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beautiful-and-terrible · 3 years

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dazed ‘n’ confused (part 4)

A/N: just a quick chapter for you guys before i have to put this story on the back burner :( i have an annual essay coming up in school that i gotta focus on. anyway, hope you like the gangs drunk shennanigans

Ship: Rodrick Heffley / OFC

Warnings: underage drinking / drug use, inebriated driving (DONT DRIVE DRUNK KIDS THIS IS A FICTIONAL STORY DONT BE STUPID :) )

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“If we get caught, my mom’ll kill me,” Rodrick groaned.

“Let’s bounce,” Nicole said, untangling herself from him and grabbing his hand as they ran further into the back yard, looking for an escape route.

“I’ll boost you,” Rodrick said, gesturing to the fence. Nicole nodded, not thinking of a better plan, and wanting to get out of there as fast as possible. She stepped into the make-shift step Rodrick made with his palms, and as she swung a leg over the fence, he pushed her the rest of the way. It wasn’t the most graceful execution, and she ended up landing on her ass with a grunt of pain.

Rodrick also clumsily made his way over the fence - both of them being drunk and high didn’t help their coordination much. “Sorry, are you good?” Rodrick said, clutching his shin, and Nicole waved him off.

“It’s fine, let's just get to the van.”

“Oh, fuck, the van!” Rodrick hissed, “The pigs are totally gonna know it’s mine.” With a big fucking stupid band name written on the side, Nicole reckoned he was right - it was pretty easy to identify, even without the plates.

“I can drive, don’t worry,” Nicole said, already starting toward the white van, creeping between other cars on the street.

“Nikky, you’re as trashed as I am, no way am I letting you drive.”

“Trust me, hot Rod,” Nicole said, slipping her hand into his front pocket and pulling out his keys before he could even blink. As they approached his van, Chris and Ben appeared in the shadows next to them, whispering excitedly as they spotted them.

“As soon as we saw the lights we bolted,” Ben snickered, but Chris looked concerned.

“Yo, I hope Caitlin doesn’t get arrested. There was a lotta booze in there,” he muttered, and Ben smacked his arm.

“You whipped, dude?”

Chris scoffed, “No, I would just feel bad for anyone in that sitch.”

“I agree,” Nicole said, feeling guilty that she couldn’t help Caitlin get out of trouble.

“C’mon, let’s fucking go,” Rodrick said, and all at once the four of them dashed to the van. Nicole jumped in the driver's seat, shoving the key in the ignition with some fumbling, and peeling out from their parking spot across the street from Caitlin’s house with enough force to make even Rodrick proud.

“We’ll make a NASCAR driver out of you yet, Nikky,” Rodrick laughed, whooping as he leaned his head out the window like a dog, the night air tangling through his hair. Ben scrambled up to the front seat from the back of the van, fiddling with the radio before he settled on a station playing “Where Is My Mind” by Pixies. Nicole turned up the volume to its top capacity, concentrating on the road lines in front of her. The adrenaline of avoiding the cops had sobered her up a little, but she was still feeling paranoid from the weed and drowsy from the beer. She drove as slowly as she dared so as not to seem suspicious.

“Thanks for being our getaway driver, Nicole,” Chris said, his words slurring a little more than she had noticed previously. She looked back and saw him chugging a beer in the back.

“Dude, don’t fucking drink while I’m driving! We’re already in deep shit as it is,” Nicole said, turning on to the main street of downtown Plainview. Just a few more turns and they’d be home.

“You’re deep in something, alright,” Ben cackled, and he and Chris high-fived.

“Yeah, six inches deep in your mom,” Nicole shot back, and Rodrick let out an “ooooooo”, pointing at Ben, “Gotcha, bitch.”

Eventually, by some miracle, they made it to Nicole’s street. She hit the curb as she pulled up in front of her and Rodrick’s house, causing all three boys to shriek in unison. Nicole dissolved into giggles, both in relief of finally being out of danger and in reaction to the boys high-pitched screams of indignation.

“She’s an antique, Nikky!” Rodrick said, jumping out of the van to stumble to the front and assess the damage.

“Oh, I’m fine, by the way,” Nicole snarked, and Rodrick suddenly looked at her intensely, giving her a slightly blurry-eyed up-and-down look.

“Fine as hell,” he muttered, loud enough for her to hear, and she blushed, biting her lip to keep from smiling too widely.

“Rodrick, can we crash at your place,” Ben asked, Chris making puppy dog eyes at him.

“Me too - I don’t wanna wake my parents up. Our front door is creaky as shit,” Nicole said.

Rodrick sighed loudly, as if he were being asked to do something terribly inconvenient.

“Yeah, fine. Y’all want mac and cheese?”

The four of them, all drunk and high as kites, looked at each other and nodded in perfect synchronicity.

As quietly as they could for four fucked up teenagers, they snuck their way into Rodricks kitchen. He pulled out a four pack of Kraft Mac and Cheese microwave cups from the pantry, filling them all with way too much water and sticking all four of them, at the same time, in the microwave.

“Dude, can I eat this beef jerky?” Chris asked, rummaging through the pantry.

“They’re my dads,” Rodrick said, as if that offered an explanation. “If you wanna explain to him why they’re gone, knock yourself out.”

Chris slowly put the bag back, looking put out.

Nicole stood next to Ben, both of them leaning on the kitchen counter. Nicole looked over at him, and he looked back, giving her a little smile. He wasn’t bad looking, but where as Rodrick was endearing because he tried to seem cool and really wasn’t, Ben had an effortless coolness about him.

“Thanks for coming with us tonight, Ben,” Nicole said. The alcohol must be making her feel emotional. After all, they had only just met today.

“Aww, Nikky, of course! I never pass up an opportunity for debauchery,” Ben said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. He pronounced debauchery like “de-booch-ery”, but Nicole was too drunk to catch the mistake. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rodrick glaring at Ben. Dumbass, he has no reason to be jealous, Nicole thought to herself, and gave him a little reassuring wave by wiggling her fingers in his direction.

“Yo, be careful on this mac, its fucking hot,” Rodrick said, pulling the cups out of the microwave. They still had water in them, and the cheese powder wasn’t fully mixed in, but in the moment it was the most delicious thing Nicole had ever tasted.

“Should we watch a movie?” Ben suggested, and Chris bounced on his toes excitedly.

“Killer Clowns from Space!! Pleeeaaaase! You’ve been promising me for weeks now that we’d watch it.”

Ben sighed, Rodrick rolled his eyes, but Nicole had no opinion on the subject, so she made the executive decision to say, “I’m down.”

Ben and Rodrick both groaned, and Chris gave her a fist bump from across the kitchen island.

“Nikky has taste, sorry guys,” Chris said, looking very smug as he slurped his luke-warm mac and cheese.

They all somehow stumbled up to Rodrick’s room - Nicole belatedly realized she had been dreaming about being in his room for weeks, and now that she was here took the time to really appreciate what was in front of her.

A person’s room can tell you everything you need to know about them. For one, Rodrick was messy, but no more messy than any other average teenage boy. Clothes on the floor and the back of his desk chair, thrown haphazardly over a bean-bag in the corner of the room. There were christmas lights strung from the ceiling, both white and rainbow, that gave the room a cozy vibe that Nicole would’ve never expected from Rodrick.

His walls were mostly covered in band posters, and above his desk there was a cork board littered with tickets of concerts he had been to. Nicole almost seethed with jealousy at the sheer amount and quality of concerts he had been to - Leftover Crack, Pleasure Venom, Less than Jake, and one of Nicole’s personal favorites, Mannequin Pussy.

“You like Mannequin Pussy?” Nicole said, whipping her head around to look at Rodrick.

“That's not the only kind of pussy he likes,” Ben hollered, causing Chris to smack him upside the head.

“There's a lady present, dumbass,” Chris said, and Ben raised his hands in surrender.

“I think you mean that’s the only kind of pussy he gets,” Nicole said, throwing a teasing wink toward Rodrick, who blushed bright red.

“Yeah, they’re good. Romantic is my favorite album,” Rodrick said, scratching the back of his neck self consciously. Ben and Chris started making kissing noises in his direction, and Rodrick threw a pillow at them.

As Chris and Ben fought over who would set up the projector, Nicole let her snooping instincts take over, looking at the other miscellaneous things Rodrick had around his room - empty liquor bottles filled with more lights, a surprising amount of books (mostly graphic novels), a lava lamp filled with miniature rubber ducks, and mushroom paraphernalia. Everywhere. His pillowcases, the tapestry above his bed, and the stickers on his water bottle all had holographic or brightly colored mushrooms on them. She was so absorbed in her investigation she didn’t even notice Rodrick next to her until he spoke.

“Committing it to memory? You might never be in here again,” Rodrick said with a small smirk. Nicole gave him a look out of the corner of her eye.

“I wouldn’t count on it, babe,” Nicole said boldly. She felt the warmth of Rodrick’s hand on her hip, and looked up at him. And his lips. She wanted to kiss him again so badly it was like a drug, her body telling her to get her next fix as quickly and as often as possible. Being in his space, the place he let himself be his most authentic self, was very intimate, even with Chris and Ben still arguing in the corner.

Rodrick looked away shyly, squeezing her hip once before turning back to the boys. Chris had evidently lost the rock-paper-scissors match to set up the movie on the projector, and was adjusting the screen on the far wall of Rodrick’s room, trying to find a website to pirate the movie from.

“If we’re gonna watch this shit let’s do it,” he said, settling himself in the beat up reclining chair he had, arms above his head. He should be illegal, Nicole thought to herself, making herself comfortable on the bed.

Which ended up being a mistake, because 20 minutes into the movie, Nicole was asleep. She felt a blanket being gently placed over her before she was dead to the world.

#rodrick heffley #rodrick heffley x reader #rodrick heffley x original female character #rodrick heffley fanfic #rodrick #diary of a wimpy kid #greg heffley #emo #rock #band #emoband #ratpack #summer #summer romance #fanfiction #rodrick heffley fanfiction

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spockandawe · 4 years

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I'll be boring and ask about xuexiao? I just can't decide if it's more fun for them to be happy or tragically canon

Xuexiao!!!!!!!!

Downsides:

The biggest downside is that xue yang Fucked Up in a nearly-irrecoverable fashion before things could even get going, but him taking out Song Lan’s eyes was the only reason they were able to get to know each other later to begin with, and you know what, I haven’t talked about this ship in a while, and I forgot how much it hurts ;u;

Upsides:

Literally everything. Even the massive Fucking Up. God, I just tabbed away from this and stared at my dashboard for like five minutes just thinking about everything I love about them, let me try to think about where to even begin, without just repeating my whole xuexiao tag, haha

Xiao Xingchen is horribly lonely, and deeply, quietly miserable. I want him to have a friend who is completely irreverent, teases him instead of babies him over being blind, can talk forever, and can make anything into a joke. I want him to have a friend who treats him like just another guy instead of an untouchable immortal or an object of pity. And instead of an easy mark! It’s a friendship where xue yang will casually con him into going to do chores because xiao xingchen can’t see him cheating, but where he’ll also explain the joke and tease him for being so easy to fool, and where he’ll also go out and menace the merchants who take advantage of his blindness to give him shitty goods.

(on the one hand, I live for how outraged and upset song lan is when he sees xue yang teasing xiao xingchen over being blind, but also... even though xiao xingchen is a sweetheart, I feel like one of the good ways to genuinely upset him is by treating him like he’s fragile or helpless. xue yang is maybe incredibly shameless for teasing him about it when it’s semi-partially his fault, but it also gives me feelings when I wonder about how many people over the years have been able to just treat xiao xingchen like a person)

And Xue Yang... I do also have a lot of feelings over what a novel and interesting experience it is for him to be liked. Or trusted. And on the one hand, I am positive he thinks Xiao Xingchen is impossibly stupid for trusting him in the first place, and I feel like the whole “fierce corpse” fiasco is at least partially a joke on this subject. But the fierce corpse thing stops, at some point, and Xue Yang stays. He’s a skilled cultivator, even if he has to conceal his identity, and other rogue cultivators have seemed to to pretty well for themselves in the world. But he stays here in this broken-down coffin home with this new family, and I feel completely confident in saying that he liked living there. He tried to hide the Song Lan thing so that he could keep peacefully living there. This was, very possibly, the first home he ever had where he was wanted.

Of course, there’s all that fucking up that xue yang does before he realizes that this is something he wants to preserve and keep and nurture. Which... this is a tragedy that I find very tasty, and the fucking up is an important part of that. But also, I do desperately want to see them actually work things out and struggle forward through the mess (with or without song lan, though a dead song lan really, really makes an already fraught situation extra, extra complicated)

On the tragedy front, my latest thing that hurts me so very deeply is how Xiao Xingchen’s goals and ambitions gradually... shrink over time, until all he wants is to live in this coffin home with his little family, and how Xue Yang ends revealing to him that with even these small goals and small ambitions, that for every important person in Xiao Xingchen’s life, he was either wrong about them (Song Lan) or believed them when they lied to his face (A-Qing and Xue Yang). In a situation where Xiao Xingchen doesn’t die right there, there’s so much potential in these people finding a way to express to Xiao Xingchen how much he’s loved and wanted, and for them to try not to panic in front of him, or overburden him with their needs when he seems so brittle and fragile. But we don’t get that! We get death, and this little family (+song lan) that cared about each other is absolutely shattered, and almost everyone is dead, and the only person who isn’t dead is absolutely miserable.

And it’s both so tasty and so painful just how much Xue Yang regrets things. I’ve talked at length about what he’s trying to communicate as things fall apart, and why he starts reacting badly and lashing out and trying to hurt Xiao Xingchen (*hurt Xiao Xingchen back). There were a lot of ways for things to end.... unhealthily and unhappily, but in an unhealthy and/or unhappy situation, there are ways to fix it, even if it takes time, even if it’s never the same as it was before. Instead, Xiao Xingchen ends up dead, he ends up too shattered to reanimate, and Xue Yang is forced to admit that this is a situation that can’t be fixed-- Not that he ever properly admits that, not that he ever completely surrenders, right up until the day he dies. But it breaks my heart to see him cleaning off Xiao Xingchen’s body and setting out two places for dinner, and seeing him realizing, even if he pulls himself back together and goes back to fighting despite the odds.

I honestly don’t know if I prefer the tragedy or a happy ending, because they’re both so rich in emotions that it’s almost impossible for me to choose one over the other. I do like happy endings much better than sad ones, but the book was never going to put the time into their relationship to take them past the damage that the “fierce corpse” thing did. And the tragedy that we get makes daydreaming about possible happy endings more... intense and tasty. They give me the sharpest, sharpest yearnings for them to experience Happiness, but Xiao Xingchen dies grieving and despairing, and Xue Yang stubbornly holds on, trying to find some way to get him back, until he dies too, holding onto an old piece of candy and the memory of being cared for.

They hurt me a lot, in ways that are good, but also intensely painful! There’s something about a relationship where two characters should be enemies and are enemies, but once that framing is taken away from them, they realize just how intensely they like each other. Of course, in this case, it’s setting Xiao Xingchen up for a miserable time later, and Xue Yang for a miserable time of his own after that, but it’s so deliciously bittersweet to see how happy they made each other, and how happy they could have continued making each other, if things were a little different. And, obviously, it gives me intense cravings where they somehow are given the opportunity to work through all the damage that was done, until they gradually manage to rediscover what it was about the other person that made them so happy to begin with.

#spock replies #ask memes/#xuexiao #xue yang #xiao xingchen #long post/#i'm hurting!!!!!#Anonymous

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n-nygma · 2 years

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Metal scaffolding pressed rectangles into the meat of my calves, the blood rushing to my head from where I hung upside down. The vat below me bubbled and frothed, a viscous white that could swallow me if I dropped. My nostrils burned on inhale. The same kind of burn you feel when you bleach your bathroom, sanitized and squeaky clean, melting the remnants of epithelial tissue until it’s nothing but a chromosomal slurry. If you mix it with ammonia you’d get mustard gas, and you’d hack up a pink mist of lung and bronchial tissue.

The hospital fired me. Three weeks after my assault I tried to go back to work. I hadn’t heard from you in a week and a half, I couldn’t stand being around myself, and Dick didn’t have anything useful to say to me. So I went back to trying to be who I was before it all, but my very first patient was a gunshot victim and I spiraled right back into the carpeting of that closet floor. I had a panic attack and he nearly bled out- I’m glad he had good nurses looking out for him.

I became a liability so the hospital gave me a month's severance and said they would put in a good word if I wanted to practice up in Bludhaven. I was so dumbfounded that I didn’t respond, merely took the check and my lab coat and went home, curled up on my couch, and slept until my landlord kicked me out.

But even before all of that; I lost you, and I'd really like to say that our breakup is what caused me to go off the rails. It would be a compliment for you, but really it was a spilled glass of something strong on my dress as some stupid dick came charging down the line of the bar and knocked into me. It was also my last clean dress, and I hadn't wanted to do laundry. Rather, couldn't do laundry because they shut my water off. I mean shit, if you gave up on me, I might as well give up on me, too.

I’ve been selling my jewelry to get by. A much smaller, much darker apartment in a shittier part of Gotham is the place I call home now. I started fixing up thugs for pocket change. At some point it occurred to me that men have been responsible for every time my life has ever gone sideways. My father made sure I ended up in an orphanage. Joker violated me. You made sure the pieces that remained of me shattered when you left. Dickfuck at the bar ruined my dress, and a grease ball by the name of Ivan split my lip when he couldn’t sit still for his stitches.

It made me wonder if a man welded this scaffolding together, if he did it well, or if he was going to condemn me to become a slurry of tissue in the vat below. I bet his name was Marc with a C or something equally as stupid. Sweat dripped from my forehead and I watched it drop until I couldn't see it anymore, I imagine that it made a super satisfying sizzle when it made contact with whatever was in that vat.

Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. And it’s like that motherfucker answers because there was a dangerous creak to the scaffolding that made my spine lock straight. My hands fly up, trying to clamber my way back onto the walkway before it collapsed and I became primordial soup. Another creak followed by a whip loud snap and everything went topsy-fucking-turvy as I fell, arms outstretched, like some kind of emo girl Jesus.

The liquid in the vat enveloped me, warm and thick like glue, knocking the breath from me upon impact. Without thinking (and because dad never taught me how to swim) I tried to breath in, only to ingest a bunch of whatever the fuck I was floating in, and aspirate on what is very much not a vanilla milkshake. And isn’t it the worst when you inhale a bunch of shit you’re definitely not supposed to be breathing? But I digress.

I don’t know who pulled me out, but I should have sued for emotional damages because I had to keep living and it is damaging me emotionally.

Then I tried to open up a couple arteries and just let myself bleed out in my bathtub so someone else could deal with my corpse, but every time I opened up the skin on my thigh it would close right back up again. Truthfully, I thought I'd lost my fucking mind, (not that I haven't, jury's still out) so after the fourth or fifth swipe of the blade I just laid back in the bathtub and waited to die even though I couldn't feel the rush of blood.

I woke up the next morning with a sore back and a crick in my next only to realize that maybe something weird was going on. Ever the scientist I am, I tried to figure out what my limit was- how far I could push this insta-heal thing. Gunshots take like a half hour, knife wounds maybe a couple minutes, limbs take multiple hours to grow back but they can grow back and I will not be telling anyone about that because it's a good way to get yoinked by the federal government.

So what do you do when you realize that it's going to be really difficult for someone to off you? You start chasing mother fuckers that might off you. (Don't worry, it's only the bad guys. Very vigilante era.) And what better way to terrify other bad mother fuckers then to use your PhD in medicine and dissect them like frogs. Though, of course, the GCPD immediately thought they had a Riddler copycat on their hands, it was just too easy to fall back into my father's image. Especially with the whole riddle thing, those are kind of fun, I get where the old man was coming from now.

I'm not a copycat serial killer, I'd like to think I'm a successor for good. Maybe it's the bodies I left, maybe I should include the wrap sheets with them.

