#i never shipped them but now i’ve seen the light because these pictures are adorable and if it’s fake i will never look at them the same way

[titsthedamnseason]

okay i totally thought courtney and shayne were joking yesterday. but then as the day went on it just started to seem more real….AND NOW THERES A KISSING PHOTO????

[letters-from-the-sol]

The Sol was born haunted.

A place typically needs a bit of history for true, bones-deep haunting to occur. But just as the layperson wouldn’t account for how difficult it would be for a honeybee to navigate in zero gravity, no one building the Sol thought to account for the revenants that roamed the halls before a human ever set foot on board.

Personally, I think they came in with the soil.

They never scared me, not really. It was almost comforting, even as they unnerved me. That was in the early days— before Katerina.

Katerina was a real person, you know that? Flesh and blood— I saw her, a few times. Touched her hand as she handed me a set of keys. But from the beginning, there was always something wrong with her. Subtle things— doors opened before she got there. Lights turned off and on behind her without her touching a switch. And the whispering— she didn’t think we heard, I suppose. Or maybe that’s what she wanted us to think. But when a revenant whispered, she whispered back.

It would be wrong of me to say that I wanted what came to her. Not just because of what happened after— the betrayal, the cold, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But in a way, I understood. We were desperate and afraid— we wanted something, anything to change.

I think I blame Julia for where we are now. Lovesick or power hungry, she adored Katerina— stuck to her side, night and day. You might see Katerina on her own, but never Julia. She’s the one who got the body. I’ve never seen someone suit up so quickly, and she was out of the airlock before anyone could think to stop her. She brought Katerina back onboard, barely even human-shaped.

Like I said, I think revenants are material— they live in the earth. And that thing cursed us all.

I never went to the meetings before it happened. More out of apathy than anything else— I was busy, and I was never that interested in politics. That might have been the thing that saved my life.

The woman who did it went first— Ari, she was called. I’ll give Katerina credit, she was precise. In those first few weeks, she wanted to spare innocents, I think. She waited, watching, until Ari was alone.

The fire protections comforted me until then. I was told how safe they were, how it was virtually impossible for a fire to spread across the ship. Removing all the air from a space and cooling it to its maximum is an amazingly effective method— and as it turns out, it doesn’t need a detectable fire to trip.

From there, people started walking in pairs. Those like me— the apathetic ones, who were quietly on Ari’s side, paired themselves up with instigators. And it worked, for a while. Katerina was nothing if not fair. But eventually, her hatred got the better of her— Enzo and Rosie were the first to be killed in tandem. And god, Enzo— it was his death that really shook us. Of everyone, he was the closest to being on Katerina’s side. He was naive, sure— always suggesting that maybe we could just talk it out, as if we hadn’t passed that point long ago. If she was willing to kill Enzo, no one was safe.

After that, I’m not sure what happened. I had always been the type to keep to myself, not get involved. A few people tried to appease her— dragging instigators into sealed rooms and locking them in until the fire alarms stopped. A few instigators sacrificed themselves, in hopes that their partners would be spared. Others tried to overload the system— throw a homemade explosive into a room and shut the door. No one is quite sure when it stopped. Most will say that it never did— even today, someone mangled in a machine or crushed by a heavy door will have their picture placed by Katerina’s airlock. But the machine deaths aren’t the ones that get to me. We had those before Katerina, and I’m sure we’ll have them long after her name is forgotten. Every few years, in the dead of night, I’ll hear an airlock alarm— and the next day, there’s a body in the morgue that looks just like Katerina did.

notes: interesting to note that there was a period of time where there was doubt as to the realness of Katerina. Perhaps check with non-Acolytes to see if current perceptions match my assumptions. Some scholars believe that the groups who attempted to overload the system eventually evolved into Society of the Light. As this is part of the Solar dark age, it’s hard to place an exact date on it, but seems likely. Also interesting to note the lack of Sol as a distinct entity— it could perhaps be an unnamed revenant, or it could have evolved later alongside the folkloric development of Katerina.

[xgryffinwhore]

Hey! Can I request a jaeden martell x reader where basically their charters are dating on a tv show and they are really really good best friends in real life and they they both go on the Jimmy fallon show and he keeps on asking if they’re dating because everyone thinks they are and when they say no he obvi doesn’t let it go lol and it ends up slipping up that jaeden did/ does have a crush on reader and they maybe end up sharing a kiss in front is Jimmy & audience & stuff😶just an idea i had 😂:)

i love this idea wow, thinking i’m going to put my own little twist on it but i think you’ll still be pleased ;)

just friends

warnings!: suggestive topics, fluff

word count: 2.1k

five

your face was being touched up with powder, the cotton pad dabbing at your nose as the white powder absorbed into any oil your face may have had.

four

you look over at jimmy, this wasn’t your first talk show, but it had been the biggest one with the most following. it was intimidating, you bounced your foot up and down and played with your hands.

three

behavior jaeden had grown to recognize. he knew you better then you knew yourself, your anxiety was worse then you put it out to be. “you ok?” he questioned, “fine, i’m fine” you painted a small smile on your face. but he wasn’t easily fooled.

two

he grabbed one of your hands and rubbed circles into your palm, this sent vibrations of relaxation down your spine.

one

his eyes locked with yours, you swore they were a different color each time you saw them. sometimes more blue, sometimes more green, sometimes dark with mystery, sometimes light and playful.

‘aaand where on air’

you wiped the hand that was interlocked with his off on your dress, it was clammy. the curtain came up fast, and your vision was soon flooded with bright lights and silhouettes of bodies.

making out the faces in the sea of people was impossible, but you knew your friends were out there. they had flown out to see you, a) they could go see new york and b) you were on national television, and they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

jimmy was talking, you knew that much, but your nerves took over and honestly you weren’t registering a damn thing he was saying. the crowd cheered, you snapped out of your daze.

“and here tonight, we have jaeden martell and y/n l/n from the new HBO tv series: turning tables”

he turned to both of us, and gave everyone time to clap. he tired to speak over the loud hands, moving on with his show, but the crowd made that difficult. eventually the clapping died out and he could continue.

“now, i’ve watched all of the episodes but, for the people who haven’t seen: can you explain what the show is about?” he looked a jaeden, you let go of a breathe you had held in.

“s-sure” jaeden turned to face the audience more, he was soft spoken and shy, so it was important he projected as much as he could.

“turning tables is a teen drama. it’s about families of poverty in the seattle washington area and how they struggle to go to school and work. my character, jennings cooper, is the main protagonist. the show is mainly from his point of view, and how he struggle to support his family.”

jimmy nods and smiles, he looks pleased with his explanation. i’m truth the show wasn’t that simple, he knew that. but, it would take so long to explain.

“and y/n, who do you play?” he knew the answer to this obviously, but you were becoming a crowd favorite. everyone loved your personality, and you were an up-and-coming a list celebrity.

“i play parker marlow, jennings girlfriend” you blushed at this statement, the crowd giggled and ‘ouuu’ed. jimmy rubbed his hands together, getting excited at the upcoming topic of discussion.

“so, your romance on season one was steamy” you thought back to the scenes you did together. all of the kissing, which felt normal at this point. he wasn’t a bad kisser, in fact- you didn’t mind it at all. your romance through the season built up to a sex scene, your mind flashed through the memories of filming it.

filming those scenes isnt half as steamy as you think it is. it’s awkward, you laugh a lot. you had never felt that exposed in your life! however watching it was different, it looked so real, so perfect.

you blurred out your thoughts, mr. fallon still speaking on the subject. “can we expect more -“ jimmy searched for your ship name, it was on the tip of his tongue. the combination of your first names on the show didn’t make an attractive combo. it was either jarker or pennings. your last names matched a little better.

“-carlow” jaeden finished for him. jimmy nodded and smiled “yes- carlow- can we expect more carlow next season?” you both looked at each other and smiled. the writers for the show already had the next four seasons laid out. you knew that carlow was a continuing relationship on the show.

“yes, you should expect more of that sort of content from us” you stated. the people in the crowd had a positive responce to this, the applause lapping until it died out once again.

“right, your characters have so much chemistry in the show. two struggling teens just trying to break even.” jaeden agreed “yes, our characters balance each other out, and being from the same background helps them associate. jennings is kind of a bad boy-as the ladies say- he’s a felon, he steels cars and sells them to counterfeit manufacturers and dealers for money. parker, y/n’s character, has a job at a diner. she shows him the light at the end of the tunnel if he chooses to go down a good path.”

“yes, parker gets jennings a job at the diner with her, and he falls for her sweet disposition even after everything she’s been through” you add.

jimmy licks his lips and pops another question: “so id imagine the chemistry in the show heightens the real life thing?” he cocked an eye brow, the group gasping at the intrusiveness.

“jaeden and i are just friends” you blurt out, your nerves working up again. it was hard, you liked jaeden ever since you had your first kiss with him.

“y-yeah” he stutters, he obviously wasn’t expecting this either “friends” jimmy shakes his head and puts his finger on his lip “recently, you both have been showing a lot of pictures of you two together on social media.”

the audience ‘awwwed’ at the photos that displayed behind you. on the screen, there were pictures of you and him that were on both of your instagrams. you two at gardens, getting food, even watching movies at each other’s houses.

“for just friends, these photos looks intimate , wouldn’t you say” a bunch of ‘yes’’s and ‘mhm’’s came from the crowd as both of your faces became red.

“we’re just best friends, honestly” jaeden laughed nervously, he fixed his hair with his hand has he always does.

“right right- can you tell me when this photo is from?” jimmy asked, the last picture flashing on the screen. it was of you both, you had just filmed your first scene together.

the first scene you filmed together was episode two, he saved you after you fell into ice cold water. it was how the characters met, and it was filmed at a cove on a windy august day.

the picture was a little blurry, but it added character. he had his arm around you, both of your hair soaked, and you share a huge towel. you remember how cold you were, your teeth chattered so rapidly. his hair was stuck to his forehead and more small pieces went up. and your lips were almost purple, half from the makeup, half because you swore that was the coldest water you had ever went in.

“that’s from when we first started filming, it was the first time we met in the show” you recited, re living the memory in your head. you remember jaeden pulling your head into his chest when the wind began blowing. you remember his thumb trying to create friction on your back to make you just a little warm.

“yes yes- you two look so adorable!” jimmy squealed, he was the most teenage-girl-grown-man you had ever met. his hand opened one of the drawers in the faux desk he sat behind, pulling out a small blue camcorder.

the camcorder.

you know how on tv shows, there is special footage? sometimes it’s just behind the scene specials but sometimes- sometimes - it’s footage the actors document when they were just having fun? yeah it was one of those camcorders.

the camcorder was brought in by the two other co hosts wyatt oleff and finn wolfhard (i know this cast is sooo original not really) they played jaedens two best friends on the show. while they weren’t filming, they’d dick around and talk about stupid stuff. you’d never seen what they filmed, but you had been featured quite a few times; their by them pranking you, or invading your personal space.

you looked over at jaeden, you watched his adam’s apple bob and a thin layer of sweat flush over his face. he bounced his leg slightly, a habit he had picked up from you.

“let’s just review our material here” jimmy teased, his tongue darting out between his teeth. the video began to play, the sound was loud; assumingely for jaeden quiet voice in the tape.

the video started with wyatts unsteady hand, him and finn were running around set, they stopped at jaeden, he was playing on his phone in his trailer.

“jaeden wesley we have come for you” finn yelled. you could see jaeden shoot up from his chair. “hey guys” he waved. they talked for around a minute, jokes and all. then finn started to giggle, wyatt zoomed in on jaedens face.

“so jaeden, how’s y/n?” he chuckled, jaeden blushed “she’s ok i guess dunno.” wyatt stopped zooming in when the only thing in frame was jaedens head. “the kiss was good hm?” wyatt asked. jaeden continued to play on his phone, he nodded. “yeah, she’s pretty cute too.”

the video cut to another segment, this was filmed after the sex scene. you knew because jaeden laid on the bed you, in the same underwear that he wore during the scene. the boys were jumping on the bed, and jaeden took the camera and talked to it.

“this is for memory and memory ONLY! h-hey y/nnn” he was talking to the camera like it was you “you’re amazing and cool” you could hear finn explode into laughter as he stole the camera back and started running “yeah! and he wants your babies and loves you so much-“ “SHUT UP FINN!!!” and jaeden chased him around.

the video was taken off the screen. your face had become close to ghostly white. it was weird, it was almost like he was dumb enough to think finn wouldn’t give jimmy this blackmail goldmine. you looked at jaeden, he hit his bottom lip until it was red, he itches his neck and laughed it off.

“yeah ok-ok jimmy, maybe i liked her back in the day” jaeden tried so hard to be casual, but jimmy hit him with a heart stopper: “but mr martell, the last clip was filmed less then a month ago!”

your mind flickered with memories and ideas of him.

your first time meeting, how good his hand felt in yours. when you wiped icecream off his chin, and him dotting icecream on to the top of your nose. the way his hair always fell perfectly above his eye brow. and SHIT how he always smelt so fucking good. how he let you fall asleep in his arms and how he never complained when you put on some stupid romcom and-

“y/n?” jimmy questioned. “huh?” you spaced, come on y/n you gotta stop doing that. “i asked how you felt about all of this.” “well, there isn’t a right word i can use.”

jaeden took this has a bad reaction, he did a small wave to the crowd and stood up to get off the stage.

you stood up, grabbed his hand, and laid one right on him. kissing him felt normal, but now that there was emotion behind it, it just felt so right.

you both stopped for air, the crowd went wild. jimmy was clapping too, you could barley hear them, your heart was pumping throughout your whole body. you swore jaeden could hear it.

after the show, you sat in your dressing room for a bit, contemplating the events of tonight, and how they were all broadcasted for your embarrassment. but it was only the beginning. only the beginning of what was to come for mr. and mrs. jaeden martell.

[acourtofsnakes]

Cabur - Rogue, Chapter 6| The Mandalorian x Force Sensitive! Reader (f)

Summary: A few weeks have passed and after landing on a small planet to collect a bounty, you and Mando decide to take a little trip to the market to stock up on some things. Nothing will come up here.. right?

Warnings: Angsty angsty annnnngst, (Sorry, I don’t mean to be so horrible to dear reader), Swearing (mild), brief mentions of death, touching on the same things as chapter 4 but not as heavy but I’ll still add the trigger warnings ♥︎ These chapters will get lighter, I promise,

Not beta read, I wanted to get this one out because I love it so apologies for any mistakes, I’ll be going in to edit a little later

Trigger warnings: Anxiety, horrible thoughts/insults, triggering comments maybe, thoughts of not being able to cope. 

Words: About 6210

AN: Okay, okay, so, I was listening to my Rogue playlist on Spotify (link coming soon) and a certain song came on that just fuelled this chapter. SO, I highly recommend listening to Leave A Light On by Tom Walker if you want the vibes for this chapter. Just… honestly, please do it (I may have had tears)

As always, credit to whoever owns the gif. I usually find them on Google or Pinterest, so message me if it’s yours ♥︎

Rogue Taglist:  @snipskixandbeskar   @weirdowithnobeardo @the-bottom-of-the-abyss

Rogue Masterlist | Introduction| 1: Solus| 2: Arir | 3: Tor | 4: Gaa'tayl | 5: Kyr’am | 6: Cabur |

Mando’a translation: Cabur - Protector or Guardian

A few weeks had passed since that night you saved the Mandalorian’s life, since he threw away the bounty puck to keep you safe. 

You’d stayed that night grounded, and then when Mando was able to get up in the morning, he flew you off of that dump of a planet. 

He didn’t ask anymore but how you had managed to save him. Whether he knew you were lying or not, he hadn’t pushed it, choosing instead to respect you. Kind of like how you respected him and his Creed. 

You’d fallen into a sort of routine around the Razor Crest, without either of you realising it. Mando would fly the ship, and you could be found seeing to Grogu and Duru, or tidying things up. Sometimes you would clean the weapons in the cabinet, making sure they stayed in pristine condition. 

Now and then, Mando would head out to get a bounty and when he got back, he would let you help patch him up. You never saw his bare skin, respected that. You would look away or close your eyes, pointing out the best things to use or how to administer them. The man was good at first aid, but his answer to everything was to shove the cauteriser on it. So, when you had been passing through some shops one day, you had stocked up on medical supplies, even found a shop selling the same herbs and plants that your mother had taught you about. 

You’d even been on a few of the hunts with him. 

Of course, you had argued first. When you’d asked him about it one day on the way out of Nevarro, Mando had simply said no. 

Which had immediately riled you. You were not a girl who liked that word. You despised that word. 

Which is how you’d spent the whole night and next two days bickering, over the question of your safety. When he lost that front, (“Seriously, Mando? I’m a fugitive. And after all, I’ve got a big, strong Mandalorian to protect me”) the Mandalorian had moved on to your lack of thinking before throwing yourself into the firefight.

He lost that one too. 

(“Says the man who stole back a child surrounded by Stormtroopers.”

“You’re not coming. End of.”

“Did you want me to bring your pulse rifle over?”

“Are you even listening to me?”

“You’re right. Pulse rifle and an extra blaster.”

“I hate you, you know that?”

“Sure you do, Lori. I’ll see you at the ramp.”)

That nickname had slipped out by accident, and he’d regarded you, for a long time. He’d gone still, and you almost swore you heard a hitch of breath through his helmet and then he just nodded and murmured softly, “See you down there.”

There had been a lot of little moments like that but they were so fleeting that you were almost convinced you’d imagined it. You were imagining a lot of things lately. 

Sometimes, when you were walking through forests or towns, you thought you spotted something lingering at the edges of your vision. 

A tall figure, cloaked in a hood that was embroidered in either silver or gold, depending on the light. 

You’d even asked Mando about it a few times, but he hadn’t seen anything so you simply put it down to a trick of the light or sleeplessness, nightmares still plaguing you now and then. 

Regardless of the nightmares and your vision playing tricks on you, you were doing… okay. You were warm, safe, had a comfy place to sleep. You had things to keep you busy, things that weren’t hunting for food or a good spot to hunker down in for the night. 

Duru was happy too, having become fast friends with Grogu and the two of them ran rings around you and the Mandalorian. Well, mainly Mando, which you found hilarious because he was such an exasperated dad with them both. 

It was a rare reprieve from your life, letting you slow down and… live. Rather than survive. 

~~

“I do not talk in my sleep.” 

“Yes, you do!! Sometimes, I think you’re awake but you’re just having a fully-fledged conversation with your blanket.” 

“Oh, shut up. I know I don’t talk in my sleep, tin can. You were probably just having dreams about me again.” You examined the fruit in front of you, then handed over a few credits to the kind vendor, slipping the fruit in your bag. 

The sound of fabric hitting the floor sounded from behind you, and you turned to see that the Mandalorian had dropped the bag you’d made him carry. “I do NOT have dreams about you!” He stooped to pick up the bag, then rose to see you standing with your hands on your hips, eyebrow raised and that damn smirk on your lips. 

“Mmhm, is that why you always have to pull something over your lap when I wake you up?”

He stared at you, and you had the very correct feeling that he was looking at you in mild shock, too caught out to come up with his usual cocky response. “I -you.. That’s completely..”

You burst out laughing, rolling your eyes at him and then dropping him a wink, “Come get me when you’ve thought of a response, Lori.” You turned and carried on walking through the market. 

The two of you had stopped off on a nearby trading planet, to gather supplies. Mando had recently secured a bounty with your help and it had paid well, giving you enough extra credits to stock up and treat yourselves. Grogu was already half-way through a packet of blue macarons, which would no doubt come back to bite you both later when he was pelting through the ship whilst you tried to catch him. And it would be your fault because you had taken one look at those big ears and eyes, determined not to break but when the little womp rat had cooed at you… Of course, he had gotten his own way. 

It felt good, to wander a market and not be scrounging for things under the cover of a hooded cloak. You still had one on, you couldn’t bear to part with this item, the most beautiful piece of clothing you had ever had. You just didn’t have the hood up disguising you. 

A gift, from Mando. 

The first time you went out with him after the puck was destroyed, Mandalorian had insisted you wear yours. However, it had been covered in his blood from his injury, and you couldn’t get it out, no matter how hard you had tried. It hadn’t bothered you that much, though you were.. not sad as such, but it felt a little strange because it had been one of your few possessions for so long. But, maybe it was a symbol. That things had changed, and that was in the past. 

A couple of days later, you had just walked into the cockpit when you noticed there was a package on your seat. When you picked it up, it was squishy, bound in a sort of thick papery material and tied with a length of string. 

You’d glanced at the Mandalorian, who was watching you, the picture of calm but his hands had been fiddling with something on his belt, a shockingly nervous gesture you weren’t used to. 

That simple, uncertain gesture had risen your pulse and you unwrapped the package, trying not to show how your hands were shaking at the first gift you’d received since being a child. 

A gift from the Mandalorian. 

Pulling away the paper had revealed a mass of fabric, a blue so deep it was almost the same colour as the night sky. You’d lifted it out and it had unfolded and revealed itself to be a new cloak. The material was soft, thick enough to keep out a biting chill. You’d made a noise of awe and surprise, but had immediately fallen in love with it, pulling it on. It fell to about the middle of your calves and secured at the base of your neck with a small silver clasp. 

The inside was lined with a thin layer of heat-reflective material, and when you’d run a hand over it, Mando had finally broken his silence, “I noticed you were always cold, even if you had layers on so I.. wanted to make sure you weren’t cold anymore..” 

You swore you could almost feel the heat creeping up his neck, and that softened you. He was nervous about giving you this cloak, like he didn’t know how you would take it. 

You had smiled at him, a soft smile that made your eyes glitter like the surrounding stars and placed a hand on his knee lightly, “Thank you, Lori. I adore it, I truly do.” Then you’d spent the next minutes admiring it, putting the hood up and realising it shielded your face in shadow. 

So, naturally, you had moved around the cockpit and upper level like a phantom, pretending to be a shadow in the night. 

You’d even earned yourself a laugh from the great wall of beskar that was fast becoming your friend.  It was only a soft chuckle, just picked up by the vocoder, but all the same, it had lit something within you. 

It still echoed in your ears now. 

A few moments later, the Mandalorian was back at your side, Grogu in his little bag and Duru walking next to him. “The point still stands. I thought I might finally get some silence at night, but you talk just as much.” His raspy voice had a softened edge, one of teasing and you might even have heard the hints of a smile playing at his lips. 

You turned to look at him over your shoulder, “You love it when I talk. I have to talk to you, otherwise I’d be worried you had turned to stone. You’re so quiet sometimes.” You stopped at a stall, admiring the fabrics here – not to buy, just to look at the different things in a place you had never seen before. 

The Mandalorian made a soft noise, “No, sweetheart, that’s just called quiet time. You might want to try it sometime.”

You opened your mouth to speak, but something behind Mando caught your eye. Rising up on tiptoe, you peered over his shoulder… but there was nothing there. Weird. You could have sworn you saw someone wearing a hood just… watching you. 

You shrugged, assuming you had imagined it like before and then looked back to the man before you, “I can be quiet. I just choose to fill your hours with my wonderful voice.” You flashed him a grin, eyes dancing. 

A voice cut across before Mando could talk to you, “You.” It was a snarl, tinged with recognition that wasn’t exactly the most positive. It was bitter, aggressive and almost… pained. 

Mando turned quickly, his hand flying toward the blaster on his hip, instinct overriding him. His movement allowed you to see who had just interrupted the conversation. 

A lady stood there, with curly magenta hair twisted up into a braid. She had tattoos along her neck, and her eyes were a shocking green. She was breathing quickly, staring at you with such disdain that it made your neck prickle. 

How did you know this woman? You’d never been to this planet before.

