#he’s the horrible father of color who can’t possibly be full of hate because he also is Oppressed

[glowkit7]

cant believe my dad gets mad at everyone for never asking for his help when he holds everything (his help, if he gifted u anything; his conditional kindness) above ur head if u don’t agree with or do what he says!

[mxviko]

To cope with somethings and to stay in reality

Welcome to

Foreign kids Christmas themed headcanons

Damien is favored for his body heat. It’s too cold? Stand near him and you’ll already start to get warmer. He doesn’t like being touched for too long or sometimes at all depending who it is, but feed his ego and he’ll be like “very well, have the warmth you are deprived of, but do not think I shall spare you.”

Pip hasn’t ever had a proper Christmas, maybe one year with Estella but I can’t imagine he’d ever have the full experience even when in South Park. If he spends the holidays with the other foreign kids, it’ll be something he’s so excited about and feels more festive then ever and can feel magic for the very first time. Totally gets told to chill with how excited he is but doesn’t.

Speaking of Pip, him and Gregory are on decorations no matter where they may celebrate. Pip doesn’t know how to pair colors well, so it’ll look like a hallmark movie but someone tripped with the box and it just fell. Gregory on the other hand doesn’t care much for quality or looks, it just needs to feel cozy and warm. So those two together are quite good for the decoration and both enjoy it, despite Gregory just annoyed by Pips presence but it’s the holidays they’re fine.

Christophe is your typical grump, he’ll put on the damn sweater but he’s not jolly. But that’s only on the outside. If he really didn’t like it he would be there or say anything when someone asked about the holiday…but expect a dramatic monologue about how horrible and stupid the holiday is and how bad god is. Has a fucking great hot coco recipe though.

Estella if she’s involved will not just be grumpy, we all know her. But goodness, this seasons colors were made for her. She won’t mind dressing the part. Estella will also tell Christmas stories, but her favorite and one she actually cares to tell is Krampus. She hates the grinch because Krampus is just so much better and more children should know him. Pip is traumatized.

If you’d want some shippy stuff Christophe is on a mission and paranoid of mistletoe. He’d rather hit someone with a shovel, but it’s not kissing a random person that scares him it’s possibly getting under with Gregory (who may or may not be around it a little to long a little to often..). The idea makes him die from embarrassment, he can only keep his composure for so long in certain situations..

Damien’s father usually held Christmas parties or events in hell he wasn’t invited to and doesn’t have the biggest opinion on Christmas. He claims to hate it, and uses the reason because it’s Jesus’ birthday, he’s the Antichrist why would he like such a thing. But when he began to spend more time in South Park or be around Pip during this time, the snow and whole process of experiencing it, it felt different then ever before. And his father has since improved since then, so now he enjoys the holiday but will always deny.

Gregory is a good gift giver and the worst to give to, he’ll give you what you need or something he knows you want, both of these things are the same in his head since he knows. He can see what you need or you’ve said so, so he’ll get it. You say you want something or he sees you want it, he’ll get it. He’s not someone who tries and guesses the perfect gift or worries over it. He’s never struggled with the “what do you get the one who has everything?” Issue, but unbeknownst to him, he’s caused that issue for many others to give him anything. I imagine his family is wealthy or high-class so it always seems he has everything. But he’s more of a giver then a receiver and appreciates anything given to him.

Estella doesn’t like mistletoe, she’ll probably kick you if you get near her with it. But, if she’s feeling nice, she won’t mind giving a peck on the cheek…she probably wore staining lipstick that will not get off your cheek without a fight.

Pip is sensitive to spice so all the cinnamon and gingerbread kinda drives him crazy, he likes it but gosh a bite from one cookie and he needs a break. I think he’ll love fruity candy canes the most and marshmallows.

Throwing pocket in there, I imagine he’d enjoy doing stockings for others, he’s very thoughtful and probably has been mistaken for an elf before outside of Christmas so it’s perfect. He’s spent many holidays with Estella and he’s aware technically she’s probably on the bad list but will give her nice treats anyway including those chocolate lumps of coal. Also will put his bunnies in cute bows and take pictures..will make them as Christmas cards.

Christophe enjoys the tree. He didn’t help with it unless it was lifting Pip to put the star on the tree or whatever topper they have, but finds peace in looking at it. Has fallen asleep under it. Many pictures taken of it.

I enjoy headcanons so may do more, and request of headcanons are also welcome

[stealforreal]

Future kids - Todoroki Shoto I

Todoroki meets his children from the future. Part 2 is up now you can find it on my tumblr masters list. Or click [here]

Todoroki Shoto x F! Reader

Warnings: none

Todoroki was understandably confused. One moment he was eating his cold soba in peace and quiet, the next a little girl came barreling into him. Clinging onto his pant leg for dear life, tears streaming down her chubby cheeks. Todoroki tensed, even if he was coming out of his shell, dealing with a little child while not having complete control over his flames terrified him. What if he ended up hurting her, when he wanted to help? He refused to be like his father. hurting small children.

A small tug on his leg brought him out of his thoughts, and back to the reality that a young girl probably no older than 6 was clinging to him. He could feel his pants getting wetter by the minute, drenched in the redheaded little princess’ tears. Kneeling down to her height, he put a hand on her head and pattet it gently. It was the only form of comfort he could think of would be appropriate. “ Hey snowflake, where's your parents?” Todoroki asked the little girl, making her look up at the stranger whom she was clinging to. A small gasp escaped her lips, as she began to sob harder and cling to him even more if that was even possible. “ I-Im so so sorry daddy *sniff* I can’t find Ren” Todoroki stiffened. Daddy? He wasn’t a dad, not yet anyways. But that didn’t matter when he was comforting a young girl, so he would play along for the time being. Besides he felt drawn to the little snowflake, maybe it was the fact that she was comfortable enough to seek comfort from him. Maybe it was the fact that she looked like him, with beautiful heterochromia eyes, one classic Todoroki cerulean blue and one e/c.

“ Take a deep breath, little snowflake. Can you tell me what year it is?” His usual monotone tone, took on a softer note talking to the girl. He was kneeling at her height, rubbing small circles on her small back, while she clung to his shirt, sobbing in his chest. She looked up at him with her big mismatched doe eyes brimming with tears “ Its 20xx” okay weird that is 15 years in the future, Shoto wasn’t stupid this was probably the work of a quirk. He then proceeded to ask her if she was indeed hit by a quirk.

She told him that apparently her and her twin brother Ren, were playing with some of their friends at a park. But when they were playing tag one of their friends got their quirk, and the twins got separated. When Reina, as she told him her name was, woke up and couldn’t find her twin brother Ren she began to panic. Then she began looking for him, but then she recognized the dual colored hair and ran to him.

In between her telling the story and sniffling quitely, Shoto had picked her up. While she was calming down in his arms, he began making his way back to the campus grounds. Mr.Aizawa would hopefully know what to do, and maybe they would find Ren on the way. It broke his heart to hear her sniffle, his little snowflake crying was heart wrenching. Even if she technically wasn’t born yet, she was still his little snowflake and he would protect her no matter the cost. He was so possessive of his little girl already and he had only met her 1 hour ago, he promised himself then and there that he would be a better father than Endeavor ever was.

Her sniffles and sobs stopped, and her trembling figure relaxed in his hold. He could feel the little one's gaze on him, and he turned his head to her tilting his head a bit to ask what was wrong. “ Why do you look so young, daddy? '' She asked with the little innocent voice of an angel, he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at her question. “ Well my little snowflake, right now I’m 16 and you haven’t exactly been born yet. I’m guessing your friend's quirk is something along the lines of time travel” he patiently explained to her, she nodded her head along as if she understood him. And if she inherited his intelligence, she just might have understood what he just told her completely.

The walk back to the dorms were filled with idle chatter, Shoto asking Reina about his future and how he was as a father. To which she exclaimed with a bright toothless smile ‘Daddys the best daddy in the whole world’ and he was so relieved that he wasn’t a horrible father like his own was to him. He ended up stopping for a minute so Shoto could pepper her with small soft kisses all over her cute slightly chubby cheeks. Her squeals of excitement warmed his heart, and a soft smile made its way on his face.

To onlookers they looked like a cute set of siblings, and small aw’s and so cute were heard in the background. But inside their little bubble, nothing could burst Shoto’s happiness at knowing he wouldn’t repeat his fathers mistakes. The long walk back to the dorms felt a lot shorter with his little snowflake talking his ear off. It was adorable really, she stumbled over a few words every once and awhile. She told him all about her and Ren’s adventures, how they accidentally froze their teacher when Ren got his quirk, and how he had to come and free the teacher.

Shoto was inexplicably happy that Ren got his quirk from his mothers side. But one thing caught his attention was the mention of their mother. He realized that Reina not once had mentioned her name, and as much as Shoto would hate to admit it he was beyond curious as to who he would ultimately spend his life with. A big part of him hoped that it was you, since he had finally found out what the fuzzy feeling he had around you was. Yep Todoroki Shoto was utterly and completely enamored by you, your personality was sweet and you would do anything for family and friends. Alongside Midoriya you were his best friend, and he was in love with you.

The closer to the dorms the two Todorokis came, the more his curiosity nagged him to ask his daughter who her mother was. When he could see the height alliance building a little longer down the road, his curiosity won. “ Snowflake, you never told me your mom's name. '' Reina brightened when he asked about his future wife, a big tell that his little girl adored her mother as much as she adored her father. '' Silly daddy, mom's name is Todoroki y/n of course, ``she said giggling. A bright smile adorned his handsome features as Todoroki stepped into the dorm's living room with Reina still in his arms with her head on his shoulder.

Class 1-A consecutively looked towards the door when it opened. They were trying to calm down the child that was crying on their sofa, who also happened to look suspiciously like their dual haired classmate. The young boy had dual colored hair and cerulean blue eyes, his hair was half white and half y/h/c. The child was obviously confused and scared, and had only stopped wailing when Kaminari short circuited. But alas he was still sobbing and the class was almost out of ideas. He had been asking about his parents, and calling for a person named Reina.

There in the door stood a smiling Todoroki, holy damn was the world ending. But what also caught their attention was the little redhead in his arms hugging him, the little girl's voice reached them and their jaws dropped. “ Daddy, is this the place you and mommy met?” It was such an innocent question, but 1-A was in a frenzy, so much so that they didn’t notice the little boy springing up from the couch and dashing toward Todoroki and the girl. They only came back to earth when a small happy “Daddy” was heard.

Todoroki was about to answer Reina’s question, when he heard the little cry “Daddy”. He turned his head towards the sound and so did Reina, she began bouncing in Shoto’s arms. “ Ren '' She shouted, making Shoto bend down and extend his arm that wasn’t holding Reina. Ren launched himself into Shoto’s chest, and Reina began hugging her twin brother as much as she could in their fathers embrace. “ Don’t worry my little snowflake, daddy’s got you” He whispered softly, calming Ren immediately. The rest of the class stood gobsmacked, daddy?

“Now my little snowflakes, let's go find Mr. Aizawa, so you can go home” Shoto’s arms were full, his little boy on one arm and his little girl on his other arm. How is he supposed to open the door? “ Midoriya, would you come with me to open the door?” Shoto’s tone was monotone as always, but slightly softer in the presence of his children. Midoriya simply nodded dumbfounded, nobody said a word. What were they supposed to say, with all the daddy claims, and seeing the children in the arms of their classmate confirmed it. They looked like the spitting image of the dreamy heterochromia boy, but with some tweaks. There were the y/h/c and the girls one e/c eye, that obviously must’ve come from their mothers side.

On the way to the teacher dormitories, the twins talked excitedly with each other, while Shoto explained the situation to Midoriya. Midoriya felt like he had seen the features on the twins that certainly didn’t come from Todoroki’s side, but with how much they looked like their father it was nearly mission impossible.

Coincidentally on her way to Mr. Aizawa as well, you spotted the tuft of green hair and tufts of red and white hair. Hm, must be on their way to Mr.Aizawa as well you thought. Jogging up to them, you poked Midoriya’s shoulder. Even if you were in class 1-B, you had a pretty good friendship with the cute green haired cinnamon roll. Your quirks were similar in a sense, since yours was a boost of strength as well. Not nearly as strong as Midoriya’s, but still. That is why you were training partners, and through him you had met his friend circle. It wasn’t an unusual sight to see Midoriya and Todoroki together.

But when they turned to you, you were left flabbergasted by the two cuties in Todoroki’s arms. Before the boys could react, Ren began squirming chanting ‘mommy’. Shoto sat him and Reina down, because she too began squirming once they caught sight of you. The two children that were previously in Todoroki’s arms, now tackled you in a hug. “Daddy look, we found mommy” they said in unison. Two children around 6 years old launching at you, could make even the best of them fall on their butts. Which was exactly what happened, they were squeezing you as tight as their small forms would allow.

Choosing to ignore the small ‘mommy and daddy’ comment, you carefully scooped them up in your arms. The look that Shoto gave you was enough to go along with this little charade, he looked at the three of you like you were his entire world. His eyes were shining with happiness, and his lips quirked up in a small smile. Lightly bouncing the ecstatic but sleepy children in your arms, you turned your attention to the two males before you. “ You wouldn’t happen to need Mr.Aizawa as well, would you?” You raised a knowing eyebrow. The two boys nodded, and you began walking again towards the teachers dormitory. You sent Todoroki a small pointed glare, silently commanding him to explain the situation.

The walk to the teachers lounge felt shorter than usual, since your attention was occupied. Todoroki explained his theory that a quirk sent the twins to the past, and that the two of you were their parents. As crazy as that sounded it made so much sense, and looking at the children you would lie if you said you didn’t see the resemblance. Midoriya explained how Ren was crying before Todoroki arrived, and how confused they were when they heard the little boy yelling ‘daddy’. Ren was probably the most scared, since he didn’t recognize anyone in his panicked state. Besides, most of the students probably look a lot different in the future, so it's kind of a miracle that the twins recognized you. Shoto will always be pretty easy to recognize, with his distinct hair, eyes and the showstopping scar. It complimented the handsome teen next to you so well, no wonder he was one of UAs top heartthrobs. Stopping for a second, you just realize something. If the twins in your arms are you and Todoroki's, then that means that you ended up scoring the half-n-half quirk user. Nothing could wipe the shiteating grin that made its way on your face, eliciting concerned and curious glances from the males beside you.

Mr.Aizawa had his fair share of strange situations. He had been teaching at UA for some time, and student’s quirks weren’t always a walk in the park. Never had he ended up in a situation quite like this though, he had to rub his eyes twice to make sure it was real. In front of him were 2 out of Class-1A’s trouble makers and one of his favorite students from Class-1B, they had two small children with them. Easily recognized as twins, and they looked like the half - n- half troublemakers children.

This was going to be a long night.

[milliumizoomi]

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓡𝓲𝓭𝓮!

Pairings: A! TodoKiriBakuDeku x O! Black Fem! Reader

Synopsis: You, your friends and all your pups went out and it took a turn none of you were expecting.

Warnings: Angst, Fluff, mentions of blood, pups crying/ screaming and cursing. Also more characters introduced.

Masterlist

Go Back⇢ Part 3⇢ Up Next

“WHAT?! ARE YOU F*CKING SERIOUS?!" Bakugou screamed with his eyes dilating. For a moment in time, none of the boys could move or even think straight. They were in complete and utter denial that this was actually happening right now, and that was saying something since they were some of the best names in the hero industry and they were also known for their quick thinking.

“SIRS..! YOU NEED TO GO! THE POLICE AND OTHER PRO HEROES NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE!” An employee yelled, realizing the state they were in. The quickly shook it off and took of running while thanking the employees. While they were frantically making their way to the carnival, Kirishima was instructed to try and call your phone. He dug through his pocket as he kept running. He quickly looked for you contact and called it. ‘Please.. please answer.. please let us know you’re alright..’ He thought as he listened to it ring. Just then the call got picked up but it wasn’t from you. “PAPA..!” Ami, their little girl, screamed through the phone. “AMI?! PRINCESS ARE YOU OK?! WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Kirishima yelled as the other three alphas froze to look at him but soon started run again. “SHITTY HAIR WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! IS THAT AMI?!” Bakugou screamed frantically.

Kirishima looked up and nodded as he kept running. “PUT IT ON SPEAKER!” Midoriya yelled as they were nearing the carnival grounds. Kirishima nodded as he put it on speaker. “PAPA! VWILLIANS! MOMMY LEFT PHONE..!,CAN’T FIND HER!” The little pup cried to her father. The men felt there heart drop to there stomach. “MOMMY’S MISSING!” The three other pups yelled as they also heard your friends pups crying with them that their mothers are missing too. All the alphas looked at each other with tears in their eyes as they heard how scared the little pups were. “Pups.. stay quiet and calm ok. I need all of you to hide and again stay quiet ok? Ami your papas’ are almost there ok. Call back papa’s number if you guys need help ok?” Kirishima calmly said as he tried to hide how true pissed he was in an effort to not scare the pups even more and to not show how he was feeling. Little sniffles were heard on the other side. Then the alphas heard their son, Haru, talking. “Ok papa.. Ami fwell asweep fwrom cwrying. We hiding under table nwow. Izwuko made us fwollow him hwere.” The little pups told his dad as he continued to sniffle. “Ok little man.. papa, daddy, da and dada will be there soon ok? Just stay hidden for me and remember to call for any one of your papas if you need help ok?” Kirishima reassured Haru. “Ok papa..” Haru answered. “Ok bub we’ll find you soon ok?” “Yes papa.. bwye..” “Bye little pup” Kirishima answered as he hung up the phone. It would be an understatement to say that the men weren’t pissed. “..I’m going to kill them..” Bakugou growled.

The little pups had a certain name for each of their fathers so they know which one their calling. Kirishima was papa, Bakugou was da, Todoroki was dada and Midoriya was daddy.

The men hated when you or the pups were sad and the fact that not only are their pups along with your friends pups stranded and hiding somewhere, but you and you friends were missing and they have no clue where you are. “Guys..” Midoriya called out. “Let’s not hold back ok..” he continued. “Oh babe i know I wasn’t planning on it..” Todoroki said. Todoroki tends to be.. scary.. at time and trust me, these were one of those times. “You don’t have to tell me nerd.. they made our pups cry and our Omega is missing.. I’m tearing them apart..” Bakugou said menacingly. “Yeah Midobabe.. there’s no forgiving this..” Kirishima said with an angry look on his face. They were pro heroes but they felt as if they failed. You were missing and their pups were bawling their eyes out. But again.., their pro heroes. That’s means they will save all the people they can with no exceptions.

“We’re finally here..” Todoroki huffed angrily. They really were trying to contain their anger but this is their family and they feel as if it’s their fault that it may be torn apart. They stood in front of the carnival entrance that was supposed to be colorful and full of happiness.

But that was far from what they found. They were met with the screams of citizens and the yelling of other pro heroes. “GUYS! LOOK DEKU AND THE OTHERS ARE HERE!” a very familiar voice yelled. The guys look up to see Uraraka otherwise know as Uravity and some other of their high school classmates and pro heroes. “GUYS WE NEED YOUR HELP! THEIR RAMPAGING ALL OVER THE PLACE AND PEOPLE ARE GETTING INJURED!” Kaminari yelled. “Yeah.. It seriously isn’t looking good.” Shinsou added. “Alright everyone we know what’s going on.. now let’s do what pro heroes do best ok..?” Midoriya said trying to mask his anger. They all got determined looks on their faces. “RIGHT!” “Yeah yeah LETS GO!” They all said as they rushed into the unveiling terror.

As soon as they went in, they were met with utter devastation. There was blood EVERYWHERE. “What the hell..?!” Bakugou stammered. It did not seem like the happy place it was meant to be. “I could only imagine what the citizens had to go through here it looks horrible” Todoroki muttered. “Your totally right Shouto.. At this point, we need to do what heroes do best at this point we need to help them we need to save them.. before this can get any worse” Midoriya said to the group. “RIGHT!” “Whatever nerd!” They all said in unison.

They all begin walking deeper and deeper into the carnival grounds. On the way it only got worse. They managed to save multiple citizens who were either hiding or came out of their hiding places to get help and bring them to the waiting officers and ambulances that were stationed outside the carnival. “This is terrible we need to defeat the villains fast or else more people will get hurt and possibly more people will possibly.. you know..” Kirishima said. They really didn’t like thinking the worst in these types of situations so they opted to try and not bring it up. Their goal was to try and save everyone. “Yeah you’re right... these villains must be extremely powerful to be able to do this in a couple minutes” Bakugou said calmly as he tried to assess the situation.

The alphas only spent about 5 minutes getting from Bakugou’s Hero Agency to the Carnival grounds so because they used their speed. And other pros got here before they did. It was quite the distance away too. And it was a lot of damage for such a little amount of time.

“We need to get these people out of here!”Kaminari said as he kept on running. The heroes were dewelving into the area to help rescue citizens and defeat the villains quickly. Just then, as the heroes were running towards where most of the destruction has happened, 7 orbs started flying through the sky towards them. Bakugou was hovering in the sky with his explosive quirk and he should’ve noticed it but he didn’t because he was scanning the ground for anyone else who need help. Kirishima looked up and squinted. “Uhh.. guys.. what’s that? And WHY IS IT FLYING TOWARDS US?!” He said. This alerted the other heroes to see what he was talking about. Their eyes widened at the sight of the glowing orbs in the sky and they took their fighting stance, preparing for whatever the orbs we gonna throw their way. But nobody was physically ready for what happened next.

They suddenly stopped. They were still in the sky but they stopped a few inches away and they were above the heroes.

“Why did they suddenly just stop..?” Sero asked in confusion. “I have no clue..” Midoriya said. As they looked back up at the orbs, they just disappeared and things started falling out of them. “THERE GONE! But what’s that falling out of them?” Kirishima asked as he squinted. There was silence for a while.

Until...

Screams broke the silence. “DADDY!!” “PAPA!!” “DA!!” “DADA!!” “UWNCLES!!” Those cries were the cries of yours and your 4 alphas pups, as well as your friends’ pups as well. But the heroes hadn’t realized this yet. Then reality hit them like a truck. And their eyes widened when they came to the realization. Those were, in fact Kirishima, Todoroki, Bakugou and Midoriya/ their pups and your friends pups as well falling out of the sky.

"F*CK!" the fathers cursed as they ran to get to the falling pups before they hit the floor.

Sorry it’s so short this time.. I planned on making it longer but tumblr acting up and literally deleted like 3 paragraphs that I now have to write over so🧍🏽‍♀️

©Property of Miashimaa. Please don’t rectify, repost or modify without my permission.

Taglist: @develith @uniquabackyardigans @unfazedrose @kiribis-confesion-page (Open)

[nevertheless-moving]

Suicidal Misunderstanding Part VI - Star Wars Time Travel AU

Part I - - - - -  Part II - - - - - Part III - - - - - Part IV - - - - - Part V 

Anakin watched Obi-Wan through the stalks for several minutes. He could see him kneeling at the base of the waterfall, occasionally glancing around, as if searching for someone. Just when he was about to break and interrupt him, Obi-Wan stood and walked over. They sat together on the low bench, surrounded by the carefully cultivated colored fungi. 

“Obi-Wan...maybe we should talk about what’s going on with you. Whatever it is, I’m here for you.” Anakin offered hesitantly.

Obi-Wan tensed, hands clenching in his lap. 

“No.” 

“Master Windu and Bant both seemed to think this isn’t a drug thing. Please, let-”

“That wasn’t what I was saying no to.” 

Obi-Wan stood and began threading a path through the mushrooms, careful not to step on any of the smaller ones. Anakin was forced to follow directly in his footsteps, not wanting to risk damaging something Obi-Wan clearly seemed to care about, but wishing he could look at his Master’s face.

“Did I ever tell you about Bruck Chun?” Obi-Wan asked.

“No. Who’s Bruck?” Anakin responded with deliberate patience.

“He was an old crechemate of mine, quite gifted, though he had a temper. There have been times you remind me of him. We were rivals.” They were approaching the end of the alcove, a large stone overhang throwing them in to shadow.

“Were?”

“He died. When we were twelve.”

When they reached the rock face, Obi-Wan started climbing straight up. Anakin followed. Several clicks above the floor, Obi-Wan squeezed his way into a narrow crack, invisible from the floor below. Anakin followed. They awkwardly shuffled along the passage until Obi-Wan suddenly dropped out of sight. Anakin followed.

They landed in a hidden alcove. It was half lit by sunlight filtering in from cracks above, and half lit by the glow of mushrooms and crystals tenaciously embedded in the rock face around.

“Oh.” Anakin said softly. “Is this where you go when you visit the fountains to meditate?”

“No, I hadn’t been here in years.” Obi-Wan answered wistfully. “I started getting too big, didn’t want to damage the passageway too much. I figured some other younglings would stumble upon it someday like I did. I’m sorry. I avoided this room for the first year or two of your padawanship. By the time I even thought to share it, you had already grown so big...”

