#i have a whole plot where they meet as teens and slowly grow close only for it to all go wrong

[fry-house]

For the ask game lefton of course

Getting put in the doesn't make sense quadrant due to it not making sense in canon, but since they're both older dudes whose families apparently lived near each other at one point in the past, it's not TOO crazy to think they'd have history.

And it compels me something awful I'm afraid

[scarecrow-supremacy]

A/N: Oookieee, so I decided to start writing a new fic bc I have great ideas for a story line. Yet I can’t bring myself I writing an actual beginning. Like I’ve already written some random chapters, but I can’t do anything with them because they don’t really make much sense without the context of the rest of the fic/my ideas. Like this chapters is where the romance/actual x reader gets into actual action. Hopefully you get the gist of what the plot is, and aren’t confused as hell from this part. Sorry if it’s a bit long, it’s around 4.8k-ish words. Enjoy 💜

Hatake Kakashi wasn't one to celebrate his birthday.

He simply thought that they were foolish excuses to let loose and party. To Kakashi, birthdays were no reason to be happy and celebrate. They were just reminders of how long he had endured the pain of living. Each year marked another without the people he once held close in his heart. His father, his sensei, his teammates, and (y/n)...

The day that (y/n) gone on that horrible mission was his special day. The mission he was supposed to go on, but (y/n) filled in for because she wanted him to go celebrate with Gai and the others. So much for having the day of joy...Kakashi thought to himself mournfully.

With a great sigh, he grabbed the last of his belonging, shoving them in his mission pack. He'd promised to take his students out of a group mission for the day, but it had been mostly for selfish reasons. Kakashi had hoped that this would take his mind off of the weight in his soul, yet knowing that his efforts would be futile. The loss would never leave him, it would always follow him like a darned shadow. It would forever haunt him. There was not letting go of the horrors of his past.

Slowly, Kakashi strolled to the gates of Konoha to meet his kids, shoving his hands in his pockets as he mumbled a little tune under his breath. The dark cloudy sky and drizzling rain seemed to mirror how he felt inside.

Drip, drop. Drop, drop. Drop, drop.

Each raindrop fell upon the dirt paths of the town, dampening Kakashi's Jonin uniform. If only he'd gone on that mission, if only he hadn't let (y/n) take his place. If only so many things that happened hadn't. If only he felt whole again. He could feel the heavyweight of guilt on his shoulders, spreading pain throughout his body. Sure, Team 7 filled the void, but they could only do so much. If there is one thing I wish for, it is that these kids will grow up to be happy.

A soft smile played upon Kakashi's face as he approached the three teens. "KAKASHI-SENSEI!" His hyperactive blonde student, Uzumaki Naruto, yelled at him, "YOU'RE LATE-TTEBAYO!" He raised his fist in anger. Sakura glared at both Kakashi and Naruto, slapping the boy's back to calm him down. Off to the side stood Sasuke, his hands in his pockets as he briefly kicked the dirt and pebbles around him to form his clan's symbol. "Usuratonkachi," he grumbled at the group. To be honest, Kakashi did feel a little guilty about keeping the kids waiting for him. They were being held back just because he was wallowing in self-pity. And Kakashi felt ashamed of that; ordering his mind to push his thoughts further to the back of his mind.

Kotetsu and Izumo, guards of the gates, turned to the team and smiled in greeting. "The gate opening mechanism is broken, so we have to manually open the gates," they explained. "Heading out yet again, eh?" Kotetsu chuckled. "I thought you lot just came back from a mission. Ya leaving so soon?" Izumo asked. Naruto pumped his hand into the air, "Yeah! Dattebayo! It's only a C rank, but it'll be fun-ttebayo!"

He's a lot like you, eh Obito, Kakashi's mind wandered as he looked up at the clouded sky, a drop of rain fell upon his nose and slid down his mask. If only you, Minato-sensei, and Rin were here to see us in action. You would be proud.

But what about (y/n)? Part of Kakashi was surprised that he didn't think of her immediately. Did he still believe that she could've been alive? After the Hokage had told him that he'd lost contact with (y/n), Kakashi didn't know what to think. It had been 3,650 days since she left. 3,589 since she was supposed to come back. And 3,529 days since they fully lost contact. What were the chances she'd come back, alive or injured? Kakashi wanted to believe that she was still alive. Was that realistic?

"She's gone, Kakashi! You need to understand that!" He flashed back to when Asuma, Gai, and Kurenai had tried to slap some sense into him. Well actually, Kurenai had slapped him. "Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura gently tugged his sleeve, straining her arm up so her red umbrella would also cover his head. "Are you okay? You've been spacing out a lot lately." She whispered as she looked up at him.

"I'm fine, Rin," Kakashi weakly smiled, "It's nothing that you should worry about." Sakura flashed him a questioning look, "Rin?" Sucking the air, Kakashi's whole body tensed up, "Sorry." He looked away, turning his attention to the bickering Sasuke and Naruto. "Just a little mix-up, Sakura." He put on a fake smile, breaking up the boy's fight. "Let's go, shall we?"

"Alright! Shanaroo!"

"Dattebayo!"

Kotetsu and Izumo went to open the gates but stopped to exchange worrisome glances. "Someone just knocked from the other side of the gates. Which is weird because our list says that we shouldn't be expecting anybody." Izumo knit his eyebrows together. Kotetsu, who had been looking through a glass which allowed him to see the incomer, hastily urging Izumo to help him. "ANBU!" He had barked at his partner, "Bleeding! Dying, wounds, whatever! They need medical attention!" That had caught Kakashi's attention, he got ready to act as the guards opened up the gates, heaving on the rusted hinges. Yet he was not mentally prepared for what awaited on the other side of the grand doors.

There she stood. Uniform torn, stained and ripped up. The wakizashi sword that was strapped to her hip was blunt and scratched, the sheath dented. Skin scratched and bruised, wounds dripping with blood and gore. A long x shaped cut on the inner side of her left thigh. Gasping and choking for air, she started to wobble, blood dribbling down her limbs and stomach. The rain continued to fall, now hard and heavy; burning and searing the wounds of the lady. Yet she still managed to keep her face from wavering In an instant, Kakashi recognized who the woman was based on her cracked porcelain ANBU mask. (y/n).... "Sakura! Go alert the hospital. And you two boys, clear the way for Sakura so she can get there. Quickly!" Kakashi ordered them as he took the heavily wounded woman in his arms. Anger and fear coursed through Kakashi's veins as his heart thumped erratically. He could feel (y/n)'s body twitch in pain. "Izumo, go let Hokage-sama know that Ibara-hime has returned." Kakashi let out one last demand before zipping off to follow his kids.

"Kakashi..." (y/n) mumbled out his name, "Kakashi..." she shakily rose her hands up to gently cup his masked cheeks. "What is it?" He whispered, gently rubbing her skin through a torn patch of her ripped uniform. "Happy birthday, Hatake..." She softly breathed, her tight grip of Kakashi's chest loosened as her eyes dropped closed. Please don't die, (y/n)... I've waited all the fucking years. You aren't leaving me again. A tear formed in Kakashi's eye, flying off with the rain as he bolted towards the hospital. Stay with me a bit longer, will you?

"My sensei will be here any second with an ANBU woman in need of immediate medical attention!" Kakashi heard Sakura's voice quiver as he barged into the hospital. "I'm here, kids. Go to Gai-sensei and stay with him until I'm back." He quickly barked, flashing all of the nurses who flowed into the room a nervous look. "Please, help her. I'm begging you." He pleaded with the staff uncharacteristically. I need her to live. Need. "We do what we can, sir." One of the medic-nin nodded, putting (y/n)'s unconscious body onto the stretcher. If (y/n) lives, that would be the best birthday gift ever.

Kakashi jogged after the nurses and doctors, peering into the emergency clinic room through the window. "I'm sorry, Sir, but you won't be able to visit the lady until all the major injuries have been cleaned up and treated." A male nurse out his hand in his shoulder from behind. "But..! Okay..." Kakashi let out a sigh, "Isn't there any paperwork that needs to be filled out?"

The nurse shook his head, "The Hokage has come and is speaking to one of my colleagues about it. Don't worry about it. You won't have to take care of any of that." He tried to reassure the angsty shinobi, "The woman is part of the ANBU ranks, right? Her mask is of the uniform." Kakashi nodded his head, biting his lip inside of his mask, "Yeah...she is... but it's kinda complicated." The nurse raised his eyebrow but just shrugged. "Can I speak with the Hokage?" The Hatake requested. "Come this way," the other man sighed, leading him away.

Kakashi let out a deep and long sigh as he held (y/n)'s scraped hand in his gloved ones. He had been told by the same nurse from before that (y/n) was in a decent state to accept visitors, yet was still unconscious. He could tell that the nurse was hiding something from him, but he was too worried about (y/n) to give it a second thought. Hesitantly, he brought her hand to his masked lips, gently pressing them against the fabric. "Ya know, (y/n). After you left, I decided to give those goddamn books a try. And you're right, they are addictive. Thanks for the gift," Kakashi sadly chuckled before pausing for a moment.

"Those books, they helped me a lot. They helped me get through my days, just like you told me."

"They also helped me realize something. They helped me realize that I don't hate you. I don't want to hate, and I never should've."

"I've realized that I was such a dick to you at the beginning and that it was all my fault that our relationship became how it was. I regret it... So when you wake up again, I just want to start over again. Maybe not entirely, but just so that we can leave all the hate behind us. How does that sound?"

Kakashi stared at the sleeping (y/n), her chest heaving up and how slowly and rhythmically. It hurt him to see her like that, her skin swollen in the places of the stitches and anointed bruises. "Listen, (y/n). I'd never been able to tell this to you while you're conscious, so I might as well let it out now. I...I love you." Kakashi rightly shut his uncovered eye. "After feeling your loss, my dumbass self finally realized how much you are worth. After they pass on, you and the others were all I had left. But then you also left me, that hurt like hell." His tone started to break.

"Lord Hokage told me about the whole fake-death move, and I was relieved that you weren't gone for good. And then we lost contact, everybody assumed the mission had been finished, and your squad sacrificed your lives for it. I couldn't let the fact that you could be a dead sink in. It didn't feel right. Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai tried to get me out of another depression cycle. Kurenai even went to the lengths of quite literally slapping some sense into me." Kakashi played with a loose strand of (y/n)'s (h/c) hair.

The muscles of (y/n)'s hand twitched ever so slightly. Kakashi's drooping head snapped up; he'd almost fallen asleep in the chair. "(y/n)?" He murmured as her eyes started to flutter, "(y/n)?"

(y/n) chapped lip parted ever so slowly, taking a big breath of air, her (e/c) eyes squinting. "Hatake..?" She shakily managed to mumbled, her voice hoarse and dry. She tried to prop herself up on the bed, but Kakashi eased her back into her resting position. "Rest, (y/n), you're not ready to stress yourself yet." Kakashi to her, "I'll be back with a nurse and some water for you, alright?" (y/n) opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She simply looked down and nodded.

Moments later, Kakashi came back with the nurse and water. "Here," he carefully put the cup to her lip, gently tipping the cup, "Good." He turned to the nurse, who seemed to be scribbling something down from the little monitor to his clipboard. Kakashi's eyes followed the cord attached to it, to the long x shaped hash in (y/n)'s inner left thigh. What worried Kakashi was the anxious look on the nurse's face.

"(l/n)-san, your vitals are doing alright, but you'll have to stay here for a night or two just so that we can keep an eye on something's that may need monitoring." He curtly nodded his head, "Lord Hokage wished to speak to you. So, sir, that means you may have to leave."

Kakashi tried to reason with the other man, but (y/n) reached to weakly squeeze his thigh. "It's okay, Hatake. You can just drop by later." (y/n) tried to smile. "Fine," Kakashi grumbled, leaving the room and letting Hiruzen in.

After what seemed like an eternity, Hiruzen came back out. "How's (y/n)?" Kakashi asked him impatiently. The Hokage put his hand on Kakashi's shoulder as if trying to soothe him, "She'll be better soon. Don't worry, alright." The silver-haired shinobi let out a small grunt, "I know that she'll get better with time. But what about now?"

Kakashi knew that Hiruzen loved (y/n) almost like a daughter, he cared about her deeply. Hence the elaborate cover-ups to protect (y/n) and her squad on the unconventionally lengthy mission. The Hatake could see the sadness that had tried to be tucked away in the Sarutobi's eyes. "The main concern of the moment is the poison in the gash on her left thigh. The medic-nins have tried to extract as much of it as possible, and try to find something that will counteract the effects." The elderly man explained to him. "Did they find an antidote?" Kakashi questioned.

"That is where the problem lies," Hiruzen explained, "There is a certain medicinal herb that is used alongside a jutsu to nullify the effects, as the poison has traces of chakra. We have a few medics on hand who support the skill to perform the jutsu, but we don't have the plant. Even so, that won't be a permanent cure." Kakashi knit his eyebrows together, "How would it not be a perfect cure? Plus, since there are traces of chakra, could we possibly track down the person who created the poison and make them fess up on the cure?" He questioned.

"Great thinking, but..." Hiruzen groaned, "(y/n) said that they performed a self-destruction jutsu just after striking her. He probably thought that it would be in their best interest to take their secrets to the grave with them." Kakashi cursed under his breath, "Fuck... This is terrible."

Hiruzen nodded in agreement, "No duh."

Kakashi's head shot up, "Uh?!"

The elder man's eyes widened, "Did I use the term correctly?! I'm trying to pick up on the phrases the kids are using these days..."

Kakashi gritted his teeth, "Right idea of the meaning, I guess. But the context and timing...wasn't quite fit." Looking ever so slightly dejected, "Oh...alright." Smoothening out the wrinkles in his robe and putting in his cob pipe, "Kakashi, if you are going to stay here with (y/n), could you at least pick up some good food. The food in the hospital canteen is quite bland." Kakashi nodded his head and obliged, only to be stopped in his tracks by Hiruzen.

"Kakashi, I'd like to ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"What caused your change in actions towards (y/n) change so much?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've observed you two whilst you were in the ANBU together, and you never got along that well. And suddenly you act so attached to her, Kakashi. You don't need to answer. It's just that as your leader, I want to understand what is going on in the heads of some of my most trusted people." Hiruzen explained to Kakashi, puffing out a cloud of smoke from his cob pipe.

Kakashi frowned from behind his mask, trying to figure out how to explain his change of feelings in a professional manner. "I think that after I was given the impression that she was gone, I noticed that I cared about her. It made me realize that I was wrong to not see how much she meant in my life." He tried, his voice fading off into a whisper. Hiruzen smiled and nodded, "You really are something else, Kakashi."

Kakashi silently strolled over to Ichiraku's to grab some takeout. The paper lanterns lit the nearly empty streets of Konoha, creating a soft and soothing ambiance. The smell of the rain and moisture still clung to the air, the dirt roads had muddy dampness to them. "Yo! Kakashi, my eternal rival!" A boisterous and friendly voice greeted the said man. "Hey, Gai," Kakashi responded, he noticed his students sitting alongside each other and gave them a quick wave and smile. Naruto and Lee were arguing about who'd get Sakura. Sakura insisted that Sasuke would come around in her favor. Sasuke was quietly eating his food. And Neji and Tenten were discussing a new sword they saw in the windowsill of a weaponry shop.

"I'll take two eggplant miso soups with brown rice noodles," Kakashi leaned over the counter space between Lee and Naruto to order his meal, also effectively stopping the argument. "Thanks, Ayame," he thanked the daughter of Teuchi, owner of the quaint place. "No problem, Kakashi-san!" She chirped.

"Kakashi?" Gai raised his brushy brow, "Your kids told me about what happened this morning..." Kakashi sighed and pulled him aside so that they were at a comfortable distance, "It was (y/n)..." he told his best friend, "She's back and in the hospital because she's not in good health at the moment. I just came here to pick up a meal for her." Kakashi watched as Gai's jaw dropped, "(Y/N) IS ALIVE!" He exclaimed a touch too loud for his eternal rival's taste, "CAN I MEET HER?!" Tears of youthful joy waterfalled down the jumpsuit-clad man's cheeks. "I'll see if you can come tomorrow, alright Gai." Gai smiled broadly, "This is very...unusual. Youthful, nonetheless!" He grinned.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and nodded, "I'm glad she's back..." he murmured barely loud enough for Gai to hear. Knowingly, Gai patted Kakashi's back. "Oh! Yeah! Happy birthday, my youthful rival!" He gently punched his comrade's shoulder. A smile formed on Kakashi's lips, "Thanks, Gai." He flashed his eccentric friend his signature close-eyed smile.

"I'll see you later."

"Bye, Kakashi! Have a good night!"

Knock knock, Kakashi rapt (y/n)'s door, "Can I come in?"

"Come in," (y/n) murmured, a small moan of pain escaping her lips, "Ouch..."

Kakashi quickly set the takeout on a little table, rushing to (y/n)'s side. He wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and helped her to the table. "I got us dinner because the food at the canteen isn't that good." He explained with a slight shrug. "Thanks, Hatake," a weak smile formed on her lips. The silvered-haired Jonin served them their meals. "Itadakimasu," they both mumbled.

Heavy tension filled the room as they ate in silence. (y/n) knew that Kakashi had his mask down, but didn't look up. "It's been a while..." Kakashi breathed, in hopes of hearing (y/n) speak, "Too long..." The kunoichi rested her forehead on her palm, "I- Yeah..." she mumbled, eyes growing classier by the second. So much for trying to start a conversation... Kakashi thought sadly as they resumed their meals without a word. The silence seemed to be killed him. Kami, it had been 10 goddamn years! 3650 days since he had gotten to talk to the woman. He missed her. Hell, he could even say that he missed all of their little spats. Hatake Kakashi missed everything about (y/n).

"I missed you..." was all Kakashi mumbled as he pushed his finished food away and pulled up his mask, "All these days, months, and years."

Hot tears slipped down (y/n)'s cheeks, forming a puddle on the table. "I-I came back be-because I didn't want-want to hurt you and the r-rest. Dying on passed down pain to the people who love you. I can't afford to c-carry the guilt of t-that." She mumbled shakily, "I promised to be back, a-and I held up the promise." Kakashi sadly smiled as he awkwardly reached under the table to gently caress (y/n)'s thigh.

"You care about others so much, but you should really take a moment to care about yourself, (y/n)." Kakashi scolded the injured kunoichi, "You had me scared for you; all those gashes and open wounds... You could've died," he knit his eyebrows together in worry. "Don't do that ever again."

(y/n)'s dull smile faltered as Kakashi spoke on, "Now you know how I felt when I saw you doing all those suicidal stunts back then on those missions. It was like you were in a hurry to die... I mean, I was too, but you did some seriously dumb shit," she giggled emptily. Kakashi sweat-dropped, "I see... I guess you are right..." (y/n) rolled her (e/c) eyes as the masked shinobi let out a drained sigh, "I'm always right, Hatake."

"Really, (l/n)? You've been through torturous pain, and you still act like a child." Kakashi groaned, "All these years..." (y/n) shot him a hard glare, "All these years and you still think you're in charge of me." He cast a confused look, "It's my duty to protect you, as a comrade." As a comrade... "I guess, but you're just annoying, Hatake," she huffed.

"I'm sorry about ruining your birthday with my arrival and stuff. I probably ruined your plans with those kids." (y/n) looked down, breaking the silence that had fallen upon them, "I could hear you guys through the gate; they seemed pumped about going out. I'm sorry, I didn't think about the flaws in my whole plan." Kakashi's head snapped up from its resting position on the table, "It's fine, they don't even know it's my birthday," he paused, "But you planned to come here? As in, today in particular. With all those injuries, (l/n), you should've just tried to take care of yourself. My birthday isn't as important as your health."

The (y/n) shook her head, "I was going to stay at a small village pretty far from here before finally coming home. I planned to just heal up there and see how things went from there. I even considered settling down there. But that just didn't feel right," (y/n) face set in a frown, "Once I realized that your birthday wasn't that far off, I decided that I couldn't stay and needed to come back. I doubted I would even live to be back. But here I am..." she said with a soft wince of pain. "It was terrible, I hated every second of it," Her (s/t) fingers made their way to the raw mark on her inner thigh, “I’d already lost so much; there was nothing for me to lose at that point.” Kakashi's face softened as he understood what she meant. (y/n) wasn't put in the mission alone, she had her team. They all must've been killed with time.

"Ouch!" (y/n) yelped as she let out a moan of pain, clenching the fabric of her hospital-issued pajama pants. “Shh..." Kakashi whispered into her ear, quickly leaning in to soothe her, "What's causing all this pain?" He asked with a frown as (y/n) bit her lip. "It's the thing in your thigh, right? Lord Hokage and the nurse told me a bit about it. But I still don't fully understand it and how it can't fully be cured."

(y/n) buried her face in her hands, "Oh..." She mumbled, "The poison can't de be removed because it's already been inside of me too long. And since it is laced with chakra, the properties of it aren't completely like normal poison." She blinked back the stinging agonizing tears in her eyes, "The herb that I need is just going to ease the effects in my body, whilst the jutsu will seal it from triggering anything that was layered in with the chakra." (y/n) explained. Kakashi could tell she was trying her hardest to keep her face straight, pushing back the pain and hurting inside. "The thing is–"

"What?" Kakashi asked the pained woman, his tone soft and soothing, "I can help if I know what's going on."

Warily, (y/n) agreed to speak on, "The place where the mission was stationed at was just underground of the nuke-nin outpost I was from. And the guy who poisonous me was one of the other kids' experiments were done on, along with me. He was a few years older than us, and his name was Hiroto Myoga. His parents were in owed debt to the rogues, they were forced into being test subjects until they died. Which left Hiroto in the nuke-nin's hands." She rubbed the temple of her head pushing away the images that sent a shiver down her spine, "Something similar had happened in the case of my parents and me. But unlike me, when the ANBU did the raid, Hiroto was snuck away just in time."

Kakashi's heart sank as he heard what she was telling him. (y/n) had never known much about her past, the damned curse seal had caused. “Since he was older than most of the other kids there, the nuke-nin's of the outpost decided that they needed to trust their information. It was all precautionary, just in case they were taken down. And that's just what happened. Hiroto was the one ordered to put memory restriction curse seals on us, the kids, before he fled to be underground, where the actual harm was being done. That meant that all this time Hiroto had been working in those old plans." (y/n) closed her eyes tightly, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

With a subtle groan, Kakashi supported (y/n) up from the chair and rested her in her cot. "Don't stress yourself, (y/n). You can just tell me later; it's getting late anyway." He told her. "It's fine, Hatake. Letting this out helps me feel better." She reassured him.

"The ANBU caught wind of suspicious activity in that area and decided to send out a squad to go check out. I overheard Danzō arguing with Lord Hokage about it, and got interested. It was really dumb, but I just wanted to go to learn more about what happened in my past. I learned, but that can with lots of twists and turns. 10 years of going undercover..." (y/n)'s (e/c) eyes met Kakashi's single uncovered black one, "It wasn't long before Hiroto became suspicious of us, slowly narrowing the group down till it was just me." (y/n) took a deep breath and continued, "After Hiroto killed himself in our final fight, my curse seal was lifted. That's how I suddenly was able to remember all of the past. All of it."

A pit formed in Kakashi's stomach as he watched (y/n) cry in silence. He wanted to help her feel better, he really did. But he was afraid that he'd make things worse; dealing with feelings just wasn't his thing. "I'm here for you, (l/n). We've been through so much together, you've helped me through it all," Kakashi tried to reassure her, "It's my turn to look after you. Please, just don't cry." He reached out his hand to brush a tear-off of her streaked cheeks.

“Are you okay with me staying here for the night?" Kakashi asked (y/n) as they sat at the bay window, looking down upon the empty moonlit streets of Konoha. The soft light cast down by the moon seemed to make everything look beautiful, serene, and at peace. "(l/n)?" He asked again, turning to look back at her. A gentle smile played on Kakashi's lips as he saw that she'd fallen asleep. (y/n) had been through so much throughout the day, she not only deserved to rest for a long time but also needed to. "Good night, (y/n)..." he carefully lifted the sleeping beauty and placed her on the cot. Sitting back at the bay seat, Kakashi took in a deep breath. "I love you."

She's finally back.

She's finally home.

[ramzawrites]

Wherever the world takes us Part 1 - A SBI!Reader insert

GN

Pairings: none Characters included: Philza, Wilbur, Tommy, Tubbo, Cpt Puffy, Schlatt, Captain Sparklez, (mentioned) Fundy Warnings: small mention of death Series: Yes, planned slow updates but this happens in a slight AU world of the official lore of the dsmp and follows along the plot only this time the reader gets included as the middle hybrid child of the SBI Part 2

Summary: A small introduction to the SBI family dynamic including the reader! Today is Techno’s big day at the local festival! He get’s to participate in a fighting tournament but until that happens there is still a ton of time to somehow still get into trouble, isn’t there?

Word count: 4380

Shapeshifters aren’t as rare as many people think. In fact many carry that gene but not everyone ends up showing the properties of one. If you have the active gene you may show first changes during your early childhood which then stretches out until your late teens where the changes will stop resulting in the persons usual animal like form. These changes can range from a whole body covered in fur to having goat like eyes or just horns on their head.

As far as scientists know there isn’t a real reason as to what the final form will be since Shapeshifters who are directly related to one another can have complete and drastically different forms to each other. Though an old myth has been going around for as long as people know that the form a Shapeshifter takes is a result of their subconscious, something that mirrors their true self. Sadly due to this belief many Non-Shifters hold stereotypes and prejudice towards them.

Philza was a Shapeshifter himself. As a kid two stubs slowly appeared at his back and settled in over the years as beautiful huge black wings that he could use for takeoff and a bit for flying but mostly functioned better for gliding around. He used these wings to later travel around the world, learning everything about it and training himself.

At some point he did settle down again and ended up fathering four children alone of whom two showed Shapeshifter properties as well.

There were the twins Technoblade and Wilbur. Technoblade showed from an early age on a deeper interest in fighting. Always asking to learn more than the self-defense techniques their father was teaching them, so Philza took the time to teach him everything he knew. Gifting him later on a proper iron sword which Techno then used to train almost daily with. Philza later had to put mending on that sword since it was chipped and scratched in a short time over heavy use. He is also one of the two children of Philza who ended up being a Shapeshifter. They first noticed when two of his teeth in his lower jaw tended to peek out of his mouth. Over the years these two teeth turned into full blown tusks, flappy pink ears would appear on his head, his hair slowly turned into a soft pink, as well as bristle like fur begun growing on his arms. It were the characteristics of a pig as they soon realized.

Wilbur the younger of the twins by two minutes was more interested in music and books. Philza gifted him a guitar the same time he gave Techno his first sword. From that point on it was a rare thing if you didn’t see Wilbur’s guitar around him. Either on his person or laying close by him. Over time he got really proficient with the instrument and begun writing amazing songs as well as singing them himself.

The middle child Y/N was the more mellow of the whole bunch though this didn’t mean much in the context of the whole family. While they happily took part in whatever trouble their siblings got up to they were at the end the first person that would try to help solve these troubles as well and took care of any wounds. To that end they soon learned how to grow their own herbs to make medicine. This was something Philza taught them. Both would spent a ton of time in the garden, so much so, that the garden was dubbed Y/N’s and Dad’s garden. Techno would sometimes help out as well but that was a more rare occurrence. Y/N was the second kid with the active Shapeshifter gene. Just like their father, two stubs appeared at their back that too would turn into huge black wings. Y/N still remembered how perplexed but proud Philza was when he understood what was happening. They didn’t know what they expected from their father but this reaction wasn’t it. But they weren’t mad about it.

The youngest of the family was Tommy and he was the number one reason why the kids got into trouble in the first place. He would wake up, make weird plans and rope the others into it as well. Wilbur was the first he would usually try to recruit to which Techno then would reluctantly join knowing that if the two are together they will need help later on. Getting Y/N on board was pretty easy as well. It was either a thing of them knowing they will one hundred percent get hurt so best to join in now or they were feeling particularly chaotic that day and wouldn’t even hesitate to join.

Back when they all lived together in their old cottage home their daily lives would always start in the same way.

Philza would be the first awake. He would wake the children up and continue downstairs to work on breakfast for everyone.

There was no real order to who would be the first downstairs for food but it was always Y/N who would be the last to join the group. Moving in front of their designated chair only to stretch before properly sitting down.

“Ew! Gross! Your wing touched my food!” Wilbur exclaimed angrily, pulling the plate with his food closer to himself and farther away from his sibling.

Y/N rolled their eyes “I’m not poisonous, Wilbur.”

“Still gross.” He muttered more to himself as he reluctantly took a bite from his toast.

Phil eyed the two but looked back down to his food and coffee “Your wings are getting pretty big. I’m sure it won’t take long until you can do more than just gliding about.”

“So, that means you can teach them to fly soon?” Tommy was the one to ask surprisingly. Sure, that was on Y/N’s mind as well so they didn’t mind Tommy saying what they thought but they still felt like it was a bad sign and a call for trouble though they couldn’t think how nor did they care enough to find out.

Philza raised one of his eyebrows, obviously taking note of that fact as well. It was something you learned to look out for once you spend enough time with Tommy. “I’m not sure how soon but I think so, yeah.”

“Cool.” Was all Tommy remarked. He then proceeded to stare at his food so his family would get their suspicion off of him. Acting as if he didn’t just figuratively plant a huge red flag on the table with the words “I have a plan!”.

Y/N on the other hand couldn’t help to smile. They were excited for the eventual day when Philza could finally teach them how to fly. For the longest time now they have only learned to use their wings to glide and got really good at changing directions while doing so. Taking care of their wings was already a pain so they wanted to get at least something good out of having them in the first place and being able to properly fly is a huge plus since getting into positions where you could actually  glide around was a difficult and a bothersome thing.

Philza sighed choosing to ignore Tommy and instead turned to look at Wilbur and Y/N “What is your plan today? Want to join me and Techno when we go into town for the tournament?”

After a few seconds of confused expressions between the two Wilbur suddenly shouted “Oh! Techno’s tournament! Of course! I wanna see him beat up other people for a change!”

Techno snorted “Really feeling the support here right now, bro.”

“I’m guessing you both are coming too?” Philza was now addressing the other two of his kids.

Both were fast and eager to agree. Wilbur was right. Usually Techno tried sparring with his siblings though using the word sparring was maybe an overstatement. He would mercilessly beat them up and complain they didn’t last long enough. At rare times where all of them were bored enough they would play a game of >Who can last the longest against Techno<. Y/N really wasn’t too big a fan of this game since they ended up being the only one who would address the wounds later including their own since they didn’t trust the others to properly apply a band aid.

From this point on the breakfast was more alive than before. Tommy and Wilbur would constantly ask questions to Techno about who he will be fighting or how everything will work. To which he all just gave a very non-committal “I dunno”.

After they all cleaned up the breakfast table, they got ready and grabbed everything they needed.

The town wasn’t super far away but it was a long enough walk that it would be inconvenient to get back for things you might have forgotten.

Techno grabbed his sword while Wilbur made sure to take his beloved guitar with him. Y/N made sure to grab all kinds of medicine and bandages with them. They knew Techno will get treated at the tournament should he get hurt but they felt better if they brought some stuff with them as well. Tommy on the other hand made sure to grab all kinds of things including a few pages of paper, pens, string and more. Philza wanted to just write it down to Tommy probably meeting up with Tubbo in town and doing harmless crafts but the chances were slim.

As they made their way to the tournament and Philza was preaching to them to not cause any trouble since there would be a lot of people there today, Y/N soon noticed how Techno would nervously play around with the hilt of his worn out sword.

They affectionately put their arm around their older brother for a short side hug, including putting their wing around him “You’ll do fine. I know it. Don’t worry too much and just imagine you are beating one of us up.”

Technoblade had to roll his eyes at that “I’ll try to take that advice to heart.”

As they arrived in town the kids looked around in awe. Everywhere were stalls set up selling food or little decorative things or toys. People where weaving in and out between stalls, loudly talking with each other. Laughter and yells filled the air.

In the middle of the town square there was a huge box marked on the ground. This is where the fights would happen. As far as Techno explained the rules were simple. Get your opponent on their back, get them out of the box or beat them unconscious. Tommy was absolutely loving the idea of Techno beating all of his opponents unconscious and said he wouldn’t take any other result as acceptable.