‽

@greatest-failure-returned

#Spotify

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makeste · 4 years

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BnHA Chapter 278: MOMO IN CHARGE

Previously on BnHA: Deku and Kacchan were all “SIR, THAT’S OUR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SENSEI” and got really ferocious and made a very passionate attempt to blow Tomura up and it was great. It basically did nothing, but it was still great. AFO was all “COME HERE LIL BRO”, and Tomura was all “silly Sensei, you can’t just take over my mind and body just like that”, and he was very confident of this despite there really being no evidence to back it up, but okay! Gran was all “time to make the fandom mad at me” and grabbed Tomura by the collar and yelled at him about Nana a bit, and then Bakugou and Endeavor made an even MORE passionate attempt to blow up Tomura, which may or may not have done some actual damage. The chapter ended with Gigantomachia battling Mt. Lady, just kinda out of the blue, which is FINE, but she had better be all right, though!

Today on BnHA: Everyone is all “WAUGHH IT’S GIGANTOMACHIA” and running around freaking out about it. The U.A. alums all kick some ass, and pretty much everyone else not from U.A. does jack fucking shit. Mt. Lady, who I plan on naming all of my future children after, does her best to stop Machia but he keeps flinging her aside. Kamui Woods is all “here I come with Midnight to put Gigantomachia to sleep!” and is PROMPTLY FUCKING MURDERED!? by Dabi because he’s a flammable tree man, and so Midnight falls all the way to the ground and is badly injured. So then she’s all “well I better call the most competent person I can think of to fix this mess” and dials up YAOYOROZU FUCKING MOMO, who proceeds to take charge LIKE THE BOSS SHE IS, and mobilizes the rest of the kids. And honestly I have more faith in them than in any of the adults at this point, so yeah, you know what? Let’s do this.

so I am possibly a bit spoiled on this chapter because I did a “top five predictions” post earlier this week, and someone replied to that yesterday on Thursday saying that they were mostly correct. I don’t know exactly how close to the mark I was though, and in any case most of the predictions were just “so-and-so shows up, probably”, so it’s not too bad. we’ll see how it goes!

OH THANK GOD MY BABIES ARE SAFE

I mean, CLEARLY they’re all about to be in horrible danger, seeing as Jirou is about to inform them of the whole “THE BIG GUY EVERYONE WAS AFRAID ABOUT WAKING UP WOKE UP” thing, but in the meantime at least Kami and Toadette and Honenuki made it back to the group safely

also Kaminari’s use of “Jirou-Jack” here is fucking inspired and I want him to teach a class on nicknames. isn’t he the one who coined “Yaomomo” as well? this boy has a gift and it needs to be appreciated

so Jirou is all “SOMETHING REALLY BIG IS COMING”, and actually she says “INSANELY HUGE”, which if anything is still an understatement, hard as it is to believe

WOW

“A BAD GUY IS HEADING THIS WAY?? SOUNDS LIKE IT’S TIME TO ABANDON THE CHILDREN IN THE WOODS” kjlfakh okay you know what?? fine!! you weren’t even going to do anything anyway so let’s not pretend!!

holy shit it’s like Mt. Lady isn’t even there

look at those speed lines!! goddamn. I just felt this huge rush of empathy for Mt. Lady though. like can you imagine growing up with this super-destructive quirk, and managing to become a hero with it against all odds, and having to put up with the manga making fun of you all the time just because sometimes you have a tendency to DESTROY A LOT OF STUFF, but it’s not like you can help it!! but the upside has always been that when your quirk is on, you are fucking UNSTOPPABLE though. so even though it’s been a hell of a rough ride for you, it’s worth it because you’re a complete badass and the number of people who can beat you out in terms of sheer physical strength is probably in the single digits. and you’re working really hard too, and lately you’ve been moving up through the ranks and actually becoming a damn fine hero if I do say so myself (and I do), and it’s like, about time though?? like finally, finally it is all starting to come together for you. and then this snarling trashrock person suddenly comes stampeding along and you put your all into trying to stop him, and it doesn’t even do a damn thing. like, holy shit. that’s just not fucking fair and YOU DESERVE BETTER, MT. LADY

anyway so she’s still hanging in there for now though so let’s check in with our villain squad riding on his back

lmaooo they’re all “I don’t even understand what is going on here”

YOU GUYS, THIS IMPLIES THAT THEY WERE ALL PLUCKED OFF THE GROUND BY THE SCRUFFS OF THEIR NECKS AND THEY HAD ABSOLUTELY NO SAY IN THE MATTER OMG. like I’m picturing Spinner being held by his cape pinched in between Machia’s thumb and forefinger, and awkwardly trying to lecture him like a mom with his hands on his hips all, “BAD GIGANTOMACHIA! NO! NOOOUAGH -- !” and cutting off with a yelp as he’s dropped onto his back

and I am glad they got Toga some clothes! I like to think Gigantomachia grabbed those for her as well. so thoughtful

wow Skeptic actually wants to go back to Re-Destro??

color me legit impressed. I underestimated your loyalty my dude. and let me also just take this moment to extend my gratitude toward Horikoshi for leaving the rest of the MLA out of it because good fucking riddance to them, goodbye forever hopefully!!

I guess they’ll be needing Skeptic’s quirk down the line for some reason? maybe he is meant to be like a new, less out-of-control Twice. smdh y’all out here trying to replace your dead buddy like a pet goldfish

who is this “they” Dabi is referring to

do you mean the heroes? lol yeah I guess they’re pretty distracted by the literal fucking kaijuu you’re currently piggybacking on

SIGH

“the Jakku team must’ve made a mistake” BOY, I’LL SAY. you know what, don’t even talk to me about that yet. it’s still too fresh. suffice it to say that your suspicions are correct and things in Jakku are not very daijobu right about now

anyway here’s a closeup of this bubble person just cuz

they are everything and I want them to be my friend. also there’s a squid person a few paces behind them who can probably do anything a squid can do. or they might actually be a shark person, actually. I don’t know. either way I love them

GETEN PLEASE GO AWAY

WE ARE PHASING OUT THE MLA!! MOVING FORWARD IT’S ORIGINAL LOV ONLY!! I’M SORRY BUT YOU DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT. we already have an ice character so shoo

OH DAMN MY MAN CEMENTOSS HAS HAD ENOUGH OF HIS NONSENSE TOO AHHHH YESS

1) hey so Cementoss is legit terrifying who’d’ve thought

and 2), did Cementoss always have a mouthful of gigantic perfect teeth each the size of a slice of bread, or is this just something I’m only noticing now because I’m behind the curve. either way, let me just say sincerely, DKJDLKFJLSKJG

RE-DESTRO YOU GO AWAY TOO!!

@waywardfacegarden you asked the other day which are the characters I actually dislike, and this is one of them lol. he’s just a big ol’ prick, and on top of that has the audacity to not even be interesting in any way so as to balance it out. anyway so apologies to any Re-Destro stans out there but I basically spend every panel he’s in hoping that someone will punch him in the face hard enough to finally make him shut up

anyway so my man Edgeshot is here though, finally!! but of all the people for him to fight! this is a real predicament for me. the most soothing character in the series contrasted with the character who grates my nerves the most. Edgeshot’s sexy ASMR voice is gonna be drowned out by all of RD’s punching and self-important ranting in the anime and I’m lowkey devastated but I’m gonna pull myself together and read on

SPEAKING OF SELF-IMPORTANT RANTING

Edge, if you can liberate us from having to put up with his insufferable ass once and for all I will be so grateful to you. can you do this. please. for me

and it looks like some other boring MLA villains are following along behind Machia so I’m gonna need someone to kick their asses as well. please

-- YESSSSSS

okay so now I see what that comment on my prediction post was referring to lol. I did indeed have my fingers crossed that these two would show up again, and sure enough! THE GANG’S ALL HERE YAY

and Mt. Lady is being sumoed aside!

anyone want tonight’s lotto numbers. during this brief fleeting moment of having my predictions be actually credible, I would just like to say that Hagakure is the U.A. traitor. thank you and goodnight

OH NO KAMUI IS WORRIED

HE LOOKS SO PANICKED?? OUT OF THE BLUE I SHIP IT SO MUCH?? I keep forgetting they’re on the same team and stuff and wow, I need to calm down

LOL MIDNIGHT IS ALL “NO TIME FOR SHIPS!!”

I wonder if her quirk will actually be enough to take him down? this is something I’ve been itching to see for a long time, actually. just how powerful is she? we know her quirk is more effective on males than females, but is anyone actually capable of resisting it? imagine if she really did just knock Gigantomachia out after all of this buildup. that would be some god-tier shit omg, DO IT

(ETA: I am just going to assume that since Horikoshi had to go to elaborate lengths to take her out of the fight, this means that her quirk really was capable of knocking them all out. another tragic case of Too Badass For The Plot. y’all better respect Midnight.)

YESSSSSSSS

is she stripping. you know what -- don’t think about it. I won’t let you ruin this for me Horikoshi. Midnight’s gonna be a badass because the ladies are fucking ruling this arc and that’s all there is to it

NOOOOOO

DABI GET BACK HERE I JUST WANT TO TALK!!

oh thank god, she’s all right. BUT KAMUI ISN’T THOUGH DLKJSFLKSJDG??!

did Kamui Woods just... die

(ETA: okay but for real, is there an actual curse in effect on the Billboard Top Ten right now, though?? did one of them accidentally disturb the tomb of some ancient king??)

...

( ･ั﹏･ั)

oH MY GOD!?!

NOOOOOOO WHY ARE YOU SO QUICK TO SLEEP ON MAJESTIC, LET’S SEE IF THEY CAN DO IT!! GIVE US MAJESTIC GOD DAMMIT

(ETA: Horikoshi is seriously just yanking our chain at this point. when Majestic finally does show up, he or she better have the coolest fucking quirk of all time, that’s all I’m saying.)

okay how badly injured is Midnight here, though?? she just fell all that way?? DO I NEED TO BE REALLY MAD. I CAN WORK MY WAY UP TO IT PRETTY QUICKLY, JUST SAY THE WORD. I’M ALREADY HALFWAY THERE HONESTLY. WHERE’S KAMUI WOODS

!!!!!!!!!!!

AND JUST LIKE THAT MY ANGER EVAPORATES INTO THE NIGHT, YESSSSSSSSS!! MOMOOOOO

holy shit. “a quirk that can stop that thing,” she says. and goes and calls YAOYOROZU FUCKING MOMO y’all I am barely holding myself back from SCREAMING right now I...

you guys

you guys. if Midnight and Yaomomo team up to take down Gigantofuckingmachia using some sort of MOMO MADE A MACHINE TO SPREAD MIDNIGHT’S QUIRK strategy, or whatnot?? I will fucking die on the spot. you can end the manga right there. Kacchan you can keep your quirk I don’t even care

“IT MIGHT BE AGAINST THE LAW” lmaooooo insert John Mulaney “WE’RE WELL PAST THAT” gif here. holy shit. listen, that is fine. if anything it’s even better

WHAT THE FUCK

DO I NEED TO START GETTING REALLY MAD AGAIN!?!?! FUCKING WHIPLASH, IS WHAT THIS IS, BUT YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT SORT OF OVER-THE-TOP REACTION IS NEEDED HERE AND I’LL GO FOR IT

(((( ;°Д°))))

[GRABS HORIKOSHI BY THE COLLAR] listen, you. if you only just now, for the first time ever, gave us a lady hero actually mentoring another lady hero, which we have somehow NEVER HAD BEFORE in almost three hundred chapters, only for you to then KILL OFF THE MENTOR IN THE MIDDLE OF HER GODDAMN SPEECH TO THE MENTOREE, I will... there’s... I’ll... okay, listen. DON’T. THERE WILL BE A RECKONING. CAPSLOCK SUCH AS THIS WORLD HAS NEVER WITNESSED!!

ヽ(#ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ┌┛

I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO REACT TO ANYTHING IN THIS CHAPTER AND I’M LOSING MY MIND OVER IT

so the other kids are all “what the fuck” and “so Momo’s in charge??” which, YES!!! IT’S THE ONE GOOD PART ABOUT ALL THIS SO DON’T YOU DARE QUESTION IT

MOMO NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE CRIPPLED BY YOUR ANXIETY, YOU CAN DO THIS GIRL I BELIEVE IN YOU

hell, it’s not even just an “I believe in you” thing, because it’s not just belief, it’s fact. you motherfucking can do this, you are the most capable and brilliant student in 1-A, you just gotta have faith and let yourself shine!!

so now there are some more panels of Machia running and the villains and heroes fighting, blah blah blah. and Momo screwing up her face as she makes her decision...

YESSSSSSSSS

my baby girl is all grown up and TAKING THESE MOTHERFUCKIN REINS and MOMO I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU JUST SAY THE WORD!!

lol she’s all “Jirou use your ears and scientifically calculate how long it’ll take him to get here”, and Jirou is all “I can literally fucking see him, he’s gonna be on top of us in like two seconds” WELL OKAY THEN

thank god there are no adult pros left to fuck this up. is that weird that this is a real and honest and completely sincere thought that just ran through my head? like, at this point if any of the adults were around I’d just be afraid of them dying honestly. but with the kids I actually feel real hope that they’re somehow gonna do this. of course it helps that unlike the adults they’re pretty safe from being killed off

also! way to represent the entirety of class 1-B there Honenuki lulz. sorry, The Rest of Class 1-B

OH MY GOD

MT. LADY I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU AS WELL!! YOU HAVE MY LOVE AND FEALTY!!

I’M STANNING HER SO HARD I’M GONNA EXPLODE SOMEBODY HELP!?!

JIROU SAYS THAT MACHIA HAS SLOWED DOWN!! YOU GUYS I’M ABOUT TO GET “MT. LADY FOR PRESIDENT” TATTOOED ACROSS MY FOREHEAD

lmao at Shouji using his power of “putting some extra eyeballs on my arms” to inform everyone that Gigantomachia is Right Over There and Very Big

good job Shouji

oh my glob I have so much love for Momo right now that it can’t even fucking be contained. brb wildly flailing my hands around a little to try and release some of this excess excitement

maybe Momo can be president instead and Mt. Lady can be the vice president

NO THE CHAPTER IS ENDING I’M NOT READY

AND JUMP IS ON BREAK AGAIN NEXT WEEK TOO, FML!!

okay!!

Kaminari is so fucking brave right now I just want to crush him in a hug?! we know he’s still scared!! look at his eyes!! and he was freaking the hell out earlier too, and now the situation is much worse! but he doesn’t give a fuck because his friends need him! he is ready to be a hero, my little baby boy is all grown up and I’m so proud??

Mineta’s face in the bottom right corner is everything. I know, I know, boooo Mineta, but that’s still the best face anyone has made in the entirety of this manga

Tetsutetsu’s out here all “I humbly request to also represent class 1-B” and Momo is all “okay fine I guess we can have two of you guys”

can we all just stop for a moment to appreciate how KamiJirouMomo is alive and well. like, we had interactions between all three of them in this chapter, in all possible permutations? do you know how happy this makes me?? I am vibrating with joy??!

I really can’t stress this enough -- I have no clue at all what these little soda can things are (anesthetic, I guess??? you know, like how you sometimes buy cans of anesthetic at the supermarket?? what do you mean you don’t do that??), or what they’re gonna do with them. I have like negative clues. but DAMNED IF I GIVE ONE SINGLE FUCK. the next chapter can be them all fucking hurling them at his face for all I care. THE DETAILS OF HOW SHE KICKS HIS ASS DO NOT MATTER!! GOOD MORNING TO YAOMOMO AND YAOMOMO ONLY!! MY MOMO ACADEMIA

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jokertrap-ran · 3 years

Audio

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Osborn’s 5✩ Inspiration: Black VS Black [黑色对峙] Date Translation (END 5: Listen)

“Now that we're done putting away the model, it's about time we put it away as well.”

*Light and Night Master-list | Osborn’s Personal Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Join the Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *This 5✩ Inspiration has 6 Endings!! *Osborn’s tag will be #For Night, For Freedom *Requested by anon! You can check my on-going requests and more here!

✥ Choice: Listen [倾听] ❖ASMR

The cat caused an incident! What should I do?

⊹ Pick up the scattered components ⊹

Around the fallen car model were several of its scattered compartments that had fallen out.

The rear spoiler didn't manage to escape unscathed with a running crack through it.

MC: Yikes! The parts came out!

I quickly knelt down to gather all the pieces when a large hand picked up the car model much faster than I could.

Osborn looked at the model, as unfazed as ever.

Osborn: Looks like my car model was more attractive to it rather than your cat teaser wand.

MC: Is the model okay? Some parts fell out...

He looked left and right before his brows furrowed into a slight frown in displeasure, looking slightly bothered by it.

Osborn: Hmm…

Thinking about how this car model had been displayed alongside his trophies made me grow increasingly nervous.

MC: Does this car model have any special commemorative significance to you?

Osborn nodded and my heart immediately seized up.

MC: Oh no… Is there any hope of fixing it?

Osborn: It looks easy to piece together, but it's actually pretty complicated with many intricate compartments.

Osborn: Once it gets taken apart, it's pretty much impossible to…

MC: Sorry, I didn't know it was that serious. I should have caught it while I could earlier...

This whole incident had happened while I stood witness to the entire thing. I couldn't help but feel like I too, had a part in the blame. I clenched my fists. Then, Osborn snorted.

Osborn: Pft—

MC: ???

Osborn: I'm joking.

If he'd looked at a loss earlier, then he certainly wasn't now. A familiar impish smile tugged at the side of his lips.

Osborn: The main body's alright, and the parts that fell up just have to be-

MC: OSBORN! I was really panicking there! How DARE you-

Osborn: S-Sorry!

MC: Hmph! Apology not accepted!

I pretended to be mad, snatching the model out of his hands and turning it around to get a better look at it.

MC: What did you say again? We just have to reinstall the parts that came out back in?

Osborn: You're… not angry anymore?

Glancing at his expression that was still frozen in surprise, the corners of my mouth that had been starting to quirk upward soon lowered.

MC: I'm not free to be mad now. I'll be mad later when I have the time. You better remember!

Osborn gave a light laugh at that.

Osborn: Okay.

Suddenly, a muted clatter sounded.

Mitt had slyly slinked to the door, entertaining itself by playing with the yarn ball that had been placed in front of the sofa.

Osborn: Looks like it's taken a liking to the toys you brought.

MC: Of course! Let's not disturb it now that it's happily occupied with its toys, and get down to setting this car model straight!

❖☆———————————★❖

Osborn: Ever built a car model before?

Osborn: No? So it's your first time doing it? And at my place too.

Osborn: ...You want to be my assistant, huh.

Osborn: That works too. Let me see where I put my toolbox.

Osborn: You have sharp eyes. Saves me the trouble of looking.

Osborn: Two more components left. Wanna try?

Osborn: Here. Just line it up and slowly screw it in.

Osborn: ...It's upside down.

Osborn: Come, I'll teach you how.

Osborn: This should do it.

Osborn: Looks like the joint needs a little polishing. Pass me the exacto knife.

Osborn: Now's not the time for the flat-blade screwdriver.

Osborn: Great reaction time. You got it right this time.

Osborn: Okay, done.

Osborn: What do you think? Pretty cool, ain't it?

Osborn: Right. We were just installing parts earlier, so why were you so nervous?

Osborn: Because you're inexperienced? Then you'll just have to do it a couple more times.

Osborn: Why's your face so red all of a sudden?

Osborn: Looks like it lost interest in your ball of yarn. It might be looking for a new target.

Osborn: Okay, get up.

Osborn: Now that we're done putting away the model, it's about time we put it away as well.

❖☆———————————★❖

By the time we found Mitt, it was already sprawled out beside the TV cabinet with its paws stuck underneath, fiddling with something in the gap.

Recalling the layout of his living room, I quietly tip-toed and whispered my idea into Osborn’s ear.

MC: I’ll take left, you take right. We’ll pincer it.

Osborn: It’s already here, so there’s no need to go through so much trouble.

MC: Huh?

Osborn: Just wait and see.

Osborn took a couple of long strides forwards in the direction of the cat.

I followed after him, quietly approaching the black cat. However, my attention was suddenly caught by the photo frame that the cat had just been playing with.

Picking up the frame, I carefully observed it…

In the picture were Osborn and a couple of familiar-looking teammates. They’d all had an arm around each other’s shoulder, beaming as they held the same trophy.

Their faces all look much younger… Is this a photo from years ago?

The race car in the background had a red and white body with an orange rear spoiler, similar to the car model that Mitt had batted off its perch earlier.

MC: Don’t tell me… Was that car model made based on this race car?

I was lost in thought when a sudden meow broke my train of thought.

Osborn: Still wanna run?

❖☆———————————★❖

I raised my head to see Osborn with both arms raised, gently holding up the cat in question.

