#i apologise if the links and read more aren't working because they work on my computer but not the phone and I'm just??? confused

[hailqiqi]

Skirting Katabasis

Rating: T

No Trigger Warnings

Pidge & Keith Friendship, Pidge/Lance Romance

So! This is my piece for the @pidgebigbang! This piece is kind of my baby and I'm really excited to be able to finally share this story.

Mad love goes to @ibupony, my hard-working artist for this Bang who drew this fantastic piece for a later chapter, and @sp4c3-0ddity​, my long-suffering beta! Special Credits

Shout outs to @mistyhollowpro, @octaviainthewasteland, @potato-person and @radiantcerulean for their encouragement!

The concept for this fic was heavily inspired by A Study in Relevancy by @some-cookie-crumbz. (It's a fantastic Kidge one-shot. Go read it.)

The implementation of the paladin bonds was inspired by the epic gen fic Truce by Kyanve. (Go read this too. It's incredible.)

Certain phrases shamelessly stolen from Reem's vast collection of gen and plance works, which are well worth paying homage to.

Now, without further ado!

Chapter One: She Forgot to Expect the Important Things

Read it on AO3 here.

5,602 words.

Sinking into the sheets had quickly become Pidge's favourite part about going to bed. The sheets on the castle were ridiculously soft and the duvets were plush and fluffy, like how you always imagine clouds should feel if they were warm and not composed of ice water. Altean duvets were warm from the instant they touched your skin, making cocooning yourself in them feel like an act of extravagant luxury. (Pidge hadn't figured out the why yet, but it was on her list. She suspected they could share something in common with the thermoregulators in their body suits.)

The worst thing about going to bed was knowing that she'd have to wake up early (which was, really, the only reason she bothered going to bed at a decent hour at all) and knowing that she could be summoned by the alarm at any time. The second worst thing was the knowledge that nightmares were all-too-common and it was often all-too-hard to fall asleep in the first place, but she was exhausted from the final performance of The Voltron Show earlier and well... She had the others for nightmares. That was one of the best things about being part of Voltron — you never had to be alone if you didn't want to be.

Yawning, Pidge rolled herself up in the duvet and nudged Green sleepily with her mind to say goodnight, receiving a small nudge of amused fondness in reply. She could tell that Shiro, Allura, Lance and Hunk were all safely ensconced in their own beds, and they were passing through an allied quadrant where the chances of attack were low. It was a good night for sleeping.

...Or, it was meant to be.

Pidge cracked one eye open and glared at the wall, as if the force of her glare could make the blue flashing stop. When it didn't, she let out a sigh that was more of a groan and wriggled around under the covers, trying to keep as much of herself in the warmth as possible while she stuck a bare arm out and retrieved her tablet. Who the quiznak would be ringing her at this hour?

"Pidge! Uh... Are you there? It's too dark to see anything."

"Hang on..." Pidge flipped over onto her stomach, blanket still over her head, and placed the tablet carefully on the pillow before reaching up to flip her fairy lights on. "Better?"

"All I can see is your nose..."

He was right. The little square showing her own image looked not unlike the Emperor from Star Wars, if the Emperor had been young and bathed in a warm yellow glow rather than sickly blue.

"Keith, I was almost asleep. I really don't care right now," Pidge said, yawning for emphasis. "What's up? And if you're going to tease me about The Voltron Show again..."

"No, no!" Keith said hurriedly, a smile tugging at his lips. "The big finale was pretty good though. We watched it at Headquarters."

Pidge smiled in reply. "So?"

"I actually had something else I wanted to ask you about..." Keith glanced left and right before continuing. "Your dad helped design The Obol, right?"

"The Obol?" Pidge repeated, curiosity piqued. "The ship they flew on the Kerberos Mission?"

Keith nodded. "Yeah. Your dad helped design it, right?"

"Why are you asking me about The Obol?"

"Pidge!" Keith touched a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes momentarily. "Did your dad help to design it?"

Pidge frowned. "Of course he did, he was the engineer for the mission. He had to know how it went together."

"Okay, so..." He took a deep breath. "Are you familiar with how it goes together?"

"Kind of, but... Keith, why are you asking me all this?"

"I was getting to that."

"Can you get to that quicker? I'm meant to be asleep right now," she griped, pushing her curiosity aside in favour of annoyance. "Why didn't you wait until morning to call, anyway?"

"Don't you love saying 'there are no mornings in space'?"

Pidge snorted and rested her head on the pillow next to the tablet. "Get to the point, man." She yawned. "I can't stay awake much longer."

"Okay, so... I was on a mission with the Blades to a decommissioned base near Olkarion. We were checking to see what was salvageable, and in one of the rooms they had The Obol in pieces."

"Mmm..." Pidge replied sleepily. "That sounds... Wait, what?"

Okay. She was officially awake now.

"They had The Obol, in pieces," Keith repeated patiently. "Like they'd completely taken it apart and it was in a thousand bits, but it was definitely The Obol."

"Wow," she breathed. She wasn't quite sure how to feel. The Obol had embodied all of her father's and brother's hopes and dreams, and a good deal of her own, and she'd assumed it lost forever when the crew was captured. She hadn't even thought to look for it.

"So... Do you think you could put it back together?" Pidge tilted the tablet towards her and looked at him hard. His expression was hesitant, but his eyes were soft...almost pleading.

She smirked. "Who do you think I am, Keith? Me and Hunk can rebuild it, no problem."

"No Hunk," he said firmly. "I want to keep this between us."

"What? Why?"

"It..." He trailed off, looking everywhere but at the camera while he gathered his thoughts. "I want to surprise Shiro with it, and the less people that know about it the better."

"Oh." Pidge frowned. "Would Shiro like that surprise? He might not have the best memories of the ship he was flying when, you know..."

"He's fine when he talks about it," Keith said quickly. "Or... At least he was, when he talked about it. He used to say how much it ended up feeling like home. But he doesn't really talk about it anymore..." He trailed off, eyes downcast as his lips turned down in a frown.

Pidge sighed. "He doesn't talk about much anymore."

"I know. That's why I wanted to surprise him."

"Okay..." She nodded, biting her lip. "It'd be way easier with Hunk on board, but I should be able to do it. Are you sure we can't tell Hunk? I don't think he'd tell."

"Positive. More people keeping secrets would be more obvious in the bond. Plus you're always thinking about one project or another, so it would be easy for Shiro to overlook."

Huh. Well, that made sense. Keith always had been more sensitive to that stuff than Pidge.

Trying to put The Obol back together by herself would be no easy feat, but she'd heard her dad describe the ship and its design a million times. With all the technology at her disposal she should be able to manage it. Or at least, get close enough that she'd only need Hunk's help for a short amount of time, thus minimising the chances of exposure. And if it might help bridge the weird distance that had grown between Shiro and the rest of the team, then the hard work would definitely be worth it.

"Okay then. I'm in."

#

The base where Keith had found The Obol was on a planetoid only half a varga away from Olkarion (by lion). With the conclusion of The Voltron Show there were a large number of planets and other civilisations looking to join the coalition, and so a preliminary 'Coalition Summit' of sorts had been called on Olkarion. Since both Team Voltron and the Blade of Marmora would be present, it was the perfect opportunity for The Heist, as Pidge had taken to calling it.

Voltron and the Blades were the hosts, so they had to be there to set up. The second day was primarily taken up by arrivals, with the last one scheduled for early afternoon. Discussions weren't due to start until the next morning. That meant Day One could be spent catching up with friends and family, leaving them free to sneak off on Day Two in the late afternoon. As long as they were back by morning they'd be fine, and Pidge figured that they had a fifteen-hour block of time at the minimum.