He sat down, legs stretched out in front. Anakin sat next to him, mirroring his position.

“I’m glad you’re sharing it with me now.” Anakin smiled reassuringly, but Obi-Wan was staring ahead blankly.  

The young knight swallowed nervously. “Did you...come here with Bruck?”

Obi-Wan let out a snort. “Gods, no! I hid here from him. Before we were rivals, he bullied me relentlessly.”

“And...this is the guy you said I remind you of?” Was he being insulted?

“At times. Math lessons, saber practice, none of that ever came easy to me. But you and him...you never even needed to study. And you do have a vicious streak, Anakin.”

Rather than try to argue in vain against the slight hurt, Anakin just asked, “How did he die?”

Obi-Wan closed his eyes. “He fell.” 

Anakin jerked in surprise, “Wait, you mean-”

“We were fighting at the top of the waterfall- it- he had nearly killed Bant. He was angry that we both had been chosen by Masters, and Xanatos used that to manipulate him into helping with an attack on the temple. Bruck was lashing out. He was a better swordsmen, but his anger made him unbalanced. I knocked him back. And he fell. I’ve forgotten a lot of details about him as a person, but I still remember his body at the bottom of the falls.”

"That’s...awful. I’m sorry.” Anakin said helplessly. He had known the bare basics of Xanatos’s fall, but clearly not the full story.

Obi-Wan sighed, leaning slightly to press their shoulders together. Anakin scootched over to try and provide a little extra silent comfort.

“I thought I had learned to live with my guilt over my part in what happened to him, but I suppose recent events have torn open old scars, so to speak.”

Anakin held his breath, Obi-Wan didn’t add anything else. 

“Obi-Wan” he tried to nudge gently. 

“Hmm?”

Anakin lost his patience, jumping up. “Master, please!” He half yelled, looming over his Master. A flash of fear crossed Obi-Wan’s expression as he looked up, which immediately halted the fit of rage. 

He knelt down penitently, “I’m sorry, Obi-Wan, I shouldn’t have yelled, but please, let me help. I won’t get mad like that again, I swear. Whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

“You’re not.” Obi-Wan whispered, expression blank. He shuddered all over, fists clenching tightly.

“You’re NOT here for me!” Obi-Wan shouted, suddenly offended. “How can you POSSIBLY claim to be there for anyone after what you-” Obi-Wan seemed to choke on the words. He let out a strangled cry and pulled his knees up to his chest. Tears welled, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Anakin stared wide-eyed, cold all over. “This...this is about something I did. I don’t understand. You... told me a few hours that I’m dear to you, what...what could I have done since then to make you...I don’t understand.”

“You know what you did.” Obi-Wan let out. “And the fact that learning about it didn’t stop me from caring about you doesn’t help, it just makes the heartbreak a thousand times more painful.”

Anakin racked his brain wildly. This couldn’t be about his marriage with Padme, right? He told him this morning that he didn’t mind the sneaking off. There was only one screw-up big enough that could possibly warrant this severe a reaction, and only two people alive knew about that, both sworn to secrecy.

“The younglings,” Obi-Wan whispered. “You - you didn’t even spare the younglings.” Obi-wan looked gutted, terrified. 

Anakin felt like he had been dropped in ice water. This was- this was his worst fear- that Obi-Wan would learn about his darkest failing as a Jedi and be ashamed of him, angry at him, would abandon him. He had already made his judgement. How could he have even learned about about the Tuskens?

“Padme-” he breathed out. “Padme told-”

“No!” Obi-Wan denied desperately, lurching forward. “Padme would never betray you! I would never betray you! We both love you, Anakin. Please, some part of you must know that! You must!”

His master seemed frantic, fingernails digging painfully into Anakin’s arm.

“You love me?” Anakin asked brokenly, heart cracked open.

Obi-Wan let go of Anakin to curl in on himself again. He seemed very small. It hurt to look at.

“I think its safe to say at this point that there’s nothing you could, no betrayal or atrocity you could commit that would make me stop loving you. Despite what you’ve done, you’re my brother, my son- of course I love you. The fact that I led you to doubt my love for you might be my greatest failing, though there are so many its hard to really say.” Obi-Wan sounded utterly defeated.

Anakin’s heart was pounding. This was a nightmare and a childhood dream. Obi-Wan loved him unconditionally, but he knew about his slaughter of the Tusken's and was ashamed. This couldn’t be real. He can’t know.

“Palpatine-” Anakin tried to ask.

Obi-Wan growled. “I do not need to talk about how that power-hungry liar systematically worked to tear us apart. I want to know why you would-” he cut himself off again.

Palpatine told Obi-Wan- that was more than he could even begin to process.

"I’m sorry, Master. I’m so sorry for failing you.” The words came desperately tumbling out, “I was just- I was so angry about my mom’s death and-”

“Your mother’s death? You killed innocent children for the sake of your Mother?! I don’t- how could anyone possibly rationalize-” Obi-Wan hissed out, truly angry for the first time that day. He took a deep breath and pulled himself upright.

“Your mother’s death was a terrible tragedy and I will forever regret my role in it. I should have tried harder to free her, for her own sake. I was so afraid that if I pushed for permission with the council they would think I was failing you, and they would take you from me. I made- so many decisions out of attachment, out of fear of losing you, and in the end I hurt you so badly you couldn’t trust me. You didn’t trust me with the truth of your visions, so I gave you bad advice born of misunderstanding, and your mother died horribly. I- I can see how you would blame the Jedi for that, even if its not rational. I certainly understand why you would blame me for that, why you would hate me because of her death.”

Obi-Wan scrubbed at his face mercilessly, practically tearing skin in his haste to wipe away snot and tears.

“But why, if you were getting revenge, would you kill the children and not me?” “Why couldn’t you just kill me and be satisfied?” He finally looked straight at Anakin, asking like it was a real question.

Anakin was horrified. After a few false starts he finally choked out, “Master, I love you. I told you, you’re the closest thing I have to a father. You’re the last person I could ever kill.”

“The last person you could ever kill,” Obi-Wan echoed back, looking pained.

“Please, Master, tell me how to fix this. I want to make things right. How can I fix things?” Anakin begged.

“That’s not a fair question. You can’t unmurder people. You can’t put them back together like a- an engine or a droid- ”

“There has to be something I can do to make you forgive me!” Anakin said desperately. “You can’t just tell me you love me and then say I’m an irredeemable monster!”

“Well that’s an entirely different matter, though no less cruel to think about.”

He leaned into Anakin’s side once more, the press providing a hint of warmth even in the unshakable cold. “Anakin, it isn’t very rational or fair of me, but it wouldn’t really take that much to get me to forgive you. Kriff, if you just acted sorry for what you had done.” Obi-Wan sighed.

“If you told me that you regretted the lives you took and swore you were going to stop murdering, force help me, I’d probably take you back in an instant. All I ever wanted was to help you be the best version of yourself.”

“I’m sorry.” Anakin said immediately. “I’m so, so sorry for what I did. I lost control of myself because I was scared, and angry, and suffering and, and then I was so scared that you would hate me that I pretended it was ok, and I told myself that they deserved to die, but how could children ever deserve to die and please Master I’ll throw away my lightsaber just please, please don’t leave me, I need you, please-” and the rest of the words dissolved into large, ugly sobs.

Obi-Wan keened and pulled Anakin into his lap like he was a child again. Anakin scrabbled at his cloak, desperately trying to hold on. The terrible chill that had been haunting him slowly started to fade away as he was rocked back and forth. 

After a minute, Anakin got enough of a hold on himself to consider trying to stop blubbering like a crecheling on his Master’s robes. But he quickly realized that Obi-Wan was also crying, so instead threw his arms around the older man and let himself go.

An uncertain amount of time passed before they both slowed from heaving sobs, to dry hiccups, to quiet whimpers. Eventually they ended up laying in a heap, boneless but for their hold on each other. And finally, the cavern was more or less silent.

Anakin felt physically lighter, mind clear like he had just completed an extremely successful meditation session.

Without a word, they slowly shifted so they were leaning on the wall instead of sprawled on the ground. Obi-Wan pulled his robe off, first using it to wipe his face, then tenderly cleaning his Padwan’s. 

Anakin just chuckled. 

Obi-Wan threw the robe so it covered the two of them, which was a little gross, but that only made Anakin snort giddily. 

They sat there peacefully for sometime. The shadows from above started shifting, and Obi-Wan sighed, “I really should go eat something.”

Anakin sighed back at him in agreement. They both stretched in the small space, joints popping.

“Do you need to walk through the rest of the gardens first?” Anakin asked.

“No,” Obi-Wan replied, tenderly fussing with his kid’s hair and robes so they looked presentable. “This was...more than I could have hoped for.”

Anakin beamed, giving Obi-Wan one last quick hug before gesturing upwards. “Time to get back to the real world?” he joked with a hint of regret.

“Time to get back to the real world.” Obi-Wan repeated heavily.

Part VII

[unrestedjade]

Baseless Ferengi headcanons no one asked for and that get increasingly queer-navel-gazing and self indulgent because the horrible space goblins have consumed my brain:

- Mobile ears, because if hearing is so well developed and important to them they should be able to aim those big stupid radar dishes. Also because then they can emote with them and that's cute. THE AESTHETIC IS PARAMOUNT.

- Since they canonically sharpen their teeth with chew sticks and sharpeners, their teeth must grow continuously. So I submit: subcultures that let certain teeth grow out as a fashion/political statement. Ferengi punks and anarchists with 5" tusks. Ferengi with all their teeth filed flat (mom and dad HATE it).

- Corollary to the above, most of their teeth are crooked. At the least, they don't share our fetish for straight teeth. What if their teeth are deciduous, and there's no point in trying to force them into perfect alignment, since they'll just fall out and get replaced? So like, sharks but their teeth can also grow longer with no limit. WHAT HAST EVOLUTION WROUGHT ON FERENGINAR :V

- Parents nagging their kids to sharpen their teeth "or they'll grow up into your brain and you'll die :)"

- Personal space? Don't know her.

Okay I need a cut because there's too many now. WHOLE SOCIETY OF GAY HOMOPHOBIC UNCLES AND AUNTS GO I HAVE A PROBLEM

- I can't remember who on here put forth the idea of them having retractable claws but Yes. :3

- Pushing back against the worst canon episode a bit but: relative ear size being the only obvious sexually dimorphic trait, and even that having enough of a gray area that the only way to be 100% sure you're talking to a male or female Ferengi is if you do a blood test. Unless they're intersex! *shrug emoji*

- This is why they're so fanatical about gender conformity and their Victorian "separate spheres" attitude to men and women's roles. Capitalist patriarchy is fragile! And as artificial to Ferengi as it ever was to Humans! (self-indulgenceeeee about gender shiiiiit)

- You know how with domesticated rabbits, the rabbit getting groomed and paid attention to is the boss? Yeah. Go ahead and paint your bestie's nails, just don't be surprised if she cops a little bit of an attitude with you from then on.

- Their fight/flight/freeze/fawn instincts skew heavily toward the last three, and what a lot of other species read as annoying sucking up is the Ferengi in question feeling anxious and unsafe. Especially if they don't feel integrated into the group. Even being at the bottom of the pecking order is better than not being in the flock at all.

- If they DO opt for fight, it's ugly and typically their last resort. Bites or scratches will get infected without intervention-- microbes that their immune system can handle could cause big trouble for aliens. You might wanna check for full or partial teeth that break off and get lodged in the wound, too.

- Too many of these are tooth related but I don't care. :B More teeth stuff: you know what else has teeth that grow constantly? Puffer fish. Likewise, Ferengi can chew up mollusk shells as easy as potato chips, and they need the minerals for their teeth. (Imagine grandpa Sisko offering Nog a crayfish for the first time and watching as he just...pops the whole damn thing in his mouth and crunches away...)

- Their staple foods seem to be grubs and other arthropods, high in protein and fat. I've unilaterally decided their cuisine also involves a lot of edible fungi, ferns, plant shoots and seeds. Gotta get those vitamins. Overall flavor profile leaning toward umami, vegetal, and fresh herbs, and pretty mild (or "delicate" if you wanna be snooty about it, which a Ferengi probably would let's be real).

- Not much sugary food. I'm basing this solely on Quark's aversion to root beer as "cloying". Which could definitely just be his personal preference, but most of the people I hear hating on root beer cite the actual sassafras/sarsaparilla flavor (saying it tastes like medicine) not the sweetness. Nog might be the weirdo outlier for being able to enjoy it.

- Their home planet isn't bright and sunny, so their eyes are better at discerning shades of gray in low light conditions, with relatively weak color vision. Which could explain why they dress Like That.

- Conversely, human music has a reputation for stinking on ice because a lot of it is juuuuust lightly dissonant or out of tune because we can't pick up flaws that small. Ferengi can, and it drives them up the *wall*.

- Music? So many different kinds. Traditionally, maybe lots of percussion and winds, and water as a common component of many instruments to alter pitch or tone. Polyphony out the ass. Some of the modern stuff is an impenetrable wall of sound if you're not a species with a lot of brain real estate devoted to processing sounds. Pick out one melody to follow at a time.

- Yes, back to teeth again I'm sorry. It's a sickness. At some point in their history, pre-chewing food was just something you did for your baby or great grandma as a matter of necessity. Possibly your baby gets an important boost to their immune system and gut biome from your spit. At some point takes on a more formal intimacy aspect and gradually drifted from something all adults and older kids do to something only women do. Your husband and older kids have perfectly functional teeth, but you love them, right? =_= (Think old memes about husbands being useless in the kitchen if little wifey isn't there to cook, but even more ridiculous. Ishka was right about everything but especially this. Thank you for making your family chew their own food, Ishka. Not all heroes wear capes. Or anything!)

- How did they get started on the whole men: clothed vs women: unclothed nonsense? My equally stupid idea: men just get cold easier. Those huge ears dissipate a ton of body heat. Cue Ferengi cliches like "jeez, we could be standing on the surface of the sun and my husband would put on another layer." At some point, again, this got codified and pushed to ridiculous extremes in the name of controlling women and keeping everyone in their assigned box, to the point that women just have to shiver if they really are too cold and men have to pass out from heat stroke if the alternative is going shirtless, because That Would Be Inappropriate.

- Marriages default to five years, but they're also the only avenue for women to have their own household or any stability. Plus their religion places no emphasis on purity save for pure adherence to the free market and the RoA. So, curveball to the rest of their patriarchal bullshit: female virginity isn't a concern in the least. Bring it up and they'll rightly side-eye you.

- Family law is absolutely bonkers and lawyers that specialize in it make BANK. I feel like custody would default to the father usually but oh wait, the maternal grandfather has a legal stake in this, too, and your next father-in-law is asking HOW many kids are you dragging into my daughter's house, etc etc. Growing up with a full sibling is way rarer than growing up with half or stepsiblings, since it usually takes both men and women two or three tries to find someone they vibe with. (Not love, unless you're super cringe.)

- A misogynistic society is a homophobic society. Imo those flavors of shittiness just come in pairs. Homosexual behaviors are fine within certain parameters (aka "always have sex with the boss") but not on your own terms. To add spice, bisexuality is their most common mode (because I'm bi and these are my hcs for my fics I'm not writing, so there), but capitalism demands fresh grist for the mill so you better get het-married and pop out some kids you lowly peons. You have a choice so make the proper one. :)

- Corollary to the above, that doesn't keep all kinds of illicit "we're just friends with quid-pro-quo benefits for realsies" affairs of every stripe and every gender from going on everywhere. Many Ferengi have a lightbulb moment somewhere in early adulthood when they figure out their dad's business partner or the "auntie" who visited their mom every month had a little more going on.

- Plus there's way more gender non-conformity and varying degrees of trans-ing than the powers that be have a handle on. Pel isn't unique, even if most would have to somehow make it out into space to be able to thrive.

Damn a lot of these are just my personal bugbears plus THE GILDED AGE BUT WITH HAIRLESS SPACE RODENTS ain't they

- Women can't earn profit, okay. But lending or "lending" things to each other isn't commerce, riiiiiiight? To be assigned female is to master navigating a vast, dizzying barter/gift economy. Smart boys and men leverage this, too, and there are splinter sects that view this as the purest expression of the Great Material Continuum.

- Of course plenty of women make profit anyway, and just do their bast to dodge the FCA. The tough thing about insisting on using latinum as currency is that cash can be so hard to track, you know?

- Because of the RoA, guys are discouraged from doing favors or giving gifts without setting clear expectation of getting some return on investment. This can twist into an expression of friendship (and of course women do it too), and the ledger will keep cycling between debit and credit among friends for decades. A common mistake aliens make is to tell them recompense isn't needed without explaining why, or return their favor or present with something that zeroes out the debt. The Ferengi will assume you want to break off the friendship. (I cribbed this from dim memories of an African studies course I took in 2007 and whose textbook I know I still have but I can't frigging find it...)

- Flirting, they do a lot of it for a lot of reasons. Roddenberry made it clear that they're just straight up pretty horny, but there's no reason it can't pull double duty for building alliances with other people, smoothing over feuds or disagreements, or cementing friendships. Ferengi who are ace and/or sex-repulsed are possibly viewed similar to the way we'd view someone who's "not a hugger/not big on touching" and if they flirt just don't get offended if it doesn't go any further; aro Ferengi don't garner much comment aside from an occasional "wow how badass, never falling in love with anyone."

- where to even start on making sense of the Blessed Exchequer??? Like seriously, what is this literal prosperity gospel insanity, I need to force myself to re-read Rand and like, some Milton Friedman for this shit. Help.

- fuck I'm probably going to actually do that, RIP me...

[kaypeace21]

Will’s fear of clowns

*Ps -not mine. this is a submission from an anon. tw: for s.a. It’s an interesting submission. ANON-please make a tumblr account already . I’m begging you XD

Hi! It’s me, Lonnie Meth Anon. Back with more depressing thoughts about Lonnie!

I just read your post on Jonathan’s ab*se at the hands of Lonnie, and I second it all. It breaks my heart. But it also got me thinking deeper about Will’s fear of clowns. I think you’re right that part of the horror for Will is that the clown attacks in bed. The bed is, obviously, like you say, a common site for s*xual assault. (Doesn’t El’s picture of “three legged Brenner” also have a bed in it? In a picture with not much else?) The fact that Will needed Joyce to sleep with him for a week suggests he was specifically feeling unsafe in bed, or at night. 

But maybe it’s not just the location of the attack in Poltergeist that Will found so harrowing. Maybe it’s the combination of that location with the fact of a clown being the attacker. 

I think Lonnie might have dressed up as a clown for Will’s birthday one year, and something happened. 

In this instance, I don’t think Joyce would know what happened. I think the incident in her mind would be something like “Lonnie dressed up and Will was scared of the costume”. She might even have thought it was cute. Just a typical little kid fear of something mundane. When she teases him about Poltergeist, she doesn’t actually say the movie was the START of his fear of clowns. Just that he was afraid of that particular clown. The general fear of clowns could have been an older one, going back to when Will was even younger.

Maybe Will even liked clowns, before whatever happened with Lonnie turned them into a source of fear for him. Will has a lion plushie (lions are commonly found in the circus) and the circus seems like the kind of vibrant, colorful environment full of outcast, that a young gay kid would really enjoy. If Will did like circuses and Lonnie poisoned that for him, that’s just another reason to hate Lonnie. But it definitely seems possible. 

Lonnie is a deadbeat dad in general, but we’ve seen before that he’s capable of faking the “family man” act in front of Joyce and their neighbors. We’ve also seen that even though he treats Will horribly, he would also try and keep Will on his side with father son bonding activities, like baseball. And Will’s birthday is one of the few occasions Lonnie makes a half-assed kind of effort, even when there’s nothing directly in it for him. He sends that card, even though it’s late. Maybe Joyce made called him up and made him send it, but she always seemed happy to keep Lonnie out of the picture. She didn’t even want to involve him when Will went missing. And we know Jonathan would never try and facilitate more interactions between Lonnie and Will. So it seems like Lonnie did this of his own accord, when he realized he’d missed the day. Kind of weird. And it’s classic abuser behavior, to make contact on an anniversary date, reminding you they exist and you can’t escape them. Reminding you to keep quiet. Or hoping you’ll miss them, remember the “good times” when they made an effort, and let them back into your life. (Ugh.)

So, anyway, back to my theory. Young Will likes circuses, and the Byers family are poor, so they can’t afford to take him to one, or throw him a party at an ice cream parlor or a bowling alley, like other kids. It makes sense that they would have a party at home instead, and that the family themselves might dress up. We know Joyce made Will’s Ghostbusters costume in season two, and a clown is a pretty easy costume. Most of it is just make up. It’s possible the whole thing was Joyce’s idea, and she made the costume, and Lonnie just went along with it to look like a good dad in her eyes. 

Remember how we see Bob (Will’s new father figure) dressing up in costume for Halloween? Joyce loves it. This is a thing good dads do, to have fun with their kids. That’s also the same episode we see Will scared by a guy in a clown costume, and Jonathan is hyper-protective of him that night. School is okay, but he doesn’t want him trick or treating. (Like he knows that school is a safe environment, but in other contexts, costumes and parties might be a trigger for Will.) Jonathan is convinced to leave Will and “let him have fun” and what happens? The clown attacks. Later that night Jonathan goes to a costume party himself, where he finds Nancy upset and takes her safely home.  Maybe this is how Will’s birthday party ended - with Jonathan finding Will upset, and trying to comfort him. The whole night could be playing out like a parallel to that birthday party, from Jonathan’s perspective. 

What actually happened with Will and Lonnie is up for debate. It’s possible there was a s*xual assault, and that’s why the clown scene in Poltergeist was such a trigger for Will. Or maybe Lonnie thought circuses weren’t “manly” enough for his son to like, and actively tried to scare Will, so he wouldn’t like them anymore. It’s hard to know. Something would have happened though, and probably something pretty formative, because the fear of clowns lasts a long time. 

Something else interesting is that when Mr Clarke is talking about the Upside Down in season one, he uses the metaphor of the flea and the acrobat. Acrobats are a main act in the circus, and, well … fleas. Flea circuses. That’s a thing. Maybe it’s a hint that the trauma that created the Upside Down was circus / clown - related?

Kali, El, and their gang wear clown masks too, when they’re going to confront their childhood trauma, and the child-like Alexei is surrounded by clowns when he is killed at the fair. 

Clowns are just so associated with birthday parties and little kids, that it doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me they’re Will’s biggest fear. Especially as the show keeps dropping hints about Lonnie and Will’s birthday. It feels like there’s more to the story. I have a horrible feeling SOMETHING happened. 

RESPONE (kaypeace):

I think it’s very possible-that maybe he did dress as a clown for Will’s birthday and something happened. We have alexi (paralleled to Will) playing carnival games with kids. Then he's attacked by the Lonnie-look alike : and alexi looks at his wound then stares at all the clowns laughing around him. Joyce and Murray find Alexi bleeding/dy*ng next to a clown statue. As joyce looks in horror and Murray says to her, he was “only gone for a second” (which sounds like something you’d say in relation to a kid you were supposed to watch-running off ). We also had sarah at age 7 die while wearing a gown with clowns on it (Will: it was a 7 the demogorgan it got me). Death of innocence symbolism? Hopper also describes his depression as a cave- he goes through the carnival ride where it mentions a "cave of horrors", which had decor of a tiger and a clown painting. So yeah... whatever happened probably isn't good. So- there may be some symbolism there in relation to Will’s past. Not only because (like I and you have mentioned before) Lonnie is highly associated with birthdays. And canonically we know he mentally scarred jonathan on his b-day. But also, s4’s ‘victor creel’ may be an easteregg to the xmen character victor creed- who had a tradition of tra*matizing family members specifically on their bdays

As another alternative:I could also totally see Lonnie “ruining” circuses for Will because it’s not “manly” to him. Like how Jonathan liked thumper the rabbit-from the film bambi. in the film, Thumper is bambi’s bff, and the hunters are the bad guys who k*ll Bambi’s mother and terrorize all the wildlife. SO yeah- making Jonathan become a hunter, and k*ll a rabbit ,despite this fact, is really messed up. And shows Lonnie has already tried to ‘ruin’ things the boys like. By mentally scarring them in one way or another…

I also mentioned how Will’s bday could even be a trigger for jonathan in a diff post.

if the s4 bts calender hinting it’ll be near Will’s bday and easter it could be relevant to Jonathan.we know in s1 el has tra*matic flashbacks when seeing certain things- coke, closet, cat, etc. And Will in s2 has his ‘anniversary effect’ where memories flood back based on the time of year.But like … Easter has bunnies - could seeing rabbits jog stuff up for Jonathan? El seeing a cat made her have a flashback of brenner trying to make her kill a cat. Would Jonathan seeing like Easter bunny decor jog up a flashback of lonnie making him kill a rabbit? (It happened on his bday too). So Will’s b day being around easter would only fuel that memory. (heck even popped balloons may trigger gunshot symbolism idk). And then for Will there is clowns that could be a tr*gger at a party.