The bright and warm sunlight shone in through the window, carefully outlining his chiselled side-profile and the contours of his muscles.

Although Mitt had already been caught, it still glared daggers at Osborn. It was as if a cat and a human were engaged in a silent battle with each other.

After a while, Mitt seemed to register the fact that it’d lost, meowing pitifully in that soft cry once more.

❖☆———————————★❖

Osborn: Oh? You know how to beg for mercy now, don’t you?

Osborn carried Mitt to the little corner we’d set up for it. Mitt seemingly gave up on the game of chase, lowering its head to eat the cat food that we’d prepared for it since the very beginning.

Watching it eat its food so obediently, I couldn’t help but kneel down and stroke its round head.

Mitt cast a doubtful glance at me, but turned its head, indulging nuzzling itself into my palm.

MC: !

MC: I touched it! How cute…

Osborn: You’re that excited from just being able to touch it?

MC: Yeah. It looked so naughty that I thought I wouldn’t be able to touch it today.

Osborn: It’ll come running up to you for a lick or two so long as you have food.

MC: Then I MUST let it try the wet cat food! Maybe it’ll get closer to me!

I sped towards the sofa and picked up the packet of wet cat food, purposely waving it before its nose.

It couldn’t resist the offered temptation after all. Its soft fluffy paws batted at my wrist as it opened its mouth and cried its pleas.

MC: Okay, okay. Any more and you’ll end up a piggy.

I recalled something after putting away the remaining food. I picked up the photo frame that I’d set down earlier and handed it to Osborn.

MC: Oh, yeah. By the way, this was the photo frame that Mitt was batting with under the TV cabinet earlier. I don’t know where you normally display it.

He took the photo frame from me and glanced at it.

MC: And on that note, I realized that the car in the background looks very similar to the model we just pieced back together. Are they the same?

Osborn: Oh. The model was made according to this race car.

Suddenly, I recalled having seen the highlights of all his races before.

The year and month in which he’d won his first racing championship seemingly coincided with the time that this photo was taken.

My guess had tumbled out of my lips before I could stop it.

MC: Is this the car you drove when you won your first championship?

He quirked a brow.

Osborn: Why, you know me so well.

MC: Then… Is that car model something of a memento from that race?

Osborn: You can say that.

MC: I heard somewhere before that that car’s engine had to be changed out every two races. It shouldn’t be in use anymore, right?

Osborn: The engine exploded on me during that race, so it was only my companion once.

Osborn spoke lightly of it, but thinking of how exciting and terrifying it must have been back then, I couldn’t help but feel my heart sink a little.

MC: I’m glad the car model’s alright. Otherwise, it’d be such a pity for such a meaningful memento to get damaged like that.

Osborn: So I should thank you properly. Is that it?

MC: Huh? Thank me?

He chuckled lightly, his eyes sliding from the photo to my face. He had a slightly flippant look on his face.

Osborn: Weren’t you the one who made that car model more meaningful?

MC: ……

I was taken aback for a bit. I looked at him in surprise, only to find his gaze calm and gentle. There was a smile glimmering within his eyes.

Osborn: You were pretty clever when fixing the model. Why so stupefied now?

As his words sank in, I felt my heart flutter as I realized what he’d meant by having made it more “meaningful”. Something seemed to have filled my heart. It was a little flustering, yet also a little sweet.

I worried my lip and gathered my courage together before looking up to meet his eyes.

MC: Then, that makes me happier now…

MC: Although I didn’t get the chance to sit in on the race of your first championship and cheer you on…

MC: I was still able to piece the model back together and play a part in that precious moment of memory.

Inexplicable emotions surfaced in Osborn’s eyes, and in the next second, his big hand ruffled my hair with a vengeance.

Osborn: There’s really no helping you, is there?

I shyly ducked my head, but I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from rising.

At this moment, the sun had enveloped us both within its warmth.

The cat quietly ate by our feet, letting out a purr of satisfaction every once in a while.

Slowly but surely, unspeakable feelings started to bloom and spread within the confines of my heart.

I hope, from the deepest points of my heart, that time would always be eternally frozen in this beautiful moment.

⊹ ˚✩ ━━━━━━━━━━━ ∘◦ ✥ ◦∘ ━━━━━━━━━━━ ✩˚ ⊹

✥ Choose your Ending:

END 1 | Choice: Do Nothing [都不做]

END 2 +3 + 4 | Choice: Call Out [呼唤] ⊹Speak⊹

END 5 | Choice: Listen [倾听] ❖ASMR

END 6 | Choice: Heart-throb [心动] ★Night★

❖☆————— ⊹ For Night, For Freedom⊹ —————★❖

Previous Part: (Prologue)

#光与夜之恋 #Light and Night #Otome #Translations #Tencent #萧逸 #Osborn #For Night For Freedom #黑色对峙 #Black VS Black

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rosemaidenvixen · 4 years

Text

A Secret’s Worth

Chapter 8: Toby and Jim

Ao3

Toby yanked the door open and ran into the locker room.

Please be there, please be there, please be there.

He made a beeline for the laundry bin and practically dived in head first, frantically rooting through the used towels and uniforms. Two thirds of the way in his fingers closed around the object he was looking for. He went limp with relief before quickly realizing that was a bad idea when he was upside down in a laundry bin; which smelled like low tide on the world’s nastiest beach now that he noticed, and squirmed out. Talk about a lucky break. Toby had been that close to losing his wallet over thanksgiving.

Familiar leather rectangle now tucked safely in his back pocket, Toby started to leave when he heard something from the shower area. Curious, he took a few steps closer.

Someone was talking, based on the pauses between their words they were probably on their phone, but it wasn’t just any someone; it was Steve “Bane of Toby’s entire existence,” Palchuk.

Toby paused, one foot still frozen in mid-step. Normally he’d be running toward the other side of school right now, but something in Steve’s voice sounded...off.

Maybe he was risking his life and the integrity of his face by hanging around, but the potential for dirt on Steve was just too good to pass up. Squashing down his survival instincts, Toby crept closer, pressing his back against the wall and sliding up to the shower area until he could hear Steve’s voice crystal clear.

“I-- I know you’re busy, with work and important stuff-- but these are the semi finals,” his voice cracked “This is one of the biggest basketball games of the season…”

Toby held his breath and stayed as still as he could. That wasn’t puberty cracking in Steve’s voice, it was emotional cracking. Steve was upset-- no, more than that, it sounded like Steve was two seconds away from bursting into tears.

“Please Dad,” Steve’s voice was quivering so much he was practically whimpering now “I...I really want you to see me play,”

His voice died down, probably because his dad was saying something on the other end of the phone.

Things were silent for the longest time. Then Toby heard the click of a button and the soft rustling fabric as Steve hung up and slid the phone back into his pocket without saying a word.

Just a sniffle.

Toby couldn’t help but wince sympathetically. Everyone already knew about the divorce, Steve had straight up announced it to the entire class back in eighth grade, but this was something new. And it was no wonder he kept it to himself. Steve might have been his least favorite person on the planet and a world class asshole, but even he didn’t deserve to get jerked around by a deadbeat dad.

Nobody deserved that.

He shook his head, he could feel bad for Steve later, now he needed to get out of here before Steve saw him and turned him into literal mincemeat.

Toby turned to walk away, only to trip on a mop propped up against the lockers. He looked on in horror as the mop seemed to fall in slow motion, handle landing on the tile floor with a deafening clatter.

“Who’s there!” Steve roared from around the corner.

Oh fuck.

Toby could actually feel his heart shoot straight up into his throat.

No time to run, had to think of something quick.

Blood rushing in his ears, Toby quickly darted around and grabbed the mop with shaking hands, dragging it several feet closer to the door. He gently set it back down on the floor and shot back upright just as a furious looking Steve rounded the corner.

He forced himself to act casual despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins “Hey Steve, what--”

Steve charged and grabbed the front of his shirt, slamming him up against the brick wall “What did you hear!”

A trickle of sweat ran down the back of his neck “Hear-- what? I didn’t hear anything, I just walked in when you--”

The grip on his sweater vest tightened, Steve’s snarling face was inches away from his own “Don’t play dumb with me Dumbzalski,”

Toby held his breath, shoulders pressing into the gritty brick wall. No way to run. And if Steve even suspected he’d overheard he was dead. Like legit dead, as in Steve was going to kill him and throw his body in the laundry bin. The only thing to do was continue to pretend he’d just walked in. But knowing Steve he wasn’t just going to let him off the hook that easy.

All of a sudden it came to him. The perfect out.

Toby snorted and rolled his eyes, doing his best to come off as annoyed rather than nervous “Oh my god it’s the twenty first century Steve, if you and Hank want to make out just do it under the bleachers with everyone else,”

Just like magic the furious look on Steve’s face melted into a brief expression of relief, before he quickly adjusted it into a look of annoyed apathy. And when his grip on Toby’s sweater vest loosened and he knew he was in the clear.

Toby knew Steve, and he knew that if he accused Steve of swapping spit with another guy, he wouldn’t suspect Toby had overheard his real secret. Steve didn’t believe in pulling punches, and if the roles had been reversed Steve would have thrown Toby’s deepest, darkest secrets back at him without hesitation.

Bottom line, Steve would much rather have people question whether or not he was gay than have anyone learn that he was crying in the locker room because his daddy couldn’t come to his game.

So he could tell Steve was more grateful than angry.

But not enough to stop him from punching Toby in the face.

His head snapped to the side. Toby dropped to the ground with a grunt as sharp pain radiated through his jaw.

“Stay out of my way Tubby! You and that crybaby Lake!” with that Steve turned and left, leaving Toby to pick himself off the locker room floor.

Wincing, he staggered to the door and began making his way to the library.

He prodded the bruised area with his tongue, trying to survey the damage.

His heart plummeted when he felt loose bits of metal, mumbling several words that would’ve had Nana make him put money in the swear jar.

Toby liked to consider himself a reasonably forgiving person, if it had just been bruises he would have probably kept Steve’s secret to himself. But mess with the braces and the gloves came off.

Dr. Muelas might be his mortal nemesis, but even he never charged for repairs when his braces got damaged. The issue was time. Every little error took that much longer to correct and get back on track. And judging by the amount of metal floating around in his mouth right now, this was going to take weeks to fix if he was lucky.

Months more likely.

So yeah, he was definitely telling people about Steve’s daddy issues.

Toby was still grumbling to himself when he made his way into the library and found the table their group had decided to set up shop at. Classes had ended for the day, but their pre finals cramming session was just getting started.

Darci was the first one to notice him “Hey Toby we-- Why are you holding your face like that?”

“Now that is an interesting story,” Toby slid into his seat and pried his hand off his jaw with a wince “You guys are never going to believe what I just…”

He trailed off, noticing for the first time that they were down one person.

“Hey, where’s Jim?”

No one rushed to speak up. The girls all glanced at each other and shared a look in a way that made Toby a little uncomfortable.

It was Claire who ended up answering “We asked him to pick up smoothies from across the street,”

“Oh...you got a smoothie craving?”

“Not exactly,” Mary said, folding her arms across her chest, shoulders squared and head held high “Mainly we wanted to be able to talk to you alone for a bit,”

Right away Toby knew something was up. He recognized that look, that was business-Mary, and business-Mary only came out when something serious was going down “You what?”

Claire let out a deep breath and laid both hands palms down on the table “We need to talk, about yesterday,”

Toby grimaced.

Oh. That.

“Yeah, sorry, Dr. L has always been pretty strict about rules,”

“Uh, that wasn’t strict,” Mary said, voice dripping with contempt “That was full on psycho,”

Claire quickly reached out and grabbed Mary’s shoulder “Not helping,” she hissed.

Toby felt a pang of defensiveness “Hey, Dr. Lake might be a bit...overprotective, but she’s cool,”

Darci cleared her throat, causing everyone to turn in her direction “Toby, I’ve seen strict, I’ve seen protective, my dad could probably write a book about being strict and overprotective. But the way Dr. Lake acted yesterday was pretty unusual,”

“She...was...probably just tired from work,”

Mary opened her mouth but was held off from saying anything by Claire holding up a hand “Let’s start from the beginning,” Claire shifted her chair so she was now directly facing Toby “You’ve known Jim since you guys were five, right?”

“Yeah,”

“Has he had the same rules and curfew that entire time?”

“No,”

“So what was different about his curfew when he was five compared to now?” Darci asked.

“Well...you see...it’s more like--”

“Either his curfew changed or it didn’t,” Mary cut him off “Which is it?”

Toby’s face grew hot “Ok, the times he had to be home at never changed, but he got to stay up later and talk on the phone more as we got older, once we even pulled an all nighter in Minecraft back in middle school,”

None of them responded to that, but in a way that was even worse.

Shifting nervously in her seat, Claire continued the conversation “Were there ever any exceptions to Jim’s curfew? Like birthdays or sleepovers?”

“Uh....”

Mary raised a single eyebrow “Toby, have you and Jim ever spent the night at each other’s houses?”

Bile rose in the back of his throat “No,”

All three of the girls stared at him open mouthed.

“You guys literally live right across the street from each other,” Darci said incredulously.

Toby forced out a chuckle, trying to dispel some of the tension “Dr. Lake thinks sleepovers aren’t healthy. Not sure if I believe it but hey, she’s the doctor,”

None of the girls were smiling.

He fought the urge to fidget under their scrutiny. Why did he bring that up? How Dr. Lake did things wasn’t anyone else’s business. Now they were going to think she was some kind of weirdo.

Claire leaned over and laid her hand over his elbow “Toby, I know this is how it’s been for years, but it’s not normal to have a curfew that early, or to be that scared for breaking it,”

“Jim was just nervous because, because…” Toby fumbled for the right words “Jim probably just freaked out because he lost track of time and...panicked,”

His painfully clumsy attempt to reassure the girls failed spectacularly. With every word he said their frowns deepened and the three of them kept flashing suspicious glances back and forth.

And when Jim walked in on them like this it would not be pretty.

He gripped the edge of the table with sweaty palms. Why did Mary, Darci, and Claire have to make such a big deal about this? Yesterday had been bad, but it was just a curfew slip up, that’s all. And sure Dr. Lake’s curfew and rules might be a little out there, but there wasn’t anything wrong with them.

stay here I’ll get the scissors

Right?

Jim carefully balanced the bag while pushing open the side door of the school. A brief glance inside revealed all smoothies were present and intact. He hurried up the stairs to the library, mom had agreed to pick him up today, which meant he could stay right up until the last minute, but he still didn’t want to miss a second.

Nudging open the library doors with an elbow, he spotted the table they were all sitting at. Jim waited until he was closer before smiling and holding up the bag in greeting “Hey guys, I got the smoothies,”

They all turned at the sound of his voice and immediately he knew something was wrong. Darci and Claire kept exchanging nervous glances, Mary looked like she had bitten into a lemon, and Toby looked like he was about to be sick.

Uneasy, he pulled up a chair and took a seat, setting the bag on the table in front of him “Is everything ok?”

“We need to talk,” Mary said bluntly.

“Oh...kay?”

Her eyes narrowed “About yesterday,”

Jim did his best not to flinch.

“Sorry I had to bail like that. I’ve set an alarm on my phone so it won’t happen again,”

Jim hadn’t really expected that answer to satisfy them, but part of him was really hoping it would. No such luck.

Darci folded her arms “The issue isn’t that you left early, it’s about how you did it,”

He let out a nervous chuckle “What...do you mean?”

“Jim,,” Claire spoke up “When you ran out of there yesterday, you seemed scared. Really really scared. And your mom was acting pretty strange too,”

A lump formed in his throat “Mom...worries,”

“Worries enough to never let you have sleepovers?” Mary said flatly.

Jim very deliberately did not look over toward Toby, even though his friend was squirming in his seat, and bit back the urge to snap at them that how he and his mom did things was none of their business.

“Look, that’s a separate thing, me not doing sleepovers has nothing to do with my curfew, and yeah ok, I overreacted a bit, but that’s it,” Jim stopped himself before he could ramble on any more, his voice had already started to rise in volume and pitch. If he started getting worked up it would make them even more suspicious.

For a few seconds no one said anything, then Darci broke the silence “Jim, we’re your friends, you can trust us. If you’re having a hard time or if you and your mom are struggling with something, you can tell us,” she gave him a soft smile “Whatever’s going on, we’re here for you,”

Now all eyes were on him, waiting for his response.

Jim had to hide his hands under the table to hide how badly they were shaking.

We’re here for you.

Despite the strained, uncomfortable atmosphere Jim had the hysterical urge to laugh.

He didn’t doubt that Darci spoke for everyone there when she said that, but Jim couldn’t let himself believe it. What happened to him wasn’t like anything they were thinking of. This wasn’t a ‘normal’ family problem like someone getting divorced or sick or moving away. The truth of Jim’s life was so far outside the realm of possibility for Toby, Claire, Darci, and Mary that they couldn’t even comprehend it.

No one could.

The familiar prickle of anxiety twisted in Jim’s stomach as he tried to think of the magic words that would make them let this go.

How worried they were or how much they cared didn’t matter. If they found out what he turned into every night it would all go out the window.

The girls would all be horrified, best case they’d run away screaming, worst case they’d call the feds on him. And Toby…

His throat tightened. Jim couldn’t even imagine how betrayed Toby would feel after discovering his best friend lied to him for over a decade.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

He took a deep breath and counted to get his breathing under control.

There was no reason to start panicking and lose his head like he did yesterday. The girls just thought his mom was going overboard with protectiveness. Not the first people to think that and probably wouldn’t be the last.

Jim could work with this, he’d been selling that story for years, he could do it again right now. Not lying exactly, just giving them pieces of the truth that fell in line with the idea they already had.

“Everything’s ok at home,” he started haltingly “It’s just that...with only the two of us….things can get hard sometimes,”

They all stayed silent and watched him expectantly, so Jim continued “Mom only wants me home so early so she can know I’m safe. Yesterday she didn’t know where I was and I wasn’t answering my phone so she got...scared,”

That was the whole truth at least, last night his mom had been the most terrified he’d ever seen her in his entire life.

“Sure it’s not fun sticking to all the rules she has, but if being home at the hours she wants makes things just a little bit easier on her, I’m ok with that,”

He trailed off and everyone at the table shared an uncertain look.

“If you just want to help your mom out why did you have such a major freakout when you realized you were late?” Mary saidin a clipped tone “That seems more like a ‘Call your mom and let her know what happened’ situation than a ‘Ditch us all and run back home’ one?”

Jim let out a sheepish laugh “I’m really sorry I bailed the way I did, I’ve never been out that late past curfew before so when I realized the time I kind of...flipped out, but I promise I won’t ditch you like that again,”

He allowed himself to let out a tiny sigh of relief a little when he saw the girls starting to relax from their tense postures, Toby looked so limp with relief that he was practically sliding out of his chair. Jim was almost in the clear, just had to keep it up and smooth over any lingering doubts.

“Everything’s really going ok with you?” Claire asked.

“Yep,” Jim said with a nod “I’m doing just fine,”

“Good,” Darci beamed at him “That’s all we wanted to know,”

Toby grabbed the edge of the table and hauled himself into an upright position “So…” he drummed the tabletop with his fingers “Should we get this study session started?”

“Sounds good to me,” Jim said while pulling his textbooks out of his bag, relieved at the change of subject.

Mary tugged a stack of loose papers out of the tower of books and notes sitting on the table in front of her “Let’s start with history first, I just know that Mr. Strickler’s going to make the final brutal,”

The last of the tension fell out of Jim’s shoulders as they all reached for their smoothies and immersed themselves in notes.

Yesterday had been a close call, probably the closest he’d ever had, but he had bounced back from it just fine. Jim gave himself a mental pat on the back for diffusing the fallout so well. Keeping his cool had paid off just like he knew it would.

His secret was safe and no one was the wiser.

Sure he would have to be extra careful from now on with planning, and hanging out, and making sure he got home on time; but he could do it.

Jim had everything under control.

#tales of arcadia #Trollhunters #a secret's worth #toby domzalski #steve palchuk #darci scott #claire nuñez #Mary Wang #jim lake jr #fanfic #rmvwrites

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diabolikmosquito · 4 years

Text

Just-Watched Thoughts on S3

Alright time to write this while I’m still here recovering so I can go to bed already. I might add more/clean this up once I get some proper sleep. Tagging it but putting Castlevania Season 3 spoilers under a cut just in case people haven’t got tags hidden and such. Here goes-

Overall I’m honestly just kinda shocked? I think it’s because a lot of things were easy to predict (that the cult might be trying to bring back Dracula, something was up with the Judge, Hector was obviously gonna fall for Lenore’s bs, etc.) so when things happened I didn’t see from a mile away..

