, chefs,” he greeted with an evil smile. “For this round, you will be expected to make...spaghetti and meatballs! You have sixty seconds to shop for this basic dish. Go.”

She rushed forward to beat Damon to the produce, eagerly filling her basket with the best tomatoes, onions, and herbs. Luckily, she was paying attention to Klaus, who’d taken to clearing the pasta shelf into his basket. With a quick pinch of the last box of angel hair, she couldn’t help a grin to match his own when she ducked under his arm to grab the crustiest bread she could find.

“Thirty seconds!”

Oil, garlic, ground beef, a few too many spices - she frantically ran through the list in her head, sure that she was missing something important.

“And time. Chefs, please return to your stations.” Caroline bit her lip, painfully aware of the eggs she completely forgot. Refusing to let on about her mild panic, she fought to hold a blank expression as the others tried to size up her basket. It was pretty basic for most recipes, and they didn’t seem to pick up her hopefully not fatal error. “For the first sabotage, I have for you all a handy little device to hinder your opponents.” He held it up, the cuffs and plexiglas shining under the stage lights. “This is the Salad Bar to accompany your Italian classic,” he teased.

Alaric could call it what he wanted, but that was definitely a spreader bar she’d seen featured in an...adult catalog. Before she could school her reaction, however, she let out an indelicate snort. Only Klaus seemed to notice, his smirk somehow deepening with a far dirtier glint. Oh, she sighed internally, a twinge low in her belly warming her with something other than embarrassment. Interesting.

“Two thousand,” Klaus called out, not taking his eyes from her.

“Three-five,” she countered. Maybe her voice didn’t sound as breathy as it felt.

“Ten thousand.” Damon gave her the slimiest look, and it took everything in her not to throw away the rest of her cash to make sure he didn’t get to put her in some BDSM fantasy of his.

Klaus, who had yet to spend any money, glared him down. “Eleven,” he said smoothly. With plenty of money to outbid Damon’s draining budget, he all but dared him to bankrupt himself.

“Eleven going once, twice,” Alaric watched them all with interest, then smiled. “Sold. Chef Klaus, collect your winnings and crown whomever you’d like.” He collected the money and passed over the bar with a gleeful wink. “Choose wisely.”

Pretending to consider it, Klaus all but tossed the thing at Damon. “You don’t strike me as the type to be comfortable with restraint,” he goaded.

Gamely strapping himself in, Damon blew him a kiss. “Easy as pie, big bad, even if it’s too bad Barbie Chef didn’t get a chance to impress us with her...coordination.”

She grit her teeth, waiting to pummel him with the next sabotage. When Alaric brought it forward, though, she nearly jumped for joy.

“Who is going to be the Egghead?” he asked, holding a little headband strapped to an egg cup. “Whoever wears this will have to balance an egg throughout the challenge. If the egg breaks, I’m happy to replace it...for five hundred dollars a plop.”

Provided she got to keep her basket, she could more than afford breaking a couple of eggs - right into her meatball recipe. But first, she had to get one of the boys to ‘gift’ it to her. “Five thousand!”

“Six,” Klaus immediately raised, meeting her eyes with a curious glance. He could really mess with her plan if he wanted to, and she felt a wave of relief when Damon shouted out another ten thousand dollar bid. Klaus luckily backed off, and she could finally breathe.

Once Damon was announced the winner, she held back a wicked smile until he placed the gadget on her head. Unsettled, he backed away quickly, suspicious to the extreme. Alaric helpfully balanced an egg in the little cup, reminding her of the $500 penalty for each egg broken - but he never said she couldn’t use said broken eggs. Fully justified in her strategy, as soon as the timer started, she made a little bed of ground beef in her mixing bowl and let the first egg fall. “Whoops!”

Alaric shook his head, clearly amused by her obvious scheming. “Come get your replacement, chef.”

She rushed over to him with her fine and hurried back to start breaking down her bread into crumbs, needing to toss them into the oven to dry out a bit. Chopping onions and tomatoes quickly, she fills the saucepan before Alaric could bring out another sabotage. The more quickly she can get her elements cooking, the more likely she’d get to keep them - she prayed, anyway.

“How’s that egg scramble coming, Blondie?” Damon taunted, though his voice was strained with the effort of mixing meatballs with only one hand bound awkwardly to the other. “It’d be a shame for you to drop another.”

“Actually, it’s been a big help. Hard to bind a meatball without an egg, and would you believe I forgot to grab them from the pantry?” She winked at his dumbfounded expression, primly brushing back her ponytail. “I was a pageant queen, chef. If I can balance a book on my head for an hour in heels, I can handle an egg just fine.”

Klaus laughed at that, though his big hands never stopped their flurry of activity over his station. “A tiara suits you, love, you should have brought it along.”

“The only crown won here is whatever cash you still have at the end of the day,” Alaric pointed out. “That said, who wants to replace their opponents’ stovetop for a camping stove?”

“Eight thousand!” Klaus called, knowing full well he was the only one who could afford such a bid in the second round.

Caroline immediately moved her half formed meatballs to the sauce; her only hope would be to oven bake them both while using the tiny stove to boil water for her pasta. Though she did lose another egg to her hurried actions, it was more than worth the penalty to see Damon struggle moving his pot of water down from the counter. “Careful!” she called. “You don’t want to spill and have to start over!”

“Shut up, Barbie!”

“And I always thought the trash talk on this show was so witty,” Klaus pouted, whipping some cream into his sauce. “Don’t hold back, Damon, really let yourself loose.”

Muttering from the floor, Damon did let loose a few curse words Caroline hoped the cameras wouldn’t pick up. But she still laughed, happy to see her sauce bubbling softly in the oven.

Klaus feigned a scandalized horror. “Such language.”

“If you’re looking for the Great British Bake-Off, you’re on the wrong side of the pond, friend,” she teased.

“Oh,” he chuckled. “The baby chef is trying to teach me something, okay.”

“Baby?!”

He shrugged, unconcerned by her offended outburst. “Come chop a few hundred onions a day in my kitchen, sweetheart, then maybe you’ll earn a gold star or two for your mum’s refrigerator.”

Eyes narrowed, she only just held back from pointing her knife in a vaguely threatening direction. “Can’t, it’s too full of awards and news clippings. Like the latest rave review from the Sun-Times. Did you know they named my restaurant as the best dining experience in the city for their editor’s list?”

“I did.” Caroline watched him in shock as he appeared entirely unbothered. “But I believe mine earned the Michelin star this year.” She licked her lips at the smug dimples peeking out from his cheeks; it really was unfair how sexy confidence could be.

“Two minutes!”

All the contestants rushed to plate their dishes, and even Caroline felt a little bad for Damon trying to neaten up the mess of his with one hand throwing off his balance. But then she remembered the egg sitting at the top of her forehead, and focused instead on carefully grating some cheese over her mostly passable pasta. Klaus’s, of course, looked like fine cuisine, right down to the twist of his noodles into a birds nest holding three perfectly proportioned meatballs.

To no one’s surprise, the guest judge sent Damon home with more than a few critiques for his ‘lack of polish.’ Alaric called for a fifteen minute break, and Caroline gratefully ran to the craft services table for a bottle of water and some fruit. Klaus followed at a more sedate pace, though he did steal a grape from her plate. “Thanks for teaming up back there,” she said. “I’d hate to be stuck with Damon for more terrible nicknames.”

“I’m sure you would have survived despite our machinations, love. I am impressed with your little egg game, though.”

She blushed. “Well, I’m the one who forgot the stupid eggs in the first place. Let’s be honest, you wouldn’t let me through the doors of your Michelin restaurant with that kind of preparation.”

His smile softened, and she really liked how it looked on his face. “You might be surprised. In fact,” he added nonchalantly, “I’m hoping you might stop in when we’re back in Chicago. I’ve only read about the lobster bisque you made for that glowing review, and I’d be honored to offer you the chance to make it in a real kitchen.”

“And give up my recipe to the competition? No way,” she scoffed, chest warm with pride and more than a little flattered.

Smirking at her resistance, he stole another grape. “Shall we make a wager of it, sweetheart? If I win this dessert round, you make that bisque for me.”

Her eyelashes fluttered. “What do I get when I win?”

Klaus just grinned, wide and knowing. “Whatever you want.“ Oh, that shouldn’t have sent a wonderful shiver down her spine. “May the best chef win,” he challenged.

Caroline shook his proffered hand with her game face on. “Don’t worry, she will.” After all, the stakes had just gotten a lot more interesting.

#klaroline #klaroline drabbles #kcauweek2019 #day 2: crossovers/fusions #fic: cutthroat #almost everything

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71tenseventeen · 5 years

Text

Take My Hand (Take My Whole Life Too)-18

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Warnings for sexual content, male pregnancy, non-hockey Sid. Sid and Taylor’s ages have been altered to fit the story.

Perpetual credit to my betas, @queen-alia and @icosahedonist as well as the GC and @ljummen.

Sid’s awake before Geno the next morning, feeling like he hasn’t eaten in days. He’s scrambling eggs when Geno comes shuffling in and tries to take over. “What you doing? You still sick, should be resting. I cook.”

“I can cook some eggs. I’m not that sick.”

Geno doesn’t look convinced and Sid finally sighs and goes to sit at the breakfast bar. “Fine, but I have to do something besides sleep all day. It’s getting old.”

“We find something to do, I’m promise.”

