#injured and a child dead for him to take responsibility why?

[transk0vsky]

I think the thing that drives me so insane about wheels is how tragically ironic his story ends…his parents die from a drunk driver in djh he struggles with this heavily during djh and d high (and also uses their death to excuse his asshole behaviors later on unfairly which leads to further issues) until it all blows over in schools out where he becomes the drunk driver but he kills a child instead of the parents….he’s become the man who killed his parents in reverse….

[seravphs]

ੈ♡˳·˖✶ — TEEN DAD! GOJO x FEM READER

When Megumi gets injured on a mission, you realize you’re not capable of taking care of a child.

wc — 1.8k

tags — misunderstandings; self doubt; the pitfalls of teenage parenting when you’re all child soldiers; mild angst with a happy ending; happens post sometimes a family is you, teen dad Gojo, and the six year old child he accidentally orphaned, part I of teen dad gojoverse, in which you and Gojo raise Megumi together. 

You shove Megumi into his arms, a bundle of bloody black fabric and dead weight. Gojo doesn’t stumble - he never does - but it’s a close call as he instinctively wraps his arms around whatever you’ve pushed onto him. 

“Teleport! Teleport!” You’re so frantic you’re incoherent. It takes a full minute, a minute you don’t have, before you realize that you can’t just say things. Gojo, as invincible as he is, can’t read your mind. You have to explain what’s going on, but how can you focus when Megumi is bleeding out? His little face is growing paler and paler by the second. 

His hands are so tiny. Why is that the only thing you can focus on? They’re grasping the front of Gojo’s jacket for dear life as he coughs weakly. 

“Teleport him back to HQ! Get Shoko!” 

You resist the urge to shake Gojo by his lapels, slap some sense into him. It would only hurt Megumi. Why won’t he move?

“I can’t!”

“What do you mean you can’t? Go! He’s losing so much blood, you have to go now!” 

You know you’re getting hysterical, but Megumi is dying right in front of you. 

“I can’t teleport! There are conditions-“ 

“He’s going to die!” 

“Stop- I need to think!” 

In the back of your head, you can hear Shoko telling you in that cool and detached tone of hers that you’re hyperventilating. 

Look, she says, you see that? You’re breathing too quickly. You feel lightheaded, right? 

Gojo spreads his jacket out on the ground of the forest. “Help me get him ready. I’m going to sew up the cut.” 

“Let me-“ 

“I’ll do it. I’ve done Getou’s before. You just focus on keeping him breathing.” 

You can do that. 

Hunched over Megumi’s body, Gojo gets to work. He looks so frail, spread on the grass with only Gojo’s jacket beneath him. His eyes are normally dark, but they’re blacker with pain, his pupils swallowing up his irises. 

The first puncture of the needle makes him wail before he slaps his hand over his mouth. You peel it back and make vaguely soothing noises, trying to be comforting. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” you murmur, letting him rest his head in your lap.

“You can scream, Megumi. I know it hurts. Oh, honey, I know. I know.” He’s making this face that agonizes you. His nose is all scrunched up as he clenches his jaw. He’s the type of kid that would rather chew up his suffering and swallow it back down then let anyone see it. 

This happened on your watch. 

Sick self hatred rises in your throat. 

Gojo would’ve never let anything happen to Megumi. 

He whimpers quietly and you flinch. Without even thinking of it, you reach for his hand. You force yourself not to tremble. You’re an adult. It’s your responsibility not to scare him like that. 

His eyes are closed as Gojo grimly works the needle through, but there’s a jump in his frantic heartbeat, as tiny as a rabbit’s. You can detect it through the pulsing vein in his wrist, funneling blood to the injury only to waste it on air. 

He’s such a brave kid - your brave little boy. You smooth his sticky wet hair back from his face, damp with sweat. He moans in pain and twists away. Your heart crumples. 

It takes so much for him to be vocal about anything that hurts him. How much pain must he be in?

“Gojo,” you say. 

“I’m trying!” 

You know. Going any faster is likely to have dangerous consequences. This is the only way. How cruel. You have to hurt him to help him, and isn’t that just the story of your parenthood? 

You curl around him, protective as if your body can shield him from his own body working against itself. The more blood he loses, the harder his body fights to keep him alive. 

It’s an infinitely long minute before Gojo proclaims the grim deed finished. Megumi had passed out long beforehand, his death grip on your fingers slackening as the pain pushed him into nothingness. 

He wakes up on the long drive back to campus. Ijichi has never bent so many speeding limits in his life. Normally a careful driver, he shoots furtive looks at the kid staining his back seats red. You can feel his judgment of what kind of parent you are settling over you. 

Shoko must be thinking the same thing as she patches Megumi up in your kitchen. Her reverse cursed technique seals the cut up in seconds flat, though a scar remains, puckering the flesh of his forearm. 

“Just like Utahime,” Gojo tells him, pinching his cheek. “You didn’t cry either, so you’re better than her.” 

“Don’t talk about your seniors like that,” you say absentmindedly, though your mind could not be further from disciplining Gojo for his poor behavior. 

You can’t send Megumi to the Zenins. You know what they’d do to a sweet kid like him. They’d turn him into a monster like his father. You shudder, thinking of the creature from your nightmares who had stolen the life of a sixteen year old girl, and nearly taken Gojo with him. You could never let them do that to Megumi. They probably wouldn’t take care of Tsumiki either, unless to hold her over his head. But just because they aren’t fit caretakers doesn’t mean you are. 

“Hey.”

“Hey.” 

“Hey.” 

Gojo’s been trying to get your attention for who knows how long. When he sees that he finally has it, he sends Megumi off to bed and jerks his thumb at the door. Wordlessly, you follow him to the porch. It’s dimly lit from a singular overhead bulb without a covering. The two of you stand in a circle of light, the night outside pressing in against the walls of your home. 

“What is it?” He says impatiently. “I fixed everything, didn’t I? Why are you still upset?” 

“It’s not you,” you say. It’s so cliche, but what else is there to say? “It’s my fault.” 

“Don’t,” he says softly. 

You pull your hand back when he tries to take it. There’s a perverse sense of satisfaction in denying both of you what you want. You don’t deserve this. 

He’s silent for a long time. You let the silence stew, determined to outlast him. Quickly, it becomes clear who has the upper hand. You shift from side to side, nervous and tense, while he just waits with his hands shoved in his pockets. When you finally look over, he’s wearing his sunglasses again. His hair glows under the porch light, attracting moths. “Finally felt like playing nice?” 

He’s attractive when he’s mean. You hate that about him, the way the cruel twist of his mouth ties knots into your stomach. It would all be easier if you could hate him, but everything he does only makes you love him more. 

What a twisted little family you’ve built for yourself. 

He sighs. “Stop that. Don’t-“ he waves his hand in your general direction in frustration. “You always do that. It’s not your fault.” 

“He needs a real parent, Gojo. I couldn’t protect him.” 

“I was there too,” he says. “You don’t see me agonizing over my mistakes. It happens.” 

What mistake, you think bitterly. Gojo’s only fault is trusting you with Megumi. He’s the strongest. If it was him, nothing would’ve happened. 

“It wasn’t your mistake. It was mine. If I hadn’t been there, everything would have been fine.” 

“Again?” Gojo says quietly. 

It’s a forceful reminder of how much you sound like Getou right now. He never recovered from what that monster - Megumi’s father - did to him. Even now, your class lives with the scars of that day. Gojo’s face is wistful for a brief moment, deluged by memories. Then it’s gone, wiped from his expression like it had never been there. 

“I didn’t mean it like that,” you say, wondering if it’s too late to take it back.  

Gojo never falters. He’s unreasonable and childish, but he’s as solid as stone. You’ve watched him shoulder every single burden he’s ever been asked to carry since he was a child, and now he’s taken on one more. You promised Gojo that you would watch his back, regardless of whether he needed you or not. The words you spoke in a fit of anger and self pity bring you regret now. Weakness isn’t just failing to shield Megumi from all the dangers of sorcery that you wish you and Gojo had been protected from. Weakness is running away when it gets hard. 

Megumi’s your baby. 

You’re not going to give him up. 

A step forward has you pressing into Gojo’s space. He doesn’t yield, watching you with those ancient eyes. 

“I know it’ll only get harder, but it has to be us, right? Who else will keep him safe from the Zenins? I won’t leave, Gojo. I promise.” 

His relieved expression contrasts with his smug words. There’s a crooked smile on his face when he says, “I knew you wouldn’t just abandon us. You think Megumi wants to stay with me? You’re the one keeping him here.” 

“I get it,” you smack his arm. “No need for flattery. I’m with you until the end.” 

“I’m not kidding,” he protests. “There’s no universe in which Megumi likes me more than you.” 

How can you stay upset when he looks so proud of himself for finally figuring out the right thing to say to get you to stay? 

“He doesn’t,” you insist. 

Gojo rolls his eyes. “Don’t lie to me. Here, I’ll prove it.” 

It’s not uncommon for Gojo to put Megumi to bed. In fact, it’s a chore he fights you for. It’s probably one of his favorite parts of having Megumi around. He likes telling stories, and surprisingly enough, he’s good at it. He gives each character its own voice. More often than not, he ends up as invested in the bedtime story as Megumi is. Tonight, when he closes the book, he doesn’t leave. The soft light of the lamp on the bedside table shines through a crack in the door as Gojo and Megumi talk in hushed whispers. 

“I want my mom,” he says quietly. 

You lean against the door, pressing your head to the wood to try to keep yourself from falling to the ground. You want to try. You want to be there for him. But Megumi needs his mother, not some teenager who can’t even take control of her own life, much less a child’s. You’re all he has, though, and you have to make it work. You wish Mrs. Fushiguro was still alive, even if that means you would’ve never gotten to meet him. 

“Then ask her to come in,” Gojo says. 

Megumi makes a startled noise. You can almost see him burrowing into his blankets. 

“Go on,” Gojo coaxes. “Oh, come on. Don’t be shy now. You really won’t? Fine.” 

He calls to you. “Come in, sweetheart. Don’t keep us waiting.” 

The first thing you see when you open the door is Megumi’s head buried beneath the covers. Gojo’s trying to peel the sheets back. 

“What are you hiding for? I brought you your mom! You should be thanking me!”

“I hate you!” 

“I told you,” Gojo says. “He loves you more than me.”

[o0opumpkino0o]

Here’s a Demon twins AU that I will never write. I feel like the best crossover fics are written by people who enjoy and have a good grasp on the shows/comics/whatever they are combining and my DC knowledge is severely lacking. So this will mostly be focused on Danny. Feel free to take inspiration and make whatever changes you want, if you feel like taking a swing at it. Originally, this was supposed to be a comedic prompt that took advantage of Danny having ghost powers. But that quickly changed. 

-I’m not the biggest fan of Ghost King!Danny so I’m not writing this with that in mind but if you like it then feel free to add it in. 

-I feel like this AU would work better with Danny and Damian as rivals or having a love/hate relationship but you do whatever you like best.  

-In this AU they are not identical twins. 

-While on a mission, Danyal and Damian were separated at age 5. Damian stayed with the league while Danyal was found by the Fenton’s. 

-Danyal was seriously injured during the mission and the Fenton’s thought it would be irresponsible to leave him on his own after patching him up. And any parents that allowed their child to get so grievously injured obviously shouldn’t be incharge of raising a kid. So they decide to adopt him. 

-The league assumes that Danyal was killed on the mission. Even though a body was never found, there weren’t reports of a child matching Danyal’s description in the surrounding cities or even states and a five year old can only go so far on his own, even one with League training. 

-Did Danyal want to leave the league? Did he want to stay and protect Damian/prove himself worthy of the title or heir? You decide! Either way he ends up living with the Fenton’s, has his accident at 14, and the Danny Phantom series continues as normal.

-Over the years of living with the Fenton’s Danny starts to lose touch with his league training. Some of the knowledge sticks with him, like what specific poisons can do, etc. But most of the physical training fades away. He was five when he was taken from the League, by the time he became half-ghost, he’d spent most of his life out of it. 

-He also starts to feel invincible after avoiding the League’s radar for so long. As long as he doesn’t bring too much attention to himself, there’s no way they could find him. They probably think he’s dead anyway. And even if someone from the League showed up in Amity Park, for whatever reason, what are the chances they’d even recognize him?? As long as he lays relatively low his past will never catch up with him. 

-At age 10/12/whatever age Damian was sent to live with Bruce, the “scandal” was broadcasted across national television. While Danny knew he and Damian were the sons of the Bat, he had no idea who Batman was. It did not take long for Danny to put 2 and 2 together. 

-Unfortunately for Danny, the broadcast was airing while he was with Sam and Tucker. Any training he had to hide his emotions eroded in the 5 to 7 years he was living in Amity. His friends, understandably, wanted to know why he suddenly started freaking out and weren’t going to take nothing for an answer. 

-While he could have lied, he wanted to trust his friends and told them everything. For the most part. He did leave out what the cult of assassins he was born into was called along with most of the names of the people in the League. And the parts where he was responsible, whether directly or indirectly, for the deaths of dozens of people. But, pretty much anything else was told.  

-Miraculously, they believed him and still wanted to be friends. Danny was sure Sam would have had an issue with him being raised to kill people for the first few years of his life. But she actually thought it was pretty cool! Mostly because he didn’t actually kill anyone himself, as far as she knew. Was he responsible for slipping some poison into a target's drink? Yes, but that couldn’t be proven. Did he and his brother lower the guard of targets with their ‘lost-children-trying-to-find-their-mommy’ routine so that another member could come in for the kill? Also yes, but he wasn’t directly responsible so it didn’t count. 

-Yes, Danny did mention that his father was Batman and that the newest addition to Bruce Wayne’s family was his twin brother. So that does mean that Sam and Tucker also know the identities of a good portion of the Bat’s and Bird’s. But Danny was young at the time, thought nothing could hurt him, and didn’t quite understand the severity of having a secret identity. Once he had his accident and became personally aware of the risks and consequences of that, the trio had a meeting and got rid of anything that might have had that secret in it. Old diaries, computer journals, text messages. Everything was burned or wiped. They agreed they would never mention that secret directly, especially once Vlad entered the picture. 

-Everything was as good as it could be until about two years after the accident. Casper High won a competition for the Juniors to tour Wayne Enterprises. The Fenton’s refused to let Danny skip on the opportunity. When else would they get the chance to measure Gotham’s ambient ectoplasm or pitch their inventions to Bruce Wayne himself? Danny tried to explain that Bruce probably wouldn’t even be present for the tour and that the TSA would confiscate any Fenton Tech his parents would try to make him bring. But they didn’t listen. 

-As nervous as he was, Danny insisted that everything would be fine. Bruce/Batman was a busy man, he probably had a case he was working on that was way more important than some stupid tour. Tim was CEO and was too important to be a part of a tour. It wouldn't make sense for anyone else in the flock to be there. Gotham itself was so big that the likelihood of him running into anyone was slim and, even if he did, he and Damian weren’t identical twins, any resemblance could be passed off as coincidence. And if he noticed any stares or double takes, well, it wasn’t like it was hard for him to get lost in a crowd.  

-Sam and Tucker weren’t confident in his defense and made sure he had enough makeup on to subtly hide his face shape and any notable facial features at a glance. 

-Danny was right about the TSA forbidding most of the Fenton’s tech on the plane, the only things they allowed were the fenton phones, the emf reader to monitor Gotham’s ambient ectoplasm levels, and some gas masks his parents made in case their trip was interrupted by one of Batman's rogue. Danny was able to sneak some things on board by phasing them past TSA beforehand, but the only things the trio brought with them was the thermos and a few disguised blasters, just in case. 

-The trip actually went pretty well, the hotel wasn’t in the wealthy part of the city, nor was it in Crime Alley. It was in a safe enough area where the students probably wouldn’t be at risk of being shot if they were to wander off. But far enough away that the elites wouldn’t get annoyed at some midwest tourists. 

-Danny was also right about Bruce and the others being too busy to run into him. It turns out most of the bats probably weren’t even in Gotham. According to the guide, Mr. Wayne and co were on a “family vacation” and weren’t expected to be back for another week, days after the student’s would return to Amity. 

-Of course it would be after Danny lowered his guard that things took a turn for the worse. They were just about to board their flight back. Everyone was lined up to go! Only for the terminal to start filling with fear gas as Scarecrow and, if you were to ask Danny, an excessive amount of goons entered the building. Danny had an idea what the Bat’s were focused on during their “vacation”

-Thankfully, the trio was prepared. So, while their classmates were unfortunately swept up in the chaos; Danny, Sam and Tucker were able to slip on their gas masks and find a place to come up with a plan. Even though Danny didn’t need to breathe, even in his human form. He still slipped on his mask to keep up appearances.

-It didn’t take long for the Bats to show up. Specifically Batman, Robin and Nightwing. Batman went after Crane while Nightwing and Robin took care of the henchmen. 

-Batman seemed to be pretty evenly matched with Crane but the goons managed to separate Robin and Nightwing. Both were starting to get overwhelmed with the number of goons they were fighting. 

-Danny couldn't continue to sit back and do nothing. He was a hero, he could do something to even things out. 

-Sam tried to convince him to leave it alone, that there were other heroes who could help but she knew it was hopeless. Tucker put a hand on Danny’s shoulder and told him to be careful before the two went off to find a better place to hide. They made sure they kept their Fenton Phones on in case Danny needed their help. 

-Danny found a place to transform, went invisible, and joined the fight.

-Danny tried to stay in between Nightwing and Robin, picking off goons in their blind spots. If the other two noticed anything off with the number of goons decreasing faster than they were fighting, it didn't show in their body language.

-Just as Danny thought he would be able to get out of this fight undetected, one of the henchmen was able to rip off Damian's gasmask. Nightwing hadn't noticed yet, in the middle of his own huddle of goons. Batman was still focused on Crane. Danny was the only one who could help.

-Time slowed. It was subtle but he could see his brother's shoulders rise and fall as his breathing was starting to speed up. The fear toxin was setting in. Danny did not spend the first 5 years of his life training to protect Damian just to fail now. 

-In an instant, he flew over to his brother. Knocking out the goons surrounding him, Danny loses his touch on his invisibility as he slipped the gas mask on to Damian’s face. He mentally pleads to every Ancient he knows that his brother won't recognize him. 

-Danny realizes that the domino masks the Bats and Birds wear doesn't give away much emotion wise. But he doesn't think Damian's eyes widen or anything along those lines. Maybe one thing will go Danny's way. After all, he’s in ghost form right now. What are the odds, after all this time, his brother would recognize him?

-”Akhi?” It came out more like a breath than a whisper. If Danny’s hearing wasn't so sensitive he wouldn't have heard it. 

-Well, fuck. Maybe if he bails out now everyone will chalk it up to a fear toxin hallucination. 

-He allowed himself to fade from view but stayed close in case any goons tried to take advantage of his brother's disoriented state. 

-Nightwing was finally able to break out of the goon huddle and come to Robin’s defense just in time for Batman to take down Crane.

-Danny took that as his cue to leave and found Sam and Tucker before anything worse could happen. 

-Once they were able to regroup, Danny quickly filled them in on what happened before Mr. Lancer ushered them away to be checked over by some medics while their plane was rescheduled. 

-It isn't until the trio are back at the hotel that Danny realizes he left his gas mask with Damian. 

