#i gotta learn how to be more gestural and push my expressions and poses and shapes more

[arrowpunk]

I have gotta actually work on developing a more simple and stylized art style too

[lastxviolet]

Madripoor is for Lovers (Zemo x F!Reader) - Ch. 3

Summary: Y/N is a SWORD agent recruited to help Sam and Bucky track down Karli and the super-soldiers. When Helmut Zemo joins the team, he takes a special interest in her. The friendly union is wrought for disaster, but then things take a turn for the worst when Y/N is taken as collateral. Will Zemo keep her forever? Does she even want to escape? And what happened in Madripoor that made the whole thing so complicated?

Warnings: 18+ / smut / oral sex / f receiving

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32878015/chapters/81589774

The hypnotic bass and Zemo's enthusiastic dance moves almost got you carried away. But over the bouncing crowd, you saw Sharon, Bucky, and Sam on the stairs, looking for you.

“Shit,” you mumbled, breaking the trance. “We gotta go.”

Zemo followed your line of sight and turned to lead you back to the group in silence. You try to hide the disappointment on your face.

“We found him,” Sharon yelled over the music upon your approach.

The five of you went over the plan for tomorrow back in Sharon’s suite. You doubted that even with your experience, you could’ve found Dr. Nagel without Sharon's help. In the states, it was easy to pick a needle out of a haystack, because you always knew what you were looking for. But here, everyone was a criminal. Uncharted territory where you had to find the sharpest needle amongst thousands.

“You good?”

Sam’s voice cut through your thoughts. You looked up and noticed the dissipating group. Sharon showed Bucky to his room, and Zemo sat with his eyes glued to a book on the couch. Only Sam remained standing in front of you, looking like he was about to pass out.

“I’m fine,” you assured him. “Go get some sleep. You look terrible.”

He chuckled and nodded in agreement. “We gotta get the hell out of here. Madripoor has aged me at least ten years.”

“Me too. I miss places where being a criminal makes you the odd one out, not the other way around.”

“Goody two-shoes,” he teased before turning to find his room.

Sharon waved him on from down the hall and they got back into it about her pardon and what she’d missed in the states.

Your attention shifted to the only other person in the room. Zemo’s eyes wasted no time abandoning his book and landing on you as soon as you were alone.

“The Odyssey,” you asked, pointing to his book. “I didn’t take you for someone who enjoys fiction.”

He smiled at the attention and made room for you on the couch.

“I often find that there are elements of truth in every fantasy. The human spirit is sometimes better examined by poets than by professors. This, for instance, is a brilliant study on heroes.”

“Hmm, studying heroes? An attempt to know thy enemy?”

He laughed and turned to you with his elbow up on the back of the couch, bringing him less than a foot away from your face. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the lights down the hall go out. There were no interruptions, or easy outs, now. All that was left was you, and the only man who’d ever made you truly nervous.

“Y/N, if you were in Odysseus’s place, content and immortal, would you give it up to go back home?”

“You’re asking me if I’d abandon my legacy and family to shack up on an island with some mistress?”

He chuckled and nodded in approval. “Very wise. But what does he gain by leaving? Struggle? Hardship? Mortality?”

You tilted your head to match his. “Are you telling me that you’d stay on the island?”

His expression shifted for the first time since you’d stepped foot in Madripoor. The overconfident, smirking Baron dissolved into a man.

A man who hid the sense of riotousness that he carried with dramatic flair. A man whose charm and wit seemed fabricated.

This man now, fighting off sleepy eyes and grappling with the moral quandary posed, seemed burdened. You wondered if his quest for justice would ever get to be too much. After all the destruction he’d caused, could he still see himself as the exactor of fairness? Were the Avengers still his enemy? Were you?

“No,” he confessed looking down at the copy in his hands.

Your lips twitched but you didn’t smile. “You’d make the hard choice — the hero’s choice if it came down to it.”

He looked almost somber at your words and nodded.

“In another life…perhaps.”

His voice wavered, almost as if he regretted saying it out loud. The briefing that Sam and Bucky had given you about him flashed in your mind.

A hero's choice was the right thing to do; the hard thing to do. You knew that he was a soldier before everything happened. Just like you.

Was that not a hero’s choice?

He tore the Avengers apart in an attempt to stitch up his own heart. An eye for an eye. Avenging his country because its destruction had been glossed over by the world. His loss fueled his anger but he was more capable than most. A man without armor, or mystical abilities was able to wreak havoc on those who had wronged him.

Was that heroism?

If losing those you love didn’t permit revenge, you weren't sure what did.

He broke the silence by tapping his knuckle on the book.

“It is the perfect testament to the valiance of heroes,” he continued. "But, I must say that the wisest thing Odysseus did was marry his wife.”

You laughed and nodded, remembering how she saved the day. Without her, Odysseus’s homecoming would’ve been much more perilous for him.

“I often find that behind every great man is an even better woman.”

He smirked and didn’t miss a beat. “Like you with…your Avengers.”

“I stand beside them,” you corrected.

He raised an eyebrow and waved a hand. “Semantics."

You gave him an eye roll in return.

He smiled then, wider than you had ever seen. It almost made him seem shy. Perhaps it was because he was making a genuine point, masked in humor.

You were well aware of your importance to this mission and yet burdened by the fact that it didn’t make you a member of their special club. When this was all over, you wouldn’t be an Avenger, or anywhere close. You’d go back to S.W.O.R.D to wait until called upon again. It hadn’t occurred to you before, but there was a pang of sadness there where the thought rested. It’d be a mistake to let Zemo know but it seemed to be too late.

“You’re making fun of me.”

His hand brushed yours. “No. I am merely expressing my concerns about your allegiances.”

Still aware of the small amount of alcohol left in your system, you looked away from his quirked moving lips.

“Enlighten me, Baron. What wrong decisions do you think I’m making?”

Frozen in place, you let him brush his fingers along your wrist to your arm. He took his time, tracing patterns on your skin and inspecting his work with an unwavering gaze. Only when his thumb caressed your cheek, and his hand landed on your neck did he look you in the eyes again. The air in your lungs was gone and your body betrayed you with a furious eruption of butterflies.

“Living a hero’s life,” he said somber-eyed and serious.

Your heart rate quickened. As if you’d learned nothing in S.W.O.R.D about manipulation, you were back to watching his lips. They parted slightly, as if he had something else to say but thought better of it.

A hero.

You didn't feel like one.

A sidekick, maybe. But even then, no one knew your name. No one sang your praises at home or breathed a sigh of relief knowing you were out there in the world fighting evil. It seemed that the only one who thought of you as more than an assistant was Zemo.

Your heart felt heavy then. The two of you were impossible. An inconceivable pair brought together by chance.

But that didn’t make his dark eyes any less enticing or his words any less intoxicating.

That didn’t make you any further from his lips.

He was a breath away, but so was your own destruction.

In another life, the island might tempt you.

“Look,” you said glancing past him to find something to change the subject. “It’s a full moon.”

Without sparing him another glance, you crossed the floor in four quick steps to the large windows. Never one to give up easily, you heard him follow close behind.

He beat you there and pushed open the glass door before gesturing towards the balcony in silence.

You looked down at your feet until the skyline drew your eyes. The plan to diffuse the tension had not worked in the slightest. The moonlit balcony overlooking the beautiful city had only made it worse.

You heard him stop a few feet from you and then settle on the lone armchair. The reality of the situation hit you like a train. Away from the windows, you had privacy. This high up no one would see you and everyone else was in bed. You'd meant to creep out of the lion's den but instead, you'd locked yourself in.

“The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to,” Zemo mused from behind you.

“Carl Sanburg,” you confirmed, so he knew you didn't think he'd made it up.

Both of you were silent then. Swaying in the tension you'd built. Sanity pulling you back inside, inexplicable hope keeping you planted in place.

“Are you lonely, Baron?”

The words fell from your lips more delicate and intimate than you had meant them to. You let slip that you cared about his answer. That you might even care to cure him of the ailment.

“Me? No.”

You turned and scoffed.

“Liar. You were in a cell for years and you hardly talk to anyone now that you’re out.”

He leaned back in the chair, arms on either rest and a leg crossed with the ankle of his right knee. His demeanor was harmless in the same way that a predator poised to pounce was. Elegant, still, and ready for the kill.

“Not true,” he corrected. “I talk to you.”

“One person isn’t enough,” you said, taking a step closer.

Were you walking into disaster? Or being pulled? You couldn't tell the difference between his seduction and your own reckless desires any longer.

“The right person though…can be,” he half-whispered. “And you, Y/N, are more than I deserve.”

He gazed up at you from the chair. Kings throughout history, in war-won golden thrones and elegant capes, paled in comparisons to how regal he looked. Anointed with a crown of moonlight, ruling over whomever he pleased.

Your eyes widened with the admission. “Baron — ”

“Helmut, please.” He stood then and met you near the railing, his hand grazing your hip. “Only if for tonight.”

You shook your head, knowing this was a bad idea. His hand made its way to your waist regardless. He pulled you against his chest before searching your eyes for any signal that you were going to run. You knew he’d find nothing. You knew you mirrored his look of lust with blown pupils and flushed cheeks.

“Have I gone too far,” he whispered, bringing his other hand to brush loose hair behind your ear.

“No,” you sighed, letting him pull you closer and brush his lips to your cheek and jaw.

“Tell me if I do,” he whispered again before finally capturing your lips with his.

You uttered no complaints as his tentative kiss turned bruising and possessive. His arms wound around your waist, crushing you into him. But you needed to feel closer. He grunted as you sprung to action, flinging your arms around his neck, deepening the desperate kiss. He tasted like whiskey and something sweet. A cool breeze brushed against the exposed parts of your body. You let your hands wander beneath his coat, chasing warmth and proximity. He let you do as you please, only insisting that his lips stayed on yours.

You let out a whimper as his hand explored the front of your dress. He stopped to press his warm hand against your breast, before holding your face.

It was then that he pulled away, steadying your searching lips with a grip on your chin.

“Ich esse nicht,” he sighed, kissing a pattern to your ear. “Ich schlafe nicht, ich tue nichts anderes, als an dich zu denken.”

His teeth grazed your pulse point, leaving you gasping for air.

“I don’t speak German,” you managed to stutter out.

A hand slid up the back of your dress, gripping the zipper before undoing it in one swift motion and the fabric fell to the floor. The cool air seized your naked torso for only a moment before Zemo pressed himself against you again. The coat you’d complained about before, now provided warmth and security. You tipped your head back, almost over the edge of the balcony as he continued worshipping your neck and chest.

“I don’t eat, I don’t sleep,” he said between wet open-mouthed kisses on your breasts. His hot mouth left purple spots that cooled instantly in the chilly night air.

“I do nothing but think of you,” he finished before toying with your hardened nipple between his teeth.

You moaned then, louder than you should’ve, and let your eyes flutter open. The world was upside-down but you made no motion to move. You were making Madripoor proud by being pressed up against a balcony by an international criminal.

Utterly pleased with himself, Zemo raised his face back towards yours, leaning you both over the edge.

“Shhh liebling,” he cooed.

He pulled you back over, kissing your shoulder before removing his jacket and draping it over you. Each brush of his lips feeling more improper than the last.

“We would not want your friends to see you like this.”

In the next second, he swept you off of your feet and hoisted you into his strong arms. You watched the world sway around you and then settle when he placed you on the lounge chair, letting you get some warmth back from the coat and cushions.

He draped one of your legs over an armrest, exposing you to him except for a thin pair of underwear.

“Not with you spread open for me,” he growled. He towered over you for only a moment before kneeling between your legs. The man whose stature made him the tallest amongst giants; the most important in any room he chose, knelt before you.

“What would they say,” he mumbled in a trace. His hands gripped both of your thighs, causing an eruption of goosebumps across your whole body. “If they saw you like this, with me?”

He looked up at you then, raising an eyebrow, and tracing the inside of your thigh with his thumb.

You answered him breathlessly. “They’d tell you to stop.”

“And what would you say to that?”

His voice sent shockwaves through your system. Dark and sultry, with a hint of danger. You threw your head back again, barely able to keep a single thought straight. Your body shuddered but you couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or the need for his touch. When you looked back to him, he was surveying your body with the hunger of a starved wolf.

“Would you want me to stop?” His voice was gentle and sweet then, asking in earnest.

“Meine Liebe," he taunted you for consent as he flashed a smirk and pulled something from his pocket.

Cold metal grazed your thigh. A moan escaped your throat as he unsheathed a serrated knife and caressed your skin with the dull side.

“I wouldn’t want you to stop,” you gasped, almost vibrating with anticipation. “I don’t want you to stop — Helmut — please don’t stop.”

He chucked again, before focusing his attention on the area between your legs. You bucked slightly as the icy knife slid underneath the fabric. He made one strong slash upwards and you felt the fabric fall away from your wet core. One of his hands gripped your ass, but only for a second before he tore the rest of the fabric from your body.

“How could I ever withhold something from you, liebling?” His nose grazed your inner thigh, inching closer and closer to where you needed him most. It was only a moment before you felt his breath between your legs.

“How cruel it would be,” he growled. You moaned and slapped a hand over your mouth as he kissed your sensitive bundle of nerves. “To not give you everything.”

His tongue swirled against you in a tantalizing pattern, stroking you deliciously. He licked you methodically like he was reading the blueprint of your body right then and there. He held each thigh in a punishing grip, pressing you deeper into the cushions as he made a meal of you. The stars above your head blurred and the universe shifted.

If this was your destruction then it was illustrious. You'd do it over and over again until you landed in a cell right next to him.

“Helmut,” you whined with a heaving chest.

“Tell me what you want,” he mumbled between flicks of his tongue. “And it is yours.”

You would’ve begged him to let you cum but he beat you to it, making your back arch and mouth fall open in ecstasy. You trembled beneath him, over and over, but he didn’t let up. Your legs strained from being extended by his unflinching hands. You tried to stutter something out to him but no sound came except for content sighs and haphazard gasps. But his eyes remained closed regardless of the noise.

Without his mouth on you, he would’ve been mistakable for a good Christian, deep in prayer. Brow's furrowed in focus and devotion; lips moving in silent divine appeals. Only he could make you feel worthy of an alter. You couldn't picture anyone ever worshipping you in the same way again. It was his, you thought. I am his.

Lost in pleasure and shock, you reached up to run your nails against his scalp. Only then did he release you, and raise to meet your waiting lips as they trembled.

“You,” was all you could manage to whisper. “Only you.”

He pulled you from the seat, to wrap your legs around him. You brought your forehead to his and let him pepper you with chaste kisses.

“When I have you,” he said, before pulling the coat around you again. “It will be in a proper bed.”

You stared at him, confused and overwhelmed. The space between your legs ached with a longing to be filled but he let your legs fall away, and stood up.

“We can’t…I mean not now — they’ll hear.”

Zemo smiled and nodded while looking for something on the ground. After a moment of searching, he picked up the torn pieces of the red underwear you had been wearing. Before you could retrieve it, he pocketed the shorn fabric and stared you straight in the eyes.

“Worry not, Y/N,” he purred, reaching a hand out to help you up. “We have all the time in the world.”

[soundsaboutrighttumblr]

Meta 2 for episode 5 of WBL: Fighting Mr. 2nd

What an amazing episode of power games and softness where softness is due.

Already typed meta about Pei Shou Yi and Yu Zhen Xuan here, so I’ll start with a short nod to Zhe Yu and his sweet soft faces to Bing Wei in this ep, which happen at the sidelines and the edge of the screen, but I am loving it, softness where softness is due.

Also the smug smirk after providing Shi De with the explicit paraphrasing for the sentiment expressed, I laughed, loudly.

I love how the scene that follows shows Shi De’s deductive skills and intelligence, as I feel this episode is really out to remind us, what competent players in that game they all are, CEO Shi De, but also Shu Yi, providing the strategic asset later, when ordering to distract the other directors by causing trouble in their own firms.

They really are top players, both, in their fields, and to think of those forces combined? I am ready for them to conquer the world and face all opponents, all the while supporting each other and lifting the other up with their capabilities, when needed.

And calling each other out on their bullcrap, lol. “I’ll never say dumb things like What can’t defeat us makes us stronger.” “You just did.”

Yeah, it is done in a playful manner, but still, and I am loving it, because they can do that, and the whole office must be shipping them by now, right.

The scene goes on to show Shi De’s and Shu Yi’s capabilities in leading and motivating employees, again. We stan a power couple. Also, Shi De’s immediate jealousy when the female employees fawn over Shu Yi’s humble gesture? Yeah, gotta put that arm around him real quick to stake your claim. Nice.

(Also: WBL is master at playing with our expectations and leading our gaze, directing it to wo we might suspect with the crime, then twisting it on us, to teach a lesson. Be it with stolen projects or fathers, or misunderstandings about cheating and other stuff. Or perceived dynamics about roles in relationships. They hold all the cards telling the story, they love the subversion of expectations, and they do it masterfully, providing lessons about how everything is maybe not as it seems, and so much more layered when it comes to humans. They take us along on the ride of realizing that over and over again, along with the characters.)

Yeah, so our capable leaders are also on a mole hunt. While rebuilding alpha by a deadline. More demonstrations of intelligence and leadership, and capability, and Shu Yi looks at his capable boyfriend, and I was reminded of what Mama Shi De said, way back then:

To be able to look at your partner with satisfaction…

And that’s just it, right? They are both so proud to be with each other, hold the other in such high esteems again, can look at them with satisfaction for having made the decision to be with them, for being that lucky, that privileged.

Then Bing Wei arrives with food. (I see you, grumpy, soft Zhe Yu.)

