#hell that in her previous form when it was murdered all her family went straight to horrifying revenge on her killer

[veryreallyfuckinbad]

FIRE AND MOSS // Daryl Dixon X Reader// CHAPTER 1

You weren’t sure how much longer you could keep sprinting. All you were able to hear were the ghostly, haunting wails of the dead. They were a sound that you’ve grown accustomed to, but they never failed to make you uneasy, no matter how many times you’ve heard them. You never thought it would end like this, torn to shreds by walkers. But what were you expecting? Dying as a hero? Dying to a human, when they were so few and far between? Hell, dying of starvation was better than sharing the fate of the dead people walking. Anything was better than ending up like the group of walkers chasing you down the street.

The scorching heat definitely didn’t help. You were never fond of the Georgian heat and despite having grown up here, you simply disliked how uncomfortable and sticky everything felt. But today, you were convinced that if you cracked a raw egg on the street, it would easily cook. The road was surrounded by greenery, a forest nearby. It was oddly beautiful, the grass growing out of the cracks in the concrete, the flowers blooming around you.

Your legs were starting to give out. You knew that if you didn’t figure something out, and quick, you were as good as dead. Your knife was tucked in its sheath, but once you heard snarls and growls of a nearby walker that wandered from the opposite side of the street, you unsheathed it and threw the knife straight into the dead man’s head, cracking his skull open and sending it flying down on the hot concrete. Despite how tired you were, you felt a smirk creep up on your face- even when running for your life, almost collapsing out of sheer exhaustion, your skills with a blade didn’t let you down. Quickly bending down to retrieve your trusty knife, you pulled it out of the walker’s skull with a slight grunt and grimaced as some blood hit your face. Shit. Not only were you sweaty, you were also covered in walker blood just because you pulled your knife out too quickly.

You were about to quickly curse the dead man for making you even dirtier than you already were, but your head shot up when you heard a loud, consistent noise. A car alarm went off. This was your only chance, you thought. You didn’t take time to wonder why the alarm was blaring, maybe one of the dead bumped into an abandoned car. Frankly, you didn’t care. You looked around and nearly gasped when you saw it- an opening to the forest. You felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and made a run for it, praying to every deity that the dead were too distracted with the loud noise of the alarm to notice you slip away.

Your prayers were answered. You managed to slip into the lush forest unnoticed. Deciding to walk deeper into the woodland, you sheathed your knife and gave it a gentle pat, as if thanking it for saving your life.

The forest was serene and quiet. The trees gave you shade and cooled you down a little. Looking up, you saw a bird fly up to its nest. Despite you being in grave danger, practically at all times, life went on for other creatures. Moss grew over stones and tree trunks, the occasional mushroom could be found here and there. Instead of the growls of the dead, all you could hear now was the calm rustling of the trees and the sounds of woodland creatures, mainly the quiet chirping of birds. For the first time in what seemed like forever, you felt at peace.

Suddenly, the sound of rushing water could be heard. There must have been a river nearby. Hurrying over to find the source of the sound, you almost tripped over a root that was sticking out of the ground, barely managing to get hold of a tree before you could fall. You couldn’t help your excitement; you were dehydrated, sweaty and tired- any body of water would be a blessing.

“Oh, fuck yes” was all you said under your breath when you saw it- a beautiful, small creek and a tiny pond connected to it. Rocks were scattered across the river bank, moss covering most of them. Trees were growing out of the edge of the bank, one bending right over the pond. Green ferns surrounded the other side of the lake, gently rustling with every gust of wind. You noticed a big weeping willow and decided to lay your backpack underneath it. Your knife was still attached to your pants- it wasn’t a good idea to leave it on the bank. ‘Better safe than sorry’ you thought.

You contemplated for a second, wondering whether you should take your clothes off but decided against it- you might need to get up and run any second and running through a forest naked, possibly being chased by walkers didn’t sound like much fun. Not that running from them fully clothed was a blast.

You quickly kicked off your boots and splashed some water on your face, allowing it to drip from your lips and chin. You couldn’t help but smile and sigh, finally able to relax and rest. The water was clear- you could see the rocks on the bottom of the lake and some stray leaves that fell in. You could also see your reflection- your hair was matted, some knots forming in it and your face sunken down, dark bags under your eyes from staying awake and alert at all times. You sighed and let yourself submerge in the water- it wasn’t nearly as good as a shower, but you knew that a shower is a luxury that was far out of your reach.

Sitting under the willow, hair and clothes wet, you played with your knife in your hands. The dark brown, wooden handle was wrapped in a bandage for easier grip- that way it never slipped out of your hand. You smiled when you remembered receiving the knife. Your previous group was like family to you- they taught you everything you know. Everything from sharpening knives to killing walkers or skinning squirrels. You owed your life to them, but you will forever remember one of them- Jake. He was a tall guy, middle aged you would guess, not that it mattered anymore. His hair was a dirty blonde color and his face was speckled with freckles. He was like a father to you, he was the one who gave you your knife, and he came up with its nickname- Artemis. During one of the rare, calm and starry nights he sat on top of his truck with you while the rest of your group was asleep. He explained why he named your knife Artemis- he said it’s the name of a Greek goddess, patron of nature and hunts. You were never big on mythology, only knowing a few of the most popular myths.

“So, you named her after the goddess of nature for me to shamelessly murder innocent woodland critters with it?” You joked, “Don’t think she would be too happy about that”

He laughed and playfully punched your shoulder, making you swat at him with your hand

“Nah, I’m sure she would understand. Hunting was her thing” Jake said, sighing and gave you a small smile.

You shook your head, not even trying to understand. You felt at peace, safe even. He treated you like his daughter more than a fellow survivor. He saved your life when you almost starved to death and took you in. Ever since then, he took it upon himself to keep you safe. He said you reminded him of his daughter, but you never asked him to elaborate, as his eyes always darkened when he spoke about her. Jake made you feel like as long as he was around, nothing would ever happen to you.

And then everything went to shit.

When you were all asleep peacefully, a herd passed through your camp. They must’ve seen your campfire or heard you speak from afar. You saw your entire group get mauled and torn apart, right before your eyes. You saw Jake die. Before he met his end, he managed to say one last thing.

“Run”

You quickly shook your head and stood up, stretching. The leaves hanging from the willow above you swayed in the wind, one of them tickling your neck and almost making you jump out of your skin, you held Artemis out and turned around, sighing.

You had to admit, you were paranoid. But you didn’t think it was a bad thing- it was either being careful or being dead.

Your head whipped back to the pond, hearing rustling and the snapping of branches coming from the ferns opposite of you. If it was one walker, you could handle it. It would probably fall in the pond anyway, making your job easier.

You almost gasped when you saw a flash of reddish-brown come out from between the greenery- you couldn’t help but smile and shake your head. It was just a fox who had come to the pond to drink some water.

You examined the animal- he looked unhealthy, but still beautiful. His fur was matted and he looked malnourished. You noticed the nick in one of his black ears and wondered how he got it. His fur looked like a flame, contrasting against the green grass and moss. He had ears that looked like they were too big for his head. Deciding to watch from afar as not to startle the animal, you sat cross legged by the shore of the lake. Your eyes shot up when you noticed the blood dripping down one of his hind legs- he had a massive cut on his leg. It went all the way from his hip to his paw, coloring his fur crimson. As soon as he tried to swallow the water, he began heaving and choking, his breathing became shallow. Eventually, he collapsed on his side.

You couldn’t just sit back and watch this poor animal die. You didn’t have the heart not to help him, and you had to admit it- you were lonely as hell. Anything would do, even the company of a wild animal in need. You jumped up from the grass you sat on and ran into the water, trying your best not to slip on any of the rocks that littered the bottom of the lake, which was shallow enough for you to cross without needing to swim.

You ran up to the fox, contemplating what to do. His leg was bleeding badly, you needed to stop it or he wouldn’t make it until morning. It looked at you, terrified.

“Fuck, shit, what the hell do I do?” You tried not to panic but couldn’t help the string of curses escaping your mouth.

Suddenly, you got an idea. You remembered that your knife’s handle was wrapped in bandages, and even though you hated the idea of sacrificing the comfort of having the handle wrapped in them, you decided that he needed them more. You weren’t sure whether to bring your backpack and knife to the other side of the pond or take the animal to your makeshift camp under the willow.

You decided on the latter, picking the fox up as gently as you could and walked into the water, holding him up so he didn’t get wet. As soon as you made it to the other side you carefully laid him down on the grass, making sure not to touch his injured leg. You quickly grabbed Artemis and unwrapped the bandages from the handle.

“You better be grateful” you said, half to the fox, half to yourself. If Jake could see you right now, he would be so mad. He would tell you not to waste resources on a dying animal that will run away or die anyway. Maybe he was right, but you couldn’t help yourself. You saw a lot of yourself in the fox, scared, tired of running away, afraid of anything and everything.

You sighed and grabbed the bandages, ripping them in half.

“This might hurt, but I promise I’m trying to help” you whispered under your breath and gently stroked his head. He didn’t flinch or bite you, probably because he didn’t have enough strength to do so. You took a deep breath and grabbed one half of the bandages and pressed them against his wound, flinching when the animal shrieked due to the sudden pressure on his wounded leg. You knew you were helping but couldn’t help but feel bad. You noticed it was getting dark, looking around with your hands still firmly pressed against his wound. You sighed, knowing you’ll need to light a campfire soon.

Once his bleeding seemed to lessen, you let go of his leg and looked at your hands. They were covered in blood, but it was nothing new. ‘Better than walker blood, I guess’ you thought to yourself as you made your way over to the pond to wash the blood off and quickly returned to the animal.

“Now, this won’t hurt as much but I’ll need you to stay still” you looked him in the eyes and stroked his head, between his comically big ears. He seemed to calm down, looking at you with less terror and more confusion.

Taking the other half of the bandages, you kneeled next to him and gently lifted his leg, trying to cause him as little pain as possible. He didn’t make a sound this time and let you wrap the bandage around his leg. You couldn’t help but think that he must know you’re helping. You knew it was a stupid thought, but something in his eyes and the way he calmed down whenever you stroked his flame-colored fur told you he trusted you.

“I will be right back, I promise. I just need to get a fire going because someone forced me to get into the pond again and I need to dry off.” You explained, smirking, noticing how good it felt to finally have someone to talk to- even if it was a confused, wounded fox.

Once you gathered all the wood and branches you could find, you laid them down in a pile and surrounded it with rocks so the fire wouldn’t spread. Grabbing your backpack, you pulled out a lighter and looked at the smoldering branches. Poking the wood a with a stick a few times, you finally sat down next to the fox again and watched the flame grow.

Then, you remembered- you had a water bottle and a package of dried jerky in your backpack. Smiling, you pulled them out and took a sip of water and opened the jerky. The foxes ears shot up when he heard the rustle of the plastic wrapping. He looked at you and licked his snout, giving you puppy eyes.

“Oh, come on man. This is my last food! I literally don’t have any more.” You whined, hoping that the animal could somehow understand you. Sadly, he couldn’t. His gaze flickered from the piece of jerky to your face. You sighed and gave in when he flipped over, so he was laying on his stomach, his tail moving gently, kind of like a dog wagging its tail when it sees its owner.

“There you go” you dipped your head, handing him the piece of meat, the fox gently taking it from your hand, as if afraid to graze you with its sharp teeth “But if I starve, it’s on you” you pointed your finger at him, once again hoping he understood.

The fox ended up eating all of your food, but the second his head pushed against your hand, shuffling over so his head was on your lap, you knew it was worth it.

“Feeling better, huh?” you gave his head a pat with a smile, “I know you’ll be gone in the morning, it’s okay. Go when you want to” you were surprised by yourself, by how much you missed speaking to another living creature.

You heard a branch snap on the other side of the pond and your head shot up, just like the foxes ears. You both looked at the source of the sound, but couldn’t make anything out- it was too dark. You lifted the animal’s head off your lap as gently as you could and grabbing your knife, made your way to the shore of the lake. Feeling bold, you sheathed the blade and grabbed two big rocks, banging them against each other.

“Come on, you dead fuck! Come up here so I can get this over with and sleep in peace!” you screamed, trying to lure the walker out, but nothing came out. Not even a single undead moan. You stood by the shore for a while, making sure that it really was nothing before coming back to sit with the fox, the animal once again put his head on your lap.

You looked over at him and ran your hands through his fur “What do you think? Was it just an animal?” you genuinely hoped that the fox would tell you, all you wanted to do was relax for a few hours, maybe get some shut eye. He just looked up at you and moved his head into your hand, wanting to be pet some more. After making sure you would keep petting him, he laid his head in your lap.

“So that’s what I am? A pillow, huh?” You whispered gently, loving the feeling of a wild, elusive animal trusting you.

You opened your eyes and rubbed them, sighing. You haven’t slept this well in a long time. No noises woke you up, you didn’t even have a nightmare.

You expected the fox to be gone, back in the wild, tearing your bandage off with its teeth, but you were wrong. He was sitting curled up beside you, awake, as if keeping watch. You grinned and ruffled his fur lovingly, holding yourself back from kissing his head- you had to admit it, he was the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.

“So, since you insist on staying, what’s your name, huh?” you looked at him, still stroking his fire-colored pelt. “Floppy? ‘Cause you know, the ears.” You grimaced and shook your head, “Nah, you need a more badass name. Like… like the most badass person I know. Jake. You like that?” he squeaked, resembling a bark but more high pitched. He suddenly stood up and you glanced at his leg. He was standing on all four legs, not even a limp. You guessed the wound wasn’t as deep as you thought. He trotted over to something and came back to you, looking up at you and walking back to whatever he wanted to share with you.

“What is it, huh?” Curiously, you went over to where Jake was standing. He was sniffing something, looking at what he found and then flicking his gaze back to you.

Kneeling down, you were surprised to see a small bag. It wasn’t there yesterday. Concerned, you opened it and saw a water bottle, a bag of dried jerky, a dead squirrel and some bandages.

“What the—“ you couldn’t finish as you saw Jake put his snout inside the bag, getting stuck. You laughed a bit and pulled it off his head. He shook his head, sneezed and licked his nose. Reaching into the bag again, you saw one more thing. A note.

“SQUIRREL FOR THE FOX”

[tedturneriscrazy]

Another Saturday, another episode! Let's take a look at Keeping Up A-fear-ances!

(Good lord I'm starting to make myself sound like some sort of content creator)

Oh, okay, we're just starting at that level of intensity, huh?

Chest gem origins

Gwendolyn not being satisfied with managing the curse and determined to cure it? I'm sure this won't be a real world allegory in the slightest.

Oh, so Eda literally just stumbles upon the portal? I could call that contrived, but honestly it's not dissimilar to how Dipper found Journal 3. For that matter, the entirety of Lord of the Rings is predicated on an accidental discovery like this and nobody gave Tolkien shit about it.

Was the eye on the portal cracked in previous episodes? I don't remember.

Seems like Gwen is the "well-meaning but ultimately misguided" flavor of mom.

As an aside, I am now quite curious about how Eda's first trip to the human realm went. Maybe a future episode will cover it? At any rate, I smell a new favorite fic prompt.

The screaming alarms in the Demon Realm will never not be funny to me.

Also, that is a worrying number of hearts. Eda is straight up murdering these poor creatures.

For some reason the gold fang being removable never occurred to me as a possibility, and now I feel like a kid who's discovered that Santa isn't real.

Oh hey, the new outfit! I'm also impressed how close to symmetrical that tearing was.

I need to get a screencap of Luz sleeping on that stack of books because she is adorable.

Also, staying up all night researching? This season seems determined to completely eradicate the notion of Luz being dumb, and I am here for it.

I have a feeling the Hexside mug will be making its way to The Mystery Shack in the near future.

Lilith's first experience with transformation and she seems understandably horrified.

The curse acting stronger when stressed? That seems...important.

Ah, so the dismemberment is from the curse! A surprisingly useful side effect from what we've seen so far.

Can I just say that I appreciate how Eda's reaction to Lilith's first taste of transformation is immediate remedy, explanation, and reassurance? And doesn't make any snarky comments along the lines of "now you know what it's like?" Whatever happened in that week and a half must have been cathartic as hell.

"Always. Always curious." Luz is the TOH fandom.

(Also, Eda, you know she is, considering how much she went on about your "mysterious past" at the Covention)

"Magic bird tornado?!" Luz has a way with words that's just *chef's kiss*.

"Gwendolyn." Eda is already just fucking done.

"MOM?!?!" Jeez, Lilith, you're just now hearing all this?

I was charmed by how motherly Gwen was acting toward Eda, but then she kinda just...dismissed Lilith, and now I'm somehwat less charmed.

(Sweet flea as a term of endearment is kinda cute, though might have some unfortunate implications depending on how you want to interpret it)

"Who knows what they put in those nasty concoctions?" OH WE GOING FOR THE ANTI-VAXXERS NOW YESSSS

Luz and Lilith's reaction to that whole exchange is priceless.

Everyone's perspective here makes perfect sense for who they are and what they've been through.

Poor Lilith. Her cursing Eda is beginning to make more sense.

Ah, thus begins the collaboration.

"We'll be consulting someone very special." Why does that seem so...ominous?

Is there anyone who watched this episode for the first time whose bullshit detector didn't go off immediately when Gwen mentioned finding someone who promised a cure?

Heh, Palm Stings.

Nonbelievers will be blinded by the power of the tome? I'm sure they will be, Wartlop.

I must say, as something of a scientist myself (okay that's not true, I'm a QA tech for a food manufacturer, but I do have a chemistry degree), I am 100% here for the swings being taken at faith healing/"miracle" cures/anti-vaxxers in this episode

Oh, we Wile E. Coyote now, huh?

Also, interesting how much apple blood is being played up in this episode.

Lilith please you're projecting your mommy issues on a literal child

OH WE REALLY JUST WILE E. COYOTE HUH?

You're right, Luz, Gwen's bicep game is goals.

(Somewhat disappointed the scars are from questing and not beastkeeping, but eh)

Why do I get the feeling there's gonna be a future episode where everybody stages an intervention for Eda's apple blood problem?

"Those feathers mean we're driving the beast out" Gwen no

Hooty is holding the brain cell? Oh no...

If that ice cream came from the Night Market it would explain why Lilith sounds drunk.

(Side note: I can't be the only one getting flashbacks to Mermista's ice cream binge, right? Different context, but still)

"Abomi-berry" "Franken fruit" "Key slime pie" These are A+ flavor names.

Oh, there's the transformation...

I must say that whole segment kinda rubbed me the wrong way. The way King's opinion on his dad was changed seemed...I don't know how to describe it. I get that they needed a trigger for Lilith's transformation, but honestly if any part of the episode is contrived it's this.

"¡It really is that good!" So that's what an accent slip in written form looks like. (The upside down exclamation point is used in Spanish, in case anyone didn't know)

I keep half expecting Eda to say "Beep! Beep!" at this point.

Luz is finally asking questions. Took long enough.

Ah, the classic "moving the goal posts to extract more money from a desparate family member" technique.

Luz channeling Scorpion, we love to see it.

There is an exquisite irony in Eda's mom being scammed, I must say.

Ah, so that's where the elixirs went. Dammit, Gwen.

Luz is definitely thinking "Are you fucking kidding me right now?!"

Beast!Lilith is massive.

"Sweet flea?" Gwen just realized she done goofed.

"I can see you still need a little time." God Luz is so fucking smart.

The con revealed.

OH DAMN SCARY MAMA

(Also I am terrified of bees/wasps, so extra scary mama in my book)

The scam is revealed, goblins, getting back into the Wartlop disguise is kinda pointless.

She joined the Beast Keeping coven entirely to cure the curse? That's dedication. A shame you couldn't have spared some of that for Lilith.

Still, I do like badass scary mama Gwen. I'd be down to see more of that.

Owl Beast fight!

I am slayed by the fact that the portraits are now officially a recurring gag 😂

Aw, here's The Moment™️

"My turn to drive" Does this imply cars are a thing on the Boiling Isles after all?

Lilith crying almost immediately💔 She was holding onto a lot of pain.

Yes, King, she was trying to do her best. I mean, road to hell or whatever, but at least Gwen got there in the end.

WHAT?! YOU'RE BREAKING UP LULU AND HOOTCIFER?!?!?!?

Terrace, that's just cruel. (Worthless brownie points for whoever understands that reference)

No, seriously, you can't just give me my favorite inter-character relationship in the series after Lumity and just...take it away like that, come on! 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I know I should remark on how Lilith told Gwen about the circumstances of the curse, how Gwen rightfully accepted responsibility for the whole situation, and how Luz finds the big hair aspirational, but...NOOOO DON'T END THE ADVENTURES OF LULU AND HOOTCIFER WHYYYYYYYYY💔😭💔😭💔😭

"BUT I CAN'T HOLD A PEN!"

I will never emotionally recover from this.

Okay, I think I got that out of my system. Anyway...

Not the only human, huh? Cue the "Belos is a human" theorists going into maximum overdrive.

That said, a tantalizing lore dump.

We certainly do have a lot of garbage. Some of it even holds office. HEY-O!

Setting up the next episode, too. Continuity!

Camp's over, huh? That means it's been three months.

Way to misdirect with Camila, guys. That said, we have now seen Camila cry and I HATE it. (In the right way, I think)

WHAT THE FUCK

HOLY SHIT

CREEPY LUZ IS REAL WHAT

OWJEIWHQGIWWOPQ

(It's hard to keysmash on a phone, even with autocorrect off)

That wraps it up! The flaws in this episode seem more pronounced than any others in the season so far, but the good stuff was really good! Overall a solid episode! I know everybody's looking forward to library Lumity in the next one (so am I), but I'm personally eager to see what they do with Gus. His part is the A plot, after all.

Anyway, I'll be back at this next week! Still hard to believe this is a thing, but that's life, I guess.

[matchasprouts]

Listen Closer - Chapter 14

[ OK OK I FINALLY GOT IT DONE SO I'M GONNA START VAMPIRE AU CHAP 1 ]

First || Next || Previous || Last

Garrett definitely noticed that Strahm refused to make eye contact with him when they got back to the precinct, and couldn’t help but feel very proud of himself for that, even if all he’d done was get caught after having sex.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go home? It’s going to take more than a day for you to make up for all that blood loss,” Mark spoke up beside him, snapping him back to attention.

“I’m sure. I want to make sure they don’t dig too much into Lawrence,” Garrett replied, shifting in his seat.

They were currently sitting in the room hidden from the interrogation room by the two way mirror, waiting for Strahm and Perez to go in and ask Lawrence where he had been for so long. He was one of the only Jigsaw victims they had known of, but had never been able to find after his trap.

Of course, they couldn’t know that he was healing up at the meat packing plant. So he came up with something else, something John approved of.

They didn’t have to wait much longer before the door of the interrogation room opened and the agents entered, Strahm hovering closer to the mirror while Perez sat down across from Lawrence.

“So, Dr. Gordon, you’ve been missing for over six months now. I’ll admit that we don’t know very much about your “game” other than the fact that your fellow captive, Adam Stanheight, is dead. You were presumed dead as well. Where have you been all this time?” Perez asked, resting her hands on the table between them.

“Hiding,” Lawrence answered simply. “I had to… kill Adam in order for my family to live. It wasn’t my best moment- or my best shot, because of the blood I was losing- but I couldn’t just let them die. Not because of my mistakes.”

Garrett knew that Lawrence’s ex-wife had gone to the police after escaping Zep, only because he had looked at the files as soon as Lawrence told him he was going to be questioned. The police knew about their part of the kidnapping, and they had told them that Zep told them the game was over, and that Lawrence had lost.

They had a way around this too.

“I- I know that my ex-wife probably told you that I lost the game, but it’s not true. Zep’s clock was wrong. I checked as soon as I could walk.” This was a complete lie, both of the clocks were perfectly set up.

However, knowing that one day something like this would happen, Zep’s clock turned off permanently when the game was done, so no one could ever check. The police didn’t know that, and they never would.

Apparently they hadn’t been expecting Lawrence to be so cooperative, because there was silence for a minute, before Perez spoke up again.

“You said you were hiding? Is that because you killed Adam? You were trapped, Dr. Gordon, and it was the only way to protect your family. You wouldn’t have been arrested for that,” she said, leaning back when he scoffed at her.

“Do you honestly think that I was thinking about that after sawing off my own foot and murdering someone?” he asked coldly, his gaze flicking to the mirror for a second before dropping back to the table. “I was afraid, ashamed, and bleeding out. That didn’t exactly make me very open to thinking logically.”

There was silence again, before they decided they were satisfied. “Thank you for your time, doctor,” Perez said as she stood up, offering him a weak smile. “We’re glad to see you’re alright. Take care.”

With that, she and Strahm left, leaving Lawrence in the room. Garrett had already been told earlier that he could take Lawrence home when they were done, so he wasted absolutely no time in doing so, only pausing to give Mark a goodbye kiss.

“So, do you think my acting was on par with yours?” Lawrence teased once they were in the car, gaining a chuckle from Garrett. “Be honest. It was pretty important.”

“Yeah, it was,” Garrett admitted. “You could put a little more into eye contact, but they definitely believed you.” Lawrence gave a quiet “whoop” next to him, which made him laugh hard and sudden enough that he had to slam on the brakes as pain shot through his face from his wound.

Lawrence was on him in seconds, tilting his head to the side to check the stitches. Luckily he hadn’t pulled any out, but it hurt like HELL. “I’m fine,” Garrett muttered, getting an incredulous look from his boyfriend before he was released.

Soon enough, they were back on the road, the only thing breaking the silence being the radio.

This was probably the most quiet car ride Garrett had ever been in.

---

Upon arriving back at the meat packing plant, Garrett almost immediately locked himself in his room, getting straight to work on the plans for his next trap.

There wouldn’t be many traps for the next few months or so, other than a few small ones that Amanda and Mark would be putting on. Only one of them would need Garrett’s touch- he was going to have to put one of them together piece by piece in a motel room.

He was looking forward to the challenge, but that required the trap before it to happen, and that wouldn’t be for at least a month.

So, he worked on his own trap instead.

Honestly, part of him thought it would make more sense for Mark to design and build a trap for Strahm, but he found it rather poetic that it was his job instead. Since they’d met, they had continuously been forced into situations together, one even bad enough that Garrett literally passed out in his arms.

Strahm was growing attached, and Garrett was planning his death.

Some people might call that love.

His focus turned entirely to his plans as he sat down at his desk, surrounded by pieces of scrap metal and small models of traps. Luckily, he already had a plan in mind and didn’t have to sit there and try to figure it out.

The trap was going to be a box that would be placed on his head and quickly fill up with water. Theoretically there should be no escape, which was why it wasn’t his most creative trap. He wasn’t even going to make a tape for him.

He was, however, going to spend as much time as possible on it, in order to ensure that there was no way for him to get out.

Theoretically, of course.

Once he had the plans sketched out and finalized with a design he liked, he got to work on the actual building. He knew he had several months to put it together, but he didn’t want to waste any time.

He knew his little found family got worried when he threw himself into his work like this, but they did the same damn thing so they never said anything. He was pretty sure they worried just because he was the only one that locked himself away when he worked.

Nar still came in on occasion to make sure he was hydrated and not accidentally starving himself, but it was mostly Lawrence checking in on him now that he could walk.

What finally brought him out of the hyperfocus was the sound of a folder hitting his desk, the sound making him flinch.

The perpetrator was Mark, who was now leaning against the desk. “What’s that?” Garrett asked, tilting his head to the side as Mark handed the folder to him.

“That, sweetheart, is the paperwork you need to fill out to become my official specialist, instead of one accepted on my word alone,” Mark explained, gesturing for him to open the file, which he did.

Most of it was already filled out by Mark, leaving only a few black spaces that Garrett needed to fill in. “Man, you wanna be around me that bad?” he joked, but he really did appreciate the work Mark was putting in to let him into crime scenes.

“Just fill out the forms,” Mark shot back, pressing a long kiss to Garrett’s head before leaving the room.

… Maybe a little break would be okay. These forms were probably more time sensitive than the water box, and he’d take any chance he could to get away from his bookstore job.

Besides, all he had to do was sign his name, explain why he was certified to be a specialist, and any criminal history, which he did not have.

The form was finished quickly, and he took the chance to get something to eat while he looked for Mark to return it to him. After that was done, he went right back to his room and got right back to work.

John had only given him two traps to work on, and by god was he going to work on them.

Besides, the faster he got the water box done, the faster he could put together the pieces needed for one of his favourite traps yet.

[ssa-daddyhotchner]

Undercover - Chapter 15

Chapter Selection

"What do we got now Garcia", I took at seat between Hotch and Morgan. 

"Okay today we have a case in one Reno, Nevada. This is Henry Baxter he was found yesterday by some hikers." We all look at the crime scene photo and Morgan speaks up. 

"What makes the police think this isn't just a murder." Reid takes a closer look at the details and makes the connection to a previous case. Garcia starts to speak but he cuts her off. 

"This looks like a case from 25 years ago. There were bodies of abusive fathers, this unsub was active from 84 to 89. After that he just disappeared." Rossi had a look of realization. 

"I remember that case Gideon and I worked on it. We got close to catching him but there was never another body. The FBI called us back to Quantico." 

"We'll talk more about it on the jet, let's go." Everyone stands up and go for their go bags. I get into the SUV with Hotch, we leave first before the team. The drive was quiet, we did talk about the notes coming to the our house and my ex. What we would do and if I'd tell the team if the problem escalated. 

We got out the car and walked to the jet going inside. I take a seat in the back by the window, Hotch sitting next me. "Sooo", he turned his attention from the case file. "Can you talk to Rossi about that trip, we all need one", a smile tugging at his lips. "I'll talk to him", I let out a small 'yay'. 

