#his kibble had just dropped but he left it and ran for me i just cant

[tinyfrenchowl]

yesterday i called home and my cat heard my voice on speaker and ran from his food bowl to meow at me through the phone

i miss you too, kitty cat. i'll be home soon

[voiceless-people]

Stilton cookie and Sunflower Cookie having a shower thought conversation. Literally. Stilton and Almond are weird about each other too I guess.

(I just vaugepost for 500 words. Yeag)

She had heard the door creak open, but heard no footsteps enter. Sunflower just assumed whoever was there meant to grab something and left, but there still were no footsteps or any noise for that matter. The door clicked closed.

"Can we talk?" Stilton spoke up, tapping one of his clawed fingers on the wall. He hovered in the doorway for a moment before sitting on the counter beside the sink.

She chuckled.

"There isn't a better time?" Hot water was running over Sunflowers body, soap being rinsed down the drain. She'd just put conditioner in her hair, the water weighing its petal-like shape into waterlogged flat yellow. She couldn't see him through the showers curtain, but the ghost sighed.

"... Probably." He kept tapping the counter. He paused. "Do you like it back here? In the city I meant. Well the apartment too."

"Not particularly. Cities are cold, and the buildings block the sun." Sunflower stares at the wall, letting the hot water wash away the rest of the soap. She stood in it for longer. "I don't think he wants me here, and I'm not inclined to stay either."

Stilton swished his tail- it phasing safely through any objects before curling in his lap. God it was annoying when he couldn't just down his physical opacity. Hm. Odd way to think of it. Annoying when he was alive. Sounds simpler, yeah?

"Well. I'd reckon if my wife ran off an' left me with our tot I wouldn't be too happy to see her either."

"Your wife?" His tapping stopped. She laughed again, finally turning the shower off.

"Hm. Well maybe I'd be upset for the ladder." The specter watched Sunflower peel her arm around the curtain, attempting to grab at a towel on the wall. Stilton leaned over to hand it to her.

"Yeah. Either way- you and I don't stay places long. I'm doing it for his daughter, but it's weird being near people I used to know." She wrung out her hair and wrapped the towel around her. "It's odd, seeing her all grown up after 19 or so years. But she doesn't seem to mind it, why?"

The curtain slid to the side and Sunflower stepped out. Stilton snorted, but covered his mouth. Now probably wasn't the time to laugh, but her hair was a complete mess, the long locks dampened and silly looking. She glared back playfully.

"Sorry- you look ridiculous, luv. I don't think that's gonna air dry." He's grinning, but his smile falters to look more sheepish.

"Like you're one to talk, can barely see your old dusty self in all this steam." Sunflower wipes the condensation off the mirror and flicks water at him. The specter swats at her and hops of the counter. She shoos him away, fluttering her hand. Stilton rolls his eyes and swiftly leaves the room.

He floats his way over to the apartments kitchen and looks around. Theres the pitter patter of feline footsteps behind him, and there stands the Constable and the little orange stray he liked bringing around. The cats hop up onto the counter, Constable Whiskers thick tail nearly knocking a cup straight off the edge. Stilton runs a hand over the cats back and moves away to dig through one of the cabinets.

He pulls out a tin of wet food, then digs through the utensils for a spoon. He takes Constables bowl alongside the spare for the stray and splits the can of cat food. Whiskers liked his with kibble, while little orange liked hers soupy from tap water.

Stilton doesn't hear the front door unlock, and misses the sound of keys jingling alongside something heavy being hung up. The ghost turns back around with the bowls and stops.

Almond walks by the kitchen, and the two look at eachother for a moment. The detective drops his gaze first, with a sigh he walks down the hall.

Stilton looks at the empty hall for a moment before setting down the cats food. Whiskers scarfs his down, but the little one only takes a few bites before starting at the ghost.

He let's his form become much more weighted, sliding down the side of the counter and onto the kitchen floor. The orange kitty follows him down, and sits inbetween his tail and leg. Constable joins them after a while.

[hedgehog-moss]

This week’s batch of very small (and wintry) news:

Sunday: I cut my thumb with a bread knife over breakfast and covered the cut with a plaster. Later as I was pouring water in the chickens’ water dish, Cordélia suddenly jumped and ripped the plaster off my finger, then ran like hell. Dru assumed her sister had caught the worm of the century and chased her like her life depended on it and managed to steal it from her. They kept running all over the place stealing the plaster back and forth until I finally managed to catch one chicken by the tail and confiscate her prey. She was so disgruntled when she saw I wasn’t even going to eat it.

Monday: I’ve been puzzling lately over a collection of ice pellets that appears every day under the cherry trees. It looks like the local owls or squirrels are making ice pancakes at night and accidentally dropping a few of them to the ground. And today as I was watching Pirlouit return to his usual spot under the trees after lunch, I realised the pellets are about the same diametre as his hooves and wondered if he’s figured out that by knocking his hoof against a tree, he can get rid of the ice packed underneath that bothers him when he walks. I haven’t seen him do it so it’s just a guess, but it seems like the simplest explanation for this pile of ice pancakes all the same size under the trees, and if it’s true then I’m proud of my smart, problem-solving donkey.

Tuesday: Pandolf didn’t finish his dinner so I just set his half-empty bowl up on a shelf to offer it back to him in the morning. In the middle of the night I heard a few hesitant barks and went downstairs to see what was going on, and Pandolf was staring scandalised at a fat dormouse who was sitting in his food bowl, on the shelf. Pandolf glanced at me, clearly wondering if this individual had been invited to eat his kibble, and when he saw my hostile reaction to the dormouse he suddenly started barking again with a lot more conviction, like “That’s right!! Scoundrel! Thief! Out! Out!”

Wednesday: The only thing I did all day was patrol the woods with my pruner & chainsaw looking for any snow-weighted branches that might threaten to fall on my telephone wire. I trimmed them mercilessly and got utterly covered in snow in the process. I pretty much looked like my snow llama—who is, by the way, still there. Still smiling. Terribly unnerving. Will it ever melt? At what point do snowmen acquire sentience?

Thursday: One of the water tubs in the pasture never thaws, so I decided to drag it to a sunnier spot. It is horribly heavy when full, and impossible to empty it because I couldn’t break the thick ice ‘lid’ even when jumping on it with both feet or attacking it with a big rock like an angry caveman. I could have gone home to get a pitcher of boiling water but it felt like such a long and tedious walk in knee-deep snow. Ten minutes later I realised that dragging a tub full of 40kg of water through knee-deep snow was about a million times more tedious. But I was halfway there and it felt like a waste of effort to switch strategies now so I persevered like an idiot.

It took an absurd amount of time to drag the full thing to its new spot when it would have taken 300% less effort to just fetch some hot water to thaw the ice then carry a light, empty tub. My mum philosophically commented that sometimes you need to see a wrong decision through to the end, as a learning process. I learnt nothing I didn’t already know about myself and my unwavering commitment to my mistakes.

Friday: This is usually my library day, so I emailed the librarian to apologise for how late I am to return my books and attached the above pic of my road to explain why I haven’t been able to drive to town since Christmas. I said my road is too narrow and steep in parts for the snowplough, and in her reply she a) asked worriedly if I had enough books left to read and b) went on a tangent about how much she loved getting a ride in the snowplough when she was a kid, because it is very tall and large and slow so it felt “like being on an elephant”. I just love the image of the snowplough as an elephant trudging on the roads between villages with his head down and his great tusks pushing the snow in front of him. I bet if we still had mammoths we would use them for this job, Dinotopia-style.

Saturday: This morning I was crossing the pasture on a well-trodden path and Pampe was walking along a parallel, also pre-existing path, and I held up a treat. We both refused to cross in the deeper snow between the two paths because that’s too much work so for a minute we just stood there, 3 metres apart, a battle of wills. Eventually Pampe rolled her eyes (in her head, probably; she’s a teenager) and crossed over and enjoyed her piece of fruit. (Yes, this qualifies as news! Thank you for reading the Hedgehog Times.) I love how from above (from my window) these paths look like airplane trails in the sky, especially when it starts snowing again and they gradually vanish.

[all-the-love-harold]

Fine Line

Chapter 2 - I don’t want to be alone

December 20th 2019

“Hey Bowie?” Clara said in her high pitched dog voice and watched as Bowie titled his head to listen to her “Do you want to wake up uncle Harry?”

Bowie jumped down off the bed and ran straight to Clara’s bedroom door waiting for her to open it.

“Ok let’s go big dog, go jump on uncle Harry!” she opened the door and let Bowie out to the living room where a very hungover Harry was snoring on the couch. Now the thing that Clara had learnt best about Bowie over the last few days was that he had absolutely no understanding of personal space so as soon as he saw Harry on the couch, he jumped up and Harry groaned as he landed on his belly.

“Noooo” he moaned “Too early”

“It’s 8am Harold” Clara chimed “Time to drive home for christmas”

Christmas was Clara's favorite time of year and as a result she unusually started preparing in october and she had a ready made playlist of christmas songs to play at any given moment. So she pulled her phone from the pocket of her hoodie and pressed play on “I’ll be home for Christmas” and turned it up as loud as she possibly could.

Harry rolled over and squeezed his eyes shut, “ 5 more minutes”

“Big night then?” she said, sitting herself down at the end of the couch where Harry’s legs were tucked up and Bowie crawled over to snuggle up to his new mum.

“Mmmhmm” he sighed “got back at 4 am”

`

“So I guess I’m driving then?”

“You’re amazing” he smiled, without opening his eyes again.

The morning was slow, Clara made Harry some eggs on toast and then found the biggest travel mug she could for his coffee and one that was only slightly smaller for her own. She packed Bowie's bag of toys and training treats and by the time they packed the car, double and triple checked that they had everything including the presents and the ingredients for the pudding that Clara was going to make, it was 10am and Harry was starting to feel a little more alive albeit a little tired.

“There are shops in holmes chapel Ra” Harry said as he shut the boot to the car “if it turns out that we’ve forgotten the custard I will go out and get it”

“Right let’s go then” clara smiled “and you can face Anne when there’s no custard because they’re sold out”

“I’ll make the fucking custard” he laughed as he pulled the door open and hopped in the car.

"Hi Bowie" he chimed as the dog who was sitting on the back seat of the car rested his head on the shoulder of the passenger seat "you're pretty cute little dude"

Clara's heart swelled, she had grown to love Bowie more than anything else and it was nice to see that she wasn't alone.

The journey was slow. Traffic was almost at a standstill on the highway that would take them out of London and into the countryside, but that was to be expected this close to christmas. Clara imagined what it would be like christmas eve and became very thankful that herself and Harry had the kinds of jobs they could take extra time off from.

“I’m dreaming of a white christmas” Harry sang, turning the stereo up as they came to a stand still once again

“Just like the ones I used to know” Clara sang, horribly out of tune

“Where the treetops glisten '' Harry giggled his way through the next few lines as Clara continued to sing out of time and tune.

“It’s a good thing you’re a lawyer” He said when the song ended

“You’re saying I couldn’t make it as a singer?” Clara said, pretending to sound offended

“On no, I think you’d be great” Harry laughed “With a lot of autotune and lip sync”

“I’ve learnt to lip sync your entire album, so I’ll take your next tour off your hands”

“Yeah great” Harry nodded “You do that, I’ll write the next album and you can tour that”

“We make a great team” Clara laughed “Too bad you look like a troll and you can’t tour for yourself”

Harry shrugged “Hey, I’m just keeping you in a job”

Clara laughed “Alright” she said steering the conversation in a more serious direction “Tell me about Shelly”

Harry shrugged and sighed at the same time, running his hands through his hair “there’s not much to say really, unless you want details about all the sex we’ve had”

“Nope” Clara said definitely “There’s got to be more to it than that H, she was at the show last night, I know you, you don’t invite your fuck buddies to things like that”

“She didn’t stay long though, did she?” Harry was blushing mostly because Clara was right, there was more to it than that, he just wasn’t ready to admit it to himself yet.

“No, I think she was gone before the end of the first song”

“Exactly” Harry nodded

“And you’re not just downplaying this because I’m sad and single now?”

“No” he shook his head “you never downplayed your happiness when I was sad and single”

“Fair pont” she said keep her eyes fixed on the road “Just be careful H, I only spoke to her for a minute so take what I say as a grain of salt, but she seemed like the type to collect trophies”

“What do you mean?” he asked

“Well you’re not exactly some unknown, undiscovered musician, gigging around London, sleeping with you gains serious bragging rights, she seems like the type to want them”

“I actually thought the opposite” he pondered, looking out the window and playing with his lips. A habit that he’s picked up over years

Clara’s heart sank, she hated that he couldn’t see what she and Gemma had thought was so obvious “Like I said, grain of salt, and if you’re happy, I’m happy, just be careful”

He smiled “Don’t tell Mum? Yeah”

“I’m not making any promises, Anne knows how to get me talking”

“Well I might just tell Jenny about …… “

“About what Styles? Jenny and I have no secrets”

He sighed “Maybe you should”

“So what kept you out until 4am if Shelly left the show so early?”Clara decided to turn the subject back around to Shelly so that he wouldn’t ask how she was feeling about the break up, because if she was honest, she didn’t know how she was feeling.

“Mostly stupidity” he rubbed his eyes “But I also went back to her place at about midnight”

“So you’re saying you slept on my couch right after you had sex with her?”

“Yep” he nodded

“Did you shower first?”

“Kinda” he smirked

“How do you “kinda”” Clara said using her hands to make air quotes “have a shower”

“Well we had sex in the shower”

Clara laughed “Of course. Oh God” she sighed dropping her head a little without taking her eyes off the road “I miss having a sex life”

“You’ve only been single for like a week” Harry said, trying to make her feel better without saying too much about Will

“Yeah but I haven’t had sex in months, I knew the break up was coming” she said honestly

“Well you certainly weren’t” Harry giggled tentatively

Claral laughed and playfully slapped his knee “Fuck you Styles”

He shrugged “You can if you want”

“Excuse me” Clara had to fight the urge to slam her foot on the breaks and avoid a collision the the motorway

“I’m joking Ra” Harry laughed, although he wasn’t entirely sure that he was. Somewhere in the back of his mind he’d always had the idea that he and Clara would end up together.

“Good” Clara giggled nervously “Because I know where that’s been” she gestured towards his crotch

“And I know where that’s been,” he said, doing the same movements towards her, a smile etched on his face so that she knew he was joking “and it’s looking a bit dusty”

Clara laughed “I won’t take this abuse” she said jokingly “Keep going and I’ll pull over right here and you can walk back to holmes chapel”

Harry reached out and turned the music back up to almost full volume

“It’s beginning to look a lot like christmas” he sang along with michael buble

“Everywhere you go” Clara joined in and that was that for the rest of the trip. They sang as loud as they could and laughed at each other singing out of tune. They made up stories about the cars passing by and spoke about just about anything, relishing in the time they got to spend together, enjoying each other's company because they knew that in just a few weeks, Harry would be off again, and they would be a part for most of the new year. Or so they thought.

***

December 25th, 2019.

It was 6am. It was still dark outside but Clara and Bowie were wide awake. Like little kids on christmas morning, they were excited. Well at least Clara was. Bowie just knew that he’d get some kibble as soon as Clara got out of bed. But Clara had so much to do this morning, she was responsible for christmas lunch this year and she hadn’t even made so much as a dessert. But christmas was here and there was no way that she was going to allow the day to be anything less than festive.

“Right then Bowie,” she yawned “let’s get this show on the road”

The dog lifted his head, looked at Clara as she spoke and flopped back down again when she was done, as if to tell her that it was far too early for an adult to be getting up on Christmas morning. And it was clearly too early for him to be having any breakfast.

Clara laughed and swung her legs out of the bed, “You can stay in bed if you then, but I will be cooking a chicken later, you might want to get up for that”

Bowie groaned and Clara laughed as she put on her dressing gown and walked out of the room. It was a cold morning, but the house was so well heated she would never have guessed that there was frost outside.

The thing about Christmas in Holmes Chapel was that it was full of chosen family. Clara and Harry’s parents had both split up when they were really little, Clara’s when she was four and Harry’s when he was seven and ever since then, their mums had banded together to make sure that christmas was as festive and magical as possible. And Harry and Clara had always wanted to carry on the tradition now that they were all grown up and usually only home for christmas.

Clara walked into the kitchen and switched the kettle on, still feeling a little sleepy, she didn’t turn the light on and walked straight into Harry, who was standing in front of the pantry.

“Morning” he said sounding as if he was still half asleep

“What are you doing up so early?” Clara questioned “And why are you just standing there”

“I just got off the phone with Shelly”

“Oh gross” Clara sighed “well could you move so I can get to the tea”

Harry took an over exaggerated step to the left “It wasn’t that kind of phone call”

“Why else would she be calling you before 6am on christmas day - you want one?” She held up a tea bag.

He nodded “To wish me a Merry Christmas” all of a sudden all of the colour drained from his face and he gulped before he could finish his sentence “and to tell me that she’s pregnant”

Clara paused as she reached for the kettle and looked up at Harry “She’s what now?”

“She’s having my baby” he huffed and threw his hands up in the air

“And how are we feeling about that? Clara stepped lightly, she didn’t want to say anything that might offend him right at this moment in time.

“Confused” he shrugged “I was so careful, I used condoms every time and she told me she was on the pill, I can’t be a dad right now, I’ll be on tour when it’s born”

“Did you tell her that?”

“Yeah” he nodded “she told me to cancel, she wants to keep it” he ran his hands through his hair “I don’t know what to do Ra? Tell me what to do?”

She gestured towards the bar stool that sat at the kitchen bench and put his cup of tea down next to him “do you want a baby?”