The hardest part would be getting away from the rest of the team, but with Shiro's odd distance Keith wasn't too worried about giving Shiro the slip and he wasn't expecting anybody else to go looking for him. It wasn't so easy for Pidge, but she'd managed to set Matt up with Lance and Hunk on a 'boys' game night', and she knew that would definitely keep them occupied long enough for her to sneak out (and probably get back, too, but they would likely just end up crashing in Lance's room so they wouldn't even know she'd gone).

That was how Pidge found herself in Green's hangar late that afternoon, going over her checklist for the mission while waiting for Keith to show up. She'd managed to find a disused hangar big enough for her lion in a far-off corner of the castle and set that up for The Great Puzzling (what she'd nicknamed the 'rebuild The Obol project' in her notes), and the bay doors for the hangar had been left open for their return. She was in her armour and had her bayard, just in case the Blade had missed anything during their previous exploration of the base. She'd managed to procure a bunch of the sacks Keith had taken into the weblum to collect the scaultrite (and had a lot of fun with the expansion mechanism), and she had set up a private frequency for them to communicate on during the mission.

Now all she needed was for Keith to turn up, but he was late.

She tapped her fingers against her gauntlet impatiently, tossing up the pros and cons of sending him a message. If he was having trouble getting away from the others, a message might look suspicious.

"Then again, is he the type to forget the time? We never really scheduled our hang outs before," she mused out loud, earning an amused rumble from Green. "He was never late to training, at least..."

The sound of the door opening echoed in the hangar.

"Dude! I've been here for—"

"...Pidge?" Lance stood near the entrance, staring at her with surprise. "Why are you wearing your armour? You're going somewhere?"

Pidge stared back with wide eyes. "Um... I was going to... Uh..." She glanced around the hangar desperately, looking for some quick inspiration. "I got invited by Rynar to check out a city on the other side of the planet, so I was just about to head out!"

"You did?" His shoulders slumped. Pidge thought he looked disappointed, but why would he look disappointed? "How long are you going to be gone for?"

"Um, I'm not sure," she replied, biting her lip. "I probably won't be back until pretty late. She wanted to show me some stuff that's only really useful at night."

"Oh," he answered, one hand coming up to scratch the back of his neck. "I guess I'll catch you some other time then."

"Yeah, okay." Pidge hated herself for lying to him. Lance was so trusting — he was always willing to take whatever she said at face value, simply because 'we're teammates, Pidge. Why would you lie to me?' But Keith was adamant that they keep the project between the two of them to minimise exposure, so she had to lie.

Lance shrugged and turned to leave. Pidge watched him go with a frown. Shouldn't he be playing video games right now?

"What did you want, anyway?"

"Oh!" Lance stopped short and spun back around, hand still at his neck and...was that a blush on his cheeks? Why would he be blushing? "I was just gonna ask if you wanted to go and watch the sunset."

"The sunset?" Pidge's mind raced to a halt and her mouth dropped open. "Uh..."

"Well, we were talking about them before, remember? And they're really pretty here, and I know a good spot, and just...thought maybe you'd like to see it... I dunno." He looked away and shrugged, but not quickly enough to hide the deep burgundy of his cheeks.

Pidge's own cheeks were burning, but before she could formulate a reply the hangar doors opened again. Keith walked in and she jumped, trying to act casual. Lance straightened up too.

Keith stopped just inside the doors and looked between her and Lance curiously. "Uh... Am I interrupting something?"

"No! No, no, nothing at all," Pidge replied a little too quickly, hoping Keith wouldn't pick up on how flustered she was. "Uh... Are you ready to go?"

"What the cheese?" Lance's eyes widened. "Rynar invited Keith?"

"Yeah? Why are you so surprised?" Keith raised an eyebrow at him, and Pidge silently thanked Kolivan for Keith's ninja spy training. He was a much better liar than she was.

"You don't even like science! You're worse with tech than I am!" His eyes narrowed as he looked from Keith to Pidge. "Is that why you set up the gaming night thing? So you two could sneak out?"

Pidge froze.

"Lance. Are you crazy?" Keith rapped Lance on the forehead with the back of his knuckles, taking his attention off Pidge and giving her room to breathe. "Rynar invited Pidge, Pidge asked if I wanted to come as a Blade representative. That's all."

"Oh." Lance visibly deflated, and Pidge breathed a mental sigh of relief. Somewhere at the back of her mind, Green was laughing at her. Stupid cat. "Uh, right."

Keith looked to Pidge. "We need to go."

Pidge started. "Yeah! Okay, let's go." Green lowered her head, opening her jaw to admit them, but Pidge hesitated and glanced back at Lance. "Uh, I'll see you later? Make sure you beat Matt for me!"

"Yeah, see ya." Lance waved as he left the hangar, shoulders slumped.

The doors slid shut behind him and Pidge turned to start up the ramp to where Keith was waiting for her, one eyebrow raised. "What?"

Keith shook his head. "Nothing. Let's go."

Green was still laughing at her.

#

Keith stood just behind Pidge's seat as they went up, but as soon as they broke atmo he started wandering around the cockpit, surreptitiously running his hands over the consoles as he 'checked their course'.

Pidge fought back a smile as she watched him, but there was something bittersweet in it. He still looked wrong in that Blade uniform.

"Do you miss it?"

Keith glanced over at her question, a rueful smile on his face. He looked back at the console before nodding. "I miss the team. I miss Red."

"We miss you too. It's not the same with you gone." To be honest, she was never quite sure what was different, but there was something missing now. "I miss you keeping me company when I'm working."

"I didn't really do that a lot," he replied, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

She shrugged. "Yeah, but I always appreciated it when you did. Sometimes it's nice to have someone there that I don't have to talk to, y'know?"

Keith nodded and looked away, shoulders slightly hunched. Pidge turned her attention back to the viewscreen and Keith began looking around the cockpit again, touching his fingers to the curves of the walls. Not for the first time, Pidge was glad that she hadn't had to change lions. Green was a comforting presence in her mind, a strong support and a guiding hand — she couldn't imagine how lost she'd be out here without her.

Green rumbled in agreement around them, and Pidge smiled softly. Yeah, she wouldn't give up Green for the world.

A sudden thought struck her, and she glanced back over at Keith. "Do you miss Black?"

"Black?" he repeated, taken aback. "No, not really. We didn't have the same connection."

Pidge nodded. "That makes sense. Lance misses Blue, and he says Red misses you."

"Yeah, whenever I come back to the castle..." Keith replied, tapping a finger to his temple with a smile. A moment later his smile turned devious, his eyes twinkling as he asked: "So... What was that? With you and Lance?"

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him. "What was what with me and Lance?"

Keith snorted. "I interrupted a Moment."

"You didn't interrupt anything."

"Sure," he answered, shrugging. "Why was he there, then? What did he want to talk to you about?"

"Uh..." Pidge examined the flight path she was following, carefully avoiding his gaze as she fought to keep the blush from her cheeks. "He asked me if I wanted to go and watch the sunset."

"...Like on a date?"

"No!" she replied, a little too quickly. "He didn't say it was a date. Uh. He just asked if I wanted to go. But obviously I couldn't, because we're going to that base."

"But he had a games night, right? He invited me to join earlier."

"He did? I didn't know that." Pidge was genuinely surprised. Keith had never been much of a gamer, and Lance had never been one for Keith's company. Then again, they did get on a lot better now than they had at the beginning. She suspected they had the potential to be great friends if Lance would only give it a chance.