You blinked, holding up your hands as a surrender gesture, “Uh… I’m sorry but I don’t know you. I think you must have me confused with someone else…”

The lady shook her head fiercely, making the whisps of her hair that had escaped bounce wildly. “No. I do not have you confused. I would know you anywhere.” Her eyes were wild with fury, pinning you to the ground with just a stare. 

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know who you are. Maybe you could tell me your name?” You extended a hand, trying to diffuse this situation and help the woman understand that you aren’t who she thinks. 

She flinched back from your reach, even though she was still a good few feet away. “How dare you. You don’t even know who I am?” She made a noise of disgust, looking you up and down in such a way that you were surprised the skin didn’t flay from your bones, “Typical. I don’t know why I’m surprised. She was probably just another tool to you, wasn’t she? Another person to use and discard like trash.”

You blinked, your hands dropping to your sides. Your skin began to tighten, your blood turning a little frosty. You looked to the side, seeing a few people start to stop and watch this altercation happen. 

The Mandalorian seemed to pick up on this at the same time as you. He turned more toward the lady, his hand still within reach of his blaster, “Why don’t we take this somewhere more private?”

The woman barely even looked at him, “Don’t get involved in this, Mandalorian. You’re just as bad as she is. At least to do what you do, you have to have respect and creed. You have morals, no matter how murky they are.” She jabbed a finger at you, “Unlike this savage monster.”

Your breathing immediately shallowed, getting a little unsteady as she spat out that word, that hateful word that followed you around and hounded at your feet. “I’m sorry? For whatever I’ve done, I’m sorry if it’s hurt you. I didn’t mean it, truly-”

She laughed, a cold and cruel laugh, but her eyes were slowly turning glassy with tears. She took a few steps closer, “You don’t even remember her name, do you? Shall I remind you? Help you distinguish her from your kill list?” 

You didn’t fail to notice the way the Mandalorian’s stance shifted. His body tightened and he stood closer, shielding you slightly with one of those ridiculously broad shoulders. He was going on the defensive, feeling the situation start to spiral. 

The woman barely spared him another glance, “3 years ago, you showed up on Trask. You stumbled around the market for a few days, bleeding from a wound in your leg and you passed out.”

Realisation was beginning to filter through you. It sparked in your mind and you remembered a dark street and rain, your leg heavy and cumbersome beneath you. It had burned like fire and when you went down, you couldn’t get back up again. 

The woman was still talking, “Someone picked you up, took you to their home. My sister. She was there for work, and saw you lying in the street, like some kind of dumped animal. She nursed you back to health, gave you somewhere to stay.” She could see it as it began back to you, “You took her aid, her comfort and then, there was a warning put out in the village. There had been a high-risk fugitive spotted in the village. Anyone with information was to come forward immediately.”

Your hands curled into fists, your chest shuddering as guilt and darkness began to swirl within you, “Stop.” 

She chose not to hear your quiet plea, “I was supposed to meet her. But she sent me a comms message. She would meet me, but she would have someone else with her. Someone who she couldn’t tell me over a comms message. Someone in trouble. People said this girl was dangerous, to be handed over with no hesitation but she didn’t see that. No, she said this girl was terrified, that she just wanted to live.” She tilted her head, walking closer again, “But the next day, this special little girl was gone. And then the Imperials came.” Her voice shook, her expression unreadable. 

You shook your head mutely, not wanting to hear this, memories flooding your brain. 

“Someone had tipped them off that my sister was harbouring a fugitive. They tore through her home, destroyed it and dragged her in for questioning. They demanded she tell them, beat her when she denied it. She never gave it up.” 

The woman was right in front of the Mandalorian now, who extended his arm out, ‘That’s close enough.” 

Nausea roiled your stomach, and you weren’t sure if you were going to pass out or throw up. There were too many eyes on you, too many people watching as this woman revealed you bit by bit. 

The woman lowered her voice, deadly soft and it shook, but carried in the silent square, “My sister was murdered because of you. Because of what you are.” 

Mando froze, his head tilting back to look at you slightly. You still hadn’t told him. 

She wasn’t done. “They told me a few weeks ago that you’d been captured by a Mandalorian. I wept with relief that day, because I knew the Mandalorian wouldn’t fail. You’d be taken to whoever wanted you, and you would finally repent for every single sin you’ve ever committed. Your life is littered with them. My sister, my beloved sister is dead because of you. A killer. A beast. Your hands are stained red, girl, and they will always be stained red. I admit, I’m disappointed that you slithered into his head with your poison too but you will kill him too and then… You deserve everything that will ever come to you. And more.” The woman was breathing almost as quickly as you, her eyes glinting in sick delight at the pain she was causing you. 

My sister is dead because of you. 

A beast.

Her words mingled with that seductively dark voice in your mind and you gasped for a breath, knives feeling like they were digging into your lungs. Your eyes darted around, noted the strangers looking at you with horror and that shared disgust. A father pushed his daughter behind his legs as he caught your stare, hissing at you. 

A flinch ran down your body and without a second thought, you turned tail and bolted. The sunlight was too bright, obscuring your vision harshly and making you stumble every now and then. 

You were distantly aware of a male’s shout, then a harsh thumb and the Mandalorian’s voice snarling, “Stay down.” He stopped to check your pursuer was down and then he was running after you. “Hey, wait.”

You ignored him, boots pounding into the dust as you ran through the market, needing to get out of this place, get away from her and the memories. Where the hell was the ship? It was right here a minute ago. I haven’t gone the wrong way. This is the way we came. 

You could still hear Mando behind you, knew he was hot on your heels. “Drop it, Mando.” You led him around people and stalls, knowing if wanted to be in front of you, he would be. He was letting you flee, stopping anyone coming after you. 

Dodging around a crate of fruit, you almost sobbed. There it was, the Crest, gleaming in the sunlight. You slowed down as you reached it, stopping a little way away to let the ramp come down, let you inside to sanctuary. 

Nothing happened. 

Bastard. 

You took a breath, trying to get past the tightness in your lungs, “Let me in.”

“No. Not until you tell me what’s going on.” His voice was firm, arrogant, in a way like he knew best and you’d listen to him. 

~“A killer. A beast. Your hands are stained red.”~

Your hands curled into fists at your sides, staring at the Crest, at where the ramp was tucked in tight. Your heart was pounding, not from the run, but from the realisation that no matter where you went, there would always be someone you had touched with that curse. “No. I’m not telling you anything. I don’t owe you anything.”

He laughed behind you, but it was a cool laugh, nothing humorous in it, “I’m not saying you owe me anything, princess. But some woman just cornered you in the street and spat abuse at you. I thought I would be prying you off of her, not chasing after you.” 

A wolf. No. A beast.

You spun round, eyebrow raised, “Because I’m some wild animal that would rather fight than talk my way out of a situation?” 

If he had no helmet, you would have seen him blink, “No, I’m not saying that. But, well. You have to admit it, don’t you?”

Something was beginning to prickle up the back of your neck, his words threatening to cut a little close, “Admit what?” Venom laced your tone and you tensed, as if bracing for a punch.

The Mandalorian walked closer, oozing confidence like he somehow knew you better than you knew yourself, “You don’t really think, do you? You never calculate the risks of a fight. You just jump straight in with no regard for your own safety. I mean, when I came for you on Sorgan, anyone smart would have seen a Mandalorian and run.” He wasn’t saying it in an arrogant way, he was saying it as fact. And he was right. A Mandalorian appeared on the street and you turned around and crossed to the other side. You didn’t engage him a fight and flirt with him. 

A cold laugh rocked though you and you tilted your head, “Anyone smart? So you’re calling me stupid now? Is that it? Beast or stupid?” You took a few steps closer to him, ignoring the villagers milling around that had started to look, having heard the fight in the centre of the market. “Don’t you dare tell me I don’t calculate risks. You think I’ve had time to calculate risks in my life? I don’t have time to sit with my little notepad in my ship and jot down the pro’s and con’s of engaging in battle. I didn’t have the luxury of being trained like you.”

Bitter astonishment filled the Mandalorian’s voice, his own body going rigid, “The luxury of training?! You think I chose to become a Mandalorian? That I woke up one morning and skipped along to Mandalorian school?” His voice rose, the rough rasp turning to stone with every word.

You observed him with a steely gaze, something in you needing to push him away, to protect yourself before he got too close. So, you aimed for what you knew would work, his Creed. Your eyebrows rose, looking him up and down as you leaned your weight on one leg, “You’re telling me you weren’t born with that thing already stuck on your head?” Spiteful sarcasm dripped from your voice and you pointed up at his helmet. 

The Mandalorian let out a snarl that no doubt usually sent normal people running. He stalked toward you with predatory grace, a hunter toward his prey.  “Don’t you dare.” Like he read in your eyes where you were going with this. 

Ugly triumph filtered though you as you stood your ground, not afraid of him, “It’s all the same with you Mandalorians, isn’t it. You have all your training, don your shiny armour and suddenly you’re better than anyone. That helmet goes on, you don’t have to face the consequences of what you’ve done. No one knows who you are, so you don’t need to take the blame.” These words were spiteful, beyond cruel and you hated yourself more and more for each one, but he was starting to get into the cracks, starting to see you. You couldn’t see him die. 

Mando was right in front of you now, towering above you with all his broad-shouldered posture, frustration roiling off of him in waves. “You think I don’t feel remorse for what I’ve done?” His voice was so low, barely leashed. 

You nearly purred, tasting the promise of a fight, even if it did twist a knife into your heart. “I’ve never seen it.” You tilted your head back to look up at him, letting every ounce of spoilt, cruel brattiness melt into your expression. 

A soft growl rumbled through the helmet, so muted you barely heard it in the noises of the market behind him. 

Yes. Yes.

And then he relaxed, his shoulders eased and his hands uncurled. 

What? No – Disappointment, maybe even shock registered on your expression. You’d been sure, so sure that aiming for his beloved Creed would get him to fight you. Why hadn’t it worked?

Mando shook his head, the sunlight bouncing off of the shiny metal, “No. I’m not doing this with you. You can’t push me away, no matter how hard you try. You don’t mean anything that you just said, I can see it in your eyes.” He pressed a button on his vambrace, and the ramp opened behind you. 

He saw you. 

That dark beast was starting to awaken, its ears pricking up. You needed to get out of here, away from him, away from this, now. You just shook your head, turning around and walking up the ramp, watching Duru as she ran ahead of you. 

Footsteps sounded from behind you as the Mandalorian followed you. He took Grogu from his little pouch, popping him on a cargo crate and Duru immediately jumped up next to him. “Don’t walk away from me. I’m trying to help you, but you keep shutting me out. Why did that woman say those things about you?” His gloved hand enveloped your wrist, his grip not tight or authoritative, but it began to break something in you. 

“Let me go, Mando. I mean it.” You let ice creep into your tone, trying to disguise the cracking inside you, the darkness that was beginning to stir and whisper. 

And the damn tin can saw it all. Your back was to him, but he still fucking knew, “Please… You know I would never judge you for it, for whatever you did to make her say that.”

Excuse me?

Anger flared through you now, igniting into a blaze and you snarled, “Whatever I did?!” You didn’t give him time to respond, not before you swung around, using his grip on your wrist for leverage. You had spent enough time around him now to become familiar with the plates of his armour, so you knew you aimed correctly when your fist connected with the side of his ribs between the front and back plates. 

He grunted, jolting a little but he still didn’t let go. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that. I only meant-” His voice had softened and, in your rage and hurt, you mistook the pleading tone for a condescending one. 

Before he could finish, you punched him again, harder, “Don’t. Don’t try to start spewing excuses at me. I knew perfectly well what you meant. You thought that she had been hurt by me. That I killed her sister with my own hands. Probably slit her throat and bathed in her blood.”

“No, no, I didn’t. If you would just listen to me and stop shouting, please-“

Your foot connected with his shin, making him stumble backwards. You followed after him, “You didn’t even stop to think that maybe, for once, I didn’t actually do anything. But no. Like always, you looked at me and saw the worst. You assumed that I was a monster.” You chopped down at his inner elbow this time, causing him to let go of you in reflex. 

Mando tilted his head, his voice coming out sharper this time, “I assumed?” He laughed, the bastard laughed, “What else am I supposed to do, sweetheart? You’ve been on this ship for nearly a month now and I still don’t know anything about you. So yes, I was wrong for assuming, but can you blame me?”

Your eyes flashed and you were on him again, “So it’s my fault that you thought I was a monster? You’d met me for all of two seconds on Sorgan and started whispering in my ear like honey, that death followed me wherever I went. There was a bounty over my head and that’s all you saw.” 

Mando went still, his shoulders tightened, and his voice came out lower, “You’re still bringing that up? I told you that you weren’t my bounty anymore.”

Before you could answer him, that velvety voice inside your head started to whisper in your ear, “Oh no, oh my sweet darling. He sees you. The real you.  He knows you’re a monster.” 

You shook your head sharply, lifted your eyes back to the Mandalorian’s stupid face. Helmet. Visor. Whatever. “I’m not your bounty but you believed that woman. So say it.”

His confusion was palpable, “Say what?”

You took a step forward and your chest butted up against his, “Say it! Say that I’m a monster. A murderer. I kill everything I come near.” You laughed, coldly, the words coming out with your voice but in your head, they were being repeated in that cruel, silken whisper. “You regret it, don’t you? Throwing away my puck. You wish you’d kept it, then you could get rid of me, be free of what I’ve done, why I’m being hunted.” Those steel bands were still wrapped round you, crushing you, swallowing you whole again. 

Something broke in him, his composure as the anger rose again and he leaned down to you, “Stop.” The command was a growl and he lifted a finger, pointing at you, “You’re a fucking hypocrite.” 

Yes. Yes, fight back, fight me. Tell me what I know I am. 

You raised your eyebrows, smirking at his finger and then back up at him but your expression was bitter, “Am I? Why’s that, Mando?” You tilted your head and practically purred, “Tell me.” 

The tension in the room was tight, the air almost crackling around you with this outburst of emotion, the threads of your entwined lives pulling taut. 

The light bounced off of the plates on his shoulders, betraying his slightly ragged breathing, “You just screamed at me for assuming the worst about you, yet you did just that to me. How can I want to be free of you, when I don’t even know who you are.” He lifted his hands to your shoulders, to try and calm you down, to push you away maybe. 

The smirk began to slip from your face, “Does it matter who I am?”

His grip tightened, “Of course it does. Because you’re not a bad person. Let me help you, please. Just tell me something. Anything.” His voice turned pleading, and he lifted a hand from your shoulder, like he was going to cup your cheek. 

You’re not a bad person.

Fire blazed within you again, protective and destructive. This was too close. He was getting too close. You had to stop it, now. You had to get away. 

You reached up, grabbing his wrist and using the element of surprise to slam him against the wall behind him, pinning his wrist there and then your blade was at his neck, dull light glinting off of it, “Back off. You can’t help me. I’m not some broken doll to add to your ragtag collection.” Your own breathing was ragged, coming in sharp pants as the room started to spin. 

The Mandalorian flinched, like you’d hit a nerve and his free hand moved. Bingo. 

Yes, you thought, almost begged, Punch me. Fight me, please. 

But he didn’t. He just curled his fingers around your wrist and pushed you away, dislodging your knife and knocking you back a few steps. Like you were weak.

You couldn’t do this, he was starting to slip through the cracks that were forming in you. He was looking at you, seeing you. He always had, from the moment you were nothing but hunter and prey, he knew exactly how to get through your intricately woven net of silver-tongued quips and cocky arrogance. 

No. 

Your voice cracked, echoes of the dark beast’s laughter in your ears “No! Stop pushing me away, stop taking it. Fight me!!” You surged for him again, your hands curling into fists, slamming against the beskar plates again and again. 

You didn’t care that it hurt, that it made pain explode across your knuckles. 

You liked it, you liked the pain. Deserved that and so much more. 

And the Mandalorian… just stood there. He shook his head, just slightly, “No.” He stood there as you hammered your fists against his chest, even when you started to kick him. Just watched as your eyes became glassier, your punches harder but less accurate. 

Why wasn’t he fighting you? 

Your hazy mind began to overwork, searching for something, anything to provoke him, “Why? You don’t want to fight a girl? Too proud are you?” You slammed your knee into his, pulled at the armour plates, honed your pain and fury into him but he just absorbed it. “You’re as weak as I am, you’re running too. You’re the hypocrite, Mandalorian, not me.” Your words were stilted, made no sense as you spat out words as cruel as you could, just needing to provoke him. 

Nothing did. Nothing. There was no noise in the cargo hold but the sounds of the people outside, beeping, the dull thud of your fists, your spiteful words and your own ragged breathing. 

And the whispering in your head that had turned into a full-on symphony of bitter taunts and sniping truths. It rose with memories, flashes of your dead parents, the battered bodies of those that had tried to help you, people who had been caught in the cross-hairs of your life. Innocent people that had turned into nothing more than collateral damage. 

Blood had started to smear on the beskar, your knuckles splitting open with the repeated impact. You could hear Duru meowing, Grogu gurgling in worry but you didn’t care. 

The beast and its army rose, tasting the scent of blood and bringing you visions of the future, of the Mandalorian, dead on the ground. The blood from your fists turned into his own, painting the ground red. Duru, fur soaked in scarlet and Grogu, his tiny little body broken on the floor in a pool. 

And above them, you stood, soaked in the blood of these three. Relishing in the pain and torture that you had caused. You could taste their blood. 

The room began to spin further, the whispering detonated into a roar and it unleashed a heavy roiling cloud within you. It choked you, squeezed fists around your lungs, clouded your eyes and snuck into your head. It whispered to you, such cruel taunts, sucking out the deepest, most vile thoughts you had about yourself and spat them back out, combined with these visions of the future. It leeched the energy out of you and with a choked sob, your knees gave way. 

Duru let out a yowl of concern, springing off of the cargo box. 

I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be confident, or strong. I can’t be brave and cocky, I can’t keep throwing myself into every fight, I can’t run anymore. I can’t do this. I can’t-

And then a pair arms caught you. 

Mando caught you. He didn’t haul you up against him. He didn’t try and pull you up. 

No, he sunk to the floor with you, supporting your weight in his own body, leaning against the wall and letting you collapse against him. 

You froze, your body stiffened as he did. This… people didn’t touch you like this. They didn’t put their arms around you unless they were trying to drag you somewhere. 

You hadn’t been hugged since you were a child, and yet here you were. The Mandalorian was holding you, but loosely. 

Waiting, for your consent. For you to be okay with this. 

And as his gloved hand brushed your back, such a tender warmth broke through you, caressed your pain and you couldn’t resist. You sunk into him, the last saps of energy leaving you as tears flooded your cheeks. The armour was hard, digging into you a little bit, but the feeling of just being held was more than enough. 

He wrapped his arms around you, coaxing you against his chest. His legs were either side of you, one stretched out on the floor and the other resting up to support your back. Distantly, you were aware of four clawed feet padding over your lap, Duru settling into the space between you and Mando’s arm. 

The armour disguised the frantic beating of his heart, your tears and shaking of your body held the trembling of his own hands, but he didn’t mention it. Didn’t mention the fact that this was the first time he had held someone like this that wasn’t the kid… since he was a child himself. He was just as starved of touch as you, even more so because he had no skin-to-skin contact either. He could feel your warmth through the fabric of his clothes that weren’t covered, could feel the weight of you leaning into him. 

He didn’t speak, just held you in the dimness of the cargo hold, keeping you together as you fell apart, kept the promise of death away, just as you had done for him. 

Previous chapter| Next chapter

[minithefutureawaits09]

I’ve had a really really crappy day. So here’s some hurt comfort for you.

Pairing: Spirk

Universe: AOS (- A tos version will be out shortly)

Titled:

Absolutely Smitten ❤️

-

Locked.

Jim’s quarters were Locked.

Jim’s quarters were never locked. Ever. Ever. He firmly believed in an open-door policy, that way if any of his crew needed him, he would be there. Yet here Spock was, buzzing for a second time to be let into his captain and bondmate’s quarters. This was unlike him. The fact he was receiving no answer either was also rather unnerving.

Instead of going through their bathroom- or even considering it a possibility. Buzzing in for a third time seems pointless when he hasn’t answered the previous two. The Vulcan punches in a medical override code McCoy had told him about and him alone. The doors slide open as it goes through and instantly the Vulcan notices just how off everything in in Jim’s room.

He steps inside and the first things he notices are how dark and warm it is. Behind him the doors slide shut, enveloping him in the darkness. It takes a few moments but his eyes quickly adjust to the change in lighting, being better able to see than a human at night. The warmth was off putting. His partner was never the one to turn up the heat, usually because he’s so hot natured and it turning the temperature down in his room. So what the possible reason for the combination he is unsure and albeit he won’t admit it a little on edge.

He turns to the figure on the bed, concern instantly sweeping over him when he hears the muffled sob. His blood feels like it’s turned ice cold even in this heat, and his heart leapt up into his throat. He freezes right as he hears it again, worry swamping him immediately. His beloved? Crying? That was a rare combination if and of itself.

“Ashayam?”

“Go ‘way,”

Yet Spock’s feet move in the other direction, towards him. He sits down on the edge of the bed, the blonde’s back turned to him.

“Ashal-veh, please.”

“No,”

However he can tell with knowing Jim for awhile that tone he used means don’t leave me, I just need held. Even when his words say otherwise. With ease the Vulcan moves his bond mate into his arms even though he’s protesting. They stop the moment he’s on the other’s lap being cradled. Oh how his heartaches at the sight, even in the dim lighting he can see where Jim has been crying, and hard too; for hours possibly.

“Jim, my k’diwa, what’s wrong?”

“S’ nothing, and quit with the pet names if you can’t stick to just one,”

Alright. There is something definitely wrong with this picture. Normally speaking, the blonde with the most stunningly, electrifyingly blue sapphire eyes the Vulcan’s ever seen that could easily stop one’s heart with just a glance if they wanted to; loved being called many different names. Ashayam, K’diwa, Ha’su, T’hy’la. Just to name a few.

“K’diwa, my Jim, please tell me what has upset you? I cannot remedy the situation if you do not tell me what is wrong.”

A sad sniffle comes from his partner as he feels the human’s arms wrap around his neck. A face hiding itself in the crook of his neck. A small bout of relief washes over him as he feels him give into the desire Spock was certain was there. He, (much to the human’s chagrin), knew him too well. He could easily see right through, and to his bond mate even without their bond could see the emotions and he heart he wears on the sleeve of that gold command shirt.

“Y—You’re not mad at me?”

Mad?...Mad? Why would Spock have any reason to be mad? He shakes his head,

“No, K’diwa, I am not mad.”

“You seemed that way in the lab earlier. At first I thought it was just you being annoyed, but then I felt like you were angry at me,”

This provoked sobs that caused Spock’s embrace to tighten around his beloved. The ache only growing as he kisses the top of his head, when he started to gentle rock his weeping bond mate he’s not sure. He’s almost positive though, it’s a trait from his mother. She would do the same rocking- not always side to side but it was one of them, motion whenever something was wrong.

So this was about the lab earlier today, while he had been showing one of the diplomats around the ship and Jim had decided to join him in the laboratory. The memory’s surface as he whispers,

“No, I was not mad at you. I think you misunderstood my intentions K’diwa, but I also apologize that I may have not made them as clear as I perhaps thought I was.”

Those heartbreaking blue eyes were suddenly looking at him, and he can’t help but spare a thumb to wipe away their tears.

“How?”

It’s so broken and sad it takes a moment for him to reply, just because of how emotionally charged this moment is.

“I was merely worried about your safety, some of the things you picked up I was worried you would spill. I know you understand how to handle chemicals and other equipment of the same purpose, but I cannot help but be concerned as your chief science officer, your first officer, but most importantly your bond mate that something may happen.”