He sighed “I mean, yeah, one day, but fuck not right now”

“And more importantly” Clara looked at him sternly “Do you want one with Shelly?”

He took a sip of his tea “No” he said plainly

“Well there’s your answer”

“But she wants to keep it Ra, I can’t just ghost her now and it’s not like I’m not going to love the kid, but it’s just horrible timing”

“I think you need to talk to shelly in person”

“Yeah” he nodded “I do….” he paused “Can you come with me? Might be handy to have a family lawyer right there”

“Might be a bit intimidating right at the beginning H” Clara admitted “I’ll get you through the custody and child support battles if that’s what you want, but you need to sit down with her and get all your feelings out on the table first - and then if she doesn’t cooperate, call me and I’ll go full lawyer on her”

“Lawyer on who?” Anne said, walking into the kitchen wrapping her dressing gown tight around her to keep her body heat in.

“Oh no one” Harry smiled his charming smile “Merry Christmas Mum”

“Oh Merry Christmas my boy” she wrapped her arms around him “It’s so nice to have you home”

His head sank into Anne’s shoulder and suddenly everything didn’t seem so urgent or stressful

“Good to be here mum” he sighed happily

“Now Clara” she said pulling away from Harry “Merry Christmas Dear”

“Merry Christmas Anne” she smiled “Thanks for having us all in your house”

“Oh it’s no trouble, you’re doing most of the work love, I’ve just got spare rooms. Now,” she clapped her hands “How can I help?”

Clara smiled “You can’t, make yourself a cup of tea and relax Anne, you deserve it”

“Relax this year before you have a grandchild to dote on next year” Harry thought to himself before smiling at his mother and handing her a teabag, butterflies filling his stomach, the thought of being a father still sinking in.

“If you insist” Anne shrugged, “I’ll be in the living room if you need anything”

Harry waited until Anne was as far away as possible and then whispered “I think I have to go back to London tomorrow, talk to shelly”

Clara shook her head “No” she said “you need a few days to get your head around it all. Work out what you want and have a clear head when you talk to her”

“Breaking up with someone are we H?” Ben, Clara's brother said walking into the kitchen.

“No” he laughed nervously “One of the PR managers at my label is trying to get me to get caught by the paparazzi while I’m home” This wasn’t a lie. They’d been bugging him about that for a while now, but right now it was the least of his worries.

“Maybe your job isn’t as great as it looks” Ben shrugged “anyway, Merry Christmas” he smiled “What kind of feast are we having Ra?”

“Well you’re having a roast chicken and Harry and Gemma are having a nut roast”

“Sounds delicious, what can I do?”

“Nothing yet” Clara smiled wishing he would go away so she could finish her conversation with Harry “Go sit down and get warm by the fire, I can see the goosebumps on your arms”

Ben nodded and left the room, feeling a little awkward for not helping and Clara turned to Harry.

“You need to get your head around this pretty fast H, because if she’s already saying she’s going to keep it, I can almost guarantee you she won’t be changing her mind. And I know you, you won’t just be a child support dad, so when we get a chance after lunch has happened, we’re going for a walk, and were going to talk this through until you know what you really want from this”

Harry’s face had turned a ghostly white “Ok” he nodded

“And until then” clara smiled “I’m going to distract you, see those carrots over there?”

He nodded again

“Peel them” Clara said “and the boil them in that pot”

“I can do that” he sighed “But then what”

“Well then you can chop the nuts” Clara took a sip of her tea and tried to empty her head of the idea that Harry was going to be a father and work out where the hell she needed to start for this christmas lunch, which she had refused help with.

***

Holmes Chapel was really beautiful in winter. The trees glistened with frost that had never melted from that morning and paths looked like something straight out of a fairy tale. Harry and Clara had managed to escape their families for a little while, using Bowie as the perfect excuse to go for a walk in the cold. It had been almost eight hours since Shelly had told Harry that she’s pregnant but the information had barely sunken in.

“What are your thoughts H?” Clara asked after five minutes of walking in silence

“I don't have any” Harry admitted “I don’t want a baby right now Ra, but I’ve got one and I don’t know what to do”

Clara nodded, “I think the first thing you need to think about is what you want your relationship with Shelly to look like.”

“I don’t know” he said firmly “I really like her but this makes it very serious very fast”

“It does” Clara nodded “But I’m not sure you’re in a position to be picky about that right”

“I guess we’re better off working out that we don’t work together before the baby arrives”

“That’s one way to look at it…” Bowie spotted something and launched himself forward “Bowie” Clara said firmly “with me”

“Or it could work and I’d have a ready made happy family before I thought I would”

“Yeah” Clara sighed, little apprehensively, “This could be great for you”

“What do I do if it’s a disaster”

“You call me” Clara said “and we do everything we legally can to get the custody agreement that suits you”

“I’d want all of it” He admitted

“I know” Clara smiled “But I wanted you to say that, so that you’d realise that this is not such a disaster”

“I hate it when you do that” Harry smiled down at clara

“Do what?” she smirked

“Know what I’m thinking before I’m thinking it”

“Oh that” Clara blushed “I’ve been doing that since we were 5”

He nodded and sighed “I guess I’m going to be a dad next year then”

[voiceswithoutlips]

Woof! goes the demon

— pairing: Jung Hoseok x Reader (Female) — genre: Fluff — word count: 1.3k — Rating: G — warnings: none — collab with: @biaswreckme​ my partner in crime <3

— summary: 

Hoseok nodded at you, taking the paper from your hands. “Y/N, don’t worry, I got this! I love dogs!,” he said cheerfully as he made his way to your living room. You failed to notice how he cautiously looked around the room before entering, or how he avoided sitting on the sofa that Odin was perched on, looking at Hoseok like he was a whole meal. 

— A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY RARACUBE @heejinnien!! I hope you like the fic, its our first attempt at crack (we’re not good at that) HAVE AN AMAZING BIRTHDAY, MAKE LOTS OF MEMORIES, ENJOY YOUR CAKE. YOUR BOOMERS LOVE YOU <333333 — birthday party:  @hoebii, @jinings, @voiceswithoutlips, @biaswreckme, @xiaokoo​ @tae-cup​ @taegularities​ @moccahobi​

“Hobi!!” you said as you opened the door to your apartment. You had to leave for  an emergency meeting at the office but unfortunately you couldn’t find a dog sitter for your precious puppy so your friend Hoseok had agreed to look after your dog, Odin, for the day. He was standing in the doorway, looking like a runway model with his red hair combed back carefully to show his glorious forehead. He was wearing a grey sweater with washed blue jeans. The sweater had an actual stuffed bear attached to it, it was adorable, you almost reached out to pet the cute plushie. Maybe not the best choice to be a pet sitter, but it was completely and unashamedly Hoseok.

“Hey,” he greeted you with a cute smile and stepped inside to remove his sneakers. 

“Okay, so here’s Odin’s schedule, all you have to do is feed him and play with him a bit, he’s still young so he has a lot of energy,” you instructed as you handed Hoseok a piece of paper. You had written down your dog’s meal times and what he liked to eat to make it easier for Hobi. “You don’t really have to take him for a walk since I’ll be back in a few hours.” 

Hoseok nodded at you, taking the paper from your hands. “Y/N, don’t worry, I got this! I love dogs!,” he said cheerfully as he made his way to your living room. You failed to notice how he cautiously looked around the room before entering, or how he avoided sitting on the sofa that Odin was perched on, looking at Hoseok like he was a whole meal. 

“Thank you so much Hobi, I don't know what I’d have done without you!” you quickly pecked his cheeks and left the apartment, missing how his whole face turned red, like a cute tomato. 

When your boss said the words “emergency meeting” you thought something had gone wrong, turns out he just wanted to go over the project details, again. You had already heard all the arguments and details so you just sat back in your chair and toyed with your phone, bored out of your mind. Your thoughts far away on your favorite boy, Odin, the cutest Shih Tzu you’d ever seen. 

You discreetly moved your phone under the table as your boss rambled on and turned on the application that was linked to your nanny-cam. You had bought one out of concern, since you always left Odin with a dog sitter.

Your jaw almost dropped as soon as you saw what was happening in your living room. Hoseok was standing on the sofa, his blue shark socks in stark contrast to the brown leather, he was holding a chicken breast in his hand. Odin was trying to jump up on the sofa but his tiny legs barely reached the top of the seat, he was yapping at Hoseok, tail wagging at the speed of light. Hoseok bent down on his knees and brought the chicken closer to Odin but instead of going for the chicken, the little Shih Tzu mustered all his strength, leaped high into the air in a graceful display and effectively tore off the left leg of the stuffed bear that adorned Hoseok’s grey sweater. 

You almost jumped in your seat guiltily and quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed it, but apparently you had been discreet enough. You could see Hoseok was as shocked as you were; he was frozen in place, his eyes and mouth wide open staring at Odin, who was happily running around with the bear’s leg on his mouth, unfazed and unaware of the rip on the human’s sweater with stuffing coming out of it. You had no idea what to do now. Would Hobi be angry with you?

You looked at the clock and even the seconds seemed to slow, the meeting dragging over and seemingly never-ending, until it finally did. You stopped looking at the feed when you saw what happened, a little apprehensive on how Hoseok would react when you talked to him in person, but there was no more stalling. the meeting was finally over and you needed to get home to deal with the situation. You were dreading going home to the chaos and Hobi’s expensive sweater ruined, so you stopped by the bakery to get his favorite treats to try and appease the situation.

You almost considered taking the stairs going up your apartment, but that would be too much of stalling and you didn’t really want to walk up several flights while carrying a big jar of Nutella. You stopped at your front door, pausing and carefully and quietly pressing your ear against the door, trying to listen to what was happening inside.  You heard a loud sneeze with some sniffling noises and a soft, “Odin, no!” You take a deep breath and press the password to enter, gathering the courage, and you step into the place. 

You were certainly not anticipating the scene you found. Hoseok is a tall man, so to see him like that was unexpected, to say the least. You found him perched on the sofa’s armrest, crouching, a panicked expression that was visible not only in his face but his whole body, and Odin was just sitting there, innocently looking at him with his head tilted to the left, that ripped leg still in his mouth. If you didn’t know your dog was a very good boy, by the way Hobi was looking at him, scared like that, it would’ve seemed like Odin was evil incarnate.

You could not believe your own eyes. There was a turned glass on the coffee table, water spilled all over it, the books you usually kept on it ruined for now; there were little pieces of fluff scattered on the floor that you were certain they were from Hobi’s sweater;  Odin’s food bowl was turned over and there was kibble all around it. Had World War III happened at your place and no one let you know?

You gasped when you saw the true state of your friend’s sweater, the second leg of the bear was gone too, stuffing dripping everywhere. It was a massacre. As soon as they heard you, Odin dropped the bear’s leg and ran to you, putting his paws on your legs and stretching his back, tail wagging happily, telling you what a good job he did, while Hoseok stared at you with a look of guilt mixed with shock that you were back earlier than you said you would be. You leaned down to pet Odin’s head, but you maintained Hobi’s gaze and raised your eyebrows.

“What… What happened?” your voice could not hide your state of shock at the scene.

“Oh, its uh….” Hoseok trailed off looking around the room, trying to form an explanation in his head. “Y/N, I have to be honest with you, I think your dog is possessed…” he said in a low voice, almost a whisper. His eyes trained on Odin who was comfortably sitting on the floor, between your legs. 

You looked down at the small Shih Tzu, the puppy looked like an angel, innocent eyes stared back at you with love. You tried to keep it in, but you burst out laughing at the ridiculous thought. You saw Hoseok grinning, he was still sitting on the armrest with half a bear hanging off of him. 

 “By the way Hobi, I’m so sorry that he did that to your sweater...” you start feeling a little guilty, that sweater was really cute and now it was ruined. But deep down you thought it wasn’t entirely the dog’s fault, after all, there was a cute bear dangling off Hoseok the entire time, of course it would strike a dog’s attention. “It must be pretty expensive, and I don’t know if I can afford to buy you a new one or even if it’s mendable at this point…” you rambled, nervously clenching your hands.

Hoseok looked at you with amusement in his eyes, clearly not mad about what your dog had done to him and his clothes.

“Well… you have to repay me for that expensive sweater, don’t you think?” he smirked,  “So ...how about a date?"

[shy-violet-soul]

Puppy Love

Summary: When Uncle Dean takes his first solo niece-sitting gig, what could possibly go wrong? Characters: Dean Winchester, Castile, Sam Winchester x reader, & OC Erica from a story written by @kittenofdoomage titled “Rainbows in the Sun” Word Count: 2,600 Warnings: none! Tooth rotting fluff

A/N: I had the privilege and delight of reading @kittenofdoomage Supernatural series, “Rainbows in the Storm”, on Patreon. If you’re not a patron of hers, you are missing out! I quickly fell in love with this amazing story - her characterization and nail-biting cliffhangers kept me hooked the whole way through. But one little sentence in the Epilogue had me laughing, and my imagination ran away with me. This is for you, @kittenofdoomage !

Image found on https://wallpapersafari.com/w/kn7fwH

Dean Winchester didn’t brag about his assets often. But he had zero problem with his pride at the oft given praises his mouth had earned from the ladies. His lips had brought delight to many a babe. The current babe in his arms was no different.

The fact that she was four months old, and his niece, didn’t detract from his pride one iota.

Crossing his eyes, Dean happily blew raspberries continuously as he leaned down before smacking noisy kisses under her chin. Erica’s baby giggles burst forth as she waved her hands, and Dean had to do it again.

“Thhhhbbbffft,” he wagged his face side to side as he leaned down, letting his nose rub against her tiny chest tickingly before diving back under one round cheek and smacking more kisses. Dimples winked up at Uncle Dee, Erica’s still-baby-blue eyes gazing up at him with delight, and he fell a little more in love yet again.

“You’re adorable,” came his matter of fact observation. Erica grinned her agreement. “Good genes, darlin’. You got your mama’s nose, and I’m pretty sure your killer Winchester smile from your uncle, not your daddy.” With the ease of long practice, Dean swiped the burp cloth from his shoulder and dabbed at the drool on her tiny chin. “Do me a favor and smile a lot. Like me, not like Mr. Grumpy Pants Daddy.”

Delicate eyebrows knitted together as Erica cooed seriously. Dean nodded proudly. “That’s my girl. Now, your mama said not to worry about your bath. I think it’s because she doesn’t think I can handle it. You and I both know that’s crap, right?” Erica chewed intently on her fists in answer. “Right. So gimme one more giggle and then it’s ‘Rubber Ducky, You’re the One’. Here we go!”

One more time, Dean raspberried down, down to Erica’s sweet smiling face. Just as he started growling under her chin, her squeal changed into something weird. Several things crammed into Dean’s brain in about a millisecond.

One - Erica sounded like she yipped. Like, puppy yipped. But that couldn’t be. He was wrong.

Two - her soft, slightly drool-slimy chin was suddenly different soft. Like fluffy furry soft. Which also couldn't be. He had to be wrong.

Three - the chubby little fists she loved to chew on suddenly swiped claws against his face. Like, claws. Puppy claws. Which also so very much please couldn’t be.

Please, oh please, Dean wanted to be wrong.

Post millisecond, Dean yanked himself upright and felt his stomach drop straight to Rowena’s throne room.

A chubby, fluffy wolf pup - adorable, yes, but a freakin’ wolf pup - lay wriggling in his lap, snout wreathed in puppy smiles as it waved its paws up at him.

Dumbfounded, Dean sat frozen for a moment. He slowly stood up, holding the pup at arms length before gently setting it on the couch. Then, he frantically searched under the throw pillows at each end, under your blanket tossed over the back, even under the couch itself for his suddenly missing niece. No human baby surfaced.

His frantic gaze fell on the wolf pup. It lounged right where he’d laid it, studying him curiously. Erica’s cute lady-bug onesie and leggings stretched and gapped in equal measures around fluffy legs and paws, and the red barrette he’d painstakingly affixed into his human niece’s hair earlier sat holding a hank of creamy-brown fur straight up between its ears.

“Oh, crap”

At his whisper, the wolf pup smiled happily and launched itself at him. His reflexes kicked in and his arms scooped the little bundle against his chest, falling backwards to the floor. The pup wiggled its way up his chest and slopped a lick against his chin before gazing into his eyes lovingly.

Gazed with Erica’s still-baby-blue eyes.

“Son of a bitch!” Tucking pup-Erica under one arm, Dean dove for his cell phone. “Cas!” Pup-Erica playful clawed and nipped at his phone as he frantically tried to call Sam. No answer, straight to voicemail. Same thing for your phone. This was bad.

“CAS!”

“Hello, Dean.”

The hunter didn’t even hesitate, just thrust the pup at the angel.

“Fix this!” he bellowed, pup-Erica wiggling happily in his grasp at the sight of her other uncle. Castiel tilted his head as he stared at the pup.

“Hello, Erica. Are you enjoying your first shift?” She yipped as Castiel took her in his arms, slopping kiss after kiss on his face. “I’m happy to see you, too.”

Dean had braced his hands on his legs as he leaned down, head between his knees as he wheezed in air. Cas stared at him quizzically.

“Dean, are you alright?”

He raised a hand, wordlessly asking for a moment. “I think I’m having a heart attack. Or a stroke. Maybe an explosive ulcer,” he croaked out.

Nonplussed, Cas pressed two fingers against Dean’s forehead. “I detect none of these events occurring, Dean. Although your blood pressure is highly elevated, and you appear to be generating a migraine. I can’t heal that until your heart rate slows down. You should try to relax.”

Dean’s hands fisted onto Cas’s trench coat collars, pulling himself up to standing to glare maniacally into his friend’s placid gaze.