“Alright kiddos. Techno and I have to talk with the organizer. You three can go and have some fun but you have to promise me a few things. Whatever you guys do stay together! Don’t talk to strangers and as soon as the fights start you come over. I will find you then, okay? I will only let you guys go if you agree to this.”

“I can still try to find Tubbo, right?” Tommy asked.

“Of course but only if you all stay together.” He was looking at Wilbur when he said the last part. This meant Wilbur was the boss for today. Well until they met up again with their dad.

Wilbur put his hands on each shoulder of his younger siblings “We will! Don’t worry dad!”

Philza gave them a last nod before walking off. Before Techno followed him he looked at the three “Don’t… cause too much trouble. At least for me so nothing happens to the tournament.” With that Technoblade turned around and followed Philza closely.

“Well, what should we start with?” Y/N asked their brothers.

Tommy threw his arms in the air “Tubbo!”

Wilbur laughed “Alright. We’ll try to find your Tubbo. I’m sure he and his siblings should be around here as well.”

Tubbo was Tommy’s best friend and honestly he hangs around their home so much they almost consider him a family member as well. He had an older sister Puffy and an older brother Schlatt though. They were a curious case. All three of them carried the active Shapeshifter gene and all three begun growing horns, their ears turned into that of goats and they all had the horizontal iris’.

Y/N liked to spend time with Puffy. Just like Y/N Puffy too acted more like a caretaker to her siblings which the two soon bonded over while Schlatt and Wilbur soon hit it off as well. It was actually quite amusing to see them interacting since Wilbur was known for loving art and freedom. Schlatt on the other hand tried to see how he can scam the most people in the most effective manner in the shortest amount of time. Trying to turn in a profit at every turn. You wouldn’t immediately think they would end up being such good friends.

The three were raised by their father as well who everyone just referred to as Captain Sparklez though his real name was Jordan. He coincidentally also helped with setting up this little festival for the town.

Tommy suddenly took a deep breath in as he cupped his hands around his mouth “Tubbo!”

Wilbur furrowed his brows “Tommy, there are a ton of people around here! There is no way he heard you.”

“Tommy! Over here!” a different voice called out, away from all the stalls and people.

Wilbur and Y/N looked surprised while Tommy almost proudly smirked at them. The bond Tommy and Tubbo had was something else.

Together the three ran through the crowd to finally meet up with Tubbo and apparently his siblings. As a greeting Tubbo softly headbutted Tommy while Puffy did the same to Y/N. Schlatt never did this with Wilbur. Said he might have goat like characteristics but he is still more human than goat hence why he didn’t do this whole headbutting thing. It has been a whole ordeal with Wilbur once where he demanded to get a headbutt from Schlatt as well for a greeting. After enough prodding and being a general nuisance Schlatt decided to straight up headbutt him as hard as possible almost knocking him out and gave him a good bruise on his forehead. Wilbur never asked for another headbutt greeting since then.

Y/N gave Puffy an additional hug, making sure to wrap their wings around her as well “I’m glad to see you Puffy!”

“So am I! I heard Techno is taking part in the tournament, isn’t he?”

Schlatt was for some reason cackling at that “Oh I bet he will win, won’t he? This would be the best time for some betting!”

Tommy, Y/N and Wilbur all nodded saying things like “Of course he will win. My brother is the best”

Soon the group begun to fall into their usual banter. Tommy and Tubbo were doing something next to them, only sometimes getting back into the conversation. Schlatt and Wilbur on the other hand were talking about how they could start bets and maybe earn some money because surely Techno will win. Y/N and Puffy listened in only to interject at times to root them back down. Both made sure they wouldn’t end up doing anything too stupid, though they too were in on it and ready to help out.

In the end the whole group was sitting on the ground and writing their plan down on the paper Tommy brought with him as suddenly a loud voice boomed over the crowd announcing that the fighting tournament will soon begin.

Tubbo looked absolutely horrified “No! I didn’t have a chance to check out the candy yet!”

Schaltt sighed and gave Tubbo a reassuring pat on his back “Don’t worry kiddo they will still be here after the tournament.”

With that the group begun walking to the marked place for the fighting. All the while Schlatt was grumbling that this was way too early and he couldn’t act on his betting plans.

“There are a lot of people.” Y/N noted as they came closer to their goal.

Indeed there were a surprising amount of people standing around the place. If it was difficult to get through the crowd before, now it seemed almost impossible. It was almost comical how the crowd seemingly turned into a wall of steel as the announcer begun his speech in order to greet all the people watching.

“Ugh, I can barely see anything.” Wilbur whined as he moved on his toes. Wilbur was the tallest of the group so when he had problems seeing anything Y/N instinctively already gave up. Maybe one day it would be the other way around seeing as they all were still growing but for now this was the reality of the situation.

Tommy was frantically jumping into the air trying to see anything that happened. He didn’t say it but he wanted to make sure to not miss out on any second of Techno’s fights. He was his older brother after all.

“Hey, Schlatt?” Tubbo almost whispered as he tugged at his older brother’s shirt.

Schlatt barely made any proper attempt to look over the crowd probably still busy thinking about his lost business opportunity. He tilted his head down to look at Tubbo “Hm?”

Suddenly Tubbo’s unsure expression turned into a serious one. While Wilbur, Tommy and Y/N were confused about this, Puffy begun to snicker.

“Aw, come on!” Schlatt drawled out but as soon as Tubbo got his pouting face out it was over for him.

He rolled his eyes and knelt down. With the help of Puffy, Tubbo was soon sitting on Schlatt’s shoulders, overlooking the crowd.

For some reason Tommy looked absolutely betrayed “This is unfair!”

“And why is that?” was all that Tubbo asked smugly. He was grabbing onto Schlatt’s horns which lead to him involuntarily yanking around his head whenever Tubbo himself moved around. Annoyed Schlatt gave his younger brother a playful slap on his arm as a sign to knock it off.

Tommy crossed his arms “Hey, Wilby! Wait no, I’m not a child anymore.”

Before Wilbur could even do his obligatory cooing whenever Tommy used his nickname or before Y/N could remind him that he was indeed still a child and younger than Tubbo he turned towards them instead.

“Y/N! You carry me and fly up that is way cooler than sitting on someone’s shoulders like some two year old.”

This took Y/N quite by surprise “What?”

“Dad said you are ready to fly and you spent like most of your free time already gliding or flying about so like basically the same thing right?”

“No! This is completely different! Besides I’m pretty sure my wings right now are barely able to carry my own weight! To that I have no idea how to take off from ground!”

Tommy’s bottom lip begun to quiver. Both Wilbur and Y/N knew it was fake but it was still a weakness for the two.

Y/N tried grabbing Wilbur’s sleeve for support but he was already looking at them with sad eyes himself “I mean Tommy just wants to see his big brother win, which is understandable right? At least worth a try?”

It was Y/N’s time to look betrayed but their expression soon got exchange by that one of defeat “One… One try. If that doesn’t work out I will give up.”

So the group walked back away from the crowd to have more space, Tubbo still happily sitting on Schlatt’s shoulders. He looked annoyed but Puffy knew that he was just as happy as she was that Tubbo had obviously a good time.

Y/N would spent a few minutes just trying to take off the ground on their own saying that they would first need to be a bit in the air before being able to grab Tommy. Wilbur was just watching with an amused smile on his face. Oh he was almost certain how this will end in disaster but he was just too curious to see how exactly.

After multiple running starts Y/N managed to get a few feet off into the air, flying directly towards Tommy so they could pick him up. They more or less bodychecked into their younger brother but still managed to pick him up and for a short moment it looked like the two were indeed a few feet above the height of the crowd.

Tommy was screaming partially out of fear but partially out of excitement. Y/N was so concentrated on flying and holding onto Tommy they didn’t even try to look out for Techno on the ground. They stayed semi stable in the air for good two seconds before both suddenly noticed they were losing altitude rapidly.

Now both were screaming as Y/N desperately tried to glide towards the hay bails that the town put up as decoration but with the added weight of Tommy they still plummeted towards the ground pretty fast.

The next thing Y/N remembers was that they were surrounded by hay and that their whole body was feeling heavy and sore. Tommy was groaning as he tried his best to get out of the hay and off their sibling while Y/N first made sure to calmly fold their wings back against their back as they slowly got out of the hay as well.

Suddenly two strong hands grabbed the still disoriented Y/N and helped them properly back to their feet only to be met by an angry looking Philza.

“What on Ender were you thinking?”

“Oh hey dad!” Y/N croaked out as they avoided any eye contact with him. Instead they were busy plucking hay out of their wings. Due to the fall there was a lot of hay trapped between feathers, there were also a few bent feathers that felt uncomfortable at best.

Tommy was sheepishly standing next to them also avoiding eye contact.

“I told you to get to the tournament and wait for me! I told you guys I would make sure to find you so why did you do whatever the hell you just did?” Philza rambled off.

“Yeah guys why did you two do that?” Wilbur was now approaching his family as well, including their other three friends who followed suit.

Y/N let go of their wing as they turned towards their older brother with an angry frown “You encouraged us! Don’t act like you are the only innocent person here! Aren’t you as our big brother supposed to stop us or something when we are stupid?”

Philza sighed “Okay, we deal with this later but at least tell me why?”

“We wanted to see Techno but we couldn’t get past the crowd!” Tommy answered.

“My fights will only start in like half an hour dude. Didn’t you guys listen to the announcements?”

To their surprise Technoblade appeared from behind Philza. He looked bored but still had a somewhat smug smile on his face. Who wouldn’t feel a tiny big smug when your younger siblings gets into trouble with dad for something that was absolutely their fault and you were luckily this time no part of it.

“You three are in trouble! We will go back so Techno won’t be too late for when it’s his turn but once we are back home it’s three weeks of chores for all of you.”

This earned him a murmur of “Okay, dad.” And “But we didn’t do anything bad!”

After that the day ended up pretty normally. They had their trouble for the day so they continued on with following Philza back to the tournament place. He made sure that all the kids had the best places in front so they could watch as Techno absolutely destroyed the other kids.

Jordan joined them as well. Philza didn’t spend any time waiting on telling him how Y/N and Tommy crashed into one of his decorations. He wasn’t angry but did chew out his own kids a little bit for not even attempting to stop them.

For some reason this was the day Y/N always fondly thought back on. They got into their typical trouble that day but also spend a ton of time with their family and friends back in their hometown. Enjoying seeing Techno beat others up and of course winning the tournament to which then Phil and Jordan bought the kids a ton of candy from the stalls.

Yes, they loved their family so dearly and would do anything for them.

So when a letter arrived from Wilbur that informed them that a few days ago a friend betrayed him which led to him losing his first life of three as well for Tommy, Tubbo and their nephew Fundy it felt like their heart got ripped out of their chest.

Y/N was still living at their old childhood home with Philza but both were only rarely at home. The two traveled around the world independently from each other using the old cottage as a place to rest in between. Wilbur probably addressed the letter knowing that this was the most reliable way to contact his family.

Reaching Technoblade who was training out of country was almost impossible at this point in time.

Y/N got out a piece of paper and wrote a letter for their father.

“Dad, I’m going to visit Wil and Tommy. Love, Y/N”

This was all that needed to be said.

They put the letter including the letter from Wilbur visibly on the table so Philza would see it as soon as he got back home. They did this sometimes in order to talk to Philza as well as the other way around so both were always looking out for messages on the table once they got back home.

Y/N grabbed their old netherite sword they got way back from Techno as a gift and begun thinking about what to take with them for the flight towards L’Manberg. If they fly it would only take a few days to reach the place but they also couldn’t carry a lot of things with them.

“Hell of a reason to visit your family after a long time, huh.”

[sapphicquill]

congrats on 100 followers friend <3 may I ask for anything with ler!Fjord bc the way you wrote teasing in your TAZ fic was so good? or lee!Lucretia during the Stolen Century arc being tickled out of her antisocial little shell if you're in a TAZ mood :) -Chock

Whoops. This is what happens when my whole life gets flipped upside down and I have to move cross-country back home out of no where! Sorry for the long wait, I'm finally making headway on these fics. I owe the entirety of this fic to @ticklishnonsense's honey-tongued because that’s the Ultimate Teasey Ler!Fjord fic and to @poesparakeet-fics for the plot because my smol brain could not come up with anything good and she gave me THE GOODS. Hope you enjoy, @chockfullofsecrets!

(ao3 link!)

Rating: Teen

Characters: Fjord, Caleb Widogast

Wordcount: 2423

After everything they’ve all been through, Fjord thinks he can handle most things. Spitting up salt water in the mornings, nearly getting impaled by strangers on a regular basis, Nott rifling through his shit—while he’d rather not deal with all of that bullshit, he can and that’s the important thing.

But the crushing weight of all the damn pining happening between Caleb and Essek might be the one thing Fjord absolutely cannot handle for any longer.

It had started innocently enough. Hands brushing and secret smiles and eyes briefly meeting before diverting, full of nerves and excitement and swirling butterflies. He’d experienced some of the same with Jester, but the two wizards were starting to get insufferable. It was painfully obvious to anyone in the room that they had a thing for one another, and even if it wasn’t, Fjord had overheard Caleb whining to Jester more than once about the entire situation, so it wasn’t like he was entirely oblivious to his own crush.

But apparently perpetually sad and stuffy wizards are really bad at just admitting what was right in front of their faces. Fjord’s worried that one of them might just explode soon, and that’s the entirely altruistic reasoning that finally inspires him to insert himself into the situation.

Caleb’s problem, Fjord thinks, is one of confidence. He gets too caught up in his own keen mind, tangling everything up in his head and overthinking and overanalyzing and panicking and deconstructing until everything’s just a jumbled mess of knots. He just needs a little push is all. A little something to nudge him past the trouble that is thinking and into acting. And Fjord thinks he knows a fairly good method of encouragement.

Thus, Fjord is currently standing in the doorway of the mansion library, trying not to reveal his presence too early. Caleb is folded over a desk with a pinched expression on his face that Fjord knows by now means he’s reached some sort of roadblock in whatever he was working on. In other words: a perfect time for an interruption.

“Productive afternoon?”

It’s a testament to how close the group has gotten that Caleb only sort-of flinches at the sudden sound of Fjord’s voice.

“Ah, nein, not really,” the wizard replies as he straightens up. His back makes an ominous cracking noise as he sits up and Fjord winces in sympathy.

“Gods, then maybe it’s time to take a break, hm?”

“Ja, a break…” Caleb trails off, eyes drifting back to the scattered parchment and books on the desk. Fjord resists the temptation to roll his eyes at the utterly predictability of their headstrong wizard.

“Okay, well now I’m making you take a break, Widogast,” he says as he marches swiftly over to Caleb and practically hauls him out of his chair. Caleb, unsurprisingly, goes willingly, letting himself be shuffled over to a nearby sofa.

With a huff, Caleb sits and begins massaging his temples, willing away either a physical ache or a swirling mass of snarled thoughts and ideas. Fjord lowers himself down next to the human and pretends like he isn’t thrilled over what he’s about to do.

A comfortable silence descends then. After a few more vigorous rubs, Caleb leans his head back against the leather of the sofa and closes his eyes and Fjord figures this is the best chance to spring the trap.

Quick as a slash of his falchion, Fjord twists from his spot next to Caleb and pulls him down into a horizontal position before caging the human in from above. He hovers over the now-prone wizard and tries not to feel too smug as Caleb yelps but doesn’t move an inch to try to wiggle away.

“Scheiße, what the hell are you doing?”

“I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about something,” Fjord says casually as he can. Caleb gives him an exasperated look, complete with raised eyebrow and suspicious frown.

“And this ‘something’ requires you to pin me to a sofa?”

Fjord grins before scooping both of Caleb’s wrists up with one hand and pulling them above his head. Exasperation shifts quickly into a mix of disbelief, fear, and anticipation and Fjord is lucky that around his friends, Caleb wears his emotions very clearly on his face.

“Well,” the warlock starts, “I kind of figured that this particular topic would send you scampering off if I didn’t take some preventative measures.”

A fiery blush colors Caleb’s cheeks and Fjord tries not to laugh.

“And something tells me I thought correctly.”

Caleb makes a noise not unlike one Fjord’s heard from Frumpkin and finally starts to struggle lightly in his grasp, like his body is only now catching up with the rest of him. Fjord lets him, figuring that letting the wizard work himself into a bit of a tizzy will just make his own task easier. Caleb’s terribly predictable. As the human squirms minutely under him, Fjord lets his free hand curve subtly into a claw and hovers it just next to Caleb’s lower ribs.

“Now, see, I also think you might benefit from a little preemptive encouragement, because you’re the most stubborn fucker I’ve ever met when you have to talk about anything personal...”

Fjord trails off when he notices that Caleb’s eyes have locked onto his hand, mostly because he knows that the brilliant mage has connected all of the appropriate dots and will voice a protest in three, two—

“N-nein, Fjord, wait just a moment, there is no need for—”

Fjord slowly flutters his fingers, still poised a hair’s breadth from the stretched expanse of Caleb’s ribs, and Caleb cuts himself off with a hitched laugh-gasp, eyes wide as saucers.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to negotiate right now,” Fjord says, the edges of his voice tinged with a low growl as he keeps the motion of his fingers going. Caleb doesn’t really do much aside from grow ever so slightly redder in the face.

Without further preamble, Fjord finally moves his hand to meet Caleb’s torso. It’s like the wizard has been hit with a successful Thunderwave—his whole body jolts before tensing up so tightly he trembles. Continuing the fluttering from before, Fjord traces across the space between Caleb’s two lowest ribs and grins when Caleb lets out something between a giggle and a whine.

“Gods, you’re so easy to rile up, you know that?”

Caleb’s giggling picks up at Fjord’s words. He’d have pity on the wizard if it wasn’t so adorable. Still gently teasing at the softness of Caleb’s lower ribs, the half-orc leans forward until his mouth is right next to his victim’s ear.

“You’re just that ticklish, huh?”

Caleb thrashes, throwing his head from side to side so rapidly Fjord would be worried the human would hurt himself if he hadn’t watched this happen numerous times before. For good measure, he lets his fingers drift up Caleb’s ribs and lets out a small laugh himself as the giggles morph into airy, full-blown laughter. Exactly as planned.

“So you and Essek,” Fjord says casually as he straightens back up, pitching his voice a little louder to be heard over Caleb’s bubbly laughter. The wizard definitely seems to register his words if the cut-off gasp and even more desperate wiggles are any indication. Fjord laughs a little to himself at the adorable way Caleb scrunches his nose when the increased movement does little to deter his attack. Taking a little pity, Fjord pushes on, his free fingers swirling tight circles up and down Caleb’s right side.

“You know he likes you too, right?”

Fjord’s not exactly sure humans are supposed to turn that shade of red, but Jester’s got healing spells to spare right now, so he continues.

“And as amusing as it is watching you two dance around each other, it’s getting a bit old.”

“B-bitte, Fjord—!”

Caleb’s own laughter cuts off whatever plea was going to escape next. The wizard flops his head a bit side to side, like if he shakes enough he’ll clear Fjord’s words like trapped water from his ears. It’s downright precious and one hundred percent ineffective.

Adjusting his grip on Caleb’s wrists, Fjord lets his fingers trail up his captive’s ribs in the same slow pace he knows will drive Caleb up the damn wall. It’s a little impressive, actually, how easily this light tickling can take their resident wizard apart. Particularly useful at certain times. He can feel Caleb trembling under him, laughs high and desperate as the light tracing fingertips slowly migrate up to what both Jester and Molly affectionately refer to as his worst “death spots.”

“So, here’s my idea.”

His fingers flutter just below the space where his holsters normally are—fortunate Caleb feels comfortable and safe enough to remove them when at the house—and the wizard groans through his laughter.

“Either you promise that you’ll confess to Essek the next time he’s around, or I’ll just have to keep tickling you forever. How’s that sound?”

“Wh-aaat? Bitte, no, that is e-eehviil!”

“That’s kind of the point, bud,” Fjord replies around another laugh of his own. He floats his fingers up the scant few millimeters to the space between Caleb’s uppermost ribs without prompting and hopes that the wail the human lets out doesn’t worry the rest of the Nein. (It shouldn’t, not with the frequency Caleb makes noises like that.)

“I’m not letting up until you tell me the first words out of your mouth when you see Essek next are ‘Can we talk somewhere privately, Shadowhand?’” Fjord pitches his voice into a terrifically awful imitation of a Zemnian accent that has Caleb laughing, somehow, even harder. Though, on second thought, that might have more to do with the rapid little scribbles he’s got focused on the space above Caleb’s top rib than his attempt at accentwork.

Unsurprisingly, Caleb doesn’t say anything much in response, instead throwing all of his effort into laughing and squirming ineffectively. Fjord keeps a careful ear out for any hint of the safeword Jester had insisted everyone know about and respect upon pain of near-death, but the only thing coming out of Caleb is whimpered begging and a spray of foreign curses. Perfect.

Fjord takes a split second to send a silent apology to Jester, who will no doubt be massively upset she missed out on assisting Fjord with this bit of encouragement, but this was his game right now, dammit, and it was time to go for the kill.

(Would it be worth the inevitable tickling the blue tiefling would dish out later? Most definitely.)

“Alright, well, suit yourself, Widogast.”

With that, Fjord moves the tickling to Caleb’s exposed underarm and focuses the entirety of his attention on making the human melt.

With an impressive amount of core strength, Caleb attempts to jackknife in half to throw Fjord off. Fortunately, their wizard’s tricks are well known by now. Fjord barely budges as he keeps up the spidering under Caleb’s arm, letting his fingers trail just the slightest bit up the underside of Caleb’s bicep before reversing back down to the soft spot just above Caleb’s uppermost rib.

The fight drains out of the mage just as quickly as it revved up, leaving him loose and floppy and lost in the throws of his own cackling. Fjord would feel bad if he didn’t know how much Caleb was enjoying himself. Time to step things up a notch.

“You know how to get me to stop, Caleb. Do you really like the thought of me tickling you like this more than the idea of confessing to a crush you know is damn-well mutual? Really seems like it.”

More wailing, more thrashing, but still, no dice. Maybe a slightly different approach…

“Gods above, you’re just too ticklish for your own good, aren’t you?”

As always, Caleb responds viscerally to the mere word and that, of all things, seems to be the final straw.

“Scheiße, bitte! Habt mitleid! Ohhkay, I pr-promise!”

“You promise what?”

“Oh please, I caa-aan’t—!”

Fjord shifts from light tracing along Caleb’s top ribs to a solid press of his palm, steadying the human as his laughter slowly eases up. After a few gulps of air, Caleb continues.

“I will tell Essek how I truly feel when we next encounter him, I swear to you!”

“You’re absolutely promising me you’ll spill about your deep, undying love for Essek Thelyss the very moment he’s within twenty yards of you?” Fjord taunts, curling his fingers back into a claw at Caleb’s right side. The human tenses and anticipatory giggles start bubbling from him almost instantly.

“Ja, ja, I a-ahh-m!”

“Good!” Fjord says brightly, pulling his hand away from Caleb’s squirming form. He smiles down at Caleb, who looks about ready to protest the large hand still pining his wrists to the sofa, before lowering himself to speak directly into the wizard’s ear.

“And maybe after you two have worked everything out, I’ll have a little chat with Essek myself about how much you like this particular method of torture.”

Caleb looks a bit like he’s swallowed a toad.

“F-fjord, mein Gott, wait—”

“I’m sure Molly and Jester would be more than happy to help me tell him all of the best ways to tickle you senseless, hmm? They’re tieflings, you know how honest they get when tickling comes up. They’ll just gush about how much you love it when we wreck you until you can’t remember your own name.”

He isn’t even tickling him anymore, but Caleb is giggling, light and bubbly and tortured, all from Fjord’s teasing alone.

“Hell, maybe we’ll all get you the next time Essek comes by the tower. How’d you like that, him watching you get tickled by every single one of us until you cry and knowing you love every minute of it?”

Caleb’s just babbling in Zemnian through his laughter, eyes squeezed shut and a grin pulling wide at his lips.

“D’you think he’d join in if we asked him to?”

Caleb just keeps laughing. Fjord grins. Mission successful.

[hollyhomburg]

Of Fire and Love (Pt. 3)

(Dragon! Yoongi x Reader) (Ft. Baby! Jungkook and Baby Dragon! Hoseok) (Dragon! Namjoon x Fairy! Jimin) 

Summary: When Dragon Yoongi finds baby Jungkook in the wreckage of a house he burned down, he can’t bring himself to kill the child. Months after someone drops a baby at your door, you start to notice something- or someone, lurking at the edge of your farm.

W/C: 9.3k

TAGS: anxious! hobi, Mentions of mates and soulbonds, Brief nudity, 

A/N: Hope you guys like this and are still interested in this story after so long between updates! the last few months have been kind of a struggle for me getting out of china during the coronavirus stuff, every single one of my family members was quarantined for 2 weeks besides me, but luckily none of them ever came down with the virus and they’re all okay! I hope we all are able to remain healthy in the next few months. 

Also, it’s worth noting that namjoon and Jimin's manor house is not on the map provided in chapter 2! That manor house is a different one! this chapter is a little heavier in the plot and family sweetness vs. the Yoongi x reader romance. hopefully, you don’t hate it! 

Part 1    Part 2 

- You have no idea what the dragon council will decide. If they’ll let you keep Hoseok or decide that it’s better if he remains with his own kind. and that- not the dragons you might meet or the thought of being in a city that hates your kind- is what scares you the most. 

- It’s a fear that Yoongi shares, but you try not to let it bother you- or to let Hoseok know that you’re scared. All of you ignore the possibility that Hoseok could be taken from you. But because of that, you also ignore the first missive summoning you to the council. 

- For the second missive, the council deemeds it best (given how Yoongi had received the first emissary) to send a messenger hawk. You ignore that letter as well, but the next one that comes delivered while the four of you are away for the day off to a nearby village for the few things that Yoongi can’t get via plundering, contains less than cordial language. 

- There is another smaller message tucked into the scroll, written personally for Yoongi and not ‘Yoongi windborne, commander of the western battalion’ or whatever title the council decided to give him after the last war (it hardly means anything- the dragon council’s garrison hasn’t been called in well over 100 years). 

- The note is small and in a scrawl he recognizes: Come and visit! Jimin misses you. I hear you have a son now? And a mate? We’d both love to meet them. Namjoon’s chicken scratch writing is still the same after all these years, Yoongi flips over the other side of the note. I’m trying my best, but I can only hold them off for so long – KNJ

- Though it’s been years since the last time they spoke, and even longer since they’d seen each other in person, Yoongi’s heartstrings tug uneasily as he thinks of Namjoon sticking up for him in front of the other councilmembers. Once upon a time, Namjoon had been one of Yoongi’s lieutenants, though they’d been much more than that, the horrible business of war binding them closer than friends and more like family. 

- He, Seokjin, and Namjoon had all found each other during the last war. yoongi had been without his family by that point, and searching for a cause- anything really- to occupy his eternity. Yoongi had been appointed as a commander after he’d been successful in a few minor battles. Namjoon had been assigned to his battalion, a dragon from the north with no formal training come south to prove himself.

-  Seokjin brought to the same place as a medic who owed allegiance to neither side and only wished to make the war less bloody. Yoongi was the only commander that allowed Seokjin into his camp, as he was stalwart about treating both sides, enemy and friend alike, and yoongi was the only commander who would support him doing both. They’d been fast friends, outcasts among the ranks, and they were friends still. 

- After the war they’d all scattered to different parts of the globe, Namjoon- because he had a dream- a dream to make the world better, and like all fools, had decided to go into politics. A mixture of grief and hopeful sorrow (and love- endless love) had driven Seokjin north.

- Yoongi still remembers it, the day that they’d paused on their march to join another battalion settled in for a warm afternoon in the human kingdom. the world so flat deep into orchard lands and taken refuge in peach fields that had turned to ashes in the coming months as the war had ravaged the countryside. He remembers hearing the shout, Seokjin leaping up from where he’d been reclined against Namjoon’s cool side, the dragon barely shifting let alone actually shifting. 

- Yoongi runs with Seokjin, seen the teen- the young man sitting below a ladder, a knife meant for cutting peaches from their tree embedded in his arm. he’d seen the way that Seokjin had looked at the man as he pulled it out, the wide boxy smile as the human marveled at Seokjin’s magic.

- There is a reason why Seokjin never comes south anymore, the peach fields remind him too much of Taehyung not to hurt.

- But maybe Taehyung and Seokjin’s story is better placed for a different time. 

- Yoongi like Seokjin, hadn’t wanted to go back to the city, too used to being on his own at that point. And still- the guile of war hadn’t ebbed the grief of losing his own parents. It’s rare now, that Yoongi thinks of them time finally healed those old wounds. When he looks at you- he knows he has a new family now, and this one he’s determined not to lose. 

- They’d lost contact mostly because of Namjoon’s appointment to the dragon council- a feat in its self for a lowborn tundra dragon from a tribe like Namjoon. Yoongi hadn’t bothered pushing the contact- knowing that they’d remain friends no matter how much time separated them. He’s glad that’s still true even now. 

- Over the next few days, Yoongi mulls it over, but he knows he can’t outrun the council forever. Fall has already gripped the mountains by the time Yoongi finally takes the four of you to the dragon city to meet with the council. 

- Both you and Jungkook greet the awaiting hundreds of thousands of dragons with something like mixed trepidation on your part and wonder on Jungkook’s. Hoseok is another matter: he clutches at your hand the whole flight to the city, both he and Jungkook tied tight between your legs for safety. And though Jungkook might nod off most of the time lulled to sleep by the gentle up and down movement of Yoongi’s back in the sky. Hoseok curls close to you, nuzzling into your shoulder periodically. Glad to be so close. 

- He can’t fly yet, but you know from the way his wide red eyes look at the puffy clouds that he’s feeling some sort of call to the wind that both you and Jungkook are immune too. 

- Well... maybe Jungkook feels it too in some way. When he’s awake and not curled up, he and Hoseok shout into each other's ears over the sound of the wind, sometimes holding out their hands in mock flight. 

- Your hands remain firmly around either of their waists, holding on harshly to a support rope in front of you. Somehow you don’t think you’re ever going to get used to flying, your stomach dipping with every new headwind. 

- The journey is long and hard- but you couldn’t imagine making it on foot if flying takes a week. The first two days you don’t escape the frozen mountains; you’re lucky for Yoongi’s warm back between your legs to keep you from really feeling the cold. You keep your same old shawl- the first one that Yoongi gave you wound tight around your neck. 

- before you’d left Jungkook had found his old baby blanket shoved deep in an old chest of Yoongi’s with a few old storybooks, It had surprised both you and Yoongi when he’d found it- and started wearing it much like you wear your shawl. “It has my name on it- so it must be mine” he’d said, proud over the fact that he could read. 

- Hoseok had looked a little shy and unsure, fingering the red scarf whenever he can, until you’d gone to the nearby village to get some supplies for your journey and gotten him a matching one. Though his is blue so dark it’s nearly black, and has a hood that he can tug up to hid his horns if he ever needs too! 

- He’d hopped up and down when you’d given it to him, wanting you to scent it before he put it on, snuggling down into in and hiding his mouth in it with a little happy dragon noise. He and Jungkook look like quite the pair, Jungkook’s black hair and red shawl, and Hoseok with his red hair and black shawl. 

- You pass over woods on the other side of the mountain range, dotted with waterfalls and visible streams that grow over the next few days into rivers that wind in and out of view. You start to spy hollows and carefully carved out dens in the few mountains you pass, or even nests. You pass over tall hills dotted with red poppy fields and farmland, and even camp in one late at night. 

- The tall blooms hanging over your heads as you sleep in your sleeping bags. you wake at first light with red petals dotting your hair, Jungkook and Hoseok sleeping on as Yoongi slowly picks them out, giving you a kiss to your face and chest for everyone. Ending his morning kisses with a scalding one just over your heart. 

- When the little settlements that dot the countryside start to grow more numerous, more like large towns, Yoongi flies higher just to stay out of sight of the others of his kind.

- He doesn’t know how your and Jungkook’s presence so deep into dragon lands will be received, especially out here in the country where many are loathed to forget any of the wars in recent memory or the one that’s currently blooming. The citizens of the dragon city, on the other hand, are far more accepting, even overly curious if Yoongi remembers well- it’s been about 100 years since he last set foot in it, things could have changed. 