He places his forehead gently against the others,

“I do not wish for you to get hurt of any sort, and the fact I have unintentionally reduced you to tears pains me. My Jim, my K’diwa, my ha’su, my T’hyla, I am so sorry.”

When Jim was the one to close the gap between them, he picked up on the silent acceptance of his apology; No words needed to help convey it. With it he feels the bond reopen, and he quickly swamps it with as much love and adoration as one can. He can feel the flutter of gratitude across Jim’s skin now as well as a few more emotions such as relief. A sigh leaves both of them almost at the same time. Spock moves them to be laying down, or at least propped up using the pillows against the bulkhead.

“So you’re not mad?”

“Of course not, I am absolutely smitten by you Jim.”

“You sound like someone from an old historical fiction novel,”

“Shh, K’diwa, sleep. I know you are tired,”

The blonde doesn’t argue him this. He is in fact undeniably tired. Spock feels the moment he drift off. It was true, though, no matter how cheesy it sounded. Spock was truly, utterly and completely...

Absolutely Smitten ❤️

-

(Ending A/n):

So this just kinda came to me randomly, and yeah it’s kinda short but honeslty I adore the way it came out. It started as a Drabble, which you can still see here and there in some parts. Overall though, I hope you enjoyed!

[lafleaurie]

the locket

author’s note: HEY this isn’t going to be divided up into chapters but it will be REALLY long so I’ll divide it up into different parts in one post so you can take a break in case you need one and pick up where you left off (that idea was taken from someone I follow but I can’t remember who it was so if you’re reading this and you’ve done that, all credits go to you!) also my history of world war II is VERY VERY limited, I am almost 25 and haven’t been in high school for like maybe 6-7 years and I’ve forgotten everything they taught us soooo please forgive me if I got any history wrong, movie or real life. also I know Erskine dies after he’s helped Steve but we’re gonna pretend he dies after he helps y/n

warnings: mentions of torture, death

this is a collab with @smuttybucky with the help of @barnesand, I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE IT 

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

He had no idea, and now, he never would. 

You had known Steve since you guys were children. Steve was like your brother. You’d always known him to be patriotic, courageous, always doing the right thing. You had an immense amount of love for him, but you knew how he always got himself in fights. You were always there for him after them, patching him up and making sure he was okay. He was really grateful for everything you did for him. 

You both were inseparable growing up, you being there for him after he had gotten almost beaten to death multiple times, him being there for you when you got your heart broken. Like that one time you got stood up on your date and he was supposed to have shown up an hour ago before that, but Steve was there to put a smile on your face and make you feel better. 

So when he mentioned he had a friend for you, one that you would probably like, you weren’t too keen on agreeing to meet him. After all, you really liked this guy who was telling you sweet nothings, and even having you agree to go on a date he didn’t even show up to. Steve was adamant about it though, and wouldn’t stop bugging you about it. He begged you to at least hang out with them both at the bar for a couple minutes and if you didn’t like him or you weren’t comfortable, you could go home. It took a lot of begging, but finally, you agreed to it. And, boy, was Steve happy. He was ecstatic even, because now, his two best friends were finally going to meet. You weren’t giving your hopes up though, as your heart had been broken far too many times. 

That night, you put on a pretty yet conservative dress that was red and adorned with flowers all over it. Nothing too fancy, but you felt pretty in it. You let the curls in your hair fall out and let it fall to the side, putting on some lipstick and decided you looked good enough. 

You walked yourself to the bar where Steve and his friend were, walking in, taking in the scent of liquor and the music that was playing, noticing some drunk men already singing along. Steve spotted you right away. 

“Y/n! Over here!” You turned to where you heard your name and smiled when you saw Steve, leaned up against the bar with another man beside him which you assumed was his friend he had begged you to meet. You gave Steve a small hug, greeting him with a big smile as he did the same. 

“Y/n, I’d like you to meet my friend, James,” Steve motioned over to the man standing beside him, putting his hand his shoulder. James looked at Steve and smiled as he did so, bringing his look to you and looking you up and down, before looking back up at your eyes, giving you a sweet smile.

“You can just call me Bucky,” he stuck his hand out for you to shake, and you looked at it for a second before reaching yours out too, shaking it gently. 

“Y/n. Nice to meet you, Bucky,” you said quietly, staring at him for a second and admiring his features, noticing how handsome he looked. When he looked at you and noticed you staring, you looked away quickly, standing in between the two men as you leaned against the bar, enjoying the company of them both. 

That night, you and Bucky got along beautifully. He made you laugh all night, telling you cheesy jokes, giving you small compliments here and there, it was almost like Steve was invisible. Which he didn’t mind, he knew how badly you needed someone like him but he also noticed how Bucky was looking at you all night. Like you were the sun. Like you were what he needed. And you were doing the same. He had never seen the both of you act like that before in the entire years he’d known you two. 

You and Bucky were inseparable after that. If either of you weren’t working, you were spending time with each other. Of course, Steve was usually always there, he was an important person to you both. Not only was a good friend to the both of you, but he was the reason the both of you knew each other. He was the reason you guys were slowly but surely falling for each other. 

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

PART 2

You and Steve were hanging out one day while Bucky was spending time with some family, and he was talking about enlisting in the army again. Something he always talked about, and you never got tired of hearing. 

“Steve...can I ask you something?” you were hesitant to ask at first, because you were afraid of what his reaction would be but it came out of your mouth anyway. 

“Sure you can,” Steve gave you a reassuring smile as he looked up at you while you two were walking along the sidewalk downtown. You thought for a second, wanting to word your question carefully. You kept your eyes fixated on your feet as you both walked, your hands crossed over your chest. 

“Do you think...if a woman wanted to join the army...she could?” you regretted the words right as they came out of your mouth as you looked up at him. He kept his eyes on the ground as you both walked, his hands in his pockets. 

“What, you mean like holding a gun and everything?” he chuckled softly at the thought of his best friend holding a gun, the woman he always saw as someone so kind and generous. He couldn’t see her killing a fly. You laughed along with him at his words, shaking your head. 

“No, no, definitely not. I was thinking...maybe a nurse?” You cringed physically because you weren’t sure how well that would work but you did have a medical background so you’d probably do pretty well. Steve paused for a second before finally speaking, shrugging as he spoke. 

“I don’t see why not,” he kept his eyes on his feet as he walked and then looked at you, his hands still in his pockets. “I think you’d be great at that.” 

You smiled at his kind words and nodded gently, because that alone had you making up your mind instantly. You went with Steve as he enlisted, expecting him to be rejected right away. They had asked you a few questions as you signed up to be a nurse, and they immediately took you in. You were to be set off tomorrow morning with the 107th. You were ecstatic, and you couldn’t wait to tell Bucky. You weren’t sure about Steve though, whether he had been rejected or they actually took him. You didn’t see him when you left the building. You had to go home and get ready though, so you couldn’t waste your time waiting for him that night. 

You and Bucky had plans to attend the Stark EXPO that night and you were beaming with excitement. He was set to pick you up at 8 o’clock on the dot, and boy, was he right on time. You giggled to yourself as you saw his car pull up, grabbing your purse and practically running straight out the door. He was already of his car when you ran outside, holding the car door open for you. You ran up to him and wrapped your arms around his neck, kissing his cheek with a huge smile on your face. He wrapped his arms around your waist, chuckling at the affection he was receiving. 

The both of you held hands the whole way to the EXPO, both of you radiating excitement and love for each other. He told you about his day, and you told him about his. He told you about how he was drafted into the army and he was being shipped out tomorrow morning for the 107th. Your jaw dropped. 

“Bucky, I’m shipped out tomorrow morning for the 107th! I’m a nurse for the men!” You were glowing, and he turned to you with surprise on his face. The both of you rambled on about how now, they were able to watch each other and make sure the other was safe. You were both just bursting from excitement, and you reached over to him as you kissed him on the cheek while he was driving, a chuckle leaving his lips. 

You both arrived at the EXPO, him opening the door for you as he grabbed your hand, guiding you out of the car. You held onto his bicep as he gripped your hand in his, walking to the building. You could tell Bucky was excited for this and you knew how much he loved technology. You loved when Bucky was this excited, it made your heart explode with adoration and love. 

He gripped your hand in his as he lead through the crowd, everyone smiling as they danced and held their drinks in their hand, mingling with everyone around them. He held onto your hand tightly as you finally arrived at the bar with him, leaning up against as he ordered drinks for the both of you. He kissed your cheek while the both of you were waiting, and you leaned into his chest as you felt nothing but pure bliss in that moment. 

“You know, I got something for you.” You turned to him as he spoke, a smile lighting up your face at those words. 

“And what did you give me, sergeant?” you giggled as you spoke, straightening his color on his war uniform, leaning against his body once again. He dug into his pocket for something, and out came a little box. He brought it up to your hands, and you looked up at him as you took it from him. You smiled as lifted the box lid, and your jaw dropped as you gasped. 

Inside was a beautiful necklace with a heart shaped jewel attached to the chain, but you noticed the heart shaped beauty could be opened. You looked up at him and he gave you a small smile in adoration, encouraging you to open it, which is exactly what you did. Inside was a picture of him in his uniform, smiling softly for the cameraman that took his picture. You covered your mouth as you gasped lightly, holding it in your other hand. 

“Bucky, I- This is...this is breathtaking,” you had no words. You didn’t know what to say, it was more beautiful than you could have ever imagined. He smiled widely at you as he softly took the necklace from you, telling you to turn around so you could put it on. And you did, lifting up your hair so he could latch it on, and it fit perfectly around your neck. Almost like it was made for you. You turned around once you knew it was latched on, facing him, and instantly planting a long, meaningful kiss on his lips. A smile etched onto his lips and soon yours, too, as you wrapped your arms around his neck. 

“I love you,” he whispered, almost too quietly. You weren’t sure if you had even heard that correctly or if you were just imagining things. You leaned back from his body and looked at him in the eyes, surprise on your face. “I love you, y/n. With everything in me.” 

You kept your eyes fixated on his beautiful blue ones, tears threatening to escape your eyes as you couldn’t believe what you were hearing. A smile slowly made it’s way on your face as you giggled, kissing him with such passion and love, the whole world disappeared, it was just you and him in that moment. You had never felt so much love for someone before, and you were sure he was the one. 

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

PART 3

The next morning, you were shipped out and ready to help the men who needed your help, and you were ready to do your part for the war. Things were quiet for awhile and you hadn’t really seen Bucky yet, but you knew he was safe. You kept the necklace he gave you wrapped around your neck as the locket was close to your heart. A reminder of how much he loved you. 

It came all at once. 

The Germans started bombing the American’s tent and their landscape, and no one had any time to react. It startled you awake and you heard men screaming from beyond the treeline in German. You were praying Bucky was okay, and something told you that he was, for now. You scrambled out of your cot, running around the medical tent, trying to get all your equipment ready. 

You were helping soldier after soldier after soldier, and you were constantly whipping your head around at the other nurses to try and see if Bucky was hurt but you didn’t see him anywhere. Was he even here? If he wasn’t how long had he been gone? 

“Lieutenant! Lieutenant...” one of the men came running up to the lieutenant, out of breath and clearly scared out of his mind. You stopped what you were doing as you didn’t have a patient currently, trying your hardest to hear what the man had to say without being caught. “Lieutenant, most of the men in the 107th have been killed or captured. We have to move.” 

You gasped at the man’s words, instantly clutching the necklace in your hand. You backed away from your hiding spot, tears pooling up around your eyes, your breathing picking up and you could feel yourself panic. This is it, you thought. He’s dead and now I’m a goner, too. 

You started running back to the medical tent but you were blown back into the ground with a big thud. Your whole body hurt. You coughed as dirt and smoke filled your lungs, and you could feel liquid starting to form on the skin on your chest and stomach, your breathing suddenly becoming harder to manage. You lay there in the ground, accepting death but still trying to fight it at the same time. You saw a man hover above you as he tried to speak to you but all you could hear was a loud ringing in both ears, unable to listen to a word the man said. More men gathered around you as they picked you up and you tried to speak, but the minute you tried to open your mouth, your eyes got heavy. You blacked out, and that was all you remembered that night. 

You woke up in a hospital, but not any hospital where you lived. You wondered if what happened on the battlefield was all just a dream, if you’d see Bucky sitting right next to your hospital bed, waiting for you to wake up...but you looked over and saw no one. You knew this was real. 

Panic started to rise in your throat, breathing becoming more and more difficult. You tried to get up but moving was painful. You groaned and laid back in the bed, nurses came running in, trying to calm you down. You were crying and screaming and trying to break free and they were about to sedate you, but a man came in, interrupting them. 

“No, don’t! Don’t sedate her. I want her to know what we’ve done,” the man spoke, and you noticed he had a German accent. You looked at him, blinking a few times as your breathing was heavy, nurses slowly letting go of your arms as they looked at him too. “Give us a minute.” 

The nurses complied and slowly walked out, hesitant at first but eventually made their way out of the room. You took deep breaths as you carefully watched the man, making his way towards you. You kept your guard up with how anxious you were, how scared you were.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Miss y/l/n. You can relax,” he stopped when he was a few inches from your bed, raising his hands in a surrender motion. Your guard was still up though, and you kept your eyes on him the whole time he was speaking. 

“You took quite a hit last night, y/n. Didn’t you?” you didn’t know how to answer, mostly because most of what happened last night was a blur. All you remembered was being bombed unexpectedly and that was it. As if he read your mind, he spoke back up, “Do you remember what happened?” 

You didn’t answer right away as you tried really hard to rack your brain for any more memories of what happened but nothing came back up. You kept trying but still nothing came up. You slowly shook your head no as you kept your guard up. The man sighed, as he sat in the chair next to you, holding his hands together. 

“Miss y/l/n, let me introduce myself first.” He looked up at you before pausing for a second, taking a deep breath. “My name is doctor Abraham Erskine. I am a scientist that works for the American Government.” 

“What do you want?” wasted no time asking the most important question, keeping your eyes on him, watching him carefully, your hands in your lap, nervousness still bursting through you. He shrugged at your reply, being nonchalant with his answer. 

“I do not want anything. I am here to help you,” he replied, giving you a friendly smile. You couldn’t be sure if that made you feel better or creeped out, but you were still keeping your guard up. 

“You see, y/n, last night, when the bombing happened, you were injured so badly, you were on the verge of death. In fact, the doctors declared you dead last night at around 2 o’clock in the morning. Your chest and stomach were so torn apart, you wouldn’t have made it anyway.” He got up from his seat and you removed your eyes from him, a blank stare on your face as your head raced with thoughts. I died? 

He started walking around your room, up to a window, looking out as he continued to explain, “I saved your life, y/n. You see, I created this...serum that has been experimented with, I knew it was ready. I just needed someone to try it on. You were the perfect candidate. And now...here you are, alive, all healed up and...” he paused, and you looked up at him. You weren’t so nervous anymore...but you still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. 

“And?” He looked at you, taking another deep breath as he walked closer to your bed. 

“Let’s just say now you have special...abilities,” he explained, almost cautiously. You kept your eyes on him as you swallowed, furrowing your eyebrows together. 

“What kind of abilities?” you just wanted a straight answer, and he wasn’t giving you one. You felt frustrated at this point, holding your breath at his reply. 

“Why don’t you take a look at that wound of yours?” he asked, and at first, you didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of doing what he says, but you were curious. You hurt on the inside, yes, but...on the surface level, you didn’t feel a thing. You slowly peeled your eyes away from him and lifted up your shirt, and your were dumbfounded. Confused. Your ran your fingers over your practically healed skin, not believing what you were seeing. You dropped your shirt back down, still in disbelief. 

“Your healing abilities are quite resourceful, Miss y/l/n. You not only heal yourself, but others, too,” the doctor put his hands behind as his back as he looked at you expectantly, but you were still reeling from the fact that your wounds were fully healed. How was that even possible? It wasn’t, right? 

“You could change the war, y/n. You could change the world,” he said, giving you another friendly smile as he slowly made his way to his seat where his suitcase was, grabbed it, his hat and walked out. You laid there in your hospital bed, your mind still racing from all the information you’ve just gathered. You raised both of your hands up and stared at them, amazed and shocked at what new abilities you possessed now. You had to find out how to work it, how to use it properly. 

Luckily for you, the doctor was in contact with you the next day. He was waiting for you outside your apartment after you had been released from the hospital, and he was ready to teach you about your new abilities. He took you to his lab, where he was able to properly show you how to use them. It took some time, a couple days, but you got the hang of it pretty soon. You even got to test it out on a couple people. The wounds you healed didn’t heal all the way, just enough to where there was no more blood, and no more pain, but you still used it to the best of your abilities. 

Eventually, you were shipped back out for the war, ready to help the soldiers in need. You kept your eyes open for Bucky, but you never did see him. Clutching the necklace he gave you every so often, you worked diligently and effortlessly, healing soldier after soldier, and everyone around you was so grateful for your work and your dedication. 

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

PART 4

It wasn’t long before America had finally won the war, all because of Steve, or as they knew him, Captain America. You were hoping to find Steve and thank him for everything he did for his country to save those he loved and cared about, but you had heard what had happened to him, and it broke your heart. You lost your best friend and you had this sick feeling in your stomach that Bucky was gone, too. You tried to hold onto hope, you really did, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible happened to him. 

Peggy found you after the war was over and you guys chatted for a bit to pass the time. She had heard what Erskine had done for you, and congratulated you on your new abilities. She told you about SHIELD, how she helped Steve on important missions like taking down HYDRA. You listened to her tell you stories about him, and you honestly had no idea he had liked her so much. You liked her too, and you decided that if Steve was here today, they would be the perfect couple. You were dreading the answer to this question, but you needed to know if he was okay, just so you could stop yourself from thinking about it too much. 

And when you did, you instantly regretted it. You broke down at her answer. Since you didn’t know Peggy all that well, you thanked her for everything she did, gave her a hug, and headed home. You cried the whole way, but when you got inside your house, it came out all at once. You sobbed, you screamed, you laid on the floor and begged for it to not be true. You never once let go of the beautiful locket he had given you, never took it off. 

You struggled a lot for the next couple days. Not really leaving your house. Your family was worried for you, they hadn’t seen you in days. They would come by and check on you sometimes but you just put on a brave face and told them you were fine. You didn’t really want to talk to anyone about it, and rightfully so, because you had just lost the love of your life. The person you knew you were going to marry. Your heart ached and there wasn’t a day that went by where you didn’t think about him and end up falling apart all over again. 

Weeks, months passed by and it got easier. You worked your way up along with Howard Stark, working under him once he founded Stark Industries. You were his assistant, working closely with him as he paved the way for weapons technology. Working made it easy to not think about Bucky so much, you would work late nights so as not to be alone at home with your thoughts. It got to the point where you could successfully think about him and not completely fall apart. 

Well, almost. 

Years passed. Everyone around you aged, but not you. You knew this, given your healing abilities, and you wished you could keep all your friends and family around you young but unfortunately, that wasn’t how it worked. Thankfully, they knew of what had happened to you and why you weren’t aging so no one asked too many questions as to why they were 90 years old and you were still looking 30. 

Howard eventually got married, and you were ecstatic for him. You were there for him and his beautiful bride at the wedding, supporting them both as you were still helping him out even outside of the office. And Maria was a wonderful, extremely nice woman. You were so happy for them both. Peggy was even there at the wedding too, and she was even aging beautifully. You were really happy to be around the people you looked up to, but you really wished Steve was there with you, and Peggy agreed, with a sad look on her face. 

You wished Bucky was there the most, though. 

Not long after that, Howard and Maria soon had a son, named Tony. You watched Tony grow up into a bright and smart man, following directly into his father’s footsteps, which wasn’t surprising. Tony was a gifted man, and you knew exactly where he got it from. He was a close friend of yours and when you knew he was of age to understand, you told him of your abilities, which he thought was astounding. He asked many questions to which, you tried to answer properly but some of them you just didn’t know the answer to. You wished doctor Erskine was still here today, the man who made you who you were today. 

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK SO FAR OK BYE 

​

[flamingo-writes]

Zoro x reader! They've been traveling companions for a year before they met Luffy and became pirates, so they're close to each other. S/O fell in love with Zoro but he rejects her, so they stayed as close friends. Then, after 2 years passed, S/O is still friendly to him and the others but seemingly moved on while Zoro's love for her grow, and while he was still ambitious towards his dream, he felt so lonely as he watched S/O move on, even if she's happier than before.

Hello!! I’m so sorry for the late response!! 

From the moment I read this request, I fell in love with it!! It took me a while to write it, but here it is!! Let’s go! (I slipped a bit of Law x Reader to add to the angst, I hope you don´t mind XD) 

Word count: 1.6K

Warnings: angst

Posted: 06.05.2020

Unique Kind of Pain — Zoro x Reader / Law x Reader

It didn’t matter how much time Zoro spent training, it never seemed to be enough. As soon as he got down from the crow's nest, and he saw you there, it instantly hurt. Almost as if someone poked his heart with a needle, it stung. Constantly. His decisions haunted him, and were slowly carving a whole in his chest. 

The sight of you was unbearable. And it pained him. Seeing his best friend should not hurt this much. And yet, the weight of his mistakes seemed to follow you everywhere. Your smile, the warmth of your skin, the sound of your voice. Oh, the sound of your voice when you called his name. 

“Zoro! Come see this! Look what Ussop did!” 

That same gentle voice that had been calling his name for several years now. He remembered he sometimes found it annoying. The way your voice pronounced his name when you were angry. The concern, when he got injured. The annoyance when you got lost and were looking for him. Back then, he disliked the ways your voice called his name. But now, each and every single time you called his name felt like a cursed blessing. 

He wiped his face with the towel, as sweat kept falling from the intense training. His heart shrunk at the sight of your smile, your eyes reflecting fascination at Ussop’s newest project. 

“You’re amazing, Ussop” 

“Thanks, [Name]!” Ussop giggled. 

He could hardly concentrate on Ussop's new additions to his slingshot, as he was distracted by you. Your smile radiating fascination as it shone all the way into your eyes. The sweet smell of your hair that now haunted him in his sleep. 

Over time, as his feelings for you grew and grew, things got worse. Little by little. It hurt. But it wasn't so bad. Not yet at least. 

At least not until the whole Dressrosa chaos was over. In Punk Hazard, Zoro could tell Law was being particularly friendly towards you. But he could easily ignore that. God knows what happened in Dressrosa. For a fair amount of time, you stuck with him, fighting side by side. And suddenly, you were gone. 

Back in the Sunny after whatever shit show Fujitora tried to pull before you left. Everyone was on the ship and it was only you who was missing. Zoro's heart was in his throat, wondering if you were alive. 

A series of conflicting feelings overwhelmed him at once when you ran across the deck and jumped into the ship. A cheeky laugh escaped your breathless lips as you apologized to your crewmates. As your eyes scanned the Sunny, they stopped when you saw Trafalgar Law, rather weak, sitting on the grass.

"Law!" You sprinted one last time towards him. 

Falling in your knees as you slid a few feet, colliding with the doctor and wrapping your arms around Law. 

"Oh god, you're fine!" You said breaking the hug and looking at him. "Your arm! You got it back" 

"Yeah. I was not going to lose my arm. Fuck that" He chuckled "You dissapeared, I was worried" 

"I went looking for Luffy...sorry" 

"It's okay, you're fine and you're here" One of his long hands brushed a strand of hair behind your ear, lingering on your cheek as you leaned into his touch, looking into his grey eyes. 

The whole scene, while for most of the strawhats looked rather adorable, for Zoro ir was unbearable. 

