#i have a monster in my fridge finally to help me out but dang

[the-kipsabian]

replied to my emails

filled some paperwork

sending some job applications

paying my bills

what is this, night is up at a decent time AND still being a functioning human being???

[heyitsyn]

Keeping Up With Seijoh Ep. 7

a/n: im sorry but takeru could take my uwus like hes so adorable yall 🥺😭

anon:

-LETS BE HONESTTT WITH OURSELVES. oikawa bringing takeru to practice cuz he forgot he promised to watch him n so he asks you to watch him while he rushes off to change— and then takeru goes OFF after he hears that YOURE the person uncle tooru keeps talking about. he basically just exposes oikawa, gets on your good side w all the embarrassing blackmail material he can provide, and oikawa comes back to you grinning like a madwoman HAHAHAHAHA c,:

tumblr moot:

-‘ Omg Takeru spills to his mom and grandmother how Oikawa had a crush and how awkward he is around this girl. Which leads to them inviting her over without Oikawa knowing. He comes home one day, a lil upset because yn wasn't at practice only to hear her giggling with his mother and sister while having tea ‘

NOW THIS IS THE REAL TEAAA!!!!!!!

TAKERU IS SUCH A MOOD MY GOD IMAGINE HAVING A CRACKHEAD UNCLE LIKE OIKAWA!!!!😭😭😭😭

uwu yes i love this req so lets start

so basically

two words:

uncle oikawa

bahahaha no not really but yes really tho

anyways

this is going to basically be the scenario where takeru has accepted you as his auntie

so sit down my little grasshoppers because this is finna be a long one

it all started when oikawa forgot his promise

now,

oikawa prides himself in being a know-it-all and being ‘responsible’ or shit like that but hes,,,,, far from that

like how he was currently running towards the gym where takeru’s volleyball class was at because he forgot that his sister made him promise to pick his nephew up since she was working overtime today

oikawa tooru didnt care about his appearance and the way he huffed as he sonic nyoomed his way there since he was more scared of what his sister would do to him if she finds out he was late

the sight of the gym door has never felt so good

‘TAKERU!!’

he yelled and a head peaked out that belonged to the one and only boy

‘uncle, youre so loud’

he chided and tooru rolled his eyes before grabbing his hand

‘hey, go get your stuff. im late and y/n is going go kill me if im not there’

takeru rolled his own eyes and went at a snail’s pace as he packed up his knee pads and his water bottles

‘TAKERU HURRY UP WHAT-!’

‘hmm,, dont lie uncle. you just want to see the pretty goddess nee-chan’

OKAY TAKERU DANG

so basically,,

its been mentioned that you call the boys a lot or its them calling you and oikawa happens to be the one who calls you constantly

and takeru lives with them and he’s usually up quite late so he hears tooru downstairs while talking to you

like one time, he couldnt sleep and his mom told him to drink warm milk to help him so he was just going down the stairs when he heard tooru laugh

now, dont get him wrong

hes heard his uncle laugh before so hes seen how he laughs around girls and it was like nails on a chalkboard

but this time, it sounded very genuine and his chuckles were almost,,, shy

and he figured that tooru was talking to a girl since he kept saying a girl’s name

‘y/n-chan~ youre so cute~ dont make me come over there and kiss you~’

oikawa cooed and takeru cringed 

so he was talking to you

he was no stranger to your name as he once teased his uncle for being whipped and got an hour long rant about how beautiful you were and nice and angelic and how you were just an angel on earth

so yea he knew you

tooru’s voice became clearer as he stepped foot into the kitchen

even a child like him could tell his uncle was basically in love with you

and he doesnt even really know what love is!!

‘disgusting’

the child said and tooru, who believes in ghosts and is the biggest scaredy cat, shrieked at the sudden voice 

‘oikawa-san? what’s wrong?’

your voice could be heard through his phone but tooru quickly told you good night and ended the call before he got off the chair and crossed his arms to stand in front of takeru

‘what did you say?’

he asked and takeru looked up at him, mimicking his pose

‘i said, its disgusting, uncle’

oikawa looked offended

‘what?! how could you say that?!’

takeru shrugged then he walked over to the fridge

‘yozora-kun told me that girls have cooties and we would die if we get it’

god it was such a childish thing to say but to an actual child like takeru, it sounded perfectly valid

‘its gross and nasty and he said you get all sweaty and you get a fever and ew’

tooru shook his head in disbelief before going over to help the boy get a glass

‘its not nasty or gross or disgusting, takeru. its actually,,, really nice. you dont die from it and you get sweaty when you get nervous and you dont get a fever, you just get flustered, thats all’

takeru still didnt believe him

‘well, he also said girls become monsters and they would eat your face’

KFJDSLFJSLDKIM SCREAMING

oikawa chortled 

‘what?!’

‘you heard me. all girls are monsters and you should protect yourself, uncle’

but when he met you, my oh my, you were no monster

you were,,,,,, really really really pretty

poor takeru doesnt really know the real meaning of beautiful so he settled on you being really really really really pretty

like when oikawa dragged him in the gym, takeru stared at you 

his mind couldnt process on the fact that someone as pretty as you even existed 

but that doesnt really say much since hes only like 8

BUT STILL

oikawa was hurriedly shoving them both in the gym and he was annoyed that takeru was just standing there but he was really just watching you as you scurried around to give the team their towels

‘takeru! come on!’

tooru’s voice snapped him out of it so he finally walked forward

‘y/n-chan~!’

oikawa called out and iwaizumi was about to yell at him for being late but you already had your bad bitch face on and you were strutting over

‘oikawa tooru, do you know how late you are?!’

you scolded and pulled his ear down to your height

‘eeeehhhh~~??? y/n-chan dont be so rough! it hurts! dont hurt oikawa-san!’

he teased to ease your anger but you sucked in a sharp breath

‘ill make sure it hurts more’

oikawa turned pale and started pleading and stuttering

‘please pleaseplease y/n-chan, i had to pick up takeru and it was a total mess and-’

at the mention of takeru, you let go of him and you finally caught sight of the little boy

ohmygee he was so adorable and youre just a sucker for adorable kids so you kinda squatted to his height since the height difference wasnt that big

you gave him a big smile and waved a hand

‘hey, you must be takeru. im y/n’

the poor kid’s face turned red unknowingly and he stiffened before nodding aggressively

‘my name is oikawa takeru and i am 6 years old’

he hand out his hands to prove his age and you giggled before nodding

‘my name is l/n y/n and i am 16 years old’

you held out 10 fingers then switched to having 6 up like he did

‘waaaa youre,,,’

the boy paused to subtract with his fingers before looking up at you with wide eyes

‘youre 10 years older than me!’

you sweatdropped at the sudden thought of being old 

‘hmm i guess i am’

you tilted your head to the side and continued to talk to the boy, completely oblivious to the stares from the others

they all sported a bright red blush and red ears at the thought of you being so good with kids and what if it was their own?

kindaichi gasped and held his hands to his face to cover the burst of all shades of red that decorated his entire face

OHMYGOSH THEYRE SO WHIPPED WHAT

‘ne, nee-chan, i know you’

takeru spoke as you led him to sit down on the bleacher, away from the practicing team and from any rogue balls

‘oh? you do?’

‘eung! uncle talks about you all the time! and he calls you too! i live with him, see, and nana yells at him for being on his phone during dinner because hes talking to you’

takeru admitted and you turned red, suddenly flustered

‘he talks about me? what does he say about me, take-chan?’

the little boy paused, holding his chin to think, then he lit up

‘he calls you beautiful goddess y/n-chan!’

YALL TAKERU IS SO CUTE WHAT THE HECK

‘he does?’

you asked, wholeheartedly surprised

takeru violently nods his head

‘yes! uncle talks about you all the time! my friend yozora wants to meet you too!’

‘hah? who is that?’

takeru sheepishly scratches his cheek

‘yozora-kun told uncle that girls are gross but uncle got mad and told him you were different because you were pretty and nice and yozora wants to see if you really were’

you laughed at the childish claims of this yozora boy

‘well,,, take-chan, do you think im gross?’

you asked, making the boy flustered again

‘no,,,, nee-chan is really pretty’

he mumbled while twiddling his fingers and you squealed before hugging him

‘oh, take-chan! you should visit more often!’

takeru nodded, smiling at how warm you were

‘eung! i love nee-chan! see? i can say i love nee-chan because im not a coward like uncle!’

you pulled away just slightly with a raised eyebrow

‘what are you talking about, takeru?’

the child puffed out his chest and his lip took on a smug angle

‘uncle talks to the mirror every morning! he says hes practicing! he takes forever just saying he loves you in the mirror and he doesnt let me pee! but its okay! because uncle can keep being coward but i get the pretty nee-chan!’

a disbelieving smile settled itself on your face and you absentmindedly caressed his smaller hand

‘what else does uncle do, take-chan? you see, nee-chan wants to tease him!’

takeru paused then lit up

‘oh! before i was born, mama told me uncle ate flowers because he thought his fart would smell like roses!’

‘hah?!’

your cries of shock made the boy laugh and you joined in with him

‘also! iwa-nii made me a tree house, right?! and uncle wanted to go in but he was too big so he got stuck at the front door! iwa-nii had to take the front part out and used soap to get him out!’

your cackles attracted the now ready captain and oikawa had an uneasy look

that little brat mustve told you some embarrassing stories based on how you laughed

‘oi! takeru! you shut your mouth right now, young man!’

he shouted and quickly stomped over to you at the bleachers

but you held the boy close, protecting him from the angry brunette

‘no! you stay away, oikawa-san! nee-chan will protect you, take-chan!’

you proclaimed and takeru was more than happy to snuggle closer and stick his tongue out at his uncle

you had a similar mischevious look and a wide but scary grin on your face that spelled nothing but trouble

was he,,,, being blackmailed right now?

tooru was scandalised at the thought and the act causign him to lunge over to you, tickling your sides so you could loosen your grip on the child

but you held on, giggling loudly causing takeru to also laugh when tooru’s fingers would touch his side too

‘no! stop-! ack-! tooru!’

you shouted but tooru was able to find an opening to grab takeru by under his arms and you reached over to grab him back but he was already lifted high

‘now what did you tell her, you brat?’

‘nothing!’

takeru shrieked but tooru hummed, not quite believing him

‘i dont think so’

tooru sat down on the floor and placed takeru on his lap with his fingers quickly hitting his ticklish spots

‘NOOO!!!! UNCLE!!!!’

you giggled and joined over, completely forgetting where you were and what your responsibilities are

okay can we take a second on how cute this moment is?

like despite the team practically being in love with you, they couldnt help but think of how much you guys looked like a family

iwa herded everyone to stop staring and keep practicing bc he knew that this was the first time tooru has been truly happy in a very long time

by the end of practice, you and takeru were practically best friends already

you were very sad to have to let him go home but he promised to come back soon

tooru gave him over to iwa so he could talk to you while you were packing up

you were putting on your jacket when you felt him tap your shoulder

with a smile, you turned around and he mirrored your grin

well,,, it was more like a shy and bashful grin

from behind him, you could see takeru being lifted by mattsun and his laughter echoed in the wind

tooru noticed your gaze then chuckled softly

‘thank you for,,, yanno,, keeping him busy’

you waved your hands around with a laugh

‘nonono! its okay! really! hes so adorable that i look forward to seeing him again!’

he let out a relieved sigh then placed his hands in his pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet

‘y/n,, youre really good with kids’

that comment made you flustered but you waved it off

‘nah, i just connect with them more. theyre so easily entertained and the innocence is nice’

‘well,, youll be a great mother in the future’

you chuckled then ruffled his soft hair

‘youll be a great father in the future then oikawa-san’

at first, he was just going to laugh it off but then the image of you playing with a child who possessed chocolate brown locks and beautiful e/c eyes appeared

he turned red and he fumbled for a response, completely speaking gibberish with no idea of what to even say

unfortunately for him, the team was not in a far distance and they could hear oikawa sputtering nonsense so to ‘help’ him, they started shouting for you guys to hurry up

‘come on! lets go, you guys! the bakery closes in a 10 minutes!’

makki yelled and you perked up and waved to signal you were going

‘come on, oikawa-san!’

you grabbed his hand and pulled him along

takeru noticed his uncle’s red face and a cute sly smile creeped up on his face

‘hmmm,,,,’

then he started a plan

and wow god must’ve wanted him to succeed because its like the fates and the stars and the universe just aligned

takeru was walking with his mom around a supermarket when he noticed your familiar h/c hair

‘y/n nee-chan!’

he shrieked before he could even stop himself and you were startled, wildly looking around for the person who said your name

‘nee-chan!’

takeru shouted again, running away from his mom towards you

‘takeru-!’

yall what is oikawa’s sister’s name? lets name her ‘tara’

tara shouted for her son and ofc ran after him when he didnt listen

‘takeru!’

you greeted back and winced a little when the force fo the little boy crashed into your legs

‘nee-chan! momma, look its nee-chan!’

takeru said when his mother caught up to him

‘oikawa takeru! you never run in the store like that again, you hear me?’

she scolded but then smiled up at you

‘oh hello darling, you must be y/n. im tara, tooru’s older sister and takeru’s mom’

she outstretched her hand for you to shake so you awkwardly shook it

‘uh-im l/n y/n’

‘momma! shes the pretty nee-chan i told you about! and shes the one uncle talks to every night!’

you cringed a little when takeru was excitedly talking as he was attracting other people with his loud voice

tara bless her heart noticed your discomfort and told you to go and follow her to the checkout if you were done

she ended up paying for your stuff despite your protests but she excused it as ‘consider this as payment for putting up that idiot brother of mine’

takeru wanted to show off so he held your bags but you still held on to their own to help tara out

‘ne, nee-chan! why are you not with uncle? its practice today, right?’

takeru asked as you three walked down the street

‘natsu’s sick so i was picking up some porridge for him to eat. i excused today because i wanted to take care of him’

takeru lit up

‘nee-chan! you should come over! nana wants to meet you too!’

tara rolled her eyes at her son with a smile

‘no, take-kun. nee-chan needs to go home to look after-’

‘ah, its okay, oikawa-san! natsu wont be awake for a while so i can spare an hour or two’

‘yey!’

tara made small talk with you while takeru hummed in front of you

‘thank you so much for putting up with my two boys, y/n. i heard from hajime that you kept takeru company while tooru practiced’

you nodded

‘it wasnt a big deal though. i love takeru, hes a sweetheart. and oikawa-san takes good care of him’

tara chuckled

‘as much as takeru loves to poke fun at tooru, he really does appreciate him you know? without a father, i worried on who would be his male figure. but tooru lived up to his title and takeru wants to do everything he does. like say, volleyball’

you followed along and you could see the little bits of tooru even by the way takeru walked

the little skip that his uncle had seemed to copy itself on to the nephew with even the happy humming

‘oikawa-san is,,, a really great person’

you off-handedly mentioned and tara looked at you from the corner of her eye 

warmth blossomed in her chest because although she knew how much of an insecure and rash person her brother was, he deserves someone who talks about him with such love in their voice

even the look in your eyes was enough to make her think,

yep, you are the one

omg nana oikawa is ltr head-over-heels for you already

the love for y/n is an oikawa thing

when takeru opened the door, nana oikawa rushed to greet her grandson when she saw another person

a girl

‘nana! nana! this is y/n nee-chan! uncle’s pretty goddess!’

uwu nana knows who exactly you are

lets just say shes exactly like takeru and has witnessed her son lovingly talk to some y/n girl at 3 in the morning

and her son has expressed his love and admiration towards you every chance he can

so yes lets just say she knows who you are

thats why nana brightly smiled and quickly ushered you into the house

‘oh come in! come in! takeru-kun, go lead y/n-chan to the couch and make her comfortable! ill get tea!’

takeru nodded and he grabbed your hand with his small one to go to the living room

you awkwardly sat stiffly, not exactly knowing what to do as this entire family seemed to know who you are

takeru settled himself beside you and was actively talking about what they did at volleyball practice today

you were enamored in his story that you didnt notice nana walk in with a try of tea with tara trailing behind her with cookies

you moved to help her but nana shook her head with a gentle smile before sitting down at the chair beside the couch

‘here you go, dear’

you bowed slightly and held the cup of green tea

everyone was now settled and you were nervously tapping your finger against the cup

you dont even know why youre nervous

its like youre suddenly meeting your boyfriend’s family without your boyfriend actually there

‘so,’

you jumped a little at the voice of nana and she smiled at you

‘oh dear dont be so nervous! we’re not that bad! we dont bite’

‘unless you want us to’

takeru whispered and you giggled, ruffling his hair with your free hand

‘so youre the famous y/n-chan then?’

you nodded again

‘takeru told us all about his adventures at seijoh the other day and, well,, he likes to tease his uncle but,, we believe him’

tara smiled, remembering her son’s words

‘nee-chan, i told them that uncle was very weird and shy and awkward and it was so weird’

he whispered, yet still able to be heard by everyone in the room

‘oh my, when we heard that we couldnt believe a person, much less a female, could even do that to him! i worried that my son would never develop interest in any girl but it seems i was worrying for nothing!’

nana giggled and you couldnt help but smile, realizing her laugh sounded exactly like tooru’s

‘you know, y/n, tooru’s never really had a crush before. and believe me, id know but even with his last girlfriend, which was also his first, he didnt seem interested at her in that way-well, maybe he was but he wasnt exactly enamored with her like he is with you’

you knew little about tooru’s first and last girlfriend

it was the butt of mattsuhana’s jokes all the time but you never partook bc you could see how,,, sad,,, tooru looks whenever its brought up

but you turned red,hand waving at her last comment

‘oh nonono, youre wrong. uhh, how do i say this,, oikawa-san,,, he just appreciates me bc,, i,,, reject his advances,, and,,, bring him milk bread,,, and banana milk,,,, and such,,,’

you trailed off and the two older women shared a look behind their cups

heh, it was refreshing to have tooru do the chasing this time

‘you must be wondering how, we, you know, know you, right?’

you nodded at nana’s question

she chuckled then placed her tea down

‘you see, we are aware of tooru’s,,,, expiditions. and by that, we mean the interest of others in him and his returned interest. but hes our family so we know that his interest is,, actually fake’

you looked down, knowing exactly what shes talking about

‘especially with girls, we see his annoyance, his ignorance, and we’re not proud of it. but with you, when he talks about you, its as if he was talking about the,,, the love of his life!’

you were startled, not sure if you should be proud of that or confused about that

‘mom! dont say that!’

tara nagged but nana shrugged her off

‘no, i want to express my gratitude for this girl. y/n, i want you to know now that,,, my son is damaged’

‘takeru cover your ears’

tara hurried and the boy shot his mother a confused look but still did it anyways

‘tooru,,, feels that he shouldnt burden us as he’s now the man of the house after his father and i’s separation. and,,, perhaps its the past of his father’s but,,, he doesnt let anyone in, except for us and hajime’

nana oikawa’s eyes held sadness

a raw emotion that shouldnt be shown to a stranger but by how much and how often tooru talks about you, she practically knew you already

‘and he refuses to do anything that isn’t necessary. he hates doing pointless things unless they will serve him purpose in the future thats why he focuses on that damn sport so much, even giving himself injuries! i worried and worried for him but then,, you came along. all the sudden, i see the life in his eyes that was wrongly taken from him, be replaced and its all because of a girl. ive never heard tooru talk about someone else other than his team or hajime so it was quite a surprise for us that he found someone who was, what he considers, worth his time. and the way,, the way he looks when he talks,,, y/n, i believe you are what he says, an angel’

a sudden wave of tears appeared as nana oikawa looked up to meet your eyes and you let out a stiff laugh but you tightened your grip on your cup

‘you are,,, my son’s angel’

DKFLJSKDFJDSLKFJSDLKFJD MY FEELS

the conversation was quickly shifted by tara as she could see the conflict in the way your eyebrows furrowed and the rapid movement of your pupils

she knew that you were probably still at a stage that you didnt realize your captain’s real and authentic feelings for you and she didnt want you to find out this way 

tara knows how emotional her mother can get regarding her son so she switched to another topic to not get too in deep with the whole situation

next thing you knew, you were giggling and laughing at nana oikawa’s merciless onslaught of her son’s childhood events

you attempted to hide your laugh by sipping your drink but it still came out wholeheartedly

‘yes! i wondered for a whole week as to why my roses were disappearing and i never would’ve thought id find my son eating them at 6 in the morning!’

nana cackled while takeru was so laugh-tired that he slumped over to your side, completely breathless

‘oh! dont forget the mickey mouse one! you see, y/n, we spent about a week at my aunts house and tooru saw a mouse! the poor child woke everyone up at midnight, screaming about a mouse sleeping next to him! and just to top it off, we visited disneyland and, whew, we just know now to avoid mickey mouse. to this day, that child is still traumatized by that cartoon’

meanwhile at seijoh,

oikawa was sneezing nonstop and iwaizumi has bonked him many many times now

‘OI! IF YOU GET SICK RIGHT NOW I WILL HIT YOU!’

‘OH GREAT! ILL BE SICK AND HAVE A CONCUSSION AT THE SAME TIME! THANKS IWA-CHAN!’

tooru irritably snapped and iwa was even surprised at how snippy he was

‘oi, what crawled up your ass and died today’

oikawa pouted then stomped his foot like a child

‘y/n isnt here today’

‘oikawa shes taking care of her cousin! she has a life outside of us you know?’

makki teased but flinched when tooru stomped his foot harder

‘but im her life! im all she needs!’

the entire team sweatdropped at the sight of makki and mattsun holding back their bara arms vice captain from beating up their captain 

‘ill be sure to give him mickey mouse stickers next time!’

you teased and they laughed

there was still remaining giggles left when the door handle twisted and the front door opened, revealing the man of the hour himself

takeru perked up and ran to the door to greet his uncle

‘uncle! uncle!’

he exclaimed and tooru sighed before grinning at him

his ears twitched at a familiar muffled giggle but he thought nothing of it by excusing it as him missing you so much that hes now hearing you

the thought of you dampened his mood again

‘uncle is too sad to play with you, takeru’

takeru’s head tilted to the side and one eyebrow was raised

‘heh? why? iwa-nii bonk you too hard?’

tooru shook his head solemnly

‘no. my darling wasnt there today and-’

‘oikawa-san, welcome home’

you emerged into the small hallway and tooru’s jaw dropped

then he snapped out of the surprise and ran straight towards you, picking you up and twirling you around

‘Y/N-CHAN~~~~~!!!!!’

he cheered and you giggled, trying to hold on to his shoulders to stabilize yourself

‘dont be so loud, oikawa-san’

you chided but with a smile

tooru calmed down however he still held you in his arms and was looking up at you with a grin, completely missing the fact that youre even at his house

‘its so nice to have y/n-chan greet me at the door. its like i have a wife! you wanna be my wife, y/n?’

you blushed a deep red and flicked his forehead

‘oikawa-san, your mother and sister is-’

you whispered harshly but a sudden shout made you both turn

‘NO! NEE-CHAN IS MY WIFE! NOT UNCLE’S! SHES TOO PRETTY FOR A COWARD LIKE UNCLE! I WILL FIGHT FOR NEE-CHAN! SURRENDER, UNCLE!’

you and oikawa looked at each other exasperatedly but with a fond look in your eyes

‘go’

you whispered

‘avenge me, oikawa-san’

that was enough for him to drop you gently and run to tackle takeru, who was giggling and kicking the air

you returned to your spot on the couch but shrunk back at the smirks the two oikawa women were directing to you

nana oikawa wanted you to have dinner with them so you stayed and oikawa held your hand under the table

even though they could obviously see it but yanno just stay quiet

‘y/n-chan, as much as i love you being here and meeting my family, how did you get here?’

takeru proudly raised his hand and swallowed his food

‘I BROUGHT NEE-CHAN HERE! I SAW HER AT THE MARKET!’

tooru nodded and reached over to ruffle his head

‘thank you, takeru! you turned uncle’s bad day to a good one!’

you turned to him with a worried look

‘huh? did something happen while i was away?’

tooru shook his head and pouted at you with his puppy eyes

‘y/n-chan wasnt there at practice today and oikawa-san missed her very much and-’

‘oikawa-san, please refrain from speaking in third person’

‘BUT Y/N-CHAN-!’

again, the two oikawa women shared a look

yep, you are the one

oikawa naturally took it upon himself to walk you home by saying ‘y/n-chan shouldnt walk home by herself!’

but in reality, he just wanted to spend more time with you because he didnt get to do that today

he just wanted his daily fill of you

O_O

aNYwAys

you both were walking down the street, hand-in-hand

KDSFJLSDKFJ FLASHBACKS FROM THE OIKS ROUTE

‘i love your family, oikawa-san’

you said and he giggled

‘well, just wait a few years and youll be a part of it too’

you blushed and smacked him on the chest making him wince and exagerrate an ‘ow!’

‘your mom,,, really loves you. and your sister, and takeru! theyre really nice and im happy your family loves you so much’

‘what about you? do you love me?’

you hummed

‘eung! i love oikawa-san! and the boys! i love all of you!’

DKFLJSDKFJSDLKFSJD NOOOOO FLASHBACKS AGAIN TO THE KUWS EPISODE OF THEM LEAVING AND OIKAWA TELLING HER HE LOVES HER ANDFJDKFJSDKFLDKJ ACK! FEELINGS!

oikawa had a sad smile on but he didnt push any further

‘well! you met my family already so now its my turn to meet yours!’

you turned to give him a deadpan expression

‘oikawa-san, my father chased you with a broom. i dont think its safe for you to even step foot at my front porch’

oikawa scoffed and puffed out his chest smugly

‘hah! your oikawa-san is a strong man! he doesnt get scared over some broom!’

‘oh! oikawa-san! i need to get your opinion on this! i want to give iwa-san this mickey poster but-’

noticing that oikawa was no longer walking beside you, you turned around to see him staring at the spot you were previously at 

‘oikawa-san?’

he didnt answer and you giggled

‘oh? is it mickey mouse? you scared?’

you neared the phone to his face and then his eyes settled on the terrifying face of the disney character

oikawa screamed

a/n: AAAAAAAAA WE FINALLY GETTING THROUGH REQS AND IM SO HAPPY THAT MY TEACHER IS SO NICE AND OMGOMGOMG MY FRIEND GOT INTO AN ACCIDENT AND WE WERE TALKING ABOUT HOW A BIRD GOT INTO OUR CLASSROOM AND SDKFJDSLFKJSDLKFJSDLFKJNOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyways, how yall been? i know ive been gone for a hot sec but uwu hey!!! 

