#i do think they’ve had exactly One conversation at a party like. 8 years ago

[collegeoflore]

Boy Do They.

[wherethingscomebackx]

Top 25 Larry Fics of 2020

h 2020 was HELLISH. So thank you to all the writers, and I mean ALL of them, who kept us occupied as the world continues to burn.

You may be familiar with these lists:

Top 25 Larry fics of 2016

Top 25 Larry fics of 2017

Top 25 Larry fics of 2018

Top 25 Larry fics of 2019

We’re going on our 5th year!!  As always, I read a lot of fic and the majority of it is Larry. I like making lists and I like Larry so I thought I’d do some minimal research of the top 25 larry fics published/completed in 2020 in order of least to most kudos (with links). All of these fics are top notch so you should all check them out!

25.) a trail of honey through it all by @yvesaintlourent (27k)

The boy in front of him, well really, the man in front of him, was like something out of a confusing wet dream. Built, tall, tan and muscular, his skin glistened with sweat after a long day of working outdoors with his hands. He was wearing a cut up old American football shirt, the bottom hem was torn and the sleeves were cut off to the point where the t-shirt was really just a loose tank top. The shorts he had on had clearly been full length jeans at one point, and were now just crudely cut off above the knee. His white socks were pulled up too high on his calves, and the brown work boots he had on were old as fuck, the leather peeling along the edges of the soles. Curly brown hair stuck out from the edges of his backwards snapback, and there was a smudge of grease wiped along his brow bone. The smattering of hair along his jaw proved that he hadn’t shaved in a week or two, the hair growing in thicker across his upper lip and around his chin. His sinfully bowed mouth was pink and plump, and Louis was suddenly hyper-focused on the way that he chewed at the toothpick stuck between his lips. He looked like he needed a shower. Louis wanted to lick him.

Or, the TPH fic we’ve all been waiting for.

24.) even the best laid plans by @falsegoodnight (25k)

“Anyways,” Louis stresses, narrowing his eyes, “just let me say it and then rate how terrible of an idea it is on a scale from one to ten.”

“Alright,” Zayn agrees, sitting up expectantly.

“I want to ask Harry Styles to take my virginity,” Louis blurts, holding his hands out for emphasis.

The way Zayn’s eyes bulge is almost comical. “Negative infinity,” he says, voice choked. “Negative infinity times negative infinity.”

“Technically, a negative times a negative is -”

“Really negative infinity,” Zayn corrects himself, shaking his head wildly. “Louis, what the fuck?”

-

Or, Louis wants to have sex with someone and decides Harry is the perfect alpha for the job.

23.) A Distant Hazy Light by @greenfeelings (76k)

Life’s pretty ordinary for Harry. He lives with his best friend, got into university just like he’s planned, and manages to support himself just fine for an unbonded omega. If he sustains that lifestyle by getting paid to help alphas through their rut every now and then, that’s nothing to be hung up on. Until he’s hired by an alpha that turns everything upside down.

Or, Harry’s working on taking Louis’ walls down, until he builds his own up.

22.) Ghost Note Symphony by whoknows (96k)

Louis is on tour when he first hears about it. It’s all over the news – Harry Styles Attacked By Fan runs in headlines for days. It’s not even just the gossip rags, either. Actual journalists are covering the story. It would have been impossible to avoid hearing about it. Technically, Oli is the one who tells Louis about it, but it’s not exactly being covered up. Harry doesn’t answer Louis’ text asking if he’s alright, but that’s not really surprising. They haven’t spoken for months, and it’s been a lot longer than that since they’ve had a real conversation. The sting of the text going unanswered is still there, less painful than it might have been a few years ago.

It’s not that it’s easy to forget about, exactly. Louis has a whole life outside of One Direction now, though. So Louis goes on with his life, figuring that if Harry was seriously hurt he would have heard about it by now. He might currently be in the same country as Harry, but being on opposite sides of it puts enough distance between them that putting it in the back of his mind is easy. There’s nothing Louis could do, even if he thought Harry might want him to.

That’s why everything that happens next comes as a complete shock to him.

21.) Until by @allwaswell16 (38k)

Rural Eagle County, Colorado wasn’t the type of place to find a famous musician or actor. At least not until songwriter Louis Tomlinson showed up with pop star Niall Horan to visit his uncle’s horse ranch, and they just happened to find themselves next door to a reclusive former movie star.

20.) Strangers in Love by sweetums (42k)

Louis wakes up to find himself in a marriage with the last man he thought he'd ever end up with.

-

Prompt 51: An amnesia fic where louis and harry were enemies to lovers but after an accident, louis only remembers those memories that him and harry hated each other. now harry has to fix it. I think something like this less dark and less angsty compared to other amnesia fics and it could be funny

19.) A Long Way From The Playground by Pink_Sunsets (170k)

One Direction is broken up. They broke up five years ago. That should be the end of the story, right?

Harry is finished with One Direction. He now has a new life, one with two kids and a successful solo career. And he’s happy.

But a call one night from management flips Harry’s whole new life upside down, and he’s forced to face the life he had left behind.

As well as a certain blue eyed man who had left him behind.

18.) my love’s not simple (it’s fragile) by @falsegoodnight (27k)

“Can I take you out tomorrow?” he asks. “My shift ends at 7 but we can go for dinner at 8.”

Louis is silent for a few seconds and then, “Like… on a date?”

Harry swallows thickly. He hasn’t done this in years, hasn’t ever wanted to. “Yeah.”

He’s worried he’s misread things but then Louis raises his head to kiss Harry’s cheek. “Yeah,” he says easily. “Sure.”

Tension leaves his body swiftly. “Are you sure?” asks Harry. “I know we’re both so busy but I can’t not try with you, Lou.”

“Neither can I,” says Louis. “I think we can figure it out. I care about you a lot Harry. We’ve known each other for a week, but I already like you so much.”

-

Or Harry's new job is threatened by his impending rut. Desperate for a solution, he allows Niall to introduce him to Louis, an omega whose heat begins the same day. They click.

17.) Cocaine for Breakfast by @harryeatsburger (309k)

“It’s an easy job.” He continues, as if Louis wants to listen. “Like I said, a few trips. Parties, students, nothing dramatic.”

Louis gazes over to Harry. He’s looking thoughtful now, eyes on the green like he’s talking more to himself than Louis.

“Clubbing, drinks. Whatever, the business is just a side thing.”

That’s not how Louis remembers it to be, “You lying?” He honestly can’t tell.

Harry shakes his head slowly, meeting Louis' eyes.

“No,” He answers almost toneless. Harry clears his throat, “I won’t put you in any dangerous situation.” His voice is sincere, Louis can tell he means it, his jade green eyes glinting with truth.

or, - Louis Tomlinson is a drug addict, sent away from his beloved party-scene to recover. There, he discovers that small towns have just as much access to drugs as London did, plus something even better that he just can't get enough of. That something is a boy with green eyes and bouncy curls named Harry Styles. -

16.) Tastes like Strawberries by @sadaveniren (4k)

I’m stressed. I’m nesting and demand cuddles. Come over

Harry frowned and double checked who the text was from. Yup, it still said Louis - Grad, which meant it was from Louis from his grad school.

aka Louis texts Harry by mistake. It works out

15.) the way the storm blows by @rbbsbb (21k)

Louis doesn’t have a habit of thinking about Harry’s dick.

That would be weird, seeing as they’re best mates, and they share a flat, and they’ve spent holidays at each other’s family homes. Their friendship hasn’t ever risen to a point where Louis should want to see his mate’s dick, and he’s happy to keep it that way.

Except, all that Louis can think about is exactly that. The size of it. The shape. The amount of people it’s been in.

Maybe it’s the tequila talking, or the fact that Louis’ just recently walked in to an eyeful of Harry taking turns on some slags that he’s never seen before, but. Louis’ mind can’t stop obsessing over the idea.

14.) bruise you like a peach by @falsegoodnight (40k)

There’s two reasons Harry despises Econ.

The first is that it’s boring as fuck. The second reason is a bit more personal, a bit more focused in a way. As in it’s focused on one specific thing, or in his case, person.

His name is Louis Tomlinson.

13.) Watching The World Fall by whoknows (11k)

This segment has been going on long enough that Louis knows what’s coming before James starts in on it, trying to sell him on something he knows that Louis wouldn’t normally be buying. But there’s four cameras surrounding him, and an audience watching him expectantly, so if Louis wants to continue convincing people that he’s doing just fine, he’s going to have to go along with it.

“We have a whole host of single men backstage waiting to meet you, Louis,” James tells him. “We want to help you find love tonight, on Late Late Live Tinder. Is this okay? Do you want to play?”

It actually kind of makes sense that his first date after the break-up is going to be just as public as said break-up. Something like coming full circle.

“Alright, James,” Louis agrees, hopping down off his stool.

“Okay, come down to the stage,” James says. Louis can’t even tell whether the excitement in his voice is genuine or not. “Right now, come on down!”

12.) Quiet People Have the Loudest Minds by @2tiedships2 (38k)

Broadway shows were one of the few things that could keep Louis’ attention for a full two hours without needing to move about. But not tonight.

The alpha next to him was both infuriating him and practically turning him on at the same time. He needed to leave. The alpha, that is. Louis was staying.

Or the one where Louis is a nonverbal omega who has accepted the fact that he will never find an alpha that will treat him as an equal. On the other hand, he’s never met anyone like Harry.

11.) The Wrath of the Emerald Eyes by @purpledandeli0n (85k)

His chin is grabbed harshly, facing the two deep green eyes that have been getting on his nerves for the past ten minutes. The smirk on the man's face does not vanish. The grip of his hand on Louis' chin does not soften, his thumb at the side of his lower lip.

His smile widens as he answers Louis' question, ''My name is Styles, but you will call me Captain."

•

Pirate AU

10.) Canyon Moon by @eeveelou (40k)

For as long as Louis has remembered, he has been promised to be mated to Harry, his best friend and the future pack alpha. But Louis’s heart belonged to the forest and to the hunt more than he could ever imagine it belonging to Harry.

Then Harry’s father dies in a violent accident, and Louis’s future alpha disappears on the wind.

An A/B/O Lion King AU

9.) We Both Got Nothing to Hide by lovelarry10 (43k)

“Talk to me, Lou.”

“I can’t,” Louis mumbled, knowing he genuinely couldn’t say it. He couldn’t admit to what he was doing. “Don’t ask me to say it, because I can’t.”

“Then… I’ll try and guess. You’ve… got some stuff of Harry’s. Something of his to make it smell like him?”

Louis just nodded, eyes fixated on the floor. This was humiliating, but he knew Zayn wouldn’t stop until he found out what was going on.

“Okay. Like… a blanket, or a comforter or something?”

“Kind of…”

//

Omega Louis has a secret nest. Alpha Harry keeps losing his clothes.

8.) sleeping on our problems by @falsegoodnight (67k)

I’m in love with you, Louis thinks. He feels empty, weighed down by his sadness and the loss of Harry inside him just moments ago before his knot finally went down.

There’s moments where he’s sure Harry feels the same. Like now, when he’s gazing down at Louis with so much adoration and tenderness. It’s like they’re both on the cusp of something more, but neither of them ever say a word.

His confession is on the tip of his tongue ready to slide out like honey, and yet he remains silent. They both do, looking at each other and recognizing the reluctance mirrored in each other’s eyes. It’s then that Louis realizes they’re both scared.

-

Or Louis sleeps with Harry and they have more than just catching feelings to worry about.

7.) like it’s a game by @soldouthaz (32k)

there is little harry hates more than truth or dare.

and louis.

6.) before we knew by @falsegoodnight (39k)

“C’mon Lou,” says Zayn after a moment, He sounds even more exasperated than before. Louis sort of has a knack for exasperating people, especially people like Zayn who aren’t usually bothered by his brattiness. “Can’t you give this guy a chance? Harry Styles? Aren’t you curious about him at all?”

Despite his best efforts, Louis still flinches at the name. He really shouldn’t be so affected after all these years. He’s seen the name printed down the curve of his waist in obnoxiously and uncommonly large loopy letters every single day since his sixteenth birthday eight years ago. He’s very familiar with the name Harry Styles.

It sounds pretentious and Louis hates it.

He hates everything about his supposed soulmate.

He hates his large handwriting that stands out like a claim on his skin whenever he’s walking around shirtless. He hates his pretentious name. And now he hates his supposed curls and green eyes and dimples.

-

Or Louis has been skeptical of soulmates for years so it seems like fate when he finally bumps into the owner of the obnoxiously large signature printed into his skin since age sixteen: Harry Styles, a human rights attorney who is firmly against soulmates.

5.) Mine Would Be You by @crinkle-eyed-boo (114k)

Louis blinks his eyes open, his eyelids fluttering as the room swims around him. He takes several gulps of beer once he confirms that he’s definitely not hallucinating, that the very first portrait Harry Styles ever painted of him is hanging on that wall.

Louis stares at the wall, his heart jackrabbiting in his chest as he realizes that there’s not just one painting of him, there’s five, the portraits lined up like they’re some sort of storyboard depicting the rise and fall of his deepest love. His greatest heartache. A pain that cut him so deep that he left the fucking country, severing all ties with his life in New York, now suddenly surrounding him as if he’d never left.

Fucking shit motherfucker fuck.

Louis returns to New York City five years after he left it – and the love of his life – behind. He didn't intend to see Harry again, but fate has a funny way of pulling them together, whether they like it or not. After making a begrudging truce, they both start to wonder: Would it be so bad if history repeated itself?

4.) You’ve Got My Devotion (Hate You Sometimes) by @harryrainbows (95k)

Harry was in the biggest boy band in the world. He was also one half of the best (or worst, depends on who you ask) kept secret relationship in the music industry.

Now, almost five years on, after One Direction has broken up, and Harry and Louis' relationship has as well, a video threatens to put everything at risk.

One determined Irishman, a massive publicity stunt and two begrudging exes are all it takes to bring One Direction back to life and maybe, just maybe, Harry and Louis' mangled love life too.

Or: Harry and Louis are forced to fake-date after an old video from when they were dating emerges.

3.) The Space Between by @lads-laddylads (39k)

Harry Styles is the alpha rockstar who can’t sleep and doesn’t know why.

Louis Tomlinson is the omega PhD student who helps him figure it out.

2.) Nothing But You On My Mind by @absoloutenonsense (83k)

Louis Tomlinson is a PR manager hired to improve the image of royal bad-boy Prince Harry Styles. Unfortunately for him, that means being faced with the Prince's constant innuendos, incessant dirty jokes, and relentless flirting. Louis just wants to make it to Princess Gemma's coronation; once she's crowned Queen, his contract is up and he never has to see the Prince again.

1.) Collision by @tequiladimples (224k)

Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.

(Featuring Liam, the big and not-so-bad wolf who’s got a thing for humans, Zayn, a human with supernaturally good looks, and Niall, the cupid who just wants his job to be easier.)

[magnhild]

Nora Valkyrie, Identity, and Purpose

Hey everyone, Blaire here, and almost exactly a year ago, I made this mess of a post where I laid out all of my thoughts on Nora and what I thought the show could have in store for her.

And honestly, most of my ideas were way off, and not at all correct. Also, the post kind of flopped.

Thankfully, Volume 8 has given me a chance to redeem myself, and write another, more coherent, essay about my favourite RWBY character; where this Volume seems to be taking her character, and what it means to me, personally.

Buckle up.

To the vast majority of people in the RWBY fandom, Nora is the least-developed character, and the one most lacking in dimension. Most of her character seems to be defined by two things; her energy and love for fighting, and her relationship on Ren.

Volume 8 took note of these conceptions, and addressed them head-on.

Of course, any keen-eyed viewer will have noted Nora’s hidden depths even before this volume, which I noticed in last year’s post. She is perhaps the most perceptive of the main cast, at least, when it comes to people’s feelings and relaionships. She was the only one to really comment on Pyrrha’s crush on jaune, and the first to bring up Blake and Yang’s growing relationship. It was also her level-headedness that resolved RNJR’s argument in Volume 4, Chapter 9.

Volume 7 also showed us her innate desire to protect the weak, and her disdain to those who have the power to help, but refuse. I personally get the feeling that this was her driving motivation in becoming a Huntress; to protect people who cannot protect themselves, perhaps because she doesn’t want anyone to have to grow up as she did. Nora’s fury at Ironwood in V7C7 is esepcially signifigant, because it’s the angriest we’ve ever seen her before, even more so in that this anger is directed at someone with much more authority than her.

But these little details were only the tip of the iceberg. These were traits she already had, and while they help to add layers to her character, they’ve done very little in terms of her actual development. 

This is where Volume 8 came in stronger than any other.

Volume 7 hinted to us that Ren and Nora’s relationship was beginning to get more complicated, between their bickering, Ren’s dismissiveness at Nora, and their kiss in V7C6. By the end of the volume, it was clear that they were still struggling, despite their clear love for each other. Volume 8 carried this thread along, having them split into different parties, and Nora giving Ren a bit of attitude we’ve not really seen her direct at him before. 

She’s frustrated with him, and disappointed that he can’t see what she sees. But despite her tough front, V8C2 then hints that she’s sadder about the split than she’s letting on, after May brings up Nora’s ‘friends’. C3 then brings this to a head, where we get a conversation that sees Nora opening up to Blake and Yang, and revealing a deeply sad truth about herself- that she has no idea who she is without Ren, because she’s spent so much of her life with him and him alone, and her feelings for him have shaped so much of who she thinks she is. We’ve never seen her so hopeless and lost, especially after she reveals that, as far as she’s concerned, all she’s good for is hitting stuff.

Right in these few minutes, the show takes how the audience percieves Nora, and reveals to us that those two core traits are the gateways to a far deeper insight of her character. She’s known for her relationship with Ren, but wait- what about when he’s not there with her? She’s known for hitting stuff, but wait- that’s all she thinks she’s good for. 

It’s revealed to us that, not only is this how most of the audience percievs Nora, but it’s how she percieves herself. And for all her energy and upbeat attitude, deep down, she thinks incredibely lowly of herself. For all her confidence in her fighting abilities, she lacks confidence in herself as a person. 

Surprisingly enough, the ‘who am I?’ character arc is one that was hardly explored at all up until this point, despite it being one of the most common and signifgant character arcs in fictional media. And I don’t think many of us at all could have imagined that Nora would be the one to get that arc, when she’s always seemed so self-assured on the surface.

And then, when Penny is in need of help, Nora takes Weiss’ advice to heart, and does the one thing she believes she’s capable of- being strong, and hitting stuff.

Nora overcharging her Semblance to take down the wall is seen by a lot of the fandom as some kind of win for Nora; as her ‘big moment’. But while it’s certainly a really cool and badass scene, it was far from a triumph for her.

This was Nora at perhaps her lowest point so far in the series. This was Nora figuring ‘well, if this is all I’m good for, I’ll do it to the extreme’. This was Nora thinking her only purpose was to greatly endanger herself for the sake of others, because she figured she was the only one who could. And she almsot got herself killed for it. 

While certainly a defining moment, it was far from triumphant. It wasn’t a win. It was a self-destrcutive act that reflected how little she thinks of herself; that she’s not worth anything unless she’s pushing herself to the limit doing the one thing she thinks she’s good at.

And to drive the knife in harder, it backfires horribly. 

Because now she’s bedridden and critically injured, with scars that are probably permanent; a reminder of her lowest point, forever marked on her body. She can’t fight now, can’t help at all, and Salem has launched her attack on Atlas.

And in her half-unconsious state in V8C7, she realizes this, delivering an absolutely heartbreaking line:

As far as she’s concerned, her last attempt at doing what she thinks only she can do- what she thinks is all she can do- has prevented her from doing anything of worth at all. She lost one half of herself when she split from Ren, and now she’s lost the other half too. The two things that she defines herself by are gone. And the worst part is, we don’t know if she’s awar of the fact Salem has begun her attack. We could very well see her fully wake up, only to realize that the world has begun ending while she was unconsious, and she can’t do anything about it.

Now, this scene, and Nora’s struggle in this Volume as a whole, hit home for me in particular.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’re probably aware that Nora is only of my hightest- and only- kins. And I’ve only been able to relate to her more and more after what we’ve got of her in this Volume.

I am chronically disabled. I have a connective tissue disorder known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which fucks up my body in a multitude of different ways, but signifigantly affects the joints. For me, it hits worst in my back, ankles, and my fingers. The fingers are my main problem. To make matters worse, I’ve also been victim to intense pains in my shoulder, which came out of nowhere a couple of months ago and have only gotten worse since. The slightest movement aggrevates it. As any follower of mine would know, I am both an artist and a writer. I create both for fun, and I’ve studied writing as a profession. It is these things I’m known for being good at, and not much else. 

Thanks to my disability and my shoulder though, I have to do these things less. Even on perscription pain medication, it still hurts. It hurts to write this even now; my shoulder feels like it’s burning up from the inside. It will only get worse over time.

So, I’m finding myself in Nora’s position. I can’t do what I’m good at anymore, and I don’t know what to do with myself as a result. Not doing these things makes me feel lazy and unproductive, and makes me feel that the people around me will abandon me so long as i can’t keep providing them content. And I’ve gotta say, it hurts a lot, and I don’t just mean physically. 

Because of what I’m going through, it’s especially important to see my favourite RWBY character just so happening to be dealing with the same problem; the same loss of idenity and purpose. We don’t know who we are or what we’re good for without the things we think define us.

While I’m unsure of my own future though, I find comfort in knowing that Nora’s problem will be tackled and addressed; that her friends will help her to rediscover herself and find her true worth. And while we’ve got a while to go until we’ll be able to see the Volume continue, I’m incredibely excited to see where Nora’s arc goes, especially if we can get some backstory along the way. I find myself wondering if her life before Ren is part of why she thinks so little of herself without him- was it the way she was raised to think? Is this the fault of her childood circumstances? Or is this just something she developed on her own, after becoming too dependant on Ren for comfort?

Whatever answers we get, I have faith that Nora’s story will be told well, and I’m very sure that it’s only just beginning. Even if she finds her worth before the end of the volume, her story won’t be over yet, not when we’ve still likely got at least four more volumes to go after this one.

In just seven episodes, Nora Valkyrie has gone from one of the least developed characters, to one of the most interesting and relatable, at least, in my eyes. There is so much more depth to her character than having a crush on Ren, and being the strong girl who hits stuff. There’s a layer of tragedy to her character that we’re touching upon now, and I’m excited to dive into it.

Thank you all for reading!

[lils-writes-stuff]

All That Remains

Spencer Reid x reader

Best Years Season 2 part seven | part six | part five | part four | part three | part two | part one | season one

summary: it’s the readers first day back on the job and the case has a huge plot twist

warning: normal criminal minds things, angst, sadness, gore, fun stuff

A/N: based on season 8 episode episode 14

 “Oh my god, okay I know I’ve seen it before, but the ring is just so beautiful on you,” Penelope gushed as she held Y/N’s that adorned her new engagement ring. 

 The women of the BAU gathered around her on her first day back to admire the ring. Of course, JJ and Penelope had seen it at least once before, but it was a whole different experience seeing it on her hand.

 It had been a total of three weeks since Y/N was discharged from the hospital and she was so excited to get back to work. She couldn’t deal with leave again and since she was fine mentally, all she had to do was wait until she was fine physically. 

 Spencer tended to her needs every waking moment he was home, much to her detest. He even thought about having her call her mother to stay with her until she was completely healed, but he revoked his idea when she gave him a not-so-loving look. But she was grateful none the less for his love and care for her. She was concerned about him though, sure she was stabbed, but he was the one kidnapped. After Spencer’s psych evaluation, he was deemed fit to go back to work. Y/N was very jealous when he got to go back. 

 “Thank you,” Y/N blushed as her hand moved to Blake to look at the ring.

 “He really did a good job of picking it out,” she declared as she examined the ring. 

 “Who knew Spence had such good taste?” JJ remarked, making the other women laugh. 

  Spencer heard the last of the conversation and naturally gave his actual reasoning for his choice. “It actually has nothing to do with taste, I made a decision by averaging all of her jewelry together and using an equation to evaluate which rings--”

 JJ coughed making Spencer stop. “Spence, I was joking, you did a great job.”

 “Right,” Spencer smiled sheepishly. 

 “It’s okay, Bubs, I think it was really cool how you chose it,” Y/N reassured the man’s insecurities. 

 He smiled at the compliment and then turned to Rossi as his voice was heard coming down the steps. 

 “Okay, okay, I know I saw it at the hospital that day, but you have to let me see it again,” Rossi spoke quickly as he came over to look at the ring again.

 Y/N laughed and held out her hand for him to see. 

 “It’s very you, Y/N,” Rossi commented as he looked at the ring. “Congratulations you two, again.” 

 “Thanks Rossi,” Spencer smiled at the man gratefully. 

 “Hey, you know what we should do?” JJ asked, gaining the attention of the rest of them. “We should have an engagement party!” 

 “Oh my gosh that is a great idea!” Penelope exclaimed, bouncing on her toes happily. “We can have little cupcakes made with rings and all the fun stuff.”

 “And I’ll host it,” Rossi said happily, turning to the couple who were just watching the plan being made.

 “Oh, Rossi, you don’t have to-” 

 “No, no, I insist, it’ll be a great time!” Rossi cut Y/N off from her protest. 

 Y/N turned her head to look at Spencer, wanting his input on the idea. Spencer simply shrugged, muttering a ‘why not’. The both of them knew he wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

 “Okay, sure, that’d be fun,” Y/N agreed with a smile. 

 “Excellent,” Rossi said with a nod. 

 “Guys,” Hotch said, nodding to the round table room.  

-------------

 “911 what’s your emergency?” The operator’s voice spook. 

 A pause then an inaudible mutter.

 “Hello? What’s your emergency?”

 “They’re gone,” The man on the other line responded. “My girls are gone. I need your help.”

 “When you say girls, do you mean your daughters?” 

 “Yes.” 

 “All right, I need you to stay on the line, sir. Please confirm where you’re calling from.”

 “1721 Hillcrest Drive, this can’t be happening.” 

 “What’s your name, sir?” 

 “Bruce. Bruce Morrison.”

 “How old are your daughters, Mr. Morrison?”

 “Thirteen and Seventeen.” 

 “When was the last time you saw them?”

 “They went to bed around 9:30. No, wait, it was Monday. Sarah has a study group, so it was more like 10:00.”

 “Sir, today is Wednesday. You haven’t seen them since Monday?”

 “No. No, that can’t be right.”

 “I’m sorry, sir, but it is. The police have been alerted, sir, and they’re on their way.” 

 “That call came in an hour ago,” Hotch said, stopping the recording. 

 The rest of the team sat in stunned silence as they listened to the message. 

 “How does a single father lose his teenage daughters for thirty-six hours?” JJ asked in disbelief. 

 “He doesn’t,” Rossi shook his head. 

 “His girls are gone,” Blake repeated the phrasing of Bruce on the phone. 

 “Yeah, that’s strange, he didn’t blame anyone,” Y/N pointed, agreeing with Blake’s silent question. 

 “And he doesn’t use any buzzwords first responders are trained to hear,” Derek added. “He never says missing, abducted, runaway.”

 “Maybe that’s what they did, though. Maybe they ran away,” Penelope perked up. She didn’t like to hear the call, let alone have this happening in the first place, she was hoping for a better outcome then what everyone was thinking. 

 “There’s no history of that,” Rossi argued sadly. 

 “The likelihood of a stranger abduction in a neighborhood like this is rare. I’ve counted seven turns from the entrance to their driveway,” Spencer announced as he looked down at the map on the table. “No one just stumbled onto the house.” 

 “And where’s the mother? Could this be a parental child abduction?” Y/N asked, turning her head from Spencer to Hotch. 

 “Uh, doubtful,” Hotch sighed. “Exactly one year ago today, he made this call.”

 With one click on the remote, another 911 call came up. The call was almost exactly the same as the one they had just listened to. Same phrasing, same tone, just replacing ‘girls’ with ‘wife’. 

 “She’d also been missing for two days before he contacted authorities, and she’s never been found,” Hotch said, stopping the recording. 

 “This man is either the victim of a serial offender, or he is one,” Rossi said. 

 “Please tell me this guy’s in custody?” Derek asked with irritation. 

 “The Salisbury police are at his home, and they’ve been there since the call came in,” Hotch answered.

 “There are hard copies and tablet copies of both case files on the plane,” Penelope announced. “It’s a short flight to the eastern shore. There’ll be more when you land.”

 The team gathered up all that they had on the round table and made their way to the plane.

-----------

 “Bruce and Judy Morrison were well-liked and active in the community,” Y/N said as she looked over the files they had received on the plane.  

 Spencer sat down beside her, placing a cup of tea on the table. 

 She smiled and mouthed a thank you which he replied doing the same thing. 

 “Yeah, all signs point to them living a quiet life,” JJ agreed as she flipped through her own file. 

 “He’s a writer and a professor, and it looks like she got into real estate a few years ago,” Derek added as his eyes scanned over a page. 

 “ ‘02, before the market crashed,” Rossi established as he looked at the date.

 “Well, ten years later, Judy had an affair with a co-worker. A Jeff Godwin?” JJ’s voice went off in question as she read the name. 

 “That was discovered in the investigation, but never made it in the papers,” Blake said, leaning in her chair so she could look at JJ. 

 “Bruce Morrison was a prime suspect, but they never found any evidence, and the affair wasn’t deemed enough of a motive,” Hotch clarified. “The university’s put him on sabbatical since then.”  

 “He’s been writing forever, and he’s been teaching since 1985,” JJ added, flipping through the pages of the file. “Transcript says he was grief-stricken and couldn’t handle the pressure.”

 “Not many people could,” Rossi bargained. “The odds of this event striking the same family on the same day must be a million to one.” 

 “Mm, close enough,” Spencer hummed, not arguing with the statistic. 

 “Judy inherited money from her family, and it’s in a trust fund for the girls,” Blake assessed. 

 “Oh, jeez, please don’t tell me he got rid of his wife for money,” Y/N shook her head. 

 “Uh, bank records indicate he hasn’t touched the funds, despite the depleting supplemental income from the university,” Spencer eased the worry. 

 “Yeah, but it could be a combo platter. Revenge and profit,” Rossi argued.

 “His wife cheated, and he retaliated in anger, that might not be a surprise, but that doesn’t explain why he would harm his own children,” Derek added, confusion evident in his voice. 

------------

 “The oldest daughter Sarah had a 4.0 GPA, but she didn’t apply to a single college back east,” Spencer began as he read from the page in the file in his lap. “She got accepted to Stanford early admission. Maybe her father saw going that far away as a form of betrayal.”

 “The second one in a year,” Rossi’s voice posed over the phone. “First his wife of twenty-seven years fools around and then probably threatens to end the marriage. A year later, the daughter can’t wait to leave.” 

 “Abandonment could be the common denominator,” Blake agreed from her seat beside Y/N in the back of the SUV with Derek and Spencer. 

 “There is another possibility,” Derek interrupted. “Maybe Bruce Morrison didn’t do it. Did the family have any enemies?”

 “The only person that could remotely be an enemy would be Jeff Godwin,” Y/N answered, her own mind forming possible theories. 

 “Mm, looks like he had a pretty solid alibi the night Judy went missing,” JJ’s voice said through the phone. “He was wining and dining with his own wife at a local restaurant.”

 “So the only viable suspect back then was the same one we have now,” Blake said.

 “All the answers are in that house,” Hotch said as they turned the final corner and came up to the house of the Morrisons. 

 The front yard was filled with locals as one SUV pulled into the driveway and the other pulled along the side of the street. The doors of the cars echoed shut as they exited the vehicles and walked up to the detective who was waiting for them on the front porch. 

