strjackst

[maiiiwrites]

★ | UNDOUBTEDLY YOURS . JPEG

PAIRING ! mattheo riddle x gn!reader

IN WHICH your kiss seals the deal confirming he is yours

disturbing. that what the rumors and gossips about your relationship has come to.

sometimes you wonder how students have so much free time to go poking around someone else's business. considering the extensive workload professors like to hand out.

it seems that regardless of where you go, all you can hear are the faint whispers of your name, how you managed to capture his heart, the way your relationship looks on the outside, and other nasty opinions of you.

with another frustrated sigh.

you ditch the idea of studying at the library. hastily packing your belongings and rushing out. your scowl evident as you passed by a group of girls glaring at you. probably a bunch of his past flings.

his dating history didn't bother you, but it would be nice to not be stared down for merely existing.

unfortunately, before you could finally escape from their icy stares, you bump into someone.

looking up, you find your boyfriend smiling at you.

"hi baby," mattheo murmured with a peck as he buried his face in your neck. you softened at his affection, wrapping your arms around your boyfriend.

"hi matt."

both of you stayed wrapped in your little bubble. that is, until you remember the group of girls eyeing you. immediately pulling away to keep a safe distance between you

mattheo pouted, feeling your warmth slipped away. "what's wrong?" he asked, concerned at your distant behavior.

you shake your head, trying to deflate his worry. "it's nothing," you reply.

his brow raised, noticing the bag of books over your shoulder. you panick and decide telling him the half truth is better than a complete lie.

"oh! i was supposed to go over my notes but suddenly felt tired," you shrugged.

mattheo pulled you closer as if to shield you from danger. with your head hidden in his chest, he scanned your surroundings.

he cringes as he spots the group of girls batting their eyelashes at him. one he recognizes as his "ex".

that's when draco's words finally made sense.

"your girl is gonna have a difficult time." draco suddenly brought up during breakfast.

mattheo looked at him, utterly confused. "what you goin' on about?" he grumbled.

"just sayin' that you're gonna have to constantly reassure your girl. you know, given your.. dating history," draco explained.

"my dating history? what are you implying draco," mattheo snarled.

draco sighed, knowing mattheo isn't getting his point. "if you do pursue yn, you have to make sure your past little things don't bother her."

"keep her name out of your mouth," mattheo spat.

draco raised both hands, simply letting go of the topic. he tried to get the point across, but it looks like mattheo will have to figure it out on his own.

"matt?" you called after noticing how zoned out he is.

your insecurities starting to consume you as you saw he was staring at their direction. worse, his "ex" took his dazed out state as a go signal to approach.

"baby? are you okay?" you asked again, this time cradling his cheek. mattheo broke from his reverie at your affection.

"kiss me," mattheo whispered, quite breathless.

"matt, what?" you hushed, confused by his request. you haven't had your first kiss yet. since, in mattheo's words, he wanted to do it right.

he waited for you to decide. giving you the space to think it through. though there isn't much time with his "ex" approaching. he snaked his arms around your waist and held on tight to ground you both.

your hesitantance disappeared hearing the sound of their footsteps coming closer.

fuck it!

you suddenly pulled on his collar, smashing your lips on his. mattheo stumbled forward, taken aback by your initiative. even pulling him closer to prove to yourself that he is here, and wholeheartedly yours.

you pull away, out of breath. surprised with your own boldness.

mattheo was doing any better. If anything, he's more flustered than you.

"oh, fuck. do that again," he murmured, adoration spilling from his tone.

still conscious of your surroundings, you give him a short peck. leaving mattheo chasing after your lips.

"baby not here," you giggled.

mattheo grumbled and pulled you in for another, and another. until he practically was smothering your face.

"shit baby, you've got me addicted to you," he mumbled in between kisses, like a drug he couldn't stop indulging in.

his "ex" long forgotten and nowhere in sight, you give in. letting mattheo show all you needed to know. reassuring you that he is yours as much as you are his.

© maiiiwrites — ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[noknockingonmydoor]

“When you laugh like that, it just — you’re so beautiful, you know that?” @shabcn​

A scoff as he turned his head to the side. Of course he was more than aware of how attractive he was.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve, saying something like that to another man.”

[itsallyscorner]

💌 Requested by @impossibleapricotlampbat

pairing: Harry Styles x reader, One Direction x reader (platonic)

Request: Hi love ❤️. i love your posts and i was wondering since you are taking raquests can you do a harry styles or anyone from one diraction where 1D is having a concert and the reader who is someone from the group’s gf being in front of the stage and them some random person flirting with her and trying to put their arm around the reader’s waist and they see it and say into their microphone put your hand down boy she’s mine and glaring at the person. sorry if its to much.

a/n: Thank you for the request my love! I really hope you enjoy it🥰 Every hour is missing them hours if it’s referring to One Direction.

Hands Off

From backstage you could hear the screams and cheers of the fans. The boys were currently in their dressing rooms getting last minute things fixed.

“How do I look, love?” Harry, your boyfriend, asked as he stood in front of you modeling his outfit.

He was dressed in a silky button down that had a fair amount of buttons undone and black jeans with his Chelsea boots. Necklaces hung from his neck and rested against his chest where his swallow tattoo peaked from the collar of his shirt.

You tuck a piece of his hair behind his ear and tilt your head at him.

“Absolutely gorgeous, darling.” You sayin a fake posh accent while flicking your hair to the side. The action causes Harry to chuckle and shake his head.

“I love you, but the accent is rubbish.” He brought you towards him by wrapping his arm around your shoulders. You giggled and wrap your arms around his torso. The boys are currently on their On The Road Again tour. Since you were in Uni, you couldn’t tour with the boys, much to Harry’s dismay. Tonight was one of those nights where you would fly out to where they were and would stay with them a few days.

“Ye gonna be okay with Mum and Gemma?” He quietly asked as he rested his chin on your head.

“Yeah, I’ll be alright. We all flew out here together, Har.” You reassure him pecking his chin.

“I’m jus making sure.” He hummed as he continued to hold you until Paul told them it was showtime.

The boys were given their ear pieces before they were called to the stage. You stood by the side with Lou, Gemma, and Anne as the boys did their little chant. When they clapped they moved towards the stairs that led to the stage.

“Goodluck guys! Break a leg!” You yell after them. A chorus of “thank yous” came from the boys except Niall who yelled, “Wait don’t say that I have weak knees!”

“Goodluck Niall!” You laugh as he sends a thumbs up towards your way. Harry rushes down the stairs calling you. You meet him halfway, “What? The show—.”

You’re cut off by Harry smashing his lips onto yours. You’re caught off guard but come back to your senses to kiss him back. He pulls away with a smack as he runs his thumb past your bottom lip.

“I needed my goodluck kiss.” He cheekily smiled before catching up with the boys at the top of the platform.

—•

The boys were now halfway into the concert. The fans were loud, singing along to the songs, and laughing at the boys’ antics on stage. You were watching by the side with Lou, Lux, Gemma, and Anne. A few fans noticed you guys causing you all to wave. Lux, who was in your arms waved at them as well. The area you guys were at had a good view of the stage and security nearby.

“It’s uncle Louis!” Lux pointed as she tapped your shoulder. Louis made a silly face at her before running off in another direction. You laughed as your eyes moved around the venue. A few feet away from you was a guard, he must’ve worked for the arena because you didn’t recognize him. For the whole first half of the concert you could feel his eyes on you instead of doing his job. You tried to avoid his stare, moving to the side, sticking next to Gemma and Lou, even shamelessly hid behind Lux while you carried her. But his eyes would always catch you.

“I think Lux and I are going to move backstage to watch, it’s too loud here and I don’t want her to go deaf.” Lou said as held her hands up for Lux. You passed her baby to her and remained beside Gemma.

“I think I’m gonna tag along with them, you girls gonna be alright?” Anne questioned as she moved to follow Lou.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine!” Gemma answered for the both of you.

The boys moved to sit on the center of the walkway, preparing to sing Little Things. Harry searched the crowd for you and his sister. When he spotted you both he waved, putting on a little show that made the crowd giggle.

“What a clown.” Gemma snorted as she nudged your shoulder. You chuckled at her comment.

“Unfortunately he’s our clown.”

—•

While the boys sang Little Things you felt a presence beside you. You thought it was Anne joining you and Gemma again but it turned out to be the security guard who kept staring at you. You visibly move closer to Gemma trying to listen to the boys sing.

“What do you say we sneak backstage and fool around a bit?” He whispered into your ear invading your personal space.

“I’m not interested.” You quickly shoot him down. The guy tisked and leaned against the barricade.

“C’mon baby, I know you’re bored watching a bunch of lil boys playing around on stage.” He tried to coax you as he ran a finger along your arm.

“I already told you I’m not interested. I have a boyfriend.” You snapped at him before yanking your arm away from him.

From the stage Zayn and Liam noticed the altercation. Still singing, Liam roughly nudged Harry while Zayn moved towards the part of the stage nearest to you. Harry looked to where Liam was pointing at. An irritated look was on your face as the guy wrapped his disgusting arm around you. Harry saw you push on the guy’s chest but he still wouldn’t budge. Gemma now noticed what was happening and was trying to tell the guy to fuck off.

“OI! GET YER HANDS OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!” Harry yelled as he ran to where Zayn was. The guard who was harassing you jumped as he looked towards the stage. Above him was Zayn and Harry challenging looks on both their faces.

“Has your mother not taught you any manners? Did she ever tell you not to touch a woman without permission?” Harry’s voice boomed in the mic as he moved to jump off the stage. Harry gripped the guard’s arm and ripped it off your body. Security had now moved to where you were and took the guard who was harassing you.

Harry glared at him as they took him away. He turned back to you, his eyes softening at the sight of you.

“Are you alright? Did he hurt you?” Harry questioned you as he inspected your body as best as he can in the dim arena. The boys were now concerned as they stood near the side of the stage where you all were gathered. The fans were now curious to what was happening.

“I’m fine, Harry, he didn’t do anything. I told him I wasn’t interested and—.” You tried to explain but Harry cut you off.

“No, you don’t need to explain yerself. You told him to fuck off and he wouldn’t, he came onto you.” Harry reassured you as he smoothed his hands across your arms in comfort. You look around the see everyone looking at you guys.

“Get back on stage. I’ll head backstage where Lou and your mom are.” You tell him before pressing a kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“Are you sure you’re fine?” He asked again staring into your eyes.

“Yes, I’m fine. Now go back on stage before the fans get upset.” You tell him before pushing him towards the stage.

“They could wait, but if you say so.” He mumbled.

“I love you.” He kissed your temple before motioning Gemma to go with you. She nodded and looped her arm with yours.

“Love you too, Haz.” You tell him before walking backstage.

“Can you escort them backstage, please?” Harry asks a security guard. The guard nods and follows you and Gemma.

The boys help Harry back up the stage before asking if everything was alright. Harry quickly explained what happened before resuming the concert.

“Sorry about that everyone! Just a reminder to my girls here tonight. Your body is yours and no one should feel the need to touch your body without your permission! You get a say in who touches you and who doesn’t, remember that!” Harry announced to the audience. The crowd cheered in praise and agreement.

The boys nodded along before getting back to their spots.

“Someone’s getting fired tonight!” Louis sang as he danced in his seat making the crowd laugh.

[haddonfieldproject]

<<PREVIOUS⏺<<CONTENTS>>

CHAPTER TWO CONCLUSION

Haddonfield, Illinois

The ambulance driver took a swig of his coffee thermos and looked over to his partner, “So then Carlson for the Sox hits this ball on a rope...I mean on a rope..to right field and you think the things gonna be all over right?”

His partner laughed, he was biting his thumbnail and spitting the flecks of nail out—a disgusting habit, but good for killing time on runs. “Yeah.”

“But the right fielder for the Cubbies, Santos, he dives into the ivy...I mean straight into the goddam ivy and comes out with it. End of inning...it was incredible.”

“I can't believe I missed it,” his partner said, looking out of the window. “I just passed out.”

“How the hell you just pass out?” The driver asked him smiling.

“Well you remember me telling you about that girl, Lawrence's friend who works at the cellphone store?” He looked back at the driver with a grin.

The driver's eyes grew wide, “The hot broad with the little tattoo on her wrist of the teddy bear or somethin'.”

“Butterfly.”

“Yeah yeah, butterfly. What's her name?”

“Darla,”

“Yeah yeah Darla,” the driver laughed, “You didn't get with that! No way man.”

“Oh I got with that,” the partner smiled.

“No way.”

“Way man,” the partner pulled out his cellphone, “I got pics man, she came over about eight, and we carved a pumpkin and shit, hung out, watched a scary movie.”

“You carved a pumpkin with her?”

“Yeah look,” he said, holding out his phone, “I carved a sick ass little Jack-O-Lantern, take a look.”

The driver leaned over and looked down at the screen. “What the hell is that?” He asked laughing.

“It's a goblin or some shit man.” The partner replied.

“Didn't look like no goblin,”

“Well fuck you then man.”

“Well just sayin'.”

“Well check this,” the man scrolled on his phone with his thumb, “Check out the little outfit she was wearing. Seriously, look at her titties in that?”

“She does have some nice titties,” the driver said, peeking over again.

“Oh yes,” he said, admiring the cleavage in the picture, “So you got to...”

“JESUS FUCK LOOK OUT!!!”

The partner screamed way too late to have changed anything. The ambulance had come up and over a small hill, on the other side of which lay the trailer of Gabriel Couture's Semi-truck. The driver of the ambulance's foot didn't even hit the brakes and the ambulance smashed right through the relatively thin outer skin of the top of trailer which, given that it was laying on it's side, was facing them. The wood floor of the trailer on the other side, was supported by steel beams and was therefore much stronger, so when the front of the ambulance struck this, the engine exploded immediately, turning the cab behind it into one huge smoldering fireball.

🎃

Reverend Taylor had just come back down from his bedroom when he heard the explosion. He had gone up earlier to try and force himself to sleep but that had not worked. He used a large box-fan as a sound machine when he slept, and the noise of that had prevented him from hearing the first accident involving Brad’s mustang, the Chumway Brothers, and Gabriel Couture's truck. Now as he looked out of his front windows, through the trees, he could see flames and smoke rising up in the distance.

The Rev went to the little closet beside the front door and pulled out his boots. His house sat in the center of a large lot on the top of the hill. The bluff adjacent to the park—the hillside Kyndra Bailey had fallen down, was to the rear of the property, and the highway, now strewn with smoldering pieces of car parts and bodies like a scene from the Terminator, was about twenty yards from the front of the property.

If it's a bad wreck, someone may be trapped in a car or something, he thought. He went back upstairs to his bedroom and retrieved his cellphone and his shotgun.

For all I know its another stupid prank from some stupid delinquents setting off homemade Molotov cocktails or something in the street.

He checked to see if the gun was loaded with shells...it was.

Better safe than sorry.

🔪

Amos Yoder sat straight up in bed again.

This time his wife wasn't next to him, but she soon appeared in the door way.

“Did you hear that?” Esther asked.

“What was it?” Amos asked, throwing back the quilt and reaching over to pick up his pants.

“Sounded like an automobile accident,” Esther said, wringing her hands. Gideon circled around her legs excitedly. “And you smell that horrible smell? What is that?”

“It's gasoline,” Amos answered, pulling his pants up and tying the ties on the inside. No buttons, the Amish did not believe in buttons.

“What are you going to do?” Esther asked her husband as he moved passed her.

“I guess I'm going to have a look,” he answered, “is it still raining?”

“I think it's pretty much stopped now,” she answered, “put on your thicker shoes though, I'm sure the ground is completely soaked.”

🎃

The monster awoke. It was dark...and Its face burned. Its eyes hurt and It realized that It couldn't open them...Its eyelids felt like they were glued together. It strained Its' face muscles. That brought even more pain, but eventually the eyelids did open a bit. Everything was still dark...and now a little cloudy.

The monster sat up. It knew It was sitting on a hospital gurney. It knew the feeling of it, even if It couldn't actually see it. The monster had been put on many hospital stretchers over the years. But most of the time the monster had been tied down. This time there were no ties.

The monster stood, and Its' head bumped the ceiling. The monster raised Its' hand, bringing pain. To move was painful...every inch of the monster's body was still burning. Only figuratively now—a few hours ago, it had been literally on fire. The monster rain Its' hand over the ceiling, feeling cold steel.

An ambulance. The monster knew. In an ambulance.

The monster could smell something too.

Gasoline.

The monster cocked Its' head to one side.

Could be on me, from the explosion.

The monster didn't think so.

The monster sidled forward, passed the stretcher, seeing the dim outline of the rear doors through blurry vision. Just making out the two rectangles of the door windows.

The monster lifted Its' leg and gave a kick.

BAM!

The doors were stuck tight.

BAM!

BAM!

🔪

Reverend Taylor's head popped up when he heard the noise coming from the back of the ambulance. He was kneeling over a corpse, so badly burned, it was almost unrecognizable as human. He had a dark feeling come over him.

I don't think I wanna know what's in the back of that ambulance for some reason.

He couldn't quite explain it. Maybe it was being saturated with all of the sick news all night and into the morning. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep.

It could have just been nerves.

He slowly stood up.

BAM!

My some miracle, the fire in the cab of the ambulance had extinguished almost immediately, and had not spread to the back. The vehicle had struck the floor of the trailer and bounced backwards, so now the front end sat crushed and smoldering within the trailer and the back lay hanging out in the roadway.

BAM!

To survive a crash like that, the Reverend thought, leveling the shotgun and taking a step toward the back of the ambulance. Can't be human.

BAM!

I should call the police. He thought.

BAM!

He or she could have been tied down back there, maybe survived that way.

Rev didn't think so.

BAM!

Stop it! It's a patient and they're probably hurt. His mind raced. You need to open the door and help them out.

BAM!

Rev didn't think so.

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

But if you haul off and shoot somebody, people are gonna think you went insane.

Reverend Taylor turned the shotgun around as he came up alongside the ambulance doors. The vehicle was literally shaking on it's axles with every BAM! Rev gripped the barrel.

Just in case, he thought. I can just give em' a whack if they're dangerous.

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

The door broke open.

The Shape staggered out.

The Reverend swung the shotgun.

NEXT>>

[anothersillyfanblog]

The Caveway To Hell

Day 13: Door. I did- so with something like this, you either have to take it 100% serious or go crack fic. By “something like this” I mean a Sanders Sides/Devil May Cry crossover, I did a DMC crossover, you don’t need to understand it, I don’t understand it. ------------------

Remus had been dead for two-and-a-half-years. Until, unfortunately for museum curator Janus William, he wasn’t.

“Where is it?...” something may or not have whispered from the dark.

It was late into William’s shift, and the slight patter of footsteps he kept fooling himself weren’t his own wasn’t helping the night pass any quicker. He’d done this enough times, he thought, backing against one of the glass cases, there was no reason to be nervous. Then? Then the glass smashed behind him.

A figure, somehow stood in the container, holding a recently-procured-mace and clad in an emerald-green leather jacket. Janus tried to look past the large shards of glass stuck in his face and see who this was, maybe get a better description for the police, but he didn’t get the chance. This man, antique mace in hand, ran towards the museum curator- and swung.

-Four weeks later-

Posters up for ‘the man in green’. Lots of people wear green. Roman’s heart still jumped five feet, it’s not as if ‘lots of people’ steal antique maces. Hell, the young devil hadn’t even known his brother’s mace was in a museum! If he had, HE’D have been the one committing theft. Might’ve been a different antique mace? Might not have been “Harmsway”? Maybe?

Any information contact the police.

….

Or the museum, okay so that worked.

-

“He looked like you-” Roman rolled his eyes “Are you blind? He probably had a shitty moustache and dyed thingy up here!” ���Blind?!” scoffed the man sat in front of him “well yes, I just had half of my fucking face smashed in with a mace, and I couldn’t really see him properly at the time so.” “Oh, well!” Roman laughed “No need to get antsy, just sayin’. Anyway, he should look a bit like me, if he’s who I think, he’s my twin brother.” He became a lot more sombre now “except he can’t be- or really shouldn’t.” “What do you mean?” Janus asked. “My brother, Remus, died nearly three years ago now. I saw him fall from Mikaw Mountain- and that mace, Harmsway, too. I ran to the bottom of the mountain, but... Do you know how many creatures are around there? How many demons? I mean, I’m me and I struggled to make it out of there… I really- I just-” Roman took a deep breath “Look, Janus, if he’s alive then I have to see it with my own eyes. Coz It could be any random guy (who looks like me) in green leather breaking into a museum to steal my brother’s mace back!” Janus nodded “Sure could…” he smiled “so how are you going to find him?” “Oh now that!” Roman began “might take a while.”

-

It was like one of those optical illusions, at least when Logan had questioned what they were doing there: the cave looked like a door to hell (when you squinted slightly), and the door to hell looked like a cave (you didn’t have to squint for that).

Either way, as long as they were getting closer to the goal, that was what mattered. And if this goal involved trusting a devil- or half-devil, either one- then whatever.

“Can you see it?” the man in front of him wielding the mace asked. “See what?” Logan replied. Remus tutted “That’s your humanity, you, can’t see what’s standing right! In! Front! Of! You!” he hit the snowy cliffside on each pause, to the protests of Logan (who astonishingly didn’t want to cause an avalanche), and the rocks split- revealing a dark passageway. “See?” Remus began to cackle. “You think you can handle the devil world? Get ready for a funky old time, my friend!”

-

So how were Janus and Roman going to find them? Ultimately, through one very anxious ex-lab-partner. This being of Logan’s, of course.

Virgil Dagon had woken to find the lab eerily quiet. Usually he could at least hear the breathing of his work partner, but not at this moment. Right then, he went to put his food in the fridge, then- like clockwork- walked over to check on the micro-samples.

It was then he found the note.

--To Virgil: I did not feel quite right leaving without writing something, though my, shall we say, new partner encouraged against it. I have found an extraordinary opportunity, the likes of which this world cannot provide me, and so I am leaving it. There are studies to be sought elsewhere and I will seek them for I can. I wish you all the best; Logan. –

His heart leapt. Well, actually it summersaulted, but he wasn’t getting caught up on the details. Well, he was. Logan was not the kind of guy to just leave, or to ‘just do’ anything, and it really wasn’t an over-reaction to find this suspicious. Unless it was? No, Logan was the kind of guy who would skip out on meeting with friends to study, but not the kind to actively abandon those friends. Especially not…

‘This world???’

So began these new sleepless nights- sifting through his friend’s emails, notes, even the lab’s security footage (indoor and out). By the end, he had more than a few ideas.

-

A cave. Or, so Janus was told, the doorway to hell (if you squint). And it was two guys, from the same lab, in fairly close succession, both quitting their jobs to get plane tickets to Mikaw Mountain that tipped off one of Roman’s many informants.

“He’ll have a head start” Roman stared at the split in the cliff face momentarily “and quite a big one, so!” he grinned, then sprinted into the darkness, leaving Janus calling behind. It’s not like a half-blind man could keep up in a cave full of demons- he’d just have to die or run, either of which didn’t sound like a Roman problem.

In fact, without that curator guy, he was having a grand old time. It had been a while since Roman had done any serious hunting, any REAL fighting, and it was good to be back at it! Hacking at the sorts of bloody creatures he hadn’t fought since he’d last seen his brother…

Just simple, caped, skeleton-like things, many of them were- nothing too difficult- and nothing that him and his blade (Starcrossed) didn’t handle well enough. He was just propelling himself off of the cavern wall, slicing through the necks of several creatures as he leapt across, when he heard the scream. From up ahead.