When I was only like an episode or two in, things actually felt a little stunted to me? Something about it felt like “This is what people liked from before, right??” particularly with certain action or such, but I feel like it picked up pretty quickly from that. I’m still kinda in winding-down-emotions mode so I can’t really definitively say what storylines I liked and which ones I disliked for the most part. I liked Isaac’s, and the design of the... Hivemind Magician? Was all pretty sick. It felt like the first thing that was actually a massive challenge for him, and nearly overtook him, but he overcame it and even came out of it thinking through what he wanted for the future. It’s a nice change from seeing him steamroll anything that came his way.

I like that Trevor and Sypha’s storyline ends up with them not getting their heroic grand time like they did last time. Yes, there were sacrifices made, but before it still felt grandiose: they’d worked together to kill Dracula, something the world didn’t even think possible for the most part. This time, they sacrificed a lot more and ultimately didn’t win a thing other than their own lives, and were helping a hidden monster in their process of killing other monsters. What a crushing thing for them to have to go through, and I think Trevor’s conversation with himself before (and later with said monster, ironically enough) about missing parts of his old non-heroic non-adventuring life was pretty somber and interesting.

The whole Lenore/Hector route was exactly what’s expected from the beginning, but it was done well for what it was, and I don’t think they were trying to fool anyone with the direction it was headed. Carmilla’s plot was.. eh, more or less not much seemed to actually happen, but it did introduce us to the awesome vampire sisters so I’m more than down with it. I wish we got a little more about Saint Germain’s whole deal with that portal and such, who he was looking for and how he knows they’re still alive in there, but I assume that’s a next-season kind of thing. I’m gonna ramble if I write anymore so here’s a more concise/clear list:

Things I liked - Trevor and Sypha’s chemistry! I thought it was good the first couple seasons (which apparently puts me in the minority?) but they felt much more compatible as a couple this time around. The little exchange about the “taste for rougher things in life” is wonderful, and I definitely snorted when she sleep-bapped him in the face. - The tidbits of funny dialogue! Seems to still be a show specialty. Some of them were understandably a bit funny (using “Nope! speedwalks away” in place of “shut it” is pretty good), and others weren’t funny but I just found it hilarious (e.g. Morana’s repeated fancily-stated things that boiled down to “... Lenore, seriously, TMI”) - The soundtrack! Not really any surprise, despite it not being the famous Symphony of the Night tracks people clamored for trust me I totally get that and despite it still not being released even from season 2 much less 3, it was very nice to listen to. - The vampire sisters! While it was obvious from the beginning Lenore was the “cutest/nonthreateningest-looking of the scary bunch but actually the scariest” one I liked the energy they all had, especially Striga and Morana and their relationship. I liked that we got to see Carmilla’s attitude bouncing off of other vampires who (while respecting her skill) also called her out for it from time to time. - The references! I’m sure there’s more and I’m a dumbass who only spots the obvious ones, but... the fact there’s demons that’re exactly ones out of the ol’ Symphony of the Night game again, like the Malachi and Fire Demon. It’s so dumb but I love shit like that, especially since they obviously stray far from the game canon and don’t have to do that but do it anyway. - Some of the action scenes. I cannot mention what I like without mentioning the parts that made me go “... Okay, yeah, that was badass.” You know the ones! When Cho busted that sword with her hands, when Sypha chopped that angel-like demon into pieces. ... A lot of the stuff Sypha did, actually, I’m glad she got some more epic moments to kick ass this season. I thought the earlier action scenes of the season were just alright, but by the last fight it was definitely starting to feel like that awesome dynamic fight style we saw in season 2. - The fact Dracula saw an opportunity to return and didn’t want to. Not much to say here other than the obvious - I feel like that’s extremely fitting, and I’m glad they made it clear without bringing him back and having him be angry/regret it or something like that. Without any dialogue, even. - The ending.. somewhat. It destroyed me a little on the inside, but I actually like that nobody really had a happy ending. Particularly if there could be another season, it feels really fitting. I’ve seen some people complaining “They ended up where they started! Trevor and Sypha are back on the road, Isaac’s traveling with his army, Alucard’s alone in the castle and Hector is a slave” but I couldn’t disagree more. Of course if you boil it down to the words themselves, it’s “the same,” but did ya see the sheer trauma literally everyone was put through? Obviously some had it worse than others (and we’ll fucking get to that) but nobody came out unscathed. Everyone’s now had some belief challenged or retreated further into a fear/mistrust that already existed - previous events planted the seed for it and the hell the cast went through gave it growth.

Trevor and Sypha are going to have to challenge their goal they’d been following since working together/getting together: they can’t just go headlong adventuring and fixing people’s problems, because things like this can happen. Their new allies and the entire town were slaughtered or trapped somewhere, and the man they’d trusted and been helping this entire time was a serial killer, particularly of children. Alucard is drifting into a state of consciousness not unlike his father before he met Lisa, but potentially in a worse place since he’s witnessed and felt true kindness, but has retreated away from it even so due to the betrayal he’s suffered at an already-fragile time for him. Isaac has to reconsider what he’s going to do once he has his proper army, and even if it’s worth it to get his revenge or to carry out Dracula’s original plans. Saint Germain.. I mean, he’s in psychodelic hell searching for that person and presumably a way out, I assume it’s tragic. Hector’s learned a hard lesson in trusting and is going to have to figure out if his freedom is worth risking pain or death. Likewise I think the characters grow this way. Even if it was a happy ending, or an ending where everyone “wins” some small victory somehow, I think it’d ultimately have been worthless if nobody was fundamentally changed by the end of the season.

Things I didn’t like - The sex scenes. I’ve seen a lot of people like “If you’re gonna put in gratuitous sex then actually include Trevor and Sypha??” and I’m gonna have to disagree with that. While I love the ship and all, I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt and say sex scenes weren’t thrown around randomly or just to flex the rating - they were only tied to actual story, hence why I’m down with the bedroom stuff of the show’s main ship only being alluded to. However, I gotta say that the long broken-up sex scenes mixed with battle/action was not the way to do that. I think I know what they were going for (it definitely drove my anxiety up having those scenes back to back with intense action/violence, I can tell ya that!), but it just wasn’t a good idea. Yes, they were obviously made to be uncomfortable (particularly since I’m pretty sure one of them was dubious consent at best?) but that was reflected well just in a few key frames/actions - it didn’t need to be drawn out and mixed with the action. It made me want to skip through (I didn’t out of fear I’d miss battles, which isn’t really good design) and I’d like to bet parts of the finale are unwatchable for some. For the record, yes you could say “well they got into an adult-rated show, deal with it,” but the fact of the matter is up until now sexual violence/discomfort wasn’t heavy-handed and in-your-face like this. Non-sexual violence was definitely all over the whole series, but it’s still a bit like whiplash considering. Also, the fact people think the scene with Alucard was at all chill. I see it from a story standpoint (though I honestly think their motivations were weak and there’s other ways to betray someone/get their guard down), but I think the people going on about “power bottom” and this and that are forgetting that the absence of a no is not a yes, particularly with someone severely emotionally damaged after spending months alone not only without a support group but without any contact, immediately following the death of his father by his own hands. I’m no expert but I don’t think that’s someone in the proper state of mind to consent to anything sexual, even if there were a couple weeks or whatever of spending time with these new friends. He very well might’ve been on the way to a stress disorder before they turned his world upside-down and frankly I’m wondering how he’s going to be faring come the next season (assuming there is one.) That’s more of a fandom gripe than the show itself I suppose but it’s worth a mention. - The pacing. It’s hard to pinpoint it, but something about it felt off, especially in the first half. The best way I can describe it is when you pump the gas and brakes because your brakes aren’t working great and you’re loosening them up - maybe it was necessary to get things going, but it’s a bit destabilizing/odd for anyone in the car. I think it’s what contributed to that stunted sense I got until things picked up a little more. You can see it more in just how packed with stuff the latter half is, some things which could’ve been planned a bit better through the whole season. - Sumi and Taka. I honestly felt that they wanted to get in a way to have a punch-in-the-gut arc with Alucard (not a bad idea, I am one for tragedy), wanted to kill off some characters who were actually important, and decided to do these both with one stone. I don’t think they were successful on the second part, because these two absolutely contributed to the stunted feeling I had about some of the season. They had a good start in terms of backstory, and the idea of two people working together to fight vampires without having some big legend tied to their name to drive it (e.g. Speaker magicians, Belmont legacy, Alucard’s heritage), as well as a connection to/fleshing out of one of the nameless generals, sounded like a great concept. A great concept, but it was rushed I felt, to the point that their motivations for turning on him were so packed and squished in they just weren’t believable if we’re supposed to believe these two were sane. They had some sort of mental/trust issues due to their backstory - that’s fine, and could contribute some emotional problems. However if their distrust in Alucard had been given more time to fester and grow, more little comments of Alucard’s brushing off their attempts to learn about specific things, and more cues from him that could be misinterpreted by them as him causing trouble and lying (not just them not believing him by itself), it would be more believable that the past and misinterpretations of the present get into their head and poison their thoughts of him. You can plant a seed of doubt but just like any other character bonds, it has to be given time to grow. Alucard’s rapid bonding with them could be attributed to his loneliness, trauma, and need for a support system, but you can’t make that excuse for Sumi and Taka’s motivations going from “Hm.. I wonder what he isn’t telling us” to “We need to emotionally gut him and then kill him” basically overnight. Edit:

I forgot to add a conclusion last night, so I guess the TL;DR is season 3’s a good 7.5/10 for me, -1 for the overall pacing, -1 for missing a bit of the punch from before, and -0.5 because the last few episodes jumped me with a bat and I let it happen.

#i'm probably gonna regret this tomorrow but here are my just-got-gutted-by-that-season thoughts #castlevania #season 3 spoilers #castlevania season 3 #ooc #tw dubcon #tw violence

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inyourwildestdreamslove · 5 years

Text

Thank you...Next.

When your world gets turned upside down, a knife wielding hero is there for you.

Diego x Reader

Warnings: Slight violence and language.

The first time that Diego Hargreeves ever sees you is when you walk into the police station. He has seen a lot of angry people in life, but you looked like fury embodied. The black dress you are wearing hugs you in all the right places and your makeup is still flawless despite your windblown hair. Walking up to the counter your voice holds the calm in the storm between every syllable you spoke, because your eyes were a hurricane of emotion.

“I need a police escort to my apartment please.”

The man behind the desk blinks up at you in confusion, “Why is that ma’am?”

“Because my now ex-boyfriend forced me out of his car onto the side of the road in a fit of rage. A fit of rage that I do not even begin to understand, mostly because we had a great time tonight until he lost it in the car over nothing. Therefore, I would like a police escort to get my things because I don’t trust a man that would throw this girlfriend out on the side of the road in the middle of the night for no reason,” you state your words clipped and matter of fact while your tone holds your rage in check.

Diego can’t help but be impressed along with intrigued.

“I’ll escort you ma’am. My name is Detective Patch, you are?”

After you introduce yourself to the Detective, the two of leave the station and head out to her car. Once you get to your apartment complex you see your car in its usual space with the windows busted out and the tires slashed.

You turn towards the Detective, “I’m going to need make a police report about my car,” you say with exasperation. You are mentally preparing yourself for the fight in your apartment.

“Has he ever hit you?”

“No… but there is a first time for everything and I have work in the morning,” you say with steel in your voice.

She just nods her head and follows you up the stairs of your complex. You open the door to the biggest mess you have ever seen in your life. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time you’ve seen this amount of damage. After his refusal to get help for his anger issues and outbursts, you were done trying to make things work. This man would not put you through hell any longer.

“What took you so long? Have to blow someone for a ride?”

“I’d watch my mouth if I were you,” Detective Patch says angily, obviously startling the man in the other room.

He comes around the corner and in an attempt to be menacing and gets in the Detective’s face.

“Who the fuck are you?” he spits out before you take his arm and pull him away from the Detective.

“Knock it off, I’m just here to get my things.”

“Like hell you are! You aren’t leaving me!”

The Detective flashes her badge and says in a deadly calm voice, “Try to stop her… I dare you.”

You are complete ice as you walk into the shared bedroom and pull your clothes from the closet and the dresser. Your makeup goes in another bag and you grab your jewelry knowing he would attempt to get rid of anything of value if you didn’t take it.

“Do you have everything you need?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” she turns towards your ex and locks him with a stare, “If you damage any of her things you will be charged with destruction of property. We’ll be in touch about the car by the way.”

You watch the veins in his neck pop out and his face turn red. You can’t believe this was the same man that you thought was so sweet a few months ago.

Patch was sweet enough to drop you off at your friends place, where you would be living from now on. You were lucky she had yet to replace you in the roommate department, so you could have your old place back. It would make the transition easier at least.

“Here is my card, and this is my cell number,” she says as she writes it on the back, “If you need me just give me a call okay?”

“Thank you, it really means a lot having your help tonight. I wasn’t really sure how to deal with it, nothing like this has ever happened to me before...”

“You handled it very well. Now get some rest and let me know if you need me okay? I’ll have a few friends on the force circle the block tonight okay?”

“Thanks…” you say before bidding her goodnight and shutting the door.

Your friend is in front of you with a hug and a mug of tea.

“Go get a shower and let me know if you want to talk.”

You appreciate the understanding and head towards your bathroom. It’s a couple of hours later, when you are attempting to settle in for the night that you notice a car with a man parked outside of your building. The man looks oddly familiar and it took you several moments of pondering where you had seen him.

“The police station…” you mutter eyes widening before you pull out the detective’s card and dial her number.

“Hello?”

“Detective Patch? It’s (Y/N).”

“Is everything okay?”

“Well… there is a guy that I saw at the police station tonight sitting outside of my apartment building…”

“What?”

“Yeah… you were talking to him before you came over to help me…”

“Diego…”

“Who? Is he a police officer?”

“No… but he’s a good guy to have around in a situation like this…”

“What?”

“Yeah… he wants to protect you not cause you any harm, I promise.”

“Okay…” you say with a sigh of relief.

That night you sleep surprisingly well knowing the man named Diego was there if your ex boyfriend decided to show up.

The next morning you glance out your window to see that his car is still in the same spot it was last night. You get ready and on a whim fix an extra cup of coffee and bagel with cream cheese on it with your own breakfast.

On your way out you walk up to the car and tap softly on the window. The man inside opens his eyes and winces as he looks up at you. You know his neck must be killing him after seeing the position he was sleeping in.

He squints up at you before he rolls down the window and fixes you with a stare.

“Thank you for looking out for me last night,” you say as you hand him the coffee and bagel you made for him.

“Umm… Thank you…” he says obviously confused, “You’re not… scared of me after what happened last night?”

“I was at first… but Detective Patch said that you’re good to have around in a situation like this.”

He gave you a half smile and nod before he took a sip of the coffee.

“He ever hit you?” he asks with an edge to his voice.

“No… and I refuse to give him the opportunity.”

He nods in understanding before muttering a good before he takes another sip of coffee.

“Can I ask a favor?”

“Yeah, what do you need?”

“I wouldn’t normally ask this but….would you go with me to get the rest of my things tonight? Around 5:30 or 6:00 if you can make it… He will probably work late tonight, but I don’t want to risk him being there…”

“Yeah I’ll go with you.”

“Thank you… I uhh…. I have to get to work now… I’ll see you tonight?”

“I’ll be here.”

You send him a grateful smile as you head off down the street in hopes of catching the bus.

Your day was filled with anxiety and dreadful thoughts. You were incredibly confused and heartbroken about what had happened the night before and ended up barely holding it together with multiple trips to the bathroom where you spent way too much time trying to pull yourself together.

By the time the end of the day rolls around you are mentally and emotionally drained. You don’t care about the silent tears that rolled down your face on the bus back to your apartment. All you could think about are the calls and messages you refused to take. Your head hurts from trying to rein in your emotions all day, but you knew there was more to do.

The man dressed in black was leaning against the side of your complex. You noticed the collection of knives strapped to his chest and various other places for the first time. If you didn’t trust Detective Patch, you would think that asking for his help was a huge mistake. However, he greeted you with concerned eyes and was gentle when he asked if you needed him to do anything for you. You just shook your head no and let him lead you over to his car.

“Thank you,” you said as you made an attempt to keep the tears at bay.

“Hey… Don’t worry about it… I know this is rough, but you’ll be better off without a jerk who would treat someone as amazing as you like shit.”

You give him a watery smile and wipe the tear from your eye as you look out the window. By the time you get to your old home you have built your wall back up and getting out of the car you square your shoulders. If this man wanted a fight, he would get one.

Diego follows you into the building and up to your floor. His presence behind you is so comforting and it makes you feel much safer walking into the warzone that you left behind. Your apartment is still a mess when you walk in. Pictures lay shattered on the floor, an almost poetic reminder of the happiness that is now gone. The pillows you had bought to go with the couch you picked out were ripped to shreds and many of your decorative odds and ends lay in pieces on the floor. Diego let out a low whistle when he sees the carnage left behind.

“Wait here… I’ll check the house to make sure he isn’t here to bother you.”

You nod as you bend down to pick up the head of a decorative rabbit that sat on a shelf just yesterday. You turn it over in your hand studying it, begging for anything else to focus on than what used to be your home. You don’t want to show it, but it cuts deep.

After a few minutes Diego comes back into the room flipping a knife casually in the air.

“You’re good to go, take as long as you need okay? I’m not going anywhere.”

You aren’t sure how… but Diego has a way of making you feel safe and protected all while being the most caring man you’ve ever met. And you’ve only spent about an hour with him….

You’ve been packing things up for well over an hour when you hear the front door click open. The booming voice of your ex echoes throughout the apartment and you’re hoping you can finish this visit in peace.

“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!”

“Wait! He’s with me!!” you exclaim in a slight panic as you rush into the room.

“What? This your new boyfriend? You’re that much of a slut that you’ve already got someone new to fuck?”

“Watch it buddy…” says Diego as he steps between the two of you.

“No you watch it! This is my apartment!”

“And I’m just trying to get my things, we will be gone soon,” you say as you lay a hand on Diego’s shoulder. You can feel the tension in his muscles lessen just slightly at your touch. The two men continue to stare one another down. Your ex nods and Diego follows you into the bedroom as you continue to pack up the rest of your things. Your ex follows as well and begins to make snide comments about every minute thing hoping to get a rise out of you. Diego continues to glare him down all while sticking to you like glue.

It’s another half hour when your ex finally goes too far.

“Dude… I don’t know what you’re hoping to accomplish here, but this little cunt isn’t good for anything other than a good fuck, and even then I’ve had way better.”

Diego is across the room before you can even blink.

“What did you just call her?” Diego growls as he throws him against the wall and pins him there by his neck.

Your ex laughs slightly, “So you know-”

He can’t get the next words out as Diego begins to add pressure.

“Don’t ever fucking talk to her again. Don’t look at her again. In fact, don’t ever even think of her again. Any man that would throw a woman out on the side of the highway is no man. I don’t care what she’s done in the past, I don’t care what she says. If that’s your woman you don’t treat her like a piece of trash. And you definitely don’t talk about her like that when all she is trying to do is get her things and leave.”

Diego releases him and pushes him out the door. You’re so conflicted you don’t know what to do. Grabbing what you already have packed you go to leave the room.

“Hey… don’t worry about him…”Diego says softly as he turns around and catches you in his arms. You slide your arms around him and bury your face in his chest. His arms wrap around you even more tightly.

“I just don’t know what I’ve done to be treated like this…” you get out between sobs.

“Hey… He’s nothing. Just focus on getting your things and we will leave okay?”

You look up at him and nod before you turn to quickly throw what was left of your stuff into a bag. You rush around the apartment gathering the odds and ends that you knew were yours. When you are finally finished Diego grabs almost everything and follows you out the door. Sitting on the floor of the hallway is your ex glaring up at the two of you as you leave.

“I knew you were cheating on me… this is just proof.”