 “Marty Friedman. Thanks for making the trip,” the detective said as Hotch and Rossi approached him first. “I’ve got search and rescue combing the woods and the Choptank and Wicomico rivers. We’re dredging all the way from here to the Chesapeake. I’m not letting this guy get away with this again.”

 “Has he said why he took a day to call?” Y/N posed the question everyone had been wondering. Her hands were stuffed in the pockets of her navy coat from the cool air.

 Friedman scoffed. “Claims he doesn’t remember,” he looked back to the window where Bruce was standing, inspecting the new visitors. “He’s been glued to his computer, maybe he needs new material for a novel.”

 “We’ll work alongside your team if that’s alright,” Hotch said to Friedman. 

 “Whatever you need,” he responded with a nod. 

 The team followed the detective into the house. Y/N looked at Bruce as he eyed down Hotch as they walked into the house. 

 “Everyone take a room,” Hotch ordered and the team split up and walked amongst the house. 

 “Looks like Katie stayed in a lot,” Spencer assessed as he and Y/N looked over the young girl’s room. “She has her schedule of when she was gonna try new recipes.” 

 Spencer flipped through the colorful pages of the book with different recipes and fun sketches. 

 “She seems like a really sweet girl,” Y/N sighed as she looked through a journal. She then turned to her desk and pointed out some of the things she noticed. “Her charger’s here, but her phone is not.” 

 “Maybe it’s with her?” Spencer posed.

 “Maybe, I’ll have Garcia track it,” Y/N said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. 

 “It’ll only work if it’s on,” Spencer reminded her.

 “It’s worth a try though,” Y/N looked up to Spencer with sad eyes. Of course, her first case back had to do with kids, just her luck.

 “If the girls had access to a phone and they were okay, they would have called for help by now,” Spencer said, giving her the same sad eyes she gave him. 

 Y/N’s thumb stopped typing, she knew he was right, but that guilty feeling in her didn’t want her to.

 “Y/N.” Spencer’s hands reached for hers that held her phone. “You okay?” 

 “Yeah, it’s just-” she let out a shaky breath with a groan- “it’s just my luck that my first case back has to do with kids.”

 Spencer looked down sadly, knowing the pain she was feeling. 

 “But it’s okay, it’s just because it’s the first case, ripping off the bandaid, you know? I’ll get back to being able to carpmentalizing it any second.” She shook her hands out after setting down her phone and the journal she was holding. 

 Spencer gave her the look. The look that said it’s okay to take a second, it’s okay to talk to me, it’s okay to not be ready all just yet. 

 “Stop that.”

 “Stop what?” 

 “Stop being so understanding,” she laughed and pointed her finger at him. “I’m fine, I really am, it’s just gonna take a sec to get into the swing of things again.” 

 “Okay,” he smiled, reaching for her hand,and pulling her into a loving hug that made her heart melt. 

-------------

 Y/N’s eyes scanned over the box in the basement of the Morrison house. Shelf after shelf filled with buckets and old memorabilia of Judy. 

 “Wow,” Spencer mused as he walked closer to Y/N from his side of the room. “She had a lot of hobbies before she started selling real estate.”

 “Yeah, family projects it looks like,” Y/N nodded. She turned to the shelf she had just been looking at boxes being held on it. “Devoted mom.” 

 On the boxes were dates written under the label ‘quilts’. The dates went all the way back to 1998, the years Sarah Morrison was born. 

 “You ready, Reid?” Derek’s voice called from up the stairs.

 “Yeah,” Spencer echoed back. “You good?” He asked, turning to Y/N. 

 She nodded and he turned to head up the stairs. 

Her eyes scanned over the boxes again, looking at the only one that was labeled with a name. On the box, it read; ‘Quilts, 1999-200, Katie’. Y/N made sure to keep that in mind for anything in the future and turned up the stairs to follow Spencer. 

---------

 “So what do you think?” Blake asked, turning to Y/N and Rossi, exiting Sarah’s room. The sobs of Bruce echoed down the hall after Hotch told him they had just found the body of Katie in a river. Sarah had still yet to be found. 

 “He’s sober, so this is raw emotion,” Rossi answered as the three walked down the hallway. “He lost his legs when Hotch told him.” 

 “The tears could be guilt as much as grief,” Y/N whispered as a reminder.

 “Because that’s what we’re supposed to do when given that news,” Blake said as they rounded the corner and filed down the stairs. “I don’t mean to sound so cynical, but the man writes fiction.” 

 Y/N and Rossi nodded as they came to the last set of stairs. At the bottom stood Hotch and JJ, who had just gotten off the phone with Derek and Spencer who were at the scene. 

 “Any sign of Sarah?” Y/N asked, hopeful for a good answer. 

 “Maybe she’s still out there,” JJ said, just as hopeful as Y/N for a good report from the people on the phone.

 “Doubtful, unless she’s found shelter,” Rossi acknowledged as they walked the final steps of the stairs. “It’s supposed to be in the twenties tonight.” 

 “Now that we’ve got Katie’s body, we should run scenarios for what really happened Monday night,” Blake said. 

 Hotch hung up his phone and looked up to the group around him. “That was the lab. Bruce definitely fired a gun at some point, there’s residue on the sheets and on the boots.”

 Y/N sighed, not wanting to hear that news. “We need to get him to the station.” 

 The five of them turned as they heard the creaking of the floorboards behind them. At the top of the stairs stood Bruce, hearing the whole conversation. 

-------------

 “Alright thanks, Spence,” Y/N said, hanging up her phone and turning to Hotch. “That was Reid. He said Katie had skin built up under her nails. They’re on their way back from the M.E. right now.” 

 “We need to look for defensive wounds on him,” Hotch nodded, leaving the bullpen and entering into the interrogation room. 

 Y/N walked closer to the one-way window and watched as Hotch entered the room. 

 “Mr. Morrison, I need to ask you to roll up your sleeves,” Hotch ordered Bruce. 

 “What?” Bruce asked, turning his head sharply to look at Hotch. 

 “Please.” 

 Bruce sighed and rolled up his sleeve on his right arm, revealing small but numerous cuts on his forearm.  

 “I saw these in the shower this morning when I woke up,” Bruce said sadly, not making eye contact with Hotch. “I have no idea how I got them.” 

 “Did they happen during the fight?” Hotch asked, referring to the fit a neighbor had told them he heard. 

 “It wasn’t a fight, it was just parenting,” Bruce tried to explain. “Did the detective tell you about Jeff Godwin? You should talk to him.” 

 Hotch raised a brow in question at the man. 

 “He still coaches Sarah’s soccer team, even though it’s ridiculous.” 

 “Every time I ask you a question, you have this habit of deflecting attention onto someone else,” Hotch remarked, making Bruce become quiet. 

 Y/N rolled her shoulders, standing up straight as she watched Bruce’s body language, trying to decipher his emotions and behavior. When he stayed unresponsive, Y/N took that as the end of the interview and walked out of the room into the break room. 

 “Wonder Woman,” Derek greeted the woman as she walked in. 

 She let out a huff as a greeting back, clearly annoyed with everything that Bruce was saying. “Bruce Morrison wants us to talk to Jeff Godwin.”

 “Convenient, since he just walked in,” Spencer said as he walked over to the two by the coffee station. 

 “Great just what he wanted,” Y/N sighed, moving into the spot next to Derek as he finished making his coffee. 

 As he moved over for Y/N to make her coffee, he picked up his phone that began to ring. 

 “Hey, Blake,” Derek answered as he stepped away from the coffee bar. 

 Y/N poured some creamer into the cup as she listened to Derek on the phone. 

 “Morgan, we need you to find Jeff Godwin,” Blake’s voice echoed through the phone. 

 “She isn’t the only one he thinks that,” Y/N sighed, taking a sip of her coffee. 

 “Uh, he just walked in,” Derek responded, turning to look through the window to Jeff Godwin who was standing in a room to the side of them.

 “He did?” Blake mused. 

 “Says he heard we found Katie, and he’s worried about Sarah,” Derek said, relaying the conversation that Y/N had not heard yet. 

 “He also texted Sarah the night she went missing and then deleted the text.” Blake’s information made the three’s faces contort in shock and look to Jeff. “It looks like they texted a lot.” 

 “Really?” Derek said, some anger boiling inside him as he watched Jeff. Without having Blake respond, he hung up the phone and nodded for Y/N to come with him. 

 “Mr. Godwin,” Y/N greeted as she and Derek entered the room he was in.

 “Mr. Godwin, why did you feel it was appropriate to regularly text a seventeen-year-old girl?” Derek asked, getting straight to the point. 

 “I-I’ve known those girls for a long time-” Jeff shook his head- “Way before anything happened between me and their mother.”

 Y/N and Derek’s faces stayed unresponsive, waiting for him to get to the actual intent of why he was texting a teen. 

 “Look, I coach Sarah.” 

 “And you didn’t think to request a different team, you know, considering the circumstances?” Y/N asked, her hand not holding her coffee gesturing as she spoke. 

 “No,” Jeff shrugged. “My daughter plays on that team.”

 Once again, Derek and Y/N stayed unresponsive. 

 “Look, Sarah reached out to me Monday night- God knows she needs a father figure--” 

 “Maybe the man her mother had an affair with…” Derek began taking a step closer to Jeff. 

 Y/N took a step also, becoming even with Derek. “Might not be the best person for that,” Y/N finished the statement. 

 Derek nodded in agreement. 

 “Look-” Jeff took a step of his own- “I just came in here because I had heard about Katie and I was worried about Sarah. Don’t treat me like a criminal.”

 “Sarah deleted texts that the two of you shared,” Y/N said, turning her head to the side. “The same day she disappeared. Now that’s a little suspicious, don’t you agree, Morgan?” 

 “Mm-hmm,” Derek hummed in response. 

 “Hey- wait, okay,” Jeff stumbled, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “They’re all here. We agreed to meet in the parking lot of the convenience store on route 113.” 

 He turned his phone, showing the texts to Y/N and Derek. Derek took the phone from the man’s hand, putting it between the two of them so they could read it. 

 “Is this a regular thing for you?” Derek asked as he read the texts. 

 “Well, we’ve met there a couple of times recently, when she was really scared about what was happening with her and her dad,” Jeff responded. 

 “What was happening?” Y/N asked. 

 Jeff took in a deep breath, almost like he was afraid to tell them. “Bruce gets...violent when he drinks, and it’s been getting worse.”

 Derek and Y/N turned their heads, silently saying for him to elaborate more on the topic. 

 Jeff let out a breath through his nose. “Sarah had every reason to be terrified. I mean look what happened.” 

 Derek and Y/N nodded, handing Jeff his phone back and heading out of the room. When they walked out, they were greeted with the whole team now, including Penelope on a video call. 

 “Is everyone there?” Penelope asked prompting Hotch to nod. “Um, this call came in on Monday.”

 Before she continued, Hotch walked over to the door of the conference room and closed it. 

 “It was made on Katie’s cell, which is still M.I.A., the only 800 number she called was the local abuse hotline. She called there a few times in the last couple of months,” Penelope explained, pressing play on the recording. JJ turned up the TV volume. 

 “My name is Katie Morrison, I called last week,” Katie’s voice rang through the speaker. 

 “Yes, Katie, I remember you,” the operator on the other line responded. 

 “He’s at it again. He’s just going crazy. He’s really drunk.” 

 “Katie, are you safe?” 

 “Yes, hold on.”

 “Hi, it’s Sarah,” Sarah’s voice came into the call. “We’re okay. I can handle this.”

 “Girl’s open the door,” Bruce’s voice yelled next. “Katie, open the door.” 

 The sound of loud banging was heard next, making Y/N squeezing her eyes shut. 

 “I said open the door!” 

 When the recording stopped, Y/N opened her eyes and watched as Hotch asked to have the recording sent to his phone and took Rossi to the interrogation room holding Bruce. 

-----------

 Y/N watched through the glass as Bruce began to remember the night as the call was played to him. As it ended, he slammed his hand on the table, repeating the same words he said in the call. He looked up to the glass, on his side being a mirror so he was looking at himself. 

 He walked closer to it, his demeanor changing slightly as he looked at himself. 

 What surprised everyone behind the glass was what he said next. 

 “Oh my god, what a pathetic little cry baby.” 

 The rest of the team that was behind the glass looked at each other in confusion, continuing to listen to the man as he spoke. 

 “Ugh,” Bruce rubbed his eyes. “I was always right about you, huh?”

 He was still talking to himself in the mirror. He then turned around, a smug smirk playing on his face as he looked at Rossi and Hotch. 

 “So you got old Bruce-y in a cage, huh?” 

 Rossi and Hotch didn’t respond, still trying to decipher who this was and what was happening. 

 “You think that’s gonna help?” Bruce walked around the two agents and back over to his chair. “It’s only gonna make him hide longer.”

 When he reached the chair, he faced the two men again. “What do you wanna know?” 

 Rossi and Hotch stayed quiet again, not sure what to do. 

 When they didn’t give him a response, the man spoke again. “I’m gonna have to tell you ‘cause the baby’s got his pacifier.” 

 “Where’s Sarah?” Hotch finally asked a question. 

 “She’s learning a lesson,” the man responded with a shrug. 

 “What did you do to them?” Hotch asked. 

 In a mocking tone, the man responded, “What did you do to them?”

 Not amused, Hotch and Rossi glared at him. 

 “I scared them that’s all. They need it,” he sighed. 

 “Why?”

 “Because they’re spoiled, ungrateful little bitches who walk all over him any chance they get,” he responded. 

 “Wow,” Y/N whispered in amazement at the response. 

 “What happened to Bruce?” Hotch asked the question everyone had been wondering. 

 “He’s hiding, of course,” the man responded. “See… when he can’t handle it, I save his ass. Bruce’s problem is...he can’t handle anything.”

--------------

 “So Bruce said Katie baked cookies Monday night,” JJ said, turning away from the board as Rossi and Friedman entered the room. “We found them in the kitchen, so that’s true.”

 “And two of Sarah’s friends confirmed she never made it to her study group,” Blake continued, her voice slightly muffled from her cheek being pressed against her hand. 

 “And that’s because Jeff Godwin was in the parking lot with her from 8:15 to 9:30,” Derek added. 

 “And the girls called the hotline at 9:58,” Spencer finished the timeline. 

 “Detective, have your officers found either gun?” Hotch asked as detective Friedman walked up to the board to look at the post-it notes on it. 

 “No, but we’ve increased the search given where Katie’s body was found,” Friedman replied. 

 “Okay so, we’ve got residue, but we don’t know which gun or where it is now,” Derek said, his eyes trained on the floor. 

 “Okay, look,” Y/N said, raising her hands to stop anyone from talking. “Whoever that was in there said he wanted to scare them, not hurt them.”

 “Katie was beaten over the head in the middle of nowhere,” Blake reminded her. 

 “You’re right,” Y/N gestured to her. “The altar could have lost his temper, or it could have been a horrible accident.”

 “But getting the girls out of the house was planned. He said he wanted to scare them and had a gun to do it,” Rossi said. 

 “And then, he drove them somewhere,” Derek continued. “Bruce’s car had the same mud on the driver’s side floor that he had on his boots, but there wasn’t any in the backseat. SO three people drove somewhere, but only he came back.” 

 “And the DNA coming back from under Katie’s nails will tell us what we already know-- That Bruce Morrison did this. SO can I arrest him now?” Friedman said, antsy to put cuffs on the man he felt was responsible. 

 “Detective, you have sufficient evidence to make the arrest, but we still don’t have Sarah,” Hotch told him, eyes glaring at the man. 

 “Give us an hour, and maybe, he’ll tell us where she is,” Y/N said, an idea in her head forming. 

 “It's your call, but he could still help us,” Hotch said. 

 Friedman sighed. “Okay. One hour.”

 So the team began their work, and they had to work fast. 

 “There’s no way for us to confirm a D.I.D. diagnosis yet, but we do know he has chronic alcoholism, Which can and has gone hand in hand with it,” Spencer explained to the team that was scattered amongst the conference room. “The interesting thing is his liver and pancreas wouldn’t have survived thirty years of that kind of abuse, so there must have been years where he’s gotten help.” 

 “He was in a program,” Blake shrugged. 

 “Eh, it would have to be more than that,” Spencer replied then turned to Y/N who had Penelope on the line. “Garcia, has he ever been on medication to help curb his drinking?” 

 “All I’ve got is a yearly physical, and that is it,” Penelope replied. 

 “D.I.D. usually stems from a history of sexual abuse,” Blake said slowly, hoping to give something to Penelope to help her. 

 “Okay, well, I’ve got nothing like that,” Penelope said. “All I have on Bruce Morrison is that his mother died when he was ten-”

 “There’s your abandonment issue,” Rossi remarked. 

 “And he was raised by a single alcoholic father, and there’s no evidence of any prescriptions.”

 “I mean, they look like the perfect family,” Spencer said, opening the file with family photos in it. 

 “Yeah, but she would have had to know about his drinking before they got married,” Y/N said as she peered over at the photos Spencer was holding. “So maybe, she helped manage him and kept his problem a secret.” 

 “She could have been the one that got the prescription,” Spencer’s lightbulb went off. “Garcia, can you run her medical history?” 

 “Yeah, hold on…”

 They waited about twenty seconds before her voice was heard again. 

 “Okay, disulfiram. Am I saying that right? It’s for chronic alcoholism. She had a 90-day supply delivered four times a year for as long as I can tell. And it stopped coming a few months ago.”

 “It makes you just feel nauseous if you drink,” Spencer explained the effects of the medicine. 

 “But she isn’t the one who had the drinking problem, he is. Garcia, who canceled it?” Derek asked the woman on the phone. 

 “Please hold while I dig.” She hung up the phone.

 “Could that be the trigger? He goes after his daughters now that he’s off his meds?” Blake turned to look at Y/N and Spencer when she asked her questions. 

 Y/N’s eyes panned up to the TV that showed Hotch talking to Bruce. Then to Jeff Godwin in the other room. “That instability could work for us.” 

 She set her plan into action. Y/N had Derek get Jeff Godwin and bring him into the interrogation room with Bruce in it. 

 “Hey, I- I didn’t- Hey, look I didn’t agree to this,” Jeff stumbled as he came face to face with Bruce sitting in the interrogation room. 

 “Well, we’re looking for Sarah, and you’re the last ones to see her alive,” Y/N said, leaning on the metal table.

 “Look, like I told you guys earlier, I had nothing to do with this. And Sarah’s afraid of him.” He pointed at Bruce when he spoke of him. 

 “You wanna tell us about your relationship with Sarah?” Y/N asked, moving her hands in a circular motion as she spoke. 

 “I don’t have one,” Jeff replied, after a pregnant pause. 

 Y/N’s eyebrows furrowed. “Huh, that’s strange. Why do you text her all the time then?” 

 At her words, Bruce sat up straighter, jaw clenching as he looked at a frightened Jeff. 

 “Jeff, come on, it’s not that big of a leap,” Y/N spoke nonchalantly. “Couldn’t have Judy anymore so you thought... Why not? Sarah looks just like her mom.”  

 Her words angered Bruce just like she thought they would. He pushed himself out of his chair and leaped for Jeff, but Derek intercepted him before he could touch him. 

 “I’m gonna kill that son of a bitch!” Bruce exclaimed as Derek pushed him back. 

 “Get him out! Get him out now,” Derek commanded the guard in the room to take Jeff out. 

 Once Derek had calmed Bruce (now his altar) down, he walked out of the room, leaving Y/N there standing on the other side of the table. 

 “Judy was gonna leave my boy for that scumbag,” the altar said, pointing to the door Jeff had exited. 

 “What’s your name?” Y/N asked as she watched the altar's body language. 

 “What’s your name?”

 Y/N scoffed at his retort. “I’m Y/N, and you,” she nodded, her arms crossed as she stood tall. 

 “My name is Johnny, and I need a cigarette, Y/N,” Johnny placed his hands on his hips. 

 “Well, I might be able to help you out there, even though I don’t condone smoking, but I’m sure you’re stressed.” Y/N began to walk back and forth across the room. 

 “Oh, I’m not,” Johnny shook his head. “I just want a smoke.”

 “Johnny,” Y/N scolded at the lie. “Come on. I know these teenage girls stress you out, no matter what you say.”

 Johnny lifted his head up, a smug smirk as he looked at Y/N. 

 “How do you deal with it?” She continued her questions in hopes they would get him to tell her where Sarah was. “Do you like to, um...go out and shoot something?” 

 Johnny’s head cocked to the side and he shrugged. “Sometimes, but I don’t get much of a chance to do that.”

 Y/N raised her brows in fake surprise. “Oh! I thought you did have a chance recently?”

 Johnny chuckled and didn’t respond.

 Y/N smirked at his none response and let out her own chuckle. “I think you did.”

 Johnny’s head dropped as he continued to laugh. 

 “Now, you know, I’m just- I’m curious,” she laughed then pointed to the door with her thumb. “Then I’ll go get you a cancerous cigarette.”

 Johnny smiled and gestured towards Y/N. “I like you, Y/N.” 

 Oh, that’ll make Spencer’s blood pressure go up, Y/N thought to herself. 

 “So…” Y/N trailed off, walking back and forth again as she changed the subject. “You took the girls somewhere to scare them...somewhere quiet, isolated…” She watched his reactions to what she said carefully. “Near the water?” 

 That got him to respond. 

 “I didn’t do anything but scare ‘em.” 

 “Oh, of course not.” 

 Johnny crossed his arms and came closer to Y/N as she stood in a dominant stance across the room. 

 “Do you have a place by the river?” 

 Johnny ignored the question. “Mm, pretty, and smart.” 

 Y/N gave him daring eyes, demanding an actual answer to her question. 

 “It’s not my place,” Johnny shook his head. “It’s not anybody’s place anymore.” 

 Y/N turned her head for him to elaborate more. 

 “I’ve taken them out there before, but this time…” He leaned forward, closer to Y/N this time (almost in her face) and whispered, “I got their attention.”

 Y/N stepped back, nodding her head and nodded towards the guard to open the door. 

 “How about that cigarette now?” 

 “Not gonna let you pour cancer into Bruce’s lungs.”

 The door closed behind her after she spoke and she could hear the tantrum Johnny was having. When she entered the bullpen, she saw Spencer standing in front of the glass. Arms crossed and lips pursed. 

 “Bub,” she whispered, gaining his attention. “You good?” 

 “Mm-hm, yep,” he nodded turning to her. “Just uh, you know, it was a little difficult not jumping through the glass to strangle him when he looked at you.” 

 Y/N chucked, her head dropping as she took a step closer to him. 

 “Spence, you and I both know that he wouldn’t have walked out of that room if he got closer to me.”

 Spencer laughed as she pushed up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek. He grabbed her left hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing the spot right beside her ring.

------------

 That night, in the pouring, freezing rain, JJ and Derek found Sarah in the woods. She had a black eye and some cuts but she was okay. 

 Y/N had gone to the hospital to talk to Sarah with JJ. Letting her know what she would have to do and it was okay to back out. 

 Sarah seemed like a genuinely sweet girl and she took a liking to Y/N as she cried. When the three of them entered the precinct, JJ took her into the interrogation room, while Y/N stayed in the bullpen with the rest of the team. 

 “I have a bad feeling,” Y/N whispered as her stomach turned, something was off. 

 “What about?” Spencer whispered back. 

 “I’m not sure yet…” 

 As Sarah sat down, her two hands clasped together reached across the table for Bruce’s. His cuffed wrists stayed together as he held her hands.

 “I’m so sorry,” Bruce said, eyes spilling with tears. 

 “Dad, you need help,” Sarah said softly.

 Bruce let out a breath and nodded. 

 His eyes went up to the cuts and bruises on Sarah’s face and sucked in a sharp breath. “Did I do that?” 

 Sarah nodded and let a few more tears slip.

 “I’m sorry,” Bruce apologized genuinely again. “I’m so sorry.” 

 Y/N stomach turned again, this time out of sadness. Instinctively, she reached for Spencer’s hand, needing a reassurement, and to know it would all be okay. He grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together for a second, and squeezed it. 

 “What can I do?” Bruce asked Sarah, pleading agony in his voice. 

 “They say that if you tell them where mom is, this will all just-” 

 “But I don’t know. You know I don’t know,” Bruce cut her off.

 “She didn’t just disappear, Dad,” Sarah sobbed. 

 When Bruce didn’t respond, only letting out a breathy sob, Sarah let out another crying accusation. 

 “Oh God, you killed her too didn’t you?” 

 “No, no, I didn’t,” Bruce shook his head.

 “How am I supposed to believe you?” Sarah sobbed and started pointing to the marking Bruce, or rather Johnny left. “This--this is what you’ve done.” 

 Bruce just looked at the injuries sadly. 

 “You have hurt us all for a long time,” Sarah continued, her voice giving out at the end. She stood up from the table and began to exit the room with JJ. 

 Bruce pleaded with her to not go, but she didn’t listen and just left the room. 

----------

 Y/N walked with Sarah into her home, the mood of the house much different now compared to earlier in the day. The rain had died down from earlier, but it was still falling on the roof hard enough so it could be heard in the house. Sarah had an FBI jacket wrapped around her and Y/N had her signature navy petticoat tied around her waist.

 “You cold?” Y/N asked, noting how Sarah wrapped her arms around herself. 

 “Yeah, a bit, the thermostats right there,” she pointed to the machine down the hall. 

 Y/N walked down the hall, turning up the temperature, and looked back to Sarah. “Should warm up soon.” 

 Sarah stood, staring at the floor as Y/N walked closer to her. 

 “You think you can sleep?” 

 “Yeah, I want to shower first,” Sarah pointed up the stairs. 

 Y/N nodded in surprise. “Okay. Uh… you sure you’ll be okay up there?” 

 The reason why Y/N asked this was because, after her brother died, she wouldn’t even enter that side of the house for months. So it confused her as to how she would be able to go upstairs and be okay. 

 “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Sarah said reassuringly. 

 Hesitantly, Y/N nodded, her bad gut feeling coming back. “Okay, um, I’m gonna make us some tea, that sound good?” 

 “That’d be really nice, thanks.” And with that, Sarah made her way up the stairs.

 Y/N nodded, letting her reassuring fake smile fall once Sarah was out of sight. Her eyes panned over to the table in the hall that adorned family photos. Behind it was a quilt she assumed their mother made. 

 The sound of her text messages startled her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the text from Spencer. 

 All good? 

 “Oh Spencer, you always know when somethings up,” Y/N whispered to herself and replied with ‘not sure’. 

 About five minutes later, after Y/N had finished with the tea, she made her way to the dining room and set the cups down. Her phone went off again, this time a call. 

 When she pulled it out of her pocket, Spencer’s name lit up the screen. 

 “Hey,” she answered, her voice hushed.

 “What’s wrong?” Spencer asked, worry clear in his voice. 

 Y/N sat down at the head of the table and let out a breath. “I don’t know, I’m not sure, but the feeling is back again. She’s just...too casual and almost cold since we got here.” 

 “It could be the shock,” Spencer replied.

 “Yeah, I know, but she’s composed at the same time,” Y/N said, trying to explain Sarah’s behavior. “She has not mentioned Katie to me even once since we got here. I couldn’t go to the side of the house that my brother stayed in after he died.” 

 “She does have a point,” JJ’s voice said through the phone. “When my sister died, I couldn’t even walk into my house, let alone past her room.”

 “Well, what do you think, Y/N, Sarah pulled it off?” Blake’s voice asked. 

 “It may be a possibility,” Y/N shrugged. 

 “It’s a very detailed plan,” Blake commented. 

 “What, she knew about her father’s condition and took advantage of it?” Spencer asked as his voice rushed as he spoke. 

 “She set up character witnesses like Jeff Godwin...to back up her fear,” Derek’s voice said, piecing together a theory. “She even got her little sister to make calls to a hotline. She manipulated us from the minute we found her.”

 “Her writing suggested no empathy and no real emotional connection to the family,” Blake said, recalling the writing she had read earlier that day. 

 “Psychopathic tendencies,” Spencer remarked. 

 “Her wounds are more than superficial, but they could be self-inflicted, right, Y/N?” JJ asked the woman on the phone. 

 Out of the corner of her eye, Y/N saw Sarah enter the room. 

 “Baby, I know, I’m sorry I can’t be there for the dinner tonight,” Y/N said, quickly coming up with a cover for why she was on the phone. “But London and Jackson are there until Friday and I promise I will make it up to you when I get back.”

 Y/N then turned to look at Sarah, acknowledging her presence. “You okay? I didn’t hear the shower.”

 “Yeah, I just wanted my tea,” Sarah pointed to the cup on the table.

 “Oh, I was gonna bring it to you, but it should be ready,” Y/N stood up and handed her the cup. 

 “Yeah, I’m still here,” she said, wanting to let them know she was okay. 

 “We’ll be right there, stay on the phone,” Spencer said quickly as Y/N assumed he was running out of the precinct. 

 “Baby, I gotta go,” she said and hung up the phone, watching as Sarah walked away. 

 When Y/N heard the water running, she walked down to the basement, remembering the tub she saw earlier. She took her flashlight connected to her holster out and walked down the stairs. When she reached the floor she walked straight over to the tubs of quilts, specifically the one with Katie’s name. 

 She pulled it off the shelf and moved it over to an empty table next to it. As she filed through all the blankets, she came across a real estate binder. When she opened it and flipped through the pages, she heard a gun click behind her. 

 “Why did you have to come down here?” 

 Sarah’s voice rang in the quiet of the basement. 

 Cautiously, Y/N turned around to look at her. In Sarah’s hand was the second gun they had been looking for. 

 “We’ve been looking for that.” 

 “It’s an old house, I know the best hiding places,” she shrugged. “But you, what do you think you know?” 

 “You put everything that went missing with your mother inside this box,” Y/N nodded to the box beside her. “1999.” 

 “Maybe my dad did it?” 

 “No,” Y/N spoke before she could even finish. “No, you chose this box because it’s the year Katie was born and everything changed.”

 Sarah’s face formed a snarl as Y/N spoke. 

 “She was your little sister.”

 “Katie ruined everything-” she took the last step so now she was level with Y/N- “and my mother let her.” 

 “Your mother loved you,” Y/N protested. 

 “Well, she loved Katie more,” Sarah seethed. 

 Y/N and Sarah stood in silence for a second. 

 “I should’ve cried for Katie,” Sarah scoffed. “I guess there are some things I just can’t fake.”

 Carefully, Y/N’s hand reached for the gun on her belt, something she really didn’t want to have to do. 

 “You won’t do it,” Sarah said, taking another step closer. 

 “You need to back up- now.” Y/N’s voice was stern as she commanded the young girl.

 “I can say my trauma kicked in,” Sarah explained. “PTSD.”

 Her face then formed into fear, “I saw you with the gun, and I didn’t know what else to do!”

 Then her face went back to normal. 

 Truly, Y/N was kinda impressed. “You thought of everything.”

 Then, by the grace of whatever is out there, footsteps were heard coming down the stairs. 

 “Sarah put the gun down,” Derek said softly as he came up behind her. 

 “No, no, you don’t understand. She has a gun, she was going to hurt me,” Sarah used her plea. 

 “No, no, Sarah, It’s okay,” Derek reassured her. As he put his gun down, Spencer lifted his up and pointed it at her.

 “Listen to me,” Derek said, holstering his gun. “I understand. It’s okay, Sarah. She wasn’t going to hurt you. I know you’ve been through enough. All right? I get it.” 

 Sarah let out a fake sob as Derek placed his hand on her shoulder. “Sarah, you’re safe now, okay?”

 Sarah nodded and turned to Derek. “Okay, thank you.”

 As soon as Derek pulled the gun out of Sarah’s hands, Spencer came up from behind her and cuffed her. 