Except “something” turns out to be watching TV quietly on the couch which Sid grumpily tolerates until Geno fluffs a pillow and says nonchalantly, “Should kick back, relax a little,” and Sid is done.

Before he even has a moment to think about it, he’s on his feet flinging away the blanket that Geno had tried to tuck around him and stomping toward the back of the house.

Geno follows, wide eyed. “What you doing?”

“Anything, Geno! I will literally do anything right now that isn’t laying down and resting!”

“Was doctor’s orders!” He follows Sid through the back door and looks on with shock as Sid yanks his shirt off and tosses it to the side, charging towards the pool. “Sid, come on! What you even doing?”

“I,” Sid says, turning with a flourish, “Am going to take a swim. And then, I think I’ll take a walk. Hell, maybe I’ll join a fucking marathon. All I know is I. Am not. Laying down. Anymore!” With that he turns his back on Geno again and stomps down the pool stairs into the water.

Geno watches from the edge, looking dumbfounded. “If you want to do something so bad could have just say so.”

Sid glares. “I did say so and you ignored me!”

“Only trying to do what doctor say!”

“Yeah, well, I just don’t seem to remember her saying I had to lay down until my brain fucking rots.”

“Don’t you think you being a little dramatic? No one say you have to do that. Just trying to make sure you rest! What so wrong with that?”

Sid narrows his eyes but instead of replying, he sticks his tongue out at Geno and then lets himself float onto his back, eyes drifting shut.

“Oh, that’s nice. So mature, Sid.”

“Can’t hear you! I’m swimming!”

And for a few moments Sid thinks maybe Geno has given up. At least until he feels the splash, tossing him onto his side. He surfaces, sputtering and glares at Geno again. “What the hell?”

“You want to swim! We swim!” Geno swans his arms out dramatically and floats onto his back—kicking copious amounts of water in Sid’s face in the process.

“Are you kidding me?” he sputters, once he’s cleared his eyes. Pursing his lips at the smug smile on Geno’s face he does the only thing he can. He leaps forward and wrestles Geno under the water.

Five minutes and lots of flailing later, Sid is leaning against the pool wall laughing so hard, he’s in tears. Geno is stretched out beside him still trying to stifle his own laughter as he leans his head back against the ledge. When he finally cracks an eye open, he grins at Sid. “Guess I’ve been a little bit pain in the ass.”

“Yeah. But I get it.”

“I’m sorry. All this is new to me, little bit scary. Sometimes feel like want to keep you in bubble—anything to keep you safe.”

“I haven’t given you enough credit for that. I’m sorry I was such a brat.”

Geno shrugs. “Is okay. You were right. Still need to live life, get exercise, do things.”

“That’s all I want.”

“I’m try to lighten up.”

“Thanks.”

“You ready to go in and nap now? Get some rest?”

Sid gapes at Geno in disbelief until he cracks a huge grin and laughs—at least until Sid tosses water in his face.

They spend the next couple of hours swimming, walking around the property and making lunch together. And if Sid maybe naps a little on the couch afterwards, Geno is nice enough not to be too smug about it.

Geno’s up early for practice the next morning and he looks surprised to see Sid come into the kitchen fully dressed. “You’re up early,” he starts as Sid carefully avoids eye contact. He knows this isn’t going to go over well.

Sid sighs. “I have school.”

Geno narrows his eyes.”Sid—”

Sid cuts him off. “Geno, please don’t do this. I feel better and I have to go to school.”

Geno looks like he wants to say a lot more but, thankfully, he finally shakes his head. “Fine. You come back after school, though? Maybe I drive, drop you off and pick you up after classes.”

This is the part that Sid is dreading the most and he avoids Geno’s eyes as he zips up his bag, sucks in a breath before saying, “I have to work later.”

“You kidding me?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” Sid really shouldn’t be so short with Geno but he knew this was going to be an issue. “Sorry. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

Geno shrugs. “More concerned about your health right now.”

“The doctor said I could go back.”

“She say you can go back if you feel completely better. You don’t.”

“Geno, I’m fine.”

“You forget dizzy spell yesterday? You forget needing nap?”

Sid hasn’t forgotten and he doesn’t need Geno to remind him. There are a lot of things he wants to say but most of them would make him look like a petulant child so he settles for, “I’m going,” before he turns and walks out.

Guilt hits before he’s even on the highway but there’s nothing he can do about it. He has to go to school and work, there isn’t any other choice. Besides, he’s felt better every day and he feels fine now. He’ll text Geno when he gets to class.

Classes go fine. If Sid’s being honest, he’s definitely more tired than usual but he’s not dizzy and doesn’t feel sick so he counts it as a win. Geno still hasn’t replied to his earlier apology for leaving so abruptly but he sends another text anyhow, hoping it will help.

There’s no immediate reply but Sid doesn’t really expect one, knows that Geno had a full day of practice and meetings so he shoves his phone away and tries to focus.

His last class is a struggle. He’s tired, more tired than he expected to be and yeah, okay, he’s been taking a nap every day but that’s just not an option today so he pushes though. By the time it’s over he’s dragging. Just the thought of walking to the car is overwhelming, nevermind working his five hour shift.

He wishes things were different, that he had a choice.

By the time he gets back to his car he’s lightheaded and sweating. He sits with his head on the steering wheel, air conditioner running for several minutes and thinks of Geno. Maybe he was right. Maybe he shouldn’t be going to work like this.

But then Sidney remembers the stack of bills sitting on the desk in his apartment and he shoves all thoughts of calling in out of his mind. He has to go to work. He has to.

He’s cooled down and feels a little better by the time he gets to work. He thinks, hopefully, that even though he’ll be on his feet a lot it will be in the air conditioned shop so it will be fine. As long as he’s out of the heat, he’ll be fine.

It takes less than an hour for everything to go to shit. His boss is furious, griping in the background as Sid hunches over the toilet bowl, vision swimming. He’s not really sure how he manages to pull himself together enough to leave work, much less make it back to his apartment but, somehow, he does. If he can just lay down, just cool off and drink some water, he’ll feel better.

The cramping starts before he makes it to the couch, a sudden aching twinge spreading across his abdomen and lower back. And that—that’s new and Sid tries to swallow down the rising fear as he lowers himself.

“Okay,” he says to the empty room. “It’s okay. It was just from all the walking. It probably won’t happen ag—”

Another cramp, sharp and clenching, has him scrambling for his phone, panic rising in his chest. All he can think as he listens to the other line ring is that Geno was right and he was stubborn and rude and stupidly put the baby at risk for—for what? A job at the coffee shop? The call goes to voicemail and Sid lets out a desperate sound as he quickly calls again and then again, panic nearly choking him.

This time Geno picks up on the second ring, sounding out of breath. “Sid? Sorry, was in meeting. What—”

“I’m cramping and I think it’s bad,” he blurts, cutting Geno off, voice shaking.

“Okay, need you stay calm. Where are you?”

“My apartment,” Sid says, eyes burning.

“Okay, listen to me. Want you to lay on side while you wait. I’m come get you.”

Sid shifts around until he’s laying. “Okay.”

“You laying down?”

“Yeah.” He swallows back a soft sob as he feels another cramp.

“Good. Just stay right there. I’m on way.” Sid has no idea how Geno is staying so calm but he’s never been more grateful.

“Geno I—I’m sorry. I’m so scared. You were right and I should have listened to you, I—”

“Hey,” Geno cuts him off and Sid can hear the jingle of car keys in the background. “Everything going to be okay.”

“But—”

“Sid, you have to listen. Going to come get you, take you to hospital, they take care. Everything will be okay. I’m promise.”

“Okay,” he croaks, lower lip wobbling.

“You doing so good, Sid. I’m going to hang up now for couple minute, call doctor. Then call you right back. You keep phone right there, promise you answer.”

“I promise.”

“Good. Keep laying, keep breathe. I’m on my way.”

“Okay. Okay. Hurry.”

“I’m hurry. Promise.”

Sid swallows hard, clutching the phone to his chest while he waits.

Part 19

#Take My Hand #my fic #mpreg #sidgeno #rpf #part 18 #Happy Valentine's Day #don't hate me

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witchling13 · 5 years

Text

Her Cadre - Chapter 2

I pulled an all-dayer finishing this one, so I’m going to get some sleep and tag people in the morning, XO. It’s roughly edited, but I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

**Explicit content

5,651 word count

Also, I HIGHLY recommend reading chapter 1 beforehand if you haven’t because the setting and conversation here won’t make sense. You can find it in my tags or on Ao3 here.

As always, positive and constructive feedback welcome and appreciated. Goodnight lovelies!

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Fenrys’ eyes flickered up from his ministrations to the beauty watching him between her legs. The escort had given him a full body massage and he wanted to repay her attention. Even though he was fully aroused, he asked her not to take him. She had nodded in understanding.

That didn’t stop him from wanting to pleasure her if she consented.

He’d laid her onto the bed and she spread her legs in expectancy as he crawled on his stomach and threw her knees over his shoulders. He kissed her mound, eagerly burying his face in her center.

On the other side of the bed, Elide had been full of different ideas.

Lorcan had been halfway to a deep sleep, he was so relaxed, when Elide pushed her full weight against his side in effort to flip him over. His body didn’t budge but he woke up enough to acquiesce her request, for whatever reason she wanted. He didn’t muster the willpower to ask.

He was drifting off again when he felt it. His head shot up, eyes wide at the warm wetness that had latched onto his cock.