“My niece is a dog, Cas! I’m not going to relax! I’m going to be murdered when they get back! Sam’s gonna...” His grip loosened as his thoughts zoomed to your reaction. “She’s going to chew me to kibble.” Horror trembled in his whisper as he dragged his hands over his face.

Sad, tiny whining begged for attention as a tentative paw patted at his arm. Still dazed beyond comprehension, Dean blinked down at the blue eyes staring woefully up at him. By sheer habit, Dean tucked the little one into his arms, warmth filling his chest when she snuggled into his shoulder - just like human-Erica did. The high-pitched whine echoed from her chest into a full-fledged howl that Dean would later recall as ridiculously cute. But now, his niece was sad and needed her uncle.

“It’s alright, ladybug, it’s alright. Look, Uncle Dee’s ok. Uncle Cas and me are gonna take care of you, don’t you worry.” Instinctively, Dean moved to pat her back before switching gears to gently scritching her ears. “Cas, can you talk to her?”

“While I can speak to lycans in their wolf form, as a juvenile, she still has not learned words. She’s upset right now, but calming. However, she has forgotten in the urgency of the moment that she’s hungry.”

Dean’s eyes closed as this new challenge presented itself. When Erica whined again, cuddling closer, he snapped to attention.

“Alright. We’ve got a highly experienced hunter and an angel. We got this. We can take care of one baby wolfed-out lycan.”

Two destroyed bottle nipples and a spilled canister of powdered formula later, Dean wasn’t sure they had this at all. Cas currently sat at the kitchen table with Erica, dipping his fingers into a bowl of formula and letting her lick and suck to her heart’s content. However, the going was slow, so Dean was improvising plan B. He’d dug up one of his softest old tshirts and some of your hair ties. In moments, he had fashioned a teat that he hoped to kingdom come would work.

“Alight, Cas, give her here.” Frustrated and hungry, Erica growled as she tried to climb into the formula bowl, her nose and face liberally coated with the white liquid. Working in tandem, Cas started soaking the cloth teat in the formula while Dean wrapped his flannel shirt around the wriggling pup, using the sleeves to swaddle her still. Then, he cradled her in his elbow and mentally crossed his fingers. Erica nosed the soaked fabric curiously before giving a tentative lick, then a bit of a chomp. Two seconds later, she was sucking with gusto, tiny grunts of approval rumbling from her. When Dean pulled it away to resoak it, the pup was not impressed; demanding, squeaky barks let her uncles know to hurry it up! Both men chuckled as the feeding went on until Erica stopped sucking and just chewed.

“Good job, ladybug,” Dean praised as he unwound the flannel from about her. “Look at that fat little belly!” With a gentle touch, he tickled the soft pink skin, laughing again when she squirmed, panting happily. Dean handed her off to Cas while he snagged the bowl, carefully stepping over the drifts of powdered formula. “Gotta say, Cas, didn’t know you were so experienced with wolf baby care.”

“I once cared for a baby elephant who had been separated from his mother in the sub-Saharan plains. It’s pretty much the same thing.”

Water running as he washed the bowl, Dean sent a scoff over his shoulder at the angel.

“No, Cas. It really isn’t.” A pause as Dean fully turned to look at his friend. “Where is she?”

“Who?”

Dean’s eyes rolled so hard, they saw it from space. “The Duchess of Cambridge. Erica, you dumb ass!”

The angel looked down and glanced around him, his arms glaringly empty. “She’s not here.”

Dean’s left eyelid started twitching. Wasn’t that a symptom of a stroke? “I can see that. Why are you not holding her?”

“She wanted down.”

A faint cracking sound in his skull only faintly registered with Dean; probably a molar, but that was an issue for later. “She wanted down? That’s all you got? She wanted down?!” That migraine from earlier suddenly flared to life, and Dean nearly broke a bone in his scramble into the library.

“ERICA!!! Come to Uncle Dee, honey!” A cheerful yip and rhythmic claw clicking caught his ear, and Dean turned his head so quickly he gave himself a crick. Luck was on their side - Erica’s human baby clothes had hobbled wolf pup Erica, and her limping, lopping progress in their direction was pure cuteness. Dean hit his knees and swept her into his arms. “Ladybug, you can’t do that to your uncle! He’s an old man!” He pressed kiss after kiss to her wet nose, gratefully accepting her boisterous and slightly drooly puppy kisses. Even the one that went in his eyeball.

Sending Cas a glare of pure exasperation, he began wrestling the baby clothes off the wiggly bundle of fluff.

“Alright. We’ve survived two crises, I think the worst is behind us.”

All seriousness and brevity, Cas nodded as he straightened, scooping a small, leather-bound copy of A Hystori of Caledonian Monsters from the floor. The aged tome bore a surprising amount of chewing and puppy drool from the short amount of time of his niece’s unsupervised freedom.

“Agreed.”

- - - 2 hours later - - -

Sam grinned down at you dopily as you both trudged down the long hall from the garage. The long-overdue date hadn’t been what he’d originally planned. But when the waxing moon and wildflower-scented breeze had hit them both, candlelight and overpriced pasta didn’t seem near as appealing as sizzling sexy times in the back seat, burgers and fries and milkshakes from the drive through, and shifting to frolic in the tall, windswept grass of an open field.

The quiet of the bunker wasn’t terribly unsurprising; Uncle Dee was a veritable decibel defender when it came to his niece’s nap time. No baby girl of mine is growing up used to only four hours and calling that rest! he had scorned. The fact that the newborn was only sleeping four hours at a time anyway, and wasn’t his actual daughter, was resolutely ignored.

What was surprising was the carnage that greeted them. Library chairs laid on their sides in some type of corral. Erica’s baby toys rested in varying stages of repose or destruction. Burp clothes, towels, and receiving blankets were scattered, some whole, some slightly torn. An open bottle of baby shampoo slowly glugged its contents onto the table. Someone had attempted to hide some damaged lore books behind a lamp. And pillows - so many pillows - were everywhere, their feathery guts flung to every corner of the room.

Instantly on alert, Sam waved you to stay back as he drew his gun and began easing forward. Senses honed by years of battle didn’t pick up on any immediate threat, but the proof before him clearly spoke otherwise. When your hands fisted into his shirt, fingers trembling in sudden fear, he reached back to touch your back reassuringly.

“Dean?” he shouted questioningly. His voice echoed against the cavernous ceiling, but still no foe came at them. With a tentative touch, he nudged a tired pillow over, finding another damaged lore book beneath it. Sam gingerly grabbed it, lifting it up to squint at the mangled leather and paper.

“Are those…” you started haltingly, peering over his shoulder.

“They look like...tiny teeth marks.” You stared at Sam wordlessly before you both sprinted for the bedrooms. The nursery door banged against the wall loudly, and the occupants of the room flinched but didn’t stir beyond that.

One side of the crib was hanging haphazardly from its left-side screws, a blanket strangled in the slats. A stuffed tiger toy that you secretly hated lay with its head missing and cotton stuffing innards hanging out. No less than 11 diapers scattered across the floor with the tapes missing. Sleeper legs and flannel blankets dangled from open dresser drawers. Clouds of baby powder, liberally dusted into higgledee piggledee piles, still hazed the light glowing from the lamp near the upholstered rocking recliner in the corner. In the middle of the madness lay the hapless heroes.

They had somehow managed to winch Dean’s fancy memory foam mattress into the room, one corner of it caught and peeling up against the toy chest. Cas lay on one side, his trench coat hanging off one arm and his tie out from under his collar and wrinkled beyond belief. Dean looked no better; his grey tshirt showed dark swathes of damp that smelled like baby shampoo. His hair stood up in weird handfuls, as if he’d been gripping it in his fists in desperation. Shoeless, he only wore one sock. A handful of raggedy baby wipes poked out of his back pocket.

And between them both, tenderly snuggled into a nest of nearly every blanket in the bunker lay a precious creamy-brown wolf pup, sleeping contentedly without a care in the world.

Sam knew his jaw had hit the floor, and figured you were in the same boat.

“Is that...her?”

You took a couple of careful steps forward into the wreckage. Closing your eyes, you let your stronger lycan senses take over. The soft, sugary scent of honeysuckle comforted your mama heart as you smiled in disbelief.

“Yep, that’s her.”

“You mean she had her first shift and we missed it?!”

Chuckling softly, you picked your way through the baby item minefield. Only a Winchester would be more upset about missing a baby’s first shift than the absolute destruction of their home.

“It looks like.”

“What do we do? Does she know how to shift back?”

You pursed your lips thoughtfully, stilling them Erica twitched and squeaked in her sleep. “I don’t know. I’ll call my mom, maybe she can help us.”

Warm, long fingers curled around your hips to tug you back against him. You could sense his delight at the picture before them. Whatever had happened, his brother and friend had adapted and overcome. His daughter was so loved.

“I guess we should wake them up.”

You grinned as you dug out your phone. “Not until I get a picture.”

[peachyproserpina]

Wickedly Domestic

Chapter 2: Coffee and Traffic

John Wick x OC

TW: nothing really, mentions of anxiety

As always if I miss something or if you need something tagged please let me know

Anyone could tell that he had just woken up, he was glaring at her hair mussed clothes rumpled. Daisy yapped and licked at his ankles, “oh, yeah.” He stepped aside to let the dog into the house. Maria stood at the edge of his porch, wringing her fingers together she stepped fully onto the porch and bit her lip when she stumbled over the baby step up. She was trying to not stare at the handsome man as she brought her hands up to her cheeks to stop her nervous habit as well as hopefully cool her blush.

“I was uhh, out running at the swamp and the uh dog - Daisy ran up to me and-” She jumped when he stepped aside, gesturing her inside with a wave of his arm.

“Coffee?” John turned and left the door open, Maria let her jaw drop she didn’t think she would have gotten this far. Most people don’t give her a second look, let alone invite her in for coffee. Her round stomach and thick thighs scared most people away and this man was seriously gorgeous. She was still sweating through her sports bra from her run. She stepped up into his house following him into the kitchen very slowly. Clasping her hands tightly together she looked around one of the most modern and opulent homes she’s ever seen. She looked over the photos hanging in the hallway, they were all of the same beautiful woman. Laughing or looking pensive, as she made her way further into the home she noticed more pictures, this time including some of the handsome stranger who she could hear making coffee in what she assumed was a huge kitchen.

She was looking over his mid room bookshelf at her heart stopped when she saw what was one of the most breathtaking wedding photos she had ever seen. They were both standing there and she could feel the love, she felt like she was in the moment. He was looking at her like he was seeing color first the first time or like everything just fell into place. While she knew he was out of her league she always hoped she would manage to land a hot guy, and rescuing a lost puppy sounds like the beginning of a Nicholas Sparks movie. Seeing this photo somehow filled her with so much love and made her feel like she was going to be sick at the same time. Any dreams of hitting on the very fine apparently married man were dashed away. She heard the sound of coffee cups being set onto a counter and the tinkling of Daisy’s collar against something. Maria made her way to the kitchen, still wringing her fingers, a nervous habit she picked up. It was better than chewing her fingernails like how she did was she was younger but it was an easy tell.

She took her cup of coffee and sat at the island in the kitchen nervously sipping what was one of the best cups of coffee she had ever had in her life. She didn’t even like it black but there was something about it that she couldn’t stop drinking it. She chanced a glance over to him and smiled nervously over her cup. He grunted and looked down at his foot where Daisy was resting, tired from her adventure away from home.

“Yeah, I found her at the swamp. She was just wandering around, I don't know how she got there.” She was letting her words flow before she could stop herself. Her host kept staring on, a man of few words. “You’re house is amazing, I live a few blocks over and I didn’t think I would ever see a house this big in real life let alone be drinking coffee in it-” she paused to take a breath, it was like she was talking to a ghost. She couldn’t even hear him breathe. “Daisy is a sweetie and she did so good in the car, also your wife is beau-” there was a clatter of a cup onto the counter, she looked at him and saw his shoulders shake. She couldn’t tell if it was from anger or from sadness, but she could now feel the overwhelming heat come off of him. She shrank back into her seat and held her cup up close to her mouth. Knowing that it was useless if he decided to attack but not having anything closer.

“Was. My wife WAS beautiful.” He ran a hand through his hair and Maria felt her blood run cold and her face heat up to an uncomfortable level. How this man managed to bring out the worst in her she had no idea, she couldn’t remember the last time she was this nervous in front of anyone. She opened her mouth to apologize and he held up a hand. “She just recently passed. Just a few days ago.”

“I am- my condolences. I can tell you love her, I’m always here if you need an ear to vent to.” She let out a nervous laugh placing her cup on the table pressing her fingers to her cheeks. “I haven’t even introduced myself and im offering to be a fucking therapist that you probably dont need.” She took a breath and held out her hand. Closing her eyes she waited until he took it before she started up again. Maria didn’t realize how bad she was shaking until he took her hand in his. His touch was warm, when he wrapped his fingers around hers she jumped, she could feel what felt like ripples of electricity branch off from where her fingers grazed. It really hit home how nervous and sweaty she was, she bit her lip and cracked open her eyes. His gaze was fixed on where their hands met and when he flicked his eyes up to meet hers she let out the breath she was holding. He really was gorgeous, he was older, that was apparent. Sharp facial hair even though he just woke up, hard eyes that were brown and deep enough to get lost in. Maria wet her lips and she saw he followed the line of her tongue and she flushed.

“My name is Maria, I live just a few blocks away and I work at a bank in the city.” Maria jumped at that, yanking her hand back from his like she was burnt. John looked at his hand, flexing his fingers before watching her dig her phone out of her jacket. Maria let out a pathetic little sob when she saw the time on her phone. “Oh fuck, oh fuck. I am going to get fired! I am so fucking LATE.” She started up and rushed to the door, pulling her keys from the same pocket her phone was in. Her yelling woke up Daisy who was following behind John as he guided her back to the front door with a light touch on her back. She could feel his wedding ring like a brand and bit her lip, she should not be thirsting over this man. This man who was only being nice because she found his dog, this man who had to have admirers lined around his block, this man who just lost his wife.

He could feel the panic coming off of her from his front door. She nervously waved at him before backing out and making a run to her car, which she parked at the end of his driveway. Why she parked so far away from the door, he wasn’t sure most of the guests that came over were Helen’s and they always had no problem parking so close. If anyone who was there for him drove a car they parked as close as possible, trying to be intimidating. It was refreshing to have someone blissfully unaware of who he was, what he was. He watched her rush to her car and did a double take when he saw the delicate pattern of daisies wrapped around her right shoulder.

“The names John!” he called after her, not wanting to have the girl more scared of him then she already was. She stopped dead in her tracks, letting the timbre of his voice carry down her spine as he shouted after her. Letting out a breath she waved at him while she climbed into her car before peeling out of the neighborhood. He watched her speed away before closing the door and waking up properly for his day. He had to get kibble and toys for Daisy and he had a date with the tarmac and his Mustang.

[thespiantherepist]

Werewolf Bakugou x reader |Part one|

Warnings: Mentions of nudity, abusive relationships, cussing, euthainasia, and sucky writing.

Your boyfriend was always an asshole. You didnt even know why you started dating. He'd stolen, lied, hit you, bossed you around.

Hell, just as you thought life was getting better the cunt goes, and cheats on you!

The man told you flat out, "I've been screwing another chick, its been a gas!"

Then he left.

When you called him about his dog that you thought he left at your house, he said he left it at the vet.

Even worse, he took it to go get euthanized!

The dog he'd just gotten. Sure the dog was almost always in a foul mood, but at least he'd never hurt anyone!

You were livid.

You almost started crying on your way to the vet. Stepping in through the door you told the vet the story.

They knew you, and knew how your boyfriend had acted towards you. They let you get him from the back.

"HI Papa!" The large Fawn coloured dog turned its eyes to you. They burned into your soul.

You shivered, the dog had spooked you sure, but you took pity on him.

"Lets take you home yeah?"

The dog seemed a bit happy to hear that he was going home. He still looked annoyed though. Grabbing his Red leash you attached it to his spiked collar.

Getting him in the car was a hastle. He kept crawling over the seats. Then when you put your hand up to block him from the front he'd growl off handed.

"Down Katuski!" You yelled excitedly, pointing your finger to the ground.

He didnt move.

"Katsuki baby, down!" You said softer this time.

The dog huffed, and layed down instead.

"Uggh, forget it."

Then he barreled out if the car, hoping over you, and dragging your body through the lawn.

"Katsuki!"

The dog stopped abruptly. He looked at you, seeming aggrivated. You stared right back up at him.

When he got inside he ran straight to your boyfriends room. Then he turned in a circle.

He walked to the Garage.

He looked at his chair, and he placed his paw on it.

He layed his head down. He looked sadly at the empty space of the couch.

When you saw the sad display your heart nearly broke. In the time you, and your boyfriend were together the only time he seemed happy was when he was with Katsuki.

You went to go pet him.

It backfired.

he bit you hard.

You lurched backwards, holding your now bleeding hand. Tears sparked in your eyes, and with all the stress built through the day you broke.

The dog in front of you seemed genuinely shocked, he started slowly walking forward.

You backed up.

He growled, taking faster steps to you, and pushing your chin with his snoot. He leaned the top of his head against your uninjured hand. He sniffed you, nudging his nose agaist you, he started licking your tears. Getting more assertive, he started licking tears from your cheeks rougher than before.

You started to giggle, as you were being pushed over. You fell on your back, chuckiling as the dog above you tried to lick your mouth.

You pet him, lightly shoving his face away from yours. He huffed as you stood up.

He sat down. Then cocked his head to the kitchen. You turned your head as well.