- But Yoongi is still a little too worried for comfort, the last time that you land to make camp, everyone can feel how tense it is. It must be the hardest for Hoseok, already wound tight by anxiety and further stressed out by Yoongi’s off-putting scent of discomfort. The youngling spends the whole night shifted and scent marking both you and Jungkook, huffing every time either of you try to move away from him.

- There are some precautions that they have to take before you enter the city limits. Both you and Jungkook are carefully scent marked and each given something of Yoongi’s to wear as claiming items. Yoongi gives each of you a bracelet made from one of his shiny black scales that he made a few weeks ago. Any dragons that see you will know you’re claimed and spoken for- even if he turns away for a moment and you’re caught without them.

- In the end, it’s only the curiosity of what Yoongi is doing that makes Hoseok shift. Hoseok sweetly makes both of you one too- though his are rougher and not quite as elegant- a simple twine necklace with one of his red feathers for each of you to wear around your necks- that way everyone will know you’re apart of Hoseok’s family too. 

- “Do you like it?” he asks after he steps up to where your legs are crossed around the campfire and puts the long string around your neck, you wrap your arms around him and pull him into your lap. Making him erupt into giggles “I love it Hobi I’m never going to take it off” he presses his cheek to the top of your head, scent-marking you before he darts away to give Jungkook his. 

- on the day you enter the city, Yoongi is careful to circle the city from above, you can smell the ocean even if you can’t see it yet high above the clouds. He’d warned you before- to hold on, that entering might require some fancy flying. When you first breach the cloud line from above- you’re shocked, what you first assume is a cloud of brightly colored birds grows in size as Yoongi falls into the steepest dive he dares with you on his back, gliding into a slow spiral down.

- You’re glad you’re a little too scared from the dive to even look around- or else you’re sure that the sheer number and dimorphism would scare you. you break through the second layer of clouds and the city rises up to meet you. 

- The city is in the center of a massive island miles across, on one side of it- the city rises up slowly to the edge of a cliff, a tall castle at the highest point. But even on the other side, you can see the cliffs are dotted with hanging buildings. On the less steep side of the city, tall buildings are wound through with canals, colorful ships docking to unload their wears from far off lands.

- You’ve never seen so much glass in one place, in the human realms, glass is costly and usually used sparingly- but this castle is nearly made of the stuff, piercing the sky like a faceted quartz crystal. The city it’s self-looks almost like a human city if not for the taller towers, landing pads, and wider roofs for sunbathing dotted with Jem colored scaly beings that look lazily at the sky when Yoongi descends. 

- You’d never realized how Yoongi might compare to others of his species, but even here- his black wings seem to block out the sun, he’s easily twice as large as the average size. luckily none of them fly too near to you- the thousands of dragons dotting the sky too preoccupied with their own destinations to wonder at yours. 

- You’re glad you’re a little too scared from the dive to even look around- or else you’re sure that the sheer number and dimorphism would scare you. 

- The entire fiasco of landing takes about a minute but feels longer.

-  When you land, it’s in a square in the shroud of the castle with steep walls and a large hall- faceted like a cut stone. The wide black landing pad is tiled with white stones in the shape of a coat of arms. The hexagonal black stones are warm underfoot as you slide off of Yoongi’s back the insignia- whatever it might be, indiscernible now that you’re at ground level.

- Attendants rush forward, some of them puzzled and others, who recognize Yoongi dropping into deep bows. 

- Though Jungkook had been excited when he’d first learned that there was a whole city full of dragons- now he’s shy, tucks himself into your legs when you slide onto the stone. Hoseok falls into a flurry of feathers, shifts halfway down Yoongi’s back and steps in front of both of you, his feathers raised and puffed up to make himself look larger. 

- It’s strange, you’d never imagined the different ways in which dragoness could present its self In human form but now you see there is some sort of dimorphism between shifting species. A young woman with wings rushes forward as if to take your bags, but halts when Hoseok hisses at her. There is even one with a tail poking out from underneath her skirt, and a group of small soldiers who look more dragon than human even though they’re still bipedal.   

- A pretty looking soldier with silver scales sparkling along his shoulders like the armor he also wears steps up, a spear held in his shaking hands not at the ready, but held almost as if he is unsure of the threat. Yoongi steps in front of the three of you smoothly- the shift ending with a flap of his robes, suddenly toe to toe with the soldier who looks like he’s about to faint, eyes widening at the sight of Yoongi’s human form. 

- He’s quick to drop the spear, and back up, you almost think you see Yoongi smirk. “I am Yoongi Windborne, victor to the battles of frozen fires, of tialug pass, the stolen city, Commander of the eastern battalion and victor to the 33 year war, I have come to the council when summoned, take me to them.” 

- A dragon woman with no visible mark beyond her slanted emerald eyes steps forward, the pin on her chest of a large fire-filled flower (what you decide you must have seen in the center of the coat of arms. Later Yoongi will tell you it’s the symbol of the council) she introduces herself as The main caretaker of the castle and drops into an elegant bow “I will take you to them master, follow me.” 

- The palace guards recede; Hoseok sifts back and straightens, Yoongi nods and then gestures with his hands for you to follow without turning from the woman. You would reach out and take his hand if it weren’t for Jungkook and Hoseok clutching either of yours. Jungkook is wide-eyed and a little bit frightened, but his wide brown eyes dart to take in absolutely everything he can. Hoseok is still and as tightly wound as a statue, his back rim rod straight holding your hand so tightly in both of his that it’s starting to hurt.

- “Your family may wait here,” the caretaker says, as you break out into a small antechamber. It’s a little enchanting, the open-air courtyard with a raised pool in the center pastel colored fish swimming lazily in the clear water. Great bushels of puffy pink flowers hang from the ceiling above- giving the whole thing an almost cloudlike aesthetic, small glass orbs hang periodically that seem to glow dully with muted light hang on unseen strings. 

- “I’ll give you a second to settle in,” the caretaker says then turns her back to the two of you, farther on down the hallway you can barely hear it, the sound of clamoring voices and a small shout, a loud booming laugh. You figure you must not be far from the council room.  

- Your boys look up at you, and you lean down, pressing a kiss to either of their for heads. “Would you give your father and I a minute?” they both nod, their mismatched black and red curls bobbing as Hoseok transfers his death grip from your hand to Jungkook’s and lets the younger pull him in the direction of the pool. 

- Hoseok holds onto Jungkook, smiling down at Jungkook when he says something about the fish, the elder trying to stop the younger as he tries to climb up and over the ledge and into the pool, laughing when Jungkook pouts, “Don’t let them take him Yoongi- please- I can’t- if they do-” 

- Yoongi shushes you gently, his wide hands combing over the back of your hair. He makes a comforting noise in the back of his throat. But his grip is tight, his body too tense to be entirely comforting. “I won’t let that happen, I promise” You nod, hold onto him extra tightly. Yoongi leans forward to scent mark dully against your cheek. The slow circles he draws with his nose tempting a watery giggle. 

- He leans back, pressing his forehead against yours hard, eyes opening, more resolved, a rage you’ve never seen in his eyes before. You imagine not for the first time what he must have been before you. You always see Yoongi so soft its easy to forget he once lived the life of a warrior. His eyes flash with a rabid hidden fire, something that flares to consume and destroy. 

- But it’s gone as quickly as it comes, his eyes softening once they focus on you. The giggles from Hoseok and Jungkook dancing along the tiled wall of the pool distracting him. 

 - “I’d burn down the whole city before I let them hurt you.” 

- Together the two of you walk towards your children. You pull Jungkook away to a corner, wanting to look out over the city and the wide windows. Leaving Hoseok and Yoongi to talk. 

- Yoongi crouches down to Hoseok’s level and hugs him tightly, the flechling holds back twice as hard. “My little flechling” Yoongi says, barely keeping his tears at bay. The words tugging out of him before he can think better on it…but there are some things that need to be said. yoongi might not have a chance after today. 

- He hopes, not for the first time- that he’s not fucking this whole father thing up. He hopes he’s Judging correctly that Hoseok even so small and young will be able to make this choice. 

- With everything he’s been through, he deserves to be treated like a grown-up but protected and cared for like the child he is. What Hoseok wants matters the most in this, regardless of what you and Yoongi want.  

- Yoongi knows that Hoseok hasn’t had an easy few months- not by a long shot, losing his family and the long months of healing had been hard. But yoongi hopes that they’ve done the best that they could.

- “You know how much I care for you, how much Jungkook and y/n care for you too, we love you and we want you to stay but none of that matters if you want-“ Yoongi’s voice falters, and he doesn’t get the chance to finish his sentence before Hoseok is tugging back with a vice-like grip shanking his little head back and forth furiously knowing Yoongi’s words before he’s spoken them, little curls bobbing and flopping up to curl against his golden horns. 

- “I want to stay- I want to stay with you and them, please- please don’t let them take me away.” he cries, clutching onto the back of Yoongi’s neck. 

- Yoongi strokes down his back carefully, his arms a cage around his son to protect him from all that would harm the young dragon. Their horns knock together a little, as Hoseok scent marks Yoongi in the clumsy little kid sort of way that makes Yoongi’s heart clench painfully.

- “Of course not, I’d never let them take you from us hobi, i promise” from the corner, Jungkook giggles and calls for Hobi to come and see the view of the city below, oblivious, half hanging out of the window and probably in danger of falling if it weren’t for your hand fisted in the back of his shirt. Hoseok nods, and Yoongi knocks their foreheads together once before he lets Hoseok go, his hand lingering on Hoseok’s small shoulder for just a moment longer.  

- Yoongi is ready to face them. 

- The Dragon Council quiets when Yoongi enters, some of them even stand while the caretaker announces him by rank and title. Yoongi himself even rolls his eyes at a few of them- the council and their formalities must have anointed him with more than a few in his absence from the city. The council room is the same as yoongi remembered it. The sealing is hexagonal and faceted with glass like a jewel, the councils two dozen seats set up a few feet so that whoever remains in the anti-chamber below to meet with them needs to look up to make eye contact. 

- He spots his old friend in the crowd, Yoongi sees the ice drakes face breaks out into a happy smile at the sight of him. Namjoon’s chair falling back as he stands up too quickly at the sight of his long lost friend. A smile that Yoongi returns with barely a press of his lips- later, there will be time for a more solid hello. 

- The discussion and clamor is almost immediate. Yoongi quickly needs to reign in his temper. 

- “While it’s not unheard of for human’s to be apart of a hoard, it is a little unconventional. Are we certain Yoongi is the best caretaker for the flechling? Should he not be put with some of his own kind? Someone with more natural inclinations?” 

- Before Yoongi has a chance to growl out his anger at the impertinence and the disrespect they’re showing you- his mate- and not just a thing- Namjoon speaks up for him. The air chills in the wide throne room as Namjoon’s temper spikes. 

- “You seem to discount Yoongi’s loyalty to us, despite the fact that it’s not in his natural inclinations.” namjoon throws their words back in their face,  Namjoon is right, Most solitary species of dragons are more likely to tell the council to fuck off rather than follow their thinly veiled orders framed as requests.  

- “He’s never hesitated to come at your beck and call. If he wants to look after him and the flechling also wants to stay with his adopted family, I vote to allow him that, and transfer custody of the child to Yoongi.”

- Namjoon has gotten far more eloquent during his time as a councilman, Yoongi realizes. As he watches the way that Namjoon takes the room's attention and focuses it. There is barely a trickle of his northerner drawl left in his voice. He’s not the same rough winged and backwater hatchling Yoongi had first met- nor the battle-hardened soldier he’d left on the edge of the city limits all those years ago. Namjoon’s done well for himself. 

- “Also, he’s been verry clear during his explanation that the human woman is his mate Jaebeom- would you forgive such disrespect if the same indifference was shown to your mate?” the other dragon growls in reply and then mumbles something about Namjoon’s own choice of mate being unconventional at best and a conflict of interest at worst, but Namjoon is stalwart. 

- “There is another nuance to this issue as well, there are proper channels for this sort of thing, I for the life of me can’t imagine why Yoongi did not bring the child to us when he first found him and instead left us to find out that he’d been illegally harboring the child-“ 

- Yoongi’s voice is a growl as he interrupts, “my s- Hoseok was injured, councilwoman, I assure you legal formalities were the last thing on our minds when we first found him.”

- That prompts a whole other vein of discussion. “A human healing a dragon? how preposterous!” “How do we know that she even healed him well enough?” “The fledglings flight abilities could be at stake! We must have him looked over by the healers at once” “You definitely should have brought him here if he was injured- the only ones who could heal him properly is us.” 

- “I think we need to ask the child what he wants.” Comes the final vote, from an elderly woman in the back, she’s been a member of the council for most of her life and the wings that drag behind her when she stands are blown through with arrow holes and rustle like delicate paper. Yoongi wonders if she can even fly anymore. 

- Not too surprisingly, you refuse to let Hoseok go into the chamber alone, and Jungkook too because you won’t let Jungkook be alone in a strange place either. Your family files into the room, and though more than one of the council members seem to view your very presence to be an insult the rest of them seem to relax momentarily. 

- And of course, it helps that Hoseok enters the council room in his dragon form, makes them seem more at ease somehow, like they where worried he was being forced to stay in his human form (but come on really? You can’t help but be a little indignant at that.)

- At first, Hoseok will not step into the middle of the room, won’t leave your side by where you stand with Yoongi. you stoop to put a hand on his back, “Hobi it’s okay honey they just want to talk to you” Hoseok lets out a pained whine that makes more than one dragon in the room stiffen, you too, your hand smoothing over his feathered wing as they flutter a little agitatedly, snapping once. “I’ll go with him mom,” Jungkook says, tugging on the little mane of feathers on Hobi’s neck and leading him into the middle of the room.

- Hoseok goes, needing to be reassured every few feet by a soft word from Jungkook but he gets to the small raised circle, a podium just large enough for both of them to stand, without much fuss even though Hoseok looks like he’s about to bolt. 

- “They seem to have a close bond” one of the council members notes to the open room, the awaiting dragons appraise Jungkook and Hoseok with every step. Hoseok holds the end of Jungkook’s scarf in his mouth for comfort. 

- The closer they get to the Centre the more Hoseok shakes, his feathers standing on end making him look twice as puffed up. “We are! He’s my best friend!” Jungkook chirps, unbothered by the council members' scrutiny.  some seem to bristle at Jungkook’s enthusiastic response and Namjoon stifles a snort, raising his eyebrows in Yoongi’s direction. the look seems to say “a spunky one you’ve got there” Yoongi barely suppresses a grin. 

- “Will you be shifting any time soon?” a councilman snaps out when they’ve been hovering in the center of the room for a few seconds, Yoongi is careful to grab your arm tightly, making the snarky response die in your throat as a growl of his own ripples out of his throat. The look he sends you is apologetic, but you interfering will likely make it worse. Yoongi’s hand remains tight on your forearm, his thumb rubbing in soothing circles. 

- “Sorry, it will only take a second,” Jungkook says, answering for the two of them Surprising both you and Yoongi. Maybe it’s something in the way that Jungkook says the words you think. Maybe it’s the unwavering trust that Hoseok has in Jungkook or the fact that he was the first one to crack through Hoseok’s shell when he’d come into your care. You have to admit- you have no idea what’s happening, and neither does Yoongi really, as Jungkook cups Hoseok’s cheeks in his hands. 

- In dragon form, Hoseok’s head rises at just about eye level with Jungkook. The younger presses their foreheads together for a second the same way they always do. The council watches with confused looks at first and then wide eyes, the elder council woman’s eyes hardening and her hands tightening over her walking cane, her eyes bright as she looks down upon them. 

- The council watches with bated breath as Jungkook presses his forehead against Hoseok’s hard,  “Hobi, shift.” he commands, his quiet voice lingering in the dead silence of the chamber. By the time Jungkook pulls back Hoseok’s red hair is tangling with his black, and he blinks, suddenly more clearheaded as he peers up at the council. “Sorry, I can’t- I’m not so good at shifting still and Jungkook helps me when I need it.” 

- You can’t imagine when before you’d seen it and then you remember- months ago- when that dragon had almost attacked the three of you, you and Yoongi had been busy with your bruises while Jungkook had gotten Hobi to shift. You can’t imagine what just happened really, but there must be some significance, whereas before most if not all of the council had held ire in their gazes when they looked at Jungkook- now their eyes are wide with shock and curiosity. 

- You don’t like it, the way they stare at them like some sort of novelty. You watch from beside Yoongi, his hand fisted in the fabric at the small of your back, he can tell your whole body is fighting to go to your sons and put your body between the two of them, but he holds you tight to his side, knowing if you interfere you’ll only make it worse. 

- “Well that settles it,” the councilwoman says, and almost immediately the others try to jump in, she raises her hand though and they fall silent, “all of you know as well as I do, that to separate a soulbond could spell certain death for either of them, if the hatchling has chosen the human boy then we need to respect it.”

- A soul bond? What is that? You want to wonder out loud, but if the faint widening of Yoongi’s eyes is anything to go by, it must be a big deal. That you might not have understood but it seems mostly unanimous, the few dragons who seem displeased are overridden by the vast majority who seem to be in agreement. 

- As quickly as you’ve been summoned, you’re asked to leave, a little more politely albeit. Yoongi is asked to stay however, and he leads you to the door nodding that he’ll only be another minute or so before he can rejoin you. 

- “How do you do that Jungkook?” you ask as you leave, one of your son's hands in each of your own, Hoseok’s is sweaty. Jungkook just shrugs looking a little indigent in the way that only a 6-year-old can muster. “I don’t know? Do you think they’ll have food for us when we get back? I’m kind of hungry.” you give Hoseok a look and he shrugs his small shoulders, “it’s just easier when he asks, it’s like, I can’t do it when I ask my body too but it listens to him,” you make a noise in the back of your throat. 

- As it turns out, those few minutes really are a few hours, there is a fair amount to discuss. Despite the grumblings and arguing that extends well into the day, Yoongi is allowed to keep Hoseok as his charge as long as he agrees to yearly check in’s with the council, and quarterly medical check-ups to make sure his ability to fly is not impeded by his past injury as he grows into adulthood, and to introduce him to more of his kind whenever possible. 

- There is another matter too, most younglings go to some sort of vocational school if they live within the city limits, magic school (if they’re so inclined like Yoongi was) or at least flight school so that they can learn best how to control their larger scaly forms. Normally, if they live outside of the city limits, schooling is left up to their parent’s discretion, but Hoseok- with his injured wing- is a special case. 

- “The fledgling will be under mandatory schooling for 2 months out of the year, whenever his parents decide, during which time he will socialize with his own kind, and complete certain physical exams to ensure his body is developing correctly despite the injury, and learn to fight.” 

- The burst of flame is almost immediate, as well as Yoongi’s rippling snarl that seems to shake the walls and make the windowpanes of the room rattle in their casings. When the smoke clears, Yoongi is toe to toe with the old councilman who has spoken the final missive- or sentencing, depending on your viewpoint. 

- In the antechamber down the hall, you notice the glass orbs that hang from the ceiling swaying slightly though your children do not. You gnaw on your lower lip, sending the closed door, and the guard that's come to stand outside of it- with an anxious glance.  

- “My child will not- under any circumstance- learn to fight- just so you can make him some soldier in your armies the same way you did to me. That, over everything else I will not allow.” He spits, fire dripping from his mouth even in human form.

- The old councilman cocks an eyebrow in Yoongi’s direction, unperturbed by his show of aggression, “this is our final say, take it- or leave the child in our care.” the threat hangs in the air for a second, everyone’s hair sticking on end, Yoongi’s hands tighten on the edge of the podium, breaking the edge away from the rest of the stone the rest of the podium creaking under his strength. Namjoon at the far end of the table- even stands up as if to come between Yoongi.

- With another snarl, Yoongi hurls the stone at the nearest window, which shatters in a fantastic splay of glass, then turns and walks away from the council- knowing that really- he has no other choice. behind him, he hears someone say something that sounds suspiciously like “overgrown baby” and “temper tantrum.”

- Yoongi’s temper has barely dissipated by the time he reaches your antechamber but is immediately cooled into syrupy warm sweetness when he sees the sight that greets him.

- There is a small food cart in the waiting room where he left you, though it looks absolutely raided. The honey cakes and small sandwiches taken apart by little fingers. Another plate only holds crumbs now, a small pile of tangerine peals piled on the floor (where Jungkook and Hoseok had sat and played a game while you’d paced and worried over the fate of your family).

- The fish in the pool now firmly in hiding after the last hour of terror inflicted on them by the two boys that are now taking a rest on the padded chaise lounge in the corner. Jungkook is piled with his head on your stomach the lower half of his pants soaked to the bone, his sticky face pressed to your stomach. The 6-year-old is never one to forget a nap, especially on a mid-afternoon as warm as this. The light from the dying sun making the room rosy and golden.

- Hoseok, on the other hand, is stretched out lengthwise, his head rested on your shoulder while you recline propped up a little on the velvet pillow. His eyes are barely open as you stroke down his back and over his hair. You hum something soft and melodic and relaxing as Hoseok holds you tightly around your middle. Hoseok sits up at the sound of Yoongi’s footsteps, the softness of your lilting lullaby silences. And Yoongi finally lets his smile break out.

- He holds his arms open, “come here Hobi” he says, and the youngling breaks out into a run, fully waking Jungkook. All of you pile in around Hoseok, squeezing the life out of him as the words spill from Yoongi’s mouth “you’re ours- you’re ours” and Hoseok happily snuggling into your tummy, then Jungkook’s head.

- “Okay! I can’t breathe! Stop squeezing so hard!” he says eventually, and you all separate from him with a few lingering touches, and Hoseok feels snuggled down and happy like he’s safer than he’s been in the last few months. Hoseok holds on a tiny bit, pressing his cheek to the side of your leg and holding around your knee, unwilling to let go even now.

- Before any of you can talk even further about what you might do next, or where you might be staying tonight, long confidant strides echo down the hallway as the council seems to get louder, stopped for a break perhaps or adjourned for the day, and a massive man in a dark blue robe rounds the corner.  

- You barely catch the sight of his slicked-back silver hair- and his icy blue eyes before he swoops up your mate into a bone-crushing hug. Yoongi actually squeaks- though the sound is more of a result of all of the air being crushed from his lungs by those iron looking arms. “Min- fucking- Yoongi- you asshole making me wait that long” the much taller man starts talking a mile a minute before your mate has a chance to respond beyond a wide grin. The kind of look you thought was reserved for you and your family but- whoever he is they must be close.

- “You should have told me you where coming! And not just wiped into the council room like that- but honestly- it was worth it to see the looks on their faces- how are you? How was your journey? Jimin will be so happy to see you!” Namjoon withdrawals- knocking foreheads with him once and quickly before he pulls apart, though your mates face is equally as smiley, showing his gums and slight fangs “councilman Namjoon- who would have thought they would let a low blood like you join their ranks,” he teases.

- The grin Namjoon returns, looking down shyly- “it wasn’t easy- but I think I’m finally starting to make some headway with how they treat the lower races- oh!” he brakes off, suddenly looking down, “who might this be?” Jungkook peers up with him with wide eyes, still tugging on the long embroidered edge of Namjoon’s robes. 

- “Excuse me!” Jungkook chirps, “I was wondering how you got so tall?” Yoongi stifles a laugh, you smile, and you can finally see the small nubby horns poking out of the top of Namjoon’s head start to turn from their silver that blends in with his hair- to a slight pink. Namjoon casts Yoongi an anxious glance, both of you stifle your giggles. “Ugh? Vegetables? I guess?”

- Jungkook makes a scowling face. His nose scrunching up cutely. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that” Jungkook grabs Namjoon’s hand, giving it a little shake, “I’m Jungkook,” Namjoon looks a little bewildered but gives it a shake back, prompting both you and Yoongi to fall into giggles. “I’m Namjoon?” his sharp icy blue eyes flicker from Jungkook to Hoseok, who gives Namjoon a likewise small smile and a handshake, his small hand dwarfed by Namjoon’s large one. 

- “You must be Hoseok and Y/n, it’s a pleasure to meet both of you as well” you hold out your hand and Namjoon stoops low to press his forehead against it- a strange thing- you’d almost been expecting him to kiss it. Later, Yoongi will tell you that it’s customary for other dragons to greet each other's mates that way, so as to not incidentally scent mark them with a hug, or a more familial press of a forehead to the others. 

- Eventually, the conversation shifts to your plans for the rest of the stay in the dragon city. When Yoongi lets slip that you haven’t found a boarding house for tonight yet Namjoon invites you to stay at his manor house as long as you need. He doesn’t take no for an answer either, no matter how Yoongi tries to back out of it. 

- The sun already set so you can’t exactly see everything but the moon hangs over the sea like an old friend, lulling the three of you on Yoongi’s back into the soft wakefulness that only a stressful day can bring. Yoongi and Namjoon are  two opposites, Namjoon’s wings taking in the moonlight and almost reflect it, whereas Yoongi is an unseen shadow as he follows the lighter colored and smaller dragon east until the city’s glow is faint on the horizon.

- The yellow light of windows dot the countryside along with other mansions, Yoongi tells you later that most of the councilmen prefer to live within the city limits, but Namjoon felt he needed a little more breathing room. 

- The manor house (or small castle really) is built for a dragon, tall windows with shutters and tall glass windows. it’s bricked not with red stone but smooth white river stones stacked on each other. It’s extensive gardens and pathways extend all the way to the edge of the Seacliff, the ocean turning below a spare 50 feet from the back patio. 

- a massive greenhouse swallows the western edge of the building, almost dwarfing the manor house, it’s so dark and dense with foliage that you barely see it until you land in the lawn, the grass tall and speckled through with wildflowers turned grey in the ample moonlight is soft underfoot. when you slide off of Yoongi’s back to land softly. 

- It’s late enough that neither Namjoon or Yoongi protest when you decide to turn in basically the second you make it into Namjoon’s entryway. The head housekeeper is a kind-looking woman with a cloud of curly hair that almost hides her dark brown horns, her eyes almost as orange as the candlelight, pressing you to take all of your things up to the guest wing while a youth helps her carry your bags. 

- Both of your sons rub their eyes sleepily, almost knocking into one of the tall vases full of flowers tucked into the alcove by the door. And the though Hoseok furiously apologizes no one seems too mad at him, the housekeeper seems to look at them with softness too, Hoseok basically holding Jungkook up, something else in her eyes as she looks to you and offers to bring up some soup and some warm milk as well. 

- Yoongi holds gently to your arm as an attendant helps Namjoon divest of his councilmen’s robes, your sons already trudging up the stairs after the woman who helped you with your things. “I think Namjoon and I have some catching up to do, will you be alright with the boys?” Namjoon chimes in “our guest suite is extremely comfortable- if you need anything please tell Muji and she’ll get you whatever you need.  

- You nod slowly at namjoon, Yoongi’s hand coming up to grip yours lightly on the railing of the staircase. “Of course,” you say, putting your hands on his shoulders, leaning in to give him a kiss that he returns soft, his hands splaying on your hips, hands twiddling with the lacing that sits on the small of your back. “Enjoy your talk you old lizards” you tease, making yoongi and Namjoon laugh. You head up the wide staircase, 

- Namjoon’s house is lit with enough of those glowing orbs that you don’t need a candle to see, and below you hear Namjoon mutter to Yoongi, “to think after all these years you’ve finally found one to make you soft” “oh shut it Joon- you’re twice as bad if not worse with jimin.”  

- The guest wing in Namjoon’s house is comfortable with a main bedroom, a secondary bedroom with two smaller beds, a study, a sitting room, a bathroom, and a balcony that looks over the ocean the door already open to let in the cool sea breeze and alleviate some of the balmy heat that lingers from the day.  Hoseok and Jungkook are a little more subdued in their exploring. Now that you think about it- you realize you’ve never stayed in a house this grand. 

- Your old cottage was a hovel, and your student dorm at the medical school you’d attended only slightly worse, even when you’d been a child, you’d been passed from relative to relative, always shoved in back rooms or closets for space. You’d never- not until Yoongi- really been given enough space. 

- It’s not that you were abused or mistreated, it just that having such a large family in such a world with so little hardly made it easy. You rarely think about your family now, or what little of it might remain. You hadn’t been well taken care of as a kid, left mostly to your own devices, and you don’t feel guilty- you never have, for suddenly disappearing with Yoongi a little over 3 years ago.  

- But oh, how different your life is now, how different a life you’re giving your children. Hoseok shifts and climbs onto the big bed in the main bedroom. “careful of your claws Hobi” you remind him as he settles with a humph in the generous display of velvet throw pillows perfectly arranged at the headboard. Jungkook beside you lists into your leg and you tug him up into your arms, nearly already asleep and relaxing against you fully.

- Hoseok only wakes when the housekeeper shows, plopping a bowl of soup and some bread on the small table and setting down a dish of warm milk on the bedside table. Hoseok’s snout pokes out from under the pillows and he hums in thanks, his tongue darting out to lap it up.  

- You thank her while you try to wrestle Jungkook into some pajamas, the youngers so uncoordinated in his sleepiness, you don’t realize until you’re in-between the rich sheets and pressed to the cloudlike softness of the mattress that it’s the first time you’ve slept in a real bed in a few years.

- You also realize you’d seen hide nor hair of Namjoon’s mate, but you guess that can wait for tomorrow. Yoongi’s told you more than a few stories about the dragon and fairy couple, and you’d begun to look forward to meeting Jimin a little bit.

- In your sleep, you dream you’re running through a garden, searching along the edge of a camellia path for someone, something, red and white and pink flowers leading the way. You hasten into a run and break out into a wide space, a dark curly colored head shoots up, hands hovering over a lily blossom, dark eyes on you.

- “You shouldn’t be here.” he says, voice deep and melodic. his lips purse, and he plucks one petal of the lily, you watch as the petal hardens to glass in his hands, shattering with a tinkle when he drops it. “but I guess I’ll be glad for some company after so long.”

- You wake with a start, the sun shining through the open balcony doors and the smell of lily’s stinging your nose, the sea ebbs and flows the lul of crashing waves clams your sudden panic. Yoongi’s face pressed into the nape of your neck. He grumbles when you sit up, pulling you back in close, “too early” he mumbles, pressing slow and sleepy kisses against your bare shoulder, the strap of your nightgown slipped down. You don’t remember when he came in, but you guess it must have been late.

- You turn to press a kiss to his sleepy face, eyes still closed, his mouth tugging up into the gummy smile that you love so much as you cuddle in closer. But your bed is suspiciously cold and absent of your children, and you know with a new place to explore they must have been too excited to sleep, you internally blanch when you think of the mischief they must be getting up to.

- but the bed is warm and even more comfortable When Yoongi grumbles and turns to scent mark you, and you hope that namjoon or the housekeeper is keeping an eye on them, at least for a little while longer so you can enjoy a quiet morning with yoongi. The events of yesterday come crashing down on your shoulders like a lead weight. yoongi stills by your throat, sensing your sudden discomfort. You ask Yoongi about the soul bond.

- he sits back against the pillows tugging you close to rest your cheek on his bare chest. his rough hands drawing aimless circles on the skin of your back. “It’s an old kind of magic Usually between two dragons not of the same family. it’s kind of an assurance to keep groups together really.  It’s been a long time since they’ve regularly happened- and usually- it only happens when dragons are under stress” he looks down at you where you pepper kisses on his chest. “Now that I think about it, it kind of makes sense that Hoseok would need one after losing his family.”

- “Is it usually romantic or platonic??” you ask, feeling something strange curl in your stomach, trepidation maybe “it’s not like a mating mark is it?” you can’t help but feel like you’re out of your depth here, there is so much information about dragon kind that you’d been unaware of. you hadn’t realized how little you’d known about their basic political system or even their education system until you came to the city and heard about the flying school and magic academy.  

- “No, it’s platonic mostly- it’s more like-” Yoongi gives a frustrated sigh “Namjoon has a soul bonded partner that isn’t Jimin- you know Seokjin-“ “your sorcerer friend that I haven’t gotten around to meeting yet? how many others do you have across the globe that you won’t introduce me to?” 