Aaron glanced out the window, he didn't see anyone. He leaned forward and pressed a gentile kiss on my lips. We didn't notice the already present, Spencer and Rossi standing the aisle. Aaron and I looked at them awkwardly. "I've seen you do worse no need to feel embarrassed." Spencer sat down and I felt my face getting red hot. Slightly remembering the night in the back of Spencer's car.

The rest of the team got there not long after, we waited till the last half hour of the flight to go over the case again. "Ok so first start with the dumping grounds. He displaying them, setting them in an upright position", Rossi finished speaking. 

"The stabbing and slicing is the outlet for sexual release. People that use a knife usually more introverted." Morgan stated, Garcia went on the tv. 

"Ok there was just another body found an hour ago, I just got wind of it. What do you guys need from me." Garcia finished then Hotch started. "Garcia I need you to look for men that are 50-60 that have lived in the Reno area since the 80's." 

"Look for that and any men between the age range that went to prison, he stopped killing for 26 years that doesn't just happen." JJ said while flipping through the case file. "Garcia I think that enough for now." 

Garcia ended the call and Hotch stood up, "Rossi and Morgan go to the most recent crime scene. Emily an Reid go to the victims house, talk tot he families. Y/n, JJ, and I will go to precinct to set up." 

Hotch went to the back of the plane to get a cup of coffee. I put my hand o his arm and turn to him, "Did you talk to Rossi." He finishes pouring his cup. "Yes", I smile and walk away to talk me seat. 

The plane lands JJ, Hotch, and I all go to the precinct. 

_____________________________

The case took about a week to solve; the unsub was Matthew Ford. He was in prison for 27 years due to attempt murder. We were on our way back on the jet, I was to the right of Aaron. We were on crowded in the center of the jet. 

Morgan was talking to Emily, JJ to Reid. Aaron was doing paperwork, his hand sitting on my thigh rubbing small circles. I had my eyes closed trying to get rid of my headache. Rossi was sitting in front of me. 

Aaron took out his phone and texted Rossi. He read the text and stared at him. I shrugged and he began talking. 

"Its come to my attention that when I mentioned the vacation all of you took me serious", we all said yes. "So you all want me to pay for it." 

I looked at Rossi, "Yeah so were we going. I really need this, you'll be helping all of us out. We're so stressed." I was somewhat over exaggerating. But we all did the vacation and Rossi has the money to do it. Hotch started talking, "Dave if it makes you feel better we can you this as an excuse to 'team bond'." 

Rossi glanced at all of us, "Fine but I choose where we're going." Yays were spread throughout the jet. I feel like I needed this the most. My mind was constantly on my ex, Hayley, combined with the stress of the job and what happened with Carmine I was feeling overwhelmed. 

Some nights I'd wake up covered in sweat and other I wouldn't be able to sleep at all. It was all still happening and made me feel useless. From the looks of it Aaron didn't have any problems with it. 

We got back to Quantico and Rossi had already made the plans and the location. 

"We're gonna go to Honolulu, surprisingly I've never been there. We leave at 8am and yes I bought your tickets but I expect to be paid back." Rossi stepped into his office and closed the door. Morgan, JJ, and Emily all gathered their stuff and went home to pack. I sat at my desk waiting for Aaron to finish the files that remained on his desk. 

My eyelids were starting to get droopy and I put my head down. "Why don't you go home and get some sleep", I picked up my head and saw Spencer sitting at his desk. "I would but Hotch drove me, I that you went home." 

"Nope, when we left for the case there were some files that still needed to be done. You know I don't like to leave things unfinished." I smiled a bit putting my head back down. 

"So, how are you and Hotch?" I didn't look at him. "Fine I just wish he'd hurry up!" I mumbled slightly yelling the last part. Spencer was still talking to me but everything started to fade away. 

I woke up to someone shaking my shoulder. Rossi stood above me, "Hotch told me to wake you up he's almost done." I nodded still tired and couldn't make out words. He walked through the glass doors and went home. 

I stood up and stretched walking into Hotchs office, "I'm almost down give me 5 minutes." 

"Ok", I mumbled rubbing my eyes and laying down on the couch. I felt drained but this time I couldn't go back to sleep. "Annnd done, ok we can go." I stood up from the couch and held my hand out. He grabbed it and we walked to the car.

Aaron got into the drivers seat and started the car. II got in and put my hand on his thigh. He looked down at the gesture, "Thought I was supposed to d that to you." 

I giggled, "Deal with it." I squeezed his thigh and he was stifling a laugh.  

When we got home I was somewhat awake and dropped all of my stuff off at the door dragging my way through the house and to the bed. I slummed down, not bothering to change my clothes, I still had to pack. 

Aaron wrapped his arms around me and we drifted off.

_____________________

Aaron packed my things for me and we rushed out the door. We almost overslept and we sped to the airport. We made right before they closed the gate on us, Rossi had bought everyone first class tickets  and we sat down. "What the hell took you so long", Emily looked back at us. I glanced at Aaron, "I overslept and Hotch had to bring Jack to Jessica's. 

She turned back around and put on her head phones. Reid sat in the middle row reading a book, JJ and Morgan were talking a few rows ahead. 

The flight was around 13 hours and they were spent looking out the window and reading. We got there around 9pm and went straight to the hotel. Rossi got everyone a separate room except for me and Hotch. 

"Ok in the morning I wanna go to the beach. I need back my tan, can't get that in Virginia." Aaron chuckled in my ear as we were about to go to bed. "Ok sounds like a plan." 

"Night." 

"Night princess."  

______________________

I woke up to a call, I didn't wake up and instead Aaron answered. It was Spencer, "Hey are you gonna come down or do I have to get you." Aaron didn't answer instead he hummed. "Okay fine sleep in", he hung up the phone. 

Aaron nestled his face on my back and mumbled, "We gonna get up." I hummed in agreement. "Come on its 10:30am." That made me shoot my eyes open, I turned to look at him. "Alright come on." 

We got changed putting on my black two piece, got some towels and snacks and headed for the beach. When we got there, the sun was blazing ahead. There were people lining the beach with umbrellas and food. 

Aaron called the team while I took off towards the water, "Hey I finally got up. I met y/n at the beach. Are you guys coming?" 

"Yeah we'll be there." Emily hung up the phone and she told everyone else to go to the beach. I was looking back at Aaron while he sat there looking slightly awkward. I dipped my whole body in the water getting my hair wet. 

I walked out of the water and over to Aaron. I reached my hand out, "Do I have to beg you." A smirk formed on his lips, "Yeah you know what that'd be nice." I bent over and grabbed his hand pulling him up to me. "You're gonna go in the water. If you like it or not."

He moved his mouth to my ear, "You gonna make me." My breathing hitched, I looked over Hotchs shoulder and saw the team. "I could but that would mean I wouldn't be able to see this." The whole team rushed up behind his and started pushing his into the water dipping his head under. 

When he came back up his hair was sticking to his forehead a bit. His body more specifically his chest was glistening in the sun from the water. He looked hot as hell. I just wanted to jump on him right there. 

"Emily come here!", Morgan called out putting her on his shoulders. "Let go, come on y/n you think you can take this." I looked at the sight ahead of me and I started to laugh. "Yes I think I can take that."  I brought Aaron over to me getting on his shoulders. His hands squeezing my thighs keeping me on.

The guys practically charged at each other. My arms going out and almost knocking them down. Emily dipped to the side blocking the shove. I came back strong no pushing her off but made her back up enough so she fell of herself. 

Her body crashing into the water and Aaron and I brought our hands to the air and getting a well deserved high five. "Aww there always next time Derek." I was laughing; I was still on Aaron shoulders we didn't even notice we were still holding on to each other till Spence pointed it out. 

He swam over to us, "Y/n just staying you might wanna get down cause there starting to look at you." My eyes went wide and I hopped off. I dragged Aaron under the water will me placing a kiss on his lips before we went back up for air. 

There were two people I still hadn't seen. JJ and Rossi were staying on the beach under the umbrella they had brought. 

We were at the beach for about 4 hours. "I'm going to head back; you guys be free to do what you want." Dave called out walking away. "You guys wanna grab drinks", JJ, Emily and Spencer all raised there hands. They stood there staring at Aaron and I. 

Don't look at me like that, last time I got drunk the day was like hell. I'm willing but only tomorrow not tonight I wanna at last enjoys a few days." They nodded looking at Aaron. 

"I think I just grab some food and go tot sleep; maybe talk to Jack a bit." They understood and walked away. As we were walking to the street and to the hotel I spoke. "What are the plans for tonight cause I'm not letting you do that." I grabbed my hand and we headed for the hotel. 

"Well I'm thinking that tonight we head out." He stopped talking and left it at that. "Annnd?" He shook his head, "It's a surprise." 

"Ok fine hope it's worth it." When we got to the hotel my hair was dry but smelled like the ocean. I got undressed and hopped in the shower. Aaron followed after me; both of us washing off the salt water from our hair and bodies. 

We got out and ordered some food Aaron went out to get it form the restaurant. He brought it back and we ate. He put on tv and I fell asleep from the day in the sun. I was curled up on the couch and Aaron carried me to the bed laying me down. 

He covered me with the blanket. He set and alarm for 3am seeing as it was only 8pm when I fell asleep I'd get a decent amount of sleep. Aaron wasn't tired yet so he stayed on his phone scrolling through. He called Jack and he told him about his day at school and about the homework he had to do.  

_____________________________

I woke up and it was 12:30am I turned off the alarm I know that he set. I sat up against the headboard with me head in my hands slowly waking up. I felt a hand creep up my hand, I glanced over and I felt Aaron start stir. "You up?", he mumbled something but I couldn't hear him. 

"What was that?", I was smiling to my self. "I said yea baby. Can you get dressed so we can go." I nodded even though he couldn't see it. Getting up I put on a pair was sweatpants and a white crop with flip flops. Aaron stood and threw on some clothes and we left. 

Aaron still didn't tell me where we were going so I followed next to him. After about an hour of walking I finally gave in, "Ok where the hell are we going." I said through an annoyed laugh. 

"Alright close your eyes", I covered my eyes and reached out for his hand so I knew where to go. We walked for a about 10 more minutes. I heard a gentile fall and stream of water. It was running down on what seemed like the rocks and grass below. 

The air started to smell damp and I heard the crushing of water rushing. I had a feeling of where he brought me. I had mentioned it to him a few moths ago. 

"Open them." I uncovered my face and I was right. There was waterfall right in front of me. It was running off of a cliff at least 100ft high. There was pool at the bottom where the water crowded and flowed to different streams. The moon reflecting off of the crystal blue water. 

I looked up and the full moon was shining brightly. I lit up everything below, the stars danced in the sky along side it. "How'd I do", He said gazing do at me. When I turned to look at him the moon was shining in his eyes at the right angle making them look like pool of honey.

"Honey you did great", I was smiling through my teeth as I swung my arms around his neck. 

"You know what we have to do now right", I knew what he was thinking. "Okay maybe not all that, I know what you wanna do and you're a hell of a lot more confident that I am in that aspect. I'm not doing it." 

"Awe come on it'll be great and you know it." He started undressing and stepping into the water.

"Come on it'll be quick", I nodded he grinned sitting on the edge waiting for me to get in more. As he fully submerged he pulled me onto his lap. I was giggling till he pressed our lips together; his hand going directly on my hips.

My hands snaked up his chest to the back off neck. The warm water around us, waving around; set us in the mood even more. He started to move the hands that were on my hip and slowly grinded me on his growing bulge. 

He moved his hands and pulled off my underwear and threw them out the water. I moved his boxers down; he rose to pull his cock our. It stood up, my pussy going around it still grinding. "Stop teasing me little girl." He lifted my up and put his tip in my pussy letting me adjust. 

I started to bounce up and down on his cock. I held on to his broad shoulders keeping my balance. "God damn y/n", he groaned out. My edge slowly approaching. I clenched around him making him feel every inch of his thrusts. 

My breathing started to falter, "Aar-." I was growing tired of bouncing and Aaron hands returned to my hips assisting me. He lifted me up before slamming me down on his dick. He hit my g spot repeatedly. I took his hand off my hip and brought it to my clit. 

I was full of pleasure and the look of us in the blue water, the mist from the waterfall, and the way the moon was reflecting of him made him look like and actual fucking god. 

I moved my hands from his shoulders to his neck and into his hair. Grabbing tightly on his hair and pulling his head back to look up at me. I smile formed on his face. I dipped my head down and littered his neck with kisses.

Forming small hickys along his jaw. “Fuck y/n”, he groaned out getting closer to his orgasm. 

I could feel him twitching inside me, "Cum for me." I released around his and I could feel him fill me up. We stayed there catching our breath, "We should probably move before someone sees us." He laughed into my neck and pulled out. 

It was 5am, "We should head back." we got out of the poll of water and grabbed our clothes; we headed back to the hotel. 

__________________

@mac99martin @appleblossoms-posts @donttellanyoneireadfanfiction @oreogutz @marie1115  @wanniiieeee 

[is0gild]

Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza - Bonus Chapter 6

Pairing: Elsa x Lea/Axel || Side Pairing: Riku x OC

Summary: Modern AU. She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue.

Word Count: 9,761

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

Credit for super friggin’ cute and super friggin’ amazing cover art goes to the super friggin’ talented ky-jane here on tumblr!

Ice chips.

A whole paper cup full of them.

This was my current mission. My purpose. My whole reason for existence in this one very specific moment in time.

For if every wholesome, family-friendly sitcom from the 90s were to be believed, ice chips were like crack to women in labor - they just couldn't get enough of the stuff.

Why? No one knows, least of all me… okay, maybe doctors knew but if they did, not a single one had yet to clear up that little mystery for me.

The why didn't really matter anyway. All that mattered is that Rayne wanted them. And what Rayne wanted, Rayne got.

Especially when she was about to shove a brand new tiny person through her body and out into the world any second now.

...at least, in theory anyway.

I thanked the attendant at the nurse station and turned with the freshly secured cup of ice chips in hand, heading down the hospital wing back in the direction of Rayne's room in the delivery ward. As I hurried along, I anxiously ran my free hand down my frazzled braid, grimacing at all the little wisps coming loose before shifting to smooth my fingers along my rumpled dress that I'd been wearing since yesterday. Turning one last corner, my eyes immediately went to Rayne's door-

-only to be brought up short by the sight of fluffy, squishy, huggable reindeer plushie nearly twice my size already waiting politely outside it.

Well there was something you don't see every day.

It only took me a second to spot the shoes poking out underneath that had to belong to whoever was holding the thing from behind where I couldn't see them. I squinted.

I knew those shoes.

With a tiny, tired smile, I put one foot forward once more and approached the giant stuffed caribou with a lightly teasing, "If you're looking for the North Pole, you're off by about a couple thousand miles, Prancer. Or is it Blitzen?"

"Har, har. You're an absolute riot," came a voice from the other side of the massive doll. Though I couldn't see the eye roll, I could distinctly hear it in his tone.

Shaking my head with a soft snort, I dug my phone out of my pocket to check the time. "...1 p.m. already? Can't believe she's been in labor for nearly twenty-one hours." Twenty-one extremely long, extremely sleepless hours for the mother-to-be, not to mention all her loved ones here to support her. Tucking the phone away once more, I told him, "Thanks again for covering my early shift, I really appreciate it. Hope it wasn't too hectic of a morning over at the Ice Palace."

"Hey, don't mention it," Kristoff poked his blonde head up just over the plushie's shoulder. "If it's a choice between the two of us, it's no contest: Rayne'd much rather have you here with her than me." He paused, eyeing the closed door leading into her hospital room with a tiny frown. "...so, still no baby, huh?"

"Still no baby," I sighed, then tipped my head to one side. "Care to explain the reindeer? I didn't even know we made Svens in this size."

"We don't," he shifted his hold on the thing for a better grip. "We got a small batch to try and sell as a test run last year, but no one was really buying 'em. Still had a couple stowed away in back just gathering dust, so got the okay from Frozone to steal one for welcoming the new little Hewley into the world."

A grin pulled at my lips, "How sweet. I'm sure Rayne will love it." I then quirked an eyebrow at him. "...why were you just standing outside with it anyway? You know you could have just walked on in, right?"

His gaze darted to the door once again, then back to me. "...is the yelling still happening?" he whispered with a nervous little wince.

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes as I deadpanned, "It's the beautiful blessed miracle of life, Kristoff. Rayne's allowed to yell as much as she wants. Now come on, there's already one baby on the way, we don't need you being a big old second one." With that, I reached for the door knob, pushed it open and made my way inside.

And straight into the madhouse that was Rayne's hospital room.

"You did this to me, you bastard! I'm gonna KILL you for this, you smug son of a bitch!"

Ah, and there was Rayne now, shrieking her head off.

To be fair, if you'd been in labor for nearly a full day now, you'd probably be shrieking your head off too.

"Yes, hon."

And that'd be Riku, the absolute picture of patience and composure as he smiled lovingly through the abuse, both verbal and physical as Rayne's death grip just had to be murder on his hand right now. But he was soldiering through it like a champ.

Huffing and puffing, Rayne spat, "Don't you 'yes hon' me with that stupid, sexy, annoying, beautiful, infuriatingly perfect little grin of yours, pal! When I'm through with you, you won't have anything to grin about!"

"Yes, hon," he chuckled softly, gently sweeping a few of her messy bangs out of her face before pressing a light kiss to her sweaty temple.

"Oh-ho, no! None of that!" she snarled, narrowing her eyes at him. "It's stuff like that that started this whole damn mess, jerkface!"

"Yes, hon."

We were all handling being included in this special moment in Rayne's life a bit differently, each doing what we could to keep her happy and distracted from the contractions. As could be seen, Riku was doing his part by being a flawless model husband/punching bag combo. Sora-

"What does every moogle need in the morning?"

Sora was trying to make her laugh.

"A kup-o coffee!"

...and was doing a rather poor job of it.

As Rayne stared blankly up at him, Sora gave a tiny sheepish laugh from where he stood at the foot of her hospital bed as he scratched the back of his head. "That one was a dud, huh? Okay, okay, how about this one? What do moogles use when they go shopping? ...Kupons!"

More crickets from Rayne. This time accompanied with an unamused little eye squint.

Undeterred, Sora smiled brightly and held up his hands, "Wait, wait, I gotta million of these! What did one cactuar say to the other? ...looking sharp! What does a cactuar wear to a business meeting? ...A cac-tie!" Why did the chocobo cross the road? ...he was going for a wark!"

His new rapid fire approach did not seem to be helping matters.

"Alright, no, hang on, I'm gonna get you with this one for sure! You ready? Okay… Knock knock."

Rayne's eye twitched. Patting her hand, Riku obliged his cousin with a sigh, "Who's there?"

Barely able to contain his glee now, Sora replied, "Interrupting chocobo."

"Interrupting ch-"

"BWARK!" Sora crowed in delight.

The expecting mother-to-be looked just about ready to hurl the beeping heart monitor at him.

"Look, Ray, look!" Kairi suddenly chimed in, swiftly coming to her boyfriend's rescue as she shoved her phone in Rayne's face. For her contribution in keeping Rayne's mind off the pain, Kairi had elected to sit in the bed with her to provide cuddles and hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of adorable baby animals. "Aren't these little piggy-wiggies the freaking cutest?"

Frowning at the screen, Rayne said flatly, "...they'd look even cuter in the form of crispy bacon on a bun slathered in barbecue."

Kairi gasped in horror, snatching her phone back to hug protectively to her chest, "Not the piggy-wiggies!"

"Sorry, Kai, but I'm starving and they won't let me eat a damn thing until this little bundle of joy gets the hell out of me," she grumbled back.

She pursed her lips to one side, swiping her thumb across the screen several times now, "Guess I'll skip these pics of baby cows and chicks and- you know what? No farm animals at all, how about that?"

Sora was now sidling up along one side of the bed opposite to Riku, both hands covering his face as he went.

Oh dear.

One could only assume this was leading up to his latest attempt to get a laugh out of her and I was almost dreading how the next couple seconds would unfold.

"No frowning. No sad face. Okay?" he muffled out from between fingers as he blindly inched closer to Rayne. "This birth runs on happy faces, so ya gotta look funny… like me!" He suddenly threw his hands out wide to reveal he was wearing a pair of gag glasses, complete with a comically large plastic nose and mustache. "I-"

Rayne yelped in surprise and socked him in the stomach.

Yup. That'd gone about as well as I'd expected.

And correction… it seemed the role of punching bag would now be played by Sora.

Quite literally.

Eyes growing round as she clasped both hands over her mouth, Rayne said, "Oh god, Sora, you okay? I'm so sorry, but you scared the everliving crap out of me!"

"No, no, it's fine," he wheezed out a chuckle, doubling over and clutching at his gut while Kairi shot him a sympathetic pout as she rubbed his shoulder. "You're bringing a new little life into the world, so you get a free pass!"

Smothering his snickers behind a hand, Riku shook his head at him, "Where did those ridiculous things even come from?"

"These?" Sora held up the gaudy spectacles. "Saw 'em in the hospital gift shop and thought everyone might get a kick outta them."

"Or at least a punch," Kairi teased, sticking her tongue out.

Kristoff and I hadn't been spotted yet. Sensing an opening as the rest of them devolved into light laughter, I was just about to insert myself into the conversation when-

"Beep beep, coming through! Move it or lose it!"

Jolting, I just barely jumped out of the way in time to narrowly avoid getting steamrolled by Anna as she suddenly came charging into the room. Her arms were stacked so high with hospital pillows that she couldn't really see past them, so I suspected she had no clue that she'd just beeped-beeped her own sister.

Yesterday when we'd been racing our way back to Twilight Town, I'd called Anna to make sure she'd heard the news that Rayne had gone into labor. Since we still had had several hours left on the road to go yet before we'd be back and I'd been worried about missing the birth, I'd wanted to make sure that Anna could at least be there in my stead. However I discovered I needn't have even asked, for my sister had already been burning rubber out of Arendelle to get to Twilight Town herself even before I'd called. Thankfully we'd arrived with time to spare - plenty of it, as it was turning out. And bonus, I'd been getting to personally witness Anna's own unique brand of pitching in... that is, by doing anything and everything in her power to make sure Rayne was as comfortable as humanly possible.

Which to Anna apparently meant stealing every last pillow in this medical institution to offer up as tribute to Rayne.

"Ta-da!" she chirped as she dumped the tiny mountain of cushions onto Rayne's bed with a big, delighted grin. "I'm back with a whole friggin' variety this time, so pick your poison! I got soft ones, firm ones, big ones, small ones, some as big as your- you know what? Do you wanna go with all of them? Let's go with all of them! Sound good? Good!" With that, she began gently but eagerly stuffing them one by one behind Rayne's head.

"Anna, sweetie… do you think we're maybe approaching the point of too many pillows here?" Rayne delicately asked, shifting her back slightly against the already substantial collection behind her that Anna had managed to amass in the past several hours.

She wrinkled her nose with a snerk, "What? Nonsense, there's no such thing as too many pillows! And I think you'll be singing a different tune once you get a load of this puppy here," she proudly held up and fluffed a particularly plush looking pillow. "This right here is the Holy Grail of hospital pillows! I earned this bad boy too! Had to throw down with some greedy, wrinkly old fart who was trying to horde all the good bedding for himself!"

"Let me get this straight… you beat up an elderly old man and stole his pillow?" Riku gave her a dull look.

"I didn't beat him up! Just… got in a bit of a tussle, that's all," she brushed off with a tiny shrug. At all the blank stares she received, she huffed, "What, he was crotchety and mean and fought dirty, kept whacking me with his cane! The old coot friggin' deserved it!" She turned her head away with a razz of her tongue before her face lit up once more. "Besides, nothing but the best for the soon-to-be mommy, isn't that right, Ray-Ray?" she cooed as she fondly tucked "the Holy Grail" of hospital pillows (which was the last of her latest haul from all her ransacking and pillaging) behind Rayne. Then she clapped her hands together, "Now! Be right back with more in a jiff!"

Before Anna could dash off again however, Rayne snagged her wrist with a hasty, "No!" As my sister glanced back at her, Rayne winced and lowly hissed her way through what looked to be another contraction before blowing out a relieved puff and exhaustedly chuckling, "The thought's appreciated, sweetpea, really, but try as you might, I just don't think we can quite cram the hospital's entire supply of pillows in this one teeny room."

"But-"

"Ah-ah!" she interrupted her protest, holding up a finger. "Trust me, I'm good. 'Sides, if you keep going at this rate, soon there'll be no room left on the bed for me."

The corners of Anna's lips turned down in a tiny sulk. "I suppose you're right," she hung her head as her hands smoothed over Rayne's bedsheets, flattening any wrinkles. Then she froze mid-gesture, face brightening once again as she looked up with a delighted little intake of breath. "I can get you more blankets! So many blankets! All the blankets!"

"What?! Anna, no, I'm not even-"

But my sister had already blurred out of the room with nothing more than a quick, "Hi, Sis! Bye, Sis!" to me. She didn't even acknowledge Kristoff. Don't think she saw him behind the caribou.

"...cold," Rayne finished with a defeated sigh. Then she seemed to notice me for the first time. More specifically, what I was holding. She immediately perked up, "Ah, there she is! C'mere, oh Great Bringer of Ice! My Ice Babe, my Ice Queen, my Ice Goddess!" She stretched out her arms towards me, making grabby hands. "Gimme!"

Ah, my role in keeping Rayne happy.

Which if it hadn't been obvious already, that greeting should have just made it abundantly clear.

This was actually my first time being present for the birth of somebody's child. And if I was being totally honest here, I had to admit that the experience did make me a bit awkward and anxious. Gussy it up however you like, but the "miracle of childbirth" was some animal kingdom nonsense that I'd normally rather take no part in. It was all just so... er… messy. But this was an important day for Rayne and I wanted to be there for her. Which meant I just had to do what I did for all important things that made me awkward and anxious.

I let it go and did them anyway.

Taking in a breath to quell my jittery nerves, I braved a smile as I approached her bedside and held out the cup which she greedily snatched up. "Got it back here as quick as I could, hopefully it didn't have a chance to melt too much."

Popping a few frozen chips into her mouth, she closed her eyes with a contented hum. "Ahhhh, that's the stuff! You always treat me right, boo! Keep the good shit coming."

"D'aw," I grinned softly, reaching out to lightly pat her cheek, "you make me feel like I'm your drug dealer."

"Don't act like you don't like it," she crunched down on the ice with a cheeky little wink before digging a few more out of the cup to slip between her lips. Then she looked past me and went stock still. She blinked once. Then twice. Then, "...um?"

I glanced back to realize she just now seemed to be noticing the comically large, dopey reindeer in the room. How she hadn't spotted it sooner was beyond me. In any case, I cleared my throat and stage whispered, "Pssst… Kristoff!"

"Right." Taking that as his cue, he started jauntily bouncing forward with the thing, making it do a floppy little jig in the process. Remaining hidden behind the colossal doll the whole time, he adopted a deep, goofy voice to speak for the plushie, "Hello, my name is Sven and I'm gonna be your new lil gal's bestest friend! I'll make sure to give her all the snuggles and huggles and wub she'll ever need!"

For a second, Rayne's expression was unreadable as she just continued to stare at the thing's big, silly face. Then she burst into tears.

Fudge, was this a good crying or a bad crying?

With all the drastic mood swings she'd been experiencing since labor started, it could really go either way at this point.

Everyone began to scramble. Riku was murmuring softly to her as he caressed her cheek, Kairi was frantically trying to pull up what she was claiming to be an absolutely adorable picture of a dog and duck that were besties, and Sora was desperately shooting off lame, punny jokes so fast now that the punchlines were getting all jumbled and mashed together into pure gibberish. However it all turned out to be unnecessary as Rayne suddenly wailed, "Oh my god, I love him!"

Whew, okay, this was a good crying.

False alarm, people, stand down.

"Really?" Kristoff stuck his head up from behind the deer, flashing a lopsided smile.

She nodded her head vigorously, sniffling. "He's perfect for our baby girl! And good news! You've officially just been hired as our full-time nanny!"

He gave a bashful chuckle as he found a corner to deposit Sven in, "Shucks, you don't hafta-" But then he stiffened as her words really sunk in. "Wait, what?"

"Yup! Don't worry, I'll talk to the Ice Palace for you so they'll work your shifts around it. Ah, we're gonna have the happiest kid in the whole wide universe now that she's going to have her own talking, dancing, prancing reindeer to play with every day!" she clapped in glee.

"Every-" Kristoff spluttered and paled. "Now hang on, I never agreed to any of-"

"Da-dun da-dun! Candygram!" a new voice loudly sang out. We all turned to discover Lea now standing in the doorway, grinning like a madman with his arms loaded down with junk food. Way, way too much junk food.

"Good lord, where on earth did all that come from?" was the only greeting he got from me as both eyebrows shot up my forehead.

He shrugged, grin somehow defying all odds to stretch even wider. "Raided the nearest couple o' vending machines and picked the things clean. Hope all you boys and gals are famished cuz tonight we feast like Candyland kings! And you get a chocolate bar!" he tossed one to me, which I fumbled to catch before sensing Rayne's gaze narrowing on me and I hastily hid it behind my back. "And you get a chocolate bar!" This one went to Kristoff. "And you and you and you!" Sora, Kairi, Riku. "Annnnnd…" Lea stopped mid-throw to Rayne, smirking as he retracted his hand. "...not you cuz the Doc said that was a big fat no-no for you, Missy! Guess that just means more for me," he smugly singsonged as he made his way further into the room now.

Nostrils flaring, Rayne growled, "You are such an asshole, Red."

"One," he struck up a finger as he unceremoniously plopped down into a chair against the wall opposite of her, letting all the sweets pile up in his lap, "that's just part o' my roguish charm and you know it. Two, you said a naughty word." He tsked with a shake of his head as he began to peel the wrapper off a Snickers. "Now is that any way for a young lady who any second now is gonna be responsible for molding a young, impressionable mind of our future generation should be talking?"