Elide chuckled. She kept her mouth hovering over him as the escort with kind eyes sidled up to crouch next to her.

“Now, try this,” the escort whispered instructions and used small hand motions to show Elide in detail what she meant.

“Elide—”

“Don’t even try to protest, big baby,”

Lorcan was grimacing, in panic or a heart pumping exhilaration, he didn’t know which.

“Hold still. I have ideas and I want some help making sure my execution brings about the exact reaction I want. That was a good start, I’d say.”

The steel glint of confidence boring from her eyes made his legs weak. He could feel his cock growing in her grasp.

He didn’t last but a minute. Whatever she did with her tongue and tips of her teeth had him gripping the pillow behind his head, trying not to buck, godsdammit, as he huffed. When he finished in her hand, she sighed in satisfaction and met his eyes, letting the love and triumph simmer.

Lorcan didn’t hesitate. He’d swept Elide into his arms and took her to a more private side room where her sighs and moans were heard throughout the chamber. It was a little while before they returned, his love wrapped loosely in a blanket as he deposited her in a large arm chair before the fire. One that Manon had been lounging in. Manon couldn’t mute the hope in her eyes as Elide reached for her hand, the two women adjusting to sink into the cushions with their bodies pressed closely.

Lorcan needed a moment to calm. His blood was on fire and he gulped down two glasses of fairy wine in a daze as he stood naked in the warm air of the room.

Fenrys had been watching Aelin and Rowan and sensed it was time for the escorts and servant to leave. The cadre had agreed that past any normal couples’ activities, no one but themselves should be present for anything else. He made sure the servant knew to show the escorts to their chambers for the night and assured them to ask for anything they needed from the kitchens or otherwise and bid them farewell.

As Fenrys settled into the bed and resisted the urge to stroke his rigid cock, Rowan stood from the chase lounge and ran his hands through his silver white hair, ambling over to the balcony doors.

Aelin pushed the blankets and towels aside as she sat up slowly from their nest. The room was cast in warm glow of light, but she could see well enough. She felt Fenrys’ eyes on her and she steadied her breathing.

She waited a moment to sort her thoughts.

He tried not to let the elation show in his face when she rose and made her way towards him.

He took in her naked body and full hips. The prowling gate and her tousled, golden waves—before holding her gaze. A tentative yearning in her eyes kept him transfixed as she reached the foot of the bed and held out a hand. A question. An invitation.

He grasped her hand and let her lead him off the bed.

Aelin made him stand before her as he surveyed her perfect face.

“I want you to remember this night,” she whispered.

Fenrys curled a tendril of her hair around his finger, “It’s been lovely enough already, it’d be impossible for me to forget.”

Her smirk almost reached her eyes. “Always the charmer.”

It took all of his concentration to meet her serious look in effort not to linger on her lips. That part was forbidden, she had asked of them. No lip kissing.

Even if in this moment, that’s all he wanted to do for days.

Breaking their eye contact, she moved in to nuzzle his neck, feeling his throat constrict as he exhaled hard. His fingertips moved to grip her waist. She led her lips in sensuous lines and kisses along his collar bone and chest until they enclosed around one of his dark nipples. His breath hitched, and she smiled.

When she had tugged and teased him until his skin was prickling with goose-flesh, she trailed more kisses down his body until her hands clutched his backside in earnest as she settled on her knees.

This is what she wanted for him. What she had planned for this moment– the first time between them, to be knelt before him in heart wrenching gratitude for this male and all that he was and had done for her.

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

Lorcan had been staring arms crossed at the falling snow out the window. His thoughts were interrupted by a giggle from the two women nestled together on a chair before him.

When he glanced at Elide, a small, sly smile played across her lips. What was that for. Elide sat up so she could face Manon. She looked at the woman for a second before reaching up to cup her face with one hand and then leaned forward to press a gentle, intent kiss on Manon’s full mouth. Manon just smirked against her lips and let Elide kiss her once, twice more before she twisted her body into a better angle. She placed a hand under Elide’s full breasts. Her other hand floating through Elide’s hair, the iron nails brushing the ebony locks from her shoulder. Lorcan was dumbfounded. Elide, somehow reading him without even looking, glanced sideways and gave a small laugh.

“Go Lorcan,” she mouthed. Part of him had the distinct sense he was supposed to be elsewhere anyways, but another part of him couldn’t move. Couldn’t resist the urge to observe the two women and the magnetism of Elide’s arousal. He felt a roaring in his ears and his blood rushed south. Rowan put a hand on his shoulder and gave a small nod. His bright green eyes were glazed from whatever thoughts were swirling in his own mind.

Aelin was on her knees on the plush rug before Fenry’s tall body. His chest sleek with the remnants of oil glistened in the low light. She rubbed his sculpted abdomen with her hands as she took him in her mouth and consumed him.

She moaned a hungry sound, and he gently wound a hand into her hair and began to play with it absent mindedly. His brows creased together in restraint as his head tilted back with ease. Aelin still couldn’t believe they were letting her do this, but she put the thought away as Fenrys let slip his first groan. Yes, he deserved so much goodness. The loyal protector, soul friend who could look at her like no one else after what they had been through.

She continued to pull him with her hand, gently lifting his firm shaft so she could lean in and suckle his balls. She brushed her tongue over them and then took one in her mouth and tugged. His knuckles clenched in her hair. “Shit,” he gasped as the thrill ran through his veins, heels digging into the softness of the rug.

Aelin didn’t let up for a moment. Her hand slid to his tip, moving her thumb feather light back and forth across the head. She swirled, pressed, and angled the digit, dragging her thumbnail across the tiny hole and down the sensitive underside of his shaft.

Fenrys was so close to coming. He hung his head in surrender, fists clenched, as his wide eyes stared down at Aelin’s attentiveness and fervor. He felt overwhelmed with emotion and care for his Queen. Rowan approached Aelin from behind. She felt his presence before he touched her back and knew what he had in mind, what was beginning. She paused to stand and leaned forward, bending at the waist and pushing Fenrys back onto the bed. As she braced herself on Fenrys strong thighs, Rowan’s knees brushed the back of her own. He tilted her hips upward with intention.

Aelin’s core tensed in anticipation and she refocused herself on sucking Fenrys. Rowan slid a broad, deft hand along her folds.

“You’re dripping, Aelin.”

It was true, he had taken care to fully awaken her warm body fresh from the bath. And now he massaged her for a moment more before guiding himself into her and immediately beginning to move at a languid pace. Aelin moaned low. Fenrys fisted the sheets and she knew by his sounds he was about to come undone. The vibration of her throat around him and the sound of her full arousal sending him over the edge.

She struggled to swallow, coaxing every drop of his load as he laid on the bed, panting. When Aelin finished, she hugged his thighs and rested her cheek on his stomach, worrying her lower lip, as Rowan continued to taunt her with agonizingly shallow thrusts. Lorcan had been frozen in place, his cock now painfully hard, observing all of their movements and Aelin’s naked, open body. Fenrys made eye contact with the brooding male and patted the bed next to him.

Lorcan hesitated. He glanced to where Manon embraced Elide, whispering in her ear, before stealing himself and stalking his hulking form towards the bed. He scowled at Fenrys lazy grin and plopped down on the covers to wait for whatever the hell came next. Before he registered what was happening, Aelin lurched her body forward so she could climb onto Lorcan’s lap. Fenrys steadied her side. She mounted Lorcan, dragging her hands down his shoulders and shifted her seat, noting she’d caught him unaware as Lorcan’s eyes went wide and hers filled with smug satisfaction. She began to caress his thigh as she reached to play with his cock.

He held his breath. She studied his face as she gripped him, feeling him up thoroughly, every dip and groove. With two predatory hands, she pushed him onto the mattress and raked her nails across a dark nipple leaning down to bite the other one. Lorcan swore and Aelin laughed as he gripped her biceps. “I like it rough today, Lorcan” her voice was playful. “Will you please your Queen?” Something in Lorcan snapped at her smugness. Was this going to be Aelin’s fun? Or was she at the will of their pleasure? Maybe a little bit of both, but he was going to make damn sure she was overwhelmed with every inch of her males by the end of the night. Lorcan gripped her ass and lifted it to hover over him. He grunted in satisfaction as the dynamic of control shifted. As he watched her eyes, filled with mild surprise, he aligned himself with her softness and sunk Aelin down on his erect cock.

She threw her head back as her fingers dug into his chest. He was so large, her body resisted to take in his fullness. Aelin tried to recover, to drive the position and tease him, but Lorcan held her thighs firm with a triumphant look. He pushed in slowly until he felt her walls contract with need, giving her bare seconds to adjust before forcefully lifting to roll her back and forth on his cock to his preferred rhythm.

Her mind was reeling, grasping for a snarky retort when Rowan fisted her hair, pulling her back flush against his chest. He reached around to massage her nipples and Aelin moaned as her head fell against his shoulder. Her lips parted and Rowan slid a tantalizing finger in her mouth as he leaned in to sink his canines in the crook of her neck. She called out his name as her hands sought purchase, unable to find any as her body was jostled and caressed by an abundance of powerful hands. Lorcan began to thrust faster and harder. She was so tight and warm. Her round breasts bounced as her mate placed a protective hand on her belly. The tender gesture brought his thoughts back to Elide and he glanced across the bed at her and Manon before the fire. She was clearly enjoying herself. Manon knelt on the floor in between her thighs, the top of her head visible with one of Elide’s bare legs draped over her shoulder. Their hands were intertwined against the pillows.

