#im finishing the year of wonders and im seething with rage

[kokoshnjak]

i should make a goodreads account actually

[sxfik]

I have an idea!

Ok so we all know that Hanseo is abused by his big brother, and if i remember correctly, the jipuragi trio found out about it from the guillotine file for the first time.

Now hear me out, what if the jipuragi trio found out about the abuse from Hanseo himself, not from the guillotine file??

After failing to burn down geumga plaza, Hanseok threw that object at Hanseo, telling him not to dodge it, and it left a scar on his forehead. When Hanseo visited jipuragi, he seemed proud of that scar, right?? Because thats what he got from saving geumga plaza, and he hoped that the scar would show them that he wants to be on their side.

BUT lets forget about all those stuff for a moment.

Hanseok loves to strangle, threaten, and hit Hanseo with the hockey stick. It certainly happens more than once, so i figured that there must be a bunch of scars and bruises on his body right?? What if the jipuragi trio noticed one of his scars/bruises?? I know Hanseo always wear long-sleeved stuff, so its not exactly visible, but what if someone caught a glimpse of it??? Perhaps the scar/bruise was on his arm???

Maybe when Hanseo visits jipuragi, Vincenzo asks him to wash some coffee mugs, and as Hanseo is rolling up his sleeves...

"yo whats that on your arm??"

And maybe Hanseo is like "thats a bruise..? Do you not know what a bruise is??"

Okay, idk. I have no idea how he's gonna react if that happens. I just feel like Hanseo wouldnt be proud of his scars if he didnt get them from trying to save geumga/jipuragi people.

And now im just wondering, what do you think? How would Hanseo react, in your opinion? If the jipuragi trio really did find out about the abuse from Hanseo himself, how would that affect their relationship? Im really curious about what you think

Hhhhhhhh sorry if its too long. I just thought that this might be a good way for Hanseo and jipuragi to kinda get closer with each other...

han seo headcanons (part one)

helloooo, thank you for sending an ask in :D

SORRY this answer is super long and for some reason my phone isn't allowing me to add a keep reading cut thingy, apologies in advance to the amount scrolling you have to do

tw: abuse

i've been thinking so much about this ask and just how han-seo would react to them finding out, and honestly i never really took note of how many long sleeved shirts he wears. i believe han-seok has switched a lot more into emotional manipulation and abuse than physical abuse but he has a lot of anger issues. i'd honestly imagine him using han seo as a punching bag for any and every inconvinence that happens to him, even as an intern.

i also agree with you, han seo is someone who is a very bright personality who tends to hide his hurt and emotions, and he's very very good at it as he has been living under a psychopath his whole life. he's good at hiding his anger (although it definetly bubbles over in smaller outbursts) and especially his hurt (i.e. the scene that han seok throws that candle holder at him and he just smiles back). han seo has a lot of anger at himself for not speaking back or being able to act like himself. like in that scene in the office, you can tell as he curls his fist that he wanted to speak back so badly. even when he finally snaps against han seok, he said "i'm getting tired of being afraid of you." i feel like he'd be embarrassed that even after years, he hasn't been able to escape his abuse

next>

(you can also read the following on ao3)

i feel like this scene and their dynamic would play out something similar to this:

han seo joined the team and has been working with vincenzo and cha-young for around a month. at this point han seo isn't walking on eggshells with both of them, he's a lot more comfortable and visiting their office regularly without choi/han/han seok finding out.

sometimes it's vincenzo and cha-young providing him books to study economics from, maybe even giving some brotherly/sisterly advice to him. every couple weeks, vin and cha-young give him quizzes and slowly, he's getting better and better

over time, he even got closer to the plaza residents (even though the residents were definetly cold to him in the beginning, miri scaring the shit out of him by doing her ghost thing, the lady with the lipstick from bye bye balloon staring him down, snack bar lady refusing to serve him, larry also scaring the shit out of him by doing his zombie routine)

but despite this, they adopt him into their family, han seo doing small errands for the residents, him buying the best coffee, food and getting camera equipment for the snack bar lady's son. han seo gifting the pawnshop couple with cute baby items etc.

(obviously he buys the most expensive shit bc he's still a rich boy, but they dont have to know)

(side note: he'd be fucking adorable with a baby, imagine him being the babies "uncle han seo" who gets them the best gifts !!)

even though he was comfortable with all of them, every once in a while his facade would slip.

every once in a while, someone would make a sharp movement towards him and he'd flinch. or if someone makes a quick step towards him, he'd back up and stiffen up on instinct

even if it was someone patting his back or just making a quick movement, he'd react on instinct from the years of abuse from han seok. but no one ever said anything about it if they noticed.

one afternoon after lunch, they were washing dishes, han seo on washing duty and cha-young drying and placing them back. and han seo was in his full sleeves and cha-young notices his sleeves getting wet

"yah, roll your sleeves back, by the end of this your whole sleeve will be wet! you know how uncomfortable those sleeves would be?"

"ahaha, it's alright noona, i'll be fine"

han seo tries to laugh it off, grining at her with one of his wide grins but there's something off about this one. but cha-young gives one of her patented glares and he rolls them up carefully, shielding his arms from her view, and continues washing the rest.

cha-young doesn't take note of his bruises at first, but noted the care he went through to shield his arms from her. his arms were posed almost awkwardly and he was on high alert

it wasn't until after they both finished and he was drying his hands that cha-young saw the massive bruises he had, climbing up his forearms and under the sleeves

he stiffens when he sees her stare, and quickly tries to cover them but she grabs them before he could hide it

she's completely quiet while she stares at his arms. after a moment, he speaks up

"oh i accidentally banged these against my doorway, they're just small bruises. it's go away in a couple days" he smiles at her again but she could tell from the way his shoulders were frozen and the wavering of his voice that it wasn't the truth

"did he do these?" she asked him, her face completely neutral and her voice barely a whisper. she's still looking at his forearms, her fingers ghosting over the bruises.

han seo just looks down and the silence is enough of an answer for cha-young. he walks away, embarrassed that she found out about it, even though his years of therapy told him that it wasn't never his fault, he still felt the shame and anger of not being able to break free.

he's quiet for the rest of the time, feigning tiredness and finding an excuse to leave the plaza

that night, it was just vincenzo and her working at the office late, in preparation for babel. cha-young's mind was still on what she saw that afternoon. abruptly, she stands up, her hand gripping the pen in her hand as she turned to vincenzo sitting at the other desk.

"did you know that bastard hurt him? he's been abusing han seo this whole time?" she asked vincenzo, her voice seething with anger

"i know."

"you know??? why didn't you ever say anything?"

vincenzo looks up at her from his stack of papers, setting his pen down.

"it wasn't my place. i picked up on it when he flinched when mr. tak reached toward him to place a hand on his shoulder."

cha-young sat back down then, her lips pressed together, and vin went back to his paperwork

"we should get him out of there. who knows what han seok would do in one of his rages?"

"couple nights ago, we went to drink makgeolli and i offered him a way out. i told him if he ever needs to leave, and if he's ready to leave, he has a place at the plaza."

"and is he? leaving that is?"

"no. he thanked me, but said that he needed to stay until his brother and his group crumbles to the ground."

cha-young let out a sigh, biting her lip, the worry on her face all too evident

"hong cha-young byeonosa-nim, we shouldn't baby him. jang han seo deserves revenge against his brother just like we do and the choice is ultimately up to him."

"i know. i just worry."

they stayed quiet for the rest of the night, working late but the topic never leaves cha-young or vincenzo's minds

the next day, han seo avoided her like the plague, not wanting to talk about what she saw yesterday

but while he was studying, she approached him, a glass of juice and a snack in hand, setting it next to him. she checked over his work quietly as he took a break and glanced at his arms, doing a once over just to make sure he didn't get any new ones.

"well done, han seo, you're doing well" she smiled at him and ruffled his hair and han seo let out a breath of relief and gratefulness that she hadn't treated him any different

from then, cha-young and vin only got fonder of han seo and han seo was pretty much adopted by them. after the battle and han seok is in jail permanently, he moves out of his apartment, and gets one closer to the plaza.

mr. nam would show him how the organization worked at jipuragi and put him to work, the paralegal grateful to have an extra hand around the office

eventually, even han seo grows an affection to the instant coffee and buys more for himself and his apartment

vin would take him shopping for suits, both rich boys obsessed with their sleek looks. they take cha-young with them once but she manages to sleep off at every shop they go to.

vincenzo also plays hockey with him regularly and the plaza invites him to plaza game nights. they get up to all kinds of mischief,

han seo loves spicy food, just like cha-young so they make it their mission to go to try every restaurant and compete to see just how much spice they can handle. obviously vincenzo doesn't even make it past the first round of the spice competitions but cha-young and han seo have the same competitive streak that keeps them going

han seo is also dropping hints to both of cha-young and vincenzo that they should get married. constantly teasing vincenzo about cha-young in the way only younger brothers do

obviously on one of cha-young and han seo’s days out, han seo drops hints CONSTANTLY, trying to get her to admit cha young likes vincenzo

and OBVIOUSLY she slips up, and han seo doesn’t let go of it

he does the whole younger brother teasing every single time he catches cha-young glancing at vincenzo at the firm

“cha-young noona and vin hyung, sitting in a tree. K I S S I N—” “HAN SEO!!!”

obviously chayenzo eventually get together but decide to keep it a secret (and of course, they were awful at it)

eventually when they reveal it to the office, mr. nam and han seo react like that one scene in suspicious partner (“quick, act surprised” “*gasp* you guys are together??????? we had no idea!!”)

han seo is basically adopted as a younger brother to both cha-young and vincenzo and even the plaza loves his presence and he gets to have a peaceful existence for the rest of his life

anyways han seo deserves a happy ending with a good family. he deserves a second chance with a family that LOVES AND CARES FOR HIM AND GIVES HIM CHOICES AND ALLOWS HIM TO BE HIMSELF. (and yes this covered more than just one scene but I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS ON HIM) as always feel free to add on :D

[beomglocks]

soob become human ; c.sb

pairing: android!soobin x police detective!y/n

plot: your job is fairly simple, find out the cause of the recent surges of deviancy in androids. the only problem is that you hate androids, but it’s ok because you have a newly appointed partner and- oh wait he’s an android. 

w/c: 6.3K (this took me longer than it should have)

warnings & other:  enemies(?) to lovers(?), enemies (?) to less hated enemies, based off detroit become human, lots of swearing, android!soobin, human!y/n, blood, dead people, a crime scene is described but not in too much detail, soobin is definetly not a deviant, y/n hates soobin and pretty much all androids, y/n is kinda an ass to soobin, semi slow burn, open ended

you were seething with rage though you somehow managed to contain it. you wanted to hold it in long enough to really explode when you walked into your boss's office. you tramp past the receptionist in the lobby and don't even smile at her. you never do since she's not even a human. you hate how she's programmed to sit idly with an eerie smile on her face and welcome guests.

"hey y/n!" you hear your friend, hueningkai, shout at you. you wonder how he can be so loud and full of energy after 5 hours of working at his desk but you keep marching on, not acknowledging his greeting.

you have your eyes set out on your boss's office and the fire in your eyes is set alight when you notice him sitting at his desk peacefully. thank god, for the see-through box offices cyberlife installed last year.

he notices your figure striding up angrily towards his office and you see him sigh. good, at least he knows what's he's in for! you march up the stairs with your head held high because you were really about to give him a piece of your mind right now.

you stop just at the edge of his desk and rummage through your crossbody bag for something. it takes you a while which is embarrassing since he just sits there looking at you expectantly. "ah," you pull out a crumpled up piece of paper, which you yourself crumbled up out of anger, and slam it harshly on his desk.

"excuse me but what the fuck is this?"

he glances down at the paper and back up at you with a bored expression. "that's a piece of paper y/n." you chuckle bitterly and place your hands on your hips. "i'm talking about the contents of the paper sir."

you watch him open up the paper gingerly and skim over the words printed. "oh yeah," he crumbles the paper again tossing it into the bin. he sighs heavily getting in his serious work position with his hands crossed in front of him. he's a big burly kind of guy so it always somewhat intimidates you when he does this.

"we're getting weekly reports of androids going haywire. everyday i've gotta deal with a new report. i'm not talking the usual malfunction and spilling coffee. this is homicides and assaults. just last night a woman was murdered in cold blood by her android. this isn't cyberlife's problem anymore, these are criminals now."

you stay quiet, taking in what he's saying. "regarding the contents of the paper, i want you to investigate them." you clench your fists and narrow your eyes at him. "why me?" you burst after a moment of letting your anger rise again. you realize you sound like a child whose just gotten told they have to dishes while their sibling goofs off but you don't care.

"i'm the least qualified person to handle these cases plus i've got other shit to worry about! i don't want to deal with those pieces of junk!"

the chief office stands up, eyeing you sternly. now you've done it. "y/n don't piss me off. you know you're the most qualified so don't start with that bullshit. i don't wanna hear any complaints out of you." he doesn't raise his voice and that kind of alarms you but you press on.

"no! you know that no one else in this goddamn precinct wants to deal with these androids so of course, you left me to pick up the dog shit!"

"watch your tone detective," he seethes. he sighs heavily trying to regain himself before he really bursts a vessel. he cozies back into his desk chair and rubs his temples. you, on the other hand, are breathing heavily and pacing back and forth. you can't believe he would put you on an android case of all things.

you were seriously being relieved of all other duties to investigate a bunch of ones and zeros. but that wasn't even the best part.

"i'm assigning you a partner to assist you in the investigation."

you stop in your tracks, eyes widening. "hell fucking no!" you rage. you march back up to his desk and lean over the edge. "chief i always ride solo. ever since i joined i've always been alone and have been doing just fine! i don't need help!"

"y/n i think i've had enough of your bitching and whining. i don't care that you're the best worker in this fucking precinct. if you don't like the circumstances you can hand in your badge right this instant. otherwise, shut your fucking mouth and get back to work," he says through gritted teeth.

you scoff in his face and as you walk out of his office you flip him off. "that's going on your track record detective!" he says matter of factly.

"shove it up yo-"

you sigh as you enter your office. "fuuuuuuuck," you groan. you look around and notice that there's a tiny replica of your desk on the other side of your office. you can only assume it's meant for your partner. the sudden urge to destroy it and throw everything across the room crosses your mind but you decide against it.

having a partner assigned to you was a jab at your pride. everyone knew you as the detective who never needed one, the lone wolf if you will. if anyone saw you being assisted they would immediately think that the position of "best officer" was up for grabs, when it wasn't.

you didn't wanna be that person but of course, you held that title over everyone's head.

you huff, throwing yourself onto your chair which causes it to spin around. you don't even know this supposed partner of yours. most likely for a good reason too. you can only imagine your reaction if the chief had presented your new partner right then and there. a firm knock on your door startles you, "come in," you mumble. you're really not in the mood to entertain any of your work friends so you hope this is quick.

you look at the figure standing idly by the frame of the door. he's tall with a three-piece suit on. he's oddly handsome with little to no flaws which is suspicious to you. his hair is dark with hints of blue peeking out and it's pushed back to show his forehead. the stark contrast of his dark hair and fair skin makes him look very pale and almost sick. he has some files in his hands and his face is stoic, almost emotionless but not stern. he looks boyish.

what you don't notice is the ring of light located on his temple since it blends in so well with his skin. "how many times do i have to tell people that complaints are sent next door to hueningkai, god i really need to get a sign or some shit," you groan rubbing your face in frustration. you lower your hands and the person is still there.

"hello, my name is choi soobin. i'm the android sent by cyberlife to assist you with your detective duties," he states monotonously as if he's reading from a script.

the gears in your head churn for a while but once the words process you groan once again and roll your eyes to the back of your head, "why am i not surprised that chief would fuck me over even more like this. of course my partner is a fucking andriod." soobin steps completely into your office shutting the door behind him. "are you y/n?" he asks politely.