So not the curator (probably).

And either way, he had already gotten started. Better finish.

-

“Is it done?” Remus whinged, almost childlike, whilst attempting to balance Harmsway on his finger. Logan didn’t look at him, remaining focused on the device in his hands “Almost…” he tapped the screen “there.” Remus snatched it off him, grinning, before instantly frowning again and giving it back. “What does, so, what does it mean, then?” “It’s a map to the door.” “But the cave is the door-” Remus started, before a figure behind interrupted. “Not quite,” Janus pointed a cane at Remus “bitch.”

The two swivelled round immediately, with Logan looking at his new partner with confusion and that partner proceeding to break out into hysterics.

“You? You?” he cackled “I can hardly remember who the FUCK you’re supposed to BE, let alone why you would know shit about the doorway to hell!” “Really?” Janus stepped closer “you, uh- robbed my museum and did this to me with a fucking mace you psychopath.” He gestured to the still-bandaged half of his visage, smiling with absolute hatred. Logan coughed “I’m not sure you have a diagnosis of psychopathy-”   “I DON’T GIVE A SHIT, HE SMASHED HALF MY FUCKING FACE IN.” he glared directly at Logan now, shouting, a tear pricking his eye. Remus tutted “Well, if you keep screaming at my friend, then I can do the other half- if you like?” he stepped forward, this time successfully balancing Harmsway on his finger. Janus turned slowly and lifted his cane- the end turning into spike after pressed a seemingly invisible button. “Or we could match- ‘if you like?’” he taunted.

Janus made very precise, delicate moves, attempting to finely swipe or jab at Remus’ figure. The latter was extremely different. He leapt dramatically out of the way of every move, then would charge back with astonishing speed- mace overhead.

They kept on like this for a while, evading and attacking, leaping and swiping, until Remus stayed still. He just stood there as his opponent dived in. And then, of course, he grabbed the cane- flinging Janus round and into the cave wall, who then let out a sharp cry.

Remus drove into him, winding him further with Harmsway, then quickly snatched his cane-arm and held it above his head. “If you want MY mace in your pussy-ass museum,” he snarled “then you can take it where it belongs.” “Thank you for the invitation but I think I’d rather, ooh, go to hell?” Roman stood, beaming, to their right.

“Hi again, Remus.” --------------------------------------------- Yeah so I haven’t finished this and, due to college, probably won���t for all of October. Also I don’t think anyone will like it so uh yeah no one will want me to continue. I had TOO much fun though!!!

[unfortunatelyevent]

Last 10 Fics Tag Meme

Rules: Post the first lines of your last ten fics read or written and then tag others to do the same.

so i saw this and i really liked it so i’m doing it

1. Visceral Reactions by STARSdidathing (frostiron)

Tony wasn’t entirely sure how it happened.

One moment, he was chained to a wall in Loki’s latest warehouse lair and the mage was monologing. Tony was delivering his usual snarky one liners in response and Loki was trying not to look amused.

They were enemies just doing their thing and passing time until someone could save Tony (or he could save himself).

The point was, Loki was mid-monologue, throwing in some “mortals are beneath me, I hate you all” crap. Tony was rebutting that Loki was an Asgardian snob and, a total liar because he knew Loki liked a lot of Earth food, clothing and music.

Loki was towering over him and glowering.

And then... then they were kissing.

2. Friends Don’t Let Friends by theorytale (frostiron)

Steve was angling his shield to deflect a blast from Loki's staff, when out of nowhere the Hulk dropped down - splintering the concrete under their feet - and scooped Loki up in one massive green hand. Steve cringed reflexively even as he relaxed his stance. Loki was an evil bastard, sure, but watching Hulk use him like that whack-a-mole game was just… uncomfortable.

Only, Hulk didn't smash.

Loki struggled uselessly, yelling for the Hulk to put him down. It was kind of funny how fast the guy could go from menacing and legitimately frightening to… kind of pitiful. The cognitive dissonance gave Steve a headache.

Hulk lifted Loki up and peered at him intently, brow furrowed. "What puny god's intentions?"

3. Obliviousness Can Lead To True Love by pointnclickbait (science boyfriends)

Bruce swore softly shooting a glance at his watch as he hurried to the next presentation. This conference was turning out to be more hectic than he had expected. He had been hoping to catch a couple of presentations in particular but had already managed to miss some of them. The one he was hoping to attend the most was after the one he was currently running to. He really hoped he didn’t miss it. He paused at the entrance to the conference room to catch his breath before entering. He stepped in and scanned the room before hurrying to the one free space he could see. He settled down just as the speaker took to the floor.

He was so invested in what he was hearing that he forgot to keep an eye on the time and wasn’t aware of it until he was applauding the conclusion of the presentation. He looked at his watch absentmindedly before doing a double take when he saw the time. Swearing loudly this time he tried to squeeze his way through the crowd. By the time he finally escaped the room more precious time had elapsed. Inevitably by the time he reached his destination there was no possible way that he could have gotten inside. He let out a sigh of frustration and scrubbed his hand through his hair. It looked like he wasn’t getting into Tony Stark’s talk after all. He dropped his hand with another sigh. He’d been looking forward to the talk all weekend. It was the reason he had asked to have his presentation given so early, he had been hoping that he wouldn’t have to worry about the talks clashing. He swallowed his disappointment and headed for the dining hall hoping to eat his feelings.

4. The Language of Love by 1derspark (kaysanova)

To be in Jerusalem is to be hard of hearing.

Nicolo learns quickly there was no silence to be had in the city. Even on the way here, there is noise: the breaking of waves against a Genoese ship, the clamor of a thousand knights and horses, their armor clattering like heavy shells on the march to the holy city.

There is never silence. In Jerusalem it’s as if God were screaming, and with every hoarse screech the devil answered.

The battlefield is everywhere, and so is the blood. The sound of death, the sound of pain. Nicolo has dreamed in war cries for years, so this did not bother him. He dreamed in black curls, a dark helm pulled over an angry face, teeth bared and chattering in a language he did not understand but would soon come to hear very frequently.

He meets this man — the one that roars and tramples down swathes of armies beneath his feet — not too long after the fighting starts.

5. Here We Are, Born to be Kings by Purple_ducky00 (iron husbands)

“Your Highness. Lord Stark is here to see you.” Quentin Beck holds up his nose.

Prince James Rhodes rolls his eyes. It’s not like Beck should judge. He was only hired because his family was in serious debt.  Tony is working out of his.

Tony walks in a few minutes later, hair askew. “Wow, Rhodey, your servants hate me. I call it an achievement.”

“They just think it’s ok to judge since their scandals happened long ago enough for people to forget. You don’t deserve this.”

“I probably do.” Tony shrugs. “It doesn’t bother me. Actually, it gives me the chance to ditch my politeness because they already dislike me.”

6. Impossible Things by accioromulus (wolfstar)

Sirius arrives at the party two hours late and covered in snow. Facebook had suggested around thirty people were coming—a number which already threatened to overwhelm James and Lily’s tiny flat. When Sirius arrives at just past ten however, he immediately wishes he’d brought a sledge hammer, if only to make it past the front door. It’s clear that no less than fifty guests had burrowed their way inside. They stand in every corner, filling the narrow hallways and spilling out from every room, their faces vaguely familiar to him, their chattering bright and enthusiastic. Music drifts in from the sitting room, and it takes Sirius a moment to recognize it, bizarrely, as Christmas Carols, despite the New Years Eve decorations strung about the walls. He turns a corner, attempting suave and casual, but instead narrowly avoids a party-goer's over-enthusiastic elbow by crashing into Lily Evans.

7. greater love has no one than this by Jack_R (kaysanova) ((THIS IS A FAVE))

‘I am not going to Rum,’ Yusuf said. ‘They are filthy, depraved degenerates, and I will not bring dishonour on the house of my father by consorting with these Greeks dogs.’

‘I thought your mother was Greek,’ Niccolò said, mildly.

‘Then you should trust me when I say that their entire civilisation is simply beyond saving,’ Yusuf said.

8. fearfully and wonderfully made by bethecowboy (kaysanova)

Yusuf’s blood buzzes so hard through his veins that it takes all his effort to stay still. Every part of him longs for motion, for justice, for a swift end to the constant exhaustion.

He always calms his limbs, his mind, in time for Fajr: his forehead kisses the ground as the new sun soaks the sand in deep russet oranges. Light glints of the breastplates of dead Christians; it caresses the faces of his fallen brothers who had died defending the outer wall.

9. Genus and Species by 27dragons, tisfan (winteriron)

When Bucky opened his eyes, all he could see was green in all directions. At first he thought that was just the remainder of the Time Stone’s power. Thanos had done… something. No one quite knew what because the battle had been so confusing; the Power Stone blasting purple rays everywhere, the Space Stone moving people out of position, lord only knew what was happening with the Reality Stone. And then there had been a great, green wave of energy--

“Ug,” said someone nearby. It took Bucky a moment to clear his thoughts enough to identify it: Tony. “I feel like a Pride parade just swallowed me whole and then puked me out.” A pause. “Why are we in a jungle?”

10. Through The Years by hawkbucks (winteriron)

Tony is 8 and Natasha is 12 when Tony brings Natasha home for the first time.

“Mamma!” he brightly exclaims as soon as Maria opens the door, holding up one of his hands that is intertwined with one of Natasha’s. “This is Natasha! She helped me while I was walkin’ home from school today.” Before Maria can say anything, Tony is already rushing past her, dragging his newfound friend into the living room with him. He leads her to the rather lavish, cream-colored couch that’s bigger than necessary and tells her to sit down, letting go of her hand.

“Some’a the kids at school were followin’ me and sayin’ bad things to me,” Tony starts to explain as he takes off his patent leather shoes, remembering what his mother said about tracking dirt into the house. “But Natasha made ‘em go away. Then she said she’d keep walkin’ with me so that I’d get home all safe. She was really awesome!”

and that’s that, i have to say that i absolutelly love and rec all of these!

ok i’m tagging: @natyhunter @atypical-snowman @simplyclockwork @camp-half-dumbass and whoever wants!!! (also everyone i tagged please don’t feel obligated!!!)

[detectivejigsawpines]

ORN-Part 9 (You can’t con a conman)

In case anyone’s interested, today is my birthday.  Also, I apologize if my portrayal of Bill does not live up to anyone’s expectations; I don’t have as much experience with writing his character, and frankly I feel dirty just getting in his head.

Should’ve known not to get my hopes up.

Stan had gotten stupid.  He’d been feeling happy for once, and forgotten his own advice: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, especially if it’s random flying money that’s there for the taking.  Of course, he could use the excuse that he was dreaming, and so not exactly as clear-headed as usual, but to him it seemed like a pretty pitiful excuse.

And then the triangle showed up.

He was literally a talking, floating, one-eyed triangle.  With a top hat and a cane and a stupid little bow tie.

Stan briefly wondered if he was on something.

Except that Ford jumped, and let out a startled gasp; that made it more likely that this was real.

“Whoa, don’t have a heart attack, you’re not ninety-two yet!” the triangle said, circling Ford in a way that was the tiniest bit uncanny, in Stan’s opinion.  His one eye barely seemed to leave his face.

“Who-who are you?” Ford asked, eyes wide behind their glasses.

“Name’s Bill!”  He tipped his hat and tilted his body in a kind of bow.

Geez, how corny is this guy?

“And your name’s Stanford Pines, the man who changed the world, but I’m getting ahead of ourselves-hey!”

His little spiel was interrupted by a small flock of bills (the normal money kind) smashing into his hat and knocking it clean off.

Bill had to fumble to catch it, and then he took a moment to stare in bewilderment at the flying money as they did a loop in front of him.  Only then did he finally notice Stanley.

********

Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed like the edges of the triangle became tinged with red for a second.  But he blinked and Bill was completely yellow and black, eye creased in what was probably supposed to be a wide, friendly-looking smile.

“Oh, where are my manners?” Bill asked nobody in particular.  He floated the ten feet that brought him right in front of Stan, and tipped his hat again.  “Stanley Pines, I wasn’t expecting to see you here too!  Great that you could join the party!”

Instantly the little red flag, first created in the cave by that little note under the painting, was hanging in the front of Stan’s brain surrounded by bright flashing lights.

Jerk alert.

He forced his mouth to curve upward in a smile-the kind he used on a crowd that could turn into an angry mob if he wasn’t careful.

“Howdy.”  His gaze traveled upwards.  “Nice hat.”

Bill patted the brim proudly.  “Oh, this old thing? Yeah, it’s my favorite, decided years ago that it’s just right for my image!”

Stan really, really hoped this weirdo couldn’t read minds.

Bill floated back to Ford, waving a hand.  A few seconds later both men were startled by two fancy armchairs appearing behind them and scooping them up; Stan’s zoomed over until he was right next to his brother.

“I gotta admit, this kind of disrupts my plans a little,” Bill said, creating a chair for himself.  “I was gonna have us get to know each other with a game of inter-dimensional chess, but that’s not exactly your game, is it, Stanley?”

“There’s a reason why it’s called a ‘bored’ game,” Stan deadpanned.

Ford huffed in annoyance.  “Well, maybe if you had actually taken the time to learn the strategies growing up you would have more fun playing it!”

“I have a million better things to do than let my life go by trying to figure out how to make some stupid wooden figures move!  Besides, it wasn’t any fun playing against someone who beat me every time and rubbed it in my face afterwards!”

“I didn’t do that!”  Ford’s cheeks flushed.  Then, more hesitantly, “...Did I?”

“Yeah, ya did.  Up until we were twelve and I swore off board games forever.”

“SO,” Bill interrupted, “I was thinking, how about we play something more to your speed?”  A deck of playing cards and a few stacks of poker chips materialized in front of them, accompanied by three bottles of cheap-looking beer.

It was tempting; really tempting.  Just unwind a little, get to know this stranger by finding out how good he was at bluffing (he was pretty sure the game would end up between just the two of them; he’d always been able to play Ford for a sap).

And yet...something made Stan say, “I’ll pass, thanks.”

It happened again: the edges of the triangle took on a brief red glow.  But then he shrugged, and laughed dismissively.

“Sure, sure, I get it!  You’re feeling all business today!”

The items disappeared as soon as they’d come, and Bill leaned back, folding his arms behind his...head?  The spot behind his eye.

****

“So, I bet you’re both wondering why you’re here.  And I’m not talking in the philosophical sense.”

“You...you said something about me changing the world?” Ford asked, tilting his head; his eyes had brightened the way they did every time a teacher praised him for figuring out an answer nobody else in class had.

“Riiiiight, yes!”  Bill waved a hand. “Long story short, I’m what I guess you could call a muse.  Once every hundred years I pick the most brilliant mind on earth, and offer to inspire them in their life’s work.  And this century, Stanford, you are the lucky guy!”

Ford’s jaw dropped.  After a few seconds he managed to stammer out, “M-me?  You think I’m-”

“Oh, come on, don’t be so modest!  You think anyone else in the world has as many PhDs as you do?”  Bill leaped out of his chair and glided over, stretching one of his tiny arms and wrapping it around Ford’s shoulder.  “Not to mention nobody seems to have ever noticed how freaky this little town is, let alone bothered to study it in any kinda detail, before you showed up!  Someone as observant and talented as you deserves to be recognized for it!”

Ford was looking a bit overwhelmed by so much praise at once, but at the same time he was starting to grin like an idiot.

“So, is it a deal?  You wanna let me stick around ta give ya some help, Stanford?”

And at that point Stan decided that enough was enough.

He cleared his throat, loudly; both his brother and the triangle freak startled and whipped around to stare at him.  Evidently they had forgotten his presence, big surprise.

“So, uh, what other yahoos have you been a muse for?” Stan asked, eyebrows raised in mock curiosity.

Bill reacted naturally enough; he waved his free hand lazily in the air.  “Oh, all the great minds from this dimension-fellas like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Nikola Tesla, people like that.”

The mock curiosity became mock surprise.  “I thought da Vinci and Michelangelo were alive at the same time.”  Hey, what do you know, he did remember something from high school world history.

“...What’s your point?” Bill asked.

“You said you picked one mind a century.”

Again, the triangle tried to play it off.  “Eh, I was feeling generous that century. Gave old Mikey a few pointers on that chapel roof of his.”

“...Right.”  Stan sat back in his chair, arms folded.

Bill was just turning back to Ford, probably about to reiterate his question about whether they had a deal, when Stan asked, “Why was there a warning not ta summon you?”

The triangle looked back at him, now with visible exasperation in his eye.  “What?”

“In the spot where we found the thing talkin’ about how ta summon you, there was a note at the bottom sayin’ not ta read the inscription.  What was that all about?” He tilted his head a little. “You get an unhappy customer last time or somethin’?”

Bill groaned.  “Ugh, Stanford, your brother always this much of a buzzkill?”

“It’s just a question.”  Stan spread his hands innocently.  “I wanna make sure we know what we’re gettin’ into before makin’ any decisions, cuz I read that thing too.”

This time the whole triangle turned red.  But with a visible effort he calmed himself.  “Okay, okay, I’ll give you a few minutes to figure this out in private.  But I need ya ta make a decision quick; I got a few runner-ups out there who’ll probably snap me up in seconds if you turn me down, Stanford!”

He snapped his fingers.

********

Stan’s eyes flew open; they were back in the cave.  Thankfully the lantern was still lit, but the light had dimmed while they were asleep; he leaned over to it and turned it up.

And then he got a good look at Ford’s face; it had become flooded with red, and a vein was throbbing in the side of his neck.

Uh-oh.

********

Well, on the one hand, Stan's not buying Bill's BS. On the other hand, Ford is more than a little p_ssed at him right now. ...The latter could be a problem.

[dat-fandom-losertown]

The Drift Between Us

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Chapter 6: The Trouble and the Verdict

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Hank Anderson x Connor and Gavin Reed x RK900

Pacific Rim AU

Warnings: A bit more swearing than usual, some used as Verbal Antagonization

Word Count: 10,364

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Previous <~> Masterlist <~> Next

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

    Hank woke up at an ungodly hour this morning due to a nightmare again. He wonders if it’s the slight increase in social activity he’s being subjected to or if he’s just becoming less affected by the alcohol that he tries so desperately to drown unpleasant memories with. Hank has his bets on the latter, but he won’t rule out the former.

    Being up this early in the morning with no desire to go back to sleep means another morning where he goes out to eat breakfast just as it opens. The only reason he doesn’t start his day drinking like he nearly did last time he was in this situation is because he still vividly remembers the pure shock on everyone’s faces. Still fucking priceless, and still worth getting his cranky ass up and at ‘em if he ain’t going back to sleep anyway.

    Just like last time, when he goes out to get his food, his military-lunch-lady doesn’t hide her surprise. Hank’s a bit disappointed, though, when the other food workers don’t openly stare at him like he has a second head like they had before. That was half of the fun, messing with their heads so obviously. Now they’re just occasionally glancing at him with curious expressions while they work and cook.

    He doesn’t know if it’ll be worth it to do this again within the next couple of months. A damn shame is what it is.

    He sits down at his table, eating slowly because he isn’t even all that hungry– he literally only wanted to see the workers’ faces. By the time he’s done eating, an hour and a half has passed, and Hank suddenly realizes that he hasn’t seen Connor at all. He glances around, looking for any other trainees, and he finds the group Connor’s twin (he already forgot his name again, shit) always hangs around at, but neither brother is there. Something strange settles in his gut and he doesn’t like it one single bit.

    Hank gets up and puts his tray away, forcing himself to stop thinking about it. It doesn’t work very well at all because he’s almost instantly imagining Connor having another “mood dip”, as what’s-his-face called it. Maybe he’s just taking care of Connor or something–

    Worry.

    This feeling in his gut is worry.

    Oh fuck no. Nope. Not happening. Not fuckin’ today, not fuckin’ ever.

    Hank promptly shoves every single thought of the twins out of his head and forces himself to take stock of what he has to drink and munch on in his room on his way back to his safe space. It’s a good thing he does because he realizes he’s starting to run low on pretty much everything except protein bars and water bottles. He’s going to need to get more alcohol very soon, but fucking Fowler has been watching him closely recently. Apparently a guy can’t shower and get up early one time before his friend (are they even still friends? Or are they old friends now?) thinks he’s trying to work at getting better.

    God, it’s not like Hank’s super popular down here, either. It was already difficult enough filling his stash, and now it’s just going to be a right pain in the ass. See, this is why he didn’t mind Connor. The trainee saw what a fucking catastrophe he was and didn’t do shit about it. He just let Hank be after that bottle cleaning incident, the same incident that led him to impulsively recycle all of the old bottles and throw his laundry into a large pile in the corner of the room.

    Wait, he’s not supposed to be thinking about him right now. Fuck you, brain.

    Well, there’s still Arnold, he guesses. He’s never given a shit about what Fowler or anyone else says. Honestly, Hank’s surprised that asshole still has his job. The thing is, though, Arnold can’t keep a secret for shit. Everyone and their uncles would know how low he stooped just to get some alcohol in his bunker. There’s also Vanessa. She’s a charming gal, but he’s not confident she would help him–

    Is that Connor sitting next to my door?

    “Connor?” 

    The trainee’s head snaps up from where it was tucked into his knees. He’s curled up on the ground to the right of his door, his arms squeezing his knees to his chest. A closer look shows that Connor’s eyes are bloodshot, and Hank would almost think he’s high right now if he didn’t know any better, but he does. He also sees the dark bags under his eyes. Christ, has this guy slept at all in the past week?

    Hank suddenly remembers thinking about if he was having a mood dip, and wonders if that’s what’s happening right now. He seemed fine enough yesterday at lunch, though, but he wasn’t there for dinner…

    “Good morning, Mr. Anderson.” He gets up to his feet, and the new position shows off how rumpled his training clothes look. He’s never seen Connor rumpled without seeing bandages. It’s kind of unsettling. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but I was kind of hoping I could get one of your snacks you mentioned having a while ago? I’d owe you a favor in return.” he wrings his hands together.

    “Yeah.” Hank doesn’t think, he just answers. “Yeah sure. C’mon in. You look like you need it more than I do, and that’s sayin’ somethin’.”

    He quickly opens his door, and Connor shuffles in after him. Hank doesn’t think he’s ever seen him shuffle before, he abruptly notices. He doesn’t say anything about it, being acutely aware of how it feels to be in that position, and starts digging through the top drawer in his desk for one of the chocolate protein bars. He remembers Connor loving the brownies at lunch, and Hank prefers the peanut butter ones anyway.

    “Thank you very much for doing this. Ritch wanted me to eat something this morning, but I don’t think I can stomach a breakfast like he wants me to. And I’m sorry for sitting in front of your door, I was still trying to decide if I should ask you to part with some of your stash...” A pause. “You cleaned.”

    That comment immediately puts Hank on edge. He pauses from digging around for a moment and turns his head just enough to see Connor’s reaction. He has a tiny, tired smile on his face, and Hank doesn’t know how to feel about that.

    “Yeah? And what of it?” he grumbles defensively.

    The other hums, “I’m just glad there’s no chance of you stepping on a bottle and hurting yourself anymore, is all.”

    God damn it, he looked so genuine as he said that.

    He’s used to the stupid “Congratulations, you’re not hopeless!” talks that he got so often a few years back. “You cleaned your room! Yay!” “I’m glad you showered!” “Hank, did you shave? That’s good!” “Woah, you’re up early! I’m happy you’re better today.” All of these types of things he’s completely used to. They’re all wishes and quiet hopes that he’s finally getting better and going back to normal, when he isn’t and probably never will.