"Why would you know that?" Keith turned and leant back against the console, arms crossed over his chest.

Pidge shrugged and looked away.

"Is there something going on between you two?" Pidge shook her head and glanced back at him. Keith tilted his head to the side, examining her. "Do you still like him?"

"Huh? I never liked him. Not like that."

Keith deadpanned. "Paladin bond, Pidge. It was obvious. You've liked him for ages." He paused before continuing, tone suddenly much softer. "Did you really not notice?"

"I..." Pidge trailed off, eyes narrowed in thought. Lance was a good friend, but they were friends and that was it. He was too flirty, too goofy, too extra, too tall for her to ever think of as anything more than a friend. Besides, all of her extra energy was taken up with looking for Matt and her dad. She didn't have time for distractions. "What makes you think I like him?"

"Do you want a list?" Keith replied, before raising a hand and ticking each point off on his fingers. "You let him use your stuff. You give him the softest smiles. You blush around him. When you guys make plans you feel happy and excited. People getting in your personal space puts you on edge, but when Lance does it you feel warm. And then you always get jealous when he flirts with other girls."

Pidge blinked. "I don't get jealous! It's just annoying."

Keith sighed. "That's jealousy, Pidge. Paladin bond, remember?"

"I never get anything like that from you," Pidge grumbled.

"Because I know how to keep my emotions to myself. You leak them everywhere," he responded. "We all know that you like him. I think the only person who doesn't know is Lance." He frowned. "And you, apparently."

"Oh, quiznak," said Pidge, burying her face in her hands and letting Green fly herself for a moment. Did she like Lance? She thought back over all the time they'd spent together with a critical eye. Lance was... He was a jerk, but he could be sweet when he wanted to. He always seemed to go the extra mile to connect with her, and she'd always appreciated that about him — even when she couldn't show it.

But did that mean she liked him? How was she supposed to figure that out? Green rumbled sympathetically beneath her feet, helpfully supplying a montage of images — Lance dressed in the Blade of Marmora uniform, Lance leaving the team instead of Keith, Lance's familiar presence in her mind becoming a small, easily overlooked breath like Keith's had.

The stab of pain she felt at the idea told her all she needed to know.

"Oh," she said as realisation hit her. "Oh. I, uh, I guess I do like him." Keith chortled, and Pidge's surprise quickly turned into annoyance. "Why are you laughing? I'm not supposed to like Lance! Keith! This isn't a good thing!"

Keith just laughed harder, and soon he was doubled over and wheezing from the exertion. Pidge glared at him, then turned away to look out the viewscreen. Screw him. If he was going to be like that, she didn't need to talk to him about it. In fact, she didn't want to talk to anyone about it, because she didn't need to like Lance at all, and the more she acknowledged it the more it felt real, so talking was a bad idea.

She couldn't like Lance. No way.

"I'm sorry," Keith finally spoke, wiping at his eyes as he straightened up. "You really didn't know, huh?"

"No," she answered quietly. "I didn't... Ugh. It's just a crush, Keith. It's not important in the long run."

"If you say so," he replied with a shrug. "But if he's asking you to go and watch the sunset, then maybe he likes you too?"

She slid her gaze to him. "Does he?" Did she even want him to? When he looked confused, she tapped her head twice. "You're better at reading the bond than me."

"Ah," Keith answered. "I don't know. I'm not really in the bond now, but his feelings towards you were always pretty positive?"

"He likes Allura." Pidge's heart sank. Thinking about Lance's crush on Allura had always made her feel bad; now that she could put a name to why, it made her feel even worse. The plus side was that that made her annoyed, which was a much better feeling than 'mildly heartbroken'.

"I'm...actually not sure about that? At first, yeah, I guess, but then his feelings towards Allura kinda...stopped being consistent. The whole thing didn't make sense." Keith shrugged again. "But you guys were always pretty close, and Matt said you spend a whole lot of time together... And even I could feel how disappointed he was when you turned him down in the hangar."

Pidge shifted in her seat. "Honestly, Keith, I don't know? He's been acting really...clingy lately."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "Clingy? Isn't that just Lance?"

Pidge laughed at that, and Keith offered her a small smile. "No, he's being more clingy than normal. Sometimes I feel like he's following me around the castle. It started after I found Matt, actually." Her eyes widened at the realisation, and she paused to think about it. "He was kind of sulking the whole time I was showing Matt around the castle, and I thought it was because Matt hit on Allura when he first met her, —" Keith let out a bark of laughter "— but then..."

She trailed off, frowning. The only person who knew the whole story was Lance, and she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to talk to anybody else about it. It wasn't a fun memory to relive.

"Then what?" Keith prompted, his eyes gentle.

Green rumbled sympathetically, and Pidge took a deep breath. "Well, after Matt left I kind of...broke down?" Keith's eyes widened and Pidge hurried to continue. "Not like, a nervous breakdown or anything! And it wasn't because Matt left. It was just... When I found Matt he was on a top secret mission, and the Rebellion had set up a fake grave to cover his identity. He left a coded message on it in case Dad ever found it, and that's how I discovered where he was stationed, but..."

Keith gave a sympathetic grunt. "You thought it was real."

"Yeah. I thought it was real." Her grip on the flight sticks became painful, and she forced herself to relax. "And then I was just so happy that I'd found Matt that I just kind of...pushed it aside? But a couple of nights after Matt left I was playing video games with Lance and it just hit me. And Lance was there for it."

They had been talking about some of the things they missed about home, and Lance had lamented that he couldn't even remember the last time he experienced rain. Pidge, on the other hand, could remember the last time she experienced rain all too well. It was one of those memories that made her wish she could program a way to delete them.

They flew in silence for a few moments, the stats on the display ticking over as they travelled onwards. They were almost at the base now.

"I'm sorry, Pidge," Keith said finally. "I know that hurt."

Pidge nodded, looking away. "I... Thanks." She fell quiet for a moment, then shook her head. "Anyway. That's when Lance started hanging around a lot more. It probably doesn't mean anything."

"Hmm." The planetoid hosting the base was visible in the viewscreen now, and Keith turned to look as the base rapidly grew larger. "The room with The Obol is around the far side, so you should land her over there."

"Okay." Grateful for the change in topic, Pidge pulled on the flight sticks and the Green Lion soared over the base. They landed gently on the bare rock of the planetoid next to a low, dark building without any windows. Pidge checked the scanners before standing up. "Masks up, Keith. Looks like there's hardly any atmosphere here."

"All right." Pidge bent to grab her helmet when a hand on her shoulder stopped her. "Hey, about Lance? He obviously cares about you. You should try and make it up to him. The sunset thing."

Pidge gaped at him as he released her, activating his mask with his other hand. Keith was the last person she ever expected to get relationship advice from. Keith was who you went to when you wanted to know how to disembowel someone cleanly, not how to make friends.

Keith rapped the helmet in her hands in consternation. "What? Put it on, Pidge. We need to move."

#

The Heist went off without a hitch.

They'd fallen into old habits quickly, covering each other as they cleared each room of the base. Once they were sure no squatters had moved in since Keith's mission with the Blades they hit up the control room, where Keith kept an eye out (more out of habit than anything else) while Pidge copied every byte of data she could find in their servers.

Once that was done, they moved to the room with The Obol.

Pidge hadn't been able to hold back the tears when she first saw it. There, right in front of her, lay her father's pride and joy, the pinnacle of a lifetime's career...in pieces all over the floor. The shell of the ship had been taken off in chunks and was still recognisable, but everything down to the toilet seat had been disassembled into its smallest components and then seemingly thrown at random. She wasn't sure if they were stripping it for valuables or just examining it to see how it worked, but both options made her angry. The Obol was a masterpiece of human engineering. It didn't deserve this.