"un-fucking-fortunately."

"nice to meet you!" he seemingly ignores your sarcastic comment and your wonder if he even knows what sarcasm is. "i hope we can be good partners. i have already received the files on our first case together, here they are," he places the files on your desk and you can only look up at him in disgust.

"well you're a well-trained dog arent you?" you mumble. "y/n with all due respect i am not a dog. im an android designed by cyberlife to merely assist with certain tasks and finish my mission. i'm one of the most advanced of my kind." you look at the tag on his suit: KR900. you sigh, nodding, "got it got it, now if you'll excuse me, it's time for my daily nap so scram."

you lean back in your chair and close your eyes. man, if soobin was gonna be your partner you'd have to extend nap time by at least 30 minutes. you wonder if you can get away with adding another hour to your naptime.

you hear someone clearing their throat beside you. you hope that if you keep your eyes closed they'll get the hint to leave you alone. after about a minute the person speaks up, "y/n we should probably start with the case as soon as possible." great, soobin.

you open your eyes to glare at him. "listen, soobin? was it? go fuck yourself ok?" you close your eyes again and fold your arms over your chest. god, soobin's already being a nuisance. you're not sure if whatever this is is going to work out.

he stays silent for a moment and you wonder if he can feel the feeling of frustration. you hope he can because he might be able to get a sense of how you felt towards this whole situation. you start to drift when you feel an odd warmth radiating on the side of your face.

"with all due respect detective. i've been assigned to this mission and i intend to carry it out and complete it to the very end. i'm not going to sit around and wait for you to simply 'feel like it'."

your eyes fly open and you stare at him bewilderedly. he's very close to your face and his expression is stony but of course, he still has that boyish look.

you stand up, frowning at him. "let's get one thing very straight, tin can." you shove your finger into his chest which strangely doesn't feel too much like hard metal. "i call the shots around here so i won't be taking orders from a walking computer. i don't give a damn if you're leagues smarter than me, piss me off one more time and i won't hesitate to deactivate you myself."

you step away from him and he doesn't seem affected. he simply brushes his suit off. you scoff, grabbing your keys from your desk. "by the way i already know where the crime scene is so try to catch up next time, puppy."

when you both arrive at the crime scene there's already a plethora of police with their hound dogs and the yellow barricade tape is being set up. this must've been a pretty brutal scene for there to be this many people dispatched to this location. you're not surprised that there's people here and there trying to get a sneak peek at what might've happened.

"y/n! y/n!" you hear someone frantically yelling out your name.

you look around and see yeonjun, another police detective who's not from your unit, running up to you. he engulfs you into a bear hug, letting his trenchcoat pick up from the wind. you smile for what feels like the first time today, "hey yeonjun." once upon a time you liked choi yeonjun, you still do in a way. he was always on top of his game which you admired and you two would always compete when it came to cases. he was unbelievably smart so he probably knew about your little crush on him. if he did, he never addressed it and still treated you like a close friend.

"it's weird seeing you at the scene so early, we're just finishing setting up the yellow tape," he smiles at you but you can see his confusion. you were known to be late to these scenes but somehow still did well and always cracked the case. you didn't like to be around all the other police and detectives when you were in the zone.

"chief assigned me a new partner who insisted i arrive accordingly," you roll your eyes playfully to mask the annoyance. you don't bother to introduce soobin, who had been standing behind you silently this whole time, because he introduces himself. "hello, my name is choi soobin. i'm the android sent by cyberlife to assist y/n with their detective duties," he says monotonously.

yeonjun stares at soobin with an impressed look, "woah, chief got you a robot? he must love you" he jokes. "love me? this is a shit way of showing it," you mumble.

"y/n ever the comedian," yeonjun laughs deeply. you smile shyly at him. "i guess..anyways what's the scene looking like?" yeonjun leans back on the barricade looking back at the house you have yet to enter.

"looks like another case of deviancy to me," he sucks his teeth in thought. "man these androids are really going haywire these days, killing their owners, assaulting them, or just simply running off. seems like some kind of uprising? the machines seem to be rebelling," he glances at soobin who is already looking at him.

yeonjun chuckles lowly and leans down towards your ear subtly. "be careful ok?" he leans back up and stretches his arms. "trust me i know," you mutter. you both smile at each other and he winks at you. "well i'm off to do my own sleuthing! let me know if you find anything, you always do after all."

you watch him jog off and sigh to yourself. you turn to soobin, "right, let's get on with it." before he can take another step forward you stop him in his tracks. "and don't get in my way." soobin nods but stays silent. "i'm gonna need a verbal answer," you really don't care if he answers you or not you just want to annoy him. "i will do what i need to, to complete my mission," he looks at you with a weird glint in his eye and you kinda hate him even more now.

you roll your eyes and walk through the door of the house you're meant to be investigating. the smell of booze and musk smacks you in the face and you have to physically hold back the bile rising up your throat. "

"man whoever lived here was a pig!" you gag. you look back at soobin who has a neutral but curious face. "right you can't actually smell things," you mumble. you grab the collar of your jacket and cover the bottom half of your face with it.

as you walk deeper into the house you start to really see what went down. glass covers pretty much the entirety of the floor from a window near the tv. the tv is busted and there's writings on the wall. you look around the living room and that's actually when you discover the body.

it seems to have been there for a couple of days now since there's maggots hovering over it. the man's face is beaten badly and blood runs down it onto his tattered shirt. he's slumped over and there's blood on the wall that states 'we are alive'.

"jesus christ," you mumble to no one in particular. you watch soobin hunch over the body and dip his finger into the blood on the wall near it. he's about to bring it near his mouth but you stop him. "god what the fuck are you doing!" you think the bile you were holding back is really about to come out and you're scared you'll ruin the crime scene.

he looks back at you with an unreadable expression. "im analyzing the blood." he turns his back to you again takes a lap of the blood. "you're fucking gross," you chastise.

"the blood is from the victim," he finalizes. "damn his android must've really wanted to make a statement here. 'we are alive'? what do you think that means?" you ask him.

soobin stands up straight again, looking around the flat, "deviancy of course. judging by the looks of it, this wasn't a very habitable place. the android must've gotten fed up and rebelled against its owner." he thinks to himself. "this shouldn't be happening, it must be some kind of virus because androids were only meant to serve, they shouldn't have to capability to harm much less kill."

you sigh, already hating where this case and the mission overall is going. "let's just look around for clues. i doubt the android could've gotten far, it must feel guilty or something."

soobin shakes his head, "androids don't feel y/n." you raise your brow at his statement, "one does not simply kill another being without feeling. an emotion or feeling of some sort is triggered which causes someone to act out in this way."

you walk away to the kitchen to look for clues there but soobin just stands there watching you. he frowns but joins you minutes later.

after about a half hour of looking for any clues, you've managed to gain a lot of evidence with soobin's help. there had been a struggle in the kitchen which led to the living room where the place of death was determined. soobin described the altercation as very brutal for both parties.

"so where's the android?" you ask after his explanation. "it's near," he mumbles. he surveys the room once again and spots something. you watch him do the same procedure he had done with the victim's blood. "there's nothing there," you say skeptically.

"it's android blood, or blue blood as you humans call it. not visible to the human eye but any android can spot it from a mile away."

when he's done he looks around once again and follows a sort of trail. he stops near the attic door and sighs. he pulls it open with caution and you can only wonder what he's up to.

he peeks in then hoists himself up into it. "wha-" "stay here," he demands. "hey what did i sa-"

before you can scold him he's already in the attic and slammed the door in your face. "didn't know androids had a prick feature," you mutter.

after 5 minutes you start to hear noises of struggling and things falling over. "soobin?" you shout. "what's going on up there?" you don't actually care if he's ok or not but one scratch on him and you'll be paying the damages.

he doesn't answer, instead, the struggling comes to a halt. you jump as he slams open the attic door. you give him a once over and it doesn't look like he has any scratches on him so you sigh to yourself gratefully. looking down you see an android wriggling in handcuffs, you assume it's the murderer. "i got him," soobin huffs.

"y/n? you in h- woah," yeonjun breathes out. he looks over the both of you then at the android on the ground near soobin. "damn." you nod, agreeing with his one-word statement. soobin folds his arms looking down at the android. the android is rightfully glaring back up at him. "he was hiding up there, probably thought no one would find him. well, no human would've at least."

"we should take it back to the station for questioning. the more info we get out of it, the closer we are to figuring out the cause of this 'deviancy'," yeonjun concludes. you nod, turning to soobin, "good job puppy." he makes a face but accepts your praise either way.

after finalizing your first deviant case, you decided to ask yeonjun out for burgers two days later as a celebratory measure. he had told you he was going to be busy filing some other cases so you opted for going alone. alone is not entirely true since soobin was required to be around you at pretty much all times.

"stay in the car," you ordered. "not happening. im required to assist you at all times," he states matter of factly. you lean your head on the steering wheel. "god you are so up my ass it's annoying."

"listen if i say do something you do it. you're an android so you follow my orders got that?" you narrow your eyes at him as if to challenge him. he simply looks back at you with that boyish curious look and says nothing.

you hate how he looks like a puppy who knows you're hiding a treat behind your back.

you sigh, getting out of the already parked car. you slam the door roughly in what you hope to be soobin's face to make a point but you hear a door close right after yours. you turn around to see soobin standing outside of the passenger's side where he was seated.

"oh fuck off!" you shout exasperatedly.

you stomp over to the burger cart and shove past someone who's already there. "hey watch it!" they shout. "shut up im a cop," you bite back. you don't even bother turning around to the person because you could care less but their voice comes back. "y/n?"

you perk up at your name and turn around, "oh shit frankie!" your smile grows and you hold your hand out for a handshake but frankie goes in for an uncomfortable hug that you weren't expecting. you laugh nervously as he hugs you for longer than intended. he reeks of red dust, a newly manufactured drug in town. the only recognize it is because, well, you've tried it.

"hahah ooook franks," you try to wriggle from his tight hold on you but he doesn't budge. "i slipped a little something for you sweet cheeks," he murmurs into your ear. you shiver from the sudden close proximity but nod nonetheless.

"is there a problem here?" soobin states. he easily towers over frankie since taking drugs for a long time has ruined frankie's growth spurt. he's by no means short however soobin is winning in height by a long shot.

frankie chuckles lowly, "we're fine robocop." he rolls his eyes at soobin and turns back to you, "so anyw-"

"y/n we should be on our way," soobin narrows his eyes at you and you don't take it as a question. you're not scared of soobin however he's pretty much unmatched when it comes down to it.

"right," you say slowly. you glance between frankie and soobin and they both seem to be in a bit of a staring contest. "come on puppy," you nudge him.

"have a nice day," soobin says firmly. "whatever, damn androids," you hear frankie mumble. you sigh as you both reach a stray table near the truck. you open the wrapper, uninterested in everything else at the moment until soobin clears his throat.

"drugs?"

"what about them?" you mumble through a mouthful of burger. "you just got drugs from that guy," soobin leans on the table staring at you directly in the eye. you sigh dramatically, throwing your hamburger back into the wrapper. "leave me alone ok? if you're gonna lecture me i can assure you, i don't want it."

you pick your burger up again hoping that soobin will just shut the fuck up for the rest of the day. he really has a way of putting you in a sour mood. you wonder for a moment how long you'll have to be working with him. if you can just figure out the cause of deviancy then this little arrangement will be over before you know it.

from that point on, soobin simply watches you eat. it's a bit uncomfortable, to say the least, but at least he's silent. you want to question him as to why he's watching you so intently but you also don't feel like chatting with him. "did you ever expect to be living among androids y/n?" soobin speaks up after a while. you smirk at his question, "you're living among us, ok? and no, i never saw it coming." you feel bitter about his question.

of course, you never expected it. you never thought you'd see the day where an android is running the hotdog stand down the street. you never expected a robot to be doing your job. "you fucking androids are a curse," you mumble. soobin says nothing at that.

the ringing of your phone cuts through your little moment. you sigh, rummaging through your pocket for it. groaning, you reluctantly answer the call. "what's up boss."

after a couple minutes of briefing, you hang up. soobin looks at you expectantly while you throw out your trash. "we got another one, pretty close to where we are. no one else is on duty near us so we'll be on our own for this one."

you brush past him, walking back to the car, "think you can handle it puppy?" you don't expect him to answer but you're surprised when he retorts with his own witty remark.

"i'm practically designed too."

you stifle a laugh, shaking your head, "alright alright let's go."

once you arrive at the apartment complex where the deviant is supposedly located, you stop soobin right at the door. you stare up at him with a stern look in your eye, "remember what i said, no getting in my way and no telling me what to do. remember that i'm also your superior."

a part of you feels like you don't necessarily have to tell him these things since he probably stored that information from the first case. however, you want to feel power over him. you don't care if soobin is an android, you'd be damned if he felt like he was superior to you just because you were a human and he was a robot.

"i will do what is needed for me to complete my mission," he states. you roll your eyes at the answer he opts for but nonetheless continue onward. "we gotta be careful here, we don't actually know if the deviant is armed."

"you got sent any info on the guy?" you ask. soobin sighs, "the only thing we know about him is that he's a deviant. the people living on the floor below claimed they were hearing strange noises but supposedly no one has lived here for years."

you chuckle to yourself, "yeah it sure looks like it." you look around, taking in the beat-up state of the hallway. it's dimly lit and the walls are tattered and torn. there are boarded-up doors and the floor almost looked like it would give in with anymore added weight. yeah, there definitely hadn't been anyone inhabiting this floor in a while.

you lean on the door frame as you watch soobin knock on the door as a normal would but no one answers. "is anyone in there?" he shouts. you both wait for a moment but again no one answers. you sigh, shaking your head. "move."

soobin steps out of your way hastily and moves to stand behind you. you swiftly take your gun from it's holster on your hip and shoot the door handle. the handle flies off and just like that the door creeks open. you'll admit there might've been a more suave way of doing it that didn't involve much noise, however you wanted to get this over with.

you motion for soobin to trail after you into the apartment. you both slowly inch into the flat and you peek your head in to check if anyone is inside. when you confirm there's no one in the apartment you both walk in cautiously. the place is completely torn apart. there are bird feathers all over the place and the walls have odd writings on them. you sigh walking up to one of the walls, "we are alive."

soobin shakes his head but says nothing. "let's check the other rooms in this place," you propose. you both split up to look for clues about the deviant which gives you time to think.

soobin goes to snoop around in the closet while you head to the bathroom of the apartment. the sink is riddled with bird feathers and bird shit. you hold your breath as you look around the small room. the place definitely hasn't been kept up by anyone in a long time. "ra9?" you mumble. you lean closer to the wall to inspect the odd writing. it's not just written once or twice, it's scattered all over the wall. "what the fuck does that even mean."

before you can even begin to infer, soobin walks into the bathroom. "i think i found something." you sigh looking up at him, "what is it."

he leads you back into the living room and points to a birdcage on the floor. "this must be what caused that noise that the people on the other floor sent complaints about." he paces around the room for a moment. "i should be able to reconstruct what may have happened, that way we can know where the deviant went."

you watch silently as he walks back to the birdcage. he stays still for a moment then proceeds to look around the room in all directions. "see anything?" you ask.

he doesn't answer, much like last time he simply stands up and walks towards an opening in the roof. soobin slowly reaches his hand up to it but someone jumps out at him.

soobin is effectively knocked to the ground and you stand there shocked. you were really not expecting anyone to be up there. you shout in alarm and the deviant is alerted instantly. before you can reach your gun, the deviant haphazardly pulls a gun of its own from is pocket.

it's clearly not skilled in holding a gun since androids aren't allowed to bear arms. you can tell it's not sure where to shoot and it's scared. you can feel the cold metal of your gun graze your fingers but you stay still as you hear a gunshot pierce the air.

your eyes widen as they follow the deviant run out of the apartment. "SOOBIN GO," you shout. you're not sure why you're telling him to chase after it when you can do it yourself but you feel like you can't move. you suddenly feel yourself collapse on the ground, letting out a strangled yell. "FUCK!"