The flea and the acrobat analogy (in relation to Will and circuses is very interesting) and could be foreshadowing- it’s even a title for an episode so I feel like it’s narratively an important hint to …something. similar to a s1 ep being called “the bathtub”.  Also, Will was compared to a circus flea- which were placed in an enclosed space, where heat was applied as they jumped  and tried to escape the increasing temperatures as they burned .Which could relate to my theory about Will having a se*zure due his body overheating due to Lonnie injecting him with m*th.

 If Will’s bday is in s4- I feel like Lonnie will come back in some capacity (flashback or literally). The ‘sorry, I forgot you b day’ card from Lonnie in s2, in Lonnie’s shed Joyce mentioning Will’s b day, the rainbow ‘happy birthday cup’ placed next to Will at Mike’s -while Will explains the supernatural, Lonnie already tra*matizing Jonathan on his bday, etc…

[iwriteficsandmore]

In Search of Something Special

So tired. Have a test on thurs. But i was so overwhelmed that i needed a distraction. I let myself write blindly and this came out. Hope you guys enjoy and sorry about the spelling errors x3

It'd been a long time since anybody had you feeling like such a piece of trash. Not so much because you had done something petty or worth the hate, but more because of how they treated you. And after months of it, it was only natural that it had you down on the floor like a beaten pup. 

Years had gone by since you last had been on the dating scene. Not because of anything bad. You were just much more involved in your own life and career to bother. Now that you were back and after a handful of less than stellar outings, it was clear that nothing much had changed either.

"Chivalry is truly dead and gone." A long swig from the cold beer in your hand at least did something to lessen the sting.

"Well, someone's partying ahead of time."

Red feathers swaying downward in front of your face told you exactly who dared interrupt your pity party for one. You hang your head back and meet eyes with the Winged Hero who only hovers over you with his gaze turned down to meet yours. Any other day you would've been fine with seeing Hawks. You were fellow heroes who worked near and around the same area. And although he seldom needed any kind of help in his neck of the woods, he was always a ray of sunshine to have when in dangerous missions that seemed like too much of a hassle to do alone.

You were both around the same age give or take a few years, and though your reputations weren't near the same caliber, it was obvious from the first mission you had together that you two worked like a charm. 

If only other things worked just as smoothly.

Heaving a sigh, you lift the can of beer and share a weary half-smirk with him. "Hope you're keen of drowning in booze if you're looking to join."

That characteristic smirk of his disappeared and turned into a quizzical frown without a warning as he landed.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh nothin' much." God, you'd only had about half a pack and you were already losing yourself a bit there. Certainly the heartbreak didn't help. "Just mourning how I only seem to catch total pieces of shit with honey is all."

Those golden eyes of his narrowed as if trying to decipher your mess of a sentence before they widened. Hawks approached where you sat and had a seat beside—the narrow space of your condo's rooftop where no fence kept one away from the edge just wide enough for two.

"You went on another date?"

"Yep. And was met by none other than yet another piece of shit."

"What happened?"

You sniffled, the words stuck in your throat as if not wanting to come out due to shame. Relying on Hawks had become more of a constant in your life than you'd like to admit, and he knew this too. Over time it was easy to see that aside from being good coworkers you two considered each other good friends. It was easy to talk to one another and bitch about work or any particular thing when not out catching thugs. All that made it easier to talk to him about the more intimate side of your life and get an inside on how to get a good guy.

But half a year of trying to find somebody with no fucking luck whatsoever had you're hopes running dry that there truly was any good man out there for you. And it wasn't anything new that when things went south, he was the one to answer your calls in the middle of the night. The one that the next day would come with cheap but delicious take-out from the most obscure, small diner he knew and tubs of ice cream to share for dessert over over-the-top comedy movies.

Bad as it sounded, Hawks was your fail-safe. The one constant you could count on that would be there when you needed it. And you knew how fucking horrible that was because he deserved better than to be stuck with your sorry ass. 

Yet you couldn't help telling him. You couldn't break out of that cycle or from that security that he gave you.

By the time you finish telling him what happened, he's already through his third can. You already cracked open your seventh from another six-pack to have for yourself.

"You have the shittiest luck with guys I've ever seen," he says with a slight grimace.

"I wouldn't think it crazy that I was cursed as a baby or something to just die by my lonesome at this point. That would at least explain things."

Hawks leaned forward, his cheek pressing against his knee as he brought his foot to rest on the ledge. His enormous wings cradled the two of you, the tip of the one closest to you holding you back a bit by your hip. You had huffed about it halfway through your story but no matter how much you protested he said he wasn't about to leave an unbalanced drunkard unbuckled on the ledge of a roof. You hated how he babied you now. You were a hero, god damn it, you could take care of yourself just fine, drunk or not. Hawks wasn’t budging anytime soon though and you were too tired to protest much past the first minute or so.

You legs dangled over the edge and the way you swayed them underneath you had your total attention. "Is it really too much to ask for someone who’s not a complete ass? I really don’t want to live the rest of my life alone."

"Is that really so important" he asked.

For you it was.

You'd seen what a great life your parents had had over the years of a long marriage. Through hiccups, they had stayed together to work out their problems and had lived together through it all. They always said one could never live without the other and it was a promise they kept when not days after her mother died, her father followed suit.

That’s the day she learned that sadness was the deadliest kind of killer. And in her case, loneliness wasn’t that far behind. 

More than wanting to avoid being alone, you just wanted to share that kind of love with someone. 

"I never really wanted this life of glitz and glamour that came with being a hero," you admitted through your own thoughts. “But I worked for it because I thought it’d make me happy. It wasn’t until after my parents passed that I realized...sharing life with someone you love is the kind of life I've always wanted. Now that I know what I want all this just seems...hollow.”

“Well...you’ve got me.”

His nonchalant reply had you chuckling. “I don’t think you heard a word I just said.”

“I heard you,” he corrected. “And I meant what I said.”

A sudden heaviness hits you as you turned to face Hawks. He avoids eye contact with you as he lays down on the ice-cold concrete instead, the glare of the rooftop lights hiding his eyes behind his vizor. 

“Whether it’s as friends, or as something more than that, you’re always going to have me.”

Why does he sound so serious? The way he tilted his head to let the glare disperse and finally meet your eyes told you that he was serious. 

Your cheeks suddenly turn a dark color that you hope was hidden well enough in the dark of the night. 

Hawks? Chicken-brained Hawks? 

Now that there wasn’t a possibility that had ever crossed your mind before. At least not seriously. All you guys had ever been was good friends. Sure, the media was always asking if you two were an item from how often you were seen together in and out of work, and you always promptly shot the idea down as soon as it came up, but was there any real merit in it? 

Was there?

No, there couldn’t be. You were comfortable with him, yes, and you really appreciated him for all the times he was there for you, but it just didn’t feel like...being in love. 

At least not the way that you imagined it would be like. But words your father had once told you when you were but a young girl came to mind at searching for the meaning of what ‘being in love’ really was. 

“How did you know mama was the one, papa?”

“When I realized what having her near me felt like.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I suppose we can say it’s a very calming feeling. A very...warm one, too. And I’ve never felt more at peace with myself and who I am than when I’m with your mother. Loving her taught me that...love is truly our one and only peace on earth. And without her, I will never know peace again.”

Peace.  

That’s what your father experienced and what he called love. And...a part of you could tell that you already knew that peace. Feeling so at peace with yourself with another, so comfortable that it’s like you’ve known them all your life—yeah, that was definitely a feeling you were familiar with during long drawn-out movies nights and cheap take-out. 

At the realization, you can’t help but chuckle and wonder how long this dumb bird brain had been hiding this. Or maybe he hadn’t been hiding it at all and you were just too dense and caught up in your dumb search to notice. Still...if this was the path you wanted to go through, it would crumble down walls that had been build through years of your friendship. Walls that would not come back up intact if things didn’t work out if at all. The risk was there but you also knew that something like what your parents had—that kind of loving peace—was worth the risk. 

“You’re so full of yourself, you know that?”

Hawks chuckled. “I’ve been told worse.”

“By who?”

“You, of course. And all have been more than accurate, I’ll tell you,” he said with another chuckle. All those laughs though didn’t last before he became somber. “But I don’t mean to push you into anything; I was just tired of holding it in and watching you get hurt so many times. But if don’t want to, we can just forget what I said and go back to how things were. I won’t hold it against you. And I promise that nothing will change between us.” 

Before you can answer, Hawks stands from his seat. The wing that been caring for you the hold time brushes against your bare arm sending chills down your spine as it pulled you back from the edge ever so slightly. A single feather stays behind as he heads to the door back inside—a gesture of his that he always made a point of making without any words.

A way for you to call him if you needed him, no matter the time or place. 

You hold it by its quill and twirl the feather between your fingers. 

Peace. That’s what you wanted. Mine—no...ours.

Your hesitation lasts only a brief moment when you hear the door finally open and you speak out without thinking. Your voice is just above a whisper but it isn’t him you’re speaking to. Your lips brush against the single feather as you speak and you know that alone stops him in his tracks. 

“A date.” The feather moves ever so slightly and you know you have his attention. Flustered, you try to make an excuse but it ends up as lame as can be. “I mean, only if you’re okay with it! Like you said, I’m not trying to force you either and I don’t know if I’m emotionally ready for another one, but...but if it’s you...I don’t think...I’d mind.”

“How does take-out and a movie sound to you then?” 

His voice reverberates across the space that separates you and forces you to look back at him. Funny how you’ve never noticed how bright his smile could be, or maybe this is the first time you’ve ever seen him smiling like that.

That peace returns and is accompanied by a flutter in your stomach. The good kind. You twirl the feather around as it brushes against your lips every time making your cheeks warm with anticipation. 

“Perfect.”

[jaceyneedsabetterusername]

Can’t Lose You

Pairing: Zuko x Reader

Summary: Y/N, a servant in the palace, and Zuko, the prince of the Fire Nation, never should have been allowed to be friends growing up but after three years, things have changed for the both of them. 

Warnings: Descriptions of burns/ injuries (the scene where Ozai burns Zuko)

Word Count: 7300 (it’s a long one y’all)

A/N: I know that they never once mention cards in A:TLA but I had a hard time figuring out how to do the scene with Azula with something like Pai Sho pieces. 

Part 2 out now! Can’t Get Rid Of Me

________________________________

It was a beautiful day on Ember Island, with the sun shining brightly, the waves crashing in beautiful roars, and the lizard-birds cawing overhead. The sun warmed your skin as you carried your basket full of blown glass beaded jewelry into the marketplace, small glass orbs of every color swishing around like liquid almost in the woven basket. The normal crowd bustled around you in three categories: 1) The Rich Kids: These were the teenagers whose parents were generals or socialites in the Fire Nation military. They were either here on vacation or enjoyed living in an exotic place. Their lives revolved around partying, shopping, and drinking. 2) The Merchants and Artisans: Another set of locals, just much less affluent than the former group. These were the people who lived on Ember Island full time and were the only reason things ran. They provided services from cooking to clothing to furniture. 3) The Tourists: These were the citizens from the mainland that came to Ember Island to take in the sights and relax. You were a part of the second of these categories. 

Creating glass beads was never something you saw yourself doing. Especially not several years ago. Artisanal work was something that seemed so far out of anything you could do. See, you’d grown up in the palace… sort of. Your parents had been servants in the palace prior to your birth which led you to a life of servitude yourself. 

It was a miserable life no matter how much your parents insisted it was better than living in one of the poorer villages outside of the palace, where people were treated like they were from other nations. Every day from the age of eleven, you’d been bossed around by anyone who had a title. “Get me water!” “Get me food!” “Wash my clothes!” “Make my bed!” You were nothing. Most of the time, they didn’t even use your name. Most of them didn’t even know your name. But that wasn’t even the worst of it because there was always Azula. 

**

The sun shone brightly in the little courtyard full of flowers and the little pond with turtle ducks that you and Zuko loved to play with. Zuko had been your best friend since his mother had allowed you to play with the royal children. Both of your parents were servants in the palace and, in the early years of your life, you were too young to work around the castle when you weren't in school. When Ursa found out, she insisted that you play with Zuko, Azusa, Mai, and Ty Lee, despite Ozai's insistence that his children should not associate with people below them. It was the one debate that Ursa ever seemed to win.  

Despite her victory though, it didn't mean that your 'play dates' were much fun. At first, you gravitated towards Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai, as they were the girls and who Ursa first introduced you to with the assumption you guys would be friends. While Mai and Ty Lee both loved you and treated you well, Azula took after her father and treated you like scum. She'd feign niceties and then turn on you and do horrible things. She treated Zuko very similarly so the two of you bonded over your mutual dislike of his sister. 

The two of you became best friends and did everything together. You ran around the halls of the palace but always made sure to hide away from Ozai, fearing he'd do something to you or your parents if he found you with his son. Although nothing was outright romantic between the two of you, Ursa saw the little sparks between you two when she was with you. She noticed the way your guys' little cheeks would burn red if your hands accidentally touched or saw the way your gazes would linger a little longer on each other when the other looked away. Unlike her husband, she had no problem with your little unspoken crushes. Thankfully, Ozai was never involved in his children's personal lives much anyways so he didn't notice but it wasn't long until Azula caught on. 

She would corner you and pretend to want to have "girl talk" about boys and crushes. It was never long until she brought up her brother. "I know you like Zuko. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I think it's cute that you think you have a chance. But you know he's a prince right? And even though you get to play royals with us, he could never marry someone of such low class." Even at ten years old, her words stung. You'd always had little fantasies that maybe he'd sweep you away from your predestined life of servitude one day. He didn't even have to sweep you away to a life of royalty, you just wanted him to sweep you away to anywhere. But maybe Azula was right. Zuko was royalty and you were far from it. 

So your friendship continued for the next several years until his banishment. In secret, he taught you firebending from a young age. As a servant, it didn't matter much if you were a firebender, you didn't get training because your parents neither had the money or the time nor were either benders. He taught you the basic moves and, though he wasn't as skilled as his sister, you were greatly appreciative of his teaching and actually knew almost as much as he did.

One day, just days after your eleventh birthday, you and Zuko sat at the edge of the pond, trying to oure turtle ducklings to you with pieces of bread. "I've almost got him!" Zuko whispered excitedly, the baby duck only two or three feet away. 

You couldn't wait to pet him! They were so soft when they were ducklings! 

"Hey, Y/N! Come here!" Azula called from across the grass field. You stood up and looked cautiously at her, already distrusting all of her motives. 

"Why?" You asked skeptically. 

Her eyebrows furrowed, "My mother may let you play with us but I am still a princess and you obey me! Besides, it's just a card trick." Azula's personality switched quickly, which scared you as a young child, but after a quick look of fear to Zuko, you walked over. 

Mai and Ty Lee stood back, both watching as you came over to their group and leaned down to look at the cards Azula lied on the rock. "What's the trick?" You asked, hoping she really did just have a magic trick. 

She sprawled them out, "Pick one and look at it but don't show me. You can show them though." She waved her hand to her other friends as if they didn't actually matter. Without much thought, you picked one that was buried slightly and looked at it. 8 of diamonds. 

"Now put it anywhere in the deck." You did as she instructed and handed her back the deck. She closed her eyes tightly and threw all the cards up in the air before swinging her arms in controlled movements, ropes of fire coming from her hands. One rope singed a single card from midair while the other wrapped around your calves, sending a searing hot white flash of pain through your body. 

"Y/N!" Zuko yelled when he saw the flames wrap their way up your legs and he ran towards you. You crumpled to the ground, tears falling freely as you cried in pain. Mai and Ty Lee gasped at what their friend had just done but didn't say anything out of pure terror of what she'd do if they did. 

Azula reached down and picked up the single singed card, a hole burnt straight through it. She inspected the card, "Eight of diamonds. Was this your card?" She asked as if you weren't on the ground, sobbing in pain with blisters forming up your legs from something she'd done. 

"Mom!" Zuko called out as he sat there beside your crying form, unsure of what to do or say, anger flaming up within him.

"Oh calm down, Zuzu," Azula rolled her eyes, "Your girlfriend is fine. It's a second-degree burn at most." 

"She's not my girlfriend!" Zuko hissed, throwing a fireball at his sister that she easily dodged, "You're a monster!" 

Ursa came running out quickly at her son's plea for help, "What on earth is going on here?!" She crouched next to you and could see the skin on your legs already boiling up from between the seared tears in your pants, "Azula, what have you done!?" Ursa was furious as she picked you up. 

Azula scoffed, "We were only playing, mother. It was an accident." 

"No it wasn't! Azula hurt her on purpose!" Zuko defended you, jumping up to stand beside his mother. 

Ursa looked at Ty Lee and Mai who looked terrified and didn't even make a move but the look in their eyes confirmed what Zuko said. Ursa held you close to her body before gripping her daughter's wrist roughly, "You have no idea how much trouble you're in." 

And she did. Azula had never gotten in so much trouble in her life, though, of course it did nothing but fuel her hatred for her mother and you and make her side further with her father She blamed you entirely and had harbored resentment against you for having the nerve to return the next day (something you did only because Zuko had begged you to since he wasn't allowed at your house.) Since that day, you never feared her again. You hated her. You didn't think it was possible to hold so much resentment for some as you did for her but you swore one day you'd get your shot to firebend her ass into a pile of ashes without receiving capital punishment, the only thing that kept you even remotely professional over the years. 

**

You shuttered at the thought. The scars that crawled up your calves like vines tingled whenever you thought about that day. It was far from the last time that Azula was ever mean to you but it was the worst thing she’d ever done to you physically. Mentally, well that was another story. 

That was why you’d run away to Ember Island. Even though you too were a fire bender, you could never retaliate against Azula, who took a sick pleasure in torturing you. At one point, you thought it would be worth the inevitable death or imprisonment that was sure to come with retaliation but when you got close, so close that Azula could sense that you were about to fire at her, she brought up your parents, and what she could do to them. It was enough to make you stop that day but it was that night that you left the castle, leaving only a note for your parents to briefly explain before disappearing. With the impending war and attacks, Ember Island seemed like a good enough place to set up. It was far enough away from Azula to be safe but vacationing didn’t seem high on anyone’s priorities list. 

So this was your new life and you loved it. 

The trip to the market was a quick one. You only had to drop off the beads to the artisans who made jewelry from them- you were only the bead maker. The rest of the day was open for you. As you walked back, you came to a split in the road. One, you knew led directly back to the house you were staying at. The other, you couldn’t recall having ever taken in all your time here.

“Let’s see what’s down here.” You hummed to yourself, looking for a little something to change up your routine. This was what you loved about no longer being a maid in the palace. Freedom. Freedom to go where you want, when you want, with who you want, to do whatever you want. The road itself was dirt with the occasional rocks around. It was lined with the large tropical plants found all around the island. At first, there were scattered stores which began to mix with houses before becoming entirely residential. These houses were quite a bit nicer than the houses in the residential area you lived in. Fire Nation flags hung from many of them. “Generals?” You questioned aloud to nobody but yourself. 

Down the road just a bit further, maybe a quarter mile down, the dirt road became much less maintained but there was still a path. After a while of walking, you saw that it led up a small hill to a large house that seemed hidden away from almost the entire island. It was large and beautiful, with traditional architecture built up in red tiles. The walls were practically windows, which you figured would be fantastic considering the wonderful view of the ocean from here. 

The road dead ended into this one home so you knew you should turn around now but the curiosity was killing you. This house looked luxurious but abandoned. The windows, though not broken, were dusty and looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in years. You couldn’t imagine anyone who owned such a magnificent vacation home allowing it to get so dirty unless it hadn't been used in a long time. 

Figuring you probably wouldn't get caught, you decided to check out the house and walked around the building. Heck, if it were abandoned, maybe you could even move in and fix it up. That wouldn’t count as stealing right? 

You wandered around the house until suddenly-

“Guys, someone’s coming!” A girl’s voice exclaimed from the side of the house that faced the beach. Your heart stopped and before you could even jump to hide in a bush, there were running footsteps coming towards you. Within seconds, a group of people about your age were staring at you. 

Your hands flew up in defense, “I am so sorry. I thought the house was abandoned and-” As you spoke, your eyes scanned across the faces until you noticed one in particular that made everything stop, “Z-zuko?” You couldn’t believe your eyes. Your best friend in the world, even after all this time, stood ahead of you, looking so different than you remembered but also exactly the same. His hair that you’d always known to be tied up to perfection and his royal clothing always neatly pressed, a desperate attempt to be as perfect as he could for his father, was now ragged and relaxed. His hair was down, grown long and dangling over his eyes in some spots. His clothing was that of commoners instead of royalty but you couldn’t help but notice the taut muscles and small scars that he’d acquired over the time of his exile. 

“Y/N? Is that really you?” Zuko’s eyes were wide with total shock and his skin paled as if he’d seen a ghost. He honestly never thought he’d see you again but there you stood, looking more beautiful than ever. He almost didn’t even recognize you. All throughout your childhoods, you’d always looked the same, day in and day out. Your hair was always down with the exception of the signature Fire Nation bun and you wore off-red servant’s garbs. But now, now you looked exquisite. Your hair was similar to how it was, still flowing down with the bun on top, save for the two small braids that framed your face. Instead of robes, you now wore a crimson crop top that crossed around your neck with an asymmetrical skirt of the same color over black capris. But the thing he noticed most of all was the gold arm band around your bicep that he’d given you for your birthday the year before he was banished. 

You nodded fervently and almost ran towards him but your knees nearly buckled when you collided. Thankfully, Zuko had his arms wrapped tightly around you, hugging you so tightly he lifted you to your toes anyways. You couldn’t help the overwhelming surge of emotions. Somewhere between relief and love and fear and confusion. When Zuko was banished, you were terrified you’d never see him again.

“How is this possible? Azula told me you were dead.” Zuko finally set you down and looked into your eyes. 

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “What? No… I’m-” You struggled to figure out where to start, “After you were banished, I stayed for another two years but without yours or your mother’s defense, she just got worse and worse. One day, I just- I almost snapped. I could feel the warmth in my hands. I almost attacked her but she began to threaten my parents. Deep down, I knew I couldn’t beat her. I haven’t had a teacher since you left. I didn’t hurt her but I ran away that night. After a while of wandering, I ended up here. I don’t know why she told you I was dead but it sounds like something she would do.” 

Zuko looked away angrily, “She’s always been a monster to you. To both of us. When I went back to the palace, I asked about you and she told me that you’d gotten sick and died shortly after I left. She only said it because she knew I’d be devastated and I fell right into the trap.” 

A part of your heart twinged from the feeling of being loved. Even after all this time apart, in which you were scared he’d forget about you, he just admitted to being devastated when he’d thought you’d died. 

You were unsure of how to respond to the look on Zuko’s face, a strange mixture of anger and relief. Pure bitterness for Azula. After a brief moment, you reached out for him and pulled him in for another hug, again holding onto him like you’d never let him go again. The very thought of losing Zuko another time made your heart jump to your throat in the worst of ways. “I’m here now though. No matter her threats or lies, here we are.” 

“You know her?” A young bald boy with arrows on his head asked from back with the rest of the group. You’d forgotten there were more people there but when you looked back, you noticed the rest of the group. 

Zuko turned to face the group but kept his hand placed on the small of your back, keeping you close to him, “This is Y/N. She was my best friend back at the palace. Y/N, this is Suki, Sokka, Katara, Toph, and Aang. Aang is the avatar.” 

The boy named Sokka looked suddenly distressed, “You’re just going to tell a friend from the Fire Nation palace that Aang’s the avatar?! What if she tries to kill him?” 

You shook your head at the accusation, your eyebrows raised in a desperate attempt to convince them that you were being truthful, “Oh no! I’ve never agreed with the Fire Nation’s goals! If you’re the avatar, you need to stop Ozai.” 

“I can vouch for her. Even when we were kids, she told me in secret that she didn’t believe that there was any superior element and that the Fire Nation shouldn’t be invading the other nations. Even when I did….” Zuko’s face fell with guilt for what his past self believed, “But I promise, if anyone from the Fire Nation would be on our side, it’s her.” 

Suki stepped forward, her face kind and curious, “You said you ran away from the palace? Are you royalty too?” 

You snorted and Zuko actually cracked a small humorous smile as well, “Oh no. A servant actually.” 

“A servant?” Katara questioned, “I don’t mean to be rude but if you’re a servant and Zuko was a prince, how were you friends?” 