That powerful metaphor of taking care. And Shu Yi offers some to Shi De. And Shi De being in self sacrificing mode again, declines, puts Shu Yi’s needs first. But Shu Yi insists, doesn’t let him get out of it. The flirting in front of the salads, Shu Yi offering to feed Shi De?

It is as much playful flirting, not caring who looks on, as it is a demonstration of their growths, Shu Yi insisting and reminding Shi De, that both their needs and well being are important, and that they need to eat together. For me, it is also a play with roles again, who is the caretaker, who the care receiver, the feeder, the one being fed, it is a playful way to show how they share that responsibility now, how they work to be equal on this, and how they can take on each role for the other when it is needed.

Watch me totally take this and take it into the bedroom for them, and how they are with each other in bed. And I don’t mean a feeding kink, I mean versatility and flexibility with needs and roles, that need to work FOR you, not limit you.

Anyways.

Shu Yi what’s with that smile, and the pose on that recliner, huh? After giving big boss orders to distract those scheming directors away from your case and your husband’s, so helpful, so… what’s with that head tilt? Does it mean, Husband, get rid of Bing Wei and Zhe Yu and appreciate my pose on this recliner, or is that just me projecting, lol? Didn’t know how to interpret that head tilt otherwise.

Okay, to the scene with Shu Yi coming back from the dinner. Shi De already preparing to face Dad again, with the contents of that brown envelope we will learn about. In comes a tired slouching Shu Yi with snacks, because he didn’t want to eat with his family being political tricksters and everything a game of power to them in the arena of their company. He wants to eat midnight snacks with Shi De, instead of a banquet with false friends and scheming relatives. Relatable.

Yes Shi De, he knows already, the point of a meal is not the food but the person you are eating with. He’s here, alright. Also, you can’t tell me Shi De doesn’t love the way the recliner rocks Shu Yi’s entire being, once he sits down close, lol.

And then begins the conversation between the lines:

Shu Yi is saying he will have to keep playing that two faced game for a while.

Shi De counters he will support him, from the privacy of their own dinners, taking care of him. He leans close to provide comfort, and you can tell Shu Yi is already soaking it up, but still has something on his chest.

The statement that he wants to be chairman in this scene to me implies that he is saying: Maybe we can’t be as open as we want for a while yet, because it will make things more difficult.

Shi De counters he knew, showing that he is aware and that it has influenced his past actions, too, to make things less difficult or Shu Yi, to support him the best way.

In a way he really only became Number one, to be the best support for Shu Yi, how tragic comical how it led to make things harder for Shu I anyway, but that’s the thing with Shi De’s decisions, Dad’s also, they come from the best intentions, but Shu Yi sits in their boat, being affected as well, being rocked with his entire being an the boat.

Shi De says he will be Shu Yi’s support, Shu Yi has the best support in him.

And Shu Yi says he doesn’t want Shi De to give up his own needs to put his career second to Shu Yi’s much like with the food, he doesn’t want to be first, just equal.

But Shi De reminds him it’s about choice. And that is something that Shu Yi requested from Shi De before, so of course he will accept choice.

The following is again a display on that thing they do, the flirting, the pushing and pulling, that plays with boundaries, so sweet on the surface so deep a conversation, so strong the effects they have on each other.

‘Do you have to stand so close, someone might see. - But you came close. - Oh did I? Those are some top notch players at their games. Shu Yi is a master of seduction, and no one can convince me otherwise.

And that leaning onto each other, how Shu Yi totally gives himself up in that embrace? The comfort that scene oozes, Shu Yi might just have gone to sleep right there in his arms, if that went on for a second longer, that safe is how he feels in Shi De’s arms and love. To be held like that, and to accept it the way Shu Yi accepts it. I’ma cry. This is how you do love, isn’t it? Being that for each other, when they need it. Letting the other be that for you, when you need it.

Let me just stop this meta here, because the scene with Shi De and Dad will need its own meta.

But like I concluded in my first meta about Pei Shou Yi and Yu Zhen Xuan:

I love how this episode again plays with themes of power, with roles of caretaker and caregiver, with terms of strong and weak and its subversions and the need for such subversions and flexibilities in human relationships, boundaries and transgressions and how everyone is affected, the physical and the mental/emotional needs and acts and how they blur lines, expectations and how they lead and direct our gaze, and how we will be fools for that most times, and how that’s just human. How the decision who we’d like to be with is ours, defining our identity, whether or not you get to be with that person.

[dalgikiss]

Catch-22 // h. iwaizumi

index

part 12

What the fuck does that mean, wait a little longer? 

Iwaizumi threw his gym bag on the floor, yelling an apology out his room when his mother complained about the noise he was making. 

Wasn’t waiting two, almost three years long enough? How much longer was he supposed to wait? The rest of his life?

Angrily changing out of his uniform and almost slipping as his foot got caught on his pants, he threw himself on his bed, staring at the ceiling where you had taped a photo of them posing in various ways after one of their practices.  

“It’s so that we’re the last thing you see at night and the first thing you see in the morning!” You had told him, making grabby fingers so that Hanamaki would hand you the tape. 

You had admired your work on his ceiling when you were done before turning to face Iwaizumi with a grin. “If their faces- You gestured towards the three other boys who were currently fighting over the last yakult “-scare you, just focus on me instead. I’m prettier than all of them anyways”

Matsukawa looked up from where he was prying Oikawa’s hand off the yakult cup. “You’re ugly as hell”

“Hey!” You threw yourself onto him, forcing your way to the drink and Iwaizumi had only stared at the rest of you and then back at the photos on his ceiling. 

It wasn’t until you all yelled and then he heard a crash, looking over to find his lamp on the ground and his shelf askew while books were scattered around the floor.

“Pick up my shit before I throw you all out the window” 

He jerked out of his memories when he heard his mother calling for him, reaching up and ripping the photo off his ceiling. 

“Hajime! Come down for dinner!” 

He stared at your smiling faces one last time and shoved it into his desk drawer before making his way down to the dinner table. 

Oikawa probably just didn’t know what he was talking about

x.

You stared blankly at the chalkboard, the teacher’s lesson turning into background noise. Math just wasn’t meant to be learned, you had come to this decision in your first year, watching the numbers begin to scramble with the letters on the board. 

The flowers Oikawa had drawn on the corner of your notebook had turned into a mini garden, complete with a smiling sun and a buzzing bumblebee. You could always ask Iwaizumi for the notes later. 

Your hand froze in the middle of shading in a stripe on the bee as you realized what you had internally thought. 

Thinking back to your last interaction with him made you jittery, shaking your legs with nervous energy and maybe was it your imagination but things seemed to be going downhill between the two of you. 

Right, maybe not Iwaizumi then. You took a deep breath out your nose before returning to work on your miniature garden. You didn’t notice when Iwaizumi had glanced over at your notebook, shaking his head silently at your half empty page. 

Once the teacher had given the first signal that class was over, you had raced out in a heartbeat to go bother Hanamaki and Oikawa, leaving Iwaizumi to sit there quietly by himself. When you returned, you stared at the math notes that had been placed on your desk, Iwaizumi’s name scribbled on the lines. 

“Thanks” You whispered, looking up so to make sure the teacher didn’t catch you talking. He didn’t say a word, pretending to not have heard you but the way his ears turned pink said more than enough. 

x.

“She’s staring at me again” You poked Matsukawa’s ribs and he looked up from his phone, turning his head slightly to see Ryuoko unabashedly staring at you from the other side of the hallway.

“Maybe she should go out with you and not Iwaizumi” Matukawa teased, “She seems to be obsessed with you”

“Great” You grumble, pressing yourself into his side in a weak attempt to make yourself seem smaller “love my number one psychotic fan”

Pretending as though Iwaizumi’s girlfriend wasn’t busy staring you down like you had murdered her family, you shoved your head into Matsukawa’s way to stare at his instagram feed. 

“Your big ass forehead is in the way” His nose twitched in irritation, pushing your head away with his free hand

“My forehead is NOT big, you asshole, take it back!” You pressed against his hand, refusing to let him win.

“It’s huge! You’re blocking me!”

“You just have a small phone, stop pushing me!”

“Move your freaking head if you don’t want me to push you”

You pouted, letting him push you away with a final shove. Taking a sneak peek at the direction Ryuoka was once standing, you let out a relieved sigh when she was no longer there. Matsukawa took a look at your dejected expression, rolling his eyes before pressing his palm against your forehead. 

“I’m kidding, your forehead is perfect sized” 

You rolled your eyes in return but accepted his makeshift apology anyways, letting your head roll back onto the window behind you. The sound of your classmates completely immersed in their conversations, laughing hard at jokes made you wonder when the last time you had that kind of interaction with Iwaizumi, the hand that’s still resting on your forehead slowly beginning to lull you into sleep. 

You only jerk awake when Matsukawa lands a small slap on your forehead, startling you. Before you can open your mouth and ask him what the absolute fuck was that for, you dick! He nods to the other side of the hallway where Iwaizumi had appeared in your classroom doorway, hand reaching out to gently tug on Ryuoko’s arm. 

The both of you watched as he whispered something lowly, facial expressions contorting from one of apprehension to one of frustrated annoyance as Ryuoko flipped him off, brushing her hair over her shoulder and walking away. 

Both you and Matsukawa flinch when he looks in your direction, immediately pretending to be extremely interested inside the nearest classroom, earning a few weird looks from your classmates when you stand outside their doorway awkwardly. 

Matsukawa crouched behind your back, your small frame doing absolutely nothing to hide his 6’2 frame. 

You took a step backward after making sure Iwaizumi was no longer there, almost falling over Matsukawa who had moved too slow.

“Are you stupid? Why would you hide behind me when you’re bigger than me in every aspect?”

“It’s not my fault you’re the same size as a child!”

He took a quick glance out the hallway, checking to see if the coast was clear before helping you out the classroom, a faint apology on the tips of his tongue for barging into the classroom so suddenly. 

“I wonder what that was all about,” Matsukawa said and you shrug, thinking back to your actual last conversation with him in your room. 

“You think they broke up?” he teases, leaning too close to you, “Bet you’d be happy about that” 

You scowl, flicking your fingers against his forehead. “I’ll kill you”

“They’ve been having a fight” You explain, pinching the bridge of your nose. It’s an Iwaizumi thing, a habit you seemed to have picked up from the days you spent with him and you hastily pluck your fingers away to rub circles into your temples. 

“Oh yeah, he mentioned something about her making him choose between us or her” 

“He told you?” You almost gave yourself whiplash, turning to face him so quickly you had a headrush. “What else did he say?”

Matsukawa furrowed his eyebrows. “It’s not like you to be so nosy”

“Just answer my question!”

“He didn’t say anything. I told him you avoiding him was for the sake of their relationship though”

“You did what? Oh my god, I can’t believe you. I’ve gotta transfer schools, I’m going to change my name, dye my hair- do you think blue is a good color for me? Holy- I have to learn a whole new lang-”

Matsukawa wonders if he should throw you onto the other side of the hallway to make you shut up. When the bell rings, he thanks every listening higher deity up in the heavens and makes a mental note to stop by the shrine that he passes by on the way home from school to say his thanks. You don’t seem to have noticed the bell had rung though, still going off on a tangent that he had stopped listening to once you had started. 

You paused when Matsukawa put his hands on either side of your face, eyes growing wide when he brought you closer to him before scrunching your face up, already knowing what was coming. 

“Shut the fuck up” 

He smacked your forehead against his lightly, the action disorienting your vision for a couple of seconds and effectively silencing you. 

“The bell rang, go back to class” Without another word, he walked away, taking a small peek back to make sure you had begun moving. 

You inhaled deeply and exhaled before turning the doorknob of the classroom, taking your seat. The tension between you and Iwaizumi had just met a new high, one that couldn’t have been beat. 

At least, that’s what you think.

[queenofcats17]

Vandren’s Asshole Snake

Based on this post by first @feyfrumpkin and then @sockablock

Enjoy the misadventures of these idiots petsitting (and losing) Vandren’s asshole snake

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

Fjord had not thought this through. Not completely, at least. But when Vandren asked him to do something, he did so without a second thought. He knew he didn’t need to. Vandren would have understood if he’d said no. But Fjord had agreed and now he was stuck taking care of Vandren’s snake Uk’otoa while Vandren went on a sailing holiday. Vandren had promised he wouldn’t be gone more than a week, but it was hard to tell. Vandren liked wandering when he was at sea. That wasn’t the point, though. The point was that Fjord was stuck watching this asshole snake for however long Vandren was gone. 

Fjord had gotten it into his head that he could do this up until he was alone with Uk’otoa. After all, Caduceus had told him that it would be fine.

“Taking care of an animal is a wonderful learning experience.” He’d said. “I think it would do you a lot of good.”

“But what if I fuck it up?” Fjord had asked. “What if it dies?”

“I’m confident you won’t kill him.” Caduceus had assured him with one of his low rumbling laughs. “But if you end up having trouble, I’ll do my best to help you.” As usual, Caduceus’ words had soothed Fjord’s anxieties. It would be fine, he told himself. He could do this. 

At first, it had seemed like he could do it. Uk’otoa had been perfectly well-behaved while Vandren was dropping him off. Thankfully, Vandren had written up some instructions for taking care of the snake, so it wasn’t as though Fjord was going in blind. Unfortunately, the second Vandren walked out the door, Uk’otoa turned on Fjord. He’d hissed, tried to bite Fjord, tried to escape.

“Cad. Help.” Fjord hissed into the phone, eyes darting over to where the snake was glaring at him. 

“What’s wrong?” Caduceus asked. As usual, his tone was calm and even. He’d left to buy some groceries before Vandren had arrived and thus hadn’t yet experienced the terror the snake was capable of. 

“I shouldn’t have agreed to this. The snake is evil.”

“Now, I’m sure he’s just nervous at being left with someone new. He’ll calm down once you give him some time to settle in.”

“No, you don’t understand. It. Is. Evil.” 

Uk’otoa had settled on a rock, staring intently at Fjord. Fjord hadn’t known snakes were capable of expressing that much disdain in only a look. He was curled up, tail flicking back and forth. Fjord had weighed down the top of the tank with the heaviest books he could find after Uk’otoa had slammed his body against the top in an attempt to dislodge it and escape. The heat lamp had been knocked over once or twice, but thankfully hadn’t burned anything.

“Look, I’ll be back in a little bit. Just sit tight,” Caduceus said. “You’re obviously feeling stressed. Why don’t you make some tea while you wait? I got a new blend at the farmer’s market last weekend.” Fjord just groaned and let Caduceus hang up. Well, at least when the firbolg got back he’d see how evil the snake truly was.

Fifteen minutes later, Caduceus arrived home with the groceries. Fjord hadn’t made any tea, instead sitting down on their admittedly rather beat-up couch to engage in a staring contest with Uk’otoa. The snake had tried a few more times to ram the lid open before deciding he was stuck for the moment and curling on the rock again. Fjord hadn’t wanted to leave the room lest Uk’otoa actually manage to get out.

“He seems to have calmed down,” Caduceus said, casting a glance toward the tank.

“He’s biding his time.” Fjord murmured. 

“I think you might be projecting.” Caduceus laughed. “Animals can’t really be evil.”

“It’s evil. You’ll see.” Fjord whispered. “You’ll see...” He had the sort of thousand-yard stare one associated with great trauma. Caduceus chuckled to himself, heading to the kitchen to put the groceries away. When he returned, he was carrying two cups of tea. 

“Here, drink this.” He handed one cup to Fjord, putting the other on the table. “It should help calm you down.”

“I’m perfectly calm!” Fjord protested. Even as he said this, though, his voice cracked.

“Sure you are.” Caduceus gave him one of his gentle smiles. Then he turned his attention to the tank. He knelt down, tapping a finger against the glass. 

“Hey there, little guy.” He said. “How’s it going?” Uk’otoa narrowed his eyes, tongue flicking out. 

“I know you’re probably scared because you’re in a new environment, but we’re not gonna hurt you.” He continued, giving the snake a comforting smile. 

Caduceus’ voice may have calmed everyone and everything, but it was not calming Uk’otoa. As soon as Caduceus removed the books weighing the mesh cover down, the snake rammed it in an attempt to throw the firbolg off guard and escape. This had the opposite effect, as Caduceus’ reaction to this was to yell and slam the cover back on. Quickly, he put the books back and turned back to Fjord.

“We need to get rid of it.” 

“As much as I appreciate that you believe me, I can’t just get rid of him now!” Fjord said. “Vandren left an hour ago! He’s probably already set sail!”

“Then call him!” Caduceus hissed, eyes darting fearfully back to Uk’otoa. 

“How?!” Fjord threw his hands up in desperation. “He doesn’t even have a cell phone!”

“He doesn’t?” Caduceus frowned. “Then how do you get in contact with him?”

“He’s got an old landline he uses.”

“And when he’s not near the landline?”

“You just hope he’s not dead or something.”

Caduceus stared at him for a moment. “You have strange friends.”

“Like you’re one to talk.” Fjord grumbled. Caduceus’ family were some of the weirdest people Fjord had ever met and he absolutely had no right to judge. Caduceus gave him one of his patented ‘Southern Belle’ judgment looks, folding his arms. 

“Anyway, what are we gonna do about this?” Fjord asked, subtly jerking his head back toward the tank. Caduceus didn’t immediately answer, beginning to worry with his tail as he thought.

The apartment was agonizingly silent as the two of them frantically tried to figure out some way to deal with Uk’otoa. 

“Isn’t Mollymauk home?” Caduceus suddenly asked, his eyes lighting up.

“Molly? What does he have to do with this?” Fjord asked. 

“He worked at the circus, didn’t he? And if he worked at the circus, he might have worked with animals.” Caduceus gestured back to Uk’otoa, who may or may not have been flipping them off with his tail. 