 “What are you doing?!” She exclaimed as the cuffs came down on her wrists. 

 “You’re a smart girl, Sarah. Figure it out,” Derek said, taking Sarah out of Spencer's hands and led her up the stairs. 

 Sarah tried to plead as Derek took her up the stairs. 

 Y/N turned back to the book she had been looking at, opening to a page that held trophies from Sarah’s mom. 

 “February fourth, the day Judy went missing,” Y/N said as she read the date above the necklace. 

 “Trophies,” Spencer said as he got closer to Y/N. “If the detective Friedman had ever found it, she would have pinned it all on Bruce.”

 “Damn, it’s almost impressive,” Y/N whispered as she closed the boom and brought it up as evidence.

------------

 “The guests of honor!” Rossi exclaimed as Y/N and Spencer walked into his home.

 The two chuckled and walked closer to Rossi to hug him. Rossi grabbed each of their faces, kissing them both on the cheeks. 

 “Dave, thank you so much for this,” Y/N said, taking Spencer’s hand as she thanked the man. 

 “Well, it’s the least I could do,” Rossi smiled, then turned and pointed to the room holding his own personal bar. “And I heard that there’s a special someone here to see you, Y/N.” 

 Y/N raised a brow in confusion then looked to Spencer, who had a smirk on his face. 

 “Remember the other day when you had to cover on the phone, and said something about London and Jackson coming to visit,” he beamed at the smile that formed on Y/N’s face as she put the pieces together. 

 “Shut up!” She laughed and rushed into the room, her best friend standing with her own boyfriend next to Derek, laughing about something. “London!” 

 When she heard her name, the dark-headed woman turned around and saw Y/N. “Y/N!” 

 The two met in the middle and hugged tightly, having missed each other so much. 

 “Oh my god, let me see it,” London said, pulling away from the hug so she could look at Y/N’s ring. “Oh, it’s beautiful.” 

 “I know,” Y/N sighed as London held her hand still. 

 “Now I just wonder when Jackson will give me one of those,” London laughed as her boyfriend came up next to her. 

 “Okay, no need to be hostile,” the green-eyed man said as he wrapped an arm around London’s waist. “Congratulations, Y/N.” 

 “Thank you, Dr. Avery,” she responded diplomatically.

 “And to you too, Dr. Reid,” Jackson said, tipping his wine glass to Spencer as he walked up to the three, grabbing Y/N’s hand. 

 “Thank you,” Spencer smiled at the man.

 The four of them had all hung out before. After another case the team had in Seattle, Spencer and Y/N stayed an extra day to hang out with London and Jackson. Y/N and laughed, making a comment about how she was the only one in the group who wasn’t a doctor. 

 “So how was your last case?” London asked. She loved to hear about cases and she repeatedly told Y/N that the team was the real life Scooby-Doo gang. 

 “A plot twist to say the least,” Y/N laughed, not wanting to go into detail. “I’m just glad it’s the weekend, and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed we don’t get called in.” 

 “I know that feeling,” Jackson agreed with a laugh. 

 Then, Hotch’s phone ringing was heard from across the room. 

 “No, not tonight,” Y/N groaned, throwing her head back. “One night, can serial killers just chill out for one night.”

 Those who heard her comment laughed, but then Hotch reassured her worries. 

 “Don’t worry Y/N, that was Jessica, telling me Jack finished his homework.” 

 “Oh thank goodness.”

 The night went on, Rossi had hired a catering service so the dinner was all little finger foods. Due to the cold weather, Rossi had made a dance floor in the bar room. Clearing out the tables that were in the middle of the room and leaving room for everyone to dance. 

 There was laughter heard all night as everyone danced and sang obnoxiously loud to the 90’s rock. It was a perfect surreal moment that made Y/N so happy. As she danced with Spencer, she pulled herself closer to him and whispered to him. 

 “I wish every night was like this.” 

 “It will be,” Spencer whispered back, placing a kiss on the shell of her ear as he spoke. “This is how we’ll spend every night we’re married, dancing, singing, and laughing until we can’t breathe.” 

 Y/N smiled, turning her head to place her lips on his. This kiss was meant to be a peck, but Spencer held the small of her back closer and let their lips dance together longer. 

 She giggled as she pulled away from him as Derek yelled “Get a room!” as he danced with a very drunk Penelope. 

 “I think I like the idea of us dancing till sunrise.”

Tag List (let me know if you want to be added!!):

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[drakeandkatherine]

Reunion- Ch 1: daffodil (Drake x MC TRRAU FanFic)

Hello! I am so excited to show you guys a new short series I’m working on! I think it will be about 8 chapters long. This first chapter is a little short, but only because it’s the first chapter. Future chapters will definitely be longer! 

(Drake, Liam, Hana, Maxwell and any other The Royal Romance characters belong to Pixelberry! Katherine Delacroix belongs to me!)

Series Overview: Reunion is a short series about Drake Walker and Katherine Delacroix, along with their friends, Maxwell, Hana and Liam. In this series, we see the gang at a high school reunion, five years after they’ve graduated. There will be flash backs, taking place nine years ago (the start of high school) up to when they graduate. You’ll get to see how the gang came together, and how they fell apart, only to come back together.

All chapters of this series are named after flowers, with certain meanings. This chapter, the very first, is named “daffodil”. It means new beginnings, and this is where we get to see how Hana and Katherine met!

Word count: 1121 (future chapters WILL be longer!!) 

Warnings: adult language

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future chapters!

“Are you seriously thinking about going to this?” Katherine stared in shock, mouth agape. “In what world would we go back to Cordonia to see the people we hated in highschool, just five years older?” Hana, Katherine’s roommate and best friend, shifted uncomfortably on her feet.

“A world where people can change, and also where I might actually want to catch up with some of them?” she said. When Katherine didn’t answer, she sighed and continued. “I don’t think it would be that horrible to go back. Besides, the reunion is just for one night. We could go, and then make the rest of the trip a vacation at the beach!” Hana said, a hint of desperation in her voice. Katherine looked at her friend's face for a moment, before sighing.

“We really do need the vacation…” She looked around their small two bedroom apartment, which hadn’t been cleaned in a couple days due to both of the girls schedules. Between their messy apartment, putting in overtime at work, and studying for midterms, Katherine was stressed out of her mind. Hana was about to lose it too, she could feel it. “But I don’t know, Hana. What if he’s there?” A memory that should be distant flashed through her mind, making her cringe.

“Katherine, I love you, but it’s been five years. I know the way he bro-” Katherine held up a hand, cutting Hana off.

“Okay, okay. I know.” she frowned. “I just can’t help thinking that it’s a bad idea. The way we left things was bad, Hana.”

“I know.” Hana frowned, moving to sit next to Katherine, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Think about it this way, Kat. If, and that’s a very strong if, because you know how he felt about big parties and gatherings, he comes, you can apologize for what you did. Who knows? Maybe he wants to apologize too for how he handled things. At least at the end of the day, you’ll feel lighter.” Katherine loved Hana, she always knew what to say to make her see how something good could happen, regardless of the situation. If there was any chance of this going well, Katherine had to take it. It had been too long, and the weight on her shoulders grew heavier with each passing day.

“Okay. Okay, okay, we’ll go to this dumb high school reunion.”

-

A week later, Katherine and Hana’s plane landed at the Cordonia Airport. Stepping outside the airport's doors, Katherine shielded her eyes.

“Fuck, I forgot how bright the sun is here.” she huffed before reaching into her purse and pulling out her sunglasses. “Man, does walking out of this airport bring back memories though.”

“And to think, if your grandma hadn’t taken the job over here, we would have never met.” Hana smiled at her best friend, earning a smile in return.

9 Years Ago

Katherine Delacroix had just moved to Cordonia from the United States, due to her grandmother accepting a job in the country. Unhappy with the move across the world, Katherine spent most of her freshman year of highschool sulking and keeping to herself. Her only outlets for expression were drawing, writing, and singing, though she would never show anyone her writing. Since Katherine ignored most of the student body, they decided to ignore her too, which was just as fine to her.

Hana Lee had been attending school in Cordonia most of her life. Unlike Katherine, when Hana started high school, she already had a foot in the door. She was decently popular among the other teens, though secretly Hana despised inner high school politics and hierarchy.

She met Katherine freshman year, when they ended up in the same art class with Mrs. Theron as their teacher. They sat at the same table, though for the first few weeks Katherine ignored Hana and her attempts to make small talk. Finally, after Mrs.Theron finished telling the class their assignment one afternoon, Katherine spoke.

‘“Why do you keep making an effort to talk to me?” Katherine snapped, keeping her voice low enough so she wouldn’t attract attention from the other students. Hana seemed shocked, from Katherine’s attitude or that Katherine finally spoke to her, she wasn’t sure.

“I always try to make friends with who I sit with in class. Also, I know you’re new. Or well, were new. I hope you’ve settled in okay!” Hana smiled softly. “I just thought you could use a friend.”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Katherine stared.

“Um, very?” Hana said.

“Fine. I’ll entertain you for this class, but if I don’t think you’re being sincere I’m never talking to you again.” Katherine huffed.

“Yay!” Hana clapped.

After that day, Katherine and Hana became inseparable. Where one went, the other followed. As they went through highschool, they grew to be quite popular among the others, much to the dismay of the friends. At school they put on fake, happy, friendly personas to try and maintain their reputation, but once they left the building, however, they’d take off running to Katherine’s house, laughing and screaming along the way. They would spend their nights gossiping about the other girls in their grade and talking about what boys they thought were cute. They also talked about their plan to take over the world one day, how they would never let anyone break them down or apart. Conversations about if aliens were real, what they would do if they could control the elements, and if they could spend one day with someone, dead or alive, who would it be.

Katherine and Hana made a plan in their first year of friendship; they would graduate together and move to the states for school. They would share a New York City apartment, and work jobs as waitresses in a nice bar while they went to school. Hana would be studying plants, to hopefully find more medicinal properties that could help others, while Katherine would study English, to get closer to her dream of being a writer.

And that’s exactly what they did.

-Present-

“Meeting you is the one thing I will ever love this country for.” Katherine joked as they stepped into the cab that would take them to their hotel. “The reunion is tomorrow night, right?” She asked as they rode along the highways.

“Yeah, they’re holding it at one of the nicer taverns downtown.” Hana said, looking at the email on her phone. “It isn’t that far from our hotel.” Katherine nodded before turning to look out the window at the scenery passing them by. She couldn’t ignore the pit gnawing at her stomach, that something big was going to happen tomorrow night. This was going to be a hell of a trip.

[soobiniebaby]

Angels & Devils Part XIV : Who’s a Liar?

Tomorrow x Together Fanfiction

~ p a r t s : main post || prologue || part 1 || part 2 || part 3 || part 4 || part 5 || part 6 || part 7 || part 8 || part 9 || part 10 || part 11 || part 12 || part 13 || part 14 || part 15 || part 16 || part 17 ~ p a i r i n g : love triangle involving choi soobin and choi yeonjun ~ g e n r e : high school au | some social media au | some fluff & angst | childhood friends | love triangle ~ l a n g u a g e : English ~ w a r n i n g : contains swearing, alcohol, kissing (?) and may contain mature themes (angst, etc.) ~ a / n : This will be my first fanfic (go easy on me pls) and i’m just writing this as I go along, so bear with me juseyo The setting (place/country) of the story is up to the reader’s interpretation ~ s u m m a r y : What should she choose? Han Baby: the new girl with a troubled past MO Academy: her new high school Choi Soobin: student council president, member of the Ecosave club, volunteer at the Humane Treatment of Animals, member of the Honor Society, a vocalist in the Jazzed club, the school’s all around golden boy Choi Yeonjun: leader of the Dance club, star of the Jazzed club, the school’s it boy with a bad rep 5 best friends, 1 new girl, 1 childhood friendship, 1 epic love triangle? What will this school year bring?

“Yeonjun, I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

“Baby, please, wait. Please, take 3 deep breaths and try to calm down. Hear me out. Please.”

“Yeonjun, no. I can’t do this. I don’t know how I can possibly get past this. I don’t think I could ever let this go.”

“So what do you want to happen now? What do you want me to do? Tell me anything, and I’ll do it. Baby, I’ll do anything for you. Just please tell me how I can make this right.”

“You want to know what I want to happen? I want this to stop. This, us, this evening, this pain, this nightmare, I just want this all to stop. I think the best thing you could do for me now is just let me go, don’t make this hurt any more than it already does. Just let me go. Yeonjun, please, just let me go.”

“Baby, please, don’t.”

“This is goodbye, Yeonjun. I’m breaking up with you.”

3 weeks before… The past couple of weeks have been difficult for Soobin.

First, the Fall Ball was coming up, and as Student Council president, it was a bit of a burden on him. The Fall Ball was one of the biggest social events at MOA, and it was the first of the 3 annual school dances that took place at the school every year, followed by the Winter Formal and Prom for the Seniors. The Student Council, along with the respective committees in charge of the Fall Ball, had been meeting at least thrice every week now.

Second, he’d been trying his best to keep his distance from Yeonjun and B. Knowing what he knew about what happened the night of Yeonjun’s birthday party 2 weeks ago, he felt as if there was a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment. So far, Yeonjun had showed no signs of recalling just how far things with Rose went that night, and B hadn’t shown any signs of remembering the conversation that she and Soobin shared in the utility closet while she was crying her eyes out, which ended with him admitting that he currently had feelings for her, which he was really struggling with.

And third, he just seemed to be falling more and more for her everyday. No matter how much he tried to keep her at a distance, the little smiles she’d send his way and the mere way she said his name just made his heart flutter every damn time. The butterflies in his stomach were inescapable.

He felt guilty for thinking it, but on more than one occasion he’d fantasized about having B as his date for the Fall Ball. He’d imagined what it would be like to drive to her apartment on the night of the ball, and how breathtaking she’d look as she’d greet him at her apartment door wearing the most gorgeous dress, how her eyes would sparkle when they’d take pictures at the photobooth before the dance, how tender she’d feel in his arms as they slow-danced in the middle of the school’s event hall, and even the things that they could do after the dance, which may or may not have included the tantalizing thought of him unzipping her dress to reveal her slender bare back and more.

His imaginations of everything that he wanted to do with B’s bare skin made Soobin feel guilty, but he couldn’t stop the fantasies from playing in his mind from time to time. He found that the best way to shut them down was to remind himself that Yeonjun had probably already seen or done everything that Soobin could only fantasize about, which effectively made Soobin feel sick to his stomach. He didn’t know just how far Yeonjun had taken things with B, but he had definitely insinuated that they’ve done more than just make out, and frankly, Soobin didn’t want to know just how much more.

Besides, Soobin was well aware that his thoughts were nothing more than fantasies, that Yeonjun would be taking B to the Fall Ball, and that his reality would probably end up with him ensuring that the event would be running smoothly the whole evening, too busy to actually dance with his date, if he’d even have one.

Taehyun had tried, on more than one occasion, to suggest who he should take as his date to the Fall Ball.

“How about Tyuzu, that shy girl in your Maths class? She seems really nice and graceful, and with her height I’m sure you 2 would look amazing together.” Taehyun suggests. It was lunch time, and the 6 of them were sitting at their gazebo. Yeonjun and B were busy feeding each other and giving each other googly eyes, while Beomgyu and Kai seemed to be laughing over a video Kai had seen on Twitter.

“Chou Tzuyu? She is really nice, kinda shy, and I have to admit that she’s very pretty.” Soobin says, considering Taehyun’s suggestion. “But I don’t know if I can ask her, we’ve never had any conversations before so it would be a bit weird, she might say no.”

Kai lets out a snort. “Yeah right. Soobin, do you know how many girls at this school would go crazy if you asked them to be your date to the Fall Ball? Have you forgotten who you are?” he says. “Heck, remember that one year when a couple of girls asked you to be their date? I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens again this year.”

Beomgyu nods in agreement. “That’s right, you’re Choi fucking Soobin! President of the Student Council, Ecosave club ambassador, president of the Humane Treatment of Animals, member of MO Academy’s elite Basketball team, a main vocalist of the Jazzed club!” he exclaims, holding his hands up in the air as if there were a billboard with Soobin’s name on it. “Choi fucking Soobin.”

Soobin laughs, embarrassed. “Thanks you guys, but I don’t think I’ll be taking a date this year.”

“No, what about Tzuyu? I’ve been thinking about who the perfect date for you would be, and after much consideration and deliberation, I know she’s the one.” Taehyun says.

“And she seems great, Tyun, and thanks but no thanks. Why don’t you ask her instead?” Soobin suggests, politely turning down his suggestion.

“I would, but she’s too tall for me.” Taehyun grumbles. “Plus, there’s already someone else I wanna go with.” he says, subtly shooting a look in Beomgyu’s direction. Noticing this, the ever-so-confident Choi Beomgyu looks flustered for a moment, not expecting the sudden interaction.

“Oh? Our Taehyunie actually has a date in mind?” Kai says excitedly. “Finally! Who’s the lucky date?”

“I haven’t asked them yet, so still no date for me.” Taehyun backtracks. “What about you, Hyuka? You got a date in mind?”

Now it was the younger boy’s turn to be flustered. “I, uh, I’m kinda dating Yuna, and we already agreed to go to the Fall Ball together.” he mumbles.

“Whoa, you asked Yuna out? Why didn’t you tell us!” Beomgyu exclaims, surprised.

“I’m sorry, I thought I did!” Kai says defensively. “I definitely told B about it though. Right, Baba?” he says, turning to B.

B breaks out of the little love bubble she shared with Yeonjun and nods. “Yup, and I think you 2 are adorable.” she says. “Yuna, Ryu and I will probably be going dress shopping this weekend. Do you have any preferences? Anything in particular you wanna see her wear? Any color or style in mind?”

Kai starts to blush. “N—Not really, I think she’d look great no matter what she wears.”

The whole group in the gazebo collectively goes “Aw.”

“Sounds like our darling boy is in love.” Soobin says affectionately, ruffling his hair. “Yuna’s a lucky girl! No wonder you seem like you’ve had your head in the clouds lately.”

“Oh stop it.” Kai huffs, his cheeks heating up as he tries to brush away Soobin’s hand. “At least I have a date. Really, Soobin, you could ask literally any girl in this school and she’d say yes.”

Except the one girl I actually want to ask, Soobin thinks to himself, his eyes sneaking a quick glance at B, who currently had Yeonjun’s arm casually wrapped around her shoulders as he absentmindedly scrolled through his phone and she continued to tease Kai about his new relationship.

B was pretty, but it wasn’t like she was the prettiest girl in the world. Heck, he knew that there were a lot of other pretty girls at MOA, so he didn’t know why he was so captivated by her. Soobin had never considered himself to be the kind of guy who’d have a type, so he didn’t know what exactly made someone attractive to him. He just found himself attracted, and he had no idea why. Out of all the girls at MOA, why did she have to be the one to catch his attention?

At that exact moment, B turns her head towards him and their eyes meet. She breaks into a giggle, causing Soobin’s heart to skip a beat. He starts to panic as he realizes that she had caught him staring.

“Soobin? Do you want my help in the date department?” she asks teasingly.

“Ah, nope, I think I’m good. I really don’t think I’ll be asking anyway to be my date this year.” Soobin says, flustered by her catching him staring at her.

“Dude, it’s our last year and it’s our last Fall Ball. Are you sure you want to do it solo?” Yeonjun pipes in.

Soobin shrugs. “I don’t mind, really. I’ll focus more on organizing it and making sure everyone has a good time, so being dateless is alright with me.”

B sighs. “What a shame, you could’ve made one very lucky girl at MOA really happy.” she says. “But whatever you say, Soobinie. Just make sure you let yourself enjoy the Fall Ball as well instead of just focusing on everyone else having fun, alright?”

Soobin nods. “I will, don’t worry.”

Once that was settled, the school bell rings then, signaling the end of their lunch break. The group pack up their stuff and walk back to the main building, going their separate ways to class.

•°•

2 weeks before…

“Hey Tyun, do you have a date to the Fall Ball yet?” Soobin asks absentmindedly, his eyes on the screen and his fingers expertly smashing buttons on the controller as he did his best to beat Kai at this round of Tekken. It was Saturday, and the guys had come over to his place to play video games.

Taehyun sighs, scrolling through his phone while the boys focused on their video game. “No, Soobin, I don’t. I haven’t had the chance to ask yet.” Which was true. It was only when Taehyun had started seeing someone in their friend group when he realized just how hard it was to be dating someone in the same friend group, especially when they he and Beomgyu had both agreed to keep things lowkey. He could see now why Yeonjun and B hadn’t told anyone about their relationship when they first started dating.

He thought it would be easy, since he and Beomgyu saw each other everyday, ate lunch together everyday, hung out at his family’s café after school everyday, and even got to hang out during the weekends. The problem was that the 2 could never find time to themselves, the rest of the friend group always seemed adamant on hanging out together, and if both of the boys would say no to hanging out at Soobin’s place on Saturdays, then it would come off as suspicious. Whenever they were together, they could hardly sneak in some quick hand holding, much more a few private words between them.

His eyes dart to Beomgyu, who was sitting in the middle of Soobin and Kai on the sofa. He looked adorable between the 2 giants of the group, sitting with his legs tucked under him, making him look extra tiny. Taehyun’s heart fluttered when Beomgyu meets his gaze and gives him an understanding smile, which he returns.

Taehyun knew that he could just ask Beomgyu to be his date through text, but Taehyun was a bit of a romantic. For the past year, he could only ever fantasize of what it would be like to kiss Beomgyu, of how soft his hands would feel, of the warmth of his body if he were to embrace him, of dancing with him in the middle of the floor at one of MOA’s school dances. Now that it was all a reality, he wanted everything to be perfect, or to at least be able to ask him in person.

“What, why haven’t you asked yet?” Soobin exclaims, surprised. “Kang Taehyun, are you…nervous?”

Kai bursts out laughing at the thought. “Taehyun? Nervous? Please, I bet that word isn’t even in his vocabulary.” he says, keeping his eyes on the screen. “If anyone should be nervous, it should be whoever Taehyun plans on asking. No offense, Tyun, but you are intimidating as hell. Even as your friend, I would probably pee myself out of nervousness if you wanted to ask me to the dance.”

“Lucky for you I don’t want to ask you, then.” Taehyun replies dryly. His brows furrow together with worry. “Am I really that scary?” He knew he had a reputation at MOA, that everyone had him on a pedestal as this perfect untouchable being, that most students were afraid to speak to him unless he acknowledged them first, but he didn’t think even his friends would feel that way.

“No, I don’t think so. Hyuka’s just saying that cause he’s scared of you but I don’t think you’re that intimidating, but that might be cause I’m the oldest one here.” Yeonjun pipes in, his eyes on his phone. “What do you think, Gyu? Is Taehyun scary or is Kai just a scaredy cat?”

Kai lets out a “Hey!” in protest, but Taehyun’s focus is on Beomgyu now, who tapped a finger on his chin as he thought of his response. “No, I don’t think Taehyun’s scary at all. In fact, I think he’s adorable. Like a cute little squirrel, with his big eyes and his fluffy hair.” he says thoughtfully, smiling fondly at the said boy. “In fact, contrary to what Kai thinks, I’d be ecstatic if I knew that Taehyun would like to ask me to the dance.”

Taehyun feels heat start to creep into his cheeks, flustered by Beomgyu’s opinion. “Really? You’d be ecstatic?” he says, not really knowing what else to say.

Beomgyu nods. “Definitely. I would say yes, without a doubt.” he says, his smile growing.

Without a second thought, Taehyun suddenly says “So do it, then. Be my date. Go to the dance with me. Say yes.”

Once his words register, everyone goes still, their heads all turning towards him, as if he had just transformed into a squirrel in front of them. Taehyun didn’t think he’d just blurt it out, but the words came out of his mouth before he could even think about it. He knew they were all looking at him as if he were crazy, but he only had eyes on Beomgyu, who was looking at him with wide eyes, caught by surprise.

After a moment, Beomgyu’s smile grows even wider as he says “Yes. I’ll be your date. I’ll go to the dance with you. Without a doubt.”

Taehyun can’t stop himself from smiling upon hearing this, his jaw stretching out to its limit and his eyes crinkling with glee. Meanwhile, their friends suddenly unpause, jumping out of their seats and staring at the 2 boys.

“Oh my god! What just happened?” Kai exclaims, covering his mouth with his hand to stop himself from smiling.

“Wait, Tyun, when you told me you’ve been in love with someone for like a year now, was it Beomgyu this whole time?” Soobin says, the realization hitting him like a truck.

Taehyun nods. “Yes, but there’s no need to talk about that.” he says, trying to politely tell Soobin to keep his mouth shut. Now, he was shy.

“In love, hm?” Beomgyu says teasingly, standing up as well to walk over to Taehyun. “For a whole year? Didn’t know you had it that bad for me, Tyun.”

“Don’t let it get to your head now, just cause you’re my date.” Taehyun says casually, trying to hide his giddiness. Beomgyu was his date. He was going to the Fall Ball with Beomgyu.

Yeonjun walks over to the 2 and envelops them into a hug, squishing them together. “I’m so, so happy for you two.” he says wholeheartedly.

“Thanks, YJ.” Beomgyu says, laughing as Yeonjun squeezes them even tighter.

“Congratulations you two! I’m so happy!” Soobin squeals, joining the group hug.

“Congrats! I’m happy, too!” Kai says, trying his best to wrap his arms around the 4 older boys. “What should we call you now? Beomhyun? Taegyu? Tyugyu?” he says playfully.

“You’ll call us Tyun and Gyu cause that’s who we are.” Taehyun responds. “Look, I love you guys, and I’d like to thank you all for being happy for us, but I can’t feel my ribs so please let go now.” he manages to say, trying his best to wiggle his way out of the group hug, which was impossible since he was right in the middle of it.

“No, I want this moment to last forever. So happy for you guys.” Kai coos, squeezing even harder.

“Hey, please don’t crush my date!” Beomgyu laughs, attempting to protect Taehyun from being squeezed to death.

“You heard Gyu, hands off his date!” Soobin says, stepping away from the group. The 2 other boys hesitantly follow suit, leaving Beomgyu and Taehyun standing together in the center. The two boys look at each other, their eyes both sparkling with joy as Beomgyu reached out and took Taehyun’s hand in his.

“My date.” Beomgyu says, keeping his eyes on his boy. Once again, Taehyun can feel his cheeks go red, and it takes his entire willpower to stop himself from leaning in and kissing Beomgyu right then and there.

Their 3 friends coo and squeal in awe, amazed at what they were seeing.

“How are you 2 so sweet? How did this happen without any of us suspecting anything?” Soobin asks curiously, looking at the 2 with a bit of jealousy. Why couldn’t he have what they did?

“Actually, yes, I think we all want to know how exactly this happened.” Yeonjun agrees, taking a seat on the sofa.

“Will you tell us? Please? I wanna hear a love story.” Kai says, plopping himself down next to Yeonjun and giving the 2 boys puppy dog eyes. Soobin soon follows, seating himself on the couch, and looks at the 2 pleadingly.

“Alright, children, settle down.” Beomgyu says, taking over. “Allow me to tell you the story of how Tyun fell head over heels in love with me—”

“Oh shut up, you’re the one who kissed me first.” Taehyun says, making the 3 boys gasp.

“B—but, no! That was a game!” Beomgyu interjects, referring to the game of Kiss or Tell at Yeonjun’s birthday party. “I panicked and kissed you cause you were gonna tell everyone about that one time we tried this new Ramen place near the subway and I ended up shitti—”

“You know that’s not the kiss I was talking about.” Taehyun cuts him off, echoing the exact words Beomgyu had said to him when they first talked about it at Kang’s café. Beomgyu’s face goes red as the 3 boys practically die of curiosity.

“Oh my god, Gyu kissed Tyun? After the game?” Kai screeches, unable to stop his dolphin-like squeals from coming out due to his excitement.

Taehyun nods. “There’s not much to it, really. He kissed me during that game, then he kissed me again after, we talked about it. We started kissing and talking more, and then I asked him to be my date today in front of you guys.” he says matter-of-factly.

“Don’t forget the part where Soobin said you’ve been in love with me for a year now.” Beomgyu butts in, recovering from his flustered state.

“Soobin, you’re lucky I like you and consider you as one of my closest friends.” Taehyun says, looking at him pointedly.

Soobin laughs nervously, knowing that he was referring to the fact that he told Taehyun practically everything about his feelings for B. “Yeah, thanks, Tyun.” he says sheepishly.

Taehyun simply nods at him, signaling that his secret was still safe with him. “Now that we’re all caught up on me and Gyu’s history, can we let it go and move on now?” he says, not really used to being in the spotlight for anything other than his academic achievements or extracurricular talents. And he definitely wasn’t used to being fawned over for his love life, which had been nonexistent up until that moment.

The 3 boys nod. “Okay okay, let’s talk about something else. How about the Fall Ball? What will you guys be wearing?” Kai asks, gamely changing the topic.

“Yeah, I mean, a suit? What else?” Yeonjun says. “I have like a hundred suits just waiting to be worn, I just have to pick one out.”

Beomgyu nods. “I’ve got some suits at home too.”

“I don’t have a suit yet.” Taehyun says quietly, as if he were a bit shy and embarrassed. “I—I kind of just rent a suit every time I have to attend an event that requires it because…” Because I can’t afford to buy it, he wanted to admit. Even with the scholarship, it was hard to maintain his lifestyle as a student of MO Academy. He did his best so that it wouldn’t be a financial burden to his family. He walked to and from school everyday, brought packed lunches, recycled notebooks and used textbooks, and worked part time at the café so his family wouldn’t need to pay for an extra set of hands.

Being one of the school’s scholarship kids never bothered him much, especially since he knew his performance as a student was exemplary and he knew he deserved the honor of studying at such a prestigious school, but he couldn’t stop himself from those moments when he just couldn’t afford to live as lavishly as his friends did. But when he saw his friends’ faces showing that they understood, he felt like he didn’t have to say it out loud.

Beomgyu clicks his tongue, looking at him playfully with disapproval. “No way, my date deserves to own a suit. The most handsome guy at MO Academy, apart from myself of course, should definitely own a suit.” he says, smiling at Taehyun thoughtfully. “What do you say, I take you out shopping tomorrow? We can go to the shopping center near that subway station, I could meet you there for lunch?”

Taehyun beams at him then, nodding his head. “It’s a date.”

“Our first one.” Beomgyu says, winking at him.

“But the fact still stands that I can’t…afford to buy a suit.” Taehyun says sheepishly.

“Darling, don’t worry about that. I’ll get you a suit as pretty as your face, which is impossible because you are the prettiest person I’ve ever seen, but I can sure as hell try.” Beomgyu says, lifting a hand up to cup Taehyun’s cheek, making him blush.

“Alright, but nothing too extravagant, and definitely no designer brands.” Taehyun says, giving in. “And I’m buying you lunch.”

Beomgyu beams. He didn’t think Taehyun would say yes, but he was set on buying him a suit whether he wanted it or not anyway. “Deal.”

The 3 boys watching them from couch squirm, trying their best to hold in their awe, but upon seeing that, Kai couldn’t hold it in any longer.

To everyone’s surprise, Kai lets out a squeal, making them all jump and stare at him. “You guys are so cute, I wanna cry.” he says, making them all laugh fondly at the youngest boy.

“We are adorable, aren’t we?” Taehyun says, wrapping an arm around Beomgyu’s waist.

“Couple of the year.” Beomgyu agrees, kissing the top of his head. “So what kind of suit do you want?”

“Just a standard black suit, so I can wear it to any occasion.” Taehyun says. “I mean, it’s not like there’s a wide spectrum of styles to choose from anyway.”