-Bad news, Danny’s ghost form was caught on the airport’s security cameras before Tucker had the chance to try and delete it. Good news, the cameras being out of date added with Phantom’s ectoplasm means that the footage was too distorted to make out any discernible features. Bad news, the students of Casper High know full well it was Phantom, the ghost boy. And have no problem saying it to every reporter who comes across them. Good news, most people dismiss the ghost explanation as nonsense and assume its a meta trying to encroach on Batman’s territory. 

-Casper High ends up needing to stay in Gotham for a week longer than intended. Bruce Wayne returns from his ‘vacation’ a few days after the attack and offers to pay for the extra nights and any medical bills that students might have gotten as a result of the attack. 

-During that week, Danny can’t bring himself to sleep. He keeps on expecting his brother or one of the others to burst through the hotel window and whisk him away to an interrogation. Thoughts he’s managed to keep pushed down for years are suddenly rising back to the surface. This whole time Danny assumed that, since Damian’s been living with Father for years, Damian was out of the League. Everyone knows about Batman’s no killing rule, there is no way that Batman would let Damian continue his training. But what if that was all a ruse? What if Batman was working for the League but wanted to keep his own hands clean? What if they were going to send Danny back? What if they thought Danny was a spy or wanted revenge? What if they find out he’s half ghost and believe his parents research that all ghosts are evil?

-Sam and Tucker try to calm him down. It was just his ghost form that Damian saw, whose first thought when seeing your brother’s ghost was to assume he’s still alive and living a double life? Plus, for all Danny knew, his brother could have been reacting to the fear toxin instead of Danny himself. Danny appreciated their efforts but he was still on edge. 

-Instead, nothing happens. He can’t find anyone or anything out of the ordinary during his invisible perimeter checks. There’s no attempt to communicate with him. According to Tucker, no one has tried to gain access to Casper High’s student files. Danny’s parents haven’t mentioned that Bruce Wayne has shown any interest in their inventions during any of their phone calls. Nothing.

-He doesn’t know if he should be relieved or disappointed. Batman was supposed to be the world's greatest detective. How could he not look into all of the loose ends Danny left behind, no matter how unintentional it was? Sure, most people brushed off the ghost thing. But an entire class, from the most haunted city in America, saying their hometown hero came in to save the day is something to look into. Even if it’s just to find proof to write them off. He left behind a Fenton branded gas mask for Ancients sake! A new thought started to crop up. What if they didn’t care? What if Damian already explained everything? Maybe the bats knew about Damian’s long lost/dead brother and thought his sudden reappearance, alive or dead, wasn’t worth looking into? What if they- what if Damian- wanted nothing to do with him? Can Danny even be upset? It‘s not like he ever tried to get in contact. Maybe Damian thinks Danny wants nothing to do with him. Does Danny want his brother back in his life? Every time he thought about it, it was either too good to be true or his fantasies ended with Damian stabbing him through the chest. 

-Either way, they were able to board the plane with no issue. The plane landed and his parents picked him up with nothing of interest happening. His parents dropped him off at the house, they wanted to do a quick patrol since the ghost attacks have been rising the last few weeks. There were no surprise attacks in the living room or the kitchen. No signs of anyone in the Lab. (Or any signs of a ghost getting caught while he was gone, that was a relief.) Jazz’s room looked like it did the day she left for college. The house was completely clean. 

-Now there are a few different ways I think this could go. One, Damian is waiting for Danny in his bedroom, sees Danny phase into the room and immediately has a sword to his throat. Maybe Damian was able to get away from the Manor without having to give away too much information and takes it upon himself to look into his brother’s reappearance. Maybe Damian was forced to tell his family about his late brother. Does Damian miss Danyal? Does he feel betrayed that Danyal left? Maybe Damian told his family once they earned his trust when he first moved into the manor? It’s hard to say how this goes from here or how the DC characters react since I don’t know enough about them but if you want to add on to this, please do!

[applepiesupreme]

American Apple Pie

Pairing: Low/Mid Honor Arthur Morgan and female OC.

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Savigne Ricci is a temporary guest at the Van der Linde camp. Her path crosses with the enforcer of the gang, Arthur Morgan, and despite their differences, a relationship develops between them. Whole lot of smut and fluff, slow burn-ish.

AOC link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54945853/chapters/147208882

Chapter 25

The next morning she woke up with a massive hangover. Arthur was gone but he had left her the buckets of water to clean up. She crawled out of bed feeling like road kill, undressed, wiped herself and got dressed in clean clothes. The taste of whiskey was still in her mouth and she swore she would never touch it again. He walked in, a cup in each hand while she was doing her hair, and she immediately resented how magnificent he looked compared to herself.

“Here,” he said and put a steaming mug of coffee on the table. “Should help. Lemme change yer bandages.”

She finished with her hair, then sat across from him. He pointed for her to extend her left hand, so she did as she took a sip from the coffee and shuddered at the intensity of it and managed a “Jesus”. Pearson’s coffee could wake the dead.

“Think you can take a sick day?” he asked as he unwound the strip of cloth, watching her face, probably hoping that her mood last night could be attributed to the whiskey and she was her normal self again.

“No,” was her flat response.

She curiously inspected the angry gashes in her palm, swollen and tender today and watched him dab it with alcohol, then a tincture that made her sneeze.  

“Wanna do somethin’ after work then?” 

“No.”

 His eyes flicked up to her. She swallowed the bitter coffee and grimaced. 

“Been a while since we had a day together.”

“You were busy.”

“Ain’t busy now. Maybe we can go check out that second map location,” he drawled. “Ain’t very far.” It sparked her anger, being treated like a child to be won over with candy and trinkets. Offerings to go treasure hunting, to spend time apart from the gang, and especially the sudden chattiness - if she were in a better mood she would find his clumsy attempts at appeasement endearing; would consider them the desperate acts of a man who didn’t know how else to soothe a woman’s hurt. Given that she wasn’t in a gracious mood, they struck her as crude and manipulative.

“No.”

“We can-”

“No.”

He took a slow breath, focusing on the bandaging for a moment. “Savigne…” he said quietly. “You’re running again. Yer mad, so you’re running.”

A relationship where the ‘let me fix it’ guy meets the sprinter, what a joke, she thought.

This early in the morning, before her anger and her jealousy had a chance to ripen, it was hard to find fault with him and so much easier to find fault with herself. Arthur hadn’t made promises and then broken them, had he? He had given no assurances only to walk them back. Neither had he lied to her about who he was - an outlaw, a drifter, a temporary guest just passing through. All he was guilty of was building a tent and sharing a passage of time with her. Why should he be the bad man now because it had made her so happy? Why should he be the villain because she had become addicted to it and had started thinking, hoping, building this fantasy in her head? No, Arthur Morgan hadn’t led her on. She had done that all by herself.

In the end she was angry at him because reality didn’t match her dreams, and whose fault was that but the dreamer’s?

She pulled her hand back and took another sip from the sludge Pearson called coffee to match her bitter mood.

“Ya know,” he sighed, watching her. “I ain’t good with words. But for all the talkin’ you do, you don’ say much either.” He leaned on his elbows, eyes fixed on her. “Tell me what you want.”

I want impossible things, she thought. But what she said was “I want to go to work.”

He followed her to the horses, a quiet ball of pulsing frustration behind her back. Before she could tackle her saddle with her injured hand, he handed her his coffee to put it up himself.

Jack ran over and tangled up in her legs. She held the mug away so the hot liquid wouldn’t splatter on him.

“What are you doing up so early?” she chuckled.

Her face fell when she saw Abigail chase after him. 

“Morning,” the other woman said, giving Savigne a shy look. 

“Morning,” Savigne sighed and Arthur grunted in response.

“Jack here says we should go for a picnic to celebrate! What do you guys think?” She looked from Savigne to Arthur and back.

Savigne was startled by the absurdity of her ask. “Did you actually just ask that?” she managed, trying to be careful with her words since Jack was there.

Abigail winced and Arthur paused at her tone. “Didn’t mean nothing by it,” the other woman said carefully, caught off guard by her reaction.

Savigne gave her a glare before she turned to Arthur and slapped his mug into his hand. “Lucky for you, Arthur here has no gang duties and he’s been itching all morning to do something.” He flicked the spilled coffee off his hand and gave her an annoyed look as she swung herself up on the saddle. “I say you three should go. Have some fun after that ordeal.” 

“Yay!” Jack celebrated. “Where are we going, Uncle Arthur?” 

The look Arthur gave Abigail was so severe, Savigne marveled how the other woman didn’t go up in flames. His voice though was mild when he told Jack “Not today.”

“I meant together,” Abigail hastily said to Savigne. “We ain’t goin’ without you. Obviously.” 

“Why obviously?” Savigne asked coolly. There was an awkward pause. “Did you never picnic together?”

“We did!” Jack exclaimed. Savigne savagely enjoyed the red blotches blooming on Abigail’s porcelain skin.

“That was years ago,” Abigail mumbled.

“Well there you have it!” she drawled. “I’m going to be late, so don’t wait on me.” 

Arthur clenched his jaw and looked away as Jack danced with joy. She turned Cricket around and rode out. 

“Sorry,” Abigail whispered when she was gone. “Was trying to…” 

Arthur gave her a scalding glare. “Didn' ask for yer help, have I?” 

She hastily urged Jack to go play and replied after he ran off: “Didn’ know she was still mad,” a little defensive. “Thought ya made up.”

Arthur threw his coffee out with irritation. “Doubt you did any thinkin’ at all. A picnic, Abigail? God damn now!?”

She withered at the timbre of his voice that made some heads turn.

“Just want things to be like they was, is all.”

“That’s the thing, they ain’t gonna be,” he spat. “You gonna go to yer man from now on. Don’t stray to me for whatever ya need or ‘m gonna be pissed. Should ‘ave stepped down long ago.”

“Why?” she trailed him as he headed to Pearson’s cart.

“Cause it ain’t fair to Savigne and ain’t fair to John and you got even less sense than me if ya can’t see it.” 

“I came to you because he wasn’t there!” she protested. 

“He there now, ain’t he?” he said, throwing his mug at the pile of dirty dishes before he headed in the direction of his tent. “He been there a while, you just wanna do the easy thing. And I let you so I ain’t blameless, but this here is over.” 

“Think I haven’t tried?” she huffed, trying to keep up with his long stride.

“Try harder.”

“But…”

“Jack has a dad and it ain’t me.” He turned on his heels to give her an intense look and she shrank away from it a little, fisting her skirts. “I did right by you. Ya wanna do right by me, you’ll take your son and go have a picnic with John. And you won’ ask me for anythin’ again till I offer.”

“I don’t understand, what changed? We ain’t doin’ nothing, that was years ago!”

“What changed is Savigne ain’t fine with it.”

Her face scrunched and she opened her mouth but he was faster: “You be real careful what you say ‘bout my woman now, ya hear?” She swallowed her words at the warning in his tone. “‘She’s right. I was her, wouldn’t like it, either.” He looked away for a moment. “You know damn well it bothers John, too. Didn’ care cause I told myself he deserved it. That’s on me. But I draw the line at Savigne. You got a man, go put in the work.”

“Was only trying to be nice,” she stammered, visibly upset at his ire.

“Go be nice to John.” He stopped and gave her an icy glare. “Listen here, woman, I ain’t joking. You come to me again, ya gonna see a side of me you wish you didn’,” he spat and walked on, leaving her standing half way. 

Chef Ecco found her struggling to put on a glove over her bandages and said he wants to talk to her in his office. Her stomach flipped. She had already pushed the envelope by taking time off when Arthur had been injured and in light of that, her current injury was dangerous for her attendance. She followed him to his small room with heavy steps, thinking how she could convince him that she can work, injured or not.

"Come in Savigne," he amicably herded her in and she stood in the middle of the small room, heart in mouth. His office looked like any business office - more like a place Mr. Dunham would work in than a chef's room. It was crammed full of files and folders and paperwork and the only indication that this was the work space of a chef were the cookbooks lining the walls. It shouldn't surprise her - at this point in his career Chef Ecco was more a businessman than he was a cook. 

"I can work," she said quickly. "It's not that bad, really."

He gave her a crooked smile. "I like how hardworking you are. But the safety of my cooks is my job, not yours."

"Of course," she breathed.

There was a moment of silence between them. "You like working here?" he said suddenly, leaning against his table and crossing his arms. 

"I love it! I'm learning a lot."

He nodded in approval. "Glad to hear it. I think you are one of the most promising cooks I've had in years." He smiled at the bewilderment in her face. "I mean it," he chuckled. 

"Thank you, chef," she said, not knowing what else to say to such a compliment. 

Another moment of hush and when he spoke next, his voice was mild but there was a timbre of command and seriousness in it she wasn't expecting: "Show me your hand."

She hesitated for a split second, but then extended her left hand. He bounced off the table and came closer and grasped it gently to turn up her palm. "How did this happen?" he mumbled, fingers gliding over the same bandages that Arthur's had hours before. 

"I...a glass shattered under my hand."

"Did it hurt?" he asked, standing too close to her. He's Italian, she thought, they do that.

"Hurts more now than it did then," she replied. Then added: "Which is not much! I can wo-"

The thumb that pressed on her wound sent a flash of pain through her so bright, that it flared up her vision and sizzled her hair roots. She jumped with surprise, instinctively trying to jerk her hand back and opened her mouth to cry out but the sharp shush shocked her into silence. He looked up at her then, his dark eyes intense and calculating and she froze under that look as her mind went blank. 

"Does it hurt when I do this?" he whispered casually and pressed even harder. Savigne bit her tongue, unable to look away and unable to move. The pain was more than she expected, more than she had experienced since she had cut it and the intensity of it threw her off. 

"Yes," she heard herself whisper, her eyes locked to his, spellbound. 

"I see," he mumbled, eyes crawling over her face with something she couldn't name because it was too out of place, too absurd. She took a shuddering breath and tried to retrieve her hand again but his grip was firmer than it should be, so she just stood there like a deer cowering under the gaze of a predator. Distantly she felt the pressure on her palm increase and a tear roll over her cheek, but she couldn't divert her gaze. Time stood still. She could have been there, sizzling under his stare for a moment, a minute or ten minutes, it was impossible to tell. Her mind folded on itself defensively, trying to block out the pain but it was as overwhelming as an undercurrent that grabbed her legs and pulled her under water. She heard herself moan but it changed nothing in his expression.  

Then suddenly, jarringly, it was gone and so was that magnetic look that had held her with iron manacles. He turned away and walked around his desk to sit down as she stood there, dumbfounded, panting hard and cradling her hand. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said and the change in his tone back to spry camaraderie gave her goosebumps. "You can have the rest of the week off."

She just stood there, unable to move for long moments, trying to understand what had just happened and failing. Her mind argued that it was important and alarming while at the same time it argued counter-points: it was nothing, he was just stronger than he realized. He didn't press too hard, she was just more sensitive than she had thought. He just wanted to see if she was faking it. He was just concerned and wanted to assess the severity of her wound. 

She came out of her stupor when he spoke. "Savigne?" Her head whipped to him. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yes," she swallowed. 

"Did you hear what I said?" She nodded, not trusting her voice. "Then go. I will see you Monday."

Somehow the bored dismissal made the entire experience even more bizarre, more confusing. She didn't even realize she was leaving the office until she found herself in the street, blinking at the Saint Denis morning sun.

She stood there a long time, dazed and confused, inspecting her red palm. Next thing she knew, she was standing by a fountain, trying to wash the blood off the bandages. A part of her was furiously attempting to decipher what had happened while another, bigger one wanted to turn away from it. It's nothing. Let it go. It's nothing. You're tired. You're still half drunk. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. 

She let it go with wondrous efficiency and didn't think about it again until much later. 

Not sure what to do other than not wanting to return to camp, she went to a broker and inquired about cabins. The man, Mr. Bowers, was somewhat stupefied by her request.

“But Miss,” he said slowly. “A flat in the city would be much more appropriate for you.” His eyes, as expected, glided to her naked ring finger. “Safer.”

“I can’t afford that,” she said, trying to keep her irritation in check. “Also, I don’t see how that’s any of your concern.”

“But you can’t get a loan from the bank without…do you have a brother? Father? Uncle?”

“You let me worry about the loan,” she quipped. Savigne had been saving since the day she started working, so she had the cash and didn’t need a loan for a humble enough cabin, but she wasn’t about to confess it to some stranger.

“Okay,” he cleared his throat. “That aside, I really have to insist that it’s not s-”

“Sir,” she spat, annoyed. All these men concerned with her safety were starting to get on her nerves. “With all due respect, you don’t know me. I could be the best gunslinger in the East for all you know.”

The astonishment on his face was comical. “True, Miss. But…I mean, are you?”

“You don’t want to find out, do you?” she growled. “My point being, concern for my safety isn’t your job. Do you have cabins that fit the bill or not?”

He sighed and got up. “I’m going to assume you’re just here to inquire. And that you have a gentlemen who can go over the options with you later.”

He produced a list of cabins for sale and a map of the surrounding Saint Denis area that marked them. She rudely swiped them from his hands. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” she hissed and exited the office.

She went back to the harbor, a little worked up about the incident. Then forced herself to calm down and pulled out the list and the map, ruminating on her options. When the noon bells rang, she got up to walk to the steakhouse and hugged Luther. 

“I can see yer still at it,” he grumbled, pointing at her hand. 

She shrugged morosely. 

“Sit yer ass down. Ya ate yet?” 

She pulled up the stool and watched while he made her a steak. After it was done, he cut it into small pieces so she wouldn’t have to with her injured hand and shoved the plate her way. 

There was a long silence between them as she listlessly chewed on the steak. 

“So,” he rumbled finally. “Who done that?” giving her hand a side-eye. 

“I did,” she sniffed. “Drank whiskey and smashed the shot glass.” 

He tsked. “You know ya can’t drink liquor.” 

“I was angry,” she mumbled. With more heat: “Rightfully, I should add.” 

“Uh huh. What done happen now?” 

“Found out he had a fling with someone in camp,” she said through clenched teeth. 

“Really?”

“Well…an old fling.” 

He gave her a look. “How old?” 

She pursed her lips. “I don’t know…like maybe…” he stared at her, unblinking. “Six…” his eyebrow rose, urging her to continue. “…years?” He snorted and she immediately felt offended. “See, you don’t get it either!” 

“Woman, six years? Ya wasn’ even in Saint Denis then!” 

“It’s the hiding that irked me,” she mumbled which was only partially true. She wasn’t about to describe the graphic scenes playing out in her head between Arthur and Abigail to Luther. 

“No that ain’t it,” he scoffed. “Yer jealous…” 

“Please!” she huffed. 

“…cause ya think he might have a thing for her still.” 

“I mean he could.” 

“Then how come he didn’ settle with’er long ago?” 

“Could be a million reasons…” 

He gave her a dry look. “Ya tellin’ me Romeo and Juliet sat in them tents pinin’ for each other for six god damn years in the same camp? Gonna have to excuse my doubt here.” 

She sat, steaming with her inability to come up with a counter. “I don’t know why I come here,” she muttered finally. “Of course you would be on his side.”

“Ain’t on nobody’s side. Barely know the man from Adam.” He jabbed the fork in her direction. “But y’ain’t dumb, you know it makes no sense.”

“I feel pretty dumb right now, that’s for sure,” she muttered.