"Fuck off," she spat out.

"That's more like it!" he laughed, toasting her with the candy bar before heartily taking a bite.

And this, my friends, is how Lea was doing his part to help distract her from the pain.

By being a royal pain in the butt himself.

Fighting fire with fire, as it were.

"Mm-mm-mm!" Lea hummed, putting on a show of enjoying his snack a little too much. "The way that chocolate just melts in your mouth and mingles with all that sweet caramel and peanuty goodness… golly, would I hate to be anyone who's not allowed to eat right now," he slyly broke off another piece between his teeth as he eyed Rayne.

She mutedly worked her jaw for a moment. Then in a dangerously low voice, she said, "Sorry, Elsa, but I'm sending your boyfriend to an early grave."

"Please don't. I'm actually rather fond of the little troublemaker," I snorted as I made my way over to him, quick to smother his mouth with my hand even as he opened it to spout off something else that would surely only tighten the proverbial noose even further around his neck.

I anticipated the little kiss he pressed to the inside of his palm. What I didn't anticipate, however, was him simply taking hold of my wrist and yanking my down into his lap (a rather awkward seat, mind you, considering I was sharing the space with all that candy) where he hugged me tightly, pinning my arms to my sides in the process so I could no longer silence him. Nuzzling his nose to my cheek, he then turned his head to regard Rayne once more as he chirped, "Just consider it incentive! Think about it: the sooner ya squeeze that kiddo out, the sooner ya get to throttle me! Now lessee here, where was I…"

Releasing his hold on me, he retrieved another bar from the heap, tore it open and chomped down. "Mmm… Almond Joy? More like Almond Nirvana! Seriously, this is too good. Raindrop, wanna bite?" he held it out towards her, giving it a little wiggle with an impish gleam to his eyes.

Pretty sure I could see a vein bulging on her forehead for a split second. Then she tried to lunge straight for him and it was only thanks to the combined efforts of Riku, Kairi, and Sora holding her back that she stayed put in her bed.

It seemed Lea was playing his part a little too well.

"Lemme at him, I'm going to murder him!" she snarled as she fought against all the hands restraining her.

"Ah-ah," Lea waggled a finger at her - a finger I hastily grabbed and forced him to lower in a futile attempt to keep him from antagonizing her further. "What did I just tell ya? Baby first, then murder."

Rayne's lips parted, a particularly nasty retort surely on the tip of her tongue, but then she sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth as it appeared another contraction wracked her body and she bellowed out wordlessly instead.

As if her howl was a summons, a new person suddenly came bustling into the room with a chipper yet soothing, "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Mind you, I was using the term "person" in the loosest sense of the word. Baymax here was actually a robot of some kind, though a rather odd one at that - I usually didn't picture robots as big, round, soft and inflatable. Then again, this was the first robot I'd ever met, so what did I know? It seemed it (he?) was some sort of prototype on loan to the hospital, making rounds in the role of a nurse as a sort of a test run to see how viable mass producing more like it (him?) might be.

The future is now, apparently.

"Yes, yes, so you keep saying every. Damn. Time that you come in here," Rayne panted out in reply to the bot, her grip firmly squeezing Riku's hand once more.

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" Baymax asked amiably as he began to lift her blankets to check how far along she was while the rest of us discreetly averted our eyes.

She huffed out a bitter noise that may have been some crude approximation of a laugh. "Trust me, we left ten in the dust hours ago."

"Good news" Baymax announced, still in that mellow yet upbeat tone he seemed to be programmed to never deviate from as he settled her bedsheets back into place. "You are dilated enough now to begin the birthing process. I'll page Dr Finkelstein so we can get started right away."

"Oh thank fucking god!" Rayne cried out.

Baymax turned to address the rest of us, "If everyone besides the father-to-be could please vacate the room and give us privacy, it would be most appreciated. Thank you and have a nice day."

As the rest of us quickly filed out of the room into the hall, I could spot Anna turning a corner down the way, her arms bursting with blankets now as she sprinted at full speed. Her gaze widened slightly when it landed on us and as she skidded to a halt, she asked, "What's going on? What happened?"

"I did it!" Lea chuckled triumphantly as he handed her a Butterfingers, which she bemusedly accepted. "I shit you not, I actually did it! I managed to annoy that baby outta her!"

"Huh. We really would make a cute lil anklebiter, wouldn't we?"

I blinked, taking my eyes off my phone screen to glance down at Lea instead. "...pardon?"

The two of us had laid claim to a row of chairs in the waiting room that were sans armrests and pushed together to form a makeshift bench of sorts. I was currently seated in one on the end with Lea sprawled out across the rest of them, using my lap to pillow his head. Looking up from his own phone, he showed me his screen. "Got curious and put our photos in one o' those 'what'll our baby look like' websites. Just lookit this adorable lil fucker."

I was greeted with the sight of a computer-generated yet still rather life-like picture of a little boy. He had short hair that was platinum blonde like mine, as well as my blue eyes, but favored Lea's more sharp angular facial features, especially in the nose. "He is rather cute," I grinned, one hand pocketing my mobile while the other gently stroked his wild hair. Nibbling on my bottom lip, I hesitated for a heartbeat. Then, "...what brought this up?"

Retracting his arm and turning his phone back towards himself so he could stare at the picture once more, he shrugged. "I dunno… Raindrop and Riku's lil squirt's gonna be here any minute… Mom made that comment 'bout the two of us making a kid…" He paused and shrugged again. "Hard not to get curious what with all that baby fever going round right now, I s'pose."

"You think about that kind of stuff?" I tipped my head to one side, my finger idly singling out one of his crimson spikes to fiddle with in particular. "You want children?"

"Well yeah," he laughed, tucking his phone away as he sat up, now only occupying the seat beside me. Grinning sheepishly as he rubbed at the nape of his neck, he added, "Not anytime soon, of course. But one day somewhere down the road with the right person? Definitely."

The corners of my eyes crinkled. There was absolutely zero doubt in my mind that Lea would make an amazing father some day. His words did sort of beg a certain kind of question however. One that I wasn't really sure I was ready to hear the answer to one way or another. Still, as I lowered my gaze to where my hands were fidgeting together in my lap, my face warmed as I couldn't seem to help but ask, "And do you… see me as the right person?"

Lea reached over, engulfing one of my hands in his and weaving our fingers together, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. I lifted my gaze to meet his and he smiled softly, "Maybe… yeah, I'd really… really like to think you could be." He used his free hand to tentatively sweep some of my bangs behind my ear, his palm lingering against my cheek. "...is that okay, El?" he murmured.

He was worried his answer might freak me out, make me feel pressured. And to be fair, it was the type of thing that probably normally would have. However, it wasn't a cold panic I felt seeping into my chest now, but rather a pleasant tingle, tiny but warm. I leaned into his hand, covering his fingers with my own as one corner of my lips turned up and I gave a small nod, maybe surprising us both a little bit as I whispered back, "Yeah, that's okay."

His grin stretched to the point of threatening to split his face in two. Then he leaned down to kiss me soundly, resting his forehead against mine after he drew back.

Personally, I'd never before really pictured children in my future. Not that I had seen myself not having any, but I hadn't particularly seen myself having them either. It just hadn't really been something I'd thought much about, to be honest. And it didn't help that like I said, the whole process of childbirth made me a bit squeamish. But now… thinking about the prospect of maybe one day having them with Lea…

...sounded like it might be nice.

But that was still years and years and years away, trust me.

Still… it was a pleasant possible future to think about.

A deep yawn suddenly overtook Lea and he gave a massive stretch before slouching further down into his seat, slinging an arm around my shoulders and tugging me into his side. "Yeesh, it's been almost two hours now, what is taking that kid so damn long? I've heard of showing up fashionably late, but baby girl is really pushing it."

His yawn was contagious for I found myself doing the same as I reached for his hand. Absently toying with his fingers, I hummed a tiny laugh, "Maybe she stopped to pick up a latte on her way here."

"Well then, that kiddo better come outta Raindrop with a cardboard to-go tray bearing enough coffee for everyone."

I smiled drowsily, but made no response. Seated across from us, I could see my sister cozied up with Kristoff in another pair of seats, quietly chatting and giggling. As for Sora and Kairi, they were off grabbing a bite in the cafeteria. We'd decided to go in shifts so that there would always be someone in the waiting room in case news came at long last. Lea and I had been the first pair to go, with Kairi and Sora being the last.

As the hospital speakers paged a Dr Sweet to report to surgery, Lea piped up again, "Ya know, a lil caffeine infusion might not be a bad idea. The hospital coffee here is shit, may as well be piss for all the good it does. Once the kid's made her grand debut at long last and we can finally split, I was originally thinking we'd head back to my place to catch some Z's. But how 'bout instead we swing by Lucky Cat for some quality bean juice so we can get a jumpstart on moving your stuff over?"

"Move my stuff?" My brow furrowed and I turned my head to look up at him. "...where's it going?"

Lea blinked owlishly at me. I blinked owlishly right back. "Didn't we…?" he began slowly, then groaned, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Shit, I haven't actually brought that up to you yet, have I? Maybe I really do need that nap." His hand shifted down to scratch at his cheek now, "But c'mon now, El, think… the kid's almost here."

"Uh-huh," I nodded.

"And she's gonna need a place to sleep," he went on.

"Of course." Obviously. I wasn't exactly sure where he was going with this.

He looked at me pointedly. "...in a nursery."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Right." Still lost here.

His eyelids drooped. "Babe... your room's the nursery."

I just stared back at him blankly, not saying anything at first as my brain took a minute to churn over his words.

A rather long minute.

Give me a break, I'd been awake for close to thirty-four hours straight now.

But finally it clicked.

I gasped, "I need to move out!"

"There it is," he snorted, his hand rubbing my back.

"Crud, in all this flurry of baby chaos, that part completely slipped my mind." I was on my feet in an instant, hands wringing my braid as I began pacing back and forth. "Fudge, I'm entirely unprepared for this! What am I going to do? Where am I going to go?" I stopped momentarily, looking at Lea. He opened his mouth to respond, but I was already furiously pacing once more, muttering, "Well, not entirely unprepared. I of course knew this was coming, already had some of my things packed, been on the hunt for a new apartment, I have, I really have! You know I have!" Again I paused. Again his lips parted. Again, I resumed my patrolling without giving him a chance to speak, "But there's nothing lined up yet! Gah, the baby wasn't supposed to be due for weeks, I was supposed to have more time! But now there is no more time and… and…" I came to a halt once again, face hardening and shoulders squaring as I tapped the side of my fist into my palm with a firm nod. "Time to revisit the whole living in a box idea!"

Did I mention the whole thirty-four hours without sleep thing?

"Woah now, hang on! No one's gonna be living in a box," Lea hopped up with a chuckle, hands going to my shoulders and giving them a squeeze. "Doubt the new happy family would kick ya out just like that and make you homeless, they'd work something out for ya while you looked for a new home." Now his eyes darted to the left as he softly cleared his throat, "There's... another option though that, ya know... I'd like to think is slightly more appealing to all parties involved…"

I cocked my head. "There is?"

"Yeah." He took both my hands in his, holding them to his chest as he beamed, "Move in with me!"

"Move in with…" I echoed slowly, trailing off as I stared up at him.

Processing… processing…

I gasped again, "Oh no! No, we shouldn't- That's isn't- I couldn't possibly do that!"

"Aw, why not?" he pouted.

"Moving in together is a big step, Lea! A huge decision! One we definitely shouldn't be making spur of the moment like this, not to mention when we're both delirious from lack of sleep! There's so much to consider, so much to think about!"

He used the hold he still had on my hands to pull me to him and wrap my arms around his waist, freeing up his own arms to hug me instead. "What's there to think about? You're already practically living with me anyhow, you stay over almost every night as it is. I'd love to have you there, Bruni and Marshmallow would love to have you there… it's three against one, El, you're outvoted."

I drooped my eyelids up at him. "The dog and salamander don't get votes."

"You'll hafta take that up with them once you're all moved in and settled," he pressed a quick peck to my forehead before flashing a cheeky grin. My expression remained unamused and he snerked, "C'mon, is it really such a big deal? We were just talking 'bout having kids. Compared to that, the idea of shacking up together seems like small potatoes!"

"Yes, theoretical kids in a theoretical future. Me moving in with you is very real and very right now. We haven't even been dating for five months yet, that's way too soon to be living together."

Lea shrugged, "And you were with your ex for five years before almost tying the knot with him and we all know how that ended. Who's to say what's too soon and what isn't? All we can do is what feels right, and this feels right… doesn't it?"

...it actually kind of did.

Damn him, it did.

It didn't help that those beautiful green puppy eyes of his were murder on my resolve.

But my stubbornness flared and I hastily looked away. I wasn't ready to relent just yet and I weakly scrambled to maintain my defense, "But… it's just too soon, Lea. It hasn't even been a year yet, we haven't even… celebrated all the big holidays yet!"

Even as I blurted it out, it sounded lame even to me.

But it was the best I could come up with, dammit!

His eyebrows reached for his hairline and he fought a tiny smile. "...so just to be clear here, it's important to you that we observe all the major holidays in a calendar year together before making any further life-changing decisions."

I hitched my chin with a lofty little sniff. "Yes. Yes it is."

This was the hill was I choosing to die on, apparently.

"Duly noted," he glanced towards the ceiling with a tiny shake of his head before settling his gaze on me once more, eyes crinkling. "Fine, let's not call it moving in together then, call it… a temporary solution."

"...temporary?" I turned my head slightly, giving him some dubious side-eye.

"Mm-hm! Face it, babydoll, even though we both know Raindrop and Riku will be more than happy to accommodate ya, it's still gonna be a tight squeeze with all four of you in that tiny ass apartment while you're searching for a place. Wouldn't it just be more convenient for everyone if temporarily," he reiterated for emphasis, "you stayed with me instead just until you've found your new home? You know there's more than enough space for you and your things at my digs."

I tucked in my bottom lip. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation talking, but darn it, he actually seemed to be making a lot of sense. Still, I hesitated. "...I don't know what to say."

His eyes lit up. Great. Now the big dork knew he was winning. Hugging me more tightly to him, he grinned, "That's simple: say yes."

I squinted up to him, pursing my lips to the left. Then to the right. Then, just as I was slowly opening my mouth to speak-

-a throat suddenly cleared nearby.

Like, really nearby.

Both Lea and I tensed before turning our heads to discover none other than Saïx standing not two inches away from us looking quite perturbed.

To be fair, Saïx usually looked perturbed. It just seemed to be his face's default setting. But this was more perturbed than usual.

Lea quirked an eyebrow at him, but grinned, "Hey, big guy! Ya mind? Kinda in the middle of something here."

"And I do so hate to interrupt, truly," he said flatly, his cold unblinking gaze locked on his brother, "but I fear we have a rather pressing matter to discuss that cannot wait."

His eyebrows knit together. "...which would be?"

Saïx's hard stare was unyielding. "Do you think there is quite possibly something you may have forgot back at our mother's house?"

Cocking his head, Lea seemed even more genuinely confused now. Clearly racking his brain for a couple seconds, he then shrugged with a small shake of his head, "Like what?"

"ME, you DOLT!" Saïx snarled, slugging Lea in the shoulder hard enough to force a pained grunt out of him.

I inhaled sharply through my nose, eyes widening.

There was no way we'd actually-

We couldn't have honestly-

We didn't-

...did we really?

I thought back to yesterday, though it was a struggle to remember a clear picture through the fog of grogginess. Had Saïx been in the car with us on the trip back? Had he not? Try as I might, I just simply could not remember one way or another. But I suppose it could be (and in fact was) completely possible, especially considering Lea had had Saïx's car keys and I had had his code to start the engine.

In our state of panic and rush to get out of there, had we really just totally spaced on the fact that we didn't have him with us?

"Oh gosh, Saïx, I'm so sorry we left you behind!" I bemoaned in horror.

Lea laughed, "Relax, El, don'tcha know that with me as your boyfriend, that makes everything my fault? You're off the hook, I'm the only one he's mad at."

"He's right, I don't blame you at all." Although Saïx was talking to me, his irked gaze never left Lea. "You're not the one who forgot your own brother."

No, I just simply forgot a whole person. For a whole car ride. In his own friggin' car.

Elsa, Queen of Memory Lapse.

"Bah, I didn't forget ya, I just… thought you were in the backseat the entire time being really quiet!"

That earned Lea another punch to the arm.

Giving an annoyed huff as he rubbed his knuckles, Saïx asked with a bit less bite to his tone now, "I presume since I find you all still here at the hospital, the child has yet to be born?" At our silent nods, he moved to the nearest set of empty chairs and sat down with a soft huff, crossing his arms.

Huh. Guess he was going to join us for sharing Rayne's and Riku's joy in this blessed event.

I gingerly took a seat next to him, Lea plopping down in the chair on my other side. As his arm wrapped around my shoulders, he piped up with a huge smile, "Got some good news that I think'll clear up that black rain cloud hanging over your head there, Mr Grumps McSourpuss: El's moving in with us!"

My back stiffened and I whipped my head around to narrow my eyes up at him, "I haven't said yes yet."

Saïx was eyeing me oddly from the corner of his peripheral. "...you mean you weren't already living with us?"

"There ya have it! Saïx's official stamp of approval! Now ya gotta say yes," Lea beamed, smoothing his hand up and down my arm.

My eyelids drooped. "...one, in what universe was that even remotely a stamp of approval? And two, no, I don't 'gotta' do anything, least of all say yes."

"But you will," he winked at me, pressing a kiss to my cheek. Then he was looking past me towards Saïx once more, a thoughtful frown twisting his lips. "Hey… since we jacked your wheels, how'd you even get back here?"

Saïx fixed him with a dull stare. Then he shifted his crossed arms more tightly against his chest, closed his eyes and hitched his chin. "...wouldn't you like to know."

Lea snerked. "I would in fact, thus why I asked."

"What's that inanely childish saying you do so love to spout of? ...that's for me to know and you to find out?"

"C'mon, man," he groaned out. "This is gonna bug the crap outta me now until ya tell me."

One corner of his lips cruelly curled up. "I know."

Apparently, Saïx was swift to enact his vengeance when the need arose.

A tiny scowl emerged on my boyfriend's face, but before he could shoot off whatever acerbic retort he undoubtedly already had locked and loaded, I stopped him with a touch to his arm as I said, "Lea." He glanced down at me and I nodded towards the far corner of the waiting room. "Look."

He followed my gaze to a familiar woman with silver hair pulled back into a ponytail made of several tiny braids and the same green eyes as Lea. Aranea apparently was not aware that we had just noticed her, for she was too busy inspecting the selection available over at the hospital's coffee station with her nose wrinkled.

"Ah," Lea breathed, gracing his brother with a mildly sour look. "That's how ya got back. Ya bummed a ride outta our old lady."

Saïx said nothing, just continued to stare stoically straight ahead.

Blowing out a breath that made his lips flap, Lea turned his eyes towards his mother once more. A heartbeat of hesitation. Then making a sound that was half growl, half sigh, Lea muttered. "Be right back. Ma and I have some unfinished business." I smiled softly as he planted a smooch to my temple and I gave his hand a quick squeeze before releasing it as he stood up.

I watched Aranea perk up as she spotted Lea approaching. They exchanged a few words that I was too far away to hear, her grinning the whole time, him ruffling his fingers through his hair as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Then it seemed they decided to find somewhere else to have their talk for they then walked out of the waiting room.

Off to a good start at least, it seemed. Letting go a tiny exhale of relief, I glanced over at the chairs across from us once more to where Anna sat as I considered possibly shifting over to a seat near her. But seeing as she was currently otherwise, er… occupied with, hrm… inspecting Kristoff's tonsils with her tongue, I decided against it.

Ugh, gross, I did not need to see that.

Instead, I turned my attention to Saïx. My lips parted and I took in a breath to say something, but then I hesitated and clamped my mouth shut, staring down at where I was fiddling with my fingers in my lap. Then I cleared my throat, looked over at him once more and tried again, "Would it... really be okay with you if… if I decided to move in?"

His eyes flicked over to me briefly without turning his head. Then releasing a nearly inaudible sigh through his nose, he stared straight forward once again. "I consider you among a small, select handful of people I can tolerate and would even go so far as to say enjoy the company of. If my asinine fool of a brother has against all odds actually managed to persuade you somehow into agreeing to move in with him, then by all means, your presence on a more permanent basis could only be a considerable improvement on our day-to-day lives around the apartment." He paused and for a second it seemed that was all he had to say on the subject. Then then added a bit more quietly, "Besides, you make my brother happy. Far be it from me to stand in the way of that, even if I wanted to."

A small smile tugged at my lips. "...he makes me happy too."

Saïx gave a low hmph at that, closing his eyes. "I would hope so. Otherwise, what would be the point?"

On that note, the conversation ended. As he seemed more than content to remain in a companionable silence, I reached over the seat Lea had vacated and towards the little table on the other side, plucking up one of the outdated magazines provided by the hospital from it and slowly began flipping through its pages.

A short while later, I heard a door opening and I glanced up to see that Lea and Aranea were walking back into the waiting room. Neither one looked like they wanted to murder each other, so I took that as a good sign. In fact, they almost, almost seemed somewhat chummy.

I set the periodical aside and both Saïx and I rose as they approached, which prompted a chuckle from Aranea, "No need to get up, I'm not staying. Just wanted to give my other knucklehead kid one last hug before hitting the road," she embraced Saïx, which he accepted as stony-faced as ever. Then she turned to me with a sly little smirk, "Plus I hear congrats are in order."

My eyes blinked. "...they are?"

"Course! You two lil lovebirds are gonna be living together soon, after all!"

I twitched, then shot Lea a flat look. "I haven't said yes yet."

He grinned, stepping closer to take my hand and bring it up to his lips. "Key word there: yet."

Oh-ho, he thought he was being cute. Even as I opened my mouth to prove just how wrong he was however, Aranea suddenly snagged me into a bone-crushing bear hug as she chirped, "Take care, shortcake!" She gave me one final squeeze before releasing me to rest a hand on my shoulder, "And if either of my boys give you any trouble, you gimme a call, I'll be only too happy to knock some sense into 'em!"

Smiling, I nodded, "Thanks, I'll be sure to do that. Have a safe trip back."

Lea received a hug from her as well and though he returned it stiffly, it was remarkably warmer than the one they'd shared yesterday in the foyer of her home. With that, she made her way towards the exit, waving goodbye to us over her shoulder before disappearing through the door.

"I take it you two are getting along now," I said to Lea as I settled into my chair once again.

He took a seat too, stretching his arm out along the backrest behind my head. As his fingers began to idly toy with my braid, he pursed his lips to one side in thought. Then, "Ya know how you and your folks 'get along' now?" he brought up his other hand to form air quotes. At my nod, he said, "Well, it's kinda like that. We're… gonna work on it."

I reached for his hands, lacing our fingers together as I told him gently, "I'm glad you decided to give her a chance."

"I think I am too," he admitted, albeit somewhat begrudgingly.

Just then, the same door Aranea had left through opened once more, Sora and Kairi being the ones to step through this time, laughing over something they'd been talking about. It seemed their timing was impeccable, for that was also when the double doors on the other side of the room parted and in walked a very familiar white, inflatable robot. All of us immediately zeroed in on him and were on our feet in an flash as he greeted us with, "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthc-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know all that already, get to the good part, you giant balloon!" Anna hastily cut him off, rolling her eyes. "Do you actually have anything new to tell us? How's Ray-Ray doing?"

"The delivery was a success," Baymax announced, managing to sound almost pleased somehow despite there being no actual change in the mechanical tone of his voice. "Everyone is happy and healthy. The new family is ready to accept visitors and have welcomed you all back to their room."

There was a mixture of whoops and relieved sighs all around before all of us, Saïx included, followed the robot as he led the way past those doors and towards the maternity ward. Not a minute later found us all crowding back into their hospital room. I spotted Riku first at his wife's bedside, facing her so his back was to us. As for Rayne, she looked absolutely exhausted and like she'd been to hell and back twice, but she positively radiated pure joy and love for the little bundle I could now see her holding in her arms. As she looked up at our entrance, she proudly beamed and said, "Everyone… I'd like you to meet Aria."

"...and Cayde," Riku added, smirking as he turned around to reveal he was cradling a second baby.

"TWO?!" Lea gaped, wide-eyed gaze darting back and forth between them while the rest of us were too stunned to even speak.

"That's right! Two!" Rayne chirped in delight.

Sora was the next one to find his voice, only to blurt out, "Twins?!"

"No, we liked the first one so much, we decided to randomly steal a second one from one of the other cribs when no one was looking," Riku deadpanned before snorting with a shake of his head. "Of course they're twins, doofus."

"But you never said anything about twins," Anna was already adopting a baby voice as she approached Riku, wasting no time making funny faces at Cayde.

Gently rocking little Aria as Rayne watched her fondly, she said, "We didn't know. No one did, not until Cayde shocked us all by showing up hot on the heels of his big sis. Guess the doctors missed him during all those check-ups and sonograms somehow."

"How do they miss a whole other baby inside of you for months?!" Kristoff shook his head in disbelief.

"Who knows, but it's not unheard of. We're not the first couple this has ever happened to." Glancing over to Cayde, Rayne grinned as she reached out a fingertip to tickle the underside of one of his tiny feet. "...he was a surprise, that's for sure, but a happy one."

"I'll say!" Kairi giggled, stepping forward to gently squish Aria's cheeks as she cooed, "This just gives Auntie Kairi and Unkie Sora twice the niblings to wub, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Yes it does!"

"Speaking of which… Kristoff." The man in question stood up straighter as Rayne suddenly locked eyes with him and told him in no uncertain terms, "We're gonna need a second reindeer."

He dragged a hand down the side of his face and sighed. "...I'll talk to Frozone."

Rayne crinkled her nose as she hummed a soft laugh, then her eyes landed on me as I approached her bedside. "Oh, Elsa, there was something I… we," she amended, exchanging a glance and a tiny nod with her husband, "wanted to talk to you about… we'd absolutely love it if you'd be the twins' godmother."

The finger I was waggling at Aria froze as my gaze widened and snapped up to meet hers. "Who, me? Really?" By the look in both the new parents' eyes, they were serious. Dead serious. "Oh! Why, uh… yes. Yes of course! I'd be very honored," I smiled.

"And Sora," Riku chimed in now, causing his cousin to pause mid-sticking his tongue out and crossing his eyes at Cayde. "We were hoping you'd be their godfather."

Sora blinded us all with his signature huge, thousand-watt grin. "Absolutely! I'm gonna make the best godfather ever, you'll see! I- wait…" His brow furrowed and he gasped, whipping his head around towards me now with a slight look of panic. "Does… does that make us... god-married?"

"Yes. It does."

And who was it, one might wonder, to deliver that answer in full earnest and with a completely straight face?

Saïx.

That's right. Saïx.

Which is probably why Sora took him at his word and didn't even think to question it. Nostrils flaring and with a steely look of determination now, he informed Lea, "I promise to take good care of her."

Not missing a beat, Lea nodded firmly, "You better, lil man, otherwise I will end you."

I elbowed my boyfriend in the gut, forcing a wheeze out of him. As everyone else sniggered around us, I sighed, "No, Sora, that doesn't make us god-married, it doesn't make us god-anything."

"Oh good! Whew!"

At that point, conversation for the most part subsided in favor of everyone trying to squeeze in to fawn over the new babies. After a minute of this, I decided to take the opportunity to snag Lea (dragging him away from playing with Aria's "widdle toesy-wosies" - his words, not mine) and pull him off to one side of the room away from the others. They hardly even noticed us stepping away, so enamored were they all with the little ones.

I faced him, holding both his hands in mine as I took in a deep breath and released it before uttering a single word. "Yes."

His face immediately lit up, but he quickly schooled his expression and cleared his throat, asking casually, "Yes? Yes what?"

Ugh, he knew very damn well what, he just wanted to hear me say it. Rolling my eyes but unable to fight a small grin, I said, "Yes, I'll move in with you. It just makes sense, after all, now that they have twins, there's even less room for me in their apartment and-"

I didn't get to finish that sentence as he smiled fiercely and grabbed my face, planting a firm kiss to my lips before laughing as he hugged me, picked me up and spun me around.

"Temporarily," I insisted, arms instinctively latching around his neck to steady myself.

"Yeah, yeah, of course, temporarily," he agreed, putting me down while still grinning like an idiot.

I poked his chest a couple times, "I mean it. I'm going to keep looking for my own place and the second I find something, I'm moving right back out."

"Whatever ya say, babydoll!"

Funny thing is though…

...I never did end up actually moving out.

Author's Note: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Hope you all enjoyed the millions of teeny references I sprinkled in - my aesthetic, as I'm sure you're all aware at this point xP (My fave was something Lea said towards the very end, did you guys catch that it was a reference? I hope so :3) Regarding Sora's lil stand-up comedy act, I unfortunately cannot take credit for any of his material - I just googled a bunch of Final Fantasy jokes xD I can't even take credit for the cactuar jokes for even tho I couldn't find any ACTUAL cactuar jokes out there on the internet, I just googled cactus jokes instead xD And yes, there are IN FACT cactus jokes out there, and a LOT of them lawl! And woo, Lea and his mom made up… sort of! xD Sorry that happened off screen, part of it was I thought it wasn't a conversation that Elsa would really be present for, part of it was I didn't want to take focus off the main points of this chapter, and part of it was I was just too lazy to write it at this time xD Maybe I'll go back at a later date and write a Lea POV chapter for this lil chat with his mum, we'll see! But for now, at least we got a lil closure on that front! And aaaaahhhhh, our ice and fire bbies are taking a big step and moving in together, yaaaaaay! :3 I knew that was definitely a relationship milestone I wanted to cover in one of these bonus chapters and this just seemed like a fun way to bring it about xD

The next one-shot is set during Christmas time! Which I know, lil late, should have posted it today xD But I'd kinda locked myself into the baby chapter with the way the last chapter ended and the babies are born in September, so couldn't combine them into one chapter xD So consider next week's update just a bit of a belated Christmas present! And I'll say this about the next bonus chapter: It's gonna be pure crack xD Trust me, there will be no substance whatsoever, it's just mindless silliness and slightly scandalous and mildly salacious (but still 100% family friendly… ish... haha!). Basically, if PG horny hijinx doesn't interest you, you might wanna skip the next chapter xD You've been warned!