-Yoongi nips at your jaw playfully, “can you really blame me for wanting to keep you to myself my love?” he growls, suddenly flipping you over and pressing your back into the soft mattress, his hand riching up your thigh- taking your nightgown with it.  the pads of his fingers are careful and slow as they press in. 

- By the time you and Yoongi truly rouse to join the rest of the house for breakfast on the patio, your sons have absolutely terrorized the staff and Namjoon, who seems to eye them with something like appreciation, the book in front of him forgotten. Watching from the head of the table with amusement as Hoseok shifts to be able to reach across the table for more butter better and then shifts back. 

- The fresh bread smells sweet and cinnamony and Jungkook seems to already have eaten his fill with sweet elderberry preserve smeared across his face. Jungkook prattles to namjoon a mile a minute and asks about a billion questions about the ocean, mermaids, and pirates from the sound of it.

- He drops off abruptly and smiles when you and yoongi appear from the double doors. “mom you gotta try this it’s so yummy!”  Hoseok pouts back, “I’m telling you the strawberry is better,” he holds out a little peace for you to try and the lump of jam slides off the side and onto the table cloth. 

- You apologize for the mess but the same head housekeeper just gives you a smile and says that they’d both love to show you the ocean when you’re ready for some exploring today. They’d already made the climb down to the water's edge, and Hoseok tells you that there is a little private beach at the bottom and a set of stairs perfect for you and Jungkook to take. 

- Jungkook and Hoseok’s hair is already curly from the saltwater. as you comb through Hobi’s curls and sit down next to him, yoongi sits across from you next to Jungkook, already prepared with a cloth to wipe his cheeks. yoongi grumbles, “how in the world did you get it in your hair Koo?” he says as he dabs at Jungkooks black curls. 

- Both Yoongi and Namjoon are a little more subdued than the rest of you- having stayed up late into the night to talk, but you make polite small talk with namjoon about the book he’s forgotten about, and he promises to show you the library at one point “though really- Jimin’s the one who has a thing for collecting books” 

-“No wonder the two of them get along,” you say, nudging yoongi with your foot. and it’s true- a seizable portion of Yoongi’s hoard in the mountains back home consists entirely of books. rare ones, old ones, “do you hoard books or more of just- some of the usual stuff?” you don’t see any cases of splendor, fine fabrics or jewels, only the brightly colored roses that line the patio glimmer.

- Namjoon blushes, his horns- once again turning pink in his silver hair, “Uhm no- I hoard other things- you know I’m an ice dragon right?” you nod. Even as the sun starts to warm into mid-morning namjoon looks unbothered by the warmth. a gust of cold air coming from him whenever he shifts in his chair. “well- the reason why I moved south in the first place is because my hoarded object is plants and there aren’t very many that grow where I’m from.” 

-Suddenly, the variety of roses and the gardens that swath the property makes sense, as well as the greenhouse that almost dwarves it. “of course, I’m not that great at taking care of them- Jimin helps me a lot- really where is he- I should go get him or else he’ll sleep away the day-” 

- It's funny, one-moment Namjoon’s staff are setting you out some sandwiches, namjoon is just sitting up to go get jimin and the next moment a man, a very naked full-sized man, is falling down onto the table. His bare feet knocking the teacups over,

- You have a face full of very pert ass, nothing on him save for the lacelike wings spurting out of his back, his blonde hair curling at his nape. “you called for me? lover?” he purrs “I was wondering when you where gonna come back to bed-“ he starts, voice low and seductive,

- You barely get your hands in front of Hoseok eyes as yoongi smacks both over Jungkooks. Namjoon- sat on the other side of the table- gets the full view going bright red, his horns the same color as the roses behind him.   

- “Jimin!” Namjoon screeches, tone scalding. Yoongi starts to laugh.

a/n: A ‘hoarded object’ is the object that a dragon feels the instinctual urge to collect. there are four types of dragons, the type that does not hoard at all, the kind that dosent mind what they hoard as long as it’s shiny (Hoseok, though he does show a preference over gold things vs. silver), dragons that have a slight preference (yoongi- he’s not really sure if he likes books a lot, or if it’s his hoarded object), 

and the last type, dragons that hoard one thing and only one thing, this can be literally anything- lamps, pets, teacups, rubies, beta fish, or in namjoon’s case- plants, though he does have a preference for things that flower and bonsai cherry trees. 

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[someplace-that-is-else]

‘Until We Meet Again: The 100′s Final Season--Wasted Potential or A Fit Ending?’

Editor’s Note: Spoilers for the last season of The 100 as well as past seasons.

 I was surprised.

 In the closing hours of the sixth season of The 100, the CW announced that it would be getting a seventh season. They also announced that it would be the final season.

 What? FINAL season? Really?

 The fifth season was a great season for the show with the six-year time jump, ending in another time jump that spanned 125 years and a new planet. The sixth season was an intriguing new world and storyline. It had been a while since it went hardcore sci-fi…A.L.I.E. in the divisive third season…the sixth season did it with ripe possibilities, plot twists, and…as was usual for this show…actual death. Labeled Book 2, I had been curious to see where the creator Jason Rothenberg and the writers would take us given Book 1 took 5 seasons.

 But now? Would main characters Clarke and Bellamy (aka Bellarke) end the show together? Would humanity learn any better given they have survived at least TWO apocalypses? Would Octavia (my favorite character who had gone from the girl under the floor to Grounder to Skairippa to lethal Red Queen) get a happy ending?

 With 16 episodes announced, there was plenty of time. Plenty of time to close out the story. My co-worker who was a big fan of course was worried. She grew moreso the closer it got to the time when the CW usually promoted. And…NOTHING.

 A sign of things to come…or just paranoia?

What’s the Endgame?: The 100’s Serpentine Final Season Plot

 I’ll say this much. I was intrigued.

 At the end of last season, our main characters revealed to the people of the new planet Sanctum that the leaders they worshipped as gods were not. They used technology to transfer their consciousness into ‘willing’ people. After being that way for centuries, how would these people go on when their belief system had been revealed to be false? Some people were angry at being deceived. Others felt mad at Clarke and friends for revealing the truth, destroying their system of living.

 Meanwhile we had Clarke and the others still dealing with the truce between them and the Eligius prisoners that were part of their crew now. Their leader Diyoza was missing, leaving the Eligius adrift. And due to the end of Season Six, Clarke’s own crew were on a slippery slope, thinking her ‘daughter’ Madi was still the Commander.

 Four different factions. So many possibilities. They were possibilities that the writers appeared to want to touch on. And there was the question of…could they all get along? Be greater and better than the sum of their parts? Or was the last of humanity doomed to be in constant conflict?

 Then there was the disappearance of Bellamy…

  Ah! Bellamy. After being a co-leader with Clarke basically for most of the seasons, Bellamy found himself at the center of a new mystery. Moments after his sister Octavia disappeared into mist after being stabbed by new character Hope, Bellamy was full of questions about what had just happened. What he got was knocked out, dragged across the ground by people unseen, and then vanished into the Anomaly, a circle of light that was a mystery left over from last season.

 What followed was several different stories. There was Echo, Bellamy’s girlfriend, on the hunt for the vanished Bellamy. There was the mystery of what happened to Octavia. There’s Clarke and Friends chasing after her as well as getting to the bottom of the Bellamy mystery. Meanwhile, there was Madi left behind, dealing with her duty versus a desire for a normal life. There also was the growing tension between the Eligius prisoners and the natives of the new world.

 Because that was not enough, there were curveballs. Oh…that crazy Commander from the Flame, the symbol of the tribes united under Clarke? He possessed one of the last False Gods on this world. You had one of Clarke’s group Starscream-que Murphy and his lover Emori…also pretending to be Gods themselves due to a plot thread from last season. Diyoza and Octavia’s whereabouts revealed the origins of new character Hope…and a whole other world Bardo. And behind Bardo…was a loose plot thread that was seeded all the way back in Season Four. Oh, and did we mention there was a lot of time jumping, one prequel tale (aka a backdoor pilot), and world travelling a la SLIDERS.

 It was not unusual for The 100 to throw so many ideas at the audience. But so many ideas…INCLUDING THE KITCHEN SINK?  In the FINAL season?

 Yes, a few of the ideas were intriguing. On their own. But all of them…together?

 I could not begin to describe how many times I felt like I needed a cheat sheet to keep up with everything. And even then…there would be weeks where the viewers never saw a set of characters or a plotline. There was one case when one character was gone for weeks aka a long stretch of episodes. Worse given how important that character was to several characters, no one noticed they were missing.

 Or the time jumping. There would be a plotline with a plot twist. Then the show would jump back three months. Then it would move a few weeks ahead to show another angle. Or when it decided to explain the whereabouts of Bellamy, it chose an episode where time passed and then it jumped ahead to the present, picking up a storyline from another episode. It was the very definition of whiplash.

 At the start of the season, the writers pondered an interesting question. Was the last of humanity doomed to constant conflict…or could they be better than that? While the Bardo plot thread tapped into that theme, the show became style over substance. And that style…was smoke and mirrors. I thought that theme was being tackled with the four factions on Sanctum. Now? The writers gave up on it. Sadly.

 By the time the writers revealed the whereabouts of Bellamy, most of the season was over. Worry kicked in. Was there still time to resolve the characters’ stories…or would it be…a rushed ending?

 Speaking of which…

 The Girl Under the Floor: The 100 and Natural Ends

 Clarke. Octavia. Indra. Echo. Madi. Miller. The names go on and on.

 Throughout six seasons, viewers have gone through the highs and lows with these characters. Viewers saw Clarke kill her first love Finn. Viewers saw Indra take Octavia under her wing, giving her a mother figure that she missed in her own life. Viewers saw Madi lose her mind. The Conclave. Praimfaya. Mount Weather. A.L.I.E. Characters had been known to go through it on this show. Things happened. People changed.

 So near the end of The 100’s run, viewers wanted to know…how would their favorites end up?

 What they got…AGAIN…was smoke and mirrors.

 The writers appeared to be more focused on new characters than the characters that viewers had gotten to know over six seasons. In some cases, like Bardo native Levitt, it worked because he became involved with a character viewers cared about. In this case Octavia. Others like that Diyoza-lite chick had no connection to the faves, other than being annoying no matter how sympathetic she was written. Or worse, they were like Hope. A rapidly aged child of Diyoza, Hope was more whining annoying brat than a fighter like viewers expected her mother to be. Given more time, she might have become likable, but…there was no time.

And speaking of time…what of the old timers? The characters the audience cared about. So many characters have come and gone. Finn. Lincoln. Lexa. Jaha. Jasper. Clarke’s own mother Abby. Only a handful of the original 100 were left along with well developed supporting characters. With this being the last season, were they coming to a natural end?

 Octavia was being dealt with efficiently as the writers highlighted the fact that she was on a path to redemption after two seasons of darkness and introspective healing. But what about Clarke…THE MAIN CHARACTER? After doing what she had to do for her people, what would her happy ending be…at peace with Madi, finding a new love, and/or finding a way for all humanity to live peacefully in such a way that the sacrifices were worth it? Or what of Indra…what end does she deserve as a warrior? What of Madi…would she choose a normal teenager’s life or the life of being a commander of her warrior people?

 Off the top of my head, there were two characters who had quite a nice end. First there was Octavia. After the horrors she committed as The Red Queen and trying to make amends, she discovered redemption through the eyes of others who saw her through a different and fresh set of eyes. First, Hope who looked up to her as a mother figure. Then through the eyes of a complete stranger in Levitt who found her inspiring. She found the one thing that she had been looking for throughout the whole series: belonging and acceptance.

 The other character was Murphy. The cockroach. From the ‘Starscream’ of the group to showing some sense of right and wrong. And along with Emori, they were the ultimate scheme team. Slowly, but surely there was love. Posing as false gods presented a new challenge for them…what happens when a scheme team is given actual responsibilities for people. And through this challenge, the viewers learned exactly how much Murphy had grown through the series as well as explored layers to Emori that we did not even know she had.

 That was not the fate for all the characters we knew and loved.

  Madi started off alone in the series, discovering love through her motherly bond with Clarke. And the constant debate of teenage life vs leader life has been a constant with her a la BUFFY lite. She was finally given a taste of what it was like to be a teen…then the plot arc of the Bardo people ended that. Abruptly, I might add. In fact, her fate felt like shock value for value sake given some of the other stories for characters.

 Gaia appeared posed to be a long overdue love interest for Clarke. Not to mention that the writers were exploring more of her relationship with her mother Indra. Instead, she became the character who vanished for the majority of the episodes. Worse, NO ONE noticed she was gone.

 There were several more instances of this (can we talk about the fact that while Raven got moments, she did not really have ANY endgame developments?), it was the main narrative characters who appeared to get the worst of this.

 And nowhere was that clearer than with Bellamy Clarke.

  Bait and Switch, or the Strange Case of Bellamy Clarke

I had always heard that you could tell how a TV show felt about a character/actor by how they were written out of a show. A recent example that came to mind was Charisma Carpenter’s character Cordelia Chase during Season 4 of ANGEL by way of a coma when all fans knew she was the heart and soul of that show. 

Another example was the character of Professor Maxmillian Arturo (played with wit, humor, and intelligence by John Rhys-Davies) on the sci-fi show SLIDERS. Not only was he stabbed with a syringe that rendered him dumb, but he was shot and his body left on a planet that exploded. All IN THE SAME EPISODE. Yeah, no love lost between the actor and the people in charge during that show’s third season.

 Which brings us to Bellamy Clarke…

 Bellamy Clarke had been with The 100 since the beginning. A reckless bad boy except for when it came to his sister Octavia, Bellamy went from that to being a frenemy to other main character Clarke to being a good friend and co-leader (birthing the ship name Bellarke) to a capable leader in his own right. Along the way, he made so many mistakes. Bellamy clashed often with others. But he grew. And the time jump saw him get a capable girlfriend in Echo. His bigger drama would always be with his sister Octavia as they clashed as only siblings could clash, but there was always love there. So it made sense that he would want to know the mystery of Hope and how it tied into his sister turning into mist and vanishing.

 But…he vanished himself. For the first half of the season, the mystery of his kidnapping was a plot. And then…during a shootout involving Octavia, Bellamy appeared to be blown up in an explosion. Granted, The 100 did not shy away from killing off a main character (Lincoln, Lexa), but it was so jarring to see it happen.

Just as bad as seeing Bellamy later…as a disciple of the Big Bad on Bardo. After a bottle episode involving a man vs nature theme (a theme I do not like and did not like in this case). And time jumping. AGAIN. Can we say whiplash?

 And then…Bellamy was SHOT. BY CLARKE. Body…left…bleeding…on…the floor.

 Can we say DOUBLE whiplash?

 I was aware thanks to the co-worker who got me into The 100 that there was some off-camera drama going on. And because of that, the actor had asked for some personal leave time. So his filming was very, very limited. HOWEVER, I know enough after years of watching tv shows (the situation with the two actresses on THE GOOD WIFE for example) AND soaps to know two things. One…if a writer had an actor for a limited time, you wrote a complete arc. You also filmed as much as possible. And if you needed said actor back at the end of a show and was not sure if they would be available…go ahead and film a scene to insert in the last episode. It was what the fans that have followed a show for years deserves. PERIOD.

 Two…the fate of Bellamy could have been written better than that. In fact, the writers were better off having Bellamy die in the Bardo explosion while trying to save his sister. That at least was true to his character and his complete arc on the show. If they had to do the disciple arc at all, there had to be some conflict over his loyalty to Clarke or his loyalty to Bardo. Allow the other characters to be conflicted, something the writers normally did not shy away from. Show, don’t tell the struggle. If Clarke had to shoot Bellamy, it had to make sense.

 From what was shown, there was plenty of time for Clarke to get the book of Madi’s memories. There was time to just simply knock Bellamy out. And if Bellamy had to be shot, there was time to write in the fate of his body. To fans’ knowledge, Bellamy’s body was still laying there on the floor, bleeding out. To add insult to injury, FakeRussell…who was in the same scene…was in the next episode with no Bellamy mentions.

 So let’s review. Bellamy was blown up in one episode. Bellamy was left on a world to fight nature on another. Bellamy was turned into a brainless disciple on another episode. Finally, Bellamy was shot dead by his best friend (who happened to be his wife IRL. How meta.).

 Shows what the writers and creator feel about the actor, don’t you think?

 May We Meet Again…?

 Regardless of the management of the character of Bellamy, The 100 had another main character to deal with. Clarke Griffin had been the main protagonist since Episode 1. She had lost her first love, lost a great love, and made quite a lot of serious choices for someone so young. And given that the theme of the last season was about humanity and its way of living, it was a sure thing that Clarke would have to make another major decision. But…would Clarke get a happy ending?

 Well…this show would not be this show…and Clarke would not be Clarke if she wasn’t put through it. My problem was that up until the end, Clarke was basically a cameo in her own show. That itself was an oddity given that she was the one focused on the hunt for Bellamy.

 There was potential. From what to do about Madi to how she was coping with her mother’s death to some vibes between her and Gaia, Clarke had several things spinning in her orbit coming into the last season. And what was surprising was NONE of it was touched on. 

And then…Bellamy was shot by her and Madi turned up brain dead in the service of the Bardo arc.

 In the end, Clarke was with her friends. And she was happy. But…she was not with her daughter though Madi did wind up in a better place. She was not with anyone though a cameo from the actress who played Lexa in the early seasons was nice. And her mother’s death was not touched on…though that actress also made a cameo in the last episode.

 Does Clarke deserve a happy ending? Debatably yes. But this season a happy ending did not at all feel earned. And it would be one thing if there was another season. However, this was the LAST season. Worse, was the central theme of this last season…a main theme of the show itself…answered? Did humanity learn to be better, or would they stay in constant conflict?

 In the end…humanity DID learn to be better. Interestingly it took Octavia and Raven going to bat for humanity to make that happen. And that was after Clarke had again failed after making a near fatal decision for the rest of the group. After watching Clarke grow into a capable leader, I was saddened to see that in the end she felt like a footnote. As did Bellamy.

 Well…I guess I could look on the bright side…Octavia got a happy ending. And a complete arc. So did Murphy. Raven proved she was also an important character akin to the many times that Bonnie Bennett had to save all the characters on THE VAMPIRE DIARIES constantly, usually at great sacrifice to herself. But Clarke and Bellamy…the actual main characters…well…

 For a show to be told they got 16 episodes to wrap up plots that had been going on and characters that have been developed over 7 years, I would say it went out with a whimper. Given other shows with notice like HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER and THE MAGICIANS went out with just about everything wrapped up fittingly and just about all characters serviced almost correctly if not outright perfectly, The 100’s last season looked like patchwork in comparison. Like the writers threw everything at the wall to see what would stick. Or worse…they got so distracted by what was shiny and new, they forgot about the characters that viewers cared about.

 In the end, I guess the last season was like a sandcastle. It looked nice, but once the waves come in, it went away. So much potential…washed back into nothing.

     #the100 #cw #bellarke #jasonrothenberg #octavia #finalseason #bellamy #clarke #sliders #charismacarpenter #angel #johnrhysdavies #arturo #starscream #buffy #whiplash #thevampirediaries #howtogetawaywithmurder #themagicians

[bush-viper-cutie]

Finding Rocco

(Part 2 of What Now?)

Pairing: young!severus X reader

Word Count: 3,825

Rating: T for teen

Plot: After a night out after hours, you enlist Severus to help you find Rocco after losing him yet again. He is determined to return him to you, even at the expense of his safety.

Warnings: Bullying

A/N: This is the second part to What Now as requested by anon! I think the ending is super cute and I hope you do too! :)

Posted: 5/4/20

Masterlist

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(y/n) = your name

(l/n) = last name

(y/h) = your house

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~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

“Oh, stop it!” You pushed your best friend off their seat and laughed.

There were about twenty people from different houses huddled around one of the large dungeon benches listening to your best friend tell one of her oldest spooky stories.

“I’m serious! That’s what happened,” she sat back on the bench and turned to everyone again.

As she continued telling her story, everyone leaned in and huddled closer, wrapping their blankets and robes tighter around their bodies. The tension was growing around your group and by the looks of everyone’s faces people were ready to scream.

The dungeon air stung your lungs and every so often you would look out into the dark corridor with everyone else the second any noise echoed passed. Students cast Lumos and dimmed it low just to give themselves extra comfort and a feeling of ease that was quickly escaping the atmosphere.

The only reason you weren’t running back to your dormitory and diving under your covers was because of Rocco, your cat that sat on your lap curled and undisturbed by the gasps and shivering bodies around you.

The story was reaching the point you knew everyone would scream and you clutched Rocco tighter. He mewed and pushed at your arms. There was a harsh rasping sound suddenly and everyone including your friend stopped to listen.

“It’s nothing,” she whispered and turned her wand back to her face. “The sound of heavy footsteps crept up the stairs, creaking under the heavy weight of the man. She held her breath under her bed and watched as door opened slowly, pushing the fallen books as it swung open.”

“No,” there was a quiet whisper and shushing.

“Yes,” she continued, “It swung open and she saw the bloody boots of the man enter her room. He took a step towards the bed. And then another. Until the toes of his shoes were right in front of her face. ‘He can’t see me’ she thought. He turned and slowly walked back out of her room. Closing the door behind him. She sighed, relieved that he hadn’t smelled her fear and reached under her bed and dragged her out like he had her sister. She crawled out and stood, careful not to make a sound. She reached for her wand and BAM!”

You screamed with everyone else. You let go of Rocco and covered your ears as everyone’s shrieks echoed throughout the corridor and bounced off the cold stone walls. Rocco jumped and dropped down from your lap and sat huddled on the floor.

“He apparated and ripped her head clean off!” Your friend finished and laughed, shining her wand at all the scared faces of your classmates and friends. “Look at your faces! ‘Specially yours, (y/n).”

“I screamed because you yelled,” you clutched your chest, still trying to calm down.

Everyone froze suddenly as the sound of running footsteps came closer. Real fear crept onto everyone’s faces at the realization that they were all about to be caught after hours in the dungeons by a teacher.

The crowd of students got up and started running away in all directions. Your friend grabbed your arm and pulled you away from your spot.

“Wait! Rocco!”

“Get him quickly!”

You shined your wand around the floor but couldn’t find him anywhere. The footsteps were getting closer and you had no choice but to leave the area. Your best friend and you ran down passage after passage until you reached your house door, whispered the password, and stepped inside, huffing from all the running.

“I’ll need your help tomorrow to find Rocco,” you said, pushing loose strands of hair off your face.

“This was close and I can’t get in trouble as a Prefect.”

You nodded. Severus was the next person you thought of asking – mainly because you have been using any excuse to hang with him.

. . .

You stood on the edge of the courtyard and looked around until you spotted a familiar figure sitting under a tree reading his book. Everyone else was inside the great hall having lunch, which meant Severus was free to enjoy the fresh air outside.

You walked over to him and sat down. He looked up at you and smiled, folding a page and closing the book.

“Last week of school and you’re still studying?” you teased.

He smiled and offered you his arm to take, “Just reading.”

You looked around before leaning in and pressing a soft kiss on his cheek. You pulled back and grinned at the slight tint of pink on his face and small smile. He looked down, his black hair falling around his face and you brushed it back behind his ear.

“Will you help me find Rocco?”

Severus nodded and leaned into you, “Right now?”

You shook your head, “He normally sleeps during the day and I’ve already spent all morning searching. He goes crazy during the night so he should be easy to find then.”

“Sneaking around the castle again? Is that your favorite past time, (l/n)?” His voice was deep and teasing, making you smile.

“It’s only fun with you,” you winked and kissed his cheek again. “I’ll meet you in the large dungeon at one.”

He nodded and you stood up as the bells tolled. You walked away and looked back at him once, watching as he picked up the book and continued reading. He leaned in and tilted his head, allowing his dark hair to fall forward making him look as mysterious as ever.

You wished he would allow you to be seen with him, but the incidents with James had been increasing as summer holidays crept closer and he felt things would be better if you didn’t get involved, fearing they would start picking on you too.

. . .

It was nearing one in the morning now and you stood against the wall, both waiting to hear the familiar footsteps of Severus through the corridors or the tiny pitter patter of paws. You turned your head and smiled as Severus approached.

“Severus!” You reached out and lunged at him for a hug. He held on tight as you covered his face with kisses. You weren’t going to lie, the story your friend had told was starting to creep back into your head, making the dark corridors a lot more eerie than normal.

“(l/n), wandering the dark corridors at night? If I were Prefect, you’d be docked five points,” his voice sounded rough.

“Only five?” you teased and raised your wand to whisper ‘Lumos’, but his hand stopped you.

“Let’s keep it dark… So we don’t scare Rocco away.”

“Fine, but don’t complain to me if I hold on to you the whole time… are you alright?” You noted he didn’t normally sound so stern in the last week you had been spending with him, but then again you were pretty sure he had been asleep up until a few minutes ago.

“Yes,” he took your hand and started leading you through the dungeon.

You smiled to yourself, loving the way your hand fit intertwined with his. “Did you know this is the third time I lose him this term?”

Severus laughed, “No I did not, and yet I’m not surprised.”

His laugh made your heart soar and it really made you wish you could spend more time with him not hiding away in dark passageways or behind tall pillars where no one could see. You were just glad he had agreed to come over at least once a month during the summer.

You let Severus lead the way as you called out Rocco’s name, but he didn’t come. The halls were as empty and silent as you had feared. If he didn’t come running immediately than he was likely on another floor entirely.

“He’s not in the dungeons,” you turned to pull Severus up the stairs, but he resisted. “Severus? We would have found him already if he was down here.”

“You go, I’ll keep looking here.”

You frowned and turned to him, “What are you talking about? We searched down here already.”

“Not well,” his voice sounded irritated.

He sounded upset, like when you had first talked to him. You weren’t sure if you should go on and search the other floors without him, or if you should accompany him still until he felt all of the dungeons had been searched properly.

Severus sighed, “I’ll just keep looking and if I find him I’ll take him with me and I’ll give him to you tomorrow. Night, (y/n).”

He turned to leave but you grabbed his arm, “Severus, are you ok?”

There was a long pause and you weren’t sure if you should push further. He pulled his arm away and you heard his footsteps continue. You followed until you couldn’t hear his steps but you knew he hadn’t left the passageway just yet or you would have seen him under the torchlight up ahead.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, (y/n),” he whispered.

You could hear the roughness in his voice again and you stepped closer and reached out for him, “Severus, turn to me… Lumos.”

Your wand glowed and you raised it slowly to his face. You gasped and stepped closer, almost reaching for him before you stopped yourself. His left eye was bruised blue under his lower lid and there was a cut running from his lip to his chin. There was another yellow bruise on his right cheek and quickly healed scratches on his forehead.

He held your gaze as you looked him over, frowning at every new detail you found on him. He rolled his eyes and turned back around.

“Severus, wait! What happened?”

“You can guess what happened. Potter… and Black,” his shoulders sagged. “I tried healing quickly before seeing you.”

You turned him back around and pulled him in for a hug. His body tensed and then relaxed as he rested his cheek on the top of your head. You hadn’t ever seen him this hurt. All you knew were the rude nicknames people called him and the mean rumors that went around school… you never guessed…

“What happened,” you whispered.

“I was an idiot. They caught me after dinner outside… I have no idea how they found where I was hiding.” he pulled away and started scanning the floor, as if searching for his answer.

“Severus… Why don’t you spend time with me and my friends instead of hiding? I’m sure they wouldn’t try anything around – ”

“No,” he looked back at you suddenly. “We talked about this. I’ve seen what they’re capable of and if they know you then they’ll try to ruin our relationship – ”

You blushed suddenly and smiled. This was the first time that you or him had addressed what you had going on as a relationship of any sort. Since that kiss in the Prefect’s bathroom last week – which was the only kiss you had shared so far – you had wondered if you should assume you were dating.

“Or worse,” he huffed and looked away.

You wanted to kiss him so badly now, though it seemed like a bad time. You weren’t sure what to say to reassure him, all you could do was reach out and hold his hand while he calmed down. He took it and led you up out of the dungeons. This time it was Severus calling out Rocco’s name as he led the way, ignoring your concerned eyes on him.

“Surely next year… We’ll be seen by others. We won’t be hiding our relationship until we graduate… right?”

Severus stopped again and pinched the bridge of his nose, wincing at the bruise he’d forgotten was there, “Do you want to get teased, (y/n)? Do you want people hating you? Acting disgusted by your choice in dating me? Really think your friends would approve?”

“My friends would never – ”

“The SECOND Potter and Black find out you exist they’ll-they’ll try to take you away from me!”

“Severus,” you laughed nervously, “They can’t take me away from you. I really, really, like you.” He looked away and you noticed a smile on his face, even behind his curtain of hair. You hugged him close and continued, “I’m not someone they can take from you.”

He grabbed your shoulders and pushed you against the wall. The stone was cold against your back and you shivered. He stepped closer, pressing his body against yours. He was warm and you breathed in deeply, smelling the weak scents of cut up stems, crushed powders, and steamed liquids.

He was looking at you, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear and kissed your cheek gently, “You make me really happy… and that’s why I can’t risk letting them try to ruin anything between us.”

He stepped away and headed up the stairs to the next floor, leaving you pressed against the wall, thinking his words over in your head. Even after you had joined him again, little words were exchanged, and after several more hours you had decided to give up for the night.

Severus led you back to the (y/h) common room door and said he would walk around once more before also going to bed. You stayed up all night thinking about everything he had said. The only conclusion you could come to was that you hated James and Sirius as much as Severus did.

. . .

The sun was shining through the leaves of the thin tree near the lake where you and your friends were sitting around, looking at your reports on how the tests had all gone. Like usual, potions and transfigurations did not go as well as planned, but luckily you had already made it into the NEWT classes anyways.

“What’s happening over there?” one of your friends nudged your arm and pointed behind you.

You turned and saw a small group of people gathered on the smallest hill closest to where you were seated. A sudden pang of dread made you stand and walk over to the group. They were laughing loudly, gathering more students around them as they continued.

“That desperate for affection Snivelly?”

You could hear Sirius’ booming voice as he tried to get even more attention. You pushed passed several people and saw a circle had formed around Sirius and Peter Pettigrew who were both ganging up on Severus.

Severus looked in your direction and turned red – with anger or embarrassment, you couldn’t tell. You looked down from his face and saw he was holding Rocco to his chest. Your heart was beating louder than the laughing happening around you. It was in these moments you wished you were as brave as your best friend. She would be smacking these boys down if you were in Severus’ position.

The crowd pushed you closer as more people joined, chanting for a duel. Severus tried backing away but the crowd pushed him back, wanting to see some action. Rocco meowed loudly, agitated with all the noise.

“Snivelly, let’s see your first kiss with your new girlfriend,” Sirius held his wand out, pointing it right at his face.

You couldn’t believe the lengths Sirius was going just to humiliate Severus.

The crowd started chanting “Snog! Snog the cat! Snog!”

“Yeah! Yeah! Make him do it!” Peter clapped and pulled out his own wand, ready to follow Sirius’ lead.

Severus made a move for his own wand but the second he moved his hand away, Rocco attempted jumping out of his arms. Severus quickly held him tight again, unable to do anything more with his occupied hands.

You felt your nails digging into your palm as your fists tightened. Your face was hot and you could feel yourself about to do something without thinking – something Severus said he liked about you mere days ago. You took a breath and hoped he would forgive you for this.

“Stop it!” You marched up to Severus and pulled Rocco away from him, stepping between him and Sirius’ wand. “He’s mine.”

“Yeah, whatever. Move the cat away,” Sirius flicked his wand, motioning for you to move out of the way.

You laughed and shook your head, “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. SEVERUS IS MINE so back off!”

The crowd silenced. Sirius and Peter looked at each other in disbelief, lowering their wands for only a second.

“I don’t believe I heard you correctly. That greasy mess-of-a-thing is yours?” Sirius laughed and looked around, gaining more laughter.

“Don’t call him that, you brainless blister.”

Severus reached for your arm, squeezing it tight. You knew he was warning you. You saw what they did to him last night, and you were sure their still pointed wands meant they weren’t afraid to hex him through you.

“I like it. You’ve got some nice kick to you,” Sirius turned to Peter, “I’m being reminded of someone…” he turned back, “That cat… that feisty fire in you… Ah, yes. That’s that cat I cornered up in that tree second year… and you’re that brat that felt bad for it.”