“This topic would’ve been more fun to talk about if we were girls.” Soobin pipes in thoughtfully. “It’s kinda boring how guys just wear the same thing for every formal event. Meanwhile, girls can pick any dress color and any style of dress they want!” he says, suddenly going on a mini rant. “It seems so fun in movies when girls go dress shopping and fix up their hair and do their makeup before a big event. I wish guys could experience the same thing. Shopping and getting all dressed up and excited for a big night sounds so fun.”

“Speaking of girls going shopping, I’m pretty sure Baby, Yuna and Ryujin are doing exactly that right now.” Yeonjun says, taking out his phone and tapping it a few times before holding it up to his ear. “Hello? Baby?”

“Yes?”

“I—I was talking to her, not you, Gyu.” Yeonjun says, surprised when Beomgyu responded. The boys in the room snicker, and Taehyun smacks his arm.

“Baby? You there?”

‘Hey there, yes I’m here with Lia and Ryu.’ B responds over the phone.

“Hey Baby. Ah, dress shopping, I presume?” Yeonjun says knowingly.

‘Yup! We’ve been walking around and trying on dresses for what feels like decades. I think this is the 5th shop we’ve been in. I’m exhausted.’ B says, and she did sound tired.

Yeonjun pouts. “Oh no, is my baby tired? Want me to come over and help you girls? I can carry all your bags and stuff.” he offers.

B giggles. ‘Thanks, but I think we’re good here. I don’t want to interrupt your time with the guys, plus I kind of don’t want you to see my dress until the Fall Ball. I want it to be a surprise.’ she says mysteriously.

“Oh, you have a dress already? No fair, I wanna see it! Send me pictures please.” Yeonjun says pleadingly.

‘Well, no, but I’ve tried on a few dresses that I might end up buying so I have a few prospects. And no, I want it to be surprise!’ she laughs. ‘I gotta go, we have to finish this by 6pm and we haven’t even thought about looking at shoes yet. See you later, and say hi to the boys for me!’ B says quickly before hanging up.

“Was that Yeonjun?” Ryujin asks as B puts her phone away.

B nods. “Yup, he was just checking in.” she says, going back to scanning the clothing rack for any dress that would catch her eye. “God, I hate shopping. I’m so tired, and I haven’t even bought anything yet. This feels hopeless.”

“Hey, lighten up, this is supposed to be fun!” Ryujin laughs. “Why haven’t you bought anything yet? I thought that blue dress you tried on at the shop before this one looked amazing on you. The one with the thigh high slit? It was gorgeous.”

B bites her lip. The dress was gorgeous, but she didn’t feel gorgeous when she wore it. The truth was, the closer the Fall Ball was getting, the more self-conscious she was growing about her body. She had strived to maintain her slim figure. She had always watched what she eats and tried her best to get in some exercise whenever she could, but ever since she moved away from her home, she hadn’t been able to find the time or the equipment to exercise, and she felt like it was starting to show. “Honestly, I thought I looked a bit fat, but I’ll keep the dress in mind. I think I can lose a few pounds in 2 weeks, right?”

Ryujin’s jaw drops as B says this. “Fat? Please tell me you’re joking.” she says, horrified. “B, no offense, but you could use a few extra pounds. I love you, I love how you look, but sometimes when I hug you I feel like I could snap you in half.” Ryujin admits.

“Ryu, no, I just feel like if I lost some of this fat right under my belly button, any dress would look just right.” B says, pinching the nonexistent fat.

“Please don’t.” Ryujin says. “If I see you dieting, I will force feed you. You are beautiful just the way you are, and if you don’t see that, then maybe you just need a little nudge, or a gently shove.”

Just then, Yuna calls the girls to the dressing room. “Guys! Come look, I think I’ve just found the perfect dress!” she squeals.

As the 2 girls head over to the dressing room, Yuna pulls aside the curtain and steps out of the booth dramatically, giving a twirl and a pose. “Ta-dah! What do you guys think?”

Ryujin and B looked at her in awe. She was wearing a satin gold slip dress that elegantly hung off her frame, highlighting her delicate shoulders and accentuating her long legs. The dress was held up by thin straps and fell down right above her knees.

“You look amazing.” B says. “Kai is going to love this.”

“Yes. Absolutely yes.” Ryujin says, howling with approval. “Damn, I wish I could pull off a slip dress. It’s like the right amount of chic and sexy.”

“Ryujin, please, you’d slay anything you wear.” Yuna says, blushing from their compliments.

“Easy for you to say, I’ve got man shoulders and thick thighs. Not exactly the right body fit for a dress.” Ryujin groans.

“Don’t say that!” B says. “You look good no matter what you wear!”

“Ha, and now you know how I feel about you saying the same thing.” Ryujin says, referring to their conversation earlier. “Let’s just agree that we’re all gorgeous and that we’re all gonna rock whatever dresses we buy today, alright?”

B giggles, realizing how Ryujin had cleverly turned the tables on her. “Alright. But Yuna, you definitely have to get that dress. It’s perfect.”

“Only if you get that gorgeous blue dress you tried on earlier.” Yuna sing songs. “The one with the slit. I can’t believe you didn’t get it right then and there. You looked amazing! Like the Greek goddess of the sea or something.”

“Yuna, the Greek god of the sea is Poseidon.” Ryujin informs her.

Yuna simply shrugs and cheekily says “God is a woman.” before turning back to her reflection in the fitting room.

B laughs. “Fine fine, after you buy that dress, let’s go back to the previous store and I’ll buy the blue dress. I guess it was perfect. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that I couldn’t unzip it on my own. My arms couldn’t reach the zipper.” B huffs.

“That won’t be a problem when you wear it for the Fall Ball since you’ll have Yeonjun to unzip it for you.” Ryujin says teasingly.

B blushes bright red. “Ryu! Don’t say that in front of our baby.” she shushes, motioning to Yuna, who was too busy twirling around and admiring her dress in the mirror to notice what the 2 girls were talking about. “We agreed to keep our discussions PG in front of her.”

“Don’t worry, when you put her in front of a mirror, she could stare at herself for hours.” Ryujin says dismissively. “Also, yes we did, but things between you and Yeonjun definitely aren’t PG anymore.”

It was true. Over the past few weeks, things with Yeonjun had advanced faster than she realized. They quickly went from kissing and caressing to, well, let’s just say that the kisses have gone below the neck and that the caresses have gone under their clothes.

B’s cheeks burn even hotter as the non-PG moments she shared with Yeonjun began to play in her mind. “I—well, yeah, but we shouldn’t be talking about it in front of Yuna.” B says, trying to steer away from the conversation.

Ryujin decides to steer them away from Yuna instead, leading B out of the fitting rooms and back into the racks of dresses, out of earshot. “Okay, now that Yuna’s out of the way, I want to talk to you about this.” she says, trying to maintain eye contact with B. “I know things with Yeonjun have been going great, and although I have an idea of just how far things between you two have gone, there’s just something I wanna say.”

“Alright then, what is it?” B asks, ready to hear whatever sex advice Ryujin would tell her.

“I just want to say, be careful. Your first time should be special, with someone special, and if you decide that going all the way with Yeonjun on the night of the Fall Ball will be the way to do it, then I’m 100% routing for you. But I just want to make sure that you’re 100% sure about it too.” Ryujin says, completely sincere. “And you don’t have to tell me whether or not you decide to do it, you don’t have to let me know because that’s between you and Yeonjun, but I want you to know that I’m always here if you want or need someone to talk to about it, okay?”

B blinks a couple of times, surprised by Ryujin’s sudden advice. She always pegged Ryujin to be the supportive friend who’d bring out the inner hoe goddess in her, but seeing how genuine and concerned she was made B feel a newfound fondness for her.

“Aw, Ryu, you’re so sweet.” B says, unable to stop herself from wrapping her arms around her friend. “Thank you. I promise, I’ll only do it when I’m 100% sure and ready. And I promise I’ll let you be the first to know all about it, not because I feel the need to, but because I want to.” B says, winking.

Ryujin chuckles. “Alright, but I don’t want to hear any gorey details.” she says. “Now, let’s pull Yuna out of the dressing room and to the cashier so we can buy our dresses and get the hell out of here.”

•°•

1 week before…

“Soobin! Soobinie! Hey!”

Soobin turns to look back, stopping his tracks in the middle of the hallway. He was on his way to meet up with his friends at their gazebo for lunch when a familiar voice called out his name in the hallway.

As he turns around, he’s surprised to find his cousin, Choi Arin, waving at him. He smiled and waved back, not noticing that she had a friend with her. He stays still as the 2 girls approach him. “Arin, hey, what’s up?” he asks politely. Even though he and Arin were cousins and grew up seeing each other on family occasions, he never seemed to see her around MOA. They never shared any classes together, they didn’t have any mutual extracurricular interests, and they had completely different social circles. Arin’s friend group consisted solely of girls, and until recently, Soobin’s friend group was composed of all boys. He had mentioned before that he had a cousin who studied at MOA, but he never really got the chance to introduce her to any of his friends.

“What’s up? I feel like I haven’t see you in forever!” Arin says, playfully hitting his arm. “I guess Mr. Student Council President is too busy to check up on his cousin?”

“Ah, I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to see you around campus lately. Senior has been hectic, especially these past few weeks with the Fall Ball coming up.” Soobin says apologetically. “I promise, when the whole Fall Ball thing is over, we’ll hang out, alright?” he offers.

Arin laughs lightheartedly. “Lighten up Soobin, I was just teasing! I do miss seeing you around though, and maybe we could hang out even earlier? Say, the night of the Fall Ball? I have you don’t have a date yet, is it true?”

Soobin rubs the back of his neck, flustered at the topic of his date, or lack thereof. “Um, yeah, no date for me, but it’s completely fine with me. I didn’t really have anyone I wanted to ask to the Fall Ball anyway.”

“Oh is that so?” Arin says mischievously. It’s only then when she steps aside and pulls her friend forward, introducing her to Soobin. “Soobin, this is my friend Yiren. She also does not have a date to the Fall Ball.”

Ah, so this was where this was going.

“Hello, Yiren, it’s nice to meet you.” Soobin says politely, putting on a charming smile. Yiren blushes visibly and says hi back.

“Now Soobin, I was wondering if you could help my friend Yiren here about her dateless situation?” Arin says, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Soobin knew that she wanted him to ask Yiren to the dance now, but he didn’t have the heart to force himself to go to the dance with someone he didn’t know. It wouldn’t be fair to Yiren to spend her evening with someone who was too busy wishing they were dancing with someone else to even pay attention to her.

Instead, Soobin quickly scans the hallway for any familiar face, until he spots one. “Oh, Jangun!” he says, spotting the boy walking out from one of the classrooms along the hall. “Jangjun, come here!” Soobin calls, motioning him over. When the boy notices Soobin calling him over, his face lights up and he waves back, quickly making his way to meet them.

“Soobin, hey!” Jangjun says excitedly. “You called me over?” Soobin had always thought that Jangjun was a nice guy, he was one of the students at campus that Soobin considered as his friend outside of his friend group. Jangjun was always willing to help in any way he could, and boy could Soobin sure use his help now.

“Jangjun, yeah, I just wanted to know if you have any plans for the Fall Ball. You taking anyone?” Soobin asks.

“Oh, no, sadly I was too busy dealing with some family business these past few weeks. I didn’t notice that the Fall Ball was getting closer until it was too late. It’s 1 week away and I still don’t have a date, so I thought it seemed hopeless to try to look for one now.” Jangjun admits, genuinely bummed out.

Soobin deliberately lightens up, straightening out his posture and tilting his head up, as if he was hit by a stroke of genius. “Ah, it’s never too late! Jangjun, this is my cousin’s friend. Her name is Yiren, and my dearest cousin Arin has just informed me that she doesn’t have a date yet either.” he says, stepping aside as he introduces the two to each other.

“Yiren, yes hi, I’ve seen you around. I think we had Biology together last year.” Jangjun says, smiling brightly at her. “I’m Jangjun, nice to meet you.”

Yiren smiles shyly at him. “Hi Jangjun, I’m Yiren. It’s nice to meet you too.”

“Well, it looks like we’re being set up here.” Jangjun says lightheartedly, laughing nervously. “I don’t mean to be too straightforward, but is there any chance you’d like to go to the Fall Ball with me?”

Yiren’s face lights up as she smiles at him and nods. “Yes, I’d really like that.”

“Great! Uh, can I have your phone number? And let me know your social media accounts too so I can add and follow you.” Jangjun says, enthusiastically giving her his phone.

As the pair walk off and get to know each other, Arin turns to glare at Soobin.

“You know I was trying to pair you and Yerin together, right?” she huffs.

“Yes, I could tell, I’m not that stupid you know.” Soobin chuckles. “Sorry cous, I just really don’t want to ask anyone to the dance. I’ll be too busy making sure that nothing goes wrong to even entertain a date anyway.”

“Oh, Soobinie, when will you learn to put yourself first.” Arin says, shaking her head. “Well, although my plan to set you up with Yerin failed, at least she got a date out of it anyway.” she says, amused as she watches her friend giggle at her newfound date.

“Don’t get me wrong, she seems like a great girl, I just… I’m not interested in taking anyway to the dance.” Soobin says. “Speaking of, who’s your date to the Fall Ball?”

Arin smiles with a glint in her eyes. “Hwang Hyunjin.”

“Wow, Hyunjin?” Soobin says, impressed. “Great catch, cousin. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your evening.” he says, knowing that Hyunjin was one of the more popular guys in their grade, and that he was always great company judging by the amount of people he was constantly surrounded with.

“Thanks, cous. I was thinking of asking you to introduce me to your student council buddies since I’ve been dying to meet them since you became president, but then Hyunjin asked me and that was that.” Arin says.

“Ah, really? Sorry, I can’t believe I haven’t introduced you to my friends yet. They’re all unavailable though so even if I had introduced you to them, you wouldn’t have gotten a date out of it.” Soobin laughs, making Arin snort. “But I’ll introduce you to them soon, I promise.”

Arin sighs. “It’s fine, Soobin. Just make sure you come find me at the Fall Ball and say hi, alright? I’m sure you’ll have the time to do it, since you won’t be glued to a date all night.” she says, playfully pinching his cheeks before walking away.

•°•

4 days before…

“The more I think about it, the more it hurts. I don’t know what to do, Binnie. I just wanted to get away.”

She moves closer to him, her ass sliding against the cold hard floor, closing the gap between them as she leans her head on his shoulder. She feels him go still for a moment, before he takes a deep breath, her head rising and falling along with his shoulders as he does so, as he takes one of her hands in his and starts to trace gentle circles on her skin.

He speaks, and she sees his mouth moving, but no sound seems to come out, the words lodged deep down in her memory.

When he finishes speaking, she sighs and says “Maybe it should’ve been you, Soobin.”

B wakes with a start, her whole body visibly tensing up as her eyes fly open. She instantly lifts her head up and sees both Yeonjun and Soobin looking at her with concern.

“Baby? Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?” Yeonjun asks, putting his hand on top of hers. She looks around and realises that she had fallen asleep during class, Creative writing, their last period for the day.

B squeezes her eyes shut before she lets them meet his. “Yeah, a bad dream I guess.” she says. “Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep in class in the first place.”

Yeonjun smiles at her fondly. “Sir Kim’s just letting us discuss ideas for our projects, and since my partner’s not here, I’m hanging around with you and Soobin.” he says, and that’s when she remembers that Soobin was seated next to her on the other side.

She turns to him, unable to meet his gaze just yet, still confused by the dream she just had.

“B? Got any ideas you wanna share?” he asks, his dimple popping out as he gives her a small smile. “It’s alright if you don’t, you can just sleep if you want. I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

What was up with her dream? And why did it feel so real? She remembers the feeling of his hand on hers, of his thumb tracing circles along the surface of her skin, she felt is as clear as day now.

“Maybe it should’ve been you, Soobin.”

Why would she tell him that in her dream? Was it possible that she had some underlying feelings for him? What should’ve been him? What was her subconscious mind trying to tell her?

“B?” he asks again, his smile faltering.

She finally meets his gaze then, and she plasters on a smile. “No, I shouldn’t sleep in class. I guess we’ll just go along with what we’ve been doing so far. We can just take random pictures of each other whenever we hang out and make stories out of them in our posts.”

Soobin nods. “That’s what I was thinking. It shouldn’t be too hard since we’re stuck with this until the end of the term.”

“Yeah, it’ll be a breeze.” she says, feigning positivity. The truth was, the dream she just had was worrying her and was very confusing.

Why would she and Soobin be in that position? Why would she say that to Soobin? She knew it was just a dream and probably just her subconscious mind making up scenarios, but why did it feel so real?

•°•

1 day before…

It was Friday night, the night before the Fall Ball, yet B still couldn’t get the strange dream with Soobin out of her head.

It constantly replayed in her head, like a broken film reel, and the more it played, the clearer the picture became.

Although some parts were still hazy and some words still came to her memory as muffled sounds, she was able to discern that she and Soobin were alone in a small space, that they were sitting on the floor together, that she was wearing the dress she wore the night of Yeonjun’s birthday party, that she was very very drunk, and that she was crying.

Now her main question was why.

Why was she alone in a small space, sitting on the floor on the night of Yeonjun’s party, very very drunk and crying…

...with Soobin?

Letting her curiosity get the best of her, B decides to send Soobin a text, wanting answers once and for all.

Upon seeing her final question, Soobin froze. He could feel himself start to sweat as he contemplated what he should do next. Although B’s recollection of the night of Yeonjun’s birthday party was clearing, it was still painfully clear that she had no clue about Yeonjun locking lips with Rose later that evening. What Soobin didn’t know was if Yeonjun’s recollection of that evening was coming to him as well.

Soobin found himself facing the very dilemma he wanted to avoid.

Should he tell B the truth, the whole truth about what else he saw that night? Or should he lie and let Yeonjun deal with the problem of telling B about the kiss?

Soobin had a method of dealing with such dilemnas. He simply closed his eyes, took 3 deep breaths, and made a decision.

He typed out his reply and hit send before he could second guess his decision.

His heart ached as he realized that he had just lied to B, but he knew it was the right, or rather the less evil, choice. She didn’t need to know that he had practically confessed to having feelings for her that night, nor did she need to know that she had wondered out loud about the what ifs between she and him. He didn’t mean keeping those parts of the night in the dark.

But what he truly felt awful about was the one thing he witnessed that he didn’t have the authority to tell her. As he texted B goodbye and wished her a good night, he quickly sent a text to one more person.

[noorakardemmomesaetre]

Through The Snowfall 

Or Read It On AO3 

Pairing: Betty Cooper x Jughead Jones

Summary: The Coopers and Andrews have rented the same cabin in the woods every holiday season since their kids were two years old. 

And with Archie and Betty leaving for college in just a few months, Betty is determined to make this Christmas a memorable one…by telling Archie how she really feels.

What she doesn’t plan for is Archie bringing his best friend. 

Or the way her gaze is suddenly lingering on the wild dark curls peeking out from beneath a crown beanie rather than the ginger spikes she’d set her sights on so long ago.

Chapter One: Moonlight 

She wrings her hands together in front of her body as she takes a shallow breath and straightens her shoulders. 

“Archie,” she begins softly, tugging her bottom lip between her teeth nervously before releasing it to continue. “I like you. Like really like you. I have for a long time now.” 

Her reflection stares back at her blankly and if that’s any indication as to how this confession is going to go she’d rather shove her hand in a garbage disposal. 

Shaking her head, Betty turns on the faucet and splashes the cool water on her heated cheeks in an effort to relax. When that’s not enough, she turns to the clawfoot bathtub behind her and begins running the water, tossing in a lavender rose bath bomb. There are dried petals laced throughout and watching them rise to the top of the now swirling purple water begins to calm her nerves. 

She can do this. 

She’s spent two weeks of every winter holiday break with Archie Andrews for the past fifteen years, since they were both running about this very same cabin in their diapers and ugly toddler-sized Christmas sweaters. 

Though they had never been able to spend more time together than that, they’d grown closer every winter and a few years ago they’d declared themselves the best of friends. This had lead to the occasional impromptu FaceTime conversation, encouraging texts before her school paper article releases and his important football games, and even a phone call before bed if either of them were feeling especially anxious. 

Her family had moved to Connecticut, away from their hometown of Riverdale, when she was two years old due to her father’s new job. Archie and his family had remained in Riverdale, which had only broken her mother, Alice, and Archie’s mother, Mary’s, hearts. They’d quickly decided they couldn’t bear not to come up with an annual reason for the families to spend an extended amount of time together and after several glasses of wine and much research, the ladies had decided on a yearly holiday trip to a little upscale town outside of Whistler, Canada. 

She peels off her pajamas and undergarments as soon as the water fills the tub and the hot water is exactly what she needs to quiet her overactive mind. She tilts her head back against the tub rim and runs her fingers absentmindedly through the colorful bubbles atop the water.  

The chime of her cell phone interrupts her efforts and she glances at the device resting on the small side table near the tub. 

Reaching out to see who the message is from, a small smile forms on her lips when she recognizes the name. 

V: Is three full suitcases too many for this winter wonderland vacation? Be honest. 

Betty rolls her eyes and chuckles to herself as she imagines her - and she means this in the kindest of ways - high maintenance best friend dragging all of these suitcases up their snowed in cabin driveway. 

B: I’d strongly advise cutting back to two. 

V: Please tell me you’re joking. 

B: Are you packing with Cher? Only she could convince you to pack that much for a two week trip 

V: Fine. Cutting back to two and a carry on! 

Betty smiles and closes her eyes once more, about to set her phone back on the nightstand when the sound of her phone pings once more. 

Cher: @ me next time, Betty Dearest. 

B: 😘

Betty grins at the fact that her best friends are currently together and turns the sound off of her phone in an effort to focus on the relaxation she’d drawn this bath for in the first place. 

The steam from the tub has been rising against her face and she welcomes the warmth and the invigorated way it makes her skin feel. She’s wondering whether she should apply a deep clean clay face mask - one can never look too refreshed and moisturized when professing their longtime feelings for their even longertime friend - when she spots her phone lighting up out of the corner of her eye. 

Groaning, she’s about to flip it over until her heart begins to thump erratically. 

Archie: packing to see u tomorrow 

B: Shouldn’t you already be packed? I thought your plane was leaving around noon! 

Archie: it is! considered packing in the morn but gotta get in that last work out u know 

Betty smiles to herself, knowing she hasn’t seen him in an entire year and she’s sure football has been working wonders on his already impressive body. Although, she’s never been that interested in overly muscular guys…but this is Archie. It’s different. Right? She brushes the thought away as she runs her tongue along her bottom lip and decides whether she should take a little risk with this next text. 

B: I’m excited to see you tomorrow :)

Archie: same. see u then ;) 

She tries not to overanalyze the winky face emoji as she sinks further into her now lukewarm bath. 

__________________

Veronica arrives promptly at 3:00PM and Betty rushes out the front door the moment she sees Veronica’s private driver pull into the driveway. She looks like a picturesque beauty snow queen as she steps from the car in a lovely periwinkle snow jacket and matching beret, but the second she sees Betty, she squeals excitedly. 

They throw their arms around each other in a tight hug as though they hadn’t just seen each other at school a few days ago. Veronica had agreed to come with Betty on vacation this year as soon as Betty had asked and she knows it’s because Veronica’s home life is currently a parental war zone. 

She also knows she’ll have to ask more about that later. 

“Oh, Betty! This cabin is absolutely gorgeous! I can already feel how cozy it is from here,” she says approvingly as she waves for her driver to follow behind her with her bags. 

Betty wonders if she should help him, but he seems to have an understanding with Veronica and follows suit. 

“It’s so wonderful! Mom has the fire going and wait until you see our bathroom,” Betty gushes as Veronica loops her arm through hers. “We even have a clawfoot bathtub!” 

They make their way inside and Veronica tips her driver an amount of money in cash that Betty’s only seen a couple of times in her entire life. Alice rushes over to squeeze Veronica tightly while berating her for not wearing a heavier jacket with these freezing temperatures. 

Hal brings her into a quick hug and lets her know that he’s got a pot roast cooking in the crockpot for dinner, if she’s interested. 

Betty’s laying on her stomach across Veronica’s bed in their large shared room on the second floor of the cabin, her ankles crossed as she swings her feet gently back and forth. Veronica is unpacking and chattering on about the latest drama with her parents before she shakes her head.

“Okay, enough of that! When is the infamous Archie Andrews coming?” 

Betty’s cheeks warm as she rests her head against a pillow and looks up at her best friend. “Around 8:00PM, I think? That’s when we’re expecting them anyways.” 

“I’m so excited to meet the boy you haven’t stopped gushing about since you fell for him three years ago,” Veronica says, giving her a teasing smile. “He better be everything you’ve amped him up to be.”

“No pressure,” Betty groans, tugging the pillow from beneath her and smacking her friend with it. Veronica laughs and tosses a pair of rolled up pantyhose at Betty’s head. 

“Do you think you’ll tell him tonight?”

“Of course. The earlier I tell him the more time we get to spend together,” Betty replies happily before grimacing. “Or the longer amount of time I have to face rejection.” 

“He won’t reject you.” Veronica arches an eyebrow dramatically and purses her lips as she says, “unless he’s a complete idiot.” 

Betty laughs just as Alice waltzes into their bedroom and she fights the urge to ask her mother if she has any idea knocking exists. 

“Elizabeth, darling, have you told Veronica about the Snowflake Soirée?” 

“Not yet, Mother.”

“Oh, do tell, Mrs. Cooper!” Veronica sits down next to Betty, crosses her legs, and smiles up at Alice, clearly excited about the prospect of an event. 

“Every Christmas Eve, everyone in this little town dresses to the nines and heads down the road for an upscale evening party. There’s dinner, decorations, dancing, champagne!” Alice is currently opening her drawers and refolding the sweaters Betty already folded yesterday and she curls her fingers into fists to keep from snapping. 

“That sounds absolutely wonderful! B, you could go with Archie!” Veronica claps her hands excitedly as Betty’s eyes widen in her direction, attempting to send an ohmygod, not in front of my mom, V! message. 

Alice finishes with the last of Betty’s sweaters before flashing Veronica a bright smile of approval. “That is a great idea, Veronica. Elizabeth, be sure to straighten your shoulders when the Andrews arrive, slouching makes you look lazy and indifferent.” 

She plants a kiss atop Betty’s head before waltzing out of their bedroom door and Betty’s nails are now threatening to pierce the skin of her palms. 

“She makes my mother look like a nominee for Mommy of the Year,” Veronica scoffs, making Betty chuckle as Veronica reaches over to clasp her hands in hers, somewhat effectively releasing the tension in her fingers. 

“Do you want to FaceTime Cher?” she asks in an attempt to distract Betty from her mother’s whirlwind appearance. “She and Toni are dying to see the cabin and you know they’ve been snowed in at Thistle House for the past two days.” 

FaceTiming Cheryl and her girlfriend, Toni, lightens Betty’s mood until she forgets about her mother’s controlling ways and can only think about the impending arrival of the Andrews. 

__________________

Betty and Veronica are sitting on the loveseat admiring the cabin’s over-the-top holiday decorations and sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows from festive mugs when the Andrews pull into the driveway in their rental Jeep. 

Betty pulls at her black tights anxiously as her father swings open the front door. 

“Fred! It’s been far too long, my friend!” The men embrace as Betty and Veronica stand and Betty finds herself smiling. Fred Andrews has always been nothing but kind to her and today is no different. He greets her with a bear hug before turning to hug Veronica, a girl he’s never even met. 

“How are you, Betty?” he asks and she knows the question is genuine. 

“I’m good, Mr. Andrews! Excited for these next couple of weeks off.”

“I already told Mary I’ll be sleeping until 11:00AM everyday,” he says with a look of defiance and the girls can’t help but giggle as Mary comes bustling into the house with a few containers of home baked Christmas cookies. 

“And I’ve already told him he will absolutely not be doing that,” Mary says loudly, making Fred huff teasingly before heading back out to bring in their bags. Mary hugs Betty and introduces herself to Veronica before adding, “honestly, he couldn’t sleep that late if he tried.”

Betty’s trying to focus on what Archie’s parents are saying, but her eyes dart to the front door at any sign of movement and she tucks a few loose strands of hair behind her ear nervously. 

“I see him!” Veronica whispers excitedly, standing on her tiptoes to see through the branches of the elaborate and large Christmas tree Alice and Hal had been working on all morning. 

Archie barrels through the door, not a moment later, his duffel bag slung over his shoulder and a wide smile on his face. Betty’s heartbeat quickens and her face breaks into a wide grin at the sight of him. 

But he looks...different. 

His muscles are large and defined now from his football training and instead of the cropped haircut she’s used to, his hair is coiffed to perfection. He spots her out of the corner of his eye and his entire face lights up. 

“Betty!” He makes his way over and quickly wraps her in a huge hug, his arms and body enveloping her petite frame. She giggles into his chest, happy that, at the very least, he smells familiar. Like a dash of men’s cologne and spearmint. “Still rockin that ponytail?” 

He releases her and she rolls her eyes, shoving him playfully. “Archie, this is my best friend, Veronica Lodge.” 

She’s now hyper-aware of her ponytail swinging gently behind her, brushing her shoulders. Does he not like the ponytail? Should she wear her hair down more often? But the ponytail is her signature look…

Her thoughts are interrupted as an unfamiliar feeling of dread settles in the pit of her stomach. Veronica has stepped forward, slipping her hand in his in a formal greeting that Archie seems all too eager to take part in. 

“Veronica? Betty’s told me a lot about you.” 

“Oh, I’m sure she has,” Veronica answers easily, tilting her head and smiling that 100 watt Lodge smile. He smiles back, but there’s a curiosity behind his eyes that makes Betty’s fingers close into fists once again. 

It’s not that she hadn’t thought about this predicament occurring when she’d invited Veronica, but she had convinced herself that Archie’s wandering eye only applied when she wasn’t in the room. Standing right next to him. 

“Shit.” 

There’s a commotion near the front door and Betty immediately turns around to find another guy their age attempting to pull what looks to be the Andrews’ small wagon overfilled with gifts through the front door. 

“Oh, son, I should’ve helped you with that!” Fred and Hal immediately move to where the guy has managed to get it halfway through the front door.

Archie is laughing as he watches the scene unfold, his eyes glittering in amusement. “Oh, Betty, you remember me telling you I was bringing Jughead, right?” 

Betty’s eyebrows furrow because she absolutely does not remember this. She does remember that Jughead is Archie’s best friend from home, but she’s never actually met or seen the guy. 

“Jughead, come meet the girls!” 

Jughead drops his own duffel bag near the front door, shaking hands with Hal and Fred before he turns around and shakes his head in fake irritation at his best friend’s lack of assistance with the wagon. 

Betty’s mouth parts. 

She’d always assumed that a boy named “Jughead” could only be some weird Jeffrey Dahmer-esque kid covered in dirt who curses loudly and demands extra meat with every meal. 

But Jughead is nothing like what she had spent the last few years imagining whenever Archie spoke of him. 

He’s handsome. 

Tall and lean with a smile that tugs on the corners of his mouth as though his happiness is a secret only a few are privileged to know. A worn gray beanie in what looks like a misshapen crown rests atop his head in an attempt to tame the wild dark waves peeking from beneath it and falling just above his eyes. 

“Hey, you must be Betty Cooper,” he says as he closes the space between them, tugging his snow-dusted gloves off and shoving them into the pockets of his flannel jacket before offering his hand to shake. “My sole competition for Archie’s friendship.” 

Veronica nudges her and she finally blinks, registering the introduction. She slides her hand into his and, despite the fact that he’d just had gloves on, is surprised to find that his hand is warm and soft. She smiles at him and shakes her head causing her ponytail to swing gently once again. 