Thanks for reading, I super duper appreciate it! And an extra BIG thank you to those of you who’ve liked, reblogged, and followed so far, seeing those lil notifications always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face!

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

[prosopopeya]

New Year’s Meme

this survey has been a tradition among my friend group for YEARS, but i haven’t filled it out since 2015 apparently. i’m not entirely sure why except 2016 was the year a lot of stuff changed for me, namely in that i finally got out of school in some form and started a new job, but i also had a few health problems that kept plaguing me (thyroid medicine being off, vitamin d) and my anxiety was all over the place. so here we go i’m doing it again and feel free to do it too if you want!!

1. What did you do in 2020 that you’d never done before? tried on wedding dresses. taught virtually. dealt (poorly) with drunk teenagers. performed in a pep rally. wore face masks all the time. i’m going to lump in living with someone. jon moved in october 2019, but i don’t think i did this quiz last year so. taught ap.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year? i don’t really like resolutions. they put too much pressure on me and i am a fragile person when it comes to setting expectations and living up to them. i did want to try to read more this year, and i maintained that until the pandemic, and then just kind of gave up requiring myself to do anything but live.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? i don’t think so. a coworker did.

4. Did anyone close to you die? jon’s cousin committed suicide in march or april. the circumstances were pretty upsetting. um. andy died in february, very suddenly. andy was my high school boyfriend for four years with whom i had a very... he scarred me in a lot of ways when it comes to sex and consent. it’s taken me a long time to unpack all of that. and i struggle with how much any of that was his fault or just bc he was a stupid kid too. our mutual friends had nothing but nice things to say about him on fb. anyway. he would guilt me into saying he’d kill himself if we broke up, and jon’s cousin killed himself over his girlfriend. so that was a complex part of the year.

5. What countries did you visit? none. literally the week before the quarantine, we went to asheville to visit jon’s cousin.

6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020? maybe a different job? or at least some peace at doing mine.

7. What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? march 13 we cancelled classes and had a technology training day; the 15th we had another one, and then we were virtual the rest of the term. it was such a sudden shift and while i so loved working from home tbh, it was such a relief after a supremely shitty january/february work-wise, i still had a lot of keyed-up, stressful days centered around transitioning to being the senior upper school spanish teacher. i hate it!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? writing 50k in the month of november. i have literally never done that before and actively reject nano as being typically unhealthy for how my mind works, so it was nice to do it entirely by accident.

9. What was your biggest failure? mishandling the drunken teenagers on that field trip in january.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? i sit crosslegged in my virtual teaching chair and i did it so much that my ankle hurt for the entire summer.

11. What was the best thing you bought? we put a deposit on our elopement in ireland. jon’s wedding ring. (i didn’t buy my wedding dress.)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? my best friend at work who keeps me sane and is represented by benny in my au, which other than the fact that he is not my sidepiece, is perfect he is crucial to my survival at work and i love him so much. (also he is gay and the french teacher so the benny parallels just keep coming). everyone who tore down a statue in virginia (and other places, but especially monument avenue). everyone putting their lives on the line during this pandemic.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? guess! but aside from all the obvious, i found out a friend of mine at work voted for trump. my work bff and i had been trying for years to sway his politics, but that had us both deciding to give up on him.

14. Where did most of your money go?  food, ALCOHOL. god., our savings account. i did a pretty excellent job saving this year, though a good deal of that is because jon moved in and makes more money than me, and also we split all the bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? my wedding dress but strangely only when i went to try it on after it came in bc after the purchase i was so sure i’d made every mistake possible. my wedding band. wellbutrin changing my whole life. and, last but certainly not least, the gay angel and the bi(lingual) hunter. i wouldn’t have survived nov-dec in school without that distraction. the election.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2020? the entirety of taylor swift’s oeuvre this year, maybe specifically “this is me trying”

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:  i. Happier or sadder? happier, i suppose, perhaps contrary to what should be the case, but wellbutrin is a hell of a drug. ii. Older or wiser? wiser. ii. Richer or poorer? richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? reading. cleaning. exercising.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? stressing. chaperoning.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? so, an update; last year was the first year i didn’t go to my mom’s for christmas. i was supposed to see her for thanksgiving last year, but she basically told us not to come bc she wasn’t feeling up to it (cool!), and we went to jon’s for christmas and my mom’s for new year’s. 

this year, obviously we couldn’t go to my mom’s. instead, we rented a little cabin by the lake. it was perfect; it was really really nice inside, the beds were SO SOFT, the pillows were the best things i have ever laid my head on, like i took off the pillowcases to try to find the brand. we had a little tiny christmas tree with tiny ornaments from walmart that we decorated. the 23rd, we went and picked up our wedding bands. we slept two nights in the (cold) back bedroom so i could wake up and look out at the lake. it snowed for christmas. :)

we opened presents on christmas eve, per jon’s family’s tradition. on christmas eve, we also went to his family farm and sat outside and hung out a little. every year his family does like a secret santa sort of thing and i got my first present in that exchange, which is notable bc jon and i are not yet officially married. i got a remote control car -- jon’s idea bc i couldn’t think of anything, and he was so delighted to hear that i loved playing with rc cars when we went to the beach as a kid.

christmas morning we facetimed my parents and opened some presents together. then jon and i marathoned mandalorian (after spending the previous few days watching several die hard movies), and then we watched wonder woman 1984 which was a bad movie.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve? ok LAST year for new year’s, we were in a hotel room, so that was nice, bc it meant minimal stress with my parents. i had always wanted to go to this restaurant near us that has a special new year’s menu, so we did that. the night before or after i think we went to cheesecake factory, which was also amazing.

this year currently i’m tumbling and he’s playing pokemon, and in a bit we’ll try to time it so we finish schitt’s creek in time for the new year.

22. Did you fall in love in 2020? i re-fell in love with supernatural so that was nice.

23. How many one-night stands? 0. i submit we should randomly change question 23 each year to something more relevant to any of our life experiences.

24. What was your favorite TV program? what did i even watch this year. schitt’s creek. mandalorian. i mean obviously we know supernatural. the circle. are you the one (the queer season). pose. unsolved mysteries. we’re here! perry mason. watchmen. oh maybe that mcdonald’s monopoly fraud documentary. avenue 5. i’ll be gone in the dark. of those i think my favorite maybe is... pose or we’re here.

OKAY UM. on my 2014 version of this there were a bunch of questions about tv shows that i’m putting back in if only for the memories:

25. Which TV shows did you start watching in 2020? the haunting of bly manor, which we still need to finish. derry girls.

26. Which TV shows did you let go of in 2020? HERE’S WHY I WANTED TO RESURRECT THESE. here was my answer in 2015: “supernatural. goodbye, my sweet prince.” CAN YOU EVEN FUCKING BELIEVE

27. Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn’t in 2020? Why? so far, queen’s gambit and that one on hulu with catherine the great. EVENTUALLY. 28. Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2020? fleabag. queen’s gambit. 29. Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2020 unless things significantly improve? idk i drop things pretty regularly if they don’t entertain me 30. Which TV show impressed you least in 2020? GUYS HERE’S MY ORIGINAL 2015 ANSWER: “supernatural. :(”

anyway back to the rest of the quiz:

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? every person who refuses to listen to facts and information.

26. What was the best book you read? killers of the flower moon: the osage murders and the birth of the fbi, or the his dark materials series.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? well i knew about tswift so i’m not going to count her albums. i will count this song that jon played for me once in the car that got stuck in my head for two weeks straight and led me down into a great related-songs spotify playlist: through the roof ‘n underground.

28. What did you want and get? a wedding dress and a very specific kind of wedding band. a gay angel. a christmas getaway. animal crossing.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? idk i don’t know how many films i saw this year. maybe mucho mucho amor: the legend of walter mercado

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? i was 32. we went to an escape room with a BUNCH of people -- work bff, my old work bff and his wife (old bc he quit and we’ve fallen out of touch :(), the cool new physics teacher and his fiancee, and the aforementioned trump voter and his wife, before we knew... we went out for brunch/lunch after. it was pretty great!

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? not having to chaperone that school trip in january. dean being bi in english as well as spanish. cas just ilke, appearing in 15x20. not having to physically go back to work this fall.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020? no! real! pants!

34. What kept you sane? jon. supernatural (in a way?). animal crossing for a while. wellbutrin! i haven’t really been able to detail this yet, but finally i did something about tumblr and my therapist making me think about adhd. my doctor gave me wellbutrin (bc i lack any official diagnosis and was on anxiety meds anyway, and he was like let’s try this!) and it’s fucking. it’s a fucking godsend. surprisingly enough, my students. trying to provide them a safe space has been a calming thing for me.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? jensen ackles’ silence. misha collins again, i guess.

36. What political issue stirred you the most? the summer was so fucking intense. i guess though it was me trying to exert my influence in a responsible way with my students without trying to try to make them feel uncomfortable but then one kid was a vocally upset trump supporter after the election and i had to try to defuse that situation.

37. Who did you miss? my old work bff. several old friends that i’ve fallen out of touch with bc i have no object permanence.

38. Who was the best new person you met? people i met through the spn resurgence!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020: if you manifest it in an au, it will come. no really though. maybe that expectations are only as important as i make them out to be.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: usually i have a hard time coming up with anything for this and i default to looking at my most played songs of the year. my most played song of the year received each and every one of its plays within the month of november and you can guess why. anyway see if this works

I had all and then most of you Some and now none of you Take me back to the night we met I don't know what I'm supposed to do Haunted by the ghost of you Take me back to the night we met - the night we met, lord huron

[chroniccombustion]

Things I’ll Never Say

From “And a Week is All I Need (To Fall in Love With You)“, part of @souyoweek2020​

Genre: romance, mutual pining,  dorks in love, M/M Rated: K+ Characters: Souji Seta (Yu Narukami), Hanamura Yosuke, Tatsumi Kanji, brief Dojima Nanako cameo Warnings: mild language Status: drabble collection, incomplete

<- previous chapter | next chapter ->

(song the title is from)

Day 2: Yosuke’s Birthday or Sunny

“Kanji...” he whispers, voice hoarse and cracking slightly at the end. “The other day, when you came over... was there a stack of colored envelopes on my desk?”

Confused silence greets him for a moment. Then, “Uh.... I think so? Pretty sure I remember seein' it.” He paused. “Why? Did I leave it there or somethin'? I swear I thought I grabbed it with the rest of the gifts...”

Souji's heart goes plummeting through his feet. “You... grabbed that one, too...?”

“This everything, Senpai?”

Souji looks up from where he's busy tucking a birthday card into a burnt-orange envelope – one that he folded extra-special just for this purpose. Grey eyes scan over the pile of other cards and small packages resting on his desk, taking stock of everything to make sure it's all there. After a moment he nods. “It should be, yeah.”

He stands from his spot behind the low work table and takes a moment to smile quietly down at the envelope in his hands before turning a wider smile towards the person standing across the room. “Thanks again, Kanji,” he says warmly, and the way the taller boy blushes faintly isn't lost on him. It's cute, Souji thinks, and maybe in another timeline where he wasn't already hopelessly in love with someone else, he might very well have been able to return the crush he knows his friend has on him. But that's neither here nor there, and as it stands Souji knows all too well how it feels to have his affections go unreturned. Even if he's much better at hiding them than Kanji is.

The punk mumbles something Souji can't quite make out but thinks might be a, “don't gotta thank me.”

He laughs quietly, gently. “I mean it,” he says, “there's no way I'd be able to hide all this where Yosuke wouldn't find it somehow; my room, ah...” He glances around with a soft chuckle, waving a hand at the open space. “I don't really have a lot of extra storage.”

Kanji looks like he's about to reply – probably to wave off Souji's thanks again – but anything he might have said is interrupted by a sweet voice calling from downstairs. “Onii-chan!” The sound of small footsteps padding down the hallway precedes a gentle knock at the door. “Onii-chan? Are you home?”

Souji chuckles, affectionate and soft, and calls, “I'm home. Come on in.”

Nanako needs no further invitation. The door swings open and a pigtailed head peeks in, brown eyes bright. “Onii-chan, Daddy says he's coming home tonight! Will you help me make dinner? Oh!” she gasps, pure delight spreading over her face as she spots kanji near the desk. “Hello!” She looks over at a still-smiling Souji, then back to Kanji, and practically beams. “Are you staying for dinner, too?”

“Would you like to?” Souji asks, quieter than his exuberant little sister but no less genuine. It's been a while since anyone other than Yosuke has been over in the evenings, and Souji finds he wouldn't mind at all if his rough-around-the-edges underclassman stayed and let Souji feed him. After all, Kanji agreed to hiding the pile of birthday gifts so Yosuke doesn't go snooping through his partner's room for them (though Souji is still a little irritated as to just why he knows Yosuke won't be poking around at Kanji's house to look for gifts). At the very least, he'd like to do something to show Kanji his thanks, since the blond doesn't seem inclined to let him say it.

But Kanji has gone from blushing to an odd shade of purple, fingers scratching as the back of his own hair as he ducks his head to the side and down. Souji at first interprets this as 'cuteness overload', because honestly, who does Nanako not have that effect on? But no. Rather than mutter about how adorable Nanako is like he usually does, Souji hears Kanji instead mutter something unintelligible – with the only discernible words being “Dojima” and “staring at me.” And oh. Well. Souji is disappointed, yes, but he does understand; if his uncle weren't coming home then Kanji likely would have agreed, but there is still an awkwardness between the pair of them, mostly out of yet-unbroken habit. So Souji just gives his friend a knowing smile and says, “You need to get home, don't you?” When Kanji looks up at him, Souji nods in gentle understanding. “Your mom?” he adds, giving the other boy an out that won't alert Nanako.

Kanji's eyes widen for a moment as he catches on, then straightens. “Y-yeah!” he says a bit too loud and a bit too quick. “I mean! My ma's probably waitin' on me.”

Nanako visibly deflates and Kanji looks like he's ready to combust, so once again, Souji steps in. “It's alright,” he says at them both as he reaches down to ruffle Nanako's hair. “Another night this week, maybe?” He quirks a stormy-grey brow, lips twitching upwards in a tiny smirk. “I'll bring leftovers for lunch tomorrow, too; you should come sit with me.”

And oh, if Kanji's face doesn't simultaneously light up and flush a bright, dusty red at that. “Ah heck yeah!” he manages to crow past his blush, and it's absolutely great. Souji has to bite back a triumphant smile because he will feed his friend in thanks for his help whether it be tonight or tomorrow. He'll make extra food later on if he has to, just to have enough to bring to school.

In the end, without really looking, Kanji hurriedly shovels the stack of gifts and cards into the paper sack Souji had brought out for him to use, and Souji and Nanako walk him to the front door to see him out. Kanji loiters for an extra five minutes while Nanako hugs him tightly, and Souji thanks Kanji again where he knows his friend can't really dispute the sentiment with Nanako there to back her brother up. Kanji is a good friend, and Souji almost feels bad about the taller boy's crush, what with Souji's constant need to make sure everyone around him is happy, but even if Souji can't return his kohai's affections he sure as hell can let him know he's appreciated. So with Kanji still sporting a blush and Nanako finally letting him go so he can escape, Souji says a last goodbye to the soft-hearted punk, watching him head up the road for a few moments to make sure he'll be alright heading home.

It's not until several days later that he realizes something is horribly amiss.

---

Souji's crush on his best friend started early. If asked, he wouldn't be able to put his finger on an exact date or pick out an exact event that sparked it. It just... happened. Yosuke was his partner, a new friend that Souji had hoped he'd be able to keep, but it was nothing deeper than platonic affection - until it was.

Without warning it had crept up on him, until Souji found he couldn't remember a time when he wasn't in love with the friendly brunette. Yosuke was charming, funny, kind, and despite his flaws (the least of which being the boy's uncanny ability to lodge his own foot in his mouth at the worst of times), Souji had never met another person besides Nanako that he'd clicked with so well.

Which was why it had been getting harder and harder for him to keep his feelings to himself. Back when he'd been living in the city, well before his parents had sent him to Inaba and then given in to his begging to let him stay for his final year of high school, Souji had kept a journal. Every time he'd had an emotion, a thought, a welling-up of something inside him that screamed to be let out but had no safe outlet for him to do so, Souji would sit down at his desk and pour out everything he couldn't say onto the paper. He'd filled up the entire journal within the span of a year.

So he'd started another. And then another. And then he'd moved to Inaba and quickly filled up the last half of that third journal with his secret worry over the murder cases. He'd filled another, thinner journal after that one, too, until he'd run out of both paper and fear and anger and stress to fill it with. He'd thought he was done.

But then he'd fallen in love with Yosuke.

He'd tried starting yet another journal, just to dedicate to how much he was pining (yes, pining, he could admit it to himself, at least) over the best friend he'd ever had. But after he'd finally found the perfect one, cover bright with colors like summer, he'd sat down to touch his pen to the first page and... nothing. For the first time in his life, Souji hadn't been able to put his emotions into words.

For several weeks he would try and start all over again, thinking maybe if he gave himself enough time to think more about what he wanted to say then the words would come easier. He'd get maybe a sentence or two in, reread it, and then grow frustrated with himself for yet another failed attempt. His breakthrough finally came while working on some translations for one of his part time jobs – a letter, written from a high school student to a foreign girl her family had hosted as part of an exchange program. In her letter she'd anxiously confessed her feelings, hopeful they could meet again someday. By the time he went to bed Souji had every word of the letter burned permanently into his brain, and the moment he was free from school the next day he had gone straight to the shopping district and bought himself a pretty, pastel orange stack of stationary, sunflowers drawn in delicate lines across the bottom of each page.

Writing had suddenly become much easier after that. In the form of a letter, where Souji could pretend he was talking directly to the object of his affections rather than just about, he found that he could burn through nearly a dozen pages front and back in a little under a weekend. He'd had to make two more trips to the shop to get more packs of stationary because, while pretty and perfect for inspiring words of love and hopeless devotion, the flowers on the paper were hand-drawn and so there just weren't that many sheets in the package. At some point, Souji had just given in and bought three packs at once to save himself another venture into town.

The stack of letters grew; some were short, filled with simple things like, “you smiled at me today during lunch and I nearly forgot how to breathe,” and some where longer, detailing the way the setting sun had shone behind them at the riverbank and“made you look ethereal.” As he finished them, one by one, Souji would tuck them safely away in one of his homemade envelopes – all in sunset colors and tied together in a bundle with red string. The bundle stayed on his desk, off to the side where it wouldn't be in the way but still close enough that he could reach for it to add another record of his secret love.

Which is why, three days after Kanji had left with the pile of gifts, on the evening of Yosuke's birthday, when Souji goes to write out an entire day's worth of ache and longing and reaches for the bundle of letters so he can add the newly finished one to the rest only to find it missing, he abruptly has a heart attack.

He has a second one twenty minutes later as he stands in the middle of his now gutted bedroom with absolutely no sign of them anywhere. Books and folders lay scattered from where they'd been yanked from his desk and tossed out of the way onto the futon, only for the futon to also be pulled aside and dumped haphazardly across the work table. He'd gone so far as to (quietly) pull both the couch and the desk away from the walls to see if somehow his heart on paper had been lodged between them and the furniture – all to no avail.

He stares at his ransacked surroundings, wracking his brain to try and think of any other place they could be. They wouldn't be downstairs anywhere; neither Nanako nor Dojima have any reason or desire to go through his things. They wouldn't be in his school bag, either, because Souji would sooner walk straight into the Samegawa and let it drown him than take something so dangerous and valuable anywhere near where Yosuke could happen upon it. In fact, Souji had made it a point in times past to hide the letters behind his textbooks on the desk whenever Yosuke came over, and even though Yosuke had spent plenty of time digging around for Souji's “stash,” he'd steered well clear of the study materials. No, there's no place else in the house or out of it that the bundle could be.

No place else except one.

Souji's hands are shaking so badly that he's already almost dropped the phone twice before he manages to scroll through his contacts and successfully locate the name that he prays to every single god imaginable will tell him he's wrong.

“Yo, Senpai, what's up?”

“Kanji...” he whispers, voice hoarse and cracking slightly at the end. “The other day, when you came over... was there a stack of colored envelopes on my desk?”

Confused silence greets him for a moment. Then, “Uh.... I think so? Pretty sure I remember seein' it.” He pauses. “Why? Did I leave it there or somethin'? I swear I thought I grabbed it with the rest of the gifts...”

Souji's heart goes plummeting through his feet. “You... grabbed that one, too...?”

(Nonononono, this wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening!)

Kanji hums on the other end of the speaker. “I mean, I thought I did. I didn't check the bag after I got it home, though... Is somethin' wrong, Senpai?”

Souji hears his own voice, hears himself saying, “N... no. No, nothing's wrong. Thanks, Kanji,” but he can't actually feel the words leaving his mouth. His arm falls limp against his side then, and his fingers act on muscle memory, flipping the phone closed and hanging up the call.

Okay. Okay okay okay, he thinks, trying to keep himself grounded long enough to sort through his own head. The situation is grim, yes, but not hopeless. Yosuke's birthday celebration had been earlier that evening; school had eaten up the first half of the day and both Teddie and Yukiko were on a limited time frame due to work at Junes and the inn, respectively, so there hadn't been much time to do anything other than grab an early dinner together at Aiya's. It had given Kanji and Rise time to run back home and retrieve the bag of gifts and the batch of artisan cupcakes the pop idle had special-ordered in from a shop in Okina and picked up the day before.

The Team had piled into a little corner in the restaurant, laughing and eating and wishing their friend a happy birthday until it was time for Yukiko and Teddie to leave, with Chie offering to escort her girlfriend home. Up until that point, though, they'd all been so busy that Yosuke had forgotten to open any of his presents. And so, not wanting to open anything without the whole group there for him to thank, he'd decided to just take the sack home with him for the time being, with everyone agreeing to meet up at Souji's place the next day after school for Birthday Dinner Round 2.

So. The bad news: Yosuke more than likely has Souji's stack of love letters that were never meant to see the light of day. Alright. Yes. That is utterly goddamn terrifying.

The good news, however, is that he hadn't opened them before, and probably won't open them until they all get together tomorrow. There is still a chance that Souji could get them back without incident – either by waiting until Yosuke is distracted and sneaking the letters back out of the sack of presents, or by telling Yosuke the partial truth, that Kanji had grabbed something by mistake and could I have those back, please, Partner? Yosuke didn't have to know what they were; Souji could simply say that they were letters from his parents from over the years of them being away while Souji stayed either alone or with other people.

Only... Shit. Yosuke already knows that Souji's parents don't actually write to him. Maybe he could say they were from years ago and he was keeping them for sentimentality's sake and putting them in pretty new envelopes. Or! He could say it's stuff he wrote to them but never sent, because that was marginally closer to the truth, wasn't it? But all of that could be a last resort if he isn't able to just steal the letters back and---!

Someone is calling him.

Souji's careening train of thought comes to a screeching halt as his phone begins to vibrate in his hand, the quiet chirping of his ringtone now like a shout into his ears.

He winches, both from the noise and from the whiplash of being sucked back out of his own head, and, on reflex, he brings the offending piece of technology up to his face to look at the screen.

And then immediately jerks back in panic and chucks his phone across the room where it lands on the futon now decorating his work table.

“Oh god no...”

Yosuke is calling him.

Yosuke is calling him and Souji has no plan of action and no way of knowing if he's already too late to stop the tidal wave of destruction that may or may not be headed his way, and ohhhhh he's hyperventilating now, isn't he? Yes. Yes, he most certainly is.

The chirping finally stops just as Souji's vision starts to haze over with white, leaving his ears ringing with its echos for a good few seconds in the sudden quiet of the room. He can hear his own breathing, the thumping of his pulse through his temples and his neck, but with the silence now hanging heavy over his shoulders he finds himself more grounded than he'd been just moments ago. He sighs, shaking out his arms to try and release some of the tension that's been curling tightly in his limbs, and as the quiet stretches on, he feels his hammering heartbeat begin to slow once more.

It takes him ten minutes to feel like a human again. Still jittery but no longer feeling as if he's going to go blind from lack of oxygen, Souji sighs and starts over towards where his phone rests halfway off his displaced futon, leaning down to check and see if it's intact. It's a mistake; no sooner than he's bent over enough to pick up the phone, there comes a muffled scraping sound, like something moving out on the roof. It's followed by a quiet 'thump' and then the sharp, 'tap-tap-tap!' of knuckles against a pane of glass.

Souji lets out a yelp of surprise – the single most undignified, ungraceful sound he's ever made in his life – and whirls around to stare at the closed curtain like he thinks it might somehow come alive. Without even having to see, Souji already knows exactly who has just climbed up the side of the house.

He bites his lip, tasting the barest hint of salt and blood. Please just go away...

Sadly, it seems that whatever deities might have once been on his side are now ignoring him, because in that beat and a half of silent fear there comes another knock at his window. “Souji!” calls a voice from outside. Right outside, as if the speaker is perched just beyond the window, with only the glass and the curtain to separate them both.

The voice – the all-too-familiar voice – comes again, a little louder and less patient this time. “Hey! Partner, I know you're in there, I can see your lights on. I just heard you!” There is a muffled grunt and a sound like something shifting and Souji still can't seem to move. Three more knocks against the glass.

“Bro, I am stupid and reckless as hell, you know I'll just keep getting louder until Dojima wakes up if I have to.”

And both from his tone and the way the knocking and the whispers seem to get steadily louder, Souji doesn't doubt him for a moment. To be frank, Souji isn't entirely sure his uncle and cousin haven't heard all the commotion already – and he knows that the longer he continues to avoid the other boy, the more suspicious he's making himself look. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

So he gives in. Best to get it over with and accept his fate. Maybe there will still be a way to salvage the situation – or at the very least keep it from escalating. He isn't confident in either choice.

It's just as Yosuke makes one last whisper-shout of, “Dude, let me in!” that Souji finally unsticks himself from the floor and yanks the curtain aside to reveal – yep, just like he'd thought – a rather irritated-looking Yosuke kneeling unsteadily on the slanted overhang covering the front door. With a solemn kind of dread, Souji unlocks the window and slides it open, reaching out to grab his friend by the arm and yank him inside before he can make any more noise.

“Finally!” Yosuke says, once he's landed, still in a harsh pseudo-whisper as he's standing up from his hunch. He glares up at Souji, mouth turned down in a pout, but oddly, there doesn't seem to be any heat behind it all. In fact, as Souji stares, tense and frozen and trying impossibly hard to not give in to his fight-or-flight instincts, he could almost say that Yosuke looks... nervous?

Well of course, he argues to himself, he's probably afraid of you now.

Maybe Souji can play dumb and claim he doesn't know what's going on – or maybe he can dive out the window himself and make a break for the train station. If he's quick enough he might be able to catch the last train of the night.

“The hell happened to your room?” Yosuke mumbles, looking around, and Souji fakes a smile as best he can, though even through his numbing anxiety he can feel how strained it is. “Yosuke,” he tries, nearly tripping over his best friend's name. The smile twitches as he tries to keep it in place. “What're you do--”

He grinds to a halt as the boy he's been in love with for the better part of a year pins him with another sharp amber glare and reaches into his hoodie pocket to pull out the very thing Souji was hoping his partner would never see. He swallows, mouth and throat and tongue all suddenly very dry.

“...I can explain...”

Yosuke fixes him with an unreadable look. He stares at Souji for a moment that stretches painfully on, eyes searching Souji's no doubt devastated face. Eventually he lets out a long exhale though his nose.

“I'm guessing I wasn't supposed to see these?” he says, holding up the stack of yellow-orange-pink envelopes, loosely tied back together with their red string – though it isn't really a question. When Souji doesn't answer, Yosuke nods to himself as if deciding something. He pulls the letters back towards his chest and holds them... almost reverently, looking down at them with a soft sort of expression that Souji has never seen him wear before.

Yosuke turns the letters over in his hands. “I didn't know what they were at first; there wasn't a name or note or anything, so I didn't know who they were from and I thought maybe they'd wound up in the bag by mistake cuz, ya know...” Amber eyes glance back up and for a moment the bridge of his nose is dusted a faint pink. He rolls his wrist, waving his hand in lieu of words. The gesture is entirely unhelpful. “They just...” he starts again, huffing. “They didn't look like the rest of the stuff in the bag? So I thought, this should be okay to open, right? Just the top one? And I was just gonna check and see what these were in case someone was missing something and I figured if they were a gift then I could save the rest for tomorrow, but, uhm...”

And here Yosuke trails off, looking back up at Souji with such a searching look, and Souji has no idea how to read him right now. He just stands there, chest aching as his heart batters the inside of his sternum and the edges of his vision tint grey from where he's neglected proper breathing. This is it, this is where he loses his partner, the best friend he's ever had. Souji could have been content loving Yosuke from afar; maybe not happy, exactly, but content. It wouldn't have destroyed their friendship that way, and Souji could have let himself pretend, every so often when he was alone in the dead of night, that Yosuke loved him back. But now all of that is gone.

And Souji feels his heart beginning to crack.

“I'm sorry...” he whispers, voice thin and brittle. He doesn't know what else to say.

There is another long moment of silence. Souji is expecting a rebuke, something biting and defensive or disgusted, perhaps, but it never comes. Instead, Yosuke's expression seems to twist into something confused and almost hurt.