Zuko stiffened up a little bit while you tried to hide the sadness you felt revolving around the circumstances, “My parents were the only royal servants to have a child. Zuko’s mother saw that I didn’t have any friends in the palace and allowed me to play with Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee.” The memories of Ursa were all fond. Aside from Zuko, she was the only member of the royal family who treated you with any kindness. When she disappeared, you and Zuko mourned your loss of her together, even though you never did find out the truth about what happened to her that night. 

“You were forced to play with Azula? That must have been traumatizing.” Toph chimed, genuine apology in her sarcastic tone. 

You shifted awkwardly from side to side, one hand shooting up to rub your opposite bicep as those scars that snaked up your calves seemed to burn with awareness, “Yeah, it kind of was.” Your voice was lower than it had been, as the incident had been somewhat of a sore spot for you. 

Katara followed Zuko’s inconspicuously downcast gaze to where your legs were visible beneath your tight black pants that you wore beneath your asymmetrical red skirt. She was automatically hit with a pang of guilt when she saw the ever so slightly raised red vine-like scars that trailed up your legs and disappeared beneath the pants and immediately had an idea of how you’d acquired them. “I’m so sorry. We didn’t mean to-” 

“It’s okay, you didn’t know,” You insisted sincerely, “Besides, they don’t bother me much anymore.” 

Eager to shift the topic, Aang jumped into the conversation, “Well I don’t know if you’ve got a home here or anything but you're welcome to stay with us.” He offered cheerily. Everyone else seemed in agreement, or at least didn't outright object, and how could you possibly say no to getting to spend time with Zuko again? 

"I'd love to. Thank you." 

Later that night, you and Zuko left the group by the campfire to disappear into the house. "So, this is the infamous summer house you'd always leave me for." You chuckled in remembrance, memories of having to watch your best friend disappear for weeks at a time while having to pretend you didn't care for the sake of keeping your friendship 'appropriate', especially after Ursa disappeared. 

"I always wanted to take you here. It's so much different now. Everything's different…" he trailed off, coming to a stop in the middle of a large, mostly empty room. The moonlight streaming from the windows cast a nostalgic shadow on the room and you couldn't help but remember the last time you saw each other. 

**

It was sickening. The entire arena was filled to the brim with people, mostly Fire Nation elite, all surrounding the main floor. Servants weren't supposed to be permitted but Iroh had snuck you in. Iron had taken you in as much as he could, seeing how important to Zuko you were. In a way, you too felt like he was your uncle. When you'd gone to him, begging him to stop the Agni Kai, he insisted that he'd tried to talk sense into his brother but was unsuccessful and that the most he could do to help was sneak you into the audience. 

So there you stood, surrounded by hundreds of animals who cheered for the murder of their thirteen year old prince by a well experienced war general, all because Zuko thought it wasn’t right to sacrifice hundreds of soldiers. “I’m not afraid to face the general,” Zuko had told you as he practiced his firebending with you all day before the Agni Kai, “I meant no disrespect, but I refuse to take back what I said. If this is what it takes, then this is what I’ll do.” 

When Zuko walked out into the open arena, the room went silent. Nobody would dare boo their prince but you were sure that if he were anyone else, they would have. He knelt down, facing away from where his opponent would take his place, staring at the ground. Your heart was in your throat with fear for your best friend. Although Zuko was your secret firebending teacher and much better than you, he had a tendency to crack under the gaze of people he was desperate to impress. The general he was supposed to fight was definitely not someone you’d imagine was one to take it easy on a kid, even if he was the prince. 

Zuko’s opponent came out in the shadows and shadowed his kneel, facing away from Zuko. When it was time, they both stood up and stepped towards each other. When they did, everyone gasped. Where the general was expected to be stood Ozai himself. An audible gasp and murmur ran through the crowd. 

“Oh no-” You stopped breathing entirely, “What’s happening?” Even from your obscured seat, you could see Zuko’s eyes widen in shock and panic. Confliction was written all over his face. 

The man beside you chuckled sadistically, “By speaking out in the Fire Lord’s war room, he has not only disrespected the general but the Fire Lord himself. This should be good.” You turned away from the man in utter disbelief that someone could say something like that about a literal child about to be harmed by his father. 

Ozai stepped forward, hands up and ready to deflect any attacks from his son but the way he moved showed that he didn’t expect his son to make any move. He was testing him and Zuko had failed to impress. Zuko fell onto his knees, shaking in fear. He hung his head low, “Please, father! I only had the Fire Nation’s best interest at heart. I’m sorry I spoke out of turn.” 

“You will fight for your honor.” Ozai continued to step towards him, an unyielding expression on his face. 

“I meant you no disrespect. I am your loyal son.” Zuko begged, laying all of his dignity on the line in front of the nation’s most influential people. 

Ozai wanted no part of it, “Rise and fight, Prince Zuko.” 

Zuko’s forehead laid on the ground as Ozai came to stand above him, “I won’t fight you.” 

His father stood tall and loomed over his small child, “You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.” 

When Zuko looked up, tears streamed down his cheeks, knowing that his father had no consideration of mercy. All you could hear were Zuko’s screams and the roar of flames leaving Ozai’s fist as you watched your friend be brutally burned. Your tears were unstoppable and unconsolable as you genuinely thought he killed Zuko. When the flames stopped, he was on the ground, holding his face and sobbing in pain. Ozai turned his back, something between pride for winning and embarrassment for the way his son reacted to the duel on his face. 

“The way you have behaved during this Agni Kai was more disgraceful than speaking out of turn. You have brought shame on yourself and the royal family. The punishment is banishment. Unless you can capture the Avatar, you are no longer welcome in the Fire Nation.” You gasped at what Ozai had said before he turned away and left, head straight and lips tight.

You began to run and push your way through the crowd, thanking goodness for your smaller stature compared to the adults all around. You had to find Zuko and make sure he was okay. You didn’t care if you’d get caught or in trouble, you just needed to find him. Being a servant had its perks in knowing the palace inside and out. It became obvious that nobody was going to help the prince until, while on your way through the halls, you ran into Iroh who too was looking to help the boy. 

Finally, you’d made your way to him and Iroh carried him to a washroom. You quickly ran over and retrieved a bowl of cool water while Iroh leaned him back. “Pour the water on the burn.” He instructed. 

“Close your eyes.” You told Zuko, although his eyes were already shut tight in pain. The cool water flowed from the bowl and onto his face, which looked red and blistered already. This was by far the worst burn you’d ever seen. Zuko struggled slightly against the liquid but stopped crying and calmed down when the water became soothing. 

Iroh had located bandages and began to bandage his nephew’s face. 

“I-I can’t believe what happened.” Zuko stuttered out, “He banished me.” You weren’t sure you’d ever seen him so pale. “Where do I go, Uncle? What do I do?” He began to work himself up again as the weight of the last hour really settled. 

Iroh turned to put down the gauze, “You must leave the Fire Nation, Prince Zuko,” He began and Zuko looked panicked again, “But I will go with you.” 

You both turned to Iroh, “Uncle, no! You’re whole life is here.” 

“The world is no place for a boy to wander alone. And there is not much here for me in the Fire Nation palace anyways.” You all knew he was referring to the rumors of him being the weaker brother, the disgraced general. “I will accompany you.” 

Zuko placed his hands on his knees and braced himself as he thought through the situation, “I must find the Avatar. It’s the only way to regain my honor.” 

Both you and Iroh looked apprehensive but you were much more vocal, “Zuko, what your father did you today was not what fathers are supposed to do. Someone behaved shamefully today but it was not you.” You insisted, heart aching for him. 

“I need his respect. My honor is the most important thing. I’m going to find the Avatar and when I do, my honor will be restored and I will regain my rightful spot as prince.” Zuko looked pained and troubled. It was clear he knew what he wanted to do but had no idea how he would do it, not that he’d let that stop him though. 

You got quiet, looking down at where his knuckles were turning white from the tight grip on his own knees. Gently, you placed your hand on his and waited for him to look up just enough for you to make eye contact, “I’m going with you then.” You said finally. 

Zuko’s uncovered amber eye met yours before he shook his head, “I can’t let you do that. Your parents are here.” 

“I hate it here.” You insisted desperately, “I’ll come back for them some day but I can’t leave you. You’re the only person that cares about me here.” 

Iroh placed his hand caringly on your shoulder, “Zuko is right, Y/N. This is his journey but I do not think it’s yours. It’s best if you stay.” 

“But… but…” The tears were threatening to spill over as you managed to choke out, “I can’t lose you.” 

There was barely a moment between when the words left your mouth and when Zuko’s lips met yours. At first, you were taken off guard and almost pulled back but when your brain registered what happened, you leaned into the innocent kiss. Your brain ran wild. Was this heat of the moment or had he really felt the same way you did? When he pulled away, you felt cold, “I’ll come back for you one day. I promise.” 

** 

“So, speaking of different, you sure look like a different Zuko than the one I knew. Last I heard around the palace, you were super intense and obsessive about finding the avatar.” You asked, teasing towards the end. 

Zuko inhaled awkwardly, his hand coming to rub behind his neck, “Yeah… I was. Until I realized that my father was a monster and that the Fire Nation had caused nothing but harm and destruction. It took a lot of convincing but they actually let me join them and become Aang’s firebending teacher.” He gestured back to the group who was all laughing, most likely at something Sokka said. 

“Well, he’s got the best teacher around.” You giggled, hitting his arm gently. 

Zuko turned to look at you, “What about you? Things look pretty different for you too.” 

A boulder sat just ahead of you, perfect for the two of you to use as a seat. You leaned back against the stone and Zuko did the same beside you. “Well, when I left the palace, I didn’t know where to go. But then I remembered you telling me about Ember Island and figured that it was far enough away to get me away from Azula but still in the Fire Nation so I wouldn’t have to create a whole new identity. When I got here, I saw an old lady struggling to make it to the market and asked if she needed help. Turns out she’d been making glass beads for years and needed an apprentice. After spending the day together, we ended up striking up a deal. She’d teach me how to make the beads in exchange for room and board. So this is where I’ve been for the last year.” 

Zuko sighed, “I really did mean to come back for you.” 

You exhaled heavily. It had been a sore point for you for a while. You waited for him for two years, over which Azula told you lies about him being killed or disappearing. It was just another fuel for her mental abuse. “I honestly was really angry about it for a long time. But-” 

“No, you had every right to be. But believe me when I tell you it was probably best that you didn’t come. Searching for the Avatar made me someone I didn’t recognize. I became a monster.” He looked away from you, most of the last three years worth of misdoings coming back to haunt him. 

You squeezed his hand, “I doubt you were as bad as you think you were and I’m sure Iroh would tell you the same. Where is Iroh anyways?” 

He sank even deeper, “Another one of my many mistakes.”

Your heart immediately dropped, “Is he…?

Zuko shook his head, “No, no. He’s alive. I’m just sure he hates me.” 

“Zuko, I don’t think you could do anything that would actually make your uncle genuinely hate you. That man holds so much love and respect for you.” Iroh’s love and devotion to Zuko was undeniable and you weren’t lying when you said that there was probably nothing that would make Iroh’s feelings change. 

“I hope you’re right.” Zuko looked off into the distance before looking back at you, “But for what it’s all worth, I’m really glad to see you again.” 

A smile blossomed on your face, “I’m really glad to see you too. I missed you so much.” Even after all the years, it felt as if no time had passed. He was still your Zuko. 

You hadn’t realized that the gap between your bodies had closed to just a mere inch or two until you found yourself leaning your head onto his shoulder without thinking about it. Zuko stiffened up a little bit at the contact, looking around paranoid. He knew logically that there was nothing saying you two couldn’t be friends - or more - anymore. But his gut reaction was to be on his guard, just like when you were children, trying to hide your frowned upon friendship. 

Zuko had always looked back fondly on those memories while he was banished and not one day went by when he didn’t think about you.

**

Iroh walked onto the deck of the large ship to see his nephew standing against the railing and staring into the distance over the ocean. It was like he had the sixth sense for his nephew, always able to see what was going on in his head better than Zuko did. Iroh approached the prince and stood just behind his shoulder, “You’re thinking about Y/N again?” He asked, though it really was more of a statement. 

Zuko looked back over his shoulder towards his uncle, “I just wish I knew she was okay. She’s stuck there with Azula and you already know what she’s done to her! But now I can’t protect her. I should have let her come so I’d know she’s safe.” He looked away angrily, hanging his head, upset with how he’d handled everything. 

“You care for her, Prince Zuko.” Iroh began before getting interrupted by the eager and emotional prince. 

“Of course, I care for her! She’s my best friend.” Zuko had never really had any other real friends. Sure, Mai and Ty Lee were cool when they weren’t around his sister but none of them were you. 

Iroh could see the conflict in the boy’s eyes, “But you care for her as more than that, don’t you?” 

Zuko’s eyes widened. It shouldn’t have come as a shock to him but hearing his secret feelings spoken aloud finally felt like it was actually real. With anyone else in the world, he would have denied it but Iroh was different. “We can never be together.” Zuko confessed, heartbroken all over again. This was why he didn’t admit it to himself. 

“Why’s that?” Iroh asked, as if the answer weren’t obvious like it was to you and Zuko. 

His face scrunched with distress, “Because I’m a prince and… well she’s not even the daughter of a general. I don’t care about her wealth or status but it’s not allowed.” 

“Well, lucky for you, for once, you’re banished. I don’t think anyone would care much if you were to be with her now.” Iroh pointed out. 

Zuko groaned, “I’m not even allowed into Fire Nation territory let alone the palace. I’d never be able to take her away like this. I need to find the Avatar, have my honor restored, and then I’ll find her again and I’ll never let her go.” 

“True love will find a way, Prince Zuko. Remember that happiness and love is more important in this world than titles.” 

** 

Now, you were beside him, your head unashamedly laying on his shoulder and was it his imagination or was your leg touching his now? Zuko cleared his throat, “Y’know, I can’t help but think about how we left things off three years ago,” You shifted to look up at him when he spoke. 

You knew he was talking about the kiss - that one forbidden kiss that had haunted your lips since he left. It had consumed many of your nights as well. “I think about it too. A lot.” You confessed, much less embarrassed than you ever would have imagined. 

Zuko tried to hide the little jump in his chest when he heard the way you agreed, like it wasn’t a bad memory but far from it. “You do?” 

You nodded with a warm smile on your face (or maybe it was just your cheeks burning from the confessions), “I liked you for so long, of course it was something to remember.” 

“Liked?” Zuko questioned nervously, “As in past tense?” 

“Yeah, as in past tense.” You began and Zuko’s heart dropped. 

“Oh…” 

“‘Cause now… I think- I think I fell in love with you a long time ago.” You looked up directly into his eyes, heart in your throat as you waited for a response. 

Zuko’s jaw dropped in disbelief and he stuttered over his words, “There wasn’t a single day I didn’t want to come back and take you away so we could be together.” 

You and Zuko stared into each other’s eyes as the weight of what was being said sunk in. Everything felt heightened right now, like else in the world mattered but Zuko. All you could see and hear and feel was him from his scent of woody spices and smoke to the way the moonlight reflected off his perfect skin - scar included. You could literally feel the warmth radiating from his body, a warmth you had a feeling hadn’t been there in a long time. 

“What’s there to stop us from being together now?” In all the futures you’d imagined with Zuko, this wasn’t really a scenario you’d thought of. The two of you sitting on a rock at Zuko’s family summer house after years of not seeing each other- Zuko, a banished and disgraced prince and you, a former servant runaway- but now seeing each other without the shroud of all the barriers of titles and statuses. 

Your lips had already been dangerously close when you were talking, making the ever so slight move inwards to close the gap feel effortless. The question you’d posed was responded to with a long, deep kiss. Zuko’s lips had changed so much since the last time you’d kissed them. The smooth soft lips that had lingered in your memory were now rougher and slightly chapped, weathered from years of hard work like the rest of him, though still soft enough to be familiar. 

Zuko’s hand came up to rest on the point where your jaw met your neck to guide your lips to his just ever so slightly deeper. He was lost in you, in your lips, in your scent, in your tase, in your touch. This moment was everything he’d dreamed about almost every night on his quest for the Avatar. Like everything else, this felt so different yet so familiar. 

Finally, you pulled away and this time you didn’t feel guilty or immediately look over your shoulder. You got to just be with Zuko. It was as if you were entranced by him, unable to take your eyes away. If you could’ve picked one moment to last forever, this would be it. 

That was until Zuko sighed and turned his face away, “There’s a war.” 

“So we’ll fight together.” Your hand that was still on his squeezed tightly. 

Zuko turned back to you and gripped your other hand, holding them close to his body, “Losing you the first time was hard enough. I can’t lose you again, Y/N.” 

You swallowed hard, “I know I’m not the most skilled Fire Bender in the world but that doesn’t mean I can’t hold my own. I don’t plan on dying in this war and you better not be planning on it either.” 

“That’s not what I mean. I just… I love you Y/N,” He confessed, his typical Zuko-esque flusteredness creeping into his tone, “But now after knowing you feel the same way and knowing what we could be, I just don’t know if I could handle risking losing my best friend and the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.” 

Your breath abandoned you when those three words left his lips, I love you. They were the three words you’d dreamed of hearing him tell you for years. But now he was using them as an excuse to not be with you. “I love you too, Zuko. I’ve loved you for so long. But what difference does it make if we fight this war as a couple or as friends? If we love each other, the pain of losing the other would be the same.” 

Zuko’s gaze fell to where your fingers were interlaced and he brought them up to his chest, looking at the contrast of his larger calloused hands to your smaller, slightly softer ones. “I can’t lose you.” He repeated, closing his eyes, but this time it sounded like a final decision. 

You pulled your body closer to his, your intertwined hands pressed between your chests, as you looked up at him, “Then don’t push me away.” Your plea was low, barely above a whisper, but by the way Zuko looked, you could tell it had some affect. “Please, let us do this together.” 

Zuko found it difficult to argue with you because it was like arguing with himself. You were the vocalization of everything he wanted deep down. “Okay,” He answered finally, “But only if you help me rebuild the Fire Nation when it's all over. Together.” 

[travllingbunny]

I was thinking about something... Am I the only one who thought while watching 7x08 of The 100, the backdoor pilot Anaconda "Did Jason Rothenberg write Bill Cadogan as a more charismatic and more powerful self-insert?" Maybe subconsciously? Maybe that was one of the reasons why that episode was well-written, he was writing about something he knows a lot about. I noticed the similarities of the Cadogan family dynamics to the Lightbourne family dynamic from a season before (such as both men being called out for being megalomaniacs/narcissists).

It also strikes me that all the main villains of the last 2 seasons have been megalomaniac privileged white men - Bill Cadogan, Sheidheda, Russell Lightbourne. And even in the other season - we can add the two Wallaces (and the Wallace family dynasty was referenced in Anaconda, too, with the mention of President Wallace’s administration). In season 5 the most villainy villain was McCreary, as a sociopathic manchild who destroyed the Earth because he couldn't have it all for himself. In the entire show, the human Big Bads of all seasons have been entitled white guys. (The other Big Bads were a computer program and a nuclear disaster, and season 1 didn’t have an overall main villain but many minor ones.)

I normally wouldn’t find anything strange about that - it’s an obvious and safe choice for a villain - but the specific character traits of the megalomaniac, egotistical, power-obsessed and entitled white men of these last couple of seasons and especially season 7 and Cadogan, have really made me think that there may be something subconscious going on there on Rothenberg’s part (probably not intentionally, as that would entail way too much self-awareness).

And there’s also another pattern I’ve noticed this season in particular (though it did not start this season, but now it’s really been maximized). When I wrote my review of 7x12, I was still giving the show the benefit of the doubt and trying to find the positives as well as the negatives, but there was something that had been making me increasingly uncomfortable throughout the season, and I couldn’t help mention that the show finished the last season with the Brainwashed into a Cult Jordan storyline, which was then dropped and ignored in season 7, but only to be replaced by the Indoctrinated into a Cult storyline for another man of color, this time the show’s second protagonist/male lead. 

There is pattern of men of color constantly being portrayed as followers, manipulated and/or brainwashed, usually by white male villains. Even those MOC who still have a mind of their own and aren’t background characters (I think that’s only Gabriel at this point) are not leaders. (Gabriel may do his own thing, but he’s not in charge and agreed to be a Disciple.)

Jordan was brainwashed last season by an annoying Devout guy, a minor character called Trey . That didn’t end up having consequences  except for Jordan spouting pro-Prime propaganda and getting hated by the fandom, and was retconed/ignored/dropped in season 7, except for Jordan continuing to be manipulated by the Devout (Trey and Alyssa) and Sheidheda (as Russell).

But after dropping that storyline, the show had Bellamy - who was a leader and a damn good one - indoctrinated into a cult and a follower of Cadogan. Then murdered. I really don’t want to talk anymore about that horrible plot and death scene. I was deeply uncomfortable with the plot to begin with, but was hoping that the show would do something that makes sense and is respectful to Bellamy’s character. My ideal version was that his friends and particularly Clarke get through to him and he realizes that individual love is not bad, but that his visions and beliefs weren’t entirely wrong, and that he turns his back on Cadogan and his interpretations of it. We know how that worked out.

Nelson was a leader, but was manipulated and used by Sheidheda in a way that didn't even make sense, preying on Nelson’s emotions and impulsiveness. Later murdered. 

Sheidheda’s main follower was Knight of Sangedakru. There were some minor hints he may have been rethinking his loyalty and fans speculated he may turn, but nope.

Reese Cadogan was the child loyal and subservient to Bill, desperate for his father’s approval. And Bill thinks he may have been killed by his sister (because he can't imagine another reason he didn't bring him the Flame - in his mind, he couldn't have possibly broken away from his influence). 

Miller and Jackson are background characters, in spite of having been on the show since season 1. Miller's most important arc in the last few seasons was having been a loyal follower or Blodreina. Jackson spent most of his time in the previous 6 seasons as Abby’s sidekick.

Even if we go back to previous seasons... Not to go over the minor characters like Shumway (season 1 minor villain- a follower of Diana Sidney, manipulated and murdered by her). But even Jaha, who was a strong leader, love him or hate him, was a brainwashed follower of ALIE for a full season.

Monty and Lincoln were characters of integrity, but were never put in charge. Lincoln was also a brainwashed slave/monster for half a season - but at least he got to get a revenge on his brainwasher Cage Wallace. Then he got murdered the next season. 

I’d have thought Bellamy was an exception once the show seemed to have stopped trying to impose the idea he was a “follower” and let him be a really good leader in the later seasons.... And then season 7 happened.  (I used to argue the line about him being a “follower” rather than a leader was just something a villain used to taunt him and that was not meant to be gospel truth, but guess what, the latest season has decided to confirm that ALIE!Raven’s taunting was indeed the truth, including that about Clarke being poison to everyone close to her and bringing them all death...)

The only exception was Pike, and he was made to be more hated than any of the white villains who were much worse in terms of motivations, actions and having a sympathetic qualities/backstory to explain their actions.

[bloomyn]

you can be the cherry on top

Helloo! If its okay can I request prompts 16 and 27 from the random prompts with Ushijima where the reader introduces some spontaneity into his life, teaches him to take risks and go off a routined lifestyle like going for a drive at 2am to a convenience and like cheating a game at an arcade or something ? And he actually kinda enjoys the thrill of going out of his comfort zone and wants to get to know her more ! Thankyouu srry if it doesnt make sense😊

pairing: ushijima wakatoshi x reader

tags: fluff, strangers to friends to lovers, breaking records ; fixing hearts, learning to live a little

warnings: none

tendou screeched.

“wakatoshi! you’re never going to beat the high score.”

olive - colored eyes narrowed, focusing on the screen in front of him. it was stupid game, nothing more than something he would’ve played as a child but it was the score board that ticked him off. 

1. ‘ur mom’

2. ushijima

3. ushijima

4. ushijima

5. miracle boy sa to ri!!!!

“wakatoshi let’s head back to the dorms. it’ll be fine, you can’t beat the high score so what.” 

the taller man scowled.

-

you’ve grown to hate the oak brown of the desk in front of you. the imitation wood has glared at you every second of everyday for the past three years and you might throw up if you have to look at them for another second. when you drop your forehead against the desk no one pays mind, you’re sure their all bored out of their minds too. it doesn’t help that the sickly gray walls of the classroom love to tease the tangerine sunlight that’s blocked by the thick window curtains. 

being a teenager is horrible. 

being a teenager stuck in a classroom with possibly the most boring people in the world is catastrophic. 

you could care less about modern japanese literature, you’re more worried about the sweat that’s pooling under your arms and the back of your thighs and..have they fixed the ac in your dorms yet?

outside of the window you could see a student jogging, it wasn’t surprising, he was always there. purple tracksuit, you had called him, always the same outfit at the same time, every single day.

how boring

-

“[l/n] please do not take my advice lightly, entrance exams are coming up and it is very important that-”

you nodded your head, “yes sensei i know, trust me, i’ll figure it out!”

your homeroom teacher sighed. “just, please. shiratorizawa wants to make sure that all our students succeed.”

plastering on a fake smile you started stepping backward slowly, “yep, mhm, i understand.”