Peter’s eyes lit up, “Yeah! The pigtail girl!”

“Guess you like to keep sad pathetic animals, don’t you? Even if they’re uncharmably ugly.”

You were shaking with anger at his words, the memory of that day four years ago floating to the top of your brain as well. You handed Rocco over to Severus again and took out your wand, pointing it right at Sirius’ nose.

“(Y/n)! Don’t do this, not for me,” Severus hissed.

“You’re not even dating, are you? Just come to rescue another cornered runt?” Sirius put his wand down and smiled, “Tell you what. Walk away and I’ll meet you in the library after dinner,” he winked.

Peter snickered and you could feel Severus tense behind you. Students started chanting “Walk away” and inched closer. You heard someone yell “Make the deal!” and another yell “I’ll meet you, Sirius!”.

You put your wand down and Sirius stepped closer.

“Glad we could come to an understand – ”

You raised your wand quickly and blasted him back, knocking him into Peter. They tumbled to the ground and you picked up their wands, throwing them far behind the crowd where they wouldn’t be able to reach fast enough.

Sirius stood up, pulling Peter with him. He rolled up his sleeves but before he could take a step, Remus Lupin was behind him, pulling him back.

“Let’s go. James is waiting,” Remus pulled on his arm again.

Sirius looked ready to lunge but the second tug made him stagger backwards. He straightened his clothes and followed Remus and Peter out of the crowd. The gap closed and you could see everyone watching you, even your group of friends. Your best friend looked not just confused, but shocked and maybe a little impressed by what she had seen – you weren’t sure exactly how much they had witnessed.

You turned around to face Severus, who was still holding Rocco but looking down at his shoes. You walked closer and took Rocco from him.

Keeping his eyes down he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

You stepped closer still and whispered back, “Can I kiss you?”

His eyes shot up at the crowd and at you, nodding very slightly.

You smiled and pressed your lips to his, closing your eyes. You heard him hum quietly and you smiled, pulling away from him, “Thank you for finding Rocco for me.”

His face was red as he focused his eyes on yours, ignoring the slowly dispersing crowd who just witnessed your kiss. “He was in the owlry. Found him this morning”

You pulled Severus along with you as you followed your friends back to the thin tree by the lake, stopping a few feet short for a few private words with him. Your friends waited by the tree, visibly excited to hear an explanation for what in Merlin’s grey beard had just happened.

“Thank you for – ”

He turned you as a shield to hide his face from your onlooking friends as he grinned wider than you had ever seen, “You called me yours in front of the whole school. You kissed me in front of everybody.”

You laughed and blushed, “Yeah. Sorry I kind of threw your plan out the window – ”

“Do you regret it?”

Rocco meowed and you held him closer, “Not one bit, Severus. I’d scream it from the astronomy tower if I could.”

He tried wiping his smile from his face, but couldn’t. He even coughed a few times, trying to stop his giddy laughter but nothing was working. “Don’t do this to me, (l/n). I can’t be all mysterious how you like if you keep making me blush this hard,” he combed his hair forward in a final attempt to compose himself.

. . .

The last week of school went by fast and all Hogwarts students not flying home or using the Floo networks in Hogsmeade were boarding the Hogwarts Express back to London. You set Rocco down and followed him passed students as he sniffed the ground. He meowed once and lifted his tail high as he picked up the pace.

He pawed at a closed car all the way on the back of the train with its curtain closed. You knocked but no one answered. You rolled your eyes and smiled, opening the door to find Severus alone on the seat looking up from his book.

He stood and picked Rocco up, placing him on the seat in front. You noticed he was still wearing his school uniform even though everyone typically wore their muggle clothes out. You sat down and he leaned over you to close the door, making sure the curtains were tightly shut.

“If you somehow manage to never reveal what muggle clothes you wear, I’d be forced to increase your points in mysteriousness.”

He smiled and pulled you in, wrapping his arm around your waist, “Anything to keep you interested.”

You leaned in further, pressing his back to the window as the train started and left Hogsmeade Station. He smiled and let you push him back as you closed the distance. You slid your hands up his chest, watching his eyes light up, and moved them up to his shoulders.

You smiled and gave his lips a peck, and then another. Your hands played with strands of his hair and soon you found yourself kissing him fully. He pulled you closer and let you tangle your fingers in his hair as he enjoyed your body pressed against his.

“You never let me thank you for finding Rocco,” you kissed both his cheeks and then his nose. “Thank you.”

“I’ll be finding Rocco next year too, won’t I?”

You laughed, “Very likely.”

He stood and picked up a sleepy Rocco and sat back down, pulling you back in and letting both you and Rocco rest on him the rest of the way to London.

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

Masterlist

[shimmertrapped]

I’ve Got You - Stiles Stilinski x Reader (1/?)

Summary:  After being rescued from an unknown enemy, Y/N and Stiles grow closer whilst dealing with trauma and a lingering threat.  (post-high school AU where Scott, Allison, Stiles, and Y/N are roommates)

Characters: Stiles x Argent!Cousin OC (Reader), Scott x Allison

Word Count: 2011

A/N: quarantine got me reverting to my Teen Wolf obsessed days so here is a fic i’ve been working on for fun!  my main focus is the characters so please excuse any vague/inconsistent plot details lol.  POV changes are indicted by *’s!

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Stiles hovered behind Scott, watching as his friend threw their foe against the far wall.  Scott looked over his shoulder at Stiles, fangs bared, and said, “Go find her, Stiles!  I’ll take care of him!”

That was all the permission Stiles needed.  He simply nodded before tearing off down the hallway behind them.

The walls that blurred past him were barren. His target lay straight ahead - an imposing metal door at the end of the long hall.  Stiles winced as the slash he had received in his shoulder blade stretched with his movements, but he did not slow.

He reached the door in no time and skidded to a stop, fishing inside his pocket for the key ring he had swiped earlier.  He glanced from the heavy-looking padlock on the door handle in front of him to the keys and attempted to choose one that looked like it might fit.  Hands shaking furiously, Stiles shoved the key into the lock, but when he tried to twist it, he was met with resistance.  Cursing, he picked out a second key. Same result.

“Come on,” he said through gritted teeth.  He selected a third key and willed it to work.

It did.

Relief like he’d never known washed over him as the key turned seamlessly, the insides of the lock tumbling before it opened with a satisfying click.

Stiles slammed the handle down and shoved his whole body into the door, practically falling into the room as it opened.

And there she was.  She was standing, body braced as if she were prepared for someone other than him to enter.  Her long hair was limp and her skin was wan but it was her and she was alive.

Her legs nearly gave in as she breathed,  “Stiles.”

“Y/N!” Stiles rushed forward, grabbing her by the elbows to steady her.  He helped lower her to the ground and kneeled in front of her.  “It’s okay, we’re gonna get you out of here.”

She seemed to look right through him, her gaze unfocused.

Stiles, still grasping her pale, bare arms, assessed her for any sign of injury.  He swallowed down the building lump in his throat.  “Are you hurt? Are you - ?”

“No,”  Y/N said, her voice distant.

“Okay, hang on, I’m going to get this off you,” He said, grabbing for the lock on the chain around her ankle, his stomach roiling at the sight of it.

“Are you real?”

Stiles’ attention snapped back to her eyes then, and his heart broke in his chest at the hopelessness and disbelief he found there, heard in her question. 

“Yes,” Stiles said hurriedly.  He lowered himself so they were directly face-to-face.  “Yes, look at me, I’m right here.  Scott and Allison too.  We’re gonna get you out of here.  You’re safe.”

When he saw her nod weakly, he hunched back down to survey the ring of keys in his hand once more. 

“Your shoulder...” Y/N’s voice came out as barely more than a whisper.  “It’s bleeding.”

Stiles glanced back at himself and indeed saw where his hoodie had torn, revealing a bloodied gash beneath.  He turned back around.  “I’m fine.  Don’t worry about me.”

He managed to successfully undo the lock on the first try this time and then, as gently as he could, he slid the shackle from her ankle, tamping down the rage that flared inside of him at the sight of it and the raw, red skin it left in its wake.

Stiles looked back up at Y/N.  “All right, are you ready?  Are you okay to walk?”

Y/N nodded again, and Stiles hoped he wasn’t imagining that her eyes seemed clearer now, more present.

“Here,” He extended his right arm to her.  Y/N wrapped her fingers around it and let him raise them both back up to their feet. 

And then together, they fled without another look at the wretched room behind them.

*

“Y/N!” Allison cried as they approached the jeep parked behind the decrepit building.  She embraced her cousin, tears springing from her eyes.

They stayed like that for some time, Y/N’s face stark against Allison’s dark hair.  Stiles watched them, overjoyed to see the two reunited, but simultaneously unable to help but wish he were the one holding Y/N. His heart stuttered however when her eyes fluttered open and fell on Stiles’.

But the moment was over before it had started as Scott, too, appeared from around a corner.  He spotted them.

“Y/N, thank God!” He ran over, stopping next to Allison, who finally stepped away from her cousin, but still held onto her hand.  

Scott caught Stiles’ eye then and gave him a grim look.  They needed to get out of here.  Stiles cast a wary look behind them.  “Guys, we should go.”

“Right,” Allison said.  Then, to Y/N,  “Come on, let’s get you in the car.”

The four of them headed for the jeep, Stiles jogging ahead to open the rear passenger seat door.  Allison led Y/N, who moved slowly but without any sign of a limp, or worse.  She winced however when she went to step up from the foot hold to get into the jeep's elevated seats.  She wavered slightly, but Stiles was there in an instant to grab onto her elbows once again.  “Woah, I've got you.”

He helped her up and stayed close as she slid into the seat, buckling herself in as Allison moved to climb in next to her.  When he saw that they were settled, Stiles shut the door and walked around the jeep to get in on the driver’s side, Scott already in the seat to his right.

The four of them drove away in near silence, Stiles’ eyes darting to the rearview mirror to glance at the girl on the passenger’s side the entire way home.

*

That night, Y/N’s body felt alien to her as she sat in her fresh clothes, unused now to the soft fabric and scent of laundry detergent.  The chair she sat in was off, too. Too plush.  In so short a time, she had forgotten how it felt to be comfortable.

“Here you go,” Allison returned then, setting down a steaming mug of tea on the kitchen table in front of Y/N before sitting in the chair opposite her.

“Thanks,”  Y/N said, wrapping her hands around the warm cup.  The sensation grounded her.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” Her cousin asked her for the third time since returning home.

Y/N nodded.  “He never physically harmed me.”

Allison’s eyes were grave as the unsaid meaning hung in the air around them.  No, her captor hadn’t laid a finger on her.  Rather, he seemed to draw his gratification from the psychological damage he inflicted on his victims.  The isolation, the deprivation...

It was why when Stiles had barged through the door, like an angel with the light of the fluorescent bulbs of the hallway surrounding him,  Y/N hadn’t been sure whether she had fallen asleep without realizing and was dreaming, or was awake and hallucinating.  Because she had begun to hallucinate.  After... Well, she had lost track of the days early on, but at some point during her captivity.  She hadn’t wanted to believe it was really him, only to have her hopes shredded when she came to and found herself alone again.

Especially because in the few times where she wasn’t trying to escape and instead let herself simply wallow, it had been him she thought of.  Stiles and his constant jokes, his warm, amber eyes... It had helped her through the darkest moments.  She had desperately clung onto the memory of his face, terrified to forget it because at times she truly believed she might never -

Y/N forced herself to snap back to the present. She was here, in the house that she had been living with Allison, Scott, and Stiles for the past seven months.  She raised her mug to her mouth and took a sip, allowing the warmth of the tea to soothe her thoughts as it coursed through her.

“I still think we should get you checked up,” Allison frowned.  “But I guess we can go tomorrow.”

Y/N didn’t bother arguing.  She knew if the roles were reversed she would likely insist the same.  Instead, she finally asked the question that had been on the tip of her tongue for the past few hours.  “Allison, how did you guys find me?”

"Well, we had Scott along with Derek's whole pack searching the entire city for your scent... But we came up short.” Allison said grimly.  Her expression grew thoughtful as she set her mug down.  “It was Stiles, really.”

Y/N sat up a little. “Stiles?”

Allison turned somber again.  “I... I don’t think he slept all week.  I mean, we were working overtime too, but...  I guess he found a way to decrypt the IP address of the e-mail Scott received, and he didn’t leave his room until he finally managed to crack it last night.”

Y/N looked down at the table, her mind whirring with mingling feelings of overwhelming gratitude and guilt.  

She looked back up however when Allison reached across the table to place her hand over hers. As if reading her mind, her cousin said, “I’m not telling you this to make you feel guilty.  Never feel that way.  I just thought you should know.  I think he really -”

Allison didn’t get to finish her sentence however as at that moment, Scott and Stiles came through the front door, returning from their meeting with Sheriff Stilinski. Scott came to stand next to Allison, placing a hand on her shoulder, Stiles trailing behind.   Y/N stared into her swirling tea.

“How'd it go?” Allison asked, looking up at them.

"We filled them in," Scott said. Then he looked to Y/N, his face apologetic.  “You’ll need to make a statement.”

“But you can do that whenever you’re ready,” Stiles rushed to say.

“Of course,” Scott said.

A phone buzzed then, and Scott reached into his jacket.  He glanced down at the screen and swore.  They all looked to him in alarm.

“What is it?” Allison asked.

“It’s Derek,” Scott said.  “Allison - he needs our help.”

“Both of us?” Allison’s eyes darted to Y/N.

Scott seemed hesitant to give any more details, but his eyes conveyed the urgency.

“Will you be alright?” Allison asked, turning to Y/N. 

She could feel all three of them watching her.

“Go,” Y/N said.  “I know Derek wouldn’t ask if it wasn't necessary.”

Allison pursed her lips.  “We’ll be back as soon as we can.  If you need anything, call me.”

Y/N looked to Scott and saw an internal battle - him not wanting to rush Allison away at such a sensitive time, but also knowing they were racing a ticking clock against whatever or whomever Derek was up against.

“Go,” Y/N repeated.  Then she glanced at Stiles who she found was already looking at her.  “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Allison said, then again, more to herself, “Okay.  Let’s go.”

Scott looked relieved but said, “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“Good luck, guys,” Stiles said.

With that, Scott and Allison hurried out the door, pulling their jackets on as they went.  And then it was just Y/N and Stiles.  A memory came back to Y/N at that moment and her eyes widened.  She blinked up at Stiles.  “Your shoulder - did you get it patched up?”

Stiles waved a hand nonchalantly.  “Yeah, it was nothing.  I’m fine.”

Y/N looked at him, slightly skeptical. And then, as he took a step forward into the light, she saw the dark shadows under his eyes. She frowned. “You look exhausted.”

Stiles ran a hand through his messy dark hair.  He said, seemingly reluctantly, “I guess I could sleep.”

Y/N sighed.  “Me too.”

Stiles gave her a resigned look.  Then, he nodded behind him.  “C’mon, let’s head up.”

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AO3 link

posted April 29, 2020

[grapefruitsketches]

Untamed Spring Fest 2020 - Days 22 & 23: Fragrance & Earth

1,969 Words

Post-Canon, Wangxian Family and the Junior Quartet on a farm. Mostly fluff with some WWX feelings and Wangxian flirting.

“At least Lil’ Apple can be useful. All Fairy can do is run around barking and making a mess!”

“Fairy does not just run around making a mess!”

Jin Ling and Jingyi had been arguing on and off all morning (at least since Wei Wuxian and Ouyang Zizhen had arrived). Lan Zhan’s total disinterest in mediating such disputes was usually a comedic reflection of the boy Wei Wuxian had known in his school days. He had, in fact teased his husband as they had traded off responsibility in supervising the team of visiting Juniors earlier that day, but as the sun had risen higher in the sky and the sweat dripped down his face and back, it had been more and more difficult to find the disruption to the usually peaceful scenery to be anything but a nuisance.

“Jin Ling! Jingyi!” he finally shouted their way, exasperated, “If you’re not going to dig those potatoes up, I need you to carry that over to the southwestern plot for me, the one with the onions!” Wei Wuxian smiled a bit too widely as he pointed at some troughs strategically placed downwind from the turnip plot he, Ouyang Zizhen, and Lan Sizhui were working on.

The two teens whirled around, silenced at least for the moment by the instructions. They followed Wei Wuxian’s gesture.

As if on cue, the two started their protests as one.

“Not the manure!” “Come on, we did that last time!” they complained.

“Ah ah ah,” Wei Wuxian shook his head, waving a finger at the two, “Someone’s got to do it. And my farm. My rules. Go get the buckets.”

Jin Ling looked like he was going to protest, but Jingyi had already resigned himself to the disgusting task, so Jin Ling just huffed and followed along, not wanting to be left behind.

“Father,” Sizhui said softly as the two trudged off, “Can I go help them? They did do it last time and I feel bad…”

Wei Wuxian chuckled, “You’re too noble, A-Yuan,” he reached over to ruffle the boy’s hair, making his son reach up to anxiously readjust his hairpiece, “How could I let my little turnip live through such hardship?”

There was a sudden relief from the sun’s glaring rays on his back. A long shadow had fallen over him.

“Go ahead, Sizhui,” Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but smile as the sound of his husband’s voice washed over him, “But take some water first.”

“Lan Zhaan,” the shade his husband provided wasn’t enough to stop Wei Wuxian from whining, “I need A-Yuan here, he’s my good luck charm.”

He turned to look at his husband, who stood behind him, carrying a tray of cups and a jug of water.

Sizhui had already stood up, ready to go. Now he wavered, looking between his two parents, unwilling to pick a side. He took the water he was offered by his Lan father, stalling for time.

“Our farm, our rules, remember? Our son can do what he wants here.” Lan Zhan said, tone serious as ever, but the hint of a smirk letting Wei Wuxian know he was teasing.

Wei Wuxian sighed dramatically, “Fine, go,” he waved Sizhui off, “If you must leave the nest so soon, so be it,” he pouted, turning back to the seedlings, shoulders slumped as if to prove his long-suffering sacrifice.

Sizhui smiled at Lan Zhan, “Thank you father,” he said. He turned towards his other father before he left, saying, “You know, sometimes turnips have to grow up and leave for the market!”

“Lan Zhaaan, our son is being so ungrateful,” Wei Wuxian complained, but then turned to his Sizhui, expression softening, “if you have to leave me, at least take this.” He unravelled a strip of beige cloth from his arm and handed it to Sizhui, who took it, looking questioningly back at his father.

“Tie it like this,” Wei Wuxian instructed, dragging pinched fingers from below his nose to behind his head, “it’ll help with the smell, I promise.”

Sizhui smiled, and nodded, determined, “I will. Thank you!” He gave each of his fathers a hug (Lan Zhan returning it stiffly but warmly, Wei Wuxian pretending to sob into his shoulder) and followed after Jin Ling and Jingyi.

Wei Wuxian turned to Zizhen who had been quietly counting out inches between seedlings this whole time, “At least you haven’t abandoned me. Or,” he shot a pouting look at Lan Zhan, “betrayed me.” Lan Zhan only rolled his eyes and offered a cup of water in response, which Wei Wuxian took eagerly.

“Two… three… huh?” Zizhen interrupted his count, looking up finally and seeming confused at the replacement of Sizhui with Hanguang-Jun, who was holding a cup of water out for him as well.

Wei Wuxian laughed, patting the boy in red on the shoulder, “I’m glad you stayed, you actually seem to know what you’re doing here!” It was true. The boy was a natural at farming. Wei Wuxian was confidant the wheat would have died weeks ago if not for Zizhen’s careful advice on the Juniors’ last visit.

Zizhen grinned, “Thank you, Wei-gongzi! You know, I used to spend summers at my aunt and uncle’s home, and they had the most beautiful farm, with the best pear orchard, the sweetest, most delicate pears you’ve ever tasted…”

Zizhen carried on, explaining in great detail the transition from seedlings, to turnips, of pear blossoms to fruit, picnics and fishing by the river, deciding what to eat based on what was ripest that day.

Lan Zhan had sat next to Wei Wuxian, setting the tray aside and pulling out a small shovel to dig the holes where his husband would plant the seedlings. Their hands occasionally (not entirely accidentally) brushed in their mechanical movements from one hole to the next. Wei Wuxian’s whole face scrunched into a smile at the touch, the world slowing as he looked to meet his husband’s gentle eyes.

The sound of Zizhen’s chatter drifted off into silence, drawing Wei Wuxian back to reality. His eyes snapped onto Zizhen, who was staring, frozen, mouth just barely open, at the two near-legendary cultivators kneeling across from him, hand in hand.

Wei Wuxian stifled a laugh, bringing a hand up to wave it in the boy’s face, “Zizhen, Zizhen!” he said, breaking through whatever haze had ensnared him.

Ouyang Zizhen blinked back into reality, “Huh? Oh!” he shook his head, and hurriedly bowed in turn at Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan, “I’m so sorry Wei-Gongzi, Hanguang-Jun,” he said, “I was just… was just…” he stopped, lost for words.

“Admiring our love?” Wei Wuxian said, waggling his eyebrows in mock suggestiveness at Lan Zhan (which earned him a low “Wei Ying!”)

But Zizhen only nodded earnestly, “Yes!” he said, “I just…” he paused, he wiped a real tear that streaked down his face at this, creating a smudge of dirt down his cheek as he did so, “I love your love story so much. It’s just so… so beautiful!”

Wei Wuxian laughed, and looked over at his husband, who looked stricken, a faint blush darkening his cheeks, which only made him laugh harder.

“Lan Zhan!” he said, “You hear that? We’re beautiful!” he cupped a hand over his husband’s face. Lan Zhan turned towards him, eyes still wide. Wei Wuxian removied his hand slowly, carefully. Ensuring every speck of dirt possible remained on his husband’s face.

Lan Zhan only closed his eyes, a mirror of his brother in that moment, sighed, and reopened them. A frown fell on his face as he looked at Wei Wuxian, “Wei Ying.” He said seriously, “there is something on your nose,” he pointed towards his own nose as though this helped matters.

“Ah!” Wei Wuxian reacted instinctively, partway through rubbing off the imagined dirt on his nose when he realized, “Lan Zhaaan!”

His husband smiled, and reached to help clean the newly applied dirt off of his husband’s nose. He seemed content to leave the faint handprint on his own face.

A soft whine came from across the row of seedlings. Zizhen was crying again.

--

The three planted the turnip seedlings in peaceful silence for a long while, the sun dipping towards the horizon before they were done. Lan Zhan digging, Wei Wuxian planting, Zizhen checking as they went, incredibly adept at spotting where a hole was too shallow, too deep, too close to another plant.

Voices began to drift back over from the direction of the southwestern plot, two loud ones with long pauses between them, which, as they drew closer, turned out not to be silences but instead Sizhui’s quieter attempts at intervention in the arguments that hadn’t ever ceased.

Wei Wuxian’s gaze drifted over to the three Juniors, all three with their faces wrapped with a cloth to block the fragrant smell from their buckets that had luckily not yet reached the turnip plot. He was suddenly struck by a similar image, a memory of a life past. A boy in black, one in gold, one in white. Similar ribbons tied below the noses of the black and gold clad teens…

He clawed his fingers into the dirt, shaking his head. Smells could bring you back, to places he would rather not revisit right now. Now, he grounded himself in the smell of the earth, the ground beneath his fingers, the warmth of the sun on his back, his husband’s gentle, methodical digging and gentle humming beside him. Zizhen. Ling. Jingyi. A-Yuan. Their futures before them.

As he gripped the earth, he remembered. The furthest past was seconds before, when Lan Zhan had last made a hole or when they had last touched. The most distant future was the potatoes they would pull for dinner, the fresh vegetables Wen Ning would bring from town. He thought of the warm fire they would make once the summer nights brought enough coolness for that to be comfortable. Wen Ning quietly teaching Wen Qing’s medical books to Sizhui. Lan Jingyi sneaking an extra piece of fish from Jin Ling’s plate when he wasn’t looking, Zizhen telling a ghost story that would make all their skin crawl. Lan Zhan by his side, now, always. Wei Wuxian breathed, and planted another turnip seedling into the dirt.

The three returning Juniors, who, it became clear as they drew nearer, desperately needed a bath, were smiling. Zizhen rose to join them. They were not the same as Wei Wuxian’s classmates from all those years ago, they were their own people. Brought up by guardians who understood the horrors of war, the costs of petty fighting, of failing to understand what was truly important until it was too late. They had grown up raised by the fears of their guardians, but in a time of peace, not war.

Wei Wuxian reached out beside him, grasping for and finding Lan Zhan’s hand, squeezing it tight. The look he received in return and the tightened grip on his hand reassured him. Things were alright now.

“Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian whispered, looking towards the man standing next to him, “I think we should start an orchard.” Lan Zhan hummed in interest, Wei Wuxian continued, “Maybe apples… I’m sure Lil’ Apple would like that.”

He smiled at his husband, who smiled back, nodding. His muscles ached from the day’s hard work, these months on the farm somehow more exhausting than those spent hunting down ghosts and monsters.

The six cultivators, the group of four with the pair trailing behind, walked back towards the farmhouse. The scent of Wen Ning’s latest attempt at a Lotus Rib Soup drifted towards them, welcoming them inside.

Wei Wuxian looked around himself, at the fields, as they returned. All around them, things grew. They were safe, they were cared for, and they were at peace.

[badboy-mysweetboy]

One Dangerous Stiff

Eric Coulter× fem reader

Ok..... Hear me out. Thus dude is just mighty fine and he could shove me off a cliff and id smile🙃 enjoy btw this don't follow the plot bro.

Warning: Sad, swearing, cute ending, badass reader

Random tags: @missmarrinette​ @pindragon​ @ericcoulterdauntlessdivergent​ @ericcoultergirl9499​

"So who's it gonna be?" Eric, one of the leaders asked eyeing the new recruits. "Me," I spoke up walking from the back of the group, his cold blue eyes bore into the side of my head as I presented in front of the group. "Is there water? Or a net?" A boy behind me asks, approaching the ledge and turning to the group with a smirk.

Eric's eyebrow raises at the movement. "Boy, I sure hope not." Rasing my fingers in a gun motion to under my chin, pulling the trigger. Lifting my weight from me, the wind throwing my h/c flowing above me as the ledge above me got smaller and smaller. The darkness around it grew to tuck my arms under my head and crossing my legs as if I was on a couch, watching the game. Then my weight was caught in a net.

Landing, my weight shifted as I looked over at a familiar face. "Y/n?" His eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Oh look my least favorite number, how long has it been 7 years? I can't remember." Getting off the net walking away as Four sent up a whistle and another came down. Beatrice, from my old, shitty faction. Abnegation.

As he pulled the net down, their eyes met and never let go. Making gagging noises they caught on before another was sent down. Four kept a gaze on me before Eric leaped down. He walked in front of the group once again as more teens walked in but in all black. Standing in the back I made mental note of the people that stood in front of me, finally meeting with a blue pair already looking at me. Eric's smirk grew into a... Smile. Bouncing my eyebrows, erupting a chuckle. Continuing his speech, my mind wandered to younger days.

"You can't catch me!" A laugh left his lips as my smaller frame tried to keep up. "Slow down!" My younger squeaky voice called out to him, running in between houses and crowds trying so desperately to just graze his skin. Before abruptly stopping being met with a chest, looking up I was met with a scary, familiar face. "Daddy? What's wro-" His hands.

Dug into my arms as he pulled me back to the box-like house, a pair of familiar eyes followed what happened. Screaming and kicking, my cheek stung as my head whipped to the side meeting his eyes once more. "Help me! Big brother, please! Don't let him hurt me!"

Instead of a hero, I was met with a coward, him shaking his head.

But that wasn't new.

But was new was he never came back.

Never.

My body painted in splotches of dark shades, my memories even darker. Daddy.

He blamed me for mom, now brother. Brother never got hit, even though he made me so mad, I'm happy I can protect him from daddy.

I don't know where he went, he was only 9 and I was 7 but I hoped he was safe till 16.

"Follow me." Shaking my head I follow as he mapped out the place to me, "Badass" noticing the grunge military aesthetic. "You're a stiff?" A gruff voice from behind me, turning to see ice blue once again. "What? Happy to see me?"

"Ha ha very funny, but no I meant-" he started, smiling I winked. "I know what ya meant, just giving ya trouble." Chuckling he continued next to me as we were showed the bunking area, " change into new clothes, we burn your old ones in 5."

"Fucking finally" walking into the room while everyone else looked around. Stripping and diving into my new black ones, turning I caught the sight of a neck tattoo before it disappeared behind the wall.

Picking up my old gray clothes and gliding towards the bonfire already made. The heat made me smile. As Four went on and on about new beginnings I tossed my clothes in like it was trash while others held it dearly to their hearts.

"Get over it. It's not like you wanted to stay, throw it in the damn fire so we can move on." I grumbled before shadowing behind the crying group. Passing it. Training. Finally.

Fighting was the only thing I knew after that day with my brother. Relentlessly for 7 years. I built up my strength and got away from the man who hurt me day after day. "What do you got stiff?" A dude was mocking Tris, who was having trouble with throwing a punch. Approaching them and grabbing her hand and pulling her with me. Standing here in front of the bag next to mine, sighing before putting her in the most impactful stance. "Tension here" pointing to her abdomen, "not here" pointing at her stomach. "Weight here, then shift it as you swing" leading her on her back foot to her front. "Swivel your foot with it. Go, right hook it."

Swallowing, Tris did as told and landed a decent punch. Eyes widening she met my e/c eyes, "It didn't hurt." Going to my bag I responded, " because you're the one supposed to give damage not receive-" throwing a hooked punch, "now keep going it hurts less more ya do it, rookie." As my fists met the leather images from childhood flashed in my mind, faces, voices. Every memory leads to a harder punch.

"Y/n and Al, ring now." Eric's cold voice boomed over the cement room, turning to the ring a boy stepped in. Smirking I went in between the ropes and cracked my knuckles. "I can't hit her, Can I fight a guy?" Al asked looking me up and down, Eric's face went from his normal bitch face to disgust. "Really? Just fight her, she has over double your score. Go!" At his command All slowly approaches, scanning his stance I could tell his core was his main focus of strength. Sighing as his fist flew passed my head, grabbing his arm and launched my foot into his side earning a yell of pain. Before twisting the now dislodged shoulder so his arm was behind his back. Laying on the floor at my will, I sat on his back holding the position as I fake checked my nails. "I'm thinking safe word fellas, how bout pork and beans?"

The boy was groaning in pain when he and Eric in unison, "What?"

"I don't know I saw it in a movie. Now, Al, I want you to repeat after me. Four is the worst number." His eyes met mine, "I can't say that."

Pulling his arm farther and farther as he screamed and the group grew as Four and Eric watched me whisper in his ear. "Say It! Or else..." Pulling his arm he yelped, "Four is the... Worse number. Now please." Sighing thinking about it for a second, "I guess so." Getting up and jump out of the ring. Watching Four as his eyes connected to his shoes, walking to the knifes section. Practice, yes I was like a perfected machine but all I knew was to fight.

That's all I've ever known.

Throwing the heavy but not too heavy weapons, the figure of the tall man came back. Making the knives go further... Faster. Until I reached down and no knives were found. Looking up, Eric was holding the box. "Dinner was called 25 minutes ago. You need to eat."

"Why do you care if I eat? You have 45 new robots to program that is eating. I don't eat dinner. Not when I can be here." Never breaking the gaze as my hand refilled with serrated steel, he grabbed my wrist with the blades. " because I like you. And I don't like people, and you're easily the best fighter here. So shower and I hope I see you in the cafeteria, or I'll come lookin" He smirked at the end, "Is that a threat or a promise Eric?" Smirking stepping forward being so close I could feel the hot breath fan over my skin. Glancing between his icy blue eyes and his pink lips I lean in a bit closer dropping the knives in the box, "I guess we'll see then?" Backing away before swaying my hips all the way to the bunks, finding the showers. Peeling the grimy clothes off my body and stepping into the icy water. The colder the better, cleaning the sweat off my skin. I turned the water off and drying off and putting on my bra and underwear.