Lorcan’s eyes rolled back as he groaned, pounding harder into Aelin. He slammed her down repeatedly now, seated as deep as she could take and she cried out, falling forward to brace herself on his chest. Fenrys was kneeling beside them on the bed. He stroked himself, pausing to slide a hand underneath Aelin’s belly until he reached the nub of her clit.

He circled and rubbed the swollen flesh. It was enough Aelin collapsed onto Lorcan, shuddering in waves as she came, and Lorcan rolled them, pinning her onto her back with a loud guttural grunt. His final rough thrusts had her whimpering and clawing. Somewhere she registered a hand grip her breast as he pulsed inside her, the feeling of warm release between her legs. Aelin’s body felt hot, coming back down from her high as Lorcan finished. A sated feeling wash over her as they both took a second to deep breathe. He had filled her up so fully, she could feel his liquid trickling out of her folds. Without warning, Lorcan swiftly withdrew from inside her, backing up and away. She opened her mouth but before she could manage a noise in protest, Fenrys flipped her onto her stomach.

She sighed, content to swallow her comments. She had expected her cadre to take control and ravish her until they wanted no more.

“Are you alright Aelin?” Fenrys asked. He couldn’t see her eyes.

Aelin blinked once anyways, but also nodded with a small smile on her lips. “Good girl” he said. “I know you’re tired, but we’re far from done, love. You feel exquisite.” She thought she heard Rowan loose a breathy laugh.

She was surprised he was enjoying himself enough to chuckle considering the male’s facial expressions usually rivalled a brick. She wasn’t surprised at his possessiveness and ferocity when she first mentioned this whole idea. But her cadre dynamic had been evolving slowly, intimately over the years and their rigid walls had become more like curtains of late. Inviting, comforting, open…

She glanced back at her mate now, the heady lust in his eyes at her naked body. Being pleasured by his brothers, no less.

Even he hadn’t imagined he’d be able to get through this night without wanting to rip their throats out, but he had threatened Fenrys and Lorcan within an inch of their lives if they hurt her. The massage oils and faerie wine had completely relaxed his mind and he was determined to fulfill this experience exactly how his wife wanted it to be. How they all needed it to be.

Her pleasure made him weak. Rowan gripped Aelin’s legs and spun her until she was sideways across the bed so her head was at the edge. He crawled over her, letting his cock drag up her backside and spine until he stood at her head. Spreading her arms wide like a cross, he pressed her shoulders securely to the mattress. Aelin buried her head in the sheets and forced herself to breath, awaiting the next phantom touch and she grabbed at ruffled fabric with her outstretched hands. Fenrys shuffled to behind her prone body, his large hands sliding up her ankles and then her calves until he reached her thighs, spreading them wide as he knelt between them. He kneaded her sides with his thumbs, trying to relish the look of her one more moment before he lost himself inside her. One impatient wiggle from Aelin had him suppressing a grin as conceded to reach for a large silk pillow and wedge it under her hips. He caressed the smooth skin of her ass.

He wanted unhindered access, to be in her and able to touch her and stroke her deeply. His heart raced, and eyelashes fluttered as he laid over her, resting some weight on his forearms until he covered her body fully. She released a contented sigh as he swept her golden hair to the side placing hot kisses on the back of her neck. Aelin felt stabbing butterflies at the intimacy of it all. Fenrys parted her folds with a few fingers, his breath was heavy in her ear and he prodded her with the tip of his cock. He felt her clenching in excitement but he slid in and in against the delicate resistance until his balls pressed snugly against her opening. With a kiss to her hair, he began to slide in and out.

Aelin’s eyes clamped shut and the feel of him so deep sent a bolt of pleasure from her core to her chest. Gods, his body was so heavy but gentle it made her want to cry.

He thrust in a sensuous rhythm, building them both into passionate groans. Aelin’s insides went utterly molten at the sounds and the pleasure. She whimpered and struggled, desperately needing to touch the male, to free her shoulders and reach back, but Rowan held her fast. Her arms clawed futile at the sheets.

“You’re so beautiful Aelin,” Rowan watched her writhe. “Buzzard” she muffled. “Do you feel all of me, Aelin?” It was Fenrys who murmured against her ear, as he rolled into her so lovely and deep, he nudged her womb. “We fit so well and I plan to unravel you slowly.” She mewled softly at his words alone. His cock was stroking all the right places, his hands on her body hot and possessive as a thin sheen of sweat broke out on her skin. Her pussy was split wide and so incredibly slick from the amount of Lorcan’s seed.

Rowan released her shoulders and lifted her chin, his thick, hardened cock swaying in front of her face. Fenrys allowed her to push up on her forearms, reaching under to cup her breast and anchor her to him as he thrust. Aelin opened her mouth and let Rowan slide in.

He shut his eyes at the first swirl of her tongue. The wet warmth enveloping his cock threatening to undo him immediately. But Aelin took her time, bobbing her head as much as she could manage, letting her tongue linger around the tip to massage the sensitive underside. She reached out a hand, trailing a finger down the line of hair descending from his navel before wrapping them all around the base of his shaft so he was forced to stagger closer.

Rowan’s instincts went feral with lust and his fingers tightened in her hair; if there was anything he loved about his wife in bed, it was her boldness. Even if tonight would be nothing like the rough abandon they shared when it was just the two of them.

She slid her hand along him a few times before placing a pointed, open mouthed kiss around his ridged tip and peering up to meet his eyes. “Fuck me, Rowan.” He was more than willing to comply. He brushed back her tangled hair from her forehead, bringing both his hands to cup the sides of her face. A thumb caressed her jaw as he gripped her chin and held it level. Aelin’s gaze flickered to his cock brushing against her lips before she locked eyes with him once more and opened. She didn’t hold back the hungry groan that rose from her throat as he stuffed her mouth and began to pump in and out.

The movement fell in time with Fenrys’ pounding between her legs and Aelin became overwhelmed at the deep synchronized sensations, a stray tear trickling out of the corner of her eye. She was entirely full and yet the edge of her mind screamed more more more. It didn’t take long for Rowan to come. His cock had been hard ever since he played with Aelin’s freshly bathed body during their prelude on the lounge. He dug his fingers into her scalp, resisting the urge to shove her head down further as he erupted, shooting ropes of cum down the back of her throat with a pained cry of release. Somewhere in her addled mind, Aelin remembered to swallow. She reached to knead his perfect ass as she sucked him dry, her face going serene as she licked his shaft clean with swollen lips and tongue.

Rowan’s voice broke the sound of languid slapping skin against skin. “Don’t finish yet” Fenrys was too absorbed in the softness of Aelin to answer. He had pushed her legs together, rutting into her tight hole with practiced restraint. His cock throbbed, craving desperate release, but, he knew the game Whitethorn wanted to play. “Are you ready to submit, Aelin?” The low authority in her mate’s tone made her insides momentarily squirm.

Submit. As if she hadn’t already been letting them have their way with her. And relishing every second of it. But she knew they were about to move into new, heavier territory and her blood sang with the thrill. The coddling from her males was over. She opted for a mischievous grin, burying her head in the sheets without bothering to answer.

Fenrys’s hand smacked her ass sharp enough to leave a petty mark and she clenched in exhilaration.

Yes. Coddling. Definitely, definitely over.

“I’ll repeat the question.” Rowan’s voice was lethally calm. “Are you ready to submit Aelin?” She turned her head to the side and stuck out a pouty bottom lip. Rowan traced it with a finger then relented, kneeling down to give her a long, sensual kiss with a playful bite, leaving her breathless. “Yes” she breathed. He smirked. Fenrys slowly pulled out from Aelin’s opening, the head tugging free with a small wet pop. Aelin whined at the empty feeling and clung to the sheets as Fenrys gripped her ass, leaning back on his heels, pupils blown wide, running a hand through his curly hair. Aelin glanced down to where Lorcan knelt quietly by her feet, his hands rubbed along her calves. Rowan and Fenrys had failed to pay attention to whatever occupied the male during their pleasuring. Apparently, Lorcan had used his time to massage the bottom pads of one foot and then the other, occasionally suckling on one of her toes and kissing along her ankles and the sides of her heels. Since he was careful not to tickle them or rub too hard and Aelin had made no comment. Oh right…Elide may have confided in Aelin, who failed to keep it to herself, that Lorcan had a minor foot fetish. With an abrupt motion, Rowan yanked Aelin upwards on the bed until she was kneeling. Her frame looked small compared to the males surrounding her as her skin glistening in the low light. Before she could register what was about to happen, Fenrys slipped a black band of fabric around her head, blocking out her sight entirely.

Aelin’s heart began to thud so loudly in her chest, her ears rang with the beats. She knew the males could hear it too as two pairs of hands began to trail along her torso. They shoved her down onto the mattress as a third pair of rough calloused fingers made their way to the insides of her thighs.

Her breath was coming in pants, the excitement winning out over fear as she stilled her tired and tender body. They had not discussed this idea with her and she wasn’t used to being the one taken by surprise.