A sting pinching his heart, as well as an uncomfortable twist of his guts suddenly angered him. Not angry at Traffy. Zoro knew it was childish to get angry at him. He was angry at himself for digging his own grave like this. He wished he was the one in your arms, and not Law. He wished he had corresponded to your feelings back then.  

Without saying much, he turned around and left. Drowning himself in yet another intense training. Probably more intense than before. His mind constantly picturing you in Law's arm, his imagination torturing him, playing him. Picturing you kissing him, clinging to him, as his hands roamed your body, whispering sweet nothings back and forth in each other's ears as you were both consumed by desire. 

The sweat puddling on the floor didn't seem to be enough. The strain in his muscles and the fatigue weren't enough to stop his head from wildly betraying him. 

"Oi! Zoro!" Franky called, cheerfully climbing the ladder to the crowsnest. "Robin says dinner is ready! Since sanji isn't here, she cooked for us tonight" 

TFrabky's fatherly instincts needed a single glance at Zoro to notice he was pushing himself way too much. 

"Zoro? Aren't you overworking yourself?" 

"I'm fine," Zoro grunted, doing another sit up with a bar and weights on his shoulders. 

"No you're not!" The cyborg hurried to his side. "Stop that, if you injure yourself, Chopper not only will get mad, but you won't be able to work out for a while!" He begged as Zoro growled lowly and put the weight on the floor before sitting down on the ground "Don't you feel like everything hurts?" 

"That's precisely the problem"  Zoro whispered to himself, however Franky managed to listen clearly as day.

"What?" 

"Nothing" Zoro answered.

"Do you feel alright?" The swordsman looked at Franky, noting Franky was being insistent.

"Yeah. C'mon. Let's go" Zoro shrugged.

"Zoro, don't lie to me. I know something's bothering you" Franky said louder than before.

"It's nothin'" 

"Its [Name], isn't it?" 

Zoro stopped dead cold at the entrance of the crowsnest. He glanced at Franky over his shoulder.

"I noticed the way you were looking at her when she ran to hug Law" Franky said. "If you like her why don't you tell her?" 

"I can't" 

"Of course you can! Aren't you guys best friends?" Zoro glared at Franky, feeling somewhat annoyed, and also desperate.

"It's more complicated than that" 

"Talk to me, kid" Franky said, resting one of his huge hands on Zoro's shoulder. 

He took a deep breath, thinking. He'd never talked to anyone about it. When you confessed your feelings for him back in Thriller Bark. He wanted to keep it a secret, but his body urged him to let all those intrusive thoughts out. Maybe talking to someone would help him soothe his nerves instead of intensively working out. 

"After dinner," Zoro said. 

He wanted to buy some time, maybe put his thoughts in order before talking to Franky. 

Strangely enough, what normally felt like a blink of an eye,the usual chaotic dinner scene now seemed to go by in slow motion. 

On one hand, his thoughts seemed to float around the room, shapelessly, and without an order. His mind was a total mess. Ten times more chaotic than the traditionally loud strawhat mealtime.

On the other, your flirty playful game with Law. You were talking to him, not really minding the other conversations taking place in the kitchen.  His arm was around your shoulders as the both of you were deep in your conversation. Zoro could tell how your "mindless" playing with his hand wasn't so mindless. 

After dinner, Zoro politely waited for Franky to be done and the both of them left the kitchen without saying much.

Zoro told Franky the whole story. Normally, he'd like to go straight to the point and keep the details to himself. But talking to someone about it, felt so liberating, all of his thoughts left his lips without second thoughts. 

Franky listened. Carefully. And very rarely interrupted Zoro to ask something. In the end, he remained silent for a few moments, letting all the information sink in and drawing conclusions.

"I still think you should talk to her. Maybe she'll get mad, considering the circumstances. But she still deserves to know. Especially because it's bothering you this much" He began "Even if she gets mad, she's your friend. I've seen you guys fight and yell at each other, and half an hour later, see you guys laughing as if nothing happened" 

"I don't know…" The swordsman whispered

"Think about it…" 

Zoro sighed loudly, looking at the moon shining bright close to the sea. 

A set of silhouettes left the kitchen into the deck. Not noticing Zoro and Franky, Law and you made it to the edge, looking at the moon and the stars. 

Zoro watched, silently, feeling his burdens weigh on his shoulders heavier than all of the weights up in the crowsnest.

It didn't take long for Law to place a hand on your waist, as you spun on your toes looking at him. Unable to hear what you were saying back and forth, Zoro could tell where this whole scene was going to end up. 

It didn't take long for you to stand on the tip of your toes, and for Law to leane down. Any trace of space was gone. The both of you trapped in a kiss Zoro craved. 

He felt nauseous and light on his feet. He turned around, unable to keep watching as you wrapped your arms around Law's shoulders. 

"I'm sorry, Zoro" Franky whispered upon   witnessing the scene.

"I am too…" Zoro said defeated. "I'll talk to her tomorrow, I'm off to bed now".

"Goodnight, kid," Franky said looking at Zoro as he silently made his way through the deck to the guys' room.

"Night, Franky" He whispered, not helping but peek once more, as Law had you in his arms, kissing you passionately. 

It hurt. It hurt as bad as it hurt when he realized he had feelings for you. And hurt like the pain your eyes reflected when you confessed to him back in the day. It hurt like the realization that you had moved on whereas he had fallen for you. And boy, what a unique kind of pain that was. 

[evandearest]

The Garden of Eden | Part III: Hidden Darkness

Pairing: James March x reader (you) | ~Part: (3/4)~

Summary (Part Three): Sometimes, even when things seem to be at their best, hidden truths can seep through the cracks. Sometimes, it can ruin relationships, but other times, it can make them. What will happen when you and James find that everything is not what it seems? They say opposites attract, but how far can that really go? The truth is a magnet, but the question still remains: will it bring you together, or force you apart?

Warnings (in this part): drunk person (briefly), anxiety, twisted morals / religion bending, murder / blood, lying, sexual scenes (no real smut)

Word Count: 4,723 (OMG lol)

Notes: Can we just pretend I didn’t mess up the location of the backstory? I just have no idea how to change it in the story now. I didn’t remember that James was from New York until just recently as I’ve been re-watching Hotel. Let’s just say that for the sake of this story, James moved from New York to L.A. at a much younger age for some reason lol. I’m so sorry for messing that up, it bothers me so much! Ugh. In this part, I decided to give a peek into James’ point of view a little bit. :) Also, the sections in italics are flashbacks if you are ever confused. This one gets pretty twisted as far as morals go. lol. Also, this is the longest part so far... and I’m impatient to get this posted because I’m so excited, so I apologize if there are any errors. Without further a-do... let the show begin. :) Enjoy!

(p.s. let me know if you ever have any questions/comments about the story, I love feedback!)

Tag List:  @etoile-writings @haileyybird @ietss​

Something had been going on with James. As much as it might not seem to some, you were smarter than you looked. You were attentive; you watched the people around you. You cared about those kinds of things. Some would call it trust issues, but you call it surviving. Through all you’d been through, being vigilant was the one thing that had seemed to keep you going.

It’d been the best month you’d ever had. Everything had seemed to fall into place; you and James’ relationship had been stronger than ever. Everyone had seemingly accepted it, too, which surprised you greatly. You had figured that many people would criticize you, but if there was one thing you had learned, it would be that people didn’t question James. You loved that. Not having to answer people’s critiques and being respected was a feeling you’d never known, and it was a feeling that you definitely got used to quickly. You didn’t even have to worry about people questioning you, because if they did, James was quick to take care of it. However, you had noticed an odd pattern: any person that said something rude to you seemed to vanish.

For example, today. You had been sitting at the bar, minding your own business while sipping a fruity cocktail, when a man with whiskey breath approached you. He was stumbling, slurring, spitting, and frankly you had quickly become uncomfortable. So you’d politely and discreetly moved seats in an attempt to get away from him, which ended up failing. Plan B had been to excuse yourself to the bathroom. When you returned merely five minutes later, the man had vanished. While it wasn’t strange for drunk men to wander off, it was strange for drunk men to get very far within a few minutes. You’d walked around the main hallways of the hotel in search for him, but he was nowhere to be found. And this hadn’t been the first time this had happened. You were beginning to get suspicious.

You wouldn’t have suspected him in the first place if it hadn’t been for the fact that you’d caught him in some peculiar situations.

It was late. The clock on the side table read 2:00 A.M. when you heard the door to the room open and close. Even in your sleepy haze, you’d managed to catch sight of a black figure. You’d slipped out of bed not soon after, your silk robe dragging on the floor behind you as you made your way out of your room. You gently closed the door behind you, quietly padding down the hall. As you rounded the corner, you caught sight of a familiar suit-clad back at the end of the hall. Just as you were about to call out, you heard a faint moaning in pain, silencing you. You swerved around, on a mission to hide your body behind the corner so as to just observe, when that familiar voice called out to you.

“Y/N?”

You turned around slowly, smiling softly at James from across the hall. You yawned, furrowing your eyebrows together in confusion.

“James?” you asked, your voice cracking from having just woken up. He smiled, although you could read the nervousness all over him. What was he doing? He slowly crossed the hallway down to you, his hands reaching forward to grab both of yours.

“Why are you awake, darling? It’s nearing two,” he asked worriedly, reaching up to gently brush your cheek with his knuckles. You paused, staring at him in confusion.

“Just having some strange dreams,” you said, averting your eyes to look over his shoulder for a second. “Did you hear that noise?”

“W-what noise, dear?” he tried to recover from his stutter quickly, but you didn’t fail to notice it. You paused once again, studying his handsome features. He wasn’t lying to you, was he?

“Nothing...” you trailed off, lost in thought, before letting out a breathy laugh. “I must just be tired, darling. Are you alright?” James shoulders dropped visibly, a toothy grin forming on his face.

“Of course,” he said, before placing a kiss onto your forehead. “You need rest up, dear. We wouldn’t want anything happening to your pretty little head.” You genuinely smiled at that. He was very sweet; although you did have a strange feeling about his behavior. You couldn’t describe it, it was more intuitive than certain, but you just couldn’t deny or brush it off.

“What about you?” you asked him, reaching over to squeeze his hand in a loving manner. “Aren't you coming to bed?” James raised his eyebrows, quickly shaking his head.

“No, no, dear, I’m afraid not,” he sighed, smiling at you sadly. “I have quite a lot of paperwork to catch up on, and I’m afraid I won’t rest until it’s done.”

“Okay, just don’t overwork yourself darling,” you said and sighed while looking at him pointedly. You then leaned up to place a chaste kiss against his lips.  “Goodnight, James.”

“Goodnight dearest,” he whispered, and you turned and made your way to your room. You opened the door and stepped inside, turning to place your ear against the door for a moment. You swore that you could hear a faint groaning again. You shook your head at yourself, telling yourself it was all in your mind before settling back into bed.

Ever since that night, a week ago, you’d been suspicious. You just had an innate feeling that you certainly were not just hearing things that night. And based on the way James was acting, he knew you weren’t either. He’d been distant, staying up late every single night. He’d go to bed with you at first, only to get up and leave in the middle of the night at such unearthly hours you could hardly believe the clock. You tried to dismiss it the best you could, but it was getting harder to ignore.

So as soon as you had woken up today, you decided to talk with him about it. You’d thought a lot about just asking him, spouse to spouse. It was James, after all. You knew he wouldn’t get mad at you, by all means, but you just felt like he didn’t want to tell you for whatever reason. It was driving you mad.

-🤍-

“James?” your soft voice called out, startling James from his paperwork. He glanced up, his eyes landing on your frame as you stood in the doorway of his office. You were clad only in your silky robe and slippers, your hair still slightly disheveled from having just gotten out of bed. He was surprised, for it wasn’t often that he would see you in such a state. You would normally make yourself up before coming to see him in the mornings, as he generally got up earlier than you. It wasn’t a problem to him, though. In fact, he would never admit it, but he secretly adored you like this. You looked even more vulnerably pure than normal. That’s what James admired about you the most: your ability to remain such a source of light and hope; your maintaining of innocence when surrounded by darkness. No matter what you went through, you always seemed to find a way to come out shining. His beacon of hope.

He stared at your figure, taking a mental picture to forever remember this moment. He never wanted this to end. Even the thought that he was the only one that would ever get to see you in such a state excited him. Just the sight of you lit up his entire being in a way he didn’t even know was possible until he met you. He couldn’t help but think back to the time when he first realized how much you had impacted his life; how you’d made him fall apart in the best way imaginable. A particular day flooded his thoughts.

You stared at him with your doe eyes as he looked away from you. Even from his peripheral vision, he felt it. Just the thought of you sent a jolt to his heart. When he’d seen his father above you, he’d felt a rage so accumulative it felt as if he might implode on himself. But then all you’d asked him was a simple question, and yet he had no idea how to respond. How was he supposed to tell you that he thought his own abusive father was right? He couldn’t even swallow the fact that he agreed with his father, let alone tell you, the one who always managed to keep him from succumbing to the darkness. If it weren’t for you, he didn’t think he would have a real purpose to strive for.

He simply couldn’t tell you that everyone with whom you’d ever spoken to was probably using you for something other than a nice conversation. He’d met your family; and although they seemed picture-perfect, he knew their true intentions behind closed doors. He’d met the people of Los Angeles; he knew how they worked. It was all money and entitlement. They had planned to ship you off to a rich husband since you had been born.

He wanted to tear them apart. He wanted to do unspeakable things for the simple pleasure and satisfaction he’d get from it. You were the one who separated him from this unspeakably dark craving for blood that he felt. He’d known it even then; if you had somehow gotten taken from him, he wouldn’t stop himself any longer. He’d be lost in his darkness forever, and he would never find the light again.

“James?” you spoke again, and James snapped back to reality at the sound of your voice. He smiled at you, setting his pen down to give you his full attention.

“My my,” he said cheekily, “to what do I owe the pleasure?” You stood in your tracks for a moment, a slight pink coloring your cheeks as you pulled your robe tighter around you.

“I’ve come to ask you a question,” you said, deciding to just put it out there. James smile fell from his face at your serious demeanor, concerned curiosity clouding his features.

“Yes?” he asked, his accent drawing out the word in a way that sent shivers down your spine. You sighed, gathering your thoughts for a moment.

“Well, I’ve just been wondering recently,” you said, slowly making your way over to sit in the chair in front of his desk. “It’s not an extremely important thing, I just...” You trailed off, your words getting caught in your throat, lost in translation from your head as you stared at James.

“Darling, you can tell me anything,” James reassured, resting his hands together on the desk in front of him as he leaned forward slightly. You sighed once more, averting your eyes from his. You took a deep breath before continuing.

“I’d like to know where you’ve been going these last few nights, James,” you said, your voice filled with unintentional shakiness. You didn’t mean for all of your emotions to come out that way.

James faltered, the small smile on his face wiped away at your question. He didn’t know how to respond at first, his mind going through all of the possible excuses he could make. There was no way that he could ever tell you what he was actually doing. He feared your reaction too much.

“Darling,” James said, putting as much charm in his tone as he could. “I’ve already told you how behind I’ve been on paperwork.” You met his eyes once more, disbelief clear in your orbs. His own eyes widened slightly at your clear observance of his dishonesties. He didn’t anticipate that you wouldn’t believe him. Perhaps he’d underestimated your perceptive ability to catch liars.

He knew then that he’d have to tread carefully from here; he’d have to weigh his options. He couldn’t tell you the truth--for he feared the result. But genuinely lying to you? He knew, then, that that would only push you away. Lies were like bricks; they built and built and built until eventually a wedge formed. He didn’t want a wall with you. He didn’t want to ruin the only true connection he’d ever had.

It was ironic, how just moments before you’d asked, he’d been consumed with memories of the one other instance in which you forced him to answer to something he couldn’t. He never expected he’d be in this situation again. Yet here you were, once again, presenting to him a question in which he could not answer truthfully.

He didn’t want to take that look in your eyes away. He couldn’t. He couldn’t imagine what would happen to those eyes. Those eyes that had been his source of comfort for so long. He’d seen your shock when he killed your husband, but he’d gotten lucky. That was someone who had directly affected you; the man who had ruined your life. You had already wanted him gone. He didn’t want to imagine what you would think about him participating in a hobby in which taking life was the sport. He didn’t want to steal your light away by consuming you in his darkness. He feared the imbalance would destroy the life you’d just rebuilt together. What if he was too different now? What if his embrace of darkness repelled your light away?

“James,” you said softly, suddenly much closer to him. Your hands gently cupped his jaw as you stood directly in front of him. He blinked in confusion at his failure to notice your movement from one side of the desk to the other. He looked up at you questioningly.

James had been so lost in thought that it had frightened you slightly. You couldn’t help but notice how tired he looked. You shamed yourself for not thinking that he could just be stressed. James had a very hard job; he managed a new Los Angeles hotel that was constantly bustling with people of all kinds. You were obviously reading too much into it, and you realized that now. Sometimes you just couldn’t stop your anxieties caused by your last marriage, as much as you tried to. You cursed yourself for not thinking of him in all of this. You quickly enveloped the man into your arms, holding him in a comforting embrace.

“I understand,” you whispered softly. “I get that work can be overwhelming. I just wish you’d let me help rather than overworking yourself.” James sighed, his shoulders relaxing instantly. You smiled; your comfort was working.

“You are completely correct as always, darling,” James replied, pulling you to sit in his lap comfortably. “And I am terribly sorry for not spending the nights with you. My wish is not to make you feel lonely.” You smiled, wrapping your arms around his neck. You laid your head on his shoulder, cuddling into him.

“It’s okay, James,” you said sweetly. “I know how hard you work. It’s one of the things I love most about you.” James gently brushed your hair away from your face.

“You truly are the most accommodating, dear,” James said lovingly. “What would I do without you?” Your grin felt splitting. Talking to James was the best decision you’d ever made.

You spent a few minutes just sitting there cuddled into James as he continued his work, basking in the warmth and love you felt from him. Your moment was interrupted when the door to his office opened abruptly.

“Mr. March,” a voice called, in which you recognized as Miss Evers. “Sorry to interrupt-” She paused when her eyes landed on you and James, her expression falling slightly. “I’m sorry, are you busy?” She asked, her eyes seeming to burn holes through you. You tightened your grip around James’ neck slightly. You didn’t like the way that she was looking at you.

“What does it look like?” James barked in response, visibly annoyed. Your eyes widened at his harsh tone as his hand gripped your waist tighter. Miss Evers grimaced.

“Well, you see,” she started hesitantly, “you have a delivery for floor seven.” James’ grip loosened at her words, his expression changing to one of understanding. You sat up, pulling away from James slightly.

“I see,” he said to her before looking to you. “Darling, I’m afraid that I have some business to attend to.” You nodded and stood from his lap, walking with him as you both made your way out of the room and to the elevator.

“Well, I am going to get freshened up,” you smiled at James, planting a kiss on his cheek before you got off onto your floor. He grabbed your hand and kissed the back of it in return, smiling at you charmingly. You briefly glanced at Miss Evers again, your mood faltering once again at her steely glare. You didn’t understand why she was glaring at you, but it was beginning to worry you. You looked back at James, catching one last glance at his charming grin before the elevator doors closed.

-🤍-

Many hours had passed and you hadn’t seen James since the morning. It was half past five o’clock when you began to worry about his absence. You’d expected him to be kept busy with his work for most of the day, but it was unusual to have not heard from him by five P.M. It’s not that you were always worried about him, it’s just that you knew him. He was very adamant about your nightly dinners at six.

Usually he always sent Miss Evers to remind you around five, but you hadn’t heard a peep the entire day, aside from the morning. You had a sneaking suspicion that the woman held some type of grudge against you. She always spoke to you in curt language, and occasionally she’d give rudely blunt comments, but it was only when you were one on one. You had noticed how her behavior changed around James. It was like she was constantly trying to impress the man. It made sense, as he was her boss, but sometimes it really got under your skin in a way you didn’t like. You didn’t want to hold a grudge against the woman; truly, she seemed quite lovely. You just didn’t understand what she held against you to treat you in such a way.

So, needless to say, despite not hearing from the maid, you’d prepared yourself like normal anyway. You knew James wouldn’t forget dinner, it just wasn’t like him. After you made yourself up, you headed out to your normal dining room to meet James. You were surprised to arrive to an empty table, however. You had been wrong. James did forget. You were genuinely surprised. You stood in your tracks, wracking your brain to figure out where he may be. You decided the best place to start would probably be the most obvious place, his office.

Upon arriving at the floor, you immediately felt that something was off. The entire floor seemed vacant. You walked timidly down the dark hallway, your eyes scanning around you warily. It had seemed like a maze of dark passages, leading on and on in silence, until finally you heard a semblance of life. It sounded like a shuffling at first, until you were close enough to the door of his office that you could hear a noise that almost sounded like sawing. Your curiosity spiraled, and ultimately, it won over the wariness you felt.

When the door opened wide enough for you to see, your eyes first landed on James’ back, taking in his rapid movement. His arm pumped backward and forward, his body driving the force to drive a saw through bone. Dark red coated his shirt, as well as the floor and area surrounding, and at first glance you could’ve sworn that the carpet was just regularly that color. You only briefly got to watch his movement, because it was as if he sensed your presence unconsciously, even as quiet as you had been. James eyes met yours, and he seemed to have frozen in space and time. He simply stared for a few seconds, before he dropped the saw and faced you.

“Darling, I--,” he started, choking over his words in shock. Your eyes took in the scene once more, the bloody corpse hard to ignore. A few moments of silence passed between you.

“James,” you said breathily. Your feet shuffled forward until you were standing only a few feet in front of him. Your smaller hand grabbed his larger one, feeling his rough callouses against your soft palm. “Is this what you’ve been keeping from me?” His eyes met yours and you saw the answer in them. You were right.

It all made sense to you now. All that time he’d been gone, he’d been here. It was obvious to you now why he didn’t want to tell you what he had been doing.

“You’re not...” he trailed off for a moment, his eyebrows raised uncertainly. “Afraid of me?” he finished. Your mouth opened in shock at the fact that you hadn’t realized what he had presumed your reaction to this would be. He thought this would scare you off.  He thought that you would see this as a negative thing. He thought you’d think he was a crazy murderer just like all other common people would.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

You stared at him in disbelief. He expected you to fear him, to run away from the violence simply for it being violence; to hide from real reason. Did he not think that you would see the truth behind this? The truth being that he’d built an empire from the ground off of ash and dust. He’d climbed up the chain of players until he was at the very top, crowned king. Not to mention that all while doing so, he’d profited majorly, but not only that... he’d became a true god.

You understood now. Being a god wasn’t about riches or the simple power of being respected... it was a service. A service of repenting sin in the truest way possible: punishment. James had been chosen; picked out from the crowd for his vision of truth, for his undying ability to see men for what they were: sinners. Men were first placed on Earth just for the simplest sin of knowledge--and any act after knowledge might as well be considered evil. From then the men of the world raised generation after generation of sinners: users, abusers, liars. You and James had been included in that crowd. You’d both been raised to sin, but you knew now that you were special, for you had been enlightened. You were not ignorant like the most. You saw the true darkness in the world, and understood that it needed to be handled. You were chosen.

You stared at James, a newfound admiration for him arising. He really was special, and yet he couldn’t even completely see it. You didn’t understand how anyone could be so blind so as to not see the utter power he withheld in the palm of his hands. His hands, in which were the epitome of jurisdiction. They were judge, jury, and executioner, and every life they took served a god’s purpose. They offered utter release of darkness for all those chosen by him, freeing them from their evil natures. Other people might see danger in James, but all you saw was glory. That, you thought, was the misconception of death. Many viewed it as a robbery, but it wasn’t that. It was a true freedom, a release of all sins, and those who did not see that were clouded by their selfish desires and greediness. It was an act of nature. An act of God.