“That’s sweet that you think you’re any competition at all.” 

He chuckles good-naturedly, his free hand moving to tug at one of the points on his crown beanie and her heart suddenly feels warm. She’d made him laugh. 

“I guess we’ll have to let Archie decide.” 

“Then I guess we’ll never know.” 

“Touché.” His playful smile widens at their shared knowledge of Archie’s indecisiveness being an obvious character trait.

After another few seconds her gaze follows his to where their hands are still currently interlocked in what could now be debatably referred to as the longest first meeting handshake of all time. 

His grip is warm but lax, as though he’s waiting for her to make the move to break the contact and she feels her cheeks burn. 

She immediately drops his hand and turns to Archie and Veronica, who are now both watching them with curious expressions. 

“This is my best friend, Veronica Lodge.” Betty introduces them and quickly moves next to Archie in order to put some space between herself and his best friend.

“Is that Alice’s famous hot chocolate?” Archie asks suddenly and Alice confirms from across the room that it is and that both of the boys should come grab a mug. 

They make their way over to the kitchen and Betty swallows audibly, touching the ends of her ponytail that fall against her shoulder. She’s watching Archie talk animatedly as he adds marshmallows to his mug, his arms flexing in his long-sleeved Under Armour shirt even from the small movement. 

But then her gaze shifts to where Jughead has shrugged out of his large flannel jacket, nodding along with whatever Archie’s saying as he grabs one of the cookies from Mary’s tupperware. 

“He is good looking,” Veronica observes next to her and it takes a moment for Betty to realize who she’s talking about. 

Archie. 

“Yeah, he is,” she confirms, turning back to the small table where they’d left their own mugs of hot chocolate resting. 

“So...are you still planning to profess your love for him tonight?” 

Laughter from the kitchen fills the air and Betty immediately looks in the direction of the sound, the tips of her ears burning. Jughead. 

“Um...no,” she decides suddenly, ignoring the look of confusion crossing Veronica’s face. “Maybe not tonight.” 

___________________

happy december everyone! ☃️❄️

thank you for giving this little holiday fic a chance! it’s been a ton of fun to write and i hope it adds a little Christmas cheer to your holiday season. 

i strongly advise enjoying with a mug of hot chocolate - extra marshmallows 

xx B 

[skeletorific]

man i just wanna throw this out there and i think you'll catch it, how do you think some of the ancestors would take an invite to a human thing like a party or a ceremony? like if it was prefaced with 'compared to troll events there's a strict no one dies policy and a be human-style nice to people you don't particularly like or care for rule as well' idk if even the first ship crew would come along, and tbh i wouldn't really fault them because it's new and spoopy and they're dead after all

Ok, so you have thrown it, and I have caught it. I am unsure if I caught it in the direction you threw it, but I have caught SOMETHING and it is something I love dearly.

So, this question: I had to think for a moment. What scenario results in every single ancestor being in the same locale, in such a capacity that they are forced to interact, not only with each other, but with humans, to the point that not only can they not kill anyone but there is literally no point in killing each other?

....

....OH WAIT EARTH C-

So yeah, everyone say thank you paradox space. There had to be at least one dream bubble out there from a timeline where the alphas got yoinked into sburb as their Alternian selves by mistake right?

So, let’s assume they’ve had a few months to settle in, adjust to modern life. Troll kingdom has issued an ultimatum to the more....chaotic Ancestors in terms of the rearranged hemospectrum. They will, to quote Karkat, “FUCKING DEAL WITH IT”. Not an easy pill to swallow for a few of them, but then, a few millenia in the dream bubbles has forcibly mellowed them quite a bit and eventually its just more trouble than its worth.

I have a lot of thoughts on this timeline (ancestors get apartments are you kidding me, the potential), but let’s return to the question at hand.

The invitation makes the rounds through a lot of ghost communities, but a particularly bold human approaches the Ancestors themselves with an invite to one of the bigger ragers being thrown in the human kingdom. The celebration of the return of the gods is always a blowout, and this year promises to be especially so, with something between a gala and a block party planned to be pitched.

So here’s why they all show up, and here’s what they do:

The Handmaid is an odd duck. Sure, there’s a certain morose pleasure in watching the cosmic plans of the man who abused her from childhood fall apart because of a handful of chump kids, but that doesn’t mean she’s happy to be back here with these assholes, and it doesn’t mean she’s looking to build a social life. She’s perfectly happy to spend the rest of her days haunting the abandoned house she found on the outskirts of the carapace kingdom and terrorize any local teens that stick their noses where they aren’t wanted. When the uni student turns up with a flyer she cusses them out but good and sends them on their way with a couple of threats to life and limb.

And then shows up anyways.

Not to socialize, mind, just to watch. From the rafters probably. Snickering at all the drama going down, dropping spiders in Makara’s drink and stealing Dualscar’s watch when he’s not looking. And maybe see if Condy gets drunk enough to want a rematch. Laws be damned. Now THIS is a party.

The Signless’s entire crew is a bit of a chain pull. The Disciple wants to go extremely badly, so of course she manages to purrsuade The Signless to come with her. The Psiionic doesn’t want to go period but he’ll be damned if he’s letting Vantas out of his sight into an unguarded area. The Dolorosa wanted to go this whole time and is the one who got Leijon all riled up about it in the first place, but pretends she’s just doing it to keep an eye on Vantas and Captor.

Once there, they’re not exactly social butterflies, but compared to the others they’re practically savants. Leijon prowls on the edges of crowds, listening for snatches of information, and enjoys constructing narratives in her own mind about the relationships between all of them. Vantas finds himself pulled into a lot of conversations just to explain his life’s work (and, to his chagrin, to destabilize a few myths he’s accrued over the centuries). He tries to keep a level head but after a few beers though he’s hotly debating politics with three or four Kankri ghosts and has to be dragged away by Captor, who’s been following him and Leijon like a kid following their parent at a family reunion. Maryam disappeared hours ago and doesn’t get back home late, looking a little bit smug but tight-lipped about her evening. All four of them avoid the other Ancestors like the plague.

Neophyte Redglare of all of them has probably adjusted the best to this new life. Unlike the others, she’s actually gotten some friends that weren’t a part of the dream bubbles, and would happily spend most of the evening chattering with them. Still, for reasons we’ll get into it later, she spends most of it babysitting Makara and doing a bit of pitch-flirting with everyone’s favorite pir8.

Speaking of the Marquise Mindfang Spineret, like the Handmaid she protested loudly she was too cool for this party and then showed up anyways. Still, its not like she’s there to socialize. Most of what she does is spot the people who look like they might be heading off to bigger and more illegal things outside the party and without a word installing herself as part of their social circle. She invites Nitram, but her matesprit is a little occupied with an old enemy. That’s fine, she appreciates a score to settle, but its not fun if someone isn’t paying attention to her antics. Fortunately, Pyrope is happy to oblige her, and Dualscar is a delightful enough lackey while he’s still sober enough to handle it (so, for about five minutes). All told, an entert8ning evening indeed ;;;)

Executor Darkleer shows up for roughly ten minutes, near the very end, and does what he’s done at most social gatherings since they left the dream bubbles: stand awkwardly in the corner, stare at Leijon, and wonder if they’re still cool. Are they still cool? Probably? Right? But who’s to say. He absconds early to go work on his personal projects and probably punch something.

The Summoner is in peak form. Like Vantas, he has plenty of questions coming his way, and while no Nitram has ever been arrogant, he’s at least a little indulgent about some, shall we say, popular headcanons that have popped up since then. He’s slamming beers to cover up the usual low level of social anxiety (a battlefield he can handle, but a soiree is another matter altogether), and its working. He’s flirting a storm through the ballroom, something Serket is probably going to give him repercussions for. Its also making him a little, uh....confrontational, shall we say. So when he spot an old, clowny foe, well...

Oh, The Grand Highblood. 

He didn’t want to come. Full stop. Picked the wriggler with the flyer up by the back of their shirt and turned them around. Damn lucky he didn’t just throw them out. He wasn’t going to show up at this meaningless little heretical shindig, bump shoulders with strangers and be bored out of his motherfucking skull to boot. The only reason he got dragged in is Peixes didn’t give him a lot of other options. So here he is. Standing like a grim spectre of everyone’s demise, sullenly scowling at anyone who approaches and snarling at anyone who opens their protein chute in his direction.

For about five minutes.

What can I say, clowns love parties.  A couple of faygos later (if you think Condy didn’t come prepared you’re crazy) and this brawny ass goat is getting turnt out of his mind on the dancefloor. Nobody knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing with his body but its definitely deeply explicit and more than a little alarming. Still, it suits the environment, and there’s this unaccountable field of manic energy that just sort of erupts around him, escalating the party wherever he goes. Redglare has to babysit him (because Peixes, Serket and Ampora sure won’t, and who the fuck knows where Zahhak is), and even still he ends up with a busted keg dangling from one of his horns. He is feeding off of this motherfucking rhapsody tonight, fellas, and the grisly bastard has more than a few sick bars in him.

Orphaner Dualscar is decidedly less enthused. Nothing quite like being a failed romantic footnote in the only surviving account of your life to kill your rep as an intimidating pirate. He’s not adjusting well to modern life, and mostly spends the night in the corner with a solo cup, scowling at any and all. For a while he joins Serket in her activities but eventually is too soused to really participate, and she ditches him. Which is starting to become a recurring trend. He spends the rest of the night trying to seduce someone, literally, anyone, just get him out of this fucking stupid party, he’s so FUCKIN LONELY GOG-

up to you if it actually works or not.

Meanwhile, Her (Formerly) Imperial Condescension.....look, Peixes can’t stay away from a party. Even a lame-ass one for guppies 3>8(. I mean, the no killing thing is REALLY fucking cramping her style, but to be frank its more trouble than its worth. Most of them just come back as ghosts and try to bonk you back. Annoying is what it is. So, fine, she agrees, no culling. 

Doesn’t mean the party can’t at least be interesting, and that’s damn well what she brought Makara to do for her. Works like a charm, too, Makara might be a grumpy basshole but he knows how to cut loose when he wants to. She’s chanting him through chugging an entire keg on his own with a small crowd of people when she spots a familiar pair of impossibly wide horns. Ohhh shit, get the grubcorn-.....wait, is that Megido in the rafters?!

No trolls or humans were (fatally) harmed in the making of this evening’s closing act, but suffice to say the building wasn’t so lucky. Two reenactments of the more legendary battles in Alternian history (which is saying something) was more than the palace could handle. In the end they were separated and sent to dry out in separate cells, Dave using his time powers to keep a handle on the The Handmaid. 

Suffice to say it’ll be a while before any of them get another invitation.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

In the case of Kuripa...

[Over the phone]

Yes?

Yes, I’m aware of that...some of my “workmates” and bosses had an encounter with her a couple of weeks ago. Some dick sent her after us...

Right...

What do you mean?

Hey, don’t hang up! If you don’t know where she is, tell me how I can find out!

Look, I’d rather not be having this conversation either, but I’m not leaving until I get my info!

...

I see...

Talk to him? Ok then...

Tch...doesn’t sound like a good place to be...

Nah, it’s fine, this is important. I need to muster the courage.

Anyway, thanks for the help...I’ll go now...

*He hangs up...

Jesus Christmas Christ what am I doing...?

...

...

...

...

(Crap, I don’t like this place one bit...I’ve never been to a black market before, is it always this shifty looking?)

Excuse me?

What do you want, nerd boy?

(Wow, that’s pretty perceptive...)

I’m looking for a man named Sou Hiyori. Know him?

...He’ll be at the club, he usually is at this time...

So he drinks?

Yeah, but he’s not an alcoholic. He goes there to de-stress and relax.

(How do you relax at a club full of bopping music?)

Right...Thank you sir.

Whatever...

...

*Kuripa enters the club where people are dancing, some of which look like they’ve been through the wars. 

...

Hey there...

Hm?

You don’t look like you’re from around these parts, am I right? First time visiting this place?

I’m not visiting. I’m here for business matters.

Well, I guessed that...After all, this place isn’t exactly a holiday location...

While you’re here...want me to get you a drink?

Um...No thanks, I’m underage...

Why? You’re 19, right? I think that’s old enough...

H-How did you...!?

I have the unique talent of knowing things about people when I meet them...So I figured you were 19...

I also know...that you work for the Future Foundation...

*As soon as the man says this, the music goes off, and the people in the club stop dancing. All eyes are on Kuripa.

...

I uh...can’t help but notice the hostile air in the room all of a sudden.

Let’s just say that we don’t much care for you World Mending people...

This place never really recovered from the tragedy, even though it was 8 years ago. The Future Foundation seemed to completely gloss us over...

So...give us one good reason we shouldn’t all gang up on you and kill you as revenge...

...

*As the thugs draw in, Kuripa goes to grab his sword, but before he unsheaths it, he says...

I’ll have you know that I’m the right hand guy of the leader of Branch 14 of the Foundation...

If you let me pass and get done with whatever business I’m here for...I’ll have a word...

We’ll definitely get you out of this rock and hard place...we’ve done so with many others before, and we don’t intend to on purposefully leave anyone behind...

...

...

...

Hey, boss?

Bartender: Yeah?

Get this boy a glass of water...

...

*Kuripa’s words seem to get through to the thugs, as everyone leaves him alone and goes back to what they were doing. Kuripa himself lets go of his sword and sits down next to the man with the beanie.

So...what “business” are you here for...

I’m looking for a man named Sou Hiyori. Supposedly he can give me information on something I need...

Well...you’ve found him. I’m Sou Hiyori.

Come on, sit down pal...

Thanks...

*The bartender hands Sou a glass of pint and Kuripa a glass of water.

So...what do you need from me?

I’m looking for someone to participate in a mission...More specifically I’m looking for one individual...

*He leans in and whispers the name in his ear.

...

You know who I’m talking about?

Sure do...But are you sure? She’s not known to be very easy-going...

I’ve worked with worse...I have a branch mate who’s been a soldier in several wars since she was a child...And is also a major femcel...

I see...Then I guess you could handle it...

Yeah, I have some info on her...But before I give it to you, you need to remember this...

She’s not like other mercenaries/hitmen, she has some very specific rules to her job, that her client must follow.

And those rules are what exactly?

Rule 1: Her line of work consists of three things...Black Ops Missions, Assassinations, and Birthday Parties.

W-Wait, what was that last one!?

That last one was a joke...Black Ops Missions and Assassinations are what she does. I was just checking to see if you were listening, this is really important.

Right, well, I knew about that...What else?

Rule 2: She’d prefers her relationship with her client to be purely work related. She isn’t around to make friends, she’s only there for the money.

Right...Money...and she charges a lot?

In terms of yen...Probably in the 10,000′s...

I-I see...(Well, I’m not getting that on a starving artist budget...Maybe I could barter a little though...)

And the last one?

Rule 3, arguably the most important:...

Her clientele relationship is built on trust...if she gets any inkling that you plan to betray that trust...

Then you, good sir, can kiss your sorry ass farewell...

...

So if I betray her, then I become her next target...Makes sense I guess...

So, you’re serious about this...

I am...Now, where can I find her?

*Sou slides a piece of paper towards Kuripa.

This is her number...You can call for a hit with this...

Hmm...I’d prefer to meet them in person, but this will do I suppose...

Thanks a lot, Mr Hiyori...I won’t forget this. Oh, and thanks for the water too.

You’re welcome...Be careful out there...!

(There must be a way I can meet this person in...well...person...)

(That’s it! I’ve got an idea!)

[One hour later, anonymous building, unnammed city, in an elevator.]

...

*On the way up, the elevator stops and someone gets inside. They stand behind Kuripa and lean against the wall.

...

*As the elevator door closes, Kuripa suddenly feels the metal of a gun on his back...

...!

???: It’s weird to see a target so close to my building...but whatever...it makes my life easier...

I wouldn’t count your blessing just yet...I’m not just your current target...I’m your client.

???: What? Why the hell would you send a hit on yourself? Are you suicidal or something?

No...To be honest, I’d like to call off the hit on my head off...I only did this because I wanted to meet you in person.

???: If you’re hiring me for a hit, then you could just call me and tell me...

I’m here for a mission, not a hit...And I thought your clientele relationships were built on trust?

How can we trust each other if we’ve never even met?

???: ...

???: Turn around and face me...

*Kuripa does so. The hitman withdraws her gun.

...

Kibin Hatsudoki: Enigma Assassin...Am I right?

Nice to meet you...sir.

[teddy-bear-surprise]

Chapter 2: The Brink of Darkness

|| Chapter 1 || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 || Chapter 7 Part 1 || Chapter 7 Part 2 || Chapter 8 || Almost The End || Chapter 9 ||

WARNING: Mentions of death/murder and excessive drinking

It was nearing five o'clock when Ophelia wandered through the aisles of some random corner store in Downtown LA, picking up, examining, and adding items to her basket. She was thinking about what to do for New Years', only two weeks remained before she would enter 2018 and she could not wait to celebrate. She considered crashing a party in LA, staying at home and watching the ball drop on the television, or possibly even flying out to New York to see it for herself.

Ophelia had made a lot of money in her youth, showered in promotions and offers from some of the biggest engineering companies in the United States and beyond. Now, at the age of thirty-seven, she rarely had to work anymore. Her days and nights were generally spent in the solitude of her home, simply reading or researching novelties. It was rare for Ophelia to go out and travel, so visiting New York City on New Years' sounded like a swell idea. She nursed the idea as she walked, deciding to look into it further once she returned home and she continued her shopping.

The first items that she picked up were two fresh linen-scented candles, one bottle of acetone, and a nice bottle of cheap, red wine. It felt like just yesterday she had turned twenty-one and buying alcohol still felt like a crime... frankly, a lot of things she did felt like that. She was about to enter the snack aisle to look for some decadent snacks, but she heard a television chittering from the front of the store, catching her attention.

"One more dead celebrity this morning, it's absolutely tragic. Rachel, what do you think is happening? These murders are scaring everyone, myself included."

"Well, Diego, it seems as though the perpetrator, or possibly perpetrators, are targeting rich, male celebrities. Why exactly, we do not know. More about the Golden Murders after this break–"

Ophelia was amused by their ignorance, "If only they knew who those men really were," she thought to herself.

An ad began playing and Ophelia's attention was once more drawn to her hunger. She found the popcorn first, stocking up on three boxes of the salty snack before searching for her other craving. Once she added a bar of dark chocolate to her now overflowing basket, she headed towards the checkout lines.

She acted incredibly nonchalant, her expression never faltered from its indifferent norm, even as the clerk conversed with her.

"You see what they just showed on the news? Scary stuff, huh?" The cashier looked up at Ophelia, raising his eyebrows.

"Uhhh, yeah. It is kind of scary, I guess. I'm not a man though, so I don't really think I have to worry," she did not want to divulge much on the subject, preferring to keep an ambiguous expression.

The cashier ignored her dismissive tone and continued rambling on, "Y'know, when the first one happened I wasn't that surprised, these rich people can get mixed up in some shady things sometimes so I was like, 'It's just one dead rich man, what's the big deal?' But now. Now, I'm definitely thinking that something's up. Either they're all in the same cult," he lowered his voice and leaned towards Ophelia who withdrew from him.

"Or they've all done something really, really bad," he straightened up again and finished scanning her items, "Your total is gonna be twenty-three dollars and forty-eight cents. Cash or card?"

His demeanor returned to normal and Ophelia shrugged off the odd tangent he had gone off on before replying, "Cash, exact change," and picking up her bag as she dropped her money on the counter.

She exited the store quickly and threw her purchase into the front, passenger's seat of her 1982 Chevrolet Citation. A classic, but somewhat ugly, light blue car. She inserted her key into the ignition, pushed down on her brake pedal, and twisted it a few times as the engine sputtered. Annoyed at her junk car, she smacked her hand against the key angrily. This time when she turned it, however, the engine started. She pulled out of the crowded, street-side parking spot and started on her way home.

Her brain was clouded and churning, both hating and loving all of the attention she was indirectly receiving on the news. Despite slightly enjoying the attention, she wished people would not talk about it as much, especially if they were spending most of the time idolizing the abusive men who were killed. Even opening the windows to feel the brisk air as she drove did nothing to clear her mind. She turned to her last resort, the radio. She cranked up the volume, which was not actually loud at all, and turned the station to one that was playing one of her favorite songs from the 2012 era. Ophelia sang along loudly, enjoying the rhythm and lyrics equally.

When the song ended though, the station's hosts brought up the Golden Murders once more, infuriating her and her grip tightened on the steering wheel.

"So, we've just received news that federal law enforcement will now be taking interest in this upsetting case. What do you think of this?"

"I think that it's a great idea. I have no doubt that our local law enforcement was doing their best, but these are celebrities we're talking about, their faces are plastered everywhere and people look up to them. It's scaring people, you know? The faster they can get to the bottom of this, the better."

"You heard it here first, folks. The FBI will be landing here in LA in two days, whoever is behind these murders, you better buckle up buddy. Until next time on 97.9, the station of your dreams!"

Ophelia rolled her eyes and clicked it off, so much for escaping her problems. She hated the way that these reporters always made her feel like the prey when in reality, she was the hunter. But she was not the only hunter in this game. Her partner, Catherine, was just as guilty and probably nowhere near as worried as Ophelia. She was almost certain that it was just Catherine's clinically psychotic tendencies that gave her the upper hand in situations like these, but she still felt a tinge of jealousy.

She had met Catherine 'Cat' Adams a few years ago on Tinder. Cat's profile surprised her, bringing all of the spunk of a younger woman, despite being only a year younger than Ophelia, but without the immaturity. On their first date, they went out to one of those silly drive-in movies and watched the worst possible movie in cinematic existence. It did not matter to them though because they talked the entire time, sharing their favorite and their most hated things about life.

Ophelia soon realized that she and Catherine were near mirror images of each other, in terms of ideologies at least. After only three more dates, the two became an official couple. Cat even admitted, two months into their relationship, that she never intended to make a Tinder account and said that it was much too irresponsible in her line of work. When Ophelia asked Cat what this line of work was, she received a very ambiguous answer.

"I'd love to tell you, hun, but I don't think I can. Not yet, at least. Maybe someday," she could remember Cat tucking her hair behind her ear and cupping her chin as she said this next part, "when we've been together for longer, I might even invite you to come work with me."

She never expected that a couple of years later, she and Cat would become a murderous duo, slightly resembling the women of the musical, Chicago. Though they had broken up the first time that Cat was sent to prison, they remained extremely close and it was not until she escaped in August that they began their moonlight endeavors.

According to Catherine, it had been 'shockingly' easy and 'way too fun' to escape, not even requiring her to employ her 'Plan B'. Ophelia did not even know that she would be seeing Cat again within the century, but when she showed up on Ophelia's doorstep in the middle of the night, her ex-lover could not help but let her back into her life.

Cat's slightly off-kilter and bold mannerisms were some of Ophelia's favorite things about her. Now, unfortunately, Cat was forced to be much more low-key. She drove the most average car in existence, a run-down 2008 Toyota Corolla; lived in an extremely average apartment with one room and one bathroom; and looked like the average Los Angelean thirty-year-old-woman with her now blonde hair.

Ophelia paid for all of Cat's expenses, like her apartment and groceries, and though it barely dented her pockets, she always made sure that Catherine respected the fact that she was spending Ophelia's money and not her own. They had an incredibly symbiotic relationship, of course, living apart did make some aspects more difficult. Ophelia took care of all of the necessities, such as materials and planning and Cat took care of the creative aspects of their 'activities'.

They could not fully remember how it all happened. It started innocently with some tequila shots and the celebration of Cat's return. Within an hour, however, the two were stumbling around drunk and preaching their hatred for their abusive fathers and men in general which, for a while, was fine. Suddenly things took a turn when Cat asked if Ophelia had ever considered killing her father. Ophelia laughed drunkenly for a few minutes before managing to spit out the fact that he was already dead. The two of them burst into a cacophony of drunken laughter that rang throughout her house. When they calmed down though, Cat asked again, this time even more serious. The rest, including a bit of an entanglement between them, was history because what happens on a drunken night, stays in the drunken night.

For some reason, thinking about her and Cat's history brought her a sense of peace. So much so that she was already pulling into her driveway when she switched her train of thought. The yellow-beige tones of her house repulsed her, but they were neutral and bland, practically guaranteeing that she would stay out of people's line of sight. Ophelia opened her car door, leaning her elbow on the top of it, and looked behind her admiring the landscape of the mountains that surrounded her home, because even if the home itself was ugly, at least it had a good view. She leaned back into her car to grab her purse and shopping bag before slamming the car door and heading towards its trunk. Inside, she retrieved a trash bag, which although very large and cold, was surprisingly light and easy to carry.

She carried all of these into her house, struggling to open the door with only one free hand, and set them down near her back door. After writing down a quick note to look more into the idea of going to New York, Ophelia began putting up her new purchases. She was incredibly tired and not entirely in the mood to do menial cleaning duties but continued anyway. The two candles each earned a spot on either side of her countertop, the wine went into her refrigerator, and the snacks got tossed into the pantry. The acetone, on the other hand, got a very special spot in her pocket. She carried it with her outside, picking up the trash bag on her way to her backyard.

Ophelia stopped in front of an oddly-shaped fire-pit, one of her own inventions from her time at MIT (it seemed useless at the time but now came in handy), and lifted its cover. It featured a thick, steel, rounded lid and a sturdy concrete body. She dumped out the contents of the trash bag into the strange pit, promptly followed by her pouring out the bottle of acetone and banging the top shut. After waiting a few seconds, enough time for enough of the acetone to accumulate inside the pit in its gaseous form, she clicked a small red button and heard a blast go off inside. It had been specially designed to withstand the accumulated pressure of an incredibly powerful flash fire, though the ones she was creating were not very large. A few more seconds later, following the activation of the pit's exhaust system, Ophelia opened it back up to reveal the ashes of her once bloodied clothing.

She coughed at the pungent smell and rushed back inside to where there was cleaner air. Even within her house, the smell followed her, so she decided to light her two new candles and take a shower.

When she exited, her stomach let out a low grumble which she felt deeply. Ophelia shuffled over to her refrigerator to grab a slice of cold pizza. She devoured it hungrily, still feeling unsatisfied. Now turning to her second plan, wine and popcorn, she pranced to her pantry, grabbing the popcorn, and then to her fridge to retrieve the wine. Ophelia carefully poured herself a glass of the red liquid as she waited for her bag of the unhealthy, salty snack in the microwave to finish popping. Once the microwave dinged, it was time for her to start the party.

She downed her first glass of wine in one continuous gulp and turned on some absurdly loud music, which, thanks to her somewhat isolated location, no one else could hear. Ophelia now danced with a hand full of popcorn and the bottle of wine in the other. It had barely been ten minutes and she was already drunk. She stumbled into her kitchen to grab some more popcorn from the bag when she saw her phone light up out of the corner of her eye. Ophelia tried to distinguish the name that had appeared on her screen, but her vision was much too blurred for her to tell.

"It's probably nothing, just a scam call... I mean, who else would call me at," She tried to read the clock on the wall, "I don't know, but it's late why can't they just leave me alone."

Her drunken thoughts slurred together as she ignored her phone, only inciting her to increase the volume of her already blaring music. Popcorn, in her drunken state and time of night, tasted extra good and Ophelia finished the bag almost immediately. She rounded the corner, into her living room, and continued to dance to the beat of the music with the bottle in her left hand. Her clumsy feet stumbled slightly, leading her to bump into a bookshelf.

Ophelia looked up at the bookshelf angrily, almost as if it was a real person that she had bumped into, but her eyes softened when they settled upon a picture frame. "'Germs'", she recalled lovingly as she touched the glass gently. It was a framed photograph of her and Spencer at their first Science Olympiad competition.

They were the only members on their team, but it did not matter because they still managed to garner themselves a shining, first place trophy. She remembered how difficult it had been to convince the teachers at her school to let them start the club, how they spent hours going over budgets, fundraising, and game plans. More than anything though, she remembered how happy Spencer had been to take home his very own prize.

A feeling of sadness and longing welled up inside her, wishing she could be as innocent as that girl in the photograph, wishing that she had not lost contact with her first 'best friend'. Alas, the night was coming to an end and she could not bear the pain of her sorrows, so with another prolonged swig, Ophelia finished the bottle of wine.

She gave it a few minutes to act, turning off her music and sitting herself down on her couch awkwardly, before feeling its sedating effects. Quietly, she placed the bottle on the ground and looked up once more at the picture on her bookshelf while her heavy eyes closed for a night of dreamless sleep.

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (16/?)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

A/n: If you like, read, kudo, comment, tag flail, reblog, or anything else, I see you, and I appreciate you! Honestly, it’s the coolest thing how many of you are out there, and every time I find out someone else has been reading, my heart grows Grinch style ❤️

We’re off to London in this chapter and the next one! Fun fact: the Yankees and Red Sox really did play a series in London this year! 

AO3: Beginning | Current

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Tag list: @xellewoods @galaxyzxstark @eala-captian @mariakov81 @ultraluckycatnd @royalswan @shey-starsfury @sals86 @iam2307 @ashley-knightingale @karenfrommisthaven @scientificapricot @captswanis4vr @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @notoriouscs @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @cs-forlife @andiirivera @jonirobinson64 @qualitycoffeethings @thejollyroger-writer

-/-

“This is weird,” Will mutters as they walk the unfamiliar hallways of London Stadium on their way out to the field to practice. “I’m not used to being unfamiliar with a place where we’re about to play, and I swear that I’m still jet-lagged. Why did they think we were going to get used to the time change in one day?”

Instinctively, Killian wants to get onto Will about complaining since that’s become his thing as of late, but every point that he’s made is valid. It’s weird to be in a place that he doesn’t know. He’s familiar enough with half of the baseball stadiums in America to be able to give a tour like he made the blue prints for them, but they are decidedly not in America.

They’re in London.

To play the Red Sox.

So. Fucking. Cool.

His job awards him more opportunities than he ever could have dreamed about as a kid from Ohio, and while he’s had the opportunity to travel to Mexico and Canada, he’s never been overseas like this. He meant to go years ago, but then the accident happened and all of his plans went down the drain. He could have gone then too. He had all of the time in the world on his hands, and he squandered it by sitting on his ass and not traveling or doing all of the other things he’s always wanted to do.

He’ll have all the time in the world when he’s retired.

Woah, no. That’s not happening anytime soon, and he is not going down that road when things are going so well right now.

They’re going to kick some Red Sox ass even while in England.

His family didn’t fly all the way over here on vacation just for them to lose. Addy and Lucy would be very disappointed in him if they did because he knows for a fact that they only care about being here for the baseball and Addy’s birthday party tomorrow.

All of the cool kids turn six in London, obviously, and Addison Jones is the coolest of the kids.

It’s all she’s been talking about for weeks now, going on and on about how she was going to have an English birthday party and be English like Peppa Pig and Meghan Markle. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that Peppa Pig is animated and that Meghan Markle was technically American first, but some things kids just don’t have to know. All she knows is that a real-life prince and his wife are going to be at the game today, and she thinks that’s the coolest thing in the world.

It kind of is even if he had to study a protocol list for when he met them earlier in the locker room.

Killian’s life is so goddamn weird, but he loves it.

The fact that Emma got to travel here as well, even if she’s not doing on-camera coverage and is simply here as a print journalist for the team, makes it all the better. He may not get to see her on-field during the game, but he’ll see her afterwards.

Hopefully.

They haven’t been here long, but it’s already difficult to find time away from his family to see her, even if it’s only for a moment.

He’d give anything to have those little moments.