“Oh, shit! Yeah!” Fjord’s eyes widened. 

Mollymauk had worked in the circus for a time, although he hadn’t actually had any animal handling experience. This didn’t particularly matter to either Fjord or Caduceus at the moment, though.

“Watch him.” Fjord said to Caduceus before bolting to Mollymauk’s room and pounding on the door. 

“I’m up! I’m up! Stop it!” Molly’s voice came from inside. After a few minutes of shuffling, Molly opened the door in a purple robe. A very small purple robe that he was absolutely not wearing anything under. Had Fjord not been living with Molly for a few years, this might have flustered him. At this point, they’d all seen each other naked and none of them cared.  

“What?” Molly asked, stifling a yawn. 

“You gotta help. The snake’s evil.”

“Snake?” Molly frowned for a moment before recognition crossed his features. “Vandren dropped off his snake?” Fjord was pretty sure he didn’t like the mischevious glow developing in Molly’s eyes. 

“Yeah, and it’s evil,” Fjord said. “Deucy already tried to do his weird animal magic on it and it didn’t work.”

“Mm. I see.” Molly nodded, but it was clear he wasn’t listening. The gears were turning in his mind, probably toward some plan Fjord wasn’t going to like.

“Look, did you work with animals at the circus?” Fjord asked as Molly turned away and started digging through his drawers. 

“Oh no. I wasn’t allowed near the animals after I almost got disemboweled by a lion.” Molly started throwing clothes onto his bed. “I probably would’ve died if Yasha hadn’t dragged it off of me.”

“Fuck,” Fjord muttered. They were well and truly screwed then. He didn’t want the snake around, Caduceus didn’t want the snake around. Molly would probably like it, but that was mostly because he didn’t seem to have much in the way of self-preservation. The ER staff were on a first-name basis with him. Fjord already felt like going and screaming in the woods.

“Molly, what’re you doing?” He asked when he noticed Molly had discarded his robe and was starting to pull on the clothes he’d thrown onto his bed. 

“It’s not every day we get a snake in the house.” Molly grinned back at Fjord. “Might as well make the most of it, mm?”

“Make the most of it...how?” Fjord was sure he didn’t want to know Molly’s answer. 

“Why, a photoshoot of course!” Molly proclaimed, striking a dramatic pose. He’d picked out a sparkly crop top, black jean shorts, and some striped leggings.

“No.” Fjord started to shake his head. “No, you are not taking that thing out of its tank.”

“Oh, come on, Fjord.” Molly draped himself over Fjord’s shoulder. “When are we going to get another chance like this? A chance to make something beautiful~” He punctuated his last word with a grand hand gesture. 

“It’s gonna bite you.” Fjord insisted.

“It’ll be fine.” Molly scoffed, pushing off of Fjord. “I doubt Vandren would keep a venomous snake around.”

Uk’otoa was, in fact, extremely venomous. The only reason he hadn’t killed anyone was that he liked Vandren enough not to make trouble too much. But his distaste for Fjord outweighed his fondness for Vandren.

Caduceus was watching Uk’otoa from behind the couch when Fjord and Molly reentered the living room. Molly had gotten out the Polaroid camera he’d scavenged from a thrift shop and only brought out for ‘special occasions’. 

“Have no fear, your god has arrived!” Molly announced, striding in.

“Are you going to get rid of the snake?” Caduceus asked. “Please say you’re going to get rid of the snake.”

“Why would I get rid of it?” Molly laughed.

“Because it’s evil and wants to kill us while we sleep?” Fjord suggested. 

“Don’t you two have any sense of adventure?” Molly leaned on the back of the couch. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!” Caduceus stared blankly at him. He’d only really understood that Molly was not going to be getting rid of the snake.

“He wants to take pictures with the snake,” Fjord said.

“Mollymauk, that’s rather dangerous.” Caduceus chided him. “You could get bitten.”

“He won’t bite me.” Molly scoffed. Spoken like a man who had forgotten he’d gone to the ER last month for a snake bite. 

“But what if it does?” Caduceus insisted. 

“Then I’ll go to the ER. It’ll be fine.” Molly waved a hand dismissively. “Come on!”

“We’re all gonna die.” Fjord groaned. 

Molly did end up convincing them to let him have a photoshoot with the snake. It took about an hour, but he managed it. Caduceus was still trying to get Fjord to get rid of the snake as the two of them set up a makeshift background. Molly, meanwhile, got out some props and inspected Uk’otoa to see what colors he needed to use. 

“You know, I think you might be the better candidate to pose with it.” He said, glancing back at Fjord. “Your skin looks better with its colors.”

“Wha-! Me?!” Fjord almost dropped the plastic plant he’d been shoving in a pot. “But it hates me!”

“I’m sure it doesn’t hate you.” Molly scoffed. 

Uk’otoa did hate him. But it was a clever snake. It bided its time, watching and waiting as Mollymauk arranged it around Fjord’s shoulders. Molly had insisted Fjord be shirtless for the photos, which did not make Fjord feel better about the whole thing. (”This is givin’ it more skin to bite!”) But Uk’otoa didn’t strike yet. No. It waited until Molly had retreated to take the pictures and Caduceus had moved to go make some more tea. Then...Then it struck. 

Fjord let out a shriek that sounded rather like a little girl as Uk’otoa sunk its fangs into the soft flesh of Fjord’s shoulder. It decided not to use its venom this time. Vandren didn’t like it when it killed people. Fjord flailed, tossing Uk’otoa to the ground. Both Caduceus and Molly ran to Fjord’s side, allowing Uk’otoa to slither under the couch. 

“Oh, shit! Are you alright?” Molly asked. 

“I’m gonna die!” Fjord yelled, starting to hyperventilate. 

“Calm down.” Caduceus put a large hand on his unbitten shoulder. “Take some deep breaths. Freaking out isn’t going to do you any good.”

“O-Okay.” Fjord took a few deep breaths, but his eyes continued to dart back toward the bite wound. 

“Let me just get my first aid kit, alright?” Caduceus’ voice remained calm and even. “I think I’ve still got some extra antivenom around.” 

“Okay.” Fjord squeaked. Caduceus nodded, moving away to find his first aid kit. 

“Sorry.” Molly smiled sheepishly. “I, uh, I didn’t think it’d bite you.”

“I told you it was evil.” Fjord grumbled, hunching his shoulders. 

“Yeah, I can tell.”

As Caduceus was returning with his kit, there was the sound of heavy footsteps outside and the door was slammed open. Beauregard came charging in, holding a baseball bat.

“I heard screaming! Who’s getting murdered!” She looked around, ready to kick someone’s ass. She lowered her bat when she saw Fjord, Caduceus, and Molly all standing there, unmurdered and mostly fine. “Dude...Why’s your shirt off?” 

“Is everyone okay?” Jester poked her head in behind her. “There was an awful lot of yelling.”

“Everyone’s fine.” Caduceus smiled gently. “We just had a little bit of a mishap with Fjord’s friend’s snake.”

“Still not telling me why Fjord’s not wearing a shirt.” Beau pointed her bat at Fjord. 

“I wanted to do a photoshoot with the snake,” Molly explained. “Fjord’s skin tone looked best with it and I thought it would look better if he was shirtless for the pictures.”

“Oh, that’s so fun!” Jester chirped. “Like that photoshoot you did with me and Sprinkles last year!”

“I told him it was gonna bite me.” Fjord said. 

“Yes, you did.” Caduceus bent down next to him, starting to clean the wound. “The good news is, I don’t think it’s venomous. You’d probably be dead if it was.”

“Well, I’m really glad you’re not dead.” Jester sat down on the couch. “That would suck.”

“I hear dying by venom’s pretty painful.” Beau sat down next to her. “Wouldn’t want to go out like that.”

Unnoticed by everyone, Jester had forgotten to close the door, allowing Uk’otoa to slip away. Until about ten minutes later, when all their phones pinged. 

“Oh hey! Yasha texted us!” Jester said, her tail starting to wiggle happily. 

“In the group chat?” Molly asked, already on the way back to his room to get his phone. His shorts didn’t really have great pockets. 

Everyone else opened up the message to see what Yasha had to say. She’d sent a message saying, ‘hey, look at this snake I saw outside,’ followed by a photo of herself leaning down and doing the peace sign behind a very familiar snake. 

“That’s a weird-ass snake.” Beau frowned. “Look at those weird yellow spots. They look like eyes.”

“They do kinda look like eyes.” Jester agreed. 

“Oh fuck.” Fjord looked about to pass out.

“You okay?” Beau asked, suddenly a bit worried. 

“That’s Uk’otoa! He got out!” Fjord pointed frantically at the picture. 

“He got out?” Molly reappeared. His gaze went to the still open door. “Oh. Okay, that makes sense.”

“Is that really such a bad thing?” Caduceus asked with a slightly nervous smile. “It might be happier outdoors.” 

“Vandren’s gonna kill me if he finds out it got away!” Fjord clambered to get his jacket and shoes. Caduceus sighed heavily, shoulders slumping in defeat. He really didn’t want the snake back in the apartment. But, he appreciated that Fjord was trying to be responsible.

“Do you want us to help find him?” Jester asked, getting up to stand near Fjord. “I don’t want you to get in trouble with Vandren.” They’d all heard stories about Vandren’s temper and none of them wanted Fjord to be on the receiving end of it. She put a hand on Fjord’s shoulder.

“That’d be nice, thanks, Jessie.” Fjord calmed a bit at Jester’s touch. 

“I think that Zemnian guy downstairs has a cat,” Beau said, getting up too. “He’s gotta know something about catching animals, right? Let’s go ask him to help.”

“He does!” Molly immediately perked up. “Let’s go see him. It’s been forever since I petted Frumpkin.”

“I’ve been meaning to return that book he lent me.” Caduceus agreed, disappearing into his room to find said book.

Once Caduceus had found the book, the group made their way down to Caleb’s apartment. He could hear them coming before they even reached his floor. They weren’t exactly a quiet group. He didn’t rouse himself from his spot on the couch until they knocked on his door, though. 

“Ja?” He opened the door with Frumpkin curled around his shoulders. 

“Mr. Caleb~” Mollymauk smiled wide. “Such a pleasure to see you~ And hello to you, Frumpkin!” He gave Frumpkin a scratch under the chin, which elicited a purr.

“Ah, Mr. Mollymauk.” Caleb smiled back, a tad tentatively. “How can I help you and your, er, friends?” He peered past Molly at the others crammed into the hallway. 

“You know how to catch animals, right?” Beau asked. 

Caleb stared blankly at her. “Excuse me?”

“Fjord’s pet-sitting for his friend and we kinda lost his snake.” Jester explained. “We thought you could help us find him again!”

“And I wanted to give this back to you.” Caduceus handed the book off to him. Caleb continued to stare blankly at them, now holding the book. 

“I...do not have much experience with animals of the reptile variety.” He finally said. 

“But,” he quickly added as he saw Fjord begin to panic. “I think I do know someone who can help.”

“You do?” Fjord’s eyes widened in hope. 

“We’ll meet you at the park in five minutes,” Caleb said before closing the door. 

Five minutes later, all of them were gathered in the nearby park, with Jester and Caduceus trying to keep Fjord calm in the meanwhile. He was still freaking out about losing the snake, even if he was kind of glad it wasn’t anywhere near him. Molly was taking advantage of this trip to the park by having a contest with Beau to see which of them could swing higher. 

“Oh, look! It’s Caleb!” Jester suddenly said, pointing. Sure enough, Caleb was walking up with his roommate, Nott. Nott was wearing a pair of rubber gloves, an apron, and thick lab goggles, balancing a massive net in her hands. It was both extremely silly, and also rather impressive.

“We are here,” Caleb announced. 

Everyone stared at Nott, who looked incredulously at Fjord.

“Really? You let a snake get away?” She said. “Those things don’t even have legs. You suck.”

“Just help me get the snake back, please,” Fjord begged.

About an hour later, Uk’otoa was back in his tank and not very happy about it. And, thankfully for everyone, Vandren returned a few days later because he’d forgotten something and the snake was quickly given back to him. Everyone made Fjord promise never to do something like that again. 

[mydarlingvioletine]

Just a Puppy Crush - Chapter Twelve Ship(s): Violet/Clementine, background Aasim/Louis and Ruby/Brody Media: The Walking Dead Game (Season 4)

Violet sat herself down between Brody and Louis, who was in the middle of a heated debate with Ruby over the validity of wearing acid-washed jeans in the modern day. Brody was obliviously scribbling in her notebook, completely tuned out to the nonsense going on to the left of her.

        “Oh, I’m so sorry, Lizzie McGuire,” Louis snapped with much more ferocity than was expected for the situation. Ruby groaned and threw a chopstick at him, which he narrowly dodged. “Keep your head up, Rubes. Your snapback is falling. Here, let me check your mood ring.”

Louis went to grab Ruby’s arm and she slapped his hand away, angrily opening a bag of chips with more force than she intended to, as chip crumbs flew across the table. “Shit.”

        “Vi, settle this. Today’s hot topic is ‘90s fashion fads, and how they should stay in the fucking cave of irrelevancy that they crawled into. Hannah Montana here wants to undo years of evolution and slap on some overalls and a windbreaker. It’s revolting, right?”

Violet pursed her lips, jabbing a straw into her chocolate milk container and taking a contemplative sip.

      “Overalls are cute. Oh, and those slap-on bracelets. We’ve already got frosted tips representation with Reese over there.”

She gestured towards Marlon, who was too absorbed in a page that Brody was showing him to defend himself. Louis, distraught, looked between the redhead and the blonde incredulously, and threw up his hands. 

“I give up. You fashion mongers win.”

       “Dude, you asked a lesbian for fashion advice. What were you expecting?” Violet giggled at Louis, who now was holding his head in his hands. “I rock Hawaiian shirts unapologetically all the time. Do better.”

“You’re right,” Louis raised his head, and twisted around to observe the courtyard around him. “Where’s Clem? She’s got better taste than both of you combined, and that’s saying something.”

        Violet shrugged, piling a forkful of ramen into her mouth. A stray noodle hung from her lip, which she sucked back in with a satisfying pop, earning a grossed out look from Ruby.

Louis placed his hand on top of Violet’s outstretched arm, which she balled up into a fist, but didn’t pull away. “You know I love you, Vi. C’mon. If I didn’t abandon you the day you wore denim on denim to school, I never will.”

With a scoff, Violet sat back in her seat with a dismissive eye roll. “Lucky me.”

       “Are you gonna come to the mall with me and Ruby after school?” Brody chirped up from her book, setting it aside to give Violet an enthusiastic grin. “We’re gonna pick out Halloween costumes. We’re thinking of being the Powerpuff girls. I’m gonna be Bubbles, Rubes will be Blossom. You’d make a perfect Buttercup!”

“As appealing as matching costumes with you two dorks is,” Violet snorted, shifting her glance from Brody to Ruby. “I’m gonna go see Clem’s little brother’s baseball game tonight.”

      Louis’ and Marlon’s heads jerked up, and they shared a nervous glance, unseen to Violet.

“Thought you hated baseball.” Brody sneered, taking a huge bite out of her sandwich.

         “I don’t hate baseball,” Violet protested with an eye roll. “It’s for AJ. Plus, it’ll be fun to watch adults scream at each other over a little league game.”

Louis anxiously chewed on the end of his straw, before clearing his throat. “You probably shouldn’t go tonight, Vi. You don’t like baseball, and it’s gonna be pretty warm, so that’s another level of unbearable.”

            Marlon nodded strenuously at his point, and added onto it with a level of urgency. “C’mon, have a girls night out with Rubes and Brody! There’s that really good fro-yo place in the mall, and there’s a Hot Topic. That’s right up your alley!”

He meant for the words to be encouraging, but received a middle finger from the pissed off blonde across from him. “Oh, fuck off, dude. I’m sure the Hollister is right up your alley, isn’t it, ‘Generic Blonde Boy Bully from every 2000’s movie’?”

      She dumped her empty tray into the garbage, and ignored the worried glances from Louis as she pulled out her math homework.

“Why are you guys being so weird about it, anyway?” Violet questioned the two. “I’ve got a Halloween costume. An old pirate outfit my mom put together for the middle school play.”

           Brody tugged her knees to her chest, and leaned against Ruby’s shoulder, expression solemn as it always was when Violet and Marlon were fighting. Seeing this gesture and instantly feeling guilty, Violet let her posture relax, and gave a forced “sorry” to Marlon.

“Just looking out for you, Vi,” Louis tapped his fingers on the table, lips pursed as he thought. “We’re probably gonna ump it if we can, so... know we’ll be there.”

       Violet nodded quickly, desperate to change the subject to anything other than this seemingly sore topic. “So, what are you guys being for Halloween?”

“Boo!”

      Violet felt two hands grip her shoulders, and a hot breath tickle the back of her neck, and jumped up at the contact. She turned around to see a jubilant Clem, very pleased with herself.

“Gotcha.”

Violet softly shook her head, her stressed expression immediately fading as Louis made room for Clementine to sit between them. She pressed herself against Violet’s side, and leaned her head in the crook of her shoulder.

       “Probably a bisexual.” Louis answered, earning a snort from Clementine, who’s breath tickled her neck.

She sat up triumphantly, and struck a heroic pose, winking at Violet. “What a coincidence! Me too!”

        “Dorks.” Violet happily breathed out, turning her math homework over to Clementine, eagerly willing to check it.

Hey, it’s not cheating if she offers to help.

     Violet’s heart swelled at the new piece of information she learned; that when Clem was intensely focused on something, the tip of her tongue protruded her lips.

A soft giggle made Violet lift her head, and she stared down the bashful Brody across from her, who’s eyes were happily flicking between the two girls. With a knowing glance, Brody took a sip of her iced tea.