Yosuke clears his throat awkwardly.“Sorry for...?” he asks, stretching it out as like he's trying to prompt Souji to elaborate. He doesn't say anything for a bit, just waiting, watching his partner's face as if trying to read him.

“I read all of them, you know,” he says at length. His grip on the letters tightens. “Twice.” He glances back down at the sunset-colored envelopes and brushes a thumb across the edge of the topmost one. “And I thought, if this was a joke then it was a shitty one.” An anxious fingernail picks at the red string. He huffs. “But if it wasn't and you meant it, then...” A swallow. “It was probably the best birthday present I've ever gotten...” He looks up then, and the glimmering, guarded hope hidden in the lines of his face is enough to shove all the remaining air from Souji's lungs.

Because there is no way he could possibly be this lucky.

Taking a deep, deep breath in, Yosuke squares his shoulders, lifts his chin, and steps forwards until he's less than half a foot away from Souji's face, close enough that Souji can feel the other boy's rapid breathing in faint bursts against his own skin – and suddenly his heart is fluttering for an entirely different reason.

Face red, Yosuke stares directly into Souji's eyes and quietly says, “Did you mean it?”

And Souji breathes a quiet, honest, “Yes.”

Yosuke's eyes widen. “...Yes?” he repeats, like he can't quite believe it.

Souji nods. “Every word.”

And then Yosuke's fingers are fisted into the collar of Souji's shirt, pulling him down to crash their mouths together in a messy, awkward kiss. The angle is a little off, their lips not quite meeting they way that they should, and Souji has no idea what he's doing with his hands as he hesitantly brings them up to rest one on Yosuke's arm and the other on his hip.

It's perfect.

They part a few seconds later, Souji's face and neck and ears burning just as hot as Yosuke's look, but neither make any move to step away.

Yosuke's mouth twitches up at one corner in a sheepish smile. “Sorry,” he mumbles, “I wanted to do that before I lost my nerve.”

Souji laughs – not a real one, just a puff of disbelieving breath – and returns the almost-smile as something warm blooms inside his chest. “I love you,” he whispers, and never in his life could he have imagined just how good it feels to finally say it aloud, free of the fear of hatred and rejection.

Yosuke ducks his head as the blush burns further up his ears. The shy, bright grin spreading across his face, however, is beautiful.

“...Love you, too, Partner.”

Beaming, Souji can't help but wrap his arms around his friend and pull him into a hug, burying his face in the soft brown hair at Yosuke's temple. He doesn't cry, but he can feel his shoulders shaking; he doesn't have the focus to tell if it's from relief or something else. “Never thought I'd hear you say that,” he admits quietly, feeling safer with his face hidden from Yosuke's view.

The other boy brings his own arms up to encircle Souji's ribs, giving his back a gentle pat with the hand not still holding the stack of letters. “Yeah, well,” he says, and there is a bewildered chuckle in his voice. “I never thought you were secretly writing me love letters, but here we are.”

Oh!

Souji pulls back from the hug as a thought hits him. He tries not to give in to the little noise of unhappiness Yosuke makes as Souji steps away, having to actively will his feet to take him over to the desk instead of back into his friend's arms. Luckily it's not far, nor does his purpose for being there last more than a moment or two as he snatches up the letter he'd written earlier, now the only one left that Yosuke hasn't yet read. He pivots on the ball of his foot, turning his final step towards the desk into a single fluid motion that carries him back to Yosuke, and holds the creamsicle-orange envelope out for the other boy to take. He smiles, giddy and shy. “Happy birthday, Yosuke.”

Yosuke smiles to match his own, honey-brown eyes warm as he gently takes the letter from Souji's hand and places it on top of the bundle still in his grip, tucking a thumb into the envelope's unsealed flap. “It is, yeah.” He leans in to close the distance between them once again and stretches up until he can touch his lips to Souji's in a chaste, sweet kiss. “Got everything I wanted.”

(Souji brings Kanji a homemade lunch every day for a month.)

[hannahcoursey]

Loose Ends Pt. 1

Pairing: Dean x reader

Word Count: 2, 268

Warnings: Abuse, Sexual Violence, PTSD

Request: Hi there! Do u think u could do one where the reader gets out of an abusive relationship, only to run into him again for Dean to save her? LOVE ur writing xoxo

Author: Hannahc56

PART TWO

---- 

His hand smacked your face, leaving a hot red mark in its place. Instinctively, you reached up and covered your face, cowering away from him as he stepped closer. You looked up, bewilderment in your eyes, at your boyfriend. Something wasn’t right.

Your boyfriend, Matt, had always had a temper. He’d hit you on previous occasions, leaving you to wonder the next morning why you’d put up with his violent ways, but you two had been high school sweethearts and deep in the darkest parts of your heart you knew you loved him. But tonight, this was different. He wasn’t backing down.

“Matt, what is wrong with you?” You spit, trying to let your words sound venomous, but the heavy shake in your tone betrayed you. A smile crawled across his features.

“Nothings wrong with me,” He reached his hand out and grabbed your face ferociously, digging his fingers into your supple cheeks, “I’ve never felt better, baby,” He finished, inches away from your face, the sarcasm dripping from the pet name he’d always call you. You wriggled back until you hit the wall behind you. His fingers pressed harder against your face. The more you struggled, the more it hurt.

“Matt-” You started, but his finger pressed to your lips.

“Sorry sweetheart, looks like your precious Matt has checked out,” He smiled down at your shrunken frame. Your brows furrowed for a moment until his eyes flipped black. Your heart began to beat rapidly in your chest, a small whimper leaving your lips before he reeled his arm back, clocking you dead in the nose. Your head smacked against the wall you were pressed against, as you slid down the plaster, taking the small dining room table crashing down with you. Stars danced in your vision, the deep black of unconsciousness beginning to creep up quicker and quicker.

“Don’t go checking out on me yet baby,” He leaned down, matching your eye level, “Matt is in here just cheering me on like you would not believe.” He tapped the side of his temple for emphasis. You blinked hard a few times, trying to shake off the concussion that was forming behind your eyes. He stood straight again. “You know that he hates you, right? I mean, you’ve done nothing but hold the kid down since you were - what, 16? - God, he cannot wait to be rid of you, he’s already got a whole list of women he’s just aching to get with the second he dumps your sorry ass.” He walked a step closer to you, swiftly connecting his foot to your abdomen, sending you to the ground. The little amount of air you had, slipped through your lips, leaving you gasping. He reached down and gripped at your neck before you could suck a breath in, forcing you back on your feet. 

“Matt, please-” You started, but the blood that followed your cough interrupted any plea you had worked the courage up to verbalize.

“Don’t worry,” He said, punching you square in the face again, “Matt is begging me to free him from you, you make him want to die.” He spit as moved to punch you one last time. Right as his fist was inches away from connecting with your face, you stabbed a kitchen fork into his neck. He stared at you, his fist paused, floating in front of your eyes. He blinked a few times before his grip on your neck tightened. “Ouch,” He rolled his eyes, “That hurt.” He scoffed as if the retaliation offended him. 

This was it. This is how you were going to die, at the hands of the person you thought you were going to marry. 

As his fist pulled back once more, the door to your apartment blasted open, smacking against the wall behind it. An older man, who sort of looked like a retired truck driver, entered the room, a sawed-off shotgun in his hand. The man you thought was Matt turned his attention towards the stranger, releasing his grip from your neck. Your legs gave out from under you and fell to the ground, the darkness completely encasing you and taking you from the nightmare that was playing out in front of you.

----

It had been a little over a year since the night Bobby had found you, beaten an inch from death. He exorcised the demon from your old boyfriend and taken you to shelter back at his place. A few days after the attack, he sat you down and told you that the things in your closet were real and introduced you to the world of hunters after you’d bugged him enough. He begrudgingly lent you the mythology books and taught you a few tricks. He offered you to stay with him for a while, as Matt was your only family since you had been in and out of foster care since you were born, you had nothing to go back to. You had gotten a job waitressing at a diner a few minutes down the road from his house and became good friends with the two Winchester boys that hid away at Bobby’s when the world got to be too much. Bobby had talked in minor detail about what the two boys had gone through - you knew about the yellow-eyed demon and Mary, and both brothers trip to Hell, which still made your mind swim with questions, but you knew you’d never get the answers, so you didn’t bother asking. 

Some nights you’d sit at the top of the stairs just out of eyeshot and listen to the things the boys talked about. You’d come to admire Sam’s gentle approach, but Dean had so many layers to him, you found yourself lying awake some nights wondering what made a man so complicated tick. One time, the boys left a bag of fresh clothes for each of them to keep there, just so they had some spare clothes stashed away somewhere if they needed it. You snuck into the drawers in one of the guest rooms next to yours that Bobby used as storage and stole a long sleeve thermal from Dean’s drawer. It smelled like the worn leather seats of the Impala and old whiskey that he’d probably spilled on it the last time he’d worn it and my God you loved everything about it. You kept it underneath your bed and wore it every now and then until his smell wore off and then swapped it for a different shirt or flannel from the drawer of his clothes. It wasn’t until you had tagged along with some hunts with Bobby that Sam had asked for you to join them. Your heart fluttered so hard in your chest you could’ve sworn Sam could’ve heard it from where he stood. 

That was a year ago.

Now you spent most of your time reading lore and researching whatever cases the boys had found while flipping through the newspaper and local murders. You had climbed your way to becoming a skilled hunter, but you were nowhere close to having the skill set that the brothers had and you were alright with that. Your admiration for Dean had only grown after being in constant close quarters to the man. Sam was your outlet, you were close friends and confided in him like no other. He often made sly comments on the way you stared a little too long and stuttered a little too much around Dean, but he never forced it much. Dean’s hand often found itself resting on the small of your back when in crowds, or around your shoulders after a successful hunt. He smiled a little wider at you and always made sure you ate. Dean always took the couch so you could have the bed in motel rooms and his goodnight hugs became a little tighter and a little longer as the months passed on, and you found your face red in anticipation every night, escaping in the few moments of affection you got from him. Sam noticed.

The boys never really talked too much about their time spent in Hell and you never pushed it. When they asked you about yourself, you usually kept equally as quiet. There wasn’t much to tell. They knew the basics, and more information about the three of you came out as time went on, bonding you closer each time something was learned about the other. 

After a particularly successful vampire hunt, the boys decided they wanted to go to the local bar down the road before calling it a night. It was almost 12:30 when the three of you pulled up in the Impala. 

“I gonna go find us a booth Dean, why don’t you go grab drinks and meet us at our table?” Sam said, over the creaking car doors and you nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll go with Sam and find somewhere for us to sit.” You stuffed your hands in your jacket pocket and followed Sam inside. Dean followed behind you, his hand resting casually on the small of your back, sending chills up your spine. He leaned in, the musty smell of the farm you had slain the vamps in, radiating off of him. 

“You want your usual?” He asked, his voice rough and close to your ear. Swallowing hard, you nodded.

“Just one for now, sure.” You turned to him for a second only to catch his eyes on your lips. He licked his own and grinned.

“Sounds good, sweetheart.” He said as you all entered the bar. Dean had split from the two of you and bee-lined for the bar. You reached your hand to Sam’s shoulder as to not lose sight of him in the crowded bar as he lead you to a booth in the corner. Once you took your seats, Sam opened up his laptop and started tapping away at the keyboard, his eyes already darting in between the lines of another article. You let out a light laugh at the sight of him and a small grin climbed his face.

“I know, I know - I’ll take a break in a minute, I just thought of something and wanna check it out before it slips my mind, alright?” He shook his head and smiled.

“Hey, whatever you want, this is your free time too.” You returned his sincere smile. Dean walked over with your drink and Sam’s beer.

The three of you sat and discussed the nights’ case, talking about how the vampire population seemed to be dwindling in the eastern states and after a few drinks, you found yourself drunker than you’d expected. Dean had walked over to a brunette over at the bar, after making eyes at her from the booth. You looked over as he slid a hand around her waist and whispered something in her ear. You turned back to your cup and slammed the remaining alcohol back. Sam chuckled lightly and shook his head.

“You guys are helpless, you know that?” He joked.

“There is no ‘You guys’ it’s nothing Sam,” You shook your head at him and tried to return the smile as genuinely as possible, but the alcohol made you feel fuzzy, “A girl can dream.” You shrugged. He closed his laptop and slipped it under his arm. 

“I think I’m going to head back, you wanna come with?” He asked, as he stood up from the booth and stood next to you. You shook your head and looked down at your empty glass.

“Hmm, I think I’m alright, I haven’t been to a bar in a little while I don’t mind sitting here,” You looked up at his raised brows, “Seriously, I’m okay, I’ll be almost right behind you.”

“Y/N, I haven’t seen you drink this much in months and you think you’re fine to walk.

 back by yourself?” He laughed lightly, still deciding if he was going to drag you out of there whether you liked it or not.

“Sam, I’m a big girl, I promise I can hold my liquor, I’ll be fine,” You reached out and patted him on the face. He nodded and laughed, obviously at your slurring words.

“Okay Y/N/N, but if you’re not back in the room within the next two hours, I’m gonna come back and personally make sure I tuck you in myself.” He pointed his eyes sarcastically at you.

“Okay, sounds like a fair deal to me.” You answered as he turned around and walked through the crowd, clutching his laptop to his side. You watched as his tall frame slipped through the groups of people until he was out of sight. You threw a few bills down on the table and searched the room for a side door. You opted for the back door by the bathroom and slipped out into the night. The brisk October air was a welcomed contrast from the stuffy, sweaty bar that lay behind the door you’d just exited. You took a deep breath and took a few steps, your legs wobbling beneath you. You take a deep breath and continue walking around the building, reaching the road. The motel was hardly two miles away and the walk would be just the thing to sober you up. A few buildings lay between the bar and the motel, dimly lit up. You turned and looked into the parking lot. The Impala was still sitting there where Dean had left it, and you wondered how long it’d take for him to come stumbling out of the bar with the brunette he had been buttering up around his arm. You took another breath and walked along the faded white line along the outside of the road. You wobbled on your feet, your balance uneven.

“Fuck.” You whisper to yourself, I probably should’ve gone with Sam. Just as the thought crossed your mind, a calloused hand wrapped itself around your neck, slamming you against the side of the building next to the bar. You hardly had a moment to scream.

It was Matt.

Your heart pounded in your throat and your vision swayed as he stood inches away from your face. He was supposed to be dead, your mind was running a thousand miles a minute. 

“Look who the fuck it is,” He leaned in, his breath reeking of booze, “The girl that tried to kill me.” The fire that scorched through his irises the day he beat you half to death burned across his eyes like it was yesterday. You had no words, your lips moved but nothing left them. “You’re pathetic Y/N, you really think this wouldn’t come back to bite you in the ass?” His eyes searched yours feverishly, as if he had asked you a feasible question. “I woke up on the floor with a fucking fork in my neck, I had to crawl to the phone to call 911 and you know what the best part was? No one believed me when I told them you’d tried to murder me - you disappeared!” He screamed into your face, his voice echoing in the empty parking lot you stood in. His grip tightened on your neck and your hands reached up to fight against it, but it was no use. Even with the adrenaline pumping through your veins you had consumed too much alcohol to walk home in a straight line, let alone put up much of a fight. “No, no, no, I’ve waited a long time for this, for you to see what it's like to be left for dead Y/N,” He spoke low, his voice like razors, “We’re done when I say we’re done.” 

And with that, his fist connected with your face and your world went black. 

----

A/N: Thanks so much for reading! 

READ PART TWO HERE

[btssmutficslovingfan01]

Late Night Confessions...With Father Jimin (Chapter One)

𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: 𝘈 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩. 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦, 𝘈 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘯𝘶𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵?

𝒢𝑒𝓃𝓇𝑒: Romance, Smut, Forbidden Relationship

𝒲𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔(𝓈): Priest! Yoongi, Fake Priest Jimin, Nun! Reader, Accidental Murder

𝒲𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈: 2k+

𝒫𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔: Jimin x Reader

Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next →

 _____________________________________________

“It was an accident!” The man yells towards the fallen priest.

“Of course it was. An accident that you hit me with your car just as we were crossing the road.”

“But the horse came out of nowher-”

“Bishop Francis?” The distraught priest shakes the other man, and just as he reveals his lifeless body to the younger, thunder strikes. The man’s eyes are wide open, the sockets having a yellowish tint around them. The corpse is fresh but already rotting, enough to make anyone want to empty the contents of their stomach.

“It’s going to rain, get up.” The younger male helps him to his car, offering to drive him to where he needs to go.

“You did this. You killed the bishop, and now you must pay.” He coughs wretchedly, his stomach churning as he eyes the shorter male. He noticed he has a similar build as the previous bishop, and a similar face, if he didn’t know any better, he might have mistaken him for the head of the church. An idea begins forming in his mind.

“I know what I did was wrong, but forgive me, I was in a rush, running away from people who aren’t particularly fond of me…”

“Why might that be?” It is in the priest’s nature to listen to others and tell them how to repent.

“I stole his watch.” The priest turns to him in disappointment. “Don’t look at me like that, we’re close in age, I can tell. I was born in the year of the pig, when were you born?” He asks the distraught priest.

“Rooster.”

“Ah, only 2 years older than me?! Can I call you hyung?” The older man glares back at the younger one as he quickly focuses back on driving.

“Sorry father.” He murmurs to the priest. If it only went a different way, he wouldn’t have killed someone. He wasn’t a natural killer, it wasn’t in his blood. Heck, he’d never even hurt a fly. It was an unfortunate accident.

“Listen, I have an idea that may allow you some grace from murdering the most important person in the church.” 

“What might that be?” The priest begins digging through his large brown bag, and surprises the younger man by pulling out a robe and belt. The type that only priests wear.

“We’re gonna make you into half the man he was.”

“Half?” The thief steps on the break.

“No one will know, you guys are practically identical, physically. Now how good are your acting skills?” Oh dear, was this priest really gonna help him get away with murder?

                                       ✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯

“Reverend Mother, are we really going to send this...imposter to the church of St. Paul?” A nun wearing white goes cribbing to the head nun again.

“Sister Gertrude, now is not the time to argue. My decision is final. We will help that poor girl keep her cover, in case those bad men come to find her again. This is all to protect a child of God.” 

“But she isn’t even a real nun, we would be lying to the Catholic Church, and fooling everyone!” The reverend lights a candle and hands it to her student.

“No dear, we are helping a fellow nun. Go find Sister Rosemary and bring her to me. I will personally help her get...adjusted.” The nun coughs before sending the woman to fetch the other girl. 

“Hey, you fake nun, Reverend Mother Flora is calling you. Go to her, and don’t whine this time.” Sister Greta tidies her corner of the room, making sure there is nothing messy in sight. She turns her head and her smile fades when she sees Sister Rosemary’s pig-sty of a bed. Right in the middle is the woman herself, covered head to toe in her own clothes, wearing an uncomfortably tight nun’s uniform. The real nun is offended that such a person could fool the others in the convent so easily and even get a prestigious honor of moving to the Church and serving God through mass and other important things that nuns do. In the short time that she’s been here, she’s accomplished more than Greta, and that infuriates the nun. Sister Greta knows that envy is a disgusting thing, but she can’t help it, she wanted to go to the church to complete her special nun duties and appease everyone. Instead, it’s this mongrel that has reserved her spot in the church and stolen the spotlight for being the “best.” 

“I don’t wanna. But I guess I will, since I’m bored as hell—heck.” She catches herself before leaving Sister Rosemary to attend her meeting with the reverend.

“Sister Rosemary, so nice to see you again. Pray tell, are you ready to move to the Church of St. Paul?”

“Don’t call me that.” The girl hisses at her senior, anger boiling up in her veins. It was bad enough she had a bunch of bad guys chasing her on the orders of her dear brother. She just didn’t understand why he would condemn her like this, she just wanted to get away from her evil stepfather and his awful family. Not to mention away from the grips of her emotionally abusive brother–step-brother.

“Okay, Y/N.” The nun lets out a chuckle at her indifferent behavior. It had been a week but she was still the same girl she found hiding in the alley behind the convent. “You know your name is a dead giveaway, we need to keep your identity concealed.” 

“I really don’t wanna be anywhere near a church right now but I guess I have no choice, huh?” The Reverend mother nods, giving her a basket of flowers, and clasps her hands together. 

“It’s temporary, dear. But it’s hard to say how long you will be staying there, until the police get their hands on those people and you’re completely safe again.” 

“I may not seem like it, but I really wanted to thank you reverend mother. You’ve treated me the best, even better than my real mother ever did. Thank you, so much.” Y/N sinks into her arms, hugging her and burying her tear-stained face in the nun’s shoulder.

“It’s alright, dear. It is our job, after all.” The Reverend Mother strokes her back until she stops sobbing, and she sends her off to help prepare a meal in the kitchen.

“When will you be leaving, Sister Rosemary?” Asks another nun as Y/N walks into the room.

“Evening. When the sun sets, I will get in a car and be driven to the church.”

“It’s nice there, I wish I could stay there forever but they only accept a couple sisters there every year, and I heard you have to attend four masses each day.” The said girl groans and makes her way to the table, setting down a plate of fruits.

“It sounds exhausting.” Another girl says, much to Y/N’s dismay.

“Let’s just ignore the negatives, Sister Hilda always said to keep your chin up, and always be happy!” 

“Sounds like a depressed nun to me.” Y/N mutters under her breath. 

“Mmhmm! I always hear good things from the nuns there, but they are very strict.” Sister Riya warns.

“Sisters, time for lunch!”

Second Person POV

After supper, you find yourself packing and getting ready to leave the place that you found comfort in. Strangely enough, you found yourself growing attached to the abbey and the sisters in it. 

                                         ✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯

“Father Yoongi, do you think we’re gonna pull this off?” The thief asks with sweat droplets trailing down his chin.

“Yes, Jimin. As far as God lets us. You can act well, right?” Jimin nods, running his fingers through his fluffy hair.

“I even look like a priest now, what the hell?” To his dismay, Jimin looked like a real priest. He would’ve never imagined ever being part of a church, at least before his parents passed away. He needed a better job anyway, being a thief wasn’t a choice, he had to make money somehow. He doesn’t know how it’s going to go anyways, he could be really good or bad depending on whether he gets caught or not. He knows some people in the church are super observant.

“Priests don’t curse.” Yoongi grits his teeth, making Jimin stand up straight.

“R-right.”

“Come with me, I’ll introduce you to the others. Except the archbishop, he’s too busy.”

“But aren’t I the bishop?” Jimin remembers when the priest told him he had murdered an important figure in the church, something starting with a “B.”

“Yes. I’m surprised you remember.” He takes him into another room, which looks to be a chapel. Inside, three priests stand at the altar, fixing the decor.

“Father Jin, have you replaced the flowers?” A tall priest stands at attention when he sees Yoongi.

“Yes, father Yoongi. I’ve replaced all the flowers in the church.”

“Is the clergy house clean?”

“Spotless.” Jimin looks back and forth, a bit confused as the other priests bow to him in greeting. He puts his hand up, like he’s seen bishops on the tv do when he was five. 

“Father Taehyung, have you marked the readings for today?” 

“Yes.” Jimin is left in awe as he discovers new things he didn’t know about the church before. Everyone has a job to help it work, together.

“Ahem, Father Joseph?” Another tall priest picks himself up, looking to have fallen asleep.

“Yes?”

“Do you take this job to be a joke?” Father Yoongi’s tone frightens Jimin. So far, he’s been calm but seeing him angry is kind of offputting.

“N-no sir.”

“Dismissed.” All of the other priests in the room gasp, as the other priest makes his away out of the room, removing his belt and holy robes. It looks as if he has been stripped of his rights as a priest.

“Did you just fire him?” Jimin whispers to Yoongi.

“Yes. Bishop Francis, you might want to go into the back and start blessing the water. We must change it.” Father Yoongi gives him his first orders. “I can’t come back with you since I’m busy but here is the prayer of blessing.” He gives him a small paper with the prayer and Jimin makes his way into the place where they prepare everything before the mass. He sighs, holding his right hand up and trying to sell it to the others. He knows he isn’t worthy to bless something because he is cursed, in his own ways. Just a day ago he was robbing houses and now, he’s dressed in holy attire and reciting prayers. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing here.

“Father Francis, there’s a new nun who says she was sent by the convent.” 

“No, you’re supposed to call me for that, I’ll take care of it, sorry Bishop Francis.” Yoongi glares at the other priest before dashing to the entrance to meet with the woman. Father Yoongi had been exchanging phone calls with the Reverend Mother, since the girl first assumed her identity as a nun. He didn’t know exactly what happened but just that she was in grave danger and the church of St. Paul was to aid her, until she was completely safe. And he was to let no one else know, just like how the Bishop’s identity is concealed from the rest of the priests. Yoongi is a little exhausted from keeping so many secrets, afraid that he might accidentally let it slip. 

“Hello dear, you must be Sister Rosemary?” You nod, a little bit uneasy.

“I’m the only one who knows who you are, so feel free to be comfortable around me. I promise I won’t hurt you.” While Father Yoongi speaks to you, Jimin watches you from the glass-stained windows as you stroll through the garden.

“I’m really thankful for this, but I’m still scared of getting my cover blown.” 

“Don’t be, our church will make sure you feel at home.”

“Please don’t do that. My “home” is scary enough, if anything I’d rather be here.” You explain,

“I’m sorry. If there’s anything I can do to make you feel a bit safer, let me know.” You giggle at Father Yoongi’s efforts to help you fit in. You hate the feeling of butterflies in your stomach, and catching yourself as you stare at him a bit too long. He’s handsome, more handsome than your step brother, or the boy you liked in middle school. 

“Is there something on my face?” You shake your head as Yoongi points at his face.

“Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“Anyways, as I was saying, there are fewer nuns here so instead of going to a separate building, you will be staying in the clergy house, but you will have your privacy and your room will be off-limits to anyone else.”

“How many other nuns are here?” You ask, out of curiosity.

“About 3 others,” You nod, accepting that you might be doomed after all. Your brother will find you here and you will be torn from limb to limb, probably being chained up and beaten black and blue after. Probably. “Y/N?” He breaks your train of thought, snapping you back to reality.

“I’m sorry, Yoon-Father.” You look away, ashamed.

“You poor thing, just what did you go through?” You find yourself crying profusely, tears rolling down your cheeks. Hot tears, too.

“I kn-know we just met, but can I h-hug you?” You ask, feeling vulnerable again. As an 18 year old, this kind of trauma is something that cannot be healed. You’ve been suffering for seven years, since your mother married that man.

“Of course.” The priest opens his arms to you, and you gratefully accept, your heart beat increasing, your cheeks become red, and your eyes even redder. Jimin watches intently, his gaze burning holes into your back. You don’t see him at first, but you notice the movement in the window, and you break the hug first.

“Thank you.” You whisper meekly to him. 

“Would you like to see the room you’re staying in?” You nod, as Father Yoongi leads you into the church through the back door. “Ah, Bishop Francis, you were here?” He forgot all about his new problem, the man posing as the Bishop. The murderer.

“Who’s this?” Jimin peers down at you with an unreadable expression. You gulp, feeling a familiar heat in your stomach that you feel when your brother is near. He gives off the same vibes.

“This is Sister Rosemary, she will be helping with the services.” Father Yoongi leads her into the chapel, and ignores Jimin’s burning gaze. Did Jimin imagine it or did he see a priest hugging a nun in an intimate manner? Wasn’t physical contact forbidden in the church? If not, he has a lot to learn.

Later that evening, all the priests and nuns gather for the last prayer of the day, which is supposed to act like a sendoff of sorts, relieving them of their extraneous duties for the day. You found yourself liking it a lot more than you thought you would, and praying was actually making you feel better. Maybe it was the subtle glances of pity from Father Yoongi, or the calm gentle humming from Father Taehyung, or even the voice of Father Jin as he read the last gospel, but you felt a lot better, and at ease. Of course, the Bishop was looking at you the entire time, not even hiding his doubt one bit. He suspects you, and the only thing you can do is to evade it. Make him believe that you are a nun as well.

Jimin, however was not suspecting you of anything. His thoughts were fixated on when he was getting out of the church, before they found the body of the actual Bishop. Him and Yoongi had buried him, after all, but it was only a matter of time, before they condemned him.

After the prayer, Jimin remains in the chapel, his eyes closed as his mind wandered. It wasn’t just him, but you who decided to stay as well, praying for your wellbeing, and all the others who had helped you thus far. You look towards the Bishop, confused as to why he wasn’t the first to leave. Isn’t he the head of the church? After praying for awhile, you blow out the candles in the chapel, from the back to the front, finally reaching the dimly lit alter.

“Don’t blow those out, please,” You nod, as Jimin keeps his eyes shut. You take that as a sign to leave. “I hope you won’t make any of us stray away from God, we’re all men of the church, you know?” His comment makes you freeze in your tracks. What did he just say to you? And then you remember the incident in the garden. He must’ve seen.

“I know.” You simply reply, running to your private room and locking the door. You just wanted to sleep, but your mind wouldn’t let you. You’re in too deep. The Bishop doubts you, but you’ve barely said a couple words.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 30: AMJ #4.2

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

This post is something of an exception in my coverage of AMJ. Originally I hoped to dedicate just one post per issue but changed that to two due to the length. The pages I’ll be covering here though are exceptional.

Not just because I had so much to say about them, but because they cut to the heart of the story. These pages present Williams’ attempt to finally justify  MJ’s actions throughout the story. As such I’ve opted to single these pages out in this instalment and continue covering the rest of the story next time.

If you want the context for the preceding pages check out the previous post.

The pages revolve around MJ chatting with Master Matrix. It turns out he knows ‘McKnight’ is really Quentin Beck. She thanks him for keeping their secret. Master Matrix asks MJ how Spider-Man feels about her working with Mysterio; I guess he knows about her connection to Peter too.