[oveliagirlhaditright]

54 for Player/Strelitzia

Prompt: Words I wanted to say to you, but never got the chance to.

Dedicated to bluerosesburnblue

“…Strelitzia, wait,” Chirithy said from out of nowhere, as he planted his paws onto the ground and held tight to Strelitzia’s hand to keep her from going any further.

As a Keyblade wielder–and a pretty strong one at that, she supposed, if Master Ava choosing her to be a Union Leader meant anything–Strelitzia could have broken free of Chirithy’s grip if she really wanted to… but now without hurting him, she felt. 

So she took a deep breath and allowed him to stop her for a moment, when that was the last thing she wanted to do. “Chirithy, what’s wrong? I have to tell them about the Keyblade War and the Dandelions before it’s too la-”

“I set you up.”

“…What?” Suddenly, Strelitzia felt as though the earth had risen up and swallowed her whole. Daybreak Town was warm and full of light–so, many bad things… aside from this upcoming Keyblade War, that Strelitzia could hardly believe was even happening–didn’t happen here. 

But even so… A few people had still been murdered, and Strelitzia knew what death was. And if Chirithy was saying he set her up, there was only one thing she could imagine him meaning… and it wasn’t pleasant.

“I- I unfortunately agreed with Master Gula, that you wouldn’t be a fitting leader for the Dandelions, and would lead them into following the Master of Masters’ path for destruction. And I thought it would be better if you–if we–disappeared from this world. But I can’t do that to you, Strelitzia! Run! If you go into that warehouse, Master Gula will kill you and you’ll never find your love!”

“But I-” Tears stung at Strelitzia’s eyes, as she clenched her hands into fists. She could barely understand a word she was hearing–as she’d gone into shock long ago, and all she could hear was a whooshing in her ears–but she still knew that she’d been right… Chirithy had betrayed her. 

But unlike her worst imaginings she’d just had of the scenario, he had told her in time and wasn’t completely irredeemable. Maybe there was still a chance she could save him from the darkness she was now seeing had literally engulfed him, as he was bathed in purple.

“Chirithy, come with me!” But Strelitzia didn’t get her wish–when would she ever again?–for at that exact moment, another Nightmare Chirithy appeared! A monster of one, and her Chirithy was absorbed within it so that she didn’t know where the other one ended and hers began. 

Had he done this because he still had some of his dark intentions, and had only been able to fight them for a moment to save her? Or had he ended himself out of shame for everything? Strelitzia didn’t know… and she didn’t have time to figure it out. 

So she helplessly reached out towards her Chirithy and called out his name just one more time, before she sealed her heart away and went into hiding.

…

If there was anything the Keyblade wielders had known about Master Gula, it was that he was the edgiest of the Foretellers and, perhaps, the one that had turned away from his original cause the most. So Strelitzia was no fool: she knew that Master Gula was still looking for her and would kill her, if he found her.

So Strelitzia went back to something she’d been doing for a long time, but in a much wiser way this time: she watched things from her favorite rooftop. But from within a secret passage between the attic and the roof–that only she and one other person knew about–where she could watch the going ons at Fountain Square as much as she wanted to, but still stay safe.

There was food here, so Strelitzia didn’t starve… and she also was smart enough to know who it was from: The Master of Masters, that Gula was now fighting against. And if the Master had left food here, he must have known she would be here and had planned for that event… which must have meant she was somehow important to the future, and needed to live.

Which was part of the reason she was going against her beliefs from before, and doing nothing to try and stop the Keyblade War or warn anyone about it. Strelitzia was in survival mode now, and would wait it out here as long as she possibly could.

…But the day she saw Aced attack them, after they so gallantly stopped a fight between two Keyblade wielders, Strelitzia knew she could wait no more and had to make certain that they were alright.

So she somewhat regretfully–dang. Who had she become?–left her new home, and jumped down from her perch to follow that Skuld girl and her hero’s Chirithy back to their home.

Skuld noticed her right away, though, which… honestly? Strelitzia would have been disappointed with Master’s Ava’s–no, the Master of Master’s–choices if she hadn’t.

“Who are you and why are you following us?!” Skuld demanded with fury in her eyes, the moment she spun around with Starlight in her hand and cut Strelitzia’s cheek. 

Strelitzia hardly noticed.

“This is going to sound… stalker-y, but I honestly don’t care. It’s the truth, and we don’t have time to dawdle. I kept running into your friend by chance, and then started noticing how they seemed to be in the center of things and became intrigued by them–like they were intrigued by your friend Ephemer, I believe?–and started watching them some… 

“But anyway, the real point is that Master Gula wants me dead. Why? Because he’s against the Master of Masters and I’m one of the Master’s appointed Union Leaders. I’ve been in hiding ever since, but when I- when I saw them get hurt, I had to step in and make sure they were okay. That’s why I’m here.”

Skuld looked incredulous, like she was about to say that that was the stupidest thing she ever heard and she didn’t trust her around her dear companion at all, with some of things she had just admitted. But the Chirithy jumped in before Skuld could act.

“That… actually makes some sense, Skuld. I can see why Master Gula would want to challenge the Master, unfortunately. Some of my Master’s directions… they never added up. It was like he was putting the Foretellers against each other in order for them to fail. I don’t know… But we can’t waste time talking about this outside right now. It’s too dangerous. Let’s get inside.”

And not having to be told twice, Strelitzia grabbed the other arm of her dear, and helped Skuld carry them to their home and then their room.

…

Strelitzia’s hero did not wake for a long time, and it quickly became night as they waited for them to. Everyone was too anxious to eat anything, but they did each go and get a drink out of the fridge when dehydration started to set in and then partook in some awkward conversation.

“What’s an example of the Master of Masters pitting the Foretellers against each other, Chirithy?” Skuld was asking now, as she seemed to finally make the important decision of turning against the Master of Masters herself.

Which, if Strelitzia was being honest with herself, was a fair position to take with everything they were now learning. This war never should have happened… and if those in charge had wanted to stop it, they could have. Which must have meant they didn’t want to… so the Master of Masters wasn’t really worth trusting then, was he?

But at the same time… Strelitzia knew he was the reason she was even alive right now, because of his careful planning. So should she have been looking that gift horse in the mouth? And what would happen if she did?

“Well… Master Aced has always wanted to be leader, but the Master of Masters made Master Ira leader and not him. He then told Master Aced that if Master Ira fell from the path, it should be his job to take Master Ira’s path… What do you think that led to? Master Aced having issues with everything Master Ira did–and looking for any excuse to dethrone him, so to speak–and those two becoming enemies… and the other Foretellers becoming enemies as they somewhat took sides there… and that’s only part of it.”

Strelitzia was about to say that Master Gula wasn’t much better, though, if he was planning on killing her to thwart the Master’s plans… Not just because it would have been murder–and Strelitzia nearly threw up in imagining herself dead on the ground by his hands–but because eventually someone would have found out she’d been replaced, and it would have led to the same in-fighting between the new Union Leaders. But before she could speak, they woke up.

“Ephemer,” they whispered out of nowhere, as they looked to their ceiling almost in reverence–as if they were being gifted with seeing the light within Kingdom Hearts for the first time. “Skuld, do you know where he is-”

But the Keyblade wielder who, perhaps, deserved to be a Dandelion and Union Leader more than anyone else, cut themselves off when they rolled over and saw Strelitzia there. “Who are you?” they asked warily.

And Strelitzia, suddenly feeling much more like herself than she had in a long time, went to their side and pushed a plant closer to them so that they might heal faster. And with tears in her eyes, she said: “This- this is the moment I’ve always been waiting for. And to think… that if my Chirithy hadn’t had a change of heart, all of this would have just been things I wanted to tell you but never got the chance to. 

“But I- my name is Strelitzia. And I’ve been admiring you for so long: for the strength you still held when you were unintentionally stood up by Ephemer… for so courageously facing off against Master Ira when you thought he killed Ephemer… for what you did in Fountain Square just today. And I believe, just like you do, that even the Dandelions are no good, if iso many of our friends still perish in the Keyblade War.”

And something within Strelitzia’s new friend–was it too presumptuous to call them a friend already? She sure hoped not!–seemed to come alive when she’d said the last bit. “You are like me, then… In maybe being willing to learn how to use the power of darkness–or at least pretend to–to save a friend… And maybe actually falling into that darkness, at the thought of losing our friends… But if we’re really tied to darkness… can we truly do anything to help?”

And Strelitzia thought that they could. She’d been examining the cards lately, and many of the ones that had been able to be Guilted (that was the same as utilizing the powers of darkness) had people with golden eyes on them, as if that feature was somehow associated with the darkness: eyes like Skuld’s, and Skuld was just fine.

And Strelitzia remembered the selfless thing that Chirithy had done for her, even while consumed by the darkness, before he’d joined this person’s Chirithy, she guessed now.

Maybe… maybe the darkness wasn’t as bad as they had all feared, and that was the key all around.

“This Keyblade War is about to start because everyone’s afraid of Daybreak Town falling to darkness. But if we’re going to kill people to try and avoid that, is it any better? And won’t that lead to darkness and an end, anyway? Maybe if we make people see that–that, perhaps, a little darkness won’t hurt and it’ll allow them to stay alive, unlike the alternative–the fighting will stop. It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

And smiling at her, as their Chirithy and friend Skuld watched them with mouths agape and concerned looks behind them, they gave Strelitzia their hand and started to sit up. 

“Let’s do it, then.”

And in that moment, Strelitzia knew that they had found a way to stop the Keyblade War… and they did do so.

But little did she know, that for that they would then be put in a simulation that would manually force the War to happen… and for them to relive it over and over again, until eventually a certain someone with sky blue eyes found them and got them out of the Black Box.

[tenderdorks]

Sugar

Notes: Howdy, folks! It’s me, @justapalspal / @ryoubandwagon, taking a crack at writing some tendershipping on a sideblog I’ve finally given purpose to just now.

And y’all know me, I live, breathe, and eat goofy tendershipping, so have some post-canon tenderdorks while I stretch my writing muscles! Bakura buys Ryou cookies, then pretends he didn’t.

Word Count: 2722

Warnings: Save for two vague innuendos and Bakura having a semi-sailor mouth, nothing that goes above a T rating.

Ao3 Link: Here!

Oh, gods, I hate sugar, Bakura grumbled, fourth cookie crammed in his mouth. He wasn’t going to touch frosting for a month. Two months. Four was enough of them, he figured; that would be convincing.

Everything in his mouth was too creamy, though; Bakura made it to their floor and grunted, when he wasn’t crushing his teeth together. His jaw burned. His cheekbones stung a little from the force of it, too. By the time he made it to the door he was almost ready to swallow the damp lump, and he paused a second to give himself enough time to do so and scrub crumbs off his face so it wouldn’t look bad. Or suspicious.

Okay. Cool, cool.

Bakura stuck the key in the lock and pushed the door in. “Hey, Ryou.”

No response.

“...Ryou?” Bakura called, louder.

“Huh?” Ryou’s voice was loud, airy. Sounded like he was in the craft room, too; probably working on miniatures again.

“I’m back,” Bakura called, shutting the door behind him. He kicked off his shoes and pushed them into some semblance of order next to Ryou’s, just lying about. Messy, but hell, the rest of the place wasn’t any better.

He shrugged his jacket off—as much as he could, anyway, while keeping the box clutched to his chest. The jacket he threw on the couch. He stared at it. He stared at the walls, the unfolded laundry strewn about. He stood there.

“From work,” he said, blankly. Gods, he sounded like a damn fool.

A few clunking sounds, a door creaking, and Ryou poked his head out the hall, breathing just a bit hard from the rush. “Ah, right.” Holy shit, Bakura was going to die. Ryou was casual as hell and yet—his face? Rosie-red? His dark eyes glimmering a bit? His torso, all fluttering with life? 

“Some idiot left cookies at work and I thought you and your whole sweet tooth syndrome would devour these if I brought them home.” That idiot being Bakura and work being a euphemism for I bought them on the way home from work to give to you because I am a sap holy fuck.

He held out the box. Four were missing. It would totally look like Bakura just grabbed them from the break room, he was sure.

Ryou only cocked his head. Then, walking closer, he snorted. “Did you steal someone’s food?”

“No, it was—” Fuck. “They left it for people to take, so I took them.”

Ryou flashed a toothy grin at him. That didn’t stop him from reaching out to pop open the lid.

Bakura’s heart jittered a little, inside him. “Really.” Was that too firm? Too desperate?

“I know, I know, relax.” He held it in some, but not all, of his fingers. The cookie, that is. Ryou did. “It’s just usually when someone leaves food around it’s a ‘take one’ type of deal, not the whole thing.”

Fuck, fuck. “Ryou, five people work there, tops.”

“Take two, then.” Ryou didn’t even nibble; he went straight for cramming it into his mouth, and Bakura had no idea how he managed to make chewing with his mouth open look attracting. Or reaching for another when he hadn’t even finished that first one yet.

Take two, take two. Cocky little—

Bakura didn’t want to think too hard about the warmth twittering up in him. Twirling, and flowing, like warm smoke, seeping into his ribs. So he just watched Ryou, and in watching him, realized he had been watching Ryou far too long. Much too long to be a normal, in-passing look.

Eyes lit up, Ryou grinned at him, with that damn cookie partially obscuring his teeth. “I’m messing with you.”

Hell. “Yeah, sure.”

“Did you have an alright time at work, at least?” Ryou crunched some more, the sounds soft, and took the box out of Bakura’s numb grasp. “Tolerable, intolerable? Yay, nay?”

“It was something, I guess.” Stay cool, stay calm. Everything had gone good. It’d gone great. It was okay, Bakura, really, Bakura, why were his fingers and toes so fidgety, his head so seepingly bleh—

He clenched his hands and then his toes. Ryou hummed as he walked to the kitchen, and without thought, Bakura followed him. It was as natural as being, this mindless tug toward him. So when Ryou set the box down and opened the fridge, Bakura sat down in a chair, filtering the mechanical buzz of it out.

“Is it a good something?” Ryou didn’t turn from the fridge’s contents; his head did, though, skim and flick about, and Bakura really needed to stop watching him this much, fuck.

“Uh.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good something.” The milk carton, ah. Bakura should’ve expected that. He just didn’t expect the chocolate one to be the one Ryou wiggled by the handle, and pop open with that crispy crack—  

“I—oh! Fuck that noise, my legs are ripped from all the biking. You wanna see?” Bakura grinned so wide his face burned, and reached for his pant leg—pulling it up before smacking his leg on top of the table. “Look! Feel my calves, Ryou, they’re rock hard.” 

Ryou burst into snorty sounds. “Bakura.”

“Seriously! Feel my legs. I could crush a man’s head with my thighs.”

“What, and you have men’s heads there often enough that you’d need to?”

There was no way he’d heard that right. Bakura blinked blankly, still smiling. “Y—what?” 

Good gods, at this point, Bakura couldn’t tell if those doe eyes were Ryou playing clueless or messing with him. “What?”

“Uh.” Cup. Ryou had a cup in his hand now, he was coming toward the table, he had that—the milk—Bakura’s eyes darted to the cookie box and his brain jolted hard to connect straws together. Anything together. “You. Oh, hell, are you—”

“Am I what?” The chair made a small, skidding yell as Ryou dragged it back to plop into. His cheeks tugged up in a lopsided grin. Bakura groaned, shutting his eyes.

“You are. Why do I even…”

The milk glugged and popped and dribbled noisily as Ryou poured it. When Bakura opened his eyes again, Ryou had a brow cocked up at him. And a grin. Cocky—

“Yes?”

Bakura’s nostril twitched. “No.”

Ryou laughed, and it bubbled through his chest. “What, Bakura?”

“Oh, you know what. You’re disgusting. You’re mixing chocolate milk with frosting?” 

“Yeah?” Ryou dunked that half-eaten cookie into it, not even blinking. “And? Coward.”

Bakura scoffed. He scoffed loud, hard, enough to send his nose high and his head shaking, but it flittered into a quiet giggle, a smothered grin. Grunting, Bakura rubbed his fingers along his brow, down his eyelids. “You’re an absolute monster,” he muttered. “Gods.” 

“You’re telling me this is worse than pepperoni pizza and chocolate chip ice cream.”

“I’m saying I get you sweets and you wreck them beyond any recognition.” And—okay, Bakura couldn’t help it. He giggled, and snickered, skin tingling so warm that it blazed. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Ryou kicked him from under the table. “You eat raw garlic. What the hell’s the matter with you?”

“We’ll see when I don’t have tapeworms and you do.” Bakura kicked him back. Then he leaned far over, hunching on his elbows and arms. “You wanna try garlic, if you’re going to be nasty about food?” 

Ryou jerked back like he’d been physically startled. “What? No. You are not making me eat that again.”

“It’s good.” Bakura licked his own teeth, very slowly. Very deliberately. “Zingy.”

“You look like a buffoon.” Ryou pushed his head away hard, and Bakura snorted. Maybe cackled a little. Fell back in his seat, even, giddy, as Ryou gave him a deadpan look and said, “Your tongue’s supposed to stay in your mouth.” 

Bakura stuck it out at him.

“Imbecile,” Ryou muttered, dunking his cookie again.

And without a single ounce of filter Bakura tipped his own chin up and grinned and said, “If you want it to stay there so badly maybe you should make it stay, nedjeb nefer.”

”I’m...” Ryou’s eyelashes fluttered fast from how many times he blankly blinked. “I’m not sticking my hand in your mouth, what?”

Hand. Bakura snorted, lightly, out his nose. “You’re not?”

“No.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes?!” Ryou’s torso jerked a moment, before sputtered, half-muffled sounds spewed out. Laughter. What a fucking dork.

“You’re really sure.”

“Yes I am really sure.”

“‘Cause you can kiss me anytime you want, I’m not gonna bite.”

“What?” 

“What?” Oh holy—well alright then. For a second, Bakura lost the ability to feel. Then everything throbbed at once, shooting into a nauseating spike that made him want to get up and jig and shake his fingers and feet out until they undeniably hurt.

And all Ryou could focus on was that dang word. “Did you just say—?” 

“Stuff your hand in my mouth? Yes, I did.” Put it right next to Bakura’s whole-ass foot, gods be—

“You said I can kiss you anytime I want.” Was Ryou red? Was that a flush on his face going down his neck or was Bakura hallucinating from the lightheadedness? “You did, I heard you—”

“No shit, really? How’d you get that from ‘stuff your hand in my mouth please, Ryou, just smash your fist into my esophagus?’” 

Leaning in on his elbows, Ryou squinted and said, “Do you want me to kiss you?” 

Yes?! “Pff—ha! Ha!” Bakura contorted into some sort of human spring, legs going one way and torso the next. “No? Why would—it’s a joke, holy crap, people joke about stuff all the ti—”

“Because here I was,” Ryou said, head cocked now to one side, “about to give you want you want and smooch you, maybe. You know. If you wanted.”

Bakura had to choke down a squeak; it sounded like some odd, aborted burp. And then he went very very quiet. 

What was—what was happening? 

“And I finally looked up nedjeb online,” Ryou went on, swirling cookie in chocolate milk concoction like a tea party guest might stir a spoon. “Have you really been calling me ‘sweetie’ this whole time and expecting me to think it was an insult?” 

Dry, thickening throat. Bakura had to swallow the gunk away to speak. “Uh.”

“‘Cause I thought you were calling me pretty boy or something at first, but.” Ryou shrugged, eyes rolling upward, head making a few idle movements. He nibbled on his cookie thoughtfully. “Eh? That’s a bit sweeter, I guess.”

“I—uh—r… right.” Right. Some of the tightness was his spine locking up, Bakura realized. Ah, that was it. He sunk down in a vain attempt to relax it. Then he just plopped onto his arm, leaning all his weight on it. Buzzing fingers started tapping. 

And kept tapping.

Tap tap, tap tap.

All he could hear was Ryou’s chewing.

“Maybe a peck on the cheek,” Ryou mumbled, sounding aimless. “Take this nice and slow.”

“They got nedjeb up online?” Bakura didn’t usually squeak, but this one was a bit hoarse, so it didn’t count. At all. He winced and sunk lower anyway. 

Ryou puffed a laugh out his nose. “One of the few words from Ancient Egyptian they got up that’s easy to find, yeah.”

“Fuck.” Bakura dug his face down into his arm, then the table. End him. End him now. He felt too exposed, like eyes bored into his back, like every ounce of his skin had attention on it and he was a tingling display— 

“It’s a cute word, now that I know what it means, not gonna lie.”

Bakura breathed deeply, noisily, in through his nose. Okay. Okay. He rocked a bit, trying to psych himself up, because come on, holy crap, he could deal with this, what was even happening though he could deal with this—

He shot his head up, blinking the imprint of lights from his eyes. His vision wasn’t blurry, per se, but he could definitely feel his ability to process it wither.

“Are those—any good?” Bakura flapped a hand at the box. Good, yes. Carry on like nothing happened.

Something about it made Ryou’s brows furrow. “These?” He turned his head to eye them. One side of his mouth tugged up. “Would I be eating them if they weren’t?”

“You eat shit combinations and then have the gall to say you can cook.” The itchiness spread up Bakura’s neck. Behind his ears, tingling, buzzing. He scratched at it hard, digging his nails into his roots. “But. You like them.”

“Yeah?” Ryou punctuated this by reaching over for the whole box.

“Cool. Cool, good, right. Yeah.” What the hell. All this nodding was going to snap Bakura’s neck in two, he was sure.

“Thank you, I don’t think I said that.”

“No problem.” Bakura rocked his chest a bit with the nodding, now.

Ryou laughed a bit, definitely awkward; not meeting Bakura’s eye; turning his head one way, then back the other while putting his mouth into his palm. His arm balanced him just barely on the table. “No, really. That was really nice of you to think of me, when you saw the—”

“Eat the goddamn cookies,” Bakura wheezed. 

Ryou scoffed. It stayed muffled in his palm. “Well alright, sourpuss.” 

And then they… sat like that. Nothing special. Perhaps too much nothing special, even with the hum of the air conditioning blaring, and the faint chatter in the background from other apartment goers drowned out by the walls and halls. 

Eventually, Bakura’s foot started running a mile under the table, bouncing so hard his ankle burned.

“Bakura, do you like me?” Ryou asked, out of absolutely nowhere, except only a little not, and Bakura couldn’t even fathom how to respond anymore. “Because I’m absolutely oblivious, most of the time. I used to think crushes mean basically stalking because of my high school fanclub, and I don’t always pick up on the cues—” 

“Holy crap, what do you think I mean by getting you sweets when I hate them but you don’t? Gah!” Bakura scrunched his face up. His eyes crushed shut.

“Oh! Good.” Through the numb pounding in his chest, Bakura cracked a slow eye open. Ryou smiled at him, lips closed, mouth full, crumbs on his cheek. “I think I like you too. You’re fun to be around now.”

Oh. Oh, well okay. Bakura eased up the rest of the way, but a layer of tension kept him stiff.

“Especially with how funny you are when I tease you.” Ryou leaned over to pinch his cheek and gave it a good tug. All Bakura felt was the soft stinging yank at his gums and cheekbones, and Ryou jiggling it again, again, and Bakura stared—well, gawked—the whole time, because Ryou’d just said— 

“Ahh yuu—fuhk, leggo!” Bakura scrunched up as much of his face as he could then, which was just his nose really, and shook him off. 

And Ryou just giggled, low and bright and giddy. “Awww, but your cheeks are so cute!”

“Are you serious? I’m going to—fuck!” Bakura stomped once, twice, three times with all his weight and both feet, before throwing his head up and back. “Aaaaaah!”

“Neighbors, Bakura.” Now Ryou spoke in faux-whispers. Cheeky ones. He smirked, lopsided and just as goofy as any time he did. “And save that for later.” 

He was one hundred percent messing with Bakura. Those doe eyes were a farce and Bakura balked at him anyway, body burning, face tingling, the skin of his nose buzzing—and damn it all to hell, he reached over and yanked Ryou in by the shirt so he could get a kiss for himself.

Ryou’s mouth was soft; his hands warm, and getting warmer from how they started patting frantically at Bakura, before settling down steadily on his chest. Ryou kept laughing out his nose and puffing air on Bakura’s face. Fucking hell, Bakura thought, leaning into that smile. I can do sugar, if Ryou’s the one tasting like that.

“Did you—” Ryou muttered, not even breaking away. Fucker just talked right on his mouth. “Did you eat some of these? You taste like them—”

“Please just kiss me, oh gods.” It was wonderful, how Ryou’s laughter filled his mouth and ears.

-

[antarestyl]

The Glitch

Okay guys, I kinda have to write this down now because something weird is going on with my game and I wanna know if anybody else had this happened to them... I did a quick google search already but nobody seem to have had this happened, so yeah. Here we go.

I dunno if it's a glitch or some kind of new update or just something rare that happens at a certain fun level? I dunno so help would be appreciated.

Here is what happened:

I had bought Undertale from Steam in November 2015 and played it first on my old laptop. It was very slow then but playable and I was so happy when I finally had the money for a new laptop in the following year. The game ran on that one smoothly, I installed the updates without problems and I completed 4 runs, 3 neutral and 1 true pacifist, the last one finished in November 2016. After that I didn't touched the game.

I never attempted a genocide run, I never messed with the game files and I just let the game lay around my laptop for all that time. I had a lot of fun with it, don't get me wrong. I even found a few secrets in my few runs. I had the “did you leave your fridge running” phone call, the wrong number phone call, I once had one weird glitch during a fight where the blue attacks appear to be white, but otherwise I had nothing out of the ordinary happening to my game.

I was a bit disappointed that I never had the Gaster easter eggs happening but I didn't want to reset my game so I mostly knew about the other stuff from YouTube videos.

Anyway, with the game being announced for the Switch and the possibility for new content hinted at, I decided to replay the game to get a feel what was “normal” again so I could spot the new additions. I copied the save data, just in case things would go wrong at some point, even if I didn't plan on doing a genocide run, and started the game again.

The usual black screen with the two buttons “Continue” and “True Reset” came up like usual when you finish the game on the true pacifist ending, together with my Character's name (Flyn) and my time (just about 400 minutes).

So I pressed True Reset and was asked to name the fallen human. I played around a bit with the naming options, like I tried Sans and Toriel and Undyne and got a few moments of enjoyment out of the silly responses to the names. I didn't chose Chara because it would have been... strange to play as them for me and naming the human Frisk would just enter the hard mode and I didn't want that. So finally I named the human “Kim”.