“just go.”

“thank you bye bye!”

you rushed out of the hallway, passing through the classrooms and out of the gates of shiratorizawa academy. thankfully, the streets were pretty much empty save for the occasional student or cat making their way down the street. 

the arcade was visible for miles. blinding lights that lit up the block and the smell of sweaty seats that lingered for ages. 

yum.

 you waved a hello to the attendant and made your way to the back, searching for your high score (you couldn’t help it, seeing ‘ur mom’ on top the scoreboard was almost intoxicating), only to find a boy (man? maybe.) pounding harshly at the keys. you almost wanted laugh, watching this mountain of a man get so frustrated at what was no more than a child’s game. 

“you good there buddy?” you teased, making your way next to the boy. he only grunted in response, his fingers wrapping tighter around the consoles and eyes narrowing themselves, focusing solely on the screen in front of him. 

leaning against the side of the game you sighed, pretending to flick dirt out from your fingertips. 

“you know,” you drawled lazily, “ i have the high score.”

the boy froze, you could practically see his back stiffening at the sound of your words. a cold chill ran down your spine at the mere sight of his face (or more specifically the look on his face).

on the screen the “game over” flashed loudly, displaying the score board, and by the consecutive list of ‘ushijima’ underneath ‘ur mom’...

“oh, are you ushijima?”

he nodded stiffly. “you have the high score. how?”

you grinned cheekily, ignoring his obvious disbelief and disgruntlement, “wanna watch me play? i’ll blow your score out of the water. i promise.”

ushijima smirked, “show me.”

you started the game up, playing just as usual, you know; following the rules. behind you ushijima crossed his arms. you weren’t doing anything special, in fact he was pretty sure you were moving slower than him how could---

and with a quick flick of your fingers in an unknowable combination, the screen was cleared of the ‘bad guys’, and “NEW HIGH SCORE!’ bounced around on the screen. you licked your lips, whipping around to see his reaction and oh, it was so much better than you’d expected. 

“good game right?”

slowly, the taller man closed his eyes, “how?”

should you tell him the truth? you wondered. it’d be so much more fun if you lied instead; leaving him frustrated and flustered over your effortless ability to wreck his scores. 

“cheat code.” you breathed lazily, “it works for a lot of games actually, it’s really common.”

“you...cheated?”

you almost rolled your eyes, “it’s just a game ushijima, don’t tell me you haven’t cheated at a game before?”

his silence spoke for him.

had this man had any fun ever? at all? even a little?

“come on ushi-kun, live a little why don’t you.”

your persistence was refreshing. maybe it was because he had only just met you and you had no idea who or what he was like that you would push him like this. he knew was blunt, there was no point in lying or drawing the truth out. but you seemed to be immune to that. 

so he held out his hand, asking for the coin.

“i can try to be more exciting.”

besides him you blew air out of your lips, “ i don’t want you to try and be more exciting, just like,” you paused, looking him up and down. “what do you do for fun?”

“volleyball.”

“and when you’re not playing volleyball...”

“i’m at school.”

you really had to think of different response besides groaning. begrudgingly you held out your hand.

“come on.” you huffed.

tentatively ushijima placed his hands in yours. “will i regret this?”

“i’d be insulted if you didn’t”

-

so you were breaking into your own school. well, it wasn’t exactly breaking, just sneaking into the closed volleyball gym. 

“it’s locked.”

rolling your eyes you shoved your hands around in your pockets, hoping that somehow you’d have a bobby pin, and voila! you smirked, whispering a ‘got it!’ before jamming it into the lock. 

“this would be a lot easier with a key.”

suppressing the fattest eye roll you could possibly think of you turned around, 

“obviously it-- oh.”

behind you ushijima held up a single bronze key, matching the same company as the one on the lock. oh.

“you play for the volleyball team?”

he nodded.

“wait you go to this school?”

-

this was not fun anymore. holy shit this was not fun.

a screech left your throat as you dodged another one of ushijimas serves. you thought volleyball was all fun and games, this was a nightmare. 

“i thought you wanted to play?” he quirked, tossing the ball up one more time.

“yeah, play. not die!”

you dove to the floor barely dodging the ball. on the other side of the net ushijima was smiling, laughing almost. 

at least one of you was having fun. 

-

“god ushijima do you enjoy torturing yourself?”

ushijima tossed a towel to you, while continuing to sip from his water bottle. 

“hm?”

grimacing, you wiped the sweat from your forehead onto the towel. 

‘geez, this guy hasn’t even broken a sweat’ 

“why volleyball?” you breathed softly.

“my father taught me how, he used to play for shiratorizawa.”

you nodded along, “that’s cool.”

an icky silence spread over the two of you as cooled of from your unintentional work out. you smiled to yourself, it was fun though, even if your bones seemed to be in danger. 

“something wrong?”

you blinked a couple times before looking up. had you accidentally made a face? (your mother had made it point to call you out whenever that ‘pinched look’ arrived) 

“no? what do you mean?”

this time you were frowning, but of course ushijima didn’t notice (or simply just didn’t care).

he set his water bottle down, “you look disappointed.”

scoffing you tossed the towel back to him. “i’m not.”

“i don’t believe you.”

this man. 

so you shrug. “ i don’t know, just feels like the day has so much potential and instead i’m going to end up laying by myself in a dorm where the ac doesn’t work.”

“it’s only 7:22.”

you sighed, “yeah but it’s too late to do anything and too early to go back to the dorms.”

in his mind ushijima had two options:

1. leave and maybe never talk to you again

2. stay and, not have any regrets about what you were going to do or if you were going to do anything because he wanted to be there, not to be with you, but to have fun, yeah to have fun, he needed to have more fun. 

“come with me.”

-

ideally ushijima would’ve whisked away in his new car and driven you into the sunset while listening to your ‘don’t cry just vibe’ playlist. 

unfortunately the two of you were broke third years who had no form of personal transportation and had to worry about missing volleyball practice the next morning. 

so you were on the train. 

“ushijima where are we even going.”

he hadn’t given you an answer for at least 15 minutes prior to asking so you jabbed a finger into his chest.

“answer me.”

peering down at your figure he nodded his head. “i can’t tell you.”

already you were starting to receive some stares from the others from the train so you dropped the subject. i mean you had been the one to tell him to live a little. god he didn’t even know your name! he wasn’t gonna kidnap you, no, but he could! especially with those serves--

“we’re here.”

-

“i only come here during school breaks but, i figured now might be an appropriate visit.”

the moon hung heavy over the dips and curves of the hills. the small lights flickered in and out, lanterns most likely, setting the scene. wonderful. 

“well.” you huffed, “aren’t we just full of surprises today.”

smiling at your words, ushijima motions upward.

“step there. you’ll have a better view.”

ah, so he was going to push you off the cliff and they would never find your body. that’s how this was going to go down. 

“just so you know ushi - kun, if any murderers coming running at us--” you take his hands, wiping a fake tear off your face, “i would die for you, i would sacrifice, my life so you could escape.”

“you just met me.” he deadpans.

stepping up on the rocks you extend your arms out. wind swept underneath them, the sounds of the hills working in tandem, your mind was gone, too absorbed in the view.  “i know.”

-

“does it still feel like a waste?” 

this time you shook your head, “here with you? absolutely not.”

-

two weeks later:

“you stole a car.”

those are the first words he speaks when he finally sees you again. after your little moment at the hills you’d disappeared for two weeks. he was starting question your existence. but here you, waiting for him at the front of the school swinging car keys between your fingers.”

“technically,” you start, “it’s my aunt’s and i’m just borrowing it.” 

you can’t describe the look he’s giving you. you can but, it wouldn’t accurately describe whatever he was feeling. “so are you getting in or what.”

“i have volleyball practice.”

you hold up the little bronze you’ve stored in your pocket. “not anymore you don’t”

-- he forgets to ask if you even have your license yet. (it’s fine, it’s you we’re talking about)

.

.

.

you don’t immediately start dating after that. it takes three more spontaneous tokyo roadtrips and six almost ushi - abductions for him to ask you out. and when he does, you beat him to the punch. 

“well.” you say, poking his chest a bit. “who else am i gonna drag to the arcade at 3 in the morning?”

(he says yes.)

[makbarnes]

Chapter 5

Turning over in your bed you tucked your face into a solid warm mass. Looking up you see Bucky was laying still next to you asleep. Feeling his arm tighten around you, Bucky lets out a little whine. Bucky had stayed most nights after learning how close Loki was to reaching you. Dating your best friend apparently had its perks. He had access to your phone number and where you lived, so Bucky took the opportunity to stay with you more. Even though there had been no attempts to contact you. But your nerves were everywhere, being cautious to not get Tatum upset and being vigilant about your surroundings. Kissing Bucky’s upper arm you felt him kiss your head.

“Let’s go back to sleep.” Bucky pulled you on top of him, sighing heavily and you buried your face into his neck.

“You and I both know we can’t do that. Tatum is always up within an hour of me being up.” Bucky grumbled in his throat a little while you tried to pull the covers off of you two. Feeling the cold metal arm wrap around you, you shivered a little and attempted to pull away from him.

“Bucky, I have to get up.” You put your hands behind him and pushed yourself off of the bed. Pulling down your tank top you walked toward the doorway and chewed your lip while winking at Bucky before moving into the main room. Bucky laid his head down and got up, pushing his mid length hair back. Leaning against the wall he smirked at you.

“Were you just teasing me?”

“Not at all.” You said smirking back at him while scooping some coffee into the pot. Bucky moved over to you and turned you to face him.

“I have to go shower and change. I’ll be back later.” Kissing you Bucky left your apartment and you smiled widely. Pressing the button on the coffee machine you pilfered around your kitchen trying to find something quick to eat before Tatum got up. Finding nothing you headed back to your room and made the bed before slipping on some jogging pants along with a regular T-shirt. Quietly checking on Tatum you heard your phone start to ring and hoped it wasn’t your firm calling you again. Rushing to your room you quickly pressed the answer and held it up to your ear.

“Hello?”

“Are you still mad at me?” Felicity's voice cracked a little, knowing that she was either crying or about to cry.

“I guess not, I know how hard it is to resist Loki’s charms.”

“Yeah. Haha, I guess.”

“What’s wrong?” Felicity sniffled and you pushed back your hair.

“Nothing. Why?”

“Felicity, I know when you are crying. What is it?”

“I was just thinking and you know how my mind is. It goes places.” Felicity had struggled with depression and anxiety for six years. She had been placed in horrible ones, and after her mom's death three years ago, it had gotten worse. Her family kept bothering her about it so she dropped contact with them about a year ago. You two had lost touch but reconnected when you moved to Brooklyn and ran into her. You two knew everything about each other and could tell when the other was upset.

“Well, as long as you don’t bring Loki over here You can gladly come. I’m sure Tatum can cheer you right up.”

“I actually haven’t seen Loki since yesterday, he went out for a drink last night after I got home and hasn’t been back since.”

“He’ll turn up. But my offer still stands.”

“I have to do some things, can we reschedule?”

“Always do.” You heard a click and sat down your phone, hearing the coffee machine beep you headed back to the kitchen and poured yourself some coffee. Your hand was shaking more than usual at the news of Loki being somewhere and maybe being drunk at the same time. Drinking your coffee silently you went back to Tatum’s room and saw she was waking up.

____________________________________________________________________________

Later in the day Bucky and Tatum were playing on her little mat while you were fixing something for lunch. Tatum was laughing at Bucky’s voices he was making and you watched them bond. Hearing a small knock at the door you put down the knife you were chopping vegetables with and wiped your hands before heading over to the door. Smiling at Tatum you opened the door and felt your heart stop.

“Where is she?!” Loki screamed at you from the hallway.

“Bucky, take Tatum to her room…” Bucky picked her up on his hip and walked towards the door.

“Why?”

“Bucky, stay in her room with her…” Your voice was shaky and nervous around him. Bucky followed your order and swept Tatum off to her room. But not without Bucky seeing him.

“I don't know who that ignorant oaf of a man is, but if he knows what's best for him he will let go of my daughter. Now!” Loki pushed past you and headed toward Tatum’s room.

“Loki! Stop! That oaf is my boyfriend, he is not ignorant and he will not let her go. He is protecting her from your ass. You have no right to call her your daughter. You left us, Loki! Fucking left! I have raised her by myself for four years without you. Bucky has been a huge help for not only me but with Tatum. She adores him.” Your face red from shouting you had moved in between him and Tatum’s room. He backed away from you a little and you proceeded by moving forward, getting him as far away from Tatum’s room as possible.

“You would trust the princess of Asgard to a bionic freak show of a stranger more than you'd trust her with her own father? How the high and mighty have fallen...you aren't as righteous as you pretend to be are you, {Y/N}? Tatum deserves to know her birthright, she is above you both.” Clutching your fists together tightly you pushed back your hair before pacing a bit.

“I have not fallen, I am not pretending to be something I am not.I am still the same person that fell in love with you and had your child. She will know her birthright but only when she is old enough to understand what you did to me and her. Besides, it's not like you will ever be the king again, because the only way you were ever king was because your brother was banished. She is not above her own mother and she is not above Bucky either.” While you and Loki yelled at each other Bucky was cradling Tatum in his arms while she shook a little.

“Why is Mommy screaming? I don’t like it.” Tatum curled into Bucky more as her eyes started to tear up.

“Shh, She will stop soon.” Bucky looked down to see that Tatum had changed into the full blue color from last week. Shit… Bucky got up and set her in her bed.

“Do you want Mommy?” Tatum shook her head and Bucky dashed out of her room into the main room where you were with Loki.

“Watch who you're talking to, you vacuous excuse of a wench.” Loki’s hand went across your face, hard. Feeling blood rise to the surface you touched the spot before bringing your fingers down to see blood.You were about to react back before feeling Bucky grab your hand.

“Where is she?”

“In her room and you need to go to her now.” Your eyes went wide and rushed off leaving Bucky with Loki. Checking behind him Bucky approached Loki slowly. Gripping Loki’s throat with his metal arm, Bucky pushed him up against the wall.

“You ever touch her again, I will kill you without hesitation…”

“Eheh...you're just as bad, whoring around with something that belongs to me. I'm a god you mongrel, you and your scrap metal will never compare. Hit me if that makes you angry, but I won't be the only thing you hit when it's my name on her lips in the middle of the night.” Bucky was fueled with rage as he lifted Loki into the air and threw him onto the ground. Bucky picked up a knife from the table and held it against Loki’s throat.

“I will slit your throat right here. She belongs to nobody and she will never utter your name, unless it is while she is beating the shit out of you.” Bucky pressed the knife to his throat with more pressure letting it break the skin. While they had been duking it out in the main room you had Tatum in your arms trying to calm her down but it wasn’t working. She was sobbing into your shirt and you knew that having Bucky there along with you would make it better. Regretting your decision you held Tatum close to you and carried her softly down the hall. Peeking around the corner you saw Bucky let go of Loki and he touched his neck. Loki was about to jump on Bucky when you walked out with Tatum. Bucky rushed over to you and kissed your forehead, making sure Loki saw. Tatum’s eyes locked on Bucky’s and she tucked herself into your chest. Her whole body was still blue as ever and Loki’s face was pale.

“I think you need to leave now, Loki.”

“Oh I'm not going anywhere. Look at her...that is my heritage coursing through her veins. You have no idea how to properly care for a child this gifted, but I can help her. Teach her. She deserves to not live in fear the way I did, to not hate herself. I think being raised around her sibling will help, I will teach and raise both my heirs into the nobility they were born to be. Don't deny her that.” You looked at him in disgust.

“No, I know how to handle this Loki, She will embrace it and she won’t hate herself either. She is perfect and beautiful. It may be your heritage but she is my child, we gave you the chance to stay but you left. I can raise her perfectly fine after all she is my child and I have an amazing boyfriend to help me.” You handed Tatum over to Bucky and he rocked her while whispering calming things into her ear. You walked forward to Loki until he was backed into a wall, Taking his shoulder in your hands your breath hitched.

“But I will tell you this. If you leave Felicity with your child like you did me. You might need to find another realm to live in, Because you break her I break you.” Loki felt a little defeated, seeing how strong you had become from the last time you two spoke. As you went back to Tatum Bucky handed her to you and he walked over to the door, opening it.

“Get out…” Bucky gritted through his teeth while he pointed out into the hall. Loki stood in the doorway feeling a tear fill his eyes.

“{Y/N}..”

“Go away.” You uttered silently before going into your bedroom cuddling Tatum. By this point she had calmed enough to make half of herself change back, while the other was still blue. Hearing Bucky shut the door and lock it he came over to you and examined your cut. Bucky went to your bathroom and grabbed a small first aid kit, coming back and sitting next to you. Wincing at the cleaning wipe you cuddled Tatum closer to you. Bucky wiped a small tear that was wiping down your face.

“If you start crying, Tatum will get more upset.” Bucky finished cleansing to wound and put a small bandaid on it. You laid down on your neat bed and he moved himself next to you and wrapped an arm around your waist. Smiling down at Tatum you kissed her head while she clung to you.

“I have to call Felicity…”

“It can wait.” Bucky kissed behind your ear and you scooted into him. This was only the beginning of Loki wanting Tatum as his own.

NEXT CHAPTER

SERIES MASTERLIST

[the-sarcastic-trashmouth]

No longer just the two of us

Pairing: Eddie Kaspbrak x Richie Tozier

Summary:

That night, after washing dishes and getting showers, Richie was crawling into bed. Eddie was already fast asleep due to the stress he’s been through. Richie leaned down, smacking a kiss to Eddie’s cheek before he pulled Eddie back against his chest. He loved being the big spoon because having Eddie in his arms made all the struggles he’s faced worth it.

Eddie immediately turned around in his arms before burying his face into Richie’s chest, causing Richie’s face to flush red. He smiles before leaning forward and pressing his lips to Eddie’s forehead before placing another one on his temple.

“You are going to be the best fucking dad.” He whispered against Eddie’s temple before his eyes fluttered shut, and sleep consumed him.

Edward Kaspbrak was not a man of subtlety. He’s been mentioning facts about children for a long as Richie could remember, and that was long before they began to date. It probably stemmed from the fact that he wanted to prove everyone wrong and become something so much better than whatever his mother did. So, with that in mind, Richie set off to find someone who would be willing to let them adopt a child or something along the lines.

The soon-to-be-famous comedian scraped up all the money that he had and pushed it into a savings account to find them a child. There was only one person he told, and that was Beverly. For more than one reason, of course. Firstly, because he couldn’t keep such a secret to himself, and secondly, she’d somehow find out, besides he wanted it to be a surprise for Eddie.

With over thirty failed adoptions,  Richie was holding out hope against hope that someone would look at this couple and see how amazing Eddie is so he could let them adopt a child.

Finally, his prayer had been answered. He was sitting on their bed, biting at the skin around his nails, a nervous tick he had picked up from his mother.

“Please, you don’t understand… I know we’re a little young, but I swear to God… Eddie would make the most amazing dad. I mean, he’s already there… Me? I’m still learning, but with him, I know that I will do my best… But he’s just a father without a kid… and I can’t give him a child, and it kills all the time knowing that I can’t do that for him. I know that it’s a long shot, but please, please just look inside your heart and see that we would be perfect for this child.” He begged, feeling tears burn at his water lines.

He felt so defeated right now, not wanting to hear another ‘I’m sorry’ for as long as he lived. He could feel his chest collapsing and the hope he held inside of him burning out, leaving him charred and broken to pieces.

“Okay, how about I meet you and your husband tomorrow to discuss coming to the ultrasounds?” The woman asked quietly as Richie’s eyes snapped open from shock.

“Are--Are you serious?” He felt his hands begin to shake from the happiness bubbling inside of him.

“Yeah, maybe at the Davis’ Diner on fourth street? Say around three?” She questioned, causing him to nod as if she could see him.

“Yes! Yes, thank you so much. We’ll see you then.” He chuckles softly before hanging up the phone. He held it against his chest, trying to calm the thundering beat of his heart as he leaned back in his chair.

He glanced up towards the room they all have dubbed as ‘Eddie’s study,’ and typing away at his computer was Eddie; he was working on a project for his new job as a risk analyst. Richie’s eyes softened at the tension on the poor man’s shoulders from his workload.

“Hey Eds, I got dinner almost finished. You hungry?” He asked, walking over to Eddie. He took a glance at the mirror in the hallway, checking to make sure his eyes were puffy or red from crying. Thankfully, he was okay.

He smacked a kiss to the top of Eddie’s head before looking over the words displayed on the screen when Eddie finally sighed and sat back in his chair.

“Yeah, I’ll be out in a moment,” Eddie promised softly, not taking his eyes away from his work, which made Richie pout.

“You’ve been working hard on this. You need a break before you melt out that poor overworked brain of yours,” He teased lightheartedly, earning a scowl from Eddie.

His mouth opened to protest Richie’s words, possibly with a resort of a few colorful words when he cut himself off. Richie’s long, bony fingers began digging into the knots that have made themselves a home in Eddie’s shoulder blades.

Eddie’s eyes fluttered shut as a moan of pain escaped passed his lips before leaning his cheek against Richie’s forearms. He shivered at the hot relief that coursed through his body while Richie continued to work out the kinks in his muscles.

“See, look at that. You’re tighter than your mom’s--” Whatever he was going to save was cut off by a swift slap to the thigh. “Agh! You fucking dick!” He laughs before licking at Eddie’s cheek.

“Oh, gross! You know I hate you doing that!” He groans, swiping at the saliva with one hand and pushing Richie away with the other before they both started to laugh.

“Come on, Workaholic, it’s time to eat. I promise this will all still be here when you get back.” He comments as Eddie nods, standing up from his chair, which caused his spine to crack.

They were both silent for a moment when Eddie pointed a warning finger at him.

“Not a single word from the peanut gallery,” He huffs, looking at Richie; he mimicked zipping his lips and throwing away the key.

The duo walked down the steps of their shared apartment before making a b-line for the kitchen. It wasn’t a huge kitchen, but it was big enough for the soon-to-be three.

“You got off tomorrow, right?” Richie set the food down onto the table before sitting down across from Eddie.

“For once, but I’ll probably go out shopping. It is my turn for groceries after all.” He explains, taking a bite of his dinner.

“Actually, do you think that maybe I could go with you? Make it a date?” He grins, wiggling his eyebrows, which made Eddie’s face flush gently.

“I mean… I don’t see why not.” He murmurs before noticing a weird emotion swirling within Richie’s irises. “Are you okay?” He tilted his head, causing the raven-haired man to blink at him.

“What? Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?” He frowns, tapping at his scruffy looking face. “What? Is my complexion too much for your eyes to handle?” He batted his eyelashes, making Eddie snort softly.

“More like your complexion makes it look like you haven’t slept in thirty days and only run on caffeine and junk food.” He resorts when Richie’s jaw drops in offense.

“Ass!” He exclaims, placing his hand onto his chest before shaking his head. “And I even made dinner like a good little house husband! So ungrateful!” He swoons as Eddie starts to laugh at his antics.

“You’re such a dumbass sometimes. But I guess you’re mine.” He sighs solemnly before they both start to laugh.

Eddie can truly say that he’s never felt happier than when he is with Richie, which is saying a lot considering all Richie has ever done is make horrible jokes. He didn’t think he could be happy after the horrible childhood, but all the losers stuck together when they left Derry. The clown had bonded them in ways that no one could even begin to understand. They were a tight group and only let Stan’s new wife Patty into their little circle after she proved how much she loved Stan.

“No-take-backsies.” Richie shrugs, bringing Eddie back to reality. Eddie took notice of Richie playing with his food; he was about to ask what’s wrong when Richie spoke, “You know I love you, right?” He asked quietly, making Eddie blink in shock.

“Of course, I do. You know that I love you, right?” He questioned as Richie nodded quickly. “Good… Now, what did you do?” His sharp gaze bored into Richie. He shrugged in response as Eddie crossed his arms and sat back against his chair. “Richie--” He’s cut off by Richie waving his hands.

“You’ll see it tomorrow. But--I--I promise it’s nothing bad.” He assured quickly, but his tone left no room for argument.

“Richard Wentworth Kaspbrak-Tozier, what did you do?” He demanded slowly, making Richie wince.

“Ooh, why did you have to bring out the full name?” He pouts before shaking his head. “I guess you’ll find out tomorrow.” He grins before shoving food into his mouth so he couldn’t speak anymore.

Eddie didn’t look too convinced, but Richie immediately changed the topic of conversation to something else so Eddie couldn’t grill him for information anymore. Soon the comedian was listening to his beloved husband banter about people at his work who were absolute dumbasses that were going to send him into an early grave.