But, as always, they had a job to do, and there was no time to wallow in sadness. Pidge brought the Green Lion into the nearest hangar and they quickly got to work, carting bits and pieces from the room to the storage bay in Green's underbelly using some boxes and old-fashioned trundle trolleys that Pidge had found on the castle. Some bits were easy, some — like the larger pieces of the shell — required both pairs of hands and a lot of grunting, and others — like the shredded mattresses they found discarded in a corner — brought the anger back and gave them fuel for the next trip.

At one point — two hours in — Pidge had returned from the hangar to find Keith standing at the side, his back to her and his shoulders shaking. He had turned at her approach and held out the item in his hands — a Garrison jacket with SHIROGANE written on the breast — and her heart had stopped.

She hadn't been prepared to find personal effects.

As it turned out, neither of them were. In hindsight, it was an obvious oversight — why would the Galra keep the pieces of the ship, but not the contents? — but both of them had been so focused on bringing the ship back to life that they forgot about things like socks and pencil cases and photographs. After the discovery of the jacket Keith had fetched three boxes and placed them in the centre of the room, and any personal items they came across were silently placed in the corresponding box before they went back to the task at hand. There was no time to waste on tears.

It took them a little under seven hours to stow everything safely on-board the Green Lion. The three boxes were the last things to board, and stayed in the cockpit with them. Pidge took off, set the autopilot, and took one look at the minute shaking of Keith's shoulders before deciding that there was time to wallow after all. The duo spent the trip back kneeling on the hard floor of the cockpit, turning over the items in the boxes and recounting memories, sobbing and laughing in turn as they leant against each other with tears running down their faces.

By the time they broke atmo on Olkarion they had dry throats and red eyes, but the experience had brought them a little closer and given them renewed determination to put the ship together and fix something in the mess that was their shattered lives. For the first time, Pidge wondered if Keith had specifically asked her to help with this project for more than just her technological prowess.

Unloading was much quicker than loading, and by the time they finally disembarked in Green's hangar — sweaty, greasy, and exhausted — the sky was starting to show the first signs of dawn. If they showered and went straight to bed they might get about four hours sleep before they had to be up for their first meeting of the day, and while that wasn't enough neither Pidge nor Keith were ever really expected to contribute much to diplomatic niceties so Pidge at least had that to be thankful for.

They shuffled down the hallways side-by-side in companionable silence, both too physically exhausted and emotionally drained to bother making conversation. Pidge's entire focus was on putting one foot in front of the other — when she got to her room, she was going to have the quickest, hottest shower ever, and then she was going to sink into her warm Altean blanket-cloud and have the best sleep of her life.

She must have muttered that aloud, because Keith let out a short laugh and grunted something that sounded like 'me too'. Or maybe her thoughts were just that loud that even Keith was picking it up over the bond. Whatever.

Nothing was going to get in the way of her and her bed, and she was so close. They were almost at the lounge.

"What the quiznak have you two been up to?!"

Lance's voice shattered the quiet of the hallway, cutting through her thoughts like a knife and making her head throb with pain. Beside her, Keith stumbled and almost fell, evidently as shocked by Lance's sudden appearance as she was. Or would be, if she was awake enough to feel anything but blurry exhaustion.

"Lance...?" she said slowly, squinting at him. "What are you doing awake?"

Lance stood at the turn towards their rooms in his dressing gown, one hand on his hip as he surveyed them with raised eyebrows. "What am I doing awake? What the quiznaking cheesey telephones are you two doing awake? And don't tell me Rynar took you to a club or something, because I won't believe you."

Pidge stared at him, the wheels in her mind sluggishly turning before settling on an answer. "It's a really long story."

She saw Keith minutely shake his head out of the corner of her eye. By the way Lance's expression hardened, she guessed he'd noticed it too. "Care to share?"

"She can't," Keith said, straightening up. "Secret mission." He patted Pidge lightly on the shoulder and started forward down the hall. "The sun's almost up. I'm going to bed."

Lance narrowed his eyes but let him pass with a murmured 'goodnight' before turning back to Pidge, concern and confusion warring in his gaze. All of a sudden Pidge felt very aware of his presence. She wasn't sure if she wanted to run to him or bolt in the other direction, bed be damned.

As the silence ticked on, Keith's advice from earlier sprang to mind, and the words were tumbling out of her mouth before she had time to think about them. "Do you want to go and watch the sunrise?"

He blinked at her. "Seriously?"

Pidge shrugged and shuffled her feet. "I'll need to take a shower first, but yeah?"

Lance's expression slowly blossomed into a wide smile, and Pidge fleetingly thought that it was brighter than any of the stars she'd seen so far. Quiznak.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

For once, the happiness radiating down the bond was palpable to Pidge.

–> Chapter Two: She Forgot to Look More Closely

[hpowellsmith]

Hello, I was one of the people who asked you about Florin and I read your recent post and I wanted to apologize for asking, now I realize you must get asked the same questions about them quite a lot. I am embarrasssed but I guess my reasoning was because I wanted to know so much about them, I didn't think that what you tell us should be enough, there's no need to pry and bother the author because of a whim.

I apologize because, although I don't think I did it with ill intentions, like I didn't think, "now, the author must tell me everything I want to know!" I feel like it came across that way. I don't know how to word it, but I am genuinely sorry, that I didn't consider you must get these asks a lot and that I may have sounded entitled. I feel like the way IF works, and how most authors tend to be so approachable, it is easy to forget to consider the author, which was my opposite intention.

This has been discussed so many times before, but I'm sad because now I realize I hadn't really fully grasped it.

I love your work and I feel terrible that instead of appreciating what you have done, I asked something you have answered before, purely out of selfishness. I could have sent some positivity your way, and instead I was like "but I want to know more, more!" So yeah, entitled.

This is already so long, but I repeat that I truly love your work, your games are the ones I replay the most, they are that comforting to me, I apologize if I made you uncomfortable, I'll be more mindful of the author/dev in the future.

Dear anon, my short answer is: it's totally fine!

My long answer is: I have so much sympathy for how you're feeling. There's truly no need to feel embarrassed! You can safely assume that if I'm answering a question, it's because I'm happy to answer it (unless I say otherwise in the answer!) I'm delighted when characters stay with players enough for them to be interested in them after playing and I haven't had any messages that I felt were entitled.

When I link to answers I've previously posted, that isn't me tutting and going "you should have read this, harrumph!" it's me thinking "ooh, if they're asking about this topic they might like to see another take on it and I'm not always meticulous about tagging, plus the search function is trash so it's likely that they haven't read it before".

For me, a message asking about a character IS positivity - unless someone said something like "WHY haven't you answered this" or "how DARE this not be shown onscreen" - which I can assure you that you haven't done! There's nothing to beat yourself up over.

I wish you all the best and a comfortable and relaxing day. Thank you for the ask and for being so thoughtful, but you really have nothing to apologise for!

(caveat that other authors may have other boundaries or had different experiences, I speak only for myself, and so on)

(PS - I went back and forth on posting the content of the message and decided to for clarity reasons, but if you aren't comfortable with it being up I'm very happy to take it down and repost the answer)

[degenerate-otaku]

Another one shot of Future Gohan and Trunks for yall

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13896221/1/Before-the-Rain

(Links in case you prefer)

In the times that had followed the androids' destruction, younger generations were highly protected, as they were the earth's only hope. The government set up an initiative to get more children out of dangerous cities that housed gangs and violence.