“I never cheated on you… You know I don’t believe in that nonsense… Diego is a good man who agreed to help me get out of a bad situation. In the last few hours of my life he has shown me far more respect and kindness than I think you are capable of… because as far as I am concerned our entire relationship was a lie. If you had ever truly cared about me you wouldn’t have treated me like this for no damn reason.”

“Fuck you.”

“Hey,” all it takes is one word from Diego and he looks away from the two of you.

After you have finished loading everything into the car, you plop down into the passenger's seat and Diego gets into the driver's seat.

“You hungry? I know this great place that isn’t too far from here… I’m buying.”

“You don’t have to do that for me.”

“Hey… You’ve had a rough couple of days… let me do this for you.”

You just nod and he takes you to this adorable little Italian bistro a few blocks down the road. He listens as you tell him about your hurt and your anger. He builds you up when you try to put yourself down and most importantly he just sits there with you as you process everything that has just happened to you. When the two of finally head back to your place he helps you take everything upstairs and when you start to cry he holds you. You’ve only known this man for a few hours and yet you trust him your life.

“Thank you…” you whisper as you rest your head on his shoulder.

“Hey… it’s no problem… plus I got to spend the evening with an amazing woman.”

You give a soft smile, “There it is! I couldn’t leave tonight without seeing that beautiful smile.”

“Stop it!” you say as you look down in embarrassment.

“Hey I mean it… You deserve to smile. You deserve someone that makes you smile… you know that right?”

“Of course….” You aren’t used to being vulnerable. You’ve never felt like you could be anything other than strong and yet... Diego is definitely different.

“So… I’ve got to go… I-I I...uh…. W-wanted to ask y-you if… maybe…”

“Yes?”

“I’ve got a boxing match this Saturday… would you l-like to come?”

“I would love to…” you say softly as you look up at him with a gentle smile.

He gives you a smile in return and pulls you into a hug before he leaves. The last few days may have been some of the most difficult, but you’ve found someone who will make the future so much more than your past ever was.

I was not expecting this to take this long! Also... I think I’m going to do a sequel... I didn’t choose the Diego life... the Diego life chose me... Expect the next chapter of Fearless to be out soon!

@soul-of-a-traveller I hope you enjoy this!!

#diego hargreeves x reader #diego hargreeves imagine #diego hargreeves x you #diego hargreeves #the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy imagine #the umbrella academy fanfiction #diego hargreeves romance

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braveskyered · 5 years

Text

Knights Part 15

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

Please be aware that there may be some topics from here on out that you as a reader will find uncomfortable. Elaborating what they are in the beginning will be considered spoilers.

Do remember that this story is a work of fiction. Any similarities between characters or events to persons - living or dead - in our real world are purely coincidental.

Only those that have understood and thus agreed to the above have the privilege of continuing to read Knights to the very end with a clear head.

Do you agree?

Yes ←

Should you fail, then it would be wise if you hold yourself back and confront what hurts you.

Part 15: Tear Me Upside Down

- - - - - - - -

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

And Arthur knew he deserved it.

It was his arm that did the killing, after all.

He waited a few minutes after the wraith left and phased through the wall of his bedroom. He has to before he could start treating the wounds from the punishment right before. Thankfully, there aren’t any Dead Beats to keep an eye on him, so he has a little freedom. The wraith hasn't bothered to send its little helpers to watch Arthur for the past two weeks, and he made sure not to show his relief, lest it thinks to send them out again.

He assessed his injuries. They're on his shoulders and right arm this time, so it shouldn't be too difficult to tend to...

Grunting somewhat painfully, Arthur pulled himself off the floor somewhat and crawled down next to his bed. His right arm became too sore to move and twist, and Arthur wouldn't be surprised if there's a fracture or two at this point. Not enough for a cast, he thinks, but it hurt more than usual when the wraith's hand roughly grasped it, and thought he felt something crack.

He has no choice but to use his damned prosthetic left arm to pull the medium-sized box out from beneath. The forbidden box, he came to call it, because the wraith didn't like it whenever the box entered its line of sight. Otherwise, it would mean that Arthur hasn't suffered enough in this damned manor. Or worse, take the box and burn it to cinders like it did one time when Arthur first started collecting.

After some struggle, Arthur got himself into a sitting position, took off his shirt, and started to sift through the medical supplies he gradually smuggled in while ignoring the rest of the scars. The burn salve has always been his savior from the worst of it, so he took a somewhat filthy cotton ball and started applying the salve on his shoulders, careful not to let any of it get into his hair when he moved his head.

He must hurry before Vivi or Mystery come home, before the wraith would notice.

It took a while, but soon, Arthur was able to wrap some bandages around his shoulders, although the area around his left shoulder was rather sloppy in its wrapping. It's not like he can ask for help, so he did what he could. He then started to work on his right forearm. He took out the thin arm guard inside to use as a poor makeshift splint for what he hoped isn’t a broken bone, but it’ll have to do.

If anything, he could play it off as a mishap while working on the van. Or pretend he did it himself because he's a so-called masochist or something.

...Yeah, not happening. Arthur rolled his eyes. He never understood how that kink or whatever worked, and he knew no one would believe him if he used that excuse.

He dug into the medicine bottle and took out a few pills. The dose is probably more than what's typically directed for a person to take, but Arthur needed to reduce the pain soon or else there will be problems. Taking a small water bottle from the box, he swallowed the painkillers.

His self-treatment finished, Arthur put his shirt back on and tugged on the long sleeves to hide the wrapping. He placed the medical supplies back into the box and slipped it back under his bed, then quickly yet carefully gathered the few wrappers of the bandages from earlier and stuffed them into an empty potato chip bag. No one here ever bothers to check the trash. Arthur could only feel relieved somewhat as he tosses the chip bag into the nearby wastebasket. The Dead Beats are typically not smart enough to look through them, and the wraith has forbidden them to dig through trash like animals, so it works.

He then checked himself by looking into a small round mirror roughly the size of his palm he keeps on his desk. He could sigh in relief. Good. No one should be able to tell that he has bandages on.

Again.

Arthur isn't sure how much longer he'll be able to take the punishments he's been sentenced to have, but he must hold out for as long as he can. It meant that Vivi would be happy, since she loved Lewis so much, loved the wraith so much. It was like Lewis's death by his hand never even happened.

...If only it were that simple.

He could never see the wraith as a friend.

Lewis would be disgusted.

Arthur gripped at his stomach. It hurt. He hasn’t had a proper meal in two days.

He wondered if he could sneak to the van and eat that energy bar in the glove compartment. Vivi would just think either Mystery ate it or ate it herself and just forgot.

She always is a little scatterbrained like that here and there.

- - - - - - -

“Hey, Mom! Dad! Welcome back!”

Arthur blinked and gave an exasperated but amused smile upon seeing both Gwen and Percy grinning like little children in front of the cars, a funny sight considering that they have oil stains on their arms and faces.

“You should've seen the damage on this one!” Gwen was laughing as she spoke while gesturing to a large black pick-up truck, on one of the work stations, “The owner thought his truck's engine was constantly overheating since it kept giving out light smoke, but it's actually because there was an oil leak at the engine block. When we opened it, there was so much oil cooked on it, it was like removing a brick!��

“And that the tire alert kept turning on because the device itself was malfunctioning. All the tires were at the pressure they were supposed to be,” Percy made no attempt to hide his grin, although he seemed humbler about it, “But thankfully, our grand uncle had the parts needed to fix it.”

These were kids that were actively enjoying themselves. They weren't making fun of the owners, they were having fun just talking about the craziest and sometimes the most mundane problems a car could have. Arthur couldn’t help but feel proud of his little mechanics, especially once he noticed that they’re acknowledging Lance as family. He then saw Elaine walking over to the twins, no doubt to ask them how they’ve been since she and Arthur were gone.

He noticed that Belle is missing. He’s not sure if that’s a good thing. She often liked to blab about many things when she was a child.

“Where’s Aunt Morgan?”

“… to get lunch for us,” Gwen replied. Arthur didn’t hear the first part.

“They should be back in a bit,” Percy nodded along.

Food… does sounds good around this time. Arthur drifted off in his thoughts. He feels he’s forgetting something important. His brow furrowed at the thought, and he didn’t know why he has the feeling in the first place.

“They're active ones, I'll have to say,” Lance suddenly walked up, and to Arthur's surprise, is holding Vivian, “This one here, especially.”

How is Lance holding Vivian? She almost never lets anyone besides her family hold her! ...Then again, Lance is family. The little girl reached out to Arthur, and so he took her out of his uncle’s hold and into his own before sitting down to a nearby chair.

Arthur isn’t sure how to feel when he now knows that Lance is taking the fact that he is married with a family of his own… somewhat well.

“Your aunt-in-law explained everything about your family to me,” Lance glanced away for a moment, no doubt feeling awkward, “I can see why you didn’t want to tell me about them in your letters. But I must ask,” he turned back to Arthur, “Why didn’t you say anything? Why did you just leave? Why didn’t you at least tell me where you went? You know I would’ve helped you. I would’ve visited you, even.”

Arthur didn’t reply and kept his focus on Vivian, who reached up to grasp at his right shoulder. He somewhat smiled back at her while trying to keep his emotions in check and held his daughter’s hand.

Lance sighed and rubbed a hand against his neck, “Then again, if I’m not mistaken on why you left, I probably would’ve done the same thing if I were in your shoes.”

Arthur rose a brow slightly at Lance. Last he checked, his uncle is usually more gung-ho about life, a “move it or lose it” type of guy. Lance often thought that running away from things is a cowardly thing to do, which Arthur very well is and has done. It’s no secret that Arthur is afraid of many things and ran away from just as many horrors.

“I mean, even though they deeply regret it now, I still haven’t forgiven Joe and Lokia for what they said about you. They’ve never been in your shoes when... that happened.”

…If it was just that, Arthur knew he would have forced himself to grin and bear it.

“I really do wish that I was there for you, y’know. For you and your kids,” Lance turned his attention back to Elaine and the twins, who were somewhat debating over a certain part that needed replacing, “I would’ve loved to see them grow up over the years.”

Arthur could barely hold back a grimace so Vivian wouldn’t notice, “So would I.”

“What?

“I always knew you’d want to be there for them, but I couldn’t allow that,” Arthur tried not to tighten his grip on Vivian’s hand, “If I did, everyone here would know. If they knew, so would--”

Whatever anyone here in Tempo would know, so would that damn wraith, the monster that wore Lewis’s face and made his life hell after everything went wrong. The same monster that wanted him to suffer, wanted him dead, wanted everything he has.

Wanted him gone.

“Who else knows I’m here?” He had to know, if only to protect his three children. Vivian leaned closer against him.

“So far, it’s just me, Belle, Nobuhiro, and his wife Jolene. I'd count his mother, Fuyuko, but she's been more forgetful than usual ever since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years back,” Lance counted them with his fingers, “After we found out where you were, we all agreed to keep quiet about your whereabouts from everyone. I also asked Belle to not say anything to her family since she’s my main assistant despite… things. So as far as I know, no one else but us four know that you’re here. Regarding your children, we knew about Gwen and Percy from that article that led us to you, but we didn’t know about little Vivian here since it didn’t mention her.”

So Vivi and Mystery, and thus the wraith, do not know that he is here. Arthur could only give a slow breath of relief, but he isn’t fully relaxed, “I see.”

It’s only a matter of time until the monsters catch wind of him. Either he remains hidden or he takes his family and runs away again.

The conversation ended at that, and while Arthur took the time to let Vivian play with his hand, he listened to Elaine talking with Gwen and Percy about something. He isn’t sure what, but it sounded a little serious. He thought about joining in the conversation, but ultimately decided against it. It didn’t look like they’re being scolded, so he felt that Elaine is handling it fine.

“Um… Arthur? One more thing I should add. You see, the Yuki��”

The sound of a bell from the entrance door cut off Lance’s words.

“Hey, Lance, we’re back with lunch!”

Arthur glanced in Belle’s direction and saw her with Morgan following, both carrying multiple brown paper bags as the smell of food filled the air. It smells familiar.

Lance apparently kept the policy of closing the shop for an hour for lunch, as Arthur could tell when he saw his uncle place up a sign saying such. He didn’t see any other employee leaving or coming out, so maybe it’s only just Lance and Belle for now? It would make sense, since it’s just before Thanksgiving week, so many people would be out visiting family.

“Arthur, are you coming?”

Looking up, Arthur saw Elaine waiting for him. Before standing up, he gently let Vivian down from his hold, took her hand, and followed his family into Lance’s home.

He feels he has forgotten something.

…

- - - - - - -

YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE THAT, YOU KNOW.

- - - - - - -

…

He coughed.

He gagged as he shoved one his fingers into his throat. He must get it out of his system before it becomes a part of him. Let the toilet take it instead. Let anyone take it! He can’t take it! He can’t have it!

How could I have forgotten?!

He didn't know. No one told him where the food came from. He was only told by Morgan that it was something she knew he would like. He should have known. Morgan wouldn't have – couldn’t have known. Belle is the daughter of chefs that own the restaurant that made the food she brought back with Morgan, so of course she would get something to eat from her family's restaurant! It was in typical paper bags instead of bearing the family logo of a pepper.

Who gave you the right to eat that?

The wraith didn’t like it whenever Arthur ate food from the Pepper Paradiso, or any food in general while in its sight, even when it was Vivi who provided it for him. He could only eat in the few times he was alone, and that was few and far in between. He never dared touch any food from the Pepper Paradiso ever since the wraith had beaten him the first few times he did, especially after one meal it made caused him to vomit.

"What happened?!" Elaine… Mystery?

"I-I don't know! He was fine and all of a sudden he just ran off and--," Belle… Vivi?

The pain was unbearable when that happened, and Arthur could only feel dread and outright betrayal the following day after stumbling across a tiny bottle tucked away into a corner of the counter when the wraith wasn't looking, only focused on Vivi. It wasn’t labeled, but it didn’t take a genius on Arthur’s end to learn what it was.

Arsenic. Tasteless and odorless. Poison.

A lesson.

The wraith would not only hurt him physically and emotionally, but also poison him to keep him in line.

Ever since then, any food from the Mystery Skulls was met with scrutiny. If Arthur found any flaw on the packaging of energy bars, he would refuse to eat it, saying he doesn’t have the appetite even though it would result in painful hunger later. He would only "play it safe" when no one was watching. The multitude of snacks Vivi packed in the van for everyone in the Mystery Skulls to consume, Arthur would gradually sneak one extra for himself when no one was looking. Considering how much both Vivi and Mystery consume, no one, not even the wraith, would notice if he sneaked away one or two more snacks that are mixed up within Vivi's “Mighty Snack Stash” pile.

Arthur felt awful for going so far as to steal food from Vivi, even though she had already offered him to take whatever he needed and whenever he needed it. Because of the guilt, Arthur would go without food for days at a time, relying only on water or energy drinks, or even on the wildflowers outside of the manor for sustenance. He gradually started losing weight despite his efforts, and he knew with dread that he had to do something before his weight loss became obvious.

Shortly after, Vivi, with the wraith next to her, had asked Arthur that question, for the only thing he has left. He may have wanted to give it at one point, he isn’t too sure, and often questioned it to himself relentlessly since it was wrong for as long as he could remember. In the end, however, the punishments from the wraith and the persecution from everyone else that he had suffered – and would have suffered from had he accepted – made him refuse. The burns he received right after he refused were the proof.

And that question became the final straw.

It's just wrong, wrong, wrong!

Well… it’s pointless now, since he has Elaine, but that might not dissuade them from getting what they want.

When Arthur left Tempo seventeen years ago, he didn't dare pack any food. He couldn't bring any possible poison with him, only opting to get food somewhere where the Mystery Skulls or the wraith or anyone he knew did not have any influence. No one had any justifiable reason to poison a stranger.

Soon, Arthur couldn’t cough up anything else other than a dry heave, and soon scooted away from the toilet. Even though his throat burned, and his hands felt clammy, he couldn’t help but feel relieved. He got the food made by Pepper Paradiso out of him before his stomach fully digested it. The wraith won’t try to force him this time, it won’t punish him as harshly.

Or at least, he hoped so.

He knew the lesson already, he was just tricked into eating it this time.

That's all.

“Arthur, my star,” a quiet and shaking voice, “Are you okay?”

Upon hearing a hand gently rub circles onto his back, Arthur looked behind him and saw Elaine kneeling behind him. He gave out a weak whimper before turning away.

“My knight,” Elaine didn’t stop with the rubbing motions, “My knight, please, talk to me. Are you feeling better now, at least?”

His trembling didn’t stop. He sensed Elaine doing some movements, but he couldn't fully focus on what exactly his beloved light is doing. The tears from vomiting blurred his sight.

“Here, do you need this?”

Wiping away a tear, Arthur looked up slightly upon seeing Elaine’s hand enter his line of sight. She’s holding some toilet paper out to him. Slowly, he took it from her and wiped his mouth of any remaining fluids.

“Did the food not agree with you?”

He didn’t dare answer her, not when the others could hear. He didn’t want Lance or Morgan to fly into a rage at Belle. He didn’t want Belle to receive the end of their wrath. He didn’t want his children to become more confused and worried more than they already are. He didn’t want to admit to Elaine that for a brief moment, he thought he had consumed poison, even though the meal Morgan got him was actually one of his favorites from the menu…

“Do you want to go back to the camper for a while?” Elaine gripped at his shoulder.

She caught on. Arthur gave a weak nod, and within moments, he heard Elaine say something to the others waiting outside. He then heard the sound of the toilet flushing, felt her slowly pull him up, had him wash his hands, before finally taking him out of the bathroom. He tried to not give anyone eye contact, especially not to his children.

He felt too ashamed to look at them, especially upon hearing his younger daughter wanting to reach out to him.

"No, Vivian. Daddy just needs some alone time. You can hug him after he's done, okay?"

Gwen, Percy, Vivian… I'm so sorry.

Moment later, Elaine escorted Arthur into the camper and had him sit on the small bed in the back. He heard her lock the door before sitting next to him. With the same tender kindness he always knew, Arthur felt Elaine take his right hand with her left, wrap her right arm behind his back, and leaned close to him. In turn, he wrapped his left arm around her, and held her close. Neither of them said anything, only letting the faint sounds of the desert nature outside to be heard.

And it’s only midday…

A part of him wished it would rain, but because Tempo is a desert town, Arthur knew that there will not be any kind of precipitation to keep the fire away. Rainfall is rare in desert towns, where it can be fairly hot to scorching during the day, and somewhat chilly to downright frigid at night, neither of which would keep the wraith at bay.

Arthur isn’t sure whether Elaine could protect him from the wraith, but their children have higher priority. Unlike him, those children had nothing to do with Lewis dying so long ago; thus bearing no sin. Gwen, Percy, and Vivian deserve to live happy lives, and not be imprisoned by an obsessive wraith that would want to hold them captive like toys to play with like it wanted to do with him. If being taken by the wraith is what it will take for them to be safe, so be—

“We won’t let anyone here hurt you or our family,” Elaine whispered with a tone of finality, “I promised that, as did my mother, as did Aunt Morgan, and as did Nana Niniane. I will make that promise again and again, my star, ever since the day we married.”

Arthur whispered into her ear, “Do you remember your other promise to me?”

Elaine went stiff, “How can I not. You wouldn’t marry me until I did.”

He looked down at his feet, “Elaine, you know that there’s—"

“I won’t let that happen, Arthur,” she held him tighter, “You know that. I refuse to let it happen.”

Arthur could only smile sadly. He knew that it’s only a matter of time until his happiness is taken away. And like him, Elaine didn’t want that happiness to end.

“If by some chance it does, Elaine,” he buried his face against his light’s hair, “The safety of the children comes first. That’s all I ask.”

Elaine gave out a low hum, then pulled away from his hold. Arthur watched her stand up and kneel down to reach into a small cabinet nearby. If Arthur remembered right, that cabinet held the mini-fridge.

“I have a small deli sandwich left from our grocery run on the way down here yesterday. It’s got turkey, lettuce, cheese, and a little bacon in it. Do you think you can stomach it since this isn’t from that Pepper place?”

She held out the sandwich wrapped in plastic in front of him.

Arthur thought about it. They’re in the camper, which is full of protections and wards that prevent any malicious entities from coming in. The food he has in his hands was made somewhere around the Texas and Arkansas border, which is hours away from Tempo. Anyone related to the Peppers or the Yukino family are nowhere near nor could they see him. Sure, there’s Belle, but he made it a point to stay away from her.

It... should be fine. Right?