“Listen here,” he said softer. “Y’aint wrong, they should ‘ave told ya. It’s okay to be mad ‘bout that. Okay to be jealous, too…”

“I’m not jealous,” she objected but he talked on, unperturbed:

“…but the rest is in yer head. Cause yer doin’ yer thing again.”

“Maybe you’re right,” she muttered. “Maybe I’m just looking for excuses to end it.”

“Thought ya loved this guy?”

“I don’t want to be around the gang anymore. And I know he won’t leave.”

“He say so?”

She scraped the remnants of her steak around the plate.

“Lord,” he sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “Forgive me. Cause 'm ‘bout to say some things.”

“Just don’t, Jesus!” she hastily intervened. “I’m going through some rough stuff as it is.” She held up her injured hand for an attempt at sympathy and he took a deep breath and thankfully decided otherwise.

“This Arthur must be some kind o’saint, man deserves a shrine.” He pointed his steak fork in her face. “Ask him. Then if he say no, yer welcome back here and we can badmouth him together. Otherwise, get outta my kitchen.”

“But…”

“Yer a grownass woman. Talk.”

"It's not that easy."

"Hell, you'd think ya can't string two words together. Woman, all you do is talk. Except when ya need to, that is."

She grumbled to herself and watched him turn steaks. "I went to a broker today," she said after a while. 

He gave her a side eye. "Thought ya said ya won' move till you can defend yerself." She pursed her lips and shifted on her stool. "You got better at shootin'?" he pushed.

"No," she admitted miserably. 

"'M about to change my mind on how dumb y'are."

She barreled on: "They talked up and down how I need a man for this and a man for that. Would you sign for me if they won't let me?"

His eyebrows rose. "So you can ask for things when you wanna."

She gave him a dry look. "It's a little different, don't you think?" He gave her a skeptical hum but no answer. "Well, would you?"

"Gotta think 'bout it," he sighed. 

"What's there to think about? I have the money."

"Gotta think how 'm gonna answer The Lord when you get yerself killed. More importantly, how 'm gonna answer this Arthur. The Lord forgives, but I ain't so sure 'bout yer man."

"You know how humiliating it is," she seethed, "that I'm sitting right here and nobody cares what I think?"

"You was as big and mean as him, I'd care plenty what you think."

"He's not going to come after you just because you signed a paper for me," she huffed.

"I would," was his simple response that surprised her. Luther, despite his size, was the most nonviolent man she knew, she didn’t know what to make of that statement.

“He know ya goin’ ‘round lookin’ for cabins?” was his sly question.

“What, I can’t go do stuff by myself anymore?”

“Ain’t what I asked, is it?”

“No," she admitted finally. His eyebrows did a thing. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

"Knew a girl, popped a cork when her man went behind her back to meet some old flame,” he drawled. "Ran all the way to New York, even." He pointed his steak fork in her startled face. "Ya know, you kinda remind me of her."

“Excuse me? How are these things even remotely similar?” she sputtered.

He sighed and lighted a cigarette, sucking on it for a while. "He gonna be mad and hurt if he find out?"

"Probably," she mumbled. "But..."

"Then it's the same thing."

"That's bullsh-"

"Same thing. Ya knows it, why yer doin' it in secret."

She sat speechless for a few minutes, furiously trying to come up with talking points to defend herself when he went on: "Woman, when did ya become such a coward?"

"Hard to build confidence when everyone is constantly telling you how stupid you are," she muttered darkly.

"Cowards blame others," he said smoothly.

"I can't win," she sighed, deflated. She jumped off the stool just as Susan was coming down the steps, saw her, rolled her eyes and went back up the stairs. "I missed you too, Susan!" she called behind her back.

"Go talk to yer man," Luther said, waving his cigarette in her face. "And I'll think 'bout signin' yer paper."

She harrumphed her way to the exit when he called after her: “And don’ drink no damn whiskey!”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she yelled over her shoulder and swiped a glass from the shelf on her way out. 

She bought a bottle of wine and went back to the harbor. A police officer strolled towards her and said she can’t drink in public but she showed him her hand and told him it’s medicine. He gave her nice clothes a look over, nodded with a small smile and strolled away. She sat at the harbor a long time but didn't touch the wine after the first sip. Her stomach was still sour from yesterday and it tasted vile today.

Luther had a point and she hated to admit it. The notion that something profound had happened between Arthur and Abigail had been so very plausible last night but seemed really flimsy today. She racked her memories to come up with proof otherwise - a suspicious look or any kind of awkwardness between them but failed to do so. Arthur treated her the same way he treated most other gang members - like a mild nuisance he tolerated because she happened to be family.

This assuaged some of her anger but unfortunately did little with regards to her jealousy. Was it ridiculous to be jealous of something long before her time? Absolutely. Was she jealous anyway? Yes. This must be one of those embarrassing, dumb things that happens when you really fall for a guy, she thought because she hadn’t felt anything like it for her former flames. In fact most of those had moved on to other girls and some even had married and she had hardly thought about it, let alone throw a fit and smash glasses.

She noticed that the sun had set, so she went and had dinner. When it still wasn’t late enough, she went to a show, although afterwards she couldn't recall much what she had watched. Then she finally had run out of excuses and had to go back to camp.

When she arrived, it was very late but surprisingly lively. People were still riding the rescue high. She saw Arthur’s silhouette jump up from the fire and march over before she could even dismount and rolled her eyes at the lecture she was about to receive.

“Where ya been?” he seethed as he shouldered her aside to take the saddle off. “Came to pick you up, ya never left work.”

“Why did you do that?”

“What d’ya mean, why? Wan’ed to see you.” 

God, you would think a great catastrophe had befallen him when all she had done was give him the cold shoulder for two days! First conflict they had since they had moved in together and half the time he acted irritated because she wouldn't let him "fix" things and the other half, upset as if he was suffering through some great injustice.

“I just asked because I assumed you’d be at your picnic,” she said coolly.

“Was no picnic,” he gave her a hard look. “Ya gonna answer or what - where was you?”

“Chef gave me the day off,” she said dismissively, hefting her basket, but he quickly swiped that off her hands, too. She threw up her arms in frustration and started towards their tent.

“So where was you?” he said as he walked with her.

“Saint Denis,” was her evasive answer.

“Lemme guess,” was his dry retort. “Luther.” He seemed annoyed that she preferred to run to Luther instead of talking to him, but he didn't voice it. 

“Among other things.”

“What other things?”

“Wouldn’t you want to know?”

“Why didn’ you come home?” 

“Wanted to be alone,” she shrugged. 

This visibly frustrated him, but he didn't voice that, either. "I ain’t happy you coming in this late,” he grumbled as they reached the tent. “Bad folk out there.” 

“Bad folk in here, too,” she quipped and it silenced him for a few moments. 

He closed the flap behind them and put the basket aside. 

“Savigne...” he started but she interrupted him:

“I already listened to enough nonsense today, I’m all talked out.”

“What nonsense?”

“Everybody thinks I’m a fool,” she grumbled, yanking the pins out of her hair. “You have to wonder how I’m tying my shoelaces every morning, being as stupid as I am.” She threw the pins into the box with fervor and sat in front of the mirror, picking non existent lint off her blouse. It had stung, the way Mr Bowers had looked at her. And the truth of Luther’s words. And Abigail’s dumb insensitivity. And Arthur’s blindness to her point of view.

It occurred to her that she didn’t have anyone who stepped in and acknowledged her feelings and her frustration. She was surrounded by people who constantly told her she was wrong or too sensitive or too naive. And the fact that she had picked these people meant it was her doing, although she couldn’t fathom why she was doing it. 

“Y’aint no fool,” he said carefully and sat down at the table. “Lemme see the hand.”

“My hand is fine, she mumbled, thinking that she needed to pick better people. Softer people. People who would for once carry her banner to battle instead of stabbing her in the back with it.

“Lemme see,” he insisted. “Could get infected.”

She sat across from him and did as asked because the last thing she needed now was an infection. He paused when he unwound the bandages.

"What happened to yer hand?" 

Something stirred in her head and she reflexively pushed it down.

He looked up at her. "Did ya hurt it again?"

She looked at the blood, pooled purple under her skin and the gashes, wider now, more swollen than before. "No."

He gazed at her a long moment and she stared back, her mind placid and empty. Then he sighed and went about cleaning it. She bit her lip to keep in the hiss because it hurt. 

“Had a bad day, huh?” he said after a short silence. 

“Quite horrible actually.”

“Me too,” he said. 

“You should have gone to that picnic I guess,” she quipped.

He inhaled a frustrated breath, trying to remain calm. “Woman,” he said carefully, “I can’t change the past. Ain’t fair yer actin’ like I betrayed you cause I fucked someone six years ago.”

“Not just someone. Abigail! She’s right here!” Her arm waved in the camp’s direction.

“Didn’ know she was gonna stick around, did I?” was his heated response. “That she was gonna be John’s woman? That she was gonna have a kid and become family? She changed. Ya gonna tell her she can’t cause she did what she did for a livin’?”

She clicked her tongue and looked away. There was a long silence during which she watched him work, marveling how gentle he could be with hands like those. He finished wrapping and tied the knot but held on to her hand when she tried to pull it back; running his fingers over the edges of the bandages, pretending to adjust minor imperfections. The gesture reminded her of something uncomfortable but she couldn't place it and he spoke up and distracted her before long:

“Been quiet in here,” he murmured, eyes flicking up to her. “I miss yer chirping.”

She pressed her lips, afraid that she would forgive him right then and there. It was hard to resist Arthur when he was present in person, always had been. And he must know it too, because whenever he wanted to erode her resolve, he made sure to be impossible to shake off.   

"You know what I'm realizing?" she sniffed, eager to change the subject. "That Dutch is right about one thing at least. Life is easier with a family." He watched her while he held her injured hand and drew circles on the back of it with his thumb. "Maybe I didn't understand it because I wasn't really on my own before."

"How do you mean?"

She shrugged. "Growing up in an orphanage...I didn't have to do a lot of things myself, it was done for me. Like, I didn't have to protect myself. I didn't have to go out there and deal with..." she swallowed the word 'broker' at the last moment. "...institutions. That sort of thing," she mumbled. "Guess it gave me this false sense of independence. Like I can do whatever I want and it doesn't matter if I'm alone. I’m finding out that it’s hard.”

"But y’aint alone," he said quietly, the statement lilting like a question. Nothing in his expression changed but something in his demeanor shifted as his sharp focus came to rest on her. 

"Not what I meant," she squirmed in her chair, feeling like she had said too much.

"What did you mean?" he pressed, his gaze unblinking.

"Nothing. Just...that it's hard for a woman on her own, that's all," she said dismissively. 

She pulled at her hand again, but again, he didn't let go. He didn't look away when he leaned his elbows on the table and asked "But y'aint on yer own. Are you?" Now there was a tinge of offense in his tone.

"I meant in general," she mumbled but she could tell he didn't buy it.

"Did you?" was his mild question. His attention on her was so intense, she practically felt naked. There was a bout of silence.

"Where was you today?" he asked calmly.

It was bizarre how much she felt like a little girl caught by one of the nuns at the orphanage. Lying was of no use, Arthur read her too god damn well.

“I went to inquire about cabins,” she admitted with some hesitation. 

He flinched as if she had slapped him. There was a long silence as he looked at her with disbelief and she stared back, a little uneasy about the intensity of his reaction. She sensed his surprise, and not merely surprise that she had snooped around, but surprise of her intentions. Surprise that she was entertaining the idea of walking away - not just from the gang, but from him too, if necessary.

“You serious?” The incredulity in his voice was obvious.

"I just wanted to know my options,” was her defensive response as she withdrew her hand.

He ran a palm over his beard and looked away. 

“It’s not like I’m moving to Europe,” she managed a moment later. “I’m going to be close to Saint Denis…” she trailed. This didn't do anything for his building agitation. 

“No.” Said with the finality of a gunshot.

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

When she had bid him goodbye in Saint Denis as she was boarding the train, he had had the very same look on his face as he did now. Arthur wasn't stupid, he knew what was going through her head probably better than she knew herself, but he obviously disagreed with her decision and he was getting ready to push back.

He set his jaw, shoulders rigid. “Lemme put things straight.” His voice was calm but the fire dancing in his eyes gave off palpable heat. He leaned on the table, looking at her from under his eyebrows. "It's gonna be a cold day in hell before I let ya go get killed in some cabin.”

She sat back with a sigh. You can come with me, she wanted to say, but couldn't. Now that she was at the cusp of it, it was harder than she imagined. Because if she never asked, she could always pretend that he would. But if she asked, he could say no. He probably would say no. He definitely would say no.

“Arthur,” she swallowed, “I appreciate it, I do. But…”

“I ain’t agreeing to this,” he said, crossing his arms.

“You don’t have to."

“Savigne,” was his sigh of frustration, “don’ fight me on this.”

“Someone has to think of me,” she grumbled. Did he think this was an easy decision for her?

“Ya think I ain’t?” he said, equal parts incredulous and offended. “I'm your man. Your safety is my job.”

“I think maybe you have too many jobs,” she countered, trying to put it gently.

"What's that 'sposed to mean?" he asked but it was obvious he understood her well enough. 

"I'm tired," she said, feeling dejected. It was pointless. He didn't want her to leave which was heart warming but he didn't understand why she had to, and that was irritating. "I don't want to fight you anymore."

"Good."

She rolled her eyes. "I mean I don't want to argue."

"Also good."

He sat there, arms crossed, tense as a bowstring, head averted, a mixture of sullen and pouty which, frankly, looked a bit silly on someone like him. He was trying not to show it but she could sense his hurt and surprisingly, it didn't give her the satisfaction she thought it would. Because, she reminded herself, Arthur hadn't led her on. She had done that to herself. 

"My hand hurts," she said a moment later. "If you could bring in some water..."

He blinked at her, a little startled that she had made a request. "Sure," he said and rose up.

The enthusiasm and pleasure with which he went about the simple task twisted her heart.

[sezez]

I have a confession to make, may I have mercy for what I'm bout to say but uh...

I honestly hate how FMA:B handles Mustang and Hawkeye's relationship. Yes, you heard me right. I hate it.

But this is a personal thing, I'm not saying the show did a bad job at showing it or anything! However, I shall allow you to get your flamethrowers out.

It's just... I'm a big FMA 03 fan, and I just prefer how Mustang is portrayed as this mysterious boss who seems to care about himself and will do what it takes to get to the top. And Hawkeye being his right-hand woman, keeping an eye on him and making sure he isn't making a fool of himself.

And I honesty just dislike how Hawkeye looks in Brotherhood, I- I just don't like how her eyes look because she is meant to be this serious and intimidating character since she is entitled to be "The Hawk's Eye"

But in Brotherhood, her eyes look far too innocent for that to match with her title. And I prefer how her eyes look in 03, having a sharper edge and her eyes being a amber brown then a chocolate brown.

I'm sorry Brotherhood!Hawkeye, I just don't like how less intimidating you are compare to 03!Hawkeye. You can shoot me more times than you did to Lust.

Anyway, onto my problems with the relationship...

I just don't like how much it's presented in the show, like the viewer can see there's something going on between them. Like it's so obvious, it's frustrating to look at and how other characters don't see it too.

While in 03, it's much more quiet and it feels the relationship they have is natural and hidden from everyone, including the viewers with only little hints to them having a deeper connection than we thought.

And the biggest issue I have with this is during the moment when Hawkeye shot Lust multiple times because she thought her boss was dead.

Yeah, I hate how she had a mental breakdown immediately after a Homunculi who's very likely to lie and manipulate her.

I just- I just expected her to handle the situation better, like girl- you know this man for years and there will be times where he might die given his status, position, and power. I know you're whole job is to protect him and follow where he goes, but- just... There WILL be a time where, he just dies.

And just, I expected her to not take Lust's words seriously so soon despite not seeing Mustang's dead ass. And I dislike how fast it was for her to react that way, like there's no slow moment or proof that he's dead to her.

So why did she just... Fired her gun at Lust like a little child throwing a tantrum because she couldn't find her favorite toy?

So, now that I have most likely have tons of people pointing their guns at me, I'll just say one more thing about what I liked in 03 more than in Brotherhood.

The parallel between in 03 where Hawkeye cries over a presume dead Mustang after he got his eye shot and in Brotherhood where Mustang holds a injured Hawkeye.

In Brotherhood, I was really annoyed with Mustang. Cause, dude, your wife is bleeding out and your just being held by some of mindless men that are just HOLDING YOU BY THE ARMS AND YOUR HANDS ARE COMPLETELY FREE for you to snap your fingers and burn them all. And the way he held her after she got saved is cute, but annoying that he didn't do shit and he was REALLY useless in that moment.

And honestly I wished Mustang stayed blind, hell, maybe his eyes could have been taken out all together like how Ed lost his leg or Izumi having her guts ripped out. Also the moment doesn't feel sad or worrying to me, it's just frustration because he can do SOMETHING in that moment.

Now what I liked in 03, I really enjoy that throughout the series, Hawkeye is some distant person who just seems done with her job and the colonel's bullshit. But the moment when she was running up to the Fuhrer's mansion, and seeing him on the ground with a puddle of blood, she goes to him and calls his name out.

And she cries when she didn't get a response, and that's what I liked more. She doesn't immediately cries, she checks to make sure he's with her. That moment felt more emotional and powerful to me than in FMA:B.

And I want to thank you all coming to my personal opinion on a lovely ship, I will gladly take any hits from you all and have a good day, afternoon, and night.

[givehimthemedicine]

🛹🛼

lots of talk about why Mike reacted so negatively to this when he reacted so positively to this:

can we talk about how the Rinkomania reaction started in between those two things? right here:

at mid-season-2, all the times Mike has seen El use force against people have been super justified because there were lives at stake (or at very least, like in the case of tossing Lucas in the junkyard, she thought there were)

then Max wipes out, and goes "ooh it was like a magnet pulled on my board" and instead of taking that the way anyone would - that this annoying girl fell due to lack of skill and is trying to save face with a stupid excuse - INSTANTLY Mike suspects El. El, who's currently dead or lost in another dimension or whatever, must actually be lurking around here with nothing better to do than trip Max.

ok 100% accurate but I'm offended nonetheless

why did he jump to that conclusion?

the last time some inexplicable, physical but nonlethal hijinks befell someone he was talking to, he turned around and saw who was responsible:

so when Max fell, in that same gym btw, of course his brain goes turn around, look at what you seee

this was Mike learning that, oh, El isn't Superman and doesn't reserve her powers only for perfectly morally justified situations, but can in fact lash out about anything that bothers her, like the disturbed child she is.

BUT I don't think he actually processed that at that moment. he wasn't thinking about how Max did absolutely nothing that could be misinterpreted as a threat, and didn't deserve this. at that moment, any thought of justice for Max, or scrutiny of El's motives, was easily and completely drowned out by excitement that El might be there.

so later Mike sees Angela screaming on the ground with El standing over her, and remembers he has already seen El respond to a non-life-threatening situation with a level of force that didn't make sense to him.

plus he has that whole protection thing and I think seeing anyone get hurt is paladin catnip to him (see him rushing to Max's aid two seconds after telling her she's annoying). he has that instinct to support whoever's been knocked down undeservedly - yeah he knows Angela is an asshole, but El's response seems overboard to him, so while he doesn't go as far as rushing to Angela's side, he doesn't rush to El's side either.

he keeps distance between himself and El at the rink and leaves her sitting alone in the most literal demonstration of not wanting to take her side. he seems irritated in the car and downright pissed at the dinner table. I think it's true that he was overwhelmed in the moment and scared not of El but of the situation, but I don't think that's all of it, because then why would he be pissed.

maybe he's seeing patterns and thinking back on how Max didn't deserve that at all, and how neither of these things were very Superman of El and he's a bit disillusioned that she doesn't live up to the flawless superhero moral code he assigns her in his mind.

while the Angela thing seems WAY harsher than the Max thing, can I also say that a lot of that is due to circumstances?