"You hungry pa?" He looked at you as if you were stupid.

"Ill take that as a yes."

You walked to the kitchen, dog trailing proudly behind you. Wrapping your hand in gauze first, you gave him some kibble. The dog thanked you by licking your uninjured hand briefly.

He wagged his tail slightly, you giggled taking out some chips to munch on.

He looked up at you.

Then he nudged your crotch.

"Wha!"

Your crunchy treats fell to the ground.

"No!" You cried in despair, as you saw the oval shaped crisps beibg eaten by the dog.

"TRAITOR!" You yelled playfully.

The dog waved his tail.

"Youre an asshole." You joked. The large dog in front of you boofed indignantly.

You sat down on the couch after you, and your dog were finished with your meals. You looked at the fluffy monster. "I love you so much you overgrown Pomeranian!" You said grabbing the side of his face, and shaking it.

He barked loudly, several times. Sometimes in a series. It would die down with a boof, then pick back up again.

"Yah, Yah thats enough. Im going to bed."

You got up, and walked to your bedroom, keeping an eye on the dog laying on your couch.

When Katsuki knew you were asleep he changed. He looked to the door where your room was separated from the living area.

He rolled his eyes , as he walked to the landry room to get changed. He thought about you while walking there. His tail mindlessly waving.

'Where the fuck is the dude?' He thought as he made his way there. His tail stopping its maneuvers. He opened the door to the landry room quietly. He stepped inside.

Looking around he noticed most of your ex boyfriends belongings were gone. His jackets, his favourite bong, his t.v and gaming system in the corner.

'So thats why the chic-... she. was crying.'

He thought to himself. Looking around the laundry room, he searched for your ex's clothing. He only found a discarded Nirvana tank, and some basketball shorts.

'He's not going to be using these anymore.' He thought, he painstakingly tried pulling on the shorts. 'WHY DO HUMANS WEAR THESE THINGS?'

He heard a chocking sound from the door, still butt naked, as he couldbt fit his tail inside the shorts.

There you stood, one hand on your quickly beating heart. The other curled around the doorframe.

"What the fuck are you staring at shorty?" Bakugou asked rudely, turning around fully.

'Who is this man, and why is he naked?'

"w-who are you?" You asked confused, and trying not to look down, instead looking at the ceiling.

"My eyes are down here." He said loudly.

"Youre naked!"

"I dont see the problem with that." He said confused, and angry.

"GET OUT BEFORE I CALL THE COPS!" You yelled.

"Why should I its my house!"

He yelled back the dropping the shorts in his hands. Then you noticed, the bright red eyes, the colour of his hair matched your dogs. He stood tall, and proudly, had a tail, and ears. But you didnt want to believe it. You took a step back in fear, to which the man took a few steps forward.

"Listen human, I want to be comfortable too!" He shouted, angrily. "I was only trying to put on clothes incase of a situation like this!"

This guy was loud.

"I dont know what you're talking about. Youre a human too." You said out of breath, and trying to keep yourself from looking down once more.

Then he roughly pushed your head back with his middle finger.

"Im a dog dumbass!"

"YOUR HUMAN BODY SAYS OTHERWISE SIR!"

"DONT CALL ME SIR!"

You flinched at his volume. He sighed, "Let me get dressed, and I'll explain it to you."

"So youre a werewolf?"

"If you want to phrase it like that, yeah dumbass." He said gruffly, trying to open a bag of hot cheetos with his teeth.

"I dont thi-"

"I Dont Think Dogs Should Hav- SHUT UP ALREADY, LET ME EAT THE DAMN CHIPS!"

"Okay!"

--Part two coming soon--

[jasperswhumpjourney]

Teeth

Jasper breaks a rule...

CW: Minor mouth whump (dental pain), sick, Pet whump, Slavery, comfort, it as a pronoun, past lady whumper mention.

it hadn’t meant to disobey.

he hadn’t meant to disobey. his new Mistress, Mistress Abbey - Miss Bee, as he called Her in his head, allowed him a name and pronouns. Still, after so many years as an “it”, this still took some getting used to.

Waking to the continued ache in his jaw and the remnants of a nightmare, he realized soon after that the pain had gotten worse. jasper rolled onto the floor immediately; his comfy pet bed, thick and plush with a built in heater, now sat empty next to him.

he had been sleeping, acting like such a spoiled pet on his pillowed nest. jasper sniffled, ashamed at having taken the soft warmth for granted when flouting Miss Bee’s rules so completely!

Panic and pain holding a tug-of-war inside him, he pressed his face into the floor’s wood panels. Their coolness felt surprisingly good against the hot, swollen skin of his cheek. Upset at how he’d failed, he tried to breathe properly - something he had never been good at even in the best of times.

All his life, no matter what, Jasper had tried his best to be good and obedient. he had been doing so well for Her too, before this.

To make things worse, his Mistress didn’t even have many rules. And though Her rules were weird and often made no sense to him, most were easy to obey. This stood in such stark difference to his previous masters.

Also an extreme difference from his other owners, Miss Bee had been kind. Something he’d never deserved, but was even less worthy of now.

Yes, surely there would be no more mercy, no more chances. Because he’d broken this rule.

Her most important one...

Tell Mistress Abbey when it… when I do not feel well. Any discomfort or pain must be reported.

Of all Her rules, this was the least easy one to obey. Trained from a very young age to be a quiet and obedient shadow, the idea of bringing attention to himself, of complaining. It wasn’t appropriate for a thing like it pet like him.

Tears filled jasper’s eyes and his jaw throbbed.

When the hurt in his mouth had started over a week ago, it was just a small ache so he didn’t say anything. he’d had mouth pain in the past. Unlike this, before it had always been the result of a punishment or a beating. Head jarred in ways that left him bruised and aching.

It always went away at some point though. Eventually. he’d thought this too would go away.

Except. It hadn’t.

Instead, it had quickly accelerated over the past days. Now the ache had built to a blinding pounding in his head, and jasper knew he couldn’t get away with hiding it any longer.

Worse than the pain, which was bad - and jasper had plenty of experience to know - was that by revealing his failure, he was going to lose the kindest, absolute best Alpha he could imagine. All because he couldn’t do something as simple as obey.

he should have told Her right away.

But he hadn’t.

When She found out, Miss Bee would finally, finally, get rid of him. And they both knew he was so broken. Too broken really, to go to anyone else.

Would She have him put down? Send him to a lab like so many other owners had threatened?

Lost in these thoughts, jasper didn’t have long to spiral. Miss Bee walked into the room a few minutes later.

“Jasper, lamb, what are you doing out of bed? That floor is too cold for you.”

It was too soon, he wasn’t ready! And yet she was there. And so kind, She sat down next to where he knelt in his most submissive bow. Nose pressed to the floor, hands bent nicely in front of him, every part straight and perfect despite the terrible ache.

“Sweetheart, why are you posed like that? Did you have another bad dream?”

A warm hand came to rest on the cool, bare skin of his scarred back. Oh, he didn’t deserve such a kind touch. Even worse, despite how naughty he’d been he desperately craved it. jasper trembled and hiccuped on a sob at how awful he was. he shook his head “no” in answer to Miss Bee’s question. It wasn’t a lie really, he did have a nightmare, but that wasn’t why he was out of his bed and shivering beside Her.

Her hand rubbed in marvelous soothing circles over his shoulders. jasper felt his slutty omega hole respond, slick leaking into the little pet panties he wore. With Her sitting so close, his body was unable to resist Miss Bee’s delicious scent and Her gentle touches. It made his transgression all the more unbearable.

“Do you have a bellyache then, babes?” Miss Bee sighed. “I hope I didn’t accidentally overfeed you. I know how delicate your poor tummy can be.”

jasper shook his head “no” again and sniffled. Tears ran down his cheeks. his belly did ache but with terror. Not because of some wonderful treat he’d been given.

Miss Bee allowed him so many luxuries. An excess of human food, was a particular one he loved, having been fed only omega chow for most his life. It was normal for masters, Alphas, to have size preferences in their omega pets. And most, wanting tiny slender things, restricted their omega’s food to fix the issue.

Before Miss Bee, jasper’s life had been ruled by this, and he’d known only pet chow and hunger.

But then She found him!

When Miss Bee first commented about his weight, or lack thereof, and said She would feed him more, jasper had expected an extra portion of kibble at most. he had been very confused when She told him She didn’t and wouldn’t buy it omega chow.

Instead, She fed it delicious and filling people foods. And She’d always end its meals with a taste of something sweet. Fed to it from Her very own fingers!

And what had it done with Her generosity? it’d thrown it back into Her face with its disobedience. it was so terrible. Miss Bee deserved a much better thing than it… him.

“Then what is it, little lamb?” She asked, her warm fingers skating up to massage into his curls. he didn’t flinch away, but the soft touch on his head was enough to cause the pain to spike. It was nothing less than he deserved, however, even if She didn’t know.

And when She did know…

A previous Alpha, one far different from Miss Bee, had taken his voice. It wasn’t something he understood fully. Only that Mistress Celeste had taken him to the vet, and after he’d woken up unable to speak. Whatever had been done to him, it hurt like knives to try to talk now. And when sound did make its way out of his throat, it was a broken almost barking noise that humiliated him more than he thought possible.

Miss Bee knew this, and jasper had learned that just because She asked a question, it didn’t mean he had to answer verbally. She chatted, asked questions, and talked a lot. It was reassuring how She filled the silence.

he still had to answer Her, however.

Rising slowly and only as far as he dared from his penitent bow, jasper kept his eyes glued to the floor in respect. he had disobeyed Her, it was the least he could do. he rose enough that he could tilt his chin towards Her and used a stubbed finger to point at his mouth, his jaw.

It took all the effort he had, docked nub trembling as he brought attention to himself. Tears blurred his vision, so he wasn’t expecting it when Her hand carefully cupped his chin. It hurt, but he was trained to never flinch away. Instead he shied into Her hand, jarring his jaw painfully.

“Oh oh, sweetheart.” She cooed. Seeming to know how he ached, her grip on his jaw became lighter still. Miss Bee gently, too tenderly for the likes of him, urged him up straighter. “I don’t see a bruise, but this hurts?”

jasper barely nodded his head, just enough for Her to feel his answer. The pain radiated from the tooth in the back of his mouth, throughout his head, throbbing with the beat of his heart.

Her thumb gently stroked across his jaw, barely touching, just testing lightly. It was expected, so jasper was able to brace himself for Her touch. He didn’t budge again when she carefully pressed directly where the pain radiated from.

“You’re all swollen and warm here, little lamb, can you open your mouth for me?”

jasper obeyed, mouth dropping open before realizing what had been asked of him. he was always obedient, even if what he was ordered to do was painful or terrifying. And unlike others, She had never hurt him intentionally. Yes, Miss Bee had always been kind, but he had been a terrible pet. he broke Her rules. It wouldn’t be unexpected, he thought, if She realized She was being too kind to him, for Her to change Her ways and hurt him.

This wasn’t the case, yet, as She gently directed his chin so that She could get a better look inside. Miss Bee even pulled out Her phone, turning the flashlight on so She could see better.

jasper blinked away his tears while She was distracted examining him. Taking a moment to try and breathe as normally as he could, his heart stuttered when She tutted and pulled away. he didn’t dare close his mouth or move from where She left him. he’d already been disobedient enough, even if She didn’t know it yet.

“I don’t see anything.”

he could see Her frown and ice flooded his body. That couldn’t be right? he wasn’t making this up! he wasn’t lying to Her!

jasper hadn’t hid this pain from Her, broken Her very important rule, only for nothing to be wrong! Before he could react, She gently nudged his mouth shut and ran Her fingers through his hair.

So upset that she might think he was fibbing about the pain, Her petting wasn’t as nearly comforting as usual.

“How long has this been hurting you?”

And this was it. Now he would confess his sins to Her and he would lose this Goddess of a Mistress who had been entirely too kind to him. Even if nothing really was wrong. Even if She couldn’t see anything, he had still hidden his discomfort. That was still breaking Her rules.

jasper ducked his head down, wanting more than anything to go back to his formal kneel. But She had to be answered; he couldn’t get out of it. Speaking was hard and painful, and whenever he’d tried it he’d met with very little success. But his stubbed fingers were a terrible way to show numbers legibly and he had to answer Her.

his fear was overwhelming, filling his throat and making it feel even harder to try and say something.

jasper’s voice cracked and broke. “W-week, M-mistre-ess A-ab-bey,” he rasped out, voice barely above breathing levels. The effort left him desperately swallowing to lubricate his very dry throat. He fought the urge to cough from the discomfort.

The moment the words were out of his mouth, he fell into his formal kneel again. It felt so much better to be pressed down on the floor, where he belonged. And he wasn’t going to curl up and try to hide from whatever punishment She deemed fit for him. his scarred back was available for Her to rain Her anger down on.

Likely whatever happened next would only be the start, but he wouldn’t dare try to stop Her meting out justice.

Hearing him speak Miss Bee made a noise of surprise. When Her hand gently landed to rest on his head, he held himself politely back from flinching, even though the soft touch on his head startled. he’d expected pain on his back, maybe his thighs, his feet. There were so many options for her!

“Jasper, lamb. ” Her voice was soft and sad, it made him quail to think that he had caused this. She didn’t deserve this, She shouldn’t waste Her time and thoughts on Her disobedient omega. Especially after that disobedient omega had just confessed to breaking Her rules! “Jas, my darling, look at me.”

jasper’s head popped up, eager desperate to obey. he would never be able to make this up to Her, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t try. Fresh tears had built up in his eyes. They were so thick they wouldn’t just blink away. Instead, She gently held his jaw and wiped the tears away for him.

She was kind, too kind. It only made him cry harder. How could he have done this to Her?

“What a good boy, using your words. I’m so proud of you. And Sweetheart… I’m not mad.”

Before he knew what he was doing, he shook his head, contradicting her! jasper couldn’t help it though, how could She be proud of him? How could She not be furious? She had to be. She didn’t have to lie to him! he knew he was bad, he knew a punishment was the least he should expect.

Suddenly he wasn’t on the floor anymore. She pulled him into Her arms and cooed sweetly at him. Her comfort and sweetness threw him into a confused panic. his heart rate kicked up higher and his breathing faltered, gasping coughs punching through his chest and throat. A high pitched whistle of air could occasionally be heard between his coughs.

At first Her attempts at soothing didn’t help stop his choking. Then Miss Bee carefully maneuvered jasper’s head so his nose was tucked into Her throat, right over Her bonding gland and where Her perfumey Alpha scent was strongest. She was able to press him close without jarring his jaw. Her concentrated pheromones immediately went to work, helping him settle. If jasper had possessed the ability to notice, he would have been desperately grateful for Her kindness. Instead, he was too overcome.

he didn’t know how much time had passed, how long She spent whispering words of comfort to him, or for how long he gasped with panic, breathing in Her scent. Slowly, however, he was able to calm down, to be good for Her.

Well, not good - he was a bit past that at this point - but better than he had been behaving.

What a terrible omega pet it he was! he’d misbehaved, and instead of being punished like he rightly deserved, he’d panicked and She comforted him. This was so unfair to Her. he’d been awful. he’d failed.

he had to be better!

When he could finally breathe and he had calmed down, he wanted to be able to force more words out. Words that She needed to hear from him. How sorry he was for breaking Her rules, for inconveniencing Her like this, even after all that!

“S-sorry,” was all he managed before She stopped him.

he didn’t whine when She pulled away from him, though he barely caught himself. he hated how spoiled he’d become. But he needed Her so desperately. She didn’t go far, however, and instead tilted his chin up again so She could see his face better. It always made him feel so exposed when Miss Bee did this. Slaves were to keep their heads down: it was high disrespect to look at an Alpha, or even a Beta, directly.

jasper worked to keep his eyes respectfully lowered as She regarded him, but it was hard with how close She was.

“Jasper. Look at me,” She ordered.

It was work to obey. To raise his eyes enough. But he did it, because no matter what, he wanted to be an obedient pet. But he couldn’t help the trembling that shook his body from the effort it took to look at Her. And the effort not to break down into sobs again.

“The rule was to tell me when you are in pain and or uncomfortable.”

jasper eagerly nodded in agreement, the pain in his head blinding with each frantic bounce. he didn’t try to speak, She had already made it clear She didn’t want him to. he knew the rule! he knew it!

And that was worse! Because he had known it but disobeyed, even if he’d thought the pain would go away at first.

“Oh, lamb…” A soft touch from the Alpha stilled his frantic nodding before She continued on. “That’s not a rule to invite punishment. That’s a rule for your protection. I need to know when you hurt so I can help fix it.

“Did you not tell me because you were trying to be bad and rebellious?”

Jasper shook his head, a barely there shake, and breathed a barely audible “no.”

Soft lips pressed to his fevered forehead before Miss Bee continued, “You are mine, and I care for you. I’m only sorry I didn’t know so I could’ve helped you sooner. We can fix it, sweetie. So please don’t worry. ”

jasper couldn’t help the sobs that broke through, hearing this. That an Alpha, this Alpha, the best he had ever known, said She cared for him. It was all he had ever wanted, his entire life.

Despite this, he was also terrified of what She meant by “fixing it.”

Other owners would have fixed his pain by simply telling him to shut up.

he shivered on Miss Bee’s lap thinking about the next most likely option.

Or a trip to the vet….

his breathing grew ragged again. Maybe She’d have his teeth pulled?

his teeth had been the only part of him that had stayed intact since he’d left the breeders. It pained jasper to admit how much it grieved him, the idea of losing this one undamaged part of himself. But surely this would fix the problem: his teeth couldn’t hurt if he didn’t have them!