He nodded, and Elaine removed most of the wrapping before handing the food over to him, which he took and sampled a bite. It didn’t feel like poison, nor did he see or hear any sign of the wraith. He took another bite, and only then did he realize how hungry he was.

“I’m not sure how to feel about this ‘Lewis Pepper’ now,” Elaine sighed, “If he had hurt you so badly back then that you couldn’t even eat in peace—”

Arthur furrowed his brow upon hearing Elaine’s mumbling. He’ll let her assume what she wants. Lewis is dead, after all. The wraith is the one that hurt him. That he knows.

He briefly wondered where Niniane went for her investigation, since he knew that the old woman has a low opinion on people who would vandalize graves, which are meant to be the final resting places of the deceased.

And an even lower opinion of the deceased in question.

- - - - - - -

This can't be right.

The last time he was here, Arthur could easily recall the details of the tombstone that used to be at the very same spot in front of him. It was one that held an engraving of a simple angel holding a cake in one hand and a pepper in another. The words engraved next to the angel was the name of Lewis Pepper, some memoirs that showed that he was a loving son and brother, the numbers that showed that he had only lived a mere twenty-one years, and that his life had been tragically cut short.

But now the tombstone is gone, with only a simple stone slab that held the dead's name and vandalized beyond belief.

Arthur could barely make out the word “disappear” made in faded red spray paint. The hateful words carved against the stone that basically damn the dead with sheer hatred. Arthur thought he recognized one of the kanji, based from the few times Vivi had taken the time to show him the ofuda her grandmother had taught her, and he could only tremble in apprehension.

Arthur isn't sure what to feel when he looked at the crack that was almost split in the middle. It looks too straight for it to be a natural crack.

“It looks like someone stabbed a blade of some sort against this grave,” Elaine muttered incredulously as she kneeled down and traced her finger around the large hole and crack in the middle of the stone slab, “Nana Niniane, this kanji here...”

“The first one can be read as 'hate,'” Niniane said grimly with narrowed eyes, “The other is 'eternity.' Whoever painted that with a stencil has developed quite a hatred against this individual, enough that they wish for this one to suffer even in death until the end of time.”

So why--

“Why would someone do this?!” Arthur gasped; the words barely audible even to himself.

Niniane gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, her arms not leaving their crossed position, speaking nonchalantly, “The hatred runs deep, I guess.”

He didn't understand. Why would someone desecrate Lewis's grave like this? Who would hate him enough to--

“Hm?” Niniane knelt down and looked closer at the engravings, and from what Arthur saw, noticed that something was amiss, “Arthur. I have one question to ask you. All I need is a yes or a no.”

It better not be about--

“This man is the one who hurt you, isn't it?” Elaine suddenly asked, “You said that he was your best friend.”

Lewis isn't--

“But on a case, a demon took control of you, and killed him,” Niniane continued after, “If he saw you in his last moments, he must have thought that you did it on purpose.”

LEWIS ISN’T--

“Rather temperamental, I take it. Either way, it’s obvious that he didn’t get away with it,” Niniane stood up and moved closer to Arthur, gently tracing a somewhat long fingernail around the burn scar around the front of his neck, “Little good it does to you, though.”

Arthur shivered upon feeling Niniane’s motion, which the old woman took as a cue to pull her hand away.

“My apologies,” Niniane turned to Elaine, “Well, it’s for the best that the two of you don’t dawdle here for too long. The hatred from the person who vandalized this, as childish as it is, is not something to be trifled with since this person used a rather awful magic to crack the stone."

"Anything else we should know about?" Elaine asked, "I haven't sensed anything to be wary of so far, but I wanted to ask you."

"Hmm… I have yet to sense anything paranormal in this city, myself," the old woman rubbed her chin in thought, "Now that you've brought it to my attention, I will investigate this matter, and maybe also find out who vandalized this fool’s grave. I will contact you or Morgan once I find any results.”

She gave them a minor curtsy, then walked away

Arthur turned his attention back to Lewis’s grave. A part of him wanted to clean the spray paint off to give Lewis a little dignity after the loss of the original tombstone, but when he knelt down and brushed two fingers against the red, he noticed that it was dry. His chest ached somewhat upon seeing again that only Lewis’s name remained legible. No date of birth, no date of death, not even a little epitaph to describe him. Everything else had either been scratched off or wasn’t engraved in the first place.

No matter what, this meager slab is a lost cause.

He felt a small tug on his shoulder.

“We should head back, my star,” Elaine whispered, “We shouldn’t keep the kids waiting.”

“…Right.”

He turned his back to the pathetic sight and walked back the way he came with his light.

- - - - - - -

Arthur managed to finish the small meal without any further issue, which made him feel both relieved and disgusted at the same time.

“I’m sorry you had to see me in such a state, Elaine.”

“Don’t be. You didn’t want to come back here, after all,” Elaine took the sandwich wrapping from him and tossed it into a small trash can, then sat down next to him again, “If not for the fact that you said you trust your uncle, I wouldn’t have tried to convince you to come here in the first place."

Arthur looked down at his left hand, then slowly clenched it into a loose fist. Everything went wrong because of this arm, and that even now, he is so weak.

"If anything, I'm just more worried about how the kids are handling this," Elaine sighed, "They need to have their little 'exercise' soon. Do you know of any places they should stay away from?"

To Arthur, he wanted his children, his precious reasons to live, to stay away from his past home, stay away from his past acquaintances, stay away from the past monsters. Stay away from Tempo. Away from everything Arthur once knew, so they wouldn’t be poisoned, or beaten, or broken, or trapped like mice in a cage…!

But if there are some places to stay away from at the very least…

He stood up, " Elaine, I need to apologize for ruining… you know.”

She looked up at him, “Do you want me to go instead?”

Arthur didn’t answer.

A knock was heard, which made Arthur’s legs feel weak and sat back down on the bed. He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering. Someone’s behind the door leading outside the camper. Why did he have to feel such fear? If he opened that door, he could get hurt again.

But then he remembered that his children are out there.

Before he made a move, Elaine stood up to answer whoever was outside. Arthur saw her raise a finger up to her lips to the guest he couldn’t see, then watched her step outside and close the door behind her, leaving him in the safety of the camper’s protections. He closed his eyes in despair at the thought of his life with Elaine and the kids ending. He didn’t want it to end. He wanted to live. He wanted to see his children grow up. He wanted to protect them, but he couldn’t because he’s so weak.

…Am I really that weak?

He opened his eyes and clutched at the moon pin near his heart in a dark realization.

I… I am weak. I know how weak I am. I know I don’t stand a chance against the monsters and demons.

He gritted his teeth.

But if I remain here, Gwen, Percy, and Vivian won’t be safe from them.

Arthur shook his head furiously before standing up, all traces of fear leaving him. If it were just him, he would keep cowering in the safety of wherever he could hide. But ever since he became a father, he couldn’t hide anymore. His past eventually found him after all.

Elaine can only do so much. I promised her that I would do whatever I can to ensure their futures.

Taking a deep breath, he walked to the exist of the camper to see Elaine talking to Gwen and Percy through the window. Arthur briefly wondered where Vivian is, but that question was quickly answered when he opened the camper door to step out when he saw his youngest child clinging to her brother’s leg. All four of them turned their attention to them, the children all showing concern, but none of them dared to speak out.

“Hey, guys. Sorry about earlier,” Arthur tried to keep his words steady as he breathed out a smile, “I hope I didn’t scare you that badly.”

That got Gwen to start. Arthur watched his eldest daughter out her hands against her hips and lean towards his direction, “Of course you scared us, Daddy! We were worried!”

Arthur could only smile as he brushed a hand against Gwen’s hair, “Your mother told me that the three of you need to go out and let loose with your power for a while.” Upon seeing that he has the attention of his family, he continued, “As I’ve told you before we left home, this place is known to have paranormal elements, so whatever you guys do, please be careful.”

The twins and Elaine looked at each other with uncertainty.

“Dad, about this place. So far, our grand uncle has been amazing to hang out with, but…” Percy began to ask uneasily, “Why did you leave? What made you leave?”

“Percy!” Elaine scolded.

It was an inevitable topic, and Arthur knew it as he let out a breath with a half-smile without one feeling of happiness.

The true reason he left Tempo.

Contrary to what most would think, it wasn’t because of the wraith hurting him. Arthur could endure those, or at least as much as he could until his body gave out and he would die. The punishments were something he knew he deserved, but it wasn’t the reason he ran away.

How can he tell them, children that are twins just barely in their teens and a little girl, the true cause of his misery? His heart began to ache painfully at the thought.

Arthur smiled at them while trying to hide the emotions threatening to spill.

"Stay away from the southern area."

"What?"

"Stay away from the outskirts south of here that lead to a dark forest, and you should be fine," he moved closer to the twins, and placed a hand on each of their shoulders, "However, if you come across any threat, especially if you encounter a kitsune, or a flaming wraith,” he took a breath to hammer the warning into them, “You are to run away as fast as you can and return to the camper. Do you understand? Do whatever it takes to get away."

Gwen tilted her head in confusion, "Why those specif--"

"There's a possibility that those two monsters are still in that area. Stay out of their territory, and you should be fine. Do you understand?" Arthur tightened his grip to make sure that there isn't any room for discussion.

The twins glanced at his hands on their shoulders, then at each other, before finally nodding at him.

"Good," Arthur gave a smile of relief and released his son and daughter from his hold, "Remember all the lessons your mother taught you, and Vivian?"

"Daddy?"

"No poofing away from Gwen and Percy unless they tell you to," he knelt down and playfully tapped a finger against his youngest daughter’s nose, “You need to do your part to help your big brother and sister, too. Okay, Vivian?”

“Yes!” Vivian laughed and hugged him, which he returned.

Once the preparations were made, in which Gwen and Percy quickly packed a few water bottles, some charms, and their phones from the camper, Arthur and Elaine watched the twins start to leave.

“Wait.”

The children stopped to look at their father.

“There’s one last thing I need to tell you,” Arthur took Gwen and Percy’s hands, and watched with a hint of amusement at Vivian’s attempt at joining in, “No matter what, stay away from the Pepper Paradiso.”

“The restaurant of Ms. Belle’s family?” Percy furrowed his brow, no doubt confused, “But their food is good?”

Arthur nodded, “I doubt her parents will do anything since Lance said they don’t know about you three, but please, stay away from the restaurant itself. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. Okay?”

The twins looked at each other, no doubt wanting to know more, but they soon nodded. Arthur made sure to embrace his three children a moment longer than usual, then he released them from his hold. Watching the twins run off north with Vivian flying after them.

Arthur reached out for his children upon seeing them disappear from his sight, a part of him wanting to chase after them, but he curled his hand into a loose fist and lowered his arm. Upon feeling a hand take his fist, he looked over at Elaine, who smiled at him.

“They’ll be fine, my star,” Elaine said gently with confidence, “I made sure they can take care of themselves. I even went through the trouble of making those protection charms for them.”

Arthur wasn't convinced, but he chose to believe in her and their children, "Okay."

"…I know you don't want the kids to get involved in this, so I waited until after they left,” Elaine said with an unsure expression, “I have to meet with Mr. Yukino soon. He specifically requested that I bring you with me. Of course, I told him that you're free to decline, but he insisted that I ask you.”

"Oh…” Arthur felt fortunate that Elaine is so thoughtful about his feelings, "Did he say why he wanted me?"

"He only said there was someone he wanted you to see. He didn't say who, though."

Arthur really didn't want to see Vivi, or her family for that matter. The wraith hated it whenever he spoke to them, even when they were the ones that came to him for something. He didn’t want to see Mystery, either. For all he knows, the kitsune that remained with the Yukino family might still want to hurt him because of the demon’s influence, or some other reason that’s beyond his understanding.

But above all else, seeing Vivi is out of the question. Back then, Arthur had refused to give her what she had asked from him. Arthur may have wanted to hand it over at one point, but after learning the truth of what happened in the cave that resulted in Lewis’s death, combined with the hatred and punishments he suffered through, he left Tempo.

And now, years later, Vivi will never get it.

He looked down at Elaine’s hand still holding his. Slowly, he moved his other hand to put over hers, “Okay. I’ll meet him. But only on the condition that it’s only him. If the person he wants me to meet is who I think it is, I will leave immediately and let you finish the job he hired you for.”

Arthur could tell that Elaine wanted to know more, but he saw her nod in response.

“Before we go, we should probably head back to Lance to let him know you’re okay. I know he’s worried. I’ll also apologize to Belle for what happened in your place, because I know talking to her is one of… your triggers, so to speak.”

Arthur didn’t say a word in response.

- - - - - - -

Thankfully, Lance has a car as a spare vehicle whenever his truck needed repair, so he had no issue lending it to Elaine and Arthur to use for the time being. Elaine made sure to lace the interior with stringed protective charms that could be removed later for Arthur’s peace of mind.

As Elaine drove through the town, Arthur watched the surroundings while in the passenger seat. Although he didn’t find it surprising that Tempo almost looked the same ever since he left seventeen years ago, he saw that the town did change in a few areas while he was away.

The small shopping strip that was in the middle of the town has expanded a bit, judging from the four – or was it five? He couldn’t tell - stores that were built on what were previously empty fields. The old shambling movie theater that was said to be haunted years ago had been demolished with a new one in its place, although it’s still under the same name. Another gas station was added on the same road as that small convenience store, too.

Arthur isn’t sure how to feel about these changes and more.

“You okay, my knight?” Elaine asked once they reached a red light.

“I’m fine,” Arthur smiled at her, “It’s just… It’s been so long, you know?”

Unlike Cantabile, Tempo has not been his home for the past seventeen years ever since he had cut all ties to this small town. It’s been so long that he doesn’t even recognize it as his old home even though Lance and everyone else remained.

Once the light turned green, Elaine kept driving, her attention focused on the road while listening to the directions of the GPS that was preinstalled in the vehicle. Upon passing a certain building, Arthur did a double take as he and Elaine drove past it.

“What’s up, Arthur?”

“…Nothing important. Let’s just get this thing with Mr. Yukino over with.”

Elaine shrugged and let the matter drop, much to Arthur’s relief. Meanwhile, conflicting thoughts kept swirling through his mind upon seeing the sight he just witnessed. The Pepper Paradiso shouldn’t look so… run down.

Well, it’s nothing for him to be concerned about.

…Right?

- - - - - - -

“Is this the place?”

“The address matches the one on the mailbox, so it has to be.”

“But haven’t you been in the Yukino residence before?”

“Yes, but it’s not the same house from before I left, so they must have moved while I was gone.”

“I see.”

Instead of a two-story house from what Arthur remembered, the house he and Elaine have driven up the driveway to is only an old yet modest ranch style home, which is a bit of a far cry from the elder Yukino’s taste. On the front porch were a few paper lanterns left hanging by the front doors, and just outside the sidewalk is a small Japanese rock garden with a tall stone lantern close to the middle (a “tōrō” if memory serves him right).

Other than the lanterns and the garden, there isn’t anything to indicate that Vivi might be living there. From what Arthur can recall, Vivi is the type of woman that would leave the pumpkins or other Halloween decorations well after the holiday itself for Thanksgiving.

“Halloween and Thanksgiving both use pumpkins! This is recycling!” …Or something like that, Arthur recalled while imagining it in Vivi’s voice and everything. As a result, he sincerely hoped that Vivi isn’t in the house, or anywhere really. It would just mean that the wraith or Mystery would be nearby.

He couldn’t bring himself to be hurt by them. Not again.

Elaine pulled herself out of the car and started to make her way to the front door of the Yukino family residence, while Arthur waited in the car. It was agreed between the two of them that Elaine is to be the one that would meet with them first, and then decide from there at whether or not Arthur should come out. He watched his beloved light press the doorbell, and within moments an older blonde woman in yellow answered.

Vivi’s mother, Jolene Yukino.

Arthur watched Elaine and Mrs. Yukino talk, and soon after Mr. Yukino quickly came outside, looking out of breath. A chill went up Arthur’s spine once he made eye contact with Vivi’s father, but instead of anger like he expected, Mr. Yukino instead looked… relieved?

Elaine exchanged a few more words to them with a stern expression, and upon seeing them nod to her, turned to Arthur and made the gesture to come to her.

It’s safe.

After trying to steady himself with a few deep breaths, Arthur stepped out of the car to approach the three, only focusing his attention to Elaine the entire time.

“Arthur, you really came,” Mr. Yukino gave a relieved chuckle, “You have no idea how much this means to us.”

“What do you want?” Arthur struggled to keep his voice steady as he held Elaine’s hand. Even now, he still can’t bring himself to look at Vivi’s parents. Not after what he did.

“A-ano… I mean, ah…”

“If it’s about your daughter, I’m not interested,” Arthur furrowed his brow, still focusing on his hold with Elaine, “I know that—”

“No, it’s not Vivi. She’s not even here,” Mr. Yukino glanced at the front door before turning his attention back to him, “It’s my mother I need you to see.”

That caught Arthur’s attention. From the few times he remembered interacting with Grandma Yukino, all Arthur can recall is her speaking at low volumes in Japanese with a rather condescending tone with some broken English (or Engrish?) mixed in whenever he entered their previous home for whatever reason, from picking up Vivi or dropping her off, and would sometimes give him handmade ofuda for some reason. She also did the same thing to Lewis and may or may not have approved of Vivi’s relationship with her late boyfriend when he was alive. Arthur didn’t even need to get started about Grandma Yukino’s attitude towards Mystery. She never trusted “that yako mutt,” or however she says it, before and after the cave incident.

In short, Mr. Yukino’s mother, the old and cranky Fuyuko Yukino, isn’t someone Arthur interacted with unless he absolutely needed to. So why did she want to see him now, of all times? Last he remembered, he didn’t have any sort of connection to her whatsoever besides the one through her granddaughter.

“I know I’m asking a lot from you, but we really do need your help,” Mr. Yukino started to look desperate, “Did Lance explain anything to you?”

Arthur rose a brow as he tried to recall Lance’s words

“Um… Arthur? One more thing I should add. You see, the Yuki—”

The sound of a bell from the entrance door cut off Lance’s words.

“Hey, Lance, we’re back with lunch!”

That might have been it, but he knew better than to blame Belle Pepper for interrupting. There’s a possibility that she didn’t know.

“No, he didn’t have the chance.”

“Oh, well, how should I put this?”

Mrs. Yukino held a hand over her husband’s shoulder in concern, but Mr. Yukino took a deep breath before explaining, “Ever since you left, Arthur, nothing has ever been the same.”

…What?

“The truth is, in the few times I saw you after… well, the truck incident, I couldn’t help but notice your condition. At first, I thought it was because it you were still recovering from your injuries, but as weeks passed, I noticed you weren’t getting any better, if not actually getting worse. When I heard from Lance that you left for a solo vacation, I thought that you were finally starting to. But then…”

Mr. Yukino looked pained, his wife trying to comfort him as silently as she could as he kept talking.

“When you hadn’t returned, things fell apart, one by one. I often blamed myself for not saying anything sooner, especially once we all found out what happened!”

Both Arthur and Elaine took a step back at the sudden outburst. The latter giving the former the look that they will leave if they have to.

“And the Peppers—"

“Hiro, darling,” Mrs. Yukino finally spoke, her voice quiet, “We don’t want to scare him off.”

“R-Right, sorry,” Mr. Yukino straightened his posture, “I’m sorry, Arthur, but it’ll be easier if I just take you to Kaa-sa-- er, Mother. Maybe then all this misery would stop.”

Arthur and Elaine glanced at each other, the latter curious, the former confused. The same question going through both their minds: What exactly happened after Arthur left for good?

Reluctantly, Arthur followed the Yukino couple inside their home with Elaine by his side.

You aren’t to step foot in here.

Arthur made the move to leave immediately, but Elaine pulled him back and gave him a hard nod, tightening her grip at his hand.

“I won’t let anything happen,” she whispered, her voice almost inaudible, “You’re with me.”

What gave you the right to ignore your boundaries?

“That person isn’t here, Arthur,” Mr. Yukino suddenly spoke, not looking at him, “I’m inviting you in here. If anyone complains, they can take it up with me.”

Elaine rose a brow at Arthur, and he shook his head. Not now. Please. She nodded, and finally, Arthur stepped inside with her.