     Violet leaned back in her chair, a flush of pink across her face as she shifted away from Clem, so their shoulders didn’t brush against each other when she leaned over to help with a problem.

As the bell rang, Louis gave one last worried glance to Violet, which went completely over her head. “See you two later. Maybe we could all go out to the diner afterwards?”

       “Definitely.” Clementine beamed, gathering her books and taking a red pen from her pocket. She scribbled an A+ on the top of Violet’s worksheet, along with a goofy smiley face with sunglasses. “I don’t have Lee’s teacher stickers with me, so that’ll have to do, superstar.”

A rush of heat flooded across Violet’s cheeks at the cutesy compliment from Clem. She slung her backpack over her shoulder, avoiding Clementine’s gaze as they walked out of the courtyard together.

     “See ya later?” Clem raised her fist and softly thumped Violet’s shoulder to get her attention.

Violet gave her a weak smile, and folded her hands together anxiously. “See you later. I’ll meet you in the courtyard after post-session.”

Clementine grinned and tapped her newly donned pin, before giving a soft wave and turning around to make it to her next class in time.

          Their glances back at the other over their shoulder lined up perfectly, and Violet’s face felt so warm that she felt it’d melt off if she didn’t make it to Chemistry and take her mind off of the curly-haired brunette that took up the majority of her thoughts.

The feeling of something small and sticky being placed between her eyebrows made her look up from her phone, her eyes meeting Clem’s, who was holding a pack of encouraging stickers she most likely stole from Lee’s desk.

             Violet took the sticker off of her forehead, and frowned at the neon ‘SPECTACULAR!’ before sticking it beside her Camp Paya pin. “Y’know, now that I think about it, I am pretty spectacular.”

Clementine rolled her eyes before hooking her arm through the taller girls’. “Come on, we gotta get there before the game starts so we can get some snacks.”

      The walk around the school and towards the baseball field was short and sweet, the slight breeze pushing Violet’s thin blonde hair out of her face.

The flimsy sticker flew off her jacket, so Clem ripped another one from the sheet, and placed it on the tip of the flustered blonde’s nose.

         The second Violet scrunched her nose up, the second sticker detached and fell to the ground.

The two rounded the bleachers, and Violet’s eyes landed on a tall man in his mid-to-late twenties, with slick brown hair that almost reached his shoulders. He was currently helping AJ perfect his swing, the logo across the back of his jersey displaying ‘García’.

       “Hey, da-“ Clem started, being cut off by Lee holding his hand out in front of him expectantly, eyeing her with suspicion.

“My stickers, Clem.” Lee sternly spoke, earning a sheepish huff from Clementine as she fished them out of her pocket and reluctantly passed them over. “Y’know, some students actually earn them and don’t have to steal them when I go to the teacher’s lounge.”

      A bashful Clementine tugged on the side of his jacket. “That’ll be twenty bucks, please.”

Lee rolled his eyes before fishing a twenty out of his pocket, and passing it to Clem. “No more of those Pixie Sticks, okay? At this point, I’d rather you just eat a salt lick.”

      His eyes landed on Violet, who he just seemed to notice was cowering behind Clementine. “Oh, hey Violet! It’s good to see you here.”

“I hope it’s okay.” Violet shyly responded.

        “Of course it is!” Lee boomed, passing a cartoonish foam finger to Violet. “We’re gonna need all the manpower we can get to out-scream these asshats.”

Violet gave a weak smile, and was abruptly pulled away by Clementine tugging her by the arm. She happily flashed the bill between her eyes, and started listing the types of food that she couldn’t wait to introduce Violet to.

       Happy and oblivious, the two intertwined hands and made their way down the street towards the corner store. Oblivious to the blue, icy glare that followed them from a distance.

[destinyquest]

Trouble at the Farm: Part 3

Evening, Somewhere in the forests of the EDZ Donnie had taken lead on scouting a path through the woods. Although she had only just been Risen, she felt naturally inclined to stalk through the unfamiliar territory. It also gave her a moment to herself, and a chance to emotionally cope with the incredible and terrifying day she had just had. It seemed like just yesterday she was tending to her farm, and now she was living in some sort of nightmare. As she deftly maneuvered the forest with a low profile, she would occasionally catch glimpses of the Exo Hunter and Awoken Warlock trailing her. In spite of his smug and charismatic personality, she couldn't bring herself to trust the robot. Last she remembered, robots were best at delivering packages and making coffee; she couldn't wrap her mind around the complex consciousness that defines an Exo. Even Nil wouldn't be able to comprehend his existence, if asked. The first alien Donnie met tried to kill her, and one of them actually did. The second alien species she met, this one significantly more human in appearance, saved her life. Although he has his quirks, she felt that he was at least honest. Zulgren spoke with a matter-of-fact tone of voice that, from most men, would be grating to Donnie. Something about his personality convinced her and convinced most people who met Zulgren that he knew even more than he was saying. His tone didn't come from a place of over-confidence, rather from a staggering wealth of knowledge. Most Guardians know this personality trait of void Warlocks far too well, not all are able to stomach it. After the sun set, Donnie picked a well fortified and hidden campsite. Even though she had been extremely active all day, she realized she wasn’t feeling hungry at all. The fireteam takes shelter in the cover of an ancient oak tree, and Nil begins to pick up firewood. He seems intent on winning the trust and approval of his new fireteam and forms an awkward fire pit out of some relatively damp wood he'd found lying about. He then attempts to set a flame by rolling a twig between his hands, spinning it as it bores into another piece of wood. Donnie has been watching as Nil attempts in vain to get a fire going. "Do you need a hand there? I remember, there used to be this show called Survivor and they had to start a lot of fires- I think that method you're using isn't gonna work too well." Nil grumbles and looks at his sad pile of wood. Still crouched over the fire pit, hiding his shame, he focuses his Light into Solar energy and throws a flaming knife into the heart of his kindling. The fire pit erupts into flame as Nil jumps to his feet in a celebratory pose. "First try", he says, smugly. The team make themselves comfortable and begin to settle in for the night. Nil performs a light-hearted dance to entertain his fireteam, claiming it is a "dance of his people." Donnie recognizes it as "The Robot" dance. "Some might say this dance is offensive to robot-folk, but sometimes you just gotta please the people", Nil says feigning a noble attitude. Zulgren is not watching the performance, instead he is staring deep into the sky. His eyes are not focused on the stars, but on a point beyond the glittery veil draped over the sky. He feels a gentle breeze pulling him in this direction, to a place he cannot see, to a location farther than he can comprehend. He is the first to fall into a deep slumber, levitating slightly off the ground. Donnie takes first watch as Nil also starts to doze off. She watches as Nil flinches slightly in his sleep, his lights dimming, blinking suddenly, then dimming again. She hears distant gunfights and the constant turbulent roar of the Traveler's Shard in the distant mountains. Eventually Zulgren relieves her of her duty and she manages to get some sleep. Morning comes, and Zulgren approaches a still groggy Donnie to ask her something that has been on his mind since they'd met. "Your Light, do you know how to wield it?" "I'm sorry, my what?" "I... I recognize the Light affinity you have. When you were Risen... I think you also share a connection with the Void." "The void?" Donnie asks. She rubs her eyes as she realizes that she has still not awoken from this nightmare, and wonders if it could get any more bizarre. "Reach out your hand, Donnie. Do you feel the energy within the spaces of the atoms? Do you feel the nothingness that binds everything together?" Donnie tentatively holds out her hand, and starts to lightly wave it around. In spite of her skepticism, she does feel something: a subtle yet thick fog of magnetic energy. "Close your fist, and collapse that energy into the space within your palm", directs Zulgren. Donnie chuckles lightly, and shakes her head. Zulgren stares intently at her, with unnerving stable eye contact. Donnie realizes he is not joking, and closes her fist and begins to concentrate. A moment passes, and Zulgren senses that Donnie's faith was wavering. Her fist still clenched, she mutters, "Nothings happening..." "The Void is not just the absence of light, but also the dark. It is not the vacuum of space, it is the space without the vacuum. There is infinite distance between every atom in the air, grasp it!" Zulgren suddenly sounds more intense. Donnie lets out a soft gasp as she feels something within her fingers. Slowly, she unfolds her hand and observes a violet orb. Staring into it, she sees the midnight sky. Zulgren gives something that could resemble a smile, and says to himself, "A Nightstalker, as I thought." Donnie anxiously asks, "Uh... hey... what is that? What's in my hand? What did I do!?" "That is a void smoke bomb. Throw it." Zulgren calmly instructs her. Donnie delicately tosses the orb a few feet in front of them. As the orb touches the ground, it bursts into an impossibly opaque dark cloud. "Whoa." Donnie is dumbfounded, "I didn't know I could do that." "Now you know. Let's move." Zulgren abruptly starts walking. Dinklebot indicates (with his usual dull tone of voice) that the Whispering Falls Lost Sector is only a short walk from their campsite. They spend a brief moment burying evidence of their campsite and hasten their pace towards their objective.

Mid-Day, Whispering Falls Lost Sector The fireteam comes across a babbling brook and begin to follow it upstream. The brook grows in volume until it is a sizable river, nearly 10 feet across. By mid-day, they reach a large pool being fed by a roaring waterfall tumbling over a wide and rocky cliff-face. Donnie approaches the cliff face to inspect it. With a brief cursory glance, she turns to her companions and curtly states, "There's loot behind that waterfall." "How do you know?" asks Zulgren innocently. "Well, in video games there's always loot behind the waterfall." "Video games?" Nil asks, interested. "Oh, y'all don't...?" Alexa, Donnie's ghost, pops out excitedly, "Oh I heard about those! Used to be a source of entertainment for humans during the Golden Age. Humans used to have so much free time when they weren't fighting for their lives." Donnie frowns, as realization dawns that she will never be able to play the Dragon Age series again. She puts this upsetting thought aside and turns to properly investigate the waterfall. Peeking as close as she dared to the frothing water, she is able to confirm that there is some sort of cave entrance behind the waterfall. "See, told you." Donnie claps her hands and readies herself to climb. Taking a slight running start, she starts to grasp at the stone but is unable to grasp the slick rock and falls flat on her back. "Ouch." Donnie rubs her lower back as she stands back up, "Hey Zulgren, do you mind boosting me?" Nil has been staring nervously at the pool since they arrived at the falls, calculating it's depth and relative position to the hidden cave entrance. "Hey, uh... guys? I can't swim" admits the Exo. "What? What do you mean you can't-" Donnie starts to ask, but Nil simply points at his face with an exasperated expression. "Heavy metal doesn't float well, and, well... Yeah I can't swim. I might be able to climb in there, but if I fall then one of you better be ready to fish me out." Donnie and Zulgren ponder this unexpected setback. While they discuss alternative ways to enter the cave, Donnie notices a poorly maintained stone path leading away from the pond into the woods. "Ok, if Zulgren and I can hop in and take a peek, maybe we'll be able to help you climb in too. If that doesn't work, we might be able to explore that path and see if we find something else to help us out." The fireteam agrees on this plan of attack, and Zulgren begins to help lift Donnie into the cave. Donnie manages to crawl in, and turns around to give Zulgren a hand. The two push through the intense volume of water hammering down on them until they are both fully inside the cave. Between gasps for air, Zulgren hears a strange noise from within the cave. Unmistakable beeps and clicks: hexinary. Although he cannot understand what they are saying, he is certain there are some Fallen constructs within this cave. As he gets to his feet and his eyes adjust to the darkness, he sees the walls are lined with surveillance technology. He gestures to Donnie to be quiet, and turns his attention to a blinking Fallen control panel attached to an installment in the cave wall. Dinklebot pops out from behind him and begins to assist him in hacking the control panel to learn more about the cave and it's invisible inhabitants, but before they are able to learn anything valuable the control panel shuts off. Echoing through the cave, Zulgren hears the hexinary chatter amplify. Although the cave path disappears into darkness ahead of him, he makes out the glow of a floating construct approaching him and Donnie. The two Guardians start to inch back towards the mouth of the cave, as the floating construct enters within visible range. It is a shank, but instead of a repeater blaster assembled to it's underside, this one has a small satellite dish attached to it's head. Zulgren turns to Donnie and says one word, barely audible: "Jump." Nil is staring at the pool of water, about to summon his ghost to check on his companions, when two Guardians come bursting through the waterfall and splashing into the water below. Donnie and Zulgren swim ashore and breathlessly explain to Nil what they saw. Then, the three look to the waterfall, expecting Fallen to come bursting through. Instead, all they hear is the roar of the waterfall. "Seems the sound of the waterfall hid our escape" Zulgren notes. "Ok, we need an easier way into that cave, so that Nil can join us. Let's see where this path leads" Donnie points at the stone path she noticed earlier. The fireteam follows the path only a few yards into the woods and come across a small log-wood shack. Scratch marks line the walls near the door, and the window is shattered inward. As Donnie and Zulgren inch cautiously towards the door, they hear a heavy thud followed by scrambling from within the structure. "Oof. I'm good." Nil had attempted to dodge into the house through the shattered window... and landed on his face. "Uh, oops. This doesn't look good" says Nil. Donnie and Zulgren rush in through the front door and see Nil standing over three human bodies. Their flesh is lacerated and seared with jagged lines. Judging by the odor, their bodies have been here for a few days. Donnie gags, while Zulgren and Nil begin to inspect the bodies and the interior of the cabin. The space is quite small, barely enough space for 3 humans to live comfortably, and only enough resources to support a meager lifestyle. Zulgren finds a small steel key attached to a belt on one of the bodies, and uses it to open a large metal tackle box at the foot of one of the beds. Zulgren and Nil meet Donnie outside, who is getting some fresh air and trying to clear her mind of the grotesque scene she had just witnessed. Zulgren holds up some climbing gear he had found, and some fishing line. The gear includes more than enough rope and carabiners to help the three of them scale the wall, so they head back towards the waterfall. "Quiet, when we enter... ok?" Zulgren sternly warns his fireteam. Donnie and Nil nod and the three quickly ascend into the cave with the help of the climbing gear. The sound of the waterfall is reverberating throughout the mouth of the cave, but Zulgren can make out the distinct sound of hexinary chatter ahead of him. He signals for the other two to follow behind him as he sneaks forward. As they venture deeper into the darkness, they come across two carved cavities in the wall. Past the dark cavities, they see the path forks abruptly. Zulgren leans to peek into one of the cavities and spots the Sentry Shank that had chased them out earlier. He starts to gesture to explain the situation to the other two when another Sentry Shank appears from one of the forks ahead of them. "Ok, go!" Zulgren commands as he charges into the cavity, hand raised. Nil jumps into action and summons a dagger of solar energy. Zulgren's hand glows with violet energy and blasts the shank in front of him into atoms. Nil charges towards the fork in the path, his hand at the ready. The shank turns, and tries to move out of the way but a blade of pure solar energy carves into it's circuitry. The smoldering shank crumbles to the floor. "BOOM, nailed it!" Nil celebrates. Electronic lights suddenly begin to glow behind Nil as three more shanks suddenly become aware of intruders. Donnie notices the lights are coming from one of the forks ahead of her, and dashes with her pitchfork leading her assault. She enters into a small room and finds herself face to face with three more shanks, except these ones have blasters. Nil and Zulgren also rush in to help, and they manage to quickly dispatch two of the shanks with minimal effort. The third, realizing it's predicament begins to raise an antenna. Before it can signal an alarm, it is abruptly impaled by a pitchfork. Donnie dislodges her pitchfork, and the three Guardians freeze. The sounds of combat echoed briefly against the narrow walls of the cave and then died. Silence fell, and they could again hear the distant thunder of the waterfall coming from the entrance. As they left the small room where some shanks had been hiding, they returned to the fork in the path and inched cautiously down the other path. After a few minutes of tense sneaking through the damp and claustrophobic space, they come across a sharp bend in the path. At the crease of the bend an armored corpse is resting on the ground, with a small heap of shattered metal by its side. Nil rushes to the body and gently lifts the torso, looks at his companions, and shakes his head. Alexa appears in front of Donnie and approaches the pile of crumbled metal. Her frame seems to weigh down heavily, and her light dims temporarily. "His ghost has been destroyed. He isn't coming back." whispers Alexa, her voice wavering. "I knew him well" mutters Nil. "Oh no, I'm so sorry Nillion", Donnie can't tell if he's being serious or not. The armor is lacerated with tendrils of energy, and the helmet is severely crumpled. A hand cannon lies shattered on the opposite side of his destroyed ghost. "I can scan his- what remains of- his ghost to see what did this." Donnie nods silently at Alexa, who begins to point a beam of light at the pile of metal. After a brief moment, Alexa begins to softly play back what data she can recover. They hear the sound of the waterfall roar within the recording, and then the sound of the ghost speaking. "Leon, I don't like the look of this. We should call this in." "It's going to be fine... Fallen don't usually send high ranking officers to distant outposts like this. Besides, I've been itching to put some Dregs in the dirt." The playback is just barely able to produce the sound of wet footsteps slowing to a halt. "Did you see that?" "What? I don't think there's anything there..." "I swear, I thought I saw-" Suddenly, the sound of electricity rips through the air. They hear Leon gasp in pain, followed by a few blasts from his hand cannon. "Come out and face me you coward! Fallen scum!" Then, they hear a deep voice growl in Eliksni. "What the- AGH!" There is more gunfire, and then the sound of metal ripping through metal. "Leon!" yells a distressed ghost. The recording ends. Donnie, Zulgren, and Nil all look at one another. "Where is it." Zulgren says suddenly. "That is what the Fallen said, in the recording." They stand and Zulgren gestures towards the darker end of the cave. Nil grabs the body and hauls it over his shoulder. "Wait, what are you doing?" asks Donnie "Well, I don't want to leave his body here... seems wrong." "Oh, I guess. We could also grab him on our way out..." "It'll be fine, lets go." Donnie shrugs and accompanies Zulgren in delving deeper into the cave. As they progress, the walls begin to widen. They come into a large open room, so great in size that the far wall is completely shrouded in darkness. The only thing they can see from the other end of the room are tiny blinking lights in red and blue. Zulgren recognizes this to be from Fallen technology, and due to the near dead silence, he figures these lights do not belong to shanks. Donnie and Zulgren creep slowly towards the far side of the room while Nil falls behind slightly, encumbered by the body on his shoulders. As the far wall comes into view, Donnie and Zulgren see two large Fallen barricades; the far wall is a slightly concave feature completely stuffed with stolen goods and technology. Donnie gestures to peek around one of the barricades, and Zulgren leans up against one side. Donnie begins to sneak around one end and sees a Dreg sitting cross legged on the cave floor, sharpening its blade. Beyond this Dreg, she sees another hiding behind the other barricade. She turns around to hand-gesture at Zulgren, who nods in response. They count down, then Donnie charges out at the Dreg closest to her as Zulgren does the same. They are both able to subdue the Dregs with ease, but something catches Donnie's eye. She looks at the wall with the stolen goods, and rubs her eyes. The light is bending in strange angles, making it hard to focus on some of the objects. "Hey, Zulgren... what is-" As she turns to point at the wall, she realizes that she no longer senses the aberration. "Whoa... something weird is going on here..." Suddenly, an arc of electric energy slashes at Donnie, who yells out in pain. Nil quickly places Leon's body on the ground and draws his hand cannon. Donnie growls as she wildly swings her pitchfork in the direction of the invisible attacker. Her weapon makes contact, and for a brief moment she is able to perceive the outline of a formidable Fallen creature. Unlike the Fallen with two arms she'd faced previously, this one had four extremely large arms. Just as soon as she caught a glimpse of this creature, it disappeared. "It's a Marauder!" yells Zulgren. Nil focuses his vision in the direction of his teammates as he approaches them. He senses some unnatural light diffraction and quickly fires his hand cannon in its direction. His bullet blasts into the cave wall. Zulgren reaches out his hand in the same direction that Nil fired, and blasts as much void energy as he can muster. The violet energy from his hands explodes outward and encompasses a large Fallen creature. The Marauder stumbles backwards into a corner, its cloaking disabled from the immense damage it suddenly took. This Fallen is significantly larger than the Dregs lying at their feet, and lets out an aggressive shout at Zulgren. Nil and Donnie charge up to flank the Marauder and box them into the corner. Just as Donnie is about to lunge with her pitchfork, the Marauder disappears from view. Something large shoves between Donnie and Zulgren in the direction of the middle of the room. "Crap! Spread out!" commands Donnie. She backs away from the corner and stabs her pitchfork in the direction the Marauder dashed, but her weapon is unable to connect. Zulgren runs in the same direction and thrusts out his hand, also unable to find their assailant. Nil dashes in another direction, wildly throwing a punch at the air. Nil growls in frustration, and focuses as hard as he can in the dim light. He hears electricity crackle directly behind his neck, but is unable to react in time. A blade charged with intense arc energy tears down his back, dropping the Hunter to a kneel. Nil yells in agony as he feels the ripping pain nearly bring him to lose consciousness. "No!!" Zulgren quickly raises his pulse rifle, but is unable to hit any of his shots. Nil raises his eyes to meet Zulgrens', and though his body is still writhing from the savage attack he just took, he manages a wink. As rapid as the wink he gave Zulgren, Nillion-7 whips around while drawing his hand cannon. He falls onto his back onto the cave floor, aiming his weapon at a point 8 feet above him; he fires. The bullet penetrates under the Marauders chin with such force the creature is lifted into the air. The large Fallen creature crumples to the floor, uncloaked and dead. Nil sighs and rests his head on the rocky floor. "Nailed it." The cave is silent again, and being unable to see any other avenues for exploration, the fireteam decides to unhurriedly loot the various Fallen salvage. Donnie finds a small concrete token with a sigil inscribed on it, and a blank dog tag. Nil finds an expired ramen coupon and a brass-colored coin-sized tool. Pressing it emits a small burst of flame; he pockets it quickly. Zulgren uncovers a small marble made of an impossibly dark material, it is oddly warm to the touch. As he lifts it to inspect it closer, Donnie asks, "Whatcha got there? Find anything interesting" Zulgren quickly palms the marble, and grabs the first item at his feet. "Nothing. Just found a..." he looks at the object in his hands. It is an engram-shaped stress ball. He squeezes it. "A stress ball." Donnie nods slowly, "Ok." She sits down against the cave wall, and rests for a moment. As she watches her new companions sift through the wreckage of their conquest and feels the fatigue of combat catch up with her, she realizes this waking nightmare was not one she was going to wake up from. This was the world she lived in now, one devoid of sheep and goats and relaxed iced tea on the porch. One where a strange little robot brought her back to life twice in the same day, and where some aliens want to kill her while others want to help her. Zulgren mulls over the events of the day, absentmindedly squishing a stress ball in one palm while rolling the dark marble in the other. He could feel a mystery clawing at the back of his mind, something was not as it seemed with this mysterious new Fallen House. Although he was deep within a cave, his eyes locked onto a point far beyond the walls. He knew it was foolish to hope that he could find guidance in such a distant figure, but he wondered what she would make of all this, whether she would have figured it all out by now. Nil plays with his newfound Cabal lighter, having almost forgotten his near-mortal wounds.