"Y/N?" you hear soobin shout. for some reason everything is hazy and all you're hearing is white noise. you think you yell at soobin to chase after the deviant again but even in your hazy state, you can't quite tell. after a couple more seconds of struggling to comprehend what's going on, you finally pass out.

you shift around, looking for a comfortable position on the couch. you're not sure why you're on a couch but you're not complaining. it feels like forever since you've felt like you've had a chance to rest for a moment. you're starting to really get sick and tired of androids. before all of this, all you did was either sit on your ass all day or go around helping the elderly or bust your local neighborhood scum. you seriously couldn't believe how much your life could change in just the span of a couple of days.

speaking of change, soobin was going to have to go. he's a pretty capable partner however, you both clashed too much. granted you haven't given him much of a chance. you just hated the concept of having a partner, much less an android partner.

you suddenly feel something cold press onto your leg. you hiss out in pain but when you try to move your leg the pain gets worse. "you shouldn't move," you hear a voice say. you furrow your brows because you're sure you live alone.

you peel your eyes open and see what looks to be soobin standing over you. "soobin?" after the name registers in your head your eyes widen and you try to sit up but the pain in your leg keeps you in place, "what the fuck are you doing in my house?"

soobin calmly takes a seat on the seat opposite from you. you study his body language and face. if you didn't know any better you say he seems a bit distressed. you want to laugh at yourself for thinking that because there's no way an android can know what distress feels like. he seriously looks like he's racking his brain to figure out what to say first.

"you got shot," he opts for. your mouth falls open, looking down at your leg. almost as if on cue, you start to feel immense pain shoot through your body. "fuck fuck fuck!" you yell. soobin rushes up to press the ice pack down on the bandaged wound.

"don't fucking touch me!" you yell at him. he flinches back but you don't notice because you're too busy trying to dissolve the pain. you breathe in and out. you wouldn't say you've never gotten shot before but no bullet has ever successfully hit you. you've only been grazed here and there but it was rare since no one is allowed to really carry guns besides cops.

after doing your breathing exercise for a couple of minutes, you finally bite back the pain. "what happened to the android?" you grit out. you hope getting shot was worth it, you hope the bastard that shot you in rusting in his cell. soobin sighs, "we lost it. it's completely my fault. i should've chased after it."

"you didn't chase after it?" you're not sure if you sound surprised or angry but soobin looks up at you like a scolded puppy. the alarms in your brain are blaring right now. why did soobin ignore the mission? he was supposedly always supposed to complete his mission no matter what. surely he didn't ignore the mission simply because you collapsed from a leg shot. you think about the subtle warning yeonjun gave you back when you had your first deviant case.

"seems like some kind of uprising? the machines seem to be rebelling."

soobin isn't- he's not a deviant is he? you can't really remember if he's been defective this whole time or if he's the best actor you ever met. you look up at him suspiciously and he shifts his gaze subtly when you make eye contact.

"it's been 4 days since your injury. yeonjun came by a couple of times to check up on you," you see his fists tighten at that. something may have happened between them while you were out. you know yeonjun can be a bit overprotective over you at times, even when he knew the job was dangerous.

"the chief says its best to lay low for a couple of days until you get better so that's what we're doing," he continues. you stay quiet. you're not exactly sure what to say. you don't know if calling him out will anger him or something.

you both stay quiet for so long that you start to think soobin may have gone into hibernation mode or something but when you look up at him he's staring directly at you. you sigh, "what is it this time puppy."

he stares at you for a little while longer before answering, "why don't you like androids?" you should've known this question would come up but damn why'd he have to ask it right now. why do you hate androids? one just shot at you a couple of days ago and left you unable to work.

"it's' because you're all nuisances," you mumble. he looks down at his hands and you have to remind yourself that if you're right, he somehow has feelings now.

you groan, "you all are supposed to be perfect! better versions of us humans! i guess you just fail when we put too much trust in you." you sigh, you don't expect soobin to understand since you're being too vague.

he sits, waiting patiently for you to continue. "someone close to me passed away a long time ago. i don't really expect you to understand what grief is," you chuckle bitterly. you look around the room in silence. you don't really want to cry right now so you take a deep breath.

"the doctor was out, probably fucking around i don't know. they had an android do the job. they didn't make it because the android failed to do it's task." you shake your head. "yeonjun was there for me at the time, which im grateful for. i probably would've singlehandedly destroyed all androids myself if he wasn't there."

soobin looks at you with that same curious boyish look and it makes you want to hit him. he's so annoying even when he's not doing anything. "y/n im sorry," he says.

"yeah you should be. the deviant got away because of you," you mumble. you both sit in silence again until you decide to speak up again. something in you wants to thank him for not leaving you behind but you also don't want to break character.

this is too new to you. you've never really had a partner, only ever going out into the field with yeonjun. even then, whenever either of you got hurt it was never as awkward as this. you sigh, "at least you didn't leave me behind." is the best you can come up with.

soobin looks up at you again with a hopeful look in his eyes and it makes you hate how alive he looks. if he was really a deviant you'd have to tread lightly with him. you're not sure if he's plotting against you or what his goal is but you've gotta start being more careful around him.

"y/n i look forward to working with you more," he says lightly.

for now though, for now, this will have to do.

[romanovanoff]

bio says black widow stories but i do like to dabble with other characters too. ill have a full list on another post.

YOU & I

A Bellatrix & Tom Riddle story

part one

characters:

bellatrix black

tom riddle

narcissa black

andromeda black

druella black

rodolphus lestrange

rabastan lestrange

(tba)

relationships:

bella/tom

narcissa/lucius

andromeda/ted

(tba)

summary: tom is the new kid in school and is already popular amongst his peers. his goal is to have bellatrix black by his side when he conquers the wizarding world, and his only problem? bella is already in an arranged marriage and also wants nothing to do with him.

disclaimer: i have never read the books, and ive seen all the movies only like twice. im not a crazy fanatic potterhead, i just have an unhealthy obsession for bellatrix/helena bonham carter 😌. so apologies in advance if i make any mistakes, regarding whats canon in the harry potter universe and so on. the little things, the big things, my bad. i hope the fact that its mostly au makes up for what it lacks in accuracy.

word count: 3497

——————————

"I overheard earlier today that Hogwarts received a new student," Druella spoke as she took a sip of tea, delicately patting a napkin across her lips before gazing over at her three daughters. Bellatrix, who didn't seem interested at all in the conversation, Andromeda, who was busy scribbling something in her diary, and little Narcissa who was following along to her mother's words.

"Yes, it's true," The blonde girl, thirteen years old, responded. "I thought it strange at first but apparently he and his family were living somewhere in Europe. Tom Riddle, I think his name is. He'd been taught at home and his father had gotten a job at the ministry so they transferred him to Hogwarts."

Ever the gossip, it didn't surprise Bellatrix in the slightest that Cissy knew so much about the new student. She rolled her eyes, wondering why the hell they were even discussing this in the first place. It was just a new student, who cares? She voiced this several times out loud but had received the usual disapproving glances from the two blondes. It creeped the raven-haired witch sometimes at how much Cissy resembled their mother.

Letting out a sigh Bella swirled her spoon around in her teacup, not finding the appetite to drink nor eat the sweets that accompanied her tea. The three of them were currently in Rosa Lee's teashop, a place they often went to every other week, with permission to leave the school of course- though she didn’t ask for it most times. Usually Bellatrix would devour the treats but today she was feeling too anxious to do anything but. At seventeen years old she had stretched out her days of freedom and was now forced into a marriage that should have taken place two years ago.

The thought of marriage wasn't all that bad, if she was being honest. Sometimes when her thoughts and actions weren't clouded with hate and rage she'd daydream a not so near future of a perfect wedding. A wedding where she would be marrying someone she truly loved and could cherish, to honor their vows to the fullest extent. So the wedding itself wasn't the problem, it was who she was supposed to be wed to that was. Her long time childhood friend, Rodolphus Lestrange. And one of the very few in the sacred 28 that wasn't related to the Blacks by blood. At least that she was aware of… The thought still made her cringe, even after checking every family tapestry available and an exhausting amount of research.

Everyone wanted her to be happy about the fact she'd get to marry someone she's known for years, something most pure-bloods didn't have the honor of having, but it was the fact she knew him so well that she hated. He was like a brother to her, albeit at times an annoying and even sexist brother. He wasn't husband material and she was most certainly not wife material for him. And add to the fact that they'd be pressured to have children immediately after becoming man and wife, the thought of having sex with him made her want to gag. You'd think they'd notice that such a practice was incredibly outdated. She hated to wonder if the marriage had taken place two years ago, would they really pressure two 15 year olds to consumate? Fuck this life.

She felt like the world and everyone in it was against her. All her complaints had been shot down, leaving her inwardly seething with rage before being left totally subdued. Oh, how she hated being so… powerless, left without a voice, without a right to do what she wanted and to do so as she pleased, the ever present shadow looming over her shoulder that was the society and family she was born into.

Letting out a sigh she looked over at Andromeda who was still scribbling in that damn book. Probably instant messaging her friends, something Bellatrix didn't have the luxury of having. At least genuine ones anyway. The ones she had in school were merely vultures following around, waiting for the opportunity to eat away at the scraps she bared. They didn't hesitate to use her to their advantage, trying to play her like a fool. Idiots, they should've known she was the brightest witch of her age for a reason. And no one took advantage of Bellatrix Black.

Despite still being superior she continued feeling a bitter pang in her heart, knowing no one truly cared for her there. Well, maybe except for her sisters, Rodolphus and his brother that is.

Catching her eyes on what she was doing Andromeda quickly closed her book and narrowed her eyes at her eldest sister. But then a familiar smirk curled the girls lips and Bellatrix knew what was going to happen before her sister could even utter a word. She knew that smirk anywhere. Bella herself wore that smirk on several occasions, actually even taught it to her dear sister! If only mother knew how truly naughty Andy was, maybe then the heat wouldn't fall upon Bella so heavily when she did something that displeased her.

"Mother," Andromeda chimed in, interrupting Cissy's conversation with the older woman. "Bellatrix is right. Why not talk about something else."

"Andy…" The dark haired witch warned, fingers clenched around her spoon.

"Like… Bella's wedding perhaps? Surely there are plenty of plans to discuss. Some of which I'm sure my dear sister here is needed for?" The brunette suggested 'innocently', smiling back at Bellatrix before looking at her mother.

Druella blinked once, then twice before she brightened up. Damnit, Andy, Bella thought to herself angrily, glaring daggers at her younger sister. "You're right! We only have a short few weeks before the big day and still so much to do. How about we end this little meal early and say we go to one of the boutiques nearby, check up on your wedding dress," Druella said as she rose from her seat.

And so that's what they did. They went to the boutique, checked the incredibly old fashioned dress, with what looked like the most painfully looking corset yet stitched into the fabric. After, they stopped by a few other shops to double check things were in order for the wedding before finally apparating home. The entire time Bellatrix had trudged along reluctantly behind her sisters and mother, offering a few weak comments and opinions for this thing and that when asked of her.

She was glad to finally be back home, finding relief in the knowledge that tomorrow morning she'd be returning back to Hogwarts, having spent the weekend with her family. On one hand she was glad she managed to extend the wedding date, convincing her parents that it might be wise that she finish her last year and take her N.E.W.T.s before focusing on 'wifely duties'. Yes, that was how she phrased it. And yes, they'd taken the bait, obviously wanting their daughter to focus on her marriage once out of school, and not caring about the intelligence hidden behind her usual mask of indifference.

She made short work separating from her family's side to make her way upstairs to her room. And then made even shorter work getting ready for bed. No one ever bothered her when she was up the stairs and hidden away. It was known to all that Bellatrix Black inherited the 'mad' gene in the family, more prone to violent outbursts and destructive tantrums. Because of this her room wasn't the prettiest, constantly being repaired and sparse so there were less objects to break. The room was also constantly being placed under a silencing charm, quieting her screams so the rest of the household could sleep peacefully. How thoughtful of them, she thought to herself bitterly.

The sun was already down by the time she emerged from the bathroom, all scrubbed up and her hair wet, the many strands in ringlets falling down her back. With her wand, she casted a quick-drying spell to both her body and hair, not bothering with any sleeping robes as she climbed into bed. Once in she blew out the candles before getting comfortable under the covers. Usually, it would be too early to go to sleep, and she'd have at least a glass or two of firewhiskey to help her doze off but she felt the whole unexpected wedding planning this afternoon was enough to do her in. Not only that but she did need to wake up early to catch the train back to Hogwarts tomorrow. So without much further thought she closed her heavy eyes and fell asleep, hoping things could be much easier in the future.

THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS

"Tom Riddle is in our class."

"I heard Tom's family is incredibly wealthy and direct descendants to Salazar Slytherin."

"It's true! I overheard him talking to snakes! Snakes!"

The whispers and excited talk continued on and on the moment Bellatrix stepped onto the Hogwarts express. If she thought Cissy talking to mother about this ‘nobody’ annoyed her, she was absolutely wrong. Hearing everyone around her discuss this Riddle boy absolutely drenched her high spirits and put her in one of her dark moods.

No one needed to look twice to know to stay away from the young witch. If dark glaring eyes didn't strike fear into her peers, then the dark energy and aura surrounding her would.

Not wanting to hear the gossip anymore Bella separated from her 'friends' and found a seating compartment for herself, only able to hold two people, but thankfully no one dared claim the other spot. She sat close to the window, forehead touching the glass, and seeming to cool her ever bubbling irritation. Trees and rolling hills passed by in a blur but she wasn't particularly watching, eyes slightly glazed over as she got lost in thought.

So lost in thought she almost didn't notice the sounds of her compartment door being slid open and a person taking a seat across from her. Blinking slowly she looked over to the 'intruder' as the door slid closed once more, leaving the two individuals with some privacy she didn't necessarily want.

The person in front of her was a young man. Probably around her age with dark brown hair, curling neatly at the front. He had bright emerald eyes, warm but she got the hint of something darker underneath, something dangerous hidden beneath the surface and ready to strike unsuspecting prey. Despite that though everything else about him seemed pretty bland. Pale skin- but not as pale as hers-, average build, and put together uniform.

"Who're you?" She found herself asking, swallowing the automatic 'get out' she was originally planning on saying. Given the fact she hasn't seen him before in this school year or any year before that, she was already dreading the answer. She wasn't even sure why she disliked him so much already. Maybe it was the fact he's barely even started school here and yet everyone was already drooling over him. Maybe it was the fact he was well known for things the student body hasn't even had proof of, things he was already praised for. And on her side of things she was well known for her infamous anger and her upcoming marriage to Rodolphus. That or her status of being the firstborn Black daughter. Otherwise known as the current heir of the Black family. Well. That was until her idiot cousin, Sirius was old enough to steal the mantle from her.

So when he said, "Tom. Tom Riddle," She really couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. Cause of course the person she had no care for was sat in, of all seats, the one in front of her. "Does that name offend you?" He then asked, wearing the same damn smirk he wore the moment she took in his appearance just seconds earlier.

"No," She said in a bored drawl, eyes once again gazing out the window as her head rested against the glass. "Unlike every other idiot out there, I care not for who you are. You're just another ordinary student attending Hogwarts. Nothing special about that," She told him, her tone consistent in telling him of how much she didn't care.

He was quiet for some time. Not too long, but enough to give her pause and wonder if she'd wandered too deep in thought and he'd slipped away. Only a glance his way revealed that, no, he was still here. "I agree," He finally spoke again. "There's nothing special about me at all. And I'm starting to despise the fact people are so interested in me. Took a look at the school Friday and suddenly everyone thinks so highly of me just because it was a private tour by the headmaster himself," He huffed.