The interior is what Arthur somewhat expected it to be. Various paintings and decorations of Japanese origin were laid out throughout the house, and from what he could see, were items from their previous home. Tucked into a corner in the living room, Arthur spotted a small shrine, likes the ones that are used to honor deceased family members.

But the picture on the shrine wasn’t Grandma Yukino, it was a tall and somewhat muscular man of American or English origin that appeared to be in his late forties. The man’s features, dark blue, almost black hair that partially obscured his dark colored eyes, and a bright grin with slightly crooked teeth, didn’t look like they stand out much, but…

“Who is this?” Elaine asked the question, “A family member?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Yukino sadly nodded, “He was our son-in-law, our daughter’s husband. He died in an incident at work on Monday, October 13th just last month, so we’re still on our forty-nine days of mourning.”

This man was Vivi’s husband? So whatever happened to Vivi? Was her son from this man? If so, then whatever happened to her relationship with--

Arthur and Elaine looked at each other, both suddenly realizing the implication of the death date Mrs. Yukino mentioned. While they were happily celebrating the birthday of their three children, the Yukino family had a death in the family. It wasn’t something they could control, but it did leave a sour taste in their mouths.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Elaine bowed down her head slightly.

Neither the husband or wife said anything and made a gesture to keep following them. Soon, the four of them reach a small bedroom, and when Mr. Yukino knocked on the door, the one who answered wasn’t Grandma Yukino, but a little boy.

The boy looked young, not even ten years old. Blue hair in a shade Arthur knew all too well shaped the child’s round face, wearing a sweater of a similar shade, dark blue pants, and a familiar blue scarf.

“Jason,” Mr. Yukino knelt down to ruffle the boy’s hair, “Some guests and I need to talk to Baa-chan for a while. How about you go play in the living room with Grandma in the meantime?”

“O-Okay,” the boy looked up at Arthur nervously for a moment, then took Mrs. Yukino’s hand and left the area.

Arthur noticed that Jason looks so much like his mother, Vivi. Did that child not take any traits from his father?

Whatever happened to--?

“Kaa-sama?” Mr. Yukino gently called out to the person in the bedroom from the hallway outside, “I’ve brought some guests.”

Upon being led inside, Arthur immediately spotted a small old woman sitting in a wheelchair next to the window. Her white hair with vague shades of blue, long at the sides and short on the back, were bound together. A white shawl with blue trim is wrapped around her shoulders, a dark blue blanket tucked against her legs. The woman’s face and general appearance gave the impression that she is withering away, little by little, enough to where her eyes appear to be always closed. The violet-colored glasses she always wore even before Arthur left didn’t make her look any younger.

From what Arthur could recall, Grandma Yukino was someone in her mid-seventies, if not in her early eighties from before he left. Wouldn’t that mean that’s she’s somewhere in her nineties, if not already one hundred years old by now?

“Kaa-sama?”

The old woman didn’t make a response, only staring out into space.

“Arthur, will you greet her? Just talk to her for a bit, she probably still remembers you. I hope.”

He glanced at Elaine, and while she looked unsure, she nodded. Slowly, Arthur and Elaine approached Grandma Yukino so as not to startle her. Then he started to speak, “…Yukino-sa--…?!”

A thin, bony hand quickly grabbed his wrist. It took every bit of restraint Arthur had to not jump away, and Elaine held his shoulders in an attempt to keep him calm.

“Ā… Āaaaa… sssssā…! Āsā…!”

Grandma Yukino’s eyes were wide open, looking at Arthur in shock.

“Āsā… You… safe,” she shook her head in disbelief and mumbled something in Japanese.

"Kaa-sama," Mr. Yukino said something to his mother in Japanese with a pleading tone. In response, Granny Yukino released Arthur from her grasp and spat out some angry words at her son.

While Arthur didn’t know Japanese very well, he could make out the words “onryō,” "yako," “kitsune,” “yōkai,” “yūrei,” and his own name a few times as she gestured furiously at the window and Arthur. Then Mr. Yukino started arguing back in Japanese.

As soon as she said “ruisu,” Arthur gritted his teeth in apprehension.

From the way Grandma Yukino is talking, she’s insulting Lewis from beyond his grave.

Arthur glanced down at Elaine, and he saw that she has her eyes wide and brow furrowed in disbelief at the sight of the elderly mother and son arguing. Before he could ask her what’s wrong, Elaine took something out of her back pocket and slipped what felt like paper into Arthur’s right hand, then held his hand like they always did to keep the object between them.

"--told you time and again that onryō is no good! You should've let me exorcise it long ago, and now we have to do it before it finds out Arthur is here and harm the little ones again!"

"Mother, we can't do that! We promised Vivi that we would try to fix--"

"That onryō already sapped the life out of Cayenne's--"

"MOTHER!" Mr. Yukino cut her off, looking offended, "You know that's impossible! It was only misfortune that happened! You already sealed Lewis long ago down at--"

"Don’t talk back to me, Nobuhiro! I told Vivi that we should have eliminated that damned onryō long ago. Everything has gone to hell ever since that thing manifested! Even more so after you and those Peppers drove Arthur away!"

Arthur started trembling as a feeling of apprehension went up his spine. Once he took a moment to process Grandma Yukino's words, a horrible thought entered his train of thought and...

Did I make a mistake?

Mr. Yukino sighed roughly, then turned to Arthur and Elaine, "I'm really sorry about all this, you two. I need to convince my mother, so you should wait outside. Could you tell my wife that I’m sorry if Jason gets scared?”

Elaine agreed, and soon, Arthur followed her out of Grandma Yukino’s room.

Another argument in Japanese sprang up once they left. After seeing that the living room is empty, they checked the door that led to the backyard and reached a small wooden deck. They finally found Mrs. Yukino sitting on a patio sofa with a cellphone in hand, speaking to whoever it is on the other line. Next to her is Jason, who is busy reading what looked like a children’s book. It doesn’t take much to figure out that they came outside so they wouldn’t hear Mr. Yukino and Grandma Yukino arguing.

When Arthur and Elaine approached, Mrs. Yukino’s eyes widened upon noticing the two of them and spoke a few hushed words to Jason before handing the phone to him. The young boy started to talk excitedly.

“Mom, when will you be coming home?”

Immediately, Arthur realized who Jason is talking to with dread.

Vivi is…!

Mrs. Yukino stood up to speak to them, “My daughter called while you were inside. I didn’t tell her that you’re here, Arthur, but I want to let you know that she’s on her way back from a job in Oklahoma. She’s really looking forward to seeing her son, since she’s been away for over two weeks. She said she’ll be home at around dinner time.”

“What was she doing?” Elaine rose a brow. Arthur glanced at her nervously.

“She is still in the paranormal business as the Mystery Skulls, even though the group itself has all but disbanded after Arthur left,” Mrs. Yukino sighed, “Ever since we realized what Lewis had done, Vivi had… well…”

A searing heat crawled into the beck of Arthur’s neck, “…What happened?”

“Vivi and Mystery have been mercilessly hunting and exorcising anything related to the paranormal left and right. No matter how much of a nuisance they are, malicious beings causing trouble to harmless spirits peacefully inhabiting somewhere, Vivi just eliminates them. She doesn’t take any chances anymore, saying that she doesn’t want a repeat of what happened to you. In other words…”

He could only hope that Vivi doesn’t run into his children.

“Ever since you left, Vivi snapped.”

- - - - - -

Y'all about to learn a lesson,

It’s coming straight from the top!

Part 16: 555

#mystery skulls animated #msa fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #msa arthur #arthur kingsmen #msa #msa knights #elaine knights

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tcrmommabear · 5 years

Note

Oh amazing writer, may I have “Fire is always an option. Sometimes even the best option” from the prompt list? Surprise me!

I am so so excited to share this with you because I added onto this previous prompt, and the way this came out is sooooo good

Enjoy my friend!!

Link to previous prompt

***

“How familiar are you with the story of Peter Pan, Haru?”

They hadn’t traveled very far. The struggle against the storm exhausted the pair, the damage directing their path more strictly, blocking other options away. They’d found his hat sat in the middle of a clearing, pristine as the day it was carved onto his head.

They’d decided to take that as a suggestion to stop and rest.

“As much as anyone, I suppose,” Haru responded, shrugging, “Captain Hook, The Lost Boys, “faith, trust, and pixie dust”, right?”

He gave a small smile as she recited back the iconic lines, moving from watching her to examining his newly discovered hat. Avoiding her.

“Now, what about the story of Alice in Wonderland?”

Her eyes narrowed, crossing her arms across her chest as she tried to meet his own gaze. How did any of this apply to her? He took her silence as an answer, carrying on the discussion he seemed to be having with his hat instead. That damn, stupid, hat…

“What about the story of Dorothy in Oz?” he asked, finally raising an eyebrow to look at her. He seemed to be trying to prod her towards an answer.

“If you tell me we could have gone home by clicking my heels, I swear…”

“What’s the theme in those stories, Haru?”

That gave her pause. What?

“They’re children’s stories. Kids being whisked away to a far off world, adventuring, and finding out it was all a dream. Or, I guess for Peter Pan, when Wendy goes home,” she answered, pieces slowly clicking into place.

“Baron… What is this place?”

He set the hat between them, upside down. She glanced down the center, into the hollow, and found nothing but fabric. Baron clasped his hands in his lap, leaning to also look down the hat’s hollow.

“Stories like that one have always existed,” he said, ignoring her question, “tales to keep children inside, lest they be whisked away to a world of strange and horrible things. Those three are the most popular, but how far back do you think that plot goes?”

She stammered, those stories being the only three that came to mind. But that idea still seemed to haunt stories, taking children, and returning them different.

“Tales of The Gentry, warning of bargains and respect, retold in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. What about an old story, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, telling of the kingdom of trolls caught in an impossible place? Or the Labyrinth, housing the Minotaur, but seeming alive with its very own rules?”

He picked up the hat again, focusing into its center like something would be there. A brief, passing thought of a magician’s rabbit came through, gone as quick as it was there. Baron jerked, eyes widening as something came through the hat, but was gone just as well.

Haru’s heart hammered in her chest.

Baron set the hat between them again, Haru almost cracking her head against his as she struggled to look down the hollow. Nothing there, but it looked… Darker. Murkier. Even glancing to the side and seeing how tall the hat was, it felt like the inside was depthless.

“Haru, what did you think of just now?” he asked, voice steady as the hat stole every ounce of their focus. She reached across taking his hand in hers as she trembled.

“A magician’s hat. A rabbit in a hat,” she murmured. The hat got murkier, some mass fuzzily in shape down the hollow.

Down the rabbit hole.

“Focus on it. Trust me.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice, the thought swarming through her mind. She could see it, clear as day, a little rabbit scooped between her hands, no restriction of reality or fabric to stop her from cupping the rabbit.

She took her hand from Baron’s, dipping them into the hollow. The hat was clear, the hollow pitch black, hiding their secrets.

There was a rabbit in her hands.

“Oh my god,” she whispered.

Brown, and small, and trembling, and very much alive in her palms. Baron reached out, cupping her hands to help keep the creature contained. The hat lost its depth, returning to its humble beginnings, but Haru still felt dread looking at it.

“That did not just happen,” she told Baron, frantically, gaze flicking back and forth between the rabbit and him, “there’s no way that happened, it can’t-.”

He took the rabbit fully from her hands, letting her drop them down to her lap. The rabbit’s ears moved frantically, looking the same amount of frantic Haru could feel thrumming beneath her skin.

“Haru, you need to breathe,” Baron told her, firmly, “you’ll make yourself, and the rabbit, sick.”

She wanted to argue against it, point out that it shouldn’t matter how frantic she was, the rabbit just came into existence and really couldn’t argue against that whole matter, let alone telepathically receive her emotions, but…

She lost her train of thought, which was enough to let the reasonable side of her come back out. She breathed. In. Out. Baron nodded, giving her a small smile as she settled down. The rabbit became docile, curling into a ball and falling asleep.

“Okay,” she eventually said, nails sinking through her jeans into the flesh of her thighs, “so that happened. That’s a thing. That is very much a thing of monumental things, and a thing I am very calm about.”

Baron flashed another half smile, settling the rabbit into his lap, reaching across to take her hands. He swiped a thumb over her knuckles, and it felt good. Grounding.

“This island has gone by many names, been in many stories. Neverland, Oz, Wonderland, Goblin Kingdom, Fae realm. All given by those who made their stories. All those who were chosen.”

“Chosen?” she echoed, grip tightening on his hands. The final piece clicked into place, as Baron avoided her gaze.

“There’s always the one it wants. The one with the biggest imagination, the greatest curiosity. It feeds off that, letting the chosen shape the land to best fit the story they want to tell. In exchange, the chosen…”

He hesitates, clenching her hands to keep himself calm.

“The chosen,” she murmured, “something happens, doesn’t it? Peter Pan never did have a home to go to…”

“Wendy was the island’s attempt to change targets. An immortal child makes feeding impossible,” he nods.

“And Alice, Dorothy?”

“Did they ever just stop after one adventure?”

“Those fairy tales and myths?”

“When you don’t know the answer to an ending, don’t you comfort yourself with the happiest one you can give? Who are these stories for, Haru?”

She was silent at that one. They both were.

She wanted to scream, and shout. Wanted to bend the reality here to let herself go home, fight the heart of the island for her freedom. Really, she just wanted to be able to sleep without worrying her dreams would sink her further into the island’s curse.

“I don’t know what to say,” she confesses, stuck in the spiral her thoughts drained down. She wavers between sinking deep in the earth or floating up above, and decides focusing on such feelings probably would result in another break in her reality.

So she focuses instead on feet on the ground, sat on a stump, holding Baron’s hand.

“It’s quite a lot, I can imagine,” he confirms for her, “and I’m sure you now understand why I couldn’t tell you anything.”

“After that storm, I’m surprised you didn’t just knock me out so I wouldn’t cause more trouble,” she blurts, a nervous laugh cracking through the anxiety and fear.

He returns the laugh, letting his own anxieties stream out from the confines of his mind. It’s the most she’s seen from him in a while, past the attempts earlier to calm her fears about the bridge. It’s good, very good, insanely good after everything he’s told her. She’ll take what serotonin she can get out of this draining hell.

“Not really an option, if I wanted to have respect for you,” he replies, swiping his thumb of her knuckles again.

“Well… Thank you for that,” she tells him. The pause after is poignant, good humor and comfort melting back into the hat. She glances down at it, fighting for it to remain just a hat in her mind.

“Baron, how are we going to do this?”

His silence was all she needed. Everything she needed, telling her exactly what she needed to know. She was panicking again. Okay.

Let’s panic.

“Do I have to fist fight a deity or something?” she pushes out, barely letting herself breathe. Baron sputters, but she’s three thoughts and two sentences ahead of him.

“How did Alice get home? She just fell asleep, right? Going home, Dorothy did it by clicking her heels three times, right? Do we need to find the others? Would that be the Lion and Scarecrow? Who came first? How do we fix this? Destroy the island? Fire, oh my god we-!”

“Haru!” he bellowed over her, stopping the babbling right in its tracks.

“…Fire… We need fire.”

“I’m not exactly sure fire is a valid option, in this case,” he laughed, reeling from her panic. His smile was thin, trying to comfort and divert.

“Fire is always an option,” she jokes, “sometimes the best option.”

“Don’t let the human face deceive you, Haru. Still made of hardy, oak wood.”

She froze, looking at the near grimace, and watched as he rapped his knuckles against his chest. A hollow, wooden sound echoed out.

“Oh.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

She sighed, took a solid breath in. Okay. No fire.

“Alright then, Baron,” she asked, glancing back at him, “what do we do?”

Alternate scene

“…Fire… We need fire.”

“I’m not exactly sure fire is a valid option, in this case,” he laughed, reeling from her panic. His smile was thin, trying to comfort and divert.

“Fire is always an option,” she jokes, “sometimes the best option.”

There was a crackle, a nearby tree rustling. The pair glanced over, and Haru felt her stomach drop. The image ran through her head before she could stop it, could feel the smoke, taste the flames.

“Anndddd… The tree is on fire…”

#tcr #the cat returns #tcrmommabear writes #tcrmommabear #tcr curse au #tcr au #prompt #ask and answer #im so excited about this au for some reason #and writing this was awesome #can people be weirdly excited about this with me

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rahmercy · 4 years

Text

Dear Psalm

This is probably what I would say if you could just understand the severity of what I mean. But I'm like this because I'm on my way. I've been a writer since close to the age you're turning today, 8. This is my birthday gift to you but for a few years from now when you're older and can understand.

I have a relationship with God that's shaped parts of me that I don't even know how to share anymore. I've been on my way for some years now. My father, your grandpa hasn't really been around since I was about 6 years old. He spent a lot of my early years locked up. Then he was sent back to Nigeria when I was 11 years old. He was easier to talk to but harder to develop a connection with.

I didn't know how to miss my dad and live my life like it was okay all at the same time. So I understand what you go through when your dad leaves or doesn't answer or show up for things. Those feelings caused me to begin writing. And I wrote all kinds of things: stories, poems, scripts, descriptions, rants. It helped me on my way. Helped me to feel, think, express, see life.

I was granted opportunities through my writing. I was given jobs, won contest, performed with celebrities, participated in different artistic endeavors, travelled the world. My words helped to heal, comfort, expose, inspire, shed some light and share. It kept me on my way. At 17, it lead me away from my family struggles. Grandma Umi had went to heaven. Life was flipped upside down. Different people in the family handled their pain about this differently. I just knew some of the ways weren't ok. I graduated from Duke Ellington school of the Arts. So it set me on my way. I attended Brave new voices in Chicago that summer. I left for Arizona 2 months after graduating high school. Knew nobody, but it didn't stay that way for long. Met tons of acquaintances and some lifelong friends like Mariah, Madison's mom.

And during that time I was able to use my writing: spoken word to help me on my way. I performed in poetry slams. And I would win and connect on my way with people and also remind myself where I was on my way to. I made the national poetry slam team for Flagstaff. And that summer I knew the path was being followed correctly. But that summer lots happened. I experienced several big roadblocks along the way. I ended up being deported from Jamaica less than 24 hours after arriving (story for another time I promise). I couldn't come up with the money to cover travel for NPS and then sophomore year of college was starting back and I was back in Arizona. And I knew I was on my way because my financial aid worked properly. I got it room and board handled easily. I had got hired to start working for Cutco (yes that's how long I've been loving the cutlery). But later that day met your father a less than three weeks into this school year. I was sure this was my college sweethearts love story beginning. I knew I was on my way because we shared in God's presence together: had found a church home, prayed, read the bible together and was under spiritual leadership. Three months in Christmas day, we were engaged. Less than a month later, married. And on my birthday God allowed you to be planted inside me. It was finals weeks but I knew then God wasn't done with me yet. You were named Psalm (my most prefect poem).

I was on my way. I moved to NC before you arrived. I missed having family anywhere remotely close. I was now only 4 -6 hours away instead of being across the country. My ma ( Grandma with the red hair) and other family and friends celebrated your baby should. My ma even had us do a photo shoot because you were on your way soon.

You came I existences more emotions in your first nine of life than I did over the course of the rest of mine combined. The day you turned 10 mouths old, I knew your father wouldn't be there with us on my way. I want to apologize for every challenge, mixed emotion, hurt and disappointing moment it has caused you.

I've tried to overcompensate with you many ways and I know most have been unsuccessful. I tried to let you avoid experiencing the ramifications of it. On the way, I wanted to bring more family around to make up the difference but my ma got diagnosed with lupus and I had gotten evicted and your other grandma in Florida already lived there and our grandma in D.C. was too far when it came to being near you through the legal battles for you.

So I figured it out with the help of others especially Cass. On my way, she took us in. She asked for nothing, loved us like her own and didn't add to how burdensome I already felt given the circumstances. That's when the S.H.I.F.T happened. I fixed my "can I" to "I will". The first company on my way was started.

I got on my way to stability. That's when Ms.Joyce came in. And I rented from her. She's loved you from the beginning. You broke stuff, killed fish, damaged furniture, and embrace that toddler way of life full on. She watched her shows with you like you understood from the beginning. This newly found addition to our family cm transformed my ways.

And I finally started to really get on my way but then my ma's lupus diagnosis took her to heaven. Far too soon and before I could get far enough on my way to spend more time with her prior. I felt inadequate. Like my way meant I was supposed to go it with just the two of us. And I became disappointed in myself that it had come to that. I realized I became angry about it. And I'll say it, distant and cold, even to you. And I've been wrong.