It would be a perfectly appropriate remedy. And it didn’t matter if he wanted to keep his teeth. They belonged to Miss Bee. Not him. jasper made a soft sad whine around his wheezes.

“Shhhh, babes.” Miss Bee soothed as She picked up Her phone again and punched in a number.

“Hello, Shain? Is there a chance I could bring Jasper in to see you tomorrow. I think he has a tooth hurting him.

“Eight thirty? Yes we can make that. Thank you so much for making time for us.

“What am I doing? Oh… Well… Besides taking care of poor Jassy, I started a new crochet pattern. A dress actually… Purple.”

jasper closed his eyes and snuggled against Miss Bee’s chest even if he didn’t deserve the softness. he knew She had a crush on Vet Shain. The heat of Her blush seeped into his skin where he pressed against Her. At his next sniffle She began combing the fingers of Her free hand through his curls.

jasper wept softly, amazed and overwhelmed with gratitude for his Alpha. It was so hard to believe this was real and not some kennel dream. he closed his watering eyes, allowing his Mistress’ wonderful voice to wash over him as She chatted with Mistress Shain and petted him.

Wrapped in his Alpha’s softness, warmth, and sweet scent, jasper drifted. he couldn’t believe he’d almost fallen asleep when Miss Bee next addressed him.

“Okay sweet boy, let’s get you up and get some food in your belly. Maybe some soymilk at least. Vet Shain wants me to give you one of your left over pain pills from when you first came here.” She shook Her head, remembering, and looked at him with such soft eyes. Despite how much he hurt, he blushed as his hole slicked up again at Her attention.

“And you need something in your tum to take your medicine.” She patted his flat stomach.

Seeing the bump in his panties where his tiny cock had grown hard at Her touch, She smiled at him. Even though he ached for release, he was happy She ignored it: he didn’t deserve that kind of treat after such disappointing behavior.

Then Miss Bee carefully shuffled him off Her lap and stood. She extended a hand. Reaching out his stubs, jasper took it and shakily climbed to his feet too. he followed Her out to the kitchen. Minstrel and Liver jumped off the sofa where they’d been napping and trailed after them in hopes of a snack as well. Minstrel yowled at them both about the tuna he wanted.

Jaw throbbing, jasper clung to Miss Bee’s hand. As they walked She argued with Minstrel about his waistline. jasper meanwhile, thought about the coming medicine.

he knew what pills meant. he knew this would make him sleep.

Maybe when he woke next, he would be able to be better for his kind Miss Bee. She was so gracious to have forgiven him, but it still ate at him that he had broken Her rule.

his stomach still ached with his failure and he wondered if he’d even be able to drink his milk. he’d try. he needed even more to be good now.

his chest was tight with anxiety too, knowing now he was going to see Vet Shain tomorrow. But while he feared the coming vet visit, since Miss Bee hadn’t punished him, maybe the certain pain that was coming would be enough to set things right… jasper shuddered... Even if he lost some teeth in the process.

Masterlist

[lightsburnbrite]

Things We Do for Love: Part 6

Third part to Such a Thrill and The Devil is in the Details

Karina smiled as she sat on the sofa. They had decided on a 'supernatural/horror drama' series on Netflix and settled on the sofa once they'd finished dinner. Leon lay stretched out with his head in Karina's lap, completely content as she ran her fingers through his hair, gently grazing his scalp with her finger nails. 

When the credits began to roll on the third episode, Leon stirred. "It's getting kinda late."

"Bedtime?" Karina felt herself melt when Leon looked up at her.

He nodded and eventually moved off of her, offering a hand to help Karina stand as well. She surprised herself when she left out a yawn. "Babe, I'll be right in, I just want to get my meds ready for the morning."

Leon let out a small grunt of acknowledgement as he made his way towards the bedroom. He was in the middle of undressing when Karina walked in. She found herself stealing glances at him over her shoulder, staring at his back muscles as he moved. "Could you unhook me?"

"Hmm?" Leon turned around and approached Karina. "What'd you say?"

Karina smiled. "Could you unhook my bra for me?"

Leon nodded, workmanlike, and looked at her back, puzzled when he only saw a smooth band of fabric across her back. "But…?"

"The clasp is in the front." Karina gave a hopeful little smile as she turned to face him.

Biting his lip, Leon returned her smile before pulling Karina in for a kiss. He let his hands wander until they met the clasp which he effortlessly slid open. Karina wiggled out of her bra, throwing it over Leon's shoulder, before she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him again.

"You sure about this?" Leon took a half step back to gauge her reaction. Karina nodded and then slipped out of her pants as if to emphasize her response. Moving his attention back to her neck, Leon kissed down along her collar bone as he gently nudged her closer to the bed. As soon as Karina felt the backs of her legs touch the bed, she moved her hands to the waistband of his underwear. Hooking her fingers on the elastic, she tugged just enough that his semi sprang free and sank to her knees.

"Can we please just-" He inhaled sharply, encouraging Karina to stand back up. "Maus, I need you so much." 

Leon gave Karina a gentle nudge so that she sat down on the bed. Karina pushed herself closer towards the middle and lifted her hips to help Leon as he slipped her underwear off. Leon had thoughts of what it would be like when he was finally able to be with Karina again. He'd imagined long and drawn out, sensual sex but in the moment, he found he couldn't hold back. He entered Karina brusquely prompting a surprised but not unhappy cry from her. Arms stretched out above her head, Karina reached for anything she could use to stead herself as Leon gripped her hips, his fingertips digging into the soft flesh. 

"Y'ok?" Leon spoke in-between breaths, concerned that he was being too rough with her.

Arching her back, Karina wrapped her leg over Leon's hip. "Don't you dare stop." 

Leon smirked as he pulled out and sat back.

"What the fuck?" Karina sat up and glared at him until she realized that he was being cheeky. She pushed his shoulder and he allowed himself to fall back. As soon as his shoulders hit the mattress, Karina sat astride him, grinding her hips against him as she rested her hands on his shoulders.

"Fuck, Maus." Leon groaned as he felt himself release. "Damn."

  Karina leaned forward so that she was laying directly on top of him and rested her head on his chest for a moment. Eventually, she moved off to his side and laid out on her back, eyes trained on the ceiling.

Leon took his finger and traced over the words that adorned the skin right below the curve of her left breast. Saecula Saeculorum "What's this mean?"

"It's latin," Karina yawned. "Literally translated it says unto the ages of ages, but it's basically the concept of eternity."

He turned his attention to her neck, speaking in between his love bites. "What's it for?"

"A song I like." Karina closed her eyes and began running her fingers through his hair again.

Leon shifted himself so that he was closer to Karina, draping his leg over hers, and continued to suckle and nip at Karina's neck. A few whimpers escaped her lips as she stroked the back of his head. A sense of drowsiness overcame her and she knew she'd need to get up before she fell asleep.

"Leon?" Karina surprised herself with how small her voice sounded.

"Hmm?" Leon stopped only to kiss her.

Karina squirmed a bit but didn't really want to break away from him. "Babe, I need to pee."

"Fine." Leon feigned a frustrated groan as he separated from her completely.

Karina took the opportunity to clean herself up and get ready for bed while she was alone in the bathroom. She was in the middle of washing her face when Leon walked in to use the toilet as well. He found it slightly odd that Karina seemed to be attempting to shield her nakedness from him despite this being a regular nighttime ritual since before they were married. 

Walking up behind her, Leon let his hands graze along Karina's sides before encircling her waist. He kissed her cheek before resting his chin on her shoulder. "You're beautiful, Maus. Don't try to convince yourself otherwise."

Rolling her eyes, Karina turned the faucet off and slipped out of his grasp. "Not really how I feel, especially standing next to you."

Leon followed Karina back to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed after pulling a pair of underwear from the drawer. "Listen, I have found you attractive since I started noticing girls, but we won't tell your brother that."

"Have you talked to him about us?" Karina climbed into bed and moved behind him, rubbing his shoulders. "Does he know I'm here?"

Letting his shoulders drop, Leon shook his head. "I've been focused on figuring out where we're at first. I don't think I could bear telling everyone that you've come home but that you want nothing to do with me."

Karina wanted to say that it didn't surprise her at all, she even had a snarky little jab lined up as well, but she thought better of it. "Do you think he actually wants to see me or do you think he agrees with my parents."

"Honestly," Leon sighed as he turned to face Karina, getting himself settled in bed in the process. "I don't know. He's been pretty quick to shut me down whenever I tried to talk about you and he really encouraged me to move on when you left."

"Oh." Karina let out a little sigh as she nestled herself against Leon's side.

Leon draped his arm around Karina, letting his head rest against hers. "Listen, we've already talked about what would happen if Marius can't deal with our relationship, our marriage."

"I'm not worried that you'd let Marius come between us. For the longest time, I would check my phone everyday just to make sure I hadn't missed their call or something. I just don't understand how they can just decide to stop loving me. I'm trying really hard not to let that creep into the rest of my life but I feel like I'm always going to have this little voice that reminds me that I don't deserve to be loved." Although she had said this to Dr. Kattan, this was the first time Karina had told Leon about her perceived inadequacies and it was cathartic to finally put it out there. 

Leon gave her a squeeze. "And that's why you will always have my voice reminding you that I love you more than anything else in this world."

"I've missed you so much," Her voice quivered. "I'm so sorry for leaving you, Leon."

By now he was lightly grazing his fingertips along her arm. "I forgive you, Maus. Even if you decided that you were happier apart, I'd forgive you."

The next time Karina opened her eyes, she could see the sunlight streaming in the terrace windows. After blinking a few times, she let out a little laugh at actually sleeping through the night. Karina was tempted to stay in bed a bit longer but Leon was already up and she could hear him talking to someone and soon her curiosity got the better of her. Before she left the bedroom, the little black velvet box monogramed with KLM on the dresser caught her eye. 

Karina smiled when the light hit the pear shaped diamond flanked by smaller bead set ones that matched her v shaped wedding band. She slipped both on her finger, the two bands nesting in one another, and held her hand out in front of her to admire the setting. Leon had picked her engagement ring out and surprised her with it one night when they had gone to spend the weekend at the big house. It was late summer, almost autumn, and there happened to be a full moon so they could walk around the grounds after dinner. Leon waited until Karina was distracted and then he gave Elsa a little gift bag to hold in her mouth. As soon as Karina opened the box, Leon just smiled and raised an eyebrow. Karina simply wrapped her arms around his neck and then let him place the ring on her finger.

Wandering into the kitchen, Karina soon realized that Leon was talking to Elsa and Ember as he was getting their food ready.

"And what can I get Madam for breakfast this morning? Poached eggs on avocado toast? Perhaps a nice green smoothie?" Ember let out a little whine as she shifted her weight back and forth between her front feet, waiting for Leon to put her bowl down. "Ah yes, the kibble. An excellent choice."

Karina leaned against the doorway and smiled. "I hope the girls are being polite conversationalists."

"Maus." Leon smiled and held out his arm, welcoming Karina into an embrace. "Sorry I didn't wake you up, but…I know you haven't been sleeping well lately."

Closing her eyes, she breathed in his scent and smiled. "It's fine. Last night was the first time I actually slept through the night in, I guess since I left."

"Hmm. I wonder what was different about last night…" Leon smirked as he gave her backside a squeeze.

Karina giggled as she nestled herself in closer. "Ok, ok, I see your point. Have you made coffee yet?"

"Working on it." He took hold of Karina's hand as she stepped away but held on to it. "You're wearing your ring again?"

With a shrug, Karina playfully downplayed it. "Well, you did leave it out."

"I'm glad you didn't think I was being pushy." Leon pulled her in for a kiss. "I was looking at it the other night and forgot to put it away."

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Karina leaned into Leon and sighed. "Do you really think we can go back to normal?"

"I think…we'll be better than normal." He squeezed her waist. "Even if you decide to dismiss the divorce I think it would be a good idea to keep seeing Dr. Kattan so we can make sure we're communicating."

Karina closed her eyes and smiled. "I've already told my lawyer to dismiss it. I've felt so content these past few days and I know it's because of you. I know I've got my issues but I'm so grateful that you're willing to stick it out with me."

Leon didn't initially respond but he squeezed her a little tighter and rested his head against hers. "I love being your husband, Mausi."

[it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined]

ANIMAL RESCUE? PLEASE. AAA. (Also chasing wild horses, if you'd like to spare?) Thought birthstone chart also has me SO curious because that taps into very niche, vague interest of mine.

Oooh okay thank you!! I got asks for the other ones, so I’m gonna tag you on those too and... this is a fluffy animal shelter one that I kinda attempted :)

This is also that one time I tried to write fluff from a prompt I appropriated somewhere on tumblr, and this is pretty much all I got down before my brain reverted to its usual angst mode (everyone knows how badly things go when I try to write anything not-angst, right?? Just... I mean it’s probably good I ran out of steam before I made anything angsty happen to a small cute puppy...)

“You’re a celebrity who constantly drops in with donations (cash, food, toys, blankets, litter) and I’ve gotten so used to your visits that I’m not even phased by your famous status any more”

Brienne was too busy wrangling a particularly enthusiastic mongrel puppy back into his enclosure to pay too much attention when the staff entrance door rattled a couple of times.  It was later in the day, and she was the last one left on site at Flea Bottom Sanctuary. She mostly expected Pod to appear in the doorway, back to fetch something forgotten. She didn't quite expect the sight of an absolutely gigantic bag of decent quality dog food to appear instead.

"You do know you can just get that delivered here, right?" Brienne asked the giant bag of dog food that had just appeared in the doorway. "We have a wishlist and everything. You can just... click a button, and the nice delivery man can do all the fetching and carrying for you."

"I can manage it!" The bag of dog food protested, and was promptly dropped carefully to the floor by the staff entrance to reveal it was not, in fact. a giant sentient bag of kibble.  Brienne glanced up from the puppy she was trying to wrangle back into its enclosure for the night, and decided that, while she might now be slightly over the surreal experience of having Jaime Lannister, two time Aegon Award winning bona fide movie star and animal lover appearing in the doorway of her tiny animal rescue on a regular basis... It did absolutely nothing for the fact that he was still really, really ridiculously good looking. 

Today, Jaime Lannister was ridiculously good looking even while wearing a ratty beanie in a vague attempt at being incognito and clutching a giant bag of dog food with unsurprising ease - although, given the rescue's frequently precarious financial situation, the dog food probably contributed quite a lot in Brienne's eyes, admittedly. 

"I'm not doubting you can manage it, I'm just saying it probably makes more sense to have it delivered here directly from the supplier." Brienne gave up wrangling the puppy to bed for the night entirely, and gathered the mad scramble of paws against her as she stood up.  "Here, I'll swap you one tiny dog for your very large and generous bag of dog food if you like?"

It wasn't how ridiculously good looking he is that makes her smile, then; it was purely the way his stupidly green eyes genuinely light up at the prospect of getting puppy claw scratches all over his perfect hands as he held them out. "That sounds like an excellent deal."

She handed the small squirming bundle of too small teeth and claws over carefully, and hefted the bag of kibble over into the store room across the corridor; leaving the puppy chewing on Jaime's perfect fingers with his tiny sharp teeth.

"That is the right brand, isn't it?" he asked as she reappeared; sounding more concerned about it than anyone with his celebrity status had a right to be.

[burgers-and-french-fries]

Taking Chances: Chapter Three.

Note: Hold onto your hats. This chapter’s ending is angsty.

Enjoy!

===

While Taron and Mikey were out of the house, Pickles had decided to take a nap but he had a hard time with it due to a pesky fly that kept buzzing in his ear. He tried to ignore it but the more that he did, the more it got on his nerves. So finally having enough of it, Pickles stretched and did a little pouncing practice.

By the time that he’d caught the fly, he had trashed the house with cat litter and if that wasn’t enough, Pickles had even tipped over his water and kibble as well. Being a kitten though, he wasn’t phased at all. He went and found himself a hiding spot and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Taron had made the decision to go and do some grocery shopping after dropping his son off at nursery.

Taron took his time and picked out a few fun treats to put in Mikey’s lunches for school. Just as he reached for the Haribo Star mix, his phone rang. He quickly threw the bag in the shopping trolley before answering the call, completely unaware that there was someone behind him waiting for him to move.

“Hello.” He said as he looked over the items on his shopping list.

“Have I called at a bad time?” Tina asked from the other end.

“Not at all. I’m just doing the shopping.” He replied.

Tina smiled.

“Right, I’ll make this quick then. I was wondering if you and the kid wanted to come over tomorrow afternoon.” Tina questioned.

“Sounds good but please don’t go out of your way to make anything. Mikey doesn’t really eat after nursery as he’s usually tired from all the activity.” Taron explained.

“Ok. I promise that I won’t make anything extravagant. Just tea and biscuits.” Tina said and Taron hummed in response.

They talked for a few more minutes before Tina let her son go and continue his shopping. 

On his way out of the sweet isle, he smiled at the woman that had been behind him but she seemed to ignore him, making Taron internally roll his eyes.

=

Back at the nursery school, Mikey was busy playing with the train set he always played with when a girl he’d never seen before walked up to him.

“Can I play too?” She asked shyly.

Mikey kept his eye on his toy but spoke anyway.

“You play with the green one. It’s bigger.” He said as he handed the girl the green train he’d just been playing with.

“Thank you.” She said as she sat down and started playing trains with him.

“You’re welcome.” Mikey replied as he reached for another train that wasn’t being used.

While they were playing, another girl walked up to them and started picking on the girl.

The little boy stopped what he was doing and looked up.

“You’re mean.” He said a-matter-of-factly.

“Yeah.” Jasmine agreed with her new friend.

Ivy snatched Jasmine’s train and started playing with it.