I watched the intro which played like usual after that. There was a strange sound while the intro played, kind of like a short feedback beep about halfway through the part where the intro explains that the monsters were sealed underground, but nothing else happened so I think it could have been just my sound-chip having a hiccup or something.

After that everything seemed normal. Kim woke up on the flowers, I talked to Flowey and dodged all his bullets. Seriously it's so funny when he gets angry and says things like “I know you know something!” Just hilarious.

Toriel came like usual, talked to me and guided me through the ruins.

I decided to play as a pacifist so I spared all the monster but grinded a bit to buy a spider doughnut at the spider sale for Muffet later.

At the three frogs I kept the yellow spare names and I got the ribbon and the fake knife. I equipped both to have the stick free for the Snowdin dogs.

I entered Toriel's, looked at everything and triggered her fight.

So far everything had been normal but during her fight something seemed off. The background seemed to glitch a bit and I didn't notice it at first but sometimes the text at the beginning of my turn changed to red instead of white/yellow and said “you feel her eyes on you” and sometimes just “you feel an eye on you.” I think I never saw these lines before? On the other hand, I hadn't played the game in a long time so maybe I just don't remember.  

Anyway, I spammed mercy and Toriel stopped attacking me.

And you know, now I had a choice to make.

I usually played pacifist or a mostly pacifist neutral run but that day I thought “Why not do a few neutral runs where you kill some of the bosses?”

And well... Toriel was right there.

I must admit, I kinda hesitated for a while. Should I or should I not? I never killed Toriel before. And I kinda wanted to know what would happen when I did that. I mean, I had my save-files backed up and all save AND I could just reset at any point and do it over so...

I moved Kim's little soul-heart over the fight option. I instantly killed Toriel. She gave her speech how I killed her at her most vulnerable and dang I felt bad at that moment... maybe I should have decided to kill her from the start and fight her the whole time because this was somewhat heartbreaking.

Her soul broke and the way was free for me now. I could reset, yeah, but I just wanted to see a bit more. So I pressed on.

Flowey mocked me as usual at the exit, telling me that he knew I murdered her in cold blood. Jeez the game surely know how to make you feel bad. He also had a new line this time too.

“You think you are above consequences? Well HE knows now too. I'll be watching this!”

I was kinda pondering who Flowey meant by that. My first guesses were Gaster or Sans but Sans doesn't appear in the Ruins and Gaster... well he was an option, right? On the other hand, the community is OBSESSED with that guy, I thought that if there is an easter egg like this is the game, somebody else would have found it before me and it would have been all over the internet.

On the other hand, I could just have overlooked a new update to the game this shortly before the switch launch so maybe this was in fact something new?

(the whole reason I am writing this down is to find out if this happened to somebody else so yeah)

So I left the Ruins and the Underground logo popped up and again there was some kind of... Glitch there. It was just the A of the word, which kept flickering a bit. Still weird.

But things got really weird when I left the Ruins. A box popped up.

* You can feel eyes on your back.

I walked a bit forward, but Kim didn't even walk three steps as the next message popped open.

*Somebody is here

Creepy. Again. I moved forward and the game made a little crunch noise with each step I let Kim take and the ominous music before the first Sans-encounter kept playing.

I walked for a while, maybe around... 30 seconds? Darn that forest was bigger than I remembered. Some glitched sounding noises slowly mixed into the background music too, something that came in sync with every other step I took. Just as I was wondering what I was hearing a new text message popped up.

*You hear something

I took another few steps.

* You feel something weighing down on your soul.

At this point I was getting a bit uneasy, the music, the strange sound and the fact that the forest was so darn long kinda got to me. I FINALLY saw the stick, walked over it and it broke in half like usual with the scary sound-effect. I turned Kim around and let them look at the sick

* Something broke the branch in two parts. You don't feel safe.

I must admit I did feel a bit scared there. But I pressed on. The strange background-step-like sound continued, amplifying the creepiness even more. Luckily the little bridge came into view now and I mentally prepared myself for Sans' introduction.

But he didn't come. I just... walked through to Sans's station and the convenient lamp. No Sans still, no Papyrus either. Even the music was mostly silent with the strange noises when Kim walked. So I crossed over into the next screen where the next save-point is located.

But just as I reached the screen the game lagged for a moment before making some really strange sounds like the step-noises were sped up a lot for a moment. After that my heart flashed and I was pulled into a fight.

Just there was no monster there. Instead the text-box just told me: “You can feel your foe is close but you can't see them.”

The ACT Menu had “Check” “Talk” and “Look around” in it, the monster's name I was fighting was just blank, no name was given to me.

I first choose Check.

???? AKT ??? DEF ???? You can feel them but not see them. Smells like regret.

No attack followed, only a textbox again. “You hear steps in the snow.”

I choose Look around next.

* You are surrounded by snow-covered trees. It's silent, the woods swallow all sounds.

The next text box popped up. “You feel your sins crawling on your back.”

I finally choose talk.

* You try talking. You said you are scared.

A new text-box popped up.

“He chose to Fight.”

Something too fast to see and way too fast to react to swept through the screen, hitting Kim's little soul and even at Level 5 my HP was drained in an instant and Kim's soul broke.

And I was thrown back to before I fought Toriel.

So I concluded that I stumbled about another boss. One I had no idea how to deal with. I must admit I was a bit excited.

So I tried a few things. First I did everything the same as before and got the exact same results. Next I choose to fight Toriel from the start and not betrayal-murder her but nothing changed. Sans and Papyrus were still not there and I was still pulled into this strange new fight and killed by an unseen monster.

Next I tried sparing Toriel even if I didn't really want to. So I spared her, Flowey mocked me again with the whole “you think you are above consequences?” line and otherwise the exact same thing happened again. Unseen monster killed me again.

So next I went back and did some grinding. Sure, I couldn't do a genocide run but I could level up some and with Toriel's death I had a higher level than before.

The same events happened but now I could stand the initial attack. Well, part of the initial attack. I’m trying to summarize what is hours worth of in-game grinding and work.

So what happened was that first there was an attack that was a guaranteed hit. Just a big block of white kinda like Sans' gasterblaster laser look like, will go through the screen and will take a huge junk from my HP no matter what I do. After that followed some blue and orange attacks shaped like bones and after that it's just some white patterns that look like... claws or teeth or something. Mostly triangle shaped things coming down and up on rows.

It was REALLY frustrating getting to this point. I had saved at Toriel's place before I went to fight her and after leveling up quite nicely but I still had to kill Toriel and make my way to this new boss fight each and every time I got killed. So it would take me always a while until I could try again.

I took several breaks, sometimes not playing for days before I tried again. At some point I was good enough that I could FINALLY survive the whole first attack, and then I saw him.

I really should have known and I did have my suspicions. The strong attack, the eye resting on me... who else could it be but Sans?

But the strange being looking at me through the monitor of my laptop barely looked like Sans anymore.

His sprite was huge, taking almost all of the top part of the screen, giant head bent down to stare at Kim's little heart, big paws decked out with long and sharp looking claws gripping the square which caged my soul left and right. His whole body was stretched and distorted, looking more like a beast than the friendly monster I knew from my old playthroughs.

He still had his jacked but it looked almost comically small on him now and a long tail was snaking around the right side of the screen, coming very close with its tip to my mercy button. Even San's skull was elongated and changed, resembling more of the iconic gasterblasters from his genocide fight.

* Sans is blocking the way.

Well no shit.

Again I checked the ACT menu first. This time my options were “Check” “Talk” and “Call for help.”

I selected Check.

Sans.

AKT FFF DEF Yes

You chose wrong and face the consequences.

Smells like burned dog biscuits.

After that Sans attacked again. His claws swiped at me and he fired his mouth canon at me again. I tried moving around but the game kinda glitched at that point and I only heard my soul breaking again.

And I was back to before Toriel's fight like before.

At this point I pretty much was ready to give up. I tried one more time to fight that new form of Sans but with the same results.

I tried a few more things to find out what triggers the new Sans fight but nothing really went far. Finally I decided to reset the game.

I named the fallen human Robin this time. Everything seemed normal until I saw Flowey for the first time.

He just said one line.

“That won't work you know?”

After that he disappeared. Instead a new textbox popped up.

* you can feel eyes on your back.

And when I walked through the door leading to the ruins, the screen went black, the sound of a soul shattering played and one bright blue dot glowed in the darkness of the screen before the game went black and crashed.

That is when things really went strange. I restarted the game but it wouldn't show the intro anymore, just cut to the black screen. The blue dot sometimes came back fading in and out but otherwise nothing happened. I couldn't move or at least nothing happened. I could open the menu still but it now said that my human was named Kim again?

I still had Level 1 at least, 0 EXP, still Stick and Bandage equipped and nothing else in the inventory.

But I couldn't load, I couldn't reset and I couldn't do anything more.

Finally I decided to mess with the files, copy the save files, reinstall my old ones. The game booted up all okay with the end of a true pacifist end. I even walked around a bit in the playable epilogue again, nothing seemed out of the ordinary only that the sprites of Toriel, Asgore, Papyrus, Sans, Alphys and Undyne at the end looked a bit blurry.

I true-reset again, named the fallen human Test. Flowey appeared again in front of me.  

“You really think you are above consequences huh?” he said before disappearing. And after walking into the ruins the same as before happened. The sound of the soul breaking, the darkness, the eye and my name being changed back to Kim.

I fiddled around a bit, finally uninstalling Undertale, cleaning my whole laptop from any mention of the game and reinstalled it. And only THEN things seemed back to normal. I played pacifist, spared Toriel, came to the bridge and Sans and Papyrus were there all normal. Whatever strange thing happened to my old save file was finally gone.

So this is where I am left at. I still got the save files of the strange glitch run with the changed Sans fight on an USB drive and haven't dared mess with it yet.

So does anybody know what this is? Did anybody had this happened to them too? Does anybody know what triggered this strange thing to happen?

Thanks for reading.  

This little creepypasta is the product of some conversations I had on the GasterBlaster Discord. Some very nice people helped me with beta-ing this there. :) Have a happy and spoooooky Halloween. :)

[mikotyzini]

What Defines Us - Ch. 20

Thank you to those who’ve been following this story, and a special thanks to the people who’ve signed up on Patreon for early chapters and commentary and everything.  Your support means the world to me!  Recently, I’ve been spending 3-4 hours a night after work writing, and I really wouldn’t do that if not for you guys.  <3

If you want to read on ff.net (or find previous chapters), here’s the link.

After briefly rubbing her tired eyes, Ruby blinked and then blinked again - trying to get the tiny object in her hand to come into better focus.  It’d be a whole lot easier if it weren’t so dang small!  Like, seriously, why were small things the coolest?  It made them so friggin’ difficult to work on!

Taking a big breath, she let it out in one smooth exhale while carefully layering another swipe of paint - her hand steady while a thin line appeared against a background of dark grey.  Taking another breath, she blew softly on the fresh paint so it would dry before she set everything down on the workbench.

Perfect!  

It was really tough to make such little lines, but she’d figured out how to do it after a whole bunch of practice.  ‘A whole bunch’ meaning pages and pages of trial swipes done just to make sure that one itty bitty line would look great.  But it did, so the sleep hours devoted to drawing instead of sleeping had been worth it.

And, for not having a heck of a lot of time, her latest project had turned out a lot better than expected.  Maybe because her inspiration was better than usual. Or maybe because she was better than usual!

That was definitely something Yang would say.  But Yang wasn’t here right now, so Ruby got to say it!  Er...think it.

It wasn’t very long ago that she’d kind of dreaded the days her big sister would leave for hunts, but this time had been different.  Without Yang around, the house was actually...quiet.  It was really weird, but also kind of nice.  If anything, it gave Ruby the chance to work on her projects without her sister barging in and throwing random objects at her.  Although she missed the candy - it wasn’t so bad when Yang would throw candy into the garage.  That was the best!  It just wasn’t as great when Yang threw things like lemons or pieces of cheesecake.  It was really hard to catch cheesecake without smearing it everywhere...

Yang and Blake had left last night after dinner, but would hopefully be back soon.  Using her novice interrogation skills (she was still learning from Blake), Ruby had managed to pry the hunt details from Yang like a hot knife slicing through warm butter.  Or...well, basically it had been really easy to get Yang to talk.  Like bribing a parrot with a carrot.  Heh, that rhymed.

But Blake and Yang had picked up an ‘assassinate’ contract - the kind Blake loved to do.  Ruby could see why - they sounded awesome!  Basically, certain Grimm were so smart and deadly that they’d earn themselves a nickname - a cool one like ‘Deathdealer’ or ‘Ten Claws’ or ‘The Vanisher.’  The goal of an assassinate contract was to hunt down and destroy these overly powerful and aggressive Grimm.  Wipe them off the face of Remnant!

This particular contract was for an Ursa who’d grown a bit too well known near the outskirts.  His name was - and Ruby had thought Yang was teasing her until she saw the name with her own eyes - The Hugger.  The Hugger!  That didn’t sound like a deadly Ursa - it sounded like a character from some kids’ cartoon show!

Or just a cartoon show, because cartoons weren’t exclusively for kids.  In fact, people of all ages could watch cartoons.  Not just kids.  And watching cartoons didn’t make someone childish.  Adults could watch cartoons - cartoons with characters named The Hugger.

When Ruby asked how they’d know they’d found this super deadly bear hugger, Blake had almost too calmly answered that it’d be whichever one tried to hug Yang.  It was funny because sometimes Blake could be really possessive about people getting too close to Yang, but didn’t seem to care much when it came to Grimm.  If anything, it kind of sounded like Yang was going to be bait for this contract.

Tracking a Grimm through the forest at night though...that sounded like a lot of fun!  Ruby wished she could’ve gone, but she also knew she was a little clumsy and wasn’t sure she could stay quiet for that long.  She didn’t know how Yang could stay quiet for more than a few minutes at a time!

Because Blake and Yang had to find the Grimm before they could kill it, they had no idea when they’d get back.  It could be next week; it could be in a few minutes - it all depended on how quickly they could track and dispose of the beast.  Theoretically, they could be gone for years - stuck out in the forest, eating berries and tree bark to survive…but Yang had sounded pretty confident that they wouldn’t be gone for long.  She’d even made a joke about how Ruby should make dinner for them, as if they’d want to eat undercooked noodles and raw vegetables after they’d been up all night.

Staying at home wasn’t so bad though.  It meant Ruby didn’t have to eat tree bark and it had given her enough time to finish a spur of the moment idea she’d had.  Unfortunately, being spur of the moment didn’t mean this project was quick and easy.  It was actually the opposite of that - never-ending and horribly challenging.  But she’d been determined!  Determined enough that she’d skipped her last few practices - something she hadn’t done in months.  Ordinarily, she’d feel guilty about skimping out on her training, but Yang said it was ok to take a little break after a hunt to rest and recuperate.

Sitting on the edge of her seat, Ruby leaned over the bench to look at what she’d just created - being extra careful not to touch it for the next few minutes while the paint dried.  When a big yawn slipped out, she covered her mouth with one hand and blinked several times to knock the exhaustion away.  

The little project looked pretty good, but the most important question was - would she like it?

When Ruby’s scroll buzzed beside her face, she jumped out of the seat in surprise and knocked her knee into the workbench with a loud bang.  

It was Weiss though!  

Hopping on one leg while rubbing her broken knee, Ruby grabbed the scroll and was immediately disappointed.

It wasn’t Weiss.  It was a message from Yang - a picture.  

Resuming her perch on the chair, Ruby opened the message and found a picture taken through a heavily wooded area.  At first glance, it looked like nothing more than trees and bushes and leaves, which was totally something Yang would do.  Send a photo and get Ruby all excited…

Ah!  But there was something!  If she squinted her eyes, she could barely make out a black shape in the distance.  Zooming in on that spot, the caption of ‘huggin’ time!’ suddenly made a lot more sense.  If that was a regular sized tree right next to the black blob, then that was a big Ursa.  Big, big, big Ursa.  They should’ve called him Jumbursa.  No, that was lame.  But not as lame as The Hugger!

She knew better than to respond right away, but her heart was pounding from just looking at the photo and knowing that Yang and Blake were, right at this moment, within shouting distance of the monster.  While Ruby was safe at home, they were getting into a huge fight. It was weird...she felt like she should be out there with them, but she also knew that they could take care of each other.

Hearing two knocks on the front door, she instantly leaped to her feet and yelped when both of her knees crashed into the bench this time, nearly knocking everything over.  Squealing, she managed to catch her newest prized possession, steadying it on its stand before dashing into the house and flying to the front door.  Not even checking through the window to see who was outside, she threw the door open and grinned.

“Weiss!” she exclaimed, rushing forward and pulling Weiss into a hug that was returned with one arm.  

One of these days Weiss would hug properly - which meant using both arms!  A full circle!  Although it probably didn’t help that she was currently carrying a brown paper bag in one hand...

“Hi, Ruby.  I hope you don’t mind, but I brought you some food,” Weiss replied with a timid smile, holding out the bag.

“Why would I mind??” Ruby asked in confusion while accepting the bag.

“Oh.  Well, that’s just - I didn’t actually think that you would - it’s a saying.”  

Ruby couldn’t help but giggle at Weiss’ adorably flustered response, which only made Weiss look even more unsure of what to say next.

“How about - I brought you some food,” she finally concluded, her eyes searching Ruby’s to see if that had cleared up the miscommunication.

“Well, I hope you don’t mind if I accept the food I don’t mind that you brought me,” Ruby replied while unfurling the top of the bag.  “You really didn’t have to - oh!!  Spaghetti! That’s my favorite!”

The comment made Weiss smile while she followed Ruby into the kitchen.  Setting the bag on the table, Ruby pulled out the containers and gave them a second and third glance.  It didn’t take a master-level detective to figure out that they hadn’t come from any restaurant she’d ever been to.

“Did you make this?” she asked, which only made Weiss look embarrassed.

“Yes, I did.”

Homemade spaghetti!  From Weiss!  That was a gift Ruby really didn’t mind!

“You can cook?” she asked in complete amazement.  “Wow, is there anything you can’t do?”

“Many things,” Weiss answered so sincerely that Ruby chuckled.

“Yeah right...tell me one thing you can’t do!”

Searching for an answer, Weiss looked into Ruby’s eyes while her mouth opened, but no words came out.

“See?  You can’t even think of anything!” Ruby pointed out happily.  Finally smiling, Weiss shook her head.

“I can’t catch butterflies.”

Bursting into laughter at the memory, Ruby quickly stuck the containers into the fridge so she could turn back to Weiss.  “But you looked so cute trying!”

Ah - that word!  It just slipped out.  Could she use that word with Weiss?  Yeah?  No, she could play it off.  

“I can’t cook at all,” she added quickly, changing the subject like a pro.  “But I’m great at cutting things up!  Yang calls me the Super Chopper.”

Waving her hands through the air in a chopping motion, she beamed when Weiss chuckled.

“Well that’s perfect - every chef needs a sous chef to prepare ingredients for them.”

“Then I can be your sous chef?”

“Absolutely.”

For a long time, the two of them shared a smile - probably the longest one they’d shared yet - before Weiss finally turned away and coughed into her hand.

“So...what have you been up to while Blake and Yang are away?”

“I’ve been keeping myself busy!  Working on another project and enjoying the silence,” Ruby replied with another small laugh.  “They might be back tonight though, so it’s not so bad.”

“You don’t mind having the house to yourself?”

“It’s awesome!  I can do whatever I want!”  After spinning in a quick, semblance-fueled circle, Ruby planted her feet and caught one of her petals out of the air when she came to an abrupt stop.  “I used to get kinda lonely or bored when they left for a few days,” she admitted.  “But it’s not so bad anymore.”

This time she’d actually been excited for her two roommates to leave.  The front door had hardly closed before she’d messaged Weiss to see when she could come over.  And then the front door had reopened because Yang had forgotten something, so she’d caught Ruby texting and gotten in a few lame jokes before actually leaving.

“But now when they leave we can hang out, right?”  Ruby shot Weiss a hopeful look before quickly adding, “I mean, if you’re not busy.”

“I can always make time for you.”

The effortless reply made Ruby’s cheeks warm right up.  It made her feel special when Weiss said things like that!  Like she’d actually try to create time for Ruby, if it came to that.  And the way Weiss said it was so simple, like of course she would do that - because why wouldn’t she go through the effort of doing something impossible just to hang out with Ruby?

“Great!  Then I hope they go on a lotta hunts,” Ruby said before stifling a yawn and rubbing her eyes.  

“Are you alright?”  Weiss’ eyes were openly concerned as she asked the question, so Ruby rubbed her eyes again to remove some of the tiredness Weiss must be seeing - only for another yawn to slip out.

“Yeahhh just a little tired!” she said after her yawn had passed.  Staying up all night tended to do that to a person.

“Did you not sleep well?  Is it your wrist? Did you take anything for it?”

Giggling at all the questions, Ruby shook her head.  It was sweet how Weiss fretted over something so simple, but the worry was unnecessary.

“Naw, just stayed up too late!”  

The answer was made of fudge.  Technically Ruby had stayed up until this moment - which was quite late (in her opinion).

“Do you want to get some sleep?  I could always come back later -”

“No, it’s ok!  I’m feeling great!” Ruby yelped before forcing a wide grin.

Weiss couldn’t leave yet - she’d just gotten here!  Plus, Ruby felt fine!  Sure, she was tired and had a bit of a headache, but it was just one of those vague tired headaches - like when your head is squishing your brain a little too hard.  Being too tired must make your skull shrink...either that or makes your brain bigger!  

She could always take a nap later, but right now she had something for Weiss.

“Oh!  I have something to show you!”

Even though she’d been thinking about it since Weiss had knocked on the door, Ruby tried to make it sound like she’d just remembered it.  That way it would seem like no big deal - because it wasn’t really.  It was just…a normal deal.

Waving Weiss after her, Ruby made her way back into the garage, where she’d spent practically all of her time since their visit to the Dust factory.  Which had been amazing and so much cooler than Ruby had ever expected.  And so, so thoughtful – like, wow, Weiss had really gone out of her way to make sure they had a great time.

Because Weiss had done something so nice for them, Ruby wanted to give Weiss something nice in return.  So she’d been hard at work!  That meant she’d stayed up a little later than she should have - or hadn’t slept at all - but it was worth it!  Or it would be worth it if Weiss liked what Ruby had created - which was still resting on top of the workbench where she’d left it.  By now the paint would be dry, so she didn’t hesitate reaching over to pick it up and hold it out to Weiss.  

It was a little nerve-wracking!  Weiss was so amazing and obviously had enough money to buy anything she wanted, so the idea of giving her a gift was kind of stressful...stressful enough to make Ruby’s heart beat really, really fast.

“What do you think?” she asked, dropping the tiny object into Weiss’ hand.

“Wow...Ruby, this is spectacular…” Weiss whispered while holding the shiny object carefully between her thumb and forefinger, rotating it gently so it caught the light in the garage just right.  

It was just a little ring, but Ruby had made it from scratch!

The band had been the easiest part - repurposing a nice dark grey metal that had welded together smoothly.  Along the outer surface, Ruby had painted a single vine of thorns, but the thorns were in the same shade of white-blue as Weiss’ glyphs.  Against the dark grey metal, they popped way better than red or black would have.

“You made the entire thing, I’m guessing?”

“Uh, yeah.  The band is from an old sword, and I just finished the painting before you got here,” Ruby answered, wringing her hands while Weiss continued to look over the ring.

“It’s beautiful,” Weiss finally said, the reply making Ruby grin while her heart thundered in her chest.

“I’m glad you like it!  Because...uh...well, I made it for you.”

Running one hand through her hair, a nervous smiled tugged at her lips when light blue eyes shot up to hers.

“I can change the design if you want,” she added when Weiss said nothing in response.  “I’ve just been drawing thorns everywhere since naming my glove.  Yang keeps making jokes about how ‘prickly’ I’ve been.”  Ruby rolled her eyes at the lame joke.  “But I wanted to give you something as a ‘thank you’ for showing us around your family’s factory.  It was really fun!”

From the way Weiss was staring, she was at a loss for words.  It was only when Ruby shuffled her feet uncomfortably at the silence that Weiss opened her mouth to speak.

“You didn’t have to do this…”

“I know!  I wanted to.  I had fun making it, too.”

When Weiss’ eyes fell back to the ring in her hands and searched the inside of the band, Ruby held her breath.  Spinning it in a slow circle while examining it closely, Weiss eventually turned it back over, and Ruby couldn’t help but grin.  

She might have taken a page out of the book of the person who’d worked on Myrtenaster and hidden a word on the interior where the two pieces seamed together.  It had taken hours of practice before she’d gotten good enough to make the tiny letters somewhat legible, but she’d eventually figured it out.  And apparently she’d done a good enough job that Weiss couldn’t see it - score one for Ruby Rose!

“I don’t know what to say…” Weiss whispered towards the ring in her hands before looking up and meeting Ruby’s eyes.  “Thank you.  This might be one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me...”

“I’m really glad you like it!  Here I was all worried…” Ruby let out a small chuckle at how silly her fears seemed now.

“I love it, Ruby.”

Weiss looked directly into Ruby’s eyes as she said the words, making Ruby’s heart do a silly little double beat that felt just as weird as it sounded.  She’d hoped that Weiss would like it.  Loving it was way better.

“But don’t feel like you’ve gotta wear it or anything!” Ruby hurried out before Weiss could feel any pressure to do so.  “You can always put it in a drawer or something - I won’t be upset!”

Biting her lip, Weiss thought about the words for several seconds before she slipped the ring onto her finger and gently wiggled it around.

“It fits perfectly,” she remarked, her brow furrowing in confusion.  “How did you know my ring size?”

“Oh, you know, I have this super scientific way of figuring out someone’s ring size,” Ruby bolstered before letting out a giggle.  “It’s called ‘Ruby’s Art of Guessing!’”

Her laughter made Weiss chuckle softly along with her.  

“But I figured your hands are, uh, more delicate than mine, so I used my ring and then made yours a bit smaller!” she explained, briefly holding up the ring around her neck to prove her point.  “Oh, and the best part!”  Moving around Weiss, Ruby grabbed Thorn from his stand and pulled the glove over her hand. “Ok - give me a high five!”

Curious, Weiss held up her hand and reached towards Thorn.  The moment the ring and glove were in close enough proximity, the thorns painted on each illuminated - the vibrant ice-blue popping out against the dark gray backgrounds.