Another breath and she was rolled on top of a male form. Rowan laid flat on the bed, holding Aelin’s so her bare breasts were flush against him. His powerful chest rose and fell beneath her as she took in his scent, resting her cheek against him. Her drowsy fingers wove in and out of his white hair and his hands drifted down her body to her thighs. A tension settled into the air as he rubbed circles just below her ass cheeks. “I’m so tender Rowan” she exhaled. “Just a little longer, Fireheart,” he whispered. “You’ve been so good.” It was even more true considering he knew she’d been concealing her sensitivity well. He hadn’t thought she would last through this much play given what else had been rubbing against her walls. She pulled back to look at Rowan’s face, even though she couldn’t actually see him. He leaned up to kiss along her jaw before cradling the side of her neck so he could suck and bite hard enough to leave several marks. Fenrys roughly pulled her hips so her ass hung in the air. He gave no pause sliding into her wet sex until he filled her once again. Aelin mewled, but he didn’t thrust, content to let her warm his cock while he waited for Whitethorn. It was time to push their queen to the limit, and Fenrys was almost giddy that the three of them were going to do it all at once. Rowan grasped Aelin’s hand and guided it down his sculpted abdomen, scraping her nails along his V lines and wrapping her fingers around his limp cock. He was almost recovered from using her mouth, but he needed her touch. There was a dip as Lorcan climbed onto the bed behind him and sat, crossing his arms with impatience. Fenrys dragged a broad hand along Aelin’s spine and she arched back. He caressed her ass with both hands and bent to kiss each cheek in earnest. Now he could see if their preparation had been enough. He parted her cheeks delicately; obscuring the entrance to her tiny, ass hole was the rounded end of a little gold plug.

It was perfectly snug. He was sure the toy had kept her ready and extremely sensitive. Fenrys tugged the flared grip as he carefully pulled till the small bulb popped free and he could see the tapered shaft. He removed it fully and prodded her with his fingers at a leisurely pace. “Godsss!” Aelin jerked.

Fenrys swore as she bucked against him, his cock twitching violently inside her as he ground his teeth to hold back his eager release. He continued to finger her, slipping in two up to the knuckle, coaxing her to widen much as she could for him. The plug had been large enough, heavily oiled and his cock was excessively slick. She could receive him easily. Rowan was fully erect now, Aelin’s hand stroking his length of her own accord. Fenrys withdrew from her folds yet again and took a deep breath, lining himself up with her other hole as Rowan did the same for her pussy. Aelin was nearly shaking with anticipation.

Rowan slid her down onto his cock as Fenrys leaned over and ever so slowly pushed into her ass. A string of unqueenly curses caught in Aelin’s throat as she was filled like never before. She almost screamed as they both began to move. It was like the world stopped. Aelin’s mind went blank her mouth gaped, brows screwed in what would look like pain to anyone not in this moment. The fullness threatened to burst her wide open with each stab of pleasure. She felt her frantic heartbeat and the emotions rise up in her throat, so warm with gratitude for her cadre she couldn’t form words if she tried. She needed them as much as they needed her. A few tears trickled down her face and Rowan attempted to brush one away. “Do you want us to stop?” He grunted. “NO!” it was a choked cry amidst uneven gasps. Rowan registered her tears were not because of pain and his heart beat erratically as he felt a small wave of emotion at his Fireheart.

“Easy little lamb…don’t fight it,” Fenrys was mock soothing as she gently came. If she’d been more aware of anything except the overwhelming plunging sensations assaulting her walls, she would’ve laughed at his pet name for her and kicked back in protest. Lorcan knelt waving his greedy cock in Aelin’s face. Rowan lifted her torso so she hovered above his body, managing to take a breast in his mouth and suck fervently on a soft, peaked nipple. Aelin didn’t register the reason for the shift until Lorcan shoved a thumb between her lips, prodding them open. She was barely coherent enough to breath, let alone suck a dick, but she lowered her head just slightly in submission as she continued to cry out. The two fae pinning her hips tried to keep her still enough as they both fucked her deeply. Lorcan fisted her hair and slowly pushed her down onto his throbbing cock and he instantly began moving in her mouth. The cacophony of noises coming from the foursome transfixed Elide and Manon. They were curled half clothed, on the oversized chase lounge, Elide reaching around Manon’s abdomen and up to fondle a breast. The bed had been shaking for what seemed like hours but Manon and Elide were content to cuddle in warmth and doze. Until now. They couldn’t tear their eyes from the erotic site. Elide watched Lorcan’s back and thigh muscles flex and felt her blood heat when that favorite vulnerable expression she loved spread across his face. Violent shudders wrecked Aelin’s body as she contracted and came again. Her teeth grazed Lorcan’s cock ever so slightly and he twitched hard and swore. Lorcan pulled out of her mouth to pump himself and give her the briefest respite to breath. “It’s—too much!” Aelin rasped. Her pleading whimpers uncontrollable. The fae males didn’t even blink. It wasn’t her safe word. She had two, actually. One for Rowan’s ears only and one designated for tonight, all of them consensually aware. The thrusting, the pumping, the possession as they ravished her. They wouldn’t stop unless she begged, the chosen word on her lips. She was going to combust. She would combust and then implode and melt into oblivion. She had already cum twice, the second time so completely she felt it in her toes. Part of her prayed it would be over soon. An equal part of her praying the ecstasy would last forever. But she was fading fast. Fenrys was impressed that he’d lasting so long even though he had finished first. Once his cock was enveloped in the tightness of her ass, he knew it was a matter of moments before he exploded. The orgasm hit his body like a tidal wave he spilled some of his liquid inside of Aelin before pulling out to let the rest squirt on her hips and back. But before he could go mostly limp, he pushed back in, wanting Aelin to feel all of the males inside her as long as she could bare it. Aelin was near catatonic and completely limp. Her arms stretched straight towards Lorcan’s waist as he held her suspended by her biceps, pumping into her mouth. Rowan gripped her waist to keep her from collapsing on him fully and Fenrys had a vice like grip on her heavy breasts. Lorcan rocked back on his heels and came with a roar. He pulled out of Aelin’s mouth just in time to deposit a few thick ropes of cum in her hair. They had marked her. This part of Aelin’s plan didn’t sit well with Fenrys. She had told them clearly she wanted them to take her and claim her, however messy it got, as long as she wasn’t in extreme pain, but a part of him felt the cum soak debasing. Probably because he couldn’t completely surrender his deep, raw feelings to instantly shred anyone who threatened her well-being. However, a small part of his territorial fae bastard body was inflamed with satisfaction at the sight. Lorcan had lowered Aelin back onto Rowan’s chest as he ran gentle fingers through her long tresses, spreading his cum. He hummed in approval “Good girl, Aelin.” Rowan was thrusting erratically, so close to coming undone and wanting to finish quickly before she passed out from exhaustion. Aelin was done for now. She murmured something in his ear, and he reached to assault the sensitive nub of her clit one last time. His eyes shut tight, and he released a low groan as Aelin’s body bucked unceremoniously with her last shred of energy. He pulled out as he came, his cum dripping from her folds and spurting up her abdomen. Fenrys held her steady as Rowan massaged his cock, working him through his orgasm as he breathed heavily in Aelin’s ear. The last thing Aelin remembered clearly was Fenrys pulling out of her inch by inch, Rowan’s smooth hand on her stomach, coated in cum, before he wrapped her smaller body against his muttering, “All done now, Fireheart. Rest Queen of Terrasan.”

#Her Cadre #rowaelin #elorcan #aelin x fenrys #aelin x lorcan #manon x elide #elide x lorcan #throne of glass fanfic #throne of glass smut #tog fanfic #tog smut #my fics #aelin x rowan #rowan x aelin #the cadre #fenrys moonbeam

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aliceslantern · 5 years

Text

Beyond this Existence: Counterpoint, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, chapter 6

Summary: After being recompleted, Ienzo vows to do everything in his power to atone for the atrocities he committed in the past. But this life hasn't been easy, and he's plagued with memories and nightmares. When Demyx suddenly reappears, the two discover that they have more in common than they thought, though the secrets in their past might tear them apart. Zemyx (Demyx/Ienzo), post kh3

Read it on FF.net/on AO3

There was no need to panic.

Ienzo’s veins were tingling and acidic. Breathing hurt. I am not dying. This is a psychological reaction. You are being too dramatic, Ienzo.

There was no need to panic.

He needed to find the logic in the situation.

Feeling sexual attraction was normal. If he’d had a standard puberty he would have experienced it by now, most likely. He’d only ever felt an aesthetic appreciation for people. This was deeper, more intense, but altogether normal . And considering how rarely Ienzo was around people his age, it did make a sort of sense that the first person he fixated on was the only one in the castle of his generation, and who hadn’t played a part in raising him.

There was no need to panic. This would pass with time. Wouldn’t it? It wasn’t as if he could actually act on these feelings--he couldn’t even imagine it--

That wasn’t true. He could.

The thought of it alone tightened the longing and anxiety so tightly together that for several long minutes he couldn’t think at all. He could only let it wash through him.

Ienzo would have to be composed. It would be over soon.

He slept restlessly and tried to figure out the best way to spend his time the following day. To borrow the old phrase, he felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place--his investigation into Sora’s disappearance was painful but solitary, and his translations with Demyx were peaceful but risked his sanity in a whole new way.

But he was too anxious to think about trauma, so he went down to the study room. To his immense relief, Demyx was not there. Rather than study the music, or parse more lines, Ienzo spent several hours refamiliarizing himself with the structure of the written runes and the most common characters, participles, and gender pronouns. He made himself eat lunch. When he returned, he tried to study, but found himself in a haze of dissociation.

“How do I be a better person?”

Demyx startled him in two ways, and he nearly fell out of the chair. “I was not expecting you today.” He looked up. The warm sunlight played off his eyes. Ienzo tried to will himself not to feel. He was not staring or ogling, merely making eye contact. As one does.