Eddie had been ranting so much that he didn’t notice the lovestruck look on Richie’s face as he watched Eddie. The younger man gestured wildly as Richie’s mind began to wonder about what Eddie’s face would look like when he found out what the surprise was.

That night, after washing dishes and getting showers, Richie was crawling into bed. Eddie was already fast asleep due to the stress he’s been through. Richie leaned down, smacking a kiss to Eddie’s cheek before he pulled Eddie back against his chest. He loved being the big spoon because having Eddie in his arms made all the struggles he’s faced worth it.

Eddie immediately turned around in his arms before burying his face into Richie’s chest, causing Richie’s face to flush red. He smiles before leaning forward and pressing his lips to Eddie’s forehead before placing another one on his temple.

“You are going to be the best fucking dad.” He whispered against Eddie’s temple before his eyes fluttered shut, and sleep consumed him.

It was the sun shining through the curtains that woke Richie up. He grunted softly, rolling over only to find Eddie’s side of the bed empty and cold. His eyes snapped open as he looked around the room to see if his beloved was there, but he was alone.

That’s when the door opened, causing his head to jerk towards the sound. Eddie stepped into the room carrying a tray of food and two cups of coffee resting on the tray. The two shared a smile as Richie sat up with a chuckle.

“Oh, wow, breakfast in bed? If you wanted me to put out, Eds, all you had to do was ask.” He grins, making Eddie roll his eyes.

“Shut up and eat your breakfast, you absolute wet noodle.” Eddie snorts before taking his cup of coffee.

“Thank you,” Richie comments before taking a drink of his own. “Mm, good coffee,” Richie moans softly.

“How would you know? It’s mostly creamer in that cup.” Eddie points out.

“That’s how you know it’s good coffee. Get a little hint of coffee with my creamer.” He flashes him a grin.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“No, you’re ridiculous. The only people who drink coffee black are really old people and people who want to punish themselves for no good reason.” Richie resorts.

“Eat your breakfast.” Eddie huffs playfully as Richie dug into his pancakes.

“So, what is on the agenda for today? Where all shall we be going?” He asked, looking up to Eddie.

“Probably just the mall. We can get everything we need in one place. I need to look for a new belt, and you need new shoes because you’re a psychopath who wears out his shoes in like two uses.” He points out.

“What can I say? It’s a gift.” Richie shrugs with a grin.

Eddie stood up before he started to get dressed, sipping at his coffee after he was done. Soon Richie finished his coffee and his breakfast before setting the tray on the floor and standing up. He stretched out before moaning out at the feeling of his body cracking back into place.

“Alright, I’m going to get dressed, brush my teeth, and then we can get going,” Richie explains, glancing at the clock. With how efficient Eddie is with shopping, Richie wasn’t too worried about being late to meet Betty at the diner.

Of course, it was at that moment that Eddie pulled out a list of things they needed. He began to ramble them off while Richie got dressed. He smiles softly at Eddie; he wasn’t even paying attention to Richie at that point.

After they got outside, Eddie complained about Richie not wearing a jacket since it was mid-fall and he was going to get sick. Richie’s mind thought on a tiny little bundled up child with Eddie towering over them, adding more layers to keep them from the cold.

“Are you even listening to me?” Eddie huffed as Richie started driving down the road.

“Mmm, nope. Should I be?” Richie grins at Eddie’s scoff before turning his attention back on the road. “Alright, let’s make this quick, yeah?” He asked.

“What? Why? Something important you need to attend to? I mean, you didn’t have to come. You were the one who insisted on coming.” Eddie frowns.

“No, no, I mean… The surprise?” Richie asked, hoping it would ring some bells. “I just--I’m antsy, and I wanna see your face. Is that so wrong?” Richie tilted his head to look at Eddie.

“No, but if you would just tell me the surprise, you would already know. Besides, you know I don’t really like surprises.” He points out.

“Trust me; you’ll love this one.” Richie grins before pulling into the parking lot of the plaza.

The two began to walk around the mall. Richie held Eddie’s hand as the shorter of the two dragged him off towards the stores that they needed items from. Richie was off in his own world, letting Eddie drag him along when suddenly Richie bumped into Eddie. He stepped back a few steps so he could look at Eddie and see why he had stopped.

Richie’s eyes flickered to where Eddie was looking. He was staring into a display area that had baby clothes and small toys hanging on the walls. Richie glanced back to Eddie, taking in the look of longing that made Richie’s heart cease up painfully. He looked back to the display and thought about the future of Eddie with their child.

He squeezed Eddie’s hand, bringing him back from his little fantasy before offering a smile to him. “You wanna go in there?” He asked, causing Eddie’s face to flush.

“Nuh--No, no… We shouldn’t. We don’t have a child.” He points out with a grim expression.

“Still, wouldn’t hurt to look right?” Richie asked, glancing down at his watch. “You want me to take this stuff to the car? I’ll be right back.” He promised before rushing off with their stuff.

After he came back to the store, Eddie was already deep into the back of the store. Richie finally caught up to him, watching as Eddie looked over the small clothing with a fond grin. He walked up to him before taking Eddie’s hand, causing him to jolt before looking at Eddie.

“See anything you like?” Richie asked.

“I see a lot of things. I would love to buy all of these.” He whispered before biting his lip softly.

“How about we buy something? If nothing else, we can give it to Stan and Patty-cakes?” He offers when Eddie looks at him.

“Yeah, I guess we could,” Eddie comments softly before looking at all of the clothing again. “I like this one.” He held up a small yellow onesie with little ducks on it.

“That’s so cute. And perfect since yellow is a gender-neutral color.” Richie chuckles softly. His heart was fluttering excitedly at the glitter of happiness in Eddie’s eyes. Who knew something so simple could make Eddie look like an absolute angel?

“I like this one.” He confirmed before looking at Richie.

“Alright, then we’ll get that one.” He grins before they went towards the front of the store. He knew they would be back; even if this adoption didn’t work, Richie would make sure one of them would.

“Well, we got done a lot quicker than even I anticipated.” Eddie chuckles softly.

“Yeah, you getting hungry? It’s almost three.”

“Hm, yeah, I could use a bite to eat. Where do you wanna go?”

“How about Davis? I want a cheeseburger and their seasoned fries.” Richie grins before opening the car door for Eddie.

The car ride was a little quiet; only the sound of the radio was playing through the speakers. It wasn’t an awkward silence, more of an understanding of the reason behind the quietness. Richie didn’t make a joke or try to break the silence. He reached over and squeezed Eddie’s hand gently, never taking his eyes off the road.

Richie turned off the car before locking the doors, causing Eddie to frown. Richie’s heart thundered against his chest as he looked over to Eddie. The two locked eyes as two different emotions swirled between them, fear and longing.

“Okay, Eddie, there's something I need to tell you before we go in here. This is where the surprise is.” He gestured, making Eddie’s head jerk towards the building to see if he could see anything. “It’s nothing grand like you think it is. But we are going to meet someone here.” He explained quietly.

“Okay? Why? Richie, you’re kinda freaking me out here.” He huffs when Richie chuckles, tearing up.

“Do you trust me?” Richie asked instead.

“What? Why?”

“Do you trust me, Eds?” He asked again.

“You know I do, even if I don’t want to.” Eddie snorts softly.

“Then trust me right now, more than you’ve ever trusted me.” He begged, taking Eddie’s hands into his own before squeezing them gently.

Without waiting for Eddie to respond, Richie unlocked the doors and got out of the car. He leans down before flashing Eddie a quick grin, causing the younger one to roll his eyes and get out of the car.

“This better be good.” He grumbled, following after Richie.

They both stepped into the restaurant, taking in a warm atmosphere and the scent of good food. Richie’s head tilted as he looked around the restaurant before finally locking eyes with Betty. He grabbed Eddie’s hand before walking him over to Betty.

“Oh, you made it.” Betty smiles, going to stand up when Richie waved his hand.

“Of course, you don’t need to get up for us. It’s a pleasure to meet you face to face finally. He doesn’t know why we’re meeting you.” He explains softly as Betty looked at Eddie before smiling.

“Well, I hope you don’t freak out too much.” She chuckles, causing Eddie to look between the two.

“Freak out about what?” Eddie huffs, growing impatient.

“Eddie, this is Miss. Betty Novak.  She’s the lady who has been so gracious enough to let us adopt her baby.” He comments quietly, causing Eddie’s eyes to widen. He jerked his head to look at Richie.

“She--She what?” He asked, feeling his throat close up from the overwhelming emotions burning through him.

“Yes, we came here to discuss how this is going to work. She wanted to know if we wanted to come to her ultrasounds and everything.” He explains as Eddie started to nod his head immediately.

“Yes, yes, of course!” He gasps, feeling tears start to trickle down his face as he looks at Betty.

“Richie and I already went over the paperwork,” Betty explains with a warm smile. “I’m not showing just yet, but then again, I’m only about to be three months in.”

“How long have you been planning this?” Eddie asked in shock. “You can’t keep a secret to save your life!” He exclaims, causing Richie to laugh.

“Two… Two years.” Richie chokes up slightly. “I’ve been going to couples after couples in hopes that they would agree. Betty and I started talking about a month ago.” He chuckles before Eddie surged forward and hugged Richie tightly.

“You asshole, how could you make me cry in public!” He huffs softly before laughing as he looks up to Richie.

“Because you did it when you proposed, so I think it’s a fair trade.” Richie grins at Eddie.

Richie gestured for Eddie to sit down before sliding down next to him. They both looked to Betty as she chuckles softly at their antics. Eddie took Richie’s hand into his own, squeezing it tightly as they began to talk to her about what Richie and Betty had already discussed.

It was about closer to five-thirty when they left, promising to see Betty on Friday for their first ultrasound together. Richie glanced at Eddie when they were back in the car. Eddie had been rather quiet after Betty had left, which kind of worried Richie.

“Eds, you okay?” He asked softly before Eddie slowly looked at him.

“You… You are the best thing that has come out of all the shit in my life.” Eddie smiles, causing Richie to blink in shock.

“Eddie--” He’s cut off by Eddie surging across the console between them and jerking Richie into a passionate kiss.

Richie grins before cupping Eddie’s face and deepening the kiss. The two got lost in each other as they have done so many times before.

“I love you so much,” Eddie whispered when he pulled away.

“I love you too… so much,” Richie promised quietly. “I’m just glad it finally worked. I’ve been keeping this inside for two years. All because I wanted to see that dumb face of your smile. You’re going to be the best fricking dad in the world… And I’m the one who gets to witness all of it.” Richie smiles.

“What about you?” Eddie asked with a tilt of his head.

“What about me?” Richie frowns.

“Don’t you think you are going to be a good dad?”

“Oh, fuck no.” Richie bursts out laughing. “I am going to suck so hard, but… but as long as I have you… I think I have a chance of being a good Pop, hm?” He asked before petting at his five o’clock shadow. “Might grow out a beard and get salt and pepper hair.” He grins as Eddie started to laugh.

“How is your hair going to be grey when you haven’t even hit thirty yet?” Eddie held his stomach as he laughs harder.

“Um, duh, I’ll dye it. Come on, Eds! Keep up with the times’ old man!” He snorts.

“So, you’ll be the cool trendy Pop, and I’ll be the worry-some Dad who plans and organizes everything?” Eddie asked.

“God, you’ll be so frickin hot pulling out a calendar for play dates.” Richie laughs when Eddie pushes at him.

“Says the hot Pop who is gonna wear socks and sandals together.” Eddie chuckles.

“I’m gonna fucking rock the shit out of them, too!” He grins before looking at Eddie again. “But… You’re okay with this surprise?” He asked softly.

“I’m more than okay with this surprise, Richie. I can’t wait to meet them.” He smiles before they shared one more quick kiss and went home.

Maybe Richie will show him the nursery he had created. I mean, Eddie thinks that it’s Richie’s workroom. Or maybe he’ll wait for another day.

Richie stole a glance at Eddie; his beloved was looking over the onesie they bought with the biggest grin on his face. Oh yeah, Richie knew Eddie was always meant to be a dad, and seeing this only proved it.

[halothenthehorns]

THE BOGGART IN THE WARDROBE

Remus got wearily to his feet, and Harry noted with some concern he looked paler than he did yesterday. Was this book really taking that much out of him? He wanted to ask, but felt it slightly rude, so he kept himself quite as Remus went to his chapter.

Malfoy didn't come back to classes until Thursday,

Remus got wearily to his feet, and Harry noted with some concern he looked paler than he did yesterday. Was this book really taking that much out of him? He wanted to ask, but felt it slightly rude, so he kept himself quite as Remus went to his chapter.

Malfoy didn't come back to classes until Thursday,

"Really," Sirius demanded, "he milked that injury for almost four days!"

Harry's face twisted in annoyance, fighting down the urge to say that it was probably longer than that.

"Look on the bright side," Lily smirked, "he probably had to make up all that work. I know none of those teachers fell for that."

"Oh wait," James pouted, "how come you haven't had Remus' class yet?" 'Plus, has Harry really gone four days without talking to him' he added in his head, biting at his lip and trying to not snap at his friend for that. What possible reason could he have now for avoiding Harry? Dumbledore surely wasn't still stopping him?

"We didn't have it until that afternoon," Harry said, also still eyeing Remus curiously as he realized the same thing.

There was a sticky silence for a moment as they all realized this fact, but aside from Remus ducking his head and fidgeting with the sleeve of his robes in agitation, no one said anything this time.

and he chose his moment to reappear in Potions, marching into the room with his arm in bandages looking much like a man acting like he'd returned from some dramatic battle.

"I'd like to see how he does in a real fight," James snapped bitterly.

"Probably run away, or hide the whole time," Sirius agreed.

Pansy was by his side in a moment, asking how he was feeling, and Draco admitted it still hurt a lot, while giving his friends an obvious wink when she turned her back.

"Subtle," Remus frowned in annoyance.

Snape's only response to the talking was to tell them all to settle down.

Lily rolled her eyes in annoyance, knowing full well he wouldn't have done that to any other student. His attitude was really starting to tick a nerve with her.

Harry wasn't pleased with his teacher's attitude, knowing full well that if anyone else had come in like that he'd have given them a detention instead.

"Glad we're all on the same page," James grumped, keeping an eye on Lily to see if she agreed. To his surprise, she did seem to.

Considering Malfoy was in Snape's house though, and Snape was well known for favoring the Slytherin's, no one was surprised at the exchange. What did shock them, was when Malfoy dragged his cauldron over to where Harry and Ron were working.

"Oh, this is just going to be brilliant," Sirius scowled in pure annoyance.

Then he raised his hand, and told his teacher that he couldn't cut up his own plants with just one arm.

Lily grimaced, knowing that would have been an actual concern had something really been wrong with him, but one, there wasn't a thing wrong with his arm, and two, he should get his friends to help him; not pick on her son.

Snape didn't even flinch as he told Ron to do it for him.

All five of them muttered something foul under their breath, knowing full well this was going to drag on, and already hating it.

Ron had to bite his tongue to stop himself from throwing insults at one or both of them, but did as told and started lopping the roots to bits in uneven squares.

Lily couldn't help but give a vindictive smirk, knowing full well she would have done the same thing as this would completely ruin that little jerk's potion.

Malfoy hardly looked surprised, as he called back to Snape that Ron had just ruined his roots.

"Dang it," James frowned, "I wasn't even sure he'd realize that was important."

Snape came over to have a look himself, smiling at Ron in a very unpleasant way.

"Know that look all too well," Sirius grumbled, his face twisting around with dislike.

"What did I do to deserve this chapter," Remus huffed. "We'd gone so long without having to deal with this guy."

Then he told Ron and Malfoy to swap ingredients, and Ron began to protest as he'd spent the whole of the class putting effort into making sure his own roots were replicas of each other.

"Wow," James said in surprise, "credit to him for that dedication."

Snape wouldn't hear it, telling Ron to do it and getting a dangerous tone.

James had to bite his tongue to hold back his comment that he didn't find Snape very dangerous at all, but he reminded himself of the age difference again.

Ron did with as much silent protest as possible, then Malfoy reminded he was going to need something skinned as well, and Snape instructed Harry to do that with a look of hatred he reserved just for Harry.

"I should feel really special huh?" Harry grumbled.

"Nah," Sirius smirked, "remember, he's going to be sharing that look with Remus from now on."

That at least caused Remus and James to chuckle, while Lily was quickly losing her patience with all of these boys.

Harry did as told, trying to ignore Malfoy who leaned over and asked if they'd spoken to Hagrid recently.

Harry scowled even more heavily, more than frustrated he was no longer allowed down at his friend's place to help cheer him up.

Then he kept going, giving a heavy fake sigh as he told how his dad was not happy to hear about him getting hurt, and Hagrid was going to be getting the sack any day now because of it.

"Your father can bite my-"

"James," Lily cut him off, matching him glare for glare. "You lot shouldn't be cussing so much, it's still a bad habit with the baby around."

Sirius rolled his eyes and grumbled something about how he still couldn't understand them, but Remus decided to keep going anyways.

Ron told Malfoy if he didn't shut up he'd give him a not so fake injury.

That drew a smirk from James and Sirius again, very much hoping Ron would make good on that threat soon.

Malfoy ignored him, still talking that his father had already spoken to the school governors and the Minster, his dad kept a lot of important company.

"Remembered vividly as the guy who tried to blackmail the school governors," Remus reminded in forced light tones.

"Why's he bragging to you anyways?" Lily demanded, "it's not like you care."

"Search me," Harry huffed.

Then he gave a tragic look at his folded arm and lamented it may never properly work again.

"Next time I'll make sure it actually is ripped out of socket," Sirius snarled a little too forcefully it seemed, since the baby in his lap gave a little whine of displeasure. Sirius forced himself to relax and give the kid a cuddle then to relax them both.

Harry snapped that this was why Malfoy was acting like this, while taking the head off of a dead caterpillar,

"At least it was already dead," Remus said weakly, trying to force some humor into Harry's outraged face. Harry ignored him.

all to get rid of Hagrid!

James let out a string of words he thought quite appropriate, but low enough under his breath he didn't think Lily heard him.

Malfoy agreed that would be a bonus, but for now he was enjoying himself with this, while shoving his own caterpillars at Ron and telling him to cut those up as well.

"Is he really going to do this until he stops faking his injury?" Sirius demanded, looking faint.

"How long can he milk that?" James demanded of nothing.

No one had an answer for either of them.

Not too far away, Snape was having his own enjoyment of striking fear into Neville again. It didn't help that Potions was the boy's worst subject, but having Snape hovering around made him even clumsier than usual.

Lily's eyes kept narrowing the longer Remus kept going, so that it looked like she was squinting over at him, but the expression was so terrifying none of the boys really wanted to call her out on it.

Personally, James was rather pleased at this. It was horrible what Snape was doing to Neville, but it seemed Lily wasn't going to be defending him much longer. It honestly blew his mind how she still was, considering their last rather public conversation.

Snape was currently berating Neville for his potion being the wrong color, in this case orange. He listed the many reasons why this was wrong and what Neville had done to it, then demanded what he had to do to get through his thick head.

Lily was bright red in the face by the end of this, so Harry, feeling they may as well get the explosion over with, told her, "Mom, you look like you're fixing to start screaming here soon."

Lily sucked in a very deep breath, then said in an almost steady voice, "probably, but I'm trying not to." She trailed off into foul mutterings about how that wasn't any way to treat someone who had messed up, but when she sat back and made it clear she was still trying to keep it under, Remus decided to keep reading while he could.

Neville flushed and looked down in shame, trying to keep his too bright eyes out of sight. Hermione said she could help fix it, but then Snape turned on her, telling her to quit showing off, causing the girl to flush as bad as Neville.

"That man has no bounds," Remus scowled, now he was turning on Hermione just for offering to help.

Then Snape told Neville that when class was over, they were going to use this destroyed potion on his toad,

"He what!" They all yelled in outrage.

"He can't do that!" Remus spluttered, "that's endangering his pet."

While Harry was just as furious as anyone else, he did consider Neville his friend if not as much as Ron and Hermione, but his curiosity won over and he asked, "What's the difference between this and using animals in Transfiguration?"

"Well, first of all, you don't use your own pets in classes," James pointed out, "though I wouldn't be too surprised that he does keep Trevor on him, I remember that little thing always trying to get away."

"But," Remus cut back in before James could get to off topic, "the main difference is that in other classes, there shouldn't be any permanent harm. If you get the spell wrong, then your teacher should just be able to reverse the effects. Correct me if I'm wrong Lily, but you can't always correct potions."

Lily shook herself in surprise, she was still introverting on herself in shock that she actually didn't feel any lingering need to defend Snape to these boys anymore. That effect had worn off the moment she'd heard that he was actually willing to hurt this child, in one of the cruellest ways she could deem possible, by purposefully hurting his pet. For what? He had no reason, Neville had never done anything to anyone, and yet here he was singling him out almost as much as Harry and being downright hateful to everyone else. Even after he had called her that awful word back in fifth year, she'd still had hope. No, she'd never forgiven him, nor had she gone out of her way to defend him in school any longer, except to this lot. There had always been something about the Marauders that had gotten under her skin, and even after her and Severus had parted ways she'd never been able to stomach the still rather public fights. So when she'd heard that Dumbledore had hired him, she'd harbored hope, that somehow he had changed after her death, become that same friend she'd once known, why else would Dumbledore hire a known Death Eater? Now, every last bit of that was dashed, and the contempt mounting in her was as fierce as the night that mess between them had started. Then Remus had called her name, and she gave herself a firm little shake and came back to the actual conversation, asking him to repeat the question.

He did, albeit a little hesitantly as she still looked a swirl of emotions, but she answered crisply, "you're right, some potions just can't be corrected. From what it sounds like, yes Neville's should be salvageable, he seems to have only doubled some ingredients, so if he does the same to his other ingredients that are in, it should balance out and be fine. Still doesn't excuse that teacher from acting like that though," she finished, fire blistering from her at the end, making Harry want to edge away even when it wasn't directed at him.

James and Sirius exchanged wide-eyed looks, they hadn't ever seen Lily this mad at him before, and it both amused them in the worst kind of way that she finally wasn't defending him, and scared them slightly.

Remus caught Harry's eye, who nodded indicating he was done with his question, so Remus was quick to move on for now.

hoping that would get through to him. He stalked away, and Neville begged Hermione for her help.

Seamus leaned back to talk to Harry, telling him what he'd found this morning in the newspaper, that someone had seen Black.

"Oh bloody hell," Sirius groaned, letting his head fall forward so that it was pressed forehead to forehead with the infant. James and Remus both gave him pitying looks, but no one could think of anything to say to him. If Sirius was going to react like this every time he was mentioned, then they were going to run out of comfort for him real quick. Then the baby hooked his chubby little fists into the length of his godfather's available hair, causing a bit of a distraction as he tried disentangling himself.

Remus still looked like he wanted to say something, but James was now quickly waving him on, trying to press past this as fast as possible while Sirius was distracted.

Harry asked where that was, ignoring Malfoy clearly listening in, and Seamus said it had been a Muggle who'd called the hotline, and by the time the Ministry had arrived there wasn't a trace of him, but it had only been a few towns away. Ron gave an uneasy look at his best friend for that kind of description.

James scoffed and rolled his eyes. He, like Remus, was all for Sirius making his way to Hogwarts and coming into contact with Harry, those dementors be damned. If Sirius had figured out how to get past them once, surely he could do it again and have a proper conversation with Harry. Ron's fears were silly, but since everyone here knew that, he didn't bother saying any of that.

Harry got sick of Malfoy's face, and turned to snap if he needed anything else skinned.

"Like yourself," Sirius smirked as he finally got himself loose from the kid's surprisingly good grip.

"Sirius, that's gross," Lily told him pleasantly.

He snickered, not looking very remorseful as he began bouncing the baby around again so that he would be a bit more amused, and not take it out on him again.

Malfoy looked pleased about something new though, as he asked Harry if he was planning on going after Black himself? Harry absentmindedly replied he just might, and Malfoy agreed he sure would have, in fact he would have already done something.

Remus raised a brow in surprise, finding that a rather odd thing to say. Looking around, he saw the others seemed just as perplexed.

"Suppose Malfoy knows I'm 'after him'," Sirius offered in forced light tones, "guess he just means Harry's being a coward for sitting around and not taking the fight to me I guess."

"Yeah, guess so," James agreed, "but why would Malfoy know that? It doesn't exactly seem like public knowledge if Fudge is trying to keep it quiet and away from Harry."

"Guess Malfoy really does still have connections in the Ministry to know," Lily said with disdain.

He wouldn't be sitting around in school like he was told. Ron turned on him, demanding to know what he was on about, but Malfoy just laughed when he realized Harry didn't know.

"Half wish he didn't," Sirius muttered in disgust. Despite Harry's adamant mood that he wasn't afraid of him now, it still bothered him that his little pup would think that at any time in his life.