[nikkalia]

Gotta Get It Right: Dinner and a Show

TITLE: Gotta Get It Right

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 14

SUMMARY: Aleksa lived as an Inhuman at SHIELD's beckon call, but dreams of another life have her questioning everything she’d ever known. Just when she settled into a life of peace and quiet, she's called back to duty. Enter Loki.

PAIRING: Loki/OFC RATING: Mature NOTES/WARNINGS: Just language, mentions of PTSD and torture

Tumblr masterlist Also on Ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409323/chapters/43756231

Feedback is always appreciated (just being an attention whore screaming for comments/reblogs)

Tags: @christy-winchester @hovianwookie86-captainxev @wolfsmom1  @fadingcoast  @mrshiddleston-uk  @igotloki  @fandom-and-feminism  @mischievousbellerina  @odinsonsobsessed

Loki pushed Aleksa’s chair in before seating himself. A servant appeared from the shadows, pouring mead into golden goblets.

“Thank you,” Aleksa said softly, bringing shocked looks from the servant and Loki. “What?” The servant struggled for an answer before looking to his master, who dismissed him with a wave after his own cup was filled. “Seriously? You don’t acknowledge the people that are working for you? I thought Asgard was sooooo much more enlightened than that. Do you even know their names?”

“Those that serve in this palace are to be neither seen nor heard. It is honor enough for them to be selected for a position on the staff and...”

“Bloody hell.” She stood and moved to the servant. “What’s your name?”

The wine steward was paralyzed in fear. His gaze shot to Loki and Aleksa stepped to block it. “I...uh...Beiner, madam.”

Aleksa turned to the maid standing next to him. “And yours?”

“I-Ingun, my lady.”

“Ingun. Beiner. Thank you both. Your work is appreciated,” she glared at Loki, “even if that appreciation is never expressed.” The servants shot each other looks of awe as Aleksa resumed her seat, muttering. “How in the hells do you expect to have the respect of your people if you can’t even acknowledge their existence? You’re no better than they are.”

Loki searched for the proper response. Odin all but forbade communication with the servants unless it was absolutely necessary, and even then he spoke with the same venom he afforded his adopted son. Loki never considered any other behavior towards the staff possible, much less appropriate.

“Perhaps it is a tradition that bears updating,” was all he could come up with.

Aleksa rolled her eyes and turned her focus to the plate before her. The platter was filled with several small slices of meats and cheeses, vegetables, and a chunk of bread. Other dishes on the tables held more of the same, accompanied by various fruits and loaves. The thought of devouring everything in front of her crossed her mind, followed by a wave of nausea that reminded her of her restricted abilities. Despite her hunger, she’d have to take it slowly or risk leaving a mess for Beiner and Ingun to clean up later.

Loki had already begun to eat, albeit cautiously. This early exchange of power, or so it seemed to him, appeared out of nowhere and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Or of the woman sitting across from him. She seemed to be evaluating the food set before her. Was she considering the possibility of poison, or perhaps mind-altering drugs? He felt compelled to take his bites intentionally as if to convince her that the food was safe until her pace slowed to a stop.

“Is the meal not to your liking?”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve barely touched your plate. If the food is not satisfactory, I can...”

“It’s fine,” she snapped, dropping her fork onto the plate. She pinched the bridge of her nose before blowing out a sharp breath. “I...I’m sorry. There’s nothing wrong with the food.”

“The company, perhaps?”

Loki spoke so softly that Aleksa barely heard him. “I’ve had worse.” She leaned back, rubbing the skin beneath the bracelets. “I’m still...adjusting to these.”

“Perhaps, in time, the need for those will be eliminated.” He resumed his meal, aware of her gaze focused on him.

“What, exactly, do you plan to do with me?”

“Are we beginning our interview?” Loki paused to take a drink. “I’ve not yet established my terms.” Aleksa groaned in response. “Don’t worry. You may find that my terms are as much to your benefit as they are to mine.”

“And it’s always about your benefit, isn’t it?”

“It is good to be the king,” he grinned. “No question should be asked before the one prior is answered to the asker’s satisfaction.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re never going to be satisfied with any of my answers.”

Loki chuckled. “Satisfaction is not in my nature, pet.”

“I won’t tell you again,” she growled, a hand moving toward the knife. “Don’t call me that.”

“No promises.” The glare he received was strangely arousing. “We will continue until all questions are answered or we’ve exhausted ourselves for the evening. Have you any ground rules for our discussion?”

“I would say no lying, but I don’t suppose I have any real way to tell if you’re trying to deceive me or not.”

“Allow me to offer a gesture of good faith, then.” Loki produced her dog tags and placed them on the table. "Oh," he added, tossing a trio of tiny vials in her direction, "these are also yours. Whyever would you consciously choose to carry Kree blood within you?"

She reached for the tags, sliding the chain around her neck before picking up a vial. Memories of their implantation tore through her consciousness, her own screams echoing in her ears. The burning sensations that consumed her body returned, accompanied by the smell of turmeric that somehow permeated the first terrigenesis cocoon. It lasted for months, leaving her a near zombie when she finally emerged. Everything hurt, even the energy she relied on. It was only the beginning of her torture.

Aleksa became aware of Loki’s gaze steady upon her, the concern it held living somewhere between compassion and fear. “I didn’t,” she whispered. “Where did you find them?”

“One was positioned near your heart. The other two on either side of your spine at the base of your skull. A kill switch for an errant pet, I presume.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake.” She slammed the knife blade into the table, millimeters from Loki’s hand. He only raised an eyebrow. “Use that word again and we’re done.”

His eyes moved slowly from the blade to her face, surprised by the calm he found there. “As you wish,” he whispered. “For now.” Aleksa returned to her seat. “Are we agreed?”

“Fine.” She nodded, mindlessly massaging her wrists. “You first, I assume.”

“Indeed.” Loki reached for his cup, drinking slowly as he considered his words. She began to absently pick at the plate in front of her, and something tore at his heart. “Actually, no. You posed a question that I failed to answer.” Aleksa looked up from her food. “What, exactly, do I plan to do with you?”

She watched him take another drink when he paused, waiting for her reaction. “Well?”

“I’ve not yet made a full decision.” She started to respond when he held up a hand. “What I have determined is that you will be brought out of the dungeons and given rooms here. You will begin training with our Seider masters to regain control over your abilities and learn their proper usage. I am considering allowing you to engage in other activities, but for now, this seems enough.”

Aleksa bit back the instinct to question further. He’d given more information than she expected but not everything she wanted, and she knew he was holding back. By the same token, she was desperate to keep him distracted as she worked to decipher the energies that kept her power in check.

“Are you satisfied with the answer?”

She met his gaze. Was there...hope in his eyes? “It’ll do.”

“Very well. Why were you sent to retrieve the Tesseract?”

“You don’t waste any time, do you?” She swallowed hard, garnering a glare from him. “I suppose ‘it’s classified’ would be enough of an answer?”

The glare darkened. “No.”

“Of course not.” The sigh that escaped her lips stopped Loki’s continued protest. “I had multiple sets of orders. Rescue the team and their research if possible. They were the priority.”

“We’ve already discussed this.” His tone matched his eyes. “And you’re not holding up your end of the bargain.”

“Then let me finish.” she snapped. “Get the team and their data were my orders from SHIELD. The order to get the cube came from someone else.”

“Not Fury? Curious. Who was it?” He leaned closer, growling. “Who?”

“Gideon Malick.”

Loki laughed. “Do you think me so stupid as to not know the players on that pathetic little planet? Malick is the Director of the World Security Council. He gives Fury...”

“Oh shut up!” she shouted, the force knocking over the goblets on the table. “You don’t know nearly as much as you think you do, your Highness. Malick comes from a long line of HYDRA worshippers. Last I heard, he was their undisputed leader. He’s playing both sides.”

“And so were you, it seems.”

“I know where my loyalties lie.” She sighed again, feeling the power in her body a bit closer to balance. “So does Nick.”

“And Malick?”

“He’s not interested in loyalty.” She toyed with the vial closest to her, speaking absently. “All he wants is power. The more, the better.”

“The Tesseract.” She nodded, trading the vial for a piece of fruit. Loki leaned back in his seat, arching his fingers in contemplation. It seemed that Midgard was going to continue to provide a bit of entertainment for some time. As was the woman across from him.  

Aleksa chewed slowly, staring at the vials on the table, losing herself in memory.

“It’s not permanent, Colonel. Merely an insurance policy. You bring back the cube, I remove the vials. An easy mission for someone of your unique talents.”

“And if I fail?”

“You’ll go out in a blaze of glory, preferably on Asgard.” The sinister grin sickened her. “Or your heart will explode in your chest. Either way, you’ll be just another soldier lost to PTSD.”

“Not before I kill you.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Wha-” She blinked, finding Loki’s wide eyes fixed on her glowing hand. “Fuck,” she whispered, forcing the power to dissipate into the air. “Why do you do that?”

“I didn’t.”

“I meant screwing with my head. Why plant memories, trigger...this?”

“I had nothing to do with whatever you just experienced,” he pointed to her hand.

“Gods dammit Loki, what in the hells have you done to me?”

“Nothing.” Her chair went flying as she leapt up, leaning over the table. “While it is within my abilities to trigger flashes of individual experience, I do not possess the power to generate and implant full recollections. So this is decidedly not my doing.” He spoke softly, hoping to defuse her frustration. “My guess is that you are experiencing the restoration of your own memories as your mind continues to heal. Whether this comes from your exposure to the Tesseract or something else, I can’t say.”

“Now I know you’re lying.”

“I know what it is to have your thoughts bent and twisted to someone else’s will.” He took a deep breath, releasing it slowly to calm his own nerves, wondering if he’d overestimated his ability to control her. “I am capable of a great many things, but I would never inflict that experience on another creature.” Their eyes locked, giving him pause. “Ever.”

Her head dropped as he rose, lifting the chair back to its original position. Loki stood next to her, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest, scarcely able to hear her whispers about fear passing through her. He barely touched her back when she spoke.

“I’m fine.” Low, even, and a little forced.

“Now who’s lying?” She straightened herself, looking at him with a smirk, and a soft smile crossed his face. “Do you wish to continue, or would you like to end our interview for the evening?”

Aleksa’s mouth opened to reply but closed without a sound and a shake of her head. “Yeah, I don’t have the mental capacity necessary to keep up with you at the moment.”

“Then we will continue another time. One of the servants will see you to the guest chambers for the evening.” His speech was cut off by a loud growl originating in Aleksa’s stomach. “Along with something more to eat.”

Her face turned sheepish. “Thanks.”  

“Rest well, little one. Your training will begin in the morning.”

She followed Ingun to the door, stopping just short of it to turn and face him. “I do have one question I’d like to have answered now.”

“Which is?”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were showing compassion towards a prisoner. Why?”

Loki approached slowly, sliding his hands behind his back. “Because you are my guest, not a prisoner. I much prefer to think of you as a potential ally. And,” he hesitated for a moment, noticing a few strands of silver mixed into her red hair, “I always take care of my allies.”

They stared at one another for a moment, each trying to read the other. Aleksa finally decided that she needed rest more than anything and nodded before returning to her path out of the library. Loki watched her exit his suite, a smile slowly crossing his face.

[rhainontheshelves]

Hey could I request 94 & 87 for Rocky?

A/N: In light of the Astro comeback, I finally ditched my original idea for this and came up with this! Thanks for being patient for a year and 4 months! Happy New Year, and happy reading! - Rhin

#94: “I had a bad dream again.”

#87: “Stay awake.”

    You woke up in a sweat, your heart racing and mouth dry. Your head whipped to the left, expecting someone to be there, but all there was was the piercing light of your alarm clock, reading 1:15 AM. Sighing, you covered your eyes with your arm and did some breathing exercises to calm down. It’s okay. Everything’s over, you’re fine.

    Finding the familiar worn plastic in between your mattress and the bed frame, you pulled out your phone and dialed your best friend Minhyuk.

    “Oh, please be awake, please be awake.” you muttered as the other end rang. At the last second, he picked up and relief washed over you.

    “Hey (Y/N), what’s up?” Minhyuk’s low and scratchy voice came over a bit too loud. It was obvious that he was tired, but he often stayed up late to choreograph songs for his group. You could faintly hear music in the background, further confirming what you knew.