“Luminescent paint!” Ruby exclaimed, clasping her hand around Weiss’ so the heightened color wouldn’t fade away.  “Isn’t it cool? It’s purely cosmetic, but ya know, totally worth it.”

“That’s...amazing…” Weiss replied softly, intertwining her fingers with Ruby’s while staring at the thorns glowing brightly.  

Ruby watched Weiss’ reaction with a grin, their hands still locked together.  She’d had to repaint Thorn since she hadn’t used the same paint the first time around, but it was worth it.  Now she and Weiss had a cool friend thing!  If they went on more hunts together, people could give them a cool nickname - like The Glowing Thorns or The White Thorns.  Or they could be officially lame and go with The Huggers.  Ha.  Grimm beware…

Still undecided on a nickname, Ruby’s attention flitted back to Weiss when she suddenly slipped her hand away and rubbed both hands up and down her arms with a barely noticeable shiver.

“Are you cold?” Ruby immediately asked.

“Um...just a little.”  

“It gets cold out here.  Come on - I’ll get you something warm to wear!”  

“It’s really -”

“No no, don’t say it’s ok!” Ruby interrupted while heading towards the door to the house.  Turning around, she grinned at the perplexed expression on Weiss’ face.  “You’re cold, so I’m getting you a jacket or sweater or something!  You can either wait here or come with me!”

Taken aback, Weiss blinked several times before finally nodding her head.

“Then lead the way.”

Chuckling at Weiss’ acquiescence, Ruby walked inside - tugging Thorn off her hand and tossing him onto the kitchen table while they walked by it.  Making it to her room, she gently kicked open the door with one foot and gestured towards her bed.

“You can sit if you want,” she offered, before heading to the closet to find some warmer clothing to lend her friend.

If she had to guess, Weiss would like something super trendy and fashionable.  In other words, nothing Ruby owned.  But she couldn’t let Weiss be cold!  There had to be something that would kinda...maybe...sorta…well, a great lesson to be learned right now was that Weiss had a different taste in fashion than Ruby did.  So...her favorite one would have to do!

Grabbing the red and black jacket and spinning around – her headache giving a slight twinge of complaint as she did so - Ruby found Weiss perched on the very edge of the bed like she didn't know how to sit there.  Her back was super straight, her hands were in her lap, and her hair draped over one shoulder.  Maybe she felt uncomfortable, but she looked like a princess.

“Here you go!”  Holding up the jacket, Ruby waited for Weiss to stand and then helped her into the sleeves.  It was a little big on her - the sleeves too long and the shoulders too big - but it was kind of cute the way it enveloped her.

Ah!  That word again!  At least Ruby hadn’t said it out loud this time.  Wait - she hadn’t said it out loud the first time...had she?

“Sorry, it probably smells like roses,” she apologized when she noticed Weiss lower her nose towards the collar.  “I can never get the smell out of my stuff!  It’s like permanent perfume.  Permafume.”

Letting out a small scoff of amusement, Weiss gave Ruby one of the best smiles she’d received yet.

“Don't be sorry.  I love the smell.”

The words made Ruby’s cheeks pleasantly warm while Weiss turned her gaze down to the cuffs of the jacket.  

If Weiss loved the smell of roses, that was great! For Ruby.  Probably not for people who didn’t always smell like roses.

“At least it beats smelling like I just jumped out of a burning building like Yang does!” Ruby joked at her sister’s expense, earning another surprised laugh from Weiss.

“If I’m not mistaken, Blake loves that smell,” Weiss replied with a smirk.

“Oh yeah.  Something about how it smells like ‘home.’” Laughing a little, Ruby shook her head.  “Those two are so weird.”

“At least they have each other.”

“That’s right!  Every weirdo must have a matching weirdo, right?”

“You’re right,” Weiss agreed, smiling back at Ruby.  Again their eyes stayed locked for a few seconds before Weiss abruptly turned away in favor of staring at the ground.  

Maybe Ruby wasn’t the best at social interactions, but she was more interesting than the ground, right?  Seriously, the carpet was just carpet.  It was a kinda gray, kinda blue color that probably had a weird name like ‘afternoon sky’ or ‘inky clay.’  The little whatchamacallits - the fabric part that stuck up - were super soft though.  They felt really nice when she wasn’t wearing any socks!  There was also a small patch hidden underneath the bed that had gotten an itsy bit burned by complete accident.  Yang had wondered why Ruby decided to rearrange her room so suddenly...

Ok, maybe the carpet was kind of interesting - but not as interesting as she was!

Determined not to be outdone by the flooring, Ruby grabbed the desk chair and spun it around so she could sit in front of Weiss.

“Did you get to hang out with your sister while she was here?” she asked, happily noting that Weiss was subconsciously playing with the newly appointed ring on her finger, but the question made her let go and return her attention to Ruby.

“Yes, we had dinner before she returned to Atlas.”

“I hope you had fun!”

“It was...great,” Weiss answered with a thoughtful nod and small smile.  “I wasn’t expecting to see her, so that was a nice surprise.”

“Yeah!  For me too!” Ruby replied.  “I mean, I didn’t even know you had a sister, so that was the surprise.  And the nice part was, um...her. She seems super nice!”

Nice, and pretty, and kind of stern.  A bit intimidating, actually.  

“She is.  She supported me growing up...I owe her a great deal.”

“Aren’t older sisters the best?” Ruby asked with a smile that Weiss returned.

“They are.  You happen to have a great one, yourself.”

“I do!  Yang’s awesome.”

“She is…” Weiss replied softly.  “She cares so much about you too.”

Growing up, Ruby had never questioned her sister’s love for her.  It was always her and Yang against the world - whether it was the actual world or some pretend universe they made up.  

“I know she does.  With my injuries and stuff, she really went out of the way to help me get better.  One day I want to make it up to her!  I have no idea how, but I’ll figure somethin’ out.”

Ruby knew that sacrifices had been made in order to help her recover.  Of course, with the way Yang was, she’d never mention them.  So Ruby had no idea what they were, but she knew they must be there.  No one devoted a year of their life to helping another person go through rehab without missing out on something for themselves.

“Well, if you ever figure that out, let me know.  I’m still trying to make things up to her, myself,” Weiss added with a self-depreciating shake of her head that made Ruby frown.

“Is she still being mean to you?”  

Yang had said that she’d try to be kinder to Weiss…but Ruby would talk to her sister again if she needed to.

“Actually, she’s been a bit more...tolerant...recently.  But something is still really...broken between us.”  Pausing, Weiss sighed and shook her head.  “I know I hurt her, but I want to make it up to her.  I have to. We used to be so close.”

“I’m sure she’ll give you another chance!  She has no reason not to when you’re here making an effort!”

“Well, I think I’ve finally learned that running away fixes nothing.  It only leaves the wounds to fester…” Brow furrowing, Weiss was silent for some time before sighing and meeting Ruby’s gaze with mournful eyes.  “It was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.  I don’t know if I’ll ever stop regretting it, but hopefully, I can find a way to overcome it.”

The biggest mistake she’d ever made?  What was it?  The biggest mistake Ruby ever made had landed her in the hospital with some pretty serious boo-boos and quite a few missing memories.  But that seemed like a completely different type of mistake.  The way Weiss looked right now made it seem like she’d done something horrible.  But, to Ruby, it seemed impossible that Weiss was capable of anything that bad.

Maybe it was kind of bad, or maybe Weiss was just really hard on herself.  Whichever it was, Ruby didn’t care. What she cared about was how sad Weiss looked right now.

“I’m sure you’ll overcome it,” Ruby replied confidently, leaning forward and nearly reaching over to grab one of Weiss’ hands before stopping and tugging on her necklace instead.  “And I’m sure you had a good reason to leave!”

“But she gave me the chance to come back.  I just...I couldn’t do it…”

“But you did!  You did do it!  Unless...are you a hologram??”  Reaching out, Ruby lightly poked Weiss in the shoulder. “No, you’re real!  And you’re in Vale, so you did come back!”

“It took me so long though -”

“So?  What matters is that you did it,” Ruby said.  “You’ve gotta let go of how long it took, Weiss.  You’re here now, and that’s what matters.  It’s like my mom used to say -”  Scrunching up her face, she searched for the exact wording, so she didn’t mess this up.  “Mistakes don’t define you - your reactions to them do.”

When Weiss stared at her thoughtfully, Ruby kept talking.

“Basically, you made a mistake, but did it make you a better person in the end?”

“I...don’t know.  I hope so.”

Weiss was clearly unconvinced, so Ruby decided it was time to do some ultra convincing.

“Like, look at this!” she said, holding out her wrist so Weiss could see the scar running all the way across it on both sides.  “Clearly, a mistake was made. But I’m not going to be Ruby Rose - injured girl, forever.  I train really hard every day so that I won’t be that person.”

After briefly glancing at Ruby’s wrist, Weiss turned away and bit her bottom lip in thought.

“We get to choose our reactions to our problems,” Ruby continued.  “That’s the great thing about life!  Maybe it took you a long time, but you chose to come back, Weiss.  Running away can’t define you anymore, because that’s not how the story ends.”

While Ruby grinned at her hopefully-successful argument, Weiss stared for a long, long time while processing the information.  It looked like she was going to disagree, but eventually, with a partial smile, she seemed to concede - for now.

“How did you become so...strong?”  

“I’m not though!” Ruby answered with a laugh, holding up her left hand and wiggling her fingers.  Without Thorn, her left hand was still injured - and she was beginning to realize that her full strength might never come back.  Fortunately, she’d found a way to compensate for her weaknesses and then some.

However, Weiss shook her head at the response.

“You are,” she insisted.  “You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.  I still don’t know how...how did you work your way back so quickly from your injuries?  They were so serious...from what you’ve told me.  And with your memories...it must’ve been so difficult.”

“Yeah, I guess it was...the beginning especially, but I had a lot of help!”

“Yang?”

Ruby nodded.

“Yang and Blake encouraged me, and I tried to keep my spirits up.  My mom helped too - it felt like she was trying to talk to me all the time, reminding me not to give up.  Oh, and can’t forget my secret source of power!”

Looking in both directions like she was about to disclose top secret information, it was only when she found the coast was clear that she leaned forward and held her necklace up in between them.

“Tada!” she exclaimed.  It was supposed to be a big reveal, but Weiss only looked confused - glancing between the ring and Ruby several times.

“Your...ring?”

“It’s not just a ring!” Ruby stated matter-of-factly, spinning the necklace around so she could fumble with the clasp.  “It’s also filled with magical powers!”  

Since she hardly ever took it off, she was less than skillful in getting the itty bitty fastener to open, but after several failed attempts she was finally successful.  Letting the necklace fall into one hand, she made a show of slumping her shoulders at the same time.

“Oh...yeah...I feel weaker already…” she tried to say in a tired voice while sliding the ring off of the chain and holding it out to Weiss.  “You can feel it – it’s like there’s an invisible power in this ring.”

Even though Ruby was holding the ring in between them, Weiss seemed extremely hesitant to take it.

“Don’t worry, it’s not one of those buzz rings or anything,” Ruby assured her.  Finally convinced, Weiss held out her hand, and Ruby dropped the ring into it. Curling her fingers around the small band, Weiss closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Can you feel it?” Ruby asked in a whisper, watching Weiss intently.  When Weiss opened her eyes, crystal blue seemed to be looking deep into Ruby’s heart.

“It’s important to you,” Weiss remarked softly, uncurling her fingers and looking down into the palm of her hand.

“Yup!”

With a small smile, Weiss gave the ring one last glance before extending it back to Ruby.  

“I guess the answer is that I had a lot of people looking out for me,” Ruby explained while accepting the ring and sliding it back onto its chain.  “Yang, Blake, my mom, and the one thing from my past that feels...powerful in a way.  They all kept me going.”

Stringing the necklace around her neck, she fumbled with the clasp several times before giving up and holding it out to Weiss.

“Can you help me?  I haven’t taken this off in months, so I kinda suck at putting it back on.”

Nodding, Weiss took both ends of the necklace in her hands while Ruby turned around.  Carefully lowering the chain, Weiss gently fastened it in place - drawing a round of goosebumps when her fingers lightly grazed the back of Ruby’s neck. When Ruby turned around, Weiss moved the ring so it was sitting perfectly in front - holding onto it for a few seconds longer while staring at it intently.

“Who’s it from?” she asked.

The question made Ruby’s brow burrow.

“I’m actually not sure,” she answered truthfully.  

“You’ve never asked?”

“Naw...Blake said she’d tell me, but…”  Ruby shrugged one shoulder and gave Weiss a small smile.  “Is it important where it came from?  Or that when things sucked, it made me feel better?”

Weiss opened her mouth, but said nothing for a long time until finally muttering, “I guess...that it made you feel better…”

“But I have a sneaky hunch it’s from my partner,” Ruby admitted.  The words made Weiss’ eyes widen in surprise.

“Your partner?”

“Yeah, I know we had a fourth teammate - every team at Beacon has four,” Ruby explained, rubbing her forehead as sleep deprivation continued to weigh on her, pressing behind her eyes in a super annoying way.  “But Yang hasn’t told me much about her, and I haven’t asked.  There was just...so much else to focus on. I don’t know.  All I know is that whoever she was, she was really cool.”

The revelation seemed to catch Weiss completely by surprise.

“How do you know that?”

“That’s one of the only things Yang told me!” Ruby explained, briefly closing her eyes while trying to recall Yang’s words around the stupid, growing headache.  “She said…that our teammate was one of the most talented fighters she’d ever seen.  And was super smart - like the brains of the whole operation.”

“She said that?”

Ruby nodded.  “Yup!  ‘We got the smartest in school,’ she said.”

“But you never wanted to know who it was?”

“Of course I wanted to know!  I still do. There were so many times I almost looked it up myself...because I’d love to meet her.  She sounds amazing, but…” her words trailed off as a familiar twinge pulled at her heart.  

It was a decision she’d made a long time ago and stuck with to this day.

“But what?” Weiss prodded, her eyes searching Ruby’s for whatever was going to come next.

“But she’s not here, is she?” Ruby finally answered, temporarily drawn back to the times when she hadn’t had enough energy for anything - when getting out of bed might be the best thing she could accomplish in a day.  “If I wanted to get better, I couldn’t dwell on the past. So I decided to focus on the here and now.  Maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to meet her if...I mean...if she’s still...”

They’d reached the root of the matter - something she was too scared to ask, yet quietly desperate to know.  But if she could share this worry to anyone, it was Weiss.

“If she’s...still alive, you know?”

Weiss’ response was one of pure shock.  For a second, her mouth hung slightly open with no sound coming out before finally speaking.

“But what makes you think she’s not?”

Raising one hand to clutch the ring around her neck, Ruby shook her head – and paid for it with another pang in her forehead, this one sharper than the last.  

There were a lot of reasons why she’d avoided her past for such a long time.  It was confusing.  It was scary.  It made her feel vulnerable and small.  

And it would’ve been impossible to move on if she remained stuck in the past.  Being able to let go and move on had been important.  But, beyond all of those things, something was lurking in the fog that was really painful.  Whenever she thought about it, her chest tightened with this ache that only went away through distraction.  There was something surrounding her partner that hurt, even with no memories of who they were.

It was the part of her past that eluded her most.  Some days she wanted the answers but was terrified to know them.  The way Blake and Yang dodged around the subject only made her more nervous to know what the truth might be.  So she’d avoided the topic altogether - content to deal with more important matters and live in blissful ignorance.  One day she’d probably figure everything out, but she wasn’t in any hurry for that day to arrive.

“I’ve always felt like someone or something important to me was missing,” Ruby tried to explain.  “It’s kinda difficult to describe, but...it must be her, right?”

“But to think she died -?”

“It’s either that or she left and has no interest in speaking to me, or us.”  Either of those answers kind of sucked - enough to bring tears to her eyes as a sense of loss grew in her chest.  Sniffing once, she tried to play it off by rubbing her tired eyes.  

This was part of the reason why she avoided thinking about the wall of fog sealing her off from those memories.  It made her way too emotional!

“I’m pretty sure the ring is hers,” she whispered, briefly scrunching her eyes closed when another quick jab of pain appeared over her left eye.  “That’s why it’s so powerful,” she continued, opening her eyes and shaking off the exhaustion.  “It’s a huntress’ ring.  And that’s why I always kept it near me.  Honor her memories even if I don’t have them, ya know?”

Picking up the ring again, Ruby looked down at it the best she could while it was still hanging around her neck.

“Maybe she’s not in my life anymore, but she helped me get through some rough times without even being here.  If I ever get to meet her...and I hope I do, you know?  I hope I’m wrong.  But if I ever get to meet her, I want to thank her for that.  For leaving me with something that helped me through.”  

Smiling, Ruby looked up only to find that Weiss was staring back with tears growing in her eyes.

“Weiss?” Ruby yelped in concern, quickly moving over to the bed and sitting by Weiss’ side.  “Are you ok?  What’s wrong??”

“I’m -”  Choking up, Weiss stopped and shook her head.  “I’m sorry.  Just...hearing you say that…I didn’t realize...”

“Hey, it’s ok.”  Consoling Weiss, Ruby made sure to smile to prove that she was just fine.  Because she was.  This was something she’d come to terms with a while ago.  “It’s just one of those things, you know?  That’s why I try not to think about it too much!”

“Yes, but…”

When Weiss’ lip quivered, Ruby reached out and pulled her into a hug that again made her stiffen.  Only this time she eventually gave in and returned the hug in full, wrapping both arms around Ruby and pulling her closer.

“I’m sorry,” Weiss murmured, burying her face into Ruby’s shoulder.  “I’m so sorry…”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” Ruby replied softly, rubbing one hand up and down Weiss’ back.  “I’m probably just overthinking it anyway.  Maybe she decided to go off on her own after school and no one’s heard from her since.  Maybe we were never that close.  Or maybe I bought the ring for myself!”

Her sense of loss could come from not having access to any of those memories, not over some specific person or thing.  The ring might only symbolize the years she’d lost - a tiny, pretty reminder that she could carry with her everywhere.

Maybe she should consider that her story might be a little sad to people who were hearing it for the first time.  Just because she’d accepted what had happened to her didn’t mean that others were on the same page as her.  But it was really sweet that Weiss was so sympathetic!

Savoring the hug, Ruby gave Weiss a gentle squeeze to try to comfort her even more.  Now, this was a good hug.  Firm yet comfortable.  Open and accepting.  This was how a hug was supposed to be.

It was only a few more moments before Weiss pulled back and looked at Ruby for what felt like a long time - her hands resting softly on Ruby’s knees.  If Ruby could look into Weiss’ mind right now, she could probably see the wheels turning full speed - coming up with an answer to some question Ruby had never asked.

The next second, Weiss abruptly stood up.

“Ruby, I need to tell you something,” she said, immediately pacing back and forth in front of the bed.  

The sight made Ruby feel a strange twinge of anticipation - like something really significant was about to be revealed.  If she was right, that would be amazing.  The possibility of getting another glimpse into Weiss’ thoughts made her both hopeful and excited at the same time.  

“I’m listening,” Ruby said, standing up as well.  The moment she did so, there was another prick of pain in her temple that caused her to temporarily close her eyes and wait for the feeling to pass, but it only slightly went away this time.  Thankfully, Weiss hadn’t noticed, but Ruby might need to get some sleep soon…

“There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you, but I wasn’t sure how you’d respond -” Weiss was saying quickly, pacing the small room and not daring to glance Ruby’s way.  “I know it took me a long time to summon the courage, but I hope that telling you now counts for something. Because I need you to know.”

Standing in the middle of the room, Ruby remained as motionless as possible.  She didn’t want to move because the room had kind of started to spin.  The tired tension in her forehead was getting a little harder to ignore, and she was growing increasingly light-headed the longer she watched Weiss walk back and forth, back and forth.

Something didn’t feel right.  

“I know you’ve wondered how Yang and I know each other.  From school, but -”

Weiss’ words were beginning to fade away as a dull roar crept into Ruby’s ears, and a black spot appeared in the center of her vision.  She blinked, but it didn’t go away - it only got bigger.  Probably not a good sign.

“Weiss…” she said, her voice sounding hazy and far away.  “I don’t feel so good…”

“Ruby?  Ruby!”

The last thing she saw were light blue eyes headed her way.

[self-indulgent-sparrow]

The Party

This is a monster and it just keeps happening. I thought this would clock at maybe 6k??? No. It's 10.7k words. I'm kind of scared. It's 45 pages. Someone hold me.

UM ANYWAY this was an incredibly interesting experiment in writing voices of different characters―I've never really written Simon or Mab or even Dib that much before this. I HOPE I've captured them well, I constantly went through the documents to try to accurately portray them.

It's hard to say what the point of this thing is, outside of “Don't judge a book by its very nice cover” and “respect ppl's decisions and boundaries”. This entire thing was literally just me trying to get Dib and Queenie to have a Chat. Oof.

I apologize in advance to literally everyone for a specific part of this story. You'll know which part, because your soul will leave your body while you experience it.

Enjoy.

you're like a party

somebody threw me, you taste like birthday, you look like new years. you're like a big parade through town: you leave such a mess, but you're so fun!

--the party, regina spektor

"You want to throw a party for Fourth of July? Since when were you so damn patriotic?"

"It's not for Fourth of July in particular," May says, sorting through her recipe box with a small focused frown. "I just kind of figured--there's gonna be fireworks anyway, but I'd like a distraction from the holiday, so why not just make it about having good company in general?"

"That makes absolutely no sense," Kass replies, flicking through the discarded recipe cards. What the hell is yubruk? "Anyone you invite will just think it's a holiday party."

"I really doubt Mab's going to care about a human holiday, and I know Dib's looking forward to not thinking about the current political situation. It's gonna be fine--is my guacamole recipe on the back of one of those cards? I can't find it."

Kass flips some of the cards over, and flicks the card in question towards May's outreached hands across the table.

"Thank you." She glances it over, and then sets it aside to glance at Kass, who is sipping his coffee. "I swear it won't be so bad. It's not gonna be a lot of people, and I'll make the biggest batch of lemonade you've ever seen. You like lemonade, right?"

"Hard lemonade, maybe," he replies shortly.

"Why is everything alcoholic with you."

"I'm an alcoholic."

The girl snorts, slapping her fingers over her mouth to choke down the laugh. Kass continues to drink his coffee, only barely smirking back at her.

"God, you're just the worst," she finally says after the fit of giggles has died.

"I am not the one trying to host a party for a bunch of monsters to pointedly not celebrate the holiday on that day, you little weirdo." He adds, as May sticks her tongue out at him, "Just do me a favor and leave me out of it, alright? This is your inane little get-together, not mine."

"I won't make you do anything, promise. All you have to do is tolerate people being in the house for a few hours. That's it, I swear." The way May smiles, Kass almost believes her, especially when she continues, "As consolation for making you deal with my shenanigans, I will give you the first slice of my strawberry chocolate cake."

Kass frowns around the rim of his mug in speculation, and then mutters moodily, "...it better be a big slice."

As the day of the not-party draw nearer, things at 3, Tesla Drive get a little hectic as she cleans and prepares in between her shifts. On Tuesday, July third, May brings home a watermelon as wide as his ribcage, and uses up half of the counter space to slice it into small, sweet triangles. A couple go missing when she walks away for a moment to put her hair up, and if she notices she says nothing, because it's still enough watermelon to feed a small country. Kass watches her wrap the watermelon slices and slide them into the fridge underneath the vegetable tray.

She bakes the cake layers, and whips the cream, and sets them both in the fridge overnight, with the air of someone who's done this countless times before. Kass watches her work from the kitchen door frame then, and the morning after, where at 10 am she's already been up for two hours. Two hours, and she's already peeled and chopped potatoes and sliced strawberries.

She's at the counter, pouring lemon juice into a bowl, when Kass serves himself cereal. "Good morning," May says, distracted, moving to the sink when he nudges her aside to reach for the coffee. "Sorry I didn't make breakfast."

"Didn't expect you to," he replies, pouring the warm contents into his mug.

(The mug, part of a set, has a king chess piece on it. She'd bought it as a joke, and uses the queen mug personally.)

He eats at the table, which is still blessedly clear save for the bowl of sliced strawberries, while May finishes the guacamole and quickly cleans her knives. She's pulling the cooled cake out of the fridge when he asks, suddenly rather concerned, "This isn't a formal attire party, right? You aren't going to demand I wear a button up or anything bizarre?"

"In this weather? Course not. A clean shirt and a pair of pants would be nice," the girl says, matter-of-factly, pulling out the tub of frosting and popping off the lid. "Beyond that I leave it up to you. Could you pass me the strawberries?"

Upon being offered the bowl, May squints at it suspiciously.

"This bowl is lighter than it was when I put it on the table."

"No it's not," he says, convincingly.

There's a small groan, and then a sigh. She frosts one layer of the cake with a wide spatula, while Kass watches, leaning on the fridge quite helpfully.

"Hey asshole, get the strawberries out, I gotta cut more. Anyway," May continues, beginning to place slices onto the frosted center, "If you end up deciding you're sick of the company, by all means you're free to hide in your room. I won't pester you. I can't say the same for other people, though."

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to i-ow." Kass pulls his fingers back from the strawberry bowl. May waves the frosting spatula at him threateningly.

"You have had enough, sir. Let me finish."

He sticks his stung finger in his mouth, and grins around it at her like a leer. May begins to giggle.

"You are such a child, sometimes."

As noon approaches, they both shower, and she's still there when the doorbell rings, so Kass, against his better judgment, answers the door. "You knock, now?" he says with faux surprise, when Simon and Gunter cross the threshold.

"Hey, man, give me some credit, my hands are full," Simon jokes back, gesturing to the tray of popsicles in his hands. Gunter is holding a pie--apple, by the looks of it. "Is there space in your freezer for these? Don't want them to melt."

They follow him into the kitchen, and Kass takes the tray to slide it into the small freezer above the fridge. The popsicles look to be made of different kinds of fruit. He nearly claims one now, until he glances down and the penguin is staring at him, so instead, he closes the freezer door with a little huff. Fine. Later, then.

The fridge is running out of space, so the pie is left on the table. The lemonade sits in a tall pitcher, condensation forming at its sides, on the counter. Kass grabs one of May's nicer glasses that she's brought down for the occasion, pouring the cool drink and offering it silently to Gunter. The penguin looks surprised, but accepts it. It looks between him and Simon, and then states, a touch awkwardly, "I'm going to go set up the snacks in the living room."

Kass watches Simon somewhat warily, looking over the cleaned shirt and blue, star patterned bow tie. Simon deftly ignores him, pulling food out of the fridge to set onto the kitchen table. "Dang, that's the cake May made? It looks rad!"