“Hey, give it back.” Jasmine whined as she tried to take it.

Ivy held the toy to her chest as tightly as she could so that Jasmine couldn’t grab it.

Jasmine started crying when Ivy refused to give her the train.

Mikey got angry and moved toward Ivy and snatched it back, handing it over to a tearful Jasmine.

“Hey.” Ivy whined as her lower lip wobbled.

“You took it first.” Mikey said.

Ivy glared at him and went for Jasmine again.

Mikey didn’t hesitate to push the girl away.

Ivy fell backwards and burst into tears after hitting the ground.

This alerted the teacher who immediately rushed over.

“What is going on here?” The teacher asked firmly.

“He pushed me.” Ivy said through her sobs.

“Michael, is that true?” The woman questioned, giving him a chance to own up to his actions.

“She snatched her train.” Mikey tried but the teacher wasn’t having it.

“That’s not nice at all. You can’t do that Michael. Come with me, Ivy you too.” She said as she took their hands and took them to the time out area, making sure to keep them separated.

=

Nicola had been wandering around the grocers trying to find her sister’s favorite fruit. Just as she found what she was looking for, the man from before moved in front of her, not realizing that she was there.

“Are you kidding me. What is wrong with you?” Nicola snapped, having little to no patience for people today.

You see, Nicola’s mother was a drug addict and married her awful step father. She had recently been granted full custody of her sister but with that came a whole bunch of issues that she hadn’t thought of until now.

One of the issues was the fact that she lived in Aberystwyth and her mother, step father and her sister lived in London. Her sister who had just turned 4 the day before, had been uprooted and was made to start a new school that morning. boy did Jasmine put up a fight that morning, instantly setting Nicola into a bad mood.

“Excuse me?” Taron asked, slightly taken aback. 

“This is the second time that you’ve been in my way today and it’s really annoying.” She snapped again.

Taron rolled his eyes visibly this time and scoffed.

“On your bike, asshole.” She said as she flipped him off before storming past him, making sure to flip him the bird.

“Bitch.” Taron muttered.

By the time that he was done shopping, he had run into the woman two more times and they both muttered comments under their breaths as they passed one another in the isles.

Taron was in a rank mood when he got home and was not prepared for the mess that Pickles had so graciously left for him.

“Stupid cat.” He grumbled, kicking off his shoes and walking into the kitchen to put everything away.

Just as he went to put the crackers in the cupboard, Pickles pounced on Taron’s foot and bit him. The man jumped and dropped the cracker box on the ground.

Of course when he looked down at the little fur ball, Pickles was looking up at him with big eyes; making Taron’s anger subside somewhat.

“You are such a pest sometimes.” The Welshman spoke as he scooped Pickles up and kissed the top of his fuzzy orange head. 

Pickles purred and cuddled into his owner’s neck.

Together Pickles and Taron put the rest of the groceries away before Taron got to work with cleaning the house.

While he was in Mikey’s room organizing his toys, Taron’s eyes landed on his wife’s favorite yellow hoodie. 

Taron sighed angrily. He had told his son over and over that his mother’s belongings were not a toy and that he wasn’t allowed to touch them. 

He took the hoodie in his hands and went back to his room and laid it on her side of the bed.

=

A few hours later Taron was waiting outside his son’s classroom ready to pick Mikey up. The father had a surprise when the teacher wanted to talk with him first before he and Mikey left.

The woman explained what had happened and Although Taron was proud of Mikey for standing up for Jasmine, he was thoroughly disappointed in him for pushing Ivy the way that he did.

He promised the Teacher that he’d talk to Mikey and make sure the little boy knew that what he did was inexcusable.

“Again, I’m truly sorry.” Taron said as he and Mrs.Graves stood up and walked to where Mikey was happily playing with some blocks.

“Thank you Mr. Egerton.” The woman replied.

“Bye.” Mikey said as he waved to his teacher.

“Goodbye Michael. You have a good night.” Mrs. Graves called.

Taron got his son situated in his booster seat before getting in himself.

Most of the car ride home was silent and Mikey couldn’t take it.

“Daddy, are you mad at me?” Mikey asked in a small voice.

Taron sighed.

“I’m not mad but I am disappointed in you.” The father admitted. 

Mikey hung his head and tried not to cry.

“What made you think that it was ok to push someone, a girl no less?” Taron asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

Mikey decided to stay silent so as to not cry.

“Mikey mate, I’m talking to you.” Taron said with a bit more annoyance in his tone.

The little boy's chin started to wobble. He thought his father would be proud of him for standing up for someone.

“Michael Kade Egerton, answer me.” Taron snapped. That was the last straw. 

Mikey burst into tears, not caring how loud his cries were. All he wanted was to go to his room and hug his mum’s hoodie because it still smelled like her and it made him feel like she was there with him.

Soon enough Taron pulled into the driveway and parked the vehicle. 

“Mikey, look at me.” Taron said a lot softer this time.

Mikey ignored him and tried to undo his seat belt as fast as he could, wanting to get away from his father. Taron got out of the vehicle and went to unbuckle his son.

As soon as Taron unlocked and opened the front door, Mikey ran to his room and slammed the door.

The little boy frantically looked for the top he had taken but when he couldn’t find it, he laid on his bed and hid his face in his pillow and cried louder than he ever had. All he wanted was his mum.

Taron could hear Mikey’s cries amplify and knew that it was because he had taken the hoodie back.

He couldn’t take Mikey’s tears. Yes Mikey needed to be disciplined but Taron was supposed to be the fun parent and Kate was supposed to be the strict one. That’s what they had constantly joked about but then when Mikey was born, Taron suddenly found himself as a widower with a brand new baby.

The Welshman tried to keep his emotions at bay but when he walked past Mikey’s room, Taron heard his little boy call out for his mum and it broke him.

It was times like this that Taron felt lost and like he needed his wife.

He went to his own room and reached for the hoodie he’d previously laid on the bed and buried his face in it and breathed in her smell. His heart ached and his eyes stung as his own tears fell.

Strangled sobs filled the master room that were louder than Taron intended.

Eventually Mikey had stopped crying and listened to his father crying.

The young one slid off his bed and toddled carefully over to where Taron was leaning over the bed with his face hidden.

Mikey rested his head on Taron’s back and started crying again, feeling like he was the cause for his father’s tears.

“I’m sorry I made you hate me.” Mikey said as his small arms tried to wrap themselves around his dad’s back, trying to brave.

Taron put the hoodie down and gently moved his son into his strong arms.

“I don’t hate you. I could never hate you.” Taron replied through sniffles.

“I want mama.” Mikey admitted, unknowingly making Taron’s heart shatter.

===

Tag List: @sarahegerton96 @softeggsy @jobanan23 @hauntedflamingo @superthiccthighssavelives @cilldaracailin @holdmeclosertinytaron @hitmeonmytspot @aberystwythboy @stronglyobsessed @dogmom2014 @rocknrollmadden @fuseburner

[jovialyouthmusic]

Special Delivery

Fabio moves in, and Martin questions my judgement.

Word Count 2987

A/N Just a fluffy piece of self indulgence. A few swear words. 

No under 18s please

7 A New Lodger

The morning dawned bright with autumn sunshine, and I woke to find Ginger on the bedroom windowsill looking longingly out at the field behind the house.

‘Sorry Ginge’ I apologised. ‘It’ll be a while before you get to explore.’ He turned back to me, making a noise that told me he was a little disgruntled before he jumped down to demand breakfast. ‘Well it’s a good job you like Fabricio, he’ll be moving in today’ I said, leaning down to scratch his head, and he rose up to meet my hand and leaned heavily on my leg as if to say less talk, more food.

As I left him to scarf up his kibble, my phone dinged with a message from Martin.

Hey Lisa, Sue’s out for the day, want me to come up and do some gardening?

I’ll be busy today, soz

Well duh, was offering to help. I have cake.

I looked at the phone and sighed. Martin would find out sooner or later, so I’d better call, I thought. He picked up almost instantly.

‘Hey Martin, we need to talk.’

‘I can be there in ten.’ he replied eagerly, scenting gossip.

‘I – uh, I’ll be out in half an hour, that won’t work.’ Martin’s tone changed.

‘Okay Lisa, what have you done?’ he said darkly.

‘Funny story.’ I laughed apologetically ‘My friend slash brother is gong to be my new lodger.’ I heard him suck his breath in.

‘Please tell me you mean at Jackson street – no, wait – that would make him a tenant. For fucks sake Leese, he’s moving in with you?’

‘Kind of.’

‘He either is or he isn’t. Shit, you only met him less than a week ago.’

‘Please don’t freak, Martin. It will be fine. Ginger likes him, and he’s a great judge of character.’

‘Ginger also likes chasing mice and leaving their corpses by your bed.’ he scolded ‘This guy delivers pizza for fuck’s sake.’

‘Okay, if you’re going to carry on being negative I’m going to cut you off.’ I took a deep breath as Martin remained silent. ‘It’s just a temporary thing, he’s looking for modelling jobs. It’s what he does, he’ll be off on a shoot for a few days and then come back. He just ran short of funds and had to hole up for a while. This way he has somewhere nice to live and will be able to make more money before he goes home.’

‘Why don’t you just rent him your old place?’ Martin asked.

‘It’s not ready yet, and it would be too expensive.’ I paused for a moment, and he waited, the silence oozing sceptiscism.  ‘It’s different here Mar, the neighbours are too far away to notice if I fall down the stairs, break my neck and Ginge decides I’m dinner. I’d feel safer having someone around. I was going to advertise for a lodger anyway. This way I have someone to help out straight away.’

‘Right. Did he pressure you into this, Leese? Because that’s manipulative.’

‘No, he didn’t. It was my idea. He did say he was getting bad vibes off some of the others in his building, but that was after I offered.’

‘Think hard now, Leese.’ Martin persisted ‘No big hints, no puppy dog eyes?’

‘Puppies have brown eyes, Mar. Fabio’s eyes are grey.’

‘You know damn well what I mean.’

‘No, no hints, no pleading, no sob story. I’ll be fetching him soon. He’s got Dad’s old bike and he’ll take that to work and back.’

‘Well I suppose it’s too late to stop you.’ he said reluctantly ‘But the moment anything seems off – anything negative, let me know. I’m going to be checking up on you – every day, you hear me?’

‘As long as it doesn’t trigger Sue.’

‘To hell with Sue. If she doesn’t understand…’ he paused ‘Look, I can still come over today, so he knows I’ve got your back.’

‘If you want to bring over a housewarming present I guess I couldn’t stop you. Even if it’s only a pot plant.’

‘Cake.’ he said assertively. ‘How does two this afternoon suit you?’

‘I can make sure we’re in – I’ll make like it’s a surprise.’

‘That sounds like a cunning plan. Okay Les, see you later.’

-------

Fabio rang me later, and I went to his flat to pick him up. He was waiting outside with a large wheeled suitcase and his backpack. I got out to open the boot, and he came round to swing his suitcase in before lightly touching my shoulder and kissing me on the cheek.

‘Gracias, Lisa.’ he smiled ‘This means so much to me. I love to stay with people who live in the places I visit.’

‘De nada.’ I said, and he grinned even wider as I told him you’re welcome in his native language.

‘Your accent is very English.’ he said. ‘But I also have an accent, so we are even.’ He smiled ‘Wait a moment please, there is something else’ He vanished back into the house and came out again holding a large bunch of flowers. I blushed furiously as he handed them to me and again kissed me on the cheek.

‘Oh Fabio you shouldn’t have’ I protested. His lips lingered near my ear for a moment, sending shivers down my spine.

‘I have a bottle of wine in my bag. Tonight we get drunk together, no?’ I laughed nervously.

‘Just a little.’

‘Si, solo un poco, just a little.’ He pulled away and I put the flowers carefully onto the back seat. We got into the car and belted ourselves in before setting off. he leaned back in his seat and watched the passing streets.

‘How was the gym?’ 

‘Muy bueno. Very good, my belly will be flat soon, you will see.’ he said, patting his stomach. I swallowed at the thought of his muscled torso. ‘How is your cat? Is he happy in his new home?’

‘He wants to go outside.’ I said, glad of the distraction. ‘He has to stay in – you must be careful when we get there. Don’t open the kitchen door until the porch door is closed, and don’t leave your window open.’

‘Cómo no – of course.’ he replied. ‘Tonight we eat together, yes?’

‘Yes, I thought perhaps some salmon and salad, will that suit you?’

‘Muy Beuno, delicioso.’

‘Ginger will be happy, he loves fish.’ 

Once at the house, Fabio took his suitcase into his room and I put the kettle on for tea.

‘I’ve got some soup for lunch, you can have some if you like.’ I offered as he came out of his room a little while later. He accepted, and I set about getting things ready. Ginger came down from the upstairs bedroom and rubbed himself around Fabricio’s legs.

‘Can I pick him up?’ he asked. ‘He won’t bite?’

‘No, Ginge is very chilled – relaxed. If he wriggles put him down.’ The cat allowed himself to be hoisted up and started to purr as Fabio scratched his chin and ears.

‘We get on well, you and I.’ Fabio said ‘together, we look after Lisa, yes?’ Ginger wriggled, and he put him carefully back on the floor.

‘I think it’s me looking after you two.’ I joked as I handed him the bread to take through to the dining room.

‘We all look after each other then.’ he smiled. We sat and ate lunch quietly.

‘Is there anything you want to do today?’ I asked ‘There’s a wood nearby, we could go for a walk, and perhaps tomorrow we could go out to the coast.’

‘There are beaches?’

‘Yes, but it’s too late in the year and too cold to sunbathe or go swimming. It’s mostly estuary here anyway.’

‘Estuary?’ 

‘Where the rivers go into the sea. It’s tidal, not proper seaside.’

‘Ah entiendo – I understand.’ He reached out to take my empty bowl and stood to take the dishes to the kitchen. ‘We walk later – now I must read my emails and send one to my mother.’

‘The internet’s all set up, I’ll give you the password.’

‘Let me wash up, senora.’ he said, and I blinked at the formality of ‘senora’, but said nothing.

‘Okay, just leave it to drain and I’ll put it away. I have some sorting to do upstairs. Remember, don’t let Ginger out.’

‘Lo siento. Call me when you are ready.’

Once upstairs I spent some time sorting out clothes, and calculated when to go out so that we would be back before Martin came. I decided not to leave it to chance and texted him to delay him a little longer, then went down to find no trace of my lodger, so I tapped on his door.

‘If you’d like, we can go out now.’ I suggested. He appeared quickly, pulling on a jacket and holding a pair of boots to replace his trainers.

‘It’s not such a tough walk as the hills.’ I explained ‘But if you wanted to go running it’s a good route.’ We set off down a nearby side road until we hit the entrance to the wood, and turned off to take the path. He agreed that it was an excellent place for running, save for the odd dog walker who had omitted to clear up after their pet. We were out for just less than an hour, turning back when the sky started to darken and arriving back as the first drops of rain started to fall.

‘Lisa.’ Fabio said ‘We should talk more about me being here.’ I felt a little thrill as we stood together in the kitchen, me fussing with cups ready to make more tea, more to occupy myself than anything else, feeling a little awkward. Martin would make an appearance soon, I thought.

‘Oh yes?’ I asked ‘What did you want to say?’ He rubbed the back of his neck and leaned back on the kitchen counter.

‘Well’ he said ‘I said I want to be more than a brother to you.’ I tried to keep my expression neutral, wondering where he was going with the conversation, a sick excited feeling in the pit of my stomach. As I hadn’t answered him, he went on ‘Before you invited me to live here’ he continued.

‘Yes, that’s so.’ I responded, and he stood clear of the counter.

‘I don’t want you to be uncomfortable’ he said, holding his palms out to me ‘I would never do anything you don’t like.’ My heart hammered in my chest. ‘You have no boyfriend?’ he asked as I remained silent, mind whirling. ‘Do you like men? Did someone hurt you?’ I laughed awkwardly.

‘That’s a lot of questions.’ I said, taking a deep breath. ‘No, I have no-one special right now, yes I do like men - and no, nobody hurt me. I’ve had – a few relationships but nothing that lasted more than a year or so.’

‘You look for your someone special?’ he asked ‘Someone who’s not just staying for a few months?’

‘I don’t know’ I said ‘I’ve not had much luck so far. I think – Fabio, it’s not easy. My heart tells me one thing and my head another.’

‘Your heart tells you what?’ he smiled. I felt a little dizzy.

‘It tells me…’ at that moment the doorbell rang, and I jumped violently.

‘Hey Leese!’ Martin’s voice came from outside the porch. I was frozen for a moment, and Fabio looked startled. I tore my gaze away from him to go and answer ‘I was just passing, can I come in? I brought cake to celebrate your move.’ Martin said, winking broadly. I cursed his sense of timing and plastered a smile onto my face.

‘Martin, what a surprise. We were just making tea.’

‘We?’ he asked innocently, handing me a box.

‘Umm yeah – you met Fabio.’ I lead him into the kitchen and Fabio shifted self consciously, flashing his white toothed smile. ‘He’s my new lodger.’ The two men shook hands.

‘Hello again.’ said Martin ‘You’re a lucky man, finding a place like this to stay – and Lisa, of course. How did you meet again?��

‘Now come on Martin.’ I said ‘I know how you take your tea. Go through into the lounge and I’ll put this out onto a plate.’

‘Excuse me.’ Fabio said. ‘I go to the bathroom, wash my hands.’

‘Here, let me see to the cake.’ said Martin loudly as Fabio left the kitchen.

‘Well that was fucking subtle.’ I hissed at him ‘asking him how we met. I don’t want you to scare him, just be polite and interested.’