“I have no idea,” Killian yawns, finally responding to Will as they push the doors open and walk out to the field. He can tell that the set-up is going to throw him off, the way the stadium is equal on every side, and that the AstroTurf feels odd below his feet. But that’s why they practice. “We’ll suffer through it, and drink lots and lots of coffee.”

“I think they drink tea over here.”

“I believe that they drink coffee too. You want to start in the outfield and work our way back in?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

The two of them are quiet as they take it all in and try to get used to this new place. Music blares over the speakers, and the rest of the team filters in and out as they go through their warm-ups. He’s not sure if he really needs coffee for how hyped up he is to be here and to be playing their biggest rivals, and the crash of caffeine always seems so inevitable. The crash of adrenaline, not so much. Most of the time.

It’s a quick warm-up, one that doesn’t extend too much effort on his part, and his shoulder is feeling loose after the massage Archie gave it. They’ve won each of their series against the Sox so far this season, and he doesn’t plan on that changing now. When they finally travel to Boston next month, sure. But not today.

No part of him should be thinking this, especially with how unreliable his arm can be, but they’re playing so well this season that he can’t imagine them not making the playoffs and then being in the final two.

They could be back-to-back World Series Champions.

But that’s very much counting his chickens before they hatch, and that always leads to disappointment.

He simply can’t go there even if his brain keeps trying to.

“You guys make any wedding plans yet?” he asks Will as they walk back infield to practice a few pitches on the mound.

“We’ve been engaged for exactly a week, so no, we haven’t made any official plans. Belle has all of these ideas, though, and she’s been talking through them with her parents. Honestly, I think we may get married in December or January of this year since she doesn’t want to do it during the season.”

Killian nods his head in agreement as he tucks his chain back into his uniform from where it had fallen out. “That makes sense. It’s always hell trying to plan anything during the season. Even making dinner plans can be difficult.”

“Well,” Will says, clicking his tongue, “it’s not like you have anyone to be going out to dinner with. We don’t count. Neither does Liam.”

A protest is on the tip of his tongue, but he can’t say anything, not yet. He and Emma are going to talk about that after this trip, and even if they do, he’s not sure he’ll be able to tell Will. He should. Will and Robin. And Eric and Ariel. But no one else on the team. It’s just too risky.

That might put a damper in his plan to kiss her before every game.

But the time will come. It has to. And baby steps are fine with him when they mean that steps are happening. He completely and totally understands Emma and her reasons for not wanting their relationship out in the open, and he agrees. It’s better for her, for both of them, and they’ve only been together for two months. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not that long. It doesn’t matter that he fell hard and fast. That doesn’t escalate things.

It just…complicates his feelings.

This thing won’t be hidden away forever, not if they want any kind of future, and while he’d never presume to speak for Emma, he damn well intends to have that future.

“I could be dating,” Killian scoffs at Will who only rolls his eyes in response. “What? I could.”

“Nothing,” Will shrugs, taking position behind home plate. “I’m just saying, for a man who everyone thinks is going home with a new woman every night, you are particularly lacking in the women department.”

His jaw ticks, and he’s not even sure why. He’s never minded talking about his relationships in the past, not to Will, but it’s probably the lie. Of course it’s the lie.

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” Will grunts as he throws the ball back to him, a light thwacking sound hitting his glove. “Do whatever the hell you want. I’m not someone to tell you what to do with your life. I’m just saying, I’m much happier having Belle be a part of my life.”

“Look at you being all sweet.”

“I have my moments.”

“I’m totally giving a speech at your wedding about the night that I kept you from throwing up on her.”

“I would have expected nothing less from you. In fact, I’ve already warned Belle. It was in my proposal speech.”

“Shut up, you asshole.”

“Never. I know you love the sound of my voice.”

“It is rather dreamy.”

“You two are talking too much to be practicing,” Eric huffs as walks toward them with his bat in hand, fiddling with it the slightest bit. “What are we talking about?”

“Killian’s lack of a love life.”

Eric grunts at that, eyes scanning between the two of them. “That sounds like a conversation that I don’t want to be in because Ariel will somehow know and insist we talk about it later. She’ll have you set up on ten blind dates before midnight.”

“It’s in my contract that she can’t meddle in my dating life.”

“Really?” Eric and Will ask at once, their eyes going wide.

“No,” Killian chuckles as he stretches out his shoulder and bends his legs a bit, squatting down to stretch out some more, “but sometimes I wish that it was. Where has she been all day, by the way?”

“She’s helping set up Addison’s birthday party for tomorrow, apparently. She’s somehow gotten them a separate suite here, and they’re doing some sort of tea party during the game. You have even been given express permission to sit with your family instead of in the dugout with us.”

Of course. He could have done that anyways, but leave it to Ariel to make sure that there is no way in hell that he’s missing his niece’s sixth birthday party. She is pure magic, that woman.

“Your wife is something else,” he chuckles, deciding to step closer to them so that he doesn’t have to shout, “but you guys know that Addy is fully going to expect all of you to show up at some point.”

“Her present is in my suitcase.” Will smiles as he says it with a slight shake of his head. “I could never forget my biggest fan since Roland seems to betray me on who his favorite player is every week.”

Killian clicks his tongue. “Eh, just to be clear, I’m Addison’s favorite player. I’m not letting you steal that title from me.”

-/-

Killian spots Emma sitting nine rows up behind third base when they’re in the second inning.

She’s wearing a jersey…his jersey, and when he notices it, he nearly pegs Johnson with a ball.

Holy fuck.

It sends blood straight to his groin, and the only thing that stops it is him thinking about Emma making a joke about him having a boner on the mound. She’s so ridiculously funny in her bad jokes, and it brings a smile to his face that he has to control as he focuses on the game. He can’t be losing it when he’s in the middle of a game.

But damn. His girlfriend is wearing his jersey, his name and number printed on the back, and she’s got a baseball cap pulled low over her forehead with her blonde ponytail sticking out behind her. He wouldn’t have recognized her if he didn’t know every inch of her body.

He’ll play in London every day of the week if it means Emma can watch as a semi-spectator without anyone recognizing her.

A bloody siren. That’s what she is.

-/-

They win that night.

-/-

After the game when Emma walks into the locker room, her phone in hand for questions, she’s not wearing the jersey anymore. It’s been removed, and she’s wearing a black blouse that’s low cut enough that he can see the slightest bit of the cups of her bra. He’d bet that she didn’t think through having to remove his jersey when she got dressed, but he doesn’t mind how she looks.

He never does.

(She wore his fucking jersey.)

Except he can’t do anything about it but smile and answer her questions as well as everyone else’s. It’s a bit odd for her to not have Jeff following her around with the camera, but he knows that this means she’ll be writing an article instead. She’s always loved that.

Once all of the press members ask their questions, most of them British journalists, they filter out of the locker room, leaving everyone to strip out of their uniforms and move to take a shower. He’s taking off his belt when Arthur speaks, and his fingers still over the leather.

“I don’t know how any of us aren’t fucking Emma,” he grumbles, and the words make disgust drip down Killian’s spine. “Have you seen her body? I bet she’s fucking amazing in bed. I’d fuck her in a heartbeat. Damn am I glad women work in baseball now.”

The room goes silent, every man stopping what he’s doing, and Killian has words on the tip of his tongue but can’t say anything because Will is already talking.

“Fuck off, King,” Will curses, throwing his gear down on the ground. “I mean, seriously. What the bloody fuck? How shitty do you have to be to talk about someone like that? I knew you were an ass, but God, that’s next level. First of all, you’re fucking married, and even if you weren’t, that woman is a human being. You don’t get to talk about her like that.”

“Oh, come on, man. We’re all thinking it. Did you see her boobs just now? It’s nothing to get riled up about.”

“Yeah, yeah it is,” Will huffs as he crosses his arms over his chest. “The fact that you don’t realize that is just plain sad. She’s not coming in here to get ogled by you. She’s coming in here to do her job, and she’s damn good at it.”

Arthur rolls his eyes, and Killian’s blood boils even more. “Jones asked her out. How is that not the same thing?”

“Because he didn’t ask her out because he thinks of her as a sex object,” Will spits all the while Killian can barely hear any of this from the way his heart is thumping between his ears, a drum beat that’s louder than anything he’s ever heard.

Arthur darkly chuckles, and it’s that sound that has the drumline stopping so that his eyes snap over across the room. Killian didn’t even realize that he was clenching his fists, but when he looks down, he can see the red imprints of blood from where his nails were digging into his skin.

“Jones,” Arthur yells, “aren’t you going to back me up here? Isn’t she a fine piece of ass?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Killian yells before standing from the seat in his locker, quickly striding across the room until he and Arthur are eye-to-eye and completely lined up. Arthur’s got this disgusting cocky grin on his face, one that makes unpleasant chills run down his spine, and it’s taking everything in him not to punch the ever-loving shit out of the man. “Will is right. You’re an asshole, and you can’t be talking about her that way.”

“Why do you care so much? What, are you fucking her?”

And that’s when his first rises and slams into Arthur’s jaw, a sting spreading through his knuckles and up to his elbow. The drum starts beating in his head again, his heart pumping blood through him faster than normal, and everything is a blur as he moves his head to dodge Arthur’s punch and as someone grabs onto elbows and pulls him back and out of the room all the while a screaming match goes on in the locker room, every word muted to him except for the one name that keeps getting repeated.

Emma.

“Are you insane?” Robin gasps, and when Killian looks around, he can see that he’s been pulled off to the weight room that they’re using in this stadium. He didn’t even know Robin was in the locker room at the time. “You can’t punch Arthur no matter how big of an asshole he is. You’re going to fuck up your arm, and you can get suspended for weeks.”

“I don’t really care about either of those things right now.”

“Well you should,” Robin huffs, running his hands through his hair as he paces back and forth over the carpeted floor. “He’s an asshole. We all know that, and I wanted to punch him too…but you just can’t, mate. He’ll get his due, and it won’t come at the cost of your career.”

Robin is right. Robin is always right, but how is he supposed to sit there and let Arthur talk about his girlfriend like that? How is he supposed to let him talk about any woman like that? He simply can’t, and even though his knuckles hurt like hell right now and Archie is most definitely going to kill him, he doesn’t regret it. He can’t, and he’d bet that Will doesn’t either.

“Fuck,” Killian mutters, sitting down on a weight bench and burying his face in his hands as he tries to flex some of his fingers out. “Dammit. This isn’t how today was supposed to go. I’m not supposed to be punching our outfielder in a locker room in fucking London. I’m supposed to be enjoying my time and sipping tea at my niece’s birthday party because I’m this good guy that she looks up to when really everyone is a piece of shit.”

“Dramatic much?”

“Shut up.”

“Never,” Robin laughs as the door opens and Al stumbles inside, his long dark hair pushed back behind his ears and his tanned skin painted red in what Killian hopes is a sunburn and not anger.

“What the hell, Jones?” Al screeches, waling right up to him so that the tips of their shoes touch. “You punched King? With your right arm? What is going on in that head of yours?”

Killian groans, already ready to have his ego bruised and his career kicked by a man who is only four years older than him, and he straights his back so that Al isn’t look down at him as much as he should be.

“Are you in here to suspend me?”

Al’s brows furrow together. “What? No. Why would I suspend you?”

“Because I punched Arthur?”

Al waves him away, backing up the slightest bit. “No, I’m not going to suspend you for that. King can be a piece of shit sometimes, and I heard some of the stuff he was saying. He deserved that. My team are not going to be a bunch of sexist assholes who talk about our reporters that way. I can’t guarantee that there won’t be some kind of league suspension, but I doubt King takes it anywhere since then he’s had to explain the stuff he was saying.”

“Then why are you yelling at me?”

“Because you punched someone with your pitching arm, and I can’t have you messing up your arm again. Go see Archie right now, and get some damn ice on the thing.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Killian mock salutes, his head still spinning with everything that’s happened in the past fifteen minutes.

He takes it back. His life isn’t weird. It’s batshit crazy.

-/-

Ariel has been yelling at him in his hotel room for the past fifteen minutes. This is after Liam and Elsa yelled at him for twenty minutes, each, and he’s so damn tired of having to listen to this. He’s aware of the fact that he could have messed up part of his season today, but he still doesn’t regret it. He could have made better choices, yes, but Arthur deserved it. And he’s fine. He’ll probably only have a slight bruise. The only significant damage is the fact that their already frayed relationship that only truly exists because they’re teammates and his wife is friends with Ariel is pretty much destroyed now. That’s fine with him. He doesn’t want anything to do with the asshole.

And he has no idea what he’s going to tell Emma about this. His knuckles have cuts and bruises on them already, his fingers aching when he stretches them out, and if she comes to his room tonight, there’s no way in hell she’s not going to notice.

Maybe he should cancel on her.

He doesn’t want to cancel on her.

He wants to spend time with her and simply be in her company, maybe even get to figure out the subway routes (or should he call them the underground here?) and find a secluded place to go out to dinner. But he’s got to explain his hand, and he’s really not sure how lying is going to go here.

Lying to Emma really isn’t his best idea, so he most likely shouldn’t do it.

“Are you even listening to me, KJ?” Ariel huffs, stopping her pacing and placing her hands on her hips. “You look like you’re not listening.”

“I’m not.” She reaches up to slap the back of his hand, but he grabs her wrist to stop her, putting it back by her side. “I’ve heard all of it before, okay? And I’m going to hear it again. I know, I know, I fucking know. It was dumb, but I couldn’t stand by and listen to that. Will couldn’t either, but he’s got enough brains to know better than to punch someone.”

“That is not a sentence I ever thought you would say.”

“Life is funny like that,” Killian chuckles before falling back against his hotel bed. Whoever is booking their hotel rooms this year obviously has no sense of a budget because he hasn’t had a roommate once. It’s glorious. “A, I have no idea why you care about me so much. I’m such a pain in your ass.”

“Yeah,” Ariel sighs, sitting down next to his shoulder on the bed so that she can look over at him, her red hair framing her face, “you are, but I love you, so I don’t mind too much. And you give me something to focus on other than my idiot husband.”

“Please, you and Eric have one fight a year, and it lasts about five minutes.”

“I’ll have you know that we fought just yesterday over what to have for dinner. It was a real battle. I nearly punched him, but I had enough sense to stop myself.”

His eyes roll, but he can feel the smile stretching across his lips as he twists his head to look at Ariel. “I love you too, by the way. You and Elsa and Anna are pretty much the three sisters I never had. And you’re much nicer to me than Liam ever was.”

“Please, Liam is your hero.”

“Yeah, but when I was eight and he was sixteen, I was not his favorite person in the world. I think you guys would have been much nicer to me.”

Ariel’s lips flatten as she nods her head, sarcasm practically penned across the lines on her forehead. “Sure, sweetie. That’s what would have happened. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She simply arches her brow. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just a shitty afternoon. As long as I don’t get yelled at anymore, I think I’ll be perfect and ready to go for Addy’s birthday party tomorrow. Thanks for setting that up, by the way. I think you may actually be magic for how you convince people to do your bidding.”

“I know,” she says, a grin plastered on her lips. “I’m pretty much the best. Do you want to come and get dinner with me and Eric?”

“Raincheck on that one?”

“I’m holding you to that this time,” Ariel sighs, patting his shoulder before she rises from the mattress. “Keep putting ice on your hand, and doing your stretches. We’ve got a long season ahead of us, and you are not allowed to mess it up.”

“Understood, love. Have fun at dinner. Feel free not to yell at me tomorrow even though I know that you will.”

Ariel waves him away before picking up her purse and walking out the door while he stays stretched out on his mattress, wondering if he can convince whoever owns this hotel to send this mattress and these sheets to his apartment because it’s glorious. Maybe it’s not really and it’s simply the fact that he’s still jetlagged and has had an extremely long day, but he doubts it.

This is the best comforter in the world.

And he’s never going to move from it.

So, of course, there’s a knock on his hotel door. Of course.

Groaning, he pulls himself up to rise from the bed, the muscles in his backing aching the slightest bit, and steps over to the door, checking the peephole and finding Emma on the other side. He should have known, and honestly, of all of the people seeking him out tonight, she is his favorite.

Until he opens the door, lets her inside, and the first thing that she does is hit him in the chest.

What the hell?

“What the hell?” Emma fumes, echoing his thoughts. “You punched Arthur King today?”

Bloody hell.

Bloody hell? Is he British now? How long has he been using that phrase and hasn’t even realized it? This is what he gets for hanging out with Robin so much.

“Aye,” he sighs as his unbruised hand immediately goes up to scratch behind his ear. She doesn’t look angry, the same soft smile that’s usually painted on her face still there, but there’s fire behind the green of her eyes. “How do you know about that?”

“Belle told me.”

He arches a brow. “Belle?”

“Yeah, I ran into her when I was leaving the stadium, and we got to talking and she starts telling me all about you and Will getting into a fight with Arthur over me. I mean, seriously, Killian. How could you be so dumb to punch him? You’re lucky you didn’t fuck up your arm and that you aren’t getting sanctions against you.”

He should really start putting money on how many times he can be told that in one night. He’s betting at least once more tonight and then seven times tomorrow.

“Swan, I know, okay? I promise you I’ve already had my head chewed off about this enough times. I get it, but he was being an asshole and deserved it. Will confronted him first going on and on about how he was a sexist pig, and then Arthur brought me into it by asking how him talking about wanting to fuck you was any different than me asking you out on a date. Then I told him to stop, which only escalated into him asking you if I’m defending you because I’m fucking you. And obviously, I am, but that’s not why I was defending you. He doesn’t get to say shit like that about anyone, but especially not you.”

He releases a breath when he finishes his ramble, which is really only an abbreviated version of the events, but he’s going to lose his mind if he has to go through it one more time. Seriously. But the way Emma’s mouth keeps opening and closing, the right words obviously not coming to her, has him rethinking this and starting from the beginning. It’s not pretty, but she deserves to know.

“You, Killian Jones,” she laments, stepping closer to him and wrapping her arms around his waist in an unexpected move so that he can smell the vanilla of her perfume, “are an idiot asshole who I’m still very much mad at for messing with your hand like that, but I’m also thankful that you and Will didn’t let someone talk about me like that. I’ve been through so much like that already, and I’m glad I have you guys on my side.”

“You have everyone else in that locker room on your side, love,” he says as her rubs his hands up and down her back and rests his chin against her temple, twisting his head to the side so that he can press his lips into her hair. “Me most of all. Then Will, I’ve discovered today, and everyone else is somewhere in there, rankings improving as long as I’m always at the top.”

“You’re so stupid,” she laughs into his chest, the vibrations of it running through him.

“I’ve gotten that a lot today, but you obviously like me a little bit since I saw you wearing my jersey.”

Emma pulls back from the hug to look up at him, a bit of red painting her cheeks. “So, you saw that, did you?”

“I did. I have an eagle eye for my biggest fan.”

“I like you a lot, but I don’t think that I’m your biggest fan. Your nieces have me beat. I didn’t know tomorrow was Addy’s birthday.”

“Aye,” he smiles, fingers inching up her back and tugging her closer to him, “she is turning six, and Ariel has arranged for her to have a tea party in one of the suites separate from the team suites. You should come with me.”

“Killian.” The way she says his name has all of his hope deflating, and he immediately dips his head down to run his lips across the apple of her cheek while his thumbs rub circles into her lower back. “I can’t. You know that.”

“You can. You don’t have to come as my girlfriend. You can simply come as part of the team. I’ll say I ran into you in the hallway or something and insisted that you come along. Come on,” he begs, finally kissing her lips, lingering a moment too long for it to be chaste, “come with me. It’ll be a fun time, and you can meet my family without any of the pressure of meeting them as my girlfriend.”

“But I will be meeting them as your girlfriend.”

“They don’t know that.”

“I’m not sure how that makes me feel. I know I want to meet your family and for you to meet mine. It was my idea and all, but now that the reality is in front of me, I think I might need some more time.” She pulls back from him, releasing his waist and trailing her fingers along his arms until Emma’s holding his hands, soft thumb tracing over the rough parts of his knuckles as her brows furrow together. She’s inspecting to him, and nerves rile in his stomach until she looks up at him with a sympathetic smile. “Can I think on it tonight at least? I don’t have a present for Addy.”

Killian shrugs. “We can sneak out and go buy her something, or,” he twines their fingers together and tugs her toward the bed, “we can spend a little time in here with you on your back because it really wouldn’t make sense for you to have a present if you weren’t technically planning on coming to the party.” “Watching TV?”

“Sure. We can keep it on while I fuck you with the image of you wearing nothing but my jersey playing in my mind.”

Emma laughs, something loud and boisterous, and he’s never been quite so thankful for the way that she enjoys his flirting. “I mean, that is the most typical athlete thing I’ve ever heard in my life, but we could always make it a reality.”

“Really now?”

“Mhm,” she hums, backing up into the mattress and sitting down, “but only because I liked the way you looked today when you realized I was wearing it. Plus, you defended me and all like a good human being, and I like good human beings.”

And I love you, he wants to say, but doesn’t, biting his tongue while he leans over her, hovering just above her face so that she blinks several times while looking up at him, her bottom lip tugged between her teeth.

“Well, only if you insist.”

[pollylynn]

Just About, Chapters 1–5 (Loosely linked Caskett Rabbles, Set in Season 1)

A/N: I started this “series” (if one can call it that) a while ago—very short things set in Season 1. It had been sitting at four chapters for a while. I wrote the fifth tonight. I’m just going to post them all here, with separators, because they’re so short. 

Title: Just About, Chapter 1: Everything and Nothing WC: 300

 A/N: I don’t know. I need a palate cleanser after finishing Season 8, and I was “inspired” by an Elvis Costello song. So 300 words here, and plans for a few more of these, most likely all set in season 1.

She smells like heaven. Well. Not really. She doesn't even wear perfume. She smells like drugstore shampoo and coffee. But it's heaven to him. Legitimately the stuff of dreams. Or it would be, if he slept. But he can't sleep, because she smells like heaven.  

Because her cheek blushed when he kissed it, and the warmth still lingers on his lips. The silk-smooth feel of her skin stays with him, and he absolutely cannot sleep.    

It's ridiculous, really. He asked, near enough.

Why? So I can be another one of your conquests?

Or I could be one of yours.

He put it out there, and she turned him down. Shot him down, if he's honest with himself, and that's that as far as the possibility of any after-hours "research" between the two of them goes. That's that.

But she smells like heaven, and he can't decide if she's adorable or dead sexy or both at once. He can't decide if it's her legs he's into or her eyes or the fact that she's a complete bad ass. Or maybe it's how smart she is. Book and street and everything in between, and then there’s the mouth on her. She’s funny. Cutting, but not quite mean. Not quite, and she’s not the least bit impressed by him.

Not the least bit, and can’t be that, can it?

It might be that, because he hasn’t worked like this for anything in ages. For anyone. He hasn’t had to. Hasn’t wanted to, and what the hell is it about her?  

Maybe it's everything. She catches him, flat-footed and tongue-tied all the time, and maybe it’s every damned thing about her.  

Maybe whatever it is, he needs to get over it.

He asked. She shot him down. And that's that.

********************************************

Title: Just About, Chapter 2—Seemingly WC: 400

A/N: More palate cleansing.

He was supposed to be bored by now. Long before now. She'd have bet on it. She has bet on it, in a manner of speaking. She's been confident. She's brushed off innuendo and anted up to Lanie and Espo and Montgomery. Anted up to everyone brave or dumb enough to give her so much as a sidelong glance about it. About him and their "arrangement."

A week, tops . . .

A couple . . .

A few . . .

But they've barreled past a couple, and if she's honest, a few is already disappearing in the rear-view mirror, and he doesn't seem bored.

He seems a lot of things: Callous, immature, smug, vain, obtuse, reckless, and oh-so-very annoying. He seems hell bent on really playing out whatever this is. Ego, maybe?

But that doesn't fit. Not exactly.

She thinks back to the street. To what she'd meant to be her parting shot and the moment right before.

Or I could be one of yours . . .

She thinks of what he seemed then. Boyish, delighted, smitten. Shy, or something very near to it.

She thinks of all the other things he's seemed since. The not-so-terrible things she isn't always big enough to admit: Curious, astute, invested, feeling.

It's the last one that gets her. It interests her, or it would if she'd let it.

Because for all his antics, she's seen him somber, too. Gut-punched when he does the math on how many I'm so sorry for your loss calls she must've made over the years. Coldly furious at a foul-mouthed prep school punk, who's used to getting away with everything, and that doesn't seem new at all. It doesn't seem recent, and she wonders about it.

She'd wonder if she'd let herself, but she won't. She bites her tongue to keep from asking and tries remember what she knows about Richard Castle, best-selling novelist. What's known about him out in the wide world, because that's where he exists. On billboards and book jackets and slick studio sets. At rooftop book parties and on the mayor's speed dial.

That's where he exists, and she'd do well to remember that, whatever he seems, now and again. Whatever it is he's determined to play out.

It's ego, she decides, and it doesn't pay to wonder. He'll be bored soon enough.

A month, tops . . .

A couple . . .

A few . . .

(But he doesn't seem bored.)

*********************************************

Title:  Just About, Chapter 3—Just a Little WC: 500 A/N: A continuation of this Drabble series, because, for the moment, they keep coming. 

Sometimes he thinks she likes him just a little.

Most of the time he's absolutely sure she doesn’t. She yells a lot, and she’s prone to violence. Not the fun kind, either. She pokes. Hard. And she has this thing about twisting his ear like he's some Dickensian street urchin. At any given moment, he’s pretty sure she doesn’t like him one bit.

But every once in a while, he catches her staring straight ahead with the corners of her mouth turned down hard. Every once in a while, he spies a wicked glint in her eye, and he's pretty sure she trying not to smile. He racks his brain every time. He drives himself up the wall, trying to remember what he just said or did. What he didn’t do that she thought he’d been thinking about doing . . .  

It’s stupid. Insane, really, because what does it matter whether she likes him or not? He’s in. One strategic phone call and absolutely everything he’d wanted has fallen into place. Absolutely everything.

He’s writing like a fiend. He’s up nights willing his fingers to keep up with his brain. He’s scrawling down details every waking moment on every scrap of paper that comes to hand. His mind hums along, four levels deep, while they work. While they bicker and joke and turn each other inside out to get the job done. His and hers.

It’s everything he’d wanted all those miserable months with his marriage unraveling and the words gone. Every last thing, so what does it matter? Smile or no smile. Whether she likes him a little or a lot or not a bit. What does it matter?

There’s the obvious answer. The obvious conclusion that everyone's jumped to. His mother. The whole damned precinct. Alexis. That bothers him more than he'd like.  

You always say you have to love your characters . . .

The glint of cynicism bothers him. The flash of fresh scars from all the upheaval with Gina. The divorce. Before and after. Everything up until these last few weeks, and it bothers him that even his kid thinks it's obvious that Kate Beckett is the shiny new thing. That "research" is code for business as usual.

It bothers him, because it's ridiculous. And because it's kind of a fair cop. It has been, historically, but he’s done with that. Mixing business with pleasure. A lousy metaphor for him and Gina, anyway, which is why he's done with anything that even looks like a relationship.

You always say you have to love your characters . . .

It's ridiculous. He doesn’t have to. And he definitely doesn’t . . .

And so what if he did? So what if he mentally goes to tape and draws up freaking battle plans to see if he can leave her fighting off a smile?

So what if he loves Nikki Heat? Kate Beckett is  definitely not Nikki Heat, and she doesn't even like him.

Except every once in a while, it seems like she does. Just a little.

A/N: 500 words this time. The first and second were 300 and 400, respectively. I'm not going to lock into that pattern, I don't think, but each came out close, and so I decided to challenge myself to shape them into an even hundred.

******************************************

Title: Just About, Chapter 4—Kind of WC: 600

A/N: Another 600 Words

He’s kind of a dork.

She’s trying to process that. Still trying to process it. She’s been sitting with it a while, and a lot has happened. Nothing at all and a lot.

She’d told him. About her mom. About her dad. About her, more or less. Maybe a little less, but more than most people know. Quite a bit more than anyone but Lanie, maybe. More altogether than Ryan or Espo or even the Captain, though they know her in bits and pieces. They know her from guarded revelations over the occasional beer. From gossip that never quite gets stale. Never quite.

But she’d told him. Castle, who is a thorn in her side. Who is the nosiest, interfering-est, most emotionally tone deaf person she’s ever met when he’s caught up in one of his parlor trick cold readings. Castle, who loves to run roughshod over everyone and everything, especially her.

Castle, who’s kind of a dork.

She’d told him.

She can’t figure it out. He’d been happy enough with his own story.

I noticed your watch. It’s your dad’s, right?

He’d been more than happy enough, and she’d like to think it was about knocking him down a peg. She’d like to think telling him was about wiping some self-satisfied look off his face, but there wasn’t any. Not by then. Not after White Plains and an eerily calm conversation about fathers and daughters and getting away with murder, and even that’s not it. Sudden, absolute confidence that he could’ve kept the secret. That he would have if she’d asked him to.

And even that’s not why she’d told him. Not entirely.

Because she’d started telling him well before that. She’d started the minute she let her feet carry her to his doorstep for some unfathomable reason. She’d started telling him before he even opened the door. She’d started telling him as she lingered in his hallway, stalling long enough that she was suffocating in her winter coat. Feeling wordlessly stupid for being there and finally screwing up the courage to knock.

She’d started telling him the minute the door opened on that bizarre scene. Violent green mud masks and his hair standing straight up. She’d gone there for words—for an ending to Melanie Cavanaugh’s story—and wound up in the moment that hasn’t quite ended yet, even though she’s been home a while. She’d wound up pouring her heart out and leaving him there at her desk like the fixture he’s become.

It isn’t because of who he is, though she sees now that’s what had brought her there. She sees now that she’d gone to see her favorite author. The man whose words have given her the only kind of closure she’s known for a decade, but that’s not who she’d found when the door swung open.

That’s not who’d perched tentatively on the desk next to her, self-consciously trying to smooth down his hair. Really, really wanting to switch off the storyboard with its skeletal outline. Really, really wanting to explain that he’s not usually home of an evening playing laser tag with his kid. Really, really wanting to point out that his mother lives with him, he doesn’t live with her. Really, really wanting to slip back into the skin of who he pretends to be a lot of the time, but not letting himself.

She’d knocked on the door of her favorite author and found him instead. She’d told him her life story. The bits it’s been boiled down to. She’d told him. Because he’s kind of a dork.

A/N: This one is set just after A Chill Goes Through Her Veins (1 x 05). The others are more loosely woven throughout S1, but this episode has always felt like an important turning point to me. 

*********************************************************

Title: Just About, Chapter 5—Turns Out WC: 700

A/N: Finally, the new stuff. 

It's good to have her here again. 

Again

He's a little too giddy about that particular pair of syllables. Giddy enough that he's definitely compensating—scrambling on the inside, overdoing it on the outside. He’s pitched his voice somewhere in the vicinity of just-north-of-Barry-White pitch, and he’s flicking a heavy-lidded gaze across the desk at her as he lets the words roll around in his mouth. 

Bare 

Glistening

Breasts

Oh, he’s definitely compensating. Then and now–on the page and in real time—but he doesn’t really see many alternatives. 

She's here. Again. And that's good, even if she doesn't look one bit like she agrees. Even if the look she's shooting back at him makes his bedroom voice crack—even if he did sort of trick her into it this time—it’s still definitely good, because there's a this time, and that implies that there was a last time, and there was no trickery there. 

And there's the giddy again, when he thinks about her backlit in the hallway, head cocked and brow furrowed at the strange picture they must have made: He and Alexis and his mother, in for the night and up to their typical shenanigans, and then, suddenly, her at the door. And as stunned as he was to see her—as back-of-the-mind perplexed as he was, because how does she even know where he lives?—he still remembers thinking, Finally. 