Walking passed the mirrors I stop in my tracks. I've never seen my self as a whole, damn I'm ugly. Glancing over the scars and abs carved into my skin. Placing the tank and jeans on over the marks, I swiftly make my way to my bunk. Pulling on my boots I hear boots hit the floor growing nearer, “I thought you may have gotten the hint by now but here you are.” Turning and seeing Four, “How’d you know it was me, Y/n?” 

“Because you’re heavy-footed, and you lead with your left foot instead of the average right. Now please excuse me, I’m hungry.” Walking passed him before I felt his hand around my wrist. Stopping in my tracks he let out a heavy breath. “Y/n I’m sorry-” 

Yanking my wrist out of his grip with a cold glare, “No you’re not. You left me alone with that monster for 7 years.

 Not 7 minutes, 

Not 7 hours.

 Not 7 days. 

7 YEARS! Catch my drift you ugly bastard? Even though you ran away every time he decided to punish someone, you’d come back. But at least you came back-oh wait. You didn’t. And really the name Four? Do you really hate me that much? We both know, that’s the time dad got home every day. Leave me alone, Good-Bye Tobias.” 

The cold glare I gave him could kill, another pair of boots could be heard but my eyes never left his. “You were supposed to be my big brother.” In a small whisper left my lips before turning back to the cafeteria. Eric stood at the end of the hallway with a curious look written on his face. “Come on Y/n, I am.” Tobias’s voice echoed, not even turning to meet his gaze. “You lost that title, You haven’t been in a long time. Do what you’re good at. Disappear, Tobias.” Before continuing to Eric as we made our way back.

“Don’t mean to pry but. Tobias? What is he to you?” Eric asked as we sat with our food in front of us. Sitting criss-cross on the bench I look over, “Tobias- I mean Four grew up together. But you would collect that since you heard our argument.” Giving a small smirk at the end taking a swig of water from my cup, he chuckled placing some of the ripped up biscuit into his mouth. “Sorry bout that, but like I said I was gonna come to look for ya. So you’re old friends?” 

Finishing the food in my mouth I answered, “Well not exactly a friend. A friend you can rip off like a bandaid, painful but gone. Nope. To- Four was like cancer, you can’t get rid of it. Somehow, he comes back. But I thought he was gone for good. Shows how much I know.” I chuckle coldly eating a bit more, we sat in short silence. I could see the gears turning. Before the girl from before sat down next to me, a- Tris was her name. “Can I help you?” I ask before plopping food into my mouth, she tugged at her long black sleeves. “I wanted to thank you for earlier, he was being a jerk. And teaching me how to...” She mumbled off, “Throwing a hook? No problem Rookie. Now if ya please, go back to your chair before Four thinks he can sit over here.” I grumble the last part, letting out a heavy sigh when Four plops down across from me. 

Standing from the table I turn and go up the stairs the second Four sat. Clenching my jaw I quickly make my way up the stairs and to the roof, slamming the door shut and grumbling. “Who the fuck he think he is? Walking in like he fucking did nothing? God, I wish I didn’t love him!” I rant sitting on the ledge letting my feet dangle. 

“You love Four?” I heard an angry voice from the doorway, his chest puffed up. Looking over at Eric, “Trust me, not the way you think. Come. Pop a squat.” I pat the cement next to me, he was at my side within seconds. “Then how do you love Tobias?” 

I gulped looking longing at the bright lights against the dark sky, “Tobias is- was my big brother. We had a rough childhood. My dad was an ass, and when my mom ran away he lost it. He took out that rage on me because Tobias ran into the shadows. He left me 7 years ago, I was 7 at the time. I never knew where he went, or if he was alive. I fought to get things since dad was broke, hence to now sitting on a roof with a ruggedly handsome man explaining why I want to kill a number.” I chuckled at the end, Eric watched as I spoke about my childhood.

 I don’t hide it. Because simply I don’t care about my childhood. I won't start crying because of it, not how I was built. 

“Brother? So I have a chance?” He smiled, letting out a laugh I replied. “Yes. Yes, you do Eric.” 

[dilfdoctordoom]

Star sapphire Bette Kane AU???!!

Yes!!!! It’s been on my mind for a while now & I really, really wanna write it ‘cause I think it could be fun. I don’t really. Have a plot. But I do know some of the things I want to happen! I’ve got the love interest down, at least. Not quite who I’d expected it to be, but, like, I’m a sucker for characters that nobody knows anything about.

And it ended up way longer than I first thought, so I’m gonna be putting it under the cut.

Bette has always had a connection to love, this is just an objective fact. Everyone she meets, every team she joins, she always tries to care about them, no matter what

But all the teams she’s on (Titans West & LA) have dissolved, everyone going their separate ways. She still talks to them but she feels kinda disconnected. There’s this overwhelming belief that she’s the second choice, that none of them genuinely care about her, that’s been instilled in her since she was Bat-Girl

So she leaves LA behind her, tries to forget the ghosts of all her dead friends, and moves back to Gotham. It’s home, even if she keeps trying to escape it, because a part of her will always be that little kid in a homemade mask, trying to impress her aunt, her cousin, the entire world to a lonely kid

And she finds that her older cousin Kate is back in Gotham too. They used to be close when they were younger, with Kate acting as a big sister to her at times, but since her teens, they haven’t talked all that much

Bette still wants that connection though. She loves her cousin (she loves all her family, even when that feeling isn’t returned) and since they’re both here, why shouldn’t they spend time together?

Kate always seems to blow her off and never gives a reasonable explanation. It gets to the point where Bette thinks that maybe Kate doesn’t want to spend any time with her, that maybe she’s the second choice once moe

Then she sees Batwoman

Then she knows

This is Bette Kane. She was a child when she discovered the original Bat-Woman’s identity and now she’s an adult, years of training and detective work under her belt, and she doesn’t even need that. She’d recognize Kate Kane anywhere

She’s been meaning to get back into the game anyway. She’d promised herself after LA she wouldn’t but after only a month back in Gotham, she feels that itch. She wants to be jumping from building to building, wants the adrenaline rush that only comes with freefalling off a rooftop. There are many things that Bette Kane loves and being a superhero is definitely one of them

She works as Flamebird alongside Kate and for the chance to spend time with her family, she pretends that Batwoman’s dismissal of her doesn’t bother her. She fixes on a smile and she goes along with the entire Plebe thing, even though she’s been doing this longer, even though she’s a fully capable hero in her own right

She’d take all the little comments, all the judgement in the world, to spend time with somebody she cares about

And in this world, like in so many others, Bette pushes herself until she breaks. Harsh words from her cousin, from somebody she adores, and she goes out into the field an emotional wreck. She should know better at this point but there’s an anger boiling under her skin and she needs some sort of release

She goes out on patrol and she comes across the Hook

She’s angry and she’s desperate to prove herself and that is never a good mix

She’s not so angry anymore when Hook leaves her bleeding out in the streets

She’s not angry at all

She just wants to apologize. She doesn’t think she’s going to make it (blood, there’s so much blood, there shouldn’t be this much blood) and she wants to tell Kate, Bruce, Kathy, Dick, Gar, everyone she’s ever tried to impress, that she’s sorry for being a disappointment

She wants to tell them that she loves them all, so so much. She wants them to know that there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for them

She doesn’t get a chance

But instead of the DEO coming across her almost dead body and using her a bargaining chip, instead of becoming a pawn in a game that nobody told her about, there’s violet light

There’s a voice, soft and kind, and it offers her an escape. It’s a ring and it asks her to accept it, to join its fight, and she says yes. How could she not?

The world fades out in a violet hue and when Bette opens her eyes, she’s no longer on Earth

Zamaron is so different to everything she’s known, the Star Sapphires a whole new ball game, but this is Bette

This is the girl that saved Batman when she was just a kid

This is the girl that was told to quit by her hero and refused

This is the girl that would do anything to spend time with the people she loves

She takes it all in stride. She’s been friends with aliens before, known an interdimensional imp. She can handle this

It helps that Carol Ferris takes her under her wing for training

Carol is everything that her previous trainers were not; kind, helpful, compassionate, caring. There’s no snapping at her if she gets something wrong, no refusal to acknowledge her skills. There’s a certain amount of respect and Bette has never been treated with that

She still doesn’t tell Carol much about her life on Earth. She doesn’t mention being the original Bat-Girl (doesn’t want to hear the overly familiar ‘but wasn’t she a redhead?’), doesn’t mention Kate or Bruce or Dick or the Titans

Out here, in the depths of space, with a ring powered by the love in her heart, she’s allowed to be Bette Kane. There are no expectations, no writing her off because of a dumb mistake in her youth. There’s just Bette, the power of love, and the growing feeling that maybe she can be accepted

And you have to remember, Bette isn’t like Dick. She doesn’t work with the Justice League and she doesn’t know much about the Lanterns outside of vague allusions from Bruce

When she meets Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner, she finds that she likes them. Really, really likes them. Guy isn’t the asshole that Bruce made him out to be and Kyle ━━

Kyle is the exact kind of person that Bette always ends up befriending. It certainly helps that Carol enlists him to help Bette control her abilities

(Because here’s the thing about the furthest ends of the emotional spectrum ━━ they’re dangerous. Rage can rip your mind apart, can change you as a person, can blot out any form of logic. And love, love is so powerful, so overwhelming, and Bette is so full of it. Control sometimes slips away from her and it’s always a battle to keep her head on straight)

So. She’s away from Earth, away from her family, and that should be scary. That should terrify her

But it’s so hard to be afraid when she’s surrounded by people that support her, that lift her up instead of knocking her down

And she knows that Kate and Bruce have only ever had good intentions. She knows that they were just looking out for her, but she’s starting to think that maybe they did more damage than good

On Earth, she was always, always thought of as the dumb kid, the airhead with a crush on Robin

Here, though, on Zamaron, she’s just the latest in a long line of Star Sapphires. She’s known for a mean right hook, the copious amount of sparkles added to her suit and her ability to befriend everything and everyone she comes across

Bette’s a likeable person. This is a fact; look at the teams she’s been on, look at the number of people she’s managed to work with

Bette’s also a lonely person. She puts her whole self forward and she’s never been treated in kind. She’s everybody’s second choice, the cast-offs, the stand-in until they can get someone better

(Maybe that’s not true. Maybe, maybe Bette doesn’t see it, the way Garfield brightens up when she arrives, the way Hank’s anger disappears because she’s making him laugh, the way Kate hugs her like she’s something important)

(But maybe, maybe the years have gone by and nobody has ever said those three little words to her. Maybe she’s spent her life without hearing anyone say ‘I love you’)

(And maybe that affects a person)

With Carol, with the Star Sapphires, with the Green Lanterns she’s slowly starting to befriend, it doesn’t feel like that. She’s not anyone’s consolation prize ━━ she’s a respected member of a powerful force of love

Can you imagine what that’s like? Going from your lowest point, bleeding out with the belief that you’re a failure to everybody you’ve ever loved, to a hero of the cosmos, with violet light sparking off you at every second? Can you imagine the thrill of it?

And flying! Bette has always been an adrenaline junkie, hasn’t bothered to keep it a secret, and this, soaring through the stars, is a high like no other. It’s pure joy and it’s all hers, not the product of someone else, not some false happiness designed to appease the people around her

Bette’s a nice person

A too nice person, some would say

And maybe Carol gets her first glimpse of this when, in a fight against the Sinestro Corp, Bette gets taken, prisoner

She’s a terrible choice, to be honest. Anyone, Yrra, Carol herself, would have been better

Because Bette knows how to make people like her

It’s a talent, really. One that’s been honed since she was a kid desperate for approval and one that might be a little out of practice (because with the ring on her finger, she never needs to pretend to be something she’s not), but it’s always there

You can’t spend years twisting and turning into a different person to please whoever you’re around for such a skill to go away

So Carol gets to see this, and the kindness, and that ability to make friends with anyone, when the rescue mission gets called off

Called off because Bette makes it back to Zamaron, offering Lyssa Drak a kiss on the cheek in thanks

Called off because fear doesn’t do much against a girl shaped by it. Because the machinations of the Sinestro Corp has nothing on the terror induced by the gaps in her memory, the razor-sharp smile she sees in her nightmares, the feeling she got on the edge of death

Called off because once Bette Kane sees somebody she thinks is attractive, she can’t stop herself from flirting

Called off because Bette is used to being friends with villains. Because Bette has forgiven everything Hank Hall has ever done, has rolled her eyes and told Tara Markov that her past doesn’t have to define her. Because she forgives, coming from a place of unending love

That’s not to say that things go perfectly all the time

She gets hurt. Sometimes it’s physically, when a threat is a little too much for to take, even with her training, even with her ring. She’s only human, after all, and humans falter all the time

And sometimes, it’s emotionally. She gets hurt when she goes to Thanagar and sees the face of one of her oldest friends, when she’s struck with the memories of his funeral

She gets hurt when she has to fight Charley Parker

She gets hurt when she feels the love radiating off them both regardless of what side they’re on

She cries for the first time in a long time on that day and she tries to hide on some desolate planet, away from Carol and her kindness, Guy and the way he always understands, Kyle and his calming presence. She wants to feel the hurt, feels like she deserves it (because she failed him, didn’t she? She didn’t look into his death and now one of her closest friends has become one of her greatest enemies)

She wants to be alone to punish herself and maybe if she was still on Earth, if she was with the Bats, that would be allowed. They are, after all, the masters of brooding on their lonesome

But she’s not on Earth. She’s in space, she’s surrounded by people that care about her and all their numerous friends

It’s Hal Jordan that finds her and she thinks there’s something funny about that. Something that would drive Bruce insane and she can’t help the choked back sobs when she thinks of him and his disapproving looks, his petty demands designed to stop her from being a hero, his funeral and the darkness that descended after it

There are plenty of people that know about regret, about feeling like you’ve let down the people closest to you, and the man that launched himself into the sun looking for redemption, who made his time as the spirit of vengeance offering second chances, is one of them

Her life as a Star Sapphire so far from perfect, but it’s better than the one she had on Earth for one simple reason ━━ she’s no longer defined by her past

Or by her future

She hasn’t told them that she was a hero. She knows that Carol suspects (she was, after all, the one that treated Bette’s wounds when she first arrived, the one that saw the Flamebird suit), but she doesn’t know about Bat-Girl. She doesn’t know how to tell any of them about her past

She doesn’t think she can tell them about her future. It looms over her, as it’s always done, this impossible reality where she will die, where she dons a Batwoman costume of her own

She used to want that, to be Batwoman, but the years have gone by and the mantle seems drenched in red. It’s not for Kate, not for the woman that deserves to be Batwoman. No, it’s soaked in blood for the girl that didn’t notice the holes in her aunt’s story

(Or maybe she did. Maybe somebody made her forget)

She’s never wanted to die, but now, when it seems like the universe is finally on her side, the idea is terrifying. She’d accepted it before, on some level, let herself run headfirst into danger because she doesn’t die yet, the future version of her said so, there’s still so much to do before the green of the Lazarus Pits takes her over

That acceptance has been gone for a while

She laughs with fellow Star Sapphires, gets drinks with Guy Gardner, goes flying among the stars with Hal Jordan when it all gets too much. She talks strategy with John Stewart, those years under a master manipulator finally paying off, she rests with Kyle Rayner while he sketches. She spars with Yrra Cynril, feels the rush of adrenaline that comes with the knowledge that this woman could kill her, and she talks about make-up and fashion with Arisia Rrab. She sneaks away somedays for a secret meet-up with a woman that’s supposed to be her enemy, indulges in the destructive nature of Lyssa Drak for just a moment, lets herself be consumed in soft kisses and whispered threats

And in all of those moments, the need to live is a thrumming, living beast within her

She knows she has to go back to Earth at some point, has to face her future head-on, but she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to die by an old friend’s hand

She doesn’t want to watch Duela Dent kill her. She doesn’t think that even a Lazarus Pit could really bring her back from that

Bette is afraid. She’s not a Green Lantern; she’s not supposed to be fearless

And really, it’s not her death that she dreads. It’s what comes after it. It’s the glow of a pit, the hollow smiles her future self gave. It’s the emptiness of her eyes

It’s the missing ring on her ring

(She thinks that might explain why her future self seemed to be missing something)

She doesn’t have the words to tell anyone this, though. She’s been taught to keep her fears to herself, lest they ben used against her, and besides

How do you tell the people that you love care about that you’re destined to die?

Bette Kane believes in destiny. She has two friends granted powers by the Lords of Order and Chaos, has seen twisted paths all lead to one final destination. She knows that she’s going to die, going to be thrown in a Lazarus Pit, going to fight against her family

(Her old one, at least. Future Bette never mentioned her new family and she hopes (she prays) that it’s because they’re safe, just far away from Earth)

She’s still Bette Kane, though, and a Bette Kane that’s spent so much time with Green Lanterns, with the champion of love. She learns about stubbornness in the face of an immense threat. She learns about survival through sheer willpower, through the endless power of love

She thinks she might be able to manage it

Bette Kane has always had a connection to love. Her ring works off of it, feeding off and into it, an endless loop that lets her soar among the stars

She’s seen love accomplish the impossible

She doesn’t see why she can’t just use love to stop that future

So she avoids Earth, the place she’s destined to die

It’s not that hard, not like she has to go there often

It’s not like anyone would want her back, anyways. She remembers her final conversation with Kate, remembers all of the times Bruce told her to give it up. She remembers her friends splintered and going their separate ways. She remembers slipping away for a year in between Bat-Girl and Flamebird and remembers nobody even noticing

What reason does she have to think that’s changed?

Which helps her decision to avoid Earth

And she does avoid it. It’s not hard, with all the different aspects of the emotional spectrum breaking out into fights, the Rann/Thanagar tensions, the million and one issues running through the universe

It’s easy to pretend that she isn’t even avoiding it

Until Carol needs her help

Until Carol asks for her help

Until somebody that she loves needs her

Okay, that’s all I have so far... it’s a work in progress. There’s still, like, what’s going on Earthside to work on.

But yeah!!!! This is the BS my brain has been focused on. It makes no sense, it’s bad & I love it.

[sonderrow-moved]

                           LINK TO QUINN            LINK TO JAEL           LINK TO ROY

LIKE for a preestablished relationship/plotting line with Archer… BUT have at least one category in mind before I hop in your IMs!

I entirely get the urge of wanting to roleplay, expand our muses together, and this is my personal starting pack for Archer! If you’re hooked to one category but don’t think your muse can fit still HMU about it and I’ll see how we can work that out!

REMINDER I HAVE A LOT OF THREADS. Like often a lot. Roleplaying is something that effortlessly really relaxes me, but I am still one human. I like to see all my threads through no matter how long the wait is and do my best ! Thus we might not be threading right off the bat depending on how much stuff I have, but everything established can get into asks, dash shenanigans, etc. What matters is that it shapes our characters. 🙏

BUSINESS PEERS. Archer’s professional and very efficient work ethic made him notorious in unspoken matters as someone who will get things done with no needs of public recognition… which would lead to inner, private and ultimately more treasured recognition. He used to have clients, partners and met a lot of others at parties he went frequently to, mostly charity parties often disguised as business ones. Those partners may have known his father, maybe his grandfather, or maybe they’re fresh right out the bat, maybe the Kessler company sought them, maybe your muse’s company sought them and you stumbled upon him. Mind you that Archer has made the scandalous decision to sell the majority of his actions towards the company and doesn’t get more involved than necessary with its activities. This profile fits to every muse high enough in the business ranks to meet Archer; at least chief of a team in a department. It’s all about title. Do be reminded that the Kessler company is known to have an illegal and scandalous history as of NOW and that a lawful good muse would probably not want to be associated with it, or any muse wanting to go legal.

LEGAL WORKERS. With the horribly enormous pile of cases Archer’s been involved with, he needs a lawyer cabinet to back him and his business. Multiple ones. Maybe it is a genuinely crooked one, or a blindly optimistic one who believes his claims of innocence and being against the world, maybe the whole cabinet is broken and as a newly employed lawyer you are still too innocent until you notice. Law enforcers and government representatives knows how much Archer is guilty (or not), making him infamous in their ranks as one of those irritating cases where the system doesn’t seem to work. For muses working in the justice system, on any side, from judge to prison guard.

“FRIENDS”. Archer lost all of his friends when he was accused and imprisoned. He would have done the same thing; every one who was still linked by friendship to him risked everything. You’re one of those, because you’re not an idiot… or maybe you are and you did lose everything to keep your integrity. Or maybe you really were too stupid and loyal and believed Archer did nothing. This applies to particular muses who can fit in a scenario like this. Although for the sake of social standing Archer could “befriend” quite some people, he had a particular preference towards artists and introverted yet talented minds who had lots of potential, wanting to make them grow.

CRIMINALS. Con artists, mafiosos, yakuzas, drug dealers, maybe assassins, thieves, hackers, corrupted law enforcement agents, rich guys with illegal fetishes… Archer has dealt at least with all of them at least once. As a “cleaner” before he finally sat down on the CEO chair, Archer was the one who by circumstances became known for his professionalism, cool head and ability to erase any evidence from even the most alarming and need-to-be-quickly-done situation. Even a killer who does so as a hobby or for personal gain would eventually be caught as he goes on, unless he can take a contract or too, and have him give a helping hand in exchange for secrecy.  This applies to muses with at least a medium-ranked profile in the underground (so no simple alley drug dealer unless plotted).

ENTERTAINERS & SEX WORKERS. Given how Archer sees sex as being an extremely powerful tool, he often got around the latter, choosing carefully which escort he’ll personally put at his services. Archer kept the best ones at hand, to please contacts and clients. He respects them for their work, but he wanted professionalism from you and not cry if you got almost cut in half after a night. Although he stepped down from his CEO position, Archer was pushed into his sire’s hotel line, which secretly dealt with human trafficking and prostitution. With his experience, he slowly is coming back and is moving all his contacts over there, wanting to change his approach. Despite the need of running a very real business, he cannot ignore the amount of work his sire’s illegal business brings. This profile fills every muse working in the sex business outside camshows and movies. They don’t have to be the ones close to Archer.

VICTIM(S). Archer is a very high-rated criminal. Although he has only been found guilty of extortion, corruption, blackmailing, piracy and other business-linked crimes, he was accused but not found guilty of sequestration, serial murder, serial rape, torture, committing indignity to a body, publishing obscene material, harassment, insert lots of other legal terms surrounding this. Accusations which have been highly mediatized given how high profile he was at the time, him being used as a scapegoat and the scandal only worsened when it was said it was both on minors and adults. I won’t get too much on what the truth is, but if you’d like your muse to be victim of Archer’s real crime(s), do hit me up I’ll be very selective on this given it’s important to his background story. This profile would fit highly disturbed muse, hobos, prostitutes, people living in very poor districts, pretty much people who have the perfect victim profile. OR it can also be other businessmen, common people, those who would have their life ruined indirectly or directly any organization Archer was or is involved with, the most common being as putting you in debt with the mafia knocking at your door to kill you, break your legs or torture someone you love until you give them what they want.

NEAR THE VICTIM(S). There are suspicions your friend/lover/brother/whatever was done wrong because of Archer. Maybe you’re the one who pressed charges. Maybe it’s not you, but in some way you were involved indirectly in the scandal and it did something to you and you have your own opinion on it. Maybe you seek where Archer is to kill him, maybe just talk to him and understand… something.This profile fits a muse who has lost someone close to them in suspicious circumstances.

PARTNER IN CRIME. You were there and you liked every bit of it probably (or if not you’re surely dead). VERY SELECTIVE. This profile fits muse with probable sociopathic and/or psychopathic tendencies who knows their way across the most fucked-up places of the underworld.

OBSESSION. High profile criminals with atrocious records are known to, sadly, have, yes,fans. Your muse believes that Archer did most of what he was accused for, choose to your discretion. Maybe they wanted to visit him, maybe they sent him gifts and mails, maybe they were already almost obsessed with him BEFORE he was accused given his bit of a disturbed but extremely charismatic and successful behavior and just FELL more as he was sequestrated. This profile fits muse going to the simple nerd with morbid curiosity to the very intense stalker.

MATCHMAKING. Since his teens, Archer has met multiple people for a potential marriage; the woman in question and the relatives that accompany her. And… when bored, his sister has the nasty habit of wanting to play matchmaker with him; Archer may not be the best person, but he’d hate to not make up to someone his hell of a relative tricked. Self explanatory. Archer’s sister, Eve (Everleigh), is owner of two modern galleries, so single people susceptible to befriend her could fall into that trap.

SCHOOL FACES. Archer cut next to every tie which couldn’t help in business after he graduated from university. It was brutal and without much warning although given how he was drawn to his duty, nobody was surprised. Archer got schooled at home as a child after becoming a depressed before going to a rich high-end private school. Afterwards, he became a star tennis player and the moral support of the team. He was also the president of a literature club where he was able to bond a bit with nerds and was known to tutors younger kids he believed had potential to help his reputation or parents who had power to help his family. Archer was mostly loved by everyone, but still bullied the weak or didn’t hesitate to stomp on other to raise himself higher. Victims of his young impulses, partner or rival in the tennis court, maybe the librarian, maybe a classmate, maybe someone from another school who always saw him and wanted to know him. This profile fits muses that Archer would not talk to unless he knew them from the past. Mostly younger muses that leads a life that has nothing to do with his work. RP can be during his younger years or simply skipped to the main verse.

MEALS. As a vampire, Archer consolidated his hypnotic powers and feeding, starting to leave some preys alive, but dazed and forgetful at times. On top of the numbness and blinding aphrodisiac the poison in his biting provides, he is able to leave the impression like their meeting was a dream; victims will remember vaguely his face, voice or other depending on characters, but not remember the feeding. However, willing and loyal ones may even befriend Archer, who finds consenting people much easier to deal with than laying bodies and sudden disappearances. This profile fits grey morale muses, ones who loves the supernatural, masochists, etc. who’d trade their blood and silence in exchange of being around a vampire. Archer only feeds on females if they ask directly for it or if there is nothing else, highly preferring to feed on males, which is linked to his sexual preferences.

RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Archer has become a prominent figure of the red light district; as the one guy who owned everything (which is not true, but blown out of proportions). Due to the forceful, ruthless and undeniably lustful reputation his sire has, being the envoy puts him in a powerful position where the line between him and the one who turned him might blur to others, as if they were the same person. Anything new in the district goes through him and pros and cons are weighted for healthy competition. Outside the hotels and their affiliated businesses, Archer personally owns two bars; one is lounge gay bar and the other one of the same style, only for the supernaturals of every shape and form, with products to cater their needs. Both are actually places made to cater to his difficult and high maintenance taste; if you cannot find it, do it yourself. Those bars include their own staff, which he selects himself to make sure nobody he would find inappropriate works under his image. As for the hotel line itself, it includes its own staff, administration, underground administration and staff, restaurant staff and entertainment staff for diverse shows and parties thrown. This profile fits any muse which would frequent the red light district, from newcomers to others looking for a job, frequent visitors and owners of businesses. From the woman who runs an escort club with a heart of steel to the bartender who just wants to pay his education fees to the security guard who has nightmare about the noises he hears behind closed doors.

HITMEN. You were paid to fuck with him, but thing is it’s pretty complicated. This profile is picky since obviously the attempt is going to fail and you cannot always RP back and forth attempts. This would be nearly a comical bond with a need to plot a resolution depending on your muse!

SUBMISSIVES. Archer’s history as a dom was… infamous. Long story short, he was known to be good, but dangerous. With a more stable mind he wouldn’t mind going back to one of his favorite hobbies. The deal is simple; he owns the person obviously, no penetration sex, no deep kissing, no romance (which doesn’t mean no affection or love) and not to start screaming about it on the streets. Although he wouldn’t mind so much now to play by the rules, if allowed Archer will become ruthless, enjoying giving permanent marks on others and inflict gradually harsher punishments or rewards. This profile fits, well, masochists and submissives people, from any form and shape really (a victim is a victim) who are willing to give their body for a mutual game, be they be paying Archer or not. Very selective… because Archer is difficult. The way he treats your muse can be from pretty sweet to downward harsh… entirely depends on what degree he finds your muse attractive. Beware scars and broken parts. Sessions can last from one evening to a whole weekend.

MISC.I’ll add more when I think of them! DO THROW ME YOUR IDEAS LET’S GO.

Like with any interaction, relationships are officially in the singleverse timeline if it is roleplayed to a minimum extensively. Looking forwards to write with you!

[suspiriu-m]

Examining Youth Culture

Youth Culture in television in cinema is a theme we’ve all seen before. In some way or another, we’ve all probably related or even seen ourselves in something we’ve watched. A lot of experiences we see in these coming of age style pieces most of the time have something to do with at least one of three recurring themes. Sex, drugs and alcohol. Character archetypes are also an important part of these stories too. To sum it up, we’re generally confronted with Jocks, Nerds, Goths, Popular Kids, Pot Heads etc.

A major point to take into account when looking at this type of media is the perspective the story is told from, and where it’s taking place. For example, Barry Jenkins’ 2016 film Moonlight, is completely different from 2018’s Love Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti. Moonlight tells the story of a young Black man named Chiron. Through three different time periods in his life, we see him come to terms with his identity and sexuality, all while living with his drug addicted mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Miami. Throughout the film Chiron not only faces the struggles of his sexuality within himself, but how his unaccepting peers react, his mess of a mother, and maneuvering masculinity without the guidance of his missing father. In a review written for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw says that Moonlight

“is a film about masculinity, the wounds and crises of which are the same for all sexualities, but conditioned by the background weather of race and class” ((Bradshaw Moonlight review – a visually ravishing portrait of masculinity).

Love Simon however, is a completely different ballgame. The juxtaposition between the two films is extremely noticeable, even from just from looking at their promotional images. While Moonlight is more of a serious, realistic and emotionally charged movie, Love Simon has more of a young adult, coming of age, happily ever after tone to it. In the film, the main character has to find his way through growing up, high school, coming out to his friends and family, but most importantly figuring out how Blue is. Blue is the person that Simon has formed a connection with through emailing each other. The only problem? He has absolutely no idea who Blue even is. One of the more important aspects of this film when looking to compare it to others is the fact that the main character and most of the cast are all white. Not only that, but it takes place in a much more suburban setting compared to that of Moonlight. Simon’s relationship with his parents is very strong, his friends are all super close to him and the impression is given that they would obviously support him once he comes out. Surprise, they do.

In terms of which character I related to from the selection of films and shows assigned, I don’t really feel like I can truthfully say that I felt some sort of connection with them. Being gay myself, there wasn’t a crazy amount of representation in terms of queer youth in the films. Yes in Mean Girls you had Damian but he was kind of underutilized and exaggerated. In Euphoria you have Jules who is a trans woman but that also isn’t something that I’ve experienced and won’t pretend to. Could I relate to a few aspects of her character? Of course, i’m sure anybody can. But am I able to say I identify with her? Definitely not. That’s not a bad thing though, trans stories need to be represented in the media. More importantly they don’t always have to be represented in some tragic story or situation. Even though we’ve seen more queer representation today than ever before. We still have a long way to go. Rachel Bays wrote an article for The Advance-Titan stating

“Out of 109 major studio releases in 2017 researched by GLAAD, roughly 13% had LGBTQ characters. Of these films, about 64% featured gay men, 36% featured lesbians, 14% featured bisexuals and 0% featured trans-inclusive content”(Bays The complicated history of queer representation in film: The Advance).

It’s imperative that we see more queer representation mashed with Youth Culture in our media because not every single person experiences the same thing, especially queer kids. In terms of Kids, Saved By The Bell and Mid 90’s, I don’t specifically remember any particular moments in which I personally felt any sort of strong connection.

Now, if we’re gonna speak about common themes in a lot of these stories, then here is where I can say I definitely connected with some situations more than specific characters. Sex, drugs and alcohol are topics we see come up in a lot of coming of age or youth centered stories. In Kids, the main cast is basically parading around the city smoking, drinking and fornicating multiple times throughout the entire day. In Euphoria, one of the main characters Rue suffers from drug addiction. Kat comes to terms with her sexual awakening and a lot of her storyline is focused on her coming in touch with that side of her, whether or not it was the best way to portray it. And most of the other characters are all seen smoking, drinking out having sex at some point in the series.