“I… I thought I needed a break. But I wanted to talk to you.” He looked a bit sheepish.

Ienzo smiled despite himself. “Well, do you need my permission?”

Demyx hesitated. “It’s just that you seem to know so much more about being better. And I… want to.”

He sighed. “I’m glad to hear that, but it’s not so simple. I’m still trying to come to terms with it myself.”

Demyx sat down next to him. His proximity was almost too much, and Ienzo pulled his hands through his hair. How on earth did people go around feeling like this all the time? He grounded himself in the heaviness of the subject, but his voice faltered anyway. “It’s about… knowing your own wrongdoings, your insecurities, your flaws, it’s about understanding where they came from and why, it’s about all the choices you make, broad and narrow, every single day. Morality is not simple, it’s not just darkness and light.”

“I know that. I’m not as dumb as I seem.”

He blinked. “Have I ever said you were?” Demyx was shocked into silence. Ienzo, again, felt guilty. They’d all been so careless and cruel with him. He was just as brittle as Ienzo. The words spilled from him almost of their own accord. “You’re not dumb. You are sharp, you think clearly, you see things I cannot see. I think you have a problem with your self worth, and I think more than anything that’s what’s been holding you back. This existence has given you ambition like I’ve never seen before from you. Don’t squander it. Please.” He’d taken Demyx’s hand and squeezed it. He had to let go. Didn’t want to. Demyx looked down briefly at the hand he’d touched, then back to Ienzo’s own. Why did it seem that he’d also wanted that touch? You’re projecting, and poorly at that.

Demyx nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Good. I will help you how I can.” He was smiling involuntarily; it seemed to have been ages since it wasn’t forced. Demyx smiled back. For a moment he felt warm all over, and the anxiety was bearable.

Demyx broke eye contact, his hand touching his chest. He gasped, a tight, pained sound.

“Demyx? Are you alright?”

For a second time since they’d begun their studies, he fainted. Ienzo, again, felt helpless. He slipped off his lab coat and put it under his head. Demyx was breathing hard and fast, and his muscles were fraught with tension. Ienzo took his pulse. It was uncomfortably high, as was his temperature. He was about to call for Even when Demyx stirred, not quite breaching consciousness. Ienzo kept monitoring his pulse. As the minutes passed, it improved, but remained erratic. Somewhere in this, Demyx found the hand holding onto his and squeezed.

A shiver of relief passed through him. “Oh, good, you’ve come to. Can you speak?”

“I feel sick,” he mumbled.

“You’ve fainted.”

Demyx sat up woozily. Ienzo eased him back down. “Rest for a minute, okay? You’ve a bit of a fever.”

“I felt cold this morning.”

“That might be it.” Ienzo had his doubts. After several more tense minutes, Demyx’s pulse settled down to normal. “Can you sit up?” He slipped an arm under him and gently hefted him up. Demyx swayed a little. “We’ve got to try to get you to bed, alright? Lean against me if you have to.”

Even only taking part of Demyx’s weight, Ienzo still felt weak. In his peripheral, Ienzo noticed how terrible he looked, washed out and humiliated and fighting tears.

“Do you think this is systemic?” Ienzo asked. “Or psychological? What were you thinking about immediately before you lost consciousness? Do you remember?”

He didn’t speak. A pink flush crept into his cheeks. It could’ve been something painful, and Ienzo regretted asking. Demyx stumbled; Ienzo could barely take the extra weight.

“I’m wondering if I should get Aeleus to come carry you. You’re very weak.”

“Please don’t,” he said desperately.

Concern welled in him. ““Clearly something has upset you on a deep metaphysical level--”

“I can’t tell you.” A sharp statement.

“Is it very personal?”

Demyx nodded.

“Alright.”

Eventually they made it. Ienzo rolled his shoulders, knowing he’d be sore later.

“I’m sorry,” Demyx said. He looked so weak, so sad, but if he didn’t want to talk about it it wasn’t like Ienzo could be much help.

“I’m not as strong as I used to be,” Ienzo said. He sighed. “Get some rest. I’ll come check on you in a few hours.”

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

There it was again, that surge of pity. “Do you believe I’d just leave you lying there?” Ienzo asked. Demyx hesitated and shook his head. He didn’t fully trust Ienzo. But why should he? He hadn't earned that trust. “Hopefully this pain you’re experiencing is temporary,” he said, and left.

Ienzo took a moment to try and process all he was feeling. The logical thing to do would be to try and avoid him, at least until these feelings began to fade. He wasn’t used to his thoughts being in disagreement with his body, and to an extent, his heart.

He was too brittle, too undeserving, of romantic love.

He saw Even coming down the hall, his long blonde hair still wet from bathing. “Ansem was looking for you,” he said. “When you’ve a moment, go join him in the lab. Aren’t you still dallying about with Demyx?”

“It’s not dallying,” Ienzo said tiredly. “We’re actually working on a legitimate research project. It’s a very old score with lyrics in runes.”

“I never had much patience for anthropology, but it is very important to understand the past. I can see why you’d be drawn to it. Though I can’t help but wonder. What is it like working with him? I can’t imagine it’s easy.”

Ienzo felt a shiver of anger at Even. “Actually, it is somewhat refreshing. He’s smarter than he acts. I wish you would ease up on him just a touch. He’s as vulnerable as I am.”

He considered that. “Is that so,” Even said.

“Might you do me a favor? He’s fainted again. Could you check up on him in a few hours? I was going to, but I should see what Master Ansem needs.” He briefly described what had happened.

“Yes, I suppose. He is quite sickly, isn’t he? It’s a wonder why I’m not as well.”

“We’re all handling it differently.” Ienzo himself felt exhausted. “Thank you, Even.”

Ienzo headed towards the lab. His legs were heavy, and his shoulders ached. Still, when he approached Ansem he tried to neaten his posture.

“Good afternoon, Ienzo.” Ansem smiled. “I’m sorry to tear you away from your personal project, but I have something that I think might be of use to you.” He patted the chair next to him. “Mickey answered my letter.”

“How is he?”

“He’s doing as well as he can, I suppose. He’s glad to be home, with the queen. Of course he’s worried about Sora, but we all are.”

“Yes,” Ienzo said. He wasn’t sure how this related to his work.

“It turns out he himself had some rather intriguing data. He sent it over a few days ago, but it took me about as much time to get it sorted. Look at this.” Ansem pulled up a file. A lifelike, digital model of a younger Sora was frozen on the screen.

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“This Data Sora was created in order to fight viruses hidden in Jiminy’s journals. Jiminy’s descriptions of Sora were so clear and detailed that he developed the same behaviors, and, Mickey believes, a similar heart.”

Ienzo felt his heart start pounding. “I had hypothesized that perhaps we could trace Sora’s disappearance using the bonds in his heart. If this is at all accurate, I might be able to test it.”

“You’d have to program a very intricate simulation, but yes, that’s what I was thinking as well. Mickey was also generous enough to send over all of the recordings of this Data Sora he could find, and Jiminy sent copies of his journals for you to review.”

Ienzo touched the model of Sora on the screen. For the first time, he wondered if it were actually possible for him to save Sora.

“We should watch these recordings firstly, and then we can tweak copy and tweak the model appropriately. We might not have access to Sora’s newer memories, but we have the journals, which might allow us to fill in some gaps.” He opened the first of the recordings. “You might want to get comfortable. We’re going to be here for some time.”

#beyond this existence: counterpoint #ienzo #demyx #zemyx #demyx/ienzo #beyond this existence #short one this week lads

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timelock97 · 5 years

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Out of Order Love

Chapter One: A Ringing Headache

Summary: It was meant to be a fun time in Vegas. Spending time with the best friend and celebrate getting done with college to turn the page to a new chapter in life. If only (Y/N) realized she would be turning a few extra pages by accidentally marrying her favorite actor.

Word Count: 1,863

I wake to a headache pounding against my temples. Peeking my eyes open, I squint at the light that is pouring into the room from the barley open curtains. I sink my head further into the pillow, hiding from the morning. Five more minutes, then I'll get up and get ready. I take in the comfort of the smooth sheets against my skin, stretching my legs against the comforter, and curling my arms back under the pillow in an attempt to fall back asleep. Until, I come to the realization that my bare chest is pressed into the mattress. "Oh shit." I breathe as I sit up, groaning at the slight pain in my head as I do. I grab at the sheets before they pool around my waist . "Am I naked?" My voice is barely above a whisper as I check under the covers only to pull them to their original place. "Yup, definitely naked. Fuck." I sit there for a moment, dragging my fingers through my messy, tangled hair, now realizing that this is not the shared room that I had been staying in with Emily. Slowly I crawl out of bed, dragging the sheet with me to the door.

A man's agitated voice is heard from the other side, most likely trying to figure out what happened too. I open the door and poke my head out, seeing him leaning over the small kitchen counter, hand raking through his hair, clad in only a pair of boxers. "How is this going to work-" he groaned, leaning closer to the counter. "I posted it on Instagram and Twitter?" He pauses, "It's not like I can just tell them that it was a joke-" he begins to turn, and I begin to panic, - "especially now that the media has seen it-" He cuts himself off when his eyes fall on me standing in the doorway staring wide-eyed back.

I swallow hard, mumbling, "Nope, not happening." I close the door before crawling back into bed and throwing the discarded comforter over my body. No way Tom Holland had been standing in the other room. It just wasn't possible.