Finally. That was unquestionably the word looming largest in his mind when Kate Beckett showed up on his doorstep. 

It’s troubling. It’s as troubling as the giddy feeling that comes with Again, because it's not as though he'd been waiting for her. He hadn’t been, hasn’t been, isn’t waiting for anyone. He’s so very not waiting for anyone that he’d wrecked the bedroom with his ex-wife just that morning. 

And that helpful point of information his brain offers up, just as she is on the absolute verge of leaving, is the opposite of helpful. That point of information is something that he discovers in the moment he actually hates the hell out of, and he doesn’t have time to sift through the why. He’s taken the Bare. Glistening. Breasts. gag to the absolute edge of too far and she’s leaving. 

And he doesn’t want her to leave. 

And he doesn’t want Meredith to come back. 

And those two facts are unquestionably intertwined in ways that he suspects are quite complicated. 

Because it’s not merely that he does not want Meredith back in New York—although he certainly  does not want Meredith back in New York. It’s not that his crush on, attraction to, infatuation with Kate Beckett was any kind of proof against taking the path of least resistance when Meredith dropped her bags, her fur, and her dress in short order. 

But having Kate Beckett here in his home—again—makes it blindingly clear that she is the kind of woman he wants in his home. And Meredith is most definitely not. He wants her intelligence and her empathy and her work ethic. He wants her curious mind and the challenge she presents to him in every possible way. He wants a good woman in his own life, and as if these sudden revelations weren’t complicated enough, in his daughter’s life, too. 

It’s another shocking turn of events—and another thing it turns out he was somehow expecting. She brings up Alexis—Kate does—and he’s simultaneously furious and abashed, because Alexis doesn’t, by and large, miss her mother. And no one thinks it would be a good idea to have her back in town. Absolutely no one thinks that, and he’s ashamed.  

So he hits out. He goes on the defensive. And she hits out in kind. She goes for the jugular. They yell back and forth about deep-fried Twinkie sex, about how shallow he is. She looks gratified that he’s living down to her expectations at last, and he aims to please. 

He wishes he could stop himself. He wishes he could stop the conversation cold and just tell her how glad he is. He’s simply glad that she is here. Again. A/N: Here, too, for some reason the episode itself—Always Buy Retail (1 x 06)—got chatty

[potaetaezz]

|| Sweet like coffee || 1

prev<< >>next

pairing: Nct Dream x Reader  [female]

genre/au: fluff | teeny bit of angst (to come) | enemies to lovers | Everyone is just a clueless bunch of weirdos, you get the drill.

warnings: slight swearing.

A/N: its’s my first fanfic so no judgment lol | each chp is kinda short but I’ll update often | here we go~ 

_____________________________________

"I was warned,  and god I wish I listened.”

[8:02 am]

“Y/n get the hell up already!! ” Renjun growled, shaking the coffee cup in front of you in order to tempt you to get up. And it worked.“ Do I really have to bribe you with coffee every single morning to get you to get up?”

“…maybe” 

and he laughed that beautiful laugh. “You ready for the first day back to school?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“Please don’t remind me, I literally just got up if you don’t remember”

And that was how almost every day started. Renjun lived quite close to you and your brother's apartment, and his family owned a cafe (one of the reasons you two were friends.) so while he fueled your coffee addiction, you did his homework once a week. Cmon, you know Renjun wouldn't do anything for free.

———

Let’s just say you did not miss school AT ALL, and even that was an understatement, you fucking hated this shithole. The books, the exams, the gossip that spread like wildfire. However a part of you missed Renjun’s sarcasm and Lila’s warming smile first thing in the morning. And that’s what you were counting on to get you through this year.

Renjun has been your best friend for as long as you can remember. As for Lila, she joined your little group 3 years ago when she transferred from Kyoto, Japan. Since then, they’ve been all you’ve ever needed. Up until now, they were all you ever wanted, but something in you felt like this year was going to be a little bit different.

Nothing changed as you met Renjun and Lila in the cafeteria. Lila always looked like a fairy, with bright eyes. She was the prettiest girl you’ve ever met, with jet black hair tied into two moon buns with baby hair spilling out. Her makeup was always perfectly minimal, and she tucked an oversized patterned jumper into a pair of ripped mom jeans. 

Renjun, however, had his hair dyed a shade darker than his natural one, he was the most sarcastic person you’ve ever met and if you needed a wrestling match to cheer you up, you knew you could always count on him. He was good at studying when he wanted to, but he was better at eating.

 You were a bit different from the others, you had never dated anyone, yet you spent your time reading romance novels. Your hair was still in the same abstract shape it was in last night, and you were wearing comfy, maybe too comfy clothes. But they loved you none the less. More like they put up with you.

“So…guess who I’m sitting beside in homeroom?” Lila announced, beaming. This happened every year, Lila was nothing but a flirt with nice eyes, which she batted sweetly at whomever she sat beside in homeroom, in order to win them over, like a challenge.

“Go on..” Renjun rolled his eyes, getting bored with this annual conversation.

“Jaemin.” 

And that was enough to get Renjun’s attention.

“And you’re happy? Like How?  He only flirts his way through, basically everything and then leaves them in the dark wanting more!?”

Yet Lila winked suggestively. “Exactly”

“As if he’ll ever even talk to you.” he scoffed

“Oh, I’m sorry what’s this?” Lila retorted as she pulled out a piece of paper with a number on it. “And I’m even going to Haechan’s party.”

Renjun never sighed so loudly before, as you laughed at the two of them.

Jaemin held a reputation, which you were aware of, which everyone was aware of. People say he flirts with teachers to get out of homework, others say if you look into his eyes for too long you fall in love. Both are believable. He was charming, to say the least, and you haven’t even met him before.

 Every girl in the school was wrapped around his pinky finger, all he had to do was ask, and they’d drop to their knees. Despite his ‘alluring personality’, he’s never had a girlfriend for longer than a week. Well, that’s what Taeil said, and you know Taeil better than to believe everything he spits out.

He was basically every girl's fantasy— to put it short. But he wasn’t yours.

“Y/n…Y/N!!! The bell rang, let’s get to class.” Renjun said waving a hand in front of your face, interrupting your daydream thinking.

When you burst into class, silence descended upon the room.

“Ahh y/n, I see you’ve actually decided to come to my class, sadly….oh and Renjun.” Ms.Bracken scowled. God, you hated her. “This year I’ll have to split you two up, finally, y/n…back corner, Renjun… hmm, right in front of me.” and she smiled a deathly smile.

You lifted your gaze to see your deskmate, reading, taking sips of coffee with every paragraph. He was beautiful, and then his dark eyes met yours. 

“Hi, I’m Jeno.” he smiled, and you almost melted right on the spot.

You barely stuttered out your name as you took your seat….awkwardly at that.

You’ve seen Jeno around the campus, I mean how could you not with that face. He was handsome, smart, and he was a god at football, but he was sweet, a little bit awkward, and he thought he was funny (he wasn’t) but how could you not laugh. He was perfect, and you would most definitely agree with stars brightening your eyes and warming your heart.

 He was definitely one of the more ‘well-known’ people in our school, as well as the group he carries himself with. But anyone could tell you he’s the least of a ‘dick’ in that group, which was why you were glad to see him sitting beside you instead of someone like, Jaehyun for example who would probably try chat up the wall.

You felt relieved because so far everything was going quite well. Which was unusual because bad luck had a way of following you at this school.

‘Maybe this year won’t be so bad at all.’

      But clearly it was too early to tell because by the time lunchtime came, you had already made a new enemy. And god was he gorgeous.

____________________________________

>> Next chapter out the 13th. <<  feedback is appreciated !

[hamilton-one-shots]

Hii! I was wondering if you could write an one shot anout jamilton fake not-dating? Like, they go somewhere with homophobic people and thomas tries to protect alex from them by not talking to him or whatever and alex thinks thomas is ashamed of him and gets upset? All ends well though! Thank you for your time!

Don’t forget, once my drafts are emptied, I’m going to post all of my writing on my new blog @hamiltalian-creates, requests and commissions will be open there! 

Tuesday, November 8. Thomas knew it was going to be a day that he’d always remember, but he hoped it was for a different reason. He was spending that night with his parents in the living room, watching the votes from the election getting counted. That night, he’d planned on telling his parents about his boyfriend, about his Alexander. He’d hoped that seeing a woman win the election would help open their minds to such a thing as homosexuality. Sure, the woman wasn’t exactly his first choice, but her opponent was a nightmare waiting to happen, both for the country and for his relationship. But every poll, the growing number of votes on the screen before them, every sign pointed towards that night being in his favor. 

So, of course, Thomas remembered the exact moment that it all went wrong. 

Well, to be specific, he didn’t see the moment the results were announced. He was in the bathroom then, hyping himself up for the big moment. Thomas was deep in the zone when he heard his parents shouting in distress and defeat, something that surprised him. He didn’t expect they’d be so upset over their candidate of choice losing. But it didn’t scare him out of his plans. Alexander meant everything to him and, if that meant getting yelled at because his parents were already upset, then so be it. After all, something like a women winning the election would, theoretically, at least give them some reason to see that their old ways weren’t always right. So, he took a deep breath and marched out to the living room, stopping in his tracks as he noticed something.. Off. 

His parents were cheering. The last thing he expected to see was them cheering over the loss of the candidate they defended with everything they had. So.. As much as every fiber in his body was screaming for him not to, he turned around, feeling his heart drop as he saw who really won. Not his president. 

Thomas’s father clapped his hand against his son’s shoulder. “See, son? I told you the people would come to their senses. Now, what was that news you said you’d tell us when your lying candidate won?” he asked, poking fun at his son’s loss. Not that he knew everything that Thomas was losing. 

“I was just going to say I was right.. I thought the world was evolving.. Guess I was wrong,” he said, hiding a sob through breathy laughter. 

“The world is evolving! They’re finally smart enough to choose someone who knows what he’s doing.” 

Thomas nodded. “Excuse me,” he said hastily before dashing up the stairs and to his room, locking the door behind him. He laid in bed and grabbed a pillow, sobbing into it. As if hiding his sexual preference from the government wasn’t bad enough, now Thomas had to hide Alexander from everyone he knew. All because people couldn’t let a woman hold power. 

And that’s how he ended up at his high school graduation party, sitting by himself at the fifth table of the night. He’d been stuck in an exhausting cycle of getting up, losing himself in the crowd, and sitting back down in any table in any direction the second Alexander found him, but he wasn’t invisible. Hiding like that only kept him down for so long and people were beginning to ask questions. Worse than that, Thomas could see the growing fear and heartbreak in Alexander’s eyes every time he had to watch his boyfriend run away. But what was he supposed to say? 

“Hey, Alexander, I was too scared to tell my parents I’m in a committed gay relationship three years ago, yeah remember when I said I did, and now, they’ve invited a bunch of homophobes to my party.” 

“Hey, remember when I lied about telling my parents about us? Well, now you do and they’d kill me if they found out around their friends.”

No. Lying was just easier. Running was easier. Besides, it wasn’t like he was doing it just for himself. Alexander wanted to study law or even politics, if he was given the chance. He knew Thomas’s parents were in the same area, he knew that they invited all sorts of different lawyers to a party like that, he wanted to meet them. Thomas staying away meant nobody was there to introduce him to the lawyers who so badly wanted them both to be fixed, who’d subject even their own children to the same torment. 

But, at the same time, how was Alexander supposed to know what Thomas was thinking? The two had been dating all throughout high school, but Alexander never once met Thomas’s parents or got invited to any kind of events, including those where Thomas just texted him all night anyways. Thomas said that his parents didn’t like the fact that the two were dating, but did that really mean they couldn’t be seen together for just one night? On Thomas’s big night? 

Yet, as discouraging as it was, Alexander couldn’t stop himself from chasing Thomas around the banquet hall. He couldn’t stop himself from doing everything he could to confront his boyfriend, to get an answer face to face instead of just a quick apology over text about seeing some old friend or avoiding some specific friend of his parents’. 

And Alexander was just as smart as Thomas, but he knew he was more clever in some ways. So, when Thomas disappeared into that crowd once more, Alexander stayed along the edge of the group and walked around calmly, smiling and pretending to socialize as he made his way around. 

As expected, he eventually found Thomas and was able to sneak up behind him without so much as making him glance to his side. It was hard to be so calm. It took everything in his system not to drown out the rest of the party by voicing his own loud opinions, hoping to humiliate Thomas as he’d been humiliated. But he had to. It was the only way he’d get the answer that he deserved. 

Alexander put a calm hand on Thomas’s shoulder and gripped his jacket tightly as he began to get up. “No.. We’re done running,” he said, just loud enough for Thomas to hear him. “Just.. Come walk outside with me.” 

Thomas sighed, knowing that there was no way he’d be able to run again, not with Alexander right there. “Okay..” He lead Alexander out of the hall and out to the front, glad that nobody was there to see them. 

“What’s going on?” Alexander asked, his tone breaking Thomas’s heart. “You’ve been avoiding me all night and you haven’t given me one solid reason why. What are you.. Are you ashamed of me?.. Are you afraid of showing them your immigrant boyfriend?” 

Thomas shook his head. “Alexander, no.. You have to believe me, it’s not like that.” 

“Then what is it?” 

Thomas knew there was no lying or running his way out of this anymore. It wasn’t like Alexander to be so quiet, especially not when something clearly angered him so badly. It wasn’t like Alexander to be rational and think his way through everything. This was Alexander in pain, a version of him that Thomas never wanted to see again. 

“I’m so sorry.. I..” Thomas hesitated for a second. “Do you remember when I said that I told my parents about us?..”

Alexander nodded. “Yeah.. It was the only thing keeping me from breaking down then..” 

“I know.. And that’s why I never told you that I.. I lied.. I couldn’t tell them..” 

Alexander’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “But you said…” he began before trailing off. 

“I know what I said.. I couldn’t tell them.. Not with a Vice President who says he wants to throw us in a conversion camp and with parents who just follow those kinds of ideas like sheep.. I was scared that they’d do that to me, I still am, but I couldn’t tell you.. I didn’t know if you’d understand what that’s like.. George and Martha are so accepting of you being bi.” 

Thomas was scared. It was something he rarely admitted, something he rarely felt, from what Alexander knew. Alexander wanted so badly to be mad, to yell at Thomas about how he should know better or how he should’ve said something sooner, but he could understand. He didn’t tell either of his parents when he was preparing to apply for citizenship - he wasn’t even sure if they knew he wasn’t technically a citizen before - and they only found out after they found him crying over his Certificate of Naturalization the day after. Even Thomas didn’t find out until they called to ask him if he knew. It had been a delicate subject with Alexander since 2016, the same that Thomas’s sexuality was for him. 

“I get it.. I’m sorry, I should’ve thought of that.” 

“No, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to guess what’s wrong with me..” 

Alexander smiled softly and moved to hug his boyfriend, stopping as he saw him tense up. “You owe me a lot of affection later..” 

Thomas chuckled awkwardly. “I’m sorry..” 

“Don’t be. What matters now is we both know. We’re both happy. We have nothing to hide anymore. Not from each other and not from anyone else. But if you don’t feel comfortable showing us off in public yet, I get it. I more than understand.” 

Thomas visibly relaxed, a calm smile on his face. He never thought that, in this day and age, he’d be afraid to show off the fact that he was dating another man, but things were the way that they were.. He was just glad, more than glad, to have a partner to understand. In their trash excuse of a world, Alexander was his treasure.

[sarah--goff]

Their Dark Materials: Chapter Three; The Dreamer

Also avaliable on A03 under: Sarah_Goff works

For any suggestions/questions/ etc my email is  sarahgoffmana03@gmail.com

Hope you enjoy!

Summary: 

And voila, here our story begins!

Some things in the day aren't adding up. You're left home alone, without the comfort of Moore, to your own devices. You find the book again and begin to read intently. One should always be careful what they wish for ;)

                                                  -*-

The next few days flew past. You adjusted to life with the raven, between school and rehearsals, you always looked forward to coming home to it.

You opened your eyes lazily in the sunlight. That dream always left you feeling the same way, wanting. Wanting for it to be real so, so bad. You let the fragmented memories wash over you for a while. How many days had you had that exact dream now? And more importantly, why?

It always left you with a sense of a protecting presence. That was a nice feeling.

It was the dream, that irregular dream you couldn’t place. It had come to you again. It was beautiful, but some part of you felt so unnerved by it. You remembered more now than usual, but it was starting to slip away from you the more you thought about it.

Moore had vanished again, but you didn’t worry you knew it would be back. Looks like you’d have to buy more bird mix.

In class you couldn’t concentrate on the work in front of you, your mind kept wandering. Wandering to fragments…

You closed your eyes briefly and memories flashed in your mind

His hold on your waist, the way you were whirled, your laughter, something he whispered in your ear.

A mixture of the dream from last night and the raven swirled around your head.

The raven.

It was like something out of a fairy tale the way it had entered your little lonely world.

You kept pushing yourself to remember at the end of the day it was just a bird, a creature that deserved to be free.

It would be sad to see it go. You felt stupidly, that you’d almost made a connection. Like it seriously understood you sometimes, when prattled on about your day, when you ranted about Kari and Brian (mostly Kari) to the whispers of the first thing you would do when you left them to make your own way in the world in the middle of the night.

Your mind condescended itself. How childish could you be?

“Get a hold of yourself” you put your head in your hands before picking up your pen.

___

“Hello? Ground control to Sloane” Janice, or ‘Jan’ as everyone nicknamed her, waved a hand in front of your dazed face. She poked her tongue out at you, biting into her sandwich.

You were sitting outside today, on campus, at the picnic table by the library, finally it was hot and sunny again, so you decided to take advantage of your break.

You had your head propped up by your hand lazily.

“Sorry, I did it again, didn’t I?” You smiled sheepishly at your friend who grinned in return before taking a sip of her drink.

“you’re always day- dreaming, I wonder what about” you knew from her sing-song vice what she was getting at and you rolled your eyes.

Jan was lucky.

She had people around her constantly, she had boys around her constantly, not that you didn’t, you just sucked at conversation- she was good with people, you just weren’t.  She’d tried and failed setting you up, she wanted you to join in for once and find someone. Ugh. You knew she was doing it from the good of her heart but sometimes you’d wished she’d just drop it. You weren’t made for people. That’s all.

She ran a hand through her freshly permed hair.

You shrug “I’m just tired, I haven’t been sleeping well” you felt a bit bad you hadn’t told Jan about the raven, she was your best-friend no matter what, but she would probably call you crazy. Anyone in their right mind would call you crazy.

“You’re always tired” Jan pointed out giving you a nudge.

True, you’d been using that excuse a lot lately, but it wasn’t a complete lie. You’d taken to talking to Moore well into the night, sometimes until 2 in the morning. Some nights you felt bluer than others you’d say the things you couldn’t say to anyone else.

“They’ve never welcomed me really” you said that night lying on your back playing with your hair. “It’s stupid I know,” you mulled over the thoughts “ I’m older now, it’s not like I need paternal attention…or guidance…but sometimes it would be nice to have a real mum again but all they do is push me away, sometimes I just feel…worthless. Like I mean nothing”

Sometimes it was nice to have someone to talk to about all sorts of meaningless rubbish, especially if they couldn’t answer back.

“So, did you write the notes for today?” you switched the subject taking a bite into your croissant.

Jan clapped her forehead stopping her chewing “oh shit, what notes”.

She ducked her head, looking at you for help under her dark lashes. Janice was just as useless with homework as you were.

“Guilt tripping me to share my homework that’s new” you chided and you both laughed.

“Life saver” Jan leant in for a quick hug.

You rolled your eyes and ducked your head under the table to find the essay in your bag.

“what would I do-” She cut off talking suddenly.

You noticed her pause and came up again, flicking your hair out of your face “what?”  

There was a frightened look on Jan’s face. She was looking past your shoulder.

“There’s a man! A man staring at us!” she hissed, indicating directly behind you.  You turned sharply, hair whipping behind you, following her finger.

There was no-one.

“What are you talking about?” You turned back to her with a smile and bobbed eyebrow “I don’t see anyone”.

“I swear there was a creepy guy stand like five meters away from us!” Jan’s eyes widened.

You pointed out that there were loads on guys on campus. It could have been anyone on their break.

“He looked too old to be a student” she shivered.

The warm air seemed to chill all of a sudden. There was a strong gust of wind that made you pull your jacket around you tighter.

You tried to relax her, Jan was known for being paranoid with things like this. “Well, a teacher then, what did he look like?”

“I don’t know, really tall, blond hair, dark clothes” you wrinkled your nose. You didn’t understand why she was so unnerved when he sounded so usual.

Jan jumped at the sound of a bird flapping its wings. You looked up to see the dark bird flutter out of a nearby tree and away.

You were about to say ‘that could be anybody Jan’ when she said something that made a shiver run down your spine:

“Sloane, he was staring right at you”

                                                     _*_

You played it off as a trick of the mind, she’d seen somebody passing by that happened to look over that was all.

She hadn’t eaten either which would explain her irrationality.  Hunger could make you do funny things.

When break was over, she insisted you walk with her and other friends to class “just in case”. You’d never seen her so ruffled before. You didn’t bother dwelling on it for the rest of the day.

The walk home was lonely and miserable without being able to listen to music. It had started to spit again. Looks like you were in for a damp summer this year.

You felt a warm tingling sensation pass momentarily over you. Weird.

Across the street you noticed a two people, a man and a woman, you couldn’t see what they looked like properly but they were sprinting oddly down the street, holding hands. Huh. What was with everyone today.

When you got to the front door you groaned, remembering it was Brian and Kari’s anniversary tonight. Something you were exclusively excluded from. Again. But you were grateful for a whole evening of peace. Thankfully, they’d be gone all evening. You didn’t have any work to do so you could relax for once.

You turn the key in the door. You’d barely made it in five paces when Brian entered the living room struggling with his tie “you’re late!”.

Late? How could you be late? Surely, they weren’t going out already, at half past three?

You looked at him confused “I don’t-”

“Just tell your aunt you’re home” he grumbled patiently still struggling with the tie.

Kari was already dressed and looked as if she was ready to leave. She was pacing the kitchen up and down when you entered- still puzzled.

“Kari I-”

“There you are!” she sighed heavily seeing you walk in, clearly irritated “where have you been- we’ve been waiting on you for hours!”

Hours? What?

“But I just left college half an hour ago!” you argued. What was with them tonight?

“Don’t lie to me, Sloane, you’ve clearly been with your friends on the one night we specifically ask you to be home on time!”

“I’m always home on time” you threw up your hands. What the fuck?

How could you possibly be late? You noticed the grandfather clock in the hall chiming. You paced over to it to prove your point.

“Eight o’clock!” you cried in disbelief “it can’t be eight o’clock!”

Kari put her hands on her hips dismissively.

“You know very well what time it is, young lady, don’t play the fool with me- have you been drinking?”

You were dazed and confused. Where had five whole hours gone?

You felt your head, you had come over very faint.

“actually, I just- I don’t feel well” you breathed feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of you. You leant against the kitchen top for support.  

“17 years old and wasted after school” Kari mumbled, fussing over her hair on the mirror above the wine rack. “And don’t think you can wriggle out of the chores tonight to nurse a hangover either! You;ll have to cook for yourself tonight, no take-aways”

You were barely listening “I won’t forget” you said meekly still trying to figure out the supposed time loss.

Nursing- whatever this was- was exactly what you felt like doing. Your head was swimming you wanted to drown out her high voice.

She half- heartedly listed the things that needed to be done, the food available in the fridge.

“-and I’ve asked Mrs. White next door to look out for you tonight so no funny business, parties-”

Seriously? Old Mrs. White, what were you 8?

“I’m not a child, Kari” you said through clenched teeth.

“Don’t use that tone with me madam” she raised her eyebrows . “You’ve pushed my buttons enough tonight” she picked up her handbag and frowned at you “maybe we need a talk when we get back, about growing up for one” .

Growing up? You couldn’t believe the nerve of her.

Brian looked itching to get away and eventually practically pulled Kari out the door, not after warning you away from using the tv or anything electrical. “I’ve counted it all” he said sternly. Brian didn’t trusted you either.

“Bye then” you said softly watching them leave through the window, laughing at something probably dull.

You observed the car pull away and down the street for the second time this week.

You were left to your own devices. Again.

You whipped the curtains together to stop that nosey cow from next door peering in.

With a huff, you sat on the loveseat with your feet tucked under you for a few minutes in the glow of the soft living room lamp. You wondered idly if all parents were like Kari and Brian.

Five hours? Sure, you stopped to tie your shoelace one or twice but five whole hours. You shook your head.

Even for a summer evening it was pitch black outside. You were certain it was bright even in the rain when you walked home. What the hell?

You ignored the list of chores Kari had set out for you to do, if she was going to treat you like a child, then a child you shall be, children didn’t do laundry “they watch TV and break rules” you said aloud finishing your own thoughts.

You decided to check on Moore first, who you’d completely forgotten about. Then TV. Maybe ice-cream if there was any. You didn’t fancy reheating a soup dish from previous nights.

On your way up the stairs you shook your head at the grandfather clock.

“Hi, I’m back” you peered into your room and watched where you put your foot in case you stepped on the bird. You turned the lamp on checking your room.

“Moore? You can come downstairs now if you like, only for a couple of hours though”

You peeked in the scarf nest “hellooo?”.  Empty. Unsual.

The bird had probably left and hadn’t come back yet, it never normally stayed out at night for very long.

“Oh well, just me then” you said to nobody in particular. You weren’t in a talking mood anyway . TV didn’t feel that promising now.

You rested on your bed. Now that you had free time you didn’t know what to do with it.

You could do some sketching maybe. Where did you put your pencils last?

You hunted around your room for the usual places, in your pencil pot, on the shelves. Ah! You remembered! You yanked your beside table draw open to triumphantly find your sketching pencils- and a little red book.

The book the bird brought me.

All ideas of sketching vanished from your mind. You brushed the pencils aside in your drawer and picked the book up. You stared at it in your hands. There was a sudden desire to read it. It was only thin copy, right? You might as well try it out. You had time to kill.

You shut the drawer forgetting about the pencils and propped your head on a pillow, lying on your front. You opened the first page and began reading intently.

“Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl whose wicked step-mother treated her cruelly and kept her hidden away at home to clean the house,”

‘That rings a bell’, you thought with a smirk

“The young girl was practically her slave. But what no-one knew was that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and he had given her certain powers”

You raised your eyebrows.

You ran your finger under the lines, muttering along the words on the pages aloud

“So one night when her stepmother had been particularly cruel to her, and the girl could stand her life no more, she called on the goblins for help: ‘say your right words and we will take you to the goblin city – and you will be free’ they said to her. So, on that very midnight, the girl cried through tears “I wish the goblins would come and take me away- right now”

A clap of thunder outside interrupted your murmuring but you shook your head pushing on .

This was getting strange and disturbing what kind of fairy-tale is this? Not for children surely.

When the first chapter was through you settled more comfortably on your bed against the headboard, you read on in your head.

                                                       -*-

You read the whole thing from cover to cover before ten o’clock. There was a persistent need to finish this book. You didn’t even realise you were reading at one point, you were so into it as if you were watching the scenes unfold from afar.

When you’d finished you sat thoughtfully for a while. What kind of twisted tale was that? What an emotional roller coaster that was to get through!

Yet, it all sounded so familiar, like it reminded you of something. You couldn’t think what though. You touched the bangle on your wrist instinctively.

Still, it was a good read. You’d have to tell the bird.

But the bird still wasn’t back.

You yawned widely. Maybe sleep was better than forcing yourself awake.

Turning the lamp off you left the book lying by you on the bed. It was freezing up here now, so you decide to sleep in your jeans, shirt and even your jacket, blanket over you. You didn’t even bother removing your trainers.

It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep, hugging the pillows to your chest.

                                            _*_ “Here you are” the voice by your ear made you jump.

You turned “it’s you!” you immediately fell against him, hugging him.

“Well, well looks like somebody missed me” he smirked placing a cool gloved hand on the crown of your head which slipped to lightly grasp your shoulder. For some reason you could never think of the words to say to him. The right words.

You never questioned what this significant scene meant not that he’d be able to tell you anyway he was only a figment after all.

You didn’t question how the tall man knew you’d missed him, but then it was your subconscious speaking to you, you reminded yourself, so of course he’d know, whoever he was, clearly you’d picked him up in your memories somewhere along the line, you certainly didn’t recognise him now, and  you still didn’t know his name but maybe you’d invent that later.

“Shall we?” He held out his arm for you to take.

From leaning your head slightly on his shoulder, you grinned, knowing what was coming.

The room burst into action between your blinks, it was the colour of ice and champagne décor to match.  There seemed to suddenly be people everywhere -well, you thought they were people, they looked like people but maybe they weren’t, maybe they were whatever he was. You couldn’t quite believe he was human somehow, something in his gaze or in the fluidity of his movements.

You could never see their faces, initially the masks were a little unsettling but by now they seemed to feel comfortingly familiar.  Strange how you seemed to pick up every detail, usually dreams were foggy and unclear, nothing ever made complete sense but this one you had down to a tee, everything was always crystal clear.

You looked down at yourself and smiled at the dress you were wearing again, its familiarity to you made it feel like an old family heirloom. You playfully swished the puffy material in your hands and released it, admiringly.

You looked back at him, kitted-out in his usual attire; long blue jacket, poet’s shirt and that hair. He was looking at you thoughtfully with a kind expression.

The mystery man automatically takes your right hand holding it at an angle, his free arm supported under yours to hold you in by the waist.

It was like an old film, the way the scenes changed so fast as if it were skipping, you were moving motion to motion quickly but then most dreams were this way weren’t they?

Gracefully you both twirled around the dance floor -everyone melting away it seemed. Even the sweet music muffled. You didn’t know how but somehow you always knew the right steps, you never tripped- not once.

You focused on how you were feeling now in this scene, everything felt so real, you’d pinched your own arm a couple of times in the past and sometimes give his shoulder a squeeze, you just couldn’t understand. You squeezed it a little now, , earning a cheeky grin from him.

He whisks you around faster than usual, taking you by surprise, and you let out a string of giggles, so thrilled. How you’d miss this. He seemed to enjoy your reaction, delighted he could make you so happy.

“Do you enjoy my visits, my love?” he suddenly said out of the blue.

Your attention snapped back and you wrinkled your nose at that with a puzzled smile. It wasn’t in his usual script. You decided played along with your subconscious anyway.

“Of course” you say boldly, what was the point in being shy after all, it wasn’t real. Still, a blush starts at the base of your throat and you keep your eyes focused on the scenes behind his ear so you don’t have to look him directly in the eye. You could feel him inching closer, but you pretend not to notice.

He twirled you and when you came back around he was closer still eye contact never breaking. You could feel his breath by your ear.  Your spine tingled.

“Would you like to stay like this, forever?” his voice was always so silky soft but the way he said the last word was enough to put you on edge. You had been dancing for a while- you usually wake up before you can finish, why was tonight different?

“You still haven’t told me your name” you reminded him, changing the subject and willing yourself to focus anywhere but his eyes. How striking they were. Things seemed a little blurred now, you must be close to waking up.

“I can’t now” The tall man faltered with such kindness and pity in his eyes as if you should understand why he couldn’t, “but I will soon, but you have to accept me first”.

The dancing had begun to slow and soon the pair of you were stood still in an embrace waiting for you to say something. It seemed to be on the tip of your tongue but you couldn’t think of anything so you just said “I don’t understand”.

The mystery man seemed to falter but pushed on “you could live every day like this”.