Growing up, especially in our teen years, we’ve all had the opportunity to partake in at least one of those activities previously mentioned. I know for a fact that I have definitely been to parties, drank alcohol, smoked weed. I’ve encountered hookups and the whole nine yards. Something that really stood out to me in Euphoria was the episode in which Jules ends up meeting with an older man in a hotel room late at night. We shall not name the character for sake of spoilers but those of you who watched know exactly who i’m talking about. That entire scene was just gut wrenching for me to watch and I know it was for many other young queer people as well. Everything about that scene was purposefully uncomfortable to watch from the cinematography, music, acting and the location.

Speaking of music, the soundtrack to a film or TV show is super important and a lot of the time helps the creators in getting their point across. Euphoria specifically used a lot of modern music but also threw in some classics as well. The singer-songwriter Labrinth played a big role in adding music to the show’s soundtrack. He even collaborated with Zendaya in making All For Us, the show’s theme and closing track. It was premiered in the last episode of the series and incorporated into the storyline with a performance by Zendaya herself. This song specifically is so important aside from the rest of the show’s music because it aids in showing Rue’s downfall at the end of the season. She goes through so much in her recovery and relapsing and her relationship with Jules that when Jules finally decides to hop on that train and leave even though Rue tells her it’s not the best idea, it absolutely crushed her. In an interview for Rolling Stone magazine, Labrinth stated “When you look back to your teenage days... it feels semi-magical but semi-crazy and semi-psychotic. I wanted to make sure the music felt like those things”(Marks How Labrinth Created the Perfect Soundtrack for HBO's 'Euphoria').

To help convey how certain songs can help in telling a story, I created a short playlist with songs that I felt matched certain plot points in the show. Without going into too much detail in an attempt to avoid spoilers, I want to give you guys a short explanation of each song about how I feel it can fit into the show. In no exact order, the first song I chose was Regulars by Allie X. The song is about trying to fit in with society and the people around you when you feel out of place all the time. Personally, I feel like this is a good representation of Rue when she comes home from rehab and has to try and blend back into society knowing that everybody knows where she was. Halsey’s Beautiful Stranger is about meeting somebody after being hurt so many times, or just being in a bad headspace and finally feeling like this person could be the one. This is a good explanation for how Rue feels about Jules when she first meets her. She’s hesitant but slowly starts to fall in love with her before Jules starts acting out. Contaminated by Banks is a piece about loving somebody but having their history or the other person's actions make you feel not so good about the relationship you have with them. This is how Rue feels after her first little fallout with Jules. They kind of have an on and off relationship throughout the season and Rue subconsciously has doubts. Simmer by Hayley Williams is a song about suppression. Suppressing your emotions, especially the bad ones like anger, fear, sadness, rage. Nate in the series suffers with a lot of mental suppression. He suppresses his feelings about his relationship with his father, his questioning sexuality, his feelings for a specific character. Although he does lose his cool multiple times throughout the show, it’s not until the end of the season that he really bursts and lets everything out. Another song from Hayley Williams with her band Paramore called Fake Happy is also on the playlist. Fake Happy, to put it simply, is exactly what the title suggests. Pretending to be okay when you’re really not. In the show Rue relapses a few times whether that be big or small, and she has to hide it from her friends and family.

Maddy and Cassie are both the pretty popular girls of this show, leading me to choose Rina Sawayama’s XS as a representation of them. The title XS, otherwise interpreted as “excess” is literally about money, appearance and materialistic items. All of which Cassie and Maddy display throughout the show. The popular cheerleaders with the nice clothes and toned bodies, the pretty makeup and done up hair. It’s a perfect representation of their characters in my opinion. Even though they do have storylines going deeper into their minds, this is what they portray on the surface level.

Hallucinogenics by Matt Masson is a song about going somewhere else most likely due to drugs, and feeling like a different person. Although the song is a bit lighthearted in terms of sound, I think it fits with the scene with Jules and Rue taking drugs together and tripping in her room together. Rue was wary about doing it especially after the fact that she just got clean, and she already has this war in her mind going on but she does it anyways because she likes Jules. Attack of Panic by Aly & Aj heavily focuses on anxiety, which is something Rue deals with multiple times throughout the show. Especially the episode when she’s in school and pretty much has a mental breakdown and runs to the bathroom and hides. Even though the character Kat isn’t the primary focus of the show, her storyline has a bit of line shined upon it multiple times. For her storyline i chose Doja Cat’s Cyber Sex. Kat becomes a cam girl at one point in her sexual awakening and kind of goes full throttle into it. The song talks about having sexual relations with somebody over the internet and that’s exactly what Kat does, except she sees it more as a way to make an income.

Last but not least, I of course had to choose Labrinth and Zendaya’s song made for the show All for Us. The song represents Rue’s feelings of not wanting to let her family down, knowing the struggles and pain they have gone through and not wanting to upset or disappoint them again. Everything she’s done to get clean and sober up has been because of them. She loves her family so dearly but in the end she just broke down again, all because of Jules and the mess that she got herself involved with pertaining to many of the other characters she meets throughout the show. I hope you guys enjoy the playlist and take a good listen to the lyrics and themes in each song! They might not be perfect, but to me they have a lot of commonalities with themes and specific moments and themes from the show!

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/playlist-for-euphoria/pl.u-AGAaiylr2l

[seddm]

STARCO OVERVIEW - Season 2 (part 1)

SEASON 1

SEASON 2 (part 1) (part 2) 

SEASON 3 (Incoming)

SEASON 4 (Incoming)

MY NEW WAND (2x01a)

Ignoring all the questions that naturally come with a season premiere opening on Star videochatting in the bathroom while Marco is taking a shower - questions that usually lead to “why the shit did they need four seasons to start smooching”, My New Wand finally introduces the idea that Star might feel something more than friendship for Marco. We aren’t told what she wrote in her diary (even if we know now, thanks to the Book of Spells, and it’s essentially a slightly more consciously skewed toward romance version of Marco’s “I felt like this since the beginning” in Here to Help), 

but the structure of the scene and the “diary of a teenage girl which can’t be seen by her bestie” clearly directed the attention of the viewers in a very defined direction. One subtly highlighted by the super inconspicuous shape of the key (sure, lots of Star’s spells and elements are heart shaped or themed, but in this specific case having the concepts such as “heart” “key” “secret diary” and “crush” all in one shot is suspicious at the very least).

As usual, UNCONSCIOUS FEELINGS: Star was generically embarrassed about Marco reading her diary, because that’s something any teen girl would do. She wasn’t consciously crushing on Marco yet at this point, at most she sometimes felt things like “wow he’s cute” and stuff like that on top of an incredibly strong relationship. It’s akin to what Marco experiences in Blood Moon Ball, but since Star is more “aggressive” with her feelings, and since Marco is going to get serious with Jackie, she’s going to consciously include “romantic attraction” in the recipe of her friendship with Marco about half a season earlier than him. 

Another important element in the episode is the introduction to dipping down, a proper version of what Star did in Storm the Castle. Long story short, as Moon tells Star, the key to dipping down are strong emotions. 

Wanting to save Marco when Toffee kidnapped him, being embarrassed about him reading her diary here. I’m not saying that Marco is the only key to Star’s maturing, obviously - and later on she’s going to dip down even more for reasons not directly connected to him, but this early in the show he always is, one way or another, the focal point of her character arc, and Glossaryck knows it and uses him to teach his problematic student in unorthodox ways - it’s clear that he’s the one who closed Marco in the closet in this episode, and directed him toward Star’s diary, well knowing that it might have helped her get a first feeling of what dipping down is like. He literally says that finding Star’s secret is the way to have her reach the chunks, which is what he used with her as a metaphor for channeling magic through dipping down.

So strong emotions = dipping down --> Marco = source of very strong emotions for Star. Not the only source, but definitely the main one, especially in S1 and S2. This is an important point for Star’s whole character arc: it’s true that in S3 and S4 there are going to be less meaningful Star - Marco interactions, and that they’re both going to have many more moments of growth while interacting with other characters, but that’s the whole point of it. At the beginning of the series both dorks are walking disasters; by interacting together, by complementing each other and their shortcoming, they slowly mature into something better, individuals who are now ready to start stepping (slowly, very slowly, their journey won’t be complete until the end of the series) into the real world and take on it. So while I’m the first one who got frustrated and saddened by the relative lack of Starco moments in later seasons (relative is the keyword) it’s also important to keep in mind that it never meant that their relationship became less important and relevant, just that during their first months together they left a real and tangible effect on each other, leading to meaningful growth that allowed the writers to believably open up roads to different kind of interactions and “plot devices” for growth. This is what I mean when I say things like “meeting Marco is what allowed Star to defeat Toffee”. Obviously there are several degrees of separation, and several moments of growth / plot for Star that didn’t even involve Marco, but without their meeting she wouldn’t have matured as fast, she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to confront herself with a friend who was ready to help put some order in her super messed up life life. From the Book of Spells: “When we are together he sees the chaos in the world and sort of embraces it”. This is a direct quote from Star’s diary, something the writers of the show wanted to point out before S4 while referring to early S1 Star.

Marco has been, since the beginning, the first and most important key to Star’s development (even if not the only one), the “force” that first allowed her to start her journey toward maturity and become the kind of person who could go from being “a skimmer” to being proud of being “a dipper”. And in this S2 premiere we get a very direct taste of it, with Glossaryck using Marco as a bait to help Star learn.

Important bonus: the face Star makes for a handful of frames after having seen a naked Marco being YEETed across her room.

MR. CANDLE CARES (2x02a)

I wrote a lot about this episode in multiple posts, so I’m going to be extremely focused on the Star - Marco stuff only this time: 

Marco smiles like that when he sees Star getting out from the office, and it endlessly warms my heart.

Both Star and Marco are clearly not thinking about each other in romantic terms in the slightest during this episode, the former harshly denying the possibility of any feeling for her bestie, the latter not being ashamed in the slightest about talking about creative making out techniques to trick Tom into revealing himself. And yet just two segments earlier Star didn’t want Marco to read a part of her diary where she might have said something crush-related. Unconscious feelings, Heart and Mind not agreeing on something, it’s always the same deal, the whole show is going to play with this idea of extreme disconnection between what one might feel and what one might consciously know they want (concept directly introduced in Sleepover) as a way to justify the ever growing emotional intimacy between Star and Marco while taking their sweet time to actually deliver any romance related developments. We all have to accept it, or it becomes frustrating and impossible to read some of the passages in the series, especially during S3 and early S4, because we’d get lost in trying to plot the trends of their feelings on a graph and that’s a fool’s errand. When the show wants to tell us “A CHARACTER FEELS SOMETHING STRONGLY AND THIS THING IS IMPORTANT” they’re not subtle about it, and that’s vastly more important than anything else.

Marco stops playing to dreamingly appreciate Star and state how endearing he finds a part of her personality which might be frustrating to most (and it is to Tom, despite him also being attracted to it at the same time).

Appreciating your partners’ quirks is Love Story Writing 101, and this is going to be particularly evident in Curse of the Blood Moon (”I like every single thing about you”) and Here to Help (Star chuckling at Marco’s clumsiness). In this specific case it’s obviously premature to talk about “love” and it’s mostly a delicious bonus that presents a comparison between Tom and Marco, evidencing both their points in common (they’re both fascinated by Star’s personality and individuality) and differences (Tom is frustrated by this part of Star’s personality as well, since it doesn’t mix well with his controlling nature, while Marco learned to embrace it).

The important part, my favorite example to show people why and how Marco had an incredibly important influence on Star’s growth, especially during the first part of the series: Star spends most of the day panicking over Mr. Candle and then her mom’s words, she feels trapped in a role she didn’t want, lacking any freedom and prospect in life beyond her role as a future queen (interestingly she feels stuck in life, just like Marco in the following episode, but not out of lack of direction, but excess of it!). Then Marco gets home, talks to her for twenty seconds, and he immediately manages not only to calm her down, but he also gives her a new perspective on her life, and on her possibilities as a princess (and we know that she is definitely going to use her authority in her own way during S3), all of this while always following the style outlined by Blood Moon Ball: not a teacher or someone who tells her what she should do, just a friend nudging her in the right direction, telling her what she needed to hear. A Version 1.0 of his speech about finding your own happiness from Beach Day, in a way - the theme of free will and self determination was present since the beginning, even if at the time there obviously seemed to be less freedom in Star’s life, since she was supposed to inherit the throne, eventually.

Bonus points for the Alphonse The Worthy’s portrait from Blood Moon Ball moving his eyes to look at the two hugging, and for the demon highlighting with “point Marco” that he ultimately won the day when it came to wanting to be at Star’s side. Minus point for Star still acting coy at Tom’s compliment showing that she still had unresolved attraction for him. 

RED BELT (2x02b)

The events of the episode itself aren’t particularly related to Starco, but it formally introduces Marco’s own “coming of age” arc, by telling us that he’s scared about being stuck in life, left without a goal or a purpose and without any meaningful connection. Needless to say that the “squire arc” from Sophomore Slump to The Knight Shift is going to address this, and that Star (as a person, but also as a mean to step into a bigger world) is going to be fundamental for Marco’s growth. While talking about the series premiere I mentioned that Star’s main role in Marco’s life is helping him become a better version of himself, stepping out of his comfort zone and managing to find his own path toward fulfillment and happiness, and Star is not just going to be extremely important for this, in different ways during the many different arcs, but she’s eventually going to be identified as THE single most important element. In The Knight Shift Marco is going to realize that he wants a lot of things from his life, that he wants to make experiences and slowly decide what he wants to do in the future without being scared about having to figure out everything here and now, lest being left behind, but he’s also going to realize that Star’s presence is essential to his happiness, that their relationship is the one lifelong post he feels like he has to commit, despite being just a teen with all his life in front of him.

So Red Belt doesn’t really have any relevant Starco interactions, but it introduces a part of Marco’s journey as a character that’s going to be incredibly connected to Star’s presence in his life.

As for the nightmare itself, don’t ask. It uses a lot of generic dream-like imagery to make things confusing and symbolic, with some elements from the first half of the season (Mr. Candle, the colors green and purple, associated to the magic subplot, the suit from Bonbon The Birthday Clown...). Maybe the Blood Moon being there was on purpose, a symbol for “you’re worried about having no goal in life, but your friend can be the key for you to gain maturity and fulfillment!”, maybe it was just “red belt, red balloon, spooky imagery... let’s put in the Blood Moon!”. Lots of things in visual media are done just for “rules of cool” or to give the scene a particular kind of mood that can help focus the attention of the viewers.

STAR ON WHEELS (2x03a)

This episode, in its extreme weirdness, is like an a super condensed recap of the important parts of Star and Marco’s relationship - with focus on the Star’s side of things, but there’s also some for Marco:

Star she gets excited about Marco teaching her something about Earth culture - riding a bike, which at the same time is also something new that could be compared to her getting her wand;

She overdoes and she messes up / can’t properly handle the situation;

Marco gets overwhelmed by this, but then learns to embrace the weirdness of Mewni / magic for Star’s sake (more or less like what happened in the first episode, or at least during her first encounters with Star and her world);

and Star has to come to terms with the fact that she’s in another dimension now, embracing part of it just like Marco did, and growing from it, and Marco has a big role in convincing her about it;

And while it’s at it, the episode includes other important themes (central to Star as a person in general, but in this case highlighted through her interactions with Marco), such as Star’s stubbornness and hostility toward doing and learning stuff when just told what to do,

and the resulting moment of learning and growth when Marco, instead of just “ordering her” what to do, gives her some of the trust that she desperately needs, and with it the confidence to actually try and succeed on her own (this all connects to the larger arc of Glossaryck teaching Star stuff in unconventional ways).

And since it never hurts we get reminded one more time how much Star resents being lied to and how important trust is to her.

Obviously the whole episode is extremely silly, the whole situation requires a lot of suspension of disbelief to work and the “emotional moments” of the episode are extremely hammed up - we get a heartwarming “I trust you.” moment when the situation at hand involves learning to ride a bike! But it’s still a good way to have in a slick 11 minutes long package a super-cut of (part of) what Star and Marco brought into each other’s lives, and how that affected them and their way to interact with the world. 

FETCH (2x03b)

Wow look in an episode that directly introduces the “stop running from your problems” arc for Star we get told by Sta herself that having your own Marco is important to give you the support you need to feel less overwhelmed by life - and thus less prone to ignore problems, it’s almost like he’s important to her in that way and that in Lint Catcher the dubbin vows when she makes him her squire further drive home the idea that he’s her ideal companion.

STAR VS ECHO CREEK (2x04a)

Another episode about “running away from problems”, in this case Star physically runs away from her problems and tries to avoid consequences. And sure, at the beginning of the episode Marco tries to tell her not to run away and we could argue once again about the positive influence and role Marco has on Star, but we know about it already. What’s REALLY important and huge is that by the end of the episode Star, the same person whose greatest fear in S1 was going to St. Olga and thus losing her freedom, gets convinced while talking with her own subconscious that going to prison (= facing problems and consequences instead of running away carefree) is a better alternative to never being able to see Marco again.  This is the same concept I talked about at the beginning of the post: it’s not like Marco is the ONLY important person in Star’s life, she obviously loves her family as well and in later seasons she’s going to interact with other characters as well, but at this point of the story Marco is the person who she actively cares the most about, and the one who better understands her (this is going to be a constant throughout the series, obviously), so almost all big moments of learning and self reflection for Star are somehow related to him. And while saying that Marco is the most important person in the world to Star (and vice versa) might not have been entirely correct by this point of the series (mostly because we lacked proper perspective), it becomes absolutely true by the end of it, as their choices in Cleaved highlight. 

So yes, sure, logically speaking, and going beyond the simple plot of this episode, Star would have missed a number of persons if she spent her life hiding just to run away from her problems, but as far as early S2 experiences and subconscious goes, it all relates back to Marco, one way to another. After all we know that they both had an intense and special relationship from the beginning, and it’s going to keep being something unique that they don’t share with anyone else throughout the whole show, even when they’re going to date other people, even when there aren’t going to be as many episodes featuring both of them together.

Bonus gratuitously adorable shot. Marco didn’t love-love Star from the beginning, we know that, but Gloss damnit, did he LOVE her from the beginning. I know that the series might not have had the best of pacing and some choices concerning shipping planted doubts and frustration in many fans, but no other two characters in the series come even remotely as close to Star and Marco when it comes to unabashedly caring about the other to incredibly extremes. THIS is what Marco means when he says that he felt like this from the beginning, and THIS is what Star means when she says (albeit in her diary in the Book of Spells) that she never connected with anyone else in the same way. This has never changed in intensity throughout the show (if anything it grew), even if it got the spotlight of an episode way less frequently.

WAND TO WAND (2x04b)

Yet another episode about Star learning not to avoid problems and responsibilities as much, and another episode that doubles down of how important Star’s feelings for Marco (I mean “feelings” in the broadest possible term, not as in “still unconscious crush” only) are for her magic. I already said this like five times, but I really want for the point to come across: I’m not saying that everything Star does, learns, or everything concerning her magic, has to relate to Marco, Starco, or to her growing crush on him, nor that Marco is the only one who ever helps Star grow. What I mean is that during all of S2 Marco is the single biggest source of feelings for Star, and this includes good stuff and negative stuff, such as all the emotional turmoil cased by Jarco. But this all plays into helping Star mature, culminating in Starcrushed. The S2 finale constitutes the climax to Star’s “stop running away from problems” arc, culminating in her accepting her role as a princess and going off to face Toffee, but this goes hand in hand with confessing her crush to Marco. Star finds the determination to grow and take The Plot™ head on, thus eventually saving Mewni (multiple times), and this part of her character arc is inextricably connected to her “learn to admit your own feelings for Marco” arc. THIS is what establishes their relationship as utterly special, and what allows me to claim that Marco had a fundamental role in Star’s coming of age story, well beyond the limits of what he personally and actively did with and for her.

When the series shows us that Marco is the key to Star tapping into her magic and better learning to use it it’s not because of some lore or plot related connection between the two, or between Starco and Magic - we have seen that’s not the case: magic is connected to emotions, and Marco happens to be the single biggest source of emotions for Star. That’s what it’s all about.

The episode ends with Star using brooms to fix her messes instead of magic, which is yet again a nice moment of “Star embracing part of Marco’s world”, but it’s not really that important in the big picture since it’s not like Earth’s ways are inherently better, it’s just important for Star at this point of her arc.

STARSTRUCK (2x05a)

Marco being right about Mina and still not rubbing it in Star’s face at the end is very cute and sets a difference between most of cartoon relationships and Starco, but it’s not that important, this is a solo-learning episode for Star.

CAMPING TRIP (2x05b)

This episode is like a fanfiction come to life, in a good way. The idea of Star’s crush on Marco is not going to be directly introduced until Sleepover, but in this episode she still acts differently, we are shown a side of Star that definitely leans closer to thinking of Marco as more than a friend - and this contributes to the main plot of the episode, where River is presented as a dad going through a middle age crisis, worried about losing her daughter to some boy who’s going to take her way from her home. AND YET NOTHING IS CONSCIOUS YET. THAT’S HOW THE SHOW DOES IT. During the episode Star is unmistakably closer to Marco usual, “happier” to spend time with him, but that doesn’t change anything in their relationship in further episodes and that still doesn’t help her be any more conscious about her feelings until Just Friends. There’s absolutely no contradiction here because it follows the inner rules the show adheres to.

I love this scene. Eden’s delivery of the line is incredible, conveying the eagerness in Star’s voice, a different kind than what we are used to and that immediately suggested (even at the time the episode aired, when we didn’t have the luxury of hindsight yet) that something was different. Not as in “something inside Star changed”, as I said we are still far away from any epiphany, just that the writers and boarders wanted to show a specific side of Star’s inner sphere in this episode.

And it’s even more interesting in hindsight, because comparing this scene with the dance in Curse of the Blood Moon, Mama Star, and Here to Help, shows us that Star and Marco (in this case it focuses exclusively on Star, Marco is denser after all) have always been very close to acting on their feelings - the entirety of them, and that they were usually just distracted by other things (other romantic interests, being stupid and dense, fear of change). When they have a moment to be alone, just the two of them, free from any other concern and focused just in each other, they immediately start to inch closer to embracing all of their relationship. 

Let me clarify: 

In Curse of the Blood Moon Star and Marco finally actually fall in Love for the first time after having danced together for a minute or so. Obviously the episode itself was a moment of high stress and tension, but once inside the Severing Stone they didn’t have to think about anything else for a moment. “We do this and everything will be fixed, we’ll be free of these obnoxious, unwanted feelings that get in the way!”, and by thinking that they let their guards down for a moment and enjoy each other’s presence, focusing on nothing more for the span of a dance, and that’s enough to lead them to understand that they do like it, a lot, and that they’d want to always be like that and that they had been running away from something beautiful all that time.

In Mama Star as soon as the Magic washes away all of Marco’s concerns and emotional blocks, he immediately confesses his love to Star, baring all of himself and revealing that what he desires the most is always being at her side.

Here to Help presented us once again with a context of stress and high tension, sure, but while in the barn Star and Marco could focus on themselves and nothing else for a moment, forgetting all about Mina and Mewni and anything else, and we know how that ended.

So I don’t mean that Star was about to confess her undying love for Marco in Camping Trip, just that the situation that was about to unfold (before River’s arrival) would have allowed for Star to focus less about “Marco is just a friend and you don’t feel weird things for your friends”, and more on “being with Marco makes me happy”. Which is the very essence of what “With or without magic we belong together” stands for.

“Let me just subtly remind you that Marco and Star have a positive influence on each other and that their meeting is the meeting of dimensions and cultures” - The Show

“Let me just subtly remind you that Marco and Star have a positive influence on each other and that their meeting is the meeting of dimensions and cultures” - The Show

The whole “River thinks Marco is Star’s boyfriend and that he stole her affection from him” is clearly played for laughs, but we still get an external character validating Marco’s efforts in helping Star out, and he also essentially approves of Marco being Star’s boyfriend. Which means absolutely nothing (with the exception of Wrtahmelior in Lake House Fever parents never ever butt in their kids’ relationships in this show, so their opinions have never been considered relevant when shipping is involved), but it’s still nice.

Bonus: Star is specifically animated looking at Marco in several occasions throughout the episode, way more then usual, “stealing glances” even. External link to the GIFs because Tumblr sucks and they’d make the whole post too heavy to load.

STARSITTING (2x06a)

In case you weren’t persuaded the first eighteen times I said that Star and Marco complement and help each other grow and be the best version of themselves, here’s an episode explicitly telling the viewer that. With a side of “dorks acting like parents” and a generous helping of “one day they’ll also understand they love each other” because there’s no way they didn’t want to tease that as well with the way these sentences are constructed. 

Bonus points for Star complimenting Marco for his skills with babies. DAD MATERIAL. ONE THOUSAND BABIES.

BY THE BOOK (2x07b)

This episode doesn’t really have any important Star - Marco interactions (even if it sure has cute ones, team work is the dream work. That’s how the saying goes, right?), but it reinforces the idea that Star learns things only in unconventional ways, something that often involves Marco during S2.

GAME OF FLAGS (2x08a)

Ignoring for a moment that Marco gets invited to what’s a family event, and that Star eagerly pairs up with him as Them Vs Her Families (ok I know that it makes full sense given the plot of the episode and it doesn’t mean there are any “Star and Marco as family” undertones here, but let me dream a bit ok?), the important stuff comes at the end: just like he did in Mewnipedence Day (albeit in a more direct way this time), Marco opens up Star’s eyes to the reality of the situation, snapping her out from a tradition she accepted without ever questioning it. And she doesn’t just back down, she tries to change things, she steals the flags, risking her own health, to claim the hill for all of them and change for good the nature of the event, just like she’s going to try and change Mewni. Once again the importance of Marco’s role in Star’s arc is evident, and once again he’s not a “teacher” who tells Star what to do, and even less a “savior” who has all the right answers for Mewni. He’s just a concerned friend who knows what kind of person Star really is, and who can give her a new perspective on things that helps her mature her own, personal, unique views. Views that are eventually going to forever change Mewni.

MEETING OF TWO INDIVIDUALS, MEETING OF TWO DIMENSIONS. The show begins with Star and Marco meeting it ends with their dimensions being cleaved together, they BOTH brought a new perspective on life to the other! It’s more apparent for Marco, since his advice pushed Star in a direction that has big effects on the plot itself, but Marco’s life was completely changed by Star as well, if in S3 he’s able to move to Mewni to have his “French Summer” and then in S4 he understands that importance of being true to what you want to commit to it’s only thanks to the crazy princess who helped him get out of his shell and make his first steps into real life. THIS is the very essence of what the show is, of Star and Marco being the tools to each other’s growth and happiness! 

SLEEPOVER (2x09a)

One might expect a long section about this episode, but I’m going to keep it short: forget about all the “but how does the Cube work?” “who did lie?” and stuff like that. The important messages of the episode are crystal clear:

- Star Butterfly has a crush on Marco Diaz. No matter how conscious or unconscious it was at this point, the show told us directly, not just through undertones and themes anymore, that Star had specifically romantic feeling for Marco as well.

- Feelings are confusing. You Heart might feel like it wants something, but your Head doesn’t know that and it thinks you want something else. This is what the series bases everything related to relationships and romance on. This is why Star can be utterly convinced that she likes Oskar, at this point of the series, while actually having growing feelings for Marco. This is why Marco can move to Mewni, leaving Earth and his old life behind, while still not realizing the full extent of why he felt such a need to be with Star, and so on. The whole series plays with the idea that Star and Marco’s feelings for each other keep linearly growing throughout the show, but don’t always consciously influence their actions and thoughts in the same way.

And that’s why by the end of the episode the boarders can nudge our arms and go “Hey, hey, see that Star is sad when Marco ignores her because of Jackie? Hey, hey, that’s the seed of jealousy, that relates to love! Look at that!”, but then in Naysaya Star can be super happy for Marco scoring a date with Jackie. Dumb teens who don’t know what they want. 

This line seemed so mature and deep at the little, little did we know the writers would have squeezed every last drop out of this concept as a way to justify things like Star and Marco completely ignoring their supposedly burning desire from Booth Buddies until Curse of the Blood Moon and then again until Mama Star. No, bad Seddm, no salt and negativity in these happy posts!

Let’s close this part here so that the core messages have more focus and remain more clear, but I wanted to point out that Star really loves involving Marco and having fun with him. Which is something we already knew but it always feels good pointing it out.

GIFT OF THE CARD (2x09b)

“Starco Teasing: The Episode”, also known as “How to have your main characters act like soulmates while still keeping everything in the episode frustratingly platonic only”.

From Star going [soft gasp] at how incredibly Marco looks in his ballet shoes

To the plot device of the episode being a gift for their anniversary... as friends, to everything else in the episode.

Ok this is clearly part of the gag but it’s also damn cute.

Star and Marco actually pour their hearts out with no recriminations here, and while it’s not something weird at all for this kind of scenes, where the characters think they’re going to die but the viewers are fully aware that it’s just the setup for a punchline, it’s still cute and a good example of the bases of their relationship.

The fact that this scene is not played for laugh, and that Star genuinely appreciates Marco saying it instead of going “OH SO YOU WERE JUST TRYING TO SAVE YOUR BUTT”, goes in the big pile of “Why do I like Starco more than any other fictional relationship?” pile.

Never mind how horribly frustrating Marco’s “let’s die in each other arms so people will know that we were friends, yep, just friends, that’s the first thing everyone would think!” is: this is an alpha version of Cleaved, Star and Marco think that they’re going to die and that there’s nothing more they can do, and their reaction is to hug and hold hands, just wanting to be together in their last moment. The whole episode doesn’t really have high stakes and it’s clearly a silly, over the top adventure, but the emotions the dorks show are very real, and exemplifying of how in love (used in the broadest possible meaning, not with a strictly romantic connotation) they were already at this time.

And this is what Star decides to get excited about, not having survived. Again, a gag, but it still fits well, it’s not played for laughs with malicious intents or to mock their friendship.

PIZZA THING (2x12b)

Nothing major nor new since it’s something we saw as early as in the second segment of the series already, but Star has learned to enjoy a “calmer” way of having fun compared to what she was used to on Mewni, thanks to Marco’s presence, being more than happy to watch TV on the couch instead of going partying around, sometimes. Also the whole concept of “Friendship Thursdays” is adorable.

NAYSAYA (2x13b)

“How can Star be this eager to help Marco out with Jackie and cheer for him when in Sleepover she was s-” HEART AND MIND DISAGREEING SHE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT SHE WANTS she genuinely likes helping Marco and making him happy and won’t fully realize until Just Friends that this just means pushing him in the arms of someone who is not her, shut up!

With this out of the way, this episode features The scene showing just how much Star helps Marco getting out of his comfort zone, taking risks that go well beyond kicking monsters and going into other dimensions and becoming a better version of himself, one who can achieve his own happiness (Jackie is a small part of this, this concept of “achieving happiness” is going to be much more relevant in S4 and Star’s role in it for Marco - and viceversa - is literally going to be the main attraction during the series finale).

Hey look, Marco’s biggest fear is being alone (as in, feeling alone as an individual, without meaningful connections, not being literally alone) and without a goal and a meaning in his life. And for a time he’s going to delude himself in thinking that Jackie and school can be that, but then in Sophomore Slump he has to slowly accept and realize that Star is the only one who can give him that!

Wowie it’s almost like they deeply changed and influence each other’s lives.

BONBON THE BIRTHDAY CLOWN (2x14)

I’m going to put this as a disclaimer at the beginning of this part so that I don’t have to explain later: during this episode Star clearly displays feelings and behaviors that can only be explained by having a crush on Marco and feeling an intense need to be with him. But the episode begins with Star cheering on Marco with Jackie, and is followed by several other episodes of Star being none the wiser about her feelings for it, and definitely not showing them. Why? How? Heart and Mind disagreeing; denial; being scared of change; blaming all her uneasiness from the night on having lost Glossaryck thus overwriting the other feelings until Just Friends; a combination of everything, you pick your poison.

This is a minor note, but both Star and Marco regret having forgotten about their already existing plan with the other for the prom, with Marco’s “Jackie High” lasting about half a second before he once again goes “Oh no Star, no hurt Star!”. It’s just a setup for the episode and doesn’t really play any role, but it’s a welcome breath of fresh air compared to the easy drama most shows from past decades would have immediately built up from this kind of situation.