The door creaks open, feet cautiously shuffle across the floor. The bed dips and he lets out a long sigh. "Hi-" he takes in a breath- "I'm going to continue to talk quietly since my head is pounding and I am sure yours is as well." He pauses, most likely collecting his thoughts, "I don't really know where to start-"

"Did you use a condom?" I interject.

"Pardon?" His voice quivers.

"Did you use a condom? I mean, I'm on the pill, but I would feel better-"

"Oh, oh!" He jumps up from the bed, "yes, we- I did. We're good."

"Okay, um-"

"Tom."

"Right." I state quietly, "do- do you happen to know where my clothes are? I really haven't been able..." My voice trails as I hide under the covers further.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" his voice switches to the Queens accent as he shuffles around the room. "Um,-"

"(Y/N)"

"(Y/N), I am just going to give you a shirt because whatever you wore last night is, uh, unwearable?" His voice goes up a few octaves, embarrassment evident in it.

"Not even going to ask," I whisper, sticking my hand out from under the pile of covers to grab the article of clothing. As soon as it is placed into my palm, I pulled it under with me and shifted enough to pull it over my head. Finally, I sit up and let the covers bunch at my waist looking at him standing a few feet from the bed. "So, uh, I really don't remember much."

"Yeah, we were both completely wasted; but,-" he runs a hand through his hair- "we may have, gotten married? And I may havepostedittosocialmedia." His eyes stare at me in fear and curiosity.

I open and close my mouth trying to find the right words. I glance down to my hands and see a very fake wedding band on my left ring finger.

Before I can get word out, my phone lights up on the bedside table. With a quick glance to him, which he responds wordlessly by gesturing toward my phone, I grab it and answer. "Emily-"

"Where the hell are you?!" She screeches through the phone, loud enough that I had to pull it away from my ear and that Tom could hear it way too easily.

"Em-"

"We were at the bar for a half hour and you just, disappeared!" Her voice rises as she continues "Where on God's Earth did you go?"

"Emily, if you just let me explain-"

She gasps, cutting off my words. "Did you have a one-night stand?!"

"Emily!" I half-scream, running my hand down the side of my face. By now, Tom has sat down on the side of the bed and is watching me closely. "I have a lot to explain, but right now, I need you to do me a favor." When she doesn't speak up, I continued, "I need you to bring me a change of clothes-"

"You DID have a one-night stand-"

"Emily! Please!" My voice quivers. I run my fingers through my unkempt hair, tugging at the ends in frustration.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, continue." I can hear the curiosity and smile in her voice. God, I couldn't believe her, she knew a subject like this should have been touchy.

Tom opens his mouth and mutters, "You can borrow some joggers. We still need to talk more about this, but I think we both need to take a minute and figure some of this out on our own."

I nod at his words, "Actually, Em, could you just pick me up from -" I glance at Tom who catches on-

"The Venetian."

"The Venetian?" I repeat, "In like, ten minutes?"

"Yes, ma'am! Then you're REALLY going to tell me what happened!" The line goes dead, but not before I hear a faint giggle at the end.

I place my phone in my lap before looking up at him again. "Best friends, gotta love 'em, right?"

He laughs, "Yeah. Can always count on them-"

"To jump to conclusions." I finish for him, which only causes him to laugh harder and I join in. God, if I could hold onto this moment, us laughing, the world would be better. But, no, the world has some weird shit planned.

"Tom? Where are you?" A voice, which I can tell is Harrison, calls out.

"One sec, mate." Tom shouts, standing quickly before stopping, turning on the ball of his feet, and grabbing a pair of pants from his suitcase. "You probably want these."

"Yeah." I take them from his hand, "Be kinda awkward if I had to find them myself."

He chuckles before slipping out of the room. Now that the door is closed, I slip back out of bed and slip the sweatpants on, they are a little tight, but only because the ends of them are fitted. Now I have some time to process what happened. I went to Vegas to celebrate graduating college with my partier of a best friend. Ended up getting wasted on the second night here, and now am married to a celebrity that I absolutely adore and admire. As bad as it could have been, at least Tom is a good guy. Sighing, I make my way to the door, phone in hand.

Harrison is standing close to Tom whispering when I step out of the bedroom. He stops and looks at me, Tom turning as well. "You must be (Y/N), I'm Harrison."

"It's nice to meet you, Harrison." My phone pings in my hand, showing Emily's text saying that she's here, "Um, my ride's here."

Tom quickly walks over to me, "We still need to figure this out, are you -"

"I'm going out of town a bit to go visit a family friend, then will be back this evening. Can we discuss this then? I, I can come back?" I try not to be rude, but the current situation at hand is stressing me out. Thankfully, Tom can see that.

"That would be fine. Uh, can I get your number and you can let me know when you get back?"

"Yeah," I hand him my phone after going to a new contact, "I can call when I'm on my way back. We hopefully won't be suffering from hangovers by then." He laughs at that and hands my phone back.

Harrison steps forward, "I'll walk you down."

"That's appreciated," I slip on my shoes that sit next to the couch and wave at Tom before following Harrison out into the hallway.

Before he shuts the door, Harrison hollers back into the room, "And mate, put some pants on!"

I giggle next to him and hear a small 'oh shit' from behind the door. Harrison motions me to follow him as we make our way to the elevator. The ride down the elevator is silent, but what do you really talk about? Harrison makes sure I spot Emily's car before leaving me with a soft 'bye.' I slip into the rental car, and before I can get the door shut Emily begins shooting questions at me. However, I can't comprehend what she is trying to ask because she cuts her own questions off, with more questions. "Emily, please" I whine. "Just get us back to the hotel so I can tame my hair, get painkillers in me, and get ready to meet up with Michelle and Allen. After that we can discuss what happened."

"Fine," She huffs while turning into our hotel parking lot, "but I want all the details." I sigh before nodding.

Finally, after spending time to make myself feel refreshed and not look like I got drank my weight in alcohol, I grab my bag and drag Emily back out to the car.

"So," Emily smiles at you from the passenger seat, "you gonna tell me what happened?"

I run a hand through my hair muttering,"You're not gonna believe me."

"Puh-lease, bitch," she sasses. "I know you won't lie to me."

"Well, um, all I know is that I did the dirty with a guy I don't know, and I'm about to have to get to know him a lot better."

"Why?" Emily laughs.

"Because I married him." I murmur, glancing at Emily.

"You're pulling my leg." She lets out a snort, cutting herself off when she sees the ring on my hand, "Right?"

"No, I'm not." I sigh, quickly taking off the fake ring and setting it in the cup holder before tightening my hands on the steering wheel.

"Do you know his name?" She coaxes, watching me fully now.

"Yes, and when we get back I have to meet back up with him to discuss what we are going to do."

Emily watches me closely. "What is there to discuss, its not like you're married to a celebrity?" She lets out a small laugh, waiting for you to laugh with her. When you don't, she looks at me in concern. "(Y/N), who is it?"

"Tom Holland."

I have been debating for awhile to post this, but decided “what the hell, I’ll post it.” I do have the full story on Wattpad, it’s under the same title if you don’t want to wait and read the full thing there. ~CG

Part 2!

#tomhollandxreader #husband!tomholland #fakedating!tomholland #tomholland2013 #tom holland #tomholland #tomhollandxfem!reader #accidentalmarriage!tomholland #CG writes

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theonceoverthinker · 5 years

Text

OUAT 4X01 - A Tale of Two Sisters

Awww! The Frozen Arc! It’ll be ICE to see it again!

Let’s hope my review is better than my puns! Give it a read below the cut, if you are so kind!

Main Takeaways

Past

I can’t get over how GOOD the casting and chemistry was for the Frozen cast. I’m partially convinced that Disney has machines that construct people from their CG counterparts! XD I feel like the story fro this episode is perfectly good. This segment really just had to show off that it understood the Frozen cast and delivered a story that allowed for the story to continue in an engaging way, and I think they did a pretty solid job of it!

Present

”Your intentions don’t matter.” While this phrase is often a good point in terms of actions mattering more than intentions, it’s not here. While yes, I know that this ends up being Zelena, at the time, Emma was saving an innocent woman. I get that Regina’s upset and it makes sense for her character to be upset in this situation, This is a hard arc to watch. That said, I do like that Emma stands her ground here. While she’s sorry she caused Regina pain, she won’t apologize for sparing Marian. “That was the person I was, not the person I am.” But the thing is, you still have to answer for the sins of the person you were. The harm she caused didn’t go away because you’ve done better. It honestly frustrates me to see Regina deflecting back to this aspect of her character. That said, as I’m often one to defend Emma from criticisms against her walls popping up all the time, I want to make the effort to do the same for Regina. And I do think that not blaming others for her mistakes is the general trajectory of her character, and this arc is interesting because we see a more redeemed Regina put in a similar situation to the very actions that made her The Evil Queen to begin with. The immediate show of growth honestly helps here too. It’s clear by the end of the episode that Regina won’t go back to her old ways, and the engaging part now is how she reconnects with the rest of the mains.