It was clear to Bellatrix by the way he spoke, by the way he talked that he was excellent at charming people, manipulating them even if you would use the darker term. Again, she was many things but an idiot was not one of them and she wasn't falling for his 'charms' or tactics any time soon.

"Oh, poor you," She said in a mocking voice, jutting out her bottom lip as she faced him fully. "New kid in school has everyone fawning over him. Such a terrible life you must live, knowing you have everyone in the palm of your hands with just a smile." She finished the sentence off with said smile before turning it into a sneer.

"I won't repeat myself again. I care not for who you are, and I don't wish to know you or anything about you. So if you're going to sit here, then it better be in silence, or so help me merlin I will curse you. Laws be damned," She hissed. Hopefully for the last time she turned away again, feeling her mood lighten just slightly at her first threat of the day.

Usually, other students would run away by now, flee the vicinity in which she occupied, but Tom just sat there, in shock, or because he actually listened to her words. Finding herself curious about which option she chanced another glance but was surprised to see him wearing that annoying little smirk instead. "Cute," He told her, enjoying the way her eyes widened just slightly before darkening with anger. "That threat might work on others but it won't with me."

Her magic was absolutely crackling around her, like static in the air just before an oncoming storm. She was soon to make good on her threat. "Based on your looks, in how you speak, and the way I saw you walk earlier, looking down at everyone as if they were beneath you. I would safely assume you are a… Black. Bellatrix Black? Considering you look to be in the same year as me," He continued, assuming everything correctly. She didn't need to know though that he'd actually done his research prior to moving here, and that he had asked around earlier. "I don't expect you to get along with me from the start, but you will see me around often. I'll personally make sure of that. Cause I like you," He said with a shrug, smirk still in place.

Bold. Oh, so very bold and before Bellatrix could even utter a single word or even grab and raise her wand for that matter, he was already out the door. The space in front of her was once again vacant and she stared at the now unoccupied seat as the door slid closed.

LATER THAT DAY

It was almost impossible for the raven haired witch to avoid hearing or seeing Tom. It was as if everywhere she turned, someone was talking about him or he himself was staring at her from a distance. Usually she would never admit such a thing, her pride too strong, but it greatly unnerved her. Who the hell did he think he was? Claiming he would see her more often because he liked her? “Doesn’t even know me,” She scoffed to herself, annoyed as she continued on the familiar path to her dormitory.

Bellatrix was a slytherin through and through, like every other Black family member before her. There had been no question about it. Well, maybe after. She questioned it alot. The houses, the characteristics and traits. All of it. And once she's put herself in a more outside perspective about it she really couldn't help but laugh at the whole student body, almost all of them adapting and practically absorbing their houses certain traits into their own personality.

Anyway, she was a slytherin, but she couldn't help but wonder if she'd changed her mindset that first day, if her family hadn't been so adamant on which house she went to, would she have been chosen for hufflepuff, perhaps? Maybe gryffindor? Ew, no. Possibly ravenclaw. These thoughts raced past in her mind as she made her way down into the dungeons. There was a little of her in each, she supposed.

"Drommie, Cissy," Bellatrix greeted once she made it into the girls dorm, having already said the password and walked through the shared sitting room. All three Black sisters shared the same room, something Bellatrix and her mother both insisted and agreed upon to the headmaster when first starting school here. It was a protective thing. Bella knew that her sisters weren't like her, lacking in gut and courage. She was sure Andromeda could take care of herself, at times, but if worse came to worse she was more likely to break under pressure and need rescuing from her bigger sister. And little Narcissa, the spoiled brat she was, didn't have a single backbone in her body, choosing instead to flee or hide behind one's robes. Despite those certain qualities though Bellatrix still loved her sisters dearly and simply made it a priority to keep them safe, consequences to herself be damned.

Sure… maybe it was Bella's fault for them needing protection, having spent most of her years reigning terror down upon those who even glance at her, therefore her peers not liking her and taking it out on her sisters instead. But… hey! They looked at her funny, they deserved it!

"Bella why didn't you sit with us on the train," Narcissa asked, looking at her older sister as she sat on her bed.

Bellatrix rolled her eyes and walked past, towards her own bed furthest in the room and by the window. "As if I'd sit and listen to you two and your friends gossiping about the 'new boy'," She said back.

Andromeda turned to her with a quirked brow. "I don't know, by the looks of it you sat just fine with the 'new boy' before you ran him away."

Bellatrix was only able to scoff as a response before Narcissa quickly interrupted, hopping over towards Bellatrix. "You got to talk to Tom Riddle?" She asked excitedly. "How was he like? Was he charming? Did he show you parseltongue?"

"Cissy, please, calm down. He was none of those things. He was very bland… and cocky, and arrogant," Bella responded, the end getting heated with annoyance. Not towards her sister of course.

"Sounds like someone I know," Andromeda spoke up with a pointed look Bella's way.

"Shut up," The dark haired witch shot back. Because of course she couldn't deny it. She was those things sometimes… all the time. "Whatever. Let’s go. It's time for lunch anyway."

(A/N: lets be honest idk how classes work at hogwarts so lets say bellatrix and sis’s meet up w mother on the reggy, with permission or without, and this particular weekend was a break for all students to either visit their fam or relax in their dorms/explore school grounds. today (mon) is a day for them to get readjusted and classes start up again the following day. anyway continue)

All the way to the great hall Bellatrix's sisters continued teasing her about Tom. Thankfully she took the teasing easily, shoving her sisters good naturedly and joking along. That was until they reached the great hall. She didn't think her sisters noticed but as they walked past others to get to their table Bellatrix could feel a strong force on her, like something digging into the back of her head. She scanned her eyes around the room once, trying to catch the culprit of whatever was happening but all she could see were other students eating merrily, not a clue to her predicament. Thankfully by the time she'd sat down the force had vanished and she could focus back on her sisters.

Tom stood just outside the doors of the great hall, panting and trying to catch his breath. Never had he been rejected so quickly from someone's mind, not even close to breaching it in fact. Her magic was strong, untampered and just waiting to be fully unleashed just beneath the surface. A magic enough to rival his own. She may think she was strong now but oh just wait until he had her with him, by his side. Just wait until he showed her what she's truly capable of.

With these thoughts in mind he swiftly walked away from the great hall entrance, on his way back to his dorm.

[captainillogical]

Distant Lands Ch.3

Stranded on a planet with toxic conditions and nothing but the clothes on your back, your only means of survival lies within the gem that got you here in the first place.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants​

(thanks for being patient! sorry im so slow sometimes lol)

You wake up several hours later with a migraine. You don't even want to open your eyes as you groan silently inside your head. Everything hurts terribly. You lay there for a few moments, and move your arms to massage your temples. The pressure against your skin helps, but you still feel quite a bit of the pressure inside your skull.

You don't even know what time it is. You look around you to realize there's a bit of light. Adjusting yourself slightly, you move your arms in front of you. You.. realize that Spinel is holding your center tightly, and you can’t move. You can’t even tell if she’s sleeping or not, so you lay there quietly for a moment to gauge her breathing. It’s.. steady enough, so you’re pretty sure she’s asleep. You try to move her arms away from you ever so slightly, and she tightens them and clears her throat. You freeze.

“Uhh,” You say out loud. “Can you stop touching me now? I kind of need to go to the bathroom.” “..you tryin’ to escape me?” She finally says after a few moments. You sigh aggravatedly out loud at her.

“No. How could I even get very far? You’re right here.” She makes a noncommittal grunt at that, but doesn’t make an effort to move. God you can't stand her. You don’t think you could even be friends with her under normal circumstances, nonetheless being forced into a friendship with a murderous clown against your will with no chances to escape. The sooner you can find a way off this miserable rock, the better. “I’m not joking. Let me go so I can pee.”

“Fine. I’m coming with you, though.” She replies, and moves her arms enough so you can fling her limbs off you and sit up. You turn around to see her staring at you, and you wonder if she watched you sleep. You fight off the shiver even though you’re a bit creeped out at the prospect.

“Please don’t tell me that you’re going to watch me.”  You shoot her a look, and she raises an eyebrow.

“Watch you what?” She asks, and you fight off another groan of frustration. Fuck all of this.

“Nothing.” You exhale, and get up to go outside to relieve yourself. Spinel follows you, of course. Cursed gem, this one. Why couldn’t you have been taken by a Pearl instead, you think to yourself. This entire ordeal would’ve been a lot easier to deal with.

It’s so bright outside once you actually walk out, you feel like you haven’t seen light in forever. It takes a second for your eyes to adjust, but once they actually do you nearly open your mouth in shock at the state of this sun. It's freaking huge, for one. Like, several sizes bigger than the sun you're used to seeing. This one is also red, and something about it doesn't sit right with you.

You really gotta get off this planet.

"You ever see a sun like this?" You turn to face her.

"No. This one's weird." She squints at it. Not very helpful, then.

"Okay well, don't watch. I'm serious." You say, and lean your side against a nearby tree. She turns her head slightly to not face you. Whatever, good enough you guess.

You slip your pants off, but fumble for a second due to an item being in your front pocket. You pull the small object out and your heart drops for a moment. And then it picks back up rapidly. It's blue and bird shaped, and tied to a keyring. It's.. it's the small tracking beacon that you have matching with Steven. You.. you can't believe your luck. You never have this on you anymore.

Many years ago when you started going out on missions with the crystal gems, Steven used to beg and cry about having you not come with. He was so worried constantly, even though you were extremely safe with the gems, so you promised him you'd get something to make him feel better. And you got both yourself and him matching beacon keychains. So if you ever got lost, or something went wrong, you always had a way for him to find you. You stopped carrying yours regularly years ago since Steven started joining in on the gem missions, and mainly had it on your keyring for decoration and sentimental reasons. It must've fell off and into your pocket somehow. Now to just find a high enough hill to place this upon without Spinel noticing..

You realize that you've been quiet for a decent amount of time, and finish up your business before Spinel realizes anything.

Well. You kind of have a tiny smidge of hope now. You walk over to the gem, and she turns to regard you.

"Did that lighten your mood? You look almost cheerful." She says to you, and raises her eyebrow in question. You clear your throat. Fuck, you forgot your face shows everything.

"No, I'm actually extremely hungry and miserable right now." You reply coldly. You hope she's not suspicious of anything. "I'm gonna try and find some food for myself. Since you know, I'm an organic being and I need sustenance to survive." You glare at her, and she's not even paying any attention to you. 

You try a different path this time since it's light out and you can actually see. Spinel's clinging to your arm of course, because why not. It's not like you can fly off this planet by yourself. You wander about for nearly twenty minutes before you find a tree with some long cylinder-like fruit? You hope it's a fruit. You pull one down and have to snap it off the tree, which was weirdly difficult. The outside feels strange, like there's a fine film of.. something similar to wax on the outside.

Spinel pulls one down as well, and turns it around in her hands. You bring it up to your face to sniff it, and it seems okay? The surface seems soft enough. You're about to bite into it when Spinel rips the one in her hands in half with a quick snap, and the weirdest looking slime pours out of it in a murky brown color. It's absolutely repugnant smelling.

"I wouldn't eat this." She says, and drops the fruit to the ground. "Doesn't smell great."

"No shit, really?" You reply sarcastically, rolling your eyes. "It looked delicious to me." 

"Was just trying to help. I don't want you vomiting again like last time." She regards you with a look that you can't interpret, and this instantly pisses you off. How dare she act like she's doing you any fucking favors.

"I don't need your help." You force out, seething. She looks like she's about to say something, but you storm off in a huff before she can start. You don't care. 

You need to find food and water today, otherwise your chances of getting home to Steven alive and in one piece are close to zero. Your body aches, but you keep moving forward. You're determined to stay alive.

Spinel is still following behind you, and she isn't holding your arm this time. You push a bunch of vines out of the way of what looks like an overgrown path elsewhere, and you spoke too soon. Or, thought too soon, because she's wrapped her hand around yours this time. Ugh.

You pass by a lot of different types of bushes with similar berries like the ones from before, but you aren't taking your chances with those. You risk faster dehydration if you vomit any more. Your stomach grumbles at the thought of sustenance, and you feel like you might start chomping on leaves soon. You.. realize something with that train of thought. You've only sought out plant-life as a food source so far, completely ignoring any kind of animal that you could possibly eat.

You realize that you haven't seen any animals at ALL on this planet so far. That's strange. I mean, obviously for a complicated ecosystem like this there has to be creatures of some sort around, right? You've really only been here for a day, so you can't really be sure, but.. you're lost in thought when Spinel tugs your arm, and you nearly trip forward.

"What the fuck?" You say out loud. 

"I think there's something edible over here." She says, nodding over to this area through the thick trees. You walk over to where Spinel is standing to see what she's looking at.

You can see trees with different fruit on it this time than the others, and you'll take your chances with this one. 

"Let's hope this one doesn't poison me." You say with a shrug, and make your way over to the couple of trees nearest to you.

Looking up, the lowest hanging fruit are close to 15ft off the ground. They're green and yellow colored, and shaped like some kind of eggplant/durian hybrid. You hope it smells better than the other 'foods' you have discovered so far. You walk around the tree with Spinel still holding your hand, trying to find an easy spot to climb. There isn't even a viable foot holding that you can reach with your hands. You look at the other trees nearby, and they're all shaped the same. Tall, with smooth trunks that are completely useless to climbing. Great. 

You look around you to see if you can find any rocks or sticks to knock some down with, and see a decent sized branch on a low enough tree to grab. Sweet. You grab it to break it off, and it snaps off the tree pretty easily. When you turn around, Spinel's already got several fruit in her arms, and is grabbing another down. Oh right. You forgot. She can stretch herself at will. Why the fuck didn't she say anything before? You're nearly seething with rage, but decide to push it down to deal with your hunger instead. You walk back over to Spinel, and she hands you a fruit. You turn it around in your hands, gauging it's feel and smell. It seems alright. Better than the others, anyway. 

It's soft to the touch, so you tear into it with your hands carefully, ripping the fleshy skin apart easily. It's ripe, and smells nice, and the flesh inside looks good enough to make your mouth water. But you're not a fool, so you pull out a small chunk and place it inside your mouth. It tastes good, actually. Kinda lacks flavor, but you don't really care at this point. It doesn't make you vomit immediately. You wait a minute or two, making sure your stomach isn't going to retch this, and continue eating it slowly to not upset your stomach.

You don't realize that Spinel has been watching you carefully through all of this, and it’s right then that you notice that she probably doesn't know a thing about humans or organic beings at all. With your stomach steadily being filled and you've now got a bit of energy, your anger from earlier returns. She brought you to this planet with the idea of keeping you trapped here but didn't even bother to see if you could even SURVIVE. Your attention is back on her, rage clear in your eyes. 

“Did you even think for one single, miserable second about how I was suppose to survive out here?” You say, voice nearly shaking in fury. “Do you even know what a human needs to live?” 

Spinel seems taken aback for only a second before her eyebrows furrow.

"What were you going to do if I couldn't find any food and died?” You're walking closer to her. "What if I ate something that poisoned me? What if I touched something and my skin melted off? What if something attacked me and I bled out? What would you have done!? Left my body to rot on this planet, leaving you alone with it?!" Her eyes flicker with emotion that quickly turns to anger, and at this point you're standing in front of the gem, glaring up at her. You jam a finger into her chest, just to the side of her gem. “Steven would never know what happened to me, my family would never get answers. Do you even know a single FUCKING thing about humans!?” 

Spinel has the nerve to look down at you with aggravation on her face as she jabs a finger back into your chest, pushing you backwards.

“Listen here, human,” Spinel says the last word with a sneer. “I searched through several planets to find you one with adequate shelter and food, because I'm a good friend.” She jams her finger into your chest again to make a point. “So if I were you, I would be a little more GRATEFUL.” 