You smiled at James, squeezing his hand, before leaning forward to place your forehead against his.

“No,” you whispered, your breath hot against his lips. “No, I’m not afraid. There’s nothing to fear... murder isn’t always evil like most think, especially if it’s a service. James, you aren’t a sinner for releasing others from their sins... James, you are a god...”

James froze in his place, a shiver running up his spine. Usually, he resented religion. But the way you had explained it sparked something entirely different within him. He felt an electricity run through his entire body, igniting his veins in a way no drug ever could. His arms wrapped around you, quickly pulling you flush against him.

No one had ever said something so logical to him. He’d run into many people who preached religion and he despised every one of them. His thoughts were like yours: they were all sinners anyway, so how could they support a holy God? It was hypocritic, and James hated every one of them for it. It was the entire reason that he’d started his new project to mimic on the Bible’s Ten Commandments. However he’d never talked to you about religion, for he knew you’d grown up in a church and generally avoided the enraging subject. But you’d given him a new perspective with your words. He was a god. He held all the power that men reserved just for their one and only God in his hands. He could take any life if he wanted to, with nothing stopping him. He’d realized his power before, but he’d never thought of himself in that way. All those men praying to their god while at his knees might as well be praying to him. When he took a life, he released that person from evil. He held the true power.

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it before. He and you had always seemed like polar opposites. That’s part of what he thought was so attractive about you. But it was much more than that. Of course it was. He and you were more similar than he’d ever thought. You completed his image, and he expanded off of yours. Your perspective put a whole new sense to the world that he’d never known. You were light, and he was dark, but together... you were something entirely different. He’d thought that he had had everything figured out perfectly, but oh how wrong he had been. You explained it in a way that he never could have thought of himself. His Y/N...  you were so much more than he had ever really known. That mystery excited him undeniably.

His hands gripped your waist tightly as his lips crashed into yours. You gasped into the kiss, for you’d never, in all your time together, received such passion from James. He kissed you almost bruisingly, pouring every ounce of his being into it. His arms left your sides and before you knew it, he was hoisting you up into his arms, your legs wrapped around his waist. You clung to him tightly, kissing back just as fiercely as you felt the tension between the two of you build. Your cheeks were flushed from the heat as he carried you across the room, too caught up in him to see where you were going.

He set you down and pinned you against the wall, rattling the table next to you. His arms were like a cage around you. A loud shattering was the only thing to interrupt you, breaking your kiss as you both turned to see the vase that was on the table now on the floor. The glass was scattered everywhere, the white roses it withheld strewn out across the floor as the water spread. You both stood staring at the vase for a few moments before you wrapped your arms around James’ neck again.

“Leave it,” you whispered, pressing your fingers into his back as you tugged him close once more. Your lips met again, just as intense as before, before he began his journey to kissing your neck. You panted, a sheen of sweat already glistening on your skin and he’d barely done anything. “James,” you pleaded, “I need you.”

James pulled away smirking, his hands traveling down your sides slowly.

“Oh darling, you have a long night ahead of you.”

A long night it was indeed, eventually moved from that spot and into the bedroom, the vase and roses left broken but undisturbed.

---

Series Masterlist: The Garden of Eden Series

Main Masterlist

[aceofpandas]

What-if for Season 4

So at the end of season 3’s episode “Ladybug” we see that Adrien "asking” Lila to get Marinette back in school and what not. Words are spoken and wow just look at how they’re spoken:

That line right there! Okay so I watched this episode in English and in [Latin American] Spanish and wow the way that line is spoken. Both voice actors really conveyed how Adrien would channel his anger. It’s not an emotion we really got to see in Adrien before but in both languages the barely contained anger is something I feel is in line with what we know about Adrien who controls and is conscious of his emotions. It got me thinking about how passive aggressive this boy really is and man oh man how I wish that it get’s worked into season 4. Passive aggressive Adrien Agreste vs. resident liar/manipulator Lila Rossi. Yaaaas sign me up.

Hopefully, this side of him is explored next season and we can finally give Adrien some rivals who can help us explore his character a little more. This ending suggests that Lila is completely in Adrien’s danger radar and he’ll be in Protect Marinette Mode (similar to his Protect Ladybug Mode). In fact, the scene pictured above aligns with his self-sacrificial tendencies that he has as Chat Noir. Lots of people have mentioned that agreeing to the photoshoot is him selling his soul,  but he also establishes that he won’t ever have a genuine friendship with Lila. Bring on the war!

I personally think that Adrien, who we know isn’t too confrontational, will take a subtle approach. And how can he do that? Well, he could channel his inner actor where he can certainly play the part of “friend” while simultaneously working to discredit Lila. 

Like you can not tell me that Adrien, who’s enrolled in a bunch of activities, was not enrolled in acting classes at some point in his homeschooled life. His mom was an actress, so it’s not like his parents would be against the idea of acting lessons. He was even the VA for his own superhero persona in canon’s LB+CN movie lmaoooo. Yes, he’s a model and very much loved by the people of Paris so perhaps being chosen for the role isn’t too surprising, but that also doesn’t mean he has no talent or training for it. Let’s be real, modeling could be the compromise to his parents wanting their son to follow in their footsteps. Modeling is the fashion from his dad and the art of perfecting his facial expressions from his mom.

And like even if acting lessons were never a thing, his mom was around in his life. We know basically nothing about the woman, so really we can speculate that she showed Adrien a thing or two about acting. Let’s say it was through her that Adrien learned to be expressive, to be not expressive, and to be anywhere in between. His mom could have taught him to roll with what life has to offer through ad libs and improv. Adrien we’ve seen to have a dramatic flair as both Adrien and Chat Noir, and he honestly controls his temper waaaay better than we give him credit. Sure he makes mistakes, but really he’s human and he does learn from them (now if only the writing could keep character development for its characters but yeeaaaah).

Here’s a scenario where Adrien can start his stop Lila campaign:

Adrien and Lila are interviewed about the recent shoot and you know questions roll around about how was it working with together, they’re classmates right, are the two dating, yada yada

Adrien answering and not even trying to let Lila get the first word in because the boy is on high alert and knows this girl will try to spin it in her favor

“Oh, it was surprising my father even thought of letting one of my classmates model with me. In fact, I didn’t even know Lila was interested in modeling. Still, it was interesting to work with someone new to the field.”

Which on the surface seems like an ordinary, polite response; appropriate of Adrien but it’s also everything Adrien needs to corner Lila. 

In all of three sentences Adrien says he played no part in making the photoshoot happen, effectively shuts down the possibility of dating Lila, and establishes to the public that Lila is nothing more than a classmate, one he doesn’t even know well.

Lila is annoyed but she’s not giving up because she’s under the impression that Adrien is far too agreeable and spineless therefore she writes him off as Not a Threat

Hahahaha jokes, Adrien plays on people underestimating him

“Well, I didn’t want you to think that I wanted to make it seem like I was using you because we’re friends and friends don’t do that.”

Or something along those lines I dunno

“That’s the great thing about our class everyone is so nice that we can all be friends. Lots of us are so creative and I love getting to know everyone. Nathaniel, Lila’s desk mate, is a great artist; sketching, painting, he’s your guy. He’s currently working on a superhero comic with Marc from the other class and I can’t wait for what else they come up with for the sequel. Ivan, who sits in front of Nathaniel, he’s a rockin’ drummer, and Rose, she’s another one of our classmates, killer voice and awesome lyrics. Her best friend, Juleka plays bass and I’ve actually modeled with her before. Nothing official, but since I know Juleka wants to be a model I honestly thought she was going to be the one I was modeling with for this shoot. Sure it wasn’t a huge shoot, but Juleka did such a great job. And the clothes we modeled were made by our everyday Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Marinette, she’s also our class rep by the way, is such a brilliant designer! Did you know that she actually won one of my father’s contests? Her hat was adored by Audrey Bourgeois AND she was offered the chance to move to New York. And you know…”

Basically, Adrien ends up spending the rest of the interview talking about how much he knows about his friends and “gee it’s such a shame I don’t really know much about you Lila.”

Read: you aren’t special, I have more friends, and I actually pay attention to them.

Bonus point: Alec is the one who interviews them and he picks up on Lila becoming more and more frustrated with Adrien. 

Pretty in character for him to poke the bear *cough* Stormy Weather *cough* so for him to let Adrien take the reins of the interview for the sake of drama isn’t that much of a stretch.

Alec: What about Lila? 

Adrien: I don’t know, I really don’t want to get anything wrong so she can answer

The next day, the interview is the only thing anyone can talk about 

Adrien’s classmates gushing about how sweet Adrien is because he literally showed them that he really cares about them. 

Adrien remembering all this information about all of them and hyping everyone up on TV!!

Friends know each other’s dreams and likes and dislikes and Adrien isn’t known to have lots of free time, but him making the effort to remember all that about each person is flattering to the class

Let Adrien show how much he appreciates and admires his friends pleeeeeeease

Lila can be in the background plotting how to paint Adrien in a bad light 

But uhhh the class is going full Protect This Precious Boy at this point so your plan has to be fool-proof Lila

Bonus point: the class is now more sus of Lila after the whole Marinette-got-expelled-and-then-unexpelled (which is still fresh in their minds). 

No one get’s an expulsion reversed unless they’re innocent 

And dude Lila was in the middle of that whole mess. 

Whatever Lila did shows she has the power to get any of them expelled. 

If the kids aren’t at least wary of Lila in season 4, then the writers really be tripping because too many red flags around Lila for people to just wave them off.

In other news, Marinette starts to trend after enough of Adrien’s fans connect the dots that she’s the same girl who they chased around that time she and Adrien went to the movies

If the majority of Parisians weren’t convinced they were dating back then, oh boy they at least ship it by this point hahahaha

[revisitedgrunt]

Motherland: Fort Salem. Episode 1x05: Bellweather Season.

Being completely honest with y'all, this episode ruined me. It's taken me a while and several rewatches to sort out my thoughts and feelings. Now I want to talk about it. I'm going to go scene by scene, so this isn't a rambling stream of consciousness. This will be very long and image heavy.  

I find the Unit's dynamics interesting. We've seen them get closer and work together better, but Raelle and Abigail both have strong personalities, and very different life experiences. One wrong word can immediately start a fight. Abigail uses the phrase “the community that matters”, which is incredibly elitist. Raelle, rightly, takes offence and ends up storming out.

The first Raylla scene of the episode. Scylla combines some minor manipulation, which is an attempt to get invited to the wedding with, in my opinion, a real story about her past. I believe everything Scylla has told us about her past. Porter confirmed that her parents died, and in the last two episodes we've seen Scylla start to open up with Raelle. They talk about running away, and less than five minutes into the episode, we get this.

I may, or may not, have let out this really unflattering squeal. Part of me is still amazed by this relationship. Every week I think we've hit the limit on how awesome it can get, and every week I'm proven wrong.

Raelle making a bird skull charm for Scylla is so sweet. I think Scylla's linking spell is going to be very important in the episodes to come. I do wonder if the mark is permanent. I hope not, just for the fact that Scylla permanently marking Raelle, without her permission, is not a nice thing to do.

We get another kiss and Raelle cups Scylla's chin again, which I am a big fan of.

You can see Scylla smiling when she enters her room. She genuinely likes spending time with Raelle. With the way she caresses the bird skull, we can see she's really touched by Raelle's gift.

We're then reminded that the Spree is a terrible organisation, when they threaten Scylla again. I'll probably talk more about the Spree later.

Scylla pretending to be a waitress was smart. However, the smarter play would have been to stay undercover until it was closer to 6pm, as she would have avoided unwanted attention. How much of this was a mistake on her part, and how much was it wanting to spend time with her girlfriend?

I love the lingering fire effect in the hair. It's such a cool detail.

Scylla's adorable little “Hi!” added 10 years to my life.

Raelle being super excited to see Scylla and the banter about the “corsage” was very cute. Raelle proves, once again, that she's a great girlfriend by introducing Scylla to the Bellweathers.

We get more confirmation that Abigail doesn't like Scylla, calling her “Another shitbird.” I believe her antagonism towards Scylla is because she thinks she's a distraction. Abigail thinks if Scylla wasn't around, Raelle would be more invested and involved in the Unit. However, we know this isn't the case, if it wasn't for Scylla, Raelle wouldn't be trying at all. Abigail should be thanking Scylla.  

I love world building so I thought the wedding was really interesting. We find out that weddings are a contract that lasts for five years, which explains Abigail's different fathers. I think families like the Bellweathers think this is a way to strengthen their bloodline. The women can have several babies with different fathers, which helps expand the family. I think civilian weddings are still for life. Raelle's mom and dad were still together when Willa died.

What makes a believable relationship for me, is the small things. Not great declarations of love, but how they stand next to each other, how comfortable they seem together, how they look at each other and when they reach for each other. This was a great example of that.

I thought the scenes of Abigail trying to corral her unit were hilarious. She's desperately trying to make a good impression, and they unintentionally embarrass her every time. Scylla's “They have lobster.” and Tally's gasp gave me a good laugh.

Our first scene of Raylla dancing. When I saw the pictures I thought it would be a one and done deal. I should know by now that Motherland: Fort Salem always goes the extra mile when it comes to their wlw couple.

Raelle putting a protective arm in front of Scylla, starting down Anacostia and telling her “She goes where I go. Scylla's my girlfriend.” Just... wow. That was hot. And to illustrate the point, she gives Scylla a long, lingering kiss.

Anacostia v Scylla, round 2. I think Anacostia is incredibly cool, but I'm always gonna have Scylla's back. Scylla tries to protect Raelle and takes the heat for their relationship. Seeing her sass Anacostia was pretty amusing. Then she immediately grabs some drinks.

I'm not sure why Anacostia has a problem with Scylla. Is it the same reason as Abigail, or something different? Is Scylla not a good cadet? Does Anacostia think Scylla will hinder Raelle's performance? Scylla was right though, Raelle did start trying because of her. We also know Raelle is almost always boosted because she's having sex with Scylla.

Jessica Sutton's expressions this episode were perfection.

Every Raylla scene warms my cold, dead heart. How cute are they about the “girlfriend part”! And Scylla dancing Raelle onto the dance floor! And the way Scylla keeps eye contact with Raelle! I just can't!  

Look at the smile Scylla gives Raelle!!!

This is a pretty upbeat song and you can see the other dancers energetically dancing. But Raylla are just slow dancing, wanting to be as close to each other as they can. You can also see Raelle has this soft smile on her face. The amount of care and detail Taylor and Amalia put into their scenes together, never fails to amaze me. It's so obvious they want to make this relationship as believable as possible.

Gerit got engaged before Baltane, went to the festival thinking he'd hook up with a girl and give her a power boost, and fell in love. He really does try to tell Tally he's engaged. I just feel sad for the both of them. I'm not really into heterosexual ships, but they were cute. I wonder if this is the end, or if Gerit will break off his engagement. Seeing Tally cry hurt, a lot.

Abigail gets smacked in the face with her privilege. For how different the universe of Motherland is to our own, some things are still very much the same. The rich and powerful will get all the opportunities, whether they deserve them or not. I do respect Abigail for wanting to make it on her own merits and not coast on her name.

I really admire Raelle's courage. She's a first year cadet, but she marches up to General Petra Bellweather and demands answers about her mom. She doesn't get them. Like any good politician, Petra deflects and heaps praise on both Willa and Raelle. It takes the fight out of Raelle, but made me even more angry.

Ashley and Bernadette did a really good job conveying Abigail and Charvel's relationship in the time they were given. They are cousins, but you see they are close and I got a sibling vibe from them. With the advice Charvel gave Abigail throughout the episode, she came across as an older sister. This makes me wonder if Abigail does have actual siblings. Given what we know of the Bellweathers, it would surprise me if Petra only had one child.    

Scylla does a really bad job of checking the bathroom.

It's telling to me that Scylla tells the balloon “I need to know she will be safe, once I get her there. Should I wait with her?” I've always believed Scylla had genuine feelings for Raelle, and this is more confirmation. The balloon is clearly not a Raylla shipper.

Tally sees the balloon, and Scylla's cover is blown. I did not expect this to happen so early in the season, or for it to happen this way. Motherland keeps me guessing.

With 5 minutes left to get Raelle to the extraction point, Scylla sees a downhearted Raelle. She makes a half-hearted attempt to complete her mission, but there's no conviction there. She doesn't want to do it. When Raelle asks if they can dance instead, Scylla could have tried to convince Raelle to go for a walk, she didn't. She chose to dance with her. Scylla was scared, Scylla knew she was going fail her mission. She had to make a choice, The Spree or Raelle. She chose Raelle.

Tally telling Anacostia about Scylla was smart. I briefly thought that she might tell Raelle, but that would not have gone well, and doing it at the wedding would not have been the right time. Now Scylla's number one fan has a legitimate reason to not like her.

And now we get to the scene that killed me. I'm not gonna lie, I cried. I don't really get emotional about TV shows, but I've really come to love Raylla and this hit me hard. As soon as that song started playing, I knew I was in trouble. I started to choke up when Scylla remembered the times she'd spent with Raelle. My eyes started to water when I saw how scared she was she'd missed the deadline. When she told Raelle she loved her, I totally lost it. Raelle's smile was the last punch to the heart. I was a complete mess by the end of this scene. We leave the scene with Scylla looking incredibly sad.

This was Scylla saying goodbye to Raelle. She knows she can't stay at Fort Salem, she knows the Spree will come for her. If she doesn't run, she's as good as dead. I really hope that this episode alleviated any doubts anyone still had about Scylla. It is now absolutely clear that she loves Raelle.

Fortunately the next scene was much more upbeat and light hearted. Joking, we find out Charvel has been murdered, brutally. Most of her throat has been cut out. The effects were excellent and very gory. Abigail is ambushed by two Spree members and we see that they can nullify a witches abilities, when Abigail tries to Windstrike them and nothing happens.

Things go from bad to worse.

I'm not sure if this was always the plan, or a backup in case Scylla failed. My opinion was this was always the plan, and was set up to distract people so they wouldn't realise Raelle and Scylla had disappeared.

The witches summon a tornado and disable the balloons. The tornado looked pretty big and I thought back to the witch in episode 1 who was controlling 6 tornadoes at once. That seemed pretty powerful at the time, but I remember them being small, so I assume if they combine their power, they can summon bigger tornados.

Petra finds Abigail just in time to stop her daughter getting murdered.

During a well choreographed fight scene, we are reminded that these women are soldiers. Even without “the work” they are trained in hand to hand combat. We see both Abigail and Petra are good fighters. Abigail has a very badass moment here, after getting stabbed, she pulls out the knife and uses it on her attacker.

The Spree members set themselves on fire, so they can't be questioned, which is par for the course for fanatics. I had expressed sympathy for the Spree before. I said their cause was just as they were trying to liberate witches. I even understood them killing civilians, the civilian Government is the body forcing them to join the army, or be hunted. However, it now seems the Spree are equally terrible towards other witches. They brutally murder Charvel, a fellow witch and threaten Scylla's life if she doesn't do exactly what they say. At this point I say screw the army and the Spree, I want the Unit and Scylla to form a third faction.

In all the confusion, Scylla disappears. I think we’re meant to believe that she ran, but I think it’s more likely Anacostia grabbed her, as she is noticeable absent during the Spree attack. I think Scylla is probably in some secret dungeon at Fort Salem, and we'll get to see just what that mark she put on Raelle actually does.  

The episode ends with the Unit comforting each other.

It's interesting that in some way, each member of the Unit experienced a loss this episode. Abigail lost her cousin, Tally lost her first love and some of her innocence, and Raelle lost the girl she's fallen madly in love with. Hopefully they'll continue to support each other as they heal.

The sheer amount of Raylla in this episode was unbelievable. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say their scenes from this single episode, would probably cover 6 episodes on any other show, if we’re lucky. I'll keep saying it, I have never seen a show give a wlw couple this amount of time, care and respect. 

It seems like we may not see them together for a while. I'm OK with that. We've had so much content over the last five episodes, more than I have seen in any other show. And remember, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Imagine the amazing scene we'll get when they reunite. Taylor and Amalia will knock that out of the park.

I thought this was the best episode so far, and one of the best hours of TV I've ever seen. This had the perfect mix of world building, humor, sadness, tenseness, action and romance. This show is such a gift and I can never thank the cast and crew enough for it.

[ladyideal]

Ficmas~ Day 12

Pairing: Scones x Gender Neutral!Reader

Word Count: 1576

Warnings: Pregnancy related events

Summary: You have a Christmas baby.

Requested by: @mrs-l-mccoy

A/n: Not so bad for the first pregnancy fic. And I think it went great.

"Y/N? What are you doing here? McCoy will kill me if he sees ye here," A rather displeased Scotty ran up to you the moment an Ensign noticed you in the upper Engineering decks. 

"Working, Monty. I'm sick of being on bed rest, and I'm about to go insane if I don't do something," You answered, waddling past him.

Sure you were nine months pregnant, and looking like you were about to burst any moment. Leonard, the ever so dutiful doctor and boyfriend, had put you on bed rest and medical leave ever since you started your 30th week. 

Honestly, you were just done with this whole pregnancy and just wanted the baby out.

"I can still fix small things, Monty. Please?" You pleaded, heading into his office. "He doesn't have to know. I can head back in a bit. Just want something to do with my hands."

As an Engineering Lieutenant, you met Scotty first. Soon, your relationship became more than just work related. But how Leonard came into the picture was a story for another time. Getting to know you after countless accidents down in the lower Engineering decks and patching you up, he came to realize that it was Jim's fault for his lack of stricter rules. In an effort to apologize, he'd asked you out for dinner.

The Scot looked conflicted, flipping through the work orders on his PADD to keep you entertained. "You would be able to fix the Medbay's biobed in a jiffy, but Leonard is still on duty."

You sent him a sharp glare, letting out a sigh of relief when you sat down. Your lower back ached, and so did your bladder and knees. 

"Here, found it," He rummaged around his piled up desk, retrieving two seemingly perfect PADD and a comm. "Bloody Ensign Zane scared me half to death when he came in unable to fix them."

You snorted, reaching out for them. Ensigns, of course. Newly graduated Engineering ensigns were just as bad as medical ensigns. Len would usually complain about them often when picking up new crew. Happy with being able to work on something, Monty watched you with a relief sigh. 

It might be something Leonard was used to, as the second child. For the Chief Engineer though, this was his first child. Dealing with a pregnant lover was one instance he was completely new too. Violent mood swings, nesting, and so much more honestly scared him at times. 

Giving you another side glance and making sure you were alright, he settled in his office chair and continued going over reports.

"Scotty," A female Ensign popped in, earning herself a frown from you. "Oh uh hi, Y/N. Didn't see you there. Think I have enough room to put these around the office?"

She indicated an armful of mistletoe.

"Whatever Y/N decides," Scotty spoke nonchalantly, but did look interested.

"Sure! Where can I help?" You shifted away the parts and pieces from the PADD you were working on, and heaving yourself to your feet.

"Oh please no. You're pregnant, and I've enlisted help from Alex and River," Your friend spoke, as the other two waved from behind. "You just let me know where to put them."

"Thanks," You gratefully replied, glad that you were still included. Being on bed rest was enough to drive you nearly insane without much to keep you entertained. Monty and Len would pop by often during breaks, but you still felt left out. 

"Come on Monty, it's getting late," You mumbled, placing the last of the repaired electronics on his table. The office, and no doubt the other Engineering decks, were decorated with heaps of dark green mistletoe. "And I got dinner ready too."

"You're forgetting about something, Y/N," He spoke, turning off his terminal and swinging the chair over to face you.

"What?" You frowned when he pointed to the bundle of the green plant hanging overhead.

Realization dawned on you.