I gotta say, I remember LOVING the initial idea of Marian coming back to life and I still do in the universe where more had been done with it. So much of Storybrooke has forgiven Regina because they’ve seen her take on Pan’s Curse and Zelena, but here comes someone who not only hasn’t seen this redemption, but has a strong connection to Regina’s boyfriend. The conflict there just SCREAMS of potential for all involved. Marian’s got a strong personality, Regina would get to truly prove her redemption to someone with no faith in her, and Robin would get a more intricate conflict and potential for deeper characterization that could contribute to him growing as a member of the main cast. And...nothing like that really happened. I think watching this episode tends to open up old wounds for me because this was an arc that I really looked forward to getting into the meat of and because the meat amounted to that found on a chicken’s foot, I can’t say that I’m that happy.

Basically every line at Neal’s grave had me filled with feels! What a beautiful and touching goodbye from Rumple to his son. It’s such a powerful moment. When it comes to Rumple this episode, they set him up so much to make the ultimate change just to not. Now, in the context of the episode as a vacuum, that’s fine and is a pretty classic Once-y twist. However, I feel like in the service of the arc as a whole, it would’ve been better maybe to show more of the reasons why the Sorcerer’s Hat was so tempting, and if not here, then in another episode. The closest we’ll get is Rumple’s speech to Regina in “Heroes and Villains,” which merely touches upon the effects of dying, being a slave at Zelena’s hands for a year, and losing Bae. And look, I like his declination back to villainy for that reason. Bae was his moral compass -- the person who had just enough doubt and love for Rumple that he would be able to keep Rumple on the path of good just with his willpower and lack of full trust -- and losing him at the end of what amounts to a torture conga is the kind of thing that would cause him to get more slippery with his morals. Belle in certain contexts can be easy to fool and I can see those small rationalizations build up in a way that would match up with the following arc.

”I know you, cause you’re like me.” Not to get too shippy, but I feel like the interaction between Robin and Regina in the office where Robin points out their similarities is a character point that should’ve been given more focus. Yes, from an abstract point of view, Regina and Robin are similar because they used to do villainous things, whereas Robin was a thief, Regina murdered, and that’s an entirely different league of villainy. And I swear I’m not trying to put Regina down here, but I think that difference is one that should be a focal point of their dynamic. Robin went through a redemption arc of his own in a way, and seeing him try to pass on those tactics and fail because they’re not compatible with Regina’s brand of villainy and grow from that to have a better understanding of Regina and take on a different approach to helping her. Getting into the meat of that and establishing those differences could’ve made them stronger for me.

I hate the way “monster” is used in this episode. The context of the episode frames “monster” as something undeserved being thrust upon someone, applying to Regina and Elsa. However, in the context of the episode, Regina’s being called a “monster” by Marian, someone whose most recent memory of Regina is saying that she’ll be happy with her head upon a spike and Marshmallow is being called the monster in Elsa’s case, though she attributes that as an extension of herself while Marshmallow is literally attacking a town. Just...this isn’t like The Beast being called a monster when he’s not attacking anyone and I don’t feel like the framing was entirely there for it. THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, I do think the retraction of “monster” towards Regina was well deserved! She saved Marian, even with all of that rage in her heart and that’s pretty freakin’ great!

Stream of Consciousness Thoughts

-This opening may have one of the most fantastically created storm. Look at the water and the panic of the crew as they try to fight it off!

-So while I don’t blame anyone from being a little nervous at the possibility of Regina going evil again (She spent half of the scene talking about how being a hero screwed her over and she does try to plot to kill Marian with Sidney in the vault), props to Henry for his faith in her!

-Dab, Elsa! Dab!

-”And once more, I’ve started it with a lie.” That was a really poorly-worded segue. He wasn’t talking about lying in the previous part of that speech and it’s not like he brought up lying about Milah’s “death.” It’s just one line, but it could’ve been better constructed.

-”I’ll spend my life repaying you for that.” Well, you’re not wrong.

-Damn, there’s a really interesting contrast in Robin and Regina’s scenes in the office between the finale and here. In the finale, they were on the floor, relaxed, and touching whereas here, they’re sitting on the couch, stiff as boards, and the distance between them looks more like a chasm.

-Okay! Watching this episode after the auction and seeing everything everyone bid on is hysterical!

-As we’re spending a lot of time in the mayor’s office, I’ve got to say that I LOVE the interior design here. I love the black and white that allows for the colors (Especially the reds) to pop against it. I love the forest-like wallpaper. It’s just so pretty!

-I gotta say, I’m really happy seeing Sidney again. The actor just rocks!

-Breaking and entering honeymoon? Sign me the fuck up! :D

-I need a map of Storybrooke SO badly. For a while, I HC’d the mansion as being closer to the town line, but I guess it’s closer to the docks? Thoughts?

-I gotta say, I think it’s a little dumb having Rumple be able to stop people in their tracks like that and have it only happen again like one or two times.

-Speaking of the auction, kind of weird that the Sorcerer’s Hat never came up in it.

-I really like how The Enchanted Forest was given an actual name. It’s not that I don’t like calling it The Enchanted Forest, but calling it Misthaven makes it feel more like a place with a history and a life to it rather than just...a place.

-”I need my beauty sleep.” Woowww, Pabbie. Way to leave in the rudest fucking way ever! Like, I’m bored, byeee! Your in-laws are there, clearly upset about this! Put in some more fucking effort!

-Anna, I don’t think Elsa’s “making excuses” when she’s the queen and can’t abandon her country!

-One of my favorite jokes that’s so underrated is how the “DO NOT BLOCK GATE EVER” fence just gets fucking stepped over! XD

-That snowman doesn’t even look scared! He just looks annoyed! Someone, make this dude a tiara!

-Nathaniel--I mean Kristoph! It’s you! ...I think watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend might have made it impossible for me to fully immerse myself into this character.

-Fuck yeah, Marian! Going in for the fight! ...I do wonder. I guess had Regina not decided to save her, Zelena would’ve revealed herself in order to not die.

-”I don’t know what that [Netflix] is but sure.” I love this line so much!

-”Unless...another monster appears and kills me.” ...Welcome to your life, ma boy.

-I’d like to think that during that pause when Sidney wouldn’t appear, he was talking to Ingrid and plotting.

-Damn, Belle! You pull that off! Or rather, I suppose it was pulled off of you! ;)

-RUMPLE AND HIS SEXY ASS ARMS! WE HAVE RUMPLE AND HIS SEXY ASS ARMS! NOT A DRILL.

-...Anna, that’s not how you wear a necklace!

Favorite Dynamic

Emma and Regina. You would think given how I really don’t like what’s to come that this episode would’ve done no favors for me, but honestly, I love Emma and Regina’s dynamic here! As I said before, while I roll my eyes at a lot of the lines given to Regina here, I do think it makes absolute perfect sense -- not deserved, but make sense -- for Regina to be angry at Emma. And Emma is adamant that she doesn’t regret saving her life, but still feels terrible that Regina lost Robin in the process. It’s a very nuanced aspect of this conflict. I also feel like their reactions to their fight were really well written. Emma is trying to live up to both her job as the Savior and her resolve to fight against her walls by trying to find Regina to talk while Regina’s more reserved character aspects kick into high gear and she slinks back to think on the matter.

Writer

Adam and Eddy are our main guys today, as per usual with season openers and they did a great job! In a vacuum, so much of this story is great and sets up a lot of the conflict and mystery of the next half season. And while the rest of the half season doesn’t hit bullseye at every point, they do succeed more often than they don’t.

Rating

9/10. This episode is a little hard to watch in hindsight because of the potential of some things that just really didn’t pan out, BUT within the context of this episode, the initial quality of these arcs is so present and that’s what this review is mostly here to judge. While not balanced in the sense of giving everyone something to do, I do think that there was a perfect balance of character usage. Everyone placement and actions feel right and appropriate for their characters. Finally, I know I’m in the minority, but I LOVE the Frozen cast. They added a nice bit of charm to the episode and made a very memorable first impression.

Flip My Ship - The Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness”

Captain Swan - I really like the CS plot here. Romance, especially after Neal’s death, isn’t the easiest thing for her and especially given what just happened with Regina, she doesn’t want to let herself be happy, but Killian’s making sure that she gives herself that chance. So, also, I always grinned when I saw Emma fall right on top of Killian. I love when that happens with romantic pairings! And their kiss is just fantastic here! Emma is still very much interested and she feels guilty putting Killian on the side while she deals with her feelings and circumstances.

Rumbelle - I freakin’ love the breaking and entering honeymoon! RUMBELLE PORN! Just...that dance. That music. Robert Carlyle’s smile. My only regret is that we had to sacrifice the awesome outfits Rumple were already wearing (Though they make it up later in the bedroom! ;) ) AND SPEAKING OF THE BEDROOM. Yeah, Belle looks pretty freakin’ satisfied with whatever kinky shit they just got up to!

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Hey everyone! So, I altered the review style a little bit. I don’t know whether or not I’ll stick with this or return to the old format, but I feel like this was a better way to condense my thoughts. The Season 3 Overview will be posted...at some point, tbh. I don’t know why, but it is really hard to write right now and since I’m already behind, I figured that I’ll just jump into Season 4!

Thanks to the fabulous folks at @watchingfairytales and to my badass boss of a friend @daensarah! Finally, thank you to my loyal readers! Happy holidays to you all!!!

Season 3 Total (9/230)

Writer Scores: Adam and Eddy: (9/60)

*Links to the rest of my rewatch will no longer be provided. They take posts with links outside of searches and I spend way too much time on these reviews to not give them that kind of exposure. Sorry for the inconvenience, but they still can be found on my page under Operation Rewatch.

#ouat #once upon a time #watching fairytales #ouat 4x01 #ouat rewatch #jenna watches ouat

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