Angela's pouring blood, wailing, an ambulance has to come, there's lots of witnesses. it looks baaaad. Max isn't injured, isn't too bothered, and there are no witnesses or real consequences. shrug. but it easily could've gone down much more like Angela. you can absolutely break a bone or get a concussion from a spill like Max's.

Max isn't hurt, so Mike just leaves the room, and nothing ever comes of it. compare to Mike watching an inevitably-to-be-arrested El sit stewing in the aftermath as dozens of Angela's sympathizers watch her get checked for brain damage by EMTs.

it's little wonder Mike has such a different reaction in the moment, even though El's actions in these two scenes actually isn't totally night and day.

El's force was more deliberately focused on Angela, and I think El did intend to hurt Angela in a way she didn't intend to hurt Max (El yoinked the skateboard rather than bodily targeting Max herself, but her intent was still to make Max fall, and she could have been comparably injured as a result).

like, up til the point of "El gets mad and lashes out" these are similar - the way the aftermath unfolds just happens to take the best and worst possible paths, respectively.

and before you want to point out that the Angela thing was a reaction of anger and the Max was just about puppy love jealousy, no, that was anger. Max is literally the first thing El thinks of when Kali says to think of something that angers her.

tldr; rinkomania is just a nightmare remix of the gym scene to Mike

[count-alucard-tepes]

King x Fem Lunarian reader!

An unexpected encounter… Part 5

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 6

A week or so later, Kaido and Big Mom were defeated.

Y/N hadn’t heard anything from King and was growing worried with each day but she couldn’t act on her own…not just yet.

Big Mom’s whereabouts were unknown, whether she was dead or alive…no one knew but no one mourned at the same time. The Charlotte siblings didn’t show much emotion about it and all the decisions were being handled by Katakuri and Perospero.

Y/N would make her way to Katakuri, “…the silence is deafening on Whole cake Island…I’m not sure whether to be worried or not…”, she murmured as she folded her arms across her chest.

“…I’m not surprised, you of all knew the relationship we had with our mother…it was nothing normal…everyone is not getting their hopes up high”, he replied calmly.

She sighed softly in response, “…Will we go to Wano?”, she asked curiously.

“No, it will not be safe for us there now that the marines are somewhat involved…it’s best for us to just remain here for now”, he said looking thoughtful, “…as far as I know…King was defeated by a swordsman…”.

She looked up at him and clenched her jaw a little, “…I see”, she said quietly.

“…there wasn’t a body found so I cannot confirm his status yet…prepare yourself though, Y/N”, he said as delicately as he could.

There were so many thoughts running through her mind, her feelings were becoming overwhelming at that point but she still had to keep it together just until she was alone.

“…if there is anything I can do to help, let me know…”, she said softly before walking out.

She would fly off to somewhere secluded, just to be alone with her thoughts.

It was a short relationship, right? She shouldn’t be feeling so many emotions but then why was she going through it all right now!?

Maybe because of the moments they spent in Skypeia, that’s what was pulling on her heartstrings or perhaps…she was in love.

____________________________________________

During the night, Y/N’s DDM rang several times until she answered as she rubbed her eyes tiredly, “…hello?”.

“…Y/N, I need you to come to the infirmary immediately…when you get here I’ll explain”, Katakuri said gently, “…hurry up”.

She sat in bed and yawned lazily before pouting. It was 2 am, what had happened that required her to go to the infirmary of all places and Katakuri seemed fine so it was him being injured.

She sighed in annoyance and got dressed before making her way to the infirmary, she’d find Katakuri and Perospero both standing outside the surgery doors.

“…I’ll leave this situation with the both of you…”, Perospero said as he smirked at Y/N and headed out.

“…what’s going on?”, Y/N asked as she looked at Katakuri.

He pointed to the window so that she could take a look inside and when she did, her eyes widened.

It was King and he seemed to be having some surgery done.

“…how the fuck did he get here?”, she asked, clearly shocked by what she was seeing.

“…well that’s not the reaction I expected but anyway, the beast pirates that were not defeated managed to grab him while he was unconscious and took him on a ship while all hell broke loose at Onigashima…my siblings found their ship close to our borders and brought him as well as the others for treatment…”, Katakuri said calmly as he folded his arms across his chest.

She looked at King as he laid on the table as the doctors worked on him, once he was out of surgery, she went to his recovery room and sat close.

“…I’ll stay with him…thank you for letting him come on the island, let alone live to see another day”, she said gently at Katakuri.

“This is temporary only because of our relationship, little bird…once he is healed, he needs to leave….you understand this”, he said calmly, “…I’ll see you in the morning”.

She blushed at the familiar nickname that he gave her the first time they met when she was a child and he only called her this when he was being endearing towards her.

Y/N nodded and watched her commander leave.

She pulled a chair close to King’s bed and held his hand in hers. She nuzzled his face lovingly, “…you asshole, you owe him one for this…”, she whispered.

____________________________________________

The sun rose pretty early since it was the summer months and the hospital room was much warmer.

King’s eyes fluttered as he slowly began waking up and looked around the room, he didn’t recognize the place but soon he realized he was in a hospital. He could feel someone cuddling his arm and looked down to see Y/N completely passed out but clinging to him as if he would run away if she didn’t.

He smiled a little before he ran his free hand through his hair and closed his eyes as he tried to recall all that had happened that could have resulted to this very moment.

He sighed softly, “….Y/N, wake up”, he said softly as he reached down to stroke her hair slowly.

Y/N groaned softly as she woke up and looked up to see King staring back at her, she gasped and quickly went to hug him tightly, “You’re awake! Thank goodness!”, she said before kissing all over his face lovingly.

He smiled a little, “…easy tiger…I seem to have stitches”, he said softly as he nuzzled her neck slowly, his hand stroking her back slowly.

She was more gentle with him and blushed a little, “I’m sorry…I got a little too excited”, she said gently, giving him some kisses.

He kissed her back slowly, pulling her closer to him, “…I thought I wasn’t going to see you again…not in this life at least”, he whispered into the kiss.

“…I’m just glad you’re okay and here with me…”, she said softly.

“…where are we exactly?”, he asked out of curiosity.

“We’re in Whole cake Island…”, she said gently, “…one of the beast pirate ships had you on board…Big Mom and Kaido’s whereabouts and statuses are unknown at this time…”.

It took a moment for King to understand all that was going on but for now he had to recover and then he could go look for Kaido…at least he could be with his love for a while.

“Katakuri letting me be here must be a thorn to his side…”, he said with a little smirk.

Y/N huffed, “…don’t be like that, he’s being nice…I told you he’s a cool guy”.

“…yeah…he likes us, Lunarians…”, he said teasingly as he pulled her close again.

She smiled a little and gave him some kisses, “…hm…no, he just likes me and knows I love you…”, she said before realizing what she actually said and blushed brightly, “…I mean…”.

“…what was that? You love me? Did I hear that correctly?”, he asked with a smirk as he pulled her as a tight as he could with hurting himself.

Y/N pouted and buried her face into his chest, “…stop making it worse…”.

He chuckled in response and rubbed her back gently, “…I love you too, Y/N…should have said that before you left me”.

Everything that happened at Onigashima was such a blur, in hindsight, he was glad she was out of there before it all went down…she could have got hurt…her crew too.

Part of him wondered if Kaido was still alive and if the Beast pirates were still going to exist. It was all too much to worry about right now with how little he knew as well.

____________________________________________

Once he was discharged from the infirmary, Y/N took him to her home and would care of him while he recovered.

Katakuri would come to her home as he normally did from time to time but this time he wanted to talk with King since they haven’t had a chance. Y/N was in the kitchen preparing lunch.

“…you healed pretty fast…I should have known better since Y/N is pretty much the same”, he said gently as he leaned against the door frame before walking out to the porch.

King smiled a little as he stood up slowly and followed him to the porch, “Yes, that is primarily due to Y/N forcing me to rest all the time…something I am not used to but I do appreciate her care…”, he sighed softly before looking at Katakuri, “…I wanted to thank you for allowing me to stay here while recovering, Katakuri…I know we have had our differences in the past but I owe you one”.

Katakuri looked at him calmly, “…I am only doing this because of Y/N…she may have forgiven you for how you attacked her upon meeting her the first time…but I haven’t…you will leave this island once you’re able to fly again…”, he stated coldly.

King sighed softly but nodded in understanding, “…I understand completely…”.

“Good because if you try to hurt her in anyway again…there’s no way I’d let you survive….no one hurts my siblings…be they blood related or not”, he said as the tension began to grow between them.

King and Katakuri glared at each other, the threat was not for nothing but one was injured and the other did not wish to upset his second in command.

“…lunch is ready…shall we eat?”, Y/N said as she found them on the porch.

Both King and Katakuri looked at her, before nodding and following behind.

((Somewhat adapted from the original storyline with my own twist to make it a little angsty and my own, ah lovers reunited in a bittersweet way))

[wutheringskies]

The take about Jiang cheng and the dogs thing was kinda strange to me. Unfortunately, children don't regulate their emotions very well. When their feelings get overwhelming, they don't act with compassion or empathy, they react to the immediate situation, especially when a new sibling is involved. It's pretty common for a kid to feel forgotten or unloved when a new sibling comes along, and when you're at that age, anger is a common reaction to things like that. I don't think him being mad about losing his dogs and then kicking Wuxian out shows sociopathy or even just a lack of empathy toward Wuxian specifically. It's just being a kid, especially being a kid who's gotten to have the attention suddenly being left out of the attention (or at least feeling that way) when a new sibling comes along.

In Jiang Cheng's case it is more like, even before Wei Wuxian arrived, he felt he was unloved, and didn't have he attention onto him (great parenting madam yu and jfm!); and of course, you are right. Being childish at an age where you are, well, a child is no issue. It's endearing.

But what I also wish to restate is that Jiang Cheng was already eight or nine years old. I do feel "empathy" is something natural to people; yet the point still isn't about what he did when he was 8 or 9 years old.

The post I'd targeted said something like Jiang Cheng "gave and gave" and Wei Wuxian "took and took." Him acting like a child would, at the age of 8 or 9, isn't a big deal. But I wished to draw more attention to the detail that his current actions (whether it be 36 years old, or 20 years old) were still similar to the actions of his younger self!

I don't wish to condemn him for being an average child; people change a lot when they grow up, but in his case, the tragedy is that he didn't.

He has never encouraged Wei Wuxian's interactions with anyone other than himself; if someone praises him, or gives him attention, he finds it an insult to his own self; he uses his fears against Wei Wuxian; instead of taking responsibility he shirks it off, letting Wei Wuxian hide the truth (about just WHAT the Wens had done for them) and bear his debts, and keep his name clear. When Wei Wuxian acts on his own he thinks it was a personal offense to him.

That's why I found that scene important - Jiang Yanli tries to catch Wei Ying but fails and he gets injured anyways (like when she had him come for JL's 100th day but he got ambushed); she tries to maintain a peace between the two and this "pact" grows thinner and thinner and completely snaps after she's gone.

Similarly, even after his death, Wei Wuxian doesn't tell Lan Wangji why he climbed that tree though he remembers. He thinks Madam Yu wasn't that cruel. The only growth he has is that this time, instead of asking to be let in, he leaves on his own, exhausting his patience.

But Jiang Cheng? Jiang Cheng felt bitter, unloved, stuck in his own misery, thinking his parents loved Wei Wuxian more than him, scaring him with dogs, fearing the repurcussions. But now? His parents are long dead. Wei Wuxian died for 13 years. Yet, he hasn't changed at all.

That's the point I wanted to make by using the parallels of that childhood event. Having no space for empathy at that age wasn't "wrong" but it's the fact he never gains it throughout his life.

Honestly, I must say it's a bit surprising that out of all the things I said in that post, this stood out to you. But if it is genuine concern, then that is all well ^^

[mystech-master]

Hazbin Hotel AU/Rewrite idea: Aurora Carmine

There are two complaints I have seen about Hazbin Hotel

The Angelic Weapon weakness is stupid. How come no one figured it out before?

Please Let Vaggie have a character outside of being Charlie's GF.

I, like many others, have latched onto the idea of Carmilla being a mother figure to Vaggie, and the AUs where she is outright adopted. I recently had an idea where I took this concept and expanded on it to TRY and solve the two above issues.

The reason it is called the Aurora Carmine AU is because Carmilla's existing daughters, Odette and Clara, are named after characters from ballets written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, them being Swan Lake and the Nutcracker respectively. So a third daughter would be Aurora, from Sleeping Beauty. Whether or not this would actually be Vaggie's true name, rather than the Vagina name Adam gave her, would depend on if she IS truly Carmilla's biological daughter that somehow got separated from her.

Ok so what do we know about Vaggie? She was one of Adam's top exorcists who spared a Sinner child and in response, Lute mutilated her and left her for dead.

For my idea, expand on Vaggie's hesitation to kill a kid. It shows she has standards, not everyone in Hell deserves Extermination, but that doesn't mean she is against it entirely. Maybe, much like Moxie in Helluva Boss episode 1 Murder Family, she thinks they should be more selective and actually go after the real pieces of shit, like Overlords. Imagine if Vaggie becomes the top girl to Adam because she tries to go after Overlords, not weak everyday Sinners. She thinks that by having the Overlords be targeted more it'll discourage other Sinners from seeking that power, but all it does is cause the next up-and-coming Overlord from rotating in. For some extra trouble maybe she is the reason some Overlords are in power now, like Valentino, thus making her partially responsible that Angel Dust is under him as she opened the way for Val to gain that power.

Anyway this continues until the Extermination where she ends up letting a Sinner go, but it isn't a child, that is way too obvious and easy. Instead, it is Odette, who went out to collect the Angelic Weapons early before the Exterminations are nearly over because she has been working herself to the bone to stay useful to her mother because she has it in her head that she has to do everything she can to not be a burden. After all, her mom worked so hard to get where she is so their family can be safe. It was meant to be a whole other idea where I explored where Carmilla draws the line between being a mother who cares for her kids and being a cruel Overlord who can't show weakness.

Odette is nearly exhausted, probbaly injured, and possibly on some kind of drugs to keep herself awake when Vaggie encounters her, Odette is desperately crawling away, Clara tries to come in and help her. But instead Vaggie sympathisers with the need to feel needed, and lets them go.

For Lute damaging Vaggie, here is my idea for how Angels would work differently. Angels are more like Sinners here. You CAN damage them, but they regenerate like INSTANTLY, like Lobo but maybe slightly slower. Unlike the Sinners who take a while to heal from their non-angelic injuries. Here, Lute removes Vaggie's Halo, which is what causes them to heal so quickly (this can only be done by a fellow angel or one of higher rank to explain why no Sinner does this), this means the injuries will heal much slower and thus leave her open to be taken out or beaten up or abused by the various Sinners once they come out after the Extermination.

When Carmiulla goes to find her daughters and bring them home, they encounter Vaggie's broken and bleeding form, Odette and Clara say she spared them, and Carmilla decides to take Vaggie home. After all, had it been ANY other Exorcist, her daughters would be dead. She owes her.

Back at Carmilla's place of course they need to treat the wounds. We know Hell has medical stuff that can treat angelic wounds down in Sloth, but those are A. in another Ring, and B. was only used for a noble Goetia. But Carmilla probably has some black market contacts to get some stuff to help. I doubt Pentagram City has a hospital considering Sinners heal and they are SUPPOSED to be dying from Angelic Weapons.

But now another problem, based on how Verosika's Beelzejuice alcohol mutated that fish in Spring Broken, Hell's chemicals have a mutative effect on non-Hell entities. so using the Hell medicine to jumpstart her healing ends up causing her to become a sort of semi-fallen Angel and gain the moth traits that everyone likes to give her. Lucifer became Fallen through an official process it seems while canon!Vaggie was just mutilated but is still physiologically no different from any other Angel.

Carmilla offers her a place at Carmine Industries as she could prove useful in some ways, she already shared her daughters' lives so Carmilla already saved hers. She knows to take advantage of a situation, even if she is still grateful. I mean it isn't like Vasggie has anywhere else to go.

So Vaggie stays there for a bit, possibly doing more desk work than being out among Hell so they can keep an eye on her and she is inexperienced with Hell. Eventually, Clara or Odette could stop playing up the "We are the powerful in-control demons who own you" act and just be casual with her and try to hang out with her. Expressing their own gratitude.

Yada yada yada, a lot of slow-burn bonding where Vaggie becomes more acquainted to Hell. This would all take place either in the 80s like she was first conceptualized, or in 2014 like she was later. To give her more of a history before Charlie.

Things get sour though, because Vaggie has her own opinions on Carmine's business. She is selling Angelic Weapons to people in the street, essentially causing the endless death to not just stop after the Exterminations are over. She has been strict but fair, so why doesn't she use the Angelic Weapons she's gathered to enforce some kind of Order in Hell? Why is she just using her power and influence to hide and protect herself instead of trying to do good? Carmilla of course points out how this is stupid and how that would invite a lot of dangerous people to retaliate. You work with the system, not against it. This is Hell, you adapt to the chaos, not try to tame it.

This causes friction between the two which ruins any chance at them deepening their relationship because Vaggie is really someone who wants to feel useful but still has a good enough head on her shoulders to know when she is ordered to do something wrong.

Then Vaggie meets Charlie and ends up befriending her, this would be before the Hotel gets fully built so she hasn't announced it to anyone, but Charlie wants to do something to help with the Exterminations and Vaggie starts to get a bit on board with it. Yeah Charlie is a bit naive about it, but at least she is ACTIVELY trying to do something to help Hell rather than use her privilege as a shield.

Eventually, Vaggie moves out with Charlie and the plot of Hazbin goes on as per usual.

When Carmilla fights the Exorcists, she puts a new theory to the test, based on a situation she noticed with Vaggie. After she was made into a pseudo-fallen, she seemed to become as vulnerable to Angelic Steel as any other Sinner. So it isn't just one kick from her Angelic Steel boots that does the Exorcist in, Carmilla has a grenade that has its shrapnel laced with Demonic Chemicals so when they pierce the Exorcist's bodies, they infect and corrupt the body during the regeneration process, allowing them to be vulnerable to the Angelic Weapons. I think by adding this little extra step it doesn't overcomplicate things but also makes it make a bit more sense why no one figured it out before, because Carmine is the only one to get a close look at an Angel like she did.

Now of course this would add some stuff to the canon show as well, like Vaggie likely having some reaction to Clara and Odette bringing over the weapons for Sir Pentious, and the interaction with Carmilla for the Angelic Weapon weakness in Hello Rosie. Maybe Vaggie didn't know it was the Hell Medicine affecting her that made her Fallen and thus vulnerable, maybe she thought it was just a natural effect of Hell on her, or something due to her being kicked out by the Exorcists. So her learning that Carmilla took this knowledge from her and made it into a weapon that has caused a lot of trouble could be viewed as a big breach of trust.