"I'll kiss you anytime anywhere, mister. Mistletoe or not," You laughed, pulling him in for the obligatory kiss. 

"Come. Let me find my bloody comm and we can eat," The Scot spoke, his Scottish accent slipping out more strongly after a long shift. 

"I have it," You pocketed his comm away, letting him escort you back to the shared quarters. 

An unfamiliar sensation trickled down your ankle, forcing you to a stop. Eyes widening, you turned to your boyfriend. 

"What's wrong?" He frowned, but panic shone in his eyes. "Is the baby okay?"

"Monty? I think my water just broke."

You'd never seen the Chief Engineer move that fast. Panicking, he'd scooped you into his arms and sprinted towards the Medbay, anxiety eating away at him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, Monty. I haven't even my first cont-," You stopped mid sentence, gritting your teeth and squeezing your eyes shut as the pain threatened to overwhelm you. 

"Leonard!" Scotty bellowed the moment he stepped in, gently placed you on your feet. 

"Scotty, what did I say about screaming? I just got patients sleeping not even-," The doctor stopped in his tracks, taking in the urgency in his boyfriend's stance and you taking a grateful deep breath. 

"Their water broke." 

Things moved really fast once more. You were placed on a bed, prodded, scanned, gowned, in record time. It didn't take long for Leonard to sit down beside you, holding your other hand. 

"Baby's fine, darlin'. But it might be awhile before it is time," He spoke softly. "If the pain of the contractions gets too much, we can start you on the pain medications."

"We're having a kid, Len, Monty," You smiled over at Scotty who was rubbing small circles over the back of your hand. "Kid's finally deciding to finally meet us."

"You'll do wonderful," Leonard spoke, gently. "Let me help you get comfortable, sweetheart."

As the hours ticked by, so did the frequency and intensity of the contractions continued. Thank goodness for pain medication too, or you had a feeling you wouldn't be able to get through the night. During the blissful minutes between contractions, Scotty would walk around the medbay with you, talking about gossip and congratulations messages from those around the ship. 

By the five minute mark, you were absolutely done with puking and wanted the baby out immediately. A ring of nurses circled around you, and Leonard hovered constantly, fretting often with the numbers affixed on the bed. 

"Len, relax, would you? You're scaring poor Monty," You reached out, catching his sleeve and pointing. The Scot had a mixture of emotions flitting through his face every passing minute. 

"Sorry," The doctor apologized, keeping his mumbles to himself. 

"You ready?" The Engineer spoke, now changed out of his uniform and into a pair of the shirt and sweatpants. 

"More than ready," You nodded. "It's been fun, but I'm ready to have this baby out and stop pressing on my bladder and aching my back."

Leonard had returned with a fresh set of gloves, and settled into a rolling chair in front of your legs. A weak smile plastered on his face, but he looked determined. "Sweetheart, when you get the feeling to push, I want you to push hard. Alright?"

Labor was hard, much harder than you were prepared to be. Soon though, you were relieved when the baby's first cry was heard and everyone within the private room cheered. Although exhausted, you watched with a weak grin as Leonard cradled his baby boy within his arms. 

Once he was cleaned and fed, you watched with an adoring smile as he slept on your chest. A blue beanie, complete with gloves and socks kept him warm and safe. 

"We did it," You grinned over at your two boyfriends. 

"You did it, Y/N," Scotty spoke, carefully feeling the baby's hand with a finger. He was in awe of the little bundle of joy, a creation of life that you nurtured for nine months. 

"Welcome to the world, baby boy." You crooned.

Once you were allowed to leave, Leonard wheeled you out of the medbay. Scotty, on the other hand, cradled the baby. 

"What do you think Jim will say?" You spoke conversationaly. Two days ago you had given birth, and already the Captain was eager to see your child.

"Demand to be his godfather," The doctor shrugged. "What else would the infant say?"

"Congratulations!"

A rather large crowd of officers milled about in the lounge, surprising you when you entered. You smiled as the Captain approached, the first of many.

"You better name him after me after all I did to bring you three together," He clapped Scotty's back, and asked if he could hold him.

Your boyfriend glanced at you for approval, and you agreed with a nod. Watching carefully, Scotty slowly placed him into Jim's slightly awkward arms.

"Wow," was all the blonde could muster, already won over by the baby's cuteness.

"Alright, alright," Leonard grumped after a few minutes. "This isn't the time for "Pass the Kid Around"."

You chuckled, taking Nyota and Spock for their support. 

"In fact, just because I ended up delivering my own baby on Christmas Day, doesn't mean I want to end up delivering any of yours."

All around, as the Christmas lights flickered, candle flames danced, and a small pile of baby shower presents sat on a far off table, laughter could be heard around. 

It was your Christmas wish coming true. 

Eats Everything: @asraime @aspiring-ginger @mournthewicked @bluesclues-1234 @keijibum @ladylizzieofdarbyshire @also-fangirlinsweden @charlielotte @groovyfluxie @mysoulshideaway @fandom-imagination-ss @mayday1284 @sayanythingcreations @bbeasehnsucht @supergeekfangirl​ @your-sparklywinnercollection​

Trekkies: @marvelouslytrekking @lykxzandlove @mrs-l-mccoy @piccolaromana @strange-old-worlds @scraftskhu35 @april-showers-and-flowers @worm-cant-read @fandomismymiddlename @childofthecornflakes @dartheldur @yueci @lgbtqcontinuum @goddess-of-many-fandoms @writerdee1701 @crackheadcastdirector @readingtrek

McCoy: @cobe76 @yakuzussian @space-cowboy2227 @lacychick @kimberlyfletcher @nerdy-wierdo @samanthasmileys @cappuccinosandcosmos @fxngsfogxarty

Urban: @fandomsfeelsandfamily @justa-traaash @morriganwarrior @jkholmes

[magicofthepen]

for the character ask: Rayo? I know he’s not super well-developed in canon, but I always love hearing your thoughts on any of the Unity Fam because you‘ve clearly spent a lot of time considering them and seem to understand them really well! :)

ahhh yes thank you for letting me talk more about the Unity family!! I do love them, and I’m very excited that you like hearing about them! <33

favorite thing about them: he’s so clearly Leela and Veega’s kid? when he wants to go to the city despite the danger because it might save his mum, when he’s desperate to take part in the war – to fight, to save people – it’s such a reflection of Leela’s protectiveness and care, the burning spark to defend. when he bonds with the strangers who show up on his doorstep in Unity, when he chooses to stay on the Patrex retreat to learn to be a healer, to make that place a safe haven – you can see echoes of the way Veega cares for people in soft, quiet ways (feeding, giving shelter), welcoming people in when they have nowhere else to go, daring to build a home even in the darkest of times. Rayo has such a good heart and that’s lovely to hear on its own, but I specifically adore how you can tell how his particular brands of need to help come from the people who raised him.

least favorite thing about them: .....how time war 4 sidelines his relationship with Leela. from having Leela’s fear vision be about losing Sholan rather than y’know, the kid she actually spent years raising and just got separated from, to not letting them have any sort of meaningful goodbye.....I like that Rayo stays on the retreat, but I don’t like how this means he never sees Leela again and this is just. glossed over. if they didn’t have time to address this meaningful family relationship in time war 4, they shouldn’t have introduced it in time war 3.

(skipping favorite line again bc I’m so bad at picking)

brOTP: brOTP isn’t quite the right term, but my favorite platonic relationships of Rayo’s are absolutely his familial ones with Veega and Leela. you can tell how much he loves them both, and how important family is to him (they are living on this rough world on the edge of a war, he’s lived his whole life with some kind of danger in the background, but with his family he’s happy. they’ve always kept him safe, and he wants to keep them safe, too.) the scene when he’s with Veega as she dies is just so heartbreaking, and the desperation in his voice when he thinks he might lose Leela too (I can’t lose you and mum on the same day), and he’s struggling so much with the grief of losing his family in dissolution. his relationships with them are the most important ones in his life. and we can also see the value he places on family in Dissolution when Narvin talks about his relationship with Romana – Rayo’s immediate response is Doesn’t that make her your family, then? because to Rayo, family is the Most Important kind of relationship.

OTP: none. but okay while I don’t really have any ships for Rayo, if I had to pick a Rayo ship that I could get behind....I do vibe with Rayo/Eris when Rayo’s older (technically we don’t know how old he is? (I’m pretty sure) but I think I keep imagining him as like. seventeen-ish. although now I’m curious about how old other people think he is?). anyways: I like the dynamic of healer and fighter, both swept up in the war and driven by the urge to help people (but doing it in different ways), their paths crossing as the resistance funnels people who want to escape the war to the safe haven Rayo’s trying to build....yeah there could be a story there!

nOTP: I’m sure I could think of several ships that would ick me out, but nothing that I’ve actually seen? 

random headcanon: he finds, on the retreat planet, that he loves gardening. (this headcanon comes from his awe in dissolution over a ground that’s not contaminated/the fact that you can just eat things you pick and know it’s safe.) he finds peace in digging into the earth, growing food that can feed people, being alone in the quiet beauty of this world. I also have this headcanon about him planting a tree as a memorial for Veega – he never got to bury her, but this is the closest he can get to a grave. and it helps, to remember her through something with steady roots, something that grows and lives and shelters. (he doesn’t plant a tree for Leela – at least not for a long time. he wants to believe she’s still alive.)

unpopular opinion: I don’t think I have one? (maybe just the fact that I care about Rayo and Veega a lot, because the Unity family-obsessed corner of the fandom is quite small – but apparently there are people enjoying our ramblings 😄 so idk)

song i associate with them: *checks unity family playlist* hmm I....don’t actually have any songs on the playlist that focus on Rayo as an individual, or how he feels about his family – the songs that I have in reference to Rayo are from Leela and Veega’s perspective. but those are (currently): Lullaby for a Stormy Night by Vienna Teng, Light by Sleeping at Last, Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift.

favorite picture of them: there aren’t any in-character photos of Rayo, we do have this lovely art of Rayo and Narvin by @alyona11!

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About that ONE SCENE from “Covention

As promised after my "Young Blood, Old Souls" review, I am going to review the rest of The Owl House episodes that I missed. And now that they're all on Disney+ (WATCH ‘EM), I'm currently making an effort to rewatch every episode to gather my thoughts for each one. Unfortunately, they're going to be my general thoughts and won't include any in-depth analysis.

However, the episode "Covention" has such a great scene that I have to break down what makes it so incredible. I'm, of course talking, about the “Hallway scene,” which is a definitive moment in Luz and Amity's relationship. And here's how:

(By the way, you’re gonna want this scene on standby while you read this. Because I have no idea how to get pictures from the episode and add them to a Tumblr post. And I’m too lazy to figure out how.)

Luz runs off to find Amity: Keep in mind that Luz had no reason to do so. Amity treated our favorite weirdo like garbage, and Luz had every right to just let Amity sulk. And yet, she still goes off to check on her. Why? Because it's in Luz's DNA to help others when they're clearly in distress. That willingness to be a kind-hearted person is why Luz is one of my favorite characters. She has moments of drawing the line when someone takes it a step too far, but her heart is always in the right place when the time calls for it.

Where Luz finds Amity: It's odd how fans refer to this scene as "the Hallway Scene" because Amity isn't really in a hallway. It's more of a dark corner if anything else. However, the exact name of her location doesn't matter because it's how that location is shown that makes an impact, due to how it perfectly illustrates who Amity is and how vital Luz is to her. Here, we see Amity down and depressed while sitting alone in the dark, where Luz is watching while in the light. This very idea comes more poignant soon, but there are a few things I want to mention first.

Amity’s tone when Luz apologises: Let's give a round of applause to Mae Whitman, who did a great job at this moment. She perfectly captures someone who is trying hard to be angry but is too distraught that she can't completely hide her real emotions. You see it better when Amity snaps at Luz, and her expression briefly changes into something more sad than mad. It's a sign that she's capable of thinking against her "can't show weakness" mindset that her parents clearly drilled into. So kudos to everyone in charge of that.

“You made me look like a fool in front of the Emperor’s Coven. My future!”: Notice how she says, "My future." Not "My dream" nor "My desire," either of which would make it clear that it's something Amity wants. Instead, she says, "My future." Hinting that perhaps joining the coven isn't entirely what Amity wants. I'm sure that she's somewhat excited to do so (You don't make an adorable squee at the idea of joining something if you're not into it), but the way Amity says "My future" gives the impression that it's more of a requirement for her. That if she fails to do this one thing, then she will face a worse punishment than the tedious task of finding a new career path. And it’s the fear you see in her eyes that all but confirms this.

“I have been working my whole life to get to the top!”: This shows so much of Amity than fans could have ever realized. First off, it reveals that Amity is more than just some snooty rich girl who tries to be better than everyone else to boost her own ego, like many other characters (Looking at you Boscha). Instead, we see Amity's reason to be the best is so that she can work hard at getting "her future." It also hints that she ever takes a break to be a normal kid, given the "my whole life" aspect of this line. This pretty much gets confirmed in later episodes, and it really shows how genius the show's writing is in the way it can be subtle and blatant at the same time.

“Say it! Say you’re not a witch!”/”...I’m not a witch…”: This is Luz's arc for the episode, coming to a complete end. At the start, Luz fought back Amity's resentment with even more hostility. But after seeing how upset Amity is and exactly why she's upset, Luz decides to give in. You can tell it pains Luz to admit Amity's right, both from her tone and expression, but it's apparent that it is something that she needs to say. However, Luz doesn't call it a day after admitting what Amity demanded to hear…

Luz performs her light spell: Instead, Luz meets Amity halfway by explaining her own situation in a peaceful manner. And this is what I meant when I said that Luz is vital to Amity. It's no coincidence that Luz's first spell is a light spell. She brings light figuratively, and literally in this case, to everyone she cares about. Look at Amity's face when she stares at the light spell. She's clearly amazed, and for a brief moment, we see more than that bully that she acted as in the beginning.

“That’s nothing. A child could do a light spell.”: But the sad thing about brief moments is that they don't last forever, as it doesn't take long for her "show no weakness" mentality to come back. This is shown through the fact that Amity physically, literally, retreats back into the darkness and passes Luz's accomplishment off as nothing special.

“But...I’ve never seen it cast like that.”: And yet, Luz broke through anyway. Because now, not only is Amity curious, but she's interested enough to rebel against that toxic mentality for quite possibly the first time. It's here that we get a glimpse of the person Amity could be. The person she wants to be.

“It doesn't come naturally to me like it does for you, so I've had to improvise.”: And it's here where Luz once again sees a chance to get Amity to open up. A chance for Luz to find common ground and explain that while Amity thinks that Luz has it "so easy," the reality is that the opposite is true. That she also has to work hard, but she doesn't have a fear of failing when her efforts don't work out.

Amity unbinds the Everlasting Oath: I love this. Not only because Luz didn't have to ask Amity to do this, but also because Amity doesn't give a reason for doing so.  Did she consider the duel a draw because they both cheated? Or did she finally see the person Luz really is and decided to do the right thing? There's no clear answer, and that's why I love it. Because even if it's the ladder, Amity can easily use the former as an excuse for why she showed weakness. And if it turns out that Amity did decide the duel is a draw, then it still works because it makes sense for her character at this point in the story.

“Humans have no magical ability. But I doubt that’ll stop you.”: Do me a favor: Read that quote. Don't just read it in Amity's voice, or read it as how it was said. Read this quote as exactly how you would say it if you haven't seen it before.

...

Did you do it? Because it looks like a compliment, doesn't it? Almost as if Amity is telling Luz that she does have the capability to become a witch. Despite her setbacks. Well, that's what this could be if not for Amity's tone. For it suggests that she's indifferent to Luz's success. But because Luz still broke through to the nice side of Amity that she wants to show to the world, Amity finds a way to try to be kind while giving the appearance that she's following her parent's mentality.

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

So, yeah. This scene is f**king amazing. Through the span of a minute, here's what we get: So much development from Amity, why Luz is such a kind and supportive character, and the beginnings of their complicated relationship. This might just be the best, well-handled scene in the entire series, and it doesn't have elements of what makes recomend the show. There is no fantastic animation, there is no hilarious comedy, and there is no LGBTQ+ representation...Ok, there might be that, but you have to squint to see it. This scene is just two characters talking, and through their conversation, we learn and love so much more about them.

...

And yet, people STILL wonder why Lumity is the most popular ship of the fandom. It's because of s**t like this, people. It's because of s**t. Like. This.

(But seriously, though. This is a great scene from a great episode!)

[z-iridest]

Can you do hawks and todoroki reaction to meeting their s/o for the first time after months of long distance online dating🙇🏾‍♀️🙇🏾‍♀️🌸

(A/N: This is such a cute idea! :3 Hope u don't mind headcannons again)

Online, Long Distance Dating: First Time Meeting In Real Life

Shouto Todoroki

To be fair, Shouto Todoroki hadn't even known what Instagram, or any other social media platform even was besides Facebook.

When he was first introduced to Instagram, the account made for him by his friends, he had instantly gained 1 million followers almost overnight. (He says it's only because of his father, but c'mon, ladies, he's just that hot)

The account posts page is filled with tagged, sneaky pictures from his friends, all of them adorable, pictures of soba, his mother (totally appreciation posts for Mamaroki) Fuyumi and Natsuo

But, one follower of his in particular caught his herochromatic eyes.... Y/N L/N. They had liked every one of his posts since day one, always leaving a friendly "hello" in the comments or leaving a comment about how wonderful his family seemed to be. If only Shouto knew just how whipped he was about to be....

The specific post that started it all popped up in his feed one fateful day was a picture of you that had been taken at the perfect moment. Your h/c floated in the breeze, your e/c shut as you were caught in an open mouthed laugh, Shouto finding your smile to be not only infectious, but bewitching. Yet, he yearned to hear what your laugh sounded like.

Before he knew what the hell he was even doing, he had -How would his friends put it?- slid into your dms, saying hello.

Since you lived in America (and were a light sleeper on top of being a slight insomniac), you weren't expecting a dm before the sun could wake up, so the minute your phone went off with a notification, you nearly fell out of bed due to the earbuds in your ears... That notification was LOUD!

When you looked at the message, it was from DamnIcyHot (that username was all Bakugo) and read: Hello, I'm Shouto. You looked beautiful in your recent post, and I thought you deserved to hear that. I hope you have a wonderful day

You blushed and that dm... Well, let's just say it wasn't the last.

Just two months after talking to you, Shoto asked you out.... On a video call, dressed in a tux with a red tie, and holding a half white and half red rose. (Pic above, folks)

Poor baby is so nervous, he's shifting and fixing his tie every few seconds and it's all you can do not to start squealing.

Y/N... I never thought it was possible to fall in love with someone I have yet to meet in real life, but, I have. I've fallen hard for you, Y/N. Everytime I see you post, it brings me so much joy and makes me smile everyday, and... I don't want it to ever stop. Y/N, I want to be able to video call you every night, to tell you how beautiful and perfect you are in my eyes until you fall asleep. I want to be able to see you every night and wake up to your beautiful face every morning. If I may have this chance, I promise, you will be treated like the princess you are, and I will never let you forget how precious you are to me.

The poor, half white, half red haired baby is now stumbling over his words as a blush darker than the red half of his hair appears on his face. Y/N... I was wondering... Would you... Maybe... want to be mine?

You had blushed and hidden behind your hands, a sight that Shouto still remembers as the cutest thing you've ever done, and nodded in response. If you had dared looked up, you would have seen the relieved look on his face as a laugh, a genuine laugh of relief, spills from his lips.

And that was only the beginning...

It only took a couple days before his friends noticed that their herochromatic eyed friend was acting a bit... Stranger than usual.

He was grumpier on certain days, happily smiling down at his phone, excusing himself to go to his room for hours on end.

Nobody knew what was going on, or why he was on his phone so much.

Kaminari had suggested spying on Todoroki, but Izuku had gone with a more... Direct approach.

When asked why he was on his phone so much, Todoroki had just blinked and said matter of factily, I have an S/O. The whole class, except for Yamomo, is shocked by this. This one of those, "I thought it was obvious" moments for Yamomo.

Speaking of Yamomo, she asks who the lucky person is. Instead of answering her, Shouto shows her the screenshot he unashamedly took of you.

In the screenshot, you're sporting a bright smile, e/c eyes filled with adoration and love, the look you had given him before calling him your Peppermint Baby for the first time, that baby boi was soooooo flustered by it. (What? He couldn't help it, it was too cute of a moment to let pass). The girls instantly squeal and ship you two together while some of the boys (*cough, cough* Kaminari and Mineta *cough*) are wondering how the hell you guys had even gotten together.

That same night, he called you and told you about the day's events, which honestly had you in fits of laughter.

Shortly after that, you were informed that you were being moved to Japan. Were you excited? Yes! You get to meet your boyfriend face to face for the first time, you were nervous and excited at the same time.

Did you tell him? Nope. You were waaaaay too giddy with the thought of how surprised he would be to see you.

Since you were being moved to Japan, that meant being transferred into U.A. High. Your Class being 1-A.

Shouto was talking to his friend group when you arrived, and thankfully for you, his back was to the door.

A green haired boy was the first to see you, his green eyes going a little wide while his friends were unawares, discussing who the new student could be.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something, you quickly put your finger to your lips, silencing him.

Thankfully, the Broccoli Boi gets the hint and schools his features before his friends can notice.

You quietly tip toed until you were directly behind him.

Covering a giggle, you covered his herochromatic eyes with your hands.

The second his eyes were covered, he jumped

Just as he was about to react, he read an all too familiar voice. "Hiya, Peppermint." It couldn't be....

Hands trembling slightly, he gingerly took hold of your hands and turned around, surprised to see a pair of e/c eyes looking back at him. "Y-Y/N?" You were so much more goregous in person....

"Surprise!" You giggled before you felt his arms wrapped tightly around you, a laugh leaving you as your feet left the ground as he picked you up, slightly spinning you before setting you down.

"Is this the girl you were telling us about, Todoroki?" A girl with big brown eyes and floating brown hair asked. The excitement in Shouto's eyes was evident as he finally turned to his friends, realizing you from his hug but still keeping his arm wrapped around you.

"Ururaka, Iida, Midoriya, this is my s/o, Y/N. Y/N, meet my friends Midoriya, Ururaka, and Iida." Shouto introduced you to his friends first. Iida's loud greeting captured the attention of your fellow classmates, and pretty soon, you were surrounded by a bunch of new friends.

It took a while for the excitement to die down, but when it finally did and Shouto finally got you alone, you suddenly found his lips on yours. Your first official kiss with Todoroki... Scratch that, your first one ever.

You found out that day that the Peppermint nickname you had given him... It was well deserved. That boy's lips tasted like sweet peppermint, and his kiss had been so gentle but passionate at the same time, it had taken your breath away.

Let's just say you guys shared a lot of firsts after that..... ;)

Keigo Takami (Hawks)

Hawks? On Instagram? Bitch, please...

This motherfucker is always on Instagram when off duty or taking a break from hero work. He's the number 2 hero now for crying outloud, like he's gonna just ignore the fans that hit him up?

The Instagram he uses for his hero work is officialhawks, set up by his management that he visits every once in a while. That's the one the fans usually float to, and when fans dm, that's when he goes on it.

His personal Instagram, though? That's where the fun really begins.

His personal Instagram? Spice-E-Wings

Only follows a select few on it, and honestly, it'd be a lie if he said he didn't follow Endeavour's accout...

When your profile popped up under his suggested, he got curious....

Seeing as curiosity killed a cat, but never a bird, he satisfied his curiosity by checking out your profile.

Dis Bird Boi was not prepared for what he found.... And he instantly wanted to dm you...

Since you were used to your phone not going off, you were startled when your phone went off. Your roommate, who had seen you jump, teased you about it, to which you simply waved them off as you unlocked your phone to check the messages

Spice-E-Wings? What kind of a username was that?