Children and any family they had would move to countryside camps, wherein they would receive food, safety and education in return for doing manual labour such as farming and sewing, as well as taking care of the sick.

Trunks somewhat hated this, as it meant that many children in West City, including his own friends often moved away when things got too difficult, leaving him isolated, in terms of having friends his own age.

Sure, sometimes he'd visit, taking the underground railway system, or by hopping on the nimbus, or even flying when he had learnt to do so, but it felt like an arduous task.

However, when Gohan decided to volunteer as a teacher, Trunks thought it would be a good idea to attend full time, as the pair could go together. Trunks was surprised when the day before Gohan revealed he was rather nervous about it.

“C'mon, you're an amazing teacher to me, so I'm sure you'll be able to teach more kids!” Trunks reassured him, snuggling into bed. He always loved when Gohan would stay over at his house, it was so comforting to know he was right there beside him.

“Yeah...but that's you...and I've known you since you were born...and there's a lot of kids!” Gohan hung up his smart looking outfit, which Trunks remarked as being nerdy, on a hanger, before sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Trust me, they aren't as annoying as me. You'll be fine...Good night.” Trunks smiled at him before switching off his light and pretending to be asleep before Gohan could worry further.

Gohan sighed and tucked the boy in a little more before heading to sleep himself.

The next day, the pair flew to the makeshift school building, and landed away from sight before coming in together.

To keep Gohan distracted from his nerves, which Trunks viewed as highly irrational, considering Gohan was also "The Golden Warrior", he inquired,

“Doesn't your mom cook for the kids here a lot? My friends said that a lady called Miss Son is the most amazing lunch lady ever.”

“Huh? Oh...yeah,” Gohan laughed, lifting his head from the book held in his hands.

“I mean...she's used to cooking in massive quantities for me and for when my dad was around...it's a chance for her to share her...motherly-ness.” He smiled, then stopped at the door, listening to the sound of children chattering inside.

“You can do this!” Trunks grinned, taking his bag off his shoulder as he stepped in, Gohan following, the class immediately silenced, intrigued by the smart young man, that was clearly strong looking, his muscles bulging even in his clothes.

“Uh...Good morning class!” He began, picking up a pen and writing his name on the board.

“My name is Mr Son...and I will be your new teacher!” He smiled politely, awaiting a response.

“Oh my god, are you married to the lunch lady?!” A girl exclaimed.

Gohan frantically shook his head, “N-no, she's my mom!” His face had gone red as the class giggled, but he soon regained composure, laughing it off.

“Gosh, she cooks like that for you all the time?!” Another kid chimed in and he scratched the back of his head,

“Yeah...I guess so! I just hope she doesn't come in and embarrass me!” He answered.

Trunks gazed up at him from where he was sitting. He was glad to see his best friend adapting so well to his new job.

“Alright! Our first task is going to be a written task, which I'll get you to read aloud at the end.” He instructed them, handing out some paper, taking a look at every one of his new students.

“I want you all to write about what you did during your summer. Which programs did you volunteer in? Did you visit anywhere?”

He returned to his position at the front and passionately spoke, “I really wanna know about you guys! Oh...maybe I should take the register to learn your names...tell me if I mispronounce any!”

Gohan sat down, getting out the list of names and calling them out, one by one, receiving a pleasant "Good morning, Mr Son“ each time. It was strange to hear Trunks call him that, and by the sound of it, the title was strange for the boy to speak aloud too. The two just had to pretend as if they didn't know each other, Gohan made it a priority not to show favouritism towards him, but he knew it would be difficult.

He loved that boy unconditionally.

”Sir, how long do we have?“ A girl named Cherri, who he knew to be Trunks' friend that used to live not far from Capsule Corp, asked.

”Oh...right, I forgot to tell you that! Uh...you have until half past.“ He answered, before scribbling down more lesson ideas in his book.

The truth was that he had no clue about what he was doing. He was planning his lessons as he went along.

The time passed quickly, and Gohan decided to pick out random students to read out what they had wrote. A few passed, and he made some notes about them in his book.

”Alright, last but not least is Trunks.“ Gohan called out to him, snapping the boy out of a daydream.

”Oh, ok...“ He reluctantly stood and read from the paper, ”Last summer, I mostly stayed at home, played video games and studied. I went to the beach with my mom a few times....uhh I watched TV and...uh yeah.“ He sat back down.

”...that's it? That's all you wrote?“ Gohan glared at his student, hoping he had a good response.

”Yeah.“ Trunks replied, thinking nothing of it.

”Trunks, you had half an hour and you wrote 3 sentences.“ Gohan sounded stern and the class silently watched.

”Well, you already know what I did last summer, Gohan-“ Trunks gasped and the class was confused.

”Wait, is he your brother?“ The boy next to Trunks, who was also his good friend asked and the whole class started chatting.

Gohan cleared his throat and sighed,

”Yes...well...I am very close to Trunks, our families are too...but this does not mean I favour him over any of you.“ He calmed the situation, then spoke directly to Trunks,

”I need you to show the same level of respect to me as everyone else in here, too, ok? It is the morning of the first day, so I will let this slide, but please give more effort.“

Trunks nodded, but rolled his eyes, slumping back in his chair, when Gohan turned to the whiteboard and wrote down the title of the next lesson, before collecting in the students' essays and handing out exercise books.

The next lesson would be a boring maths lesson, which Trunks sat through. He was ahead of his peers in scientific and mathematical subjects, thanks to his master's teaching, so sitting through a recap of something he found so simple was like watching paint dry.

Whenever Trunks raised his hand, he felt like Gohan always asked someone else. He didn't like being ignored.

He knew the answers to everything, it was incredibly annoying to hear someone who clearly didn't know something harder than expanding brackets in algebra, try to solve the equation on the board that Trunks could do in his head.

Gohan was encouraging and made sure the students felt no shame in making mistakes.

”Alright, Cherri, so now you need to get the unknowns on one side of the equation.“ Gohan advised her, writing on the board the step she just explained with his help.

The girl stammered, her face going a little red from the attention.

”The answer is 4!“ Trunks, finally fed up, called out the answer.

”Well, yes, that is correct, but I wasn't asking you, I was asking Cherri.“ Gohan put down his pen and his serious tone returned.

”She obviously didn't know!“ Trunks folded his arms, determined to not apologise for doing what he thought was right.

”It's rude to interrupt, regardless.“ Gohan told him, before moving on.

Finally, it was time for break and when Trunks decided he was going to talk to Gohan, he was surprised to find girls in his class talking to him instead, asking him tons of questions.

”So, you work out?“ One asked, taking a look at his arms.

”Of course he does, just look at him!“ Her friend cut in and Gohan blushed and nodded, explaining his reasons, which Trunks knew to be false.

”Oh, hey, Trunks!“ Gohan spotted him and took his opportunity to get out of that conversation.

”I wanted to have a chat about before.“ He approached his pupil, who was causing him some concern.

”Oh...same.“ Trunks fiddled with the sleeves of his jumper, something he always did when he was nervous, which Gohan took notice of.

”Why did you feel like you could do that?“ Gohan's voice was calm; it always made Trunks feel more at ease.

”I dunno...it just felt like...you were ignoring me. I just got a bit fed up...because I already knew the stuff and you weren't asking me.“ The teen shrugged his shoulders, not meeting his eye.

”Trunks,“ Gohan placed his hand on his shoulder, making the boy glance up at him.