MJ gets a little flustered by this question. MM continues that he’s questioned how to raise this subject with Spidey himself. MJ relates to this and explains that Peter knows she’s working on a Mysterio movie, just not with the man himself. MM asks why she’s deceiving Peter. MJ explains she isn’t being deceitful on purpose (um…yeah she is) but is just protecting Beck because she believes in what he is doing.

MM makes the (incredibly obvious) point that Mysterio is a villain and Spidey is good. He elaborates that they are both hiding the truth from a good person to collaborate with a villain. MJ responds by asking if MM understands the concept of redemption. He says he does.

Lord have mercy, this page is awful.

Now I should be upfront. I didn’t read Spider-Man/Deadpool so maybe I need to be set straight about certain important details from that title. I don’t know how or why Master Matrix knows who Spider-Man is for example. My brief research tells me he was rescued by Peter’s parents or something. I don’t recall seeing anything about Mysterio when I read up on him, so I don’t know how or why he’d know ‘McKnight’ is really Beck. Maybe his abilities allow for him to deduce that fact? If not, then that’s yet another hole in the story.

Anyway, the point is he knows Peter is Spider-Man, keeps in contact with him and by extension knows about (or has deduced) MJ’s connection to Peter. What’s less clear is how Mary Jane  knows about MM’s connection to Peter. We’ve never seen them talk about him or any of Peter’s adventures with Deadpool for that matter.

I’m willing to accept that personally I guess. As I went over in parts 3-5, Peter does clue MJ into major events in his Spidey career. I suppose befriending a living Weapon of Mass Destruction would count as something your partner ought to know about. This ultimately hurts Williams’ own narrative though. It demonstrates that Peter has been very honest and open with MJ whilst she hasn’t. It also further proves that Peter would inform MJ of his hero career, which would include Beck and his past crimes. Therefore MJ would very likely know about all the stuff Beck did in ‘Guardian Devil’ and just about everything else we discussed in parts 3-5. And yet, she’s still getting chummy with a murderous, sexually violating monster.

We then come to the lame-ass attempt by Williams to address MJ’s motivations for this arc. First of all, Williams thinks now  this is the best time to address that elephant in the room? It’s the penultimate issue of the arc (originally the entire series)! This shouldn’t been pinned down by issue #1 or #2 at the absolute latest.

Lateness aside, Williams’ attempt (unsurprisingly) utterly fails. MJ comes off almost childish when she says she isn’t ‘being deceitful on purpose’. A quick look at the definition of deceit proves that to be bullshit.

It’s the equivalent of saying “I’m not lying. I just happen to be withholding certain truths.”

Yeah that’s lying by omission, which is a form of deceit!

As for her justification for deceiving Peter, I’ve gone over that more than enough. MJ wouldn’t believe in what Beck is doing. Or at least she never would to the point where she’d lie to Peter the way she is or protect a terrible person like Beck.

The audacity of Williams to bring up how MJ is protecting a villain and deceiving a hero is unbelievable. It’s honestly left me flabbergasted. So, Williams KNOWS  that’s what she’s written MJ as doing? She KNOWS  that but she’s still having MJ do it? Or is she really just incredibly unaware and paying lip-service?

Maybe the next page will enlighten us.

So MJ just asked if MM understands redemption, which he does intimately. She follows up by saying he’d understand then that it’s not a simple switch from bad to good. Rather, it’s a journey that takes a lot of work; work Beck is putting in right now. MJ feels she is protecting Beck’s ‘journey’. It isn’t that she thinks Peter incapable of understanding this (quite the contrary), she just hasn’t figured out how  to tell him. She doesn’t want him to worry about her and feels he is already got enough on his mind.

MM then asks what if MJ has misjudged Beck? To this she concedes she will have deceived Pete, which makes her feel sick.

MM then reveals he was created as a WMD and that he is sure Beck knows tha. He elaborates that when Beck approached him, he presumed it was for the sake of efficiency. However, now he realises it’s because Beck wanted to give him the chance to make something meaningful. In this sense Beck has used his own journey of redemption to protect MM’s own. MM feels utterly indebted to Beck for this.

MJ responds that all MM can do is earn that debt in reverse.

Meanwhile, Diperna has arrived. Screwball has been harassing the journalist with her drones this entire time and continues to do so out of pure fun.

Jesus Christ where to start with this.

MJ is correct that a journey of redemption is more than just a switch from bad to good. It is indeed a long hard journey.

But as I’ve illustrated in parts 9-11, MJ wouldn’t extend the possibility of redemption to Beck given what she knows about him. His actions in this story so far do not reflect someone who’s ‘putting the work in’ at all. He’s evaded the law, broken (and is still breaking) numerous laws to get to this point and shows no signs that he’s going to face the music for his crimes. He’s not even attempted to make amends to the people he’s wronged beyond his old flame Betsy. His attempt with her has been mutated due to MJ to the point where it’s hardly what Beck intended in the first place. Even if it was his ‘apology’ to Betsy would’ve amounted to making her look cool and sexy which by extension glorified himself. Every one of his attempts to help people like Master Matrix have ultimately benefitted himself.

The closest he’s come to honest self-sacrifice, of doing something good purely for the sake of others, was fighting the Savage Six last issue. But even that was selfish to a point. He had personal beef with the Vulture. They were trashing his  movie. In defeating them and protecting his staff he was in turn aiding the protection of his life’s work. In contrast, I detailed several instances in part 10 where criminals put themselves on the line to help people selflessly. Boomerang, Black Cat, Sandman, Venom. All of those people risked their freedom and/or their health for Spidey, for innocents or for the grater good.

Beck hasn’t done that yet. Everything he’s done, even if it has protected innocent people, has simultaneously served his own materialistic or egotistical goals. Hell, given the ease with which he dealt with the Six, it barely qualifies as putting himself at risk.

Extending a helping hand to people like himself is not grounds for putting the work in. He’s helping other criminal/dangerous people make something meaningful. So what? Will he be donating the money to the loved ones of the people he’s hurt? Or to the people thsmselves? Is he going to create a trust fund for Gwyneth’s baby? We know he isn’t going to apologise for his evil actions though the film because MJ said so back in issue #1.

MJ is protecting a murderer, a mental abuser, a sexual abuser and a generally horrible person. Someone who wants  forgiveness but has not actually demonstrated anything in the way of repentance for his actions. As AMJ laid out, he wants to be forgiven by making everyone understand  who he is and why he did what he did.

He (and seemingly MJ and Williams) is confusing understanding  with justifying. We can understand  how and why people did something bad. That’s very different to justifying it and thereby forgiving them.

Even in the over simplistic good/evil world of super hero comic books this is simply not how redemption works. In addition to the examples I listed in part 10 let’s consider an example from a comic book movie. 

Maybe you’ve heard of it, it’s called ‘Spider-Man’ from 2002. 

In the film a guy named Peter Parker confronts the man he believes murdered his uncle, the man who raised him. The criminal is scared but not apologetic for what he’s done, and he asks to be given a chance. Peter’s response is.

What about my uncle? Did you give him a chance?

We can very much apply this to AMJ. Beck wants a chance, MJ is giving him that chance. So I ask:

What about Gwyneth?

What about her parents?

What about her baby?

What about the families of the seniors Beck swindled?

What about the real Cage McKnight’s reputation?

What about all the people terrified by Beck’s tantrum in AMJ #2?

What about all the people Screwball or Kangaroo have hurt?

What about Dr. Winhorst?

What about all the people and all the animals harmed or killed when Doc Ock heated up half the globe?

What about all the people scared or hurt when he faked an alien invasion in ASM v5 #1?

Did Beck ever even hint he gave any of them the slightest chance?

No. He didn’t.

For God’s sake, a terrible story like ‘Venom: Lethal Protector’ wasn’t as naïve or childish as this story. Venom is called out for murdering a man’s son. He acknowledges this but tries to argue he didn’t mean  to kill him. The story though doesn’t let him off the hook for it.

If a 1990s Venom mini-series  can acknowledge a homicidal maniac shouldn’t be given a chance just because he’s sorry, then why the Hell can’t this story?

There is another great non-comic book example that illustrates this point. It comes from the Doctor Who episode ‘Boom Town’. Whilst not a comic book or superhero story, Doctor Who is often regarded as a cousin of sorts to the former. Marvel even made Doctor Who comics for a long time. 

In the episode in question, the Doctor shares a ‘last meal’ with an alien criminal whom he intends to hand over to the authorities.

She is guilty of murder, attempted genocide and fraud and identity theft in the vein of Beck; although she is literally wearing the skin of the person she’s impersonating. To gain the Doctor’s mercy she tries to prove she’s changed, specifically by explaining a time she spared a life. Earlier that day she readied herself to kill a young journalist sniffing around her plans, but refrained upon learning she was pregnant.

The Doctor believes the story but is totally unconvinced. He explains it doesn’t mean anything. Every now and then terrible people on a whim happen  to be kind and spare their would-be victims. It’s how they live with themselves.

Whilst Mysterio is probably nowhere near as bad as the alien criminal, his case for forgiveness is arguably worse.

He’s continuing to steal the real Cage McKnight’s identity, he has never indicated he’s going to continue to help people after the film is completed. He caused panic and would’ve caused harm had a third party (MJ) not intervened to keep him under control. And his equivalent of sparing a life amounts to giving other criminals the chance to help realize his personal vanity project.

Not to mention, MJ and Beck continuously insist upon the movie being something meaningful but how could they possibly know that. A movie isn’t meaningful just because it means something to the film makers. The audience decides if it’s meaningful or not. Frankly Beck’s insistence he’s giving his staff the chance to make something good and meaningful is egotistical. As though the mere act of film making or his own life story is inherently something with artistic merit or something meaningful in the universe.

Yes, some films are. But even then their ability to do something helpful and positive is relatively limited. A piece of media’s practical abilities to positively contribute to the universe is limited compared to say, donating time or money to the needy. At least there you would’ve done something with a definitive impact even if it was a small one. A movie like this might illicit emotions and make some people feel happy, might inspire them to do good, might make them understand themselves or another better. But the key words there are ‘might’ and ‘maybe’.

When you get right down to it, even the most influential movies don’t positively contribute helping people as much as individuals actually actively doing stuff to help others. I mean are we really  going to say the ‘Black Panther’ film had as much of a positive impact as the Civil Right Movement?

Absolutely not.

Let’s use a fictional example. Would the stage play about the Fantastic Four (as seen in ASM v5 #25) have been as meaningful as the efforts of the actual Fantastic Four in fighting Galactus?

Absolutely not.

I’m not saying films don’t matter or can’t have a meaningful positive impact. I’m just saying if Beck wanted to achieve the latter, there were better options than making a film about himself.

He could’ve donated his ill-gotten gains to needy communities. Or handed over his technology and techniques to the public? Or used his skills to expose white-collar criminals? Or even have started up a company selling his technology and employing criminals semi-legally reducing the need for them to resort to crime.

But he didn’t. He’s fulfilling his own personal dream and making himself centre stage.

As for MJ lying to Peter because she doesn’t want him to worry and has his own problems, see parts 17-18 for why that’s bullshit. And see parts 19-23 for why Peter, and MJ herself, should  be worried about her in this situation. And that was before the Savage Six made them a target, a fact that should have resulted in Peter already being worried.

Hypothetically even if this wasn’t something to worry about, MJ could be open about it with Peter and convince him to relax. He begrudgingly accepted her staying with him during Marvel Knights in spite of the dangers to herself.

She equally made him see sense in ‘Parallel Lives’ after their home had just been attacked.

Whilst this situation is  something to be concerned about, if MJ was in fact in no danger, then she could talk Peter around to trusting her.

I’ll also add she’s had plenty  of time to figure out ‘how to tell him’ the truth. She knows he’s living with Boomerang so right there that’s a potential route to breaking in the conversation. She could bring up Venom, or Sandman or Felicia. There are multiple people they’ve mutually given chances to that could be used as a way to engage with Peter on this topic. By this comic’s own brand of ‘logic’ those are perfectly viable arguments MJ could use.

Don’t get me wrong. Those are false equivalencies. But I’m just saying Williams’ clearly doesn’t think this situation is any different to those ones, therefore there are plenty of grounds for MJ to talk to Peter about this. She even has MJ say ‘of course’ Peter would understand.

It’s almost like Williams knows that this situation cannot actually be justified. Or she’s injecting contrived false drama for the sake of drama with no mind paid to established characterization.

Hence we get trite like MJ saying she ‘will have deceived’ Peter if she’s wrong about Mysterio. First of all, Williams is again acknowledging how asinine her narrative is. She’s acknowledging that MJ is gambling  that her judgement of Beck is on point. Her judgement of a guy who’s power set revolves around misdirection. Second of all, MJ wouldn’t have deceived Peter if  she’s wrong. She’s already  deceived him and is continuing to do so. Thirdly why exactly does Mary Jane get to be the singular person deciding if it is okay to gamble on Beck’s redemption? Who is she exactly to decide if this murderer and abuser is worth keeping out of jail?

In the real world if such a risk is taken it doesn’t ride upon one person’s  decision; at least not in theory.

Let’s move onto Master Matrix. Again, I don’t know enough about him to discuss Beck’s knowledge of him. Maybe it makes sense, or maybe it’s a big question that’s being left unanswered. Regardless, I detest framing Beck as this selfless redeemer through Master Matrix’s subplot. I hate it almost as much as I hate the nonsensical dialogue that follows it.

What the fuck does ‘earning it in reverse’ even mean? I guess it means living up to Beck’s trust? But then why not phrase it that way? Even if that was the intent, see above for why giving MM a chance doesn’t really mean anything. Not to mention, both MM and MJ are just kind of presuming that Beck was in fact being altruistic.

That’s all for now. We’ll resume coverage of the rest of the issue next time.

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Master Post

[badlydrawndrawnings]

atwq book four thoughts

guess who somehow got a lot of free time yesterday and made the bold decision to finish reading the last atwq book? me!

guees who feels like they jinxed qwerty’s fate from the previous book of being arrested, but alive, even though i bet daniel handler planned it from the start? still me!

guess who is rather upset netflix accidentally gave a clue/spoiler on the identity of hangfire?

also me.

okay, so first off, to get something out of the way. i love this book. i really do. it had me on suspense every chapter.

theodora figured out qwerty was in vfd (...when did she figure out? not long after sharon reveal herself as a fake vfd member? or during the period she and lemony weren’t speaking to each other?), and god she really was willing to take the blame on being qwerty’s killer. did she think maybe she once again screw up, but this time there was no going back because the screw up got someone killed? after all she seem to selfishly went to break qwerty out for a good evaluation. maybe she thought if things went different, he would still be alive. and given the schism happened, vfd while not divided yet, this is like a sign on how another librarian’s death in the long, long future, will be blame on an innocent party and things go to hell again in the pursuit of justice and truth.

also, ghede and gifford also knew of the coup as well? or at least knew the sbg was doing something and they’re like let them do this shit and we can watch it’s gonna benefit us in the long run’. also, holy shit olaf name drop take two with beatrice herself! i didn’t think while knowing each other young mean they actually hanged out with one another to think they’re possibility friends. this puts the opera night even worse. beatrice must have knew olaf’s parents. with my headcanon of olaf parents being caring parents to olaf and used their connections to get their son back earlier than others, this is just awful.

getting back on track from the mess that is vfd there’s a murder on a train (agatha christie ahoy!). i admit several weeks ago i made the decision to watch snowpiercer and train to busan so i couldn’t really take the murder on the orient express shout out clearly and kept on thinking of the wild willy wonka and the chocolate factory/snow piercer theory. and zombies in south korea. 

all the damn sbts kids just thought it great to share the one brain cell to be on the same train (pip and squeak just follow in their taxi; cleo and jake had to travel through time in the dilemma to catch up with them). ornette got her time to shine with her artistic/sculpting skills and there’s some light on the subject of the lost family (of course it’s a fire that took ornette’s mom life. fires seems to be a way to kill a lot of parents). i was right to call her gung-ho working with lemony, she just agreed to make fake bb statues for moxie and kellar and was like ‘oh shit the two are sharing a brain cell. hangfire could figure something is up what have i done’ and had to make something else to give to lemony. i uh..wonder if seth has a reason to draw her baseball cap all...fuzzy. just a weird question.

kellar’s sister lizzie shows up. i’m going to be honest. she has the bad luck of appearing last and under two disguises that went over my head (she sure fooled me!). i do have some thoughts that surround her and the haines family, but that needs me to re-read the last two books to make sure i’m not imagining something . will say lizzie is much younger and shorter than i thought given her first illustration. i hope maybe a re-read will make me get some new insight on her. also, hi sally murphy. i’m glad lizzie got out with maybe your help (i mean, why else would she want to high tail it out of there).

the identity of qwerty’s killer was something i should have seen coming due to how the mitchum parents are more subdue. i want to slap stew’s parents. they spend all their time bickering they only got their shit together to see how their ‘precious’ son is really a bully and killer and working with the villian under their damn noses. i almost feel sorry for them because shit stew more or less blackmail his parents into covering the crime but at the same time...this call could have been avoid if you pay attention to how your son isn’t the angel you think he is..and you two are still fighting with one another please get your priorities straight i beg you. i admit i almost want to slap stew but i don’t slap kids, and i think if i exist in the snicket world i would get murder first by him.

qwerty’s death and the fact he’s a vfd member just hurt me so bad and i’m still kind of grieving over him. for one, i felt like i should have seen qwerty being part of vfd coming. he’s a sub-librarian. while not a sub-sub-librarian, the fact is qwerty is such so damn helpful to lemony i should have seen he was just doing his best to help lemony because theodora wasn’t honestly...wasn’t doing a good job at a chaperone. but he couldn’t blow away his cover because he wasn’t supposed to interfere in the apprenticeship and honestly he was just happy to be a sub-librarian helping children find what they would love reading.

but qwerty isn’t the only death in this book. i got to copy-paste something from an old atwq post in feburary 8, something i made as a joke, because oh boy, this part is the one negative i have honestly.

he tried to pretend to be her father! i know his voice mimicry is basically akin to juni cortez’s mimicry, but this is just cruel had ellington been there.

about a week later, i made the decision to rewatch netflix asoue. now, the first time i watch season two [edit lmao i actually don’t remember if it was season two i think i hated season two so much i could have blur two and three together i got to rewatch the show again definitely. edit two: okay, i’m certain it was season two i’m 98% certain it was was a pause and read easter egg that’s why i couldn’t remember what season exactly damn easter eggs] i honestly was like ‘so they gave nero a last name. coolio. feint isn’t a surname i was expecting but this is the netflix show this probably isn’t canon to the books’.

on the rewatch, after the austere academy part two ended, i realized something is...off, with nero now. he’s mocking people. and his voice, while not mimicking them, is like...it’s like nero could have inherit mimicry from someone but it never went through. or maybe he did got it but it’s not at its full potential without the proper teaching of someone with the skill...like a father, perhaps?

so the kronk meme is playing in my mind, but it’s the edit of him saying ‘oh no, it’s all coming together’. and given patrick warburton also voice kronk, it felt more like lemony snicket decided to materialize right behind me, be an asshole, and thought it funny to do a commentary on my possible realization hangfire, in the netflix show at least, couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and bore a bastard son in an adulterous affair and ellington has a half brother in the world she doesn’t know about and i hope she never learns about.

(given barrymore feint is just a cameo of barry sonnenfeld, i guess the bullshit gene i talked about in another post regarding a theory who netflix!h is should be renamed the feint gene.)

so reading the third book, and especially this book, i kept a close eye on any mentions to ellington’s dad and hangfire’s behavior. i kept on saying in my mind ‘please don’t be who i think you are’. and bam. armstrong feint is hangfire. i feel like if netflix didn’t have the need to make an atwq reference in nero’s surname, and if i was smart enough to have the book clues smack me in the face (i feel there are clues somewhere, and hangfire dropped all pretenses and just being ‘himself’ in book two was one), i wouldn’t be so angry and upset by this reveal. i more or less got spoil and put the pieces together due to an adaptation, and i should have known better than to do a re-watch while reading atwq. i should have consider the possibility of easter eggs to atwq.

anyway, lemony snicket thought it great to kill hangfire by feeding him to a copy bombinating beast (the tadpoles!!). with ellington right freaking there. with most of his sbts friends there to witness. moxie can’t even look lemony in the eye anymore (no more best friends anymore). everything happened just like that and after finishing the book and taking a walk around the living room, i have to say hangfire is a good villain. he achieved his goal of getting the bombinating beast, even if it’s a copy. he’s a very competent villain who succeed in almost every book in some way or form. he played everyone like a puppet and was a threat that is more akin to tmwabbnh and twwhbnb’s level of villainy. kudos to you hangfire i’m impressed. 

hangfire totally got it coming too. however, i do feel...hurt in his death, if only for ellington’s sake. during the walk because i realize ellington reminded me of a character from a different fandom i’m in. there’s some differences that i won’t get into (it’s...complicated for the other fandom), but they’re cut from almost the same cloth: teenage girls with shitty fathers who are using them for their own selfish goals. thoughts for ellington and her future formed faster for me than for the other atwq kids as a result:

post-canon!ellington (a few days later when she finally gets her stuff figure out), has a simple list. 1: avoiding anyone with a vfd tattoo or give shady lemon vibes -ellington split asap after she and kit broke out and have 100% certainly no one is after them, but not before stealing some things from kit, one being notes of vfd volunteers (she thinks). 2: find a new place to live. 3: figure out a new name that isn’t an anagram, because the inhumane society once they heard the news, is probably going to try to get her if they get wind she is hangfire’s daughter and possible ‘successor’. ellington wants nothing to do with the bombinating beast. she never wants to see the statue or anything similar, or hear the words again.

adult!ellington (under a fake name of course), while accepting all that happened, hasn’t forgive lemony snicket. yes, her dad was a villain. yes, she finally understand her dad isn’t the kind naturalist and man, and used her for the biggest ‘what’ event of her life that is also a very selfish goal. many times in the past though, ellington wonders if she missed any signs of her dad’s descend to who he eventually became, or if he hid it very well to where he was wearing two masks all this time, one hiding his true nature. ellington even wonders at one point, dad was going convince her to willingly work with him without the fake kidnapping and had to change his plans to something crueler.

ellington will never know for sure. this is why ellington can’t forgive lemony and will say it to face if they ever meet again. what ellington hates the most out of her father’s death is that she can never tell dad all of her feelings about his wrong doings. she can ask all the questions burning at the back of her mind, or yell her frustrations how terrible a father he is for faking his kidnapping and getting her to do his dirty work, getting her to use her loyalty of family to do things she would never do under normal circumstances. she ask questions and yells at the only photo left of armstrong feint...

and in the end, she knows he’ll never answer, and it hurts to deal with the unknown. adult!ellington doesn’t do the yelling and questioning to the photo as much. partly because she did ‘settle’ on what might be an possible answer, but mostly because the photo is pretty faded to where it’s less ‘armstrong feint’ and more ‘hangfire’. once in awhile though, she slips up like old times.

adult!ellington with her new life (she travels a lot, pays in cash most of the time, and has no set resident; she still love coffee) tends to think of the past, especially when it came to what she had with lemony snicket. did lemony like her? was she just a question in need of solving? ellington admits to possibly liking him, but it was so long ago maybe she just thinks she liked him to have a ‘positive’ memory of the boy she haven’t seen in years that she kind of wants to see again, if only to yell at him for robbing her of something important. his name lands on her radar a lot, twice from the daily punctilio. the first one was learning of lemony snicket’s crimes, and it was an accident.

the second time, she learn of his death, though she read the daily punctilio on purpose in hopes of a name drop. adult!ellington ended up finding some children’s book, and made the mistake of going to the back of it and find a photo of lemony snicket. not really though. lemony is hiding his face (ellington hates it) and she buys it to know what it’s about. it spiral to where she bought the next two books because she wants to know if the baudelaires orphans are real (and because lemony doesn’t seem the same anymore from his writings). ellington settles on real when she pulls out kit snicket’s notes she stolen and cross references names, and even travels to the locations to them to make sure. after the third book publication, the series goes on ‘hiatus’ due to the daily punctilio and their announcement. ellington doubts he’s dead, but couldn’t help attend the funeral. ellington is certain lemony snicket is alive, because she convinced she saw him at his own funeral.

[xxsovereignsarayaxx]

Supernatural - Road to Revenge Chapter 5

Authors Note: I want to thank my darling @evilispretty-dead for helping me finish this chapter and reassuring me that it wasn't a load of crap. As always if you want to be tagged to keep up to date with the series let me know or is you have a request pop me an ask. After spending some time on this chapter I really do like this one and it might have been my favourite so far to write.

Word Count: 3234

Warnings: Blood, Torture, Implied Sex, Angry Dean.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

“Well, well, well.” Said the unknown voice.

It’s true when they say that once one of your senses is removed, your other remaining ones are heightened. All I could see was darkness but that was because I had something covering my face, a bag or blindfold perhaps. But the room itself was cold and had wooden floorboards judging by the creeks it made when I shifted about in the chair that bound me. The odd bit of breeze passed me as I presumed my captor circled me like a bit of prey. 

“I heard you were looking for me, but looks like I found you first. I’m Actaeon but you already knew that. You don’t seem to be wanting to put up much of a fight, it's a shame really. Your sister Nia was it? She was much more entertaining.” The voice continued in a sickerning tone. I could feel the breath right in front of my face.

“Well being trained by ‘The Men of Letters’ we were taught many things, being captured by demons happened to be on the teaching itenary. Just in time before the summer holidays.” I sassed back. 

The object covering my eyes was ripped off, the thin piece of fabric fluttered to the floor, this was the first time I had looked my captor in their eyes. Making sure to steady my breathing I didn’t want him to think that I was scared, to think that I was weak. That I knew I was not. My eyes quickly darted to parts of the room. Even though it was dark I could see the faint trickle of light coming through the door frame. I tried to twist my bound wrists but to no avail. 

“Now, now little one, it is a shame really though. I saw what you were becoming all those years ago. Cold and heartless ready to take a life when you were told to. Pity that once you fell into the clutches of John Winchester and his boys you gained the one thing I despise.”

“And what would that be?” I asked.

“Compassion.” Actaeon sneered, walking towards a table covered by the shadows. He picked up something I couldn’t see what it was but I knew that he wanted to inflict some form of pain. 

Actaeon held the knife close to my features. “You had so much potential and you wasted it all. I’m disappointed Nicole I really am.”

I shuddered slightly. “I killed your kind! Demons, monsters and ghosts you name it I was sent to kill it.” I spat.

“And who do you think helped give the locations of some of those cases you had? I needed someone to hunt down certain people so I could get a higher position in hell.”

“Yet it was Crowley who helped me track you down. He wants you gone. What was it he said to me? Oh yeah...Bad boys get punished...” I said trying to struggle away from the knife. 

“But look at the predicament you're in, a knife to your throat. No way out and even if you free yourself of your bounds you don’t stand a chance against me. But aren't you curious why I murdered your sister?” 

“I’m not stupid Actaeon you want to bait me. So I lose my temper, so you have the upper hand, you want me to cloud my judgement with my emotions. Even though it pains me to say this, Nia was an easy opportunity; she was a simple throwaway toy for you. But with her you could also kill two birds with one stone. Yes you wanted the scroll from the painting but the thing you wanted more was me. You wanted me to suffer because I killed your love. Cecilia. She was my first demon kill and what you hated the most was the fact I was just a child.” I replied to him. My voice was strong and dominating. I showed no weaknesses towards him.

“So you do remember then?” Actaeon asked me, bending down to my eye level.

“I always remember.”

Night was always the easiest to work, there were always less people about which meant less witnesses. As I ran at full speed through a puddle water droplets splashed on my face I turned the corner and I knew that my trap had worked. I clutched my angel blade in my right hand and the remains of some holy water in my left. 

“Chirsto.” I shouted and the demon fell to her knees. She looked in pain and blond curls fell over her face. 

“P-please don’t” She begged.

“You are a demon...Demons don’t deserve to live. You have taken the lives of so many people but it is ironic that you will die by my hand. A child’s hand no less.” 

I stepped closer so that I was literally inches away. I splashed the remaining water I had on the face of the demon. She screamed in agony. 

I screamed in agony, something that I was now sharing with my first kill. The knife Actaeon held moved upwards to my cheek and he dragged it down towards my neck and past my collarbone. The knife was cold as the metal touched my skin but as the blade tore through me it brought me back to reality.

“Now this is getting me excited, little one.” Actaeon said breaking the torture he lifted the knife to his lips licking the blood that dripped off the edge of the blade.

“Just do what you want to me, get it over with. You’ve killed my family and Dean and Sam? They won’t miss me when I’ve gone.” I said sheepishly. Whatever confidence I had before melted away I knew deep down I wasn’t going to leave alive. 

Actaeon continued the assault. My clothes had been torn and now covered in blood. My face, neck, torso and arms were littered in cuts. I was now nothing more than a shell of my previous self. Hell bent on revenge. And what I told Dean in the past. And when he repeated my own words to me I knew he was right.

With each cut I cried out for help.

“Revenge is a dangerous road to go down Dean! Your head gets filled with emotions and then your judgement is clouded, you don’t think straight and then that's when you get reckless. Trust me I know.” 

Recalling another memory I hung my head in shame. I knew I wasn’t the person ‘The Men of Letters’ tried to mould me to be. I was my own person. I forged my own path thanks to learning the Winchester way. You look out for those who you love. Because a wise salty hunter with a phobia of salad and lover of bullets, booze and bacon once told me that family, don’t end in blood. But it doesn’t start there either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them, family’s there for the good the bad all of it. They got your back even when it hurts.

“Come now little one, the fun is just beginning. Now where to find your anti-possession tattoo. Shall you tell me or am I going to have to just rip every single piece of clothing from your body to find it?” Actaeon said breaking my train of thought. 