You scoff at her, placing a hand over where her finger had hit. 

“OH! WOW! YOU'RE SO RIGHT!!" You throw your hands into the air dramatically. “Thank you SO MUCH for stranding me on this SHITHOLE planet with a HOMICIDAL MANIAC.” You pointedly look to her to emphasize that she's the maniac. “I am so ETERNALLY GRATE-” 

Her hand shoots out, slamming your torso against the tree behind you, cutting off your supply of air. Several pieces of fruit fall from the tree above, thunking against the jungle floor around you. 

“You know, you're not being a very good friend.” She draws out, holding you in place. With the wind knocked out of you and you being pressed into the tree behind you, you can barely gasp an intake of breath. 

"Clearly you know nothing about being friends with anyone." You manage to choke out. Her grip on you tightens, your ribs squeezing painfully. You blink, seeing spots in your vision, your heart beating ever so loudly.

“You don’t know me. I was MADE to be a friend. I WOULD know what I’m talking about.” She spits out at you.

“You were what?” You barely manage to say, and she loosens her grip on you slightly. You take in several gasps of air.

“Nothing. You wouldn’t know.” She hisses angrily.

“What do you mean, made to be a friend!” You question her, and she drops her hand from your torso.

“I'm not talking about this. We're done here.” She retorts, and spins around to storm off. Your jaw drops as you watch her stomp off into a pathway you’ve never been. 

Wow. Very mature.

You pat yourself down for a sec to make sure you’re okay, and honestly, your ribs really do hurt. You hope she didn’t fracture them, because booooy, that would suck. Your arms feel like they're starting to bruise already. You grab as many fruit your pockets and arms can hold, and set off to the pathway Spinel went through.

What the actual fuck was she talking about back there? Made to be a friend? You can barely manage to walk and carry the fruit in your arms, several keep jumping out already and you have to stop and pick them back up. You took note of where this area was, and you're pretty sure you're still within the vicinity of your shelter.

You don't make it very far when you walk directly into something, spilling your arms contents everywhere. It's.. Spinel.

"Uh.. the hell?" You say out loud and look up to see Spinel staring at something. You follow her line of sight to see a.. cave of some sort on the side of this cliff. "What is that?" 

"I don't know." She says in aggravation, and stalks off over to the opening. You follow suit.

It's a large entrance, about 11-12 feet tall if you could guess. The outer edges are weirdly smooth. This cave almost seems man-made in nature, but there's something about it that tells you not so much. You can't place it yet, though. The cave seems to be pretty deep, as well. You can't see much, other than rocks and dirt and some dead leaves.

"Weird. You think the gems that were here did this?" You question out loud, not really expecting an answer. 

“...No.” She says, almost hesitantly. “I don’t know what this is.” She looks like she’s about to walk into the cave, but second guessed herself and spins around to face you. “Gem stuff is different from this.”

“Hm, well.. whatever. It doesn’t matter. I still need to find water before dusk, and it’s mid afternoon, if I’m going by this sun’s position.” You say, and wipe your brow. It’s humid, and you feel gross. You don’t really want to stick around to figure out this planet’s mysteries, either.

You walk off, not caring if Spinel follows you or not. She can figure herself out. You’ve got shit to do, and she’s of no use to you other than her ability to stretch like earlier. You keep along the path you’ve been following, looking around occasionally to find any more food or something helpful. Most of the trees around you are the same type, other plantlife breaking it up here and there. There has to be a water source nearby, because you’ve been so parched you feel like a raisin. Ugh.

You pass by an area with a lot of rocks off to the side, and you can hear something. The closer you get to it, the more it sounds like running water. Just your luck!! You run over to it, and there’s a bit of a drop off, but the view is absolutely amazing. 

You spot a small waterfall off to the side, and a decent sized lake in this clearing. The plant life around the edges of the water look nearly ethereal with how the vines and flowers are floating on top of the water. This looks like an oasis. You carefully place all of your fruit down off to the side by a larger rock, and run down the side to get to the water.

You get up to it, and bend down to test it with your finger first. Gotta make sure it ain’t acid water, you know? Never know with this place. It feels fine and it isn’t burning your skin, so you’re taking it as a good sign. You cup some with your hands and bring it up to your face to take a quick sniff before drinking. It smells a bit off, but you’re sure it’s just because you’re on this strange planet.

You take several small gulps, making sure your stomach is okay with it. You sit at the edge of the lake, resting your feet for a second. You feel.. a bit relieved. Okay. You’ve got food, you’ve got water, you’ve got shelter.. and you have a possible way off this planet. Maybe. You still have to find a good place to deposit the tracker. You hope Steven remembers that his matching keychain exists in the back of his bedside drawer. You.. you hope that they’re trying to find you. It’s been more than a full day, and you logically KNOW that them getting to you would take a bit of time.. but you’re worried regardless. You’ve never been in a situation so hopeless before. You’ve camped a lot, sure, and you’ve been on planets not exactly suitable for human life. But not something like this, and not with an unfamiliar, wild, mood-volatile gem. 

Speaking of said gem. What she said earlier is still on your mind, and you still know nothing about her other than her name and how weirdly defensive she is about friendship. You don’t know about her age, what she was doing, why she was attacking Steven, how she KNOWS Steven.. none of it makes any sense. You’ll get your answers eventually, or you’ll get off this planet. Without her. She can stay here until that sun goes supernova for all you give a shit.

You’re lost in thought when you see ripples across the water, and you look up. There’s nothing in the water that you can see.. Ah. Off to the side.

There’s a little.. animal, drinking water a good 60 feet away from you. It’s hideous. It looks like a crossbreed of a platypus, a duck, and a goose. How unfortunate. You watch it for a few minutes, as it doesn’t see you sitting there and you can safely observe it. It doesn’t really do anything other than drink water and look around. It seems almost peaceful, with dusk setting in and the sun edging away over the trees. So there are small animals here, after all. Huh. Wonder why you hadn’t seen any before.

You’re sitting there quietly when something moves behind you, making the strange creature let out a squawk and run to hide in the underbrush. 

You see Spinel’s feet walk up to your side, and internally sigh. Couldn’t even get adequate alone time. You were kinda hoping you could sit here alone to zone out and plan a different way to get off this planet as a backup plan. Well, whatever. You’ll plot later. 

“We should head back. It’s getting dark, and I’d like to gather shit for a possible fire to keep myself warm tonight.” You say, and stand up. Ugh, everything hurts, and the heavier gravity is fucking with your knees. You lean down to brush off your clothes from any dirt left on you, and stretch your back. Spinel’s watching you quietly.

“Ya didn’t leave.” She states. You stare at her, a bit dumbfounded.

“Where would I honestly go, Spinel?” You sigh. “Also I’m not stupid enough to wander off right before it gets dark. I don’t know what’s out there.” You turn around to head to your ruins that you call a shelter, and gather your food back up. You’ll figure out a way to transport some water later.

Spinel gathers a couple of the fruit in her own arms, like she’s trying to be helpful. You glare daggers at the back of her head. You turn around before leaving to take in the scenery again, and burn it into your memory. You’ll be back tomorrow.

It takes nearly twenty minutes to get back to camp, it’s almost completely dark out now, and the cold is setting in. Once you’re back, you walk into the ruins to set down your food into a corner. You look to your makeshift bedding from last night, and figure you’ll try to grab more leaves once you’re done with your fire supply gathering.

You head back outside to see Spinel rummaging around in some bushes, doing who knows what. You roll your eyes, and walk back into the jungle line of trees to find some dry foliage to burn. There’s a tree you can see that’s half dead, so you peel some of its flaking bark off, as well as any of the dry looking branches. You spot a few branches on the ground as well, and gather those too. 

You come back and forth a few times to get enough of a stash going. You don’t know how long you’ll be on this planet, but you’re the type of person that likes to be prepared if possible.

You wipe your hands on your jeans, proud of the pile you’ve managed to build. Spinel comes into the ruins beside you, with something in her arms.

“Uhh, what’s that?” You ask her. She’s just holding a pile of twigs and moss.

“Kindling.” She says, and raises her eyebrows like it’s obvious. 

Huh. That’s.. helpful of her. You don’t know how you feel about this, so you just tell her to put it on the ground next to your pile.

“Thanks, I guess.” You say awkwardly. “I’m gonna go find leaves to make my bedding a bit better. I’m not running off, okay?” You head outside again, but not before you take a quick glance at Spinel standing there. Her expression was strange - one you haven’t seen her make before. But you have more pressing concerns right now, so you wave that out of your mind.

You can see your breath outside now. This weather is absolutely wild, you can’t believe the temperature would just drop so quickly like that. You’re shivering, so you work quickly to gather as many leaves as possible. You spot a couple of large ones, and catch yourself getting excited. You scoff out loud at yourself. Getting excited over leaves now? What’s next, getting excited when your food doesn’t make you vomit? Excited that Spinel hasn’t strangled you yet? How low will your standards go?

When you get back inside with your findings, you see Spinel over by your makeshift bed. Except it’s piled.. Comfortably high now. Like a foot off the ground, what the hell?

“Is this okay?” She finally speaks up.

“I was gone maybe five minutes, and you did all this?” You ask her, and she nods. The fuck, you’re almost touched. 

But then you remember she’s trapped you here and she doesn’t actually care about you at all. 

You set down your leaves in the pile, and grab the stuff you brought in to make a fire in the middle of this room. You place a couple rocks in a circle as Spinel watches you, putting sticks around in a cone-like formation. You put in the kindling as well, and grab the sticks you’re using to start the fire with.

You’ve made fires using this method before, but it’s been a while, and you’re rusty. You feel like you’ve got performance anxiety with Spinel watching you, but after a few tries (and a few expletives) you succeed in building a small fire. You sigh out loud in relief, and gather a few more sticks to build the fire with, placing them on the pile. It seems to be burning nicely. You sit by it for a few minutes, watching it to make sure it’ll be fine and not fall over, and to also get warm. Spinel sits beside you, much to your annoyance.

You gather your thoughts before succumbing to the heavy pull of sleep. If you can wake up in the middle of the night and sneak away from Spinel somehow, you can place the tracker on a hill nearby. You have a couple places in mind already. And then maybe you’ll be rescued, and you’ll never have to see this gem ever again, and you can sleep in a real bed. And take a shower. And eat real food. You sigh again, and Spinel glances at you.

She watches you for a considerable amount of time, enough for you to get irritated and get up.

“I’m gonna sleep.” You state, and walk over to plop on the bed. You feel like all these leaves don’t make any difference, comfort-wise. It isn’t as cold as before though.. so that’s a plus.

You hear a scuffle behind you, and you hope Spinel is getting up to leave. You feel a presence behind you, and reside to groaning inside your head. Ugh! Whatever! You’ll pass out soon anyway, weather she’s there or not.

You feel Spinel get in bed behind you, and she wraps her arm around your middle. 

“I’m not going to leave. I told you. You can stop touching me.” You say to the person behind you. She grunts in response.

“I’m not sure I trust you yet.” She mumbles. If you could scream right now, you would.

You lay there for several long moments, letting sleep drift to you. 

Your thoughts are heavy with yearning to escape, and your eyes close with the intention of waking up in just a few short hours.

[bbrandy2002]

Little Sh!t

Wacky Drabble #10 That wasnt so hard, was it?

I've had this one in my stash for a while, thought I'd finally finish it up and use it for something.

Warning: PROFANITY

Drake, Liam, Riley and 5 yr old Nikolas.

1106 Words, just barely over the limit.

Wacky Drabblers: @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore @burnsoslow @jessiembruno @jovialyouthmusic @dcbbw @brightpinkpeppercorn @katedrakeohd @sirbeepsalot @bobasheebaby @stopforamoment @romanticatheart-posts @drakeandcamilleofvaltoria @pedudley @theroyalromancexx @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @emceesynonymroll

Permatags that arent listed above: @eileendannie @janezillow @ao719 @hopefulmoonobject

Riley crouched down to place a loving kiss on her sons cheek, "I'll be home soon....be a really good boy for Uncle Drake while I'm at this meeting okay?"

A wide grin with two front missing teeth is flashed and he hugs his mother tight, "I will mommy....I love my Uncle Drake".

Drake's big marshmallow heart melted upon that proclamation and he gripped his godson's shoulders, "I love you too kiddo".

Worried, Riley took Drake aside, "I just want to warn you....he spent the weekend with Leo and his boys and returned with some....shall we say.... colorful language and now likes to play tricks on everyone....so be careful Drake."

Drake chuckled, "Have we met Brooks?...I've been known to use some "colorful" language from time to time....I don't think it will be a problem".

Riley grimmaced back at him, "Its different when it comes to a five year old prince though....he actually told Madeleine to fuck herself yesterday.....damn it Leo".

Drake snorted loudly, "he's only saying what the rest of us want to, and besides, its probably the first fuck she's had in years".

Riley shrugged her shoulders in agreement, "I suppose, but after what he's done to Liam, we can't let our guard down".

"What he do to Liam?".

She looked at her son, playing innocently with his toy truck on the floor, shaking her head. "What hasn't he done....he's removed all the L's from his computers..he shaved one of his eyebrows during a nap...oh...oh..and the kicker was the super glue in his underwear yesterday, that was horrific".

Drake snickered, "I thought he looked a little pale yesterday.....Nik is just all boy, I wouldn't worry about it".

"Well, if you need me or Liam, text us".

He grabs both of her arms and gently glides her to the door, "It'll be fine, trust me....Nik and I are amigos".

After she leaves, Drake turns in time to see Nikolas bolt up the stairs and he follows after him curiously, "Hey, where ya going pal?".

He searched Nik's room, the guest rooms, the bathroom, and the hall closets, however, he could not find him anywhere.

Drake finally heard a buzzing sound from Liam and Riley's bedroom, so he opened the door, "Hey pal, you in here?"

A purple flash crosses in front of him and hits him square in the face.

"You're terminated fucker!", Nikolas yells as he jumps around in victory, highly proud of himself.

Drake rubs his sore nose and with a scowl looks down to see what Nik had thrown at him. His eyes widened as he realized what the purple vibrating object was, then noticed the boy had a larger, pink one still in his little hands. He ran his own hand along the back of his neck, "Ugh...buddy...where'd you get those?"

"In mommy's drawer.... they're light sabers dumbass, now prepare to die you scummy bastard!"

Nikolas charged full speed towards Drake with the pink one aimed directly at him. Once he was close enough, Drake grabbed him around the waist and hoisted him upon his shoulder, "Boy....I swear, I'll wear your little ass out...calm down and put those things....".

He wasn't even able to finish his sentance when Nikolas started jabbing it into the back of Drake's head causing him to lose his grip. Nik fell to the floor and immediately took off again, not even phased.

"That little shit", Drake groaned before running out of the room to find him.

Drake walked downstairs and saw him sitting on the couch watching cartoons. He was hesitant to approach him at first, but, Nik seemed to be more relaxed, so Drake sat on the other end of the couch.

The boy sat quietly watching his show, Drake eyeing him the entire time. After several minutes, Nik jumped up suddenly, causing Drake to duck for cover. "Uncle Drake, can you make me some hot chocolate, PLEASE", he asked with pleading eyes.

With that kind of look, Drake couldn't say no to him as he relaxed from his hypervigilent state. They both walked into the kitchen and Drake prepared the ingredients as Nik watched keenly at his side. When it was finished, Drake poured two mugs full and topped them off with marshmallows.

Drake handed a mug to Nikolas, cautioning him to be careful. Nikolas sneered at it, "I WANT SPRINKLES!!! I WANT SPRINKLES!!", he yelled.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!", Drake yelled back at him in frustration as he slammed open cabinet doors looking for sprinkles. "Fuck your damn sprinkles!"

While he was searching, Nikolas pulled a laxative from his pocket, unwrapped it and placed it in Drake's mug.