Harry demanded to know what, but Malfoy just laughed harder, saying that he wasn't surprised Harry couldn't do it, but Malfoy would want his revenge.

"Revenge for what?" James demanded of nothing, starting to clench up his hands in disgust. He hated to hear this continuously talked about, and he already had a dozen reasons to punch this brat in the face, so this continued conversation was getting under his skin.

"Lucius would know you and Sirius are friends," Remus pointed out. "Perhaps Draco thinks Harry knew about that, and that Sirius 'doing this' would be offensive to you."

"That's a little loose if you ask me," Lily shrugged.

"Got any better ideas," Sirius shot right back.

There was silence, which meant that none of them really did.

Snape cut the conversation off by telling them class was done, but to wait around so they could see what happened to Neville's potion. Hermione was still muttering to him under her breath as Neville stirred with purpose.

They all breathed a silent sigh of relief, knowing full well if Hermione hadn't stepped in something really awful could have happened. It still didn't excuse the act itself that Snape had done of course, but at least this way there wouldn't be any lasting damage.

Harry went over to the wash to clean out his stuff, asking Ron what Malfoy could have meant about Black? He hadn't done anything to him personally, yet.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Sirius meant to smirk lightly, though it looked a little more forced than he'd planned.

Ron said he had just been bluffing, trying to get under Harry's skin. Snape cut in and told them all to come closer,

All who weren't reading muttered some crude thing or another under their breath, finding it loathsome that he was clearly wanting an audience for this.

to Neville's cauldron so they could see this. He began explaining that if Neville had made the proper potion, the Shrinking Solution, it would turn Trevor back into a tadpole. Since he highly disagreed it had been done right, the most likely end result was the toad being poisoned.

"Blackhearted little monster ain't he," Sirius muttered for his friends ears alone. The three of them were still rather wary that Lily hadn't said anything yet, so they were trying their hardest to keep the comments down, for now.

The Gryffindors were watching with fear, while the Slytherin's looked ready for a show.

"All of them," Lily asked warily, "really?"

"The ones I was looking at," Harry shrugged, "which was mostly Malfoy's, and Pansy's friends." He did note that he hadn't exactly sat there and pointed out every single student's expression, so maybe he had generalized that.

Snape scooped up the warty amphibian and scooped the potion into his mouth, which was now as green as his skin.

There was a much more profound breath of relief this time, each of them very happy Hermione had clearly done a good enough job the potion was the correct color.

All held their breath as the toad swallowed, then with a poof, he became a tadpole in Snape's hand. The Gryffindors cheered, while Snape looked disappointed,

"Can't believe they let this turd be around kids," James muttered furiously.

but he fixed Trevor back to his proper size and shoved him back towards Neville, telling him he'd lost five points from his house,

"Say what?" Lily snapped in outrage.

"That's what finally got to you?" Remus demanded right back, looking over at her in surprise.

Lily wasn't listening, it seemed to be taking every ounce within her not to start screaming at all of the problems with this. His abuse of power, his clear displeasure that he hadn't managed to kill the pet in front of its owner, now he was punishing him for doing it right! What in the bloody hell had happened to him to turn him into this?

When the silence continued to drag on, Remus decided to read on, noting he hadn't exactly gotten his answer, but the deadly expression on the red hairs face was plenty answer enough.

because he'd told Hermione not to help him. They went out of class in a temper, Ron loudest of all as he began verbally calling out Snape's actions.

"I'm with Ron on this one," James hissed.

Growling that Gryffindor had been punished because Trevor hadn't died! Hermione should have lied and said she hadn't helped!

"First of all, because that git wouldn't have believed either of them anyways," Sirius pointed out.

"Also, because what would be the point? He'd still take the points away, if not more because he'd then accuse her of lying," Remus agreed.

Hermione didn't respond, and Ron looked around in surprise for her, realizing she wasn't anywhere around them. They both turned and looked, Ron saying she'd been just behind them,

"Think she forgot something in class?" Lily noted absently, still more red in the face then anything and clearly only half paying attention.

Harry puzzled, somehow knowing that wasn't actually the correct answer, but the others were appeased enough by this, and he had no real idea why he would correct her as there really wasn't any other answer, so he said nothing.

but then they saw her running up the stairs, trying to shove something down the front of her shirt.

"There you go then, Lily was right," James shrugged, "maybe she has a necklace that fell off."

Harry very quickly opened, then closed his mouth. That his dad was closer to the mark he was sure, but somehow this still didn't feel like the full answer. Again he chose to say nothing, for the same reasons as before.

Ron asked how she'd pulled that off, she'd been right behind them a second ago, then she was back at the bottom end of the stairs.

"She's really fast," Sirius rolled his eyes, noting he might not have noticed someone turning around behind him either if he'd been raging like Ron had.

Hermione just looked confused, but she didn't get a chance to reply before her bag split open, and a dozen thick books toppled onto the ground. Ron asked why she had all of those on her,

"Did he really just ask Hermione why she was carrying books around?" James laughed in disbelief.

"But a dozen?" Remus demanded. "Exactly how many classes is she taking?"

"All of them," Harry reminded.

They all sat around, newly puzzled but still blank on how Hermione could be pulling that off. Could it be possible she was simply getting one of the students in that class to copy notes and give them to her? At least that would make sense how she was keeping up with more than one class at a time, but not how or why they were still marked on her schedule that she needed to go.

when she didn't have any of these classes? All they had left was DADA in the afternoon.

"Yes!" James and Sirius cheered, instantly distracted from Harry's friend. Yes they had all noted Remus' absence this week, and were beyond confused and slightly hurt he still didn't seem to be going out of his way to try and talk to Harry like they would have thought, but getting to sit in one of his classes first hand felt like a real treat to them.

Hermione agreed, but still put all of her books back into her ripped bag.

"What did you think she was going to do with them?" Lily chuckled, finally coming off of her bad mood at least a bit. "Run all the way back to the dormitory? She's got them with her now, so she's obviously going to keep them the rest of the day."

Then she walked off for lunch, and Ron asked Harry if he got the feeling Hermione was hiding something.

"Very much so, yes," Harry agreed.

Lupin wasn't in class when they arrived.

"For shame Moony," James snickered, "being late. Can't hardly tell off your students for that now, can you?"

Remus rolled his eyes indulgently, half wondering if he wasn't still stalling a bit on being around Harry, and half wondering if he actually did have a good reason. He probably wasn't going to get a real answer to that though.

They took their seats and glanced around with nerves, and had settled in when Lupin made his appearance, giving them all a kind welcoming smile. Harry noticed that some decent meals had given him some new color, though his robes were still more tattered then was normal.

"This is depressing me again," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"So sorry Harry describing me, very accurately I might add, is so awful to you," Remus smirked.

He greeted them, then asked for them all to put their books away and keep out their wands, they'd be having a hands on class today.

"So this is going to be fun," James brightened all the more, knowing any practical lesson from a teacher was always better than book ones.

The class did as told, with some wariness, since they'd never had one of these before,

"Which is awful really," Lily noted. "DADA is one of those classes where you really should have just as many practicals as lectures."

unless you were counting the time pixies had been let loose.

"I'd be very insulted and confused by that if I didn't know what you meant," Remus laughed.

Lupin then got them all to their feet, and told to follow him.

"Ooh, is he going to take you outside?" Sirius asked, looking likely to start bouncing in place here in a moment.

"You two are way too excited about this," Remus told them pleasantly.

"No such thing," James scoffed, "we know you'll do brilliantly, we just want to see what you actually do."

Remus didn't actually seem to have a response to that so, blushing slightly now, he was quick to move on past.

They followed with high interest out of the room, but didn't make it far when they ran into Peeves, shoving gum into a keyhole.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Did you really just ask why that Poltergeist did anything," Lily laughed, "he does it because he thinks it will cause problems."

"I just meant why this in particular?" Harry corrected himself. "It wouldn't really stop anybody in the castle would it?"

"Filch," James pointed out, "he couldn't magic it out, or otherwise open the door without the key."

"Oh, right," Harry nodded, then he eyed Remus curiously, wondering what he was going to do about the matter. Ignore it, or stop him?

Then the poltergeist caught sight of Lupin, and at once broke into evil laughter before singing a tune about Loony, loopy, Lupin.

"Glad to see he still remembers me," Remus laughed.

The rest of the class was fairly shocked, since despite Peeves was known for his horrid ways, he tended to show a modicum of discipline around the staff.

"Guess it doesn't count after Remus locked him in a closet one time," Sirius snickered.

"Only worked for about a second, but it made me feel better," Remus shrugged, "he's hated me specifically ever since."

The students looked to their new teacher to see what he would do, and found him smiling. He kindly asked Peeves to take that gum back out, or Filch would have a problem of it later.

"And Merlin knows how awful that would be," Lily giggled.

Peeves' response was to blow a raspberry.

"Not going to take that now are you," James smirked, even more bright-eyed now as he recognized all too well the expression on his friend's face. No way was he going to let Peeves do that without some small payback, especially in front of students.

Lupin didn't lose his pleasant demeanor even as he sighed and pulled out his wand.

"Sure this is just heart wrenching for you," Sirius snickered.

He told them to watch this spell, it could be used for a number of things, then he cried Waddiwasi.

"Cool," the other three said with interest, James and Sirius only half manageable since they were still snickering away at this lovely visual mental image. Harry watched them all curiously, but didn't interrupt to ask what that spell did, since the book was obviously fixing to say.

The pink ball of chewed gum shot out of its spot, and went up the poltergeist nose. Peeves tried to pull it back out, and when he failed, flew away while throwing all sorts of vulgar language around.

Now Harry was laughing right along with them, mentally storing that spell away for future use, and hoping he'd asked for specifics of that spell. Was it a spell that merely shoots gum up a person's nose, or was it more generalized that it would shoot anything up a nose, or perhaps it simply shot a small object in a preferred direction? He decided to ask for the details later.

Dean was the first to congratulate Lupin, and the teacher thanked him back by name.

"How do you know his name?" Sirius stuttered, still half out of breath from his laughing fit.

"How should I know?" Remus reminded, thinking most likely he'd just come across him in a hallway or something as unmentionable.

Then he continued leading them on his path, the class now following with much more respect.

"Kind of makes you wonder if that was just a little setup?" James muttered to his friend, who nodded with enthusiasm. The pair wouldn't put it past him to perhaps go that particular direction that Peeves was in, since despite his words, Remus most likely would want his class to respect him, especially this class.

They reached their destination, the staffroom.

"Now Remus," Lily began, unable to keep a teasing tone out of her voice, "what exactly are you getting these students into?"

"Nothing that you're thinking," he responded back kindly, causing Sirius to release a bark of laughter.

James was looking lovingly over at his wife, never not finding it amusing when she beat him to a comment.

He opened the door, and they began to file in, but froze up when they saw Snape,

"Oh not him again," Sirius groaned, "as if I didn't want him dead once today already."

To be perfectly honest, he actually said that while eyeing Lily, hoping to finally get some sort of response out of her. Still no one answered him, and while Remus agreed, it didn't stop him from reading what was about to happen.

already inside. He had been sitting around reading and Lupin made to simply shut the door with him inside, but Snape told him not to bother, telling Lupin he didn't want to see this.

James frowned and cocked his head to the side, silently noting that Snape wasn't exactly being professional right then, he really should have addressed him as a Professor in front of the students. Then again, this was Snape he was thinking about.

Before he could leave though, he turned and informed Lupin that Neville was in here, and he shouldn't be doing anything too hard unless Hermione was at his ear.

That finally seemed to have done it, Lily got to her feet anyways, but instead of the screaming fit they were all expecting, she walked calmly over to Sirius and took her son away, then went up the stairs muttering that he needed his diaper checked.

Harry watched after her, a little fearful at how she seemed to be handling this. The other boys were more than wary at this point. "Can't believe Lily's still sticking up for him," Sirius said in disgust, craning his neck around to keep an eye on the stairs to make sure she hadn't heard that.

Remus shrugged and leaned back casually as he said, "personally, if she is still defending him, someone really needs to get it through her thick head enough is enough. How on earth can she excuse him after this?"

"I don't think so," James shook his head, looking more puzzled than anything now. "D'you see the way she looked right before she did that? Honestly I think the only thing stopping her from screaming her head off about him was the baby in the room."

Harry was personally on his Dad's side, he'd recognized that look of loathing on her face before as well, but before any more could be said Lily came back in, and offered the baby back to the boys. Sirius took him happily, and no more was said after Lily simply waved Remus on.

Neville went red in the face, and Harry glared hatefully at the potions teacher, thinking it was horrid enough for him to be saying things like that in his own class, but now he was doing it around other teachers.

"Agreed," Sirius nodded with conviction, still keeping a wary eye on Lily like he was still expecting her to snap at him. She did no such thing, and her expression remained almost neutral.

Lupin though seemed surprised at the suggestion, informing Snape that he'd been planning on using Neville to get the ball rolling, and he had no doubts the boy would do perfectly.

"Thank you Remus," James said sincerely, "that poor kid needs someone to stand up to Snape for him."

Remus was beaming, knowing full well he'd do this again in a heartbeat.

Neville actually lost color then, while Snape just scowled and left.

"Good riddance ya foul little beetle," Sirius said in a goofy, baby tone of voice, getting a reaction from the baby, but clearly still not pushing Lily's buttons enough. James gave him a hard nudge in the side, clearly saying he needed to knock it off now, but Sirius was enjoying this too much. He'd held back a lot of comments on account of getting told off by Lily for it, now it seemed that wasn't going to be the case anymore, he was going to have a field day with this.

Lupin began addressing the class again, who were looking around in confusion before they noticed that the wardrobe which normally just housed coats, was smacking against the wall.

"Oh," Remus said brightly.

"Know what it is?" Lily asked with interest.

"A couple things came to mind," he nodded, "and it makes plenty of sense now why I would have brought them there."

When most of the class hopped back in shock, Lupin waved them down and told them to calm down,

"Can't hardly blame them," James agreed, "they haven't exactly had a lot of good practice dealing with anything in this class."

it was only a boggart.

"Ooh, this is going to be fun," Sirius nodded happily.

"Glad you lot approve," Remus chuckled lightly when the others agreed.

The class looked far from reassured. Several students like Neville and Seamus now seemed to find even more reason to be afraid.

"Impressed those two know what that is, considering the little education that's been going on in this class," Lily rolled her eyes.

Lupin began to explain that a boggart preferred dark and enclosed spaces, like the wardrobe for example. He'd met one that once stuck itself in a grandfather clock.

"Don't think it's fair for you to have said that, when I'm the one who told you that happened in my house," Sirius pointed out.

"Still a relevant point," Remus shot back.

Then he asked, what is a boggart? Hermione was the first to raise her hand,

"No surprise there," Harry nodded.

informing everyone it was a shapeshifter, turning into something it thought would scare you. Lupin gave her full credit for the answer, explaining that's why the creature loved the dark so much, it could stay hidden until it chose what to scare you with.

"Then what does it look like?" Harry asked inquisitively.

Remus cocked his head to the side in curiosity, thinking on that for a moment before answering, "no one knows. I'd assume it would likely be in a form it thinks would scare anyone who snuck up on it, yet until it grasps hold of one mind, there's no real way to tell."

"One mind?" Harry repeated, just a bit of anxiety creeping in now.

"It can read your mind," Remus nodded, "that's how it knows what will fear you most."

"Now that we've got that covered, though you're likely to just go over it again," Sirius pointed out in a long-suffering voice. Remus gave him the stank eye for a moment, but didn't deny that.

Then Lupin explained that because of this gift, no one knew what a boggarts original form looked like. Which meant when he let him out, and Neville made a small noise of fear at the reminder,

"Poor kid," James couldn't help but grin.

"Like Remus is going to let anything too bad happen," Sirius rolled his eyes at the ludicrous thought.

that they would have an advantage, then he asked Harry to point out what it was.

"That was almost rude," Lily said a little cheekily, not really meaning it as Harry hardly looked upset. "He didn't exactly have his hand raised."

Remus shrugged, not looking very abashed, he was sure he wanted to know especially what his little cub might know about magical creatures, no he wasn't taking a special interest that would be ridiculous.

and Harry floundered for a moment before guessing that their numbers would make it hesitant what form to take. Lupin gave him perfect marks for that answer, while Hermione looked upset she hadn't got to say this.

"Does she really answer every question from a teacher?" James now asked. "That hardly seems fair to any other student."

"I'm sure if anyone else ever volunteered, the teacher would pick someone else," Sirius shrugged.

Lupin went on to explain that you should always have a buddy around when dealing with boggarts, as he'd once seen one try to turn into two different creatures, half a dead body and half a slug, which was more funny then anything.

"Now when did this happen?" James asked in surprise.

Remus then had a surreal moment as he realized he was very soon going to be experiencing and doing things, without any of his friends around. What exactly had he been doing these past twelve years? He couldn't help but sink down into himself a bit when he realized he had no answer, nor did he particularly want to find out. It was also rather odd to think he had memories then that he had no idea about now, but since it was a rhetorical question anyways no one said anything.

Then he told them the charm, which was supposed to be used to force a boggart into a form that would make them laugh, which was the boggarts weakness. It was called Riddikulus.

"Always loved the name of that spell," Sirius said, maybe a little too loudly that time, as he noticed Remus' mood seemed to have gone down a pinch. They were still enjoying his first class too much to allow him too much self-depression again, so he was hoping to cheer his friend back up. It didn't actually seem to work that well.

Then Lupin turned his attention back to Neville, who looked like he'd just been told his death date,

"That poor boy," Lily fretted, "has he no confidence at all?"

"Then this class will help," James said adamantly.

and asked him what he was most afraid of? Neville mouthed something that Lupin happily asked him to repeat.

"You seem to be enjoying this a little too much," Sirius smirked at him.

Finally getting a smile in return as Remus answered, "I always enjoy watching others interact with Boggarts, never ceases to amuse what interesting things people will come up with to laugh at."

Neville had to swallow hard for a moment before getting out, Professor Snape.

All four boys released surprised and amused snorts of laughter, while Lily pursed up her lips so tightly the skin went almost white. She didn't find it the least bit funny that he had clearly scarred this student so badly, this little third year was now terrified of him! Despite the fact that there wasn't any danger around, Lily reached over and clutched her son's hand to her for a moment to comfort herself and convince her mind not to start screaming about this as well, she would have to hold it in until she was a little more alone without an audience for when she broke down and really dug into these soon overflowing emotions that she was trying very hard to keep a lid on.

The rest of the students laughed, while Lupin gave a little smile and repeated Professor Snape's name,

"I note Remus actually used his title, not that he deserved it," James pointed out, in a less harsh tone than he would have liked to, still too keyed up and happy to be hearing about this.

before asking who Neville lived with? Neville told it was his grandmother, but he didn't want the boggart to turn into her either.

Which gained yet another laugh, this time from all present. Even Lily couldn't deny that, yes, the adults of your life that you lived with would tend to scare you a bit.

Lupin gave a small laugh as he asked what his grandmother usually wore?

Sirius and James lost it. They knew quite well what exactly Remus was planning just by that simple sentence, but they reined themselves in very quickly, refusing to explain to a confused Harry and Lily what they were now very sure what was about to happen. Remus looked pleasantly amused with himself as well, feeling this was more than justified just from the little comment he'd made about Neville at the beginning of class.

Neville described her usual attire, a hat with a vulture, a green dress, and a fox scarf, with a red purse.

"Brilliant, this is beyond perfect," Sirius muttered, pure glee in his expression.

Lupin clarified that Neville could see those clothes perfectly in his mind, and Neville agreed with clear confusion at this line of questioning.

"He has no idea," James guffawed, almost stuffing his fist in his mouth to keep himself contained so he could listen.

Then Lupin explained that when boggart Snape came out of that wardrobe, Neville was to use the Riddikulus curse on him, and those things should all appear on their potions teacher.

Remus couldn't get through that whole sentence without having to stop and stifle his giggling. James and Sirius didn't even bother, and by the end where Harry and Lily realized where this was going, they weren't any better. They didn't even need to be there to see this, the vivid mental image it painted was one of the best any of them could have come up with.

Sirius tried to speak in between bursts of laughter, "this, is, - your, best- prank, ever!" There might have been more, but he still wasn't that intelligible.

"I wouldn't really consider it a prank even," James disagreed, wiping at his eyes to clear his happy tears away, "'cause he's not really doing it to Snape. He's just creating a little revenge for the poor kid, and no one can even do anything to say it's wrong."

The class burst out joyfully with giggles, and the wardrobe gave a disturbed jerk.

"Wouldn't have been too surprised if it had simply disappeared then," Lily chuckled.

"No, it has to be more direct," Remus coached.

Lupin quickly pulled their control back and instructed each of them to figure out what they feared most, and put a funny spin on it.

That finally dried up a bit of laughter in the room as one person in particular from that class came to mind. All eyes flicked to Harry and away quickly, not really wanting to think on what could scare him the most. A Basilisk came to mind, or giant spiders, even that demented spirit of a creature Voldemort had become, sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head. Any of those were likely to come up when the boggart turned on him, and none would be very pleasant reminders.

Harry's own mind began to flit around, easily landing on Voldemort,

They all made a face and shifted around uneasily, not exactly happy they had been right in one of their guesses, and also wondering how you even could make that funny. Putting him up in a dress and handbag just might not work as well.

powerful once again.

"Should probably be everybody's greatest fear," James nodded in agreement.

He hadn't even got started on how to make that funny though, when something else crept up on him, a towering black robed figure with a skeletal hand rotting away.

Sirius couldn't help the involuntary shiver that came when he heard about those things all over again, matched by Harry now.

"Now that's interesting," Remus noted lightly, eyeing both Harry and Sirius curiously.

"What?" Lily asked, a little reproachfully. She didn't think anything that scared her son should be treated with interest.

Remus didn't seem to notice the tone as he answered, "their greatest fear seems to be fear manifested itself. I've never heard of that before, but it makes sense."

Sirius huffed and grumbled something under his breath, cuddling the baby closer to him and muttering that wasn't what he was really afraid of, but the others ignored him as James said, "agreed, now let's see how Harry decides to make that funny."

It was clear he didn't want to linger on the subject, and no one argued the point.

Harry had to repress a shudder of remembered horror, and glanced around as a distraction to see Ron with his eyes screwed tight shut muttering about taking somethings legs off. Harry didn't have to go far to guess at this, since he knew Ron was most afraid of spiders.

"Well kudos to Ron, he both admits what he's afraid of, and knows how to deal with it," Sirius nodded in approval.

At the front of the room, Lupin called out if everyone was ready, and Harry had a small spurt of panic as he realized he wasn't. How were you supposed to make a dementor funny? He didn't ask for spare time,

"Can't even blame you on that one," Lily said with sympathy.

"Though I'm sure Remus would have given it to you anyways," James shot back.

"Still don't want to ask for it," Harry reminded with a shrug.

Sirius snapped his fingers and said, "I know, you could light its cloak on fire, might look funny to watch it flail around the room like a ninny."

The others managed a small smile for his attempt at humor, but none of them really thought it was that funny, or that Harry would think to do this; though they all hoped.

because everyone else now had set looks of determination on their faces in preparation. Lupin had Neville stand directly in front of the wardrobe now, and the rest of the class backed away from his shaking form, though he covered it by pushing his sleeves up and his wand was plenty steady.

All of them smiled with real pride at this, he wasn't even really anything to do with them, but they still couldn't help but feel proud this boy was clearly forcing himself to stand up to this.

Lupin cast his wand and out stepped a perfect replica of Snape.

"Give it to him Neville," James said under his breath, eyeing the book with wide-eyed hope.

For a moment, Neville froze up, as the boggart reached into its manifested robes,

"Could the Boggart actually perform a spell," Harry blurted out, instantly feeling bad as he too wanted to know if Neville had pulled this off, but the question had just sprung to mind.

No one actually looked annoyed at him, indeed they were rather pleased he truly didn't seem to be bottling up his questions anymore, and Remus was quick to answer, "no, it doesn't carry the magical ability of what it turns into. In this case it would just brandish a wand, scaring him further, until it could pounce and kill him."

but Neville reacted faster, getting the proper curse out, and Snape appeared in all of his green dress glory.

Having already pictured this lovely mental image didn't draw back the laughter one bit. The four boys were very sure indeed they would never not laugh at this mental image, it was far too perfect for anything they'd ever come up with. Lily couldn't deny she was still amused as well, though now her lips were more twitching than outright laughter.

The class lost it again, laughing outright at this, but then Lupin called Parvati to take Neville's place.

Sirius randomly noted that Remus had actually known all of these kids' names, but decided to let it go, who knew why he knew these students names before they introduced themselves. It's not as if he'd called roll to learn them, but maybe he was just overthinking this one.