Nevertheless, you accepted the message and saw this:

Hey there, wyd? ;) Jk, how r u?

The conversation started from there and took the most random turns, eventually turning into you two trying to one up each other on memes

He revealed who he was about a month after talking to you.

You... freaked... out....

You'd been talking to the Hawks the whole time?! Hawks was the one pro hero you had a crush on!

Just months later, on your bday, he asked you to be officially his.

Hey, dove, I gotta be serious here, okay? I really, really like ya, and I wanna get to know ya better. So, with that in mind.... U wanna be mine?

You have never squealed so loud in your life.... Once you were composed, you accepted.

The minute he saw your dm back, his heart exploded, ngl: Only if I get to call you my baby bird ;)

Month after month, it was like the two of you had an unexplainable chemistry despite never seeing each other in real life. Every morning started for you with a G'mornin princess 😘 from Keigo, he never wasted the day when it came to showing you affection over the phone

Despite having never seen your face, Bird Boi was whipped for you.

Did he want to see what you looked like? Hell yeah! But, he knew just by talking to you all this time, that it wasn't something you were ready for.

Imagine his surprise when on his birthday, he received a picture....

When he opened it, it read Happy Birthday Baby Bird, featuring the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life! His jaw dropped a little, ngl

Those beautiful e/c eyes, your silky h/c hair... Don't even get him started on that bod of yours... That man could praise you like a goddess for hours if you'd let him

His message back to you after that picture?

😍😍😍 Best. Birthday. Ever.

About a year after the two of you started talking, you ended up being transferred to a different city to work.... 12 hours away from your hometown.... To the very same city Keigo patrolled and was responsible for!

Instead of surprising him, knowing he was a Pro Hero, you told him about what was happening and the day you were moving.

Keigo was beyond ecstatic when you told him. He was finally gonna see you in person!

I have an idea, princess, as soon as you're settled in, meet me at the cafè Leblanc. I'll treat you to some coffee jelly on my break.... Leblanc's got the best coffee jelly in Japan. I wanna see you in person, and the sooner the better.

You felt nervous, but agreed to a time to meet up at

When you moved about two weeks later, you moved into your apartment and found that your place was only about a 10 minute walk from the cafè Keigo mentioned.

Now... If Keigo wasn't whipped for you before....

He certainly was now.....

The minute he spotted h/c hair in the crowd, he moved up into the air, his amber eyes easily finding you in the crowd.

You were soooooo much more beautiful in person, and it made him extremely happy to see you.

But, all of a sudden, Hawks felt nervous... What would you think of him when you saw him in person? That baby bird watched over you from the skies until it was time to call it quits. When he finally got everything done, he flew back to the cafè, where you were still waiting for him

No backing out now, Hawks... That's your baby down there, go see them. No big deal.

The mental peptalk did nothing for him... His body wouldn't move...

After an hour, you were getting worried, your brow furrowed as your mind raced through the horrible things that could have happened to him. You decided to text him, Hey, where r u?

And what was this bird brained bastard's reply?

Look up, princess

When you did, you saw him. Big red wings, amber eyes, messy blond hair and all. You watched him as he gracefully glided to you despite his nervousness.

The look in his amber eyes was so soft, a look of pure, unadulterated adoration and love for you clear as day. He immediately wrapped his arms around you

"I'm so sorry I kept you waiting, princess... Forgive me?"

You answered by kissing him, threading your fingers through his soft blond hair as he held you close to him, his wings wrapping around you too. When the two of you pulled away, a goofy grin was smiled before the first of many dates at that cafè took place

His Instagram post that day consisted of a very adorable kiss over coffee jelly with the caption: Finders Keepers, and I found a keeper :3

(A/N: A big thank you to @prismaroyal and @sadistiks for helping me out with Hawks' part :3 hope you guys enjoyed!)

Taglist: @fakeanimefanntnt @lxvely-mha @bnhabookclub

[elsanna-shenanigans]

February Contest Submission #15: The Old House

words: ca. 6000 setting: 20th Century. Real world (with a twist) lemon: No cw: Some angst. Mentions of parent death. Referenced/implied child abuse.

“It’s time to go.”

She saw through the mist a hand, reaching out for her. Large snowflakes swirled past them like a swarm of puffy hens. The hand could not hold her. It slipped away. She called her parents’ names, or so she thought.

They found her moribund little body in the snow the next morning.

ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ•ᛅᚱᚾᚬᛏᛅᛚᛦ

Anna woke up with a start, chest heaving.

It was dark in the hotel room. Her roommate— partner?— stirred groggily next to her.

“Anna? What’s wrong?” Her raspy voice asked. “Was it another nightmare.”

“No,” she lied. “I’m sorry. Y-you can go back to sleep.”

She could feel Elsa’s eyes on her.

“What do you need?” She asked. Her voice spread warmth across Anna’s chest.

“…I could really use a warm hug.”

Next thing she knew, a pair of arms were gathering her into an embrace. She tucked her head under Elsa’s chin and sighed.

It would be a long day, it seemed.

ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ•ᛅᚱᚾᚬᛏᛅᛚᛦ

Arendelle was a small town on an island north of Norway. It was born as a fishing town in the 1890s and never changed its trajectory. Only a few dozen houses, a fish-oil refinery, the docks, one church, one school, one hotel, and an administrative building uphill. The people of Arendelle were rustic and gloomy, much like the weather they were brought up in: hail twice a week, snow in winter, and rain the rest of the time. In short: Arendelle hadn’t changed one bit since Anna left.

Being at the foot of the mountain, Arendelle’s surroundings were prone to avalanches, and the most recent one had taken place only a week back. It missed them by a few miles, but it opened up a door for archaeologists from the University of Bergen, who came to study what had been uncovered by the snow.

Anna wasn’t an archaeologist; she was a girl on a mission. She left while her grandfather slept, hopping into a cargo ship to travel north. Her passage was worth weeks of work. She hadn’t expected the sight of the town in the distance to hurt her as it did, so she kept her mind busy, and spent her days searching. 

The day things began to go downhill, she was, as always, searching for her parents’ bodies. 

She climbed up the mountains with her wooden stick and stabbed the snow with it, searching for something harder than mud. Bones, hopefully, although she was terrified of finding frozen flesh sticking to their cheekbones. The sky grew dark and cold, and Elsa would kill her if she arrived one minute too late, so she decided to turn back. She followed her own tracks towards the dig (where they let her sit by the ever-burning campfire as long as she wasn’t too noisy). The skeletal tree-branches rattled above. The wind whistled and swooshed sharply, blowing rough snow that clawed at her reddened cheeks. Her hands were numb even inside her pockets. Anna’s only comfort was thinking about Elsa’s arms around her. Not even the sight of Arendelle downhill quelled the chill.

Anna might be a born-Arendellian, but she grew up in the south of Norway. She was ill-prepared for the hostile North. 

However, if Elsa had taught her anything, was that even under the dark frozen sky there were objects of wonder.

As Anna trudged across the snow-sea which reached her mid-calf, something caught her eye. A narrow stone-wall led deep into the forest. Only two feet tall and falling apart already. Frost covered its surface. 

Her heart leaped. She deviated from her path without a second thought, legs racing, pulse and breath quickening with emotion.

The picture-stone came into view after. It lied deeper into the woods. A bow-shaped slab. Abstract ships, stick-people, reindeer herds gathered on it in a violent array of reds. Waves, antlers, and swords, a story carved in stone. A sacrifice.

And in the center, she found her.

There was something else to Arendelle.

“The Queen,” The hotel-butler had explained.

“The Queen of Norway?” Anna had asked, much to his amusement.

“No, the real Queen.”

The Snow Queen, who with her reindeer-pulled chariot cast a shadow of frost over every corner of the North. Her arms rose towards the sky, where her snowflake curled like clouds, like the winds she sent south. The slab was thirteen-foot-tall and rose high above Anna, with its depiction of the nordic spirit. Below her, was an inscription.

As it usually did, time halted. Anna’s throat dried, her eyes widened. She covered her mouth. She could no longer hear the sharp branch-rattling or wind-whistling over the sound of her own warm blood pounding in her ears. She no longer felt cold. 

She reached forward, tracing with a fingertip the carvings. 

The finds couldn’t be younger than seven hundred years old. Had it truly been that long? Oh, Anna could nearly feel the sculptor’s trembling hands, their warm breath. She placed a hand where someone else’s hands had once been. 

She searched for her journal inside her coat and scribbled down the runes she saw, as well as the stone and the wall she’d seen before.

Anna was no archaeologist— she wasn’t nearly smart enough—, but she understood why someone may choose this path. When she gazed upon this stone, it was as if there was no distance at all. 

The icy wind pushed against her, pulling her out of her haze. Yes! She began to stroll downhill. She’d prove her usefulness! She’d alert the scholars of the new find.

ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ•ᛅᚱᚾᚬᛏᛅᛚᛦ

Anna and the archaeologists were two land mammals sharing the same habitat, only, while they searched with brushes and trowels, Anna searched with a wooden stick. As non-competitive species, they often shared the same space, considering they knew her story. Anna wasn’t sure why the scholars tolerated her, but maybe it was because she and Elsa were a package deal now.

As soon as she reached her destination, Elsa threw her arms around her shoulders, kissed her cheek, and asked:

“Are you alright?”

She pulled back, anxious eyes studied her from head to toe. Anna’s heart always swelled with adoration when she heard that voice.

“I am,” she soothed her. “Oh, Elsa, you won’t believe what I found!”

“Wait.” Elsa tugged her towards the campfire and caressed Anna’s cheek with the back of her hand. “You’re cold. Come here.”

Soon, they sat on a log before the magnificent dig. A farmstead, they’d said. Stone walls and a half-rotten roof still mostly standing, surrounded by icy farming grounds where lamb bones were found.

The more awe-inspiring part, of course, was that a family had lived there. The farmstead was someone’s home. Elsa had described the findings in length: a family of three. All of them Christians, and funnily enough, also sheepherders. Thirteenth century. The settlement of Árnadalr lied many kilometers south, but this family lived in solitude.

Anna now wore an extra coat, held a mug of cocoa in her hands, and had Elsa fussing over her like a mother hen.

“What took you so long? You could get lost out there! And you left your scarf behind again. Here, let me find it.”

“Well, aren’t you a protective one,” Anna teased her, sipping her drink. Elsa’s pale skin flushed.

“It’s my job, isn’t it?” she muttered.

Before Anna could snort and ask what that meant, Professor Mattias, who was in charge of the dig, intervened to ask about Anna’s findings in the woods. Her enthusiasm immediately reassured everyone that she brought good news, and while they couldn’t travel at night, they still celebrated in the hotel. They cheered with vodka at the charcoal-sketch of the picture-stone Anna had presented. Yes, she’d made herself useful.

As they congratulated her, Elsa remained silent.

The hotel was so old, half the lightbulbs didn’t work. There was only one phone, and a dozen residents lined up every day to make their thirty-minutes calls and clog up the narrow smelly corridor. Each curtain was half-eaten by moths; you’d be wise not to put your clothes in the closet. Three stories of dusty light, creaky stairways, and dirty cracked windows. You could hear every neighbor from three doors away, and the ice clawed down from the roof into a fang-curtain before every window. They offered only one blanket per bed, but Elsa had provided Anna with a woolen quilt on her first night. That had perhaps been the first step towards falling in love with her. Between paying for both of them and giving up her own warmth, Elsa had extended unconditional kindness towards Anna from day one. Maybe they’d been doomed from the start. 

“They’re out of single rooms,” she’d clarified upon Anna’s arrival. “And I’ve been paying for an empty bed for the past week. Please, I insist.”

It might have passed as simple pragmatism had Elsa not been Elsa. It wasn’t only about her treatment towards Anna, no, but about how she’d treat a stranger in need, that made Anna lose control of her heart. 

She asked her about her silence, in the light of their whale-oil lamp (their room’s electricity hadn’t worked since the ‘30s), as she tried to translate the runes with her journal and a book she’d grabbed from the local library.

“Is everything okay, Elsa?”

Elsa was sitting on her bed, silently combing her hair. She wore only her slip, which was quite distracting, but she didn’t have the intention of getting into bed, despite looking so tired.

At Anna’s words, she tilted her head.

“Why? Are you feeling poorly?”

Anna snorted.

“I’m okay. Are you?”

“It’s nothing.”

Anna sighed. She closed the book and stared at Elsa.

“You never let me pull off this whole.. avoiding the subject thing,” she protested, and then extended an arm towards her, begging to come closer. A new anxious question settled on her tongue. “Are you…? Do you feel…? I mean, do you feel safe with me, Elsa? Like you can trust me?”

Elsa’s eyes studied her for one agonizing moment. She stood up. Well, they did only meet a month back. Weren’t they moving too fast? Her grandfather would certainly disapprove. 

“It’s not that,” Elsa murmured as she approached Anna. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders and nuzzled the top of her head. She planted a kiss there, and Anna’s heart skipped a beat. “I do trust you.”

Anna saw her pale fingers brush over the pages of her journal. Her uncertain translation read:

This stone was raised in memory of Agðar and Iðunn, who met their end in their travels. Their daughter carved this stone.

“You’re becoming quite a good translator,” Elsa commented, and placed another kiss on Anna’s hair. Heat crept up to the tips of her ears.

“T-thank you,” she replied, as she ripped off the page and stored it in her folder, alongside all other translations and sketches she’d scribbled since her arrival: small runestones, illustrations of archaeological finds, and multiple petroglyphs of the Queen, all of which she’d shared with the archaeologists. “You’re an excellent translator as well! I mean, I suppose you are. You work at the dig, after all.”

Elsa hummed.

“I’m not an archaeologist. I’m only a volunteer.” she argued. “In fact, I believe you’ve been more helpful than me.” She flipped over a page. “The Snow Queen?”

“Oh! Uh, yeah,” Anna stammered. “Kind of a passion project.”

“For the Snow Queen?” Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Should I be jealous?”

“Well, legend has it she was single, right? Oh! Thy Majesty! Pardon my manners, but I shoult say thy bosom looks exquisite. Are thee by any chance in need of a shieldmaiden?”

A hand snaked around her waist. Anna shrieked as Elsa’s fingers dug into the sensitive spot. Between laughter and screeching, she curled on herself and tried to swat her hand away. 

“Come on,” Elsa laughed. “It’s getting late. And keep working on your performance. That’s not how people spoke back in the day.”

She ruffled Anna’s hair and strode back towards her bed, and— alright, she saw swaying her hips on purpose. 

Anna pulled her knees to her chest, placing her heels on the edge of the seat and hugging her legs.

“You said you grew up here, right?”

“More or less, yes. Why?”

“Oh, I was just wondering. About the Snow Queen, you know.”

“What about her?”

“…That’s what I meant to ask.”

Elsa sighed. She rubbed her eyes.

“Just… some fairy tale,” she dismissed it, with a wave of her hand. “To make children behave. If you were nasty, a monster would feel your frozen heart and take you to her palace.”

“Was it a nice palace, at least?”

“I wouldn’t know. I was quite obedient growing up.”

“Oh, excuse me.”

Elsa chuckled, and Anna’s heart fluttered with affection.

“I was!” she insisted, giving Anna a mischievous look. “But no. I don’t think it was a nice place. In fact, they say everything about the Queen was cruel and horrible. She never seemed like girlfriend material to me.”

“You think?” Anna asked. “I don’t know. Maybe she was lonely.”

Elsa cast her eyes down, lips curling into a melancholic smile.

“Well, I doubt even she could resist your charms.”

With a delicate finger, she pulled Anna’s hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Now the heat was in Anna’s stomach, in her chest, in the way Elsa gazed at her with such an unexpected adoration, she couldn’t help but to raise her head and kiss her lips. Elsa sighed contentedly, her hand cradling the back of Anna’s neck. Her mind spun around as their lips brushed together. 

Then Elsa pulled away, with a pensive expression. She bit her lip.

“Tell you what,” she said, grasping Anna’s hands. “Come with me tomorrow. I want to show you something.”

Anna grinned. That was good enough for her. She’d wait for Elsa to speak in her own terms and time. 

ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ•ᛅᚱᚾᚬᛏᛅᛚᛦ

“That’s the thing,” she remembered her grandfather say, when she was seven. “I doubt they got lost. We would have found the bodies by now. I bet the reason they’re gone is because they didn’t want to deal with the responsibility, so they thrusted it on me.”

Anna woke again. Her hands trembled.

That had been a lie. 

That had to be a lie. 

He had always lied, hadn’t he? Maybe he just despised her.

Yes, she’d find them and prove him wrong. 

They loved her. They were dead.

Thankfully, Elsa wasn’t disturbed by her pathetic dreams. Anna was surprised she still put up with her, but it was better not to take risks.

She grabbed her coat and got ready for the day.

ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ•ᛅᚱᚾᚬᛏᛅᛚᛦ

Elsa guided her through the lonely snow-sea of the mountains in the dark winter morning. The Queen seemed to have it against them, because she blew her snow all over and made them struggle to climb up the hills. 

“Um… Elsa? How much until we get there?” Anna asked, as she could no longer feel her toes.

“Not much,” Elsa absently replied. Her eyes drifted all over the hills. She grasped Anna’s hand and pulled her along. 

The cliffs overlooking Arendelle were a dark shadow in the distance, but they gained definition as both women approached. They didn’t draw a 90 degrees angle with the ground— rather, the earth elevated slowly, in bumps and rocky points, rising like a heavy breath towards the cliff’s foot. It was a rather secluded spot, where the snow didn’t hit as harshly. There they could rest until the time to search came again.

Yet Elsa had other plans. She toiled forward, along the cliff-wall, until the runestones came into view.

Blood-red lines coiled around the edges of a small stone plate, only half as tall as Anna herself. It protruded from near the foot of the cliff, high above. They exchanged a quick look.

“Can you read what it says?” Asked Elsa. Anna cringed thinking about her rune-reading skills.

“I can try?” She vacillated. Looking up, she read: “…Sif and Afvaldr erected this stone in memory of Nafni, son of Ulfarr, father of Afvaldr and husbandman of Sif, who met his end fighting the snow.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She saw Elsa grin from the corner of her eye.

“Anna,” she tugged at her hand. “Look.”

Anna followed the direction of Elsa’s finger, and saw extending into the distance a trail of stones with engravings on them. Small, big, at some points more spaced out than in others. They followed the length of the cliff-wall like a series of little stars, so tiny under the mountain’s shadow.

Anna’s throat tightened with emotion. 

She stepped towards the next stone. This one had a cross on it.

“Feykir and his daughter, Esja, had this stone raised in memory of Rjúpa, Feykir’s wife and Esja’s mother, who was taken by the wicked snow. May God help her spirit.”

This one was close enough to touch. Anna traced the edge of the cross with a finger. 

“How did you know this place?” She asked.

“Oh, you know.” Elsa shrugged. “This is my home.”

Many of the stones were cenotaphs, Elsa explained. No one was buried beneath this soil, but they might as well be, because each of these people, with names and loved ones, felt only a breath away.

“Bersa raised this stone in memory of Ilmr, her father’s sister. She was killed when trying to kill the snow.”

Anna’s breath grew heavier. She scrutinized these patterns, these strange writings, for several hours; they all dated to this wicked, living, killing snow.

Her heart vigorously pounded warm blood into her fingertips.

Then, she spotted a particular runestone. It was the greatest one of all, far away from the others, and it sported the same figure she’d seen only a day before; the Snow Queen with her arms towards the sky. Around her coiled a serpent with words on its skin.

In her blind excitement, Anna hastily climbed over rocks until she reached it. Elsa followed closely behind. 

“Do you know what it says?” Elsa asked when she reached her.

Anna squinted at the words. Its inscription was the longest she’d seen so far.

“It says… Agðar and Iðunn came from the south. It was with them that the snow came.” She stepped to the side, to read the following line. “It was their daughter that brought the evil, with which she could slay a hundred men in… Árnadalr? So… um… Crap. I don’t know what it says here.”

She turned around, expecting to find Elsa willing to lend a hand, but her expression was painted by an unexpected sadness.

Anna’s stomach sank a little.

“Elsa?”

Elsa lowered her head.

“It says they killed her,” she explained. Anna squinted.

“She was real?”

“So it seems.”

“The Snow Queen? No. That’s… too much even for Arendelle. Besides, vikings wrote a lot of weird stuff, right?”

“It’s what the stone tells.” Elsa pointed out. “I know I said it was only a tale last night, but…”

“Wait. Agðar and Iðunn?” Anna checked the names on the stone again. “Were they…? Oh, Elsa… She really was real. And her parents…”

“…Yes. Agðar and Iðunn were the names of the people who lived in the dig,” Elsa clarified.

“So, the Snow Queen… she…” Anna looked at the carvings in stone again. Despair seized her heart. “Oh, no, Elsa. She had a family. They… Oh, goodness…”

A family, yes, one the Snow Queen had missed very much, enough to raise a stone in their memory. To think about this loss, this pain that she thought she knew even if she wasn’t quite sure, tore her heart in half. 

Her eyes watered. 

“I don’t think she was a monster.”

There was… a long history of death and pain in that family, wasn’t it?.

She heard Elsa breathe behind her. 

“Anna, there’s…”

She dropped whatever it was she was about to say when she noticed the mist behind Anna’s eyes.

“I really hope I find my parents,” she murmured, then furiously rubbed her eyes. “D-did I ever tell you what happened to them?”

She could feel Elsa’s pain-stricken gaze on her.

“If that’s something you want to do, I’ll listen.”

Anna nodded. Her throat constricted. 

“There was a storm,” she recalled. “I don’t remember what happened very well. I-I can’t even remember their names, and my grandfather won’t tell me, and besides…”

“He won’t?”

“Yeah, so I think I got lost, because I couldn’t see them anywhere. Next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital. My grandfather adopted me afterwards.”

“But you’re the one searching for the bodies?”

“What can I say?” Anna shrugged and forced a crooked smile. “Guess he didn’t want to… unbury any painful memories.”

“He didn’t care to find his son?”

“…Or you could put it like that, too.” She wiped her eyes, looking down. “I think I’m beginning to understand him, though.”

Elsa squinted.

“How come?”

“Well…” She kicked the snow at her feet. “He told me once they’d left me in the snow. I like to think I actually got lucky, but I…” She shook her head. “I feel so selfish, Elsa. Like I want them to be dead, just so I can know they didn’t abandon me.”

“They didn’t,” Elsa blurted out with a thick voice. “Anna, your family loved you.”

“Then I shouldn’t be looking for them like this.”

Her voice sounded pathetic even to her.

She brought her hands together, and carefully leaned against Elsa.

“What are you going to do, then?”

She sucked in a ragged breath.

“I don’t know,” Anna admitted. “I don’t wanna go home. My grandfather…”

“Does he hurt you?”

“He’s never hit me.”

Elsa’s arm snaked around her waist.

“What will you do?” Anna then asked, trying to shift the attention from herself. “After the dig is over, I mean. You’ve lived your whole life here, right?”

“In a way.”

“Will you stay?”

That was a difficult question. Elsa could imply she’d leave her and neither of them would know, because Anna didn’t know what she’d do, either. Maybe she’d be the one to leave Elsa.

Elsa closed her eyes.

“I don’t know. Arendelle brings a lot of memories, doesn’t it?”

“It does.”

Then Elsa lowered her gaze. Screwed her eyes shut. She pulled away from Anna and wrapped both arms around herself.

“Let’s just go back,” she said curtly. Anna’s heart weighed heavily in her chest— from thinking of her family, from thinking about the Queen, from this sudden rejection—, but she respected Elsa’s space. Had she done something to scare her away? Oh, she surely must have.