Since the break-in visit Kass had been told about, Simon has been over several times. While Kass had initially regarded him with little more than suspicion and disdain, Simon had been unusually (to him at least) respectful of his personal space, physically and verbally. He'd seemed more interested in helping May cook, or bringing a movie to watch together.

They had had a conversation about O'Malley while playing Mario Kart on May's Wii, mildly terse while he had avoided red shells and banana peels. It had been somewhat brief--an admittance to the act, an open distaste for the damn dog, and Kass's attempt to generally wave the whole situation aside. It wasn't a perfect patch job, but it was better than nothing, he supposed, and Simon had been less pushy.

He'd been tolerable, while being himself, but it never quite took the edge off. It is, after all, Simon, do-good-be-good Simon. It's why Kass is immediately skeptical and squinting when Simon asks, "How've you been lately? You seem better."

His mouth is a thin line, but Simon's not looking as he reaches into the pantry and grabs the chip bag to dump into a bowl.

"Peachy. You wouldn't believe what not having an anxious brat following you around does for your nerves. Dib's not here too, which helps."

"Pfffbt." The boy (hardly a boy anymore, but he'll never be much else in Kass's eyes) pulls the plastic wrap off the guacamole, studying it curiously. When he looks up at Kass, his smile is undaunted by the jab. "Following you around in a different house would be way too much work, even for me. And anyway, May told me space would do you some good, so I've been nice."

He makes a harsh little "tch" noise with his tongue. "Of course, when the bird tells you, you listen. Nevermind I stated repeatedly for you to keep your shenanigans to yourself for months, then."

"You, sir, are a liar and a fiend, so I ignore what you say constantly. Half the time you're projecting anyway," Simon says, with a snicker, "and the other half, you're making really dated references that show how darn old you are."

"I am not old.”

"Okay, mister Mid Life Crisis. You're not old."

Kass mumbles something under his breath, nursing a second glass of lemonade. Simon blinks in his direction.

"I missed that. Say it again?"

With a little grimace, he repeats himself. "I said, we're still not friends. Don't expect me to come over and play. "

Simon rolls his eyes. "Whatever makes you feel good, dude. You're doing fine over here anyway, you've chilled out a lot."

"Yes, well, when I'm not constantly told to change my core person to fit a standard, I tend to thrive."

Simon sets the paper plates in his hand down, and looks at Kass. His expression is a hard one to fathom--the flesh of his cheek is pulled up, like a half grimace. With a little chuff, he pushes his glasses up his nose.

"You know what, you're right. I was pushing you really hard."

Wait, what?

This isn't a subject they've touched on for a while. Kass, more than anything, had meant it as a general rib, but the jab seems to have been more effective than he'd assumed. His surprise is evident, because Simon continues.

"I mean, I don't feel like I'm wrong, because I know you can be better than you let on--but!" He holds up a finger at Kass's little scowl. "I was pushing way too hard, at way too soon a time."

He sits in a chair at the table, gesturing, looking a touch sheepish. "I should have recognized way sooner that you were spiraling into a bad state. I won't get too weepy--I've apologized plenty of times about it and I know you're sick of it. My point, here, is, I never really looked at the situation from your point of view."

Kass watches warily, as Simon dips a chip into the guacamole, and sticks it into his mouth. He makes a pleasantly surprised sound, and swallows, then gestures again, a little shrug.

"I tried to get it, but it didn't really sink in until the whole, uh. The thing with Pickman. I didn't register how deep a level the Foundation stuff was ingrained into you. That's on me, and I'm sorry."

For a long minute, there is quiet. It's awkward, and uncertain.

Kass says, a little caught off guard, "We're starting this party off on a very low note, you know."

Simon snickers again.

"My bad. But I'm really glad you're starting to feel better. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know." He points at Kass sharply, squinting. "Illegal activity is out, though."

Kass finds himself very nearly smiling. "We'll see," he says.

"See wh--Simon, you blessed boy! You're early!" May's enthusiasm fills and controls a whole room, and she dives into Simon's arms when he stands. "You didn't have to come help!"

"Well," he says, seeming pleased, "I figured it'd take a load off your mind. Gunter and I brought some extra desserts."

When May pulls away, she examines the pie brightly. "Look, Kass, a cutie pie! And also, an apple pie."

"....May."

She can't help how her chest shakes from laughter. "That's it, I'm sorry. That's the only joke I'll make."

"It was so bad," Simon says, affronted.

"I'm sorry," she says again, though she doesn't seem very sorry. "I'm just so happy--You're here, and you look nice and I suddenly feel much, much less stupid about this whole thing."

It catches Kass a little off guard to hear that, because she hasn't seemed self conscious as she planned the party--a touch rushed, maybe.

Had he failed to notice, or had she just hidden it that well?

Simon grins at May as she touches his bow tie, the pair of them thick as thieves. "You look adorable and I hope you know it."

Though Kass will never admit it, Simon is right. May has chosen to leave her glasses off today, and her hair, still damp from her shower, is pulled back into tight pigtails. A blue ribbon peeks out behind the springing curls, loose by her neck, and her shirt has a feather pattern around the collar.

She's embraced the summer mood, it seems. Her face lights up from the compliment.

"Actually," she asks sheepishly, "could you give me a hand? I'm not very pleased with the ribbons and you could probably get a better angle than I could."

"Sure!"

Simon ushers May out the hall, to the bathroom. Kass slips past them into the living room. The penguin and a green little clone are setting the coffee table with food, neither of them looking up while he maneuvers to set up the Wii.

"Awfully considerate of you," it says from somewhere behind him. Kass checks the batteries of each spare remote, and then flicks through the disks, picking multiplayer games and setting them beside the console.

"If I have to tolerate this ridiculous backwards event, I might as well find ways to enjoy myself," he replies.

"Right," Gunter says. "Of course. That's all."

"That's all, Ducky."

The doorbell is well timed, and Kass stays put as it's opened by the bird. He half turns, watching Dib, already bright red from the heat, strip his trench coat off to hang on the door's coat peg.

"One hundred and three degrees," the boy mumbles. "One hundred and three stupid degrees. And everybody's barbecuing."

(His shirt is bright blue, and has a spiraling wind pattern. This is very ironic.)

"Need cold. Need fluids."

Dib makes his way into the kitchen, reappearing moment later with a cold glass pressed to his forehead. He drops heavily onto the couch, and finally seems to notice Kass, raising a hand in a half greeting. Kass raises his eyebrows, and then looks over the couch, and grins.

"Psst. Constant Vigilance."

"Nn," Dib says wearily. "What."

"Look."

Suspiciously, Dib looks behind the couch to the base of the stairs where Simon and May reappear to enter the kitchen. He gasps at the sight of the tiny springs at the base of her neck.

"Oh my goooooosh."

"I told you," Kass says, a touch smug.

"That's--That's so cute," Dib hisses back, grinning wide around the lip he is biting into. "That is so good."

"What are you two jerks snickering about," May asks as she sets the vegetable tray onto the coffee table.

"N-Nothing--" Dib says, at the exact moment Gunter says, "Kass pointed out your pigtails."

May peeps (god, it's brilliant when she does that), and then yells. "What is with you people and my hair!!"

Kass snickers and ducks the pillow chucked in his direction, tossing it back in Dib's direction.

When Simon and Gunter drop onto the couch, Kass tosses them each a controller and drops into his recliner, only half listening to the party, his hands behind his head.

Simon, to some degree, is right. He is more relaxed. This is his space, currently being invaded upon with his own permission. That's what he tells himself, at least, slitting one eye open to watch Simon hand Dib his ass in Super Smash Bros.

Four rounds later, Dib has won all of a single match, staunchly holding to playing Samus while Simon flicks through Pacman, Lil Mac, and Ness. Gunter has decided he has a very high interest in May's guacamole, and has helped himself to a good portion of the stuff, ignoring the cold cut sandwiches and veggie tray.

May's still not appeared to join them. When Kass stands and peeks into the kitchen, he finds her at the stove. The faerie queen is sitting on the edge of the counter by the window, the sunlight painting patterns on her wings. It's with a little grimace that Kass maneuvers around her to pour himself a glass of the lemonade, ignoring their conversation.

He catches sight of the stove--wait. May's making french fries. Unashamed, Kass sidles to her side and steals a couple finished ones on the plate.

"Stop stealing food," she mumbles with a little smile.

"Stop having friends that are all in my nightmares," he retorts, blowing on the fry and sticking it in his mouth. Ah, unsalted. Probably a batch for the faerie then.

"Sorry?"

It is, at this very moment, that the back door to the kitchen bangs open. All three inhabitants jump nearly a foot, and only two relax as the cause makes itself known.

"Sup?" The nightmare queen proclaims, posing dramatically in the door frame. "Y'all can relax now, I'm here. The party can finally start."

Kass attempts very hard to make himself invisible, and does not succeed, though the new guest ignores him to throw her arm around May's shoulders. He's not a fan in the slightest of the queen that visits from time to time―she looks like Sydney, but isn't Sydney, and she has a tendency to drip onto the sofa and make creepy faces at him without thinking about it. Certainly she's not threatened him, but he's seen her head come off at least once, and he's not interested in being within three feet of that.

"You are dressed all in black, how are you not dead from the heat," he hears May murmur with a smile in her voice.

"It's the aesthetic, man. Suffer for the look."

"I love you, dumbass."

He maneuvers away from all three queens--that's way too much power in one room for his comfort--at the same moment that Mab proclaims, "May, dear, you've hardly left the kitchen this entire time. This is your event, you should relax!"

"I'm almost done, alright? This is the last batch of fries, and then I gotta salt some of them and we'll be good to relax."

"You've made plenty, you've got to go join your own party! Nobody's going to starve, you've made sure of that," the queen coaxes. Kass watches, as he retreats with his glass, Mab and the other one--Queen Nothing? a stupid name, he can think of something better--usher the bird away from the stove. She resists only a little, snapping the stove dial off.

Kass stays on the peripherals of the scene when they finally drop her onto the edge of the couch. Slime princess drops onto the arm of the couch beside Simon, smiling in what she must imagine is a relaxed manner but really comes off with far too many teeth.

"This guacamole is fantastic, May, could I possibly bother you for the recipe?" Gunter asks, and true enough, the bowl is much emptier than it had been when Kass had left.

"I'll make a copy for you," she replies, hugging a pillow. "Pass me some snap peas?"

For a few long minutes, the party is absolutely wonderful, and loud, without him. He thinks, maybe, he'd like to creep off soon, but he doesn't, just standing at the base of the stairs watching the madness unfold.

What a strange bunch of characters. Of course they all found each other. Of course they all get along. Who else would have them?

Simon and Dib eventually hand the controllers to May and the ink hazard, who are both godawful at Mario Kart. It certainly doesn't stop them from trying, though eventually he does lose his patience at how badly his roommate is failing and snatch her roommate to shoot her to third place. She had fought him for it for just a moment before yielding, and he's suddenly back in the fray of this stupid event.

He soon finds out every queen is bad at Mario Kart, and really, that almost takes all the fun out of winning. Almost--not quite.

On the couch where he rests his elbows, Dib and Simon are having a conversation about the new Marvel movie, and the villain's absolute inane scheme.

"I mean, it's at least a better motivation, than say, universal conquest," Dib claims, "But dude! You're wearing a matter manipulator, and you're arguing there aren't enough resources? Make more!"

"Nobody's arguing his concept isn't super donked up," Simon counters, "but I'm not really sure he knows any better. Plus, can the gauntlet really make more matter?"

"Well by that argument, he could have turned a bunch of useless waste into more resources," is the very irritable retort.

"What the hell is even happening in these movies anymore," May adds, scoffing. "I never bothered watching Civil War and now there's an evil grape."

"You never watched Civil War? But that one's actually pretty good!"

"Dude. Age of Ultron suuuuuuucked. I got jaded. All I know is everybody's in Civil War and duking it out because Tony's doing some more shit no one agrees with because no one will get that man therapy."

An apt description, Kass thinks. Apparently, not enough one for Dib and Simon, who begin to explain.

"Well, it's more about this bill--"

"And there's a terrorist attack--"

"And it seems like Bucky did it but--"

"Jesus Christ," May says when they are finally done, her head in her hands. "That was almost as bad as What's Up Tiger Lilly."

Kass squints at his roommate at the same moment someone, he's not sure who, asks, "What's What's Up Tiger Lilly?"

"No," she says, muffled into her fingers. "I'm not telling you the What's Up Tiger Lilly story. You don't want that."

They all exchange looks, and then look expectantly back to her.

"Well, now you have to tell us. You can't tease us like this," Simon states.

"Pleeeeeease," adds the Void Girl, grinning wide and batting her eye at May in what she thinks is a pleading expression.

May's eyes narrow. She shakes her head once.

"I warned you."

She takes a large drink of her lemonade as everyone waits, the video game and snacks forgotten. He finds himself only vaguely intrigued, but more than anything he realizes, watching her eyes glittering, that she is basking in the attention.

Holy shit.

May's a storyteller.

"Now," she begins, "You have to understand this is not my story--I got this story from Ethan, who was my coworker at one of my old part time jobs. We worked at Jimmy John's. Now for those who haven't been to Jimmy John's, it's like Subway, but more mediocre. Subway, you have countless options to choose from, right? Jimmy John's, you have far fewer options, but you're gonna get your sandwich in about thirty seconds, so that's great I guess."

May puts her hands in the air in a shrug. "I'm sure this is a talent I'll eventually find useful in life, but so far I've come up dry. Thanks a bunch, Jimmy John."

"Anyway," she continues, "I got this story from Ethan, but this story didn't happen to Ethan. This story happened to his old friend Jake, while the both of them were in high school. Now, because basically none of you went to high school," (here, May squints around the room with a little crooked smirk), "high school is basically this place you go to spend four years learning nothing substantial and existing as a ball of anxiety pretty much the entire time. For, you know, eight hours almost every day."

She grins.

"So not at all a waste of time, right?"

Dib snorts. The queens nod sagely, though really, only one of them really knows what May's going on about.

"So Ethan and Jake went to high school together, and they were in movie club. Now, again, since almost none of you went to high school--clubs are a place in high school where you decide, 'I've only been here eight hours, that's not enough! I wanna be on my school campus some more.' Then you find some friends who like the same things as you do and also wanna be on campus for even longer."

May looks up at Kass with a bit of a wicked smile, one he's learned to be mildly concerned about. Very quickly, he learns the cause.

"Now, friends," (she turns and stares directly at the queen on the other end of the couch, who sheepishly shrinks into her shoulders), "are people who like your company. Usually, they will actively try to spend time with you! You may never be sure why, even though they claim it's because they think you're fun to be around. Or something."

Little monster. Kass flicks her ear, and she giggles, pushing his hand away. "Stop that, I'm telling a story."

"Anyway," May says again, forcefully, "You and your friends all find a thing you like to do, like, say for example, sports."

As if anyone in this room likes sports. Kass hides his smirk in his folded arms on the backboard of the couch.

"Sports," the bird adds helpfully, "are basically a stupid form of physical activity that require movement and sweat and usually sitting out in the sun! Crazy concept, right! The AC exists for a reason."

"May," Simon says, his hands folded in front of his face as though he is concentrating very hard. "Please."

She continues, undeterred. "There's usually grass and some kind of ball and I hope most of you know what a ball is, because I'm not going to explain that."

"May," Simon says, a little more forcefully.

"Please," Dib adds, a hint of desperation in his voice.

They're figuring out the scheme, slowly.

"Okay, we're getting off topic. So, Ethan and Jake are in a club, and they are in movie club. Movie club was this thing where Ethan and Jake and their friends would get together to watch a movie, and then discuss what happened in the movie, and subjects like the movie's themes. Now," May holds up a finger in an explanatory matter, "Themes are like, the meaning of the story, or what the story is trying to get across with its moral, and morals for those of you that don't have them," (she's grinning at Kass again), "are complex ideas about right and wrong."

She smooths her shirt down, and takes another sip of her lemonade. "They're usually widely debated by people who don't have any, and yet decide they're doing things like taking away people's rights out of 'moral obligation'. But I'm getting off topic."

This is the worst story ever. Holy shit. Already an air of distress is descending upon the guests.

"The theme of this story would probably be about the folly of man and the error of judging a book by its cover, or what have you," the bird says, nonchalantly. "Now, a book is like a movie, but instead of being told visually, the contents are shared through words, written on pages bound together, and usually reading is involved."

"MAY," Dib hisses, pained.

"No, no, this is important to the story, see, because because Ethan and Jake were in movie club, and it was Jake's turn to get a movie for the club. So he goes to the library. A library is a place that contains information in many books. But it also contains other forms of media like newspapers, which are real stories versus fictional ones. This is a real story by the way. No newspaper will publish it. I've tried."

Kass has to physically bury his head into the hard bend of the couch to keep from laughing. She's good at this, she's good at keeping this train wreck entertaining. She's a terrible little monster.

"Besides books and newspapers, you can also borrow things such as DVDs, and at this point a DVD is a somewhat dated sort of disk that--Dib no come back!!" May suddenly says as Dib stands, his hands in the air as though he can't take anymore. "This story has a great pay off come on man--thank you, as I was saying."

Dib crosses his arms. Kass reaches over the pokes him in the head. "You did ask for this."

"Don't touch me."

"Young man. Am I going to finish my story, or are you just going to keep interrupting me."

"I'm good. Keep going."

"Good boy," says the pleased bird. "Where was I. Hm, I can't quite remember--should I start over?"

"May!"

"Right, yes, a DVD is a dated sort of way to watch movies. So, Jake went to the library to borrow a movie, and he decided he was going to borrow the movie What's Up Tiger Lilly."

The room visibly relaxes with relief. Finally, they all seem to think. We're finally getting to the story.

Kass knows better. Kass hides his grin, watching the reactions carefully.

"Now, What's Up Tiger Lilly is a Woody Allen movie. It's some kind of kung fu movie he basically dubbed over with a completely different story," May explains, and then adds, her voice quirking up in pitch, "which I guess makes it very artistic?"

Mab nods, though she does look a touch confused, and the penguin says from the other side of the coffee table, "That is.... an apt explanation. Really, the only explanation needed so far."

"This is my story and I'll tell it how I like, thank you Gunter." Her tone is a touch affronted, though always, always laced with sarcasm.

"Apologies. Continue."

"So, Jake went back to movie club with What's Up Tiger Lilly, and he and his friends watched it. They enjoyed it!"

That wicked smile is back.

"Enjoyment is an emotion you feel, likely the very one you feel now as you listen to this wonderful story I'm telling you. I know you're enjoying it because you're my friends, and you like my company, and you like my stories."

"May," the ink girl says at the end of the couch. "Please. You care about me, right. Please stop this madness."

"So they watched this movie," May continues, undeterred, "and they experienced enjoyment, and they discussed it.

And time passed.

Now, seeing as not all of us conform to time's rules, time--"

Dib makes a strangled sort of noise, like a scream that got locked behind his tongue. Kass presses his forehead to his fist on the backboard. He cannot look.

"Time is a somewhat linear linear mostly wonked up passage of growth, usually noted in minutes, hours, and days. It's very convoluted and made up by humans because they apparently need more ways to stress themselves out, like being late to things. for example, you're probably thinking to yourself, the time you spend listening to me tell this story couldn't be spent in a better way at all, and it's going by so fast! I'm halfway through the story!!"

"May," Kass says, very evenly. "You are going to get thrown across the room."

"Explain throwing to me really quick?"

The flat stare he gives her is answer enough. The monster on the couch grins widely.

"Anyway. Time passed, and then, one year later--" (May holds up a finger) "--Jake went back to the library. A year is three hundred sixty-five days. This was probably a little more than that, but not by much. He went to the library, and he picked out some books to check out. I'm not sure what he checked out, maybe he decided it was time to reread Harry Potter but could only find a copy of book five, which is confirmed to be the most depressing, unenjoyable novel of the series."

Kass watches Simon's expression very carefully, noting the tight-eyed squint. Simon does not rise to the bait.

"Maybe he was doing a book report, because at this point people still went to libraries to get information out of books, a method so dated and untrustworthy nowadays that those poor libraries should really do something with all those dated encyclopedias."

Now Simon does open his mouth, visibly irritated. May is grinning right at the boy, obviously goading. He barely gets a word out.

"Do not--"

"An encyclopedia!" she interrupts loudly, "Is a book with information on every possible subject known to man!"

"May--"

"They usually come in collections! But none of that matters. What matters is Jake went and grabbed some books he decided to check out."

Simon gives up, shaking his head impatiently at the couch cushions.

"He brought his books to the counter, and he said hello to the librarian. The librarian was a woman--Ah, wait, I should clarify--"

The room bursts into an uproar along the lines of "we know what a woman is--"

"A LIBRARIAN is a person who works in a library."

Kass can't hold it back anymore--he's wheezing into the back of the sofa pathetically. Fuck, she's horrible. Dib is visibly getting irritated, and Mab looks to be getting there. The noise only dies when May says, "Can I finish my story, or will I need to start over?”

Reluctantly, the party goes quiet again. May nods.

"Thank you. As I was saying. The librarian was a woman, and Jake went up to the checkout desk. Jake said 'hello!' The librarian said 'hi!' Jake said, 'I would like the check out these books!'

The librarian said, 'okay, let me see your library card'. And she scanned it, and she looked at the computer. And she went, 'hmm.'"

May puts her hand on her chin in mock contemplation for a moment, acting it out. Everyone seems to be holding their breath, afraid to interrupt when actual progress is happening.

"'What is it?' Jake said.

'It says here that you checked out What's Up Tiger Lilly, and never returned it,' the librarian said.

'Oh,' said Jake.

'Yes, it says here you have a fine of eleven dollars and twenty cents. You can't check out any more library books until you pay the fine.'

And Jake said, 'oh,' again.

The librarian said, 'Do you want to pay the fine?'"

May steeples her fingers. She smiles sweetly.

"And Jake said, no."

There is a pause. Several long beats pass.

May says nothing more. She continues to smile.

"Are you," Dib finally says. "Are you actually--That's IT?"

She looks like the cat that got both the cream and the canary. Kass begins to snigger into the sofa again.

"This is so stupid! That was the stupidest--Why did you--aaaagh."

Simon's face is distorted, a mix between amused and horrified at himself. "The punchline," he says slowly, "is that he wouldn't pay a library fine?"

"Yes."

"....This is a bad story."

"Aw."

The queens both look a level of distressed, though in different ways. While the eldritch horror seems, for lack of a better phrase, split down the middle between laughing and committing a murder, Mab is staring at May, her eyebrows creased. Kass realizes, exactly, what's about to happen, at the exact moment Mab says, "I don't understand."

"Oh no!" May says, holding back a cackle. "Mab didn't get it guys, I gotta do it over again and explain it better this tim--"

"NO!"

The chorus rings throughout the room sharply. Kass can feel May's wide smile from behind his hand, firmly clasped over her mouth. She's visibly shaking with giggles--he's not doing too much better.

She wasted a good half hour of their time, like this, he realizes when he glances at the clock. She had managed to get them to sit and listen to her say nothing of consequence for a full half hour. The nerve of her is something to be applauded.

At her gentle tap against the back of his hand, Kass removes his fingers. The bird looks smug, smiling at her guests who are coming down from their rages. Dib has picked the game controller back up, very determined to not look at his host.

“That was mean,” Gunter says, looking rather amused in retrospect. “That was absolutely terrible.”

“What, you people think I'm nice?” comes the reply, followed with a shrug. “Honestly, it's like you don't even know me!”

“You're wicked,” Mab says, finally smiling. “You'd give the fae a run for their money.”

May seems far too pleased with herself at that. She sits back against the couch, sipping her lemonade pleasantly.

“I once heard an hour long rendition of that story. I'm still improving at it, to be honest! But now,” she adds, grinning dangerously, “You can share it with your friends!”

When cake is served, May is good on her word. She gives Kass a large slice, refills his lemonade glass, and waves him away as he escapes back up the stairs to his bedroom. It's a cool, dark space, and he lights a quick smoke, something he'd avoided doing down with the guests.

While it is not a bad party, by any means, he has had his fill, he thinks. For now, he wants some time to himself.

With time, he hears the party become quieter. The afternoon slips into early evening, the shadows only barely longer. He wakes from a nap to a quiet house, a murmur of sound the only hint that it is not entirely empty.

He stands and stretches, feeling the vertebrae of his back click softly. It's almost seven when he gathers his dishes and exits his room. What are the chances there's still cake, or a slice of pie?

Kass is at the foot of the stairs when he stops.

He hears―rather, he overhears―in the kitchen―

“―we please drop this? Just today? I―today was a good day, dude, can't we just bask in it without talking about this again?”

“I'm sorry, May, I'm just―I gotta make sure! You know I can't just let it go―this is Kass we're talking about.”

It doesn't take a genius to know that's Dib. May, on her part, sounds agitated, moving around the kitchen, running the sink. Kass can picture it, can picture the little impatient steps and how things knock about when she accidentally swats them while reaching for things. That just makes her angrier.

“Why? Why is it such a big deal to you? I thought you didn't care anymore, you were fine when the man went missing. It was like you didn't even notice.”

“It's―It's not that I didn't care, I just―I didn't want to waste energy on trying to find a guy that doesn't want to be found. I do care! I'm going to care, and I'm going to worry and be suspicious!”

“Why can't you let it go?”

“Because!” Dib seems to snap harshly, before he stops, as though catching himself. When he speaks again, it's in a lower volume, and more controlled.

“This is Kass. This is the guy who lied to me for months, and was a huge jerk to me and my friends for years, and that was before he got stuck in my garage. You know how many times he's thrown me under the bus―you have to understand. I'm going to be a bit hyper-vigilant! I'm going to worry!”

This isn't the first conversation Kass has overheard about himself. He's spent long enough in 1, Tesla Drive, and in Site 17, and many other places, to hear numerous insults about his person. It, for the most part, doesn't bother him, so much as it annoys him that people have really nothing better to talk about.

What Kass is surprised to find unpleasant is the idea of May talking about him. Of course she does, he know logically she'd talk about him while he's not around, but there's something so possibly two-faced about it.

He hears her small huff.

“I get that―and it's fine to be nervous, okay? It's fine to not trust him, that's not what I'm saying. But that's not what you're doing. What you're doing is questioning my choices. My judgment. You still have this idea that I need protecting, but I don't. I'm not telling you to get over it and be his friend, I'm not an idiot. But, Christ, Dib, I expect you to trust my decisions.”