‘You know how I feel, Leese’ he answered in a low tone.

‘Well your timing was just great, Einstein. Here, take the cake through, we’ll have it in the lounge.’ In minutes we were all seated, Martin on one end of the couch and Fabio at the other, the cake and plates on the coffee table. Martin sat back, foot balanced on his knee, and Fabio leaned toward me, elbows on his knees. I took a slice of the cake and offered it to Fabio

‘Just a little.’ he said. ‘remember, I must look good for work.’

‘It’s easy to work this stuff off.’ Martin assured him ‘special low calorie stuff.’ I snorted

‘He’s lying.’ I sighed.

‘Joking, not lying’ he retorted.

‘So, Lisa didn’t tell me very much about you’’ Fabio said, regarding the cake before turning to Martin and asking ‘How did you meet?’ I laughed.

‘Well played, Fabio. We met at Tai Chi class, and Martin also did yoga. He takes his own classes now, in Ashtanga yoga’ Martin sat up straight and puffed his chest out a little.

‘Oh, my brother’s sister does Ashtanga’ Fabio said. ‘Es muy dificil – very difficult. You must be very fit to teach it.’ Martin smirked a little, his ego stoked.

‘Oh, do you do yoga?’ he asked in a slightly superior tone.

‘No, I go to the gym, I run.’ he replied. At that moment Ginger came into the room, obviously disturbed from a nap by our voices.

‘Hey little man.’ Martin said. ‘How’re you enjoying your new home?’

‘He’s not allowed out yet.’ I explained.

‘Oh bad luck, fuzzface’ he said, reaching down to scratch his head. Ginger ducked away from him and sat by me, regarding the cake with interest.

‘No cake for you.’ I said ‘If you’re staying in, you’re not getting enough exercise, so short rations I’m afraid.’

‘Oh pobre gato.’ poor cat Fabio said, reaching out with his hand and flicking his fingers. Ginger went over to him for some attention and sympathy.

‘Well will you look at that.’ said Martin. ‘the little fella likes you.’ Fabio shrugged

‘Cats like me. Ginger is muy chulo – a cool cat.’

‘El gato churo?’ I asked. Fabricio threw back his head and laughed.

‘I am here to learn English better, not teach Spanish.’ He turned his gaze to mine ‘Have you been to Espana, Lisa? It is a beautiful place. I go to Madrid, to Barcelona. Muy hermoso’

‘No, I’ve not travelled outside Britain, I get stressed out travelling.’ His face fell.

‘Oh but travelling is so exciting.’

‘I love going to new places, it’s getting there that I’m not keen on.’ I explained ‘I’m scared that I’ll miss my flight or get lost.’

‘That is very sad.’ he said, then his face lit up ‘You should come with me on a shoot, I look after you.’ Martin cleared his throat and glared at me.

‘Well I need to get Ginger settled before…’ my voice trailed away.

‘Is just an idea.’ Fabio said, and took a bite of the cake. ‘This is good.’ he waved it at Martin. ‘You make this?’ Martin made a sour face.

‘No, my partner did. Stress baking.’ he looked at his own slice and took a bite ‘I think she makes it to make me fat so I can’t teach yoga. Most of my students are women, and she’s very possessive.’ Fabio’s eyes widened for a moment. He reached over and patted Martin’s knee sympathetically.

‘That is too bad. Take her some flowers, make her feel special.’ Martin’s eyes flicked to the flowers in the window, the ones that Fabio had bought for me.

‘She’d just think I’d done something bad and was trying to compensate.’ he sighed ‘Honestly Leese, I don’t know how much longer I can take this. I can see me moving back in with my parents.’

‘I have a spare house for rent.’ I grinned. He rolled his eyes.

‘I’ll stick it out a bit longer, thanks.’ We all chatted on, and the atmosphere settled to a relaxed ambience, albeit with a few undercurrents. Before long we had finished the cake and tea, and Martin announced he had better go back before Sue got home. I walked out with him to his car, the grass wet from the rain shower earlier.

‘Well I guess either he is a nice guy, or he’s not shown his true colours’ Martin said ‘But did you see how he put his hand on my knee earlier? Gay.’ I snorted.

‘It’s just his Latino mannerisms.’ I reassured him. ‘You can’t judge him by our buttoned up British standards.’ He tutted, then threw his arms wide for a bear hug. I leaned into him, feeling his reassuring solidity. He drew away and smiled ruefully.

‘You take care, Lisa. Any funny business, any steps out of line and call me. I’ll be here in a shot, never mind Sue.’

‘Thanks, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary.’ I assured him. ‘I’ll keep you updated.’ He got in the car and wound down his window.

‘Knickers on, legs crossed.’ he told me gravely before he reversed, turned, and pulled out carefully onto the road and I waved him goodbye.

[pickybearcub]

Getting to know Spiderboy: Chapter 19

Pairing: Peter Parker x OC Genre: Friendship/ Adventure/ Family

Story  Summary:  Ten minutes. Ten minutes was all it took. She found his backpack in the alley and left before he got there. Now, before Peter knows it, Ned thinks he has a secret girlfriend and Spider-man has to be her kibble runner.

Chapter 1  Chapter 18 Masterlist

After removing the tracker from his suit and arguing slightly with Ned about deactivating the Training Wheels Protocol, Peter felt he was ready. This was his chance to prove himself. He zipped up his jacket and opened the door.

"The glowy thing's evidence. Keep it safe." He reminded Ned.

"Okay." His friend said dutifully, grabbing the power core.

Peter nodded and looked at the tracking program again. "They're moving…" The glow from the hologram illuminated the black threads around his wrist.

Nadia did say it wasn't a tracker… but…

She'd be so impressed if he really handled everything on his own. He didn't need to worry her with a panic button.

Carefully, he untied the cord and tossed it to Ned. 

"What's this?" The other teen caught the cord bracelet and held it up.

"Uh, just something my partner gave me." Peter shrugged nonchalantly, "She said something like "break the cord" in case of emergency, but I can totally handle it. Keep it for me till I get back."

"You know you should think of a hero name already other than just calling her "partner" all the time."

"Later…" Peter said distracted as he double-checked the map.

"Alright, Peter. Be careful!" Ned called after his friend as the door to their room closed.

Peter stared down through the skylight somewhat longingly at his friends splashing around in the hotel pool. There were just some times that he missed being a normal teenager. Then he could be messing around with the rest of the team.

He sighed, taking a deep breath and putting on his mask.

::Good evening, Peter. Congratulations on completing the rigorous Training Wheels program and gaining access to your suit's full capabilities.:: A feminine voice spoke, making Peter jump.

"A-Ah… Thank you." The teen didn't know what else to say.

:: So where would you like to take me tonight?::

"Uhmmm…" The voice must have been a built-in AI, he concluded. "I put a tracker on someone. He's a bad guy." Peter nodded, putting his hands on his waist to try and steady himself from the jolt of surprise at this development.

::Tracker located. Plotting course to intercept target.::

Peter noted the red line tracing the path to his destination on the map that was displayed through his mask lenses.

He shrugged before he made a few leaps forward to start off. "Well, as long as I make it back to the decathlon, it's fine."

He hopped onto a truck just as he remembered, "Right… update."

::Update who, Peter?:: The AI inquired.

"Ah, see… my partner. I'm supposed to tell her if I go out on my mission." The teen said a little hesitantly.

:: I have a contact designated 'Sabrina' in my system. Do you want me to send her a text?::

"What? Mr. Stark knows who she is?" Peter's voice cracked. The AI knew who he was referring to as "partner." He groaned and mumbled, "You know what, I'm not surprised." Tony Stark was Tony Stark, after all.

Resignedly, Peter said, "Okay… Just send her a text saying I'm tracking the bad guys now."

When Peter found the tracker and heard the bad guys talking about a heist, the idea of catching the bad guys red-handed made him even more excited.

He was right to leave the bracelet in the hotel. He could totally handle a heist. And when he did, Mr. Stark would know what he was capable of and Nadia would be so proud. He grinned under his mask before he launched a web line to the cargo truck that drove past.

"Oh God… I'm such an idiot!" Peter berated himself as he pounded his fists uselessly on the door of the storage facility, panicking. If he had the bracelet, Nadia could have easily found him and portalled them out of here. But he didn't and his wrist was bare beneath his suit's glove… so he had to rely on himself to try and figure out the right combination for the time lock. He had to get to Ned. His friend had a bomb that was ready to go off if it was exposed to x-rays.

He groaned in frustration when the fifth combination didn't work. He took another breath and solved for the next one.

Ned paced back and forth in the hotel room he shared with Peter. His friend wasn't back yet and he'd been gone the whole night. It was almost time to go. He spotted the black cord on the top of the bedside table and curiosity made him pick it up. Just then, Liz knocked on the door of the hotel room.

"Ned! Peter!"

The teen immediately stuffed the glowy thing and the bracelet in his pocket before taking a breath, wondering what he would say when he opened the door.

Nadia's phone barely rang once before she picked up.

"Peter! You-"

::Nadia! The glowy thingy's a bomb and Ned has it!:: The vigilante's high and panicked voice cut her off.

"Shit…" The young woman cursed. She didn't see it, but Peter's eyes widened. He'd never heard her curse. "My magic is still a bit weird since I got sick. Break the cord, it'll help me pinpoint your location."

::I-I… I don't have it-:: His voice cracked.

Nadia's eyes widened in disbelief, "What?! Peter!-"

:: I think the nationals just finished. I can't get a hold of Ned yet. Get to him! Get the glowy thing!::

No use getting mad. 

"Alright… Alright. Where are you?" Nadia focused instead on pulling up a search and checking the exact location of the nationals.

::I'm near DC. I can see the memorial.::

"Keep dialing." She said briskly before ending the call.

Finding the building where the decathlon was being held, she tried to conjure a portal. It sparked for a moment but dissipated.

Nadia's mother had been watching her daughter from the entrance to the kitchen. "Nadia. Your magic is still a bit erratic. You won't be able to-"

"I know!" The young woman snapped. "But I have to try." She ran her hand over her face when the portal still didn't form. She breathed in deeply, trying to calm herself, knowing that chaotic emotions wouldn't help her either.

Anya sighed. "Here. Take these." She slipped the bronze vambraces from her arms and snapped them on her daughter's. "They'll help you manage your magic for now, but I'm warning you. Your spells will be severely limited. Be very careful."

Nadia nodded quickly and gave her mother a brief hug before finally conjuring a successful portal.

The elevator creaked ominously, causing its passengers to look at each other anxiously. Ned hoped Peter would swing in soon. He just talked to him on the phone earlier, Peter most likely knew they were at the memorial. Ned stuck his hands in his pockets to pull out his phone, but when he did, a thin black bracelet fell out. He eyed it for a moment.

"In case of emergency… break the cord…"

 He picked it up and casually turned to face the wall…

God, I really hope this works.

Taking one end in each hand, he took a gulp of air and tugged. The black threads snapped and dissolved into golden sparks.

"Wow… that's awesome…" Ned whispered.

Nadia tried to catch the team while they were still at the building where the decathlon was held. She had no luck picking them out among the crowd of dallying students and teachers, so she quickly made her way to the Washington Memorial. The smoke and dust rising from near the top told her the explosion already happened.

Using the chaos as a distraction, she spell-switched her robes. She spotted a figure near the base of the memorial and recognized her as Michelle, one of Peter's decathlon teammates. Nadia arrived a second after Peter did.

"Oh my God! You made it! Can you portal me up there?"

Nadia shook her head regretfully, "It's risky with my magic right now. Get up there and get to them. I'll try to hold up the elevator from down here but hurry. My magic might..."

Peter nodded and leaped onto the side of the memorial and hurriedly started climbing. Nadia, on the other hand, dashed towards the entrance of the structure.

A guard tried to bar her from entering. "Sorry ma'am, it's not safe. We're not letting anyone in."

The young woman was extremely annoyed, "Do I look like a friggin' tourist to you?!" She pushed past and went to the bottom of the elevator shaft. "Get these doors open!" She couldn't waste her magic prying the doors open when there was perfectly capable staff.

The security guard was pretty dumbstruck and moved to do what the robed vigilante asked, using a simple button in the control room to open the doors.

Looking up the shaft, Nadia could see the bottom of the elevator quiver. It would be dangerous if she miscast and formed the barrier spell too high. Usually, a visual was enough, but her magic was unreliable right now. She bit her lip, quickly going through her options.

Suddenly, something in the back of her mind tingled and she knew the cord was snapped.

Ned.

She smiled in relief, the small beacon gave her a focus for her magic. She lifted her arms and concentrated on casting her spell a little below where she felt the magical summons.

:: It looks like your partner is building an energy field a few feet below the elevator.:: Karen reported, the AI having detected a spike in strange energy close to the elevator car.

"Okay- that buys us some time, right?" Peter said, trying to figure out how to break through the window near the top of the monument.

:: Judging how the field is in flux and the impact the elevator will cause from the slight drop, it might only hold for a few seconds.::

Peter took a deep breath and ignored the men who were shouting at him from the helicopter. Then, he jumped. Going over the helicopter's blades, he shot a web line and pulled to direct his momentum toward the one window. He heard a metallic snap and screams just as he broke through. The elevator started falling for a moment, then stopped.

On the ground floor, Nadia grunted and was pushed down to her knees. "Crap!"

From the top of the elevator shaft, Peter shot out as many web lines as possible, connecting them from the elevator to the concrete ceiling and the steel frame of the shaft.

He managed to attach three before Nadia's spell broke. The elevator shuddered violently, but it didn't fall.

Peter lowered himself to the elevator and pried the doors open for the last three passengers to escape- Ned, Liz, and Mr. Harrington. One by one, he helped boost them up onto the landing. Changing his voice a bit, he asked, "So… uh- is everyone okay?"

Liz and the others nodded, breathless. The elevator groaned again before the ceiling finally gave way and with a yelp, Peter fell with the elevator car. Just as the vigilante fell through a cloud of dust, he twisted and shot another line of webbing to the side of the shaft. Quickly, he rappelled down to the ground.

A lot of people were taking videos and pictures, he had to get going and change fast. He already missed the entire competition. His classmates and mister Harrington would be looking for him.

 Where was Nadia?

 He spotted the person he was looking for talking to another robed figure. The other figure's costume was similar to Nadia's, only dark purple and black with a deep hood.

Peter jogged to them, "Hey… Hey- uh…." He realized how the absence of a superhero name for Nadia would quickly turn into a problem. When the young woman looked to him, he gasped. "Your nose is bleeding."

She waved him off and swayed a bit before the other woman put steadying arms on Nadia's shoulders. "I'm okay." Pulling a piece of cloth from a pocket, she dabbed away the blood.

Sparks formed a portal and the two robed women walked towards it, Nadia looking warily at all the people bringing out their phones. She looked to Peter before stepping through the portal, the glow from the eyes of her mask seeming to intensify. "We'll talk when you get back."

Peter gulped, a tingle going down his spine. Turning around, he addressed the crowd. "Nothing to see here, people." When the portal shut, he nodded and waved before he ran out, heading for his backpack.

May was tearful and hugged Peter tightly when he got off the bus back in Queens. He looked around hopefully for Nadia but was both relieved and quite worried when she didn't seem to be in the school parking lot.

The next day, he dropped by the café to see her. She was clearing a table when he waved at her from outside, his half-smile hesitant and unsure. Her expression went a bit blank when she looked up and spotted him. With a curt nod, she met him outside.

"Nadia… I-"

She cut him off with a raised hand. "My shift ends in five minutes, I'll meet you at the apartment." Her sentence was short. She handed him a key and went back inside the cafe.

Peter felt downcast. Nervous and a little ashamed too. He walked to Nadia's place with his head down.

When he unlocked the door, Stevie was there to greet him. The teen took comfort in the canine's happy bark and knelt to hug and pet the dog. "Looks like I really screwed up, Stevie." He sighed.

"Peter Parker, right?" An unfamiliar feminine voice made him jump up. A woman was standing a few steps from him. She had brown hair in a ponytail and pale blue eyes. Something about her reminded him of Nadia. "Did Nadia send you over?"

"Uh… yeah?" He answered hesitantly. Who was this lady? She looked like she was in her thirties.

"Anya Capelli. It is very nice to finally meet you." She held out her hand and smiled. Peter reluctantly took it. Capelli meant she was closely related to his partner. "Nadia does talk a lot about you."

"Sh-she does?" A hopeful look crossed the teen's face for a moment before his eyes turned down again. "Not so much now though, I think." Peter mumbled, "She's mad."

Anya looked at the boy sympathetically. "I know what that is like. Even when she was little, she hardly ever got mad. When she does though…" The woman huffed out a laugh.

"I screwed up real bad. She… sorta tried to… h-help me out. I-I pretty much… ig-ignored the help and made her- made her worry." Peter stuttered, doing his best to explain the problem, but be discrete about Nadia's vigilante activities.

Anya nodded, walking to the kitchen. "Soda? Water?" Peter followed and shook his head, taking a seat at the small dining table.

"You definitely riled her up when you told her you did not have the cord she had given you. Quite mad she may have been, but she insisted on going to DC to help you, even if her magic was still a bit unstable." The woman prepared herself a mug of tea. 

"She was panicking so much about it, she had to use these to better control her arcane energy." She held up one arm, pointing at a wide bronze band Peter had seen on Nadia's arms at DC, before taking a seat herself. "She will be mad for a few days. Maybe go harder than necessary on you during your training, but she always forgives."

Peter sat with his mouth open, staring at the woman.

 She knew.

 As though reading his mind, she said easily, "Yes, I know your alter-ego, Spider-man. Your voice is hard to mistake for another person's if you recently heard it. Keep that in mind." Anya seemed to smile with her eyes as she gave him a sly look.