They climbed down from the hills even though Anna’s toes were freezing. The mountains made her feel hopeless but so did the sight of Arendelle, and with Elsa walking several feet before her, not even glancing back, Anna felt as though there was no respite from this tired heaviness. She wanted nothing but to curl into a ball and sleep. 

Just before they entered the town, Elsa stopped.

“Anna… listen.” She began. Her tone made Anna’s shoulders droop. “I-I can’t keep doing this. We can’t.”

Anna’s heart quivered.

“W-what do you mean?”

“I mean… this has to end.” She raised her shoulders to her ears. Avoided Anna’s eyes. “I-I’m sorry. Goodbye, Anna.”

Her heart cracked open. Anna shook her head.

“What? W-why?” She shouldn’t feel this surprised. “Did… did I do something? I’m so sorry if I did. Just…”

The pain behind Elsa’s eyes was indescribable.

“No.” She interrupted. “It wasn’t you. Just… please. I can’t say it right now.”

Anna wanted to reply (to scream, cry, seize her hands and not let go), but words failed her as Elsa turned her back to her and entered Arendelle.

As simple as that, Anna was alone. 

She didn’t begin to cry until Elsa was out of sight, like a pathetic little child. 

ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ•ᛅᚱᚾᚬᛏᛅᛚᛦ

During her last night in Arendelle, Anna dreamed of her sister.

Yes, she’d had a sister, and even though she didn’t remember her name or face she remembered she’d loved her, once. She remembered holding her hand and running in the snow, building snowmen and drinking chocolate with her. The affection and tenderness lingered after, as if carved on stone.

ᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ•ᛅᚱᚾᚬᛏᛅᛚᛦ

"Anna, wait.”

Her breath and heart came to a halt. Turning around, she found her standing there, in her blue dress and gripping a rucksack. Her expression was both serious and desperate; pained. She raised a hand as if to grasp Anna’s.

“Oh. Elsa,” Anna blurted. The need to cover her face nearly overpowered her. “Uh… Hello.”

Elsa took her acknowledgment as a cue to come closer. Two long steps and a stare, just for a moment; and Anna understood she didn’t know what she was doing, either. Did she intend to apologize for being brusque? Her approach seemed to indicate so. It wouldn’t be unlike her. Anna was willing to accept and move on if that was the case, but truth was, she didn’t deserve an apology when she’d been the one in the wrong.

However, Elsa looked anything but angry.

Rather, her blue eyes drifted over to the ship in port; the sea. Her throat bobbed up and down.

“I suppose we’ll be leaving in the same ship,” she pointed out with a lopsided smile. Anna tried to smile back. 

“Yep. So it seems.”

“Though I believe we’re early,” continued Elsa. “I was wondering if you cared for a walk in town.”

Anna looked to the side. 

“Elsa, I… don’t know.”

“There’s something I need to tell you,” she insisted. “I know. I know. Y-you don’t have to listen to me. But I promise I’ll explain everything, if you’ll have me.”

“Oh, Elsa, there’s nothing to explain,” Anna reassured her. “You just… don’t feel the same way I do. That’s normal. I’m not mad, you know.”

Elsa shook her head.

“That’s not it,” she insisted. “It's… more complicated than that. Actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you this ever since I found you.” She wrung her hands together and looked down. “I just hope you’ll believe me when I’m done.”

Regret and desperation were draped over her posture like a heavy cloak, dragging her down. Even when hurt, Elsa still made her heart skip a beat with every gesture of kindness, and this one was no exception. Both her lovestruck haze and her intellectual curiosity compelled her to give Elsa a chance. 

She picked up her bag and extended her arms to the sides.

“I’m all ears.”

Elsa’s grin reminded her of why she loved her. 

“Really?”

“Yep! One-hundred-per-cent. Now, hurry up!”

Elsa sighed in relief. She placed a hand on her chest.

“Alright. Come with me.”

She led her out of the port and into town. Despite having spent the last few months in Arendelle, Anna wasn’t eager to revisit it, but it was different when she knew that’d be the last time she’d see it. She spotted the playground where she and her sister had played (her big sis always hugged her from behind when they went down the slide, because it wasn’t fun going alone), and saw the place where they bought cod and salmon on the weekends. The little kindergarten she’d attended had closed down, but the building still stood. Most streets hadn’t been paved. Mud stuck to her boots. The sky was still white and cold, the houses dull, and the people as austere and uncaring as they’d always been. 

“When I was little,” Elsa began. “My family and I were hiding from a very dangerous man. Of course, I didn’t know that until I was much older. At the time it all felt like a game of hide and seek. We left the mainland, and when that wasn’t enough, we went even further.” She gulped. “We crossed a line that night, and someone else suffered the consequences.”

Anna bit her lip but didn’t interrupt. She feared any disturbance may break the spell and chase Elsa away.

“Anna, what do you remember from the dig?”

“There was a family. With a kid. The Snow Queen. And… her parents died.” Anna recounted. “Is that it? You were reminded of your family?”

“…I was, yes,” replied Elsa. “Anna…”

Was that it? Had it been a dumb case of miscommunication? Of course! She’d been so stupid. Neither of them had been in the right place back then, but now they were, and they could sort out the problem. Perhaps, Elsa didn’t hate her.

Only then Anna realized they were standing before the old house.

Her stomach sank. Her breath hitched and a shiver ran down her spine, mouth hanging ajar. She stepped back.

“Oh, no,” she heard Elsa mumble. 

The house was still made of wood, although it had lost its color. Two stories. A window was broken and so was one of the steps leading up to the entrance. From inside came the smell of dust and rust and rot.

“Anna?”

She looked at Elsa, and couldn’t find the words to beg or cry or scream, but she didn’t need to because Elsa didn’t ask questions. She held her reluctant gaze for a moment and then she nodded, stepped forward, and took Anna’s hand. 

She managed to hold her composure and lead Elsa inside. 

The house had been empty for thirteen years, and it had collected dust and spiderwebs over time. It still felt like home, though. A cold fireplace, where Mama often sang to them, or the rocking chair by the windows, where Papa sat to tell bedtime stories.

Anna’s ribcage unlocked with force. She exhaled shakily and blinked the blurriness away.

Elsa was dreadfully silent, but her thumb caressed Anna’s knuckles. This gave her the strength to climb up the stairs towards her old bedroom. The window was so dirty, you could barely see at all. Nearly all the furniture was gone, save for a pitiful nightstand.

“Anna?”

Anna placed both palms on the nightstand and screwed her eyes shut.

“W-would you tell me about your family? Please?”

She did not have a family to embrace her but perhaps she could bask in the comfort of someone else’s warmth.

“My father was a physicist. My mother was a historian,” continued Elsa. “A-and I had a little sister. Even then, I loved her with everything I was.”

The drawer was stuck. Anna struggled with it.

“W-we never meant to leave her behind.” Elsa’s breathing was laborious. “But there was a blizzard; a small avalanche. And she got lost. We tried to go back for her but it was too late. We’d already reached the other side.”

The wood made a horrible rattling noise, but it eventually gave in under Anna’s strength.

“To this day I still don’t understand how such a thing could happen. We spent thirteen years trying to go back, a-and my parents didn’t make it. The people in town saw something in me. They feared me, and I never knew why. I-I didn’t mean to scare them. My parents tried to find a way back, but they—they didn’t make it. I-I took care of them myself. Gave them a proper…” her voice cracked horribly. “T-they deserved to see her again, yet only three years later the very same window opened itself to me. I didn’t cross it. In fact, it crossed over me.”

Inside the drawer was a single photo frame. Anna picked it in her trembling hands.

“Elsa…”

“I was happy. I was back, after so long. And then I found my little sister, too. I can’t describe the way I felt when I saw her again, all grown up after thirteen years.”

Anna traced a finger around her sister’s childish face on the frame’s glass.

“Elsa, I…”

“But then, I began to feel… something else. I thought I was just… happy to have her back, even if I hadn’t dared to tell her the truth. But I was wrong. What I felt… scared me. I wanted to be with her all the time, but I couldn’t stand to look at her face. I felt disgusting. I-I still do.”

Anna put the frame down, and studied her sister from head to toe. The same blue eyes, snow-like hair. The same gentle features but also the same inner strength her broken little mind still remembered. Her thoughts were no longer made of words; she couldn’t hear them over the blood pounding in her ears— her heart would jump out of her chest at any moment. They had all come to a halt as her brain processed Elsa’s words. Her sister. Her sister, who had been away for so long, who was now back, who had taken care of their parents’ burial alone and who still made Anna feel like the most loved person in the world.

Her heart made up its mind. She threw her arms around Elsa’s neck.

“Oh, Elsa…” she breathed, and choked back a sob. “You’re not disgusting. Please, don’t ever say that. I love you.”

Her sister. She was back, from beyond time. She was the same girl who tucked Anna into bed back then. She’d taken care of baby sheep yet she saw herself through monstrous lenses. The Snow Queen, in love with her little sister, who one day vanished from her farmstead and was never seen again. Who raised a stone in memory of their parents, for people hundreds of years later to remember them. This girl with a quivering body, holding Anna in her arms.

A tear ran down Anna’s cheek.

“I realized that, regardless of how I felt, I would lose you again if I didn’t tell you,” Elsa whispered. “That’s all that matters. We can forget about whatever it is that I feel. That’s alright by me.”

Anna shook her head against her sister’s shoulder.

“Well, g-good thing it doesn’t have to come down to that, right?” Anna chuckled wetly. She slowly pulled back, and found her sister’s hands in hers.

“Even now that you know the truth?” Elsa closed her eyes. “No. It isn’t right.”

“What are you talking about? Elsa, can’t you see? I love you. I… will need some time to wrap my head around this, but… All these years, I thought I was alone, b-but I wasn’t! You and Mama and Papa were always out there. You were even searching for me! A-and now I have you back, and… Oh my Goodness, I got my sister back… A-and she’s in love with me.”

Anna hesitated for only one second. For some reason, she could believe her, almost without trying. Her sister, yes, it wasn’t normal, but after walking across time and back– after losing her for so long, normal was out the window for her. She wouldn’t lose her, in one way or the other.

“I’m sorry.” Elsa murmured.

“What? Elsa, have you met you?” Anna spluttered, then laughed. “Not everyone is lucky enough to say their sister loves them this much.” She stood on tip-toes and pressed her lips to Elsa’s— her sister’s— her family’s. The warmth that spread inside her body felt natural, and it did so even more when a hand cupped the back of her neck. She pulled back after a moment. “We have time to figure things out, Elsa,” she said. “Y-you’ll come with me, right? You’ll give me a chance?”

Her sister’s eyes brimmed with tears. Her hand tucked a strand of red hair behind Anna’s ear. 

“I’m scared, Anna,” she admitted. “I don’t know what I’m doing. But I’ll stay with you. I promise.”

Anna grinned like a lovestruck fool.

“We’ll figure it out together,” she reassured her. Then a siren came from the port, echoing through Arendelle. They exchanged a smile. Anna stole one more peck before Elsa could speak.

“Are you satisfied? Shall we go now?” Elsa giggled.

They made it outside the house, and once outside, the brightness blinded Anna for an instant. When she inhaled the fresh ocean air, she felt as if she could float. The damp, heavy odor of the house no longer clung to her lungs. 

She looked back. The house hadn’t changed. Its wood was still colorless and empty of life. It was completely empty.

“Anna?”

Her sister stood next to her, more beautiful than she remembered. She looked at her with all the love in the world.

The siren blared again.

Large snowflakes swirled past them like a swarm of puffy hens. 

Anna grasped her sister’s hand.

“Come on,” she said. “It’s time to go.”

[banalbones]

The Petite Prince: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Princes Don’t Need Help

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8

SideStory

Summary: Roman is a child. Virgil is spending time with said child, and said child likes Logan’s Crofter’s.

Words: 2179

Ships: Familial everything, except roceit. Eventual familial roceit

Genre: Fluff with a side dose of angst

Warnings: A few swears, tell me if there’s any more!

Taglist: @pricklyfish777 @sunflowerblondeuwu @itriedandimtired @draw-your-perfect-world @cemmy @battlebunnyteardropsinthesun @nonbinary-lizard-2 @fanforeveruniverse @i-cant-find-a-good-username

_________________________

Virgil was content.

After hours, hours of searching for the precious little bean, here he was in the emo’s arms.

Finally.

The small royal giggled as Virgil made a silly face at him.

Scary reputation? Who’s she.

The baby reached up and tugged at the anxious side’s hair, marvelling at the pretty purple color, pulling at his own chocolate curls in comparison.

“Woah!”

Virgil felt his heart melt as the petite prince tugged his hair again, happily beaming and showing off his gap tooth.

He knew that the others were watching the exchange, but, for the first time in his ‘life’, didn’t even care.

Then Roman’s face scrunched up in concentration, and he let go of the emo’s hair.

“Liv’ roo!”

Virgil smiled softly.

“The living room?”

“Liv’ roo!”

So. Cute.

___________________________

Okay can I just interrupt for a second?

You already have, but go on.

Why do you all keep emphasizing how cute he was?

Because I was absolutely adorable.

Because he was absolutely adorable.

…

Fair enough.

___________________________

Patton was still chatting with Logan, about brownies and endorphins and all the like, but he still felt sad.

Patton was the literal dad of the group, and yet when one of his kiddos turned into a literal kiddo, he could do nothing about it. Well, for now at least.

Logan had told him that Roman had most likely felt extremely overwhelmed, causing him to regress further, and therefore should not be exposed to one of the main reasons he had felt overwhelmed by for a bit.

The logical side had faltered near the end, which the moral side took as a good sign.

Maybe he doesn’t think I’m too big a ‘main reason’.

Patton held on to this hope.

Because any hope, no matter how trivial, was hope.

____________________________

Remus really hadn’t wanted to give his little bro over to Virgie, and was considering to just, well to just not, but the look that Nerdy Wolverine had given him had convinced him of doing otherwise.

Whatever. I guess they still think I want to kill my brother.

Which he didn’t.

But again, whatever.

The Duke ignored the sting that the thought had left.

Whatever.

____________________________

Back in the living room, Roman was grinning wider than ever.

It was working! There was waaaay less sad, and even better than that, he had helped.

Ooh, look at the pretty lights! And the pur-pur hair! Wait, he had already seen the pur-pur hair. It was still pretty though!

The room was being decorated with nice bright colors and fairy lights. Big him (and Little him) loved those!

“So. What d’ya wanna do?”

Roman turned and looked at Virgil, a tad confused, before shrugging.

“You choo!”

Big me never got to choose. Wow! Fluffy blankets!

The little prince missed the shocked face Virgil had worn at his response, and his confused face before that.

“Disney?”

“Yeah!”

_________________________

Why had the bean looked so confused when I had asked him what he wanted to do?

That was a question that would surely echo throughout Virgil’s mind for the rest of the movie marathon, and most likely after it as well.

Looking to the adorable little royal, Virgil smiled an anxious smile.

I hope he’s okay.

Virgil looked at the wide green eyes, engrossed in whatever the Disney movie at the moment was. He was so small, but that was to be expected of a now fifteen month old baby.

The paper crown slipped down over the prince’s eyes, blocking his view of the film. He huffed and pushed it back up with his tiny hands.

“Need a little help there?”

Vigil was still smiling as the bean harrumphed, rather dramatically.

“No.”

“You sure about that? The crown keeps falling.”

“No.” he retorted, stubborn as ever.

The crown fell again.

This time tears filled the prince’s eyes and he pouted angrily.

“Stay!”

Virgil reached over to fix it, only to have his hand swatted away.

“No! Prin’s don’ nee ‘elp!”

Princes don’t need help? Well that doesn’t seem… healthy. What if the bean isn’t healthy?! Well, its obvious he’s not- he is regressed, but what if- I should probably try to stay calm. For his sake.

It was funny, the literal embodiment of anxiety trying to be calm.

The crown fell again and tears rolled down the youth’s cheeks.

Virgil wrapped his arms around the bean, attempting to comfort him. He did want to find out what the small royal had meant, but he couldn’t bear seeing an upset little royal.

The bean must not be sad!

And so Virgil kept hugging the little prince, trying to ignore the phrase.

Princes don’t need help!

Great, two things that would probably haunt him forever.

_________________________

Roman dried his eyes in VeeVee shirt, already regretting the tears.

He was supposed to make them happy!

Sad=bad!

And so, the petite prince took a deep breath, and cuddled closer to Virgil.

_________________________

Both boys had forgotten about their movie marathon by now, content to just cuddle there forever, but then the baby prince had an idea, an idea that would hopefully make VeeVee happy.

The hoodie itself was reeeeeally nice and soft and fluffy and warm, and the prince wasn’t even wearing it!

If it was that nice on the outside, what it be like on the inside?

And so Roman had two options.

Option one: snuggled inside the jacket against Virgil’s chest,

Or

Option two: snuggled in the hood.

It was a very hard choice to make, but the small royal eventually clambered to the top of the emo’s head, getting ready to drop down into the soft embrace of fabric.

Virgil was extremely confused throughout the whole of it.

Roman giggled, and then he was laying in the warm, warm hood.

Oh look! Pur-pur hair!

And so the prince was cosy and the emo was amused.

“Adorable.”

_________________________

Logan walked into the kitchen the next morning, ready to enjoy his sweet, sweet Crofter’s, when a giggly Roman and a smiling Virgil entered the room.

Now, this would not have struck Logan as odd if it weren’t for the fact that the tiny prince was sitting in the anxious side’s hood, his little arms wrapped around Virgil’s neck.

Logan.exe is experiencing a malfunction. Overload of cuteness has temporarily shut down subject’s brain.

Now, Logan wasn’t a robot, or anything of the sort. He was a metaphysical human being. But in that moment he just ‘couldn’t’.

This is odd, I’ve seen and identified the child as ‘cute’ before. Why am I so overwhelmed by the cuteness now?

Virgil must’ve noticed Logan’s mini meltdown, as he snorted and said “You good there teach?”

“How is he so adorable?”

Virgil was about to respond but got interrupted by the little prince.

“Mama!”

Logan.exe is experiencing a malfunction. Overload of cuteness has temporarily shut down subject’s brain.

Twice in a minute. That was most certainly not normal.

But it wasn’t necessarily bad, either.

________________________

Roman, even as a baby, loved attention, and teasing people. So when he noticed he had a chance to get attention and mess with Mama, of course he would do it.

His spot in Virgil’s hood was very comfortable though.

It could wait until after breakfast.

The little prince hugged Virgil’s neck tighter, and pointed at the jar of Crofter’s next to Logan.

Well, he could still mess with Logan from up here.

________________________

You were literally fifteen months old, and yet you still felt the need to be annoying?

Hey! I didn’t want to be annoying, I just wanted to mess with you.

Sure.

And also eat your Crofter’s.

As you would usually say, heathen.

________________________

“You shouldn’t be eating this. Too much sugar could be detrimental for your teeth.”

Logan, in the end, gave in to the whims of the adorable little child and let him eat the jam.

…

Logan and Virgil were mostly silent throughout the meal, happy to listen to the small royal’s babbling.

And then there was a tug.

The left brain boys had completely forgotten about Thomas.

Virgil looked to the logical side, panic evident in his expression.

“What the fuck do we do?”

Logan had on a similar expression.

“The more pertinent question is do we tell him?”

“Tell him what?”

“About Roman. He doesn’t know that sides regress.”

“He doesn’t!?”

“No.”

“How come I thought he did?”

“You were usually the regressed side.”

“That doesn’t mean anythi-”

Another tug.

Roman let out a whimper.

One of them had to go, but the other had to stay with the prince.

“Roman can’t sink down, he isn’t touching the floor.”

“Guys!”

They heard Thomas’s voice this time.

And so, in a heat of the moment decision, Virgil gently but quickly lifted the bean out of his hood, handed him to Logan, and sank down.

“I’ll come up with an excuse!”

_________________________

Logan sighed, and looked to the petite prince now in his arms.

“No he won’t.”

The scaled-down side nodded his head in agreement.

Logan smiled at him and with a quick flick of the wrist, summoned a book.

It was a small picture book with a few words littered throughout.

The nerd knew that normal fifteen month olds would not be able to read at all, but they weren’t exactly real, and so didn’t follow the ‘natural process’ of aging accurately.

Roman squealed as the book landed in front of him, a golden light illuminating his tiny features.

Wait a… gold light? Where is that coming from?

Very odd.

A few moments later the princely side, after being few pages in, started humming.

And then there were birds.

And rabbits.

And squirrels.

And deer.

Where are all of these coming from? Should I be concerned?

Logan stared incredulously at the child, who didn’t seem to notice his new company.

Curious.

…

And then the humming stopped.

Logan, who had summoned his own book to read, looked up to see a frown on the youthful side’s face as he seemingly struggled to read a word.

“Do you require any assistance?”

The royal shook his head fiercely.

“No! Prin’s don’ nee ‘elp!”

Oh. Oh dear.

“Why not?” Logan decided to say, in a deliberately soft voice.

“B-b-bi’ me!”

Big him?

Logan was tempted to get another side’s help, but decided against it.

He could help the child himself.

“You should never be ashamed of needing help, Roman. Everyone needs it sometimes, even me.”

Roman looked up at him with tear filled eyes.

“Rea’y?”

Logan smiled.

“Yes, your highness, it is true.”

The miniscule royal frowned.

“Bi’ me ner g’elp…”

Logan was having a tough time translating.

“Big you never wanted to get help?”

The prince shook his head.

“Go’ elp.”

“Big you never got help?”

Roman nodded.

Did he not?

“How come?”

“Asd, bu no.”

“He asked but no?”

The royal nodded again.

That is quite concerning.

“No’n elp ‘im, so no nee’ elp!”

Logan really needed a dictionary.

“No one helped him, so ‘no need help’?”

“Ee d-d’ided no nee’ elp.”

“He decided he didn’t need help?”

“Ya!”

Well.

Logan definitely needed to have a long, possibly uncomfortable discussion with the rest of the sides.

As Virgil would so eloquently put it, ‘We fucked up.”

_______________________

In Remus’s room, the day before…

Remus had joined the conversation with Logan and Patton after Virgil and his RoBro left.

He had also found out everything that had happened.

And he was not happy.

_______________________

Janus was happy.

Very happy, in fact.

The slimy snek boy knew it had literally been a day since it happened, but still.

He had gotten accepted!

He had revealed his name!

And it was great. Extremely freeing to know that he finally had nothing more to fear.

Except Roman. Except Virgil.

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.

He was Denial after all.

No one has spoken to you since then. Not even Patton.

He pushed those away too.

Happy. Happy. Happy.

You were too harsh.

He forced out a smirk and ignored it.

All he did was call your name stupid.

Happy. Happy.

He didn’t even mean it. You know when people are lying, and he was.

Happy.

He didn’t mean it, but you did.

Jesus Christ Superstar!

All Janus wanted was to be happy and feel nice feelings after being accepted!

These thoughts were pushing through an indestructible wall of denial, something only Remus could d-

Remus.

You and I are going to have a problem.

____________________

In Remus’s room, the day before…

Patton had been happy to chat with Remus as well as Logan, (or so he told himself) and so when the Duke had asked what had happened with him and Roman, he had been fine with telling him.

Well, would have been.

Logan had interjected before the moral side had had a chance to open his mouth, and Patton inwardly shrugged and listened.

It seemed so much worse when you put it like that.

And so when he had seen Remus’s stormy expression, he had been worried.

Well, shit.

______________________

Thank you for reading this chapter of the Petite Prince!

Another competitor has joined the arena!

Also before you say (if anyone was going to say anything) ‘oh my god! Patton swore!’ I personally do hc Patton as someone who swears. Not like ‘oh god’ or anything like that, but since Thomas swears, I think all of the sides do.