    He is absolutely not used to hearing “Now you probably won’t accidentally hurt yourself because your room is sort of kinda clean!” Wasn’t that Connor’s excuse for cleaning up his shit last time he was in here? He didn’t want Hank to get hurt by tripping or shattering a bottle or something?

    He truly doesn’t know how to react, so he simply grunts an acknowledgement and gets back to his search, hoping his pause wasn’t too noticeable. Hank finds what he’s looking for and turns around. He hands two protein bars to Connor, who takes them with the expression of someone who doesn’t want to eat even this much.

    Hank, against his better judgement, decides to prod a bit. He won’t force the kid to talk, but something must have happened if he looks this offended by food, and besides, Hank has always been known for being a bit nosy at times. It’s been his excuse for as long as he’s been getting into other people’s businesses or strange situations.

    “Did you see something that made you lose your appetite in one of those slides they show you new comers?”

    He remembers not wanting to eat for a day or two after seeing those gory pictures. Some were of Kaijus that had been torn apart, blue coated guts just lying in the middle of mass destruction, others of what remained of people who were completely smashed under collapsed buildings. He hates that he’s seen both of those scenes in person now, too.

    Connor seems a bit confused before realization hits, “Oh! No. Those aren’t anything I haven’t studied in detail before–” What the hell kind of things did his trainer have him studying, then? “–so they didn’t bother me. Actually, uh… We were, um, caught lying on our evaluation exams two days ago.”

    “You cheated on the single thing that measures your entire worth around here? Are you fucking insane, Connor!?”

    Connor’s gaze snaps up to him from the floor, “No. We did not cheat, we lied. We know a lot more than I think we’re supposed to at this stage of training, and we don’t want to graduate early, so we purposefully marked questions wrong on the written evaluation and held back during the physical ones.” His gaze goes distant like it was before, and he drops down to sit on Hank’s bed. “I thought we were in the clear, but I guess we must’ve slipped at some point because we had to talk to Marshal Fowler about it.”

    Hank knows better than to force someone with that distant look in their eyes to get up and do anything, so if he needs to carry on the conversation to let Connor settle for a moment, so be it. If Hank is secretly curious about why and how he and Ritch (That’s what his name was! He knew he knew it!) lied on the evaluations and almost got away with it, so be it. 

    “Why the hell would you not wanna graduate early? Do you even understand how amazing that looks on records?”

    “I–” Connor blinks a few times, the glazed look on his face gradually dissipating. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter anymore. The entire thing is out of our hands, now.” He stands up with perfect posture. “We’ll reap what we sowed, and if worse comes to worst we can still be bodyguards or something of the like, just as Ritch said. Ten years of combat training has to mean something, right?”

    Connor meets his eyes. “I feel more relaxed now, oddly enough. I suppose I just had to get that off of my chest. Thank you very much for the protein bars and for listening to me complain about my own decisions. If there’s anything you think I can do for you before I likely leave, don’t hesitate to ask.” he finishes with a small smile.

    Part of Hank really wants to say that he wasn’t exactly complaining about his decisions, he was just stressing about the consequences that he was smart enough to realize he had. Another tiny part of him wanted to ask the trainee for booze as repayment, but there’s no way in hell he’s doing that. Yet another part wanted to remind Connor that he also gave him the blanket and stress ball, but he knows the trainee’s thankful for that, and Hank isn’t going to go out of his way to be an asshole like that. Instead, he tries to actually use his head for once and does something stupid, against his own judgement.

    He tries to comfort him.

    “Don’t worry about it. Fowler’s a pretty understandable guy, and you two are smart people. Whatever reason you had for underplaying your skills must’ve been a damn good one because you’re not stupid. And he’ll see that, too, if he doesn’t already. I mean, he lets my useless ass bum around here, so…” he trails off.

    “Let’s hope so. But, again, I don’t think you’re as useless as you seem to have convinced yourself you are.” He turns and heads to the door as he talks over his shoulder, “Whatever may happen to me, I hope you remember that you aren’t as terrible as you keep trying to make yourself out to be. Brains are just stupid like that, I of all people should know that, at least.” He opens the door, looking back at Hank with a soft smile, “Thank you again, for everything.” And he’s gone.

    It takes Hank at least a minute, if not longer, to finally have his first clear thought in the silent chaos his head has suddenly become.

    He still doesn’t like how Connor seems to understand him better than any of the therapists assigned to him did.

    Hank once again can’t decide if he should be disappointed in his old therapists, somewhat proud of Connor for being aware as all hell, or let himself be worried for the trainee (he kind of already is, though, isn’t he?). He’s leaning towards the first option, with a healthy dosage of the third. He knew his therapists were shit for him. That’s the main reason he started drinking all the time; they never really worked for him. He also knows that Connor has some mental issues of his own that he’s slowly working through, but when his mind tries to connect the guy who seems in tune with how Hank’s feeling most of the time with someone who hasn’t even turned 25 yet, it just doesn’t work. Error 404, connection can not be found.

    Hank suddenly remembers why he didn’t put on his mean act around Connor; he saw some of himself in the trainee. At the time, he was pretty pretty he was just self-projecting, but as time is passing, it’s becoming more and more clear that this is just how the young man is. 

    Wait a minute, back the hell up.

    Connor mentioned ten years of combat training. He’s pretty sure he knew about the twins having several years of training before they got here, but an entire decade dedicated to combat? Fucking hell, when will this kid stop surprising him? Apparently Connor was right during that first day he sat at Hank’s table; he really isn’t a kid anymore, huh? Hank always knew he had a rough and extremely censored childhood, what with the complete lack of common life knowledge and shit. Ten whole fucking years, though? Why the hell wouldn’t they just test out of the training segment altogether? They’re partners, aren’t they?

    …Unless they’re not.

    Every time he’s seen those two in the same room– which is admittedly not very often– they’ve either been silent, tense, or arguing. While Hank can see that they’re probably trying their best for one another, he can tell that it probably doesn’t seem like that’s the case from their perspective. It’d be like the other is constantly pushing back, and the only time they’re not is when some kind of mess that affects both of them is being dealt with or they’re being silent.

    Hank wonders if that’s what people saw when his friendship with Jeff started going downhill. He has a sinking feeling that it probably is. 

    Jesus, if that’s even partially the case, then no wonder why they don’t want to graduate early and be forced to work together.

    Now, the next question is does Hank want to have a small chat with Jeff about the lying situation? The marshal should have known about all of this before it became a problem, after all. Connor and Ritch definitely don’t seem like the type of people who would try to lie about something important like this before trying to get it cleared up altogether first.

    No, he shouldn’t meddle. They can handle themselves just fine.

    He groans and rubs his face with his hands. He should stop inviting Connor into his room to grab things. It always leads to a lot of thinking and some kind of big ass realization. It’s exhausting.

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

    Gavin is finally on his way back to his room from breakfast. During the entire meal, Tina wouldn’t stop grilling him about RItch again. He gets it, he really, truly does. He knows what it looks like for a guy who has exactly one friend to suddenly start insulting another guy then get insulted back without there being any real heat or anger. To everyone else, it looks like he made a new friend or possibly something more (“Slut Gavin” has officially made a reappearance, just as he predicted, and he wants to ram everybody’s head into a wall. He’s never been anything less than modest with anyone except two people.), even though this is far from the case.

    Right?

    Yes, definitely. Even if he did want some kind of friend, they aren’t created through insults. People just need to learn how to shut the fuck up or find something else to ramble on about.

    Therefore, he purposely takes the longer way to his room that brings him closer to the training quarters in some secret wish that Ritch will pop around the corner and they’ll have another go so he can blow off some steam. Gavin actually ended up taking Ritch’s advice and briefly brainstormed some “fancier” insults last night when he couldn’t sleep, mainly so he could blame the internet when they end up not meeting his standards anyway. Ritch better be fucking thankful because doing that was kind of embarrassing, since he’s known for being a natural asshole–

    “ALEX!!”

    Gavin freezes and his senses go on high alert. That was Luther who just yelled. The same Luther that everyone is convinced has a vocal problem that prevents him from speaking louder than an acceptable indoor volume and a chemical imbalance that keeps him from ever getting angry. The same Luther that never once yelled at Gavin during training, despite the larger man being in the last steps of his apprenticeship at the time and had full authority to.

    What the fucking hell did Alex do to piss off Luther of all people?

    Gavin sets off to the training room. Once upon a time he would have tried to convince himself that he was just wanting to be a nosy asshole and get into people’s business, but he has no problem admitting nowadays that he’s genuinely concerned and wants to see if urgent help is needed.

    Gavin rounds a corner and enters the hall that connects with the training area. He starts hearing people swearing and telling someone (presumably Alex) to just leave, and then hears that fucking idiot start trying to pick a fight with Luther. Gavin pokes his head in, immediately scanning the room.

    Luther looks like he’s about to spontaneously combust with rage right there in the center of the room, and that scares the shit out of Gavin. He has never once seen the large man genuinely mad, let alone ready to rip someone to pieces like he does now. This Alex character suddenly barks out that he could throw Luther down, despite being less than half of the instructor’s size. What a fucking moron.

    After a closer look, Gavin realizes that Alex was the dude that couldn’t even take one passing insult from him. That one jackass with Ritch in the hall on that second day of training season. He steps in quickly so the other fuck-tards don’t escalate things even more.

    That’s the thing about someone always starting fights, if that person’s smart, they also get oddly good at calming things down. Gavin just so happens to be one of the smart ones for whatever reason.

    “I was taking the long way back to my room when I heard someone shouting swears around here?” Explosion kid turns to him and– oh shit, he has a big ass knife, and Gavin knows for a fucking fact that trainees aren’t allowed to have any kind of weapon, but he steps inside the room casually as if he hasn’t noticed it. “That’s kind of my area of expertise, you know? And, like, how the fuck did you manage to get gentle giant over here mad? Not even I could do that and pissing people off is literally my entire personality.”

    “Gavin,” Luther says calmly, the terrifying kind of calm that makes him hesitate, “We don’t need you right now.”

    Gavin raises his eyebrows and turns so he can look at Luther while keeping Alex in his peripheral. He tilts his head the slightest when the other man’s jaw clenches at his movement. He flicks his eyes over to Alex and back to Luther, trying to convey that for the first time in a long while, he doesn’t want to stir things up more, that he actually wants to help this time.

    “You sure about that?” Gavin asks softly, genuinely.

    He’s glad that Luther’s features loosen a bit, losing that edge of murder. He’s the only one who seems to understand that Gavin doesn’t always want to make people’s lives miserable. He understands how troublemakers like this one work and he knows how to handle himself well enough to not lose in a potential fight, or at least enough to be able to stall until the real help can arrive. Luther starts stepping back to the room’s intercom, probably to contact Fowler about this. A knife of that kind and size doesn’t even belong in this base, let alone in a trainee’s hands.

    “This ain’t any of your business, cocksucker. Why don’t you just go off and play with your boy toy, huh?” explosion kid calls out, and Luther looks about ready to kill again.

    “Ah, so you’ve caught on to the fake ‘Slut Gavin’ rumors.” he turns to Alex quickly, “Why am I not surprised?”

    “This is the same guy who picked a fight with you in front of Fowler’s official office,” a very familiar, teasing voice calls out from his left. “but I wouldn’t expect you to remember that with how many people you quite literally bump into. Can you even handle a situation like this without losing your own temper? I promise to not say ‘I told you so’ if you can’t.” Gavin can see the slight bit of mirth in his eyes, even if he isn’t smirking like he has a few times before.

    At least five people hiss “Ritch” quietly. Apparently this is out of character for the guy. Gavin feels almost proud of himself.

    Gavin fixes him with a glare the other has already received from him multiple times, “Watch me, dick. I’m about to show you a prim and proper end to this shitshow like no one ain’t ever seen before.”

    “I’ve already said my name is not Richard, but go right on ahead and try.” Ritch says, cocky.

    Gavin turns his attention over to Alex the Asshole, shutting him up before he can speak with one of his real glares. He starts walking up to him in the center of the room, ignoring Luther’s warning look. He’ll take care of this without blood, even if it’s just to wipe that smug-ass look on Dickie’s face.

    “That your boy toy? I thought you would do better than that.”

    Deep breaths, just like you were taught, Gavin reminds himself. You’re way better than this piece of shit, you’re about to save the day, and you can’t let RoboRitch win this time. Deep breaths.

    “Alright,” he begins once he’s three steps away from Alex, “you heard literally everyone in this room. Come on out with me or else you’re gonna have an even worse day, ‘cause unlike Luther and friends here, I ain’t afraid of breaking some rules, and I ain’t afraid of gettin’ Fowler up in here. I’m just fuckin’ lazy right now.”

    “How about I fucking throw you down and when I win you’ll see that this was all a mistake and I’m gonna be needed on the future team?” he spits in Gavin’s direction, but it missed him completely and hits the floor. He doesn’t miss how he also slightly readjusts his grip on the knife, likely preparing to strike.

    Gavin loudly barks laugh. “Holy shit–” he wheezes. “You actually think–” he takes a deep breath,. “You actually think you could throw me down? My job is literally taking down huge alien monsters while strapped in a giant metal chamber, a trainee with a knife or two ain’t enough to scare me or take me down.” He relaxes his stance to continue his act of nonchalance. “Now put that knife down and let’s get outta here. Don’t make this worse for yourself.”

    Alex grips the knife harder, just as Gavin expected. “You say you can take me on with the knife, but then tell me to drop it? Maybe you’re just a fuckin’ coward? Ever think of that?! Why don’t you fight me like a man?!”

    “Jesus fucking christ. I don’t think I’ve used that one since middle school, and a certain someone–” he pointedly looks at Ritch, “–loves to remind me that I’m the king of childish insults.” He then turns to where Luther is still back by the room’s intercom, watching the whole event carefully. “Was I this bad during training, Luther? You were an apprentice back then, weren’t you? I swear to god I took a hint better than this asshole.”

    Luther, shockingly, nods his head. “You did take a hint, and you also knew when to finally leave, and when to stop if it was getting serious.”

    Gavin hears Alex suddenly shift closer to him, so Gavin quickly readies himself for action, not wanting to risk getting stabbed or sliced. Alex threateningly raises his knife up (not that he could do any serious, lasting damage holding it like that) and Gavin grabs his wrist and twists, forcing him to drop it. He kicks the blade away then lets go, and while Alex is still recollecting himself, the pilot uses the side of his hands to hit the pressure points on the other’s neck. He goes down like a bag of bricks. He stays down just long enough for Gavin to quickly search him, confiscate a blade tucked into his boot, and tie his hands together with a zip tie Luther tosses to him.

    Gavin takes in the shocked silence with a self-satisfied smirk as he snatches up the two knives, finding both the quiet and the full name written on this knife plenty reward enough for dealing with all of this. Alex starts properly waking up from the little stun move, so Gavin’s not worried about him having any lingering effects from being knocked out. He’s officially in the clear and can’t be blamed for anything, for once.

    Ritch suddenly starts speaking. “Just as I thought. You can’t do anything calmly.”

    Gavin blinks hard, then spins his body with a step back to fully face the human-robot with a glare, the whole movement purposely exuding over-the-top “I’m white and offended” vibes. Ritch still doesn’t have a real smile on his face, but Gavin can see the signs of his lips quirking up at the corners and he still has that same amusement in his eye as when they’re passing insults in the halls. It must be Christmas day for him; a quick and easy fight that he can’t get punished for and another quick match with baby-face!

    “Bitch? I told you I’d get him outta here with a prim and proper ending, and he looks damn prim and proper to me! And I didn’t even start the fight!” Gavin turns around just in time to watch Luther hoist Alex over his shoulder in a firefighter hold. The trainee isn’t even struggling anymore, thank god. “He ain’t fighting or bitchin’ now! And I didn’t see you try to do anything about this, dick.”

    “I thought we already discussed that that childish insult was not my name. You really should see a doctor about your memory problems.” Ritch still doesn’t smirk, but Gavin swears he can see it clearly, anyway.

    “I wasn’t implying that it was your name, I was just calling you a penis.” Gavin hears a quiet snort somewhere in the room at that one. “And it’s still not as childish as your face. Or your arms. Really dude, I’ve said this before, but eat a damn steak, a burger or something.” He starts following Luther out of the room. “I’m gonna go help carry this loaf of nothing to Fowler because I can be a responsible pilot when I want to, and you–” he points to Ritch “–are gonna thank me later. With actual words, in front of my friend.”

    “In your dreams, wetland grass.”

    “Fuck you.”

    “I already said no thank–”

    Gavin hurries out with his hands high in the air and his middle fingers even higher, “Sorry! I can’t understand dumbass-ese! Bye bitch!”

    As he walks away to Fowler’s official office, as opposed to his private one, he hears Chloe telling the trainees to do their warm ups and to wait for Luther to get back before doing any training. After that, it falls silent. Gavin can only take a few minutes of it, though, before he can’t hold back the question any longer.

    “So… What the hell did this guy do?” Gavin asks genuinely for once, “I’ve never once seen you get angry, let alone blow up like that. This isn’t even the first time a student pulled a knife on someone else.” He turns to look up at Luther, who’s looking at him with suspicion, “I wasn’t lying when I said I was just taking the long route to my room and just happened to hear the commotion.”

    Luther looks away contemplatively for a few moments, then apparently decides to spill the beans.

    “He almost stabbed two of the other trainees. You took his second and third knives, and they were the least damaging ones. The other two he had were already confiscated by me.”

    Gavin completely freezes. He can’t be fucking serious. Gavin is very suddenly very close to exploding and punching a wall with his bad hand, so he starts double-timing it to the office.

    “Are you shitting me? I haven’t even seen a knife this damn good since my high school years, and if it weren’t for the evidence written on this thing I’d hide it in my stash! Shit, how the hell did he get four of them?!”

    “I don’t know.”

    “Do you know who did the inspections? When they were done last? I swear to fucking god I am going to–”

    “You are going to do nothing, Gavin.”

    He balks, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

    “You’re going to come with me to see Fowler, we are going to get this sorted out, then he and whoever he got this from will be gone, and you won’t worry about this.”

    “How the fucking hell and I supposed to just not worry about this?!” Gavin shouts, getting the attention of two deliverers, so he hushes his tone into something quieter by just as deadly, “I already have personal beef with these guys so I don’t mind–”

    “Gavin please.” Luther rubs his free hand over his face and massages just over eyebrow, a place Gavin knows where headaches commonly form for him. “You having beef with these people is exactly why you should not get involved in this.”

    Silence falls between them again. Gavin breaks it again using a calm, hushed tone.

    “I wasn’t actually this bad, right? Like, I know I wasn’t swinging knives around, but you weren’t just saying that to make sure I didn’t blow up in there, were you?”

    He hates the fact that Luther hesitates to answer for a second or two.

    “You may have always been a jerk, and you may have been much more of a jerk than ever during your first few weeks here, but you’ve always known when poking the bear turned into wrestling with it, and you always knew better than to wrestle.” Luther turns to him, “As much as you apparently hate being called a decent person, you’ve always been fiercely protective of those you really care about.” He faces forward again.

    Gavin doesn’t know what to say to that. It’s not that he hates being called a good person, it’s just that he’s always been called a menace, an asshole, an inconvenience by those who were polite and worse things from people who aren’t, but he can’t remember a single time anyone had anything genuinely nice to say to him without some kind of ulterior motive in play. Not since his partner, anyway.

    God, he fucking misses him. He was the only person who understood him, and then he–

    No. Not now.

    “Gavin?”

    Gavin startles out of his thoughts at the sound of Luther’s voice. He readjusts Alex’s body on his shoulder before looking at the tall man.

    “You okay?” Luther asks, genuine concern in his expression. He’s holding the door open to the office area, waiting for Gavin to step through.

    He shakes his head to help get himself out of this funk he’s in, “Never better. Let’s go put this guy in the ground, and try to keep me out of it.” He steps inside. “Hey, you’ll have my back, right big guy? I mean, I know I knocked him out there for a minute, but it’s better and more realistic than whatever alternative anyone else was trying to think up.”

    Luther sighs and nods his head, “Yes, I planned on vouching for you. Just don’t say anything stupid or incriminating. Marshal Fowler has been in a prickly mood for the past few days, and I’d rather not have you testing him. Again.”

    “I’ll try my best, but I’m not gonna make any promises.” Luther gives him a sharp look. “It all depends on what I’m going to hear about this kid and how much it’s going to piss me off.”

    Another sigh to Gavin’s right, but Luther doesn’t say anything this time.

    They walk into Fowler’s office without knocking, and all the rest of the process goes by rather quickly. They filed out the reasons why Alex is being dishonorably dismissed with Gavin acting as a witness, then he recites the full names of the likely owners of the knives. He’s sent on his way not long after that, since Luther and Fowler need to talk about some lying dipshits or something. He doesn’t actually care all that much. As he turns the corner in the hall to finally get to his room, he almost literally runs into someone.

    “Watch where you’re fuckin– Anderson?”

    The ex-pilot grunts and rolls his eyes in lieu of a greeting.

    Gavin steps aside as the old drunkard walks to the office areas. “The hell are you doing here? And up this early too.”

    “I’m goin’ to talk to Fowler, just fuck off.” he grumbles over his shoulder.

    “Fowler’s busy talkin’ to Luther about some lyin’ scum right now, so he ain’t free.”

    Hank stops, “Those two liars aren’t even close to scum, and they’re exactly what I want to talk to him about.” He doesn’t say anything else as he hurries through the door, and slams it shut behind him.

    Gavin knows something’s up. Hank doesn’t think highly of anyone, let alone people who apparently lie on important documents. That’s what all this has to be about, after all, because that’s the only kind of lying Fowler handles himself like this. That, and he hasn’t seen Anderson hurry anywhere in years, especially not for any kind of living being, especially humans.

    As curious as Gavin is, he knows when it’s not any of his business, and when looking into things will only bring more trouble than it’s worth. The other thing is that Gavin doesn’t usually give a single flying fuck, and he’s pretty that’s why sure his disciplinary folder is one of the thickest ones in this joint.

    The grand point of all of this is that Gavin really doesn’t want to tango through the lying case, but if anyone thinks he’s not gonna have a part in taking care of this knife business, they’re very wrong. People like that cover up their tracks well enough that they’ll get away with it, even if everyone knows it’s them. Plus, Fowler probably wouldn’t find much to begin with since he’s busy a lot of the time. Gavin is almost excited to finally have a reason to come after them.

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

    It’s a few days after the Alex commotion, and Connor’s normally silent dinner is interrupted by an unfamiliar man in a suit. It’s strange and jarring to see because the only kind of uniforms around here are boots, cargo pants, and plain t-shirts with the occasional jacket with the PPDC symbol on the right sleeve. The stranger calmly walks up to Connor and simply asks him to finish his meal quickly and meet Marshal Fowler in his main office, then walks away towards where Ritch is sitting without any explanation.

    He looks at Hank, wondering if he has ever had this kind of treatment, or if this is exactly what Connor thinks it is. Hank just sends him a confused glance from where he sits diagonal of him (Connor has slowly been scooting closer to him in hopes that one day they can sit across from each other in a charade of actually being social, and it seems to be working so far). That means it’s what he thinks it is, and today is the day that they get sent out of training.