    “Are you at the building?”

    “Yeah, why?”

    “Is it alright if I come over for bit? Or would I be destroying your creative process?” You tossed in a teasing tone. He often told you that he liked being alone so he wouldn’t get distracted, but you knew that having someone there to listen to his ideas and give him feedback helped him a lot. He recognized this too, but most of the time was too stubborn to admit it, so you two threw around the “creative process” joke whenever times like this came around.

    “My creative process is and always will be intact,” he retorted, feigning offense. “It doesn’t care if you’re here or not.”

    Laughing, you rolled out of bed and started changing into your go-to leggings and hoodie. “I take that as a yes.”

    “No, I wouldn’t want my BFF’s company at 1 in the morning! Of course you can come over. I’ll unlock the side door for you.”

    “Cool. Thanks, man.”

    “No problem. See you in a bit.”

    “Yep!” With that, you hung up and slipped on some sneakers. Grabbing your keys and a hair tie, you left your apartment and walked to Fantagio.

    About 15 minutes later, you pulled open the side door and walked down the dark hallway. The light from the practice room and the faint playing of Call Out guided your steps to Minhyuk.

    “Hey, close the door! You’re letting all the cold air in,” Minhyuk called from the middle of the room. You were standing in the doorway, watching his fluid movements and the little quirky ones as he tried to figure out what should be next.

    “It’s burning up in here! You need some cold air,” you fully entered and set your keys down on the table next to his phone.

    “It’s perfect in here, thank you very much. Besides, you’re wearing a hoodie!”

    “Because it’s cold outside! It’s winter, Minhyuk!” you shook your head. “Where were we going with this?”

    “Honestly, I have no idea.”

      “I don’t know either.” Plopping on the couch, you started scrolling on your phone. Soon, a sweaty and kinda smelly Minhyuk joined you.

    “To what do I owe this visit?” he asked, not-so-sneakily looking over your shoulder at your screen.

    “I had a bad dream again.”

    “Again? Why was I not aware of these?”

     You shrugged, trying to push the recollections to the back of your mind. “They don’t happen too often, and they don’t include you, so you didn’t need to know.”

     Out of the corner of your eye, you saw possibly the biggest eye roll known to mankind. “If you’re having nightmares that keep you up past 2 in the morning, I should definitely know about them.”

    “Look, I usually wake up from them around 4, so you’re lucky this is early for me.”

    “Still isn’t a good reason,” he sing-songed.

    “Ugh, shut up Minhyuk.” you slapped him on the arm and switched to Twitter to continue scrolling.

    “What are they about?”

    You raised an eyebrow. “What?”

    “The nightmares. If you want to talk about them, then they might go away.”

    “Honestly? I’d rather go back to middle school.” you tried to be as nonchalant as you could, but there was a tremor in your voice anyway.

    “They’re that bad? Wow, they must have you really shaken up.” Concern made his eyebrows furrow and a small frown appear. The only other time you refused to talk to him about something was when you were having problems with family and choosing between the company and university. You had explained to him after it passed that you had felt like you needed to listen to yourself and not have anyone else’s opinion influencing you. He figured it was something similar this time, too. “Just know you’re not alone in this, okay?”

    You dabbed at your eyes. “Okay.”

      “Hey, do you still remember that routine we did before you left?” Minhyuk hopped up and held out his hands.

    “Hyuk, that was like three years ago! How could I remember?”

      “I could re-teach you!”

    Finally, a grin broke out on your face. “Okay, let’s do it. See if I still got my moves.”

    “They’ll come back, I don’t doubt it for a minute.”