Vaggie would obviously have sparred with Clara and Odette in her years with them so the fight wouldn't be AS one-sided, because Vaggie would know they can take advantage of her offense-only fighting style.

I moreso just had the backstory details worked out so I have no idea where the canon relationship would change from here, but I think it is an interesting idea.

There might be SOME things I missed or overlooked, so please point those out if you see them and how it might mess with the story and it's cohesion.

[itsthislake]

AU where Shen Jiu kills the Protagonist

So I had this idea for a sv AU where the System glitches around the time Airplane transmigrates and for whatever reason has an error that makes it think that Character Luo Binghe is a Threat to the integrity of the Story and needs to be eliminated. So naturally, the system searches for the Character Most Likely To Kill Luo Binghe in the story: The Scum Villain, Shen Qingqiu.

Meanwhile, 12-year-old Shen Jiu who was recently captured by the Qiu family, is very confused and wary of this weird disembodied voice that suddenly recruited him for a mission. But hey, it offered to take him to his Qi-ge in exchange for completing the mission, so whatever! He’ll get rid of this “threat“ if that’s what it takes— whatever it is. But of course, he’s not dumb. He doesn’t trust this system as far as he can throw it (that is, not at all, since it doesn’t have a physical form) so he insists that he find Yue Qi first before finishing the mission, which the system agrees with the warning that Shen Jiu will be punished accordingly if he doesn’t complete the mission successfully.

So, the system guides him out of the Qiu estate and towards the city at the foot of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, where the system says is Yue Qi (14 years old). Though Shen Jiu refuses to believe it until he sees it with his own two eyes.

Shen Jiu makes it there just in time for the disciple selection and manages to get into Qing Jing peak. As soon as physically possible, he sneaks out or tricks a shixiong/shijie into giving him an errand to Qiong Ding (where the system said was Qi-ge) and asks around until he finds Yue Qi— who looks absolutely exhausted, but it’s before he has his qi deviation and gets trapped in the LingXi caves so he’s fine.

They have a tearful reunion, of course. Shen Jiu doesn’t tell Yue Qi about the system or the mission because it won’t let him, but he easily spins a story of how he saw his chance to escape and took it. Yue Qi apologizes for not being faster, but Shen Jiu just calls him an idiot. Honestly, he’s been an outer disciple of Qiong Ding for six months, what is he going to accomplish at that point?

With them training together (for the eventuality that Qiu Jianluo comes back for Shen Jiu or something) and without having their cultivations damaged, they soon start to climb up the ranks in their respective peaks. It doesn’t take long before their Shizuns notice them make them head disciples, at ages 15 and 17 respectively. Yue Qi gets his spiritual sword, Xuan Su, and the brothers celebrate together.

The war against Tianlang-Jun happens in the background. From Shen Jiu’s POV, all he knows is that his Shizun and Qi-ge had to go fight a Demon Lord with Huan Hua Palace while he had to stay in the peak because he doesn’t have his spiritual sword yet. He distracts himself by doing the work his Shizun can’t do because they’re too busy with the battle.

Anyhow, they both come back safely and Shen Jiu fusses over Yue Qi to kingdom come. Yue Qi is fine, if a little shaken, and has nightmares for a while after, but nothing too bad. He also becomes extra busy picking up the slack after his own Shizun because they got injured during the war and have to rest or something.

After coming back, the Qing Jing Peak Lord takes Shen Jiu (age 16) to get his sword, Xiu Ya. And then, not long after, the system tells Shen Jiu to head to a certain village near the Luo River and wait for an abandoned boat to appear so he can intercept it.

His mission, the system explains, will be completed once he kills the person inside the boat.

Thus, Shen Jiu asks his Shizun for some time off for a personal matter and goes to where the system tells him to. He finds the boat easily enough. He doesn’t expect to find an abandoned newborn child in it.

Shen Jiu finally demands answers from the system. Why it wanted this child dead four years ago, when he hadn’t even been born yet, and why it chose Shen Jiu to do this in the first place.

In response, the system shows him what happened in canon PIDW— how Luo Binghe would grow up to destroy Cang Qiong, torture Shen Jiu, and kill Yue Qi, among other things.

Shen Jiu is shaken, but he knows one thing for certain. He cannot let that happen. He cannot let Yue Qi die.

If it’s for his Qi-ge, he’d do anything.

[nevis-the-skeleton]

@Drac0shka : "What if one day, Megatron finds a small, injured human sparkling in one of the Decepticon Energon vaults in Nevada.  The view strangely touches his cruel spark and he cannot find the strength to finish off the helpless tiny being or leave it to its fate.  He decides to take the fleshling with him so that he can get rid of it later by returning it to the people and forget about the incident. But things don't go according to plan. Or about how a little lost boy could easily do the unthinkable - get under the thick armor of a fearsome, intimidating Warlord. The little kid will later be called Jack." (request on Wattpad)