    He’s already done research on what kind of careers he and Ritch can get into after this whole mess, and there were plenty as long as they have the connections. The only problem is, once Amanda hears about them getting kicked out, all of their contacts will be gone instantly. They’re going to have to start at the very bottom and work their way up, which could take years before they get a realistically livable wage, and that’s if they live near the kaiju warning areas. It sucks, but Connor is just one step away from accepting this as his fate, that final step being actually hearing the verdict come out of Fowler’s mouth.

    He doesn’t finish his food. He just sits there and stares at what he did manage to get down before the man in the suit came along. He glances over every now and then to see when Ritch gets up so he can follow him. The moment Connor sees his twin placing his dishes in their respective bins, he gets up as well. He says his routine goodbye to Hank, who surprisingly wishes him luck in a low tone, and puts his own food and utensils in their assigned bin as well.

    “Are you ready?” Ritch says behind him. Connor can almost feel his silent judgement for not eating enough. Surprisingly, though, he doesn’t mention it.

    “As I’ll ever be,” he wrings his hands together, “You?”

    “Quite the same. Come along.” Ritch using his polite, “fancy gathering” voice like he is now never means anything good.

    Ah, apparently that’s all that was needed in order to reach that final step of acceptance. Huh.

    “I’m sure you know already, but I’ve been doing research on exactly which jobs we’ll be eligible for once we are sent out, and the selection actually isn’t–”

    “It is not certain that we are being dismissed.” Ritch interrupts, “I thought I told you this already.”

    Connor huffs, “It never hurts to be prepared.”

    “I suppose not, but call me optimistic that we’ll be staying here.” He looks to Connor without turning his head, “If they have any brains at all, they’ll want us here. We are smarter and stronger than we made ourselves out to be, and came clean as soon as we knew we were caught. They know we only did this because we were forced to and they didn’t listen when we tried to tell them the first time.” He focuses his eyes forward again, “I do not think we’ll be dismissed. At least not today.”

    Connor suddenly has the feeling that Ritch is saying this more for himself than anyone else. It didn’t even occur to him that his twin would be bothered by this. After all, he was the one dragged into this, and he has repeatedly stated that this was Connor’s dream and not his own. Well, that and Ritch doesn’t really care about change as much because he’s extremely adaptable. They both are, but Connor has never been able to stop himself from getting attached to certain things. It’s just how he functions.

    The rest of the walk to Marshal Fowler’s office is spent in silence and with that man in the suit attempting to trail behind them. Connor gives him points for effort, and he’s sure Ritch does too, but he has a feeling that he’s not the only one logging all of his mistakes so they don’t make the same ones.

    Inside the office area– which is not just Marshal Fowler’s office and a waiting room like the other one, but is instead a large room that has plenty of desks for many people– no one pays them or the suited man a distance behind them any mind. As Connor casually turns his head to look around the office, he sees the guy in the suit take a left as they keep going straight to the glass door. Ritch knocks, then opens the door for Connor, who then shuts it behind himself. They’re met with four people in the room; Marshal Fowler, Luther, Chloe, and an older lady they don’t recognize.

    He glances over at Ritch, who then does the same. He can tell that Ritch has finally accepted that they’re not going to be staying here past tomorrow morning, if even that.

    “Good evening Connor, Ritch.” the marshal greets politely.

    “Good evening.” they chorus together.

    “I hope you don’t mind waiting a minute for our fifth member, he hasn’t returned from getting you quite yet.”

    “Oh, the man following us?” Ritch blurts. It startles Connor because he’s never seen him blurt things out before, even before training. It’s always himself that does that and it’s never on purpose.

    At the unfamiliar woman’s raised brow, Connor tries to salvage what he can. “He was taking corners too soon after we had, and his shoes would click on the metal, rather than clang against it like everyone else’s boots. Those are the only reasons why we know.”

    “Well, no, those aren’t the only reasons we know, but those were the main reasons.”

    Connor sends Ritch a look that easily translates to what the hell are you doing? Although, his brother doesn’t spare him a glance.

    “I see, and you know the tells of this? You’re used to being followed, perhaps?” the woman asks in a way that seems like she’s trying to get dirt on them for a crime.

    “No ma’am,” Ritch says before Connor can get anything in, “We’ve just been highly trained. I doubt many things could sneak up on us.”

    Connor lightly smacks him on the thigh with his hand. Just what the hell is he thinking? What is he hoping to accomplish with this antagonization?

    Suit guy walks through the door before anything else can happen, thank goodness. He looks to Chloe and Luther and finds them hiding smiles. Connor doesn’t have a clue of where this is going, now. Why would they be hiding smiles? Chloe and Luther always had their backs, right? Unless this whole ordeal put them against him and Ritch… Damn it, he just doesn’t know and it’s making him uneasy. People are so confusing and complicated.

    The man in the suit entering the office pulls Connor from his thoughts.

    “The marshal was right,” Chloe states, now properly revealing her smile, “They both knew you were trailing them.”

    “Damn, really? You must have some serious training under your belt!” the man smiles, and all of it is overplayed. Connor wonders where the man would rather be right now. “How old did you say you were, again?”

    He never offered his age, but he decides against saying as much. “23 as of two days ago, sir.”

    “23?” the older woman says, “Both of you?”

    “Yes ma’am.” Ritch responds respectfully, if not a tad sharp.

    “And how long have you trained?” suit man asks, “Marshal Fowler said that you were in training for eleven years?”

    Connor hates this, so he doesn’t speak. He doesn’t want to accidentally screw both of them over with his fat, dumb mouth. Thankfully, Ritch doesn’t wait too long to respond and seems to have gotten out of his rebellious mood.

    “Almost, sir.”

    “That means you started training at thirteen?”

    “Just about, sir, if I remember correctly.” Ritch doesn’t like this as well. He can tell by his tone, but he doubts the other adults in the room notice anything off.

    “May I ask why we’re here?” Connor asks cautiously, but he’s ignored.

    “What kinds of things were you guys doing?” suit-man asks, sitting on the desk. He doesn’t see Marshal Fowler’s glare at the movement.

    For a long few moments, Ritch doesn’t say anything, so Connor does.

    “We were training mainly in combat and first aid–”

    “No,” the older woman interrupts, “What he means is, what did you guys do under your stepmother’s care when you weren’t training?”

    Connor can’t hold back a subtle face at the word “stepmother”, but he immediately knows that everyone still saw it. He hasn’t heard anyone besides his new friends and Ritch say that word in regards to Amanda. It just sounds… wrong coming out of anyone else’s mouth, as opposed to “trainer” or “guardian” like other adults in the past have called her.

    Ritch answers sharply, “We rested.”

    A long second goes by, then the marshal speaks. “And?”

    Another long, uncertain second, then Connor begins explaining. “I mean, we studied–”

    “Okay,” suit-man interrupts, “How often did you two get to play games, get out of the house for vacations, and do other things like that?” Connor doesn’t like how blank his face is, and that he can’t decipher what emotions he’s hiding.

    Wait… Are they trying to get dirt on Amanda? Ritch did mention that people tend to blame the parents or guardians in this type of situation. How much trouble would he get in for throwing her under the bus? For making sure he never has to go back under her care

    “We played down at the nearby park occasionally.” Connor supplies.

    “Yes, around once every other week for the first few months we lived there. In later years, though, we normally just studied our books–”

    “Because we needed to be jaeger pilots, and we wanted to make sure we were eligible to get in.”

    “You say you ‘needed’ to be jaeger pilots,” Luther starts, “Is that what you wanted, though?”

    Connor doesn’t hesitate like Ritch does, “I’ve wanted to be a jaeger pilot since people tried to make Marshal Fowler and Mr. Anderson television stars for how well they were doing in this line of work. Training has been… exceptionally hard as a whole, but I still want this more than any other job I’m eligible for that also uses the skills I’ve built up over the years.” He looks to Ritch, who is still looking to the ground with a frown and his eyebrows pushed together, “I don’t want to speak for my brother, but I refuse to go into a profession that lets my combat and first aid training go to waste.” he finishes quietly.

    Everyone just waits patiently for Ritch to answer after, surprisingly. Normally in interviews like this, they start asking simpler questions to urge one of them on (usually Connor, since he’s usually the one that gets tongue tied), but they still wait silently. It takes 17 seconds, Connor counts, and his brother’s expression never changes during that time or when he starts speaking.

    “I originally did not particularly want to be a pilot, but I started training because Connor needed me to in order to be one. I wasn’t prepared to be separated from him, but I also didn’t want to crush his dream, and I didn’t really have any aspirations beyond just wanting to help people, either, so I basically had nothing to lose. I did not like training at all from the very start, and I don’t think I like knowing that I can easily kill someone with a single punch or jab if I really wanted to.” Ritch’s face relaxes back to normal as he raises his head to face the interrogators, “But I like it here so far. The atmosphere was a bit much to adjust to at first, but now that I’m used to the schedules and the near-constant company, it’s actually becoming pleasant. And it’s just as Connor said, at this point in my life, I’d rather pilot a jaeger with someone than do any other job I’m qualified for, and I don’t want to put my years of training to waste. So after doing a bit of research, I believe that this is the best option for me.”

    “Research?” Chloe asks, “You were prepared to leave today?”

    “Always be prepared for anything so nothing catches you too far off guard.” Connor quotes Amanda as Ritch simultaneously admits, “Yes. We expected it, even.”

    After a beat of silence, the older woman moves along. “Marshal Fowler said that you two mostly trained on your own?”

    “Yes, ma’am.” the twins say together.

    Ritch elaborates, “We had instructional videos and pointers from Amanda helping us along the way–”

    “But we mostly perfected our fighting style on our own and practiced against each other so our styles would perfectly compliment each other’s–”

    “Because that’s what was going to make us more compatible and help our chances in becoming a pilot.”

    Suit-man nods, “And you are supposed to be identical twins, yes?”

    Connor sees Ritch tense up out of the corner of his eye. This is still a sensitive topic. It ends up being Luther that starts that line of questions.

    “I understand that you wear boots with a slight heel due to medical reasons, but I’ve been wondering why you have a condition that Connor does not have.”

    He knows that this is an easier question for Ritch. “I used to wear high heels and boots with heels around the orphanages and foster homes we were placed at while growing up. I first started wearing them when I was six and liked being taller than most people my age, but then never stopped once I realized it helped people separate Connor and myself apart. That’s also why I started wearing lighter clothes and cutting my hair shorter, while Connor prefers his hair longer in the front and continues to wear darker clothes despite Amanda’s displeasure with it.”

    Connor nods his agreement.

    “And the eyes? How are your eyes blue? Do you wear contacts that we haven’t been informed of?”

    Connor takes over, knowing this is a tough subject for his brother, “It’s actually close to impossible for contacts to make dark eyes appear naturally silver, so…” He pauses to take a breath and figure out how to word the next part. “There is research being done on how people can permanently make their eyes lighter in color. I don’t know why this research is being done in the first place, but he was signed up for it as a part of the ‘helping people tell us apart’ thing.” He sees the older woman about to speak, but pretends that he didn’t and presses on anyway. “We have very different personalities and extremely different levels of tolerance for different things, so Amanda, Ritch, and I wanted us to be as separated as one could be from their identical twin.”

    “He said you were signed up? Not that you signed up?” the older woman asks Ritch directly.

    “Yes, ma’am.”

    “Did you want this procedure done?” Chloe gets to the point. Everyone is staring at them more intently and it’s making Connor uncomfortable.

    “Even as a minor, I had to sign my consent in order to be operated on since it is an experimental procedure.” Ritch’s tone gives away– likely only to Connor– that he’s starting to feel uneasy as well.

    No one seems pleased with that answer, least of all the man in the suit. He’s the one who asks the next question.

    “That doesn’t answer if you actually wanted it or not. You could have signed those papers if you felt like it was the lesser of two evils.”

    Connor turns his head to fully look at Ritch, and he isn’t looking very well. His face is too stoic and his unsettling eyes (they always are to Connor at least) seem even more so now that they’re growing distant. His body’s too tense, too ready to run out of the room or fight to get out of the situation. He hasn’t seen Ritch like this in years, not since Amanda had still affected him pretty badly when she’d scold them. Connor distantly wonders if what he is feeling now is how Ritch always feels when Connor gets this way, or if he just gets annoyed like he seems to.

    He decides that Ritch probably does not feel this way about Connor episodes because his brother usually has a way to get him to snap out of it. It’s somewhat frustrating because he can’t do anything for Ritch right now, not anything that wouldn’t ultimately make his condition worse or something.

    It takes a minute of tense silence before everyone gives up, taking his silence as the answer it is. It’s almost creepy how they’re like a hive mind or something. He catches the older woman’s eye as she gets up and silently leaves the room. Suit gets up next and smiles in a way that screams “I’m ready to go home and relax but I can’t yet”.

    “Well, I think that’s enough for us for now! Thank you so much for joining us, fellas. Hopefully this is the last time we see each other under these circumstances.” he laughs, holding out a hand for Connor to shake, which he does, “I’ll let you relax a bit here and let them tell you what the verdict is.”

    He leaves, and the room is plunged into yet another silence, this time less tense. It only lasts a few moments before Ritch speaks with an unexpectedly harsh tone that has Connor blinking in shock.

    “What was that?”

    Marshal Fowler answers quickly, “That was us trying to find out if you were guilty of lying on important documents, or if Amanda was guilty of coercion and generally being an unfit guardian.” Connor notes that he doesn’t say “parent” at all. He definitely caught Connor’s face at the word earlier, then. “She was the one found guilty.”

    “Just like that?” Connor blurts with wide eyes, “She didn’t do anything illegal–”

    “Not that we know of yet,” Chloe cuts off, “She was almost found to be unfit as a single mother due to her background in training young adults for the military mixed with her overall personality and… unique view on certain things. Like how a teenager should be treated.”

    “A teenager has the presence of mind that children don’t have, so they don’t need coddling and should start learning how to care for themselves.” Ritch quotes. “It seems fair to us.” Connor nods along.

    Luther sighs, “That’s technically true, but not quite right.” Connor doesn’t hide confusion, and neither does Ritch, apparently. “Look, I’m going to be straight with you– you guys know I always try to be– we’re going to have to set you up with therapists if you want to stay here.”

    Chloe jumps in, “We have therapists for all of the pilots and plenty of the other personnel around here, so it’s not just you personally and you would have been required to get one eventually anyway. But I don’t think you two realize how unhealthy both of your minds are right now, and I’d hate for that to get in the way of your social life and potential as a jaeger pilot.”

    “I know my head is all messed up.” Connor admits softly. He sees Ritch turn his head sharply to him out of the corner of his eye., “I had to skip two days of evaluations because of a valid question some people asked me. I’m just shocked you’re allowing us to stay despite doing the two things that should get us dismissed immediately on top of the mental issues.”

    Marshal Fowler’s features soften in a way that Connor didn’t know was possible for him. “Most people in this place have some kind of mental issue, and I remember that you tried to tell me on your first day here that you had to lie on your application, so you did the next best thing when I didn’t listen.”

    “You’re making it sound like it’s your fault, sir.” Ritch points out.

    “Yeah, well, it partially is my fault, but Amanda also shouldn’t have done what she did to you two, and you should have gotten proper help instead of ranting to Han– Anderson about it.”

    Ritch’s head snaps back to Connor, obviously displeased, and Connor gets more tense than he already was because of it. He resists the urge to mess with the belt buckle loops on his pants.

    “Mr. Anderson…?”

    “He came and talked to us today. Said to keep you guys around, and he never speaks for anyone. Even before when we piloted together he normally just kept to himself, so the fact that he felt the need to even speak about this to me says something.”

    “Mr. Anderson came and talked to you? About us?” Connor asks quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.

    It just doesn’t make sense. He’s only been a burden to the older pilot, so why would he actively try to keep them here? He thought Mr. Anderson would be relieved to have him gone, to have him out of his space and no longer taking things from him and complaining about things that can’t be helped or changed, or things that apparently could be changed.

    So Hank Anderson doesn’t mind his presence too much after all. If he did, he wouldn’t have particularly cared if Connor left or not, yet he felt the need to do something about the possibility of him leaving. Connor almost decides that he doesn’t know how to feel about this, but then a sudden rush of happiness bursts inside of him.

    Someone saw him at some of his lowest and most annoying points, and yet he didn’t push him away. Mr. Anderson didn’t force him out or ignore him until he got the hint and left on his own.

    “Connor.” Ritch hisses, and he has a feeling that that’s not the first time he’s been called.

    He blinks hard, “Sorry, I apologize. I just… I’m really surprised he said anything. I thought he’d be annoyed of me by now, that he’d be indifferent that I’m gone at best…” He shakes his head to clear any lingering thoughts, “Anyway, I’m sorry, but what were you saying before?”

    Marshal Fowler laces his hands together on his desk. “I was saying– between us only– keep up whatever it is you’re doing, because he’s looking less tormented recently than he has in a long time. I don’t think he’s actually tolerated someone new being at his table for so long before, either. It’s obvious you talk to him, but does he talk to you too?”

    Connor shakes his head. “Not really? I don’t really talk to him all that much either, it just sorta… happens sometimes, I guess. He asks something then I just keep going and rambling and he just doesn’t tell me to shut up. But I just– I don’t know.” he shrugs, “I just don’t think he’s as horrible and grumpy as everyone’s been trying to tell me he is. Or maybe he is and I have low standards. It’s honestly just as likely, I think.”

    “I think he’s more relaxed around you than anyone else.” Ritch adds, to his surprise. “He probably wants to protect you like some kind of puppy, but you aren’t childish or stupid like most people who need protection, so you don’t end up annoying him.” He takes a breath. “Someone should get him a dog.”

    Marshal Fowler laughs, actually laughs, with a little head shake and everything. Chloe and Luther seem just as surprised to see and hear it. Connor wonders if the dog thing was some kind of inside joke between him and Mr. Anderson at some point.

    “Hank is a definite dog lover. Good to know even that much is still obvious.” He goes back to his serious, stoic self with no evidence the joy from before, “You both start therapist-jumping in two days to find one that’s right for you, and you’ll be redoing all of your evaluations again starting tomorrow, and you better not even fucking think about lying time, ya hear? Or I’m gonna gut you like a fish and toss you into the ocean.”

    “Yes, sir!” they say together earnestly, completely unaffected by the empty threat.

    Luther nods to the door, “Go on and get out of here. You’re officially without partners now, so start seriously looking in case you graduate early.”

    “Yes, sir!” They repeat again with slight smiles, and they leave quickly.

    They have hope here after all. They don’t have to leave and be trapped in the world on their own. They can still be pilots, and it doesn’t sound like any of this is going to be blamed on them. Thank god.

•◊•◊•◊•◊•

Previous <~> Masterlist <~> Next

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A/N: Hey guys! I am so super glad to have this chapter out finally!! Now I know that the entire first half of this chapter seems pointless or redundant, but I promise that they’ll lead into actual plot stuff later. Now! I am falling asleep at my computer because I don’t know how to sleep at night apparently Lol. Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you have a pleasant day/night!! 💕💖

[carry-on-my-pretty-weeper]

Catching Lightning Chapter 15

Author: carry-on-my-pretty-weeper

Character(s): Reader, Peter Parker, Avengers

Word Count: 4.5k+

Warnings: passing out, crying, near strangling

Author’s Note: hey everyone! since i’m a literal piece of shit and have not been posting here’s the longest chapter i’ve probably ever written! i hope you guys like it and i’m sorry for not updating in forever! there’s still a lot left to this story!

Series Masterlist

<<14 / 16>>

When you woke up you were on Steve’s back as he took you back to the compound. You bounced with each step he took. What happened? The last thing you remember was taking out a bunch of bad guys. When you guys got to the compound you tried to speak it came out as a whisper since you didn’t have a lot of energy.

“Steve.”

“Haywire! You’re awake! Thank god,” he exclaimed as he laid you down on the floor.

“What happened?” you asked him bracing yourself on your elbows.

“Well, we fought Hydra agents and then you ended up passing out. You overused your powers-,” he tried to explain before you cut him off. You were started to piece together things from before passing out.

“I don’ think it was d’at,” he looked at you confused so you continued, “I was trainin’ with Nat d’en I went on that run with you and I hadn’ eaten anything since last night. Then fightin’ all them bad guys pushed me ova the edge.” He let everything that came out of your mouth run threw his mind before deciding on what to say.

“You have to take care of yourself. If something happened to you I- I don’t even know what we’d do,” he said gently but firm. You looked down and found your belt to be incredibly interesting. You didn’t think you could look at him right now. He seemed really disappointed. Rightfully so. Although it didn’t make it hurt any less.

“But I’m not going to leave what you did unrecognized. You did protect me and get us both out of that mess so good job. But take care of your body. If you don’t take a break to rest and recharge your body will make you rest and recharge,” he asserted. You nodded your head as he helped you up.

“You’re lucky I didn’t tell Tony or else you’d never see the light of day again,” he joked causing you to laugh. That’s what he was waiting for. He needed to get through to you but he also liked the joking vibe that you had between you two.

“At least I’d be able to understan’ what he was sayin’ unlike you. Ya know with yur ol’ man hearing,” you quipped while grinning at him.

“I can still tell Tony, Tony!” he yelled to the building. You quickly started apologizing and trying to shield his mouth.

“Steve! No I’m sorry Steve! Steve!” you squawked, “Don’t tell Tony!”

“Don’t tell Tony what?” speak of the freaking Devil. Ah fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Haywire didn’t want me to tell you,” you looked at him with the best puppy face you could muster. Looking at your sad face he couldn’t rat you out . He silently cursed before saying  “That when we were jogging back she tripped and ate it.” He shot you a ‘there happy?’ look to which you quickly nodded. Tony laughed before putting a hand on your shoulder.

“It okay it happens to the best of us,” he commented starting to walk back into the compound. Steve mouthed to you ‘you’re welcome’ as he walked after Tony. Thank everything to ever exist that Steve didn’t tell Tony. When you entered the compound you were tackled by a brown and white flash of fur. She immediately started to lick your face. You pushed her onto her back as you started to rub her belly.

“She was an angel,” Bucky said leaning up against the wall. You got up and thanked Bucky again for taking care of Sparks as you went to the kitchen to eat food. Cap’s orders. When you walked in you saw Steve making pancakes.

“I’m making these for you how many do you want?” he asked over his shoulder so that he was careful not to burn any.

“A thousan’- nah a million!” you exclaimed as you poured yourself some water. You pounded it only to receive a mild brain freeze.

“Let’s start off with two then see how you feel,” he suggested with a chuckle. You ended up eating eight. He kept telling you to slow down or at least taste them but you were starving. It was like 11 o’clock but you were already bordering tired. You had to wait until all the pancakes kicked in to give you energy.

Thinking back to what happened during the fight you realized you made a mini storm. You hadn’t ever done that before. Could it be possible you were getting stronger? I mean the more you work out the stronger you get so why wouldn’t that apply to powers?

Steve made some pancakes for himself and sat next to you. He was happily eating his food as he rubbed Sparks with his foot. You noticed that having Sparks around seemed to put everyone more at ease. She definitely put you more at ease so you were happy she could do the same for others. But she was also majorly happy to be showered with so much love from everyone at the compound. When you were training or when you couldn’t take care of her the rest of the team would chill out with her.

Clint and Sam would play around with her, Vision and Bucky would read while she laid on a part of them, Steve and Wanda would just shower her with kisses, Rhodey and Tony would work while she laid at their feet, and Nat and Bruce would walk her. But in the end you were still her favorite. As soon as you entered the room she was by your side and wouldn’t leave you unless she had to. Of course she also hung out with the others but as long as it was close to you.