”I just want to know what the others know. I know you're able to do this, but most of them aren't.“

Gohan did make sense, but Trunks was stubborn. His mother said it was a trait of his father, though she was stubborn too.

”I spend a lot of time with you...and I love spending time with you...but it's not fair to give you all my focus...

You know I really love you, right?“

That was enough to make Trunks smile.

”I know...thanks, Gohan...I mean Mr Son.“ Trunks giggled before running off.

Gohan watched as the other kids played together gleefully. It was heartwarming to see them be actual kids and enjoy their disrupted youth. It only made him more determined to fight for their safety and teach them well.

'I might be an even better teacher than you, Mr Piccolo...'

He smirked, hoping Piccolo could hear him somewhere, feeling proud of him.

[haven-raven012591]

Familiar and New

Pairing: Familiar! Yoongi X OC Witch! Lily (friendship) familiar! Yoongi X familiar Jungkook X OC Witch! Lily

Warning: Angst, mild fighting.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 2.5

The way this book read she could do a simple spell and see the red strand of fate. "Yoongi, have you ever heard of this?" Lily asked as she sat next to him. He looked over her shoulder and nodded. "Yeah, I've heard of it." Yoongi said bitterly. "What is it?" Lily asked. "The spell or the red strand?" Yoongi asked curiously. "The red strand." Lily said as she put the book down looking at him. He sighed and leaned back closing his eyes. "If you'd rather not say I can look it up." Lily said. His tongue darted out as he licked his lips.

"They say the strand connects you to your soul mate, the strand will never break it'll get longer or shorter, it may have knots in it but it never breaks." Yoongi said. She saw the distant look in his eyes and knew he was looking through her and not at her. The light he normally had in his eyes was gone. "Yoongi, what's wrong?" Lily asked softly. His hands were balled into fists as his chest rose and fell rapidly. She ran her hands through her hair. "Yoongi." Lily breathed.

He wanted to get out of his skin. She watched his eyes go green and then he started growling. She bit her lip nervously as she watched his skin sprout fur and his tail twitch like crazy. She closed her eyes and thought about him feeling the link between them. She wrapped her hand around the cord sending calming energy through it.

It was like he was fighting an old painful memory that threatened to swallow him. "Yoongi, take my hand right now." Lily panted as the memory swallowed him. He hissed and snapped the link. She gripped the couch and looked at him. Her body hurt but it was her heart that hurt the most. "I'm not giving up on you, Yoongi." Lily vowed. She sat on her knees and put her hands over his fists.

"Don't come closer, you'll be unhappy." Yoongi chanted. "Shh no I won't, I want to be closer to you." Lily said. Her hands ran up his forearms and hit the pressure points which made his hands relax. "Don't Lily, please don't." Yoongi whispered his voice horse. "I'm sorry Yoongi this time I can't listen." Lily said. She laced both their hands and gasped. Her mind linked with his and she closed her eyes letting it wash over her.

The energy swirled around them and as it hit them both they both blacked out.

"Yoongi, I have an idea." Jessica said as she bounced into the living room. "What is it baby?" Yoongi asked smiling at her. "I just created a spell to show you, your soulmate." Jessica said. She kissed his cheek as she sat next to him watching him play the keyboard. "How?" Yoongi asked as he looked over to her. "It'll show you the red strand of fate." Jessica said happily.

Yoongi turned to her and took her hand. "Don't do this, we're not meant to find it until we're ready." Yoongi said. "I'm ready, I know who my stand is connected to." Jessica said and kissed him. He caressed her cheek and laid his forehead to hers. "Alright let's do it." Yoongi said. They went to the herb shoppe and got what they needed. She wrote down the spell and he cut up the herbs and started mixing them.

"Ok, last but not least bless this." Jessica said. She handed him a rose quartz crystal. He took it and blessed it tuning it to his vibrations. "Jess, are you positive?" Yoongi asked. "Absolutely." Jessica said. She blessed her rose quartz. Then she put them together in a bag and put the in the pot. "Sit close, it shouldn't take long." Jessica said. He nodded and sat on the stool.

She closed her eyes and put in the last herb. "Show me the way, the way to my fate, show me the way, the way to my soulmate." Jessica chanted. The bag glowed and a puff of smoke came from the pot. She opened her eyes and clapped her hands together. "It worked!" Jessica squealed in pure joy. She took the bag out and picked up her stone. As she held it the red strand appeared. Yoongi took his stone and his strand appeared. "Ok, now let's look." Jessica said. He lifted his hand and so did she.

"What?" Jessica breathed. Yoongi closed his eyes and threw his stone to the table. "No, Yoongi it has to be you!" Jessica whined. "It's not, I'm just your familiar, the way it should be." Yoongi growled. "B..but I love you." Jessica said. "Puppy love." Yoongi said bitterly. He walked out.

The energy lifted from them and everything was silent, eerily silent. Yoongi's eyes were still closed. He was so handsome to her. The way his lips formed a pout. His cute little freckles under his eye and beside his nose. She loved his eyes and how they were shaped. As that thought crossed her mind his eyes opened. First they were green then they cooled to brown.

Lily looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Witches never learn, I asked you, I begged you not to!" Yoongi yelled and walked out. Lily rubbed her chest and shut the book. "Yoon, I'm so sorry." Lily whispered to the empty house. She got up and started cooking his favorite meal. Yoongi sat in the park with his head in his hands. "Hyung?" Jungkook asked. Yoongi's head snapped up as he heard that familiar voice. "Jungkook?" Yoongi asked. The young man before him looked different.

"It's me Hyung, I guess I've changed." Jungkook laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck. The smile he gave Yoongi was happy and bright. "Still the same happy pup." Yoongi said shaking his head. "It's my nature!" Jungkook said. He sat beside Yoongi and looked at him. "Are you ok, you look drained." Jungkook said. "I feel drained." Yoongi admitted. "Where's your witch?" Jungkook asked. "Home." Yoongi said bitterly.

"Uhmm, Yoongi." Lily said softly. He got up and turned to her. "What are you doing here?" Yoongi snapped. "I br...brought you your coat, I know you don't like cold, dinner is almost ready too I made your favorite." Lily said. Jungkook looked between the two of them and Lily smiled at him. "Aren't you a handsome husky, what's your name?" Lily asked. Yoongi knew the smile was forced, he also saw her eyes and felt how weak she was.

"I'm Jungkook." Jungkook said. "Hello Jungkook, it's nice to meet you, I'm Lily." Lily said. "She's my witch." Yoongi said. The way he said witch sounded more like bitch. Lily quickly looked down then up as she licked her lips. "I made enough if you and your witch want to come, I can see the friendship bond you two have." Lily said. The tear that rolled down her cheek was only one, the rest were in her voice.

Jungkook tilted his head and jumped over the rail. His tail was going wild and she giggled. "He's not a stray, you can't go around trying to take others familiars!" Yoongi snapped. Lily handed Jungkook, Yoongi's coat and bowed. "I'm sorry, I have to make sure dinner isn't burned." Lily said and ran off. "Hyung." Jungkook breathed. "What!?" Yoongi growled his eyes bright green. Jungkook's flashed ice blue and Yoongi blinked. "She thinks we're pets." Yoongi said. Jungkook tilted his head deep in thought.

"You're lying to yourself Hyung, Lily treats us or you like a person and would any familiar." Jungkook said. "She said you where a handsome husky not a handsome man!" Yoongi snapped. "I am a husky Hyung." Jungkook said matter of factlly. "She should have said you were a handsome man!" Yoongi said. "Hyung, she didn't say that because she likes you." Jungkook said.