Cute X3! Thank you for your request Drac0shka ^^! I just want to warn that it's a really loooong post XD

~~~

It was supposed to be a simple check of one of the energon mines, which had become less productive over time. He had first gone there to verify the cause, but also to be sure that Starscream had not hidden certain veins to make personal reserves. He had already done it several times, this little trickster would not be at his first attempt!

That was the basic plan: go there, check it out, and punish the Seeker if necessary. The question Megatron was asking himself now was when had he had the whim to take this human Sparkling with him? How could the miserable state that little thing was in have touched him to the point that he took him with him?

The Sparkling was hurt, badly hurt… The Decepticons leader didn't even know if he was salvageable. Humans had never shown anything like their regeneration, and the ex-gladiator now wondered how they managed to repair themselves when there was no doctor to help them. Wouldn't it be easier to put an end to this Sparkling's suffering? Megatron then wondered when he started calling this little thing a Sparkling.

After all… wouldn't it be better to leave him there? A human would eventually come looking for him. The leader of the Decepticons ducked slightly to let the wounded child down, but the latter clung to one of his fingers.

“No, get down!" growled the ex-gladiator, trying to fend off the Sparkling.

Scrap…! He should never have taken him in the first place! Now he found himself stuck, while the little thing didn't want to let go…! What was he doing? He was killing him? It was then that the child looked at him with large pleading eyes filled with tears, with an expression full of sorrow.

~

When Starscream saw his Lord with an injured human Sparkling in his hand, he sincerely wondered if his Master had lost his mind for good… Maybe the Dark Energon had finally got the better of him… Unless it was something else.

"Has age made you senile? asked the Seeker.

- I don't want to hear any comments!" Megatron growled.

He quickly passed by the jet which still had a very confused expression, to join Soundwave in the main room. The Communications Commander was quietly working on his computer when he heard his friend call out to him. He turned to the ex-gladiator, and froze a little when he saw the human in his hand.

"Could you look for data that can help KnockOut fix him?"

The spy plane didn't answer, staring intensely at the Sparkling, which scared the latter a little. Megatron snapped his fingers at his friend's visor, who quickly came back to reality. Soundwave looked at the leader of the Decepticons, who was clearly asking what happened to him with his gaze.

“< Cute > < . >” was the only response from the Communications Commander.

The ex-gladiator laughed lightly, but neither confirmed nor denied his friend's statement. Starscream watched it all from afar, not really understanding the point of having this thing on board. What was Megatron's goal? There had to be one… Pressure the Autobots maybe… But then why take a half-dead human?

He quickly cut his thoughts when he saw the leader of the Decepticons looking in his direction, and quickly left the room. The ex-gladiator watched warily as the Seeker left, wondering what his Commander's twisted mind was already planning.

“< Do you > < intend > < to > < keep > < him? > Soundwave asked, snapping Megatron out of his suspicions.

- Primus, no! What an idea!" exclaimed the leader of the Decepticons.

The Communications Commander formed a question mark on his visor, and the ex-gladiator sighed.

“We repair him and return him to his own.

- < Why? >

- What do you mean by "why", Soundwave?

- < Cute > < . >

- Do you have a bug?

- ………”

Megatron decided to leave his friend, knowing that he must have sent all the data to KnockOut.

~

To say that the doctor was confused would have been an understatement, no matter how much he looked in all directions at the data that Soundwave had sent him, he didn't see in what world information on human anatomy was going to be useful to him. Breakdown noticed his perplexity, and asked:

"There is a problem?

- I think Soundwave should sleep more often."

The pair saw Megatron enter the medical bay, and he quickly placed a human child on a medical table, before turning to KnockOut, and saying:

“Fix him."

He left as quickly as he had arrived, under the captivated gaze of the duo, who didn't even have time to say anything. The sports car and Breakdown looked at the whining human, before looking at the closed door, then again at the child, then at the door, and at the child, and at the door. The doctor finally sighs heavily, then says:

"Everyone is crazy on this ship..."

~

Megatron had spent a lot of time looking for Starscream, to make sure he wasn't going to try anything against the Sparkling, but it had to be said that the Seeker was gone for now. The leader of the Decepticons thought about the fact that the jet was really getting to know him too well, and that was a problem. He finally gave up, and went back to the medical bay to see how the child was doing.

He had a rather strange sight in front of him, as the now mended child looked more like one of those corpses bundled up in human pyramids than anything else. The little one laughed as KnockOut filmed him, and said:

"Perfect, now you turn to the camera and make a terrifying face!"

The child complied by making a little sound that should have been terrifying, but was far too cute to cause this effect. Breakdown looked tender, and neither noticed their leader, until he asked:

“Am I bothering you?

- Aha! Lord Megatron!!" cried out the doctor, throwing the camera into a wall.

The ex-gladiator crossed his arms and frowned, as the couple looked away. He approached, then asked:

“Were you able to fix him?

- Hm… let's say yes. He's better, kinda. answered the sports car. But we lack what humans call "antibiotics".

- What?

- Kinds of drugs that avoid what comes close to rust for us.

- I see. I would send Vehicons in this case.

- … Can I ask you a question?

- Is it relevant?

- Yes.

- Then go.

- Why did you take this child with you?

- …

- Lord Megatron?

- Did you find out why he was hurt?

- …”

KnockOut sulked a bit at this lack of response, because he really wanted to know why he had to fix that human. What was the objective behind all this?

"Well? What are you waiting for to answer? Megatron asked impatiently.

- Uh… he was hit… My Lord.

- Hit?

- Yes, several times in a row, by adults I think.

- …

- The rest of his injuries are from a fall, probably someone pushed him into a pit.

- Or a cave…

- Yes that's right. But, where did you find him?"

The leader of the Decepticons did not answer, and took the child in his hand. He decided to totally change his plan, if it was really the congeners of this Sparkling who had hurt him, maybe it was better not to bring him back among his own. Otherwise, he would have fixed him for nothing…! But… why did he insist on helping this little thing?

~

Several weeks passed, and Megatron spent most of his time with the Sparkling, mainly because the latter cried whenever the leader of the Decepticons walked away or left for too long. The only times he was quiet enough were with Soundwave, who happily agreed to babysit.

The ex-gladiator wondered if it was really a good thing for his friend to keep the human, because surely the spy plane was projecting his minicons on the Sparkling.

When the leader of the Decepticons had to go on a mission, often because the Vehicons couldn't handle anything, he also sometimes left the kid at KnockOut and Breakdown when Soundwave was too busy.

He must have done a lot of research regarding humans, their way of life, and their diet, which was quite a mystery. Their way of life was so different from the Transformers that it was really a constant battle.

The child was much better, at least physically. Because, Megatron was not long in noticing that as soon as he raised his voice too much, or that he broke something in his anger, the little one suddenly became silent by putting himself in a curled up position, and looked at him with wide terrified eyes. Which pushed the ex-gladiator to try as best as possible to be calm most of the time. He didn't particularly like seeing the child so terrified.

The leader of the Decepticons now very rarely saw Starscream, who seemed to want to keep a distance from the ex-gladiator, which was terribly suspicious. Megatron knew full well that the Seeker was thinking of a way to reach him, and he now had a perfect target with the child, because the leader of the Decepticons was well aware that he had been foolish enough to like the kid.

One day, Megatron had to be away for a long time, and he knew that Soundwave was unavailable. KnockOut was also absent, and the leader of the Decepticons knew full well that this cursed doctor had surely leave his post for a damned race! Breakdown, on the other hand, was on a mission, and he couldn't bring him back right away, the mission was far too important. That left the Vehicons, but the ex-Gladiator decided that the Sparkling was much safer alone than with those clumsy.

Inevitably, as soon as he began to leave the room, the child began to cry. Megatron sighed before coming closer, he knelt down towards the child who was on his desk, and said:

"You are big now.

- No! replied the little one between two tears.

- Yes you are. You can be alone for a while. I won't be long.

- Don't adandon me!

- I'm not abandoning you...

- Yu are!

- Primus, you are so capricious… you looks like Starscream…!"

The Sparkling began to stare at him with his large pleading eyes, and the leader of the Decepticons quickly turned the optics away so as not to see the little thing's eyes. He got up, and decided to leave for good, because he knew full well that if he stayed, this human would get the better of him. Primus, that child's eyes were dangerous!

~

Starscream took advantage of Megatron's absence to be able to walk the halls quietly again. He was now forced to avoid the leader of the Decepticons all the time, as it seemed his Lord was angry at him, without him even knowing why.

Well, the ex-gladiator was still mad at him, but more often he could at least know the reason for it… The Seeker thought that the presence of this human Sparkling would calm his Master, but it seemed not at all, it was even quite the opposite… At least from what he had perceived… But the rare times when he had had the misfortune to come across Megatron, the latter always ended up pursuing him, yelling at him.

The jet lifted his wings as he heard what sounded like crying coming from the Decepticons leader's bedroom. The flyer had a confused look, but soon realized that it was surely coming from the child that the ex-gladiator had had the madness to keep.

Starscream opened the door, simply typing in the code. He had ended up knowing it, because he had thought about killing this fragger several times in his sleep. But he had always ended up abandoning this idea, because he felt that if he failed it was certain death… Not just a punishment… Very clearly.

The Seeker entered, but he didn't even know why he had decided to open that door. Perhaps because he feared that the child would be hurt, but he even wondered why he had had this fear? It wasn't his Sparkling, Megatron just had to better take care of him! The jet wanted to turn around, when he heard a small gasp.

The flyer froze, and turned slowly, realizing that the kid had seen him… Scrap… if the kid told Megatron about it, then his leader was going to have good reason to be angry, and that even happen if he had done nothing. The simple fact that he had broken into his room was already a motive! Starscream approached hesitantly, and quickly saw that the human was right. So why was he crying? He decided to postpone this useless question, preferring to focus on more important things.

“… Uh… I never came… OK?" spluttered the Seeker.

Primus… He was that desperate? The Sparkling continued to stare at him with wide, worried, wary eyes, and the jet scratched his head. Of course, he had never seen him, the flyer had done everything to never be near the human. Starscream lowered his wings to look less imposing, and knelt in front of the desk where the little one was. He forced a smile, and lied:

“I… I'm a friend of Megatron.

- Friend? repeated the child.

- Yes that's right…

- You know Megathlon?"

The flyer couldn't help laughing when he heard that name, which seemed to calm the human who started laughing with him.

“Ha! Ha! Can you repeat? laughed Starscream.

- Megathlon ?

- Ha! Ha! Ha! Don't change it's perfect!

- Pifect?

- Perfect!

- Perfect!

- Yes that's it!"

The Seeker stopped laughing, trying to avoid thinking about the child's awkward, but no less touching pronunciation. Now he really wondered why the Sparkling was crying. He had absolutely no problem. The jet realized that his concern had really been foolish, especially towards a small being he shouldn't even care about. Suddenly the child pointed at him and asked:

"Who are you?

- I'm not going to tell you.

- Why?

- Because."

"If Megatron finds out he's going to kill me, so the less you know me the more I survive!" thought the flyer.

 "Butterfly!" the little human suddenly exclaimed.

Starscream had a confused expression, and frowned at that statement. Was that an insult? It wasn't violent enough to sound like an insult… The little one tapped something on a data-pad at his size, then turned it towards the Seeker, to show some sort of little bugs with large multicolored wings! He pointed to the images, then the jet, and repeated:

"Butterfly!"

The flyer raised his wings, flattered, and took a closer look at what was presented to him, before asking:

"Aww… is that me?"

The child nodded vigorously, and Starscream smiled sincerely.

"That's the nicest compliment I've ever had..."

And then again, he was sincere when he said that. He didn't even know when it had been compared to something so pretty. Now he understood better how this little thing got the better of Megatron. He was too cute! It wasn't normal! He must be using a relic or something, that was the only explanation!

The Seeker then noticed strange marks on one of the child's arms, a piece of flesh protruding from his sleeve. The jet would have sworn it looked like scars or something. The flyer frowned, and the Sparkling quickly hid his arm, lowering his head in shame.

"Did you hurt you while playing? Starscream asked.

- No…” replied the child.

The Seeker lifted his wings in surprise, as he saw the little human begin to cry. Eh?! What?! But he hadn't said anything mean! Why was he suddenly crying?! The jet felt the panic coming, and his Spark froze when he heard the door open.

The flyer took some time to make up his mind to look toward the door, and time was frozen when Megatron and Starscream faced each other. The leader of the Decepticons went from the Seeker, who clearly had a guilty face, to the child, who was crying while holding his arm, and he made a shortcut that surely anyone would have had if a hated person was too close of your little one in tears.

“STARSCREAM!!!" the ex-gladiator yelled angrily, startling both the jet and the human.

The flyer tried to flee, but Megatron was faster, and grabbed him roughly by the throat before lifting him off the ground!

"I knew you would try something, you little vermin! cried out the leader of the Decepticons.

- Wh- What?! I don't even know what you're talking about! Starscream replied quickly.

- Liar!"

The ex-gladiator slammed the Seeker hard against the desk, who coughed in pain. He raised his hand, determined that the jet wouldn't try to hurt the child again! The little one watched all of this with wide eyes, before his sobs quickly turned into a torrent of tears. Megatron stopped in his anger, and turned his head towards the Sparkling, who came closer crying. He made a semblance of a hug on the flyer's shoulder, and sobbed:

"Don't hurt... don't hurt..."

Starscream couldn't hide a look of confusion at the child, and when he turned his head towards his leader it seemed that the latter was even more angry.

"What did you do to him…?! hissed the ex-gladiator.

- But nothing…! retorted the Seeker with a hint of anger.

- You must have done something!

- He manages to like you, I don't see why he should have had trouble liking me!

- It's not the same thing!

- I don't see how!

- You are undoubtedly looking for a way to take advantage of him, I know you!

- It's rather me who should say that!

- How dare you?!"

The Sparkling made a small, chagrined sound, which stopped the two robots' argument. They looked at him for a while, and the child seemed calmer, though his eyes were still bright with tears. The big silver robot let go of the jet, which moved away a bit, at least to be sure his leader couldn't catch him.

"You see?! You made him cry again! Megatron growled.

- Me?! You're the one screaming like an Insecticon! Starscream said indignantly.

- In any case, I don't allow you to doubt the attachment I have for this child!

- He doesn't even have a name for Primus' sake!"

The human made another sad moan, which once again stopped the Decepticons in their quarrel. They looked back at the child, before facing each other again:

"He doesn't like loud sounds, so you better shut the frag up…! growled the leader of the Decepticons in a whisper.

- The one who yells is you…! replied the Seeker in a whisper.

- I think he has better things to do than handle your horrible voice…!

- I think he has better things to do than live with you…! You think I didn't see the marks on his arms…?!

- What is the connection…?!

- You mistreated a little being incapable of defending himself…!

- What?!

- Oh! Why am I even surprised! Coming from you, that's not surprising!

- I point out to you that these marks come from his so-called congeners! Certainly not from me!

- Liar!

- Why would I lie about that?!

- Because you lie all the time! Liar, liar, liaaaar!

- The liar here is you, you little-"

The child cried again, and this time for good, which ended the confrontation between Starscream and Megatron. They closed in on the human, though the Decepticon leader pushed the Seeker rather roughly, not wanting him near the Sparkling. Who knew what he was capable of! Of course this irritated the jet, and the two started arguing again, when the little one let out a big sob.

“No aeguing… No aeguing… cried the human.

- Arguing?" the ex-gladiator supposed.

The child nodded, and repeated:

“No aeguing…”

The Decepticons looked at each other for a moment with scowls, and agreed that they could postpone their confrontation until later.

~

The child had finally fallen asleep, and despite his many attempts, Megatron had failed to chase Starscream away. The latter seemed to want to stay irretrievably, and the leader of the Decepticons had to admit that the Seeker really liked the Sparkling.

"Why did you help him if it's not to gain an advantage against the Autobots? the jet finally asked, not taking his eyes off the sleeping human.

- Because.

- Did he remind you of someone?

- …

- Did I hit it right?

- Shut up a bit, you're going wake him up."

There was a silence, but it was something the flyer really didn't seem to know, because he was soon speaking again. 

"You weren't lying… were you?

- About?

- His injuries.

- No…

- Oh…

- …

- … You were angry with me, why? For once I did nothing wrong...

- I may have been a little unfair, I admit."

Starscream looked at Megatron in surprise, before finally tightening his wings and eyeing his leader suspiciously. He had proven him right?! It was weird… Very weird!

“Don't look at me like that! growled the ex-gladiator.

- What's the trap?

- What trap?

- That game you're playing there. You admit your wrongs… It's not normal. Who are you, what have you done to Lord Megatron?

- Oh! Primus, shut up you're tiring me!"

The Seeker relaxed a little then chuckled softly, and Megatron saw the child smile in his sleep. The leader of the Decepticons then thought of one thing, and said:

“You are right on another point.

- Really… It's the day of miracles!

- Stop your sarcasm.

- To be sarcastic I would have to not be shocked in the first place!

- Shut up then.

- I'll try. But I'm still curious to know what I'm right about.

- He doesn't have a name.

- … Scrap.

- Not in front of the child, you fool! Megatron indignantly slapped the back of Starscream's head.

- Ah! But he sleeps anyway!"

The Seeker rubbed his head, and pouted a little, before declaring:

"You just have to give him a name! Why isn't it done yet?!

- I didn't think about it, that's all!

- It's important to have a name!

- Maybe he already has one!

- We don't care about that! He leads a new life, he needs a new name!

- …

- Why not Jack!

-Jack? What a strange name… Where did you find it?

- In a human movie KnockOut showed me. And then, it's weird, yes, but it's human afterall.

- Why should we give him a human name? After what they did to him!

- Even if they hurt him, that doesn't mean he has to deny his origins.

- … Go for Jack then.

- You accept it very quickly. Again, this is suspicious.

- I try to make an effort to tolerate your presence.

- Oh, I'll try to say it's nice.

- Do you think so?

- No, of course not.

- Tiny ringworm.

- Old dodderer.

- You're lucky Jack is here.

- Hm… By the way, now that I think about it, we'll also have to think about his education.

- Why?

- It's important, Primus! We don't want him to be illiterate as far as I know!

– He can learn very well with Soundwave.

- Hm... Yeah, why not."

As the two robots discussed these various subjects, Jack had to do his best to hide his growing smile, as well as the tears of joy that were streaming down his cheeks.

[hymn-of-muse]

You can stay

A Master Joris + Adopted Child!Sadida!Reader. requested by anon!

using they/them for reader by default, Y/N = your name

Dust begins to settle as the commotion comes to an end. Much of the land, a huge part of the Sadida forrest, was damaged during Nox's attack on the tree.

Many of the people of the kingdom were injured, some even lost in the damage. Some of whom were parents even.

Joris let out a solom sigh as he looked about, checking around places in the forest that were damaged to see if anyone needed help, when he heard a noise that made him pause and listen.

Joris strained his ears to listen for it again. in the quiet of the once lively part of the forest there was a distant voice, a cry. weeping. sad calling and wailing that made his heart drop as his feet quickly took him closer to the source of the sound.

There, at the edge of the ruined forest, sitting by a group of dead tree stumps, a small Sadida child weeping and calling out for their parents between sobs.

He stepped a bit closer, slowly as to not startle them, and called out. "Hey there, little one" Once they lifted their head from their hands and stared at him through watery eyes he extended his hand out to them. "You'll be alright. Do you want to come with me? Maybe we can find your folks, okay?" He spoke softly, offering a small, sweet smile in attepmt to comfort.

The child whimpered, rubbing some more tears away before nodding and taking his hand, letting him pull them to their feet and lead them further into the lush part of the forest and to the heart of the Sadida kingdom where more people were staying after the attack.

"I promise you'll be okay, little one. Do you have a name?" he asked, their hand still firmly in his own.

The child was quiet, giving the softest verbal response despite their voice cracking as they tried to keep from crying more, still in the process of calming down. "Y/N..."

"Y/N...I like it, sounds just as special as you." He offered another smile, earning a small thankful one from the child in return.

Soon they arrived at a small station where people who've lost their homes in the attack where staying until things got sorted out. he had y/n stay seated while he went to talk to someone about finding their parents, but he'd soon find out how difficult that would be.

"what do you mean you dont know? there's plenty of people here, surely someone knows something. they have to be here, or somewhere in the forest, we cant just leave the kid here without their parents!" Joris huffed as he discussed the situation with an older Sadida woman.

"I'm sorry, Master Joris, thats just it. Theres so many here and so many unaccounted for that we cant keep track like that. we'll see what we can do but it might take a while, at least a day or so before we can find anything out about their parents." The woman explained with a sympathetic expression.

"What do we do with them in the meantime?" Joris sighed, crossing his arms and glancing back at y/n.

"well...they could stay with you." The woman offered.

"me? what, why?"

"er-it would just be until we find their parents, i mean, you do seem fairly good with kids and have already taking a liking to each other, they'd probably feel safe with you too." She offered, a kind smile spreading across her face.

"hmm...i guess you have a point, but just until this is all figured out." Joris stated, a bit hesitant but willing to give it a shot.

"We'll have someone alert you as soon as we have some news." The woman said before turning to tend to someone else's issues.

Joris walked back to the kid, running through his mind how he'd bring this up and explain without worrying the kid anymore than they already are.

"Hey kid, how are you holding up." He asked, taking a seat next to them.

"okay...did the lady say where my mommy and daddy are? are they here?" y/n asked, looking at Joris with hope in their eyes. it just about was enough to wrench his heart out.

"we still dont know yet, but she did say you could stay with me till we find them, would that be okay with you?" he asked, hoping this didnt make things hurt worse for them.

y/n's face fell at the first half but listed back up a tad bit at the later. The idea of staying with him seemed to be a good idea and bring a sense of safety, just like the woman had said.

y/n nodded in agreement. "thats okay!" they stated, sounding almost eager towards the idea before suddenly leaning into joris and giving him a big hug.

"alright then, guess you'll be with me for a bit" Joris nodded, lightly patting their back.

a few days passed by, Joris hadn't yet gotten any news or updates of the situation about the kid's family and he was beginning to adjust to having them around like a second shadow.

He was sitting with them at the table when a knock came at the door. "one minute, little one, i'll be back after answering that" Joris excused himself and got up to answer the door.

"Yes?" He opened the door to see someone from the shelter giving a nervous smile on the other side of the door.

"um..Master Joris, I bring some news...*unfortunate* news, I'm afraid." They said hesitantly.

Joris stepped outside, closing the door behind him and looking up to them when he crossed his arms. "I'm guessing you haven't found their parents yet?"

"well...we did, sort of...but thats just it, what i came to tell you. they were found but, theyre..not among us anymore." They continued to speak nervously, pausing between some words as they attempted to explain.

Joris very quickly understood the implications of this news and it felt like his heart was being held my sharp claws and in his throat. "i...i see...so then what about Y/N? what happens to them?"

"they dont have any family left, theres no one else they could stay with..." they stated sadly.

"yes but-...no one else? are you suggesting they stay with me longer?" Joris rose an eyebrow

"Yes, permanently in fact. things between you seemed to have been going well for the past few days, theyre safe with you and they do seem to really like you." they pointed out "we all agreed it was the best idea"

"i...youre saying i should take them in...?" Joris rose an eyebrow, doing his best to process this.

"Adopt them, yes. youre the best choice, clearly, theres not much else that can be done either." they admitted.

"...adopt? me? ....i..." he sighed "i'll have to have quite the talk with them." Joris mumbled.

"It'll be worth it for you both" they smiled thankfully before walking off.

Joris went back inside and back to the table where he'd previously been sitting with y/n.

"who was that?" y/n asked, tilting their head slightly in curiousity.

"that was...someone from the shelter bringing news." he answered, trying hard to think up a quick few lines to better phrase the news for the kid.

"did they find mommy and daddy?" they asked, once again the hopeful look in their eyes returning.