Finishing off your plate you washed off your dishes and made your way to your room with Sparks not far behind. When you reached your doorway you kicked off your shoes before heading into the shower. Sparks waited on your bed while you cleaned yourself.

Thinking about everything that happen one thing that struck you was the fact that even though you had passed out Steve hadn’t removed your mask. He had only put your hood down. That made you trust him even more because he understood how much your identity meant to you.

As you were washing out your hair you noticed how your muscles were pretty sore which didn’t really happen that often. Well not since the whole powers thing. Powers. Even though it had been a while since having them it still felt weird to say. The hot water pulled out all the cold feelings that had been stuck in your body from the day. All the worry and fear was dulled by the constant stream of warmth. You let your head rest on the wall as you closed your eyes.

Reminding yourself that you had to actually leave the shower at some point, you shifted your weight to your other foot as you turned off the water. Stepping out of the shower you felt the cold tiles of the floor as you grabbed a towel. You dried yourself off and once more stared at your suit. Shoving yourself inside of it you made your way out of the bathroom. Sparks was asleep on your bed as you went to lay down on it. She rolled on her side as if to make herself a pillow. You gladly rested your head on her stomach as you relaxed. Tony walked by your room, once he noticed you were in it he reversed himself till he was in your doorway.

“Haywire, we were going to continue to watch Supernatural would you like to join?” he asked obviously trying to keep you from becoming a hermit in your room.

“Is d’at even a question?” you countered. I mean you had started them off on it. Walking with Tony and Sparks you had made some small talk. When you got to the room you noticed a new face sitting on the couch. Was that Peter fucking Parker? What the fuck was he doing there? You remembered his Stark internship. Did that mean he worked closely with the Avengers? He never mentioned that before and you knew that that was definitely something he would bring up.

“Haywire I’m sure you noticed a new face here. Meet Spiderman,” Tony said not realizing that with those words your rose tinted world would be smashed. Spiderman, your friend was Spiderman. Not knowing how to react you just stood there as Peter got up to say hello.

“Nice to see you again,” he added onto Tony’s greeting.

“Ah- uh yeah! It’s nice seein’ ya too,” you stuttered out desperately trying to find what to say. This was all too much to take in. Holy fuck. Holy fuck! So this is why he would disappear so much and get so many injuries. The air started to get stale due to lack of conversation. Trying to salvage the conservation you talked about watching the show. Peter had just laughed and sat down. Asking him why he laughed he told you how it was one of his good friends favorite shows. Thank god your mask covered most of your face because it definitely would’ve showed how badly you were freaking out. Sparks noticed and immediately started to lick your hand in an attempt to calm you down. It was working. Peter looked over at her and his eyes lit up.

“And who’s this beauty?” he questioned as he offered up his hand for her to sniff. She quickly gave him a once over before deciding to flop on top of him. He was surprised but appreciated the gesture as he started to stroke her fur.

“That’s my bud Sparks,” you answer before sitting next to him. She immediately perked up and wiggled her way next to you. Laughing at her you scratched behind her ears. She leaned into your touch and started to uncontrollably scratch her leg.

The episode started and you spent the entire time debating what to do with Peter. Should you tell him you know his identity? Tell him yours? Questions filled your head to the brim. There was not much of the episode left as you started to freak out more. Sparks sensed this once again and tried her best to calm you down. You just drummed your fingers along her ribs.

Tony noticed you looked a bit more tense and he wondered if it was because there was another superhero there that you didn’t know as well. Unknown to him you knew him all too well. More than any person there. Regardless he noticed that your stress levels were definitely high. Even though he wanted to continue the episode, he wanted you to be okay. So he got up and started to crack open the cabinets to look for something to make with you. You peered over to Tony confused. Usually he waited till a lot later to cook dinner. When he caught your eye he nodded his head over to the kitchen signaling you to come over. Lifting Sparks up a bit you slipped out from under her as you walked over to Tony.

“Isn’ it a bit early for dinna?” you asked him cocking your head to the side.

“I thought we could make some sweets before dinner,” he said as he continued to grab ingredients.

“Sweets befor’ dinna? Thatsa first,” you chuckled. He handed you ingredients as you both started weaving throughout the kitchen.

Peter watched as Haywire stood up and went to talk with Tony. He felt a pang of jealousy. I mean you had just got here and he was already treating you better than he did Peter. Not that he treated Peter badly it’s just he treated you with more care. You both seemed so natural together as you worked in the kitchen. He watched as you two joked together but opted for looking away.

He diverted his attention to Sparks who was currently upside down and starting to snort. He gave that a little chuckle. But this dog was so cute. He wondered where you had gotten her. Giving her some belly pats she started to wag her tail so hard her butt started to shake back and forth as well. The other Avengers took notice and started looking at her instead of the TV. Some laughed while others, cough Clint cough, whipped out their phones and started recording. The faster she wiggled the harder she snorted. This caught your attention as you looked over at her. He saw a smile creep onto your face as you looked lovingly at your buddy. Peter could only see maybe an inch or two of your face but he couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity. Dismissing it for when you saved him he focused back to the present when he realized just how intently he was staring at you.

You glanced over to Peter’s face to find his already looking at you. He seemed to have realized this too and became flustered. He was probably thinking something along the lines of ‘great, now she thinks I’m creepy’. You knew him all too well.

Great! Now she thinks I’m a creep for staring at her! Peter quickly tried to think of the best way to deflect that fact when you seemed to just shrug it off. You walked over to Sparks and she flipped herself over and basically jumped into your arms.

“Who’s ma silly girl?” you asked your voice filled with overdramatic excitement. She just yipped in response. You gave her good scratches behind her ears and under her chin before Tony walked over to you.

“The cookies are in the oven now so we can just relax for 18 minutes,” he huffed plopping down onto the couch. You gave him a nod as you sat next to Peter instinctively. Realizing that he still didn’t know who you were, you left a bit of extra room between you two. This felt exactly like the night you saved MJ and had to pretend to not know her. The only person in your friend group who hasn’t had a run in with Haywire is Ned. 

Poor guy, he was the one who loved superheroes the most out of your entire group. Peter coming in at a close second. Looking back at Peter you wondered how he had gotten his powers. I mean it’s not everyday someone gets them so what was his story? But due to the television being on you swallowed your questions and diverted your attention elsewhere. 

Glancing down towards Sparks you noticed how much weight she had gained back. She was looking pretty healthy compared to the skinny pup that you had found 2ish weeks ago. She still had ways to go but she was certainly getting there. You lifted her up into your arms and leaned back against the couch. She just laid her head on your chest and watched you. You gave her a kiss on the nose before turning your attention towards the screen. She gradually drifted into her own sleep world. You could tell because every once in a while her leg would twitch or her ears would move.

When the timer for the cookies went off you unfortunately had to get up. She whined but you picked her up and laid her on Clint before heading into the kitchen with Tony.

“Do you think they’re ready?” Tony asked opening the oven just a smidge. The cookies had a light brown tint to them and the smell had started to dance throughout the kitchen.

“Yeah,” you said grabbing an oven mitt. After you slipped it on your hand you reached into the oven and grabbed the pan. Pulling it out you placed it on the counter with a quiet ting of metal on marble. You removed a hot cookie from the baking sheet and broke it in half. Offering one half to Tony he gladly took it. He ‘cheers’ed you with his half before you two tasted it. The hot cookie burned your mouth but the sweet and salty mixture overpowered it. It had the perfect amount of crunchy cookie and gooey chocolate. You couldn’t lie you both did an amazing job. Moving them onto a giant plate you brought it over to the other Avengers. It certainly diverted their attention from the screen for a moment. Hands reached over to the plate of cookies and before you knew it they were all gone.

“Oh my god this is great!” Peter exclaimed with his mouth full of cookie. He had two more in his hand as he all but inhaled his first cookie.

“Haywire’s like the team chef, her foods amazing!” Sam added onto Peter’s comment. You just blushed because compliments weren’t your forte.

“Tony helped out too,” you tried to argue. But Sam insisted that Tony’s food wasn’t half as a good before you. Tony just looked offended and tried to argue that his food was great before the entire team started to tell him that you were a better cook than him. Your face literally felt like it was on fire. Everyone just kept complimenting you and you didn’t know what to do. So you just sat as Sparks left Clint to lay on you.

“Hey!” Clint cried out as Sparks left him. You were always going to be her favorite. She looked back at him and tilted her head in a confused manner. He tried calling her back over to him but she stayed glued to you.

“Sorry Clint. I’m ‘er favorite,” you said with a shrug. He just let out a huff and turned his head back to the screen. What a baby.

This episode of Supernatural had started off with Dean finding Sam after he had been missing for a week. He had no memories of what happened but when security tapes showed him killing another hunter that’s when things went to shit. You were so engrossed in this episode as if you hadn’t watched it before. Steve kept gasping every time the littlest thing happened, Nat corrected them when they were fighting but for the most part thought it to be accurate, and Sam kept laughing at all of Dean’s jokes. Not to mention he was really happy that his name was the same name as one of the main characters. You kept feeling Peter’s eyes on the side of your face. You bet it was because he thought you looked familiar so you shielded your face with your arm nonchalantly. The battle from before on whether or not to tell him about you started back up in your head.

At the end of the episode when it turned out to be a demon that was controlling Sam everyone was relieved. I mean no one wanted Sam to end up being a bad guy. You finally decided on telling Peter since you knew his identity. When the next episode started up you asked if you could talk with him. His eyes had a splash of fear in them but he still accepted. You two walked towards your room and you sat on your bed while he stood waiting anxiously about what you were going to say to him.

Had you been creeped out with all his staring? Did you already hate him? Questions like this swirled in his mind before you opened your mouth.

“I don’ really know howda say this so imma just do it,” you started off feeling anxiety run throughout your body. You tried to calm yourself down to not cause an accidental power outage.

“I know who you are. As ‘n I know ya without ma suit and ya know me.”

“What? What do you mean?” he asked as his face scrunched together in confusion.

This was turning out to be harder than you thought it was going to be. Using your normal voice you continued.

“I know you because I’m y/n,” you finally said taking off your mask. He just stood there with his jaw on the floor and his eyes bulging out of his head.

“Y/n?” he practically whispered before crushing you in a hug. You hugged him back and tried your best to not cry. You missed him so much. To be completely honest more than you should but he was there and he was holding you and that’s all that mattered.

“I have been so fucking worried,” he said into your hair. His voice was wavering and you could tell it had been hard for him. You wondered how Ned and MJ were handling it as well. They had also been something missing from you. A piece of your puzzle of life that made it feel empty.

He pulled back from you to look at your face. He had been missing you for a week and a half but it felt like years. At first he thought you had been sick but after the third day of not showing up and not responding to anyone’s texts he got worried. He even stopped by your apartment but no one was home. He didn’t know what to think so he assumed the worst. But being here with you now it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off of his shoulders.

“Why didn’t you at least tell one of us that you’d be gone?” he asked you scanning your face for anything and everything. You dropped his gaze, ashamed that you didn’t tell them.

“It all happened really fast. I told my parents that I was doing a Stark internship thing so that they could tell the school. After that I haven’t had communication with the outside world,” you professed while you fiddled with your hands. Glancing back up at his face you could tell his mind was going a million miles a minute.

“I-I’m just really glad to see you,” he sighed pulling you into another hug. You relaxed as he cradled you in his chest. This time you couldn’t stop the tears that fell from your eyes. He looked down at you in confusion before realizing what was happening.

“Hey, hey you’re okay. What’s wrong?” he asked tenderly as he tried to wipe your eyes.

“It’s just-I didn’t know when I would see anyone again and seeing you-you here just I don’t know,” you hiccuped. He just held you tightly until you got your breathing under control.

“Better?” he questioned. You nodded your head in reply.

“We should probably head back the others are probably getting concerned,” you mentioned as you wiped your eyes for the final time. Reaching over to your mask you put it back on. On the walk back he asked why you were wearing one. You explained to him that no one else except him knew your identity and you wanted to keep it that way. He seemed to think about that for a while before randomly asking about Sparks. Just like that you guys fell into conversation like how it used to be.

When you two got back you could tell, no matter how hard they were trying to hide it, the Avengers were interested in why you guys ran off alone. Nat bet the group that you two like each other and you were going to talk about it and Sam agreed. Tony completely rejected the idea saying that you had only known each other for a few hours. Clint thought you guys wanted to talk about teenager stuff. Steve suggested maybe you were trying to get to know him since he was the only new face to you. None of them were even close. Well, maybe Nat and Sam.

By the time you started making dinner with Tony everyone was itching to know what you guys talked about. Tony was deemed the one to find it out since he was the closest to you. Which made Steve try to argue that he was closest but it defaulted to Tony since he would be the one to talk to you soonest.

“So I saw that you pulled the kid aside,” he remarked grilling chicken, “what was that about?”

“Oh, we were just uh talkin’ about what I should expect if I go on missions and stuff.” Nice lie. You hated lying to Tony but you couldn’t tell him about knowing Peter.

“Why didn’t you ask one of us?”

“Well, ya know I wanted ta know how it was from da other teenager’s perspective.” He nodded his head as he listened to you. As long as you two didn’t, you know like each other in that way he was fine. Since you came to the compound he had quickly bonded with you. So for him boys were a heavy no go. A happy silence washes over the two of you as you weave around each other almost in like a choreographed dance.

When you two were done you took a step back and admired your guys’ hard work. You cooked chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and cornbread. The cornbread was your idea, it was something your dad made for you when you were sad. Not that you were sad! You just missed him and this reminded you of the old geezer. Bruce set the table while the rest of the team got comfy in their seats. When you brought out the food you were met by cheers from the team. What dorks, honestly these were supposed to be the most dangerous people in the world and here they were happy over food. Peter sat down next to Tony but after some whispering between the two of them Peter sat down next to you.

“What’s this all about?” you questioned keeping your voice low.

“Tony wants us to be friends because we’re both teenagers and he doesn’t want you to be alone when they’re on missions,” he responded as he reached for cornbread. The last bit caught your attention.

“I’m not going to get to go on missions?” you asked clearly taken aback. What good were powers if you didn’t get to use them? You were just as capable as they were. In fact you took down a couple of Hydra agents already.

“I don’t think so,” Peter said taking in your dejected face before adding, “It’s not a you thing. I don’t get to go on a lot of missions either. I think it’s because they don’t know what they’d tell May if I got hurt. They don’t want to bring us back in pieces.” I guess that made sense. But at the same time you still felt upset. You could handle yourself so you wouldn’t get hurt. Deciding to drop it you ate your chicken and picked at your cornbread. At least it would cheer you up.

That night while you tried to sleep you had another dream. Your consciousness felt like it was drifting until it hit something.

You were floating in space. Trying to look around you realized you couldn’t move. Your throat was burning, it felt like someone was strangling you. Every nerve in your body was inflamed and your heart was going to break through your ribcage. You realized you weren’t alone, there was a man with black hair floating next to you. His face looked close to blue, probably because the lack of air. In an instant he vanished and you were in an apartment. You could move so you stood up and looked around. Walking into a room you saw the same man from a second ago but he was normal. He was sitting down reading a book. When you took a step the floor creaked and he looked up at you.

“Who are you? How did you get here? Did the second rate magician send you?” he asked defensively standing up with knives in his hands. Where the fuck did he get those from?

“I don’t know how I got here. I was in space a second ago and you were there and I have no idea what is going on,” you spilled as electricity wrapped around your hands.

“How are you doing that?” he asked staring at you.

“Doing what?”

“Making lightning with your hands!” he urged clearly irritated. Looking down you hadn’t realized you had been doing that.

“I don’t know! It just happens! Usually I can control it but right now I’m kind of stressed out,” you all but yelled. Realizing he still had knives in his hands he placed them down.

“The only other person I know who can do that is my brother so forgive me if I am wary about you,” he sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Who’s your brother?” you asked not daring to let your guard down. Those knives still scared you.

“Why should I tell you? I don’t even know you,” he said in a demeaning tone.

“Yeah and I don’t know you. Big deal! I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on. Plus if your brother has the same powers as me maybe he could help me.”

“Doubt it. Ever since I faked my death he’s left,” he mutters as if it’s a normal thing to do. Who fakes their own death? Is he running from the mafia? The government? That’s the only logical explanations you could think of.

“Well, then who are you since you won’t tell me who your brother is,” you demanded of him. This cemented a frown onto his face. He mumbled something under his breath.

“What?”

“Loki.”

Tags:

@stevieboyharrington, @fandomlover03, @markusstraya, @speggehi, @thetimidsarcasticcat, @condy-wants-a-cookie, @feline-space, @wipplog, @ink-and-tea, @-thatgirloverthere-, @mysteriouslysharkbait, @lionsfandomsandbearsohmy, @absmiles123, @tienna-laufeyson16

[angel-scythe]

I need you : Chapter 10

Hello!!! 

Chapter 10, already? OMFG!!

I really hope you’ll love this chapter. This one has... CAT!!! <3 

You know how to do... smash the door to see the cats or just keep reading!! |   °|

“I’m a little robot, short and strong. Here are my handles, just turn me on. When I get all warmed up, watch me go. Sometimes fast and sometimes slow.”

Niles knew the song by heart now because he was used to hear it since six days. At least, he noticed it since six day.

He was doing a lot of progress, at least he felt it that way, and was able to know how many days had passed, however he loved the erasable board saying “I’m there since 11 days” so they kept it. In fact, that helped him a lot because he felt like he was more linked to the reality with it…

He had bought the bedroom furniture and was a bit eager to have them. He hadn’t leaved the sofa for now. He wanted to wait his new room for that.

But progress didn’t make everything. He still didn’t eat lot and needed to have Gavin with him when he walked. And for the bath too… though it was a pleasure to be in his arms. He loved the cuddle and hug moments, loved the kiss and the long regards they could share. Why did he never have a relationship before?

And despite the progress and the burst of joy the GV200 could bring to him, the sadness around his heart was still there. He felt exhausted quickly, sometime he couldn’t find the happiness, even when Gavin cuddled him and sometime he hated himself…

His favorite Android in the world had brought a lot of change in six days but damn, it was only six days. No wonder why yesterday he stayed in the couch, doing nothing. He even didn’t walk or ear that day and when Gavin had tried to force it out a bit, he had felt even bad. Yesterday, he had looked National Geographic for hours… They had done a little break for lol cats but that didn’t cheer him up. Not Gavin’s laugh, not his arms around him… Nothing.

And now, he hated himself because yesterday, he had kind of give up…

Yesterday he was asking himself if he deserved Gavin. Today, it was still the same. The GV200 was always doing things for him and him… Him he couldn’t even try. Gavin said he needed him but Niles couldn’t be sure about that. He was the tick sucking the Thirium from his body…

For once he wanted to do something for him…

God. They had bought stuff for his bedroom and he even didn’t buy him clothes! That was like he saw an object in him!

What a detestable person he was…

“Gavin?”

“Yay?”

“Can you check if there is tuna left in the cupboards?”

“Hungry?” Gavin smiled, looking happy.

He opened the doors to seek after them. There was still a lot of closed jar and can there.

“Not really.” He didn’t eat yesterday and wasn’t hungry at all today… “I just thought we could go in the park and feed the stray cat.”

“I’d like that!” Gavin let out happily.

Niles couldn’t help but smile, relieved the idea pleased him.

The GV200 gathered himself and looked his Human above his shoulder, his brow frowned and his LED turning yellowish.

“But do you feel like you’ll be able to do it?”

“I wish.”

“Don’t do too much, okay?”

“We can take break?”

Gavin sighed and walked toward him with two tuna can in his hand and letting that cupboard door open.

“I know you want to prove something to you but if you go too fast and see what you can’t do instead of what you can already do…”

“Okay…” Niles sighed.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“The playground,” the man said.

“Hu?”

“Let’s go to the playground then! It’s not far away.”

Gavin’s LED became yellow, showing he was calculating the itinerary. So Niles specified with a ‘the Bennett Playground’.

“Three minutes away…” Gavin said under his breath.

It was a big thing for Niles so the GV200 got a lot of doubt but that didn’t look so far away. The Playground looked perfect!

“Let’s go!” he said with a smile.

  First, they had to change. Niles was wearing mittens, a black turtle neck, a jeans and a comfy vest with a hood. Even if Gavin said he couldn’t get cold in any way, Niles asked him to change his clothes. He really wanted him to feel good so the Android had chosen a hoodie, a jean, some boots and nothing else. Everything was dull, black, grey or dark blue. However, now they were up to leave.

Gavin helped Niles to get up from the bed were they dressed up then they walked together   to the door and from there, the man looked to the lift. He wanted to walk there by himself but it wasn’t a good thing. They had just two streets to walk up but Gavin was true, he needed to take his time.

“Come here.” Gavin passed his arm around his waist and brought him against him. “You’re alright? That’s okay?”

Niles nodded as he closed the door. “You’ve the tuna, right?”

“Yes!” The Android leaded him to the lift and let him call it. “Did you already think about getting an animal? I read somewhere that helped a lot because you need to take care of the ball of fur.”

The man looked him as the elevator’s door opened with the househusband, having three children and a layer-wife, who smiled to them. He lived three stories above Niles’ apartment.

“I thought you had move out,” the man confessed when Gavin had pushed on the right number.

Niles shook his head.

“It’s nice to see you around!” he said with a warm tone.

Stern nodded a bit then looked toward Gavin. “You want a cat, isn’t it?”

“What? No!” he said. “Well, yes. That would be awesome to have a cat but honestly, I thought about a fish or a rat. God! I could see you with a rat!”

“Or we kidnap a cat at the park.”

Gavin laughed.

“If I may, just look around, some people gave the late bunch of kittens. Well… just sayin’. Didn’t want to disturb you.”

Niles looked toward him. “We’ll see.”

He really wanted to make Gavin happy. And the Android had his own problem. He knew it by the way he always sung that song. For him, it was a kind of loneliness. With a cat, maybe even a stray or abandoned cat who needed love, that will be perfect. Good for them.

For Gavin.

The Android bent toward him, his cheek almost against his cheek. “Is it okay?” he muttered.

The man nodded.

For now, he was totally held by Gavin. The GV200 was strong. Of course he will never let him fall but he was still scared about that.

That pissed him off.

Really.

Since they were there for at least twelves level, the househusband chatted with them, talking about the best place to have a kitten, talked about his kids, their project… He still thought Niles was a Detective. He knew his job because of his wife. Somewhat, that disturbed Niles because that only reminder him how much he had lose in less than one year. Fortunately, Gavin was a sweetheart and he oriented the chatting over food. And when the lift opened at the ground level, as if it was perfectly normal, he said to them they were a cute couple. And finally, they split on the sidewalk.

“Do we talk about that?” Gavin said.

“I’m not sure there is much to say. It’s just one of my neighbor. Can’t remember his name and I’m sure he doesn’t know mine. I hate lift. Always a bunch of idiot and they want to chat with you.”

“The next time, make them believe you’re mute or deaf!”

Nines looked him grinning.

“You’re stupid.”

“I’m stupid?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Look at what you said.”

“Joke on you! You can’t look something you’ve said! Who’s the dumbass now?”

“So you think I’m the dumbass?”

“Hu, yes! Who think I can look what I said and who refuse to be deaf to be out of problem?”

As they were talking, fighting a bit in the cold wind, Gavin perfectly knew they were walking. And Nines even didn’t feel it as he was helping him to lift his own weight in a tender way.

“It’s a way to talk, an expression. Do they don’t learn that to robots?”

“Maybe they do but I couldn’t learn it? No wonder why they threw me away!”