Because I've never wanted to go at it alone. But in that isolation, I've got more teaching and lessons from God about my way along the way than I can form into words. On my way is made up differently than I comprehended when I started.

And down the line it will be much more family, traditions, quality time, empowerment, exposure, freedom, compassion, celebrating, joy, fun, praise, faith, and living along the way. It just took far more time than I ever imaged to get pass the roadblocks.

So my gift to you is this letter to explain that I know and take full responsibility for the type of life you have been exposed to. I apologized for the bad along the way but I will be who you deserve as a mother, teacher, nurturer, guide, and supporter. I'm writing today into history as the start. Happy 8th birthday to you Psalm.

#mommy daughter moment #mommy moment #mommylife #my most perfect mom

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thesnapewecandreamof · 5 years

Text

I’m so glad you liked Matthew’s character Anon! Let’s get the continuation first and then I’ll ramble on so people not interested could skip that part! Song is Everything Stay from Adventure Time.(Part of the reason this took so long was bc I was searching for an appropriate song and I always get lost in youtube!)

Everything Stays

- Despite regaining consciousness, Severus was not out of the woods yet. It took weeks, many potions, and an infinite supply of patience for all parties involved.

- The healers informed Matthew that there was nothing they could do for the nervous damage Severus suffered and Matthew insisted he be the one to tell Severus the bad news.

- He was a healer himself and he has been tasked with telling the bad news to many families before but despite that he tried to stave off the inevitable. But he knew the pain would be greater the more he stalled so one night, after the Hogwarts staff have left and Severus just finished his meal, Matthew sat on the edge of the bed and took the potion master’s hand in his. His heart panged at the title.

- Severus looked at their interlocked hands and sighed, “It will never go away would it?” Matthew has once again underestimated Severus, his eyes met black and he bit his lip to hold in the tears. “You have been looking a bit anxious the past few days and since the healers are certain I wouldn’t be keeling over any time soon-” Severus shrugged, not finishing his sentence.

- “I’m sorry.” Matthew tightened his grip as Severus’ arm twitched. He refused to let his emotions get the better of him and the healer in him took the wheel. “I’ve contacted some colleagues, they might find something to help with the spasms and the twitches but-” Matthew stopped, electing to shrug himself.

- He felt the pressure of Severus squeezing his hand and he smiled as tears fell.

Let’s go in the garden, you’ll find something waiting.

Right there where you left it, lying upside-down.

- It was difficult. Severus eventually grew weary of maintaining the mask and Matthew found it frustrating how he cannot heal the person he cared for most.

- “You should have left me to die.” Severus said once when the fits got too much, when his whole body seized. Matthew sees it in his eyes whenever he knocks over a glass of water. All of their utensils are now plastic and Severus scowls at it whenever he could. “You know I couldn’t do that.” Matthew replies, ever patient.

- “I have no use. I was a potions master, Matthew, now I can’t even hold my own spoon for Merlin’s sake!”

- Matthew himself couldn’t always be the patient saint. He was a healer and he had a duty to his patients. When he comes home, exhausted and wanting nothing but to sleep, he sometimes let’s out the infamous temper of his and he and Severus would get into a row.

When you finally find it, you’ll see that it’s faded

the under-side is lighter when you turn it around.

- They now have someone to always watch Severus when he was away. During a week-end when it was only Severus and Matthew, the healer had to put a vial of muscle relaxing potion in the bedside table so that he could answer an emergency floo call. When he returned it was as if a fog rolled in their bedroom despite it remaining the same. There was something different but he couldn’t quite place it. He asked Severus if everything was alright and he said that nothign was out of place so Matthew chalked it up to nerves and stress.

- That night he heard shuffling and soft muttered curses. He woke up to Severus trying his best to remain silent as he packed away clothes. “Are you planning a surprise trip? Our anniversary isn’t for another three months.” He yawned though he was alert and awake.

- Severus sighed and sat down, facing away from him. “I don’t belong here, - no, don’t say anything- I don’t Matthew, I-” Severus took a deep breath, “I’m tired.” And Matthew listened to Severus as months of pain and frustration is finally let out. How he feels worthless, feels like he’s holding Matthew back, making himself a burden to the healer. Matthew’s heart broke as he saw Severus trying to keep himself together, his muscles twitching, making him even more frustrated. The grace his love once had is gone and Matthew feared something more was missing.He lowered himself to the floor and leaned his forehead on the back of Severus’ shoulder.

- He whispered every argument he has, planned responses to what he knew as coming and added new things he thought of as he spoke. Severus remained silent through his talk and he allowed Matthew to help him back to the bed.

- The next day Matthew and Severus spent a day in the garden and though it was difficult, Severus was set on ushering life to Matthew’s lifeless plot of land. Any distraction was welcome and should this fail, surely there were others he could turn his attention to? He already received a dictaquill from a former student, but he could only talk for so long before growing bored himself.

Everything stays, right where you left it

Everything stays, but it still changes

-It wasn’t an overnight fix. They still had fights, normal rows that couples have. They still work through Severus’ depression and Matthew always makes sure that any glass in the house was charmed unbreakable.

- When the first row of flowers bloomed, Matthew nearly teared up at the sight of Severus’ smile.

- When Severus grew more confident and grew some magical plants, Matthew was stunned at how Severus could say such a self-deprecating joke and have the gall to wink at him.

Ever so slightly,

daily and nightly

- When Matthew found himself with Severus, lying under the shade of a tree and the smell of flowers surrounding them, he looked back on all the things they’ve been through.

- All the pain of thinking it was the last time he and Severus would see each other, the worry every time he had to treat his lover, the anger at how Severus could leave him every time in order to play the perfect spy. Matthew still had nightmares about finding Severus on the verge of death, nightmares only Severus himself could comfort him from.

- He could feel his eyes water when he thought of how things could have ended so horribly. He felt Severus’ hand jerk in his before the comforting pressure he grew to love. He looked to the side and saw Severus with his lip upturned and he grinned.

In little ways,

when everything stays.

I didn’t want to make it too angsty! Anyway, so glad you enjoyed Matthew’s character anon, I wasn’t too sure people would like him. I don’t create too many ocs and I prefer to use canon characters only in my fics because A. it takes me so long to find a good name, B. I already live in fear of making canon characters a mary sue, I think ocs are a higher risk in that department but that could be just me.

I’ll write more of Matthew and Severus when inspiration strikes or if someone has a prompt for them.

I’m working on yet another wip in which Severus suffers from long-term cruciatus so I didn’t want to elaborate too much on stuff here lest I become even more repetitive.

#Severus Snape #Matthew #anon #asks #post war #post-dh #angst #but kinda sweet too #everything stays

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thelastarchangelaskblog · 5 years

Text

Redemption Deleted Scene 4

This chronologically takes place before the other ones but I wrote this after I wrote the others so that’s why this is #4.

This was...an opening scene where I had a shit ton of trouble getting it to sound how I wanted it to sound. I know I rewrote it more than once, and yet I’m only seeing the one scene in my scraps file... *squints*

Anyway, have a look at what I dumped because I didn’t like it?

comment?

Redemption Deleted Scene 1

Redemption Deleted Scene 2

Redemption Deleted Scene 3

Redemption Deleted Scene 5

(Read more for mobile users)

It didn’t take long for Gadreel to find his vessel and get his consent again. This time it was entirely consensual, and the transition from celestial wavelength to physical vessel went smoothly, Gadreel blinking down at Gabriel once he was sorted out.

Putting a hand on Gadreel’s shoulder, Gabriel flew them both back to the bunker, though he didn’t immediately reveal their presence, hanging back to see what sort of mess Dean had gotten himself into now.

The Winchesters really were a riot, and Gabriel had actually missed their hilarious antics. They were both undoubtedly dangerous, but they were also two lost boys. This was just the cherry on top of a truly remarkable sundae of bad decisions made by Dean Winchester; Gabriel had a separate one for Sam, and that one was bigger than Dean’s simply because he’d unlocked the Cage to let Lucifer out and been guzzling down demon blood.

“Are you telling me that you told an angel to possess me?” Sam shouted at Dean, face a mixture of disbelief and anger. His soul was twisting around on itself, betrayal marring it, and Gabriel blinked, refocusing on his physical face. He didn’t need to deal with double vision now that he was almost back to normal.

Almost being the key word since he wasn’t up to 100%. Loki had only managed to recover a fraction of his entire Grace. Everything else had been annihilated when he smote the Leviathan; what Gabriel was operating on now was still rather impressive when compared to an angel of Castiel’s rank, but he was seriously lacking on power, and it was rather annoying.

Slipping back into visibility, Gabriel put a finger to his lips when Steve and Jarvis caught sight of him, eyebrows raised meaningfully. Steve’s lips twitched, and Jarvis scrunched his eyebrows together.

“You were dying, Sam!” Dean shouted back. “What the hell was I supposed to do?”

“Let me die, Dean!” Sam’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. “How many times have we done this already?”

“That’s not happening,” Dean snapped, his cheeks flushed in anger. “No way in hell, Sam.”

“And why the hell not?” Sam stepped closer to him, clearly meaning to intimidate Dean with his greater height.

Dean being Dean, this of course didn’t do squat. “You weren’t supposed to die!”

“Then why was I?” Sam’s voice had dropped, the betrayal that Gabriel had seen earlier in his soul sinking into his words. “Why was I dying then, Dean?”

“It was the failed trial—”

“It was my time, Dean. My time. I was ready to die, and I should have. But you stopped it. And now the gates to Hell are still open”—so that’s what had caused all that damage to Sam’s internal organs—“and Heaven’s are closed. Tell me, Dean, what’s the upside to me being alive?”

“We’re together, aren’t we?” Dean asked. “You and me, fighting the good fight together. The way it should be.”

“I should be dead,” Sam repeated. Gabriel wasn’t sure he liked this fatalistic version of Sam; the one he remembered would’ve been fighting tooth and nail to live. “But I’m not, because you decided you knew better. Be honest with me, Dean. You didn’t save me for me – because you thought it wasn’t my time – you saved me for yourself. Because you didn’t want to be alone.”

Dean looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

“You can’t stand the thought of being alone.” Sam’s words were piercing. “You have Cas, but you have to have me, too. I’ll say this much about you, Dean: you’re certainly willing to do the sacrifice, as long as you’re not the one being hurt.”

Dean’s face was tight. “As long as we’re being honest here, you’d do the same thing for me if the situation was reversed, and I was dying.”

Sam took a step back, lips pressed together. “No, Dean. I wouldn’t. Same circumstances, I wouldn’t.”

Dean reeled back, stricken, the force of his emotional turmoil so strong that Gabriel could feel it. Even Gadreel flinched, face distraught at what he had caused. Dean seemed to be struggling to say something, but nothing came out.

“Dean.” Castiel stepped up to Dean’s side, reaching out to comfort him only to be rebuffed when Dean shook his hands off.

Finally, Dean took in a shuddering breath, eyes going back to Sam’s steady face. “Sam—”

“That’s enough, boys,” Gabriel said, flicking his fingers and silencing Dean. “Work out your issues on your own time. We’ve got a problem to deal with.”

Sam looked at them, eyes lingering on Gadreel. “You were the one in me?” His voice was flat.

Gadreel hesitated for a split-second before nodding. “Yes.”

“At least you’re honest.” The words were bitter.

“Sam.” Gabriel cut him a sharp look. “Not now.”

Sam shifted, folding his arms across his chest, his head held high. “Heaven,” he stated.

“Heaven,” Gabriel agreed, turning to Castiel. “Heart of a nephilim, bow of Cupid, and your Grace. Have I got that right?”

Castiel nodded, shooting Dean a pained look that the other didn’t seem to see, looking at Sam as he was.

“It’s not a spell I’ve heard of either,” Gabriel said slowly, sharing glances with Raphael.

“All that time as a pagan didn’t teach you something?” Dean asked, turning his focus to Gabriel.

“Oh, sure.” Gabriel smirked dryly. “But I didn’t spend the millennia plotting on a way to shut the gates to Heaven because I’m not a complete idiot. No, this is something Metatron came up with on his own.”

“If you don’t know what the spell is,” Steve said, “can you break it?”

“Any spell can be broken,” Gabriel said. “Just need to find the weak spot.”

“Which needs us to be closer to the spell,” Raphael said. “But since it’s located in Heaven…”

“Inspired guess, it’s your Grace that’s holding it together,” Gabriel said to Castiel. “That was the last ingredient, wasn’t it?”

Castiel nodded again, eyes dim. “It was. He—” His breath hitched, and he shut his eyes, dragging a hand down his face in a very human gesture. “He tore it out of me,” he started again, voice soft. “And then cast me down to watch them Fall.” He met Gabriel’s eyes, desperate. “I just wanted to help.”

“Cas…” Dean’s voice was whisper soft.

“I just wanted to help,” Castiel repeated desperately. “But I didn’t. I made things worse, like I always do.”

“We’ve all messed up, Castiel,” Gabriel said, slightly awkwardly. It had been years since he had interacted with other angels beyond brandishing swords menacingly, and it had been longer since he had acted like an older brother.

“You’re not solely responsible for what’s happened here, Castiel,” Raphael said. “Metatron has a way with words; it was his job as the Scribe of Heaven.”

“It’s a mistake that can be fixed,” Gabriel said briskly.

“How?” Castiel looked expectant.

“Eh…the details on that still need to be worked out.”

“Best be done quickly, Gabriel,” Raphael said. “Metatron will have noticed your presence.”

“But if he’s up there in Heaven, how would he notice what’s going on down here?” Sam asked.

Raphael’s mouth ticked up in a smile. ��You were there when Gabriel regained his Grace. Tell me – what was it like to be at point zero?”

It was Steve who spoke now. “Breathtakingly powerful. I could barely breathe.”

“The earth shook and the air split,” Loki added quietly, eyes on Gabriel.

“My electronics went haywire,” Jarvis concluded, fingers tapping on his helmet.

“Those were just the physical hallmarks of what you felt; imagine what every supernatural being on Earth felt when an archangel became himself again.” Raphael tipped her head back to look at the ceiling. “As angels, we’re linked to Heaven, even if the gates are locked. Metatron will have noticed an archangel’s presence on Earth, and he will be looking.”

“We’ll need to use that to our advantage,” Gabriel said. “If he’s focused on Earth, then he’s not in Heaven.”

“Heaven’s locked – how’s he supposed to get out?” Dean demanded.

“Tell me, Dean,” Gabriel said, sighing, “are you stuck in your room just because you locked the door? No? That’s because you have the key.”

“And Metatron has this key,” Gadreel said simply. “Are you going to steal it from him?”

“Since that would probably involve tearing out his Grace in some shape or form, no, I’m not.” Gabriel’s lips thinned. “I’d rather not kill him if it can be helped, which means we need to get Castiel’s Grace. It’s probably the lynchpin.”

“You know that if we get our hands on him—” Dean started.

“You’ll gank him, yes I know,” Gabriel finished impatiently. “But he’s not going to let you do that. He’s got the entire force of Heaven at his fingertips; you think a human’s going to make him shake in his boots?”

Gadreel shot him a sharp look. “You cannot face him then, Gabriel.”

Gabriel put up a hand, forestalling anything else he might have said. “I’ve got enough for this,” he said in a clipped tone. In Heaven he would have the energy there to draw from, but for right now he was stuck at recharging at a snail’s pace; nowhere near enough power to deal with Metatron the good old-fashioned way. But Gabriel wasn’t just an archangel now.

Steve shot him a curious look. “So what’s the plan?”

“We need to get into Heaven,” Raphael answered for him. “Or incapacitate Metatron while he’s on Earth, but given his current power levels…”

Gadreel was still looking at Gabriel. “It is inadvisable to do so.”

“I’ve done a lot of inadvisable things in my time,” Gabriel said wryly, rolling his shoulders. His wings brushed against the tattered edges of Gadreel’s, who recoiled reflexively, his Grace ringing with sudden terror; it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Gabriel shot him a sharp look, but Gadreel averted his eyes, staring fixedly at a point on the floor.

“Let us not have a repeat of the last time, hm?” Loki said.

Gabriel shot him a grin, bright and quicksilver. “Worked, didn’t it?”

“We thought you were dead,” Jarvis said, subdued.

The practically stricken tone of his youngest quickly sobered Gabriel, his grin disappearing. “I know. And I’m sorry; I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have another choice.”

“We know,” Steve reassured him, a tight edge to his eyes the only sign of what the subject was doing to him.

Castiel looked between all of them, brow furrowed in concern. “So how do we do this?” he asked. “How do we break into Heaven?”

Gabriel tilted his head. “There are back ways… I’ve used a few of them back in the day when I was a pagan.”

“They’ll be locked as well,” Raphael argued.

Gabriel grinned, manic excitement running through him. “Then we’ll have to make our own.”

“If you mean to create a door from the outside, you don’t have the power to do that,” Gadreel protested. “Not right now.”

Gabriel’s grin turned sharp, his eyes cutting to Gadreel. “Like I said, I’ve got enough to do this. Maybe not the old-fashioned way of cutting right into it, but that was never really my style. But a little misdirection…” His voice trailed off meaningfully.

“Creating a door from the inside?” Raphael sounded distinctly unimpressed with this absolutely brilliant logical leap from him. “There’s no one who can help us, Gabriel. Metatron certainly won’t, no matter how many illusions you feed him.”

“Wait…” Sam had a manic gleam in his eyes. “Does it have to be an angel to help?”

“Mm…not technically speaking, no. Anyone who’s able to traverse Heaven and can get the materials we need will do.” Gabriel eyed him curiously. “Why? You got someone in mind?”

For the first time since the conversation had started, Sam looked at his brother. “Dean, what do you remember about our trip to Heaven?”

“Zachariah being a dick,” Dean said, huffing. “Joshua.”

“Not only that.” Sam’s eyes were bright as they met Gabriel’s again. “Hunters. There are a ton of hunters up there.”

“Human souls can’t travel through Heaven the way we need them to,” Raphael said sharply. “They’re restricted to their own little personal heavens.”

“Not Ash,” Sam said eagerly, looking so much like an eager puppy dog Gabriel had to dearly resist patting his hair. “He had this whole little setup up there, even listening in on angel radio. It was because of him that we avoided Zachariah for so long. And he’d worked out how to travel through personal heavens.”

“Sounds like a guy I’d like,” Gabriel mused, eyes narrowing in thought. With Sam’s suggestion, his plans reshuffled and reorganized themselves with the inclusion of human souls. “You say he’s gotten into angel radio? Does he understand it?”

“Taught himself Enochian.”

“Definitely a guy I’d like,” Gabriel muttered, ruffling a hand through his hair as he thought, compiling and discarding plans in seconds. “Okay…what kind of setup does he have?”

“Computers,” Dean answered, sitting back against the edge of the table, arms folded across his chest and expression inscrutable. “They’ve also got Pamela up there – a psychic.”

“They’ve got every hunter up there,” Sam said, excitement coloring his tone. “Bobby, Henry, Jo, Ellen…”

“Winchesters,” Gabriel murmured, rubbing his face. “Okay, this should work. I need a laptop.”

“A laptop?” The question came from several different directions, though it was uttered with an equal amount of incredulity.

Gabriel snorted, dropping his hand to his side. “Oh, come on. I could take over the world with nothing but this phone.” He pulled out said phone, flipping it through the air and catching it. “A laptop will get me better access to this Ash and keep me off angel radio. Just a little Grace”—he wiggled his fingers—“and hey, presto!” He spread his hands demonstratively. “I’m still Tony Stark,” he added wryly.

“Yeah, you’re not getting mine,” Kevin said after a moment, shaking his head.

“Fine,” Sam huffed. “I’ll get mine.” He shot Gabriel a pointed look. “Don’t fry it.”

Gabriel widened his eyes. “Would I?”

“Yes, yes, you would,” Sam said definitively. “Especially if you thought it was funny.”

Gabriel snickered. “Okay, sasquatch, point taken. I promise not to fry your laptop, though I can’t promise it’ll work the same way once I’m done.”

Squinting at Gabriel, Sam’s mouth twisted unhappily.

“That’s the best you’re going to get from him,” Raphael told him. “There’s nothing he can do about it once he starts altering it with Grace.”

“Fine,” Sam conceded. “I’ll be right back.”

#deleted scene #The Last Archangel 2 #the last archangel redemption #my writing

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