Drake finally found the sprinkles and went to pour them in Nik's drink, but, the child covered his mug and smiled back, "Nevermind". Taking his drink and sitting at the table.

Drake mumbled several obsenities under his breath and contemplated what the consequences of treason against the crown prince entailed. He was afraid to sit next to Nik so he stood at the counter, sipping his drink, wondering why Nikolas was smiling so brightly at him. I bet that little shit is plotting my murder right now.

Several minutes passed and both had finished off their hot chocolate. Nikolas's blue eyes glistening with uncontainable anticipation that gave Drake an uneasy feeling in his stomach. In fact, the growl and rumbles were becoming more and more unsettling, as he washed both of their mugs and put them away.

Drake clutched his stomach as he felt his face warm and flush. He gulped loudly when his lower intestines started to gurgle wildly, taking off for the nearest bathroom.

He sat down and let go, suddenly realizing everything is not as it seems. He opened his legs and looked between them, there was clear wrap over the toilet. As he tried to get up, he found himself stuck, as well.

"NIKOLAS!!!!!!!!!!!".

Nik innocently opened the bathroom door, cell phone in hand, live streaming to Liam's official facebook page.

He waves at the camera, "Hello everyone, I'm the Prince of Condomonia", he flips the camera around to show Drake sitting on toilet, "...and this is my Uncle, Drake Walker taking a shit", he giggles.

The Royal Council was in the middle of their meeting, when several phones start buzzing one after the other. Each member, including Liam and Riley taking a nonchalant peak, to appear as if they were still interested in Godfrey's ramblings.

The CBC was now broadcasting the live stream coming from the King's Facebook page.

Liam and Riley watched in horror as a shot of Drake sitting on the toilet, wiggling furiously to unloosen himself, cursing words they had never heard of before, was shown. Their young son singing in the background...

"....when you're running from the police and you feel that anal grease...diarrhea...diarrhea!..."

Maxwell sits up excitedly, "Hey, I taught him that, and he's getting all the words right this time".

Liam and Riley dashed from the meeting room and headed for their quarters; Liam running a little slower, due to the burning, raw feeling still in his balls from the super glue incident.

"...when you're sitting on the commode and your butt starts to explode...diarrhea...diarrhea".

Liam snatches up his son's cell phone, live stream still going. He looks in the camera with a stoic face and using his Kingly voice, "Diarrhea is the number one killer of men in Southeast Cordonia....please remember to take your vitamins everyday and eat plenty of fiber. This has been a message from you monarch...good day".

Due to the fierce rage in Drake's eyes and the incessant use of the word fuck, Riley picked up Nikolas, who was now crying, and carried him away to safety.

Liam inched closer to Drake, holding his hands defensively in front of him, "Easy there buddy....Im not gonna hurt you".

Drake was seething and almost appeared manic, "Liam", he whispered with a growl.

Liam decided to take a small step back to give Drake some breathing room and to avoid any sneaky, killer moves Drake could manage with his hands. Speaking softly to him "Drake...my best friend since we were kids....can you use your inside voice to tell me what happened?"

"My inside voice?", Drake grinned back at him. "My.... inside voice?", he said a little louder. "Come a little closer Liam, so you can hear me using my inside voice while I tell you how I'm going to cut your sons nuts off and feed them to the fucking corgi's".

Liam gasped out at hearing his precious son threatened in such a manner. He stood taller and straightened his suit jacket, "I see we have reached an impass....I will have Bastien get you loosened from the toilet once you can assure me you won't hurt Nikolas and call housekeeping to clean this mess up.....and Drake, I'm truly sorry for your unfortunate situation at the hands of my child".

Drake continued to wiggle, getting more and more of himself loosened by the minute.

Liam called Bastien who arrived shortly after, more for security reasons than to help Drake. Bastien helped Drake break free while keeping his tranquilizer gun close by in case he became beligerant....well, more than be already was.

Drake washed up and exited the bathroom, then walked into the living room where Liam, Riley and Nikolas were huddled on the couch. Nik was still crying and Liam was trying to shield him from a sudden, sneak attack.

Riley stood to face him in concer , "Drake, Im so sorry, are you okay".

Drake nodded his head calmly, "I'm fine...just please tell me you are going to beat his ass though".

Liam covered Nikolas' ears, "Drake!! we use positive consequences in this house, we don't believe in corporal punishment...Dr. Spock says..".

"Fuck Dr. Spock.... I believe in an eye for an eye and since my ass hurts right now, I want that little shit's ass blistered".

Riley placed both hands on Drake's chest, easing him back. She turned to Nikolas and tried to pull him away from Liam's protective grip, "He's going to apologize and then we will discuss a proper punishment later".

Liam relunctantly let go as Riley led her son up to Drake, telling him to apologize for his behavior.

Drake didn't want an apology, he wanted death, however, one look at Nikolas and his tears of fear, broke his heart. He leaned down and picked Nik up in his arms, consoling him, "It's okay little pal, its all over".

Nik continued to sniffle, hugging Drake tightly, "I'm so sorry Uncle Drake....I love you".

"I love you too Nikolas"

Riley smiled at them both, " See, that wasn't so hard, was it?".

Drake left the quarters and headed to his room. He was exhausted, sore, and a little worse for wear, but, decided to let it go.

He opened his cabinet and pulled out a whiskey bottle, opting to drink straight from it. He took one sip and spit it out immediately, "What the hell....this tastes like....piss?". He noticed tiny finger prints and smudges on the cabinet glass and it finally struck him what happened, "That little shit!"

[bnhascribbles]

Walls

Kirishima x Reader

Hurt/Comfort, Dialogue Prompt (47, 66)

Words: 1.1K

***Warnings: Possible abuse triggers (mentions of past abuse)!

On nights that you stayed, Kirishima watched you for longer than he’d ever admit.  He knew it was probably weird; If you ever caught him, he was pretty sure he’d die of embarrassment.  Still, he couldn’t help it.  It was strange seeing you lying there–as guarded as you usually were–caught halfway between “asleep” and “awake.”  Vulnerable; The word echoes in his ears, even though he knows you absolutely hate it, hate having any semblance of control yanked from your possession.  But when you’re facing away from him like this–baring your back, as still as a statue–it seems too fitting to brush off.  How long had it taken?  How long had it been before you’d stopped sneaking away in the dark?  Before you’d stopped flinching with every creak of the bed, stopped jumping whenever he shifted beneath the sheets?

When had you begun to trust him enough to let him past that wall of yours?  It wasn’t made of concrete or metal.  No, the barrier you’d erected was more like a thick sheet of tempered glass–transparent.  Most other people went about their lives without even noticing it was there.  “They’re just a private person,” they’d say.  “Professional.”  Kirishima could see it though; He’d smashed into it face-first too many times to count.  Introducing himself?  Thud.  Asking you out to drinks?  Thud.  Trying to learn anything more about you?  Thud.  Over the course of a year, he’d left his imprint in the layer separating you from the rest of the world.  Now, through some miracle, he’d made it to the other side.  You’d let him cross over.  Little had he known there was another wall waiting behind the first.

Kirishima loved you.  He’d been sure of that much from the first smile you’d granted him, as wary and testing as it’d been.  He’d bided his time, coming in as close as you’d allow him to, day by day.  The aching in his chest grew with every millimeter you relinquished.  Eventually, he’d found he couldn’t stand it anymore.  He’d blurted out three words, the three words that he’d only ever thought before.  You never repeated them back.  And he was fine with that.  But he still had so many questions.

Questions about the nightmares that always seemed to shake you from your sleep.

Questions about the bouts of anxiety that left you catatonic.

Questions about the sunken pink spots scattered across your back.  

Even though it was dark, even though most of them were covered by the edge of your tank top, he knew they were there.  The first time he’d been with you–really been with you–his own nervousness had kept him from focusing on much of anything.  The second time, he’d glanced at the marks in passing, noting the way the clusters almost resembled freckles–but they were too perfect, too circular, too unnatural.  The third time, his curiosity almost got the better of him; Kirishima had almost asked about them.  Almost.  The truth was, he’d known better than to do that–he’d known that you would more than likely distance yourself from him if he gave any indication that he was trying to force his way in too quickly.  More than that, the truth was, he’d learned more than a few things from working with Bakugo.

Things like the way an old burn heals over.

“I can feel you staring at me, Eijiro.”  You mumble through a drowsy haze, jolting him from his moment of reflection.

Kirishima doesn’t respond, lying there and wondering.  After a moment passes, he shimmies in closer, leaving only an inch of empty air between the pair of you.

“Just thinking.”  He mumbles, never once lifting his eyes from the curve of your shoulder, the spot where a particularly angry bunch of dots gathers along your skin.

“About what?”  You yawn, none the wiser.  

He reaches out, tracing a gentle line down the slope of your neck.  “You really wanna know?”

“Mmhm.”  It’s a sleepy sound–breathy and drawn out.  At ease.  

He hesitates, frozen for fear of ruining everything.  If nothing changed, he reasoned, then nothing could go sour.  Before he can convince himself to back down though, he grazes his fingertips over one of the scars, breathing.

“Who did this to you?”

He can feel your body go rigid the second he finishes the question.  You inhale sharply, and for a moment, he truly believes the silence will be his only answer.

“Somebody you don’t need to worry about.”  You finally respond, hushed, but sounding much more awake.  “Somebody that died a long time ago.”

Quiet returns, and the regret seeps in.  He’d pushed you away again.  Dammit.  Kirishima goes to remove his hand, to give you the space you need.

“I’m sor–”

“Don’t.”  You hiss, catching his wrist as you flip over to face him.  “Don’t you dare say it.  You have nothing to be sorry for.”  The look you shoot him is resolute–not shaken or upset, like he’d thought it would be.  “You weren’t the one that decided to use my back as your own personal ashtray.”

You watch as a quiet, seething sort of rage passes over Kirishima.  It manifests itself as tension, spanning every inch of his body.  Furrowed eyebrows, stiff muscles, downturned lips–all the nonverbal language that you knew too well.  On him though, all of it looked wrong.

“Who–”  He stops himself.  Old names were useless–fixating on the past was useless.  The future was all that mattered now.

Kirishima breathes heavily, gritting his teeth.  “I would never.”

“I know.”  You hush him, intertwining your fingers with his.  

“I’ll keep you safe.”  He clarifies.  The sheer intensity of his gaze is enough to send a wave of warmth shooting down your spine.

It wasn’t the first time he’d made that sweet, impossible promise–the same pretty lie that others had used so many times before to try and soothe your fears, end your nightmares, purchase your trust.  The difference was, with Kirishima, you really believed that he believed those words.

Maybe in time, you’d begin to believe them too.

You burrow yourself into his chest.  While you’re breathing in his scent, relishing in his embrace, one phrase reverberates through your thoughts–persistent, like a gnat that refuses to be ignored.  One phrase, composed of three short words.  Words that you’d sworn off saying so many years ago.  Words that you’d so been sure you could never profess in good faith.  Now, they just seemed to fit.  

Another day, you muse, shutting your eyes.

And just like that, Kirishima wiggles his way past another one of your walls.

[baekhyuns-abs]

Mean

(gif not mine credit to the original owner) Hogwarts AU (imma nerd for HP)

I thought of this and I ran far away with it. A Chanyeol Hogwarts AU wasn’t as highly requested as other members *cough* Sehun *cough* so this is my just being selfish Im sorry. 