"But I'm worried about you. I know you said you could handle him but he's just a lot to deal with. Plus," Dib says with a little sniff. "You shouldn't have to deal with someone like that on a daily basis. You don't deserve that."

"Okay,” she says after a beat, her tone sharp and irritated, “First off. I'm not handling him. Kass is not some kind of wild animal I'm trying to tame. Secondly, I'm much more capable than you give me credit for. I'm in charge of an entire species, most of which don't like me. I work retail. You think I can't deal with a little bit of criticism and insults? You think I can't deal with a bad attitude from time to time?"

There's a moment of quiet, filled with nothing but the clatter of dishes and the running water.

"....I didn't know that. They don't like you?"

"Not the point, here, hon. My point is, look. This isn't something you need to worry about. You don't need to worry about me, and you don't need to trust him. You need to trust me. You need to trust that I can take care of myself, and that I can manage living with him. And I'm getting really sick of having to defend my friendship, dude. We're adults, we should be past this."

Oh, she shouldn't have said that. She shouldn't have, that opens such a gaping wound, that--

"Wait, Kass is your friend?"

"Oh, here we go." The dishes clatter loudly.

"Kass doesn't have friends, May."

"Don't start with me, Dib.”

"No, seriously! Simon tried for months to convince the guy! You know what it resulted in? It resulted in sharpie on his forehead and honey stuck in places there shouldn't be honey! Kass doesn't have friends, he refuses to even fake it, and maybe Frank's an exception, but I don't think Frank's picky--"

"Ow! Fuck!"

Kass stiffens at the little swear. Dib stops talking―the water stops running.

"What happened?"

"Cake knife got me. No―don't go anywhere, I'm fine."

“You want me to go grab a band-aid?”

"No, no. It's healing up already, see?"

"Nn. You're sure?"

"I'm good, hon. Just tired. Can we―can we please drop this subject?"

"Nnn,” Dib says, clearly not ready to drop this subject, “can I just say one more thing?"

May doesn't respond, so Dib continues, undeterred.

“I just think, of all of us, you're the one that needs to be the most worried about Kass causing issues. Simon and I know what he's like, and the kind of under the table stuff he's pulled. You―you haven't been around him as long as we have, and you always see the best in people. But―he needs a closer eye on him. If something happens--if he gets picked up by the Foundation, he's going to sell us all out if he thinks it even has a chance of saving his skin.”

“I―“

“Please let me finish. He'll sell us out and that includes you. I know we can handle it, we can figure something out, we always do, but if something goes wrong―May, when I told them about what ZiM's PAK could do they completely disabled it, with no way for him to get out. They'll keep you under the tightest lock and key. They'll shove you into the tiniest cell and poke and prod at you until they know every little thing you can do and then they'll leave you there.”

Dib's voice, his cadence, is painfully sincere. Maybe a touch raw. Maybe he's faking the depth of his worry, playing it up to make her listen―he's done it in the past. Still, he speaks with more familiarity than he seems to want to.

“You need to be careful about what you say to him and what you tell him. I don't want you to get hurt.”

There's a silence. It's heavy and stifling, and then May says in a low, dark voice, “I don't―you know what? I can't deal with this right now. I have to go clear the living room―I'll be back in a minute.”

Oh, shit.

Before Kass can slink away from the wall beside the door frame, she stomps out through it and nearly barrels right into him. They stare at each other a moment, exchanging no words.

She looks... angry. He thought he'd seen her angry before, but he's never seen this; her eyes are slits, her shoulders tense and up to her ears. The air around her seems boiling hot with barely-contained rage, the curls of her pigtails loose and framing her face unevenly.

May looks him in the eye, and then grits her teeth, looking away and moving around him without so much as a word. Kass watches her storm into the living room, gathering paper plates and used napkins. Her motions are jarring, forced and rushed.

This is held-back anger―not the snappish tones she's shot his way when he's opened his mouth too much, not the tense way her fingers push her hair back from her face when she's got four and a half things all happening at once. She cleans when she's angry. She channels it everywhere but where it should go.

And that's―

That's such bullshit, Kass finds. It's not the particular speech Dib's given May that gets under his skin, but the pretentiousness of it all. He's done that thing he and Simon and Mab always seem to do. They stick their noses into other people's business. They insert their own opinion into a subject that has nothing to do with them.

They've done it with Kass for years now. He understands why, to some extent. He hates it, but he thought he understood why―he had thought the distrust was always behind it. He'd figured it was the way Dib needed to make sure he didn't throw them all under the bus again.

But, apparently, it's just the kind of shitty, awful, bratty child that Dib is; so much so that he does this sort of thing to his supposed friends too. He can't seem to help himself―he's too full of himself and too stuck on his high horse. The stupid kid still thinks he's the smartest person in the room. He's sixteen and he thinks he knows better than full-blown adults.

Kass wipes away the snarl that's been growing on his face, and forces his eyes away from the girl's turned back. He slips into the kitchen, where Dib is standing awkwardly in front of the sink, fidgeting with a towel he'd been drying dishes with.

Dib looks, more than anything, startled, and for once, uncertain. His eyes had locked onto the door frame, as though waiting for May to return, but upon seeing Kass, his expression slides directly back into distrust and disinterest, eyes lidded and squinty.

“Hi.”

“How's it going, Lightning Bolt,” Kass says, flatly, without interest.

“It's.... going.”

“Where's the barefoot wonder?” he asks hollowly, checking the fridge's leftovers. No good―he's lost his interest in anything sweet, from the bitter taste in his mouth. “Already gone home to candy land?”

He can feel Dib's eyes on his neck as he turns his back. He has not missed this feeling in the slightest.

“Simon went to grab some snacks from Uuu. He and I are going to take the Voot to watch the fireworks from bird's eye view.”

“Interesting,” he responds, moving to the sink. It's not interesting, really. “So it's just you then?”

He's in Dib's bubble, and it's obvious the teen is tense, but all Kass does is rinse his plate and glass. He leaves them in the sink, eyes on his own hands.

He grabs a clean glass from the dry pile. “You're leaving ET on its own tonight of all nights? You find that wise?”

“ZiM is fine,” Dib says, a touch sharply. “He's used to loud explosions.”

“Of course. War species.”

There's a heavy pause. Kass fills the glass with ice cubes. Clink. Clink.

“How, um,” he hears Dib start, haltingly, “How are you doing?”

"I'm fine,” Kass says, his voice upturning into sweet saccharine sarcasm. “I'm just dandy, not being in your presence 24/7 does wonders for my complexion."

A glance up confirms the expected scowl, which he feels no need to respond to. His own expression, carefully controlled, is neutral.

No matter Dib's feelings towards him, be they disinterest, disgust, or suspicion―that distinct mutual feeling of dislike that had manifested early between them is not going anywhere any time soon.

Kass smiles, suddenly, a wide and rather cold smile. He smiles like a wolf looking at a little girl in a bright red hood would smile.

“But here's a fun fact for you to ruminate on, dear old Dib. Let's say, for sake of argument, I wasn't doing as spectacular as I am doing. It, fascinatingly enough, would be entirely none of your business. Isn't that interesting?"

His smile remains, though he looks away from the boy hovering near him to pour a fresh serving of lemonade into the glass.

“I--”

"Here are the facts,” Kass says, holding a finger up, “I'm not your responsibility anymore, Dibromoethane. Your opinion on my status is moot and unnecessary. Lemonade?"

Dib's eyes flick between Kass and the glass in his hand. His expression is twisted when he says, hesitant, “Uh. Sure?”

"Tough tits,” the man replies, walking away, “Serve yourself. Keep your nose out of my roommate's hair about my status."

When Kass returns to the living room, May is pacing along the length of the couch. Her hands are full of used napkins, which she nearly seems to be wringing, crumbling them into tight balls. She barely looks up at him when he approaches, but her pacing stops when he enters her personal space.

“It's hot enough out without you working up your feathers, birdy. Drink.”

He offers the lemonade, but the bird shakes her head. “No, no, I have to finish cleaning. It's gotta get done.”

Kass tsks lightly. “It'll still be there when you've calmed down,” he starts, his mouth on the next syllable before it gets stuck in his throat at expression of absolute rage that paints May's face.

“That's the problem! It needs to get done or it'll just stay a mess, regardless of whether or not I'm angry! Jesus Christ, am I actually saying words out loud? I'm actually audibly speaking, right? I'm not just making random noises with my mouth like some handicapped old person?”

Holy shit―she's seriously upset. May's eyes are lit up, molten gold. Kass takes a step back; she notices, and deflates nearly immediately. She presses her hands to her face to stifle a noise that sounds suspiciously like a scream.

“You―he―mmmmgh how many times, how many fucking times do I have to say something for people to hear me? Fuck me, why the fuck don't people listen when I talk?”

Her hands have buried into her pulled back hair, the pigtails coming loose and the dirty napkins still balled up in her fist. Carefully, as though defusing a bomb or trying not to startle a lion, Kass sets the glass down onto the coffee table and extracts her fingers from her hair. He uncurls them, one by one.

“You're letting this get to you far more than you need to, you need to take a breath.”

“Fuck you, don't tell me what to do. I'm an angry bitch and you shouldn't touch me.”

“Look, princess, don't get snappy at me, I was well-behaved today,” Kass says sharply, unfurling the fist with the napkins and taking them from her. “Rudeness is unbecoming of royalty.”

“Fuck,” she says again, and deflates once more. “I'm sorry, Christ, you shouldn't―you don't need to deal with this shit, but I'm just so sick to death of it.”

She stares at her hand, curling and uncurling the fist, her mouth a thin sharp line.

“Everyone's always fucking acting like they're waiting for the other damn shoe to drop. Like―Like, I'm fucking naive to how awful you can be, have been. And when I finally realize, oh no, he's just the worst, I'll be crushed!”

May looks up at Kass, brows furrowed and jaw taut. “I'm not a fucking baby! I don't need people to take care of me!”

“Keep your voice down,” he hisses, to no avail. She's nearly shouting.

“Like I don't fucking know most of the awful shit you pulled? Like I don't know about when you dislocated Dib's shoulder, or lied to him for months, or sold the kids out to the Foundation, or the thing with O'Malley? Or any of the other terrible things you've done? I fucking know, Kass! These aren't secrets, unfortunately!”

She surprises him―she laughs, bubbling with anger. “But they're not my grudges to hold! Most of this shit is ancient fucking history, and I wasn't there! I have no right to be pissy at you for any of it! And somehow, some-fucking-how, because I don't treat you like roadkill, it means I don't know you're a jerk.”

Here, May's pitch rises into the dramatics, into mockery. Her hands press to her cheeks to add to the theatrics, eyes wide and childlike. “Nooooo, I need to be protected! I need to be warned about the Big, Bad, Kaaaaaass. Fuuuuuck.” This last word is her normal pitch, pouring with exasperation. She presses her fingers into her eyes, groaning.

“You're the fucking same, you know that?” she concludes. “You and him and so many stupid humans―you think you need to teach the softhearted that the world is so much worse than they act like it is. I hate it so much.”

And May is softhearted, that much is true. Kass has lived in this house with her for maybe half a year now, and he knows this much. She is, above all things, kind and optimistic, while simultaneously sarcastic and smug and a small jokester.

Her interactions with him have forced Kass to try to come to terms with the idea that being soft is not nearly the same thing as being weak.

May is quiet for a long, long minute. Kass listens to her inhale deeply, and exhale slowly. He lifts his hand and places it on the crown of her head―it's the closest he can get to a conciliatory gesture. It works―the tension in her shoulders drops, and she inhales another shuddery breath.

“Nn. Fuck. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped so hard. It―it's not okay, and it's not your fault. None of this is your fault,” May adds, pulling her hands from her face, “You were just.... there to take the brunt of it. I'm sorry.”

While mostly caught off guard, Kass can't exactly say his feelings are hurt. Certainly, he doesn't like being assaulted with the fact that most of his dirty laundry has been hung out for curious eyes, and her outburst is certainly a new side to her that's set him on edge, but she's not exactly the most threatening form.

He supposes he's a bit ruffled by the idea that he and Dib have anything in common. Oh, certainly, he'd compared the pair of them before. He'd believed (and he still does to some level, what with being a cynic) Dib would realize how hard the real world was, and would become cold like Kass had to survive it. He'd believed there was no other real way to deal with the harshness―this isn't a kid's show, after all.

But the idea that Dib would do anything Kass might do? The idea he would actually buy into Kass's mindset about the world? Well, that is just about unthinkable, these days, especially with the company he keeps.

They're nothing alike, he tells himself. She's just angry.

“I think I'll survive the sudden shock, tweety bird,” Kass finally says, waving off the apology. Again, he tries to offer the glass, and May accepts it now, pressing the cool condensing side to her cheek. She turns, her brows pinching upward. Already she's got that guilty look he's grown familiar with―she makes it almost immediately after she snaps at him.

“I should go talk to him,” she says, weakly. “I just stormed out in a huff.”

“Give it another minute,” Kass replies, patting her upper arm. “He deserves to feel like shit for a bit longer, don't you think?”

May chuffs, looking up at him. She very nearly smiles, and she looks exhausted. The host has had a long day.

“I'm, um,” she starts, “I'm sorry about this. Again. Um. Was―Was everything okay on your end? I know this isn't really... your cup of tea.”

“I've been to worse.” His mouth is a crooked line, close enough for her to recognize as a smile. “I don't really think I'll ever be at ease in the company of a bunch of monsters, unfortunately.”

She nods, biting her lip. “Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I forget, sometimes, that you can't really.... turn that off.”

Another inhale, and exhale. Kass pulls his hand back, sticking them both into his pockets. “I'm going to hole up for a bit―I'll come back out before the fireworks. Will you, er, will you be able to manage until then?”

“Yeah,” May says weakly. “Cleanup's almost done. I think I need some alone time, too.”

“Right. I'll see you in a bit.”

“Kass?”

Her smile is weak, a little pained.

“Thank you.”

“...yeah.”

Kass returns to his room. He watches the street from his window, leaving it open to smoke. After a few minutes, he can see the signature lightning bolt as the miniature form of Dib exits the house through the front door, his trench coat blowing back behind him.

Dib turns back to the house and looks up. He squints at Kass's window. Kass closes the blinds.

At every turn, May has defended him. She has repeatedly kept Simon, and Dib, from sticking their noses too deeply into his business. She has gone on the record to say she enjoys his company.

Hell, she got mad at her golden boy over Kass. It's no secret how much May adores Dib, doting on him like a mom friend, and she put that aside to defend Kass's privacy―from the sound of it, multiple times.

He doesn't understand it. She certainly could do better in the way of friends―the girl is a friendly person who manages to get along with most people. Christ, more than that, she deserves better than a drunk, depressed, cynical ex-agent who can count the number of kind deeds he's ever done on his fingers, and still have some to spare.

Christ. She's so painfully loyal.

It's sinking in, more and more. Kass can be... safe, here. He's not convinced that physically he's in the clear, the Foundation looms over him still. Yet the other factors―the itching paranoia, the watchful eyes. The disgust, and the insults. The adventures. He is safe from them. They are things he can choose to stay away from. He's not forced into them by being adjacent to them.

Safe. It's a word that doesn't really fit right in his mouth. He wonders if he'll ever adjust to it.

The shadows are lengthening when Kass creeps out his bedroom. Purple twilight fills the sky, the sun already nearly below the horizon. May is on the roof, staring hard in its direction, drawing with what little light is left.

"That's going to fuck up your eyes, you know."

"They'll just fix themselves," she shoots back, not bothering to look back at him as he approaches. "I wanted to get the cityscape."

Kass sits next to her, his feet hanging over the ledge. She shows him the sketchbook, the crosshatched silhouette of the distant buildings. It's not half bad.

"You patch things up with Constant Vigilance over there?"

"I think so. I actually think I scared him a little bit? He's never really seen me get mad, at him or anybody. I think he's surprised it was at him first."

Kass sniggers. “The little prick had it coming."

"Hush,” she says, with no force behind it.

"I have the right to be vindictive, he was talking smack about yours truly."

"Talking..... smack."

"Technically,” he says, grinning, “the phrase was accurately used."

There is a pause, and then a weary sigh. "Never say that again. Please."

Quiet fills the cool evening air. The sky begins to light up, like artificial stars of a thousand colors. After a little time, the sketchbook is set aside.

"This is a stupid holiday,” Kass says. Just to state the obvious.

"Yeah, I know. But the fireworks are nice."

"Did you bring at least bring gunpowder poppers?”

"No? I know your track record with fire, sir."

"You're no fun."

On the other side of the street, and the street behind them, the air is loud, filled with little bangs and pops and children's screams.

“I'm sorry about what Dib said. I―I'm not going to invade your privacy, that's not fair to you.”

“Don't apologize, birdy. It's his shit to get over, not your problem.”

“But―it's not fair. I can't make him stop. I've tried.”

“I don't expect you to get him to stop. The day the kiddiewink stops squinting at me like I'm going to suddenly spawn cockroaches from every orifice, I'll know he's lost his mind.”

May bites her lip to hide her smile. “You're not mad?”

“Woe is me,” Kass responds flatly. “Dib doesn't trust me and he thinks I'm a handful. I'll never recover from the shame.”

“You are a handful,” she snickers. “Pfft. You're wonderful.”

It always catches him a little off guard when she says that. Even when she insults him, it's with the same cadence of quietly pleased. It's nice.

The air's not very quiet, really. In the distance, there are police sirens. There's the small popping noises, and the distant booms of the fireworks. But they are quiet, watching the world from what seems like many miles away. Miles from the chaos. It is calm, here.

Up until the moment that the backyard of 1, Tesla Drive, is filled with an explosion to rival the fireworks, filling the much closer area with noise and light, and quite possibly fire. In the noise, a familiar wild cackle is heard, loud and maniacal.

The pair on the roof next door have curled away from the sudden heat. They blink at the house, and then each other, as bits of ash and still-burning paper drift through the air. May begins to giggle nervously.

“Let's, uh, let's go back inside."

"Let's."

[spectroamer]