She ran forward, and with a crack the boggart turned itself into a mummy.

"Oh yes, those can scare the daylights out of you," Lily nodded in agreement.

Parvati reacted similarly, using her wand to fire the curse, and the mummy's bandages came apart, its head beginning to roll away.

James and Sirius released snorts of laughter at that, that's not what they had been thinking to do to it, but that was funny all the same.

Then it was Seamus' turn, and he came forward to find a banshee.

"Wonder when Seamus would have run into one of those?" James asked with interest.

"Wonder where that other girl would have run into a mummy?" Lily countered.

"You don't actually have to run into it for it to scare you," Remus reasoned out, "just the thought of it can be enough for the boggart to latch on to."

The creature began making a horrid ear bleeding noise, but Seamus cut if off with his Riddikulus curse, and suddenly no noise could escape its rasping throat.

All of them laughed lightly at this, James actually applauding that logic.

The boggart was losing its grip now, randomly turning into a rat and chasing its tail,

The three Marauders winced at the random reminder that their friend wasn't here to enjoy this, but Remus didn't pause to let it last.

and Lupin seemed pleased as he instructed the class they were getting to it, sending Dean forward next. His turned into a single hand, which began approaching on the fingers.

"Bloody hell," Sirius spluttered, looking genuinely disturbed at that, "who thinks up that?"

"Now that might actually have a story to it," Remus nodded with just a hint of disgust, but he still read curiously to see what Dean might do with it.

Dean was well prepared, snatching it up in a mousetrap.

Which garnered a new round of laughter from all of them, definite points for originality on that one.

Then it was Ron's turn, and most of the class screamed when a huge spider,

"I'd like to remind someone of this the next time they pick on Ron for being afraid of spiders," James said, giving a lofty look at Lily, who pointedly ignored him. She'd already taken back and felt bad for giggling at him before, no need for him to remind her of that.

which was bigger than most of the students, with menacing pincers already clicking away. Ron didn't react at first,

"Poor Ron," James said in sympathy.

"Give him a chance," Harry disagreed, though he personally couldn't blame his friend one bit if he had frozen, he was probably reliving that awful scene from last year in the Forbidden Forest.

but like everyone else, he came to his senses and called out Riddikulus, causing the spider's legs to disappear from beneath it,

James instantly looked abashed for not having enough faith in Ron, and he laughed right along with the others and applauded him for pulling that off.

where it rolled over itself, and landed in front of Harry. Lupin jumped forward then,

"Hey!" Harry said indignantly.

Remus pursed his lips as the others gave him confused looks as well for stepping in like that, but then he shrugged and offered, "Guess I really didn't want a Voldemort, or a dementor, appearing in the room right then and scaring the other students." Even to him it felt like a lame excuse, why wouldn't he have given Harry the chance to fight off the boggart like everyone else? Harry was still frowning, not looking very happy with that answer, but Remus really couldn't think of anything else to say. He felt like he should apologize, but would Harry really take it now when he hadn't technically done it yet or perhaps he might even still be resenting him for still not having come to talk to him this week. Either way, he turned back to the book rather shamefaced at his actions.

and the boggart instead turned into a silver ball hovering in front of him, but Lupin seemed unconcerned as he said the spell,

None of them really needed to ask, it made perfect sense this would be his greatest fear.

and then told Neville to finish it while the boggart scuttled around as a cockroach.

"A cockroach, that's the funniest thing you could come up with?" Sirius muttered, and Remus ignored him.

Neville took the opportunity by coming back up, and they got one more memorable look of Snape in his fancy dress,

James and Sirius gave another laugh, but this time they were the only ones who did. Then they frowned at each other, rather annoyed the mood got popped so easily, and really hoping the Remus in the book would get a move on already with what was weighing them all down.

before Neville gave one last and loud 'Ha' of amusement, then the boggart vanished with a trail of smoke.

"Can boggarts die?" Lily asked randomly, never having thought of that.

Remus was fidgeting with the pages, not really looking like he wanted to answer. Sirius considered smacking him to try and get him to stop acting like this when he really hadn't done anything wrong, yet. Before he could though James already answered, "nah, they're amortal."

At Harry's continued blank look, Sirius said, "that means that they never truly existed, so they can't ever truly die. It's not really like immortal, dementors are actually the same. They were never born, nor can they ever die, they just exist."

Harry still didn't think much of this explanation, but this thirteen year old mind pounded with the effort of understanding such worldly concepts and let it go. He instead nodded in understanding, and the second the silence lingered Remus was quick to read.

Lupin congratulated the lot of them on a job well done, awarding every person who had a go at the boggart five points, plus five to Hermione and Harry each.

James let out a low, throaty whistle saying, "wow, spoil them much?"

"Oh I'm sure Remus is above favoring," Lily smirked lightly, and then they both frowned when he still refused to react.

Harry protested he hadn't earned that, but Lupin reminded Harry had answered his question at the beginning of class. Then he assigned them homework to summarize the chapter in the book on boggarts, due the next class.

"Ugh, I wish Moony was above giving homework," Sirius said in disgust.

Remus did react then, giving his friend an annoyed look, he seemed very close on the verge of pointing out the importance of homework, but let it go at the last second.

The class left in high spirits, everyone talking about what they'd just done, but Harry was left feeling discouraged. Why had Lupin reacted like that, stopping him? Had he thought seeing Harry go down on the train would mean he couldn't handle it ever?

"That's not it at all!" Remus flipped, and Harry couldn't help but smile along with everyone to see him talking again, animatedly as he was quick to explain "Harry, I know you're not weak. Then and now," he stopped for a moment and went a little cross-eyed, but ignored the odd time loop, "I'm sure I simply just didn't want you to do it, ah for the same reason I said." It still sounded false to his own ears, but Harry was now eyeing him hopefully, so Remus at least hoped he'd made him feel better. Harry didn't say anything aloud though, so he didn't really think so.

The students were comparing how they'd scared away their own fears, though Lavender asked why their teacher would be afraid of a crystal ball.

"Oh please let them continue believing that," Remus muttered to himself.

"Now that was funny," Sirius snickered, "you being afraid of a glass ball."

"I'll take that over what it really was," Remus shot back, and Sirius frowned at him, feeling Remus was being a little snappier than was called for. Then again, he was used to Remus getting snippy with him this time of the month, so he didn't push it.

Ron was bubbling along with the rest of them, exclaiming that had been the best DADA class they'd ever had.

"Well there is that," James nodded eagerly, and Remus really did offer a small smile then for the compliment.

Hermione agreed, though wished she'd gotten some hands on work with the boggart as well. Ron laughed, asking what it would have turned into, an imperfect homework assignment?

All of them released surprised snorts of laughter then, Harry loudest of all as he had a funny feeling Ron wasn't too far off, but having no idea why that could be.

"Chapter's over by the way," Remus said, giving the book a gentle toss over to Lily, who caught it lightly.

HPHPHP

Glad you're all enjoying, thank's a million for every review, hit, and even those that just glance at this!

[weirdagnes]

💄RUDOLF’S DRAG RACE AU 🏁

ALRIGHT SO this AU originally started in our Yeah We Outlasting discord server, artists started drawing the characters in drag and I WOKE HMSHD real shit man. So I'm making a masterpost for drag au on behalf of the server✊✊

Outlast 1 = Season 1

Outlast 2 = Season 2

Whistleblower DLC = All Stars

All of the characters and ideas for the characters were written in collab with @gothivican, @panopt1c0n, @grahaam and the rest of the lads in the server, y’all have such beautiful brains. So anyways.

Here are the judges:

Rudolf Wernicke. Lowkey bias, literally goes to the backstage and tells Miles to beat Billy Hope in a lipsync because Billy can't continue on the show for some reason. Has favoritism towards Blaire, but was forced to sashay him away by the other two judges. Also this bitch is dying, literally has a breathing tank support behind his chair.

Pauline Glick. A very sharp critic. Wore the same shoes? Call out. Oh that's your signature makeup? UGLY tone it down. Sorry, the colors don't match, you'll be in the bottom two for that.

Paul Marion. The kindest judge. He will give constructive criticism in the nicest non-offensive way possible and compliment them after (because he would feel guilty about it).

Alice as guest star. Supportive as f u c k, huge fan, she cries when meeting the queens in Untucked. She can't help complimenting the queens every 10 seconds, she gives off the Leslie Jones’ enthusiasm.

Lisa Park as guest star. Like Alice, very supportive. She’s an artist, and will break down all the reasons why they are so good from an artist’s perspective. Crushes HARD on Wyssle Blower, she might’ve given her number after the show.

Lynn Langermann as guest star. She’s a judge, and she will judge. Gives out well constructed criticisms to all queens fair and square until she saw Angel Fromm (Blake) and just says “Wow what’s there to criticize?” Sallyzekiel hates her, Valentina and Angel on the other hand loves her very much.

 Here are the queens:

Miles Upshur as Kill-O-Meter. Primarily an insult comedy and rocker queen, and specializes in dancing. She tends to be criticized for a lack of glamour on some of her main stage looks, and is one of the most dramatic, sarcastic and shady queens of the bunch. Can and will stomp on you in latex boots for money. Besties with Wyssle and Chrisel, gets into a little heated talks with (occasionally) Peacock, (frequently) Ricky and Remy. She adores Cheets’ (Pyro) makeup skills. Winner of season 1 babey!!

Chris Walker as Piggy Chrisel. A punk/grunge queen who seems to specialize moreso in dancing and lip syncing. She's a shy, gentle giant, has a little trouble speaking coherently and it affects her in the acting/impromptu comedy challenges. She will call out whores though, she will kick ass when the situation calls for it. Really good at makeup, makeup girl-friends with Cheeto and besties with Kill O Meter (Latrila vibes). Also a perfectionist and hates mess on her work table.

Rick Trager as Ricky Trix. Whore, that's all. This bitch OBNOXIOUS and shady but she's both a glamour AND comedy queen, the other queens are watching out for her since day one. Horror and '80s inspired queen, extremely good at comedy and acting and will literally stomp the competition with nearly perfect impressions and extremely expressive acting. The downfall for her seems to be glam on the occasion and singing. Rivals with Kill O Meter and Miss Tini, kikis with Remy (they throw shade to other queens the moment they get em)

Father Martin as Miss Tini. The oldest queen but she can still serve the cakes. Generally a kind person, coming from a religious background. She’s takes the drag culture religiously. She gets along with The Twinks.

The Twins as The Twinks. Was recruited as two totally separate queens, but both quit on the first episode when one of the twins were to be eliminated. The queens tell the Twinks apart by who’s bald and who’s not. They don’t vibe with other queens except Miss Tini.

Pyromaniac as Cheeto de LaFlammeo. Queen of Makeup, she has some serious skill range on it. Good in the acting department, always plays as the tragic character. Was rivals with Kill-O Meter before, but one time when she had a breakdown, Kill-O Meter was by her side when no one was. After that, they respected each other.

Billy Hope as Billy Willy. CLOWN QUEEN, huge Crystal Methyd vibes. She’s the youngest queen, very energetic, a ball of SUNSHINE but Wernicke was a bias bitch and sent her home immediately the moment she was in the bottom. She was basically Kill-O Meter and Wyssle Blower's drag child. Hailed as Miss Congeniality, is voted by majority to return for a season 2 for going home a little too early than people feel was deserved. Best at makeup and outfits, her mom Tiffany taught her to sew and make dresses out of rags and other unconventional materials and the skill proved to be helpful. Also she likes puns and everyone likes playing with her name like: Silly Billy Willy, Witty Billy Willy, etc.

....

Waylon Park as Wyssle Blower. The Mom of the queens, the most well rounded queen, and the most 'fishy' one. Probably the smartest and most humble one out of everyone, she can read through people’s bullshit well. Genuinely looks like a girl in full drag, but always does her best on acting. She's serving you a cute, nerdy and quirky style, but can serve horror when need be. Always wins the mini challenges, she's not as loud as the other girls but she does beat Blaire in a lip sync (lowkey badass lipsyncer). Winner of All Stars babey

Jeremy Blaire as Remy Coco Ainée. Pretentious fake ass queen, even her drag name is just Cocaine in fake French. A pure fashion glamour queen, she serves it at almost all the fashion challenges but there's no more personality out of her other than that and her shady attitude (she will not hold back on the shade). Is extremely horrible at singing (her voice cracks) and acting, goes home against a lip sync with Wyssle. This bitch will FLEX her wins. Kikis with Ricky, mainly rivals with Kill O Meter, Wyssle and Peacock but she made everyone her rivals bc of her bitchass attitude.

Eddie Gluskin as Edna Taylor. Fashion queen, specializes in sewing, acting and singing, but is extremely lacking in the dancing department. Has a one-sided endearment for Waylon, and consistently tries to have her attention. Is extremely manipulative too, trying to consistently trip the other queens up. Also everybody hates her mohawk signature wig but nobody says anything about it because they don’t want to be victim to Edna’s mind games.

Frank Manera as Hanni Canni Bahl. Horror queen, best at comedy and dancing. Though it is prohibited, she’s able to sneak in weed, coke (for Ricky) and snacks in the werk room. Very messy when working, her discarded fabrics are EVERYWHERE and Chrisel is fighting the urge to clean it up. She eats while working when the camera’s off, and it stains the dress she’s working on (Pauline notices it).

Dennis as Denise. Mocked as “Edna’s little helper” as she always helps with her dresses. She’s trying too hard to impress Edna, and helps her get Wyssle’s attention. Very talented in acting and sewing, but bland in fashion, lacking in concept. Her inner conflict is what got her eliminated.

Simon Peacock as Julie Peacock. Rebellious, mischievous, and an ex-glam queen gone horror and campy instead. After being insulted much by glam queens (ahemRemyahem), she just embraced it and became a horror queen, serving the judges her horror aesthetic. Best at comedy, lacks extremely on acting and dancing though. No one is safe from her constructive criticism, and she will never stop ranting to Kill O Meter and Wyssle about Remy and Ricky being bad bitches and favored by Wernicke, she thinks it's unfair.

....

Blake Langermann as Angel Fromm. Singing queen!! Good at singing, but otherwise is moreso well-rounded, she might've been eliminated earlier, hadn't it been for her also low-key successful and iconic lip syncs. But the lucky winning streak didn't last forever, she goes home later in the season because she's slowly falling behind the other queens and can't keep up anymore. Has Rococo aesthetic, unfortunately the outfits can't make up for the lack of character as a queen. Though she needs a lot of improvement, the guest star Lynn adores her very much.

Val as Valentina. Queen of SEX or moreso impersonations and comedy. She’s a terrible tailor, but likes unconventional and simple fashion designs. She’s trans and lowkey Pauline has a crush on her the moment she walked on that stage. Pure rivals with Sallyzekiel, you know that iconic Aja vs. Valentina in Untucked? They had that moment. Probably goes home earlier, not entirely prepared, but still was a season icon. Definitely dropped it low about 10 times on her lip sync.

Marta as ImMartal. GOTH QUEEN, survived about early mid season. Best at her makeup and looks, glam queen, but the judges criticize her for wearing the same wigs/having the same hairstyle for almost every looks.

Nick Tremblay as Nicky Lanterns. Another gentle giant. Very introverted, she has a difficult time socializing with other girls because she’s generally not a very loud person. Really bad at makeup, her fashion sense is somewhat okay but it’s always on the ‘safe’ level. Pretty good at slapstick comedy, writing and concepts tho. It’s a wonder how Nicky and Lard Imp became “friends,” they’re complete opposites.

Laird Byron as Lard Imp. Whore, Exhibit B. Extremely rude, louder than Remy and Ricky themselves, and has a weird love/hate obsession with Angel for some reason. Everyone hates her, even Rudolf himself, and Lard Imp isn’t her original drag name but ultimately they came to a point where they just called her Lard Imp. Constantly denies the judges’ and the queens’ critiques, very delusional about winning the season and that’s why she’s the first one eliminated.

Sullivan Knoth as Sallyzekiel. The Big Bad Bitch of the season. Ultimate rivals with Valentina, constantly bullies Angel. Marta used to be friends with her, but after talking shit on Valentina, she says fuck you and defended Val. Glam queen, has an affinity for shoes but damn girl terrible makeup and padding. Really good with speech, acting and impromptu.

So far, here are the character designs we have made!

(1) Blake and Trager by @/pan0pt1con

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Waylon, Chris, Simon, Eddie, Miles and Jeremy by @/gothivican

(1) Billy, Miles, Chris, Wernicke, Pauline, Paul and Alice by @/weirdagnes

[nobodyfamousposts]

The Other ML Crossover Nobody Wanted

Sooooo…

How many of you have read Petshop of Horrors?

No wait! Come back! I swear it’s not too horrible this time!

In a non-Miraculous version of events, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a bullied and lonely girl. She’s creative and resilient, but has few friends and low self esteem.

Things happen similarly to Origins in canon. The first day of school comes and she’s already figuring it’s bound to be another bad year. Her parents attempt to help by sending her off with a box of macarons to share to try and make friends.

Only instead of Master Fu, she happens to run into a rather peculiar man. Androgynous. Different colored eyes. Long nails. And wearing full oriental clothing.

She helps him and even offers him one of the her bakery’s macarons (which he loves). And somehow, he can tell she has problems. Despite herself, she admits to her fears and her desire to have friends.

The strange man introduces himself as Count D, and as a way of thanking her, he directs her to his Petshop, where he says he sells hopes and dreams. And he offers to find her her perfect companion.

With little else for it, she decides she’ll at least check it out and agrees to go with him.

At the petshop, he offers to give her a pet that will help her and takes her to the back of his store...which strangely seems bigger inside than it should be. He leads to to a particular room.

And inside is a young blond boy who D says is going to be her new pet.

“You can’t just give me a boy as a pet!”

“Don’t be silly. This is a cat.”

Despite the Count’s reassurances, Marinette remains skeptical, but ends up having little choice in the matter. D tells her that this “pet” will help with her problems. And the boy (who calls himself “Chat Noir”) insists on going with her and swears to protect her.

She’s reluctant and demands to know the catch. D is impressed she bothers to ask, but remains vague. At best, he reassures her that as long as she’s good to him, he will return the favor.

So Marinette returns home with a “cat”. Said “cat” is very affectionate and rather needy of her attention. But he’s a great listener and will let Marinette vent to him all of her feelings. He’s also supportive and encourages her. He becomes her friend, as weird as he is.

But...

She wants real friends.

The next day, when she goes to school, she discovers a new student.

“Adrien”.

Who is her cat.

She panics and tries to hide him, only to discover that everyone else sees him as a regular kid. Not only that, he’s pretty and popular and Marinette vicariously becomes popular for knowing him. She doesn’t really like this though since she figures people are only really interested in her because she knows him.

While “Adrien” is getting along with the other members of class, Marinette goes off by herself to begrudge his interference in her social life. Chloe of course takes the chance to antagonize Marinette and try to steal her seat to sit behind this cute new boy she’s heard about. This is how Marinette meets and befriends Alya, who is also a new student. Together, they stand up to Chloe and decide to be friends.

Chloe goes off in a huff, and they think that’s the end of it.

But once class starts, Chloe sees “Adrien” and freaks.

It turns out that Chat Noir in this human form looks just like a boy Chloe knew. A childhood friend of hers named Adrien Agreste.

Suspicious.

Chat gets a little down after this and doesn’t want to talk about it. Which is fine by Marinette, because that is what the internet is for! And new best friend Alya is on the case to help her solve this mystery—because this Alya is a fan of mysteries, and a new transfer student from out of nowhere who looks just like a kid who died is definitely a mystery. And possibly supernatural.

With Alya’s help, Marinette discovers a young male model named Adrien Agreste, son of Gabriel Agreste of the fashion company. Adrien was a model for his father’s brand until he collapsed one day and passed away suddenly. Gabriel Agreste has been holed up in his mansion ever since, and has refused to leave his home or make any public appearances. But he has been known to have a particularly volatile temper, seemingly going out of his way to upset people for unknown reasons.

Chat Noir develops a strange interest in the case and asks to visit. She’s wary, but agrees and takes him to the mansion. Somehow, he knows the access codes to unlock the gates and doors, and manages to get her inside.

The mansion is strangely empty.

They work their way through the rooms, including Adrien’s old bedroom, which looks like it’s been untouched for at least a year. They eventually find their way to Gabriel’s office.

And discover a secret entrance to a hidden basement below.

Down there, they discover a pale, sunken-faced, sickly Gabriel Agreste single-mindedly focused on caring for a strange cocoon. The man is clearly unwell and possibly mad, as he insists the cocoon is his comatose wife. And that everything he’s doing is to wake her.

It becomes clear that like Marinette, Gabriel was also a customer of Count D’s petshop. Only his “pet” is apparently an insect of some sort whom he has been bewitched to see as his dead wife.

Chat Noir is furious and confronts him for neglecting his son for “this”.

The truth comes out.

Adrien Agreste died due to malnutrition, exhaustion, and stress. He had been overworked as a model, working long hours and was kept on a strict diet. Adrien was horribly neglected and desperate to get any sort of approval from his father, so he forced himself to keep at it until his body eventually gave out.

Gabriel Agreste had been a broken man after his wife’s “disappearance”. When he came upon Count D, he was introduced to a “pet”—a cocoon containing an exotic species of moth, which took on the form of his wife in a state of stasis. He signed the contract to keep her and had been focused on “waking” her ever since. To the point of obsession and neglecting all other things.

Including his son.

Chat Noir is strangely angered by this. It takes Marinette’s interference to calm him and keep him from attacking the broken man.

Not that it mattered anymore.

Because Gabriel had a contract for this pet. With three rules of his own to follow:

1. Keep her in a cool space with plenty of moisture.

2. She is an empathetic creature and needs to be stimulated by proximity to high emotions.

3. Do not let her feel isolation.

In lines with these terms, Gabriel had been spending all of his time with her so she would not be isolated. In addition, he had taken to intentionally upsetting people in order to stir up high emotions—often of the negative variety—in some mad attempt to “feed” or stimulate her in hopes she would awaken. In this way, the third rule made sense to him in that if she was empathetic and could sense emotions, she could feel a lack of them and would die if she felt alone.

Gabriel is desperate. He’s been at it for years and still no sign of life from the cocoon. He’s insistent that he keep trying though, because everything will be better once she wakes up.

It’s Marinette who figures out what’s actually happened. And she has to break the news to both Gabriel and Chat.

Gabriel misunderstood the second and third rule of the contract.

For the second rule, she needed to be exposed to high emotions. They didn’t all have to be negative. Happiness counted. Love counted. Excitement and pleasure and bursts of creativity and even all the little mundanities of life would count just fine. But Gabriel thought that the highest emotions were the ones that got the most physical reaction, and had thus been consistently making people around him miserable for this purpose.

Then the third rule, she needed to not feel isolation. For this, he stayed with her constantly. But he failed to realize that this didn’t only mean that she could feel isolated, but that as an empathetic creature, she could feel when OTHERS were isolated.

Like Adrien, whom had been neglected by his father and locked away in his room when he wasn’t being used as a dress up doll.

For years, Gabriel had been exposing her to constant negative emotions of everyone he dealt with and neglecting his own son. That’s a lot of bad feelings he was creating, and a lot of sad/mad/scared/hurt and just all around painful feelings he’d been forcibly exposing her to.

Without realizing it, Gabriel had been poisoning her all along. That’s why she never woke up. And now she never will.

Gabriel refuses to believe it. He breaks down. His wife was lost to him again—for good this time and by his own hand. His son was an unfortunate casualty of his obsession. All former friends and companions driven away. Even his own health and well being was neglected. He was a truly miserable man.

With little other choice, Marinette calls the authorities to get Gabriel some help.

She notices Chat Noir had left and leaves Gabriel to the care of health care workers.

She eventually finds Chat Noir in Adrien’s room.

She also finds a picture there. One of the few of a genuinely happy Adrien Agreste.

And his pet black cat affectionately named “Chat Noir”.

“I hated this room. It was always big but empty. And no matter how much space I had, I always felt trapped. I could never leave. Never go out. Never interact with anyone else.”

“…”

“And your room is so much smaller. So I should be worse off there, shouldn’t I? But it’s warm. And so full of life. And you’re there. And I was so…so happy. It was like what home used to be. What home should be.”

“Chat…”

“How could that make such a difference? I didn’t understand it. Because I thought…surely he loved me the same, right? He slumped. “I just wanted to know why. That was all I ever wanted. And now I finally do and…I can’t stand it.”

“Chat?”

“It just makes me hate this place more.”

“Tell me. Are you…Adrien?”

“I was. I think?” He shook his head. “I don’t know anymore.”

He looked to her, wounded and desperate and practically begging all at once.

“Can I stay with you?”

“…”

“Please?”

_________________________

That night, Marinette slept in her bed, exhausted from the events of the day.

A warm ball of fluff purring as he was held securely in her arms.