Here’s Baekhyun’s Hogwarts AU if you wanna read it toooo

Much love <3

Sexual themes

Chanyeol liked challenges. He liked hard Transfiguration spells, hard to do potions that exploded in his face. But she was his favourite challenge. The Gryffindor had girls falling for him left right and center. He was infamous in his house, being their best beater, much to Baekhyun’s dismay. He was good at his classes, he was a perfect student, a little bit of a loud mouth and a troublemaker but it was expected from him. Professor McGonagall acted like she despised him but he was her pride and joy. “For this complex potion I want you to get into pairs.” Professor Slughorn called out. “No funny business, off you go.” Before she could blink the tall figure of what was the bane of her existence slid into the vacant stool to her left. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Get out, Chanyeol.” The Slytherin girl droned refusing him a look. “You suck at potions.” He beamed despite the insult, just happy that she called him by his name, usually she wasn’t so generous. “But you don’t.” She turned to him finally, noticing how his robes hung off his shoulders lazily like he had just crawled out of his dorm. His hair was slightly ruffled and she was overwhelmed how she felt the urge to run her fingers through the strands, fix him up a little better and to just touch him. She cleared her throat. “You drag me down, Park I’ll hang you by your obnoxious ears.” She threatened, hoping he didn’t notice her momentary lapse. “You’re mean.” He pulled a face. She smirked flipping to the right page in her potions book, scanning at the ingredients. “I can be meaner.” She stood up from her stool, finding it easier to prepare ingredients when she was on her feet. Chanyeol followed suit and he stood tall next to her much shorter form. She tried her best to ignore the height difference. “Impossible!” He gasped over dramatically. She shoved the large mixing spoon at his stomach motioning him to grab it. “You’re mixing then. Move.” His eyes glinted with mischief, keeping his arms to his side, ignoring the spoon against his torso. He took a step towards her and her face flashed with alarm and anxiety. “Move here?” He asked, his voice dropping. She took a breath, ignoring everything fluttering in her body as they brushed together. She shook her head, unable to get her protest out of her mouth before he took another step towards her body. She froze in her position, her face reddening giving away her fluster as she felt the spoon digging into her chest as he pressed himself to her. “What about here?” He asked again. The look on his face was utter torment, a small smirk on his face that did unspeakable things to her body. His naturally wide eyes had narrowed with wicked purpose. She tried to step away but the unwitting Ravenclaw student behind her wouldn’t budge. “Take the spoon.” She demanded, her voice low and weak as her eyes darted around the class wishing to all almighty figures that no one saw them. She pushed him as best as she could with her hand that was jammed between them and Chanyeol just smiled. “If you say so.” He stepped back taking the spoon from her tense grip. She didn’t know how her body felt about it when moved from her. He stood in front of the cauldron patiently awaiting his next order. She gripped the desk, trying to level herself when she scanned for a knife to begin the chopping process. She ignored him as he spoke as if he hadn’t just made her feel hot in all sorts of places. He didn’t seem to mind as she remained silent as he chewed her ear off. She avoided looking at him when she’d open her mouth to give him stirring instructions and he followed merrily. She wondered bitterly if he just pushed her buttons to get her worked up because he knew he could - because he’s Park Chanyeol and all the girls fawned over every fiber of him. Except her. “Did you know you have really nice eyes?” The comment was off hand and the gillyweed she held in her palm slipped out with a moist splat to the desk. She blinked up at him and she flicked her hair over her cheeks to hide the redness forming there yet again. “No I didn’t know.” She replied curtly, her voice sharp as she picked the sloge up off her desk. Chanyeol turned to her, his eyebrow raised. “You could just say thank you.” She measured the gillyweed, handing him the correct amount to mix in. “You asked me a question, why would I say thank you?” “Is that too nice for you?” He teased, a sly smile making her knees weak. She mentally slapped herself out of her momentary daze and she tightened her grip on her knife. “Just so you know. I am nice.” She snarled. “Who said you could stop stirring?” Chanyeol smirked as he resumed his mixing. “Are you really?” His tone bothered her and she tightened her jaw and glared up at him, her body smaller than his considerably but she tried her best to look somewhat intimidating. She was a Slytherin, she was meant to be feared and most students did; scared just because she wore a serpent on her uniform yet Chanyeol always had it in him to irk her. “I can be a delight.” Chanyeol flicked her a look, a smirk reappearing on his face that did things to her and when he bit his bottom lip she felt like screaming at him “I bet you can.” ~~~ Quidditch was that weekend and she was elated at the thought of beating Chanyeol. Gryffindor hadn’t beaten Slytherin in years and she relished in that as she mounted her broom, taking off with her other teammates. Sehun hung high in the air away from them, matching his opponent, Joonmyeon across the ground - seeker against seeker. She saw Chanyeol in the corner of her eye having a giggle with his fellow beater, Byun Baekhyun - she’d love to knock him off his broom. She was Baekhyun’s target always when he hit the bludger, it was an unnecessary hinderance to her position as a chaser. That game was no exception. She wanted to murder when the victory whistle blew and Sehun was empty handed. She landed with a huff, ignoring Sehun’s pouting face as he started his descent feeling little pride. She snarled, starting for the celebratory Gryffindors her eyes scanning for the source of her rage. Baekhyun hopped off his broom, beaming and she ripped her robes off, lunging for him. Chanyeol turned to the approaching angry Slytherin chaser and he seemed to read her mind. “Hey no--” He grabbed her at the waist as she glared daggers at a smug Byun Baekhyun. In Chanyeol’s arms she shouted. “What the fuck is wrong with you!?” All Gryffindors turned to her and their keeper dared to smile at her, she knew him to be Kim Jongin. She loathed him most of all, he didn’t seem to break a sweat whenever she threatened his goals - she was insulted. A flash of green robes and Yifan quickly came to stand between her and Baekhyun, his responsibility as Slytherin captain holding him on a high pedestal of responsibility. “Are you trying to kill me!?” She yelped still struggling to rip out Baekhyun’s eyes. Baekhyun shrugged, silent and Chanyeol held the fuming girl in his arms tighter feeling a little excited and amused at the way she squirmed in his hold. He wondered if she realised. “Park, take her off the grounds before Hooch sees.” Yifan ordered his voice calm. “Please.” Chanyeol nodded, compliant to the intimidating prefect. As he hauled her around in his arms, back to his team it was then that she realised with a drop in her stomach that Chanyeol had his arms around her. She could feel the strength in his body as her back was pressed to it she refused to let it affect her, the feel of him so close. He was sweaty and his musk filled the air around her and she felt uncomfortable in all areas female. “Let go of me.” She grumbled grabbing at his arms, the arms coiled like metal around her middle. As he padded off the pitch, his arms still keeping her to his body she felt the heat in her angry face worsen - but not with anger. “Chanyeol, let me go.” He held her so effortlessly, like she weighed nothing and if she wasn’t seething with anger she would have patronised him for his strength. “Nope.” He replied promptly. “You can be meaner.” She had no idea where he was taking her. They passed confused students from all houses as he continued down the path out of the Quidditch grounds. The shadow of the forbidden forest loomed over their heads as he made his way down to the cover of the grand trees. She felt fear prick her spine and the colour run from her face. “Chanyeol do--!” She didn’t have time to finish her sentence as she was spun around, her back pressed against the wide tree. She felt heat press against her body and couldn’t help but freeze when she met Chanyeol’s eyes. She kept her arms firmly at her sides and almost flinched when his hand lifted, caressing her cheek softly. Her mouth fell open, lost for words and Chanyeol fingers traced her lips making her shiver between his body and the tree. He shifted his weight and pressed his knee between her legs, she felt all of her air leave her in a rush as his face came to level with hers. He ran his thumb over her lips one last time, his leather fingerless gloves creating a weird sensation on her cheek. “Nothing to say now?” His voice was husky and quiet. She remained silent, overcome by many emotions that conflicted greatly at the bottom of her belly as his hand remained on her face. “You really are cold aren’t you?” He mused aloud and she wondered with a sinking heart if he meant to sound so dejected. “Can you even be nice, be warm?” “I’m not cold.” She replied with a gulp. “Get off me.” Chanyeol ran his tongue over his lips. He raised his hand to his mouth, his eyes remaining locked with hers. She couldn’t look away as she watched with refrained sexual curiosity as he pulled the velcro of his glove strap back with his teeth. He shook the glove off and it his the grass soundlessly. “Prove it.” He challenged. It was a whisper against her skin as he traced her mouth with his lips. His face edged closer to hers and she pressed herself into the tree, unable to go very far. Her heart lurched and she struggled to breathe. Even more so when he kissed her. His gloved hand cupped her nape and her body reacted to him before she could stop it. She was kissing him back when his ungloved hand caressed her hip, feeling for the hem of her jumper. His lips were soft, so pliable as he pressed her harder against the tree, against him. A low groan fell from his mouth and she was completely defeated at the sound; deep and lucious and she wanted to hear him do it again. She grabbed him roughly, her hands scratching his scalp, tugging at his windswept hair eliciting more soft sounds from his delicious mouth. His fingers felt the skin of her belly and she halted, reaching for his wrist but he was much stronger. Chanyeol pulled from her mouth and she opened her eyes at him meeting his hot gaze. “Warm up for me then.” Her half hearted protest got lost in her mind as his hand stroked up her stomach to her bra. He shoved his hand inside and she was stunned into silence. His mouth took hers again as she arched her back into his hand. She fisted his robes as he pinched her nipple between his fingers. She moaned into his mouth and lifted her knee seeking the noticeably growing lump in his sport slacks. Her legs felt weak beneath her and she bit down on his bottom lip as he tugged on her nipple making her mind fuzzy. She released his lip and he began kissing her neck. Every kiss every light bite of his teeth into her skin had her seeing stars as she threw her head back against the tree. His mouth made her core pulse and her knuckles paled around his robes. She moaned loudly without a care of any creatures lurking through the forest that would have heard. Chanyeol froze, his mouth jerking away from the skin of her neck. She opened her eyes as his hand withdrew from her bra and the heat of his body left hers as he stepped away. A flush to his cheeks, the painfully restrained erection told her he looked as needy as she felt. His tongue at the corner of his mouth, the slyest, the most wicked smirk spread across his cheeks and she felt turned on as well as apprehensive. “So you do warm up.” She couldn’t find the words, couldn’t think of a coherent sentence in the scramble that was her thoughts. Her eyes wided the lustful haze fading into annoyance as he remained standing a foot in front of her. She narrowed them into a sharp glare and she stepped to him, her legs a little shaky. She balled his robes in her fists putting everything she had to send him flying into the tree behind him. The smirk left his face, surprise overcoming him and she felt the smallest amount of victory as she wrapped her hand around his throat firmly, but not enough to hinder his breathing. Her face lowered to his as she stood higher than him atop of a tangled mess of roots. She saw his lips twitch to kiss her and she smiled. “Tell anyone and I’ll kill you.”

[michael-hearteyes-wheeler]

Could you do prompt #101 please! For lumax??

Hey friend! I know you sent this a long time ago but I haven't been focusing on drabble requests for a little while because I have several fics I am working on, so sorry! I got randomly inspired last night and wrote this and I am really happy with how it turned out, and I hope you are too!

Thank for the request, enjoy.

101) “Don’t be an asshole. Asshole.”

“Ugh I said stop following me, Sinclair!” Max groaned, stomping past Lucas in the middle of the empty road.

They had been fighting almost all evening. At this point he wasn’t even sure if he knew what the fight had been about in the first place, and he was positive that she didn’t, but they continued arguing nonetheless. And now she had reduced him to his last name, which in Max-language, is a low blow. For her, pet names were things like ‘stalker, dork, idiot, and dweeb’, she only ever called him by is actual name when he was in trouble, and just his last name meant… well it meant she was really pissed.

He was trying to walk her home, despite the arguing, but she didn’t want any part of it. The sun was setting behind them now, casting long blue shadows across the street. The faintest hint of orange still hung at the edge of the skyline, making her face look even more red hot with anger. He could tell she was serious, but everytime she whipped around to scold him, he just found himself chuckling, because even now she was still so beautiful.

The laughing definitely didn’t help.

“Lucas, Im serious! If you keep following me i’m going to punch you, and report you to Hopper for actually stalking me.” Her tone was dead serious, but it still had that hint of sarcasm that only Max could muster. So he laughed again.

“Lucas! Stop laughing, you dick!” She was seething, practically foaming at the mouth in outrage, but even she had to concede that the entire situation was ridiculous. Did she even remember why they started fighting? Something about him finishing her burger when she went to the restroom? God, that couldn’t really be it, could it?

Lucas watched the entire internal debate happening in her eyes. Her rage, she always was quick to anger, like a firecracker, and then the reluctance to continue yelling because she didn’t even know what was was mad about. He tried to hold his tongue. Tried to swallow the rising giggles in his throat, but it was a lost cause.

“Max, you are being so stupid.” He chuckled heartily, pointing at her like some grade school kid poking fun at another. She gasped in (almost) mock offence, her jaw open in surprise. Lucas rarely stood up to her (because usually it was his fault anyway), but this time she wasn’t sure whose fault it was, or who started it, or who was going to finish it.

“Me!? Why don’t you take a look at yourself, stupid!” A grin forced its way across her face, much without her consent. She could feel the laughter starting to rip through her chest.

“Hey! Don’t, be an Asshole, Asshole!” Lucas laughed harder, leaning over and holding his sides as if they would split open.

“I can’t help it! You are so easy to make fun of!” Now she was laughing full force too, leaning over with her hands on her knees across from him in the twilight.

The pair stayed that way for a long time. Laughing hard, snorting, pointing at one another, tears rising in their eyes, faces turning red, sides aching, and gasping for breathe.

“God you were so mad, you looked like you were about to have actual steam coming out of your ears!” He cackled.

“What about you? When you yell you get this dumb look on your face, like a grumpy turtle!” She squealed.

“A grumpy turtle!? Where do you even get that from?” Lucas stood up, wiping a tear from his eye and slowly walking towards her. Chuckling laughter still pulsed through him with each step.

“From your dumb grumpy turtle face.” She stood up too, her face bright pink and her eyes flooded with giggly tears. He was close enough to her now that she could have easily smacked him the way she wanted to earlier, but this time, after all of that laughter, she just punched him in the arm. Her signature gesture of forgiveness.

“Max, Im sorry for whatever I did. I’m sorry I drank your milkshake without asking, or for accidentally tugging your hair at the movies, or whatever it was that I did.” He face was earnest, and he reached a hand out and grabbed her balled fist.

She softened, smiling at him. He was so nice even when her temper got the best of her. “No, no Im sorry. I’m sorry that I blew up on you for probably no reason. That’s not cool and it isn’t your fault.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I get it, and I forgive you. Friends again?” He smiled bashfully, knowing full well that after three years of dating they were way more than friends. He reached his hand out for her to shake, the same way he always did when he got into a spat with the boys.

She considered the hand for a moment, and then brushed it aside, wrapping him into a warm hug instead. “Always friends, stalker.” She kissed his cheek, and used her favorite pet name for him, and he knew it was all over.

They joined hands and continued down the road to her house, enjoying the silence of the night save for a few mockingbirds and the occasional passing car. Happy that they had curbed one of their nastier fights with laughter. Soothing their tension with fun was always there go to, just another reason they were so perfect together.

“Hey, stalker?” She asked coolly. He turned to her to listen. “I don’t think it was because you pulled my hair at the movies. I think it was the burger thing.”

“Oh shit yeah that’s right! Sorry about that, I can pay you back for it.” He suddenly remembers scarfing down her burger in practically a single bite.

“No its cool, I think I know another way you can make it up to me though.” She smiled, still facing forward as they approached her house.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?” He saw the gears turning in her eyes. Owing Max a favor was almost never something you wanted. It had landed him in detention a couple of times.

“Sneak over tonight.” She turned to face him just at the edge of her yard and pulled him into a hug, her lips close to his ear. “So we can finish where we left off in the movies, when you pulled my hair.”

And with that she turned and sauntered away, not even granting him a passive glance as she stepped inside her house. He must have looked crazy, standing out in her yard with his mouth hanging open like a moron, but he didn’t care. He turned to walk home, thanking God, or the universe, or some grand High Elf Wizard, or whoever it was that brought the most amazing and wonderful girlfriend into his life.

Maybe he needed to pick stupid fights more often.

Or maybe Max was just perfect.

[wastelandpizzas]

Walls: pt. 1

As we continue the journey through the personal take of SS Shaun Park Sr. And his attempt to find his son, We find the General of the Minutemen at headquarters in Fort Independence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Alright, Perkins, Garvey, on three!”

“One… Two… Three!!!” With one last shove we finished getting the last piece of the new, albeit temporary, north wall into place. It had been a grueling days work- though we had been restless from two days worth of waiting. The timbers from the thickets near Sanctuary had just arrived before dawn after a couple days worth of logging and cutting before Preston and I had even thought to head down to the Castle. The caravaneers had a hell of a time trying to manage the three Brahmin it took to haul enough lumber to do anything with. Being that the Commonwealth was, well, for lack of a better description, the Commonwealth, I was shocked to hear that Raiders, Gunners, and even Super Mutants stayed away from the caravan. It wasn’t everyday that a twelve man caravan went tromping through the Commonwealth, and much less frequent that it had a significant guard and still made it to its destination unscathed. One Brahmin master, two hands, and nine Minutemen, two of which were two of the same party from our raid on the Corvega plant earlier last month after another small group of raiders tried to hole themselves up in the old factory.

Preston had been on watch since three that morning looking for signs of our supply caravan on the south road and his face, since lunch, showed it. When they finally arrived, we had them use what cement we had salvaged from the breaking up the rubble over the entrance to the Castle’s tunnels to lay a foundation for the barracks and while the cement dried we started laying whole blocks along the edge of the wall and began to mortar them around the foundation. We had worked on putting up the wall frames for a couple hours after the cement hardened, and we were ready for a break. The two other weary Minuteman plopped down onto the ruined stone blocks off inside the fort, and after a quick look over the day’s work I joined them.

“Well, you really did mean that the walls needed work, didn’t you, General.” Preston took a long draught from his canteen before getting his words out.

“I did say that, didn’t I,” I followed Preston’s example and sat down to take a long breather. We finally had a wall set up on our northeast portion of the old star fort, the most vulnerable face to the greenskins over at the old Gwinnett pub. If I played the caravaneers right The Castle would have a new stone, or at least cement, wall to provide as a more permanent repair than the improvised barracks that our third builder, Captain Vern Perkins, brought to that rank after taking the killing shot of the Mirelurk Queen that had decided our headquarters looked as good a place as any to settle down, had planned to set up. We had plans to clear the rubble from the Northeast Bastion’s tunnel entry and try to cut a tunnel and new quarters when we had everything finished up, but that was arguably another year or two away. It took quite a bit of sweet talking, and frankly caps out the ass, but that nerve Mirna had finally agreed to set aside any cement or salvaged stone that her junkers and suppliers brought in to the city, 2500 caps upfront and 150 for each of the days she shipped more than 50 pounds our way. Cement, bricks and stone in Diamond City came at a premium given the state of the Fens after 211 years of direpair.

To make a long story short. the Minutemen were on the way to recovery. It had been nearly a year and a half since Quincy and since I had left the Vault. To say the least, we had what had once been the Northern suburbs of Boston aiding, enlisting, and paying into the Minutemen. It was something; we had a crew of 12 Regulars running active patrols around Sanctuary and the trading post and market at Starlight Drive-In which was only possible because 4 of those patrol men had cleared the Mole-rats living there once we had established Sanctuary as the main hub of the Minutemen north of Cambridge and Boston-proper, not to mention mounting support in the Fens. Hell we even had some a few Minutemen vets sent our way from somebody called Hancock over in Scollay Square. Though I hear it’s called Goodneighbor now, when I listen to the boys talk about it.​

I must have been daydreaming at that point, because Preston’s hand clapping on my shoulder brought me back to.

“General, do think we’re done for today?”

“I’m not sure, Preston,” I started. Noticing Vern had made his way back to the radio tower for a minute, I called at him,

“Perkins, what’s going on?”

“Not sure, sir, radio just went haywire there for a second” Preston helped me up and I started heading​ over to the tower myself to see what was going on when one of the guards posted on the southwest bastion hollered at us three.