    You took his hands, got hoisted up, and followed Minhyuk to the middle of the room, ready to dance like you used to.

~~~

    “Yeah!” you yelled, jumping up and down. “We did it!”

      You two just did the whole routine all the way through without any mistakes. It took you a bit and a lot of reminders, but eventually muscle memory kicked in and suddenly you were dancing pretty much like before you left. Minhyuk loved the moment when you realized you were matching him with minimal effort. Your eyes lit up and you grinned really big, suddenly gaining more energy and charisma. He loved this side of you.

    “Yeah! I’m so proud of you!” he mirrored your excitement, hugging you and spinning you around. “It’s just like old times!”

    “Old times.” you hugged him tighter, “I miss the old times.”

      “Me too.” he sighed, enjoying this little moment.

      You pulled away and put your hands on his shoulders. “We have to film this.”

      “We do?”

    “Yeah! So we can compare it to that video the staff took when we first mastered this!”

    “Okay. Ddoca should be around here somewhere.” Minhyuk began to look around.

    “We could just do it on our phones. Is there a tripod anywhere?” You opened a closet and found one.

    “My phone doesn’t have enough space. Ddoca probably has better filming quality, anyway.” Minhyuk pulled a little white camera out from behind the soundboard with a triumphant “Aha!”.

    “Okay.” you shrugged. “Having the company label on it would probably be safer, anyway.”

    Minhyuk laughed as he set the tripod up and screwed on Ddoca. “You know all of that is added after we film everything, right?”

     “Yeah, I know! I’m just saying that I don’t mind if the company releases it if they want to.”

      “Alright, we’re set.” Minhyuk looked up at you. “Wanna do an introduction?”

    “I guess that’s probably the best way to do things, huh?” you came and crouched next to Minhyuk. “It’s gonna be weird, though.”

    “You’ll get used to it.” Minhyuk chuckled. “Ready?”

    With a nod, he reached over and pressed record.

    “What’s up! It’s Rocky,” Minhyuk started, using his stage name out of force of habit. “Today is kind of a special edition of Y.Y.Y. I have a guest today!” He grinned as he put both arms out and gestured to you like that Will Smith meme. You shyly smiled and waved.

    “I’m (Y/N). I used to be a trainee here at Fantagio.”

      “We auditioned and got accepted around the same time, so we kinda became best friends.” Minhyuk put an arm around your shoulders, throwing you off balance and causing you to fall on your butt. You two dissolved into giggles, mostly due to it being 3:30 in the morning.

    “Dear god, we’re tired.” you said, wiping a tear from your eye. “It’s so early.”

    “Stay awake!” Minhyuk shook your shoulders. “We gotta get this done.” he went into another giggle fit.

      “Anyway, we’re best friends here to recreate a routine we learned before I left and he debuted.” You smacked him, signalling him to calm down and focus. “We spent an hour and a half relearning it, so hopefully it’s pretty similar to the original.”

    “It’s probably way better now. We’ve both matured and changed our styles, so it’ll look way different. Are you ready?” Minhyuk looked at you.

    “As I’ll ever be. Let’s go!” With that, you went to your spot, Minhyuk started the music, and you two performed.

    It felt like a huge audience was watching when it was only a camera. Nerves turned into focus. Focus on your moves, on your expressions, on the flow with Minhyuk. It felt like the old times, and that was the best feeling you had in a while. And just like old times, the routine was over way too quickly. You both froze in the ending pose, breathing heavily and grinning from ear to ear.

    Minhyuk picked you up and spun you around again, making you squeal in surprise. “Minhyuk, I swear to god-”

    “That was even better than the last time! We should have filmed the whole process.” Minhyuk continued to hold you as he walked toward Ddoca.

    “No! I would have made a fool out of myself!” you lightly smacked his head. He put you down and squatted for Ddoca again.

    “You did fine, (Y/N)! I swear, this girl is too hard on herself.” He said to the camera.

    “Do you want me to actually whack you? ‘Cause I can do that.”

    “Okay, okay, I’ll stop! Let me live.”

    “We’ll see.”

    “Uh, yeah. Anyway! We need to go, so this is Rocky and (Y/N) signing off.”

    “Hopefully we’ll get to do more stuff in the future! Bye Ddoca,” you waved once again as Minhyuk said bye and stopped recording.

    You flopped on the ground. “My legs are burning. Is that normal?”

    “You haven’t danced seriously in years. I think it’s normal.” Minhyuk chuckled.

    “Getting sleepy…” you couldn’t keep your eyes open anymore. You were warm from dancing and exhausted.

    “Ah, let’s get you home before you do that. Come on, get up.” Minhyuk grabbed your hands and pulled you up.

    Minhyuk walked you home after locking up. You yawned pretty much the whole way home, infecting him with them too.

    “Do you want to stay the night?” you asked before you entered the apartment building. “You’re just as tired as I am.”

    “I would, but Jinwoo-hyung and Dongmin-hyung are gonna have my head if I don’t go back to the dorm soon.” Minhyuk rubbed his neck.

    You frowned, but hugged him anyway. “Be safe going back, okay?”

    “I will.” He said, squeezing you once for good measure. He watched you run up the stairs and open the door to the complex.

     “(Y/N)!” Minhyuk called just before the door closed.

    You stuck your head out of the door. “What?”

    “When you have another nightmare, I’ll always be there to dance with you.”

[amoristt]

Alive | Rick x Reader

@dinodiegos asked: Can u gimme some sick fuckin rick just protect in ur sweet ass from some zoms pls and thank you love you

Hell Yeah you can owo 

im dumb and accidentally made this more into action than romance so sorry abt that FHDJFS i wrote too much to just up and toss it out. hope you like it anyways and if u want one that’s Romance Specific hmu bc i love rick 

reblogs + tags and replies will make my entire day as i put a lot of effort into this :)!

story continues beneath the read more. let me know if you can’t access it!

warning: mild language, gore

Alive

Any second now you felt like you were going to collapse against the concrete.

Your shoes, already worn down from wearing them so often, felt like they were going to fall apart and leave your heels scraping, but you didn’t stop sprinting for even a second. Garbled groans and incoherent cries of the dead sounded from everywhere, leaving your head spinning. You were surrounded.

The sun was starting to shift beneath the tree’s horizon, and it seemed what was supposed to be a short supply run quickly took a turn for absolute worst. If you weren’t so entirely focused on searching for a way out you’d be worrying about where they had all come from but right now the only thing on your mind were two things: run, find Rick.

And to think, your day with Rick originally hadn’t started out bad at all.

The first stop the two of you made wasn’t too shabby, and you found yourself with a new hoodie and a hat for when the colder temperatures would start to settle in. Rick found some baby clothes stuffed into a dresser (which neither of you thought too deeply about) and you fawned over how small the item was, telling him Judith would look adorable in the pink and red top. There was a medicine cabinet with a few leftover vitamin and motrin bottles, along with bandaids and what looked to be some sort of disinfectant. It wasn’t a whole lot, but it better than nothing. Plus you and him had rounded up some more things from your previous run two days ago, so for the moment Alexandria was good.

On the way home you felt pretty good about the day. Rick was playing Cd’s that he’d scrounged up from one place or another, and you had a hand out the window, enjoying the push of the wind against your palms. In between the front and passenger seat where yours and Rick’s hands, locked together casually. With all the years having gone by you’d learn to enjoy the good days when they came, even if the world around you was in shambles. Odd how an apocalypse can make a slightly warm temperature and no murder a ‘good day’.

Things became a little bumpier as the day progressed, however. You’d passed by a few walkers here and there, their haggled and rotting corpses trying to stumble towards the moving vehicle with no avail. Neither of you thought much of it- It was the end of the world. Not seeing any walkers for the duration of your run would have been odd. Eventually though those occasional solo walkers became more and more, their numbers growing with every mile it seemed. They hung out mostly along the sides of the road, bumping into one another by trees and ditches.

After another mile or two the numbers thinned out again, and your nerves started to die down like before. Four or five became two or three, and finally there was nothing once more.

“What do you think happened?” you’d asked, eyebrows knit in mild concern. The car was quite a distance away from Alexandria, so the walkers didn’t pose an (immediate) threat to everyone yet. However you were still worried- something must have brought them all here.

Rick sucked in a breath and shrugged, tilting his head. “Can’t say. They’re spread out, though. If somethin’ brought em’ here it was a while ago.”

“Yeah,” You leaned back and stared blankly out the windshield, trying to shake off the odd dread that was building in your gut. “Guess you’re right.”

Rick’s eyes left the road for a moment at the sound of your voice, and he took in your expression before turning back to the wheel. His hand squeezed yours lightly.

“Don’t worry much about it,” He started reassuringly, “They’re far out here.”

“I know, I just-...” You shook your head. “We don’t have the best luck when it comes to walkers, Rick.”

He nodded once. “I know that, but right now we gotta focus on this. When we get back I’ll have someone keep an eye out just incase, sound good?”

“That sounds… Good.” A small smile found it’s way to your lips, the corners tugging up as you looked back out the window.

After that the car ride was spent in another comfortable silence, and you replayed what Rick had told you over and over in your head. Despite how you tried to tell yourself it would be fine, something felt wrong. Something felt dangerous, and it left you sitting there in a state of apprehension that you kept entirely to yourself. Even if you talked to Rick about it you knew what he’d say- that there was nothing to be worried about and that even if the walkers found their way to Alexandria, there was more than enough gunpower and people to wipe them out before they even got close the gate. Still, even thought you knew he was entirely right, anxiety settled heavily in your gut.

Miles even farther away, a few businesses sat in a circle of road. It looked to be some sort of strip mall, all the signs mostly broken down and laying in piles of rubble on the cracked parking lot. There were multiple empty cars sitting idle in their spots, all of them covered in years worth of grime and rust. The car you and Rick pulled up in looked like a million dollars compared to the rest, even if it had it’s own fair share of weathering down.

“One last stop?” Rick asked you, and you bit your lip. One last stop couldn’t hurt.

You agreed, and to avoid getting trapped in the lot, Rick made the choice to pull off the main road and part in the grass a bit away. You should have listened to your dread-filled gut when he turned the car off and hopped out, you following his lead and shoving your hands into your pockets. The small strip mall didn’t look like too bad of a place to search. Clothing stores, mini groceries, pretty much a huge variety of very useful things that Alexandria could use.

It was too good of a chance to pass up, so when Rick gave you that look of his, you nodded and allowed him to lead the way with his gun drawn. At first things were quiet. Only the sound of your steps on concrete could be heard, and soon you and him split off and allowed a few cars in between. You had your own gun held tight in your hands, your mouth dry as tension on increased in your muscles. Any moment now… Things were going to go wrong.

When things didn’t, in fact, go wrong, you scolded yourself for being such a baby. Sure, you were in a life threatening situation, but there was no real reason in that very moment for you to be acting like a cautious cat. As Rick gestured that he was going to branch further away, you allowed him to and rolled your shoulders in an attempt to calm yourself down. The last thing you needed was to be spooked by a sound and accidentally fire your gun at nothing. Then you’d really be in some shit.

Thankfully something about shifting your muscles did seem to loosen you up just enough to glide past a few more cars, eyes peeled and finger flush against the trigger while you made your way closer to shop at the very end of the strip mall: a grocery outlet. Both of the glass doors were wide open and shattered, the windows spray painted with what looked like horribly drawn atomic bomb mushroom clouds. You laughed silently to yourself and shook your head before coming closer. You poked your head into the building, peering into the darkness, and a pin-dropping silence took over.

All at once everything fell apart.

A piercing siren cut through the air, destroying the jarring silence with its merciless screaming. You realized, with crushing horror, that it was your car alarm.

It wailed and wailed and wailed, the sound making you launch away from the doors and back out into the parking lot. Panicking, your fear only doubled over when you didn’t see Rick over the tops of the cars. You weren’t close enough to the road to see the car but you knew damn well that was it was- a walker must have heard you pull into the grass before turning it off and the stupid thing thought there was people inside. It had set the alarm off, and now you were alone and barely armed surrounded by a labyrinth of vehicles.

You knew all too well what was to come next, and low and behold, you were right as always.

The first walker that made way through the line up of broken down cars was a tall one missing it’s left arm. Initially it was following the noise, but when you halted to a sharp stop and gasped it took note of you in the corner of it’s eye and reached out with it’s one last hand. You grimaced and took a few steps back, aiming to turn around and dart towards where you assumed Rick was, but when you turned around your heart fell to your stomach. Walkers, nearly a dozen of them, were spilling around the end of the strip mall and making their way into the parking lot. If you hadn’t already been spotted by one you’d just shove yourself down under a truck or something, but it was hot on your heels and coming closer despite how easily it’s attention could be grabbed by the siren blaring.

Darting left and trying to hide yourself from all the walkers pooling, you cursed under your breath. Your gun didn’t have nearly enough ammo to take on this many, and shooting them could make things arguably worse. If you started shooting then Rick would start shooting and who knows how many more that could attract. Instead of opening fire you just continued trying to make your way to his side of the mall, but you were stopped dead in your tracks at the horrific sight ahead. Even more walkers. They were hobbling towards the car as well, slamming into dead cars on the way.

Along with the car alarm still howling, you could hear the disgusting moans of the dead starting to surround you. With them both behind you and in front of you, you were trapped, and you tried to wrack your mind for something to do. You didn’t have enough time to hit the dirt and slide under a car- not that it would work in the first place because you were being hunted by the walker with one arm. You couldn’t just up and scream for Rick either because then it would attract them all. The only option you could see was maybe trying to get into a shop, but if the door was locked you were entirely fucked. They’d see you make the run for it, and if you couldn’t get in right away they’d barrage you in seconds.

Heart thudding in your chest, you barely registered when a walker passed by the car you were hiding behind. It hadn’t seen you, too focused on the sound, but your jump-scared induced reaction surely caught the attention of a few more that cut across their path to find their way to you.

Not knowing what else to do, you ran.

From one car to the next you jumped over hoods, bounced off doors and hauled yourself in between them trying to get away from the ever-growing walkers compiling behind you. Everything was happening at once- it felt like you were going to pass out right then and there. Rick was still nowhere to be seen and immediately your brain started filling in imaginary blanks.

They’d gotten to him. He couldn’t make it out fast enough. He’s dead.

Moans of the dead grew closer once again and you pushed yourself even harder. Walkers still chased you like a game past the obstacles of cars, and even though it would mean heading straight for the walkers in front of you, you still tried to get close to the area where Rick had been. He was closer to the car than you were given you were on the other end of the parking lot, maybe he was trying to get inside of it to turn the ever blaring alarm off. Maybe he was hiding inside a shop like you’d considered.

Finding that dodging cars and moving around them was taking too much of your time, you opted to choosing an aisle and taking a straight sprint down the line. Cars passed by you in a blur, and you quickly found yourself at the other end of the parking lot. However, it wasn’t the right end you wanted to be on. You were still far from where Rick had parked, and you were still being chased.

You made the impulse choice to give into your natural instinct to hide, choosing a van to duck behind before moving to the truck next to it. Without a seconds hesitation you dropped to your knees then your belly, using the massive tire next to your body to help haul yourself underneath the truck. You hoped, prayed that they lost sight of you when you hid behind the van. Your heart slammed against your ribcage when you caught sight of their shuffling feet coming closer, their ripped up jeans and shoes visible as they stumbled around in search of you. Looking behind, the sight of feet surrounded you almost entirely.

Dulled out shoes of all color stepped around the truck, their actions much slower and less driven than before. You physically covered your mouth just incase you were giving off any sort of sound, and all you could think about was how easy it would be for one to drop down and grab you. In the case that one happened to see you, it would be over. You would be trapped. You would die.

The walkers continued to hang around, stepping menacingly by the perimeter of the truck. You could have cried when a few branched off and disappeared, their attention having been grabbed once again by the alarm still running. One by one pairs of feet shuffled away from you, some quicker than others, and eventually you found yourself alone in your hiding spot. All at once you released the heaving breath you had been holding, your hand coming to run through your hair. Every part of your skin was clammy, your entire body trembling with coursing adrenaline.

Unable to stand even another moment underneath the truck, you scooted your way to the side and picked yourself up on the ground. For just a moment it seemed like you’d avoided the storm of walkers, their disfigured bodies moving to swarm the vehicle quite a ways away. You allowed yourself to breath, leaning forward and holding your hands on your knees while your chest rose and fell rapidly. When you looked up, eyes frantically scanning over the tops of all the cars, you still couldn’t see Rick over the horde.

You tried to see past all the moving bodies, but something stopped you. A sharp movement right in the corner of your eye. With barely any time to react, you weren’t able to tear yourself away when a hand gripped tight to your forearm. You jumped and bit back a startled cry, and then you came face to face with that same damn walker from before. Up close it was even uglier than you could have imagined, it’s face rotted and it’s jaw hanging open awkwardly. It’s eyes were so sunken and horrid.

Instinctively your free hand came up to rip at the walkers fingers, trying to free yourself. When it didn’t let up you opted to just backing up and putting your weight into jerking away, but nothing was working. Suddenly you were more than thankful that the walker only had one arm- if he had both of them he could likely take an even better grip and keep you pinned in your spot. Your mind raced for something to do, some way to pry the walker away from you without setting off the gun in your hand. To try and stop him from taking a bite at your face, you used your other arm and pressed it to the walkers chest to keep those teeth away from your skin. It didn’t help that he was taller than you, somewhat towering over your figure with his broken jaw attempting to bite around nothing. The thought to hide returned and in one fell push, you lunged forward off your toes and managed to send the walker toppling backwards onto the ground. It thudded and squirmed, it’s one arm working to find purchase.

With the way your mind was desperately thinking about what to do, it was no surprise that your limbs couldn’t keep up with every thought that raced by. As the walker writhed on the ground you made a move to escape its view by running around to the other side of the truck, but in your absolute panic you overshot your turn and slammed harshly into the metal front. Unfortunately, the combination of your already shaking muscles mixed with just how hard you’d slammed into the truck made for a deadly turn. You fell harshly onto the pavement, hands not quote catching you in time to stop your chin from hitting the ground. Pain shot through your leg, what if you’d broken it? The walker behind you had rolled onto its stomach by now. You scrambled in your spot, bringing yourself up halfway before you were yanked back down. Fingers wrapped iron-tight around your ankle, broken nails digging tightly into the flesh barely exposed with your pants rising up your leg.

The threat of being scratched and infected became very apparent, and you made the stupid, fear fueled response to try and kick the walker's head. It barely affected the walker, not feeling the pain from the blunt hits, so it just continued trying to either pull you down or pull itself up to you instead. Your gun had clattered out of reach, resting underneath the truck where you’d once been hiding.

Fear rose like bile up to your chest. You continued kicking at it, praying that some part of it’s skull would give and allow you break free, but it never happened. Frantic, you tried to roll out of it’s grasp, but when you stopped on your back you gasped out at the sight of another walker B-lining it straight towards you. It was a few cars away but moving fast, and with your current position at being unable to stand, if that walker arrived… That would be it. You would die.

A million words screamed at you but this time they weren’t of escaping. They were of the potential aftermath- Rick finding your corpse. What little family you had left mourning for you.

One thought stuck out more than the rest. If this was how you were to die, it was going to fucking hurt. You were going to suffer immensely, and finally adrenaline rushed through you all over again. Like a rabid animal you fought, twisting, turning, sitting up to tear at the walkers fingers. In your fight the grip loosened and in that very second you ripped away your leg and sent a kick straight into the walkers face. It’s skull ruptured against your powerful kick and nothing in your entire life had felt more satisfying than the bone crushing. The walker went limp, it’s face hitting the concrete with a thud.

Free from your grip you rapidly rolled over onto your hands and knees, but you didn’t get too far. As if it were one thing after another, a shadow covered over your still immobile body. That walker was right up on you, standing merely a foot away with it’s eyes fixated it’s prey. Something about the sight of it so close while you felt so tiny stopped you. You froze. Every part of you screamed to move but you couldn’t, paralyzed in your spot even as it started to drop down to make its attack. There was nothing in it’s eyes. It’s teeth clipped together. It’s rotting fingers reached-

A shot rang out.

The walker fell like a pile of bricks right in front of you. Everything sounded like it was underwater, and you felt like you were moving in slow motion as you tried to bring yourself to your feet. When you almost fell back onto your knees thanks to your uncoordinated limbs, you were forced back into your right mind when yet another hand came to grab tight on your shoulder, the fingers sliding down to your forearm where they clasped and literally pulled you up onto your feet.

Fight kicked in once again and you turned on your heel, not taking a second look before you put your hands flat against the figure's chest before you shoved hard. It did not fall flat on it’s ass like you thought it would, but it did lose it’s grip. However, you stopped in your tracks at the sight of what it was.

Rick.

Blood spattered his shoulders and the front of his shirt, his eyes just as frantic and intense as yours probably were. At your outburst against him, he steadied himself and rose his hands to his chest, his gun held tight in his grip.

“Where were you?!” Without thinking your arms outreached, grabbing him tight by the cloth of his shirt, and you pulled him as close as you could. You thought for a time there that you’d lost him, all those horrible ‘what if’s playing tricks on your mind and sanity. But, he was right there, and he had saved your life like he always did.

“I was trying to get to you,” His arms came to wrap about you protectively, allowing you your moment of recollection, before he pushed you away and brought you down to crouch along the side of the truck. “Listen to me, listen to me. They’re gonna be coming here any minute now- we gotta find a way to get back around to the car.”

You tugged at your hair, eyes scanning over the ground as you debated what to do. “Why are there so many of them?”

“I don’t know. Somethin’ brought em here.”

“I knew something was going to go wrong-”

“Hey, hey,” He held your face in his hands to stop you from your spiralling. “I know, you were right. But right now we gotta get out of this.”

You swallowed thickly and nodded, sucking in a deep breath before taking a peek through the windows. Sure enough, the walkers were coming, but they hadn’t yet seen you. They aimlessly followed the area, growing closer but without much direction.

“Okay-” You tried to compose yourself by wiping over your face quickly. “Okay, they havn’t seen us yet.”

“But they know we're here,” Rick too took a glance through the musty glass windows. “Van,” He made a motion for you join him and you did, trying to follow his line of sight. “Right there. If we can cut across without being seen we can hide behind there. The walkers think we’re over here, where the sound was. They won’t know we left.”

You nodded and tried to not let the oncoming walkers psych you into acting too brashly again. “How do we get over there?”

“We run.”

You sent him a sharp glance. “Obviously, but how do we make sure they don’t see us?”

Rick took a moment to think, eyes narrowing at the stared at the van, then the walkers, then the van again. After a moment he nodded towards the walkers passing by the cars. “See that little gap?” You sprained your neck to see, and there it was. About a dozen of walkers stuck close together, and in between another handful there was a small gap that left a few cars left alone for a brief time. “When they split up, we cut across from that blue car to the red one. Now, if we stay low and move fast enough, we can make it to that van. They aren’t goin’ over there- they’ll go right by to get to here.”

Nodding, you swallowed again. This was so incredibly risky- even just one seeing you and him saunter from one vehicle to the next would be catastrophic. Still, you needed to get to your own car. It’s wailing was going to attract even more if you didn’t put a stop to it now. At your nod of understanding, Rick crouched back down again and brought you with him. His hand moved to grab yours, and even in that crucial moment, you stopped to take in his expression.

He was uncertain, fear coloring those blue eyes of his. You knew exactly what he was doing- in times like this he liked to have a ‘one last look’ of sorts should something happen. With a squeeze of assurance you nodded once more at him, mouthing the words, ‘It will be okay’. Quickly, he dipped in and kissed you once, twice. You kissed him right back, eyebrows furrowed in worry. You couldn’t lose him.

When he pulled away his eyes fixated on your hands momentarily before he plunged himself right back into his mind. In a second flat he let go of your hand and passed you, holding his hand up to tell you to stay sill behind him. Your stomach was in all sorts of knots, your legs shaking with all the movement and fear, but when he looked back at you before taking off you followed him with no regards. Instantly the two of you were behind another car, this one much smaller than the truck. Close behind Rick, he led you from one end to the other, and he stopped to peek over the hood of the car before once again darting across the opening before finding cover in another vehicle. Every single time you passed from car to car, those few seconds where you were bare it felt like you were going to either get grabbed or seen.