Yoongi laughed at him and sat down. "Lily is pretty and sweet, much better than Jessica." Jungkook said. "Don't say that witches name!" Yoongi growled. "What happened between you and Lily?" Jungkook asked. He looked at Jungkook and then what was in his hands. She'd brought him his jacket. She'd seen what happened and hadn't said anything and he'd yelled at her.

"She saw what happened between I and Jessica, I was having a panic attack and she took my hands and wanted to comfort me, she'd sent me warm energy and it over took her." Yoongi said. "Hyung, she's a new witch she just wanted to help you." Jungkook said. Yoongi looked away and sat down again his head was spinning. "Hyung, at least you have a home and a friend." Jungkook said. Yoongi looked at him as Jungkook gave him his coat.

Yoongi sighed and looked at him. "Where's your stuff?" Yoongi asked. "I have to go get it." Jungkook said. "Go get it, you're coming home with me." Yoongi said. Jungkook's tail wagged hard. "Thank you, Hyung!" Jungkook said and ran off. Yoongi called Lily. "Can Jungkook stay with us?" Yoongi asked. "Yoongi, this house is yours if you want him to stay then he stays." Lily said. "Then he stays." Yoongi said firmly. "I'll go make up the guest room." Lily said. "We'll be home soon, Lily." Yoongi said. "Dinner is ready, I already set another place." Lily said.

He hung up and she let a few more tears fall as she went to the linen closet and found good sheets. She made up the bed and then went to living room. Yoongi and Jungkook walked in laughing and smiling. It took her breath away to see his bright and easy smile. "Welcome home." Lily said. They looked at her and she licked her lips.

Yoongi looked away and she turned away. Jungkook went to her and she looked up at him. "You're so tall." Lily laughed. "Thank you for allowing me into your home." Jungkook said. "It's Yoongi's home too, I didn't allow anything." Lily said. Yoongi went to her and took her hand. "I'm sorry." Yoongi breathed. "It's ok." Lily said and walked into the kitchen. He walked after her. "Lily stop I need to apologise." Yoongi said. "Listen, Yoongi it's ok I'm sorry I meddled into your past it won't happen again." Lily said turning to him.

He pulled her into his arms and she pushed him away. "Don't, I messed up ok, I wanted to help you and I messed up more." Lily said. He took her hand and she went to pull her hand away when he tightened his grip. "Please let go." Lily whispered breathlessly. He saw the fear in her eyes and let go. "His room is beside yours." Lily said. "I'd never hurt you." Yoongi said. She blinked and nodded. "I know." Lily whimpered.

He brought her close and she gripped his shirt. "I'm so sorry." Lily sobbed. He held her close as he stroked her hair. Jungkook walked into the kitchen and smiled. "Told you so." Jungkook said. Yoongi laughed and shook his head. Lily straightened up and wiped her eyes. "Follow me Jungkook, your rooms this way." Lily said smiling. "I'll put dinner on the table." Yoongi said. "Thank you, Yoongi." Lily said and kissed his cheek.

"Here it is, I picked the sheets but if you don't like them I can find some you'd like." Lily said. He put his stuff down and looked at the bed. "I...I don't need a room I can sleep on the couch." Jungkook said. "You need a bed Jungkook." Lily said. He sat down and she watched him closely. "I apologise for you having to come into the house when Yoongi and I had a fight." Lily said. "People fight." Jungkook said.

"I meddled into his life." Lily said. "You were trying to help." Yoongi said. She turned and looked down. "I shouldn't ha...have been so eager." Lily stumbled. "Lil, did you get hurt?" Yoongi asked softly. "Hurt?" Lily asked. She wobbled and hit her knees panting. "Lily!" Jungkook said as he moved to her. "It's not pain." Lily whispered. Jungkook looked up at Yoongi. "What do you see?" Yoongi asked as he sat with them.

"Red." Lily whispered. "Blood?" Jungkook asked. "Not sure." Lily breathed. "Can we see?" Yoongi asked softly. She took their hands and Yoongi closed his eyes. Jungkook followed suit and they all saw what Lily saw. Jungkook opened his eyes and saw it blink into existence. "Hyung." Jungkook called.

Yoongi opened his eyes and looked at his hand then Lily's. "Lily." Yoongi breathed. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "What is it?" Lily asked. He held up their hands and she saw it. "No, I didn't cast that spell!" Lily shook her head. "I know, this is what I was trying to tell Jess, it happens naturally." Yoongi said. The strand vanished as she took her hand away. "Does that mean you two love each other?" Jungkook asked. "No, just that we're meant to." Yoongi said.

Lily got up and went down to the kitchen getting water. The boys followed her. "Let's eat." Lily said. They all sat down and ate. "You're a good cook, Lily." Jungkook said as he finished off his third plate. "Thank you, Jungkook." Lily smiled as she took the dishes to the sink. Yoongi followed her and she jumped as she turned. "You scared me." Lily giggled. "We have to talk." Yoongi said. "Not tonight, Yoon." Lily said softly. He hugged her tightly. "Don't pull away Lily there's people in the yard." Yoongi breathed. She wrapped her arms around him. He nuzzled her neck and she shivered. "Yoongi I'm scared." Lily breathed. "I'll protect you." Yoongi vowed. "Not about those people, about our connection you're my familiar." Lily said. "That's why I'm your familiar Lily, and you're special." Yoongi said. She looked at him.

The windows blew out and they ran to the dinning room. "Jungkook are you ok?" Lily asked. "He's bleeding." Yoongi said. She ran to the hutch and grabbed a potion. "It'll heal you." Lily said. He took it and was healed in seconds. "Thank you." Jungkook said. She helped him up. "My pleasure." Lily said. She licked her lips and chanted a spell over him. "What did you just do?" Jungkook asked feeling invincible. "She protected you." Yoongi said. She did the same for Yoongi and he rolled his neck.

"Look at you three, aww it's a little family!" Katie said. Lily threw her out into the grass as the vines wrapped around her. Kate laughed and the vines exploded into fire. "Too bad." Katie said. "Lily get back!" Yoongi growled. His eyes went green and Jungkook's went ice blue as he rolled his shoulders back.

Jungkook's left ear that was partially folded over now stood straight up with his right one. Yoongi's ears were back and his tail was straight up. Claws extended from both Yoongi's and Jungkook's nails. "Don't fight us, you won't win!" Katie said. "All I see is you and I can beat you." Lily snapped. Katie laughed and John stepped out of the shadows and Yoongi jumped out of the busted window and stood with Lily.

John threw a throwing star and Lily reversed the air flow and it hit a tree. "Bitch." Katie said as she put her hand over her arm. John healed her and looked over at Lily. "Looks like you've improved." John said. Lily rolled her eyes and looked at Jungkook as he stepped beside her. John threw another star and Lily threw it back at him again. "It's not gonna work!" Katie said.

John snapped and three more guys came up behind them. "Shit." Yoongi breathed. Lily took out a metal spike and looked at Yoongi. "Jump!" Lily whispered in Yoongi's mind. He did and grabbed Jungkook in the process. She sent a shock through the ground to the other spikes and trapped them. "Lil!" Yoongi yelled as one guy stepped from behind her and bit her. Her hand slid from the spike and she passed out. "Jungkook get her." Yoongi's said softly.

Yoongi went after the snake and grabbed him putting him into a trance. "Damnit I hate black cat magic!" John spat. Jungkook took Lily into the house laying her on the couch. "I'll protect you." Jungkook said. "Yoon..."Lily trailed off. Jungkook ran out to the yard and attacked Katie pinning her to the ground trying to tie her up. "Kook!" Yoongi yelled. John grabbed him and knocked him out.