Joris hesitated some more when they asked, eyes shifting about before landing back on y/n as he came up with what to say.

[author lost motivation to complete the story, many apologies.]

[sl-newsie]

Spelled (Carlos de Vil x Sanderson Daughter) Descendants 3- Ch. 10: Apology

Magica… Magica…

Carlos? That can’t be. If I can hear him then we must both be dead, right? 

“Magica…”

I’m not imagining it. I can hear his voice plain as day.

“There’s no telling if she’ll wake up.”

Fairy Godmother? Ok, what’s going on?

All at once I feel my mind return and I can feel my fingers and toes. Fresh air rushes through my lungs and my eyelids flutter in response to the bright light.

“Wasgongon?” I try to speak.

“She’s awake!”

I feel eager arms squeeze around my sore frame and I wince.

“Careful! Her condition is fragile. There’s no telling if there are any lasting symptoms.”

Fairy Godmother is right. At any moment I feel like I could slip under the darkness and be claimed by death again. 

“S- Sorry.” I find my voice. “I’m sorry.”

I open my eyes and squint to see what’s happening. It’s Ben’s room. I’m lying in his bed, surrounded by familiar faces. Fairy Godmother, Mal, Ben, Uma, and-

“Carlos?” I rasp. “You’re alive!”

The freckled VK is the one trying to hug me. The look on his face almost makes my heart melt. He looks as if him being turned to stone is a minor setback compared to seeing me wake up.

“When the spell was broken they told me you sacrificed yourself,” Carlos whispers. “You gave yourself up, after all that happened. Why?”

I try to sit up but I’m afraid my energy is still returning. “Audrey’s driving force was getting what she thought she deserved. It’s not about deserving. It’s about what is needed.” I lock onto his chocolate eyes. “Auradon needs justified leadership, not one taken for revenge. I understand that now. I can’t tell you all enough how sorry I am-”

“Not to worry, child,” Fairy Godmother gently rubs my shoulder. “No one’s going to lock you up. You need to get your strength back.”

“We already sent word out to the authorities,” Mal speaks up from across the room. “You’re not a fugitive anymore.”

“You’re a hero, Sparks!” Ben smiles. 

“A hero…” I chuckle. “That’s a new twist. The wicked witch is the hero.”

“But it wasn’t all you,” Uma says. “We found this.”

She holds up the shattered remains of Aunt Winnie’s brooch. All that’s left unmarked is the glowing green gem. I’d forgotten about it until now.

“It emits dark magic,” Fairy Godmother explains. “That’s why you’ve been, um…”

“Acting like the villain I’m supposed to be?” I finish. It wasn’t entirely my fault after all.

“No more talk of that. There’s someone else who’s proud of you, Sparky,” Uma says and opens the door.

In steps Remus, and from behind him is-

I gasp. “Father!”

He sprints over and pulls me into a hug too. I notice he’s a bit skinnier than usual and unshaven but otherwise okay. He’s blinking back tears and keeps scanning my face.

“Magica, my sweet little girl! You’re alright!”

“I’m alright?” I choke back a sob. “You’ve been locked up in Arendelle! I thought for sure you’d be moved to the Towers!”

“Those are being shut down,” Mal is quick to say. “From now on we’re focusing on negotiations rather than force.”

"When I heard you were injured I drove north and picked up your father," Remus explains. "We both wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

I am better now, especially since life has been gifted to me once again. I'm here, but...

“Where’s Audrey now?”

Mal and Ben exchange looks. “We’ve settled her on her bed as comfortably as possible. We thought she’d wake up before you. Her condition isn’t so good either.”

As much as I disagree with Audrey she does not deserve to die. Since I’ve escaped death now, maybe there’s still something else I can do.

“Please take me to her,” I softly request and start to get up.

“Magica, no. Your condition-” Carlos argues.

“... is strong enough for me to be alive. I might be able to help.”

Carlos takes my right arm and father takes my left, both helping me to stand. I catch a quick peek at a mirror and I see they’re right. I’m pale as snow and my once-vibrant purple hair has faded. When we get outside I see Jane, Harry, and the other VKs waiting to hear from us. Ben’s parents have also made an appearance. I ignore their jumbled questions and walk down to Audrey’s room. I find Audrey laid out on her bed. She looks just like her mother, sound asleep. Though as peaceful as she looks I can tell she’s just as close to death as I was.

“She’s slipping away,” Evie says sadly.

I feel her pulse and find hardly anything. “I’m sorry, there is little I can do. Even if I was at full strength I don’t have nearly as much magic needed to bring her back.”

Mal frowns. “There’s only one person who could do something about this, and that’s Hades.”

“Hades? He wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t risk it,” Ben argues.

“He might do it for me. He’s my father.”

My jaw drops and Carlos has to steady me. “Your father? Dear Lord… That’s why you're so powerful. You have the magic of a god in your veins.”

Mal and Ben share a final look and he walks out to fetch Hades. “I’ll have the royal guards pick him up.”

“Maybe I could hitch a ride?” Uma speaks up. “The Isle is my home. Someone needs to be there to protect it.”

Harry hops up and goes to stand next to her. “Well then you’ll need your first mate.”

Mal gives the pirates a firm nod. “The Isle will be in very good hands.”

Celia stands up. “Can I go too? I wish I could be in both places, but I need to be with my dad again.”

I understand her completely. Seeing father again is like a sigh of relief, a sign that everything’s going to be alright. After Celia and the pirates exit I see another familiar face step in.

“Wait, that’s Doug? Dear Lord, Evie, how did you let Doug’s hair grow into something so… ugly?”

The band geek laughs and pats me on the shoulder. “Missed you, lab partner! Good to see you all in one piece.”

“Me too!” Jane bubbles as she passes me a signed ‘get well’ card. Something flashes and her golden necklace catches my eye.

“So… Jarlos?”

She sees where I’m looking and gets a sheepish look. “Yeah. It’s… my birthday present from Carlos. Are you mad?”

At this point my anger has been spent for a long time. Besides, it was my jealousy that led me to the wrong side to begin with. “Why would I be mad? I’m so happy for you.”

She wears a relieved smile and goes on to chat with Evie. Another game, I suppose. Each of us acting all smiles and pretending this isn’t real.

While we wait for Hades’ arrival, Mal changes into a simple pink dress. Audrey’s grandmother also pays her a visit, all the while giving me an icy glare. When there’s a knock on the door and Hades enters, Mal steps up.

“Since when do heroes care about villains?” The Underworld god asks when he sees Audrey.

Ben tries to explain. “She’s-”

“One of your own?” Hades finishes. “Right. When you guys try to destroy the world it’s sin, error, and judgment. But when it’s one of us, lock ‘em up and throw away the key. Right, Beast?” He looks at Ben’s dad, who doesn’t answer. After his restraints are removed he beckons to Mal for the Ember, which she hesitantly hands over. When Hades takes it his hair glows bright blue and he seems to regain energy.

“Haven’t lost my touch.” He steps over to Audrey’s bed and waves the Ember, sending blue magic drifting over Audrey and waking her up. Her clothes and hair also return to normal.

“Audrey! You’re ok!” Her grandmother is relieved. 

Audrey, however, does not look ok. She looks around the room with wide, fearful eyes. “Tell me it was all a bad dream?”

“I wish I could, but it’s over now.” Ben gives her a small smile.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to hurt you both, I wanted to hurt all of you.”

Mal steps forward and takes her hand. “I have owed you an apology for a very long time now.”

“And so have I,” Ben adds.

“And perhaps I have owed you one too,” Audrey’s grandmother says to Mal.

Audrey sees me standing nearby and she gasps. "Magica... I am so sorry. If it wasn't for me-!"

"I had a say in this too, Audrey," I hold up a calming hand. "Mistakes were made but now we can grow from them."

It’s one big day for apologies. At least my own has been accepted. Now I have everything I need. Now it’s time to call it a day and walk away. They have their hands full trying to restore order in Auradon. I just want to go home.

[the-crow-binary]

After this post, I am now going to focus on Isaac and Hector, and I dedicate the post to my friend @beevean <3 (And also at least partially to you, @azerothx, since I will talk about Hector and your ask have been raising dust in my messages closet for a while... alongside a few others >:<)

So. Let's talk about those boys' themes in Curse of Darkness (mangas are incuded).

First theme: Loneliness and Finding a place to belong to (to cling to).

Before they even met, Isaac and Hector already shared a similar story. The one of a child, hated and rejected by all, who just needed a place to be safe in. Like any child deserves to. Granted, Isaac had Julia... but being with someone doesn't mean you cannot feel lonely. Children need a home. And Dracula gave them one.

Isaac clung onto Dracula's "love". He felt happy in repaying him for his "kindness" and mercy by serving him body and soul. He felt accomplished in being nothing but a tool for him, to do his bidding. Hector, however, will take a different paths...

Second theme: Rivalry.

They were both Dracula's generals and Devil Forgemasters, but Hector was the stronger one. He was Dracula's favorite, his protégé. Though Isaac tried and tried, he never reached Hector's level. It festered his mind, created an inferiority complex. And yet, at the same time, he secretly admired Hector. Probably envied him as well. They were rivals in ideals as well. Hector clung onto his humanity, Isaac threw his away. Hector wanted to be his own person, Isaac felt fulfilled being what Dracula wanted him to be. Hector felt bad about killing humans... Isaac could not have cared less.

Wich leads to the third theme: Betrayal.

Hector, unable to stand the massacre any longer, ran away. Both Dracula and Isaac took it badly, but this isn't about Dracula. <3 Isaac clearly cared about Hector, in someway. In the PtR manga, before the Curse take a hold of him, Isaac is honorable to Hector. He praises him, clearly admires him, even brought two swords with him to confront Hector after his betrayal because he cares about a fair fight. In the MF manga, Isaac was ecstatic when felt and then found Hector (who he thought might have been dead, though he had a doubt). He even seems desperate, screaming "why did you betray us?!" at him when they fight. He gives him a chance to go back to the Castle... only for Hector to laugh at him and call him out for being nothing but a pawn. (and Isaac is very expressive. You can read his emotions in his face. You can see when he is worried, when he is in pains but tries to hide it behind a smile, when he's straight-up mad...)

But Hector running away is not the worst part of the betrayal, no... the worst part is Dracula's death. :)

In the PtR manga, Isaac doesn't know Dracula died before he makes it back to the Castle and finds it in ruins (an injured bat flies to him, only to die in his hand. Talk about symbolism). In the MF manga, both Hector and Isaac feel Dracula die while they fight. In both scenarios, Isaac goes mad with grief and put all the responsability on Hector, because if he hadn't ran away, if he had stayed alongside Dracula (or did as ordered and went to kill Belmont), he would still be alive. Because of Hector, Isaac lost the only person who ever made him feel home. Now he has no one.

Fourth theme: Coping (or the lack thereof)

Comes the three years happening between CV3 and CoD. Hector learns to live peacefully with his wife Rosaly, he learns how to be a human again, he learns about how strong humans can be in their own way and how not all of them are bad. He heals and copes alongside his woman and finally, everything seems to go smoothly for him... he is happy.

But not Isaac. Isaac is alone, spying on him. The Curse eating his soul little by little. He became obsessed with two things: Hector and vengeance. He wants to see him suffer, he wants to make him suffer as he suffered. And for this... He needs to let Hector have a taste of happiness. Just like he had with Dracula. :) Before taking it away brutally.

This is the fifth theme: The cycle of revenge.

Isaac wanted revenge on Hector for basically abandoning Dracula to his death. He got it by causing Rosaly's death. Now Hector wants to get revenge on Isaac. And so he abandons the life he has been building for three years, and goes after his old "friend".

The entirety of the game revolves around this theme. Hector the traitor against Isaac the monster. They both have reasons to hate the other, they are obsessed with getting back at the other. Isaac, especially, as he is alone and fully(?) taken over by the Curse. Hector is not alone, however, and still resisting the Curse, though it almost got him in the end. But then...

Sixth theme: Acceptance/Breaking the cycle.

Right before giving Isaac the final blow, Hector stops himself and realise "wait... what am I doing? That is not me." and drop his weapon, fearing that the Curse is actually getting to him. Then Death appears and use Isaac to resurrect Dracula and Hector defeats him and Hector breaks the curse with his powers... he goes "I can finally rest" but Julia won't let him, of course, and they both flee the breaking down Castle.

It ends with him and Julia having a nice little chat, talking about having hope in the future, they both feel accomplished, and you know what...? Hector never got his revenge. :) Yes, Isaac died (either because of his body being used to resurrect Drac or because Hector killed Drac and so it killed him), and so did Dracula (again), but he did not kill him for revenge. He killed him because Dracula was a threat. The idea to get his revenge disappeared the moment he realised what he was doing. And yet, in the end, he still was happy.

Meaning the way to happiness was never to get revenge. On the contrary, it would have bring unhappiness. By refusing to get his, Hector did not only save himself, but the rest of the world as well. If he had let himself fall prey to the Curse, Death would have had used his body to bring back Dracula, and at this point, Trevor was not in a good enough shape to stop him. Accepting to do the right thing and move on was the good call. Now, he can try to live in peace again...

Now you can easily imagine Hector and Isaac having been close, once. Two lost boys, sharing abilities, sharing similar stories, knowing what the other went through... you can imagine they were friends or lovers, caring about the other, but, unfortunately, Dracula always got in the way (Isaac cared more about their Lord and Hector cared more about Isaac. but what he cared even more about was his own humanity. they were bound to fall appart)

What helps caring about those characters, their relationships and themes, are their personnalities. They're both different from each other, but work well together. They are both gray (they are both victims), but Hector leans more on the "righteous" side, while Isaac lean more on the "evil" side.

Now onto the funny part.

What are Isaac and Hector's themes in NFCV?

Loneliness: We barely touch on that, if not at all. We never see Isaac suffer from being alone, he seems pretty okay with it. The only hint we have that Hector might have been a lonely child is this flashback of him bringing his dog back to life, going home, only for his parents to scream in horror (and he does end up killing them by burning down the house). We can guess that if he often brought undead animals to people, he must not have made many actually living friends... but he never seemed like he wanted to anyway. In fact, as an adult, he did say he prefered his "animals" to actual people (if I remember correctly). So okay, scratch that.

Finding a place to belong to: Neither Isaac nor Hector had a problem with that. They both lived happily on their own until adulthood, when Dracula arrived and asked them for help.

So we already lost two themes that made the OG characters dependant on Dracula (wich was an interesting plot point, love that G!Dracula seemed merciful on the surface, welcoming children to his Castle, when he ultimately uses them as weapons). Okay. A shame, but let's continue

Rivalry: Those characters have absolutely no chemistry whatsoever. They are colleagues who barely talk to each other. And I am not going to call Isaac patronizing Hector and calling him a child "rivalry". There's nothing there.

Betrayal: I don't want to sound harsh, but... lol. Lmao, even. Hector got manipulated by Carmilla, but it's barely if he realised he was betraying Dracula. He probably didn't know any better. And while in the manga, Hector's (actual) betrayal led to neither him nor Isaac being there to protect Dracula, and so Isaac being mad at him and not Trevor made sense (+Hector actively chose to betray them, he was not manipulated by anyone)... in NFCV, there is no such thing. Isaac was aware Hector was manipulated by Carmilla, he saw Trevor and knew who was attacking the Castle, and it's Dracula himself who threw him into a portal to protect him. He had no reason to get mad at Hector. Another theme wasted.

Coping: No such thing. Unless you want to count Isaac's "character development" that, but... doesn't feel right to me. The characters never had the time to process things and just live during the whole show (oh, my bad, there was a few time skips here and there that were used as excuses to rushed developments, haha <3)

Cycle of revenge: It was more of a quest for revenge on Isaac's part. Hector never had any reason to get revenge against him. Well, Isaac neither, but he wanted to anyway.

Acceptance/Breaking the cycle: Okay so we did not get any "breaking the cycle" since there was no cycle to begin with... but "acceptance"? Yeah. Isaac went through character development mostly offscreen and decided to accept Dracula was dead (how did he even know) and that Hector had nothing to do with it (wich he knew from the start but good for him to finally take facts into consideration). And Hector........ Hector accepted to not be killed by Isaac. Cool. I guess.

So at this point, all of the themes revolving around Isaac and Hector in games were thrown out the window or done terribly wrong in the show. So what themes did they have? Well, sisters and bros and non-binary hoes... none that would link them directly. They basically had their own things going on, and it would sometimes get in contact with the other's things, but never mix. That's basically their whole relationship summed up.

Isaac's things were that he was Dracula's friend, that he valued his knowledge greatly to the point he was ready to lead his war and give his life to him, but then he was forced into a journey without Dracula that would make him realise he wanted to be something more, that he wanted to live for himself (you know, the development G!Hector had, but done poorly).

And Hector... Hector's whole thing was "I am a wet puppy getting kicked around by every vampire existing". He got manipulated by Dracula, then Carmilla, then Lenore... everytime the show would focus on him, it was like going from "Castlevania" to "misery porn". And his story ended with him in love with his abuser who never had any consequences for treating him like shit and got to die on her own terms. I know CoD's message was basically "revenge bad", but what about justice. What about Hector's character being respected for once. What about... yeah I'll stop right there this isn't about Lenore nor Lenector, this is about Isaactor.

And, needless to say... NFCV Isaactor is shit. They lost all flavor. Hector got his character smashed into pieces and replaced by a bad clone of him, then his character development was passed down to N!Isaac, but not completely, because N!Isaac kept killing people like it was nothing till the end, and still cared about Dracula, and he never actually betrayed Dracula he just was forced to leave him. Meanwhile Isaac's character was thrown out the window and replaced by an OC with his name. And I'm not just saying this because his design is entirely different, but also because his personnality has nothing to do with G!Isaac. All they have in common is the fact they love Dracula. And even then, G!Isaac literally worshipped Dracula. Meanwhile N!Isaac and N!Dracula are actually friends ("are you still my friend, Isaac?"), they often look like they are on the same level, not a master talking to his servant... actually, N!Isaac did not just replaced Hector. He replaced Death as well, as Dracula's confidant.

And look. If you want to make Isaac the favorite one, go ahead, poor guy keeps getting bullied, he deserves the treat. That is not the problem here.

The problem here is... that the show shat on both Isaac and Hector. And everything, from the themes that linked them both to their personnalities, have been completely erased and replaced with badly written drama.

Say what you want about G!Isaac, but this guy is fun. His gestural, his voice, his personnality... They are so fun to watch and analyze. Just the way he walks around his spear in one of the cutscenes and say "pff! still too soon but all the same..." is... GAH. I love it. (and have you guys even SEEN the STABBING SCENE? PLEASE.) Whoever brush him off as a gay joke needs to either shut up or actually read the mangas/play the games. N!Isaac is just a rock. He has no charm. Everyone thinks he's badass when he's being an asshole. Everyone thinks he's deep because he says so.... And I couldn't care less about his relationship with Dracula. And Hector? Hector was RAW in the game and mangas. He was brooding, he had... questionable self-esteem (comparing himself to a demon) but enough self-respect to get away from Dracula and respect his own moral code. He knew how to fight, he was strong. He was ACTUALLY badass and cool. But he also was tragic, in need of love, and adorable when with Rosaly... N!Hector was a joke. And it didn't have to be this way, they could have decided at any moment to make him stop taking any shit and start actually defending and fighting for himself. But no. We had to wait till the end of S4 to have him cut his finger off, wich is the closest we will ever get to a badass moment for N!Hector. (also Isaac rushing in to help him is cute, but it would've been cuter if they actually had chemistry, y'know?)

Isaac and Hector in CoD were two faces of the same coins. Two people who went through the same things, but ended up taking widely different paths... But in NFCV, they had nothing in common. Nothing more than strangers working for the same guy. And one of them was an asshole to and behind the other's back for no reason. (also, Dracula recruiting them as adults does not have the same impact as him welcoming them as children... but at this point it's clear that N!Dracula was meant to be alone in his Castle before Lisa. Unlike G!Dracula who is "said to be generous towards those who turns their back on god" and have devils and demons and even humans roaming all around)

If I had to tell what CoD's core was, as I did for the whole Castlevania franchise... Well, it was Isaac and Hector. Their characters, and their relationship.

Once again, NFCV wasted good potential.

[sooghostwriter]

Third Name

Member/Pairing: Do Kyung Soo x OC

Genre/Type: Mature, Romance, Royalty/ Dictatorship AU, Action, Time jumps. Multichapter.

Word count:  5198 words.

Notes: The story takes place in a made up country. We start at one point of the story and then go back in time the moment they met and how their relationship develops. Later, we will go back to the present and see how the story keeps moving. We get to read parts of Kyung Soo’s diary to locate us in time.

Summary: Anna has a plan for her own freedom. Prince Kyung Soo has one for the nation. She thinks she is meeting her enemy, he just wants to meet her. When the revolution begins he will need her help to claim their freedom.

PS: I block empty blogs.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Anna paced around the room nervously as the doctor examined Kyung Soo. He should have been the doctor treating Kyung Soo from the beginning since he was the man who had been taking care of his health since he was a child, but his uncle didn't allow him to do so. Minseok tried to calm her down, but it didn't work. The doctor was taking his pressure when Chanyeol and Sehun barged into the room. They looked at Kyung Soo, then at her, and then back at Kyung Soo. Chanyeol broke the silence. 

“Anna, how hard you fucked him?” He joked, looking at his sleeping friend with fake shock. 

“Shut up!” She threw a pillow at him cursing. 

"Why do you look so worried? It must be the stress, he can finally rest and recover now, isn't it right doctor?" Chanyeol patted the doctor's back.

"I wouldn't worry too much, he is just sleeping, he needs to rest, let him sleep, when he is ready, he will wake up," He told them to make sure that he is always warm and to have a light meal prepared for when he wakes up. 

Despite everybody's insistence, Anna didn't move from his side. Chanyeol, Sehun, and Minseok took turns taking care of her, feeding her, and taking away her attention from her sleeping boyfriend. 

"Did you try to kiss him?" Chanyeol asked her, trying to do so himself. 

"Stop messing with me you tall idiot" She pushed his head away from Kyung Soo making him fall back, cackling.  She acted mad, but her friend's support was really helpful when dealing with Kyung Soo’s current situation. 

Midnight came by and he was still asleep. The doctor visited him during the afternoon and told her that he finally had time to heal, so he was taking his time. 

“The drugs are finally out of his system, and after so much uncertainty he is finally able to rest surrounded by his loved ones, Let’s give him one more day…and then we will see” Anna tried to absorb some of his calm and left the room for a while. 

Outside, people were dealing with the repercussions of the prince’s kidnapping. Anna had completely forgotten about it. 

The people who worked at the castle told her that they had the order to keep quiet about the prince's disappearance. As they expected, Kyung Soo's uncle was putting on a show about his nephew's disappearance, acting worried and participating in the search. The guards that worked for him told Minseok that they had orders to find him and bring his dead body, even if they found him alive. 

The Order though, was suspiciously quiet. None of the members from the Order that also participated in the Clan received any information regarding what to do with the situation. If they had to help with the search, support his uncle, treat him as a suspect, or search for a responsible. Nothing. 

Some members were worried about how they had already settled to look outside the city, in the forest and buildings surrounding it. Since the decoys sent were already proven as such, they were now searching for the groups of kidnappers that took Kyung Soo out of the castle through the kitchen and killed and injured a bunch of guards with a grenade. Anna's whole body reacted to that. Terrified and guilty. Scared that they were behind their trail. 

“No one followed you, You two got into the truck and arrived here alone, they lost you at the passage, They are looking outside the city, but they don’t know where to start,” Minseok told her as soon as he saw her panic. 

“What if they get to us?” She needed the assurance that only he could give her. 

“If they are close, we will know, We have always lived like this, fearing for the day that they find us, so we are prepared… we live here like rats, we are hard to catch, don’t worry Anna, we take care of each other” Minseok was confident.

“What should I do then?” Minseok’s words made her more anxious since she didn’t have the confidence he had.

“Anna, a long time ago I told you that you were in charge of Kyung Soo, If something happens, you need to take him with you” He held her by the shoulders knowing that she needed the support. 

“Take him where?”

“Your house” Anna stared at him with her mouth wide open.

They made her have dinner and then she dashed to their room to check on Kyung Soo. 

He was still asleep, with Chanyeol and Sehun talking to him. 

“What are you guys doing?” She asked, sitting at the feet of the bed.