You dithered in your confusion “I- I don’t know what to do” you didn’t like disappointing him; of course you wanted to stay in this beautiful dream, but that’s all it was.

He smiled sadly, as if reading your thoughts. The tall man drew back and you wanted to yell in frustration that he was leaving already when you wanted to know more.  You physically felt a force pull him away from you.

“Wait!” you pleaded holding out your arm to grab him.

“All you have to do is accept” he said sadly watching from afar- your confusion. He repeated the words over and over and then when you felt yourself leaving said one more strange word that you didn’t understand.

“tonight”.

[bae-leth]

Ivan Alexis Blaiddyd - Unit Overview

Hi again! I’m doing my best trying to plan out the one-shot for my son Ivan so I decided that while I’m still planning things out on that front, it would be fun to make up some quotes and other stuff for him as a unit in the game! It was tons of fun trying to come up with different stuff depending on what part of the story it would take place. I probably missed or made mistakes on a bunch of quote stuff (I was rather sick and loopy when I played the game), but I did my best! A NOTE: I left out a bunch of stuff that would have been exactly identical to how it’s said or done in game canon for Dimitri, so if I only put down Ivan’s version of a quote or leave out a section for something, that’s why. SECOND NOTE: I put in canon Dimitri’s stats, growths, and proficiencies so that you can easily compare the differences between him and Ivan. And I am SOOOO sorry for the length…But I hope you enjoy! And I hope you have fun spotting all the differences between Ivan and Dimitri, both the obvious ones and the more subtle ones. As well as the subtler hints towards Ivan’s personality that I hopefully wrote up properly!

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bae’s quick notes: all of Willow’s amazing detailed notes below stem from their Other Dimitri AU! You HAVE to check it out, it’s so good!!

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Character Description (as Dimitri)

The crown prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and leader of the Blue Lions. He is a chivalrous and kind young man, however he seems to be hiding something dark behind his pleasant exterior.

Character Description (as Ivan)

The second prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, who had been presumed dead following the Tragedy of Duscur. After nine years of masquerading as his brother, he has chosen to face the future as himself.

Preferences (as Dimitri)

Likes: Battle training, weapon maintenance, combat, high-quality weapons, strength training, going for long rides, physically laborious work

Dislikes: Delicate work, fragile objects, scorching heat, selfish people

Preferences (as Ivan)

Likes: Going for long rides, writing and performing music, live musical performances, fiction books, ceremonial weapons, board games, sparring

Dislikes: Himself, darkness, excessive training, scorching heat, people who talk behind others’ backs

Stats and Growths (Canon Dimitri)

Base Stats - HP: 28 Strength: 12 Magic: 4 Dexterity: 7 Speed: 7 Luck: 5 Defense: 7 Resistance: 4 Charm: 9

Max Stats - HP: 99 Strength: 87 Magic: 38 Dexterity: 69 Speed: 69 Luck: 42 Defense: 57 Resistance: 36 Charm: 77

Stat Growths - HP: 55% Strength: 60% Magic: 20% Dexterity: 50% Speed: 50% Luck: 25% Defense: 40% Resistance: 20% Charm: 55%

Stats and Growths (as Ivan)

Base Stats - HP: 24 Strength: 10 Magic: 6 Dexterity: 5 Speed: 5 Luck: 8 Defense: 6 Resistance: 4 Charm: 8

Max Stats - HP: 90 Strength: 82 Magic: 48 Dexterity: 64 Speed: 64 Luck: 67 Defense: 56 Resistance: 36 Charm: 73

Stat Growths - HP: 50% Strength: 55% Magic: 35% Dexterity: 45% Speed: 45% Luck: 50% Defense: 40% Resistance: 20% Charm: 50%

Skills and Proficiencies (Canon Dimitri)

Skill Levels – Sword: E+ Lance: D+ Axe: E Bow: E Brawl: E Reason: E Faith: E Authority: D Heavy Armor: E Riding: D Flying: E

Strengths: Sword, Lance, Authority

Weaknesses: Axe, Reason

Budding Talent: Riding

Skills and Proficiencies (as Ivan)

Skill Levels – Sword: E+ Lance: D Axe: E Bow: E Brawl: E Reason: E Faith: E+ Authority: D Heavy Armor: E Riding: E+ Flying: E

Strengths: Lance, Authority, Riding

Weaknesses: Reason, Heavy Armor

Budding Talent: Faith

*Ivan can learn the Faith spells Heal, Recover, Physic, Nosferatu, and Aura*

First Kill

“It’s justice for what they’ve done. It’s justice. And yet…my hands…”

Cooking (as Dimitri)

“I must say that cooking isn’t my forte, but I promise to do my best, Professor!”

“Hmm, what sort of flavors will these ingredients produce? I wonder…”

Cooking (as Ivan)

“I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t have an eye for this sort of thing, Professor. I apologize in advance.”

“This is…not going as badly as I expected. Though my expectations weren’t very high to begin with.”

Choir Practice (as Dimitri)

“Singing, huh? We must all do our part for the sake of a successful performance. Although, I was never one for song…”

Choir Practice (as Ivan)

“I’ve loved music since I was a child. Singing, playing…It was something that was mine. I’m…quite out of practice now though…”

Counselor Note (as Ivan)

“I feel confused. There are things I loved before and always thought I wanted to return to, and yet they don’t interest me now. And there are things I always thought I was doing for the sake of others that I’ve realized I enjoy more than I thought. I don’t like how I’m not sure of my own interests anymore.”

(Bad Answer): You’re really confused, aren’t you?

(Good Answer): There’s nothing unusual about changing as you grow. Take as much time as you need to figure yourself out.

(Bad Answer): Maybe if you’re stubborn about it your interests will go back to normal.

Lost Item (as Dimitri)

Items

Childhood Picture (A portrait, worn with age, of a group of smiling children. How sad that it seems part of it has been ripped off. Probably belongs to someone with several friends.)

Jeweled Dagger (A beautiful silver dagger with blue sapphires embedded in the hilt. The letter D is carved into the base of the hilt. Probably belongs to someone who like weapons.)

Collection of Fairytales (A thick book of many tales of fantasy and adventure. Something has been brutally crossed out on the inside of the front cover. Probably belongs to someone who loves stories.)

(If item belongs to him): “Oh, I’m so glad you found this! Thank you.”

(If item doesn’t belong to him): “My apologies, Professor, but that isn’t mine.”

Lost Item (as Ivan)

Items:Same as above.

(If item belongs to him): “Thank you! I…I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost this.”

(If item doesn’t belong to him): “Sorry, I think you have the wrong person…”

Gift (as Dimitri)

Liked Gifts: Forget-me-nots, Training Weight, Whetstone, Riding Boots, Ceremonial Sword

Disliked Gifts: Book of Sheet Music, Gemstone Beads, Armored Bear Stuffy

(Received gift he likes): What a thoughtful gift! Thank you so much!

(Received gift that’s neutral): Thank you for your kind thoughts.

(Received gift he dislikes): I…appreciate the sentiment. Please, don’t give me that look.

Gift (as Ivan)

Liked Gifts: Forget-me-nots, Book of Sheet Music, Board Game, Ceremonial Sword, Riding Boots

Disliked Gifts: Gemstone Beads, Training Weight, Arithmetic Textbook

(Received gift he likes): For me? Truly? I don’t know what to say…

(Received gift that’s neutral): I’m glad you’re thinking of me.

(Received gift he dislikes): Umm…Thank you…? Don’t give me that look!

Tea Party (as Dimitri)

Greeting: “I apologize for the wait.”

Liked Topics: Monastery rules, You seem well, Evaluating allies, Working hours for guards, Equipment upkeep, The ideal Professor, School days, Working together, The last battle…, Mighty weapons, Sturdy weapons, Thanks for everything…, The library’s collection, Our first meeting…, Children at the market, Fodlan’s future, Books you’ve read recently, A new Gambit…, A word of advice, Someone you look up to…, A place you’d like to visit…, Overcoming weaknesses, The view from the bridge, Cooking mishaps

Disliked Topics: Reliable allies, Being the perfect knight, You seem different…, Dining partners…, Hopes for your future, Things you find romantic, Food for life, Capable comrades, The existence of Crests, Classes you might enjoy, The Opera…, Favorite sweets, School uniforms, Shareable snacks, Cats…, Tell me about yourself, I’m counting on you, You’re doing great work, Past laughs, Close calls

Comments

“I would like to learn all I can from you, so please join me for some training.”            

“A relaxing conversation…It’s certainly been a while, hasn’t it? Hmm? Sorry, I was talking to myself.”       

“I apologize for troubling you. I am grateful for your support.”      

“I’ve always been too strong for my own good. I keep destroying fragile things as a result. Yes, I certainly do have a cursed touch…”

“When I feel down, I go out for a long ride on my own. There is no place more relaxing than a trusted steed’s back.”

Extended Time Comments

“A gift for me? How thoughtful!”

“…Is there something wrong with my face?”

“My hands shake sometimes, particularly after battles. I hope they stop soon…”

“This may be a strange question, but how does my smile look? Is it…warm? No, forget I said anything.”

End of Tea Party: “Thank you, I had a wonderful time. I would like to do this again sometime, if that’s alright with you.”

Tea Party (as Ivan)

*Only listed topics that are placed differently than how they’re placed in the Dimitri section*

Greeting: “I’m glad you invited me.”

Liked Topics: Tell me about yourself, I’m counting on you, The Opera…, You seem different…, Past laughs, Cats…

Disliked Topics: Monastery rules, Mighty weapons, Sturdy weapons, School days, Cooking mishaps, Equipment upkeep

Comments

“Please, don’t hesitate to tell me if I’m a boring conversationalist. Being social was never my strong suit.”

“Until around nine years ago I was terrified of horses. It’s true! If you had told my younger self that he’d ever find horse riding soothing, he’d laugh.”

“I…I’ve recently begun to write music again. It’s nothing special, I haven’t done it in years. But…it makes me nostalgic. I’d love to play, to sing, again one day.”

“My brother’s ability to break practically anything was a sight to behold. It took me years of practice to get as bad as him. Years! But…those moments always did make me laugh the most…”

“I appreciate you. I’m sorry if that’s too blunt, but I wanted you to know that. I’m so grateful for all you’ve done.”

Extended Time Comments

“This is for me? You’re truly a kind one, aren’t you?”

“My eye? It doesn’t hurt me anymore. I’m…somewhat grateful for it. Ah, sorry, I don’t know how to explain what I mean…”

“My hands have started shaking after battles again…Is that truly such a bad thing?”

“Thank you for not giving up on me, Professor. I’ll do all I can to live up to your, and everyone else’s, expectations.”

End of Tea Party: “Thank you for inviting me. It’s nice to talk with you honestly for once. Can we…do this again?”

Dining Hall (as Ivan)

Favorite Food: Shares many favorites with Ingrid, so if a food is her favorite it will most likely be his as well. Also loves food with interesting textures.

“It smells wonderful. I’m sure it must be delicious.”

“This is my favorite…Yes, I’m certain of it!”

With Dedue

Ivan: “Haha, you look like you’re enjoying yourself, Dedue!”

Dedue: “Not as much as you seem to be enjoying yourself, Your Highness.”

Ivan: “Hmm? Do I…really look that happy?”

With Felix

Felix: “Another meal I have to spend sitting with you.”

Ivan: “Come now, Felix, we used to do everything together. Remember that time we fought with our brothers and lost? And then we ran to my room and cried for-”

Felix: “Just shut up and eat your food!”

With Sylvain

Ivan: “Sylvain? You’ve been staring for a while. You’re going to make me blush if you keep this up.”

Sylvain: “Will I? Ooh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you go red! …Seriously though, don’t mind me. It’s just…been a while, Ivan.”

Ivan: “…It has, hasn’t it?”

With Ingrid

Ivan: “Hmm…I can’t remember if this is truly my favorite dish or not.”

Ingrid: “It is, Ivan. It’s been a while, but I remember you and I loved many of the same dishes. So I can say, without a doubt, this one is one of your favorites.”

Ivan: “I think I remember that too. Thank you, Ingrid. And I hope you don’t mind if I trouble you for some more answers in the future.”

Instruction (as Ivan)

Bad: “Ahh, I…I’m sorry…”

Good: “That wasn’t so bad.”

Great: “I understand…Let me review it once more.”

Perfect: “It’s all coming to me!”

(Praise): “Y-You’re too kind to me.”

(Console): “Heh, come now, I’m no longer a child.”

(Scold): “…I’m sorry…”

Certification Exam Post-Timeskip (as Ivan)

Pass: “Will I be of more use to everyone now?”

Fail: “Even after all that studying? I, ah…I’m sorry…”

Class Mastery (as Ivan)

“I’ll put this strength to good use. I promise.”

Group Tasks (as Dimitri)

“Let’s make sure to do our work diligently.”

(Perfect) “It wasn’t any trouble at all!”

(Good) “We certainly did our best. I hope it was enough…”

Weeding

With Dedue

Dedue: “…Your Highness, I don’t like the way you’re looking at those weeds.”

Dimitri: “I wasn’t going to do anything! It’s just, I remembered being told once that there are several kinds of edible weeds, so…”

Dedue: “Your Highness, please…”

Group Tasks (as Ivan)

“I’ll make up for not pulling my weight before.”

(Perfect) “Did we meet your expectations?”

(Good) “I hope we didn’t cause extra work for someone else.”

Stable Duty

With Dedue

Dedue: “Are you doing well, Your Highness? I heard you’re terrified of horses, so if there’s any trouble-”

Ivan: “It’s been years since then, Dedue. Horses are no trouble for me, I promise.”

Dedue: “If you’re certain.”

With Felix

Felix: “At least you’re finally helping out for a change.”

Ivan: “Ah, I’m…I’m sorry for not doing more before.”

Felix: “Pah, would you quit apologizing already? Keep it up and ‘sorry’ won’t sound like a real word anymore.”

With Ingrid

Ingrid: “When we were younger, whenever I asked if you wanted to help me take care of my horse, you’d freeze in place. What made you so scared of them in the first place?”

Ivan: “Honestly, it’s been so long, I can’t remember anymore. But I’m fine with them now.”

Ingrid: “And I’m glad for it. I have plenty of lost years to make up for with you, after all!”

With Sylvain

Sylvain: “This brings back memories! You crying and running to hide behind me or Dimitri every time a horse so much as looked at you wrong.”

Ivan: “Sylvain, please tell me you haven’t been spreading that story around. I’m no longer scared of horses!”

Sylvain: “I know. But if you ever get spooked and wanna hide behind your old pal, for old time’s sake, feel free!”

Clearing Rubble

With Dedue

Ivan: “Was there always so much rubble around here? I’m sorry I’ve left you all to take care of this on your own this whole time.”

Dedue: “It’s alright, Your Highness. You’re helping us now, and that’s enough.”

Ivan: “Is it though…?”

With Felix

Ivan: “Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm~”

Felix: “…Hmph. Someone’s in a good mood.”

Ivan: “Hmm? Did you say something, Felix?”

With Ingrid

Ivan: “Hmm, hmm, hmm~! Hmm, hmm, hmm~”

Ingrid: “Will you…take up music again, Ivan? I’ve missed your songs terribly.”

Ivan: “I…I would like to. One day…”

With Sylvain

Sylvain: “Good grief, every time we clear this area it’s like someone dumps another load of rubble just to spite us!”

Ivan: “The monastery did take a lot of damage over these past five years. Let’s work hard, okay?”

Sylvain: “I know, I know…”

Sky Watch

With Dedue

Ivan: “I must be honest. While I’m at ease with horses, I don’t think that ease has yet to extend to Pegasi.”

Dedue: “If you’d like to go back down, please do so. I can take over from here.”

Ivan: “No, I appreciate the thought, Dedue. But I can’t be a cowardly child forever.”

With Felix

Felix: “How long do you plan on staring at the ground, boar? You have to keep your eyes ahead if you want to keep watch.”

Ivan: “Please don’t take this the wrong way, Felix, but can we not speak right now?”

Felix: “You’re ridiculous…”

With Ingrid

Ingrid: “You’ve been looking pale since we set off. I know you’re not afraid of heights, so what’s wrong?”

Ivan: “It’s pathetic. I’m used to horses, but Pegasi still shake me up…”

Ingrid: “Oh, Your Highness…”

With Sylvain

Sylvain: “I’m curious. I know horses always scared you, but what about Pegasi? I mean, they’re basically horses with wings.”

Ivan: “Sylvain…”

Sylvain: “Hey, no need to glare like that! I’m shutting up now.”

Perfect Result

With Dedue

Ivan: “Dedue was fantastic. We never would have finished so quickly without him.”

Dedue: “You never give yourself the credit you deserve, my prince.”

With Felix

Felix: “I guess this boar’s not so bad to deal with if you know how to handle him.”

Ivan: “Heh, you did a fine job too, Felix.”

With Sylvain

Sylvain: “We did a perfect job! C’mon, Ivan, no compliments for your old friend?”

Ivan: “Yes, yes, you were excellent as usual, Sylvain.”

With Ingrid

Ivan: “The job’s done. Ingrid’s help was a blessing.”

Ingrid: “Why don’t you take some praise for yourself, my friend?”

Good Result

With Dedue

Dedue: “Our results were satisfactory, wouldn’t you say, Your Highness?”

Ivan: “Yes, we did our best. Thank you for your help.”

With Felix

Felix: “Hmm, that wasn’t too bad to go through, I suppose.”

Ivan: “We did well, didn’t we, Felix?”

With Sylvain

Sylvain: “Alright, we’re finally done! Thank goodness!”

Ivan: “Was it truly that bad? I thought we were doing well.”

With Ingrid

Ingrid: “We’ve finally completed our task. Good work.”

Ivan: “You too. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Level Up Pre-Timeskip

“…Not good enough.” (0-2 stats)

“I must run extra drills when we get back.” (3-4 stats)

“Yes, that’s right. This is much better.” (5-6 stats)

“Good. I just need to keep up this pace!” (7+ stats)

“Am I…? Am I really not capable of more?” (Max stats)

Level Up Post-Timeskip (as Dimitri)

“How am I supposed to kill her like this?!” (0-2 stats)

“Better…But not good enough…” (3-4 stats)

“If only a monster can do this, then I’ll gladly call myself one.” (5-6 stats)

“Rest easy…Your revenge is a hair’s breadth away!” (7+ stats)

“I’ll end it. Everything. Every single thing.” (Max stats)

Level Up Post-Timeskip (as Ivan)

“I know I’m better than this!” (0-2 stats)

“This is progress. This is good.” (3-4 stats)

“Slowly and steadily, just like this. I can do this.” (5-6 stats)

“Brother, watch me. I will protect everyone!” (7+ stats)

“I never dared to dream of this…” (Max stats)

Skill Quotes Pre-Timeskip

New Skill

“I got this.”

“I’ll work diligently.”

Skill Level Up

“It’s becoming clearer now.”

“I’ll study harder.”

“Maybe a little more practice will clear things up.”

Skill Mastery

“Yes, I understand now.”

“Good. Another milestone passed.”

Skill Quotes Post-Timeskip (as Dimitri)

New Skill

“This better be useful.”

“What do I do with this?”

Skill Level Up

“I see.”

“A waste of time.”

“Hmph.”

Skill Mastery

“Should the rats be trembling now?”

“Done.”

Skill Quotes Post Timeskip (as Ivan)

New Skill

“This is new…”

“I have to work harder now.”

Skill Level Up

“Perhaps a little more practice will help.”

“Wait, I…I think I understand.”

“If only everything came to me so easily.”

Skill Mastery

“Oh, am I…done?”

“This will prove to be quite the boon.”

Battle Quotes Pre-Timeskip

When Selected

“I’ll cut through!” (Full Health)

“I’m still in top form.” (Half Health)

“I can’t fall yet…” (Low Health)

Enemy Deal 1 or No Damage or Misses

“Too slow!”

“Not good enough!”

Critical Attack

“It’s the end of the line!”

“Farewell!”

“For Faerghus!”

“Make your peace!”

Gambit Cut-In

“We can do this.”

Defeated Enemy

“It’s how it must be.”

“Stop shaking…”

“It had to be done.”

“It’s justice, that’s all.”

“I could have done that better.”

Ally Defeats Enemy

“You’ve done well!”

Ally Heals/Rallies

“I’m grateful to you.”

“Thank you.”

Reclassing

“I will do my best, I swear it.”

Battle Quotes Post-Timeskip (as Dimitri)

When Selected

“What?” (Full Health)

“This is nothing.” (Half Health)

“Death can’t claim me yet.” (Low Health)

Enemy Deal 1 or No Damage or Misses

“Fool!”

“Pathetic!”

Critical Attack

“Die!”

“To ashes with you!”

“Get out of my sight!”

“I’ll kill you!”

Gambit Cut-In

“Don’t drag me down.”

Defeated Enemy

“I’ll join you in hell soon enough.”

“Next.”

“Did you see them scream?”

“I lost myself too long ago.”

“Too simple.”

Ally Defeats Enemy

“You can’t do more?”

Ally Heals/Rallies

“A waste of effort.”

“Hmm.”

Reclassing

“If this doesn’t prove useful…”

Battle Quotes Post-Timeskip (as Ivan)

When Selected

“Please rely on me.” (Full Health)

“No, don’t worry about me.” (Half Health)

“I must…be cautious.” (Low Health)

Enemy Deal 1 or No Damage or Misses

“You tried, I’ll say that.”

“Saw it coming!”

Critical Attack

“I can’t let you through!”

“This is how it must be!”

“On my honor!

“I will protect them!”

Gambit Cut-In

“Together now!”

Defeated Enemy

“I won’t let this be in vain.”

“…I’m shaking again…”

“Will you haunt me now…?”

“I wonder if I was ever made for battle…”

“I hope you made your peace.”

Ally Defeats Enemy

“You’ve worked hard, haven’t you?”

Ally Heals/Rallies

“You’re too kind.”

“I don’t deserve it.”

Reclassing

“If I can help everyone like this, then I’ll be whatever I must be.”

Retreat Quote Pre-Timeskip

“I’m not allowed to die here. My apologies, but I must fall back for now.”

Retreat Quote Post-Timeskip (as Dimitri)

“Worthless, useless body! Remember my face, dog! I will see your blasted corpse yet!”

Retreat Quote Post-Timeskip (as Ivan)

“Dying isn’t an option. I promised so many people I would live. I’m sorry, I will make up for this, I swear!”

Death Quote Pre-Timeskip (before it’s revealed “Dimitri” had a brother)

“No…No…Not here, not now. Please…don’t hate me…Please.”

Death Quote Pre-Timeskip (after it’s revealed “Dimitri” had a brother)

“I need more time. Please…I can’t die yet…Give me…strength…Brother!”

Death Quote Post-Timeskip (as Dimitri)

“Don’t look at me…like that…Stop! I beg you! …No, I swear! I swear…I was doing…all I could…”

Death Quote Post-Timeskip (as Ivan)

“There’s so much…I still have to do…So much I…want to do…As myself! Please forgive me, everyone. Forgive me…Di…mi…tri…”

**BONUS **

Supports

In Ivan’s case, regarding supports, anyone who goes up to A or S support with him will only unlock their A and S supports with him after he’s chosen to be Ivan again. Likewise, anyone who goes up to B support with him will only unlock their final B support with him after he chooses to be Ivan again. By “final B support” I mean that in Ivan’s case, anyone who only goes up to B support with him has two B support related conversations.

Ivan’s Supports: Byleth, all members of the Blue Lions, Raphael, Marianne, Dorothea, Flayn, Gilbert, Alois, Catherine, Manuela

*Considering Ivan’s true nature, these supports will change quite a bit by the final support conversation(s)*

*No way am I gonna mention this boy loves music over and over and NOT give him supports with Dorothea and Manuela. But I expect his supports with them before he goes by his real identity again to be hilarious (and rather sad let’s be real) as he desperately tries to act like he doesn’t give a shit about music (also it’s so funny how disinterested canon Dimitri is in music I didn’t realize it until I looked up his info to write all this)*

Blue Lions Comments Around Monastery (Pre-Timeskip, after it’s revealed “Dimitri” had a brother)

Dedue: “I apologize. By the time I came into His Highness’ service, his brother was already dead, so I never knew him. All I can say is that his death has affected His Highness more than any of us could ever understand.”

Felix: “Don’t. If you want to learn about the boar prince and his brother, ask someone else. I don’t have anything to say about either of them.”

Ingrid: “…Ivan was a timid and quiet boy. Dimitri, Glenn, and Sylvain always protected him, he and Felix were two of a kind, and I always held his hand when he cried. The people of Faerghus didn’t see Ivan the way we saw him. I don’t think Ivan himself understood how we saw him either. Losing…Losing Ivan changed Dimitri…”

Sylvain: “You found out about Ivan, huh? It’s not like it’s supposed to be a secret, we just try not to talk about it much, for Dimitri’s sake. Be careful who you ask about Ivan. There are so many idiots who know nothing…Dimitri seems like he’s doing well, right? The guy’s a better actor than anyone gives him credit for.”

Ashe: “I’ve known about Prince Ivan since I was a commoner. Everyone considered him a joke, laughed about him and called him weak, pathetic. It made me want to meet him, you know. To see the real him. But then the Tragedy of Duscur happened and, well, you know…”

Mercedes: “It’s sad the way I’ve heard people talk about Prince Ivan. I can’t imagine how hurt Dimitri must feel, hearing people talk about his own brother like that. I wonder if they were close. Ah, but it may be insensitive to ask about that, wouldn’t it?”

Annette: “From what I can remember, no one thought much of Prince Ivan. Prince Dimitri was the heir, and he’s always been strong and smart. So, everyone pushed Prince Ivan to the side. I saw him once, at a party. Prince Dimitri was surrounded by so many people while Prince Ivan was alone, in the corner of the room. But…I could never tell if he wanted to join in or not.”

Dimitri: “Please, there’s no need to worry about me. I’ve accepted Ivan’s loss a long time ago. …My brother…was one of a kind. There’s no one who could be like him. Not a single person…”

Blue Lions Comments Around Monastery (Post-Timeskip, after it’s revealed “Dimitri” is Ivan)

Dedue: “I never knew the real Prince Dimitri. But from what I’ve heard of him, he seemed like the kind of person I would’ve enjoyed knowing. It doesn’t matter though. His Highness is the prince I know and believe in. There’s no other in this world that could replace him.”

Felix: “…A long time ago, when the boar was more of a human, he told me he wanted what his brother had. He always was jealous of him. Well, you can see how that turned out. As far as I’m concerned, both of the princes are long dead.”

Ingrid: “We lost Dimitri and Ivan nine years ago. Ivan was the one officially declared dead, so none of us could ever mourn for Dimitri properly. Meanwhile, Ivan warped himself to become Dimitri in every way. I don’t know if he even remembers who he truly is anymore…”

Sylvain: “Well, there you go! You’ve figured out our kingdom’s dirty little secret. Congratulations! …I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you. Ivan’s uncle and those court advisors who only care about appearances were the only ones who wanted this. Me, Felix, Ingrid, and Felix’s father tried to fight it. But Ivan went ahead and agreed to do the act, without any hesitation. It hurt us, all of us…”

Ashe: “Prince Dimitri is Prince Ivan? It’s like something out of a storybook. Ah, sorry, I know that’s not proper, but I don’t know what else to say. But…I wonder how much of the prince we knew back in the academy was real. Was…was anything of him real?”

Mercedes: “It must be difficult to wear the mask of someone you loved. To hear people speak of you and not know that you’re standing right there. I wonder…how long has it been since someone called him by his own name. What does he consider to be his own name now?”

Annette: “After the Tragedy of Duscur, when everyone thought it was Prince Ivan who died, I heard so many people who were thankful that it was him. They were glad because Prince Dimitri was so loved and respected, the idea of losing him was far more tragic. How cruel! How stupid! Acting as if it’s better one person died instead of another! It’s just…horrible!”

“Dimitri”/Ivan

???: “Go away…”

Byleth: (…Ivan?)

???: “Who…? Ah! …Leave.”

Byleth: (You’re Ivan.)

???: “Leave me alone!”

*I imagine that if this happened in the game then after it’s revealed that “Dimitri” is really Ivan, from this point onwards until he chooses to be Ivan again, his textbox would have his name listed as “???”, regardless of what anyone else calls him*

Blue Lions Comments Around Monastery (Post-Timeskip, after Ivan chooses to be himself again)

Dedue: “His Highness looks more at ease than I’ve ever seen him. His love for his brother was always obvious but I always thought it was suffocating him. But I couldn’t find the strength to tell him that, worried he’d think I was dismissing his feelings on the matter. …Thank you, Professor.”

Felix: “Ivan is still as dead as Dimitri is, you know. He spent nine years being his brother. That act, and his obsession with revenge, warped him over the past five years. The Ivan I knew will never come back. But I have to say, the way he’s behaving now…No, it’s nothing. Don’t tell anyone I said anything!”

Ingrid: “I hope Dimitri is happy. He would’ve never wanted his existence to make his brother suffer. Ivan always said Dimitri wanted him to get revenge, but I could never believe that. I’m sure, more than anything, Dimitri wished for his brother’s happiness. It’s been so long since I could interact with Ivan as Ivan! And I feel that, at long last, I can mourn for Dimitri now too.”

Sylvain: “Ivan. I never thought I could ever call him that again. I never thought I would see him be himself again! Well, he’s not completely the Ivan I remember. There’s so much he’s said and done, so much that’s changed him. I think the Ivan I grew up with will be, for the most part, only a memory. But he’s working hard to change himself and atone for all he’s done. So I’ll stay by this Ivan’s side every step of the way. We all will.”

Ashe: “I was worried when I heard Prince Dimitri was really Prince Ivan. I was scared that meant that the person I got to know at the academy was a fake, that all our memories together were fake. But I’ve been thinking about the prince I knew at the academy and the prince I know now. And I’ve realized they’re not that different. I think…I think our time together wasn’t as fake as I feared.”

Mercedes: “Ivan, Ivan, Ivan, Ivan. Oh, don’t mind me! Since the prince has chosen to go by his true name again, I’ve decided to practice. I don’t want to mess up, after all! Hmm, Ivan…The more I say it, the more I realize that it’s a lovely name. It suits him!”

Annette: “Oh, guess what? I learned that Prince Ivan likes music! I…accidentally overheard him humming in his room. So I asked around and Ingrid told me he used to be quite a musician when he was younger! Oh, but this makes things so much more embarrassing! I know he’s heard me sing my stupid songs…What do I do now?”

Ivan: “Hello, Professor…Is it strange, the way I speak now? I was always told my voice was softer than Dimitri’s. He truly was one of a kind. I don’t understand how anyone ever believed I was him. …I-it’s like we’re meeting for the first time again, isn’t it? Then, please let me introduce myself once more. I am Ivan Alexis Blaiddyd, the second prince of Faerghus. And, Professor? Thank you. With all my heart, thank you…”

Ivan: Light of Faerghus (Solo Ending)

Following the war, Ivan officially addressed the people of Faerghus and revealed his identity as Ivan Alexis Blaiddyd, revealing that it was his brother, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, who had died during the Tragedy of Duscur. The news caused much talk amongst the people, no one sure what to make of the man who was once considered a failure of a prince but was now their king. Although he was considered king, Ivan forwent an official ceremony, wanting to first focus on regaining the trust of the citizens, and wanting to hold a proper funeral for his brother. Three years after the war, a grand ceremony was finally held to officially welcome Ivan as the king, the people he worked diligently to regain the faith of celebrating for weeks. His hard work to reform the political system and the Church, his investment in the arts, and his work with the orphans of Fodlan, made him beloved by many to the end of his days. History books would proclaim King Ivan to be like a beacon in the darkness, the treasured Light of Faerghus.