"You're a sorcerer, too?! Is-Is it a family trade or-or something?" Peter asked excitedly.

 Another hero?

 She let out a soft, breathy laugh. "In a way, yes. I would have thought Nadia might have told you a little about me."

"I-I don't… I don't think so. Are you her aunt?" Peter tried to search his memories for any conversation about Nadia's family. She only really every talked about her grandmother and her-

"Mom? I thought you were going to be out until tonight?" Nadia appeared at the entrance to the kitchen.

 Wait…

 "Mom?!" Peter's voice cracked, confused stare flickering back and forth between the two women.

And that was how they relocated to the living room and Nadia ended up explaining how her mother's magic messed with the speed of her aging… which explained why Nadia's mother looked only slightly older than May when Nadia herself was supposed to be just twenty-three.

"You were the other sorcerer at the memorial," Peter concluded.

Anya nodded, sipping at her tea. "I had to bring Nadia home after she stressed her magic. Sorcerers in our family rarely ever get sick. When we do, recovery is swift. But it interferes with our control of mystical energy for a while longer, even if our bodies are well."

"Are you okay now, Nadia?" Peter asked, concerned. "You had a nosebleed back at the memorial."

Said young woman nodded sternly, before nudging Stevie off her lap and standing. "Speaking of which…"

Peter gulped at the serious glare that Nadia was throwing him, putting up his hands. "Nadia-" He backed away slowly, "Nadia, I-"

"Why the hell did you just leave the cord!?" She yelled, gathering a small sphere of magic in her hands and throwing it roughly at Peter. Stevie went wild again and started dashing around the room.

The mystic sparks pushed him roughly back and made him sputter. The force shoved him through a wall of shattered glass and made him disappear into the mirror dimension.

Nadia stomped through right after him.

Anya sighed. It had been a while since she saw her daughter mad like that. It was strange, but it was a good sign. Nadia only got that mad when it concerned people she was close to. Anya looked to the grey dog that had started to calm down but was still pacing across the carpet anxiously, whining.

"They'll take a while." Anya addressed the retriever. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

Stevie barked and eagerly went to sit at the door while he waited for the woman to get his leash.

--- 

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[poppibranchlover]

Nine Lives, One Fight - Part 25

The story: Deep in the forest of Troll Town, there lies a mysterious tiny purple mushroom that has a secret magical ability. King Peppy calls this mushroom forbidden for all Trolls to go near it. One day, while Branch is out in the woods doing his survival research studying, he encounters it and, not knowing it is a regular mushroom, decides to harvest it and bring it home. But in the next morning, its magic effects transform him into a small blue cat! After being sent to the animal pound, his girlfriend, Poppy, finds him and decides to adopt him, although not recognizing it is Branch. Desperate to finish his research project due for a special event invented by Poppy, Branch is forced to learn how to behave like a pet cat and must figure out what caused him to become one.

You already seen what had happened in Part 24. Now get ready for Part 25!:

After Poppy left her pod to join the Troll Disappearance Investigation agency for a conference meeting, Branch sat alone in his little cat bed, bored and disappointed. He feebly rocked his ball of yarn back and forth with one paw as he wondered what to do when his owner is not around.

Branch sighed and curled up in his bed, hoping that Poppy might return for a few minutes. But it was no use. If he stayed here for hours, the Archaeo morphisis’ magic will make him “full cat” and he will never change back in time.

He looked up at Poppy’s flower-shaped clock that was hung on a wall. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. Now he knew there is still enough time left before the next sunrise.

Branch hopped out of bed to observe the time on the clock and quickly thought of a decision. “If Poppy can’t bring me out one more time, I’ll prove it to her and everyone else that I’m still alive,” he whispered to himself. Deciding immediately, he wanted to find the Archaeo morphisis mushroom today and that would settle everything.

First, he made his way to Poppy’s scrapbooking desk. He jumped onto her pink chair and climbed up to her heart-shaped table.

Then, Branch found a stack of papers and pulled out a piece.

He settled it on the table. Digging something out from a box of crayons, Branch picked up a black-colored crayon from the box with his mouth and carefully began to write some words in it.

Unfortunately, it was difficult when you write with a pencil in your mouth. His handwriting was far from being perfect, and he had tried to write the words in a completely awkward way. But the result did look...great.

After struggling to write down the last sentence in the paper, Branch dropped the crayon, sweating and exhausted. He quickly added a few finishing touches to the note, putting on some glue and pasting some miniature felt cutouts of himself in Troll form and his cat form that Poppy made earlier. Picking up his crayon again, he drew an arrow between the cutouts so it would look like a transformation transition that was seen in Poppy’s nature journal.

When Branch is finally done, he admired his work, seeing how much effort he had put into this note. The words he managed to write in the paper read:

“Poppy,  It’s your friend Branch! I AM NOT DEAD! SEND HELP! - Mr. Tickle”

Branch thought that this would make Poppy find out about his fate. He hoped that she will come across this note on the table and she will ultimately recognize him for sure! 

Smiling to himself, Branch jumped out of the table, leaving the note behind. As he walked around the room, he suddenly remembered that he had to reward his bunny friend, Wiggles, with a bunch of carrots and he sprinted to the pantry area, searching for some food for his friend to eat. He hopped onto a stool and climbed up to the dining table. A basket of vegetables that Poppy had bought from a marketplace was standing there.

Slowly approaching the vegetable basket, Branch can see some carrots sticking out from the bunch. Then he pulled the carrots out of the basket and dropped them near his front legs.

Observing the carrots carefully, Branch knew that would be enough for Wiggles. Spotting two empty baskets behind the vegetable basket, he picked one of them and started to pack the carrots into it.

Finally, Branch grabbed the basket’s handle in his mouth and triumphantly headed for the door.

As he made his way there, he stopped by his favorite bookshelf, the place where he usually sleeps on, which is now packed with cat grooming utensils.

Branch looked at his shelf, and then stared at the basket of carrots. Thinking quickly, he approached the bottom of the shelf that kept cans of cat food and packed some of them into his carrot basket.

In case Branch might get hungry, he wanted to bring these kibble cans along. After he was done packing everything he needed, he picked up his basket and trotted away to the door.

Somehow, when he entered the pet door, little stairs came out of the pod until they reached the ground below. Branch happily made his way down to the village, carrying his bundle of carrots.

As Branch took three steps outside, fear suddenly clawed at his heart. He turned around to Poppy’s pod with a sad look in his eyes but he already knows that she is not there in her house. For a moment, he meowed painfully, with the hope that Poppy would hear him when she is on her way home but nothing will happen. He shook off his sadness and took a deep breath. “Sorry, Poppy. But this is what I was meant to do right now. No turning back!” he said bravely before he began to run into the woods. That sentence marked the beginning of his journey to find the Archaeo morphisis mushroom.

Branch’s heart pounded with excitement when he sprinted forward across town, holding on to his carrot basket for dear life. Right above him, the sun was beginning to set. It was seen yawning as it waved its hand over its mouth before disappearing below the sky.

Looking up at the sunset, Branch was already in a hurry. He ran as fast as his four legs could carry him when he made it to the heavy traffic that would lead him to Wiggles’ burrow. Without the need to climb a tree to get to the burrow, he fearlessly jumped from car to car before making his way across. Each car stopped moving when Branch jumped onto every one of them.

Finally, Branch spotted a familiar-looking bush and ran towards it, wriggling his way inside the shrub.

In his comfy burrow, Wiggles was sleeping in his bed made of hay when he suddenly heard the sound of carrots tumbling on the ground. Some of the carrots nearly hit him in the head that he got startled and woke up from his slumber.

Now wide-awake, he saw Branch spilling out the carrots from his basket. “What’s the big idea?!” Wiggles squeaked.

“Get up! We’re leaving!” Branch said firmly, tossing the basket aside. “It’s the last day!”

Wiggles hopped past the scattered carrots and raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know if you remember correctly, but you said we’re supposed to start our search by dawn, not harvesting more carrots for my family,” he told him.

“Don’t you understand? I just want to offer you something for you and your kids to eat in the meantime,” Branch explained as he shot a look at Wiggles. “So I have to reward you with these before we get started.” He shuffled past the carrots and rummaged in his basket for the cat food cans that he packed earlier.

Wiggles immediately realized what he was planning to do. “Hold on a second,” he demanded, his voice rising in a tense emotion. “Are you actually doing this so you can leave my kids in the burrow all alone with nobody to look after?!”

“What matters?” Branch said, grabbing one of the cat food cans out of the basket. “You are also a Troll trapped in the form of a small animal. I have to do the right thing or we’ll be stuck like this forever.” He dropped the can down on the ground and struggled to unlock the metal tab on the lid.

But Wiggles was already trying to confront him. “Why would you do this, Branch?” he asked. “Our recovery of that missing mushroom would leave a fortune against my family!” To the bunny, he didn’t seem to understand what Branch was talking about.

“It’s fine!” Branch told him sternly, his teeth still clenched to the lock of the can. “There is no time and I need to find that mushroom now!” But once he said the last word, the lid was finally removed from the can. He dropped the lid from his mouth and started pushing the can away.

“What are you doing right now?” Wiggles asked, completely hurt. “Are we supposed to get to the next subject?”

“I’m hungry! Okay?!” Branch protested, his eyes glaring straight into the little bunny’s big sad eyes. When he spoke again, it was more gentle. “Let me eat my food first.”

He slowly turned away from Wiggles and pushed his can of cat kibble to a corner. Then he began to eat his food in silence.

Wiggles sighed. If it wasn’t for Branch helping him restore his Troll form, he would’ve been a little rabbit forever. But he thought about adopting his little bunny children and taking them to a good home, where they would be safe under his wing. That made him wonder: if he did turn back into a Troll, he feared that his children won’t recognize him anymore. So how will leaving his old home behind would help get back to his old life as a carrot restaurant owner?

Looking down at his carrots for a second, Wiggles approached Branch and tried to make up with him. “Look, I didn’t mean to be so hard on you…but I just don’t want to leave anything else behind in my burrow; the place I used to grow up into,” he said sadly.

Branch was listening to him as he ate his cat kibble. He looked back at him, still chewing on his food as the rabbit continued speaking to him. “I’m sorry for acting this way, but walking away from stuff has to be the most painful thought that can actually happen.”

Wiggles prepared to hop back to his bed. Branch quickly swallowed his kibble and used his long tail to stop him. He decided that he wanted to fully open up his thoughts to him, and he doesn’t want to lose his friendship with him too.

Branch circled around and looked directly to Wiggles. “I’m sorry for letting you down for a moment, Wiggles,” he said gently, putting his paw to his chest as he spoke from his heart. “But I have to find the Archaeo morphisis before it’s too late. If you’d help me on this, I can appreciate you as my best friend, and I hope your kids can find better homes to live after we change ourselves back.”

Wiggles couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A gentle grin spread over his face when he made a quick decision. “I never thought I'd say this, but COUNT ME IN!!!” he exclaimed, jumping up and down with excitement. “Let’s do this, new best friend!” He high-fived with Branch, slapping each other’s paws together. Then they smiled at each other, with Wiggles finally glad that he accepted Branch’s message of friendship.

Just then, Wiggles’ little rabbit kids emerged from a shrub, hopping towards the carrots that Branch had brought. “Check it out, guys!” a baby rabbit shouted excitedly. “Uncle Wigs brought more dessert!”

All the baby bunnies cheered as they began to eat up all of the carrots. Branch and Wiggles watch them proudly.

“Would you really like to say something to your kids before we go?” Branch asked with a smirk on his face.

“Nah, there’s plenty more where that came from!” Wiggles replied. “After all, you did kept your promise and brought these for all of us!” Then he turned his attention towards his kids’ dinner and pulled out one of the carrots from the bunch, nibbling at it enthusiastically.

Branch chuckled at the little bunnies enjoying their meal and decided to join in too. He turned back to his can of cat kibble and began to eat up the rest of his food.

While the animals ate, Branch stopped eating for a moment when he saw something in the back of the kibble can. “Huh? Wait a minute…”

He twisted the can around to take a closer look at the contents. That is when he stopped at some icons that were printed on the back side of it. The first icon had a recycling symbol and the other one had a picture of a Troll disposing litter into a dustbin.

Branch narrowed his eyes and studied the icons carefully, as if he was putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Then he sat up and rubbed his chin, clearly remembering something that occurred in his mind. “Hmmm. Wait…I remember where did I lose that Archaeo morphisis mushroom…”

He took his time to look at the icon of the Troll and the dustbin from the back of the can of cat food. Suddenly, he remembered that one time he accidentally dropped his basket of berries and the Archaeo morphisis mushroom right next to a trash can! As the memory played out in his mind, Branch quickly bit Wiggles’ tail, causing him to yelp in pain.

“Ow!” the rabbit screamed as Branch’s teeth caught his little tail. “What’s wrong with you?”

“We have to go now!” Branch said. “I know exactly the place where the mushroom is last seen!”

“Seriously, Branch?!” Wiggles groaned, disappointed that he is unable to finish his carrot. “We’re leaving so soon?!”

“Yeah, but there’s no time to explain,” Branch replied as he prepared to leave. “Come on! We have to get going!”

He raced forward, knocking his can of cat food, causing the kibble to spill across the ground. “Let’s go! Don’t forget to say ‘farewell’ to your kids!” he called over his shoulder.

Wiggles reluctantly nodded and sped off after him. Looking back at his beloved children, he quickly said “I’ll see you later, kids! Uncle Wigs has gotta help your cat friend today!”

“Okay, Uncle Wigs! See you later!” the little bunnies said, still focusing on their carrot buffet as they waved goodbye to their uncle.

Sprinting fast with their four legs, Branch and Wiggles sped off out of the bushes and deep into the forest in search of the lost Archaeo morphisis mushroom. Their greatest adventure is just beginning!

                                                 To Be Continued...

                                              Stay tuned for Part 26!

[prorevenge]

Don't Mess with Real Big Toby

It's been long enough and I doubt they're going to come after me so here goes.

I adopted a full bred husky in the Pacific Northwest. We named him Toby but after a while he developed the name Real Big Toby. He wasn't a huge husky or malamute but boy did he look beautiful and boy was his personality "real big". He had one blue eye and one brown eye which never failed to trip people out. On top of that he was a huge ham, loved attention and would actually talk to you about how his day was going.

It got to the point where it was kind of stupid to put him on a leash. I would tell him to stay, when I went in to class for example, and he'd be passed out or getting the chicks to scratch his belly when I came out. Every time. The dean of the college even knew him on a first name basis and started to bring his dog in to work after watching Real Big Toby do his thing.

At the time I lived in a mountain town, attended college and was an avid mountain biker so having a dog that would happily and easily do 30 miles in a day was cool. He would follow us everywhere we went. My mountain bike was my only source of transportation so we became very in tune with one another. He was a husky, after all so you could tell when he ran that this was exactly what he was born to do.

Toby was such a super good boy. He listened, payed attention and never left my side. He had a seat designated for him on the deck at the local coffee shop which meant you had to walk by him and try to resist giving him a scratch if you wanted to go inside. It got to the point where just about everyone in this fairly small town got to know Toby on a first name basis.

Every once in a while on mountain bike runs we would get separated or Toby would just get sidetracked on the way down the hill. It was such a small town that, in the few times it happened, he was back with me by the end of the day. The police all knew him from around town, the pound knew him so if anyone called they'd just give them my number.

One day it happened again. He got lost on the way down the hill. Only this time, he didn't come back. No call. Nothing. For days....

It got to the point where I started asking around town. If you've ever lived in a small town you know...it's hard to keep a secret. After about a week, a friend says he saw Toby and tracked the guy down and gave him my number. He never called. After searching, trying to find this guy I finally got a breakthrough. He worked at the college!

Now...I am aware how stupid people can be when they receive an animal. Toby was RIPPED. You could see his muscles bulging out of his fur. He didn't have an ounce of fat on him because, you guessed it, he was in excellent shape. I fed him mostly a raw diet and what kibble he did get was the best you could buy.

The first thing out of this guy's mouth was to tell me that he's keeping my dog. "You don't take care of him. You don't even feed him and he's such a good dog. He will be better off with me", he said.

I became enraged.

Well...like I mentioned he worked at the school I attended. I also mentioned the Dean hammed it up with Toby on a nearly daily basis. I didn't mention I had the Dean's home number, though so a call Saturday morning resulted in Toby being returned to me later that day.

This guy had the nerve to, along with Toby, bring me a 50lb bag of the shittiest store brand of dog food you could buy. "I bought you this so you could feed him"

Rage.

Come to find out this guy was in charge of a research project for the school. It was very easy to figure out where his office was. I went to his office with a plan of returning his food and chewing him out in front of his colleagues. He wasn't at his desk so I did the most natural thing I could possibly do...

I turned the 50lb bag of dog food upside down on his desk, computer, stacks of papers to the point where it formed a perfect mountain on top of his keyboard. Truly an awesome site.

Knowing loose lips sink ships I didn't tell anyone but my close friends. The school brought misconduct charges against me. The hearing was in front of a board of other students and staff and well "i don't know what happened to the bag of dog food. I was telling the story to a bunch of guys and one of them asked me for the bag. That's the last I saw it." All charges were dropped.

The asshole that tried to steal Real Big Toby had it much much worse. 50 fucking pounds of dog food on top of your research project, as it turns out, doesn't bode well with management. For reasons unknown, 2 days later he was fired from the college. Not only did they fire him but put a restraining order on him and had to change the locks to the building.

Don't Mess with Real Big Toby

(source) story by (/u/guelapapyrus)