“General, Colonel Garvey, you’re going to want to see this!” I must have caught a second wind because I bolted straight up the rubble of the western wall to join the soldier who immediately just pointed out over at the parking lot and handed me his binoculars.

I saw what looked like a shimmer of bright blue for a second and did a double take when I saw what emerged. Something that looked like a tan-ish grey skinned, plastic man in what appeared to be combat armor of some kind. I had never seen anything quite like it before, and boy was I curious.

“Can you tell me what I’m looking at, soldier?” after Preston got a look he said something that reminded me of a conversation I had with a certain reporter.

“I haven’t seen one so heavily armored before, but the color gives it right away. General, that’s an Institute synth. That caravan was damn lucky they left a couple hours ago.”

I had heard a great deal about the Institute from Miss Piper, and if stories were to be believed, the Institute was the shadow over the Commonwealth that everyone feared. And with good reason, I had taken the opportunity to have someone scout out University Point and they reported crops still in the field, shops relatively untouched, but no people, no bodies, and no trace other than their material goods that people had even been there. He had found an old holotape at one of the terminals on the fringe of the ghost town and gave it to me upon his return. I hadn’t looked at it just yet but I figured -after seeing a genuine Institute construct- that it was as good a time as any to give the files a once over.

Once we were sure the lone synth wasn’t gunning for us, I jogged down the rubble slope back to my backpack sitting over by one of our building workbenches on the northeastern wall. It took a minute of digging to find the tape labeled U.Point. but when I did and popped it in I was enthralled.

It was a personal diary, it looked to have went back up to two years or so before I left the vault, roughly 2285. I sifted through the years worth of writing and a saw, close to the end a someone mention a mercenary, and that piqued my curiosity at first. I was intrigued on who this man the journal referenced was at first, then I realized I recognized the description, the newest face to haunt my sleep. A nearly bald man with a noticeable scar across the left side of his face wearing a leather jacket with short cut sleeves and an improvised piece of shoulder armor. Supposedly he came around for a few days asking about any significant technology that the town knew about. And by the looks of the writing he came back with friends, the well armed kind. That child thieving bastard sold those bastards to the Institute. I unclipped my Pip-Boy and threw it into my backpack.

I must have been perusing the journal longer than I thought I had, because the sun was now setting in between the skyscrapers of downtown. I didn’t want to go to bed thinking about the massacre. I still had plenty of those dreams from the 2060s and the war with China and needed something to distract myself, so I relieved our night watchman once I had grabbed a bite to eat after the night fell. After a quick route across the walls and some of the scaffolding, I sat down next to the broken down artillery-piece on the northwest bastion. I looked over at the parking lot where the synth had shown up. Seeing a light flicker around a couple times, I wondered if I could make an easy target of the metal man, but after a closer look it was some dogs that got ahold of the synth and his gun. I couldn’t vent my rage against my son’s kidnapper and I wasn’t about to do something rash like rushing out into a pack of feral dogs.

I just wanted to seethe out every little bit of anger I had pent up at that bastard and get on with putting a bullet in his brain, after he led me to my son.

But for all the rage in the world, it wouldn’t bring Nora back. If I just had her with me, I’d not be this damned mess. Together we would have found Junior. With her keeping me focused I wouldn’t get caught by every bleeding heart farmer who was dealing with raider issues or the honest to God threats of this post-apocalyptic, radioactive, barely recovering wasteland. Though thinking it through, it was better that she didn’t see this, see me like this.

“Hey, General, I noticed you were still up” Preston seemingly popped out of nowhere with a couple beers

“Holy shit, Preston, don’t sneak up on me like that.” it was the second time he had caught me unawares that day, Im damn glad we hadn’t gone out to find some raiders or patrol the Fens and Hangman’s Alley. As off as I was then I was no good even for watch.

“You looked a little distracted after you read that holotape from U. Point. There something you gotta say?” I’d say this about Preston, he’s a good squad commander, and he’s got a way of telling when a man needs a beer.

[omgnsfwisnsfw-blog]

Game #4 Kick in the Teeth

"Ow." It was perhaps the understatement of the year. Mike's body was trembling, and this annoyed her- it was an involuntary reaction to the level of pain she was in, something she was trying to express at a minimum. She was laying on her stomach on one of the two medical tables in the trainer’s room, ice packs placed at the points of impact on her back. She breathed in and out a few times through her teeth, producing a low hiss, before turning her head to her left, towards the other current occupant of the room. The person she'd taken the worst of this beating for, and had no regrets whatsoever about it. "...hey, buddy. You okay? Sorry I wasn't quicker..." There was a pained strain in her voice, and that annoyed her as well. She had to be stronger than this. John had just finished being examined by a doctor, and was sitting in a chair beside her. He wheezed with every breath -- coughing up spittle into a white towel, "I'm," a more pronounced fit, "okay." "No you're not." She took a few rattling breaths of her own, clenching her teeth together tightly. "F-fucking Garcia... 'm gonna kick his fucking ass in so bad he's g-gonna have to open his mouth to fucking change his underwear..." Her shaking just wasn’t from pain anymore. She could feel herself getting angrier by the second, and despite the icy cold on her back her body felt very hot. Frankly she was surprised the ice hadn’t all melted by now. Her fists tightened, short fingernails digging into the heels of her palms. Every thought of the smirking face of the tag team champion only stoked her rage. Rob Garcia had hurt her, yes. But he’d hurt her partner and that was completely unforgivable. Between the twin injustices walloped upon NSFW in the form of a deftly wielded steel chair, the New Yorker was so furious she could have spat napalm. “I’m gonna get ‘im back for us, buddy. I’m gonna get ‘im fuckin’ good. I got half a mind to drag my fuckin’ carcass out to the garage and cut his goddamn brake lines.” She’d like to say that she wasn’t serious about that. But honestly, she didn’t know. “At least your friend won.” “Yeah… yeah she did, didn’t she? Heh. Guess tonight hasn’t been a total fuckin’ bust. I mean, I guess we won too. Don’t really feel like it though.” She sighed, fists unclenching slightly. “And she’s not just my friend, you know. She likes you. Kinda makes her our friend, I think.” There was a knock at the door. Mike huffed a bit. She wanted to tell whoever it was to beat it, but there was a chance it could be the doc. Or even their newly victorious and always charming Ms. Natalie Young, whose presence was always welcome. She decided to chance it- “C’mon in!” -and immediately regretted her decision as NSFW’s least favorite backstage interviewer slunk into the trainer’s room, cheezy mustache and all with a cameraman in tow. Mike rolled her eyes. “Ugh. What do you want, Heart? Ain’t in the mood for bullshittery.” Ace turned towards the camera, not even acknowledging Mike’s shot across the bow. “Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Pepper presents an EWC.com exclusive. We are moments after Monday Night Brawl’s exciting conclusion but many people are talking about the heinous attack perpetrated by Robert Garcia and Morgan Darkwater on...” He stepped aside to reveal Church and McGuire. “NSFW. Bishop Church? What happened -- nevermind. McGuire, what happened out there tonight?” “What happened? I’ll tell you what the fuck happened. Rob Garcia signed his goddamn death warrant, that’s what the fuck happened. And you’re next on the list if you don’t apologize. Now.” She gave him a look that could only be described as borderline homicidal. “Apologize for what?” “For blowing off my fucking partner, asshole. I’m fucking serious. Apologize or neither of us is saying another fuckng word to you ever again until the fucking apocalypse, and you’ll just look like some pornstached joker holding his mic in one hand and his dick in the other. Apologize.” John looked at her with a soft expression. “It’s … okay. He just --” “No. It’s not fucking okay, Church. It hasn’t been fucking okay from the goddamn get go. As long as I’ve been here, this fuck with glorified nose hair extensions has been treating you like dirt. And I am fucking sick of it. Hey, Heart. You every wonder why we fucking avoid you? Why you haven’t gotten any airplay from us for fucking weeks? Because you’re a fuckwit and we don’t want to talk to you, because of shit like this. Because of certain members of the journalism community, present company included, acting lower than mold on rat shit. Now. Apologize.” Mike’s jaw ticked. Were she psychic, her glare might have made the journalist’s head explode. For whatever reason, the camera now zoomed in on the interviewer’s reaction to this confrontation. He let out an exasperated sigh and mumbled. “I’m sorry.” “What was that? People in the fucking cheap seats didn’t hear you. I’m not playing here, douchebag. Apologize. Fuckin’ audible-like. And not to me- to him.” Ace looked directly at Bishop Church. There was a few more seconds of dead air before Ace finally clearly stated. “I’m sorry … for uh, how I acted when you first got here.” More silence. John looked to Mike and nodded slightly. “Right. He accepts your apology so I guess I fucking do too. Now. Ask your little questions. But don’t ask me, ask my partner. We’re a goddamn team, his input’s just’s valid as mine.” “Bishop Church. First, uh, congratulations on becoming television champion.” John stared at Ace blankly. “So rough night, huh?” “You know what, Mike? Why would they do this to us? What did we ever do to them?” Mike sighed, her expression softening a bit. She turns her gaze away from Ace and toward her partner, shaking her head a little. “Because Rob Garcia is a fucking waste of meat and breath. He’s a waste, and he’s fucking scared of us. He knows it’s a matter of time. So instead of training and preparing and, y’know, acting like an actual fucking competitor, he tries to lay us out early. We didn’t do shit to him. But that don’t matter at all to people like that.” She takes a breath in, exhaling it in another hiss. “Darkwater’s a piece of shit too. He may not’ve participated in the shit with the chairs, but he walloped us outta nowhere beforehand, an’ if he didn’t like what Garcia did he sure’s fuck didn’t help. Don’t get him off the hook none, inaction makes him just’s fuckin’ guilty.” “So despite all of this, I’ve gotten word from Dr. Hiro Lee that you have both been cleared for action next week for Monday Night Brawl in Milan, Italy. This is just one week before Bishop Church defends his Television Title against Orianna Johnson at Scars and Stripes. You two are in tag team action.” “Against who?” “Yeah, who? We get our title shot? Or maybe just another crack at those limpdicks? Ooooh, I can’t fuckin’ WAIT to get my hands on them. No more Mr. Nice Guy, I’m gonna fuck ‘em both up good.” Ace shook his head. “The match you two were victorious in was not officially sanctioned as a #1 contendership bout for the tag team championships. NSFW takes on up and coming tag team: Donkey Punch.” John looked up towards the tiles on the ceiling, “Oh. Okay.” “...you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Donkey Punch. DONKEY PUNCH. DONKEY. FUCKING. PUNCH.” “Yes. Danny and Donny Madison. They’re your opponents.” “THEY’RE PIECES OF SHIT AND YOU KNOW IT.” “They seem nice.” “Donkey Punch and NSFW have both been victims of Rob Garcia’s reign of terror.” “Oh. Oh. Heart. Just when we were starting to fucking get along. Don’t you EVER compare us to that pair of idiots. EV-VER. This is a goddamn insult. I mean, you can’t possibly fucking think they’re even in the same league as us. They ain’t even playing the same fucking SPORT.” Her nails dug into her palms again, temper beginning to seethe. John looked the camera directly with a nervous expression before returning his gaze at Mike. “They have been teaming for quite some time. They, uh, put up a good fight against Mucho Grande. I’m sorry I guess I’m not in the mood to exclaim that.” “Bud, I really hate to disagree with you, but they kinda really didn’t. They got fuckin’ annihilated in three goddamn minutes. I mean, shit, some poor guy probably got up to get fucking chips and missed the whole fuckin’ thing.” “They gave it a good try, I guess.” Ace Heart piped in, “Win withstanding, I’d say that the Donkey Punch and NSFW are on the same level.” “And I’d say you ate paint chips as a child. We are serious fucking competitors. We know how to have a good time but we fucking love this business. We’re dedicated to it. We work our fucking asses off. What do they do? Derp around, pick and eat their own fucking boogers, and make fart jokes? Do they even have two fucking brain cells between them to rub together? This isn’t a goddamn game. This. Is NOT. A stupid fucking tiddlywink-ass game.” She bared her teeth, snarling. She looked like she might leap at Ace and tear out his jugular if provoked much further. “I used to play tiddlywinks when I was a boy.” She exhaled again, a bit of a fond chuckle escaping her. She had to hand it to her partner- he had an almost uncanny way of cooling her temper. She could be the angriest she could possibly be, and just a few words from him would de-escalate things. How he did it she had no idea, but it was damn effective. “Seems like…” Ace hesitated but maybe misunderstood Church’s level gaze at Mike. “Seems like he would fit right in with them.” And wouldn’t you know it, whatever calming effect that Church had on Mike was instantly undone. Mike’s emerald glare flared back up in all its fury, face twisted into something that could only be described as genuine, full-throated hatred. “Get out.” She lifted the ice packs- about two-thirds melted by now- off of her back and began to throw them, one by one, at the interviewer. “GET OUT! YOU FUCKING TURDMUNCHER! FUCK YOU!” The ice pack smacks right into Ace’s forehead and then lands at his feet. The other two sailed over his head. He looks as if he was about to retort in kind but he regained his composure with an adjustment of his collar.“You’re a nasty woman sometimes, Mike McGuire.” At this moment, John stood up from his chair. He loomed over Ace Heart. “Please leave.” His tone left nothing to interpretation. “You got your soundbytes. My partner politely -- well, no, she asked you to leave. I am asking you to leave. Mike isn’t in a good mood. You want to prod and prod to get reactions for your reels. That’s over. Fine. We’re facing the Madison brothers. And they’re a little unorthodox. Mike believes we should be in line for a shot at the tag team championships and I am inclined to agree with her on that sentiment. If the new management team wants to see NSFW roll in the mud - then so be it.” John stepped forward, forcing Ace into the doorway. “Now get out.” Outside the doorway now. “Alright, bud. I get it, just one more--” John slammed the door in Ace’s face. Interview over. Trembling, Mike grabbed a small pillow- given the setting, probably meant more for support than comfort- and slammed her face into it, her enraged screams sufficiently muffled as not to spread outside the confines of the makeshift infirmary. She really wanted to put her fist through something. Or someone. She was so angry and frustrated and hurt, but anything she really wanted to do was either pointless or illegal. Anything but this. So she kept screaming until she ran out of breath, and only then did she come up for air, panting. “...I hate everyone. Everybody but you. And Natalie. Everyone else can fuck off and die.” “You don’t mean that.” John leaned back on the door to the hallway, “All the wonderful people we met in the last few days. They were so friendly. The old woman. She invited us into her home. For some reason. I think she said I was her son. But her? No, I don’t believe you, Mike.” “Eh, you’re right, I don’t mean it.” She took a few deep breaths, wincing a bit as her back throbbed. “It just pisses me off so bad I can’t see stuff like that sometimes. So many shitty people crop up that I start forgetting that not everyone that isn’t us is like that. And it sucks because I WANT the world to be, y’know, not awful. Not indicative of the fuckin’ loudmouth minority.” “She made us eat that weird soup. What was it?” “Borcht, I think? The beet stuff served cold? Dunno if I liked it or not. Those jam blintzes were fuckin’ great though.” And then he whispered, despite them being alone in this room, “I may have indulged in one myself.” And Mike giggled, and whispered right back. “Don’t sweat it. I had like, five.” She sighed, again marvelling at how quickly her mood had cooled. Before now, before all this, it’d taken her hours or even days to truly calm down if something got her this hot. “Hey. Maybe this won’t be so bad. At least we get a trip to Italy out of it. And that is gonna be the trip of a lifetime. Rome, Venice, fine fuckin’ art, culture, and every fuckin’ delicious thing you can imagine. It’ll be good, even if we DO have to fight fuckin’ Donkey Punch.” She tapped her chin, and then nodded, giving her partner a pat on the shoulder. “Yeah. Everything’s gonna be okay.”