I struggled once more on my bindings, I made a mistake going after Nia’s killer alone. I needed my family. I needed Dean. Actaeon grabbed my chin tightly. “So you finally want to plead for your life?” 

“My name is Nicole Marie Williams and today isn’t my time to die.” I shouted and kicked Actaeon in between his legs. He might be a demon but even demons felt that. My blow caused him to fall to a knee and I used that time to try and wiggle free. Fresh rope burns went over the older ones but all of a sudden the door to the room flew open and two figures stepped through. 

“You’ve been a very bad boy…” Crowley says dripping with sarcasm. 

Within seconds a blast sent Actaeon across the room and pinned to a nearby wall. 

“Shall I end him Fergus?” Said the ginger haired witch I loved but hated at the same time.

“Not today mother that job belongs to Fawn here.” Crowley says slicing through the rope with his angel blade. As I shrugged out of the bindings I picked myself up, I wobbled a little and my head swam because of the blood loss from my injuries but I took the blade from Crowley and made my way over to the demon pinned by magic. 

“I can see the look in your eyes, you're scared. Now you know some of the pain my sister felt and all of the others you have murdered for sport. I hope you get what you deserve you son of a bitch!” And with that I plunged the blade into his heart. The magic that once held him vanished and his body dropped to the floor in a heap . I turned to face Crowley and Rowena.

“Thank you…” I whispered to them. 

“Well I suppose you should get back to your boys, I mean I sent them halfway across the country. Their worried sick Nicole dear.”

“I know I have a lot of making up to do, but I want to make us even.” I said as I bent down and searched for the scroll in the fallen demons pockets.

“This should make us even.” I told the demon and witch as I handed the scroll that started the whole ordeal.

“Is that...The souls of Gabriel?” Rowena asked with her thick scottish accent. 

“That mother it is.” 

“Nicole dear, I sent Dean and Sam to Oregon two days ago. If you leave now you might make it back before them.” 

I nodded my head slowly and with a small smile I handed Crowley his blade and left the building. 

The drive back to Kansas was long and grueling, I had no idea what to say to Sam nor Dean but I knew I had to come up with something. We were a family and with my actions I felt I had almost destroyed it. When I got back to the bunker I needed to patch myself up. I needed several stitches for the wounds that Actaeon had inflicted but the one thing that I had set my mind to. Cas would not be healing me, each scratch, each mark I will be remembering and if I would be left with scars then so be it. 

I pulled into the bunker late in the evening, I remember leaving where I was being held at night but I felt like I had something stuck in my throat as I saw the Impala parked in the drive. My muscles ached from everything I had been through. 

As I heaved myself from the old battered car I had ‘borrowed’ I made my way to the door. I supported my right arm with my left hand due to the deep wound. But I just stood there looking at the door handle. I was nervous...No petrified was more like it. My breathing intensified and I started to sweat and my body shook in fear. I had no idea what was happening to me but I wanted it to stop. I felt tears leak from my eyes and they made my face sting as the droplets rolled into some of the cuts on my face. With a shaky hand I reached for the handle and opened the heavy metal door. I felt like bambi on ice as I took small steps and carefully took to the stairs. I looked down to see both brothers stare at me in pure horror…

“It’s done…” I muttered as I took the last final steps to the ground. Dean had gotten up from his seat and left leaving me with Sam.

“Nik what happened?” He asked, guiding my frail body to the chairs in the library.

“What needed to be done, Actaeon is gone.” I whispered, not looking at Sam. 

I sat in silence as Sam started to patch me up, I felt the burn of the rubbing alcohol as he cleaned each one of my wounds. I felt each time the needle went in and out of my skin. But I refused to mutter a word. In the past I had been shot at, stabbed but this time I felt more pain than anything else I had experienced. 

About twenty minutes had passed and Sam had finally finished the last stitch, he tried to get some small talk out of me but I stayed silent. I looked down seeing the vast amount of bandages on my arms and the large one on my collarbone and neck. Stretching my arms I looked up seeing Sam place the unused first aid items away and throwing the used wipes and wrappers in the bin. He looked at me offering a small smile. 

“Nik, it’s ok please talk to me.” He offered as he tried to reassure me.  

I opened my mouth but then shut it just as quickly. I looked down at the floor. 

“How bad is it?” I asked softly.

“Dean’s...He...He’s angry Nik. He’s angry that you left him to deal with this on your own. That whatever was in your past you felt the need to keep from us. That you don’t trust us enough to know what happened.” Sam responded.

“What about you? How do you feel?” I whispered.

“I kept the thing about ‘The Book of the Damned’ a secret so we’re even but you never hide things away from my brother Nik, he is also pissed that you punched him.” Sam said ending his sentence with a chuckle.

“I didn’t want Actaeon to use Dean or me as leverage for one another, but I also didn’t want Dean finding out who I really was all those years ago. I thought it would scare him.” I said honestly.

“Speaking of that, what did you mean when you told Dean about running away from your old home?” Sam asked hoping you would speak to him.

“Let me get things right with Dean and I’ll tell you both everything. I promise.” I murmured 

Sam nodded. I got up from the chair and steadily headed down the hallway. Using the walls to steady myself so I wouldn’t fall. I stood in front of our bedroom door and I paused for a moment. I felt the rush of the nervousness and fear once more. With a shaky hand, I knocked on the door softly with my knuckle. Then I reached for the golden doorknob and opened the door slowly. I saw Dean sat at the edge of the bed hunched over resting his forearms on his knees. He didn’t acknowledge me as I entered the room. Cautiously walking over I sat next to him. Feeling the shift in the mattress as I sat he immediately got up heading over to the desk in the room.

“What the hell was that?” Dean asked with a growl.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!?!” Dean shouted.

“I didn’t want you getting hurt.” I started letting out a shaky breath. We didn’t argue like this often. And I knew that a storm was brewing.

“I thought you trusted me? I thought we were partners?” Still keeping his voice raised.

“We are.” I attempted.

“Really? Then why did I wake up with a killer headache, flat tyres and you missing only to see one of your guns next to me and your phone smashed to bits.” 

“I had too! I...I...I...I didn’t want Actaeon using either one of us as bait for each other, he relied on emotions but I didn’t want you seeing what I was doing, I didn’t want you to see me stoop so low. Yes I made a mistake doing it alone and I released it far too late. At one point I thought I was going to die. But the reason why Nia was killed in the first place was because of me! I wanted to try and right a wrong. You of anybody should understand that. I could have made a demon deal, I could have tried magic to bring her back but I’m not you or Sam...I’m not that lucky. But what about the times when you left Sam to do your crusading. The times you left both of us even though we agreed to do it together….”

“That was different Nik and you know it!” Dean interrupted.

“How is it? How was it different?” I pleaded.

Dean just looked at me dead in the eyes. I could tell he wanted to object to what I just said but he couldn’t, from looking at him I saw how tired his eyes were, that he hadn’t had a shave in days, the stubble appearing on his jawline and features. 

“What I did was no different to what you would have done, we’re so alike and at times it's scary but it’s what makes us work! But now that this has happened and that my past is out there coming to get me I need to be honest with you and your brother and I’m going to tell you it all, yes I’m frightened by this and I’m scared at the fact you both might push me away but I also know either of you won’t do that because we’re a family. But I want us to be good before I do that. I am so sorry that I left you in the middle of nowhere, I’m sorry that you had to resort to asking Rowena for help.”

“You saw me when I was a demon Nik, you saw what I was. Hell I tried to kill you and Sam that day in this place. And yet you still loved me. You still cared. Whatever your past is it can’t be any worse than that.” Dean said softly, tears welling up in his eyes. 

“At times I think that it is.” I said softly getting up from the bed moving to Dean’s side. 

“Look what he did to you.” His fingers ghosting over the bandages.

“Head to the library I’ll meet you there, I just need to get something first.” I told him planting a kiss to his stubbly cheek and made a move to the door. But I was stopped in my tracks. 

Dean grabbed a hold of my wrist and pulled me to him, I let out an excited breath before I was then devoured with kiss after kiss. I ran my fingers through his hair and tugged on a few of the strands, Dean span round and lifted me onto his hip moving backwards to pin me against the wall, his lips moved to the exposed parts of skin on my neck planting small kisses up and down my neck and left side of my collarbone. Using his much larger hands he brought my arms just above my head and held onto them, the action hurt but in a good way and Dean knew it. I was feeling on top of the world right now thanks to the mix of dopamine, oxytocin and painkillers.

“Sam can wait…” Dean breathed.

[romancemedia]

NCIS: Los Angeles S11E10 - Mother

In the 10th episode of the 11th season of NCIS: Los Angeles, it’s a very special episode as the series is celebrating it’s 250th episode written by our very own Eric Christian Olsen aka Marty Deeks. The team are faced with a serious threat in the form of Akhos Laos, Hetty’s former protege who seeks revenge against her and puts one member of the team in danger.

This was one of the most intense, heart-ponding and emotional episodes of the Entire Series I Have Ever Seen. This episode was truly amazing and I HAVEN’T BEEN THIS EXCITED FOR AN EPISODE SINCE DENSI’S WEDDING. When the episode began, The team were just having fun, being happy playing basketball together like the good old days. They had no idea of the kind of day they were about to have. First, when they find a mysterious woman has arrived outside of HQ with a possible bomb, only to learn it contains a severed hand. Did Not See That Coming. The case officially began, leading them to find the dead body of former professional CIA assassin. When Deeks and Kensi found the body it was just... OH MY GOD. Honestly that was the only thing I could say after seeing the body and I could not stop repeating myself after seeing it. I have seen gruesome murder scenes in various TV shows and movies, but this is a new one and most grotesque I’ve ever seen. Afterwards, the Team finally learned who was responsible for this gruesome death, leading them to learn about Akhos Laos and his and Hetty’s shared past, including their connection to the dead CIA assassin.  A meeting is arrange between him and Hetty, but before we know it, she is kidnapped despite Callen and Sam as her backup. Not to mention at the worse timing, the Ops Centre goes dark and completely haywire.

Meanwhile, Densi had their hands full when they realized too late they had walked straight into a trap when Deeks found himself locked in a secluded and abandoned control room with an active bomb. Seems Akhos really did his research on the rest of the team since he not only knew Callen was another of Hetty’s protege’s, but learned of Deeks and Kensi’s relationship and now wants to destroy their love by tearing them apart through the most well known fact of marriage... Till Death Do Us Part. Honestly, the instant that Deeks became trapped it seriously reminded me of what happened when Michelle died back in season 8. It was a serious case of deja vu with Kensi being forced to watch as she nearly lost her husband just as Sam was forced to watch as his wife died right in front of his eyes. Things go from bad to worse for Densi when Kensi discovers there isn’t just a bomb inside the room Deeks is trapped in, but also on the outside as well, meaning even if Deeks survives the bomb inside the room, he’ll be dead when the rest of the building goes up in smoke.

This episode clearly showed everyone being in full on complete panic mode as Callen and Sam race to rescue Hetty, Kensi trying desperately to save her husband and Eric and Nell were frantic to get Ops back up and running to help their team. Speaking of the Meerkats, I loved that brief moment with Nell as she realized that everything that’s happened in this episode was the result of Hetty’s past actions. If anything, this will only cause additional strain to Hetty and Nell’s recently fragile relationship. Honestly, all this drama was so crazy I couldn’t look away. My eyes were glued to the screen as the team were on a race against time and so far, the clock appeared to be winning.

Despite all the panic that occurred, my favourite moment was the emotional declaration of love from Deeks to Kensi. Realizing this could be his very last moment with the love of his life, Deeks spills his heart out to Kensi, admitting he sometimes wakes up in the night with complete and utter fear, so bad he can’t even breath, fearing the dangers that the world possesses until he looks at Kensi and he instantly finds peace. This is no doubt one of the top most emotional moments ever shared between Deeks and Kensi. This was both amazingly sad and beautiful at the same time and I felt my heart ache for Kensi since she didn’t want this to be the ending to their love story. Thankfully it wasn’t as Kensi came up with an amazingly dangerous plan which ultimately saved Deeks and at the same time, she at last admitted she wants kids with him and expressed a crazy plan/fantasy for them and their future kids. Ultimately Deeks was safe and sound back in Kensi’s arms and I felt another deja vu moment coming on when I saw their embrace and especially what they said afterwards. It really reminded me of the season 2, Deliverance episode when Deeks saved Kensi from a bomb and shared one of their very first intimate moments. Great times.

Finally, as for Akhos, he got the ultimate punishment when he was killed by none than Hetty Lange herself to save Callen, but despite killing him, Hetty stayed by his side to show that despite everything, she still cared and loved him. Although he went through hell and was forced to do god knows what, I don’t really feel sorry for him. Like Rogers said, Akhos is a monster because everything he did was awful not only what he did to Densi, but what he did to Natasha. She was an innocent and had a happy and loving family until all that went up in smoke when Akhos orchestrated her family’s death and he made himself out to be her saviour, only to manipulate and use her for his own needs. He may not have had a choice for his previous actions as he claims, but he had a choice with Natasha as he willingly chose to destroy her happiness to achieve his goals. In the end after everything that happened, I honestly don’t know what to feel for Hetty, but her talk with Callen seem to help as I love his confession of why he does what he does. It was truly one of Callen’s Best and Most Beautiful Moments EVER.

Overall, Eric Christian Olsen did us all proud as this was a truly amazing, powerful and emotional episode and honestly one of the Best Episodes of the Entire 11th Season. Now the only episode left to look forward to is the mid-season finale next week and I can’t wait to see more of Densi’s Baby Talk as well as Neric possibly hitting hard times.

[spookyspaghettisundae]

Getting Rid of the Roomer

I’m just going to submit this account to the world here in the form of fiction. I could tell you this story was real, but I’ve never met anybody who would believe me. Or I would get locked up for it; I’d wind up in jail or in a mental institution. I left behind enough incriminating evidence.

If you recognize what I’m describing, beware. If you observe the same things I’ve observed, then consider this a cautionary tale, rather than a short horror story. You can laugh at me if you never even come close to experiencing what I did, and I will be happy for you.

But you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, I’ll start at the top. My parents and my sister died in a car crash and I was in a pretty dark place for a while after that. I think I lost almost an entire year to drinking. That portion of my life was pretty much a blur. I made a lot of bad decisions, and a friend finally set me straight. I got a new job to replace the one I’d lost. I turned a new page in the book of my life and slowly recovered from there.

The one thing I hadn’t screwed up in the year post-crash was burning through all the money I’d inherited. Our family was never rich—my parents were that sort of vanishing middle class Generation-X types. I was raised to live within my means and I never lost the habit. Not even when I lost a year of my life to booze.

Even after cleaning up, I was tempted to sell our family home and move to an apartment. The place was always so quiet and dreadfully empty since the crash.

You know how some people describe silence as deafening? That’s what it was like. I think part of the downward spiral to the bottom of the bottles was just to drown it out. I wasn’t even partying, just bingeing on vapid shows and mediocre movies between work and withdrawing from life. But I digress.

I stayed in our home and could stand it less and less. I had been shopping around for an apartment to move to until my friend suggested I should renovate the place and section it into apartments, then rent out the bottom one. The inheritance was more than good enough to cover this and the guy at the bank confirmed this would be a sound investment—better than selling the place.

So I went through with it.

I kinda enjoyed that period of time when contractors were constantly filling the place with life again. The hammering and drilling and sawing. The shuffling of the electricians. The tinker-tanker sounds that a plumber made. After about half a year, all the work was done and the old house was in awesome shape.

Bright white walls, all-new wiring and fiberglass throughout the place, pristine water pouring from the faucets. Instead of that sleek and—I’m sorry, in my opinion cold—modern sort of look and feel, I had decided on a more quaint and cozy design when having the contractors renovate and design the place.

Aside from some keepsakes, I got rid of all old furniture and gave most of my family’s things away to charities or friends. I started feeling at home again. Finally satisfied with the state of the house, I read up on how to rent out the place, got some counseling, and worked out all the details. Then I went online.

For the next year, things were great. I got back into dating, enjoyed my job, and rebuilt every relationship my alcoholism had eroded up until then.

The renting went great, too. Well, for the most part, if you ignore the one single incident with some rude jerks who left a mess and tried to get away without paying. It was a real headache and a hassle and I almost stopped renting out the bottom apartment because of them, but decided against it.

I should have, though.

The roomers usually only stayed for short periods of time, like a weekend, a week, or a month. Outside of when I met them for the first time and got them settled in, and sent them off once their time was up, I had little contact or exposure to them. Working full-time and visiting my friend often meant I hardly spent any time at home.

So here’s where things got weird. I apologize for taking this long to get to this, but you have to really understand some important details. I lived alone. I was a recovering alcoholic. Deep down, I still felt vulnerable. But most importantly: because life was good, I wasn’t paying attention.

I should have paid more attention to the red flags that kept popping up.

The weirdness began when this really handsome guy started renting the place downstairs. Obviously, I’m not going to use his real name, so let’s call him Jeff.

Jeff was not only attractive, he was charming. He seemed to be pretty bright. I remember meeting him for the first time, as he stood there in khaki cargo shorts and a pink polo shirt, and thinking I wouldn’t mind having him stay around longer. And my heart skipped a beat when I learned he wanted to stay indefinitely.

We haggled a bit over the rent costs but settled on something that we were both content with. The prospect of having him as a roomer for an indefinite amount of time was looking to be a lot less of a hassle than the constant in-and-out that had been common with the roomers from the online service so far. And I sure as hell didn’t want a repeat of that couple of jerks I mentioned above.

After Jeff moved in, I didn’t see much of him. At the time, I regretted not getting to know him any better because I wasn’t seeing anybody else. But I also thought it might be a can of worms, and I didn’t feel like being pushy. Despite his appearance, Jeff turned out to be very private and a bit of a recluse. He rarely had any company over, and was a very quiet neighbor.

Till this day, I don’t even know where Jeff got the money nor what kind of work he was doing. All I know is that it took me several months before I noticed that I always only saw his company come—but never leave.

This never dawned on me until I saw him drive off in a car in which a young woman had arrived to visit him. She had dark rings under her eyes, wore some raggedy clothing, and looked a bit like a slob, if I’m being honest. My first thought upon seeing her was that he might be selling drugs, which alarmed me. But the real red flag was waking up before my alarm clock went off the next morning, and seeing not her, but Jeff leave the apartment, and witnessing him drive off in her car. I never saw her or that white car ever again.

I tried my best to find a rational explanation for that—anything that didn’t involve him being a drug dealer and murdering his guest. How could I have just called the cops on him? Jeff always paid his rent on time and was never a burden. He even asked one time if it was okay for him to buy and install a new washing machine in his apartment, rather than asking me to take care of that.

The suspicions never went away, though. They only got worse. Whenever I was at home and I heard a car pull up, I watched Jeff’s visitors with heightened awareness. I started wondering how paranoid I must have looked if anybody had noticed me staring out the window, with the lights off and peeking through a crack between the curtains. I started taking notes, just in case my worst fears came true and I’d ever have to tell the cops.

Without exception, I never saw his guests leave. At ungodly hours, Jeff would drive away with their vehicles if they hadn’t arrived on foot in the first place. One time, I decided to use a sick day and stay up all night to see him return after driving off in someone else’s car.

Sure enough, I saw Jeff returning hours later. On foot. He looked up at my window where I stood, watching him. And although I think it’s impossible that he could have seen me—we didn’t lock eyes or anything—it sure felt like he did. My heart pounded so hard it wanted to explode. Seeing him glance up at my window scared the hell out of me and I stopped spying on Jeff for the next few weeks.

He never bothered me, but this whole situation was beginning to plague me. I started having awful nightmares and I felt like I needed to do something. I didn’t feel like sharing the burden, so I didn’t tell anybody about this. I didn’t want to sound like I’m crazy. I didn’t want to be laughed at. All I knew was that I couldn’t go on like this.

I started losing sleep which caught up to me at work. It was a problem. I had trouble staying awake at my desk. The days went by in a blur and it reminded me of my year of heavy drinking, especially in the phase before I lost my previous job. One day, I stood before the door to Jeff’s apartment, master key in hand.

I remember trembling. Worse, I remember the weird smell.

I hadn’t gotten close to the door to the bottom-level apartment in a long time. Just a few steps away from it was this smell. Pungent and sweet, it reminded me of my friend’s grandparents’ home—which taught me that this was the smell of moth balls. There was also a hint of alcohol in the air, but not your garden variety for drinking—more like the medical sort which you use as rubbing alcohol.

“Hey.”

Judging by Jeff’s facial expression, I must have jumped a whole foot off the ground in shock. He sported a smile somewhere in between what must have been pleasant surprise and—what I think now—sadism.

Carrying one of those recyclable grocery bags in one hand, he walked up to me and to the door while asking, “Anything I can do for you?”

I stammered out some lies about wanting to see if he needed anything. As I lied my way through the conversation, I fabricated this story of wanting to go visit some relatives for a week, and that I was just checking up on him as well as informing him in case anything came up. I couldn’t tell if Jeff was buying my crap, but I was already considering what to do come next week to make my lie convincing—using up some sick days and going on a short vacation didn’t sound like the worst idea to me.

Jeff insisted he needed nothing, and thanked me for being such a good home owner. He really appreciated the privacy, he said. What I didn’t realize while I stumbled through this phony exchange, was that I unintentionally bought enough time for him to open the front door to his apartment.

That sweet pungent smell really hit my nose hard when he did. It burned in my nostrils. I could feel them flare and I knew he saw it as his gaze swept down to my nose and back up into my eyes as we talked.

As it was winter and already after dark, and he had no lights on inside, I couldn’t really make out any details inside his apartment. It just seemed like a lot of motes of dust floated in the air.

I saw something move inside. About the size of a chihuahua or a cat, I couldn’t tell. It peered out to the entrance where we stood and the dim light from the street reflected on a set of small eyes. The thing darted around a corner and into the living room, out of sight. When Jeff flicked the entry hall’s light switch on, there was nothing there.

But I knew what I had seen. And the shiver down my spine, and my jumble of thoughts afterwards told me that it was no dog or cat. Furthermore, I had never seen Jeff bring home any pets, and I sure as hell never heard any noises from his apartment to suggest such a presence.

He caught me staring into the entrance and quickly locked up behind him. The smile on his face didn’t reach his eyes anymore, and I was seriously afraid now.

I really did end up going on a short vacation the week after that. Just packed up and went on a cross-country road trip. Saw the Grand Canyon. Couldn’t get my damned mind off of the weird things that were piling up. At the very least, I wasn’t having any nightmares. Funny enough, I slept like a baby in the motels and hotels where I laid my head down to rest, even though I always used to have trouble sleeping on travels or in other people’s homes when I was younger.

So I couldn’t clear my head or make sense of all I’d been witnessing with Jeff, but I had reached a decision. I would wait for him to dispose of a visitor’s vehicle one night, and sneak into his apartment to find out what he’s hiding there.

I had to get rid of Jeff. I had to find something in there that would justify calling the cops on him.

It was a good idea, but my plan didn’t work. The simple reason was that I didn’t see Jeff have any visitors in the following days. Or weeks. I was now losing sleep but for a different reason: I was watching Jeff come and go to buy groceries once every couple of days, observing his every move and waiting to see him do anything incriminating, much like that wheelchair-bound guy in that Hitchcock movie. But he never did anything downright suspicious in and of itself. I seriously began to wonder if I wasn’t going crazy; if I had really experienced all these things.

I would check my own door’s locks twice or three times. I worried he might visit me when I’m sleeping. And I worried that his weird pet might become a problem.

Instead of just watching, I listened more. The more I paid attention, the more Jeff’s apartment was as quiet as a tomb—I heard more from neighbors a house away. I don’t think I ever heard him watching any television. I found it bizarre that he spent so much time at home in complete silence.

Alcohol in public places stared back at me, as if it was taunting me to drink it. While I struggled to resist the temptation, I constantly wondered if I hadn’t long caved in and been lying to myself, that all the weirdness of the past months was to blame on me relapsing and fooling myself into thinking I’d been sober all that time. That’s how messed up I felt.

So I changed my plan. I just had to. His grocery runs were much shorter than whenever he had gotten rid of visiting cars, but I had to make do. It gave me about thirty minutes if I wanted to be cautious and err on the shorter side of things.

I set my phone’s alarm clock to alert me in ten minutes, because that would have to do. I took along the largest kitchen knife, just in case Jeff’s pet was something dangerous that might attack me.

And I went down to his door once he left to go shopping one Tuesday. The smell was there and it was even stronger this time. So sharp and surreal that it made me feel a bit light-headed.

Again, I trembled. I shook like a worthless twig in a tornado. At first, my hand shook so badly that I couldn’t even get the key into the lock, then I almost dropped the keys altogether. Third try did the trick and I swung the door open, holding the knife in front of me like some idiot in a horror movie who was about to die.

It was broad daylight but the inside of his apartment was draped in pitch black darkness, as if he had covered up all the windows to prevent light from getting in. Not a single light was on. Further down the hall, I saw eyes, at the height of a cat, again. But it was not just one pair, it was several. I stopped counting after ten pairs of eyes. They stared at me, never blinking, but they moved. I realized they weren’t just reflecting sunlight from outside, they were kind of glowing.

Instead of shying away from me like the last time, more of them gathered in the darkness back there. Watching me. Then they crept towards me, closer and closer, and I began to see silhouettes and outlines, then clearer shapes as they came closer to the light. And to this day, I couldn’t really tell you what they were.

They moved on all fours but looked humanoid. Not like toddlers, but thin and lithe, somehow emaciated but strong in their motions. Their fingers and toes were long and clawed, clicking on the hardwood floors. They made no other sounds. They had strange mouths that split sideways and antennas on their head, like insects.

I must have been frozen with terror. I recall the foul taste on my tongue as I stood there, mouth agape, hyperventilating, and my heart pounding so hard that it wanted to escape through my gullet and jump right out of my own damned skin.

These awful creatures took their time to creep closer. They never got close enough for me to really see them fully. I never saw enough light on them to be able to tell you the texture of their skin. But I can tell you this, they looked dusty. Like the dust was flaking off of them, like they had been wallowing in a pile of dry dirt.

The fucking look of them still haunts me in my nightmares and even in my waking hours when I try to picture them. They stared at me and I knew they looked hungry. I can’t explain why, but I sensed a ravenous hunger from them. Or my mind made that up—I don’t really care to distinguish.

What saved my life was my alarm clock going off. My ten minute warning. These things jolted backwards and scurried away from me, keeping their eyes locked onto mine. But the sudden beeping sounds from my pocket frightened them and they retreated.

“Shit,” I heard Jeff say behind me.

I spun around just to see him drop his bag with his groceries all tumbling out onto the asphalt. Bottles of rubbing alcohol, boxes of moth balls, and stacks of packaged raw meat.

He looked as surprised and terrified as I felt that moment, but I had no time to really let that sink in. The world spun around me and I felt like throwing up—the overwhelmingly pungent smell, the nightmare creatures behind me, and feeling trapped in between Jeff and those horrid things. I could feel their presence behind me. I wanted to turn and look at them, as if that would stop them from creeping up on me, but I couldn’t turn my back on Jeff now.

“You weren’t supposed to see this,” he said in a trembling voice.

He lunged at me and I stabbed him in the belly with my knife. He grabbed my knife by the blade but I pulled back and stabbed him several times more until he stumbled past me into the apartment. I remember the look of shock on his face as he saw his own blood on his hands. He collapsed just inside the door and crawled deeper into the bowels of his apartment.

Those creatures shied back further, almost disappearing into the darkness. Except for those eyes. Those fucking eyes, they stared at Jeff and me, like frightened children. He reached out a hand towards them and gurgled something, but I couldn’t make sense of it. I thought I had injured him so badly that he couldn’t speak clearly anymore, but whenever I think back to it I have to wonder if it wasn’t some sort of alien language. I feel sick again, just writing about all of this now.

I slammed the door shut behind him and locked it.

I don’t know how I didn’t panic, but the things I did next make me wonder if I didn’t have it in me to become a serial killer. Sure, my heartbeat was racing a million miles a minute and I felt like I was seeing myself from the outside. But without running, I gathered up Jeff’s groceries and put them in my car. I hosed down the driveway to clean up whatever blood of Jeff’s had spilled there. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting to see Jeff’s door open and him come out at me with a vengeance, those things in tow, but none of that ever happened.

Once I’d gotten all that out of the way, I packed a traveling suitcase and fled.

I didn’t just go somewhere to clear my head, I fled the country. I obtained a new identity and started a new life. I somehow succeeded at leaving all of this behind me, riding on wings of despair and fueled by the nightmares that want to follow me for the rest of my life. I’m poor now, but I’m alive, and I haven’t experienced any such thing ever again. So here I am, writing this story and getting it published to make a little bit of money on the side.

And also to warn you. If you see any of the thing I’ve described, you’ll know. You’ll know how to handle the situation better than I did.

I don’t know what happened to Jeff and I don’t know if I’m a wanted murderer now. I don’t very much care to find out. I stay away from cryptozoology crap, I avoid anything even remotely related to aliens, the supernatural, or religion. I don’t know what I encountered here—what festered in the apartment, and what might still be there. I don’t want to know.

But what I do know is that you need to pay attention.

—Submitted by Wratts

[huntertales]

Part Two: Victor’s Home For Wayward Children. (Freaks and Geeks S08E18)

Episode Summary: The reader and the Winchester brothers investigate a recent set of murders that appear to be caused by a vampire, and are surprised to learn that teenage hunter Krissy Chambers is involved. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 3,125.

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

You weren’t exactly sure what a hideout for three teenager hunters and their supposed guardian would be. Somewhere quiet and secluded, away from wandering eyes so they could have target practice and hand to hand combat training. On the drive here you were picturing an abandoned building renovated enough for it to be livable. A house that was falling apart from the previous owner. What you saw through the backseat window was none of those things. Victor’s home for wayward kids was located somewhere…very peaceful, quiet. Normal.