Eventually the horde was no longer coming right at you. They still hobbled towards where the gunshot rang out but you were on the side of them now, watching them go past. In the distance straight ahead you could see the van, it’s dirty white sticking out against the dimming daylight. Nausea settled deep within your gut as Rick stopped at the far end, waiting for the walkers to break up enough for him to make a break for it. This would be the hardest part. If you and him didn’t run at the exact right moment, if you took too long or went too early, you would be seen and chased. At that point, however, the two of you would be surrounded on either side.

You wished that you could’ve just stayed where you were, but the second half of the walkers were well on their way and unfortunately if you stayed you would be directly into their path. That van would be the only spot where you could hide  without being in the way or being detected.

Still standing in front of you, hand up to keep you halted, Rick looked back at you. “Ready?” He mouthed, and even though fright had you by the throat you still nodded. Seconds dragged on like hours, your heart thudding harshly in your ears while you waited for him to make a move. The car siren only lightened your nerves up further. The waiting was agonizing; scenarios played out like movies in front of your eyes. So much could go wrong-

Rick took off. He kept low to the ground while he moved, his actions swift and precise. Everything in your mind went blank as you reacted on instinct, following his lead. Leaving the cover of the car made you feel naked, passing from car to car at such a crucial moment felt like it was taking forever. Step after step, you swore that something had seen you. The last step you made before joining Rick behind the van was much for forceful, your body nearly toppling over when you finally made it.

Rick fingers came to grab at your arms, tugging you close to him while he moved from the front of the van to the back, keeping sure to watch the walkers through the tinted glass windows. When he finally came to a stop, letting your arm fall back to your side, you held your breath.

“Did they see us?” You whispered, and when he didn’t answer right away you felt your stomach drop.

“No,” Rick shook his head and exhaled roughly. “No. They didn’t see.”

Your head fell for a moment, a breath of utter relief making its way out of your lips. They didn’t see.

Walkers passed by the van, the two of you on the other side of it watching them unknowingly pass you right by. They gathered around the dead body of the one Rick had shot, then all their eyes searched aimlessly for something to take sight of. Thankfully, you and him were gone.

As the last of them passed by to join the group, Rick nodded his head to motion for you to follow him as he made his way around the car, stopping at the trunk and taking a peek around the end before darting out of the cover. Now that the horde had been attracted to the other side of the parking lot, it was a race to get to your car before any others did. A straight shot past a couple dozen vehicles and you’d be there- and Rick knew that.

You followed close behind him, the two of you dead sprinting down the line. He was faster than you and more experienced in running but you managed to stay on his heels, legs aching when you realized you were in the final haul. Only a few more yards and you’d be there. The siren made your ears ring as you drew nearer but that didn’t stop you or him for even a second. If anything it motivated you, making your speed increase. Down the road you could see the blurry figures of walkers being attracted to the sound.

Being right next to the car made your head spin with the sound of the alarm, and you could hear Rick cursing as he shoved the key into the lock before swinging open his door and then forcing they key into into the ignition. All at once everything went quiet, the car starting up and the alarm turning off now that the key had been inserted. The very instant the doors unlocked you threw it open and jumped inside, not waiting to be properly in your seat before slamming the door shut. Rick, in a frenzy to leave the area entirely, pressed hard on the gas and made a rough U-turn back on the road. He didn’t waste a second in flooring it down the street and away from the horde. Growing closer to the walkers you’d seen earlier, he narrowly avoided running them over as he made the getaway. They watched the car barrel past thim with lagging minds, and seeing them disappear in the distance had you leaning back in your seat with a hand splayed over your eyes.

“Jesus christ,” you panted. “Jesus christ I thought that was gonna’ be it.”

“Hey,” Rick averted your attention to him, his hand coming to rest on your leg. “We made it. We’re out.” He was breathing heavy too, and you could see him checking the rearview mirror every few seconds just in case.

“Worst fucking luck ever.”

He looked at you for a moment before turning back to the road like he did earlier, but this time his features were so much harder. “We’re out.” He said, but you weren’t sure if he was saying that to help you down or he himself.

“I thought I lost you,” You whispered, resting your hand overtop his own. “I couldn’t find you, and I-” Within your chest nerves started to light up again, that feeling of fear returning. “I couldn’t see you anywhere and I really thought-”

“___,” Rick interrupted you, taking his eyes off the road to make sure you were looking at him. “I’m right here. It’s over, we’re going back home.”

“I know, I just-”

He shook his head. “You aren’t gonna’ lose me, no matter what. Stop thinking about it.”

Though you nodded at his words, you couldn’t stop. It was the only thing you could picture, the only thing you could feel. His hand squeezed you.

“Stop thinking about it. I’m right here.”

Looking up at him, you swallowed and nodded once more. “I know.”

“Good. I’m not goin’ anywhere, and neither are you. Okay?”

“Okay.” You answered, but this time you really meant it. The both of you were alive despite the terrifying run in, and now you were going home. You wiped at your eyes roughly and sucked in a sharp breath, trying to calm down. In the side view mirror, there were no walkers to be seen and there weren’t any ahead either. You’d made it out, even if your nerves were still having a hard time letting that sink in. You leaned back, eyes slipping shut and your hand once again coming to rest over Ricks. Tired, you mumbled, “Let’s not stop anywhere else.”

“Course not. We got some good stuff already. Sun’s going down- no point in goin’ out any further.”

You let out a sigh of a relief and watched the trees pass in a blur. “Sorry for making you use one of your bullets.”

“It worked out didn’t it? Gave us the chance to get back into here.” He paused to check the mirror again. “Not that it matters- I’d of used the whole clip if I had to.”

You watched him for a few seconds. Even though you expected an answer like that, hearing it still made the corners of your lips turn up in a smile. Your thumb rubbed over his knuckles, long since scarred by countless other fights. “Love you.”

From the corner of your eye you saw him look at you before turning back. After a moment of thoughtful silence, you heard him exhale into a smile. “I love you too.”

[wavemaker9]

I coulda come up with a better title for Day 2: Music but i also very much like this dumb title. also it’s exactly midnight so i’m like 1 minute late on this one too but i’m catching up

Title: Aggressive Stomping Characters: Australia (Kyle), Spain (Antonio/Toni)

It’s not exactly a glare, but the look Kyle is shooting up at the Spaniard is nothing close to his normally pleasant grin. Antonio just smiles back, though; that big, dumb grin he’s known for. When it makes no change in the Aussie’s expression, it falters, though, before falling to a disappointed frown himself. Antonio lifts Kyle up from the dip, trying to lead the other into a turn, but feeling the island nation resist wholeheartedly. Finally, Antonio sighs, letting go of Kyle’s hand. “Y’know, I’m kinda getting the feeling maybe you don’t wanna be here?”

Kyle rolls his eyes, taking a step away from the other and toward a couple chairs that have been pushed towards the wall. “Oh, whatever gave y’that idea?” Kyle shoots back, perfectly nailing a sarcastically curious tone as he finally slumps into one of the seats, spinning slightly to kick his feet up over the armrest. “Could it’ve been the seventy times I grumbled, ‘This’s stupid,’ at ya?” He closes his eyes, leaning his head back onto the other armrest and crossing his arms over his chest. “Naaaaah. Couldn’t be that.”

Toni laughs, though, as he follows the other over. He reaches forward, grabbing for Kyle’s legs and lifting them up so he can sit underneath them on the armrest. Kyle makes a show of reluctancy when he opens his eyes back up, looking at the other. He points out there are other chairs the elder nation could sit in, but Antonio assures him he likes this one just fine.

The Spaniard waits patiently for a few moments before reaching over to grab a hand, lightly tugging on it. “Are you giving up so easily? Or you just want a break. Neither exactly sound like you, but I only gotta talk you outta one.” He tugs again, grinning when Kyle thins his eyes at him before pulling his hand away.

“You don’t gotta talk me outta either,” Kyle shoots back, rolling towards his side slightly so that his back faces away from the chair and his shoulder is aimed more towards Antonio. “Y’could just lemme sit here until it’s too late to learn the dance.”

The Spaniard fights a chuckle, pulling on the hand again to try and get the other to turn back around and face him. “That ain’t gonna help you much this weekend. Didn’t you say you were afraid you’d look bad not knowing the steps, that you’d be embarrassed ‘making me look bad’?” Antonio lifts the legs again, just high enough so he can easily turn himself around to set his feet in the chair and face more towards Kyle. “I thought you’d be excited to learn how the dance works and wow everyone with your moves.”

“Only said that ‘cause I thought it’d die there and I wouldn’t have to go to this dumb dance thingo. Also, I can wow people with my moves without these dumb dance lessons.” A smirk cracks out along Kyle’s lips, though, and olive green eyes shift to look to Antonio. “Y’seemed pretty wowed by my moves last night, if I do say so myself.”

Toni can’t resist another laugh there, though he keeps it warm and playful, pulling the hand up to his mouth and brushing the fingers against his lips briefly. “Not that last night wasn’t as wonderful as ever, but ‘wowed’ is being a little confident, don’t you think?”

Here, Kyle turns to look back at the other, making direct eye contact and grinning in the other’s face. “Very confident, if you’re asking.” He could go without the additional laugh from the northern nation, his lips pulling to the side in an unamused pout as he pulls his hand free. “Rude.”

Toni glosses right over both the false show of confidence and the following expression of offense, pulling the legs back off of his so that he can stand up. He’s quieted by this point, but his shoulders and chest still shake slightly with amusement as he moves closer to the Aussie’s head, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. “Sometimes you are so adorable.”

Kyle rubs at his forehead the moment the other leans back, shooting an unappreciative glare at him. “Handsome and witty,” he corrects firmly, finally twisting back around so he can look at Antonio directly. “You’re treating me like a fucking kid.”

“If you don’t want me to, stop pouting like one and come join me on the dance floor,” Toni shoots back immediately. He stands back in the center of the empty space, gesturing to it, before settling a hand on his hip and tapping his foot expectantly. “I’m waiting,” he adds, a half-drawn out tease to his voice as he shows his own hint of a smirk.

Kyle stands, but does so without fighting the case that he’s behaving immaturely. He rolls his eyes and scoffs, hands hitting the armrests to turn himself around with the force of wanting to express irritation and reluctance at this whole thing. “Ain’t pouting,” he mutters sourly under his breath, before standing with just as much frustration. “But this is dumb. It’s always- these fancy fucking steps,” he says, voice suddenly picking up a bit of speed as a touch more energy hints his words. “It was the same with Art when I was younger. Always the same.” He takes on this exaggeratedly posh British accent, throwing his hands around in wide sweeps and making deep bows at imaginary persons to his side. “Y’gotta do exactly this way and just like so and no having fun! That ain’t how a proper gentleman behaves!” He drops the act with another big roll of his eyes, and Toni bites his tongue to keep from saying that they’re going to roll right out of his head at this point. “It’s bullshit! It’s dumb and stupid bullshit and I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now!” With a renewed passion to his resistance, he turns sharply and starts to head towards the door. “I ain’t doing it now.”

Toni’s smile had already faltered early into the Australian’s rant, but it dies completely when the other starts to leave. He rushes over, reaching out to wrap arms around the other’s waist, pulling him back into a hug and setting his chin on Kyle’s shoulder. He’s quiet for the moment, just swaying their bodies to the soft strumming of guitar strings still serving as a background music for their conversation. He presses soft kisses at Kyle’s jaw, not responding until some of the younger’s anger is given time to dissipate a bit.

When Kyle finally settles into the hold, letting himself be rocked to the music, Toni makes a humming noise. “Mmmm. So… you really think my kinda dancing is dumb because… there’re too many rules?” There’s definitely a tone to the phrase that sounds disbelieving in what he says.

Kyle’s shoulders fall a bit, rocking his head to the side a bit as if mentally conceding that that sounds harsher than he meant it to be. “I didn’t- don’t want it to be an insult to you. You know I like you and I deffo like watching you dance. But I got enough lessons as a kid where every little mistake I made was pointed out to me and criticized. Especially dancing. It was something a gentleman did and… let’s be honest, that was something I was never s’posed to be.” He doesn’t sound bitter or regretful over the statement. It’s more of a dismissive fact, said with an accepting sigh. “I don’t…. I dunno, it ain’t fun to me anymore. The point of dancing ain’t to be lectured on how to do it right. It’s to-.”

“Enjoy yourself,” Antonio cuts in, squeezing a little tighter. He chuckles into the other’s shoulder, tilting his head to lean it against Kyle’s. “Of course! You realize I agree with you, right? Dancing is about having fun, about passion and expressing yourself. Whatever Arthur taught you back then, lemme unteach you.”

Kyle’s mouth pulls to the side again, eyes thinning as he looks in the other direction away from the other, clearly not fully buying the response. “That why every step I take, you’re pointing out that it ain’t how the traditional way-.”

“There’s a proper way to do any dance, of course,” Antonio agrees, “but it ain’t all rules. My want wasn’t to make you feel bad or nothing like that. You said you were worried about not knowing the steps, about looking bad for being inexperienced. I was thinking you’d want to learn the practiced way to do it, to make sure you were doing it right in front of others.”

Antonio finally pulls his arms free, stepping around to stand in front of Kyle instead. He moves his hands, one wrapping around Kyle’s torso from the front to pull him close, leading him into a slow turn together along with the song. He keeps up the rhythm of the sway and step to the music, albeit slowed down for their conversation. “It’s important to learn the basics to the steps so you know how to make them yours, but there’s just as much feeling as thought to dancing. It’s about moving with your partner, letting the music guide you- your body as well as your soul. The steps can be practiced, but it ain’t truly dancing if there ain’t something to enjoy about it.”

His other hand grabs for Kyle’s, leading him into a slow spin so they end up side by side. The hand around his waist trails along the torso, dragging around and across his stomach to rest wrapped around his back and settling on his hip. The hand holding Kyle’s moves it to rest by his other hand, leaning his face in so they are inches apart. “It can be the music or the steps or… the partner, but you gotta find something to make you smile.”

Kyle keeps eye contact as a reluctant smile slips onto his face, soft but sweet. “Yeah, I… guess,” he breathes out, holding the pose with the other for a moment longer before suddenly turning and stepping away. “Still not crazy ‘bout you leading, though,” he teases, walking past the other, but sparing a wink back over his shoulder.

Toni lets his head roll down and over to follow the other’s movement. He shakes his head once it’s righted, but he’s still laughing in amusement at the other. He reaches forward, grabbing for the other’s hand as he’s passed and tugging him back into a spin to pull him close for quick kiss.

At least, it’s intended to be quick, but Kyle quickly allows his hands to wrap around the other, tangling tanned fingers into dark brown hair. When they pull away, he flashes a grin at the other and gives another playful wink. “See, like those moves better. Why can’t you show me those?” When Antonio insists he’s trying, if Kyle would just allow him, the Aussie shrugs casually. “If y’make it more fun like that, I might be open to learning,” he counters.

Toni looks into the other’s eyes, considers those words, and then smiles wide. That big, dumb grin of his. “Okay. We can do that.” He pulls away, turning and starting towards the speakers thumping softly with the music’s beat. He fumbles with the controls before pausing the song, then turning back to Kyle. “How about this? What dance would you consider fun?”

Kyle raises an eyebrow at him, before shaking his head. “I just said, I ain’t a big fan’a these fancy dances. I mean, I know some, but this shit you’re looking for? It ain’t my thin-.”

Toni lifts a finger, shaking it to dismiss such an idea. “Ah ah ah, I didn’t say fancy dancing. Anything. Unless you wanna try to say all dancing’s not your thing, which you don’t get to lie to me on that. We both know that ain’t true. I see you out the corner of my eye sometimes, when I play my guitar. You sway and slide as you walk around the house and you sing sometimes when you think I can’t hear. Also, we can’t forget that time I walked in on you dancing around to that ‘Uptown Funk’ son-.”

Kyle’s face falls into a flustered frown, before switching to a defiant glare as he crosses his arms. “I will not apologize for that. ‘Uptown Funk’s a good song.”

Toni effortlessly ignores his excuse, “You don’t gotta apologize for nothing. But I know there are other songs you wouldn’t defend that you still enjoy, especially when you think no one’s around to judge you. When I do see you dance, just around the house, I can see you enjoy it. You’re having fun. You like music, like dancing. So what pulls you in. What dances do you like?” When Kyle seems to consider the question, but still appears a little reluctant, he steps closer again, gesturing to the music player behind him. “We can do this, hmm? You play any song, you show me any dance steps, and I will learn them. You can criticize me all you want. You can lead. But then you let me show you how to dance flamenco? Deal?”

Kyle stares, looks away as if considering, before turning back with a new determination. “Yeah, fuck it, you got a deal.” He steps forward, walking past Toni to the speakers. It takes some fussing around to connect his phone and find a proper song, but soon enough he starts up a proper beat. It’s not the pop or punk rock Toni’s caught Kyle dancing to before or anything similar. Instead, it’s a sort of electronic party beat that immediately sets Kyle into a rhythm of little bounces on his feet. “‘Kay, this is called the Melbourne Shuffle. You’re actually lucky; the basic steps for shuffling’re super easy to learn.”

He cranks the music up a bit before turning and starting forward toward the Spaniard. His feet lift and drop in a rough, bouncy step, and Toni immediately has to cover up a laugh. It gets Kyle to come to an immediate halt, shooting a confused frown at the other. “Wha- what?”

Toni shrugs carelessly, admitting, “I just wasn’t expecting… quite so much… aggressive stomping, y’know?”

Kyle’s frown becomes more firm, once more pouting at the other in offense. “I mean, your dance’s got a lotta stomping too, if y’think about it.” Toni opens his mouth, but Kyle raises a finger. “If you-!” Toni tries again and Kyle re-lifts the finger at him. “No, if you really- if you really think about it, it’s a lotta fancy stomping and clapping. Pretty much every dance is, really. Just differs on how hard y’step.”

Toni shakes his head, looking almost a little offended himself. “There’s a lot more flare and style to flamenco than just-.”

“And that’s why it’s laaaaame,” Kyle cuts back in, closing the remaining gap between them. He reaches out to playfully punch the Spaniard’s arm before passing by his side. “Y’know I ain’t one for that really old flare and style.” Antonio points out that the dance really only came around in the late 1700s, which gets Kyle to laugh and point out that that’s around the same time the first boats even came to his land. “I ain’t about all that flash; just having some fucking fun, mate. Now, deal’s a deal. Stomping or not, here’s whatcha gotta do.”

True to his word, Antonio listens as the other walks him through the simple steps of lifting and moving and crossing or spreading out his feet. He explains how twists and kicks and slides and jumps are thrown in, and how you can sway or jerk your arms around, but a lot of it comes naturally with the movement and the music. It takes a little bit to pick up, but eventually they’re just dancing, occasionally spinning and dancing around each other. Antonio learns to like the dance, but he learns to love how showing off the steps draws a little smile to Kyle’s face. He, admittedly, might be paying more attention to that than to the movement of his own feet for the moment. When Kyle comments on those movements, though, he keeps them all relatively positive.

When the song comes to an end, that smile leaves Kyle’s face. He slowly comes to a stop, sighing as the next song starts, a similar sort of beat but with a smoother, lighter sort of tune to it and with words. “Alright,” Kyle says after a moment, nodding over to the music. “Start whatever guitar shit ya got and show me the flamenco steps. Deal’s a deal.”

Toni glances in the direction of the music, but it takes only a moment to look back and nod back to Kyle. “We can do two and two?” he suggests, “Another dance means another song?” It really is like sunshine, that excited grin that grows on the Aussie’s face.

Kyle spares a half second to ask for a confirmation, but is already dismissing any need for it with a joyous agreement, already starting to mention a couple other variations of shuffle dances he can show the other. Toni smiles, mostly glad to see the other excited again, though a part of it he must admit is amusement, as one simple thought crosses his mind: Don’t like dancing, my ass.

[book-o-scams]

What do you take away from Edd and Eddy's friendship? What have you learned from their relationship?

As usual, after analyzing their personalities all month, I’d like to appreciate what I really love about Edd and Eddy, and that’s all their acting!  Their scenes roll by so naturally, and every pose or face is so strong, they’re so interesting on their own that I don’t usually think about how few characters there are besides them.  Observing them for so long has taught me a lot about the importance of characters interacting within a scene and EEnE’s surreal style inspires me to never give up finding new ways to squish characters together.

I think Tinker Ed has plenty of EddEddy frames to grab, so I’ll go over it all under the cut.  I’m having some Internet issues due to a storm so I’ll post this for now and update it with the rest a little later:

Hahaha, well, this is just typical season 5 slapstick but Edd having Xs for pupils after hitting the pavement is a funny 3-frame expression:

But the scene in the bush IS full of tension:

Look at them: Ed is in his underwear, Edd laying in Ed’s lap, Eddy sitting ass-to-ass on Edd…

And after Edd falls out, they literally do a shot where Edd spreads his legs followed by a shot with Ed zipping up his pants and Eddy looking smug.  Like I don’t know HOW intentional it is, but it certainly looks like the point was for it to be used out of context.

I also want to appreciate how good Edd’s perspective looks in this shot:

So the first steps this scene took on making Edd, Eddy and their dynamic pleasant again:

Eddy’s part in making Jimmy cry is unusually benign– it is in-character enough at this point for Eddy to believe roughhousing is friendly if he also makes Jimmy’s flying carpet real for a moment.  Eddy is having fun and this is how he thinks to include people.  Jimmy’s accident is even cushioned by his turban.

The thing that actually makes Jimmy cry and upsets Edd is Ed patronizing Jimmy and then walking away making “crazy“ gestures at Jimmy.  Juxtaposed with Eddy’s “fun” interruption of Jimmy, Ed’s offensive act comes across as more targeted and intentional. I should also say, I feel like season 4-5 Ed is pretty mean compared to the first 3 seasons, and I think that contributes to his loss of focus in the show’s later episodes.  There’s a weird feeling that Ed is willfully ignorant of the consequences he causes for others.  BUT I do like the idea of Eddy’s mean-ness rubbing off on Ed and Ed’s less motivated cruelty then helping humanize Eddy’s behavior in latter-day scenes like these.

It’s nice that Ed repents, though, and Jimmy’s expressions are wonderful.

Suddenly and without provocation, although perhaps inspired by Edd’s concern, Eddy quietly steps in to console Jimmy.  Quiet is a rare mode for season 4-5 Eddy, but speaking softly or in a whisper seems to come up whenever Eddy is the most open and real in later episodes.  I like that detail a lot because I feel like the funny thing about Eddy in old episodes is that he isn’t scratchy all the time.

Good expression matching between shots..

Eddy is soft and cuddly like mashed potatoes…

oooh, this seems a bit like Eddy trying to act like a good big brother, doesn’t it?  Maybe this is around when Eddy started noticing Bro’s negative effects and moving toward his season 6 positivity…

Eddy is petting Jimmy by the way, he’s not just leaning on him.

This shot indicates that Eddy’s soft side has caught everyone’s attention and is appealing to Edd and Ed successfully.

I would take a bullet for Earnest Eddy, man, you don’t KNOW, man

Gotta say, the digital outlines are ON-POINT in this episode. I believe credit goes to Christine Li for the inking this season.

Earnest Eddy lives on in all our hearts….

I totally get that the arms don’t have to make any sort of sense, but gotdang that’s a teeny forearm compared to the rest of his arm…

Please watch Edd squishing with glee in sync with Eddy and Jimmy being cutesy.

Note, we are only like 6 frames into this shot, Edd booked it over to Eddy’s shoulder.

Clutching his damn chest…

Oh hi Norbert Beaver

Oooh, to understand the importance of staging, pay attention to all the different things happening in this shot and how clearly everything reads:

All the squishing Edd and Eddy are doing is killing me, and check out Eddy mugging like Bro, so proud he’s pulling off this brotherly moment.

Please note that EDDY initiates this half-lidded glance they exchange.

Can Edd take a break from swooning in this scene!?

I really appreciate how hard Eddy tries to be upbeat and comfortable with this even though this is clearly pushing the limits of how he likes to be interacted with.

This Eddy is one of the weirdest drawings in the show,....  It’s like... both a happy and uncomfortable expression?  It keeps this from losing the show’s tone completely, though, we need to know Eddy’s still not a fan of people being cuddly with him.

Eddy’s even trying to be upbeat after Ed drags his crotch over Eddy’s face.

Everyone’s drawn really well in this scene, but Eddy is particularly versatile, look at him go!

Edd is so coming onto Eddy here...

Eddy’s coming right back onto him!  Ed is just like “jeez you guys, how am I supposed to read this as platonic?“

Even Ed’s comic relief fart song has him posing clutching his heart!

And while I’m not going to exhaust myself looking for everything I could read into, I would like to also note that Eddy diffuses Ed’s inappropriate joke with a peaceful resolution and I think that’s another good detail toward improving Eddy’s character.  One of my favorite beak gags ever!

I would also like to point out that this episode amounts to Edd and Eddy crossdressing, as all good stories should.

As a non-shipping bonus, here’s my favorite shot of the episode...