“Telling him embarrassing stories about him, checking if he wakes up out of anger,” Sehun told her with a mischievous grin. 

“At this point, I’m craving a good punch from him” Chanyeol commented jokingly, but Anna caught the sadness in his voice. 

“You guys go to rest, I will stay with him for the rest of the night” They agreed and left with heavy feet. 

“Your majesty, you need to hurry up and wake up, If we get attacked, I’m not carrying you on my back, also, everybody misses you…and I’m dead worried, Give me a break Do Kyung Soo” She caressed his head and dropped a kiss on his forehead before taking a shower. 

She went to sleep next to him, patting his chest and resting her head on his shoulder. 

The next morning after the visit from his doctor, Anna took one of his diaries to read, feeling nostalgic. She lay down next to him and began reading about Kyung Soo’s thoughts about meeting her. 

She lay down next to him, holding the diary with one hand and holding his hand with the other. 

“Why are you reading my diary?” His sleepy voice asked. 

“I was missing your thoughts... Kyung Soo!” She shouted, throwing the diary across the room.

“You woke up!” She began examining his face and body clumsily, making him giggle. 

“Anna... I think I'm fine now” He said coughing. 

“You woke up!” She still couldn’t believe her eyes. 

“Yes, and I think… I think my memories are back ... My head feels different and I don't find emptiness when thinking about the past, about me, you, our friends, everything is back, it’s a lot” He turned around hiding his face on the pillow, releasing a tired sigh. 

“What about what happened this last month?” She whispered, hoping that she wouldn’t cause him more discomfort. 

“That is still here… It’s like I fell in love with you twice, and both times are saved in my brain now, very vividly thank god” His face was still hidden, but she saw his red ears. She kept quiet, rubbing his nape and back. 

“I’m thirsty and hungry” He faced her, pouting and still blushing. Anna jumped off the bed and dashed down the hall calling her friends. 

When Minseok, Chanyeol, and Sehun walked into the room, Kyung Soo was out of bed waiting for them, ready to hug them and welcome them back. As they greeted each other and shared some tears, Anna went to prepare a light lunch for her boyfriend. 

Kyung Soo’s time was consumed by his friends and girlfriend. He was genuinely happy to be back, so much so that talking and laughing with his friends made his head hurt less and his body less tired. 

Around midnight, his friends were gone and Anna was helping him get ready for bed, his body still tired and weak. 

It was still strange how he felt. Because as soon as he woke up he thought how much he missed her. But looking back, she was there the whole time. And the memories he had from the previous month, felt more like scenes of a movie he had seen. 

He couldn’t stop smiling by remembering Anna breaking into his room, kissing him in his sleep, and talking to him for hours just so he could understand what was happening. But thinking about her taking him out of the castle, having to do things she never thought she would have to do, made him feel horrible. Kyung Soo waited for her to change into her pajama, which was an old T-shirt of his, and as soon as she got into bed, he apologized. 

“I wish you hadn't had to do that for me, I know how hard it is, and how it never matters who’s the person you are attacking, it always hurts and it makes you doubt everything…I”

“Kyung Soo, I haven’t doubted anything” She interrupted him. 

“It was shocking, and it left a bitter taste in me, but If I had to do it again If I had to do it right now, I wouldn’t think twice, I would do anything to defend you, as I know you would do anything to defend me” Anna was right. And although in the future she could do the same, or something worse, Kyung Soo wasn't going to ask her to do something that he couldn't do. Like staying outside all this. 

"I can't believe you came back " He commented, changing the subject. Anna looked at him pouting with her eyebrows raised in wonder. 

"You came back here, you were leaving, I did everything so you could flee the country" Kyung Soo regretted saying that as soon as he saw Anna's anger, or worse, disappointment. 

"You did everything? What the hell does that mean? What did you do?" Kyung Soo didn't answer immediately and tried to organize his answer to not make everything worse. 

"I asked someone so they could speed the process, I wanted you to leave before all of this happened" He kept it simple. 

"All this made me forget how you kept me out of your plans and sent me away" She gestured angrily with her arms. Kyung Soo could see her anger, but also there was some ironic tone in her voice that showed some playfulness. He didn't relax, but he knew how to match her energy now. 

"To be fair, leaving was your plan, from the beginning…I just… helped… Are you mad?" He also knew when he had to shut up and play the fool. 

"No I'm not mad, I'm resentful because all that was useless, I'm still here, I'm part of the Clan now and I'm not leaving your side, When something is meant to happen it's just going to " He dropped his head, defeated. 

"If I ask you to leave and go to your parents… " She interrupted him again. 

"Don't even try it or you are going to lose your girlfriend but I'm still going to stay here" Kyung Soo lifted his head, offended. 

"Don't say that! You can't break up with me in this situation, I just woke up from a coma! " His fake outrage made her laugh. For both, it felt like ages since they laughed like that.

Anna was less annoyed now. But since they were clearing things out, and he finally had his memory back, it was his time now to bring some old issues to the table. 

"You started spreading copies of the forbidden books around the city" Anna stared at him with irony. 

"It's not a competition for who is hiding more things " She joked avoiding his stare. He sat closer to her and circled her waist with his arm, kissing her shoulder. 

"I'm not competing, just bringing some issues… you have no idea how risky that was" 

"I was very aware" She was still avoiding his stare, but still enjoying his touch. 

"I'm sure… I'm not mad though, I wasn't even that surprised, I still remember what I wrote in my diary that day, although your approach was dangerous and slightly reckless,  you weren't doing something very different from me, Minseok called you a book terrorist, said we were a couple made in heaven, and I agree" Anna finally turned around between his arms, resting her hands on his chest.

"I think he is right, and I like that, book terrorist… I wanted to rattle things up before leaving" Kyung Soo liked how shy she looked, fidgeting with the collar of his T-shirt. 

"You agree that we are a couple made in heaven too?" He whispered in her ear. 

"I do,  despite our different upbringings, we think alike, we behave alike, which gives me more reasons to nag you for not telling me about the Clan earlier" Kyung Soo laughed loudly, pushing her on the bed, straddling her. 

"I'm so very sorry, next time I form a group of rebels and terrorists you are going to be the first to know" 

"Your majesty, I'm hoping that this is the first and last time that you have to go through this " Anna blushed under him, caressing his upper arms. 

"Anna, don't call me that, when you say it it doesn't annoy me, quite the opposite, and the doctor said that I had to take it slow," Kyung Soo said with little resolve, but knowing that he had to be strong. 

"You are right… Then let's go to bed, you had a long day " She cradled him between her arms, pressing him to her chest and kissing his forehead. Kyung Soo released a long sigh, rubbed his face on her chest, and fell asleep. 

Kyung Soo regained all his strength and health after a couple of days of rest.

He was a very obedient patient, although he held a bunch of meetings from the comfort of his bed. Anna didn't even try to stop him. 

Now that he was back to normal, everybody had one less thing to worry about. Every meeting was about what to do now, that with his disappearance the Crown was vulnerable. Everybody agreed that it was time to speed things up. The silence of the Crown and the ineptitude of his uncle made everything more unpredictable. Allowing Kyung Soo's uncle to take the throne was dangerous and it could take them several steps back. In one of the meetings Kyung Soo offered the option of going back to the castle and taking his position, but it was received very badly by his friends. Anna only stared at him from across the room and he knew that doing so would cost him their relationship. 

"Kyung Soo, we have talked about this, Your uncle is currently looking for your body, if you go back alive, he is going to make sure to change that, and becoming the king doesn't assure our success, you are out of the castle, going back now is a risk" Minseok explained patiently. 

"I think we should start forming and arming small groups in the main city and the surroundings. There's armament and more coming from the north… we are ready to start" Chanyeol commented with some doubt but the few heads around him were nodding. 

"I always knew this was the only way to do it, but I always hoped for a non-violent way… We have often spoken about how now is the right time to do it since with my parents ' death and my disappearance the Crown is weak, so we need to start moving… We are going to do as Chanyeol said, form small groups in different neighborhoods, and make sure that it's only people from the Clan, and properly trained to at least hold a gun, We will see who joins us as we move forward, same with the cities surrounding, call the main people involved, we will hold a meeting tomorrow so we can start moving" Everybody around him stood up and left the room except for Anna. 

"Are you hating that you don't have a special duty" He joked, forgetting some of the tension. 

"You are wrong, Minseok gave me one a while ago" Kyung Soo's frown was comical. She walked closer to him, dropping the need to mess with him. He didn't need more stress. 

"He told me that I was in charge of you" He laughed shyly as she played with his ear. 

"Then I'm in good hands" 

"Loving hands" She added, pinching his cheek. 

That night was turning into a sleepless one. Because after making love countless times, taking a bath, and then repeating, they were still wide awake. 

Kyung Soo invited her for a walk. They couldn't leave the building, but it was big enough to walk around and get tired. She accepted, put warm clothes in both of them, and held his hand so he could guide her. 

This was the first time she took the time to walk around their hideouts, it was also the first time she took the time to look at the paintings adorning the walls. 

"We have been collecting them since we formed the Clan, Some of them were locked down like the books, others ready to be burned, Chanyeol and Sehun took great pleasure in stealing some from different houses that I had to visit as the prince and like that on and on, the idea was to protect history and free speech however we could" Just like everybody, Anna thought, these paintings were survivors. 

They climbed a narrow ladder to the upper floor, Kyung Soo wanted to show her some murals that survived the coup more than a hundred years ago. Since it was late it was safer than doing it during the day, and they were still hidden by the state of the building. 

They had to dodge some hazardous door frames and rotten wood floors, but they finally made it to the main hall of the second floor where the mural was. 

Anna was taking in the whole wall when she heard a rather loud whisper behind them. 

"Your majesty" Someone called from the same door they got in a couple of minutes ago. Before she could say anything, Kyung Soo was running to the door, taking a small gun from his back pocket. 

"Get to the floor!" He roared. Anna saw the guy raise his hands and drop to his knees. He was wearing a military uniform but looked younger than them. 

"Don't move" Kyung Soo ordered, walking behind him and pointing the gun at the back of his head. 

"Are you alone?" He asked. 

"Yes, your majesty" The guy looked confused. He didn't resist, but despite the confusion, there was a strange expression in his eyes. She suspected that despite him calling Kyung Soo Your Majesty, he wasn't necessarily on his side. 

"Kyung Soo we should…" Before she could finish her sentence Kyung Soo hit him in the back of the head with his gun and the guy dropped heavily on the floor unconscious. 

"You read my mind," She added. 

"I know, help me carry him downstairs" Kyung Soo lifted him from under his armpits as she held him from his knees. The guy wasn't very heavy, it surprised her how light he was. 

"He must be just a cadet, let's take him down, We need all the information he can give us" He ended with a dark tone. 

"What if he doesn't want to collaborate?" She asked, suspecting what his answer could be. 

"Anna, in this kind of situation, everybody collaborates, even against their will" She didn't comment on it. 

They took the guy to the first empty room they found. It was quite late so no one saw them get in. They didn't want to alarm too many people. Anna ran to Minseok's room and on her way she woke up Sehun and Chanyeol and brought the three to check on the guy they kidnapped. 

Kyung Soo begged Anna to leave the room so they could interrogate the guy. She wanted to be informed, but the desperation in his voice told her that he really didn't want her there. 

"I don't want you to see me doing any of this," He told her, grabbing her face with firm hands. 

“Please Anna, wait in our room, I will be there in an hour” Anna knew way too many stories about how the Crown conducted their interrogations. She suspected the Clan wasn’t different. She didn’t want to see Kyung Soo like that either. She was sure she wasn’t going to hate him, but he would hate himself. 

She grabbed his hands, kissed them both, and walked away. 

Kyung Soo didn’t come back an hour later as he promised. 

She didn’t leave the room as he said, she was scared of what she could hear if she had stood outside the room where they were locked. 

The rumor of them capturing a guard from the Crown had already spread. And since everybody in charge was locked in that room, everybody asked her for information. She shared what she knew. 

“Should we start preparing to evacuate?” One of the members asked her. All eyes were on her. They were expecting her orders. They trusted her orders. So she pondered it for a moment. 

"We will wait for what information they can get, The worst scenario will be that, so let's be ready, we may need to leave this place and we need to be quick" Everyone agreed with her. She gave orders to some of the members to go to the city and prepare a safe place for the people who were currently hiding from the Crown. She also got together with some people so they could arrange a place where the rest could hide. There were currently around 70 people down there who needed a safe place to go. 

Everyone went to do what they were told to and Anna was left alone in the main hall staring at the ceiling. 

“You were made for this” She heard from behind her. 

Kyung Soo was walking towards her, his face covered in sweat and his shirt unbuttoned. His comment sounded satisfied but he looked terrible. He apologized for being late and held her hand. 

“We need to leave, he was sent here to keep an eye on the place, they are going to come and pick him up tomorrow night, we need to empty this place by then,” He told her before she could ask.

“Are you alright?” She asked him since it was the first thing that she cared about. Kyung Soo chuckled before answering. 

“I’m alright, My head hurts and that room was too hot, but we got what we needed” He didn’t look at her as he answered.

“What is going to happen with him?”

“We are not sure yet, the best option is to take him with us, he already saw me and Minseok, we need to protect at least his cover, let’s get everybody together after they are done preparing, hopefully, we will be gone by noon” Anna had to force him to look up at her.

“Kyung Soo, whatever you did there, it was necessary, Now we can all be safe ok?” He nodded.

“Where’s the rest?” She asked.

“Chanyeol stayed with him, Minseok is getting ready to leave and investigate and Sehun is taking a break” There was silence as she caressed his hand. 

“Go get showered, I will prepare our things then” Kyung Soo looked at her with a tense grimace, breathing quickly. 

“They could rid this thing in seconds, At this point there are too many variables, If they send that man here it means that there’s a group at the Crown that at least suspects us, or maybe just my uncle knows and could use this to take over,” His eyes grew wider as he spoke, a slight quivering in his voice. 

“Kyung Soo, listen to me, from now on, we are out of this, Minseok and the rest will take care of this now, the Clan is infiltrated in the Crown and in the citizens, we are more, we have the same chances from before, but now I’m taking you with me, we still need to protect you, and with your uncle searching for your head, you are still at risk” She pulled him with her to their room and he stayed quiet. 

As Kyung Soo went into the shower, Anna began packing a small bag. They didn’t need a lot. A change of clothing and some food. But after looking around the room, she felt the need to pack his diaries and pictures. Kyung Soo came out of the bathroom drying his hair, naked and with puzzled eyes. 

“We don’t need that!” He shouted as he saw her shove the last diary in her backpack. 

“Yes we do, Not only this could give away a lot of information, these are your memories and thoughts and also ours, I will not have them reading them or destroying them” Anna kept ignoring his complaints as she fitted the diary into her backpack. 

“By the way, you must know this but you never brought it up… I read your diaries, not all of them, but the ones where you wrote about me…sorry” Kyung Soo’s face flushed furiously red. He was speechless, which was a very amusing scenery considering his current naked stage. 

“In my defense…I really love you” She said, trying to save herself. 

“Anna… this is so embarrassing, I’m sure I sounded like a damn teenager talking and writing about you, and so cheesy too!” Anna laughed for the first time and what felt like ages. 

“It was adorable and so loving, If I love you so much now it’s in big part for that” Kyung Soo’s face, ears, and neck were still red, but he wasn’t aghast anymore.

“Go get dressed, we need to get together again to give the last info” Kyung Soo nodded, stole a short kiss, and quickly got dressed.

Everybody received the news with little surprise. If they heard and trusted Anna as they did before, when it came to Kyung Soo they look as if god was guiding them. Kyung Soo stayed calm. There wasn’t a lot to say since they were prepared for any eventuality. 

Just when they asked him what was going to happen to him, he noticed that he had no idea. He looked at Anna and she took a step forwards.

“I will take him with me, by night we will be in my hometown, he will stay with me there, hidden” Kyung Soo tried to object. If Anna was planning on taking him to her parents ’ house, he had to stop her right there. But Minseok stopped him. 

“I planned everything, you will be safe there, all eyes around you are from the Clan…except for your parents in law…you will need to deal with them” Before he could argue with his friend, Minseok started talking.

“As from now, we are leaving this place to not come back, stay together as much as you can, remember that we, the people, are the ones who can turn our lives into freedom and beauty, with the democracy that we will gain let us make that life possible, let’s keep fighting to free our country, to tear down barriers, ignore greed, hate, and intolerance, let’s always stay together and in touch, pay attention to everything, see you soon” Kyung Soo forgot about what his friend had just told him and celebrated Minseok’s words with the rest. 

They all exchanged quick See you soon’s and Take care and one by one began evacuating the place through different entrances. 

Minseok took them to a wing of the building that she didn’t know. It had clearly seen better days, but now the wood on the floor was covered in moss and the paint on the walls was falling. From under an old flag, Minseok uncovered a motorcycle. 

“Hope you know how to ride one of these Anna” As any kid raised in the countryside, she learned how to drive as a child. 

“It’s a six-hour drive from here to your parent's house, You can’t use the highway so it’s going to be long” Anna knew this, the map of their route was in her back pocket.

“No one asked my opinion in this matter” Kyung Soo interjected, sulking next to the motorcycle. 

“Not needed, Minseok and I planned this a while ago” That didn’t make him feel better. 

“You understand that this could put your parents at risk right?” He commented dryly. 

“Yes I know, but I also know that’s the safest place because we will be surrounded by people from the Clan” She didn’t try to stay calm. If it was necessary she would carry Kyung Soo on her shoulder.  

“Kyung Soo, you can complain later, let's move” Minseok grabbed his hand and shoved the keys of the motorcycle on it. 

Anna was sure he knew better. Without words, Kyung Soo climbed into the vehicle with his backpack on the front and waited for Anna to arrange her bags. Minseok patted his shoulder and promised that they would meet soon. Kyung Soo brought him in for a hug and as soon as he let go he initiated the engine. 

Every hour that passed felt like an eternity. Every sound was a possible threat. Anna’s hands were numb after driving for three hours, and Kyung Soo wasn’t better. She kept staring at the clouds praying for clear skies and checked the tank every hour. A full tank would be enough to make it, but that didn’t give her calm. The sun was setting as they entered the familiar main street of her town. There were a few people on the street since there were a couple of minutes left until curfew. Maybe she was being paranoid but she felt as if everyone knew it was them. Although she knew none of them presented a menace. Knowing that they were in her town gave her some peace. Her house was ten minutes away, and they could be safe for now. 

She drove the motorcycle into the garden, her heart biting scarily fast. She had to say goodbye to all that once and now she was back under such bizarre circumstances. 

She parked behind the house and hid the vehicle behind some bushes. Kyung Soo spoke after hours of silence. 

“What now?” He asked.

“Now…let’s go meet my parents” She grabbed his cold hand and walked around the house to the entrance. She still had the key to the door but decided to knock. 

She knocked once, using her signature nock. Four quick taps followed by two slower ones. She heard some loud noises inside the house and the wood cracking as someone dashed to the door. 

In a second, her father’s face was there, a breath away from her.

“Anna, what are you doing here?” He spoke first. Thankfully. 

“Dad,  we need to hide” She answered, her voice trembling. She saw how his face distorted as he noticed the man behind her. 

“Is that the prince?” He whispered, she could barely hear him. 

“Yes” She kept it simple. His father looked at her with wide eyes. His tone was the same tone he used when he found her doing something wrong as a child. Amazed by the intricacy of the act but still furious. 

“Anna what did you do?”

TBC

[autumn-foxfire]

Movie 21, the Crimson Love Letter. I've never watched this one before but I know Momiji, whose character was introduced as Kazuha's love rival, is often reduced down to her boobs in a similar way that Sera is.

Kogoro, that is a teenager. Can you NOT behave this way with girls the same age as your fucking daughter.

"In Heiji's words 'she's always getting jealous'" and I repeat, that is not a good sign for a healthy relationship.

Ran, you shouldn't have to parent your own father T-T I'm so sorry you have such terrible parents.

Usually movie Kogoro is a decent man. This is not one of these times.

And this is the first time that Momiji's boobs are mentioned. Oh Heiji actually looked interested.

Kazuha, being jealous is okay and normal, behaving like this is not. You're not dating Heiji, yet. Yes the girl showed interest in him but you could tell from Heiji's original reaction he was confused by what she was talking about.

I just realised the opening for this movie is quite tame considering the last couple of movies. Even with the bomb threat.

Heiji, don't grab another girl, Kazuha will get jealous (though he's just as bad).

Okay, Kogoro is being a responsible father and not letting his child enter a building with a bomb threat. It doesn't excuse his previous behaviour though.

The movies are a slut for Shinichi's skateboard. As they should be.

Of course Shinichi saved Heiji and put himself in danger instead as he really only thinks about others lives before remember to put his own first.

Oh fuck off. (Sorry that's always my response when they try and force the romance btween Shinichi and Ran in moments it's not needed).

At least Heiji returned the favour and saved Shinichi. But he needs to go to the hospital because he's small and inhaled a lot of smoke and was near a lot of exploding debris and was also caught in the tail end of another explosion. Not to mention he also almost passed out. Just let him be injured movies, I promise it won't hurt. Us.

Heiji: Did you know this would happen?

Shinichi: No but with my track record I figured something might.

Kids have no filter.

Momiji, that isn't how feelings work.

Shinichi, Ran, take note. I don't like how jealous Heiji and Kazuha can be, but at least they're very clearly into one another.

HOW CAN SHINICHI LAUGH ABOUT KIDS HOLDING A PROMISE FROM CHILDHOOD SERIOUSLY WHEN HE GENUINELY BELIEVES HE LOVED RAN WHEN HE MET HER?! SON YOU ARE THE POT.

Oh, Ai's hair is no longer as blonde in the movies. Good, I really like the reddish brown colour of her hair.

Agasa: Sorry, I'm concerned about my grandchildren T-T

Ai, when Shinichi rings: You made granddad worry.

Awww, even when she's sick, she looks after her friends. Sonoko is precious.

Kazuha that was terrifying.

And Heiji is showing us he does care for Kazuha and acknowleding he might have hurt her feelings by asking his mom to help her practise for the competition. Wow, romance isn't dead.

Ran: Kazuha will be disheartened if she sees a picture of a time Heiji has already he didn't remember.

Me: Why?

LMAO Shinichi, you should have just waited outside the room if you didn't want to get caught. Or hid under the table.

Ran has just been reduced to the babysitter in this movie, hasn't she.

He's such a nerd T-T His email is based after the sign of four.

Heiji and Shinichi should be way more injured then that. They were incredibly close to the explosion and didn't have a car's wall to protect them.

Why are the Heiji movies so incredibly dull T-T The Kyoto one was also pretty boring. Come on, I know they can be better than this.

LMAO I love Shinichi just admitting he's better than the police. He, the seven year old. He's not even wrong T-T

Wait until your own "love interest" didn't develop love for you, he just loved you the moment he met you before he even knew you.

She looks so upset that Shinichi is going to keep his "promise" to her. Probably because she doesn't want to him to keep it but she knows he will because he feels obligated to.

How interesting. Ran picks a card about friendship to represent her and Shinichi and even just says she wants to tell him lots of things (but not implying it is romantic in any way but a friend who wants to catch up).

While Kazuha chooses a very clearly romantic one and even sees Heiji when she says the line.

Very interesting.

Awww I love the kids sending Shinichi pictures and Shinichi laughing at how ridiculous and adorable they're being.

I love how Heiji told Shinichi to put out the fire while he just got them to the building.

Oh this is a guy who just supports his wife's wrongs. Nothing wrong with that XD (I'm joking, of course).

Oof and the guy was murdered by his first love instead of getting the compliment he wanted. This wouldn't have happened if they had been a throuple, just saying :p

LOL Heiji's screaming for Kazuha when Shinichi is the one who fell off the building.

Shinichi looks cute as a drowned rat.

Heiji: If you die, I'll kill you.

He's so eloquent.

Lmao Heiji's just like: I don't know how Kudou can live like this all the time.

And this is what happens when you hinge your love on a promise made by a child.