Star is super happy to greet Jackie, right now her mind still hasn’t put 2 and 2 together, she still hasn't processed “If Marco is going to a promo with Jackie as her date, he can’t possibly be romantically involved with me”. It’s all still a very unconscious process now (she won’t properly think “I want to smooch him but I can’t” until Just Friends), but it’s a painfully clear case of “You don’t know what you truly wanted until you lose it”, as evidenced extremely clearly both visually and by the subtle as a hammer on your teeth song (this scene here, Just Friends, Lava Lake Beach, song get used as a way to highlight and give exposition to the characters’ feelings multiple times in the early days of Starco).

Darned if I knew That I'd find you In the last place I thought you would be What could I do 'Til I saw you waiting for me? Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh And if I catch your eye It feels like I could fly Out from my lonely world into yours

Following that, Star spends most of the episode feeling weird: she looks at the picture on her phone and feels bad and tries to find a reason for that, something to blame for the new feelings she’s experiencing.

For a moment, when she uses the All Seeing Eye spell, she might have understood, or at least made a direct connection between Marco being on a date with Jackie, and her feeling like that. But the epiphany escapes her grasp after an instant, due to her magic going awry, and after that Ludo’s rat immediately gets there and she has other things to worry about.

Going back to Marco’s side of things for a moment, a quick consideration about what’s clearly a Jarco moment, a moment of connection between the two of them: we get a character external to the Star-Marco dynamic acknowledging Marco’s tenacity and perseverance, a quality that early Star lacked (”looks like I’m just a skimmer”) and that’s going to become an important part of her later on (”I am a dipper”, never giving up with the Monsters and Eclipsa in S3 and S4). One of the most clear examples of how Marco’s good influence helped Star change for the better, and this is the first time he gets outright praised for it.

After the kiss Marco sees the Blood Moon, and he’s immediately reminded of Star and goes to check on his phone, noticing the missed calls and getting worried. Was this part of the curse? Was the Moon trying to hinder Jackie and Marco’s relationship? Absolutely fucking not, as Marco said the curse is bullshit and was never a thing. In the context of this specific episode it’s symbolic, nothing more: Star is always in Marco’s thoughts, we know it and no one can deny it, the Blood Moon was merely a visual way to remind him of her, and to tell us viewers that even while kissing his long time crush, Marco still keeps part of his being focused on Star. He could have seen a little girl playing with a magic wand or hear someone say “the stars are beautiful tonight!” and it would have had the same effect. There’s nothing magical here, and if there’s it’s not important; it’s not even a good thing for Star, since Marco and Jackie’s arrival at the graveyard is actually what makes Star lose control of her magic, losing the fight.

 Marco saving Star is a cool and sweet scene, and sets a clear parallel with Wand to Wand (and we even have confirmation from the storyboarder that it was on purpose, not that it wasn’t clear enough already) that neither of them would ever let the other go, but there’s not much to be said about it, their commitment to each other is pretty straightforward and it’s obviously to be expected in dangerous situations such as this.

Also, it’s not a full parallel: in this case the moment of danger doesn’t end with a hug, but with Marco going to check on Jackie (after having helped Star up obviously, he’s still and will always be worried about her after all).

And yet, despite this, by the end of the episode Star entirely blames her sadness on having lost the book and Glossaryck. She’s still clearly hurting over Jackie and Marco, but the situation at hand gives her an easy way out, an excuse to latch on to “cover” her feelings for her bestie with a thick layer of “no no it’s definitely just this” (wow just like in Curse of the Blood Moon!). And thus the epiphany that she almost had while spying on them is delayed until Just Friends.

Neither Star nor Marco are clearly aware about it obviously, but it’s hard not to see that “I’ve lost Glossaryck” line as “I’ve lost you” as well. Fun times.

To conclude, going back to something from the middle of the episode (didn’t want to digress earlier): this scene with Glossaryck asking Star if he can burn a page from the book and Star telling him to do whatever he wants is another side to the “you don’t know what you wanted until you lose it”: Star barely cares about the Book, symbol of her duties as a princess, but in a handful of minutes - and for future episodes - she’s going to be terribly hurting over having lost it. As I said multiple times the arcs of “Star learning to stop running away from her problems and accepting her responsibilities” and “Star recognizing and accepting her feelings for Marco” go hand in hand, and are both integral to her development and character arc. And, as we are going to see in the season finale, neither of them can truly reach its payoff without the other.

Bonus to make the whole episode a little less painful: while helping Star and Jackie up Marco might give Jackie more focus, but his tone of voice is way more kind and warm and delicate with Star, showing an incredible amount of care. Clearly this doesn’t entirely match Marco’s priorities in this moment, but it’s a welcome gift from Adam (and Daron I guess, since she’s always present during the recording sessions and certainly directed him to deliver the line in that specific way).

[spndystopiabang]

SPN Dystopia Bang 2019 masterpost all stories and art

The 2018-2019 round of the SPN Dystopia Bang has finished. We've had an amazing crop of stories and art this year and we invite you to check out the following story and art links below to see for yourself. (Find the AO3 collection here.)

Until next time. ~ hit_the_books and Enoliel

here at the end of all things

Author: chestercbennington / remy Artist: blueeyesandpie / sunny Rating: teen Length: ~40k words Pairings: gen Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, torture and its aftermath

AU from Season 12 onwards. The British Men of Letters win in the USA,  and slowly manage to establish their bases and authority over the whole   country. They also capture Sam Winchester and keep him prisoner for   eleven months, experimenting on him regularly before wiping his memories  so that he has no idea what has been done to him. Even after   Dean rescues him and they begin planning to get revenge once and for   all, the niggling doubt at the back of Sam’s head remains – what did   they do to him? Why won’t his anxiety get better? And what is it that   he’s missing?

Link to fic Link to art

Lebanon, Postilla

Author: smalltrolven Artist: kuwlshadow Rating: Explicit Length: 11,679 Pairings: Sam/Dean Warnings: None

After the Great Deluge, the Postilla, or the Afterward begins. In   2030, Sam finally has the time to write the story of the end of their   world and what came next. The Winchesters manage to find some solace in   what they’ve long denied themselves. Cas and Jack are presumed gone in   the Deluge, but then tales reach the brothers of approaching beings   killing with only their voices.

Link to fic on AO3 or LJ

Link to art on tumblr

The Melancholy Waters Lie

Author(s): anyrei & mugglerock Artist: Hitori Alouette Rating: Explicit Length: ~90k Pairing(s): Castiel/Dean Winchester; (Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester) Warnings: Minor character death, Attempted Rape/Noncon, Drowning

Merifi had always been the guardians, the angels of the sea. The balance in their world, the light to the sirens’ darkness. As with time and   industrial growth, humans became aggressive, dangerous, uncaring in   their endeavor to put all life in the sea at risk. Unable to combat it,  the merifi and many other creatures went into hiding within their   kingdoms.

That was, until the fateful period in which humans  created such mass destruction, pollution, and chaos; the earth warmed  and the sea levels rose.

Humans who survived were forced to reside  in Teloah; the City of Death, and the sea was returned to its rightful inhabitants. Despite the shift, merifi of the Kingdom of Basgim were instructed by their King to never venture to the surface. But Castiel,   the youngest of the King’s three sons, had never been good at listening.

Fascinated by humans and the things they created, Castiel too often found himself   nearing the surface in curiosity, but never drawing too close, never   interfering in the affairs of humans on ships. That was, until a fateful night during a terrible storm, when a handsome human was flung from  the  safety of his ship.

It wasn’t like saving one human could possibly change his life. Right?

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Under the Nothing Sky

Author: malmuses Artist: anyreiart Rating: Explicit Length: 78k Pairings: Dean Winchester/Castiel (Background Sam/Eileen and Gabriel/Kali) Warnings: Minor Character Deaths (No Winchesters or Castiel),  Homophobic   Society, Canon typical violence, Torture, Imprisonment, Angst  with a   Happy Ending, Spaceships, Big Explosions, Drinking and Dancing.

Welcome to the Glass City.

Its   citizens live perfect, orderly lives. Controlled by the barcodes upon   their arms, they are quietly assigned jobs, spouses, accommodations…  whole lives. Some families rank above others, but that is just the way   it is. The way the Council demands it to be.

Lieutenant Colonel   Castiel Novak is the shining star of the Glass City’s Academy, mere   weeks away from graduating and being titled Commander of his own ship,   his own crew.

Castiel is very good at obeying.

Until he meets a man with green eyes, a cocky smile, and no barcode.

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I Will Always Find You

Author: Hunter Kin Artist: amberdreams Beta: jdl71 Word Count: 31,217 Rating: Explicit Pairings: Dean/Sam Warnings: barebacking, swearing, violence, spoilers for Season 8

When Sam realizes that his brother had been blasted to Purgatory after   killing Dick Roman, he takes a back door through Hell to save Dean.   Only  his brother won’t leave without Castiel. And as each day passes,   it  becomes more and more clear that the angel just doesn’t want to be   found.

Link to fic: LJ | AO3

Link to art: LJ

Not Without You

Author: jscribbles Artist: bees-are-awesome Rating: Explicit Length: 57,000 Pairings: Dean/Castiel (a little of Castiel/Hannah, a non-con Meg/Castiel) Warnings: various non-con   situations, dub-con situations, cruel and unusual punishment, graphic   depictions of assault and violence, humans put in solitary confinement,   forced ejaculation, drugs and substance abuse, use of barbiturates,   imprisonment, mentions of forced breeding, torture, sexual situations,   eugenics, emotional and physical abuse by authority figures

There’s   a virus spreading across the globe, rendering 80% of men infertile. In  a  rush to contain the spread of the virus as a viral hotspot arises in   South Dakota, the government implements forced fertility testing for  all  men, and a mandatory breeding program. The borders close, all   communication both interstate and across borders is shut down, and a   state of national emergency is put in place. The fertile   twenty-percenters are being redistributed to breed with society’s elite   women—moguls, celebrities, geniuses, CEOs. The eight-percenters are   being sent to work on farms or sent back to their regular jobs,   distributed via lottery. Dean and Castiel are not one of the lucky ones.

Victims   to cruel medical procedures, routine sexual assault, and other   atrocities under The Facility’s authority, Dean and Castiel quickly find   comfort in each other. They—especially Dean—scheme and plot their   escape with the help of Dean’s laywer brother, Sam, who is states over   but somehow instrumental in their plan. They find strength and love in  each other, but how long will they live in a facility that executes   rebels, and how long will they last when Naomi discovers that separating   them makes them weaker?

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Moon-kissed

Author: FogsRollingIn Artist: MidnightSilver Rating: Mature (for dark themes) Length: ~28,000 Pairings: Sam/Dean (unrelated) Warnings: Dark themes, slavery, mentions of past abuse, graphic violence

Leviathans   led a successful global assault on humanity twenty years ago. The  resistance is made up of surviving humans and Luna-borne creatures such  as weres. Dean, a Marrow Pack werewolf, runs missions to take down   leviathan strongholds and rescue those imprisoned and enslaved there. On   this particular mission, Dean is shocked to discover one of the young   slaves is a werecat, a species so rare that most weres thought them   extinct.

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I Dreamed A Dream

Author: MidnightSilver Beta: wendibird Artist: Angel Rating: Gen Length: ~21,000 words Pairings: none Warnings: Canon level violence, some gore, angst, despair, child death - minor characters,

Six beings stand alone as the world crumbles and gasps it dying breath  -  a world of death from sickness and starvation; a world where  monsters   walk the day without fear; where the living wait for death  only to find ��Death is no comfort.

Above this world sits the  Archangel who was  its architect. Below it waits the Vessel who could  not let go - who  laughed as it burned. And somewhere unknown is a man  lost to his family.  He fights, though his strength is almost gone. The  one who was looking  for him is broken - his hope destroyed. And the  last Angel is not  enough. He was never meant to stand alone.

This world is nightmare - but when you are alone in the terror of the night who can lead the way to salvation?

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Between Promise and Purgatory

Author: CR Noble Artist: hit_the_books Rating: Explicit Pairing: Gen, background Ketch/Gadreel Word Count: 26K Warnings: Major   Character Death, Dystopian AU, Human trafficking, self-harm, graphic   depictions of violence, imprisonment, uneducated!sam, resistance, caste   system, torture, noncon, medical procedures, eugenics, minor character   death (multiple)

In a post-apocalyptic   world where the rich have control of everything, including the people,   and the poor don’t even own their own bodies, people with superior   genetics are sold as breeders for the Gentry to keep their immortal   bloodlines growing.

Dean has lived in Purgatory his whole   life, trying his best to protect his younger brother from the hideous   truths of their existence, especially since their parents died while   they were teenagers. So, when Sam is taken to be sold as a breeder, Dean   doesn’t have a choice.

With the help of the underground society known as the Network, Dean must face impossible odds if he is to save his brother.

The risks are great, but he’ll do anything to save Sam. No matter what it costs.

Link to Fic

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[mojoflower]

Teen Wolf mpreg fic recs (99% Sterek, 1% Steter)

I know that you love me, even when I lose my head by LunaCanisLupus 22 E, 136k, Complete.  “We’re not mates, Cora,” he insists. “I mean look at him-“  //  “Ouch,” the kid says, no longer pushing that shit eating grin.  //  “He’s- he’s,” Derek tries, at a loss of how to explain why this can’t be possible. Why it shouldn’t be possible.  //  Or the one where Derek gets attacked by hunters, ends up with amnesia and forgets Stiles is his mate.

Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Stiles, Alpha Derek, but Stiles is a BAMF, BAMF Stiles, presumably Actual Derek is also a bamf, but College Derek is pretty useless, Heh heh

Wow, this story just grabbed me and didn't let me go and now it's the end of a full day and I have no excuse for abandoning everything except that I was really involved and enjoying the plot.  //  Stiles is such a fucking badass, I love this, he's super-smart and strategizes and handles everything that comes up like a pro and it's totally easy to see why they have such a large and powerful pack. 'College Derek', meanwhile, is a complete sexist asshole (with the whole Alpha/omega thing) who says some super hurtful things in the first half out of sheer ignorance mostly -- although occasionally it's spite. Stiles handles it as well as he can, trying to hide that it hurts and striking back because he has backbone for god's sake... but his bondmark is slowly fading and that's terrifying and tragic.  //  Meanwhile, the Silva pack is due to arrive with some manifest bad intentions, and Peter is lurking around stirring up trouble, and it's a really fucking bad time for Derek to not remember who he is, because it makes their pack vulnerable.  //  Great story.

The Lighthouse Keeper by tugela54 E, 75k, Complete.  On a rural island just off Alaska’s northern Inside Passage, stands a centuries old lighthouse - the perfect sanctuary for its keeper to hide when the moon is full, to burn and rage through its cycle with the townsfolk being none the wiser.  //  But then a new resident comes to Beacon Harbour – a bright-eyed young student chasing an elusive whale species – and all of a sudden those thick stone walls seem paper thin…

Bottom Stiles, Like Whoa,  

 Whoa, that was an intense climax, I'm kinda breathless. Great story. Stiles is earnest and funny (and sooo hot for the giant, hairy, handsome man -- when author says size difference they are not messing around and it's mentioned frequently) and Derek is monosyllabic and awkward. They figure it out eventually, and there is hot sex (did I say size difference and hirsuteness?). Laura's a great werewolf-sister (Derek is the only werewolf) and her son Seth is a cutie. The cast of characters (Chris, Jordon, Finstock, Angus, Gladys and the two First People Miriam and Jonah) are interesting and fleshed-out. Love the plot, and the take on Derek's werewolf (not Teen Wolf style), love the First People lore and rituals, love the setting waaay up in Alaska on this tiny island.  //  (Don't let Major Character Death tag scare you, you're gonna be just fine.)

Hey Lover, I Got a Sugarcane by pibroch (littleblackdog) Steter, E, 17k, Complete.  [References to Mpreg rather than straight-up #mpreg]  “Put Peter on the phone,” Stiles says, too sharp to be polite.  //  “What?” Derek sounds completely thrown. “Stiles, I don’t think— Okay, you’re obviously not understanding what’s happening here. Peter isn’t talking. He’s basically just growling at this point, and he’s rounding on anyone that gets too close. He actually bit me when I tried to take back my pillow. I nearly lost a thumb.”  //  “Derek.” The reality of this shitshow of a situation is finally kicking in, undeniably, and Stiles needs to hear Peter’s voice. “Just trust the omega, okay? Tell him it’s me, and give him the damn phone.”  //  ---"Wrangling Rut-Drunk Alpha Boyfriends 101" by Stiles Stilinski, omega and responsible adult person.

I've loved other things I've read by this author

Delicious. And also funny.

I've Got A Sure Thing by skoosiepants  T, 11k, Complete.  Stiles's water breaks ten miles outside of Beacon Hills.

Fox Stiles, Werefox Stiles, Daddy Stiles

Precious: I love the style, it tumbles and tumbles over itself. Stiles is himself. Derek keeps hanging around, and he loves little Princess Leia. Cora keeps laughing at them. Stiles might be a little confused.

******

He calls Derek and says, “I think your entire family is here, dude,” and Derek roars, “What?” and, “Don't call me dude, “ and, “Fuck, I'll be right over.”

Derek shows up in his EMT uniform and with his partner Boyd, stoic and amused, and the wild look in Derek's eyes is probably as close to a panic as Stiles will ever see him in.

Derek says, “Oh my god, Laura,” and grabs for Prin just as Prin launches herself out of Laura's arms toward him. He swings her up in a practiced movement and settles her on his hip and Laura grins so wide her fangs are showing.

“The pack wanted to meet her, even Mom's here,” she says, gesturing toward a big black wolf that looks almost exactly like Derek in wolf form – the wolf lifts her head and sneezes at them, then goes back to nosing through Stiles's DVD collection.

“Mom,” Derek says, and holds Prin up so she hides his face. Prin tugs at his hair and knees him in the eye and giggles when he shoves her up so her tummy is balanced on the top of his head, it's so cute Stiles can hardly stand it, his life is insane.

“Okay,” Stiles says, clapping his hands together, “I'll make tea.”

I don't think that means what you think it means by ThroughTheTulips  M, 21k, 7 works, Complete.  Ever notice how aliens have mostly similar customs to humans in Stargate? There never seem to be words or concepts that just don't translate. For the most part that makes sense given how they were spread deliberately across the universe, but there should be more weird stuff.  //  So I made some. This is very fluffy and ridiculous. Enjoy.

I simply can't with this. What an unanticipated, hysterical delight.

 I Know Where Babies Come From, Derek by DiscontentedWinter  E, 52k, Complete (series is 132k of deliciousness)  [Implied Mpreg, rather than actual #mpreg].  Stiles finds a baby on the porch.  //  It looks exactly like him.  //  Well, this is awkward.

Favorite, read again, still a favorite

Funny and unique and gripping (and there's one part that's simply fucking heartbreaking, god every.time. I bawl like a baby). I love this so much. It's totally one of my return-again-and-again-comfort-fics (even though there's very little that's slow-paced and domestic about it).

 monday i can fall apart but by friday i'm in love by tryslora  M, 6k, Complete.  It's just past five in the morning and Stiles is barely awake, wearing only sleep pants that hang low below his pregnant belly, and he can't get the damned brand new jar of decaf coffee open. But he has a neighbor, and he's too tired to think that waking someone else up at this hour might not be the best (or politest) of ideas.

Alpha Derek, Omega Stiles, Caretaking,  

lol.  short and funny and sweet and Alpha!Derek is a caretaker (and pregnant omega!Stiles is a sass-spewing dork)

 finger on the trigger and all fired up by tryslora  E, 6k, Complete  [Implied Potential Mpreg rather than #mpreg].  Derek goes undercover to expose a drug trafficking ring running inside of a porn studio. What he finds is Stiles.

Hot and funny.

 I'm Not Immune by moodwriter  E, 24k, Complete.  “Did they inject anything into you? You can hold me back. You can stop me. I can’t stop you.” Stiles is in full blown panic mode now.  //  The one where Stiles and Derek get kidnapped, and sex needs to happen for reasons.

Great story, grows as it's written. Follows a lot of emotional development, tangled in the godawfulfucking situation they're trapped in.

Fire, Fury, and Flame by IAmAVeronica  E, 125k, Complete.  Stiles Stilinski was never going to be the omega who got knocked up right after high school, and then he's accidentally artificially inseminated with a stranger's sperm.  //  Awesome.  //  And the father of Stiles's baby just so happens to be Derek Hale. Half-feral, quite possibly a murderer, and pursued by a gleefully sadistic band of hunters who are only too eager to use Stiles and his baby to hit Derek right where it hurts.  //  Joy.

Omega Stiles, Alpha Derek, Mpreg, Kidnapping, Stalking, cultural ramifications of a/b/o

So, Stiles, the omega-rights activist who never wants anything to do with an Alpha and wants to avoid any of that biological imperative bullshit, winds up pregnant a la Jane the Virgin. BUT. Derek is unwilling to commit, or even to have Stiles tell anyone who the baby-Daddy is. This could be because a complete psychopath has him in her targets.

Kate is one fuck-scary villain, just, crazy as a bag of cats and vicious with it, and the filth that comes out of her mouth is truly chilling.

Stiles gets kidnapped pretty early on, which is frightening enough, and then she's back for another try. At that point, he's kidnapped again, this time by Derek, who whisks him across the country to the Preserve, a werewolf compound in Maine. Here, Stiles is the only human, pregnant and vulnerable and trying to make a temporary life until the baby is born. But will it only be temporary?

There's love, sociopolitical musings, lots of angst, lots of danger. The baby is born about 3/4 of the way through the story, and then Kate comes around to terrorize everyone again. Even though Derek and Stiles are living in a house that's reinforced with bars and a panic room, she still manages to nearly burn Stiles and the baby…

 Rescue Me (& Take Me In Your Arms) by tumtatumtum  E, 34k, Complete (series is 37k so far).  Just when Stiles is starting to reach panic-attack levels of stress, a leather jacket and firm thigh are pressed right up next to him, and an arm is casually thrown over his shoulder. Stiles looks up to thank this kind person who is saving his life, and suddenly forgets what air is.  //  Because HOT. DAMN. Call the police and the fire-man, this guy is smoking.  //  Or the AU where Derek helps save Stiles from an ex, and a steamy BDSM relationship ensues- with feelings all over the place.

Fake/Pretend Relationship, Sub Stiles, Dom Derek

Whoooaa, Nellie. Strap in for a ride, folks. Hot and also hilarious, which is a difficult combo to achieve. Loads of D/s sexy times. Stiles is precious. Derek is possessive and a wee bit insecure. They're awful fun to watch together.  ***The one where Stiles is Alpha Mate which magically means he starts leaking slick outta his ass, even tho he's human.

*******

[Kept trying to find this fic using key words bar and boyfriend and ex-boyfriend... which finally got me there. It's SO worth a re-read or ten.] I also tagged it with fake/pretend relationships, since it's fake for about the first 5 minutes, until Derek puts his hand on the back of Stiles' neck and Stiles moans and MELTS and lo, romantic and sexual interest is born.)

 It's a mad, mad world by ElisAttack  E, 74k, Complete [No #mpreg]  "They call him the Feral Wolf." The man laughs hysterically as Stiles backs away from him, fear coursing through his veins. "Feral Hale. Do you know why? Huh?" The man creeps closer, testing the restraint of his chains, white talcum falling from his skin, swirling in the air like the dust devils plaguing the wasteland. "Because he's fucking mad."  //  Or the one where Stiles is a prisoner looking to return home, but to do so, he may have to rely on a questionable drifter.

Really enjoyed this. Very interesting take on alpha/omega, haven't seen it before. And yay for apocalyptic mad max-type world. Scary as fuck.

a little advice for aspiring fires by The Byger (Byacolate)  E, 42k, Complete.  Regardless of his sadly lacking social circle, Stiles was going to have to get some physical contact or he was going to explode. Seriously. It’d be messy and Derek would probably become even more emotionally constipated having to clean up little bits of Stiles from his pristine walls and furniture.

Touch-Starved, Skin Hunger, Omega Stiles, Sassy Stiles, stiles talks CONSTANTLY, Mpreg, Kidfic

But We're Still Sleeping Like We're Lovers by CharWright5  E, 110k, Complete  [No #mpreg].  There are several things Stiles Stilinski knows to be facts: he's a werecoyote like his parents; his twin sister Malia could use a filter more than him; he's an Omega and terrified of his upcoming heat; and Derek Hale-McCall will never see him as anything more than his kid brother's best friend. Doesn't stop Stiles from asking the Alpha to help him during his heat. Or from developing some serious feelings that go beyond the bedroom. Basically, he's totally screwed, in more ways than one.

Fox Stiles, Creature Stiles, he's not a fox, but when I'm cruising that tag, I'll like to read this story

Idiot boys. Hot sex. More idiot boys. Angst. Fluff.

Jurisdiction by elisera  M, 7k, Complete (series complete at 20k).  John is a pretty level-headed guy. He wasn’t always, back during his own Sturm und Drang period, but he married a firecracker of a woman and got a kid with an affinity for trouble like he got payed for ending up in it, so someone had to level out or they would’ve ended up living in a treehouse or Lapland doing god knows what. Anyway, getting a hold of his temper is one of John’s better life achievements. It makes him a good sheriff and it kept him from blowing his lid too badly those last two years when Stiles started acting out in a way that John had never seen before.  //  But the temper is still there.  //  He’s reminded of it when he comes home on a random Saturday in March after spilling his milkshake all over his uniform shirt only to notice he didn’t have a spare in the station and finds Stiles bend over the kitchen sink with hunched shoulders.

Papa Stilinski is a total badass and mmm mmmm mmmm, so is Derek. Stiles has got some awesome muscle looking out for his best interests.

Into Something New by marguerite_26  E, 9k, Complete.  [Implied Mpreg rather than #mpreg].  Something is happening to Stiles. He’s losing time. Something is messing with his head, with his body. Maybe if he felt better he’d think to be worried.

 Nowhere Man by 1lostone  E, 76k, Complete.  [Mpreg (off screen)]  When Stiles leaves Beacon Hills, he does it without a backwards glance. For two years he is happy on the other side of the country- until someone targets not only him, but his daughter.  //  Unfortunately, the asshole bodyguard his dad hired to make sure he gets back home is none other than Derek Hale. And that's really not very good for either of them.

1lostone is, as always, the goddess of the lengthy, painful, disturbing, angsty, violent, sexy story. God, I love it.

The Second Coming (of Werewolf Jesus) by lupinus, uraneia  E, 40k, Complete.  Stiles was enjoying his senior year until his crazy English teacher decided he made the best candidate to gestate Derek's kid. Now Stiles is a seventeen-year-old pregnant dude and he and Derek have to figure their shit out, because in nine months they are going to be tied together for the rest of their lives.

Sweet: very fluffy and domestic.

Pride and Place by DarkAthena (seraphim_grace)  E, 63k, Complete.  (Part of series A/B/O bodice rippers) [Mpreg, Discussion of mpreg, no men were pregnant in the making of this fic].  Derek Hale, Earl of Osterbrook, has inherited, following the death of Lord Montfort, a run down house in Yorkshire he neither needs nor wants, convinced his staff are robbing him, and with the mystery of a missing ward, he manages to get himself talked into a ridiculous bet, that he cannot pass as a steward until Midwinter, nearly two months away. So can he maintain the charade? Find the missing child? and manage to turn the shambles of a house around, or will he give up and let Peter take the thousand pounds he bet.  //  now with explicit epilogue - the rest of the story is teen rated though, so if you don't like the idea of explicit sex in your bodice rippers - just don't read that bit.

Great story.

The Well of Living Waters by kalpurna  E, 30k, Complete.  King Derek takes a consort.

 Within His Power by NoBezel  E, 69k, Complete.  [Discussion of mpreg]  Derek is a wolfish cyborg, brother of the Governor of California, heir to the Hale fortune. Stiles is a un-sequenced human in a world of designer DNA. When Derek is forced to choose a mate, no one expects him to choose Stiles. To be fair, Derek doesn't expect him to say no.

Pretty fucking phenomenal. Lots of world-building and political intrigue. If you're in it for the tropes, you'll be disappointed, but otherwise it's intense and dense and lovely.

The Threat of Human Sacrifice by vampireisthenewblack  E, 45k, Complete.  The sheriff bought a crib and made Derek help him put it together. Stiles thought of Hemingway and the shortest, most heartbreaking story ever told, and dismantled it on his own while Derek was out.  //  [The one where Stiles getting knocked up is the least of his worries.]

So excellent and intense.

The Honey and the Sting by the_ragnarok  M, 19k, Complete (series still wip)  Derek didn't remember what happened when he went into heat. He could only assume the worst. The truth may be stranger than that.

Beautiful.

Tiny Houses by ohmyjetsabel  E, 77k, Complete.  "So this is what Stiles does. He lies in Scott’s bed and waits for Melissa to say she’s found someone to get it out of him, to cure him of the wrongness and the bad, and he dreams.  //  God, he dreams.  //  He dreams of fire and swollen bellies and that scene in Alien, of giving birth to jackals through his urethra, the whole horrific nine yards. His head is a terrible place to be, he can’t imagine his stomach is much better, why anyone would want to put a thing inside of it."

Fuck.

 Shifts by gryvon  E, 15k, Complete.  Stiles has what he's always secretly wanted - he's in a relationship with Derek and he's one of Derek's betas - but all that gets turned upside down when Gerard kidnaps him and his unexpected baby.

Who doesn't want Stiles having emotionally confusing sex with Derek, getting knocked up unbeknownst to either of them, and then kidnapped for the future baby? I mean, really. It's classic.

A Mating Moon by unpossible  E, 37k, Complete.  (Series 55k so far.) [this is not mpreg, just to be clear]  “Hey, Scott, so, I uh, there’s this amazingly hot guy and I’m uh, gonna spend the weekend with him but, you know, just to be careful, I’m sending you his picture, so if by some terrible chance my bloated corpse shows up sometime Monday, just, y’know pass this along to the authorities.” He pauses. “Uh. Kidding?” and then hangs up with a rush of air.  //  “That is the worst voicemail in the history of voicemails,” Derek says.

fucking fantastic

 (Once in a) Blue Moon by clarkoholic, skywardsmiles  E, 60k, Complete.  (Series 63k so far.)  Stiles and Derek are getting along, but they’re not a family, and they’re sure as hell not mates. Christ, they’re basically just two stupid guys who happened to get pregnant because of a full moon and sheer dumb luck.

Oh, the angst, the pining, the guilt, the blame, the anger. Total pain-fest while we watch Stiles nearly die from the burden of the pregnancy. Lovely sweet ending, of course.

Tried and Tested Series by dancinbutterfly  E, 53k, 12 works, Complete.  In which Derek has a sex emergency with unplanned results, Stiles could be the baby daddy on one of those horrible MTV pregnancy shows, Sheriff Stilinski takes in strays and life in Beacon Hills never has a dull moment, not even when things are calm.

Really wonderful series. Stopped at Part 11, so am waiting for updates. A good investment of time, even incomplete. ;D  //  [Huh, evidently I missed an update somewhere along the line!]

In the Solstice of our Hearts by ravingrevolution  E, 73k, Complete.  "You're not putting that up your butt," Scott told him flatly and Stiles couldn't stop the pissed off whine he made, but his friend continued. "Stiles, you can't put that up your butt, you know that. Your butt won't be ready for anything to go in it until-"  //  "Okay, okay!" he said, flailing his hands to stop his friend's lecture. "Message received, no butt stuff until I'm pounced on by some freaking animal in the forest and ravished to within an inch of my life. Got it. Thanks, Scotty, I mean heaven forbid I actually try to take control of my life and give myself a fighting chance or anything."  //  "Not all alphas are animals," Scott said quietly.  //  Maybe he was right, but Stiles wasn't holding his breath.

Omega Stiles, Berserk Stiles, omega beast, everyone's a virgin, Hurt/Comfort, care taking

The one where there's a Mate Run in the woods, and Derek with his pack manage to frighten Stiles up a tree from whence he falls and is impaled on a branch (ouch!) and then they spend a week in a cave while Stiles heals. Meanwhile, Kate and her cronies are sneaking into the month-long Mate Run with the intent to a)finally kill Derek and b) sneakily bond with some omegas. So Stiles goes berserk, which is the omega form of a hulking violence monster, to protect Derek. (Story could have stopped there, but carries on for another 1/3.)