SERVERTALE Chapter 18: More time

Frisk and Chara are brought back to the last save point. It felt weird, traveling back in time. Frisk: Did we just... go back through time? Chara: I’m not sure. It feels more like we erased time. Sans: wait, you did a reset? why? Frisk: Flowey beat us. Sans: prove it. Frisk: Seventeen. Sans: oh. damn it, i didn’t expect him to be so fast. Frisk: Well, at least we’re alive. Chara: Now we’re alive, after resetting our death. Frisk: Don’t remind me, my whole body is sore just from the memory. Sans: how good do you two remember the last timeline? Chara: Perfectly. Frisk: And you? I thought monsters can’t see the stars and remember resets. Sans: most monsters don’t. but i’m one of the few that can remember. tho i only see the past timelines in my dreams, so i’m not really useful now. did he get asgore as well? Chara: ...yes. Sans: sorry about that. next time, we’ll be more prepared. you go to undyne’s house and try to befriend her, and i’ll setup the guards at the souls. Frisk: Sounds like a plan. Chara: Then lets get going. Sans: See you later. Frisk and Chara start walking away and Sans doesn’t move nowhere. After a few seconds, when Frisk looks back, he isn’t there anymore. Sans went through one of his teleports and ended up in the throne room. He sees Asgore watering his flowers. Asgore: Dum dee dum… Oh? Is someone there? Just a moment! I have almost finished watering these flowers. After a few seconds, Asgore looks at Sans. Asgore: Sans. What brings you here? Sans: you need to transfer the guards. Asgore: What for? Sans: ...a reset happened. Asgore: You already know? Sans: i got some help, but yes, i do. Asgore: How much serious was it? Sans: pretty serious, that’s why i need your permission to order undyne a new position for the guards. Asgore: And where would that be? Sans: the souls room/ Asgore: Oh my... I cannot imagine what happened last time... Alright, i will write the order. Sans uses his console to create the paper and a pen and hands it to Asgore. Asgore: I just need to know one thing... How many casualties? Sans: ...only you. are you still sure that you don’t want to know what happened? you never wanted to know before. Asgore: And I still do not. Your father warned me about messing with timelines. One of his wishes was to leave the knowledge of the past timelines to you. I know that it is a hard burden, but I can’t trust anyone else with it. Sans: i know. Asgore signs the paper and gives it to Sans. Sans: thanks. Asgore: I hope we meet for a more calm reason next time. Sans: wish that i knew. Sans creates another portal and travels to the inside of Undyne’s house. As Undyne was walking into the kitchen, she sees Sans popping in. Undyne: SANS WHAT THE HELL? You can’t just get in my house without announcing yourself! His smile widening, Sans gives Undyne the paper. Sans: i’m not here to chat, captain. Undyne realizes that Sans is being serious and on the job. Undyne: Oh. S-sorry Judge, I didn’t know business brought you here. Sans: yup. you are to follow all of the orders that are written here. Undyne: Yes, Sir! Sans turns around, creates another portal, ready to get out, before remembering something else to say as well. Sans: oh, and undyne... don’t harm the human. Undyne is firstly surprised, but then, in rage, she crushes the paper. Undyne: WHAT? Sans: that is a direct order. Undyne: That’s not written here! Sans: it is a personal order. Undyne: Oh yeah? By who. Sans: by me and my judgement. Undyne: And who is to say that your judgement isn’t wrong? Sans turns back to face Undyne, the white sparks in his eyesockets disappearing, while the uncompleted blue ring appears in his left eyesocket. He answers her in a voice cold as ice, his eye piercing right through her confidence. Sans:  l e t s  j u s t  r e m e m b e r  w h o  s t i l l  h a s  b o t h   e y e s  a f t e r  t h e   i n i t i a l   j u d g e m e n t. Sans walks through the portal and closes it behind him. Undyne sighs. Undyne: I can’t believe this. After some time of walking, Frisk and Chara finally reach Undyne’s house and they see Papyrus waiting in front of the door. Chara: Damn, we really kept him waiting. Frisk: At least, this time we showed up. Chara: Doesn’t really fix the situation. Frisk walks up to Papyrus. Papyrus: OHO! THE HUMANS ARRIVE! ARE YOU READY TO HANG OUT WITH UNDYNE? Frisk: Sure. Chara: Do you have any tips? Papyrus: I HAVE A PLAN TO MAKE YOU TWO GREAT FRIENDS! Frisk: Lets hear it. Papyrus: OKAY! STAND BEHIND ME! Frisk moves behind Papyrus. She can’t see anything in front of him because of his big armor and cape.  Papyrus quietly shows Frisk a golden bone. Papyrus: MAKE SURE TO GIVE HER THIS! Chara: How do you even make that? Papyrus: SHE LOVES THESE! Frisk takes the bone. Papyrus knocks on the door. Seconds later, they hear footsteps from inside the house. The door splits up and opens, revealing Undyne in a sleeveless shirt and jeans. She isn’t even nearly as big as she was in her armor.  Chara: No wonder she couldn’t move fast in that thing, it’s double her size. Undyne acts like she hadn’t spoke with Sans just a few minutes ago and acts happy. Undyne: Hi, Papyrus! Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one practice? Papyrus happily replies. Papyrus: YOU BET I AM! AND I BROUGHT A FRIEND! Papyrus moves aside, Undyne still following him with her good eye. She starts introducing, before she even looked at Frisk and realized who she was talking to. Undyne: Hi, I don’t think we’ve... Undyne suddenly freezes, confused. She looks at Frisk, before looking back to Papyrus. They both don’t say a word and keep looking at each other. Undyne recovers and tries to behave kind. Undyne: Why don’t. You two. Come in? Papyrus steps on the welcome mat a few times, cleaning his boots, before he comes in the house. Frisk does the same. Undyne’s house looks small, with only one more door leading away from the current room, which looks like the kitchen, apart from the giant sword and the piano.  Papyrus: HERE, UNDYNE. MY FRIEND BROUGHT A GIFT FOR YOU, ON THEIR OWN! Frisk cautiously hands the bone to Undyne. Undyne: Uhhh... thanks. Undyne: I’ll, uh, put it with the others. Undyne opens a drawer full of golden bones and adds the new one to the pile. Undyne: So, are we ready to start? Papyrus quickly tries to think of an excuse. Papyrus: WHOOPSY DOOPSY! I JUST REMEMBERED! I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!! YOU TWO HAVE FUN!!! Papyrus jumps through the window and lands with a perfect roll, before he continues running away. Chara: Well, that was unexpected. As soon as Papyrus gets out of their line of sight, Undyne drops the smile as she turns to Frisk. Undyne: So why are you here? To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me even further? IS THAT IT? Frisk: No, that is not the reason why I’m here. Undyne: Then why are you here?  After a second of thinking, Undyne realizes that Frisk got to her house with Papyrus, which means only one thing. Undyne: Wait, I get it. You think that I’m gonna be friends with you, huh? Right??? Frisk gives an honest answer. Frisk: Yup. Undyne laughs. Undyne: Really? How delightful!! I accept! Let’s all frolick in the fields of friendship! ...NOT! Why would I ever be friends with you!? If you weren’t my houseguest, I’d beat you up right now! You’re the enemy of everyone’s hopes and dreams! I WILL NEVER BE YOUR FRIEND. Frisk hears Papyrus sneaking back up to the window and smirks. Frisk: Oh, haven’t you heard? Undnyne ignores Frisk. Undyne: Now get out of my house! Papyrus looks through the window and starts his plan, with a big grin on his face. Papyrus: DANG! WHAT A SHAME... I THOUGHT UNDYNE COULD BE FRIENDS WITH YOU. BUT I GUESS... I OVERESTIMATED HER. SHE’S JUST NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE. Papyrus runs away. Undyne: CHALLENGE!? What? Papyrus! Wait a second! Papyrus ignores her and runs away. Undyne: Darnit! He thinks I can’t be friends with you!? Undyne laughs with confidence. Undyne: What a joke! I could make friends with a wimpy loser like you any day! I’ll show him! Chara: Thank you, Papyrus. Undyne: Listen up, human. We’re not just going to be friends. We’re going to be... besties. Chara: Okay, maybe the plan worked a little bit too much. Frisk silently agrees. Undyne: I’ll make you like me so much... You won’t be able to think of anyone else!!! Fuhuhuhu! It’s the PERFECT REVENGE!! Why don’t you have a seat? Frisk listens to Undyne and sits on the chair. Undyne: Comfortable? I’ll get you something to drink. Undyne takes some of her stuff out of the fridge and the drawers. Undyne: All set! What would you like? Frisk starts to get up to choose what will she drink, but Undyne stops her, by throwing a spear into the table right in front of her. Frisk: Ohmygod okay! Undyne: HEY!!! DON’T GET UP!!! YOU’RE THE GUEST!! SIT DOWN AND ENJOY YOURSELF!!! Um, Why not just point to what you want? You can use the spear! Frisk carefully grabs the warm spear. It’s made out of water, but it is completely solid. She points the spear at the teabox. Undyne: Tea, huh? Coming right up! Undyne starts preparing the tea. Undyne: It’ll take a moment for the water to boil. After a few seconds of waiting, the water boils. Undyne does the rest of the work and gives Frisk a cup of tea. She goes to sit at the other end of the table. Undyne: Careful, it’s hot. Frisk just looks at the tea, not being able to judge the temperature since her suit is heat resistant. Undyne: It’s not THAT hot!! Just drink it already! Frisk takes a sip of the tea and regrets her decision. She feels her tongue burning, but doesn’t say anything, so that she doesn’t offend Undyne. At least, the taste itself is good. Chara: I feel it on my tongue. How is it so hot? Undyne: It’s pretty good, right? Nothing but the best for my ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS FRIEND!! ...Hey. You know... It’s kind of strange you chose That tea. Golden flower tea. That’s Asgore’s favorite kind. Actually, now that I think about it... You kind of remind me of him. Frisk: How do I remind you of Asgore? Undyne: You’re both TOTAL weenies!!!  ...sort of. Y’know, I was a pretty hotheaded kid. Chara smirks. Chara: Was? Undyne: Once, to prove I as the strongest, I tried to fight Asgore. Emphasis on Tried. I couldn’t land a single blow on him! And worse, the whole time, he refused to fight back! I was so humiliated... Afterwards, he apologized and said something goofy... “Excuse me, do you want to know how to beat me?” I said yes, and from then on, he trained me. One day, during practice, I finally knocked him down. I felt... bad. But he was beaming... I had never seen someone more proud to get their butt kicked. Anyway, long story short, he kept training me...  And now I’m the head of the Royal Guard! So I’m the one who gets to train dorks to fight! ...like, uh, Papyrus. To be honest, at the beginning of his training, I didn’t know if I could ever let Papyrus into the Royal Guard. It’s not that he’s weak. He’s actually pretty freaking tough, even like me! It’s just that... He looked to innocent and nice. I thought that he would never change. But he did. He showed determination to fight. But, sometimes, I still doubt at him. I still have the feeling that he isn’t prepared to do what’s needed to be done. Frisk: Then why did you let him in the royal guard at the first place? Undyne: He was strong, and, well, lets just say his lousy brother forced me to. But he isn’t cold enough. I mean, look, he was supposed to capture you... And he ended up being friends with you instead! I’m not sure if he is prepared for a real battle. Frisk remembers the Flowey battle and how Papyrus did most of the work on damaging Flowey. Frisk: Well, you can’t know until that real battle comes. Undyne: I guess you’re right... Wait a second. Papyrus... HE WAS SUPPOSED TO COOK WITH ME RIGHT NOW!! And if he’s not here to have it... YOU’LL HAVE TO HAVE IT FOR HIM!!! Undyne jumps on the cooking table, knocking everything down. Undyne: That’s right! NOTHING has brought Papyrus and I closer than cooking! Which means that if I give you his lesson... WE’LL BECOME CLOSER THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE! Chara: I don’t feel safe. Frisk: Are you sure that’s a good idea?  Undyne: Fuhuhu!!! Afraid!? We’re gonna be best friends!!! Undyne jumps to Frisk, grabs her and jumps back. Undyne: Let’s start with the sauce!! Undyne stomps on the floor and the ingredients fall on the table from above. Undyne: Envision these vegetables as your greatest enemy! Now!! Pound them to dust with your fists!!  Chara: Don’t tell me we’re actually doing this. Frisk shrugs before she turns her hand into a fist and crushes the tomato. Undyne seems pleased. Undyne: YEAH! YEAH! Our hearts are uniting against these healthy ingredients!  Frisk’s suit cleans itself from the tomato juices by releasing a small shockwave which separates the juices and other dirt from the suit. Undyne: NOW IT’S MY TURN! NGAHHHHH!!! Undyne punches the tomatoes with full force, crushing all of them. Undyne: Uhh, we’ll just scrape this into a bowl later. But for NOW! Undyne stomps again, making pots and spaghetti boxes fall down. Undyne: ...We add the noodles! Homemade noodles are the best! BUT I JUST BUY STORE-BRAND! THEY’RE THE CHEAPEST!!! NGAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! ...Uhh, just put them in the pot. Frisk does as told and starts stirring. Undyne orders her to stir faster. Frisk increases speed, but, since Undyne wasn’t satisfied, She summoned a spear and used it to “stir” better. They start cooking. Undyne turns up the heat all the way until it overheats and the whole stove catches on fire. Frisk: Okay, time to move back. Undyne takes a few steps back. Undyne: Don’t worry, it’s just a small fir- The whole oven explodes, sending bits of fire flying everywhere and setting the whole house on fire. Frisk and Undyne both fall from the explosion, but they soon recover, with only minor injuries. Chara: This is bad. Frisk: We need to get out. Frisk runs to the door and tries to open it, but it’s jammed. Undyne throws a spear that barely misses Frisk and hits the door, destroying it. Frisk quickly jumps through the small opening and lands outside of the house. Frisk: Good thing, we got away. IT was getting dangerous out there.  Frisk looks back and sees Undyne walking out with a new spear in her hand. She realizes that the new spear is probably meant for her. She has a menacing grin on her face. Undyne: Who am I kidding. I’ve been defeated... My house is in shambles... I failed to befriend you. That’s it. I don’t care what Sans says anymore. Chara: Sans? What has he got to do with this? Undyne: One final rematch! All out on both sides!!! IT’S THE ONLY WAY I CAN REGAIN MY LOST PRIDE!!! NOW COME ON! HIT ME WITH ALL YOU’VE GOT! NGAHHHH!!! Undyne is letting Frisk attack first. Chara: We can’t outrun her now. And i know that you won’t actually fight her. What else can we do? Frisk walks up to Undyne and lightly taps her on the arm with her light stick. Frisk: I’m done with my attack and I’m not going to do anything else, like it or not. Undyne first looks confused at Frisk, but then sighs. Undyne: You just can’t muster any intent to hurt me, huh? Heh, you know what? Undyne drops her spear. As it hits the ground, it turns into normal water and is left on the metal floor. Undyne: I don’t actually want to hurt you either. At first, I hated your stupid saccharine schtick, but... The way you “hit” me right now, It... Reminded me of someone I used to train with. Now I know you aren’t just some wimpy loser. You’re a wimpy loser with a big heart! Just like him... Listen, human. It seems that you and Asgore are fated to fight. But knowing him... He probably doesn’t want to. Talk to him. I’m sure you can persuade him to let you go home. Eventually, some mean human will end up here... And I’ll take their soul instead. That makes sense, right? Fuhuhu. Now let’s get the hell out of here! Ne is looking through the cameras set up on his TV, while Amy is still resting next to him. Suddenly Amy’s phone starts ringing, roughly waking her up. She checks the call number and sees it’s Slasher. Amy: Dom what the hell? I was sleeping. Slasher: Well, too bad. I need you to answer me something. Amy stops lying down and sits up on the couch. Amy: What is it? Slasher: Can you setup a small camera on the back of my helmet and connect it to Ne’s surveillance system? Amy: Sure. I have a small camera that should be able to do the job. You’ll just need to come here so i can set it up. Slasher: Great. I’ll be here in a few minutes. Tell Ne that i found all the weaponry I’m gonna need. Amy: Ok. Slasher: That’s all. See you later. Amy: Bye. Ne: What was that about? Amy: Slasher wants an upgrade and he wanted me to tell you that he found his guns. Ne: Good. Amy: And he’s gonna come her in a few minutes so that I can give him the upgrade. Ne: Okay. Amy looks at the TV and notices a group of people wearing hoodies and bandannas, equipped with crowbars. Amy points at the part of the screen. Amy: Look there. Ne: Well, what do we got here. Looks like I’m gonna get a new video for the blog. Ne gets up, takes his helmet, a recording camera and a tripod for it. Amy: You’re actually gonna make another one of your videos? Ne: Why not? As much as I can see, these guys are gonna take their time trying to get in that place. I have time. Amy: Alright. Don’t have too much fun. Ne: I’ll try. Ne exits the house and starts riding to the small alleyway street. When he reaches his destination, he runs up to the top of the building next to the one the thugs are still trying to break in. He sets up his camera and starts recording. Ne: Hello everyone! It’s been a while, huh? Well that’s because I’ve been occupied with serious crime... Be quickly grabs the camera and points it to the thugs. Ne: Unlike these failures. I’ve found out that they have been trying to break in for a few minutes now, but they can’t do anything. What you’re about to see is what happens when someone is so unlucky, that they have to fight me. Ne sets up the camera on the tripod and jumps down behind the thugs. They hear him landing and turn around, only to see Ne, standing right in front of them. Three of them have crowbars, while the forth one has a pistol. They try to react quick, but before the pistol thug is able to shoot, Ne already dashes to him in less than a second and knocks him out with a punch. Another thug tries to hit him from behind with a crowbar. Ne quickly turns around and grabs the crowbar, pulling it apart from the hand of it’s previous wielder and bends it with his hands, before hitting the thug with a single neon bullet. The last two drop their crowbars and grab their knives from their pockets. Ne raises his hands up and starts talking in a sarcastic voice. Ne: Oh no, tiny knives. My only weakness. What will I do now? Ne drops the sarcastic voice. Ne: Wait, I know. He takes his swords and activates them. Ne: Get baited you amateurs. Ne quickly cuts through their knives with his swords and deactivates them, before returning them in his holster. Ne: Ready to give up? The criminals both agree, full of fear. Ne ties up all of them, gives an anonymous call to the police, before going back to his camera. Ne: And that, my viewers, is why you don’t try to rob places. Or at least, not do it with their level of skill. Ne stops the recording and rides back to his house. When he enters, he sees Slasher Amy messing with Slasher’s helmet. Amy: What took you so long? Ne: You know that I like to play with the bad ones. Slasher: Wait. I can see your camera and a tripod. Did you record it? Ne: You know it. Slasher: Oh, yes! Give me that camera, I want to see. Amy: Hey! wait for me! I want to see as well. Slasher: Fine. Amy finishes connecting the tiny camera to the helmet. Amy: There, the batteries should last a few hours, but Ne can recharge it anytime you want. Slasher: Thank you, it’s awesome. Now, let me see those skrubs.   Prologue Chapter 17  Chapter 19   

[peachcitt]

back from the dead at last with chapter 27!! did ya miss me? @gigiree @luvclick @megatraven

holy hot dang it’s been a hot minute hasn’t it? i stopped updating mid-marching season which was like in october so like lemme just say. im sorry. since then school has kicked me in the ass with a bunch stress regarding the future and i was like. well. gotta spend my time not writing oops and here we are. in the ripe of march in a new year

i gotta say this chapter is relatively normal and i considered making it a monster of a chapter to make up for the time i’ve been gone but then that would just ruin the rhythm of the lengths of chapters and stuff and also i reached a good end so like?? bear with me i know you all probably thought i abandoned this but!! i love it!! i just can’t wait until we get to the juicy bits of angst that will be happening i promise

but anyway hi hello i’m back and i’m not gonna go on an unplanned five month hiatus ever again

Read from the beginning/where it’s originally posted here 

Story description: They say curiosity killed the cat. But it can do a whole lot more than that. [In which Marinette falls into an unfamiliar place with strange inhabitants]

Chapter description: Marinette and Chat take a breather at Nathaneal’s house. There’s a lot of art involved because Nathaneal is a ghost with talent.

Rated: T (because there’s some violence that may not be suited for some audiences... injuries from the last chapter and scab mentions in this chapter btw)

“Oh,” Nathaneal said, seeming to drift away a little. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Wait!” Marinette called, forgetting for a moment that she had an extra hole in her body as she broke away from Chat. Immediately after leaving his support, the both of them collapsed, sending a wave of water to flick gently at Nathaneal’s feet, which floated an inch or so above the surface.

“I just keep making it worse,” Nathaneal whimpered, wincing a little. “I just thought I heard your voice, but…” He trailed off, looking back in the direction he came. “I should probably just go.”

“Please don’t,” Marinette said, trying her best to stand. “You didn’t do anything wrong; I promise.” Nathaneal was the first real friend Marinette had made in the Underground, and she wasn’t eager to see him leave so soon again.

Nathaneal chewed on his lip, looking away from Marinette and seeming to notice Chat for the first time. “Oh, hey, Chat. I didn’t know you were here.”

“Glad to know my presence isn’t as domineering as I thought it was,” Chat grunted, clutching his side and offering a grimace to Marinette when she shot a glare back at him. “What, so you’re allowed to make snide comments when you’re near death, but I’m not?”

“No one’s near death, idiot,” she hissed. “And I don’t do that.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Blood loss was making Marinette a bit dizzy, which she figured was probably not good. Nathaneal cocked his head at her, noting the way she glared down at the water in an attempt to regain a bit of focus. “Are you two injured?” he asked after a moment, looking over at Chat, who was also looking a bit dazed.

“Only a little bit,” Marinette said, finally gaining enough focus and strength to stand and help Chat struggle to his feet. “We’ll be fine if we get some rest and food, though.”

“Well…” Nathaneal looked back in the direction he came once more. “Maybe I could help with that.”

As it turns out, Nathaneal lived in a somewhat slouching house in Waterfall. He led Chat and Marinette, still leaning heavily on one another, to his house, careful to float slowly so that the both of them could keep up.

“Nino called and said that the two of you would be passing through,” Nathaneal rambled, patting his pockets for the key to his front door. Marinette wondered why he needed a key when he was a ghost. “I figured I should keep an eye out, but I didn’t notice you guys were already here.” He pulled out a ghostly key and stuck it into the keyhole. It didn’t seem to do anything. The door creaked open.

“I’m a ghost, so any food I have probably won’t help you guys,” he said, shrugging a little. He floated into his house, leading them to a living room-like area with what seemed to be two over-stuffed dog beds in the place of a couch. There was no coffee table. “But I can offer you a place to rest.”

“This is wonderful, Nathaneal,” Marinette said, somewhat collapsing on one of the dog beds and dragging Chat along with her. “Thank you.”

Chat let out a soft groan, looking down at the hole in his side and glancing at the amount of blood that had coated his glove. “I’m sorry if we stain anything,” he said weakly, trying for a smile.

“I-I could go to one of the shops and get you guys some proper akuma food,” Nathaneal offered, glancing worriedly between the two.

“We have some,” Marinette said, shifting her weight more to her uninjured leg and pulling out her yo-yo. “But thank you.”

He didn’t seem satisfied until Chat and Marinette had split a bicicle in half and eaten their respective pieces. The burning pain on Marinette’s leg dulled to an ache, and she saw that the hole that had looked in on bare muscle and torn skin had healed to a large, but less scary looking, scab. She looked over at Chat, and saw that the same was true for him, except his scab didn’t look as fully healed as Marinette’s. She frowned.

Nathaneal seemed to be placated for the moment, though, so he drifted away from them. “Now that you aren’t in danger of becoming, well, something like me, I think I should leave you alone to rest,” he said somewhat timidly. Though he seemed to be gaining confidence in himself and how he spoke the longer they stayed in his house.

He drifted up the stairs before either Marinette or Chat could say anything else.

Marinette turned to Chat. “Why isn’t yours healed like mine?” she asked, pouncing on him the moment Nathaneal was out of sight.

“Seems like my initial wound was worse,” he said, pulling a handkerchief out of one of his many zipper pockets and wiping his bloodied hands off. “But it doesn’t matter. It feels fine.”

“Liar,” Marinette said. Chat gave a little shrug. “I’ve got a unicicle left and that Nice Cream that Stormy gave us back in Snowdin,” she said, rooting around in her Miraculous.

Chat shook his head firmly. “Save that for yourself. One solid cat nap and I’ll be good as new,” he said, putting his hands over Marinette’s and making her close the storage compartment. “No good to waste that kind of stuff on me.”

“It’s not wasting if I want to do it.”

Chat gave her a look, and she put the Miraculous away with a sigh. “Fine. But the next time we have the opportunity to stop for food, I’m getting something specifically for you.”

“Looking forward to it,” Chat replied easily, though he gave a little wince when he flopped back on the fluffy dog bed, turning on the side that wasn’t injured. “Speaking of naps,” he said, his eyes seeming to close of their own will. “It seems like this cat could use one.”

“Don’t sleep with one eye open,” Marinette warned.

“Ha, very funny,” he murmured, the last word drifting off a little as he let himself fall asleep.

Marinette wondered how anyone could fall asleep that quickly.

She was feeling a bit tired herself, but she wasn’t about to lay down and immediately pass out like Chat had. And she was never one to look forward to the dreams she would inevitably have.

So instead she got up from the dog bed and wandered around Nathaneal’s house, only giving a slight moment’s thought to wonder if it was considered rude to do so. That didn’t stop her, though.

Her leg throbbed dully every time she had to take a step, but she ignored the slight pain and examined some artwork that had been hung up on Nathaneal’s walls. There were portraits and landscapes, all with a sort of whimsical but edged style to them. Marinette liked it.

Aside from the dog beds and artwork, there was really nothing else in the living room. The floor was clean and polished red wood, as if no one had stepped on it before. What with the fact that Nathaneal was a ghost, that was certainly a possibility.

A glance into the connecting doorway that lead to the kitchen told her that the kitchen was also bare like the living room was. There was more artwork on the walls, seeming to center around food, but the stove and countertops were wiped clean and gave off a sort of shining quality. The fridge was covered in drawings done in crayon that didn’t match the style of the other pieces, and Marinette assumed they were kids’ drawings.

“Nino introduced me to this daycare in the capitol,” Nathaneal said from behind her, and Marinette squeaked, jumping a little and letting out a small whine as a bit more weight fell on her injured leg. “Oh, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, his voice soft and timid.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Marinette said, turning around and shifting her weight onto her uninjured leg.

Nathaneal’s gaze flicked down at the scab on the side of her thigh. “That doesn’t look good.”

“Oh, it’s not,” she replied without thinking.

His shoulders drew up, and he chewed on his bottom lip, floating into the kitchen and grasping the handle to the fridge. His hand seemed to grow more opaque at the contact to the solid object as he pulled the fridge door open.

“I must have some sort of regular food from one of Nino’s or Chat’s visits,” Nathaneal muttered, taking out several ghostly sandwiches and a few of what looked like sparkly cans of motor oil. Marinette chose not to ask.

Nathaneal’s feet rose a couple more feet into the air as he dug deeper into the fridge, his body now horizontal. “I’ve got” – he pulled himself out of the fridge, still seeming to lay sideways in midair – “I’ve got a chocolate bar.”

“Um.” Marinette took the chocolate bar. It was wrapped in sparkly pink foil and only had the initials CB on it. It also seemed to be half-eaten. “Thank you.”

Marinette decided to save it for Chat.

---

Chat dreamed he was fighting the dummy with Marinette again. Except at this point, he knew that his dreams weren’t dreams anymore but his mind catching him up on what he missed when a Jump occurred.

He really hated that this was happening again.

Marinette was being her normal stubborn self, refusing to heal up when Chat told her to. His chin was smarting from the burn of a magic attack that he had just managed to block, but he was more concerned with how Marinette’s arm seemed to be falling apart.

“You need to heal up,” he said, but Marinette refused.

The fight continued, and Chat was so absorbed in trying to defend himself that he didn’t notice that Marinette had gotten hurt again until the dummy pointed it out.

“You have three holes in your body!” it yelled, and Chat finally turned to her, a million emotions running through him all at once as he saw the way she was barely able to stand up straight. “What kind of monster are you?”

She let out a little breath, easing her weight more to one side than the other and clutching her injured arm to her chest. “Um. The determined kind?”

“Doesn’t matter,” the dummy had said, and Marinette cast a glance at Chat, giving him a searching look. “This just means I have to work harder to end you.”

“Please don’t,” she said, tearing her gaze away from Chat to look at the dummy. Chat could feel the dread pool in his gut.

“Heal up!” he called to her, knowing how this would end. He could feel it in the air, in the way Marinette was already having trouble focusing on what was in front of her.

“Please don’t yell at me,” she near whimpered.

The dummy said something to Chat, but he wasn’t listening, trying in vain to figure out a way to get them both out alive. Missiles zoomed its way toward him, but he just twirled his baton and the missiles collided with the metal instead of his skin. He thought he heard a scream that sounded like a mix of his name and absolute despair and something fall into the water, but the explosions from the missiles had blinded him temporarily.

When he was able to see again, Marinette’s SOUL was completely defenseless as a missile launched toward it.

“Marinette!” he yelled.

He watched her SOUL explode.

---

“What were you saying about that daycare?” Marinette asked, keep her voice low as they walked through the living room to get to the stairs that led to Nathaneal’s room.

“Oh.” He cast a small glance to Chat, who was curled up on one of the dog beds with a slightly troubled expression on his face. “Um, yeah, Nino introduced me to a daycare in the capitol,” he repeated, seeming to try and get his thoughts in order.

The staircase led up to only one room, and that was presumably Nathaneal’s. More artwork littered the walls, but it seemed to be more personal. There were a whole lot more portraits.

Nathaneal gestured to a pile of pillows in the corner of the room, and Marinette gratefully sank down into a sitting position, thankful to get some stress off her leg. Nathaneal perched carefully on one of the only pieces of furniture in the room: a rolly chair by a long and cluttered wooden desk.

“I was visiting the capitol for one of my annual follow up therapy sessions.” He said this casually, and at Marinette’s confused stare, his cheeks became more opaque, like he was blushing. “All akumas have to go through them.”

“Because of the…?” Marinette’s question remained unfinished, but Nathaneal nodded anyway.

“Anyway, at that time Nino was still stationed within the capitol, and we ended up talking a little bit.” Nathaneal touched a toe to the floor and twirled the chair back and forth idly. “I said I liked to draw a lot, and he told me about a daycare that was low on staff. Said they’d probably need someone to step in and teach all the kids some arts and crafts.”

Marinette tried to imagine Nathaneal around a bunch of kids, all demanding attention. It was a little bit funny.

“I didn’t want to at first, but one of my friends convinced me to do it.” He did a full rotation on his chair. “She said I didn’t get out enough. So, I took the job. And for some reason the kids liked to give me their drawings when I praised them, so I decided to hang them up on the fridge.”

“There were a lot of drawings,” Marinette said, remembering how the surface of the fridge could hardly be seen underneath the masses of paper. “You must praise them a lot.”

Nathaneal’s cheeks again seemed to grow opaque. He did two full rotations on his chair. “I like all the drawings they do. And it’s only natural to praise a kid’s hard work.” He shrugged, moving the chair back and forth again. “I go a couple of times a week since I’m only a part-timer, and I show the kids some painting and drawing techniques and then they give me their art.”

“That seems fun.”

A small smile pulled at his lips and it seemed to tug his whole body into a something that let out a pulse of happiness. “It is.”

The quiet that descended over them was something comfortable and warm, and Marinette took the time to gaze at the portraits on the walls. Without getting up, of course.

There was one of Nino, bubble wand in hand, his headphones flipped out and music notes and bubbles surrounding him as he laughed to some joke. Next to his was one of Chat, head resting lazily on his hand as he stared straight out the portrait, his smile hinting that he knew something that Marinette didn’t.

Marinette recognized one of Rose, the shopkeeper from Snowdin, standing with a girl she didn’t recognize. Next to that one was one of Ali, Rose’s friend who owned the Inn in Snowdin. There was also a portrait of Ivan and Mylene, the two akumas responsible for Marinette’s first death experience. She didn’t really blame them or hold any grudges towards them, though. Under normal circumstances, Marinette thought they may seem like fun people to hang out with.

There were many more of people Marinette didn’t recognize, but she still enjoyed looking over Nathaneal’s rendering of them. One in particular caught her eye, and something caught in her throat.

It was a portrait of a man in a black and purple tux standing next to a woman in a red bodysuit wearing a red domino mask. Marinette surged to her feet, her eyes fixed to the portrait. The woman and the man seemed to be happy, their arms wrapped around each other, but Marinette couldn’t care less about the man. It was the woman who had caught her attention.

She turned to Nathaneal, something inside her making her breathless. “In this portrait, who is-”

“Marinette!” Chat stood at the entrance to Nathaneal’s room, the top of the stairs, a look of desperation on his face. He seemed to relax as he saw her though, his whole body seeming to let out a breath. “God, I don’t even know what I was thinking when I woke up and you weren’t there,” he muttered, taking her hand.

She couldn’t help but notice that he guided her gently away from the portrait she had been so fascinated with.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Marinette said, her eyes still drawn to that portrait. For the first time, she noticed that the portrait next to the one with the man and the woman was one of Tikki. Suddenly Marinette’s heart was heavy. She no longer wanted to look at those portraits.

“Hey, Chat,” Nathaneal said, twirling idly on his chair. “We were just sitting and thinking about how much we felt like garbage.” Marinette stared at him. He seemed to blush. “Or at least that’s what I was doing.”

“Did you sleep well?” Marinette asked, sitting down on the cushions again and pulling Chat down with her.

His eyes scanned her face, and he took her hand, squeezing it a little. Marinette understood that he meant that no, he did not sleep well at all. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at his side. There was no sign of any sort of injury, nor proof that there ever had been one. The leather of his suit looked completely without blemish.

“Have you been working on any new portraits lately?” he asked Nathaneal instead of giving a verbal response to Marinette’s question. She pursed her lips, but said nothing.

Nathaneal turned to his desk, sifting through the clutter of CDs, paper, and general art utensils and picked up a thick sheet of paper. The piece looked near finished, the portrait taking on a soft sort of quality because of the water colors and the way the girl’s expression was portrayed.

“Is that…?” Chat trailed off, looking between Marinette and the beautiful girl on the paper. Nathaneal nodded, his entire body seeming to grow more solid as if he was blushing all over.

“That’s me?” Marinette asked, leaning closer and scrunching her nose up. The girl was far too beautiful to resemble Marinette at all. “It can’t be.”

“Of course it is,” Chat said, taking the paper from Nathaneal and showing it to her so that she’d get a closer look. “It’s the spitting image.”

“I try not to glorify anything,” Nathaneal piped up, his cheeks very opaque.

Marinette wasn’t convinced.