Lily got up and ran to the window panting hard fighting against the poison. She ran to Jungkook and then looked around. "Yoongi!" Lily yelled. She panted harder as she walked around the yard. "Yoongi!" Lily called. "He's gone." A male voice said. Lily turned and hit the ground shaking and panting.

"Wh...who are you?" Lily groaned. "Pardon me, I'm Kim SeokJin, but you can call me Jin." Jin said. "Where's Yoo...Yoongi?" Lily stumbled. "They took him." Jin said. "No, why didn't you stop them?" Lily snapped. "I just got here and found this." Jin said handing her a note. She opened it and tears ran down her cheeks. "No." Lily breathed. She looked at Jin and he knelt to her. "Allow me to help." Jin said. "You're human like me, but also not." Lily said softly. "I'm a little hard to explain." Jin laughed. "I can't feel anything." Lily said passing out.

The red strand is always there! Meaning love is always there just let it happen and feel it.

@alternateafterthought ​ @demonslunacy ​ @scuzmunkie ​ @alexnine @dolphinpink310 @soulofaravenheartofawolf @lauri3strode ​ @adriennegabriella ​ @ladylucksposts ​ @briqueenofthenorth ​ @2sweetqueen ​ @meremaidqueen ​ @susanleann1 ​ @bjjackson38 @ariana-winchester95 ​ 

[raku-fansubs]

Hi! Thank you for subbing those videos! I'm subscribed to both of your channels on YouTube, and now I follow you here on Tumblr! I was wondering a couple of things... 1. Would you be able to sub any "My Hero Academia" events? I know Yuki Kaji is in the show, but he isn't always at all the events. 2. Which other seiyuu do you like? 3. Is there any way that people like me (who aren't fluent in Japanese) can help? (preferably not money-wise because I'm broke)

Hey there! Thanks for dropping by! Heads up: I can be pretty long-winded when I start talking so don’t worry about reading everything if you can’t be bothered to 😂

1. As far as I’m concerned, there haven’t been any HeroAca events recorded in a DVD, but if you’re referring to the Live Broadcasts (NICO/LINE) and radio episodes, I’ve only listened to the 2 radio episodes (in which Kaji went as guest), plus some random episodes to hear the backstory of those really good episodes in the anime, and also the LINE LIVE broadcast (Todoroki: Origin - Before and After Cast Talk). To be honest, although I would love to sub all of them, unfortunately because I’m still a high school exam student, it can be pretty hard to make the time for it 😓 (I pray every day to become more efficient) But if there’s a specific cut you would like to share I’d be more than happy to work on it!

2. Although this may not sound convincing if you’ve seen my channel‘s bias towards Kaji 😅 but I actually like and respect a lot of seiyuus. I usually get attracted to a seiyuu for either of the three following qualities: voice acting, voice, or personality. In terms of voice acting, it’s simply if their acting had left an impression on me. An example of a seiyuu that I like purely for her acting is Hayami Saori. She’s the second name I search up for after Kaji when choosing seasonal animes to watch. I could go on forever but to sum up why - it’s because I love her screams. Next, when it comes to voice, it’s pretty straightforward, just whoever’s voice sounds pleasant. In this case I’m referring to those whose acting doesn’t necessarily have to be good, but I‘d still love to listen to their voices just for the sound of it. A few who fall under this category are Kamiya Hiroshi, Sawashiro Miyuki and Natsuki Hanae. Don’t get me wrong, I love their acting, but my point is that I would listen to their voices regardlessly. Thirdly, it’s about their personality. Though it’s not my place to say this, there are some seiyuus whose neither voice nor voice acting ever struck me. If there’s any reason why I still appreciate them, it’s because I’ve heard how much effort and thoughts they’ve put into shaping their characters. But surely these people who’ve put in this much effort will be rewarded. An example is… though I don’t want to offend anyone, it’s Suzuki Tatsuhisa. Honestly I didn’t like quite a few of his portrayal, err… one I can recall on the top of my head is Mishima from Daiya no Ace, I won’t go too much into why I didn’t like his voice for Mishima, but I absolutely believe that he was the best fit for roles like Ban (Nanatsu no Taizai) and Hiroomi (Kyoukai no Kanata). Through the things he says in radios and events, you can really see that he watches his characters very closely and pays attention to the smallest things he can do for the best of his characters. I guess my point is that as long as a seiyuu loves and treats their characters well, even if their voice isn’t appealing to a certain viewer, their emotion will definitely be reflected in their portrayal which will naturally be conveyed to the viewers. And… it’s needless to say that there are plenty of seiyuus who have more than one of the three qualities, but basically Kaji is my favourite cause he happens to match what I was looking for in all three aspects. But I’m guessing that the reason why you’re asking this is because you want to know what kind of content I could be subbing? If that‘s the case I sincerely apologise for this long rant 😅 but I like any seiyuu that has some sort of relationship with Kaji. They could fall into any of the above categories, but I usually like to sub Kaji with either senpais who pamper/tease him (Miyano Mamoru/Kamiya Hiroshi/Ono Daisuke/Hayashibara Megumi/ Matsumoto Rica/Sakurai Takahiro/Fukuyama Jun/Suzuki Tatsuhisa), peers that he’s comfortable with (Terashima Takuma/Okamoto Nobuhiko/Maeno Tomoaki/Kimura Ryouhei/Yonaga Tsubasa/Sawashiro Miyuki/Inoue Marina/Takagaki Ayahi/Ono Yuuki/Nazuka Kaori), people he likes (Shimono Hiro/Hosoya Yoshimasa/Suzumura Kenichi/Morikubo Showtaro/Uchiyama Kouki), kouhais that look up to him/kouhais he dotes on (Shimazaki Nobunaga/Yamashita Daiki/Ishikawa Kaito/Kuno Misaki/Ogura Yui/Ishihara Kaori/Hanae Natsuki/Osaka Ryota) and I’m sure I’m still missing out on lots of names, but I also love (or want to see more of) his conversations with some of the people that showed signs of knowing him quite well but can still be pretty vague if they’re close to him (Nishiyama Koutarou/Kakihara Tetsuya/Uchida Maaya/Kayano Ai/Hanazawa Kana/Toyonaga Toshiyuki/Yuuki Aoi/Taketatsu Ayana/Yoshitsugu Matsuoka/Amamiya Sora/Sakura Ayane/Kobayashi Yusuke/Irino Miyu/Hayami Saori/Umehara Yuichiro/Tomatsu Haruka/Koshimizu Ami/Takahashi Rie/Ishikawa Yui). Erm.. the list could go on forever but I’ll stop here 😓

3. It could really be anything! My main reason for translating was just to share the love of seiyuus and to find more fellow overseas seiyuu fans. I don’t translate to take credit of the subbing so to be honest I don’t mind if people repost or reupload my subs so long as it exposes the awareness of seiyuus to a larger community in a positive way :))) I sincerely do believe that seiyuus deserve more recognition for the wonderful voices they bring to us after all. Other than that would be “monetary” but rather than for me, it would be great if we can all support the original event DVD sales (or even their photo books and radio DJCDs)! I just hope that one day they’ll make a contract with an official translating company to release the Eng subs officially. Oh right, we do have a seiyuu fansubbing group where quite a few of us seiyuu fansubbers gather together to plan for our translations. If you’d like to contribute I’m sure the group will be more than happy to welcome you! Check this link out for more details: http://seiyuufansubs.com/join-us/

Hope that answered your questions! P.S. Someone needs to teach me how to summarise (-.-;)…