“I’m glad you say it first,” Niles smirked.

“You little shit!” Gavin said before lifting him suddenly, forcing him to pass his arms around his shoulders with surprise.

It was the first time he was actually lifted.

Well, he certainly was when he was really young but as soon as his mother could have stop, she did and after he was holding and lifting Connor when this one wanted contact.

“Ah, you’re speechless now!” Gavin grinned.

“Sorry, it’s the first time I see an idiot, I’m fascinating.”

“I’m idiot now?”

“Yeah.”

Gavin moved his hands and Niles hung at his shoulders but he never fall since the strong hands were around his thighs.

“Asshole,” the Human let out with a chuckle.

“It keeps coming better!”

Holding him with one hand, he pointed out to something and Niles looked. First, he noticed a passer-by throwing them a look. Suddenly, it came out to him they were outside and it wasn’t good to show such expansive love. And certainly not with an Android.

Though that make him felt a rush of rebellion because he hated being judge and when he bent a bit to kiss Gavin, he didn’t do it. How could he even think about that? Using Gavin.

He was an asshole…

“Yeah?” he let out, throwing a little look on the direction.

“You see that?”

Niles looked it then behind them. He didn’t saw that. He had passed more than the middle of the route.

“Ready to continue?”

“Yeah.”

Gavin smiled and put him down. Niles didn’t say a thing when the Android passed his hand around his waist and they started to walk once again. He didn’t say how he had felt good in his arms because… in a way, for him, it was really weak. He didn’t think Connor was weak when he wanted that because he had a really cute and shy nature. But him, needing to be strong, It looked like a bad thing…

So he stayed quiet as they walked and there… the route seemed way longer.

“What day it is?”

“Twenty-seventh, why?”

“Day of the week?”

“Saturday.”

Niles could get why he saw kids around, playing with balls and running around. And those holographic band that closed the road to let the child played in security.

Damn! He should have looked before they left the home.

They would never have a cat coming with all those kids around. They were so noisy.

Ugh, Niles guessed he’ll end up like his mother, hating his own children if he got them. She always said he was her favorite but she preferred him like you wish you’ll have the cholera instead of the pest.

“Why?”

“I just didn’t know what day it was.” He frowned. “The last time I remember a day, it was the tenth May and it was a Monday… All the weekend, I didn’t want to go to work and…”

“You didn’t go,” Gavin guessed.

“I’m not proud of that…” He looked down. “I felt so bad about that, I wasn’t able to go to work the next day…” This time, he watched the kids happily playing. They were so innocent… “When you’re kids, often, you don’t want to go to school and you fake being sick. I never did that in my entire life. Worst, I already go to school even sick. I never understood what happened.”

“You needed a break.”

“It had been so long… And you saw what happened yesterday.”

“Niles…”

“Yes?” he asked.

They were almost at the park. Just one or two new paces.

“Walk to this table.”

Gavin pointed out a green table surrounded by two benches. It was ten feet away. The mere idea make Niles’ head swirl. He had walked so much, only because his weight was lifted. Because he could count on the other strength.

Ten feet… He will never do that.

“Niles!”

The man looked him.

“You can do it. You walked this entire route. And you already did it. Remember when you opened the door to Connor?”

“It was way less.”

“Niles Stern? I thought you had a bit of courage!”

The Human clenched his jaw, feeling shiver.

“I won’t let you fall,” Gavin added, seeing him shake a bit.

Niles forced himself to nod but he didn’t felt like it at all. He gulped and then moved from Gavin. He started to walk and glanced toward the trees nearby, hesitating to approach them. And finally, he didn’t because… he didn’t need them.

He needed Gavin.

And Gavin was there.

He could do it. It was ten paces. Ten paces alone. That didn’t seem so much…

One pace. Two paces. Three paces. Okay, that started to be a lot. His legs were a bit shivering. Four paces. Five paces. Could he do it? He looked the bench and clenched his fist. Gavin was there. If there was any problem, Gavin would help him. Six paces. Seven paces. His legs were numb. He wanted to walk quicker to be there faster but he force himself to not to because that would also exhaust him quicker. Eight paces. Nine paces.

His hand touched the table and he moved his feet, sitting in the bench.

He was blinking. A feel of relieve and unbelievable rushing in him.

“I did it,” he said under his breath.

He wanted to say it to everybody.

He heard Gavin’s laughed and for a second, he felt dumb but the Android was happy. So happy. He sat next to him, stepping over the bench and took him in his arms. It was so powerful, so good. Niles hugged him back, his heart bouncing in his chest.

“I… I did it without you, isn’t it?”

“Oh you betcha!”

Niles was relieved and he pulled back to take his phone. He needed to warn Connor. So he typed quickly a message and sent it with a strange feeling. He closed his eyes, refusing to feel shame for that pride.

He felt a kiss on his cheek and he couldn’t help but smile.

“Thank you.”

“Why? I don’t do a thing.”

“You did kiss me. And I like your kisses.”

Niles opened his eyes and looked the GV200 which smiled a bit, looking more uneasy.

“Can I?”

The man nodded, closing his eyes and offering his lips. Gavin’s hands came on his cheeks and he felt a tender kiss on his forehead, then his temples, his nose and suddenly, he didn’t want a passionate kiss on his lips… he wanted to feel all those butterfly kisses, letting Gavin travel on his cheeks, met his chin, discovered the shape of his jaw, coming back to his nose to offer some love to his eyelid.

He couldn’t open his eyes, living in a strange world for a moment.

“Gavin… I…”

“Connor?” a voice asked.

Ah! That was long since someone mistook him for his lovely brother. He was a big taller and everybody said you could also feel his assholeness on his face, plus there was his eyes… but there, sit, eyelids closed and blessed by a strange love… maybe you could think he was the sweet and cute one.

“Connor…” the voice said again.

“Come on, that’s not Connor! Are you phckin’ blind?”

Niles opened his eyes and looked to the tiny voice’s owner.

Gavin was harsh, he liked that in him but for a little boy.

When he felt the eyes on him, the kid dashed to him and hugged him. The GV200 narrowed his eyes.

“I was sure it was you!”

“Are you secretly Connor?” Gavin said under his breath, leaning over the man.

Niles was about to reply when he realized the face was quite familiar. It had changed with the time and the fact he had passed six months cut from the world came back like a tsunami, shaking him with violence.

“Cole, do you remember me? I’m Niles, Connor’s twin. We met one time.”

The tiny boy looked him as he was still hugging him and seemed doubtful but suddenly, he smiled and nodded.

Did he saw his eyes, his look so dismissive? Or was it something else?

“Yes, I remember you!”

“Are you there with Hank?” Niles asked.

Gavin looked him, his LED flickering yellow as he was browsing the information and… received some. How was Niles about that? He looked a bit unhorsed. He could see the man was trying to act… normally.

That didn’t suit him well.

That fake smile, that way to bend toward the kid.

Connor should be really cute when he did that because there was something in him but Niles? That didn’t fit. Not like that…

“I’m here with mommy! I thought you were Connor so I wanna come because I miss him. I don’t see him often. But he’s soooooo nice.”

“That’s right. He’s really cute.”

“Yes! Last time, he bought me a biiiiiiiig Ice cream.”

“Ah, he’s sweet. When was that?”

There, Niles looked more like itself.

“Cole?” a voice called.

The tiny boy looked over a lady looking around, worry on her face.

“You should go there,” Gavin said. “Your mam is waiting for ya.”

Cole looked to his mom and nodded. He stared Niles with a bright and wide smile. “Connor bought me the Ice cream in August! I’ll be happy to see you again! Say ‘hi’ to Connor for me, please!”

“I’ll do it.”

The child ran toward his mother, calling for her.

Niles sighed heavily.

“You did great! I’m sad he knew Connor because trying to kill someone is certainly the next step for you!”

“We’re former cop.”

“That’s why we know how to do to hide and run!”

“Problem,” Niles said, looking him.

“Yay?”

“I can’t run.”

Gavin smiled and took him by the waist, helping him to turn toward him. “Then, I’ll carry you.”

Niles closed his eyes.

The GV200 jumped because he received a lot of information really weird.

“You don’t feel good? I say something I shouldn’t? I didn’t mean… Ah! Humans!” he said, clenching his teeth.

“It’s okay, Gav’.”

The Android looked up toward him.

“It’s okay if I call you Gav’?”

“You give me my name, I guess you can do whatever you want,” he replied. “Gav’ is cute,” he added.

Niles looked a bit uneasy and watched around. The weather was cold he was younger, he’d wished for a hot cocoa. Not anymore. But he felt his hands becoming a bit red, the tip stinging a bit.

His phone rung and he looked it. It was from Connor, of course.

[Congratulations!!!

Send me a pic’, please, please, please                         ]

“Do you want to take a photo’?” Niles asked.

“Yay?” Gavin replied.

[nooneelsecomesclose17]

Happy birthday @robertmakesafoolofhimself. You deserve to have the best day! You brighten up my dash so much and you’re always so lovely and your messages always make me smile.

I hope you like this idea I had, which started out as a moodboard, then as a short little drabble to go with it and is now 3.5k. Thanks to @rustandruin for helping me with ideas when I dropped this into their messages :) and for the opening dialogue and the ‘singing’.

You have no idea how much I’ve changed

“I don’t think those Dalek things know anything about plumbing.”

“You should explain it to them then, might solve our problem.” Noise, that’s all he could hear, and he was running, legs burning but he couldn’t stop, had to keep going.

He’d had the dream again the night before, waking up breathless, scared, head full of memories that weren’t his, even though somehow they were.

It had been going on for weeks and now he knew the reason why.

Robert’s life was a lie, he knew that now. The happy comfortable life he’d made for himself with Aaron was all a lie. It wasn’t the real him. He wanted it to be, wanted to stay here where he was loved, where he wasn’t alone. Even now there was that feeling of loneliness inside him, left over when the other him had been taken, hidden. Why would he choose to ever go back to that?

But if he didn’t, then what would happen. They wouldn’t stop, these monsters that Gerry had told him about.

He’d thought he was making it up. After all that was the kind of thing he would do, the lovable lad that always seemed to be there. Now he knows why that is, protecting him, protecting his secret. He’d told him everything and now here he was standing outside the house he’s built, they’d built, him and Aaron wondering how on earth he was going to break his heart.

Because he was going to have to. He didn’t have a choice, not really. He’s a Time Lord, he has to go, he has to be The Doctor, save the planet.

“So this isn’t me? Me and Aaron, it’s nothing?”

“No. It’s real, but you’re not you. Not really.”

He’d yelled then, telling Gerry to stop talking in riddles. His mind was still struggling with the news that the annoying teenager who slept on their sofa was anything but daft.

Whatever this thing was, the end result was that he wasn’t who he thought he was, and because of that he could lose Aaron. He’d remember, Gerry said, they both would. Whether Aaron would want anything to do with him after was an entirely different matter.

How could he do that, how could make that decision, risk leaving him behind, leaving him hurting.

“If I stay here, they’ll stop trying to find me eventually.”

“It’s no good using reason where a Dalek is concerned.” Doug had said. To say he was surprised when Gerry had told him that the dependable, but in Robert’s opinion slightly dull, man travelled with them, would be an understatement. He just couldn’t imagine it. Then again that would explain the dreams he’d had when he’d heard his voice. “You’re the only one who can stop them.”

“Well I don’t want to.” He was being childish and he could see the disapproving looks, he didn’t care. He was fed up with being told what to do. All his life people had told him what to do, his Dad, everyone. Or so he’d thought. Now he knows none of that happened, it’s just made up memories.

“That’s not your choice! You’re a Time Lord.”

“No I’m not. Not right now. I’m Robert Sugden and I’m in love with Aaron and I’m not leaving him!”

He’d walked out at that point, leaving them in the flat. He’d just carried on walking out of the village until he was up in the fields, alone.  He had to think, had to make a choice and as much as he wanted to ignore them, he could tell he didn’t have much time.

Gerry told him he’d remember this, this village, Aaron, once he opened the watch. Could he do it? Could he open the watch and risk losing Aaron, the man who’d made him feel alive again, who loved him despite his faults.

Even if he’d remember everything he wouldn’t be the same, he wouldn’t be the man Aaron loves. Could he put him in danger like that? He knew Aaron, if and it wasn’t guaranteed, he forgave him, if he understood, he’d want to go with him and Robert wanted that, he did, but it would put him in danger. He didn’t need to be a Time Lord to know that. He couldn’t, would never put him in danger, even if it meant breaking his heart.

No, he knew what he’d have to do if he made that decision. It was for the best.

Then again there was no if, there could only ever be one answer.

He’s cooking tea when he gets inside, as normal as it ever was, tea towel slung over the shoulder, wiping his forehead against the steam. He swallows thickly as he steps up behind him and wraps his arms around his waist.

“What did I do to deserve you?”

“Idiot. It’s almost done. Where’d you go?”

“Just a walk, getting some fresh air. No Gerry?” He knew there wasn’t, he’d passed them outside, hadn’t said anything, just glared.

“Haven’t seen him. He’s acting odd, don’t you think?”

“Can you tell the difference?” He dodges the playful punch to his arm and leaves Aaron to dish up when he’s shooed away. He feels sick, the watch in his pocket feels like a lead weight and he just wants a few minutes more of this life, before he has to break Aaron’s heart, and his own.

Aaron’s watching him strangely as they eat. Well Aaron’s eating, he’s just pushing the food around the plate, his stomach is in knots and he can’t swallow a single bite.

“My cooking’s not that bad, is it?” The joke falls flat when he doesn’t laugh. “Robert, what is it, there’s something wrong.”

“I…finish your tea, and I’ll explain.” He knows Aaron will put his fork down, knows him too well, and he’s right. Before he knows it they’re on the sofa and Aaron’s looking at him expectantly hand holding his tightly. He doesn’t even know where to start.

The words come out slowly, stuttered and quiet and Aaron listens without saying a word. The only movement in the room is Aaron’s hand pulling away, his own feeling cold.

“If you didn’t want me, you didn’t need to come up with something so elaborate. I deserve better than some fairytale. Just be honest with me!”

“Why would I make…how could I make something like this up? Look!” He shakes his head and digs in his pocket for the watch.

“What does your Grandfather’s watch have to do with anything?”

“It’s not. This holds all of my Time Lord memories, all of me. When I open it I’m not Robert anymore. The inscriptions…Gerry said they’re my language. What do I have to gain from making this up Aaron?”

“I…” He’s just staring at the watch, almost as if he wants to smash it into dust and he stuffs it back in his pocket.“This was all a lie?”

“No! No, listen to me. I didn’t know, you have to believe that. Ask Gerry, or Doug if you don’t believe me.”

“I still don’t get what they have to do with anything.”

“I told you, they travel with me, so they said.”

“And you’re trusting them, just like that?”

He was he supposed, but why would they lie, and then there were the dreams of things so fantastical that they had to be true. He tells Aaron all this and watches as he pulls away even further.

“You’d best go then. Save the planet or whatever it is.”

“I don’t…I don’t know what to do Aaron.”

“Seems to me you don’t have much choice.” He’s trying not to cry and Robert feels tears burning his own eyes. “Go Robert. Go and do whatever it is, if this is true, and then you can come home, to me.” This was it now, he was going to break his heart, the one thing he’d promised he would never do.

“I…can’t. That’s the other…” He blew out a breath. Now the moment was here he didn’t know if he could do it. It was the right thing to do, to keep him safe, but he wanted to keep him, hold on to him, selfish as it was. He couldn’t though. “The…what made me into…what took my memories, when I get them back…”

“Robert, just spit it out!”

“I’ll forget you.” It’s instant, the pain on his face and his mind is screaming at him to take it back, to take Aaron with him and damn the consequences. “I won’t remember any of this.”

Aaron doesn’t speak for the longest time, just sits there until he springs to his feet and Robert braces himself to be thrown out or something. He doesn’t though, just paces up and down.

“Why did you do this? Fall in love with me, keep coming back, if all you were going to do was leave like this?”

“Aaron I promise you, I didn’t know. I swear.”

“Everything, all of it was just…what, made up?” He has to look away, the pain on Aaron’s face is too much.

“You and me, it’s real. What I feel for you, that’s real.”

“I’m still going to lose you though, aren’t I? Whatever you say, you’re going.”

“I won’t. If you asked me, I’d stay.”

“No you wouldn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t have said anything in the first place. I can hardly tell you not to go. If all this is true, if there’s something out there like you said, I can’t tell you not to go save the world.” He lets out a harsh laugh. “Never thought I’d be sayin’ that to you.”

“I’m sorry.” He whispers as Aaron sits on the floor next to the sofa. He slips down beside him, hands clutching at his arm, savouring every minute he has left.

“So…time travel. Only you I guess.” The joke falls flat and he just holds on to him tighter.

“I’m scared.”

“Of what? You’re only going back to what you know.”

“But right now I don’t know what that is. All I know is this, us. I won’t have you.” Aaron turns then, pulls him closer for a kiss.

“You’re Robert Sugden, you can do anything…Well, except you’re not. Oh you know what I mean.”

“If I could, I’d stay.” It’s his choice, he knows, to leave him behind, but some of the stories Doug and Gerry had told him leave him in no doubt that it’s too dangerous. He won’t risk Aaron, no matter how much it hurts.

“Yeah.” He reaches up then, at the crack in his voice, kisses him softly. 

“When?”

“Soon, they said. Tomorrow morning.” He’s selfish, wants one more night with him.

*****

It’s dawn when he wakes from what little sleep he got. Aaron’s curled up beside him as close as it’s humanly possible to be. It’s like he knows and he’s blinking himself awake within minutes. He hears the sad sigh as he obviously remembers what is happening.

“I should get up. They’ll be here soon.” They hadn’t even wanted to wait that long.

“Five more minutes.” Oh he wants to, but it won’t make anything any easier.

“I have to…” He lets him go then, and Robert’s instantly shivering. Aaron’s up and out of the room before he can say anything else.

He follows him when he’s dressed, the watch again burning a hole in his pocket. Maybe he should’ve gone last night, it would’ve been easier, but he couldn’t do it.

“Do you want tea or…” Aaron asks as he walks down the stairs.

“Don’t.”

“Sorry, not really up on the etiquette and all that…” He stuffs his hands in his pockets and stares down at the floor.

“I’m sorry.” He goes to him, takes his hands, pulls him closer. “I wanted to spend my whole life with you.”

“It was real though? I did…we did…all of this…”

“Every bit. I’ve been here since…when I arrived that was when I changed. All of it, us, it’s real.” He rests his forehead against Aaron’s, he knows they don’t have long but he can’t make himself let go. It can’t be many seconds before there’s a knock on the door and he feels Aaron shudder. “I have to go.”

“Yeah. I’d say don’t forget me but…”

“I promised myself I wouldn’t hurt you again.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can’t compete with the whole universe, can I?”

“You do…if there was another way.”

“I know. Just…be careful, yeah?” He nods, the tears burning his eyes again and then Aaron’s kissing him, pouring everything into it. When they part he smiles.

“You know.”

“I know. Go.” Aaron nods as he speaks, and it’s alright. It has to be, he’s doing the right thing, for everyone. Aaron will be safe and live his life and Robert, well he’ll manage somehow.

He hugs him tight one more time and then he goes, doesn’t say a word to Gerry and Doug when he meets them at the door. This isn’t their fault but he can’t help but wish they’d left him alone.

*****

“It’s over now. You can go back, bring Aaron with us.” Gerry, sweet Gerry always trying. He’s thought about it, almost non stop, but there’s more out there, always will be.

“It’s never going to be safe, there’s always going to be something. He’s better off without me.” He looks up from the book he’s not reading. “Aren’t you and Doug supposed to be out.”

“Nah, it’s boring out there.”

“Gerry, just because we’re not running for our lives, doesn’t mean it’s boring. There’s a whole universe out there.”

They’d beaten the Daleks in the end, and he supposed it had all been worth it. Earth was safe, for now. It still hurt though, losing Aaron, maybe it always would, and the guilt of lying to him wasn’t getting any easier, even if he knew it was the right thing to do.

“You should at least give him the chance.” Gerry pipes up again. Days like this he wondered why he didn’t drop him off at the nearest stop.

“He’d say yes.”

“So why…?”

“Because where he is, he’s safe.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Excuse me?”

“He might be safe, but if he’s unhappy then what’s the point. I’m going to get some food if you want any.” He shook his head, but he’d set him wondering. If Aaron is unhappy, hasn’t he failed anyway? Aaron was anything but helpless, so maybe just maybe it was worth a try.

“Gerry!” He throws the book down. “Doug!”

*****

He’s knocked on the door before it occurs to him that Aaron might have found someone else. After all it’s been over a year, his timing was still a bit off. Too late now though, he can see Aaron’s silhouette through the glass and then he’s there, unchanged, looking as good as ever.

“Hi.” He’s silent, and he’s not sure if that’s better or worse than a slap or something. “Say something then?”

“What are you doing here?” Is all he says in the end, walking away from the door. Robert follows, feeling out of place. “Aren’t you supposed to have forgotten about me?”

“I…” Now he’s here, he’s out of words. “I lied. I only did it to keep you out of harm’s way. I knew you wouldn’t let me leave alone and I want you safe. Always.”

“That wasn’t your decision to make Robert! Is it still Robert?”

“To you? Always. I did what I thought was right. I’m sorry but I’d do it again.”

“So why come back?” He’s all folded arms and stern faced and he’s beginning to think this was a waste of time.

“Because I love you, that didn’t change. I realised that I should let you decide. That’s if..if there’s not…if you haven’t.”

“There’s no one. Of course there isn’t.” He’s moving finally, closer. “What took so long then?”

“I tried to get back as close as I could, but, well she’s still a little put out that I left for so long.”

“She?” He knows that tone and he shivers. It’s not Aaron’s fault, he doesn’t know.

“The TARDIS.” He’d told him the basics before he left but he couldn’t expect Aaron to get it. No one really did until they were introduced. “I can explain…if you want to come with me.”

“To your spaceship?”

“It’s not a space…” He stops seeing Aaron’s grin. “Ha ha. I really am sorry. I aimed for a week to be safe but…well…”

“And I’m supposed to just come with you, just like that.” He’s got his arms folded and that look on his face, and he can’t work out his mood.

“Well…if you don’t want to…” He doesn’t know how to convince him, but he doesn’t know if he can leave him behind again. “I guess I’ll go.”

“Still an idiot then?” He grabs his arm, pulling him back and now he’s smiling. “You fixed it, whatever it was?”

“Yeah, well, actually it was Gerry. Turns out he’s really not as stupid as he looks.” Aaron laughs finally.

“So if I come with you, it’s safe…if you’ve come back?”

“For now. It won’t always be, and if you don’t want to…I can’t always protect everyone.”

“I’m capable of taking care of myself. So what changed? Why now?”

“I was miserable and guessed maybe you were too.”

“And what about you? When you have to go off again, save the planet or whatever it is? Will you be safe?” He bites his lip, wants to lie, doesn’t want Aaron to say he’s not coming, but he won’t, not again.

“Can’t promise that. You know I can’t.”

“I don’t know anything really, do I?”

“You know the important stuff. I’m a Time Lord, I travel in time and space. The rest you’ll pick up as we go. Oh and I’ll give you this one for nothing…might swing your decision one way or another…I’m over 900 years old.”

Aaron doesn’t say anything, his face is blank and maybe it’s too much, maybe he’s blown it for good.