The girl in the portrait did in fact resemble her, sure, but she was wearing the clothes that Marinette had fallen in when she first came to the Underground. It didn’t seem like those clothes really fit the current Marinette anymore. In both a physical way and a metaphorical way. Not to mention that the girl looked happy, her hand reaching for the person on the other side of the portrait. If the girl in the portrait really was Marinette, she had no idea she could make an expression so content.

“It’s from when I first saw you. Back in the Ruins,” Nathaneal said, getting up from his chair and taking the portrait. “Now that I’ve seen you again, I don’t think it matches you well enough,” he said, chewing at the inside of his cheek and giving the portrait a scrutinizing look.

Chat was staring at Marinette, as if trying to see the girl in the portrait in her. Marinette wondered if he could see it.

“You seem different now,” Nathaneal said, almost as if to himself. “Not bad different. Just more…” He paused, holding the portrait up and looking between it and Marinette. “More like you know where you want to go.”

He opened a drawer in his desk, revealing a bunch of unfinished portraits. Marinette got a glimpse of one of a neon-colored robot girl. She also thought she caught a glimpse of one of Chat in a lab coat, but she couldn’t be sure.

Setting the unfinished portrait of Marinette in with the other unfinished ones, Nathaneal turned back to his desk and sifted through the miscellaneous items to find a blank canvas. “I’ll start another one,” he said to no one in particular.

“You haven’t rested,” Chat whispered when it was clear Nathaneal wasn’t interested in conversation anymore.

“I wasn’t tired,” Marinette whispered back. “And where did your injury go? Don’t think I haven’t noticed,” she said, noticing the indignant look on his face. “I even saved a chocolate bar for you.”

She pulled out the half-eaten chocolate bar in the shimmery pink wrapping paper. Chat made a face.

“Were you the one that ate the other half of it?” he asked, taking the chocolate bar gingerly and peeling away the paper. It looked like flakes of glitter were actually inside the chocolate.

“Nope.”

He set aside the chocolate bar. “Then forgive me for not trusting an already dodgy brand of chocolate.” He seemed to make a face at the initials ‘CB’ on the wrapping paper.

“You didn’t answer my question though,” Marinette said, choosing to ignore Chat’s strange reaction to the chocolate bar.

Chat placed a hand on his once injured side, almost self-consciously. “I’m an akuma, Marinette. I heal differently with magic attacks and all that.” He pressed down softly on where the wound would’ve been and winced. “It still hurts, but there’s no wound. Soon enough the pain will go away.”

Marinette had no reason to not believe him, but she still found herself unsure. She didn’t ask any more questions, though.

Somehow Chat ended up next to her among the pillows, his arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulling her close to his side. Nathaneal had snapped out of his art trance long enough to put a CD into an old beat up CD player, and soft electronic music with no real lyrics or choruses started to play.

“You need to rest,” Chat murmured into her hair, and at the sound of his words, Marinette realized just how much her eyelids were drooping.

“I don’t want to dream,” she whispered, her voice slurring just the slightest. Her eyes drifted to where the portrait of Tikki was. And where the portrait of the man and the woman was.

Chat rubbed her shoulder soothingly, the evenness of his breath lulling her closer to sleep. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

The statement almost seemed like a jab at her for leaving him alone while he had been sleeping. But the tone of his voice didn’t suggest any hard feelings, and she fell asleep to the steady rhythm of his breathing and the music drifting from Nathaneal’s CD player.

[writingsofthemoonchild]

Chapter 2: Saving the Cheerleader

Luna's POV

My phone alarm rang through my poster covered room. I groaned rolling over and snuggling more into the blankets.

"LUNA GET OUT OF BED! OR NO CONCERTS!" My mom yelled up the stairs. I heard her walk back to the kitchen. We have really thin walls. A long time ago, we remodeled our house. It originally was a two-bedroom. We split one of the rooms in half so my brother and I could get our own rooms. I was 5 at the time and had a whole bunch of toys. My room was always messy because it was pretty small. As a child, i never wanted to clean my room. So, my parents decided we would switch rooms. Of course, my parents had the biggest bedroom in the house. So I had tons of space when we switched. I have had the biggest room ever since.

At her words, my head shot up, hair falling in front of my face. Blowing it away, I shot up and ran to my dresser. I pulled out a pair of black leggings, a Motionless in White shirt and undergarments. Quickly changing, I grabbed some socks before running towards my bed. I sat down and pulled on my socks. Grabbing my phone, I ran downstairs. I twirled into the bathroom and started brushing my teeth with one hand and my hair with the other. Using my hairbrush to hold part of my hair back, I spit out some toothpaste and rinsed my mouth. I finished brushing my hair and fixed the part before applying some eyeliner. I take showers at night, a little bit before bed, so I can sleep in. I slid across the hardwood flooring to the kitchen, dodging dog toys and also dogs. I jumped from the kitchen into the back porch, in front of the fridge. I flung it open and grabbed out a monster and an apple. Setting my monster can on the counter, I bit into the apple. I opened the can and finished chewing, before taking a big swig of my drink.

"why don't you invite Ronnie over for dinner? We haven't seen him in a while. Well besides when you sneak out and he is picking you up." My mom said grabbing out a bag of banana chips. I gulped and smiled weakly.

"sure..." I trailed off avoiding eye contact and gulping down some more monster. She chuckled.

"Next time you want to go out. Just ask. I'm not as strict as I used to be." She patted my back before walking to the living room. I finished my monster and apple before throwing on my boots. I grabbed my keys from the stand next to the back door and my bag off of the hook. Quickly, I slipped my phone into the front, small zipper pocket. I ran to the front.

"Bye Jack. Bye Teddy." I said to my dogs as the sat on the couch looking out the window. They watched me open the door. My eyes shifted to my cat, blinking up at me as she laid in the sunlight.

"Bye Mittens." I looked up at my mom who was watching tv with my brother as she got on her shoes. A motorcycle was heard from outside. "ill text you Ronnie's answer." I opened the screen door and ran out. Ronnie smiled at me. He grabbed his second helmet and handed it to me. I grabbed onto it. Before Ronnie let go, he used it to pull me closer.

"Good morning beautiful," he said before placing his lips on mine. We kissed for about 30 seconds before pulling away.

"Morning handsome," I replied slipping on the helmet and adjusting my backpack. Ronnie held my hand as I lifted my leg over the back of his motorcycle. He knew well that if he didn't I would fall back on my ass. Not because the bike is too tall for me. Just because I have shitty balance. I got situated and wrapped my arms around his waist.

"You ready?" he asked looking back over he shoulder.

"Yeah" He revved the engine and took off. We whizzed past houses towards school. Manly hitting green lights. But three blocks from the school, we hit a red one. We pulled up next to a white range rover. The driver looked out their window. I could sense them staring at me. I looked up and made eye contact. My face blank for a split second as I recognized the person. Ally, the queen bee at school. My face turned cold as my eyes went into a glare. I felt my body jerk as the light turned green and Ronnie continued driving.

Ronnie and I have been dating since 8th grade. But before that, we were friends for two years. He is the best thing I could ever ask for. Standing up for me whenever it's needed. Protecting me whenever I needed protection. Holding me close whenever I felt sad or scared. I don't know where I would be without him. Or my childhood best friend Chris.

I met Chris in 3rd grade. Their parents enrolled them in school a year early. Chris is a year younger than me. I was assigned to show them around the school and make sure they knew where everything was. I guess we just clicked and were best friends ever since. We both started shifting into wearing more black and listening to louder music. In 9th grade, I went through a rough patch. My parents were getting a divorice. Chris and Ronnie were there for me through the whole thing. Chris was the first to notice something was wrong. Making sure I was okay each day and didn't do anything I would regret. Because they were focused on me and making sure I was okay, Chris' grade started slipping. I helped them try to get them back but by the end of the year, it was final that they had to repeat a year.

My thoughts wandered back to those days in middle school. Before I started dating Ronnie and the three of us would hang out. We would walk to the ice cream shop by my house then to Chris's and I old elementary school and hang out on the playground. Some of the parents there would look at us strangely. Some would smile at our weirdness. I was thrown back into reality as Ronnie parked in the motorcycle corner of the parking lot. He put down the kickstand as our friends came to greet us. I took off my helmet as Ronnie took off his. He shook his hair out. I grabbed his shoulder as I got off the bike, him following suit.

"There is my favorite couple!" Ron shouted pulling me into a hug. I smiled and hugged him back.

"quiet down there! Its too early" Derek groaned. I giggled.

"Nice to see you too" Ronnie sarcastically replied. Jacky walked over talking about something.

Ronnie, Chris and I met these three idiots in 10th grade. They all slowly transferred to our school. All of them being kicked out of their old school. We saw they were outcast and started talking to them. They were really nice.

I looked up when I heard a motorbike. Chris rounded the corner into the parking lot and zoomed past a group of cheerleaders, almost hitting them. On the back of her bike was, Rebel. the final member of our little crazy family. She moved next door to Chris in the middle of summer about two years ago. The summer between 10th and 11th grade. She and Chris became friends first; then when she joined our school, Chris introduced us.

If you went by age, you could say that Ronnie and I are the parents of the family. We are both 18 and the others are 17. If you went by maturity, it would be Jacky and Rebel. But we are all immature in our own ways.

Chris drove and parked in the spot next to us. Rebel hopped off laughing.

"THAT WAS AMAZING!" She screeched. Chris chuckled and got off their bike. We all high fived them. My eyes shifted back to the cheerleaders to find one staring at me. We made eye contact. It was Ally. I smirked. I saw Ronnie follow my gaze and smirk too. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. Ally's attention snapped back to her friends.

"Well, we are going to find our lockers," Ron spoke up. Jacky at his side. The two walked off.

"I'm going to class... I think its called nap?" Derek joked. I chuckled.

"Have a nice nap," Chris remarked. He nodded at them. Rebel followed him. Leaving Ronnie, Chris and I. Ronnie turned to me.

"I'll see you later." He hugged me before leaving. I turned to Chris. They pulled out their vape. I pulled out mine.

"Today is going to suck. I can feel it." They said after taking a drag. I nodded.

"It already was! My mom threatened to take away concerts if I didn't get up. Then told me that she knows that I have been sneaking out." Chris laughed. I took a drag of my vape.

"Oh no the horror!"

"The Ricky Horror?"

They looked at me blankly before facepalming. I laughed. The warning bell rang.

"We should get inside." We quickly finished what we were doing and ran inside. Well, we don't run, I should say speed walked. We were almost there when the final bell rang and the class doors closed.

"Dang, late on the first day. That's a new record." I laughed. We rounded the corner towards our class. I didn't turn wide enough and my shoulder rammed into the wall. Stumbling back I grabbed onto Chris' shoulder. They burst out laughing.

"Shut up," I mumbled before laughing along with them. Chris opened the door to our class still laughing. I walked in. They followed. We took deep breaths to calm down. I looked at them and they looked back at me. We burst out laughing again.

"Uhm" I heard someone clear their throat. I looked up, chuckling now, to see everyone staring at us. "Glad you two could make it."

"Thanks for having us. I'm going to make this class more fun." I sarcastically retorted.

"Sure thing. What're your names?" The teacher asked.

"Luna" I responded calming down from laughing.

"And you?" He asks looking at Chris.

"Chris."

"Is that short for anything?"

Chris shook their head. Another voice spoke up. An annoying voice.

"Aren't you a girl?" Our gazes turned to Ally, the one who asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I say Chris raise an eyebrow.

"Well princess, i'm neither!"

"Chris is an asshole, that's what they are." I chimed in. Chris smacked my arm. Right on cue, the teacher spoke up, scolding me for swearing.

"Luna, no swearing in my class. Now if you two would sit down so I could continue class." Chris and I walked back to the last open seats. "Okay class, my name is Mr. Pierce. Can any of you tell me what a quadratic equation is?"

I took a risk and raise my hand.

"Isn't it me plus this class equals me bored?" I said seriously. Everyone but the teacher, Ally and one of her minions laughed. I guess I was incorrect. Damn, I thought I would get this one right.

"you're an idiot." I heard my best friend exclaim.

"No, i'm not!"

"Then explain to me why you, a senior, is this class, junior math?" I searched my brain for an excuse. The reason why i'm in this class is that I failed it last year. I wanted to graduate early, so I packed my schedule with classes. This was a bad choice; as I choice honor classes. I spent a lot of time focused on those and not this class. So I failed and had to repeat it. This year I had to take a two more electives, this class, an English, health, and gym. I had gym this semester and then health next semester. The rest of the periods were free time, and of course, lunch.

I stuttered. "Reasons..." I finally spat out. I really didn't need to say why. All of my friends know why I had to repeat this class. Chris chuckled again. My attention was turned back to the teacher when I heard my name.

"Luna and Chris. After school detention. One for being late. Two for swearing. Three for continuous disruption. Please come collect your detention slips and leave."

I rolled my eyes and stood up, collecting my black pen and notebook covered in photos of bands. I followed Chris up to the front of the room.

"Glad i'm out of this class," I mumbled. Chris snagged their slip and danced out of the class. I ripped my slip from the teacher's hands and followed Chris out, laughing at them. This class will be the death of me. Chris and I walked the halls for the remaining of class.

---

Lunchtime slowly rolled around. I ran out of class to find Ronnie. Many people looked at me weird or gave me a disgusted look. I spotted my tattoo covered boyfriend at his locker. Slowly walking towards him, I smiled. He hasn't noticed me yet. I walked right up behind him.

"RONNIE!" I shouted in his ear. He jumped and slammed his locker shut. We received many stares. Ronnie slowly turned around. He playfully glared at me.

"Did you have to do that?" He slowly asked. I smiled and nodded.

"Yup!" In a second, I was pinned against the lockers by my hips.

"I will give you 5 seconds to change your answer." I kept my mouth shut.

"5"

I said nothing.

"4"

I shook my head, grinning up at him.

"3"

I dragged my fingers across my lips like I was zipping them closed. I threw the key across the hall.

"2" Ronnie's voice turned into a whisper.

"1" I didn't change my answer; I wasn't going to back down.

"you're out of time." He whispered into my ear. Ronnie's hands started attacking my side. I screamed out laughter. His face went from serious to a huge grin as he tickled me. I tried to stop his hands.

"Stop it!" He didn't listen and continued to tickle me. I got out of his grip and ran towards to cafeteria.

"Hey!" I heard Ronnie shout. He started running after me. I got to the entrance of the lunchroom and froze. I looked at our table where our friends sat. In front of them were three boys and a girl. I recognized them. Ally, her boy toy, and two other jocks.

"Whats up buttercup?" Ronnie questioned as he caught up with me.

"If that princess threatened my friends, i'm going to be pissed." Ronnie looked at me confused before looking at the table. His gaze hardened. We swiftly walked to our table. I noticed many people watching the scene. Their eyes widened as they saw me and Ronnie approaching the table.

"Do you want to get beat up?" One of the jocks asked. I saw the boy toy open his mouth, but I spoke first.

"You touch a hair on them, you are going to deal with us!" I fiercely cut in. Ally turned around. I glared at her. The football players turned around. When they spotted me, they laughed.

"I get you, dude. but what is this wimpy girl gonna do? Burn us with her curler?" One of the jocks laughed. I smirked as did Ronnie. They have no clue what i'm capable of. A couple years ago, my mom got into kickboxing. When she got certified to teach, I would go with her and watch her teach. Watching for a while, I picked up some of the moves. During the summer between 9th and 10th grade, my mom started letting me walk farther into town and downtown. She signed me up for self-defense. I taught Chris some of the moves. They got really interested in it and took more and different classes. Their parents bought them some weights for them to use, so they can get stronger.

"Did you just call me wimpy? I'll have you know I can kick all your three asses plus princesses over here and not break a sweat."

"Yeah ri-" I cut him off by taking him down. I grabbed him right arm, spun him and kicked hard behind his knees. He fell to the ground. I placed my knee on his wrist, ready to transfer all of my weight onto the knee, slowly crushing his wrist.

"What was that? I'm a wimpy girl and cant take you three down?" I pulled his arm back more. I heard someone growl. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the princess boy toy go to move me. I knew he wouldn't get far with Ronnie and everyone else there.

"Don't you fucking dare touch her!" Ronnie snarled at the boy toy. I saw him grab his wrist, stopping him. The other jock advanced to move me. Chris shot up and got in his way.

"Gotta go through me first." The jock went to move them but wasn't fast enough. Chris grabbed his hand and flipped him over their shoulder. He landed on the ground hard. The jock groaned. I slowly stood up. Watching the jock's every move. When I fully was standing, Ronnie pulled me into his side. I looked at Ally.

"Listen here, princess. You threaten my friends again and you get it, okay? Another thing, stop fucking staring at me. Yeah, I've caught you staring me two times already." She glared at me. I death glared her right back. She huffed and walked away. The jocks followed. Ronnie and I sat down. Chris returned to their seat in between Jacky and Ron. Everyone stopped staring and went back to eating their food.

"When has she been staring at you?" Derek asked.

"First on the way to school at a red light. We pulled up next to her. I glared at her. Then when Chris and Rebel arrived and almost ran them over. Ronnie caught her staring too." I said tiredly, leaning into Ronnie's side. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"Well, Jacky is stuck being locker buddies with her." Ron teased. Jacky groaned and placed his head on the table.

"Don't remind me!"

"Awe poor little Jacky" Ronnie said in a baby voice, reaching over and ruffling Jacky's hair. Jacky shot up and glared at the boy next to me.

"Little? I'm about as tall as you and only a year younger. Also, dont touch my hair." He snapped pouting. I reached over and went to touch his hair. "No! Stop it!" Jacky stood up and moved away. I also got up and advanced towards him. He dodged my extended hand and ran. I ran after him.

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!" I shouted. I could hear our friends laughing at us back at the table. Jacky continued running and I continued chasing him. He went into the bathroom. I slammed my fist on the lockers outside the door.

"Can't stay in there forever vincent!" Our friends walked out of the cafeteria and looked for us. They spotted me leaning on the lockers.

"He went into the bathroom for safety?" Rebel asked. I nodded. Derek smirked.

"Safe from you, but not from me!" He said before walking in. We heard a scream. Jacky ran out.

"FUCK YOU GUYS!" we all laughed.

"Okay, thats enough teasing the poor boy," Chris ordered walking up and hugging Jacky.

"I like Chris the best," Jacky said hugging them back. I stuck my tongue out at him, like the mature young woman I am. Him being the mature young man he is, he stuck his tongue out back at me. The others laughed.

The rest of the day flew by. I had gym with Ronnie and Chris. Then study hall with Ron, Rebel, and Derek. Finally, English with Ronnie. Now I had to go to detention. I grabbed my bag from my locker and walked to the detention room. Chris and Rebel were already in there. I threw my bag onto the desk and sat down. The detention monitor was sitting at their desk asleep. Meaning we could do whatever we wanted. Ronnie, Derek, and Ron walked into the room.

"Does everyone have detention?" Derek asked.

"No, i'm here because I want to be!" Rebel sassily responded. Derek glared at her.

"I think so. I don't know about  Jacky." I said moving to sit on top of the desk next to Ronnie, so Ron could sit in the chair.

"I know Jacky has detention. We were in the same class." Ronnie said looking back at the door. I shrugged and pulled out my vape.

"I've missed you, my friend," I whispered taking a drag and closing my eyes.

"I'm starting to think that you love that thing more than me!" Ronnie joked looking at me. Rebel shot forward and stole my vape, putting it to her lips and breathing in.

"Hey!" I proclaimed. She smiled and handed it back to me. I took it back to have it ripped from my hands again by Ronnie. He smirked at me before taking a drag. "come on!"

The door to the classroom opened.  Jacky walked in.

"Whats up peeps?" He said sliding onto the desk next to me. We were sitting in an hourglass shape. Sitting on one table was Derek, Chris then Rebel. In between the two tables, sitting in chairs was Ron. Then I was sitting in between Jacky and Ronnie on the other table.

For the rest of the time, we smoked and laughed. Not once did the monitor wake up. We watched the clock. When it was 4 o'clock we got up and headed for the door.

"Oh Ronnie, my mom invited you over for dinner. She asked me to invite you this morning. Saying that she hasn't you in a while. Only times is when you're picking me up when I sneak out." I remembered to ask him.

"Sure! Free food and hanging out with my girl! I'm in!" Everyone laughed. I smiled and texted my mom his answer. Not the free food and hanging out with me part.

"Wait, your mom knows about you sneaking out! The point of sneaking is to not get caught!" Ron laughed loudly.

"Hey! Not my fault, Ronnie picks me up on a motorcycle and my dog's bark!" Ron stopped and looked at the sleeping teacher then at the board. He quickly ran and wrote something. ASSHOLE with an arrow pointing down at the teacher. Then he grabbed our detention slips so the teacher wouldn't know who was there. Detention was held in the chemistry room so there were timers. I set one for 5 minutes and we bolted.

We ran to our bikes. I put my helmet and knocked on it. Ronnie shook his head and put his on. My helmet was a thick bicycle helmet. He had the one the went to your shoulders and a face guard. Ronnie got on his bike.

"BYE!" Ron shouted before driving away. Jacky and Derek followed. Chris and Rebel got on Chris' bike. Ronnie helped me onto his. The two lived near me. Nine blocks away from me. They followed us home. Halfway there we pulled behind a white range rover. The light turned green and the car started moving. A car was coming from the other side, that has a red light The driver must not have been paying attention because they ran the red light. I gasped know what was going to happen. The car smashed into the rover. I jumped off the bike. Chris got off theirs. I ripped my helmet off.

"Ronnie! Call 911!" I shouted. Ronnie whipped out his phone and dialed the numbers. Chris ran to the car that ran the light. I ran towards the rover. It had spun and it the light pole. As I got closer I saw the light pole about to tip over onto the car. I ran faster.

I tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Looked into the car, I spotted Ally. As much as I hate her, I couldn't let her die. The doors were locked and Ally was unconscious. The light pole creaked and moved a bit. I bent my arm and rammed my elbow into the window, breaking it. The ambulance sirens were in the distance. Along with the police and fireman. There wasn't time, if I didn't get Ally out now the pole would come crashing down on top of her. Quickly, I reached in and unlocked the door. I flung it open, not caring about the broken glass. I leaned over her and unbuckled the seatbelt. I easily lifted her out of the car and away from the light pole. As I ran away from the car, I heard a creak as the pole came crashing down. The paramedics ran over with a stretcher. I placed her down. Chris got the other driver out of the car. It was a drunk male. They plugged their nose at the smell of alcohol. Ronnie ran over to me.

"That was Ally! Ronnie, we have to go to the hospital!" I shouted. Chris ran over.

"I agree. We should go till one of her friends gets there. As much I despise her, it would suck if she woke up with no one there for her." Ronnie glared at the two of us.

"Are you two out of your mind? She hates us! It would be worse for her to wake up to us there! I'm not going!" I glared at him.

"Fine, then you can take Rebel home and wait for me at my house. While you're waiting, think about how much of an asshole you are." I spat pushing past him.

"What did you call me?" He shouted after me. I spun around on my heels, ready to burst.

"I called you an asshole! You only think about yourself. I know Ally has treated us poorly, but she is still human! I'd rather get yelled at for being there, than not going there at all!" Ronnie glared at me.

"You know what? Ill take Rebel home, but I don't want to spend another minute with you!" Tears rimmed my eyes.

"Fine! Don't bother picking me up tomorrow!" I turned back around and walked towards Chris and Rebel. They looked at me sympathetically.

"Don't. Rebel, the asshole will give you a ride." I said grabbing Chris' second helmet. Rebel nodded and walked towards Ronnie's bike. They started talking. I could tell Rebel was trying to calm him down. Chris got on their bike and I got on behind. I stared at Ronnie as we passed him. I looked away as we made eye contact. A tear rolled down my face. This is the biggest fight we have been in. Sure, we have fought before. But it was short. We didn't call each other names. Or say we didn't want to spend another minute with the other. Chris followed the ambulance to the hospital.

We pulled into the parking lot. Quickly I got off the bike and pulled off my helmet and handed it, Chris. They put it in the seat along with theirs. We ran into the building.

"How can I help you two?" The receptionist asked as we ran up.

"We are with the girl that just came in from the car accident." I breathed out, trying to catch my breath. The lady typed on her computer.

"We will contact her parents. You can sit in the waiting room on the third floor until she is out of surgery." We nodded, thanked her and ran towards the elevators. Impatiently, Chris kept pressing the up button.

"come on, come on, come on," I mumbled. The elevator opened and ran in. I pressed the 3rd-floor button and the doors closed. Chris stared at me. I stared up at the ceiling.

"What was that fight about?" They spoke. I looked over at them.

"Nothing. We just disagreed and said some mean things. I didn't mean anything I said, I'm sure he didn't either."

"I hope you two don't break up." They whispered looking at the floor. I don't think I was supposed to hear, but I did.

"I hope so too."

We reached the floor. Since we would be waiting awhile, we got a drink and a snack. I sat down on one of the couches and put my feet up on the footrest. Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I texted my mom what happened while waiting for Chris to get drink, so I could get mine.

We were there for about an hour before the elevator opened. Ally's friends ran out. Their eyes landed on us.

"What are you two doing here?" The brown haired was asked.

"As much as we hate her and she hates us, we came to make sure, Ally didn't wake up alone," Chris replied. They looked at us confused.

"We saw the accident happen. I was the one that got her out of the car before the pole fell on top of it." I informed them. They nodded.

"Well, we should be going now, that you guys are here," Chris said. We stood up and walked off. One of them stopped us.

"Hey! Thanks for helping her. Tell anyone you were the one who saved her and we will make your life hell!" The short girl threatened. We rolled our eyes and continued our journey out to Chris' bike. We got on our helmet and then onto the bike. They dropped me off.

"Bye," I mumbled tiredly getting off the bike.

"Bye," They said. I got out my keys and unlocked the door. As soon I stepped in I was attacked by dogs. I smiled weakly down at them. I picked up my smaller dog, Teddy and hugged him close. He struggled against my grip. Trying to turn around and lick my face. I buried my face in his medium length hair.

"Why do I always fuck things up?" I whispered into his fur. I set him down and ran up to my room. Quickly grabbing my blue tooth speaker, I flopped onto my bed. I connected my phone and pressed play on my Spotify playlist. Before setting down my phone, I made sure that the music was loud enough so no one could hear me. Then I broke. Tears rolled down my face like a waterfall. Sobs escaped my lips. I cried my self to sleep, listening to soothing voices of my idols and hugging my unicorn pillow.