You got out form the Impala when the kids parked in the driveway of the rather cozy house they called their own for the past few months. You observed the empty street to see other houses around you, occupied by others from the lights on in the windows and cars parked in the driveway. Innocent people enjoying their normal day to day lives, having no clue what their neighbors were up to. You headed over to the boys when they got out of the car and took a look around for themselves. It was clear none of you were expecting Suburbia.

“Not what I call a compound.” Dean said.

You and the boys headed inside after the kids to see if the place was as normal looking as it did from the outside. When your only participation with the supernatural involved spending your days searching monsters, you weren’t worried about your home keeping up appearances for guests. You had books piled up around the place, and when you found yourself too busy to tidy up the place it got a little bit hectic. It wasn’t like you had any friends or visitors to impress. You had the occasional welfare check up from John to make sure you were still alive on his watch, every few weeks Dean would pop up announced for a place to crash. And make sure you were all right. Those were your favorite visits.

Victors place looked appeared to be normal. Like you stepped into an interior magazine article of how to cozy up your home. You looked around the place to see the layout of the place; living room to your left that lead into the spacious looking kitchen and dining room. A staircase that lead upstairs to where you presumed where each of them had their own room. You peered into the hallway that lead forward where you saw a few shut doors. A bathroom, maybe a space where they kept all their weapons. This was too comforting for your liking. It felt like Victor was trying to hide something.

Dean observed the house for himself, taking in everything and how much it wasn’t what he was expecting during the ride here. He mumbled a noise underneath his breath, which caught the attention of Krissy. She looked over her shoulder and to the man, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just not what I expected.” Dean admitted.

“And what was that?” She asked.

“A little more ‘Lord of the Flies’,” Dean said, continuing to look around the house as if he was trying to find some sort of flaw. He was still not convinced everything wasn’t as it seemed.  “less Huxtables.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” A voice came up another part of the house, making you turn your direction to the staircase. You saw an older man descending down, a welcoming smile spread across his face at the sight of three stranger in his house. You returned the gesture out of politeness. He wasn’t the hunter you remembered meeting four years ago. The man standing in front of you looked like was trying to be Mr. Rogers himself from his loafers and cardigan. “Victor Rogers.”

“We met—a ruguru hunt. I’m Sam. This is my brother, Dean.” The younger man introduced all of you, pointing at himself and than his older sibling. You smiled once again when Sam directed Victor’s attention to you. “And this is our hunting partner, Y/N.”

“Oh, yes. The Winchesters. And Y/L/N. I heard that name lingering through the hunter's grape vine over the years. You're Ella's daughter, right? She was quite a legend. What a shame she quit hunting." Victor remembered now who all of you were. You nodded your head, wondering why he brought up such a thing. You brushed it off, watching as Josephine walked up to her surrogate father and embraced herself into his awaiting arms. She needed to be comforted by the only parental figure she had in her life now. "Better now?"

“Much.”Josephine said, seeming at peace from the things she accomplished earlier tonight.

“And what do we always say?” Victored asked.

"Move on, but never forget." Josephine repeated the motto.

"Good. Now," Victor moved on to more important topics that needed to be discussed after the hunt was over. "Don't you have a trig test in the morning?"

Josephine let out a sigh, nodding her head and went on her way upstairs to study for the big test she had tomorrow. Aiden came back from the kitchen with an apple in his hand, hoping he might be able to sneak himself past Victor and have a relaxing night. "Oh, I'm good, Vic. No test. I'm just gonna chill, play video games."

“Uh-huh. Yeah, keep dreaming. Because I asked to clean your room, twice. And you still haven’t done it. Go on now.” Victor popped the young man’s hope, pointing a thumb to upstairs so he could get to the chores. Aiden let out a defeated groan and made his way to complete the task. No back talk, no complaints. Krissy made her way over to the man, knowing she had some of her own kind of homework she needed to complete for him. “And you.”

“A full report about the hunt on your desk by morning.” Krissy said. Victor smiled and bowed slightly, letting her know she was free to go. “Okay. I’ll be in my room.”    

Victor let out a content sigh when all the kids were now tucked away for the night completing all sorts of normal tasks. Now it was time for the grown ups to talk in private. “Drink?”

The boys took up on the offer while you were forced to decline on anything alcoholic, Victor made up for it by handing you a cold of ice water. You smiled in appreciation and took a sip, watching as he fixed three glasses of whiskey from the looks of it and handed out two glasses to the boys. There was a lot for you to take in. You weren’t sure how you felt about Victor and his methods of how he was raising these kids. You found yourself on the fence at all of this. Part of you would never let your child want to know anything about the supernatural, let alone be hunting when they weren't even legal age. And another felt sort of envious at how they managed to balance things. You were curious as to how all of this worked.

“So, these kids go to school—like school-school, real school?” Sam asked.

“Yes, and they’re doing incredibly well considering all they’ve been through.” Victor said.

"Okay, so how does all of this work?" Dean couldn’t help himself when jumped straight to the question he was the most curious about. "What, after soccer practice and the bake sale, they chop vampires' heads off?"

“Well, yeah.” Victor said. “I think a balanced approach is best, don’t you?”

"But they're kids. They shouldn't be hunting at all." Dean argued with the man about his ideology about what was right. It was dangerous and risked too many chances of someone end up getting hurt when they still had so much of their lives ahead of them. "You got to break this up right now."

“When I found them, they were lost, confused, angry. I gave them family and purpose. And you want to take that all away?” Victor defended himself against your judgement. “Why?”

“So they don’t get killed.” You told him a reason that sounded good to you.

“They know the risks.” Victor said.

“Yeah,” You agreed to a certain point. “But why take them?”

"Because the next generation of hunters has to be better." Victor said. You furrowed your brow slightly from what you were hearing, wondering who he was thinking that had to be better than. When you heard his reasoning behind all of this, you felt your grip around the cup tighten. "Better than us. Oh, come on, guys. I know your friends. I mean, Martin was insane. And somebody obviously dropped Garth on his head when he was a baby. And I know you three loved that Bobby guy, but he was a barely functioning alcoholic."  

"Watch your mouth." You said to him, trying your hardest to hold back the venomous tone you desperately wanted to use on him. "Bobby was a damn good hunter.”

"No disrespect meant, but Josephine is an all-state athlete and a National Merit scholar. Aiden is so fast he could pick your pocket before you could blink. And Krissy, oh she's just a natural born leader and hunter." Victor said, giving a list of things that made these kids great. Sure, it could be for hunting. But you didn't look it at that. You thought of so many things they could be making use of their talents. "These kids are the cream of the crop. They are the Beatles. They are the dream team. And once they get their revenge...they'll be better hunters than any of us ever dreamed of."

There was something about Victor that was rubbing you in all the wrong ways. You would have loved to somehow balance hunting and a normal life on the side. You were content with the living situation you had at the moment, but you knew in the matter of months your entire life was going to change. You needed to start thinking about the long run. About post-baby life and closing the gates of hell. Demons might be gone for good, but you still had so many monsters out there wanting to kill you. The three kids in that house were proof.

You and the boys made your way outside after taking a look around at the dynamics. While they weren’t what you thought it was going to be, Dean’s opinion of the matter was clear. The kids in that house weren’t legal age to be an adult, so it made sense for them not to be able to go after the vampire that killed their families. So what if hunting came natural to them. They had their entire lives to screw up while in the process of saving a few people before their own ended up being cut short. Because no one got a happy ending with this lifestyle.

“This is crazy.” Dean said.

“Is it?” Sam wondered. “They got a pretty good life.”

“Kids aren’t supposed to hunt, Sam.” His brother said.

“We did.” Sam said.

“Yeah, and look what that did for us.” Dean replied back.

"Maybe they're doing it right." You said. "Maybe they can hunt and have a real life."

“You know that’s not true.” Dean said.

"Why, 'cause it didn't work out for us? I mean, what do you think life is gonna be like once the baby gets here? You think I'm just gonna be out for good?" You asked. Dean's expression fell, knowing this was a conversation he didn't want to have right now. "Whatever. Then what do you want to do? Because Victor’s not gonna stop this.”

“They said they were hunting a nest, right?” Dean asked. You nodded your head. “Well, let’s hunt it for ‘em. That way, until we can figure out what to do with Victor, they stay safe.”

“All right,” Sam agreed to the plan. “So, what’s your move?”

“I want to talk to that girl who was tied up at the motel. Something didn’t smell right about that.” Dean said. “Why don’t you guys stay here and look after the Brady Bunch?”

You agreed to the plan, knowing there wasn't much else you could do at the moment until you figured out where this nest was. And you wanted to keep a better eye on Victor. Dean headed back to the Impala and drove off a minute later, leaving you and Sam to watch over the family. The both of you exchanged a look before heading back inside. As you stepped into the house, you didn't notice the same blue van that Dean had seen earlier tonight slowly pull up to the exact spot where the Impala was just a second ago. He only stayed for a moment, watching as a house full of hunters went on with their peaceful night.

+ + +

The next morning you woke up feeling somewhat rested from the few hours you managed to snag after Victor offered you a place to relax for the night. You would have been fine on the pull out couch, but Sam insisted you take the guest room on the first floor hall. While it was better than staying at a motel, nothing compared to your own bed at the bunker. The place where you called home. You rolled out of bed when you were woken up by the sounds of a dark barking a few houses down, the noise brought you back to the time when you still lived at home.

You made yourself look presentable before venturing out down the hall to follow the sounds of muffled voices and movement. As you made your way to the kitchen, you passed by the living room where you saw a folded up blanket and pillow sitting on the arm rest. You turned into the kitchen to see what a normal morning looked like—and nearly running into Aiden.

“Y/N, just in time.” Victor greeted you from behind the kitchen counter, where he was whipping up breakfast for everyone. You tried your hardest to not be a nuisance to the family, but you found yourself doding teens who were trying to make their way to the dining room to enjoy their breakfast before school. "Grab a seat."

You raised your brow in surprise to see what was on the menu. "Waffles?"

“Yeah,” Victor said. “Krissy's fav."

"My dad used to make 'em for me all the time." She said, grabbing two plates for herself and you before heading to the table where you followed behind. "I think it was the only thing he knew how to cook."

You smiled at the memory she had of her late father before sitting yourself down to enjoy a breakfast that didn't sound too bad. Before you dug into the food, you looked around the table to see Josephine had her nose stuck in her trig book, probably trying to study before her big test. Victor made his way over, reaching out a hand to grab the book from the young woman and told her to interact with everyone. Aiden, being a teenager that he was, smirked and called her a nerd. Victor was quick to make corrections to the kid's manner, pushing his elbows off the table and reminded him of manners he should be using.

“We’re gonna be late.” Josephine said, glancing over at the clock to see what time it was.

You and Sam watched as the trio of kids grabbed another piece of food for the road before grabbing their backpacks for school, Victor ushering them out and reminding them he'd pick them up after school. You would be lying if you said you weren't impressed at how all of them worked together in sync, almost fooling you into thinking they were a normal family. Victor went on with his morning, heading into the dining room to clean up the dishes they left behind.

“Whirlwind, right? It’s always like that with kids.” Victor said. He grabbed a few plates and began heading off to the kitchen to put them into the sink. “You got any, Sam?”

“Me? Uh, no.” Sam answered the man’s question.

“You want any?” Victor asked.

"Uh," Sam found himself unsure how to answer that question. You looked over at him, curious as to what he thought about being a parent. You knew he wanted to have a normal life. And he could have had that, along with a family if he stayed with Amelia. All though he let that chance pass him by, he didn't want to shut out the possibility completely. "I don't know yet."

"Well, from the looks of it, you're going to be an uncle. Which is practically having your own. But trust me, the answer's yes. " Victor said. He pulled out his wallet from his back pocket to show you and Sam a picture he kept close to him at all times. You leaned over to see it was a family of three with their mother, smiling and appearing to be happy. You guessed that it was Victor's family. "Yeah. Well, until we went camping and a wendigo ripped them to shreds."

"Sorry." Sam told the man, giving his condolences at the tragic end of four innocent lives. People always needed a reason to start hunting. Most of the time it was a child who lost their parents or a sibling to a monster, turned out Victor lost his entire family in one night. "Is that why you're doing this, taking all these kids in?"

Victor nodded his head, but it was part of his reasoning. "But you know what I realized,guys, is that these kids, they don't have to live it the way we have. You know, crappy hotel rooms, always moving, no family, no life. It's not the only way."

You found yourself lingering on the way of Victor's thinking. There was always a set way for how a hunter was supposed to work; always on the road, never in one spot for too long without risking the chance of their past catching up to them. You knew of people who had homes and a place to rest their heads. But they didn't have kids to come home to, or a spouse to listen to the things they saw while on a job. It was the bitter emptiness that greeted them, and drove them to drink to silence their demons. Victor wanted to break the rules and do things his way.

He wanted to give these kids a stable life to come home to and a support system they didn't have anymore. He wanted to give them the best of both worlds. It was everything you always wanted. A part of you was envious. Another part of you knew all of this was too good to be true.

[Next Part]

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[loyalflutist]

Manmade Killer (Pt. 1)

It was Christmas. Snow fell down within the city of Shinjuku and friends, families, and couples come together to celebrate the occasion. The night sparkled from decorations. Blue, red, green, white... all kinds of colors brighten the city. Tranquility makes it difficult for much negativity to taint anyone during this holiday. However, Oshima Yuko couldn't celebrate it. In one of the many buildings, on the third floor, the squirrel sat in one of the many desks. An ex-detective that originally came from the Metropolitan Police Department years ago, she came to an early retirement due to a past issue. But nevermind that, the young woman in her mid-20s clicked away on her laptop. Each keystroke was notable in the barely lit premise, a desk lamp the only source of light. Exhaustion. Fatigue. And alone. She desires to sleep, yet won't allow her body to feel the relief. Yuko has to keep on working. Work... work... work... work. The saying "sleep is for the weak" is horribly applicable to the ex-inspector. She furrowed her brows and resisted the temptation to rub her weary eyes. A loud exhale as she continued to tap away on the keyboard. "Yuko? You're still awake?" Thanks to Yuko's mental and physical state, hypersensitivity is prominent. She nearly leaped off from her black rolling chair. Thankfully, the person that called out for her is none other than Special Police Officer Yokoyama Yui. The tall raven-haired woman rested an arm against the doorway between the main workroom and the nap room, her sharp gaze aimed at the squirrel. In comparison to the ex-detective, not a hint of fatigue was shown on her face and body language. Donned with a white collared shirt, black pants, and uniformed blue jacket, the medal "SP" clung to her shirt as a sign of her prestigious position. Although her duty is to protect VIP figures such as politicians and CEOs, the Kyoto-originated female personally requested to be Yuko's bodyguard. Yui's reason for doing so? Well, it wasn't a difficult question to answer. A faint exhale escaped from her partially parted lips. "You should be sleeping." Yuko shook her head. "I can't. Shouldn't you be sleeping in the nap room here?" Another sigh came from Yui's lips when she saw the other female reach towards her cup of coffee. It wasn't necessarily the caffeinated product that concerned her so much. Instead, it was more so with how OLD the coffee is. When the SP Officer checked in for the morning, Yuko was sipping from the same container and drinking the God-knows-how-long-it's-been-made black coffee. It wasn't like the squirrel to forget how to operate normally on daily necessities. Then again, it's not surprising considering the month-long predicament that ate at them. Endlessly taunting them... especially Oshima Yuko. No grave sins were committed to sending her to Hell, but she's experiencing one right now. Rest did not bring any alleviation, agitation gnawing at her nerve. "Yuko..." she said. Yuko readjusted her seat as Yui waltzed over to the clear-glassed window from behind the inspector. Hands in her jacket's pockets, the Kyoto woman stared out to the city view. If it weren't for the heavy atmosphere that weighed on their shoulders, they would've not only celebrated the holiday but share wine with each other just like old times. Maybe even played out in the snow with their teammates. "I know you're trying your best to search for your sister, but I can't protect you from diseases." A scoff. Then, Yuko clicked on the laptop a few times to close all of the web browsers. Whether she was closing them to actually take a break or closing them out of obligation to shut Yui up is up for speculations. Thanks to the brightness of the screen, it somewhat reflected on the window's surface. The SP Officer didn't have to look over her shoulders to see what was on the device. Nevertheless, her eyebrows slightly raised at the sight of a group photo. Oshima Yuko. Yokoyama Yui. Yamamoto Sayaka. Kashiwagi Yuki. Watanabe Mayu. Maeda Atsuko. Matsui Rena. Seven members. A mixture of active and retired officers. A melting pot for the roles they each played. A group primarily focused on stopping a terrorist organization outside of police jurisdiction and limitations. They were after Adrestia. A faceless Japanese terrorist organization bent on taking revenge and delivering retribution to those seemingly "evil" to justice. They were meant to be upheld as a holy figure that would topple the police force. Those victims who died were murmured and whispered amongst the civilians to be truly terrible in society. For the government to lack efficiency in handling these small, but severe problems became a devastating blow to their reputation. Fewer people trusted the police and more on Adrestria. It's almost as if a superhero arose from the crowd and stood up for what is right and what is wrong. However, what made them God? What made them decide what's just and unjust for everyone? Not many were able to perceive this fatal flaw as their criminal acts... might not be so criminal at first glance.   It has been six months since their existence came to light. Their first appearance was no minor introduction. The death of a man who is labeled as a stalker to an idol from AKB48 was their first case. Gunned down by a security guard protecting Team K when they were out on tour around Japan, the man immediately killed himself before he explained why he chose to murder the fan. Either way, Team K have been protected thanks to him. Adrestia made a big note of who they are when they uploaded a video on the Internet about the fan's crimes. He had stalked them, taken photos of them, and sent them Anonymous videos of the dirty actions he did with those pictures. Idols filed a report many times in the past. The police came to protect them but did a lackluster job. He still came to bother them. Over... and over... and over again. One idol even committed suicide because of it. Adrestia took action and protected the group in the police's stead. We are Adrestia and we strive to take revenge on the evils that outlived their days compared to their victims. The Cleansing Day will come when New Year Eve arrives. All in a distorted voice. Eventually, exactly a month after that, another death came to light. Instead of just one victim, there was a total of a whopping twenty. To make matters worse, they were all young adolescents. Their crimes? Bullying hurts but cyberbullying hurts even more. You have no way to distinguish who they are and if they really meant what they said. These twenty students, all between the age of 12 and 22, committed a grave sin. They bullied others on Facebook. Many victims called for help, but no one came to their aid. Police officers and therapists mocked them for their sensitivity. Adrestia did not take this lightly. We took action and protected the bullied users in the police's stead. We are Adrestia and we strive to take revenge on the evils that outlived their days compared to their victims. The Cleansing Day will come when New Year Eve arrives. A more feminine distorted voice, distinguishing itself from the previous video. And so it went on. Month by month, their crimes became horrific. Murders of rapists, child molesters, corrupted government officials, bribers, murderers, stalkers, corrupted officers... It went on. The crimes committed by them were atrocious. Police forces throughout Japan, especially Shinjuku, went haywire. Everyone in the organization used as much force as possible to search for the culprits. Some overexerted and abused their authoritative powers, making innocent civilians go to jail as a way to pat down one of the monthly cases. Lives were at stakes, reputations were at stakes, and most importantly, answers were desperately needed. The group that Yuko had formed alongside with her stepsister, Mayu, had kicked into gear. Beginning the day after the first month's murder, Yuko and everyone spread out to do their research. They were possibly the only ones able to stop Adrestia given their resources and experiences. But every single time they came close to an answer, it slipped through their fingers. In its place, another murder pops up in the name of the terrorist. It was a frustrating cycle. Loads of responsibilities and trouble began to accumulate as the months ticked by. Clues were gathered, but not enough to catch up on the latest events. By the time the ex-detective found an answer, the worst-case scenario unfolded before her eyes. That day, on November 25th... Yuko's thumb ran across Mayu's face on the screened photo. "I have to find my sister." Missing. Mayu is missing-- Er, well, it wasn't to say that she's missing like those found in the missing person poster. Actually, the Special Regions Crime Prevention Office (SRCPO) member is plastered on the bulletin board of this investigative's room as a wanted individual. Alongside, Kashiwagi Yuki went missing. Whether she was found with Mayu or not currently is not clear. Same goes for Matsui Rena. She disappeared the same day as Yuki. Then there's also the other two members-- "I can't forgive her. She murdered Sayanee." Yuko snapped out of her trance-like state at the sharp proclamation from Yui. She turned to look at the officer, her baggy eyes staring straight at the fierce woman. As if to showcase how serious she is with her statement, Yokoyama took the gun out from her holster and toyed with it. She unloaded all of the bullets into her other hand and immediately stuck them back into the cylinder. One-by-one, the gold metallic ammunition went into its original spot. Silence hung in between the two figures. Figuring that Yuko would object to her perspectives, the Special Police Officer raised her chin slightly. "Did you also forget that she murdered your parents?" They may not have been related to each other, but they were adopted together under the two kind parents. They were raised to be an outstanding citizen of society. Yuko and Mayu wished to serve in the police department as a way to give back to the community. Of course, thanks to a mishap, Yuko took early retirement (more like quit) from her position and became independent. Mayu, on the other hand, remains as a counselor and listens in to people's worries during times of emergencies. Regardless of their roles and what they did with their life, they loved their adopted parents dearly. So the cold-blooded slaughtering of their parents was the last straw for Oshima. She vividly remembers their death. It was exactly one week after the disappearance of Watanabe Mayu, Kashiwagi Yuki, and Matsui Rena. Yuko returned home with her parents to have dinner with them. There wasn't much to discuss, but the least she could do is bring them comfort during this turbulent time. It was likely that the three were kidnapped by Adrestia, but it's also possible that the trio's disappearances didn't correlate with each other. The independent detective does admit that it was too much of a coincidence to have such scenario occur though... Regardless, the doorbell rang during their quiet mealtime. Yuko went to open the door. A loud gasp came from her direction from the sight of who it was. There stood Watanabe Mayu in the doorway. Her eyes dead. A black collar snapped around her neck as if she were an animal. A handgun held within her two hands. The white police uniform she donned disheveled and dirtied. Yuko didn't even have a chance to register a dialogue before Mayu shoved her way into the house. Two fires came from the weapon. Two screams. Then, silence. Complete and eerie silence. It wasn't long till Mayu walked right out the same doorway as she had entered, ignoring the older female. Darkness from the dimly lit streets engulfed the gunner once she was far enough. Yuko was still standing in awe. Oshima Yuko always wondered why she wasn't able to stop her sister at that time. Was it because of her lingering attachment to Mayu? Was it because she hesitated to pull out her own revolver and shoot Mayu? Was it because she was shocked to think that her sister would return after a week of disappearing? Whatever it was, their parents are dead. A single bullet straight to their forehead. It was a direct hit to their brain. Death is certain for their fates. Still... it was all too strange. How could someone like Mayu not only go off to hurt their teammates, but their very own parents? Sure, they weren't related by blood, but it doesn't excuse the abrupt and violent end they were met with. Something must've caused her younger sibling to react this way. Yuko parted her thumb from the screen and bit the bottom of her lip. Besides, Watanabe harmed someone that she too cared for greatly... Someone that Yuko couldn't understand why either. "There's also Acchan too..." she cracked. Yui nodded in the background. That was right. Not only was Sayaka the victim in this betrayal, but Maeda Atsuko was at the brunt end of it. This didn't happen all in one day. The first victim was Yamamoto Sayaka. Yuko remembered the video that Mayu had personally sent to them, stating that another teammate would be next on her hit list. Her lifeless voice... Her bone-chilling message... Was this really the sister she knew since they were children? Atsuko... oh, Atsuko is someone Oshima loved so much. The ex-detective and a profiler from the Crime Lab at the Metropolitan Police Department. The unlikely duo that became tragically separated by a murderer no one expected. Yuko's hands curled into fists as she shakily exhaled. "Yuihan, I want to talk to her before I bring down her judgment. Even if you want to take revenge on behalf of your lover, I... I can't allow that. She's my sister." The Special Police Officer shifted her attention back to the scenery. She narrowed her eyes. "Well, you better be ready for it. I have a feeling we're going to find her before January 1st." "...right." The sooner, the better. Yuko wanted nothing more than to get this nightmare over with. ---------- In another location, Kashiwagi Yuki, a hacker at the Cyber Crimes Division, felt so useless. It wasn't the useless kind of sensation where one stands on the sideline. At least she could be cheering for someone or something. She could become an influence thanks to those encouraging words. This was a literal uselessness. Physically and mentally. She was stuck in a bright metallic room with nothing but herself. Steel wall surrounds her figure as she huddled in the corner of the mostly dried blood-splattered room. She hugged herself. Comfort was nowhere to be seen... She wasn't safe in isolation from her mind. The terrorist organization has her confined to this premise. No matter how much she screams or pounds at the only exit, no one would respond. Well, she tried to scream, that is. Not a single sound came out of her voice box. The tattered and bruised Yuki that was once kind, gentle, and a good listener to everyone around her is reduced to a silent wreck thanks to Adrestia. Whatever poison or surgical techniques they performed on the unconscious woman... She won't be able to vocalize her thoughts, her concerns, her love, her sorrow... anything anymore. Yuki gave up. The woman's ears perked up when the door creaked open. Her brown eyes peeked over her crossed arms. Watanabe Mayu came back. The door immediately clicked close by another individual once Mayu had taken a step into the confinement. Partially bathed in another person's blood on her clothes, Mayu truly painted an image of a psychopath. A black collar around her neck, the woman barely blinked when she saw Yuki extend her arms out. She acted almost like a baby in need of a mother. Ironic considering the fact that Mayu had a hand solidly gripping a loaded revolver. However, everyone knew that the two would never wish harm upon one another. They've loved each other and still do. Watanabe just doesn't know if she's alive or dead in this state. 'Mayuyu... Oh, Mayuyu...' Mayu was the only person who could bring some sense of peace to the hacker. However, the guilt that weighed on Yuki's shoulders were heavy as she littered long kisses on her lover's cheeks. The raven-haired desperately tried to give as much warmth as possible to the present day Mayu. Usually, the officer would be annoyed by the close treatment as it's reserved for privacy, but it hurts that Mayu isn't flinching or reacting to this at all. Tears streamed down Yuki's face as she wrapped her arms around the armed woman. Both of their brown eyes had no life... A lifeless duo that barely clung onto reality. 'Why did it become like this?' Of course, Mayu has no way of knowing. She's not human anymore... A police officer who once specialized in the Special Regions Crime Prevention Office is now a murderer. She not only raised her revolver at innocent civilians, but she assassinated their comrades. Yamamoto Sayaka and Maeda Atsuko... Someone they once called their allies, their friends... it all went away weeks ago with a bullet to their chest. Mayu may have given them a quick death, but the fact that they're not in this world anymore destroyed Yuki. It wasn't Mayu's fault though. "Neh... Yukirin..." That tone. That voice. Unlike Kashiwagi, Mayu didn't lose the ability to speak. This was a chance for her to tell the official what's on her mind. She was given free rein on what to say. Freedom of speech isn't exactly one hundred percent true in the hands of this terrorist organization though. "I killed our captain." Yuki knew Mayu had pride and conviction to remain true to her ways. Yet the collar that Adrestia's leader snapped around her neck served as a torturing device. Poison contaminated the metallic band. Every single time the girl would raise objections to their beliefs, to the orders they shoved down her throat, to their harsh treatment and abuse with Yuki, the leader allowed the collar to release its chemicals into the officer. The excruciating agony that paralyzed the victim ran on till Mayu sobbed for death to relieve her. Of course, they weren't so kind. A quick antidote brought her to good health within an hour. Then, they shoved their idealisms... their moralistic values... and assassination orders upon the woman once again. If she were to object once again, she would be subjected to the same treatment. "I'm okay... I'm fine." The hacker saw it all since day one of their kidnappings. A date out in broad daylight at a park to take a break from their work turned into a living nightmare. Since Yuki holds no value to the terrorist organization, they simply used her as their pawn to keep Mayu in check. With the police officer's strict outlook on what justice means and why revenge can be justified, their eyes have rested on Mayu. Her ability to use the gun is a bonus to them as she can play the role of an "Executioner". Of course, knowing the ponytailed female, she outright rejected their offer only to undergo horrific treatments. Yuki was there to witness it all in her mute cries and sobs. It's as if Adrestia is training a pet... Like a broken pet to order and reward. Yuki tightened her hold around the crimson-stained girlfriend. When the wet cheeks pressed against her lover, Mayu expressed her opinion in a monotone voice. "You're crying? Are you hurt anywhere?" Hurt... Pain. Oh, Yuki felt pain much worse than the abuse she's been submitted to by the hooded terrorist leader. It's the crushing anguish of her heart being squished to oblivion by an invisible force. The sight of her lover succumbing to cruel punishments for staying true to her ideals and not aligning with the enemies'. The horror of losing her ability to speak. The urge to scream in terror as she frantically and desperately provided as much useless care to Mayu as possible. She buried her face into the gunner's shoulder. 'If only I was strong...' Yuki wasn't trained in the art of firearms like Mayu. Thoughts ran through her head about taking up lessons from her girlfriend. However, Mayu urged that it wasn't necessary. If only the hacker held her stance much stronger back then... Then she might've protected Mayu rather than become dependent on her. More tears ran down her face as she leaned forward, lips close to Watanabe's ear. Just like every single day, Yuki tried her best to formalize words that can be audible rather than incoherent airy whispers. "I'm... sorry..." Did Mayu hear that? Or was that just a figment of Yuki's hallucinations she's constantly had in this confined room that she was able to utter words to her lover? Either way, the curtain will soon descend upon the stage as Adrestia makes their final move. After all, it won't be long till New Year Eve comes around the corner.