“Hmm, better brush up on my old man jokes.” Robert just stares at him. “What? If I believe everything else you told me, why wouldn’t I believe that?”

“I…”

‘I don’t care. About any of that. Which I would have told you back then if you’d given me the chance. If…I lost you and it hurt, more than I imagined it ever could. So, I don’t care about the danger, your age, none of it, because I get to be with you again.”

“So it’s a yes?”

“Hmm. Sounds like you need someone to keep you out of trouble to me.” With that he’s kissing him and all Robert can do is cling to him.

It doesn’t take long for Aaron to pack a bag, and text his Mum to say he’s going away for a bit. Apparently she’ll be glad, says he’s moping too much, which he denies. Robert tries telling him he doesn’t need much stuff, that he can bring him back whenever he wants.

“Judging by how long it took for you to come back, do you think I trust your driving?” Is the only response he got.

Then he was leading him into the garden, nervous suddenly. Aaron scoffs when he sees the TARDIS, and Robert can feel her sulking almost immediately.

“Come on.”

“Robert, there’s no way…Doug and Gerry are in there?” He won’t ever tire of that look no matter how old he gets, which reminds him, that’s something else Aaron doesn’t know.

“Trust me.” He unlocks the door, pausing when Aaron’s hand cover his.

“You still look the same.” Of all the things he’d thought he’d say, that wasn’t it. 

“Yeah, it was just my memories, my DNA and that which changed, not my looks. I’m still me.” Doug says he’s more cocky now but it’s probably best not to mention that to Aaron just yet.

“I thought you’d maybe get rid of those damn shirts…not very space-y, are they?”

“Oh I see how it’s going to be. If you’re good I’ll show you the wardrobe and you can comment on all my clothes.”

He did used to dress differently but he’d kept his style, probably a way of keeping Aaron close. Not to mention he did look fine in that long grey coat, even if he does say so himself.

“Good, because that shirt…no.”

“Fine. Are you ready?” He pushes open the door and he hears them straight away, singing, and he rolls his eyes. Then he realises Aaron isn’t behind him and he turns back. “Come on.”

He still doesn’t move so he goes back to the doors, holding on to both of them, smiling. It never gets old. “Bigger on the inside, remember?”

“Yeah. I mean…you told me, but…” He smiles and tugs him gently inside, keeping hold of his hand.

“Ignore Doug and Gerry singing. I’d get them to stop, but she likes it.”

“She?” There’s no suspicion this time, only curiosity.

“Yeah. I told you, the TARDIS.” Aaron still looks slightly dumbfounded. “I’ll explain everything.” He kisses him, holding him close. “So where do you want to go first? Anywhere you like.” He was almost shaking with excitement and happiness, and he feels like jumping up and down like a small child.

“Well you never did take me to Barcelona.” He just laughs at Aaron’s shrug.

“Barcelona it is then. You’re gonna love this.”

“Why are you laughing? Robert? Robert!”

[lastcenturykindagirl]

AOS 5.18 SPOILERS

This show has gotten predictably awful

Talbot's brainwashing is up and running and he's wandering through the base on a mission and looking for weapons.

He is playing out some kind of scenario in his head and looking at the monitors to see where everyone is on the base.

He spots Robin and Polly and says "Complete the mission."

Mack finds him and he gets startled and then starts covering up his tracks and Mack offers to support him if he ever wants to talk. 😞

Shitz is working on the machine for Ruby. It's the scene from the Sneak Peek. Ruby ships F/S. DYING!

Kid Von Strucker is a pretty terrible actor, just sayin'.

Ruby has the Gravitonium.

Shitz says he can't choose the end of the world over Simmons. Which probably means that selfless, kind people like Daisy and Coulson will have to.

Elena has escaped but is in pain and traumatized and passes out.

Coulson and May, Coulson trying to talk to her and May saying she said what she had to there's a mission, so she doesn't want to hear what he has to say.

Deke being an asshole overplaying his (fake) role. Daisy reviewing the mission, Daisy deciding to sideline Coulson and he's not happy about it but isn't reacting, but you're getting the impression because of the way it's shot that May and Daisy are in agreement about this. Deke trying to get close to Daisy again and join the mission, and she blows him off and tells him to stay behind.

Coulson compliments Daisy on her leadership style and she makes a joke about Professor Coulson in the Framework, and he says he's giving her extra credit, and she mentions the mutiny and they kind of side step it, Coulson says "Give 'em hell" and Daisy smiles kind of shy/proudly, they're such muffins.

Creel is going crazy hearing the voices in his head and Hale discovers who is inside the Gravitonium.  He says, "Who cares about her, what about me?" And he turns into the same substance as the wall, smashing his head against it saying, "They want out! Let them out!" This reminds me a lot of Writing on the Wall.

Mack working and then Coulson and Deke come in and talk about changing the future and they're bringing up Deke "having it bad" and being in love with Daisy. Now they've got Coulson saying it. Coulson says Daisy "most definitely" hates him.

Gross now they're all relating their relationship problems together.  Ugh. I can't believe they're doing this. Deke is giving Coulson and Mack relationship advice.

Daisy says she's glad to play offence and have May with her, and May turns down a gun and says she wants to hit stuff, then Daisy asks if she wants to talk and she says she doesn't. Obviously, it's about Coulson.

Daisy and May break into Hale's base and Daisy destroys LMDs and May is fighting again. They beat up everyone together and find Hale and Hale tells them all to stand down.  Hale surrenders and tells them where Ruby and F/S are and that they have to stop her.

F/S stalling and Ruby and Kid Von Strucker calling them out. Kid mentions SHIELD torturing him again and he remembers F/S. Ruby beats the crap out of Shitz. She says next time it'll be Simmons and she wont use her fists.

Elena struggling with her arms again and shooting up a LMD.

Polly finds Talbot looking at Robin's drawings and seeing a lot of red and says "Red Rum". He's in their room. Polly wants to know why he's there, he starts talking about his son.  Polly is being nice to him, and he's trying to find out how Robin sees the future. Robin won't look at him. Then he's says, "I'm Glen." "She says, you're the general." And says she's drawn him.

Daisy and May report in, Coulson wants to know how Creel is doing, Daisy tells them they're going after Ruby, fills them in, Coulson doesn't want her to put herself at risk. She says that's why she's leading. Deke tries to do his, "I care about you bit" UGH!!!  Coulson gets the news he's not in charge now. Deke says something stupid and Mack tells him to shut up.

Glenn attacks Polly after looking at Robin's drawings and puts her in a sleeper hold.  Talbot takes Robin and Robin says she knew it would happen.

Hale trying to suck up to Daisy and asking her to not hurt Ruby. Daisy actually suggests that Ruby could be a SHIELD agent after chopping off Elena's arms and says it's not her fault she's evil. LOL. Whatever, show. Hope she's lying to get Hale on their side.

Ruby and Kid VS find out SHIELD arrived and F/S fixed Whitehall's machine just in time. F/S say they can't move the Gravitonium, it's too unpredictable.

More of Deke hanging out with Mack and Coulson. Coulson notices that Robin's door is open and they go inside and find Polly down. Mack says Talbot took Polly. Coulson says he missed Talbot getting brainwashed, he should've known.

Ruby and Kid VS making out before she goes in the machine while F/S get to watch for once LOL. Hope they're Deke's grandparents, too!

Ruby inside the machine and screaming her lungs out Kid VS pulling a gun and freaking out. Hale comes in with May and Daisy and says it's not the machine. It's the Gravitonium.

Ruby opens her eyes and floats out of the machine.  She's basically Graviton now, I think? She can hear the voices in her head and they control her and make her crush Kid VS's head like paper with her powers. SICK.

Ruby is freaking out and can't control her powers. She wants the voices out of her head. She attacks F/S for lying to her and repeats Hall saying "Experimentation without thought or consequence"!  So that's the level of judgement Shitz is getting. Are they really expecting us to feel sorry for HYDRA people?

Coulson finds Talbot with Robin and then Coulson tries to talk him down, tells him Hale programmed him. Coulson calls Talbot his friend and Mack tells him to think about his son and let Robin go. Coulson tells him to fight the programming and Talbot says he can't and wants to kill himself.

Daisy tries to reason with Ruby and tells her she's been through this too, and then she uses her powers on Daisy. She says "Everything powerful is dangerous” quoting Quinn.

The rest of the team runs (on Daisy’s orders) and Elena finds them, and Elena goes back for Daisy and looks mighty judgmental of them.

Coulson tells Talbot to turn the gun on him, that his compliance will be rewarded and he gets confused and turns the gun on Coulson and then Mack ICES him.

Ruby tells Daisy she's more than she will ever be. Daisy says she's not here to fight. Ruby wants to crush Daisy and starts to hurt her. Hale tells her to stop. She says Daisy is on her side. Hale tells Ruby she is not a mistake, HYDRA mother/daughter moment.

Elena find them and says Ruby is the Destroyer of Worlds. Ruby is losing control and Elena kills her, using her own weapon, that sliced her arms off. Hale loses it and then Ruby's body rises up and it releases a wave of energy out of her body that knocks them all out.

The team comes back to find Daisy waking up from being unconscious and asks what happens and how Hale got away. Daisy accuses Elena of killing Ruby just when she was getting her under control, and Elena says, "No, I just saved the world." She obviously did not.

The tag is the Confederacy and Hale reporting in, wanting to meet with Quovas. She says she found what they are looking for and SHIELD has it. Hale says she has no reason to stop Quovas from killing SHIELD.

[from-the-clouds]

Warmth - A Collins/Reader Imagine

Requested by multiple anons!

Summary: The reader helps her father and brother save the soldiers at Dunkirk, but end up saving a pilots along the way.

Word Count: 1734

Warnings: Mentions of death.

Disclaimer: Collins is my faveee :) I had multiple prompts to do something like this, so I figured I’d combine them into one. Please let me know what ya think, and keep sending in requests!

The minute Y/N watched the pilot’s spitfire crash into the ocean, she felt her heart drop. There was someone in there, and she may have just witnessed death for the first time. It may be nothing compared to some of the things the men they were going to save had seen, but for her, this was a first.

She heard her brother, Peter, arguing with her father over whether the fallen spitfire was worth going after.

“He could be alive!” the sound of her own voice startled her, she thought about her older brother and her stomach clenched with anxiety. He could be alive.

Against Peter’s cautions, her father steered the boat towards the slowly sinking plane, coming in close enough so that she could see the pilot inside, very much alive, struggling to free himself from the cockpit.

“He’s trapped!” Peter observed, and she searched frantically around her for something that could help. She found a wooden board and Peter took it out of her hands, smashing on the exposed glass of the cockpit before finally, finally, it shattered and the pilot was able to free himself.

His head emerged from the water, and he shook it one, flicking his blonde hair out of his eyes before looking up at her and her brother. “Afternoon,” he said calmly, though he was breathing heavily.

She held her hand out to him, and he took it as she and Peter helped him on board. “Thank you,” he said, nodding at Y/N and Peter.

“Can I get you some tea?” she asked, regarding him. She could see now how handsome he was, messy blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, dimples that appeared in his cheeks only when he spoke. His tailored uniform made him look quite put together, despite the fact that he was absolutely drenched. He nodded, slumping down against the inside of the deck, the exhaustion finally hitting him.

She poured some hot water from the kettle into a small cup and grabbed a blanket for good measure. It wasn’t unreasonably cold out but she couldn’t imagine what he was feeling, since he was drenched. He appeared to already have a lifejacket.

Y/N brought the tea to him and he accepted it graciously. She unfolded the blanket and settled it around his shoulders. Her cheeks burned under his gaze, as he didn’t say anything to her, just observed. She spoke quickly.

“What’s your name?” She asked, the fill the empty air. Peter was down with George, and their father seemed focused on the minesweeper filled with men that was close by.

“Collins,” he answered. “And yours?”

“Y/N,” you answered.“Collins….That’s your first name?”

“Jack,” he said. “Everyone calls me Collins.”

She noticed his accent, which differed from the one she was familiar with. “You aren’t from England, are you?”

He shook his head. “No...‘m Scottish.”

Y/N smirked. “I can hear that.”

“What’s a lass like you doing all the way out here tryin’ to save us?” he asked, the corner of his mouth turning up in a playful smirk.

She smiled easily.  “I’m helping my father. My brother was in the Air Force…..died a few weeks into the war. Felt like it was the right thing to do….” She felt her smile fade slightly, and so did his.

He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to hear that. Thanks for the tea….and the blanket.”

She nodded, and retreated to help her brother, who was tending to George.

The past few hours had been treacherous. The minesweeper had been hit, spilling oil into the ocean as Y/N, her father and brother fought to save as many men from the wreckage as possible, but when the German plane was hit, crashing into the ocean, they had to flee. The screams of the men caught in the oil and fire would haunt her forever.

George had passed away quietly, despite Y/N’s brother’s efforts to save him. She hadn’t known George all that well, but she felt her brother’s pain after losing his closest friend.

When night fell, the boat grew quiet, and the chill of the evening set in. Her father had went below deck to rest, and she sat at the stern of the ship watching the churning water below her, shivering uncontrollably. It didn’t seem all that cold at first, and it could have been worse, but between the spray of the ocean and the chilly nature of the evening, she couldn’t keep her teeth from chattering.

Collins, the pilot from before who had mostly kept to himself, emerged from below deck, and stepped over sleeping soldiers and gestured to the space next to her. She nodded, and he sat next to her silently, looking up at the sky and gulping in the fresh air. There was a shyness about him, but she found his reticence refreshing. She turned away from him, facing the water, until he broke the silence.

“Here,” she turned to find him offering him the thick wool blanket from earlier. Her first instinct was to grab it, wrap it around her shoulders and curl up in a corner of the boat, however, she knew that’d be wrong.

“I’m alright really, but thank you. You need it more than I do,” she shook her head.

“I could hear ya teeth chatterin’ from all the way below deck. Please. ‘S not right to let a lassie sit out alone in the cold and do nothin’ about it.”

“Thank you, but I’ll be okay. It’s not too bad, I promise,” she said, her reserve running low. His offer was tempting.

“Don’t know if you should lie ta me like that,” he raised his eyebrows. “Ya saved my life, it’s the least I could do.”

Y/N sighed, shaking her head. “I promise I’m okay.”

“You’re awfully stubborn, has anyone ever told ya that?” he nudged her with his elbow.

“Well…..you wouldn’t be the first,” she smiled, a part of her longing to lean into the touch.

“Doesn’t surprise me…” he said softly. “Why don’t we share? Then we both stay warm. You can’t refuse that, can you?” If she didn’t know any better, she’d think he was flirting with her. But that wouldn’t be appropriate...would it?

He put the blanket back over his shoulders and held out his arm. Jack was right, she couldn’t refuse this. Carefully, she scooted close to him and huddled under the blanket. He adjusted the blanket over her shoulder, then left his arm around her, pulling her against his side. It took a few moments for her teeth to finally stop chattering and her shivering to stop. He rubbed her arm and pulled her tighter to him, which startled her slightly.

“Sorry,” he apologized, and she watched his cheeks flush slightly. “You’re the prettiest thing I’ve seen in awhile, and I’m not going to let you go just yet,” his dimples made an appearance as he gave her a cheeky grin.

Part of her was having a hard time believing any of this was real. She couldn’t remember the last time a boy, let alone a man, look at her the way Jack was, and she felt her cheeks burning again. Y/N stared into his blue eyes for a long moment before tucking her head against his shoulder. “Thank you, Jack.” she murmured.

She woke up curled up against him, her arm numb and tingling, and saw that he was still asleep, his head resting on hers. Balling up her side of the blanket, she carefully tucked it against his shoulder. Jack stirred slightly, but settled back down, still asleep. Dawn had broken, and just as Y/N removed herself from the pilot's side, her father came up from below deck to steer the ship to the docks ahead. They were home.

The other soldiers on the plane were growing restless as they saw the shoreline. They pulled into the docks and they began piling off, anxious to be on land. George’s body was carried off as Peter watched. She put her hand on her brother’s shoulder, his countenance unwavering, like her father’s. But he was clearly upset, she could feel it.

The boat was all but empty, and Y/N felt her heart drop. Jack had left without saying goodbye. She jumped onto the dock, looking towards the land, but didn’t see the navy uniform among the sea of soldiers. Maybe it was stupid, but she sighed, disappointed.

“Lookin’ for someone?” A familiar voice sounded from behind. She turned to find Jack behind her, a easy smile on his face, until a soldier bumped into him, taking in his Air Force uniform.

“Where the hell were you?” the man asked, his voice an annoyed growl. Without waiting for a response, the soldier stalked off. Jack’s eyes dimmed as he watched the man retreat.

“They knew where you were, Jack,” Y/N said softly, reaching out and squeezing his arm. He looked down at her, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. ““I thought I wouldn’t get to say goodbye,” she said.

“I wouldn’t leave ya without sayin’ goodbye,” he answered, his hands rising to rest on her shoulders gently. “You helped me get home….well...I’m almost there at least.”

It seemed foolish that she suddenly felt so much for a man she’d known less than 24 hours. But there was something familiar about him, she felt she’d known him so much longer. He took a piece of paper from the front pocket of his shirt and pressed it into her hand. “Will you write to me?” he asked, and though he kept his tone light, she could see the sincerity in his eyes. “Please, I don’t have a lassie of my own, I don’t hear from anyone except for my parents.”

She nodded. “No question, Jack. Of course I’ll write to you,” she gripped the paper firmly. “I promise.”

He smiled, but the moment was interrupted by the train blowing its horn in the distance. “I can’t miss the train. I’ll see you again someday. ‘M sure of it.”

“Stay safe, Jack,” she squeezed his hand that had fallen from her shoulder.

He nodded, leaning forward, pressing a kiss to your forehead before pulling away. Even though she didn’t know the next time she’d see him, she knew this wasn’t goodbye.

[therainroguefanfiction]

🔥 ℝise Ⱥbove I̾t ◈ Chapter 008 [Zero-Pointer]

📑 Table of Contents | ◂Backward

Word Count: 1,938 ☁

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

〈“Skeleton filled with adrenaline. How can I know that I got what it takes? When I’ve come so far, through the rain, bear the pain.” Manafest, “No Plan B”〉

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

The bus stopped in front of a huge stone wall and the students filed off of the vehicle. I had glanced around the bus when I first boarded it, but that pretentious douchebag was nowhere to be found. I feel sorry for whoever gets that guy.

“Watch where you’re going, loser!”

I glanced over, seeing a boy sitting on the ground, obviously having been pushed by the boy standing over him, face twisted in anger.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.”

The angry boy had a thick horn jutting out from above his right eye, curling up and over his head toward the left. He grabbed the front of the boy’s shirt, pulling him up and off the ground. “Didn’t see me, huh?! You sayin’ you’re better than me, shithead?!”

“That’s not what I -” Ponytail tried to explain, but he was cut off by a third boy with a smug face.

“So what if he is? Maybe you shouldn’t be such a weakling.” Smug shrugged.

Horn boy threw Ponytail to the side, right into me. I grunted at the sudden impact, my arms instinctively wrapping around him as I glared at Horn boy. He rushed at Smug, aiming a punch to his face, but Smug easily dodged it and stuck his foot out. Horn fell to the ground with a loud thud and Smug started to laugh loudly.

“Sorry about that,” Ponytail pulled himself away from me, offering me an awkward smile. “Thanks for catching me.”

I hummed, keeping my eyes on the two. “Welcome,”

“Examinee number 6969!” Cockatiel’s voice reached the group, clear as day as he stood atop a large pillar. “For striking a student and attempting to strike another, you have been disqualified!”

“Wh-What?! That’s bullshit!”

Smug boy laughed maniacally, tilting his head back as he held his arms out on either side of him. “You should leave before you embarrass yourself even more, loser.”

Ponytail sweatdropped. “I guess those kinds of people want to be heroes, too…”

Man, what’s with these people? I sighed, turning my back to the three as I got closer to the large gate.

“Ah, wait a minute!”

I glanced back at the black-haired boy, eyebrow raised.

“My name is Hiryuu Rin.”

Hmm, he didn’t ask for my name in return, so I could technically walk away without giving it, but he seemed like a nice enough guy, so I gave it to him. He smiled brightly at my answer.

“Right, with that out of the way, let’s start!” Cockatiel screamed. “Get moving! There are no countdowns in battle! Run, run, run, listeners! You’re wasting time here!”

The group took off through the now open gate, attacking robots as soon as they saw them. As soon as I made it through the gate, I veered off to the left down an alley, trying to put some distance between myself and the others. I wasn’t fond of crowds to begin with, especially when that crowd consisted of emotional teenagers with insane superpowers battling over robots.

To be honest, I’m kinda impressed by this damn school’s budget. This city was a perfect replica. Was it just the outside, though? Or had they gone all the way and duplicated the inside of the buildings too? My eyes scanned the shops, locking onto a Taco joint at the end of the block. With a grin, I started to run in that direction, only to come to a dead stop when a one-point robot busted through the front of the shop, heading straight for me.

“You son of a bitch,” I growled, fists clenching at my sides. I could feel my body start to heat up as steam rose around me. The robot tried to grab me but I crouched down, launching myself at it. My fist engulfed itself in flames before smashing through its middle section, severing it in half.

Now I’m getting heated up!

I grinned as I ran forward, jumping up and slamming my feet into a two-pointer. Before I could move away, a three-pointed grabbed me from behind, lifting me off the ground with both of its clawed hands. I sent steady heat throughout my body, my skin starting to glow red as it heated up. The metal holding me started to melt and I forced my arms away from my sides, breaking free from the hold. I swept my leg back, knocking it off balance before I slammed my fist into its head.

The city started to shake violently and a scream ripped through the air. I followed the sound, emerging from between two skyscrapers. My eyes widened at the sight. “Holy taco-making satan…”

The zero-point robot had made its appearance, towering far above the skyscrapers. Its tank treads were destroying everything in its path as it crawled through the city. Students were running in the opposite direction, not wanting to attempt to take down a strong opponent worth no points. I knew that was the smart thing to do, but…

It pulled back its fist, slamming it against the road. The earth shook as the cement shattered, a violent wind whipping around me. Debri from the buildings were falling to the ground as it forced its way through the street that was far too small for its large frame.

“Less than two minutes remaining!!”

Damn it, I need to focus on getting more points, but I want to fight that fucking thing. I want to see if I’m strong enough to take it down. My body started to shake as my skin heated up. With clenched fists, I pushed off the ground, running straight for the monstrous robot. It noticed me, slamming its palm down like I was a roach to be squashed. I dodged and jumped onto its hand, running up the length of its metal arm. It lifted its other hand, trying to swipe me off.

Adrenaline was pumping through my body, urging me forward. All I wanted was to destroy this fucking robot, to prove to myself and Toshi and Aizawa and every fucking bitch at U.A. that I could control my power.

I jumped up over his head, bringing my hands together to form a single fist. All of my focus went into my hands and I yelled out, bringing them down on top of its head. The metal dented inward, creaking and groaning, but it was still moving. It swatted me to the side, slamming me into the roof of a nearby building. Its head was sparking, twitching like a drug addict without its fix.

I pulled myself to my feet, taking a deep breath as I prepared myself for what I was about to do. My eyes snapped open.

Limit release!

My shirt shattered into dust, replaced by a black bikini top, the back strings reaching down to my ankles. I honestly hate this form with a passion. When I first discovered I could do this, I wondered if I was having a nightmare in a fucking ecchi anime. Still, it lets me use a greater amount of power, and that’s all that matters.

Power surged through my body so quickly that I had to clench my teeth. Damn it, I have to focus! I shook my head and growled, cocking my arm back as flames danced across my knuckles. “Die, you bastard!!” I screamed as I rushed forward, slamming my fist against its face. It exploded, setting off a chain reaction of explosions down its body as it fell backward.

I… I fucking did it! I grinned widely. I fucking did i –

My body froze as my heart beat painfully through my entire body at once. I could feel it at the edge of my mind, clawing at my insides. I was losing control again.

Takeshi Hironaka flashed through my mind.

No no no no! I refuse to repeat my mistakes! I fucking refuse!

The pendant around my neck started to glow black, the metal ice cold against my burning skin. The cold shot through my body and I clenched my teeth as pain filled my mind.

The shattered pieces of my shirt returned as my power drained. I became aware of the wind whipping around my body roughly as I fell toward the ground. It pushed against my back as if trying to save me from what was about to happen. I stared up at the bright blue sky, so clear and beautiful.

I needed to do something, but my body wasn’t listening to me. I had used too much power and my body was pissed off. All I wanted to do was think about Gramps, remember all the times we spent together.

Damn. Toshi and Aizawa are gonna be pretty pissed off if I survive this fall.

“I’ve got you!”

My back hit against something solid and I groaned in pain. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad as I had expected, but it still knocked the air out of me. I felt arms around my waist and I let my head fall to the side, seeing the pained expression of Rin Hiryuu. He caught me? How the fuck did he not get hurt from that? “Are you okay, bro?”

He chuckled. “You just took that thing down by yourself and you’re asking me if I’m okay?” He held up one of his arms. It was a bright green, covered in scales. “My quirk lets me cover my body with strong scales, like a suit of armor.”

I grunted, pulling myself away from him. My legs are fucking shaking and my head is killing me.

“Can you stand?” he asked, holding his hands out for me. They were back to normal.

I lifted my heel, slamming it against the ground with a scowl. Well, I can move my legs, that’s a plus, I guess. I took his hands and he easily pulled me up, grip tightening as he tried to steady me.

“Time’s up!!” Cockatiel screamed, his voice accompanied by a loud siren that made me wince.

Rin pulled one of my arms around his neck, helping me away from the flaming wreckage of the zero-pointer. Several students had gathered around, staring at me with a mix of fear and amazement. Fucks sake, stop fucking staring at me!

“Very nice. Good work all around. You’re heroes in my eyes, every one of you!” Recovery Girl came walking through the crowd of students, her cane in one hand while the other dug around in her coat pocket. She pulled out a handful of gummies and handing it to the closest student, which happened to be the smug little shit from earlier.

He said nothing as she continued through the crowd.

“Don’t eat them all at once, okay?” She continued to hand them out as she passed by. Just how many of them fucking things does she have in that pocket? She finally reached me, tilting her head back to look up at me. “You look quite worse for the wear, deary. Gimme some sugar~”

“Wait, no no, I’m fine, real -”

But she grabbed my shirt and yanked me down, her lips pressing against my cheek. Green light surrounded my body as the various scrapes and bruises faded from my body. The soreness in my body was gone, but my exhausted rose as a price. I groaned tiredly as my body slumped against Rin. He didn’t complain, he just tightened his grip so I wouldn’t fall.

“Alright, you’ll be fine now. Anyone else injured?”

Damned old bat, I said I was fine! Ugh, I think I’m gonna take a month-long nap after this. Her quirk sucks balls, I’d rather heal on my own time.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

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[shamelessly4shameless-blog]

Nickovich pt. 7

“Your fuckin’ what?”

Mickey looks slowly at Trevor and then back to Ian and gives a small humourless snort, tongue firmly in his cheek, scratching the back of his neck.

“My …uh ... boyfriend?”

Trevor lifts the word in a question, glancing between the two men.

“Do you … do you know each other?”

Mickey raises his eyebrows at Ian, who is completely frozen to the spot and doesn’t seem to have even heard Trevor’s question. When Ian doesn’t speak Mickey nods to himself and then grins brightly at Trevor, a smile that is a menacing as it is beautiful.

“Here, take your fuckin’ shirt and shove it up your fuckin’ ass.”

Mickey tugs the too small tee over his head, balls it up and shoves it into Trevor’s arms, hard. Trevor’s eyes flick to the poorly done tattoo on Mickey’s chest and flare wide.

“What the fuck?”

“Oh! This? Don’t worry man, won’t be there long. I can get that shit covered real quick.”

Mickey is still smiling but it’s getting more stretched and Nicky takes a deep breath before putting herself between the two men.

“Hey, put your shirt on. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Yeah? You fuckin’ quittin’ your job already?”

Mickey looks down at her, eyes wild and slightly unfocussed but not yet glassy and Nicky is willing him to hold it together until they get outside. It will be easier on his pride if he can hold it together until they are away from the redhead.

“Yeah, man. Fuck this freak show, huh?”

Nicky nudges the crushed shirt in his fist and Mickey quickly tugs it over his head. Ian is still rooted to the spot, his jaw clenched so hard that Mickey can see the muscles standing out starkly against the pale skin. Mickey shakes his head at him. He’s at a loss for words too. He doesn’t mind that Ian has been fucking other dudes … okay, he does mind, but it’s not exactly a shock. But a boyfriend? A fuckin’ committed relationship? Yeah, he minds that. He minds that very fucking much.

Trevor begins to reach out to touch Mickey’s shoulder, offer some sort of comfort or maybe an apology, but as his fingers linger close enough to feel the frantic heat pouring off of the older man, Mickey’s hand comes up and catches his wrist, twisting it slightly in a way that sends shudders of diluted pain up and down Trevor’s entire arm.

“Touch me again, and it will be the last time you use this fuckin’ hand. Do you hear me?”

Mickey’s voice is completely calm, as if he is simply asking a passing stranger for the time. Trevor nods and Mickey lets him go. A little voice at the back of his mind is telling him he cannot afford any trouble. He cannot make a scene, cannot make a fuss. Blend in, mingle, and escape.

“Abe? C’mon. Let’s just go.”

Nicky risks a hand on his forearm and Mickey nods curtly.

“Fuck you, Gallagher.”

He snaps, barging Ian with his shoulder, just for the satisfaction of knocking the fucker a little off balance to make up for the chaos he has just shoved Mickey into.

The shock of the contact seems to break the stupor because Ian lunges clumsily after Mickey, hand outstretched, a strangled noise coming from the back of his throat.

“Mickey …”

Mickey half turns but Nicky gets there first and pushes Ian’s hand away firmly.

“No. Not now. You got a phone, use it! Later.”

She adds giving him a stern look that reminds him of Fiona and stops him shoving her aside to get to Mickey, who seems to consider Nicky more than able to deal with the one again mute Gallagher and is resolutely headed down the steps and out the building.

*

“GOD DAMN … HIM? FUCKIN’ CURLY FUCKIN’ FUCK!”

Nicky flinches as another bottle smashes against the wall and sighs, taking a healthy bite out of her burrito. The insults have not been the most creative and this latest is one of the worst but that’s fine. Nicky has been guarding his phone, after wrestling it away from him before he could smash it, and it has rung three times. Apparently, this Ian guy likes short men and drama because anyone with an ounce of sense would know that ‘later’ meant hours, not minutes.

The abandoned building is clearly familiar to Abe/Mick. He went there without hesitation and there are old beer cans and bottles littered around as well as a decent amount of graffiti. Beside Nicky’s head there is a love heart with ‘I’ on one side and ‘M’ on the other and she’s not a gambling woman but if she was …

“He couldn’t wait even two years? Said he’d wait eight and couldn’t fuckin’ manage two!”

“A person’s gotta fuck, Abe. You know that.”

“Quit calling me that. You heard him and don’t pretend you didn’t. It’s Mickey.”

“Ha! Mickey and Nicky. What a hoot!”

Nicky toasts him with her can of beer and Mickey huffs out an impatient breath.

“This a fuckin’ joke to you?”

“No but are you sayin’ you never banged anyone in the joint?”

“Course I did but they didn’t mean anything!”

“Maybe a boyfriend doesn’t mean anything to Ian?”

Nicky shrugs and then seeing the murderous look on Mickey’s face adds

“Not that you didn’t mean anything but you seem to think the term ‘boyfriend’ is for life. For some people it is, but maybe not for him. Maybe for him it’s just what you call the person you’re banging after a while.”

“Like that fuckin’ paki queerbo Kash. That fucker was married with a couple damn kids and Ian still called him his boyfriend.”

Mickey wrinkles his nose at the thought of that old pervert and grabs another beer

“Ugh. Again with the race hate and the homophobia – I know you’re upset but do you have to?”

“What the fuck does it matter?”

“It matters because it makes you sound like an ignorant asshole.”

“Like I give a shit.”

Mickey mumbles but looks vaguely abashed and stops smashing shit, choosing instead to sit down next to Nicky who scowls at him but moves on

“Anyway weren’t you married with a kid?”

“Yeah but that was while me and Ian were together, not before, and I’m not twenty years older than him and I wasn’t his boss which made it even fuckin’ creepier that Kash started that shit.”

Mickey lists these apparent wins off on his fingers and Nicky nods, deciding it is a knot that is not really worth unpicking. They sit quietly for a couple of minutes both thinking.

“It took me fuckin’ years to call him my boyfriend.”

Mickey says softly, playing with the ring on his beer can, spinning it until it comes away in his hand.

“It’s a bigger deal for you maybe. I bet he was ready a lot quicker, huh?”

“Yeah, no, I mean, he did want to and all … I don’t fuckin’ know.”

Mickey does know. He knows how badly Ian wanted to call him his boyfriend for all that time before Mickey was able to do it. Asshole has always loved labeling shit. Always wanting everything to fit into a nice little box.

“Still shouldn’t fuckin’ have a boyfriend out here though.”

“Maybe or maybe not. Eight years is a long time to wait, even if you love someone.”

“Fuck love.”

Mickey snaps and drains his can, tossing it across the room with a hollow rattle.

“He’s calling again.”

Nicky glances at the burner phone by her side and Mickey looks across but then hastily looks away again, frowning.

“You want me to tell him to fuck off or come over?”

“Just … leave it. I don’t need to hear him tell me it’s over.”

“Might not be you he’s over with.”

Nicky shrugs and holds the phone out to Mickey. They watch it until it stops vibrating and then Nicky places it by her side again.

“He won’t come with me.”

Mickey’s voice is small but firm and Nicky pats his leg reassuringly

“He might. You have come this far. You might as well hear what he has to say.”

Mickey worries at his thumbnail with his teeth and glances over at Nicky as the phone vibrates again.

“Go ahead. I’ll give you some space.”

She hands it over and stands up, wondering if the place will still be in a similar state of disrepair or completely fucking destroyed by the time she gets back.

*

“Mick?”

“Yeah.”

“…”

“What the fuck do y…”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Don’t be a dick.”

“No, seriously. What are you sorry for? Cheatin’ on me or …”

“I wasn’t … I don’t know. I’m just sorry, okay?”

“What did you tell him about me?”

“That it’s complicated.”

“Oh fu…”

“And that I love you.”

“…”

“Mickey?”

“What?”

“Did you hear me?”

“Yeah.”

“Well are you gonna say it back?”

“No.”

“What the fuck, Mickey?”

“You wanna meet or what?”

“Where?”

“I’ll call you back.”

*

Nicky pokes her head around the doorway and smiles.

“Safe to enter?”

“Stupid fuckin’ question.”

Mickey answers gruffly but he’s looking happier and Nicky winks at him

“Hey, you’re a scary little fucker when you’re mad. All crazy eyes and heavy tongue – like you could do some serious fuckin’ damage if you wanted.”

“I don’t hit chicks.”

“I remember, a proper gent, but still. Made me edgy so I got donuts.”

“Jesus! Do you ever quit eating?”

Mickey frowns but licks his lip. It’s been a while since he had a donut.

“What kind?”

“You will not believe it …”

Nicky’s eyes are bright and she’s giving him that Gallagher-esque smile again.

“UNICORN SPRINKLES!”

“Ugh! What … why? Fuck sake!”

Mickey pulls a face but peers into the box and takes on with blue and purple icing on it.

“I think they got jelly in the middle but …”

“Not rainbows? Fuck it. I don’t want it then.”

Mickey jokes, his spirits instantly lifted by the insane amount of sugar in the first bite.

“Ha! Second time today I made you happy with my love of unicorns.”

“You don’t love them, you just love that it pisses me off.”

This is a more astute observation than Nicky had credited him with the ability to make and she beams widely.

“True. So what is the verdict with Red? Do we hate him or kind of think he’s okay or …?”

“Both. I dunno. Told curly fuck that he loves me.”

“Shit. Well too bad for Trevor I guess.”

“Don’t mean they broke up.”

“Means they should!”

Nicky snaps and Mickey raises his eyebrows in surprise but doesn’t comment. She doesn’t talk about herself much and Mickey doesn’t want to know. It’s not that he doesn’t care but his skill set has never lain in the realms of patient ear or agony aunt so it would probably just be a waste of her time trying to tell him anyway.

“So when are you gonna meet up, bang, fight, whatever you gotta do?”

“Well I was gonna meet him tonight but where would you go? Van’s not all that big and definitely not fuckin’ private …”

“Make him book a room somewhere.”

“Huh?”

Nicky rolls her eyes and then casts her hand out as if painting a scene for him

“A decent room somewhere. Fuck in an actual bed! Take a shower! … Keep the key card and let me in in the morning so I can take a shower. Order pizza!”

“The cops already questioned him …”

“He’s South Side too right? You Chicago types seem resourceful.”

*

[thatothercosplayer]

“It’s....it’s you!” Hikaru stated in shock. The ship’s occupant walked down the ramp, smoke licking at their heels because this is one of those really dramatic spaceships that has lots of fog machines. 

(A bit of a warning- there *is* a scene in here that’s a bit graphic and has wounds that might make some readers uncomfortable. If you don’t want to read it, hit Ctrl + F and enter ‘McFly’ to skip to the section after that.) 

------ 

As soon as she had finished speaking to her parents, they guided her to the capital. There, amongst the many buildings, lay the spaceport (and, by extension, immigration services. How narratively convenient!). After one last goodbye, Hikaru separated from her parents before heading inside. 

As the paperwork had been done, all that was left to do was to issue Hikaru her passport; alongside a wrist brace that would act as a translator and disguise to help blend in among Earth’s populace. It was somewhat bulky, but it clamped rather comfortably onto her arm. Looking it over, she noticed that there was a small screen on it that had ‘human’ selected in Standard. Situated next to that was a green, triangular gem.

Tapping it caused her appearance to change in a flash, creating a human form that would suit her personality. She was even wearing clothes to match! It was a lovely dress the same color of her wings (which were hidden in this form, obviously). Twirling in place, Hikaru found she was rather enamored with this device! 

Just then, explosions could be heard outside. It was an invasion- the Zangyack Empire had decided to target E5 Raptor, since it was on its way to Earth anyhow. 

Gormin began to swarm in, beating down anyone who dared to resist them. They were lead by Sugormin, and those were lead by an Action Commander. It was a creature that resembled a walking chunk of rock; not quite refined to be a distinct golem, but moreso pieces of some unknown mineral that happened to resemble a humanoid, if only barely. “Ha! Stupid birds! I’m gonna pluck ya all one by one! It’ll make a great coat for da boss!” 

The creature laughed, and immediately Hikaru felt an anger welling inside her. How dare they attack her home....! How dare they attack her people! Slapping the gem on the wrist brace again, Hikaru ran forwards and lifted off, slamming into one of the Sugormin with her shoulder and landing on it. She made sure to dig her talons into it. The blue beast flailed underneath her before stilling and silencing. 

“I’m....I’m warning you! You better leave this planet!” She declared, raising a shaking hand and pointing a lone talon. 

“Awww...ain’t dat cute! The little hen thinks she can fight! Alright, light dis place up boys!” The rockman shouted, and the Gormin began to fire indiscriminately into the crowded room. Hikaru threw herself at the rock beast, attempting to rend his stoneflesh with her razor sharp digits, but it was to no avail.

“Hahahaha! Don’t ya know!? I’m made outta Katchin, the densest material in the universe! You don’t have a thing on me!” Slapping his attacker away, the Action Commander stepped forwards, slamming a fist into the ground. 

Hikaru landed on her belly, barely managing to scramble out of the way of the invader’s attack. But she wasn’t able to get to her feet fast enough, as she found a rocky foot resting on her back. 

“Hoh? Looks like wes got a fine specimen here! Mind if I....” He snatched Hikaru’s wings where they connected to her back, and began yanking. 

“N-no! Stop that!” Hikaru yelled, clawing and scratching at the floor. 

“Oh, quit yer whinin’, ya birdbrain! Dis’ll only take a second here!” He began to pull more, and the Raptoroid’s wild attempts to escape intensified. 

“S-stop! Please! You’re hurting me!” She wailed, voice wavering. 

“That’s the point!” He barked at her. 

“S-someone! H...help...!” Hikaru begged, already beginning to get choked up as tears flowed down her cheeks. She could barely see straight- the pain was unbearable. Every nerve in her back felt like it was on fire; more and more she couldn’t feel her wings, let alone move them. Was this how it ended? Why wasn’t anyone helping? Was anyone even trying to? She couldn’t tell. 

“N...n-no...! Stop! St--” Her pleas died and gave way to screeches of pain as the Action Commander finally stumbled backwards, his prize in hand. 

Hikaru’s thoughts became duller and more brief until, finally, her vision went completely black, and she slumped to the floor. 

~ 

Hikaru slowly opened her eyes. All the chaos and din from earlier had seemed to go quiet. Only the flickering flames and occasional settling rubble could be heard.

She attempted to push herself up, but quickly dropped back down as pain engulfed her. Even just breathing hurt. “I don’t want to die,” she sobbed. “I don’t want to die....!” 

The Raptoroid didn’t know how long she lay there- her vision faded in and out with her consciousness. But...eventually......

“I found one! Over here!” 

“Is she still alive? Those wounds look fatal.” 

“She’s breathing, help me get her on the stretcher!” 

----

The former Action Commander waved in her face. “Hello! Ya there? McFly? Hello? McFly?” 

Hikaru shook her head, and immediately slapped him. This made him stumble backwards, raising a hand to his cheek. Feeling at it with his stubby, rocky, fingers, he stomped. “You....you cut me!” 

“Damn right I did!” Hikaru yelled. “Do you even remember who I am?!” 

“Look, lady, I’ve been all over the galaxy. Youse could be any one of a buncha palookas I done steamrolled, alright?” Popping his neck a bit, he paused. “Why don’t ya refresh me, eh?” 

“I am Hikaru, of the planet E5 Raptor in the Aquila System! You invaded my home and tore off my wings right when I was about to leave for Earth!” She raised a shaking fist, barely containing her anger. All these years....all these years....! “I never had a name to hate. I only knew your face. I would never forget such a horrid being- ever!” 

He let out a big, hearty laugh. “Oh! You’re that broad! You was so cute, flailin’ about like a chicken with it’s head cut off!” And just as quickly as he started, he stopped. “Well, my name’s Crush. Youse gonna remember that. ‘course, you, ah, ain’t gonna live much longer ‘cause you chipped my perfect visage.” 

“Crush?” Hikaru asked. “That’s your name?” 

“Yeah. Can you fit that into your birdbr--” 

“WELL, THEN I’M GOING TO CRUSH YOU!” Hikaru screamed as she lunged for the brute.

“W-what!?” Crush barely had time to react as Hikaru flew at him at blistering speeds, slamming him into the side of his ship. “H-how!? Youse Raptor guys ain’t stupposed to be this fast!” 

She hissed, digging her claws into his shoulders. “Maybe so.....but on Earth, I’m eight times faster....and eight.....times....STRONGER!” Hikaru reared back and headbutt Crush, right on the forehead. She made sure to dig her talons into his skin, too, dragging them down her chest. “I’m not running away! I’m going to pay you back for how much you hurt me!” 

Releasing, Hikaru flew upwards a bit, doing a quick shuttle loop before realigning herself and extending an leg outwards. “GOLD COMET KICK!” She cried out, her right foot smashing into Crush’s chest right as he pulled himself out of the giant dent he’d made in the side of his ship. The sheer force of the blow tossed him not only right back into it, but through it and out the other side. 

Swooping over the ship, Hikaru circled around Crush while she decided her next course of action. “Now, lady, see, uh, I can explain! I was jus’, uh, workin’ with those Zangyack guys! Y’know? ‘cause, they uh, they were payin’ well, and, uh, I ain’t sayin’ no to a good paycheck--” 

Hikaru zipped downwards, grabbing Crush by the neck and driving him into the ground, dragging him across the park at high speed. “I don’t care what your excuse is,” she growled, pressing downwards and forcing him more into the ground. She pulled upwards, making sure to smack Crush on the ground once before tossing him away. 

Crush pushed himself up, watching her fly above him. “N-now, Miss Hikaru, surely we can come to some kinda agreement here--” 

Feeling a blast of air move past him, Crush looked down to notice three giant slashes across his chest. “Uh oh,” he let out as another pass happened, this time hitting his face. This occurred several more times, each time increasing in speed. 

“I-” Three giant gashes across Crush’s back.

“Won’t-” Three massive talonmarks across Crush’s shoulders.

“COMPROMISE!” Hikaru yelled as she made one last pass. She then folded her wings and landed so hard that she kicked up bits of turf and clouds of dust. She did...she did the superhero landing. You know? The superhero landing. 

 Unfolding her wings dramatically, Hikaru stood, looking up at Crush. The sun filtered through the haze, causing her to shine. “I was haunted by nightmares of your little game for years,” she spat, taking a step forwards. “There were nights where I couldn’t sleep for fear of reliving what you did to me.” Another step. 

Crush began to take a step backwards for every step the Raptoroid made forwards. 

“You didn’t even think twice about what you did. You never woke up in a cold sweat, screaming at the top of your lungs because you thought you were going to die,” Hikaru glowered. 

She thrust an arm out and grabbed his neck again. Crush reached up to his neck, gasping for air. How!? How was someone damaging his skin!? He was supposed to be unbreakable! 

“Well, I’ll make a deal with you, Crush,” The Raptoroid let out. “If you manage to survive our encounter today....then, when you understand the pain I went through...” She bowed her head slightly, shadows growing on her face. “Maybe then you’ll remember me.” 

Still gripping Crush’s neck tightly, she beat her wings and flew upwards, ascending rapidly before letting him go. She watched him drop, before dipping forwards into a nosedive and and kicking him as she flew past. Pulling a quick English bunt, she came up from underneath and punched upwards, stopping Crush in midair with her fist. There was a loud SNAP as his back crumbled a bit (she’d caught him in the middle of the spine). 

Honestly, if you’ve ever seen a single episode of Dragon Ball Z, you know exactly what’s going on here. It’s just that, instead of warping to wherever and hitting Crush, Hikaru was flying over there faster than he was being tossed. 

Finally, she ended it with one big downwards spike. She hung in the air for a moment, before scowling. This wasn’t enough. 

She rolled her shoulders, before taking a deep breath.

Once again, she angled herself downwards, extending a leg in a kick....but this time, she also wrapped her wings around herself, creating a giant drill. 

Crush slammed into his ship, and Hikaru cut right through the eruption of debris, the drill carving right through her nemesis. 

A massive explosion occurred, engulfing both of them.....only for her to triumphantly soar upwards, freeing herself from the fire and the flames and carrying on (HAH). 

He was dead

As he should have been a long time ago.